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diff --git a/10532-h/10532-h.htm b/10532-h/10532-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba485dc --- /dev/null +++ b/10532-h/10532-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9998 @@ +<!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 VI, 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 VI, 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 VI + +Author: John Lord + +Release Date: December 24, 2003 [eBook #10532] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: iso-8859-1 + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME VI*** + +</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 2: Renaissance and +Reformation</i>. See E-Book#1499, +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/etext98/32blh10.txt"> +https://www.gutenberg.org/etext98/32blh10.txt</a> or +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/etext98/32blh10.zip"> +https://www.gutenberg.org/etext98/32blh10.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 VI.</h2> + +<h2>RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION.</h2> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#DANTE.">DANTE</a></i>.</p> + +<p>RISE OF MODERN POETRY.</p> + +The antiquity of Poetry<br> +The greatness of Poets<br> +Their influence on Civilization<br> +The true poet one of the rarest of men<br> +The pre-eminence of Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, and Goethe<br> +Characteristics of Dante<br> +His precocity<br> +His moral wisdom and great attainments<br> +His terrible scorn and his isolation<br> +State of society when Dante was born<br> +His banishment<br> +Guelphs and Ghibellines<br> +Dante stimulated to his great task by an absorbing sentiment<br> +Beatrice<br> +Dante's passion for Beatrice analyzed<br> +The worship of ideal qualities the foundation of lofty love.<br> +The mystery of love<br> +Its exalted realism<br> +Dedication of Dante's life-labors to the departed Beatrice<br> +The Divine Comedy; a study<br> +The Inferno; its graphic pictures<br> +Its connection with the ideas of the Middle Ages<br> +The physical hell of Dante in its connection with the Mediaeval doctrine of Retribution<br> +The Purgatorio; its moral wisdom<br> +Origin of the doctrine of Purgatory<br> +Its consolation amid the speculations of despair<br> +The Paradiso<br> +Its discussion of grand themes<br> +The Divina Commedia makes an epoch in civilization<br> +Dante's life an epic<br> +His exalted character<br> +His posthumous influence<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#GEOFFREY_CHAUCER.">GEOFFREY CHAUCER</a></i>.</p> + +<p>ENGLISH LIFE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.</p> + +The characteristics of the fourteenth century<br> +Its great events and characters<br> +State of society in England when Chaucer arose<br> +His early life<br> +His intimacy with John of Gaunt, the great Duke of Lancaster<br> +His prosperity<br> +His poetry<br> +The Canterbury Tales<br> +Their fidelity to Nature and to English life<br> +Connection of his poetry with the formation of the English Language<br> +The Pilgrims of the Canterbury Tales<br> +Chaucer's views of women and of love<br> +His description of popular sports and amusements<br> +The preponderance of country life in the fourteenth century<br> +Chaucer's description of popular superstitions<br> +Of ecclesiastical abuses<br> +His emancipation from the ideas of the Middle Ages<br> +Peculiarities of his poetry<br> +Chaucer's private life<br> +The respect in which he was held<br> +Influence of his poetry<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#CHRISTOPHER_COLUMBUS.">CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS</a></i>.</p> + +<p>MARITIME DISCOVERIES.</p> + +Marco Polo<br> +His travels<br> +The geographical problems of the fourteenth century<br> +Sought to be solved by Christopher Columbus<br> +The difficulties he had to encounter<br> +Regarded as a visionary man<br> +His persistence<br> +Influence of women in great enterprises<br> +Columbus introduced to Queen Isabella<br> +Excuses for his opponents<br> +The Queen favors his projects<br> +The first voyage of Columbus<br> +Its dangers<br> +Discovery of the Bahama Islands<br> +Discovery of Cuba and Hispaniola<br> +Columbus returns to Spain<br> +The excitement and enthusiasm produced by his discoveries<br> +His second voyage<br> +Extravagant expectations of Columbus<br> +Disasters of the colonists<br> +Decline of the popularity of Columbus<br> +His third voyage<br> +His arrest and disgrace<br> +His fourth voyage<br> +His death<br> +Greatness of his services<br> +Results of his discoveries<br> +Colonization<br> +The mines of Peru and Mexico<br> +The effects on Europe of the rapid increase of the precious metals<br> +True sources of national wealth<br> +The destinies of America<br> +Its true mission<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#SAVONAROLA.">SAVONAROLA</a></i>.</p> + +<p>UNSUCCESSFUL REFORMS.</p> + +The age of Savonarola<br> +Revival of Classic Literature<br> +Ecclesiastical corruptions<br> +Religious apathy; awakened intelligence; infidel spirit<br> +Youth of Savonarola<br> +His piety<br> +Begins to preach<br> +His success at Florence<br> +Peculiarities of his eloquence<br> +Death of Lorenzo de' Medici<br> +Savonarola as a political leader<br> +Denunciation of tyranny<br> +His influence in giving a constitution to the Florentines<br> +Difficulties of Constitution-making<br> +His method of teaching political science<br> +Peculiarities of the new Rule<br> +Its great wisdom<br> +Savonarola as reformer<br> +As moralist<br> +Terrible denunciation of sin in high places<br> +A prophet of woe<br> +Contrast between Savonarola and Luther<br> +The sermons of Savonarola<br> +His marvellous eloquence<br> +Its peculiarities<br> +The enemies of Savonarola<br> +Savonarola persecuted<br> +His appeal to Europe<br> +The people desert him<br> +Months of torment<br> +His martyrdom<br> +His character<br> +His posthumous influence<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#MICHAEL_ANGELO.">MICHAEL ANGELO</a></i>.</p> + +<p>THE REVIVAL OF ART.</p> + +Michael Angelo as representative of reviving Art<br> +Ennobling effects of Art when inspired by lofty sentiments<br> +Brilliancy of Art in the sixteenth century<br> +Early life of Michael Angelo<br> +His aptitude for Art<br> +Patronized by Lorenzo de' Medici<br> +Sculpture later in its development than Architecture<br> +The chief works of Michael Angelo as sculptor<br> +The peculiarity of his sculptures<br> +Michael Angelo as painter<br> +History of painting in the Middle Ages<br> +Da Vinci<br> +The frescos of the Sistine Chapel<br> +The Last Judgment<br> +The cartoon of the battle of Pisa<br> +The variety as well as moral grandeur of Michael Angelo's paintings<br> +Ennobling influence of his works<br> +His works as architect<br> +St. Peter's Church<br> +Revival of Roman and Grecian Architecture<br> +Contrasted with Gothic Architecture<br> +Michael Angelo rescues the beauties of Paganism<br> +Not responsible for absurdities of the Renaissance<br> +Greatness of Michael Angelo as a man<br> +His industry, temperance, dignity of character, love of Art for Art's sake<br> +His indifference to rewards and praises<br> +His transcendent fame<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#MARTIN_LUTHER.">MARTIN LUTHER</a></i>.</p> + +<p>THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.</p> + +Luther's predecessors<br> +Corruptions of the Church<br> +Luther the man for the work of reform<br> +His peculiarities<br> +His early piety<br> +Enters a Monastery<br> +His religious experience<br> +Made Professor of Divinity at Wittenberg<br> +The Pope in great need of money to complete St. Peter's<br> +Indulgences; principles on which they were based<br> +Luther, indignant, preaches Justification by Faith<br> +His immense popularity<br> +Grace the cardinal principle of the Reformation<br> +The Reformation began as a religious movement<br> +How the defence of Luther's doctrine led to the recognition of the supreme authority of the Scriptures<br> +Public disputation at Leipsic between Luther and Eck<br> +Connection between the advocacy of the Bible as a supreme authority and the right of private judgment<br> +Religious liberty a sequence of private judgment<br> +Connection between religious and civil liberty<br> +Contrast between Leo I. and Luther<br> +Luther as reformer<br> +His boldness and popularity<br> +He alarms Rome<br> +His translation of the Bible, his hymns, and other works<br> +Summoned by imperial authority to the Diet of Worms<br> +His memorable defence<br> +His immortal legacies<br> +His death and character<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#THOMAS_CRANMER.">THOMAS CRANMER</a></i>.</p> + +<p>THE ENGLISH REFORMATION.</p> + +Importance of the English Reformation<br> +Cranmer its best exponent<br> +What was effected during the reign of Henry VIII<br> +Thomas Cromwell<br> +Suppression of Monasteries<br> +Their opposition to the revival of Learning<br> +Their exceeding corruption<br> +Their great wealth and its confiscation<br> +Ecclesiastical courts<br> +Sir Thomas More: his execution<br> +Main feature of Henry VIII.'s anti-clerical measures<br> +Fall of Cromwell<br> +Rise of Cranmer<br> +His characteristics<br> +His wise moderation<br> +His fortunate suggestions to Henry VIII<br> +Made Archbishop of Canterbury<br> +Difficulties of his position<br> +Reforms made by the government, not by the people<br> +Accession of Edward VI<br> +Cranmer's Church reforms: open communion; abolition of the Mass; new English liturgy<br> +Marriage among the clergy; the Forty-two Articles<br> +Accession of Mary<br> +Persecution of the Reformers<br> +Reactionary measures<br> +Arrest, weakness, and recantation of Cranmer<br> +His noble death; his character<br> +Death of Mary<br> +Accession of Elizabeth, and return of exiles to England<br> +The Elizabethan Age<br> +Conservative reforms and conciliatory measures<br> +The Thirty-nine Articles<br> +Nonconformists<br> +Their doctrines and discipline<br> +The great Puritan controversy<br> +The Puritans represent the popular side of the Reformation<br> +Their theology<br> +Their moral discipline<br> +Their connection with civil liberty<br> +Summary of the English Reformation<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#IGNATIUS_LOYOLA.">IGNATIUS LOYOLA</a></i>.</p> + +<p>RISE AND INFLUENCE OF THE JESUITS.</p> + +The counter-reformation effected by the Jesuits<br> +Picture of the times; theological doctrines<br> +The Monastic Orders no longer available<br> +Ignatius Loyola<br> +His early life<br> +Founds a new order of Monks<br> +Wonderful spread of the Society of Jesus<br> +Their efficient organization<br> +Causes of success in general<br> +Virtues and abilities of the early Jesuits<br> +Their devotion and bravery<br> +Jesuit Missions<br> +Veneration for Loyola; his "Spiritual Exercises"<br> +Lainez<br> +Singular obedience exacted of the members of the Society<br> +Absolute power of the General of the Order<br> +Voluntary submission of Jesuits to complete despotism<br> +The Jesuits adapt themselves to the circumstances of society<br> +Causes of the decline of their influence<br> +Corruption of most human institutions<br> +The Jesuits become rich and then corrupt<br> +<i>Ésprit de corps</i> of the Jesuits<br> +Their doctrine of expediency<br> +Their political intrigues<br> +Persecution of the Protestants<br> +The enemies they made<br> +Madame de Pompadour<br> +Suppression of the Order<br> +Their return to power<br> +Reasons why Protestants fear and dislike them<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#JOHN_CALVIN.">JOHN CALVIN</a></i>.</p> + +<p>PROTESTANT THEOLOGY.</p> + +John Calvin's position<br> +His early life and precocity<br> +Becomes a leader of Protestants<br> +Removes to Geneva<br> +His habits and character<br> +Temporary exile<br> +Convention at Frankfort<br> +Melancthon, Luther, Calvin, and Catholic doctrines<br> +Return to Geneva, and marriage<br> +Calvin compared with Luther<br> +Calvin as a legislator<br> +His reform<br> +His views of the Eucharist<br> +Excommunication, etc<br> +His dislike of ceremonies and festivals<br> +The simplicity of the worship of God<br> +His ideas of church government<br> +Absence of toleration<br> +Church and State<br> +Exaltation of preaching<br> +Calvin as a theologian; his Institutes<br> +His doctrine of Predestination<br> +His general doctrines in harmony with Mediaeval theology<br> +His views of sin and forgiveness; Calvinism<br> +He exacts the same authority to logical deduction from admitted truths as to direct declarations of Scripture<br> +Puritans led away by Calvin's intellectuality<br> +His whole theology radiates from the doctrine of the majesty of God and the littleness of man<br> +To him a personal God is everything<br> +Defects of his system<br> +Calvin an aristocrat<br> +His intellectual qualities<br> +His prodigious labors<br> +His severe characteristics<br> +His vast influence<br> +His immortal fame<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#FRANCIS_BACON.">LORD BACON</a></i>.</p> + +<p>THE NEW PHILOSOPHY.</p> + +Lord Bacon as portrayed by Macaulay<br> +His great defects of character<br> +Contrast made between the man and the philosopher<br> +Bacon's youth and accomplishments<br> +Enters Parliament<br> +Seeks office<br> +At the height of fortune and fame<br> +His misfortunes<br> +Consideration of charges against him<br> +His counterbalancing merits<br> +The exaltation by Macaulay of material life<br> +Bacon made its exponent<br> +But the aims of Bacon were higher<br> +The true spirit of his philosophy<br> +Deductive philosophies<br> +His new method<br> +Bacon's Works<br> +Relations of his philosophy<br> +Material science and knowledge<br> +Comparison of knowledge with wisdom<br> +<br> + +<p><i><a href="#GALILEO.">GALILEO</a></i>.</p> + +<p>ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES.</p> + +A brilliant portent<br> +The greatness of the sixteenth century<br> +Artists, scholars, reformers, religious defenders<br> +Maritime discoveries<br> +Literary, ecclesiastical, political achievements<br> +Youth of Galileo<br> +His early discoveries<br> +Genius for mathematics<br> +Professor at Pisa<br> +Ridicules the old philosophers; invents the thermometer<br> +Compared with Kepler<br> +Galileo teaches the doctrines of Copernicus<br> +Gives offence by his railleries and mockeries<br> +Theology and science<br> +Astronomical knowledge of the Ancients<br> +Utilization of science<br> +Construction of the first telescope<br> +Galileo's reward<br> +His successive discoveries<br> +His enemies<br> +High scientific rank in Europe<br> +Hostility of the Church<br> +Galileo summoned before the Inquisition; his condemnation and admonition<br> +His new offences<br> +Summoned before a council of Cardinals<br> +His humiliation<br> +His recantations<br> +Consideration of his position<br> +Greatness of mind rather than character<br> +His confinement at Arceti<br> +Opposition to science<br> +His melancholy old age and blindness<br> +Visited by John Milton; comparison of the two, when blind<br> +Consequence of Galileo's discoveries<br> +Later results<br> +Vastness of the universe<br> +Grandeur of astronomical science<br> +<br> + +<p>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<p>VOLUME VI.</p> + +<a href="Illus0445.jpg">Galileo at Pisa</a> +<i>After the painting by F. Roybet</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0446.jpg">Dante in Florence</a> +<i>After the painting by Rafaeli Sorbi</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0447.jpg">The Canterbury Pilgrimage</a> +<i>From the frieze by R.W.W. Sewell</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0448.jpg">Columbus at the Court of Spain</a> +<i>After the painting by Vaczlav Brozik, Metropolitan Museum, New</i> +<i>York</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0449.jpg">Savonarola</a> +<i>From the statue by E. Pazzi, Uffizi Gallery, Florence</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0450.jpg">Michael Angelo in His Studio Visited by Pope Julius II</a> +<i>After the painting by Haman</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0451.jpg">Luther Preaching at Wartburg</a> +<i>After the painting by Hugo Vogel</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0452.jpg">Henry VIII. of England</a> +<i>After the painting by Hans Holbein, Windsor Castle, England</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0453.jpg">Cranmer at the Traitor's Gate</a> +<i>After the painting by Frederick Goodall</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0454.jpg">Madame de Pompadour</a> +<i>After the painting by Fr. Boucher</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0455.jpg">John Calvin</a> +<i>From a contemporaneous painting</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0456.jpg">Lord Francis Bacon</a> +<i>After the painting by T. Van Somer</i>.<br> + +<a href="Illus0457.jpg">Galileo Galilei</a> +<i>After the painting by J. Sustermans, Uffizi Gallery, Florence</i>.<br> + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2>BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<h2><a name="DANTE."></a>DANTE.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A. D. 1265-1321.</p> + +<p>RISE OF MODERN POETRY.</p> +<br> + +<p>The first great genius who aroused his country from the torpor of the +Middle Ages was a poet. Poetry, then, was the first influence which +elevated the human mind amid the miseries of a gloomy period, if we may +except the schools of philosophy which flourished in the rising +universities. But poetry probably preceded all other forms of culture in +Europe, even as it preceded philosophy and art in Greece. The gay +Provencal singers were harbingers of Dante, even as unknown poets +prepared the way for Homer. And as Homer was the creator of Grecian +literature, so Dante, by his immortal comedy, gave the first great +impulse to Italian thought. Hence poets are great benefactors, and we +will not let them die in our memories or hearts. We crown them, when +alive, with laurels and praises; and when they die, we erect monuments +to their honor. They are dear to us, since their writings give +perpetual pleasure, and appeal to our loftiest sentiments. They appeal +not merely to consecrated ideas and feelings, but they strive to conform +to the principles of immortal art. Every great poet is as much an artist +as the sculptor or the painter; and art survives learning itself. Varro, +the most learned of the Romans, is forgotten, when Virgil is familiar to +every school-boy. Cicero himself would not have been immortal, if his +essays and orations had not conformed to the principles of art. Even an +historian who would live must be an artist, like Voltaire or Macaulay. A +cumbrous, or heavy, or pedantic historian will never be read, even if +his learning be praised by all the critics of Germany.</p> + +<p>Poets are the great artists of language. They even create languages, +like Homer and Shakspeare. They are the ornaments of literature. But +they are more than ornaments. They are the sages whose sayings are +treasured up and valued and quoted from age to age, because of the +inspiration which is given to them,--an insight into the mysteries of +the soul and the secrets of life. A good song is never lost; a good poem +is never buried, like a system of philosophy, but has an inherent +vitality, like the melodies of the son of Jesse. Real poetry is +something, too, beyond elaborate versification, which is one of the +literary fashions, and passes away like other fashions unless redeemed +by something that arouses the soul, and elevates it, and appeals to the +consciousness of universal humanity. It is the poets who make +revelations, like prophets and sages of old; it is they who invest +history with interest, like Shakspeare and Racine, and preserve what is +most vital and valuable in it. They even adorn philosophy, like +Lucretius, when he speculated on the systems of the Ionian philosophers. +They certainly impress powerfully on the mind the truths of theology, as +Watts and Cowper and Wesley did in their noble lyrics. So that the most +rapt and imaginative of men, if artists, utilize the whole realm of +knowledge, and diffuse it, and perpetuate it in artistic forms. But real +poets are rare, even if there are many who glory in the jingle of +language and the structure of rhyme. Poetry, to live, must have a soul, +and it must combine rare things,--art, music, genius, original thought, +wisdom made still richer by learning, and, above all, a power of +appealing to inner sentiments, which all feel, yet are reluctant to +express. So choice are the gifts, so grand are the qualities, so varied +the attainments of truly great poets, that very few are born in a whole +generation and in nations that number twenty or forty millions of +people. They are the rarest of gifted men. Every nation can boast of its +illustrious lawyers, statesmen, physicians, and orators; but they can +point only to a few of their poets with pride. We can count on the +fingers of one of our hands all those worthy of poetic fame who now +live in this great country of intellectual and civilized men,--one for +every ten millions. How great the pre-eminence even of ordinary poets! +How very great the pre-eminence of those few whom all ages and +nations admire!</p> + +<p>The critics assign to Dante a pre-eminence over most of those we call +immortal. Only two or three other poets in the whole realm of +literature, ancient or modern, dispute his throne. We compare him with +Homer and Shakspeare, and perhaps Goethe, alone. Civilization glories in +Virgil, Milton, Tasso, Racine, Pope, and Byron,--all immortal artists; +but it points to only four men concerning whose transcendent creative +power there is unanimity of judgment,--prodigies of genius, to whose +influence and fame we can assign no limits; stars of such surpassing +brilliancy that we can only gaze and wonder,--growing brighter and +brighter, too, with the progress of ages; so remarkable that no +barbarism will ever obscure their brightness, so original that all +imitation of them becomes impossible and absurd. So great is original +genius, directed by art and consecrated to lofty sentiments.</p> + +<p>I have assumed the difficult task of presenting one of these great +lights. But I do not presume to analyze his great poem, or to point out +critically its excellencies. This would be beyond my powers, even if I +were an Italian. It takes a poet to reveal a poet. Nor is criticism +interesting to ordinary minds, even in the hands of masters. I should +make critics laugh if I were to attempt to dissect the Divine Comedy. +Although, in an English dress, it is known to most people who pretend to +be cultivated, yet it is not more read than the "Paradise Lost" or the +"Faerie Queene," being too deep and learned for some, and understood by +nobody without a tolerable acquaintance with the Middle Ages, which it +interprets,--the superstitions, the loves, the hatreds, the ideas of +ages which can never more return. All I can do--all that is safe for me +to attempt--is to show the circumstances and conditions in which it was +written, the sentiments which prompted it, its historical results, its +general scope and end, and whatever makes its author stand out to us as +a living man, bearing the sorrows and revelling in the joys of that high +life which gave to him extraordinary moral wisdom, and made him a +prophet and teacher to all generations. He was a man of sorrows, of +resentments, fierce and implacable, but whose "love was as transcendent +as his scorn,"--a man of vast experiences and intense convictions and +superhuman earnestness, despising the world which he sought to elevate, +living isolated in the midst of society, a wanderer and a sage, +meditating constantly on the grandest themes, lost in ecstatic reveries, +familiar with abstruse theories, versed in all the wisdom of his day +and in the history of the past, a believer in God and immortality, in +rewards and punishments, and perpetually soaring to comprehend the +mysteries of existence, and those ennobling truths which constitute the +joy and the hope of renovated and emancipated and glorified spirits in +the realms of eternal bliss. All this is history, and it is history +alone which I seek to teach,--the outward life of a great man, with +glimpses, if I can, of those visions of beauty and truth in which his +soul lived, and which visions and experiences constitute his peculiar +greatness. Dante was not so close an observer of human nature as +Shakspeare, nor so great a painter of human actions as Homer, nor so +learned a scholar as Milton; but his soul was more serious than +either,--he was deeper, more intense than they; while in pathos, in +earnestness, and in fiery emphasis he has been surpassed only by Hebrew +poets and prophets.</p> + +<p>It would seem from his numerous biographies that he was remarkable from +a boy; that he was a youthful prodigy; that he was precocious, like +Cicero and Pascal; that he early made great attainments, giving +utterance to living thoughts and feelings, like Bacon, among boyish +companions; lisping in numbers, like Pope, before he could write prose; +different from all other boys, since no time can be fixed when he did +not think and feel like a person of maturer years. Born in Florence, of +the noble family of the Alighieri, in the year 1265, his early education +devolved upon his mother, his father having died while the boy was very +young. His mother's friend, Brunetto Latini, famous as statesman and +scholarly poet, was of great assistance in directing his tastes and +studies. As a mere youth he wrote sonnets, such as Sordello the +Troubadour would not disdain to own. He delights, as a boy, in those +inquiries which gave fame to Bonaventura. He has an intuitive contempt +for all quacks and pretenders. At Paris he maintains fourteen different +theses, propounded by learned men, on different subjects, and gains +universal admiration. He is early selected by his native city for +important offices, which he fills with honor. In wit he encounters no +superiors. He scorches courts by sarcasms which he can not restrain. He +offends the great by a superiority which he does not attempt to veil. He +affects no humility, for his nature is doubtless proud; he is even +offensively conscious and arrogant. When Florence is deliberating about +the choice of an ambassador to Rome, he playfully, yet still arrogantly, +exclaims: "If I remain behind, who goes? and if I go, who remains +behind?" His countenance, so austere and thoughtful, impresses all +beholders with a sort of inborn greatness; his lip, in Giotto's +portrait, is curled disdainfully, as if he lived among fools or knaves. +He is given to no youthful excesses; he lives simply and frugally. He +rarely speaks unless spoken to; he is absorbed apparently in thought. +Without a commanding physical person, he is a marked man to everybody, +even when he deems himself a stranger. Women gaze at him with wonder and +admiration, though he disdains their praises and avoids their +flatteries. Men make way for him as he passes them, unconsciously. +"Behold," said a group of ladies, as he walked slowly by them, "there is +a man who has visited hell!" To the close of his life he was a great +devourer of books, and digested their contents. His studies were as +various as they were profound. He was familiar with the ancient poets +and historians and philosophers; he was still better acquainted with the +abstruse speculations of the schoolmen. He delighted in universities and +scholastic retreats; from the cares and duties of public life he would +retire to solitary labors, and dignify his retirement by improving +studies. He did not live in a cell, like Jerome, or a cave, like +Mohammed; but no man was ever more indebted to solitude and meditation +than he for that insight and inspiration which communion with God and +great ideas alone can give.</p> + +<p>And yet, though a recluse and student, he had great experiences with +life. He was born among the higher ranks of society. He inherited an +ample patrimony. He did not shrink from public affairs. He was +intensely patriotic, like Michael Angelo; he gave himself up to the +good of his country, like Savonarola. Florence was small, but it was +important; it was already a capital, and a centre of industry. He +represented its interests in various courts. He lived with princes and +nobles. He took an active part in all public matters and disputations; +he was even familiar with the intrigues of parties; he was a politician +as well as scholar. He entered into the contests between Popes and +Emperors respecting the independence of Italy. He was not conversant +with art, for the great sculptors and painters had not then arisen. The +age was still dark; the mariner's compass had not been invented, +chimneys had not been introduced, the comforts of life were few. Dames +of highest rank still spent their days over the distaff or in combing +flax. There were no grand structures but cathedral churches. Life was +laborious, dismal, and turbulent. Law and order did not reign in cities +or villages. The poor were oppressed by nobles. Commerce was small and +manufactures scarce. Men lived in dreary houses, without luxuries, on +coarse bread and fruit and vegetables. The crusades had not come to an +end. It was the age of bad popes and quarrelsome nobles, and lazy monks +and haughty bishops, and ignorant people, steeped in gloomy +superstitions, two hundred years before America was discovered, and two +hundred and fifty years before Michael Angelo erected the dome of +St. Peter's.</p> + +<p>But there was faith in the world, and rough virtues, sincerity, and +earnestness of character, though life was dismal. Men believed in +immortality and in expiation for sin. The rising universities had gifted +scholars whose abstruse speculations have never been rivalled for +acuteness and severity of logic. There were bards and minstrels, and +chivalric knights and tournaments and tilts, and village <i>fêtes</i> and +hospitable convents and gentle ladies,--gentle and lovely even in all +states of civilization, winning by their graces and inspiring men to +deeds of heroism and gallantry.</p> + +<p>In one of those domestic revolutions which were so common in Italy Dante +was banished, and his property was confiscated; and he at the age of +thirty-five, about the year 1300, when Giotto was painting portraits, +was sent forth a wanderer and an exile, now poor and unimportant, to eat +the bread of strangers and climb other people's stairs; and so obnoxious +was he to the dominant party in his native city for his bitter spirit, +that he was destined never to return to his home and friends. His +ancestors, boasting of Roman descent, belonged to the patriotic +party,--the Guelphs, who had the ascendency in his early years,--that +party which defended the claims of the Popes against the Emperors of +Germany. But this party had its divisions and rival families,--those +that sided with the old feudal nobles who had once ruled the city, and +the new mercantile families that surpassed them in wealth and popular +favor. So, expelled by a fraction of his own party that had gained +power, Dante went over to the Ghibellines, and became an adherent of +imperial authority until he died.</p> + +<p>It was in his wanderings from court to court and castle to castle and +convent to convent and university to university, that he acquired that +profound experience with men and the world which fitted him for his +great task. "Not as victorious knight on the field of Campaldino, not as +leader of the Guelph aristocracy at Florence, not as prior, not as +ambassador," but as a wanderer did he acquire his moral wisdom. He was a +striking example of the severe experiences to which nearly all great +benefactors have been subjected,--Abraham the exile, in the wilderness, +in Egypt, among Philistines, among robbers and barbaric chieftains; the +Prince Siddârtha, who founded Buddhism, in his wanderings among the +various Indian nations who bowed down to Brahma; and, still greater, the +Apostle Paul, in his protracted martyrdom among Pagan idolaters and +boastful philosophers, in Asia and in Europe. These and others may be +cited, who led a life of self-denial and reproach in order to spread the +truths which save mankind. We naturally call their lot hard, even though +they chose it; but it is the school of greatness. It was sad to see the +wisest and best man of his day,--a man of family, of culture, of wealth, +of learning, loving leisure, attached to his home and country, +accustomed to honor and independence,--doomed to exile, poverty, +neglect, and hatred, without those compensations which men of genius in +our time secure. But I would not attempt to excite pity for an outward +condition which developed the higher virtues,--for a thorny path which +led to the regions of eternal light. Dante may have walked in bitter +tears to Paradise, but after the fashion of saints and martyrs in all +ages of our world. He need but cast his eyes on that emblem which was +erected on every pinnacle of Mediaeval churches to symbolize passing +suffering with salvation infinite,--the great and august creed of the +age in which he lived, though now buried amid the triumphs of an +imposing material civilization whose end is the adoration of the majesty +of man rather than the majesty of God, the wonders of creation rather +than the greatness of the Creator.</p> + +<p>But something more was required in order to write an immortal poem than +even native genius, great learning, and profound experience. The soul +must be stimulated to the work by an absorbing and ennobling passion. +This passion Dante had; and it is as memorable as the mortal loves of +Abélard and Héloïse, and infinitely more exalting, since it was +spiritual and immortal,--even the adoration of his lamented and +departed Beatrice.</p> + +<p>I wish to dwell for a moment, perhaps longer than to some may seem +dignified, on this ideal or sentimental love. It may seem trivial and +unimportant to the eye of youth, or a man of the world, or a woman of +sensual nature, or to unthinking fools and butterflies; but it is +invested with dignity to one who meditates on the mysteries of the soul, +the wonders of our higher nature,--one of the things which arrest the +attention of philosophers.</p> + +<p>It is recorded and attested, even by Dante himself, that at the early +age of nine he fell in love with Beatrice,--a little girl of one of his +neighbors,--and that he wrote to her sonnets as the mistress of his +devotion. How could he have written sonnets without an inspiration, +unless he felt sentiments higher than we associate with either boys or +girls? The boy was father of the man. "She appeared to me," says the +poet, "at a festival, dressed in that most noble and honorable color, +scarlet,--girded and ornamented in a manner suitable to her age; and +from that moment love ruled my soul. And after many days had passed, it +happened that, passing through the street, she turned her eyes to the +spot where I stood, and with ineffable courtesy she greeted me; and this +had such an effect on me that it seemed I had reached the furthest +limit of blessedness. I took refuge in the solitude of my chamber; and, +thinking over what had happened to me, I proposed to write a sonnet, +since I had already acquired the art of putting words into rhyme," This, +from his "Vita Nuova," his first work, relating to the "new life" which +this love awoke in his young soul.</p> + +<p>Thus, according to Dante's own statement, was the seed of a never-ending +passion planted in his soul,--the small beginning, so insignificant to +cynical eyes, that it would almost seem preposterous to allude to it; as +if this fancy for a little girl in scarlet, and in a boy but nine years +of age, could ripen into anything worthy to be soberly mentioned by a +grave and earnest poet, in the full maturity of his genius,--worthy to +give direction to his lofty intellect, worthy to be the occasion of the +greatest poem the world has seen from Homer to modern times. Absurd! +ridiculous! Great rivers cannot rise from such a spring; tall trees +cannot grow from such a little acorn. Thus reasons the man who does not +take cognizance of the mighty mysteries of human life. If anything +tempted the boy to write sonnets to a little girl, it must have been the +chivalric element in society at that period, when even boys were +required to choose objects of devotion, and to whom they were to be +loyal, and whose honor they were bound to defend. But the grave poet, in +the decline of his life, makes this simple confession, as the beginning +of that sentiment which never afterwards departed from him, and which +inspired him to his grandest efforts.</p> + +<p>But this youthful attachment was unfortunate. Beatrice did not return +his passion, and had no conception of its force, and perhaps was not +even worthy to call it forth. She may have been beautiful; she may have +been gifted; she may have been commonplace. It matters little whether +she was intellectual or not, beautiful or not. It was not the flesh and +blood he saw, but the image of beauty and loveliness which his own mind +created. He idealized the girl; she was to him all that he fancied. But +she never encouraged him; she denied his greetings, and even avoided his +society. At last she died, when he was twenty-seven, and left him--to +use his own expression--"to ruminate on death, and envy whomsoever +dies." To console himself, he read Boëthius, and religious philosophy +was ever afterwards his favorite study. Nor did serenity come, so deep +were his sentiments, so powerful was his imagination, until he had +formed an exalted purpose to write a poem in her honor, and worthy of +his love. "If it please Him through whom all things come," said Dante, +"that my life be spared, I hope to tell such things of her as never +before have been seen by any one."</p> + +<p>Now what inspired so strange a purpose? Was it a Platonic sentiment, +like the love of Petrarch for Laura, or something that we cannot +explain, and yet real,--a mystery of the soul in its deepest cravings +and aspirations? And is love, among mortals generally, based on such a +foundation? Is it flesh and blood we love; is it the intellect; is it +the character; is it the soul; is it what is inherently interesting in +woman, and which everybody can see,--the real virtues of the heart and +charms of physical beauty? Or is it what we fancy in the object of our +adoration, what exists already in our own minds,--the archetypes of +eternal ideas of beauty and grace? And do all men worship these forms of +beauty which the imagination creates? Can any woman, or any man, seen +exactly as they are, incite a love which is kindred to worship? And is +any love worthy to be called love, if it does not inspire emotions which +prompt to self-sacrifice, labor, and lofty ends? Can a woman's smiles +incite to Herculean energies, and drive the willing worshipper to Aönian +heights, unless under these smiles are seen the light of life and the +blessedness of supernatural fervor? Is there, and can there be, a +perpetuity in mortal charms without the recognition or the supposition +of a moral beauty connected with them, which alone is pure and +imperishable, and which alone creates the sacred ecstasy that revels in +the enjoyment of what is divine, or what is supposed to be divine, not +in man, but in the conceptions of man,--the ever-blazing glories of +goodness or of truth which the excited soul doth see in the eyes and +expression of the adored image? It is these archetypes of divinity, real +or fancied, which give to love all that is enduring. Destroy these, take +away the real or fancied glories of the soul and mind, and the holy +flame soon burns out. No mortal love can last, no mortal love is +beautiful, unless the visions which the mind creates are not more or +less realized in the object of it, or when a person, either man or +woman, is not capable of seeing ideal perfections. The loves of savages +are the loves of brutes. The more exalted the character and the soul, +the greater is the capacity of love, and the deeper its fervor. It is +not the object of love which creates this fervor, but the mind which is +capable of investing it with glories. There could not have been such +intensity in Dante's love had he not been gifted with the power of +creating so lofty and beautiful an ideal; and it was this he +worshipped,--not the real Beatrice, but the angelic beauty he thought he +saw in her. Why could he not see the perfections he adored shining in +other women, who perhaps had a higher claim to them? Ah, that is the +mystery! And you cannot solve it any easier than you can tell why a +flower blooms or a seed germinates. And why was it that Dante, with his +great experience, could in later life see the qualities he adored in no +other woman than in the cold and unappreciative girl who avoided him? +Suppose she had become his wife, might he not have been disenchanted, +and his veneration been succeeded by a bitter disappointment? Yet, while +the delusion lasted, no other woman could have filled her place; in no +other woman could he have seen such charms; no other love could have +inspired his soul to make such labors.</p> + +<p>I would not be understood as declaring that married love must be +necessarily a disenchantment. I would not thus libel humanity, and +insult plain reason and experience. Many loves <i>are</i> happy, and burn +brighter and brighter to the end; but it is because there are many who +are worthy of them, both men and women,--because the ideal, which the +mind created, <i>is</i> realized to a greater or less degree, although the +loftier the archetype, the less seldom is it found. Nor is it necessary +that perfection should be found. A person may have faults which alienate +and disenchant, but with these there may be virtues so radiant that the +worship, though imperfect, remains,--a respect, on the whole, so great +that the soul is lifted to admiration. Who can love this perishable +form, unless one sees in it some traits which belong to superior and +immortal natures? And hence the sentiment, when pure, creates a sort of +companionship of beings robed in celestial light, and exorcises those +degrading passions which belong to earth. But Dante saw no imperfections +in Beatrice: perhaps he had no opportunity to see them. His own soul +was so filled with love, his mind soared to such exalted regions of +adoration, that when she passed away he saw her only in the beatified +state, in company with saints and angels; and he was wrapped in +ecstasies which knew no end,--the unbroken adoration of beauty, grace, +and truth, even of those eternal ideas on which Plato based all that is +certain, and all that is worth living for; that sublime realism without +which life is a failure, and this world is "a mockery, a delusion, and +a snare."</p> + +<p>This is the history and exposition of that love for Beatrice with which +the whole spiritual life of Dante is identified, and without which the +"Divine Comedy" might not have been written. I may have given to it +disproportionate attention; and it is true I might have allegorized it, +and for love of a woman I might have substituted love for an art,--even +the art of poetry, in which his soul doubtless lived, even as Michael +Angelo, his greatest fellow-countryman, lived in the adoration of +beauty, grace, and majesty. Oh, happy and favored is the person who +lives in the enjoyment of an art! It may be humble; it may be grand. It +may be music; it may be painting, or sculpture, or architecture, or +poetry, or oratory, or landscape gardening, yea, even farming, or +needle-work, or house decoration,--anything which employs the higher +faculties of the mind, and brings order out of confusion, and takes one +from himself, from the drudgery of mechanical labors, even if it be no +higher than carving a mantelpiece or making a savory dish; for all these +things imply creation, alike the test and the reward of genius itself, +which almost every human being possesses, in some form or other, to a +greater or less degree,--one of the kindest gifts of Deity to man.</p> + +<p>The great artist, kindled by his visions of imperishable loveliness in +the person of his departed Beatrice, now resolves to dedicate to her +honor his great life-labor,--even his immortal poem, which should be a +transcript of his thoughts, a mirror of his life, a record of his +sorrows, a painting of his experiences, a description of what he saw, a +digest of his great meditations, a thesaurus of the treasures of the +Mediaeval age, an exposition of its great and leading ideas in +philosophy and in religion. Every great man wishes to leave behind some +monument of his labors, to bless or instruct mankind. Any man without +some form of this noble ambition lives in vain, even if his monument be +no more than a cultivated farm rescued from wildness and sterility.</p> + +<p>Now Dante's monument is "the marvellous, mystic, unfathomable song," in +which he sang his sorrows and his joys, revealed his visions, and +recorded the passions and sentiments of his age. It never can be +popular, because it is so difficult to be understood, and because its +leading ideas are not in harmony with those which are now received. I +doubt if anybody can delight in that poem, unless he sympathizes with +the ideas of the Middle Ages; or, at least, unless he is familiar with +them, and with the historical characters who lived in those turbulent +and gloomy times. There is more talk and pretension about that book than +any one that I know of. Like the "Faerie Queene" or the "Paradise Lost," +it is a study rather than a recreation; one of those productions which +an educated person ought to read in the course of his life, and which if +he can read in the original, and has read, is apt to boast of,--like +climbing a lofty mountain, enjoyable to some with youth and vigor and +enthusiasm and love of nature, but a very toilsome thing to most people, +especially if old and short-winded and gouty.</p> + +<p>In the year 1309 the first part of the "Divine Comedy," the <i>Inferno</i>, +was finished by Dante, at the age of forty-four, in the tenth year of +his pilgrimage, under the roof of the Marquis of Lunigiana; and it was +intrusted to the care of Fra Ilario, a monk living on the beautiful +Ligurian shores. As everybody knows, it is a vivid, graphic picture of +what was supposed to be the infernal regions, where great sinners are +punished with various torments forever and ever. It is interesting for +the excellence of the poetry, the brilliant analyses of characters, the +allusion to historical events, the bitter invectives, the intense +sarcasms, and the serious, earnest spirit which underlies the +descriptions. But there is very little of gentleness or compassion, in +view of the protracted torments of the sufferers. We stand aghast in +view of the miseries and monsters, furies and gorgons, snakes and fires, +demons, filth, lakes of pitch, pools of blood, plains of scorching +sands, circles, and chimeras dire,--a physical hell of utter and +unspeakable dreariness and despair, awfully and powerfully described, +but still repulsive. In each of the dismal abodes, far down in the +bowels of the earth, which Dante is supposed to have visited with Virgil +as a guide, in which some infernal deity presides, all sorts of physical +tortures are accumulated, inflicted on traitors, murderers, +robbers,--men who have committed great crimes, unpunished in their +lifetime; such men as Cain, Judas, Ugolino,--men consigned to an +infamous immortality. On the great culprits of history, and of Italy +especially, Dante virtually sits in judgment; and he consigns them +equally to various torments which we shudder to think of.</p> + +<p>And here let me say, as a general criticism, that in the <i>Inferno</i> are +brought out in tremendous language the opinions of the Middle Ages in +reference to retribution. Dante does not rise above them, with all his +genius; he is not emancipated from them. It is the rarest thing in this +world for any man, however profound his intellect and bold his spirit, +to be emancipated from the great and leading ideas of his age. Abraham +was, and Moses, and the founder of Buddhism, and Socrates, and Mohammed, +and Luther; but they were reformers, more or less divinely commissioned, +with supernatural aid in many instances to give them wisdom. But Homer +was not, nor Euripides, nor the great scholastics of the Middle Ages, +nor even popes. The venerated doctors and philosophers, prelates, +scholars, nobles, kings, to say nothing of the people, thought as Dante +did in reference to future punishment,--that it was physical, awful, +accumulative, infinite, endless; the wrath of avenging deity displayed +in pains and agonies inflicted on the body, like the tortures of +inquisitors, thus appealing to the fears of men, on which chiefly the +power of the clergy was based. Nor in these views of endless physical +sufferings, as if the body itself were eternal and indestructible, is +there the refinement of Milton, who placed misery in the upbraidings of +conscience, in mental torture rather than bodily, in the everlasting +pride and rebellion of the followers of Satan and his fallen angels. It +was these awful views of protracted and eternal physical torments,--not +the hell of the Bible, but the hell of priests, of human +invention,--which gives to the Middle Ages a sorrowful and repulsive +light, thus nursing superstition and working on the fears of mankind, +rather than on the conscience and the sense of moral accountability. But +how could Dante have represented the ideas of the Middle Ages, if he had +not painted his <i>Inferno</i> in the darkest colors that the imagination +could conceive, unless he had soared beyond what is revealed into the +unfathomable and mysterious and unrevealed regions of the second death?</p> + +<p>After various wanderings in France and Italy, and after an interval of +three years, Dante produced the second part of the poem,--the +<i>Purgatorio</i>,--in which he assumes another style, and sings another +song. In this we are introduced to an illustrious company,--many beloved +friends, poets, musicians, philosophers, generals, even prelates and +popes, whose deeds and thoughts were on the whole beneficent. These +illustrious men temporarily expiate the sins of anger, of envy, avarice, +gluttony, pride, ambition,--the great defects which were blended with +virtues, and which are to be purged out of them by suffering. Their +torments are milder, and amid them they discourse on the principles of +moral wisdom. They utter noble sentiments; they discuss great themes; +they show how vain is wealth and power and fame; they preach sermons. In +these discourses, Dante shows his familiarity with history and +philosophy; he unfolds that moral wisdom for which he is most +distinguished. His scorn is now tempered with tenderness. He shows a +true humanity; he is more forgiving, more generous, more sympathetic. He +is more lofty, if he is not more intense. He sees the end of expiations: +the sufferers will be restored to peace and joy.</p> + +<p>But even in his purgatory, as in his hell, he paints the ideas of his +age. He makes no new or extraordinary revelations. He arrives at no new +philosophy. He is the Christian poet, after the pattern of his age.</p> + +<p>It is plain that the Middle Ages must have accepted or invented some +relief from punishment, or every Christian country would have been +overwhelmed with the blackness of despair. Men could not live, if they +felt they could not expiate their sins. Who could smile or joke or eat +or sleep or have any pleasure, if he thought seriously there would be no +cessation or release from endless pains? Who could discharge his +ordinary duties or perform his daily occupations, if his father or his +mother or his sister or his brother or his wife or his son or his +daughter might not be finally forgiven for the frailties of an imperfect +nature which he had inherited? The Catholic Church, in its +benignity,--at what time I do not know,--opened the future of hope amid +the speculations of despair. She saved the Middle Ages from universal +gloom. If speculation or logic or tradition or scripture pointed to a +hell of reprobation, there must be also a purgatory as the field of +expiation,--for expiation there must be for sin, somewhere, somehow, +according to immutable laws, unless a mantle of universal forgiveness +were spread over sinners who in this life had given no sufficient proofs +of repentance and faith. Expiation was the great element of Mediaeval +theology. It may have been borrowed from India, but it was engrafted on +the Christian system. Sometimes it was made to take place in this life; +when the sinner, having pleased God, entered at once upon heavenly +beatitudes. Hence fastings, scourgings, self-laceration, ascetic rigors +in dress and food, pilgrimages,--all to purchase forgiveness; which idea +of forgiveness was scattered to the winds by Luther, and replaced by +grace,--faith in Christ attested by a righteous life. I allude to this +notion of purgatory, which early entered into the creeds of theologians, +and which was adopted by the Catholic Church, to show how powerful it +was when human consciousness sought a relief from the pains of endless +physical torments.</p> + +<p>After Dante had written his <i>Purgatorio</i>, he retired to the picturesque +mountains which separate Tuscany from Modena and Bologna; and in the +hospitium of an ancient monastery, "on the woody summit of a rock from +which he might gaze on his ungrateful country, he renewed his studies in +philosophy and theology." There, too, in that calm retreat, he commenced +his <i>Paradiso</i>, the subject of profound meditations on what was held in +highest value in the Middle Ages. The themes are theological and +metaphysical. They are such as interested Thomas Aquinas and +Bonaventura, Anselm and Bernard. They are such as do not interest this +age,--even the most gifted minds,--for our times are comparatively +indifferent to metaphysical subtleties and speculations. Beatrice and +Peter and Benedict alike discourse on the recondite subjects of the +Bible in the style of Mediaeval doctors. The themes are great,--the +incarnation, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, +salvation by faith, the triumph of Christ, the glory of Paradise, the +mysteries of the divine and human natures; and with these disquisitions +are reproofs of bad popes, and even of some of the bad customs of the +Church, like indulgences, and the corruptions of the monastic system. +The <i>Paradiso</i> is a thesaurus of Mediaeval theology,--obscure, but +lofty, mixed up with all the learning of the age, even of the lives of +saints and heroes and kings and prophets. Saint Peter examines Dante +upon faith, James upon hope, and John upon charity. Virgil here has +ceased to be his guide; but Beatrice, robed in celestial loveliness, +conducts him from circle to circle, and explains the sublimest doctrines +and resolves his mortal doubts,--the object still of his adoration, and +inferior only to the mother of our Lord, <i>regina angelorum, mater +carissima</i>, whom the Church even then devoutly worshipped, and to whom +the greatest sages prayed.</p> + + "Thou virgin mother, daughter of thy Son,<br> + Humble and high beyond all other creatures,<br> + The limit fixed of the eternal counsel,--<br> + Thou art the one who such nobility<br> + To human nature gave, that its Creator<br> + Did not disdain to make himself its creature.<br> + Not only thy benignity gives succor<br> + To him who asketh it, but oftentimes<br> + Forerunneth of its own accord the asking.<br> + In thee compassion is; in thee is pity;<br> + In thee magnificence; in thee unites<br> + Whate'er of goodness is in any creature."<br> + +<p>In the glorious meditation of those grand subjects which had such a +charm for Benedict and Bernard, and which almost offset the barbarism +and misery of the Middle Ages,--to many still regarded as "ages of +faith,"--Dante seemingly forgets his wrongs; and in the company of her +whom he adores he seems to revel in the solemn ecstasy of a soul +transported to the realms of eternal light. He lives now with the angels +and the mysteries,--</p> + + "Like to the fire<br> + That in a cloud imprisoned doth break out expansive.<br> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + + Thus, in that heavenly banqueting his soul<br> + Outgrew himself, and, in the transport lost,<br> + Holds no remembrance now of what she was."<br> + +<p>The Paradise of Dante is not gloomy, although it be obscure and +indefinite. It is the unexplored world of thought and knowledge, the +explanation of dogmas which his age accepted. It is a revelation of +glories such as only a lofty soul could conceive, but could not +paint,--a supernal happiness given only to favored mortals, to saints +and martyrs who have triumphed over the seductions of sense and the +temptations of life,--a beatified state of blended ecstasy and love.</p> + + "Had I a tongue in eloquence as rich as is the coloring in fancy's<br> + loom,<br> + 'Twere all too poor to utter the least part of that enchantment."<br> + +<p>Such is this great poem; in all its parts and exposition of the ideas of +the age,--sometimes fierce and sometimes tender, profound and infantine, +lofty and degraded, like the Church itself, which conserved these +sentiments. It is an intensely religious poem, and yet more theological +than Christian, and full of classical allusions to pagan heroes and +sages,--a most remarkable production considering the age, and, when we +remember that it is without a prototype in any language, a glorious +monument of reviving literature, both original and powerful.</p> + +<p>Its appearance was of course an epoch, calling out the admiration of +Italians, and of all who could understand it,--of all who appreciated +its moral wisdom in every other country of Europe. And its fame has +been steadily increasing, although I fear much of the popular +enthusiasm is exaggerated and unfelt. One who can read Italian well may +see its "fiery emphasis and depth," its condensed thought and language, +its supernal scorn and supernal love, its bitterness and its +forgiveness; but very few sympathize with its theology or its +philosophy, or care at all for the men whose crimes he punishes, and +whose virtues he rewards.</p> + +<p>But there is great interest in the man, as well as in the poem which he +made the mirror of his life, and the register of his sorrows and of +those speculations in which he sought to banish the remembrance of his +misfortunes. His life, like his poem, is an epic. We sympathize with his +resentments, "which exile and poverty made perpetually fresh." "The +sincerity of his early passion for Beatrice," says Hallam, "pierces +through the veil of allegory which surrounds her, while the memory of +his injuries pursues him into the immensity of eternal light; and even +in the company of saints and angels his unforgiving spirit darkens at +the name of Florence.... He combines the profoundest feelings of +religion with those patriotic recollections which were suggested by the +reappearance of the illustrious dead."</p> + +<p>Next to Michael Angelo he was the best of all famous Italians, stained +by no marked defects but bitterness, pride, and scorn; while his piety, +his patriotism, and elevation of soul stand out in marked contrast with +the selfishness and venality and hypocrisy and cruelty of the leading +men in the history of his times. "He wrote with his heart's blood;" he +wrote in poverty, exile, grief, and neglect; he wrote like an inspired +prophet of old. He seems to have been specially raised up to exalt +virtue, and vindicate the ways of God to man, and prepare the way for a +new civilization. He breathes angry defiance to all tyrants; he consigns +even popes to the torments he created. He ridicules fools; he exposes +knaves. He detests oppression; he is a prophet of liberty. He sees into +all shams and all hypocrisies, and denounces lies. He is temperate in +eating and drinking; he has no vices. He believes in friendship, in +love, in truth. He labors for the good of his countrymen. He is +affectionate to those who comprehend him. He accepts hospitalities, but +will not stoop to meanness or injustice. He will not return to his +native city, which he loves so well, even when permitted, if obliged to +submit to humiliating ceremonies. He even refuses a laurel crown from +any city but from the one in which he was born. No honors could tempt +him to be untrue unto himself; no tasks are too humble to perform, if he +can make himself useful. At Ravenna he gives lectures to the people in +their own language, regarding the restoration of the Latin impossible, +and wishing to bring into estimation the richness of the vernacular +tongue. And when his work is done he dies, before he becomes old +(1321), having fulfilled his <i>vow</i>. His last retreat was at Ravenna, and +his last days were soothed with gentle attentions from Guido da Polenta, +that kind duke who revived his fainting hopes. It was in his service, as +ambassador to Venice, that Dante sickened and died. A funeral sermon was +pronounced upon him by his friend the duke, and beautiful monuments were +erected to his memory. Too late the Florentines begged for his remains, +and did justice to the man and the poet; as well they might, since his +is the proudest name connected with their annals. He is indeed one of +the great benefactors of the world itself, for the richness of his +immortal legacy.</p> + +<p>Could the proscribed and exiled poet, as he wandered, isolated and +alone, over the vine-clad hills of Italy, and as he stopped here and +there at some friendly monastery, wearied and hungry, have cast his +prophetic eye down the vistas of the ages; could he have seen what +honors would be bestowed upon his name, and how his poem, written in +sorrow, would be scattered in joy among all nations, giving a new +direction to human thought, shining as a fixed star in the realms of +genius, and kindling into shining brightness what is only a reflection +of its rays; yea, how it would be committed to memory in the rising +universities, and be commented on by the most learned expositors in all +the schools of Europe, lauded to the skies by his countrymen, received +by the whole world as a unique, original, unapproachable production, +suggesting grand thoughts to Milton, reappearing even in the creations +of Michael Angelo, coloring art itself whenever art seeks the sublime +and beautiful, inspiring all subsequent literature, dignifying the life +of letters, and gilding philosophy as well as poetry with new +glories,--could he have seen all this, how his exultant soul would have +rejoiced, even as did Abraham, when, amid the ashes of the funeral pyre +he had prepared for Isaac, he saw the future glories of his descendants; +or as Bacon, when, amid calumnies, he foresaw that his name and memory +would be held in honor by posterity, and that his method would be +received by all future philosophers as one of the priceless boons of +genius to mankind!</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Vita Nuova; Divina Commedia,--Translations by Carey and Longfellow, +Boccaccio's Life of Dante; Wright's St. Patrick's Purgatory; Dante et la +Philosophie Catholique du Treizième Siècle, par Ozinan; Labitte, La +Divine Comédie avant Dante; Balbo's Life and Times of Dante; Hallam's +Middle Ages; Napier's Florentine History; Villani; Leigh Hunt's Stories +from the Italian Poets; Botta's Life of Dante; J. R. Lowell's article on +Dante in American Cyclopaedia; Milman's Latin Christianity; Carlyle's +Heroes and Hero-worship; Macaulay's Essays; The Divina Commedia from the +German of Schelling; Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique; La Divine +Comédie, by Lamennais; Dante, by Labitte.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="GEOFFREY_CHAUCER."></a>GEOFFREY CHAUCER.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1340-1400.</p> + +<p>ENGLISH LIFE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.</p> + +<p>The age which produced Chaucer was a transition period from the Middle +Ages to modern times, midway between Dante and Michael Angelo. Chaucer +was the contemporary of Wyclif, with whom the Middle Ages may +appropriately be said to close, or modern history to begin.</p> + +<p>The fourteenth century is interesting for the awakening, especially in +Italy, of literature and art; for the wars between the French and +English, and the English and the Scots; for the rivalry between the +Italian republics; for the efforts of Rienzi to establish popular +freedom at Rome; for the insurrection of the Flemish weavers, under the +Van Arteveldes, against their feudal oppressors; for the terrible +"Jacquerie" in Paris; for the insurrection of Wat Tyler in England; for +the Swiss confederation; for a schism in the Church when the popes +retired to Avignon; for the aggrandizement of the Visconti at Milan and +the Medici at Florence; for incipient religious reforms under Wyclif in +England and John Huss in Bohemia; for the foundation of new colleges at +Oxford and Cambridge; for the establishment of guilds in London; for the +exploration of distant countries; for the dreadful pestilence which +swept over Europe, known in England as the Black Death; for the +development of modern languages by the poets; and for the rise of the +English House of Commons as a great constitutional power.</p> + +<p>In most of these movements we see especially a simultaneous rising among +the people, in the more civilized countries of Europe, to obtain +charters of freedom and municipal and political privileges, extorted +from monarchs in their necessities. The fourteenth century was marked by +protests and warfare equally against feudal institutions and royal +tyranny. The way was prepared by the wars of kings, which crippled their +resources, as the Crusades had done a century before. The supreme +miseries of the people led them to political revolts and +insurrections,--blind but fierce movements, not inspired by ideas of +liberty, but by a sense of oppression and degradation. Accompanying +these popular insurrections were religious protests against the corrupt +institutions of the Church.</p> + +<p>In the midst of these popular agitations, aggressive and needless wars, +public miseries and calamities, baronial aggrandizement, religious +inquiries, parliamentary encroachment, and reviving taste for literature +and art, Chaucer arose.</p> + +<p>His remarkable career extended over the last half of the fourteenth +century, when public events were of considerable historical importance. +It was then that parliamentary history became interesting. Until then +the barons, clergy, knights of the shire, and burgesses of the town, +summoned to assist the royal councils, deliberated in separate chambers +or halls; but in the reign of Edward III. the representatives of the +knights of the shires and the burgesses united their interests and +formed a body strong enough to check royal encroachments, and became +known henceforth as the House of Commons. In thirty years this body had +wrested from the Crown the power of arbitrary taxation, had forced upon +it new ministers, and had established the principle that the redress of +grievances preceded grants of supply. Edward III. was compelled to grant +twenty parliamentary confirmations of Magna Charta. At the close of his +reign, it was conceded that taxes could be raised only by consent of the +Commons; and they had sufficient power, also, to prevent the collection +of the tax which the Pope had levied on the country since the time of +John, called Peter's Pence. The latter part of the fourteenth century +must not be regarded as an era of the triumph of popular rights, but as +the period when these rights began to be asserted. Long and dreary was +the march of the people to complete political enfranchisement from the +rebellion under Wat Tyler to the passage of the Reform Bill in our +times. But the Commons made a memorable stand against Edward III. when +he was the most powerful sovereign of western Europe, one which would +have been impossible had not this able and ambitious sovereign been +embroiled in desperate war both with the Scotch and French.</p> + +<p>With the assertion of political rights we notice the beginning of +commercial enterprise and manufacturing industry. A colony of Flemish +weavers was established in England by the enlightened king, although +wool continued to be exported. It was not until the time of Elizabeth +that the raw material was consumed at home.</p> + +<p>Still, the condition of the common people was dreary enough at this +time, when compared with what it is in our age. They perhaps were better +fed on the necessities of life than they are now. All meats were +comparatively cheaper; but they had no luxuries, not even wheaten bread. +Their houses were small and dingy, and a single chamber sufficed for a +whole family, both male and female. Neither glass windows nor chimneys +were then in use, nor knives nor forks, nor tea nor coffee; not even +potatoes, still less tropical fruits. The people had neither +bed-clothes, nor carpets, nor glass nor crockery ware, nor cotton +dresses, nor books, nor schools. They were robbed by feudal masters, and +cheated and imposed upon by friars and pedlers; but a grim cheerfulness +shone above their discomforts and miseries, and crime was uncommon and +severely punished. They amused themselves with rough sports, and +cherished religious sentiments. They were brave and patriotic.</p> + +<p>It was to describe the habits and customs of these people, as well as +those of the classes above them, to give dignity to consecrated +sentiments and to shape the English language, that Chaucer was +raised up.</p> + +<p>He was born, it is generally supposed, in the year 1340; but nothing is +definitely known of him till 1357, when Edward III. had been reigning +about thirty years. It is surmised that his father was a respectable +citizen of London; that he was educated at Cambridge and Oxford; that he +went to Paris to complete his education in the most famous university in +the world; that he then extensively travelled in France, Holland, and +Flanders, after which he became a student of law in the Inner Temple. +Even then he was known as a poet, and his learning and accomplishments +attracted the attention of Edward III., who was a patron of genius, and +who gave him a house in Woodstock, near the royal palace. At this time +Chaucer was a handsome, witty, modest, dignified man of letters, in +easy circumstances, moving in the higher ranks of society, and already +known for his "Troilus and Cresseide," which was then doubtless the best +poem in the language.</p> + +<p>It was then that the intimacy began between him and John of Gaunt, a +youth of eighteen, then Earl of Richmond, fourth son of Edward III., +afterwards known as the great Duke of Lancaster,--the most powerful +nobleman that ever lived in England, also the richest, possessing large +estates in eighteen counties, as well as six earldoms. This friendship +between the poet and the first prince of the blood, after the Prince of +Wales, seems to have arisen from the admiration of John of Gaunt for the +genius and accomplishments of Chaucer, who was about ten years the +elder. It was not until the prince became the Duke of Lancaster that he +was the friend and protector of Wyclif,--and from different reasons, +seeing that the Oxford scholar and theologian could be of use to him in +his warfare against the clergy, who were hostile to his ambitious +designs. Chaucer he loved as a bright and witty companion; Wyclif he +honored as the most learned churchman of the age.</p> + +<p>The next authentic event in Chaucer's life occurred in 1359, when he +accompanied the king to France in that fruitless expedition which was +soon followed by the peace of Brétigny. In this unfortunate campaign +Chaucer was taken prisoner, but was ransomed by his sovereign for +£16,--about equal to £300 in these times. He had probably before this +been installed at court as a gentleman of the bedchamber, on a stipend +which would now be equal to £250 a year. He seems to have been a +favorite with the court, after he had written his first great poem. It +is singular that in a rude and ignorant age poets should have received +much greater honor than in our enlightened times. Gower was patronized +by the Duke of Gloucester, as Chaucer was by the Duke of Lancaster, and +Petrarch and Boccaccio were in Italy by princes and nobles. Even +learning was held in more reverence in the fourteenth century than it is +in the nineteenth. The scholastic doctor was one of the great +dignitaries of the age, as well as of the schools, and ranked with +bishops and abbots. Wyclif at one time was the most influential man in +the English Church, sitting in Parliament, and sent by the king on +important diplomatic missions. So Chaucer, with less claim, received +valuable offices and land-grants, which made him a wealthy man; and he +was also sent on important missions in the company of nobles. He lived +at the court. His son Thomas married one of the richest heiresses in the +kingdom, and became speaker of the House of Commons; while his daughter +Alice married the Duke of Suffolk, whose grandson was declared by +Richard III. to be his heir, and came near becoming King of England. +Chaucer's wife's sister married the Duke of Lancaster himself; so he was +allied with the royal family, if not by blood, at least by ambitious +marriage connections.</p> + +<p>I know of no poet in the history of England who occupied so high a +social position as did Chaucer, or who received so many honors. The poet +of the people was the companion of kings and princes. At one time he had +a reverse of fortune, when his friend and patron, the Duke of Lancaster, +was in disgrace and in voluntary banishment during the minority of +Richard II., against whom he had intrigued, and who afterwards was +dethroned by Henry IV., a son of the Duke of Lancaster. While the Duke +of Gloucester was in power, Chaucer was deprived of his offices and +revenues for two or three years, and was even imprisoned in the Tower; +but when Lancaster returned from the Continent, his offices and revenues +were restored. His latter days were luxurious and honored. At fifty-one +he gave up his public duties as a collector of customs, chiefly on wool, +and retired to Woodstock and spent the remainder of his fortunate life +in dignified leisure and literary labors. In addition to his revenues, +the Duke of Lancaster, who was virtually the ruler of the land during +the reign of Richard II., gave him the castle of Donnington, with its +park and gardens; so that he became a man of territorial influence. At +the age of fifty-eight he removed to London, and took a house in the +precincts of Westminster Abbey, where the chapel of Henry VII. now +stands. He died the following year, and was buried in the Abbey +church,--that sepulchre of princes and bishops and abbots. His body was +deposited in the place now known as the Poets' Corner, and a fitting +monument to his genius was erected over his remains, as the first great +poet that had appeared in England, probably only surpassed in genius by +Shakspeare, until the language assumed its present form. He was regarded +as a moral phenomenon, whom kings and princes delighted to honor. As +Leonardo da Vinci died in the arms of Francis I., so Chaucer rested in +his grave near the bodies of those sovereigns and princes with whom he +lived in intimacy and friendship. It was the rarity of his gifts, his +great attainments, elegant manners, and refined tastes which made him +the companion of the great, since at that time only princes and nobles +and ecclesiastical dignitaries could appreciate his genius or enjoy +his writings.</p> + +<p>Although Chaucer had written several poems which were admired in his +day, and made translations from the French, among which was the "Roman +de la Rose," the most popular poem of the Middle Ages,--a poem which +represented the difficulties attendant on the passion of love, under the +emblem of a rose which had to be plucked amid thorns,--yet his best +works were written in the leisure of declining years.</p> + +<p>The occupation of the poet during the last twelve years of his life was +in writing his "Canterbury Tales," on which his fame chiefly rests; +written not for money, but because he was impelled to write it, as all +true poets write and all great artists paint,--<i>ex animo</i>,--because they +cannot help writing and painting, as the solace and enjoyment of life. +For his day these tales were a great work of art, evidently written with +great care. They are also stamped with the inspiration of genius, +although the stories themselves were copied in the main from the French +and Italian, even as the French and Italians copied from Oriental +writers, whose works were translated into the languages of Europe; so +that the romances of the Middle Ages were originally produced in India, +Persia, and Arabia. Absolute creation is very rare. Even Shakspeare, the +most original of poets, was indebted to French and Italian writers for +the plots of many of his best dramas. Who can tell the remote sources of +human invention; who knows the then popular songs which Homer probably +incorporated in his epics; who can trace the fountains of those streams +which have fertilized the literary world?--and hence, how shallow the +criticism which would detract from literary genius because it is +indebted, more or less, to the men who have lived ages ago. It is the +way of putting things which constitutes the merit of men of genius. What +has Voltaire or Hume or Froude told the world, essentially, that it did +not know before? Read, for instance, half-a-dozen historians on Joan of +Arc: they all relate substantially the same facts. Genius and +originality are seen in the reflections and deductions and grand +sentiments prompted by the narrative. Let half-a-dozen distinguished and +learned theologians write sermons on Abraham or Moses or David: they +will all be different, yet the main facts will be common to all.</p> + +<p>The "Canterbury Tales" are great creations, from the humor, the wit, the +naturalness, the vividness of description, and the beauty of the +sentiments displayed in them, although sullied by occasional vulgarities +and impurities, which, however, in all their coarseness do not corrupt +the mind. Byron complained of their coarseness, but Byron's poetry is +far more demoralizing. The age was coarse, not the mind of the author. +And after five hundred years, with all the obscurity of language and +obsolete modes of spelling, they still give pleasure to the true lovers +of poetry when they have once mastered the language, which is not, after +all, very difficult. It is true that most people prefer to read the +great masters of poetry in later times; but the "Canterbury Tales" are +interesting and instructive to those who study the history of language +and literature. They are links in the civilization of England. They +paint the age more vividly and accurately than any known history. The +men and women of the fourteenth century, of all ranks, stand out to us +in fresh and living colors. We see them in their dress, their feasts, +their dwellings, their language, their habits, and their manners. Amid +all the changes in human thought and in social institutions the +characters appeal to our common humanity, essentially the same under all +human conditions. The men and women of the fourteenth century love and +hate, eat and drink, laugh and talk, as they do in the nineteenth. They +delight, as we do, in the varieties of dress, of parade, and luxurious +feasts. Although the form of these has changed, they are alive to the +same sentiments which move us. They like fun and jokes and amusement as +much as we. They abhor the same class of defects which disgust +us,--hypocrisies, shams, lies. The inner circle of their friendship is +the same as ours to-day, based on sincerity and admiration. There is the +same infinite variety in character, and yet the same uniformity. The +human heart beats to the same sentiments that it does under all +civilizations and conditions of life. No people can live without +friendship and sympathy and love; and these are ultimate sentiments of +the soul, which are as eternal as the ideas of Plato. Why do the Psalms +of David, written for an Oriental people four thousand years ago, +excite the same emotions in the minds of the people of England or France +or America that they did among the Jews? It is because they appeal to +our common humanity, which never changes,--the same to-day as it was in +the beginning, and will be to the end. It is only form and fashion which +change; men remain the same. The men and women of the Bible talked +nearly the same as we do, and seem to have had as great light on the +primal principles of wisdom and truth and virtue. Who can improve on the +sagacity and worldly wisdom of the Proverbs of Solomon? They have a +perennial freshness, and appeal to universal experience. It is this +fidelity to nature which is one of the great charms of Shakspeare. We +quote his brief sayings as expressive of what we feel and know of the +certitudes of our moral and intellectual life. They will last forever, +under every variety of government, of social institutions, of races, and +of languages. And they will last because these every-day sentiments are +put in such pithy, compressed, unique, and novel form, like the Proverbs +of Solomon or the sayings of Epictetus. All nations and ages alike +recognize the moral wisdom in the sayings of those immortal sages whose +writings have delighted and enlightened the world, because they appeal +to consciousness or experience.</p> + +<p>Now it must be confessed that the poetry of Chaucer does not abound in +the moral wisdom and spiritual insight and profound reflections on the +great mysteries of human life which stand out so conspicuously in the +writings of Dante, Shakspeare, Milton, Goethe, and other first-class +poets. He does not describe the inner life, but the outward habits and +condition of the people of his times. He is not serious enough, nor +learned enough, to enter upon the discussion of those high themes which +agitated the schools and universities, as Dante did one hundred years +before. He tells us how monks and friars lived, not how they dreamed and +speculated. Nor are his sarcasms scorching and bitter, but rather +humorous and laughable. He shows himself to be a genial and loving +companion, not an austere teacher of disagreeable truths. He is not +solemn and intense, like Dante; he does not give wings to his fancy, +like Spenser; he has not the divine insight of Shakspeare; he is not +learned, like Milton; he is not sarcastic, like Pope; he does not rouse +the passions, like Byron; he is not meditative, like Wordsworth,--but he +paints nature with great accuracy and delicacy, as also the men and +women of his age, as they appeared in their outward life. He describes +the passion of love with great tenderness and simplicity. In all his +poems, love is his greatest theme,--which he bases, not on physical +charms, but the moral beauty of the soul. In his earlier life he does +not seem to have done full justice to women, whom he ridicules, but +does not despise; in whom he indeed sees the graces of chivalry, but not +the intellectual attraction of cultivated life. But later in life, when +his experiences are broader and more profound, he makes amends for his +former mistakes. In his "Legend of Good Women," which he wrote at the +command of Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II., he eulogizes the sex +and paints the most exalted sentiments of the heart. He not only had +great vividness in the description of his characters, but doubtless +great dramatic talent, which his age did not call out. His descriptions +of nature are very fresh and beautiful, indicating a great love of +nature,--flowers, trees, birds, lawns, gardens, waterfalls, falcons, +dogs, horses, with whom he almost talked. He had a great sense of the +ridiculous; hence his humor and fun and droll descriptions, which will +ever interest because they are so fresh and vivid. And as a poet he +continually improved as he advanced in life. His last works are his +best, showing the care and labor he bestowed, as well as his fidelity to +nature. I am amazed, considering his time, that he was so great an +artist without having a knowledge of the principles of art as taught by +the great masters of composition.</p> + +<p>But, as has been already said, his distinguishing excellence is vivid +and natural description of the life and habits, not the opinions, of the +people of the fourteenth century, described without exaggeration or +effort for effect. He paints his age as Molière paints the times of +Louis XIV., and Homer the heroic periods of Grecian history. This +fidelity to nature and inexhaustible humor and living freshness and +perpetual variety are the eternal charms of the "Canterbury Tales." They +bring before the eye the varied professions and trades and habits and +customs of the fourteenth century. We see how our ancestors dressed and +talked and ate; what pleasures delighted them, what animosities moved +them, what sentiments elevated them, and what follies made them +ridiculous. The same naturalness and humor which marked "Don Quixote" +and the "Decameron" also are seen in the "Canterbury Tales." Chaucer +freed himself from all the affectations and extravagances and +artificiality which characterized the poetry of the Middle Ages. With +him began a new style in writing. He and Wyclif are the creators of +English literature. They did not create a language, but they formed and +polished it.</p> + +<p>The various persons who figure in the "Canterbury Tales" are too well +known for me to enlarge upon. Who can add anything to the Prologue in +which Chaucer himself describes the varied characters and habits and +appearance of the pilgrims to the shrine of Thomas à Becket at +Canterbury? There are thirty of these pilgrims, including the poet +himself, embracing nearly all the professions and trades then known, +except the higher dignitaries of Church and State, who are not supposed +to mix freely in ordinary intercourse, and whom it would be unwise to +paint in their marked peculiarities. The most prominent person, as to +social standing, is probably the knight. He is not a nobleman, but he +has fought in many battles, and has travelled extensively. His cassock +is soiled, and his horse is strong but not gay,--a very respectable man, +courteous and gallant, a soldier corresponding to a modern colonel or +captain. His son, the esquire, is a youth of twenty, with curled locks +and embroidered dress, shining in various colors like the flowers of +May, gay as a bird, active as a deer, and gentle as a maiden. The yeoman +who attends them both is clad in green like a forester, with arrows and +feathers, bearing the heavy sword and buckler of his master. The +prioress is another respectable person, coy and simple, with dainty +fingers, small mouth, and clean attire,--a refined sort of a woman for +that age, ornamented with corals and brooch, so stately as to be held in +reverence, yet so sentimental as to weep for a mouse caught in a trap: +all characteristic of a respectable, kind-hearted lady who has lived in +seclusion. A monk, of course, in the fourteenth century was everywhere +to be seen; and a monk we have among the pilgrims, riding a "dainty" +horse, accompanied with greyhounds, loving fur trimmings on his +Benedictine habit and a fat swan to roast. The friar, too, we see,--a +mendicant, yet merry and full of dalliances, beloved by the common +women, to whom he gave easy absolution; a jolly vagabond, who knew all +the taverns, and who carried on his portly person pins and songs and +relics to sell or to give away. And there was the merchant, with forked +beard and Flemish beaver hat and neatly clasped boots, bragging of his +gains and selling French crowns, but on the whole a worthy man. The +Oxford clerk or scholar is one of the company, silent and sententious, +as lean as the horse on which he rode, with thread-bare coat, and books +of Aristotle and his philosophy which he valued more than gold, of which +indeed he could boast but little,--a man anxious to learn, and still +more to teach. The sergeant of the law is another prominent figure, wary +and wise, discreet and dignified, bustling and busy, yet not so busy as +he seemed to be, wearing a coat of divers colors, and riding very badly. +A franklin, or country gentleman, mixes with the company, with a white +beard and red complexion; one of Epicurus's own sons, who held that ale +and wheaten bread and fish and dainty flesh, partridge fat, were pure +felicity; evidently a man given to hospitality,--</p> + + "His table dormant in his hall alway<br> + Stood ready covered all the longe day."<br> + +<p>He was a sheriff, also, to enforce the law, and to be present at all the +county sessions. The doctor, of course, could not be left out of the +company,--a man who knew the cause of every malady, versed in magic as +well as physic, and grounded also in astronomy; who held that gold is +the best of cordials, and knew how to keep what he gained; not luxurious +in his diet, but careful what he ate and drank. The village miller is +not forgotten in this motley crowd,--rough, brutal, drunken, big and +brawn, with a red beard and a wart on his nose, and a mouth as wide as a +furnace, a reveller and a jangler, accustomed to take toll thrice, and +given to all the sins that then abounded. He is the most repulsive +figure in the crowd, both vulgar and wicked. In contrast with him is the +<i>reve</i>, or steward, of a lordly house,--a slender, choleric man, feared +by servants and gamekeepers, yet in favor with his lord, since he always +had money to lend, although it belonged to his master; an adroit agent +and manager, who so complicated his accounts that no auditor could +unravel them or any person bring him in arrears. He rode a fine +dappled-gray stallion, wore a long blue overcoat, and carried a rusty +sword,--evidently a proud and prosperous man. With a monk and friar, the +picture would be incomplete without a pardoner, or seller of +indulgences, with yellow hair and smooth face, loaded with a pillow-case +of relics and pieces of the true cross, of which there were probably +cartloads in every country in Europe, and of which the popes had an +inexhaustible supply. This sleek and gentle pedler of indulgences rode +side by side with a repulsive officer of the Church, with a fiery red +face, of whom children were afraid, fond of garlic and onions and strong +wine, and speaking only Latin law-terms when he was drunk, but withal a +good fellow, abating his lewdness and drunkenness. In contrast with the +pardoner and "sompnour" we see the poor parson, full of goodness, +charity, and love,--a true shepherd and no mercenary, who waited upon no +pomp and sought no worldly gains, happy only in the virtues which he +both taught and lived. Some think that Chaucer had in view the learned +Wyclif when he described the most interesting character of the whole +group. With him was a ploughman, his brother, as good and pious as he, +living in peace with all the world, paying tithes cheerfully, laborious +and conscientious, the forerunner of the Puritan yeoman.</p> + +<p>Of this motley company of pilgrims, I have already spoken of the +prioress,--a woman of high position. In contrast with her is the wife of +Bath, who has travelled extensively, even to Jerusalem and Rome; +charitable, kind-hearted, jolly, and talkative, but bold and masculine +and coarse, with a red face and red stockings, and a hat as big as a +shield, and sharp spurs on her feet, indicating that she sat on her +ambler like a man.</p> + +<p>There are other characters which I cannot stop to mention,--the sailor, +browned by the seas and sun, and full of stolen Bordeaux wine; the +haberdasher; the carpenter; the weaver; the dyer; the tapestry-worker; +the cook, to boil the chickens and the marrow-bones, and bake the pies +and tarts,--mostly people from the middle and lower ranks of society, +whose clothes are gaudy, manners rough, and language coarse. But all +classes and trades and professions seem to be represented, except +nobles, bishops, and abbots,--dignitaries whom, perhaps, Chaucer is +reluctant to describe and caricature.</p> + +<p>To beguile the time on the journey to Canterbury, all these various +pilgrims are required to tell some story peculiar to their separate +walks of life; and it is these stories which afford the best description +we have of the manners and customs of the fourteenth century, as well as +of its leading sentiments and ideas.</p> + +<p>The knight was required to tell his story first, and it naturally was +one of love and adventure. Although the scene of it was laid in ancient +Greece, it delineates the institution of chivalry and the manners and +sentiments it produced. No writer of that age, except perhaps Froissart, +paints the connection of chivalry with the graces of the soul and the +moral beauty which poetry associates with the female sex as Chaucer +does. The aristocratic woman of chivalry, while delighting in martial +sports, and hence masculine and haughty, is also condescending, tender, +and gracious. The heroic and dignified self-respect with which chivalry +invested woman exalted the passion of love. Allied with reverence for +woman was loyalty to the prince. The rough warrior again becomes a +gentleman, and has access to the best society. Whatever may have been +the degrees of rank, the haughtiest nobleman associated with the +penniless knight, if only he were a gentleman and well born, on terms of +social equality, since chivalry, while it created distinctions, also +levelled those which wealth and power naturally created among the higher +class. Yet chivalry did not exalt woman outside of noble ranks. The +plebeian woman neither has the graces of the high-born lady, nor does +she excite that reverence for the sex which marked her condition in the +feudal castle. "Tournaments and courts of love were not framed for +village churls, but for high-born dames and mighty earls."</p> + +<p>Chaucer in his description of women in ordinary life does not seem to +have a very high regard for them. They are weak or coarse or sensual, +though attentive to their domestic duties, and generally virtuous. An +exception is made of Virginia, in the doctor's tale, who is represented +as beautiful and modest, radiant in simplicity, discreet and true. But +the wife of Bath is disgusting from her coarse talk and coarser manners. +Her tale is to show what a woman likes best, which, according to her, is +to bear rule over her husband and household. The prioress is +conventional and weak, aping courtly manners. The wife of the host of +the Tabard inn is a vixen and shrew, who calls her husband a milksop, +and is so formidable with both her tongue and her hands that he is glad +to make his escape from her whenever he can. The pretty wife of the +carpenter, gentle and slender, with her white apron and open dress, is +anything but intellectual,--a mere sensual beauty. Most of these women +are innocent of toothbrushes, and give and receive thrashings, and sing +songs without a fastidious taste, and beat their servants and nag their +husbands. But they are good cooks, and understand the arts of brewing +and baking and roasting and preserving and pickling, as well as of +spinning and knitting and embroidering. They are supreme in their +households; they keep the keys and lock up the wine. They are gossiping, +and love to receive their female visitors. They do not do much shopping, +for shops were very primitive, with but few things to sell. Their +knowledge is very limited, and confined to domestic matters. They are on +the whole modest, but are the victims of friars and pedlers. They have +more liberty than we should naturally suppose, but have not yet learned +to discriminate between duties and rights. There are few disputed +questions between them and their husbands, but the duty of obedience +seems to have been recognized. But if oppressed, they always are free +with their tongues; they give good advice, and do not spare reproaches +in language which in our times we should not call particularly choice. +They are all fond of dress, and wear gay colors, without much regard to +artistic effect.</p> + +<p>In regard to the sports and amusements of the people, we learn much from +Chaucer. In one sense the England of his day was merry; that is, the +people were noisy and rough in their enjoyments. There was frequent +ringing of the bells; there were the horn of the huntsman and the +excitements of the chase; there was boisterous mirth in the village +ale-house; there were frequent holidays, and dances around May-poles +covered with ribbons and flowers and flags; there were wandering +minstrels and jesters and jugglers, and cock-fightings and foot-ball and +games at archery; there were wrestling matches and morris-dancing and +bear-baiting. But the exhilaration of the people was abnormal, like the +merriment of negroes on a Southern plantation,--a sort of rebound from +misery and burdens, which found a vent in noise and practical jokes when +the ordinary restraint was removed. The uproarious joy was a sort of +defiance of the semi-slavery to which workmen were doomed; for when +they could be impressed by the king's architect and paid whatever he +chose to give them, there could not have been much real contentment, +which is generally placid and calm. There is one thing in which all +classes delighted in the fourteenth century, and that was a garden, in +which flowers bloomed,--things of beauty which were as highly valued as +the useful. Moreover, there was a zest in rural sports now seldom seen, +especially among the upper classes who could afford to hunt and fish. +There was no excitement more delightful to gentlemen and ladies than +that of hawking, and it infinitely surpassed in interest any rural sport +whatever in our day, under any circumstances. Hawks trained to do the +work of fowling-pieces were therefore greater pets than any dogs that +now are the company of sportsmen. A lady without a falcon on her wrist, +when mounted on her richly caparisoned steed for a morning's sport, was +very rare indeed.</p> + +<p>An instructive feature of the "Canterbury Tales" is the view which +Chaucer gives us of the food and houses and dresses of the people. "In +the Nonne's Prestes' Tale we see the cottage and manner of life of a +poor widow." She has three daughters, three pigs, three oxen, and a +sheep. Her house had only two rooms,--an eating-room, which also served +for a kitchen and sitting-room, and a bower or bedchamber,--both +without a chimney, with holes pierced to let in the light. The table +was a board put upon trestles, to be removed when the meal of black +bread and milk, and perchance an egg with bacon, was over. The three +slept without sheets or blankets on a rude bed, covered only with their +ordinary day-clothes. Their kitchen utensils were a brass pot or two for +boiling, a few wooden platters, an iron candlestick, and a knife or two; +while the furniture was composed of two or three chairs and stools, with +a frame in the wall, with shelves, for clothes and utensils. The +manciple and the cook of the company seem to indicate that living among +the well-to-do classes was a very generous and a very serious part of +life, on which a high estimate was placed, since food in any variety, +though plentiful at times, was not always to be had, and therefore +precarious. "Guests at table were paired, and ate, every pair, out of +the same plate or off the same trencher." But the bill of fare at a +franklin's feast would be deemed anything but poor, even in our +times,--"bacon and pea-soup, oysters, fish, stewed beef, chickens, +capons, roast goose, pig, veal, lamb, kid, pigeon, with custard, apples +and pears, cheese and spiced cakes." All these with abundance of +wine and ale.</p> + +<p>The "Canterbury Tales" remind us of the vast preponderance of the +country over town and city life. Chaucer, like Shakspeare, revels in the +simple glories of nature, which he describes like a man feeling it to +be a joy to be near to "Mother Earth," with her rich bounties. The birds +that usher in the day, the flowers which beautify the lawn, the green +hills and vales, with ever-changing hues like the clouds and the skies, +yet fruitful in wheat and grass; the domestic animals, so mute and +patient, the bracing air of approaching winter, the genial breezes of +the spring,--of all these does the poet sing with charming simplicity +and grace, yea, in melodious numbers; for nothing is more marvellous +than the music and rhythm of his lines, although they are not enriched +with learned allusions or much moral wisdom, and do not march in the +stately and majestic measure of Shakspeare or of Milton.</p> + +<p>But the most interesting and instructive of the "Canterbury Tales" are +those which relate to the religious life, the morals, the superstitions, +and ecclesiastical abuses of the times. In these we see the need of the +reformation of which Wyclif was the morning light. In these we see the +hypocrisies and sensualities of both monks and friars, relieved somewhat +by the virtues of the simple parish priest or poor parson, in contrast +with the wealth and luxury of the regular clergy, as monks were called, +in their princely monasteries, where the lordly abbot vied with both +baron and bishop in the magnificence of his ordinary life. We see before +us the Mediaeval clergy in all their privileges, and yet in all their +ignorance and superstition, shielded from the punishment of crime and +the operation of all ordinary laws (a sturdy defiance of the temporal +powers), the agents and ministers of a foreign power, armed with the +terrors of hell and the grave. Besides the prioress and the nuns' +priest, we see in living light the habits and pretensions of the lazy +monk, the venal friar and pardoner, and the noisy summoner for +ecclesiastical offences: hunters and gluttons are they, with greyhounds +and furs, greasy and fat, and full of dalliances; at home in taverns, +unprincipled but agreeable vagabonds, who cheat and rob the people, and +make a mockery of what is most sacred on the earth. These privileged +mendicants, with their relics and indulgences, their arts and their +lies, and the scandals they create, are treated by Chaucer with blended +humor and severity, showing a mind as enlightened as that of the great +scholar at Oxford, who heads the movement against Rome and the abuses at +which she connived if she did not encourage. And there is something +intensely English in his disgust and scorn,--brave for his day, yet +shielded by the great duke who was at once his protector and friend, as +he was of Wyclif himself,--in his severer denunciation, and advocacy of +doctrines which neither Chaucer nor the Duke of Lancaster understood, +and which, if they had, they would not have sympathized with nor +encouraged. In these attacks on ecclesiastics and ecclesiastical +abuses, Chaucer should be studied with Wyclif and the early reformers, +although he would not have gone so far as they, and led, unlike them, a +worldly life. Thus by these poems he has rendered a service to his +country, outside his literary legacy, which has always been held in +value. The father of English poetry belonged to the school of progress +and of inquiry, like his great contemporaries on the Continent. But +while he paints the manners, customs, and characters of the fourteenth +century, he does not throw light on the great ideas which agitated or +enslaved the age. He is too real and practical for that. He describes +the outward, not the inner life. He was not serious enough--I doubt if +he was learned enough--to enter into the disquisitions of schoolmen, or +the mazes of the scholastic philosophy, or the meditations of almost +inspired sages. It is not the joys of heaven or the terrors of hell on +which he discourses, but of men and women as they lived around him, in +their daily habits and occupations. We must go to Wyclif if we would +know the theological or philosophical doctrines which interested the +learned. Chaucer only tells how monks and friars lived, not how they +speculated or preached. We see enough, however, to feel that he was +emancipated from the ideas of the Middle Ages, and had cast off their +gloom, their superstition, and their despair. The only things he liked +of those dreary times were their courts of love and their +chivalric glories.</p> + +<p>I do not propose to analyze the poetry of Chaucer, or enter upon a +critical inquiry as to his relative merits in comparison with the other +great poets. It is sufficient for me to know that critics place him very +high as an original poet, although it is admitted that he drew much of +his material from French and Italian authors. He was, for his day, a +great linguist. He had travelled extensively, and could speak Latin, +French, and Italian with fluency. He knew Petrarch and other eminent +Italians. One is amazed that in such an age he could have written so +well, for he had no great models to help him in his own language. If +occasionally indecent, he is not corrupting. He never deliberately +disseminates moral poison; and when he speaks of love, he treats almost +solely of the simple and genuine emotions of the heart.</p> + +<p>The best criticism that I have read of Chaucer's poetry is that of +Adolphus William Ward; although as a biography it is not so full or so +interesting as that of Godwin or even Morley. In no life that I have +read are the mental characteristics of our poet so ably drawn,--"his +practical good sense," his love of books, his still deeper love of +nature, his naïveté, the readiness of his description, the brightness of +his imagery, the easy flow of his diction, the vividness with which he +describes character; his inventiveness, his readiness of illustration, +his musical rhythm, his gaiety and cheerfulness, his vivacity and +joyousness, his pathos and tenderness, his keen sense of the ridiculous +and power of satire, without being bitter, so that his wit and fun are +harmless, and perpetually pleasing.</p> + +<p>He doubtless had great dramatic talent, but he did not live in a +dramatic age. His especial excellence, never surpassed, was his power of +observing and drawing character, united with boundless humor and +cheerful fun. And his descriptions of nature are as true and unstinted +as his descriptions of men and women, so that he is as fresh as the +month of May. In his poetry is life; and hence his immortal fame. He is +not so great as Spenser or Shakspeare or Milton; but he has the same +vitality as they, and is as wonderful as they considering his age and +opportunities,--a poet who constantly improved as he advanced in life, +and whose greatest work was written in his old age.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, we know but little of Chaucer's habits and experiences, +his trials and disappointments, his friendships or his hatreds. What we +do know of him raises our esteem. Though convivial, he was temperate; +though genial, he was a silent observer, quiet in his manners, modest in +his intercourse with the world, walking with downcast eye, but letting +nothing escape his notice. He believed in friendship, and kept his +friends to the end, and was stained neither by envy nor by pride,--as +frank as he was affectionate, as gentle as he was witty. Living with +princes and nobles, he never descended to gross adulation, and never +wrote a line of approval of the usurpation of Henry IV., although his +bread depended on Henry's favor, and he was also the son of the king's +earliest and best friend. He was not a religious man, nor was he an +immoral man, judged by the standard of his age. He probably was worldly, +as he lived in courts. We do not see in him the stern virtues of Dante +or Milton; nothing of that moral earnestness which marked the only other +great man with whom he was contemporary,--he who is called the "morning +star" of the Reformation. But then we know nothing about him which calls +out severe reprobation. He was patriotic, and had the confidence of his +sovereign, else he would not have been employed on important missions. +And the sweetness of his character may be inferred from his long and +tender friendship with Gower, whom some in that age considered the +greater poet. He was probably luxurious in his habits, but intemperate +use of wine he detested and avoided. He was portly in his person, but +refinement marked his features. He was a gentleman, according to the +severest code of chivalric excellence; always a favorite with ladies, +and equally admired by the knights and barons of a brilliant court. No +poet was ever more honored in his life or lamented in his death, as his +beautiful monument in Westminster Abbey would seem to attest. That +monument is the earliest that was erected to the memory of a poet in +that Pantheon of English men of rank and genius; and it will probably be +as long preserved as any of those sculptured urns and animated busts +which seek to keep alive the memory of the illustrious dead,--of those +who, though dead, yet speak to all future generations.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Chaucer's own works, especially the Canterbury Tales; publications of +the Chaucer Society; Pauli's History of England; ordinary Histories of +England which relate to the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., +especially Green's History of the English People; Life of Chaucer, by +William Godwin (4 volumes, London, 1804); Tyrwhitt's edition of +Canterbury Tales; Speglet's edition of Chaucer; Warton's History of +English Poetry; St. Palaye's History of Chivalry; Chaucer's England, by +Matthew Browne (London, 1869); Sir Harris Nicholas's Life of Chaucer; +The Riches of Chaucer, by Charles Cowden Clarke; Morley's Life of +Chaucer. The latest work is a Life and Criticism of Chaucer, by Adolphus +William Ward. There is also a Guide to Chaucer, by H.G. Fleary. See also +Skeat's collected edition of Chaucer's Works, brought out under the +auspices of the Early English Text Society.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="CHRISTOPHER_COLUMBUS."></a>CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A. D. 1446-1506.</p> + +<p>MARITIME DISCOVERIES.</p> + +<p>About thirteen hundred years ago, when Attila the Hun, called "the +scourge of God," was overrunning the falling empire of the Romans, some +of the noblest citizens of the small cities of the Adriatic fled, with +their families and effects, to the inaccessible marshes and islands at +the extremity of that sea, and formed a permanent settlement. They +became fishermen and small traders. In process of time they united their +islands together by bridges, and laid the foundation of a mercantile +state. Thither resorted the merchants of Mediaeval Europe to make +exchanges. Thus Venice became rich and powerful, and in the twelfth +century it was one of the prosperous states of Europe, ruled by an +oligarchy of the leading merchants.</p> + +<p>Contemporaneous with Dante, one of the most distinguished citizens of +this mercantile mart, Marco Polo, impelled by the curiosity which +reviving commerce excited and the restless adventure of a crusading +age, visited the court of the Great Khan of Tartary, whose empire was +the largest in the world. After a residence of seventeen years, during +which he was loaded with honors, he returned to his native country, not +by the ordinary route, but by coasting the eastern shores of Asia, +through the Indian Ocean, up the Persian Gulf, and thence through Bagdad +and Constantinople, bringing with him immense wealth in precious stones +and other Eastern commodities. The report of his wonderful adventures +interested all Europe, for he was supposed to have found the Tarshish of +the Scriptures, that land of gold and spices which had enriched the +Tyrian merchants in the time of Solomon,--men supposed by some to have +sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in their three years' voyages. Among +the wonderful things which Polo had seen was a city on an island off the +coast of China, which was represented to contain six hundred thousand +families, so rich that the palaces of its nobles were covered with +plates of gold, so inviting that odoriferous plants and flowers diffused +the most grateful perfumes, so strong that even the Tartar conquerors of +China could not subdue it. This island, known now as Japan, was called +Cipango, and was supposed to be inexhaustible in riches, especially when +the reports of Polo were confirmed by Sir John Mandeville, an English +traveller in the time of Edward III.,--and with even greater +exaggerations, since he represented the royal palace to be more than +six miles in circumference, occupied by three hundred thousand men.</p> + +<p>In an awakening age of enterprise, when chivalry had not passed away, +nor the credulity of the Middle Ages, the reports of this Cipango +inflamed the imagination of Europe, and to reach it became at once the +desire and the problem of adventurers and merchants. But how could this +El Dorado be reached? Not by sailing round Africa; for to sail South, in +popular estimation, was to encounter torrid suns with ever increasing +heat, and suffocating vapors, and unknown dangers. The scientific world +had lost the knowledge of what even the ancients knew. Nobody surmised +that there was a Cape of Good Hope which could be doubled, and would +open the way to the Indian Ocean and its islands of spices and gold. Nor +could this Cipango be reached by crossing the Eastern Continent, for the +journey was full of perils, dangers, and insurmountable obstacles.</p> + +<p>Among those who meditated on this geographical mystery was a young sea +captain of Genoa, who had studied in the University of Pavia, but spent +his early life upon the waves,--intelligent, enterprising, visionary, +yet practical, with boundless ambition, not to conquer kingdoms, but to +discover new realms. Born probably in 1446, in the year 1470 he married +the daughter of an Italian navigator living in Lisbon; and, inheriting +with her some valuable Portuguese charts and maritime journals, he +settled in Lisbon and took up chart-making as a means of livelihood. +Being thus trained in both the art and the science of navigation, his +active mind seized upon the most interesting theme of the day. His +studies and experience convinced him that the Cipango of Marco Polo +could be reached by sailing directly west. He knew that the earth was +round, and he inferred from the plants and carved wood and even human +bodies that had occasionally floated from the West, that there must be +unknown islands on the western coasts of the Atlantic, and that this +ocean, never yet crossed, was the common boundary of both Europe and +Asia; in short, that the Cipango could be reached by sailing west. And +he believed the thing to be practicable, for the magnetic needle had +been discovered, or brought from the East by Polo, which always pointed +to the North Star, so that mariners could sail in the darkest nights; +and also another instrument had been made, essentially the modern +quadrant, by which latitude could be measured. He supposed that after +sailing west, about eight hundred leagues, by the aid of compass and +quadrant, and such charts as he had collected and collated, he should +find the land of gold and spices by which he would become rich +and famous.</p> + +<p>This was not an absurd speculation to a man of the intellect and +knowledge of Columbus. To his mind there were but few physical +difficulties if he only had the ships, and the men bold enough to embark +with him, and the patronage which was necessary for so novel and daring +an enterprise. The difficulties to be surmounted were not so much +physical as moral. It was the surmounting of moral difficulties which +gives to Columbus his true greatness as a man of genius and resources. +These moral obstacles were so vast as to be all but insurmountable, +since he had to contend with all the established ideas of his age,--the +superstitions of sailors, the prejudices of learned men, and general +geographical ignorance. He himself had neither money, nor ships, nor +powerful friends. Nobody believed in him; all ridiculed him; some +insulted him. Who would furnish money to a man who was supposed to be +half crazy,--certainly visionary and wild; a rash adventurer who would +not only absorb money but imperil life? Learned men would not listen to +him, and powerful people derided him, and princes were too absorbed in +wars and pleasure to give him a helping hand. Aid could come only from +some great state or wealthy prince; but both states and princes were +deaf and dumb to him. It was a most extraordinary inspiration of genius +in the fifteenth century which created, not an opinion, but a conviction +that Asia could be reached by sailing west; and how were common minds +to comprehend such a novel idea? If a century later, with all the blaze +of reviving art and science and learning, the most learned people +ridiculed the idea that the earth revolved around the sun, even when it +was proved by all the certitudes of mathematical demonstration and +unerring observations, how could the prejudiced and narrow-minded +priests of the time of Columbus, who controlled the most important +affairs of state, be made to comprehend that an unknown ocean, full of +terrors, could be crossed by frail ships, and that even a successful +voyage would open marts of inexhaustible wealth? All was clear enough to +this scientific and enterprising mariner; and the inward assurance that +he was right in his calculation gave to his character a blended +boldness, arrogance, and dignity which was offensive to men of exalted +station, and ill became a stranger and adventurer with a thread-bare +coat, and everything which indicated poverty, neglect, and hardship, and +without any visible means of living but by the making and selling +of charts.</p> + +<p>Hence we cannot wonder at the seventeen years of poverty, neglect, +ridicule, disappointment, and deferred hopes, such as make the heart +sick, which elapsed after Columbus was persuaded of the truth of his +theory, before he could find anybody enlightened enough to believe in +him, or powerful enough to assist him. Wrapped up in those glorious +visions which come only to a man of superlative genius, and which make +him insensible to heat and cold and scanty fare, even to reproach and +scorn, this intrepid soul, inspired by a great and original idea, +wandered from city to city, and country to country, and court to court, +to present the certain greatness and wealth of any state that would +embark in his enterprise. But all were alike cynical, cold, unbelieving, +and even insulting. He opposes overwhelming, universal, and overpowering +ideas. To have surmounted these amid such protracted opposition and +discouragement constitutes his greatness; and finally to prove his +position by absolute experiment and hazardous enterprise makes him one +of the greatest of human benefactors, whose fame will last through all +the generations of men. And as I survey that lonely, abstracted, +disappointed, and derided man,--poor and unimportant, so harassed by +debt that his creditors seized even his maps and charts, obliged to fly +from one country to another to escape imprisonment, without even +listeners and still less friends, and yet with ever-increasing faith in +his cause, utterly unconquerable, alone in opposition to all the +world,--I think I see the most persistent man of enterprise that I have +read of in history. Critics ambitious to say something new may rake out +slanders from the archives of enemies, and discover faults which +derogate from the character we have been taught to admire and venerate; +they may even point out spots, which we cannot disprove, in that sun of +glorious brightness, which shed its beneficent rays over a century of +darkness,--but this we know, that, whatever may be the force of +detraction, his fame has been steadily increasing, even on the admission +of his slanderers, for three centuries, and that he now shines as a +fixed star in the constellation of the great lights of modern times, not +alone because he succeeded in crossing the ocean, when once embarked on +it, but for surmounting the moral difficulties which lay in his way +before he could embark upon it, and for being finally instrumental in +conferring the greatest boon that our world has received from any mortal +man, since Noah entered into the ark.</p> + +<p>I think it is Lamartine who has said that truly immortal benefactors +have seldom been able to accomplish their mission without the +encouragement of either saints or women. This is emphatically true in +the case of Columbus. The door to success was at last opened to him by a +friendly and sympathetic friar of a Franciscan convent near the little +port of Palos, in Andalusia. The sun-burned and disappointed adventurer +(for that is what he was), wearied and hungry, and nearly discouraged, +stopped at the convent-door to get a morsel of bread for his famished +son, who attended him in his pilgrimage. The prior of that obscure +convent was the first who comprehended the man of genius, not so much +because he was an enlightened scholar, but because his pious soul was +full of kindly sympathy, showing that the instincts of love are kindred +to the inspirations of genius. It was the voice of Ali and Cadijeh that +strengthened Mohammed. It was Catherine von Bora who sustained Luther in +his gigantic task. The worthy friar, struck by the noble bearing of a +man so poor and wearied, became delighted with the conversation of his +guest, who opened to him both his heart and his schemes. He forwarded +his plans by a letter to a powerful ecclesiastic, who introduced him to +the Spanish Court, then one of the most powerful, and certainly the +proudest and most punctilious, in Europe. Ferdinand of Aragon was +polite, yet wary and incredulous; but Isabella of Castile listened more +kindly to the stranger, whom the greatness of his mission inspired with +eloquence. Like the saint of the convent, she, and she alone of her +splendid court, divined that there was something to be heeded in the +words of Columbus, and gave her womanly and royal encouragement, +although too much engrossed with the conquest of Grenada and the cares +of her kingdom to pay that immediate attention which Columbus entreated.</p> + +<p>I may not dwell on the vexatious delays and the protracted +discouragements of Columbus after the Queen had given her ear to his +enthusiastic prophecies of the future glories of the kingdom. To the +court and to the universities and to the great ecclesiastics he was +still a visionary and a needy adventurer; and they quoted, in refutation +of his theory, those Scripture texts which were hurled in greater wrath +against Galileo when he announced his brilliant discoveries. There are, +from some unfathomed reason, always texts found in the sacred writings +which seem to conflict with both science and a profound theology; and +the pedants, as well as the hypocrites and usurpers, have always +shielded themselves behind these in their opposition to new opinions. I +will not be hard upon them, for often they are good men, simply unable +to throw off the shackles of ages of ignorance and tyranny. People +should not be subjected to lasting reproach because they cannot +emancipate themselves from prevailing ideas. If those prejudiced +courtiers and scholastics who ridiculed Columbus could only have seen +with his clearer insight, they might have loaded him with favors. But +they were blinded and selfish and envious. Nor was it until Columbus +convinced his sovereigns that the risk was small for so great a promised +gain, that he was finally commissioned to undertake his voyage. The +promised boon was the riches of Oriental countries, boundless and +magnificent,--countries not to be discovered, but already known, only +hard and perhaps impossible to reach. And Columbus himself was so +firmly persuaded of the existence of these riches, and of his ability to +secure them, and they were so exaggerated by his imagination, that his +own demands were extravagant and preposterous, as must have seemed to an +incredulous court,--that he, a stranger, an adventurer, almost a beggar +even, should in case of success be made viceroy and admiral over the +unexplored realm, and with a tenth of all the riches he should collect +or seize; and that these high offices--almost regal--should also be +continued not only through his own life, but through the lives of his +heirs from generation to generation, thus raising him to a possible rank +higher than that of any of the dukes and grandees of Spain.</p> + +<p>Ferdinand and Isabella, however, readily promised all that the +persistent and enthusiastic adventurer demanded, doubtless with the +feeling that there was not more than one chance in a hundred that he +would ever be heard from again, but that this one chance was well worth +all and more than they expended,--a possibility of indefinite +aggrandizement. To the eyes of Ferdinand there was a prospect--remote, +indeed--of adding to the power of the Spanish monarchy; and it is +probable that the pious Isabella contemplated also the conversion of the +heathen to Christianity. It is possible that some motives may have also +influenced Columbus kindred to this,--a renewed crusade against Saracen +infidels, which he might undertake from the wealth he was so confident +of securing. But the probabilities are that Columbus was urged on to his +career by ambitious and worldly motives chiefly, or else he would not +have been so greedy to secure honors and wealth, nor would have been so +jealous of his dignity when he had attained power. To me Columbus was no +more a saint than Sir Francis Drake was when he so unscrupulously robbed +every ship he could lay his hands upon, although both of them observed +the outward forms of religious worship peculiar to their respective +creeds and education. There were no unbelievers in that age. Both +Catholics and Protestants, like the ancient Pharisees, were scrupulous +in what were supposed to be religious duties,--though these too often +were divorced from morality. It is Columbus only as an intrepid, +enthusiastic, enlightened navigator, in pursuit of a new world of +boundless wealth, that I can see him; and it was for his ultimate +success in discovering this world, amid so many difficulties, that he is +to be regarded as a great benefactor, of the glory of which no ingenuity +or malice can rob him.</p> + +<p>At last he sets sail, August 3, 1492, and, singularly enough, from +Palos, within sight of the little convent where he had received his +first encouragement. He embarked in three small vessels, the largest of +which was less than one hundred tons, and two without decks, but having +high poops and sterns inclosed. What an insignificant flotilla for such +a voyage! But it would seem that the Admiral, with great sagacity, +deemed small vessels best adapted to his purpose, in order to enter +safely shallow harbors and sail near the coast.</p> + +<p>He sails in the most propitious season of the year, and is aided by +steady trade-winds which waft his ships gently through the unknown +ocean. He meets with no obstacles of any account. The skies are serene, +the sea is as smooth as the waters of an inland lake; and he is +comforted, as he advances to the west, by the appearance of strange +birds and weeds and plants that indicate nearness to the land. He has +only two objects of solicitude,--the variations of the magnetic needle, +and the superstitious fears of his men; the last he succeeds in allaying +by inventing plausible theories, and by concealing the real distance he +has traversed. He encourages them by inflaming their cupidity. He is +nearly baffled by their mutinous spirit. He is in danger, not from coral +reefs and whirlpools and sunken rocks and tempests, as at first was +feared, but from his men themselves, who clamor to return. It is his +faith and moral courage and fertility of resources which we most admire. +Days pass in alternate hope and disappointment, amid angry clamors, in +great anxiety, for no land appears after he has sailed far beyond the +points where he expected to find it. The world is larger than even he +has supposed. He promises great rewards to the one who shall first see +the unknown shores. It is said that he himself was the first to discover +land by observing a flickering light, which is exceedingly improbable, +as he was several leagues from shore; but certain it is, that the very +night the land was seen from the Admiral's vessel, it was also +discovered by one of the seamen on board another ship. The problem of +the age was at last solved. A new continent was given to Ferdinand +and Isabella.</p> + +<p>On the 12th of October Columbus lands--not, however, on the continent, +as he supposed, but on an island--in great pomp, as admiral of the seas +and viceroy of the king, in a purple doublet, and with a drawn sword in +one hand and the standard of Spain in the other, followed by officers in +appropriate costume, and a friar bearing the emblem of our redemption, +which is solemnly planted on the shore, and the land called San +Salvador. This little island, one of the Bahamas, is not, however, +gilded with the anticipated splendors of Oriental countries. He finds +neither gold, nor jewels, nor silks, nor spices, nor any signs of +civilization; only naked men and women, without any indication of wealth +or culture or power. But he finds a soft and genial climate, and a soil +of unparalleled fertility, and trees and shrubs as green as Andalusia in +spring, and birds with every variety of plumage, and insects glistening +with every color of the rainbow; while the natives are gentle and +unsuspecting and full of worship. Columbus is disappointed, but not +discouraged. He sets sail to find the real Cipango of which he is in +search. He cruises among the Bahama islands, discovers Cuba and +Hispaniola (now called Hayti), explores their coasts, holds peaceful +intercourse with the natives, and is transported with enthusiasm in view +of the beauty of the country and its great capacities; but he sees no +gold, only a few ornaments to show that there is gold somewhere near, if +it only could be found. Nor has he reached the Cipango of his dreams, +but new countries, of which there was no record or suspicion of +existence, yet of vast extent, and fertile beyond knowledge. He is +puzzled, but filled with intoxicating joy. He has performed a great +feat. He has doubtless added indefinitely to the dominion of Spain.</p> + +<p>Columbus leaves a small colony on the island of Hispaniola, and with the +trophies of his discoveries returns to Spain, without serious obstacles, +except a short detention in Portugal, whither he was driven by a storm. +His stories fill the whole civilized world with wonder. He is welcomed +with the most cordial and enthusiastic reception; the people gaze at him +with admiration. His sovereigns rise at his approach, and seat him +beside themselves on their gilded and canopied throne; he has made them +a present worthy of a god. What honors could be too great for such a +man! Even envy pales before the universal exhilaration. He enters into +the most august circles as an equal; his dignities and honors are +confirmed; he is loaded with presents and favors; he is the most marked +personage in Europe; he is almost stifled with the incense of royal and +popular idolatry. Never was a subject more honored and caressed. The +imagination of a chivalrous and lively people is inflamed with the +wildest expectations, for although he returned with but little of the +expected wealth, he has pointed out a land rich in unfathomed mines.</p> + +<p>A second and larger expedition is soon projected. Everybody wishes to +join it. All press to join the fortunate admiral who has added a +continent to civilization. The proudest nobles, with the armor and +horses of chivalry, embark with artisans and miners for another voyage, +now without solicitude or fear, but with unbounded hopes of +wealth,--especially hardy adventurers and broken-down families of rank +anxious to retrieve their fortunes. The pendulum of a nation's thought +swings from the extreme of doubt and cynicism to the opposite extreme of +faith and exhilaration. Spain was ripe for the harvest. Eight hundred +years' desperate contest with the Moors had made the nation bold, +heroic, adventurous. There were no such warriors in all Europe. Nowhere +were there such chivalric virtues. No people were then animated with +such martial enthusiasm, such unfettered imagination, such heroic +daring, as were the subjects of Ferdinand and Isabella. They were a +people to conquer a world; not merely heroic and enterprising, but fresh +with religious enthusiasm. They had expelled the infidels from Spain; +they would fight for the honor of the Cross in any clime or land.</p> + +<p>The hopes held out by Columbus were extravagant; and these extravagant +expectations were the occasion of his fall and subsequent sorrows and +humiliation. Doubtless he was sincere, but he was infatuated. He could +only see the gold of Cipango. He was as confident of enriching his +followers as he had been of discovering new realms. He was as +enthusiastic as Sir Walter Raleigh a century later, and made promises as +rash as he, and created the same exalted hopes, to be followed by bitter +disappointments; and consequently he incurred the same hostilities and +met the same downfall.</p> + +<p>This second expedition was undertaken in seventeen vessels, carrying +fifteen hundred people, all full of animation and hope, and some of them +with intentions to settle in the newly discovered country until they had +made their fortunes. They arrived at Hispaniola in March, of the year +1493, only to discover that the men left behind on the first voyage to +secure their settlement were all despoiled or murdered; that the +natives had proved treacherous, or that the Spaniards had abused their +confidence and forfeited their friendship. They were exposed to new +hostilities: they found the climate unhealthy; their numbers rapidly +dwindled away from disease or poor food; starvation stared them in the +face, in spite of the fertility of the soil; dissensions and jealousies +arose; they were governed with great difficulty, for the haughty +hidalgoes were unused to menial labor, and labor of the most irksome +kind was necessary; law and order were relaxed. The blame of disaster +was laid upon the Admiral, who was accused of deceiving them; evil +reports were sent to Spain, accusing him of incapacity, cruelty, and +oppression; gold was found only in small quantities; some of the leading +men mutinied; general discontent arose; the greater part of the +colonists were disabled from sickness and debility; no gold of any +amount was sent back to Spain, only five hundred Indian slaves to be +sold instead, which led to renewed hostilities with the natives, and the +necessity for their subjugation. All of these evils created bitter +disappointment in Spain and discontent with the measures and government +of Columbus himself, so that a commission of inquiry was sent to +Hispaniola, headed by Aguado, who assumed arrogant authority, and made +it necessary for Columbus to return to Spain without adding essentially +to his discoveries. He sailed around Cuba and Jamaica and other +islands, but as yet had not seen the mainland or found mines of gold +or silver.</p> + +<p>He landed in Spain, in 1496, to find that his popularity had declined +and the old enthusiasm had grown cold. With him landed a feeble train of +emaciated men, who had nothing to relate but sickness, hardship, and +disappointment. The sovereigns, however, received him kindly; but he was +depressed and sad, and clothed himself with the habit of a Franciscan +friar, to denote his humility and dejection. He displayed a few golden +collars and bracelets as trophies, with some Indians; but these no +longer dazzled the crowd.</p> + +<p>It was not until 1498 that Columbus was enabled to make his third +voyage, having experienced great delay from the general disappointment. +Instead of seventeen vessels, he could collect but six. In this voyage +he reached the mainland,--that part called Paria, near the mouth of the +Orinoco, in South America, but he supposed it to be an island. It was +fruitful and populous, and the air was sweetened with the perfumes of +flowers. Yet he did not explore the coast to any extent, but made his +way to Hispaniola, where he had left the discontented colony, himself +broken in health, a victim of gout, haggard from anxiety, and emaciated +by pain. His splendid constitution was now undermined from his various +hardships and cares.</p> + +<p>He found the colony in a worse state than when he left it under the +care of his brother Bartholomew. The Indians had proved hostile; the +colonists were lazy and turbulent; mutiny had broken out; factions +prevailed, as well as general misery and discontent. The horrors of +famine had succeeded wars with the natives. There was a general desire +to leave the settlement. Columbus tried to restore order and confidence; +but the difficulty of governing such a disorderly set of adventurers was +too great even for him. He was obliged to resort to severities that made +him more and more unpopular. The complaints of his enemies reached +Spain. He was most cruelly misrepresented and slandered; and in the +general disappointment, and the constant drain upon the mother country +to support the colony, his enemies gained the ear of his sovereigns, and +strong doubts arose in their minds about his capacity for government. So +a royal commission was sent out,--an officer named Bovadilla, with +absolute power to examine into the state of the colony, and supplant, if +necessary, the authority of Columbus. The result was the arrest of +Columbus and his brothers, who were sent to Spain in chains. What a +change of fortune! I will not detail the accusations against him, just +or unjust. It is mournful enough to see the old man brought home in +irons from the world he had discovered and given to Spain. The injustice +and cruelty which he received produced a reaction, and he was once more +kindly received at court, with the promise that his grievances should +be redressed and his property and dignities restored.</p> + +<p>Columbus was allowed to make one more voyage of discovery, but nothing +came of it except renewed troubles, hardships, dangers, and +difficulties; wars with the natives, perils of the sea, discontents, +disappointments; and when at last he returned to Spain, in 1504,--broken +with age and infirmities, after twelve years of harassing cares, labors, +and dangers (a checkered career of glory and suffering),--nothing +remained but to prepare for his final rest. He had not made a fortune; +he had not enriched his patrons,--but he had discovered a continent. His +last days were spent in disquieting and fruitless negotiations to +perpetuate his honors among his descendants. He was ever jealous and +tenacious of his dignities. Ferdinand was polite, but selfish and cold; +nor can this calculating prince ever be vindicated from the stain of +gross ingratitude. Columbus died in the year 1506, at the age of sixty, +a disappointed man. But honors were ultimately bestowed upon his heirs, +who became grandees and dukes, and intermarried with the proudest +families of Spain; and it is also said that Ferdinand himself, after the +death of the great navigator, caused a monument to be erected to his +memory with this inscription: "To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a new +world." But no man of that century needed less than Columbus a monument +to perpetuate his immortal fame.</p> + +<p>I think that historians belittle Columbus when they would excite our +pity for his misfortunes. They insult the dignity of all struggling +souls, and make utilitarians of all benefactors, and give false views of +success. Few benefactors, on the whole, were ever more richly rewarded +than he. He died Admiral of the Seas, a grandee of Spain,--having +bishops for his eulogists and princes for his mourners,--the founder of +an illustrious house, whose name and memory gave glory even to the +Spanish throne. And even if he had not been rewarded with material +gains, it was enough to feel that he had conferred a benefit on the +world which could scarcely be appreciated in his lifetime,--a benefit so +transcendent that its results could be seen only by future generations. +Who could adequately pay him for his services; who could estimate the +value of his gift? What though they load him to-day with honors, or cast +him tomorrow into chains?--that is the fate of all immortal benefactors +since our world began. His great soul should have soared beyond vulgar +rewards. In the loftiness of his self-consciousness he should have +accepted, without a murmur, whatever fortune awaited him. Had he merely +given to civilization a new style of buttons, or an improved envelope, +or a punch for a railway conductor, or a spring for a carriage, or a +mining tool, or a screw, or revolver, or reaper, the inventors of which +have "seen millions in them," and been cheated out of his gains, he +might have whimpered over his wrongs. How few benefactors have received +even as much as he; for he won dignities, admiration, and undying fame. +We scarcely know the names of many who have made grand bequests. Who +invented the mariner's compass? Who gave the lyre to primeval ages, or +the blacksmith's forge, or the letters of the alphabet, or the arch in +architecture, or glass for windows? Who solved the first problem of +geometry? Who first sang the odes which Homer incorporated with the +Iliad? Who first turned up the earth with a plough? Who first used the +weaver's shuttle? Who devised the cathedrals of the Middle Ages? Who +gave the keel to ships? Who was the first that raised bread by yeast? +Who invented chimneys? But all ages will know that Columbus discovered +America; and his monuments are in every land, and his greatness is +painted by the ablest historians.</p> + +<p>But I will not enlarge on the rewards Columbus received, or the +ingratitude which succeeded them, by force of envy or from the +disappointment of worldly men in not realizing all the gold that he +promised. Let me allude to the results of his discovery.</p> + +<p>The first we notice was the marvellous stimulus to maritime adventures. +Europe was inflamed with a desire to extend geographical knowledge, or +add new countries to the realms of European sovereigns.</p> + +<p>Within four years of the discovery of the West India Islands by +Columbus, Cabot had sailed past Newfoundland, and Vasco da Gama had +doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and laid the foundation of the Portuguese +empire in the East Indies. In 1499 Ojeda, one of the companions of +Columbus, and Amerigo Vespucci discovered Brazil. In 1500 Cortereal, a +Portuguese, explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 1505 Francesco de +Almeira established factories along the coast of Malabar. In 1510 the +Spaniards formed settlements on the mainland at Panama. In 1511 the +Portuguese established themselves at Malacca. In 1513 Balboa crossed the +Isthmus of Darien and reached the Pacific Ocean. The year after that, +Ponce de Leon had visited Florida. In 1515 the Rio de la Plata was +navigated; and in 1517 the Portuguese had begun to trade with China and +Bengal. As early as 1520 Cortes had taken Mexico, and completed the +conquest of that rich country the following year. In 1522 Cano +circumnavigated the globe. In 1524 Pizarro discovered Peru, which in +less than twelve years was completely subjugated,--the year when +California was discovered by Cortes. In 1542 the Portuguese were +admitted to trade with Japan. In 1576 Frobisher sought a North-western +passage to India; and the following year Sir Francis Drake commenced +his more famous voyages under the auspices of Elizabeth. In 1578 Sir +Humphrey Gilbert colonized Virginia, followed rapidly by other English +settlements, until before the century closed the whole continent was +colonized either by Spaniards, or Portuguese, or English, or French, or +Dutch. All countries came in to share the prizes held out by the +discovery of the New World.</p> + +<p>Colonization followed the voyages of discovery. It was animated by the +hope of finding gold and precious stones. It was carried on under great +discouragements and hardships and unforeseen difficulties. As a general +thing, the colonists were not accustomed to manual labor; they were +adventurers and broken-down dependents on great families, who found +restraint irksome and the drudgeries of their new life almost +unendurable. Nor did they intend, at the outset, permanent settlements; +they expected to accumulate gold and silver, and then return to their +country. They had sought to improve their condition, and their condition +became forlorn. They were exposed to sickness from malaria, poor food, +and hardship; they were molested by the natives whom they constantly +provoked; they were subject to cruel treatment on the part of royal +governors. They melted away wherever they settled, by famine, disease, +and war, whether in South or North America. They were discontented and +disappointed, and not easily governed; the chieftains quarrelled with +each other, and were disgraced by rapacity and cruelty. They did not +find what they expected. They were lonely and desolate, and longed to +return to the homes they had left, but were frequently without means to +return,--doomed to remain where they were, and die. Colonization had no +dignity until men went to the New World for religious liberty, or to +work upon the soil. The conquest of Mexico and Peru, however, opened up +the mining of gold and silver, which were finally found in great +abundance. And when the richness of these countries in the precious +metals was finally established, then a regular stream of emigrants +flocked to the American shores. Gold was at last found, but not until +thousands had miserably perished.</p> + +<p>The mines of Mexico and Peru undoubtedly enriched Spain, and filled +Europe with envy and emulation. A stream of gold flowed to the mother +country, and the caravels which transported the treasures of the new +world became objects of plunder to all nations hostile to Spain. The +seas were full of pirates. Sir Francis Drake was an undoubted pirate, +and returned, after his long voyage around the world, with immense +treasure, which he had stolen. Then followed, with the eager search +after gold and silver, a rapid demoralization in all maritime countries.</p> + +<p>It would be interesting to show how the sudden accumulation of wealth +by Spain led to luxury, arrogance, and idleness, followed by degeneracy +and decay, since those virtues on which the strength of man is based are +weakened by sudden wealth. Industry declined in proportion as Spain +became enriched by the precious metals. But this inquiry is foreign to +my object.</p> + +<p>A still more interesting inquiry arises, how far the nations of Europe +were really enriched by the rapid accumulation of gold and silver. The +search for the precious metals may have stimulated commercial +enterprise, but it is not so clear that it added to the substantial +wealth of Europe, except so far as it promoted industry. Gold is not +wealth; it is simply the exponent of wealth. Real wealth is in farms and +shops and ships,--in the various channels of industry, in the results of +human labor. So far as the precious metals enter into useful +manufactures, or into articles of beauty and taste, they are indeed +inherently valuable. Mirrors, plate, jewelry, watches, gilded furniture, +the adornments of the person, in an important sense, constitute wealth, +since all nations value them, and will pay for them as they do for corn +or oil. So far as they are connected with art, they are valuable in the +same sense as statues and pictures, on which labor has been expended. +There is something useful, and even necessary, besides food and raiment +and houses. The gold which ornamented Solomon's temple, or the Minerva +of Phidias, or the garments of Leo X., had a value. The ring which is a +present to brides is a part of a marriage ceremony. The golden watch, +which never tarnishes, is more valuable inherently than a pewter one, +because it remains beautiful. Thus when gold enters into ornaments +deemed indispensable, or into manufactures which are needed, it has an +inherent value,--it is wealth.</p> + +<p>But when gold is a mere medium of exchange,--its chief use,--then it has +only a conventional value; I mean, it does not make a nation rich or +poor, since the rarer it is the more it will purchase of the necessaries +of life. A pound's weight of gold, in ancient Greece, or in Mediaeval +Europe, would purchase as much wheat as twenty pounds' weight will +purchase to-day. If the mines of Mexico or Peru or California had never +been worked, the gold in the civilized world three hundred years ago +would have been as valuable for banking purposes, or as an exchange for +agricultural products, as twenty times its present quantity, since it +would have bought as much as twenty times the quantity will buy to-day. +Make diamonds as plenty as crystals, they would be worth no more than +crystals, if they were not harder and more beautiful. Make gold as +plenty as silver, it would be worth no more than silver, except for +manufacturing purposes; it would be worth no more to bankers and +merchants. The vast increase in the production of the precious metals +simply increased the value of the commodities for which they were +exchanged. A laborer can purchase no more bread with a dollar to-day +than he could with five cents three hundred years ago. Five cents were +really as much wealth three hundred years ago as a dollar is to-day. +Wherein, then, has the increase in the precious metals added to the +wealth of the world, if a twentieth part of the gold and silver now in +circulation would buy as much land, or furniture, or wheat, or oil three +hundred years ago as the whole amount now used as money will buy to-day? +Had no gold or silver mines been discovered in America, the gold and +silver would have appreciated in value in proportion to the wear of +them. In other words, the scarcer the gold and silver the more the same +will purchase of the fruits of human industry. So industry is the +wealth, not the gold. It is the cultivated farms and the manufactures +and the buildings and the internal improvements of a country which +constitute its real wealth, since these represent its industry,--the +labor of men. Mines, indeed, employ the labor of men, but they do not +furnish food for the body, or raiment to wear, or houses to live in, or +fuel for cooking, or any purpose whatever of human comfort or +necessity,--only a material for ornament; which I grant is wealth, so +far as ornament is for the welfare of man. The marbles of ancient +Greece were very valuable for the labor expended on them, either for +architecture or for ornament.</p> + +<p>Gold and silver were early selected as useful and convenient articles +for exchange, like bank-notes, and so far have inherent value as they +supply that necessity; but if a fourth part of the gold and silver in +existence would supply that necessity, the remaining three-fourths are +as inherently valueless as the paper on which bank-notes are printed. +Their value consists in what they represent of the labors and +industries of men.</p> + +<p>Now Spain ultimately became poor, in spite of the influx of gold and +silver from the American mines, because industries of all kinds +declined. People were diverted from useful callings by the mighty +delusion which gold discoveries created. These discoveries had the same +effect on industry, which is the wealth of nations, as the support of +standing armies has in our day. They diverted men from legitimate +callings. The miners had to be supported like soldiers; and, worse, the +sudden influx of gold and silver intoxicated men and stimulated +speculation. An army of speculators do not enrich a nation, since they +rob each other. They cause money to change hands; they do not stimulate +industry. They do not create wealth; they simply make it flow from one +person to another.</p> + +<p>But speculations sometimes create activity in enterprise; they inflame +desires for wealth, and cause people to make greater exertions. In that +sense the discovery of American mines gave a stimulus to commerce and +travel and energy. People rushed to America for gold: these people had +to be fed and clothed. Then farmers and manufacturers followed the +gold-hunters; they tilled the soil to feed the miners. The new farms +which dotted the region of the gold-diggers added to the wealth of the +country in which the mines were located. Colonization followed +gold-digging. But it was America that became enriched, not the old +countries from which the miners came, except so far as the old countries +furnished tools and ships and fabrics, for doubtless commerce and +manufacturing were stimulated. So far, the wealth of the world +increased; but the men who returned to riot in luxury and idleness did +not stimulate enterprise. They made others idle also. The necessity of +labor was lost sight of.</p> + +<p>And yet if one country became idle, another country may have become +industrious. There can be but little question that the discovery of the +American mines gave commerce and manufactures and agriculture, on the +whole, a stimulus. This was particularly seen in England. England grew +rich from industry and enterprise, as Spain became poor from idleness +and luxury. The silver and gold, diffused throughout Europe, ultimately +found their way into the pockets of Englishmen, who made a market for +their manufactures. It was not alone the precious metals which enriched +England, but the will and power to produce those articles of industry +for which the rest of the world parted with their gold and silver. What +has made France rich since the Revolution? Those innumerable articles of +taste and elegance--fabrics and wines--for which all Europe parted with +their specie; not war, not conquest, not mines. Why till recently was +Germany so poor? Because it had so little to sell to other nations; +because industry was cramped by standing armies and despotic +governments.</p> + +<p>One thing is certain, that the discovery of America opened a new field +for industry and enterprise to all the discontented and impoverished and +oppressed Europeans who emigrated. At first they emigrated to dig silver +and gold. The opening of mines required labor, and miners were obliged +to part with their gold for the necessaries of life. Thus California in +our day has become peopled with farmers and merchants and manufacturers, +as well as miners. Many came to America expecting to find gold, and were +disappointed, and were obliged to turn agriculturists, as in Virginia. +Many came to New England from political and religious motives. But all +came to better their fortunes. Gradually the United States and Canada +became populated from east to west and from north to south. The surplus +population of Europe poured itself into the wilds of America. Generally +the emigrants were farmers. With the growth of agricultural industry +were developed commerce and manufactures. Thus, materially, the world +was immensely benefited. A new continent was opened for industry. No +matter what the form of government may be,--I might almost say no matter +what the morals and religion of the people may be,--so long as there is +land to occupy, and to be sold cheap, the continent will fill up, and +will be as densely populated as Europe or Asia, because the natural +advantages are good. The rivers and the lakes will be navigated; the +products of the country will be exchanged for European and Asiatic +products; wealth will certainly increase, and increase indefinitely. +There is no calculating the future resources and wealth of the New +World, especially in the United States. There are no conceivable bounds +to their future commerce, manufactures, and agricultural products. We +can predict with certainty the rise of new cities, villas, palaces, +material splendor, limited only to the increasing resources and +population of the country. Who can tell the number of miles of new +railroads yet to be made; the new inventions to abridge human labor; +what great empires are destined to rise; what unknown forms of luxury +will be found out; what new and magnificent trophies of art and science +will gradually be seen; what mechanism, what material glories, are sure +to come? This is not speculation. Nothing can retard the growth of +America in material wealth and glory. The splendid external will call +forth more panegyrics than the old Roman world which fancied itself +eternal. The tower of the new Babel will rise to the clouds, and be seen +in all its glory throughout the earth and sea. No Fourth of July orator +ever exaggerated the future destinies of America in a material point of +view. No "spread-eagle" politician even conceived what will be sure +to come.</p> + +<p>And what then? Grant the most indefinite expansion,--the growth of +empires whose splendor and wealth and power shall utterly eclipse the +glories of the Old World. All this is probable. But when we have dwelt +on the future material expansion; when we have given wings to +imagination, and feel that even imagination cannot reach the probable +realities in a material aspect,--then our predictions and calculations +stop. Beyond material glories we cannot count with certainty. The world +has witnessed many powerful empires which have passed away, and left +"not a rack behind." What remains of the antediluvian world?--not even a +spike of Noah's ark, larger and stronger than any modern ship. What +remains of Nineveh, of Babylon, of Thebes, of Tyre, of Carthage,--those +great centres of wealth and power? What remains of Roman greatness +even, except in laws and literature and renovated statues? Remember +there is an undeviating uniformity in the past history of nations. What +is the simple story of all the ages?--industry, wealth, corruption, +decay, and ruin. What conservative power has been strong enough to +arrest the ruin of the nations of antiquity? Have not material forces +and glories been developed and exhibited, whatever the religion and +morals of the fallen nations? Cannot a country grow materially to a +certain point, under the most adverse influences, in a religious and +moral point of view? Yet for lack of religion and morals the nations +perished, and their Babel-towers were buried in the dust. They perished +for lack of true conservative forces; at least that is the judgment of +historians. Nobody doubts the splendor of the material glories of the +ancient nations. The ruins of Baalbec, of Palmyra, of Athens, prove +this, to say nothing of history. The material glories of the ancient +nations may be surpassed by our modern wonders; but yet all the material +glories of the ancient nations passed away.</p> + +<p>Now if this is to be the destiny of America,--an unbounded material +growth, followed by corruption and ruin,--then Columbus has simply +extended the realm for men to try material experiments. Make New York a +second Carthage, and Boston a second Athens, and Philadelphia a second +Antioch, and Washington a second Rome, and we simply repeat the old +experiments. Did not the Romans have nearly all we have, materially, +except our modern scientific inventions?</p> + +<p>But has America no higher destiny than to repeat the old experiments, +and improve upon them, and become rich and powerful? Has she no higher +and nobler mission? Can she lay hold of forces that the Old World never +had, such as will prevent the uniform doom of nations? I maintain that +there is no reason that can be urged, based on history and experience, +why she should escape the fate of the nations of antiquity, unless new +forces arise on this continent different from what the world has known, +and which have a conservative influence. If America has a great mission +to declare and to fulfil, she must put forth altogether new forces, and +these not material. And these alone will save her and save the world. It +is mournful to contemplate even the future magnificent material glories +of America if these are not to be preserved, if these are to share the +fate of ancient wonders. It is obvious that the real glory of America is +to be something entirely different from that of which the ancients +boasted. And this is to be moral and spiritual,--that which the +ancients lacked.</p> + +<p>This leads me to speak of the moral consequences of the discovery of +America,--infinitely grander than any material wonders, of which the +world has been full, of which every form of paganism has boasted, which +nearly everywhere has perished, and which must necessarily perish +everywhere, without new forces to preserve them.</p> + +<p>In a moral point of view scarcely anything good immediately resulted, at +least to Europe, by the discovery of America. It excited the wildest +spirit of adventure, the most unscrupulous cupidity, the most +demoralizing speculation. It created jealousies and wars. The cruelties +and injustices inflicted on the Indians were revolting. Nothing in the +annals of the world exceeds the wickedness of the Spaniards in the +conquest of Peru and Mexico. That conquest is the most dismal and least +glorious in human history. We see in it no poetry, or heroism, or +necessity; we read of nothing but its crimes. The Jesuits, in their +missionary zeal, partly redeemed the cruelties; but they soon imposed a +despotic yoke, and made their religion pay. Monopolies scandalously +increased, and the New World was regarded only as spoil. The tone of +moral feeling was lowered everywhere, for the nations were crazed with +the hope of sudden accumulations. Spain became enervated and +demoralized.</p> + +<p>On America itself the demoralization was even more marked. There never +was such a state of moral degradation in any Christian country as in +South America. Three centuries have passed, and the low state of morals +continues. Contrast Mexico and Peru with the United States, morally and +intellectually. What seeds of vice did not the Spaniards plant! How the +old natives melted away!</p> + +<p>And then, to add to the moral evils attending colonization, was the +introduction of African slaves, especially in the West Indies and the +Southern States of North America. Christendom seems to have lost the +sense of morality. Slavery more than counterbalances all other +advantages together. It was the stain of the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries. Not merely slaves, but the slave-trade, increase the horrors +of the frightful picture. America became associated, in the minds of +Europeans, with gold-hunting, slavery, and cruelty to Indians. Better +that the country had remained undiscovered than that such vices and +miseries should be introduced into the most fertile parts of the +New World.</p> + +<p>I cannot see that civilization gained anything, morally, by the +discovery of America, until the new settlers were animated by other +motives than a desire for sudden wealth. When the country became +colonized by men who sought liberty to worship God,--men of lofty +purposes, willing to undergo sufferings and danger in order to plant the +seeds of a higher civilization,--then there arose new forms of social +and political life. Such men were those who colonized New England. And, +say what you will, in spite of all the disagreeable sides of the Puritan +character, it was the Puritans who gave a new impulse to civilization in +its higher sense. They founded schools and colleges and churches. They +introduced a new form of political life by their town-meetings, in which +liberty was nurtured, and all local improvements were regulated. It was +the autonomy of towns on which the political structure of New England +rested. In them was born that true representative government which has +gradually spread towards the West. The colonies were embryo +States,--States afterwards to be bound together by a stronger tie than +that of a league. The New England States, after the war of Independence, +were the defenders and advocates of a federal and central power. An +entirely new political organization was gradually formed, resting +equally on such pillars as independent townships and independent States, +and these represented by delegates in a national centre.</p> + +<p>So we believe America was discovered, not so much to furnish a field for +indefinite material expansion, with European arts and fashions,--which +would simply assimilate America to the Old World, with all its dangers +and vices and follies,--but to introduce new forms of government, new +social institutions, new customs and manners, new experiments in +liberty, new religious organizations, new modes to ameliorate the +necessary evils of life. It was discovered that men might labor and +enjoy the fruits of industry in a new mode, unfettered by the restraints +which the institutions of Europe imposed. America is a new field in +which to try experiments in government and social life, which cannot be +tried in the older nations without sweeping and dangerous revolutions; +and new institutions have arisen which are our pride and boast, and +which are the wonder and admiration of Europe. America is the only +country under the sun in which there is self-government,--a government +which purely represents the wishes of the people, where universal +suffrage is not a mockery. And if America has a destiny to fulfil for +other nations, she must give them something more valuable than reaping +machines, palace cars, and horse railroads. She must give, not only +machinery to abridge labor, but institutions and ideas to expand the +mind and elevate the soul,--something by which the poor can rise and +assert their rights. Unless something is developed here which cannot be +developed in other countries, in the way of new spiritual and +intellectual forces, which have a conservative influence, then I cannot +see how America can long continue to be the home and refuge of the poor +and miserable of other lands. A new and better spirit must vivify +schools and colleges and philanthropic enterprises than that which has +prevailed in older nations. Unless something new is born here which has +a peculiar power to save, wherein will America ultimately differ from +other parts of Christendom? We must have schools in which the heart as +well as the brain is educated, and newspapers which aspire to something +higher than to fan prejudices and appeal to perverted tastes. Our hope +is not in books which teach infidelity under the name of science, nor in +pulpits which cannot be sustained without sensational oratory, nor in +journals which trade on the religious sentiments of the people, nor in +Sabbath-school books which are an insult to the human understanding, nor +in colleges which fit youth merely for making money, nor in schools of +technology to give an impulse to material interests, nor in legislatures +controlled by monopolists, nor in judges elected by demagogues, nor in +philanthropic societies to ventilate unpractical theories. These will +neither renovate nor conserve what is most precious in life. Unless a +nation grows morally as well as materially, there is something wrong at +the core of society. As I have said, no material expansion will avail, +if society becomes rotten at the core. America is a glorious boon to +civilization, but only as she fulfils a new mission in history,--not to +become more potent in material forces, but in those spiritual agencies +which prevent corruption and decay. An infidel professor, calling +himself a savant, may tell you that there is nothing certain or great +but in the direction of science to utilities, even as he may glory in a +philosophy which ignores a creator and takes cognizance only of +a creation.</p> + +<p>As I survey the growing and enormous moral evils which degrade society, +here as everywhere, in spite of Bunker Hills and Plymouth Rocks, and all +the windy declamations of politicians and philanthropists, and all the +advance in useful mechanisms, I am sometimes tempted to propound +inquiries which suggest the old, mournful story of the decline and ruin +of States and Empires. I ask myself, Why should America be an exception +to the uniform fate of nations, as history has demonstrated? Why should +not good institutions be perverted here, as in all other countries and +ages of the world? Where has civilization shown any striking triumphs, +except in inventions to abridge the labors of mankind and make men +comfortable and rich? Is there nothing before us, then, but the triumphs +of material life, to end as mournfully as the materialism of antiquity? +If so, then Christianity is a most dismal failure, is a defeated power, +like all other forms of religion which failed to save. But is it a +failure? Are we really swinging back to Paganism? Is the time to be +hailed when all religions will be considered by the philosopher as +equally false and equally useful? Is there nothing more cheerful for us +to contemplate than what the old Pagan philosophy holds out,--man +destined to live like brutes or butterflies, and pass away into the +infinity of time and space, like inert matter, decomposed, absorbed, and +entering into new and everlasting combinations? Is America to become +like Europe and Asia in all essential elements of life? Has she no other +mission than to add to perishable glories? Is she to teach the world +nothing new in education and philanthropy and government? Are all her +struggles in behalf of liberty in vain?</p> + +<p>We all know that Christianity is the only hope of the world. The +question is, whether America is or is not more favorable for its healthy +developments and applications than the other countries of Christendom +are. We believe that it is. If it is not, then America is only a new +field for the spread and triumph of material forces. If it is, we may +look forward to such improvements in education, in political +institutions, in social life, in religious organizations, in +philanthropical enterprise, that the country will be sought by the poor +and enslaved classes of Europe more for its moral and intellectual +advantages than for its mines or farms; the objects of the Puritan +settlers will be gained, and the grandeur of the discovery of a New +World will be established.</p> + + "What sought they thus afar?<br> + Bright jewels of the mine?<br> + The wealth of seas,--the spoils of war?<br> + They sought for Faith's pure shrine.<br> + Ay, call it holy ground,<br> + The soil where first they trod;<br> + They've left unstained what there they found,--<br> + Freedom to worship God."<br> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella; Washington Irving; Cabot's Voyages, +and other early navigators; Columbus, by De Costa; Life of Columbus, by +Bossi and Spatono; Relations de Quatre Voyage par Christopher Colomb; +Drake's World Encompassed; Murray's Historical Account of Discoveries; +Hernando, Historia del Amirante; History of Commerce; Lives of Pizarro +and Cortes; Frobisher's Voyages; Histories of Herrera, Las Casas, +Gomera, and Peter Martyr; Navarrete's Collections; Memoir of Cabot, by +Richard Biddle; Hakluyt's Voyages; Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia,--History +of Maritime and Inland Discovery; Anderson's History of Commerce; +Oviedo's General History of the West Indies; History of the New World, +by Geronimo Benzoni; Goodrich's Life of Christopher Columbus.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="SAVONAROLA."></a>SAVONAROLA.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1452-1498.</p> + +<p>UNSUCCESSFUL REFORMS.</p> + +<p>This lecture is intended to set forth a memorable movement in the Roman +Catholic Church,--a reformation of morals, preceding the greater +movement of Luther to produce a reformation of both morals and +doctrines. As the representative of this movement I take Savonarola, +concerning whom much has of late been written; more, I think, because he +was a Florentine in a remarkable age,--the age of artists and of +reviving literature,--than because he was a martyr, battling with evils +which no one man was capable of removing. His life was more a protest +than a victory. He was an unsuccessful reformer, and yet he prepared the +way for that religious revival which afterward took place in the +Catholic Church itself. His spirit was not revolutionary, like that of +the Saxon monk, and yet it was progressive. His soul was in active +sympathy with every emancipating idea of his age. He was the incarnation +of a fervid, living, active piety amid forms and formulas, a fearless +exposer of all shams, an uncompromising enemy to the blended atheism and +idolatry of his ungodly age. He was the contemporary of political, +worldly, warlike, unscrupulous popes, disgraced by nepotism and personal +vices,--men who aimed to extend not a spiritual but temporal dominion, +and who scandalized the highest position in the Christian world, as +attested by all reliable historians, whether Catholic or Protestant. +However infallible the Catholic Church claims to be, it has never been +denied that some of her highest dignitaries have been subject to grave +reproaches, both in their character and their influence. Such men were +Sixtus IV., Julius II., and Alexander VI.,--able, probably, for it is +very seldom that the popes have not been distinguished for something, +but men, nevertheless, who were a disgrace to the superb position they +had succeeded in reaching.</p> + +<p>The great feature of that age was the revival of classical learning and +artistic triumphs in sculpture, painting, and architecture, blended with +infidel levity and social corruptions, so that it is both interesting +and hideous. It is interesting for its triumphs of genius, its +dispersion of the shadows of the Middle Ages, the commencement of great +enterprises and of a marked refinement of manners and tastes; it is +hideous for its venalities, its murders, its debaucheries, its +unblushing wickedness, and its disgraceful levities, when God and duty +and self-restraint were alike ignored. Cruel tyrants reigned in cities, +and rapacious priests fattened on the credulity of the people. Think of +monks itinerating Europe to sell indulgences for sin; of monasteries and +convents filled, not with sublime enthusiasts as in earlier times, but +with gluttons and sensualists, living in concubinage and greedy of the +very things which primitive monasticism denounced and abhorred! Think of +boys elevated to episcopal thrones, and the sons of popes made cardinals +and princes! Think of churches desecrated by spectacles which were +demoralizing, and a worship of saints and images which had become +idolatrous,--a degrading superstition among the people, an infidel +apathy among the higher classes: not infidel speculations, for these +were reserved for more enlightened times, but an indifference to what is +ennobling, to all vital religion, worthy of the Sophists in the time +of Socrates!</p> + +<p>It was in this age of religious apathy and scandalous vices, yet of +awakening intelligence and artistic glories, when the greatest +enthusiasm was manifested for the revived literature and sculptured +marbles of classic Greece and Rome, that Savonarola appeared in Florence +as a reformer and preacher and statesman, near the close of the +fifteenth century, when Columbus was seeking a western passage to India; +when Michael Angelo was moulding the "Battle of Hercules with the +Centaurs;" when Ficino was teaching the philosophy of Plato; when +Alexander VI. was making princes of his natural children; when Bramante +was making plans for a new St. Peter's; when Cardinal Bembo was writing +Latin essays; when Lorenzo de' Medici was the flattered patron of both +scholars and artists, and the city over which he ruled with so much +magnificence was the most attractive place in Europe, next to that other +city on the banks of the Tiber, whose wonders and glories have never +been exhausted, and will probably survive the revolutions of +unknown empires.</p> + +<p>But Savonarola was not a native of Florence. He was born in the year +1452 at Ferrara, belonged to a good family, and received an expensive +education, being destined to the profession of medicine. He was a sad, +solitary, pensive, but precocious young man, whose youth was marked by +an unfortunate attachment to a haughty Florentine girl. He did not +cherish her memory and dedicate to her a life-labor, like Dante, but +became very dejected and very pious. His piety assumed, of course, the +ascetic type, for there was scarcely any other in that age, and he +entered a Dominican convent, as Luther, a few years later, entered an +Augustinian. But he was not an original genius, or a bold and +independent thinker like Luther, so he was not emancipated from the +ideas of his age. How few men can go counter to prevailing ideas! It +takes a prodigious genius, and a fearless, inquiring mind, to break away +from their bondage. Abraham could renounce the idolatries which +surrounded him, when called by a supernatural voice; Paul could give up +the Phariseeism which-reigned in the Jewish schools and synagogues, when +stricken blind by the hand of God; Luther could break away from monastic +rules and papal denunciation, when taught by the Bible the true ground +of justification,--but Savonarola could not. He pursued the path to +heaven in the beaten track, after the fashion of Jerome and Bernard and +Thomas Aquinas, after the style of the Middle Ages, and was sincere, +devout, and lofty, like the saints of the fifth century, and read his +Bible as they did, and essayed a high religious life; but he was stern, +gloomy, and austere, emaciated by fasts and self-denial. He had, +however, those passive virtues which Mediaeval piety ever +enjoined,--yea, which Christ himself preached upon the Mount, and which +Protestantism, in the arrogance of reason, is in danger of losing sight +of,--humility, submission, and contempt of material gains. He won the +admiration of his superiors for his attainments and his piety, being +equally versed in Aristotle and the Holy Scriptures. He delighted most +in the Old Testament heroes and prophets, and caught their sternness and +invective.</p> + +<p>He was not so much interested in dogmas as he was in morals. He had +not, indeed, a turn of mind for theology, like Anselm and Calvin; but he +took a practical view of the evils of society. At thirty years of age he +began to preach in Ferrara and Florence, but was not very successful. +His sermons at first created but little interest, and he sometimes +preached to as few as twenty-five people. Probably he was too rough and +vehement to suit the fastidious ears of the most refined city in Italy. +People will not ordinarily bear uncouthness from preachers, however +gifted, until they have earned a reputation; they prefer pretty and +polished young men with nothing but platitudes or extravagances to +utter. Savonarola seems to have been discouraged and humiliated at his +failure, and was sent to preach to the rustic villagers, amid the +mountains near Sienna. Among these people he probably felt more at home; +and he gave vent to the fire within him and electrified all who heard +him, winning even the admiration of the celebrated Prince of Mirandola. +From this time his fame spread rapidly, he was recalled to Florence, +1490, and his great career commenced. In the following year such crowds +pressed to hear him that the church of St. Mark, connected with the +Dominican convent to which he was attached, could not contain the +people, and he repaired to the cathedral. And even that spacious church +was filled with eager listeners,--more moved than delighted. So great +was his popularity, that his influence correspondingly increased and he +was chosen prior of his famous convent.</p> + +<p>He now wielded power as well as influence, and became the most marked +man of the city. He was not only the most eloquent preacher in Italy, +probably in the world, but his eloquence was marked by boldness, +earnestness, almost fierceness. Like an ancient prophet, he was terrible +in his denunciation of vices. He spared no one, and he feared no one. He +resembled Chrysostom at Constantinople, when he denounced the vanity of +Eudoxia and the venality of Eutropius. Lorenzo de' Medici, the absolute +lord of Florence, sent for him, and expostulated and remonstrated with +the unsparing preacher,--all to no effect. And when the usurper of his +country's liberties was dying, the preacher was again sent for, this +time to grant an absolution. But Savonarola would grant no absolution +unless Lorenzo would restore the liberties which he and his family had +taken away. The dying tyrant was not prepared to accede to so haughty a +demand, and, collecting his strength, rolled over on his bed without +saying a word, and the austere monk wended his way back to his convent, +unmolested and determined.</p> + +<p>The premature death of this magnificent prince made a great sensation +throughout Italy, and produced a change in the politics of Florence, for +the people began to see their political degradation. The popular +discontents were increased when his successor, Pietro, proved himself +incapable and tyrannical, abandoned himself to orgies, and insulted the +leading citizens by an overwhelming pride. Savonarola took the side of +the people, and fanned the discontents. He became the recognized leader +of opposition to the Medici, and virtually ruled the city.</p> + +<p>The Prior of St. Mark now appeared in a double light,--as a political +leader and as a popular preacher. Let us first consider him in his +secular aspect, as a revolutionist and statesman,--for the admirable +constitution he had a principal hand in framing entitles him to the +dignity of statesman rather than politician. If his cause had not been +good, and if he had not appealed to both enlightened and patriotic +sentiments, he would have been a demagogue; for a demagogue and a mere +politician are synonymous, and a clerical demagogue is hideous.</p> + +<p>Savonarola began his political career with terrible denunciations, from +his cathedral pulpit, of the political evils of his day, not merely in +Florence but throughout Italy. He detested tyrants and usurpers, and +sought to conserve such liberties as the Florentines had once enjoyed. +He was not only the preacher, he was also the patriot. Things temporal +were mixed up with things spiritual in his discourses. In his +detestation of the tyranny of the Medici, and his zeal to recover for +the Florentines their lost liberties, he even hailed the French armies +of Charles VIII. as deliverers, although they had crossed the Alps to +invade and conquer Italy. If the gates of Florence were open to them, +they would expel the Medici. So he stimulated the people to league with +foreign enemies in order to recover their liberties. This would have +been high treason in Richelieu's time,--as when the Huguenots encouraged +the invasion of the English on the soil of France. Savonarola was a +zealot, and carried the same spirit into politics that he did into +religion,--such as when he made a bonfire of what he called vanities. He +had an end to carry: he would use any means. There is apt to be a spirit +of Jesuitism in all men consumed with zeal, determined on success. To +the eye of the Florentine reformer, the expulsion of the Medici seemed +the supremest necessity; and if it could be done in no other way than by +opening the gates of his city to the French invaders, he would open the +gates. Whatever he commanded from the pulpit was done by the people, for +he seemed to have supreme control over them, gained by his eloquence as +a preacher. But he did not abuse his power. When the Medici were +expelled, he prevented violence; blood did not flow in the streets; +order and law were preserved. The people looked up to him as their +leader, temporal as well as spiritual. So he assembled them in the +great hall of the city, where they formally held a <i>parlemento</i>, and +reinstated the ancient magistrates. But these were men without +experience. They had no capacity to govern, and they were selected +without wisdom on the part of the people. The people, in fact, had not +the ability to select their best and wisest men for rulers. That is an +evil inherent in all popular governments. Does San Francisco or New York +send its greatest men to Congress? Do not our cities elect such rulers +as the demagogues point out? Do not the few rule, even in a +Congregational church? If some commanding genius, unscrupulous or wise +or eloquent or full of tricks, controls elections with us, much more +easily could such a man as Savonarola rule in Florence, where there were +no political organizations, no caucuses, no wirepullers, no other man of +commanding ability. The only opinion-maker was this preacher, who +indicated the general policy to be pursued. He left elections to the +people; and when these proved a failure, a new constitution became a +necessity. But where were the men capable of framing a constitution for +the republic? Two generations of political slavery had destroyed +political experience. The citizens were as incapable of framing a new +constitution as the legislators of France after they had decimated the +nobility, confiscated the Church lands, and cut off the head of the +king. The lawyers disputed in the town hall, but accomplished nothing.</p> + +<p>Their science amounted only to an analysis of human passion. All wanted +a government entirely free from tyranny; all expected impossibilities. +Some were in favor of a Venetian aristocracy, and others of a pure +democracy; yet none would yield to compromise, without which no +permanent political institution can ever be framed. How could the +inexperienced citizens of Florence comprehend the complicated relations +of governments? To make a constitution that the world respects requires +the highest maturity of human wisdom. It is the supremest labor of great +men. It took the ablest man ever born among the Jews to give to them a +national polity. The Roman constitution was the fruit of five hundred +years' experience. Our constitution was made by the wisest, most +dignified, most enlightened body of statesmen that this country has yet +seen, and even they could not have made it without great mutual +concessions. No <i>one</i> man could have made a constitution, however great +his talents and experience,--not even a Jefferson or a Hamilton,--which +the nation would have accepted. It would have been as full of defects as +the legislation of Solon or Lycurgus or the Abbé Sieyès. But one man +gave a constitution to the Florentines, which they not only accepted, +but which has been generally admired for its wisdom; and that man was +our Dominican monk. The hand he had in shaping that constitution not +only proved him to have been a man of great wisdom, but entitled him to +the gratitude of his countrymen as a benefactor. He saw the vanity of +political science as it then existed, the incapacity of popular leaders, +and the sadness of a people drifting into anarchy and confusion; and, +strong in his own will and his sense of right, he rose superior to +himself, and directed the stormy elements of passion and fear. And this +he did by his sermons from the pulpit,--for he did not descend, in +person, into the stormy arena of contending passions and interests. He +did not himself attend the deliberations in the town hall; he was too +wise and dignified a man for that. But he preached those principles and +measures which he wished to see adopted; and so great was the reverence +for him that the people listened to his instructions, and afterward +deliberated and acted among themselves. He did not write out a code, but +he told the people what they should put into it. He was the animating +genius of the city; his voice was obeyed. He unfolded the theory that +the government of one man, in their circumstances, would become +tyrannical; and he taught the doctrine, then new, that the people were +the only source of power,--that they alone had the right to elect their +magistrates. He therefore recommended a general government, which should +include all citizens who had intelligence, experience, and +position,--not all the people, but such as had been magistrates, or +their fathers before them. Accordingly, a grand council was formed of +three thousand citizens, out of a population of ninety thousand who had +reached the age of twenty-nine. These three thousand citizens were +divided into three equal bodies, each of which should constitute a +council for six months and no meeting was legal unless two-thirds of the +members were present. This grand council appointed the magistrates. But +another council was also recommended and adopted, of only eighty +citizens not under forty years of age,--picked men, to be changed every +six months, whom the magistrates were bound to consult weekly, and to +whom was confided the appointment of some of the higher officers of the +State, like ambassadors to neighboring States. All laws proposed by the +magistrates, or seigniory, had to be ratified by this higher and +selecter council. The higher council was a sort of Senate, the lower +council were more like Representatives. But there was no universal +suffrage. The clerical legislator knew well enough that only the better +and more intelligent part of the people were fit to vote, even in the +election of magistrates. He seems to have foreseen the fatal rock on +which all popular institutions are in danger of being wrecked,--that no +government is safe and respected when the people who make it are +ignorant and lawless. So the constitution which Savonarola gave was +neither aristocratic nor democratic. It resembled that of Venice more +than that of Athens, that of England more than that of the United +States. Strictly universal suffrage is a Utopian dream wherever a +majority of the people are wicked and degraded. Sooner or later it +threatens to plunge any nation, as nations now are, into a whirlpool of +dangers, even if Divine Providence may not permit a nation to be +stranded and wrecked altogether. In the politics of Savonarola we see +great wisdom, and yet great sympathy for freedom. He would give the +people all that they were fit for. He would make all offices elective, +but only by the suffrages of the better part of the people.</p> + +<p>But the Prior of St. Mark did not confine himself to constitutional +questions and issues alone. He would remove all political abuses; he +would tax property, and put an end to forced loans and arbitrary +imposts; he would bring about a general pacification, and grant a +general amnesty for political offences; he would guard against the +extortions of the rich, and the usury of the Jews, who lent money at +thirty-three per cent, with compound interest; he secured the +establishment of a bank for charitable loans; he sought to make the +people good citizens, and to advance their temporal as well as spiritual +interests. All his reforms, political or social, were advocated, +however, from the pulpit; so that he was doubtless a political priest. +We, in this country and in these times, have no very great liking to +this union of spiritual and temporal authority: we would separate and +divide this authority. Protestants would make the functions of the ruler +and the priest forever distinct. But at that time the popes themselves +were secular rulers, as well as spiritual dignitaries. All bishops and +abbots had the charge of political interests. Courts of law were +presided over by priests. Priests were ambassadors to foreign powers; +they were ministers of kings; they had the control of innumerable +secular affairs, now intrusted to laymen. So their interference with +politics did not shock the people of Florence, or the opinions of the +age. It was indeed imperatively called for, since the clergy were the +most learned and influential men of those times, even in affairs of +state. I doubt if the Catholic Church has ever abrogated or ignored her +old right to meddle in the politics of a state or nation. I do not know, +but apprehend, that the Catholic clergy even in this country take it +upon themselves to instruct the people in their political duties. No +enlightened Protestant congregation would endure this interference. No +Protestant minister dares ever to discuss direct political issues from +the pulpit, except perhaps on Thanksgiving Day, or in some rare exigency +in public affairs. Still less would he venture to tell his parishioners +how they should vote in town-meetings. In imitation of ancient saints +and apostles, he is wisely constrained from interference in secular and +political affairs. But in the Middle Ages, and the Catholic Church, the +priest could be political in his preaching, since many of his duties +were secular. Savonarola usurped no prerogatives. He refrained from +meeting men in secular vocations. Even in his politics he confined +himself to his sphere in the pulpit. He did not attend the public +debates; he simply preached. He ruled by wisdom, eloquence, and +sanctity; and as he was an oracle, his utterances became a law.</p> + +<p>But while he instructed the people in political duties, he paid far more +attention to public morals. He would break up luxury, extravagance, +ostentatious living, unseemly dresses in the house of God. He was the +foe of all levities, all frivolities, all insidious pleasures. Bad men +found no favor in his eyes, and he exposed their hypocrisies and crimes. +He denounced sin, in high places and low. He did not confine himself to +the sins of his own people alone, but censured those of princes and of +other cities. He embraced all Italy in his glance. He invoked the Lord +to take the Church out of the hands of the Devil, to pour out his wrath +on guilty cities. He throws down a gauntlet of defiance to all corrupt +potentates; he predicts the near approach of calamities; he foretells +the certainty of divine judgment upon all sin; he clothes himself with +the thunders of the Jewish prophets; he seems to invoke woe, desolation, +and destruction. He ascribes the very invasion of the French to the +justice of retribution. "Thy crimes, O Florence! thy crimes, O Rome! thy +crimes, O Italy! are the causes of these chastisements." And so terrible +are his denunciations that the whole city quakes with fear. Mirandola +relates that as Savonarola's voice sounded like a clap of thunder in the +cathedral, packed to its utmost capacity with the trembling people, a +cold shiver ran through all his bones and the hairs of his head stood on +end. "O Rome!" exclaimed the preacher, "thou shalt be put to the sword, +since thou wilt not be converted. O Italy! confusion upon confusion +shall overtake thee; the confusion of war shall follow thy sins, and +famine and pestilence shall follow after war." Then he denounces Rome: +"O harlot Church! thou hast made thy deformity apparent to all the +world; thou hast multiplied thy fornications in Italy, in France, in +Spain, in every country. Behold, saith the Lord, I will stretch forth my +hand upon thee; I will deliver thee into the hands of those that hate +thee." The burden of his soul is sin,--sin everywhere, even in the bosom +of the Church,--and the necessity of repentance, of turning to the Lord. +He is more than an Elijah,--he is a John the Baptist His sermons are +chiefly drawn from the Old Testament, especially from the prophets in +their denunciation of woes; like them, he is stern, awful, sublime. He +does not attack the polity or the constitution of the Church, but its +corruptions. He does not call the Pope a usurper, a fraud, an impostor; +he does not attack the office; but if the Pope is a bad man he denounces +his crimes. He is still the Dominican monk, owning his allegiance, but +demanding the reformation of the head of the Church, to whom God has +given the keys of Saint Peter. Neither does he meddle with the doctrines +of the Church; he does not take much interest in dogmas. He is not a +theologian, but he would change the habits and manners of the people of +Florence. He would urge throughout Italy a reformation of morals. He +sees only the degeneracy in life; he threatens eternal penalties if sin +be persisted in. He alarms the fears of the people, so that women part +with their ornaments, dress with more simplicity, and walk more +demurely; licentious young men become modest and devout; instead of the +songs of the carnival, religious hymns are sung; tradesmen forsake their +shops for the churches; alms are more freely given; great scholars +become monks; even children bring their offerings to the Church; a +pyramid of "vanities" is burned on the public square.</p> + +<p>And no wonder. A man had appeared at a great crisis in wickedness, and +yet while the people were still susceptible of grand sentiments; and +this man--venerated, austere, impassioned, like an ancient prophet, like +one risen from the dead--denounces woes with such awful tones, such +majestic fervor, such terrible emphasis, as to break through all apathy, +all delusions, and fill the people with remorse, astonish them by his +revelations, and make them really feel that the supernal powers, armed +with the terrors of Omnipotence, would hurl them into hell unless +they repented.</p> + +<p>No man in Europe at the time had a more lively and impressive sense of +the necessity of a general reformation than the monk of St. Mark; but it +was a reform in morals, not of doctrine. He saw the evils of the +day--yea, of the Church itself--with perfect clearness, and demanded +redress. He is as sad in view of these acknowledged evils as Jeremiah +was in view of the apostasy of the Jews; he is as austere in his own +life as Elijah or John the Baptist was. He would not abolish monastic +institutions, but he would reform the lives of the monks,--cure them of +gluttony and sensuality, not shut up their monasteries. He would not +rebel against the authority of the Pope, for even Savonarola supposed +that prelate to be the successor of Saint Peter; but he would prevent +the Pope's nepotism and luxury and worldly spirit,--make him once more a +true "servant of the servants of God," even when clothed with the +insignia of universal authority. He would not give up auricular +confession, or masses for the dead, or prayers to the Virgin Mary, for +these were indorsed by venerated ages; but he would rebuke a priest if +found in unseemly places. Whatever was a sin, when measured by the laws +of immutable morality, he would denounce, whoever was guilty of it; +whatever would elevate the public morals he would advocate, whoever +opposed. His morality was measured by the declaration of Christ and the +Apostles, not by the standard of a corrupt age. He revered the +Scriptures, and incessantly pondered them, and exalted their authority, +holding them to be the ultimate rule of holy living, the everlasting +handbook of travellers to the heavenly Jerusalem. In all respects he was +a good man,--a beautiful type of Christian piety, with fewer faults than +Luther or Calvin had, and as great an enemy as they to corruptions in +State and Church, which he denounced even more fiercely and +passionately. Not even Erasmus pointed out the vices of the day with +more freedom or earnestness. He covered up nothing; he shut his eyes +to nothing.</p> + +<p>The difference between Savonarola and Luther was that the Saxon reformer +attacked the root of the corruption; not merely outward and tangible and +patent sins which everybody knew, but also and more earnestly those +false principles of theology and morals which sustained them, and which +logically pushed out would necessarily have produced them. For +instance, he not merely attacked indulgences, then a crying evil, as +peddled by Tetzel and others like him, and all to get money to support +the temporal power of the popes or build St. Peter's church; but he +would show that penance, on which indulgences are based, is antagonistic +to the doctrine which Paul so forcibly expounded respecting the +forgiveness of sins and the grounds of justification. And Luther saw +that all the evils which good men lamented would continue so long as the +false principles from which they logically sprung were the creed of the +Church. So he directed his giant energies to reform doctrines rather +than morals. His great idea of justification could be defended only by +an appeal to the Scriptures, not to the authority of councils and +learned men. So he made the Scriptures the sole source of theological +doctrine. Savonarola also accepted the Scriptures, but Luther would put +them in the hands of everybody, of peasants even,--and thus instituted +private judgment, which is the basal pillar of Protestantism. The +Catholic theologians never recognized this right in the sense that +Luther understood it, and to which he was pushed by inexorable logic. +The Church was to remain the interpreter of the doctrinal and disputed +points of the Scriptures.</p> + +<p>Savonarola was a churchman. He was not a fearless theological doctor, +going wherever logic and the Bible carried him. Hence, he did not +stimulate thought and inquiry as Luther did, nor inaugurate a great +revolutionary movement, which would gradually undermine papal authority +and many institutions which the Catholic Church indorsed. Had he been a +great genius, with his progressive proclivities, he might have headed a +rebellion against papal authority, which upheld doctrines that logically +supported the very evils he denounced. But he was contented to lop off +branches; he did not dig up the roots. Luther went to the roots, as +Calvin did; as Saint Augustine would have done had there been a +necessity in his day, for the theology of Saint Augustine and Calvin is +essentially the same. It was from Saint Augustine that Calvin drew his +inspiration next after Saint Paul. But Savonarola cared very little for +the discussion of doctrines; he probably hated all theological +speculations, all metaphysical divinity. Yet there is a closer +resemblance between doctrines and morals than most people are aware of. +As a man thinketh, so is he. Hence, the reforms of Savonarola were +temporary, and were not widely extended; for he did not kindle the +intelligence of the age, as did Luther and those associated with him. +There can be no great and lasting reform without an appeal to reason, +without the assistance of logic, without conviction. The house that had +been swept and garnished was re-entered by devils, and the last state +was worse than the first. To have effected a radical and lasting reform, +Savonarola should have gone deeper. He should have exposed the +foundations on which the superstructure of sin was built; he should have +undermined them, and appealed to the reason of the world. He did no such +thing. He simply rebuked the evils, which must needs be, so long as the +root of them is left untouched. And so long as his influence remained, +so long as his voice was listened to, he was mighty in the reforms at +which he aimed,--a reformation of the morals of those to whom he +preached. But when his voice was hushed, the evils he detested returned, +since he had not created those convictions which bind men together in +association; he had not fanned that spirit of inquiry which is hostile +to ecclesiastical despotism, and which, logically projected, would +subvert the papal throne. The reformation of Luther was a grand protest +against spiritual tyranny. It not only aimed at a purer life, but it +opposed the bondage of the Middle Ages, and all the superstitions and +puerilities and fables which were born and nurtured in that dark and +gloomy period and to which the clergy clung as a means of power or +wealth. Luther called out the intellect of Germany, exalted liberty of +conscience, and appealed to the dignity of reason. He showed the +necessity of learning, in order to unravel and explain the truths of +revelation. He made piety more exalted by giving it an intelligent +stimulus. He looked to the future rather than the past. He would make +use, in his interpretation of the Bible, of all that literature, +science, and art could contribute. Hence his writings had a wider +influence than could be produced by the fascination of personal +eloquence, on which Savonarola relied, but which Luther made only +accessory.</p> + +<p>Again, the sermons of the Florentine reformer do not impress us as they +did those to whom they were addressed. They are not logical, nor +doctrinal, nor learned,--not rich in thought, like the sermons of those +divines whom the Reformation produced. They are vehement denunciations +of sin; are eloquent appeals to the heart, to religious fears and hopes. +He would indeed create faith in the world, not by the dissertations of +Paul, but by the agonies of the dying Christ. He does not instruct; he +does not reason. He is dogmatic and practical. He is too earnest to be +metaphysical, or even theological. He takes it for granted that his +hearers know all the truths necessary for salvation. He enforces the +truths with which they are familiar, not those to be developed by reason +and learning. He appeals, he urges, he threatens; he even prophesies; he +dwells on divine wrath and judgment. He is an Isaiah foretelling what +will happen, rather than a Peter at the Day of Pentecost.</p> + +<p>Savonarola was transcendent in his oratorical gifts, the like of which +has never before nor since been witnessed in Italy. He was a born +orator; as vehement as Demosthenes, as passionate as Chrysostom, as +electrical as Bernard. Nothing could withstand him; he was a torrent +that bore everything before him. His voice was musical, his attitude +commanding, his gestures superb. He was all alive with his subject. He +was terribly in earnest, as if he believed everything he said, and that +what he said were most momentous truths. He fastened his burning eyes +upon his hearers, who listened with breathless attention, and inspired +them with his sentiments; he made them feel that they were in the very +jaws of destruction, and that there was no hope but in immediate +repentance. His whole frame quivered with emotion, and he sat down +utterly exhausted. His language was intense, not clothing new thoughts, +but riveting old ideas,--the ideas of the Middle Ages; the fear of hell, +the judgments of Almighty God. Who could resist such fiery earnestness, +such a convulsed frame, such quivering tones, such burning eyes, such +dreadful threatenings, such awful appeals? He was not artistic in the +use of words and phrases like Bourdaloue, but he reached the conscience +and the heart like Whitefield. He never sought to amuse; he would not +stoop to any trifling. He told no stories; he made no witticisms; he +used no tricks. He fell back on truths, no matter whether his hearers +relished them or not; no matter whether they were amused or not. He was +the messenger of God urging men to flee as for their lives, like Lot +when he escaped from Sodom.</p> + +<p>Savonarola's manner was as effective as his matter. He was a kind of +Peter the Hermit, preaching a crusade, arousing emotions and passions, +and making everybody feel as he felt. It was life more than thought +which marked his eloquence,--his voice as well as his ideas, his +wonderful electricity, which every preacher must have, or he preaches to +stones. It was himself, even more than his truths, which made people +listen, admire, and quake. All real orators impress themselves--their +own individuality--on their auditors. They are not actors, who represent +other people, and whom we admire in proportion to their artistic skill +in producing deception. These artists excite admiration, make us forget +where we are and what we are, but kindle no permanent emotions, and +teach no abiding lessons. The eloquent preacher of momentous truths and +interests makes us realize them, in proportion as he feels them himself. +They would fall dead upon us, if ever so grand, unless intensified by +passion, fervor, sincerity, earnestness. Even a voice has power, when +electrical, musical, impassioned, although it may utter platitudes. But +when the impassioned voice rings with trumpet notes through a vast +audience, appealing to what is dearest to the human soul, lifting the +mind to the contemplation of the sublimest truths and most momentous +interests, then there is <i>real</i> eloquence, such as is never heard in the +theatre, interested as spectators may be in the triumphs of +dramatic art.</p> + +<p>But I have dwelt too long on the characteristics of that eloquence which +produced such a great effect on the people of Florence in the latter +part of the fifteenth century. That ardent, intense, and lofty monk, +world-deep like Dante, not world-wide like Shakspeare, Who filled the +cathedral church with eager listeners, was not destined to uninterrupted +triumphs. His career was short; he could not even retain his influence. +As the English people wearied of the yoke of a Puritan Protector, and +hankered for their old pleasures, so the Florentines remembered the +sports and spectacles and <i>fêtes</i> of the old Medicean rule. Savonarola +had arrayed against himself the enemies of popular liberty, the patrons +of demoralizing excitements, the partisans of the banished Medici, and +even the friends and counsellors of the Pope. The dreadful denunciation +of sin in high places was as offensive to the Pope as the exposure of a +tyrannical usurpation was to the family of the old lords of Florence; +and his enemies took counsel together, and schemed for his overthrow. If +the irritating questions and mockeries of Socrates could not be endured +at Athens, how could the bitter invectives and denunciations of +Savonarola find favor at Florence? The fate of prophets is to be stoned. +Martyrdom and persecution, in some form or other, are as inevitable to +the man who sails against the stream, as a broken constitution and a +diseased body are to a sensualist, a glutton, or a drunkard. Impatience +under rebuke is as certain as the operation of natural law.</p> + +<p>The bitterest and most powerful enemy of the Prior of St. Mark was the +Pope himself,--Alexander VI., of the infamous family of the +Borgias,--since his private vices were exposed, and by one whose order +had been especially devoted to the papal empire. In the eyes of the +wicked Pope, the Florentine reformer was a traitor and conspirator, +disloyal and dangerous. At first he wished to silence him by soft and +deceitful letters and tempting bribes, offering to him a cardinal's hat, +and inviting him to Rome. But Savonarola refused alike the bribe and the +invitation. His Lenten sermons became more violent and daring. "If I +have preached and written anything heretical," said this intrepid monk, +"I am willing to make a public recantation. I have always shown +obedience to my church; but it is my duty to obey God rather than man." +This sounds like Luther at the Diet of Worms; but he was more +defenceless than Luther, since the Saxon reformer was protected by +powerful princes, and was backed by the enthusiasm of Northern Germans. +Yet the Florentine preacher boldly continued his attacks on all +hypocritical religion, and on the vices of Rome, not as incidental to +the system, but extraneous,--the faults of a man or age. The Pope became +furious, to be thus balked by a Dominican monk, and in one of the cities +of Italy,--a city that had not rebelled against his authority. He +complained bitterly to the Florentine ambassador, of the haughty friar +who rebuked and defied him. He summoned a consistory of fourteen eminent +Dominican theologians, to inquire into his conduct and opinions, and +issued a brief forbidding him to preach, under penalty of +excommunication. Yet Savonarola continued to preach, and more violently +than ever. He renewed his charges against Rome. He even called her a +harlot Church, against whom heaven and earth, angels and devils, equally +brought charges. The Pope then seized the old thunderbolts of the +Gregories and the Clements, and excommunicated the daring monk and +preacher, and threatened the like punishment on all who should befriend +him. And yet Savonarola continued to preach. All Rome and Italy talked +of the audacity of the man. And it was not until Florence itself was +threatened with an interdict for shielding such a man, that the +magistrates of the city were compelled to forbid his preaching.</p> + +<p>The great orator mounted his pulpit March 18, 1498, now four hundred +years ago, and took an affectionate farewell of the people whom he had +led, and appealed to Christ himself as the head of the Church. It was +not till the preacher was silenced by the magistrates of his own city, +that he seems to have rebelled against the papal authority; and then not +so much against the authority of Rome as against the wicked shepherd +himself, who had usurped the fold. He now writes letters to all the +prominent kings and princes of Europe, to assemble a general council; +for the general council of Constance had passed a resolution that the +Pope must call a general council every ten years, and that, should he +neglect to assemble it, the sovereign powers of the various states and +empires were themselves empowered to collect the scattered members of +the universal Church, to deliberate on its affairs. In his letters to +the kings of France, England, Spain, and Hungary, and the Emperor of +Germany, he denounced the Pope as simoniacal, as guilty of all the +vices, as a disgrace to the station which he held. These letters seem to +have been directed against the man, not against the system. He aimed at +the Pope's ejectment from office, rather than at the subversion of the +office itself,--another mark of the difference between Savonarola and +Luther, since the latter waged an uncompromising war against Rome +herself, against the whole <i>régime</i> and government and institutions and +dogmas of the Catholic Church; and that is the reason why Catholics +hate Luther so bitterly, and deny to him either virtues or graces, and +represent even his deathbed as a scene of torment and despair,--an +instance of that pursuing hatred which goes beyond the grave; like that +of the zealots of the Revolution in France, who dug up the bones of the +ancient kings from those vaults where they had reposed for centuries, +and scattered their ashes to the winds.</p> + +<p>Savonarola hoped the Christian world would come to his rescue; but his +letters were intercepted, and reached the eye of Alexander VI., who now +bent the whole force of the papal empire to destroy that bold reformer +who had assailed his throne. And it seems that a change took place in +Florence itself in popular sentiment. The Medicean party obtained the +ascendency in the government. The people--the fickle people--began to +desert Savonarola; and especially when he refused to undergo the ordeal +of fire,--one of the relics of Mediaeval superstition,--the people felt +that they had been cheated out of their amusement, for they had waited +impatiently the whole day in the public square to see the spectacle. He +finally consented to undergo the ordeal, provided he might carry the +crucifix. To this his enemies would not consent. He then laid aside the +crucifix, but insisted on entering the fire with the sacrament in his +hand. His persecutors would not allow this either, and the ordeal did +not take place.</p> + +<p>At last his martyrdom approaches: he is led to prison. The magistrates +of the city send to Rome for absolution for having allowed the Prior to +preach. His enemies busy themselves in collecting evidence against +him,--for what I know not, except that he had denounced corruption and +sin, and had predicted woe. His two friends are imprisoned and +interrogated with him, Fra Domenico da Pescia and Fra Silvestro Maruffi, +who are willing to die for him. He and they are now subjected to most +cruel tortures. As the result of bodily agony his mind begins to waver. +His answers are incoherent; he implores his tormentors to end his +agonies; he cries out, with a voice enough to melt a heart of stone, +"Take, oh, take my life!" Yet he confessed nothing to criminate himself. +What they wished him especially to confess was that he had pretended to +be a prophet, since he had predicted calamities. But all men are +prophets, in one sense, when they declare the certain penalties of sin, +from which no one can escape, though he take the wings of the morning +and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea.</p> + +<p>Savonarola thus far had remained firm, but renewed examinations and +fresh tortures took place. For a whole month his torments were +continuous. In one day he was drawn up by a rope fourteen times, and +then suddenly dropped, until all his muscles quivered with anguish. Had +he been surrounded by loving disciples, like Latimer at the burning +pile, he might have summoned more strength; but alone, in a dark +inquisitorial prison, subjected to increasing torture among bitter foes, +he did not fully defend his visions and prophecies; and then his +extorted confessions were diabolically altered. But that was all they +could get out of him,--that he had prophesied. In all matters of faith +he was sound. The inquisitors were obliged to bring their examination to +an end. They could find no fault with him, and yet they were determined +on his death. The Government of Florence consented to it and hastened +it, for a Medici again held the highest office of the State.</p> + +<p>Nothing remained to the imprisoned and tortured friar but to prepare for +his execution. In his supreme trial he turned to the God in whom he +believed. In the words of the dying Xavier, on the Island of Sancian, he +exclaimed, <i>In te domine speravi, non confundar in eternum</i>. "O Lord," +he prays, "a thousand times hast thou wiped out my iniquity. I do not +rely on my own justification, but on thy mercy." His few remaining days +in prison were passed in holy meditation.</p> + +<p>At last the officers of the papal commission arrive. The tortures are +renewed, and also the examinations, with the same result. No fault could +be found with his doctrines. "But a dead enemy," said they, "fights no +more." He is condemned to execution. The messengers of death arrive at +his cell, and find him on his knees. He is overpowered by his sufferings +and vigils, and can with difficulty be kept from sleep. But he arouses +himself, and passes the night in prayer, and administers the elements of +redemption to his doomed companions, and closes with this prayer: "Lord, +I know thou art that perfect Trinity,--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; I +know that thou art the eternal Word; that thou didst descend from heaven +into the bosom of Mary; that thou didst ascend upon the cross to shed +thy blood for our sins. I pray thee that by that blood I may have +remission for my sins." The simple faith of Paul, of Augustine, of +Pascal! He then partook of the communion, and descended to the public +square, while the crowd gazed silently and with trepidation, and was led +with his companions to the first tribunal, where he was disrobed of his +ecclesiastical dress. Then they were led to another tribunal, and +delivered to the secular arm; then to another, where sentence of death +was read; and then to the place of execution,--not a burning funeral +pyre, but a scaffold, which mounting, composed, calm, absorbed, +Savonarola submitted his neck to the hangman, in the forty-fifth year of +his life: a martyr to the cause of Christ, not for an attack on the +Church, or its doctrines, or its institutions, but for having denounced +the corruption and vices of those who ruled it,--for having preached +against sin.</p> + +<p>Thus died one of the greatest and best men of his age, one of the truest +and purest whom the Catholic Church has produced in any age. He was +stern, uncompromising, austere, but a reformer and a saint; a man who +was merciful and generous in the possession of power; an enlightened +statesman, a sound theologian, and a fearless preacher of that +righteousness which exalteth a nation. He had no vices, no striking +defects. He lived according to the rules of the convent he governed with +the same wisdom that he governed a city, and he died in the faith of the +primitive apostles. His piety was monastic, but his spirit was +progressive, sympathizing with liberty, advocating public morality. He +was unselfish, disinterested, and true to his Church, his conscience, +and his cause,--a noble specimen both of a man and Christian, whose +deeds and example form part of the inheritance of an admiring posterity. +We pity his closing days, after such a career of power and influence; +but we may as well compassionate Socrates or Paul. The greatest lights +of the world have gone out in martyrdom, to be extinguished, however, +only for a time, and then to loom up again in another age, and burn with +inextinguishable brightness to remotest generations, as examples of the +power of faith and truth in this wicked and rebellious world,--a world +to be finally redeemed by the labors and religion of just such men, +whose days are days of sadness, protest, and suffering, and whose hours +of triumph and exaltation are not like those of conquerors, nor like +those whose eyes stand out with fatness, but few and far between. "I +have loved righteousness, I have hated iniquity," said the great +champion of the Mediaeval Church, "and therefore I die in exile."</p> + +<p>In ten years after this ignominious execution, Raphael painted the +martyr among the sainted doctors of the Church in the halls of the +Vatican, and future popes did justice to his memory, for he inaugurated +that reform movement in the Catholic Church itself which took place +within fifty years after his death. In one sense he was the precursor of +Loyola, of Xavier, and of Aquaviva,--those illustrious men who headed +the counter-reformation; Jesuits, indeed, but ardent in piety, and +enlightened by the spirit of a progressive age. "He was the first," says +Villari, "in the fifteenth century, to make men feel that a new light +had awakened the human race; and thus he was a prophet of a new +civilization,--the forerunner of Luther, of Bacon, of Descartes. Hence +the drama of his life became, after his death, the drama of Europe. In +the course of a single generation after Luther had declared his mission, +the spirit of the Church of Rome underwent a change. From the halls of +the Vatican to the secluded hermitages of the Apennines this revival was +felt. Instead of a Borgia there reigned a Caraffa." And it is remarkable +that from the day that the counter-reformation in the Catholic Church +was headed by the early Jesuits, Protestantism gained no new victories, +and in two centuries so far declined in piety and zeal that the cities +which witnessed the noblest triumphs of Luther and Calvin were disgraced +by a boasting rationalism, to be succeeded again in our times by an +arrogance of scepticism which has had no parallel since the days of +Democritus and Lucretius. "It was the desire of Savonarola that reason, +religion, and liberty might meet in harmonious union, but he did not +think a new system of religious doctrines was necessary."</p> + +<p>The influence of such a man cannot pass away, and has not passed away, +for it cannot be doubted that his views have been embraced by +enlightened Catholics from his day to ours,--by such men as Pascal, +Fénelon, and Lacordaire, and thousands like them, who prefer ritualism +and auricular confession, and penance, monasticism, and an +ecclesiastical monarch, and all the machinery of a complicated +hierarchy, with all the evils growing out of papal domination, to +rationalism, sectarian dissensions, irreverence, license, want of unity, +want of government, and even dispensation from the marriage vow. Which +is worse, the physical arm of the beast, or the maniac soul of a lying +prophet? Which is worse, the superstition and narrowness which excludes +the Bible from schools, or that unbounded toleration which smiles on +those audacious infidels who cloak their cruel attacks on the faith of +Christians with the name of a progressive civilization?--and so far +advanced that one of these new lights, ignorant, perhaps, of everything +except of the fossils and shells and bugs and gases of the hole he has +bored in, assumes to know more of the mysteries of creation and the laws +of the universe than Moses and David and Paul, and all the Bacons and +Newtons that ever lived? Names are nothing; it is the spirit, the +<i>animus</i>, which is everything. It is the soul which permeates a system, +that I look at. It is the Devil from which I would flee, whatever be his +name, and though he assume the form of an angel of light, or cunningly +try to persuade me, and ingeniously argue, that there is no God. True +and good Catholics and true and good Protestants have ever been united +in one thing,--<i>in this belief</i>, that there is a God who made the heaven +and the earth, and that there is a Christ who made atonement for the +sins of the world. It is good morals, faith, and love to which both +Catholics and Protestants are exhorted by the Apostles. When either +Catholics or Protestants accept the one faith and the one Lord which +Christianity alone reveals, then they equally belong to the grand army +of spiritual warriors under the banner of the Cross, though they may +march under different generals and in different divisions; and they will +receive the same consolations in this world, and the same rewards in the +world to come.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Villari's Life of Savonarola; Biographie Universelle; Ranke's History of +the Popes. There is much in "Romola," by George Eliot. Life of +Savonarola, by the Prince of Mirandola.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="MICHAEL_ANGELO."></a>MICHAEL ANGELO.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1475-1564.</p> + +<p>THE REVIVAL OF ART.</p> + +<p>Michael Angelo Buonarroti--one of the Great Lights of the new +civilization--may stand as the most fitting representative of reviving +art in Europe; also as an illustrious example of those virtues which +dignify intellectual pre-eminence. He was superior, in all that is +sterling and grand in character, to any man of his age,--certainly in +Italy; exhibiting a rugged, stern greatness which reminds us of Dante, +and of other great benefactors; nurtured in the school of sorrow and +disappointment, leading a checkered life, doomed to envy, ingratitude, +and neglect; rarely understood, and never fully appreciated even by +those who employed and honored him. He was an isolated man; grave, +abstracted, lonely, yet not unhappy, since his world was that of +glorious and exalting ideas, even those of grace, beauty, majesty, and +harmony,--the world which Plato lived in, and in which all great men +live who seek to rise above the transient, the false, and puerile in +common life. He was also an original genius, remarkable in everything he +attempted, whether as sculptor, painter, or architect, and even as poet. +He saw the archetypes of everything beautiful and grand, which are +invisible except to those who are almost divinely gifted; and he had the +practical skill to embody them in permanent forms, so that all ages may +study those forms, and rise through them to the realms in which his +soul lived.</p> + +<p>Michael Angelo not only created, but he reproduced. He reproduced the +glories of Grecian and Roman art. He restored the old civilization in +his pictures, his statues, and his grand edifices. He revived a taste +for what is imperishable in antiquity. As such he is justly regarded as +an immortal benefactor; for it is art which gives to nations culture, +refinement, and the enjoyment of the beautiful. Art diverts the mind +from low and commonplace pursuits, exalts the imagination, and makes its +votary indifferent to the evils of life. It raises the soul into regions +of peace and bliss.</p> + +<p>But art is most ennobling when it is inspired by lofty and consecrated +sentiments,--like those of religion, patriotism, and love. Now ancient +art was consecrated to Paganism. Of course there were noble exceptions; +but as a general rule temples were erected in honor of heathen deities. +Statues represented mere physical strength and beauty and grace. +Pictures portrayed the charms of an unsanctified humanity. Hence ancient +art did very little to arrest human degeneracy; facilitated rather than +retarded the ruin of states and empires, since it did not stimulate the +virtues on which the strength of man is based: it did not check those +depraved tastes and habits which are based on egotism.</p> + +<p>Now the restorers of ancient art cannot be said to have contributed to +the moral elevation of the new races, unless they avoided the sensualism +of Greece and Rome, and appealed purely to those eternal ideas which the +human mind, even under Pagan influences, sometimes conceived, and which +do not conflict with Christianity itself.</p> + +<p>In considering the life and labors of Michael Angelo, then, we are to +examine whether, in the classical glories of antiquity which he +substituted for the Gothic and Mediaeval, he advanced civilization in +the noblest sense; and moreover, whether he carried art to a higher +degree than was ever attained by the Greeks and Romans, and hence became +a benefactor of the world.</p> + +<p>In considering these points I shall not attempt a minute criticism of +his works. I can only seize on the great outlines, the salient points of +those productions which have given him immortality. No lecture can be +exhaustive. If it only prove suggestive, it has reached its end.</p> + +<p>Michael Angelo stands out in history in the three aspects of sculptor, +painter, and architect; and that too in a country devoted to art, and in +an age when Italy won all her modern glories, arising from the matchless +works which that age produced. Indeed, those works will probably never +be surpassed, since all the energies of a great nation were concentrated +upon their production, even as our own age confines itself chiefly to +mechanical inventions and scientific research and speculation. What +railroads and telegraphs and spindles and chemical tests and compounds +are to us; what philosophy was to the Greeks; what government and +jurisprudence were to the Romans; what cathedrals and metaphysical +subtilties were to the Middle Ages; what theological inquiries were to +the divines of the seventeenth century; what social urbanities and +refinements were to the French in the eighteenth century,--the fine arts +were to the Italians in the sixteenth century: a fact too commonplace to +dwell upon, and which will be conceded when we bear in mind that no age +has been distinguished for everything, and that nations can try +satisfactorily but one experiment at a time, and are not likely to +repeat it with the same enthusiasm. As the mind is unbounded in its +capacities, and our world affords inexhaustible fields of enterprise, +the progress of the race is to be seen in the new developments which +successively appear, but in which only a certain limit has thus far been +reached. Not in absolute perfection in any particular sphere is this +progress seen, but rather in the variety of the experiments. It may be +doubted whether any Grecian edifice will ever surpass the Parthenon in +beauty of proportion or fitness of ornament; or any nude statue show +grace of form more impressive than the Venus de Milo or the Apollo +Belvedere; or any system of jurisprudence be more completely codified +than that systematized by Justinian; or any Gothic church rival the +lofty expression of Cologne cathedral; or any painting surpass the holy +serenity and ethereal love depicted in Raphael's madonnas; or any court +witness such a brilliant assemblage of wits and beauties as met at +Versailles to render homage to Louis XIV.; or any theological discussion +excite such a national interest as when Luther confronted Doctor Eck in +the great hall of the Electoral Palace at Leipsic; or any theatrical +excitement such as was produced on cultivated intellects when Garrick +and Siddons represented the sublime conceptions of the myriad-minded +Shakspeare. These glories may reappear, but never will they shine as +they did before. No more Olympian games, no more Roman triumphs, no more +Dodona oracles, no more Flavian amphitheatres, no more Mediaeval +cathedrals, no more councils of Nice or Trent, no more spectacles of +kings holding the stirrups of popes, no more Fields of the Cloth of +Gold, no more reigns of court mistresses in such palaces as Versailles +and Fontainbleau,--ah! I wish I could add, no more such battlefields as +Marengo and Waterloo,--only copies and imitations of these, and without +the older charm. The world is moving on and perpetually changing, nor +can we tell what new vanity will next arise,--vanity or glory, according +to our varying notions of the dignity and destiny of man. We may predict +that it will not be any mechanical improvement, for ere long the limit +will be reached,--and it will be reached when the great mass cannot find +work to do, for the everlasting destiny of man is toil and labor. But it +will be some sublime wonders of which we cannot now conceive, and which +in time will pass away for other wonders and novelties, until the great +circle is completed; and all human experiments shall verify the moral +wisdom of the eternal revelation. Then all that man has done, all that +man can do, in his own boastful thought, will be seen, in the light of +the celestial verities, to be indeed a vanity and a failure, not of +human ingenuity and power, but to realize the happiness which is only +promised as the result of supernatural, not mortal, strength, yet which +the soul in its restless aspirations never ceases its efforts to +secure,--everlasting Babel-building to reach the unattainable on earth.</p> + +<p>Now the revival of art in Italy was one of the great movements in the +series of human development. It peculiarly characterized the fifteenth +and sixteenth centuries. It was an age of artistic wonders, of great +creations.</p> + +<p>Italy, especially, was glorious when Michael Angelo was born, 1474; when +the rest of Europe was comparatively rude, and when no great works in +art, in poetry, in history, or philosophy had yet appeared. He was +descended from an illustrious family, and was destined to one of the +learned professions; but he could not give up his mind to anything but +drawing,--as annoying to his father as Galileo's experiments were to his +parent; as unmeaning to him as Gibbon's History was to George +III.,--"Scribble, scribble, scribble; Mr. Gibbon, I perceive, sir, you +are always a-scribbling." No perception of a new power, no sympathy with +the abandonment to a specialty not indorsed by fashions and traditions, +but without which abandonment genius cannot easily be developed. At last +the father yielded, and the son was apprenticed to a painter,--a +degradation in the eyes of Mediaeval aristocracy.</p> + +<p>The celebrated Lorenzo de' Medici was then in the height of power and +fame in Florence, adored by Roscoe as the patron of artists and poets, +although he subverted the liberties of his country. This over-lauded +prince, heir of the fortunes of a great family of merchants, wishing to +establish a school for sculpture, filled a garden with statues, and +freely admitted to it young scholars in art. Michael Angelo was one of +the most frequent and enthusiastic visitors to this garden, where in due +time he attracted the attention of the magnificent Lord of Florence by a +head chiselled so remarkably that he became an inmate of the palace, sat +at the table of Lorenzo, and at last was regularly adopted as one of the +Prince's family, with every facility for prosecuting his studies. Before +he was eighteen the youth had sculptured the battle of Hercules with the +Centaurs, which he would never part with, and which still remains in his +family; so well done that he himself, at the age of eighty, regretted +that he had not given up his whole life to sculpture.</p> + +<p>It was then as a sculptor that Michael Angelo first appears to the +historical student,--about the year 1492, when Columbus was crossing the +great unknown ocean to realize his belief in a western passage to India. +Thus commercial enterprise began with the revival of art, and was +destined never to be separated in its alliance with it, since commerce +brings wealth, and wealth seeks to ornament the palaces and gardens +which it has created or purchased. The sculptor's art was not born until +piety had already edifices in which to worship God, or pride the +monuments in which it sought the glories of a name; but it made rapid +progress as wealth increased and taste became refined; as the need was +felt for ornaments and symbols to adorn naked walls and empty spaces, +especially statuary, grouped or single, of men or animals,--a marble +history to interpret or reproduce consecrated associations. Churches +might do without them; the glass stained in every color of the rainbow, +the altar shining with gold and silver and precious stones, the pillars +multiplied and diversified, and rich in foliated circles, mullions, +mouldings, groins, and bosses, and bearing aloft the arched and +ponderous roof,--one scene of dazzling magnificence,--these could do +without them; but the palaces and halls and houses of the rich required +the image of man,--and of man not emaciated and worn and monstrous, but +of man as he appeared to the classical Greeks, in the perfection of form +and physical beauty. So the artists who arose with the revival of +commerce, with the multiplication of human wants and the study of +antiquity, sought to restore the buried statues with the long-neglected +literature and laws. It was in sculptured marbles that enthusiasm was +most marked. These were found in abundance in various parts of Italy +whenever the vast débris of the ancient magnificence was removed, and +were universally admired and prized by popes, cardinals, and princes, +and formed the nucleus of great museums.</p> + +<p>The works of Michael Angelo as a sculptor were not numerous, but in +sublimity they have never been surpassed,--<i>non multa, sed multum</i>. His +unfinished monument of Julius II., begun at that pontiff's request as a +mausoleum, is perhaps his greatest work; and the statue of Moses, which +formed a part of it, has been admired for three hundred years. In this, +as in his other masterpieces, grandeur and majesty are his +characteristics. It may have been a reproduction, and yet it is not a +copy. He made character and moral force the first consideration, and +form subservient to expression. And here he differed, it is said by +great critics, from the ancients, who thought more of form than of moral +expression,--as may be seen in the faces of the Venus de Medici and the +Apollo Belvedere, matchless and inimitable as these statues are in grace +and beauty. The Laocoön and the Dying Gladiator are indeed exceptions, +for it is character which constitutes their chief merit,--the expression +of pain, despair, and agony. But there is almost no intellectual or +moral expression in the faces of other famous and remarkable antique +statues, only beauty and variety of form, such as Powers exhibited in +his Greek Slave,--an inferior excellence, since it is much easier to +copy the beautiful in the nude statues which people Italy, than to +express such intellectual majesty as Michael Angelo conceived--that +intellectual expression which Story has succeeded in giving to his +African Sibyl. Thus while the great artist retained the antique, he +superadded a loftiness such as the ancients rarely produced; and +sculpture became in his hands, not demoralizing and Pagan, resplendent +in sensual charms, but instructive and exalting,--instructive for the +marvellous display of anatomical knowledge, and exalting from grand +conceptions of dignity and power. His knowledge of anatomy was so +remarkable that he could work without models. Our artists, in these +days, must always have before their eyes some nude figure to copy.</p> + +<p>The same peculiarities which have given him fame as a sculptor he +carried out into painting, in which he is even more remarkable; for the +artists of Italy at this period often combined a skill for all the fine +arts. In sculpture they were much indebted to the ancients, but painting +seems to have been purely a development. In the Middle Ages it was +comparatively rude. No noted painter arose until Cimabue, in the middle +of the thirteenth century. Before him, painting was a lifeless imitation +of models afforded by Greek workers in mosaics; but Cimabue abandoned +this servile copying, and gave a new expression to heads, and grouped +his figures. Under Giotto, who was contemporary with Dante, drawing +became still more correct, and coloring softer. After him, painting was +rapidly advanced. Pietro della Francesca was the father of perspective; +Domenico painted in oil, discovered by Van Eyck in Flanders, in 1410; +Masaccio studied anatomy; gilding disappeared as a background around +pictures. In the fifteenth century the enthusiasm for painting became +intense; even monks became painters, and every convent and church and +palace was deemed incomplete without pictures. But ideal beauty and +harmony in coloring were still wanting, as well as freedom of the +pencil. Then arose Da Vinci and Michael Angelo, who practised the +immutable principles by which art could be advanced; and rapidly +following in their steps, Fra Bartolommeo, Fra Angelico, Rossi, and +Andrea del Sarto made the age an era in painting, until the art +culminated in Raphael and Corregio and Titian. And divers cities of +Italy--Bologna, Milan, Parma, and Venice--disputed with Rome and +Florence for the empire of art; as also did many other cities which +might be mentioned, each of which has a history, each of which is +hallowed by poetic associations; so that all men who have lived in +Italy, or even visited it, feel a peculiar interest in these cities,--an +interest which they can feel in no others, even if they be such capitals +as London and Paris. I excuse this extravagant admiration for the +wonderful masterpieces produced in that age, making marble and canvas +eloquent with the most inspiring sentiments, because, wrapt in the joys +which they excite, the cultivated and imaginative man forgets--and +rejoices that he can forget--the priests and beggars, the dirty hotels, +filthy friars, superstition, unthrift, Jesuitism, which stare ordinary +tourists in the face, and all the other disgusting realities which +philanthropists deplore so loudly in that degenerate but classical and +ever-to-be-hallowed land. For, come what will, in spite of popes and +despots it has been the scene of the highest glories of antiquity, +calling to our minds saints and martyrs, as well as conquerors and +emperors, and revealing at every turn their tombs and broken monuments, +and all the hoary remnants of unsurpassed magnificence, as well as +preserving in churches and palaces those wonders which were created when +Italy once again lived in the noble aspiration of making herself the +centre and the pride of the new civilization.</p> + +<p>Da Vinci, the oldest of the great masters who immortalized that era, +died in 1519, in the arms of Francis I. of France, and Michael Angelo +received his mantle. The young sculptor was taken away from his chisel +to paint, for Pope Julius II., the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. After +the death of his patron Lorenzo, he had studied and done famous work in +marble at Bologna, at Rome, and again at Florence. He had also painted +some, and with such immediate success that he had been invited to assist +Da Vinci in decorating a hall in the ducal palace at Florence. But +sculpture was his chosen art, and when called to paint the Sistine +Chapel, he implored the Pope that he might be allowed to finish the +mausoleum which he had begun, and that Raphael, then dazzling the whole +city by his unprecedented talents, might be substituted for him in that +great work. But the Pope was inflexible; and the great artist began his +task, assisted by other painters; however, he soon got disgusted with +them and sent them away, and worked alone. For twenty months he toiled, +rarely seen, living abstemiously, absorbed utterly in his work of +creation; and the greater portion of the compartments in the vast +ceiling was finished before any other voice than his, except the +admiring voice of the Pope, pronounced it good.</p> + +<p>It would be useless to attempt to describe those celebrated frescos. +Their subjects were taken from the Book of Genesis, with great figures +of sibyls and prophets. They are now half-concealed by the accumulated +dust and smoke of three hundred years, and can be surveyed only by +reclining at full length on the back. We see enough, however, to be +impressed with the boldness, the majesty, and the originality of the +figures,--their fidelity to nature, the knowledge of anatomy displayed, +and the disdain of inferior arts; especially the noble disdain of +appealing to false and perverted taste, as if he painted from an exalted +ideal in his own mind, which ideal is ever associated with +creative power.</p> + +<p>It is this creative power which places Michael Angelo at the head of the +artists of his great age; and not merely the power to create but the +power of realizing the most exalted conceptions. Raphael was doubtless +superior to him in grace and beauty, even as Titian afterwards surpassed +him in coloring. He delighted, like Dante, in the awful and the +terrible. This grandeur of conception was especially seen in his Last +Judgment, executed thirty years afterwards, in completion of the Sistine +Chapel, the work on which had been suspended at the death of Julius. +This vast fresco is nearly seventy feet in height, painted upon the wall +at the end of the chapel, as an altar-piece. No subject could have been +better adapted to his genius than this--the day of supernal terrors +(<i>dies irae, dies illa</i>), when, according to the sentiments of the +Middle Ages, the doomed were subjected to every variety of physical +suffering, and when this agony of pain, rather than agony of remorse, +was expressed in tortured limbs and in faces writhing with demoniacal +despair. Such was the variety of tortures which he expressed, showing an +unexampled richness in imaginative powers, that people came to see it +from the remotest parts of Italy. It made a great sensation, like the +appearance of an immortal poem, and was magnificently rewarded; for the +painter received a pension of twelve hundred golden crowns a year,--a +great sum in that age.</p> + +<p>But Michael Angelo did not paint many pieces; he confined himself +chiefly to cartoons and designs, which, scattered far and wide, were +reproduced by other artists. His most famous cartoon was the Battle of +Pisa, the one executed for the ducal palace of Florence, as pendant to +one by Leonardo da Vinci, then in the height of his fame. This picture +was so remarkable for the accuracy of drawing, and the variety and form +of expression, that Raphael came to Florence on purpose to study it; and +it was the power of giving boldness and dignity and variety to the human +figure, as shown in this painting, which constitutes his great +originality and transcendent excellence. The great creations of the +painters, in modern times as well as in the ancient, are those which +represent the human figure in its ideal excellence,--which of course +implies what is most perfect, not in any one man or woman, but in men +and women collectively. Hence the greatest of painters rarely have +stooped to landscape painting, since no imaginary landscape can surpass +what everybody has seen in nature. You cannot improve on the colors of +the rainbow, or the gilded clouds of sunset, or the shadows of the +mountain, or the graceful form of trees, or the varied tints of leaves +and flowers; but you can represent the figure of a man or woman more +beautiful than any one man or woman that has ever appeared. What mortal +woman ever expressed the ethereal beauty depicted in a Madonna of +Raphael or Murillo? And what man ever had such a sublimity of aspect and +figure as the creations of Michael Angelo? Why, "a beggar," says one of +his greatest critics, "arose from his hand the patriarch of poverty; the +hump of his dwarf is impressed with dignity; his infants are men, and +his men are giants." And, says another critic, "he is the inventor of +epic painting, in that sublime circle of the Sistine Chapel which +exhibits the origin, progress, and final dispensation of the theocracy. +He has personified motion in the cartoon of Pisa, portrayed meditation +in the prophets and sibyls of the Sistine Chapel and in the Last +Judgment, traced every attitude which varies the human body, with every +passion which sways the human soul." His supremacy is in the mighty +soaring of his intellectual conceptions. Marvellous as a creator, like +Shakspeare; profound and solemn, like Dante; representing power even in +repose, and giving to the Cyclopean forms which he has called into being +a charm of moral excellence which secures our sympathy; a firm believer +in a supreme and personal God; disciplined in worldly trials, and +glowing in lofty conceptions of justice,--he delights in portraying the +stern prophets of Israel, surrounded with an atmosphere of holiness, +yet breathing compassion on those whom they denounce; august in dignity, +yet melting with tenderness; solemn, sad, profound. Thus was his +influence pure and exalted in an art which has too often been +prostituted to please the perverted taste of a sensual age. The most +refined and expressive of all the arts,--as it sometimes is, and always +should be,--is the one which oftenest appeals to that which Christianity +teaches us to shun. You may say, "Evil to him who evil thinks," +especially ye pure and immaculate persons who have walked uncorrupted +amid the galleries of Paris, Dresden. Florence, and Rome; but I fancy +that pictures, like books, are what we choose to make them, and that the +more exquisite the art by which vice is divested of its grossness, but +not of its subtle poisons,--like the New Héloïse of Rousseau or the +Wilhelm Meister of Goethe,--the more fatally will it lead astray by the +insidious entrance of an evil spirit in the guise of an angel of light. +Art, like literature, is neither good nor evil abstractly, but may +become a savor of death unto death, as well as of life unto life. You +cannot extinguish it without destroying one of the noblest developments +of civilization; but you cannot have civilization without multiplying +the temptations of human society, and hence must be guarded from those +destructive cankers which, as in old Rome, eat out the virtues on which +the strength of man is based. The old apostles, and other great +benefactors of the world, attached more value to the truths which +elevate than to the arts which soften. It was the noble direction which +Michael Angelo gave to art which made him a great benefactor not only of +civilization, but also of art, by linking with it the eternal ideas of +majesty and dignity, as well as the truths which are taught by divine +inspiration,--another illustration of the profound reverence which the +great master minds of the world, like Augustine, Pascal, and Bacon, have +ever expressed for the ideas which were revealed by Christianity and the +old prophets of Jehovah; ideas which many bright but inferior +intellects, in their egotistical arrogance, have sought to subvert.</p> + +<p>Yet it was neither as sculptor nor painter that Michael Angelo left the +most enduring influence, but as architect. Painting and sculpture are +the exclusive ornaments and possession of the rich and favored. But +architecture concerns all men, and most men have something to do with it +in the course of their lives. What boots it that a man pays two thousand +pounds for a picture to be shut up in his library, and probably more +valued for its rarity, or from the caprices of fashion, than for its +real merits? But it is something when a nation pays a million for a +ridiculous building, without regard to the object for which it is +intended,--to be observed and criticised by everybody and for +succeeding generations. A good picture is the admiration of a few; a +magnificent edifice is the pride of thousands. A picture necessarily +cultivates the taste of a family circle; a public edifice educates the +minds of millions. Even the Moses of Michael Angelo is a mere object of +interest to those who visit the church of San Pietro in Vincoli; but St. +Peter's is a monument to be seen by large populations from generation to +generation. All London contemplates St. Paul's Church or the Palace of +Westminster, but the National Gallery may be visited by a small fraction +of the people only once a year. Of the thousands who stand before the +Tuileries or the Madeleine not one in a hundred has visited the gallery +of the Louvre. What material works of man so grand as those hoary +monuments of piety or pride erected three thousand years ago, and still +magnificent in their very ruins! How imposing are the pyramids, the +Coliseum, and the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages! And even when +architecture does not rear vaulted roofs and arches and pinnacles, or +tower to dazzling heights, or inspire reverential awe from the +associations which cluster around it, how interesting are even its minor +triumphs! Who does not stop to admire a beautiful window, or porch, or +portico? Who does not criticise his neighbor's house, its proportions, +its general effect, its adaptation to the uses designed? Architecture +never wearies us, for its wonders are inexhaustible; they appeal to the +common eye, and have reference to the necessities of man, and sometimes +express the consecrated sentiments of an age or a nation. Nor can it be +prostituted, like painting and sculpture; it never corrupts the mind, +and sometimes inspires it; and if it makes an appeal to the senses or +the imagination, it is to kindle perceptions of the severe beauty of +geometrical forms.</p> + +<p>Whoever, then, has done anything in architecture has contributed to the +necessities of man, and stimulated an admiration for what is venerable +and magnificent. Now Michael Angelo was not only the architect of +numerous palaces and churches, but also one of the principal architects +of that great edifice which is, on the whole, the noblest church in +Christendom,--a perpetual marvel and study; not faultless, but so +imposing that it will long remain, like the old temple of Ephesus, one +of the wonders of the world. He completed the church without great +deviation from the plan of the first architect, Bramante, whom he +regarded as the greatest architect that had lived,--altering Bramante's +plans from a Latin to a Greek cross, the former of which was retained +after Michael Angelo's death. But it is the interior, rather than the +exterior of St. Peter's, which shows its vast superiority over all other +churches for splendor and effect, and surprises all who are even fresh +from Cologne and Milan and Westminster. It impresses us like a wonder +of nature rather than as the work of man,--a great work of engineering +as well as a marvel of majesty and beauty. We are surprised to see so +vast a structure, covering nearly five acres, so elaborately finished, +nothing neglected; the lofty walls covered with precious marbles, the +side chapels filled with statues and monuments, the altars ornamented +with pictures,--and those pictures not painted in oil, but copied in +mosaic, so that they will neither decay nor fade, but last till +destroyed by violence. What feelings overpower the poetic mind when the +glories of that interior first blaze upon the brain; what a world of +brightness, softness, and richness; what grandeur, solidity, and +strength; what unnumbered treasures around the altars; what grand +mosaics relieve the height of the wondrous dome,--larger than the +Pantheon, rising two hundred feet from the intersection of those lofty +and massive piers which divide transept from choir and nave; what effect +of magnitude after the eye gets accustomed to the vast proportions! Oh, +what silence reigns around! How difficult, even for the sonorous chants +of choristers and priests to disturb that silence,--to be more than +echoes of a distant music which seems to come from the very courts of +heaven itself: to some a holy sanctuary, where one may meditate among +crowds and feel alone; where one breathes an atmosphere which changes +not with heat or cold; and where the ever-burning lamps and clouds of +incense diffusing the fragrance of the East, and the rich dresses of the +mitred priests, and the unnumbered symbols, suggest the ritualism of +that imposing worship when Solomon dedicated to Jehovah the grandest +temple of antiquity!</p> + +<p>Truly was St. Peter's Church the last great achievement of the popes, +the crowning demonstration of their temporal dominion; suggestive of +their wealth and power, a marble history of pride and pomp, a fitting +emblem of that worship which appeals to sense rather than to God. And +singular it was, when the great artist reared that gigantic pile, even +though it symbolized the cross, he really gave a vital wound to that +cause to which he consecrated his noblest energies; for its lofty dome +could not be completed without the contributions of Christendom, and +those contributions could not be made without an appeal to false +principles which entered into Mediaeval Catholicism,--even penance and +self-expiation, which stirred the holy indignation of a man who knew and +declared on what different ground justification should be based. Thus +was Luther, in one sense, called into action by the labors of Michael +Angelo; thus was the erection of St. Peter's Church overruled in the +preaching of reformers, who would show that the money obtained by the +sale of indulgences for sin could never purchase an acceptable offering +to God, even though the monument were filled with Christian emblems, and +consecrated by those prayers and anthems which had been the life of +blessed saints and martyrs for more than a thousand years.</p> + +<p>St. Peter's is not Gothic, it is a restoration of the Greek; it belongs +to what artists call the Renaissance,--a style of architecture marked by +a return to the classical models of antiquity. Michael Angelo brought +back to civilization the old ideas of Grecian grace and Roman +majesty,--typical of the original inspirations of the men who lived in +the quiet admiration of eternal beauty and grace; the men who built the +Parthenon, and who shaped pillars and capitals and entablatures in the +severest proportions, and fitted them with ornaments drawn from the +living world,--plants and animals, especially images of God's highest +work, even of man; and of man not worn and macerated and dismal and +monstrous, but of man when most resplendent in the perfections of the +primeval strength and beauty. He returned to a style which classical +antiquity carried to great perfection, but which had been neglected by +the new Teutonic nations.</p> + +<p>Nor is there evidence that Michael Angelo disdained the creations +especially seen in those Gothic monuments which are still the objects of +our admiration. Who does not admire the church architecture of the +Middle Ages? Of its kind it has never been surpassed. Geometry and +art--the true and the beautiful--meet. Nothing ever erected by the hand +of man surpasses the more famous cathedrals of the twelfth and +thirteenth centuries, in the richness and variety of their symbolic +decorations. They typify the great ideas of Christianity; they inspire +feelings of awe and reverence; they are astonishing structures, in their +magnitude and in their effect. Monuments are they of religious zeal and +poetical inspiration,--the creations of great artists, although we +scarcely know their names; adapted to the uses designed; the expression +of consecrated sentiments; the marble history of the ages in which they +were erected,--now heavy and sombre when society was enslaved and +mournful; and then cheerful and lofty when Christianity was joyful and +triumphant. Who ever was satisfied in contemplating the diversified +wonders of those venerable structures? Who would lose the impression +which almost overwhelmed the mind when York minster, or Cologne, or +Milan, or Amiens was first beheld, with their lofty spires and towers, +their sculptured pinnacles, their flying buttresses, their vaulted +roofs, their long arcades, their purple windows, their holy altars, +their symbolic carvings, their majestic outlines, their grand +proportions!</p> + +<p>But beautiful, imposing, poetical, and venerable as are these hoary +piles, they are not the all in all of art. Suppose all the buildings of +Europe the last four hundred years had been modelled from these +churches, how gloomy would be our streets, how dark and dingy our shops, +how dismal our dwellings, how inconvenient our hotels! A new style was +needed, at least as a supplement of the old,--as lances and shields were +giving place to fire-arms, and the line and the plummet for the +mariner's compass; as a new civilization was creating new wants and +developing the material necessities of man.</p> + +<p>So Michael Angelo arose, and revived the imperishable models of the +classical ages,--to be applied not merely to churches but to palaces, +civic halls, theatres, libraries, museums, banks,--all of which have +mundane purposes. The material world had need of conveniences, as much +as the Mediaeval age had need of shrines. Humanity was to be developed +as well as the Deity to be worshipped. The artist took the broadest +views, looking upon Gothic architecture as but one division of +art,--even as truth is greater than any system, and Christianity wider +than any sect. O, how this Shakspeare of art would have smiled on the +vague and transcendental panegyrics of Michelet or Ruskin, and other +sentimental admirers of an age which never can return! And how he might +have laughed at some modern enthusiasts, who trace religion to the +disposition of stones and arches, forgetting that religion is an +inspiration which comes from God, and never from the work of man's +hands, which can be only a form of idolatry.</p> + +<p>Michael Angelo found that the ornamentations of the ancient temples were +as rich and varied as those of Mediaeval churches. Mouldings were +discovered of incomparable elegance; the figures on entablatures were +found to be chiselled accurately from nature; the pillars were of +matchless proportions, the capitals of graceful curvatures. He saw +beauty in the horizontal lines of the Parthenon, as much as in the +vertical lines of Cologne. He would not pull down the venerable +monuments of religious zeal, but he would add to them. "Because the +pointed arch was sacred, he would not despise the humble office of the +lintel." And in southern climates especially there was no need of those +steep Gothic roofs which were intended to prevent a great weight of rain +and snow, and where the graceful portico of the Greeks was more +appropriate than the heavy tower of the Lombards. He would seize on +everything that the genius of past ages had indorsed, even as +Christianity itself appropriates everything human,--science, art, music, +poetry, eloquence, literature,--sanctifies it, and dedicates it to the +Lord; not for the pride of priests, but for the improvement of humanity. +Civilization may exist with Paganism, but only performs its highest uses +when tributary to Christianity. And Christianity accepts the tribute +which even Pagan civilization offers for the adornment of our +race,--expelled from Paradise, and doomed to hard and bitter +toils,--without abdicating her more glorious office of raising the soul +to heaven.</p> + +<p>Nor was Michael Angelo responsible for the vile mongrel architecture +which followed the Renaissance, and which disfigures the modern capitals +of Europe, any more than for the perversion of painting in the hands of +Titian. But the indiscriminate adoption of pillars for humble houses, +shops with Roman arches, spires and towers erected on Grecian porticoes, +are no worse than schoolhouses built like convents, and chapels designed +for preaching as much as for choral chants made dark and gloomy, where +the voice of the preacher is lost and wasted amid vaulted roofs and +useless pillars. Michael Angelo encouraged no incongruities; he himself +conceived the beautiful and the true, and admired it wherever found, +even amid the excavations of ruined cities. He may have overrated the +buried monuments of ancient art, but how was he to escape the universal +enthusiasm of his age for the remains of a glorious and forgotten +civilization? Perhaps his mind was wearied with the Middle Ages, from +which he had nothing more to learn, and sought a greater fulness and a +more perfect unity in the expanding forces of a new and grander era +than was ever seen by Pagan heroes or by Gothic saints.</p> + +<p>But I need not expatiate on the new ideas which Michael Angelo accepted, +or the impulse he gave to art in all its forms, and to the revival of +which civilization is so much indebted. Let us turn and give a parting +look at the man,--that great creative genius who had no superior in his +day and generation. Like the greatest of all Italians, he is interesting +for his grave experiences, his dreary isolations, his vast attainments, +his creative imagination, and his lofty moral sentiments. Like Dante, he +stands apart from, and superior to, all other men of his age. He never +could sport with jesters, or laugh with buffoons, or chat with fools; +and because of this he seemed to be haughty and disdainful. Like Luther, +he had no time for frivolities, and looked upon himself as commissioned +to do important work. He rejoiced in labor, and knew no rest until he +was eighty-nine. He ate that he might live, not lived that he might eat. +For seventeen years after he was seventy-two he worked on St. Peter's +church; worked without pay, that he might render to God his last earthly +tribute without alloy,--as religious as those unknown artists who +erected Rheims and Westminster. He was modest and patient, yet could not +submit to the insolence of little men in power. He even left the papal +palace in disdain when he found his labors unappreciated. Julius II. +was forced to bend to the stern artist, not the artist to the Pope. Yet +when Leo X. sent him to quarry marbles for nine years, he submitted +without complaint. He had no craving for riches like Rubens, no love of +luxury like Raphael, no envy like Da Vinci. He never over-tasked his +brain, or suffered himself, like Raphael,--who died exhausted at +thirty-seven,--to crowd three days into one, knowing that over-work +exhausts the nervous energies and shortens life. He never attempted to +open the doors which Providence had plainly shut against him, but waited +patiently for his day, knowing it would come; yet whether it came or +not, it was all the same to him,--a man with all the holy rapture of a +Kepler, and all the glorious self-reliance of a Newton. He was indeed +jealous of his fame, but he was not greedy of admiration. He worked +without the stimulus of praise,--one of the rarest things,--urged on +purely by love of art. He loved art for its own sake, as good men love +virtue, as Palestrina loved music, as Bacon loved truth, as Kant loved +philosophy,--satisfied with itself as its own reward. He disliked to be +patronized, but always remembered benefits, and loved the tribute of +respect and admiration, even as he scorned the empty flatterer of +fashion. He was the soul of sincerity as well as of magnanimity; and +hence had great capacity for friendship, as well as great power of +self-sacrifice His friendship with Vittoria Colonna is as memorable as +that of Jerome and Paula, or that of Hildebrand and the Countess +Matilda. He was a great patriot, and clung to his native Florence with +peculiar affection. Living in habits of intimacy with princes and +cardinals, he never addressed them in adulatory language, but talked and +acted like a nobleman of nature, whose inborn and superior greatness +could be tested only by the ages. He placed art on the highest pinnacle +of the temple of humanity, but dedicated that temple to the God of +heaven in whom he believed. His person was not commanding, but +intelligence radiated from his features, and his earnest nature +commanded respect. In childhood he was feeble, but temperance made him +strong. He believed that no bodily decay was incompatible with +intellectual improvement. He continued his studies until he died, and +felt that he had mastered nothing. He was always dissatisfied with his +own productions. <i>Excelsior</i> was his motto, as Alp on Alp arose upon his +view. His studies were diversified and vast. He wrote poetry as well as +carved stone, his sonnets especially holding a high rank. He was +engineer as well as architect, and fortified Florence against her +enemies. When old he showed all the fire of youth, and his eye, like +that of Moses, never became dim, since his strength and his beauty were +of the soul,--ever expanding, ever adoring. His temper was stern, but +affectionate. He had no mercy on a fool or a dunce, and turned in +disgust from those who loved trifles and lies. He was guilty of no +immoralities like Raphael and Titian, being universally venerated for +his stern integrity and allegiance to duty,--as one who believes that +there really is a God to whom he is personally responsible. He gave away +his riches, like Ambrose and Gregory, valuing money only as a means of +usefulness. Sickened with the world, he still labored for the world, and +died in 1564, over eighty-nine years of age, in the full assurance of +eternal blessedness in heaven.</p> + +<p>His marbles may crumble down, in spite of all that we can do to preserve +them as models of hopeless imitation; but the exalted ideas he sought to +represent by them, are imperishable and divine, and will be subjects of +contemplation when</p> + + "Seas shall waste, the skies to smoke decay,<br> + Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away."<br> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Grimm's Life of Michael Angelo; Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent +Painters, Sculptors and Architects; Duppa's Life of Michael Angelo; +Bayle's Histoire de la Peinture en Italie.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="MARTIN_LUTHER."></a>MARTIN LUTHER.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A. D. 1483-1546.</p> + +<p>THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.</p> + +<p>Among great benefactors, Martin Luther is one of the most illustrious. +He headed the Protestant Reformation. This movement is so completely +interlinked with the literature, the religion, the education, the +prosperity--yea, even the political history--of Europe, that it is the +most important and interesting of all modern historical changes. It is a +subject of such amazing magnitude that no one can claim to be well +informed who does not know its leading issues and developments, as it +spread from Germany to Switzerland, France, Holland, Sweden, England, +and Scotland.</p> + +<p>The central and prominent figure in the movement is Luther; but the way +was prepared for him by a host of illustrious men, in different +countries,--by Savonarola in Italy, by Huss and Jerome in Bohemia, by +Erasmus in Holland, by Wyclif in England, and by sundry others, who +detested the corruptions they ridiculed and lamented, but could +not remove.</p> + +<p>How flagrant those evils! Who can deny them? The papal despotism, and +the frauds on which it was based; monastic corruptions; penance, and +indulgences for sin, and the sale of them, more shameful still; the +secular character of the clergy; the pomp, wealth, and arrogance of +bishops; auricular confession; celibacy of the clergy, their idle and +dissolute lives, their ignorance and superstition; the worship of the +images of saints, and masses for the dead; the gorgeous ritualism of the +mass; the substitution of legends for the Scriptures, which were not +translated, or read by the people; pilgrimages, processions, idle pomps, +and the multiplication of holy days; above all, the grinding spiritual +despotism exercised by priests, with their inquisitions and +excommunications, all centring in the terrible usurpation of the popes, +keeping the human mind in bondage, and suppressing all intellectual +independence,--these evils prevailed everywhere. I say nothing here of +the massacres, the poisonings, the assassinations, the fornications, the +abominations of which history accuses many of the pontiffs who sat on +papal thrones. Such evils did not stare the German and English in the +face, as they did the Italians in the fifteenth century. In Germany the +vices were mediaeval and monkish, not the unblushing infidelity and +levities of the Renaissance, which made a radical reformation in Italy +impossible. In Germany and England there was left among the people the +power of conscience, a rough earnestness of character, the sense of +moral accountability, and a fear of divine judgment.</p> + +<p>Luther was just the man for his work. Sprung from the people, poor, +popular, fervent; educated amid privations, religious by nature, yet +with exuberant animal spirits; dogmatic, boisterous, intrepid, with a +great insight into realities; practical, untiring, learned, generally +cheerful and hopeful; emancipated from the terrors of the Middle Ages, +scorning the Middle Ages; progressive in his spirit, lofty in his +character, earnest in his piety, believing in the future and in +God,--such was the great leader of this emancipating movement. He was +not so learned as Erasmus, nor so logical as Calvin, nor so scholarly as +Melancthon, nor so broad as Cranmer. He was not a polished man; he was +often offensively rude and brusque, and lavish of epithets, Nor was he +what we call a modest and humble man; he was intellectually proud, +disdainful, and sometimes, when irritated, abusive. None of his pictures +represent him as a refined-looking man, scarcely intellectual, but +coarse and sensual rather, as Socrates seemed to the Athenians. But with +these defects and drawbacks he had just such traits and gifts as fitted +him to lead a great popular movement,--bold, audacious, with deep +convictions and rapid intellectual processes; prompt, decided, +kind-hearted, generous, brave; in sympathy with the people, eloquent, +Herculean in energies, with an amazing power of work; electrical in his +smile and in his words, and always ready for contingencies. Had he been +more polished, more of a gentleman, more fastidious, more scrupulous, +more ascetic, more modest, he would have shrunk from his tasks; he would +have lost the elasticity of his mind,--he would have been discouraged. +Even Saint Augustine, a broader and more catholic man than Luther, could +not have done his work. He was a sort of converted Mirabeau. He loved +the storms of battle; he impersonated revolutionary ideas. But he was a +man of thought, as well as of action.</p> + +<p>Luther's origin was of the humblest. Born in Eisleben, Nov. 10, 1483, +the son of a poor peasant, his childhood was spent in penury. He was +religious from a boy. He was religious when he sang hymns for a living, +from house to house, before the people of Mansfield while at school +there, and also at the schools of Magdeburg and Eisenach, where he still +earned his bread by his voice. His devotional character and his music +gained for him a friend who helped him through his studies, till at the +age of eighteen he entered the University at Erfurt, where he +distinguished himself in the classics and the Mediaeval philosophy. And +here his religious meditations led him to enter the Augustinian +monastery: he entered that strict retreat, as others did, to lead a +religious life. The great question of all time pressed upon his mind +with peculiar force, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" +And it shows that religious life in Germany still burned in many a +heart, in spite of the corruptions of the Church, that a young man like +Luther should seek the shades of monastic seclusion, for meditation and +study. He was a monk, like other monks; but it seems he had religious +doubts and fears more than ordinary monks. At first he conformed to the +customary ways of men seeking salvation. He walked in the beaten road, +like Saint Dominic and Saint Francis; he accepted the great ideas of the +Middle Ages, which he was afterwards to repudiate,--he was not beyond +them, or greater than they were, at first; he fasted like monks, and +tormented his body with austerities, as they did from the time of +Benedict; he sang in the choir from early morn, and practised the usual +severities. But his doubts and fears remained. He did not, like other +monks, find peace and consolation; he did not become seraphic, like +Saint Francis, or Bonaventura, or Loyola. Perhaps his nature repelled +asceticism; perhaps his inquiring and original mind wanted something +better and surer to rest upon than the dreams and visions of a +traditionary piety. Had he been satisfied with the ordinary mode of +propitiating the Deity, he would never have emerged from his retreat.</p> + +<p>To a scholar the monastery had great attractions, even in that age. It +was still invested with poetic associations and consecrated usages; it +was indorsed by the venerable Fathers of the Church; it was favorable to +study, and free from the noisy turmoil of the world. But with all these +advantages Luther was miserable. He felt the agonies of an unforgiven +soul in quest of peace with God; he could not get rid of them, they +pursued him into the immensity of an intolerable night. He was in +despair. What could austerities do for <i>him</i>? He hungered and thirsted +after the truth, like Saint Augustine in Milan. He had no taste for +philosophy, but he wanted the repose that philosophers pretended to +teach. He was then too narrow to read Plato or Boëthius. He was a +self-tormented monk without relief; he suffered all that Saint Paul +suffered at Tarsus. In some respects this monastic pietism resembled the +pharisaism of Saul, in the schools of Tarsus,--a technical, rigid, and +painful adherence to rules, fastings, obtrusive prayers, and petty +ritualisms, which form the essence and substance of all pharisaism and +all monastic life; based on the enormous error that man deserves heaven +by external practices, in which, however, he can never perfect himself, +though he were to live, like Simeon Stylites, on the top of a pillar for +twenty years without once descending; an eternal unrest, because +perfection cannot be attained; the most terrible slavery to which a man +can be conscientiously doomed, verging into hypocrisy and fanaticism.</p> + +<p>It was then that a kind and enlightened friend visited him, and +recommended him to read the Bible. The Bible never has been a sealed +book to monks; it was ever highly prized; no convent was without it: but +it was read with the spectacles of the Middle Ages. Repentance meant +penance. In Saint Paul's Epistles Luther discovers the true ground of +justification,--not works, but faith; for Paul had passed through +similar experiences. Works are good, but faith is the gift of God. Works +are imperfect with the best of men, even the highest form of works, to a +Mediaeval eye,--self-expiation and penance; but faith is infinite, +radiating from divine love; faith is a boundless joy,--salvation by the +grace of God, his everlasting and precious boon to people who cannot +climb to heaven on their hands and knees, the highest gift which God +ever bestowed on men,--eternal life.</p> + +<p>Luther is thus emancipated from the ideas of the Middle Ages and of the +old Syriac monks and of the Jewish Pharisees. In his deliverance he has +new hopes and aspirations; he becomes cheerful, and devotes himself to +his studies. Nothing can make a man more cheerful and joyful than the +cordial reception of a gift which is infinite, a blessing which is too +priceless to be bought. The pharisee, the monk, the ritualist, is +gloomy, ascetic, severe, intolerant; for he is not quite sure of his +salvation. A man who accepts heaven as a gift is full of divine +enthusiasm, like Saint Augustine. Luther now comprehends Augustine, the +great doctor of the Church, embraces his philosophy and sees how much it +has been misunderstood. The rare attainments and interesting character +of Luther are at last recognized; he is made a professor of divinity in +the new university, which the Elector of Saxony has endowed, at +Wittenberg. He becomes a favorite with the students; he enters into the +life of the people. He preaches with wonderful power, for he is popular, +earnest, original, fresh, electrical. He is a monk still, but the monk +is merged in the learned doctor and eloquent preacher. He does not yet +even dream of attacking monastic institutions, or the Pope; he is a good +Catholic in his obedience to authorities; but he hates the Middle Ages, +and all their ghostly, funereal, burdensome, and technical religious +customs. He is human, almost convivial,--fond of music, of poetry, of +society, of friends, and of the good cheer of the social circle. The +people love Luther, for he has a broad humanity. They never did love +monks, only feared their maledictions.</p> + +<p>About this time the Pope was in great need of money: this was Leo X. He +not only squandered his vast revenues in pleasures and pomps, like any +secular monarch; he not only collected pictures and statues,--but he +wanted to complete St. Peter's Church. It was the crowning glory of +papal magnificence. Where was he to get money except from the +contributions of Christendom? But kings and princes and bishops and +abbots were getting tired of this everlasting drain of money to Rome, in +the shape of annats and taxes; so Leo revived an old custom of the Dark +Ages,--he would sell indulgences for sin; and he sent his agents to +peddle them in every country.</p> + +<p>The agent in Saxony was a very vulgar, boisterous, noisy, bullying +Dominican, by the name of Tetzel. Luther abhorred him, not so much +because he was vulgar and noisy, but because his infamous business +derogated from the majesty of God and religion. In wrathful indignation +he preached against Tetzel and his practices,--the abominable traffic +of indulgences. Only God can forgive sins. It seemed to him to be an +insult to the human understanding that any man, even a pope, should +grant an absolution for crime. These indulgences were the very worst +form of penance, since they made a mockery of virtue. And it was useless +to preach against them so long as the principles on which they were +based were not assailed. Everybody believed in penance; everybody +believed that this, in some form, would insure salvation. It consisted +in a temporal penalty or punishment inflicted on the sinner after +confession to the priest, as a condition of his receiving absolution or +an authoritative pardon of his sin by the Church as God's +representative. And the indulgence was originally an official remission +of this penalty, to be gained by offerings of money to the Church for +its sacred uses. However ingenious this theory, the practice inevitably +ran into corruption. The people who bought, the agents who sold, the +popes who dispensed, these indulgences used them for the +vilest purposes.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, in those times in Germany everybody felt he had a soul to +save. Neither the popes nor the Church ever lost that idea. The clergy +ruled by its force,--by stimulating fears of divine wrath, whereby the +wretched sinner would be physically tormented forever, unless he escaped +by a propitiation of the Deity,--the common form of which was penance, +deeds of supererogation, donations to the Church, self-expiation, works +of fear and penitence, which commended themselves to the piety of the +age; and this piety Luther now believed to be unenlightened, not the +kind enjoined by Christ or Paul.</p> + +<p>So, to instruct his students and the people as to the true ground of +justification, which he had worked out from the study of the Bible and +Saint Augustine amid the agonies of a tormented conscience, Luther +prepared his theses,--those celebrated ninety-five propositions, which +he affixed to the gates of the church of Wittenberg, and which excited +a great sensation throughout Northern Germany, reaching even the eyes of +the Pope himself, who did not comprehend their tendency, but was struck +with their power. "This Doctor Luther," said he, "is a man of fine +genius." The students of the university, and the people generally, were +kindled as if by Pentecostal fires. The new invention of printing +scattered those theses everywhere, far and near; they reached the humble +hamlet as well as the palaces of bishops and princes. They excited +immediate and immense enthusiasm: there was freshness in them, +originality, and great ideas. We cannot wonder at the enthusiasm which +those religious ideas excited nearly four hundred years ago when we +reflect that they were not cant words then, not worn-out platitudes, not +dead dogmas, but full of life and exciting interest,--even as were the +watchwords of Rousseau--"Liberty, Fraternity, Equality"--to Frenchmen, +on the outbreak of their political revolution. And as those +watchwords--abstractly true--roused the dormant energies of the French +to a terrible conflict against feudalism and royalty, so those theses of +Luther kindled Germany into a living flame. And why? Because they +presented more cheerful and comforting grounds of justification than had +been preached for one thousand years,--faith rather than penance; for +works hinged on penance. The underlying principle of those propositions +was <i>grace</i>,--divine grace to save the world,--the principle of Paul and +Saint Augustine; therefore not new, but forgotten; a mighty comfort to +miserable people, mocked and cheated and robbed by a venal and a +gluttonous clergy. Even Taine admits that this doctrine of grace is the +foundation stone of Protestantism as it spread over Europe in the +sixteenth century. In those places where Protestantism is dead,--where +rationalism or Pelagian speculations have taken its place,--this fact +may be denied; but the history of Northern Europe blazes with it,--a +fact which no historian of any honesty can deny.</p> + +<p>Very likely those who are not in sympathy with this great idea of +Luther, Augustine, and Paul may ignore the fact,--even as Caleb Gushing +once declared to me, that the Reformation sprang from the desire of +Luther to marry Catherine Bora; and that learned and ingenious sophist +overwhelmed me with his citations from infidel and ribald Catholic +writers like Audin. Greater men than he deny that grace underlies the +whole original movement of the reformers, and they talk of the +Reformation as a mere revolt from Rome, as a war against papal +corruption, as a protest against monkery and the dark ages, brought +about by the spirit of a new age, the onward march of humanity, the +necessary progress of society. I admit the secondary causes of the +Reformation, which are very important,--the awakened spirit of inquiry +in the sixteenth century, the revival of poetry and literature and art, +the breaking up of feudalism, fortunate discoveries, the introduction of +Greek literature, the Renaissance, the disgusts of Christendom, the +voice of martyrs calling aloud from their funeral pyres; yea, the +friendly hand of princes and scholars deploring the evils of a corrupted +Church. But how much had Savonarola, or Erasmus, or John Huss, or the +Lollards aroused the enthusiasm of Europe, great and noble as were their +angry and indignant protests? The genius of the Reformation in its early +stages was a <i>religious</i> movement, not a political or a moral one, +although it became both political and moral. Its strength and fervor +were in the new ideas of salvation,--the same that gave power to the +early preachers of Christianity,--not denunciations of imperialism and +slavery, and ten thousand evils which disgraced the empire, but the +proclamation of the ideas of Paul as to the grounds of hope when the +soul should leave the body; the salvation of the Lord, declared to a +world in bondage. Luther kindled the same religious life among the +masses that the apostles did; the same that Wyclif did, and by the same +means,--the declaration of salvation by belief in the incarnate Son of +God, shedding his blood in infinite love. Why, see how this idea spread +through Germany, Switzerland, and France and took possession of the +minds of the English and Scotch yeomanry, with all their stern and +earnest ruggedness. See how it was elaborately expanded by Calvin, how +it gave birth to a new and strong theology, how it entered into the very +life of the people, especially among the Puritans,--into the souls of +even Cromwell's soldiers. What made "The Pilgrim's Progress" the most +popular book ever published in England? Because it reflected the +theology of the age, the religion of the people, all based on Luther's +theses,--the revival of those old doctrines which converted the Roman +provinces from Paganism. I do not care if these statements are denied by +Catholics, or rationalists, or progressive savants. What is it to me +that the old views have become unfashionable, or are derided, or are +dead, in the absorbing materialism of this Epicurean yet brilliant age? +I know this, that I am true to history when I declare that the glorious +Reformation in which we all profess to rejoice, and which is the +greatest movement, and the best, of our modern time,--susceptible of +indefinite application, interlinked with the literature and the progress +of England and America,--took its first great spiritual start from the +ideas of Luther as to justification. This was the voice of heaven's +messenger proclaiming aloud, so that the heavens re-echoed to the +glorious and triumphant annunciation, and the earth heard and rejoiced +with exceeding joy, "Behold, I send tidings of salvation: it is grace, +divine grace, which shall undermine the throne of popes and pagans, and +reconcile a fallen world to God!"</p> + +<p>Yes, it was a Christian philosopher, a theologian,--a doctor of +divinity, working out in his cell and study, through terrible internal +storm and anguish, and against the whole teaching of monks and bishops +and popes and universities, from the time of Charlemagne, the same truth +which Augustine learned in his wonderful experiences,--who started the +Reformation in the right direction; who became the greatest benefactor +of these modern times, because he based his work on everlasting and +positive ideas, which had life in them, and hope, and the sanction of +divine authority; thus virtually invoking the aid of God Almighty to +bring about and restore the true glory of his Church on earth,--a glory +forever to be identified with the death of his Son. I see no law of +progress here, no natural and necessary development of nations; I see +only the light and power of individual genius, brushing away the cobwebs +and sophistries and frauds of the Middle Ages, and bringing out to the +gaze of Europe the vital truth which, with supernatural aid, made in old +times the day of Pentecost. And I think I hear the emancipated people of +Saxony exclaim, from the Elector downwards, "If these ideas of Doctor +Luther are true, and we feel them to be, then all our penances have +been worse than wasted,--we have been Pagans. Away with our miserable +efforts to scale the heavens! Let us accept what we cannot buy; let us +make our palaces and our cottages alike vocal with the praises of Him +whom we now accept as our Deliverer, our King, and our Eternal Lord."</p> + +<p>Thus was born the first great idea of the Reformation, out of Luther's +brain, out of his agonized soul, and sent forth to conquer, and produce +changes most marvellous to behold.</p> + +<p>It is not my object to discuss the truth or error of this fundamental +doctrine. There are many who deny it, even among Protestants. I am not a +controversialist, or a theologian: I am simply an historian. I wish to +show what is historically true and clear; and I defy all the scholars +and critics of the world to prove that this doctrine is not the basal +pillar of the Reformation of Luther. I wish to make emphatic the +statement that <i>justification by faith</i> was, as an historical fact, the +great primal idea of Luther; not new, but new to him and to his age.</p> + +<p>I have now to show how this idea led to others; how they became +connected together; how they produced not only a spiritual movement, but +political, moral, and intellectual forces, until all Europe was in +a blaze.</p> + +<p>Thus far the agitation under Luther had been chiefly theological. It was +not a movement against popes or institutions, it was not even the +vehement denunciation against sin in high places, which inflamed the +anger of the Pope against Savonarola. To some it doubtless seemed like +the old controversy between Augustine and Pelagius, like the contentions +between Dominican and Franciscan monks. But it was too important to +escape the attention of even Leo X., although at first he gave it no +thought. It was a dangerous agitation; it had become popular; there was +no telling where it would end, or what it might not assail. It was +deemed necessary to stop the mouth of this bold and intellectual Saxon +theologian.</p> + +<p>So the voluptuous, infidel, elegant Pope--accomplished in manners and +pagan arts and literature--sent one of the most learned men of the +Church which called him Father, to argue with Doctor Luther, confute +him, conquer him,--deeming this an easy task. But the doctor could not +be silenced. His convictions were grounded on the rock; not on Peter, +but on the rock from which Peter derived his name. All the papal legates +and cardinals in the world could neither convince nor frighten him. He +courted argument; he challenged the whole Church to refute him.</p> + +<p>Then the schools took up the controversy. All that was imposing in +names, in authority, in traditions, in associations, was arrayed against +him. They came down upon him with the whole array of scholastic +learning. The great Goliath of controversy in that day was Doctor Eck, +who challenged the Saxon monk to a public disputation at Leipsic. All +Germany was interested. The question at issue stirred the nation to its +very depths.</p> + +<p>The disputants met in the great hall of the palace of the Elector. Never +before was seen in Germany such an array of doctors and theologians and +dignitaries. It rivalled in importance and dignity the Council of Nice, +when the great Constantine presided, to settle the Trinitarian +controversy. The combatants were as great as Athanasius and Arius,--as +vehement, as earnest, though not so fierce. Doctor Eck was superior to +Luther in reputation, in dialectical skill, in scholastic learning. He +was the pride of the universities. Luther, however, had deeper +convictions, more genius, greater eloquence, and at that time he +was modest.</p> + +<p>The champion of the schools, of sophistries and authorities, of +dead-letter literature, of quibbles, refinements, and words, soon +overwhelmed the Saxon monk with his citations, decrees of councils, +opinions of eminent ecclesiastics, the literature of the Church, its +mighty authority. He was on the eve of triumph. Had the question been +settled, as Doctor Eck supposed, by authorities, as lawyers and pedants +would settle the question, Luther would have been beaten. But his genius +came to his aid, and the consciousness of truth. He swept away the +premises of the argument. He denied the supreme authority of popes and +councils and universities. He appealed to the Scriptures, as the only +ultimate ground of authority. He did not deny authority, but appealed to +it in its highest form. This was unexpected ground. The Church was not +prepared openly to deny the authority of Saint Paul or Saint Peter; and +Luther, if he did not gain his case, was far from being beaten, +and--what was of vital importance to his success--he had the Elector and +the people with him.</p> + +<p>Thus was born the second great idea of the Reformation,--the <i>supreme +authority of the Scriptures</i>, to which Protestants of every denomination +have since professed to cling. They may differ in the interpretation of +texts,--and thus sects and parties gradually arose, who quarrelled about +their meaning,--but none of them deny their supreme authority. All the +issues of Protestants have been on the meaning of texts, on the +interpretation of the Scriptures,--to be settled by learning and reason. +It was not until rationalism arose, and rejected plain and obvious +declarations of Scripture, as inconsistent with reason, as +interpolations, as uninspired, that the authority of the Scriptures was +weakened; and these rationalists--and the land of Luther became full of +them--have gone infinitely beyond the Catholics in undermining the +Bible. The Catholics never have taken such bold ground as the +rationalists respecting the Scriptures. The Catholic Church still +accepts the Bible, but explains away the meaning of many of its +doctrines; the rationalists would sweep away its divine authority, +extinguish faith, and leave the world in night. Satan came into the +theological school of the Protestants, disguised in the robes of learned +doctors searching for truth, and took away the props of religious faith. +This was worse than baptizing repentance with the name of penance. +Better have irrational fears of hell than no fears at all, for this +latter is Paganism. Pagan culture and Pagan philosophy could not keep +society together in the old Roman world; but Mediaeval appeals to the +fears of men did keep them from crimes and force upon them virtues.</p> + +<p>The triumph of Luther at Leipsic was, however, incomplete. The Catholics +rallied after their stunning blow. They said, in substance: "We, too, +accept the Scriptures; we even put them above Augustine and Thomas +Aquinas and the councils. But who can interpret them? Can peasants and +women, or even merchants and nobles? The Bible, though inspired, is full +of difficulties; there are contradictory texts. It is a sealed book, +except to the learned; only the Church can reconcile its difficulties. +And what we mean by the Church is the clergy,--the learned clergy, +acknowledging allegiance to their spiritual head, who in matters of +faith is also infallible. We can accept nothing which is not indorsed by +popes and councils. No matter how plain the Scriptures seem to be, on +certain disputed points only the authority of the Church can enlighten +and instruct us. We distrust reason,--that is, what you call +reason,--for reason can twist anything, and pervert it; but what the +Church says, is true,--its collective intelligence is our supreme law +[thus putting papal dogmas above reason, above the literal and plain +declarations of Scripture]. Moreover, since the Scriptures are to be +interpreted only by priests, it is not a safe book for the people. We, +the priests, will keep it out of their hands. They will get notions from +it fatal to our authority; they will become fanatics; they will, in +their conceit, defy us."</p> + +<p>Then Luther rose, more powerful, more eloquent, more majestic than +before; he rose superior to himself. "What," said he, "keep the light of +life from the people; take away their guide to heaven; keep them in +ignorance of what is most precious and most exalting; deprive them of +the blessed consolations which sustain the soul in trial and in death; +deny the most palpable truths, because your dignitaries put on them a +construction to bolster up their power! What an abomination! what +treachery to heaven! what peril to the souls of men! Besides, your +authorities differ: Augustine takes different ground from Pelagius; +Bernard from Abélard; Thomas Aquinas from Dun Scotus. Have not your +grand councils given contradictory decisions? Whom shall we believe? +Yea, the popes themselves, your infallible guides,--have they not at +different times rendered different decisions? What would Gregory I. say +to the verdicts of Gregory VII.?</p> + +<p>"No, the Scriptures are the legacy of the early Church to universal +humanity; they are the equal and treasured inheritance of all nations +and tribes and kindreds upon the face of the earth, and will be till the +day of judgment. It was intended that they should be diffused, and that +every one should read them, and interpret them each for himself; for he +has a soul to save, and he dare not intrust such a precious thing as his +soul into the keeping of selfish and ambitious priests. Take away the +Bible from a peasant, or a woman, or any layman, and cannot the priest, +armed with the terrors and the frauds of the Middle Ages, shut up his +soul in a gloomy dungeon, as noisome and funereal as your Mediaeval +crypts? And will you, ye boasted intellectual guides of the people, +extinguish reason in this world in reference to the most momentous +interests? What other guide has a man but his reason? And you would +prevent this very reason from being enlightened by the Gospel! You would +obscure reason itself by your traditions, O ye blind leaders of the +blind! O ye legal and technical men, obscuring the light of truth! O ye +miserable Pharisees, ye bigots, ye selfish priests, tenacious of your +power, your inventions, your traditions,--will ye withhold the free +redemption, God's greatest boon, salvation by the blood of Christ, +offered to all the world? Yea, will you suffer the people to perish, +soul and body, because you fear that, instructed by God himself, they +will rebel against your accursed despotism? Have you considered what a +mighty crime you thus commit against God, against man? Ye rule by an +infernal appeal to the superstitious fears of men; but how shall ye +yourselves, for such crimes, escape the damnation of that hell into +which you would push your victims unless they obey <i>you</i>?</p> + +<p>"No, I say, let the Scriptures be put into the hands of everybody; let +every one interpret them for himself, according to the light he has; let +there be private judgment; let spiritual liberty be revived, as in +Apostolic days. Then only will the people be emancipated from the Middle +Ages, and arise in their power and majesty, and obey the voice of +enlightened conscience, and be true to their convictions, and practise +the virtues which Christianity commands, and obey God rather than man, +and defy all sorts of persecution and martyrdom, having a serene faith +in those blessed promises which the Gospel unfolds. Then will the +people become great, after the conflicts of generations, and put under +their feet the mockeries and lies and despotisms which grind them +to despair."</p> + +<p>Thus was born the third great idea of the Reformation, out of Luther's +brain, a logical sequence from the first idea,--<i>the right of private +judgment</i>, religious liberty, call it what you will; a great inspiration +which in after times was destined to march triumphantly over +battlefields, and give dignity and power to the people, and lead to the +reception of great truths obscured by priests for one thousand years; +the motive of an irresistible popular progress, planting England with +Puritans, and Scotland with heroes, and France with martyrs, and North +America with colonists; yea, kindling a fervid religious life; creating +such men as Knox and Latimer and Taylor and Baxter and Howe, who owed +their greatness to the study of the Scriptures,--at last put into every +hand, and scattered far and wide, even to India and China. Can anybody +doubt the marvellous progress of Protestant nations in consequence of +the translation and circulation of the Scriptures? How these are bound +up with their national life, and all their social habits, and all their +religious aspirations; how they have elevated the people, ten hundred +millions of times more than the boasted Renaissance which sprang from +apostate and infidel and Pagan Italy, when she dug up the buried +statues of Greece and Rome, and revived the literature and arts which +soften, but do not save!--for private judgment and religious liberty +mean nothing more and nothing less than the unrestricted perusal of the +Scriptures as the guide of life.</p> + +<p>This right of private judgment, on which Luther was among the first to +insist, and of which certainly he was the first great champion in +Europe, was in that age a very bold idea, as well as original. It +flattered as well as stimulated the intellect of the people, and gave +them dignity; it gave to the Reformation its popular character; it +appealed to the mind and heart of Christendom. It gave consolation to +the peasantry of Europe; for no family was too poor to possess a Bible, +the greatest possible boon and treasure,--read and pondered in the +evening, after hard labors and bitter insults; read aloud to the family +circle, with its inexhaustible store of moral wealth, its beautiful and +touching narratives, its glorious poetry, its awful prophecies, its +supernal counsels, its consoling and emancipating truths,--so tender and +yet so exalting, raising the soul above the grim trials of toil and +poverty into the realms of seraphic peace and boundless joy. The Bible +even gave hope to heretics. All sects and parties could take shelter +under it; all could stand on the broad platform of religion, and survey +from it the wonders and glories of God. At last men might even differ +on important points of doctrine and worship, and yet be Protestants. +Religious liberty became as wide in its application as the unity of the +Church. It might create sects, but those sects would be all united as to +the value of the Scriptures and their cardinal declarations. On this +broad basis John Milton could shake hands with John Knox, and John Locke +with Richard Baxter, and Oliver Cromwell with Queen Elizabeth, and Lord +Bacon with William Penn, and Bishop Butler with John Wesley, and +Jonathan Edwards with Doctor Channing.</p> + +<p>This idea of private judgment is what separates the Catholics from the +Protestants; not most ostensibly, but most vitally. Many are the +Catholics who would accept Luther's idea of grace, since it is the idea +of Saint Augustine; and of the supreme authority of the Scriptures, +since they were so highly valued by the Fathers: but few of the Catholic +clergy have ever tolerated religious liberty,--that is, the +interpretation of the Scriptures by the people,--for it is a vital blow +to their supremacy, their hierarchy, and their institutions. They will +no more readily accept it than William the Conqueror would have accepted +the Magna Charta; for the free circulation and free interpretation of +the Scriptures are the charter of human liberties fought for at Leipsic +by Gustavus Adolphus, at Ivry by Henry IV. This right of worshipping +God according to the dictates of conscience, enlightened by the free +reading of the Scriptures, is just what the "invincible armada" was sent +by Philip II. to crush; just what Alva, dictated by Rome, sought to +crush in Holland; just what Louis XIV., instructed by the Jesuits, did +crush out in France, by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The +Satanic hatred of this right was the cause of most of the martyrdoms and +persecutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was the +declaration of this right which emancipated Europe from the dogmas of +the Middle Ages, the thraldom of Rome, and the reign of priests. Why +should not Protestants of every shade cherish and defend this sacred +right? This is what made Luther the idol and oracle of Germany, the +admiration of half Europe, the pride and boast of succeeding ages, the +eternal hatred of Rome; not his religious experiences, not his doctrine +of justification by faith, but the emancipation he gave to the mind of +the world. This is what peculiarly stamps Luther as a man of genius, and +of that surprising audacity and boldness which only great geniuses +evince when they follow out the logical sequence of their ideas, and +penetrate at a blow the hardened steel of vulcanic armor beneath which +the adversary boasts.</p> + +<p>Great was the first Leo, when from his rifled palace on one of the +devastated hills of Rome he looked out upon the Christian world, +pillaged, sacked, overrun with barbarians, full of untold +calamities,--order and law crushed; literature and art prostrate; +justice a byword; murders and assassinations unavenged; central power +destroyed; vice, in all its enormities, vulgarities, and obscenities, +rampant and multiplying itself; false opinions gaining ground; soldiers +turned into banditti, and senators into slaves; women shrieking in +terror; bishops praying in despair; barbarism everywhere, paganism in +danger of being revived; a world disordered, forlorn, and dismal; +Pandemonium let loose, with howling and shouting and screaming, in view +of the desolation predicted alike by Jeremy the prophet and the Cumaean +sybil;--great was that Leo, when in view of all this he said, with old +patrician heroism, "I will revive government once more upon this earth; +not by bringing back the Caesars, but by declaring a new theocracy, by +making myself the vicegerent of Christ, by virtue of the promise made to +Peter, whose successor I am, in order to restore law, punish crime, head +off heresy, encourage genius, conserve peace, heal dissensions, protect +learning; appealing to love, but ruling by fear. Who but the Church can +do this? A theocracy will create a new civilization. Not a diadem, but a +tiara will I wear, the symbol of universal sovereignty, before which +barbarism shall flee away, and happiness be restored once more." As he +sent out his legates, he fulminated his bulls and established tribunals +of appeal; he made a net-work of ecclesiastical machinery, and +proclaimed the dangers of eternal fire, and brought kings and princes +before him on their knees. The barbaric world was saved.</p> + +<p>But greater than Leo was Luther, when--outraged by the corruptions of +this spiritual despotism, and all the false and Pagan notions which had +crept into theology, obscuring the light of faith and creating an +intolerable bondage, and opposing the new spirit of progress which +science and art and industry and wealth had invoked--he courageously yet +modestly comes forward as the champion of a new civilization, and +declares, with trumpet tones, "Let there be private judgment; liberty of +conscience; the right to read and interpret Scripture, in spite of +priests! so that men may think for themselves, not only on the doctrines +of eternal salvation but on all the questions to be deduced from them, +or interlinked with the past or present or future institutions of the +world. Then shall arise a new creation from dreaded destruction, and +emancipated millions shall be filled with an unknown enthusiasm, and +advance with the new weapons of reason and truth from conquering to +conquer, until all the strongholds of sin and Satan shall be subdued, +and laid triumphantly at the foot of His throne whose right it is +to reign."</p> + +<p>Thus far Luther has appeared as a theologian, a philosopher, a man of +ideas, a man of study and reflection, whom the Catholic Church distrusts +and fears, as she always has distrusted genius and manly independence; +but he is henceforth to appear as a reformer, a warrior, to carry out +his idea, and also to defend himself against the wrath he has provoked; +impelled step by step to still bolder aggressions, until he attacks +those venerable institutions which he once respected,--all the frauds +and inventions of Mediaeval despotism, all the machinery by which Europe +had been governed for one thousand years; yea, the very throne of the +Pope himself, whom he defies, whom he insults, and against whom he urges +Christendom to rebel. As a combatant, a warrior, a reformer, his person +and character somewhat change. He is coarser, he is more +sensual-looking, he drinks more beer, he tells more stories, he uses +harder names; he becomes arrogant, dogmatic; he dictates and commands; +he quarrels with his friends; he is imperious; he fears nobody, and is +scornful of old usages; he marries a nun; he feels that he is a great +leader and general, and wields new powers; he is an executive and +administrative man, for which his courage and insight and will and +Herculean physical strength wonderfully fit him,--the man for the times, +the man to head a new movement, the forces of an age of protest and +rebellion and conquest.</p> + +<p>How can I compress into a few sentences the demolitions and +destructions which this indignant and irritated reformer now makes in +Germany, where he is protected by the Elector from Papal vengeance? +Before the reconstruction, the old rubbish must be cleared away, and +Augean stables must be cleansed. He is now at issue with the whole +Catholic régime, and the whole Catholic world abuse him. They call him a +glutton, a wine-bibber, an adulterer, a scoffer, an atheist, an imp of +Satan; and he calls the Pope the scarlet mother of abominations, +Antichrist, Babylon. That age is prodigal in offensive epithets; kings +and prelates and doctors alike use hard words. They are like angry +children and women and pugilists; their vocabulary of abuse is amusing +and inexhaustible. See how prodigal Shakspeare and Ben Jonson are in the +language of vituperation. But they were all defiant and fierce, for the +age was rough and earnest. The Pope, in wrath, hurls the old weapons of +the Gregorys and the Clements. But they are impotent as the darts of +Priam; Luther laughs at them, and burns the Papal bull before a huge +concourse of excited students and shopkeepers and enthusiastic women. He +severs himself completely from Rome, and declares an unextinguishable +warfare. He destroys and breaks up the ceremonies of the Mass; he pulls +down the consecrated altars, with their candles and smoking incense and +vessels of silver and gold, since they are the emblems of Jewish and +Pagan worship; he tears off the vestments of priests, with their +embroideries and their gildings and their millineries and their laces, +since these are made to impose on the imagination and appeal to the +sense; he breaks up monasteries and convents, since they are dens of +infamy, cages of unclean birds, nurseries of idleness and pleasure, +abodes at the best of narrow-minded, ascetic Asiatic recluses, who +rejoice in penance and self-expiation and other modes of propitiating +the Deity, like soofists and fakirs and Braminical devotees. In defiance +of the most sacred of the institutions of the Middle Ages, he openly +marries Catherine Bora and sets up a hilarious household, and yet a +household of prayer and singing. He abolishes the old Gregorian service; +and for Mediaeval chants, monotonous and gloomy, he prepares hymns and +songs,--not for boys and priests to intone in the distant choir, but for +the whole congregation to sing, inspired by the melodies of David and +the exulting praises of a Saviour who redeems from darkness into light. +How grand that hymn of his,--</p> + + "A mighty fortress is our God,<br> + A bulwark never failing."<br> + +<p>He makes worship more heartfelt, and revives apostolic usages: preaching +and exhortation and instruction from the pulpit,--a forgotten power. He +appeals to reason rather than sense; denounces superstitions, while he +rebukes sins; and kindles a profound fervor, based on the recognition of +new truths. He is not fully emancipated from the traditions of the past; +for he retains the doctrine of transubstantiation, and keeps up the +holidays of the Church, and allows recreation on the Sabbath. But what +he thinks the most of is the circulation of the Scriptures among plain +people. So he translates them into German,--a gigantic task; and this +work, almost single-handed, is done so well that it becomes the standard +of the German language, as the Bible of Tindale helped to form the +English tongue; and not only so, but it has remained the common version +in use throughout Germany, even as the authorized King James version, +made nearly a century later by the labor of many scholars and divines, +has remained the standard English Bible. Moreover, he finds time to make +liturgies and creeds and hymns, and to write letters to all parts of +Christendom,--a Jerome, a Chrysostom, and an Augustine united; a kind of +Protestant pope, to whom everybody looks for advice and consolation. +What a wonderful man! No wonder the Germans are so fond of him and so +proud of him,--a Briareus with a hundred arms; a marvel, a wonder, a +prodigy of nature; the most gifted, versatile, hard-working man of his +century or nation!</p> + +<p>At last, this great theologian, this daring innovator, is summoned by +imperial, not papal, authority before the Diet of the empire at Worms, +where the Emperor, the great Charles V., presides, amid bishops, +princes, cardinals, legates, generals, and dignitaries. Thither Luther +must go,--yet under imperial safe conduct,--and consummate his protests, +and perhaps offer up his life. Painters, poets, historians, have made +that scene familiar,--the most memorable in the life of Luther, as well +as one of the grandest spectacles of the age. I need not dwell on that +exciting scene, where, in the presence of all that was illustrious and +powerful in Germany, this defenceless doctor dares to say to supremest +temporal and spiritual authority, "Unless you confute me by arguments +drawn from Scripture, I cannot and will not recant anything ... Here I +stand; I cannot otherwise: God help me! Amen." How superior to Galileo +and other scientific martyrs! He is not afraid of those who can kill +only the body; he is afraid only of Him who hath power to cast both soul +and body into hell. So he stands as firm as the eternal pillars of +justice, and his cause is gained. What if he did not live long enough' +to accomplish all he designed! What if he made mistakes, and showed in +his career many of the infirmities of human nature! What if he cared +very little for pictures and statues,--the revived arts of Greece and +Rome, the Pagan Renaissance in which he only sees infidelity, levities, +and luxuries, and other abominations which excited his disgust and +abhorrence when he visited Italy! <i>He</i> seeks, not to amuse and adorn the +Papal empire, but to reform it; as Paul before him sought to plant new +sentiments and ideas in the Roman world, indifferent to the arts of +Greece, and even the beauties of nature, in his absorbing desire to +convert men to Christ. And who, since Paul, has rendered greater service +to humanity than Luther? The whole race should be proud that such a man +has lived.</p> + +<p>We will not follow the great reformer to the decline of his years; we +will not dwell on his subsequent struggles and dangers, his marvellous +preservation, his personal habits, his friendships and his hatreds, his +joys and sorrows, his bitter alienations, his vexations, his +disappointments, his gloomy anticipations of approaching strife, his +sickened yet exultant soul, his last days of honor and of victory, his +final illness, and his triumphant death in the town where he was born. +It is his legacy that we are concerned in, the inheritance he left to +succeeding generations,--the perpetuated ideas of the Reformation, which +he worked out in anguish and in study, and which we will not let die, +but will cherish in our memories and our hearts, as among the most +precious of the heirlooms of genius, susceptible of boundless +application. And it is destined to grow brighter and richer, in spite of +counter-reformation and Jesuitism, of Pagan levities and Pagan lies, of +boastful science and Epicurean pleasures, of material glories, of +dissensions and sects and parties, as the might and majesty of ages +coursing round the world regenerates institutions and nations, and +proclaims the sovereignty of intelligence, the glory and the power +of God.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Ranke's Reformation in Germany; D'Aubigné's History of the Reformation; +Luther's Letters; Mosheim's History of the Church; Melancthon's Life of +Luther: Erasmi Epistolae; Encyclopaedia Britannica.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="THOMAS_CRANMER."></a>THOMAS CRANMER.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A. D. 1489-1556.</p> + +<p>THE ENGLISH REFORMATION.</p> + +<p>As the great interest of the Middle Ages, in an historical point of +view, centres around the throne of the popes, so the most prominent +subject of historical interest in our modern times is the revolt from +their almost unlimited domination. The Protestant Reformation, in its +various relations, was a movement of transcendent importance. The +history of Christendom, in a moral, a political, a religious, a +literary, and a social point of view, for the last three hundred years, +cannot be studied or comprehended without primary reference to that +memorable revolution.</p> + +<p>We have seen how that great insurrection of human intelligence was +headed in Germany by Luther, and we shall shortly consider it in +Switzerland and France under Calvin. We have now to contemplate the +movement in England.</p> + +<p>The most striking figure in it was doubtless Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop +of Canterbury, although he does not represent the English Reformation +in all its phases. He was neither so prominent nor so great a man as +Luther or Calvin, or even Knox. But, taking him all in all, he was the +most illustrious of the English reformers; and he, more than any other +man, gave direction to the spirit of reform, which had been quietly +working ever since the time of Wyclif, especially among the +humbler classes.</p> + +<p>The English Reformation--the way to which had been long preparing--began +in the reign of Henry VIII.; and this unscrupulous and tyrannical +monarch, without being a religious man, gave the first great impulse to +an outbreak the remote consequences of which he did not anticipate, and +with which he had no sympathy. He rebelled against the authority of the +Pope, without abjuring the Roman Catholic religion, either as to dogmas +or forms. In fact, the first great step towards reform was made, not by +Cranmer, but by Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, as the prime minister of +Henry VIII.,--a man of whom we really know the least of all the very +great statesmen of English history. It was he who demolished the +monasteries, and made war on the whole monastic system, and undermined +the papal power in England, and swept away many of the most glaring of +those abuses which disgraced the Papal Empire. Armed with the powers +which Wolsey had wielded, he directed them into a totally different +channel, so far as the religious welfare of the nation is considered, +although in his principles of government he was as absolute as +Richelieu. Like the great French statesman, he exalted the throne; but, +unlike him, he promoted the personal reign of the sovereign he served +with remarkable ability and devotion.</p> + +<p>Thomas Cromwell, the prime minister of Henry VIII., after the fall of +Wolsey, was born in humble ranks, and was in early life a common soldier +in the wars of Italy, then a clerk in a mercantile house in Antwerp, +then a wool merchant in Middleborough, then a member of Parliament, and +was employed by Wolsey in suppressing some of the smaller monasteries. +His fidelity to his patron Wolsey, at the time of that great cardinal's +fall, attracted the special notice of the King, who made him royal +secretary in the House of Commons. He made his fortune by advising Henry +to declare himself Head of the English Church, when he was entangled in +the difficulties growing out of the divorce of Catharine. This advice +was given with the patriotic view of making the royal authority superior +to that of the Pope in Church patronage, and of making England +independent of Rome.</p> + +<p>The great scandal of the times was the immoral lives of the clergy, +especially of the monks, and the immunities they enjoyed. They were a +hindrance to the royal authority, and weakened the resources of the +country by the excessive drain of gold and silver sent to Rome to +replenish the papal treasury. Cromwell would make the clergy dependent +on the King and not on the Pope for their investitures and promotions; +and he abominated the idle and vagabond lives of the monks, who had +degenerated in England, perhaps more than in any other country in +Europe, in consequence of the great wealth of their monasteries. He was +able to render his master and the kingdom a great service, from the +powers lavished upon him. He presided at convocations as the King's +vicegerent; controlled the House of Commons, and was inquisitor-general +of the monasteries; he was foreign and home secretary, vicar-general, +and president of the star-chamber or privy-council. The proud Nevilles, +the powerful Percies, and the noble Courtenays all bowed before this +plebeian son of a mechanic, who had arisen by force of genius and lucky +accidents,--too wise to build a palace like Hampton Court, but not +ecclesiastical enough in his sympathies to found a college like Christ's +Church as Wolsey did. He was a man simple in his tastes, and +hard-working like Colbert,--the great finance minister of France under +Louis XIV.,--whom he resembled in his habits and policy.</p> + +<p>His great task, as well as his great public service, was the visitation +and suppression of monasteries. He perceived that they had fulfilled +their mission; that they were no longer needed; that they had become +corrupt, and too corrupt to be reformed; that they were no longer abodes +of piety, or beehives of industry, or nurseries of art, or retreats of +learning; that their wealth was squandered; that they upheld the arm of +a foreign power; that they shielded offenders against the laws; that +they encouraged vagrancy and extortion; that, in short, they were nests +of unclean birds.</p> + +<p>The monks and friars opposed the new learning now extending from Italy +to France, to Germany, and to England. Colet came back from Italy, not +to teach Platonic mysticism, but to unlock the Scriptures in the +original,--the centre of a group of scholars at Oxford, of whom Erasmus +and Thomas More stood in the foremost rank. Before the close of the +fifteenth century, it is said that ten thousand editions of various +books had been printed in different parts of Europe. All the Latin +authors, and some of the Greek, were accessible to students. Tunstall +and Latimer were sent to Padua to complete their studies. Fox, bishop of +Winchester, established a Greek professorship at Oxford. It was an age +of enthusiasm for reviving literature,--which, however, received in +Germany, through the influence chiefly of Luther, a different direction +from what it received in Italy, and which extended from Germany to +England. But to this awakened spirit the monks presented obstacles and +discouragements. They had no sympathy with progress; they belonged to +the Dark Ages; they were hostile to the circulation of the Scriptures; +they were pedlers of indulgences and relics; impostors, frauds, +vagabonds, gluttons, worldly, sensual, and avaricious.</p> + +<p>So notoriously corrupt had monasteries become that repeated attempts had +been made to reform them, but without success. As early as 1489, +Innocent VII. had issued a commission for a general investigation. The +monks were accused of dilapidating public property, of frequenting +infamous places, of stealing jewels from consecrated shrines. In 1511, +Archbishop Warham instituted another visitation. In 1523 Cardinal Wolsey +himself undertook the task of reform. At last the Parliament, in 1535, +appointed Cromwell vicar or visitor-general, issued a commission, and +intrusted it to lawyers, not priests, who found that the worst had not +been told. It was found that two thirds of the monks of England were +living in concubinage; that their lands were wasted and mortgaged, and +their houses falling into ruins. They found the Abbot of Fountains +surrounded with more women than Mohammed allowed his followers, and the +nuns of Litchfield scandalously immoral.</p> + +<p>On this report, the Lords and Commons--deliberately, not rashly--decreed +the suppression of all monasteries the income of which was less than +two hundred pounds a year, and the sequestration of their lands to the +King. About two hundred of the lesser convents were thus suppressed, and +the monks turned adrift, yet not entirely without support. This +spoliation may have been a violation of the rights of property, but the +monks had betrayed their trusts. The next Parliament completed the work. +In 1539 all the religious houses were suppressed, both great and small. +Such venerable and princely retreats as St. Albans, Glastonbury, +Beading, Bury St. Edmunds, and Westminster, which had flourished one +thousand years,--founded long before the Conquest,--shared the common +ruin. These probably would have been spared, had not the first +suppression filled the country with traitors. The great insurrection in +Lincolnshire which shook the foundation of the throne, the intrigues of +Cardinal Pole, the Cornish conspiracy in which the great house of +Neville was implicated, and various other agitations, were all fomented +by the angry monks.</p> + +<p>Rapacity was not the leading motive of Henry or his minister, but the +public welfare. The measure of suppression and sequestration was +violent, but called for. Cromwell put forth no such sophistical pleas as +those revolutionists who robbed the French clergy,--that their property +belonged to the nation. In France the clergy were despoiled, not because +they were infamous, but because they were rich, In England the monks +may have suffered injustice from the severity of their punishment, but +no one now doubts that punishment was deserved. Nor did Henry retain all +the spoils himself: he gave away the abbey lands with a prodigality +equal to his rapacity. He gave them to those who upheld his throne, as a +reward for service or loyalty. They were given to a new class of +statesmen, who led the popular party,--like the Fitzwilliams, the +Russells, the Dudleys, and the Seymours,--and thus became the foundation +of their great estates. They were also distributed to many merchants and +manufacturers who had been loyal to the government. From one-third to +two-thirds of the landed property of the kingdom,--as variously +estimated,--thus changed hands. It was an enormous confiscation,--nearly +as great as that made by William the Conqueror in favor of his army of +invaders. It must have produced an immense impression on the mind of +Europe. It was almost as great a calamity to the Catholic Church of +England as the emancipation of slaves was to their Southern masters in +our late war. Such a spoliation of the Church had not before taken place +in any country of Europe. How great an evil the monastic system must +have been regarded by Parliament to warrant such an act! Had it not been +popular, there would have been discontents amounting to a general to +the throne.</p> + +<p>It must also be borne in mind that this dissolution of the monasteries, +this attack on the monastic system, was not a religious movement fanned +by reformers, but an act of Parliament, at the instance of a royal +minister. It was not done under the direction of a Protestant king,--for +Henry was never a Protestant,--but as a public measure in behalf of +morality and for reasons of State. It is true that Henry had, by his +marriage with Anne Boleyn and the divorce of his virtuous queen, defied +the Pope and separated England from Rome, so far as appointments to +ecclesiastical benefices are concerned. But in offending the Pope he +also equally offended Charles V. The results of his separation from +Rome, during his life, were purely political. The King did not give up +the Mass or the Roman communion or Roman dogmas of faith; he only +prepared the way for reform in the next reign. He only intensified the +hatred between the old conservative party and the party of reform +and progress.</p> + +<p>How far Cromwell himself was a Protestant it is difficult to tell. +Doubtless he sympathized with the new religious spirit of the age, but +he did not openly avow the faith of Luther. He was the able and +unscrupulous minister of an absolute monarch, bent on sweeping away +abuses of all kinds, but with the idea of enlarging the royal authority +as much, perhaps, as promoting the prosperity of the realm.</p> + +<p>He therefore turned his attention to the ecclesiastical courts, which +from the time of Becket had been antagonistic to royal encroachments. +The war between the civil power and these courts had begun before the +fall of Wolsey, and had resulted in the curtailment of probate duties, +legacies, and mortuaries, by which the clergy had been enriched. A +limitation of pluralities and enforcement of residence had also been +effected. But a still greater blow to the privileges of the clergy was +struck by the Parliament under the influence of Cromwell, who had +elevated it in order to give legality to the despotic measures of the +Crown; and in this way a law was passed that no one under the rank of a +sub-deacon, if convicted of felony, should be allowed to plead his +"benefit of clergy," but should be punished like ordinary +criminals,--thus re-establishing the constitutions of Clarendon in the +time of Becket. Another act also was passed, by which no one could be +summoned, as aforetime, to the archbishop's court out of his own +diocese,--a very beneficent act, since the people had been needlessly +subject to great expense and injustice in being obliged to travel +considerable distances. It was moreover enacted that men could not +burden their estates beyond twenty years by providing priests to sing +masses for their souls. The Parliament likewise abolished annats,--a +custom which had long prevailed in Europe, which required one year's +income to be sent to the Pope on any new preferment; a great burden to +the clergy; a sort of tribute to a foreign power. Within fifty years, +one hundred and sixty thousand pounds had thus been sent from England to +Rome, from this one source of papal revenue alone,--equal to three +million pounds at the present time, or fifteen millions of dollars, from +a country of only three millions of people. It was the passage of that +act which induced Sir Thomas More (a devoted Catholic, but a just and +able and incorruptible judge) to resign the seals which he had so long +and so honorably held,--the most prominent man in England after Cromwell +and Cranmer; and it was the execution of this lofty character, because +he held out against the imperious demands of Henry, which is the +greatest stain upon this monarch's reign. Parliament also called the +clergy to account for excessive acts of despotism, and subjected them to +the penalty of a premunire (the offence of bringing a foreign authority +into England), from which they were freed only by enormous fines.</p> + +<p>Thus it would seem that many abuses were removed by Cromwell and the +Parliament during the reign of Henry VIII. which may almost be +considered as reforms of the Church itself. The authority of the Church +was not attacked, still less its doctrines, but only abuses and +privileges the restraint of which was of public benefit, and which +tended to reduce the power of the clergy. It was this reduction of +clerical usurpations and privileges which is the main feature in the +legislation of Henry VIII., so far as it pertained to the Church. It was +wresting away the power which the clergy had enjoyed from the days of +Alfred and Ina,--a reform which Henry II. and Edward I., and other +sovereigns, had failed to effect. This was the great work of Cromwell, +and in it he had the support of his royal master, since it was a +transfer of power from the clergy to the throne; and Henry VIII. was +hated and anathematized by Rome as Henry IV. of Germany was, without +ceasing to be a Catholic. He even retained the title of Defender of the +Faith, which had been conferred upon him by the Pope for his opposition +to the theological doctrines of Luther, which he never accepted, and +which he always detested.</p> + +<p>Cromwell did not long survive the great services he rendered to his king +and the nation. In the height of his power he made a fatal mistake. He +deceived the King in regard to Anne of Cleves, whose marriage he favored +from motives of expediency and a manifest desire to promote the +Protestant cause. He palmed upon the King a woman who could not speak a +word of English,--a woman without graces or accomplishments, who was +absolutely hateful to him. Henry's disappointment was bitter, and his +vengeance was unrelenting. The enemies of Cromwell soon took advantage +of this mistake. The great Duke of Norfolk, head of the Catholic party, +accused him at the council-board of high treason. Two years before, such +a charge would have received no attention; but Henry now hated him, and +was resolved to punish him for the wreck of his domestic happiness.</p> + +<p>Cromwell was hurried to that gloomy fortress whose outlet was generally +the scaffold. He was denied even the form of trial. A bill of attainder +was hastily passed by the Parliament he had ruled. Only one person in +the realm had the courage to intercede for him, and this was Cranmer, +Archbishop of Canterbury; but his entreaties were futile. The fallen +minister had no chance of life, and no one knew it so well as himself. +Even a trial would have availed nothing; nothing could have availed +him,--he was a doomed man. So he bade his foes make quick work of it; +and quick work was made. In eighteen days from his arrest, Thomas +Cromwell, Earl of Essex, Knight of the Garter, Grand Chamberlain, Lord +Privy Seal, Vicar-General, and Master of the Wards, ascended the +scaffold on which had been shed the blood of a queen,--making no +protestation of innocence, but simply committing his soul to Jesus +Christ, in whom he believed. Like Wolsey, he arose from an humble +station to the most exalted position the King could give; and, like +Wolsey, he saw the vanity of delegated power as soon as he offended the +source of power.</p> + + "He who ascends the mountain-tops shall find<br> + The loftiest peak most wrapped in clouds and storms.<br> + Though high above the sun of glory shines,<br> + And far beneath the earth and ocean spread,<br> + Round <i>him</i> are icy rocks, and loudly blow.<br> + Contending tempests on his naked head."<br> + +<p>On the disappearance of Cromwell from the stage, Cranmer came forward +more prominently. He was a learned doctor in that university which has +ever sent forth the apostles of great emancipating movements. He was +born in 1489, and was therefore twenty years of age on the accession of +Henry VIII. in 1509, and was twenty-eight when Luther published his +theses. He early sympathized with the reform doctrines, but was too +politic to take an active part in their discussion. He was a moderate, +calm, scholarly man, not a great genius or great preacher. He had none +of those bold and dazzling qualities which attract the gaze of the +world. We behold in him no fearless and impetuous Luther,--attacking +with passionate earnestness the corruptions of Rome; bracing himself up +to revolutionary assaults, undaunted before kings and councils, and +giving no rest to his hands or slumber to his eyes until he had +consummated his protests,--a man of the people, yet a dictator to +princes. We see no severely logical Calvin,--pushing out his +metaphysical deductions until he had chained the intellect of his party +to a system of incomparable grandeur and yet of repulsive austerity, +exacting all the while the same allegiance to doctrines which he deduced +from the writings of Paul as he did to the direct declarations of +Christ; next to Thomas Aquinas, the acutest logician the Church has +known; a system-maker, like the great Dominican schoolmen, and their +common master and oracle, Saint Augustine of Hippo. We see in Cranmer no +uncompromising and aggressive reformer like Knox,--controlling by a +stern dogmatism both a turbulent nobility and an uneducated people, and +filling all classes alike with inextinguishable hatred of everything +that even reminded them of Rome. Nor do we find in Cranmer the outspoken +and hearty eloquence of Latimer,--appealing to the people at St. Paul's +Cross to shake off all the trappings of the "Scarlet Mother," who had so +long bewitched the world with her sorceries.</p> + +<p>Cranmer, if less eloquent, less fearless, less logical, less able than +these, was probably broader, more comprehensive in his views,--adapting +his reforms to the circumstances of the age and country, and to the +genius of the English mind. Hence his reforms, if less brilliant, were +more permanent. He framed the creed that finally was known as the +Thirty-nine Articles, and was the true founder of the English Church, as +that Church has existed for more than three centuries,--neither Roman +nor Puritan, but "half-way between Rome and Geneva;" a compromise, and +yet a Church of great vitality, and endeared to the hearts of the +English people. Northern Germany--the scene of the stupendous triumphs +of Luther--is and has been, since the time of Frederick the Great, the +hot-bed of rationalistic inquiries; and the Genevan as well as the +French and Swiss churches which Calvin controlled have become cold, with +a dreary and formal Protestantism, without poetry or life. But the +Church of England has survived two revolutions and all the changes of +human thought, and is still a mighty power, decorous, beautiful, +conservative, yet open to all the liberalizing influences of an age of +science and philosophy. Cranmer, though a scholastic, seems to have +perceived that nothing is more misleading and uncertain and +unsatisfactory than any truth pushed out to its severest logical +conclusions without reference to other truths which have for their +support the same divine authority. It is not logic which has built up +the most enduring institutions, but common-sense and plain truths, and +appeals to human consciousness,--the <i>cogito, ergo sum</i>, without whose +approval most systems have perished. <i>In mediis tutissimus ibis</i>, is not +indeed an agreeable maxim to zealots and partisans and dialectical +logicians, but it seems to be induced from the varied experiences of +human life and the history of different ages and nations, and applies to +all the mixed sciences, like government and political economy, as well +as to church institutions.</p> + +<p>As Cromwell made his fortune by advising the King to assume the headship +of the Church in England, so Cranmer's rise is to be traced to his +advice to Henry to appeal to the decision of universities whether or not +he could be legally divorced from Catharine, since the Pope--true to the +traditions of the Catholic Church, or from fear of Charles V.--would not +grant a dispensation. All this business was a miserable quibble, a +tissue of scholastic technicalities. But it answered the ends of +Cranmer. The schools decided for the King, and a great injustice and +heartless cruelty was done to a worthy and loyal woman, and a great +insult offered to the Church and to the Emperor Charles of Germany, who +was a nephew of the Spanish Princess and English Queen. This scandal +resulted in a separation from Rome, as was foreseen both by Cromwell and +Cranmer; and the latter became Archbishop of Canterbury, a prelate whose +power and dignity were greater then than at the present day, exalted as +the post is even now,--the highest in dignity and rank to which a +subject can aspire,--higher even than the Lord High Chancellorship; both +of which, however, pale before the position of a Prime Minister so far +as power is concerned.</p> + +<p>The separation from Rome, the suppression of the monasteries, and the +curtailment of the powers of the spiritual courts were the only reforms +of note during the reign of Henry VIII., unless we name also the new +translation of the Bible, authorized through Cranmer's influence, and +the teaching of the creed, the commandments, and the Lord's prayer in +English. The King died in 1547. Cranmer was now fifty-seven, and was +left to prosecute reforms in his own way as president of the council of +regency, Edward VI. being but nine years old,--"a learned boy," as +Macaulay calls him, but still a boy in the hands of the great noblemen +who composed the regency, and who belonged to the progressive school.</p> + +<p>I do not think the career of Cranmer during the life of Henry is +sufficiently appreciated. He must have shown at least extraordinary tact +and wisdom,--with his reforming tendencies and enlightened views,--not +to come in conflict with his sovereign as Becket did with Henry II. He +had to deal with the most capricious and jealous of tyrants; cruel and +unscrupulous when crossed; a man who rarely retained a friendship or +remembered a service; who never forgave an injury or forgot an affront; +a glutton and a sensualist; although prodigal with his gifts, social in +his temper, enlightened in his government, and with very respectable +abilities and very considerable theological knowledge. This hard and +exacting master Cranmer had to serve, without exciting his suspicions or +coming in conflict with him; so that he seemed politic and vacillating, +for which he would not be excused were it not for his subsequent +services, and his undoubted sincerity and devotion to the Protestant +cause. During the life of Henry we can scarcely call Cranmer a reformer. +The most noted reformer of the day was old Hugh Latimer, the King's +chaplain, who declaimed against sin with the zeal and fire of +Savonarola, and aimed to create a religious life among the people, from +whom, he sprung and whom he loved,--a rough, hearty, honest, +conscientious man, with deep convictions and lofty soul.</p> + +<p>In the reforms thus far carried on we perceive that, though popular, +they emanated from princes and not from the people. The people had no +hand in the changes made, as at Geneva, only the ministers of kings and +great public functionaries. And in the reforms subsequently effected, +which really constitute the English Reformation, they were made by the +council of regency, under the leadership of Cranmer and the +protectorship of Somerset.</p> + +<p>The first thing which the Government did after the accession of Edward +VI. was to remove images from the churches, as a form of idolatry,--much +to the wrath of Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, the ablest man of the +old conservative and papal party. But Ridley, afterwards Bishop of +Rochester, preached against all forms of papal superstition with so much +ability and zeal that the churches were soon cleared of these "helps to +devotion."</p> + +<p>Cranmer, now unchecked, turned his attention to other reforms, but +proceeded slowly and cautiously, not wishing to hazard much at the +outset. First communion of both kinds, heretofore restricted to the +clergy, was appointed; and, closely connected with it, Masses were put +down. Then a law was passed by Parliament that the appointment of +bishops should vest in the Crown alone, and not, as formerly, be +confirmed by the Pope. The next great thing to which the reformers +directed their attention was the preparation of a new liturgy in the +public worship of God, which gave rise to considerable discussion. They +did not seek to sweep away the old form, for it was prepared by the +sainted doctors of the Church of all ages; but they would purge it of +all superstitions, and retain what was most beautiful and expressive in +the old prayers. The Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the early +creeds of course were retained, as well as whatever was in harmony with +primitive usages. These changes called out letters from Calvin at +Geneva, who was now recognized as a great oracle among the Protestants: +he encouraged the work, but advised a more complete reformation, and +complained of the coldness of the clergy, as well as of the general +vices of the times. Martin Bucer of Strasburg, at this time professor at +Cambridge, also wrote letters to the same effect; but the time had not +come for more radical reforms. Then, Parliament, controlled by the +Government, passed an act allowing the clergy to marry,--opposed, of +course, by many bishops in allegiance to Rome. This was a great step in +reform, and removed many popular scandals; it struck a heavy blow at the +superstitions of the Middle Ages, and showed that celibacy sprung from +no law of God, but was Oriental in its origin, encouraged by the popes +to cement their throne. And this act concerning the marriage of the +clergy was soon followed by the celebrated Forty-two Articles, framed by +Cranmer and Ridley, which are the bases of the English Church,--a +theological creed, slightly amended afterwards in the reign of +Elizabeth; evangelical but not Calvinistic, affirming the great ideas of +Augustine and Luther as to grace, justification by faith, and original +sin, and repudiating purgatory, pardons, the worship and invocation of +saints and images; a larger creed than the Nicene or Athanasian, and +comprehensive,--such as most Protestants might accept. Both this and the +book of Common Prayer were written with consummate taste, were the work +of great scholars,--moderate, broad, enlightened, conciliatory.</p> + +<p>The reformers then gave their attention to an alteration of +ecclesiastical laws in reference to matters which had always been +decided in ecclesiastical courts. The commissioners--the ablest men in +England, thirty-two in number--had scarcely completed their work before +the young King died, and Mary ascended the throne.</p> + +<p>We cannot too highly praise the moderation with which the reforms had +been made, especially when we remember the violence of the age. There +were only two or three capital executions for heresy. Gardiner and +Bonner, who opposed the reformation with unparalleled bitterness were +only deprived of their sees and sent to the Tower. The execution of +Somerset was the work of politicians, of great noblemen jealous of his +ascendency. It does not belong to the reformation, nor do the executions +of a few other noblemen.</p> + +<p>Cranmer himself was a statesman rather than a preacher. He left but few +sermons, and these commonplace, without learning, or wit, or +zeal,--ordinary exhortations to a virtuous life. The chief thing, +outside of the reforms I have mentioned, was the publication of a few +homilies for the use of the clergy,--too ignorant to write +sermons,--which homilies were practical and orthodox, but containing +nothing to stir up an ardent religious life. The Bible was also given a +greater scope; everybody could read it if he wished. Public prayer was +restored to the people in a language which they could understand, and a +few preachers arose who appealed to conscience and reason,--like Latimer +and Ridley, and Hooper and Taylor; but most of them were formal and +cold. There must have been great religious apathy, or else these reforms +would have excited more opposition on the part of the clergy, who +generally acquiesced in the changes. But the Reformation thus far was +official; it was not popular. It repressed vice and superstition, but +kindled no great enthusiasm. It was necessary for the English reformers +and sincere Protestants to go through a great trial; to be persecuted, +to submit to martyrdom for the sake of their opinions. The school of +heroes and saints has ever been among blazing fires and scaffolds. It +was martyrdom which first gave form and power to early Christianity. The +first chapter in the history of the early Church is the torments of the +martyrs. The English Reformation had no great dignity or life until the +funeral pyres were lighted. Men had placidly accepted new opinions, and +had Bibles to instruct them; but it was to be seen how far they would +make sacrifices to maintain them.</p> + +<p>This test was afforded by the accession of Mary, daughter of Catharine +the Spaniard,--an affectionate and kind-hearted woman enough in ordinary +times, but a fiend of bigotry, like Catherine de' Medicis, when called +upon to suppress the Reformation, although on her accession she +declared that she would force no man's conscience. But the first thing +she does is to restore the popish bishops,--for so they were called then +by historians; and the next thing she does is to restore the Mass, and +the third to shut up Cranmer and Latimer in the Tower, attaint and +execute them, with sundry others like Ridley and Hooper, as well as +those great nobles who favored the claims of the Lady Jane Grey and the +religious reforms of Edward VI. She reconciles herself with Rome, and +accepts its legate at her court; she receives Spanish spies and Jesuit +confessors; she marries the son of Charles V., afterwards Philip II.; +she executes the Lady Jane Grey; she keeps the strictest watch on the +Princess Elizabeth, who learns in her retirement the art of +dissimulation and lying; she forms an alliance with Spain; she makes +Cardinal Pole Archbishop of Canterbury; she gives almost unlimited power +to Gardiner and Bonner, who begin a series of diabolical persecutions, +burning such people as John Rogers, Sanders, Doctor Taylor of Hadley, +William Hunter, and Stephen Harwood, ferreting out all suspected of +heresy, and confining them in the foulest jails,--burning even little +children. Mary even takes measures to introduce the Inquisition and +restore the monasteries. Everywhere are scaffolds and burnings. In three +years nearly three hundred people were burned alive, often with green +wood,--a small number compared with those who were executed and +assassinated in France, about this time, by Catherine de' Medicis, the +Guises, and Charles IX.</p> + +<p>In those dreadful persecutions which began with the accession of Mary, +it was impossible that Cranmer should escape. In spite of his dignity, +rank, age, and services, he could hope for no favor or indulgence from +that morose woman in whose sapless bosom no compassion for the +Protestants ever found admission, and still less from those cruel, +mercenary, bigoted prelates whom she selected for her ministers. It was +not customary in that age for the Roman Church to spare heretics, +whether high or low. Would it forgive him who had overturned the +consecrated altars, displaced the ritual of a thousand years, and +revolted from the authority of the supreme head of the Christian world? +Would Mary suffer him to pass unpunished who had displaced her mother +from the nuptial bed, and pronounced her own birth to be stained with an +ignominious blot, and who had exalted a rival to the throne? And +Gardiner and Bonner, too, those bigoted prelates and ministers who would +have sent to the flames an unoffending woman if she denied the authority +of the Pope, were not the men to suffer him to escape who had not only +overturned the papal power in England, but had deprived them of their +sees and sent them to the Tower. No matter how decent the forms of law +or respectful the agents of the crown, Cranmer had not the shadow of a +hope; and hence he was certainly weak, to say the least, to trust to any +deceitful promises made to him. What his enemies were bent upon was his +recantation, as preliminary to his execution; and he should have been +firm, both for his cause, and because his martyrdom was sure. In an evil +hour he listened to the voice of the seducer. Both life and dignities +were promised if he would recant. "Confounded, heart-broken, old," the +love of life and the fear of death were stronger for a time than the +power of conscience or dignity of character. Six several times was he +induced to recant the doctrines he had preached, and profess an +allegiance which could only be a solemn mockery.</p> + +<p>True, Cranmer came to himself; he perceived that he was mocked, and felt +both grief and shame in view of his apostasy. His last hours were +glorious. Never did a good man more splendidly redeem his memory from +shame. Being permitted to address the people before his execution,--with +the hope on the part of his tormentors that he would publicly confirm +his recantation,--he first supplicated the mercy and forgiveness of +Almighty God, and concluded his speech with these memorable words: "And +now I come to the great thing that troubleth my conscience more than +anything I ever did or said, even the setting forth of writings +contrary to the truth, which I now renounce and refuse,--those things +written with my own hand contrary to the truth I thought in my heart, +and writ for fear of death and to save my life. And forasmuch as my hand +offended in writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first +be punished; for if I come to the fire, it shall first be burned. As for +the Pope, I denounce him as Christ's enemy and Antichrist, with all his +false doctrines." Then he was carried away, and a great multitude ran +after him, exhorting him, while time was, to remember himself. "Coming +to the stake," says the Catholic eye-witness, "with a cheerful +countenance and willing mind, he took off his garments in haste and +stood upright in his shirt. Fire being applied, he stretched forth his +right hand and thrust it into the flame, before the fire came to any +other part of his body; when his hand was to be seen sensibly burning, +he cried with a loud voice, 'This hand hath offended.'"</p> + +<p>Thus died Cranmer, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, after presiding +over the Church of England above twenty years, and having bequeathed a +legacy to his countrymen of which they continue to be proud. He had not +the intrepidity of Latimer; he was supple to Henry VIII.; he was weak in +his recantation; he was not an original genius,--but he was a man of +great breadth of views, conciliating, wise, temperate in reform, and +discharged his great trust with conscientious adherence to the truth as +he understood it; the friend of Calvin, and revered by the +Protestant world.</p> + +<p>Queen Mary reigned, fortunately, but five years, and the persecutions +she encouraged and indorsed proved the seed of a higher morality and a +loftier religious life.</p> + + "For thus spake aged Latimer:<br> + I tarry by the stake,<br> + Not trusting in my own weak heart,<br> + But for the Saviour's sake.<br> + Why speak of life or death to me,<br> + Whose days are but a span?<br> + Our crown is yonder,--Ridley, see!<br> + Be strong and play the man!<br> + God helping, such a torch this day<br> + We'll light on English land,<br> + That Rome, with all her cardinals,<br> + Shall never quench the brand!"<br> + +<p>The triumphs of Gardiner and Bonner too were short. Mary died with a +bruised heart and a crushed ambition. On her death, and the accession of +her sister Elizabeth, exiles returned from Geneva and Frankfort to +advocate more radical changes in government and doctrine. Popular +enthusiasm was kindled, never afterwards to be repressed.</p> + +<p>The great ideas of the Reformation began now to agitate the mind of +England,--not so much the logical doctrines of Calvin as the +emancipating ideas of Luther. The Renaissance had begun, and the two +movements were incorporated,--the religious one of Germany and the Pagan +one of Italy, both favoring liberality of mind, a freer style of +literature, restless inquiries, enterprise, the revival of learning and +art, an intense spirit of progress, and disgust for the Dark Ages and +all the dogmas of scholasticism. With this spirit of progress and +moderate Protestantism Elizabeth herself, the best educated woman in +England, warmly sympathized, as did also the illustrious men she drew to +her court, to whom she gave the great offices of state. I cannot call +her age a religious one: it was a merry one, cheerful, inquiring, +untrammelled in thought, bold in speculation, eloquent, honest, fervid, +courageous, hostile to the Papacy and all the bigots of Europe. It was +still rough, coarse, sensual; when money was scarce and industries in +their infancy, and material civilization not very attractive. But it was +a great age, glorious, intellectual, brilliant; with such statesmen as +Burleigh and Walsingham to head off treason and conspiracy; when great +poets arose, like Jonson and Spenser and Shakspeare; and philosophers, +like Bacon and Sir Thomas Browne; and lawyers, like Nicholas Bacon and +Coke; and elegant courtiers, like Sidney and Raleigh and Essex; men of +wit, men of enterprise, who would explore distant seas and colonize new +countries; yea, great preachers, like Jeremy Taylor and Hall; and great +theologians, like Hooker and Chillingworth,--giving polish and dignity +to an uncouth language, and planting religious truth in the minds +of men.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth, with such a constellation around her, had no great difficulty +in re-establishing Protestantism and giving it a new impetus, although +she adhered to liturgies and pomps, and loved processions and fêtes and +banquets and balls and expensive dresses,--a worldly woman, but +progressive and enlightened.</p> + +<p>In the religious reforms of that age you see the work of princes and +statesmen still, rather than any great insurrection of human +intelligence or any great religious revival, although the germs of it +were springing up through the popular preachers and the influence of +Genevan reformers. Calvin's writings were potent, and John Knox was on +his way to Scotland.</p> + +<p>I pass by rapidly the reforms of Elizabeth's reign, effected by the +Queen and her ministers and the convocation of Protestant bishops and +clergy and learned men in the universities. Oxford and Cambridge were +then in their glory,--crowded with poor students from all parts of +England, who came to study Greek and Latin and read theology, not to +ride horses and row boats, to put on dandified airs and sneer at +lectures, running away to London to attend theatres and flirt with girls +and drink champagne, beggaring their fathers and ruining their own +expectations and their health. In a very short time after the accession +of Elizabeth, which was hailed generally as a very auspicious event, +things were restored to nearly the state in which they were left by +Cranmer in the preceding reign. This was not done by direct authority of +the Queen, but by acts of Parliament. Even Henry VIII. ruled through the +Parliament, only it was his tool and instrument. Elizabeth consulted its +wishes as the representation of the nation, for she aimed to rule by the +affections of her people. But she recommended the Parliament to +conciliatory measures; to avoid extremes; to drop offensive epithets, +like "papist" and "heretic;" to go as far as the wants of the nation +required, and no farther. Though a zealous Protestant, she seemed to +have no great animosities. Her particular aversion was Bonner,--the +violent, blood-thirsty, narrow-minded Bishop of London, who was deprived +of his see and shut up in the Tower, put out of harm's way, not cruelly +treated,--he was not even deprived of his good dinners. She appointed, +as her prerogative allowed, a very gentle, moderate, broad, kind-hearted +man to be Archbishop of Canterbury,--Parker, who had been chaplain to +her mother, and who was highly esteemed by Burleigh and Nicholas Bacon, +her most influential ministers. Parliament confirmed the old act, passed +during the reign of Henry VIII., making the sovereign the head +of the English Church, although the title of "supreme head" was +left out in the oath of allegiance, to conciliate the Catholic +party. To execute this supremacy, the Court of High Commission was +established,--afterwards so abused by Charles I. The Church Service was +modified, and the Act of Uniformity was passed by Parliament, after +considerable debate. The changes were all made in the spirit of +moderation, and few suffered beyond a deprivation of their sees or +livings for refusing to take the oath of supremacy.</p> + +<p>Then followed the Thirty-nine Articles, setting forth the creed of the +Established Church,--substantially the creed which Cranmer had +made,--and a new translation of the Bible, and the regulation of +ecclesiastical courts.</p> + +<p>But whatever was done was in good taste,--marked by good sense and +moderation,--to preserve decency and decorum, and repress all extremes +of superstition and license. The clergy preached in a black gown and +Genevan bands, using the surplice only in the liturgy; we see no lace or +millinery. The churches were stripped of images, the pulpits became high +and prominent, the altars were changed to communion-tables without +candles and symbols. There was not much account made of singing, for the +lyric version of the Psalms was execrable. For the first time since +Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen, preaching became the chief duty of +the clergyman; and his sermons were long, for the people were greedy of +instruction, and were not critical of artistic merits. Among other +things of note, the exiles were recalled, who brought back with them the +learning of the Continent and the theology of Geneva, and an intense +hatred for all the old forms of superstition,--images, crucifixes, +lighted candles, Catholic vestments,--and a supreme regard for the +authority of the Scriptures, rather than the authority of the Church.</p> + +<p>These men, mostly learned and pious, were not contented with the +restoration as effected by Elizabeth's reformers,--they wanted greater +simplicity of worship and a more definite and logical creed; and they +made a good deal of trouble, being very conscientious and somewhat +narrow and intolerant. So that, after the re-establishment of +Protestantism, the religious history of the reign is chiefly concerned +with the quarrels and animosities within the Church, particularly about +vestments and modes of worship,--things unessential, minute, +technical,--which led to great acerbity on both sides, and to some +persecution; for these quarrels provoked the Queen and her ministers, +who wanted peace and uniformity. To the Government it seemed strange and +absurd for these returned exiles to make such a fuss about a few +externals; to these intensified Protestants it seemed harsh and cruel +that Government should insist on such a rigid uniformity, and punish +them for not doing as they were bidden by the bishops.</p> + +<p>So they separated from the Established Church, and became what were +called Nonconformists,--having not only disgust of the decent ritualism +of the Church, but great wrath for the bishops and hierarchy and +spiritual courts. They also disapproved of the holy days which the +Church retained, and the prayers and the cathedral style of worship, the +use of the cross in baptism, godfathers and godmothers, the confirmation +of children, kneeling at the sacrament, bowing at the name of Jesus, the +ring in marriage, the surplice, the divine right of bishops, and some +other things which reminded them of Rome, for which they had absolute +detestation, seeing in the old Catholic Church nothing but abominations +and usurpations, no religion at all, only superstition and +anti-Christian government and doctrine,--the reign of the beast, the +mystic Babylon, the scarlet mother revelling in the sorceries of ancient +Paganism. These terrible animosities against even the shadows and +resemblances of what was called Popery were increased and intensified by +the persecution and massacres which the Catholics about this time were +committing on the Protestants in France and Germany and the Low +Countries, and which filled the people of England,--especially the +middle and lower classes,--with fear, alarm, anger, and detestation.</p> + +<p>I will not enter upon the dissensions which so early crept into the +English Church, and led to a separation or a schism, whatever name it +goes by,--to most people in these times not very interesting or +edifying, because they were not based on any great ideas of universal +application, and seeming to such minds as Bacon and Parker and Jewell +rather narrow and frivolous.</p> + +<p>The great Puritan controversy would have no dignity if it were confined +to vestments and robes and forms of worship, and hatred of ceremonies +and holy days, and other matters which seemed to lean to Romanism. But +the grandeur and the permanence of the movement were in a return to the +faith of the primitive Church and a purer national morality, and to the +unrestricted study of the Bible, and the exaltation of preaching and +Christian instruction over forms and liturgies and antiphonal chants; +above all, the exaltation of reason and learning in the interpretation +of revealed truth, and the education of the people in all matters which +concern their temporal or religious interests, so that a true and rapid +progress was inaugurated in civilization itself, which has peculiarly +marked all Protestant countries having religious liberty. Underneath all +these apparently insignificant squabbles and dissensions there were two +things of immense historical importance: first, a spirit of intolerance +on the part of government and of church dignitaries,--the State allied +with the Church forcing uniformity with their decrees, and severely +punishing those who did not accept them,--in matters beyond all worldly +authority; and, secondly, a rising spirit of religious liberty, +determined to assert its glorious rights at any cost or hazard, and +especially defended by the most religious and earnest part of the +clergy, who were becoming Calvinistic in their creed, and were pushing +the ideas of the Reformation to their utmost logical sequence. This +spirit was suppressed during the reign of Elizabeth, out of general +respect and love for her as a Queen, and the external dangers to which +the realm was exposed from Spain and France, which diverted the national +mind. But it burst out fiercely in the next reigns, under James and +Charles, about the beginning of the seventeenth century. And this is the +last development of the Reformation in England to which I can +allude,--the great Puritan contest for liberty of worship, running, when +opposed unjustly and cruelly, into a contest for civil liberty; that is, +the right to change forms and institutions of civil government, even to +the dethronement of kings, when it was the expressed and declared will +of the people, in whom was vested the ultimate source of sovereignty.</p> + +<p>But here I must be brief. I tread on familiar ground, made familiar by +all our literature, especially by the most brilliant writer of modern +times, though not the greatest philosopher: I mean that great artist +and word-painter Macaulay, whose chief excellence is in making clear +and interesting and vivid, by a world of illustration and practical +good-sense and marvellous erudition, what was obvious to his own +objective mind, and obvious also to most other enlightened people not +much interested in metaphysical disquisitions. No man more than he does +justice to the love of liberty which absolutely burned in the souls of +the Puritans,--that glorious party which produced Milton and Cromwell, +and Hampden and Bunyan, and Owen and Calamy, and Baxter and Howe.</p> + +<p>The chief peculiarity of those Puritans--once called Nonconformists, +afterwards Presbyterians and Independents--was their reception of the +creed of John Calvin, the clearest and most logical intellect that the +Reformation produced, though not the broadest; who reigned as a +religious dictator at Geneva and in the Reformed churches of France, and +who gave to John Knox the positivism and sternness and rigidity which he +succeeded in impressing upon the churches of Scotland. And the peculiar +doctrines which marked Calvin and his disciples were those deduced from +the majesty of God and the comparative littleness of man, leading to and +bound up with the impotence of the will, human dependence, the necessity +of Divine grace,--Augustinian in spirit, but going beyond Augustine in +the subtlety of metaphysical distinctions and dissertations on +free-will election, and predestination,--unfathomable, but exceedingly +attractive subjects to the divines of the seventeenth century, creating +a metaphysical divinity, a theology of the brain rather than of the +heart, a brilliant series of logical and metaphysical deductions from +established truths, demanding to be received with the same unhesitating +obedience as the truths, or Bible declarations, from which they are +deduced. The greatness of human reason was never more forcibly shown +than in these deductions; but they were carried so far as to insult +reason itself and mock the consciousness of mankind; so that mankind +rebelled against the very force of the highest reasonings of the human +intellect, because they pushed logical sequence into absurdity, or to +dreadful conclusions: <i>Decretum quidem horribile fateor</i>, said the great +master himself.</p> + +<p>The Puritans were trained in this theology, which developed the loftiest +virtues and the severest self-constraints; making them both heroes and +visionaries, always conscientious and sometimes repulsive; fitting them +for gigantic tasks and unworthy squabbles; driving them to the Bible, +and then to acrimonious discussions; creating fears almost mediaeval; +leading them to technical observation of religious duties, and +transforming the most genial and affectionate people under the sun into +austere saints, with whom the most ascetic of monks would have had but +little sympathy.</p> + +<p>I will not dwell on those peculiarities which Macaulay ridicules and +Taine repeats,--the hatred of theatres and assemblies and symbolic +festivals and bell-ringings, the rejection of the beautiful, the +elongated features, the cropped hair, the unadorned garments, the +proscription of innocent pleasures, the nasal voice, the cant phrases, +the rigid decorums, the strict discipline,--these, doubtless +exaggerated, were more than balanced by the observance of the Sabbath, +family prayers, temperate habits, fervor of religious zeal, strict +morality, allegiance to duty, and the perpetual recognition of God +Almighty as the sovereign of this world, to whom we are responsible for +all our acts and even our thoughts. They formed a noble material on +which every emancipating idea could work; men trained by persecutions to +self-sacrifice and humble duties,--making good soldiers, good farmers, +good workmen in every department, honest and sturdy, patient and +self-reliant, devoted to their families though not demonstrative of +affection; keeping the Sunday as a day of worship rather than rest or +recreation, cherishing as the dearest and most sacred of all privileges +the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience +enlightened by the Bible, and willing to fight, even amid the greatest +privations and sacrifices, to maintain this sacred right and transmit it +to their children. Such were the men who fought the battles of civil +liberty under Cromwell and colonized the most sterile of all American +lands, making the dreary wilderness to blossom with roses, and sending +out the shoots of their civilization to conserve more fruitful and +favored sections of the great continent which God gave them, to try new +experiments in liberty and education.</p> + +<p>I need not enumerate the different sects into which these Puritans were +divided, so soon as they felt they had the right to interpret Scripture +for themselves. Nor would I detail the various and cruel persecutions to +which these sects were subjected by the government and the +ecclesiastical tribunals, until they rose in indignation and despair, +and rebelled against the throne, and made war on the King, and cut off +his head; all of which they did from fear and for self-defence, as well +as from vengeance and wrath.</p> + +<p>Nor can I describe the counter reformation, the great reaction which +succeeded to the violence of the revolution. The English reformation was +not consummated until constitutional liberty was heralded by the reign +of William and Mary, when the nation became almost unanimously +Protestant, with perfect toleration of religious opinions, although the +fervor of the Puritans had passed away forever, leaving a residuum of +deep-seated popular antipathy to all the institutions of Romanism and +all the ideas of the Middle Ages. The English reformation began with +princes, and ended with the agitations of the people. The German +reformation began with the people, and ended in the wars of princes. But +both movements were sublime, since they showed the force of religious +ideas. Civil liberty is only one of the sequences which exalt the +character and dignity of man amid the seductions and impediments of a +gilded material life.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Todd's Life of Cranmer; Strype's Life of Cranmer; Wood's Annals of the +Oxford University; Burnet's English Reformation; Doctor Lingard's +History of England; Macaulay's Essays; Fuller's Church History; Gilpin's +Life of Cranmer; Original Letters to Cromwell; Hook's Lives of the +Archbishops of Canterbury; Butler's Book of the Roman Catholic Church; +Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography; Turner's Henry VIII.; Froude's +History of England; Fox's Life of Latimer; Turner's Reign of Mary.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="IGNATIUS_LOYOLA."></a>IGNATIUS LOYOLA.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1491-1556.</p> + +<p>RISE AND INFLUENCE OF THE JESUITS.</p> + +<p>Next to the Protestant Reformation itself, the most memorable moral +movement in the history of modern times was the counter-reformation in +the Roman Catholic Church, finally effected, in no slight degree, by the +Jesuits. But it has not the grandeur or historical significance of the +great insurrection of human intelligence which was headed by Luther. It +was a revival of the pietism of the Middle Ages, with an external reform +of manners. It was not revolutionary; it did not cast off the authority +of the popes, nor disband the monasteries, nor reform religious worship: +it rather tended to strengthen the power of the popes, to revive +monastic life, and to perpetuate the forms of worship which the Middle +Ages had established. No doubt a new religious life was kindled, and +many of the flagrant abuses of the papal empire were redressed, and the +lives of the clergy made more decent, in accordance with the revival of +intelligence. Nor did it disdain literature or art, or any form of +modern civilization, but sought to combine progress with old ideas; it +was an effort to adapt the Roman theocracy to changing circumstances, +and was marked by expediency rather than right, by zeal rather than a +profound philosophy.</p> + +<p>This movement took place among the Latin races,--the Italians, French, +and Spaniards,--having no hold on the Teutonic races except in Austria, +as much Slavonic as German. It worked on a poor material, morally +considered; among peoples who have not been distinguished for stamina of +character, earnestness, contemplative habits, and moral +elevation,--peoples long enslaved, frivolous in their pleasures, +superstitious, indolent, fond of fêtes, spectacles, pictures, and Pagan +reminiscences.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of justification by faith was not unknown, even in Italy. +It was embraced by many distinguished men. Contarini, an illustrious +Venetian, wrote a treatise on it, which Cardinal Pole admired. Folengo +ascribed justification to grace alone; and Vittoria Colonna, the friend +of Michael Angelo, took a deep interest in these theological inquiries. +But the doctrine did not spread; it was not understood by the +people,--it was a speculation among scholars and doctors, which gave no +alarm to the Pope. There was even an attempt at internal reform under +Paul III. of the illustrious family of the Farnese, successor of Leo X. +and Clement VII., the two renowned Medicean popes. He made cardinals of +Contarini, Caraffa, Sadoleto, Pole, Giberto,--all men imbued with +Protestant doctrines, and very religious; and these good men prepared a +plan of reform and submitted it to the Pope, which ended, however, only +in new monastic orders.</p> + +<p>It was then that Ignatius Loyola appeared upon the stage, when Luther +was in the midst of his victories, and when new ideas were shaking the +pontifical throne. The desponding successor of the Gregorys and the +Clements knew not where to look for aid in that crisis of peril and +revolution. The monastic orders composed his regular army, but they had +become so corrupted that they had lost the reverence of the people. The +venerable Benedictines had ceased to be men of prayer and contemplation +as in the times of Bernard and Anselm, and were revelling in their +enormous wealth. The cloisters of Cluniacs and Cistercians--branches of +the Benedictines--were filled with idle and dissolute monks. The famous +Dominicans and Franciscans, who had rallied to the defence of the Papacy +three centuries before,--those missionary orders that had filled the +best pulpits and the highest chairs of philosophy in the scholastic +age,--had become inexhaustible subjects of sarcasm and mockery, for they +were peddling relics and indulgences, and quarrelling among themselves. +They were hated as inquisitors, despised as scholastics, and deserted +as preachers; the roads and taverns were filled with them. Erasmus +laughed at them, Luther abused them, and the Pope reproached them. No +hope from such men as these, although they had once been renowned for +their missions, their zeal, their learning, and their preaching.</p> + +<p>At this crisis Loyola and his companions volunteered their services, and +offered to go wherever the Pope should send them, as preachers, or +missionaries, or teachers, instantly, without discussion, conditions, or +rewards. So the Pope accepted them, made them a new order of monks; and +they did what the Mendicant Friars had done three hundred years +before,--they fanned a new spirit, and rapidly spread over Europe, over +all the countries to which Catholic adventurers had penetrated, and +became the most efficient allies that the popes ever had.</p> + +<p>This was in 1540, six years after the foundation of the Society of Jesus +had been laid on the Mount of Martyrs, in the vicinity of Paris, during +the pontificate of Paul III. Don Iñigo Lopez de Recalde Loyola, a +Spaniard of noble blood and breeding, at first a page at the court of +King Ferdinand, then a brave and chivalrous soldier, was wounded at the +siege of Pampeluna. During a slow convalescence, having read all the +romances he could find, he took up the "Lives of the Saints," and +became fired with religious zeal. He immediately forsook the pursuit of +arms, and betook himself barefooted to a pilgrimage. He served the sick +in hospitals; he dwelt alone in a cavern, practising austerities; he +went as a beggar on foot to Rome and to the Holy Land, and returned at +the age of thirty-three to begin a course of study. It was while +completing his studies at Paris that he conceived and formed the +"Society of Jesus."</p> + +<p>From that time we date the counter-reformation. In fifty years more a +wonderful change took place in the Catholic Church, wrought chiefly by +the Jesuits. Yea, in sixteen years from that eventful night--when far +above the star-lit city the enthusiastic Loyola had bound his six +companions with irrevocable vows--he had established his Society in the +confidence and affection of Catholic Europe, against the voice of +universities, the fears of monarchs, and the jealousy of the other +monastic orders. In sixteen years, this ridiculed and wandering Spanish +fanatic had risen to a condition of great influence and dignity, second +only in power to the Pope himself; animating the councils of the +Vatican, moving the minds of kings, controlling the souls of a numerous +fraternity, and making his influence felt in every corner of the world. +Before the remembrance of his passionate eloquence, his eyes of fire, +and his countenance of seraphic piety had passed away from the minds of +his own generation, his disciples "had planted their missionary stations +among Peruvian mines, in the marts of the African slave-trade, among the +islands of the Indian Ocean, on the coasts of Hindustan, in the cities +of Japan and China, in the recesses of Canadian forests, amid the wilds +of the Rocky Mountains." They had the most important chairs in the +universities; they were the confessors of monarchs and men of rank; they +had the control of the schools of Italy, France, Austria, and Spain; and +they had become the most eloquent, learned, and fashionable preachers in +all Catholic countries. They had grown to be a great institution,--an +organization instinct with life, a mechanism endued with energy and +will; forming a body which could outwatch Argus with his hundred eyes, +and outwork Briareus with his hundred arms; they had twenty thousand +eyes open upon every cabinet, every palace, and every private family in +Catholic Europe, and twenty thousand arms extended over the necks of +every sovereign and all their subjects,--a mighty moral and spiritual +power, irresponsible, irresistible, omnipresent, connected intimately +with the education, the learning, and the religion of the age; yea, the +prime agents in political affairs, the prop alike of absolute monarchies +and of the papal throne, whose interests they made identical. This +association, instinct with one will and for one purpose, has been +beautifully likened by Doctor Williams to the chariot in the Prophet's +vision: "The spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels; wherever +the living creatures went, the wheels went with them; wherever those +stood, these stood: when the living creatures were lifted up, the wheels +were lifted up over against them; and their wings were full of eyes +round about, and they were so high that they were dreadful. So of the +institution of Ignatius,--one soul swayed the vast mass; and every pin +and every cog in the machinery consented with its whole power to every +movement of the one central conscience."</p> + +<p>Luther moved Europe by ideas which emancipated the millions, and set in +motion a progress which is the glory of our age; Loyola invented a +machine which arrested this progress, and drove the Catholic world back +again into the superstitions and despotisms of the Middle Ages, +retaining however the fear of God and of Hell, which some among the +Protestants care very little about.</p> + +<p>What is the secret of such a wonderful success? Two things: first, the +extraordinary virtues, abilities, and zeal of the early Jesuits; and, +secondly, their wonderful machinery in adapting means to an end.</p> + +<p>The history of society shows that no body of men ever obtained a +wide-spread ascendancy, never secured general respect, unless they +deserved it. Industry produces its fruits; learning and piety have their +natural results. Even in the moral world natural law asserts its +supremacy. Hypocrisy and fraud ultimately will be detected; no enduring +reputation is built upon a lie; sincerity and earnestness will call out +respect, even from foes; learning and virtue are lights which are not +hid under a bushel. Enthusiasm creates enthusiasm; a lofty life will be +seen and honored. Nor do people intrust their dearest interests except +to those whom they venerate,--and venerate because their virtues shine +like the face of a goddess. We yield to those only whom we esteem wiser +than ourselves. Moses controlled the Israelites because they venerated +his wisdom and courage; Paul had the confidence of the infant churches +because they saw his labors; Bernard swayed his darkened age by the +moral power of learning and sanctity. The mature judgments of centuries +never have reversed the judgments which past ages gave in reference to +their master minds. All the pedants and sophists of Germany cannot +whitewash Frederic II. or Henry VIII. No man in Athens was more truly +venerated than Socrates when he mocked his judges. Cicero, Augustine, +Aquinas, appeared to contemporaries as they appear to us. Even +Hildebrand did not juggle himself into his theocratic chair. Washington +deserved all the reverence he enjoyed; and Bonaparte himself was worthy +of the honors he received, so long as he was true to the interests +of France.</p> + +<p>So of the Jesuits,--there is no mystery in their success; the same +causes would produce the same results again. When Catholic Europe saw +men born to wealth and rank voluntarily parting with their goods and +honors; devoting themselves to religious duties, often in a humble +sphere; spending their days in schools and hospitals; wandering as +preachers and missionaries amid privations and in fatigue; encountering +perils and dangers and hardships with fresh and ever-sustained +enthusiasm; and finally yielding up their lives as martyrs, to proclaim +salvation to idolatrous savages,--it knew them to be heroic, and +believed them to be sincere, and honored them in consequence. When +parents saw that the Jesuits entered heart and soul into the work of +education, winning their pupils' hearts by kindness, watching their +moods, directing their minds into congenial studies, and inspiring them +with generous sentiments, they did not stop to pry into their motives; +and universities, when they discovered the superior culture of educated +Jesuits, outstripping all their associates in learning, and shedding a +light by their genius and erudition, very naturally appointed them to +the highest chairs; and even the people, when they saw that the Jesuits +were not stained by vulgar vices, but were hard-working, devoted to +their labors, earnest, and eloquent, put themselves under their +teachings; and especially when they added gentlemanly manners, good +taste, and agreeable conversation to their unimpeachable morality and +religious fervor, they made these men their confessors as well as +preachers. Their lives stood out in glorious contrast with those of the +old monks and the regular clergy, in an age of infidel levities, when +the Italian renaissance was bearing its worst fruits, and men were going +back to Pagan antiquity for their pleasures and opinions.</p> + +<p>That the early Jesuits blazed with virtues and learning and piety has +never been denied, although these things have been poetically +exaggerated. The world was astonished at their intrepidity, zeal, and +devotion. They were not at first intriguing, or ambitious, or covetous. +They loved their Society; but they loved still more what they thought +was the glory of God. <i>Ad majoram Dei gloriam</i> was the motto which was +emblazoned on their standard when they went forth as Christian warriors +to overcome the heresies of Christendom and the superstitions of +idolaters. "The Jesuit missionary," says Stephen, "with his breviary +under his arm, his beads at his girdle, and his crucifix in his hands, +went forth without fear, to encounter the most dreaded dangers. +Martyrdom was nothing to him; he knew that the altar which might stream +with his blood, and the mound which might be raised over his remains, +would become a cherished object of his fame and an expressive emblem of +the power of his religion." "If I die," said Xavier, when about to +visit the cannibal Island of Del Moro, "who knows but what all may +receive the Gospel, since it is most certain it has ever fructified more +abundantly in the field of Paganism by the blood of martyrs than by the +labors of missionaries,"--a sublime truth, revealed to him in his whole +course of protracted martyrdom and active philanthropy, especially in +those last hours when, on the Island of Sanshan, he expired, exclaiming, +as his fading eyes rested on the crucifix, <i>In te Domine speravi, non +confundar in eternum</i>. In perils, in fastings, in fatigues, was the life +of this remarkable man passed, in order to convert the heathen world; +and in ten years he had traversed a tract of more than twice the +circumference of the earth, preaching, disputing, and baptizing, until +seventy thousand converts, it is said, were the fruits of his +mission.<a name="FNanchor1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> "My companion," said the fearless Marquette, when exploring +the prairies of the Western wilderness, "is an envoy of France to +discover new countries, and I am an ambassador of God to enlighten them +with the Gospel." Lalemant, when pierced with the arrows of the +Iroquois, rejoiced that his martyrdom would induce others to follow his +example. The missions of the early Jesuits extorted praises from Baxter +and panegyric from Liebnitz.</p> + +<a name="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1">[1]</a> I am inclined to think that this statement is exaggerated; +or, if true, that conversion was merely nominal. + +<p>And not less remarkable than these missionaries were those who labored +in other spheres. Loyola himself, though visionary and monastic, had no +higher wish than to infuse piety into the Catholic Church, and to +strengthen the hands of him whom he regarded as God's vicegerent. +Somehow or other he succeeded in securing the absolute veneration of his +companions, so much so that the sainted Xavier always wrote to him on +his knees. His "Spiritual Exercises" has ever remained the great +text-book of the Jesuits,--a compend of fasts and penances, of visions +and of ecstasies; rivalling Saint Theresa herself in the rhapsodies of a +visionary piety, showing the chivalric and romantic ardor of a Spanish +nobleman directed into the channel of devotion to an invisible Lord. See +this wounded soldier at the siege of Pampeluna, going through all the +experiences of a Syriac monk in his Manresan cave, and then turning his +steps to Paris to acquire a university education; associating only with +the pious and the learned, drawing to him such gifted men as Faber and +Xavier, Salmeron and Lainez, Borgia and Bobadilla, and inspiring them +with his ideas and his fervor; living afterwards, at Venice, with +Caraffa (the future Paul IV.) in the closest intimacy, preaching at +Vicenza, and forming a new monastic code, as full of genius and +originality as it was of practical wisdom, which became the foundation +of a system of government never surpassed in the power of its mechanism +to bind the minds and wills of men. Loyola was a most extraordinary man +in the practical turn he gave to religious rhapsodies; creating a +legislation for his Society which made it the most potent religious +organization in the world. All his companions were remarkable likewise +for different traits and excellences, which yet were made to combine in +sustaining the unity of this moral mechanism. Lainez had even a more +comprehensive mind than Loyola. It was he who matured the Jesuit +Constitution, and afterwards controlled the Council of Trent,--a +convocation which settled the creed of the Catholic Church, especially +in regard to justification, and which admitted the merits of Christ, but +attributed justification to good works in a different sense from that +understood and taught by Luther.</p> + +<p>Aside from the personal gifts and qualities of the early Jesuits, they +would not have so marvellously succeeded had it not been for their +remarkable constitution,--that which bound the members of the Society +together, and gave to it a peculiar unity and force. The most marked +thing about it was the unbounded and unhesitating obedience required of +every member to superiors, and of these superiors to the General of the +Order,--so that there was but one will. This law of obedience is, as +every one knows, one of the fundamental principles of all the monastic +orders from the earliest times, enforced by Benedict as well as Basil. +Still there was a difference in the vow of obedience. The head of a +monastery in the Middle Ages was almost supreme. The Lord Abbot was +obedient only to the Pope, and he sought the interests of his monastery +rather than those of the Pope. But Loyola exacted obedience to the +General of the Order so absolutely that a Jesuit became a slave. This +may seem a harsh epithet; there is nothing gained by using offensive +words, but Protestant writers have almost universally made these +charges. From their interpretation of the constitutions of Loyola and +Lainez and Aquaviva, a member of the Society had no will of his own; he +did not belong to himself, he belonged to his General,--as in the time +of Abraham a child belonged to his father and a wife to her husband; +nay, even still more completely. He could not write or receive a letter +that was not read by his Superior. When he entered the order, he was +obliged to give away his property, but could not give it to his +relatives.<a name="FNanchor2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> When he made confession, he was obliged to tell his most +intimate and sacred secrets. He could not aspire to any higher rank than +that he held; he had no right to be ambitious, or seek his own +individual interests; he was merged body and soul into the Society; he +was only a pin in the machinery; he was bound to obey even his own +servant, if required by his Superior; he was less than a private +soldier in an army; he was a piece of wax to be moulded as the Superior +directed,--and the Superior, in his turn, was a piece of wax in the +hands of the Provincial, and he again in the hands of the General. +"There were many gradations in rank, but every rank was a gradation in +slavery." The Jesuit is accused of having no individual conscience. He +was bound to do what he was told, right or wrong; nothing was right and +nothing was wrong except as the Society pronounced. The General stood in +the place of God. That man was the happiest who was most mechanical. +Every novice had a monitor, and every monitor was a spy.<a name="FNanchor3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> So strict +was the rule of Loyola, that he kept Francis Borgia, Duke of Candia, +three years out of the Society, because he refused to renounce all +intercourse with his family.<a name="FNanchor4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + +<a name="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2">[2]</a> Ranke. +<a name="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3">[3]</a> Steinmetz, i. p. 252. +<a name="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4">[4]</a> Nicolini, p. 35. + +<p>The Jesuit was obliged to make all natural ties subordinate to the will +of the General. And this General was a king more absolute than any +worldly monarch, because he reigned over the minds of his subjects. His +kingdom was an <i>imperium in imperio</i>; he was chosen for life and was +responsible to no one, although he ruled for the benefit of the Catholic +Church. In one sense a General of the Jesuits resembled the prime +minister of an absolute monarch,--say such a man as Richelieu, with +unfettered power in the cause of absolutism; and he ruled like +Richelieu, through his spies, making his subordinates tools and +instruments. The General appointed the presidents of colleges and of the +religious houses; he admitted or dismissed, dispensed or punished, at +his pleasure. There was no complaint; all obeyed his orders, and saw in +him the representative of Divine Providence. Complaint was sin; +resistance was ruin. It is hard for us to understand how any man could +be brought voluntarily to submit to such a despotism. But the novice +entering the order had to go through terrible discipline,--to be a +servant, anything; to live according to rigid rules, so that his spirit +was broken by mechanical duties. He had to learn all the virtues of a +slave before he could be fully enrolled in the Society. He was drilled +for years by spiritual sergeants more rigorously than a soldier in +Napoleon's army: hence the efficiency of the body; it was a spiritual +army of the highest disciplined troops. Loyola had been a soldier; he +knew what military discipline could do,--how impotent an army is without +it, what an awful power it is with discipline, and the severer the +better. The best soldier of a modern army is he who has become an +unconscious piece of machinery; and it was this unreflecting, +unconditional obedience which made the Society so efficient, and the +General himself, who controlled it, such an awful power for good or for +evil. I am only speaking of the organization, the machinery, the +<i>régime,</i> of the Jesuits, not of their character, not of their virtues +or vices. This organization is to be spoken of as we speak of the +discipline of an army,--wise or unwise, as it reached its end. The +original aim of the Jesuits was the restoration of the Papal Church to +its ancient power; and for one hundred years, as I think, the +restoration of morals, higher education, greater zeal in preaching: in +short, a reformation within the Church. Jesuitism was, of course, +opposed to Protestantism; it hated the Protestants; it hated their +religious creed and their emancipating and progressive spirit; it hated +religious liberty.</p> + +<p>I need not dwell on other things which made this order of monks so +successful,--not merely their virtues and their mechanism, but their +adaptation to the changing spirit of the times. They threw away the old +dresses of monastic life; they quitted the cloister and places of +meditation; they were preachers as well as scholars; they accommodated +themselves to the circumstances of the times; they wore the ordinary +dress of gentlemen; they remained men of the world, of fine manners and +cultivated speech; there was nothing ascetic or repulsive about them, +like other monks; they were all things to all men, like politicians, in +order to accomplish their ends; they never were lazy, or profligate or +luxurious. If their Order became enriched, they as individuals remained +poor. The inferior members were not even ambitious; like good soldiers, +they thought of nothing but the work assigned to them. Their pride and +glory were the prosperity of their Order,--an intense <i>esprit de corps</i>, +never equalled by any body of men. This, of course, while it gave them +efficiency, made them narrow. They could see the needle on the +barn-door,--they could not see the door itself. Hence there could be no +agreement with them, no argument with them, except on ordinary matters; +they were as zealous as Saul, seeking to make proselytes. They yielded +nothing except in order to win; they never compromised their Order in +their cause. Their fidelity to their head was marvellous; and so long as +they confined themselves to the work of making people better, I think +they deserved praise. I do not like their military organization, but I +should have no more right to abuse it than the organization of some +Protestant sects. That is a matter of government; all sects and all +parties, Catholic and Protestant, have a right to choose their own +government to carry out their ends, even as military generals have a +right to organize their forces in their own way. The history of the +Jesuits shows this,--that an organization of forces, or what we call +discipline or government, is a great thing. A church without a +government is a poor affair, so far as efficiency is concerned. All +churches have something to learn from the Jesuits in the way of +discipline. John Wesley learned something; the Independents learned +very little,</p> + +<p>But there is another side to the Jesuits. We have seen why they +succeeded; we have to inquire how they failed. If history speaks of the +virtues of the early members, and the wonderful mechanism of their +Order, and their great success in consequence, it also speaks of the +errors they committed, by which they lost the confidence they had +gained. From being the most popular of all the adherents of the papal +power, and of the ideas of the Dark Ages, they became the most +unpopular; they became so odious that the Pope was obliged, by the +pressure of public opinion and of the Bourbon courts of Europe, to +suppress their Order. The fall of the Jesuits was as significant as +their rise. I need not dwell on that fall, which is one of the best +known facts of history.</p> + +<p>Why did the Jesuits become unpopular and lose their influence?</p> + +<p>They gained the confidence of Catholic countries because they deserved +it, and they lost that confidence because they deserved to lose it,--in +other words, because they became corrupt; and this seems to be the +history of all institutions. It is strange, it is passing strange, that +human societies and governments and institutions should degenerate as +soon as they become rich and powerful; but such is the fact,--a sad +commentary on the doctrine of a necessary progress of the race, or the +natural tendency to good, which so many cherish, but than which nothing +can be more false, as proved by experience and the Scriptures. Why were +the antediluvians swept away? Why could not those races retain their +primitive revelation? Why did the descendants of Noah become almost +idolaters before he was dead? Why did the great Persian Empire become as +effeminate as the empires it had supplanted? Why did the Jewish nation +steadily retrograde after David? Why did not civilization and +Christianity save the Roman world? Why did Christianity itself become +corrupted in four centuries? Why did not the Middle Ages preserve the +evangelical doctrines of Augustine and Jerome and Chrysostom and +Ambrose? Why did the light of the glorious Reformation of Luther nearly +go out in the German cities and universities? Why did the fervor of the +Puritans burn out in England in one hundred years? Why have the +doctrines of the Pilgrim Fathers become unfashionable in those parts of +New England where they seemed to have taken the deepest root? Why have +so many of the descendants of the disciples of George Fox become so +liberal and advanced as to be enamoured of silk dresses and laces and +diamonds and the ritualism of Episcopal churches? Is it an improvement +to give up a simple life and lofty religious enthusiasm for +materialistic enjoyments and epicurean display? Is there a true advance +in a university, when it exchanges its theological teachings and its +preparation of poor students for the Gospel Ministry, for Schools of +Technology and boat-clubs and accommodations for the sons of the rich +and worldly?</p> + +<p>Now the Society of Jesus went through just such a transformation as has +taken place, almost within the memory of living men, in the life and +habits and ideas of the people of Boston and Philadelphia and in the +teachings of their universities. Some may boldly say, "Why not? This +change indicates progress." But this progress is exactly similar to that +progress which the Jesuits made in the magnificence of their churches, +in the wealth they had hoarded in their colleges, in the fashionable +character of their professors and confessors and preachers, in the +adaptation of their doctrines to the taste of the rich and powerful, in +the elegance and arrogance and worldliness of their dignitaries. Father +La Chaise was an elegant and most polished man of the world, and +travelled in a coach with six horses. If he had not been such a man, he +would not have been selected by Louis XIV. for his confidential and +influential confessor. The change which took place among the Jesuits +arose from the same causes as the change which has taken place among +Methodists and Quakers and Puritans. This change I would not fiercely +condemn, for some think it is progress. But is it progress in that +religious life which early marked these people; or a progress towards +worldly and epicurean habits which they arose to resist and combat? The +early Jesuits were visionary, fanatical, strict, ascetic, religious, and +narrow. They sought by self-denying labors and earnest exhortations, +like Savonarola at Florence, to take the Church out of the hands of the +Devil; and the people reverenced them, as they always have reverenced +martyrs and missionaries. The later Jesuits sought to enjoy their wealth +and power and social position. They became--as rich and prosperous +people generally become--proud, ambitious, avaricious, and worldly. They +were as elegant, as scholarly, and as luxurious as the Fellows of Oxford +University, and the occupants of stalls in the English cathedrals,--that +is all: as worldly as the professors of Yale and Cambridge may become in +half-a-century, if rich widows and brewers and bankers without children +shall some day make those universities as well endowed as Jesuit +colleges were in the eighteenth century. That is the old story of our +fallen humanity. I would no more abuse the Jesuits because they became +confessors to the great, and went into mercantile speculations, than I +would rich and favored clergymen in Protestant countries, who prefer ten +per cent for their money in California mines to four per cent in +national consols.</p> + +<p>But the prosperity which the Jesuits had earned during their first +century of existence excited only envy, and destroyed the reverence of +the people; it had not made them odious, detestable. It was the means +they adopted to perpetuate their influence, after early virtues had +passed away, which caused enlightened Catholic Europe to mistrust them, +and the Protestants absolutely to hate and vilify them.</p> + +<p>From the very first, the Society was distinguished for the <i>esprit de +corps</i> of its members. Of all things which they loved best it was the +power and glory of the Society,--just as Oxford Fellows love the +<i>prestige</i> of their university. And this power and influence the Jesuits +determined to preserve at all hazards and by any means; when virtues +fled, they must find something else with which to bolster themselves up: +they must not part with their power; the question was, how should +they keep it?</p> + +<p>First, they adopted the doctrine of expediency,--that the end justifies +the means. They did not invent this sophistry,--it is as old as our +humanity. Abraham used it when he told lies to the King of Egypt, to +save the honor of his wife; Caesar accepted it, when he vindicated +imperialism as the only way to save the Roman Empire from anarchy; most +politicians resort to it when they wish to gain their ends. Politicians +have ever been as unscrupulous as the Jesuits, in adopting expediency +rather than eternal right. It has been a primal law of government; it +lies at the basis of English encroachments in India, and of the +treatment of the aborigines in this country by our government. There is +nothing new in the doctrine of expediency.</p> + +<p>But the Jesuits are accused of pushing this doctrine to its remotest +consequences, of being its most unscrupulous defenders,--so that +<i>Jesuitism</i> and <i>expediency</i> are synonymous, are convertible terms. They +are accused of perverting education, of abusing the confessional, of +corrupting moral and political philosophy, of conforming to the +inclinations of the great. They even went so far as to inculcate mental +reservation,--thus attacking truth in its most sacred citadel, the +conscience of mankind,--on which Pascal was so severe. They made habit +and bad example almost a sufficient exculpation from crime. Perjury was +allowable, if the perjured were inwardly determined not to swear. They +invented the notion of probabilities, according to which a person might +follow any opinion he pleased, although he knew it to be wrong, provided +authors of reputation had defended that opinion. A man might fight a +duel, if by refusing to fight he would be stigmatized as a coward. They +did not openly justify murder, treachery, and falsehood, but they +excused the same, if plausible reasons could be urged. In their missions +they aimed at <i>éclat;</i> and hence merely nominal conversions were +accepted, because these swelled their numbers. They gave the crucifix, +which covered up all sins; they permitted their converts to retain their +ancient habits and customs. In order to be popular, Robert de Nobili, it +is said, traced his lineage to Brahma; and one of their missionaries +among the Indians told the savages that Christ was a warrior who scalped +women and children. Anything for an outward success. Under their +teachings it was seen what a light affair it was to bear the yoke of +Christ. So monarchs retained in their service confessors who imposed +such easy obligations. So ordinary people resorted to the guidance of +such leaders, who made themselves agreeable. The Jesuit colleges were +filled with casuists. Their whole moral philosophy, if we may believe +Arnauld and Pascal, was a tissue of casuistry; truth was obscured in +order to secure popularity; even the most diabolical persecution was +justified if heretics stood in the way. Father Le Tellier rejoiced in +the slaughter of Saint Bartholomew, and <i>Te Deums</i> were offered in the +churches for the extinction of Protestantism by any means. If it could +be shown to be expedient, the Jesuits excused the most outrageous crimes +ever perpetrated on this earth.</p> + +<p>Again, the Jesuits are accused of riveting fetters on the human mind in +order to uphold their power, and to sustain the absolutism of the popes +and the absolutism of kings, to which they were equally devoted. They +taught in their schools the doctrine of passive obedience; they aimed +to subdue the will by rigid discipline; they were hostile to bold and +free inquiries; they were afraid of science; they hated such men as +Galileo, Pascal, and Bacon; they detested the philosophers who prepared +the way for the French Revolution; they abominated the Protestant idea +of private judgment; they opposed the progress of human thought, and +were enemies alike of the Jansenist movement in the seventeenth century +and of the French Revolution in the eighteenth. They upheld the +absolutism of Louis XIV., and combated the English Revolution; they sent +their spies and agents to England to undermine the throne of Elizabeth +and build up the throne of Charles I. Every emancipating idea, in +politics and in religion, they detested. There were many things in their +system of education to be commended; they were good classical scholars, +and taught Greek and Latin admirably; they cultivated the memory; they +made study pleasing, but they did not develop genius. The order never +produced a great philosopher; the energies of its members were +concentrated in imposing a despotic yoke.</p> + +<p>The Jesuits are accused further of political intrigues; this is a common +and notorious charge. They sought to control the cabinets of Europe; +they had their spies in every country. The intrigues of Campion and +Parsons in England aimed at the restoration of Catholic monarchs. Mary +of Scotland was a tool in their hands, and so was Madame de Maintenon in +France. La Chaise and Le Tellier were mere politicians. The Jesuits were +ever political priests; the history of Europe the last three hundred +years is full of their cabals. Their political influence was directed to +the persecution of Protestants as well as infidels. They are accused of +securing the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,--one of the greatest +crimes in the history of modern times, which led to the expulsion of +four hundred thousand Protestants from France, and the execution of four +hundred thousand more. They incited the dragonnades of Louis XIV., who +was under their influence. They are accused of the assassination of +kings, of the fires of Smithfield, of the Gunpowder Plot, of the +cruelties inflicted by Alva, of the Thirty Years' War, of the ferocities +of the Guises, of inquisitions and massacres, of sundry other political +crimes, with what justice I do not know; but certain it is they became +objects of fear, and incurred the hostilities of Catholic Europe, +especially of all liberal thinkers, and their downfall was demanded by +the very courts of Europe. Why did they lose their popularity? Why were +they so distrusted and hated? The fact that they <i>were</i> hated is most +undoubted, and there must have been cause for it. It is a fact that at +one time they were respected and honored, and deserved to be so: must +there not have been grave reasons for the universal change in public +opinion respecting them? The charges against them, to which I have +alluded, must have had foundation. They did not become idle, gluttonous, +ignorant, and sensual like the old monks: they became greedy of power; +and in order to retain it resorted to intrigues, conspiracies, and +persecutions. They corrupted philosophy and morality, abused the +confessional privilege, adopted <i>Success</i> as their watchword, without +regard to the means; they are charged with becoming worldly, ambitious, +mercenary, unscrupulous, cruel; above all, they sought to bind the minds +of men with a despotic yoke, and waged war against all liberalizing +influences. They always were, from first to last, narrow, pedantic, +one-sided, legal, technical, pharisaical. The best thing about them, in +the days of their declining power, was that they always opposed infidel +sentiments. They hated Voltaire and Rousseau and the Encyclopedists as +much as they did Luther and Calvin. They detested the principles of the +French Revolution, partly because those principles were godless, partly +because they were emancipating.</p> + +<p>Of course, in such an infidel and revolutionary age as that of Louis XV, +when Voltaire was the oracle of Europe,--when from his chateau near +Geneva he controlled the mind of Europe, as Calvin did two centuries +earlier,--enemies would rise up, on all sides, against the Jesuits. +Their most powerful and bitter foe was a woman,--the mistress of Louis +XV., the infamous Madame de Pompadour. She hated the Jesuits as +Catharine de Medici hated the Calvinists in the time of Charles +IX.,--not because they were friends of absolutism, not because they +wrote casuistic books, not because they opposed liberal principles, not +because they were spies and agents of Rome, not because they perverted +education, not because they were boastful and mercenary missionaries or +cunning intriguers in the courts of princes, not because they had marked +their course through Europe in a trail of blood, but because they were +hostile to her ascendency,--a woman who exercised about the same +influence in France as Jezebel did at the court of Ahab. I respect the +Jesuits for the stand they took against this woman: it is the best thing +in their history. But here they did not show their usual worldly wisdom, +and they failed. They were judicially blinded. The instrument of their +humiliation was a wicked woman. So strange are the ways of Providence! +He chose Esther to save the Jewish nation, and a harlot to punish the +Jesuits. She availed herself of their mistakes.</p> + +<p>It seems that the Superior of the Jesuits at Martinique failed; for the +Jesuits embarked in commercial speculations while officiating as +missionaries. The angry creditors of La Valette, the Jesuit banker, +demanded repayment from the Order. They refused to pay his debts. The +case was carried to the courts, and the highest tribunal decided against +them. That was not the worst. In the course of the legal proceedings, +the mysterious "rule" of the Jesuits--that which was so carefully +concealed from the public--was demanded. Then all was revealed,--all +that Pascal had accused them of,--and the whole nation was indignant. A +great storm was raised. The Parliament of Paris decreed the constitution +of the Society to be fatal to all government. The King wished to save +them, for he knew that they were the best supporters of the throne of +absolutism. But he could not resist the pressure,--the torrent of public +opinion, the entreaties of his mistress, the arguments of his ministers. +He was compelled to demand from the Pope the abrogation of their +charter. Other monarchs did the same; all the Bourbon courts in Europe, +for the king of Portugal narrowly escaped assassination from a fanatical +Jesuit. Had the Jesuits consented to a reform, they might not have +fallen. But they would make no concessions. Said Ricci, their General, +<i>Sint ut sunt, aut non sint</i>. The Pope--Clement XIV.--was obliged to +part with his best soldiers. Europe, Catholic Europe, demanded the +sacrifice,--the kings of Spain, of France, of Naples, of Portugal. +<i>Compulsus feci, compulsus feci</i>, exclaimed the broken-hearted +Pope,--the feeble and pious Ganganelli. So that in 1773, by a papal +decree, the Order was suppressed; 669 colleges were closed; 223 missions +were abandoned, and more than 22,000 members were dispersed. I do not +know what became of their property, which amounted to about two hundred +millions of dollars, in the various countries of Europe.</p> + +<p>This seems to me to have been a clear case of religious persecution, +incited by jealous governments and the infidel or the progressive spirit +of the age, on the eve of the French Revolution. It simply marks the +hostilities which, for various reasons, they had called out. I am +inclined to think that their faults were greatly exaggerated; but it is +certain that so severe and high-handed a measure would not have been +taken by the Pope had it not seemed to him necessary to preserve the +peace of the Church. Had they been innocent, the Pope would have lost +his throne sooner than commit so great a wrong on his most zealous +servants. It is impossible for a Protestant to tell how far they were +guilty of the charges preferred against them. I do not believe that +their lives, as a general thing, were a scandal sufficient to justify so +sweeping a measure; but their institution, their régime, their +organization, their constitution, were deemed hostile to liberty and the +progress of society. And if zealous governments--Catholic princes +themselves--should feel that the Jesuits were opposed to the true +progress of nations, how much more reason had Protestants to distrust +them, and to rejoice in their fall!</p> + +<p>And it was not until the French Revolution and the empire of Napoleon +had passed away, not until the Bourbons had been restored nearly half a +century, that the Order was re-established and again protected by the +Papal court. They have now regained their ancient power, and seem to +have the confidence of Catholic Europe. Some of their most flourishing +seminaries are in the United States. They are certainly not a scandal in +this country, although their spirit and institution are the same as +ever: mistrusted and disliked and feared by the Protestants, as a matter +of course, as such a powerful organization naturally would be; hostile +still to the circulation of the Scriptures among the people and free +inquiry and private judgment,--in short, to all the ideas of the +Reformation. But whatever they are, and however much the Protestants +dislike them, they have in our country,--this land of unbounded +religious toleration,--the same right to their religion and their +ecclesiastical government that Protestant sects have; and if Protestants +would nullify their influence so far as it is bad, they must outshine +them in virtues, in a religious life, in zeal, and in devotion to the +spiritual interests of the people. If the Jesuits keep better schools +than Protestants they will be patronized, and if they command the +respect of the Catholics for their virtues and intelligence, whatever +may be the machinery of their organization, they will retain their +power; and not until they interfere with elections and Protestant +schools, or teach dangerous doctrines of public morality, has our +Government any right to interfere with them. They will stand or fall as +they win the respect or excite the wrath of enlightened nations. But the +principles they are supposed to defend,--expediency, casuistry, and +hostility to free inquiry and the circulation of the Scriptures in +vernacular languages,--these are just causes of complaint and of +unrelenting opposition among all those who accept the great ideas of the +Protestant Reformation, since they are antagonistic to what we deem most +precious in our institutions. So long as the contest shall last between +good and evil in this world, we have a right to declaim against all +encroachments on liberty and sound morality and an evangelical piety +from any quarter whatever, and we are recreant to our duties unless we +speak our minds. Hence, from the light I have, I pronounce judgment +against the Society of Jesus as a dangerous institution, unfortunately +planted among us, but which we cannot help, and can attack only with the +weapons of reason and truth.</p> + +<p>And yet I am free to say that for my part I prefer even the Jesuit +discipline and doctrines, much as I dislike them, to the unblushing +infidelity which has lately been propagated by those who call +themselves <i>savans</i>,--and which seems to have reached and even permeated +many of the schools of science, the newspapers, periodicals, clubs, and +even pulpits of this materialistic though progressive country. I make +war on the slavery of the will and a religion of formal technicalities; +but I prefer these evils to a godless rationalism and the extinction of +the light of faith.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Secreta Monita; Steinmetz's History of the Jesuits; Ranke's History of +the Popes; Spiritual Exercises; Encyclopaedia Britannica; Biographie +Universelle; Fall of the Jesuits, by St. Priest; Lives of Ignatius +Loyola, Aquiviva, Lainez, Salmeron, Borgia, Xavier, Bobadilla; Pascal's +Provincial Letters; Bonhours' Crétineau; Lingard's History of England; +Tierney; Lettres Aedificantes; Jesuit Missions; Mémoires Sécrètes du +Cardinal Dubois; Tanner's Societas Jesu; Dodd's Church History.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="JOHN_CALVIN."></a>JOHN CALVIN.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A. D. 1509-1364.</p> + +<p>PROTESTANT THEOLOGY.</p> + +<p>John Calvin was pre-eminently the theologian of the Reformation, and +stamped his genius on the thinking of his age,--equally an authority +with the Swiss, the Dutch, the Huguenots, and the Puritans. His vast +influence extends to our own times. His fame as a benefactor of mind is +immortal, although it cannot be said that he is as much admired and +extolled now as he was fifty years ago. Nor was he ever a favorite with +the English Church. He has been even grossly misrepresented by +theological opponents; but no critic or historian has ever questioned +his genius, his learning, or his piety. No one denies that he has +exerted a great influence on Protestant countries. As a theologian he +ranks with Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas,--maintaining essentially +the same views as those held by these great lights, and being +distinguished for the same logical power; reigning like them as an +intellectual dictator in the schools, but not so interesting as they +were as men. And he was more than a theologian; he was a reformer and +legislator, laying down rules of government, organizing church +discipline, and carrying on reforms in the worship of God,--second only +to Luther. His labors were prodigious as theologian, commentator, and +ecclesiastical legislator; and we are surprised that a man with so +feeble a body could have done so much work.</p> + +<p>Calvin was born in Picardy in 1509,--the year that Henry VIII. ascended +the British throne, and the year that Luther began to preach at +Wittenberg. He was not a peasant's son, like Luther, but belonged to +what the world calls a good family. Intellectually he was precocious, +and received an excellent education at a college in Paris, being +destined for the law by his father, who sent him to the University of +Orleans and then to Bourges, where he studied under eminent jurists, and +made the acquaintance of many distinguished men. His conversion took +place about the year 1529, when he was twenty; and this gave a new +direction to his studies and his life. He was a pale-faced young man, +with sparkling eyes, sedate and earnest beyond his years. He was +twenty-three when he published the books of Seneca on Clemency, with +learned commentaries. At the age of twenty-three he was in communion +with the reformers of Germany, and was acknowledged to be, even at that +early age, the head of the reform party in France. In 1533 he went to +Paris, then as always the centre of the national life, where the new +ideas were creating great commotion in scholarly and ecclesiastical +circles, and even in the court itself. Giving offence to the doctors of +the Sorbonne for his evangelical views as to Justification, he was +obliged to seek refuge with the Queen of Navarre, whose castle at Pau +was the resort of persecuted reformers. After leading rather a fugitive +life in different parts of France, he retreated to Switzerland, and at +twenty-six published his celebrated "Institutes," which he dedicated to +Francis I., hoping to convert him to the Protestant faith. After a short +residence in Italy, at the court of the Duchess of Ferrara, he took up +his abode at Geneva, and his great career began.</p> + +<p>Geneva, a city of the Allobroges in the time of Caesar, possessed at +this time about twenty thousand inhabitants, and was a free state, +having a constitution somewhat like that of Florence when it was under +the control of Savonarola. It had rebelled against the Duke of Savoy, +who seems to have been in the fifteenth century its patron ruler. The +government of this little Savoyard state became substantially like that +which existed among the Swiss cantons. The supreme power resided in the +council of Two Hundred, which alone had the power to make or abolish +laws. There was a lesser council of Sixty, for diplomatic objects only.</p> + +<p>The first person who preached the reformed doctrines in Geneva was the +missionary Farel, a French nobleman, spiritual, romantic, and zealous. +He had great success, although he encountered much opposition and wrath. +But the reformed doctrines were already established in Zurich, Berne, +and Basle, chiefly through the preaching of Ulrich Zwingli, and +Oecolampadius. The apostolic Farel welcomed with great cordiality the +arrival of Calvin, then already known as an extraordinary man, though +only twenty-eight years of age. He came to Geneva poor, and remained +poor all his life. All his property at his death amounted to only two +hundred dollars. As a minister in one of the churches, he soon began to +exert a marvellous influence. He must have been eloquent, for he was +received with enthusiasm. This was in 1536. But he soon met with +obstacles. He was worried by the Anabaptists; and even his orthodoxy was +impeached by one Coroli, who made much mischief, so that Calvin was +obliged to publish his Genevan Catechism in Latin. He also offended many +by his outspoken rebuke of sin, for he aimed at a complete reformation +of morals, like Latimer in London and like Savonarola at Florence. He +sought to reprove amusements which were demoralizing, or thought to be +so in their influence. The passions of the people were excited, and the +city was torn by parties; and such was the reluctance to submit to the +discipline of the ministers that they refused to administer the +sacraments. This created such a ferment that the syndics expelled Calvin +and Farel from the city. They went at first to Berne, but the Bernese +would not receive them. They then retired to Basle, wearied, wet, and +hungry, and from Basle they went to Strasburg. It was in this city that +Calvin dwelt three years, spending his time in lecturing on divinity, in +making contributions to exegetical theology, in perfecting his +"Institutes," forming a close alliance with Melancthon and other leading +reformers. So pre-occupied was he with his labors as a commentator of +the Scriptures, that he even contemplated withdrawing from the public +service of religion.</p> + +<p>Calvin was a scholar as well as theologian, and quiet labors in his +library were probably more congenial to his tastes than active parochial +duties. His highest life was amid his books, in serene repose and lofty +contemplation. At this time he had an extensive correspondence, his +advice being much sought for its wisdom and moderation. His judgment was +almost unerring, since he was never led away by extravagances or +enthusiasm: a cold, calm man even among his friends and admirers. He had +no passions; he was all intellect. It would seem that in his exile he +gave lectures on divinity, being invited by the Council of Strasburg; +and also interested himself in reference to the Sacrament of the Lord's +Supper, which he would withhold from the unworthy. He lived quietly in +his retreat, and was much respected by the people of the city where +he dwelt.</p> + +<p>In 1539 a convention was held at Frankfort, at which Calvin was present +as the envoy of the city of Strasburg. Here, for the first time, he met +Melancthon; but there was no close intimacy between them until these two +great men met in the following year at a Diet which was summoned at +Worms by the Emperor Charles V., in order to produce concord between the +Catholics and Protestants, and which was afterwards removed to Ratisbon. +Melancthon represented one party, and Doctor Eck the other. Melancthon +and Bucer were inclined to peace; and Cardinal Contarini freely offered +his hand, agreeing with the reformers to adopt the idea of Justification +as his starting point, allowing that it proceeds from faith, without any +merit of our own; but, like Luther and Calvin, he opposed any attempt at +union which might compromise the truth, and had no faith in the +movement. Neither party, as it was to be expected, was satisfied. The +main subject of the dispute was in reference to the Eucharist. Calvin +denied the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament, regarding it as a +symbol,--though one of special divine influence. But on this point the +Catholics have ever been uncompromising from the times of Berengar. Nor +was Luther fully emancipated from the Catholic doctrine, modifying +without essentially changing it. Calvin maintained that "This is my +body" meant that it signified "my body." In regard to original sin and +free-will, as represented by Augustine, there was no dispute; but much +difficulty attended the interpretation of the doctrine of Justification. +The greatest difficulty was in reference to the doctrine of +Transubstantiation, which was rejected by the reformers because it had +not the sanction of the Scriptures; and when it was found that this +caused insuperable difficulties about the Lord's Supper, it was thought +useless to proceed to other matters, like confession, masses for the +dead, and the withholding the cup from the laity. There was not so great +a difference between the Catholic and Protestant theologians concerning +the main body of dogmatic divinity as is generally supposed. The +fundamental questions pertaining to God, the Trinity, the mission and +divinity of Christ, original sin, free-will, grace, predestination, had +been formulated by Thomas Aquinas with as much severity as by Calvin. +The great subjects at issue, in a strictly theological view, were +Justification and the Eucharist. Respecting free-will and +predestination, the Catholic theologians have never been agreed among +themselves,--some siding with Augustine, like Aquinas, Bernard, and +Anselm; and some with Pelagius, like Abélard and Lainez the Jesuit at +the Council of Trent (a council assembled by the Pope, with the +concurrence of Charles V. of Germany and Francis I. of France), the +decrees of which, against the authority of Augustine in this matter, +seem to be now the established faith of the Roman Catholic Church.</p> + +<p>After the Diet of Ratisbon, Calvin returned to Geneva, at the eager +desire of the people. The great Council summoned him to return; every +voice was raised for him. "Calvin, that learned and righteous man," they +said, "it is he whom we would have as the minister of the Lord." Yet he +did not willingly return; he preferred his quiet life at Strasburg, but +obeyed the voice of conscience. On the 13th of September, 1541, he +returned to his penitent congregation, and was received by the whole +city with every demonstration of respect; and a cloth cloak was given +him as a present, which he seemed to need.</p> + +<p>The same year he was married to a widow, Idelette de Burie, who was a +worthy, well-read, high-minded woman, with whom he lived happily for +nine years, until her death. She was superior to Luther's wife, +Catherine Bora, in culture and dignity, and was a helpmate who never +opposed her husband in the slightest matter, always considering his +interests. Esteem and friendship seem to have been the basis of this +union,--not passionate love, which Calvin did not think much of. When +his wife died it seems he mourned for her with decent grief, but did not +seek a second marriage, perhaps because he was unable to support a wife +on his small stipend as she would wish and expect. He rather courted +poverty, and refused reasonable gratuities. His body was attenuated by +fasting and study, like that of Saint Bernard. When he was completing +his "Institutes," he passed days without eating and nights without +sleeping. And as he practised poverty he had a right to inculcate it. He +kept no servant, lived in a small tenement, and was always poorly clad. +He derived no profit from any of his books, and the only present he ever +consented to receive was a silver goblet from the Lord of Varennes. +Luther's stipend was four hundred and fifty florins; and he too refused +a yearly gift from the booksellers of four hundred dollars, not wishing +to receive a gratuity for his writings. Calvin's salary was only fifty +dollars a year, with a house, twelve measures of corn, and two pipes of +wine; for tea and coffee were then unknown in Europe, and wine seems to +have been the usual beverage, after water. He was pre-eminently a +conscientious man, not allowing his feelings to sway his judgment. He +was sedate and dignified and cheerful; though Bossuet accuses him of a +surly disposition,--<i>un genre triste, un esprit chagrin</i>. Though formal +and stern, women never shrank from familiar conversation with him on +the subject of religion. Though intolerant of error, he cherished no +personal animosities. Calvin was more refined than Luther, and never +like him gave vent to coarse expressions. He had not Luther's physical +strength, nor his versatility of genius; nor as a reformer was he so +violent. "Luther aroused; Calvin tranquillized," The one stormed the +great citadel of error, the other furnished the weapons for holding it +after it was taken. The former was more popular; the latter appealed to +a higher intelligence. The Saxon reformer was more eloquent; the Swiss +reformer was more dialectical. The one advocated unity; the other +theocracy. Luther was broader; Calvin engrafted on his reforms the Old +Testament observances. The watchword of the one was Grace; that of the +other was Predestination. Luther cut knots; Calvin made systems. Luther +destroyed; Calvin legislated. His great principle of government was +aristocratic. He wished to see both Church and State governed by a +select few of able men. In all his writings we see no trace of popular +sovereignty. He interested himself, like Savonarola, in political +institutions, but would separate the functions of the magistracy from +those of the clergy; and he clung to the notion of a theocratic +government, like Jewish legislators and the popes themselves. The idea +of a theocracy was the basis of Calvin's system of legislation, as it +was that of Leo I. He desired that the temporal power should rule in +the name of God,--should be the arm by which spiritual principles should +be enforced. He did not object to the spiritual domination of the popes, +so far as it was in accordance with the word of God. He wished to +realize the grand idea which the Middle Ages sought for, but sought for +in vain,--that the Church must always remain the mother of spiritual +principles; but he objected to the exercise of temporal power by +churchmen, as well as to the interference of the temporal power in +matters purely spiritual,--virtually the doctrine of Anselm and Becket. +But, unlike Becket, Calvin would not screen clergymen accused of crime +from temporal tribunals; he rather sought the humiliation of the clergy +in temporal matters. He also would destroy inequalities of rank, and do +away with church dignitaries, like bishops and deans and archdeacons; +and he instituted twice as many laymen as clergymen in ecclesiastical +assemblies. But he gave to the clergy the exclusive right to +excommunicate, and to regulate the administration of the sacraments. He +was himself a high-churchman in his spirit, both in reference to the +divine institution of the presbyterian form of government and the +ascendancy of the Church as a great power in the world.</p> + +<p>Calvin exercised a great influence on the civil polity of Geneva, +although it was established before he came to the city. He undertook to +frame for the State a code of morals. He limited the freedom of the +citizens, and turned the old democratic constitution into an oligarchy. +The general assembly, which met twice a year, nominated syndics, or +judges; but nothing was proposed in the general assembly which had not +previously been considered in the council of the Two Hundred; and +nothing in the latter which had not been brought before the council of +Sixty; nor even in this, which had not been approved by the lesser +council. The four syndics, with their council of sixteen, had power of +life and death, and the whole public business of the state was in their +hands. The supreme legislation was in the council of Two Hundred; which +was much influenced by ecclesiastics, or the consistory. If a man not +forbidden to take the Sacrament neglected to receive it, he was +condemned to banishment for a year. One was condemned to do public +penance if he omitted a Sunday service. The military garrison was +summoned to prayers twice a day. The judges punished severely all +profanity, as blasphemy. A mason was put in prison three days for simply +saying, when falling from a building, that it must be the work of the +Devil. A young girl who insulted her mother was publicly punished and +kept on bread-and-water; and a peasant-boy who called his mother a devil +was publicly whipped. A child who struck his mother was beheaded; +adultery was punished with death; a woman was publicly scourged because +she sang common songs to a psalm-tune; and another because she dressed +herself, in a frolic, in man's attire. Brides were not allowed to wear +wreaths in their bonnets; gamblers were set in the pillory, and +card-playing and nine-pins were denounced as gambling. Heresy was +punished with death; and in sixty years one hundred and fifty people +were burned to death, in Geneva, for witchcraft. Legislation extended to +dress and private habits; many innocent amusements were altogether +suppressed; also holidays and theatrical exhibitions. Excommunication +was as much dreaded as in the Mediaeval church.</p> + +<p>In regard to the worship of God, Calvin was opposed to splendid +churches, and to all ritualism. He retained psalm-singing, but abolished +the organ; he removed the altar, the crucifix, and muniments from the +churches, and closed them during the week-days, unless the minister was +present. He despised what we call art, especially artistic music; nor +did he have much respect for artificial sermons, or the art of speaking. +He himself preached <i>ex tempore</i>, nor is there evidence that he ever +wrote a sermon.</p> + +<p>Respecting the Eucharist, Calvin took a middle course between Luther and +Zwingli,--believing neither in the actual presence of Christ in the +consecrated bread, nor regarding it as a mere symbol, but a means by +which divine grace is imparted; a mirror in which we may contemplate +Christ. Baptism he considered only as an indication of divine grace, and +not essential to salvation; thereby differing from Luther and the +Catholic church. Yet he was as strenuous in maintaining these sacraments +as a Catholic priest, and made excommunication as fearful a weapon as it +was in the Middle Ages. For admission to the Lord's Supper, and thus to +the membership of the visible Church, it would seem that his +requirements were not rigid, but rather very simple, like those of the +primitive Christians,--namely, faith in God and faith in Christ, without +any subtile and metaphysical creeds, such as one might expect from his +inexorable theological deductions. But he would resort to +excommunication as a discipline, as the only weapon which the Church +could use to bind its members together, and which had been used from the +beginning; yet he would temper severity with mildness and charity, since +only God is able to judge the heart. And herein he departed from the +customs of the Middle Ages, and did not regard the excommunicated as +lost, but to be prayed for by the faithful. No one, he maintained, +should be judged as deserving eternal death who was still in the hands +of God. He made a broad distinction between excommunication and +anathema; the latter, he maintained, should never, or very rarely, be +pronounced, since it takes away the hope of forgiveness, and consigns +one to the wrath of God and the power of Satan. He regarded the +Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as a means to help manifold +infirmities,--as a time of meditation for beholding Christ the +crucified; as confirming reconciliation with God; as a visible sign of +the body of Christ, recognizing his actual but spiritual presence. +Luther recognized the bodily presence of Christ in the Eucharist, while +he rejected transubstantiation and the idea of worshipping the +consecrated wafer as the real God. This difference in the opinion of the +reformers as to the Eucharist led to bitter quarrels and controversies, +and divided the Protestants. Calvin pursued a middle and moderate +course, and did much to harmonize the Protestant churches. He always +sought peace and moderation; and his tranquillizing measures were not +pleasant to the Catholics, who wished to see divisions among +their enemies.</p> + +<p>Calvin had a great dislike of ceremonies, festivals, holidays, and the +like. For images he had an aversion amounting to horror. Christmas was +the only festival he retained. He was even slanderously accused of +wishing to abolish the Sabbath, the observance of which he inculcated +with the strictness of the Puritans. He introduced congregational +singing, but would not allow the ear or the eye to be distracted. The +music was simple, dispensing with organs and instruments and all +elaborate and artistic display. It is needless to say that this severe +simplicity of worship has nearly passed away, but it cannot be doubted +that the changes which the reformers made produced the deepest +impression on the people in a fervent and religious age. The psalms and +hymns of the reformers were composed in times of great religious +excitement. Calvin was far behind Luther, who did not separate the art +of music from religion; but Calvin made a divorce of art from public +worship. Indeed, the Reformation was not favorable to art in any form +except in sacred poetry; it declared those truths which save the soul, +rather than sought those arts which adorn civilization. Hence its +churches were barren of ornaments and symbols, and were cold and +repulsive when the people were not excited by religious truths. Nor did +they favor eloquence in the ordinary meaning of that word. Pulpit +eloquence was simple, direct, and without rhetorical devices; seeking +effect not in gestures and postures and modulated voice, but earnest +appeals to the heart and conscience. The great Catholic preachers of the +eighteenth century--like Bossuet and Bourdaloue and Massillon--surpassed +the Protestants as rhetoricians.</p> + +<p>The simplicity which marked the worship of God as established by Calvin +was also a feature in his system of church government. He dispensed with +bishops, archdeacons, deans, and the like. In his eyes every man who +preached the word was a presbyter, or elder; and every presbyter was a +bishop. A deacon was an officer to take care of the poor, not to preach. +And it was necessary that a minister should have a double call,--both an +inward call and an outward one,--or an election by the people in union +with the clergy. Paul and Barnabas set forth elders, but the people +indicated their approval by lifting up their hands. In the +Presbyterianism which Calvin instituted he maintained that the Church is +represented by the laity as well as by the clergy. He therefore gave the +right of excommunication to the congregation in conjunction with the +clergy. In the Lutheran Church, as in the Catholic, the right of +excommunication was vested in the clergy alone. But Calvin gave to the +clergy alone the right to administer the sacraments; nor would he give +to the Church any other power of punishment than exclusion from the +Lord's Supper, and excommunication. His organization of the Church was +aristocratic, placing the power in the hands of a few men of approved +wisdom and piety. He had no sympathy with democracy, either civil or +religious, and he formed a close union between Church and State,--giving +to the council the right to choose elders and to confirm the election of +ministers. As already stated, he did not attempt to shield the clergy +from the civil tribunals. The consistory, which assembled once a week, +was formed of elders and preachers, and a messenger of the civil court +summoned before it the persons whose presence was required. No such +power as this would be tolerated in these times. But the consistory +could not itself inflict punishment; that was the province of the civil +government. The elders and clergy inflicted no civil penalties, but +simply determined what should be heard before the spiritual and what +before the civil tribunal. A syndic presided in the spiritual assembly +at first, but only as a church elder. The elders were chosen from the +council, and the election was confirmed by the great council, the +people, and preachers; so that the Church was really in the hands of the +State, which appointed the clergy. It would thus seem that Church and +State were very much mixed up together by Calvin, who legislated in view +of the circumstances which surrounded him, and not for other times or +nations. This subordination of the Church to the State, which was +maintained by all the reformers, was established in opposition to the +custom of the Catholic Church, which sought to make the State +subservient to the Church. And the lay government of the Church, which +entered into the system of Calvin, was owing to the fear that the +clergy, when able to stand alone, might become proud and ambitious; a +fear which was grounded on the whole history of the Church.</p> + +<p>Although Calvin had an exalted idea of the spiritual dignity of the +Church, he allowed a very dangerous interference of the State in +ecclesiastical affairs, even while he would separate the functions of +the clergy from those of the magistrates. He allowed the State to +pronounce the final sentence on dogmatic questions, and hence the power +of the synod failed in Geneva. Moreover, the payment of ministers by the +State rather than by the people, as in this country, was against the old +Jewish custom, which Calvin so often borrowed,--for the priests among +the Jews were independent of the kings. But Calvin wished to destroy +caste among the clergy, and consequently spiritual tyranny. In his +legislation we see an intense hostility to the Roman Catholic +Church,--one of the animating principles of the Reformers; and hence the +Reformers, in their hostility to Rome, went from Sylla into Charybdis. +Calvin, like all churchmen, exalted naturally the theocratic idea of the +old Jewish and Mediaeval Church, and yet practically put the Church into +the hands of laymen. In one sense he was a spiritual dictator, and like +Luther a sort of Protestant pope; and yet he built up a system which was +fatal to spiritual power such as had existed among the Catholic +priesthood. For their sacerdotal spiritual power he would substitute a +moral power, the result of personal bearing and sanctity. It is amusing +to hear some people speak of Calvin as a ghostly spiritual father; but +no man ever fought sacerdotalism more earnestly than he. The logical +sequence of his ecclesiastical reforms was not the aristocratic and +Erastian Church of Scotland, but the Puritans in New England, who were +Independents and not Presbyterians.</p> + +<p>Yet there is an inconsistency even in Calvin's régime; for he had the +zeal of the old Catholic Church in giving over to the civil power those +he wished to punish, as in the case of Servetus. He even intruded into +the circle of social life, and established a temporal rather than a +spiritual theocracy; and while he overthrew the episcopal element, he +made a distinction, not recognized in the primitive church, between +clergy and laity. As for religious toleration, it did not exist in any +country or in any church; there was no such thing as true evangelical +freedom. All the Reformers attempted, as well as the Catholics, a +compulsory unity of faith; and this is an impossibility. The Reformers +adopted a catechism, or a theological system, which all communicants +were required to learn and accept. This is substantially the acceptance +of what the Church ordains. Creeds are perhaps a necessity in +well-organized ecclesiastical bodies, and are not unreasonable; but it +should not be forgotten that they are formulated doctrines made by men, +on what is supposed to be the meaning of the Scriptures, and are not +consistent with the right of private judgment when pushed out to its +ultimate logical consequence. When we remember how few men are capable +of interpreting Scripture for themselves, and how few are disposed to +exercise this right, we can see why the formulated catechism proved +useful in securing unity of belief; but when Protestant divines insisted +on the acceptance of the articles of faith which they deduced from the +Scriptures, they did not differ materially from the Catholic clergy in +persisting on the acceptance of the authority of the Church as to +matters of doctrine. Probably a church organization is impossible +without a formulated creed. Such a creed has existed from the time of +the Council of Nice, and is not likely ever to be abandoned by any +Christian Church in any future age, although it may be modified and +softened with the advance of knowledge. However, it is difficult to +conceive of the unity of the Church as to faith, without a creed made +obligatory on all the members of a communion to accept, and it always +has been regarded as a useful and even necessary form of Christian +instruction for the people. Calvin himself attached great importance to +catechisms, and prepared one even for children.</p> + +<p>He also put a great value on preaching, instead of the complicated and +imposing ritual of the Catholic service; and in most Protestant churches +from his day to ours preaching, or religious instruction, has occupied +the most prominent part of the church service; and it must be conceded +that while the Catholic service has often degenerated into mere rites +and ceremonies to aid a devotional spirit, so the Protestant service has +often become cold and rationalistic,--and it is not easy to say which +extreme is the worse.</p> + +<p>Thus far we have viewed Calvin in the light of a reformer and +legislator, but his influence as a theologian is more remarkable. It is +for his theology that he stands out as a prominent figure in the history +of the Church. As such he showed greater genius; as such he is the most +eminent of all the reformers; as such he impressed his mind on the +thinking of his own age and of succeeding ages,--an original and +immortal man. His system of divinity embodied in his "Institutes" is +remarkable for the radiation of the general doctrines of the Church +around one central principle, which he defended with marvellous logical +power. He was not a fencer like Abélard, displaying wonderful dexterity +in the use of sophistries, overwhelming adversaries by wit and sarcasm; +arrogant and self-sufficient, and destroying rather than building up. He +did not deify the reason, like Erigina, nor throw himself on authority +like Bernard. He was not comprehensive like Augustine, nor mystical like +Bonaventura. He had the spiritual insight of Anselm, and the dialectical +acumen of Thomas Aquinas; acknowledging no master but Christ, and +implicitly receiving whatever the Scriptures declared. He takes his +original position neither from natural reason nor from the authority of +the church, but from the word of God; and from declarations of +Scripture, as he interprets them, he draws sequences and conclusions +with irresistible logic. In an important sense he is one-sided, since he +does not take cognizance of other truths equally important. He is +perfectly fearless in pushing out to its most logical consequences +whatever truth he seizes upon; and hence he appears to many gifted and +learned critics to draw conclusions from accepted premises which +apparently conflict with consciousness or natural reason; and hence +there has ever been repugnance to many of his doctrines, because it is +impossible, it is said, to believe them.</p> + +<p>In general, Calvin does not essentially differ from the received +doctrines of the Church as defended by its greatest lights in all ages. +His peculiarity is not in making a digest of divinity,--although he +treated all the great subjects which have been discussed from Athanasius +to Aquinas. His "Institutes" may well be called an exhaustive system of +theology. There is no great doctrine which he has not presented with +singular clearness and logical force. Yet it is not for a general system +of divinity that he is famous, but for making prominent a certain class +of subjects, among which he threw the whole force of his genius. In +fact all the great lights of the Church have been distinguished for the +discussion of particular doctrines to meet the exigencies of their +times. Thus Athanasius is identified with the Trinitarian controversy, +although he was a minister of theological knowledge in general. +Augustine directed his attention more particularly to the refutation of +Pelagian heresies and human Depravity. Luther's great doctrine was +Justification by Faith, although he took the same ground as Augustine. +It was the logical result of the doctrines of Grace which he defended +which led to the overthrow, in half of Europe, of that extensive system +of penance and self-expiation which marked the Roman Catholic Church, +and on which so many glaring abuses were based. As Athanasius rendered a +great service to the Church by establishing the doctrine of the Trinity, +and Augustine a still greater service by the overthrow of Pelagianism, +so Luther undermined the papal pile of superstition by showing +eloquently,--what indeed had been shown before,--the true ground of +justification. When we speak of Calvin, the great subject of +Predestination arises before our minds, although on this subject he made +no pretention to originality. Nor did he differ materially from +Augustine, or Gottschalk, or Thomas Aquinas before him, or Pascal and +Edwards after him. But no man ever presented this complicated and +mysterious subject so ably as he.</p> + +<p>It is not for me to discuss this great topic. I simply wish to present +the subject historically,--to give Calvin's own views, and the effect of +his deductions on the theology of his age; and in giving Calvin's views +I must shelter myself under the wings of his best biographer, Doctor +Henry of Berlin, and quote the substance of his exposition of the +peculiar doctrines of the Swiss, or rather French, theologian.</p> + +<p>According to Henry, Calvin maintained that God, in his sovereign will +and for his own glory, elected one part of the human race to everlasting +life, and abandoned the other part to everlasting death; that man, by +the original transgression, lost the power of free-will, except to do +evil; that it is only by Divine Grace that freedom to do good is +recovered; but that this grace is bestowed only on the elect, and elect +not in consequence of the foreknowledge of God, but by his absolute +decree before the world was made.</p> + +<p>This is the substance of those peculiar doctrines which are called +Calvinism, and by many regarded as fundamental principles of theology, +to be received with the same unhesitating faith as the declarations of +Scripture from which those doctrines are deduced. Augustine and Aquinas +accepted substantially the same doctrines, but they were not made so +prominent in their systems, nor were they so elaborately worked out.</p> + +<p>The opponents of Calvin, including some of the brightest lights which +have shone in the English church,--such men as Jeremy Taylor, Archbishop +Whately, and Professor Mosley,--affirm that these doctrines are not only +opposed to free-will, but represent God as arbitrarily dooming a large +part of the human race to future and endless punishment, withholding +from them his grace, by which alone they can turn from their sins, +creating them only to destroy them: not as the potter moulds the clay +for vessels of honor and dishonor, but moulding the clay in order to +destroy the vessels he has made, whether good or bad; which doctrine +they affirm conflicts with the views usually held out in the Scriptures +of God as a God of love, and also conflicts with all natural justice, +and is therefore one-sided and narrow.</p> + +<p>The premises from which this doctrine is deduced are those Scripture +texts which have the authority of the Apostle Paul, such as these: +"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the +world;" "For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate;" "Jacob have +I loved and Esau have I hated;" "He hath mercy on whom he will have +mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth;" "Hath not the potter power over +his clay?" No one denies that from these texts the Predestination of +Calvin as well as Augustine--for they both had similar views--is +logically drawn. It has been objected that both of these eminent +theologians overlooked other truths which go in parallel lines, and +which would modify the doctrine,--even as Scripture asserts in one place +the great fact that the will is free, and in another place that the will +is shackled. The Pelagian would push out the doctrine of free-will so as +to ignore the necessity of grace; and the Augustinian would push out the +doctrine of the servitude of the will into downright fatalism. But these +great logicians apparently shrink from the conclusions to which their +logic leads them. Both Augustine and Calvin protest against fatalism, +and both assert that the will is so far free that the sinner acts +without constraint; and consequently the blame of his sins rests upon +himself, and not upon another. The doctrines of Calvin and Augustine +logically pursued would lead to the damnation of infants; yet, as a +matter of fact, neither maintained that to which their logic led. It is +not in human nature to believe such a thing, even if it may be +dogmatically asserted.</p> + +<p>And then, in regard to sin: no one has ever disputed the fact that sin +is rampant in this world, and is deserving of punishment. But +theologians of the school of Augustine and Calvin, in view of the fact, +have assumed the premise--which indeed cannot be disputed--that sin is +against an infinite God. Hence, that sin against an infinite God is +itself infinite; and hence that, as sin deserves punishment, an +infinite sin deserves infinite punishment,--a conclusion from which +consciousness recoils, and which is nowhere asserted in the Bible. It is +a conclusion arrived at by metaphysical reasoning, which has very little +to do with practical Christianity, and which, imposed as a dogma of +belief, to be accepted like plain declarations of Scripture, is an +insult to the human understanding. But this conclusion, involving the +belief that inherited sin <i>is infinite</i>, and deserving of infinite +punishment, appals the mind. For relief from this terrible logic, the +theologian adduces the great fact that Christ made an atonement for +sin,--another cardinal declaration of the Scripture,--and that believers +in this atonement shall be saved. This Bible doctrine is exceedingly +comforting, and accounts in a measure for the marvellous spread of +Christianity. The wretched people of the old Roman world heard the glad +tidings that Christ died for them, as an atonement for the sins of which +they were conscious, and which had chained them to despair. But another +class of theologians deduced from this premise, that, as Christ's death +was an infinite atonement for the sins of the world, so all men, and +consequently all sinners, would be saved. This was the ground of the +original Universalists, deduced from the doctrines which Augustine and +Calvin had formulated. But they overlooked the Scripture declaration +which Calvin never lost sight of, that salvation was only for those who +believed. Now inasmuch as a vast majority of the human race, including +infants, have not believed, it becomes a logical conclusion that all who +have not believed are lost. Logic and consciousness then come into +collision, and there is no relief but in consigning these discrepancies +to the realm of mystery.</p> + +<p>I allude to these theological difficulties simply to show the tyranny to +which the mind and soul are subjected whenever theological deductions +are invested with the same authority as belongs to original declarations +of Scripture; and which, so far from being systematized, do not even +always apparently harmonize. Almost any system of belief can be +logically deduced from Scripture texts. It should be the work of +theologians to harmonize them and show their general spirit and meaning, +rather than to draw conclusions from any particular class of subjects. +Any system of deductions from texts of Scripture which are offset by +texts of equal authority but apparently different meaning, is +necessarily one-sided and imperfect, and therefore narrow. That is +exactly the difficulty under which Calvin labored. He seems, to a large +class of Christians of great ability and conscientiousness, to be narrow +and one-sided, and is therefore no authority to them; not, be it +understood, in reference to the great fundamental doctrines of +Christianity, but in his views of Predestination and the subjects +interlinked with it. And it was the great error of attaching so much +importance to mere metaphysical divinity that led to such a revulsion +from his peculiar system in after times. It was the great wisdom of the +English reformers, like Cranmer, to leave all those metaphysical +questions open, as matters of comparatively little consequence, and fall +back on unquestioned doctrines of primitive faith, that have given so +great vitality to the English Church, and made it so broad and catholic. +The Puritans as a body, more intellectual than the mass of the +Episcopalians, were led away by the imposing and entangling dialectics +of the scholastic Calvin, and came unfortunately to attach as much +importance to such subjects as free-will and predestination--questions +most complicated--as they did to "the weightier matters of the law;" and +when pushed by the logic of opponents to the <i>decretum horribile</i>, have +been compelled to fall back on the Catholic doctrine of mysteries, as +something which could never be explained or comprehended, but which it +is a Christian duty to accept as a mystery. The Scriptures certainly +speak of mysteries, like regeneration; but it is one thing to marvel how +a man can be born again by the Spirit of God,--a fact we see every +day,--and quite another thing to make a mystery to be accepted as a +matter of faith of that which the Bible has nowhere distinctly +affirmed, and which is against all ideas of natural justice, and arrived +at by a subtle process of dialectical reasoning.</p> + +<p>But it was natural for so great an intellectual giant as Calvin to make +his startling deductions from the great truths he meditated upon with so +much seriousness and earnestness. Only a very lofty nature would have +revelled as he did, and as Augustine did before him and Pascal after +him, in those great subjects which pertain to God and his dispensations. +All his meditations and formulated doctrines radiate from the great and +sublime idea of the majesty of God and the comparative insignificance of +man. And here he was not so far apart from the great sages of antiquity, +before salvation was revealed by Christ. "Canst thou by searching find +out God?" "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?"</p> + +<p>And here I would remark that theologians and philosophers have ever been +divided into two great schools,--those who have had a tendency to exalt +the dignity of man, and those who would absorb man in the greatness of +the Deity. These two schools have advocated doctrines which, logically +carried out to their ultimate sequences, would produce a Grecian +humanitarianism on the one hand, and a sort of Bramanism on the +other,--the one making man the arbiter of his own destiny, independently +of divine agency, and the other making the Deity the only power of the +universe. With one school, God as the only controlling agency is a +fiction, and man himself is infinite in faculties; the other holds that +God is everything and man is nothing. The distinction between these two +schools, both of which have had great defenders, is fundamental,--such +as that between Augustine and Pelagius, between Bernard and Abélard, and +between Calvin and Lainez. Among those who have inclined to the doctrine +of the majesty of God and the littleness of man were the primitive monks +and the Indian theosophists, and the orthodox scholastics of the Middle +Ages,--all of whom were comparatively indifferent to material pleasure +and physical progress, and sought the salvation of the soul and the +favor of God beyond all temporal blessings. Of the other class have been +the Greek philosophers and the rationalizing schoolmen and the modern +lights of science.</p> + +<p>Now Calvin was imbued with the lofty spirit of the Fathers of the Church +and the more religious and contemplative of the schoolmen and the saints +of the Middle Ages, when he attached but little dignity to man unaided +by divine grace, and was absorbed with the idea of the sovereignty of +God, in whose hands man is like clay in the hands of the potter. This +view of God pervaded the whole spirit of his theology, making it both +lofty and yet one-sided. To him the chief end of man was to glorify +God, not to develop his own intellectual faculties, and still less to +seek the pleasures and excitements of the world. Man was a sinner before +an infinite God, and he could rise above the polluting influence of sin +only by the special favor of God and his divinely communicated grace. +Man was so great a sinner that he deserved an eternal punishment, only +to be rescued as a brand plucked from the fire, as one of the elect +before the world was made. The vast majority of men were left to the +uncovenanted mercies of Christ,--the redeemer, not of the race, but of +those who believed.</p> + +<p>To Calvin therefore, as to the Puritans, the belief in a personal God +was everything; not a compulsory belief in the general existence of a +deity who, united with Nature, reveals himself to our consciousness; not +the God of the pantheist, visible in all the wonders of Nature; not the +God of the rationalist, who retires from the universe which he has made, +leaving it to the operation of certain unchanging and universal laws: +but the God whom Abraham and Moses and the prophets saw and recognized, +and who by his special providence rules the destinies of men. The most +intellectual of the reformers abhorred the deification of the reason, +and clung to that exalted supernaturalism which was the life and hope of +blessed saints and martyrs in bygone ages, and which in "their contests +with mail-clad infidelity was like the pebble which the shepherd of +Israel hurled against the disdainful boaster who defied the power of +Israel's God." And he was thus brought into close sympathy with the +realism of the Fathers, who felt that all that is valuable in theology +must radiate from the recognition of Almighty power in the renovation of +society, and displayed, not according to our human notions of law and +progress and free-will, but supernaturally and mysteriously, according +to his sovereign will, which is above law, since God is the author of +law. He simply erred in enforcing a certain class of truths which must +follow from the majesty of the one great First Cause, lofty as these +truths are, to the exclusion of another class of truths of great +importance; which gives to his system incompleteness and one-sidedness. +Thus he was led to undervalue the power of truth itself in its contest +with error. He was led into a seeming recognition of two wills in +God,--that which wills the salvation of all men, and that which wills +the salvation of the elect alone. He is accused of a leaning to +fatalism, which he heartily denied, but which seems to follow from his +logical conclusions. He entered into an arena of metaphysical +controversy which can never be settled. The doctrines of free-will and +necessity can never be reconciled by mortal reason. Consciousness +reveals the freedom of the will as well as the slavery to sin. Men are +conscious of both; they waste their time in attempting to reconcile two +apparently opposing facts,--like our pious fathers at their New England +firesides, who were compelled to shelter themselves behind mystery.</p> + +<p>The tendency of Calvin's system, it is maintained by many, is to ascribe +to God attributes which according to natural justice would be injustice +and cruelty, such as no father would exercise on his own children, +however guilty. Even good men will not accept in their hearts doctrines +which tend to make God less compassionate than man. There are not two +kinds of justice. The intellect is appalled when it is affirmed that one +man <i>justly</i> suffers the penalty of another man's sin,--although the +world is full of instances of men suffering from the carelessness or +wickedness of others, as in a wicked war or an unnecessary railway +disaster. The Scripture law of retribution, as brought out in the Bible +and sustained by consciousness, is the penalty a man pays for personal +and voluntary transgression. Nor will consciousness accept the doctrine +that the sin of a mortal--especially under strong temptation and with +all the bias of a sinful nature--is infinite. Nothing which a created +mortal can do is infinite; it is only finite: the infinite belongs to +God alone. Hence an infinite penalty for a finite sin conflicts with +consciousness and is nowhere asserted in the Bible, which is +transcendently more merciful and comforting than many theological +systems of belief, however powerfully sustained by dialectical reasoning +and by the most excellent men. Human judgments or reasonings are +fallible on moral questions which have two sides; and reasonings from +texts which present different meanings when studied by the lights of +learning and science are still more liable to be untrustworthy. It would +seem to be the supremest necessity for theological schools to unravel +the meaning of divine declarations, and present doctrines in their +relation with apparently conflicting texts, rather than draw out a +perfect and consistent system, philosophically considered, from any one +class of texts. Of all things in this wicked and perplexing world the +science of theology should be the most cheerful and inspiring, for it +involves inquiries on the loftiest subjects which can interest a +thoughtful mind.</p> + +<p>But whatever defects the system of doctrines which Calvin elaborated +with such transcendent ability may have, there is no question as to its +vast influence on the thinking of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries. The schools of France and Holland and Scotland and England +and America were animated by his genius and authority. He was a burning +and a shining light, if not for all ages, at least for the unsettled +times in which he lived. No theologian ever had a greater posthumous +power than he for nearly three hundred years, and he is still one of +the great authorities of the church universal. John Knox sought his +counsel and was influenced by his advice in the great reform he made in +Scotland. In France the words Calvinist and Huguenot are synonymous. +Cranmer, too, listened to his counsels, and had great respect for his +learning and sanctity. Among the Puritans he has reigned like an oracle. +Oliver Cromwell embraced his doctrines, as also did Sir Matthew Hale. +Ridicule or abuse of Calvin is as absurd as the ridicule or abuse with +which Protestants so long assailed Hildebrand or Innocent III. No one +abuses Pascal or Augustine, and yet the theological views of all these +are substantially the same.</p> + +<p>In one respect I think that Calvin has received more credit than he +deserves. Some have maintained that he was a sort of father of +republicanism and democratic liberty. In truth he had no popular +sympathies, and leaned towards an aristocracy which was little short of +an oligarchy. He had no hand in establishing the political system of +Geneva; it was established before he went there. He was not even one of +those thinkers who sympathized with true liberty of conscience. He +persecuted heretics like a mediaeval Catholic divine. He would have +burned a Galileo as he caused the death of Servetus, which need not have +happened but for him. Calvin could have saved Servetus if he had +pleased; but he complained of him to the magistrates, knowing that his +condemnation and death would necessarily follow. He had neither the +humanity of Luther nor the toleration of Saint Augustine. He was the +impersonation of intellect,--like Newton, Leibnitz, Spinoza, and +Kant,--which overbore the impulses of his heart. He had no passions +except zeal for orthodoxy. So pre-eminently did intellect tower above +the passions that he seemed to lack sympathy; and yet, such was his +exalted character, he was capable of friendship. He was remarkable for +every faculty of the mind except wit and imagination. His memory was +almost incredible; he remembered everything he ever read or heard; he +would, after long intervals, recognize persons whom he had never seen +but once or twice. When employed in dictation, he would resume the +thread of his discourse without being prompted, after the most vexatious +interruptions. His judgment was as sound as his memory was retentive; it +was almost infallible,--no one was ever known to have been misled by it. +He had a remarkable analytical power, and also the power of +generalization. He was a very learned man, and his Commentaries are +among the most useful and valued of his writings, showing both learning +and judgment; his exegetical works have scarcely been improved. He had +no sceptical or rationalistic tendencies, and therefore his Commentaries +may not be admired by men of "advanced thought," but his annotations +will live when those of Ewald shall be forgotten; they still hold their +place in the libraries of biblical critics. For his age he was a +transcendent critic; his various writings fill five folio volumes. He +was not so voluminous a writer as Thomas Aquinas, but less diffuse; his +style is lucid, like that of Voltaire.</p> + +<p>Considering the weakness of his body Calvin's labors were prodigious. +There was never a more industrious man, finding time for +everything,--for an amazing correspondence, for pastoral labors, for +treatises and essays, for commentaries and official duties. No man ever +accomplished more in the same space of time. He preached daily every +alternate week; he attended meetings of the Consistory and of the Court +of Morals; he interested himself in the great affairs of his age; he +wrote letters to all parts of Christendom.</p> + +<p>Reigning as a religious dictator, and with more influence than any man +of his age, next to Luther, Calvin was content to remain poor, and was +disdainful of money and all praises and rewards. This was not an +affectation, not the desire to imitate the great saints of Christian +antiquity to whom poverty was a cardinal virtue; but real indifference, +looking upon money as <i>impedimenta</i>, as camp equipage is to successful +generals. He was not conscious of being poor with his small salary of +fifty dollars a year, feeling that he had inexhaustible riches within +him; and hence he calmly and naturally took his seat among the great men +of the world as their peer and equal, without envy of the accidents of +fortune and birth. He was as indifferent to money and luxuries as +Socrates when he walked barefooted among the Athenian aristocracy, or +Basil when he retired to the wilderness; he rarely gave vent to +extravagant grief or joy, seldom laughed, and cared little for +hilarities; he knew no games or sports; he rarely played with children +or gossiped with women; he loved without romance, and suffered +bereavement without outward sorrow. He had no toleration for human +infirmities, and was neither social nor genial; he sought a wife, not so +much for communion of feeling as to ease him of his burdens,--not to +share his confidence, but to take care of his house. Nor was he fond, +like Luther, of music and poetry. He had no taste for the fine arts; he +never had a poet or an artist for his friend or companion. He could not +look out of his window without seeing the glaciers of the Alps, but +seemed to be unmoved by their unspeakable grandeur; he did not revel in +the glories of nature or art, but gave his mind to abstract ideas and +stern practical duties. He was sparing of language, simple, direct, and +precise, using neither sarcasm, nor ridicule, nor exaggeration. He was +far from being eloquent according to popular notions of oratory, and +despised the jingle of words and phrases and tricks of rhetoric; he +appealed to reason rather than the passions, to the conscience rather +than the imagination.</p> + +<p>Though mild, Calvin was also intolerant. Castillo, once his friend, +assailed his doctrine of Decrees, and was obliged to quit Geneva, and +was so persecuted that he died of actual starvation; Perrin, +captain-general of the republic, danced at a wedding, and was thrown +into prison; Bolsec, an eminent physician, opposed the doctrine of +Predestination, and was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment; Gruet spoke +lightly of the ordinances of religion, and was beheaded; Servetus was a +moral and learned and honest man, but could not escape the flames. Had +he been willing to say, as the flames consumed his body, "Jesus, thou +eternal Son of God, have mercy on me!" instead of, "Jesus, thou son of +the eternal God!" he might have been spared. Calvin was as severe on +those who refused to accept his logical deductions from acknowledged +truths as he was on those who denied the fundamental truths themselves. +But toleration was rare in his age, and he was not beyond it. He was not +even beyond the ideas of the Middle Ages in some important points, such +as those which pertained to divine justice,--the wrath rather than the +love of God. He lived too near the Middle Ages to be emancipated from +the ideas which enslaved such a man as Thomas Aquinas. He had very +little patience with frivolous amusements or degrading pursuits. He +attached great dignity to the ministerial office, and set a severe +example of decorum and propriety in all his public ministrations. He was +a type of the early evangelical divines, and was the father of the old +Puritan strictness and narrowness and fidelity to trusts. His very +faults grew out of virtues pushed to extremes. In our times such a man +would not be selected as a travelling companion, or a man at whose house +we would wish to keep the Christmas holidays. His unattractive austerity +perhaps has been made too much of by his enemies, and grew out of his +unimpulsive temperament,--call it cold if we must,--and also out of his +stern theology, which marked the ascetics of the Middle Ages. Few would +now approve of his severity of discipline any more than they would feel +inclined to accept some of his theological deductions.</p> + +<p>I question whether Calvin lived in the hearts of his countrymen, or they +would have erected some monument to his memory. In our times a statue +has been erected to Rousseau in Geneva; but Calvin was buried without +ceremony and with exceeding simplicity. He was a warrior who cared +nothing for glory or honor, absorbed in devotion to his Invisible King, +not indifferent to the exercise of power, but only as he felt he was the +delegated messenger of Divine Omnipotence scattering to the winds the +dust of all mortal grandeur. With all his faults, which were on the +surface, he was the accepted idol and oracle of a great party, and +stamped his genius on his own and succeeding ages. Whatever the +Presbyterians have done for civilization, he comes in for a share of the +honor. Whatever foundations the Puritans laid for national greatness in +this country, it must be confessed that they caught inspiration from his +decrees. Such a great master of exegetical learning and theological +inquiry and legislative wisdom will be forever held in reverence by +lofty characters, although he may be no favorite with the mass of +mankind. If many great men and good men have failed to comprehend either +his character or his system, how can a pleasure-loving and material +generation, seeking to combine the glories of this world with the +promises of the next, see much in him to admire, except as a great +intellectual dialectician and system-maker in an age with which it has +no sympathy? How can it appreciate his deep spiritual life, his profound +communion with God, his burning zeal for the defence of Christian +doctrine, his sublime self-sacrifice, his holy resignation, his entire +consecration to a great cause? Nobody can do justice to Calvin who does +not know the history of his times, the circumstances which surrounded +him, and the enemies he was required to fight. No one can comprehend his +character or mission who does not feel it to be supremely necessary to +have a definite, positive system of religious belief, based on the +authority of the Scriptures as a divine inspiration, both as an anchor +amid the storms and a star of promise and hope.</p> + +<p>And, after all, what is the head and front of Calvin's offending?--that +he was cold, unsocial, and ungenial in character; and that, as a +theologian, he fearlessly and inexorably pushed out his deductions to +their remotest logical sequences. But he was no more austere than +Chrysostom, no more ascetic than Basil, not even sterner in character +than Michael Angelo, or more unsocial than Pascal or Cromwell or William +the Silent. We lose sight of his defects in the greatness of his +services and the exalted dignity of his character. If he was severe to +adversaries, he was kind to friends; and when his feeble body was worn +out by his protracted labors, at the age of fifty-three, and he felt +that the hand of death was upon him, he called together his friends and +fellow-laborers in reform,--the magistrates and ministers of +Geneva,--imparted his last lessons, and expressed his last wishes, with +the placidity of a Christian sage. Amid tears and sobs and stifled +groans he discoursed calmly on his approaching departure, gave his +affectionate benedictions, and commended them and his cause to Christ; +lingering longer than was expected, but dying in the highest triumphs of +Christian faith, May 27, 1564, in the arms of his faithful and admiring +Beza, as the rays of the setting-sun gilded with their glory his humble +chamber of toil and spiritual exaltation.</p> + +<p>No man who knows anything will ever sneer at Calvin. He is not to be +measured by common standards. He was universally regarded as the +greatest light of the theological world. When we remember his +transcendent abilities, his matchless labors, his unrivalled influence, +his unblemished morality, his lofty piety, and soaring soul, all +flippant criticism is contemptible and mean. He ranks with immortal +benefactors, and needs least of all any apologies for his defects. A man +who stamped his opinions on his own age and succeeding ages can be +regarded only as a very extraordinary genius. A frivolous and +pleasure-seeking generation may not be attracted by such an +impersonation of cold intellect, and may rear no costly monument to his +memory; but his work remains as the leader of the loftiest class of +Christian enthusiasts that the modern world has known, and the founder +of a theological system which still numbers, in spite of all the changes +of human thought, some of the greatest thinkers and ablest expounders of +Christian doctrine in both Europe and America. To have been the +spiritual father of the Puritans for three hundred years is itself a +great evidence of moral and intellectual excellence, and will link his +name with some of the greatest movements that have marked our modern +civilization. From Plymouth Rock to the shores of the Pacific Ocean we +still see the traces of his marvellous genius, and his still more +wonderful influence on the minds of men and on the schools of Christian +theology; so that he will ever be regarded as the great doctor of the +Protestant Church.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Henry's Life of Calvin, translated by Stebbings; Dyer's Life of Calvin; +Beza's Life of Calvin; Drelincourt's Defence of Calvin; Bayle; +Maimbourg's Histoire du Calvinisine; Calvin's Works; Ruchat; D'Aubigné's +History of the Reformation; Burnet's Reformation; Mosheim; Biographie +Universelle, article on Servetus; Schlosser's Leben Bezas; McCrie's Life +of Knox; Original Letters (Parker Society).</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="FRANCIS_BACON."></a>FRANCIS BACON.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1561-1626.</p> + +<p>THE NEW PHILOSOPHY.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to present the life and labors of</p> + + "The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind."<br> + +<p>So Pope sums up the character of the great Lord Bacon, as he is +generally but improperly called; and this verdict, in the main, has been +confirmed by Lords Macaulay and Campbell, who seem to delight in keeping +him in that niche of the temple of fame where the poet has placed +him,--contemptible as a man, but venerable as the philosopher, radiant +with all the wisdom of his age and of all preceding ages, the miner and +sapper of ancient falsehoods, the pioneer of all true knowledge, the +author of that inductive and experimental philosophy on which is based +the glory of our age. Macaulay especially, in that long and brilliant +article which appeared in the "Edinburgh Review" in 1837, has +represented him as a remarkably worldly man, cold, calculating, selfish; +a sycophant and a flatterer, bent on self-exaltation; greedy, careless, +false; climbing to power by base subserviency; betraying friends and +courting enemies; with no animosities he does not suppress from policy, +and with no affections which he openly manifests when it does not suit +his interests: so that we read with shame of his extraordinary +shamelessness, from the time he first felt the cravings of a vulgar +ambition to the consummation of a disgraceful crime; from the base +desertion of his greatest benefactor to the public selling of justice as +Lord High Chancellor of the realm; resorting to all the arts of a +courtier to win the favor of his sovereign and of his minions and +favorites; reckless as to honest debts; torturing on the rack an honest +parson for a sermon he never preached; and, when obliged to confess his +corruption, meanly supplicating mercy from the nation he had outraged, +and favors from the monarch whose cause he had betrayed. The defects and +delinquencies of this great man are bluntly and harshly put by Macaulay, +without any attempt to soften or palliate them; as if he would consign +his name and memory, not "to men's charitable speeches, to foreign +nations, and to the next ages," but to an infamy as lasting and deep as +that of Scroggs and of Jeffreys, or any of those hideous tyrants and +monsters that disgraced the reigns of the Stuart kings.</p> + +<p>And yet while the man is made to appear in such hideous colors, his +philosophy is exalted to the highest pinnacle of praise, as the greatest +boon which any philosopher ever rendered to the world, and the chief +cause of all subsequent progress in scientific discovery. And thus in +brilliant rhetoric we have a painting of a man whose life was in +striking contrast with his teachings,--a Judas Iscariot, uttering divine +philosophy; a Seneca, accumulating millions as the tool of Nero; a +fallen angel, pointing with rapture to the realms of eternal light. We +have the most startling contradiction in all history,--glory in +debasement, and debasement in glory; the most selfish and worldly man in +England, the "meanest of mankind," conferring on the race one of the +greatest blessings it ever received,--not accidentally, not in +repentance and shame, but in exalted and persistent labors, amid public +cares and physical infirmities, from youth to advanced old age; living +in the highest regions of thought, studious and patient all his days, +even when neglected and unrewarded for the transcendent services he +rendered, not as a philosopher merely, but as a man of affairs and as a +responsible officer of the Crown. Has there ever been, before or since, +such an anomaly in human history,--so infamous in action, so glorious in +thought; such a contradiction between life and teachings,--so that many +are found to utter indignant protests against such a representation of +humanity, justly feeling that such a portrait, however much it may be +admired for its brilliant colors, and however difficult to be proved +false, is nevertheless an insult to the human understanding? The heart +of the world will not accept the strange and singular belief that so bad +a man could confer so great a boon, especially when he seemed bent on +bestowing it during his whole life, amid the most harassing duties. If +it accepts the boon, it will strive to do justice to the benefactor, as +he himself appealed to future ages; and if it cannot deny the charges +which have been arrayed against him,--especially if it cannot exculpate +him,--it will soar beyond technical proofs to take into consideration +the circumstances of the times, the temptations of a corrupt age, and +the splendid traits which can with equal authority be adduced to set off +against the mistakes and faults which proceeded from inadvertence and +weakness rather than a debased moral sense,--even as the defects and +weaknesses of Cicero are lost sight of in the acknowledged virtues of +his ordinary life, and the honest and noble services he rendered to his +country and mankind.</p> + +<p>Bacon was a favored man; he belonged to the upper ranks of society. His +father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was a great lawyer, and reached the highest +dignities, being Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. His mother's sister was +the wife of William Cecil, the great Lord Burleigh, the most able and +influential of Queen Elizabeth's ministers. Francis Bacon was the +youngest son of the Lord Keeper, and was born in London, Jan. 22, 1561. +He had a sickly and feeble constitution, but intellectually was a +youthful prodigy; and at nine years of age, by his gravity and +knowledge, attracted the admiring attention of the Queen, who called him +her young Lord Keeper. At the age of ten we find him stealing away from +his companions to discover the cause of a singular echo in the brick +conduit near his father's house in the Strand. At twelve he entered the +University of Cambridge; at fifteen he quitted it, already disgusted +with its pedantries and sophistries; at sixteen he rebelled against the +authority of Aristotle, and took up his residence at Gray's Inn; the +same year, 1576, he was sent to Paris in the suite of Sir Amias Paulet, +ambassador to the court of France, and delighted the salons of the +capital by his wit and profound inquiries; at nineteen he returned to +England, having won golden opinions from the doctors of the French +Sanhedrim, who saw in him a second Daniel; and in 1582 he was admitted +as a barrister of Gray's Inn, and the following year composed an essay +on the Instauration of Philosophy. Thus, at an age when young men now +leave the university, he had attacked the existing systems of science +and philosophy, proudly taking in all science and knowledge for +his realm.</p> + +<p>About this time his father died, without leaving him, a younger son, a +competence. Nor would his great relatives give him an office or sinecure +by which he might be supported while he sought truth, and he was forced +to plod at the law, which he never liked, resisting the blandishments +and follies by which he was surrounded; and at intervals, when other +young men of his age and rank were seeking pleasure, he was studying +Nature, science, history, philosophy, poetry,--everything, even the +whole domain of truth,--and with such success that his varied +attainments were rather a hindrance to an appreciation of his merits as +a lawyer and his preferment in his profession.</p> + +<p>In 1586 he entered parliament, sitting for Taunton, and also became a +bencher at Gray's Inn; so that at twenty-six he was in full practice in +the courts of Westminster, also a politician, speaking on almost every +question of importance which agitated the House of Commons for twenty +years, distinguished for eloquence as well as learning, and for a manly +independence which did not entirely please the Queen, from whom all +honors came.</p> + +<p>In 1591, at the age of thirty-one, he formed the acquaintance of Essex, +about his own age, who, as the favorite of the Queen, was regarded as +the most influential man in the country. The acquaintance ripened into +friendship; and to the solicitation of this powerful patron, who urged +the Queen to give Bacon a high office, she is said to have replied: "He +has indeed great wit and much learning, but in law, my lord, he is not +deeply read,"--an opinion perhaps put into her head by his rival Coke, +who did indeed know law but scarcely anything else, or by that class of +old-fashioned functionaries who could not conceive how a man could +master more than one thing. We should however remember that Bacon had +not reached the age when great offices were usually conferred in the +professions, and that his efforts to be made solicitor-general at the +age of thirty-one, and even earlier, would now seem unreasonable and +importunate, whatever might be his attainments. Disappointed in not +receiving high office, he meditated a retreat to Cambridge; but his +friend Essex gave him a villa in Twickenham, which he soon mortgaged, +for he was in debt all his life, although in receipt of sums which would +have supported him in comfort and dignity were it not for his habits of +extravagance,--the greatest flaw in his character, and which was the +indirect cause of his disgrace and fall. He was even arrested for debt +when he enjoyed a lucrative practice at the courts. But nothing +prevented him from pursuing his literary and scientific studies, amid +great distractions,--for he was both a leader at the bar and a leader of +the House of Commons; and if he did not receive the rewards to which he +felt entitled, he was always consulted by Elizabeth in great legal +difficulties.</p> + +<p>It was not until the Queen died, and Bacon was forty-seven years old, +that he became solicitor-general (1607), in the fourth year of the reign +of James, one year after his marriage with Alice Barnham, an alderman's +daughter, "a handsome maiden," and "to his liking." Besides this office, +which brought him £1000 a year, he about this time had a windfall as +clerk of the Star Chamber, which added £2000 to his income, at that time +from all sources about £4500 a year,--a very large sum for those times, +and making him really a rich man. Six years afterward he was made +attorney-general, and in the year 1617 he was made Lord Keeper, and the +following year he was raised to the highest position in the realm, next +to that of Archbishop of Canterbury, as Lord Chancellor, at the age of +fifty-seven, and soon after was created Lord Verulam. That is his title, +but the world persists in calling him Lord Bacon. In 1620, two years +after the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh, which Bacon advised, he was +in the zenith of his fortunes and fame, having been lately created +Viscount St. Albans, and having published the "Novum Organum," the first +instalment of the "Instauratio Magna," at which he had been working the +best part of his life,--some thirty years,--"A New Logic, to judge or +invent by induction, and thereby to make philosophy and science both +more true and more active."</p> + +<p>Then began to gather the storms which were to wreck his fortunes. The +nation now was clamorous for reform; and Coke, the enemy of Bacon, who +was then the leader of the Reform party in the House of Commons, +stimulated the movement. The House began its scrutiny with the +administration of justice; and Bacon could not stand before it, for as +the highest judge in England he was accused of taking bribes before +rendering decisions, and of many cases of corruption so glaring that no +defence was undertaken; and the House of Lords had no alternative but to +sentence him to the Tower and fine him, to degrade him from his office, +and banish him from the precincts of the court,--a fall so great, and +the impression of it on the civilized world so tremendous, that the case +of a judge accepting bribes has rarely since been known.</p> + +<p>Bacon was imprisoned but a few days, his ruinous fine of £40,000 was +remitted, and he was even soon after received at court; but he never +again held office. He was hopelessly disgraced; he was a ruined man; and +he bitterly felt the humiliation, and acknowledged the justice of his +punishment. He had now no further object in life than to pursue his +studies, and live comfortably in his retirement, and do what he could +for future ages.</p> + +<p>But before we consider his immortal legacy to the world, let us take +one more view of the man, in order that we may do him justice, and +remove some of the cruel charges against him as "the meanest +of mankind."</p> + +<p>It must be borne in mind that, from the beginning of his career until +his fall, only four or five serious charges have been made against +him,--that he was extravagant in his mode of life; that he was a +sycophant and office-seeker; that he deserted his patron Essex; that he +tortured Peacham, a Puritan clergyman, when tried for high-treason; that +he himself was guilty of corruption as a judge.</p> + +<p>In regard to the first charge, it is unfortunately too true; he lived +beyond his means, and was in debt most of his life. This defect, as has +been said, was the root of much evil; it destroyed his independence, +detracted from the dignity of his character, created enemies, and +led to a laxity of the moral sense which prepared the way for +corruption,--thereby furnishing another illustration of that fatal +weakness which degrades any man when he runs races with the rich, and +indulges in a luxury and ostentation which he cannot afford. It was the +curse of Cicero, of William Pitt, and of Daniel Webster. The first +lesson which every public man should learn, especially if honored with +important trusts, is to live within his income. However inconvenient +and galling, a stringent economy is necessary. But this defect is a very +common one, particularly when men are luxurious, or brought into +intercourse with the rich, or inclined to be hospitable and generous, or +have a great imagination and a sanguine temperament. So that those who +are most liable to fall into this folly have many noble qualities to +offset it, and it is not a stain which marks the "meanest of mankind." +Who would call Webster the meanest of mankind because he had an absurd +desire to live like an English country gentleman?</p> + +<p>In regard to sycophancy,--a disgusting trait, I admit,--we should +consider the age, when everybody cringed to sovereigns and their +favorites. Bacon never made such an abject speech as Omer Talon, the +greatest lawyer in France, did to Louis XIII, in the Parliament of +Paris. Three hundred years ago everybody bowed down to exalted rank: +witness the obsequious language which all authors addressed to patrons +in the dedication of their books. How small the chance of any man rising +in the world, who did not court favors from those who had favors to +bestow! Is that the meanest or the most uncommon thing in this world? If +so, how ignominious are all politicians who flatter the people and +solicit their votes? Is it not natural to be obsequious to those who +have offices to bestow? This trait is not commendable, but is it the +meanest thing we see?</p> + +<p>In regard to Essex, nobody can approve of the ingratitude which Bacon +showed to his noble patron. But, on the other hand, remember the good +advice which Bacon ever gave him, and his constant efforts to keep him +out of scrapes. How often did he excuse him to his royal mistress, at +the risk of incurring her displeasure? And when Essex was guilty of a +thousand times worse crime than ever Bacon committed,--even +high-treason, in a time of tumult and insurrection,--and it became +Bacon's task as prosecuting officer of the Crown to bring this great +culprit to justice, was he required by a former friendship to sacrifice +his duty and his allegiance to his sovereign, to screen a man who had +perverted the affection of the noblest woman who ever wore a crown, and +came near involving his country in a civil war? Grant that Essex had +bestowed favors, and was an accomplished and interesting man,--was Bacon +to ignore his official duties? He may have been too harsh in his +procedure; but in that age all criminal proceedings were harsh and +inexorable,--there was but little mercy shown to culprits, especially to +traitors. If Elizabeth could bring herself, out of respect to her +wounded honor and slighted kindness and the dignity of the realm and the +majesty of the law, to surrender into the hands of justice one whom she +so tenderly loved and magnificently rewarded, even when the sacrifice +cost her both peace and life, snapped the last cord which bound her to +this world,--may we not forgive Bacon for the part he played? Does this +fidelity to an official and professional duty, even if he were harsh, +make him "the meanest of mankind"?</p> + +<p>In regard to Peacham, it is true he was tortured, according to the +practice of that cruel age; but Bacon had no hand in the issuing of the +warrant against him for high-treason, although in accordance with custom +he, as prosecuting officer of the Crown, examined Peacham under torture +before his trial. The parson was convicted; but the sentence of death +was not executed upon him, and he died in jail.</p> + +<p>And in regard to corruption,--the sin which cast Bacon from his high +estate, though fortunately he did not fall like Lucifer, never to rise +again,--may not the verdict of the poet and the historian be rather +exaggerated? Nobody has ever attempted to acquit Bacon for taking +bribes. Nobody has ever excused him. He did commit a crime; but in +palliation it might be said that he never decided against justice, and +that it was customary for great public functionaries to accept presents. +Had he taken them after he had rendered judgment instead of before, he +might have been acquitted; for out of the seven thousand cases which he +decided as Lord-Chancellor, not one of them has been reversed: so that +he said of himself, "I was the justest judge that England has had for +fifty years; and I suffered the justest sentence that had been +inflicted for two hundred years." He did not excuse himself. His +ingenuousness of confession astonished everybody, and moved the hearts +of his judges. It was his misfortune to be in debt; he had pressing +creditors; and in two cases he accepted presents before the decision was +made, but was brave enough to decide against those who bribed +him,--<i>hinc illoe lacrymoe</i>. A modern corrupt official generally covers +his tracks; and many a modern judge has been bribed to decide against +justice, and has escaped ignominy, even in a country which claims the +greatest purity and the loftiest moral standard. We admit that Bacon was +a sinner; but was he a sinner above all others who cast stones at +Jerusalem?</p> + +<p>In reference to these admitted defects and crimes, I only wish to show +that even these do not make him "the meanest of mankind." What crimes +have sullied many of those benefactors whom all ages will admire and +honor, and whom, in spite of their defects, we call good men,--not bad +men to be forgiven for their services, but excellent and righteous on +the whole! See Abraham telling lies to the King of Egypt; and Jacob +robbing his brother of his birthright; and David murdering his bravest +soldier to screen himself from adultery; and Solomon selling himself to +false idols to please the wicked women who ensnared him; and Peter +denying his Master; and Marcus Aurelius persecuting the Christians; and +Constantine putting to death his own son; and Theodosius slaughtering +the citizens of Thessalonica; and Isabella establishing the Inquisition; +and Sir Mathew Hale burning witches; and Cromwell stealing a sceptre; +and Calvin murdering Servetus; and Queen Elizabeth lying and cheating +and swearing in the midst of her patriotic labors for her country and +civilization. Even the sun passes through eclipses. Have the spots upon +the career of Bacon hidden the brightness of his general beneficence? Is +he the meanest of men because he had great faults? When we speak of mean +men, it is those whose general character is contemptible.</p> + +<p>Now, see Bacon pursuing his honorable career amid rebuffs and enmities +and jealousies, toiling in Herculean tasks without complaint, and +waiting his time; always accessible, affable, gentle, with no vulgar +pride, if he aped vulgar ostentation; calm, beneficent, studious, +without envy or bitterness; interesting in his home, courted as a +friend, admired as a philosopher, generous to the poor, kind to the +servants who cheated him, with an unsubdued love of Nature as well as of +books; not negligent of religious duties, a believer in God and +immortality; and though broken in spirit, like a bruised reed, yet +soaring beyond all his misfortunes to study the highest problems, and +bequeathing his knowledge for the benefit of future ages! Can such a +man be stigmatized as "the meanest of mankind"? Is it candid and just +for a great historian to indorse such a verdict, to gloss over Bacon's +virtues, and make like an advocate at the bar, or an ancient sophist, a +special plea to magnify his defects, and stain his noble name with an +infamy as deep as would be inflicted upon an enemy of the human race? +And all for what?--just to make a rhetorical point, and show the +writer's brilliancy and genius in making a telling contrast between the +man and the philosopher. A man who habitually dwelt in the highest +regions of thought during his whole life, absorbed in lofty +contemplations, all from love of truth itself and to benefit the world, +could not have had a mean or sordid soul. "As a man thinketh, so is he." +We admit that he was a man of the world, politic, self-seeking, +extravagant, careless about his debts and how he raised money to pay +them; but we deny that he was a bad judge on the whole, or was +unpatriotic, or immoral in his private life, or mean in his ordinary +dealings, or more cruel and harsh in his judicial transactions than most +of the public functionaries of his rough and venal age. We admit it is +difficult to controvert the charges which Macaulay arrays against him, +for so accurate and painstaking an historian is not likely to be wrong +in his facts; but we believe that they are uncandidly stated, and so +ingeniously and sophistically put as to give on the whole a wrong +impression of the man,--making him out worse than he was, considering +his age and circumstances. Bacon's character, like that of most great +men, has two sides; and while we are compelled painfully to admit that +he had many faults, we shrink from classing him among bad men, as is +implied in Pope's characterization of him as "the meanest of mankind."</p> + +<p>We now take leave of the man, to consider his legacy to the world. And +here again we are compelled to take issue with Macaulay, not in regard +to the great fact that Bacon's inquiries tended to a new revelation of +Nature, and by means of the method called <i>induction</i>, by which he +sought to establish fixed principles of science that could not be +controverted, but in reference to the <i>ends</i> for which he labored. "The +aim of Bacon," says Macaulay, "was utility,--fruit; the multiplication +of human enjoyments, ... the mitigation of human sufferings, ... the +prolongation of life by new inventions,"--<i>dotare vitam humanum novis +inventis et copiis</i>; "the conquest of Nature,"--dominion over the beasts +of the field and the fowls of the air; the application of science to the +subjection of the outward world; progress in useful arts,--in those arts +which enable us to become strong, comfortable, and rich in houses, +shops, fabrics, tools, merchandise, new vegetables, fruits, and +animals: in short, a philosophy which will "not raise us above vulgar +wants, but will supply those wants." "And as an acre in Middlesex is +worth more than a principality in Utopia, so the smallest practical good +is better than any magnificent effort to realize an impossibility;" and +"hence the first shoemaker has rendered more substantial service to +mankind than all the sages of Greece. All they could do was to fill the +world with long beards and long words; whereas Bacon's philosophy has +lengthened life, mitigated pain, extinguished disease, built bridges, +guided the thunderbolts, lightened the night with the splendor of the +day, accelerated motion, annihilated distance, facilitated intercourse; +enabled men to descend to the depths of the earth, to traverse the land +in cars which whirl without horses, and the ocean in ships which sail +against the wind." In other words, it was his aim to stimulate mankind, +not to seek unattainable truth, but useful truth; that is, the science +which produces railroads, canals, cultivated farms, ships, rich returns +for labor, silver and gold from the mines,--all that purchase the joys +of material life and fit us for dominion over the world in which we +live. Hence anything which will curtail our sufferings and add to our +pleasures or our powers, should be sought as the highest good. Geometry +is desirable, not as a noble intellectual exercise, but as a handmaid to +natural philosophy. Astronomy is not to assist the mind to lofty +contemplation, but to enable mariners to verify degrees of latitude and +regulate clocks. A college is not designed to train and discipline the +mind, but to utilize science, and become a school of technology. Greek +and Latin exercises are comparatively worthless, and even mathematics, +unless they can be converted into practical use. Philosophy, as +ordinarily understood,--that is, metaphysics,--is most idle of all, +since it does not pertain to mundane wants. Hence the old Grecian +philosopher labored in vain; and still more profitless were the +disquisitions of the scholastics of the Middle Ages, since they were +chiefly used to prop up unintelligible creeds. Theology is not of much +account, since it pertains to mysteries we cannot solve. It is not with +heaven or hell, or abstract inquiries, or divine certitudes, that we +have to do, but the things of earth,--things that advance our material +and outward condition. To be rich and comfortable is the end of +life,--not meditations on abstract and eternal truth, such as elevate +the soul or prepare it for a future and endless life. The certitudes of +faith, of love, of friendship, are of small value when compared with the +blessings of outward prosperity. Utilitarianism is the true philosophy, +for this confines us to the world where we are born to labor, and +enables us to make acquisitions which promote our comfort and ease. The +chemist and the manufacturer are our greatest benefactors, for they +make for us oils and gases and paints,--things we must have. The +philosophy of Bacon is an immense improvement on all previous systems, +since it heralds the jubilee of trades, the millennium of merchants, the +schools of thrift, the apostles of physical progress, the pioneers of +enterprise,--the Franklins and Stephensons and Tyndalls and Morses of +our glorious era. Its watchword is progress. All hail, then, to the +electric telegraph and telephones and Thames tunnels and Crystal Palaces +and Niagara bridges and railways over the Rocky Mountains! The day of +our deliverance is come; the nations are saved; the Brunels and the +Fieldses are our victors and leaders! Crown them with Olympic leaves, as +the heroes of our great games of life. And thou, O England! exalted art +thou among the nations,--not for thy Oxfords and Westminsters; not for +thy divines and saints and martyrs and poets; not for thy Hookers and +Leightons and Cranmers and Miltons and Burkes and Lockes; not for thy +Reformation; not for thy struggles for liberty,--but for thy Manchesters +and Birminghams, thy Portsmouth shipyards, thy London docks, thy +Liverpool warehouses, thy mines of coal and iron, thy countless +mechanisms by which thou bringest the wealth of nations into thy banks, +and art enabled to buy the toil of foreigners and to raise thy standards +on the farthest battlements of India and China. These conquests and +acquisitions are real, are practical; machinery over life, the triumph +of physical forces, dominion over waves and winds,--these are the great +victories which consummate the happiness of man; and these are they +which flow from the philosophy which Bacon taught.</p> + +<p>Now Macaulay does not directly say all these things, but these are the +spirit and gist of the interpretation which he puts upon Bacon's +writings. The philosophy of Bacon leads directly to these blessings; and +these constitute its great peculiarity. And it cannot be denied that the +new era which Bacon heralded was fruitful in these very things,--that +his philosophy encouraged this new development of material forces; but +it may be questioned whether he had not something else in view than mere +utility and physical progress, and whether his method could not equally +be applied to metaphysical subjects; whether it did not pertain to the +whole domain of truth, and take in the whole realm of human inquiry. I +believe that Bacon was interested, not merely in the world of matter, +but in the world of mind; that he sought to establish principles from +which sound deductions might be made, as well as to establish reliable +inductions. Lord Campbell thinks that a perfect system of ethics could +be made out of his writings, and that his method is equally well adapted +to examine and classify the phenomena of the mind. He separated the +legitimate paths of human inquiry, giving his attention to poetry and +politics and metaphysics, as well as to physics. Bacon does not sneer as +Macaulay does at the ancient philosophers; he bears testimony to their +genius and their unrivalled dialectical powers, even if he regards their +speculations as frequently barren. He does not flippantly ridicule the +<i>homoousian</i> and the <i>homoiousian</i> as mere words, but the expression and +exponent of profound theological distinctions, as every theologian knows +them to be. He does not throw dirt on metaphysical science if properly +directed, still less on noble inquiries after God and the mysteries of +life. He is subjective as well as objective. He treats of philosophy in +its broadest meaning, as it takes in the province of the understanding, +the memory, and the will, as well as of man in society. He speaks of the +principles of government and of the fountains of law; of universal +justice, of eternal spiritual truth. So that Playfair judiciously +observes (and he was a scientist) "that it was not by sagacious +anticipations of science, afterwards to be made in physics, that his +writings have had so powerful an influence, as in his knowledge of the +limits and resources of the human understanding. It would be difficult +to find another writer, prior to Locke, whose works are enriched with so +many just observations on mere intellectual phenomena. What he says of +the laws of memory, of imagination, has never been surpassed in +subtlety. No man ever more carefully studied the operation of his own +mind and the intellectual character of others." Nor did Bacon despise +metaphysical science, only the frivolous questions that the old +scholastics associated with it, and the general barrenness of their +speculations. He surely would not have disdained the subsequent +inquiries of Locke, or Berkeley, or Leibnitz, or Kant. True, he sought +definite knowledge,--something firm to stand upon, and which could not +be controverted. No philosophy can be sound when the principle from +which deductions are made is not itself certain or very highly probable, +or when this principle, pushed to its utmost logical sequence, would +lead to absurdity, or even to a conflict with human consciousness. To +Bacon the old methods were wrong, and it was his primal aim to reform +the scientific methods in order to arrive at truth; not truth for +utilitarian ends chiefly, but truth for its own sake. He loved truth as +Palestrina loved music, or Raphael loved painting, or Socrates +loved virtue.</p> + +<p>Now the method which was almost exclusively employed until Bacon's time +is commonly called the <i>deductive</i> method; that is, some principle or +premise was assumed to be true, and reasoning was made from this +assumption. No especial fault was found with the reasoning of the great +masters of logic like Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, for it never has +been surpassed in acuteness and severity. If their premises were +admitted, their conclusions would follow as a certainty. What was wanted +was to establish the truth of premises, or general propositions. This +Bacon affirmed could be arrived at only by <i>induction</i>; that is, the +ascending from ascertained individual facts to general principles, by +extending what is true of particulars to the whole class in which they +belong. Bacon has been called the father of inductive science, since he +would employ the inductive method. Yet he is not truly the father of +induction, since it is as old as the beginnings of science. Hippocrates, +when he ridiculed the quacks of his day, and collected the facts and +phenomena of disease, and inferred from them the proper treatment of it, +was as much the father of induction as Bacon himself. The error the +ancients made was in not collecting a sufficient number of facts to +warrant a sound induction. And the ancients looked out for facts to +support some preconceived theory, from which they reasoned +syllogistically. The theory could not be substantiated by any +syllogistic reasonings, since conclusions could never go beyond +assumptions; if the assumptions were wrong, no ingenious or elaborate +reasoning would avail anything towards the discovery of truth, but could +only uphold what was assumed. This applied to theology as well as to +science. In the Dark Ages it was well for the teachers of mankind to +uphold the dogmas of the Church, which they did with masterly +dialectical skill. Those were ages of Faith, and not of Inquiry. It was +all-important to ground believers in a firm faith of the dogmas which +were deemed necessary to support the Church and the cause of religion. +They were regarded as absolute certainties. There was no dispute about +the premises of the scholastic's arguments; and hence his dialectics +strengthened the mind by the exercise of logical sports, and at the same +time confirmed the faith.</p> + +<p>The world never saw a more complete system of dogmatic theology than +that elaborated by Thomas Aquinas. When the knowledge of the Greek and +Hebrew was rare and imperfect, and it was impossible to throw light by +means of learning and science on the texts of Scripture, it was well to +follow the interpretation of such a great light as Augustine, and assume +his dogmas as certainties, since they could not then be controverted; +and thus from them construct a system of belief which would confirm the +faith. But Aquinas, with his Aristotelian method of syllogism and +definitions, could not go beyond Augustine. Augustine was the fountain, +and the water that flowed from it in ten thousand channels could not +rise above the spring; and as everybody appealed to and believed in +Saint Augustine, it was well to construct a system from him to confute +the heretical, and which the heretical would respect. The scholastic +philosophy which some ridicule, in spite of its puerilities and +sophistries and syllogisms, preserved the theology of the Middle Ages, +perhaps of the Fathers. It was a mighty bulwark of the faith which was +then, accepted. No honors could be conferred on its great architects +that were deemed extravagant. The Pope and the clergy saw in Thomas +Aquinas the great defender of the Church,--not of its abuses, but of its +doctrines. And if no new light can be shed on the Scripture text from +which assumptions were made; if these assumptions cannot be assailed, if +they are certitudes,--then we can scarcely have better text-books than +those furnished to the theologians of the Middle Ages, for no modern +dialetician can excel them in severity of logic. The great object of +modern theologians should be to establish the authenticity and meaning +of the Scripture texts on which their assumptions rest; and this can be +done only by the method which Bacon laid down, which is virtually a +collation and collection of facts,--that is, divine declarations. +Establish the meaning of these without question, and we have <i>principia</i> +from which we may deduce creeds and systems, the usefulness of which +cannot be exaggerated, especially in an age of agnosticism. Having +fundamental principles which cannot be gainsaid, we may philosophically +draw deductions. Bacon did not make war on deduction, when its +fundamental truths are established. Deduction is as much a necessary +part of philosophy as induction: it is the peculiarity of the Scotch +metaphysicians, who have ever deduced truths from those previously +established. Deduction even enters into modern science as well as +induction. When Cuvier deduced from a bone the form and habits of the +mastodon; when Kepler deduced his great laws, all from the primary +thought that there must be some numerical or geographical relation +between the times, distances, and velocities of the revolving bodies of +the solar system; when Newton deduced, as is said, the principle of +gravitation from the fall of an apple; when Leverrier sought for a new +planet from the perturbations of the heavenly bodies in their +orbits,--we feel that deduction is as much a legitimate process as +induction itself.</p> + +<p>But deductive logic is the creation of Aristotle; and it was the +authority of Aristotle that Bacon sought to subvert. The inductive +process is also old, of which Bacon is called the father. How are these +things to be reconciled and explained? Wherein and how did Bacon adapt +his method to the discovery of truth, which was his principal aim,--that +method which is the great cause of modern progress in science, the way +to it being indicated by him pre-eminently?</p> + +<p>The whole thing consists in this, that Bacon pointed out the right road +to truth,--as a board where two roads meet or diverge indicates the one +which is to be followed. He did not make a system, like Descartes or +Spinoza or Newton: he showed the way to make it on sound principles. "He +laid down a systematic analysis and arrangement of inductive evidence." +The syllogism, the great instrument used by Aristotle and the +School-men, "is, from its very nature, incompetent to prove the ultimate +premises from which it proceeds; and when the truth of these remains +doubtful, we can place no confidence in the conclusions drawn from +them." Hence, the first step in the reform of science is to review its +ultimate principles; and the first condition of a scientific method is +that it shall be competent to conduct such an inquiry; and this method +is applicable, not to physical science merely, but to the whole realm of +knowledge. This, of course, includes poetry, art, intellectual +philosophy, and theology, as well as geology and chemistry.</p> + +<p>And it is this breadth of inquiry--directed to subjective as well as +objective knowledge--which made Bacon so great a benefactor. The defect +in Macaulay's criticism is that he makes Bacon interested in mere +outward phenomena, or matters of practical utility,--a worldly +utilitarian of whom Epicureans may be proud. In reality he soared to the +realm of Plato as well as of Aristotle. Take, for instance, his <i>Idola +Mentis Humanae</i>, or "Phantoms of the Human Mind," which compose the +best-known part of the "Novum Organum." "The Idols of the Tribe" would +show the folly of attempting to penetrate further than the limits of the +human faculties permit, as also "the liability of the intellect to be +warped by the will and affections, and the like." The "Idols of the Den" +have reference to "the tendency to notice differences rather than +resemblances, or resemblances rather than differences, in the attachment +to antiquity or novelty, in the partiality to minute or comprehensive +investigations." "The Idols of the Market-Place" have reference to the +tendency to confound words with things, which has ever marked +controversialists in their learned disputations. In what he here says +about the necessity for accurate definitions, he reminds us of Socrates +rather than a modern scientist; this necessity for accuracy applies to +metaphysics as much as it does to physics. "The Idols of the Theatre" +have reference to perverse laws of demonstration which are the +strongholds of error. This school deals in speculations and experiments +confined to a narrow compass, like those of the alchemists,--too +imperfect to elicit the light which should guide.</p> + +<p>Bacon having completed his discussion of the <i>Idola</i>, then proceeds to +point out the weakness of the old philosophies, which produced leaves +rather than fruit, and were stationary in their character. Here he +would seem to lean towards utilitarianism, were it not that he is as +severe on men of experiment as on men of dogma. "The men of experiment +are," says he, "like ants,--they only collect and use; the reasoners +resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the +bee takes a middle course; it gathers the material from the flowers, but +digests it by a power of its own.... So true philosophy neither chiefly +relies on the powers of the mind, nor takes the matter which it gathers +and lays it up in the memory, whole as it finds it, but lays it up in +the understanding, to be transformed and digested." Here he simply +points out the laws by which true knowledge is to be attained. He does +not extol physical science alone, though doubtless he had a preference +for it over metaphysical inquiries. He was an Englishman, and the +English mind is objective rather than subjective, and is prone to +over-value the outward and the seen, above the inward and unseen; and +perhaps for the same reason that the Old Testament seems to make +prosperity the greatest blessing, while adversity seems to be the +blessing of the New Testament.</p> + +<p>One of Bacon's longest works is the "Silva Sylvarum,"--a sort of natural +history, in which he treats of the various forces and productions of +Nature,--the air the sea, the winds, the clouds, plants and animals, +fire and water, sounds and discords, colors and smells, heat and cold, +disease and health; but which varied subjects he presents to +communicate knowledge, with no especial utilitarian end.</p> + +<p>"The Advancement of Learning" is one of Bacon's most famous productions, +but I fail to see in it an objective purpose to enable men to become +powerful or rich or comfortable; it is rather an abstract treatise, as +dry to most people as legal disquisitions, and with no more reference to +rising in the world than "Blackstone's Commentaries" or "Coke upon +Littleton." It is a profound dissertation on the excellence of learning; +its great divisions treating of history, poetry, and philosophy,--of +metaphysical as well as physical philosophy; of the province of +understanding, the memory, the will, the reason, and the imagination; +and of man in society,--of government, of universal justice, of the +fountains of law, of revealed religion.</p> + +<p>And if we turn from the new method by which he would advance all +knowledge, and on which his fame as a philosopher chiefly rests,--that +method which has led to discoveries that even Bacon never dreamed of, +not thinking of the fruit he was to bestow, but only the way to secure +it,--even as a great inventor thinks more of his invention than of the +money he himself may reap from it, as a work of creation to benefit the +world rather than his own family, and in the work of which his mind +revels in a sort of intoxicated delight, like a true poet when he +constructs his lines, or a great artist when he paints his picture,--a +pure subjective joy, not an anticipated gain;--if we turn from this +"method" to most of his other writings, what do we find? Simply the +lucubrations of a man of letters, the moral wisdom of the moralist, the +historian, the biographer, the essayist. In these writings we discover +no more worldliness than in Macaulay when he wrote his "Milton," or +Carlyle when he penned his "Burns,"--even less, for Bacon did not write +to gain a living, but to please himself and give vent to his burning +thoughts. In these he had no worldly aim to reach, except perhaps an +imperishable fame. He wrote as Michael Angelo sculptured his Moses; and +he wrote not merely amid the cares and duties of a great public office, +with other labors which might be called Herculean, but even amid the +pains of disease and the infirmities of age,--when rest, to most people, +is the greatest boon and solace of their lives.</p> + +<p>Take his Essays,--these are among his best-known works,--so brilliant +and forcible, suggestive and rich, that even Archbishop Whately's +commentaries upon them are scarcely an addition. Surely these are not on +material subjects, and indicate anything but a worldly or sordid nature. +In these famous Essays, so luminous with the gems of genius, we read not +such worldly-wise exhortations as Lord Chesterfield impressed upon his +son, not the gossiping frivolities of Horace Walpole, not the cynical +wit of Montaigne, but those great certitudes which console in +affliction, which kindle hope, which inspire lofty resolutions,--anchors +of the soul, pillars of faith, sources of immeasurable joy, the glorious +ideals of true objects of desire, the eternal unities of truth and love +and beauty; all of which reveal the varied experiences of life and the +riches of deeply-pondered meditation on God and Christianity, as well as +knowledge of the world and the desirableness of its valued gifts. How +beautiful are his thoughts on death, on adversity, on glory, on anger, +on friendship, on fame, on ambition, on envy, on riches, on youth and +old age, and divers other subjects of moral import, which show the +elevation of his soul, and the subjective as well as the objective turn +of his mind; not dwelling on what he should eat and what he should drink +and wherewithal he should be clothed, but on the truths which appeal to +our higher nature, and which raise the thoughts of men from earth to +heaven, or at least to the realms of intellectual life and joy.</p> + +<p>And then, it is necessary that we should take in view other labors which +dignified Bacon's retirement, as well as those which marked his more +active career as a lawyer and statesman,--his histories and biographies, +as well as learned treatises to improve the laws of England; his +political discourses, his judicial charges, his theological tracts, his +speeches and letters and prayers; all of which had relation to benefit +others rather than himself. Who has ever done more to instruct the +world,--to enable men to rise not in fortune merely, but in virtue and +patriotism, in those things which are of themselves the only reward? We +should consider these labors, as well as the new method he taught to +arrive at knowledge, in our estimate of the sage as well as of the man. +He was a moral philosopher, like Socrates. He even soared into the realm +of supposititious truth, like Plato. He observed Nature, like Aristotle. +He took away the syllogism from Thomas Aquinas,--not to throw contempt +on metaphysical inquiry or dialectical reasoning, but to arrive by a +better method at the knowledge of first principles; which once +established, he allowed deductions to be drawn from them, leading to +other truths as certainly as induction itself. Yea, he was also a Moses +on the mount of Pisgah, from which with prophetic eye he could survey +the promised land of indefinite wealth and boundless material +prosperity, which he was not permitted to enter, but which he had +bequeathed to civilization. This may have been his greatest gift in the +view of scientific men,--this inductive process of reasoning, by which +great discoveries have been made after he was dead. But this was not his +only legacy, for other things which he taught were as valuable, not +merely in his sight, but to the eye of enlightened reason. There are +other truths besides those of physical science; there is greatness in +deduction as well as in induction. Geometry--whose successive and +progressive revelations are so inspiring, and which, have come down to +us from a remote antiquity, which are even now taught in our modern +schools as Euclid demonstrated them, since they cannot be improved--is a +purely deductive science. The scholastic philosophy, even if it was +barren and unfruitful in leading to new truths, yet confirmed what was +valuable in the old systems, and by the severity of its logic and its +dialectical subtleties trained the European mind for the reception of +the message of Luther and Bacon; and this was based on deductions, never +wrong unless the premises are unsound. Theology is deductive reasoning +from truths assumed to be fundamental, and is inductive only so far as +it collates Scripture declarations, and interprets their meaning by the +aid which learning brings. Is not this science worthy of some regard? +Will it not live when all the speculations of evolutionists are +forgotten, and occupy the thoughts of the greatest and profoundest minds +so long as anything shall be studied, so long as the Bible shall be the +guide of life? Is it not by deduction that we ascend from Nature herself +to the God of Nature? What is more certain than deduction when the +principles from which it reasons are indisputably established?</p> + +<p>Is induction, great as it is, especially in the explorations of Nature +and science, always certain? Are not most of the sciences which are +based upon it progressive? Have we yet learned the ultimate principles +of political economy, or of geology, or of government, or even of art? +The theory of induction, though supposed by Dr. Whewell to lead to +certain results, is regarded by Professor Jevons as leading to results +only "almost certain." "All inductive inference is merely probable," +says the present professor of logic, Thomas Fowler, in the University +of Oxford.</p> + +<p>And although it is supposed that the inductive method of Bacon has led +to the noblest discoveries of modern times, is this strictly true? +Galileo made his discoveries in the heavens before Bacon died. Physical +improvements must need follow such inventions as gunpowder and the +mariners' compass, and printing and the pictures of Italy, and the +discovery of mines and the revived arts of the Romans and Greeks, and +the glorious emancipation which the Reformation produced. Why should not +the modern races follow in the track of Carthage and Alexandria and +Rome, with the progress of wealth, and carry out inventions as those +cities did, and all other civilized peoples since Babal towered above +the plains of Babylon? Physical developments arise from the developments +of man, whatever method may be recommended by philosophers. What +philosophical teachings led to the machinery of the mines of +California, or to that of the mills of Lowell? Some think that our +modern improvements would have come whether Bacon had lived or not. But +I would not disparage the labors of Bacon in pointing out the method +which leads to scientific discoveries. Granting that he sought merely +utility, an improvement in the outward condition of society, which is +the view that Macaulay takes, I would not underrate his legacy. And even +supposing that the blessings of material life--"the acre of +Middlesex"--are as much to be desired as Macaulay, with the complacency +of an eminently practical and prosperous man, seems to argue, I would +not sneer at them. Who does not value them? Who will not value them so +long as our mortal bodies are to be cared for? It is a pleasant thing to +ride in "cars without horses," to feel in winter the genial warmth of +grates and furnaces, to receive messages from distant friends in a +moment of time, to cross the ocean without discomfort, with the "almost +certainty" of safety, and save our wives and daughters from the ancient +drudgeries of the loom and the knitting-needle. Who ever tires in gazing +at a locomotive as it whirls along with the power of destiny? Who is not +astonished at the triumphs of the engineer, the wonders of an +ocean-steamer, the marvellous tunnels under lofty mountains? We feel +that Titans have been sent to ease us of our burdens.</p> + +<p>But great and beneficent as are these blessings, they are not the only +certitudes, nor are they the greatest. An outward life of ease and +comfort is not the chief end of man. The interests of the soul are more +important than any comforts of the body. The higher life is only reached +by lofty contemplation on the true, the beautiful, and the good. +Subjective wisdom is worth more than objective knowledge. What are the +great realities,--machinery, new breeds of horses, carpets, diamonds, +mirrors, gas? or are they affections, friendships, generous impulses, +inspiring thoughts? Look to Socrates: what raised that barefooted, +ugly-looking, impecunious, persecuted, cross-questioning, +self-constituted teacher, without pay, to the loftiest pedestal of +Athenian fame? What was the spirit of the truths <i>he</i> taught? Was it +objective or subjective truth; the way to become rich and comfortable, +or the search for the indefinite, the infinite, the eternal,--Utopia, +not Middlesex,--that which fed the wants of the immaterial soul, and +enabled it to rise above temptation and vulgar rewards? What raised +Plato to the highest pinnacle of intellectual life? Was it definite and +practical knowledge of outward phenomena; or was it "a longing after +love, in the contemplation of which the mortal soul sustains itself, and +becomes participant in the glories of immortality"? What were realities +to Anselm, Bernard, and Bonaventura? What gave beauty and placidity to +Descartes and Leibnitz and Kant? It may be very dignified for a modern +savant to sit serenely on his tower of observation, indifferent to all +the lofty speculations of the great men of bygone ages; yet those +profound questions pertaining to the [Greek: logos] and the [Greek: ta +onta], which had such attractions for Augustine and Pascal and Calvin, +did have as real bearing on human life and on what is best worth +knowing, as the scales of a leuciscus cephalus or the limbs of a +magnified animalculus, or any of the facts of which physical science can +boast. The wonders of science are great, but so also are the secrets of +the soul, the mysteries of the spiritual life, the truths which come +from divine revelation. Whatever most dignifies humanity, and makes our +labors sweet, and causes us to forget our pains, and kindles us to lofty +contemplations, and prompts us to heroic sacrifice, is the most real and +the most useful. Even the leaves of a barren and neglected philosophy +may be in some important respects of more value than all the boasted +fruit of utilitarian science. Is that which is most useful always the +most valuable,--that, I mean, which gives the highest pleasure? Do we +not plant our grounds with the acacia, the oak, the cedar, the elm, as +well as with the apple, the pear, and the cherry? Are not flowers and +shrubs which beautify the lawn as desirable as beans and turnips and +cabbages? Is not the rose or tulip as great an addition to even a poor +man's cottage as his bed of onions or patch of potatoes? What is the +scale to measure even mortal happiness? What is the marketable value of +friendship or of love? What makes the dinner of herbs sometimes more +refreshing than the stalled ox? What is the material profit of a first +love? What is the value in tangible dollars and cents of a beautiful +landscape, or a speaking picture, or a marble statue, or a living book, +or the voice of eloquence, or the charm of earliest bird, or the smile +of a friend, or the promise of immortality? In what consisted the real +glory of the country we are never weary of quoting,--the land of Phidias +and Pericles and Demosthenes? Was it not in immaterial ideas, in +patriotism, in heroism, in conceptions of ideal beauty, in speculations +on the infinite and unattainable, in the songs which still inspire the +minds of youth, in the expression which made marble live, in those +conceptions of beauty and harmony which still give shape to the temples +of Christendom? Was Rome more glorious with her fine roads and tables of +thuja-root, and Falernian wines, and oysters from the Lucrine Lake, and +chariots of silver, and robes of purple and rings of gold,--these useful +blessings which are the pride of an Epicurean civilization? And who gave +the last support, who raised the last barrier, against that inundation +of destructive pleasures in which some see the most valued fruits of +human invention, but which proved a canker that prepared the way to +ruin? It was that pious Emperor who learned his wisdom from a slave, and +who set a haughty defiance to all the grandeur and all the comforts of +the highest position which earth could give, and spent his leisure hours +in the quiet study of those truths which elevate the soul,--truths not +taught by science or nature, but by communication with invisible powers.</p> + +<p>Ah, what indeed is reality; what is the higher good; what is that which +perishes never; what is that which assimilates man to Deity? Is it +houses, is it lands, is it gold and silver, is it luxurious couches, is +it the practical utilitarian comforts that pamper this mortal body in +its brief existence? or is it women's loves and patriots' struggles, and +sages' pious thoughts, affections, noble aspirations, Bethanies, the +serenities of virtuous old age, the harmonies of unpolluted homes, the +existence of art, of truth, of love; the hopes which last when sun and +stars decay? Tell us, ye women, what are realities to you,--your +carpets, your plate, your jewels, your luxurious banquets; or your +husbands' love, your friends' esteem, your children's reverence? And ye, +toiling men of business, what is really your highest joy,--your piles of +gold, your marble palaces; or the pleasures of your homes, the +approbation of your consciences, your hopes of future bliss? Yes, you +are dreamers, like poets and philosophers, when you call yourselves +pack-horses. Even you are only sustained in labor by intangible rewards +that you can neither see nor feel. The most practical of men and women +can really only live in those ideas which are deemed indefinite and +unreal. For what do the busiest of you run away from money-making, and +ride in cold or heat, in dreariness or discomfort,--dinners, or +greetings of love and sympathy? On what are such festivals as Christmas +and Thanksgiving Day based?--on consecrated sentiments that have more +force than any material gains or ends. These, after all, are realities +to you as much as ideas were to Plato, or music to Beethoven, or +patriotism to Washington. Deny these as the higher certitudes, and you +rob the soul of its dignity, and life of its consolations.</p> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Bacon's Works, edited by Basil Montagu; Bacon's Life, by Basil Montagu; +Bacon's Life, by James Spedding; Bacon's Life, by Thomas Fowler; Dr. +Abbott's Introduction to Bacon's Essays, in Contemporary Review, 1876; +Macaulay's famous essay in Edinburgh Review, 1839; Archbishop Whately's +annotations of the Essays of Bacon; the general Histories of England.</p> + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 35%;"><br><br> +<h2><a name="GALILEO."></a>GALILEO.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> + +<p>A.D. 1564-1642.</p> + +<p>ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES.</p> + +<p>Among the wonders of the sixteenth century was the appearance of a new +star in the northern horizon, which, shining at first with a feeble +light, gradually surpassed the brightness of the planet Jupiter; and +then changing its color from white to yellow and from yellow to red, +after seventeen months, faded away from the sight, and has not since +appeared. This celebrated star, first seen by Tycho Brahe in the +constellation Cassiopeia, never changed its position, or presented the +slightest perceptible parallax. It could not therefore have been a +meteor, nor a planet regularly revolving round the sun, nor a comet +blazing with fiery nebulous light, nor a satellite of one of the +planets, but a fixed star, far beyond our solar system. Such a +phenomenon created an immense sensation, and has never since been +satisfactorily explained by philosophers. In the infancy of astronomical +science it was regarded by astrologers as a sign to portend the birth of +an extraordinary individual.</p> + +<p>Though the birth of some great political character was supposed to be +heralded by this mysterious star, its prophetic meaning might with more +propriety apply to the extraordinary man who astonished his +contemporaries by discoveries in the heavens, and who forms the subject +of this lecture; or it poetically might apply to the brilliancy of the +century itself in which it appeared. The sixteenth century cannot be +compared with the nineteenth century in the variety and scope of +scientific discoveries; but, compared with the ages which had preceded +it, it was a memorable epoch, marked by the simultaneous breaking up of +the darkness of mediaeval Europe, and the bursting forth of new energies +in all departments of human thought and action. In that century arose +great artists, poets, philosophers, theologians, reformers, navigators, +jurists, statesmen, whose genius has scarcely since been surpassed. In +Italy it was marked by the triumphs of scholars and artists; in Germany +and France, by reformers and warriors; in England, by that splendid +constellation that shed glory on the reign of Elizabeth. Close upon the +artists who followed Da Vinci, to Salvator Rosa, were those scholars of +whom Emanuel Chrysoloras, Erasmus, and Scaliger were the +representatives,--going back to the classic fountains of Greece and +Rome, reviving a study for antiquity, breathing a new spirit into +universities, enriching vernacular tongues, collecting and collating +manuscripts, translating the Scriptures, and stimulating the learned to +emancipate themselves from the trammels of the scholastic philosophers.</p> + +<p>Then rose up the reformers, headed by Luther, consigning to destruction +the emblems and ceremonies of mediaeval superstition, defying popes, +burning bulls, ridiculing monks, exposing frauds, unravelling +sophistries, attacking vices and traditions with the new arms of reason, +and asserting before councils and dignitaries the right of private +judgment and the supreme authority of the Bible in all matters of +religious faith.</p> + +<p>And then appeared the defenders of their cause, by force of arms +maintaining the great rights of religious liberty in France, Germany, +Switzerland, Holland, and England, until Protestantism was established +in half of the countries that had for more than a thousand years +servilely bowed down to the authority of the popes. Genius stimulates +and enterprise multiplies all the energies and aims of emancipated +millions. Before the close of the sixteenth century new continents are +colonized, new modes of warfare are introduced, manuscripts are changed +into printed books, the comforts of life are increased, governments are +more firmly established, and learned men are enriched and honored. +Feudalism has succumbed to central power, and barons revolve around +their sovereign at court rather than compose an independent authority. +Before that century had been numbered with the ages past, the +Portuguese had sailed to the East Indies, Sir Francis Drake had +circumnavigated the globe, Pizarro had conquered Peru, Sir Walter +Raleigh had colonized Virginia, Ricci had penetrated to China, Lescot +had planned the palace of the Louvre, Raphael had painted the +Transfiguration, Michael Angelo had raised the dome of St. Peter's, +Giacomo della Porta had ornamented the Vatican with mosaics, Copernicus +had taught the true centre of planetary motion, Dumoulin had introduced +into French jurisprudence the principles of the Justinian code, Ariosto +had published the "Orlando Furioso," Cervantes had written "Don +Quixote," Spenser had dedicated his "Fairy Queen," Shakspeare had +composed his immortal dramas, Hooker had devised his "Ecclesiastical +Polity," Cranmer had published his Forty-two Articles, John Calvin had +dedicated to Francis I. his celebrated "Institutes," Luther had +translated the Bible, Bacon had begun the "Instauration of Philosophy," +Bellarmine had systematized the Roman Catholic theology, Henry IV. had +signed the Edict of Nantes, Queen Elizabeth had defeated the Invincible +Armada, and William the Silent had achieved the independence of Holland.</p> + +<p>Such were some of the lights and some of the enterprises of that great +age, when the profoundest questions pertaining to philosophy, religion, +law, and government were discussed with the enthusiasm and freshness of +a revolutionary age; when men felt the inspiration of a new life, and +looked back on the Middle Ages with disgust and hatred, as a period +which enslaved the human soul. But what peculiarly marked that period +was the commencement of those marvellous discoveries in science which +have enriched our times and added to the material blessings of the new +civilization. Tycho Brahe, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Bacon +inaugurated the era which led to progressive improvements in the +physical condition of society, and to those scientific marvels which +have followed in such quick succession and produced such astonishing +changes that we are fain to boast that we have entered upon the most +fortunate and triumphant epoch in our world's history.</p> + +<p>Many men might be taken as the representatives of this new era of +science and material inventions, but I select Galileo Galilei as one of +the most interesting in his life, opinions, and conflicts.</p> + +<p>Galileo was born at Pisa, in the year 1564, the year that Calvin and +Michael Angelo died, four years after the birth of Bacon, in the sixth +year of the reign of Elizabeth, and the fourth of Charles IX., about the +time when the Huguenot persecution was at its height, and the Spanish +monarchy was in its most prosperous state, under Philip II. His parents +were of a noble but impoverished Florentine family; and his father, who +was a man of some learning,--a writer on the science of music,--gave him +the best education he could afford. Like so many of the most illustrious +men, he early gave promise of rare abilities. It was while he was a +student in the university of his native city that his attention was +arrested by the vibrations of a lamp suspended from the ceiling of the +cathedral; and before he had quitted the church, while the choir was +chanting mediaeval anthems, he had compared those vibrations with his +own pulse, which after repeated experiments, ended in the construction +of the first pendulum,--applied not as it was by Huygens to the +measurement of time, but to medical science, to enable physicians to +ascertain the rate of the pulse. But the pendulum was soon brought into +the service of the clockmakers, and ultimately to the determination of +the form of the earth, by its minute irregularities in diverse +latitudes, and finally to the measurement of differences of longitude by +its connection with electricity and the recording of astronomical +observations. Thus it was that the swinging of a cathedral lamp, before +the eye of a man of genius, has done nearly as much as the telescope +itself to advance science, to say nothing of its practical uses in +common life.</p> + +<p>Galileo had been destined by his father to the profession of medicine, +and was ignorant of mathematics. He amused his leisure hours with +painting and music, and in order to study the principles of drawing he +found it necessary to acquire some knowledge of geometry, much to the +annoyance of his father, who did not like to see his mind diverted from +the prescriptions of Hippocrates and Galen. The certain truths of +geometry burst upon him like a revelation, and after mastering Euclid he +turned to Archimedes with equal enthusiasm. Mathematics now absorbed his +mind, and the father was obliged to yield to the bent of his genius, +which seemed to disdain the regular professions by which social position +was most surely effected. He wrote about this time an essay on the +Hydrostatic Balance, which introduced him to Guido Ubaldo, a famous +mathematician, who induced him to investigate the subject of the centre +of gravity in solid bodies. His treatise on this subject secured an +introduction to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who perceived his merits, and +by whom he was appointed a lecturer on mathematics at Pisa, but on the +small salary of sixty crowns a year.</p> + +<p>This was in 1589, when he was twenty-five, an enthusiastic young man, +full of hope and animal spirits, the charm of every circle for his +intelligence, vivacity, and wit; but bold and sarcastic, contemptuous of +ancient dogmas, defiant of authority, and therefore no favorite with +Jesuit priests and Dominican professors. It is said that he was a +handsome man, with bright golden locks, such as painters in that age +loved to perpetuate upon the canvas; hilarious and cheerful, fond of +good cheer, yet a close student, obnoxious only to learned dunces and +narrow pedants and treadmill professors and bigoted priests,--all of +whom sought to molest him, yet to whom he was either indifferent or +sarcastic, holding them and their formulas up to ridicule. He now +directed his inquiries to the mechanical doctrines of Aristotle, to +whose authority the schools had long bowed down, and whom he too +regarded as one of the great intellectual giants of the world, yet not +to be credited without sufficient reasons. Before the "Novum Organum" +was written, he sought, as Bacon himself pointed out, the way to arrive +at truth,--a foundation to stand upon, a principle tested by experience, +which, when established by experiment, would serve for sure deductions.</p> + +<p>Now one of the principles assumed by Aristotle, and which had never been +disputed, was, that if different weights of the same material were let +fall from the same height, the heavier would reach the ground sooner +than the lighter, and in proportion to the difference of weight. This +assumption Galileo denied, and asserted that, with the exception of a +small different owing to the resistance of the air, both would fall to +the ground in the same space of time. To prove his position by actual +experiment, he repaired to the leaning tower of Pisa, and demonstrated +that he was right and Aristotle was wrong. The Aristotelians would not +believe the evidence of their own senses, and ascribed the effect to +some unknown cause. To such a degree were men enslaved by authority. +This provoked Galileo, and led him to attack authority with still +greater vehemence, adding mockery to sarcasm; which again exasperated +his opponents, and doubtless laid the foundation of that personal +hostility which afterwards pursued him to the prison of the Inquisition. +This blended arrogance and asperity in a young man was offensive to the +whole university, yet natural to one who had overturned one of the +favorite axioms of the greatest master of thought the world had seen for +nearly two thousand years; and the scorn and opposition with which his +discovery was received increased his rancor, so that he, in his turn, +did not render justice to the learned men arrayed against him, who were +not necessarily dull or obstinate because they would not at once give up +the opinions in which they were educated, and which the learned world +still accepted. Nor did they oppose and hate him for his new opinions, +so much as from dislike of his personal arrogance and bitter sarcasms.</p> + +<p>At last his enemies made it too hot for him at Pisa. He resigned his +chair (1591), but only to accept a higher position at Padua, on a salary +of one hundred and eighty florins,--not, however, adequate to his +support, so that he was obliged to take pupils in mathematics. To show +the comparative estimate of that age of science, the fact may be +mentioned that the professor of scholastic philosophy in the same +university was paid fourteen hundred florins. This was in 1592; and the +next year Galileo invented the thermometer, still an imperfect +instrument, since air was not perfectly excluded. At this period his +reputation seems to have been established as a brilliant lecturer rather +than as a great discoverer, or even as a great mathematician; for he was +immeasurably behind Kepler, his contemporary, in the power of making +abstruse calculations and numerical combinations. In this respect Kepler +was inferior only to Copernicus, Newton, and Laplace in our times, or +Hipparchus and Ptolemy among the ancients; and it is to him that we owe +the discovery of those great laws of planetary motion from which there +is no appeal, and which have never been rivalled in importance except +those made by Newton himself,--laws which connect the mean distance of +the planets from the sun with the times of their revolutions; laws which +show that the orbits of planets are elliptical, not circular; and that +the areas described by lines drawn from the moving planet to the sun are +proportionable to the times employed in the motion. What an infinity of +calculation, in the infancy of science,--before the invention of +logarithms,--was necessary to arrive at these truths! What fertility of +invention was displayed in all his hypotheses; what patience in working +them out; what magnanimity in discarding those which were not true! What +power of guessing, even to hit upon theories which could be established +by elaborate calculations,--all from the primary thought, the grand +axiom, which Kepler was the first to propose, that there must be some +numerical or geometrical relations among the times, distances, and +velocities of the revolving bodies of the solar system! It would seem +that although his science was deductive, he invoked the aid of induction +also: a great original genius, yet modest like Newton; a man who avoided +hostilities, yet given to the most boundless enthusiasm on the subjects +to which he devoted his life. How intense his raptures! "Nothing holds +me," he writes, on discovering his great laws; "I will indulge in my +sacred fury. I will boast of the golden vessels I have stolen from the +Egyptians. If you forgive me, I rejoice. If you are angry, it is all the +same to me. The die is cast; the book is written,--to be read either +now, or by posterity, I care not which. It may well wait a century for a +reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer."</p> + +<p>We do not see this sublime repose in the attitude of Galileo,--this +falling back on his own conscious greatness, willing to let things take +their natural course; but rather, on the other hand, an impatience under +contradiction, a vehement scorn of adversaries, and an intellectual +arrogance that gave offence, and impeded his career, and injured his +fame. No matter how great a man may be, his intellectual pride is always +offensive; and when united with sarcasm and mockery it will make bitter +enemies, who will pull him down.</p> + +<p>Galileo, on his transfer to Padua, began to teach the doctrines of +Copernicus,--a much greater genius than he, and yet one who provoked no +enmities, although he made the greatest revolution in astronomical +knowledge that any man ever made, since he was in no haste to reveal his +discoveries, and stated them in a calm and inoffensive way. I doubt if +new discoverers in science meet with serious opposition when men +themselves are not attacked, and they are made to appeal to calm +intelligence, and war is not made on those Scripture texts which seem to +controvert them. Even theologians receive science when science is not +made to undermine theological declarations, and when the divorce of +science from revelation, reason from faith, as two distinct realms, is +vigorously insisted upon. Pascal incurred no hostilities for his +scientific investigations, nor Newton, nor Laplace. It is only when +scientific men sneer at the Bible because its declarations cannot always +be harmonized with science, that the hostilities of theologians are +provoked. And it is only when theologians deny scientific discoveries +that seem to conflict with texts of Scripture, that opposition arises +among scientific men. It would seem that the doctrines of Copernicus +were offensive to churchmen on this narrow ground. It was hard to +believe that the earth revolved around the sun, when the opinions of the +learned for two thousand years were unanimous that the sun revolved +around the earth. Had both theologian and scientist let the Bible alone, +there would not have been a bitter war between them. But scientists were +accused by theologians of undermining the Bible; and the theologians +were accused of stupid obstinacy, and were mercilessly exposed +to ridicule.</p> + +<p>That was the great error of Galileo. He made fun and sport of the +theologians, as Samson did of the Philistines; and the Philistines of +Galileo's day cut off his locks and put out his eyes when the Pope put +him into their power,--those Dominican inquisitors who made a crusade +against human thought. If Galileo had shown more tact and less +arrogance, possibly those Dominican doctors might have joined the chorus +of universal praise; for they were learned men, although devoted to a +bad system, and incapable of seeing truth when their old authorities +were ridiculed and set at nought. Galileo did not deny the Scriptures, +but his spirit was mocking; and he seemed to prejudiced people to +undermine the truths which were felt to be vital for the preservation of +faith in the world. And as some scientific truths seemed to be adverse +to Scripture declarations, the transition was easy to a denial of the +inspiration which was claimed by nearly all Christian sects, both +Catholic and Protestant.</p> + +<p>The intolerance of the Church in every age has driven many scientists +into infidelity; for it cannot be doubted that the tendency of +scientific investigation has been to make scientific men incredulous of +divine inspiration, and hence to undermine their faith in dogmas which +good men have ever received, and which are supported by evidence that is +not merely probable but almost certain. And all now that seems wanting +to harmonize science with revelation is, on the one hand, the +re-examination of the Scripture texts on which are based the principia +from which deductions are made, and which we call theology; and, on the +other hand, the rejection of indefensible statements which are at war +with both science and consciousness, except in those matters which claim +special supernatural agency, which we can neither prove nor disprove by +reason; for supernaturalism claims to transcend the realm of reason +altogether in what relates to the government of God,--ways that no +searching will ever enable us to find out with our limited faculties and +obscured understanding. When the two realms of reason and faith are +kept distinct, and neither encroaches on the other, then the +discoveries and claims of science will meet with but little opposition +from theologians, and they will be left to be sifted by men who alone +are capable of the task.</p> + +<p>Thus far science, outside of pure mathematics, is made up of theories +which are greatly modified by advancing knowledge, so that they cannot +claim in all respects to be eternally established, like the laws of +Kepler and the discoveries of Copernicus,--the latter of which were only +true in the main fact that the earth revolves around the sun. But even +he retained epicycles and excentrics, and could not explain the unequal +orbits of planetary motion. In fact he retained many of the errors of +Hipparchus and Ptolemy. Much, too, as we are inclined to ridicule the +astronomy of the ancients because they made the earth the centre, we +should remember that they also resolved the orbits of the heavenly +bodies into circular motions, discovered the precession of the +equinoxes, and knew also the apparent motions of the planets and their +periods. They could predict eclipses of the sun and moon, and knew that +the orbit of the sun and planets was through a belt in the heavens, of a +few degrees in width, which they called the Zodiac. They did not know, +indeed, the difference between real and apparent motion, nor the +distance of the sun and stars, nor their relative size and weight, nor +the laws of motion, nor the principles of gravitation, nor the nature +of the Milky Way, nor the existence of nebulae, nor any of the wonders +which the telescope reveals; but in the severity of their mathematical +calculations they were quite equal to modern astronomers.</p> + +<p>If Copernicus revolutionized astronomy by proving the sun to be the +centre of motion to our planetary system, Galileo gave it an immense +impulse by his discoveries with the telescope. These did not require +such marvellous mathematical powers as made Kepler and Newton +immortal,--the equals of Ptolemy and Hipparchus in mathematical +demonstration,--but only accuracy and perseverance in observations. +Doubtless he was a great mathematician, but his fame rests on his +observations and the deductions he made from them. These were more +easily comprehended, and had an objective value which made him popular: +and for these discoveries he was indebted in a great measure to the +labors of others,--it was mechanical invention applied to the +advancement of science. The utilization of science was reserved to our +times; and it is this utilization which makes science such a handmaid to +the enrichment of its votaries, and holds it up to worship in our +laboratories and schools of technology and mines,--not merely for +itself, but also for the substantial fruit it yields.</p> + +<p>It was when Galileo was writing treatises on the Structure of the +Universe, on Local Motion, on Sound, on Continuous Quantity, on Light, +on Colors, on the Tides, on Dialing,--subjects that also interested Lord +Bacon at the same period,--and when he was giving lectures on these +subjects with immense <i>éclat</i>, frequently to one thousand persons +(scarcely less than what Abélard enjoyed when he made fun of the more +conservative schoolmen with whom he was brought in contact), that he +heard, while on a visit to Venice, that a Dutch spectacle-maker had +invented an instrument which was said to represent distant objects +nearer than they usually appeared. This was in 1609, when he, at the age +of fifty-five, was the idol of scientific men, and was in the enjoyment +of an ample revenue, giving only sixty half-hours in the year to +lectures, and allowed time to prosecute his studies in that "sweet +solitariness" which all true scholars prize, and without which few great +attainments are made. The rumor of the invention excited in his mind the +intensest interest. He sought for the explanation of the fact in the +doctrine of refraction. He meditated day and night. At last he himself +constructed an instrument,--a leaden organ pipe with two spectacle +glasses, both plain on one side, while one of them had its opposite side +convex, and the other its second side concave.</p> + +<p>This crude little instrument, which magnified but three times, he +carries in triumph back to Venice. It is regarded as a scientific toy, +yet everybody wishes to see an instrument by which the human eye +indefinitely multiplies its power. The Doge is delighted, and the Senate +is anxious to secure so great a curiosity. He makes a present of it to +the Senate, after he has spent a month in showing it round to the +principal people of that wealthy city; and he is rewarded for his +ingenuity with an increase of his salary, at Padua, to one thousand +florins, and is made professor for life.</p> + +<p>He now only thinks of making discoveries in the heavens; but his +instrument is too small. He makes another and larger telescope, which +magnifies eight times, and then another which magnifies thirty times; +and points it to the moon. And how indescribable his satisfaction, for +he sees what no mortal had ever before seen,--ranges of mountains, deep +hollows, and various inequalities! These discoveries, it would seem, are +not favorably received by the Aristotelians; however, he continues his +labors, and points his telescope to the planets and fixed stars,--but +the magnitude of the latter remain the same, while the planets appear +with disks like the moon. Then he directs his observations to the +Pleiades, and counts forty stars in the cluster, when only six were +visible to the naked eye; in the Milky Way he descries crowds of +minute stars.</p> + +<p>Having now reached the limit of discovery with his present instrument, +he makes another of still greater power, and points it to the planet +Jupiter. On the 7th of January, 1610, he observes three little stars +near the body of the planet, all in a straight line and parallel to the +ecliptic, two on the east and one on the west of Jupiter. On the next +observation he finds that they have changed places, and are all on the +west of Jupiter; and the next time he observes them they have changed +again. He also discovers that there are four of these little stars +revolving round the planet. What is the explanation of this singular +phenomenon? They cannot be fixed stars, or planets; they must then be +moons. Jupiter is attended with satellites like the earth, but has four +instead of one! The importance of this last discovery was of supreme +value, for it confirmed the heliocentric theory. Old Kepler is filled +with agitations of joy; all the friends of Galileo extol his genius; his +fame spreads far and near; he is regarded as the ablest scientific man +in Europe.</p> + +<p>His enemies are now dismayed and perplexed. The principal professor of +philosophy at Padua would not even look through the wonderful +instrument. Sissi of Florence ridicules the discovery. "As," said he, +"there are only seven apertures of the head,--two eyes, two ears, two +nostrils, and one mouth,--and as there are only seven days in the week +and seven metals, how can there be seven planets?"</p> + +<p>But science, discarded by the schools, fortunately finds a refuge among +princes. Cosimo de' Medici prefers the testimony of his senses to the +voice of authority. He observes the new satellites with Galileo at Pisa, +makes him a present of one thousand florins, and gives him a mere +nominal office,--that of lecturing occasionally to princes, on a salary +of one thousand florins for life. He is now the chosen companion of the +great, and the admiration of Italy. He has rendered an immense service +to astronomy. "His discovery of the satellites of Jupiter," says +Herschel, "gave the holding turn to the opinion of mankind respecting +the Copernican system, and pointed out a connection between speculative +astronomy and practical utility."</p> + +<p>But this did not complete the catalogue of his discoveries. In 1610 he +perceived that Saturn appeared to be triple, and excited the curiosity +of astronomers by the publication of his first "Enigma,"--<i>Altissimam +planetam tergeminam observavi</i>. He could not then perceive the rings; +the planet seemed through his telescope to have the form of three +concentric O's. Soon after, in examining Venus, he saw her in the form +of a crescent: <i>Cynthioe figuras oemulatur mater amorum</i>,--"Venus rivals +the phases of the moon."</p> + +<p>At last he discovers the spots upon the sun's disk, and that they all +revolve with the sun, and therefore that the sun has a revolution in +about twenty-eight days, and may be moving on in a larger circle, with +all its attendant planets, around some distant centre.</p> + +<p>Galileo has now attained the highest object of his ambition. He is at +the head, confessedly, of all the scientific men of Europe. He has an +ample revenue; he is independent, and has perfect leisure. Even the Pope +is gracious to him when he makes a visit to Rome; while cardinals, +princes, and ambassadors rival one another in bestowing upon him +attention and honors.</p> + +<p>But there is no' height of fortune from which a man may not fall; and it +is usually the proud, the ostentatious, and the contemptuous who do +fall, since they create envy, and are apt to make social mistakes. +Galileo continued to exasperate his enemies by his arrogance and +sarcasms. "They refused to be dragged at his chariot-wheels." "The +Aristotelian professors," says Brewster, "the temporizing Jesuits, the +political churchmen, and that timid but respectable body who at all +times dread innovation, whether it be in legislation or science, entered +into an alliance against the philosophical tyrant who threatened them +with the penalties of knowledge." The church dignitaries were especially +hostile, since they thought the tendency of Galileo's investigations was +to undermine the Bible. Flanked by the logic of the schools and the +popular interpretation of Scripture, and backed by the civil power, they +were eager for war. Galileo wrote a letter to his friend the Abbé +Castelli, the object of which was "to prove that the Scriptures were not +intended to teach science and philosophy," but to point out the way of +salvation. He was indiscreet enough to write a longer letter of seventy +pages, quoting the Fathers in support of his views, and attempting to +show that Nature and Scripture could not speak a different language. It +was this reasoning which irritated the dignitaries of the Church more +than his discoveries, since it is plain that the literal language of +Scripture upholds the doctrine that the sun revolves around the earth. +He was wrong or foolish in trying to harmonize revelation and science. +He should have advanced his truths of science and left them to take care +of themselves. He should not have meddled with the dogmas of his +enemies: not that he was wrong in doing so, but it was not politic or +wise; and he was not called upon to harmonize Scripture with science.</p> + +<p>So his enemies busily employed themselves in collecting evidence against +him. They laid their complaints before the Inquisition of Rome, and on +the occasion of paying a visit to that city, he was summoned before that +tribunal which has been the shame and the reproach of the Catholic +Church. It was a tribunal utterly incompetent to sit upon his case, +since it was ignorant of science. In 1615 it was decreed that Galileo +should renounce his obnoxious doctrines, and pledge himself neither to +defend nor publish them in future. And Galileo accordingly, in dread of +prison, appeared before Cardinal Bellarmine and declared that he would +renounce the doctrines he had defended. This cardinal was not an +ignorant man. He was the greatest theologian of the Catholic Church; but +his bitterness and rancor in reference to the new doctrines were as +marked as his scholastic learning. The Pope, supposing that Galileo +would adhere to his promise, was gracious and kind.</p> + +<p>But the philosopher could not resist the temptation of ridiculing the +advocates of the old system. He called them "paper philosophers." In +private he made a mockery of his persecutors. One Saisi undertook to +prove from Suidas that the Babylonians used to cook eggs by whirling +them swiftly on a sling; to which he replied: "If Saisi insists on the +authority of Suidas, that the Babylonians cooked eggs by whirling them +on a sling, I will believe it. But I must add that we have eggs and +slings, and strong men to whirl them, yet they will not become cooked; +nay, if they were hot at first, they more quickly became cool; and as +there is nothing wanting to us but to be Babylonians, it follows that +being Babylonians is the true cause why the eggs became hard." Such was +his prevailing mockery and ridicule. "Your Eminence," writes one of his +friends to the Cardinal D'Este, "would be delighted if you could hear +him hold forth in the midst of fifteen or twenty, all violently +attacking him, sometimes in one house, and sometimes in another; but he +is armed after such a fashion that he laughs them all to scorn."</p> + +<p>Galileo, after his admonition from the Inquisition, and his promise to +hold his tongue, did keep comparatively quiet for a while, amusing +himself with mechanics, and striving to find out a new way of +discovering longitude at sea. But the want of better telescopes baffled +his efforts; and even to-day it is said "that no telescope has yet been +made which is capable of observing at sea the eclipses of Jupiter's +satellites, by which on shore this method of finding longitude has many +advantages."</p> + +<p>On the accession of a new Pope (1623), Urban VIII., who had been his +friend as Cardinal Barberini, Galileo, after eight years of silence, +thought that he might now venture to publish his great work on the +Ptolemaic and Copernican systems, especially as the papal censor also +had been his friend. But the publication of the book was delayed nearly +two years, so great were the obstacles to be surmounted, and so +prejudiced and hostile was the Church to the new views. At last it +appeared in Florence in 1632, with a dedication to the Grand Duke,--not +the Cosimo who had rewarded him, but his son Ferdinand, who was a mere +youth. It was an unfortunate thing for Galileo to do. He had pledged +his word not to advocate the Copernican theory, which was already +sufficiently established in the opinions of philosophers. The form of +the book was even offensive, in the shape of dialogues, where some of +the chief speakers were his enemies. One of them he ridiculed under the +name of Simplicio. This was supposed to mean the Pope himself,--so they +made the Pope believe, and he was furious. Old Cardinal Bellarmine +roared like a lion. The whole Church, as represented by its dignitaries, +seemed to be against him. The Pope seized the old weapons of the +Clements and the Gregories to hurl upon the daring innovator; but +delayed to hurl them, since he dealt with a giant, covered not only by +the shield of the Medici, but that of Minerva. So he convened a +congregation of cardinals, and submitted to them the examination of the +detested book. The author was summoned to Rome to appear before the +Inquisition, and answer at its judgment-seat the charges against him as +a heretic. The Tuscan ambassador expostulated with his Holiness against +such a cruel thing, considering Galileo's age, infirmities, and +fame,--all to no avail. He was obliged to obey the summons. At the age +of seventy this venerated philosopher, infirm, in precarious health, +appeared before the Inquisition of cardinals, not one of whom had any +familiarity with abstruse speculations, or even with mathematics.</p> + +<p>Whether out of regard to his age and infirmities, or to his great fame +and illustrious position as the greatest philosopher of his day, the +cardinals treat Galileo with unusual indulgence. Though a prisoner of +the Inquisition, and completely in its hands, with power of life and +death, it would seem that he is allowed every personal comfort. His +table is provided by the Tuscan ambassador; a servant obeys his +slightest nod; he sleeps in the luxurious apartment of the fiscal of +that dreaded body; he is even liberated on the responsibility of a +cardinal; he is permitted to lodge in the palace of the ambassador; he +is allowed time to make his defence: those holy Inquisitors would not +unnecessarily harm a hair of his head. Nor was it probably their object +to inflict bodily torments: these would call out sympathy and degrade +the tribunal. It was enough to threaten these torments, to which they +did not wish to resort except in case of necessity. There is no evidence +that Galileo was personally tortured. He was indeed a martyr, but not a +sufferer except in humiliated pride. Probably the object of his enemies +was to silence him, to degrade him, to expose his name to infamy, to +arrest the spread of his doctrines, to bow his old head in shame, to +murder his soul, to make him stab himself, and be his own executioner, +by an act which all posterity should regard as unworthy of his name +and cause.</p> + +<p>After a fitting time has elapsed,--four months of dignified +session,--the mind of the Holy Tribunal is made up. Its judgment is +ready. On the 22d of June, 1633, the prisoner appears in penitential +dress at the convent of Minerva, and the presiding cardinal, in his +scarlet robes, delivers the sentence of the Court,--that Galileo, as a +warning to others, and by way of salutary penance, be condemned to the +formal prison of the Holy Office, and be ordered to recite once a week +the seven Penitential Psalms for the benefit of his soul,--apparently a +light sentence, only to be nominally imprisoned a few days, and to +repeat those Psalms which were the life of blessed saints in mediaeval +times. But this was nothing. He was required to recant, to abjure the +doctrines he had taught; not in private, but publicly before the world. +Will he recant? Will he subscribe himself an imposter? Will he abjure +the doctrines on which his fame rests? Oh, tell it not in Gath! The +timid, infirm, life-loving old patriarch of science falls. He is not +great enough for martyrdom. He chooses shame. In an evil hour this +venerable sage falls down upon his knees before the assembled cardinals, +and reads aloud this recantation: "I, Galileo Galilei, aged seventy, on +my knees before you most reverend lords, and having my eye on the Holy +Gospel, which I do touch with my lips, thus publish and declare, that I +believe, and always have believed, and always will believe every +article which the Holy Catholic Roman Church holds and teaches. And as I +have written a book in which I have maintained that the sun is the +centre, which doctrine is repugnant to the Holy Scriptures, I, with +sincere heart and unfeigned faith, do abjure and detest, and curse the +said error and heresy, and all other errors contrary to said Holy +Church, whose penance I solemnly swear to observe faithfully, and all +other penances which have been or shall be laid upon me."</p> + +<p>It would appear from this confession that he did not declare his +doctrines false, only that they were in opposition to the Scriptures; +and it is also said that as he arose from his knees he whispered to a +friend, "It does move, nevertheless." As some excuse for him, he acted +with the certainty that he would be tortured if he did not recant; and +at the worst he had only affirmed that his scientific theory was in +opposition to the Scriptures. He had not denied his master, like Peter; +he had not recanted the faith like Cranmer; he had simply yielded for +fear of bodily torments, and therefore was not sincere in the abjuration +which he made to save his life. Nevertheless, his recantation was a +fall, and in the eyes of the scientific world perhaps greater than that +of Bacon. Galileo was false to philosophy and himself. Why did he suffer +himself to be conquered by priests he despised? Why did so bold and +witty and proud a man betray his cause? Why did he not accept the +penalty of intellectual freedom, and die, if die he must? What was life +to him, diseased, infirm, and old? What had he more to gain? Was it not +a good time to die and consummate his protests? Only one hundred and +fifty years before, one of his countrymen had accepted torture and death +rather than recant his religious opinions. Why could not Galileo have +been as great in martyrdom as Savonarola? He was a renowned philosopher +and brilliant as a man of genius,--but he was a man of the world; he +loved ease and length of days. He could ridicule and deride +opponents,--he could not suffer pain. He had a great intellect, but not +a great soul. There were flaws in his morality; he was anything but a +saint or hero. He was great in mind, and yet he was far from being great +in character. We pity him, while we exalt him. Nor is the world harsh to +him; it forgives him for his services. The worst that can be said, is +that he was not willing to suffer and die for his opinions: and how many +philosophers are there who are willing to be martyrs?</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, in the eyes of philosophers he has disgraced himself. Let +him then return to Florence, to his own Arceti. He is a silenced man. +But he is silenced, not because he believed with Copernicus, but because +he ridiculed his enemies and confronted the Church, and in the eyes of +blinded partisans had attacked divine authority. Why did Copernicus +escape persecution? The Church must have known that there was something +in his discoveries, and in those of Galileo, worthy of attention. About +this time Pascal wrote: "It is vain that you have procured the +condemnation of Galileo. That will never prove the earth to be at rest. +If unerring observation proves that it turns round, not all mankind +together can keep it from turning, or themselves from turning with it."</p> + +<p>But let that persecution pass. It is no worse than other persecutions, +either in Catholic or Protestant ranks. It was no worse than burning +witches. Not only is intolerance in human nature, but there is a +repugnance among the learned to receive new opinions when these +interfere with their ascendency. The opposition to Galileo's discoveries +was no greater than that of the Protestant Church, half a century ago, +to some of the inductions of geology. How bitter the hatred, even in our +times, to such men as Huxley and Darwin! True, they have not proved +their theories as Galileo did; but they gave as great a shock as he to +the minds of theologians. All science is progressive, yet there are +thousands who oppose its progress. And if learning and science should +establish a different meaning to certain texts from which theological +deductions are drawn, and these premises be undermined, there would be +the same bitterness among the defenders of the present system of +dogmatic theology. Yet theology will live, and never lose its dignity +and importance; only, some of its present assumptions may be discarded. +God will never be dethroned from the world he governs; but some of his +ways may appear to be different from what was once supposed. And all +science is not only progressive, but it appears to be bold and scornful +and proud,--at least, its advocates are and ever have been contemptuous +of all other departments of knowledge but its own. So narrow and limited +is the human mind in the midst of its triumphs. So full of prejudices +are even the learned and the great.</p> + +<p>Let us turn then to give another glance at the fallen philosopher in his +final retreat at Arceti. He lives under restrictions. But they allow him +leisure and choice wines, of which he is fond, and gardens and friends; +and many come to do him reverence. He amuses his old age with the +studies of his youth and manhood, and writes dialogues on Motion, and +even discovers the phenomena of the moon's libration; and by means of +the pendulum he gives additional importance to astronomical science. But +he is not allowed to leave his retirement, not even to visit his friends +in Florence. The wrath of the Inquisition still pursues him, even in his +villa at Arceti in the suburbs of Florence. Then renewed afflictions +come. He loses his daughter, who was devoted to him; and her death +nearly plunges him into despair. The bulwarks of his heart break down; a +flood of grief overwhelms his stricken soul. His appetite leaves him; +his health forsakes him; his infirmities increase upon him. His right +eye loses its power,--that eye that had seen more of the heavens than +the eyes of all who had gone before him. He becomes blind and deaf, and +cannot sleep, afflicted with rheumatic pains and maladies forlorn. No +more for him is rest, or peace, or bliss; still less the glories of his +brighter days,--the sight of glittering fields, the gems of heaven, +without which</p> + + "Neither breath of Morn, when she ascends<br> + With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun<br> + On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower<br> + Glistering with dew, nor fragrance after showers,<br> + Nor grateful evening mild,... is sweet."<br> + +<p>No more shall he gaze on features that he loves, or stars, or trees, or +hills. No more to him</p> + + "Returns<br> + Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,<br> + Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,<br> + Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;<br> + But clouds, instead, and ever-during dark<br> + Surround" [him].<br> + +<p>It was in those dreary desolate days at Arceti,</p> + + "Unseen<br> + In manly beauty Milton stood before him,<br> + Gazing in reverent awe,--Milton, his guest,<br> + Just then come forth, all life and enterprise;<br> + While he in his old age,...<br> + ... exploring with his staff,<br> + His eyes upturned as to the golden sun,<br> + His eyeballs idly rolling."<br> + +<p>This may have been the punishment of his recantation,--not Inquisitorial +torture, but the consciousness that he had lost his honor. Poor Galileo! +thine illustrious visitor, when <i>his</i> affliction came, could cast his +sightless eyeballs inward, and see and tell "things unattempted yet in +prose or rhyme,"--not</p> + + "Rocks, caves, lakes, bogs, fens, and shades of death,<br> + + Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds<br> + + Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire,"<br> + +<p>but of "eternal Providence," and "Eden with surpassing glory crowned," +and "our first parents," and of "salvation," "goodness infinite," of +"wisdom," which when known we need no higher though all the stars we +know by name,--</p> + + "All secrets of the deep, all Nature's works,<br> + Or works of God in heaven, or air, or sea."<br> + +<p>And yet, thou stricken observer of the heavenly bodies! hadst thou but +known what marvels would be revealed by the power of thy wondrous +instrument after thou should'st be laid lifeless and cold beneath the +marble floor of Sante Croce, at the age of seventy-eight, without a +monument, without even the right of burial in consecrated ground, having +died a prisoner of the Inquisition, yet not without having rendered to +astronomical science services of utmost value,--even thou might have +died rejoicing, as one of the great benefactors of the world. And thy +discoveries shall be forever held in gratitude; they shall herald others +of even greater importance. Newton shall prove that the different +planets are attracted to the sun in the inverse ratio of the squares of +their distances; that the earth has a force on the moon identical with +the force of gravity, and that all celestial bodies, to the utmost +boundaries of space, mutually attract each other; that all particles of +matter are governed by the same law,--the great law of gravitation, by +which "astronomy," in the language of Whewell, "passed from boyhood to +manhood, and by which law the great discoverer added more to the realm +of science than any man before or since his day." And after Newton shall +pass away, honored and lamented, and be buried with almost royal pomp in +the vaults of Westminster, Halley and other mathematicians shall +construct lunar tables, by which longitude shall be accurately measured +on the pathless ocean. Lagrange and Laplace shall apply the Newtonian +theory to determine the secular inequalities of celestial motion; they +shall weigh absolutely the amount of matter in the planets; they shall +show how far their orbits deviate from circles; and they shall enumerate +the cycles of changes detected in the circuit of the moon. Clairaut +shall remove the perplexity occasioned by the seeming discrepancy +between the observed and computed motions of the moon's perigee. Halley +shall demonstrate the importance of observations of the transit of Venus +as the only certain way of obtaining the sun's parallax, and hence the +distance of the sun from the earth; he shall predict the return of that +mysterious body which we call a comet. Herschel shall construct a +telescope which magnifies two thousand times, and add another planet to +our system beyond the mighty orb of Saturn. Römer shall estimate the +velocity of light from the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites. Bessell +shall pass the impassable gulf of space and measure the distance of some +of the fixed stars, although such is the immeasurable space between the +earth and those distant suns that the parallax of only about thirty has +yet been discovered with our finest instruments,--so boundless is the +material universe, so vast are the distances, that light, travelling one +hundred and sixty thousand miles with every pulsation of the blood, will +not reach us from some of those remote worlds in one hundred thousand +years. So marvellous shall be the victories of science, that the +perturbations of the planets in their courses shall reveal the +existence of a new one more distant than Uranus, and Leverrier shall +tell at what part of the heavens that star shall first be seen.</p> + +<p>So far as we have discovered, the universe which we have observed with +telescopic instruments has no limits that mortals can define, and in +comparison with its magnitude our earth is less than a grain of sand, +and is so old that no genius can calculate and no imagination can +conceive when it had a beginning. All that we know is, that suns exist +at distances we cannot define. But around what centre do they revolve? +Of what are they composed? Are they inhabited by intelligent and +immortal beings? Do we know that they are not eternal, except from the +divine declaration that there <i>was</i> a time when the Almighty fiat went +forth for this grand creation? Creation involves a creator; and can the +order and harmony seen in Nature's laws exist without Supreme +intelligence and power? Who, then, and what, is God? "Canst thou by +searching find out Him? Knowest thou the ordinances of Heaven? Canst +thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of +Orion?" What an atom is this world in the light of science! Yet what +dignity has man by the light of revelation! What majesty and power and +glory has God! What goodness, benevolence, and love, that even a sparrow +cannot fall to the ground without His notice,--that we are the special +objects of His providence and care! Is there an imagination so lofty +that will not be oppressed with the discoveries that even the +telescope has made?</p> + +<p>Ah, to what exalted heights reason may soar when allied with faith! How +truly it should elevate us above the evils of this brief and busy +existence to the conditions of that other life,--</p> + + "When the soul,<br> + Advancing ever to the Source of light<br> + And all perfection, lives, adores, and reigns<br> + In cloudless knowledge, purity, and bliss!"<br> +<br> + +<p>AUTHORITIES.</p> + +<p>Delambre, Histoire de l'Astronomie; Arago, Histoire de l'Astronomie; +Life of Galileo, in Cabinet Library; Life of Galileo, by Brewster; Lives +of Galileo, by Italian and Spanish Literary Men; Whewell's History of +Inductive Sciences; Plurality of Worlds; Humboldt's Cosmos; Nichols' +Architecture of the Heavens; Chalmers' Astronomical Discourses; Life of +Kepler, Library of Useful Knowledge; Brewster's Life of Tycho Brahe, of +Kepler, and of Sir Isaac Newton; Mitchell's Stellar and Planetary +Worlds; Bradley's Correspondence; Airy's Reports; Voiron's History of +Astronomy; Philosophical Transactions; Everett's Oration on Galileo; +Life of Copernicus; Bayly's Astronomy; Encyclopaedia Britannica, Art. +<i>Astronomy</i>; Proctor's Lectures.</p> +<br> +<hr class="full"> +<pre> + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME VI*** + +******* This file should be named 10532-h.txt or 10532-h.zip ******* + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/3/10532">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/3/10532</a> + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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