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diff --git a/10531-h/10531-h.htm b/10531-h/10531-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..423b25c --- /dev/null +++ b/10531-h/10531-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9161 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Beacon Lights of History, Volume V, by John Lord</title> + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + * { font-family: Times;} + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 14pt; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + // --> + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Beacon Lights of History, Volume V, by John Lord</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a> + +Title: Beacon Lights of History, Volume V + +Author: John Lord + +Release Date: December 24, 2003 [eBook #10531] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: iso-8859-1 + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME V*** + +</pre> +<center><h3>E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3></center> + +<br> +<br> + +<b> +Editorial note:<br> +<br> +Project Gutenberg has an earlier version of this work, which is titled +<i>Beacon Lights of History, Volume III, part 1: The Middle +Ages</i>. See E-Book#1498, <a href= +"https://www.gutenberg.org/etext98/31blh10.txt"> +https://www.gutenberg.org/etext98/31blh10.txt</a> or +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/etext98/31blh10.zip"> +https://www.gutenberg.org/etext98/31blh10.zip</a>. The numbering +of volumes in the earlier set reflected the order in which the +lectures were given. In the current (later) version, volumes +were numbered to put the subjects in historical sequence.<br> +</b> + +<hr class="full"> +<br><br> +<center><i>LORD'S LECTURES</i>.</center> +<br> + +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2>BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY.</h2> + +<h2>BY JOHN LORD, LL.D.</h2> + +<center>AUTHOR OF "THE OLD ROMAN WORLD," "MODERN EUROPE," +ETC., ETC.</center> +<br><br> + +<h2>VOLUME V.</h2> + +<h2>THE MIDDLE AGES.</h2> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p><i><a href="#BEACON_LIGHTS_OF_HISTORY">MOHAMMED</a></i>.</p> + +<p>SARACENIC CONQUESTS.</p> + +Change of public opinion about Mohammed<br> +Astonishing triumph of Mohammedanism<br> +Old religious systems of Arabia<br> +Polytheism succeeds the doctrines of the Magians<br> +The necessity of reform<br> +Early life of Mohammed<br> +Cadijeh<br> +Mohammed's meditations and dreams<br> +His belief in a personal God<br> +He preaches his new doctrines<br> +The opposition and ridicule of his countrymen<br> +The perseverance of Mohammed amid obstacles<br> +His flight to Medina<br> +The Koran and its doctrines<br> +Change in Mohammed's mode of propagating his doctrines<br> +Polygamy and a sensual paradise<br> +Warlike means to convert Arabia<br> +Mohammed accommodates his doctrines to the habits of his countrymen<br> +Encourages martial fanaticism<br> +Conquest of Arabia<br> +Private life of Mohammed, after his success<br> +Carlyle's apology for Mohammed<br> +The conquest of Syria and Egypt<br> +Conquest of Persia and India<br> +Deductions in view of Saracenic conquests<br> +Necessity of supernatural aid in the conversion of the world<br> +Authorities<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#CHARLEMAGNE.">CHARLEMAGNE</a></i>.</p> + +<p>REVIVAL OF WESTERN EMPIRE.</p> + +Ancestry and early life of Charlemagne<br> +The Merovingian princes<br> +Condition of Europe on the accession of Charlemagne<br> +Necessity for such a hero to arise<br> +His perils and struggles<br> +Wars with the Saxons<br> +The difficulties of the Saxon conquest<br> +Forced conversion of the Saxons<br> +The Norman pirates<br> +Conquest of the Avares<br> +Unsuccessful war with the Saracens<br> +The Lombard wars<br> +Coronation of Charlemagne at Home<br> +Imperialism and its influences<br> +The dismemberment of Charlemagne's empire<br> +Foundation of Feudalism<br> +Charlemagne as a legislator<br> +His alliance with the clergy<br> +His administrative abilities<br> +Reasons why he patronized the clergy<br> +Results of Charlemagne's policy<br> +Hallam's splendid eulogy<br> +Authorities<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#HILDEBRAND.">HILDEBRAND</a></i>.</p> + +<p>THE PAPAL EMPIRE.</p> + +Wonderful government of the Papacy<br> +Its vitality<br> +Its contradictions<br> +Its fascinations<br> +The crimes of which it is accused<br> +General character of the popes<br> +Gregory VII. the most famous<br> +His personal history<br> +His autocratic ideas<br> +His reign at the right time<br> +Society in Europe in the eleventh century<br> +Character of the clergy<br> +The monks, and the need of reform<br> +Character of the popes before Gregory VII.<br> +Celibacy of the clergy<br> +Alliance of the Papacy and Monasticism<br> +Opposition to the reforms of Hildebrand<br> +Terrible power of excommunication<br> +Simony and its evils<br> +Secularization of the clergy<br> +Separation of spiritual from temporal power<br> +Henry IV. of Germany<br> +Approaching strife between Henry and Hildebrand<br> +Their respective weapons<br> +Henry summoned to Rome<br> +Excommunication of Henry<br> +Henry deserted and disarmed<br> +Compelled to yield to Hildebrand<br> +His great mistake<br> +Renewed contest<br> +Humiliation of the Pope<br> +Moral effects of the contest<br> +Speculations about the Papal power<br> +Authorities<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#SAINT_BERNARD.">SAINT BERNARD</a></i>.</p> + +<p>MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS.</p> + +Antiquity of Monastic life<br> +Causes which led to it<br> +Oriental asceticism<br> +Religious contemplation<br> +Insoluble questions<br> +Self-expiations<br> +Basil the founder of Monasticism<br> +His interesting history<br> +Gregory Nazianzen<br> +Vows of the monks<br> +Their antagonism to prevailing evils<br> +Vow of Poverty opposed to money-making<br> +That of Chastity a protest against prevailing impurity<br> +Origin of celibacy<br> +Its subsequent corruption<br> +Necessity of the vow of Obedience<br> +Benedict and the Monastery of Monte Casino<br> +His rules generally adopted<br> +Lofty and useful life of the early monks<br> +Growth and wealth of Monastic institutions<br> +Magnificence of Mediaeval convents<br> +Privileges of the monks<br> +Luxury of the Benedictines<br> +Relaxation of discipline<br> +Degeneracy of the monks<br> +Compared with secular clergy<br> +Benefits which Monasticism conferred<br> +Learning of the monks<br> +Their common life<br> +Revival of Learning<br> +Rise of Scholasticism<br> +Saint Bernard<br> +His early piety and great attainments<br> +His vast moral influence<br> +His reforms and labors<br> +Rise of Dominicans and Franciscans<br> +Zeal of the mendicant friars<br> +General benefits of Monastic institutions<br> +Authorities<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#SAINT_ANSELM.">SAINT ANSELM</a></i>.</p> + +<p>MEDIAEVAL THEOLOGY.</p> + +Birth and early life of Anselm<br> +The Abbey of Bec<br> +Scholarly life of Anselm<br> +Visits of Anselm to England<br> +Compared with Becket<br> +Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury<br> +Privileges of the Archbishop<br> +Unwillingness of Anselm to be elevated<br> +Lanfranc succeeded by Anselm<br> +Quarrel between Anselm and William Rufus<br> +Despotic character of William<br> +Disputed claims of Popes Urban and Clement<br> +Council of Rockingham<br> +Royal efforts to depose Anselm<br> +Firmness and heroism of Anselm<br> +Duplicity of the king<br> +His intrigues with the Pope<br> +Pretended reconciliation with Anselm<br> +Appeals to Rome<br> +Inordinate claims of the Pope<br> +Allegiance of Anselm to the Pope<br> +Anselm at Rome<br> +Death of William and Accession of Henry I.<br> +Royal encroachments<br> +Henry quarrels with Anselm<br> +Results of the quarrel<br> +Anselm as a theologian<br> +Theology of the Middle Ages<br> +Monks become philosophers<br> +Gotschalk and predestination<br> +John Scotus Erigena<br> +Revived spirit of inquiry<br> +Services of Anselm to theology<br> +He brings philosophy to support theology<br> +Combats Nominalism<br> +His philosophical deductions<br> +His devout Christian spirit<br> +Authorities<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#THOMAS_AQUINAS.">THOMAS AQUINAS</a></i>.</p> + +<p>THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.</p> + +Peter Abélard<br> +Gives a new impulse to philosophy<br> +Rationalistic tendency of his teachings<br> +The hatreds he created<br> +Peter Lombard<br> +His "Book of Sentences"<br> +Introduction of the writings of Aristotle into Europe<br> +University of Paris<br> +Character of the students<br> +Their various studies<br> +Aristotle's logic used<br> +The method of the Schoolmen<br> +The Dominicans and Franciscans<br> +Innocent III.<br> +Thomas Aquinas<br> +His early life and studies<br> +Albertus Magnus<br> +Aquinas's first great work<br> +Made Doctor of Theology<br> +His "Summa Theologica"<br> +Its vast learning<br> +Parallel between Aquinas and Plato<br> +Parallel between Plato and Aristotle<br> +Influence of Scholasticism<br> +Waste of intellectual life<br> +Scholasticism attractive to the Middle Ages<br> +To be admired like a cathedral<br> +Authorities<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#THOMAS_BECKET.">THOMAS BECKET</a></i>.</p> + +<p>PRELATICAL POWER.</p> + +Becket a puzzle to historians<br> +His early history<br> +His gradual elevation<br> +Friendship with Henry II.<br> +Becket made Chancellor<br> +Elevated to the See of Canterbury<br> +Dignity of an archbishop of Canterbury<br> +Lanfranc<br> +Anselm<br> +Theobald<br> +Becket in contrast<br> +His ascetic habits as priest<br> +His high-church principles<br> +Upholds the spiritual courts<br> +Defends the privileges of his order<br> +Conflict with the king<br> +Constitutions of Clarendon<br> +Persecution of Becket<br> +He yields at first to the king<br> +His repentance<br> +Defection of the bishops<br> +Becket escapes to the Continent<br> +Supported by Louis VII. of France<br> +Insincerity of the Pope<br> +Becket at Pontigny in exile<br> +His indignant rebuke of the Pope<br> +Who excommunicates the Archbishop of York<br> +Henry obliged to compromise<br> +Hollow reconciliation with Becket<br> +Return of Becket to Canterbury<br> +His triumphal procession<br> +Annoyance of Henry<br> +Assassination of Becket<br> +Consequences of the murder<br> +Authorities<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#THE_FEUDAL_SYSTEM.">THE FEUDAL SYSTEM</a></i>.</p> + +Anarchies of the Merovingian period<br> +Society on the dissolution of Charlemagne's empire<br> +Allodial tenure<br> +Origin of Feudalism<br> +Dependence and protection the principles of Feudalism<br> +Peasants and their masters<br> +The sentiment of loyalty<br> +Contentment of the peasantry<br> +Evils that cannot be redressed<br> +Submission to them a necessity<br> +Division of Charlemagne's empire<br> +Life of the nobles<br> +Pleasures and habits of feudal barons<br> +Aristocratic character of Feudalism<br> +Slavery of the people<br> +Indirect blessings of Feudalism<br> +Slavery not an unmixed evil<br> +Influence of chivalry<br> +Devotion to woman<br> +The lady of the baronial castle<br> +Reasons why women were worshipped<br> +Dignity of the baronial home<br> +The Christian woman contrasted with the pagan<br> +Glory and beauty of Chivalry<br> +Authorities<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#THE_CRUSADES.">THE CRUSADES</a></i>.</p> + +The Crusades the great external event of the Middle Ages<br> +A semi-religious and semi-military movement<br> +What gives interest to wars?<br> +Wars the exponents of prevailing ideas<br> +The overruling of all wars<br> +The majesty of Providence seen in war<br> +Origin of the Crusades<br> +Pilgrimages to Jerusalem<br> +Miseries and insults of the pilgrims<br> +Intense hatred of Mohammedanism<br> +Peter of Amiens<br> +Council of Clermont<br> +The First Crusade<br> +Its miseries and mistakes<br> +The Second Crusade<br> +The Third Crusade<br> +The Fourth, Children's, Fifth, and Sixth Crusades<br> +The Seventh Crusade<br> +All alike unsuccessful, and wasteful of life and energies<br> +Peculiarities and immense mistakes of the Crusaders<br> +The moral evils of the Crusades<br> +Ultimate results of the Crusades<br> +Barrier made against Mohammedan conquests<br> +Political necessity of the Crusades<br> +Their effect in weakening the Feudal system<br> +Effect of the Crusades on the growth of cities<br> +On commerce and art and literature<br> +They scatter the germs of a new civilization<br> +They centralize power<br> +They ultimately elevate the European races<br> +Authorities<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#WILLIAM_OF_WYKEHAM.">WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM</a></i>.</p> + +<p>GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.</p> + +Roman architecture +First form of a Christian church<br> +The change to the Romanesque<br> +Its peculiarities<br> +Its connection with Monasticism<br> +Gloomy aspect of the churches of the tenth and eleventh centuries<br> +Effect of the Crusades on church architecture<br> +Church architecture becomes cheerful<br> +The Gothic churches of France and Germany<br> +The English Mediaeval churches<br> +Glories of the pointed arch<br> +Effect of the Renaissance on architecture<br> +Mongrel style of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries<br> +Revival of the pure gothic<br> +Churches should be adapted to their uses<br> +Incongruity of Protestantism with ritualistic architecture<br> +Protestantism demands a church for preaching<br> +Gothic vaults unfavorable to oratory<br> +Authorities<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#JOHN_WYCLIF.">JOHN WYCLIF</a></i>.</p> + +<p>DAWN OF THE REFORMATION.</p> + +Harmony of Protestant and Mediaeval creeds<br> +The Reformation a moral movement<br> +The evils of Papal institutions<br> +The evils of monastic life<br> +Quarrels and dissoluteness of monks<br> +Birth of Wyclif<br> +His scholastic attainments and honors<br> +His political influence<br> +The powers who have ruled the world<br> +Wyclif sent on a mission to Bruges<br> +Protection of John of Gaunt<br> +Wyclif summoned to an ecclesiastical council<br> +His defenders and foes<br> +Triumph of Wyclif<br> +He openly denounces the Pope<br> +His translation of the Bible<br> +Opposition to it by the higher clergy<br> +Hostility of Roman Catholicism to the right of private judgment<br> +Hostility to the Bible in vernacular tongues<br> +Spread of the Bible in English<br> +Wyclif as a doctrinal reformer<br> +He attacks Transubstantiation<br> +Deserted by the Duke of Lancaster<br> +But dies peaceably in his parish<br> +Wyclif contrasted with Luther<br> +His great services to the church<br> +Reasons why he escaped martyrdom<br> +Authorities<br> +<br> + +<p>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<p>VOLUME V.</p> + +<a href="Illus0406.jpg">Roland Calls for Succor in the Battle of Roncesvalles</a> +<i>After the painting by Louis Guesnet</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0407.jpg">A Reading from the Koran</a> +<i>After the painting by W. Gentz</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0408.jpg">Mohammed, Preaching the Unity of God, Enters the City of Mecca</a> +<i>After the painting by A. Müller</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0409.jpg">Charlemagne Inflicts the Rite of Baptism on the Saxons</a> +<i>After the painting by Adolph Maria Mucha</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0410.jpg">St. Bernard Counselling Conrad III.</a> +<i>After the painting by Adolph Maria Mucha</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0411.jpg">Canterbury Cathedral</a> +<i>From a photograph</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0412.jpg">St. Thomas Aquinas in the School of Albertus Magnus</a> +<i>After the painting by H. Lerolle</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0413.jpg">Murder of St. Thomas à Becket</a> +<i>After the painting by A. Dawant</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0414.jpg">The Accolade</a> +<i>After the painting by Sir E. Blair Leighton</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0415.jpg">Winchester Cathedral</a> +<i>From a photograph</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0416.jpg">Facsimile of Page from Wyclif Bible</a><br> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="BEACON_LIGHTS_OF_HISTORY"></a>BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<h2>MOHAMMED.<a name="FNanchor1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 570-632.</p> + +<p>SARACENIC CONQUESTS.</p> + +<a name="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1">[1]</a> Spelled also <i>Mahomet</i>, <i>Mahommed</i>; but I prefer Mohammed. + +<p>The most extraordinary man who arose after the fall of the Roman Empire +was doubtless Mohammed; and his posthumous influence has been greater +than that of any man since Christianity was declared, if we take into +account the number of those who have received his doctrines. Even +Christianity never had so rapid a spread. More than a sixth part of the +human race are the professed followers of the Arabian prophet.</p> + +<p>In regard to Mohammed himself, a great change has taken place in the +opinions of critics within fifty years. It was the fashion half a +century ago to speak of this man as a hypocrite, an impostor, even as +Antichrist. Now he is generally regarded as a reformer; that is, as a +man who introduced into Arabia a religion and a morality superior to +what previously existed, and he is regarded as an impostor only so far +as he was visionary. Few critics doubt his sincerity. He was no +hypocrite, since he himself believed in his mission; and his mission was +benevolent,--to turn his countrymen from a gross polytheism to the +worship of one God. Although his religion cannot compare with +Christianity in purity and loftiness, yet it enforced a higher morality +than the old Arabian religions, and assimilated to Christianity in many +important respects. The chief fault we have to find in Mohammed was, the +propagation of his doctrines by the sword, and the use of wicked means +to bring about a good end. The truths he declared have had an immense +influence on Asiatic nations, and these have given vitality to his +system, if we accept the position that truth alone has vitality.</p> + +<p>One remarkable fact stands out for the world to ponder,--that, for more +than fourteen hundred years, one hundred and eighty millions (more than +a sixth part of the human race) have adopted and cherished the religion +of Mohammed; that Christianity never had so astonishing a triumph; and +that even the adherents of Christianity, in many countries, have not +manifested the zeal of the Mohammedans in most of the countries where it +has been acknowledged. Now these startling facts can be explained only +on the ground that Mohammedanism has great vital religious and moral +truths underlying its system which appeal to the consciousness of +mankind, or else that these truths are so blended with dangerous errors +which appeal to depraved passions and interests, that the religion +spread in consequence of these errors rather than of the truth itself.</p> + +<p>The question to be considered, then, is whether Mohammedanism spread in +consequence of its truths or in consequence of its errors.</p> + +<p>In order to appreciate the influence of the Arabian prophet, we are +first led into the inquiry whether his religion was really an +improvement on the old systems which previously prevailed in Arabia. If +it was, he must be regarded as a benefactor and reformer, even if we +admit the glaring evils of his system, when measured by the purer +religion of the Cross. And it then simply becomes a question whether it +is better to have a prevalent corrupted system of religion containing +many important truths, or a system of downright paganism with few +truths at all.</p> + +<p>In examining the religious systems of Arabia in the age preceding the +advent of the Prophet, it would seem that the most prominent of them +were the old doctrines of the Magians and Sabaeans, blended with a gross +idolatry and a senseless polytheism. Whatever may have been the faith of +the ancient Sabaean sages, who noted the aspects of the stars, and +supposed they were inhabited by angels placed there by Almighty power to +supervise and govern the universe, yet history seems to record that +this ancient faith was practically subverted, and that the stars, where +were supposed to dwell deities to whom prayers were made, became +themselves objects of worship, and even graven images were made in honor +of them. Among the Arabs each tribe worshipped a particular star, and +set up its particular idol, so that a degrading polytheism was the +religion of the land. The object of greatest veneration was the +celebrated Black Stone, at Mecca, fabled to have fallen from heaven at +the same time with Adam. Over this stone was built the Kaabah, a small +oblong stone building, around which has been since built the great +mosque. It was ornamented with three hundred and sixty idols. The +guardianship of this pagan temple was intrusted to the most ancient and +honorable families of Mecca, and to it resorted innumerable pilgrims +bringing precious offerings. It was like the shrine of Delphi, as a +source of profit to its fortunate guardians.</p> + +<p>Thus before Mohammed appeared polytheism was the prevalent religion of +Arabia,--a degradation even from the ancient Sabaean faith. It is true +there were also other religions. There were many Jews at Medina; and +there was also a corrupted form of Christianity in many places, split up +into hostile and wrangling sects, with but little of the spirit of the +divine Founder, with innumerable errors and superstitions, so that in no +part of the world was Christianity so feeble a light. But the great +body of the people were pagans. A marked reform was imperatively needed +to restore the belief in the unity of God and set up a higher standard +of morality.</p> + +<p>It is claimed that Mohammed brought such a reform. He was born in the +year 570, of the family of Hashem and the tribe of Koreish, to whom was +intrusted the keeping of the Black Stone. He therefore belonged to the +highest Arabian aristocracy. Early left an orphan and in poverty, he was +reared in the family of one of his uncles, under all the influences of +idolatry. This uncle was a merchant, and the youth made long journeys +with him to distant fairs, especially in Syria, where he probably became +acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, especially with the Old Testament. +In his twenty-fifth year he entered the service of Cadijeh, a very +wealthy widow, who sent to the fairs and towns great caravans, which +Mohammed accompanied in some humble capacity,--according to the +tradition as camel-driver. But his personal beauty, which was +remarkable, and probably also his intelligence and spirit, won the heart +of this powerful mistress, and she became his wife.</p> + +<p>He was now second to none in the capital of Arabia, and great thoughts +began to fill his soul. His wife perceived his greatness, and, like +Josephine and the wife of Disraeli, forwarded the fortunes of her +husband, for he became rich as well as intellectual and noble, and thus +had time and leisure to accomplish more easily his work. From +twenty-five to forty he led chiefly a contemplative life, spending +months together in a cave, absorbed in his grand reflections,--at +intervals issuing from his retreat, visiting the marts of commerce, and +gaining knowledge from learned men. It is seldom that very great men +lead either a life of perpetual contemplation or of perpetual activity. +Without occasional rest, and leisure to mature knowledge, no man can arm +himself with the weapons of the gods. To be truly great, a man must +blend a life of activity with a life of study,--like Moses, who matured +the knowledge he had gained in Egypt amid the deserts of Midian.</p> + +<p>With all great men some leading idea rules the ordinary life. The idea +which took possession of the mind of Mohammed was the degrading +polytheism of his countrymen, the multitude of their idols, the +grossness of their worship, and the degrading morals which usually +accompany a false theology. He set himself to work to produce a reform, +but amid overwhelming obstacles. He talked with his uncles, and they +laughed at him. They would not even admit the necessity of a reform. +Only Cadijeh listened to him and encouraged him and believed in him. And +Mohammed was ever grateful for this mark of confidence, and cherished +the memory of his wife in his subsequent apostasy,--if it be true that +he fell, like Solomon. Long afterwards, when she was dead, Ayésha, his +young and favorite wife, thus addressed him: "Am I not better than +Cadijeh? Do you not love me better than you did her? She was a widow, +old and ugly." "No, by Allah!" replied the Prophet; "she believed in me +when no one else did. In the whole world I had but one friend, and she +was that friend." No woman ever retained the affections of a husband +superior to herself, unless she had the spirit of Cadijeh,--unless she +proved herself his friend, and believed in him. How miserable the life +of Jane Carlyle would have been had she not been proud of her husband! +One reason why there is frequent unhappiness in married life is because +there is no mutual appreciation. How often have we seen a noble, lofty, +earnest man fettered and chained by a frivolous woman who could not be +made to see the dignity and importance of the labors which gave to her +husband all his real power! Not so with the woman who assisted Mohammed. +Without her sympathy and faith he probably would have failed. He told +her, and her alone, his dreams, his ecstasies, his visions; how that God +at different times had sent prophets and teachers to reveal new truths, +by whom religion had been restored; how this one God, who created the +heavens and the earth, had never left Himself without witnesses of His +truth in the most degenerate times; how that the universal recognition +of this sovereign Power and Providence was necessary to the salvation +of society. He had learned much from the study of the Talmud and the +Jewish Scriptures; he had reflected deeply in his isolated cave; he knew +that there was but one supreme God, and that there could be no elevated +morality without the sense of personal responsibility to Him; that +without the fear of this one God there could be neither wisdom +nor virtue.</p> + +<p>Hence his soul burned to tell his countrymen his earnest belief in a +supreme and personal God, to whom alone prayers should be made, and who +alone could rescue by His almighty power. He pondered day and night on +this single and simple truth. His perpetual meditations and ascetic +habits induced dreams and ecstasies, such as marked primitive monks, and +Loyola in his Manresan cave. He became a visionary man, but most +intensely earnest, for his convictions were overwhelming. He fancied +himself the ambassador of this God, as the ancient Jewish prophets were; +that he was even greater than they, his mission being to remove +idolatry,--to his mind the greatest evil under the sun, since it was the +root of all vices and follies. Idolatry is either a defiance or a +forgetfulness of God,--high treason to the majesty of Heaven, entailing +the direst calamities.</p> + +<p>At last, one day, in his fortieth year, after he had been shut up a +whole month in solitude, so that his soul was filled with ecstasy and +enthusiasm, he declared to Cadijeh that the night before, while wrapped +in his mantle, absorbed in reverie, a form of divine beauty, in a flood +of light, appeared to him, and, in the name of the Almighty who created +the heavens and the earth, thus spake: "O, Mohammed! of a truth thou art +the Prophet of God, and I am his angel Gabriel." "This," says Carlyle, +"is the soul of Islam. This is what Mohammed felt and now declared to be +of infinite moment, that idols and formulas were nothing; that the +jargon of argumentative Greek sects, the vague traditions of Jews, the +stupid routine of Arab idolatry were a mockery and a delusion; that +there is but one God; that we must let idols alone and look to Him. He +alone is reality; He made us and sustains us. Our whole strength lies in +submission to Him. The thing He sends us, be it death even, is good, is +the best. We resign ourselves to Him."</p> + +<p>Such were the truths which Mohammed, with preternatural earnestness, now +declared,--doctrines which would revolutionize Arabia. And why not? They +are the same substantially which Moses declared to those sensual and +degraded slaves whom he led out of Egypt,--yea, the doctrines of David +and of Job. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." What a grand +and all-important truth it is to impress upon people sunk in +forgetfulness and sensuality and pleasure-seeking and idle schemes of +vanity and ambition, that there is a supreme Intelligence who overrules, +and whose laws cannot be violated with impunity; from whom no one can +escape, even though he "take the wings of the morning and fly to the +uttermost parts of the sea." This is the one truth that Moses sought to +plant in the minds of the Jews,--a truth always forgotten when there is +slavery to epicurean pleasures or a false philosophy.</p> + +<p>Now I maintain that Mohammed, in seeking to impress his degenerate +countrymen with the idea of the one supreme God, amid a most degrading +and almost universal polytheism, was a great reformer. In preaching this +he was neither fanatic nor hypocrite; he was a very great man, and thus +far a good man. He does not make an original revelation; he reproduces +an old truth,--as old as the patriarchs, as old as Job, as old as the +primitive religions,--but an exceedingly important one, lost sight of by +his countrymen, gradually lost sight of by all peoples when divine grace +is withheld; indeed practically by people in Christian lands in times of +great degeneracy. "The fool has said in his heart there is no God;" or, +Let there be no God, that we may eat and drink before we die. +Epicureanism, in its pleasures or in its speculations, is virtually +atheism. It was so in Greece. It is so with us.</p> + +<p>Mohammed was now at the mature age of forty, in the fulness of his +powers, in the prime of his life; and he began to preach everywhere +that there is but one God. Few, however, believed in him. Why not +acknowledge such a fundamental truth, appealing to the intellect as well +as the moral sense? But to confess there is a supreme God, who rewards +and punishes, and to whom all are responsible both for words and +actions, is to imply a confession of sinfulness and the justice of +retribution. Those degraded Arabians would not receive willingly such a +truth as this, even as the Israelites ever sought to banish it from +their hearts and minds, in spite of their deliverance from slavery. The +uncles and friends of Mohammed treated his mission with scorn and +derision. Nor do I read that the common people heard him gladly, as they +listened to the teachings of Christ. Zealously he labored for three +years with all classes; and yet in three years of exalted labor, with +all his eloquence and fervor and sincerity, he converted only about +thirteen persons, one of whom was his slave. Think of such a man +declaring such a truth, and only gaining thirteen followers in three +years! How sickened must have been his enthusiastic soul! His worldly +relatives urged him to silence. Why attack idols; why quarrel with his +own interests; why destroy his popularity? Then exclaimed that great +hero: "If the sun stood on my right hand, and the moon on my left, +ordering me to hold my peace, I would still declare there is but one +God,"--a speech rivalled only by Luther at the Diet of Worms. Why urge +a great man to be silent on the very thing which makes him great? He +cannot be silent. His truth--from which he cannot be separated--is +greater than life or death, or principalities or powers.</p> + +<p>Buffeted and ridiculed, still Mohammed persevered. He used at first only +moral means. He appealed only to the minds and hearts of the people, +encouraged by his few believers and sustained by the fancied voice of +that angel who appeared to him in his retreat. But his earnest voice was +drowned by discordant noises. He was regarded as a lunatic, a demented +man, because he professed to believe in a personal God. The angry mob +covered his clothes with dust and ashes. They demanded miracles. But at +this time he had only truths to declare,--those saving truths which are +perpetual miracles. At last hostilities began. He was threatened and he +was persecuted. They laid plots to take his life. He sought shelter in +the castle of his uncle, Abu Taleh; but he died. Then Mohammed's wife +Cadijeh died. The priests of an idolatrous religion became furious. He +had laid his hands on their idols. He was regarded as a disorganizer, an +innovator, a most dangerous man. His fortunes became darker and darker; +he was hated, persecuted, and alone.</p> + +<p>Thus thirteen years passed away in reproach, in persecution, in fear. At +last forty picked men swore to assassinate him. Should he remain at +Mecca and die, before his mission was accomplished, or should he fly? He +concluded to fly to Medina, where there were Jews, and some nominal +converts to Christianity,--a new ground. This was in the year 622, and +the flight is called the Hegira,--from which the East dates its era, in +the fifty-third year of the Prophet's life. In this city he was +cordially welcomed, and he soon found himself surrounded with +enthusiastic followers. He built a mosque, and openly performed the +rites of the new religion.</p> + +<p>At this era a new phase appears in the Prophet's life and teachings. +Thus far, until his flight, it would seem that he propagated his +doctrines by moral force alone, and that these doctrines, in the main, +were elevated. He had earnestly declared his great idea of the unity of +God. He had pronounced the worship of images to be idolatrous. He held +idolatry of all kinds in supreme abhorrence. He enjoined charity, +justice, and forbearance. He denounced all falsehood and all deception, +especially in trade. He declared that humility, benevolence, and +self-abnegation were the greatest virtues. He commanded his disciples to +return good for evil, to restrain the passions, to bridle the tongue, to +be patient under injuries, to be submissive to God. He enjoined prayer, +fastings, and meditation as a means of grace. He laid down the necessity +of rest on the seventh day. He copied the precepts of the Bible in many +of their essential features, and recognized its greatest teachers as +inspired prophets.</p> + +<p>It was during these thirteen years at Mecca, amid persecution and +ridicule, and with few outward successes, that he probably wrote the +Koran,--a book without beginning and without end, <i>disjecta membra</i>, +regardless of all rules of art, full of repetitions, and yet full of +lofty precepts and noble truths of morality evidently borrowed from the +Jewish Scriptures,--in which his great ideas stand out with singular +eloquence and impressiveness: the unity of God, His divine sovereignty, +the necessity of prayer, the soul's immortality, future rewards and +punishments. His own private life had been blameless. It was plain and +simple. For a whole month he did not light a fire to cook his food. He +swept his chamber himself and mended his own clothes. His life was that +of an ascetic enthusiast, profoundly impressed with the greatness and +dignity of his mission. Thus far his greatest error and fault was in the +supposition that he was inspired in the same sense as the ancient Jewish +prophets were inspired,--to declare the will and the truth of God. Any +man leading such a life of contemplative asceticism and retirement is +prone to fall into the belief of special divine illumination. It +characterized George Fox, the Anabaptists, Ignatius Loyola, Saint +Theresa, and even, to some extent, Oliver Cromwell himself. Mohammed's +supreme error was that he was the greatest as well as the last of the +prophets. This was fanaticism, but he was probably honest in the belief. +His brain was turned by dreams, ecstasies, and ascetic devotions. But +with all his visionary ideas of his call, his own morality and his +teachings had been lofty, and apparently unsuccessful. Possibly he was +discouraged with the small progress he had made,--disgusted, +irritated, fierce.</p> + +<p>Certainly, soon after he was established at Medina, a great change took +place in his mode of propagating his doctrines. His great ideas remained +the same, but he adopted a new way to spread them. So that I can almost +fancy that some Mephistopheles, some form of Satanic agency, some lying +Voice whispered to him in this wise: "O Mohammed! of a truth thou art +the Prophet of the living God. Thou hast declared the grandest truths +ever uttered in Arabia; but see how powerless they are on the minds and +hearts of thy countrymen, with all thy eloquence, sincerity, and fervor. +By moral means thou hast effected comparatively nothing. Thou hast +preached thirteen years, and only made a few converts. Thy truths are +too elevated for a corrupt and wicked generation to accept. Even thine +own life is in danger. Thou hast been obliged to fly to these barren +rocks and sands. Thou hast failed. Why not pursue a new course, and +adapt thy doctrines to men as they are? Thy countrymen are wild, +fierce, and warlike: why not incite their martial passions in defence of +thy doctrines? They are an earnest people, and, believing in the truths +which thou now declarest, they will fight for them and establish them by +the sword, not merely in Arabia, but throughout the East. They are a +pleasure-loving and imaginative people: why not promise the victors of +thy faith a sensual bliss in Paradise? They will not be subverters of +your grand truths; they will simply extend them, and jealously, if they +have a reward in what their passions crave. In short, use the proper +means for a great end. The end justifies the means."</p> + +<p>Whether influenced by such specious sophistries, or disheartened by his +former method, or corrupted in his own heart, as Solomon was, by his +numerous wives,--for Mohammed permitted polygamy and practised it +himself,--it is certain that he now was bent on achieving more signal +and rapid victories. He resolved to adapt his religion to the depraved +hearts of his followers. He would mix up truth with error; he would make +truth palatable; he would use the means which secure success. It was +success he wanted, and success he thus far had not secured. He was +ambitious; he would become a mighty spiritual potentate.</p> + +<p>So he allowed polygamy,--the vice of Eastern nations from remote +periods; he promised a sensual Paradise to those who should die in +defence of his religion; he inflamed the imagination of the Arabians +with visions of sensual joys. He painted heaven as a land whose soil was +the finest wheaten flour, whose air was fragrant with perfumes, whose +streams were of crystal water or milk or wine or honey, flowing over +beds of musk and camphor,--a glorious garden of fruits and flowers, +whose inhabitants were clothed in garments of gold, sparkling with +rubies and diamonds, who reclined in sumptuous palaces and silken +pavilions, and on couches of voluptuous ease, and who were served with +viands which could be eaten without satiety, and liquors which could be +drunk without inebriation; yea, where the blissful warrior for the faith +should enjoy an unending youth, and where he would be attended by +houris, with black and loving eyes, free from all defects, resplendent +in beauty and grace, and rejoicing in perpetual charms.</p> + +<p>Such were the views, it is maintained, with which he inflamed the +faithful. And, more, he encouraged them to take up arms, and penetrate, +as warlike missionaries, to the utmost bounds of the habitable +world, in order to convert men to the faith of the one God, whose +Prophet he claimed to be. Moreover, he made new and extraordinary +"revelations,"--that he had ascended into the seventh heaven and held +converse with Gabriel; and he now added to his creed that old lie of +Eastern theogonies, that base element of all false religions,--that man +can propitiate the Deity by works of supererogation; that man can +purchase by ascetic labors and sacrifices his future salvation. This +falsity enters largely into Mohammedanism. I need not add how discrepant +it is with the cheerful teachings of the apostles, especially to the +poor, as seen in the deeds of penance, prayers in the corners of the +streets, the ablutions, the fasts, and the pilgrimages to which the +faithful are exhorted. And moreover he accommodated his fasts and feasts +and holidays and pilgrimages to the old customs of the people, thereby +teaching lessons of worldly wisdom. Astarte, the old object of Sabaean +idolatry, was particularly worshipped on a Friday; and this day was made +the Mohammedan Sabbath. Again, the month Rhamadán, from time immemorial, +had been set apart for fastings; this month the Prophet adopted, +declaring that in it he had received his first revelations. Pilgrimages +to the Black Stone were favorite forms of penance; and this was +perpetuated in the pilgrimages to Mecca.</p> + +<p>Thus it would appear that Mohammed, after his flight, accommodated his +doctrines to the customs and tastes of his countrymen,--blending with +the sublime truths he declared subtile and pernicious errors. The Jesuit +missionaries did the same thing in China and Japan, thinking more of the +number of their converts than of the truth itself. Expediency--the +accepted Jesuitical principle of the end justifying the means--is seen +in almost everything in this world which blazes with success. It is seen +in politics, in philanthropy, in ecclesiasticism, and in education. +There are political Jesuits and philanthropical Jesuits and Protestant +Jesuits, as well as Catholic Jesuits and Mohammedan Jesuits. What do you +think of a man, wearing the livery of a gospel minister, devoting all +his energies to money-making, versed in the ways of the "heathen +Chinee,"--"ways that are dark, and tricks that are vain,"--all to +succeed better in worldly thrift, using all means for that single +end,--is not he practically a Jesuit? I do not mean a Catholic Jesuit, +belonging to the Society of Jesus, but popularly what we mean by a +Jesuit. What would you think of a college which lowered the standard of +education in order to draw students, or selected, as the guardians of +its higher interests, those men who would contribute the most money to +its funds?</p> + +<p>This spirit of expediency Mohammed entertained and utilized, in order to +gain success. Most of what is false in Mohammedanism is based on +expediency. The end was not lost sight of,--the conversion of his +countrymen to the belief in the unity and sovereignty of God, but it was +sought by means which would make them fanatics or pharisees. He was not +such a miserable creature as one who seeks to make money by trading on +the religious capital of the community; but he did adapt his religion to +the passions and habits of the people in order that they might more +readily be led to accept it. He listened to that same wicked Voice which +afterwards appeared in the guise of an angel of light to mediaeval +ritualists. And it is thus that Satan has contrived to pervert the best +institutions of the world. The moment good men look to outward and +superficial triumphs, to the disregard of inward purity, that moment do +they accept the Jesuitical lie of all ages,--"The end justifies +the means."</p> + +<p>But the worst thing which the Prophet did in order to gain his end was +to make use of the sword. For thirteen years he appealed to conscience. +Now he makes it an inducement for men to fight for his great idea. +"Different prophets," said he, in his memorable manifesto, "have been +sent by God to illustrate His different attributes: Moses, His +providence; Solomon, His wisdom; Christ, His righteousness; but I, the +last of the prophets, am sent with the sword. Let those who promulgate +my faith enter into no arguments or discussions, but slay all who refuse +obedience. Whoever fights for the true faith, whether he fall or +conquer, will assuredly receive a glorious reward, for the sword is the +key of heaven. All who draw it in defence of the faith shall receive +temporal and future blessings. Every drop of their blood, every peril +and hardship, will be registered on high as more meritorious than +fasting or prayer. If they fall in battle their sins will be washed +away, and they shall be transported into Paradise, to revel in eternal +pleasures, and in the arms of black-eyed houris." Thus did he stimulate +the martial fanaticism of a warlike and heroic people with the promise +of future happiness. What a monstrous expediency,--worse than all the +combined usurpations of the popes!</p> + +<p>And what was the result? I need not point to the successive conquests of +the Saracens with such a mighty stimulus. They were loyal to the truth +for which they fought. They never afterwards became idolaters; but their +religion was built up on the miseries of nations. To propagate the faith +of Mohammed they overran the world. Never were conquests more rapid and +more terrible.</p> + +<p>At first Mohammed's followers in Medina sallied out and attacked the +caravans of Arabia, and especially all belonging to Mecca (the city +which had rejected him), until all the various tribes acknowledged the +religion of the Prophet, for they were easily converted to a faith which +flattered their predatory inclinations and promised them future +immunities. The first cavalcade which entered Medina with spoils made +Mussulmans of all the inhabitants, and gave Mohammed the control of the +city. The battle of Moat gave him a triumphal entrance into Mecca. He +soon found himself the sovereign of all Arabia; and when he died, at the +age of 63, in the eleventh year after his Hegira, or flight from Mecca, +he was the most successful founder of a religion the world has known, +next to Buddha. A religion appealing to truth alone had made only a few +converts in thirteen years; a religion which appealed to the sword had +made converts of a great nation in eleven years.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to ascertain what the private life of the Prophet was in +these years of dazzling success. The authorities differ. Some represent +him as sunk in a miserable sensuality which shortened his days. But I +think this statement may be doubted. He never lost the veneration of his +countrymen,--and no veneration can last for a man steeped in sensuality. +Even Solomon lost his prestige and popularity when he became vain and +sensual. Those who were nearest to the Prophet reverenced him most +profoundly. With his wife Ayésha he lived with great frugality. He was +kindly, firm in friendship, faithful and tender in his family, ready to +forgive enemies, just in decision. The caliphs who succeeded him, for +some time, were men of great simplicity, and sought to imitate his +virtues. He was doubtless warlike and fanatical, but conquests such as +he and his successors made are incompatible with luxury and effeminacy. +He stands arraigned at the bar of eternal justice for perverting truth, +for blending it with error, for making use of wicked means to accomplish +what he deemed a great end.</p> + +<p>I have no patience with Mr. Carlyle, great and venerable as is his +authority, for seeming to justify Mohammed in assuming the sword. "I +care little for the sword," says this sophistical writer. "I will allow +a thing to struggle for itself in this world, with any sword or tongue +or implement it has or can lay hold on. What is better than itself it +cannot put away, but only what is worse. In this great life-duel Nature +herself is umpire, and can do no wrong," That is, might makes right; +only evil perishes in the conflict of principles; whatever prevails is +just. In other words, if Mohammedanism, by any means it may choose to +use, proves itself more formidable than other religions, then it ought +to prevail. Suppose that the victories of the Saracens had extended over +Europe, as well as Asia and Africa,--had not been arrested by Charles +Martel,--would Carlyle then have preferred Mohammedanism to the +Christianity of degenerate nations? Was Mohammedanism a better religion +than the Christianity which existed in Asia Minor and in various parts +of the Greek empire in the sixth and seventh centuries? Was it a good +thing to convert the church of Saint Sophia into a Saracenic mosque, and +the city of the later Christian emperors into the capital of the Turks? +Is a united Saracenic empire better than a divided, wrangling +Christian empire?</p> + +<p>But I will not enter upon that discussion. I confine myself to facts. It +is certain that Mohammedanism, by means of the sword, spread with +marvellous and unprecedented rapidity. The successors of the Prophet +carried their conquests even to India. Neither the Syrians nor the +Egyptians could cope with men who felt that the sacrifice of life in +battle would secure an eternity of bliss. The armies of the Greek +emperor melted away before the generals of the caliph. The Cross waned +before the Crescent. The banners of the Moslems floated over the +proudest battlements of ancient Roman grandeur.</p> + +<p>In the fifth year of the caliph Omar, only seventeen years from the +Prophet's flight from Mecca, the conquest of Syria was completed. The +Christians were forbidden to build churches, or speak openly of their +religion, or sit in the presence of a Mohammedan, or to sell wine, or +bear arms, or use the saddle in riding, or have a domestic who had been +in the Mohammedan service. The utter prostration of all civil and +religious liberty took place in the old scenes of Christian triumph. +This was an instance in which persecution proved successful; and because +it was successful it is a proof, in the eyes of Carlyle, that the +persecuting religion was the better, because it was outwardly +the stronger.</p> + +<p>The conquest of Egypt rapidly followed that of Syria; and with the fall +of Alexandria perished the largest library of the world, the thesaurus +of all the intellectual treasures of antiquity.</p> + +<p>Then followed the conquest of Persia. A single battle, as in the time of +Alexander, decided its fate. The marvel is that the people should have +changed their religion; but then, it was Mohammedanism or death. And a +still greater marvel it is,--an utter mystery to me,--why that Oriental +country should have continued faithful to the new religion. It must have +had some elements of vitality almost worth fighting for, and which we do +not comprehend.</p> + +<p>Nor did Saracenic conquests end until the Arabs of the desert had +penetrated southward into India farther than had Alexander the Great, +and westward until they had subdued the northern kingdoms of Africa, and +carried their arms to the Pillars of Hercules; yea, to the cities of the +Goths in Spain, and were only finally arrested in Europe by the heroism +of Charles Martel.</p> + +<p>Such were the rapid conquests of the Saracens--and permanent conquests +also--in Asia and Africa, under the stimulus of religious fanaticism, +until they had reduced thirty-six thousand cities, towns, and castles, +and built fourteen thousand mosques.</p> + +<p>Now what are the deductions to be logically drawn from these stupendous +victories and the consolidation of the various religions of the +conquered into the creed of Mohammed,--not repudiated when the pressure +was removed, but apparently cherished by one hundred and eighty millions +of people for more than a thousand years?</p> + +<p>We must take the ground that the religion of Mohammed has marvellous and +powerful truths, which we have overlooked and do not understand, which +appeal to the heart and conscience, and excite a great enthusiasm,--so +great as to stimulate successive generations with an almost unexampled +ardor, and to defend which they were ready to die; a religion which has +bound diverse nations together for nearly fourteen hundred years. If so, +it cannot be abused, or ridiculed, or sneered at, any more than can the +dominion of the popes in the Middle Ages, but remains august in +impressive mystery to us, and even to future ages.</p> + +<p>But if, in comparison with Christianity, it is a corrupt and false +religion, as many assume, then what deductions must we draw from its +amazing triumphs? For the fact stares us in the face that it is rooted +deeply in a large part of the Eastern world, or, at least, has prevailed +victorious for more than a thousand years.</p> + +<p>First, we must conclude that the external triumph of a religion, +especially among ignorant or wicked people, is not so much owing to the +purity and loftiness of its truths, as to its harmony with prevailing +errors and corruptions. When Mohammed preached his sublimest doctrines, +and appealed to reason and conscience, he converted about a score of +people in thirteen years. When he invoked demoralizing passions, he +converted all Arabia in eleven years. And does not this startling +conclusion seem to be confirmed by the whole history of mankind? How +slow the progress of Christianity for two hundred years, except when +assisted by direct supernatural influences! How rapid its triumphs when +it became adapted to the rude barbaric mind, or to the degenerate people +of the Empire! How popular and prevalent and widespread are those +religions which we are accustomed to regard as most corrupt! Buddhism +and Brahmanism have had more adherents than even Mohammedanism. How +difficult it was for Moses and the prophets to keep the Jews from +idolatry! What caused the rapid eclipse of faith in the antediluvian +world? Why could not Noah establish and perpetuate his doctrines among +his own descendants before he was dead? Why was the Socratic philosophy +unpopular? Why were the Epicureans so fashionable? Why was Christianity +itself most eagerly embraced when its light was obscured by fables and +superstitions? Why did the Roman Empire perish, with all the aid of a +magnificent civilization; why did this civilization itself retrograde; +why did its art and literature decline? Why did the grand triumphs of +Protestantism stop in half a century after Luther delivered his message? +What made the mediaeval popes so powerful? What gave such ascendency to +the Jesuits? Why is the simple faith of the primitive Christians so +obnoxious to the wise, the mighty, and the noble? What makes the most +insidious heresies so acceptable to the learned? Why is modern +literature, when fashionable and popular, so antichristian in its tone +and spirit? Why have not the doctrines of Luther held their own in +Germany, and those of Calvin in Geneva, and those of Cranmer in England, +and those of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England? Is it because, as men +become advanced in learning and culture, they are theologically wiser +than Moses and Abraham and Isaiah?</p> + +<p>I do not cite the rapid decline of modern civilized society, in a +political or social view, in the most favored sections of Christendom; I +do not sing dirges over republican institutions; I would not croak +Jeremiads over the changes and developments of mankind. I simply speak +of the marvellous similarity which the spread and triumph of +Mohammedanism seem to bear to the spread and triumph of what is corrupt +and wicked in all institutions and religions since the fall of man. +Everywhere it is the frivolous, the corrupt, the false, which seem to be +most prevalent and most popular. Do men love truth, or readily accept +it, when it conflicts with passions and interests? Is any truth popular +which is arrayed against the pride of reason? When has pure moral truth +ever been fashionable? When have its advocates not been reviled, +slandered, misrepresented, and persecuted, if it has interfered with the +domination of prevailing interests? The lower the scale of pleasures the +more eagerly are they sought by the great mass of the people, even in +Christian communities. You can best make colleges thrive by turning them +into schools of technology, with a view of advancing utilitarian and +material interests. You cannot make a newspaper flourish unless +you fill it with pictures and scandals, or make it a vehicle of +advertisements,--which are not frivolous or corrupt, it is true, but +which have to do with merely material interests. Your libraries would +never be visited, if you took away their trash. Your Sabbath-school +books would not be read, unless you made them an insult to the human +understanding. Your salons would be deserted, if you entertained your +guests with instructive conversation. There would be no fashionable +gatherings, if it were not to display dresses and diamonds. Your pulpits +would be unoccupied, if you sought the profoundest men to fill them.</p> + +<p>Everything, even in Christian communities, shows that vanities and +follies and falsehoods are the most sought, and that nothing is more +discouraging than appeals to high intelligence or virtue, even in art. +This is the uniform history of the race, everywhere and in all ages. Is +it darkness or light which the world loves? I never read, and I never +heard, of a great man with a great message to deliver, who would not +have sunk under disappointment or chagrin but for his faith. Everywhere +do you see the fascination of error, so that it almost seems to be as +vital as truth itself. When and where have not lies and sophistries and +hypocrisies reigned? I appeal to history. I appeal to the observation +and experience of every thoughtful and candid mind. You cannot get +around this truth. It blazes and it burns like the fires of Sinai. Men +left to themselves will more and more retrograde in virtue.</p> + +<p>What, then, is the hope of the world? We are driven to this +deduction,--that if truth in itself is not all-conquering, the divine +assistance, given at times to truth itself, as in the early Church, is +the only reason why truth conquers. This divine grace, promised in the +Bible, has wrought wonders whenever it has pleased the Almighty to +bestow it, and only then. History teaches this as impressively as +revelation. Christianity itself, unaided, would probably die out in this +world. And hence the grand conclusion is, that it is the mysterious, or, +as some call it, the supernatural, spirit of Almighty power which is, +after all, the highest hope of this world. This is not discrepant with +the oldest traditions and theogonies of the East,--the hidden wisdom of +ancient Indian and Persian and Egyptian sages, concealed from the +vulgar, but really embraced by the profoundest men, before corruptions +perverted even their wisdom. This certainly is the earliest revelation +of the Bible. This is the power which Moses recognized, and all the +prophets who succeeded him. This is the power which even Mohammed, in +the loftiness of his contemplations, more dimly saw, and imperfectly +taught to the idolaters around him, and which gives to his system all +that was really valuable. Ask not when and where this power shall be +most truly felt. It is around us, and above us, and beneath us. It is +the mystery and grandeur of the ages. "It is not by might nor by power, +but by my spirit," saith the Lord. Man is nothing, his aspirations are +nothing, the universe itself is nothing, without the living, permeating +force which comes from this supernal Deity we adore, to interfere and +save. Without His special agency, giving to His truths vitality, this +world would soon become a hopeless and perpetual pandemonium. Take away +the necessity of this divine assistance as the one great condition of +all progress, as well as the highest boon which mortals seek,--then +prayer itself, recognized even by Mohammedans as the loftiest +aspiration and expression of a dependent soul, and regarded by prophets +and apostles and martyrs as their noblest privilege, becomes a +superstition, a puerility, a mockery, and a hopeless dream.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>The Koran; Dean Prideaux's Life of Mohammed; Vie de Mahomet, by the +Comte de Boulainvilliers; Gagnier's Life of Mohammed; Ockley's History +of the Saracens; Gibbon, fiftieth chapter; Hallam's Middle Ages; +Milman's Latin Christianity; Dr. Weil's Mohammed der Prophet, sein Leben +und seine Lehre; Renan, Revue des Deux Mondes, 1851; Bustner's +Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca; Life of Mahomet, by Washington +Irving; Essai sur l'Histoire des Arabes, par A.P. Caussin de Perceval; +Carlyle's Lectures on Heroes and Hero Worship; E.A. Freeman's Lectures +on the History of the Saracens; Forster's Mahometanism Unveiled; Maurice +on the Religions of the World; Life and Religion of Mohammed, translated +from the Persian, by Rev. I.L. Merrick.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="CHARLEMAGNE."></a>CHARLEMAGNE.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 742-814.</p> + +<p>REVIVAL OF WESTERN EMPIRE.</p> + +<p>The most illustrious monarch of the Middle Ages was doubtless +Charlemagne. Certainly he was the first great statesman, hero, and +organizer that looms up to view after the dissolution of the Roman +Empire. Therefore I present him as one with whom is associated an epoch +in civilization. To him we date the first memorable step which Europe +took out of the anarchies of the Merovingian age. His dream was to +revive the Empire that had fallen. He was the first to labor, with giant +strength, to restore what vice and violence had destroyed. He did not +succeed in realizing the great ends to which he aspired, but his +aspirations were lofty. It was not in the power of any man to civilize +semi-barbarians in a single reign; but if he attempted impossibilities +he did not live in vain, since he bequeathed some permanent conquests +and some great traditions. He left a great legacy to civilization. His +life has not dramatic interest like that of Hildebrand, nor poetic +interest like the lives of the leaders of the Crusades; but it is very +instructive. He was the pride of his own generation, and the boast of +succeeding ages, "claimed," says Sismondi, "by the Church as a saint, by +the French as the greatest of their kings, by the Germans as their +countryman, and by the Italians as their emperor."</p> + +<p>His remote ancestors, it is said, were ecclesiastical magnates. His +grandfather was Charles Martel, who gained such signal victories over +the Mohammedan Saracens; his father was Pepin, who was a renowned +conqueror, and who subdued the southern part of France, or Gaul. He did +not rise, like Clovis, from the condition of a chieftain of a tribe of +barbarians; nor, like the founder of his family, from a mayor of the +palace, or minister of the Merovingian kings. His early life was spent +amid the turmoils and dangers of camps, and as a young man he was +distinguished for precocity of talent, manly beauty, and gigantic +physical strength. He was a type of chivalry, before chivalry arose. He +was born to greatness, and early succeeded to a great inheritance. At +the age of twenty-six, in the year 768, he became the monarch of the +greater part of modern France, and of those provinces which border on +the Rhine. By unwearied activities this inheritance, greater than that +of any of the Merovingian kings, was not only kept together and +preserved, but was increased by successive conquests, until no so great +an empire has ever been ruled by any one man in Europe, since the fall +of the Roman Empire, from his day to ours. Yet greater than the +conquests of Charlemagne was the greatness of his character. He +preserved simplicity and gentleness amid all the distractions attending +his government.</p> + +<p>His reign affords a striking contrast to that of all his predecessors of +the Merovingian dynasty,--which reigned from the immediate destruction +of the Roman Empire. The Merovingian princes, with the exception of +Clovis and a few others, were mere barbarians, although converted to a +nominal Christianity. Some of them were monsters, and others were +idiots. Clotaire burned to death his own son and wife and daughters. +Frédegunde armed her assassins with poisoned daggers. "Thirteen +sovereigns reigned over the Franks in one hundred and fourteen years, +only two of whom attained to man's estate, and not one to the full +development of intellectual powers. There was scarcely one who did not +live in a state of perpetual intoxication, or who did not rival +Sardanapalus in effeminacy, and Commodus in cruelty." As these +sovereigns were ruled by priests, their iniquities were glossed over by +Gregory of Tours. In <i>his</i> annals they may pass for saints, but history +consigns them to an infamous immortality.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to conceive a more dreary and dismal state of society +than existed in France, and in fact over all Europe, when Charlemagne +began to reign. The Roman Empire was in ruins, except in the East, where +the Greek emperors reigned at Constantinople. The western provinces were +ruled by independent barbaric kings. There was no central authority, +although there was an attempt of the popes to revive it,--a spiritual +rather than a temporal power; a theocracy whose foundation had been laid +by Leo the Great when he established the <i>jus divinum</i> principle,--that +he was the successor of Peter, to whom were given the keys of heaven and +hell. If there was an interesting feature in the times it was this +spiritual authority exercised by the bishops of Rome: the most useful +and beneficent considering the evils which prevailed,--the reign of +brute force. The barbaric chieftains yielded a partial homage to this +spiritual power, and it was some check on their rapacity of violence. It +is mournful to think that so little of the ancient civilization remained +in the eighth century. Its eclipse was total. The shadows of a dark and +long night of superstition and ignorance spread over Europe. Law was +silenced by the sword. Justinian's glorious legacy was already +forgotten. The old mechanism which had kept society together in the +fifth century was worn out, broken, rejected. There was no literature, +no philosophy, no poetry, no history, and no art. Even the clergy had +become ignorant, superstitious, and idle. Forms had taken the place +of faith. No great theologians had arisen since Saint Augustine. The +piety of the age hid itself in monasteries; and these monasteries were +as funereal as society itself. Men despaired of the world, and retreated +from it to sing mournful songs. The architecture of the age expressed +the sentiments of the age, and was heavy, gloomy, and monotonous. "The +barbarians ruthlessly marched over the ruins of cities and palaces, +having no regard for the treasures of the classic world, and unmoved by +the lessons of its past experience." Rome itself, repeatedly sacked, was +a heap of ruins. No reconstruction had taken place. Gardens and villas +were as desolate as the ruined palaces, which were the abodes of owls +and spiders. The immortal creations of the chisel were used to prop up +old crumbling walls. The costly monuments of senatorial pride were +broken to pieces in sport or in caprice, and those structures which had +excited the admiration of ages were pulled down that their material +might be used in erecting tasteless edifices. Literature shared the +general desolation. The valued manuscripts of classical ages were +mutilated, erased, or burned. The monks finished the destruction which +the barbarians began. Ignorance as well as anarchy veiled Europe in +darkness. The rust of barbarism became harder and thicker. The last hope +of man had fled, and glory was succeeded by shame. Even slavery, the +curse of the Roman Empire, was continued by the barbarians; only, brute +force was not made subservient to intellect, but intellect to brute +force. The descendants of ancient patrician families were in bondage to +barbarians. The age was the jubilee of monsters. Assassination was +common, and was unavenged by law. Every man was his own avenger of +crime, and his bloody weapons were his only law.</p> + +<p>Nor were there seen among the barbaric chieftains the virtues of ancient +Pagan Rome and Greece, for Christianity was nominal. War was universal; +for the barbarians, having no longer the Romans to fight, fought among +themselves. There were incessant irruptions of different tribes passing +from one country to another, in search of plunder and pillage. There was +no security of life or property, and therefore no ambition for +acquisition. Men hid themselves in morasses, in forests, on the tops of +inaccessible hills, and amid the recesses of valleys, for violence was +the rule and not the exception. Even feudalism was not then born, and +still less chivalry. We find no elevated sentiments. The only refuge for +the miserable was in the Church, and the Church was governed by narrow +and ignorant priests. A cry of despair went up to heaven among the +descendants of the old population. There was no commerce, no travel, no +industries, no money, no peace. The chastisement of Almighty Power seems +to have been sent on the old races and the new alike. It was a +desolation greater than that predicted by Jeremy the prophet. The very +end of the world seemed to be at hand. Never in the old seats of +civilization was there such a disintegration; never such a combination +of evils and miseries. And there appeared to be no remedy: nothing but a +long night of horrors and sufferings could be predicted. Gaul, or +France, was the scene of turbulence, invasions, and anarchies; of +murders, of conflagrations, and of pillage by rival chieftains, who +sought to divide its territories among themselves. The people were +utterly trodden down. England was the battle-field of Danes, Saxons, and +Celts, invaded perpetually, and split up into petty Saxon kingdoms. The +roads were infested with robbers, and agriculture was rude. The people +lived in cabins, dressed themselves in skins, and fed on the coarsest +food. Spain was invaded by Saracens, and the Gothic kingdoms succumbed +to these fierce invaders. Italy was portioned out among different +tribes, Gothic and Slavonic. But the prevailing races in Europe were +Germanic (who had conquered both the Celts and the Romans), the Goths in +Spain, the Franks and Burgundians in France, the Lombards in Italy, the +Saxons in England.</p> + +<p>What a commentary on the imperial government of the Caesars!--that +government which, with all its mechanisms and traditions, lasted +scarcely four hundred years. Was there ever, in the whole history of +the world, so sudden and mournful a change from civilization to +barbarism,--and this in spite of art, science, law, and Christianity +itself? Were there no conservative forces in that imposing Empire? Why +did society constantly decline for four hundred years, with that +civilization which was its boast and hope? Oh, ye optimists, who talk so +glibly about the natural and necessary progress of humanity, why was the +Roman Empire swept away, with all its material glories, to give place to +such a state of society as I have just briefly described?</p> + +<p>And yet men should arise in due time, after the punishment of five +centuries of crime and violence, wretchedness and despair, to +reconstruct, not from the old Pagan materials of Greece and Rome, but +with the fresh energies of new races, aided and inspired by the truths +of the everlasting gospel. The infancy of the new races, sprung however +from the same old Aryan stock, passed into vigorous youth when +Charlemagne appeared. From him we date the first decided impulse given +to the Gothic civilization. He was the morning star of European hopes +and aspirations.</p> + +<p>Let us now turn to his glorious deeds. What were the services he +rendered to Europe and Christian civilization?</p> + +<p>It was necessary that a truly great man should arise in the eighth +century, if the new forces of civilization were to be organized. To show +what he did for the new races, and how he did it, is the historian's +duty and task in describing the reign of Charlemagne,--sent, I think, as +Moses was, for a providential mission, in the fulness of time, after the +slaveries of three hundred years, which prepared the people for labor +and industry. Better was it that they should till the lands of allodial +proprietors in misery and sorrow, attacked and pillaged, than to wander +like savages in forests and morasses in quest of a precarious support, +or in great predatory bands, as they did in the fourth and fifth +centuries, when they ravaged the provinces of the falling Empire. +Nothing was wanted but their consolidation under central rule in order +to repel aggressors. And that is what Charlemagne attempted to do.</p> + +<p>He soon perceived the greatness of the struggle to which he was +destined, and he did not flinch from the contest which has given him +immortality. He comprehended the difficulties which surrounded him and +the dangers which menaced him.</p> + +<p>The great perils which threatened Europe were from unsubdued barbarians, +who sought to replunge it into the miseries which the great irruptions +had inflicted three hundred years before. He therefore bent all the +energies of his mind and all the resources of his kingdom to arrest +these fresh waves of inundation. And so long was his contest with +Saxons, Avares, Lombards, and other tribes and races that he is chiefly +to be contemplated as a man who struggled against barbarism. And he +fought them, not for excitement, not for the love of fighting, not for +useless conquests, not for military fame, not for aggrandizement, but +because a stern necessity was laid upon him to protect his own +territories and the institutions he wished to conserve.</p> + +<p>Of these barbarians there was one nation peculiarly warlike and +ferocious, and which cherished an inextinguishable hatred not merely of +the Franks, but of civilization itself. They were obstinately attached +to their old superstitions, and had a great repugnance to Christianity. +They were barbarians, like the old North American Indians, because they +determined to be so; because they loved their forests and the chase, +indulged in amusements which were uncertain and dangerous, and sought +for nothing beyond their immediate inclinations. They had no territorial +divisions, and abhorred cities as prisons of despotism. But, like all +the Germanic barbarians, they had interesting traits. They respected +women; they were brave and daring; they had a dogged perseverance, and a +noble passion for personal independence. But they were nevertheless the +enemies of civilization, of a regular and industrious life, and sought +plunder and revenge. The Franks and Goths were once like them, before +the time of Clovis; but they had made settlements, they tilled the land, +and built villages and cities: they were partially civilized, and were +converted to Christianity. But these new barbarians could not be won by +arts or the ministers of religion. These people were the Saxons, and +inhabited those parts of Germany which were bounded by the Rhine, the +Oder, the North Sea, and the Thuringian forests. They were fond of the +sea, and of daring expeditions for plunder. They were a kindred race to +those Saxons who had conquered England, and had the same elements of +character. They were poor, and sought to live by piracy and robbery. +They were very dangerous enemies, but if brought under subjection to +law, and converted to Christianity, might be turned into useful allies, +for they had the materials of a noble race.</p> + +<p>With such a people on his borders, and every day becoming more +formidable, what was Charlemagne's policy? What was he to do? The only +thing to the eye of that enlightened statesman was to conquer them, if +possible, and add their territories to the Frankish Empire. If left to +themselves, they might have conquered the Franks. It was either anvil or +hammer. There could be no lasting peace in Europe while these barbarians +were left to pursue their depredations. A vigorous warfare was +imperative, for, unless subdued, a disadvantageous war would be carried +on near the frontiers, until some warrior would arise among them, unite +the various chieftains, and lead his followers to successful invasion. +Charlemagne knew that the difficult and unpleasant work of subjugation +must be done by somebody, and he was unwilling to leave the work to +enervated successors. The work was not child's play. It took him the +best part of his life to accomplish it, and amid great discouragements. +Of his fifty-three expeditions, eighteen were against the Saxons. As +soon as he had cut off one head of the monster, another head appeared. +How allegorical of human labor is that old fable of the Hydra! Where do +man's labors cease? Charlemagne fought not only amid great difficulties, +but perpetual irritations. The Saxons cheated him; they broke their +promises and their oaths. When beaten, they sued for peace; but the +moment his back was turned, they broke out in new insurrections. The +fame of Caesar chiefly rests on his eight campaigns in Gaul. But Caesar +had the disciplined Legions of Rome to fight with. Charlemagne had no +such disciplined troops. Yet he had as many difficulties to surmount as +Caesar,--rugged forests to penetrate, rapid rivers to cross, morasses to +avoid, and mountains to climb. It is a very difficult thing to subdue +even savages who are desperate, determined, and united.</p> + +<p>Charlemagne fought the Saxons for thirty-three years. Though he never +lost a battle, they still held out. At first he was generous and +forgiving, for he was more magnanimous than Caesar; but they could not +be won by kindness. He was obliged to change his course, and at last was +as summary as Oliver Cromwell in Ireland. He is even accused of +cruelties. But war in the hands of masters has no quarter to give, and +no tears to shed. It was necessary to conquer the Saxons, and +Charlemagne used the requisite means. Sometimes the harshest measures +will most speedily effect the end. Did our fathers ever dream of +compromise with treacherous and hostile Indians? War has a horrid +maxim,--that "nothing is so successful as success." Charlemagne, at +last, was successful. The Saxons were so completely subdued at the end +of thirty-three years, that they never molested civilized Europe again. +They became civilized, like the once invading Celts and Goths; and they +even embraced the religion of the conquerors. They became ultimately the +best people in Europe,--earnest, honest, and brave. They formed great +kingdoms and states, and became new barriers against fresh inundations +from the North and East. The Saxons formed the nucleus of the great +German Empire (or were incorporated with it) which arose in the Middle +Ages, and which to-day is the most powerful in Europe, and the least +corrupted by the vices of a luxurious life. The descendants of those +Saxons are among the most industrious and useful settlers in the +New World.</p> + +<p>There was one mistake which Charlemagne made in reference to them. He +forced their conversion to a nominal Christianity. He immersed them in +the rivers of Saxony, whether they would or no. He would make them +Christians in his way. But then, who does not seek to make converts in +his way, whether enlightened or not? When have the principles of +religious toleration been understood? Did the Puritans understand them, +with all their professions? Do we tolerate, in our hearts, those who +differ from us? Do not men look daggers, though they dare not use them? +If we had the power, would we not seek to produce conformity with our +notions, like Queen Elizabeth, or Oliver Cromwell, or Archbishop Laud? +There is not perhaps a village in America where a true catholicism +reigns. There is not a spot upon the globe where there is not some form +of religious persecution. Nor is there anything more sincere than +religious bigotry. And when people have not fundamental principles to +fight about, they will fight about technicalities and matters of no +account, and all the more bitterly sometimes when the objects of +contention are not worth fighting about at all,--as in forms of worship, +or baptism. Such is the weakness of human nature. Charlemagne was no +exception to the race. But if he wished to make Christians in his way, +he was, on the whole, enlightened. He caused the young Saxons, whom he +baptized and marked with the sign of the Cross, to be educated. He built +monasteries and churches in the conquered territories. He recognized +this,--that Christianity, whatever it be, is the mightiest power of the +world; and he bore his testimony in behalf of the intellectual dignity +of the clergy in comparison with other classes. He encouraged missions +as well as schools.</p> + +<p>There was another Germanic tribe at that time which he held in great +alarm, but which he did not attack, since they were not immediately +dangerous. This tribe or race was the Norman, just then beginning their +ravages,--pirates in open boats. They had dared to enter a port in +Narbonensis Gaul for purposes of plunder. Some took them for Africans, +and others for British merchants. Nay, said Charlemagne, they are not +merchants, but cruel enemies; and he covered his face with his iron +hands and wept like a child. He did not fear these barbarians, but he +wept when he foresaw the evil they would do when he was dead. "I weep," +said he, "that they should dare almost to land on my shores, in my +lifetime." These Normans escaped him. They conquered and they founded +kingdoms. But they did not replunge Europe in darkness. A barrier had +been made against their inundation. The Saxon conquest was that +barrier. Moreover, the Normans were the noblest race of barbarians which +then roamed through the forests of Germany, or skirted the shores of +Scandinavia. They had grand natural traits of character. They were +poetic, brave, and adventurous. They were superior to the Saxons and the +Franks. When converted, they were the great allies of the Pope, and +early became civilized. To them we trace the noblest development of +Gothic architecture. They became great scholars and statesmen. They were +more refined by nature than the Saxons, and avoided their gluttonous +habits. In after times they composed the flower of European chivalry. It +was providential that they were not subdued,--that they became the +leading race in Northern Europe. To them we trace the mercantile +greatness of England, for they were born sailors. They never lost their +natural heroism, or love of power.</p> + +<p>The next important conquest of Charlemagne was that of the Avares,--a +tribe of the Huns, of Slavonic origin. They are represented as very +hideous barbarians, and only thought of plunder. They never sought to +reconstruct. There seemed to be no end of their invasions from the time +of Attila. They were more formidable for their numbers and destructive +ravages than for their military skill. There was a time, however, when +they threatened the combined forces of Germany and Rome; but Europe was +delivered by the battle of Poictiers,--the bloodiest battle on +record,--when they seemed to be annihilated. But they sprang up again, +in new invasions, in the ninth century. Had they conquered, civilization +would have been crushed out. But Charlemagne was successful against +them, and from that time to this they were shut out from western Europe. +They would be formidable now, for the Russians are the descendants of +these people, were it not for the barrier raised against them by the +Germans. The necessities of Europe still require the vast military +strength and organization of Germany, not to fight France, but to awe +Russia. Napoleon predicted that Europe would become either French or +Cossack; but there is little probability of Russian aggressions in +Europe, so long as Russia is held in check by Germany.</p> + +<p>Charlemagne had now delivered France and Germany from external enemies. +He then turned his arms against the Saracens of Spain. This was the +great mistake of his life. Yet every one makes mistakes, however great +his genius. Alexander made the mistake of pushing his arms into India; +and Napoleon made a great blunder in invading Russia. Even Caesar died +at the right time for his military fame, for he was on the point of +attempting the conquest of Parthia, where, like Crassus, he would +probably have perished, or have lost his army. Needless conquests seem +to be impossible in the moral government of God, who rules the fate of +war. Conquests are only possible when civilization seems to require +them. In seeking to invade Spain, Charlemagne warred against a race from +whom Europe had nothing more to fear. His grandfather, Charles Martel, +had arrested the conquests of the Saracens; and they were quiet in their +settlements in Spain, and had made considerable attainments in science +and literature. Their schools of medicine and their arts were in advance +of the rest of Europe. They were the translators of Aristotle, who +reigned in the rising universities during the Middle Ages. As this war +was unnecessary, Providence seemed to rebuke Charlemagne. His defeat at +Roncesvalles was one of the most memorable events in his military +history. Prodigies of valor were wrought by him and his gallant +Paladins. The early heroic poetry of the Middle Ages has commemorated +his exploits, as well as those of his nephew Roland, to whom some +writers have ascribed the origin of Chivalry. But the Frankish forces +were signally defeated amid the passes of the Pyrenees; and it was not +until after several centuries that the Gothic princes of Spain shook off +the yoke of their Saracenic conquerors, and drove them from Europe.</p> + +<p>The Lombard wars of Charlemagne are the last to which I allude. These +were undertaken in defence of the Church, to rescue his ally the Pope. +The Lombards belonged to the great Germanic family, but they were +unfriendly to the Pope and to the Church. They stood out against the +Empire, which was then the chief hope of Europe and of civilization. +They would have reduced the Pope to insignificance and seized his +territories, without uniting Italy. So Charlemagne, like his father +Pepin, lent his powerful aid to the Roman bishop, and the Lombards were +easily subdued. This conquest, although the easiest which he ever made, +most flattered his pride. Lombardy was not only joined to his Empire, +but he received unparalleled honors from the Pope, being crowned by him +Emperor of the West.</p> + +<p>It was a proud day when, in the ancient metropolis of the world, and in +the fulness of his fame, Pope Leo III. placed the crown of Augustus upon +Charlemagne's brow, and gave to him, amid the festivities of Christmas, +his apostolic benediction. His dominions now extended from Catalonia to +the Bohemian forests, embracing Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, +and the Spanish main,--the largest empire which any one man has +possessed since the fall of the Roman Empire. What more natural than for +Charlemagne to feel that he had restored the Western Empire? What more +natural than that he should have taken the title, still claimed by the +Austrian emperor, in one sense his legitimate successor,--Kaiser, or +Caesar? In the possession of such enormous power, he naturally dreamed +of establishing a new universal military monarchy like that of the +Romans,--as Charles V. dreamed, and Napoleon after him. But this is a +dream that Providence has rebuked among all successive conquerors. There +may have been need of the universal monarchy of the Caesars, that +Christianity might spread in peace, and be protected by a reign of law +and order. This at least is one of the platitudes of historians. Froude +himself harps on it in his life of Caesar. Historians are fond of +exalting the glories of imperialism, and everybody is dazzled by the +splendor and power of ancient Roman emperors. They do not, I think, +sufficiently consider the blasting influence of imperialism on the life +of nations,--how it dries up the sources of renovation, how it +necessarily withers literature and philosophy, how nothing can thrive +under it but pomp and material glories, how it paralyzes all virtuous +impulses, how it kills all enthusiasm, how it crushes out all hope and +lofty aspirations, how it makes slaves of its best subjects, how it +fills the earth with fear, how it drains national resources to support +standing armies, how it mocks all enterprises which do not receive +imperial approbation, how everything is concentrated to reflect the +glory of one man or family; how impossible, under its withering shade, +is manly independence, or the free expression of opinions or healthy +growth; how it buries up, under its armies, discontents and aspirations +alike, and creates nothing but machinery which must ultimately wear out +and leave a world in ruins, with nothing stable to take its place. Law +and order are good things, the preservation of property is desirable, +the punishment of crime is necessary; but there are other things which +are valuable also. Nothing is so valuable as the preservation of +national life; nothing is so healthy as scope for energies; nothing is +so contemptible and degrading as universal sycophancy to official rule. +There are no tyrants more oppressive than the tools of absolute power. +See in what a state imperialism left the Roman Empire when it fell. +There were no rallying forces; there was no resurrection of heroes. +Vitality had fled. Where would Turkey be to-day without the European +powers, if the Sultan's authority were to fall? It would be in the state +of ancient Babylon or Persia when those empires fell.</p> + +<p>There is another side to imperialism besides dreaded anarchies. +Moreover, the whole progress of civilization has been counter to it. The +fiats of eternal justice have pronounced against it, because it is +antagonistic to the dignity of man and the triumphs of reason. I would +not fall in with the cant of the dignity of man, because there is no +dignity to man without aid from God Almighty through His spirit and the +message he has sent in Christianity. But there is dignity in man with +the aid of a regenerating gospel. Some people talk of the triumphs of +Christianity under the Roman emperors; but see how rapidly it was +corrupted by them when they sought the aid of its institutions to +bolster up their power. The power of Christianity is in its truths; in +its religion, and not in its forms and institutions, in its inventions +to uphold the arms of despotism and the tools of despotism. It is, and +it was, and it will be through all the ages the great power of the +world, against which it is vain to rebel. And that government is really +the best which unfetters its spiritual influence, and encourages it; and +not that government which seeks to perpetuate its corrupt and worldly +institutions. The Roman emperors made Christianity an institution, and +obscured its truths. And perhaps that is one reason why Providence +permitted their despotism to pass away,--preferring the rude anarchy of +the Germanic nations to the dead mechanism of a lifeless Church and +imperial rottenness. Imperialism must ever end in rottenness. And that +is one reason why the heart of Christendom--I mean the people of Europe, +in its enlightened and virtuous sections--has ever opposed imperialism. +The progress has been slow, but marked, towards representative +governments,--not the reign of the people directly, but of those whom +they select to represent them. The victory has been nearly gained in +England. In France the progress has been uniform since the Revolution. +Napoleon revived, or sought to revive, the imperialism of Rome. He +failed. There is nothing which the French now so cordially detest, since +their eyes have been opened to the character and ends of that usurper, +as his imperialism. It cannot be revived any more easily than the +oracles of Dodona. Even in Germany there are dreadful discontents in +view of the imperialism which Bismarck, by the force of successful wars, +has seemingly revived. The awful standing armies are a menace to all +liberty and progress and national development. In Italy itself there is +the commencement of constitutional authority, although it is united +under a king. The great standing warfare of modern times is +constitutional authority against the absolute power of kings and +emperors. And the progress has been on the side of liberty everywhere, +with occasional drawbacks, such as when Louis Napoleon revived the +accursed despotism of his uncle, and by the same means,--a standing army +and promises of military glory.</p> + +<p>Hence, in the order of Providence, the dream of Charlemagne as to +unbounded military aggrandizement could not be realized. He could not +revive the imperialism of Rome or Persia. No man will ever arise in +Europe who can re-establish it, except for a brief period. It will be +rebuked by the superintending Power, because it is fatal to the highest +development of nations, because all its glories are delusory, because it +sows the seeds of ruin. It produces that very egotism, materialism, and +sensuality, that inglorious rest and pleasure, which, as everybody +concedes, prepared the way for violence.</p> + +<p>And hence Charlemagne's empire went to pieces as soon as he was dead. +There was nothing permanent in his conquests, except those made against +barbarism. He was raised up to erect barriers against fresh inroads of +barbarians. His whole empire was finally split up into petty +sovereignties. In one sense he founded States, "since he founded the +States which sprang up from the dismemberment of his empire. The +kingdoms of Germany, Italy, France, Burgundy, Lorraine, Navarre, all +date to his memorable reign." But these mediaeval kingdoms were feudal; +the power of the kings was nominal. Government passed from imperialism +into the hands of nobles. The government of Europe in the Middle Ages +was a military aristocracy, only powerful as the interests of the people +were considered. Kings and princes did not make much show, except in the +trappings of royalty,--in gorgeous dresses of purple and gold, to suit a +barbaric taste,--in the insignia of power without its reality. The power +was among the aristocracy, who, it must be confessed, ground down the +people by a hard feudal rule, but who did not grind the souls out of +them, like the imperialism of absolute monarchies, with their standing +armies. Under them the feudal nobles of Europe at length recuperated. +Virtues were born everywhere,--in England, in France, in Germany, in +Holland,--which were a savor of life unto life: loyalty, self-respect, +fidelity to covenants, chivalry, sympathy with human misery, love of +home, rural sports, a glorious rural life, which gave stamina to +character,--a material which Christianity could work upon, and kindle +the latent fires of freedom, and the impulses of a generous enthusiasm. +It was under the fostering influences of small, independent chieftains +that manly strength and organized social institutions arose once +more,--the reserved power of unconquerable nations. Nobody hates +feudalism--in its corruptions, in its oppressions--more than I do. But +it was the transition stage from the anarchy which the collapse of +imperialism produced to the constitutional governments of our times, if +we could forget the absolute monarchies which flourished on the breaking +up of feudalism, when it became a tyranny and a mockery, but which +absolute monarchies flourished only one or two hundred years,--a sort of +necessity in the development of nations to check the insolence and +overgrown power of nobles, but after all essentially different from the +imperialism of Caesar or Napoleon, since they relied on the support of +nobles and municipalities more than on a standing army; yea, on votes +and grants from parliaments to raise money to support the +army,--certainly in England, as in the time of Elizabeth. The Bourbons, +indeed, reigned without grants from the people or the nobility, and what +was the logical result?--a French Revolution! Would a French Revolution +have been possible under the Roman Caesars?</p> + +<p>But I will not pursue this gradual development of constitutional +government from the anarchies which arose out of the fall of the Roman +Empire,--just the reverse of what happened in the history of Rome; I say +no more of the imperialism which Charlemagne sought to restore, but was +not permitted by Providence, and which, after all, was the dream of his +latter days, when, like Napoleon, he was intoxicated by power and +brilliant conquests; and I turn to consider briefly his direct effects +in civilization, which showed his great and enlightened mind, and on +which his fame in no small degree rests.</p> + +<p>Charlemagne was no insignificant legislator. His Capitularies may not be +equal to the laws of Justinian in natural justice, but were adapted to +his times and circumstances. He collected the scattered codes, so far as +laws were codified, of the various Germanic nations, and modified them. +He introduced a great Christian element into his jurisprudence. He made +use of the canons of the Church. His code is more ecclesiastical than +that of Theodosius even, the last great Christian emperor. But in his +day the clergy wielded great power, and their ordinances and decisions +were directed to society as it was. The clergy were the great jurists of +their day. The spiritual courts decided matters of great importance, and +took cognizance of cases which were out of the jurisdiction of temporal +courts. Charlemagne recognized the value of these spiritual courts, and +aided them. He had no quarrels with ecclesiastics, nor was he jealous of +their power. He allied himself with it. He was a friend of the clergy. +One of the peculiarities of all the Germanic laws, seen especially in +those of Ina and Alfred, was pecuniary compensation for crime: fifty +shillings, in England, would pay for the loss of a foot, and twenty for +a nose and four for a tooth; thus recognizing a principle seen in our +times in railroad accidents, though not recognized in our civil laws in +reference to crimes. This system of compensation Charlemagne retained, +which perhaps answered for his day.</p> + +<p>He was also a great administrator. Nothing escaped his vigilance. I do +not read that he made many roads, or effected important internal +improvements. The age was too barbarous for the development of national +industries,--one of the main things which occupy modern statesmen and +governments. But whatever he did was wise and enlightened. He rewarded +merit; he made an alliance with learned men; he sought out the right men +for important posts; he made the learned Alcuin his teacher and +counsellor; he established libraries and schools; he built convents and +monasteries; he gave encouragement to men of great attainments; he loved +to surround himself with learned men; the scholars of all countries +sought his protection and patronage, and found him a friend. Alcuin +became one of the richest men in his dominions, and Englebert received +one of his daughters in marriage. Napoleon professed a great admiration +for Charlemagne, although Frederic II. was his model sovereign. But how +differently Napoleon acted in this respect! Napoleon was jealous of +literary genius. He hated literary men. He rarely invited them to his +table, and was constrained in their presence. He drove them out of the +kingdom even. He wanted nothing but homage,--and literary genius has no +sympathy with brute force, or machinery, or military exploits. But +Charlemagne, like Peter the Great, delighted in the society of all who +could teach him anything. He was a tolerably learned man himself, +considering his life of activity. He spoke Latin as fluently as his +native German, and it is said that he understood Greek. He liked to +visit schools, and witness the performances of the boys; and, provided +they made proficiency in their studies, he cared little for their noble +birth. He was no respecter of persons. With wrath he reproved the idle. +He promised rewards to merit and industry.</p> + +<p>The most marked feature of his reign, outside his wars, was his sympathy +with the clergy. Here, too, he differed from Napoleon and Frederic II. +Mr. Hallam considers his alliance with the Church the great error of his +reign; but I believe it built up his throne. In his time the clergy were +the most influential people of the Empire and the most enlightened; but +at that time the great contest of the Middle Ages between spiritual and +temporal authority had not begun. Ambrose, indeed, had rebuked +Theodosius, and set in defiance the empress when she interfered with his +spiritual functions; and Leo had laid the corner-stone of the Papacy by +instituting a divine right to his decrees. But a Hildebrand and a Becket +had not arisen to usurp the prerogatives of their monarchs. Least of all +did popes then dream of subjecting the temporal powers and raising the +spiritual over them, so as to lead to issues with kings. That was a +later development in the history of the papacy. The popes of the eighth +and ninth centuries sought to heal disorder, to punish turbulent +chieftains, to sustain law and order, to establish a tribunal of justice +to which the discontented might appeal. They sought to conserve the +peace of the world. They sought to rule the Church, rather than the +world. They aimed at a theocratic ministry,--to be the ambassadors of +God Almighty,--to allay strife and division.</p> + +<p>The clergy were the friends of order and law, and they were the natural +guardians of learning. They were kind masters to the slaves,--for +slavery still prevailed. That was an evil with which the clergy did not +grapple; they would ameliorate it, but did not seek to remove it. Yet +they shielded the unfortunate and the persecuted and the poor; they gave +the only consolation which an iron age afforded. The Church was gloomy, +ascetic, austere, like the cathedrals of that time. Monks buried +themselves in crypts; they sang mournful songs; they saw nothing but +poverty and misery, and they came to the relief in a funereal way. But +they were not cold and hard and cruel, like baronial lords. Secular +lords were rapacious, and ground down the people, and mocked and +trampled upon them; but the clergy were hospitable, gentle, and +affectionate. They sympathized with the people, from whom they chiefly +sprang. They had their vices, but those vices were not half so revolting +as those of barons and knights. Intellectually, the clergy were at all +times the superiors of these secular lords. They loved the peaceful +virtues which were generated in the consecrated convent. The passions of +nobles urged them on to perpetual pillage, injustice, and cruelty. The +clergy only quarrelled among themselves. Their vices were those of envy, +and perhaps of gluttony; but they were not public robbers. They were +the best farmers of their times; they cultivated lands, and made them +attractive by fruits and flowers. They were generally industrious; every +convent was a beehive, in which various kinds of manufactures were +produced. The monks aspired even to be artists. They illuminated +manuscripts, as well as copied them; they made tapestries and beautiful +vestments. They were a peaceful and useful set of men, at this period +outside their spiritual functions; they built grand churches; they had +fruitful gardens; they were exceedingly hospitable. Every monastery was +an inn, as well as a beehive, to which all travellers resorted, and +where no pay was exacted. It was a retreat for the unfortunate, which no +one dared assail. And it was vocal with songs and anthems.</p> + +<p>The clergy were not only thus general benefactors in an age of +turbulence and crime, in spite of all their narrowness and spiritual +pride and ghostly arts and ambition for power, but they lent a helping +hand to the peasantry. The Church was democratic, and enabled the poor +to rise according to their merits, while nobles combined to crush them +or keep them in an ignoble sphere. In the Church, the son of a murdered +peasant could rise according to his deserts; but if he followed a +warrior to the battle-field, no virtues, no talents, no bravery could +elevate him,--he was still a peasant, a low-born menial. If he entered +a monastery, he might pass from office to office until as a mitred abbot +he would become the master of ten thousand acres, the counsellor of +kings, the equal of that proud baron in whose service his father spent +his abject life. The great Hildebrand was the son of a carpenter. The +Church ever recognized, what feudality did not,--the claims of man as +man; and enabled peasants' sons, if they had abilities and virtues, to +rise to proud positions,--to be the patrons of the learned, the +companions of princes, the ministers of kings.</p> + +<p>And that is the reason why Charlemagne befriended the Church and +elevated it, because its influence was civilizing. He sought to +establish among the clergy a counterbalancing power to that of nobles. +Who can doubt that the influence of the Church was better than that of +nobles in the Middle Ages? If it ground down society by a spiritual +yoke, that yoke was necessary, for the rude Middle Ages could be ruled +only by fear. What fear more potent than the destruction of the soul in +a future life! It was by this weapon--excommunication--that Europe was +governed. We may abhor it, but it was the great idea of Mediaeval +Europe, which no one could resist, and which kept society from +dissolution. Charlemagne may have erred in thus giving power and +consideration to the clergy, in view of the subsequent encroachments of +the popes. But he never anticipated the future quarrels between his +successors and the popes, for the popes were not then formidable as the +antagonists of kings. I believe his policy was the best for Europe, on +the whole. The infancy of the Gothic races was long, dark, dreary, and +unfortunate, but it prepared them for the civilization which +they scorned.</p> + +<p>Such were the services which this great sovereign rendered to his times +and to Europe. He probably saved it from renewed barbarism. He was the +great legislator of the Middle Ages, and the greatest friend--after +Constantine and Theodosius--of which the Church can boast. With him +dawned the new civilization. He brought back souvenirs of Rome and the +Empire. Not for himself did he live, but for the welfare of the nations +he governed. It was his example which Alfred sought to imitate. Though a +warrior, he saw something greater than the warrior's excellence. It is +said he was eloquent, like Julius Caesar. He loved music and all the +arts. In his palace at Aix-la-Chapelle were sung the songs of the +earliest poets of Germany. He took great pains to introduce the +Gregorian chant. He was simple in dress, and only on rare occasions did +he indulge in parade. He was temperate in eating and drinking, as all +the famous warriors have been. He absolutely abhorred drunkenness, the +great vice of the Northern nations. During meals he listened to the +lays of minstrels or the readings of his secretaries. He took unwearied +pains with the education of his daughters, and he was so fond of them +that they even accompanied him in his military expeditions. He was not +one of those men that Gibbon appreciated; but his fame is steadily +growing, after a lapse of a thousand years. His whole appearance was +manly, cheerful, and dignified. His countenance reflected a child-like +serenity. He was one of the few men, like David, who was not spoiled by +war and flatteries. Though gentle, he was subject to fits of anger, like +Theodosius; but he did not affect anger, like Napoleon, for theatrical +effect. His greatness and his simplicity, his humanity and his religious +faith, are typical of the Germanic race. He died A.D. 814, after a reign +of half a century, lamented by his own subjects and to be admired by +succeeding generations. Hallam, though not eloquent generally, has +pronounced his most beautiful eulogy, "written in the disgraces and +miseries of succeeding times. He stands alone like a rock in the ocean, +like a beacon on a waste. His sceptre was the bow of Ulysses, not to be +bent by a weaker hand. In the dark ages of European history, his reign +affords a solitary resting-place between two dark periods of turbulence +and ignominy, deriving the advantage of contrast both from that of the +preceding dynasty and of a posterity for whom he had founded an empire +which they were unworthy and unequal to maintain."</p> + +<p>To such a tribute I can add nothing. His greatness consists in this, +that, born amidst barbarism, he was yet the friend of civilization, and +understood its elemental principles, and struggled forty-seven years to +establish them,--failing only because his successors and subjects were +not prepared for them, and could not learn them until the severe +experience of ten centuries, amidst disasters and storms, should prove +the value of the "old basal walls and pillars" which remained unburied +amid the despised ruins of antiquity, and show that no structure could +adequately shelter the European nations which was not established by the +beautiful union of German vigor with Christian art,--by the combined +richness of native genius with those immortal treasures which had +escaped the wreck of the classic world.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Eginhard's Vita Caroli Magni; Le Clerc's De la Bruyère, Histoire du +Règne de Charlemagne; Haureau's Charlemagne et son Cour; Gaillard's +Histoire de Charlemagne; Lorenz's Karls des Grossen. There is a +tolerably popular history of Charlemagne by James Bulfinch, entitled +"Legends of Charlemagne;" also a Life by James the novelist. Henri +Martin, Sismondi, and Michelet may be consulted; also Hallam's Middle +Ages, Milman's Latin Christianity, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the +Roman Empire, Biographic Universelle, and the Encyclopaedias.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="HILDEBRAND."></a>HILDEBRAND.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1020-1085.</p> + +<p>THE PAPAL EMPIRE.</p> + +<p>We associate with Hildebrand the great contest of the Middle Ages +between spiritual and temporal authority, the triumph of the former, and +its supremacy in Europe until the Reformation. What great ideas and +events are interwoven with that majestic domination,--not in one age, +but for fifteen centuries; not religious merely, but political, +embracing as it were the whole progress of European society, from the +fall of the Roman Empire to the Protestant Reformation; yea, intimately +connected with the condition of Europe to the present day, and not of +Europe only, but America itself! What an august power is this Catholic +empire, equally great as an institution and as a religion! What lessons +of human experience, what great truths of government, what subtile +influences, reaching alike the palaces of kings and the hovels of +peasants, are indissolubly linked with its marvellous domination, so +that whether in its growth or decay it is more suggestive than the rise +and fall of any temporal empire. It has produced, probably, more +illustrious men than any political State in Europe. It has aimed to +accomplish far grander ends. It is invested with more poetic interest. +Its policy, its heroes, its saints, its doctors, its dignitaries, its +missions, its persecutions, all rise up before us with varied but +never-ending interest, when seriously contemplated. It has proved to be +the most wonderful fabric of what we call worldly wisdom that our world +has seen,--controlling kings, dictating laws to ancient monarchies, and +binding the souls of millions with a more perfect despotism than +Oriental emperors ever sought or dreamed. And what a marvellous vitality +it seems to have! It has survived the attacks of its countless enemies; +it has recovered from the shock of the Reformation; it still remains +majestic and powerful, extending its arms of paternal love or Briarean +terror over half of Christendom. As a temporal government, rivalling +kings in the pomps of war and the pride of armies, it may be passing +away; but as an organization to diffuse and conserve religious +truths,--yea, even to bring a moral pressure on the minds of princes and +governors, and reinforce its ranks with the mighty and the noble,--it +seems to be as potent as ever. It is still sending its missionaries, its +prelates, and its cardinals into the heart of Protestant countries, who +anticipate and boast of new victories. It derides the dissensions and +the rationalistic speculations of the Protestants, and predicts that +they will either become open Pagans or re-enter the fold of Saint Peter. +No longer do angry partisans call it the "Beast" or the "Scarlet Mother" +or the "predicted Antichrist," since its religious creeds in their vital +points are more in harmony with the theology of venerated Fathers than +those of some of the progressive and proudest parties which call +themselves Protestant. In Germany, in France,--shall I add, in England +and America?--it is more in earnest, and more laborious and self-denying +than many sects among the Protestants. In Germany--in those very seats +of learning and power and fashion which once were kindled into lofty +enthusiasm by the voice of Luther--who is it that desert the churches +and disregard the sacraments, the Catholics or the Protestants?</p> + +<p>Surely such a power, whether we view it as an institution or as a +religion, cannot be despised, even by the narrowest and most fanatical +Protestant. It is too grand and venerable for sarcasm, ridicule, or +mockery. It is too potent and respectable to be sneered at or lied +about. No cause can be advanced permanently except by adherence to the +truth, whether it be agreeable or not. If the Papacy were a mere +despotism, having nothing else in view than the inthralment of +mankind,--of which it has been accused,--then mankind long ago, in lofty +indignation, would have hurled it from its venerable throne. But +despotic as its yoke is in the eyes of Protestants, and always has been +and always may be, it is something more than that, having at heart the +welfare of the very millions whom it rules by working on their fears. In +spite of dogmas which are deductions from questionable premises, or +which are at war with reason, and ritualism borrowed from other +religions, and "pious frauds," and Jesuitical means to compass desirable +ends,--which Protestants indignantly discard, and which they maintain +are antagonistic to the spirit of primitive Christianity,--still it is +also the defender and advocate of vital Christian truths, to which we +trace the hopes and consolations of mankind. As the conservator of +doctrines common to all Christian sects it cannot be swept away by the +hand of man; nor as a government, confining its officers and rules to +the spiritual necessities of its members. Its empire is spiritual rather +than temporal. Temporal monarchs are hurled from their thrones. The long +line of the Bourbons vanishes before the tempests of revolution, and +they who were borne into power by these tempests are in turn hurled into +ignominious banishment; but the Pope--he still sits secure on the throne +of the Gregories and the Clements, ready to pronounce benedictions or +hurl anathemas, to which half of Europe bows in fear or love.</p> + +<p>Whence this strange vitality? What are the elements of a power so +enduring and so irresistible? What has given to it its greatness and its +dignity? I confess I gaze upon it as a peasant surveys a king, as a boy +contemplates a queen of beauty,--as something which may be talked about, +yet removed beyond our influence, and no more affected by our praise or +censure than is a procession of cardinals by the gaze of admiring +spectators in Saint Peter's Church. Who can measure it, or analyze it, +or comprehend it? The weapons of reason appear to fall impotent before +its haughty dogmatism. Genius cannot reconcile its inconsistencies. +Serenely it sits, unmoved amid all the aggressions of human thought and +all the triumphs of modern science. It is both lofty and degraded; +simple, yet worldly wise; humble, yet scornful and proud; washing +beggars' feet, yet imposing commands on the potentates of earth; +benignant, yet severe on all who rebel; here clothed in rags, and there +revelling in palaces; supported by charities, yet feasting the princes +of the earth; assuming the title of "servant of the servants of God," +yet arrogating the highest seat among worldly dignitaries. Was there +ever such a contradiction?--"glory in debasement, and debasement in +glory,"--type of the misery and greatness of man? Was there ever such a +mystery, so occult are its arts, so subtile its policy, so plausible its +pretensions, so certain its shafts? How imposing the words of paternal +benediction! How grand the liturgy brought down from ages of faith! How +absorbed with beatific devotion appears to be the worshipper at its +consecrated altars! How ravishing the music and the chants of grand +ceremonials! How typical the churches and consecrated monuments of the +passion of Christ! Everywhere you see the great emblem of our +redemption,--on the loftiest pinnacle of the Mediaeval cathedral, on the +dresses of the priests, over the gorgeous altars, in the ceremony of the +Mass, in the baptismal rite, in the paintings of the side chapels; +everywhere are rites and emblems betokening maceration, grief, +sacrifice, penitence, the humiliation of humanity before the awful power +of divine Omnipotence, whose personality and moral government no +Catholic dares openly to deny.</p> + +<p>And yet, of what crimes and abominations has not this government been, +accused? If we go back to darker ages, and accept what history records, +what wars has not this Church encouraged, what discords has she not +incited, what superstitions has she not indorsed, what pride has she not +arrogated, what cruelties has she not inflicted, what countries has she +not robbed, what hardships has she not imposed, what deceptions has she +not used, what avenues of thought has she not guarded with a flaming +sword, what truth has she not perverted, what goodness has she not +mocked and persecuted? Ah, interrogate the Albigenses, the Waldenses, +the shades of Jerome of Prague, of Huss, of Savonarola, of Cranmer, of +Coligny, of Galileo; interrogate the martyrs of the Thirty Years' War, +and those who were slain by the dragonnades of Louis XIV., those who +fell by the hand of Alva and Charles IX.; go to Smithfield, and Paris on +Saint Bartholomew; think of gunpowder plots and inquisitions, and Jesuit +intrigues and Dominican tortures, of which history accuses the Papal +Church,--barbarities worse than those of savages, inflicted at the +command of the ministers of a gospel of love!</p> + +<p>I am compelled to allude to these things; I do not dwell on them, since +they were the result of the intolerance of human nature as much as the +bigotry of the Church,--faults of an age, more than of a religion; +although, whether exaggerated or not, more disgraceful than the +persecutions of Christians by Roman emperors.</p> + +<p>As for the supreme rulers of this contradictory Church, so benevolent +and yet so cruel, so enlightened and yet so fanatical, so humble and yet +so proud,--this institution of blended piety and fraud, equally renowned +for saints, theologians, statesmen, drivellers, and fanatics; the joy +and the reproach, the glory and the shame of earth,--there never were +greater geniuses or greater fools: saints of almost preternatural +sanctity, like the first Leo and Gregory, or hounds like Boniface VIII. +or Alexander VI.; an array of scholars and dunces, ascetics and +gluttons, men who adorned and men who scandalized their lofty position; +and yet, on the whole, we are forced to admit, the most remarkable body +of rulers any empire has known, since they were elevated by their peers, +and generally for talents or services, at a period of life when +character is formed and experience is matured. They were not greater +than their Church or their age, like the Charlemagnes and Peters of +secular history, but they were the picked men, the best representatives +of their Church; ambitious, doubtless, and worldly, as great potentates +generally are, but made so by the circumstances which controlled them. +Who can wield irresponsible power and not become arrogant, and perhaps +self-indulgent? It requires the almost superhuman virtue of a Marcus +Aurelius or a Saint Louis to crucify the pride of rank and power. If the +president of a college or of a railroad or of a bank becomes a different +man to the eye of an early friend, what can be expected of those who are +raised above public opinion, and have no fetters on their wills,--men +who are regarded as infallible and feel themselves supreme!</p> + +<p>But of all these three hundred or four hundred men who have swayed the +destinies of Europe,--an uninterrupted line of pontiffs for fifteen +hundred years or more,--no one is so famous as Gregory VII. for the +grandeur of his character, the heroism of his struggles, and the +posthumous influence of his deeds. He was too great a man to be called +by his papal title. He is best known by his baptismal name, Hildebrand, +the greatest hero of the Roman Church. There are some men whose titles +add nothing to their august names,--David, Julius, Constantine, +Augustine. When a man has become very eminent we drop titles altogether, +except in military life. We say Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Jonathan +Edwards, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, William Pitt. Hildebrand +is a greater name than Gregory VII., and with him is identified the +greatest struggle of the Papacy against the temporal powers. I do not +aim to dissect his character so much as to present his services to the +Church. I wish to show why and how he is identified with movements of +supreme historical importance. It would be easy to make him out a saint +and martyr, and equally so to paint him as a tyrant and usurper. It is +of little consequence to us whether he was ascetic or ambitious or +unscrupulous; but it <i>is</i> of consequence to show the majestic power of +those ideas by which he ruled the Middle Ages, and which will never pass +away as sublime agencies so long as men are ignorant and superstitious. +As a man he no longer lives, but his thunderbolts are perpetual powers, +since they still alarm the fears of men.</p> + +<p>Still, his personal history is not uninteresting. Born of humble +parents in Italy in the year 1020, the son of a carpenter, he rose by +genius and virtue to the highest offices and dignities. But his +greatness was in force of character rather than original ideas,--like +that of Washington, or William III., or the Duke of Wellington. He had +not the comprehensive intellect of Charlemagne, nor the creative genius +of Peter of Russia, but he had the sagacity of Richelieu and the iron +will of Napoleon. He was statesman as well as priest,--marvellous for +his activity, insight into human nature, vast executive abilities, and +dauntless heroism. He comprehended the only way whereby Christendom +could be governed, and unscrupulously used the means of success. He was +not a great scholar, or theologian, or philosopher, but a man of action, +embracing opportunities and striking decisive blows. From first to last +he was devoted to his cause, which was greater than himself,--even the +spiritual supremacy of the Papacy. I do not read of great intellectual +precocity, like that of Cicero and William Pitt, nor of great +attainments, like those of Abélard and Thomas Aquinas, nor even an +insight, like that of Bacon, into what constitutes the dignity of man +and the true glory of civilization; but, like Ambrose and the first Leo, +he was early selected for important missions and responsible trusts, all +of which he discharged with great fidelity and ability. His education +was directed by the monks of Cluny,--that princely abbey in Burgundy +where "monks were sovereigns and sovereigns were monks." Like all +earnest monks, he was ascetic, devotional, and self-sacrificing. Like +all men ambitious to rule, "he learned how to obey." He pondered on the +Holy Scriptures as well as on the canons of the Church. So marked a man +was he that he was early chosen as prior of his convent; and so great +were his personal magnetism, eloquence, and influence that "he induced +Bruno, the Bishop of Toul, when elected pope by the Emperor of Germany, +to lay aside the badges and vestments of the pontifical office, and +refuse his title, until he should be elected by the clergy and people of +Rome,"--thus showing that at the age of twenty-nine he comprehended the +issues of the day, and meditated on the gigantic changes it was +necessary to make before the pope could be the supreme ruler of +Christendom.</p> + +<p>The autocratic idea of Leo I., and the great Gregory who sent his +missionaries to England, was that to which Hildebrand's ardent soul +clung with preternatural earnestness, as the only government fit for +turbulent and superstitious ages. He did not originate this idea, but he +defended and enforced it as had never been done before, so that to many +minds he was the great architect of the papal structure. It was a rare +spectacle to see a sovereign pontiff lay aside the insignia of his +grandeur at the bidding of this monk of Cluny; it was grander to see +this monk laying the foundation of an irresistible despotism, which was +to last beyond the time of Luther. Not merely was Leo IX. his tool, but +three successive popes were chosen at his dictation. And when he became +cardinal and archdeacon he seems to have been the inspiring genius of +the papal government, undertaking the most important missions, curbing +the turbulent spirit of the Roman princes, and assisting in all +ecclesiastical councils. It was by his suggestion that abbots were +deposed, and bishops punished, and monarchs reprimanded. He was the +prime minister of four popes before he accepted that high office to +which he doubtless had aspired while meditating as a monk amid the sunny +slopes of Cluny, since he knew that the exigences of the Church required +a bold and able ruler,--and who in Christendom was bolder and more +far-reaching than he? He might have been elevated to the chair of Saint +Peter at an earlier period, but he was contented with power rather than +glory, knowing that his day would come, and at a time when his +extraordinary abilities would be most needed. He could afford to wait; +and no man is truly great who cannot bide his time.</p> + +<p>At last Hildebrand received the reward of his great services,--"a +reward," says Stephen, "which he had long contemplated, but which, with +self-controlling policy, he had so long declined." In the year 1073 +Hildebrand became Gregory VII., and his memorable pontificate began as a +reformer of the abuses of his age, and the intrepid defender of that +unlimited and absolute despotism which inthralled not merely the princes +of Europe, but the mind of Christendom itself. It was he who not only +proclaimed the liberties of the people against nobles, and made the +Church an asylum for misery and oppression, but who realized the idea +that the Church was the mother of spiritual principles, and that the +spiritual authority should be raised over all temporal power.</p> + +<p>In the great crises of States and Empires deliverers seem to be raised +up by Divine Providence to restore peace and order, and maintain the +first condition of society, or extricate nations from overwhelming +calamities. Thus Charlemagne appeared at the right time to prevent the +overthrow of Europe by new waves of barbaric invasion. Thus William the +Silent preserved the nationality of Holland, and Gustavus Adolphus gave +religious liberty to Germany when persecution was apparently successful. +Thus Richelieu undermined feudalism in France, and established +absolutism as one of the needed forces of his turbulent age, even as +Napoleon gave law and order to France when distracted by the anarchism +of a revolution which did not comprehend the liberty which was invoked. +So Hildebrand was raised up to establish the only government which could +rescue Europe from the rapacities of feudal nobles, and establish law +and order in the hands of the most enlightened class; so that, like +Peter the Great, he looms up as a reformer as well as a despot. He +appears in a double light.</p> + +<p>Now you ask: "What were his reforms, and what were his schemes of +aggrandizement, for which we honor him while we denounce him?" We cannot +see the reforms he attempted without glancing at the enormous evils +which stared him in the face.</p> + +<p>Society in Europe, in the eleventh century, was nearly as dark and +degraded as it was on the fall of the Merovingian dynasty. In some +respects it had reached the lowest depth of wretchedness which the +Middle Ages ever saw. Never had the clergy been more ignorant, more +sensual, and more worldly. They had not the piety of the fourth century, +nor the intelligence of the sixteenth century; they were powerful and +wealthy, but exceedingly corrupt. Monastic institutions covered the face +of Europe, but the monks had sadly departed from the virtues which +partially redeemed the miseries that succeeded the fall of the Roman +Empire. The lives of the clergy, regular and secular, still compared +favorably with the lives of the feudal nobility, who had, in addition to +priestly vices, the vices of robbers and bandits. But still the clergy +were notoriously ignorant, superstitious, and sensual. Monasteries +sought to be independent of all foreign control and of episcopal +jurisdiction. They had been enormously enriched by princes and barons, +and they owned, with the other clergy, half the lands of Europe, and +more than half its silver and gold. The monks fattened on all the +luxuries which then were known; they neglected the rules of their order +and lived in idleness,--spending their time in the chase, or in taverns +and brothels. Hardly a great scholar or theologian had arisen among them +since the Patristic age, with the exception of a few schoolmen like +Anselm and Peter Lombard. Saint Bernard had not yet appeared to reform +the Benedictines, nor Dominic and Saint Francis to found new orders. +Gluttony and idleness were perhaps the characteristic vices of the great +body of the monks, who numbered over one hundred thousand. Hunting and +hawking were the most innocent of their amusements. They have been +accused of drinking toasts in honor of the Devil, and celebrating Mass +in a state of intoxication. "Not one in a thousand," says Hallam, "could +address to one another a common letter of salutation." They were a +walking libel on everything sacred. Read the account of their banquets +in the annals which have come down to us of the tenth and eleventh +centuries, when convents were so numerous and rich. If Dugdale is to be +credited, their gluttony exceeded that of any previous or succeeding +age. Their cupidity, their drunken revels, their infamous haunts, their +disgusting coarseness, their hypocrisy, ignorance, selfishness, and +superstition were notorious. Yet the monks were not worse than the +secular clergy, high and low. Bishoprics and all benefices were bought +and sold; "canons were trodden under foot; ancient traditions were +turned out of doors; old customs were laid aside;" boys were made +archbishops; ludicrous stories were recited in the churches; the most +disgraceful crimes were pardoned for money. Desolation, according to +Cardinal Baronius, was seen in the temples of the Lord. As Petrarch said +of Avignon in a better age, "There is no pity, no charity, no faith, no +fear of God. The air, the streets, the houses, the markets, the beds, +the hotels, the churches, even the altars consecrated to God, are all +peopled with knaves and liars;" or, to use the still stronger language +of a great reviewer, "The gates of hell appeared to roll back on their +infernal hinges, that there might go forth malignant spirits to empty +the vials of wrath on the patrimony even of the great chief of the +apostles."</p> + +<p>These vices, it is true, were not confined to the clergy. All classes +were alike forlorn, miserable, and corrupt. It was a gloomy period. The +Church, whenever religious, was sad and despairing. The contemplative +hid themselves in noisome and sepulchral crypts. The inspiring chants of +Ambrose gave place to gloomy and monotonous antiphonal singing,--that +is, when the monks confined themselves to their dismal vocation. What +was especially needed was a reform among the clergy themselves. They +indeed owned their allegiance to the Pope, as the supreme head of the +Church, but their fealty was becoming a mockery. They could not support +the throne of absolutism if they were not respected by the laity. +Baronial and feudal power was rapidly gaining over spiritual, and this +was a poor exchange for the power of the clergy, if it led to violence +and rapine. It is to maintain law and order, justice and safety, that +all governments are established.</p> + +<p>Hildebrand saw and lamented the countless evils of the day, especially +those which were loosening the bands of clerical obedience, and +undermining the absolutism which had become the great necessity of his +age. He made up his mind to reform these evils. No pope before him had +seriously undertaken this gigantic task. The popes who for two hundred +years had preceded him were a scandal and a reproach to their exalted +position. These heirs of Saint Peter wasted their patrimony in pleasures +and pomps. At no period of the papal history was the papal chair filled +with such bad or incompetent men. Of these popes two were murdered, five +were driven into exile, and four were deposed. Some were raised to +prominence by arms, and others by money. John X. commanded an army in +person; John XI. died in a fit of debauchery; and John XII. was +murdered by one of the infamous women whom he patronized. Benedict IX. +was driven from the throne by robbery and murder, while Gregory VI. +purchased the papal dignity. For two hundred years no commanding +character had worn the tiara.</p> + +<p>Hildebrand, however, set a new example, and became a watchful shepherd +of his fold. His private life was without reproach; he was absorbed in +his duties; he sympathized with learning and learned men. He was the +friend of Lanfranc, and it was by his influence that this great prelate +was appointed to the See of Canterbury, and a closer union was formed +with England. He infused by his example a quiet but noble courage into +the soul of Anselm. He had great faults, of course,--faults of his own +and faults of his age. I wonder why so <i>strong</i> a man has escaped the +admiring eulogium of Carlyle. Guizot compares him with the Russian +Peter. In some respects he reminds me of Oliver Cromwell; since both +equally deplored the evils of the day, and both invoked the aid of God +Almighty. Both were ambitious, and unscrupulous in the use of tools. +Neither of them was stained by vulgar vices, nor seduced from his course +by love of ease or pleasure. Both are to be contemplated in the double +light of reformer and usurper. Both were honest, and both were +unscrupulous; honest in seeking to promote public morality and the +welfare of society, and unscrupulous in the arts by which their power +was gained.</p> + +<p>That which filled the soul of Hildebrand with especial grief was the +alienation of the clergy from their highest duties, their worldly lives, +and their frail support in his efforts to elevate the spiritual power. +Therefore he determined to make a reform of the clergy themselves, +having in view all the time their assistance in establishing the papal +supremacy. He attacked the clergy where they were weakest. They--the +secular ones, the parish priests--were getting married, especially in +Germany and France. They were setting at defiance the laws of celibacy; +they not only sought wives, but they lived in concubinage.</p> + +<p>Now celibacy had been regarded as the supernal virtue from the time of +Saint Jerome. It was supposed to be a state most favorable to Christian +perfection; it animated the existence of the most noted saints. Says +Jerome, "Take axe in hand and hew down the sterile tree of marriage." +This notion of the superior virtue of virginity was one of the fruits of +those Eastern theogonies which were engrafted on the early Church, +growing out of the Oriental idea of the inalienable evil of matter. It +was one of the fundamental principles of monasticism; and monasticism, +wherever born--whether in India or the Syrian deserts--was one of the +established institutions of the Church. It was indorsed by Benedict as +well as by Basil; it had taken possession of the minds of the Gothic +nations more firmly even than of the Eastern. The East never saw such +monasteries as those which covered Italy, France, Germany, and England; +they were more needed among the feudal robbers of Europe than in the +effeminate monarchies of Asia. Moreover it was in monasteries that the +popes had ever found their strongest adherents, their most zealous +supporters. Without the aid of convents the papal empire might have +crumbled. Monasticism and the papacy were strongly allied; one supported +the other. So efficient were monastic institutions in advocating the +idea of a theocracy, as upheld by the popes, that they were exempted +from episcopal authority. An abbot was as powerful and independent as a +bishop. But to make the Papacy supreme it was necessary to call in the +aid of the secular priests likewise. Unmarried priests, being more like +monks, were more efficient supporters of the papal throne. To maintain +celibacy, therefore, was always in accordance with papal policy.</p> + +<p>But Nature had gradually asserted its claims over tradition and +authority. The clergy, especially in France and Germany, were setting at +defiance the edicts of popes and councils. The glory of celibacy was in +an eclipse.</p> + +<p>No one comprehended the necessity of celibacy, among the clergy, more +clearly than Hildebrand,--himself a monk by education and sympathy. He +looked upon married life, with all its hallowed beauty, as a profanation +for a priest. In his eyes the clergy were married only to the Church. +"Domestic affections suited ill with the duties of a theocratic +ministry." Anything which diverted the labors of the clergy from the +Church seemed to him an outrage and a degeneracy. How could they reach +the state of beatific existence if they were to listen to the prattle of +children, or be engrossed with the joys of conjugal or parental love? So +he assembled a council, and caused it to pass canons to the effect that +married priests should not perform any clerical office; that the people +should not even be present at Mass celebrated by them; that all who had +wives--or concubines, as he called them--should put them away; and that +no one should be ordained who did not promise to remain unmarried during +his whole life.</p> + +<p>Of course there was a violent opposition. A great outcry was raised, +especially in Germany. The whole body of the secular priests exclaimed +against the proceeding. At Mentz they threatened the life of the +archbishop, who attempted to enforce the decree. At Paris a numerous +synod was assembled, in which it was voted that Gregory ought not here +to be obeyed. But Gregory was stronger than his rebellious +clergy,--stronger than the instincts of human nature, stronger than the +united voice of reason and Scripture. He fell back on the majestic +power of prevailing ideas, on the ascetic element of the early Church, +on the traditions of monastic life. He was supported by more than a +hundred thousand monks, by the superstitions of primitive ages, by the +example of saints and martyrs, by his own elevated rank, by the +allegiance due to him as head of the Church. Excommunications were +hurled, like thunderbolts, into remotest hamlets, and the murmurs of +indignant Christendom were silenced by the awful denunciations of God's +supposed vicegerent. The clergy succumbed before such a terrible +spiritual force, The fear of hell--the great idea by which the priests +themselves controlled their flocks--was more potent than any temporal +good. What priest in that age would dare resist his spiritual monarch on +almost any point, and especially when disobedience was supposed to +entail the burnings of a physical hell forever and ever? So celibacy was +re-established as a law of the Christian Church at the bidding of that +far-seeing genius who had devised the means of spiritual despotism. That +law--so gloomy, so unnatural, so fraught with evil--has never been +repealed; it still rules the Catholic priesthood of Europe and America. +Nor will it be repealed so long as the ideas of the Middle Ages have +more force than enlightened reason. It is an abominable law, but who can +doubt its efficacy in cementing the power of the popes?</p> + +<p>But simony, or the sale of ecclesiastical benefices, was a still more +alarming evil to the mind of Gregory. It was the great scandal of the +Church and age. Here we honor the Pope for striving to remove it. And +yet its abolition was no easy thing. He came in contact with the +selfishness of barons and kings. He found it an easier matter to take +away the wives of priests than the purses of princes. Priests who had +vowed obedience might consent to the repudiation of their wives, but +would great temporal robbers part with their spoils? The sale of +benefices was one great source of royal and baronial revenues. +Bishoprics, once conferred for wisdom and piety, had become prizes for +the rapacious and ambitious. Bishops and abbots were most frequently +chosen from the ranks of the great. Powerful Sees were the gifts of +kings to their favorites or families, or were bought by the wealthy; so +that worldly or incapable men were made overseers of the Church of +Christ. The clergy were in danger of being hopelessly secularized. And +the evil spread to the extremities of the clerical body. The princes and +barons were getting control of the Church itself. Bishops often +possessed a plurality of Sees. Children were elevated to episcopal +thrones. Sycophants, courtiers, jesters, imbecile sons of princes, +became great ecclesiastical dignitaries. Who can wonder at the +degeneracy of the clergy when they held their cures at the hands of lay +patrons, to whom they swore allegiance for the temporalities of their +benefices? Even the ring and the crozier, the emblems of spiritual +authority,--once received at the hand of metropolitan archbishops alone, +were now bestowed by temporal sovereigns, who claimed thereby fealty and +allegiance; so that princes had gradually usurped the old rights of the +Church, and Gregory resolved to recover them. So long as emperors and +kings could fill the rich bishoprics and abbacies with their creatures, +the papal dominion was weakened in its most vital point, and might +become a dream. This evil was rapidly undermining the whole +ecclesiastical edifice, and it required a hero of prodigious genius, +energy, and influence to reform it.</p> + +<p>Hildebrand saw and comprehended the whole extent and bearing of the +evil, and resolved to remove it or die in the attempt. It was not only +undermining his throne, but was secularizing the Church and destroying +the real power of the clergy. He made up his mind to face the difficulty +in its most dreaded quarters. He knew that the attempt to remove this +scandal would entail a desperate conflict with the princes of the earth. +Before this, popes and princes were generally leagued together; they +played into each other's hands: but now a battle was to be fought +between the temporal and spiritual powers. He knew that princes would +never relinquish so lucrative a source of profit as the sale of +powerful Sees, unless the right to sell them were taken away by some +tremendous conflict. He therefore prepared for the fight, and forged his +weapons and gathered together his forces. Nor would he waste time by +idle negotiations; it was necessary to act with promptness and vigor. No +matter how great the danger; no matter how powerful his enemies. The +Church was in peril; and he resolved to come to the rescue, cost what it +might. What was his life compared with the sale of God's heritage? For +what was he placed in the most exalted post of the Church, if not to +defend her in an alarming crisis?'</p> + +<p>In resolving to separate forever the spiritual from the temporal power, +Hildebrand followed in the footsteps of Ambrose. But he had also deeper +designs. He resolved to raise, if possible, the spiritual <i>above</i> the +temporal power. Kings should be subject to the Church, not the Church to +the kings of the earth. He believed that he was the appointed vicar of +the Almighty to rule the world in peace, on the principles of eternal +love; that Christ had established a new theocracy, and had delegated his +power to the Apostle Peter, which had descended to the Pope as the +Apostle's legitimate successor.</p> + +<p>I say nothing here of this monstrous claim, of this ingenious falsehood, +on which the monarchical power of the Papacy rests. It is the great +fraud of the Middle Ages. And yet, but for this theocratic idea, it is +difficult to see how the external unity of the Church could have been +preserved among the semi-barbarians of Europe. And what a necessary +thing it was--in ages of superstition, ignorance, and anarchy--to +preserve the unity of the Church, to establish a spiritual power which +should awe and control barbaric princes! There are two sides to the +supremacy of the popes as head of the Church, when we consider the +aspect and state of society in those iron and lawless times. Would +Providence have permitted such a power to rule for a thousand years had +it not been a necessity? At any rate, this is too complicated a question +for me to discuss. It is enough for me to describe the conflict for +principles, not to attempt to settle them. In this matter I am not a +partisan, but a painter. I seek to describe a battle, not to defend +either this cause or that. I have my opinions, but this is no place to +present them. I seek to describe simply the great battle of the Middle +Ages, and you can draw your own conclusions as to the merits of the +respective causes. I present the battle of heroes,--a battle worthy of +the muse of Homer.</p> + +<p>Hildebrand in this battle disdained to fight with any but great and +noble antagonists. As the friend of the poor man, crushed and mocked by +a cold and unfeeling nobility; as the protector of the Church, in danger +of being subverted by the unhallowed tyranny and greed of princes; as +the consecrated monarch of a great spiritual fraternity,--he resolved to +face the mightiest monarchs, and suffer, and if need be die, for a cause +which he regarded as the hope and salvation of Europe. Therefore he +convened another council, and prohibited, under the terrible penalty of +excommunication,--for that was his mighty weapon,--the investiture of +bishoprics and abbacies at the hands of laymen: only he himself should +give to ecclesiastics the ring and the crozier,--the badges of spiritual +authority. And he equally threatened with eternal fire any bishop or +abbot who should receive his dignity from the hand of a prince.</p> + +<p>This decree was especially aimed against the Emperor of Germany, to +whom, as liege lord, the Pope himself owed fealty and obedience. Henry +IV. was one of the mightiest monarchs of the Franconian dynasty,--a +great warrior and a great man, beloved by his subjects and feared by the +princes of Europe. But he, as well as Gregory, was resolved to maintain +the rights of his predecessors. He also perceived the importance of the +approaching contest. And what a contest! The spiritual and temporal +powers were now to be arrayed against each other in a fierce antagonism. +The apparent object of contention changed. It was not merely simony; it +was as to who should be the supreme master of Germany and Italy, the +emperor or the pope. To whom, in the eyes of contemporaries, would +victory incline,--to the son of a carpenter, speaking in the name of the +Church, and holding in his hands the consecrated weapon of +excommunication; or the most powerful monarch of his age, armed with the +secular sword, and seeking to restore the dignity of Roman emperors? The +Pope is supported by the monks, the inferior clergy, and the vast +spiritual powers universally supposed to be delegated to him by Christ, +as the successor of Saint Peter; the Emperor is supported by large +feudal armies, and all the prestige of the successors of Charlemagne. If +the Pope appeals to an ancient custom of the Church, the Emperor appeals +to a general feudal custom which required bishops and abbots to pay +their homage to him for the temporalities of their Sees. The Pope has +the canons of the Church on his side; the Emperor the laws of +feudalism,--and both the canons of the Church and feudal principles are +binding obligations. Hitherto they have not clashed. But now feudalism, +very generally established, and papal absolutism, rapidly culminating, +are to meet in angry collision. Shall the kings of the earth prevail, +assisted by feudal armies and outward grandeur, and sustained by such +powerful sentiments as loyalty and chivalry; or shall a priest, speaking +in the name of God Almighty, and appealing to the future fears of men?</p> + +<p>What conflict grander and more sublime than this, in the whole history +of society? What conflict proved more momentous in its results?</p> + +<p>I need not trace all the steps of that memorable contest, or describe +the details, from the time when the Pope sent out his edicts and +excommunicated all who dared to disobey him,--including some of the most +eminent German prelates and German princes. Henry at this time was +engaged in a desperate war with the Saxons, and Gregory seized this +opportunity to summon the Emperor--his emperor--to appear before him at +Rome and answer for alleged crimes against the Saxon Church. Was there +ever such audacity? How could Henry help giving way to passionate +indignation; he--the successor of the Roman Caesars, sovereign lord of +Germany and Italy--summoned to the bar of a priest, and that priest his +own subject, in a temporal sense? He was filled with wrath and defiance, +and at once summoned a council of German bishops at Worms, "who +denounced the Pope as a usurper, a simonist, a murderer, a worshipper of +the Devil, and pronounced upon him the empty sentence of a deposition"</p> + +<p>"The aged Hildebrand," in the words of Stephen, "was holding a council +in the second week of Lent, 1076, beneath the sculptured roof of the +Vatican, arrayed in the rich and mystic vestments of pontifical +dominion, and the papal choir were chanting those immortal anthems which +had come down from blessed saints and martyrs, when the messenger of +the Emperor presented himself before the assembled hierarchy of Rome, +and with insolent demeanor and abrupt speech delivered the sentence of +the German council." He was left unharmed by the indignant pontiff; but +the next day ascending his throne, and in presence of the dignitaries of +his Church, thus invoked the assistance of the pretended founder of +his empire:--</p> + +<p>"Saint Peter! lend us your ears, and listen to your servant whom you +have cherished from his infancy; and all the saints also bear witness +how the Roman Church raised me by force and against my will to this high +dignity, although I should have preferred to spend my days in a +continual pilgrimage than to ascend thy pulpit for any human motive. And +inasmuch as I think it will be grateful to you that those intrusted to +my care should obey me; therefore, supported by these hopes, and for the +honor and defence of the Church, in the name of the Omnipotent +God,--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,--by my authority and power, I +prohibit King Henry, who with unheard-of pride has raised himself +against your Church, from governing the kingdoms of Germany and Italy; I +absolve all Christians from the oath they have taken to him, and I +forbid all men to yield to him that service which is due unto a king. +Finally, I bind him with the bonds of anathema, that all people may know +that thou art Peter, and that upon thee the Son of God hath built His +Church, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail."</p> + +<p>This was an old-fashioned excommunication; and we in these days have but +a faint idea what a dreadful thing it was, especially when accompanied +with an interdict. The churches were everywhere shut; the dead were +unburied in consecrated ground; the rites of religion were suspended; +gloom and fear sat on every countenance; desolation overspread the land. +The king was regarded as guilty and damned; his ministers looked upon +him as a Samson shorn of his locks; his very wife feared contamination +from his society; his children, as a man blasted with the malediction of +Heaven. When a man was universally supposed to be cursed in the house +and in the field; in the wood and in the church; in eating or drinking; +in fasting or sleeping; in working or resting; in his arms, in his legs, +in his heart, and in his head; living or dying; in this world and in the +next,--what could he do?</p> + +<p>And what could Henry do, with all his greatness? His victorious armies +deserted him; a rival prince laid claim to his throne; his enemies +multiplied; his difficulties thickened; new dangers surrounded him on +every side. If loyalty--that potent principle--had summoned one hundred +thousand warriors to his camp, a principle much more powerful than +loyalty--the fear of hell--had dispersed them. Even his friends joined +the Pope. The sainted Agnes, his own mother, acquiesced in the sentence. +The Countess Matilda, the richest lady in the world, threw all her +treasures at the feet of her spiritual monarch. The moral sentiments of +his own subjects were turned against him; he was regarded as justly +condemned. The great princes of Germany sought his deposition. The world +rejected him, the Church abandoned him, and God had forsaken him. He was +prostrate, helpless, disarmed, ruined. True, he made superhuman efforts: +he traversed his empire with the hope of rallying his subjects; he flew +from city to city,--but all in vain. Every convent, every castle, every +city of his vast dominions beheld in him the visitation of the Almighty. +The diadem was obscured by the tiara, and loyalty itself yielded to the +superior potency of religious fear. Only Bertha, his neglected wife, was +faithful and trusting in that gloomy day; all else had defrauded and +betrayed him. How bitter his humiliation! And yet his haughty foe was +not contented with the punishment he had inflicted. He declared that if +the sun went down on the 23d of February, 1077, before Henry was +restored to the bosom of the Church, his crown should be transferred to +another. That inexorable old pontiff laid claim to the right of giving +and taking away imperial crowns. Was ever before seen such arrogance and +audacity in a priest? And yet he knew that he would be sustained. He +knew that his supremacy was based on a universally recognized idea. Who +can resist the ideas of his age? Henry might have resisted, if +resistance had been possible. Even he must yield to irresistible +necessity. He was morally certain that he would lose his crown, and be +in danger of losing his soul, unless he made his peace with his +dangerous enemy. It was necessary that the awful curse should be +removed. He had no remedy; only one course was before him. He must +yield; not to man alone, but to an idea which had the force of fate. +Wonder not that he made up his mind to submit. He was great, but not +greater than his age. How few men are! Mohammed could renounce +prevailing idolatries; Luther could burn a papal bull; but the Emperor +of Germany could not resist the supposed vicegerent of the Almighty.</p> + +<p>Behold, then, the melancholy, pitiable spectacle of this mighty +monarch in the depth of winter--and a winter of unprecedented +severity--crossing, in the garb of a pilgrim, the frozen Alps, enduring +the greatest privations and fatigues and perils, and approaching on foot +the gloomy fortress of Canossa (beyond the Po), in which Hildebrand had +intrenched himself. Even then the angry pontiff refused to see him. +Henry had to stoop to a still deeper degradation,--to stand bareheaded +and barefooted for three days, amid the blasts of winter, in the +court-yard of the castle, before the Pope would promise absolution, and +then only at the intercession of the Countess Matilda.</p> + +<p>What are we to think of such a fall, such a humiliation on the part of a +sovereign? What are we to think of such haughtiness on the part of a +priest,--his subject? We are filled with blended pity and indignation. +We are inclined to say that this was the greatest blunder that any +monarch ever made; that Henry--humbled and deserted and threatened as he +was--should not have stooped to this; that he should have lost his crown +and life rather than handed over his empire to a plebeian priest,--for +he was an acknowledged hero; he was monarch of half of Europe. And yet +we are bound to consider Henry's circumstances and the ideas with which +he had to contend. His was the error of the Middle Ages; the feeblest of +his modern successors would have killed the Pope if he could, rather +than have disgraced himself by such an ignominy.</p> + +<p>True it is that Henry came to himself; that he repented of his step. But +it was too late. Gregory had gained the victory; and it was all the +greater because it was a moral one. It was known to all Europe and all +the world, and would be known to all posterity, that the Emperor of +Germany had bowed in submission to a foreign priest. The temporal power +had yielded to the spiritual; the State had conceded the supremacy of +the Church. The Pope had triumphed over the mightiest monarch of the +age, and his successors would place their feet over future prostrate +kings. What a victory! What mighty consequences were the result of it! +On what a throne did this moral victory seat the future pontiffs of the +Eternal City! How august their dominion, for it was over the minds and +souls of men! Truly to the Pope were given the keys of Heaven and Hell; +and so long as the ideas of that age were accepted, who could resist a +man armed with the thunders of Omnipotence?</p> + +<p>It mattered nothing that the Emperor was ashamed of his weakness; that +he retracted; that he vowed vengeance; that he marched at the head of +new armies. No matter that his adherents were indignant; that all +Germany wept; that loyalty rallied to his aid; that he gained victories +proportionate with his former defeats; that he chased Gregory from city +to city, and castle to castle, and convent to convent, while his +generals burned the Pope's palaces and wasted his territories. No matter +that Gregory--broken, defeated, miserable, outwardly ruined--died +prematurely in exile; no matter that he did not, in his great reverses, +anticipate the fruits of his firmness and heroism. His principles +survived him; they have never been lost sight of by his successors; +they gained strength through successive generations. Innocent III. +reaped what he had sown. Kings dared not resist Innocent III., who +realized those three things to which the more able Gregory had +aspired,--"independent sovereignty, control over the princes of the +earth, and the supremacy of the Church." Innocent was the greater pope, +but Hildebrand was the greater man.</p> + +<p>Yet, like so many of the great heroes of the world, he was not destined +in his own person to reap the fruits of his heroism. "I have loved +righteousness and hated iniquity, and therefore I die in exile,"--these +were his last bitter words. He fancied he had failed. But did he fail? +What did he leave behind? He left his great example and his still +greater ideas. He left a legacy to his successors which makes them still +potent on the earth, in spite of reformations and revolutions, and all +the triumphs of literature and science. How mighty his deeds! How great +his services to his Church! "He found," says an eloquent and able +Edinburgh reviewer, "the papacy dependent on the emperor; he sustained +it by alliances almost commensurate with the Italian peninsula. He found +the papacy electoral by the Roman people and clergy; he left it +electoral by papal nomination. He found the emperor the virtual patron +of the Roman See; he wrenched that power from his hands. He found the +secular clergy the allies and dependents of the secular power; he +converted them into inalienable auxiliaries of his own. He found the +patronage of the Church the desecrated spoil and merchandise of princes; +he reduced it to his own dominion. He is celebrated as the reformer of +the impure and profane abuses of his age; he is more justly entitled to +the praise of having left the impress of his gigantic character on all +the ages which have succeeded him."</p> + +<p>Such was the great Hildebrand; a conqueror, however, by the force of +recognized ideas more than by his own strength. How long, you ask, shall +his empire last? We cannot tell who can predict the fortunes of such a +power. It is not for me to speculate or preach. In considering his life +and career, I have simply attempted to paint one of the most memorable +moral contests of the world; to show the power of genius and will in a +superstitious age,--and, more, the majestic force of ideas over the +minds and souls of men, even though these ideas cannot be sustained by +reason or Scripture.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Epistles of Gregory VII.; Baronius's Annals; Dupin's Ecclesiastical +History; Voigt, in his Hildebrand als Gregory VII.; Guizot's Lectures on +Civilization; Sir James Stephens's article on Hildebrand, in Edinburgh +Review; Dugdale's Monasticon; Hallam's Middle Ages; Digby's Ages of +Faith; Jaffe's Regesta Pontificum Romanorum; Mignet's series of articles +on La Lutte des Papes contre les Empereurs d'Allemagne; M. Villemain's +Histoire de Grégoire VII.; Bowden on the Life and Times of Hildebrand; +Milman's Latin Christianity; Watterich's Romanorum Pontificum ab +Aequalibus Conscriptae; Platina's Lives of the Popes; Stubbs's +Constitutional History; Lee's History of Clerical Celibacy; Cardinal +Newman's Essays; Lecky's History of European Morals; Dr. Döllinger's +Church History; Neander's Church History; articles in Contemporary +Review of July and August, 1882, on the Turning Point of the +Middle Ages.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="SAINT_BERNARD."></a>SAINT BERNARD.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1091-1153.</p> + +<p>MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS.</p> + +<p>One of the oldest institutions of the Church is that which grew out of +monastic life. It had its seat, at a remote period, in India. It has +existed, in different forms, in other Oriental countries. It has been +modified by Brahminical, Buddhistic, and Persian theogonies, and +extended to Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor. Go where you will in the East, +and you see traces of its mighty influence. We cannot tell its remotest +origin, but we see everywhere the force of its ideas. Its fundamental +principle appears to be the desire to propitiate the Deity by penances +and ascetic labors as an atonement for sin, or as a means of rising to a +higher religious life. It has sought to escape the polluting influences +of demoralized society by lofty contemplation and retirement from the +world. From the first, it was a protest against materialism, luxury, and +enervating pleasures. It recognized something higher and nobler than +devotion to material gains, or a life of degrading pleasure. In one +sense it was an intellectual movement, while in another it was an insult +to the human understanding. It attempted a purer morality, but abnegated +obvious and pressing duties. It was always a contradiction,--lofty while +degraded, seeking to comprehend the profoundest mysteries, yet debased +by puerile superstitions.</p> + +<p>The consciousness of mankind, in all ages and countries, has ever +accepted retribution for sin--more or less permanent--in this world or +in the next. And it has equally accepted the existence of a Supreme +Intelligence and Power, to whom all are responsible, and in connection +with whom human destinies are bound up. The deeper we penetrate into the +occult wisdom of the East,--on which light has been shed by modern +explorations, monumental inscriptions, manuscripts, historical records, +and other things which science and genius have deciphered,--the surer we +feel that the esoteric classes of India, Egypt, and China were more +united in their views of Supreme Power and Intelligence than was +generally supposed fifty years ago. The higher intellects of Asia, in +all countries and ages, had more lofty ideas of God than we have a right +to infer from the superstitions of the people generally. They had +unenlightened ideas as to the grounds of forgiveness. But of the +necessity of forgiveness and the favor of the Deity they had no doubt.</p> + +<p>The philosophical opinions of these sages gave direction to a great +religious movement. Matter was supposed to be inherently evil, and mind +was thought to be inherently good. The seat of evil was placed in the +body rather than in the heart and mind. Not the thoughts of men were +evil, but the passions and appetites of the body. Hence the first thing +for a good man to do was to bring the body--this seat of evil--under +subjection, and, if possible, to eradicate the passions and appetites +which enslave the body; and this was to be done by self-flagellations, +penances, austerities, and solitude,--flight from the contaminating +influences of the world. All Oriental piety assumed this ascetic form. +The transition was easy to the sundering of domestic ties, to the +suppression of natural emotions and social enjoyments. The devotee +became austere, cold, inhuman, unsocial. He shunned the habitations of +men. And the more desirous he was to essay a high religious life and +thus rise in favor with God, the more severe and revengeful and +unforgiving he made the Deity he adored,--not a compassionate Creator +and Father, but an irresistible Power bent on his destruction. This +degrading view of the Deity, borrowed from Paganism, tinged the +subsequent theology of the Christian monks, and entered largely into the +theology of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>Such was the prevailing philosophy, or theosophy--both lofty and +degraded--with which the Christian convert had to contend; not merely +the shameless vices of the people, so open and flagrant as to call out +disgust and indignation, but also the views which the more virtuous and +religious of Pagan saints accepted and promulgated: and not saints +alone, but those who made the greatest pretension to intellectual +culture, like the Gnostics and Manicheans; those men who were the first +to ensnare Saint Augustine,--specious, subtle, sophistical, as acute as +the Brahmins of India. It was Eastern philosophy, false as we regard it, +which created the most powerful institution that existed in Europe for +above a thousand years,--an institution which all the learning and +eloquence of the Reformers of the sixteenth century could not subvert, +except in Protestant countries.</p> + +<p>Now what, more specifically, were the ideas which the early monks +borrowed from India, Persia, and Egypt, which ultimately took such a +firm hold of the European mind?</p> + +<p>One was the superior virtue of a life devoted to purely religious +contemplation, and for the same end that animated the existence of +fakirs and sofis. It was to escape the contaminating influence of +matter, to rise above the wants of the body, to exterminate animal +passions and appetites, to hide from a world which luxury corrupted. The +Christian recluses were thus led to bury themselves in cells among the +mountains and deserts, in dreary and uncomfortable caverns, in isolated +retreats far from the habitation of men,--yea, among wild beasts, +clothing themselves in their skins and eating their food, in order to +commune with God more effectually, and propitiate His favor. Their +thoughts were diverted from the miseries which they ought to have +alleviated and the ignorance which they ought to have removed, and were +concentrated upon themselves, not upon their relatives and neighbors. +The cries of suffering humanity were disregarded in a vain attempt to +practise doubtful virtues. How much good those pious recluses might have +done, had their piety taken a more practical form! What missionaries +they might have made, what self-denying laborers in the field of active +philanthropy, what noble teachers to the poor and miserable! The +conversion of the world to Christianity did not enter into their minds +so much as the desire to swell the number of their communities. They +only aimed at a dreamy pietism,--at best their own individual salvation, +rather than the salvation of others. Instead of reaching to the beatific +vision, they became ignorant, narrow, and visionary; and, when learned, +they fought for words and not for things. They were advocates of subtile +and metaphysical distinctions in theology, rather than of those +practical duties and simple faith which primitive Christianity enjoined. +Monastic life, no less than the schools of Alexandria, was influential +in creating a divinity which gave as great authority to dogmas that are +the result of intellectual deductions, as those based on direct and +original declarations. And these deductions were often gloomy, and +colored by the fears which were inseparable from a belief in divine +wrath rather than divine love. The genius of monasticism, ancient and +modern, is the propitiation of the Divinity who seeks to punish rather +than to forgive. It invented Purgatory, to escape the awful burnings of +an everlasting hell of physical sufferings. It pervaded the whole +theology of the Middle Ages, filling hamlet and convent alike with an +atmosphere of fear and wrath, and creating a cruel spiritual despotism. +The recluse, isolated and lonely, consumed himself with phantoms, +fancied devils, and "chimeras dire." He could not escape from himself, +although he might fly from society. As a means of grace he sought +voluntary solitary confinement, without nutritious food or proper +protection from the heat and cold, clad in a sheepskin filled with dirt +and vermin. What life could be more antagonistic to enlightened reason? +What mistake more fatal to everything like self-improvement, culture, +knowledge, happiness? And all for what? To strive after an impossible +perfection, or the solution of insoluble questions, or the favor of a +Deity whose attributes he misunderstood.</p> + +<p>But this unnatural, unwise retirement was not the worst evil in +the life of a primitive monk, with all its dreamy contemplation +and silent despair. It was accompanied with the most painful +austerities,--self-inflicted scourgings, lacerations, dire +privations, to propitiate an angry deity, or to bring the body +into a state which would be insensible to pain, or to exorcise +passions which the imaginations inflamed. All this was based on +penance,--self-expiation,--which entered so largely into the theogonies +of the East, and which gave a gloomy form to the piety of the Middle +Ages. This error was among the first to kindle the fiery protests of +Luther. The repudiation of this error, and of its logical sequences, was +one of the causes of the Reformation. This error cast its dismal shadow +on the common life of the Middle Ages. You cannot penetrate the spirit +of those centuries without a painful recognition of almost universal +darkness and despair. How gloomy was a Gothic church before the eleventh +century, with its dark and heavy crypt, its narrow windows, its massive +pillars, its low roof, its cold, damp pavement, as if men went into that +church to hide themselves and sing mournful songs,--the <i>Dies Irae</i> of +monastic fear!</p> + +<p>But the primitive monks, with all their lofty self-sacrifices and +efforts for holy meditation, towards the middle of the fourth century, +as their number increased from the anarchies and miseries of a falling +empire, became quarrelsome, sometimes turbulent, and generally fierce +and fanatical. They had to be governed. They needed some master mind to +control them, and confine them to their religious duties. Then arose +Basil, a great scholar, and accustomed to civilized life in the schools +of Athens and Constantinople, who gave rules and laws to the monks, +gathered them into communities and discouraged social isolation, knowing +that the demons had more power over men when they were alone and idle.</p> + +<p>This Basil was an extraordinary man. His ancestors were honorable and +wealthy. He moved in the highest circle of social life, like Chrysostom. +He was educated in the most famous schools. He travelled extensively +like other young men of rank. His tutor was the celebrated Libanius, the +greatest rhetorician of the day. He exhausted Antioch, Caesarea, and +Constantinople, and completed his studies at Athens, where he formed a +famous friendship with Gregory Nazianzen, which was as warm and devoted +as that between Cicero and Atticus: these young men were the talk and +admiration of Athens. Here, too, he was intimate with young Julian, +afterwards the "Apostate" Emperor of Rome. Basil then visited the +schools of Alexandria, and made the acquaintance of the great +Athanasius, as well as of those monks who sought a retreat amid +Egyptian solitudes. Here his conversion took place, and he parted with +his princely patrimony for the benefit of the poor. He then entered the +Church, and was successively ordained deacon and priest, while leading a +monastic life. He retired among the mountains of Armenia, and made +choice of a beautiful grove, watered with crystal streams, where he gave +himself to study and meditation. Here he was joined by his friend +Gregory Nazianzen and by enthusiastic admirers, who formed a religious +fraternity, to whom he was a spiritual father. He afterwards was forced +to accept the great See of Caesarea, and was no less renowned as bishop +and orator than he had been as monk. Yet it is as a monk that he left +the most enduring influence, since he made the first great change in +monastic life,--making it more orderly, more industrious, and less +fanatical.</p> + +<p>He instituted or embodied, among others, the three great vows, which are +vital to monastic institutions,--Poverty, Obedience, and Chastity. In +these vows he gave the institution a more Christian and a less Oriental +aspect. Monachism became more practical and less visionary and wild. It +approximated nearer to the Christian standard. Submission to poverty is +certainly a Christian virtue, if voluntary poverty is not. Chastity is a +cardinal duty. Obedience is a necessity to all civilized life. It is the +first condition of all government.</p> + +<p>Moreover, these three vows seem to have been called for by the +condition of society, and the prevalence of destructive views. Here +Basil,--one of the commanding intellects of his day, and as learned and +polished as he was pious,--like Jerome after him, proved himself a great +legislator and administrator, including in his comprehensive view both +Christian principles and the necessities of the times, and adapting his +institution to both.</p> + +<p>One of the most obvious, flagrant, and universal evils of the day was +devotion to money-making in order to purchase sensual pleasures. It +pervaded Roman life from the time of Augustus. The vow of poverty, +therefore, was a stern, lofty, disdainful protest against the most +dangerous and demoralizing evil of the Empire. It hurled scorn, hatred, +and defiance on this overwhelming evil, and invoked the aid of +Christianity. It was simply the earnest affirmation and belief that +money could not buy the higher joys of earth, and might jeopardize the +hopes of heaven. It called to mind the greatest examples; it showed that +the great teachers of mankind, the sages and prophets of history, had +disdained money as the highest good; that riches exposed men to great +temptation, and lowered the standard of morality and virtue,--"how +hardly shall they who have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" It +appealed to the highest form of self-sacrifice; it arrayed itself +against a vice which was undermining society. And among truly Christian +people this new application of Christ's warnings against the dangers of +wealth excited enthusiasm. It was like enlisting in the army of Christ +against his greatest enemies. Make any duty clear and imperious to +Christian people, and they will generally conform to it. So the world +saw one of the most impressive spectacles of all history,--the rich +giving up their possessions to follow the example and injunctions of +Christ. It was the most signal test of Christian obedience. It prompted +Paula, the richest lady of Christian antiquity, to devote the revenues +of an entire city, which she owned, to the cause of Christ; and the +approbation of Jerome, her friend, was a sufficient recompense.</p> + +<p>The vow of Chastity was equally a protest against one of the +characteristic vices of the day, as well as a Christian virtue. Luxury +and pleasure-seeking lives had relaxed the restraints of home and the +virtues of earlier days. The evils of concubinage were shameless and +open throughout the empire, which led to a low estimate of female virtue +and degraded the sex. The pagan poets held up woman as a subject of +scorn and scarcasm. On no subject were the apostles more urgent in their +exhortations than to a life of purity. To no greater temptation were the +converts to Christianity subjected than the looseness of prevailing +sentiments in reference to this vice. It stared everybody in the face. +Basil took especial care to guard the monks from this prevailing +iniquity, and made chastity a transcendent and fundamental virtue. He +aimed to remove the temptation to sin. The monks were enjoined to shun +the very presence of women. If they carried the system of +non-intercourse too far, and became hard and unsympathetic, it was to +avoid the great scandal of the age,--a still greater evil. To the monk +was denied even the blessing of the marriage ties. Celibacy became a +fundamental law of monachism. It was not to cement a spiritual despotism +that Basil forbade marriage, but to attain a greater sanctity,--for a +monk was consecrated to what was supposed to be the higher life. This +law of celibacy was abused, and gradually was extended to all the +clergy, secular as well as regular, but not till the clergy were all +subordinated to the rule of an absolute Pope. It is the fate of all +human institutions to become corrupt; but no institution of the Church +has been so fatally perverted as that pertaining to the marriage of the +clergy. Founded to promote purity of personal life, it was used to +uphold the arms of spiritual despotism. It was the policy of Hildebrand.</p> + +<p>The vow of Obedience, again, was made in special reference to the +disintegration of society, when laws were feebly enforced and a central +power was passing away. The discipline even of armies was relaxed. Mobs +were the order of the day, even in imperial cities. Moreover, monks had +long been insubordinate; they obeyed no head, except nominally; they +were with difficulty ruled in their communities. Therefore obedience was +made a cardinal virtue, as essential to the very existence of monastic +institutions. I need not here allude to the perversion of this +rule,--how it degenerated into a fearful despotism, and was made use of +by ambitious popes, and finally by the generals of the Mendicant Friars +and the Jesuits. All the rules of Basil were perverted from their +original intention; but in his day they were called for.</p> + +<p>About a century later the monastic system went through another change or +development, when Benedict, a remarkable organizer, instituted on Monte +Cassino, near Naples, his celebrated monastery (529, A.D.), which became +the model of all the monasteries of the West. He reaffirmed the rules of +Basil, but with greater strictness. He gave no new principles to +monastic life; but he adapted it to the climate and institutions of the +newly founded Gothic kingdoms of Europe. It became less Oriental; it was +made more practical; it was invested with new dignity. The most +visionary and fanatical of all the institutions of the East was made +useful. The monks became industrious. Industry was recognized as a +prime necessity even for men who had retired from the world. No longer +were the labors of monks confined to the weaving of baskets, but they +were extended to the comforts of ordinary life,--to the erection of +stately buildings, to useful arts, the systematic cultivation of the +land, to the accumulation of wealth,--not for individuals, but for their +monasteries. Monastic life became less dreamy, less visionary, but more +useful, recognizing the bodily necessities of men. The religious duties +of monks were still dreary, monotonous, and gloomy,--long and protracted +singing in the choir, incessant vigils, an unnatural silence at the +table, solitary walks in the cloister, the absence of social pleasures, +confinement to the precincts of their convents; but their convents +became bee-hives of industry, and their lands were highly cultivated. +The monks were hospitable; they entertained strangers, and gave a +shelter to the persecuted and miserable. Their monasteries became sacred +retreats, which were respected by those rude warriors who crushed +beneath their feet the glories of ancient civilization. Nor for several +centuries did the monks in their sacred enclosures give especial +scandal. Their lives were spent in labors of a useful kind, alternated +and relieved by devotional duties.</p> + +<p>Hence they secured the respect and favor of princes and good men, who +gave them lands and rich presents of gold and silver vessels. Their +convents were unmolested and richly endowed, and these became enormously +multiplied in every European country. Gradually they became so rich as +to absorb the wealth of nations. Their abbots became great personages, +being chosen from the ranks of princes and barons. The original poverty +and social insignificance of monachism passed away, and the institution +became the most powerful organization in Europe. It then aspired to +political influence, and the lord abbots became the peers of princes and +the ministers of kings. Their abbey churches, especially, became the +wonder and the admiration of the age, both for size and magnificence. +The abbey church of Cluny, in Burgundy, was five hundred and thirty feet +long, and had stalls for two hundred monks. It had the appointment of +one hundred and fifty parish priests. The church of Saint Albans, in +England, is said to have been six hundred feet long; and that of +Glastonbury, the oldest in England, five hundred and thirty. +Peterborough's was over five hundred. The kings of England, both Saxon +and Norman, were especial patrons of these religious houses. King Edgar +founded forty-seven monasteries and richly endowed them; Henry I. +founded one hundred and fifty; and Henry II. as many more. At one time +there were seven hundred Benedictine abbeys in England, some of which +were enormously rich,--like those of Westminster, St. Albans, +Glastonbury, and Bury St. Edmunds,--and their abbots were men of the +highest social and political distinction. They sat in Parliament as +peers of the realm; they coined money, like feudal barons; they lived in +great state and dignity. The abbot of Monte Cassino was duke and prince, +and chancellor of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Tins celebrated +convent had the patronage of four bishoprics, sixteen hundred and +sixty-two churches, and possessed or controlled two hundred and fifty +castles, four hundred and forty towns, and three hundred and thirty-six +manors. Its revenues exceeded five hundred thousand ducats, so that the +lord-abbot was the peer of the greatest secular princes. He was more +powerful and wealthy, probably, than any archbishop in Europe. One of +the abbots of St. Gall entered Strasburg with one thousand horsemen in +his train. Whiting, of Glastonbury, entertained five hundred people of +fashion at one time, and had three hundred domestic servants. "My vow of +poverty," said another of these lordly abbots,--who generally rode on +mules with gilded bridles and with hawks on their wrists,--"has given me +ten thousand crowns a year; and my vow of obedience has raised me to the +rank of a sovereign prince."</p> + +<p>Among the privileges of these abbots was exemption from taxes and tolls; +they were judges in the courts; they had the execution of all rents, and +the supreme control of the income of the abbey lands. The revenues of +Westminster and Glastonbury were equal to half a million of dollars a +year in our money, considering the relative value of gold and silver. +Glastonbury owned about one thousand oxen, two hundred and fifty cows, +and six thousand sheep. Fontaine abbey possessed forty thousand acres of +land. The abbot of Augia, in Germany, had a revenue of sixty thousand +crowns,--several millions, as money is now measured. At one time the +monks, with the other clergy, owned half of the lands of Europe. If a +king was to be ransomed, it was they who furnished the money; if costly +gifts were to be given to the Pope, it was they who made them. The value +of the vessels of gold and silver, the robes and copes of silk and +velvet, the chalices, the altar-pieces, and the shrines enriched with +jewels, was inestimable. The feasts which the abbots gave were almost +regal. At the installation of the abbot of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, +there were consumed fifty-eight tuns of beer, eleven tuns of wine, +thirty-one oxen, three hundred pigs, two hundred sheep, one thousand +geese, one thousand capons, six hundred rabbits, nine thousand eggs, +while the guests numbered six thousand people. Of the various orders of +the Benedictines there have been thirty-seven thousand monasteries and +one hundred and fifty thousand abbots. From the monks, twenty-one +thousand have been chosen as bishops and archbishops, and twenty-eight +have been elevated to the papal throne.</p> + +<p>From these things, and others which may seem too trivial to mention, we +infer the great wealth and power of monastic institutions, the most +flourishing days of which were from the sixth century to the Crusades, +beginning in the eleventh, when more than one hundred thousand monks +acknowledged the rule of Saint Benedict. During this period of +prosperity, when the vast abbey churches were built, and when abbots +were great temporal as well as spiritual magnates, quite on an equality +with the proudest feudal barons, we notice a marked decline in the +virtues which had extorted the admiration of Europe. The Benedictines +retained their original organization, they were bound by the same vows +(as individuals, the monks were always poor), they wore the same dress, +as they did centuries before, and they did not fail in their duties in +the choir,--singing their mournful chants from two o'clock in the +morning. But discipline was relaxed; the brothers strayed into unseemly +places; they indulged in the pleasures of the table; they were sensual +in their appearance; they were certainly ignorant, as a body; and they +performed more singing than preaching or teaching. They lived for +themselves rather than for the people. They however remained hospitable +to the last. Their convents were hotels as well as bee-hives; any +stranger could remain two nights at a convent without compensation and +without being questioned. The brothers dined together at the refectory, +according to the rules, on bread, vegetables, and a little meat; +although it was noticed that they had a great variety in cooking eggs, +which were turned and roasted and beaten up, and hardened and minced and +fried and stuffed. It is said that subsequently they drank enormous +quantities of beer and wine, and sometimes even to disgraceful excess. +Their rules required them to keep silence at their meals; but their +humanity got the better of them, and they have been censured for their +hilarious and frivolous conversation,--for jests and stories and puns. +Bernard accused the monks of degeneracy, of being given to the pleasures +of the table, of loving the good things which they professed to +scorn,--rare fish, game, and elaborate cookery.</p> + +<p>That the monks sadly degenerated in morals and discipline, and even +became objects of scandal, is questioned by no respectable historian. No +one was more bitter and vehement in his denunciations of this almost +universal corruption of monastic life than Saint Bernard himself,--the +impersonation of an ideal monk. Hence reforms were attempted; and the +Cluniacs and Cistercians and other orders arose, modelled after the +original institution on Monte Cassino. These were only branches of the +Benedictines. Their vows and habits and duties were the same. It would +seem that the prevailing vices of the Benedictines, in their decline, +were those which were fostered by great wealth, and consequent idleness +and luxury. But at their worst estate the monks, or regular clergy, were +no worse than the secular clergy, or parish priests, in their ordinary +lives, and were more intelligent,--at least more learned. The ignorance +of the secular clergy was notorious and scandalous. They could not even +write letters of common salutation; and what little knowledge they had +was extolled and exaggerated. It was confined to the acquisition of the +Psalter by heart, while a little grammar, writing, and accounts were +regarded as extraordinary. He who could write a few homilies, drawn from +the Fathers, was a wonder and a prodigy. There was a total absence of +classical literature.</p> + +<p>But the monks, ignorant and degenerate as they were, guarded what little +literature had escaped the ruin of the ancient civilization. They gave +the only education the age afforded. There was usually a school attached +to every convent, and manual labor was shortened in favor of students. +Nor did the monks systematically and deliberately shut the door of +knowledge against those inclined to study, for at that time there was no +jealousy of learning; there was only indifference to it, or want of +appreciation. The age was ignorant, and life was hard, and the struggle +for existence occupied the thoughts of all. The time of the monks was +consumed in alternate drudgeries and monotonous devotions. There was +such a general intellectual torpor that scholars (and these were very +few) were left at liberty to think and write as they pleased on the +great questions of theology. There was such a general unanimity of +belief, that the popes were not on the look-out for heresy. Nobody +thought of attacking their throne. There was no jealousy about the +reading of the Scriptures. Every convent had a small library, mostly +composed of Lives of the saints, and of devout meditations and homilies; +and the Bible was the greatest treasure of all,--the Vulgate of Saint +Jerome, which was copied and illuminated by busy hands. In spite of the +general ignorance, the monks relieved their dull lives by some attempts +at art. This was the age of the most beautiful illuminated manuscripts. +There was but little of doctrinal controversy, for the creed of the +Church was settled; but pious meditations and the writings of noted +saints were studied and accepted,--especially the works of Saint +Augustine, who had fixed the thinking of the West for a thousand years. +Pagan literature had but little charm until Aristotle was translated by +Arabian scholars. The literature of the Church was puerile and +extravagant, yet Christian,--consisting chiefly of legends of martyrs +and Lives of saints. That literature has no charm to us, and can never +be revived, indeed is already forgotten and neglected, as well it may +be; but it gave unity to Christian belief, and enthroned the Christian +heroes on the highest pedestal of human greatness. In the monasteries +some one of the fraternity read aloud these Lives and Meditations, while +the brothers worked or dined. There was no discussion, for all thought +alike; and all sought to stimulate religious emotions rather than to +quicken intellectual activity.</p> + +<p>About half the time of the monks, in a well-regulated monastery, was +given to singing and devotional exercises and religious improvement, and +the other half to labors in the fields, or in painting or musical +composition. So far as we know, the monks lived in great harmony, and +were obedient to the commands of their superiors. They had a common +object to live for, and had few differences in opinion on any subject. +They did not enjoy a high life, but it was free from distracting +pleasures. They affected great humility, with which spiritual pride was +mingled,--not the arrogant pride of the dialectician, but the +self-satisfied pride of the devotee. There was no religious hatred, +except towards Turks and Saracens. The monk, in his narrowness and +ignorance, may be repulsive to an enlightened age: he was not repulsive +to his own, for he was not behind it either in his ideas or in his +habits of life. In fact, the more repulsive the monk of the dark ages +is to this generation, the more venerated he was by bishops and barons +seven hundred years ago; which fact leads us to infer that the +degenerate monk might be to us most interesting when he was most +condemned by the reformers of his day, since he was more humane, genial, +and free than his brethren, chained to the rigid discipline of his +convent. Even a Friar Tuck is not so repulsive to us as an unsocial, +austere, narrow-minded, and ignorant fanatic of the eleventh century.</p> + +<p>But the monks were not to remain forever imprisoned in the castles of +ignorance and despair. With the opening of the twelfth century light +began to dawn upon the human mind. The intellectual monk, long +accustomed to devout meditations, began to speculate on those subjects +which had occupied his thoughts,--on God and His attributes, on the +nature and penalty of sin, on redemption, on the Saviour, on the power +of the will to resist evil, and other questions that had agitated the +early Fathers of the Church. Then arose such men as Erigena, Roscelin, +Bérenger, Lanfranc, Anselm, Bernard, and others,--all more or less +orthodox, but inquiring and intellectual. It was within the walls of the +cloister that the awakening began and the first impulse was given to +learning and philosophy. The abbey of Bec, in Normandy, was the most +distinguished of new intellectual centres, while Clairvaux and other +princely abbeys had inmates as distinguished for meditative habits as +for luxury and pride.</p> + +<p>It was at this period, when the convents of Europe rejoiced in ample +possessions, and their churches rivalled cathedrals in size and +magnificence, and their abbots were lords and princes,--the palmy age of +monastic institutions, chiefly of the Benedictine order,--that Saint +Bernard, the greatest and best representative of Mediaeval monasticism, +was born, 1091, at Fontaine, in Burgundy. He belonged to a noble family. +His mother was as remarkable as Monica or Nonna. She had six sons and a +daughter, whom she early consecrated to the Lord. Bernard was the third +son. Like Luther, he was religiously inclined from early youth, and +panted for monastic seclusion. At the age of twenty-three he entered the +new monastery at Citeaux, which had been founded a few years before by +Stephen Harding, an English saint, who revived the rule of Saint +Benedict with still greater strictness, and was the founder of the +Cistercian order,--a branch of the Benedictines. He entered this gloomy +retreat, situated amid marshes and morasses, with no outward attractions +like Cluny, but unhealthy and miserably poor,--the dreariest spot, +perhaps, in Burgundy; and he entered at the head of thirty young men, of +the noble class, among whom were four of his brothers who had been +knights, and who presented themselves to the abbot as novices, bent on +the severest austerities that human nature could support.</p> + +<p>Bernard himself was a beautiful, delicate, refined young man,--tall, +with flaxen hair, fair complexion, blue eyes from which shone a +superhuman simplicity and purity. His noble birth would have opened to +him the highest dignities of the Church, but he sought only to bear the +yoke of Christ, and to be nailed to the cross; and he really became a +common laborer wrapped in a coarse cowl, digging ditches and planting +fields,--for such were the labors of the monks of Citeaux when not +performing their religious exercises. But his disposition was as +beautiful as his person, and he soon won the admiration of his brother +monks, as he had won the affection of the knights of Burgundy. Such was +his physical weakness that "nearly everything he took his stomach +rejected;" and such was the rigor of his austerities that he destroyed +the power of appetite. He could scarcely distinguish oil from wine. He +satisfied his hunger with the Bible, and quenched his thirst with +prayer. In three years he became famous as a saint, and was made Abbot +of Clairvaux,--a new Cistercian convent, in a retired valley which had +been a nest of robbers.</p> + +<p>But his intellect was as remarkable as his piety, and his monastery +became not only a model of monastic life, to which flocked men from all +parts of Europe to study its rules, but the ascetic abbot himself became +an oracle on all the questions of the day. So great was his influence +that when he died, in 1153, he left behind one hundred and sixty +monasteries formed after his model. He became the counsellor of kings +and nobles, bishops and popes. He was summoned to attend councils and +settle quarrels. His correspondence exceeded that of Jerome or Saint +Augustine. He was sought for as bishop in the largest cities of France +and Italy. He ruled Europe by the power of learning and sanctity. He +entered into all the theological controversies of the day. He was the +opponent of Abélard, whose condemnation he secured. He became a great +theologian and statesman, as well as churchman. He incited the princes +of Europe to a new crusade. His eloquence is said to have been +marvellous; even the tones of his voice would melt to pity or excite to +rage. With a long neck, like that of Cicero, and a trembling, emaciated +frame, he preached with passionate intensity. Nobody could resist his +eloquence. He could scarcely stand upright from weakness, yet he could +address ten thousand men. He was an outspoken man, and reproved the +greatest dignitaries with as much boldness as did Savonarola. He +denounced the gluttony of monks, the avarice of popes, and the rapacity +of princes. He held heresy in mortal hatred, like the Fathers of the +fifth century. His hostility to Abélard was direful, since he looked +upon him as undermining Christianity and extinguishing faith in the +world. In his defence of orthodoxy he was the peer of Augustine or +Athanasius. He absolutely abhorred the Mohammedans as the bitterest foes +of Christendom,--the persecutors of pious pilgrims. He wandered over +Europe preaching a crusade. He renounced the world, yet was compelled by +the unanimous voice of his contemporaries to govern the world. He gave a +new impulse to the order of Knights Templars. He was as warlike as he +was humble. He would breathe the breath of intense hostility into the +souls of crusaders, and then hasten back to the desolate and barren +country in which Clairvaux was situated, rebuild his hut of leaves and +boughs, and soothe his restless spirit with the study of the Song of +Songs. Like his age, and like his institution, he was a great +contradiction. The fiercest and most dogmatic of controversialists was +the most gentle and loving of saints. His humanity was as marked as his +fanaticism, and nothing could weaken it,--not even the rigors of his +convent life. He wept at the sorrows of all who sought his sympathy or +advice. On the occasion of his brother's death he endeavored to preach a +sermon on the Canticles, but broke down as Jerome did at the funeral of +Paula. He kept to the last the most vivid recollection of his mother; +and every night, before he went to bed, he recited the seven Penitential +Psalms for the benefit of her soul.</p> + +<p>In his sermons and exhortations Bernard dwelt equally on the wrath of +God and the love of Christ. Said he to a runaway Cistercian, "Thou +fearest watchings, fasts, and manual labor, but these are light to one +who thinks on eternal fire. The remembrance of the outer darkness takes +away all horror from solitude. Place before thine eyes the everlasting +weeping and gnashing of teeth, the fury of those flames which can never +be extinguished" (the essence of the theology of the Middle Ages,--the +fear of Hell, of a physical and eternal Hell of bodily torments, by +which fear those ages were controlled). Bernard, the loveliest +impersonation of virtue which those ages saw, was not beyond their +ideas. He impersonated them, and therefore led the age and became its +greatest oracle. The passive virtues of the Sermon on the Mount were +united with the fiercest passions of religious intolerance and the most +repulsive views of divine vengeance. That is the soul of monasticism, +even as reformed by Harding, Alberic, and Bernard in the twelfth +century, less human than in the tenth century, yet more intellectual.</p> + +<p>The monks of Citeaux, of Morimond, of Pontigny, of Clairvaux, amid the +wastes of a barren country, with their white habits and perpetual vigils +and haircloth shirts and root dinners and hard labors in the field, were +yet the counsellors and ministers of kings and the creators of popes, +and incited the nations to the most bloody and unfortunate wars in the +whole history of society,--I mean the Crusades. Some were great +intellectual giants, yet all repelled scepticism as life repels death; +all dwelt on the sufferings of the cross as a door through which the +penitent and believing could surely enter heaven, yet based the justice +of the infinite Father of Love on what, when it appeals to +consciousness, seems to be the direst injustice. We cannot despise the +Middle Ages, which produced such beatific and exalted saints, but we +pity those dismal times when the great mass of the people had so little +pleasure and comfort in this life, and such gloomy fears of the world to +come; when life was made a perpetual sacrifice and abnegation of all the +pleasures that are given us to enjoy,--to use and not to pervert. Hence +monasticism was repulsive, even in its best ages, to enlightened reason, +and fatal to all progress among nations, although it served a useful +purpose when men were governed by fear alone, and when violence and +strife and physical discomfort and ignorance and degrading superstitions +covered the fairest portion of the earth with a funereal pall for more +than a thousand years.</p> + +<p>The thirteenth century saw a new development of monastic institutions in +the creation of the Mendicant Friars,--especially the Dominicans and +Franciscans,--monks whose mission it was to wander over Europe as +preachers, confessors, and teachers. The Benedictines were too numerous, +wealthy, and corrupt to be reformed. They had become a scandal; they had +lost the confidence of good men. There were needed more active partisans +of the Pope to sustain his authority; the new universities required +abler professors; the cities sought more popular preachers; the great +desired more intelligent confessors. The Crusades had created a new +field of enterprise, and had opened to the eye of Europe a wider horizon +of knowledge. The universities which had grown up around the cathedral +schools had kindled a spirit of inquiry. Church architecture had become +lighter, more cheerful, and more symbolic. The Greek philosophy had +revealed a new method. The doctrines of the Church, if they did not +require a new system, yet needed, or were supposed to need, the aid of +philosophy, for the questions which the schoolmen discussed were so +subtile and intricate that only the logic of Aristotle could make +them clear.</p> + +<p>Now the Mendicant orders entered with a zeal which has never been +equalled, except by the Jesuits, into all the inquiries of the schools, +and kindled a new religious life among the people, like the Methodists +of the last century. They were somewhat similar to the Temperance +reformers of the last fifty years. They were popular, zealous, +intelligent, and religious. So great were their talents and virtues +that they speedily spread over Europe, and occupied the principal +pulpits and the most important chairs in the universities. Bonaventura, +Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus were the great +ornaments of these new orders. Their peculiarity--in contrast with the +old orders--was, that they wandered from city to city and village to +village at the command of their superiors. They had convents, like the +other monks; but they professed absolute poverty, went barefooted, and +submitted to increased rigors. Their vows were essentially those of the +Benedictines. In less than a century, however, they too had degenerated, +and were bitterly reproached for their vagabond habits and the violation +of their vows. Their convents had also become rich, like those of the +Benedictines. It was these friars whom Chaucer ridiculed, and against +whose vices Wyclif declaimed. Yet they were retained by the popes for +their services in behalf of ecclesiastical usurpation. It was they who +were especially chosen to peddle indulgences. Their history is an +impressive confirmation of the tendency of all human institutions to +degenerate. It would seem that the mission of the Benedictines had been +accomplished in the thirteenth century, and that of the Dominicans and +Franciscans in the fourteenth.</p> + +<p>But monasticism, in any of its forms, ceased to have a salutary +influence on society when the darkness of the Middle Ages was +dispersed. It is peculiarly a Mediaeval institution. As a Mediaeval +institution, it conferred many benefits on the semi-barbarians of +Europe. As a whole, considering the shadows of ignorance and +superstition which veiled Christendom, and the evils which violence +produced, its influence was beneficent.</p> + +<p>Among the benefits which monastic institutions conferred, at least +indirectly, may be mentioned the counteracting influence they exerted +against the turbulence and tyranny of baronial lords, whose arrogance +and extortion they rebuked; they befriended the peasantry; they enabled +poor boys to rise; they defended the doctrine that the instructors of +mankind should be taken from all classes alike; they were democratic in +their sympathies, while feudal life produced haughtiness and scorn; they +welcomed scholars from the humblest ranks; they beheld in peasants' +children souls which could be ennobled. Though abbots were chosen +generally from the upper classes, yet the ordinary monks sprang from the +peasantry. For instance, a peasant's family is deprived of its head; he +has been killed while fighting for a feudal lord. The family are doomed +to misery and hardship. No aristocratic tears are shed for them; they +are no better than dogs or cattle. The mother is heartbroken. Not one of +her children can ordinarily rise from their abject position; they can +live and breathe the common air, and that is all. They are unmolested +in their mud huts, if they will toil for the owner of their village at +the foot of the baronial castle. But one of her sons is bright and +religious. He attracts the attention of a sympathetic monk, whose +venerable retreat is shaded with trees, adorned with flowers, and seated +perhaps on the side of a murmuring stream, whose banks have been made +fertile by industry and beautiful with herds of cattle and flocks of +sheep. He urges the afflicted mother to consecrate him to the service of +the Church; and the boy enters the sanctuary and is educated according +to the fashion of the age, growing up a sad, melancholy, austere, and +pharisaical member of the fraternity, whose spirit is buried in a gloomy +grave of ascetic severities, He passes from office to office. In time he +becomes the prior of his convent,--possibly its abbot, the equal of that +proud baron in whose service his father lost his life, the controller of +innumerable acres, the minister of kings. How, outside the Church, could +he thus have arisen? But in the monastery he is enabled, in the most +aristocratic age of the world, to rise to the highest of worldly +dignities. And he is a man of peace and not of war. He hates war; he +seeks to quell dissensions and quarrels. He believes that there is a +higher than the warrior's excellence. Monachism recognized what +feudalism did not,--the claims of man as man. In this respect it was +human and sympathetic. It furnished a retreat from misery and +oppression. It favored contemplative habits and the passive virtues, so +much needed in turbulent times. Whatever faults the monks had, it must +be allowed that they alleviated sufferings, and presented the only +consolation that their gloomy and iron age afforded. In an imperfect +manner their convents answered the purpose of our modern hotels, +hospitals, and schools. It was benevolence, charity, and piety which the +monks aimed to secure, and which they often succeeded in diffusing among +people more wretched and ignorant than themselves.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Saint Bernard's Works, especially the Epistles; Mabillon; Hélyot's +Histoire des Ordres Monastiques; Dugdale's Monasticon; Döring's +Geschichte der Monchsorden; Montalembert's Les Moines d'Occident; +Milman's Latin Christianity; Morison's Life and Times of Saint Bernard; +Lives of the English Saints; Stephen Harding; Histoire d'Abbaye de +Cluny, par M.P. Lorain; Neander's Church History; Butler's Lives of the +Saints; Vaughan's Life of Thomas Aquinas; Digby's Ages of Faith.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="SAINT_ANSELM."></a>SAINT ANSELM.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A. D. 1033-1109.</p> + +<p>MEDIAEVAL THEOLOGY.</p> + +<p>The Middle Ages produced no more interesting man than Anselm, Abbot of +Bec and Archbishop of Canterbury,--not merely a great prelate, but a +great theologian, resplendent in the virtues of monastic life and in +devotion to the interests of the Church. He was one of the first to +create an intellectual movement in Europe, and to stimulate theological +inquiries.</p> + +<p>Anselm was born at Aosta, in Italy, 1033, and he died in 1109, at the +age of 76. He was therefore the contemporary of Hildebrand, of Lanfranc, +of Bérenger, of Roscelin, of Henry IV. of Germany, of William the +Conqueror, of the Countess Matilda, and of Urban II. He saw the first +Crusade, the great quarrel about investitures and the establishment of +the Normans in England. Aosta was on the confines of Lombardy and +Burgundy, in a mountainous district, amid rich cornfields and fruitful +vines and dark, waving chestnuts, in sight of lofty peaks with their +everlasting snow. Anselm belonged to a noble but impoverished family; +his father was violent and unthrifty, but his mother was religious and +prudent. He was by nature a student, and early was destined to monastic +life,--the only life favorable to the development of the intellect in a +rude and turbulent age. I have already alluded to the general ignorance +of the clergy in those times. There were no schools of any note at this +period, and no convents where learning was cultivated beyond the +rudiments of grammar and arithmetic and the writings of the Fathers. The +monks could read and talk in Latin, of a barbarous sort,--which was the +common language of the learned, so far as any in that age could be +called learned.</p> + +<p>The most famous place in Europe, at that time, where learning was +cultivated, was the newly-founded abbey of Bec in Normandy, under the +superintendence of the Archbishop of Rouen, of which Lanfranc of Pavia +was the prior. It was the first abbey in Normandy to open the door of +learning to the young and inquiring minds of Western Europe. It was a +Benedictine abbey, as severe in its rules as that of Clairvaux. It would +seem that the fame of this convent, and of Lanfranc its presiding genius +(afterwards the great Archbishop of Canterbury), reached the ears of +Anselm; so that on the death of his parents he wandered over the Alps, +through Burgundy, to this famous school, where the best teaching of the +day was to be had. Lanfranc cordially welcomed his fellow-countryman, +then at the age of twenty-six, to his retreat; and on his removal three +years afterwards to the more princely abbey of St. Stephen in Caen, +Anselm succeeded him as prior. Fifteen years later he became abbot, and +ruled the abbey for fifteen years, during which time Lanfranc--the +mutual friend of William the Conqueror and the great Hildebrand--became +Archbishop of Canterbury.</p> + +<p>During this seclusion of thirty years in the abbey of Bec, Anselm gave +himself up to theological and philosophical studies, and became known +both as a profound and original thinker and a powerful supporter of +ecclesiastical authority. The scholastic age,--that is, the age of +dialectics, when theology invoked the aid of philosophy to establish the +truths of Christianity,--had not yet begun; but Anselm may be regarded +as a pioneer, the precursor of Thomas Aquinas, since he was led into +important theological controversies to establish the creed of Saint +Augustine. It was not till several centuries after his death, however, +that his remarkable originality of genius was fully appreciated. He +anticipated Descartes in his argument to prove the existence of God. He +is generally regarded as the profoundest intellect among the early +schoolmen, and the most original that appeared in the Church after +Saint Augustine. He was not a popular preacher like Saint Bernard, but +he taught theology with marvellous lucidity to the monks who sought the +genial quiet of his convent. As an abbot he was cheerful and humane, +almost to light-heartedness, frank and kind to everybody,--an exception +to most of the abbots of his day, who were either austere and rigid, or +convivial and worldly. He was a man whom everybody loved and trusted, +yet one not unmindful of his duties as the supreme ruler of his abbey, +enforcing discipline, while favoring relaxation. No monk ever led a life +of higher meditation than he; absorbed not in a dreamy and visionary +piety, but in intelligent inquiries as to the grounds of religious +belief. He was a true scholar of the Platonic and Augustinian school; +not a dialectician like Albertus Magnus and Abélard, but a man who went +beyond words to things, and seized on realities rather than forms; not +given to disputations and the sports of logical tournaments, but to +solid inquiries after truth. The universities had not then arisen, but a +hundred years later he would have been their ornament, like Thomas +Aquinas and Bonaventura.</p> + +<p>Like other Norman abbeys, the abbey of Bec had after the Conquest +received lands in England, and it became one of the duties of the abbot +to look after its temporal interests. Hence Anselm was obliged to make +frequent visits to England, where his friendship with Lanfranc was +renewed, and where he made the acquaintance of distinguished prelates +and abbots and churchmen, among others of Eadmer, his future biographer. +It seems that he also won the hearts of the English nobility by his +gentleness and affability, so that they rendered to him uncommon +attentions, not only as a great ecclesiastic who had no equal in +learning, but as a man whom they could not help loving.</p> + +<p>The life of Anselm very nearly corresponded with that of the Conqueror, +who died in 1087, being five years older; and he was Abbot of Bec during +the whole reign of William as King of England. There was nothing +particularly memorable in his life as abbot aside from his theological +studies. It was not until he was elevated to the See of Canterbury, on +the death of Lanfranc, that his memorable career became historical. He +anticipated Thomas Becket in his contest to secure the liberties of the +Church against the encroachments of the Norman kings. The cause of the +one was the cause of the other; only, Anselm was trained in monastic +seclusion, and Becket amid the tumults and intrigues of a court. The one +was essentially an ecclesiastic and theologian; the other a courtier and +statesman. The former was religious, and the latter secular in his +habits and duties. Yet both fought the same great battle, the essential +principle of which was the object of contention between the popes and +the emperors of Germany,--that pertaining to the right of investiture, +which may be regarded, next to the Crusades, as the great outward event +of the twelfth century. That memorable struggle for supremacy was not +brought to a close until Innocent III made the kings of the earth his +vassals, and reigned without a rival in Christendom. Gregory VII had +fought heroically, but he died in exile, leaving to future popes the +fruit of his transcendent labors.</p> + +<p>Lanfranc died in 1089,--the ablest churchman of the century next to the +great Hildebrand, his master. It was through his influence that England +was more closely allied with Rome, and that those fetters were imposed +by the popes which the ablest of the Norman kings were unable to break. +The Pope had sanctioned the atrocious conquest of England by the +Normans--beneficially as it afterwards turned out--only on the +condition that extraordinary powers should be conferred on the +Archbishop of Canterbury, his representative in enforcing the papal +claims, who thus became virtually independent of the king,--a spiritual +monarch of such dignity that he was almost equal to his sovereign in +authority. There was no such See in Germany and France as that of +Canterbury. Its mighty and lordly metropolitan had the exclusive right +of crowning the king. To him the Archbishop of York, once his equal, +had succumbed. He was not merely primate, but had the supreme control of +the Church in England. He could depose prelates and excommunicate the +greatest personages; he enjoyed enormous revenues; he was vicegerent +of the Pope.</p> + +<p>Loth was William to concede such great powers to the Pope, but he could +not be King of England without making a king of Canterbury. So he made +choice of Lanfranc--then Abbot of St. Stephen, the most princely of the +Norman convents--for the highest ecclesiastical dignity in his realm, +and perhaps in Europe after the papacy itself. Lanfranc was his friend, +and also the friend of Hildebrand; and no collision took place between +them, for neither could do without the other. William was willing to +waive some of his prerogatives as a sovereign for such a kingdom as +England, which made him the most powerful monarch in Western Europe, +since he ruled the fairest part of France and the whole British realm, +the united possession of both Saxons and Danes, with more absolute +authority than any feudal sovereign at that time possessed. His +victorious knights were virtually a standing army, bound to him with +more than feudal loyalty, since he divided among them the lands of the +conquered Saxons, and gave to their relatives the richest benefices of +the Church. With the aid of an Italian prelate, bound in allegiance to +the Pope, he hoped to cement his conquest. Lanfranc did as he +wished,--removed the Saxon bishops, and gave their sees to Normans. +Since Dunstan, no great Saxon bishop had arisen. The Saxon bishops were +feeble and indolent, and were not capable of making an effective +resistance. But Lanfranc was even more able than Dunstan,--a great +statesman as well as prelate. He ruled England as grand justiciary in +the absence of the monarch, and was thus viceregent of the kingdom. But +while he despoiled the Saxon prelates, he would suffer no royal +spoliation of the Norman bishops. He even wrested away from Odo, +half-brother of the Conqueror, the manors he held as Count of Kent, +which originally belonged to the See of Canterbury. Thus was William, +with all his greed and ambition, kept in check by the spiritual monarch +he had himself made so powerful.</p> + +<p>On the death of this great prelate, all eyes were turned to Anselm as +his successor, who was then Abbot of Bec, absorbed in his studies. But +William Rufus, who had in the mean time succeeded to the throne of the +Conqueror, did not at once appoint any one to the vacant See, since he +had seized and used its revenues to the scandal of the nation and the +indignation of the Church. For five years there was no primate in +England and no Archbishop of Canterbury. At last, what seemed to be a +mortal sickness seized the King, and in the near prospect of death he +summoned Anselm to his chamber and conferred upon him the exalted +dignity,--which Anselm refused to accept, dreading the burdens of the +office, and preferring the quiet life of a scholar in his Norman abbey. +Like Thomas Aquinas, in the next century, who refused the archbishopric +of Naples to pursue his philosophical studies in Paris, Anselm declined +the primacy of the Church in England, with its cares and labors and +responsibilities, that he might be unmolested in his theological +inquiries. He understood the position in which he should be placed, and +foresaw that he should be brought in collision with his sovereign if he +would faithfully guard the liberties and interests of the Church. He was +a man of peace and meditation, and hated conflict, turmoil, and active +life. He knew that one of the requirements of a great prelate is to have +business talents, more necessary perhaps than eloquence or learning. At +last, however, on the pressing solicitation of the Pope, the King, and +the clergy, he consented to mount the throne of Lanfranc, on condition +that the temporalities, privileges, and powers of the See of Canterbury +should not be attacked. The crafty and rapacious, but now penitent +monarch, thinking he was about to die, and wishing to make his peace +with Heaven, made all the concessions required; and the quiet monk and +doctor, whom everybody loved and revered, was enthroned and consecrated +as the spiritual monarch of England.</p> + +<p>Anselm's memorable career as bishop began in peace, but was soon clouded +by a desperate quarrel with his sovereign, as he had anticipated. This +learned and peace-loving theologian was forced into a contest which +stands out in history like the warfare between Hildebrand and Henry IV. +It was the beginning of that fierce contest in England which was made +memorable by the martyrdom of Becket. Anselm, when consecrated, was +sixty years of age,--a period of life when men are naturally timid, +cautious, and averse to innovations, quarrels, and physical discomforts.</p> + +<p>The friendly relations between William Rufus and Anselm were disturbed +when the former sought to exact large sums of money from his subjects to +carry on war against his brother Robert. Among those who were expected +to make heavy contributions, in the shape of presents, was the +Archbishop of Canterbury, whose revenues were enormous,--perhaps the +largest in the realm next to those of the King. Anselm offered as his +contribution five hundred marks, what would now be equal to £10,000,--a +large sum in those days, but not as much as the Norman sovereign +expected. In indignation he refused the present, which seemed to him +meagre, especially since it was accompanied with words of seeming +reproof; for Anselm had said that "a free gift, which he meant this to +be, was better than a forced and servile contribution." The King then +angrily bade him begone; "that he wanted neither his money nor his +scolding." The courtiers tried to prevail on the prelate to double the +amount of his present, and thus regain the royal favor; but he firmly +refused to do this, since it looked to him like a corrupt bargain. +Anselm, having distributed among the poor the money which the King had +refused, left the court as soon as the Christmas festival was over and +retired to his diocese, preserving his independence and dignity.</p> + +<p>A breach had not been made, but the irritation was followed by coolness; +and this was increased when Anselm desired to have the religious posts +filled the revenues of which the King had too long enjoyed, and when, in +addition, he demanded a council of bishops to remedy the disorders and +growing evils of the kingdom. This council the angry King refused with a +sneer, saying, "he would call the council when he himself pleased, not +when Anselm pleased." As to the filling the vacancies of the abbeys, he +further replied: "What are abbeys to <i>you</i>? Are they not <i>mine</i>? Go and +do what you like with your farms, and I will do what I please with my +abbeys." So they parted, these two potentates, the King saying to his +companions, "I hated him yesterday; I hate him more to-day; and I shall +hate him still more to-morrow. I refuse alike his blessings and his +prayers." His chief desire now was to get rid of the man he had elevated +to the throne of Canterbury. It may be observed that it was not the Pope +who made this appointment, but the King of England. Yet, by the rules +long established by the popes and accepted by Christendom, it was +necessary that an archbishop, before he could fully exercise his +spiritual powers, should go to Rome and receive at the hands of the Pope +his <i>pallium</i>, or white woollen stole, as the badge of his office and +dignity. Lanfranc had himself gone to Rome for this purpose,--and a +journey from Canterbury to Rome in the eleventh century was no small +undertaking, being expensive and fatiguing. But there were now at Rome +two rival popes. Which one should Anselm recognize? France and Normandy +acknowledged Urban. England was undecided whether it should be Urban or +Clement. William would probably recognize the one that Anselm did not, +for a rupture was certain, and the King sought for a pretext.</p> + +<p>So when the Archbishop asked leave of the King to go to Rome, according +to custom, William demanded to know to which of these two popes he would +apply for his pallium. "To Pope Urban," was the reply. "But," said the +King, "him I have not acknowledged; and no man in England may +acknowledge a pope without my leave." At first view the matter was a +small one comparatively, whether Urban was or was not the true pope. +The real point was whether the King of England should accept as pope the +man whom the Archbishop recognized, or whether the Archbishop should +acknowledge him whom the King had accepted. This could be settled only +by a grand council of the nation, to whom the matter should be +submitted,--virtually a parliament. This council, demanded by Anselm, +met in the royal castle of Rockingham, 1095, composed of nobles, +bishops, and abbots. A large majority of the council were in the +interests of the King, and the subject at issue was virtually whether +the King or the prelate was supreme in spiritual matters,--a point which +the Conqueror had ceded to Lanfranc and Hildebrand. This council +insulted and worried the primate, and sought to frighten him into +submission. But submission was to yield up the liberties of the Church. +The intrepid prelate was not prepared for this, and he appealed from the +council to the Pope, thereby putting himself in antagonism to the King +and a majority of the peers of the realm. The King was exasperated, but +foiled, while the council was perplexed. The Bishop of Durham saw no +solution but in violence; but violence to the metropolitan was too bold +a measure to be seriously entertained. The King hoped that Anselm would +resign, as his situation was very unpleasant.</p> + +<p>But resignation would be an act of cowardice, and would result in the +appointment of an archbishop favorable to the encroachments of the King, +who doubtless aimed at the subversion of the liberties of the Church and +greater independence. Five centuries later the sympathies of England +would have been on his side. But the English nation felt differently in +the eleventh century. All Christendom sympathized with the Pope; for +this resistance of Anselm to the King was the cause of the popes +themselves against the monarchs of Europe. Anselm simply acted as the +vicegerent of the Pope. To submit to the dictation of the King in a +spiritual matter was to undermine the authority of Rome. I do not +attempt to settle the merits of the question, but only to describe the +contest. To settle the merits of such a question is to settle the +question whether the papal power in its plenitude was good or evil for +society in the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>One thing seems certain, that the King was thus far foiled by the +firmness of a churchman,--the man who had passed the greater part of his +life in a convent, studying and teaching theology; one of the mildest +and meekest men ever elevated to high ecclesiastical office. Anselm was +sustained by the power of conscience, by an imperative sense of duty, by +allegiance to his spiritual head. He indeed owed fealty to the King, but +only for the temporalities of his See. His paramount obligations as an +archbishop were, according to all the ideas of his age, to the supreme +pontiff of Christendom. Doubtless his life would have been easier and +more pleasant had he been more submissive to the King. He could have +brought all the bishops, as well as barons, to acknowledge the King's +supremacy; but on his shoulders was laid the burden of sustaining +ecclesiastical authority in England. He had anticipated this burden, and +would have joyfully been exempted from its weight. But having assumed +it, perhaps against his will, he had only one course to pursue, +according to the ideas of the age; and this was to maintain the supreme +authority of the Pope in England in all spiritual matters. It was +remarkable that at this stage of the contest the barons took his side, +and the bishops took the side of the King. The barons feared for their +own privileges should the monarch be successful; for they knew his +unscrupulous and tyrannical character,--that he would encroach on these +and make himself as absolute as possible. The bishops were weak and +worldly men, and either did not realize the gravity of the case or +wished to gain the royal favor. They were nearly all Norman nobles, who +had been under obligations to the crown.</p> + +<p>The King, however, understood and appreciated his position. He could not +afford to quarrel with the Pope; he dared not do violence to the primate +of the realm. So he dissembled his designs and restrained his wrath, and +sought to gain by cunning what he could not openly effect by the +exercise of royal power. He sent messengers and costly gifts to Rome, +such as the needy and greedy servants of the servants of God rarely +disdained. He sought to conciliate the Pope, and begged, as a favor, +that the pallium should be sent to him as monarch, and given by him, +with the papal sanction, to the Archbishop,--the name of Anselm being +suppressed. This favor, being bought by potent arguments, was granted +unwisely, and the pallium was sent to William with the greatest secrecy. +In return, the King acknowledged the claims of Urban as pope. So Anselm +did not go to Rome for the emblem of his power.</p> + +<p>The King, having succeeded thus far, then demanded of the Pope the +deposition of Anselm. He could not himself depose the archbishop. He +could elevate him, but not remove him; he could make, but not unmake. +Only he who held the keys of Saint Peter, who was armed with spiritual +omnipotence, could reverse his own decrees and rule arbitrarily. But for +any king to expect that the Pope would part with the ablest defender of +the liberties of the Church, and disgrace him for being faithful to +papal interests, was absurd. The Pope may have used smooth words, but +was firm in the uniform policy of all his predecessors.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile political troubles came so thick and heavy on the King, some +of his powerful nobles being in open rebellion, that he felt it +necessary to dissemble and defer the gratification of his vengeance on +the man he hated more than any personage in England. He pretended to +restore Anselm to favor. "Bygones should be bygones." The King and the +Archbishop sat at dinner at Windsor with friends and nobles, while an +ironical courtier pleasantly quoted the Psalmist, "Behold, how good and +how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"</p> + +<p>The King now supposed that Anselm would receive the pallium at his royal +hands, which the prelate warily refused to accept. The subject was +carefully dropped, but as the pallium was Saint Peter's gift, it was +brought to Canterbury and placed upon the altar, and the Archbishop +condescended, amid much pomp and ceremony, to take it thence and put it +on,--a sort of puerile concession for the sake of peace. The King, too, +wishing conciliation for the present, until he had gained the possession +of Normandy from his brother Robert, who had embarked in the Crusades, +and feeling that he could ill afford to quarrel with the highest +dignitary of his kingdom until his political ambition was gratified, +treated Anselm with affected kindness, until his ill success with the +Celtic Welsh put him in a bad humor and led to renewed hostility. He +complained that Anselm had not furnished his proper contingent of forces +for the conquest of Wales, and summoned him to his court. In a secular +matter like this, Anselm as a subject had no remedy. Refusal to appear +would be regarded as treason and rebellion. Yet he neglected to obey the +summons, perhaps fearing violence, and sought counsel from the Pope. He +asked permission to go to Rome. The request was angrily refused. Again +he renewed his request, and again it was denied him, with threats if he +departed without leave. The barons, now against him, thought he had no +right to leave his post; the bishops even urged him not to go. To all of +whom he replied: "You wish me to swear that I will not appeal to Saint +Peter. To swear this is to forswear Saint Peter; to forswear Saint Peter +is to forswear Christ." At last it seems that the King gave a reluctant +consent, but with messages that were insulting; and Anselm, with a +pilgrim's staff, took leave of his monks, for the chapter of Canterbury +was composed of monks, set out for Dover, and reached the continent +in safety.</p> + +<p>"Thus began," says Church, "the system of appeals to Rome, and of +inviting foreign interference in the home affairs of England; and Anselm +was the beginning of it." But however unfortunate it ultimately proved, +it was in accordance with the ideas and customs of the Middle Ages, +without which the papal power could not have been so successfully +established. And I take the ground that the Papacy was an institution of +which very much may be said in its favor in the dark ages of European +society, especially in restraining the tyranny of kings and the +turbulence of nobles. Governments are based on expediencies and changing +circumstances, not on immutable principles or divine rights. If this be +not true, we are driven to accept as the true form of government that +which was recognized by Christ and his disciples. The feudal kings of +Europe claimed a "divine right," and professed to reign by the "grace of +God." Whence was this right derived? If it can be substantiated, on what +claim rests the sovereignty of the people? Are not popes and kings and +bishops alike the creation of circumstances, good or evil inventions, as +they meet the wants of society?</p> + +<p>Anselm felt himself to be the subject of the Pope as well as of the +King, but that, as a priest, his supreme allegiance should be given to +the Pope, as the spiritual head of the Church and vicegerent of Christ +upon the earth. We differ from him in his view of the claims of the +Pope, which he regarded as based on immutable truth and the fiat of +Almighty power,--even as Richelieu looked upon the imbecile king whom he +served as reigning by divine right. The Protestant Reformation +demolished the claims of the spiritual potentate, as the French +Revolution swept away the claims of the temporal monarch. The "logic of +events" is the only logic which substantiates the claims of rulers; and +this logic means, in our day, constitutional government in politics and +private judgment in religion,--the free choice of such public servants, +whatever their titles of honor, in State and Church, as the exigencies +and circumstances of society require. The haughtiest of the popes, in +the proudest period of their absolute ascendancy, never rejected their +early title,--"servant of the servants of God." Wherever there is real +liberty among the people, whose sovereignty is acknowledged as the +source of power, the ruler <i>is</i> a servant of the people and not their +tyrant, however great the authority which they delegate to him, which +they alone may continue or take away. Absolute authority, delegated to +kings or popes by God, was the belief of the Middle Ages; limited +authority, delegated to rulers by the people, is the idea of our times. +What the next invention in government may be no one can tell; but +whatever it be, it will be in accordance with the ideas and altered +circumstances of progressive ages. No one can anticipate or foresee the +revolutions in human thought, and therefore in human governments, "till +He shall come whose right it is to reign."</p> + +<p>Taking it, then, to be the established idea of the Middle Ages that all +ecclesiastics owed supreme allegiance to the visible head of the Church, +no one can blame Anselm for siding with the Pope, rather than with his +sovereign, in spiritual matters. He would have been disloyal to his +conscience if he had not been true to his clerical vows of obedience. +Conscience may be unenlightened, yet take away the power of conscience +and what would become of our world? What is a man without a conscience? +He is a usurper, a tyrant, a libertine, a spendthrift, a robber, a +miser, an idler, a trifler,--whatever he is tempted to be; a supreme +egotist, who says in his heart, "There is no God." The Almighty Creator +placed this instinct in the soul of man to prevent the total eclipse of +faith, and to preserve some allegiance to Him, some guidance in the +trials and temptations of life. We lament a perverted conscience; yet +better this than no conscience at all, a voice silenced by the combined +forces of evil. A man <i>must</i> obey this voice. It is the wisdom of the +ages to make it harmonious with eternal right; it is the power of God to +remove or weaken the assailing forces which pervert or silence it.</p> + +<p>See, then, this gentle, lovable, and meditative scholar--not haughty +like Dunstan, not arrogant like Becket, not sacerdotal like Ambrose, not +passionate like Chrysostom, but meek as Moses is said to have been +before Pharaoh (although I never could see this distinguishing trait in +the Hebrew leader)--yet firmly and heroically braving the wrath of the +sovereign who had elevated him, and pursuing his toilsome journey to +Rome to appeal to justice against injustice, to law against violence. +He reached the old capital of the world in midwinter, after having spent +Christmas in that hospitable convent where Hildebrand had reigned, and +which was to shield the persecuted Abélard from the wrath of his +ecclesiastical tormentors. He was most honorably received by the Pope, +and lodged in the Lateran, as the great champion of papal authority. +Vainly did he beseech the Pope to relieve him from his dignities and +burdens; for such a man could not be spared from the exalted post in +which he had been placed. Peace-loving as he was, his destiny was to +fight battles.</p> + +<p>In the following year Pope Urban died; and in the following year William +Rufus himself was accidentally killed in the New Forest. His death was +not much lamented, he having proved hard, unscrupulous, cunning, and +tyrannical. At this period the kings of England reigned with almost +despotic power, independent of barons and oppressive to the people. +William had but little regard for the interests of the kingdom. He built +neither churches nor convents, but Westminster Hall was the memorial of +his iron reign.</p> + +<p>Much was expected of Henry I., who immediately recalled Anselm from +Lyons, where he was living in voluntary exile. He returned to +Canterbury, with the firm intention of reforming the morals of the +clergy and resisting royal encroachments. Henry was equally resolved on +making bishops as well as nobles subservient to him. Of course harmony +and concord could not long exist between such men, with such opposite +views. Even at the first interview of the King with the Archbishop at +Salisbury, he demanded a renewal of homage by a new act of investiture, +which was virtually a continuance of the quarrel. It was, however, +mutually agreed that the matter should be referred to the new pope. +Anselm, on his part, knew that the appeal was hopeless; while the King +wished to gain time. It was not long before the answer of Pope Pascal +came. He was willing that Henry should have many favors, but not this. +Only the head of the Church could bestow the emblems of spiritual +authority. On receiving the papal reply the King summoned his nobles and +bishops to his court, and required that Anselm should acknowledge the +right of the King to invest prelates with the badges of spiritual +authority. The result was a second embassy to the Pope, of more +distinguished persons,--the Archbishop of York and two other prelates. +The Pope, of course, remained inflexible. On the return of the envoys a +great council was assembled in London, and Anselm again was required to +submit to the King's will. It seems that the Pope, from motives of +policy (for all the popes were reluctant to quarrel with princes), had +given the envoys assurance that, so long as Henry was a good king, he +should not be disturbed, and that oral declarations were contrary to his +written documents.</p> + +<p>This contradiction and double dealing required a new embassy to Rome; +but in the mean time the King gave the See of Salisbury to his +chancellor, and that of Hereford to the superintendent of his larder. +When the answer of the Pope was finally received, it was found that he +indignantly disavowed the verbal message, and excommunicated the three +prelates as liars. But the King was not disconcerted. He suddenly +appeared at Canterbury, and told Anselm that further opposition would be +followed by the royal enmity; yet, mollifying his wrath, requested +Anselm himself to go to Rome and do what he could with the Pope. Anselm +assured him that he could do nothing to the prejudice of the Church. He +departed, however, the King obviously wishing him out of the way.</p> + +<p>The second journey of Anselm to Rome was a perpetual ovation, but was of +course barren of results. The Pope remained inflexible, and Anselm +prepared to return to England; but, from the friendly hints of the +prelates who accompanied him, he sojourned again at Lyons with his +friend the archbishop. Both the Pope and the King had compromised; +Anselm alone was straightforward and fearless. As a consequence his +revenues were seized, and he remained in exile. He had been willing to +do the Pope's bidding, had he made an exception to the canons; but so +long as the law remained in force he had nothing to do but conform to +it. He remained in Lyons a year and a half, while Henry continued his +negotiations with Pascal; but finding that nothing was accomplished, +Anselm resolved to excommunicate his sovereign. The report of this +intention alarmed Henry, then preparing for a decisive conflict with his +brother Robert. The excommunication would at least be inconvenient; it +might cost him his crown. So he sought an interview with Anselm at the +castle of l'Aigle, and became outwardly reconciled, and restored to him +his revenues.</p> + +<p>"The end of the dreary contest came at last, in 1107, after vexatious +delays and intrigues." It was settled by compromise,--as most quarrels +are settled, as most institutions are established. Outwardly the King +yielded. He agreed, in an assembly of nobles, bishops, and abbots at +London, that henceforth no one should be invested with bishopric or +abbacy, either by king or layman, by the customary badges of ring and +crosier. Anselm, on his part, agreed that no prelate should be refused +consecration who was nominated by the King. The appointment of bishops +remained with the King; but the consecration could be withheld by the +primate, since he alone had the right to give the badges of office, +without which spiritual functions could not be lawfully performed. It +was a moral victory to the Church, but the victory of an unpopular +cause. It cemented the power of the Pope, while freedom from papal +interference has ever been dear to the English nation.</p> + +<p>When Anselm had fought this great fight he died, 1109, in the sixteenth +year of his reign as primate of the Church in England, and was buried, +next to Lanfranc, in his abbey church. His career outwardly is memorable +only for this contest, which was afterwards renewed by Thomas Becket +with a greater king than either William Rufus or Henry I. It is +interesting, since it was a part of the great struggle between the +spiritual and temporal powers for two hundred years,--from Hildebrand to +Innocent III. This was only one of the phases of the quarrel,--one of +the battles of a long war,--not between popes and emperors, as in +Germany and Italy, but between a king and the vicegerent of a pope; a +king and his subject, the one armed with secular, the other with +spiritual, weapons. It was only brought to an end by an appeal to the +fears of men,--the dread of excommunication and consequent torments in +hell, which was the great governing idea of the Middle Ages, the means +by which the clergy controlled the laity. Abused and perverted as this +idea was, it indicates and presupposes a general belief in the +personality of God, in rewards and punishments in a future state, and +the necessity of conforming to the divine laws as expounded and +enforced by the Christian Church. Hence the dark ages have been called +"Ages of Faith."</p> + +<p>It now remains to us to contemplate Anselm as a theologian and +philosopher,--a more interesting view, for in this aspect his character +is more genial, and his influence more extended and permanent. He is one +of the first who revived theological studies in Europe. He did not teach +in the universities as a scholastic doctor, but he was one who prepared +the way for universities by the stimulus he gave to philosophy. It was +in his abbey of Bec that he laid the foundation of a new school of +theological inquiry. In original genius he was surpassed by no +scholastic in the Middle Ages, although both Abélard and Thomas Aquinas +enjoyed a greater fame. It was for his learning and sanctity that he was +canonized,--and singularly enough by Alexander VI., the worst pope who +ever reigned. Still more singular is it that the last of his successors, +as abbot of Bec, was the diplomatist Talleyrand,--one of the most +worldly and secular of all the ecclesiastical dignitaries of an +infidel age.</p> + +<p>The theology of the Middle Ages, of which Anselm was one of the greatest +expounders, certainly the most profound, was that which was systematized +by Saint Augustine from the writings of Paul. Augustine was the oracle +of the Latin Church until the Council of Trent, and nominally his +authority has never been repudiated by the Catholic Church. But he was +no more the father of the Catholic theology than he was of the +Protestant, as taught by John Calvin: these two great theologians were +in harmony in all essential doctrines as completely as were Augustine +and Anselm, or Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. The doctrines of theology, +as formulated by Augustine, were subjects of contemplation and study in +all the convents of the Middle Ages. In spite of the prevailing +ignorance, it was impossible that inquiring men, "secluded in gloomy +monasteries, should find food for their minds in the dreary and +monotonous duties to which monks were doomed,--a life devoted to +alternate manual labor and mechanical religious services." There would +be some of them who would speculate on the lofty subjects which were the +constant themes of their meditations. Bishops were absorbed in their +practical duties as executive rulers. Village priests were too ignorant +to do much beyond looking after the wants of hinds and peasants. The +only scholarly men were the monks. And although the number of these was +small, they have the honor of creating the first intellectual movement +since the fall of the Roman Empire. They alone combined leisure with +brain-work. These intellectual and inquiring monks, as far back as the +ninth century speculated on the great subjects of Christian faith with +singular boldness, considering the general ignorance which veiled +Europe in melancholy darkness. Some of them were logically led "to a +secret mutiny and insurrection" against the doctrines which were +universally received. This insurrection of human intelligence gave great +alarm to the orthodox leaders of the Church; and to suppress it the +Church raised up conservative dialecticians as acute and able as those +who strove for emancipation. At first they used the weapons of natural +reason, but afterwards employed the logic and method of Aristotle, as +translated into Latin from the Arabic, to assist them in their +intellectual combats. Gradually the movement centred in the scholastic +philosophy, as a bulwark to Catholic theology. But this was nearly a +hundred years after the time of Anselm, who himself was not enslaved by +the technicalities of a complicated system of dialectics.</p> + +<p>Naturally the first subject which was suggested to the minds of +inquiring monks was the being and attributes of God. He was the +beginning and end of their meditations. It was to meditate upon God that +the Oriental recluse sought the deserts of Asia Minor and Egypt. Like +the Eastern monk of the fourth century, he sought to know the essence +and nature of the Deity he worshipped. There arose before his mind the +great doctrines of the trinity, the incarnation, and redemption. Closely +connected with these were predestination and grace, and then "fixed +fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute." On these mysteries he could +not help meditating; and with meditation came speculation on +unfathomable subjects pertaining to God and his relations with man, to +the nature of sin and its penalty, to the freedom of the will, and +eternal decrees.</p> + +<p>The monk became first a theologian and then a philosopher, whether of +the school of Plato or of Aristotle he did not know. He began to +speculate on questions which had agitated the Grecian schools,--the +origin of evil and of matter; whether the world was created or +uncreated; whether there is a distinction between things visible and +invisible; whether we derive our knowledge from sensation or reflection; +whether the soul is necessarily immortal; how free-will is to be +reconciled with God's eternal decrees, or what the Greeks called Fate; +whether ideas are eternal, or are the creation of our own minds. These, +and other more subtile questions--like the nature of angels--began to +agitate the convent in the ninth century.</p> + +<p>It was then that the monk Gottschalk revived the question of +predestination, which had slumbered since the time of Saint Augustine. +Although the Bishop of Hippo was the oracle of the Church, and no one +disputed his authority, it would seem that his characteristic +doctrine,--that of grace; the essential doctrine of Luther also,--was +never a favorite one with the great churchmen of the Middle Ages. They +did not dispute Saint Augustine, but they adhered to penances and +expiations, which entered so largely into the piety of the Middle Ages. +The idea of penances and expiations, pushed to their utmost logical +sequence, was salvation by works and not by faith. Grace, as understood +by the Fathers, was closely allied to predestination; it disdained the +elaborate and cumbrous machinery of ecclesiastical discipline, on which +the power of the clergy was based. Grace was opposed to penance, while +penance was the form which religion took; and as predestination was a +theological sequence of grace, it was distasteful to the Mediaeval +Church. Both grace and predestination tended to undermine the system of +penance then universally accepted. The great churchmen of the Middle +Ages were plainly at war with their great oracle in this matter, without +being fully aware of their real antagonism. So they made an onslaught on +Gottschalk, as opposed to those ideas on which sacerdotal power +rested,--especially did Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, the greatest +prelate of that age. Persecuted, Gottschalk appealed to reason rather +than authority, thus anticipating Luther by five hundred years,--an +immense heresy in the Middle Ages. Hincmar, not being able to grapple +with the monk in argument, summoned to his aid the brightest intellect +of that century,--the first man who really gave an impulse to +philosophical inquiries in the Middle Ages, the true founder of +scholasticism.</p> + +<p>This man was John Scotus Erigena,--or John the Erin-born,--who was also +a monk, and whose early days had been spent in some secluded monastery +in Ireland, or the Scottish islands. Somehow he attracted the attention +of Charles the Bald, A.D. 843, and became his guest and chosen +companion. And yet, while he lived in the court, he spent the most of +his time in intellectual seclusion. As a guest of the king he may have +become acquainted with Hincmar, or his acquaintance with Hincmar may +have led to his friendship with Charles. He was witty, bright, and +learned, like Abélard, a favorite with the great. In his treatise on +Predestination, in which he combated the views of Gotschalk, he probably +went further than Hincmar desired or expected: he boldly asserted the +supremacy of reason, and threw off the shackles of authority. He +combated Saint Augustine as well as Gottschalk. He even aspired to +reconcile free-will with the divine sovereignty,--the great mistake of +theologians in every age, the most hopeless and the most ambitious +effort of human genius,--a problem which cannot be solved. He went even +further than this: he attempted to harmonize philosophy with religion, +as Abélard did afterwards. He brought all theological questions to the +test of dialectical reasoning. Thus the ninth century saw a rationalist +and a pantheist at the court of a Christian king. Like Democritus, he +maintained the eternity of matter. Like a Buddhist, he believed that God +is all things and all things are God. Such doctrines were not to be +tolerated, even in an age when theological speculations did not usually +provoke persecution. Religious persecution for opinions was the fruit of +subsequent inquiries, and did not reach its height until the Dominicans +arose in the thirteenth century. But Erigena was generally denounced; he +fell under the censure of the Pope, and was obliged to fly, taking +refuge about the year 882 in England,--it is said at Oxford, where there +was probably a cathedral school, but not as yet a university, with its +professors' chairs and scholastic honors. Others suppose that he died in +Paris, 891.</p> + +<p>A spirit of inquiry having been thus awakened among a few intellectual +monks, they began to speculate about those questions which had agitated +the Grecian schools: whether <i>genera</i> and <i>species</i>--called +"universals," or ideas--have a substantial and independent existence, or +whether they are the creation of our own minds; whether, if they have a +real existence, they are material or immaterial essences; whether they +exist apart from objects perceptible by the senses. It is singular that +such questions should have been discussed in the ninth century, since +neither Plato nor Aristotle were studied. That age was totally ignorant +of Greek. It may be doubted whether there was a Greek scholar in Western +Europe,--or even in Rome.</p> + +<p>No very remarkable man arose with a rationalizing spirit, after Erigena, +until Berengar of Tours in the eleventh century, who maintained that in +the Sacrament the presence of the body of Christ involves no change in +the nature and essence of the bread and wine. He was opposed by +Lanfranc. But the doctrine of transubstantiation was too deeply grounded +in the faith of Christendom to be easily shaken. Controversies seemed to +centre around the doctrine of the real existence of ideas,--what are +called "universals,"--which doctrine was generally accepted. The monks, +in this matter, followed Saint Augustine, who was a realist, as were +also the orthodox leaders of the Church generally from his time to that +of Saint Bernard. It was a sequence of the belief in the doctrine of +the Trinity.</p> + +<p>No one of mark opposed the Realism which had now become one of the +accepted philosophical opinions of the age, until Roscelin, in the +latter part of the eleventh century, denied that universals have a real +existence. It was Plato's doctrine that universals have an independent +existence apart from individual objects, and that they exist before the +latter (<i>universalia</i> ANTE <i>rem</i>,--the thought <i>before</i> the thing); +while Aristotle maintained that universals, though possessing a real +existence, exist only in individual objects (<i>universalia</i> IN <i>re</i>, +--the thought <i>in</i> the thing). Nominalism is the doctrine that +individuals only have real existence (<i>universalia</i> POST <i>rem</i>,--the +thought <i>after</i> the thing).</p> + +<p>It is not probable that this profound question about universals would +have excited much interest among the intellectual monks of the eleventh +century, had it not been applied to theological subjects, in which +chiefly they were absorbed. Now Roscelin advanced the doctrine, that, if +the three persons in the Trinity were one thing, it would follow that +the Father and the Holy Ghost must have entered into the flesh together +with the Son; and as he believed that only individuals exist in reality, +it would follow that the three persons of the Godhead are three +substances, in fact three Gods. Thus Nominalism logically led to an +assault on the received doctrine of the Trinity--the central point in +the theology of the Church. This was heresy. The foundations of +Christian belief were attacked, and no one in that age was strong enough +to come to the rescue but Anselm, then Abbot of Bec.</p> + +<p>His great service to the cause of Christian theology, and therefore to +the Church universal, was his exposition of the logical results of the +Nominalism of Roscelin,--to whom universals, or ideas, were merely +creations of the mind, or conventional phrases, having no real +existence. Hence such things as love, friendship, beauty, justice, were +only conceptions. Plato and Augustine maintained that they are eternal +verities, not to be explained by definitions, appealing to +consciousness, in the firm belief in which the soul sustains itself; +that there can be no certain knowledge without a recognition of these; +that from these only sound deductions of moral truth can be drawn; that +without a firm belief in these eternal certitudes there can be no repose +and no lofty faith. These ideas are independent of us. They do not vary +with our changing sensations; they have nothing to do with sensation. +They are not creations of the brain; they inherently exist, from all +eternity. The substance of these ideas is God; without these we could +not conceive of God. Augustine especially, in the true spirit of +Platonism, abhorred doctrines which made the existence of God depend +upon our own abstractions. To him there was a reality in love, in +friendship, in justice, in beauty; and he repelled scepticism as to +their eternal existence, as life repels death.</p> + +<p>Roscelin took away the platform from whose lofty heights Socrates and +Plato would survey the universe. He attacked the citadel in which +Augustine intrenched himself amid the desolations of a dissolving world; +he laid the axe at the root of the tree which sheltered all those who +would fly from uncertainty and despair.</p> + +<p>But if these ideas were not true, what was true; on what were the hopes +of the world to be based; where was consolation for the miseries of life +to be found? "There are many goods," says Anselm, "which we +desire,--some for utility, and others for beauty; but all these goods +are relative,--more or less good,--and imply something absolutely good. +This absolute good--the <i>summum bonum</i>--is God. In like manner all that +is great and high are only relatively great and high; and hence there +must be something absolutely great and high, and this is God. There must +exist at least one being than which no other is higher; hence there must +be but one such being,--and this is God."</p> + +<p>It was thus that Anselm brought philosophy to the support of theology. +He would combat the philosophical reasonings of Roscelin with still +keener dialectics. He would conquer him on his own ground and with his +own weapons.</p> + +<p>Let it not be supposed that this controversy about universals was a mere +dialectical tournament, with no grand results. It goes down to the root +of almost every great subject in philosophy and religion. The denial of +universal ideas is rationalism and materialism in philosophy, as it is +Pelagianism and Arminianism in theology. The Nominalism of Roscelin +reappeared in the Rationalism of Abélard; and, carried out to its +severe logical sequences, is the refusal to accept any doctrine which +cannot be proved by reason. Hence nothing is to be accepted which is +beyond the province of reason to explain; and hence nothing is to be +received by faith alone. Christianity, in the hands of fearless and +logical nominalists, would melt away,--that is, what is peculiar in its +mysterious dogmas. Its mysterious dogmas were the anchors of belief in +ages of faith. It was these which animated the existence of such men as +Augustine, Bernard, Anselm, and Thomas Aquinas. Hence their terrible +antagonism even to philosophical doctrines which conflicted with the +orthodox belief, on which, as they thought, the salvation of +mankind rested.</p> + +<p>But Anselm did not rest with combating the Nominalism of Roscelin. In +the course of his inquiries and arguments he felt it necessary to +establish the belief in God--the one great thing from which all other +questions radiated--by a new argument, and on firmer ground than that on +which it had hitherto rested. He was profoundly devotional as well as +logical, and original as he was learned. Beyond all the monks of his age +he lived in the contemplation of God. God was to him the essence of all +good, the end of all inquiries, the joy and repose of his soul He could +not understand unless he <i>first</i> believed; knowledge was the <i>fruit</i> of +faith, not its <i>cause</i>. The idea of God in the mind of man is the +highest proof of the existence of God. That only is real which appeals +to consciousness. He did not care to reason about a thing when reasoning +would not strengthen his convictions, perhaps involve him in doubts and +perplexities. Reason is finite and clouded and warped. But that which +directly appeals to consciousness (as all that is eternal must appeal), +and to that alone, like beauty and justice and love,--ultimate ideas to +which reasoning and definitions add nothing,--is to be received as a +final certitude. Hence, absolute certainty of the existence of God, as +it appeals to consciousness,--like the "<i>Cogito, ergo sum</i>." In this +argument he anticipated Descartes, and proved himself the profoundest +thinker of his century, perhaps of five centuries.</p> + +<p>The deductions which Anselm made from the attributes of God and his +moral government seem to have strengthened the belief of the Middle Ages +in some theological aspects which are repulsive to consciousness,--his +stronghold; thereby showing how one-sided any deductions are apt to be +when pushed out to their utmost logical consequences; how they may even +become a rebuke to human reason in those grand efforts of which reason +is most proud, for theology, it must be borne in mind, is a science of +deductions from acknowledged truths of revelation. Hence, from the +imperfections of reason, or from disregard of other established truths, +deductions may be pushed to absurdity even when logical, and may be made +to conflict with the obvious meaning of primal truths from which these +deductions are made, or at least with those intuitions which are hard to +be distinguished from consciousness itself. There may be no flaw in the +argument, but the argument may land one in absurdity and contradiction. +For instance, from the acknowledged sinfulness of human nature--one of +the cardinal declarations of Scripture, and confirmed by universal +experience--and the equally fundamental truth that God is infinite, +Anselm assumed the dogma that the guilt of men as sinners against an +infinite God is infinitely great. From this premise, which few in his +age were disposed to deny, for it was in accordance with Saint +Augustine, it follows that infinite sin, according to eternal justice, +could only be atoned for by an infinite punishment. Hence all men +deserve eternal punishment, and must receive it, unless there be made an +infinite satisfaction or atonement, since not otherwise can divine love +be harmonized with divine justice. Hence it was necessary that the +eternal Son should become man, and make, by his voluntary death on the +cross, the necessary atonement for human sins. Pushed out to the +severest logical consequences, it would follow, that, as an infinite +satisfaction has atoned for sin, <i>all</i> sinners are pardoned. But the +Church shrank from such a conclusion, although logical, and included in +the benefits of the atonement only the <i>believing</i> portion of mankind. +The discrepancy between the logical deductions and consciousness, and I +may add Scripture, lies in assuming that human guilt <i>is infinitely</i> +great. It is thus that theology became complicated, even gloomy, and in +some points false, by metaphysical reasonings, which had such a charm +both to the Fathers and the Schoolmen. The attempt to reconcile divine +justice with divine love by metaphysics and abstruse reasoning proved as +futile as the attempt to reconcile free-will with predestination; for +divine justice was made by deduction, without reference to other +attributes, to conflict with those ideas of justice which consciousness +attests,--even as a fettered will, of which all are conscious (that is, +a will fettered by sin), was pushed out by logical deductions into +absolute slavery and impotence.</p> + +<p>Anselm did not carry out metaphysical reasonings to such lengths as did +the Schoolmen who succeeded him,--those dialecticians who lived in +universities in the thirteenth century. He was a devout man, who +meditated on God and on revealed truth with awe and reverence, without +any desire of system-making or dialectical victories. This desire more +properly marked the Scholastic doctors of the universities in a +subsequent age, when, though philosophy had been invoked by Anselm to +support theology, they virtually made theology subordinate to philosophy. +It was his main effort to establish, on rational grounds, the existence +of God, and afterwards the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. +And yet with Anselm and Roscelin the Scholastic age began. They were the +founders of the Realists and the Nominalists,--those two schools which +divided the Church in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and which +will probably go on together, under different names, as long as men shall +believe and doubt. But this subject, on which I have only entered, must +be deferred to the next lecture.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Church's Life of Saint Anselm; Neander's Church History; Milman's +History of the Latin Church; Stockl's History of the Philosophy of the +Middle Ages; Ueberweg's History of Philosophy; Wordsworth's +Ecclesiastical Biography; Trench's Mediaeval Church History; Digby's +Ages of Faith; Fleury's Ecclesiastical History; Dupin's Ecclesiastical +History; Biographie Universelle; M. Rousselot's Histoire de la +Philosophic du Moyen Age; Newman's Mission of the Benedictine Order; +Dugdale's Monasticon; Hallam's Literature of Europe; Hampden's article +on the Scholastic Philosophy, in Encyclopaedia Metropolitana.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="THOMAS_AQUINAS."></a>THOMAS AQUINAS.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1225(7)-1274.</p> + +<p>THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.</p> + +<p>We have seen how the cloister life of the Middle Ages developed +meditative habits of mind, which were followed by a spirit of inquiry on +deep theological questions. We have now to consider a great intellectual +movement, stimulated by the effort to bring philosophy to the aid of +theology, and thus more effectually to battle with insidious and rising +heresies. The most illustrious representative of this movement was +Thomas of Aquino, generally called Thomas Aquinas. With him we associate +the Scholastic Philosophy, which, though barren in the results at which +it aimed, led to a remarkable intellectual activity, and hence, +indirectly, to the emancipation of the mind. It furnished teachers who +prepared the way for the great lights of the Reformation.</p> + +<p>Anselm had successfully battled with the rationalism of Roscelin, and +also had furnished a new argument for the existence of God. He secured +the triumph of Realism for a time and the apparent extinction of +heresy. But a new impulse to thought was given, soon after his death, by +a less profound but more popular and brilliant man, and, like him, a +monk. This was the celebrated Peter Abélard, born in the year 1079, in +Brittany, of noble parents, and a boy of remarkable precocity. He was a +sort of knight-errant of philosophy, going from convent to convent and +from school to school, disputing, while a mere youth, with learned +teachers, wherever he could find them. Having vanquished the masters in +the provincial schools, he turned his steps to Paris, at that time the +intellectual centre of Europe. The university was not yet established, +but the cathedral school of Notre Dame was presided over by William of +Champeaux, who defended the Realism of Anselm.</p> + +<p>To this famous cathedral school Abélard came as a pupil of the veteran +dialectician at the age of twenty, and dared to dispute his doctrines. +He soon set up as a teacher himself; but as Notre Dame was interdicted +to him he retired to Melun, ten leagues from Paris, where enthusiastic +pupils crowded to his lecture room, for he was witty, bold, sarcastic, +acute, and eloquent. He afterwards removed to Paris, and so completely +discomfited his old master that he retired from the field. Abélard then +applied himself to the study of divinity, and attended the lectures of +Anselm of Laon, who, though an old man, was treated by Abélard with +great flippancy and arrogance. He then began to lecture on divinity as +well as philosophy, with extraordinary <i>éclat</i>. Students flocked to his +lecture room from all parts of Germany, Italy, France, and England. It +is said that five thousand young men attended his lectures, among whom +one hundred were destined to be prelates, including that brilliant and +able Italian who afterwards reigned as Innocent III. It was about this +time, 1117, when he was thirty-eight, that he encountered Héloïse,--a +passage of his life which will be considered in a later volume of this +work. His unfortunate love and his cruel misfortune led to a temporary +seclusion in a convent, from which, however, he issued to lecture with +renewed popularity in a desert place in Champagne, where he constructed +a vast edifice and dedicated it to the Paraclete. It was here that his +most brilliant days were spent. It is said that three thousand pupils +followed him to this wilderness. He was doubtless the most brilliant and +successful lecturer that the Middle Ages ever saw. He continued the +controversy which was begun by Roscelin respecting universals, the +reality of which he denied.</p> + +<p>Abélard was not acquainted with the Greek, but in a Latin translation +from the Arabic he had studied Aristotle, whom he regarded as the great +master of dialectics, although not making use of his method, as did the +great Scholastics of the succeeding century. Still, he was among the +first to apply dialectics to theology. He maintained a certain +independence of the patristic authority by his "Sic et Non," in which +treatise he makes the authorities neutralize each other by placing side +by side contradictory assertions. He maintained that the natural +propensity to evil, in consequence of the original transgression, is not +in itself sin; that sin consists in consenting to evil. "It is not," +said he, "the temptation to lust that is sinful, but the acquiescence in +the temptation;" hence, that virtue cannot be tested without +temptations; consequently, that moral worth can only be truly estimated +by God, to whom motives are known,--in short, that sin consists in the +intention, and not in act. He admitted with Anselm that faith, in a +certain sense, precedes knowledge, but insisted that one must know why +and what he believes before his faith is established; hence, that faith +works itself out of doubt by means of rational investigation.</p> + +<p>The tendency of Abélard's teachings was rationalistic, and therefore he +arrayed against himself the great champion of orthodoxy in his +day,--Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, the most influential churchman +of his age, and the most devout and lofty. His immense influence was +based on his learning and sanctity; but he was dogmatic and intolerant. +It is probable that the intellectual arrogance of Abélard, his flippancy +and his sarcasms, offended more than the matter of his lectures. "It is +not by industry," said he, "that I have reached the heights of +philosophy, but by force of genius." He was more admired by young and +worldly men than by old men. He was the admiration of women, for he was +poet as well as philosopher. His love-songs were scattered over Europe. +With a proud and aristocratic bearing, severe yet negligent dress, +beautiful and noble figure, musical and electrical voice, added to the +impression he made by his wit and dialectical power, no man ever +commanded greater admiration from those who listened to him. But he +excited envy as well as admiration, and was probably misrepresented by +his opponents. Like all strong and original characters, he had bitter +enemies as well as admiring friends; and these enemies exaggerated his +failings and his heretical opinions. Therefore he was summoned before +the Council of Soissons, and condemned to perpetual silence. From this +he appealed to Rome, and Rome sided with his enemies. He found a +retreat, after his condemnation, in the abbey of Cluny, and died in the +arms of his friend Peter the Venerable, the most benignant ecclesiastic +of the century, who venerated his genius and defended his orthodoxy, and +whose influence procured him absolution from the Pope.</p> + +<p>But whatever were the faults of Abélard; however selfish he was in his +treatment of Héloïse, or proud and provoking to adversaries, or even +heretical in many of his doctrines, especially in reference to faith, +which he is accused of undermining, although he accepted in the main the +received doctrines of the Church, certainly in his latter days, when he +was broken and penitent (for no great man ever suffered more humiliating +misfortunes),--one thing is clear, that he gave a stimulus to +philosophical inquiries, and awakened a desire of knowledge, and gave +dignity to human reason, beyond any man in the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>The dialectical and controversial spirit awakened by Abélard led to such +a variety of opinions among the inquiring young men who assembled in +Paris at the various schools, some of which were regarded as +rationalistic in their tendency, or at least a departure from the +patristic standard, that Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris, collected in +four books the various sayings of the Fathers concerning theological +dogmas. He was also influenced to make this exposition by the "Sic et +Non" of Abélard, which tended to unsettle belief. This famous manual, +called the "Book of Sentences," appeared about the middle of the twelfth +century, and had an immense influence. It was the great text-book of the +theological schools.</p> + +<p>About the time this book appeared the works of Aristotle were introduced +to the attention of students, translated into Latin from the Saracenic +language. Aristotle had already been commented upon by Arabian scholars +in Spain,--among whom Averroes, a physician and mathematician of +Cordova, was the most distinguished,--who regarded the Greek philosopher +as the founder of scientific knowledge. His works were translated from +the Greek into the Arabic in the early part of the ninth century.</p> + +<p>The introduction of Aristotle led to an extension of philosophical +studies. From the time of Charlemagne only grammar and elementary logic +and dogmatic theology had been taught, but Abélard introduced dialectics +into theology. A more complete method was required than that which the +existing schools furnished, and this was supplied by the dialectics of +Aristotle. He became, therefore, at the close of the twelfth century, an +acknowledged authority, and his method was adopted to support the dogmas +of the Church.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the press of students at Paris, collected into various +schools,--the chief of which were the theological school of Notre Dame, +and the school of logic at Mount Geneviève, where Abélard had +lectured,--demanded a new organization. The teachers and pupils of these +schools then formed a corporation called a university (<i>Universitas +Magistrorum et Scholarium</i>), under the control of the chancellor and +chapter of Notre Dame, whose corporate existence was secured from +Innocent III. a few years afterwards.</p> + +<p>Thus arose the University of Paris at the close of the twelfth century, +or about the beginning of the thirteenth, soon followed in different +parts of Europe by other universities, the most distinguished of which +were those of Oxford, Bologna, Padua, and Salamanca. But that of Paris +took the lead, this city being the intellectual centre of Europe even at +that early day. Thither flocked young men from Germany, England, and +Italy, as well as from all parts of France, to the number of twenty-five +or thirty thousand. These students were a motley crowd: some of them +were half-starved youth, with tattered clothes, living in garrets and +unhealthy cells; others again were rich and noble,--but all were eager +for knowledge. They came to Paris as pilgrims flocked to Jerusalem, +being drawn by the fame of the lecturers. The old sleepy schools of the +convents were deserted, for who would go to Fulda or York or Citeaux, +when such men as Abélard, Albert, and Victor were dazzling enthusiastic +youth by their brilliant disputations? These young men also seem to have +been noisy, turbulent, and dissipated for the most part, "filling the +streets with their brawls and the taverns with the fumes of liquor. +There was no such thing as discipline among them. They yelled and +shouted and brandished daggers, fought the townspeople, and were free +with their knocks and blows." They were not all youth; many of them were +men in middle life, with wives and children. At that time no one +finished his education at twenty-one; some remained scholars until the +age of thirty-five.</p> + +<p>Some of these students came to study medicine, others law, but more +theology and philosophy. The headquarters of theology was the Sorbonne, +opened in 1253,--a college founded by Robert Sorbon, chaplain of the +king, whose aim was to bring together the students and professors, +heretofore scattered throughout the city. The students of this college, +which formed a part of the university, under the rule of the chancellor +of Notre Dame, it would seem were more orderly and studious than the +other students. They arose at five, assisted at Mass at six, studied +till ten,--the dinner hour; from dinner till five they studied or +attended lectures; then went to supper,--the principal meal; after which +they discussed problems till nine or ten, when they went to bed. The +students were divided into <i>hospites</i> and <i>socii</i>, the latter of whom +carried on the administration. The lectures were given in a large hall, +in the middle of which was the chair of the master or doctor, while +immediately below him sat his assistant, the bachelor, who was going +through his training for a professorship. The chair of theology was the +most coveted honor of the university, and was reached only by a long +course of study and searching examinations, to which no one could aspire +but the most learned and gifted of the doctors. The students sat around +on benches, or on the straw. There were no writing-desks. The teaching +was oral, principally by questions and answers. Neither the master nor +the bachelor used a book. No reading was allowed. The students rarely +took notes or wrote in short-hand; they listened to the lectures and +wrote them down afterwards, so far as their memory served them. The +usual text-book was the "Book of Sentences," by Peter Lombard. The +bachelor, after having previously studied ten years, was obliged to go +through a three years' drill, and then submit to a public examination in +presence of the whole university before he was thought fit to teach. He +could not then receive his master's badge until he had successfully +maintained a public disputation on some thesis proposed; and even then +he stood no chance of being elevated to a professor's chair unless he +had lectured for some time with great <i>éclat</i> Even Albertus Magnus, +fresh with the laurels of Cologne, was compelled to go through a three +years' course as a sub-teacher at Paris before he received his doctor's +cap, and to lecture for some years more as master before his +transcendent abilities were rewarded with a professorship. The dean of +the faculty of theology was chosen by the suffrages of the doctors.</p> + +<p>The <i>Organum</i> (philosophy of first principles) of Aristotle was first +publicly taught in 1215. This was certainly in advance of the seven +liberal arts which were studied in the old Cathedral schools,--grammar, +rhetoric, and dialectic (Trivium); and arithmetic, geometry, music, and +astronomy (Quadrivium),--for only the elements of these were taught. But +philosophy and theology, under the teaching of the Scholastic doctors +(<i>Doctores Scholastici</i>), taxed severely the intellectual powers. When +they introduced dialectics to support theology a more severe method was +required. "The method consisted in connecting the doctrine to be +expounded with a commentary on some work chosen for the purpose. The +contents were divided and subdivided, until the several propositions of +which it was composed were reached. Then these were interpreted, +questions were raised in reference to them, and the grounds of affirming +or denying were presented. Then the decision was announced, and in case +this was affirmative, the grounds of the negative were confuted."</p> + +<p>Aristotle was made use of in order to reduce to scientific form a body +of dogmatic teachings, or to introduce a logical arrangement. Platonism, +embraced by the early Fathers, was a collection of abstractions and +theories, but was deficient in method. It did not furnish the weapons to +assail heresy with effect. But Aristotle was logical and precise and +passionless. He examined the nature of language, and was clear and +accurate in his definitions. His logic was studied with the sole view +of learning to use polemical weapons. For this end the syllogism was +introduced, which descends from the universal to the particular, by +deduction,--connecting the general with the special by means of a middle +term which is common to both. This mode of reasoning is opposite to the +method by induction, which rises to the universal from a comparison of +the single and particular, or, as applied in science, from a collection +and collation of facts sufficient to form a certainty or high +probability. A sound special deduction can be arrived at only by logical +inference from true and certain general principles.</p> + +<p>This is what Anselm essayed to do; but the Schoolmen who succeeded +Abélard often drew dialectical inferences from what appeared to be true, +while some of them were so sophistical as to argue from false premises. +This syllogistic reasoning, in the hands of an acute dialectician, was +very efficient in overthrowing an antagonist, or turning his position +into absurdity, but not favorable for the discovery of truth, since it +aimed no higher than the establishment of the particulars which were +included in the doctrine assumed or deduced from it. It was reasoning in +perpetual circles; it was full of quibbles and sophistries; it was +ingenious, subtle, acute, very attractive to the minds of that age, and +inexhaustible from divisions and subdivisions and endless +ramifications. It made the contests of the schools a dialectical display +of remarkable powers in which great interest was felt, yet but little +knowledge was acquired. In one respect the Scholastic doctors rendered a +service: they demolished all dreamy theories and poured contempt on +mystical phrases. They insisted, like Socrates, on a definite meaning to +words. If they were hair-splitting in their definitions and +distinctions, they were at least clear and precise. Their method was +scientific. Such terms and expressions as are frequently used by our +modern transcendental philosophers would have been laughed to scorn by +the Schoolmen. No system of philosophy can be built up when words have +no definite meaning. This Socrates was the first to inculcate, and +Aristotle followed in his steps.</p> + +<p>With the Crusades arose a new spirit, which gave an impulse to +philosophy as well as to art and enterprise. "The <i>primum mobile</i> of the +new system was Motion, in distinction from the Rest which marked the old +monastic retreats." An immense enthusiasm for knowledge had been kindled +by Abélard, which was further intensified by the Scholastic doctors of +the thirteenth century, especially such of them as belonged to the +Dominican and Franciscan friars.</p> + +<p>These celebrated Orders arose at a great crisis in the Papal history, +when rival popes aspired to the throne of Saint Peter, when the Church +was rent with divisions, when princes were contending for the right of +investiture, and when heretical opinions were defended by men of genius. +At this crisis a great Pope was called to the government of the +Church,--Innocent III., under whose able rule the papal power +culminated. He belonged to an illustrious Roman family, and received an +unusual education, being versed in theology, philosophy, and canon law. +His name was Lothario, of the family of the Conti; he was nephew of a +pope, and counted three cardinals among his relatives. At the age of +twenty-one, about the year 1181, he was one of the canons of Saint +Peter's Church; at twenty-four he was sent by the Pope on important +missions. In 1188 he was created cardinal by his uncle, Clement III.; +and in 1198 he was elected Pope, at the age of thirty-eight, when the +Crusades were at their height, when the south of France was agitated by +the opinions of the Albigenses, and the provinces on the Rhine by those +of the Waldenses. It was a turbulent age, full of tumults, +insurrections, wars, and theological dissensions. The old Benedictine +monks had lost their influence, and were disgraced by idleness and +gluttony, while the secular clergy were ignorant and worldly. Innocent +cast his eagle eye into all the abuses which disgraced the age and +Church, and made fearless war upon those princes who usurped his +prerogatives. He excommunicated princes, humbled the Emperor of Germany +and the King of England, put kingdoms under interdict, exempted abbots +from the jurisdiction of bishops, punished heretics, formed crusades, +laid down new canons, regulated taxes, and directed all ecclesiastical +movements. His activity was ceaseless, and his ambition was boundless. +He instituted important changes, and added new orders of monks to the +Church. It was this Pope who instituted auricular confession, and laid +the foundation of a more dreadful spiritual despotism in the form of +inquisitions.</p> + +<p>Yet while he ruled tyrannically, his private life was above reproach. +His habits were simple and his tastes were cultivated. He was charitable +and kind to the poor and unfortunate. He spent his enormous revenues in +building churches, endowing hospitals, and rewarding learned men; and +otherwise showed himself the friend of scholars, and the patron of +benevolent movements. He was a reformer of abuses, publishing the most +severe acts against venality, and deciding quarrels on principles of +justice. He had no dramatic conflicts like Hildebrand, for his authority +was established. As the supreme guardian of the interests of the Church +he seldom made demands which he had not the power to enforce. John of +England attempted resistance, but was compelled to submit. Innocent +even gave the archbishopric of Canterbury to one of his cardinals, +Stephen Langton, against the wishes of a Norman king. He took away the +wife of Philip Augustus; he nominated an emperor to the throne of +Constantine; he compelled France to make war on England, and incited the +barons to rebellion against John. Ten years' civil war in Germany was +the fruit of his astute policy, and the only great failure of his +administration was that he could not exempt Italy from the dominion of +the Emperors of Germany, thus giving rise to the two great political +parties of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,--the Guelphs and +Ghibellines.</p> + +<p>To cement his vast spiritual power he encouraged what doubtless seemed +even to him a great fanaticism, but which he found could be turned to +his advantage,--that of the Mendicant Friars, established by Saint +Francis of Assisi, and Saint Dominic of the great family of the Guzmans +in Spain. These men made substantially the same offers to the Pope that +Ignatius Loyola did in after times,--to go where they were sent as +teachers, preachers, and missionaries without condition or reward. They +renounced riches, professed absolute poverty, and wandered from village +to city barefooted, and subsisting entirely on alms as beggars. The +Dominican friar in his black habit, and the Franciscan in his gray, +became the ablest and most effective preachers of the thirteenth +century. The Dominicans confined their teachings to the upper classes, +and became their favorite confessors. They were the most learned men of +the thirteenth century, and also the most reproachless in morals. The +Franciscans were itinerary preachers to the common people, and created +among them the same religious revival that the Methodists did later in +England under the guidance of Wesley. The founder of the Franciscans was +a man who seemed to be "inebriated with love," so unquenchable was his +charity, rapt his devotions, and supernal his sympathy. He found his way +to Rome in the year 1215, and in twenty-two years after his death there +were nine thousand religious houses of his Order. In a century from his +death the friars numbered one hundred and fifty thousand. The increase +of the Dominicans was not so rapid, but more illustrious men belonged to +this institution. It is affirmed that it produced seventy cardinals, +four hundred and sixty bishops, and four popes.</p> + +<p>It was in the palmy days of these celebrated monks, before corruption +had set in, that the Dominican Order was recruited with one of the most +extraordinary men of the Middle Ages. This man was Saint Thomas, born +1225 or 1227, son of a Count of Aquino in the kingdom of Naples, known +in history as Thomas Aquinas, "the most successful organizer of +knowledge," says Archbishop Trench, "the world has known since +Aristotle." He was called "the angelical doctor," exciting the +enthusiasm of his age for his learning and piety and genius alike. He +was a prodigy and a marvel of dialectical skill, and Catholic writers +have exhausted language to find expressions for their admiration. Their +Lives of him are an unbounded panegyric for the sweetness of his temper, +his wonderful self-control, his lofty devotion to study, his +indifference to praises and rewards, his spiritual devotion, his loyalty +to the Church, his marvellous acuteness of intellect, his industry, and +his unparalleled logical victories. When he was five years of age his +father, a noble of very high rank, sent him to Monte Cassino with the +hope that he would become a Benedictine monk, and ultimately abbot of +that famous monastery, with the control of its vast revenues and +patronage. Here he remained seven years, until the convent was taken and +sacked by the soldiers of the Emperor Frederic in his war with the Pope. +The young Aquino returned to his father's castle, and was then sent to +Naples to be educated at the university, living in a Benedictine abbey, +and not in lodgings like other students. The Dominicans and Franciscans +held chairs in the university, one of which was filled with a man of +great ability, whose preaching and teaching had such great influence on +the youthful Thomas that he resolved to join the Order, and at the age +of seventeen became a Dominican friar, to the disappointment of his +family. His mother Theodora went to Naples to extricate him from the +hands of the Dominicans, who secretly hurried him off to Rome and +immured him in their convent, from which he was rescued by violence. But +the youth persisted in his intentions against the most passionate +entreaties of his mother, made his escape, and was carried back to +Naples. The Pope, at the solicitation of his family, offered to make him +Abbot of Monte Cassino, but he remained a poor Dominican. His superior, +seeing his remarkable talents, sent him to Cologne to attend the +lectures of Albertus Magnus, then the most able expounder of the +Scholastic Philosophy, and the oracle of the universities, who continued +his lectures after he was made a bishop, and even until he was +eighty-five. When Albertus was transferred from Cologne to Paris, where +the Dominicans held two chairs of theology, Thomas followed him, and +soon after was made bachelor. Again was Albert sent back to Cologne, and +Thomas was made his assistant professor. He at once attracted attention, +was ordained priest, and became as famous for his sermons as for his +lectures. After four years at Cologne Thomas was ordered back to Paris, +travelling on foot, and begging his way, yet stopping to preach in the +large cities. He was still magister and Albert professor, but had +greatly distinguished himself by his lectures.</p> + +<p>His appearance at this time was marked. His body was tall and massive, +but spare and lean from fasting and labor. His eyes were bright, but +their expression was most modest. His face was oblong, his complexion +sallow; his forehead depressed, his head large, his person erect.</p> + +<p>His first great work was a commentary of about twelve hundred pages on +the "Book of Sentences," in the Parma edition, which was received with +great admiration for its logical precision, and its opposition to the +rationalistic tendencies of the times. In it are discussed all the great +theological questions treated by Saint Augustine,--God, Christ, the Holy +Spirit, grace, predestination, faith, free-will, Providence, and the +like,--blended with metaphysical discussions on the soul, the existence +of evil, the nature of angels, and other subjects which interested the +Middle Ages. Such was his fame and dialectical skill that he was taken +away from his teachings and sent to Rome to defend his Order and the +cause of orthodoxy against the slanders of William of Saint Amour, an +aristocratic doctor, who hated the Mendicant Friars and their wandering +and begging habits. William had written a book called "Perils," in which +he exposed the dangers to be apprehended from the new order of monks, +in which he proved himself a true prophet, for ultimately the Mendicant +Friars became subjects of ridicule and reproach. But the Pope came to +the rescue of his best supporters.</p> + +<p>On the return of Thomas to Paris he was made doctor of theology, at the +same time with Bonaventura the Franciscan, called "the seraphic doctor," +between whom and Thomas were intimate ties of friendship. He had now +reached the highest honor that the university could bestow, which was +conferred with such extraordinary ceremony that it would seem to have +been a great event in Paris at that time.</p> + +<p>His fame chiefly rests on the ablest treatise written in the Middle +Ages,--the "Summa Theologica,"--in which all the great questions in +theology and philosophy are minutely discussed, in the most exhaustive +manner. He took the side of the Realists, his object being to uphold +Saint Augustine. He was more a Platonist in his spirit than an +Aristotelian, although he was indebted to Aristotle for his method. He +appealed to both reason and authority. He presented the Christian +religion in a scientific form. His book is an assimilation of all that +is precious in the thinking of the Church. If he learned many things at +Paris, Cologne, and Naples, he was also educated by Chrysostom, by +Augustine, and Ambrose. "It is impossible," says Cardinal Newman, and no +authority is higher than his, "to read the <i>Catena</i> of Saint Thomas +without being struck by the masterly skill with which he put it +together. A learning of the highest kind,--not mere literary book +knowledge which may have supplied the place of indexes and tables in +ages destitute of these helps, and when they had to be read in +unarranged and fragmentary manuscripts, but a thorough acquaintance with +the whole range of ecclesiastical antiquity, so as to be able to bring +the substance of all that had been written on any point to bear upon the +text which involved it,--a familiarity with the style of each writer so +as to compress in a few words the pith of the whole page, and a power of +clear and orderly arrangement in this mass of knowledge, are qualities +which make this <i>Catena</i> nearly perfect as an interpretation of +Patristic literature." Dr. Vaughan, in eulogistic language, says: "The +'Summa Theologica' may be likened to one of the great cathedrals of the +Middle Ages, infinite in detail but massive in the grouping of pillars +and arches, forming a complete unity that must have taxed the brain of +the architect to its greatest extent. But greater as work of intellect +is this digest of all theological richness for one thousand years, in +which the thread of discourse is never lost sight of, but winds through +a labyrinth of important discussions and digressions, all bearing on the +fundamental truths which Paul declared and Augustine systematized."</p> + +<p>This treatise would seem to be a thesaurus of both Patristic and +Mediaeval learning; not a dictionary of knowledge, but a system of truth +severely elaborated in every part,--a work to be studied by the +Mediaeval students as Calvin's "Institutes" were by the scholars of the +Reformation, and not far different in its scope and end; for the +Patristic, the Mediaeval, and the Protestant divines did not materially +differ in reference to the fundamental truths pertaining to God, the +Incarnation, and Redemption. The Catholic and Protestant divines differ +chiefly on the ideas pertaining to government and ecclesiastical +institutions, and the various inventions of the Middle Ages to uphold +the authority of the Church, not on dogmas strictly theological. A +student in theology could even in our times sit at the feet of Thomas +Aquinas, as he could at the feet of Augustine or Calvin; except that in +the theology which Thomas Aquinas commented upon there is a cumbrous +method, borrowed from Aristotle, which introduced infinite distinctions +and questions and definitions and deductions and ramifications which +have no charm to men who have other things to occupy their minds than +Scholastic subtilties, acute and logical as they may be. Thomas Aquinas +was raised to combat, with the weapons most esteemed in his day, the +various forms of Rationalism, Pantheism, and Mysticism which then +existed, and were included in the Nominalism of his antagonists. And as +long as universities are centres of inquiry the same errors, under other +names, will have to be combated, but probably not with the same methods +which marked the teachings of the "angelical doctor." In demolishing +errors and systematizing truth he was the greatest benefactor to the +cause of "orthodoxy" that appeared in Europe for several centuries, +admired for his genius as much as Spencer and other great lights of +science are in our day, but standing preeminent and lofty over all, like +a beacon light to give both guidance and warning to inquiring minds in +every part of Christendom. Nor could popes and sovereigns render too +great honor to such a prodigy of genius. They offered him the abbacy of +Monte Cassino and the archbishopric of Naples, but he preferred the life +of a quiet student, finding in knowledge and study, for their own sake, +the highest reward, and pursuing his labors without the <i>impedimenta</i> of +those high positions which involve ceremonies and cares and pomps, yet +which most ambitious men love better than freedom, placidity, and +intellectual repose. He lived not in a palace, as he might have lived, +surrounded with flatterers, luxuries, and dignities, but in a cell, +wearing his simple black gown, and walking barefooted wherever he went, +begging his daily bread according to the rules of his Order. His black +gown was not an academic badge, but the Dominican dress. His only badge +of distinction was the doctors' cap.</p> + +<p>Dr. Vaughan, in his heavy and unartistic life of Thomas Aquinas, has +drawn a striking resemblance between Plato and the Mediaeval doctor: +"Both," he says, "were nobly born, both were grave from youth, both +loved truth with an intensity of devotion. If Plato was instructed by +Socrates, Aquinas was taught by Albertus Magnus; if Plato travelled into +Italy, Greece, and Egypt, Aquinas went to Cologne, Naples, Bologna, and +Rome; if Plato was famous for his erudition, Aquinas was no less noted +for his universal knowledge. Both were naturally meek and gentle; both +led lives of retirement and contemplation; both loved solitude; both +were celebrated for self-control; both were brave; both held their +pupils spell-bound by their brilliant mental gifts; both passed their +time in lecturing to the schools (what the Pythagoreans were to Plato, +the Benedictines were to the angelical); both shrank from the display of +self; both were great dialecticians; both reposed on eternal ideas; both +were oracles to their generation." But if Aquinas had the soul of Plato, +he also had the scholastic gifts of Aristotle, to whom the Church is +indebted for method and nomenclature as it was to Plato for synthesis +and that exalted Realism which went hand in hand with Christianity. How +far he was indebted to Plato it is difficult to say. He certainly had +not studied his dialectics through translations or in the original, but +had probably imbibed the spirit of this great philosopher through Saint +Augustine and other orthodox Fathers who were his admirers.</p> + +<p>Although both Plato and Aristotle accepted "universals" as the +foundation of scientific inquiry, the former arrived at them by +consciousness, and the other by reasoning. The spirit of the two great +masters of thought was as essentially different as their habits and +lives. Plato believed that God governed the world; Aristotle believed +that it was governed by chance. The former maintained that mind is +divine and eternal; the latter that it is a form of the body, and +consequently mortal. Plato thought that the source of happiness was in +virtue and resemblance to God; while Aristotle placed it in riches and +outward prosperity. Plato believed in prayer; but Aristotle thought that +God would not hear or answer it, and therefore that it was useless. +Plato believed in happiness after death; while Aristotle supposed that +death ended all pleasure. Plato lived in the world of abstract ideas; +Aristotle in the realm of sense and observation. The one was religious; +the other secular and worldly. With both the passion for knowledge was +boundless, but they differed in their conceptions of knowledge; the one +basing it on eternal ideas and the deductions to be drawn from them, +and the other on physical science,--the phenomena of Nature,--those +things which are cognizable by the senses. The spiritual life of Plato +was "a longing after love and of eternal ideas, by the contemplation of +which the soul sustains itself and becomes participant in immortality." +The life of Aristotle was not spiritual, but intellectual. He was an +incarnation of mere intellect, the architect of a great temple of +knowledge, which received the name of <i>Organum</i>, or the philosophy of +first principles.</p> + +<p>Thomas Aquinas, we may see from what has been said, was both Platonic +and Aristotelian. He resembled Plato in his deep and pious meditations +on the eternal realities of the spiritual world, while in the severity +of his logic he resembled Aristotle, from whom he learned precision of +language, lucidity of statement, and a syllogistic mode of argument well +calculated to confirm what was already known, but not to make +attainments in new fields of thought or knowledge. If he was gentle and +loving and pious like Plato, he was also as calm and passionless as +Aristotle.</p> + +<p>This great man died at the age of forty-eight, in the year 1274, a few +years after Saint Louis, before his sum of theology was completed. He +died prematurely, exhausted by his intense studies; leaving, however, +treatises which filled seventeen printed folio volumes,--one of the most +voluminous writers of the world. His fame was prodigious, both as a +dialectician and a saint, and he was in due time canonized as one of the +great pillars of the Church, ranking after Chrysostom, Jerome, +Augustine, and Gregory the Great,--the standard authority for centuries +of the Catholic theology.</p> + +<p>The Scholastic Philosophy, which culminated in Thomas Aquinas, +maintained its position in the universities of Europe until the +Reformation, but declined in earnestness. It descended to the discussion +of unimportant and often frivolous questions. Even the "angelical +doctor" is quoted as discussing the absurd question as to how many +angels could dance together on the point of a needle. The play of words +became interminable. Things were lost sight of in a barbarous jargon +about questions which have no interest to humanity, and which are +utterly unintelligible. At the best, logical processes can add nothing +to the ideas from which they start. When these ideas are lofty, +discussion upon them elevates the mind and doubtless strengthens its +powers. But when the subjects themselves are frivolous, the logical +tournaments in their defence degrade the intellect and narrow it. +Nothing destroys intellectual dignity more effectually than the waste of +energies in the defence of what is of no practical utility, and which +cannot be applied to the acquisition of solid knowledge. Hence the +Scholastic Philosophy did not advance knowledge, since it did not seek +the acquisition of new truths, but only the establishment of the old. +Its utility consisted in training the human mind to logical reasonings. +It exercised the intellect and strengthened it, as gymnastics do the +body, without enlarging it. It was nothing but barren dialectics,--"dry +bones," a perpetual fencing. The soul cries out for bread; the +Scholastics gave it a stone.</p> + +<p>We are amazed that intellectual giants, equal to the old Greeks in +acuteness and logical powers, could waste their time on the frivolous +questions and dialectical subtilties to which they devoted their mighty +powers. However interesting to them, nothing is drier and duller to us, +nothing more barren and unsatisfying, than their logical sports. Their +treatises are like trees with endless branches, each leading to new +ramifications, with no central point in view, and hence never finished, +and which might be carried on <i>ad infinitum</i>. To attempt to read their +disquisitions is like walking in labyrinths of ever-opening intricacies. +By such a method no ultimate truth could be arrived at, beyond what was +assumed. There is now and then a man who professes to have derived light +and wisdom from those dialectical displays, since they were doubtless +marvels of logical precision and clearness of statement. But in a +practical point of view those "masterpieces of logic" are utterly +useless to most modern inquirers. These are interesting only as they +exhibit the waste of gigantic energies; they do not even have the merit +of illustrative rhetoric or eloquence. The earlier monks were devout and +spiritual, and we can still read their lofty meditations with profit, +since they elevate the soul and make it pant for the beatitudes of +spiritual communion with God. But the writings of the Scholastic doctors +are cold, calm, passionless, and purely intellectual,--logical without +being edifying. We turn from them, however acute and able, with blended +disappointment and despair. They are fig-trees, bearing nothing but +leaves, such as our Lord did curse. The distinctions are simply +metaphysical, and not moral.</p> + +<p>Why the whole force of an awakening age should have been devoted to such +subtilties and barren discussion it is difficult to see, unless they +were found useful in supporting a theology made up of metaphysical +deductions rather than an interpretation of the meaning of Scripture +texts. But there was then no knowledge of Greek or Hebrew; there was no +exegetical research; there was no science and no real learning. There +was nothing but theology, with the exception of Lives of the Saints. The +horizon of human inquiries was extremely narrow. But when the minds of +very intellectual men were directed to one particular field, it would be +natural to expect something remarkable and marvellously elaborate of +its kind. Such was the Scholastic Philosophy. As a mere exhibition of +dialectical acumen, minute distinctions, and logical precision in the +use of words, it was wonderful. The intricacy and detail and +ramifications of this system were an intellectual feat which astonishes +us, yet which does not instruct us, certainly outside of a metaphysical +divinity which had more charm to the men of the Middle Ages than it can +have to us, even in a theological school where dogmatic divinity is made +the most important study. The day will soon come when the principal +chair in the theological school will be for the explanation of the +Scripture texts on which dogmas are based; and for this, great learning +and scholarship will be indispensable. To me it is surprising that +metaphysics have so long retained their hold on the minds of Protestant +divines. Nothing is more unsatisfactory, and to many more repulsive, +than metaphysical divinity. It is a perversion of the spirit of +Christian teachings. "What says our Lord?" should be the great inquiry +in our schools of theology; not, What deductions can be drawn from them +by a process of ingenious reasoning which often, without reference to +other important truths, lands one in absurdities, or at least in +one-sided systems?</p> + +<p>But the metaphysical divinity of the Schoolmen had great attractions to +the students of the Middle Ages. And there must have been something in +it which we do not appreciate, or it would not have maintained itself in +the schools for three hundred years. Perhaps it was what those ages +needed,--the discipline through which the mind must go before it could +be prepared for the scientific investigations of our own times. In an +important sense the Scholastic doctors were the teachers of Luther and +Bacon. Certainly their unsatisfactory science was one of the marked +developments of the civilization of Europe, through which the Gothic +nations must need pass. It has been the fashion to ridicule it and +depreciate it in our modern times, especially among Protestants, who +have ridiculed and slandered the papal power and all the institutions of +the Middle Ages. Yet scholars might as well ridicule the text-books they +were required to study fifty years ago, because they are not up to our +times. We should not disdain the early steps by which future progress is +made easy. We cannot despise men who gave up their lives to the +contemplation of subjects which demand the highest tension of the +intellectual faculties, even if these exercises were barren of +utilitarian results. Some future age may be surprised at the comparative +unimportance of questions which interest this generation. The Scholastic +Philosophy cannot indeed be utilized by us in the pursuit of scientific +knowledge; nor (to recur to Vaughan's simile for the great work of +Aquinas) can a mediaeval cathedral be utilized for purposes of oratory +or business. But the cathedral is nevertheless a grand monument, +suggesting lofty sentiments, which it would be senseless and ruthless +barbarism to destroy or allow to fall into decay, but which should +rather be preserved as a precious memento of what is most poetic and +attractive in the Middle Ages. When any modern philosopher shall rear so +gigantic and symmetrical a monument of logical disquisitions as the +"Summa Theologica" is said to be by the most competent authorities, then +the sneers of a Macaulay or a Lewes will be entitled to more +consideration. It is said that a new edition of this great Mediaeval +work is about to be published under the direct auspices of the Pope, as +the best and most comprehensive system of Christian theology ever +written by man.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Dr. Vaughan's Life of Thomas Aquinas; Histoire de la Vie et des Écrits +de St. Thomas d'Aquin, par l'Abbé Bareille; Lacordaire's Life of Saint +Dominic; Dr. Hampden's Life of Thomas Aquinas; article on Thomas +Aquinas, in London Quarterly, July, 1881; Summa Theologica; Neander, +Milman, Fleury, Dupin, and Ecclesiastical Histories generally; +Biographic Universelle; Werner's Leben des Heiligen Thomas von Aquino; +Trench's Lectures on Mediaeval History; Ueberweg & Rousselot's History +of Philosophy. Dr. Hampden's article, in the Encyclopaedia +Metropolitana, on Thomas Aquinas and the Scholastic Philosophy, is +regarded by Hallam as the ablest view of this subject which has appeared +in English.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="THOMAS_BECKET."></a>THOMAS BECKET.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1118-1170.</p> + +<p>PRELATICAL POWER.</p> + +<p>A great deal has been written of late years on Thomas Becket, Archbishop +of Canterbury in the reign of Henry II.,--some historians writing him +up, and others writing him down; some making him a martyr to the Church, +and others representing him as an ambitious prelate who encroached on +royal authority,--more of a rebel than a patriot. His history has become +interesting, in view of this very discrepancy of opinion,--like that of +Oliver Cromwell, one of those historical puzzles which always have +attraction to critics. And there is abundant material for either side we +choose to take. An advocate can make a case in reference to Becket's +career with more plausibility than about any other great character in +English history,--with the exception of Queen Elizabeth, Cromwell, and +Archbishop Laud.</p> + +<p>The cause of Becket was the cause of the Middle Ages. He was not the +advocate of fundamental principles, as were Burke and Bacon. He fought +either for himself, or for principles whose importance has in a measure +passed away. He was a high-churchman, who sought to make the temporal +power subordinate to the spiritual. He appears in an interesting light +only so far as the principles he sought to establish were necessary for +the elevation of society in his ignorant and iron age. Moreover, it was +his struggles which give to his life its chief charm, and invest it with +dramatic interest. It was his energy, his audacity, his ability in +overcoming obstacles, which made him memorable,--one of the heroes of +history, like Ambrose and Hildebrand; an ecclesiastical warrior who +fought bravely, and died without seeing the fruits of his bravery.</p> + +<p>There seems to be some discrepancy among historians as to Becket's birth +and origin, some making him out a pure Norman, and others a Saxon, and +others again half Saracen. But that is, after all, a small matter, +although the critics make a great thing of it. They always are inclined +to wrangle over unimportant points. Michelet thinks he was a Saxon, and +that his mother was a Saracen lady of rank, who had become enamored of +the Saxon when taken prisoner while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, +and who returned with him to England, embraced his religion, and was +publicly baptized in Saint Paul's Cathedral, her beauty and rank having +won attention; but Mr. Froude and Milman regard this as a late legend.</p> + +<p>It would seem, however, that he was born in London about the year 1118 +or 1119, and that his father, Gilbert Becket, was probably a respectable +merchant and sheriff, or portreeve, of London, and was a Norman. His +parents died young, leaving him not well provided for; but being +beautiful and bright he was sent to school in an abbey, and afterwards +to Oxford. From Oxford he went into a house of business in London for +three years, and contrived to attract the notice of Theobald, Archbishop +of Canterbury, who saw his talents, sent him to Paris, and thence to +Bologna to study the canon law, which was necessary to a young man who +would rise in the world. He was afterwards employed by Theobald in +confidential negotiations. The question of the day in England was +whether Stephen's son (Eustace) or Matilda's son (Henry of Anjou) was +the true heir to the crown, it being settled that Stephen should +continue to rule during his lifetime, and that Henry should peaceably +follow him; which happened in a little more than a year. Becket had +espoused the side of Henry.</p> + +<p>The reign of Henry II., during which Becket's memorable career took +place, was an important one. He united, through his mother Matilda, the +blood of the old Saxon kings with that of the Norman dukes. He was the +first truly English sovereign who had sat on the throne since the +Conquest. In his reign (1154-1189) the blending of the Norman and Saxon +races was effected. Villages and towns rose around the castles of great +Norman nobles and the cathedrals and abbeys of Norman ecclesiastics. +Ultimately these towns obtained freedom. London became a great city with +more than a hundred churches. The castles, built during the disastrous +civil wars of Stephen's usurped reign, were demolished. Peace and order +were restored by a legitimate central power.</p> + +<p>Between the young monarch of twenty-two and Thomas, as a favorite of +Theobald and as Archdeacon of Canterbury, an intimacy sprang up. Henry +II. was the most powerful sovereign of Western Europe, since he was not +only King of England, but had inherited in France Anjou and Touraine +from his father, and Normandy and Maine from his mother. By his marriage +with Eleanor of Aquitaine, he gained seven other provinces as her dower. +The dominions of Louis were not half so great as his, even in France. +And Henry was not only a powerful sovereign by his great territorial +possessions, but also for his tact and ability. He saw the genius of +Becket and made him his chancellor, loading him with honors and +perquisites and Church benefices.</p> + +<p>The power of Becket as chancellor was very great, since he was prime +minister, and the civil administration of the kingdom was chiefly +intrusted to him, embracing nearly all the functions now performed by +the various members of the Cabinet. As chancellor he rendered great +services. He effected a decided improvement in the state of the country; +it was freed from robbers and bandits, and brought under dominion of the +law. He depressed the power of the feudal nobles; he appointed the most +deserving people to office; he repaired the royal palaces, increased the +royal revenues, and promoted agricultural industry. He seems to have +pursued a peace policy. But he was unscrupulous and grasping. His style +of life when chancellor was for that age magnificent: Wolsey, in after +times, scarcely excelled him. His dress was as rich as barbaric taste +could make it,--for the more barbarous the age, the more gorgeous is the +attire of great dignitaries. "The hospitalities of the chancellor were +unbounded. He kept seven hundred horsemen completely armed. The +harnesses of his horses were embossed with gold and silver. The most +powerful nobles sent their sons to serve in his household as pages; and +nobles and knights waited in his antechamber. There never passed a day +when he did not make rich presents." His expenditure was enormous. He +rivalled the King in magnificence. His sideboard was loaded with vessels +of gold and silver. He was doubtless ostentatious, but his hospitality +was free, and his person was as accessible as a primitive bishop. He is +accused of being light and frivolous; but this I doubt. He had too many +cares and duties for frivolity. He doubtless unbent. All men loaded down +with labors must unbend somewhere. It was nothing against him that he +told good stories at the royal table, or at his own, surrounded by earls +and barons. These relaxations preserved in him elasticity of mind, +without which the greatest genius soon becomes a hack, a plodding piece +of mechanism, a stupid lump of learned dulness. But he was stained by no +vices or excesses. He was a man of indefatigable activity, and all his +labors were in the service of the Crown, to which, as chancellor, he was +devoted, body and soul.</p> + +<p>Is it strange that such a man should have been offered the See of +Canterbury on the death of Theobald? He had been devoted to his royal +master and friend; he enjoyed rich livings, and was Archdeacon of +Canterbury; he had shown no opposition to the royal will. Moreover Henry +wanted an able man for that exalted post, in order to carry out his +schemes of making himself independent of priestly influence and papal +interference.</p> + +<p>So Becket was made archbishop and primate of the English Church at the +age of forty-four, the clergy of the province acquiescing,--perhaps with +secret complaints, for he was not even priest; merely deacon, and the +minister of an unscrupulous king. He was ordained priest only just +before receiving the primacy, and for that purpose.</p> + +<p>Nothing in England could exceed the dignity of the See of Canterbury. +Even the archbishopric of York was subordinate. Becket as metropolitan +of the English Church was second in rank only to the King himself. He +could depose any ecclesiastic in the realm. He had the exclusive +privilege of crowning the king. His decisions were final, except an +appeal to Rome. No one dared disobey his mandates, for the law of +clerical obedience was one of the fundamental ideas of the age. Through +his clergy, over whom his power was absolute, he controlled the people. +His law courts had cognizance of questions which the royal courts could +not interfere with. No ecclesiastical dignitary in Europe was his +superior, except the Pope.</p> + +<p>The Archbishop of Canterbury had been a great personage under the Saxon +kings. Dunstan ruled England as the prime minister of Edward the Martyr, +but his influence would have been nearly as great had he been merely +primate of the Church. Nor was the power of the archbishop reduced by +the Norman kings. William the Conqueror might have made the spiritual +authority subordinate to the temporal, if he had followed his +inclinations. But he dared not quarrel with the Pope,--the great +Hildebrand, by whose favor he was unmolested in the conquest of the +Saxons. He was on very intimate terms of friendship with Lanfranc, whom +he made Archbishop of Canterbury,--a wily and ambitious Italian, who was +devoted to the See of Rome and his spiritual monarch. The influence of +Hildebrand and Lanfranc combined was too great to be resisted. Nor did +he attempt resistance; he acquiesced in the necessity of making a king +of Canterbury. His mind was so deeply absorbed with his conquest and +other state matters that he did not seem to comprehend the difficulties +which might arise under his successors, in yielding so much power to the +primate. Moreover Lanfranc, in the quiet enjoyment of his ecclesiastical +privileges, gave his powerful assistance in imposing the Norman yoke. He +filled the great sees with Norman prelates. He does not seem to have had +much sympathy with the Saxons, or their bishops, who were not so refined +or intellectual as the bishops of France. The Normans were a superior +race to the Saxons in executive ability and military enthusiasm. The +chivalric element of English society, among the higher classes, came +from the Normans, not from the Saxons. In piety, in passive virtues, in +sustained industry, in patient toil, in love of personal freedom, the +Saxons doubtless furnished a finer material for the basis of an +agricultural, industrial, and commercial nation. The sturdy yeomen of +England were Saxons: the noble and great administrators were Normans. In +pride, in ambition, and in executive ability the Normans bore a closer +resemblance to the old heroic Romans than did the Saxons.</p> + +<p>The next archbishop after Lanfranc was Anselm, appointed by William +Rufus. Anselm was a great scholar, the profoundest of the early +Schoolmen; a man of meditative habits, who it was presumed would not +interfere with royal encroachments. William Rufus never dreamed that the +austere and learned monk, who had spent most of his days in the abbey of +Bec in devout meditations and scholastic inquiries, would interfere with +his rapacity. But, as we have already seen, Anselm was conscientious, +and became the champion of the high-church party in the West. He +occupied two distinct spheres,--he was absorbed in philosophical +speculations, yet took an interest in all mundane questions. His resolve +to oppose the king's usurpations in the spiritual realm caused the +bitter quarrel already described, which ended in a compromise.</p> + +<p>When Henry I. came to the throne, he appointed Theobald, a feeble but +good man, to the See of Canterbury,--less ambitious than Lanfranc, more +inoffensive than Anselm; a Norman disinclined to quarrel with his +sovereign. He died during the reign of Henry II., and this great +monarch, as we have seen, appointed Becket to the vacant See, thinking +that in the double capacity of chancellor and archbishop he would be a +very powerful ally. But he was amazingly deceived in the character of +his Chancellor. Becket had not sought the office,--the office had sought +him. It would seem that he accepted it unwillingly. He knew that new +responsibilities and duties would be imposed upon him, which, if he +discharged conscientiously like Anselm, would in all probability +alienate his friend the King, and provoke a desperate contest. And when +the courtly and luxurious Chancellor held out, in Normandy, the skirts +of his gilded and embroidered garments to show how unfit he was for an +archbishop, Henry ought to have perceived that a future estrangement was +a probability.</p> + +<p>Better for Henry had Becket remained in the civil service. But Henry, +with all his penetration, had not fathomed the mind of his favorite. +Becket may have been a dissembler, or a great change may have been +wrought in his character. Probably the new responsibilities imposed upon +him as Primate of the English Church pressed upon his conscience. He +knew that supreme allegiance was due to the Pope as head of the Church, +and that if compelled to choose between the Pope and the King, he must +obey the Pope. He was ambitious, doubtless; but his subsequent career +shows that he preferred the liberties of his Church to the temporal +interests of the sovereign. He was not a theologian, like Lanfranc and +Anselm. Of all the great characters who preceded him, he most resembles +Ambrose. Ambrose the governor, and a layman, became Archbishop of Milan. +Becket the minister of a king, and only deacon, became Archbishop of +Canterbury. The character of both these great men changed on their +elevation to high ecclesiastical position. They both became +high-churchmen, and defended the prerogatives of the clergy. But Ambrose +was superior to Becket in his zeal to defend the doctrines of the +Church. It does not appear that Becket took much interest in doctrines. +In his age there was no dissent. Everybody, outwardly at least, was +orthodox. In England, certainly, there were no heretics. Had Becket +remained chancellor, in all probability he would not have quarrelled +with Henry. As archbishop he knew what was expected of him; and he knew +also the infamy in store for him should he betray his cause. I do not +believe he was a hypocrite. Every subsequent act of his life shows his +sincerity and his devotion to his Church against his own interests.</p> + +<p>Becket was no sooner ordained priest and consecrated as archbishop than +he changed his habits. He became as austere as Lanfranc. He laid aside +his former ostentation. He clothed himself in sackcloth; he mortified +his body with fasts and laceration; he associated only with the pious +and the learned; he frequented the cloisters and places of meditation; +he received into his palace the needy and the miserable; he washed the +feet of thirteen beggars every day; he conformed to the standard of +piety in his age; he called forth the admiration of his attendants by +his devotion to clerical duties. "He was," says James Stephen, "a second +Moses entering the tabernacle at the accepted time for the contemplation +of his God, and going out from it in order to perform some work of piety +to his neighbor. He was like one of God's angels on the ladder, whose +top reached the heavens, now descending to lighten the wants of men, now +ascending to behold the divine majesty and the splendor of the Heavenly +One. His prime councillor was reason, which ruled his passions as a +mistress guides her servants. Under her guidance he was conducted to +virtue, which, wrapped up in itself, and embracing everything within +itself, never looks forward for anything additional."</p> + +<p>This is the testimony of his biographer, and has not been explained away +or denied, although it is probably true that Becket did not purge the +corruptions of the Church, or punish the disorders and vices of the +clergy, as Hildebrand did. But I only speak of his private character. I +admit that he was no reformer. He was simply the high-churchman aiming +to secure the ascendency of the spiritual power. Becket is not immortal +for his reforms, or his theological attainments, but for his +intrepidity, his courage, his devotion to his cause,--a hero, and not a +man of progress; a man who fought a fight. It should be the aim of an +historian to show for what he was distinguished; to describe his +warfare, not to abuse him because he was not a philosopher and reformer. +He lived in the twelfth century.</p> + +<p>One of the first things which opened the eyes of the King was the +resignation of the Chancellor. The King doubtless made him primate of +the English hierarchy in order that he might combine both offices. But +they were incompatible, unless Becket was willing to be the unscrupulous +tool of the King in everything. Of course Henry could not long remain +the friend of the man who he thought had duped him. Before a year had +passed, his friendship was turned to secret but bitter enmity. Nor was +it long before an event occurred,--a small matter,--which brought the +King and the Prelate into open collision.</p> + +<p>The matter was this: A young nobleman, who held a clerical office, +committed a murder. As an ecclesiastic, he was brought before the court +of the Bishop of Lincoln, and was sentenced to pay a small fine. But +public justice was not satisfied, and the sheriff summoned the canon, +who refused to plead before him. The matter was referred to the King, +who insisted that the murderer should be tried in the civil court,--that +a sacred profession should not screen a man who had committed a crime +against society. While the King had, as we think, justice on his side, +yet in this matter he interfered with the jurisdiction of the spiritual +courts, which had been in force since Constantine. Theodosius and +Justinian had confirmed the privilege of the Church, on the ground that +the irregularities of a body of men devoted to the offices of religion +should be veiled from the common eye; so that ecclesiastics were +sometimes protected when they should be punished. But if the +ecclesiastical courts had abuses, they were generally presided over by +good and wise men,--more learned than the officers of the civil courts, +and very popular in the Middle Ages; and justice in them was generally +administered. So much were they valued in a dark age, when the clergy +were the most learned men of their times, that much business came +gradually to be transacted in them which previously had been settled in +the civil courts,--as tithes, testaments, breaches of contract, +perjuries, and questions pertaining to marriage. But Henry did not like +these courts, and was determined to weaken their jurisdiction, and +transfer their power to his own courts, in order to strengthen the royal +authority. Enlightened jurists and historians in our times here +sympathize with Henry. High-Church ecclesiastics defend the jurisdiction +of the spiritual courts, since they upheld the power of the Church, so +useful in the Middle Ages. The King began the attack where the +spiritual courts were weakest,--protection afforded to clergymen accused +of crime. So he assembled a council of bishops and barons to meet him at +Westminster. The bishops at first were inclined to yield to the King, +but Becket gained them over, and would make no concession. He stood up +for the privileges of his order. It was neither justice nor right which +he defended, but his Church, at all hazards,--not her doctrines, but her +prerogatives. He would present a barrier against royal encroachments, +even if they were for the welfare of the realm. He would defend the +independence of the clergy, and their power,--perhaps as an offset to +royal power. In his rigid defence of the privileges of the clergy we see +the churchman, not the statesman; we see the antagonist, not the ally, +of the King. Henry was of course enraged. Who can wonder? He was bearded +by his former favorite,--by one of his subjects.</p> + +<p>If Becket was narrow, he probably was conscientious. He may have been +ambitious of wielding unlimited spiritual authority. But it should be +noted that, had he not quarrelled with the King, he could have been both +archbishop and chancellor, and in that double capacity wielded more +power; and had he been disposed to serve his royal master, had he been +more gentle, the King might not have pushed out his policy of crippling +the spiritual courts,--might have waived, delayed, or made concessions. +But now these two great potentates were in open opposition, and a deadly +warfare was at hand. It is this fight which gives to Becket all his +historical importance. It is not for me to settle the merits of the +case, if I could,--only to describe the battle. The lawyers would +probably take one side, and Catholic priests would take the other, and +perhaps all high-churchmen. Even men like Mr. Froude and Mr. Freeman, +both very learned and able, are totally at issue, not merely as to the +merits of the case, but even as to the facts. Mr. Froude seems to hate +Becket and all other churchmen as much as Mr. Freeman loves them. I +think one reason why Mr. Froude exalts so highly Henry VIII. is because +he put his foot on the clergy and took away their revenues. But with the +war of partisans I have nothing to do, except the war between Henry II. +and Thomas Becket.</p> + +<p>This war waxed hot when a second council of bishops and barons was +assembled at Clarendon, near Winchester, to give their assent to certain +resolutions which the King's judges had prepared in reference to the +questions at issue, and other things tending to increase the royal +authority. They are called in history "The Constitutions of Clarendon." +The gist and substance of them were, that during the vacancy of any +bishopric or abbey of royal foundation, the estates were to be in the +custody of the Crown; that all disputes between laymen and clergymen +should be tried in the civil courts; that clergymen accused of crime +should, if the judges decided, be tried in the King's court, and, if +found guilty, be handed over to the secular arm for punishment; that no +officer or tenant of the King should be excommunicated without the +King's consent; that no peasant's son should be ordained without +permission of his feudal lord; that great ecclesiastical personages +should not leave the kingdom without the King's consent.</p> + +<p>"Anybody must see that these articles were nothing more nor less than +the surrender of the most important and vital privileges of the Church +into the hands of the King: not merely her properties, but her +liberties; even a surrender of the only weapon with which she defended +herself in extreme cases,--that of excommunication." It was the virtual +confiscation of the Church in favor of an aggressive and unscrupulous +monarch. Could we expect Becket to sign such an agreement, to part with +his powers, to betray the Church of which he was the first dignitary in +England? When have men parted with their privileges, except upon +compulsion? He never would have given up his prerogatives; he never +meant for a moment to do so. He was not the man for such a base +submission. Yet he was so worried and threatened by the King, who had +taken away from him the government of the Prince, his son, and the +custody of certain castles; he was so importuned by the bishops +themselves, for fear that the peace of the country would be +endangered,--that in a weak moment he promised to sign the articles, +reserving this phrase: "Saving the honor of his order." With this +reservation, he thought he could sign the agreement, for he could +include under such a phrase whatever he pleased.</p> + +<p>But when really called to fulfil his promise and sign with his own hand +those constitutions, he wavered. He burst out in passionate +self-reproaches for having made a promise he never intended to keep. +"Never, never!" he said; "I will never do it so long as breath is in my +body." In his repentance he mortified himself with new self-expiations. +He suspended himself from the service of the altar. He was overwhelmed +with grief, shame, rage, and penitence. He resolved he would not yield +up the privileges of his order, come what might,--not even if the Pope +gave him authority to sign.</p> + +<p>The dejected and humbled metropolitan advanced to the royal throne with +downcast eye but unfaltering voice; accused himself of weakness and +folly, and firmly refused to sign the articles. "Miserable wretch that I +am," cried he, with bitter tears coursing down his cheeks, "I see the +Anglican Church enslaved, in punishment for my sins. But it is all +right. I was taken from the court, not the cloister, to fill this +station; from the palace of Caesar, not the school of the Saviour. I +was a feeder of birds, but suddenly made a feeder of men; a patron of +stage-players, a follower of hounds, and I became a shepherd over so +many souls. Surely I am rightly abandoned by God."</p> + +<p>He then took his departure for Canterbury, but was soon summoned to a +grand council at Northampton, to answer serious charges. He was called +to account for the sums he had spent as chancellor, and for various +alleged injustices. He was found guilty by a court controlled by the +King, and sentenced to pay a heavy fine, which he paid. The next day new +charges were preferred, and he was condemned to a still heavier fine, +which he was unable to pay; but he found sureties. On the next day still +heavier charges were made, and new fines inflicted, which would have +embarrassed the temporalities of his See. He now perceived that the King +was bent on his ruin; that the more he yielded the more he would be +expected to yield. He therefore resolved to yield no further, but to +stand on his rights.</p> + +<p>But before he made his final resistance he armed himself with his +crozier, and sought counsel from the bishops assembled in another +chamber of the royal castle. The bishops were divided: some for him, +some against him. Gilbert Foliot of London put him in mind of the +benefits he had received from Henry, and the humble condition from which +he was raised, and advised him to resign for sake of peace. Henry of +Winchester, a relative of the King, bade him resign. Roger of Worcester +was non-committal. "If I advise to resist the King, I shall be put out +of the synagogue," said he. "I counsel nothing." The Bishop of +Chichester declared that Becket was primate no longer, as he had gone +against the laws of the realm. In the midst of this conference the Earl +of Leicester entered, and announced the sentence of the peers. Then +gathering himself up to his full height, the Primate, with austere +dignity, addressed the Earl and the Bishops: "My brethren, our enemies +are pressing hard upon us, and the whole world is against us; but I now +enjoin you, in virtue of your obedience, and in peril of your orders, +not to be present in any cause which may be made against my person; and +I appeal to that refuge of the distressed, the Holy See. And I command +you as your Primate, and in the name of the Pope, to put forth the +censures of the Church in behalf of your Archbishop, should the secular +arm lay violent hands upon me; for, be assured, though this frail body +may yield to persecution,--since all flesh is weak,--yet shall my spirit +never yield."</p> + +<p>Then pushing his way, he swept through the chamber, reached the +quadrangle of the palace, mounted his horse, reached his lodgings, gave +a banquet to some beggars, stole away in disguise and fled, reaching the +coast in safety, and succeeding in crossing over to Flanders. He was now +out of the King's power, who doubtless would have imprisoned him and +perhaps killed him, for he hated him with the intensest hatred. Becket +had deceived him, having trifled with him by taking an oath to sign the +Constitutions of Clarendon, and then broken his oath and defied his +authority, appealing to the Pope, and perhaps involving the King in a +quarrel with the supreme spiritual power of Christendom. Finally he had +deserted his post and fled the kingdom. He had defeated the King in his +most darling schemes.</p> + +<p>But although Becket was an exile, a fugitive, and a wanderer, he was +still Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the head of the English Church, +and all the clergy of the kingdom owed him spiritual obedience. He still +had the power of excommunicating the King, and the sole right of +crowning his successor. If the Pope should take his side, and the King +of France, and other temporal powers, Becket would be no unequal match +for the King. It was a grand crisis which Henry comprehended, and he +therefore sent some of his most powerful barons and prelates to the +Continent to advance his cause and secure the papal interposition.</p> + +<p>Becket did not remain long in Flanders, since the Count was cold and did +not take his side. He escaped, and sought shelter and aid from the King +of France.</p> + +<p>Louis VII. was a feeble monarch, but he hated Henry II. and admired +Becket. He took him under his protection, and wrote a letter to the +Pope in his behalf.</p> + +<p>That Pope was Alexander III,--himself an exile, living in Sens, and +placed in a situation of great difficulty, struggling as he was with an +anti-pope, and the great Frederic Barbarossa, Emperor of Germany. +Moreover he was a personal friend of Henry, to whom he had been indebted +for his elevation to the papal throne. His course, therefore, was +non-committal and dilatory and vacillating, although he doubtless was on +the side of the prelate who exalted ecclesiastical authority. But he was +obliged from policy to be prudent and conciliatory. He patiently heard +both sides, but decided nothing. All he consented to do was to send +cardinal legates to England, but intrusted to none but himself the +prerogatives of final judgment.</p> + +<p>After Henry's ambassadors had left, Becket appeared with a splendid +train of three hundred horsemen, the Archbishop of Rheims, the brothers +of the King of France, and a long array of bishops. The Pope dared not +receive him with the warmth he felt, but was courteous, more so than his +cardinals; and Becket unfolded and discussed the Constitutions of +Clarendon, which of course found no favor with the Pope. He rebuked +Becket for his weakness in promising to sign a paper which curtailed so +fundamentally the privileges of the Church. Some historians affirm he +did not extend to him the protection he deserved, although he confirmed +him in his office. He sent him to the hospitable care of the Abbot of +Pontigny. "Go now," he said, "and learn what privation is; and in the +company of Christ's humblest servants subdue the flesh to the spirit."</p> + +<p>In this Cistercian abbey it would seem that Becket lived in great +austerity, tearing his flesh with his nails, and inflicting on himself +severe flagellations; so that his health suffered, and his dreams +haunted him. He was protected, but he could not escape annoyances and +persecutions. Henry, in his wrath, sequestrated the estates of the +archbishopric; the incumbents of his benefices were expelled; all his +relatives and dependents were banished,--some four hundred people; men, +women, and children. The bishops sent him ironical letters, and hoped +his fasts would benefit his soul.</p> + +<p>The quarrel now was of great interest to all Europe. It was nothing less +than a battle between the spiritual and temporal powers, like that, a +century before, between Hildebrand and the Emperor of Germany. Although +the Pope was obliged from motives of policy,--for fear of being +deposed,--to seem neutral and attempt to conciliate, still the war +really was carried on in his behalf. "The great, the terrible, the +magnificent in the fate of Becket," says Michelet, "arises from his +being charged, weak and unassisted, with the interests of the Church +Universal,--a post which belonged to the Pope himself." He was still +Archbishop; but his revenues were cut off, and had it not been for the +bounty of Louis the King of France, who admired him and respected his +cause, he might have fared as a simple monk. The Pope allowed him to +excommunicate the persons who occupied his estates, but not the King +himself. He feared a revolt of the English Church from papal authority, +since Henry was supreme in England, and had won over to his cause the +English bishops. The whole question became complicated and interesting. +It was the common topic of discourse in all the castles and convents of +Europe. The Pope, timid and calculating, began to fear he had supported +Becket too far, and pressed upon him a reconciliation with Henry, much +to the disgust of Becket, who seemed to comprehend the issue better than +did the Pope; for the Pope had, in his desire to patch up the quarrel, +permitted the son of Henry to be crowned by the Archbishop of York, +which was not only an infringement of the privileges of the Primate, but +was a blow against the spiritual power. So long as the Archbishop of +Canterbury had the exclusive privilege of crowning a king, the King was +dependent in a measure on the Primate, and, through him, on the Pope. At +this suicidal act on the part of Alexander, Becket lost all patience, +and wrote to him a letter of blended indignation and reproach. "Why," +said he, "lay in my path a stumbling-block? How can you blind yourself +to the wrong which Christ suffers in me and yourself? And yet you call +on me, like a hireling, to be silent. I might flourish in power and +riches and pleasures, and be feared and honored of all; but since the +Lord hath called me, weak and unworthy as I am, to the oversight of the +English Church, I prefer proscription, exile, poverty, misery, and +death, rather than traffic with the liberties of the Church."</p> + +<p>What language to a Pope! What a reproof from a subordinate! How grandly +the character of Becket looms up here! I say nothing of his cause. It +may have been a right or a wrong one. Who shall settle whether spiritual +or temporal power should have the ascendency in the Middle Ages? I speak +only of his heroism, his fidelity to his cause, his undoubted sincerity. +Men do not become exiles and martyrs voluntarily, unless they are backed +by a great cause. Becket may have been haughty, irascible, ambitious. +Very likely. But what then? The more personal faults he had, the greater +does his devotion to the interests of the Church appear, fighting as it +were alone and unassisted. Undaunted, against the advice of his friends, +unsupported by the Pope, he now hurls his anathemas from his retreat in +France. He excommunicates the Bishop of Salisbury, and John of Oxford, +and the Archdeacon of Ilchester, and the Lord Chief-Justice de Luci, +and everybody who adhered to the Constitutions of Clarendon. The bishops +of England remonstrate with him, and remind him of his plebeian origin +and his obligations to the King. To whom he replies: "I am not indeed +sprung from noble ancestors, but I would rather be the man to whom +nobility of mind gives the advantages of birth than to be the degenerate +issue of an illustrious family. David was taken from the sheepfold to be +a ruler of God's people, and Peter was taken from fishing to be the head +of the Church. I was born under a humble roof, yet, nevertheless, God +has intrusted me with the liberties of the Church, which I will guard +with my latest breath."</p> + +<p>Henry now threatens to confiscate the property of all the Cistercian +convents in England; and the Abbot of Pontigny, at the command of his +general, is forced to drive Becket away from his sanctuary. Becket +retires to Sens, sad at heart and grieved that the excommunications +which he had inflicted should have been removed by the Pope. Then Louis, +the King of France, made war on Henry, and took Becket under his +protection. The Pope rebuked Louis for the war; but Louis retorted by +telling Alexander that it was a shame for him not to give up his +time-serving policy. In so doing, Louis spoke out the heart of +Christendom. The Pope, at last aroused, excommunicated the Archbishop +of York for crowning the son of Henry, and threatened Henry himself +with an interdict, and recalled his legates. Becket also fulminated his +excommunications. There was hardly a prelate or royal chaplain in +England who was not under ecclesiastical censure. The bishops began to +waver. Henry had reason to fear he might lose the support of his English +subjects, and Norman likewise. He could do nothing with the whole Church +against him.</p> + +<p>The King was therefore obliged to compromise. Several times before, he +had sought reconciliation with his dreadful enemy; but Becket always, in +his promises, fell back on the phrase, "Saving the honor of his order," +or "Saving the honor of God." But now, amid the fire of +excommunications, Henry was compelled to make his peace with the man he +detested. He himself did not much care for the priestly thunderbolts, +but his clergy and his subjects did. The penalty of eternal fire was a +dreadful fear to those who believed, as everybody then did, in the hell +of which the popes were supposed to hold the keys. This fear sustained +the empire of the popes; it was the basis of sacerdotal rule in the +Middle Ages. Hence Becket was so powerful, even in exile. His greatness +was in his character; his power was in his spiritual weapons.</p> + +<p>In the hollow reconciliation at last effected between the King and the +Prelate, Henry promised to confirm Becket in his powers and dignities, +and molest him no more. But he haughtily refused the customary kiss of +peace. Becket saw the omen; so did the King of France. The peace was +inconclusive. It was a truce, not a treaty. Both parties distrusted +each other.</p> + +<p>But Henry was weary with the struggle, and Becket was tired of +exile,--never pleasant, even if voluntary. Moreover, the Prelate had +gained the moral victory, even as Hildebrand did when the Emperor of +Germany stooped as a suppliant in the fortress of Canossa. The King of +England had virtually yielded to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Perhaps +Becket felt that his mission was accomplished; that he had done the work +for which he was raised up. Wearied, sickened with the world, disgusted +with the Pope, despising his bishops, perhaps he was willing to die. He +had a presentiment that he should die as a martyr. So had the French +king and his prelates. But Becket longed to return to his church and +celebrate the festivities of Christmas. So he made up his mind to return +to England, "although I know, of a truth," he said, "I shall meet my +passion there." Before embarking he made a friendly and parting visit to +the King of France, and then rode to the coast with an escort of one +hundred horsemen. As Dover was guarded by the King's retainers, who +might harm him, he landed at Sandwich, his own town. The next day he set +out for Canterbury, after an absence of seven years. The whole +population lined the road, strewed it with flowers, and rent the air +with songs. Their beloved Archbishop had returned. On reaching +Canterbury he went directly to his cathedral and seated himself on his +throne, and the monks came and kissed him, with tears in their eyes. One +Herbert said, "Christ has conquered; Christ is now King!"</p> + +<p>From Canterbury Becket made a sort of triumphal progress through the +kingdom, with the pretence of paying a visit to the young king at +Woodstock,--exciting rather than allaying the causes of discord, +scattering his excommunications, still haughty, restless, implacable; so +that the Court became alarmed, and ordered him to return to his diocese. +He obeyed, as he wished to celebrate Christmas at home; and ascending +his long-neglected pulpit preached, according to Michelet, from this +singular text: "I am come to die in the midst of you."</p> + +<p>Henry at this time was on the Continent, and was greatly annoyed at the +reports of Becket's conduct which reached him. Then there arrived three +bishops whom the Primate had excommunicated, with renewed complaints and +grievances, assuring him there would be no peace so long as Becket +lived. Henry was almost wild with rage and perplexity. What could he do? +He dared not execute the Archbishop, as Henry VIII. would have done. In +his age the Prelate was almost as powerful as the King. Violence to his +person was the last thing to do, for this would have involved the King +in war with the adherents of the Pope, and would have entailed an +excommunication. Still, the supremest desire of Henry's soul was to get +Becket out of the way. So, yielding to an impulse of passion, he said to +his attendants, "Is there no one to relieve me from the insults of this +low-born and turbulent priest?"</p> + +<p>Among these attendants were four courtiers or knights, of high birth and +large estates, who, hearing these reproachful words, left the court at +once, crossed the channel, and repaired to the castle of Sir Ranulf de +Broc, the great enemy of Becket, who had molested him in innumerable +ways. Some friendly person contrived to acquaint Becket with his danger, +to whom he paid no heed, knowing it very well himself. He knew he was to +die; and resolved to die bravely.</p> + +<p>The four armed knights, meanwhile, on the 29th of December, rode with an +escort to Canterbury, dined at the Augustinian abbey, and entered the +court-yard of the Archbishop's palace as Becket had finished his mid-day +meal and had retired to an inner room with his chaplain and a few +intimate friends. They then entered the hall and sought the Archbishop, +who received them in silence. Sir Reginald Fitzurst then broke the +silence with these words: "We bring you the commands of the King beyond +the sea, that you repair without delay to the young King's presence and +swear allegiance. And further, he commands you to absolve the bishops +you have excommunicated." On Becket's refusal, the knight continued: +"Since you will not obey, the royal command is that you and your clergy +forthwith depart from the realm, never more to return." Becket angrily +declared he would never again leave England. The knights then sprang to +their feet and departed, enjoining the attendants to prevent the escape +of Becket, who exclaimed: "Do you think I shall fly, then? Neither for +the King nor any living man will I fly. You cannot be more ready to kill +me than I am to die."</p> + +<p>He sought, however, the shelter of his cathedral, as the vesper bell +summoned him to prayers,--followed by the armed knights, with a company +of men-at-arms, driving before them a crowd of monks. The Archbishop was +standing on the steps of the choir, beyond the central pillar, which +reached to the roof of the cathedral, in the dim light shed by the +candles of the altars, so that only the outline of his noble figure +could be seen, when the knights closed around him, and Fitzurst seized +him,--perhaps meaning to drag him away as a prisoner to the King, or +outside the church before despatching him. Becket cried, "Touch me not, +thou abominable wretch!" at the same time hurling Tracy, another of the +knights, to the ground, who, rising, wounded him in the head with his +sword. The Archbishop then bent his neck to the assassins, exclaiming, +"I am prepared to die for Christ and His Church."</p> + +<p>Such was the murder of Becket,--a martyr, as he has been generally +regarded, for the liberties of the Church; but, according to some, +justly punished for presumptuous opposition to his sovereign.</p> + +<p>The assassination was a shock to Christendom. The most intrepid +churchman of his age was slain at his post for doing, as he believed, +his duty. No one felt the shock more than the King himself, who knew he +would be held responsible for the murder. He dreaded the consequences, +and shut himself up for three days in his chamber, refusing food, +issuing orders for the arrest of the murderers, and sending ambassadors +to the Pope to exculpate himself. Fearing an excommunication and an +interdict, he swore on the Gospel, in one of the Norman cathedrals, that +he had not commanded nor desired the death of the Archbishop; and +stipulated to maintain at his own cost two hundred knights in the Holy +Land, to abrogate the Constitutions of Clarendon, to reinvest the See of +Canterbury with all he had wrested away, and even to undertake a crusade +against the Saracens of Spain if the Pope desired. Amid the calamities +which saddened his latter days, he felt that all were the judgments of +God for his persecution of the martyr, and did penance at his tomb.</p> + +<p>So Becket slew more by his death than he did by his life. His cause was +gained by his blood: it arrested the encroachments of the Norman kings +for more than three hundred years. He gained the gratitude of the Church +and a martyr's crown. He was canonized as a saint. His shrine was +enriched with princely offerings beyond any other object of popular +veneration in the Middle Ages. Till the time of the Reformation a +pilgrimage to that shrine was a common form of penance for people of all +conditions, and was supposed to expiate their sins. Even miracles were +reputed to be wrought at that shrine, while a drop of Becket's blood +would purchase a domain!</p> + +<p>Whatever may be said about the cause of Becket, to which there are two +sides, there is no doubt about his popularity. Even the Reformation, and +the changes made in the English Constitution, have not obliterated the +veneration in which he was held for five hundred years. You cannot +destroy respect for a man who is willing to be a martyr, whether his +cause is right or wrong. If enlightened judgments declare that he was "a +martyr of sacerdotal power, not of Christianity; of a caste, and not of +mankind;" that he struggled for the authority and privileges of the +clergy rather than for the good of his country,--still it will be +conceded that he fought bravely and died with dignity. All people love +heroism. They are inclined to worship heroes; and especially when an +unarmed priest dares to resist an unscrupulous and rapacious king, as +Henry is well known to have been, and succeeds in tearing from his hands +the spoils he has seized, there must be admiration. You cannot +extinguish the tribute of the soul for heroism, any more than that of +the mind for genius. The historian who seeks to pull down a hero from +the pedestal on which he has been seated for ages plays a losing game. +No brilliancy in sophistical pleadings can make men long prefer what is +<i>new</i> to that which is <i>true</i>. Becket is enshrined in the hearts of his +countrymen, even as Cromwell is among the descendants of the Puritans; +and substantially for the same reason,--because they both fought bravely +for their respective causes,--the cause of the people in their +respective ages. Both recognized God Almighty, and both contended +against the despotism of kings seeking to be absolute, and in behalf of +the people who were ground down by military power. In the twelfth +century the people looked up to the clergy as their deliverers and +friends; in the seventeenth century to parliaments and lawyers. Becket +was the champion of the clergy, even as Cromwell was the champion--at +least at first--of the Parliament. Carlyle eulogizes Cromwell as much as +Froude abuses Becket; but Becket, if more haughty and repulsive than +Cromwell in his private character, yet was truer to his principles. He +was a great hero, faithful to a great cause, as he regarded it, however +averse this age may justly be to priestly domination. He must be judged +by the standard which good and enlightened people adopted seven hundred +years ago,--not in semi-barbarous England alone, but throughout the +continent of Europe. This is not the standard which reason accepts +to-day, I grant; but it is the standard by which Becket must be +judged,--even as the standard which justified the encroachments of Leo +the Great, or the rigorous rule of Tiberius and Marcus Aurelius, is not +that which enthrones Gustavus Adolphus and William of Orange in the +heart of the civilized world.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Eadmer's Life of Anselm; Historia Novarum; Sir J. Stephen's Life of +Becket, of William of Malmsbury, and of Henry of Huntington; +Correspondence of Thomas Becket, with that of Foliot, Bishop of London, +and John of Salisbury; Chronicle of Peter of Peterborough; Chronicle of +Ralph Niper, and that of Jocelyn of Brakeland; Dugdale's Monasticon; +Freeman's Norman Conquest; Michelet's History of France; Green, Hume, +Knight, Stubbs, among the English historians; Encyclopaedia Britannica; +Hook's Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury; Lord Littleton on Henry +II.; Stanley's Memorials of Canterbury; Milman's Latin Christianity; +article by Froude; Morris's Life of Thomas à Becket; J. Craigie +Robertson's Life of Thomas Becket.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="THE_FEUDAL_SYSTEM."></a>THE FEUDAL SYSTEM.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>ABOUT A.D. 800-1300.</p> + +<p>There is no great character with whom Feudalism is especially +identified. It was an institution of the Middle Ages, which grew out of +the miseries and robberies that succeeded the fall of the Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>Before I present the mutual relation between a lord and his vassal, I +would call your attention to political anarchies ending in political +degradation; to an unformed state of society; to semi-barbarism, with +its characteristic vices of plunder, rapine, oppression, and injustice; +to wild and violent passions, unchecked by law; to the absence of +central power; to the reign of hard and martial nobles; to the miseries +of the people, ground down, ignorant, and brutal; to rude agricultural +life; to petty wars; to general ignorance, which kept society in +darkness and gloom for a thousand years,--all growing out of the eclipse +of the old civilization, so that the European nations began a new +existence, and toiled in sorrow and fear, with few ameliorations: an +iron age, yet an age which was not unfavorable for the development of +new virtues and heroic qualities, under the influence of which society +emerged from barbarism, with a new foundation for national greatness, +and a new material for Christianity and art and literature and science +to work upon.</p> + +<p>Such was the state of society during the existence of feudal +institutions,--a period of about five hundred years,--dating from the +dismemberment of Charlemagne's empire to the fifteenth century. The era +of its greatest power was from the Norman conquest of England to the +reign of Edward III. But there was a long and gloomy period before +Feudalism ripened into an institution,--from the dissolution of the +Roman Empire to the eighth and ninth centuries. I would assign this +period as the darkest and the dreariest in the history of Europe since +the Roman conquests, for this reason,--that civilization perished +without any one to chronicle the changes, or to take notice of the +extinction.</p> + +<p>From Charlemagne there had been, with the exception of brief intervals, +the birth of new ideas and interests, the growth of a new civilization. +Before his day there was a progressive decline. Art, literature, +science, alike faded away. There were no grand monuments erected, the +voice of the poet was unheard in the universal wretchedness, the monks +completed the destruction which the barbarians began. Why were libraries +burned or destroyed? Why was classic literature utterly neglected? Why +did no great scholars arise, even in the Church? The new races looked in +vain for benefactors. Even the souvenirs of the old Empire were lost. +Nearly all the records of ancient greatness perished. The old cities +were levelled to the ground. Nothing was built but monasteries, and +these were as gloomy as feudal castles at a later date. The churches +were heavy and mournful. Good men hid themselves, trying to escape from +the miserable world, and sang monotonous chants of death and the grave. +Agriculture was at the lowest state, and hunting, piracy, and robbery +were resorted to as a means of precarious existence. There was no +commerce. The roads were invested with vagabonds and robbers. It was the +era of universal pillage and destruction. Nothing was sacred. Universal +desolation filled the souls of men with despair. What state of society +could be worse than that of England under the early Saxon kings? There +were no dominant races and no central power. The countries of Europe +relapsed into a sullen barbarism. I see no bright spot anywhere, not +even in Italy, which was at this time the most overrun and the most +mercilessly plundered of all the provinces of the fallen Empire. The old +capital of the world was nearly depopulated. Nothing was spared of +ancient art on which the barbarians could lay their hands, and nothing +was valued.</p> + +<p>This was the period of what writers call <i>allodial</i> tenure, in +distinction from feudal. The allodialist owned indeed his lands, but +they were subject to incessant depredations from wandering tribes of +barbarians and from robbers. There was no encouragement to till the +soil. There was no incentive to industry of any kind. During a reign of +universal lawlessness, what man would work except for a scanty and +precarious support? His cattle might be driven away, his crops seized, +his house plundered. It is hard to realize that our remote ancestors +were mere barbarians, who by the force of numbers overran the world. +They seem to have had but one class of virtues,---contempt of death, and +the willing sacrifice of their lives in battle. The allodialist, +however, was not a barbaric warrior or chieftain, but the despoiled +owner of lands that his ancestors had once cultivated in peace and +prosperity. He was the degenerate descendant of Celtic and Roman +citizens, the victim of barbaric spoliations. His lands may have passed +into the hands of the Gothic conquerors; but the Gothic or Burgundian or +Frankish possessor of innumerable acres, once tilled by peaceful +citizens, remained an allodial proprietor. Even he had no protection and +no safety; for any new excursion of less fortunate barbarians would +desolate his possessions and decimate his laborers. The small proprietor +was especially subject to pillage and murder.</p> + +<p>In the universal despair from this reign of anarchy and lawlessness, +when there was no security to property and no redress of evils, the +allodialist parted with his lands to some powerful chieftain, and +obtained promise of protection. He even resigned the privilege of +freedom to save his wretched life. He became a serf,--a semi-bondman, +chained to the soil, but protected from outrage. Nothing but +inconceivable miseries, which have not been painted by historians, can +account for the almost simultaneous change in the ownership of land in +all European countries. We can conceive of nothing but blank despair +among the people who attempted to cultivate land. And there must have +been the grossest ignorance and the lowest degradation when men were +willing to submit to the curtailment of personal freedom and the loss of +their lands, in order to find protectors.</p> + +<p>Thus Feudalism arose in the ninth and tenth centuries from the absolute +wreck of property and hopes. It was virtually the surrender of land for +the promise of protection. It was the great necessity of that anarchical +age. Like all institutions, it grew out of the needs of the times. Yet +its universal acceptance seems to prove that the change was beneficial. +Feudalism, especially in its early ages, is not to be judged by the +institutions of our times, any more than is the enormous growth of +spiritual power which took place when this social and political +revolution was going on. Wars and devastations and untold calamities and +brutal forces were the natural sequence of barbaric invasions, and of +the progressive fall of the old civilization, continued from generation +to generation for a period of two or three hundred years, with scarcely +any interruption. You get no relief from such a dispensation of Divine +Providence, unless you can solve the question why the Roman Empire was +permitted to be swept away. If it must be destroyed, from the prevalence +of the same vices which have uniformly undermined all empires,--utter +and unspeakable rottenness and depravity,--in spite of Christianity, +whether nominal or real; if eternal justice must bear sway on this +earth, bringing its fearful retributions for the abuse of privileges and +general wickedness,--then we accept the natural effects of that violence +which consummated the ruin. The natural consequences of two hundred +years of pillage and warfare and destruction of ancient institutions +were, and could have been nothing other than, miseries, misrule, +sufferings, poverty, insecurity, and despair. A universal conflagration +must destroy everything that past ages had valued. As a relief from what +was felt to be intolerable, and by men who were brutal, ignorant, +superstitious, and degraded, all from the effect of the necessary evils +which war creates, a sort of semi-slavery was felt to be preferable, as +the price of dependence and protection.</p> + +<p>Dependence and protection are the elemental principles of Feudalism. +These were the hard necessities which the age demanded. And for three +hundred years, it cannot be doubted, the relation between master and +serf was beneficial. It resulted in a more peaceful state of +society,--not free from great evils, but still a healthful change from +the disorders of the preceding epoch. The peasant could cultivate his +land comparatively free from molestation. He was still poor. Sometimes +he was exposed to heavy exactions. He was bound to give a portion of the +profits of his land to his lordly proprietor; and he was bound to render +services in war. But, as he was not bound to serve over forty days, he +was not led on distant expeditions; he was not carried far from home. He +was not exposed to the ambition of military leaders. His warlike +services seem to be confined to the protection of his master's castle +and family, or to the assault of some neighboring castle. He was simply +made to participate in baronial quarrels; and as these quarrels were +frequent, his life was not altogether peaceful.</p> + +<p>But war on a large scale was impossible in the feudal age. The military +glory of the Roman conquerors was unknown, and also that of modern +European monarchs. The peasant was bound to serve under the banner of a +military chieftain only for a short time: then he returned to his farm. +His great military weapon was the bow,--the weapon of semi-barbarians. +The spear, the sword, the battle-axe were the weapons of the baronial +family,--the weapons of knights, who fought on horseback, cased in +defensive armor. The peasant fought on foot; and as the tactics of +ancient warfare were inapplicable, and those of modern warfare unknown, +the strength of armies was in cavalry and not in the infantry, as in +modern times. But armies were not large from the ninth to the twelfth +century,--not until the Crusades arose. Nor were they subject to a rigid +discipline. They were simply an armed rabble. They were more like +militia than regular forces; they fostered military virtues, without the +demoralization of standing armies. In the feudal age there were no +standing armies. Even at so late a period as the time of Queen Elizabeth +that sovereign had to depend on the militia for the defence of the realm +against the Spaniards. Standing armies are the invention of great +military monarchs or a great military State. The bow and arrow were used +equally to shoot men and shoot deer; but they rarely penetrated the +armor of knights, or their force was broken by the heavy shield: they +took effect only on the undefended bodies of the peasantry. Hence there +was a great disproportion of the slain in battle between peasants and +their mounted masters. War, even when confined to a small sphere, has +its terrors. The sufferers were the common people, whose lives were not +held of much account. History largely confines itself to battles. Hence +we are apt to lose sight of the uneventful life of the people in +quiet times.</p> + +<p>But the barons were not always fighting. In the intervals of war the +peasant enjoyed the rude pleasures of his home. He grew up with strong +attachments, having no desire to migrate or travel. Gradually the +sentiment of loyalty was born,--loyalty to his master and to his +country. His life was rough, but earnest. He had great simplicity of +character. He became honest, industrious, and frugal. He was contented +with but few pleasures,--rural fêtes and village holidays. He had no +luxuries and no craving for them. Measured by our modern scale of +pleasures he led a very inglorious, unambitious, and rude life.</p> + +<p>Contentment is one of the mysteries of existence. We should naturally +think that excitement and pleasure and knowledge would make people +happy, since they stimulate the intellectual powers; but on the contrary +they seem to produce unrest and cravings which are never satisfied. And +we should naturally think that a life of isolation, especially with no +mental resources,--a hard rural existence, with but few comforts and no +luxuries,--would make people discontented. Yet it does not seem to be so +in fact, as illustrated by the apparent contentment of people doomed to +hard labor in the most retired and dreary retreats. We wonder at their +placitude, as we travel in remote and obscure sections of the country. A +poor farmer, whose house is scarcely better than a hovel, surrounded +with chickens and pigs, and with only a small garden,--unadorned and +lonely and repulsive,--has no cravings which make the life of the +favored rich sometimes unendurable. The poorer he is, and therefore the +more miserable as we should think, the more contented he seems to be; +while a fashionable woman or <i>ennuied</i> man, both accustomed to the +luxuries and follies of city life, with all its refinements and +gratification of intellectual and social pleasures, will sometimes pine +in a suburban home, with all the gilded glories of rich furniture, +books, beautiful gardens, greenhouses, luxurious living, horses, +carriages, and everything that wealth can furnish.</p> + +<p>So that civilization would seem often a bitter mockery, showing that +intellectual life only stimulates the cravings of the soul, but does not +satisfy them. And when people are poor but cultivated, the unhappiness +seems to be still greater; demonstrating that cultivated intellect alone +opens to the mind the existence of evils which are intensified by the +difficulty of their removal, and on which the mind dwells with feelings +kindred to despair. I have sometimes doubted whether an obscure farmer's +daughter is any happier with her piano, and her piles of cheaply +illustrated literature and translations of French novels, and her +smatterings of science learned in normal schools, since she has learned +too often to despise her father and mother and brother, and her +uneducated rural beau, and all her surroundings, with poverty and unrest +and aspiration for society eating out her soul. The happiness produced +merely by intellectual pleasures and social frivolities is very small at +the best, compared with that produced by the virtues of the heart and +the affections kindled by deeds of devotion, or the duties which take +the mind from itself. Intellectual pleasures give only a brief +satisfaction, unless directed to a practical end, like the earnest +imparting of knowledge in educational pursuits, or the pursuit of art +for itself alone,--to create, and not to devour, as the epicure eats his +dinner. Where is the happiness of devouring books with no attempt to +profit by them, except in the temporary pleasure of satisfying an +appetite? So even the highest means of happiness may become a savor of +death unto death when perverted or unimproved. Never should we stimulate +the intellect merely to feed upon itself. Unless intellectual culture is +directed to what is useful, especially to the necessities or improvement +of others, it is a delusion and a snare. Better far to be ignorant, but +industrious and useful in any calling however humble, than to cram the +mind with knowledge that leads to no good practical result. The buxom +maiden of rural life, in former days absorbed in the duties of home, +with no knowledge except that gained in a district school in the winter, +with all her genial humanities in the society of equals no more aspiring +than herself, is to me a far more interesting person than the +pale-faced, languid, discontented, envious girl who has just returned +from a school beyond her father's means, even if she can play upon an +instrument, and has worn herself thin in exhausting studies under the +stimulus of ambitious competition, or the harangues of a pedant who +thinks what he calls "education" to be the end of life,--an education +which reveals her own insignificance, or leads her to strive for an +unattainable position.</p> + +<p>I am forced to make these remarks to show that the Mediaeval peasant was +not necessarily miserable because he was ignorant, or isolated, or poor. +In so doing I may excite the wrath of some who think a little knowledge +is <i>not</i> a dangerous thing, and may appear to be throwing cold water on +one of the noblest endeavors of modern times. But I do not sneer at +education. I only seek to show that it will not make people happy, +unless it is directed into useful channels; and that even ignorance may +be bliss when it is folly to be wise. A benevolent Providence tempers +all conditions to the necessities of the times. The peasantry of Europe +became earnest and stalwart warriors and farmers, even under the +grinding despotism of feudal masters. With their beer and brown bread, +and a fowl in the pot on a Sunday, they grew up to be hardy, bold, +strong, healthy, and industrious. They furnished a material on which +Christianity and a future civilization could work. They became +patriotic, religious, and kind-hearted. They learned to bear their evils +in patience. They were more cheerful than the laboring classes of our +day, with their partial education,--although we may console ourselves +with the reflection that these are passing through the fermenting +processes of a transition from a lower to a higher grade of living. Look +at the picture of them which art has handed down: their faces are ruddy, +genial, sympathetic, although coarse and vulgar and boorish. And they +learned to accept the inequalities of life without repining insolence. +They were humble, and felt that there were actually some people in the +world superior to themselves. I do not paint their condition as +desirable or interesting by our standard, but as endurable. They were +doubtless very ignorant; but would knowledge have made them any happier? +Knowledge is for those who can climb by it to positions of honor and +usefulness, not for those who cannot rise above the condition in which +they were born,--not for those who will be snubbed and humiliated and +put down by arrogant wealth and birth. Better be unconscious of +suffering, than conscious of wrongs which cannot be redressed.</p> + +<p>Let no one here misunderstand and pervert me. I am not exalting the +ignorance and brutality of the feudal ages. I am not decrying the +superior advantages of our modern times. I only state that ignorance and +brutality were the necessary sequences of the wars and disorders of a +preceding epoch, but that this very ignorance and brutality were +accompanied by virtues which partially ameliorated the evils of the day; +that in the despair of slavery were the hopes of future happiness; that +religion took a deep hold of the human mind, even though blended with +puerile and degrading superstitions; that Christianity, taking hold of +the hearts of a suffering people, taught lessons which enabled them to +bear their hardships with resignation; that cheerfulness was not +extinguished; and that so many virtues were generated by the combined +influence of suffering and Christianity, that even with ignorance human +nature shone with greater lustre than among those by whom knowledge is +perverted. It was not until the evil and injustice of Feudalism were +exposed by political writers, and were meditated upon by the people who +had arisen by education and knowledge, that they became unendurable; and +then the people shook off the yoke. But how impossible would have been a +French Revolution in the thirteenth century! What readers would a +Rousseau have found among the people in the time of Louis VII.? If +knowledge breaks fetters when the people are strong enough to shake them +off, ignorance enables them to bear those fetters when emancipation is +impossible.</p> + +<p>The great empire of Charlemagne was divided at his death (in A.D. 814) +among his three sons,--one of whom had France, another Italy, and the +third Germany. In forty-five years afterwards we find seven kingdoms, +instead of three,--France, Navarre, Provence, Burgundy, Lorraine, +Germany, and Italy. In a few years more there were twenty-nine +hereditary fiefs. And as early as the tenth century France itself was +split up into fifty-five independent sovereignties; and these small +sovereignties were again divided into dukedoms and baronies. All these +dukes and barons, however, acknowledged the King of France as their +liege lord; yet he was not richer or more powerful than some of the +dukes who swore fealty to him. The Duke of Burgundy at one time had +larger territories and more power than the King of France himself. So +that the central authority of kings was merely nominal; their power +extended scarcely beyond the lands they individually controlled. And all +the countries of Europe were equally ruled by petty kings. The kings of +England seem to have centralized around their thrones more power than +other European monarchs until the time of the Crusades, when they were +checked, not so much by nobles as by Act of Parliament.</p> + +<p>Now all Europe was virtually divided among these petty sovereigns, +called dukes, earls, counts, and barons. Each one was virtually +independent. He coined money, administered justice, and preserved order. +He ruled by hereditary right, and his estate descended to his oldest +son. His revenues were derived by the extorted contributions of those +who cultivated his lands, and by certain perquisites, among which were +the privilege of wardship, and the profits of an estate during the +minority of its possessor, and reliefs, or fines paid on the alienation +of a vassal's feud; and the lord could bestow a female ward in marriage +on whomever he pleased, and on her refusal take possession of +her estate.</p> + +<p>These lordly proprietors of great estates,--or nobles,--so powerful and +independent, lived in castles. These strongholds were necessary in such +turbulent times. They were large or small, according to the wealth or +rank of the nobles who occupied them, but of no architectural beauty. +They were fortresses, generally built on hills, or cragged rocks, or in +inaccessible marshes, or on islands in rivers,--anywhere where defence +was easiest. The nobles did not think of beautiful situations, or +fruitful meadows, so much as of the safety and independence of the +feudal family. They therefore lived in great isolation, travelling but +little, and only at short distances (it was the higher clergy only who +travelled). Though born to rank and power, they were yet rude, rough, +unpolished. They were warriors. They fought on horseback, covered with +defensive armor. They were greedy and quarrelsome, and hence were +engaged in perpetual strife,--in the assault on castles and devastation +of lands. These castles were generally gloomy, heavy, and uncomfortable, +yet were very numerous in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They were +occupied by the feudal family, perhaps the chaplain, strangers of rank, +bards, minstrels, and servants, who lived on the best the country +afforded, but without the luxuries of our times. They lived better than +the monks, as they had no vows to restrain them. But in their dreary +castles the rooms were necessarily small, dark, and damp, except the +banqueting hall. They were poorly lighted, there being no glass in the +narrow windows, nor chimneys, nor carpets, nor mirrors, nor luxurious +furniture, nor crockery, nor glassware, nor stoves, nor the refinements +of cookery. The few roads of the country were travelled only by +horsemen, or people on foot. There were no carriages, only a few heavy +lumbering wagons. Tea and coffee were unknown, as also tropical fruits +and some of our best vegetables. But game of all kinds was plenty and +cheap; so also were wine and beer, and beef and mutton, and pork and +poultry. The feudal family was illiterate, and read but few books. The +chief pleasures were those of the chase,--hunting and hawking,--and +intemperate feasts. What we call "society" was impossible, although the +barons may have exchanged visits with each other. They rarely visited +cities, which at that time were small and uninteresting. The lordly +proprietor of ten thousand acres may have been jolly, frank, and +convivial, but he was still rough, and had little to say on matters of +great interests. Circumscribed he was of necessity, ignorant and +prejudiced. Conscious of power, however, he was proud and insolent to +inferiors. He was merely a physical man,--ruddy, healthy, strong indeed, +but without refinement, or knowledge, or social graces. His castle was a +fort and not a palace; and here he lived with boisterous or sullen +companions, as rough and ignorant as himself. His wife and daughters +were more interesting, but without those attainments which grace and +adorn society. They made tapestries and embroideries, and rode +horseback, and danced well, and were virtuous; but were primitive, +uneducated, and supercilious. Their beauty was of the ruddy sort, +--physical, but genial. They were very fond of ornaments and gay +dresses; and so were their lords on festive occasions, for +semi-barbarism delights in what is showy and glittering,--purple, and +feathers, and trinkets.</p> + +<p>Feudalism was intensely aristocratic. A line was drawn between the +noble and ignoble classes almost as broad as that which separates +liberty from slavery. It was next to impossible for a peasant, or +artisan, or even a merchant to pass that line. The exclusiveness of the +noble class was intolerable. It held in scorn any profession but arms; +neither riches nor learning was of any account. It gloried in the pride +of birth, and nourished a haughty scorn of plebeian prosperity. It was +not until cities and arts and commerce arose that the arrogance of the +baron was rebuked, or his iron power broken. Haughty though ignorant, he +had no pity or compassion for the poor and miserable. His peasantry were +doomed to perpetual insults. Their cornfields were trodden down by the +baronial hunters; they were compelled even to grind their corn in the +landlord's mill, and bake their bread in his oven. They had no redress +of injuries, and were scorned as well as insulted. What knight would arm +himself for them; what gentle lady wept at their sorrows? The feeling of +personal consequence was entirely confined to the feudal family. The +poorest knight took precedence over the richest merchant. Pride of birth +was carried to romantic extravagance, so that marriages seldom took +place between different classes. A beautiful peasant girl could never +rise above her drudgeries; and she never dreamed of rising, for the +members of the baronial family were looked up to as superior beings. A +caste grew up as rigid and exclusive as that of India. The noble and +ignoble classes were not connected by any ties; there was nothing in +common between them. Even the glory of successful warfare shed no +radiance on a peasant's hut. He fought for his master, and not for +himself, and scarcely for his country. He belonged to his master as +completely as if he could be bought and sold. Christianity teaches the +idea of a universal brotherhood; Feudalism suppressed or extinguished +it. Peasants had no rights, only duties,--and duties to hard and +unsympathetic masters. Can we wonder that a relation so unequal should +have been detested by the people when they began to think? Can we wonder +it should have created French Revolutions? When we remember how the +people toiled for a mail-clad warrior, how they fought for his +interests, how they died for his renown, how they were curtailed in +their few pleasures, how they were not permitted even to shoot a +pheasant or hare in their own grounds, we are amazed that such signal +injustice should ever have been endured. It is impossible that this +injustice should not have been felt; and no man ever became reconciled +to injustice, unless reduced to the condition of a brute. Religious +tyranny may be borne, for the priest invokes a supreme authority which +all feel to be universally binding. But all tyranny over the body--the +utter extinction of liberty--is hateful even to the most degraded +Hottentot.</p> + +<p>Why, then, was such an unjust and unequal relation permitted to exist +so long? What good did it accomplish? What were its extenuating +features? Why was it commended by historians as a good institution for +the times?</p> + +<p>It created a hardy agricultural class, inured them to the dangers and +the toils of war, bound them by local attachments, and fostered a +patriotic spirit. It developed the virtues of obedience, and submission +to evils. It created a love of home and household duties. It was +favorable to female virtue. It created the stout yeomanry who could be +relied upon in danger. It made law and order possible. It defended the +people from robbers. It laid a foundation for warlike prowess. It was +favorable to growth of population, for war did not sweep off the people +so much as those dire plagues and pestilences which were common in the +Middle Ages. It was preferable to the disorders and conflagrations and +depredations of preceding times. The poor man was oppressed, but he was +safe so long as his lord could protect him. It was a hard discipline, +but a discipline which was healthy; it preserved the seed if it did not +bear the fruits of civilization. The peasantry became honest, earnest, +sincere. They were made susceptible of religious impressions. They +became attached to all the institutions of the Church; the parish church +was their retreat, their consolation, and their joy. The priest +tyrannized over the soul and the knight over the body, but the flame of +piety burned steadily and warmly.</p> + +<p>When the need of such an institution as Feudalism no longer existed, +then it was broken up. Its blessings were not commensurate with its +evils; but the evils were less than those which previously existed. This +is, I grant, but faint praise. But the progress of society could not be +rapid amid such universal ignorance: it is slow in the best of times. I +do not call that state of society progressive where moral and spiritual +truths are forgotten or disregarded in the triumphs of a brilliant +material life. There was no progress of society from the Antonines to +Theodosius, but a steady decline. But there was a progress, however +slow, from Charlemagne to Philip Augustus. But for Feudalism and +ecclesiastical institutions the European races might not have emerged +from anarchy, or might have been subjected to a new and withering +imperialism. Say what we will of the grinding despotism of +Feudalism,--and we cannot be too severe on any form of despotism,--yet +the rude barbarian became a citizen in process of time, with education +and political rights.</p> + +<p>Society made the same sort of advance, in the gloomy epoch we are +reviewing, that the slaves in our Southern States made from the time +they were imported from Africa, with their degrading fetichism and +unexampled ignorance, to the time of their emancipation. How marked the +progress of the Southern slaves during the two hundred years of their +bondage! No degraded race ever made so marked a progress as they did in +the same period, even under all the withering influences of slavery. +Probably their moral and spiritual progress was greater than it will be +in the next two hundred years, exposed to all the dangers of modern +materialism, which saps the life of nations in the midst of the most +brilliant triumphs of art. We are now on the road to a marvellous +intellectual enlightenment, unprecedented and full of encouragement. But +with this we face dangers also, such as undermined the old Roman world +and all the ancient civilizations. If I could fix my eye on a single +State or Nation in the whole history of our humanity that has escaped +these dangers, that has not retrograded in those virtues on which the +strength of man is based, after a certain point has been reached in +civilization, I would not hazard this remark. Society escaped these +evils in that agricultural period which saw the rise and fall of +Feudalism, and made a slow but notable advance. That is a fact which +cannot be gainsaid, and this is impressive. It shows that society, in a +moral point of view, thrives better under hard restraints than when +exposed to the dangers of an irreligious, material civilization.</p> + +<p>Nor is Feudalism to be condemned as being altogether dark and +uninteresting. It had redeeming features in the life of the baronial +family. Under its influence arose the institution of chivalry; and +though the virtues of chivalry may be poetic, and exaggerated, there can +be no doubt that it was a civilizing institution, and partially redeemed +the Middle Ages. It gave rise to beautiful sentiments; it blazed in new +virtues, rarely seen in the old civilizations. They were peculiar to the +age and to Europe, were fostered by the Church, and took a coloring from +Christianity itself. Chivalry bound together the martial barons of +Europe by the ties of a fraternity of knights. Those armed and mailed +warriors fought on horseback, and chivalry takes its name from the +French <i>cheval</i>, meaning a horse. The knights learned gradually to treat +each other with peculiar courtesy. They became generous in battle or in +misfortune, for they all alike belonged to the noble class, and felt a +common bond in the pride of birth. It was not the memory of illustrious +ancestors which created this aristocratic distinction, as among Roman +patricians, but the fact that the knights were a superior order. Yet +among themselves distinctions vanished. There was no higher distinction +than that of a gentleman. The poorest knight was welcome at any castle +or at any festivity, at the tournament or in the chase. Generally, +gallantry and unblemished reputation were the conditions of social rank +among the knights themselves. They were expected to excel in courage, in +courtesy, in generosity, in truthfulness, in loyalty. The great +patrimony of the knight was his horse, his armor, and his valor. He was +bound to succor the defenceless. He was required to abstain from all +mean pursuits. If his trade were war, he would divest war of its +cruelties. His word was seldom broken, and his promises were held +sacred. If pride of rank was generated in this fraternity of gentlemen, +so also was scorn of lies and baseness. If there was no brotherhood of +man, there was the brotherhood of equals. The most beautiful friendships +arose from common dangers and common duties. A stranger knight was +treated with the greatest kindness and hospitality. If chivalry +condemned anything, it was selfishness and treachery and hypocrisy. All +the old romances and chronicles record the frankness and magnanimity of +knights. More was thought of moral than of intellectual excellence. +Nobody was ashamed to be thought religious. The mailed warrior said his +orisons every day and never neglected Mass. Even in war, prisoners were +released on their parole of honor, and their ransom was rarely +exorbitant. The institution tended to soften manners as well as to +develop the virtues of the heart. Under its influence the rude baron was +transformed into a courteous gentleman.</p> + +<p>But the distinguishing glory of chivalry was devotion to the female +sex. Respect for woman was born in the German forests before the Roman +empire fell. It was the best trait of the Germanic barbarians; but under +the institution of chivalry this natural respect was ripened into +admiration and gallantry. "Love of God and the ladies" was enjoined as a +single duty. The knight ever came to the rescue of a woman in danger or +distress, provided she was a lady. Nothing is better attested than the +chivalric devotion to woman in a feudal castle. The name of a mistress +of the heart was never mentioned but in profound respect. Even pages +were required to choose objects of devotion, to whom they were to be +loyal unto death. Woman presided in the feudal castle, where she +exercised a proper restraint. She bestowed the prize of valor at +tournaments and tilts. To insult a lady was a lasting disgrace,--or to +reveal her secrets. For the first time in history, woman became the +equal partner of her husband. She was his companion often in the chase, +gaily mounted on her steed. She always dined with him, and was the +presiding genius of the castle. She was made regent of kingdoms, heir of +crowns, and joint manager of great estates. She had the supreme +management of her household, and was consulted in every matter of +importance. What an insignificant position woman filled at Athens +compared with that in the feudal castle! How different the estimate of +woman among the Pagan poets from that held by the Provençal poets! What +a contrast to Juvenal is Sordello! The lady of a baronial hall deemed it +an insult to be addressed in the language of gallantry, except in that +vague and poetic sense in which every knight selected some lady as the +object of his dutiful devotion. She disdained the attentions of the most +potent prince if his addresses were not honorable. Nor would she bestow +her love on one of whom she was not proud. She would not marry a coward +or a braggart, even if he were the owner of ten thousand acres. The +knight was encouraged to pay his address to any lady if he was +personally worthy of her love, for chivalry created a high estimate of +individual merit. The feudal lady ignored all degrees of wealth within +her own rank. She was as tender and compassionate as she was heroic. She +was treated as a superior, rather than as an equal. There was a poetical +admiration among the whole circle of knights. A knight without an object +of devotion was as "a ship without a rudder, a horse without a bridle, a +sword without a hilt, a sky without a star." Even a Don Quixote must +have his Dulcinea, as well as horse and armor and squire. Dante +impersonates the spirit of the Middle Ages in his adoration of Beatrice. +The ancient poets coupled the praises of women with the praises of wine. +Woman, under the influence of chivalry, became the star of worship, an +object of idolatry. We read of few divorces in the Middle Ages, or of +separations, or desertions, or even alienations; these things are a +modern improvement, borrowed from the customs of the Romans. The awe and +devotion with which the lover regarded his bride became regard and +affection in the husband. The matron maintained the rank which had been +assigned to her as a maiden. The gallant warriors blended even the +adoration of our Lord with adoration of our Lady,--the deification of +Christ with the deification of woman. Chivalry, encouraged by the Church +and always strongly allied with religious sentiments, accepted for +eternal veneration the transcendent loveliness of the mother of our +Lord; so that chivalric veneration for the sex culminated in the +reverence which belongs to the Queen of Heaven,--<i>virgo fidelis; regina +angelorum</i>. Woman assumed among kings and barons the importance which +she was supposed to have in the celestial hierarchy. And besides the +religious influence, the poetic imagination of the time seized upon this +pure and lovely element, which passed into the songs, the tales, the +talk, the thought, and the aspirations of all the knightly order.</p> + +<p>Whence, now, this veneration for woman which arose in the Middle +Ages,--a veneration, which all historians attest, such as never existed +in the ancient civilization?</p> + +<p>It was undoubtedly based on the noble qualities and domestic virtues +which feudal life engendered. Women were heroines. Queen Philippa in the +absence of her husband stationed herself in the Castle of Bamborough and +defied the whole power of Douglas. The first military dispatch ever +written in the Middle Ages was addressed to her; she even took David of +Scotland a prisoner, when he invaded England. These women of chivalry +were ready to undergo any fatigues to promote their husbands' interests. +They were equal to any personal sacrifices. Nothing could daunt their +courage. They could defend themselves in danger, showing an +extraordinary fertility of resources. They earned the devotion they +called out. What more calculated to win the admiration of feudal +warriors than this devotion and bravery on the part of wives and +daughters! They were helpmates in every sense. They superintended the +details of castles. They were always employed, and generally in what +were imperative duties. If they embroidered dresses or worked +tapestries, they also wove the cloth for their husband's coats, and made +his shirts and knit his stockings. If they trained hawks and falcons, +they fed the poultry and cultivated the flowers. They understood the +cares of the kitchen, and managed the servants.</p> + +<p>But it was their moral virtues which excited the greatest esteem. They +gloried in their unsullied names; their characters were above suspicion. +Any violation of the marriage vow was almost unknown; an unfaithful +wife was infamous. The ordinary life of a castle was that of isolation, +which made women discreet, self-relying, and free from entangling +excitements. They had no great pleasures, and but little society. They +were absorbed with their duties, and contented with their husbands' +love. The feudal castle, however, was not dull, although it was +isolated, and afforded few novelties. It was full of strangers, and +minstrels, and bards, and pedlars, and priests. Women could gratify +their social wants without seductive excitements. They led a life +favorable to friendships, which cannot thrive amid the distractions of +cities. In cities few have time to cultivate friendships, although they +may not be extinguished. In the baronial castle, however, they were +necessary to existence.</p> + +<p>And here, where she was so well known, woman's worth was recognized. Her +caprices and frivolities were balanced by sterling qualities,--as a +nurse in sickness, as a devotee to duties, as a friend in distress, ever +sympathetic and kind. She was not exacting, and required very little to +amuse her. Of course, she was not intellectual, since she read but few +books and received only the rudiments of education; but she was as +learned as her brothers, and quicker in her wits. She had the vivacity +which a healthy life secures. Nor was she beautiful, according to our +standard. She was a ruddy, cheerful, active, healthy woman, accustomed +to exercise in the open air,--to field-sports and horseback journeys. +Still less was she what we call fashionable, for the word was not known; +nor was she a woman of society, for, as we have said, there was no +society in a feudal castle. What we call society was born in cities, +where women reign by force of mind and elegant courtesies and grace of +manners,--where woman is an ornament as well as a power, without +drudgeries and almost without cares, as at the courts of the +Bourbon princes.</p> + +<p>Yet I am not certain but that the foundation of courtly elegance and +dignity was laid in the baronial home, when woman began her reign as the +equal of her wedded lord, when she commanded reverence for her +courtesies and friendships, and when her society was valued so highly by +aristocratic knights. In the castle she became genial and kind and +sympathetic,--although haughty to inferiors and hard on the peasantry. +She was ever religious. Religious duties took up no small part of her +time. Christianity raised her more than all other influences combined. +You never read of an infidel woman when chivalry flourished, any more +than of a "strong-minded" woman. The feudal woman never left her sphere, +even amid the pleasures of the chase or the tilt. Her gentle and +domestic virtues remained with her to the end, and were the most +prized. Woman was worshipped because she was a woman, not because she +resembled a man. Benevolence and compassion and simplicity were her +cardinal virtues. Though her sports were masculine, her character was +feminine. She yielded to man in matters of reason and intellect, but he +yielded to her in the virtues of the heart and the radiance of the soul. +She associated with man without seductive spectacles or demoralizing +excitements, and retained her influence by securing his respect. In +antiquity, there was no respect for the sex, even when Aspasia +enthralled Pericles by the fascinations of blended intellect and beauty; +but there was respect in the feudal ages, when women were unlettered and +unpolished. And this respect was alike the basis of friendship and the +key to power. It was not elegance of manners, nor intellectual culture, +nor physical beauty which elevated the women of chivalry, but their +courage, their fidelity, their sympathy, their devotion to +duty,--qualities which no civilization ought to obscure, and for the +loss of which no refinements of life can make up.</p> + +<p>Thus Chivalry,--the most interesting institution of the Middle Ages, +rejoicing in deeds of daring, guided by honor and renown, executing +enterprises almost extravagant, battling injustice and wrong, binding +together the souls of a great fraternity, scorning lies, revering truth, +devoted to the Church,--could not help elevating the sex to which its +proudest efforts were pledged, by cherishing elevated conceptions of +love, by offering all the courtesies of friendship, by coming to the +rescue of innocence, by stimulating admiration of all that is heroic, +and by asserting the honor of the loved ones, even at the risk of life +and limb. In the dark ages of European society woman takes her place, +for the first time in the world, as the equal and friend of man,--not by +physical beauty, not by graces of manner, not even by intellectual +culture, but by the solid virtues of the heart, brought to light by +danger, isolation, and practical duties, and by that influence which +radiated from the Cross. Divest chivalry of the religious element, and +you take away its glory and its fascination. The knight would be only a +hardhearted warrior, oppressing the poor and miserable, and only +interesting from his deeds of valor. But Christianity softened him and +made him human, while it dignified the partner of his toils, and gave +birth to virtues which commanded reverence. The soul of chivalry, +closely examined, in its influence over men or over women, after all, +was that power which is and will be through all the ages the hope and +glory of our world.</p> + +<p>Thus, with all the miseries, cruelties, injustices, and hardships of +feudal life, there were some bright spots; showing that Providence never +deserts the world, and that though progress may be slow in the infancy +of races, yet with the light of Christianity, even if it be darkened, +this progress is certain, and will be more and more rapid as +Christianity achieves its victories.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Hallam's Middle Ages; Sismondi's Histoire des Français; Guizot's History +of Civilization (translated); Michelet's History of France (translated); +Bell's Historical Studies of Feudalism; Lacroix's Manners and Customs of +the Middle Ages; Mills's History of Chivalry; Sir Walter Scott's article +in Encyclopaedia Britannica; Perrot's Collection Historique des Ordres +de Chivalrie; St. Palaye's Memoires de l'Ancienne Chivalrie; Buckle's +History of Civilization; Palgrave's English Commonwealth; Martin's +History of France; Freeman's Norman Conquest; M. Fauriel's History of +Provençal Poetry; Froissart's Chronicles; also the general English +histories of the reign of Edward III. Don Quixote should he read in this +connection. And Tennyson in his "Idylls of the King" has incorporated +the spirit of ancient chivalry.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="THE_CRUSADES."></a>THE CRUSADES.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1095-1272.</p> + +<p>The great external event of the Middle Ages was the Crusades,--indeed, +they were the only common enterprise in which Europe ever engaged. Such +an event ought to be very interesting, since it has reference to +conflicting passions and interests. Unfortunately, in a literary point +of view, there is no central figure in the great drama which the princes +of Europe played for two hundred years, and hence the Crusades have but +little dramatic interest. No one man represents that mighty movement. It +was a great wave of inundation, flooding Asia with the unemployed forces +of Europe, animated by passions which excite our admiration, our pity, +and our reprobation. They are chiefly interesting for their results, and +results which were unforeseen. A philosopher sees in them the hand of +Providence,--the overruling of mortal wrath to the praise of Him who +governs the universe. I know of no great movement of blind forces so +pregnant with mighty consequences.</p> + +<p>The Crusades were a semi-religious and a semi-military movement. They +represent the passions and ideas of Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries,--its chivalry, its hatred of Mohammedanism, and its desire to +possess the spots consecrated by the sufferings of our Lord. Their long +continuance shows the intensity of the sentiments which animated them. +They were aggressive wars, alike fierce and unfortunate, absorbing to +the nations that embarked in them, but of no interest to us apart from +the moral lessons to be drawn from them. Perhaps one reason why history +is so dull to most people is that the greater part of it is a record of +battles and sieges, of military heroes and conquerors. This is +pre-eminently true of Greece, of Rome, of the Middle Ages, and of our +modern times down to the nineteenth century. But such chronicles of +everlasting battles and sieges do not satisfy this generation. Hence our +more recent historians, wishing to avoid the monotony of ordinary +history, have attempted to explore the common life of the people, and to +bring out their manners and habits: they would succeed in making history +more interesting if the materials, at present, were not so scanty and +unsatisfactory.</p> + +<p>The only way to make the history of wars interesting is to go back to +the ideas, passions, and interests which they represent. Then we +penetrate to the heart of history, and feel its life. For all the great +wars of the world, we shall see, are exponents of its great moving +spiritual forces. The wars of Cyrus and Alexander represent the passion +of military glory; those of Marius, Sylla, Pompey, and Caesar, the +desire of political aggrandizement; those of Constantine and Theodosius, +the desire for political unity and the necessity of self-defence. The +sweeping and desolating inundations of the barbarians, from the third to +the sixth century, represent the poverty of those rude nations, and +their desire to obtain settlements more favorable to getting a living. +The conquests of Mohammed and his successors were made to swell the +number of converts of a new religion. The perpetual strife of the +baronial lords was to increase their domains. The wars of Charlemagne +and Charles V. were to revive the imperialism of the Caesars,--to create +new universal monarchies. The wars which grew out of the Reformation +were to preserve or secure religious liberty; those which followed were +to maintain the balance of power. Those of Napoleon were at first, at +least nominally, to spread or defend the ideas of the French Revolution, +until he became infatuated with the love of military glory. Our first +great war was to secure national independence, and our second to +preserve national unity. The contest between Prussia and France was to +prevent the ascendency of either of those great States. The wars of the +English in India were to find markets for English goods, employment for +the sons of the higher classes, and a new field for colonization and +political power. So all the great passions and interests which have +moved mankind have found their vent in war,--rough barbaric spoliations, +love of glory and political aggrandizement, desire to spread religious +ideas, love of liberty, greediness for wealth, unity of nations, +jealousy of other powers, even the desire to secure general peace and +tranquillity. Most wars have had in view the attainment of great ends, +and it is in the ultimate results of them that we see the progress +of nations.</p> + +<p>Thus wars, contemplated in a philosophical aspect, in spite of their +repulsiveness are invested with dignity, and really indicate great moral +and intellectual movements, as well as the personal ambition or vanity +of conquerors. They are the ultimate solutions of great questions, not +to be solved in any other way,--unfortunately, I grant,--on account of +human wickedness. And I know of no great wars, much as I loathe and +detest them, and severely and justly as they may be reprobated, which +have not been overruled for the ultimate welfare of society. The wars of +Alexander led to the introduction of Grecian civilization into Asia and +Egypt; those of the Romans, to the pacification of the world and the +reign of law and order; those of barbarians, to the colonization of the +worn-out provinces of the Roman Empire by hardier and more energetic +nations; those of Charlemagne, to the ultimate suppression of barbaric +invasions; those of the Saracens, to the acknowledgment of One God; +those of Charles V., to the recognized necessity of a balance of power; +those which grew out of the Reformation, to religious liberty. The +Huguenots' contest undermined the ascendency of Roman priests in France; +the Seven Years' War developed the naval power of England, and gave to +her a prominent place among the nations, and exposed the weakness of +Austria, so long the terror of Europe; the wars of Louis XIV. sowed the +seeds of the French Revolution; those of Napoleon vindicated its great +ideas; those of England in India introduced the civilization of a +Christian nation; those of the Americans secured liberty and the unity +of their vast nation. The majesty of the Governor of the universe is +seen in nothing more impressively than in the direction which the wrath +of man is made to take.</p> + +<p>Now these remarks apply to the Crusades. They represent prevailing +ideas. Their origin was a universal hatred of Mohammedans. Like +all the institutions of the Middle Ages, they were a great +contradiction,--debasement in glory, and glory in debasement. With all +the fierceness and superstition and intolerance of feudal barons, we see +in the Crusades the exercise of gallantry, personal heroism, tenderness, +Christian courtesy,--the virtues of chivalry, unselfishness, and +magnanimity; but they ended in giving a new impulse to civilization, +which will be more minutely pointed out before I close my lecture.</p> + +<p>Thus the Crusades are really worthy to be chronicled by historians above +anything else which took place in the Middle Ages, since they gave birth +to mighty agencies, which still are vital forces in society,--even as +everything in American history pales before that awful war which +arrayed, in our times, the North against the South in desperate and +deadly contest; the history of which remains to be written, but cannot +be written till the animosities which provoked it have passed away. What +a small matter to future historians is rapid colonization and +development of material resources, in comparison with the sentiments +which provoked that war! What will future philosophers care how many +bushels of wheat are raised in Minnesota, or car-loads of corn brought +from Illinois, or hogs slaughtered in Chicago, or yards of cloth woven +in Lowell, or cases of goods packed in New York, or bales of carpets +manufactured in Philadelphia, or pounds of cotton exported from New +Orleans, or meetings of railway presidents at Cincinnati to pool the +profits of their monopolies, or women's-rights conventions held in +Boston, or schemes of speculators ventilated in the lobbies of +Washington, or stock-jobbing and gambling operations take place in every +large city of the country,--compared with the mighty marshalling of +forces on the banks of the Potomac, at the call of patriotism, to +preserve the life of the republic? You cannot divest war of dignity and +interest when the grandest results, which affect the permanent welfare +of nations, are made to appear.</p> + +<p>The Crusades, as they were historically developed, are mixed up with the +religious ideas of the Middle Ages, with the domination of popes, with +the feudal system, with chivalry, with monastic life, with the central +power of kings, with the birth of mercantile States, with the fears and +interests of England, France, Germany, and Italy, for two hundred +years,--yea, with the architecture, commerce, geographical science, and +all the arts then known. All these principalities and powers and +institutions and enterprises were affected by them, so that at their +termination a new era in civilization began. Grasp the Crusades, and you +comprehend one of the forces which undermined the institutions of the +Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>It is not a little remarkable that the earliest cause of the Crusades, +so far as I am able to trace, was the adoption by the European nations +of some of the principles of Eastern theogonies which pertained to +self-expiation. An Asiatic theological idea prepared the way for the war +between Europe and Asia. The European pietist embraced the religious +tenets of the Asiatic monk, which centred in the propitiation of the +Deity by works of penance. One of the approved and popular forms of +penance was a pilgrimage to sacred places,--seen equally among +degenerate Christian sects in Asia Minor, and among the Mohammedans of +Arabia. What place so sacred as Jerusalem, the scene of the passion and +resurrection of our Lord? Ever since the Empress Helena had built a +church at Jerusalem, it had been thronged with pious pilgrims. A +pilgrimage to old Jerusalem would open the doors of the New Jerusalem, +whose streets were of gold, and whose palaces were of pearls.</p> + +<p>At the close of the tenth century there was great suffering in Europe, +bordering on despair. The calamities of ordinary life were so great that +the end of the world seemed to be at hand. Universal fear of impending +divine wrath seized the minds of men. A great religious awakening took +place, especially in England, France, and Germany. In accordance with +the sentiments of the age, there was every form of penance to avert the +anger of God and escape the flames of hell. The most popular form of +penance was the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, long and painful as it was. +Could the pilgrim but reach that consecrated spot, he was willing to +die. The village pastor delivered the staff into his hands, girded him +with a scarf, and attached to it a leathern scrip. Friends and neighbors +accompanied him a little way on his toilsome journey, which lay across +the Alps, through the plains of Lombardy, over Illyria and Pannonia, +along the banks of the Danube, by Moesia and Dacia, to Belgrade and +Constantinople, and then across the Bosphorus, through Bithynia, +Cilicia, and Syria, until the towers and walls of Tyre, Ptolemais, and +Caesarea proclaimed that he was at length in the Holy Land. Barons and +common people swell the number of these pilgrims. The haughty knight, +who has committed unpunished murders, and the pensive saint, wrapt in +religious ecstasies, rival each other in humility and zeal. Those who +have no money sell their lands. Those who have no lands to sell throw +themselves on Providence, and beg their way for fifteen hundred miles +among strangers. The roads are filled with these travellers,--on foot, +in rags, fainting from hunger and fatigue. What sufferings, to purchase +the favor of God, or to realize the attainment of pious curiosity! The +heart almost bleeds to think that our ancestors could ever have been so +visionary and misguided; that such a gloomy view of divine forgiveness +should have permeated the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>But the sorrows of the pious pilgrims did not end when they reached the +Holy Land. Jerusalem was then in the hands of the Turks and Saracens (or +Orientals, a general name given to the Arabian Mohammedans), who exacted +two pieces of gold from every pilgrim as the price of entering +Jerusalem, and moreover reviled and maltreated him. The Holy Sepulchre +could be approached only on the condition of defiling it.</p> + +<p>The reports of these atrocities and cruelties at last reached the +Europeans, filling them with sympathy for the sufferers and indignation +for the persecutors. An intense hatred of Mohammedans was generated and +became universal,--a desire for vengeance, unparalleled in history. +Popes and bishops weep; barons and princes swear. Every convent and +every castle in Europe is animated with deadly resentment. Rage, +indignation, and vengeance are the passions of the hour,--all +concentrated on "the infidels," which term was the bitterest reproach +that each party could inflict on the other. An infidel was accursed of +God, and was consigned to human wrath. And the Mohammedans had the same +hatred of Christians that Christians had of Mohammedans. In the eyes of +each their enemies were infidels; and they were enemies because they +were regarded as infidels.</p> + +<p>Such a state of feeling in both Europe and Asia could not but produce an +outbreak,--a spark only was needed to kindle a conflagration. That spark +was kindled when Peter of Amiens, a returned hermit, aroused the martial +nations to a bloody war on these enemies of God and man. He was a +mean-looking man, with neglected beard and disordered dress. He had no +genius, nor learning, nor political position. He was a mere fanatic, +fierce, furious with ungovernable rage. But he impersonated the leading +idea of the age,--hatred of "the infidels," as the Mohammedans were +called. And therefore his voice was heard. The Pope used him as a tool. +Two centuries later he could not have made himself a passing wonder. But +he is the means of stirring up the indignation of Europe into a blazing +flame. He itinerates France and Italy, exposing the wrongs of the +Christians and the cruelties of the Saracens,--the obstruction placed in +the way of salvation. At length a council is assembled at Clermont, and +the Pope--Urban II.--presides, and urges on the sacred war. In the year +1095 the Pope, in his sacred robes, and in the presence of four hundred +bishops and abbots, ascends the pulpit erected in the market-place, and +tells the immense multitude how their faith is trodden in the dust; how +the sacred relics are desecrated; and appeals alike to chivalry and +religion. More than this, he does just what Mohammed did when he urged +his followers to take the sword: he announces, in fiery language, the +fullest indulgence to all who take part in the expedition,--that all +their sins shall be forgiven, and that heaven shall be opened to them. +"It is the voice of God," they cry; "we will hasten to the deliverance +of the sacred city!" Every man stimulates the passions of his neighbor. +All vie in their contributions. The knights especially are +enthusiastic, for they can continue their accustomed life without +penance, and yet obtain the forgiveness of their sins. Religious fears +are turned at first into the channel of penance; and penance is made +easy by the indulgence of the martial passions. Every recruit wore a red +cross, and was called <i>croisé</i>,--cross-bearer; whence the name of +the holy war.</p> + +<p>Thus the Crusades began, at the close of the eleventh century, when +William Rufus was King of England, when Henry IV. was still Emperor of +Germany, when Anselm was reigning at Canterbury as spiritual head of the +English Church, ten years after the great Hildebrand had closed his +turbulent pontificate.</p> + +<p>I need not detail the history of this first Crusade. Of the two hundred +thousand who set out with Peter the Hermit,--this fiery fanatic, with no +practical abilities,--only twenty thousand succeeded in reaching even +Constantinople. The rest miserably perished by the way,--a most +disorderly rabble. And nothing illustrates the darkness of the age more +impressively than that a mere monk should have been allowed to lead two +hundred thousand armed men on an enterprise of such difficulty. How +little the science of war was comprehended! And even of the five hundred +thousand men under Godfrey, Tancred, Bohemond, and other great feudal +princes,--men of rare personal valor and courage; men who led the flower +of the European chivalry,---only twenty-five thousand remained after +the conquest of Jerusalem. The glorious array of a hundred and fifty +thousand horsemen, in full armor, was a miserable failure. The lauded +warriors of feudal Europe effected almost nothing. Tasso attempted to +immortalize their deeds; but how insignificant they were, compared with +even Homer's heroes! A modern army of twenty-five thousand men could not +only have put the whole five hundred thousand to rout in an hour, but +could have delivered Palestine in a few months. Even one of the standing +armies of the sixteenth century, under such a general as Henry IV. or +the Duke of Guise, could have effected more than all the crusaders of +two hundred years. The crusaders numbered many heroes, but scarcely a +single general. There was no military discipline among them: they knew +nothing of tactics or strategy; they fought pell-mell in groups, as in +the contests of barons among themselves. Individually they were gallant +and brave, and performed prodigies of valor with their swords and +battle-axes; but there was no direction given to their strength +by leaders.</p> + +<p>The Second Crusade, preached half a century afterwards by Saint Bernard, +and commanded by an Emperor of Germany and a King of France, proved +equally unfortunate. Not a single trophy consoled Europe for the +additional loss of two hundred thousand men. The army melted away in +foolish sieges, for which the crusaders had no genius or proper means.</p> + +<p>The Third Crusade, and the most famous, which began in the year 1189, of +which Philip Augustus of France, Richard Coeur de Lion of England, and +Frederic Barbarossa of Germany were the leaders,--the three greatest +monarchs of their age,--was also signally unsuccessful. Feudal armies +seem to have learned nothing in one hundred years of foreign warfare; or +else they had greater difficulties to contend with, abler generals to +meet, than they dreamed of, who reaped the real advantages,--like +Saladin. Sir Walter Scott, in his "Ivanhoe," has not probably +exaggerated the military prowess of the heroes of this war, or the valor +of Templars and Hospitallers; yet the finest array of feudal forces in +the Middle Ages, from which so much was expected, wasted its strength +and committed innumerable mistakes. It proved how useless was a feudal +army for a distant and foreign war. Philip may have been wily, and +Richard lion-hearted, but neither had the generalship of Saladin. Though +they triumphed at Tiberias, at Jaffa, at Caesarea; though prodigies of +valor were performed; though Ptolemais (or Acre), the strongest city of +the East, was taken,--yet no great military results followed. More blood +was shed at this famous siege, which lasted three years, than ought to +have sufficed for the subjugation of Asia. There were no decisive +battles, and yet one hundred battles took place under its walls. +Slaughter effected nothing. Jerusalem, which had been retaken by the +Saracens, still remained in their hands, and never afterwards was +conquered by the Europeans. The leaders returned dejected to their +kingdoms, and the bones of their followers whitened the soil of +Palestine.</p> + +<p>The Fourth Crusade, incited by Pope Innocent III., three years after, +terminated with divisions among the States of Christendom, without +weakening the power of the Saracens (1202-4).</p> + +<p>Among other expeditions was one called the "Children's Crusade" (1212), +a wretched, fanatical misery, resulting in the enslavement of many and +the death of thousands by shipwreck and exposure.</p> + +<p>The Fifth Crusade, commanded by the Emperor Frederic II. of Germany +(1228-9), was diverted altogether from the main object, and spent its +force on Constantinople. That city was taken, but the Holy Land was not +delivered. The Byzantine Empire was then in the last stages of +decrepitude, or its capital would not have fallen, as it did, from a +naval attack made by the Venetians, and in revenge for the treacheries +and injuries of the Greek emperors to former crusaders. This, instead of +weakening the Mussulmans, broke down the chief obstacle to their +entrance into Europe shortly afterward.</p> + +<p>The Sixth Crusade (1248-50) only secured the capture of Damietta, on the +banks of the Nile.</p> + +<p>The Seventh and last of these miserable wars was the most unfortunate +of all, A.D. 1270. The saintly monarch of France perished, with most of +his forces, on the coast of Africa, and the ruins of Carthage were the +only conquest which was made. Europe now fairly sickened over the losses +and misfortunes and defeats of nearly two centuries, during which five +millions are supposed to have lost their lives. Famine and pestilence +destroyed more than the sword. Before disheartened Europe could again +rally, the last strongholds of the Christians were wrested away by the +Mohammedans; and their gallant but unsuccessful defenders were treated +with every inhumanity, and barbarously murdered in spite of truces +and treaties.</p> + +<p>Such were the famous Crusades, only the main facts of which I allude to; +for to describe them all, or even the more notable incidents, would fill +volumes,--all interesting to be read in detail by those who have +leisure; all marked by prodigious personal valor; all disgraceful for +the want of unity of action and the absence of real generalship. They +indicate the enormous waste of forces which characterizes nations in +their progress. This waste of energies is one of the great facts of all +history, surpassed only by the apparent waste of the forces of nature or +the fruits of the earth, in the transition period between the time when +men roamed in forests and the time when they cultivated the land. See +what a vast destruction there has been of animals by each other; what a +waste of plants and vegetables, when they could not be utilized. Why +should man escape the universal waste, when reason is ignored or +misdirected? Of what use or value could Palestine have been to Europeans +in the Middle Ages? Of what use can any country be to conquerors, when +it cannot be civilized or made to contribute to their wants? Europe then +had no need of Asia, and that perhaps is the reason why Europe then +could not conquer Asia. Providence interfered, and rebuked the mad +passions which animated the invaders, and swept them all away. Were +Palestine really needed by Europe, it could be wrested from the Turks +with less effort than was made by the feeblest of the crusaders. +Constantinople--the most magnificent site for a central power--was +indeed wrested from the Greek emperors, and kept one hundred years; but +the Europeans did not know what to do with the splendid prize, and it +was given to the Turks, who made it the capital of a vital empire. All +the good which resulted to Europe from the temporary possession of +Constantinople was the introduction into Europe of Grecian literature +and art. Its political and mercantile importance was not appreciated, +nor then even scarcely needed. It will one day become again the spoil of +that nation which can most be benefited by it. Such is the course +events are made to take.</p> + +<p>In this brief notice of the most unsuccessful wars in which Europe ever +engaged we cannot help noticing their great mistakes. We see rashness, +self-confidence, depreciation of enemies, want of foresight, ignorance +of the difficulties to be surmounted. The crusaders were diverted from +their main object, and wasted their forces in attacking unimportant +cities, or fortresses out of their way. They invaded the islands of the +Mediterranean, Egypt, Africa, and Greek possessions. They quarrelled +with their friends, and they quarrelled with each other. The chieftains +sought their individual advantage rather than the general good. Nor did +they provide themselves with the necessities for such distant +operations. They had no commissariat,--without which even a modern army +fails. They were captivated by trifles and frivolities, rather than +directing their strength to the end in view. They allowed themselves to +be seduced by both Greek and infidel arts and vices. They were betrayed +into the most foolish courses. They had no proper knowledge of the +forces with which they were to contend. They wantonly massacred their +foes when they fell into their hands, increased the animosity of the +Mohammedans, and united them in a concert which they should themselves +have sought. They marched by land when they should have sailed by sea, +and they sailed by sea when they should have marched by land. They +intrusted the command to monks and inexperienced leaders. They obeyed +the mandates of apostolic vicars when they should have considered +military necessities. In fact there was no unity of action, and scarcely +unity of end. What would the great masters of Grecian and Roman warfare +have thought of these blunders and stupidities, to say nothing of modern +generals! The conduct of those wars excites our contempt, in spite of +the heroism of individual knights. We despise the incapacity of leaders +as much as we abhor the fanaticism which animated their labors. The +Crusades have no bright side, apart from the piety and valor of some who +embarked in them. Hence they are less and less interesting to modern +readers. The romance about them has ceased to affect us. We only see +mistakes and follies; and who cares to dwell on the infirmities of human +nature? It is only what is great in man that moves and exalts us. There +is nothing we dwell upon with pleasure in these aggressive, useless, +unjustifiable wars, except the chivalry associated with them. The reason +of modern times as sternly rebukes them as the heart of the Middle Ages +sickened at them.</p> + +<p>In one aspect they are absolutely repulsive; and this in view of their +vices. The crusaders were cruel. They wantonly massacred their enemies, +even when defenceless. Sixty thousand people were butchered on the fall +of Jerusalem; ten thousand were slaughtered in the Mosque of Omar. The +Christians themselves felt safe when they sought the retreat of +churches, in dire calamities at home; but they had no respect for the +religious retreats of infidels. When any city fell into their hands +there was wholesale assassination. And they became licentious, as well +as rapacious and cruel. They learned all the vices of the East. Even +under the walls of Acre they sang to the sounds of Arabian instruments, +and danced amid indecent songs. When they took Constantinople they had +no respect for either churches or tombs, and desecrated even the pulpit +of the Patriarch. Their original religious zeal was finally lost sight +of entirely in their military license. They became more hateful to the +orthodox Greeks than to the infidel Saracens. And when the crusaders +returned to their homes,--what few of them lived to return,--they +morally poisoned the communities and villages in which they dwelt. They +became vagabonds and vagrants; they introduced demoralizing amusements, +and jugglers and strolling players appeared for the first time in +Europe. All war is necessarily demoralizing, even war in defence of +glorious principles, and especially in these times, but much more so is +unjust, fanatical, and unnecessary war.</p> + +<p>But I turn from the record of the mistakes, follies, vices, miseries, +and crimes which marked the wickedest and most uncalled-for wars of +European history, to consider their ultimate results: not logical +results, for these were melancholy,--the depopulation of Europe; the +decimation of the nobility; the poverty which enormous drains of money +from their natural channels produced; the spread of vice; the decline of +even feudal virtues. These evils and others followed naturally and +inevitably from those distant wars. The immediate effects of all war are +evil and melancholy. Murder, pillage, profanity, drunkenness, +extravagance, public distress, bitter sorrows, wasted energies, +destruction of property, national debts, exaltation of military maxims, +general looseness of life, distaste for regular pursuits,--these are the +first-fruits of war, offensive and defensive, and as inevitable and +uniform as the laws of gravity. No wars were ever more disastrous than +the Crusades in their immediate effects, in any way they may be viewed. +It is all one dark view of disappointment, sorrow, wretchedness, and +sin. There were no bright spots; no gains, only calamities. Nothing +consoled Europe for the loss of five millions of her most able-bodied +men,--no increase of territory, no establishment of rights, no glory, +even; nothing but disgrace and ruin, as in that maddest of all modern +expeditions, the invasion of Russia by Napoleon.</p> + +<p>But after the lapse of nearly seven hundred years we can see important +results on the civilization of Europe, indirectly effected,--not +intended, nor designed, nor dreamed of; which results we consider +beneficent, and so beneficent that the world is probably better for +those horrid wars. It was fortunate to humanity at large that they +occurred, although so unfortunate to Europe at the time. In the end, +Europe was a gainer by them. Wickedness was not the seed of virtue, but +wickedness was overruled. Woe to them by whom offences come, but it must +need be that offences come. Men in their depravity will commit crimes, +and those crimes are punished; but even these are made to praise a Power +superior to that of devils, as benevolent as it is omnipotent,--in which +fact I see the utter hopelessness of earth without a superintending and +controlling Deity.</p> + +<p>One important result of the Crusades was the barrier they erected to the +conquests of the Mohammedans in Europe. It is true that the wave of +Saracenic invasion had been arrested by Charles Martel four or five +hundred years before; but in the mean time a new Mohammedan power sprang +up, of greater vigor, of equal ferocity, and of a more stubborn +fanaticism. This was that of the Turks, who had their eye on +Constantinople and all Eastern Europe. And Europe might have submitted +to their domination, had they instead of the Latins taken +Constantinople. The conquest of that city was averted several hundred +years; and when at last it fell into Turkish hands, Christendom was +strong enough to resist the Turkish armies. We must remember that the +Turks were a great power, even in the times of Peter the Great, and +would have taken Vienna but for John Sobieski. But when Urban II., at +the Council of Clermont, urged the nations of Europe to repel the +infidels on the confines of Asia, rather than wait for them in the heart +of Europe, the Asiatic provinces of the Greek Empire were overrun both +by Turks and Saracens. They held Syria, Armenia, Asia Minor, Africa, +Spain, and the Balearic Islands. Had not Godfrey come to the assistance +of a division of the Christian army, when it was surrounded by two +hundred thousand Turks at the battle of Dorylaeum, the Christians would +have been utterly overwhelmed, and the Turks would have pressed to the +Hellespont. But they were beaten back into Syria, and, for a time, as +far as the line of the Euphrates. But for that timely repulse, the +battles of Belgrade and Lepanto might not have been fought in subsequent +ages. It would have been an overwhelming calamity had the Turks invaded +Europe in the twelfth century. The loss of five millions on the plains +of Asia would have been nothing in comparison to an invasion of Europe +by the Mohammedans,--whether Saracens or Turks. It may be that the +chivalry of Europe would have successfully repelled an invasion, as the +Saracens repelled the Christians, on their soil. It may be that Asia +could not have conquered Europe any easier than Europe could +conquer Asia.</p> + +<p>I do not know how far statesmanlike views entered into the minds of the +leaders of the Crusades. I believe the sentiment which animated Peter +and Urban and Bernard was pure hatred of the Mohammedans (because they +robbed, insulted, and oppressed the pilgrims), and not any controlling +fears of their invasion of Europe. If such a fear had influenced them, +they would not have permitted a mere rabble to invade Asia; there would +have been a sense of danger stronger than that of hatred,--which does +not seem to have existed in the self-confidence of the crusaders. They +thought it an easy thing to capture Jerusalem: it was a sort of holiday +march of the chivalry of Europe, under Richard and Philip Augustus. +Perhaps, however, the princes of Europe were governed by political +rather than religious reasons. Some few long-headed statesmen, if such +there were among the best informed of bishops and abbots, may have felt +the necessity of the conflict in a political sense; but I do not believe +this was a general conviction. There was, doubtless, a political +necessity--although men were too fanatical to see more than one side--to +crush the Saracens because they were infidels, and not because they were +warriors. But whether they saw it or not, or armed themselves to resist +a danger as well as to exterminate heresy, the ultimate effects were +all the same. The crusaders failed in their direct end. They did not +recover Palestine; but they so weakened or diverted the Mohammedan +armies that there was not strength enough left in them to conquer +Europe, or even to invade her, until she was better prepared to resist +it,--as she did at the battle of Lepanto (A.D. 1571), one of the +decisive battles of the world.</p> + +<p>I have said that the Crusades were a disastrous failure. I mean in their +immediate ends, not in ultimate results. If it is probable that they +arrested the conquests of the Turks in Europe, then this blind and +fanatical movement effected the greatest blessing to Christendom. It +almost seems that the Christians were hurled into the Crusades by an +irresistible fate, to secure a great ultimate good; or, to use Christian +language, were sent as blind instruments by the Almighty to avert a +danger they could not see. And if this be true, the inference is logical +and irresistible that God uses even the wicked passions of men to effect +his purposes,--as when the envy of Haman led to the elevation of +Mordecai, and to the deliverance of the Jews from one of their +greatest dangers.</p> + +<p>Another and still more noticeable result of the Crusades was the +weakening of the power of those very barons who embarked in the wars. +Their fanaticism recoiled upon themselves, and undermined their own +system. Nothing could have happened more effectually to loosen the +rigors of the feudal system. It was the baron and the knight that +marched to Palestine who suffered most in the curtailment of the +privileges which they had abused,--even as it was the Southern planter +of Carolina who lost the most heavily in the war which he provoked to +defend his slave property. In both cases the fetters of the serfs and +slaves were broken by their own masters,--not intentionally, of course, +but really and effectually. How blind men are in their injustices! They +are made to hang on the gallows which they have erected for others. To +gratify his passion of punishing the infidels, whom he so intensely +hated, the baron or prince was obliged to grant great concessions to the +towns and villages which he ruled with an iron hand, in order to raise +money for his equipment and his journey. He was not paid by Government +as are modern soldiers and officers. He had to pay his own expenses, and +they were heavier than he had expected or provided for. Sometimes he was +taken captive, and had his ransom to raise,--to pay for in hard cash, +and not in land: as in the case of Richard of England, when, on his +return from Palestine, he was imprisoned in Austria,--and it took to +ransom him, as some have estimated, one third of all the gold and silver +of the realm, chiefly furnished by the clergy. But where was the +imprisoned baron to get the money for his ransom? Not from the Jews, +for their compound interest of fifty per cent every six months would +have ruined him in less than two years. But the village guilds had money +laid by. Merchants and mechanics in the towns, whom he despised, had +money. Monasteries had money. He therefore gave new privileges to all; +he gave charters of freedom to towns; he made concessions to the +peasantry.</p> + +<p>As the result of this, when the baron came back from the wars, he found +himself much poorer than when he went away,--he found his lands +encumbered, his castle dilapidated, and his cattle sold. In short, he +was, as we say of a proud merchant now and then, "embarrassed in his +circumstances." He was obliged to economize. But the feudal family would +not hear of retrenchment, and the baron himself had become more +extravagant in his habits. As travel and commerce had increased he had +new wants, which he could not gratify without parting with either lands +or prerogatives. As the result of all this he became not quite so +overbearing, though perhaps more sullen; for he saw men rising about him +who were as rich as he,--men whom his ancestors had despised. The +artisans, who belonged to the leading guilds, which had become enriched +by the necessities of barons, or by that strange activity of trade and +manufactures which war seems to stimulate as well as to destroy,--these +rude and ignorant people were not so servile as formerly, but began to +feel a sort of importance, especially in towns and cities, which +multiplied wonderfully during the Crusades. In other words, they were no +longer brutes, to be trodden down without murmur or resistance. They +began to form what we call a "middle class." Feudalism, in its proud +ages, did not recognize a middle class. The impoverishment of nobles by +the Crusades laid the foundation of this middle class, at least in +large towns.</p> + +<p>The growth of cities and the decay of feudalism went on simultaneously; +and both were equally the result of the Crusades. If the noble became +impoverished, the merchant became enriched; and the merchant lived, not +in the country, but in some mercantile mart. The crusaders had need of +ships. These were furnished by those cities which had obtained from +feudal sovereigns charters of freedom. Florence, Pisa, Venice, Genoa, +Marseilles, became centres of wealth and political importance. The +growth of cities and the extension of commerce went hand in hand. +Whatever the Crusades did for cities they did equally for commerce; and +with the needs of commerce came improvement in naval architecture. As +commerce grew, the ships increased in size and convenience; and the +products which the ships brought from Asia to Europe were not only +introduced, but they were cultivated. New fruits and vegetables were +raised by European husbandmen. Plum-trees were brought from Damascus and +sugar-cane from Tripoli. Silk fabrics, formerly confined to +Constantinople and the East, were woven in Italian and French villages. +The Venetians obtained from Tyrians the art of making glass. The Greek +fire suggested gunpowder. Architecture received an immense impulse: the +churches became less sombre and heavy, and more graceful and beautiful. +Even the idea of the arch, some think, came from the East. The domes and +minarets of Venice were borrowed from Constantinople. The ornaments of +Byzantine churches and palaces were brought to Europe. The horses of +Lysippus, carried from Greece to Rome, and from Rome to Constantinople, +at last surmounted the palace of the Doges. Houses became more +comfortable, churches more beautiful, and palaces more splendid. Even +manners improved, and intercourse became more polished. Chivalry +borrowed many of its courtesies from the East. There were new +refinements in the arts of cookery as well as of society. Literature +itself received a new impulse, as well as science. It was from +Constantinople that Europe received the philosophy of Plato and +Aristotle, in the language in which it was written, instead of +translations through the Arabic. Greek scholars came to Italy to +introduce their unrivalled literature; and after Grecian literature came +Grecian art. The study of Greek philosophy gave a new stimulus to human +inquiry, and students flocked to the universities. They went to Bologna +to study Roman law, as well as to Paris to study the Scholastic +philosophy.</p> + +<p>Thus the germs of a new civilization were scattered over Europe. It so +happened that at the close of the Crusades civilization had increased in +every country of Europe, in spite of the losses they had sustained. +Delusions were dispelled, and greater liberality of mind was manifest. +The world opened up towards the East, and was larger than was before +supposed. "Europe and Asia had been brought together and recognized each +other." Inventions and discoveries succeeded the new scope for energies +which the Crusades opened. The ships which had carried the crusaders to +Asia were now used to explore new coasts and harbors. Navigators learned +to be bolder. A navigator of Genoa--a city made by the commerce which +the Crusades necessitated--crosses the Atlantic Ocean. As the magnetic +needle, which a Venetian traveller brought from Asia, gave a new +direction to commerce, so the new stimulus to learning which the Grecian +philosophy effected led to the necessity of an easier form of writing; +and printing appeared. With the shock which feudalism received from the +Crusades, central power was once more wielded by kings, and standing +armies supplanted the feudal. The crusaders must have learned something +from their mistakes; and military science was revived. There is scarcely +an element of civilization which we value, that was not, directly or +indirectly, developed by the Crusades, yet which was not sought for, or +anticipated even,--the centralization of thrones, the weakening of the +power of feudal barons, the rise of free cities, the growth of commerce, +the impulse given to art, improvements in agriculture, the rise of a +middle class, the wonderful spread of literature, greater refinements in +manners and dress, increased toleration of opinions, a more cheerful +view of life, the simultaneous development of energies in every field of +human labor, new hopes and aspirations among the people, new glories +around courts, new attractions in the churches, new comforts in the +villages, new luxuries in the cities. Even spiritual power became less +grim and sepulchral, since there was less fear to work upon.</p> + +<p>I do not say that the Crusades alone produced the marvellous change in +the condition of society which took place in the thirteenth century, but +they gave an impulse to this change. The strong sapling which the +barbarians brought from their German forests and planted in the heart of +Europe,--and which had silently grown in the darkest ages of barbarism, +guarded by the hand of Providence,--became a sturdy tree in the feudal +ages, and bore fruit when the barons had wasted their strength in Asia. +The Crusades improved this fruit, and found new uses for it, and +scattered it far and wide, and made it for the healing of the nations. +Enterprise of all sorts succeeded the apathy of convents and castles. +The village of mud huts became a town, in which manufactures began. As +new wants became apparent, new means of supplying them appeared. The +Crusades stimulated these wants, and commerce and manufactures supplied +them. The modern merchant was born in Lombard cities, which supplied the +necessities of the crusaders. Feudalism ignored trade, but the baron +found his rival in the merchant-prince. Feudalism disdained art, but +increased wealth turned peasants into carpenters and masons; carpenters +and masons combined and defied their old masters, and these masters left +their estates for the higher civilization of cities, and built palaces +instead of castles. Palaces had to be adorned, as well as churches; and +the painters and handicraftsmen found employment. So one force +stimulated another force, neither of which would have appeared if feudal +life had remained <i>in statu quo</i>.</p> + +<p>The only question to settle is, how far the marked progress of the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries may be traced to the natural +development of the Germanic races under the influence of religion, or +how far this development was hastened by those vast martial expeditions, +indirectly indeed, but really. Historians generally give most weight to +the latter. If so, then it is clear that the most disastrous wars +recorded in history were made the means--blindly, to all appearance, +without concert or calculation--of ultimately elevating the European +races, and of giving a check to the conquering fanaticism of the enemies +with whom they contended with such bitter tears and sullen +disappointments.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Michaud's Histoire des Croisades; Mailly's L'Esprit des Croisades; +Choiseul; Daillecourt's De l'Influence des Croisades; Sur l'État des +Peuples en Europe; Heeren's Ueber den Einfluss der Kreuzzüge; +Sporschill's Geschichte der Kreuzzüge; Hallam's Middle Ages; Mill's +History of the Crusades; James's History of the Crusades; Michelet's +History of France (translated); Gibbon's Decline and Fall; Milman's +Latin Christianity; Proctor's History of the Crusades; Mosheim.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_OF_WYKEHAM."></a>WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1324-1404.</p> + +<p>GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.</p> + +<p>A.D. 1100-1400.</p> + +<p>Church Architecture is the only addition which the Middle Ages made to +Art; but even this fact is remarkable when we consider the barbarism and +ignorance of the Teutonic nations in those dark and gloomy times. It is +difficult to conceive how it could have arisen, except from the stimulus +of religious ideas and sentiments,--like the vast temples of the +Egyptians. The artists who built the hoary and attractive cathedrals and +abbey churches which we so much admire are unknown men to us, and yet +they were great benefactors. It is probable that they were practical and +working architects, like those who built the temples of Greece, who +quietly sought to accomplish their ends,--not to make pictures, but to +make buildings,--as economically as they could consistently with the end +proposed, which end they always had in view.</p> + +<p>In this Lecture I shall not go back to classic antiquity, nor shall I +undertake to enter upon any disquisition on Art itself, but simply +present the historical developments of the Church architecture of the +Middle Ages. It is a technical and complicated subject, but I shall try +to make myself understood. It suggests, however, great ideas and +national developments, and ought to be interesting.</p> + +<p>The Romans added nothing to the architecture of the Greeks except the +arch, and the use of brick and small stones for the materials of their +stupendous structures. Now Christianity and the Middle Ages seized the +arch and the materials of the Roman architects, and gradually formed +from these a new style of architecture. In Roman architecture there was +no symbolism, no poetry, nothing to represent consecrated sentiments. It +was mundane in its ideas and ends; everything was for utility. The +grandest efforts of the Romans were feats of engineering skill, rather +than creations inspired by the love of the beautiful. What was beautiful +in their edifices was borrowed from the Greeks; what was original was +intended to accommodate great multitudes, whether they sought the sports +of the amphitheatre or the luxury of the bath. Their temples were small, +comparatively, and were Grecian.</p> + +<p>The first stage in the development of Church architecture was reached +amid the declining glories of Roman civilization, before the fall of the +Empire; but the first model of a Christian church was not built until +after the imperial persecutions. The early Christians worshipped God in +upper chambers, in catacombs, in retired places, where they would not be +molested, where they could hide in safety. Their assemblies were small, +and their meetings unimportant. They did nothing to attract attention. +The worshippers were mostly simple-minded, unlettered, plebeian people, +with now and then a converted philosopher, or centurion, or lady of rank +They met for prayer, exhortation, the reading of the Scriptures, the +singing of sacred melodies, and mutual support in trying times. They did +not want grand edifices. The plainer the place in which they assembled +the better suited it was to their circumstances and necessities. They +scarcely needed a rostrum, for the age of sermons had not begun; still +less the age of litanies and music and pomps. For such people, in that +palmy age of faith and courage, when the seeds of a new religion were +planted in danger and watered with tears; when their minds were directed +almost entirely to the soul's welfare and future glory; when they loved +one another with true Christian disinterestedness; when they stimulated +each other's enthusiasm by devotion to a common cause (one Lord, one +faith, one baptism); when they were too insignificant to take any social +rank, too poor to be of any political account, too ignorant to attract +the attention of philosophers,--<i>any</i> place where they would be +unmolested and retired was enough. In process of time, when their +numbers had increased, and when and wherever they were tolerated; when +money began to flow into the treasuries; and especially when some gifted +leader (educated perhaps in famous schools, yet who was fervent and +eloquent) desired a wider field for usefulness,--then church edifices +became necessary.</p> + +<p>This original church was modelled after the ancient Basilica, or hall of +justice or of commerce: at one end was an elevated tribunal, and back of +this what was called the "apsis,"--a rounded space with arched roof. The +whole was railed off or separated from the auditory, and was reserved +for the clergy, who in the fourth century had become a class. The apsis +had no window, was vaulted, and its walls were covered with figures of +Christ and of the saints, or of eminent Christians who in later times +were canonized by the popes. Between the apsis and the auditory, called +the "nave," was the altar; for by this time the Church was borrowing +names and emblems from the Jews and the old religions. From the apsis to +the extremity of the other end of the building were two rows of pillars +supporting an upper wall, broken by circular arches and windows, called +now the "clear story." In the low walls of the side aisles were also +windows. Both the nave and the aisles supported a framework of roof, +lined with a ceiling adorned with painting.</p> + +<p>For some time we see no marked departure, at this stage, from the +ancient basilica. The church is simple, not much adorned, and adapted to +preaching. The age in which it was built was the age of pulpit orators, +when bishops preached,--like Basil, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, and +Leo,--when preaching was an important part of the service, by the +foolishness of which the world was to be converted. Probably there were +but few what we should call fine churches, but there was one at Rome +which was justly celebrated, built by Theodosius, and called St. Paul's. +It is now outside the walls of the modern city. The nave is divided into +five aisles, and the main one, opening into the apsis, is spanned by a +lofty arch supported by two colossal columns. The apsis is eighty feet +in breadth. All parts of the church--one of the largest of Rome--are +decorated with mosaics. It has two small transepts at the extremity of +the nave, on each side of the apsis. The four rows of magnificent +columns, supporting semicircular arches, are Corinthian. In this church +the Greek and Roman architecture predominates. The essential form of the +church is like a Pagan basilica. We see convenience, but neither +splendor nor poetry. Moreover it is cheerful. It has an altar and an +apsis, but it is adapted to preaching rather than to singing. The +public dangers produce oratory, not chants. The voice of the preacher +penetrates the minds of the people, as did that of Savonarola at +Florence announcing the invasion of Italy by the French,--days of fear +and anxiety, reminding us also of Chrysostom at Antioch, when in his +spacious basilican church he roused the people to penitence, to avert +the ire of Theodosius.</p> + +<p>The first transition from the basilica to the Gothic church is called +the <i>Romanesque</i>, and was made after the fall of the Empire, when the +barbarians had erected new kingdoms on its ruins; when literature and +art were indeed crushed, yet when universal desolation was succeeded by +new forms of government and new habits of life; when the clergy had +become an enormous power, greatly enriched by the contributions of +Christian princes. This transition retained the traditions of the fallen +Empire, and yet was adapted to a semi-civilized people, nominally +converted to Christianity. It arose after the fall of the Merovingians, +when Charlemagne was seeking to restore the glory of the Western Empire. +Paganism had been suppressed by law; even heresies were extinguished in +the West. Kings and people were alike orthodox, and bowed to the +domination of the Church. Abbeys and convents were founded everywhere +and richly endowed. The different States and kingdoms were poor, but the +wealth that existed was deposited in sacred retreats. The powers of the +State were the nobles, warlike and ignorant, rapidly becoming feudal +barons, acknowledging only a nominal fealty to the Crown. Kings had no +glory, defied by their own subjects and unsupported by standing armies. +But these haughty barons were met face to face by equally haughty +bishops, armed with spiritual weapons. These bishops were surrounded and +supported by priests, secular and regular,--by those who ruled the +people in small parishes, and those who ruled the upper classes in their +monastic cells. Learning had fled to monasteries (what little there +was), and the Church became a new attraction.</p> + +<p>The architects of the Romanesque, who were probably churchmen, retained +the nave of the basilica, but made it narrower, and used but two rows of +columns. They introduced the transepts, or cross-enclosures, making them +to project north and south of the nave, in the space separated from the +apsis; and the apsis was expanded into the choir, filled with priests +and choristers. The building now assumes the form of a cross. The choir +is elevated several steps above the nave, and beneath it is the crypt, +where the bishops and abbots and saints are buried. At the intersection +of choir, nave, and transept,--an open, square place,--rises a square +tower, at each corner of which is a massive pier supporting four arches. +The windows are narrow, with semicircular arches. At the western +entrance, at the end opposite the apse, is a small porch, where the +consecrated water is placed, in an urn or basin, and this is inclosed +between two towers. The old Roman atrium, or fore-court, entirely +disappears. In its place is a grander façade; and the pillars--which are +all internal, like those of an Egyptian temple, not external, as in the +Greek temple--have no longer Grecian capitals, but new combinations of +every variety, and the pillars are even more heavy and massive than the +Doric. The flat wooden ceiling of the nave disappears, on account of +frequent fires, and the eye rests on arches supporting a stone roof. All +the arches are semicircular, like those of the Coliseum and of the Roman +aqueducts and baths. They are built of small stones united by cement. +The building is low and heavy, and its external beauty is in the west +front or façade, with its square towers and circular window and +ornamented portal. The internal beauty is from the pillars supporting +the roof, and the tower which intersects the nave, choir, and transepts. +Sometimes, instead of a tower there is a dome, reminding us of Byzantine +workmanship.</p> + +<p>But this Romanesque church is also connected with monastic institutions, +whose extensive buildings join the church at the north or south. The +church is wedded to monasticism; one supports the other, and both make a +unity exceedingly efficient in the Middle Ages. The communication +between the church and the convent is effected by a cloister,--a vaulted +gallery surrounding a square, open space, where the brothers walk and +meditate, but do not talk, except in undertone or whisper; for all the +precincts are sacred, made for contemplation and silence,--a retreat +from the noisy, barbaric world. Connected with the cloisters is a court +opening into the refectory, where the brothers dine on herbs and eggs +and a little meat,--also in silence, and, where the rule is strict, in +gloom,--an ascetic, dreary discipline. The whole range of buildings is +enclosed with walls, like a fortress. You see in this architecture the +gloom and desolation which overspread the world. Churches are heavy and +sombre; they are places for dreary meditation on the end of the world, +on the failure of civilization, on the degradation of humanity,--and yet +the only places where man may be brought in contact with the Deity who +presides over a fallen world, exalting human hopes to heaven, where +miseries end, and worship begins.</p> + +<p>This style of architecture prevailed till the twelfth century, and was +seen in its greatest perfection in Germany under the Saxon emperors, +especially in the Rhenish provinces, as in the cathedrals of Spires, +Mentz, Worms, and Nuremberg. Its general effect was gloomy and heavy; a +separation from the outward world,--a world disgraced by feudal wars and +peasants' wrongs and general ignorance, which made men sad, morose, +inhuman. It flourished in ages when the poor had no redress, and were +trodden under the feet of hard feudal masters; when there was no law but +of brute force; when luxuries were few and comforts rare,--an age of +hardship, privation, poverty, suffering; an age of isolations and +sorrows, when men were forced to look beyond the grave for peace and +hope, when immortality through a Redeemer was the highest inspiration of +life. Everybody was agitated by fears. The clergy made use of this +universal feeling by presenting the terrors of the law,--the penalty of +sin,--everlasting physical burnings, from which the tortured soul could +be extricated only by penance and self-expiation, offerings to the +Church, and entire subserviency to the will of the priest, who held the +keys of heaven and hell. The men who lived when the Romanesque churches +dotted every part in Europe looked upon society and saw nothing but +grief,--heavy burdens, injustices, oppressions, cruel wrongs; and they +hid their faces and wept, and said: "Let us retreat from this miserable +world which discord ravages; let us hide ourselves in contemplation; let +us prepare to meet God in judgment; let us bring to Him our offering; +let us propitiate Him; let us build Him a house, where we may chant our +mournful songs." So the church arises,--in Germany, in France, in +England,--solemn, mystical, massive, a type of sorrow, in the form of a +cross, with "a sepulchral crypt like the man in the tomb, before the +lofty spire pointed to the man who had risen to Heaven." The church is +still struggling, and is not jubilant, except in Gregorian chants, and +is not therefore lofty or ornamental. It is a vault. It is more like a +catacomb than a basilica, for the world is buried deep in sorrows and +fears. Look to any of the Saxon churches of the period when the +Romanesque prevailed, and they are low, gloomy, and damp, though massive +and solemn. The church as an edifice ever represents the Church as an +institution or a power, ever typifies prevailing sentiments and ideas. +Perhaps the finest of the old Romanesque churches was that of Cluny, in +Burgundy, destroyed during the French Revolution. It had five aisles, +and was five hundred and twenty feet in length. It had a stately tower +at the intersection of the transepts, and six other towers. It was early +Norman, and loftier than the Saxon churches, although heavy and massive +like them.</p> + +<p>But the Romanesque church, with all its varieties, is still gloomy, +dark, sepulchral, reminding us of the sorrows of the Middle Ages, and +the dreary character of prevailing religious sentiments,--fervent, +sincere, profound, but sad,--the sentiments of an age of ignorance +and faith.</p> + +<p>The Crusades came. A new era burst upon the world. The old ideas became +modified; society became more cheerful, because more chivalric, +adventurous, poetic. The world opened towards the East, and was larger +than was before supposed. Liberality of mind began to dawn on the +darkened ages; no longer were priests supreme. The gay Provençals began +to sing; the universities began to teach and to question. The Scholastic +philosophy sent forth such daring thinkers as Erigena and Abélard. +Orthodoxy was still supreme before such mighty intellects as Anselm, +Bernard, and Thomas Aquinas, but it was assailed. Abélard put forth his +puzzling questions. The Schoolmen began to think for themselves, and the +iron weight of Feudalism was less oppressive. Free cities and commerce +began to enrich the people. Kings were becoming more powerful; grim +spiritual despotism was less arrogant. The end of the world, it was +found, had not come. A glorious future began to shed forth the beams of +its coming day. It was the dawn of a new civilization.</p> + +<p>So a lighter, more cheerful, and grander architecture, with symbolic +beauties, appeared with changing ideas and sentiments. The Church, no +longer a gloomy power, struggling with Saracens and barbarism, but +dominant, triumphant, issues forth from darksome crypts and soars +upward,--elevates her vaulted roofs. "The Oriental ogive appears.... The +architects heap arcade on arcade, ogive on ogive, pyramid on pyramid, +and give to all geometrical symmetry and artistic grace.... The Greek +column is there, but dilated to colossal proportions, and exfoliated in +a variegated capital." The old Roman arch disappears, and the pointed +arch is substituted,--graceful and elevated. The old Egyptian obelisk +appears in the spire reaching to heaven, full of aspiration. The window +becomes larger and encroaches on the naked wall, and radiates in mystic +roses. The arches widen and the piers become more lofty. Stained glass +appears and diffuses religious light. Every part of the church becomes +decorated and symbolical and harmonious, though infinitely variegated. +The altars have pictures over them. Shrines and monuments appear in the +niches. The dresses of the priests are more gorgeous. The music of the +choir peals forth hallelujahs. Christ is risen from the tomb. "The +purple of his blood colors the windows." The roof, like pinnacles and +spires, seems to reach the skies. The pressure of the walls is downwards +rather than lateral. The vertical lines of Cologne are as marked as the +old horizontal lines of the Parthenon. The walls too are not so heavy, +and are supported by buttresses, which give increased beauty to the +exterior,--greater light and shade. "Every part of the church seems to +press forward and strive for greater freedom, for outward +manifestation." Even the broad and expansive window presses to the outer +surface of the walls, now broken by buttresses and pinnacles. The +window--the eye of the edifice--is more cheerful and intelligent. More +calm is the imposing façade, with its mighty towers and lofty spires, +tapering like a pyramid, with its round oriel window rich in beautiful +tracery, and its wide portal with sculptured saints and martyrs. And in +all the churches you see geometrical proportions. "Even the cross of the +church is deduced from the figure by which Euclid constructed the +equilateral triangle," The columns present the proportions of the Doric, +as to diameter and height. The love of the true and beautiful meet. The +natural and supernatural both appear. All parts symbolize the passion of +Christ. If the crypt speaks of death, the lofty and vaulted roof and the +beautiful pointed arches, and the cheerful window, and the jubilant +chants speak of life. "The old church reminds one of the Christ that lay +in the tomb; the new, of the Christ who arose the third day." The old +fosters meditation and silence; the new kindles the imagination, by its +variety of perspective arrangement and mystic representation,--still +reverential, still expressive of consecrated sentiments, yet more +cheerful. The foliated shaft, the rich tracery of the window, the +graceful pinnacle, the Arabian gorgeousness of the interior,--as if the +crusaders had learned something from the East,--the innumerable shrines +and pictures, the variegated marbles of the altar, with its vessels of +silver and gold, the splendid dresses of the priests, the imposing +character of the ritualism, the treasures lavished everywhere, all +speak greater independence, wealth, and power. The church takes the +place of all amusements. Its various attractions draw together the +people from their farms and shops. They are gaily dressed, as if they +were attending a festival. Their condition is so improved that they have +time for holidays. And these the Church multiplies; for perpetual toil +is the grave of intellect. The people must have rest, amusement, +excitement. All these things the Catholic Church gives, and consecrates. +Crusader, baron, knight, priest, peasant, all resort to the church for +benedictions. Women too are there, and in greater numbers; and they +linger for the confessional. When the time comes that women stay away +from church, like busy, preoccupied, sceptical men, then let us be on +the watch for some great catastrophe, since practical paganism will then +be restored, and the angels of light will have left the earth.</p> + +<p>Paris and its neighborhood was the cradle of this new development of +architecture which we wrongly call the Gothic, even as Paris was the +centre of the new-born intelligence of the era. The word "Gothic" +suggests destructive barbarism: the English, French, and Germans +descended chiefly from Normans, Saxons, and Burgundians. This form of +church architecture rapidly spreads to Germany, England, and Spain. The +famous Suger, the minister of a powerful king, built the abbey of St. +Denis. The churches of Rheims, Paris, and Bourges arose in all their +grandeur. The façade of Rheims is the most significant example of the +wonderful architecture of the thirteenth century. In the church of +Amiens you see the perfection of the so-called Gothic,--so graceful are +its details, so dazzling is its height. The central aisle is one hundred +and thirty-two feet in altitude,--only surpassed by that of Beauvais, +which is fourteen feet higher. It was then that the cathedral of Rouen +was built, with its elegant lightness,--a marvel to modern travellers. +Soon after, the cathedral of Cologne appears, more grand than +either,--but left unfinished,--with its central aisle forty-four feet in +width, rising one hundred and forty feet into the air, with its colossal +towers, intended to support the slender openwork spires, five hundred +and twenty feet in height. The whole church is five hundred and +thirty-two feet in length. I confess this church made a greater +impression on my mind than did any Gothic church in Europe,--more, even, +than Milan, with its unnumbered pinnacles and statues and its marble +roof. I could not rest while surveying its ten thousand wonders,--so +much lightness combined with strength; so grand, and yet so cheerful; so +exquisitely proportioned, so complicated in details, and yet a grand +unity; a glorious and fit temple for the reverential worship of the +Deity. Oh, how grand are those monuments which were designed to last +through ages, and which are consecrated, not to traffic, not to +pleasure, not to material wealth, but to the worship of that Almighty +God to whom every human being is personally responsible!</p> + +<p>I cannot enumerate the churches of Mediaeval Europe,--built possibly by +the Freemasons, certainly by men familiar with all that is practical in +their art, with all that is hallowed and poetical. I glance at the +English cathedrals, built during this epoch,--the period of the Crusades +and the revival of learning.</p> + +<p>And here I allude to the man who furnishes me with a text to my +discourse,--William of Wykeham, chancellor and prime minister of Edward +III., the contemporary of Chaucer and Wyclif,--who flourished in the +fourteenth century, and who built Winchester Cathedral; a great and +benevolent prelate, who also founded other colleges and schools. But I +merely allude to him, since my subject is the art to which he gave an +impulse, rather than any single individual. No one man represents church +architecture any more appropriately than any one man represents the +Feudal system, or Monasticism, or the Crusades, or the French +Revolution.</p> + +<p>I do not think the English cathedrals are equal to those of Cologne, +Rheims, Amiens, and Rouen; but they are full of interest, and they have +varied excellences. That of Salisbury is the only one which is of +uniform style. Its glory is in its spire, as that of Lincoln is in its +west front, and that of Westminster is in its nave. Gloucester is +celebrated for its choir, and York for its tower. In all are beautiful +vistas of pillars and arches. But they lack the inspiration of the +Catholic Church. They are indeed hoary monuments, petrified mysteries, a +"passion of stone," as Michelet speaks of the marble histories which +will survive his rhapsodies. They alike show the pilgrimage of humanity +through gloomy centuries. If their great wooden screens were removed, +which separate the choir from the nave, the cathedrals doubtless would +appear to more advantage, and especially if they were filled with altars +and shrines and pictures, and lighted candles on the altars,--filled +also with crowds of worshippers, reverent before the gorgeously attired +ministers of Divine Omnipotence, and excited by transporting chants, and +the various appeals to sense and imagination. The reason must be +assisted by the imagination, before the mind can revel in the glories of +Gothic architecture. Imagination intensifies all our pleasures, even +those of sense; and without imagination--yea, a memory stored with the +pious deeds of saints and martyrs in bygone ages--a Gothic cathedral is +as much a sealed book as Wordsworth is to Taine. The Protestant tourist +from Michigan or Pennsylvania can "do" any cathedral in two hours, and +wonder why they make such a fuss about a church not half so large as +the New York Central Railroad station. The wonders of cathedrals must be +studied, like the glories of a landscape, with an eye to the beautiful +and the grand, cultured and practised by the contemplation of ideal +excellence, when the mind summons the imagination to its aid, with all +the poetry and all the history which have been learned in a life of +leisure and study. How different the emotions of a Ruskin or a Tennyson, +in surveying those costly piles, from those of a man fresh from a +distillery or from a warehouse of cotton fabrics, or even from those of +many fashionable women, whose only aesthetic accomplishment is to play +languidly and mechanically on an instrument, and whose only intellectual +achievement is to have devoured a dozen silly novels in the course of a +summer spent in alternate sleep and dalliance! Nor does familiarity +always give a zest to the pleasure which arises from the creations of +art or the glories of nature. The Roman beggar passes the Coliseum or +St. Peter's without notice or enjoyment, as a peasant sees unmoved the +snow-capped mountains of Switzerland or the beautiful lakes of +Killarney. Said sorrowfully my guide up the Rhigi, "I wish I lived in +Holland, for there are men there." Yet there are those whom the ascent +of Rhigi and the ruined monuments of ancient Rome would haunt for a +lifetime, in whose memory they would be perpetually fresh, never to pass +away, any more than the looks and the vows of early love from the mind +of a sentimental woman.</p> + +<p>The glorious old architecture whose peculiarity was the pointed arch, +flourished only about three hundred years in its purity and matchless +beauty. Then another change took place. The ideal became lost in +meaningless ornaments. The human figure peoples the naked walls. "Man +places his own image everywhere.... The tomb rises like a mausoleum in +side chapels. Man is enthroned, not God." The corruption of the art +keeps pace with the corruption of the Papacy and the discords of +society. In the fourteenth century the Mediaeval has lost its charm +and faith.</p> + +<p>And then sets in the new era, which begins with Michael Angelo. It is +marked by the revival of Greek art and Greek literature. At Florence +reign the Medici. On the throne of Saint Peter sits an Alexander VI. or +a Julius II. Genoa is a city of merchant-palaces. Museums are collected +of the excavated remains of Roman antiquity. Everybody kindles with the +contemplation of the long-buried glories of a classic age; everybody +reads the classic authors: Cicero is a greater oracle than Saint +Augustine. Scholars flock to Italy. The popes encourage the growing +taste for Pagan philosophy. Ancient art regains her long-abdicated +throne, and wields her sceptre over the worshippers of the Parthenon and +the admirers of Aeschylus and Thucydides. With the revived statues of +Greece appear the most beautiful pictures ever produced by the hand of +man; and with pictures and statues architecture receives a new +development. It is the blending of the old Greek and Roman with the +Gothic, and is called the Renaissance. Michael Angelo erects St. +Peter's, the heathen Pantheon, on the intersection of Gothic nave and +choir and transept; a glorious dome, more beautiful than any Gothic +spire or tower, rising four hundred and fifty feet into the air. And in +the interior are classic circular arches and pillars, so vast that one +is impressed as with great feats of engineering skill. All that is +variegated in marbles adorns the altars; all that is bewitching in +paintings is transferred to mosaics. And this new style of Italy spreads +into France and England. Sir Christopher Wren builds St. Paul's,--more +Grecian than Gothic,--and fills London with new churches, not one of +which is Gothic, and all different. The brain is bewildered in +attempting to classify the new and ever-shifting forms of the revived +Italian. And so for three hundred years the architects mingle the Gothic +with the classical, until now a mongrel architecture is the disgrace of +Europe; varied but not expressive, resting on no settled principles, +neither on vertical nor on horizontal lines,--blended together, +sometimes Grecian porticos on Elizabethan structures, spires resting not +on towers but roofs, Byzantine domes on Grecian temples, Greek columns +with Lombard arches, flamboyant panelling, pendant pillars from the +roof, all styles mixed up together, Corinthian pilasters acting as +Gothic buttresses, and pointed arches with Doric friezes,--a heap of +diverse forms, alien alike from the principles of Wykeham and Vitruvius.</p> + +<p>And this varied mongrel style of architecture corresponds with the +confused civilization of the period,--neither Greek nor Gothic, but a +mixture of both; intolerant priests wrangling with pagan sceptics and +infidels,--Aquaviva with Pascal, the hierarchy of the French Church with +Voltaire and Rousseau, Protestant divines with the Catholic clergy; +Geneva and Rome compromising at Oxford, the authority of the Fathers +made antagonistic to the authority of popes, new vernacular tongues +supplanting Latin in the universities; everywhere war on the Middle +Ages, without full emancipation from their dogmas, ancient paganism made +to uphold the Church, an unbounded activity of intellect casting off all +established rules, the revival of the old Greek republics, democracy +asserting its claim against absolute power; nothing settled, nothing at +rest, but motion in every direction,--science combating faith, faith +spurning reason, humanity arrogating divinity, the confusion of races, +Babel towers of vanity and pride in the new projected enterprises, +Christian nations embroiled in constant wars, gold and silver set up as +idols, the rise of new powers in the shapes of new industries and new +inventions, commerce filling the world with wealth, armies contending +for rights as well as for the aggrandizement of monarchies: was there +ever such a simmering and boiling and fermenting period of activities +since the world began? In such a wild and tumultuous agitation of +passions and interests and ideas, how could Art reappear either in the +classic severity of Greek temples or the hoary grandeur of Mediaeval +cathedrals? In this jumble we look for new creations, but no creations +in art appear, only fantastic imitations. There is no creation except in +a new field, that of science and mechanical inventions,--where there is +the most extraordinary and astonishing development of human genius ever +seen on earth, but "of the earth earthy," aiming at material good. +Architecture itself is turned into great feats of engineering. It does +not span the apsis of a church; it spans rivers and valleys. The church, +indeed, passes out of mind, if not out of sight, in the new material +age, in the multiplication of bridges and gigantic reservoirs,--old Rome +brought back again in its luxuries.</p> + +<p>And yet the exactness of science and the severity of criticism--begun +fifty years ago, in the verification of principles--produce a better +taste. Architects have sought to revive the purest forms of both Gothic +and Grecian. If they could not create a new style, they would imitate +the old: as in philosophy, they would go round in the old circles. As +science revives the atoms of Democritus, so art would reproduce the +ideas of Phidias and Vitruvius, and even the poetry and sanctity of the +Middle Ages. Within fifty years Christendom has been covered with Gothic +churches, some of which are as beautiful as those built by Freemasons. +The cathedrals have been copied rigidly, even for village churches. The +Parthenon reappears in the Madeleine. We no longer see, as in the +eighteenth century, Gothic spires on Roman basilicas, or Grecian +porticos ornamenting Norman towers. The various styles of two thousand +years are not mixed up in the same building. We copy either the +horizontal lines of Paganism or the vertical lines of the ages of Faith. +No more harmonious Gothic edifice was ever erected than the new Catholic +cathedral of New York.</p> + +<p>The only absurdity is seen when radical Protestantism adopts the church +of pomps and liturgies. When the Reformation was completed, men sought +to build churches where they could hear the voice of the preacher; for +the mission of Protestantism is to teach, not to sing. Protestantism +glories in its sermons as much as Catholicism in its chants. If the +people wish to return again to ritualism, let them have the Gothic +church. If they wish to be electrified by eloquence, let them have a +basilica, for the voice of the preacher is lost in high and vaulted +roofs. If they wish to join in the prayers and the ceremonies of the +altar, let them have the clustering pillars and the purple windows.</p> + +<p>Everything turns upon what is meant by a church. What is it for? Is it +for liturgical services, or is it for pulpit eloquence? Solve that +question, and you solve the Reformation. "My house," saith the Divine +Voice, "shall be called the house of prayer." It is "by the foolishness +of preaching," said Paul, that men are saved.</p> + +<p>If you will have the prayers of the Middle Ages and the sermons of the +Reformation both together, then let the architects invent a new style, +which shall allow the blending of prayer and pulpit eloquence. You +cannot have them both in a Grecian temple, or in a Gothic church. You +must combine the Parthenon with Salisbury, which is virtually a new +miracle of architecture. Will that miracle be wrought? I do not know. +But a modern Protestant church, with all the wonders of our modern +civilization, must be something new,--some new combination which shall +be worthy of the necessity of our times. This is what the architect must +now aspire to accomplish; he must produce a house in which one can both +hear the sermon, and be stimulated by inspiring melodies,--for the +Church must have both. The psalms of David and the chants of Gregory +must be blended with the fervid words of a Chrysostom and a Chalmers.</p> + +<p>This, at least, should be borne in mind: the church edifice <i>must</i> be +adapted to the end designed. The Gothic architects adapted their vaults +and pillars to the ceremonies of the Catholic ritual. If it is this you +want, then copy Gothic cathedrals. But if it is preaching you want, then +restore the Grecian temple,--or, better still, the Roman theatre,--where +the voice of the preacher is not lost either in Byzantine domes or +Gothic vaults, whose height is greater than their width. The preacher +must draw by the distinctness of his tones; for every preacher has not +the musical voice of Chrysostom, or the electricity of St. Bernard. He +can neither draw nor inspire if he cannot be heard; he speaks to stones, +not to living men or women. He loses his power, and is driven to chants +and music to keep his audience from deserting him. He must make his +choir an orchestra; he must hide himself in priestly vestments; he must +import opera singers to amuse and not instruct. He cannot instruct when +he cannot be heard, and heard easily. Unless the people catch every tone +of his voice his electricity will be wasted, and he will preach in vain, +and be tired out by attempting to prevent echoes. The voice of Saint +Paul would be lost in some of our modern fashionable churches. Think of +the absurdity of Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians affecting to +restore Gothic monuments, when the great end of sacred eloquence is lost +in those devices which appeal to sense. Think of the folly of erecting a +church for eight hundred people as high as Westminster Abbey. It is not +the size of a church which prevents the speaker from being heard,--it is +the disproportion of height with breadth and length, and the echoes +produced by arcades. Spurgeon is heard easily by seven thousand people, +and Talmage by six thousand, and Dr. Hall by four thousand, because the +buildings in which they preach are adapted to public speaking. Those who +erect theatres take care that a great crowd shall be able to catch even +the whispers of actors. What would you think of the good sense and +judgment of an architect who should construct a reservoir that would +leak, in order to make it ornamental; or a schoolhouse without +ventilation; or a theatre where actors could only be seen; or a hotel +without light and convenient rooms; or a railroad bridge which would not +support a heavy weight?</p> + +<p>A Protestant church is designed, no matter what the sect may be to which +it belongs, not for poetical or aesthetic purposes, not for the +admiration of architectural expenditures, not even for music, but for +earnest people to hear from the preacher the words of life and death, +that they may be aroused by his enthusiasm, or instructed by his wisdom; +where the poor are not driven to a few back seats in the gallery; where +the meeting is cheerful and refreshing, where all are stimulated to +duties. It must not be dark, damp, and gloomy, where it is necessary to +light the gas on a foggy day, and where one must be within ten feet of +the preacher to see the play of his features. Take away facilities for +hearing and even for seeing the preacher, and the vitality of a +Protestant service is destroyed, and the end for which the people +assemble is utterly defeated. Moreover, you destroy the sacred purposes +of a church if you make it so expensive that the poor cannot get +sittings. Nothing is so dull, depressing, funereal, as a church occupied +only by prosperous pew-holders, who come together to show their faces +and prove their respectability, rather than to join in the paeans of +redemption, or to learn humiliating lessons of worldly power before the +altar of Omnipotence. To the poor the gospel is preached; and it is ever +the common people who hear most gladly gospel truth. Ah, who are the +common people? I fancy we are all common people when we are sick, or in +bereavement, or in adversity, or when we come to die. But if advancing +society, based on material wealth and epicurean pleasure, demands +churches for the rich and churches for the poor,--if the lines of +society must be drawn somewhere,--let those architects be employed who +understand, at least, the first principles of their art. I do not mean +those who learn to draw pictures in the back room of a studio, but +conscientious men, if you cannot find sensible men. And let the pulpit +itself be situated where the people can hear the speaker easily, without +straining their eyes and ears. Then only will the speaker's voice ring +and kindle and inspire those who come together to hear God Almighty's +message; then only will he be truly eloquent and successful, since then +only does his own electricity permeate the whole mass; then only can he +be effective, and escape the humiliation of being only a part of a vain +show, where his words are disregarded and his strength is wasted in the +echoes of vaults and recesses copied from the gloomy though beautiful +monuments of ages which can never, never again return, any more than can +"the granite image worship of the Egyptians, the oracles of Dodona, or +the bulls of the Mediaeval popes."</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Fergusson's History of Architecture; Durand's Parallels; Eastlake's +Gothic and Revival; Ruskin, Daly, and Penrose; Britton's Cathedrals and +Architectural Antiquities; Pugin's Specimens and Examples of Gothic +Architecture; Rickman's Styles of Gothic Architecture; Street's Gothic +Architecture in Spain; Encyclopaedia Britannica (article Architecture).</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="JOHN_WYCLIF."></a>JOHN WYCLIF.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1324-1384.</p> + +<p>DAWN OF THE REFORMATION.</p> + +<p>The name of Wyclif suggests the dawn of the Protestant Reformation; and +the Reformation suggests the existence of evils which made it a +necessity. I do not look upon the Reformation, in its earlier stages, as +a theological movement. In fact, the Catholic and Protestant theology, +as expounded and systematized by great authorities, does not materially +differ from that of the Fathers of the Church. The doctrines of +Augustine were accepted equally by Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin. What +is called systematic divinity, as taught in our theological seminaries, +is a series of deductions from the writings of Paul and other apostles, +elaborately and logically drawn by Athanasius, Jerome, Augustine, and +other lights of the early Church, which were defended in the Middle Ages +with amazing skill and dialectical acuteness by the Scholastic doctors, +with the aid of the method which Aristotle, the greatest logician of +antiquity, bequeathed to philosophy. Neither Luther nor Calvin departed +essentially from these great deductions on such vital subjects as the +existence and attributes of God, the Trinity, sin and its penalty, +redemption, grace, and predestination. The creeds of modern Protestant +churches are in harmony with the writings of both the Fathers and the +Scholastic doctors on the fundamental principles of Christianity. There +are, indeed, some ideas in reference to worship, and the sacraments, and +the government of the Church, and aids to a religious life, defended by +the Scholastic doctors, which Protestants do not accept, and for which +there is not much authority in the writings of the Fathers. But the main +difference between Protestants and Catholics is in reference to the +institutions of the Church,--institutions which gradually arose with the +triumph of Christianity in its contest with Paganism, and which received +their full development in the Middle Ages. It was the enormous and +scandalous corruptions which crept into these <i>institutions</i> which led +to the cry for reform. It was the voice of Wyclif, denouncing these +abuses, which made him famous and placed him in the van of reformers. +These abuses were generally admitted and occasionally attacked by +churchmen and laymen alike,--even by the poets. They were too flagrant +to be denied.</p> + +<p>Now what were the prominent evils in the institutions of the Church +which called for reform, and in reference to which Wyclif raised up his +voice?--for in his day there was only <i>one</i> Church. An enumeration of +these is necessary before we can appreciate the labors and teachings of +the Reformer. I can only state them; I cannot enlarge upon them. I state +only what is indisputable, not in reference to theological dogmas so +much as to morals and ecclesiastical abuses.</p> + +<p>The centre and life and support of all was the Papacy,--an institution, +a great government, not a religion.</p> + +<p>I have spoken of this great power as built up by Leo I., Gregory VII., +and Innocent III., and by others whom I have not mentioned. So much may +be said of the necessity of a central spiritual power in the dark ages +of European society that I shall not combat this power, or stigmatize it +with offensive epithets. The necessities of the times probably called it +into existence, like other governments, although I cannot see any +argument drawn from the Scriptures, or from the history of the early +Apostolic Church, to warrant its existence. Nor would I defend the long +series of papal usurpations by which the Roman pontiffs got possession +of the government of both Church and State. I speak not of their +quarrels with princes about investitures, in which their genius and +their heroism were displayed rather than by efforts in behalf of +civilization.</p> + +<p>But the popes exercised certain powers and prerogatives in England, +about the time of Wyclif, which were exceedingly offensive to the +secular rulers of the land. They claimed the island as a sort of +property which reason and the laws did not justify,--a claim which led +to heavy exactions and forced contributions on the English people that +crippled the government and impoverished the nation. Boys and favorites +were appointed by the popes to important posts and livings. Church +preferments were almost exclusively in the hands of the Pope; and these +were often bought. A yearly tribute had been forced on the nation in the +time of John. Peter's pence were collected from the people. Enormous +sums, under various pretences, flowed to Rome. And the clergy were taxed +as well as the laity. The contributions which were derived from the sale +of benefices, from investitures, from the transfer of sees, from the +bestowal of rings and crosiers (badges of episcopal authority), from the +confirmation of elections, and other taxes, irritated sovereigns, and +called out the severest denunciation of statesmen.</p> + +<p>Closely connected with papal exactions was the enormous increase of the +Mendicant friars, especially the Dominicans and Franciscans, who had +been instituted by Innocent III. to uphold the papal domination. These +itinerating beggars in their black-and-gray gowns infested every town +and village in England. For a century after their institution, they were +the ablest and perhaps the best soldiers of the Pope, and did what the +Jesuits afterwards performed, and perhaps the Methodists a hundred +years ago,--gained the hearts of the people and stimulated religious +life; but in the fourteenth century they were a nuisance. They sold +indulgences, they invented pious frauds, they were covetous under +pretence of poverty, they had become luxurious in their lives, they +slandered the regular clergy, they usurped the prerogatives of parish +priests, they enriched their convents, they accommodated themselves to +the wishes of the great, and were marked by those peculiarities of which +the Jesuits were accused in the time of Pascal. As they had not in +England, as in Spain and Italy, tribunals of inquisition, they were +ridiculed, despised, and hated, rather than feared. One gets the truest +impression of the popular estimate of these friars from the sarcasms of +Chaucer. The Friar Tuck whom Sir Walter Scott has painted was a very +different man from the Dominicans or the Franciscans of the thirteenth +century, when they reigned in the universities, and were the confessors +of monarchs and the most popular preachers of their time. In the +fourteenth century they were consumed with jealousies and rivalries and +animosities against each other; and all the various orders,--Dominican, +Franciscan, Carmelite,--in spite of their professions of poverty, were +the possessors of magnificent monasteries, and fattened on the credulity +of the world. Besides these Mendicant friars, England was dotted with +convents and religious houses belonging to the different orders of +Benedictines, which, though enormously rich, devoured the substance of +the poor. There were more than twenty thousand monks in a population of +three or four millions; and most of them led idle and dissolute lives, +and were subjects of perpetual reproach. Reforms of the various +religious houses had been attempted, but all reforms had failed. Nor +were the lives of the secular clergy much more respectable than those of +the great body of monks. They are accused by all historians of avarice, +venality, dissoluteness, and ignorance; and it was their incapacity, +their disregard of duties, and indifference to the spiritual interests +of their flocks that led to the immense popularity of the Mendicant +friars, until they, in their turn, became perhaps a greater scandal than +the parish priests whose functions they had usurped. Both priests and +monks in the time of Bishop Grostête of Lincoln frequented taverns and +gambling-houses. So enormous and scandalous was the wealth of the +clergy, that as early as 1279, under Edward I., Parliament passed a +statute of mortmain, forbidding religious bodies to receive bequests +without the King's license.</p> + +<p>With the increase of scandalous vices among the clergy was a corruption +in the doctrines of the Church; not those which are strictly +theological, but those which pertained to the sacraments, and the +conditions on which absolution was given and communion administered. In +the thirteenth century, as the Scholastic philosophy was reaching its +fullest development, we notice the establishment of the doctrine of +transubstantiation, the withholding the cup from the laity, and the +necessity of confession as the condition of receiving the +communion,--which corruptions increased amazingly the power of the +clergy over the minds of superstitious people, and led to still more +flagrant evils, like the sale of indulgences and the perversion of the +doctrine of penance, originally enforced in order to aid the soul to +overcome the tyranny of the body, but finally accepted as the expiation +for sin; so that the door of heaven itself was opened by venal priests +only to those whom they could control or rob.</p> + +<p>Such was the state of the Church when Wyclif was born,--in 1324, near +Richmond in Yorkshire, about a century after the establishment of +universities, the creation of the Mendicant orders, and the memorable +usurpation of Innocent III.</p> + +<p>In the year 1340, during the reign of Edward III., we find him at the +age of sixteen a student in Merton College at Oxford,--the college then +most distinguished for Scholastic doctors; the college of Islip, of +Bradwardine, of Occam, and perhaps of Duns Scotus. It would seem that +Wyclif devoted himself with great assiduity to the study which gave the +greatest intellectual position and influence in the Middle Ages, and +which required a training of nineteen years in dialectics before the +high degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred by the University. We +know nothing of his studious life at Oxford until he received his +degree, with the title of Evangelical or Gospel Doctor,--from which we +infer that he was a student of the Bible, and was more remarkable for +his knowledge of the Scriptures than for his dialectical skill. But even +for his knowledge of the Scholastic philosophy he was the most eminent +man in the University, and he was as familiar with the writings of Saint +Augustine and Jerome as with those of Aristotle. It was not then the +fashion to study the text of the Scriptures so much as the commentaries +upon it; and he who was skilled in the "Book of Sentences" and the +"Summa Theologica" stood a better chance of preferment than he who had +mastered Saint Paul.</p> + +<p>But Wyclif, it would seem, was distinguished for his attainments in +everything which commanded the admiration of his age. In 1356, when he +was thirty-two, he wrote a tract on the last ages of the Church, in view +of the wretchedness produced by the great plague eight years before. In +1360, at the age of thirty-six, he attacked the Mendicant orders, and +his career as a reformer began,--an unsuccessful reformer, indeed, like +John Huss, since the evils which he combated were not removed. He merely +protested against the corruptions which good men lamented; and that is +nearly all that great men can do when they are beyond their age. They +are simply witnesses of truth, and fortunate are they if they do not die +as martyrs; for in the early Church "witnesses" and "martyrs" were +synonymous ([Greek: <i>martyres</i>]). The year following, 1361, Wyclif was +presented to the rich rectory of Fillingham by Baliol College, and was +promoted the same year to the wardenship of that ancient college. The +learned doctor is now one of the "dons" of the university,--at that +time, even more than now, a great dignitary. It would be difficult for +an unlearned politician of the nineteenth century to conceive of the +exalted position which a dignitary of the Church, crowned with +scholastic honors, held five hundred years ago. It gave him access to +the table of his sovereign, and to the halls of Parliament. It made him +an oracle in all matters of the law. It created for him a hearing on all +the great political as well as ecclesiastical issues of the day. What +great authorities in the thirteenth century were Albertus Magnus, Thomas +Aquinas, and Bonaventura! Scarcely less than they, in the next century, +were Duns Scotus and John Wyclif,--far greater in influence than any of +the proud feudal lords who rendered service to Edward III., broad as +were their acres, and grand as were their castles. Strange as it may +seem, the glory that radiated from the brow of a scholar or a saint was +greatest in ages of superstition and darkness; perhaps because both +scholars and saints were rare. The modern lights of learning may be +better paid than in former days, but they do not stand out to the eye of +admiring communities in such prominence as they did among our ancestors. +Who stops and turns back to gaze reverentially on a poet or a scholar +whom he passes by unconsciously, as both men and women strained their +eyes to see an Abélard or a Dante? Even a Webster now would not command +the homage he received fifty years ago.</p> + +<p>It is not uninteresting to contemplate the powers that have ruled in +successive ages, outside the realms of conquerors and kings. In the +ninth and tenth centuries they were baronial lords in mail-clad armor; +in the eleventh and twelfth centuries these powers, like those of +ancient Egypt, were priests; in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries +they were the learned doctors, as in the schools of Athens when +political supremacy was lost; in the sixteenth century--the era of +reforms--they were controversial theologians, like those of the age of +Theodosius; in the seventeenth century they were fighting nobles; in the +eighteenth they were titled and hereditary courtiers and great landed +proprietors; in the nineteenth they are bankers, merchants, and railway +presidents,--men who control the material interests of the country. It +is only at elections, though managed by politicians, that the people are +a power. Socially, the magnates are the rich. It is money which in these +times all classes combine to worship. If this be questioned, see the +adulation which even colleges and schools of learning pay to their +wealthy patrons or those from whom they seek benefits. The patrons of +the schools in the Middle Ages were princes and nobles; but these +princes and nobles bowed down in reverence to learned bishops and great +theological doctors.</p> + +<p>Wyclif was the representative of the schools when he attacked the abuses +of the Church. It is not a little singular that the great religious +movements in England have generally come from Oxford, while Cambridge +has been distinguished for great movements in science. In 1365 he was +appointed to the headship of Canterbury Hall, founded by Archbishop +Islip, afterwards merged into Christ Church,--the most magnificent and +wealthy of all the Oxford Colleges. When Islip died, in 1366, and +Langham, originally a monk of Canterbury, was made archbishop, the +appointment of Wyclif was pronounced void by Langham, and the revenues +of the Hall of which he was warden, or president, were sequestered. +Wyclif on this appealed to the Pope, who, however, ratified Langham's +decree,--as it would be expected, for the Pope sustained the friars whom +Wyclif had denounced. The spirit of such a progressive man was, of +course, offensive to the head of the Church. In this case the Crown +confirmed the decision of the Pope, 1372, since the royal license was +obtained by a costly bribe. The whole transaction was so iniquitous that +Wyclif could not restrain his indignation.</p> + +<p>But before this decision of the Crown was made, the services of Wyclif +had been accepted by the Parliament in its resistance to the claim which +Pope Urban V. had made in 1366, to the arrears of tribute due under +John's vassalage. Edward III. had referred this claim to Parliament, and +the Parliament had rejected it without hesitation on the ground that +John had no power to bind the realm without its consent. The Parliament +was the mere mouthpiece of Wyclif, who was now actively engaged in +political life, and probably, as Dr. Lechler thinks, had a seat in +Parliament. He was, at any rate, a very prominent political character; +for he was sent in 1374 to Bruges, as one of the commissioners to treat +with the representatives of the French pope in reference to the +appointment of foreigners to the rich benefices of the Church in +England, which gave great offence to the liberal and popular party in +England,--for there was such a progressive party as early as the +fourteenth century, although it did not go by that name, and was not +organized as parties are now. In fact, in all ages and countries there +are some men who are before their contemporaries. The great grievance of +which the more advanced and enlightened complained was the interference +of the Pope with ecclesiastical livings in England. Wyclif led the +opposition to this usurpation; and this opposition to the Pope on the +part of a churchman made it necessary for him to have a protector +powerful enough to shield him from papal vengeance.</p> + +<p>This protector he found in John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who, next +to the King, had the greatest authority in England. It is probable that +Wyclif enjoyed at Bruges the friendship of this great man (great for his +station, influence, and birth, at least), who was at the head of the +opposition to the papal claims,--resisted not only by him, but by +Parliament, which seems to have been composed of men in advance of their +age. As early as 1371 this Parliament had petitioned the King to exclude +all ecclesiastics from the great offices of State, held almost +exclusively by them as the most able and learned people of the realm. +From the time of Alfred this custom had not been seriously opposed by +the baronial lords, who were ignorant and unenlightened; but in the +fourteenth century light had broken in upon the darkness: the day had at +least dawned, and the absurdity of confining the cares of State and +temporal matters to men who ought to be absorbed with spiritual duties +alone was seen by the more enlightened of the laity. But the King was +not then prepared to part with the most efficient of his ministers +because they happened to be ecclesiastics, and the custom continued for +nearly two centuries longer. Bishop Williams was the last of the clergy +who filled the great office of chancellor, and Archbishop Laud was the +last of the clergy who became a prime minister. The reign of Elizabeth +was marked, for the first time in the history of England, by the almost +total exclusion of prelates from great secular offices. In the reign of +Edward III. it was William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, +who held the great seal, and the Bishop of Exeter who was lord +treasurer,--probably the two men in the whole realm who were the most +experienced in public affairs as men of business. Wyclif, it would +appear, although he was an ecclesiastic, here took the side of +Parliament against his own order. In his treatise on the "Regimen of the +Church" he contends that neither doctors nor deacons should hold secular +offices, or even be land stewards and clerks of account, and appeals to +the authority of the Fathers and Saint Paul in confirmation of his +views. At this time he was a doctor of divinity and professor of +theology in the University, having been promoted to this high position +in 1372, two years before he was sent as commissioner to Bruges. In +1375, he was presented to the rectory of Lutterworth in Leicestershire +by the Crown, in reward for his services as an ambassador.</p> + +<p>In 1376 Parliament renewed its assault on pontifical pretensions and +exactions; and there was cause, since twenty thousand marks, or pounds, +were sent annually to Rome from the Pope's collector in England, which +collector was a Frenchman,--another indignity. Against these corruptions +and usurpations Wyclif was unsparing in his denunciations; and the +hierarchy at last were compelled, by their allegiance to Rome, to take +measures to silence and punish him as a pertinacious heretic. The term +"heretic" meant in those days opposition to papal authority, as much as +opposition to the theological dogmas of the Church; and the brand of +heresy was the greatest stigma which authority could impose. The bold +denunciator of papal abuses was now in danger. He was summoned by the +convocation to appear in Saint Paul's Cathedral and answer for his +heresies, on which occasion were present the Archbishop of Canterbury +and the arrogant Bishop of London,--the latter the son of the Earl of +Devonshire, of the great family of the Courtenays. Wyclif was attended +by the Duke of Lancaster and the Earl Marshal,--Henry Percy, the +ancestor of the Dukes of Northumberland,--who forced themselves into the +Lady's chapel, behind the high altar, where the prelates were assembled. +An uproar followed from this unusual intrusion of the two most powerful +men of the kingdom into the very sanctuary of prelatic authority. What +could be done when the great Oxford professor--the most learned +Scholastic of the kingdom--was protected by a royal duke clothed with +viceregal power, and the Earl Marshal armed with the sword of State?</p> + +<p>The position of Wyclif was as strong as it was before he was attacked. +Nor could he be silenced except by the authority of the Pope +himself,--still acknowledged as the supreme lord of Christendom; and the +Pope now felt that he must assert his supremacy and interpose his +supreme authority, or lose his hold on England. So he hurled his +weapons, not yet impotent, and fulminated his bulls, ordering the +University, under penalty of excommunication, to deliver the daring +heretic into the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of +London; and further commanding these two prelates to warn the King +against the errors of Wyclif, and to examine him as to his doctrines, +and keep him in chains until the Pope's pleasure should be further +known. In addition to these bulls, the Pope sent one to the King +himself. It was resolved that the work should be thoroughly done this +time. Yet it would appear that these various bulls threatening an +interdict did not receive a welcome from any quarter. The prelates did +not wish to quarrel with such an antagonist as the Duke of Lancaster, +who was now the chief power in the State, the King being in his last +illness. They allowed several months to pass before executing their +commission, during which Wyclif was consulted by the great Council of +State whether they should allow money to be carried out of the realm at +the Pope's demands, and he boldly declared that they should not; thus +coming in direct antagonism with hierarchal power. He also wrote at this +time pamphlets vindicating himself from the charges made against him, +asserting the invalidity of unjust excommunication, which, if allowed, +would set the Pope above God.</p> + +<p>At last, after seven months, the prelates took courage, and ordered the +University to execute the papal bulls. To imprison Wyclif at the command +of the Pope would be to allow the Pope's temporal rule in England; yet +to disobey the bulls would be disregard of the papal power altogether. +In this dilemma the Vice-Chancellor--himself a monk--ordered a nominal +imprisonment. The result of these preliminary movements was that Wyclif +appeared at Lambeth before the Archbishop, to answer his accusers. The +great prelates had a different spirit from the University, which was +justly proud of its most learned doctor,--a man, too, beyond his age in +his progressive spirit, for the universities in those days were not so +conservative as they subsequently became. At Lambeth Wyclif found +unexpected support from the people of London, who broke into the +archiepiscopal chapel and interrupted the proceedings, and a still more +efficient aid from the Queen Dowager,--the Princess Joan,--who sent a +message forbidding any sentence against Wyclif. Thus was he backed by +royal authority and the popular voice, as Luther was afterwards in +Saxony. The prelates were overcome with terror, and dropped the +proceedings; while the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, who had tardily and +imperfectly obeyed the Pope, was cast into prison for a time and +compelled to resign his office.</p> + +<p>Wyclif had gained a great triumph, which he used by publishing a summary +of his opinions in thirty-three articles, both in Latin and English. In +these it would seem that he attacked the infallibility of the +Pope,--liable to sin like any other person, and hence to be corrected by +the voices of those who are faithful to a higher Power than his,--a blow +to the exercise of excommunication from any personal grounds of malice +or hatred, or when used to extort unjust or mercenary demands. He also +maintained that the endowments of the clergy could be lawfully withdrawn +if they were perverted or abused,--a bold assertion in his day, but +which he professed he was willing to defend, even unto death. If the +prelates had dared, or had possessed sufficient power, he would +doubtless have suffered death from their animosity; but he was left +unmolested in his retirement at his rectory, although he kept himself +discreetly out of the way of danger. When the memorable schism took +place in the Roman government by the election of an anti-pope, and both +popes proclaimed a crusade and issued their indulgences, Wyclif, who +heretofore had admitted the primacy of the Roman See, now openly +proclaimed the doctrine that the Church would be better off with no pope +at all. He owed his safety to the bitterness of the rival popes, who in +their mutual quarrels had no time to think of him. And his opportunity +was improved by writing books and homilies, in which the antichristian +claims of the popes were fearlessly exposed and commented upon. In fact, +he now openly denounces the Pope as Antichrist, from his pulpit at +Lutterworth, to his simple-minded parishioners, for whose good he seems +to have earnestly labored,--the model of a parish priest. It is supposed +that Chaucer had him in view when he wrote his celebrated description of +a good parson,--"benign" and diligent, learned and pious, giving a noble +example to his flock of disinterestedness and devotion to truth and +duty, in contrast with the ordinary lives of the clergy of those times, +who were infamous for their ignorance, sensuality, gluttony, and +ostentation; frequenting taverns, and wasting their time in gambling, +idleness, and disgraceful brawls.</p> + +<p>Hitherto Wyclif had simply protested against the external evils of the +Church without much effect, although protected by powerful laymen and +encouraged by popular favor. The time had not come for a real and +permanent reformation; but he prepared the way for it, and in no slight +degree, by his translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular +tongue,--the greatest service he rendered to the English people and the +cause of civilization. All the great reformers, successful and +unsuccessful, appealed to the Scriptures as the highest authority, even +when they did not rebel against the papal power, like Savonarola in +Florence, I do not get the impression that Wyclif was a great popular +preacher like the Florentine reformer, or like Luther, Latimer, and +Knox. He was a student, first of the Scholastic theology, and afterwards +of the Bible. He lived in a quiet way, as scholars love to live, in his +retired rectory near Oxford, preaching plain and simple sermons to his +parishioners, but spending his time chiefly in his library, or study.</p> + +<p>Wyclif's translation of the Bible was a great event, for it was the +first which was made in English, although parts of the Bible had been +translated into the Saxon tongue between the seventh and eleventh +centuries. He had no predecessor in that vast work, and he labored amid +innumerable obstacles. It was not a translation from the original Greek +and Hebrew, for but little was known of either language in the +fourteenth century: not until the fall of Constantinople into the hands +of the Turks was Greek or Hebrew studied; so the translation was made +from the Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome. The version of Wyclif, besides its +transcendent value to the people, now able to read the Bible in their +own language (before a sealed book, except to the clergy and the +learned), gave form and richness to the English language. To what extent +Wyclif was indebted to the labors of other men it is not easy to +determine; but there is little doubt that, whatever aid he received, the +whole work was under his supervision. Of course it was not printed, for +printing was not then discovered; but the manuscripts of the version +were very numerous, and they are to-day to be found in the great public +libraries of England, and even in many private collections.</p> + +<p>Considering that the Latin Vulgate has ever been held in supreme +veneration by the Catholic Church in all ages and countries, by popes, +bishops, abbots, and schoolmen; that no jealousy existed as to the +reading of it by the clergy generally; that in fact it was not a sealed +book to the learned classes, and was regarded universally as the highest +authority in matters of faith and morals,--it seems strange that so +violent an opposition should have been made to its translation into +vernacular tongues, and to its circulation among the people. Wyclif's +translation was regarded as an act of sacrilege, worthy of condemnation +and punishment. So furious was the outcry against him, as an audacious +violator who dared to touch the sacred ark with unconsecrated hands, +that even a bill was brought into the House of Lords forbidding the +perusal of the Bible by the laity, and it would have been passed but for +John of Gaunt. At a convocation of bishops and clerical dignitaries held +in St. Paul's, in 1408, it was decreed as heresy to read the Bible in +English,--to be punished by excommunication. The version of Wyclif and +all other translations into English were utterly prohibited under the +severest penalties. Fines, imprisonment, and martyrdom were inflicted on +those who were guilty of so foul a crime as the reading or possession of +the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue. This is one of the gravest +charges ever made against the Catholic Church. This absurd and cruel +persecution alone made the Reformation a necessity, even as the +translation of the Bible prepared the way for the Reformation. The +translation of the Scriptures and the Reformation are indissolubly +linked together. Nobody doubts that the whole influence of the Catholic +hierarchy has ever been, and still continues to be, hostile to the +perusal of the Scriptures by the people in the vulgar tongue; and it was +this translation by Wyclif which made him more obnoxious to the Pope +than all his tirades against the vices of the monks and the other evils +which disgraced the Church. We cannot call this translation a reform, +but it led to reforms: it arrayed the people against the usurpations of +the Pope and the corruptions of the Church as an institution. Yea, more, +it was the main cause of that memorable religious movement which +followed the death of Wyclif: there would have been no Lollards had +there been no translation of the Bible. It led also to the affirmation +of that private judgment which was the foundation pillar of +Protestantism, and which existed among the Lollards long before Luther +delivered his message.</p> + +<p>And yet it is not strange that the Catholic hierarchy (I say Catholic +rather than Roman, because in the fourteenth century there was but one +Church, although in that Church considerable difference of opinion +existed both as to matters of faith and government) should have bitterly +opposed the translation of the Scriptures into vernacular tongues, since +it opened the door to private judgment. If there is anything the +Catholic Church has hated, it is private judgment. The very phrase is +obnoxious. It means the emancipation of the people from papal domination +and ecclesiastical bondage of all description; while the thing itself is +subversive of all the claims which the Catholic hierarchy have ever put +forth as to the authority of the Church as an institution: it has +undermined and will continue to undermine spiritual despotism,--the +great evil of the Middle Ages and of the Papal Church in our times. The +unrestrained circulation of the Scriptures in the language the people +can understand must lead to the breaking up of the false doctrines and +all the instruments by which the clergy have maintained their +usurpations. It necessarily opens the eyes of the people to the +antichristian doctrine of penance, to the absurdity of indulgences for +sin, to the unwarranted worship of the Virgin Mary, to the monstrous +claim of papal infallibility, and to all other glaring usurpations by +which the popes have ruled the world. There is not a false doctrine in +religion, nor an antichristian form of worship, nor a usurped +prerogative of the Pope and clergy, which the unrestrained perusal of +the Scriptures does not expose. "<i>Hinc illae lacrymae</i>." The dignitaries +of the Roman Catholic Church are not fools. They know that the free +circulation of the Scriptures in vulgar tongues does undermine their +authority, and will ultimately destroy the edifice of pride and pomp and +power which it took a thousand years to build. This is what they ever +have consistently opposed and will continue to oppose, as a thing +dangerous to them. They would have destroyed, if they could, every copy +of the version which Wyclif made. And now, when they can no longer +prevent the Bible from being printed, they would exclude it from the +schools which they control, and from the houses of those who belong to +their Church. Doubtless the well-known opposition to the circulation of +the Bible in the vernacular has been exaggerated, but in the fourteenth +century it was certainly bitter and furious. Wyclif might expose vices +which everybody saw and lamented as a scandal, and make himself +obnoxious to those who committed them; but to open the door to free +inquiry and a reformed faith and hostility to the Pope,--this was a +graver offence, to be visited with the severest penalties. To the storm +of indignation thus raised against him Wyclif's only answer was: "The +clergy cry aloud that it is heresy to speak of the Holy Scriptures in +English, and so they would condemn the Holy Ghost, who gave tongues to +the Apostles of Christ to speak the Word of God in all languages +under heaven."</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the enormous cost of the Bible as translated by +Wyclif,--£2, 16s. 8d., a sum probably equal to thirty pounds, or one +hundred and fifty dollars of our present money, more than half the +annual income of a substantial yeoman,--still it was copied and +circulated with remarkable rapidity. Neither the cost of the valuable +manuscript nor the opposition and vigilance of an almost omnipresent +inquisition were able to suppress it.</p> + +<p>Wyclif was now about fifty-eight years of age. He had rendered a +transcendent service to the English nation, and a service that not one +of his contemporaries could have performed,--to which only the foremost +scholar and theologian of his day was equal. After such a work he might +have reposed in his quiet parish in genial rest, conscious that he had +opened a new era in the history of his country. But rest was not for +him. He now appears as a doctrinal controversialist. Hitherto his +attacks had been against the flagrant external evils of the Church, the +enormous corruptions that had entered into the institutions which +sustained the papal power. "He had been the advocate of the University +in defence of her privileges, the champion of the Crown in vindication +of its rights and prerogatives, the friend of the people in the +preservation of their property.... He now assailed the Romish doctrine +of the eucharist," but without the support of those powerful princes and +nobles who had hitherto sustained him. He combats one of the prevailing +ideas of the age,--a more difficult and infinitely bolder thing,--which +theologians had not dared to assail, and which in after-times was a +stumbling-block to Luther himself. In ascending the mysterious mount +where clouds gathered around him his old friends began to desert him, +for now he assailed the awful and invisible. The Church of the Middle +Ages had asserted that the body of Christ was actually present in the +consecrated wafer, and few there were who doubted it. Berengar had +maintained in the eleventh century that the sacred elements should be +regarded as mere symbols; but he was vehemently opposed, with all the +terrors of spiritual power, and compelled to abjure the heresy. In the +year 1215, at a Lateran, Council, Innocent III. established the doctrine +of transubstantiation as one of the fundamental pillars of Catholic +belief. Then metaphysics--all the weapons of Scholasticism--were called +into the service of superstition to establish what is most mythical in +the creed of the Church, and which implied a perpetual miracle, since at +the moment of consecration the substance of the bread was taken away and +the substance of Christ's body took its place. From his chair of +theology at Oxford, in 1381, Wyclif attacked what Lanfranc and Anselm +and the doctors of the Church had uniformly and strenuously defended. +His views of the eucharist were substantially those which Archbishop +Berengar had advanced three hundred years before, and of course drew +down upon him the censure of the Church. In his peril he appealed, not +to the Pope or the clergy, but to the King himself,--a measure of +renewed audacity, for in those days no layman, however exalted, had +authority in matters purely ecclesiastical. His boldness was too much +even for the powerful Duke of Lancaster, his friend and patron, who +forbade him to speak further on such a matter. He might attack the +mendicant and itinerant friars who had forgotten their duties and their +vows, but not the great mysteries of the Catholic faith. "When he +questioned the priestly power of absolution and the Pope's authority in +purgatory, when he struck at indulgences and special masses, he had on +his side the spiritual instincts of the people;" but when he impugned +the dignity of the central act of Christian worship and the highest +expression of mystical devotion, it appeared to ordinary minds that he +was denying all that is sacred, impressive, and authoritative in the +sacrament itself,--and he gave offence to many devout minds, who had +approved his attacks on the monks and the various corruptions of the +Church. Even the Parliament pressed the Archbishop to make an end of +such a heresy; and Courtenay, who hated Wyclif, needed not to be urged. +So a council was assembled at the Dominican Convent at Blackfriars, +where the "Times" office now stands, and unanimously condemned not only +the opinions of Wyclif as to the eucharist, but also those in reference +to the power of excommunication, and the uselessness of the religious +orders. Yet he himself was allowed to escape; and the condemnation had +no other effect than to drive him from Oxford to his rectory at +Lutterworth, where until his death he occupied himself in literary and +controversial writings. His illness soon afterwards prevented him from +obeying the summons of the Pope to Rome, where he would doubtless have +suffered as a martyr. In 1384 he was struck with paralysis, and died in +three days after the attack, at the age of sixty,--though some say in +his sixty-fourth year,--probably, in spite of ecclesiastical censure, +the most revered man of his day, as well as one of the ablest and most +learned. Not from the ranks of fanatics or illiterate popular orators +did the Reformation come in any country, but from the greatest scholars +and theologians.</p> + +<p>This grand old man, the illustrious pioneer of reform in England, and +indeed on the Continent, did not live to threescore years and ten, but, +being worn out with his exhaustive labors, he died peaceably and +unmolested in his retired parish. Not much is known of the details of +his personal history, any more than of Shakspeare's. We know nothing of +his loves and hatreds, of his habits and tastes, of his temper and +person, of his friends and enemies. He stands out to the eye of +posterity in solitary and mysterious loneliness. Tradition speaks of him +as a successful, benignant, and charitable parish priest, giving +consolation to the afflicted and to the sick. He lived in +honor,--professor of theology at Oxford, holding a prebendal stall and a +parochial rectory, perhaps a seat in Parliament, and was employed by the +Crown as an ambassador to Bruges. He was statesman as well as +theologian, and lived among the great,--more as a learned doctor than as +a saint, which he was not from the Catholic standpoint. "He was the +scourge of imposture, the ponderous hammer which smote the brazen +idolatry of his age." He labored to expose the vices that had taken +shelter in the sanctuary of the Church,--a reformer of ecclesiastical +abuses rather than of the lax morals of the laity, and hence did +different work from that of Savonarola, whose life was spent in a +crusade against sin, wherever it was to be found. His labors were great, +and his attainments remarkable for his age. He is accused of being +coarse in his invectives; but that charge can also be laid to Luther and +other reformers in rough and outspoken times. Considering the power of +the Pope in the fourteenth century, Wyclif was as bold and courageous as +Luther. The weakness of the papacy had not been exposed by the Councils +of Pisa, of Constance, and of Basil; nor was popular indignation in view +of the sale of indulgences as great in England as when the Dominican +Tetzel peddled the papal pardons in Germany. In combating the received +ideas of the age, Wyclif was even more remarkable than the Saxon +reformer, who was never fully emancipated from the Mediaeval doctrine of +transubstantiation; although Luther went beyond Wyclif in the +completeness of his reform. Wyclif was beyond his age; Luther was the +impersonation of its passions. Wyclif represented universities and +learned men; Luther was the oracle of the people. The former was the +Mediaeval doctor; the latter was the popular orator and preacher. The +one was mild and moderate in his spirit and manners; the other was +vehement, dogmatic, and often offensive, not only from his more violent +and passionate nature, but for his bitter and ironical sallies. It is +the manner more than the matter which offends. Had Wyclif been as +satirical and boisterous as Luther was, he would not probably have ended +his days in peace, and would not have accomplished so much as a +preparation for reforms.</p> + +<p>It was the peculiarity of Wyclif to recognize occasional merits in the +system he denounced, even when his language was most vehement. He +admitted that confession did much good to some persons, although as a +universal practice, as enjoined by Innocent III., it was an evil and +harmed the Church. In regard to the worship of images, while he +denounced the waste of treasure on "dead stocks," he admitted that +images might be used as aids to excite devotion; but if miraculous +powers were attributed to them, it was an evil rather than a good. And +as to the adoration of the saints, he simply maintained that since gifts +can be obtained only through the mediation of Christ, it would be better +to pray to him directly rather than through the mediation of saints.</p> + +<p>In regard to the Mendicant friars, it does not appear that his vehement +opposition to them was based on their vows of poverty or on the spirit +which entered into monasticism in its best ages, but because they were +untrue to their rule, because they were vendors of pardons, and +absolved men of sins which they were ashamed to confess to their own +pastors, and especially because they encouraged the belief that a +benefaction to a convent would take the place of piety in the heart. It +was the abuses of the system, rather than the system itself, which made +him so wrathful on the "vagrant friars preaching their catchpenny +sermons." And so of other abuses of the Church: he did not defy the Pope +or deny his authority until it was plain that he sought to usurp the +prerogatives of kings and secular rulers, and bring both the clergy and +laity under his spiritual yoke. It was not as the first and chief of +bishops--the head of the visible Church--that Wyclif attacked the Pope, +but as a usurper and a tyrant, grasping powers which were not conferred +by the early Church, and which did not culminate until Innocent III. had +instituted the Mendicant orders, and enforced persecution for religious +opinions by the terrors of the Inquisition. The wealth of the Church was +a sore evil in his eyes, since it diverted the clergy from their +spiritual duties, and was the cause of innumerable scandals, and was +closely connected with simony and the accumulation of benefices in the +hands of a single priest.</p> + +<p>So it was indignation in view of the corruptions of the Church and +vehement attacks upon them which characterized Wyclif, rather than +efforts to remove their causes, as was the case with Luther. He was not +a radical reformer; he only prepared the way for radical reform, by his +translation of the Scriptures into a language the people could read, +more than by any attacks on the monks or papal usurpations or +indulgences for sin. He was the type of a meditative scholar and +theologian, thin and worn, without much charm of conversation except to +men of rank, or great animal vivacity such as delights the people. Nor +was he a religious genius, like Thomas à Kempis, Anselm, and Pascal. He +had no remarkable insight into spiritual things; his intellectual and +moral nature preponderated over the emotional, so that he was charged +with intellectual pride and desire for distinction. Yet no one disputed +the blamelessness of his life and the elevation of his character.</p> + +<p>If Wyclif escaped the wrath and vengeance of Rome because of his high +rank as a theological doctor, his connection with the University of +Oxford, opposed to itinerating beggars with great pretensions and greedy +ends, and his friendship and intercourse with the rulers of the land, +his followers did not. They became very numerous, and were variously +called Lollards, Wyclifites, and Biblemen. They kept alive evangelical +religion until the time of Cranmer and Latimer, their distinguishing +doctrine being that the Scriptures are the only rule of faith. There was +no persecution of them of any account during the reign of Richard +II.,--although he was a hateful tyrant,--probably owing to the +influence of his wife, a Bohemian princess, who read Wyclif's Bible; +but under Henry IV. evil days fell upon them, and persecution was +intensified under Henry V. (1413-1422) because of their supposed +rebellion. The Lollards under Archbishop Chicheley, as early as 1416, +were hunted down and burned as heretics. The severest inquisition was +instituted to hunt up those who were even suspected of heresy, and every +parish was the scene of cruelties. I need not here enumerate the victims +of persecution, continued with remorseless severity during the whole +reign of Henry VII. But it was impossible to suppress the opinions of +the reformers, or to prevent the circulation of the Scriptures. The +blood of martyrs was the seed of the Church. Persecution in this +instance was not successful, since there was a noble material in +England, as in Germany, for Christianity to work upon. It was in humble +homes, among the yeomanry and the artisans, that evangelical truth took +the deepest hold, as in primitive times, and produced the fervent +Christians of succeeding centuries, such as no other country has +produced. In no country was the Reformation, as established by Edward +VI. and Elizabeth, so complete and so permanent, unless Scotland and +Switzerland be excepted. The glory of this radical reform must be +ascribed to the humble and persecuted followers of Wyclif,--who proved +themselves martyrs and witnesses, faithful unto death,--more than to +any of the great lights which adorned the most brilliant period of +English history.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>The Works of Wyclif, as edited by F.D. Matthew; The Life and Sufferings +of Wicklif, by I. Lewis (Oxford, 1820); Life of Wiclif, by Charles Wehle +Le Bas (1846); John de Wycliffe, a Monograph, by Robert Vaughan, D.D. +(London, 1853); Turner's History of England should be compared with +Lingard. Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History; Neander's Church History; +Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography; Gieseler, Milner, and general +historians of the Church; Geikie's English Reformation. A German Life of +Wyclif, by Dr. Lechler, is often quoted by Matthew, and has been +fortunately translated into English. There is also a slight notice of +Wyclif by Fisher, in his History of the Reformation.</p> + +<p>The name of the English reformer is spelled differently by different +historians,--as Wiclif, Wyclif, Wycliffe, Wyckliffe; but I have selected +the latest authority upon the subject, F.D. 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