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diff --git a/39535-tei/39535-tei.tei b/39535-tei/39535-tei.tei new file mode 100644 index 0000000..707b77c --- /dev/null +++ b/39535-tei/39535-tei.tei @@ -0,0 +1,20939 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> + +<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.gutenberg.org/tei/marcello/0.4/dtd/pgtei.dtd" [ + +<!ENTITY u5 "http://www.tei-c.org/Lite/"> + +]> + +<TEI.2 lang="en"> +<teiHeader> + <fileDesc> + <titleStmt> + <title>History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 2 of 2)</title> + <author><name reg="Lecky, William Edward Hartpole">William Edward Hartpole Lecky</name></author> + </titleStmt> + <editionStmt> + <edition n="9">Edition 9</edition> + </editionStmt> + <publicationStmt> + <publisher>Project Gutenberg</publisher> + <date>April 15, 2012</date> + <idno type="etext-no">39535</idno> + <availability> + <p>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 online at www.gutenberg.org/license</p> + </availability> + </publicationStmt> + <sourceDesc> + <bibl> + Created electronically. + </bibl> + </sourceDesc> + </fileDesc> + <encodingDesc> + </encodingDesc> + <profileDesc> + <langUsage> + <language id="en"></language> + <language id="la"></language> + </langUsage> + </profileDesc> + <revisionDesc> + <change> + <date value="2012-04-25">April 15, 2012</date> + <respStmt> + <name> + Produced by Delphine Lettau, David King, and the Online + Distributed Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. + </name> + </respStmt> + <item>Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</item> + </change> + </revisionDesc> +</teiHeader> + +<pgExtensions> + <pgStyleSheet> + .boxed { x-class: boxed } + .shaded { x-class: shaded } + .rules { x-class: rules; rules: all } + .indent { margin-left: 2 } + .bold { font-weight: bold } + .italic { font-style: italic } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + </pgStyleSheet> + + <pgCharMap formats="txt.iso-8859-1"> + <char id="U0x2014"> + <charName>mdash</charName> + <desc>EM DASH</desc> + <mapping>--</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2003"> + <charName>emsp</charName> + <desc>EM SPACE</desc> + <mapping> </mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2026"> + <charName>hellip</charName> + <desc>HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS</desc> + <mapping>...</mapping> + </char> + </pgCharMap> +</pgExtensions> + +<text lang="en"> + <front> + <div> + <divGen type="pgheader" /> + </div> + <div> + <divGen type="encodingDesc" /> + </div> + + <div rend="page-break-before: always"> + <p rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center">History of</p> + <p rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center">European Morals</p> + <p rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center">From Augustus to Charlemagne</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">By</p> + <p rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center">William Edward Hartpole Lecky, M.A.</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">Ninth Edition</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">In Two Volumes</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">Vol. 2.</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">London</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">Longmans, Green, And Co.</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">1890</p> + </div> + <div rend="page-break-before: always"> + <head>Contents</head> + <divGen type="toc" /> + </div> + + </front> +<body> + +<pb n='001'/><anchor id='Pg001'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter IV. From Constantine To Charlemagne.</head> + +<p> +Having in the last chapter given a brief, but I trust not +altogether indistinct, account of the causes that ensured the +triumph of Christianity in Rome, and of the character of the +opposition it overcame, I proceed to examine the nature of +the moral ideal the new religion introduced, and also the +methods by which it attempted to realise it. And at the +very outset of this enquiry it is necessary to guard against a +serious error. It is common with many persons to establish +a comparison between Christianity and Paganism, by placing +the teaching of the Christians in juxtaposition with corresponding +passages from the writings of Marcus Aurelius or +Seneca, and to regard the superiority of the Christian over +the philosophical teaching as a complete measure of the moral +advance that was effected by Christianity. But a moment's +reflection is sufficient to display the injustice of such a conclusion. +The ethics of Paganism were part of a philosophy. +The ethics of Christianity were part of a religion. The first +were the speculations of a few highly cultivated individuals +<pb n='002'/><anchor id='Pg002'/> +and neither had nor could have had any direct influence upon +the masses of mankind. The second were indissolubly connected +with the worship, hopes, and fears of a vast religious +system, that acts at least as powerfully on the most ignorant +as on the most educated. The chief objects of Pagan religions +were to foretell the future, to explain the universe, to avert +calamity, to obtain the assistance of the gods. They contained +no instruments of moral teaching analogous to our institution +of preaching, or to the moral preparation for the reception of +the sacrament, or to confession, or to the reading of the Bible, +or to religious education, or to united prayer for spiritual +benefits. To make men virtuous was no more the function +of the priest than of the physician. On the other hand, the +philosophic expositions of duty were wholly unconnected +with the religious ceremonies of the temple. To amalgamate +these two spheres, to incorporate moral culture with religion, +and thus to enlist in behalf of the former that desire to enter, +by means of ceremonial observances, into direct communication +with Heaven, which experience has shown to be one of the +most universal and powerful passions of mankind, was among +the most important achievements of Christianity. Something +had, no doubt, been already attempted in this direction. +Philosophy, in the hands of the rhetoricians, had become +more popular. The Pythagoreans enjoined religious ceremonies +for the purpose of purifying the mind, and expiatory +rites were common, especially in the Oriental religions. But +it was the distinguishing characteristic of Christianity that +its moral influence was not indirect, casual, remote, or spasmodic. +Unlike all Pagan religions, it made moral teaching a +main function of its clergy, moral discipline the leading object +of its services, moral dispositions the necessary condition of +the due performance of its rites. By the pulpit, by its ceremonies, +by all the agencies of power it possessed, it laboured +systematically and perseveringly for the regeneration of mankind. +Under its influence, doctrines concerning the nature +<pb n='003'/><anchor id='Pg003'/> +of God, the immortality of the soul, and the duties of man, +which the noblest intellects of antiquity could barely grasp, +have become the truisms of the village school, the proverbs +of the cottage and of the alley. +</p> + +<p> +But neither the beauty of its sacred writings, nor the +perfection of its religious services, could have achieved this +great result without the introduction of new motives to +virtue. These may be either interested or disinterested, and +in both spheres the influence of Christianity was very great. +In the first, it effected a complete revolution by its teaching +concerning the future world and concerning the nature of +sin. The doctrine of a future life was far too vague among +the Pagans to exercise any powerful general influence, and +among the philosophers who clung to it most ardently it +was regarded solely in the light of a consolation. Christianity +made it a deterrent influence of the strongest kind. In +addition to the doctrines of eternal suffering, and the lost +condition of the human race, the notion of a minute personal +retribution must be regarded as profoundly original. That +the commission of great crimes, or the omission of great +duties, may be expiated hereafter, was indeed an idea familiar +to the Pagans, though it exercised little influence over their +lives, and seldom or never produced, even in the case of the +worst criminals, those scenes of deathbed repentance which +are so conspicuous in Christian biographies. But the Christian +notion of the enormity of little sins, the belief that all the +details of life will be scrutinised hereafter, that weaknesses +of character and petty infractions of duty, of which the +historian and the biographer take no note, which have no +perceptible influence upon society, and which scarcely elicit a +comment among mankind, may be made the grounds of +eternal condemnation beyond the grave, was altogether unknown +to the ancients, and, at a time when it possessed all +the freshness of novelty, it was well fitted to transform the +character. The eye of the Pagan philosopher was ever fixed +<pb n='004'/><anchor id='Pg004'/> +upon virtue, the eye of the Christian teacher upon sin. They +first sought to amend men by extolling the beauty of holiness; +the second by awakening the sentiment of remorse. +Each method had its excellences and its defects. Philosophy +was admirably fitted to dignify and ennoble, but altogether +impotent to regenerate, mankind. It did much to encourage +virtue, but little or nothing to restrain vice. A relish or +taste for virtue was formed and cultivated, which attracted +many to its practice; but in this, as in the case of all our +other higher tastes, a nature that was once thoroughly vitiated +became altogether incapable of appreciating it, and the transformation +of such a nature, which was continually effected by +Christianity, was confessedly beyond the power of philosophy.<note place='foot'>There is a remarkable passage +of Celsus, on the impossibility of +restoring a nature once thoroughly +depraved, quoted by Origen in his +answer to him.</note> +Experience has abundantly shown that men who are wholly +insensible to the beauty and dignity of virtue, can be convulsed +by the fear of judgment, can be even awakened to +such a genuine remorse for sin as to reverse the current of +their dispositions, detach them from the most inveterate +habits, and renew the whole tenor of their lives. +</p> + +<p> +But the habit of dilating chiefly on the darker side of human +nature, while it has contributed much to the regenerating +efficacy of Christian teaching, has not been without its disadvantages. +Habitually measuring character by its aberrations, +theologians, in their estimates of those strong and passionate +natures in which great virtues are balanced by great failings, +have usually fallen into a signal injustice, which is the more +inexcusable, because in their own writings the Psalms of +David are a conspicuous proof of what a noble, tender, and +passionate nature could survive, even in an adulterer and a +murderer. Partly, too, through this habit of operating +through the sense of sin, and partly from a desire to show +that man is in an abnormal and dislocated condition, they +<pb n='005'/><anchor id='Pg005'/> +have continually propounded distorted and degrading views +of human nature, have represented it as altogether under the +empire of evil, and have sometimes risen to such a height of +extravagance as to pronounce the very virtues of the heathen +to be of the nature of sin. But nothing can be more certain +than that that which is exceptional and distinctive in human +nature is not its vice, but its excellence. It is not the sensuality, +cruelty, selfishness, passion, or envy, which are all +displayed in equal or greater degrees in different departments +of the animal world; it is that moral nature which enables +man apparently, alone of all created beings, to classify his +emotions, to oppose the current of his desires, and to aspire +after moral perfection. Nor is it less certain that in civilised, +and therefore developed man, the good greatly preponderates +over the evil. Benevolence is more common than cruelty; +the sight of suffering more readily produces pity than joy; +gratitude, not ingratitude, is the normal result of a conferred +benefit. The sympathies of man naturally follow heroism +and goodness, and vice itself is usually but an exaggeration +or distortion of tendencies that are in their own nature perfectly +innocent. +</p> + +<p> +But these exaggerations of human depravity, which have +attained their extreme limits in some Protestant sects, do not +appear in the Church of the first three centuries. The sense +of sin was not yet accompanied by a denial of the goodness +that exists in man. Christianity was regarded rather as a +redemption from error than from sin,<note place='foot'>This is well shown by Pressensé in his <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des Trois premiers +Siècles</hi>.</note> and it is a significant +fact that the epithet <q>well deserving,</q> which the Pagans +usually put upon their tombs, was also the favourite inscription +in the Christian catacombs. The Pelagian controversy, +the teaching of St. Augustine, and the progress of asceticism, +gradually introduced the doctrine of the utter depravity of +<pb n='006'/><anchor id='Pg006'/> +man, which has proved in later times the fertile source of +degrading superstition. +</p> + +<p> +In sustaining and defining the notion of sin, the early +Church employed the machinery of an elaborate legislation. +Constant communion with the Church was regarded as of the +very highest importance. Participation in the Sacrament +was believed to be essential to eternal life. At a very +early period it was given to infants, and already in the +time of St. Cyprian we find the practice universal in the +Church, and pronounced by at least some of the Fathers to +be ordinarily necessary to their salvation.<note place='foot'>See a great deal of information +on this subject in Bingham's +<hi rend='italic'>Antiquities of the Christian Church</hi> +(Oxford, 1853), vol. v. pp. 370-378. +It is curious that those very +noisy contemporary divines who +profess to resuscitate the manners +of the primitive Church, and +who lay so much stress on the +minutest ceremonial observances, +have left unpractised what was undoubtedly +one of the most universal, +and was believed to be one +of the most important, of the institutions +of early Christianity. +Bingham shows that the administration +of the Eucharist to infants +continued in France till the twelfth +century.</note> Among the adults +it was customary to receive the Sacrament daily, in some +churches four times a week.<note place='foot'>See Cave's <hi rend='italic'>Primitive Christianity</hi>, +part i. ch. xi. At first the +Sacrament was usually received +every day; but this custom soon declined +in the Eastern Church, and +at last passed away in the West.</note> Even in the days of persecution +the only part of their service the Christians consented to omit +was the half-secular agape.<note place='foot'>Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> x. 97.</note> The clergy had power to accord +or withhold access to the ceremonies, and the reverence with +which they were regarded was so great that they were able +to dictate their own conditions of communion. +</p> + +<p> +From these circumstances there very naturally arose a +vast system of moral discipline. It was always acknowledged +that men could only rightly approach the sacred table in +certain moral dispositions, and it was very soon added that +the commission of crimes should be expiated by a period of +penance, before access to the communion was granted. A +<pb n='007'/><anchor id='Pg007'/> +multitude of offences, of very various degrees of magnitude, +such as prolonged abstinence from religious services, prenuptial +unchastity, prostitution, adultery, the adoption of the +profession of gladiator or actor, idolatry, the betrayal of +Christians to persecutors, and paiderastia or unnatural love, +were specified, to each of which a definite spiritual penalty +was annexed. The lowest penalty consisted of deprivation of +the Eucharist for a few weeks. More serious offenders were +deprived of it for a year, or for ten years, or until the hour +of death, while in some cases the sentence amounted to the +greater excommunication, or the deprivation of the Eucharist +for ever. During the period of penance the penitent was +compelled to abstain from the marriage-bed, and from all +other pleasures, and to spend his time chiefly in religious +exercises. Before he was readmitted to communion, he was +accustomed publicly, before the assembled Christians, to +appear clad in sackcloth, with ashes strewn upon his head, +with his hair shaven off, and thus to throw himself at the +feet of the minister, to confess aloud his sins, and to implore +the favour of absolution. The excommunicated man was not +only cut off for ever from the Christian rites; he was severed +also from all intercourse with his former friends. No Christian, +on pain of being himself excommunicated, might eat +with him or speak with him. He must live hated and alone +in this world, and be prepared for damnation in the next.<note place='foot'>The whole subject of the +penitential discipline is treated +minutely in Marshall's <hi rend='italic'>Penitential +Discipline of the Primitive Church</hi> +(first published in 1714, and reprinted +in the library of Anglo-Catholic +Theology), and also in +Bingham, vol. vii. Tertullian gives +a graphic description of the public +penances, <hi rend='italic'>De Pudicit.</hi> v. 13.</note> +</p> + +<p> +This system of legislation, resting upon religious terrorism, +forms one of the most important parts of early ecclesiastical +history, and a leading object of the Councils was to develop +or modify it. Although confession was not yet an habitual +and universally obligatory rite, although it was only +<pb n='008'/><anchor id='Pg008'/> +exacted in cases of notorious sins, it is manifest that we have +in this system, not potentially or in germ, but in full developed +activity, an ecclesiastical despotism of the most +crushing order. But although this recognition of the right +of the clergy to withhold from men what was believed to +be essential to their salvation, laid the foundation of the +worst superstitions of Rome, it had, on the other hand, a very +valuable moral effect. Every system of law is a system of +education, for it fixes in the minds of men certain conceptions +of right and wrong, and of the proportionate enormity of +different crimes; and no legislation was enforced with more +solemnity, or appealed more directly to the religious feelings, +than the penitential discipline of the Church. More than, +perhaps, any other single agency, it confirmed that conviction +of the enormity of sin, and of the retribution that follows it, +which was one of the two great levers by which Christianity +acted upon mankind. +</p> + +<p> +But if Christianity was remarkable for its appeals to the +selfish or interested side of our nature, it was far more remarkable +for the empire it attained over disinterested enthusiasm. +The Platonist exhorted men to imitate God; the +Stoic, to follow reason; the Christian, to the love of Christ. +The later Stoics had often united their notions of excellence +in an ideal sage, and Epictetus had even urged his disciples to +set before them some man of surpassing excellence, and to +imagine him continually near them; but the utmost the +Stoic ideal could become was a model for imitation, and the +admiration it inspired could never deepen into affection. It +was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an +ideal character, which through all the changes of eighteen +centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned +love; has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, +temperaments, and conditions; has been not only the highest +pattern of virtue but the strongest incentive to its practice; +and has exercised so deep an influence that it may be truly +<pb n='009'/><anchor id='Pg009'/> +said that the simple record of three short years of active life +has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all +the disquisitions of philosophers, and all the exhortations of +moralists. This has indeed been the well-spring of whatever +is best and purest in the Christian life. Amid all the sins +and failings, amid all the priestcraft and persecution and +fanaticism that have defaced the Church, it has preserved, in +the character and example of its Founder, an enduring +principle of regeneration. Perfect love knows no rights. It +creates a boundless, uncalculating self-abnegation that transforms +the character, and is the parent of every virtue. Side +by side with the terrorism and the superstitions of dogmatism, +there have ever existed in Christianity those who +would echo the wish of St. Theresa, that she could blot out +both heaven and hell, to serve God for Himself alone; and +the power of the love of Christ has been displayed alike in the +most heroic pages of Christian martyrdom, in the most +pathetic pages of Christian resignation, in the tenderest pages +of Christian charity. It was shown by the martyrs who +sank beneath the fangs of wild beasts, extending to the last +moment their arms in the form of the cross they loved;<note place='foot'>Eusebius, <hi rend='italic'>H. E.</hi> viii, 7.</note> +who ordered their chains to be buried with them as the +insignia of their warfare;<note place='foot'>St. Chrysostom tells this of +St. Babylas. See Tillemont, <hi rend='italic'>Mém. +pour servir à l'Hist. eccl.</hi> tome iii. +p. 403.</note> who looked with joy upon their +ghastly wounds, because they had been received for Christ;<note place='foot'>In the preface to a very +ancient Milanese missal it is said +of St. Agatha that as she lay in +the prison cell, torn by the instruments +of torture, St. Peter came +to her in the form of a Christian +physician, and offered to dress her +wounds; but she refused, saying +that she wished for no physician +but Christ. St. Peter, in the name +of that Celestial Physician, commanded +her wounds to close, and +her body became whole as before. +(Tillemont, tome iii. p. 412.)</note> +who welcomed death as the bridegroom welcomes the bride, +because it would bring them near to Him. St. Felicitas was +seized with the pangs of childbirth as she lay in prison +<pb n='010'/><anchor id='Pg010'/> +awaiting the hour of martyrdom, and as her sufferings extorted +from her a cry, one who stood by said, <q>If you now +suffer so much, what will it be when you are thrown to wild +beasts?</q> <q>What I now suffer,</q> she answered, <q>concerns myself +alone; but then another will suffer for me, for I will +then suffer for Him.</q><note place='foot'>See her acts in Ruinart.</note> When St. Melania had lost both her +husband and her two sons, kneeling by the bed where the +remains of those she loved were laid, the childless widow +exclaimed, <q>Lord, I shall serve Thee more humbly and +readily for being eased of the weight Thou hast taken from +me.</q><note place='foot'>St. Jerome, <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xxxix.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Christian virtue was described by St. Augustine as <q>the +order of love.</q><note place='foot'><q>Definitio brevis et vera virtutis: +ordo est amoris.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>De Civ. +Dei</hi>, xv. 22.</note> Those who know how imperfectly the +simple sense of duty can with most men resist the energy of +the passions; who have observed how barren Mohammedanism +has been in all the higher and more tender virtues, +because its noble morality and its pure theism have been +united with no living example; who, above all, have traced +through the history of the Christian Church the influence of +the love of Christ, will be at no loss to estimate the value of +this purest and most distinctive source of Christian enthusiasm. +In one respect we can scarcely realise its effects upon +the early Church. The sense of the fixity of natural laws is +now so deeply implanted in the minds of men, that no truly +educated person, whatever may be his religious opinions, +seriously believes that all the more startling phenomena +around him—storms, earthquakes, invasions, or famines—are +results of isolated acts of supernatural power, and are +intended to affect some human interest. But by the early +Christians all these things were directly traced to the Master +they so dearly loved. The result of this conviction was a +state of feeling we can now barely understand. A great poet, +<pb n='011'/><anchor id='Pg011'/> +in lines which are among the noblest in English literature, +has spoken of one who had died as united to the all-pervading +soul of nature, the grandeur and the tenderness, the +beauty and the passion of his being blending with the kindred +elements of the universe, his voice heard in all its melodies, +his spirit a presence to be felt and known, a part of the one +plastic energy that permeates and animates the globe. Something +of this kind, but of a far more vivid and real character, +was the belief of the early Christian world. The universe, +to them, was transfigured by love. All its phenomena, all +its catastrophes, were read in a new light, were endued with +a new significance, acquired a religious sanctity. Christianity +offered a deeper consolation than any prospect of endless life, +or of millennial glories. It taught the weary, the sorrowing, +and the lonely, to look up to heaven and to say, <q>Thou, +God, carest for me.</q> +</p> + +<p> +It is not surprising that a religious system which made +it a main object to inculcate moral excellence, and which by +its doctrine of future retribution, by its organisation, and by +its capacity of producing a disinterested enthusiasm, acquired +an unexampled supremacy over the human mind, should +have raised its disciples to a very high condition of sanctity. +There can, indeed, be little doubt that, for nearly two hundred +years after its establishment in Europe, the Christian community +exhibited a moral purity which, if it has been equalled, +has never for any long period been surpassed. Completely +separated from the Roman world that was around them, +abstaining alike from political life, from appeals to the tribunals, +and from military occupations; looking forward +continually to the immediate advent of their Master, and +the destruction of the Empire in which they dwelt, and animated +by all the fervour of a young religion, the Christians +found within themselves a whole order of ideas and feelings +sufficiently powerful to guard them from the contamination +of their age. In their general bearing towards society, and +<pb n='012'/><anchor id='Pg012'/> +in the nature and minuteness of their scruples, they probably +bore a greater resemblance to the Quakers than to any +other existing sect.<note place='foot'>Besides the obvious points of +resemblance in the common, though +not universal, belief that Christians +should abstain from all weapons +and from all oaths, the whole +teaching of the early Christians +about the duty of simplicity, and +the wickedness of ornaments in +dress (see especially the writings +of Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, +and Chrysostom, on this +subject), is exceedingly like that +of the Quakers. The scruple of +Tertullian (<hi rend='italic'>De Coronâ</hi>) about +Christians wearing laurel wreaths +in the festivals, because laurel was +called after Daphne, the lover of +Apollo, was much of the same kind +as that which led the Quakers to +refuse to speak of Tuesday or Wednesday, +lest they should recognise +the gods Tuesco or Woden. On the +other hand, the ecclesiastical aspects +and the sacramental doctrines +of the Church were the extreme +opposites of Quakerism.</note> Some serious signs of moral decadence +might, indeed, be detected even before the Decian persecution; +and it was obvious that the triumph of the Church, by +introducing numerous nominal Christians into its pale, by +exposing it to the temptations of wealth and prosperity, and +by forcing it into connection with secular politics, must have +damped its zeal and impaired its purity; yet few persons, I +think, who had contemplated Christianity as it existed in +the first three centuries would have imagined it possible that +it should completely supersede the Pagan worship around it; +that its teachers should bend the mightiest monarchs to their +will, and stamp their influence on every page of legislation, +and direct the whole course of civilisation for a thousand +years; and yet that the period in which they were so supreme +should have been one of the most contemptible in history. +</p> + +<p> +The leading features of that period may be shortly told. +From the death of Marcus Aurelius, about which time Christianity +assumed an important influence in the Roman world, +the decadence of the Empire was rapid and almost uninterrupted. +The first Christian emperor transferred his capital to +a new city, uncontaminated by the traditions and the glories +of Paganism; and he there founded an Empire which derived +all its ethics from Christian sources, and which continued in +<pb n='013'/><anchor id='Pg013'/> +existence for about eleven hundred years. Of that Byzantine +Empire the universal verdict of history is that it constitutes, +with scarcely an exception, the most thoroughly base and +despicable form that civilisation has yet assumed. Though +very cruel and very sensual, there have been times when +cruelty assumed more ruthless, and sensuality more extravagant, +aspects; but there has been no other enduring civilisation +so absolutely destitute of all the forms and elements of +greatness, and none to which the epithet mean may be so emphatically +applied. The Byzantine Empire was pre-eminently +the age of treachery. Its vices were the vices of men who +had ceased to be brave without learning to be virtuous. +Without patriotism, without the fruition or desire of liberty, +after the first paroxysms of religious agitation, without genius +or intellectual activity; slaves, and willing slaves, in both +their actions and their thoughts, immersed in sensuality and +in the most frivolous pleasures, the people only emerged from +their listlessness when some theological subtilty, or some +rivalry in the chariot races, stimulated them into frantic +riots. They exhibited all the externals of advanced civilisation. +They possessed knowledge; they had continually before +them the noble literature of ancient Greece, instinct with the +loftiest heroism; but that literature, which afterwards did so +much to revivify Europe, could fire the degenerate Greeks +with no spark or semblance of nobility. The history of the +Empire is a monotonous story of the intrigues of priests, +eunuchs, and women, of poisonings, of conspiracies, of uniform +ingratitude, of perpetual fratricides. After the conversion of +Constantine there was no prince in any section of the Roman +Empire altogether so depraved, or at least so shameless, as +Nero or Heliogabalus; but the Byzantine Empire can show +none bearing the faintest resemblance to Antonine or Marcus +Aurelius, while the nearest approximation to that character +at Rome was furnished by the Emperor Julian, who contemptuously +abandoned the Christian faith. At last the +<pb n='014'/><anchor id='Pg014'/> +Mohammedan invasion terminated the long decrepitude of +the Eastern Empire. Constantinople sank beneath the Crescent, +its inhabitants wrangling about theological differences +to the very moment of their fall. +</p> + +<p> +The Asiatic Churches had already perished. The Christian +faith, planted in the dissolute cities of Asia Minor, had produced +many fanatical ascetics and a few illustrious theologians, +but it had no renovating effect upon the people at large. It +introduced among them a principle of interminable and implacable +dissension, but it scarcely tempered in any appreciable +degree their luxury or their sensuality. The frenzy of +pleasure continued unabated, and in a great part of the +Empire it seemed, indeed, only to have attained its climax +after the triumph of Christianity. +</p> + +<p> +The condition of the Western Empire was somewhat +different. Not quite a century after the conversion of Constantine, +the Imperial city was captured by Alaric, and a +long series of barbarian invasions at last dissolved the whole +framework of Roman society, while the barbarians themselves, +having adopted the Christian faith and submitted +absolutely to the Christian priests, the Church, which remained +the guardian of all the treasures of antiquity, was +left with a virgin soil to realise her ideal of human excellence. +Nor did she fall short of what might have been expected. She +exercised for many centuries an almost absolute empire over +the thoughts and actions of mankind, and created a civilisation +which was permeated in every part with ecclesiastical +influence. And the dark ages, as the period of Catholic ascendancy +is justly called, do undoubtedly display many features +of great and genuine excellence. In active benevolence, in +the spirit of reverence, in loyalty, in co-operative habits, they +far transcend the noblest ages of Pagan antiquity, while in +that humanity which shrinks from the infliction of suffering, +they were superior to Roman, and in their respect for chastity, +to Greek civilisation. On the other hand, they rank +<pb n='015'/><anchor id='Pg015'/> +immeasurably below the best Pagan civilisations in civic and +patriotic virtues, in the love of liberty, in the number and +splendour of the great characters they produced, in the dignity +and beauty of the type of character they formed. They +had their full share of tumult, anarchy, injustice, and war, +and they should probably be placed, in all intellectual virtues, +lower than any other period in the history of mankind. A +boundless intolerance of all divergence of opinion was united +with an equally boundless toleration of all falsehood and deliberate +fraud that could favour received opinions. Credulity +being taught as a virtue, and all conclusions dictated by +authority, a deadly torpor sank upon the human mind, which +for many centuries almost suspended its action, and was only +effectually broken by the scrutinising, innovating, and free-thinking +habits that accompanied the rise of the industrial +republics in Italy. Few men who are not either priests or +monks would not have preferred to live in the best days of the +Athenian or of the Roman republics, in the age of Augustus +or in the age of the Antonines, rather than in any period +that elapsed between the triumph of Christianity and the +fourteenth century. +</p> + +<p> +It is, indeed, difficult to conceive any clearer proof than +was furnished by the history of the twelve hundred years +after the conversion of Constantine, that while theology has +undoubtedly introduced into the world certain elements and +principles of good, scarcely if at all known to antiquity, +while its value as a tincture or modifying influence in society +can hardly be overrated, it is by no means for the advantage +of mankind that, in the form which the Greek and Catholic +Churches present, it should become a controlling arbiter of +civilisation. It is often said that the Roman world before +Constantine was in a period of rapid decay; that the traditions +and vitality of half-suppressed Paganism account for many +of the aberrations of later times; that the influence of the +Church was often rather nominal and superficial than +<pb n='016'/><anchor id='Pg016'/> +supreme; and that, in judging the ignorance of the dark ages, +we must make large allowance for the dislocations of society +by the barbarians. In all this there is much truth; but +when we remember that in the Byzantine Empire the renovating +power of theology was tried in a new capital free from +Pagan traditions, and for more than one thousand years unsubdued +by barbarians, and that in the West the Church, for +at least seven hundred years after the shocks of the invasions +had subsided, exercised a control more absolute than any +other moral or intellectual agency has ever attained, it will +appear, I think, that the experiment was very sufficiently +tried. It is easy to make a catalogue of the glaring vices of +antiquity, and to contrast them with the pure morality of +Christian writings; but, if we desire to form a just estimate +of the realised improvement, we must compare the classical +and ecclesiastical civilisations as wholes, and must observe in +each case not only the vices that were repressed, but also the +degree and variety of positive excellence attained. In the +first two centuries of the Christian Church the moral elevation +was extremely high, and was continually appealed to as +a proof of the divinity of the creed. In the century before +the conversion of Constantine, a marked depression was +already manifest. The two centuries after Constantine are +uniformly represented by the Fathers as a period of general +and scandalous vice. The ecclesiastical civilisation that followed, +though not without its distinctive merits, assuredly +supplies no justification of the common boast about the regeneration +of society by the Church. That the civilisation +of the last three centuries has risen in most respects to a +higher level than any that had preceded it, I at least firmly +believe; but theological ethics, though very important, form +but one of the many and complex elements of its excellence. +Mechanical inventions, the habits of industrial life, the discoveries +of physical science, the improvements of government, +the expansion of literature, the traditions of Pagan antiquity, +<pb n='017'/><anchor id='Pg017'/> +have all a distinguished place, while, the more fully its history +is investigated, the more clearly two capital truths are +disclosed. The first is that the influence of theology having +for centuries numbed and paralysed the whole intellect of +Christian Europe, the revival, which forms the starting-point +of our modern civilisation, was mainly due to the fact that +two spheres of intellect still remained uncontrolled by the +sceptre of Catholicism. The Pagan literature of antiquity, +and the Mohammedan schools of science, were the chief +agencies in resuscitating the dormant energies of Christendom. +The second fact, which I have elsewhere endeavoured to +establish in detail, is that during more than three centuries +the decadence of theological influence has been one of the +most invariable signs and measures of our progress. In +medicine, physical science, commercial interests, politics, and +even ethics, the reformer has been confronted with theological +affirmations which barred his way, which were all defended +as of vital importance, and were all in turn compelled to +yield before the secularising influence of civilisation. +</p> + +<p> +We have here, then, a problem of deep interest and importance, +which I propose to investigate in the present chapter. +We have to enquire why it was that a religion which was +not more remarkable for the beauty of its moral teaching +than for the power with which it acted upon mankind, and +which during the last few centuries has been the source of +countless blessings to the world, should have proved itself +for so long a period, and under such a variety of conditions, +altogether unable to regenerate Europe. The question is not +one of languid or imperfect action, but of conflicting agencies. +In the vast and complex organism of Catholicity there were +some parts which acted with admirable force in improving +and elevating mankind. There were others which had a +directly opposite effect. +</p> + +<p> +The first aspect in which Christianity presented itself to +the world was as a declaration of the fraternity of men in +<pb n='018'/><anchor id='Pg018'/> +Christ. Considered as immortal beings, destined for the +extremes of happiness or of misery, and united to one another +by a special community of redemption, the first and most +manifest duty of a Christian man was to look upon his fellow-men +as sacred beings, and from this notion grew up the +eminently Christian idea of the sanctity of all human life. +I have already endeavoured to show—and the fact is of such +capital importance in meeting the common objections to the +reality of natural moral perceptions, that I venture, at the +risk of tediousness, to recur to it—that nature does not tell +man that it is wrong to slay without provocation his fellow-men. +Not to dwell upon those early stages of barbarism in +which the higher faculties of human nature are still undeveloped, +and almost in the condition of embryo, it is an historical +fact beyond all dispute, that refined, and even moral +societies have existed, in which the slaughter of men of some +particular class or nation has been regarded with no more +compunction than the slaughter of animals in the chase. The +early Greeks, in their dealings with the barbarians; the +Romans, in their dealings with gladiators, and in some periods +of their history, with slaves; the Spaniards, in their dealings +with Indians; nearly all colonists removed from European +supervision, in their dealings with an inferior race; an immense +proportion of the nations of antiquity, in their dealings +with new-born infants, display this complete and absolute +callousness, and we may discover traces of it even in our +own islands and within the last three hundred years.<note place='foot'>See the masterly description +of the relations of the English to +the Irish in the reign of Queen +Elizabeth, in Froude's <hi rend='italic'>History of +England</hi>, ch. xxiv.; and also Lord +Macaulay's description of the feelings +of the Master of Stair towards +the Highlanders. (<hi rend='italic'>History of England</hi>, +ch. xviii.)</note> And +difficult as it may be to realise it in our day, when the atrocity +of all wanton slaughter of men has become an essential part +of our moral feelings, it is nevertheless an incontestable fact +<pb n='019'/><anchor id='Pg019'/> +that this callousness has been continually shown by good +men, by men who in all other respects would be regarded in +any age as conspicuous for their humanity. In the days of +the Tudors, the best Englishmen delighted in what we should +now deem the most barbarous sports, and it is absolutely +certain that in antiquity men of genuine humanity—tender +relations, loving friends, charitable neighbours—men in +whose eyes the murder of a fellow-citizen would have appeared +as atrocious as in our own, attended, instituted, and +applauded gladiatorial games, or counselled without a scruple +the exposition of infants. But it is, as I conceive, a complete +confusion of thought to imagine, as is so commonly done, +that any accumulation of facts of this nature throws the +smallest doubt upon the reality of innate moral perceptions. +All that the intuitive moralist asserts is that we know by +nature that there is a distinction between humanity and +cruelty; that the first belongs to the higher or better part +of our nature, and that it is our duty to cultivate it. The +standard of the age, which is itself determined by the general +condition of society, constitutes the natural line of duty; for +he who falls below it contributes to depress it. Now, there +is no fact more absolutely certain than that nations and +ages which have differed most widely as to the standard have +been perfectly unanimous as to the excellence of humanity. +Plato, who recommended infanticide; Cato, who sold his +aged slaves; Pliny, who applauded the games of the arena; +the old generals, who made their prisoners slaves or gladiators, +as well as the modern generals, who refuse to impose +upon them any degrading labour; the old legislators, who +filled their codes with sentences of torture, mutilation, and +hideous forms of death, as well as the modern legislators, +who are continually seeking to abridge the punishment of +the most guilty; the old disciplinarian, who governed by +force, as well as the modern instructor, who governs by sympathy; +the Spanish girl, whose dark eye glows with rapture +<pb n='020'/><anchor id='Pg020'/> +as she watches the frantic bull, while the fire streams from +the explosive dart that quivers in its neck; as well as the +reformers we sometimes meet, who are scandalised by all +field sports, or by the sacrifice of animal life for food; or +who will eat only the larger animals, in order to reduce the +sacrifice of life to a minimum; or who are continually inventing +new methods of quickening animal death—all these +persons, widely as they differ in their acts and in their judgments +of what things should be called <q>brutal,</q> and of what +things should be called <q>fantastic,</q> agree in believing humanity +to be better than cruelty, and in attaching a definite +condemnation to acts that fall below the standard of their +country and their time. Now, it was one of the most important +services of Christianity, that besides quickening greatly +our benevolent affections it definitely and dogmatically asserted +the sinfulness of all destruction of human life as a +matter of amusement, or of simple convenience, and thereby +formed a new standard higher than any which then existed +in the world. +</p> + +<p> +The influence of Christianity in this respect began with +the very earliest stage of human life. The practice of abortion +was one to which few persons in antiquity attached any +deep feeling of condemnation. I have noticed in a former +chapter that the physiological theory that the fœtus did not +become a living creature till the hour of birth, had some +influence on the judgments passed upon this practice; and +even where this theory was not generally held, it is easy to +account for the prevalence of the act. The death of an +unborn child does not appeal very powerfully to the feeling +of compassion, and men who had not yet attained any strong +sense of the sanctity of human life, who believed that they +might regulate their conduct on these matters by utilitarian +views, according to the general interest of the community, +might very readily conclude that the prevention of birth was +in many cases an act of mercy. In Greece, Aristotle not +<pb n='021'/><anchor id='Pg021'/> +only countenanced the practice, but even desired that it +should be enforced by law, when population had exceeded +certain assigned limits.<note place='foot'>See on the views of Aristotle, +Labourt, <hi rend='italic'>Recherches historiques sur +les Enfanstrouvés</hi> (Paris, 1848), p. 9.</note> No law in Greece, or in the Roman +Republic, or during the greater part of the Empire, condemned +it;<note place='foot'>See Gravina, <hi rend='italic'>De Ortu et Progressu +Juris Civilis</hi>, lib. i. 44.</note> and if, as has been thought, some measure was +adopted condemnatory of it before the close of the Pagan +Empire, that measure was altogether inoperative. A long +chain of writers, both Pagan and Christian, represent the +practice as avowed and almost universal. They describe it +as resulting, not simply from licentiousness or from poverty, +but even from so slight a motive as vanity, which made +mothers shrink from the disfigurement of childbirth. They +speak of a mother who had never destroyed her unborn offspring +as deserving of signal praise, and they assure us that +the frequency of the crime was such that it gave rise to a +regular profession. At the same time, while Ovid, Seneca, +Favorinus the Stoic of Arles, Plutarch, and Juvenal, all +speak of abortion as general and notorious, they all speak of +it as unquestionably criminal.<note place='foot'><p><q>Nunc uterum vitiat quæ vult formosa videci,<lb/> +Raraque in hoc ævo est, quæ velit esse parens.</q> +</p> +<p> +Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>De Nuce</hi>, 22-23. +</p> +<p> +The same writer has devoted +one of his elegies (ii. 14) to reproaching +his mistress Corinna with +having been guilty of this act. It +was not without danger, and Ovid +says, +</p> +<p> +<q>Sæpe suos utero quæ necit ipsa perit.</q> +</p> +<p> +A niece of Domitian is said to +have died in consequence of having, +at the command of the emperor, +practised it (Sueton. <hi rend='italic'>Domit.</hi> xxii.). +Plutarch notices the custom (<hi rend='italic'>De +Sanitate tuenda</hi>), and Seneca eulogises +Helvia (<hi rend='italic'>Ad Helv.</hi> xvi.) for +being exempt from vanity and having +never destroyed her unborn +offspring. Favorinus, in a remarkable +passage (Aulus Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct. +Att.</hi> xii. 1), speaks of the act as +<q>publica detestatione communique +odio dignum,</q> and proceeds to argue +that it is only a degree less criminal +for mothers to put out their +children to nurse. Juvenal has +some well-known and emphatic lines +on the subject:— +</p> +<p> +<q>Sed jacet aurato vix ulla puerpera lecto;<lb/> +Tantum artes hujus, tantum medicamina possunt,<lb/> +Quæ steriles facit, atque homines in ventre necandos<lb/> +Conducit.</q> +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Sat.</hi> vi. 592-595. +</p> +<p> +There are also many allusions +to it in the Christian writers. Thus +Minucius Felix (<hi rend='italic'>Octavius</hi>, xxx.): +<q>Vos enim video procreatos filios +nunc feris et avibus exponere, +nunc adstrangulatos misero mortis +genere elidere. Sunt quæ in ipsis +visceribus, medicaminibus epotis, +originem futuri hominis extinguant, +et parricidium faciant antequam +pariant.</q></p></note> It was probably regarded by +the average Romans of the later days of Paganism much as +<pb n='022'/><anchor id='Pg022'/> +Englishmen in the last century regarded convivial excesses, as +certainly wrong, but so venial as scarcely to deserve censure. +</p> + +<p> +The language of the Christians from the very beginning +was widely different. With unwavering consistency and +with the strongest emphasis, they denounced the practice, not +simply as inhuman, but as definitely murder. In the penitential +discipline of the Church, abortion was placed in the +same category as infanticide, and the stern sentence to +which the guilty person was subject imprinted on the minds +of Christians, more deeply than any mere exhortations, a +sense of the enormity of the crime. By the Council of +Ancyra the guilty mother was excluded from the Sacrament +till the very hour of death; and though this penalty was +soon reduced, first to ten and afterwards to seven years' +penitence,<note place='foot'>See Labourt, <hi rend='italic'>Recherches sur +les Enfans trouvés</hi>, p. 25.</note> the offence still ranked amongst the gravest in the +legislation of the Church. In one very remarkable way the +reforms of Christianity in this sphere were powerfully sustained +by a doctrine which is perhaps the most revolting in +the whole theology of the Fathers. To the Pagans, even +when condemning abortion and infanticide, these crimes +appeared comparatively trivial, because the victims seemed +very insignificant and their sufferings very slight. The +death of an adult man who is struck down in the midst of +his enterprise and his hopes, who is united by ties of love or +friendship to multitudes around him, and whose departure +causes a perturbation and a pang to the society in which he +<pb n='023'/><anchor id='Pg023'/> +has moved, excites feelings very different from any produced +by the painless extinction of a new-born infant, which, +having scarcely touched the earth, has known none of its +cares and very little of its love. But to the theologian this +infant life possessed a fearful significance. The moment, +they taught, the fœtus in the womb acquired animation, it +became an immortal being, destined, even if it died unborn, +to be raised again on the last day, responsible for the sin of +Adam, and doomed, if it perished without baptism, to be +excluded for ever from heaven and to be cast, as the Greeks +taught, into a painless and joyless limbo, or, as the Latins +taught, into the abyss of hell. It is probably, in a considerable +degree, to this doctrine that we owe in the first instance +the healthy sense of the value and sanctity of infant life +which so broadly distinguishes Christian from Pagan societies, +and which is now so thoroughly incorporated with our +moral feelings as to be independent of all doctrinal changes. +That which appealed so powerfully to the compassion of the +early and mediæval Christians, in the fate of the murdered +infants, was not that they died, but that they commonly +died unbaptised; and the criminality of abortion was immeasurably +aggravated when it was believed to involve, not +only the extinction of a transient life, but also the damnation +of an immortal soul.<note place='foot'>Among the barbarian laws +there is a very curious one about +a daily compensation for children +who had been killed in the womb +on account of the daily suffering +of those children in hell. +<q>Propterea diuturnam judicaverunt +antecessores nostri compositionem +et judices postquam religio Christianitatis +inolevit in mundo. Quia +diuturnam postquam incarnationem +suscepit anima, quamvis ad nativitatis +lucem minima pervenisset, +patitur pœnam, quia sine sacramento +regenerationis abortivo modo +tradita est ad inferos.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Leges Bajuvariorum</hi>, +tit. vii. cap. xx. in +Canciani, <hi rend='italic'>Leges Barbar.</hi> vol. ii. p. +374. The first foundling hospital +of which we have undoubted record +is that founded at Milan, by a man +named Datheus, in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 789. Muratori +has preserved (<hi rend='italic'>Antich. Ital.</hi> +Diss. xxxvii.) the charter embodying the motives of the founder, in +which the following sentences occur: +<q>Quia frequenter per luxuriam +hominum genus decipitur, et +exinde malum homicidii generatur, +dum concipientes ex adulterio, ne +prodantur in publico, fetos teneros +necant, <emph>et absque baptismatis lavacro +parvulos ad Tartara mittunt</emph>, quia +nullum reperiunt locum, quo servare +vivos valeant,</q> &c. Henry +II. of France, 1556, made a long +law against women who, <q>advenant +le temps de leur part et délivrance +de leur enfant, occultement s'en +délivrent, puis le suffoquent et autrement +suppriment <emph>sans leur avoir +fait empartir le Saint Sacrement +du Baptême</emph>.</q>—Labourt, <hi rend='italic'>Recherches +sur les Enfans trouvés</hi>, p. 47. There +is a story told of a Queen of Portugal +(sister to Henry V. of England, +and mother of St. Ferdinand) that, +being in childbirth, her life was +despaired of unless she took a +medicine which would accelerate +the birth but probably sacrifice the +life of the child. She answered +that <q>she would not purchase her +temporal life by sacrificing the +eternal salvation of her son.</q>—Bollandists, +<hi rend='italic'>Act. Sanctor.</hi>, June 5th.</note> In the <q>Lives of the Saints</q> there is +a curious legend of a man who, being desirous of ascertaining +<pb n='024'/><anchor id='Pg024'/> +the condition of a child before birth, slew a pregnant woman, +committing thereby a double murder, that of the mother and +of the child in her womb. Stung by remorse, the murderer +fled to the desert, and passed the remainder of his life in +constant penance and prayer. At last, after many years, the +voice of God told him that he had been forgiven the murder +of the woman. But yet his end was a clouded one. He +never could obtain an assurance that he had been forgiven +the death of the child.<note place='foot'>Tillemont, <hi rend='italic'>Mémoires pour servir +à l'Histoire ecclésiastique</hi> (Paris, +1701), tome x. p. 41. St. Clem. +Alexand. says that infants in the +womb and exposed infants have +guardian angels to watch over them. +(<hi rend='italic'>Strom.</hi> v.)</note> +</p> + +<p> +If we pass to the next stage of human life, that of the +new-born infant, we find ourselves in presence of that practice +of infanticide which was one of the deepest stains of the +ancient civilisation. The natural history of this crime is +somewhat peculiar.<note place='foot'>There is an extremely large +literature devoted to the subject +of infanticide, exposition, foundlings, +&c. The books I have chiefly +followed are Terme et Monfalcon, +<hi rend='italic'>Histoire des Enfans trouvés</hi> (Paris, +1840); Remacle, <hi rend='italic'>Des Hospices +d'Enfans trouvés</hi> (1838); Labourt, +<hi rend='italic'>Recherches historiques sur les Enfans +trouvés</hi> (Paris, 1848); Kœnigswarter, +<hi rend='italic'>Essai sur la Législation des +Peuples anciens et modernes relative +aux Enfans nés hors Mariage</hi> (Paris, +1842). There are also many details +on the subject in Godefroy's +Commentary to the laws about +children in the Theodosian Code, +in Malthus, <hi rend='italic'>On Population</hi>, in +Edward's tract <hi rend='italic'>On the State of +Slavery in the Early and Middle +Ages of Christianity</hi>, and in most +ecclesiastical histories.</note> Among savages, whose feelings of +compassion are very faint, and whose warlike and nomadic +<pb n='025'/><anchor id='Pg025'/> +habits are eminently unfavourable to infant life, it is, as +might be expected, the usual custom for the parent to decide +whether he desires to preserve the child he has called into +existence, and if he does not, to expose or slay it. In nations +that have passed out of the stage of barbarism, but are still +rude and simple in their habits, the practice of infanticide is +usually rare; but, unlike other crimes of violence, it is not +naturally diminished by the progress of civilisation, for, after +the period of savage life is passed, its prevalence is influenced +much more by the sensuality than by the barbarity of a +people.<note place='foot'>It must not; however, be inferred +from this that infanticide +increases in direct proportion to +the unchastity of a nation. Probably +the condition of civilised +society in which it is most common, +is where a large amount of +actual unchastity coexists with +very strong social condemnation of +the sinner, and where, in consequence, +there is an intense anxiety +to conceal the fall. A recent writer +on Spain has noticed the almost +complete absence of infanticide in +that country, and has ascribed it +to the great leniency of public +opinion towards female frailty. +Foundling hospitals, also, greatly +influence the history of infanticide; +but the mortality in them was long +so great that it may be questioned +whether they have diminished the +number of the deaths, though they +have, as I believe, greatly diminished +the number of the murders +of children. Lord Kames, writing +in the last half of the eighteenth +century, says: <q>In Wales, even at +present, and in the Highlands of +Scotland, it is scarce a disgrace +for a young woman to have a bastard. +In the country last mentioned, +the first instance known of +a bastard child being destroyed by +its mother through shame is a late +one. The virtue of chastity appears +to be thus gaining ground, as +the only temptation a woman can +have to destroy her child is to conceal +her frailty.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Sketches of the +History of Man—On the Progress +of the Female Sex.</hi> The last clause +is clearly inaccurate, but there +seems reason for believing that +maternal affection is generally +stronger than want, but weaker +than shame.</note> We may trace too, in many countries and ages, the +notion that children, as the fruit, representatives, and dearest +possessions of their parents, are acceptable sacrifices to the +gods.<note place='foot'>See Warburton's <hi rend='italic'>Divine Legation</hi>, +vii. 2.</note> Infanticide, as is well known, was almost universally +<pb n='026'/><anchor id='Pg026'/> +admitted among the Greeks, being sanctioned, and in some +cases enjoined, upon what we should now call <q>the greatest +happiness principle,</q> by the ideal legislations of Plato and +Aristotle, and by the actual legislations of Lycurgus and +Solon. Regarding the community as a whole, they clearly +saw that it is in the highest degree for the interest of society +that the increase of population should be very jealously restricted, +and that the State should be as far as possible free +from helpless and unproductive members; and they therefore +concluded that the painless destruction of infant life, and +especially of those infants who were so deformed or diseased +that their lives, if prolonged, would probably have been a +burden to themselves, was on the whole a benefit. The very +sensual tone of Greek life rendered the modern notion of +prolonged continence wholly alien to their thoughts; and the +extremely low social and intellectual condition of Greek +mothers, who exercised no appreciable influence over the +habits of thought of the nation should also, I think, be taken +into account, for it has always been observed that mothers +are much more distinguished than fathers for their affection +for infants that have not yet manifested the first dawning of +reason. Even in Greece, however, infanticide and exposition +were not universally permitted. In Thebes these offences +are said to have been punished by death.<note place='foot'>Ælian, <hi rend='italic'>Varia Hist.</hi> ii. 7. Passages +from the Greek imaginative +writers, representing exposition as +the avowed and habitual practice +of poor parents, are collected by +Terme et Monfalcon, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des Enfans +trouvés</hi>, pp. 39-45. Tacitus +notices with praise (<hi rend='italic'>Germania</hi>, xix.) +that the Germans did not allow infanticide. +He also notices (<hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> +v. 5) the prohibition of infanticide +among the Jews, and ascribes it to +their desire to increase the population.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The power of life and death, which in Rome was originally +conceded to the father over his children, would appear +to involve an unlimited permission of infanticide; but a very +old law, popularly ascribed to Romulus, in this respect restricted +the parental rights, enjoining the father to bring up +<pb n='027'/><anchor id='Pg027'/> +all his male children, and at least his eldest female child, +forbidding him to destroy any well-formed child till it had +completed its third year, when the affections of the parent +might be supposed to be developed, but permitting the exposition +of deformed or maimed children with the consent of +their five nearest relations.<note place='foot'>Dion. Halic. ii.</note> The Roman policy was always +to encourage, while the Greek policy was rather to restrain, +population, and infanticide never appears to have been common +in Rome till the corrupt and sensual days of the Empire. +The legislators then absolutely condemned it, and it was +indirectly discouraged by laws which accorded special privileges +to the fathers of many children, exempted poor parents +from most of the burden of taxation, and in some degree +provided for the security of exposed infants. Public opinion +probably differed little from that of our own day as to the +fact, though it differed from it much as to the degree, of its +criminality. It was, as will be remembered, one of the +charges most frequently brought against the Christians, and +it was one that never failed to arouse popular indignation. +Pagan and Christian authorities are, however, united in +speaking of infanticide as a crying vice of the Empire, and +Tertullian observed that no laws were more easily or more +constantly evaded than those which condemned it.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ad Nat.</hi> i. 15.</note> A broad +distinction was popularly drawn between infanticide and +exposition. The latter, though probably condemned, was +certainly not punished by law;<note place='foot'>The well-known jurisconsult +Paulus had laid down the proposition, +<q>Necare videtur non tantum +is qui partum perfocat sed et is qui +abjicit et qui alimonia denegat et +qui publicis locis misericordiæ +causa exponit quam ipse non habet.</q> +(<hi rend='italic'>Dig.</hi> lib. xxv. tit. iii. 1. 4.) These +words have given rise to a famous +controversy between two Dutch +professors, named Noodt and Bynkershoek, +conducted on both sides +with great learning, and on the +side of Noodt with great passion. +Noodt maintained that these words +are simply the expression of a +moral truth, not a judicial decision, +and that exposition was never +illegal in Rome till some time after +the establishment of Christianity. +His opponent argued that exposition +was legally identical with infanticide, +and became, therefore, +illegal when the power of life and +death was withdrawn from the +father. (See the works of Noodt +(Cologne, 1763) and of Bynkershoek +(Cologne, 1761)). It was at +least certain that exposition was +notorious and avowed, and the law +against it, if it existed, inoperative. +Gibbon (<hi rend='italic'>Decline and Fall</hi>, +ch. xliv.) thinks the law censured +but did not punish exposition. +See, too, Troplong, <hi rend='italic'>Influence du +Christianisme sur le Droit</hi>, p. 271.</note> it was practised on a +<pb n='028'/><anchor id='Pg028'/> +gigantic scale and with absolute impunity, noticed by writers +with the most frigid indifference, and, at least in the case of +destitute parents, considered a very venial offence.<note place='foot'>Quintilian speaks in a tone of +apology, if not justification, of the +exposition of the children of destitute +parents (<hi rend='italic'>Decl.</hi> cccvi.), and even +Plutarch speaks of it without censure. +(<hi rend='italic'>De Amor. Prolis.</hi>) There +are several curious illustrations in +Latin literature of the different +feelings of fathers and mothers on +this matter. Terence (<hi rend='italic'>Heauton.</hi> +Act. iii. Scene 5) represents Chremes +as having, as a matter of course, +charged his pregnant wife to have +her child killed provided it was a +girl. The mother, overcome by +pity, shrank from doing so, and +secretly gave it to an old woman +to expose it, in hopes that it might +be preserved. Chremes, on hearing +what had been done, reproached +his wife for her womanly pity, and +told her she had been not only +disobedient but irrational, for she +was only consigning her daughter +to the life of a prostitute. In +Apuleius (<hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> lib. x.) we have a +similar picture of a father starting +for a journey, leaving his wife in +childbirth, and giving her his parting +command to kill her child if it +should be a girl, which she could +not bring herself to do. The girl +was brought up secretly. In the +case of weak or deformed infants +infanticide seems to have been +habitual. <q>Portentosos fœtus extinguimus, +liberos quoque, si debiles +monstrosique editi sunt, mergimus. +Non ira, sed ratio est, a sanis inutilia +secernere.</q>—Seneca, <hi rend='italic'>De Ira</hi>, i. +15. Terence has introduced a +picture of the exposition of an infant +into his <hi rend='italic'>Andria</hi>, Act. iv. Scene +5. See, too, Suet. <hi rend='italic'>August.</hi> lxv. +According to Suetonius (<hi rend='italic'>Calig.</hi> v.), +on the death of Germanicus, women +exposed their new-born children in +sign of grief. Ovid had dwelt with +much feeling on the barbarity of +these practices. It is a very +curious fact, which has been noticed +by Warburton, that Chremes, +whose sentiments about infants we +have just seen, is the very personage +into whose mouth Terence has put +the famous sentiment, <q>Homo sum, +humani nihil a me alienum puto.</q></note> Often, +no doubt, the exposed children perished, but more frequently +the very extent of the practice saved the lives of the victims. +They were brought systematically to a column near the Velabrum, +and there taken by speculators, who educated them as +slaves, or very frequently as prostitutes.<note place='foot'>That these were the usual +fates of exposed infants is noticed +by several writers. Some, too, +both Pagan and Christian (Quintilian, +<hi rend='italic'>Decl.</hi> cccvi.; Lactantius, Div. +Inst. vi. 20, &c.), speak of the liability +to incestuous marriages resulting +from frequent exposition. +In the Greek poets there are +several allusions to rich childless +men adopting foundlings, and Juvenal +says it was common for +Roman wives to palm off foundlings +on their husbands for their +sons. (<hi rend='italic'>Sat.</hi> vi. 603.) There is an +extremely horrible declamation in +Seneca the Rhetorician (<hi rend='italic'>Controvers.</hi> +lib. v. 33) about exposed children +who were said to have been maimed +and mutilated, either to prevent +their recognition by their parents, +or that they might gain money as +beggars for their masters.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='029'/><anchor id='Pg029'/> + +<p> +On the whole, what was demanded on this subject was +not any clearer moral teaching, but rather a stronger enforcement +of the condemnation long since passed upon infanticide, +and an increased protection for exposed infants. By the +penitential sentences, by the dogmatic considerations I have +enumerated, and by the earnest exhortations both of her +preachers and writers, the Church laboured to deepen the +sense of the enormity of the act, and especially to convince +men that the guilt of abandoning their children to the precarious +and doubtful mercy of the stranger was scarcely +less than that of simple infanticide.<note place='foot'>See passages on this point +cited by Godefroy in his <hi rend='italic'>Commentary +to the Law <q>De Expositis,</q> Codex +Theod.</hi> lib. v. tit. 7.</note> In the civil law her +influence was also displayed, though not, I think, very +advantageously. By the counsel, it is said, of Lactantius, +Constantine, in the very year of his conversion, in order to +diminish infanticide by destitute parents, issued a decree, +applicable in the first instance to Italy, but extended in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> +322 to Africa, in which he commanded that those children +whom their parents were unable to support should be clothed +and fed at the expense of the State,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Codex Theod.</hi> lib. xi. tit. +27.</note> a policy which had already +been pursued on a large scale under the Antonines. In <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> +331, a law intended to multiply the chances of the exposed +child being taken charge of by some charitable or interested +person, provided that the foundling should remain the absolute +property of its saviour, whether he adopted it as a son +<pb n='030'/><anchor id='Pg030'/> +or employed it as a slave, and that the parent should not +have power at any future time to reclaim it.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Codex Theod.</hi> lib. v. tit. 7, +lex. 1.</note> By another +law, which had been issued in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 329, it had been provided +that children who had been, not exposed, but sold, +might be reclaimed upon payment by the father.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> lib. v. tit. 8, lex 1.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The last two laws cannot be regarded with unmingled +satisfaction. The law regulating the condition of exposed children, +though undoubtedly enacted with the most benevolent +intentions, was in some degree a retrograde step, the Pagan +laws having provided that the father might always withdraw +the child he had exposed, from servitude, by payment of the +expenses incurred in supporting it,<note place='foot'>See Godefroy's <hi rend='italic'>Commentary +to the Law</hi>.</note> while Trajan had even +decided that the exposed child could not become under any +circumstance a slave.<note place='foot'>In a letter to the younger Pliny. +(<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> x. 72.)</note> The law of Constantine, on the other +hand, doomed it to an irrevocable servitude; and this law +continued in force till <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 529, when Justinian, reverting to +the principle of Trajan, decreed that not only the father lost +all legitimate authority over his child by exposing it, but +also that the person who had saved it could not by that act +deprive it of its natural liberty. But this law applied only +to the Eastern Empire; and in part at least of the West<note place='foot'>See on this point Muratori, +<hi rend='italic'>Antich. Ital.</hi> Diss. xxxvii.</note> +the servitude of exposed infants continued for centuries, and +appears only to have terminated with the general extinction +of slavery in Europe. The law of Constantine concerning +the sale of children was also a step, though perhaps a necessary +step, of retrogression. A series of emperors, among +whom Caracalla was conspicuous, had denounced and endeavoured +to abolish, as <q>shameful,</q> the traffic in free children, +and Diocletian had expressly and absolutely condemned it.<note place='foot'>See on these laws, Wallon, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. de l'Esclavage</hi>, tome iii. pp. +52, 53.</note> +<pb n='031'/><anchor id='Pg031'/> +The extreme misery, however, resulting from the civil wars +under Constantine, had rendered it necessary to authorise +the old practice of selling children in the case of absolute +destitution, which, though it had been condemned, had probably +never altogether ceased. Theodosius the Great attempted +to take a step in advance, by decreeing that the +children thus sold might regain their freedom without the +repayment of the purchase-money, a temporary service being +a sufficient compensation for the purchase;<note place='foot'>See <hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> lib. iii. tit. 3, +lex 1, and the Commentary.</note> but this measure +was repealed by Valentinian III. The sale of children in +case of great necessity, though denounced by the Fathers,<note place='foot'>On the very persistent denunciation +of this practice by the +Fathers, see many examples in +Terme et Monfalcon.</note> +continued long after the time of Theodosius, nor does any +Christian emperor appear to have enforced the humane +enactment of Diocletian. +</p> + +<p> +Together with these measures for the protection of exposed +children, there were laws directly condemnatory of +infanticide. This branch of the subject is obscured by much +ambiguity and controversy; but it appears most probable +that the Pagan legislation reckoned infanticide as a form of +homicide, though, being deemed less atrocious than other +forms of homicide, it was punished, not by death, but by +banishment.<note place='foot'>This is a mere question of +definition, upon which lawyers have +expended much learning and discussion. +Cujas thought the Romans +considered infanticide a +crime, but a crime generically different +from homicide. Godefroy +maintains that it was classified as +homicide, but that, being esteemed +less heinous than the other forms +of homicide, it was only punished +by exile. See the Commentary to +<hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> lib. ix. tit. 14, l. 1.</note> A law of Constantine, intended principally, +and perhaps exclusively, for Africa, where the sacrifices of +children to Saturn were very common, assimilated to parricide +the murder of a child by its father;<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> lib. ix. tit. 15.</note> and finally, Valentinian, +in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 374, made all infanticide a capital offence,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> lib. ix. tit. 14, lex 1.</note> and +<pb n='032'/><anchor id='Pg032'/> +especially enjoined the punishment of exposition.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Corp. Juris</hi>, lib. viii. tit. 52, +lex 2.</note> A law of +the Spanish Visigoths, in the seventh century, punished infanticide +and abortion with death or blindness.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Leges Wisigothorum</hi> (lib. vi. +tit. 3, lex 7) and other laws (lib. +iv. tit. 4) condemned exposition.</note> In the +Capitularies of Charlemagne the former crime was punished +as homicide.<note place='foot'><q>Si quis infantem necaverit +ut homicida teneatur.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Capit.</hi> vii. +168.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It is not possible to ascertain, with any degree of accuracy, +what diminution of infanticide resulted from these measures. +It may, however, be safely asserted that the publicity of the +trade in exposed children became impossible under the influence +of Christianity, and that the sense of the serious nature +of the crime was very considerably increased. The extreme +destitution, which was one of its most fertile causes, was met +by Christian charity. Many exposed children appear to +have been educated by individual Christians.<note place='foot'>It appears, from a passage of +St. Augustine, that Christian virgins +were accustomed to collect +exposed children and to have them +brought into the church. See +Terme et Monfalcon, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des +Enfans trouvés</hi>, p. 74.</note> Brephotrophia +and Orphanotrophia are among the earliest recorded charitable +institutions of the Church; but it is not certain that +exposed children were admitted into them, and we find no +trace for several centuries of Christian foundling hospitals. +This form of charity grew up gradually in the early part of +the middle ages. It is said that one existed at Trêves in the +sixth, and at Angers in the seventh century, and it is certain +that one existed at Milan in the eighth century.<note place='foot'>Compare Labourt, <hi rend='italic'>Rech. sur +les Enfans trouvés</hi>, pp. 32, 33; +Muratori, <hi rend='italic'>Antichità Italiane</hi>, Dissert. +xxxvii. Muratori has also +briefly noticed the history of these +charities in his <hi rend='italic'>Carità Christiana</hi>, +cap. xxvii.</note> The +Council of Rouen, in the ninth century, invited women who +had secretly borne children to place them at the door of the +church, and undertook to provide for them if they were not +reclaimed. It is probable that they were brought up among +<pb n='033'/><anchor id='Pg033'/> +the numerous slaves or serfs attached to the ecclesiastical +properties; for a decree of the Council of Arles, in the fifth +century, and afterwards a law of Charlemagne, had echoed +the enactment of Constantine, declaring that exposed children +should be the slaves of their protectors. As slavery declined, +the memorials of many sins, like many other of the discordant +elements of mediæval society, were doubtless absorbed and +consecrated in the monastic societies. The strong sense +always evinced in the Church of the enormity of unchastity +probably rendered the ecclesiastics more cautious in this than +in other forms of charity, for institutions especially intended +for deserted children advanced but slowly. Even Rome, the +mother of many charities, could boast of none till the beginning +of the thirteenth century.<note place='foot'>The first seems to have been +the hospital of Sta. Maria in +Sassia, which had existed with +various changes from the eighth +century, but was made a foundling +hospital and confided to the +care of Guy of Montpellier in +<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1204. According to one tradition, +Pope Innocent III. had +been shocked at hearing of infants +drawn in the nets of fishermen +from the Tiber. According to +another, he was inspired by an +angel. Compare Remacle, <hi rend='italic'>Hospices +d'Enfans trouvés</hi>, pp. 36-37, and +Amydemus, <hi rend='italic'>Pietas Romana</hi> (a book +written <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1624, and translated +in part into English in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1687), +Eng. trans, pp. 2, 3.</note> About the middle of the +twelfth century we find societies at Milan charged, among +other functions, with seeking for exposed children. Towards +the close of the same century, a monk of Montpellier, whose +very name is doubtful, but who is commonly spoken of as +Brother Guy, founded a confraternity called by the name of +the Holy Ghost, and devoted to the protection and education +of children; and this society in the two following centuries +ramified over a great part of Europe.<note place='foot'>For the little that is known +about this missionary of charity, +compare Remacle, <hi rend='italic'>Hospices d'Enfans +trouvés</hi>, pp. 34-44; and Labourt, +<hi rend='italic'>Recherches historiques sur les +Enfans trouvés</hi>, pp. 38-41.</note> Though principally +and at first, perhaps, exclusively intended for the care of the +orphans of legitimate marriages, though in the fifteenth +<pb n='034'/><anchor id='Pg034'/> +century the Hospital of the Holy Ghost at Paris even refused +to admit deserted children, yet the care of foundlings +soon passed in a great measure into its hands. At last, after +many complaints of the frequency of infanticide, St. Vincent +de Paul arose, and gave so great an impulse to that branch +of charity that he may be regarded as its second author, and +his influence was felt not only in private charities, but in +legislative enactments. Into the effects of these measures—the +encouragement of the vice of incontinence by institutions +that were designed to suppress the crime of infanticide, and +the serious moral controversies suggested by this apparent +conflict between the interests of humanity and of chastity—it +is not necessary for me to enter. We are at present concerned +with the principles that actuated Christian charity, +not with the wisdom of its organisations. Whatever mistakes +may have been made, the entire movement I have +traced displays an anxiety not only for the life, but also for +the moral well-being, of the castaways of society, such as the +most humane nations of antiquity had never reached. This +minute and scrupulous care for human life and human virtue +in the humblest forms, in the slave, the gladiator, the savage, +or the infant, was indeed wholly foreign to the genius of +Paganism. It was produced by the Christian doctrine of +the inestimable value of each immortal soul. It is the distinguishing +and transcendent characteristic of every society +into which the spirit of Christianity has passed. +</p> + +<p> +The influence of Christianity in the protection of infant +life, though very real, may be, and I think often has been, +exaggerated. It would be difficult to overrate its influence +in the sphere we have next to examine. There is scarcely +any other single reform so important in the moral history of +mankind as the suppression of the gladiatorial shows, and +this feat must be almost exclusively ascribed to the Christian +Church. When we remember how extremely few of the +best and greatest men of the Roman world had absolutely +<pb n='035'/><anchor id='Pg035'/> +condemned the games of the amphitheatre, it is impossible to +regard, without the deepest admiration, the unwavering and +uncompromising consistency of the patristic denunciations. +And even comparing the Fathers with the most enlightened +Pagan moralists in their treatment of this matter, we shall +usually find one most significant difference. The Pagan, in +the spirit of philosophy, denounced these games as inhuman, +or demoralising, or degrading, or brutal. The Christian, in +the spirit of the Church, represented them as a definite sin, +the sin of murder, for which the spectators as well as the +actors were directly responsible before Heaven. In the very +latest days of the Pagan Empire, magnificent amphitheatres +were still arising,<note place='foot'>E.g. the amphitheatre of +Verona was only built under Diocletian.</note> and Constantine himself had condemned +numerous barbarian captives to combat with wild beasts.<note place='foot'><q>Quid hoc triumpho pulchrius?... +Tantam captivorum +multitudinem bestiis objicit ut ingrati +et perfidi non minus doloris +ex ludibrio sui quam ex ipsa morte +patiantur.</q>—Incerti, <hi rend='italic'>Panegyricus +Constant</hi>. <q>Puberes qui in manus +venerunt, quorum nec perfidia erat +apta militiæ nec ferocia servituti +ad pœnas spectaculo dati sævientes +bestias multitudine sua fatigarunt.</q>—Eumenius, +<hi rend='italic'>Paneg. Constant.</hi> xi.</note> +It was in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 325, immediately after the convocation of the +Council of Nice, that the first Christian emperor issued the +first edict in the Roman Empire condemnatory of the gladiatorial +games.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> lib. xv. tit. 12, +lex 1. Sozomen, i. 8.</note> It was issued in Berytus in Syria, and is +believed by some to have been only applicable to the province +of Phœnicia;<note place='foot'>This, at least, is the opinion +of Godefroy, who has discussed the +subject very fully. (<hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> +lib. xv. tit. 12.)</note> but even in this province it was suffered to +be inoperative, for, only four years later, Libanius speaks of +the shows as habitually celebrated at Antioch.<note place='foot'>Libanius, <hi rend='italic'>De Vita Sua</hi>, 3.</note> In the +Western Empire their continuance was fully recognised, +though a few infinitesimal restrictions were imposed upon +them. Constantine, in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 357, prohibited the lanistæ, or +<pb n='036'/><anchor id='Pg036'/> +purveyors of gladiators, from bribing servants of the palace to +enrol themselves as combatants.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> lib. xv. tit. 12, l. 2.</note> Valentinian, in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 365, forbade +any Christian criminal,<note place='foot'>Ibid. lib. ix. tit. 40, l. 8.</note> and in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 367, any one connected +with the Palatine,<note place='foot'>Ibid. lib. ix. tit. 40, l. 11.</note> being condemned to fight. Honorius +prohibited any slave who had been a gladiator passing into +the service of a senator; but the real object of this last +measure was, I imagine, not so much to stigmatise the +gladiator, as to guard against the danger of an armed nobility.<note place='foot'>Ibid. lib. xv. tit. 12, l. 3.</note> +A much more important fact is that the spectacles were +never introduced into the new capital of Constantine. At +Rome, though they became less numerous, they do not appear +to have been suspended until their final suppression. The +passion for gladiators was the worst, while religious liberty +was probably the best, feature of the old Pagan society; and +it is a melancholy fact that of these two it was the nobler +part that in the Christian Empire was first destroyed. Theodosius +the Great, who suppressed all diversity of worship +throughout the Empire, and who showed himself on many +occasions the docile slave of the clergy, won the applause of +the Pagan Symmachus by compelling his barbarian prisoners +to fight as gladiators.<note place='foot'>Symmach. <hi rend='italic'>Ex.</hi> x. 61.</note> Besides this occasion, we have special +knowledge of gladiatorial games that were celebrated in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> +385, in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 391, and afterwards in the reign of Honorius, +and the practice of condemning criminals to the arena still +continued.<note place='foot'>M. Wallon has traced these +last shows with much learning. +(<hi rend='italic'>Hist. de l'Esclavage</hi>, tome iii. pp. +421-429.)</note> +</p> + +<p> +But although the suppression of the gladiatorial shows +was not effected in the metropolis of the Empire till nearly +ninety years after Christianity had been the State religion, +the distinction between the teaching of the Christians and +Pagans on the subject remained unimpaired. To the last, +<pb n='037'/><anchor id='Pg037'/> +the most estimable of the Pagans appear to have regarded +them with favour or indifference. Julian, it is true, with a +rare magnanimity, refused persistently, in his conflict with +Christianity, to avail himself, as he might most easily have +done, of the popular passion for games which the Church +condemned; but Libanius has noticed them with some approbation,<note place='foot'>He wavered, however, on +the subject, and on one occasion +condemned them. See Wallon, +tome iii. p. 423.</note> +and Symmachus, as we have already seen, both instituted +and applauded them. But the Christians steadily +refused to admit any professional gladiator to baptism till he +had pledged himself to abandon his calling, and every Christian +who attended the games was excluded from communion. +The preachers and writers of the Church denounced them +with the most unqualified vehemence, and the poet Prudentius +made a direct and earnest appeal to the emperor to suppress +them. In the East, where they had never taken very firm +root, they appear to have ceased about the time of Theodosius, +and a passion for chariot races, which rose to the most extravagant +height at Constantinople and in many other cities, +took their place. In the West, the last gladiatorial show was +celebrated at Rome, under Honorius, in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 404, in honour +of the triumph of Stilicho, when an Asiatic monk, named +Telemachus, animated by the noblest heroism of philanthropy, +rushed into the amphitheatre, and attempted to part the combatants. +He perished beneath a shower of stones flung by +the angry spectators; but his death led to the final abolition +of the games.<note place='foot'>Theodoret, v. 26.</note> Combats of men with wild beasts continued, +however, much later, and were especially popular in the East. +The difficulty of procuring wild animals, amid the general +poverty, contributed, with other causes, to their decline. +They sank, at last, into games of cruelty to animals, but of +little danger to men, and were finally condemned, at the end +of the seventh century, by the Council of Trullo.<note place='foot'>Muller, <hi rend='italic'>De Genio Ævi Theodosiani</hi> +(1797), vol. ii. p. 88; Milman, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Early Christianity</hi>, +vol. iii. pp. 343-347.</note> In Italy, +<pb n='038'/><anchor id='Pg038'/> +the custom of sham fights, which continued through the whole +of the middle ages, and which Petrarch declares were in his +days sometimes attended with considerable bloodshed, may +perhaps be traced in some degree to the traditions of the +amphitheatre.<note place='foot'>See on these fights Ozanam's +<hi rend='italic'>Civilisation in the Fifth Century</hi> +(Eng. trans.), vol. i. p. 130.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The extinction of the gladiatorial spectacles is, of all the +results of early Christian influence, that upon which the +historian can look with the deepest and most unmingled +satisfaction. Horrible as was the bloodshed they directly +caused, these games were perhaps still more pernicious on +account of the callousness of feeling they diffused through all +classes, the fatal obstacle they presented to any general elevation +of the standard of humanity. Yet the attitude of the +Pagans decisively proves that no progress of philosophy or +social civilisation was likely, for a very long period, to have +extirpated them; and it can hardly be doubted that, had they +been flourishing unchallenged as in the days of Trajan, when +the rude warriors of the North obtained the empire of Italy, +they would have been eagerly adopted by the conquerors, +would have taken deep root in mediæval life, and have indefinitely +retarded the progress of humanity. Christianity +alone was powerful enough to tear this evil plant from the +Roman soil. The Christian custom of legacies for the relief +of the indigent and suffering replaced the Pagan custom of +bequeathing sums of money for games in honour of the dead; +and the month of December, which was looked forward to +with eagerness through all the Roman world, as the special +season of the gladiatorial spectacles, was consecrated in the +Church by another festival commemorative of the advent of +Christ. +</p> + +<p> +The notion of the sanctity of human life, which led the +early Christians to combat and at last to overthrow the +<pb n='039'/><anchor id='Pg039'/> +gladiatorial games, was carried by some of them to an extent +altogether irreconcilable with national independence, and +with the prevailing penal system. Many of them taught +that no Christian might lawfully take away life, either as a +soldier, or by bringing a capital charge, or by acting as an +executioner. The first of these questions it will be convenient +to reserve for a later period of this chapter, when I propose +to examine the relations of Christianity to the military spirit, +and a very few words will be sufficient to dispose of the +others. The notion that there is something impure and defiling, +even in a just execution, is one which may be traced +through many ages; and executioners, as the ministers of the +law, have been from very ancient times regarded as unholy. +In both Greece and Rome the law compelled them to live +outside the walls, and at Rhodes they were never permitted +even to enter the city.<note place='foot'>Nieupoort, <hi rend='italic'>De Ritibus Romanorum</hi>, +p. 169.</note> Notions of this kind were very +strongly held in the early Church; and a decree of the penitential +discipline which was enforced, even against emperors +and generals, forbade any one whose hands had been imbrued +in blood, even when that blood was shed in a righteous war, +approaching the altar without a preparatory period of penance. +The opinions of the Christians of the first three centuries +were usually formed without any regard to the necessities of +civil or political life; but when the Church obtained an +ascendancy, it was found necessary speedily to modify them; +and although Lactantius, in the fourth century, maintained +the unlawfulness of all bloodshed,<note place='foot'>See a very unequivocal passage, +<hi rend='italic'>Inst. Div.</hi> vi. 20. Several +earlier testimonies on the subject +are given by Barbeyrac, <hi rend='italic'>Morale des +Pères</hi>, and in many other books.</note> as strongly as Origen in +the third, and Tertullian in the second, the common doctrine +was simply that no priest or bishop must take any part in a +capital charge. From this exceptional position of the clergy +they speedily acquired the position of official intercessors for +<pb n='040'/><anchor id='Pg040'/> +criminals, ambassadors of mercy, when, from some act of +sedition or other cause, their city or neighbourhood was +menaced with a bloody invasion. The right of sanctuary, +which was before possessed by the Imperial statues and by +the Pagan temples, was accorded to the churches. During +the holy seasons of Lent and Easter, no criminal trials could +be held, and no criminal could be tortured or executed.<note place='foot'>See two laws enacted in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> +380 (<hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> ix. tit. 35, l. 4) +and <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 389 (<hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> ix. tit. +35, l. 5). Theodosius the Younger +made a law (ix. tit. 35, l. 7) excepting +the Isaurian robbers from the +privileges of these laws.</note> +Miracles, it was said, were sometimes wrought to attest the +innocence of accused or condemned men, but were never +wrought to consign criminals to execution by the civil +power.<note place='foot'>There are, of course, innumerable +miracles punishing guilty +men, but I know none assisting the +civil power in doing so. As an +example of the miracles in defence +of the innocent, I may cite one by +St. Macarius. An innocent man, +accused of a murder, fled to him. +He brought both the accused and +accusers to the tomb of the murdered +man, and asked him whether +the prisoner was the murderer. The +corpse answered in the negative; +the bystanders implored St. Macarius +to ask it to reveal the real +culprit; but St. Macarius refused +to do so. (<hi rend='italic'>Vitæ Patrum</hi>, lib. ii. +cap. xxviii.)</note> +</p> + +<p> +All this had an importance much beyond its immediate +effect in tempering the administration of the law. It contributed +largely to associate in the popular imagination the +ideas of sanctity and of mercy, and to increase the reverence +for human life. It had also another remarkable effect, to +which I have adverted in another work. The belief that it +was wrong for a priest to bring any charge that could give rise +to a capital sentence caused the leading clergy to shrink from +persecuting heresy to death, at a time when in all other +respects the theory of persecution had been fully matured. +When it was readily admitted that heresy was in the highest +degree criminal, and ought to be made penal, when laws banishing, +fining, or imprisoning heretics filled the statute-book, +and when every vestige of religious liberty was suppressed at +<pb n='041'/><anchor id='Pg041'/> +the instigation of the clergy, these still shrank from the last +and inevitable step, not because it was an atrocious violation +of the rights of conscience, but because it was contrary to the +ecclesiastical discipline for a bishop, under any circumstances, +to countenance bloodshed. It was on this ground that St. +Augustine, while eagerly advocating the persecution of the +Donatists, more than once expressed a wish that they should +not be punished with death, and that St. Ambrose, and St. +Martin of Tours, who were both energetic persecutors, expressed +their abhorrence of the Spanish bishops, who had +caused some Priscillianists to be executed. I have elsewhere +noticed the odious hypocrisy of the later inquisitors, who relegated +the execution of the sentence to the civil power, with +a prayer that the heretics should be punished <q>as mildly as +possible and without the effusion of blood,</q><note place='foot'><q>Ut quam clementissime et +ultra sanguinis effusionem puniretur.</q></note> which came at +last to be interpreted, by the death of fire; but I may here +add, that this hideous mockery is not unique in the history of +religion. Plutarch suggests that one of the reasons for burying +unchaste vestals alive was that they were so sacred that +it was unlawful to lay violent hands upon them,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Quæstœ. Romanæ</hi>, xcvi.</note> and among +the Donatists the Circumcelliones were for a time accustomed +to abstain, in obedience to the evangelical command, from the +use of the sword, while they beat to death those who differed +from their theological opinions with massive clubs, to which +they gave the very significant name of Israelites.<note place='foot'>Tillemont, <hi rend='italic'>Mém. d'Hist. ecclés</hi>. +tome vi. pp. 88-98. The Donatists +after a time, however, are said to +have overcome their scruples, and +used swords.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The time came when the Christian priests shed blood +enough. The extreme scrupulosity, however, which they at +first displayed, is not only exceedingly curious when contrasted +with their later history; it was also, by the association +of ideas which it promoted, very favourable to humanity. +<pb n='042'/><anchor id='Pg042'/> +It is remarkable, however, that while some of the early +Fathers were the undoubted precursors of Beccaria, their +teaching, unlike that of the philosophers in the eighteenth +century, had little or no appreciable influence in mitigating +the severity of the penal code. Indeed, the more carefully +the Christian legislation of the Empire is examined, and the +more fully it is compared with what had been done under +the influence of Stoicism by the Pagan legislators, the more +evident, I think, it will appear that the golden age of Roman +law was not Christian, but Pagan. Great works of codification +were accomplished under the younger Theodosius, and +under Justinian; but it was in the reign of Pagan emperors, +and especially of Hadrian and Alexander Severus, that +nearly all the most important measures were taken, redressing +injustices, elevating oppressed classes, and making the +doctrine of the natural equality and fraternity of mankind +the basis of legal enactments. Receiving the heritage of +these laws, the Christians, no doubt, added something; but a +careful examination will show that it was surprisingly little. +In no respect is the greatness of the Stoic philosophers more +conspicuous than in the contrast between the gigantic steps +of legal reform made in a few years under their influence, +and the almost insignificant steps taken when Christianity +had obtained an ascendancy in the Empire, not to speak of +the long period of decrepitude that followed. In the way of +mitigating the severity of punishments, Constantine made, +it is true, three important laws prohibiting the custom of +branding criminals upon the face, the condemnation of +criminals as gladiators, and the continuance of the once +degrading but now sacred punishment of crucifixion, which +had been very commonly employed; but these measures +were more than counterbalanced by the extreme severity +with which the Christian emperors punished infanticide, +adultery, seduction, rape, and several other crimes, and +the number of capital offences became considerably greater +<pb n='043'/><anchor id='Pg043'/> +than before.<note place='foot'>Under the Christian kings, the +barbarians multiplied the number +of capital offences, but this has +usually been regarded as an improvement. +The Abbé Mably says: +<q>Quoiqu'il nous reste peu d'ordonnances +faites sous les premiers +Mérovingiens, nous voyons qu'avant +la fin du sixième siècle, les François +avoient déjà adopté la doctrine +salutaire des Romains au sujet +de la prescription; et que renonçant +à cette humanité cruelle qui +les enhardissoit au mal, ils infligèrent +peine de mort contre l'inceste, +le vol et le meurtre qui jusques-là +n'avoient été punis que par l'exil, +ou dont on se rachetoit par une +composition. Les François, en réformant +quelques-unes de leurs lois +civiles, portèrent la sévérité aussi +loin que leurs pères avoient poussé +l'indulgence.</q>—Mably, <hi rend='italic'>Observ. sur +l'Hist. des François</hi>, liv. i. ch. iii. +See, too, Gibbon's <hi rend='italic'>Decline and Fall</hi>, +ch. xxxviii.</note> The most prominent evidence, indeed, of ecclesiastical +influence in the Theodosian code is that which must +be most lamented. It is the immense mass of legislation, +intended on the one hand to elevate the clergy into a +separate and sacred caste, and on the other to persecute in +every form, and with every degree of violence, all who +deviated from the fine line of Catholic orthodoxy.<note place='foot'>The whole of the sixth volume +of Godefroy's edition (folio) of the +Theodosian code is taken up with +laws of these kinds.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The last consequence of the Christian estimate of human +life was a very emphatic condemnation of suicide. We have +already seen that the arguments of the Pagan moralists, who +were opposed to this act, were of four kinds. The religious +argument of Pythagoras and Plato was, that we are all +soldiers of God, placed in an appointed post of duty, which it +is a rebellion against our Maker to desert. The civic argument +of Aristotle and the Greek legislators was that we owe +our services to the State, and that therefore voluntarily to +abandon life is to abandon our duty to our country. The +argument which Plutarch and other writers derived from +human dignity was that true courage is shown in the +manful endurance of suffering, while suicide, being an act of +flight, is an act of cowardice, and therefore unworthy of man. +The mystical or Quietist argument of the Neoplatonists was +that all perturbation is a pollution of the soul; that the act +of suicide is accompanied by, and springs from, perturbation, +<pb n='044'/><anchor id='Pg044'/> +and that therefore the perpetrator ends his days by a crime. +Of these four arguments, the last cannot, I think, be said to +have had any place among the Christian dissuasives from +suicide, and the influence of the second was almost imperceptible. +The notion of patriotism being a moral duty was +habitually discouraged in the early Church; and it was impossible +to urge the civic argument against suicide without +at the same time condemning the hermit life, which in the +third century became the ideal of the Church. The duty a +man owes to his family, which a modern moralist would deem +the most obvious and, perhaps, the most conclusive proof of +the general criminality of suicide, and which may be said to +have replaced the civic argument, was scarcely noticed +either by the Pagans or the early Christians. The first +were accustomed to lay so much stress upon the authority, +that they scarcely recognised the duties, of the father; and +the latter were too anxious to attach all their ethics to the +interests of another world, to do much to supply the omission. +The Christian estimate of the duty of humility, and +of the degradation of man, rendered appeals to human dignity +somewhat uncongenial to the patristic writers; yet these +writers frequently dilated upon the true courage of patience, +in language to which their own heroism under persecution +gave a noble emphasis. To the example of Cato they opposed +those of Regulus and Job, the courage that endures suffering +to the courage that confronts death. The Platonic doctrine, +that we are servants of the Deity, placed upon earth to perform +our allotted task in His sight, with His assistance, and +by His will, they continually enforced and most deeply +realised; and this doctrine was in itself, in most cases, +a sufficient preventive; for, as a great writer has said: +<q>Though there are many crimes of a deeper dye than suicide, +there is no other by which men appear so formally to renounce +the protection of God.</q><note place='foot'>Mme. de Staël, <hi rend='italic'>Réflexions sur le Suicide</hi>.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='045'/><anchor id='Pg045'/> + +<p> +But, in addition to this general teaching, the Christian +theologians introduced into the sphere we are considering +new elements both of terrorism and of persuasion, which +have had a decisive influence upon the judgments of mankind. +They carried their doctrine of the sanctity of human life to +such a point that they maintained dogmatically that a man +who destroys his own life has committed a crime similar +both in kind and magnitude to that of an ordinary murderer,<note place='foot'>The following became the +theological doctrine on the subject: +<q>Est vere homicida et reus +homicidii qui se interficiendo innocentum +hominem interfecerit.</q>—Lisle, +<hi rend='italic'>Du Suicide</hi>, p. 400. St. Augustine +has much in this strain. +Lucretia, he says, either consented +to the act of Sextius, or she did +not. In the first case she was an +adulteress, and should therefore +not be admired. In the second +case she was a murderess, because +in killing herself she killed an +innocent and virtuous woman. +(<hi rend='italic'>De Civ. Dei</hi>, i. 19.)</note> +and they at the same time gave a new character to +death by their doctrines concerning its penal nature and +concerning the future destinies of the soul. On the other +hand, the high position assigned to resignation in the moral +scale, the hope of future happiness, which casts a ray of +light upon the darkest calamities of life, the deeper and more +subtle consolations arising from the feeling of trust and from +the outpouring of prayer, and, above all, the Christian doctrine +of the remedial and providential character of suffering, +have proved sufficient protection against despair. The +Christian doctrine, that pain is a good, had in this respect +an influence that was never attained by the Pagan doctrine, +that pain is not an evil. +</p> + +<p> +There were, however, two forms of suicide which were +regarded in the early Church with some tolerance or hesitation. +During the frenzy excited by persecution, and under +the influence of the belief that martyrdom effaced in a moment +the sins of a life, and introduced the sufferer at once +into celestial joys, it was not uncommon for men, in a transport +of enthusiasm, to rush before the Pagan judges, imploring +<pb n='046'/><anchor id='Pg046'/> +or provoking martyrdom; and some of the ecclesiastical +writers have spoken of these men with considerable admiration,<note place='foot'>Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and +Cyprian are especially ardent in +this respect; but their language +is, I think, in their circumstances, +extremely excusable. Compare +Barbeyrac, <hi rend='italic'>Morale des Pères</hi>, ch. ii. +§ 8; ch. viii. §§ 34-39. Donne's +<hi rend='italic'>Biathanatos</hi> (ed. 1644), pp. 58-67. +Cromaziano, <hi rend='italic'>Istoria critica e filosofica +del Suicidio ragionato</hi> (Venezia, +1788), pp. 135-140.</note> +though the general tone of the patristic writings and +the councils of the Church condemned them. A more serious +difficulty arose about Christian women who committed suicide +to guard their chastity when menaced by the infamous sentences +of their persecutors, or more frequently by the lust of +emperors, or by barbarian invaders. St. Pelagia, a girl of only +fifteen, who has been canonised by the Church, and who was +warmly eulogised by St. Ambrose and St. Chrysostom, +having been captured by the soldiery, obtained permission +to retire to her room for the purpose of robing herself, +mounted to the roof of the house, and, flinging herself down, +perished by the fall.<note place='foot'>Ambrose, <hi rend='italic'>De Virginibus</hi>, iii. 7.</note> A Christian lady of Antioch, named +Domnina, had two daughters renowned alike for their beauty +and their piety. Being captured during the Diocletian persecution, +and fearing the loss of their chastity, they agreed by one +bold act to free themselves from the danger, and, casting themselves +into a river by the way, mother and daughters sank +unsullied in the wave.<note place='foot'>Eusebius, <hi rend='italic'>Eccles. Hist.</hi> viii. 12.</note> The tyrant Maxentius was fascinated +by the beauty of a Christian lady, the wife of the +Prefect of Rome. Having sought in vain to elude his +addresses, having been dragged from her house by the +minions of the tyrant, the faithful wife obtained permission, +before yielding to her master's embraces, to retire for a +moment into her chamber, and she there, with true Roman +courage, stabbed herself to the heart.<note place='foot'>Eusebius, <hi rend='italic'>Eccles. Hist.</hi> viii. +14. Bayle, in his article upon +Sophronia, appears to be greatly +scandalised at this act, and it seems +that among the Catholics it is not +considered right to admire this +poor lady as much as her sister +suicides. Tillemont remarks: +<q>Comme on ne voit pas que l'église +romaine l'ait jamais honorée, nous +n'avons pas le mesme droit de justifier +son action.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Hist. ecclés.</hi> +tome v. pp. 404, 405.</note> Some Protestant +<pb n='047'/><anchor id='Pg047'/> +controversialists have been scandalised,<note place='foot'>Especially Barbeyrac in his +<hi rend='italic'>Morale des Pères</hi>. He was answered by +Ceillier, Cromaziano, +and others. Matthew of Westminster +relates of Ebba, the abbess +of a Yorkshire convent which +was besieged by the Danes, that +she and all the other nuns, to save +their chastity, deformed themselves +by cutting off their noses and upper +lips. (<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 870.)</note> and some Catholic +controversialists perplexed, by the undisguised admiration +with which the early ecclesiastical writers narrate these histories. +To those who have not suffered theological opinions +to destroy all their natural sense of nobility it will need +no defence. +</p> + +<p> +This was the only form of avowed suicide which was in +any degree permitted in the early Church. St. Ambrose +rather timidly, and St. Jerome more strongly, commended +it; but at the time when the capture of Rome by the soldiers +of Alaric made the question one of pressing interest, St. +Augustine devoted an elaborate examination to the subject, +and while expressing his pitying admiration for the virgin +suicides, decidedly condemned their act.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>De Civ. Dei</hi>, i. 22-7.</note> His opinion of +the absolute sinfulness of suicide has since been generally +adopted by the Catholic theologians, who pretend that Pelagia +and Domnina acted under the impulse of a special revelation.<note place='foot'>This had been suggested by +St. Augustine. In the case of +Pelagia, Tillemont finds a strong +argument in support of this view +in the astounding, if not miraculous, +fact that, having thrown herself +from the top of the house, she +was actually killed by the fall! +<q>Estant montée tout au haut de sa +maison, fortifiée par le mouvement +que J.-C. formoit dans son cœur et +par le courage qu'il luy inspiroit, +elle se précipita de là du haut en +bas, et échapa ainsi à tous les +piéges de ses ennemis. Son corps +en tombant à terre frapa, dit S. +Chrysostome, les yeux du démon +plus vivement qu'un éclair.... +Ce qui marque encore que Dieu +agissoit en tout ceci c'est qu'au +lieu que ces chutes ne sont pas +toujours mortelles, ou que souvent +ne brisant que quelques membres, +elles n'ostent la vie que longtemps +après, ni l'un ni l'autre n'arriva en +cette rencontre; mais Dieu retira +aussitost l'âme de la sainte, en +sorte que sa mort parut autant +l'effet de la volonté divine que de +sa chute.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Hist. ecclés.</hi> tome v. +pp. 401-402.</note> +At the same time, by a glaring though very natural +<pb n='048'/><anchor id='Pg048'/> +inconsistency, no characters were more enthusiastically extolled +than those anchorites who habitually deprived their +bodies of the sustenance that was absolutely necessary to +health, and thus manifestly abridged their lives. St. Jerome +has preserved a curious illustration of the feeling with which +these slow suicides were regarded by the outer world, in +his account of the life and death of a young nun named +Blesilla. This lady had been guilty of what, according to +the religious notions of the fourth century, was, at least, the +frivolity of marrying, but was left a widow seven months +afterwards, having thus <q>lost at once the crown of virginity +and the pleasure of marriage.</q><note place='foot'><q>Et virginitatis coronam et +nuptiarum perdidit voluptatem.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +xxii.</note> An attack of illness inspired +her with strong religious feelings. At the age of twenty she +retired to a convent. She attained such a height of devotion +that, according to the very characteristic eulogy of her biographer, +<q>she was more sorry for the loss of her virginity +than for the decease of her husband;</q><note place='foot'><q>Quis enim siccis oculis recordetur +viginti annorum adolescentulam +tam ardenti fide crucis +levasse vexillum ut magis amissam +virginitatem quam mariti doleret +interitum?</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xxxix.</note> and a long succession +of atrocious penances preceded, if they did not produce, +her death.<note place='foot'>For a description of these +penances, see <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xxxviii.</note> The conviction that she had been killed by fasting, +and the spectacle of the uncontrollable grief of her mother, +filled the populace with indignation, and the funeral was +disturbed by tumultuous cries that the <q>accursed race of +monks should be banished from the city, stoned, or drowned.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xxxix.</note> +In the Church itself, however, we find very few traces of any +condemnation of the custom of undermining the constitution +by austerities,<note place='foot'>St. Jerome gave some sensible +advice on this point to one of his +admirers. (<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> cxxv.)</note> and if we may believe but a small part of +<pb n='049'/><anchor id='Pg049'/> +what is related of the habits of the early and mediæval monks, +great numbers of them must have thus shortened their days. +There is a touching story told by St. Bonaventura, of St. +Francis Assisi, who was one of these victims to asceticism. +As the dying saint sank back exhausted with spitting blood, he +avowed, as he looked upon his emaciated body, that <q>he had +sinned against his brother, the ass;</q> and then, the feeling of +his mind taking, as was usual with him, the form of an hallucination, +he imagined that, when at prayer during the night, +he heard a voice saying: <q>Francis, there is no sinner in the +world whom, if he be converted, God will not pardon; but +he who kills himself by hard penances will find no mercy in +eternity.</q> He attributed the voice to the devil.<note place='foot'>Hase, <hi rend='italic'>St. François d'Assise</hi>, +pp. 137-138. St. Palæmon is said +to have died of his austerities. +(<hi rend='italic'>Vit. S. Pachomii.</hi>)</note> +</p> + +<p> +Direct and deliberate suicide, which occupies so prominent +a place in the moral history of antiquity, almost absolutely +disappeared within the Church; but beyond its pale +the Circumcelliones, in the fourth century, constituted themselves +the apostles of death, and not only carried to the highest +point the custom of provoking martyrdom, by challenging and +insulting the assemblies of the Pagans, but even killed themselves +in great numbers, imagining, it would seem, that this +was a form of martyrdom, and would secure for them eternal +salvation. Assembling in hundreds, St. Augustine says even +in thousands, they leaped with paroxysms of frantic joy from +the brows of overhanging cliffs, till the rocks below were reddened +with their blood.<note place='foot'>St. Augustine and St. Optatus +have given accounts of these suicides +in their works against the +Donatists.</note> At a much later period, we find +among the Albigenses a practice, known by the name of +Endura, of accelerating death, in the case of dangerous illness, +by fasting, and sometimes by bleeding.<note place='foot'>See Todd's <hi rend='italic'>Life of St. Patrick</hi>, +p. 462.</note> The wretched Jews, +stung to madness by the persecution of the Catholics, furnish +<pb n='050'/><anchor id='Pg050'/> +the most numerous examples of suicide during the middle +ages. A multitude perished by their own hands, to avoid +torture, in France, in 1095; five hundred, it is said, on a +single occasion at York; five hundred in 1320, when besieged +by the Shepherds. The old Pagan legislation on this subject +remained unaltered in the Theodosian and Justinian codes; +but a Council of Arles, in the fifth century, having pronounced +suicide to be the effect of diabolical inspiration, a Council of +Bragues, in the following century, ordained that no religious +rites should be celebrated at the tomb of the culprit, and that +no masses should be said for his soul; and these provisions, +which were repeated by later Councils, were gradually introduced +into the laws of the barbarians and of Charlemagne. St. +Lewis originated the custom of confiscating the property of the +dead man, and the corpse was soon subjected to gross and various +outrages. In some countries it could only be removed from +the house through a perforation specially made for the occasion +in the wall; it was dragged upon a hurdle through the streets, +hung up with the head downwards, and at last thrown into +the public sewer, or burnt, or buried in the sand below +high-water mark, or transfixed by a stake on the public +highway.<note place='foot'>The whole history of suicide +in the dark ages has been most +minutely and carefully examined +by M. Bourquelot, in a very interesting +series of memoirs in the +third and fourth volumes of the +<hi rend='italic'>Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes</hi>. +I am much indebted to these memoirs +in the following pages. See, +too, Lisle, <hi rend='italic'>Du Suicide, Statistique, +Médecine, Histoire, et Législation</hi>. +(Paris, 1856.) The ferocious laws +here recounted contrast remarkably +with a law in the Capitularies (lib. +vi. lex 70), which provides that +though mass may not be celebrated +for a suicide, any private person +may, through charity, cause prayers +to be offered up for his soul. +<q>Quia incomprehensibilia sunt judicia +Dei, et profunditatem consilii +ejus nemo potest investigare.</q></note> +</p> + +<p> +These singularly hideous and at the same time grotesque +customs, and also the extreme injustice of reducing to beggary +the unhappy relations of the dead, had the very natural +effect of exciting, in the eighteenth century, a strong spirit of +<pb n='051'/><anchor id='Pg051'/> +reaction. Suicide is indeed one of those acts which may be +condemned by moralists as a sin, but which, in modern times +at least, cannot be regarded as within the legitimate sphere +of law; for a society which accords to its members perfect +liberty of emigration, cannot reasonably pronounce the simple +renunciation of life to be an offence against itself. When, +however, Beccaria and his followers went further, and maintained +that the mediæval laws on the subject were as impotent +as they were revolting, they fell, I think, into serious error. +The outrages lavished upon the corpse of the suicide, though +in the first instance an expression of the popular horror of +his act, contributed, by the associations they formed, to +strengthen the feeling that produced them, and they were +also peculiarly fitted to scare the diseased, excited, and oversensitive +imaginations that are most prone to suicide. In the +rare occasions when the act was deliberately contemplated, +the knowledge that religious, legislative, and social influences +would combine to aggravate to the utmost the agony of the +surviving relatives, must have had great weight. The activity +of the Legislature shows the continuance of the act; but +we have every reason to believe that within the pale of +Catholicism it was for many centuries extremely rare. It is +said to have been somewhat prevalent in Spain in the last +and most corrupt period of the Gothic kingdom,<note place='foot'>See the very interesting work +of the Abbé Bourret, <hi rend='italic'>l'École chrétienne +de Séville sous la monarchie +des Visigoths</hi> (Paris, 1855), p. 196.</note> and many +instances occurred during a great pestilence which raged +in England in the seventh century,<note place='foot'>Roger of Wendover, <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 665.</note> and also during the +Black Death of the fourteenth century.<note place='foot'>Esquirol, <hi rend='italic'>Maladies mentales</hi>, +tome i. p. 591.</note> When the wives +of priests were separated in vast numbers from their husbands +by Hildebrand, and driven into the world blasted, +heart-broken, and hopeless, not a few of them shortened +<pb n='052'/><anchor id='Pg052'/> +their agony by suicide.<note place='foot'>Lea's <hi rend='italic'>History of Sacerdotal +Celibacy</hi> (Philadelphia, 1867), p. +248.</note> Among women it was in general +especially rare; and a learned historian of suicide has even +asserted that a Spanish lady, who, being separated from her +husband, and finding herself unable to resist the energy of +her passions, killed herself rather than yield to temptation, +is the only instance of female suicide during several centuries.<note place='foot'><q>Per lo corso di molti secoli +abbiamo questo solo suicidio donnesco, +e buona cosa è non averne +più d'uno; perchè io non credo che +la impudicizia istessa sia peggiore +di questa disperata castità.</q>—Cromaziano, +<hi rend='italic'>Ist. del. Suicidio</hi>, p. 126. +Mariana, who, under the frock of +a Jesuit, bore the heart of an ancient +Roman, treats the case in a +very different manner. <q>Ejus +uxor Maria Coronelia cum mariti +absentiam non ferret, ne pravis +cupiditatibus cederet, vitam posuit, +ardentem forte libidinem igne extinguens +adacto per muliebria +titione; dignam meliori seculo +fœminam, insigne studium castitatis.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>De +Rebus Hispan.</hi> xvi. 17.</note> +In the romances of chivalry, however, this mode of death is +frequently pourtrayed without horror,<note place='foot'>A number of passages are +cited by Bourquelot.</note> and its criminality +was discussed at considerable length by Abelard and St. +Thomas Aquinas, while Dante has devoted some fine lines to +painting the condition of suicides in hell, where they are also +frequently represented in the bas-reliefs of cathedrals. A +melancholy leading to desperation, and known to theologians +under the name of <q>acedia,</q> was not uncommon in monasteries, +and most of the recorded instances of mediæval suicides in +Catholicism were by monks. The frequent suicides of monks, +sometimes to escape the world, sometimes through despair at +their inability to quell the propensities of the body, sometimes +through insanity produced by their mode of life, and by their +dread of surrounding demons, were noticed in the early Church,<note place='foot'>This is noticed by St. Gregory +Nazianzen in a little poem which +is given in Migne's edition of <hi rend='italic'>The +Greek Fathers</hi>, tome xxxvii. p. +1459. St. Nilus and the biographer +of St. Pachomius speak of +these suicides, and St. Chrysostom +wrote a letter of consolation to a +young monk, named Stagirius, +which is still extant, encouraging +him to resist the temptation. See +Neander, <hi rend='italic'>Ecclesiastical Hist.</hi> vol. +iii. pp. 319, 320.</note> +<pb n='053'/><anchor id='Pg053'/> +and a few examples have been gleaned, from the mediæval +chronicles,<note place='foot'>Bourquelot. Pinel notices +(<hi rend='italic'>Traité médico-philosophique sur +l'Aliénation mentale</hi> (2nd ed.), pp. +44-46) the numerous cases of insanity +still produced by strong +religious feeling; and the history of +the movements called <q>revivals,</q> in +the present century, supplies much +evidence to the same effect. Pinel +says, religious insanity tends peculiarly +to suicide (p. 265).</note> of suicides produced by the bitterness of hopeless +love, or by the derangement that follows extreme austerity. +These are, however, but few; and it is probable that the +monasteries, by providing a refuge for the disappointed and the +broken-hearted, have prevented more suicides than they have +caused, and that, during the whole period of Catholic ascendancy, +the act was more rare than before or after. The +influence of Catholicism was seconded by Mohammedanism, +which, on this as on many other points, borrowed its teaching +from the Christian Church, and even intensified it; for +suicide, which is never expressly condemned in the Bible, is +more than once forbidden in the Koran, and the Christian +duty of resignation was exaggerated by the Moslem into a +complete fatalism. Under the empire of Catholicism and +Mohammedanism, suicide, during many centuries, almost +absolutely ceased in all the civilised, active, and progressive +part of mankind. When we recollect how warmly it was +applauded, or how faintly it was condemned, in the civilisation +of Greece and Rome; when we remember, too, that +there was scarcely a barbarous tribe, from Denmark to Spain, +who did not habitually practise it,<note place='foot'>Orosius notices (<hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> v. 14) +that of all the Gauls conquered by +Q. Marcius, there were none who +did not prefer death to slavery. +The Spaniards were famous for +their suicides, to avoid old age as +well as slavery. Odin, who, under +different names, was the supreme +divinity of most of the Northern +tribes, is said to have ended his +earthly life by suicide. Boadicea, +the grandest figure of early British +history, and Cordeilla, or Cordelia, +the most pathetic figure of early +British romance, were both suicides. +(See on the first, Tacitus, +<hi rend='italic'>Ann.</hi> xiv. 35-37, and on the second +Geoffrey of Monmouth, ii. 15—a +version from which Shakspeare has +considerably diverged, but which is +faithfully followed by Spenser. +(<hi rend='italic'>Faëry Queen</hi>, book ii. canto 10.))</note> we may realise the complete +<pb n='054'/><anchor id='Pg054'/> +revolution which was effected in this sphere by the +influence of Christianity. +</p> + +<p> +A few words may be added on the later phases of this +mournful history. The Reformation does not seem to have +had any immediate effect in multiplying suicide, for Protestants +and Catholics held with equal intensity the religious +sentiments which are most fitted to prevent it, and in none of +the persecutions was impatience of life largely displayed. +The history at this period passes chiefly into the new world, +where the unhappy Indians, reduced to slavery, and treated +with atrocious cruelty by their conquerors, killed themselves +in great numbers; till the Spaniards, it is said, discovered an +ingenious method of deterring them, by declaring that the +master also would commit suicide, and would pursue his +victims into the world of spirits.<note place='foot'><q>In our age, when the Spaniards +extended that law which was +made only against the cannibals, +that they who would not accept +the Christian religion should incur +bondage, the Indians in infinite +numbers escaped this by killing +themselves, and never ceased till +the Spaniards, by some counterfeitings, +made them think that +they also would kill themselves, +and follow them with the same +severity into the next life.</q>—Donne's +<hi rend='italic'>Biathanatos</hi>, p. 56 (ed. +1644). On the evidence of the +early travellers on this point, see +the essay on <q>England's Forgotten +Worthies,</q> in Mr. Froude's <hi rend='italic'>Short +Studies</hi>.</note> In Europe the act was very +common among the witches, who underwent all the sufferings +with none of the consolations of martyrdom. Without +enthusiasm, without hope, without even the consciousness of +innocence, decrepit in body, and distracted in mind, compelled +in this world to endure tortures, before which the +most impassioned heroism might quail, and doomed, as +they often believed, to eternal damnation in the next, they +not unfrequently killed themselves in the agony of their +despair. A French judge named Remy tells us that he knew +no less than fifteen witches commit suicide in a single year.<note place='foot'>Lisle, pp. 427-434. Sprenger +has noticed the same tendency +among the witches he tried. See +Calmeil, <hi rend='italic'>De la Folie</hi> (Paris, 1845), +tome i. pp. 161, 303-305.</note> +<pb n='055'/><anchor id='Pg055'/> +In these cases, fear and madness combined in urging the +victims to the deed. Epidemics of purely insane suicide +have also not unfrequently occurred. Both the women of +Marseilles and the women of Lyons were afflicted with an +epidemic not unlike that which, in antiquity, had been noticed +among the girls of Miletus.<note place='foot'>On modern suicides the reader +may consult Winslow's <hi rend='italic'>Anatomy of +Suicide</hi>; as well as the work of M. +Lisle, and also Esquirol, <hi rend='italic'>Maladies +mentales</hi> (Paris, 1838), tome i. pp. +526-676.</note> In that strange mania +which raged in the Neapolitan districts from the end of the +fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century, and which +was attributed to the bite of the tarantula, the patients +thronged in multitudes towards the sea, and often, as the blue +waters opened to their view, they chanted a wild hymn of +welcome, and rushed with passion into the waves.<note place='foot'><p>Hecker's <hi rend='italic'>Epidemics of the +Middle Ages</hi> (London, 1844), p. +121. Hecker in his very curious +essay on this mania, has preserved +a verse of their song:— +</p> +<p><q>Allu mari mi portati<lb/> +Se voleti che mi sanati,<lb/> +Allu mari, alla via,<lb/> +Così m'ama la donna mia,<lb/> +Allu mari, allu mari,<lb/> +Mentre campo, t'aggio amari.</q></p></note> But +together with these cases, which belong rather to the history +of medicine than to that of morals, we find many facts exhibiting +a startling increase of deliberate suicide, and a no +less startling modification of the sentiments with which it +was regarded. The revival of classical learning, and the +growing custom of regarding Greek and Roman heroes as +ideals, necessarily brought the subject into prominence. The +Catholic casuists, and at a later period philosophers of the +school of Grotius and Puffendorf, began to distinguish certain +cases of legitimate suicide, such as that committed to avoid +dishonour or probable sin, or that of the soldier who fires a +mine, knowing he must inevitably perish by the explosion, +or that of a condemned person who saves himself from torture +by anticipating an inevitable fate, or that of a man who +offers himself to death for his friend.<note place='foot'>Cromaziano, <hi rend='italic'>Ist. del Suicidio</hi> +caps. viii, ix.</note> The effect of the +<pb n='056'/><anchor id='Pg056'/> +Pagan examples may frequently be detected in the last +words or writings of the suicides. Philip Strozzi, when +accused of the assassination of Alexander I. of Tuscany, +killed himself through fear that torture might extort from +him revelations injurious to his friends, and he left behind +him a paper in which, among other things, he commended +his soul to God, with the prayer that, if no higher boon could +be granted, he might at least be permitted to have his place +with Cato of Utica and the other great suicides of antiquity.<note place='foot'>Cromaziano, pp. 92-93.</note> +In England, the act appears in the seventeenth century and in +the first half of the eighteenth to have been more common +than upon the Continent,<note place='foot'>Montesquieu, and many Continental +writers, have noticed this, +and most English writers of the +eighteenth century seem to admit +the charge. There do not appear, +however, to have been any accurate +statistics, and the general +statements are very untrustworthy. +Suicides were supposed to be +especially numerous under the depressing +influence of English winter +fogs. The statistics made in +the present century prove beyond +question that they are most numerous +in summer.</note> and several partial or even unqualified +apologies for it were written. Sir Thomas More, in +his <q>Utopia,</q> represented the priests and magistrates of his +ideal republic permitting or even enjoining those who were +afflicted with incurable disease to kill themselves, but depriving +of burial those who had done so without authorisation.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Utopia</hi>, book ii. ch. vi.</note> +Dr. Donne, the learned and pious Dean of St. Paul's, +had in his youth written an extremely curious, subtle, and +learned, but at the same time feeble and involved, work in +defence of suicide, which on his deathbed he commanded his +son neither to publish nor destroy, and which his son published +in 1644. Two or three English suicides left behind +them elaborate defences, as did also a Swede named Robeck, +who drowned himself in 1735, and whose treatise, published +in the following year, acquired considerable celebrity.<note place='foot'>A sketch of his life, which +was rather curious, is given by +Cromaziano, pp. 148-151. There +is a long note on the early literature +in defence of suicide, in Dumas, +<hi rend='italic'>Traité du Suicide</hi> (Amsterdam, +1723), pp. 148-149. Dumas was +a Protestant minister who wrote +against suicide. Among the +English apologists for suicide +(which he himself committed) was +Blount, the translator of the <hi rend='italic'>Life +of Apollonius of Tyana</hi>, and Creech, +an editor of Lucretius. Concerning +the former there is a note in +Bayle's <hi rend='italic'>Dict.</hi> art. <q>Apollonius.</q> +The latter is noticed by Voltaire in +his <hi rend='italic'>Lettres Philos.</hi> He wrote as a +memorandum on the margin of his +<q>Lucretius,</q> <q>N.B. When I have +finished my Commentary I must +kill myself;</q> which he accordingly +did—Voltaire says to imitate his +favourite author. (Voltaire, <hi rend='italic'>Dict. +phil.</hi> art. <q>Caton.</q>)</note> But +<pb n='057'/><anchor id='Pg057'/> +the most influential writings about suicide were those of the +French philosophers and revolutionists. Montaigne, without +discussing its abstract lawfulness, recounts, with much admiration, +many of the instances in antiquity.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Essais</hi>, liv. ii. ch. xiii.</note> Montesquieu, +in a youthful work, defended it with ardent enthusiasm.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Lettres persanes</hi>, lxxvi.</note> +Rousseau devoted to the subject two letters of a burning and +passionate eloquence,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Nouvelle Héloïse</hi>, partie iii. +let. 21-22. Esquirol gives a curious +illustration of the way the +influence of Rousseau penetrated +through all classes. A little child +of thirteen committed suicide, +leaving a writing beginning: <q>Je +lègue mon âme a Rousseau, mon +corps à la terre.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Maladies mentales</hi>, +tome i. p. 588.</note> in the first of which he presented with +matchless power the arguments in its favour, while in the +second he denounced those arguments as sophistical, dilated +upon the impiety of abandoning the post of duty, and upon the +cowardice of despair, and with a deep knowledge of the human +heart revealed the selfishness that lies at the root of most +suicide, exhorting all who felt impelled to it to set about +some work for the good of others, in which they would +assuredly find relief. Voltaire, in the best-known couplet +he ever wrote, defends the act on occasions of extreme +necessity.<note place='foot'>In general, however, Voltaire +was extremely opposed to the philosophy +of despair, but he certainly +approved of some forms of suicide. +See the articles <q>Caton</q> and <q>Suicide,</q> +in his <hi rend='italic'>Dict. philos.</hi></note> Among the atheistical party it was warmly +eulogised, and Holbach and Deslandes were prominent as its +defenders. The rapid decomposition of religious opinions +weakened the popular sense of its enormity, and at the same +time the humanity of the age, and also a clearer sense of the +<pb n='058'/><anchor id='Pg058'/> +true limits of legislation, produced a reaction against the +horrible laws on the subject. Grotius had defended them. +Montesquieu at first denounced them with unqualified energy, +but in his later years in some degree modified his opinions. +Beccaria, who was, more than any other writer, the representative +of the opinions of the French school on such matters, +condemned them partly as unjust to the innocent +survivors, partly as incapable of deterring any man who was +resolved upon the act. Even in 1749, in the full blaze of +the philosophic movement, we find a suicide named Portier +dragged through the streets of Paris with his face to the +ground, hung from a gallows by his feet, and then thrown into +the sewers;<note place='foot'>Lisle, <hi rend='italic'>Du Suicide</hi>, pp. 411, +412.</note> and the laws were not abrogated till the Revolution, +which, having founded so many other forms of freedom, +accorded the liberty of death. Amid the dramatic vicissitudes, +and the fierce enthusiasm of that period of convulsions, +suicides immediately multiplied. <q>The world,</q> it was said, +had been <q>empty since the Romans.</q><note place='foot'><q>Le monde est vide depuis les +Romains.</q>—St.-Just, <hi rend='italic'>Procés de +Danton</hi>.</note> For a brief period, +and in this one country, the action of Christianity appeared +suspended. Men seemed to be transported again into the +age of Paganism, and the suicides, though more theatrical, +were perpetrated with no less deliberation, and eulogised +with no less enthusiasm, than among the Stoics. But the +tide of revolution passed away, and with some qualifications +the old opinions resumed their authority. The laws against +suicide were, indeed, for the most part abolished. In France +and several other lands there exists no legislation on the +subject. In other countries the law simply enjoins burial +without religious ceremonies. In England, the burial in a +highway and the mutilation by a stake were abolished under +George IV.; but the monstrous injustice of confiscating to +the Crown the entire property of the deliberate suicide still +<pb n='059'/><anchor id='Pg059'/> +disgraces the statute-book, though the force of public opinion +and the charitable perjury of juries render it inoperative. +</p> + +<p> +The common sentiment of Christendom has, however, +ratified the judgment which the Christian teachers pronounced +upon the act, though it has somewhat modified the severity of +the old censure, and has abandoned some of the old arguments. +It was reserved for Madame de Staël, who, in a youthful +work upon the Passions, had commended suicide, to reconstruct +this department of ethics, which had been somewhat +disturbed by the Revolution, and she did so in a little treatise +which is a model of calm, candid, and philosophic piety. +Frankly abandoning the old theological notions that the +deed is of the nature of murder, that it is the worst +of crimes, and that it is always, or even generally, the +offspring of cowardice; abandoning, too, all attempts to +scare men by religious terrorism, she proceeded, not so much +to meet in detail the isolated arguments of its defenders, +as to sketch the ideal of a truly virtuous man, and to show +how such a character would secure men against all temptation +to suicide. In pages of the most tender beauty, she +traced the influence of suffering in softening, purifying, and +deepening the character, and showed how a frame of habitual +and submissive resignation was not only the highest +duty, but also the source of the purest consolation, and at +the same time the appointed condition of moral amelioration. +Having examined in detail the Biblical aspect of +the question, she proceeded to show how the true measure +of the dignity of man is his unselfishness. She contrasted +the martyr with the suicide—the death which springs from +devotion to duty with the death that springs from rebellion +against circumstances. The suicide of Cato, which +had been absurdly denounced by a crowd of ecclesiastics as +an act of cowardice, and as absurdly alleged by many suicides +as a justification for flying from pain or poverty, she represented +as an act of martyrdom—a death like that of +<pb n='060'/><anchor id='Pg060'/> +Curtius, accepted nobly for the benefit of Rome. The eye +of the good man should be for ever fixed upon the interest of +others. For them he should be prepared to relinquish life +with all its blessings. For them he should be prepared to +tolerate life, even when it seemed to him a curse. +</p> + +<p> +Sentiments of this kind have, through the influence of +Christianity, thoroughly pervaded European society, and +suicide, in modern times, is almost always found to have +sprung either from absolute insanity; from diseases which, +though not amounting to insanity, are yet sufficient to discolour +our judgments; or from that last excess of sorrow, +when resignation and hope are both extinct. Considering it +in this light, I know few things more fitted to qualify the +optimism we so often hear than the fact that statistics show +it to be rapidly increasing, and to be peculiarly characteristic +of those nations which rank most high in intellectual development +and in general civilisation.<note place='foot'>This fact has been often noticed. +The reader may find many +statistics on the subject in Lisle, +<hi rend='italic'>Du Suicide</hi>, and Winslow's <hi rend='italic'>Anatomy +of Suicide</hi>.</note> In one or two countries, +strong religious feeling has counteracted the tendency; but +the comparison of town and country, of different countries, of +different provinces of the same country, and of different periods +in history, proves conclusively its reality. Many reasons may +be alleged to explain it. Mental occupations are peculiarly +fitted to produce insanity,<note place='foot'><q>There seems good reason to +believe, that with the progress of +mental development through the +ages, there is, as in the case with +other forms of organic development, +a correlative degeneration +going on, and that an increase of +insanity is a penalty which an +increase of our present civilisation +necessarily pays.</q>—Maudsley's +<hi rend='italic'>Physiology of Mind</hi>, p. 201.</note> and the blaze of publicity, which +in modern time encircles an act of suicide, to draw weak +minds to its imitation. If we put the condition of absolutely +savage life, out of our calculation, it is probable that a highly +developed civilisation, while it raises the average of well-being, +is accompanied by more extreme misery and acute sufferings +<pb n='061'/><anchor id='Pg061'/> +than the simpler stages that had preceded it. Nomadic +habits, the vast agglomeration of men in cities, the pressure +of a fierce competition, and the sudden fluctuations to which +manufactures are peculiarly liable, are the conditions of great +prosperity, but also the causes of the most profound misery. +Civilisation makes many of what once were superfluities, +necessaries of life, so that their loss inflicts a pang long after +their possession had ceased to be a pleasure. It also, by +softening the character, renders it peculiarly sensitive to pain, +and it brings with it a long train of antipathies, passions, +and diseased imaginations, which rarely or never cross the +thoughts or torture the nerves of the simple peasant. The +advance of religious scepticism, and the relaxation of religious +discipline, have weakened and sometimes destroyed the horror +of suicide; and the habits of self-assertion, the eager and +restless ambitions which political liberty, intellectual activity, +and manufacturing enterprise, all in their different ways +conspire to foster, while they are the very principles and +conditions of the progress of our age, render the virtue of +content in all its forms extremely rare, and are peculiarly +unpropitious to the formation of that spirit of humble and +submissive resignation which alone can mitigate the agony of +hopeless suffering. +</p> + +<milestone unit='tb' rend='rule: 50%'/> + +<p> +From examining the effect of Christianity in promoting +a sense of the sanctity of human life, we may now pass to an +adjoining field, and examine its influence in promoting a fraternal +and philanthropic sentiment among mankind. And +first of all we may notice its effects upon slavery. +</p> + +<p> +The reader will remember the general position this institution +occupied in the eyes of the Stoic moralists, and under +the legislation which they had in a great measure inspired. +The legitimacy of slavery was fully recognised; but Seneca +and other moralists had asserted, in the very strongest terms, +the natural equality of mankind, the superficial character of +<pb n='062'/><anchor id='Pg062'/> +the differences between the slave and his master, and the +duty of the most scrupulous humanity to the former. Instances +of a very warm sympathy between master and slave +were of frequent occurrence; but they may unfortunately be +paralleled by not a few examples of the most atrocious cruelty. +To guard against such cruelty, a long series of enactments, +based avowedly upon the Stoical principle of the essential +equality of mankind, had been made under Hadrian, the +Antonines, and Alexander Severus. Not to recapitulate at +length what has been mentioned in a former chapter, it is +sufficient to remind the reader that the right of life and death +had been definitely withdrawn from the master, and that the +murder of a slave was stigmatised and punished by the law. +It had, however, been laid down, by the great lawyer Paul, +that homicide implies an intention to kill, and that therefore +the master was not guilty of that crime if his slave died +under chastisement which was not administered with this +intention. But the licence of punishment which this decision +might give was checked by laws which forbade excessive +cruelty to slaves, provided that, when it was proved, they +should be sold to another master, suppressed the private +prisons in which they had been immured, and appointed +special officers to receive their complaints. +</p> + +<p> +In the field of legislation, for about two hundred years +after the conversion of Constantine, the progress was extremely +slight. The Christian emperors, in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 319 and +326, adverted in two elaborate laws to the subject of the +murder of slaves,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> lib. ix. tit. 12.</note> but, beyond reiterating in very emphatic +terms the previous enactments, it is not easy to see in what +way they improved the condition of the class.<note place='foot'>Some commentators imagine +(see Muratori, <hi rend='italic'>Antich. Ital. Diss.</hi> +xiv.) that among the Pagans the +murder of a man's own slave was +only assimilated to the crime of +murdering the slave of another man, +while in the Christian law it was +defined as homicide, equivalent to +the murder of a freeman. I confess, +however, this point does not +appear to me at all clear.</note> They provided +<pb n='063'/><anchor id='Pg063'/> +that any master who applied to his slave certain +atrocious tortures, that are enumerated, with the object of +killing him, should be deemed a homicide, but if the slave +died under moderate punishment, or under any punishment +not intended to kill him, the master should be blameless; no +charge whatever, it was emphatically said, should be brought +against him. It has been supposed, though I think without +evidence, by commentators<note place='foot'>See Godefroy's <hi rend='italic'>Commentary</hi> on +these laws.</note> that this law accorded immunity +to the master only when the slave perished under the application +of <q>appropriate</q> or servile punishments—that is to +say, scourging, irons, or imprisonment; but the use of torture +not intended to kill was in no degree restricted, nor is there +anything in the law to make it appear either that the master +was liable to punishment, if contrary to his intention his +slave succumbed beneath torture, or that Constantine proposed +any penalty for excessive cruelty which did not result +in death. It is, perhaps, not out of place to observe, that this +law was in remarkable harmony with the well-known article +of the Jewish code, which provided that if a slave, wounded +to death by his master, linger for a day or two, the master +should not be punished, for the slave was his money.<note place='foot'>Exodus xxi. 21</note> +</p> + +<p> +The two features that were most revolting in the slave +system, as it passed from the Pagan to the Christian emperors, +were the absolute want of legal recognition of slave marriage, +and the licence of torturing still conceded to the master. +The Christian emperors before Justinian took no serious +steps to remedy either of these evils, and the measures that +were taken against adultery still continued inapplicable to +slave unions, because <q>the vileness of their condition makes +them unworthy of the observation of the law.</q><note place='foot'><p><q>Quas vilitates vitæ dignas +legum observatione non credidit.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Cod. +Theod.</hi> lib. ix. tit. 7. See on +this law, Wallon, tome iii. pp. 417, +418. +</p> +<p> +Dean Milman observes, <q>In the +old Roman society in the Eastern +Empire this distinction between the +marriage of the freeman and the +concubinage of the slave was long +recognised by Christianity itself. +These unions were not blessed, as +the marriages of their superiors had +soon begun to be, by the Church. +Basil the Macedonian (<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 867-886) +first enacted that the priestly +benediction should hallow the marriage +of the slave; but the authority +of the emperor was counteracted +by the deep-rooted prejudices +of centuries.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Latin Christianity</hi>, +vol. ii. p. 15.</p></note> The abolition +of the punishment of crucifixion had, however, a special +<pb n='064'/><anchor id='Pg064'/> +value to the slave class, and a very merciful law of Constantine +forbade the separation of the families of the slaves.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> lib. ii. tit. 25.</note> +Another law, which in its effects was perhaps still more +important, imparted a sacred character to manumission, +ordaining that the ceremony should be celebrated in the +Church,<note place='foot'>Ibid. lib. iv. tit. 7.</note> and permitting it on Sundays. Some measures +were also taken, providing for the freedom of the Christian +slaves of Jewish masters, and, in two or three cases, freedom +was offered as a bribe to slaves, to induce them to inform +against criminals. Intermarriage between the free and slave +classes was still strictly forbidden, and if a free woman had +improper intercourse with her slave, Constantine ordered +that the woman should be executed and the slave burnt +alive.<note place='foot'>Ibid. lib. ix. tit. 9.</note> By the Pagan law, the woman had been simply reduced +to slavery. The laws against fugitive slaves were also +rendered more severe.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Corpus Juris</hi>, vi. 1.</note> +</p> + +<p> +This legislation may on the whole be looked upon as a +progress, but it certainly does not deserve the enthusiasm +which ecclesiastical writers have sometimes bestowed upon +it. For about two hundred years, there was an almost absolute +pause in the legislation on this subject. Some slight +restrictions were, however, imposed upon the use of torture +in trials; some slight additional facilities of manumission +were given, and some very atrocious enactments made to +prevent slaves accusing their masters. According to that of +Gratian, any slave who accused his master of any offence, +<pb n='065'/><anchor id='Pg065'/> +except high treason, should immediately be burnt alive, +without any investigation of the justice of the charge.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> lib. vi. tit. 2.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Under Justinian, however, new and very important measures +were taken. In no other sphere were the laws of this +emperor so indisputably an advance upon those of his predecessors. +His measures may be comprised under three heads. +In the first place, all the restrictions upon enfranchisement +which had accumulated under the Pagan legislation were +abolished; the legislator proclaimed in emphatic language, +and by the provisions of many laws, his desire to encourage +manumission, and free scope was thus given to the action +of the Church. In the second place, the freedmen, considered +as an intermediate class between the slave and the citizen, +were virtually abolished, all or nearly all the privileges +accorded to the citizen being granted to the emancipated +slave. This was the most important contribution of the +Christian emperors to that great amalgamation of nations +and classes which had been advancing since the days of Augustus; +and one of its effects was, that any person, even of +senatorial rank, might marry a slave when he had first +emancipated her. In the third place, a slave was permitted +to marry a free woman with the authorisation of his master, +and children born in slavery became the legal heirs of +their emancipated father. The rape of a slave woman was +also in this reign punished, like that of a free woman, by +death.<note place='foot'>See on all this legislation, +Wallon, tome iii.; Champagny, +<hi rend='italic'>Charité chrétienne</hi>, pp. 214-224.</note> +</p> + +<p> +But, important as were these measures, it is not in the +field of legislation that we must chiefly look for the influence +of Christianity upon slavery. This influence was indeed very +great, but it is necessary carefully to define its nature. The +prohibition of all slavery, which was one of the peculiarities +of the Jewish Essenes, and the illegitimacy of hereditary +<pb n='066'/><anchor id='Pg066'/> +slavery, which was one of the speculations of the Stoic Dion +Chrysostom, had no place in the ecclesiastical teaching. +Slavery was distinctly and formally recognised by Christianity,<note place='foot'>It is worthy of notice, too, that +the justice of slavery was frequently +based by the Fathers, as by modern +defenders of slavery, on the curse +of Ham. See a number of passages +noticed by Moehler, <hi rend='italic'>Le Christianisme +et l'Esclavage</hi> (trad. franç.), +pp. 151-152.</note> +and no religion ever laboured more to encourage a +habit of docility and passive obedience. Much was indeed +said by the Fathers about the natural equality of mankind, +about the duty of regarding slaves as brothers or companions, +and about the heinousness of cruelty to them; but all this +had been said with at least equal force, though it had not been +disseminated over an equally wide area, by Seneca and Epictetus, +and the principle of the original freedom of all men was +repeatedly averred by the Pagan lawyers. The services of +Christianity in this sphere were of three kinds. It supplied +a new order of relations, in which the distinction of classes +was unknown. It imparted a moral dignity to the servile +classes, and it gave an unexampled impetus to the movement +of enfranchisement. +</p> + +<p> +The first of these services was effected by the Church +ceremonies and the penitential discipline. In these spheres, +from which the Christian mind derived its earliest, its +deepest, and its most enduring impressions, the difference +between the master and his slave was unknown. They received +the sacred elements together, they sat side by side at +the agape, they mingled in the public prayers. In the penal +system of the Church, the distinction between wrongs done +to a freeman, and wrongs done to a slave, which lay at the +very root of the whole civil legislation, was repudiated. At +a time when, by the civil law, a master, whose slave died as +a consequence of excessive scourging, was absolutely unpunished, +the Council of Illiberis excluded that master for +<pb n='067'/><anchor id='Pg067'/> +ever from the communion.<note place='foot'><p>The penalty, however, appears +to have been reduced to two years' +exclusion from communion. Muratori +says: <q>In più consili si truova +decretato, <q>excommunicatione vel +pœnitentiæ biennii esse subjiciendum +qui servum proprium sine conscientia +judicis occiderit.</q></q>—<hi rend='italic'>Antich. +Ital.</hi> Diss. xiv. +</p> +<p> +Besides the works which treat +generally of the penitential discipline, +the reader may consult with +fruit Wright's letter <hi rend='italic'>On the Political +Condition of the English Peasantry</hi>, +and Moehler, p. 186.</p></note> The chastity of female slaves, +for the protection of which the civil law made but little provision, +was sedulously guarded by the legislation of the Church. +Slave birth, moreover, was no disqualification for entering +into the priesthood; and an emancipated slave, regarded as +the dispenser of spiritual life and death, often saw the +greatest and the most wealthy kneeling humbly at his feet +imploring his absolution or his benediction.<note place='foot'>On the great multitude of +emancipated slaves who entered, and +at one time almost monopolised, the +ecclesiastical offices, compare Moehler, +<hi rend='italic'>Le Christianisme et l'Esclavage</hi>, +pp. 177-178. Leo the Great tried +to prevent slaves being raised to +the priestly office, because it would +degrade the latter.</note> +</p> + +<p> +In the next place, Christianity imparted a moral dignity +to the servile class. It did this not only by associating +poverty and labour with that monastic life which was so profoundly +revered, but also by introducing new modifications +into the ideal type of morals. There is no fact more prominent +in the Roman writers than the profound contempt with +which they regarded slaves, not so much on account of their +position, as on account of the character which that position +had formed. A servile character was a synonym for a vicious +one. Cicero had declared that nothing great or noble could +exist in a slave, and the plays of Plautus exhibit the same estimate +in every scene. There were, it is true, some exceptions. +Epictetus had not only been, but had been recognised as one of +the noblest characters of Rome. The fidelity of slaves to +their masters had been frequently extolled, and Seneca in +this, as in other respects, had been the defender of the oppressed. +<pb n='068'/><anchor id='Pg068'/> +Still there can be no doubt that this contempt was +general, and also that in the Pagan world it was to a great +extent just. Every age has its own moral ideal, to which all +virtuous men aspire. Every sphere of life has also a tendency +to produce a distinctive type being specially favourable +to some particular class of virtues, and specially unfavourable +to others. The popular estimate, and even the real moral +condition, of each class depends chiefly upon the degree in +which the type of character its position naturally develops, +coincides with the ideal type of the age. Now, if we remember +that magnanimity, self-reliance, dignity, independence, +and, in a word, elevation of character, constituted the Roman +ideal of perfection, it will appear evident that this was preeminently +the type of freemen, and that the condition of +slavery was in the very highest degree unfavourable to its +development. Christianity for the first time gave the servile +virtues the foremost place in the moral type. Humility, +obedience, gentleness, patience, resignation, are all cardinal +or rudimentary virtues in the Christian character; they were +all neglected or underrated by the Pagans; they can all expand +and flourish in a servile position. +</p> + +<p> +The influence of Christianity upon slavery, by inclining the +moral type to the servile classes, though less obvious and less +discussed than some others, is, I believe, in the very highest degree +important. There is, probably, scarcely any other single +circumstance that exercises so profound an influence upon +the social and political relations of a religion, as the class +type with which it can most readily assimilate; or, in other +words, the group or variety of virtues to which it gives the +foremost place. The virtues that are most suited to the +servile position were in general so little honoured by antiquity +that they were not even cultivated in their appropriate +sphere. The aspirations of good men were in a different +direction. The virtue of the Stoic, which rose triumphantly +under adversity, nearly always withered under degradation. +<pb n='069'/><anchor id='Pg069'/> +For the first time, under the influence of Christianity, a great +moral movement passed through the servile class. The multitude +of slaves who embraced the new faith was one of the +reproaches of the Pagans; and the names of Blandina, Potamiæna, +Eutyches, Victorinus, and Nereus, show how fully +they shared in the sufferings and in the glory of martyrdom <note place='foot'>See a most admirable dissertation +on this subject in Le Blant, +<hi rend='italic'>Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule</hi>, +tome ii. pp. 284-299; Gibbon's +<hi rend='italic'>Decline and Fall</hi>, ch. xxxviii.</note>. +The first and grandest edifice of Byzantine architecture +in Italy—the noble church of St. Vital, at Ravenna—was +dedicated by Justinian to the memory of a martyred +slave. +</p> + +<p> +While Christianity thus broke down the contempt with +which the master had regarded his slaves, and planted among +the latter a principle of moral regeneration which expanded +in no other sphere with an equal perfection, its action in +procuring the freedom of the slave was unceasing. The law +of Constantine, which placed the ceremony under the superintendence +of the clergy, and the many laws that gave special +facilities of manumission to those who desired to enter +the monasteries or the priesthood, symbolised the religious +character the act had assumed. It was celebrated on Church +festivals, especially at Easter; and, although it was not proclaimed +a matter of duty or necessity, it was always regarded +as one of the most acceptable modes of expiating past sins. +St. Melania was said to have emancipated 8,000 slaves; St. +Ovidius, a rich martyr of Gaul, 5,000; Chromatius, a Roman +prefect under Diocletian, 1,400; Hermes, a prefect in the +reign of Trajan, 1,250.<note place='foot'>Champagny, <hi rend='italic'>Charité chrétienne</hi>, +p. 210. These numbers are, no doubt, +exaggerated; see Wallon, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de +l'Esclavage</hi>, tome iii. p. 38.</note> Pope St. Gregory, many of the +clergy at Hippo under the rule of St. Augustine, as well +as great numbers of private individuals, freed their slaves as +an act of piety.<note place='foot'>See Schmidt, <hi rend='italic'>La Société civile +dans le Monde romain</hi>, pp. 246-248.</note> It became customary to do so on occasions +<pb n='070'/><anchor id='Pg070'/> +of national or personal thanksgiving, on recovery from sickness, +on the birth of a child, at the hour of death, and, above +all, in testamentary bequests.<note place='foot'>Muratori has devoted two valuable +dissertations (<hi rend='italic'>Antich. Ital.</hi> +xiv. xv.) to mediæval slavery.</note> Numerous charters and epitaphs +still record the gift of liberty to slaves throughout the +middle ages, <q>for the benefit of the soul</q> of the donor or +testator. In the thirteenth century, when there were no +slaves to emancipate in France, it was usual in many churches +to release caged pigeons on the ecclesiastical festivals, in +memory of the ancient charity, and that prisoners might still +be freed in the name of Christ.<note place='foot'>Ozanam's <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Civilisation +in the Fifth Century</hi> (Eng. trans.), +vol. ii. p. 43. St. Adelbert, Archbishop +of Prague at the end of the +tenth century, was especially famous +for his opposition to the slave trade. +In Sweden, the abolition of slavery +in the thirteenth century was avowedly +accomplished in obedience to +Christian principles. (Moehler, <hi rend='italic'>Le +Christianisme et l'Esclavage</hi>, pp. +194-196; Ryan's <hi rend='italic'>History of the +Effects of Religion upon Mankind</hi>, +pp. 142, 143.)</note> +</p> + +<p> +Slavery, however, lasted in Europe for about 800 years +after Constantine, and during the period with which alone +this volume is concerned, although its character was changed +and mitigated, the number of men who were subject to it +was probably greater than in the Pagan Empire. In the +West the barbarian conquests modified the conditions of +labour in two directions. The cessation of the stream of barbarian +captives, the impoverishment of great families, who +had been surrounded by vast retinues of slaves, the general +diminution of town life, and the barbarian habits of personal +independence, checked the old form of slavery, while +the misery and the precarious condition of the free peasants +induced them in great numbers to barter their liberty for +protection by the neighbouring lord.<note place='foot'>Salvian, in a famous passage +(<hi rend='italic'>De Gubernatione Dei</hi>, lib. v.), notices +the multitudes of poor who +voluntarily became <q>coloni</q> for the +sake of protection and a livelihood. +The coloni, who were attached to +the soil, were much the same as the +mediæval serfs. We have already +noticed them coming into being, apparently +when the Roman emperors +settled barbarian prisoners to cultivate the desert lands of Italy; +and before the barbarian invasions +their numbers seem to have much +increased. M. Guizot has devoted +two chapters to this subject. (<hi rend='italic'>Hist. +de la Civilisation en France</hi>, vii. +viii.)</note> In the East, the destruction +<pb n='071'/><anchor id='Pg071'/> +of great fortunes through excessive taxation diminished +the number of superfluous slaves; and the fiscal system +of the Byzantine Empire, by which agricultural slaves were +taxed according to their employments,<note place='foot'>See Finlay's <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Greece</hi>, +vol. i. p. 241.</note> as well as the desire +of emperors to encourage agriculture, led the legislators to +attach the slaves permanently to the soil. In the course of +time, almost the entire free peasantry, and the greater number +of the old slaves, had sunk or risen into the qualified +slavery called serfdom, which formed the basis of the great +edifice of feudalism. Towards the end of the eighth century, +the sale of slaves beyond their native provinces was in most +countries prohibited.<note place='foot'>Moehler, p. 181.</note> The creation of the free cities of Italy, +the custom of emancipating slaves who were enrolled in the +army, and economical changes which made free labour more +profitable than slave labour, conspired with religious motives +in effecting the ultimate freedom of labour. The practice of +manumitting, as an act of devotion, continued to the end; +but the ecclesiastics, probably through the feeling that they +had no right to alienate corporate property, in which they had +only a life interest, were among the last to follow the counsels +they so liberally bestowed upon the laity.<note place='foot'><q>Non v'era anticamente signor +secolare, vescovo, abbate, capitolo +di canonici e monistero che non +avesse al suo servigio molti servi. +Molto frequentemente solevano i +secolari manometterli. Non cosi +le chiese, e i monisteri, non per +altra cagione, a mio credere, se non +perchè la manumissione è una spezie +di alienazione, ed era dai canoni proibito +l'alienare i beni delle chiese.</q>—Muratori, +<hi rend='italic'>Dissert.</hi> xv. Some +Councils, however, recognised the +right of bishops to emancipate +Church slaves. Moehler, <hi rend='italic'>Le Christianisme +et l'Esclavage</hi>, p. 187. +Many peasants placed themselves +under the dominion of the monks, +as being the best masters, and also +to obtain the benefit of their prayers.</note> In the twelfth +century, however, slaves in Europe were very rare. In the +fourteenth century, slavery was almost unknown.<note place='foot'>Muratori; Hallam's <hi rend='italic'>Middle +Ages</hi>, ch. ii. part ii.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='072'/><anchor id='Pg072'/> + +<p> +Closely connected with the influence of the Church in destroying +hereditary slavery, was its influence in redeeming +captives from servitude. In no other form of charity was its +beneficial character more continually and more splendidly +displayed. During the long and dreary trials of the barbarian +invasions, when the whole structure of society was dislocated, +when vast districts and mighty cities were in a few +months almost depopulated, and when the flower of the youth +of Italy were mown down by the sword, or carried away +into captivity, the bishops never desisted from their efforts to +alleviate the sufferings of the prisoners. St. Ambrose, disregarding +the outcries of the Arians, who denounced his act as +atrocious sacrilege, sold the rich church ornaments of Milan +to rescue some captives who had fallen into the hands of the +Goths, and this practice—which was afterwards formally +sanctioned by St. Gregory the Great—became speedily general. +When the Roman army had captured, but refused to support, +seven thousand Persian prisoners, Acacius, Bishop of Amida, +undeterred by the bitter hostility of the Persians to Christianity, +and declaring that <q>God had no need of plates or +dishes,</q> sold all the rich church ornaments of his diocese, +rescued the unbelieving prisoners, and sent them back unharmed +to their king. During the horrors of the Vandal +invasion, Deogratias, Bishop of Carthage, took a similar step +to ransom the Roman prisoners. St. Augustine, St. Gregory +the Great, St. Cæsarius of Arles, St. Exuperius of Toulouse, +St. Hilary, St. Remi, all melted down or sold their church +vases to free prisoners. St. Cyprian sent a large sum for the +same purpose to the Bishop of Nicomedia. St. Epiphanius +and St. Avitus, in conjunction with a rich Gaulish lady +named Syagria, are said to have rescued thousands. St. +Eligius devoted to this object his entire fortune. St. Paulinus +of Nola displayed a similar generosity, and the legends even +assert, though untruly, that he, like St. Peter Teleonarius +and St. Serapion, having exhausted all other forms of charity, +<pb n='073'/><anchor id='Pg073'/> +as a last gift sold himself to slavery. When, long afterwards, +the Mohammedan conquests in a measure reproduced +the calamities of the barbarian invasions, the same unwearied +charity was displayed. The Trinitarian monks, founded by John +of Matha in the twelfth century, were devoted to the release +of Christian captives, and another society was founded with +the same object by Peter Nolasco, in the following century.<note place='foot'>See on this subject, Ryan, pp. +151-152; Cibrario, <hi rend='italic'>Economica politica +del Medio Evo</hi>, lib. iii. cap. ii., +and especially Le Blant, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptions +chrétiennes de la Gaule</hi>, tome +ii. pp. 284-299.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The different branches of the subject I am examining are +so closely intertwined that it is difficult to investigate one +without in a measure anticipating the others. While discussing +the influence of the Church in protecting infancy, in +raising the estimate of human life, and in alleviating slavery, +I have trenched largely upon the last application of the +doctrine of Christian fraternity I must examine—I mean the +foundation of charity. The difference between Pagan and +Christian societies in this matter is very profound; but a +great part of it must be ascribed to causes other than +religious opinions. Charity finds an extended scope for +action only, where there exists a large class of men at once +independent and impoverished. In the ancient societies, +slavery in a great measure replaced pauperism, and, by +securing the subsistence of a very large proportion of the +poor, contracted the sphere of charity. And what slavery +did at Rome for the very poor, the system of clientage did +for those of a somewhat higher rank. The existence of these +two institutions is sufficient to show the injustice of judging +the two societies by a mere comparison of their charitable +institutions, and we must also remember that among the +ancients the relief of the indigent was one of the most important +functions of the State. Not to dwell upon the many +measures taken with this object in ancient Greece, in considering +the condition of the Roman poor we are at once met +<pb n='074'/><anchor id='Pg074'/> +by the simple fact that for several centuries the immense +majority of these were habitually supported by gratuitous +distributions of corn. In a very early period of Roman +history we find occasional instances of distribution; but it +was not till <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.u.c.</hi> 630 that Caius Gracchus caused a law to +be made, supplying the poorer classes with corn at a price +that was little more than nominal; and although, two years +after, the nobles succeeded in revoking this law, it was after +several fluctuations finally re-enacted in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.u.c.</hi> 679. The +Cassia-Terentia law, as it was called from the consuls under +whom it was at last established, was largely extended in its +operation, or, as some think, revived from neglect in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.u.c.</hi> +691, by Cato of Utica, who desired by this means to divert +popularity from the cause of Cæsar, under whom multitudes +of the poor were enrolling themselves. Four years later, +Clodius Pulcher, abolishing the small payment which had +been demanded, made the distribution entirely gratuitous. +It took place once a month, and consisted of five modii<note place='foot'>About 5/6ths of a bushel. See Hume's <hi rend='italic'>Essay on the Populousness +of Ancient Nations</hi>.</note> a +head. In the time of Julius Cæsar no less than 320,000 +persons were inscribed as recipients; but Cæsar reduced the +number by one half. Under Augustus it had risen to +200,000. This emperor desired to restrict the distribution +of corn to three or four times a year, but, yielding to the +popular wish, he at last consented that it should continue +monthly. It soon became the leading fact of Roman life. +Numerous officers were appointed to provide it. A severe +legislation controlled their acts, and to secure a regular and +abundant supply of corn for the capital became the principal +object of the provincial governors. Under the Antonines the +number of the recipients had considerably increased, having +sometimes, it is said, exceeded 500,000. Septimus Severus +added to the corn a ration of oil. Aurelian replaced the +<pb n='075'/><anchor id='Pg075'/> +monthly distribution of unground corn by a daily distribution +of bread, and added, moreover, a portion of pork. Gratuitous +distributions were afterwards extended to Constantinople, +Alexandria, and Antioch, and were probably not altogether +unknown in smaller towns.<note place='foot'>The history of these distributions +is traced with admirable learning +by M. Naudet in his <hi rend='italic'>Mémoire +sur les Secours publics dans l'Antiquité</hi> +(<hi rend='italic'>Mém. de l'Académie des Inscrip. +et Belles-lettres</hi>, tome xiii.), +an essay to which I am much indebted. +See, too, Monnier, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. +de l'Assistance publique</hi>; B. Dumas, +<hi rend='italic'>Des Secours publics chez les Anciens</hi>; +and Schmidt, <hi rend='italic'>Essai sur la Société +civile dans le Monde romain et sur +sa Transformation par le Christianisme</hi>.</note> +</p> + +<p> +We have already seen that this gratuitous distribution of +corn ranked, with the institution of slavery and the gladiatorial +exhibitions, as one of the chief demoralising influences +of the Empire. The most injudicious charity, however pernicious +to the classes it is intended to relieve, has commonly +a beneficial and softening influence upon the donor, and +through him upon society at large. But the Roman distribution +of corn, being merely a political device, had no +humanising influence upon the people, while, being regulated +only by the indigence, and not at all by the infirmities or +character, of the recipient, it was a direct and overwhelming +encouragement to idleness. With a provision of the necessaries +of life, and with an abundant supply of amusements, the +poor Romans readily gave up honourable labour, all trades +in the city languished, every interruption in the distribution +of corn was followed by fearful sufferings, free gifts of land +were often insufficient to attract the citizens to honest labour, +and the multiplication of children, which rendered the public +relief inadequate, was checked by abortion, exposition, or +infanticide. +</p> + +<p> +When we remember that the population of Rome +probably never exceeded a million and a half, that a large +proportion of the indigent were provided for as slaves, and +that more than 200,000 freemen were habitually supplied +<pb n='076'/><anchor id='Pg076'/> +with the first necessary of life, we cannot, I think, charge +the Pagan society of the metropolis, at least, with an excessive +parsimony in relieving poverty. But besides the distribution +of corn, several other measures were taken. Salt, which +was very largely used by the Roman poor, had during the +Republic been made a monopoly of the State, and was sold +by it at a price that was little more than nominal.<note place='foot'>Livy, ii. 9; Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> +xxxi. 41.</note> The distribution +of land, which was the subject of the agrarian laws, +was, under a new form, practised by Julius Cæsar,<note place='foot'>Dion Cassius, xxxviii. 1-7.</note> Nerva,<note place='foot'>Xiphilin, lxviii. 2; Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +vii. 31.</note> +and Septimus Severus,<note place='foot'>Spartian. <hi rend='italic'>Sept. Severus</hi>.</note> who bought land to divide it among +the poor citizens. Large legacies were left to the people by +Julius Cæsar, Augustus, and others, and considerable, though +irregular, donations made on occasions of great rejoicings. +Numerous public baths were established, to which, when +they were not absolutely gratuitous, the smallest coin in use +gave admission, and which were in consequence habitually +employed by the poor. Vespasian instituted, and the Antonines +extended, a system of popular education, and the movement +I have already noticed, for the support of the children +of poor parents, acquired very considerable proportions. The +first trace of it at Rome may be found under Augustus, who +gave money and corn for the support of young children, who +had previously not been included in the public distributions.<note place='foot'>Suet. <hi rend='italic'>August.</hi> 41; Dion Cassius, +li, 1.</note> +This appears, however, to have been but an act of isolated +benevolence, and the honour of first instituting a systematic +effort in this direction belongs to Nerva, who enjoined the +support of poor children, not only in Rome, but in all the +cities of Italy.<note place='foot'><q>Afflictos civitatis relevavit; +puellas puerosque natos parentibus +egestosis sumptu publico per Italiæ +oppida ali jussit.</q>—Sext. Aurelius +Victor, <hi rend='italic'>Epitome</hi>, <q>Nerva.</q> This +measure of Nerva, though not mentioned +by any other writer, is confirmed +by the evidence of medals. +(Naudet, p. 75.)</note> Trajan greatly extended the system. In +<pb n='077'/><anchor id='Pg077'/> +his reign 5,000 poor children were supported by the Government +in Rome alone,<note place='foot'>Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Panegyr.</hi> xxvi. xxviii.</note> and similar measures, though we know +not on what scale, were taken in the other Italian and even +African cities. At the little town of Velleia, we find a +charity instituted by Trajan, for the partial support of 270 +children.<note place='foot'>We know of this charity +from an extant bronze tablet. See +Schmidt, <hi rend='italic'>Essai historique sur la +Société romaine</hi>, p. 428.</note> Private benevolence followed in the same direction, +and several inscriptions which still remain, though they +do not enable us to write its history, sufficiently attest its +activity. The younger Pliny, besides warmly encouraging +schools, devoted a small property to the support of poor +children in his native city of Como.<note place='foot'>Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> i. 8; iv. 13.</note> The name of Cælia +Macrina is preserved as the foundress of a charity for 100 +children at Terracina.<note place='foot'>Schmidt, p. 428.</note> Hadrian increased the supplies of +corn allotted to these charities, and he was also distinguished +for his bounty to poor women.<note place='foot'>Spartianus, <hi rend='italic'>Hadrian</hi>.</note> Antoninus was accustomed +to lend money to the poor at four per cent., which was much +below the normal rate of interest,<note place='foot'>Capitolinus, <hi rend='italic'>Antoninus</hi>.</note> and both he and Marcus +Aurelius dedicated to the memory of their wives institutions +for the support of girls.<note place='foot'>Capitolinus, <hi rend='italic'>Anton.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Marc. +Aurel.</hi></note> Alexander Severus in like manner +dedicated an institution for the support of children to the +memory of his mother.<note place='foot'>Lampridius, <hi rend='italic'>A. Severus</hi>.</note> Public hospitals were probably +unknown in Europe before Christianity; but there are traces +of the distribution of medicine to the sick poor;<note place='foot'>See Friedlænder, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des +Mœurs romaines</hi>, iii. p. 157.</note> there were +private infirmaries for slaves, and also, it is believed, military +hospitals.<note place='foot'>Seneca (<hi rend='italic'>De Ira</hi>, lib. i. cap. 16) +speaks of institutions called valetudinaria, +which most writers think +were private infirmaries in rich +men's houses. The opinion that +the Romans had public hospitals +is maintained in a very learned +and valuable, but little-known +work, called <hi rend='italic'>Collections relative to +the Systematic Relief of the Poor</hi>. +(London, 1815.)</note> Provincial towns were occasionally assisted by +<pb n='078'/><anchor id='Pg078'/> +the Government in seasons of great distress, and there are +some recorded instances of private legacies for their benefit.<note place='foot'>See Tacit. <hi rend='italic'>Annal.</hi> xii. 58; +Pliny, v. 7; x. 79.</note> +</p> + +<p> +These various measures are by no means inconsiderable, +and it is not unreasonable to suppose that many similar steps +were taken, of which all record has been lost. The history +of charity presents so few salient features, so little that can +strike the imagination or arrest the attention, that it is +usually almost wholly neglected by historians; and it is +easy to conceive what inadequate notions of our existing +charities could be gleaned from the casual allusions in plays +or poems, in political histories or court memoirs. There can, +however, be no question that neither in practice nor in +theory, neither in the institutions that were founded nor in +the place that was assigned to it in the scale of duties, did +charity in antiquity occupy a position at all comparable to +that which it has obtained by Christianity. Nearly all +relief was a State measure, dictated much more by policy +than by benevolence; and the habit of selling young children, +the innumerable expositions, the readiness of the poor to +enrol themselves as gladiators, and the frequent famines, +show how large was the measure of unrelieved distress. A +very few Pagan examples of charity have, indeed, descended +to us. Among the Greeks we find Epaminondas ransoming +captives, and collecting dowers for poor girls;<note place='foot'>Cornelius Nepos, <hi rend='italic'>Epaminondas</hi>, +cap. iii.</note> Cimon, +feeding the hungry and clothing the naked;<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Cimon</hi>.</note> Bias, purchasing, +emancipating, and furnishing with dowers some captive girls +of Messina.<note place='foot'>Diog. Laërt. <hi rend='italic'>Bias</hi>.</note> Tacitus has described with enthusiasm how, +after a catastrophe near Rome, the rich threw open their +houses and taxed all their resources to relieve the sufferers.<note place='foot'>Tac. <hi rend='italic'>Annal.</hi> iv. 63.</note> +There existed, too, among the poor, both of Greece and +Rome, mutual insurance societies, which undertook to provide +<pb n='079'/><anchor id='Pg079'/> +for their sick and infirm members.<note place='foot'>See Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> x. 94, and the remarks of Naudet, pp. 38, 39.</note> The very frequent +reference to mendicancy in the Latin writers shows that +beggars, and therefore those who relieved beggars, were +numerous. The duty of hospitality was also strongly enjoined, +and was placed under the special protection of the +supreme Deity. But the active, habitual, and detailed +charity of private persons, which is so conspicuous a feature +in all Christian societies, was scarcely known in antiquity, +and there are not more than two or three moralists who +have even noticed it. Of these, the chief rank belongs to +Cicero, who devoted two very judicious but somewhat cold +chapters to the subject. Nothing, he said, is more suitable +to the nature of man than beneficence or liberality, but there +are many cautions to be urged in practising it. We must +take care that our bounty is a real blessing to the person we +relieve; that it does not exceed our own means; that it is +not, as was the case with Sylla and Cæsar, derived from the +spoliation of others; that it springs from the heart and not +from ostentation; that the claims of gratitude are preferred +to the mere impulses of compassion, and that due regard is +paid both to the character and to the wants of the recipient.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>De Offic.</hi> i. 14, 15.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Christianity for the first time made charity a rudimentary +virtue, giving it a leading place in the moral type, and in the +exhortations of its teachers. Besides its general influence in +stimulating the affections, it effected a complete revolution +in this sphere, by regarding the poor as the special representatives +of the Christian Founder, and thus making the +love of Christ, rather than the love of man, the principle of +charity. Even in the days of persecution, collections for the +relief of the poor were made at the Sunday meetings. +The agapæ or feasts of love were intended mainly for the +poor, and food that was saved by the fasts was devoted to +their benefit. A vast organisation of charity, presided over +<pb n='080'/><anchor id='Pg080'/> +by the bishops, and actively directed by the deacons, soon +ramified over Christendom, till the bond of charity became +the bond of unity, and the most distant sections of the +Christian Church corresponded by the interchange of mercy. +Long before the era of Constantine, it was observed that the +charities of the Christians were so extensive—it may, perhaps, +be said so excessive—that they drew very many +impostors to the Church;<note place='foot'>Lucian describes this in his +famous picture of Peregrinus; and +Julian, much later, accused the +Christians of drawing men into +the Church by their charities. +Socrates (<hi rend='italic'>Hist. Eccl.</hi> vii. 17) tells +a story of a Jew who, pretending +to be a convert to Christianity, +had been often baptised in different +sects, and had amassed a considerable +fortune by the gifts he +received on those occasions. He +was at last miraculously detected +by the Novatian bishop Paul. +There are several instances in the +<hi rend='italic'>Lives of the Saints</hi> of judgments +falling on those who duped benevolent +Christians.</note> and when the victory of Christianity +was achieved, the enthusiasm for charity displayed +itself in the erection of numerous institutions that were altogether +unknown to the Pagan world. A Roman lady, +named Fabiola, in the fourth century, founded at Rome, as +an act of penance, the first public hospital, and the charity +planted by that woman's hand overspread the world, and +will alleviate, to the end of time, the darkest anguish of +humanity. Another hospital was soon after founded by St. +Pammachus; another of great celebrity by St. Basil, at +Cæsarea. St. Basil also erected at Cæsarea what was probably +the first asylum for lepers. Xenodochia, or refuges for +strangers, speedily rose, especially along the paths of the +pilgrims. St. Pammachus founded one at Ostia; Paula and +Melania founded others at Jerusalem. The Council of Nice +ordered that one should be erected in every city. In the +time of St. Chrysostom the church of Antioch supported +3,000 widows and virgins, besides strangers and sick. Legacies +for the poor became common; and it was not unfrequent +for men and women who desired to live a life of peculiar +sanctity, and especially for priests who attained the episcopacy +<pb n='081'/><anchor id='Pg081'/> +to bestow their entire properties in charity. Even the early +Oriental monks, who for the most part were extremely +removed from the active and social virtues, supplied many +noble examples of charity. St. Ephrem, in a time of pestilence, +emerged from his solitude to found and superintend a +hospital at Edessa. A monk named Thalasius collected +blind beggars in an asylum on the banks of the Euphrates. +A merchant named Apollonius founded on Mount Nitria a +gratuitous dispensary for the monks. The monks often +assisted by their labours provinces that were suffering from +pestilence or famine. We may trace the remains of the +pure socialism that marked the first phase of the Christian +community, in the emphatic language with which some of +the Fathers proclaimed charity to be a matter not of mercy but +of justice, maintaining that all property is based on usurpation, +that the earth by right is common to all men, and +that no man can claim a superabundant supply of its goods +except as an administrator for others. A Christian, it was +maintained, should devote at least one-tenth of his profits to +the poor.<note place='foot'>See on this subject Chastel, +<hi rend='italic'>Études historiques sur la Charité</hi> +(Paris, 1853); Martin Doisy, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. +de la Charité pendant les quatre +premiers Siècles</hi> (Paris, 1848); +Champagny, <hi rend='italic'>Charité chrétienne</hi>; +Tollemer, <hi rend='italic'>Origines de la Charité +catholique</hi> (Paris, 1863); Ryan, +<hi rend='italic'>History of the Effects of Religion +upon Mankind</hi> (Dublin, 1820); +and the works of Bingham and of +Cave. I am also indebted, in this +part of my subject, to Dean Milman's +histories, Neander's <hi rend='italic'>Ecclesiastical +History</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>Private Life of the +Early Christians</hi>, and to Migne's +<hi rend='italic'>Encyclopédie</hi>.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The enthusiasm of charity, thus manifested in the Church, +speedily attracted the attention of the Pagans. The ridicule +of Lucian, and the vain efforts of Julian to produce a rival +system of charity within the limits of Paganism,<note place='foot'>See the famous epistle of +Julian to Arsacius, where he +declares that it is shameful that +<q>the Galileans</q> should support +not only their own, but also the +heathen poor; and also the comments +of Sozomen, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. eccl.</hi> v. +16.</note> emphatically +attested both its pre-eminence and its catholicity. During +<pb n='082'/><anchor id='Pg082'/> +the pestilences that desolated Carthage in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 326, and +Alexandria in the reigns of Gallienus and of Maximian, while +the Pagans fled panic-stricken from the contagion, the +Christians extorted the admiration of their fellow-countrymen +by the courage with which they rallied around their bishops, +consoled the last hours of the sufferers, and buried the abandoned +dead.<note place='foot'>The conduct of the Christians, +on the first of these occasions, is +described by Pontius, <hi rend='italic'>Vit. Cypriani</hi>, +ix. 19. St. Cyprian organised +their efforts. On the Alexandrian +famines and pestilences, see Eusebius, +<hi rend='italic'>H. E.</hi> vii. 22; ix. 8.</note> In the rapid increase of pauperism arising +from the emancipation of numerous slaves, their charity +found free scope for action, and its resources were soon taxed +to the utmost by the horrors of the barbarian invasions. +The conquest of Africa by Genseric deprived Italy of the +supply of corn upon which it almost wholly depended, +arrested the gratuitous distribution by which the Roman +poor were mainly supported, and produced all over the land +the most appalling calamities.<note place='foot'>The effects of this conquest +have been well described by Sismondi, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. de la Chute de l'Empire +Romain</hi>, tome i. pp. 258-260. +Theodoric afterwards made some +efforts to re-establish the distribution, +but it never regained its +former proportions. The pictures +of the starvation and depopulation +of Italy at this time are appalling. +Some fearful facts on the subject +are collected by Gibbon, <hi rend='italic'>Decline +and Fall</hi>, ch. xxxvi.; Chateaubriand, +vi<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>me</hi> <hi rend='italic'>Disc.</hi> 2<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>de</hi> partie.</note> The history of Italy became +one monotonous tale of famine and pestilence, of starving +populations and ruined cities. But everywhere amid this +chaos of dissolution we may detect the majestic form of the +Christian priest mediating between the hostile forces, straining +every nerve to lighten the calamities around him. When +the Imperial city was captured and plundered by the hosts +of Alaric, a Christian church remained a secure sanctuary, +which neither the passions nor the avarice of the Goths +transgressed. When a fiercer than Alaric had marked out +Rome for his prey, the Pope St. Leo, arrayed in his sacerdotal +robes, confronted the victorious Hun, as the ambassador +<pb n='083'/><anchor id='Pg083'/> +of his fellow-countrymen, and Attila, overpowered by +religious awe, turned aside in his course. When, two years +later, Rome lay at the mercy of Genseric, the same Pope +interposed with the Vandal conqueror, and obtained from +him a partial cessation of the massacre. The Archdeacon +Pelagius interceded with similar humanity and similar +success, when Rome had been captured by Totila. In Gaul, +Troyes is said to have been saved from destruction by the +influence of St. Lupus, and Orleans by the influence of St. +Agnan. In Britain an invasion of the Picts was averted by +St. Germain of Auxerre. The relations of rulers to their +subjects, and of tribunals to the poor, were modified by the +same intervention. When Antioch was threatened with +destruction on account of its rebellion against Theodosius, +the anchorites poured forth from the neighbouring deserts to +intercede with the ministers of the emperor, while the Archbishop +Flavian went himself as a suppliant to Constantinople. +St. Ambrose imposed public penance on Theodosius, on +account of the massacre of Thessalonica. Synesius excommunicated +for his oppressions a governor named Andronicus; +and two French Councils, in the sixth century, imposed the +same penalty on all great men who arbitrarily ejected the +poor. Special laws were found necessary to restrain the +turbulent charity of some priests and monks, who impeded +the course of justice, and even snatched criminals from the +hands of the law.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> ix. xl. 15-16. +The first of these laws was made +by Theodosius, <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 392; the second +by Honorius, <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 398.</note> St. Abraham, St. Epiphanius, and St. +Basil are all said to have obtained the remission or reduction +of oppressive imposts. To provide for the interests of widows +and orphans was part of the official ecclesiastical duty, and +a Council of Macon anathematised any ruler who brought +them to trial without first apprising the bishop of the diocese. +A Council of Toledo, in the fifth century, threatened with +excommunication all who robbed priests, monks, or poor +<pb n='084'/><anchor id='Pg084'/> +men, or refused to listen to their expostulations. One of the +chief causes of the inordinate power acquired by the clergy +was their mediatorial office, and their gigantic wealth was +in a great degree due to the legacies of those who regarded +them as the trustees of the poor. As time rolled on, charity +assumed many forms, and every monastery became a centre +from which it radiated. By the monks the nobles were +overawed, the poor protected, the sick tended, travellers +sheltered, prisoners ransomed, the remotest spheres of suffering +explored. During the darkest period of the middle ages, +monks founded a refuge for pilgrims amid the horrors of the +Alpine snows. A solitary hermit often planted himself, +with his little boat, by a bridgeless stream, and the charity +of his life was to ferry over the traveller.<note place='foot'>Cibrario, <hi rend='italic'>Economica politica +del Medio Evo</hi>, lib. ii. cap. iii. +The most remarkable of these +saints was St. Julien l'Hospitalier, +who having under a mistake killed +his father and mother, as a penance +became a ferryman of a great +river, and having embarked on a +very stormy and dangerous night +at the voice of a traveller in distress, +received Christ into his boat. +His story is painted on a window +of the thirteenth century, in Rouen +Cathedral. See Langlois, <hi rend='italic'>Essai +historique sur la Peinture sur verre</hi>, +pp. 32-37.</note> When the +hideous disease of leprosy extended its ravages over Europe, +when the minds of men were filled with terror, not only by +its loathsomeness and its contagion, but also by the notion +that it was in a peculiar sense supernatural,<note place='foot'>The fact of leprosy being +taken as the image of sin gave rise +to some curious notions of its +supernatural character, and to +many legends of saints curing +leprosy by baptism. See Maury, +<hi rend='italic'>Légendes pieuses du Moyen-Age</hi>, +pp. 64-65.</note> new hospitals +and refuges overspread Europe, and monks flocked in multitudes +to serve in them.<note place='foot'>See on these hospitals Cibrario, +<hi rend='italic'>Econ. Politica del Medio Evo</hi>, lib. +iii. cap. ii.</note> Sometimes, the legends say, the +leper's form was in a moment transfigured, and he who +came to tend the most loathsome of mankind received his +reward, for he found himself in the presence of his Lord. +</p> + +<p> +There is no fact of which an historian becomes more +<pb n='085'/><anchor id='Pg085'/> +speedily or more painfully conscious than the great difference +between the importance and the dramatic interest of the +subjects he treats. Wars or massacres, the horrors of +martyrdom or the splendours of individual prowess, are +susceptible of such brilliant colouring, that with but little +literary skill they can be so pourtrayed that their importance +is adequately realised, and they appeal powerfully to the +emotions of the reader. But this vast and unostentatious +movement of charity, operating in the village hamlet and in +the lonely hospital, staunching the widow's tears, and following +all the windings of the poor man's griefs, presents few +features the imagination can grasp, and leaves no deep impression +upon the mind. The greatest things are often those +which are most imperfectly realised; and surely no achievements +of the Christian Church are more truly great than +those which it has effected in the sphere of charity. For +the first time in the history of mankind, it has inspired +many thousands of men and women, at the sacrifice of all +worldly interests, and often under circumstances of extreme +discomfort or danger, to devote their entire lives to the +single object of assuaging the sufferings of humanity. It has +covered the globe with countless institutions of mercy, +absolutely unknown to the whole Pagan world. It has +indissolubly united, in the minds of men, the idea of supreme +goodness with that of active and constant benevolence. It +has placed in every parish a religious minister, who, whatever +may be his other functions, has at least been officially charged +with the superintendence of an organisation of charity, and +who finds in this office one of the most important as well as +one of the most legitimate sources of his power. +</p> + +<p> +There are, however, two important qualifications to the +admiration with which we regard the history of Christian +charity—one relating to a particular form of suffering, and +the other of a more general kind. A strong, ill-defined +notion of the supernatural character of insanity had existed +<pb n='086'/><anchor id='Pg086'/> +from the earliest times; but there were special circumstances +which rendered the action of the Church peculiarly unfavourable +to those who were either predisposed to or afflicted with +this calamity. The reality both of witchcraft and diabolical +possession had been distinctly recognised in the Jewish +writings. The received opinions about eternal torture, and +ever-present dæmons, and the continued strain upon the +imagination, in dwelling upon an unseen world, were pre-eminently +fitted to produce madness in those who were at all +predisposed to it, and, where insanity had actually appeared, +to determine the form and complexion of the hallucinations +of the maniac.<note place='foot'>Calmeil observes: <q>On a souvent +constaté depuis un demi-siècle +que la folie est sujette à prendre +la teinte des croyances religieuses, +des idées philosophiques ou superstitieuses, +des préjugés sociaux qui +ont cours, qui sont actuellement +en vogue parmi les peuples ou les +nations; que cette teinte varie +dans un même pays suivant le +caractère des événements relatifs à +la politique extérieure, le caractère +des événements civils, la nature +des productions littéraires, des +représentations théâtrales, suivant +la tournure, la direction, le genre +d'élan qu'y prennent l'industrie, les +arts et les sciences.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>De la Folie</hi>, +tome i. pp. 122-123.</note> Theology supplying all the images that +acted most powerfully upon the imagination, most madness, +for many centuries, took a theological cast. One important +department of it appears chiefly in the lives of the saints. +Men of lively imaginations and absolute ignorance, living +apart from all their fellows, amid the horrors of a savage +wilderness, practising austerities by which their physical +system was thoroughly deranged, and firmly persuaded that +innumerable devils were continually hovering about their +cells and interfering with their devotions, speedily and very +naturally became subject to constant hallucinations, which +probably form the nucleus of truth in the legends of their +lives. But it was impossible that insanity should confine +itself to the orthodox forms of celestial visions, or of the +apparitions and the defeats of devils. Very frequently it +led the unhappy maniac to some delusion, which called down +<pb n='087'/><anchor id='Pg087'/> +upon him the speedy sentence of the Church. Thus, in the +year 1300, the corpse of a Bohemian or, according to another +version, an English girl who imagined herself to be the Holy +Ghost incarnate for the redemption of women, was dug up +and burnt, and two women who believed in her perished at +the stake.<note place='foot'><p>Milman's <hi rend='italic'>History of Latin +Christianity</hi>, vol. vii. pp. 353, 354. +</p> +<p> +<q>Venit de Anglia virgo decora +valde, pariterque facunda, dicens, +Spiritum Sanctum incarnatum in +redemptionem mulierum, et baptizavit +mulieres in nomine Patris, +Filii et sui. Quæ mortua ducta +fuit in Mediolanum, ibi et cremata.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Annales +Dominicanorum Colmariensium</hi> +(in the <q>Rerum Germanic. +Scriptores</q>).</p></note> In the year 1359, a Spaniard declared himself to +be the brother of the archangel Michael, and to be destined +for the place in heaven which Satan had lost; and he added +that he was accustomed every day both to mount into heaven +and descend into hell, that the end of the world was at hand, +and that it was reserved for him to enter into single combat +with Antichrist. The poor lunatic fell into the hands of the +Archbishop of Toledo, and was burnt alive.<note place='foot'><q>Martin Gonçalez, du diocèse +de Cuenca, disoit qu'il etoit frère +de l'archange S. Michel, la première +vérité et l'échelle du ciel; que +c'étoit pour lui que Dieu réservoit +la place que Lucifer avoit perdue; +que tous les jours il s'élevoit au +plus haut de l'Empirée et descendoit +ensuite au plus profond des +enfers; qu'a la fin du monde, qui +étoit proche, il iroit au devant de +l'Antichrist et qu'il le terrasseroit, +ayant á sa main la croix de Jésus-Christ +et sa couronne d'épines. +L'archevêque de Tolède, n'ayant +pu convertir ce fanatique obstiné, +ni l'empêcher de dogmatiser, l'avoit +enfin livré au bras séculier.</q>—Touron, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. des Hommes illustres +de l'ordre de St. Dominique</hi>, Paris, +1745 (<hi rend='italic'>Vie d'Eyméricus</hi>), tome ii. +p. 635.</note> In some cases +the hallucination took the form of an irregular inspiration. +On this charge, Joan of Arc, and another girl who had been +fired by her example, and had endeavoured, apparently under +a genuine hallucination, to follow her career,<note place='foot'>Calmeil, <hi rend='italic'>De la Folie</hi>, tome i. +p. 134.</note> were burnt +alive. A famous Spanish physician and scholar, named +Torralba, who lived in the sixteenth century, and who +imagined that he had an attendant angel continually about +him, escaped with public penance and confession;<note place='foot'>Ibid. tome i. pp. 242-247.</note> but a +<pb n='088'/><anchor id='Pg088'/> +professor of theology in Lima, who laboured under the same +delusion, and added to it some wild notions about his spiritual +dignities, was less fortunate. He was burnt by the Inquisition +of Peru.<note place='foot'>Calmeil, tome i. p. 247.</note> Most commonly, however, the theological +notions about witchcraft either produced madness or determined +its form, and, through the influence of the clergy of +the different sections of the Christian Church, many thousands +of unhappy women, who, from their age, their loneliness, and +their infirmity, were most deserving of pity, were devoted to +the hatred of mankind, and, having been tortured with +horrible and ingenious cruelty, were at last burnt alive. +</p> + +<p> +The existence, however, of some forms of natural madness +was generally admitted; but the measures for the relief of +the unhappy victims were very few, and very ill judged. +Among the ancients, they were brought to the temples, and +subjected to imposing ceremonies, which were believed +supernaturally to relieve them, and which probably had a +favourable influence through their action upon the imagination. +The great Greek physicians had devoted considerable +attention to this malady, and some of their precepts anticipated +modern discoveries; but no lunatic asylum appears +to have existed in antiquity.<note place='foot'>See Esquirol, <hi rend='italic'>Maladies mentales</hi>.</note> In the first period of the +hermit life, when many anchorites became insane through +their penances, a refuge is said to have been opened for them +at Jerusalem.<note place='foot'>Gibbon, <hi rend='italic'>Decline and Fall</hi>, ch. +xxxvii.</note> This appears, however, to be a solitary +instance, arising from the exigencies of a single class, and no +lunatic asylum existed in Christian Europe till the fifteenth +century. The Mohammedans, in this form of charity, seem +to have preceded the Christians. Benjamin of Tudela, who +visited Bagdad in the twelfth century, describes a palace in +that city, called <q>the House of Mercy,</q> in which all mad +persons found in the country were confined and bound with +<pb n='089'/><anchor id='Pg089'/> +iron chains. They were carefully examined every month +and released as soon as they recovered.<note place='foot'>Purchas's <hi rend='italic'>Pilgrims</hi>, ii. 1452.</note> The asylum of +Cairo is said to have been founded in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1304.<note place='foot'>Desmaisons' <hi rend='italic'>Asiles d'Aliénés +en Espagne</hi>, p. 53.</note> Leo +Africanus notices the existence of a similar institution at Fez, +in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and mentions that +the patients were restrained by chains,<note place='foot'>Leo Africanus, <hi rend='italic'>Description of +Africa</hi>, book iii.</note> and it is probable +that the care of the insane was a general form of charity +in Mohammedan countries. Among the Christians it first +appeared in quarters contiguous to the Mohammedans; but +there is, I think, no real evidence that it was derived from +Mohammedan example. The Knights of Malta were famous +as the one order who admitted lunatics into their hospitals; +but no Christian asylum expressly for their benefit existed +till 1409. The honour of instituting this form of charity in +Christendom belongs to Spain. A monk named Juan Gilaberto +Joffre, filled with compassion at the sight of the +maniacs who were hooted by crowds through the streets of +Valencia, founded an asylum in that city, and his example +was speedily followed in other provinces. The new charity +was introduced into Saragossa in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1425, into Seville and +Valladolid in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1436, into Toledo in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1483. All these +institutions existed before a single lunatic asylum had been +founded in any other part of Christendom.<note place='foot'>I have taken these facts from +a very interesting little work, Desmaisons, +<hi rend='italic'>Des Asiles d'Aliénés en +Espagne; Recherches historiques et +médicales</hi> (Paris, 1859). Dr. Desmaisons +conjectures that the +Spaniards took their asylums from +the Mohammedans; but, as it +seems to me, he altogether fails to +prove his point. His work, however, +contains some curious information +on the history of lunatic +asylums.</note> Two other very +honourable facts may be mentioned, establishing the preeminence +of Spanish charity in this field. The first is, that +the oldest lunatic asylum in the metropolis of Catholicism +was that erected by Spaniards, in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1548.<note place='foot'>Amydemus, <hi rend='italic'>Pietas Romana</hi> +(Oxford, 1687), p. 21; Desmaisons, +p. 108.</note> The second is, +<pb n='090'/><anchor id='Pg090'/> +that when, at the close of the last century, Pinel began his +great labours in this sphere, he pronounced Spain to be the +country in which lunatics were treated with most wisdom +and most humanity.<note place='foot'>Pinel, <hi rend='italic'>Traité médico-philosophique</hi>, +pp. 241, 242.</note> +</p> + +<p> +In most countries their condition was indeed truly +deplorable. While many thousands were burnt as witches, +those who were recognised as insane were compelled to +endure all the horrors of the harshest imprisonment. +Blows, bleeding, and chains were their usual treatment, and +horrible accounts were given of madmen who had spent +decades bound in dark cells.<note place='foot'>See the dreadful description +in Pinel, pp. 200-202.</note> Such treatment naturally +aggravated their malady, and that malady in many cases +rendered impossible the resignation and ultimate torpor +which alleviate the sufferings of ordinary prisoners. Not +until the eighteenth century was the condition of this +unhappy class seriously improved. The combined progress of +theological scepticism and scientific knowledge relegated +witchcraft to the world of phantoms, and the exertions of +Morgagni in Italy, of Cullen in Scotland, and of Pinel in +France, renovated the whole treatment of acknowledged +lunatics. +</p> + +<p> +The second qualification to the admiration with which we +regard the history of Christian charity arises from the +undoubted fact that a large proportion of charitable institutions +have directly increased the poverty they were intended +to relieve. The question of the utility and nature of charity is +one which, since the modern discoveries of political economy, +has elicited much discussion, and in many cases, I think, much +exaggeration. What political economy has effected on the +subject may be comprised under two heads. It has elucidated +more clearly, and in greater detail than had before been +done, the effect of provident self-interest in determining the +<pb n='091'/><anchor id='Pg091'/> +welfare of societies, and it has established a broad distinction +between productive and unproductive expenditure. It has +shown that, where idleness is supported, idleness will become +common; that, where systematic public provision is made for +old age, the parsimony of foresight will be neglected; and +that therefore these forms of charity, by encouraging habits +of idleness and improvidence, ultimately increase the wretchedness +they were intended to alleviate. It has also shown +that, while unproductive expenditure, such as that which is +devoted to amusements or luxury, is undoubtedly beneficial +to those who provide it, the fruit perishes in the usage; while +productive expenditure, such as the manufacture of machines, +or the improvement of the soil, or the extension of commercial +enterprise, gives a new impulse to the creation of wealth. It +has proved that the first condition of the rapid accumulation +of capital is the diversion of money from unproductive to +productive channels, and that the amount of accumulated +capital is one of the two regulating influences of the wages of +the labourer. From these positions some persons have inferred +that charity should be condemned as a form of unproductive +expenditure. But, in the first place, all charities +that foster habits of forethought and develop new capacities +in the poorer classes, such as popular education, or the +formation of savings banks, or insurance companies, or, in +many cases, small and discriminating loans, or measures +directed to the suppression of dissipation, are in the strictest +sense productive; and the same may be said of many forms +of employment, given in exceptional crises through charitable +motives; and, in the next place, it is only necessary to +remember that the happiness of mankind, to which the +accumulation of wealth should only be regarded as a means, +is the real object of charity, and it will appear that many +forms which are not strictly productive, in the commercial +sense, are in the highest degree conducive to this end, and +have no serious counteracting evil. In the alleviation of +<pb n='092'/><anchor id='Pg092'/> +those sufferings that do not spring either from improvidence +or from vice, the warmest as well as the most enlightened +charity will find an ample sphere for its exertions.<note place='foot'>Malthus, who is sometimes, +though most unjustly, described as +an enemy to all charity, has devoted +an admirable chapter (<hi rend='italic'>On Population</hi>, +book iv. ch. ix.) to the <q>direction +of our charity;</q> but the +fullest examination of this subject +with which I am acquainted is the +very interesting work of Duchâtel, +<hi rend='italic'>Sur la Charité</hi>.</note> Blindness, +and other exceptional calamities, against the effects of +which prudence does not and cannot provide, the miseries +resulting from epidemics, from war, from famine, from the +first sudden collapse of industry, produced by new inventions +or changes in the channels of commerce; hospitals, which, +besides other advantages, are the greatest schools of medical +science, and withdraw from the crowded alley multitudes +who would otherwise form centres of contagion—these, and +such as these, will long tax to the utmost the generosity of +the wealthy; while, even in the spheres upon which the +political economist looks with the most unfavourable eye, +exceptional cases will justify exceptional assistance. The +charity which is pernicious is commonly not the highest but +the lowest kind. The rich man, prodigal of money, which is +to him of little value, but altogether incapable of devoting +any personal attention to the object of his alms, often +injures society by his donations; but this is rarely the case +with that far nobler charity which makes men familiar +with the haunts of wretchedness, and follows the object +of its care through all the phases of his life. The question +of the utility of charity is merely a question of ultimate +consequences. Political economy has, no doubt, laid down +some general rules of great value on the subject; but yet +the pages which Cicero devoted to it nearly two thousand +years ago might have been written by the most enlightened +modern economist; and it will be continually found that the +Protestant lady, working in her parish, by the simple force of +<pb n='093'/><anchor id='Pg093'/> +common sense and by a scrupulous and minute attention to +the condition and character of those whom she relieves, is +unconsciously illustrating with perfect accuracy the enlightened +charity of Malthus. +</p> + +<p> +But in order that charity should be useful, it is essential +that the benefit of the sufferer should be a real object to the +donor; and a very large proportion of the evils that have +arisen from Catholic charity may be traced to the absence of +this condition. The first substitution of devotion for philanthropy, +as the motive of benevolence, gave so powerful a +stimulus to the affections, that it may on the whole be regarded +as a benefit, though, by making compassion operate +solely through a theological medium, it often produced among +theologians a more than common indifference to the sufferings +of all who were external to their religious community. But +the new principle speedily degenerated into a belief in the +expiatory nature of the gifts. A form of what may be termed +selfish charity arose, which acquired at last gigantic proportions, +and exercised a most pernicious influence upon Christendom. +Men gave money to the poor, simply and exclusively +for their own spiritual benefit, and the welfare of the sufferer +was altogether foreign to their thoughts.<note place='foot'>This is very tersely expressed +by a great Protestant +writer: <q>I give no alms to satisfy +the hunger of my brother, but to +fulfil and accomplish the will and +command of my God.</q>—Sir T. +Brown, <hi rend='italic'>Religio Medici</hi>, part ii. § 2. +A saying almost exactly similar is, +if I remember right, ascribed to +St. Elizabeth of Hungary.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The evil which thus arose from some forms of Catholic +charity may be traced from a very early period, but it only +acquired its full magnitude after some centuries. The Roman +system of gratuitous distribution was, in the eyes of the political +economist, about the worst that could be conceived, and +the charity of the Church being, in at least a measure, discriminating, +was at first a very great, though even then not +an unmingled, good. Labour was also not unfrequently enjoined +<pb n='094'/><anchor id='Pg094'/> +as a duty by the Fathers, and at a later period the +services of the Benedictine monks, in destroying by their +example the stigma which slavery had attached to it, were +very great. Still, one of the first consequences of the exuberant +charity of the Church was to multiply impostors and +mendicants, and the idleness of the monks was one of the +earliest complaints. Valentinian made a severe law, condemning +robust beggars to perpetual slavery. As the monastic +system was increased, and especially after the mendicant orders +had consecrated mendicancy, the evil assumed gigantic dimensions. +Many thousands of strong men, absolutely without +private means, were in every country withdrawn from productive +labour, and supported by charity. The notion of the +meritorious nature of simple almsgiving immeasurably multiplied +beggars. The stigma, which it is the highest interest of +society to attach to mendicancy, it became a main object of +theologians to remove. Saints wandered through the world +begging money, that they might give to beggars, or depriving +themselves of their garments, that they might clothe the naked, +and the result of their teaching was speedily apparent. In +all Catholic countries where ecclesiastical influences have been +permitted to develop unmolested, the monastic organisations +have proved a deadly canker, corroding the prosperity of the +nation. Withdrawing multitudes from all production, encouraging +a blind and pernicious almsgiving, diffusing habits +of improvidence through the poorer classes, fostering an ignorant +admiration for saintly poverty, and an equally ignorant +antipathy to the habits and aims of an industrial civilisation, +they have paralysed all energy, and proved an insuperable +barrier to material progress. The poverty they have relieved +has been insignificant compared with the poverty they have +caused. In no case was the abolition of monasteries effected +in a more indefensible manner than in England; but the +transfer of property, that was once employed in a great +measure in charity, to the courtiers of King Henry, was ultimately +<pb n='095'/><anchor id='Pg095'/> +a benefit to the English poor; for no misapplication +of this property by private persons could produce as much +evil as an unrestrained monasticism. The value of Catholic +services in alleviating pain and sickness, and the more exceptional +forms of suffering, can never be overrated. The noble +heroism of her servants, who have devoted themselves to +charity, has never been surpassed, and the perfection of their +organisation has, I think, never been equalled; but in the +sphere of simple poverty it can hardly be doubted that the +Catholic Church has created more misery than it has cured. +</p> + +<p> +Still, even in this field, we must not forget the benefits +resulting, if not to the sufferer, at least to the donor. Charitable +habits, even when formed in the first instance from +selfish motives, even when so misdirected as to be positively +injurious to the recipient, rarely fail to exercise a softening +and purifying influence on the character. All through the +darkest period of the middle ages, amid ferocity and fanaticism +and brutality, we may trace the subduing influence of +Catholic charity, blending strangely with every excess of violence +and every outburst of persecution. It would be difficult +to conceive a more frightful picture of society than is presented +by the history of Gregory of Tours; but that long +series of atrocious crimes, narrated with an almost appalling +tranquillity, is continually interspersed with accounts of kings, +queens, or prelates, who, in the midst of the disorganised +society, made the relief of the poor the main object of their +lives. No period of history exhibits a larger amount of +cruelty, licentiousness, and fanaticism than the Crusades; but +side by side with the military enthusiasm, and with the almost +universal corruption, there expanded a vast movement of +charity, which covered Christendom with hospitals for the +relief of leprosy, and which grappled nobly, though ineffectually, +with the many forms of suffering that were generated. +St. Peter Nolasco, whose great labours in ransoming captive +Christians I have already noticed, was an active participator +<pb n='096'/><anchor id='Pg096'/> +in the atrocious massacre of the Albigenses.<note place='foot'>See Butler's <hi rend='italic'>Lives of the +Saints</hi>.</note> Of Shane +O'Neale, one of the ablest, but also one of the most ferocious, +Irish chieftains who ever defied the English power, it is related, +amid a crowd of crimes, that, <q>sitting at meat, before +he put one morsel into his mouth he used to slice a portion +above the daily alms, and send it to some beggar at his gate, +saying it was meet to serve Christ first.</q><note place='foot'>Campion's <hi rend='italic'>Historie of Ireland</hi>, +book ii. chap. x.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The great evils produced by the encouragement of mendicancy +which has always accompanied the uncontrolled development +of Catholicity, have naturally given rise to much +discussion and legislation. The fierce denunciations of the +mendicant orders by William of St. Amour in the thirteenth +century were not on account of their encouragement of mischievous +charity;<note place='foot'>He wrote his <hi rend='italic'>Perils of the Last +Times</hi> in the interest of the University +of Paris, of which he was +a Professor, and which was at war +with the mendicant orders. See +Milman's <hi rend='italic'>Latin Christianity</hi>, vol. +vi. pp. 348-356; Fleury, <hi rend='italic'>Eccl. +Hist.</hi> lxxxiv. 57.</note> but one of the disciples of Wycliffe, named +Nicholas of Hereford, was conspicuous for his opposition to +indiscriminate gifts to beggars;<note place='foot'>Henry de Knyghton, <hi rend='italic'>De +Eventibus Angliæ</hi>.</note> and a few measures of an +extended order appear to have been taken even before the +Reformation.<note place='foot'>There was some severe legislation +in England on the subject +after the Black Death. Eden's +<hi rend='italic'>History of the Working Classes</hi>, +vol. i. p. 34. In France, too, a +royal ordinance of 1350 ordered +men who had been convicted of +begging three times to be branded +with a hot iron. Monteil, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. +des Français</hi>, tome i. p. 434.</note> In England laws of the most savage cruelty +were then passed, in hopes of eradicating mendicancy. A +parliament of Henry VIII., before the suppression of the +monasteries, issued a law providing a system of organised +charity, and imposing on any one who gave anything to a +beggar a fine of ten times the value of his gift. A sturdy +beggar was to be punished with whipping for the first offence, +with whipping and the loss of the tip of his ear for the second +<pb n='097'/><anchor id='Pg097'/> +and with death for the third.<note place='foot'>Eden, vol. i. pp. 83-87.</note> Under Edward VI., an atrocious +law, which, however, was repealed in the same reign, +enacted that every sturdy beggar who refused to work should +be branded, and adjudged for two years as a slave to the +person who gave information against him; and if he took +flight during his period of servitude, he was condemned for +the first offence to perpetual slavery, and for the second to +death. The master was authorised to put a ring of iron +round the neck of his slave, to chain him, and to scourge him. +Any one might take the children of a sturdy beggar for apprentices, +till the boys were twenty-four and the girls twenty.<note place='foot'>Ibid. pp. 101-103.</note> +Another law, made under Elizabeth, punished with death any +strong man under the age of eighteen who was convicted for +the third time of begging; but the penalty in this reign was +afterwards reduced to a life-long service in the galleys, or to +banishment, with a penalty of death to the returned convict.<note place='foot'>Ibid. pp. 127-130.</note> +Under the same queen the poor-law system was elaborated, +and Malthus long afterwards showed that its effects in discouraging +parsimony rendered it scarcely less pernicious than +the monastic system that had preceded it. In many Catholic +countries, severe, though less atrocious, measures were taken +to grapple with the evil of mendicancy. That shrewd and +sagacious pontiff, Sixtus V., who, though not the greatest +man, was by far the greatest statesman who has ever sat on +the papal throne, made praiseworthy efforts to check it at +Rome, where ecclesiastical influence had always made it peculiarly +prevalent.<note place='foot'>Morighini, <hi rend='italic'>Institutions pieuses +de Rome</hi>.</note> Charles V., in 1531, issued a severe enactment +against beggars in the Netherlands, but excepted +from its operation mendicant friars and pilgrims.<note place='foot'>Eden, <hi rend='italic'>History of the Labouring +Classes</hi>, i. 83.</note> Under +Lewis XIV., equally severe measures were taken in France. +But though the practical evil was fully felt, there was little +<pb n='098'/><anchor id='Pg098'/> +philosophical investigation of its causes before the eighteenth +century. Locke in England,<note place='foot'>Locke discussed the great increase +of poverty, and a bill was +brought in suggesting some remedies, +but did not pass. (Eden, vol. +i. pp. 243-248.)</note> and Berkeley in Ireland,<note place='foot'>In a very forcible letter addressed +to the Irish Catholic clergy.</note> +briefly glanced at the subject; and in 1704 Defoe published a +very remarkable tract, called, <q>Giving Alms no Charity,</q> in +which he noticed the extent to which mendicancy existed in +England, though wages were higher than in any Continental +country.<note place='foot'>This tract, which is extremely +valuable for the light it throws +upon the social condition of England +at the time, was written in +opposition to a bill providing that +the poor in the poor-houses should +do wool, hemp, iron, and other +works. Defoe says that wages in +England were higher than anywhere +on the Continent, though the +amount of mendicancy was enormous. +<q>The reason why so many pretend +to want work is, that they can +live so well with the pretence of +wanting work.... I affirm of my own +knowledge, when I have wanted +a man for labouring work, and +offered nine shillings per week to +strolling fellows at my door, they +have frequently told me to my face +they could get more a-begging.</q></note> A still more remarkable book, written by an author +named Ricci, appeared at Modena in 1787, and excited considerable +attention. The author pointed out with much force +the gigantic development of mendicancy in Italy, traced it to +the excessive charity of the people, and appears to have regarded +as an evil all charity which sprang from religious +motives and was greater than would spring from the unaided +instincts of men.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Reforma degl' Instituti pii di +Modena</hi> (published first anonymously +at Modena). It has been +reprinted in the library of the +Italian economists.</note> The freethinker Mandeville had long before +assailed charity schools, and the whole system of endeavouring +to elevate the poor,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Essay on Charity Schools.</hi></note> and Magdalen asylums and foundling +hospitals have had fierce, though I believe much mistaken, +adversaries.<note place='foot'>Magdalen asylums have been +very vehemently assailed by M. +Charles Comte, in his <hi rend='italic'>Traité de +Législation</hi>. On the subject of +Foundling Hospitals there is a +whole literature. They were violently +attacked by, I believe, Lord +Brougham, in the <hi rend='italic'>Edinburgh Review</hi>, +in the early part of this century. +Writers of this stamp, and +indeed most political economists, +greatly exaggerate the forethought +of men and women, especially in +matters where the passions are concerned. +It may be questioned +whether one woman in a hundred, +who plunges into a career of vice, +is in the smallest degree influenced +by a consideration of whether or +not charitable institutions are provided +for the support of aged penitents.</note> The reforms of the poor-laws, and the writings +<pb n='099'/><anchor id='Pg099'/> +of Malthus, gave a new impulse to discussion on the subject; +but, with the qualifications I have stated, no new discoveries +have, I conceive, thrown any just cloud upon the essential +principle of Christian charity. +</p> + +<p> +The last method by which Christianity has laboured to +soften the characters of men has been by accustoming the +imagination to expatiate continually upon images of tenderness +and of pathos. Our imaginations, though less influential +than our occupations, probably affect our moral characters +more deeply than our judgments, and, in the case of the +poorer classes especially, the cultivation of this part of our +nature is of inestimable importance. Rooted, for the most +part, during their entire lives, to a single spot, excluded by +their ignorance and their circumstances from most of the +varieties of interest that animate the minds of other men, +condemned to constant and plodding labour, and engrossed +for ever with the minute cares of an immediate and an +anxious present, their whole natures would have been hopelessly +contracted, were there no sphere in which their imaginations +could expand. Religion is the one romance of the +poor. It alone extends the narrow horizon of their thoughts, +supplies the images of their dreams, allures them to the supersensual +and the ideal. The graceful beings with which the +creative fancy of Paganism peopled the universe shed a poetic +glow on the peasant's toil. Every stage of agriculture was +presided over by a divinity, and the world grew bright by +the companionship of the gods. But it is the peculiarity of +the Christian types, that, while they have fascinated the +imagination, they have also purified the heart. The tender, +winning, and almost feminine beauty of the Christian +<pb n='100'/><anchor id='Pg100'/> +Founder, the Virgin mother, the agonies of Gethsemane or +of Calvary, the many scenes of compassion and suffering that +fill the sacred writings, are the pictures which, for eighteen +hundred years, have governed the imaginations of the rudest +and most ignorant of mankind. Associated with the fondest +recollections of childhood, with the music of the church bells, +with the clustered lights and the tinsel splendour, that seem +to the peasant the very ideal of majesty; painted over the +altar where he received the companion of his life, around the +cemetery where so many whom he had loved were laid, on +the stations of the mountain, on the portal of the vineyard, +on the chapel where the storm-tossed mariner fulfils his +grateful vow; keeping guard over his cottage door, and looking +down upon his humble bed, forms of tender beauty and +gentle pathos for ever haunt the poor man's fancy, and +silently win their way into the very depths of his being. +More than any spoken eloquence, more than any dogmatic +teaching, they transform and subdue his character, till he +learns to realise the sanctity of weakness and suffering, the +supreme majesty of compassion and gentleness. +</p> + +<p> +Imperfect and inadequate as is the sketch I have drawn, +it will be sufficient to show how great and multiform have +been the influences of Christian philanthropy. The shadows +that rest upon the picture, I have not concealed; but, when +all due allowance has been made for them, enough will +remain to claim our deepest admiration. The high conception +that has been formed of the sanctity of human life, the +protection of infancy, the elevation and final emancipation of +the slave classes, the suppression of barbarous games, the +creation of a vast and multifarious organisation of charity, +and the education of the imagination by the Christian type, +constitute together a movement of philanthropy which has +never been paralleled or approached in the Pagan world. The +effects of this movement in promoting happiness have been +very great. Its effect in determining character has probably +<pb n='101'/><anchor id='Pg101'/> +been still greater. In that proportion or disposition of +qualities which constitutes the ideal character, the gentler +and more benevolent virtues have obtained, through Christianity, +the foremost place. In the first and purest period +they were especially supreme; but in the third century a great +ascetic movement arose, which gradually brought a new type +of character into the ascendant, and diverted the enthusiasm +of the Church into new channels. +</p> + +<milestone unit='tb' rend='rule: 50%'/> + +<p> +Tertullian, writing in the second century, contrasts, in a +well-known passage, the Christians of his day with the gymnosophists +or hermits of India, declaring that, unlike these, +the Christians did not fly from the world, but mixed with +Pagans in the forum, in the market-places, in the public +baths, in the ordinary business of life.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Apol.</hi> ch. xlii.</note> But although the +life of the hermit or the monk was unknown in the Church +for more than two hundred years after its foundation, we +may detect, almost from the earliest time, a tone of feeling +which produces it. The central conceptions of the monastic +system are the meritoriousness of complete abstinence from +all sexual intercourse, and of complete renunciation of the +world. The first of these notions appeared in the very +earliest period, in the respect attached to the condition of +virginity, which was always regarded as sacred, and especially +esteemed in the clergy, though for a long time it was not +imposed as an obligation. The second was shown in the +numerous efforts that were made to separate the Christian +community as far as possible from the society in which it +existed. Nothing could be more natural than that, when +the increase and triumph of the Church had thrown the bulk +of the Christians into active political or military labour, +some should, as an exercise of piety, have endeavoured +to imitate the separation from the world which was once +<pb n='102'/><anchor id='Pg102'/> +the common condition of all. Besides this, a movement of +asceticism had long been raging like a mental epidemic through +the world. Among the Jews—whose law, from the great +stress it laid upon marriage, the excellence of the rapid multiplication +of population, and the hope of being the ancestor +of the Messiah, was peculiarly repugnant to monastic conceptions—the +Essenes had constituted a complete monastic +society, abstaining from marriage and separating themselves +wholly from the world. In Rome, whose practical genius +was, if possible, even more opposed than that of the Jews to +an inactive monasticism, and even among those philosophers +who most represented its active and practical spirit, the +same tendency was shown. The Cynics of the later Empire +recommended a complete renunciation of domestic ties, +and a life spent mainly in the contemplation of wisdom. +The Egyptian philosophy, that soon after acquired an ascendancy +in Europe, anticipated still more closely the monastic +ideal. On the outskirts of the Church, the many sects of +Gnostics and Manicheans all held under different forms the +essential evil of matter. The Docetæ, following the same +notion, denied the reality of the body of Christ. The Montanists +and the Novatians surpassed and stimulated the private +penances of the orthodox.<note place='foot'>On these penances, see Bingham, +<hi rend='italic'>Antiq.</hi> book vii. Bingham, +I think, justly divides the history +of asceticism into three periods. +During the first, which extends +from the foundation of the Church +to <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 250, there were men and +women who, with a view to spiritual +perfection, abstained from marriage, +relinquished amusements, +accustomed themselves to severe +fasts, and gave up their property +to works of charity; but did this +in the middle of society and without +leading the life of either a +hermit or a monk. During the +second period, which extended from +the Decian persecution, anchorites +were numerous, but the custom of +a common or cœnobitic life was unknown. +It was originated in the +time of Constantine by Pachomius.</note> The soil was thus thoroughly +prepared for a great outburst of asceticism, whenever the first +seed was sown. This was done during the Decian persecution. +Paul, the hermit, who fled to the desert during that +<pb n='103'/><anchor id='Pg103'/> +persecution, is said to have been the first of the tribe.<note place='foot'>This is expressly stated by +St. Jerome (<hi rend='italic'>Vit. Pauli</hi>).</note> +Antony, who speedily followed, greatly extended the movement, +and in a few years the hermits had become a mighty +nation. Persecution, which in the first instance drove great +numbers as fugitives to the deserts, soon aroused a passionate +religious enthusiasm that showed itself in an ardent desire +for those sufferings which were believed to lead directly to +heaven; and this enthusiasm, after the peace of Constantine, +found its natural vent and sphere in the macerations of the +desert life. The imaginations of men were fascinated by the +poetic circumstances of that life which St. Jerome most eloquently +embellished. Women were pre-eminent in recruiting +for it. The same spirit that had formerly led the wife +of the Pagan official to entertain secret relations with the +Christian priests, now led the wife of the Christian to become +the active agent of the monks. While the father designed +his son for the army, or for some civil post, the mother +was often straining every nerve to induce him to become a +hermit. The monks secretly corresponded with her, they +skilfully assumed the functions of education, in order that +they might influence the young; and sometimes, to evade +the precautions or the anger of the father, they concealed +their profession, and assumed the garb of lay pedagogues.<note place='foot'>See on this subject some curious +evidence in Neander's <hi rend='italic'>Life of +Chrysostom</hi>. St. Chrysostom wrote +a long work to console fathers whose +sons were thus seduced to the +desert.</note> +The pulpit, which had almost superseded, and +immeasurably transcended in influence, the chairs of the +rhetoricians, and which was filled by such men as Ambrose, +Augustine, Chrysostom, Basil, and the Gregories, was continually +exerted in the same cause, and the extreme +luxury of the great cities produced a violent, but not unnatural, +reaction of asceticism. The dignity of the monastic +position, which sometimes brought men who had been simple +<pb n='104'/><anchor id='Pg104'/> +peasants into connection with the emperors, the security it +furnished to fugitive slaves and criminals, the desire of +escaping from those fiscal burdens which, in the corrupt and +oppressive administration of the Empire, had acquired an +intolerable weight, and especially the barbarian invasions, +which produced every variety of panic and wretchedness, +conspired with the new religious teaching in peopling the +desert. A theology of asceticism was speedily formed. The +examples of Elijah and Elisha, to the first of whom, by a +bold flight of imagination, some later Carmelites ascribed +the origin of their order, and the more recent instance of the +Baptist, were at once adduced. To an ordinary layman the +life of an anchorite might appear in the highest degree opposed +to that of the Teacher who began His mission at a marriage +feast; who was continually reproached by His enemies for +the readiness with which He mixed with the world, and who +selected from the female sex some of His purest and most +devoted followers; but the monkish theologians, avoiding, +for the most part, these topics, dilated chiefly on His immaculate +birth, His virgin mother, His life of celibacy, His exhortation +to the rich young man. The fact that St. Peter, to +whom a general primacy was already ascribed, was unquestionably +married was a difficulty which was in a measure +met by a tradition that both he, and the other married +apostles, abstained from intercourse with their wives after +their conversion.<note place='foot'>On this tradition see Champagny, <hi rend='italic'>Les Antonins</hi>, tome i. p. 193.</note> St. Paul, however, was probably unmarried, +and his writings showed a decided preference for +the unmarried state, which the ingenuity of theologians also +discovered in some quarters where it might be least expected. +Thus, St. Jerome assures us that when the clean animals +entered the ark by sevens, and the unclean ones by pairs, the +odd number typified the celibate, and the even the married +condition. Even of the unclean animals but one pair of each +<pb n='105'/><anchor id='Pg105'/> +kind was admitted, lest they should perpetrate the enormity +of second marriage.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> cxxiii.</note> Ecclesiastical tradition sustained the +tendency, and Saint James, as he has been portrayed by +Hegesippus, became a kind of ideal saint, a faithful picture +of what, according to the notions of theologians, was the true +type of human nobility. He <q>was consecrated,</q> it was said, +<q>from his mother's womb. He drank neither wine nor fermented +liquors, and abstained from animal food. A razor +never came upon his head. He never anointed himself with +oil, or used a bath. He alone was allowed to enter the sanctuary. +He never wore woollen, but linen, garments. He was +in the habit of entering the temple alone, and was often found +upon his bended knees, and interceding for the forgiveness of +the people, so that his knees became as hard as a camel's.</q><note place='foot'>Euseb. <hi rend='italic'>Eccl. Hist.</hi> ii. 23.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The progress of the monastic movement, as has been +truly said, <q>was not less rapid or universal than that of +Christianity itself.</q><note place='foot'>Gibbon, <hi rend='italic'>Decline and Fall</hi>, ch. +xxxvii.; a brief but masterly sketch +of the progress of the movement.</note> Of the actual number of the anchorites, +those who are acquainted with the extreme unveracity of the +first historians of the movement will hesitate to speak with +confidence. It is said that St. Pachomius, who, early in the +fourth century, founded the cœnobitic mode of life, enlisted +under his jurisdiction 7,000 monks;<note place='foot'>Palladius, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Laus.</hi> xxxviii.</note> that in the days of St. +Jerome nearly 50,000 monks were sometimes assembled at +the Easter festivals;<note place='foot'>Jerome, Preface to the Rule +of St. Pachomius, § 7.</note> that in the desert of Nitria alone there +were, in the fourth century, 5,000 monks under a single +abbot;<note place='foot'>Cassian, <hi rend='italic'>De Cœnob. Inst.</hi> iv. 1.</note> that an Egyptian city named Oxyrynchus devoted itself +almost exclusively to the ascetic life, and included 20,000 +virgins and 10,000 monks;<note place='foot'>Rufinus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Monach.</hi> ch. v. +Rufinus visited it himself.</note> that St. Serapion presided over +10,000 monks;<note place='foot'>Palladius, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Laus.</hi> lxxvi.</note> and that, towards the close of the fourth +century, the monastic population in a great part of Egypt +<pb n='106'/><anchor id='Pg106'/> +was nearly equal to the population of the cities.<note place='foot'>Rufinus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Mon.</hi> vii.</note> Egypt +was the parent of monachism, and it was there that it attained +both its extreme development and its most austere severity; +but there was very soon scarcely any Christian country in +which a similar movement was not ardently propagated. St. +Athanasius and St. Zeno are said to have introduced it into +Italy,<note place='foot'>There is a good deal of doubt +and controversy about this. See a +note in Mosheim's <hi rend='italic'>Eccl. Hist.</hi> +(Soame's edition), vol. i. p. 354.</note> where it soon afterwards received a great stimulus +from St. Jerome. St. Hilarion instituted the first monks in +Palestine, and he lived to see many thousands subject to his +rule, and towards the close of his life to plant monachism in +Cyprus. Eustathius, Bishop of Sebastia, spread it through +Armenia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus. St. Basil laboured +along the wild shores of the Euxine. St. Martin of Tours +founded the first monastery in Gaul, and 2,000 monks attended +his funeral. Unrecorded missionaries planted the +new institution in the heart of Æthiopia, amid the little +islands that stud the Mediterranean, in the secluded valleys +of Wales and Ireland.<note place='foot'>Most of the passages remaining +on the subject of the foundation of +monachism are given by Thomassin, +<hi rend='italic'>Discipline de l'Église</hi>, part i. +livre iii. ch. xii. This work contains +also much general information +about monachism. A curious +collection of statistics of the numbers +of the monks in different +localities, additional to those I +have given and gleaned from the +<hi rend='italic'>Lives of the Saints</hi>, may be found +in Pitra (<hi rend='italic'>Vie de St. Léger</hi>, Introd. +p. lix.); 2,100, or, according to +another account, 3,000 monks, lived +in the monastery of Banchor.</note> But even more wonderful than the +many thousands who thus abandoned the world is the reverence +with which they were regarded by those who, by their +attainments or their character, would seem most opposed to +the monastic ideal. No one had more reason than Augustine +to know the danger of enforced celibacy, but St. Augustine +exerted all his energies to spread monasticism through his +diocese. St. Ambrose, who was by nature an acute statesman; +St. Jerome and St. Basil, who were ambitious scholars; +<pb n='107'/><anchor id='Pg107'/> +St. Chrysostom, who was pre-eminently formed to sway the +refined throngs of a metropolis—all exerted their powers in +favour of the life of solitude, and the last three practised it +themselves. St. Arsenius, who was surpassed by no one in +the extravagance of his penances, had held a high office at +the court of the Emperor Arcadius. Pilgrims wandered +among the deserts, collecting accounts of the miracles and +the austerities of the saints, which filled Christendom with +admiration; and the strange biographies which were thus +formed, wild and grotesque as they are, enable us to realise +very vividly the general features of the anchorite life which +became the new ideal of the Christian world.<note place='foot'><p>The three principal are the +<hi rend='italic'>Historia Monachorum</hi> of Rufinus, +who visited Egypt <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 373, about +seventeen years after the death of +St. Antony; the <hi rend='italic'>Institutiones</hi> of +Cassian, who, having visited the +Eastern monks about <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 394, +founded vast monasteries containing, +it is said, 5,000 monks, at +Marseilles, and died at a great age +about <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 448; and the <hi rend='italic'>Historia +Lausiaca</hi> (so called from Lausus, +Governor of Cappadocia) of Palladius, +who was himself a hermit +on Mount Nitria, in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 388. The +first and last, as well as many +minor works of the same period, +are given in Rosweyde's invaluable +collection of the lives of the Fathers, +one of the most fascinating +volumes in the whole range of +literature. +</p> +<p> +The hospitality of the monks +was not without drawbacks. In a +church on Mount Nitria three +whips were hung on a palm-tree—one +for chastising monks, another +for chastising thieves, and a third +for chastising guests. (Palladius, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. Laus.</hi> vii.)</p></note> +</p> + +<p> +There is, perhaps, no phase in the moral history of mankind +of a deeper or more painful interest than this ascetic +epidemic. A hideous, sordid, and emaciated maniac, without +knowledge, without patriotism, without natural affection, +passing his life in a long routine of useless and atrocious +self-torture, and quailing before the ghastly phantoms of his +delirious brain, had become the ideal of the nations which +had known the writings of Plato and Cicero and the lives of +Socrates and Cato. For about two centuries, the hideous +maceration of the body was regarded as the highest proof of +excellence. St. Jerome declares, with a thrill of admiration, +<pb n='108'/><anchor id='Pg108'/> +how he had seen a monk, who for thirty years had lived +exclusively on a small portion of barley bread and of muddy +water; another, who lived in a hole and never ate more than +five figs for his daily repast;<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Vita Pauli.</hi> St. Jerome adds, +that some will not believe this, +because they have no faith, but +that all things are possible for +those that believe.</note> a third, who cut his hair only +on Easter Sunday, who never washed his clothes, who never +changed his tunic till it fell to pieces, who starved himself +till his eyes grew dim, and his skin <q>like a pumice stone,</q> +and whose merits, shown by these austerities, Homer himself +would be unable to recount.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Vita St. Hilarion.</hi></note> For six months, it is said, +St. Macarius of Alexandria slept in a marsh, and exposed his +body naked to the stings of venomous flies. He was accustomed +to carry about with him eighty pounds of iron. +His disciple, St. Eusebius, carried one hundred and fifty +pounds of iron, and lived for three years in a dried-up well. +St. Sabinus would only eat corn that had become rotten +by remaining for a month in water. St. Besarion spent +forty days and nights in the middle of thorn-bushes, and for +forty years never lay down when he slept,<note place='foot'>See a long list of these penances +in Tillemont, <hi rend='italic'>Mém. pour +servir à l'Hist. ecclés.</hi> tome viii.</note> which last penance +was also during fifteen years practised by St. Pachomius.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Vitæ Patrum</hi> (Pachomius). He +used to lean against a wall when +overcome by drowsiness.</note> +Some saints, like St. Marcian, restricted themselves to one +meal a day, so small that they continually suffered the pangs +of hunger.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Vitæ Patrum</hi>, ix. 3.</note> Of one of them it is related that his daily food +was six ounces of bread and a few herbs; that he was never +seen to recline on a mat or bed, or even to place his limbs +easily for sleep; but that sometimes, from excess of weariness, +his eyes would close at his meals, and the food would +drop from his mouth.<note place='foot'>Sozomen, vi. 29.</note> Other saints, however, ate only +every second day;<note place='foot'>E.g. St. Antony, according to +his biographer St. Athanasius.</note> while many, if we could believe the +<pb n='109'/><anchor id='Pg109'/> +monkish historian, abstained for whole weeks from all +nourishment.<note place='foot'><q>Il y eut dans le désert de +Scété des solitaires d'une éminente +perfection.... On prétend que +pour l'ordinaire ils passoient des +semaines entières sans manger, +mais apparemment cela ne se faisoit +que dans des occasions particulières.</q>—Tillemont, +<hi rend='italic'>Mém. pour +servir à l'Hist. eccl.</hi> tome viii. p. +580. Even this, however, was admirable!</note> St. Macarius of Alexandria is said during +an entire week to have never lain down, or eaten anything +but a few uncooked herbs on Sunday.<note place='foot'>Palladius, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Laus.</hi> cap. xx.</note> Of another +famous saint, named John, it is asserted that for three +whole years he stood in prayer, leaning upon a rock; that +during all that time he never sat or lay down, and that +his only nourishment was the Sacrament, which was brought +him on Sundays.<note place='foot'><q>Primum cum accessisset ad +eremum tribus continuis annis sub +cujusdam saxi rupe stans, semper +oravit, ita ut nunquam omnino resederit +neque Jacuerit. Somni autem +tantum caperet, quantum stans +capere potuit; cibum vero nunquam +sumpserat nisi die Dominica. +Presbyter enim tunc veniebat ad +eum et offerebat pro eo sacrificium +idque ei solum sacramentum erat +et victus.</q>—Rufinus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Monach.</hi> +cap. xv.</note> Some of the hermits lived in deserted +dens of wild beasts, others in dried-up wells, while others +found a congenial resting-place among the tombs.<note place='foot'>Thus St. Antony used to live +in a tomb, where he was beaten by +the devil. (St. Athanasius, <hi rend='italic'>Life of +Antony.</hi>)</note> Some +disdained all clothes, and crawled abroad like the wild beasts, +covered only by their matted hair. In Mesopotamia, and +part of Syria, there existed a sect known by the name of +<q>Grazers,</q> who never lived under a roof, who ate neither +flesh nor bread, but who spent their time for ever on the +mountain side, and ate grass like cattle.<note place='foot'>βοσκοί. See on these monks +Sozomen, vi. 33; Evagrius, i. 21. +It is mentioned of a certain St. +Marc of Athens, that, having lived +for thirty years naked in the desert, +his body was covered with +hair like that of a wild beast. +(Bollandists, March 29.) St. Mary +of Egypt, during part of her period +of penance, lived upon grass. +(<hi rend='italic'>Vitæ Patrum.</hi>)</note> The cleanliness +of the body was regarded as a pollution of the soul, and +the saints who were most admired had become one hideous +mass of clotted filth. St. Athanasius relates with enthusiasm +<pb n='110'/><anchor id='Pg110'/> +how St. Antony, the patriarch of monachism, had +never, to extreme old age, been guilty of washing his feet.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Life of Antony.</hi></note> +The less constant St. Pœmen fell into this habit for the +first time when a very old man, and, with a glimmering of +common sense, defended himself against the astonished monks +by saying that he had <q>learnt to kill not his body, but his +passions.</q><note place='foot'><q>II ne faisoit pas aussi difficulté +dans sa vieillesse de se laver +quelquefois les piez. Et comme on +témoignoit s'en étonner et trouver +que cela ne répondoit pas à la vie +austère des anciens, il se justifioit +par ces paroles: Nous avons appris +à tuer, non pas notre corps mais +nos passions.</q>—Tillemont, <hi rend='italic'>Mém. +Hist. eccl.</hi> tome xv. p. 148. This +saint was so very virtuous, that +he sometimes remained without +eating for whole weeks.</note> St. Abraham the hermit, however, who lived +for fifty years after his conversion, rigidly refused from that +date to wash either his face or his feet.<note place='foot'><q>Non appropinquavit oleum +corpusculo ejus. Facies vel etiam +pedes a die conversionis suæ nunquam +diluti sunt.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Vitæ Patrum</hi>, +c. xvii.</note> He was, it is said, +a person of singular beauty, and his biographer somewhat +strangely remarks that <q>his face reflected the purity of his +soul.</q><note place='foot'><q>In facie ejus puritas animi +noscebatur.</q>—Ibid. c. xviii.</note> St. Ammon had never seen himself naked.<note place='foot'>Socrates, iv. 23.</note> A +famous virgin named Silvia, though she was sixty years old +and though bodily sickness was a consequence of her habits, +resolutely refused, on religious principles, to wash any part +of her body except her fingers.<note place='foot'>Heraclidis Paradisus (Rosweyde), +c. xlii.</note> St. Euphraxia joined a convent +of one hundred and thirty nuns, who never washed +their feet, and who shuddered at the mention of a bath.<note place='foot'><q>Nulla earum pedes suos abluebat; +aliquantæ vero audientes de +balneo loqui, irridentes, confusionem +et magnam abominationem se +audire judicabant, quæ neque audi +tum suum hoc audire patiebantur.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Vit. +S. Euphrax.</hi> c. vi. (Rosweyde.)</note> An +anchorite once imagined that he was mocked by an illusion +of the devil, as he saw gliding before him through the desert +a naked creature black with filth and years of exposure, and +with white hair floating to the wind. It was a once beautiful +woman, St. Mary of Egypt, who had thus, during forty-seven +<pb n='111'/><anchor id='Pg111'/> +years, been expiating her sins.<note place='foot'>See her acts, Bollandists, April +2, and in the <hi rend='italic'>Vitæ Patrum</hi>.</note> The occasional decadence +of the monks into habits of decency was a subject of much +reproach. <q>Our fathers,</q> said the abbot Alexander, looking +mournfully back to the past, <q>never washed their faces, but +we frequent the public baths.</q><note place='foot'><q>Patres nostri nunquam facies +suas lavabant, nos autem lavacra +publica balneaque frequentamus.</q>—Moschus, +<hi rend='italic'>Pratum Spirituale</hi>, +clxviii.</note> It was related of one monastery +in the desert, that the monks suffered greatly from +want of water to drink; but at the prayer of the abbot +Theodosius a copious stream was produced. But soon some +monks, tempted by the abundant supply, diverged from their +old austerity, and persuaded the abbot to avail himself of +the stream for the construction of a bath. The bath was +made. Once, and once only, did the monks enjoy their +ablutions, when the stream ceased to flow. Prayers, tears, +and fastings were in vain. A whole year passed. At last +the abbot destroyed the bath, which was the object of the +Divine displeasure, and the waters flowed afresh.<note place='foot'><p><hi rend='italic'>Pratum Spirituale</hi>, lxxx. +</p> +<p> +An Irish saint, named Coemgenus, +is said to have shown his +devotion in a way which was directly +opposite to that of the other +saints I have mentioned—by his +special use of cold water—but the +principle in each case was the same—to +mortify nature. St. Coemgenus +was accustomed to pray for +an hour every night in a pool of +cold water, while the devil sent a +horrible beast to swim round him. +An angel, however, was sent to him +for three purposes. <q>Tribus de +causis à Domino missus est angelus +ibi ad S. Coemgenum. Prima ut a +diversis suis gravibus laboribus +levius viveret paulisper; secunda +ut horridam bestiam sancto infestam +repelleret; tertia <emph>ut frigiditatem +aquæ calefaceret</emph>.</q>—Bollandists, +June 3. The editors say these +acts are of doubtful authenticity.</p></note> But of +all the evidences of the loathsome excesses to which this +spirit was carried, the life of St. Simeon Stylites is probably +the most remarkable. It would be difficult to conceive a +more horrible or disgusting picture than is given of the +penances by which that saint commenced his ascetic career. +He had bound a rope around him so that it became imbedded +<pb n='112'/><anchor id='Pg112'/> +in his flesh, which putrefied around it. <q>A horrible +stench, intolerable to the bystanders, exhaled from his body +and worms dropped from him whenever he moved, and they +filled his bed.</q> Sometimes he left the monastery and slept in +a dry well, inhabited, it is said, by dæmons. He built successively +three pillars, the last being sixty feet high and +scarcely two cubits in circumference, and on this pillar, +during thirty years, he remained exposed to every change of +climate, ceaselessly and rapidly bending his body in prayer +almost to the level of his feet. A spectator attempted to +number these rapid motions, but desisted from weariness +when he had counted 1,244. For a whole year, we are told, +St. Simeon stood upon one leg, the other being covered with +hideous ulcers, while his biographer was commissioned to +stand by his side, to pick up the worms that fell from his +body, and to replace them in the sores, the saint saying to +the worm, <q>Eat what God has given you.</q> From every +quarter pilgrims of every degree thronged to do him homage. +A crowd of prelates followed him to the grave. A brilliant +star is said to have shone miraculously over his pillar; the +general voice of mankind pronounced him to be the highest +model of a Christian saint; and several other anchorites imitated +or emulated his penances.<note place='foot'>See his Life by his disciple +Antony, in the <hi rend='italic'>Vitæ Patrum</hi>, Evagrius, +i. 13, 14. Theodoret, <hi rend='italic'>Philotheos</hi>, +cap. xxvi.</note> +</p> + +<p> +There is, if I mistake not, no department of literature the +importance of which is more inadequately realised than the +lives of the saints. Even where they have no direct historical +value, they have a moral value of the very highest order. +They may not tell us with accuracy what men did at particular +epochs; but they display with the utmost vividness +what they thought and felt, their measure of probability, and +their ideal of excellence. Decrees of councils, elaborate treatises +of theologians, creeds, liturgies, and canons, are all but +<pb n='113'/><anchor id='Pg113'/> +the husks of religious history. They reveal what was professed +and argued before the world, but not that which was +realised in the imagination or enshrined in the heart. The +history of art, which in its ruder day reflected with delicate +fidelity the fleeting images of an anthropomorphic age, is in +this respect invaluable; but still more important is that vast +Christian mythology, which grew up spontaneously from the +intellectual condition of the time, included all its dearest +hopes, wishes, ideals, and imaginings, and constituted, during +many centuries, the popular literature of Christendom. In +the case of the saints of the deserts, there can be no question +that the picture—which is drawn chiefly by eye-witnesses—however +grotesque may be some of its details, is in its leading +features historically true. It is true that self-torture was for +some centuries regarded as the chief measure of human excellence, +that tens of thousands of the most devoted men fled +to the desert to reduce themselves by maceration nearly to the +condition of the brute, and that this odious superstition had +acquired an almost absolute ascendancy in the ethics of the age. +The examples of asceticism I have cited are but a few out of +many hundreds, and volumes might be written, and have been +written, detailing them. Till the reform of St. Benedict, the +ideal was on the whole unchanged. The Western monks, from +the conditions of their climate, were constitutionally incapable +of rivalling the abstinence of the Egyptian anchorites; but +their conception of supreme excellence was much the same, +and they laboured to compensate for their inferiority in +penances by claiming some superiority in miracles. From +the time of St. Pachomius, the cœnobitic life was adopted by +most monks; but the Eastern monasteries, with the important +exception of a vow of obedience, differed little from a +collection of hermitages. They were in the deserts; the monks +commonly lived in separate cells; they kept silence at their +repasts; they rivalled one another in the extravagance of +their penances. A few feeble efforts were indeed made by +<pb n='114'/><anchor id='Pg114'/> +St. Jerome and others to moderate austerities, which frequently +led to insanity and suicide, to check the turbulence +of certain wandering monks, who were accustomed to defy +the ecclesiastical authorities, and especially to suppress monastic +mendicancy, which had appeared prominently among +some heretical sects. The orthodox monks commonly employed +themselves in weaving mats of palm-leaves; but, +living in the deserts, with no wants, they speedily sank into +a listless apathy; and the most admired were those who, +like Simeon Stylites, and the hermit John, of whom I have +already spoken, were most exclusively devoted to their superstition. +Diversities of individual character were, however, +vividly displayed. Many anchorites, without knowledge, +passions, or imagination, having fled from servile toil to the +calm of the wilderness, passed the long hours in sleep or in a +mechanical routine of prayer, and their inert and languid +existences, prolonged to the extreme of old age, closed at last +by a tranquil and almost animal death. Others made their +cells by the clear fountains and clustering palm-trees of some +oasis in the desert, and a blooming garden arose beneath their +toil. The numerous monks who followed St. Serapion devoted +themselves largely to agriculture, and sent shiploads of +corn for the benefit of the poor.<note place='foot'>Palladius, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Laus.</hi> lxxvi.</note> Of one old hermit it is +related that, such was the cheerfulness of his mind, that +every sorrow was dispelled by his presence, and the weary +and the heartbroken were consoled by a few words from his +lips.<note place='foot'>Rufinus, Hist. <hi rend='italic'>Monach.</hi> xxxiii.</note> More commonly, however, the hermit's cell was the +scene of perpetual mourning. Tears and sobs, and frantic +strugglings with imaginary dæmons, and paroxysms of religious +despair, were the texture of his life, and the dread of +spiritual enemies, and of that death which his superstition +had rendered so terrible, embittered every hour of his existence.<note place='foot'>We have a striking illustration +of this in St. Arsenius. His +eyelashes are said to have fallen +off through continual weeping, +and he had always, when at work, +to put a cloth on his breast to +receive his tears. As he felt his +death approaching, his terror rose +to the point of agony. The monks +who were about him said, <q><q>Quid +fles, pater? numquid et tu times?</q> +Ille respondit, <q>In veritate timeo +et iste timor qui nunc mecum est, +semper in me fuit, ex quo factus +sum monachus.</q></q>—<hi rend='italic'>Verba Seniorum</hi>, +Prol. § 163. It was said of +St. Abraham that no day passed +after his conversion without his +shedding tears. (<hi rend='italic'>Vit. Patrum.</hi>) +St. John the dwarf once saw a +monk laughing immoderately at +dinner, and was so horrified that +he at once began to cry. (Tillemont, +<hi rend='italic'>Mém. de l'Hist. ecclés.</hi> tome +x. p. 430.) St. Basil (<hi rend='italic'>Regulæ</hi>, interrog. +xvii.) gives a remarkable +disquisition on the wickedness of +laughing, and he observes that this +was the one bodily affection which +Christ does not seem to have +known. Mr. Buckle has collected +a series of passages to precisely the +same effect from the writings of +the Scotch divines. (<hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Civilisation</hi>, +vol. ii. pp. 385-386.)</note> +The solace of intellectual occupations was rarely +<pb n='115'/><anchor id='Pg115'/> +resorted to. <q>The duty,</q> said St. Jerome, <q>of a monk is not to +teach, but to weep.</q><note place='foot'><q>Monachus autem non doctoris +habet sed plangentis officium.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Contr. +Vigilant.</hi> xv.</note> A cultivated and disciplined mind was +the least subject to those hallucinations, which were regarded +as the highest evidence of Divine favour;<note place='foot'>As Tillemont puts it: <q>Il se +trouva très-peu de saints en qui +Dieu ait joint les talens extérieurs +de l'éloquence et de la science avec +la grâce de la prophétie et des +miracles. Ce sont des dons que sa +Providence a presque toujours +séparés.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Mém. Hist. ecclés.</hi> tome +iv. p. 315.</note> and although +in an age when the passion for asceticism was general, many +scholars became ascetics, the great majority of the early monks +appear to have been men who were not only absolutely +ignorant themselves, but who also looked upon learning with +positive disfavour. St. Antony, the true founder of monachism, +refused when a boy to learn letters, because it would +bring him into too great intercourse with other boys.<note place='foot'>St. Athanasius, <hi rend='italic'>Vit. Anton.</hi></note> At a +time when St. Jerome had suffered himself to feel a deep admiration +for the genius of Cicero, he was, as he himself tells +us, borne in the night before the tribunal of Christ, accused +of being rather a Ciceronian than a Christian, and severely +flagellated by the angels.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xxii. He says his shoulders +were bruised when he awoke.</note> This saint, however, afterwards +modified his opinions about the Pagan writings, and he was +<pb n='116'/><anchor id='Pg116'/> +compelled to defend himself at length against his more jealous +brethren, who accused him of defiling his writings with quotations +from Pagan authors, of employing some monks in +copying Cicero, and of explaining Virgil to some children at +Bethlehem.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> lxx.; <hi rend='italic'>Adv. Rufinum</hi>, lib. +i. ch. xxx. He there speaks of his +vision as a mere dream, not binding. +He elsewhere (<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> cxxv.) +speaks very sensibly of the advantage +of hermits occupying themselves, +and says he learnt Hebrew +to keep away unholy thoughts.</note> Of one monk it is related that, being especially +famous as a linguist, he made it his penance to remain perfectly +silent for thirty years;<note place='foot'>Sozomen, vi. 28; Rufinus, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. Monach.</hi> ch. vi. Socrates +tells rather a touching story of one +of these illiterate saints, named +Pambos. Being unable to read, he +came to some one to be taught a +psalm. Having learnt the single +verse, <q>I said I will take heed to +my ways, that I offend not with my +tongue,</q> he went away, saying that +was enough if it were practically +acquired. When asked, six months, +and again many years, after, why +he did not come to learn another +verse, he answered that he had +never been able truly to master +this. (<hi rend='italic'>H. E.</hi> iv. 23.)</note> of another, that having +discovered a few books in the cell of a brother hermit, he +reproached the student with having thus defrauded of their +property the widow and the orphan;<note place='foot'>Tillemont, x. p. 61.</note> of others, that their +only books were copies of the New Testament, which they +sold to relieve the poor.<note place='foot'>Ibid. viii. 490; Socrates, <hi rend='italic'>H. +E.</hi> iv. 23.</note> +</p> + +<p> +With such men, living such a life, visions and miracles +were necessarily habitual. All the elements of hallucination +were there. Ignorant and superstitious, believing as a matter +of religious conviction that countless dæmons filled the air, +attributing every fluctuation of his temperament, and every +exceptional phenomenon in surrounding nature, to spiritual +agency; delirious, too, from solitude and long continued austerities, +the hermit soon mistook for palpable realities the +phantoms of his brain. In the ghastly gloom of the sepulchre, +where, amid mouldering corpses, he took up his abode; +in the long hours of the night of penance, when the desert +wind sobbed around his lonely cell, and the cries of wild +<pb n='117'/><anchor id='Pg117'/> +beasts were borne upon his ear, visible forms of lust or terror +appeared to haunt him, and strange dramas were enacted by +those who were contending for his soul. An imagination +strained to the utmost limit, acting upon a frame attenuated +and diseased by macerations, produced bewildering psychological +phenomena, paroxysms of conflicting passions, sudden +alternations of joy and anguish, which he regarded as manifestly +supernatural. Sometimes, in the very ecstasy of his +devotion, the memory of old scenes would crowd upon his +mind. The shady groves and soft voluptuous gardens of his +native city would arise, and, kneeling alone upon the burning +sand, he seemed to see around him the fair groups of dancing-girls, +on whose warm, undulating limbs and wanton smiles +his youthful eyes had too fondly dwelt. Sometimes his temptation +sprang from remembered sounds. The sweet, licentious +songs of other days came floating on his ear, and his +heart was thrilled with the passions of the past. And then +the scene would change. As his lips were murmuring the +psalter, his imagination, fired perhaps by the music of some +martial psalm, depicted the crowded amphitheatre. The +throng and passion and mingled cries of eager thousands were +present to his mind, and the fierce joy of the gladiators +passed through the tumult of his dream.<note place='foot'>I have combined in this passage +incidents from three distinct lives. +St. Jerome, in a very famous and +very beautiful passage of his letter +to Eustochium (<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xxii.) describes +the manner in which the forms of +dancing-girls appeared to surround +him as he knelt upon the desert +sands. St. Mary of Egypt (<hi rend='italic'>Vitæ +Patrum</hi>, ch. xix.) was especially +tortured by the recollection of the +songs she had sung when young, +which continually haunted her +mind. St. Hilarion (see his <hi rend='italic'>Life</hi> +by St. Jerome) thought he saw a +gladiatorial show while he was repeating +the psalms. The manner +in which the different visions faded +into one another like dissolving +views is repeatedly described in the +biographies.</note> The simplest incident +came at last to suggest diabolical influence. An old +hermit, weary and fainting upon his journey, once thought +how refreshing would be a draught of the honey of wild bees +<pb n='118'/><anchor id='Pg118'/> +of the desert. At that moment his eye fell upon a rock on +which they had built a hive. He passed on with a shudder and +an exorcism, for he believed it to be a temptation of the +devil.<note place='foot'>Rufinus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Monach.</hi>, ch. xi. +This saint was St. Helenus.</note> But most terrible of all were the struggles of young +and ardent men, through whose veins the hot blood of passion +continually flowed, physically incapable of a life of +celibacy, and with all that proneness to hallucination which +a southern sun engenders, who were borne on the wave of +enthusiasm to the desert life. In the arms of Syrian or +African brides, whose soft eyes answered love with love, +they might have sunk to rest, but in the lonely wilderness +no peace could ever visit their souls. The Lives of the +Saints paint with an appalling vividness the agonies of their +struggle. Multiplying with frantic energy the macerations +of the body, beating their breasts with anguish, the tears for +ever streaming from their eyes, imagining themselves continually +haunted by ever-changing forms of deadly beauty, +which acquired a greater vividness from the very passion +with which they resisted them, their struggles not unfrequently +ended in insanity and in suicide. It is related that +when St. Pachomius and St. Palæmon were conversing together +in the desert, a young monk, with his countenance +distracted with madness, rushed into their presence, and, +in a voice broken with convulsive sobs, poured out his tale +of sorrows. A woman, he said, had entered his cell, had +seduced him by her artifices, and then vanished miraculously +in the air, leaving him half dead upon the ground;—and +then with a wild shriek the monk broke away from the +saintly listeners. Impelled, as they imagined, by an evil +spirit, he rushed across the desert, till he arrived at the next +village, and there, leaping into the open furnace of the public +baths, he perished in the flames.<note place='foot'>Life of St. Pachomius (<hi rend='italic'>Vit. +Patrum</hi>), cap. ix.</note> Strange stories were told +<pb n='119'/><anchor id='Pg119'/> +among the monks of revulsions of passion even in the most +advanced. Of one monk especially, who had long been regarded +as a pattern of asceticism, but who had suffered himself +to fall into that self-complacency which was very common +among the anchorites, it was told that one evening a fainting +woman appeared at the door of his cell, and implored him to +give her shelter, and not permit her to be devoured by the wild +beasts. In an evil hour he yielded to her prayer. With all +the aspect of profound reverence she won his regards, and at +last ventured to lay her hand upon him. But that touch +convulsed his frame. Passions long slumbering and forgotten +rushed with impetuous fury through his veins. In +a paroxysm of fierce love, he sought to clasp the woman to +his heart, but she vanished from his sight, and a chorus of +dæmons, with peals of laughter, exulted over his fall. The +sequel of the story, as it is told by the monkish writer, is, I +think, of a very high order of artistic merit. The fallen hermit +did not seek, as might have been expected, by penance +and prayers to renew his purity. That moment of passion +and of shame had revealed in him a new nature, and severed +him irrevocably from the hopes and feelings of the ascetic +life. The fair form that had arisen upon his dream, though +he knew it to be a deception luring him to destruction, still +governed his heart. He fled from the desert, plunged anew +into the world, avoided all intercourse with the monks, and +followed the light of that ideal beauty even into the jaws +of hell.<note place='foot'>Rufinus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Monach.</hi> cap. i. +This story was told to Rufinus by +St. John the hermit. The same +saint described his own visions very +graphically. <q>Denique etiam me +frequenter dæmones noctibus seduxerunt, +et neque orare neque requiescere +permiserunt, phantasias +quasdam per noctem totam sensibus +meis et cogitationes suggerentes. +Mane vero velut cum +quadam illusione prosternebant se +ante me dicentes, Indulge nobis, +abbas, quia laborem tibi incussimus +tota nocte.</q>—Ibid. St. Benedict +in the desert is said to have +been tortured by the recollection of +a beautiful girl he had once seen, +and only regained his composure +by rolling in thorns. (St. Greg. +<hi rend='italic'>Dial.</hi> ii. 2.)</note> +</p> + +<pb n='120'/><anchor id='Pg120'/> + +<p> +Anecdotes of this kind, circulated among the monks, +contributed to heighten the feelings of terror with which +they regarded all communication with the other sex. But +to avoid such communication was sometimes very difficult. +Few things are more striking, in the early historians of the +movement we are considering, than the manner in which +narratives of the deepest tragical interest alternate with extremely +whimsical accounts of the profound admiration with +which the female devotees regarded the most austere anchorites, +and the unwearied perseverance with which they +endeavoured to force themselves upon their notice. Some +women seem in this respect to have been peculiarly fortunate. +St. Melania, who devoted a great portion of her +fortune to the monks, accompanied by the historian Rufinus, +made, near the end of the fourth century, a long pilgrimage +through the Syrian and Egyptian hermitages.<note place='foot'>She lived also for some time +in a convent at Jerusalem, which +she had founded. Melania (who +was one of St. Jerome's friends) +was a lady of rank and fortune, +who devoted her property to the +monks. See her journey in Rosweyde, +lib. ii.</note> But with +many of the hermits it was a rule never to look upon the +face of any woman, and the number of years they had +escaped this contamination was commonly stated as a conspicuous +proof of their excellence. St. Basil would only +speak to a woman under extreme necessity.<note place='foot'>See his <hi rend='italic'>Life</hi> in Tillemont.</note> St. John of +Lycopolis had not seen a woman for forty-eight years.<note place='foot'>Ibid. x. p. 14. A certain +Didymus lived entirely alone till +his death, which took place when +he was ninety. (Socrates, <hi rend='italic'>H. E.</hi> +iv. 23.)</note> A +tribune was sent by his wife on a pilgrimage to St. John +the hermit to implore him to allow her to visit him, her +desire being so intense that she would probably, in the +opinion of her husband, die if it were ungratified. At last +the hermit told his suppliant that he would that night +visit his wife when she was in bed in her house. The +tribune brought this strange message to his wife, who +<pb n='121'/><anchor id='Pg121'/> +that night saw the hermit in a dream.<note place='foot'>Rufinus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Monachorum</hi>, +cap. i.</note> A young Roman +girl made a pilgrimage from Italy to Alexandria, to look +upon the face and obtain the prayers of St. Arsenius, +into whose presence she forced herself. Quailing beneath +his rebuffs, she flung herself at his feet, imploring him +with tears to grant her only request—to remember her, +and to pray for her. <q>Remember you!</q> cried the indignant +saint; <q>it shall be the prayer of my life that I may forget +you.</q> The poor girl sought consolation from the Archbishop +of Alexandria, who comforted her by assuring her that, +though she belonged to the sex by which dæmons commonly +tempt saints, he doubted not the hermit would pray for her +soul, though he would try to forget her face.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Verba Seniorum</hi>, § 65.</note> Sometimes +this female enthusiasm took another and a more subtle form, +and on more than one occasion women were known to attire +themselves as men, and to pass their lives undisturbed as +anchorites. Among others, St. Pelagia, who had been the +most beautiful, and one of the most dangerously seductive +actresses of Antioch, having been somewhat strangely converted, +was appointed by the bishops to live in penance with +an elderly virgin of irreproachable piety; but, impelled, we +are told, by her desire for a more austere life, she fled from +her companion, assumed a male attire, took refuge among the +monks on the Mount of Olives, and, with something of the +skill of her old profession, supported her feigned character so +consistently that she acquired great renown, and it was only +(it is said) after her death that the saints discovered who had +been living among them.<note place='foot'>Pelagia was very pretty, and, +according to her own account, <q>her +sins were heavier than the sand.</q> +The people of Antioch, who were +very fond of her, called her Margarita, +or the pearl. <q>Il arriva un +jour que divers évesques, appelez +par celui d'Antioche pour quelques +affaires, estant ensemble à la porte +de l'eglise de S.-Julien, Pélagie +passa devant eux dans tout l'éclat +des pompes du diable, n'ayant pas +seulement une coeffe sur sa teste ni +un mouchoir sur ses épaules, ce +qu'on remarqua comme le comble de +son impudence. Tous les évesques +baissèrent les yeux en gémissant +pour ne pas voir ce dangereux objet +de péché, hors Nonne, très-saint +évesque d'Héliople, qui la regarda +avec une attention qui fit peine aux +autres.</q> However, this bishop immediately +began crying a great +deal, and reassured his brethren, +and a sermon which he preached +led to the conversion of the actress. +(Tillemont, <hi rend='italic'>Mém. d'Hist. ecclés.</hi> tome +xii. pp. 378-380. See, too, on +women, <q>under pretence of religion, +attiring themselves as men,</q> Sozomen, +iii. 14.)</note> +</p> + +<pb n='122'/><anchor id='Pg122'/> + +<p> +The foregoing anecdotes and observations will, I hope, +have given a sufficiently clear idea of the general nature of +the monastic life in its earliest phase, and also of the writings +it produced. We may now proceed to examine the ways in +which this mode of life affected both the ideal type and the +realised condition of Christian morals. And in the first +place, it is manifest that the proportion of virtues was +altered. If an impartial person were to glance over the +ethics of the New Testament, and were asked what was the +central and distinctive virtue to which the sacred writers +most continually referred, he would doubtless answer that it +was that which is described as love, charity, or philanthropy. +If he were to apply a similar scrutiny to the writings of the +fourth and fifth centuries, he would answer that the cardinal +virtue of the religious type was not love, but chastity. And +this chastity, which was regarded as the ideal state, was not +the purity of an undefiled marriage. It was the absolute +suppression of the whole sensual side of our nature. The +chief form of virtue, the central conception of the saintly +life, was a perpetual struggle against all carnal impulses, by +men who altogether refused the compromise of marriage. +From this fact, if I mistake not, some interesting and important +consequences may be deduced. +</p> + +<p> +In the first place, religion gradually assumed a very +sombre hue. The business of the saint was to eradicate a +natural appetite, to attain a condition which was emphatically +abnormal. The depravity of human nature, especially +<pb n='123'/><anchor id='Pg123'/> +the essential evil of the body, was felt with a degree of +intensity that could never have been attained by moralists +who were occupied mainly with transient or exceptional +vices, such as envy, anger, or cruelty. And in addition to +the extreme inveteracy of the appetite which it was desired +to eradicate, it should be remembered that a somewhat luxurious +and indulgent life, even when that indulgence is not +itself distinctly evil, even when it has a tendency to mollify +the character, has naturally the effect of strengthening the +animal passions, and is therefore directly opposed to the +ascetic ideal. The consequence of this was first of all a +very deep sense of the habitual and innate depravity of +human nature; and, in the next place, a very strong association +of the idea of pleasure with that of vice. All this +necessarily flowed from the supreme value placed upon virginity. +The tone of calm and joyousness that characterises +Greek philosophy, the almost complete absence of all sense +of struggle and innate sin that it displays, is probably in a +very large degree to be ascribed to the fact that, in the department +of morals we are considering, Greek moralists made +no serious efforts to improve our nature, and Greek public +opinion acquiesced, without scandal, in an almost boundless +indulgence of illicit pleasures. +</p> + +<p> +But while the great prominence at this time given to the +conflicts of the ascetic life threw a dark shade upon the +popular estimate of human nature, it contributed, I think, +very largely to sustain and deepen that strong conviction of +the freedom of the human will which the Catholic Church +has always so strenuously upheld; for there is, probably, no +other form of moral conflict in which men are so habitually +and so keenly sensible of that distinction between our will +and our desires, upon the reality of which all moral freedom +ultimately depends. It had also, I imagine, another result, +which it is difficult to describe with the same precision. +What may be called a strong animal nature—a nature, that +<pb n='124'/><anchor id='Pg124'/> +is, in which the passions are in vigorous, and at the same +time healthy, action—is that in which we should most naturally +expect to find several moral qualities. Good humour, +frankness, generosity, active courage, sanguine energy, buoyancy +of temper, are the usual and appropriate accompaniments +of a vigorous animal temperament, and they are much +more rarely found either in natures that are essentially +feeble and effeminate, or in natures which have been artificially +emasculated by penances, distorted from their original +tendency, and habitually held under severe control. The +ideal type of Catholicism being, on account of the supreme +value placed upon virginity, of the latter kind, the qualities +I have mentioned have always ranked very low in the +Catholic conceptions of excellence, and the steady tendency +of Protestant and industrial civilisation has been to elevate +them. +</p> + +<p> +I do not know whether the reader will regard these +speculations—which I advance with some diffidence—as far-fetched +and fanciful. Our knowledge of the physical antecedents +of different moral qualities is so scanty that it is +difficult to speak on these matters with much confidence; +but few persons, I think, can have failed to observe that the +physical temperaments I have described differ not simply in +the one great fact of the intensity of the animal passions, but +also in the aptitude of each to produce a distinct moral type, +or, in other words, in the harmony of each with several +qualities, both good and evil. A doctrine, therefore, which +connects one of these two temperaments indissolubly with the +moral ideal, affects the appreciation of a large number of +moral qualities. But whatever may be thought of the moral +results springing from the physical temperament which asceticism +produced, there can be little controversy as to the +effects springing from the condition of life which it enjoined. +Severance from the interests and affections of all around him +was the chief object of the anchorite, and the first consequence +<pb n='125'/><anchor id='Pg125'/> +of the prominence of asceticism was a profound discredit +thrown upon the domestic virtues. +</p> + +<p> +The extent to which this discredit was carried, the +intense hardness of heart and ingratitude manifested by the +saints towards those who were bound to them by the closest +of earthly ties, is known to few who have not studied the +original literature on the subject. These things are commonly +thrown into the shade by those modern sentimentalists who +delight in idealising the devotees of the past. To break by +his ingratitude the heart of the mother who had borne him, +to persuade the wife who adored him that it was her duty to +separate from him for ever, to abandon his children, uncared +for and beggars, to the mercies of the world, was regarded by +the true hermit as the most acceptable offering he could make +to his God. His business was to save his own soul. The +serenity of his devotion would be impaired by the discharge +of the simplest duties to his family. Evagrius, when a +hermit in the desert, received, after a long interval, letters +from his father and mother. He could not bear that the +equable tenor of his thoughts should be disturbed by the +recollection of those who loved him, so he cast the letters +unread into the fire.<note place='foot'>Tillemont, tome x. pp. 376, +377. Apart from family affections, +there are some curious instances +recorded of the anxiety of the +saints to avoid distractions. One +monk used to cover his face when +he went into his garden, lest the +sight of the trees should disturb +his mind. (<hi rend='italic'>Verb. Seniorum.</hi>) St. +Arsenius could not bear the rustling +of the reeds (ibid.); and a +saint named Boniface struck dead +a man who went about with an ape +and a cymbal, because he had (apparently +quite unintentionally) disturbed +him at his prayers. (St. +Greg. <hi rend='italic'>Dial.</hi> i. 9.)</note> A man named Mutius, accompanied +by his only child, a little boy of eight years old, abandoned +his possessions and demanded admission into a +monastery. The monks received him, but they proceeded to +discipline his heart. <q>He had already forgotten that he was +rich; he must next be taught to forget that he was a father.</q><note place='foot'><q>Quemadmodum se jam divitem +non esse sciebat, ita etiam +patrem se esse nesciret.</q>—Cassian, +<hi rend='italic'>De Cœnobiorum Institutis</hi>, iv. 27.</note> +<pb n='126'/><anchor id='Pg126'/> +His little child was separated from him, clothed in dirty rags, +subjected to every form of gross and wanton hardship, beaten, +spurned, and ill treated. Day after day the father was compelled +to look upon his boy wasting away with sorrow, his +once happy countenance for ever stained with tears, distorted +by sobs of anguish. But yet, says the admiring biographer, +<q>though he saw this day by day, such was his love for Christ, +and for the virtue of obedience, that the father's heart was +rigid and unmoved. He thought little of the tears of his +child. He was anxious only for his own humility and +perfection in virtue.</q><note place='foot'><q>Cumque taliter infans sub +oculis ejus per dies singulos ageretur, +pro amore nihilominus +Christi et obedientiæ virtute, rigida +semper atque immobilia patris +viscera permanserunt ... parum +cogitans de lacrymis ejus, sed de +propria humilitate ac perfectione +sollicitus.</q>—Ibid.</note> At last the abbot told him to take +his child and throw it into the river. He proceeded, without +a murmur or apparent pang, to obey, and it was only at the +last moment that the monks interposed, and on the very +brink of the river saved the child. Mutius afterwards rose +to a high position among the ascetics, and was justly regarded +as having displayed in great perfection the temper of a saint.<note place='foot'>Ibid.</note> +An inhabitant of Thebes once came to the abbot Sisoes, and +asked to be made a monk. The abbot asked if he had any one +belonging to him. He answered, <q>A son.</q> <q>Take your son,</q> +rejoined the old man, <q>and throw him into the river, and then +you may become a monk.</q> The father hastened to fulfil the +command, and the deed was almost consummated when a +messenger sent by Sisoes revoked the order.<note place='foot'>Bollandists, July 6; <hi rend='italic'>Verba +Seniorum</hi>, xiv.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Sometimes the same lesson was taught under the form of +a miracle. A man had once deserted his three children to +become a monk. Three years after, he determined to bring +them into the monastery, but, on returning to his home, +found that the two eldest had died during his absence. He +came to his abbot, bearing in his arms his youngest child, +<pb n='127'/><anchor id='Pg127'/> +who was still little more than an infant. The abbot turned +to him and said, <q>Do you love this child?</q> The father +answered, <q>Yes.</q> Again the abbot said, <q>Do you love it +dearly?</q> The father answered as before. <q>Then take the +child,</q> said the abbot, <q>and throw it into the fire upon yonder +hearth.</q> The father did as he was commanded, and the child +remained unharmed amid the flames.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Verba Seniorum</hi>, xiv.</note> But it was especially +in their dealings with their female relations that this aspect +of the monastic character was vividly displayed. In this +case the motive was not simply to mortify family affections—it +was also to guard against the possible danger resulting +from the presence of a woman. The fine flower of that +saintly purity might have been disturbed by the sight of a +mother's or a sister's face. The ideal of one age appears +sometimes too grotesque for the caricature of another; and it +is curious to observe how pale and weak is the picture +which Molière drew of the affected prudery of Tartuffe,<note place='foot'><p><hi rend='smallcaps'>Tartuffe</hi> (<hi rend='italic'>tirant un mouchoir<lb/> +de sa poche</hi>). +</p> +<p> +<q rend='pre'>Ah, mon Dieu, je vous prie,<lb/> +Avant que de parler, prenez-moi ce mouchoir.</q> +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Dorine.</hi> +</p> +<p> +Comment! +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Tartuffe.</hi> +</p> +<p> +<q rend='post'>Couvrez ce sein que je ne saurois voir;<lb/> +Par de pareils objets des âmes sont blessées,<lb/> +Et cela fait venir de coupables pensées.</q> +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Tartuffe</hi>, Acte iii. scène 2. +</p></note> +when compared with the narratives that are gravely propounded +in the Lives of the Saints. When the abbot Sisoes +had become a very old, feeble, and decrepit man, his disciples +exhorted him to leave the desert for an inhabited country. +Sisoes seemed to yield; but he stipulated, as a necessary +condition, that in his new abode he should never be compelled +to encounter the peril and perturbation of looking on +a woman's face. To such a nature, of course, the desert alone +was suitable, and the old man was suffered to die in peace.<note place='foot'>Bollandists, July 6.</note> +A monk was once travelling with his mother—in itself a +<pb n='128'/><anchor id='Pg128'/> +most unusual circumstance—and, having arrived at a bridgeless +stream, it became necessary for him to carry her across. +To her surprise, he began carefully wrapping up his hands +in cloths; and upon her asking the reason, he explained that +he was alarmed lest he should be unfortunate enough to +touch her, and thereby disturb the equilibrium of his nature.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Verba Seniorum</hi>, iv. The +poor woman, being startled and +perplexed at the proceedings of her +son, said, <q>Quid sic operuisti manus +tuas, fili? Ille autem dixit: Quia +corpus mulieris ignis est, et ex eo +ipso quo te contingebam veniebat +mihi commemoratio aliarum feminarum +in animo.</q></note> +The sister of St. John of Calama loved him dearly, and +earnestly implored him that she might look upon his face +once more before she died. On his persistent refusal, she +declared that she would make a pilgrimage to him in the +desert. The alarmed and perplexed saint at last wrote +to her, promising to visit her if she would engage to relinquish +her design. He went to her in disguise, received a +cup of water from her hands, and came away without being +discovered. She wrote to him, reproaching him with not +having fulfilled his promise. He answered her that he +had indeed visited her, that <q>by the mercy of Jesus +Christ he had not been recognised,</q> and that she must +never see him again.<note place='foot'>Tillemont, <hi rend='italic'>Mém. de l'Hist. +ecclés.</hi> tome x. pp. 444, 445.</note> The mother of St. Theodorus came +armed with letters from the bishops to see her son, but +he implored his abbot, St. Pachomius, to permit him to +decline the interview; and, finding all her efforts in vain, +the poor woman retired into a convent, together with her +daughter, who had made a similar expedition with similar +results.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Vit. S. Pachomius</hi>, ch. xxxi.; +<hi rend='italic'>Verba Seniorum</hi>.</note> The mother of St. Marcus persuaded his abbot to +command the saint to go out to her. Placed in a dilemma +between the sin of disobedience and the perils of seeing his +mother, St. Marcus extricated himself by an ingenious device. +He went to his mother with his face disguised and his eyes +<pb n='129'/><anchor id='Pg129'/> +shut. The mother did not recognise her son. The son did +not see his mother.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Verba Senorium</hi>, xiv.</note> The sister of St. Pior in like manner +induced the abbot of that saint to command him to admit her +to his presence. The command was obeyed, but St. Pior +resolutely kept his eyes shut during the interview.<note place='foot'>Palladius, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Laus.</hi> cap. +lxxxvii.</note> St. +Pœmen and his six brothers had all deserted their mother to +cultivate the perfections of an ascetic life. But ingratitude +can seldom quench the love of a mother's heart, and the +old woman, now bent by infirmities, went alone into the +Egyptian desert to see once more the children she so dearly +loved. She caught sight of them as they were about to leave +their cell for the church, but they immediately ran back into +the cell, and, before her tottering steps could reach it, one +of her sons rushed forward and closed the door in her face. +She remained outside weeping bitterly. St. Pœmen then, +coming to the door, but without opening it, said, <q>Why do +you, who are already stricken with age, pour forth such cries +and lamentations?</q> But she, recognising the voice of her +son, answered, <q>It is because I long to see you, my sons. +What harm could it do you that I should see you? Am I +not your mother? did I not give you suck? I am now an old +and wrinkled woman, and my heart is troubled at the sound +of your voices.</q><note place='foot'>Bollandists, June 6. I avail +myself again of the version of +Tillemont. <q>Lorsque S. Pemen demeuroit +en Egypte avec ses frères, +leur mère, qui avoit un extrême +désir de les voir, venoit souvent au +lieu où ils estoient, sans pouvoir +jamais avoir cette satisfaction. Une +fois enfin elle prit si bien son temps +qu'elle les rencontra qui alloient à +l'église, mais dès qu'ils la virent ils +s'en retournèrent en haste dans +leur cellule et fermèrent la porte +sur eux. Elle les suivit, et trouvant +la porte, elle les appeloit avec +des larmes et des cris capables de +les toucher de compassion.... +Pemen s'y leva et s'y en alla, et +l'entendant pleurer il luy dit, tenant +toujours la porte fermée, <q>Pourquoi +vous lassez-vous inutilement à +pleurer et crier? N'êtes-vous pas +déjà assez abattue par la vieillesse?</q> +Elle reconnut la voix de Pemen, et +s'efforçant encore davantage, elle +s'écria, <q>Hé, mes enfans, c'est que +je voudrais bien vous voir: et +quel mal y a-t-il que je vous voie? +Ne suis-je pas votre mère, et ne +vous ai-je pas nourri du lait de mes +mammelles? Je suis déjà toute +pleine de rides, et lorsque je vous +ay entendu, l'extrême envie que +j'ay de vous voir m'a tellement +émue que je suis presque tombée +en défaillance.</q></q>—<hi rend='italic'>Mémoires de +l'Hist. ecclès.</hi> tome xv. pp. 157, +158.</note> The saintly brothers, however, refused to +<pb n='130'/><anchor id='Pg130'/> +open their door. They told their mother that she would see +them after death; and the biographer says she at last went +away contented with the prospect. St. Simeon Stylites, in +this as in other respects, stands in the first line. He had +been passionately loved by his parents, and, if we may believe +his eulogist and biographer, he began his saintly career by +breaking the heart of his father, who died of grief at his +flight. His mother, however, lingered on. Twenty-seven +years after his disappearance, at a period when his austerities +had made him famous, she heard for the first time where he +was, and hastened to visit him. But all her labour was in +vain. No woman was admitted within the precincts of his +dwelling, and he refused to permit her even to look upon his +face. Her entreaties and tears were mingled with words of +bitter and eloquent reproach.<note place='foot'>The original is much more eloquent +than my translation. <q>Fili, +quare hoc fecisti? Pro utero quo +te portavi, satiasti me luctu, pro +lactatione qua te lactavi dedisti +mihi lacrymas, pro osculo quo te +osculata sum, dedisti mihi amaras +cordis angustias; pro dolore et +labore quem passa sum, imposuisti +mihi sævissimas plagas.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Vita +Simeonis</hi> (in Rosweyde).</note> <q>My son,</q> she is represented +as having said, <q>why have you done this? I bore you in my +womb, and you have wrung my soul with grief. I gave you +milk from my breast, you have filled my eyes with tears. +For the kisses I gave you, you have given me the anguish of +a broken heart; for all that I have done and suffered for you, +you have repaid me by the most cruel wrongs.</q> At last the +saint sent a message to tell her that she would soon see him. +Three days and three nights she had wept and entreated in +vain, and now, exhausted with grief and age and privation, +she sank feebly to the ground and breathed her last sigh before +that inhospitable door. Then for the first time the saint, +accompanied by his followers, came out. He shed some pious +<pb n='131'/><anchor id='Pg131'/> +tears over the corpse of his murdered mother, and offered up +a prayer consigning her soul to heaven. Perhaps it was but +fancy, perhaps life was not yet wholly extinct, perhaps the +story is but the invention of the biographer; but a faint +motion—which appears to have been regarded as miraculous—is +said to have passed over her prostrate form. Simeon +once more commended her soul to heaven, and then, amid the +admiring murmurs of his disciples, the saintly matricide +returned to his devotions. +</p> + +<p> +The glaring mendacity that characterises the Lives of the +Catholic Saints, probably to a greater extent than any other +important branch of existing literature, makes it not unreasonable +to hope that many of the foregoing anecdotes represent +much less events that actually took place than ideal pictures +generated by the enthusiasm of the chroniclers. They are +not, however, on that account the less significant of the moral +conceptions which the ascetic period had created. The ablest +men in the Christian community vied with one another in +inculcating as the highest form of duty the abandonment of +social ties and the mortification of domestic affections. A +few faint restrictions were indeed occasionally made. Much—on +which I shall hereafter touch—was written on the +liberty of husbands and wives deserting one another; and +something was written on the cases of children forsaking or +abandoning their parents. At first, those who, when children, +were devoted to the monasteries by their parents, without +their own consent, were permitted, when of mature age, to +return to the world; and this liberty was taken from them +for the first time by the fourth Council of Toledo, in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 633.<note place='foot'>Bingham, <hi rend='italic'>Antiquities</hi>, book vii. ch. iii.</note> +The Council of Gangra condemned the heretic Eustathius for +teaching that children might, through religious motives, forsake +their parents, and St. Basil wrote in the same strain;<note place='foot'>Ibid.</note> +but cases of this kind of rebellion against parental authority +were continually recounted with admiration in the Lives of the +<pb n='132'/><anchor id='Pg132'/> +Saints, applauded by some of the leading Fathers, and virtually +sanctioned by a law of Justinian, which deprived parents of +the power of either restraining their children from entering +monasteries, or disinheriting them if they had done so without +their consent.<note place='foot'>Bingham, <hi rend='italic'>Antiquities</hi>, book +vii. chap. 3.</note> St. Chrysostom relates with enthusiasm the +case of a young man who had been designed by his father for +the army, and who was lured away to a monastery.<note place='foot'>Milman's <hi rend='italic'>Early Christianity</hi> +(ed. 1867), vol. iii. p. 122.</note> The +eloquence of St. Ambrose is said to have been so seductive, +that mothers were accustomed to shut up their daughters to +guard them against his fascinations.<note place='foot'>Ibid. vol. iii. p. 153.</note> The position of affectionate +parents was at this time extremely painful. The +touching language is still preserved, in which the mother of +Chrysostom—who had a distinguished part in the conversion +of her son—implored him, if he thought it his duty to fly to +the desert life, at least to postpone the act till she had died.<note place='foot'>Ibid. vol. iii. p. 120.</note> +St. Ambrose devoted a chapter to proving that, while those +are worthy of commendation who enter the monasteries +with the approbation, those are still more worthy of praise +who do so against the wishes, of their parents; and he proceeded +to show how small were the penalties the latter could +inflict when compared with the blessings asceticism could +bestow.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>De Virginibus</hi>, i. 11.</note> Even before the law of Justinian, the invectives of +the clergy were directed against those who endeavoured to +prevent their children flying to the desert. St. Chrysostom +explained to them that they would certainly be damned.<note place='foot'>See Milman's <hi rend='italic'>Early Christianity</hi>, +vol. iii. p. 121.</note> St. +Ambrose showed that, even in this world, they might not be +unpunished. A girl, he tells us, had resolved to enter into a +convent, and as her relations were expostulating with her on +her intention, one of those present tried to move her by the +memory of her dead father, asking whether, if he were still +<pb n='133'/><anchor id='Pg133'/> +alive, he would have suffered her to remain unmarried. +<q>Perhaps,</q> she calmly answered, <q>it was for this very purpose +he died, that he should not throw any obstacle in my way.</q> +Her words were more than an answer; they were an oracle. +The indiscreet questioner almost immediately died, and the +relations, shocked by the manifest providence, desisted from +their opposition, and even implored the young saint to accomplish +her design.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>De Virginibus</hi>, i. 11.</note> St. Jerome tells with rapturous enthusiasm +of a little girl, named Asella, who, when only twelve years +old, devoted herself to the religious life and refused to look +on the face of any man, and whose knees, by constant prayer, +became at last like those of a camel.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> xxiv.</note> A famous widow, +named Paula, upon the death of her husband, deserted her +family, listened with <q>dry eyes</q> to her children, who were +imploring her to stay, fled to the society of the monks at +Jerusalem, made it her desire that <q>she might die a beggar, +and leave not one piece of money to her son,</q> and, having dissipated +the whole of her fortune in charities, bequeathed to +her children only the embarrassment of her debts.<note place='foot'>St. Jerome describes the scene +at her departure with admiring +eloquence. <q>Descendit ad portum +fratre, cognatis, affinibus et quod +majus est liberis prosequentibus, +et elementissimam matrem pietate +vincere cupientibus. Jam carbasa +tendebantur, et remorum ductu +navis in altum protrahebatur. +Parvus Toxotius supplices manus +tendebat in littore, Ruffina jam +nubilis ut suas expectaret nuptias +tacens fletibus obsecrabat. Et +tamen illa siccos tendebat ad cælum +oculos, pietatem in filios pietate in +Deum superans. Nesciebat se +matrem ut Christi probaret ancillam.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +cviii. In another place +he says of her: <q>Testis est Jesus, +ne unum quidem nummum ab ea +filiæ derelictum sed, ut ante jam +dixi, derelictum magnum æs alienum.</q>—Ibid. +And again: <q>Vis, +lector, ejus breviter scire virtutes? +Omnes suos pauperes, pauperior +ipsa dimisit.</q>—Ibid.</note> It was +carefully inculcated that all money given or bequeathed to the +poor, or to the monks, produced spiritual benefit to the donors +or testators, but that no spiritual benefit sprang from money +bestowed upon relations; and the more pious minds recoiled +<pb n='134'/><anchor id='Pg134'/> +from disposing of their property in a manner that would not +redound to the advantage of their souls. Sometimes parents +made it a dying request to their children that they would +preserve none of their property, but would bestow it all +among the poor.<note place='foot'>See Chastel, <hi rend='italic'>Etudes historiques +sur la Charité</hi>, p. 231. The parents +of St. Gregory Nazianzen had made +this request, which was faithfully +observed.</note> It was one of the most honourable incidents +of the life of St. Augustine, that he, like Aurelius, +Bishop of Carthage, refused to receive legacies or donations +which unjustly spoliated the relatives of the benefactor.<note place='foot'>Chastel, p. 232.</note> +Usually, however, to outrage the affections of the nearest and +dearest relations was not only regarded as innocent, but proposed +as the highest virtue. <q>A young man,</q> it was acutely +said, <q>who has learnt to despise a mother's grief, will easily +bear any other labour that is imposed upon him.</q><note place='foot'>See a characteristic passage +from the <hi rend='italic'>Life of St. Fulgentius</hi>, +quoted by Dean Milman. <q>Facile +potest juvenis tolerare quemcunque +imposuerit laborem qui poterit +maternum jam despicere dolorem.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Hist. +of Latin Christianity</hi>, vol. +ii. p. 82.</note> St. +Jerome, when exhorting Heliodorus to desert his family and +become a hermit, expatiated with a fond minuteness on every +form of natural affection he desired him to violate. <q>Though +your little nephew twine his arms around your neck; though +your mother, with dishevelled hair and tearing her robe asunder, +point to the breast with which she suckled you; though +your father fall down on the threshold before you, pass on +over your father's body. Fly with tearless eyes to the banner +of the cross. In this matter cruelty is the only piety.... +Your widowed sister may throw her gentle arms around +you.... Your father may implore you to wait but a short +time to bury those near to you, who will soon be no more; +your weeping mother may recall your childish days, and may +point to her shrunken breast and to her wrinkled brow. +Those around you may tell you that all the household rests +upon you. Such chains as these, the love of God and the +<pb n='135'/><anchor id='Pg135'/> +fear of hell can easily break. You say that Scripture orders +you to obey your parents, but he who loves them more than +Christ loses his soul. The enemy brandishes a sword to slay +me. Shall I think of a mother's tears?</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xiv. (<hi rend='italic'>Ad Heliodorum</hi>).</note> +</p> + +<p> +The sentiment manifested in these cases continued to be +displayed in later ages. Thus, St. Gregory the Great assures +us that a certain young boy, though he had enrolled +himself as a monk, was unable to repress his love for his +parents, and one night stole out secretly to visit them. But +the judgment of God soon marked the enormity of the offence. +On coming back to the monastery, he died that very day, and +when he was buried, the earth refused to receive so heinous a +criminal. His body was repeatedly thrown up from the +grave, and it was only suffered to rest in peace when St. +Benedict had laid the Sacrament upon its breast.<note place='foot'>St. Greg. <hi rend='italic'>Dial.</hi> ii. 24.</note> One nun +revealed, it is said, after death, that she had been condemned +for three days to the fires of purgatory, because she had loved +her mother too much.<note place='foot'>Bollandists, May 3 (vol. vii. +p. 561).</note> Of another saint it is recorded that +his benevolence was such that he was never known to be +hard or inhuman to any one except his relations.<note place='foot'><q>Hospitibus omni loco ac tempore +liberalissimus fuit.... Solis +consanguineis durus erat et inhumanus, +tamquam ignotos illos respiciens.</q>—Bollandists, +May 29.</note> St. +Romuald, the founder of the Camaldolites, counted his father +among his spiritual children, and on one occasion punished +him by flagellation.<note place='foot'>See Helyot, <hi rend='italic'>Dict. des Ordres +religieux</hi>, art. <q>Camaldules.</q></note> The first nun whom St. Francis of +Assisi enrolled was a beautiful girl of Assisi named Clara +Scifi, with whom he had for some time carried on a clandestine +correspondence, and whose flight from her father's home +he both counselled and planned.<note place='foot'>See the charming sketch in the +<hi rend='italic'>Life of St. Francis</hi>, by Hase.</note> As the first enthusiasm +of asceticism died away, what was lost in influence by +the father was gained by the priest. The confessional made +<pb n='136'/><anchor id='Pg136'/> +this personage the confidant in the most delicate secrets of +domestic life. The supremacy of authority, of sympathy, and +sometimes even of affection, passed away beyond the domestic +circle, and, by establishing an absolute authority over the +most secret thoughts and feelings of nervous and credulous +women, the priests laid the foundation of the empire of +the world. +</p> + +<p> +The picture I have drawn of the inroads made in the first +period of asceticism upon the domestic affections, tells, I +think, its own story, and I shall only add a very few words +of comment. That it is necessary for many men who are +pursuing a truly heroic course to break loose from the trammels +which those about them would cast over their actions +or their opinions, and that this severance often constitutes +at once one of the noblest and one of the most painful +incidents in their career, are unquestionable truths; but +the examples of such occasional and exceptional sacrifices, +endured for some great unselfish end, cannot be compared +with the conduct of those who regarded the mortification of +domestic love as in itself a form of virtue, and whose ends +were mainly or exclusively selfish. The sufferings endured +by the ascetic who fled from his relations were often, no +doubt, very great. Many anecdotes remain to show that +warm and affectionate hearts sometimes beat under the cold +exterior of the monk;<note place='foot'>The legend of St. Scholastica, +the sister of St. Benedict, has been +often quoted. He had visited her, +and was about to leave in the evening, +when she implored him to stay. +He refused, and she then prayed to +God, who sent so violent a tempest +that the saint was unable to depart. +(St. Greg. <hi rend='italic'>Dial.</hi> ii. 33.) +Cassian speaks of a monk who +thought it his duty never to see +his mother, but who laboured for a +whole year to pay off a debt she +had incurred. (Cœnob. <hi rend='italic'>Inst.</hi> v. 38.) +St. Jerome mentions the strong +natural affection of Paula, though +she considered it a virtue to mortify +it. (<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> cviii.)</note> and St. Jerome, in one of his letters, +remarked, with much complacency and congratulation, that +the very bitterest pang of captivity is simply this irrevocable +<pb n='137'/><anchor id='Pg137'/> +separation which the superstition he preached induced multitudes +to inflict upon themselves. But if, putting aside the +intrinsic excellence of an act, we attempt to estimate the +nobility of the agent, we must consider not only the cost of +what he did, but also the motive which induced him to do it. +It is this last consideration which renders it impossible for us +to place the heroism of the ascetic on the same level with that +of the great patriots of Greece or Rome. A man may be as +truly selfish about the next world as about this. Where an +overpowering dread of future torments, or an intense realisation +of future happiness, is the leading motive of action, the +theological virtue of faith may be present, but the ennobling +quality of disinterestedness is assuredly absent. In our day, +when pictures of rewards and punishments beyond the grave +act but feebly upon the imagination, a religious motive is +commonly an unselfish motive; but it has not always been +so, and it was undoubtedly not so in the first period of asceticism. +The terrors of a future judgment drove the monk +into the desert, and the whole tenor of the ascetic life, while +isolating him from human sympathies, fostered an intense, +though it may be termed a religious, selfishness. +</p> + +<p> +The effect of the mortification of the domestic affections +upon the general character was probably very pernicious. +The family circle is the appointed sphere, not only for the +performance of manifest duties, but also for the cultivation +of the affections; and the extreme ferocity which so often +characterised the ascetic was the natural consequence of the +discipline he imposed upon himself. Severed from all other +ties, the monks clung with a desperate tenacity to their +opinions and to their Church, and hated those who dissented +from them with all the intensity of men whose whole lives +were concentrated on a single subject, whose ignorance and +bigotry prevented them from conceiving the possibility of +any good thing in opposition to themselves, and who had +made it a main object of their discipline to eradicate all +<pb n='138'/><anchor id='Pg138'/> +natural sympathies and affections. We may reasonably attribute +to the fierce biographer the words of burning hatred of +all heretics which St. Athanasius puts in the mouth of the +dying patriarch of the hermits;<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Life of Antony.</hi> See, too, the sentiments of St. Pachomius, <hi rend='italic'>Vit.</hi> +cap. xxvii.</note> but ecclesiastical history, +and especially the writings of the later Pagans, abundantly +prove that the sentiment was a general one. To the Christian +bishops it is mainly due that the wide and general, +though not perfect, recognition of religious liberty in the +Roman legislation was replaced by laws of the most minute +and stringent intolerance. To the monks, acting as the executive +of an omnipresent, intolerant, and aggressive clergy, +is due an administrative change, perhaps even more important +than the legislative change that had preceded it. The +system of conniving at, neglecting, or despising forms of +worship that were formally prohibited, which had been so +largely practised by the sceptical Pagans, and under the lax +police system of the Empire, and which is so important a fact +in the history of the rise of Christianity, was absolutely destroyed. +Wandering in bands through the country, the +monks were accustomed to burn the temples, to break the +idols, to overthrow the altars, to engage in fierce conflicts +with the peasants, who often defended with desperate courage +the shrines of their gods. It would be impossible to conceive +men more fitted for the task. Their fierce fanaticism, their +persuasion that every idol was tenanted by a literal dæmon, +and their belief that death incurred in this iconoclastic +crusade was a form of martyrdom, made them careless of all +consequences to themselves, while the reverence that attached +to their profession rendered it scarcely possible for the civil +power to arrest them. Men who had learnt to look with indifference +on the tears of a broken-hearted mother, and whose +ideal was indissolubly connected with the degradation of the +<pb n='139'/><anchor id='Pg139'/> +body, were but little likely to be moved either by the pathos +of old associations, and of reverent, though mistaken, worship, +or by the grandeur of the Serapeum, or of the noble statues of +Phidias and Praxiteles. Sometimes the civil power ordered +the reconstruction of Jewish synagogues or heretical churches +which had been illegally destroyed; but the doctrine was +early maintained that such a reconstruction was a deadly sin. +Under Julian some Christians suffered martyrdom sooner +than be parties to it; and St. Ambrose from the pulpit +of Milan, and Simeon Stylites from his desert pillar, united +in denouncing Theodosius, who had been guilty of issuing +this command. +</p> + +<p> +Another very important moral result to which asceticism +largely contributed was the depression and sometimes almost +the extinction of the civic virtues. A candid examination +will show that the Christian civilisations have been as inferior +to the Pagan ones in civic and intellectual virtues as they +have been superior to them in the virtues of humanity and +of chastity. We have already seen that one remarkable feature +of the intellectual movement that preceded Christianity +was the gradual decadence of patriotism. In the early days +both of Greece and Rome, the first duty enforced was that of +a man to his country. This was the rudimentary or cardinal +virtue of the moral type. It gave the tone to the whole +system of ethics, and different moral qualities were valued +chiefly in proportion to their tendency to form illustrious +citizens. The destruction of this spirit in the Roman Empire +was due, as we have seen, to two causes—one of them being +political and the other intellectual. The political cause +was the amalgamation of the different nations in one great +despotism, which gave indeed an ample field for personal +and intellectual freedom, but extinguished the sentiment +of nationality and closed almost every sphere of political +activity. The intellectual cause, which was by no means +unconnected with the political one, was the growing ascendancy +<pb n='140'/><anchor id='Pg140'/> +of Oriental philosophies, which dethroned the active +Stoicism of the early Empire, and placed its ideal of excellence +in contemplative virtues and in elaborate purifications. +By this decline of the patriotic sentiment the +progress of the new faith was greatly aided. In all matters +of religion the opinions of men are governed much more by +their sympathies than by their judgments; and it rarely or +never happens that a religion which is opposed to a strong +national sentiment, as Christianity was in Judea, as Catholicism +and Episcopalian Protestantism have been in Scotland, +and as Anglicanism is even now in Ireland, can win the acceptance +of the people. +</p> + +<p> +The relations of Christianity to the sentiment of patriotism +were from the first very unfortunate. While the Christians +were, for obvious reasons, completely separated from +the national spirit of Judea, they found themselves equally +at variance with the lingering remnants of Roman patriotism. +Rome was to them the power of Antichrist, and its +overthrow the necessary prelude to the millennial reign. +They formed an illegal organisation, directly opposed to the +genius of the Empire, anticipating its speedy destruction, +looking back with something more than despondency to +the fate of the heroes who adorned its past, and refusing +resolutely to participate in those national spectacles which +were the symbols and the expressions of patriotic feeling. +Though scrupulously averse to all rebellion, they rarely concealed +their sentiments, and the whole tendency of their +teaching was to withdraw men as far as possible both from +the functions and the enthusiasm of public life. It was at +once their confession and their boast, that no interests were +more indifferent to them than those of their country.<note place='foot'><q>Nec ulla res aliena magis quam publica.</q>—Tertullian, <hi rend='italic'>Apol.</hi> +ch. xxxviii.</note> They +regarded the lawfulness of taking arms as very questionable, +<pb n='141'/><anchor id='Pg141'/> +and all those proud and aspiring qualities that constitute the +distinctive beauty of the soldier's character as emphatically +unchristian. Their home and their interests were in another +world, and, provided only they were unmolested in their +worship, they avowed with frankness, long after the Empire +had become Christian, that it was a matter of indifference to +them under what rule they lived.<note place='foot'><q>Quid interest sub cujus imperio +vivat homo moriturus, si illi +qui imperant, ad impia et iniqua +non cogant.</q>—St. Aug. <hi rend='italic'>De Civ. Dei</hi>, +v. 17.</note> Asceticism, drawing all +the enthusiasm of Christendom to the desert life, and elevating +as an ideal the extreme and absolute abnegation of +all patriotism,<note place='foot'>St. Jerome declares that +<q>Monachum in patria sua perfectum +esse non posse, perfectum +autem esse nolle delinquere est.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +xiv. Dean Milman well +says of a later period: <q>According +to the monastic view of Christianity, +the total abandonment +of the world, with all its ties and +duties, as well as its treasures, its +enjoyments, and objects of ambition, +advanced rather than diminished +the hopes of salvation. +Why should they fight for a perishing +world, from which it was better +to be estranged?... It is singular, +indeed, that while we have seen +the Eastern monks turned into +fierce undisciplined soldiers, perilling +their own lives and shedding +the blood of others without remorse, +in assertion of some shadowy +shade of orthodox expression, +hardly anywhere do we find them +asserting their liberties or their +religion with intrepid resistance. +Hatred of heresy was a more stirring +motive than the dread or the +danger of Islamism. After the +first defeats the Christian mind +was still further prostrated by the +common notion that the invasion +was a just and heaven-commissioned +visitation; ... resistance +a vain, almost an impious struggle +to avert inevitable punishment.</q>—Milman's +<hi rend='italic'>Latin Christianity</hi>, vol. +ii. p. 206. Compare Massillon's +famous <hi rend='italic'>Discours au Régiment de +Catinat</hi>:—<q>Ce qu'il y a ici de plus +déplorable, c'est que dans une vie +rude et pénible, dans des emplois +dont les devoirs passent quelquefois +la rigueur des cloîtres les plus +austères, vous souffrez toujours en +vain pour l'autre vie.... Dix ans +de services ont plus usé votre corps +qu'une vie entière de pénitence ... +un seul jour de ces souffrances, +consacré au Seigneur, vous aurait +peut-être valu un bonheur éternel.</q></note> formed the culmination of the movement, +and was undoubtedly one cause of the downfall of the +Roman Empire. +</p> + +<p> +There are, probably, few subjects on which popular judgments +are commonly more erroneous than upon the relations +<pb n='142'/><anchor id='Pg142'/> +between positive religions and moral enthusiasm. Religions +have, no doubt, a most real power of evoking a latent energy +which, without their existence, would never have been called +into action; but their influence is on the whole probably +more attractive than creative. They supply the channel in +which moral enthusiasm flows, the banner under which it +is enlisted, the mould in which it is cast, the ideal to which +it tends. The first idea which the phrase <q>a very good man</q> +would have suggested to an early Roman would probably have +been that of great and distinguished patriotism, and the passion +and interest of such a man in his country's cause were in +direct proportion to his moral elevation. Ascetic Christianity +decisively diverted moral enthusiasm into another channel, +and the civic virtues, in consequence, necessarily declined. +The extinction of all public spirit, the base treachery and +corruption pervading every department of the Government, +the cowardice of the army, the despicable frivolity of character +that led the people of Treves, when fresh from their burning +city, to call for theatres and circuses, and the people of Roman +Carthage to plunge wildly into the excitement of the chariot +races, on the very day when their city succumbed beneath +the Vandal;<note place='foot'>See a very striking passage in +Salvian, <hi rend='italic'>De Gubern. Div.</hi> lib. vi.</note> all these things coexisted with extraordinary +displays of ascetic and of missionary devotion. The genius +and the virtue that might have defended the Empire were engaged +in fierce disputes about the Pelagian controversy, at the +very time when Alaric was encircling Rome with his armies,<note place='foot'>Chateaubriand very truly +says, <q>qu'Orose et saint Augustin +étoient plus occupés du schisme de +Pélage que de la désolation de +l'Afrique et des Gaules.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Études +histor.</hi> vi<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>me</hi> discours, 2<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>de</hi> partie. +The remark might certainly be +extended much further.</note> +and there was no subtlety of theological metaphysics which +did not kindle a deeper interest in the Christian leaders than +the throes of their expiring country. The moral enthusiasm +that in other days would have fired the armies of Rome with +<pb n='143'/><anchor id='Pg143'/> +an invincible valour, impelled thousands to abandon their +country and their homes, and consume the weary hours in a +long routine of useless and horrible macerations. When the +Goths had captured Rome, St. Augustine, as we have seen, +pointed with a just pride to the Christian Church, which remained +an unviolated sanctuary during the horrors of the +sack, as a proof that a new spirit of sanctity and of reverence +had descended upon the world. The Pagan, in his turn, +pointed to what he deemed a not less significant fact—the +golden statues of Valour and of Fortune were melted down +to pay the ransom to the conquerors.<note place='foot'>Zosimus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> v. 41. This was +on the first occasion when Rome +was menaced by Alaric.</note> Many of the Christians +contemplated with an indifference that almost amounted +to complacency what they regarded as the predicted ruin of +the city of the fallen gods.<note place='foot'>See Merivale's <hi rend='italic'>Conversion of +the Northern Nations</hi>, pp. 207-210.</note> When the Vandals swept over +Africa, the Donatists, maddened by the persecution of the +orthodox, received them with open arms, and contributed +their share to that deadly blow.<note place='foot'>See Sismondi, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de la +Chute de l'Empire romain</hi>, tome i. +p. 230.</note> The immortal pass of +Thermopylæ was surrendered without a struggle to the +Goths. A Pagan writer accused the monks of having betrayed +it.<note place='foot'>Eunapius. There is no other +authority for the story of the +treachery, which is not believed +by Gibbon.</note> It is more probable that they had absorbed or +diverted the heroism that in other days would have defended +it. The conquest, at a later date, of Egypt, by the Mohammedans, +was in a great measure due to an invitation from +the persecuted Monophysites.<note place='foot'>Sismondi, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de la Chute de +l'Empire romain</hi>, tome ii. pp. 52-54; +Milman, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Latin Christianity</hi>, +vol. ii. p. 213. The Monophysites +were greatly afflicted because, +after the conquest, the Mohammedans +tolerated the orthodox +believers as well as themselves, +and were unable to appreciate +the distinction between them. In +Gaul, the orthodox clergy favoured +the invasions of the Franks, who, +alone of the barbarian conquerors +of Gaul, were Catholics, and St. +Aprunculus was obliged to fly, the +Burgundians desiring to kill him +on account of his suspected connivance +with the invaders. (Greg. +<hi rend='italic'>Tur.</hi> ii. 23.)</note> Subsequent religious wars +<pb n='144'/><anchor id='Pg144'/> +have again and again exhibited the same phenomenon. The +treachery of a religionist to his country no longer argued an +absence of all moral feeling. It had become compatible with +the deepest religious enthusiasm, and with all the courage of +a martyr. +</p> + +<p> +It is somewhat difficult to form a just estimate of how far +the attitude assumed by the Church towards the barbarian +invaders has on the whole proved beneficial to mankind. The +Empire, as we have seen, had long been, both morally and politically, +in a condition of manifest decline; its fall, though it +might have been retarded, could scarcely have been averted, +and the new religion, even in its most superstitious form, +while it did much to displace, did also much to elicit moral +enthusiasm. It is impossible to deny that the Christian +priesthood contributed very materially, both by their charity +and by their arbitration, to mitigate the calamities that +accompanied the dissolution of the Empire;<note place='foot'>Dean Milman says of the +Church, <q>if treacherous to the interests +of the Roman Empire, it +was true to those of mankind.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Hist. +of Christianity</hi>, vol. iii. p. 48. +So Gibbon: <q>If the decline of the +Roman Empire was hastened by +the conversion of Constantine, the +victorious religion broke the violence +of the fall and mollified the +ferocious temper of the conquerors.</q>—Ch. +xxxviii.</note> and it is equally +impossible to doubt that their political attitude greatly +increased their power for good. Standing between the conflicting +forces, almost indifferent to the issue, and notoriously +exempt from the passions of the combat, they obtained with +the conqueror, and used for the benefit of the conquered, a +degree of influence they would never have possessed, had they +been regarded as Roman patriots. Their attitude, however, +marked a complete, and, as it has proved, a permanent, change +in the position assigned to patriotism in the moral scale. It +<pb n='145'/><anchor id='Pg145'/> +has occasionally happened in later times, that churches have +found it for their interest to appeal to this sentiment in their +conflict with opposing creeds, or that patriots have found the +objects of churchmen in harmony with their own; and in +these cases a fusion of theological and patriotic feeling has +taken place, in which each has intensified the other. Such +has been the effect of the conflict between the Spaniards and +the Moors, between the Poles and the Russians, between the +Scotch Puritans and the English Episcopalians, between the +Irish Catholics and the English Protestants. But patriotism +itself, as a duty, has never found any place in Christian +ethics, and strong theological feeling has usually been directly +hostile to its growth. Ecclesiastics have, no doubt, taken a +very large share in political affairs, but this has been in most +cases solely with the object of wresting them into conformity +with ecclesiastical designs; and no other body of men have +so uniformly sacrificed the interests of their country to the +interests of their class. For the repugnance between the +theological and the patriotic spirit, three reasons may, I +think, be assigned. The first is that tendency of strong +religious feeling to divert the mind from all terrestrial cares +and passions, of which the ascetic life was the extreme +expression, but which has always, under different forms, been +manifested in the Church. The second arises from the fact +that each form of theological opinion embodies itself in a +visible and organised church, with a government, interest, +and policy of its own, and a frontier often intersecting rather +than following national boundaries; and these churches +attract to themselves the attachment and devotion that +would naturally be bestowed upon the country and its +rulers. The third reason is, that the saintly and the heroic +characters, which represent the ideals of religion and of +patriotism, are generically different; for although they have +no doubt many common elements of virtue, the distinctive +<pb n='146'/><anchor id='Pg146'/> +excellence of each is derived from a proportion or disposition +of qualities altogether different from that of the other.<note place='foot'>Observe with what a fine perception +St. Augustine notices the +essentially unchristian character +of the moral dispositions to which +the greatness of Rome was due. +He quotes the sentence of Sallust: +<q>Civitas, incredibile memoratu est, +adeptâ libertate quantum brevi +creverit, tanta cupido gloriæ incesserat;</q> +and adds: <q>Ista ergo laudis +aviditas et cupido gloriæ multa +illa miranda fecit, laudabilia scilicet +atque gloriosa secundum hominum +existimationem ... causa +honoris, laudis et gloriæ consuluerunt +patriæ, in qua ipsam gloriam +requirebant, salutemque ejus saluti +suæ præponere non dubitaverunt, +pro isto uno vitio, id est, amore +laudis, pecuniæ cupiditatem et +multa alia vitia comprimentes.... +Quid aliud amarent quam gloriam, +qua volebant etiam post mortem +tanquam vivere in ore laudantium?</q>—<hi rend='italic'>De +Civ. Dei</hi>, v. 12-13.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Before dismissing this very important revolution in moral +history, I may add two remarks. In the first place, we may +observe that the relation of the two great schools of morals +to active and political life has been completely changed. +Among the ancients, the Stoics, who regarded virtue and +vice as generically different from all other things, participated +actively in public life, and made this participation one of the +first of duties; while the Epicureans, who resolved virtue into +utility, and esteemed happiness its supreme motive, abstained +from public life, and taught their disciples to neglect it. +Asceticism followed the Stoical school in teaching that virtue +and happiness are generically different things; but it was at +the same time eminently unfavourable to civic virtue. On +the other hand, that great industrial movement which has +arisen since the abolition of slavery, and which has always +been essentially utilitarian in its spirit, has been one of the +most active and influential elements of political progress. +This change, though, as far as I know, entirely unnoticed by +historians, constitutes, I believe, one of the great landmarks +of moral history. +</p> + +<p> +The second observation I would make relates to the estimate +we form of the value of patriotic actions. However +<pb n='147'/><anchor id='Pg147'/> +much historians may desire to extend their researches to the +private and domestic virtues of a people, civic virtues are +always those which must appear most prominently in their +pages. History is concerned only with large bodies of men. +The systems of philosophy or religion which produce splendid +results on the great theatre of public life are fully and easily +appreciated, and readers and writers are both liable to give +them very undue advantages over those systems which do +not favour civic virtues, but exercise their beneficial influence +in the more obscure fields of individual self-culture, domestic +morals, or private charity. If valued by the self-sacrifice +they imply, or by their effects upon human happiness, these +last rank very high, but they scarcely appear in history, and +they therefore seldom obtain their due weight in historical +comparisons. Christianity has, I think, suffered peculiarly +from this cause. Its moral action has always been much +more powerful upon individuals than upon societies, and the +spheres in which its superiority over other religions is most +incontestable, are precisely those which history is least +capable of realising. +</p> + +<p> +In attempting to estimate the moral condition of the +Roman and Byzantine Empires during the Christian period, +and before the old civilisation had been dissolved by the +barbarian or Mohammedan invasions, we must continually +bear this last consideration in mind. We must remember, +too, that Christianity had acquired an ascendancy among +nations which were already deeply tainted by the inveterate +vices of a corrupt and decaying civilisation, and also that +many of the censors from whose pages we are obliged to +form our estimate of the age were men who judged human +frailties with all the fastidiousness of ascetics, and who expressed +their judgments with all the declamatory exaggeration +of the pulpit. Modern critics will probably not lay much +stress upon the relapse of the Christians into the ordinary +dress and usages of the luxurious society about them, upon +<pb n='148'/><anchor id='Pg148'/> +the ridicule thrown by Christians on those who still adhered +to the primitive austerity of the sect, or upon the fact that +multitudes who were once mere nominal Pagans had become +mere nominal Christians. We find, too, a frequent disposition +on the part of moralists to single out some new form of +luxury, or some trivial custom which they regarded as indecorous, +for the most extravagant denunciation, and to magnify +its importance in a manner which in a later age it is difficult +even to understand. Examples of this kind may be found +both in Pagan and in Christian writings, and they form an +extremely curious page in the history of morals. Thus +Juvenal exhausts his vocabulary of invective in denouncing +the atrocious criminality of a certain noble, who in the very +year of his consulship did not hesitate—not, it is true, by +day, but at least in the sight of the moon and of the stars—with +his own hand to drive his own chariot along the public +road.<note place='foot'><p><q>Præter majorum cineres atque ossa, volucri<lb/> +Carpento rapitur pinguis Damasippus et ipse,<lb/> +Ipse rotam stringit multo sufflamine consul;<lb/> +Nocte quidem; sed luna videt, sed sidera testes<lb/> +Intendunt oculos. Finitum tempus honoris<lb/> +Quum fuerit, clara Damasippus luce flagellum +Sumet.</q>—Juvenal, <hi rend='italic'>Sat.</hi> viii. 146.</p></note> Seneca was scarcely less scandalised by the atrocious +and, as he thought, unnatural luxury of those who had +adopted the custom of cooling different beverages by mixing +them with snow.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Nat. Quæst.</hi> iv. 13. <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> 78.</note> Pliny assures us that the most monstrous +of all criminals was the man who first devised the luxurious +custom of wearing golden rings.<note place='foot'><q>Pessimum vitæ scelus fecit, +qui id [aurum] primus induit digitis ... +quisquis primus instituit +cunctanter id fecit, lævisque manibus, +latentibusque induit.</q>—Plin. +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> xxxiii. 4.</note> Apuleius was compelled +to defend himself for having eulogised tooth-powder, and he +did so, among other ways, by arguing that nature has justified +this form of propriety, for crocodiles were known periodically +to leave the waters of the Nile, and to lie with open jaws +<pb n='149'/><anchor id='Pg149'/> +upon the banks, while a certain bird proceeds with its beak +to clean their teeth.<note place='foot'>See a curious passage in his +<hi rend='italic'>Apologia</hi>. It should be said that +we have only his own account of +the charges brought against him.</note> If we were to measure the criminality +of different customs by the vehemence of the patristic denunciations, +we might almost conclude that the most atrocious +offence of their day was the custom of wearing false hair, +or dyeing natural hair. Clement of Alexandria questioned +whether the validity of certain ecclesiastical ceremonies +might not be affected by wigs; for, he asked, when the priest +is placing his hand on the head of the person who kneels +before him, if that hand is resting upon false hair, who is it +he is really blessing? Tertullian shuddered at the thought +that Christians might have the hair of those who were in hell +upon their heads, and he found in the tiers of false hair that +were in use a distinct rebellion against the assertion that no +one can add to his stature, and, in the custom of dyeing the +hair, a contravention of the declaration that man cannot +make one hair white or black. Centuries rolled away. The +Roman Empire tottered to its fall, and floods of vice and +sorrow overspread the world; but still the denunciations of +the Fathers were unabated. St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, and +St. Gregory Nazianzen continued with uncompromising vehemence +the war against false hair, which Tertullian and +Clement of Alexandria had begun.<note place='foot'>The history of false hair has +been written with much learning +by M. Guerle in his <hi rend='italic'>Éloge des Perruques</hi>.</note> +</p> + +<p> +But although the vehemence of the Fathers on such trivial +matters might appear at first sight to imply the existence of +a society in which grave corruption was rare, such a conclusion +would be totally untrue. After every legitimate allowance +has been made, the pictures of Roman society by Ammianus +Marcellinus, of the society of Marseilles, by Salvian, +of the society of Asia Minor, and of Constantinople, by +Chrysostom, as well as the whole tenor of the history, and +<pb n='150'/><anchor id='Pg150'/> +innumerable incidental notices in the writers, of the time, +exhibit a condition of depravity, and especially of degradation, +which has seldom been surpassed.<note place='foot'>The fullest view of this age is +given in a very learned little work +by Peter Erasmus Müller (1797), +<hi rend='italic'>De Genio Ævi Theodosiani</hi>. Montfaucon +has also devoted two essays +to the moral condition of the Eastern +world, one of which is given in +Jortin's <hi rend='italic'>Remarks on Ecclesiastical +History</hi>.</note> The corruption had +reached classes and institutions that appeared the most holy. +The Agapæ, or love feasts, which formed one of the most +touching symbols of Christian unity, had become scenes of +drunkenness and of riot. Denounced by the Fathers, condemned +by the Council of Laodicea in the fourth century, +and afterwards by the Council of Carthage, they lingered as +a scandal and an offence till they were finally suppressed by +the Council of Trullo, at the end of the seventh century.<note place='foot'>See on these abuses Mosheim, +<hi rend='italic'>Eccl. Hist.</hi> (Soame's ed.), vol. i. p. +463; Cave's <hi rend='italic'>Primitive Christianity</hi>, +part i. ch. xi.</note> +The commemoration of the martyrs soon degenerated into +scandalous dissipation. Fairs were held on the occasion, +gross breaches of chastity were frequent, and the annual festival +was suppressed on account of the immorality it produced.<note place='foot'>Cave's <hi rend='italic'>Primitive Christianity</hi>, +part i. ch. vii.</note> +The ambiguous position of the clergy with reference +to marriage already led to grave disorder. In the time of +St. Cyprian, before the outbreak of the Decian persecution, +it had been common to find clergy professing celibacy, but +keeping, under various pretexts, their mistresses in their +houses;<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> lxi.</note> and, after Constantine, the complaints on this subject +became loud and general.<note place='foot'>Evagrius describes with much +admiration how certain monks of +Palestine, by <q>a life wholly excellent +and divine,</q> had so overcome +their passions that they were accustomed +to bathe with women; +for <q>neither sight nor touch, nor a +woman's embrace, could make them +relapse into their natural condition. +Among men they desired to be +men, and among women, women.</q> +(<hi rend='italic'>H. E.</hi> i. 21.)</note> Virgins and monks often lived +together in the same house, professing sometimes to share in +<pb n='151'/><anchor id='Pg151'/> +chastity the same bed.<note place='foot'>These <q>mulieres subintroductæ,</q> +as they were called, are +continually noticed by Cyprian, +Jerome, and Chrysostom. See +Müller, <hi rend='italic'>De Genio Ævi Theodosiani</hi>, +and also the <hi rend='italic'>Codex Theod.</hi> xvi. tit. +ii. lex 44, with the Comments. Dr. +Todd, in his learned <hi rend='italic'>Life of St. +Patrick</hi> (p. 91), quotes (I shall not +venture to do so) from the <hi rend='italic'>Lives of +the Irish Saints</hi> an extremely curious +legend of a kind of contest of +sanctity between St. Scuthinus and +St. Brendan, in which it was clearly +proved that the former had mastered +his passions more completely +than the latter. An enthusiast +named Robert d'Arbrisselles is said +in the twelfth century to have revived +the custom. (Jortin's <hi rend='italic'>Remarks</hi>, +<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1106.)</note> Rich widows were surrounded by +swarms of clerical sycophants, who addressed them in tender +diminutives, studied and consulted their every foible, and, +under the guise of piety, lay in wait for their gifts or bequests.<note place='foot'>St. Jerome gives (<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> lii.) an +extremely curious picture of these +clerical flatterers, and several examples +of the terms of endearment +they were accustomed to employ. +The tone of flattery which St. Jerome +himself, though doubtless +with the purest motives, employs +in his copious correspondence with +his female admirers, is to a modern +layman peculiarly repulsive, and +sometimes verges upon blasphemy. +In his letter to Eustochium, whose +daughter as a nun had become the +<q>bride of Christ,</q> he calls the +mother <q>Socrus Dei,</q> the mother-in-law +of God. See, too, the extravagant +flatteries of Chrysostom +in his correspondence with Olympias.</note> +The evil attained such a point that a law was +made under Valentinian depriving the Christian priests +and monks of that power of receiving legacies which was +possessed by every other class of the community; and St. +Jerome has mournfully acknowledged that the prohibition +was necessary.<note place='foot'><q>Pudet dicere sacerdotes idolorum, +mimi et aurigæ et scorta +hæreditates capiunt; solis clericis +et monachis hoc lege prohibetur, +et prohibetur non a persecutoribus, +sed a principibus Christianis. +Nec de lege conqueror sed +doleo cur meruerimus hanc legem.</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> lii.</note> Great multitudes entered the Church to +avoid municipal offices;<note place='foot'>See Milman's <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Early +Christianity</hi>, vol. ii. p. 314.</note> the deserts were crowded with men +whose sole object was to escape from honest labour, and even +soldiers used to desert their colours for the monasteries.<note place='foot'>This was one cause of the +disputes between St. Gregory the +Great and the Emperor Eustace. +St. Chrysostom frequently notices +the opposition of the military and +the monastic spirits.</note> +<pb n='152'/><anchor id='Pg152'/> +Noble ladies, pretending a desire to lead a higher life, abandoned +their husbands to live with low-born lovers.<note place='foot'>Hieron. <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> cxxviii.</note> Palestine, +which was soon crowded with pilgrims, had become, +in the time of St. Gregory of Nyssa, a hotbed of debauchery.<note place='foot'>St. Greg. Nyss. <hi rend='italic'>Ad eund. +Hieros</hi>. Some Catholic writers +have attempted to throw doubt +upon the genuineness of this epistle, +but, Dean Milman thinks, with no +sufficient reason. Its account of +Jerusalem is to some extent corroborated +by St. Jerome. (<hi rend='italic'>Ad Paulinum</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xxix.)</note> +The evil reputation of pilgrimages long continued; and in +the eighth century we find St. Boniface writing to the Archbishop +of Canterbury, imploring the bishops to take some +measures to restrain or regulate the pilgrimages of their +fellow-countrywomen; for there were few towns in central +Europe, on the way to Rome, where English ladies, who +started as pilgrims, were not living in open prostitution.<note place='foot'><q>Præterea non taceo charitati +vestræ, quia omnibus servis Dei qui +hic vel in Scriptura vel in timore Dei +probatissimi esse videntur, displicet +quod bonum et honestas et pudicitia +vestræ ecclesiæ illuditur; et +aliquod levamentum turpitudinis +esset, si prohiberet synodus et +principes vestri mulieribus et velatis +feminis illud iter et frequentiam, +quam ad Romanam civitatem +veniendo et redeundo faciunt, quia +magna ex parte pereunt, paucis +remeantibus integris. Perpaucæ +enim sunt civitates in Longobardia +vel in Francia aut in Gallia in qua +non sit adultera vel meretrix generis +Anglorum, quod scandalum est +et turpitudo totius ecclesiæ vestræ.</q>—(<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 745) +<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> lxiii.</note> +The luxury and ambition of the higher prelates, and the passion +for amusements of the inferior priests,<note place='foot'>See Milman's <hi rend='italic'>Latin Christianity</hi>, +vol. ii. p. 8.</note> were bitterly +acknowledged. St. Jerome complained that the banquets of +many bishops eclipsed in splendour those of the provincial +governors, and the intrigues by which they obtained offices, +and the fierce partisanship of their supporters, appear in every +page of ecclesiastical history. +</p> + +<p> +In the lay world, perhaps the chief characteristic was extreme +childishness. The moral enthusiasm was greater than +it had been in most periods of Paganism, but, being drawn +away to the desert, it had little influence upon society. The +<pb n='153'/><anchor id='Pg153'/> +simple fact that the quarrels between the factions of the +chariot races for a long period eclipsed all political, intellectual, +and even religious differences, filled the streets again +and again with bloodshed, and more than once determined +great revolutions in the State, is sufficient to show the extent +of the decadence. Patriotism and courage had almost disappeared, +and, notwithstanding the rise of a Belisarius or a +Narses, the level of public men was extremely depressed. +The luxury of the court, the servility of the courtiers, and the +prevailing splendour of dress and of ornament, had attained an +extravagant height. The world grew accustomed to a dangerous +alternation of extreme asceticism and gross vice, and +sometimes, as in the case of Antioch,<note place='foot'>Tillemont, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. eccl.</hi> tome xi. p. 547.</note> the most vicious and +luxurious cities produced the most numerous anchorites. +There existed a combination of vice and superstition which is +eminently prejudicial to the nobility, though not equally detrimental +to the happiness, of man. Public opinion was so +low, that very many forms of vice attracted little condemnation +and punishment, while undoubted belief in the absolving +efficacy of superstitious rites calmed the imagination and +allayed the terrors of conscience. There was more falsehood +and treachery than under the Cæsars, but there was +much less cruelty, violence, and shamelessness. There was +also less public spirit, less independence of character, less +intellectual freedom. +</p> + +<p> +In some respects, however, Christianity had already +effected a great improvement. The gladiatorial games had +disappeared from the West, and had not been introduced +into Constantinople. The vast schools of prostitution which +had grown up under the name of temples of Venus were suppressed. +Religion, however deformed and debased, was at +least no longer a seedplot of depravity, and under the influence +of Christianity the effrontery of vice had in a great +<pb n='154'/><anchor id='Pg154'/> +measure disappeared. The gross and extravagant indecency +of representation, of which we have still examples in the +paintings on the walls, and the signs on many of the portals +of Pompeii; the banquets of rich patricians, served by naked +girls; the hideous excesses of unnatural lust, in which some +of the Pagan emperors had indulged with so much publicity, +were no longer tolerated. Although sensuality was very +general, it was less obtrusive, and unnatural and eccentric +forms had become rare. The presence of a great Church, +which, amid much superstition and fanaticism, still taught a +pure morality, and enforced it by the strongest motives, was +everywhere felt—controlling, strengthening, or overawing. +The ecclesiastics were a great body in the State. The cause +of virtue was strongly organised; it drew to itself the best +men, determined the course of vacillating but amiable natures, +and placed some restraint upon the vicious. A bad +man might be insensible to the moral beauties of religion, +but he was still haunted by the recollection of its threatenings. +If he emancipated himself from its influence in health +and prosperity, its power returned in periods of sickness or +danger, or on the eve of the commission of some great crime. +If he had nerved himself against all its terrors, he was at least +checked and governed at every turn by the public opinion +which it had created. That total absence of all restraint, +all decency, and all fear and remorse, which had been evinced +by some of the monsters of crime who occupied the Pagan +throne, and which proves most strikingly the decay of the +Pagan religion, was no longer possible. The virtue of the +best Pagans was perhaps of as high an order as that of the +best Christians, though it was of a somewhat different type, +but the vice of the worst Pagans certainly far exceeded that +of the worst Christians. The pulpit had become a powerful +centre of attraction, and charities of many kinds were actively +developed. +</p> + +<p> +The moral effects of the first great outburst of asceticism, +<pb n='155'/><anchor id='Pg155'/> +so far as we have yet traced them, appear almost unmingled +evils. In addition to the essentially distorted ideal of perfection +it produced, the simple withdrawal from active life of +that moral enthusiasm, which is the leaven of society, was +extremely pernicious, and there can be little doubt that to +this cause we must in a great degree attribute the conspicuous +failure of the Church, for some centuries, to effect any more +considerable amelioration in the moral condition of Europe. +There were, however, some distinctive excellences springing +even from the first phase of asceticism, which, although they +do not, as I conceive, suffice to counterbalance these evils, +may justly qualify our censure. +</p> + +<p> +The first condition of all really great moral excellence is +a spirit of genuine self-sacrifice and self-renunciation. The +habits of compromise, moderation, reciprocal self-restraint, +gentleness, courtesy, and refinement, which are appropriate +to luxurious or utilitarian civilisations, are very favourable +to the development of many secondary virtues; but there is in +human nature a capacity for a higher and more heroic reach +of excellence, which demands very different spheres for its +display, accustoms men to far nobler aims, and exercises a +far greater attractive influence upon mankind. Imperfect +and distorted as was the ideal of the anchorite; deeply, too, +as it was perverted by the admixture of a spiritual selfishness, +still the example of many thousands, who, in obedience +to what they believed to be right, voluntarily gave up everything +that men hold dear, cast to the winds every compromise +with enjoyment, and made extreme self-abnegation the +very principle of their lives, was not wholly lost upon the +world. At a time when increasing riches had profoundly +tainted the Church, they taught men <q>to love labour more +than rest, and ignominy more than glory, and to give more than +to receive.</q><note place='foot'>This was enjoined in the rule of St. Paphnutius. See Tillemont, +tome x. p. 45.</note> At a time when the passion for ecclesiastical +<pb n='156'/><anchor id='Pg156'/> +dignities had become the scandal of the Empire, they systematically +abstained from them, teaching, in their quaint but +energetic language, that <q>there are two classes a monk should +especially avoid—bishops and women.</q><note place='foot'><q>Omnimodis monachum fugere +debere mulieres et episcopos.</q>—Cassian, +<hi rend='italic'>De Cœnob. Inst.</hi> xi. 17.</note> The very eccentricities +of their lives, their uncouth forms, their horrible +penances, won the admiration of rude men, and the superstitious +reverence thus excited gradually passed to the charity +and the self-denial which formed the higher elements of the +monastic character. Multitudes of barbarians were converted +to Christianity at the sight of St. Simeon Stylites. The hermit, +too, was speedily idealised by the popular imagination. The +more repulsive features of his life and appearance were forgotten. +He was thought of only as an old man with long white +beard and gentle aspect, weaving his mats beneath the palm-trees, +while dæmons vainly tried to distract him by their stratagems, +and the wild beasts grew tame in his presence, and every +disease and every sorrow vanished at his word. The imagination +of Christendom, fascinated by this ideal, made it the +centre of countless legends, usually very childish, and occasionally, +as we have seen, worse than childish, yet full of +beautiful touches of human nature, and often conveying admirable +moral lessons.<note place='foot'>We also find now and then, +though I think very rarely, intellectual +flashes of some brilliancy. +Two of them strike me as especially +noteworthy. St. Arsenius refused +to separate young criminals from +communion though he had no +hesitation about old men; for he +had observed that young men +speedily get accustomed and indifferent +to the state of excommunication, +while old men feel +continually, and acutely, the separation. +(Socrates, iv. 23.) St. +Apollonius explained the Egyptian +idolatry with the most intelligent +rationalism. The ox, he thought, +was in the first instance worshipped +for its domestic uses; the Nile, +because it was the chief cause of +the fertility of the soil &c. (Rufinus, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. Mon.</hi> cap. vii.)</note> Nursery tales, which first determine +the course of the infant imagination, play no inconsiderable +part in the history of humanity. In the fable of Psyche—that +<pb n='157'/><anchor id='Pg157'/> +bright tale of passionate love with which the Greek +mother lulled her child to rest—Pagan antiquity has bequeathed +us a single specimen of transcendent beauty, and the +lives of the saints of the desert often exhibit an imagination +different indeed in kind, but scarcely less brilliant in its display. +St. Antony, we are told, was thinking one night that +he was the best man in the desert, when it was revealed to +him that there was another hermit far holier than himself. In +the morning he started across the desert to visit this unknown +saint. He met first of all a centaur, and afterwards a little +man with horns and goat's feet, who said that he was a faun; +and these, having pointed out the way, he arrived at last at +his destination. St. Paul the hermit, at whose cell he stopped, +was one hundred and thirteen years old, and, having been +living for a very long period in absolute solitude, he at first +refused to admit the visitor, but at last consented, embraced +him, and began, with a very pardonable curiosity, to question +him minutely about the world he had left; <q>whether there +was much new building in the towns, what empire ruled the +world, whether there were any idolaters remaining?</q> The +colloquy was interrupted by a crow, which came with a loaf +of bread, and St. Paul, observing that during the last sixty +years his daily allowance had been only half a loaf, declared +that this was a proof that he had done right in admitting +Antony. The hermits returned thanks, and sat down together +by the margin of a glassy stream. But now a difficulty +arose. Neither could bring himself to break the loaf +before the other. St. Paul alleged that St. Antony, being +his guest, should take the precedence; but St. Antony, who +was only ninety years old, dwelt upon the greater age of St. +Paul. So scrupulously polite were these old men, that they +passed the entire afternoon disputing on this weighty question, +till at last, when the evening was drawing in, a happy +thought struck them, and, each holding one end of the loaf, +they pulled together. To abridge the story, St. Paul soon +<pb n='158'/><anchor id='Pg158'/> +died, and his companion, being a weak old man, was unable +to bury him, when two lions came from the desert and dug +the grave with their paws, deposited the body in it, raised a +loud howl of lamentation, and then knelt down submissively +before St. Antony, to beg a blessing. The authority for this +history is no less a person than St. Jerome, who relates it as +literally true, and intersperses his narrative with severe +reflections on all who might question his accuracy. +</p> + +<p> +The historian Palladius assures us that he heard from +the lips of St. Macarius of Alexandria an account of a pilgrimage +which that saint had made, under the impulse of +curiosity, to visit the enchanted garden of Jannes and Jambres, +tenanted by dæmons. For nine days Macarius traversed +the desert, directing his course by the stars, and, from time +to time, fixing reeds in the ground, as landmarks for his +return; but this precaution proved useless, for the devils +tore up the reeds, and placed them during the night by the +head of the sleeping saint. As he drew near the garden, +seventy dæmons of various forms came forth to meet him, +and reproached him for disturbing them in their home. St. +Macarius promised simply to walk round and inspect the +wonders of the garden, and then depart without doing it +any injury. He fulfilled his promise, and a journey of twenty +days brought him again to his cell.<note place='foot'>Palladius, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Laus.</hi> cap. +xix.</note> Other legends are, +however, of a less fantastic nature; and many of them +display, though sometimes in very whimsical forms, a spirit +of courtesy which seems to foreshadow the later chivalry, +and some of them contain striking protests against the very +superstitions that were most prevalent. When St. Macarius +was sick, a bunch of grapes was once given to him; but his +charity impelled him to give them to another hermit, who in +his turn refused to keep them, and at last, having made the +circuit of the entire desert, they were returned to the saint.<note place='foot'>Rufinus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Monach.</hi> cap. +xxix.</note> +<pb n='159'/><anchor id='Pg159'/> +The same saint, whose usual beverage was putrid water, +never failed to drink wine when set before him by the +hermits he visited, atoning privately for this relaxation, +which he thought the laws of courtesy required, by abstaining +from water for as many days as he had drunk +glasses of wine.<note place='foot'>Tillemont, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. eccl.</hi> tome +viii. pp. 583, 584.</note> One of his disciples once meeting an +idolatrous priest running in great haste across the desert, +with a great stick in his hand, cried out in a loud voice, +<q>Where are you going, dæmon?</q> The priest, naturally +indignant, beat the Christian severely, and was proceeding +on his way, when he met St. Macarius, who accosted him +so courteously and so tenderly that the Pagan's heart was +touched, he became a convert, and his first act of charity +was to tend the Christian whom he had beaten.<note place='foot'>Ibid. p. 589.</note> St. Avitus +being on a visit to St. Marcian, this latter saint placed before +him some bread, which Avitus refused to eat, saying that +it was his custom never to touch food till after sunset. St. +Marcian, professing his own inability to defer his repast, +implored his guest for once to break this custom, and being +refused, exclaimed, <q>Alas! I am filled with anguish that you +have come here to see a wise man and a saint, and you see +only a glutton.</q> St. Avitus was grieved, and said, <q>he +would rather even eat flesh than hear such words,</q> and +he sat down as desired. St. Marcian then confessed that his +own custom was the same as that of his brother saint; <q>but,</q> +he added, <q>we know that charity is better than fasting; for +charity is enjoined by the Divine law, but fasting is left in +our own power and will.</q><note place='foot'>Theodoret, <hi rend='italic'>Philoth.</hi> cap. iii.</note> St. Epiphanius having invited +St. Hilarius to his cell, placed before him a dish of fowl. +<q>Pardon me, father,</q> said St. Hilarius, <q>but since I have +become a monk I have never eaten flesh.</q> <q>And I,</q> said St. +Epiphanius, <q>since I have become a monk have never suffered +<pb n='160'/><anchor id='Pg160'/> +the sun to go down upon my wrath.</q> <q>Your rule,</q> rejoined +the other, <q>is more excellent than mine.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Verba Seniorum.</hi></note> While a rich lady +was courteously fulfilling the duties of hospitality to a monk, +her child, whom she had for this purpose left, fell into a well. +It lay unharmed upon the surface of the water, and afterwards +told its mother that it had seen the arms of the saint +sustaining it below.<note place='foot'>Theodoret, <hi rend='italic'>Philoth.</hi> cap. ii.</note> At a time when it was the custom to +look upon the marriage state with profound contempt, it was +revealed to St. Macarius of Egypt that two married women +in a neighbouring city were more holy than he was. The +saint immediately visited them, and asked their mode of +life, but they utterly repudiated the notion of their sanctity. +<q>Holy father,</q> they said, <q>suffer us to tell you frankly the +truth. Even this very night we did not shrink from sleeping +with our husbands, and what good works, then, can you +expect from us?</q> The saint, however, persisted in his inquiries, +and they then told him their stories. <q>We are,</q> they +said, <q>in no way related, but we married two brothers. We +have lived together for fifteen years, without one licentious +or angry word. We have entreated our husbands to let us +leave them, to join the societies of holy virgins, but they +refused to permit us, and we then promised before Heaven +that no worldly word should sully our lips.</q> <q>Of a truth,</q> +cried St. Macarius, <q>I see that God regards not whether one +is virgin or married, whether one is in a monastery or in the +world. He considers only the disposition of the heart, and +gives the Spirit to all who desire to serve Him, whatever +their condition may be.</q><note place='foot'>Tillemont, tome viii. pp. 594-595.</note> +</p> + +<p> +I have multiplied these illustrations to an extent that +must, I fear, have already somewhat taxed the patience of +my readers; but the fact that, during a long period of history, +these saintly legends formed the ideals guiding the imagination +<pb n='161'/><anchor id='Pg161'/> +and reflecting the moral sentiment of the Christian +world, gives them an importance far beyond their intrinsic +value. Before dismissing the saints of the desert, there is +one other class of legends to which I desire to advert. I +mean those which describe the connection between saints +and the animal world. These legends are, I think, worthy of +special notice in moral history, as representing the first, +and at the same time one of the most striking efforts ever +made in Christendom to inculcate a feeling of kindness and +pity towards the brute creation. In Pagan antiquity, considerable +steps had been made to raise this form of humanity +to a recognised branch of ethics. The way had been prepared +by numerous anecdotes growing for the most part +out of simple ignorance of natural history, which all tended +to diminish the chasm between men and animals, by representing +the latter as possessing to a very high degree both +moral and rational qualities. Elephants, it was believed, +were endowed not only with reason and benevolence, but +also with reverential feelings. They worshipped the sun and +moon, and in the forests of Mauritania they were accustomed +to assemble every new moon, at a certain river, to perform +religious rites.<note place='foot'>Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> viii. 1. +Many anecdotes of elephants are +collected viii. 1-12. See, too, +Dion Cassius, xxxix. 38.</note> The hippopotamus taught men the medicinal +value of bleeding, being accustomed, when affected by plethory, +to bleed itself with a thorn, and afterwards close the +wound with slime.<note place='foot'>Pliny, viii. 40.</note> Pelicans committed suicide to feed their +young; and bees, when they had broken the laws of their +sovereign.<note place='foot'>Donne's <hi rend='italic'>Biathanatos</hi>. p. 22. +This habit of bees is mentioned by +St. Ambrose. The pelican, as is +well known, afterwards became an +emblem of Christ.</note> A temple was erected at Sestos to commemorate +the affection of an eagle which loved a young girl, and upon +her death cast itself in despair into the flames by which her +body was consumed.<note place='foot'>Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> x. 6.</note> Numerous anecdotes are related of +<pb n='162'/><anchor id='Pg162'/> +faithful dogs which refused to survive their masters, and one +of these had, it was said, been transformed into the dog-star.<note place='foot'>A long list of legends about +dogs is given by Legendre, in the +very curious chapter on animals, in +his <hi rend='italic'>Traité de l'Opinion</hi>, tome i. +pp. 308-327.</note> +The dolphin, especially, became the subject of many beautiful +legends, and its affection for its young, for music, and above +all for little children, excited the admiration not only of the +populace, but of the most distinguished naturalists.<note place='foot'>Pliny tells some extremely +pretty stories of this kind. (<hi rend='italic'>Hist. +Nat.</hi> ix. 8-9.) See, too, Aulus +Gellius, xvi. 19. The dolphin, on +account of its love for its young, +became a common symbol of Christ +among the early Christians.</note> Many +philosophers ascribed to animals a rational soul, like that of +man. According to the Pythagoreans, human souls transmigrate +after death into animals. According to the Stoics and +others, the souls of men and animals were alike parts of the +all-pervading Divine Spirit that animates the world.<note place='foot'>A very full account of the +opinions, both of ancient and +modern philosophers, concerning +the souls of animals, is given by +Bayle, <hi rend='italic'>Dict.</hi> arts. <q>Pereira E,</q> +<q>Rorarius K.</q></note> +</p> + +<p> +We may even find traces from an early period of a certain +measure of legislative protection for animals. By a very +natural process, the ox, as a principal agent in agriculture, +and therefore a kind of symbol of civilisation, was in many +different countries regarded with a peculiar reverence. The +sanctity attached to it in Egypt is well known. That tenderness +to animals, which is one of the most beautiful features +in the Old Testament writings, shows itself, among other +ways, in the command not to muzzle the ox that treadeth out +the corn, or to yoke together the ox and the ass.<note place='foot'>The Jewish law did not confine +its care to oxen. The reader +will remember the touching provision, +<q>Thou shalt not seethe a +kid in his mother's milk</q> (Deut. +xiv. 21); and the law forbidding +men to take a parent bird that was +sitting on its young or on its eggs. +(Deut. xxii. 6, 7.)</note> Among +the early Romans the same feeling was carried so far, that +for a long time it was actually a capital offence to slaughter +an ox, that animal being pronounced, in a special sense, the +<pb n='163'/><anchor id='Pg163'/> +fellow-labourer of man.<note place='foot'><q>Cujus tanta fuit apud antiquos +veneratio, ut tam capital esset +bovem necuisse quam civem.</q>—Columella, +lib. vi. in proœm. <q>Hic +socius hominum in rustico opere et +Cereris minister. Ab hoc antiqui +manus ita abstinere voluerunt ut +capite sanxerint si quis occidisset.</q>—Varro, +<hi rend='italic'>De Re Rustic.</hi> lib. ii. cap. +v.</note> A similar law is said to have in +early times existed in Greece.<note place='foot'>See Legendre, tome ii. p. 338. +The sword with which the priest +sacrificed the ox was afterwards +pronounced accursed. (Ælian, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. Var.</hi> lib. viii. cap. iii.)</note> The beautiful passage in which +the Psalmist describes how the sparrow could find a shelter +and a home in the altar of the temple, was as applicable to +Greece as to Jerusalem. The sentiment of Xenocrates who, +when a bird pursued by a hawk took refuge in his breast, +caressed and finally released it, saying to his disciples, that a +good man should never give up a suppliant,<note place='foot'>Diog. Laërt. <hi rend='italic'>Xenocrates</hi>.</note> was believed to +be shared by the gods, and it was regarded as an act of impiety +to disturb the birds who had built their nests beneath +the porticoes of the temple.<note place='foot'>There is a story told by +Herodotus (i. 157-159) of an ambassador +who was sent by his fellow-countrymen +to consult an oracle +at Miletus about a suppliant who +had taken refuge with the Cymæans +and was demanded with menace by +his enemies. The oracle, being +bribed, enjoined the surrender. +The ambassador on leaving, with +seeming carelessness disturbed the +sparrows under the portico of the +temple, when the voice from behind +the altar denounced his impiety for +disturbing the guests of the gods. +The ambassador replied with an obvious +and withering retort. Ælian +says (<hi rend='italic'>Hist. Var.</hi>) that the Athenians +condemned to death a boy for killing +a sparrow that had taken +refuge in the temple of Æsculapius.</note> A case is related of a child who +was even put to death on account of an act of aggravated +cruelty to birds.<note place='foot'>Quintilian, <hi rend='italic'>Inst.</hi> v. 9.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The general tendency of nations, as they advance from +a rude and warlike to a refined and peaceful condition, from +the stage in which the realising powers are faint and dull, to +that in which they are sensitive and vivid, is undoubtedly to +become more gentle and humane in their actions; but this, +like all other general tendencies in history, may be counteracted +or modified by many special circumstances. The law I +<pb n='164'/><anchor id='Pg164'/> +have mentioned about oxen was obviously one of those that +belong to a very early stage of progress, when legislators are +labouring to form agricultural habits among a warlike and +nomadic people.<note place='foot'>In the same way we find +several chapters in the <hi rend='italic'>Zendavesta</hi> +about the criminality of injuring +dogs; which is explained by the +great importance of shepherd's +dogs to a pastoral people.</note> The games in which the slaughter of +animals bore so large a part, having been introduced but a +little before the extinction of the republic, did very much to +arrest or retard the natural progress of humane sentiments. +In ancient Greece, besides the bull-fights of Thessaly, the +combats of quails and cocks<note place='foot'><p>On the origin of Greek cock-fighting, +see Ælian, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Var.</hi> ii. +28. Many particulars about it are +given by Athenæus. Chrysippus +maintained that cock-fighting was +the final cause of cocks, these birds +being made by Providence in order +to inspire us by the example of +their courage. (Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>De Repug. +Stoic.</hi>) The Greeks do not, however, +appear to have known <q>cock-throwing,</q> +the favourite English +game of throwing a stick called a +<q>cock-stick</q> at cocks. It was a +very ancient and very popular +amusement, and was practised +especially on Shrove Tuesday, and +by school-boys. Sir Thomas More +had been famous for his skill in it. +(Strutt's <hi rend='italic'>Sports and Pastimes</hi>, p. +283.) Three origins of it have +been given:—1st, that in the +Danish wars the Saxons failed to +surprise a certain city in consequence +of the crowing of cocks, +and had in consequence a great +hatred of that bird; 2nd, that the +cocks (<foreign rend='italic'>galli</foreign>) were special representatives +of Frenchmen, with +whom the English were constantly +at war; and 3rd, that they were +connected with the denial of St. +Peter. As Sir Charles Sedley +said:— +</p> +<p> +<q>Mayst thou be punished for St. Peter's crime,<lb/> +And on Shrove Tuesday perish in thy prime.</q> +</p> +<p> +Knight's <hi rend='italic'>Old England</hi>, vol. ii. p. +126.</p></note> were favourite amusements, +and were much encouraged by the legislators, as furnishing +examples of valour to the soldiers. The colossal dimensions +of the Roman games, the circumstances that favoured them, +and the overwhelming interest they speedily excited, I have +described in a former chapter. We have seen, however, that, +notwithstanding the gladiatorial shows, the standard of +humanity towards men was considerably raised during the +Empire. It is also well worthy of notice that, notwithstanding +<pb n='165'/><anchor id='Pg165'/> +the passion for the combats of wild beasts, Roman literature +and the later literature of the nations subject to Rome abound +in delicate touches displaying in a very high degree a sensitiveness +to the feelings of the animal world. This tender +interest in animal life is one of the most distinctive features +of the poetry of Virgil. Lucretius, who rarely struck the +chords of pathos, had at a still earlier period drawn a very +beautiful picture of the sorrows of the bereaved cow, whose +calf had been sacrificed upon the altar.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>De Natura Rerum</hi>, lib. ii.</note> Plutarch mentions, +incidentally, that he could never bring himself to sell, in its +old age, the ox which had served him faithfully in the time +of its strength.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Life of Marc. Cato.</hi></note> Ovid expressed a similar sentiment with an +almost equal emphasis.<note place='foot'><p><q>Quid meruere boves, animal sine fraude dolisque,<lb/> +Innocuum, simplex, natum tolerare labores?<lb/> +Immemor est demum nec frugum munere dignus.<lb/> +Qui potuit curvi dempto modo pondere aratri<lb/> +Ruricolam mactare suum.</q>— +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Metamorph.</hi> xv. 120-124. +</p></note> Juvenal speaks of a Roman lady +with her eyes filled with tears on account of the death of a +sparrow.<note place='foot'><p><q>Cujus<lb/> +Turbavit nitidos extinctus passer ocellos.</q> +</p> +<p> +Juvenal, <hi rend='italic'>Sat.</hi> vi. 7-8. +</p> +<p> +There is a little poem in Catullus +(iii.) to console his mistress upon +the death of her favourite sparrow; +and Martial more than once alludes +to the pets of the Roman +ladies. +</p> +<p> +Compare the charming description +of the Prioress, in Chaucer:— +</p> +<p> +<q>She was so charitable and so pitous,<lb/> +She wolde wepe if that she saw a<lb/> +mous Caught in a trappe, if it were ded or bledde.<lb/> +Of smale houndes had she that she fedde<lb/> +With rosted flesh and milke and wastel brede,<lb/> +But sore wept she if one of them were dede,<lb/> +Or if men smote it with a yerde smert:<lb/> +And all was conscience and tendre herte.</q> +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Prologue to the <q>Canterbury Tales.</q></hi></p></note> Apollonius of Tyana, on the ground of humanity, +refused, even when invited by a king, to participate in the +chase.<note place='foot'>Philost. <hi rend='italic'>Apol.</hi> i. 38.</note> Arrian, the friend of Epictetus, in his book upon +<pb n='166'/><anchor id='Pg166'/> +coursing, anticipated the beautiful picture which Addison +has drawn of the huntsman refusing to sacrifice the life of +the captured hare which had given him so much pleasure in +its flight.<note place='foot'>See the curious chapter in his +Κυνηγετικός, xvi. and compare it +with No. 116 in the <hi rend='italic'>Spectator</hi>.</note> +</p> + +<p> +These touches of feeling, slight as they may appear, indicate, +I think, a vein of sentiment such as we should scarcely +have expected to find coexisting with the gigantic slaughter +of the amphitheatre. The progress, however, was not only +one of sentiment—it was also shown in distinct and definite +teaching. Pythagoras and Empedocles were quoted as the +founders of this branch of ethics. The moral duty of kindness +to animals was in the first instance based upon a +dogmatic assertion of the transmigration of souls, and, the +doctrine that animals are within the circle of human duty +being thus laid down, subsidiary considerations of humanity +were alleged. The rapid growth of the Pythagorean school, +in the latter days of the Empire, made these considerations +familiar to the people.<note place='foot'>In his <hi rend='italic'>De Abstinentia Carnis</hi>. +The controversy between Origen +and Celsus furnishes us with a +very curious illustration of the +extravagances into which some +Pagans of the third century fell +about animals. Celsus objected to +the Christian doctrine about the +position of men in the universe, +that many of the animals were at +least the equals of men both in +reason, religious feeling, and knowledge. +(Orig. <hi rend='italic'>Cont. Cels.</hi> lib. iv.)</note> Porphyry elaborately advocated, +and even Seneca for a time practised, abstinence from flesh. +But the most remarkable figure in this movement is unquestionably +Plutarch. Casting aside the dogma of transmigration, +or at least speaking of it only as a doubtful conjecture, +he places the duty of kindness to animals on the broad ground +of the affections, and he urges that duty with an emphasis +and a detail to which no adequate parallel can, I believe, be +found in the Christian writings for at least seventeen hundred +years. He condemns absolutely the games of the amphitheatre, +<pb n='167'/><anchor id='Pg167'/> +dwells with great force upon the effect of such spectacles in +hardening the character, enumerates in detail, and denounces +with unqualified energy, the refined cruelties which gastronomic +fancies had produced, and asserts in the strongest +language that every man has duties to the animal world as +truly as to his fellow-men.<note place='foot'>These views are chiefly defended +in his two tracts on eating +flesh. Plutarch has also recurred +to the subject, incidentally, in several +other works, especially in a very +beautiful passage in his <hi rend='italic'>Life of +Marcus Cato</hi>.</note> +</p> + +<p> +If we now pass to the Christian Church, we shall find +that little or no progress was at first made in this sphere. +Among the Manicheans, it is true, the mixture of Oriental +notions was shown in an absolute prohibition of animal food, +and abstinence from this food was also frequently practised upon +totally different grounds by the orthodox. One or two of the +Fathers have also mentioned with approbation the humane +counsels of the Pythagoreans.<note place='foot'>See, for example, a striking +passage in Clem. Alex. <hi rend='italic'>Strom.</hi> lib. +ii. St. Clement imagines Pythagoras +had borrowed his sentiments +on this subject from Moses.</note> But, on the other hand, the +doctrine of transmigration was emphatically repudiated by +the Catholics; the human race was isolated, by the scheme +of redemption, more than ever from all other races; and in +the range and circle of duties inculcated by the early Fathers +those to animals had no place. This is indeed the one form +of humanity which appears more prominently in the Old +Testament than in the New. The many beautiful traces of +it in the former, which indicate a sentiment,<note place='foot'>There is, I believe, no record +of any wild beast combats existing +among the Jews, and the rabbinical +writers have been remarkable for +the great emphasis with which they +inculcated the duty of kindness to +animals. See some passages from +them, cited in Wollaston, <hi rend='italic'>Religion +of Nature</hi>, sec. ii., note. Maimonides +believed in a future life for +animals, to recompense them for +their sufferings here. (Bayle, <hi rend='italic'>Dict.</hi> +art, <q>Rorarius D.</q>) There is a +curious collection of the opinions +of different writers on this last point +in a little book called the <hi rend='italic'>Rights +of Animals</hi>, by William Drummond +(London, 1838), pp. 197-205.</note> even where +they do not very strictly define a duty, gave way before an +<pb n='168'/><anchor id='Pg168'/> +ardent philanthropy which regarded human interests as the +one end, and the relations of man to his Creator as the one +question, of life, and dismissed somewhat contemptuously, as +an idle sentimentalism, notions of duty to animals.<note place='foot'>Thus St. Paul (1 Cor. ix. 9) +turned aside the precept, <q>Thou +shalt not muzzle the mouth of the +ox that treadeth out the corn,</q> from +its natural meaning, with the contemptuous +question, <q>Doth God +take care for oxen?</q></note> A refined +and subtle sympathy with animal feeling is indeed +rarely found among those who are engaged very actively in +the affairs of life, and it was not without a meaning or a +reason that Shakespeare placed that exquisitely pathetic +analysis of the sufferings of the wounded stag, which is perhaps +its most perfect poetical expression, in the midst of the +morbid dreamings of the diseased and melancholy Jacques. +</p> + +<p> +But while what are called the rights of animals had no +place in the ethics of the Church, a feeling of sympathy with +the irrational creation was in some degree inculcated indirectly +by the incidents of the hagiology. It was very natural +that the hermit, living in the lonely deserts of the East, or in +the vast forests of Europe, should come into an intimate connection +with the animal world, and it was no less natural that +the popular imagination, when depicting the hermit life, +should make this connection the centre of many picturesque +and sometimes touching legends. The birds, it was said, +stooped in their flight at the old man's call; the lion and the +hyena crouched submissively at his feet; his heart, which +was closed to all human interests, expanded freely at the +sight of some suffering animal; and something of his own +sanctity descended to the companions of his solitude and the +objects of his miracles. The wild beasts attended St. Theon +when he walked abroad, and the saint rewarded them by +giving them drink out of his well. An Egyptian hermit had +made a beautiful garden in the desert, and used to sit beneath +the palm-trees while a lion ate fruit from his hand. When +<pb n='169'/><anchor id='Pg169'/> +St. Pœmen was shivering in a winter night, a lion crouched +beside him, and became his covering. Lions buried St. Paul +the hermit and St. Mary of Egypt. They appear in the +legends of St. Jerome, St. Gerasimus, St. John the Silent, +St. Simeon, and many others. When an old and feeble monk, +named Zosimas, was on his journey to Cæsarea, with an ass +which bore his possessions, a lion seized and devoured the +ass, but, at the command of the saint, the lion itself carried +the burden to the city gates. St. Helenus called a wild ass +from its herd to bear his burden through the wilderness. The +same saint, as well as St. Pachomius, crossed the Nile on the +back of a crocodile, as St. Scuthinus did the Irish Channel +on a sea monster. Stags continually accompanied saints upon +their journeys, bore their burdens, ploughed their fields, revealed +their relics. The hunted stag was especially the theme +of many picturesque legends. A Pagan, named Branchion, +was once pursuing an exhausted stag, when it took refuge in +a cavern, whose threshold no inducement could persuade the +hounds to cross. The astonished hunter entered, and found +himself in presence of an old hermit, who at once protected +the fugitive and converted the pursuer. In the legends of +St. Eustachius and St. Hubert, Christ is represented as having +assumed the form of a hunted stag, which turned upon its +pursuer, with a crucifix glittering on its brow, and, addressing +him with a human voice, converted him to Christianity. In +the full frenzy of a chase, hounds and stag stopped and knelt +down together to venerate the relics of St. Fingar. On the +festival of St. Regulus, the wild stags assembled at the tomb +of the saint, as the ravens used to do at that of St. Apollinar +of Ravenna. St. Erasmus was the special protector of oxen, +and they knelt down voluntarily before his shrine. St. Antony +was the protector of hogs, who were usually introduced +into his pictures. St. Bridget kept pigs, and a wild boar came +from the forest to subject itself to her rule. A horse foreshadowed +by its lamentations the death of St. Columba. The +<pb n='170'/><anchor id='Pg170'/> +three companions of St. Colman were a cock, a mouse, and a +fly. The cock announced the hour of devotion, the mouse +bit the ear of the drowsy saint till he got up, and if in the +course of his studies he was afflicted by any wandering +thoughts, or called away to other business, the fly alighted +on the line where he had left off, and kept the place. Legends, +not without a certain whimsical beauty, described the +moral qualities existing in animals. A hermit was accustomed +to share his supper with a wolf, which, one evening +entering the cell before the return of the master, stole a +loaf of bread. Struck with remorse, it was a week before it +ventured again to visit the cell, and when it did so, its head +hung down, and its whole demeanour manifested the most +profound contrition. The hermit <q>stroked with a gentle +hand its bowed down head,</q> and gave it a double portion as +a token of forgiveness. A lioness knelt down with lamentations +before another saint, and then led him to its cub, which +was blind, but which received its sight at the prayer of the +saint. Next day the lioness returned, bearing the skin of a +wild beast as a mark of its gratitude. Nearly the same thing +happened to St. Macarius of Alexandria; a hyena knocked +at his door, brought its young, which was blind, and which +the saint restored to sight, and repaid the obligation soon +afterwards by bringing a fleece of wool. <q>O hyena!</q> said +the saint, <q>how did you obtain this fleece? you must have +stolen and eaten a sheep.</q> Full of shame, the hyena hung its +head down, but persisted in offering its gift, which, however, +the holy man refused to receive till the hyena <q>had sworn</q> +to cease for the future to rob. The hyena bowed its head in +token of its acceptance of the oath, and St. Macarius afterwards +gave the fleece to St. Melania. Other legends simply +speak of the sympathy between saints and the irrational +world. The birds came at the call of St. Cuthbert, and a dead +bird was resuscitated by his prayer. When St. Aengussius, +in felling wood, had cut his hand, the birds gathered round, +<pb n='171'/><anchor id='Pg171'/> +and with loud cries lamented his misfortune. A little bird, +struck down and mortally wounded by a hawk, fell at the +feet of St. Kieranus, who shed tears as he looked upon its +torn breast, and offered up a prayer, upon which the bird +was instantly healed.<note place='foot'>I have taken these illustrations +from the collection of hermit +literature in Rosweyde, from different +volumes of the Bollandists, +from the <hi rend='italic'>Dialogues</hi> of Sulpicius +Severus, and from what is perhaps +the most interesting of all collections +of saintly legends, Colgan's +<hi rend='italic'>Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ</hi>. M. +Alfred Maury, in his most valuable +work, <hi rend='italic'>Légendes pieuses du Moyen +Age</hi>, has examined minutely the +part played by animals in symbolising +virtues and vices, and has +shown the way in which the same +incidents were repeated, with slight +variations, in different legends. M. +de Montalembert has devoted what +is probably the most beautiful +chapter of his <hi rend='italic'>Moines d'Occident</hi> +(<q>Les Moines et la Nature</q>) to the +relations of monks to the animal +world; but the numerous legends +he cites are all, with one or two +exceptions, different from those I +have given.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Many hundreds, I should perhaps hardly exaggerate were +I to say many thousands, of legends of this kind exist in the +lives of the saints. Suggested in the first instance by that +desert life which was at once the earliest phase of monachism +and one of the earliest sources of Christian mythology, +strengthened by the symbolism which represented different +virtues and vices under the forms of animals, and by the +reminiscences of the rites and the superstitions of Paganism, +the connection between men and animals became the keynote +of an infinite variety of fantastic tales. In our eyes +they may appear extravagantly puerile, yet it will scarcely, I +hope, be necessary to apologise for introducing them into +what purports to be a grave work, when it is remembered +that for many centuries they were universally accepted by +mankind, and were so interwoven with all local traditions, +and with all the associations of education, that they at once +determined and reflected the inmost feelings of the heart. +Their tendency to create a certain feeling of sympathy towards +animals is manifest, and this is probably the utmost +<pb n='172'/><anchor id='Pg172'/> +the Catholic Church has done in that direction.<note place='foot'>Chateaubriand speaks, however +(<hi rend='italic'>Études historiques</hi>, étude vi<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>me</hi>, +1<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>re</hi> partie), of an old Gallic law, +forbidding to throw a stone at an +ox attached to the plough, or to +make its yoke too tight.</note> A very +few authentic instances may, indeed, be cited of saints whose +natural gentleness of disposition was displayed in kindness to +the animal world. Of St. James of Venice—an obscure saint +of the thirteenth century—it is told that he was accustomed to +buy and release the birds with which Italian boys used to play +by attaching them to strings, saying that <q>he pitied the little +birds of the Lord,</q> and that his <q>tender charity recoiled from +all cruelty, even to the most diminutive of animals.</q><note place='foot'>Bollandists, May 31. Leonardo +da Vinci is said to have had +the same fondness for buying and +releasing caged birds, and (to go +back a long way) Pythagoras to +have purchased one day, near Metapontus, +from some fishermen all +the fish in their net, that he might +have the pleasure of releasing +them. (Apuleius, <hi rend='italic'>Apologia</hi>.)</note> St. +Francis of Assisi was a more conspicuous example of the same +spirit. <q>If I could only be presented to the emperor,</q> he used +to say, <q>I would pray him, for the love of God, and of me, to +issue an edict prohibiting any one from catching or imprisoning +my sisters the larks, and ordering that all who have oxen +or asses should at Christmas feed them particularly well.</q> A +crowd of legends turning upon this theme were related of +him. A wolf, near Gubbio, being adjured by him, promised +to abstain from eating sheep, placed its paw in the hand of +the saint to ratify the promise, and was afterwards fed from +house to house by the inhabitants of the city. A crowd of +birds, on another occasion, came to hear the saint preach, as +fish did to hear St. Antony of Padua. A falcon awoke him +at his hour of prayer. A grasshopper encouraged him by her +melody to sing praises to God. The noisy swallows kept +silence when he began to teach.<note place='foot'>See these legends collected by +Hase (<hi rend='italic'>St Francis. Assisi</hi>). It is +said of Cardinal Bellarmine that +he used to allow vermin to bite +him, saying, <q>We shall have +heaven to reward us for our sufferings, +but these poor creatures have +nothing but the enjoyment of this +present life.</q> (Bayle, <hi rend='italic'>Dict. philos.</hi> +art. <q>Bellarmine.</q>)</note> +</p> + +<pb n='173'/><anchor id='Pg173'/> + +<p> +On the whole, however, Catholicism has done very little +to inculcate humanity to animals. The fatal vice of theologians, +who have always looked upon others solely through +the medium of their own special dogmatic views, has been +an obstacle to all advance in this direction. The animal +world, being altogether external to the scheme of redemption, +was regarded as beyond the range of duty, and the belief +that we have any kind of obligation to its members has never +been inculcated—has never, I believe, been even admitted—by +Catholic theologians. In the popular legends, and in the +recorded traits of individual amiability, it is curious to observe +how constantly those who have sought to inculcate +kindness to animals have done so by endeavouring to associate +them with something distinctively Christian. The +legends I have noticed glorified them as the companions of +the saints. The stag was honoured as especially commissioned +to reveal the relics of saints, and as the deadly enemy +of the serpent. In the feast of asses, that animal was led +with veneration into the churches, and a rude hymn proclaimed +its dignity, because it had borne Christ in His flight +to Egypt, and in His entry into Jerusalem. St. Francis +always treated lambs with a peculiar tenderness, as being +symbols of his Master. Luther grew sad and thoughtful +at a hare hunt, for it seemed to him to represent the pursuit +of souls by the devil. Many popular legends exist, associating +some bird or animal with some incident in the evangelical +narrative, and securing for them in consequence an +unmolested life. But such influences have never extended +far. There are two distinct objects which may be considered +by moralists in this sphere. They may regard the character +of the men, or they may regard the sufferings of the animals. +The amount of callousness or of conscious cruelty displayed +or elicited by amusements or practices that inflict suffering +on animals, bears no kind of proportion to the intensity of +that suffering. Could we follow with adequate realisation +<pb n='174'/><anchor id='Pg174'/> +the pangs of the wounded birds that are struck down in our +sports, or of the timid hare in the long course of its flight, +we should probably conclude that they were not really less +than those caused by the Spanish bull-fight, or by the English +pastimes of the last century. But the excitement of the +chase refracts the imagination, and owing to the diminutive +size of the victim, and the undemonstrative character of its +suffering, these sports do not exercise that prejudicial influence +upon character which they would exercise if the +sufferings of the animals were vividly realised, and were at +the same time accepted as an element of the enjoyment. +The class of amusements of which the ancient combats of +wild beasts form the type, have no doubt nearly disappeared +from Christendom, and it is possible that the softening power +of Christian teaching may have had some indirect influence +in abolishing them; but a candid judgment will confess that +it has been very little. During the periods, and in the +countries, in which theological influence was supreme, they +were unchallenged.<note place='foot'>I have noticed, in my <hi rend='italic'>History +of Rationalism</hi>, that, although some +Popes did undoubtedly try to suppress +Spanish bull-fights, this was +solely on account of the destruction +of human life they caused. Full +details on this subject will be found +in Concina, <hi rend='italic'>De Spectaculis</hi> (Romæ, +1752). Bayle says, <q>Il n'y a point +de casuiste qui croie qu'on pèche +en faisant combattre des taureaux +contre des dogues,</q> &c. (<hi rend='italic'>Dict. +philos.</hi> <q>Rorarius, C.</q>)</note> They disappeared<note place='foot'>On the ancient amusements of +England the reader may consult +Seymour's <hi rend='italic'>Survey of London</hi> +(1734), vol. i. pp. 227-235; +Strutt's <hi rend='italic'>Sports and Pastimes of the +English People</hi>. Cock-fighting was +a favourite children's amusement +in England as early as the twelfth +century. (Hampson's <hi rend='italic'>Medii Ævi +Kalendarii</hi>, vol. i. p. 160.) It was, +with foot-ball and several other +amusements, for a time suppressed +by Edward III., on the ground +that they were diverting the people +from archery, which was necessary +to the military greatness of England.</note> at last, because a +luxurious and industrial civilisation involved a refinement of +manners; because a fastidious taste recoiled with a sensation +of disgust from pleasures that an uncultivated taste +would keenly relish; because the drama, at once reflecting +<pb n='175'/><anchor id='Pg175'/> +and accelerating the change, gave a new form to popular +amusements, and because, in consequence of this revolution, +the old pastimes, being left to the dregs of society, became +the occasions of scandalous disorders.<note place='foot'>The decline of these amusements +in England began with the +great development of the theatre +under Elizabeth. An order of the +Privy Council in July, 1591, prohibits +the exhibition of plays on +Thursday, because on Thursdays +bear-baiting and suchlike pastimes +had been usually practised, and an +injunction to the same effect was +sent to the Lord Mayor, wherein it +was stated that, <q>in divers places +the players do use to recite their +plays, to the great hurt and destruction +of the game of bear-baiting +and like pastimes, which +are maintained for Her Majesty's +pleasure.</q>—Nichols, <hi rend='italic'>Progresses of +Queen Elizabeth</hi> (ed. 1823), vol. i. +p. 438. The reader will remember +the picture in <hi rend='italic'>Kenilworth</hi> of the +Earl of Sussex petitioning Elizabeth +against Shakespeare, on the +ground of his plays distracting men +from bear-baiting. Elizabeth (see +Nichols) was extremely fond of +bear-baiting. James I. especially +delighted in cock-fighting, and in +1610 was present at a great fight +between a lion and a bear. (Hone, +<hi rend='italic'>Every Day Book</hi>, vol. i. pp. 255-299.) +The theatres, however, rapidly +multiplied, and a writer who +lived about 1629 said, <q>that no less +than seventeen playhouses had been +built in or about London within +threescore years.</q> (Seymour's <hi rend='italic'>Survey</hi>, +vol. i. p. 229.) The Rebellion +suppressed all public amusements, +and when they were re-established +after the Restoration, it was found +that the tastes of the better classes +no longer sympathised with the +bear-garden. Pepys (<hi rend='italic'>Diary</hi>, August +14, 1666) speaks of bull-baiting as +<q>a very rude and nasty pleasure,</q> +and says he had not been in the +bear-garden for many years. Evelyn +(<hi rend='italic'>Diary</hi>, June 16, 1670), having +been present at these shows, describes +them as <q>butcherly sports, +or rather barbarous cruelties,</q> and +says he had not visited them before +for twenty years. A paper in the +<hi rend='italic'>Spectator</hi> (No. 141, written in 1711) +talks of those who <q>seek their +diversion at the bear-garden, ... +where reason and good manners +have no right to disturb them.</q> In +1751, however, Lord Kames was +able to say, <q>The bear garden, +which is one of the chief entertainments +of the English, is held in +abhorrence by the French and other +polite nations.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Essay on Morals</hi> +(1st ed.), p. 7; and he warmly +defends (p. 30) the English taste. +During the latter half of the last +century there was constant controversy +on the subject (which may +be traced in the pages of the <hi rend='italic'>Annual +Register</hi>), and several forgotten +clergymen published sermons +upon it, and the frequent riots +resulting from the fact that the +bear-gardens had become the resort +of the worst classes assisted the +movement. The London magistrates +took measures to suppress +cock-throwing in 1769 (Hampson's +<hi rend='italic'>Med. Æv. Kalend.</hi> p. 160); but +bull-baiting continued far into the +present century. Windham and +Canning strongly defended it; Dr. +Parr is said to have been fond of it +(<hi rend='italic'>Southey's Commonplace Book</hi>, vol. +iv. p. 585); and as late as 1824, +Sir Robert (then Mr) Peel argued +strongly against its prohibition. +(<hi rend='italic'>Parliamentary Debates</hi>, vol. x. +pp. 132-133, 491-495.)</note> In Protestant +<pb n='176'/><anchor id='Pg176'/> +countries the clergy have, on the whole, sustained this movement. +In Catholic countries it has been much more faithfully +represented by the school of Voltaire and Beccaria. A +judicious moralist may, however, reasonably question whether +amusements which derive their zest from a display of the +natural ferocious instincts of animals, and which substitute +death endured in the frenzy of combat for death in the +remote slaughter-house or by the slow process of decay, have +added in any appreciable degree to the sum of animal +misery, and in these cases he will dwell less upon the suffering +inflicted than upon the injurious influence the spectacle +may sometimes exercise on the character of the spectator. +But there are forms of cruelty which must be regarded in a +different light. The horrors of vivisection, often so wantonly, +so needlessly practised,<note place='foot'>Bacon, in an account of the +deficiencies of medicine, recommends +vivisection in terms that +seem to imply that it was not +practised in his time. <q>As for the +passages and pores, it is true, which +was anciently noted, that the more +subtle of them appear not in anatomies, +because they are shut and +latent in dead bodies, though they +be open and manifest in live; +which being supposed, though the +inhumanity of <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>anatomia vivorum</foreign> +was by Celsus justly reproved, yet, +in regard of the great use of this +observation, the enquiry needed +not by him so slightly to have been +relinquished altogether, or referred +to the casual practices of surgery; +but might have been well diverted +upon the dissection of beasts alive, +which, notwithstanding the dissimilitude +of their parts, may +sufficiently satisfy this enquiry.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Advancement +of Learning</hi>, x. 4. +Harvey speaks of vivisections as +having contributed to lead him to +the discovery of the circulation of the +blood. (Acland's <hi rend='italic'>Harveian Oration</hi> +(1865), p. 55.) Bayle, describing +the treatment of animals by men, +says, <q>Nous fouillons dans leurs +entrailles pendant leur vie afin de +satisfaire notre curiosité.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Dict. +philos.</hi> art. <q>Rorarius, C.</q> Public +opinion in England was very +strongly directed to the subject in +the present century, by the atrocious +cruelties perpetrated by Majendie +at his lectures. See a most +frightful account of them in a +speech by Mr. Martin (an eccentric +Irish member, who was generally +ridiculed during his life, and has +been almost forgotten since his +death, but to whose untiring exertions +the legislative protection +of animals in England is due).—<hi rend='italic'>Parliament. +Hist.</hi> vol. xii. p. 652. +Mandeville, in his day, was a very +strong advocate of kindness to +animals.—<hi rend='italic'>Commentary on the Fable +of the Bees.</hi></note> the prolonged and atrocious tortures, +<pb n='177'/><anchor id='Pg177'/> +sometimes inflicted in order to procure some gastronomic delicacy, +are so far removed from the public gaze that they +exercise little influence on the character of men. Yet no +humane man can reflect upon them without a shudder. To +bring these things within the range of ethics, to create the +notion of duties towards the animal world, has, so far as +Christian countries are concerned, been one of the peculiar +merits of the last century, and, for the most part, of Protestant +nations. However fully we may recognise the humane +spirit transmitted to the world in the form of legends from +the saints of the desert, it must not be forgotten that the inculcation +of humanity to animals on a wide scale is mainly +the work of a recent and a secular age; that the Mohammedans +and the Brahmins have in this sphere considerably +surpassed the Christians, and that Spain and Southern Italy, +in which Catholicism has most deeply planted its roots, are +even now, probably beyond all other countries in Europe, +those in which inhumanity to animals is most wanton and +most unrebuked. +</p> + +<p> +The influence the first form of monachism has exercised +upon the world, so far as it has been beneficial, has been +chiefly through the imagination, which has been fascinated by +its legends. In the great periods of theological controversy, +the Eastern monks had furnished some leading theologians; +but in general, in Oriental lands, the hermit life predominated, +and extreme maceration was the chief merit of the saint. +But in the West, monachism assumed very different forms, +and exercised far higher functions. At first the Oriental +saints were the ideals of Western monks. The Eastern St. +Athanasius had been the founder of Italian monachism. St. +<pb n='178'/><anchor id='Pg178'/> +Martin of Tours excluded labour from the discipline of his +monks, and he and they, like the Eastern saints, were accustomed +to wander abroad, destroying the idols of the temples.<note place='foot'>See his <hi rend='italic'>Life</hi> by Sulpicius Severus.</note> +But three great causes conspired to direct the monastic spirit +in the West into practical channels. Conditions of race and +climate have ever impelled the inhabitants of these lands +to active life, and have at the same time rendered them +constitutionally incapable of enduring the austerities or +enjoying the hallucinations of the sedentary Oriental. There +arose, too, in the sixth century, a great legislator, whose form +may be dimly traced through a cloud of fantastic legends, and +the order of St. Benedict, with that of St. Columba and some +others, founded on substantially the same principle, soon ramified +through the greater part of Europe, tempered the wild +excesses of useless penances, and, making labour an essential +part of the monastic system, directed the movement to the +purposes of general civilisation. In the last place, the barbarian +invasions, and the dissolution of the Western Empire, +dislocating the whole system of government and almost resolving +society into its primitive elements, naturally threw +upon the monastic corporations social, political, and intellectual +functions of the deepest importance. +</p> + +<p> +It has been observed that the capture of Rome by Alaric, +involving as it did the destruction of the grandest religious +monuments of Paganism, in fact established in that city the +supreme authority of Christianity.<note place='foot'>Milman.</note> A similar remark may +be extended to the general downfall of the Western civilisation. +In that civilisation Christianity had indeed been +legally enthroned; but the philosophies and traditions of +Paganism, and the ingrained habits of an ancient, and at +the same time an effete society, continually paralysed its +energies. What Europe would have been without the barbarian +invasions, we may partly divine from the history of +<pb n='179'/><anchor id='Pg179'/> +the Lower Empire, which represented, in fact, the old Roman +civilisation prolonged and Christianised. The barbarian +conquests, breaking up the old organisation, provided the +Church with a virgin soil, and made it, for a long period, +the supreme and indeed sole centre of civilisation. +</p> + +<p> +It would be difficult to exaggerate the skill and courage +displayed by the ecclesiastics in this most trying period. +We have already seen the noble daring with which they +interfered between the conqueror and the vanquished, and +the unwearied charity with which they sought to alleviate +the unparalleled sufferings of Italy, when the colonial supplies +of corn were cut off, and when the fairest plains were +desolated by the barbarians. Still more wonderful is the +rapid conversion of the barbarian tribes. Unfortunately +this, which is one of the most important, is also one of the +most obscure pages in the history of the Church. Of whole +tribes or nations it may be truly said that we are absolutely +ignorant of the cause of their change. The Goths had +already been converted by Ulphilas, before the downfall +of the Empire, and the conversion of the Germans and of +several northern nations was long posterior to it; but the +great work of Christianising the barbarian world was accomplished +almost in the hour when that world became supreme. +Rude tribes, accustomed in their own lands to pay absolute +obedience to their priests, found themselves in a foreign +country, confronted by a priesthood far more civilised and +imposing than that which they had left, by gorgeous ceremonies, +well fitted to entice, and by threats of coming judgment, +well fitted to scare their imaginations. Disconnected +from all their old associations, they bowed before the majesty +of civilisation, and the Latin religion, like the Latin language, +though with many adulterations, reigned over the +new society. The doctrine of exclusive salvation, and the +doctrine of dæmons, had an admirable missionary power. +The first produced an ardour of proselytising which the +<pb n='180'/><anchor id='Pg180'/> +polytheist could never rival; while the Pagan, who was +easily led to recognise the Christian God, was menaced with +eternal fire if he did not take the further step of breaking +off from his old divinities. The second dispensed the convert +from the perhaps impossible task of disbelieving his +former religion, for it was only necessary for him to degrade +it, attributing its prodigies to infernal beings. The priests, +in addition to their noble devotion, carried into their missionary +efforts the most masterly judgment. The barbarian +tribes usually followed without enquiry the religion of their +sovereign; and it was to the conversion of the king, and +still more to the conversion of the queen, that the Christians +devoted all their energies. Clotilda, the wife of Clovis, +Bertha, the wife of Ethelbert, and Theodolinda, the wife of +Lothaire, were the chief instruments in converting their +husbands and their nations. Nothing that could affect the +imagination was neglected. It is related of Clotilda, that +she was careful to attract her husband by the rich draperies +of the ecclesiastical ceremonies.<note place='foot'>Greg. Turon. ii. 29.</note> In another case, the first +work of proselytising was confided to an artist, who painted +before the terrified Pagans the last judgment and the torments +of hell.<note place='foot'>This was the first step towards +the conversion of the Bulgarians.—Milman's +<hi rend='italic'>Latin Christianity</hi>, vol. +iii. p. 249.</note> But especially the belief, which was sincerely +held, and sedulously inculcated, that temporal success followed +in the train of Christianity, and that every pestilence, +famine, or military disaster was the penalty of idolatry, +heresy, sacrilege, or vice, assisted the movement. The theory +was so wide, that it met every variety of fortune, and being +taught with consummate skill, to barbarians who were +totally destitute of all critical power, and strongly predisposed +to accept it, it proved extremely efficacious; and hope, +fear, gratitude, and remorse drew multitudes into the Church. +<pb n='181'/><anchor id='Pg181'/> +The transition was softened by the substitution of Christian +ceremonies and saints for the festivals and the divinities of +the Pagans.<note place='foot'>A remarkable collection of instances +of this kind is given by +Ozanam, <hi rend='italic'>Civilisation in the Fifth +Century</hi> (Eng. trans.), vol. i. pp. +124-127.</note> Besides the professed missionaries, the Christian +captives zealously diffused their faith among their Pagan +masters. When the chieftain had been converted, and the +army had followed his profession, an elaborate monastic +and ecclesiastical organisation grew up to consolidate the +conquest, and repressive laws soon crushed all opposition to +the faith. +</p> + +<p> +In these ways the victory of Christianity over the barbarian +world was achieved. But that victory, though very +great, was less decisive than might appear. A religion which +professed to be Christianity, and which contained many of +the ingredients of pure Christianity, had risen into the +ascendant, but it had undergone a profound modification +through the struggle. Religions, as well as worshippers, had +been baptised. The festivals, images, and names of saints +had been substituted for those of the idols, and the habits of +thought and feeling of the ancient faith reappeared in new +forms and a new language. The tendency to a material, +idolatrous, and polytheistic faith, which had long been encouraged +by the monks, and which the heretics Jovinian, +Vigilantius, and Aerius had vainly resisted, was fatally +strengthened by the infusion of a barbarian element into the +Church, by the general depression of intellect in Europe, and +by the many accommodations that were made to facilitate conversion. +Though apparently defeated and crushed, the old +gods still retained, under a new faith, no small part of their +influence over the world. +</p> + +<p> +To this tendency the leaders of the Church made in +general no resistance, though in another form they were +<pb n='182'/><anchor id='Pg182'/> +deeply persuaded of the vitality of the old gods. Many +curious and picturesque legends attest the popular belief that +the old Roman and the old barbarian divinities, in their +capacity of dæmons, were still waging an unrelenting war +against the triumphant faith. A great Pope of the sixth +century relates how a Jew, being once benighted on his +journey, and finding no other shelter for the night, lay down +to rest in an abandoned temple of Apollo. Shuddering at +the loneliness of the building, and fearing the dæmons who +were said to haunt it, he determined, though not a Christian, +to protect himself by the sign of the cross, which he had +often heard possessed a mighty power against spirits. To +that sign he owed his safety. For at midnight the temple +was filled with dark and threatening forms. The god Apollo +was holding his court at his deserted shrine, and his attendant +dæmons were recounting the temptations they had devised +against the Christians.<note place='foot'>St. Gregory, <hi rend='italic'>Dial.</hi> iii. 7. The +particular temptation the Jew heard +discussed was that of the bishop of +the diocese, who, under the instigation +of one of the dæmons, was +rapidly falling in love with a nun, +and had proceeded so far as jocosely +to stroke her on the back. The Jew, +having related the vision to the +bishop, the latter reformed his +manners, the Jew became a Christian, +and the temple was turned +into a church.</note> A newly married Roman, when one +day playing ball, took off his wedding-ring, which he found +an impediment in the game, and he gaily put it on the finger +of a statue of Venus, that was standing near. When he +returned, the marble finger had bent so that it was impossible +to withdraw the ring, and that night the goddess appeared to +him in a dream, and told him that she was now his wedded +wife, and that she would abide with him for ever.<note place='foot'>William of Malmesbury, ii. 13.</note> When +the Irish missionary St. Gall was fishing one night upon a +Swiss lake, near which he had planted a monastery, he heard +strange voices sweeping over the lonely deep. The Spirit of +the Water and the Spirit of the Mountains were consulting +<pb n='183'/><anchor id='Pg183'/> +together how they could expel the intruder who had disturbed +their ancient reign.<note place='foot'>See Milman's <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Latin Christianity</hi>, vol. ii. p. 293.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The details of the rapid propagation of Western monachism +have been amply treated by many historians, and +the causes of its success are sufficiently manifest. Some of +the reasons I have assigned for the first spread of asceticism +continued to operate, while others of a still more powerful +kind had arisen. The rapid decomposition of the entire Roman +Empire by continuous invasions of barbarians rendered the +existence of an inviolable asylum and centre of peaceful +labour a matter of transcendent importance, and the monastery +as organised by St. Benedict soon combined the most +heterogeneous elements of attraction. It was at once eminently +aristocratic and intensely democratic. The power and +princely position of the abbot were coveted, and usually +obtained, by members of the most illustrious families; while +emancipated serfs, or peasants who had lost their all in the +invasions, or were harassed by savage nobles, or had fled from +military service, or desired to lead a more secure and easy +life, found in the monastery an unfailing refuge. The institution +exercised all the influence of great wealth, expended +for the most part with great charity, while the monk himself +was invested with the aureole of a sacred poverty. To +ardent and philanthropic natures, the profession opened +boundless vistas of missionary, charitable, and civilising +activity. To the superstitious it was the plain road to +heaven. To the ambitious it was the portal to bishoprics, +and, after the monk St. Gregory, not unfrequently to the +Popedom. To the studious it offered the only opportunity +then existing in the world of seeing many books and passing +a life of study. To the timid and retiring it afforded the +most secure, and probably the least laborious life a poor +peasant could hope to find. Vast as were the multitudes +that thronged the monasteries, the means for their support +<pb n='184'/><anchor id='Pg184'/> +were never wanting. The belief that gifts or legacies to a +monastery opened the doors of heaven was in a superstitious +age sufficient to secure for the community an almost boundless +wealth, which was still further increased by the skill and +perseverance with which the monks tilled the waste lands, by +the exemption of their domains from all taxation, and by the +tranquillity which in the most turbulent ages they usually +enjoyed. In France, the Low Countries, and Germany they +were pre-eminently agriculturists. Gigantic forests were +felled, inhospitable marshes reclaimed, barren plains cultivated +by their hands. The monastery often became the nucleus +of a city. It was the centre of civilisation and industry, +the symbol of moral power in an age of turbulence and war. +</p> + +<p> +It must be observed, however, that the beneficial influence +of the monastic system was necessarily transitional, and the +subsequent corruption the normal and inevitable result of its +constitution. Vast societies living in enforced celibacy, +exercising an unbounded influence, and possessing enormous +wealth, must necessarily have become hotbeds of corruption +when the enthusiasm that had created them expired. The +services they rendered as the centres of agriculture, the +refuge of travellers, the sanctuaries in war, the counterpoise +of the baronial castle, were no longer required when the convulsions +of invasion had ceased and when civil society was +definitely organised. And a similar observation may be +extended even to their moral type. Thus, while it is undoubtedly +true that the Benedictine monks, by making +labour an essential element of their discipline, did very much +to efface the stigma which slavery had affixed upon it, it is +also true that, when industry had passed out of its initial +stage, the monastic theories of the sanctity of poverty, and the +evil of wealth, were its most deadly opponents. The dogmatic +condemnation by theologians of loans at interest, which +are the basis of industrial enterprise, was the expression of a +far deeper antagonism of tendencies and ideals. +</p> + +<pb n='185'/><anchor id='Pg185'/> + +<p> +In one important respect, the transition from the eremite +to the monastic life involved not only a change of circumstances, +but also a change of character. The habit of +obedience, and the virtue of humility, assumed a position +which they had never previously occupied. The conditions +of the hermit life contributed to develop to a very high +degree a spirit of independence and spiritual pride, which was +still further increased by a curious habit that existed in the +Church of regarding each eminent hermit as the special model +or professor of some particular virtue, and making pilgrimages +to him, in order to study this aspect of his character.<note place='foot'>Cassian. <hi rend='italic'>Cœnob. Instit.</hi> v. 4. +See, too, some striking instances of +this in the life of St. Antony.</note> +These pilgrimages, combined with the usually solitary and +self-sufficing life of the hermit, and also with the habit of +measuring progress almost entirely by the suppression of a +physical appetite, which it is quite possible wholly to destroy, +very naturally produced an extreme arrogance.<note place='foot'>This spiritual pride is well +noticed by Neander, <hi rend='italic'>Ecclesiastical +History</hi> (Bohn's ed.), vol. iii. pp. +321-323. It appears in many +traits scattered through the lives of +these saints. I have already cited +the visions telling St. Antony and +St. Macarius that they were not the +best of living people; and also the +case of the hermit, who was deceived +by a devil in the form of a woman, because +he had been exalted by pride. +Another hermit, being very holy, +received pure white bread every +day from heaven, but, being extravagantly +elated, the bread got worse +and worse till it became perfectly +black. (Tillemont, tome x. pp. +27-28.) A certain Isidore affirmed +that he had not been conscious of +sin, even in thought, for forty years. +(Socrates, iv. 23.) It was a saying +of St. Antony, that a solitary man +in the desert is free from three +wars—of sight, speech, and hearing: +he has to combat only fornication. +(<hi rend='italic'>Apothegmata Patrum.</hi>)</note> But in the +highly organised and disciplined monasteries of the West, +passive obedience and humility were the very first things +that were inculcated. The monastery, beyond all other institutions, +was the school for their exercise; and as the monk +represented the highest moral ideal of the age, obedience and +humility acquired a new value in the minds of men. Nearly +<pb n='186'/><anchor id='Pg186'/> +all the feudal and other organisations that arose out of the +chaos that followed the destruction of the Roman Empire +were intimately related to the Church, not simply because +the Church was the strongest power in Christendom, and +supplied in itself an admirable model of an organised body, +but also because it had done much to educate men in habits +of obedience. The special value of this education depended +upon the peculiar circumstances of the time. The ancient +civilisations, and especially that of Rome, had been by no +means deficient in those habits; but it was in the midst of +the dissolution of an old society, and of the ascendancy of +barbarians, who exaggerated to the highest degree their personal +independence, that the Church proposed to the reverence +of mankind a life of passive obedience as the highest ideal of +virtue. +</p> + +<p> +The habit of obedience was no new thing in the world, +but the disposition of humility was pre-eminently and almost +exclusively a Christian virtue; and there has probably never +been any sphere in which it has been so largely and so successfully +inculcated as in the monastery. The whole penitential +discipline, the entire mode or tenor of the monastic life, +was designed to tame every sentiment of pride, and to give +humility a foremost place in the hierarchy of virtues. We +have here one great source of the mollifying influence of +Catholicism. The gentler virtues—benevolence and amiability—may, +and in an advanced civilisation often do, subsist +in natures that are completely devoid of genuine humility; +but, on the other hand, it is scarcely possible for a nature to +be pervaded by a deep sentiment of humility without this +sentiment exercising a softening influence over the whole +character. To transform a fierce warlike nature into a +character of a gentler type, the first essential is to awaken +this feeling. In the monasteries, the extinction of social and +domestic feelings, the narrow corporate spirit, and, still more, +the atrocious opinions that were prevalent concerning the +<pb n='187'/><anchor id='Pg187'/> +guilt of heresy, produced in many minds an extreme and most +active ferocity; but the practice of charity, and the ideal of +humility, never failed to exercise some softening influence +upon Christendom. +</p> + +<p> +But, however advantageous the temporary pre-eminence +of this moral type may have been, it was obviously unsuited +for a later stage of civilisation. Political liberty is almost +impossible where the monastic system is supreme, not merely +because the monasteries divert the energies of the nation from +civic to ecclesiastical channels, but also because the monastic +ideal is the very apotheosis of servitude. Catholicism has +been admirably fitted at once to mitigate and to perpetuate +despotism. When men have learnt to reverence a life of +passive, unreasoning obedience as the highest type of perfection, +the enthusiasm and passion of freedom necessarily decline. +In this respect there is an analogy between the monastic and +the military spirit, both of which promote and glorify passive +obedience, and therefore prepare the minds of men for despotic +rule; but, on the whole, the monastic spirit is probably +more hostile to freedom than the military spirit, for the obedience +of the monk is based upon humility, while the obedience +of the soldier coexists with pride. Now, a considerable +measure of pride, or self-assertion, is an invariable characteristic +of free communities. +</p> + +<p> +The ascendancy which the monastic system gave to the +virtue of humility has not continued. This virtue is indeed +the crowning grace and beauty of the most perfect characters +of the saintly type; but experience has shown that among +common men humility is more apt to degenerate into servility +than pride into arrogance; and modern moralists have +appealed more successfully to the sense of dignity than to +the opposite feeling. Two of the most important steps of +later moral history have consisted of the creation of a sentiment +of pride as the parent and the guardian of many virtues. +The first of these encroachments on the monastic +<pb n='188'/><anchor id='Pg188'/> +spirit was chivalry, which called into being a proud and +jealous military honour that has never since been extinguished. +The second was the creation of that feeling of +self-respect which is one of the most remarkable characteristics +that distinguish Protestant from the most Catholic populations, +and which has proved among the former an invaluable +moral agent, forming frank and independent natures, +and checking every servile habit and all mean and degrading +vice.<note place='foot'><q>Pride, under such training +[that of modern rationalistic philosophy], +instead of running to waste, +is turned to account. It gets a +new name; it is called self-respect.... +It is directed into the channel +of industry, frugality, honesty, and +obedience, and it becomes the very +staple of the religion and morality +held in honour in a day like our +own. It becomes the safeguard of +chastity, the guarantee of veracity, +in high and low; it is the very +household god of the Protestant, +inspiring neatness and decency in +the servant-girl, propriety of carriage +and refined manners in her +mistress, uprightness, manliness, +and generosity in the head of the +family.... It is the stimulating +principle of providence on the one +hand, and of free expenditure on +the other; of an honourable ambition +and of elegant enjoyment.</q>—Newman, +<hi rend='italic'>On University Education</hi>, +Discourse ix. In the same lecture +(which is, perhaps, the most beautiful +of the many beautiful productions +of its illustrious author), +Dr. Newman describes, with admirable +eloquence, the manner in +which modesty has supplanted +humility in the modern type of +excellence. It is scarcely necessary +to say that the lecturer strongly +disapproves of the movement he +describes.</note> The peculiar vigour with which it has been developed +in Protestant countries may be attributed to the suppression +of monastic institutions and habits; to the stigma Protestantism +has attached to mendicancy, which Catholicism has +usually glorified and encouraged; to the high place Protestantism +has accorded to private judgment and personal responsibility; +and lastly, to the action of free political institutions, +which have taken deepest root where the principles +of the Reformation have been accepted. +</p> + +<milestone unit='tb' rend='rule: 50%'/> + +<p> +The relation of the monasteries to the intellectual virtues, +which we have next to examine, opens out a wide field of +<pb n='189'/><anchor id='Pg189'/> +discussion; and, in order to appreciate it, it will be necessary +to revert briefly to a somewhat earlier stage of ecclesiastical +history. And in the first place, it may be observed, that the +phrase intellectual virtue, which is often used in a metaphorical +sense, is susceptible of a strictly literal interpretation. +If a sincere and active desire for truth be a moral duty, the +discipline and the dispositions that are plainly involved in +every honest search fall rigidly within the range of ethics. +To love truth sincerely means to pursue it with an earnest, +conscientious, unflagging zeal. It means to be prepared to +follow the light of evidence even to the most unwelcome +conclusions; to labour earnestly to emancipate the mind from +early prejudices; to resist the current of the desires, and the +refracting influence of the passions; to proportion on all occasions +conviction to evidence, and to be ready, if need be, to +exchange the calm of assurance for all the suffering of a perplexed +and disturbed mind. To do this is very difficult and +very painful; but it is clearly involved in the notion of +earnest love of truth. If, then, any system stigmatises as +criminal the state of doubt, denounces the examination of +some one class of arguments or facts, seeks to introduce the +bias of the affections into the enquiries of the reason, or +regards the honest conclusion of an upright investigator as +involving moral guilt, that system is subversive of intellectual +honesty. +</p> + +<p> +Among the ancients, although the methods of enquiry +were often very faulty, and generalisations very hasty, a respect +for the honest search after truth was widely diffused.<note place='foot'>Thus <q>indagatio veri</q> was +reckoned among the leading virtues, +and the high place given to σοφία +and <q>prudentia</q> in ethical writings +preserved the notion of the moral +duties connected with the discipline +of the intellect.</note> +There were, as we have already seen, instances in which +certain religious practices which were regarded as attestations +of loyalty, or as necessary to propitiate the gods in favour of +<pb n='190'/><anchor id='Pg190'/> +the State, were enforced by law; there were even a few +instances of philosophies, which were believed to lead directly +to immoral results or social convulsions, being suppressed; +but, as a general rule, speculation was untrammelled, the +notion of there being any necessary guilt in erroneous opinion +was unknown, and the boldest enquirers were regarded with +honour and admiration. The religious theory of Paganism +had in this respect some influence. Polytheism, with many +faults, had three great merits. It was eminently poetical, +eminently patriotic, and eminently tolerant. The conception +of a vast hierarchy of beings more glorious than, but not +wholly unlike, men, presiding over all the developments of +nature, and filling the universe with their deeds, supplied the +chief nutriment of the Greek imagination. The national +religions, interweaving religious ceremonies and associations +with all civic life, concentrated and intensified the +sentiment of patriotism, and the notion of many distinct +groups of gods led men to tolerate many forms of worship +and great variety of creeds. In that colossal amalgam of +nations of which Rome became the metropolis, intellectual +liberty still further advanced; the vast variety of philosophies +and beliefs expatiated unmolested; the search for truth was +regarded as an important element of virtue, and the relentless +and most sceptical criticism which Socrates had applied +in turn to all the fundamental propositions of popular belief +remained as an example to his successors. +</p> + +<p> +We have already seen that one leading cause of the rapid +progress of the Church was that its teachers enforced their +distinctive tenets as absolutely essential to salvation, and thus +assailed at a great advantage the supporters of all other creeds +which did not claim this exclusive authority. We have seen, +too, that in an age of great and growing credulity they had +been conspicuous for their assertion of the duty of absolute, +unqualified, and unquestioning belief. The notion of the +guilt both of error and of doubt grew rapidly, and, being +<pb n='191'/><anchor id='Pg191'/> +soon regarded as a fundamental tenet, it determined the +whole course and policy of the Church. +</p> + +<p> +And here, I think, it will not be unadvisable to pause for +a moment, and endeavour to ascertain what misconceived +truth lay at the root of this fatal tenet. Considered abstractedly +and by the light of nature, it is as unmeaning to +speak of the immorality of an intellectual mistake as it +would be to talk of the colour of a sound. If a man has +sincerely persuaded himself that it is possible for parallel +lines to meet, or for two straight lines to enclose a space, we +pronounce his judgment to be absurd; but it is free from all +tincture of immorality. And if, instead of failing to appreciate +a demonstrable truth, his error consisted in a false estimate +of the conflicting arguments of an historical problem, +this mistake—assuming always that the enquiry was an upright +one—is still simply external to the sphere of morals. +It is possible that his conclusion, by weakening some barrier +against vice, may produce vicious consequences, like those +which might ensue from some ill-advised modification of the +police force; but it in no degree follows from this that the +judgment is in itself criminal. If a student applies himself +with the same dispositions to Roman and Jewish histories, +the mistakes he may make in the latter are no more +immoral than those which he may make in the former. +</p> + +<p> +There are, however, two cases in which an intellectual +error may be justly said to involve, or at least to represent, +guilt. In the first place, error very frequently springs from +the partial or complete absence of that mental disposition +which is implied in a real love of truth. Hypocrites, or men +who through interested motives profess opinions which they +do not really believe, are probably rarer than is usually supposed; +but it would be difficult to over-estimate the number +of those whose genuine convictions are due to the unresisted +bias of their interests. By the term interests, I mean not +only material well-being, but also all those mental luxuries, +<pb n='192'/><anchor id='Pg192'/> +all those grooves or channels for thought, which it is easy and +pleasing to follow, and painful and difficult to abandon. +Such are the love of ease, the love of certainty, the love of +system, the bias of the passions, the associations of the +imagination, as well as the coarser influences of social +position, domestic happiness, professional interest, party +feeling, or ambition. In most men, the love of truth is so +languid, and the reluctance to encounter mental suffering is +so great, that they yield their judgments without an effort to +the current, withdraw their minds from all opinions or +arguments opposed to their own, and thus speedily convince +themselves of the truth of what they wish to believe. He +who really loves truth is bound at least to endeavour to +resist these distorting influences, and in as far as his opinions +are the result of his not having done so, in so far they represent +a moral failing. +</p> + +<p> +In the next place, it must be observed that every moral +disposition brings with it an intellectual bias which exercises +a great and often a controlling and decisive influence even +upon the most earnest enquirer. If we know the character +or disposition of a man, we can usually predict with +tolerable accuracy many of his opinions. We can tell to +what side of politics, to what canons of taste, to what theory +of morals he will naturally incline. Stern, heroic, and +haughty natures tend to systems in which these qualities +occupy the foremost position in the moral type, while gentle +natures will as naturally lean towards systems in which the +amiable virtues are supreme. Impelled by a species of moral +gravitation, the enquirer will glide insensibly to the system +which is congruous to his disposition, and intellectual difficulties +will seldom arrest him. He can have observed +human nature with but little fruit who has not remarked +how constant is this connection, and how very rarely men +change fundamentally the principles they had deliberately +adopted on religious, moral, or even political questions, +<pb n='193'/><anchor id='Pg193'/> +without the change being preceded, accompanied, or very +speedily followed, by a serious modification of character. +So, too, a vicious and depraved nature, or a nature which is +hard, narrow, and unsympathetic, will tend, much less by +calculation or indolence than by natural affinity, to low and +degrading views of human nature. Those who have never +felt the higher emotions will scarcely appreciate them. The +materials with which the intellect builds are often derived +from the heart, and a moral disease is therefore not unfrequently +at the root of an erroneous judgment. +</p> + +<p> +Of these two truths the first cannot, I think, be said to +have had any influence in the formation of the theological +notion of the guilt of error. An elaborate process of mental +discipline, with a view to strengthening the critical powers +of the mind, is utterly remote from the spirit of theology; +and this is one of the great reasons why the growth of an +inductive and scientific spirit is invariably hostile to theological +interests. To raise the requisite standard of proof, to +inculcate hardness and slowness of belief, is the first task of +the inductive reasoner. He looks with great favour upon +the condition of a suspended judgment; he encourages men +rather to prolong than to abridge it; he regards the tendency +of the human mind to rapid and premature generalisations +as one of its most fatal vices; he desires especially that that +which is believed should not be so cherished that the mind +should be indisposed to admit doubt, or, on the appearance +of new arguments, to revise with impartiality its conclusions. +Nearly all the greatest intellectual achievements of the last +three centuries have been preceded and prepared by the +growth of scepticism. The historic scepticism which Vico, +Beaufort, Pouilly, and Voltaire in the last century, and +Niebuhr and Lewis in the present century, applied to ancient +history, lies at the root of all the great modern efforts to reconstruct +the history of mankind. The splendid discoveries +of physical science would have been impossible but for the +<pb n='194'/><anchor id='Pg194'/> +scientific scepticism of the school of Bacon, which dissipated +the old theories of the universe, and led men to demand a +severity of proof altogether unknown to the ancients. The +philosophic scepticism with which the system of Hume +ended and the system of Kant began, has given the greatest +modern impulse to metaphysics and ethics. Exactly in proportion, +therefore, as men are educated in the inductive +school, they are alienated from those theological systems +which represent a condition of doubt as sinful, seek to govern +the reason by the interests and the affections, and make it a +main object to destroy the impartiality of the judgment. +</p> + +<p> +But although it is difficult to look upon Catholicism in +any other light than as the most deadly enemy of the +scientific spirit, it has always cordially recognised the most +important truth, that character in a very great measure +determines opinions. To cultivate the moral type that is +most congenial to the opinions it desires to recommend has +always been its effort, and the conviction that a deviation +from that type has often been the predisposing cause of intellectual +heresy, had doubtless a large share in the first persuasion +of the guilt of error. But priestly and other influences +soon conspired to enlarge this doctrine. A crowd of speculative, +historical, and administrative propositions were +asserted as essential to salvation, and all who rejected them +were wholly external to the bond of Christian sympathy. +</p> + +<p> +If, indeed, we put aside the pure teaching of the Christian +founders, and consider the actual history of the Church since +Constantine, we shall find no justification for the popular +theory that beneath its influence the narrow spirit of patriotism +faded into a wide and cosmopolitan philanthropy. A +real though somewhat languid feeling of universal brotherhood +had already been created in the world by the universality +of the Roman Empire. In the new faith the range of +genuine sympathy was strictly limited by the creed. According +to the popular belief, all who differed from the +<pb n='195'/><anchor id='Pg195'/> +teaching of the orthodox lived under the hatred of the +Almighty, and were destined after death for an eternity of +anguish. Very naturally, therefore, they were wholly +alienated from the true believers, and no moral or intellectual +excellence could atone for their crime in propagating error. +The eighty or ninety sects,<note place='foot'>St. Augustine reckoned eighty-eight +sects as existing in his time.</note> into which Christianity speedily +divided, hated one another with an intensity that extorted +the wonder of Julian and the ridicule of the Pagans of +Alexandria, and the fierce riots and persecutions that hatred +produced appear in every page of ecclesiastical history. +There is, indeed, something at once grotesque and ghastly in +the spectacle. The Donatists, having separated from the +orthodox simply on the question of the validity of the consecration +of a certain bishop, declared that all who adopted +the orthodox view must be damned, refused to perform their +rites in the orthodox churches which they had seized, till they +had burnt the altar and scraped the wood, beat multitudes to +death with clubs, blinded others by anointing their eyes with +lime, filled Africa, during nearly two centuries, with war and +desolation, and contributed largely to its final ruin.<note place='foot'>See a full account of these +persecutions in Tillemont, <hi rend='italic'>Mém. +d'Histoire ecclés.</hi> tome vi.</note> The +childish and almost unintelligible quarrels between the +Homoiousians and the Homoousians, between those who +maintained that the nature of Christ was like that of the +Father and those who maintained that it was the same, +filled the world with riot and hatred. The Catholics tell +how an Arian Emperor caused eighty orthodox priests to be +drowned on a single occasion;<note place='foot'>Socrates, <hi rend='italic'>H. E.</hi>, iv. 16. This +anecdote is much doubted by +modern historians.</note> how three thousand persons +perished in the riots that convulsed Constantinople when the +Arian Bishop Macedonius superseded the Athanasian Paul;<note place='foot'>Milman's <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Christianity</hi> +(ed. 1867), vol. ii. p. 422.</note> +how George of Cappadocia, the Arian Bishop of Alexandria, +<pb n='196'/><anchor id='Pg196'/> +caused the widows of the Athanasian party to be scourged +on the soles of their feet, the holy virgins to be stripped +naked, to be flogged with the prickly branches of palm-trees, +or to be slowly scorched over fires till they abjured their +creed.<note place='foot'>St. Athanasius, <hi rend='italic'>Historical +Treatises</hi> (Library of the Fathers), +pp. 192, 284.</note> The triumph of the Catholics in Egypt was accompanied +(if we may believe the solemn assertions of eighty +Arian Bishops) by every variety of plunder, murder, sacrilege, +and outrage,<note place='foot'>Milman, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Christianity</hi>, +ii. pp. 436-437.</note> and Arius himself was probably poisoned +by Catholic hands.<note place='foot'>The death of Arius, as is well +known, took place suddenly (his +bowels, it is said, coming out) when +he was just about to make his +triumphal entry into the Cathedral +of Constantinople. The death +(though possibly natural) never +seems to have been regarded as +such, but it was a matter of controversy +whether it was a miracle +or a murder.</note> The followers of St. Cyril of +Alexandria, who were chiefly monks, filled their city with +riot and bloodshed, wounded the prefect Orestes, dragged the +pure and gifted Hypatia into one of their churches, murdered +her, tore the flesh from her bones with sharp shells, and, +having stripped her body naked, flung her mangled remains +into the flames.<note place='foot'>Socrates, <hi rend='italic'>H. E.</hi>, vii. 13-15.</note> In Ephesus, during the contest between +St. Cyril and the Nestorians, the cathedral itself was the +theatre of a fierce and bloody conflict.<note place='foot'>Milman, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Latin Christianity</hi>, +vol. i. pp. 214-215.</note> Constantinople, on +the occasion of the deposition of St. Chrysostom, was for +several days in a condition of absolute anarchy.<note place='foot'>Milman, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Christianity</hi>, +vol. iii. p. 145.</note> After the +Council of Chalcedon, Jerusalem and Alexandria were again +convulsed, and the bishop of the latter city was murdered +in his baptistery.<note place='foot'>Milman, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Latin Christianity</hi>, +vol. i. pp. 290-291.</note> About fifty years later, when the Monophysite +controversy was at its height, the palace of the +emperor at Constantinople was blockaded, the churches were +besieged, and the streets commanded by furious bands of +contending monks.<note place='foot'>Ibid. vol. i. pp. 310-311.</note> Repressed for a time, the riots broke +<pb n='197'/><anchor id='Pg197'/> +out two years after with an increased ferocity, and almost +every leading city of the East was filled by the monks with +bloodshed and with outrage.<note place='foot'>Milman, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Latin Christianity</hi>, +vol. i. pp. 314-318. +Dean Milman thus sums up the +history: <q>Monks in Alexandria, +monks in Antioch, monks in Jerusalem, +monks in Constantinople, +decide peremptorily on orthodoxy +and heterodoxy. The bishops +themselves cower before them. +Macedonius in Constantinople, Flavianus +in Antioch, Elias in Jerusalem, +condemn themselves and +abdicate, or are driven from their +sees. Persecution is universal—persecution +by every means of violence +and cruelty; the only question +is, in whose hands is the power to +persecute.... Bloodshed, murder, +treachery, assassination, even during +the public worship of God—these +are the frightful means by +which each party strives to maintain +its opinions and to defeat its +adversary.</q></note> St. Augustine himself is accused +of having excited every kind of popular persecution against +the Semi-Pelagians.<note place='foot'>See a striking passage from +Julianus of Eclana, cited by Milman, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Latin Christianity</hi>, +vol. i. p. 164.</note> The Councils, animated by an almost +frantic hatred, urged on by their anathemas the rival sects.<note place='foot'><q>Nowhere is Christianity less +attractive than in the Councils of +the Church.... Intrigue, injustice, +violence, decisions on authority +alone, and that the authority of a +turbulent majority, ... detract +from the reverence and impugn the +judgments of at least the later +Councils. The close is almost invariably +a terrible anathema, in +which it is impossible not to discern +the tones of human hatred, of +arrogant triumph, of rejoicing at +the damnation imprecated against +the humiliated adversary.</q>—Ibid. +vol. i. p. 202.</note> +In the <q>Robber Council</q> of Ephesus, Flavianus, the Bishop +of Constantinople, was kicked and beaten by the Bishop of +Alexandria, or at least by his followers, and a few days later +died from the effect of the blows.<note place='foot'>See the account of this scene in +Gibbon, <hi rend='italic'>Decline and Fall</hi>, ch. xlvii.; +Milman, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Latin Christianity</hi>, +vol. i. p. 263. There is a conflict +of authorities as to whether +the Bishop of Alexandria himself +kicked his adversary, or, to speak +more correctly, the act which is +charged against him by some contemporary +writers is not charged +against him by others. The violence +was certainly done by his +followers and in his presence.</note> In the contested election +that resulted in the election of St. Damasus as Pope of Rome, +though no theological question appears to have been at issue, +the riots were so fierce that one hundred and thirty-seven +corpses were found in one of the churches.<note place='foot'>Ammianus Marcellinus, xxvii. 3.</note> The precedent +<pb n='198'/><anchor id='Pg198'/> +of the Jewish persecutions of idolatry having been adduced +by St. Cyprian, in the third century, in favour of excommunication,<note place='foot'>Cyprian, <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> lxi.</note> +was urged by Optatus, in the reign of Constantine, +in favour of persecuting the Donatists;<note place='foot'>Milman, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Christianity</hi>, +vol. ii. p. 306.</note> in the next +reign we find a large body of Christians presenting to the +emperor a petition, based upon this precedent, imploring +him to destroy by force the Pagan worship.<note place='foot'>Ibid. iii. 10.</note> About fifteen +years later, the whole Christian Church was prepared, on the +same grounds, to support the persecuting policy of St. +Ambrose,<note place='foot'><q>By this time the Old Testament +language and sentiment with +regard to idolatry were completely +incorporated with the Christian +feeling; and when Ambrose enforced +on a Christian Emperor the +sacred duty of intolerance against +opinions and practices which +scarcely a century before had been +the established religion of the +Empire, his zeal was supported by +almost the unanimous applause of +the Christian world.</q>—Milman's +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Christianity</hi>, vol. iii. p. 159.</note> the contending sects having found, in the duty of +crushing religious liberty, the solitary tenet on which they +were agreed. The most unaggressive and unobtrusive forms +of Paganism were persecuted with the same ferocity.<note place='foot'>See the Theodosian laws of +Paganism.</note> To +offer a sacrifice was to commit a capital offence; to hang up +a simple chaplet was to incur the forfeiture of an estate. +The noblest works of Asiatic architecture and of Greek +sculpture perished by the same iconoclasm that shattered the +humble temple at which the peasant loved to pray, or the +household gods which consecrated his home. There were no +varieties of belief too minute for the new intolerance to +embitter. The question of the proper time of celebrating +Easter was believed to involve the issue of salvation or +damnation;<note place='foot'>This appears from the whole +history of the controversy; but the +prevailing feeling is, I think, expressed +with peculiar vividness in +the following passage:—<q>Eadmer +says (following the words of Bede) +in Colman's times there was a sharp +controversy about the observing of +Easter, and other rules of life for +churchmen; therefore, this question deservedly excited the minds +and feeling of many people, fearing +lest, perhaps, after having received +the name of Christians, they should +run, or had run in vain.</q>—King's +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. of the Church of Ireland</hi>, book +ii. ch. vi.</note> and when, long after, in the fourteenth century, +<pb n='199'/><anchor id='Pg199'/> +the question of the nature of the light at the transfiguration +was discussed at Constantinople, those who refused to +admit that that light was uncreated, were deprived of the +honours of Christian burial.<note place='foot'>Gibbon, chap. lxiii.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Together with these legislative and ecclesiastical measures, +a literature arose surpassing in its mendacious ferocity any +other the world had known. The polemical writers habitually +painted as dæmons those who diverged from the orthodox +belief, gloated with a vindictive piety over the sufferings of +the heretic upon earth, as upon a Divine punishment, and +sometimes, with an almost superhuman malice, passing in +imagination beyond the threshold of the grave, exulted in +no ambiguous terms on the tortures which they believed to +be reserved for him for ever. A few men, such as Synesius, +Basil, or Salvian, might still find some excellence in Pagans +or heretics, but their candour was altogether exceptional; +and he who will compare the beautiful pictures the Greek +poets gave of their Trojan adversaries, or the Roman historians +of the enemies of their country, with those which ecclesiastical +writers, for many centuries, almost invariably gave of all +who were opposed to their Church, may easily estimate the +extent to which cosmopolitan sympathy had retrograded. +</p> + +<p> +At the period, however, when the Western monasteries +began to discharge their intellectual functions, the supremacy +of Catholicism was nearly established, and polemical ardour +had begun to wane. The literary zeal of the Church took +other forms, but all were deeply tinged by the monastic +spirit. It is difficult or impossible to conceive what would +have been the intellectual future of the world had Catholicism +never arisen—what principles or impulses would have guided +the course of the human mind, or what new institutions +<pb n='200'/><anchor id='Pg200'/> +would have been created for its culture. Under the influence +of Catholicism, the monastery became the one sphere of +intellectual labour, and it continued during many centuries +to occupy that position. Without entering into anything +resembling a literary history, which would be foreign to the +objects of the present work, I shall endeavour briefly to +estimate the manner in which it discharged its functions. +</p> + +<p> +The first idea that is naturally suggested by the mention +of the intellectual services of monasteries is the preservation +of the writings of the Pagans. I have already observed +that among the early Christians there was a marked difference +on the subject of their writings. The school which was +represented by Tertullian regarded them with abhorrence; +while the Platonists, who were represented by Justin Martyr, +Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, not merely recognised +with great cordiality their beauties, but even imagined that +they could detect in them both the traces of an original +Divine inspiration, and plagiarisms from the Jewish writings. +While avoiding, for the most part, these extremes, St. Augustine, +the great organiser of Western Christianity, treats the +Pagan writings with appreciative respect. He had himself +ascribed his first conversion from a course of vice to the +'Hortensius' of Cicero, and his works are full of discriminating, +and often very beautiful, applications of the old +Roman literature. The attempt of Julian to prevent the +Christians from teaching the classics, and the extreme resentment +which that attempt elicited, show how highly the +Christian leaders of that period valued this form of education; +and it was naturally the more cherished on account of the +contest. The influence of Neoplatonism, the baptism of +multitudes of nominal Christians after Constantine, and the +decline of zeal which necessarily accompanied prosperity, +had all in different ways the same tendency. In Synesius +we have the curious phenomenon of a bishop who, not content +with proclaiming himself the admiring friend of the +<pb n='201'/><anchor id='Pg201'/> +Pagan Hypatia, openly declared his complete disbelief in the +resurrection of the body, and his firm adhesion to the Platonic +doctrine of the pre-existence of souls.<note place='foot'>An interesting sketch of this +very interesting prelate has lately +been written by M. Druon, <hi rend='italic'>Étude +sur la Vie et les Œuvres de Synésius</hi> +(Paris, 1859).</note> Had the +ecclesiastical theory prevailed which gave such latitude even +to the leaders of the Church, the course of Christianity would +have been very different. A reactionary spirit, however, +arose at Rome. The doctrine of exclusive salvation supplied +its intellectual basis; the political and organising genius of +the Roman ecclesiastics impelled them to reduce belief into +a rigid form; the genius of St. Gregory guided the movement,<note place='foot'>Tradition has pronounced Gregory +the Great to have been the +destroyer of the Palatine library, +and to have been especially zealous +in burning the writings of Livy, +because they described the achievements +of the Pagan gods. For +these charges, however (which I +am sorry to find repeated by so +eminent a writer as Dr. Draper), +there is no real evidence, for they +are not found in any writer earlier +than the twelfth century. (See +Bayle, <hi rend='italic'>Dict.</hi> art. <q>Greg.</q>) The extreme +contempt of Gregory for +Pagan literature is, however, sufficiently +manifested in his famous +and very curious letter to Desiderius, +Bishop of Vienne, rebuking +him for having taught certain persons +Pagan literature, and thus +mingled <q>the praises of Jupiter +with the praises of Christ;</q> doing +what would be impious even for a +religious layman, <q>polluting the +mind with the blasphemous praises +of the wicked.</q> Some curious evidence +of the feelings of the Christians +of the fourth, fifth, and sixth +centuries, about Pagan literature, +is given in Guinguené, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. littéraire +de l'Italie</hi>, tome i. p. 29-31, +and some legends of a later period +are candidly related by one of the +most enthusiastic English advocates +of the Middle Ages. (Maitland, +<hi rend='italic'>Dark Ages</hi>.)</note> +and a series of historical events, of which the ecclesiastical +and political separation of the Western empire from the +speculative Greeks, and the invasion and conversion of the +barbarians, were the most important, definitely established +the ascendancy of the Catholic type. In the convulsions +that followed the barbarian invasions, intellectual energy of +a secular kind almost absolutely ceased. A parting gleam +issued, indeed, in the sixth century, from the Court of Theodoric, +at Ravenna, which was adorned by the genius of +<pb n='202'/><anchor id='Pg202'/> +Boëthius, and the talent of Cassiodorus and Symmachus, +but after this time, for a long period, literature consisted +almost exclusively of sermons and lives of saints, which +were composed in the monasteries.<note place='foot'>Probably the best account of +the intellectual history of these +times is still to be found in the admirable +introductory chapters with +which the Benedictines prefaced +each century of their <hi rend='italic'>Hist. littéraire +de la France</hi>. The Benedictines +think (with Hallam) that the +eighth century was, on the whole, +the darkest on the continent, though +England attained its lowest point +somewhat later. Of the great protectors +of learning Theodoric was +unable to write (see Guinguené, +tome i. p. 31), and Charlemagne +(Eginhard) only began to learn +when advanced in life, and was +never quite able to master the accomplishment. +Alfred, however, +was distinguished in literature.</note> Gregory of Tours +was succeeded as an annalist by the still feebler Fredegarius, +and there was then a long and absolute blank. A +few outlying countries showed some faint animation. St. +Leander and St. Isidore planted at Seville a school, which +flourished in the seventh century, and the distant monasteries +of Ireland continued somewhat later to be the +receptacles of learning; but the rest of Europe sank into an +almost absolute torpor, till the rationalism of Abelard, and +the events that followed the crusades, began the revival of +learning. The principal service which Catholicism rendered +during this period to Pagan literature was probably the perpetuation +of Latin as a sacred language. The complete +absence of all curiosity about that literature is shown by the +fact that Greek was suffered to become almost absolutely +extinct, though there was no time when the Western nations +had not some relations with the Greek empire, or when +pilgrimages to the Holy Land altogether ceased. The study +of the Latin classics was for the most part positively discouraged. +The writers, it was believed, were burning in +hell; the monks were too inflated with their imaginary +knowledge to regard with any respect a Pagan writer, and +periodical panics about the approaching termination of the +<pb n='203'/><anchor id='Pg203'/> +world continually checked any desire for secular learning.<note place='foot'>The belief that the world was +just about to end was, as is well +known, very general among the +early Christians, and greatly +affected their lives. It appears in +the New Testament, and very +clearly in the epistle ascribed to +Barnabas in the first century. The +persecutions of the second and +third centuries revived it, and both +Tertullian and Cyprian (<hi rend='italic'>in Demetrianum</hi>) +strongly assert it. With +the triumph of Christianity the +apprehension for a time subsided; +but it reappeared with great force +when the dissolution of the Empire +was manifestly impending, when it +was accomplished, and in the prolonged +anarchy and suffering that +ensued. Gregory of Tours, writing +in the latter part of the sixth century, +speaks of it as very prevalent +(<hi rend='italic'>Prologue to the First Book</hi>); and +St. Gregory the Great, about the +same time, constantly expresses it. +The panic that filled Europe at the +end of the tenth century has been +often described.</note> +It was the custom among some monks, when they were under +the discipline of silence, and desired to ask for Virgil, Horace, +or any other Gentile work, to indicate their wish by scratching +their ears like a dog, to which animal it was thought the +Pagans might be reasonably compared.<note place='foot'>Maitland's <hi rend='italic'>Dark Ages</hi>, p. 403.</note> The monasteries +contained, it is said, during some time, the only libraries in +Europe, and were therefore the sole receptacles of the Pagan +manuscripts; but we cannot infer from this that, if the +monasteries had not existed, similar libraries would not have +been called into being in their place. To the occasional +industry of the monks, in copying the works of antiquity, +we must oppose the industry they displayed, though chiefly +at a somewhat later period, in scraping the ancient parchments, +in order that, having obliterated the writing of the +Pagans, they might cover them with their own legends.<note place='foot'>This passion for scraping +MSS. became common, according to +Montfaucon, after the twelfth century. +(Maitland, p. 40.) According +to Hallam, however (<hi rend='italic'>Middle Ages</hi>, +ch. ix. part i.), it must have begun +earlier, being chiefly caused by the +cessation or great diminution of +the supply of Egyptian papyrus, +in consequence of the capture of +Alexandria by the Saracens, early +in the seventh century.</note> +</p> + +<p> +There are some aspects, however, in which the monastic +period of literature appears eminently beautiful. The fretfulness +<pb n='204'/><anchor id='Pg204'/> +and impatience and extreme tension of modern literary +life, the many anxieties that paralyse, and the feverish craving +for applause that perverts, so many noble intellects, were +then unknown. Severed from all the cares of active life, in +the deep calm of the monastery, where the turmoil of the +outer world could never come, the monkish scholar pursued +his studies in a spirit which has now almost faded from the +world. No doubt had ever disturbed his mind. To him the +problem of the universe seemed solved. Expatiating for ever +with unfaltering faith upon the unseen world, he had learnt +to live for it alone. His hopes were not fixed upon human +greatness or fame, but upon the pardon of his sins, and the +rewards of a happier world. A crowd of quaint and often +beautiful legends illustrate the deep union that subsisted +between literature and religion. It is related of Cædmon, +the first great poet of the Anglo-Saxons, that he found in the +secular life no vent for his hidden genius. When the warriors +assembled at their banquets, sang in turn the praises of +war or beauty, as the instrument passed to him, he rose and +went out with a sad heart, for he alone was unable to weave +his thoughts in verse. Wearied and desponding he lay down +to rest, when a figure appeared to him in his dream and commanded +him to sing the Creation of the World. A transport +of religious fervour thrilled his brain, his imprisoned +intellect was unlocked, and he soon became the foremost +poet of his land.<note place='foot'>Bede, <hi rend='italic'>H. E.</hi> iv. 24.</note> A Spanish boy, having long tried in vain +to master his task, and driven to despair by the severity of +his teacher, ran away from his father's home. Tired with +wandering, and full of anxious thoughts, he sat down to rest +by the margin of a well, when his eye was caught by the +deep furrow in the stone. He asked a girl who was drawing +water to explain it, and she told him that it had been worn +by the constant attrition of the rope. The poor boy, who +<pb n='205'/><anchor id='Pg205'/> +was already full of remorse for what he had done, recognised +in the reply a Divine intimation. <q>If,</q> he thought, <q>by daily +use the soft rope could thus penetrate the hard stone, surely +a long perseverance could overcome the dulness of my +brain.</q> He returned to his father's house; he laboured with +redoubled earnestness, and he lived to be the great St. Isidore +of Spain.<note place='foot'>Mariana, <hi rend='italic'>De Rebus Hispaniæ</hi>, +vi. 7. Mariana says the stone was +in his time preserved as a relic.</note> A monk who had led a vicious life was saved, it +is said, from hell, because it was found that his sins, though +very numerous, were just outnumbered by the letters of a +ponderous and devout book he had written.<note place='foot'>Odericus Vitalis, quoted by +Maitland (<hi rend='italic'>Dark Ages</hi>, pp. 268-269). +The monk was restored to life that +he might have an opportunity of +reformation. The escape was a +narrow one, for there was only one +letter against which no sin could +be adduced—a remarkable instance +of the advantages of a diffuse style.</note> The Holy +Spirit, in the shape of a dove, had been seen to inspire St. +Gregory; and the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, and of +several other theologians, had been expressly applauded by +Christ or by his saints. When, twenty years after death, the +tomb of a certain monkish writer was opened, it was found +that, although the remainder of the body had crumbled into +dust, the hand that had held the pen remained flexible and +undecayed.<note place='foot'>Digby, <hi rend='italic'>Mores Catholici</hi>, book +x. p. 246. Matthew of Westminster +tells of a certain king who was +very charitable, and whose right +hand (which had assuaged many +sorrows) remained undecayed after +death (<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 644).</note> A young and nameless scholar was once buried +near a convent at Bonn. The night after his funeral, a nun +whose cell overlooked the cemetery was awakened by a brilliant +light that filled the room. She started up, imagining +that the day had dawned, but on looking out she found that +it was still night, though a dazzling splendour was around. +A female form of matchless loveliness was bending over the +scholar's grave. The effluence of her beauty filled the air +with light, and she clasped to her heart a snow-white dove +that rose to meet her from the tomb. It was the Mother of +<pb n='206'/><anchor id='Pg206'/> +God come to receive the soul of the martyred scholar; <q>for +scholars too,</q> adds the old chronicler, <q>are martyrs if they +live in purity and labour with courage.</q><note place='foot'>See Hauréau, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de la Philosophie scolastique</hi>, tome i. pp. 24-25.</note> +</p> + +<p> +But legends of this kind, though not without a very +real beauty, must not blind us to the fact that the period of +Catholic ascendancy was on the whole one of the most +deplorable in the history of the human mind. The energies +of Christendom were diverted from all useful and progressive +studies, and were wholly expended on theological disquisitions. +A crowd of superstitions, attributed to infallible wisdom, +barred the path of knowledge, and the charge of magic, +or the charge of heresy, crushed every bold enquiry in the +sphere of physical nature or of opinions. Above all, the +conditions of true enquiry had been cursed by the Church. +A blind unquestioning credulity was inculcated as the first +of duties, and the habit of doubt, the impartiality of a suspended +judgment, the desire to hear both sides of a disputed +question, and to emancipate the judgment from unreasoning +prejudice, were all in consequence condemned. The belief +in the guilt of error and doubt became universal, and that +belief may be confidently pronounced to be the most pernicious +superstition that has ever been accredited among mankind. +Mistaken facts are rectified by enquiry. Mistaken +methods of research, though far more inveterate, are gradually +altered; but the spirit that shrinks from enquiry as +sinful, and deems a state of doubt a state of guilt, is the most +enduring disease that can afflict the mind of man. Not till +the education of Europe passed from the monasteries to the +universities, not till Mohammedan science, and classical free-thought, +and industrial independence broke the sceptre of +the Church, did the intellectual revival of Europe begin. +</p> + +<p> +I am aware that so strong a statement of the intellectual +darkness of the middle ages is likely to encounter opposition +<pb n='207'/><anchor id='Pg207'/> +from many quarters. The blindness which the philosophers +of the eighteenth century manifested to their better side has +produced a reaction which has led many to an opposite, and, +I believe, far more erroneous extreme. Some have become +eulogists of the period, through love of its distinctive theological +doctrines, and others through archæological enthusiasm, +while a very pretentious and dogmatic, but, I think, sometimes +superficial, school of writers, who loudly boast themselves the +regenerators of history, and treat with supreme contempt +all the varieties of theological opinion, are accustomed, partly +through a very shallow historical optimism which scarcely +admits the possibility of retrogression, and partly through +sympathy with the despotic character of Catholicism, to +extol the mediæval society in the most extravagant terms. +Without entering into a lengthy examination of this subject, +I may be permitted to indicate shortly two or three +fallacies which are continually displayed in their appreciations. +</p> + +<p> +It is an undoubted truth that, for a considerable period, +almost all the knowledge of Europe was included in the +monasteries, and from this it is continually inferred that, +had these institutions not existed, knowledge would have +been absolutely extinguished. But such a conclusion I conceive +to be altogether untrue. During the period of the +Pagan empire, intellectual life had been diffused over a vast +portion of the globe. Egypt and Asia Minor had become +great centres of civilisation. Greece was still a land of +learning. Spain, Gaul, and even Britain,<note place='foot'>On the progress of Roman civilisation in Britain, see Tacitus, +<hi rend='italic'>Agricola</hi>, xxi.</note> were full of +libraries and teachers. The schools of Narbonne, Arles, +Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyons, Marseilles, Poitiers, and Trèves +were already famous. The Christian emperor Gratian, in +<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 376, carried out in Gaul a system similar to that which +<pb n='208'/><anchor id='Pg208'/> +had already, under the Antonines, been pursued in Italy, +ordaining that teachers should be supported by the State in +every leading city.<note place='foot'>See the Benedictine <hi rend='italic'>Hist. littér. de la France</hi>, tome i. part ii. p. 9.</note> To suppose that Latin literature, +having been so widely diffused, could have totally perished, +or that all interest in it could have permanently ceased, even +under the extremely unfavourable circumstances that followed +the downfall of the Roman Empire and the Mohammedan +invasions, is, I conceive, absurd. If Catholicism had never +existed, the human mind would have sought other spheres +for its development, and at least a part of the treasures of +antiquity would have been preserved in other ways. The +monasteries, as corporations of peaceful men protected from +the incursions of the barbarians, became very naturally the +reservoirs to which the streams of literature flowed; but +much of what they are represented as creating, they had in +reality only attracted. The inviolable sanctity which they +secured rendered them invaluable receptacles of ancient +learning in a period of anarchy and perpetual war, and the +industry of the monks in transcribing, probably more than +counterbalanced their industry in effacing, the classical +writings. The ecclesiastical unity of Christendom was also +of extreme importance in rendering possible a general interchange +of ideas. Whether these services outweighed the +intellectual evils resulting from the complete diversion of the +human mind from all secular learning, and from the persistent +inculcation, as a matter of duty, of that habit of +abject credulity which it is the first task of the intellectual +reformer to eradicate, may be reasonably doubted. +</p> + +<p> +It is not unfrequent, again, to hear the preceding fallacy +stated in a somewhat different form. We are reminded that +almost all the men of genius during several centuries were +great theologians, and we are asked to conceive the more +than Egyptian darkness that would have prevailed had the +<pb n='209'/><anchor id='Pg209'/> +Catholic theology which produced them not existed. This +judgment resembles that of the prisoner in a famous passage +of Cicero, who, having spent his entire life in a dark dungeon, +and knowing the light of day only from a single ray which +passed through a fissure in the wall, inferred that if the +wall were removed, as the fissure would no longer exist, all +light would be excluded. Mediæval Catholicism discouraged +and suppressed in every way secular studies, while it conferred +a monopoly of wealth and honour and power upon +the distinguished theologian. Very naturally, therefore, it +attracted into the path of theology the genius that would +have existed without it, but would under other circumstances +have been displayed in other forms. +</p> + +<p> +It is not to be inferred, however, from this, that mediæval +Catholicism had not, in the sphere of intellect, any real +creative power. A great moral or religious enthusiasm +always evokes a certain amount of genius that would not +otherwise have existed, or at least been displayed, and the +monasteries were peculiarly fitted to develop certain casts +of mind, which in no other sphere could have so perfectly +expanded. The great writings of St. Thomas Aquinas<note place='foot'>A biographer of St. Thomas +Aquinas modestly observes:—<q>L'opinion +généralement répandue +parmi les théologiens c'est que la +<hi rend='italic'>Somme de Théologie</hi> de St. Thomas +est non-seulement son chef-d'œuvre +mais aussi celui de l'esprit humain.</q> +(!!)—Carle, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de St.-Thomas +d'Aquin</hi>, p. 140.</note> and +his followers, and, in more modern times, the massive and +conscientious erudition of the Benedictines, will always make +certain periods of the monastic history venerable to the +scholar. But, when we remember that during many +centuries nearly every one possessing any literary taste or +talents became a monk, when we recollect that these monks +were familiar with the language, and might easily have been +familiar with the noble literature, of ancient Rome, and when +<pb n='210'/><anchor id='Pg210'/> +we also consider the mode of their life, which would seem, +from its freedom from care, and from the very monotony of its +routine, peculiarly calculated to impel them to study, we +can hardly fail to wonder how very little of any real value +they added, for so long a period, to the knowledge of mankind. +It is indeed a remarkable fact that, even in the ages +when the Catholic ascendancy was most perfect, some of the +greatest achievements were either opposed or simply external +to ecclesiastical influence. Roger Bacon, having been a monk, +is frequently spoken of as a creature of Catholic teaching. +But there never was a more striking instance of the force of +a great genius in resisting the tendencies of his age. At a +time when physical science was continually neglected, discouraged, +or condemned, at a time when all the great prizes +of the world were open to men who pursued a very different +course, Bacon applied himself with transcendent genius to +the study of nature. Fourteen years of his life were spent +in prison, and when he died his name was blasted as a +magician. The mediæval laboratories were chiefly due to +the pursuit of alchemy, or to Mohammedan encouragement. +The inventions of the mariner's compass, of gunpowder, and +of rag paper were all, indeed, of extreme importance; but no +part of the credit of them belongs to the monks. Their +origin is involved in much obscurity, but it is almost certain +that the last two, at all events, were first employed in Europe +by the Mohammedans of Spain. Cotton paper was in use +among these as early as 1009. Among the Christian nations +it appears to have been unknown till late in the thirteenth +century. The first instance of the employment of artillery +among Christian nations was at the battle of Crecy, but the +knowledge of gunpowder among them has been traced back +as far as 1338. There is abundant evidence, however, of its +employment in Spain by Mohammedans in several sieges in +the thirteenth century, and even in a battle between the +Moors of Seville and those of Tunis at the end of the eleventh +<pb n='211'/><anchor id='Pg211'/> +century.<note place='foot'>See Viardot, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des Arabes +en Espagne</hi>, ii. 142-166. Prescott's +<hi rend='italic'>Ferdinand and Isabella</hi>, ch. viii. +Viardot contends that the compass—which +appears to have been long +known in China—was first introduced +into Europe by the Mohammedans; +but the evidence of this +appears inconclusive.</note> In invention, indeed, as well as in original research, +the mediæval monasteries were singularly barren. They +cultivated formal logic to great perfection. They produced +many patient and laborious, though, for the most part, +wholly uncritical scholars, and many philosophers who, +having assumed their premises with unfaltering faith, reasoned +from them with admirable subtlety; but they taught men to +regard the sacrifice of secular learning as a noble thing; they +impressed upon them a theory of the habitual government +of the universe, which is absolutely untrue; and they diffused, +wherever their influence extended, habits of credulity and +intolerance that are the most deadly poisons to the human +mind. +</p> + +<p> +It is, again, very frequently observed among the more +philosophic eulogists of the mediæval period, that although +the Catholic Church is a trammel and an obstacle to the +progress of civilised nations, although it would be scarcely +possible to exaggerate the misery her persecuting spirit caused, +when the human mind had outstripped her teaching; yet +there was a time when she was greatly in advance of the +age, and the complete and absolute ascendancy she then +exercised was intellectually eminently beneficial. That there +is much truth in this view, I have myself repeatedly maintained. +But when men proceed to isolate the former period, +and to make it the theme of unqualified eulogy, they fall, I +think, into a grave error. The evils that sprang from the +later period of Catholic ascendancy were not an accident or +a perversion, but a normal and necessary consequence of the +previous despotism. The principles which were imposed +on the mediæval world, and which were the conditions of so +<pb n='212'/><anchor id='Pg212'/> +much of its distinctive excellence, were of such a nature that +they claimed to be final, and could not possibly be discarded +without a struggle and a convulsion. We must estimate +the influence of these principles considered as a whole, and +during the entire period of their operation. There are some +poisons which, before they kill men, allay pain and diffuse +a soothing sensation through the frame. We may recognise +the hour of enjoyment they procure, but we must not separate +it from the price at which it is purchased. +</p> + +<p> +The extremely unfavourable influence the Catholic +Church long exercised upon intellectual development had +important moral consequences. Although moral progress +does not necessarily depend upon intellectual progress it is +materially affected by it, intellectual activity being the most +important element in the growth of that great and complex +organism which we call civilisation. The mediæval +credulity had also a more direct moral influence in producing +that indifference to truth, which is the most repulsive +feature of so many Catholic writings. The very large +part that must be assigned to deliberate forgeries in the early +apologetic literature of the Church we have already seen; and +no impartial reader can, I think, investigate the innumerable +grotesque and lying legends that, during the whole course of +the Middle Ages, were deliberately palmed upon mankind as +undoubted facts, can follow the histories of the false decretals, +and the discussions that were connected with them, or can +observe the complete and absolute incapacity most Catholic +historians have displayed, of conceiving any good thing in the +ranks of their opponents, or of stating with common fairness +any consideration that can tell against their cause, without +acknowledging how serious and how inveterate has been the +evil. There have, no doubt, been many noble individual exceptions. +Yet it is, I believe, difficult to exaggerate the +extent to which this moral defect exists in most of the ancient +and very much of the modern literature of Catholicism. It +<pb n='213'/><anchor id='Pg213'/> +is this which makes it so unspeakably repulsive to all independent +and impartial thinkers, and has led a great German +historian<note place='foot'>Herder.</note> to declare, with much bitterness, that the phrase +Christian veracity deserves to rank with the phrase Punic +faith. But this absolute indifference to truth whenever +falsehood could subserve the interests of the Church is perfectly +explicable, and was found in multitudes who, in other +respects, exhibited the noblest virtue. An age which has +ceased to value impartiality of judgment will soon cease to +value accuracy of statement; and when credulity is inculcated +as a virtue, falsehood will not long be stigmatised as a vice. +When, too, men are firmly convinced that salvation can only +be found within their Church, and that their Church can absolve +from all guilt, they will speedily conclude that nothing +can possibly be wrong which is beneficial to it. They exchange +the love of truth for what they call the love of <emph>the</emph> +truth. They regard morals as derived from and subordinate +to theology, and they regulate all their statements, not by the +standard of veracity, but by the interests of their creed. +</p> + +<p> +Another important moral consequence of the monastic +system was the great prominence given to pecuniary compensations +for crime. It had been at first one of the broad +distinctions between Paganism and Christianity, that, while +the rites of the former were for the most part unconnected +with moral dispositions, Christianity made purity of heart an +essential element of all its worship. Among the Pagans a +few faint efforts had, it is true, been made in this direction. +An old precept or law, which is referred to by Cicero, and +which was strongly reiterated by Apollonius of Tyana, and +the Pythagoreans, declared that <q>no impious man should +dare to appease the anger of the divinities by gifts;</q><note place='foot'><q>Impius ne audeto placare +donis iram Deorum.</q>—Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De +Leg.</hi> ii. 9. See, too, Philost. +<hi rend='italic'>Apoll. Tyan.</hi> i. 11.</note> and +oracles are said to have more than once proclaimed that the +<pb n='214'/><anchor id='Pg214'/> +hecatombs of noble oxen with gilded horns that were offered +up ostentatiously by the rich, were less pleasing to the gods +than the wreaths of flowers and the modest and reverential +worship of the poor.<note place='foot'>There are three or four instances of this related by Porphyry, +<hi rend='italic'>De Abstin. Carnis</hi>, lib. ii.</note> In general, however, in the Pagan +world, the service of the temple had little or no connection +with morals, and the change which Christianity effected in +this respect was one of its most important benefits to mankind. +It was natural, however, and perhaps inevitable, that +in the course of time, and under the action of very various +causes, the old Pagan sentiment should revive, and even with +an increased intensity. In no respect had the Christians +been more nobly distinguished than by their charity. It was +not surprising that the Fathers, while exerting all their eloquence +to stimulate this virtue—especially during the calamities +that accompanied the dissolution of the Empire—should +have dilated in extremely strong terms upon the spiritual +benefits the donor would receive for his gift. It is also not +surprising that this selfish calculation should gradually, and +among hard and ignorant men, have absorbed all other motives. +A curious legend, which is related by a writer of the +seventh century, illustrates the kind of feeling that had arisen. +The Christian bishop Synesius succeeded in converting a +Pagan named Evagrius, who for a long time, however, felt +doubts about the passage, <q>He who giveth to the poor +lendeth to the Lord.</q> On his conversion, and in obedience +to this verse, he gave Synesius three hundred pieces of gold +to be distributed among the poor; but he exacted from the +bishop, as the representative of Christ, a promissory note, +engaging that he should be repaid in the future world. +Many years later, Evagrius, being on his death-bed, commanded +his sons, when they buried him, to place the note in +his hand, and to do so without informing Synesius. His +<pb n='215'/><anchor id='Pg215'/> +dying injunction was observed, and three days afterwards he +appeared to Synesius in a dream, told him that the debt had +been paid, and ordered him to go to the tomb, where he would +find a written receipt. Synesius did as he was commanded, +and, the grave being opened, the promissory note was found +in the hand of the dead man, with an endorsement declaring +that the debt had been paid by Christ. The note, it was said, +was long after preserved as a relic in the church of Cyrene. +</p> + +<p> +The kind of feeling which this legend displays was soon +turned with tenfold force into the channel of monastic life. +A law of Constantine accorded, and several later laws enlarged, +the power of bequests to ecclesiastics. Ecclesiastical +property was at the same time exonerated from the public +burdens, and this measure not only directly assisted its increase, +but had also an important indirect influence; for, when +taxation was heavy, many laymen ceded the ownership of +their estates to the monasteries, with a secret condition that +they should, as vassals, receive the revenues unburdened by +taxation, and subject only to a slight payment to the monks +as to their feudal lords.<note place='foot'>Muratori, <hi rend='italic'>Antich. Italiane</hi>, +diss. lxvii.</note> The monks were regarded as the +trustees of the poor, and also as themselves typical poor, and +all the promises that applied to those who gave to the poor +applied, it was said, to the benefactors of the monasteries. +The monastic chapel also contained the relics of saints or +sacred images of miraculous power, and throngs of worshippers +<pb n='216'/><anchor id='Pg216'/> +were attracted by the miracles, and desired to place themselves +under the protection, of the saint. It is no exaggeration +to say that to give money to the priests was for several +centuries the first article of the moral code. Political minds +may have felt the importance of aggrandising a pacific and +industrious class in the centre of a disorganised society, and +family affection may have predisposed many in favour of institutions +which contained at least one member of most +families; but in the overwhelming majority of cases the motive +was simple superstition. In seasons of sickness, of +danger, of sorrow, or of remorse, whenever the fear or the +conscience of the worshipper was awakened, he hastened to +purchase with money the favour of a saint. Above all, in +the hour of death, when the terrors of the future world +loomed darkly upon his mind, he saw in a gift or legacy to +the monks a sure means of effacing the most monstrous +crimes, and securing his ultimate happiness. A rich man +was soon scarcely deemed a Christian if he did not leave a +portion of his property to the Church, and the charters of innumerable +monasteries in every part of Europe attest the +vast tracts of land that were ceded by will to the monks, <q>for +the benefit of the soul</q> of the testator.<note place='foot'>See, on the causes of the wealth +of the monasteries, two admirable +dissertations by Muratori, <hi rend='italic'>Antich. +Italiane</hi>, lxvii., lxviii.; Hallam's +<hi rend='italic'>Middle Ages</hi>, ch. vii. part i.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It has been observed by a great historian that we may +trace three distinct phases in the early history of the Church. +In the first period religion was a question of morals; in the +second period, which culminated in the fifth century, it had +become a question of orthodoxy; in the third period, which +dates from the seventh century, it was a question of munificence +to monasteries.<note place='foot'><q>Lors de l'établissement du +christianisme la religion avoit essentiellement +consisté dans l'enseignement +moral; elle avoit exercé les +cœurs et les âmes par la recherche +de ce qui étoit vraiment beau, vraiment +honnête. Au cinquième siècle +on l'avoit surtout attachée à l'orthodoxie, +au septième on l'avoit réduite à la bienfaisance envers les +couvens.</q>—Sismondi, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des +Français</hi>, tome ii. p. 50.</note> The despotism of Catholicism, and +<pb n='217'/><anchor id='Pg217'/> +the ignorance that followed the barbarian invasions, had repressed +the struggles of heresy, and in the period of almost +absolute darkness that continued from the sixth to the +twelfth century, the theological ideal of unquestioning faith +and of perfect unanimity was all but realised in the West. +All the energy that in previous ages had been expended in +combating heresy was now expended in acquiring wealth. +The people compounded for the most atrocious crimes by gifts +to shrines of those saints whose intercession was supposed to +be unfailing. The monks, partly by the natural cessation of +their old enthusiasm, partly by the absence of any hostile +criticism of their acts, and partly too by the very wealth +they had acquired, sank into gross and general immorality. +The great majority of them had probably at no time been +either saints actuated by a strong religious motive, nor yet +diseased and desponding minds seeking a refuge from the +world; they had been simply peasants, of no extraordinary +devotion or sensitiveness, who preferred an ensured subsistence, +with no care, little labour, a much higher social position +than they could otherwise acquire, and the certainty, as they +believed, of going to heaven, to the laborious and precarious +existence of the serf, relieved, indeed, by the privilege of +marriage, but exposed to military service, to extreme hardships, +and to constant oppression. Very naturally, when +they could do so with impunity, they broke their vows of +chastity. Very naturally, too, they availed themselves to the +full of the condition of affairs, to draw as much wealth as +possible into their community.<note place='foot'>Mr. Hallam, speaking of the +legends of the miracles of saints, +says: <q>It must not be supposed +that these absurdities were produced +as well as nourished by ignorance. +In most cases they were +the work of deliberate imposture. +Every cathedral or monastery had +its tutelar saint, and every saint +his legend, fabricated in order to +enrich the churches under his protection, +by exaggerating his virtues, +his miracles, and consequently his +power of serving those who paid +liberally for his patronage.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Middle +Ages</hi>, ch. ix. part i. I do not +think this passage makes sufficient +allowance for the unconscious formation +of many saintly myths, but +no impartial person can doubt its +substantial truth.</note> The belief in the approaching +<pb n='218'/><anchor id='Pg218'/> +end of the world, especially at the close of the tenth century, +the crusades, which gave rise to a profitable traffic in the +form of a pecuniary commutation of vows, and the black +death, which produced a paroxysm of religious fanaticism, +stimulated the movement. In the monkish chronicles, the +merits of sovereigns are almost exclusively judged by their +bounty to the Church, and in some cases this is the sole part +of their policy which has been preserved.<note place='foot'>Sismondi, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des Français</hi>, +tome ii. pp. 54, 62-63.</note> +</p> + +<p> +There were, no doubt, a few redeeming points in this dark +period. The Irish monks are said to have been honourably +distinguished for their reluctance to accept the lavish donations +of their admirers,<note place='foot'>Milman's <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Latin Christianity</hi>, +vol. ii. p. 257.</note> and some missionary monasteries of +a high order of excellence were scattered through Europe. +A few legends, too, may be cited censuring the facility with +which money acquired by crime was accepted as an atonement +for crime.<note place='foot'><p>Durandus, a French bishop of +the thirteenth century, tells how, +<q>when a certain bishop was consecrating +a church built out of the +fruits of usury and pillage, he saw +behind the altar the devil in a pontifical +vestment, standing at the +bishop's throne, who said unto the +bishop, <q>Cease from consecrating +the church; for it pertaineth to +my jurisdiction, since it is built +from the fruits of usuries and robberies.</q> +Then the bishop and the +clergy having fled thence in fear, +immediately the devil destroyed +that church with a great noise.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Rationale +Divinorum</hi>, i. 6 (translated +for the Camden Society). +</p> +<p> +A certain St. Launomar is said +to have refused a gift for his monastery +from a rapacious noble, +because he was sure it was derived +from pillage. (Montalembert's +<hi rend='italic'>Moines d'Occident</hi>, tome ii. +pp. 350-351.) When prostitutes +were converted in the early Church, +it was the rule that the money of +which they had become possessed +should never be applied to ecclesiastical +purposes, but should be +distributed among the poor.</p></note> But these cases were very rare, and the religious +history of several centuries is little more than a history of +the rapacity of priests and of the credulity of laymen. In +<pb n='219'/><anchor id='Pg219'/> +England, the perpetual demands of the Pope excited a fierce +resentment; and we may trace with remarkable clearness, +in every page of Matthew Paris, the alienation of sympathy +arising from this cause, which prepared and foreshadowed +the final rupture of England from the Church. Ireland, on +the other hand, had been given over by two Popes to the +English invader, on the condition of the payment of Peter's +pence. The outrageous and notorious immorality of the +monasteries, during the century before the Reformation, was +chiefly due to their great wealth; and that immorality, as +the writings of Erasmus and Ulric von Hutten show, gave a +powerful impulse to the new movement, while the abuses of +the indulgences were the immediate cause of the revolt of +Luther. But these things arrived only after many centuries +of successful fraud. The religious terrorism that was unscrupulously +employed had done its work, and the chief riches of +Christendom had passed into the coffers of the Church. +</p> + +<p> +It is, indeed, probable that religious terrorism played a +more important part in the monastic phase of Christianity +than it had done even in the great work of the conversion +of the Pagans. Although two or three amiable theologians +had made faint and altogether abortive attempts to question +the eternity of punishment; although there had been some +slight difference of opinion concerning the future of some +Pagan philosophers who had lived before the introduction of +Christianity, and also upon the question whether infants who +died unbaptised were only deprived of all joy, or were actually +subjected to never-ending agony, there was no question +as to the main features of the Catholic doctrine. According +to the patristic theologians, it was part of the gospel revelation +that the misery and suffering the human race endures +upon earth is but a feeble image of that which awaits +it in the future world; that all its members beyond the +Church, as well as a very large proportion of those who are +within its pale, are doomed to an eternity of agony in a +<pb n='220'/><anchor id='Pg220'/> +literal and undying fire. The monastic legends took up this +doctrine, which in itself is sufficiently revolting, and they +developed it with an appalling vividness and minuteness. +St. Macarius, it is said, when walking one day through the +desert, saw a skull upon the ground. He struck it with his +staff and it began to speak. It told him that it was the +skull of a Pagan priest who had lived before the introduction +of Christianity into the world, and who had accordingly been +doomed to hell. As high as the heaven is above the earth, +so high does the fire of hell mount in waves above the souls +that are plunged into it. The damned souls were pressed +together back to back, and the lost priest made it his single +entreaty to the saint that he would pray that they might +be turned face to face, for he believed that the sight of a +brother's face might afford him some faint consolation in the +eternity of agony that was before him.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Verba Seniorum</hi>, Prol. § 172.</note> The story is well +known of how St. Gregory, seeing on a bas-relief a representation +of the goodness of Trajan to a poor widow, pitied the +Pagan emperor, whom he knew to be in hell, and prayed +that he might be released. He was told that his prayer was +altogether unprecedented; but at last, on his promising that +he would never offer such a prayer again, it was partially +granted. Trajan was not withdrawn from hell, but he was +freed from the torments which the remainder of the Pagan +world endured.<note place='foot'>This vision is not related by +St. Gregory himself, and some +Catholics are perplexed about it, on +account of the vision of another +saint, who afterwards asked whether +Trajan was saved, and received +for answer, <q>I wish men to rest in +ignorance of this subject, that the +Catholics may become stronger. +For this emperor, though he had +great virtues, was an unbaptised +infidel.</q> The whole subject of the +vision of St. Gregory is discussed +by Champagny, <hi rend='italic'>Les Antonins</hi>, tome +i. pp. 372-373. This devout writer +says, <q>Cette légende fut acceptée +par tout le moyen-âge, <emph>indulgent +pour les païens illustres</emph> et tout disposé +à les supposer chrétiens et +sauvés.</q></note> +</p> + +<p> +An entire literature of visions depicting the torments of +<pb n='221'/><anchor id='Pg221'/> +hell was soon produced by the industry of the monks. The +apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, which purported to describe +the descent of Christ into the lower world, contributed to +foster it; and St. Gregory the Great has related many visions +in a more famous work, which professed to be compiled with +scrupulous veracity from the most authentic sources,<note place='foot'>See the solemn asseveration of +the care which he took in going +only to the most credible and +authorised sources for his materials, +in the Preface to the First +Book of <hi rend='italic'>Dialogues</hi>.</note> and of +which it may be confidently averred that it scarcely contains +a single page which is not tainted with grotesque and deliberate +falsehood. Men, it was said, passed into a trance or +temporary death, and were then carried for a time to hell. +Among others, a certain man named Stephen, from whose +lips the saint declares that he had heard the tale, had died +by mistake. When his soul was borne to the gates of hell, +the Judge declared that it was another Stephen who was +wanted; the disembodied spirit, after inspecting hell, was +restored to its former body, and the next day it was known +that another Stephen had died.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Dial.</hi> iv. 36.</note> Volcanoes were the portals +of hell, and a hermit had seen the soul of the Arian emperor +Theodoric, as St. Eucherius afterwards did the soul of +Charles Martel, carried down that in the Island of Lipari.<note place='foot'>Ibid. iv. 30.</note> +The craters in Sicily, it was remarked, were continually +agitated, and continually increasing, and this, as St. Gregory +observes, was probably due to the impending ruin of the +world, when the great press of lost souls would render it +necessary to enlarge the approaches to their prisons.<note place='foot'>Ibid. iv. 35.</note> +</p> + +<p> +But the glimpses of hell that are furnished in the <q>Dialogues</q> +of St. Gregory appear meagre and unimaginative, +compared with those of some later monks. A long series +of monastic visions, of which that of St. Fursey, in the +seventh century, was one of the first, and which followed +<pb n='222'/><anchor id='Pg222'/> +in rapid succession, till that of Tundale, in the twelfth +century, professed to describe with the most detailed accuracy +the condition of the lost.<note place='foot'>The fullest collection of these +visions with which I am acquainted +is that made for the Philobiblion +Society (vol. ix.), by M. Delepierre, +called <hi rend='italic'>L'Enfer décrit par ceux qui +l'ont vu</hi>, of which I have largely +availed myself. See, too, Rusca <hi rend='italic'>De +Inferno</hi>, Wright's <hi rend='italic'>Purgatory of St. +Patrick</hi>, and an interesting collection +of visions given by Mr. Longfellow, +in his translation of Dante. The Irish +saints were, I am sorry to say, prominent +in producing this branch of +literature. St. Fursey, whose vision +is one of the earliest, and Tondale, +or Tundale, whose vision is one of +the most detailed, were both Irish. +The English historians contain +several of these visions. Bede relates +two or three—William of +Malmesbury that of Charles the +Fat; Matthew Paris three visions +of purgatory.</note> It is impossible to conceive more +ghastly, grotesque, and material conceptions of the future +world than they evince, or more hideous calumnies against +that Being who was supposed to inflict upon His creatures +such unspeakable misery. The devil was represented bound +by red-hot chains, on a burning gridiron in the centre of +hell. The screams of his never-ending agony made its rafters +to resound; but his hands were free, and with these he +seized the lost souls, crushed them like grapes against his +teeth, and then drew them by his breath down the fiery +cavern of his throat. Dæmons with hooks of red-hot +iron plunged souls alternately into fire and ice. Some of +the lost were hung up by their tongues, others were sawn +asunder, others gnawed by serpents, others beaten together on +an anvil and welded into a single mass, others boiled and +then strained through a cloth, others twined in the embraces +of dæmons whose limbs were of flame. The fire of earth, +it was said, was but a picture of that of hell. The latter was +so immeasurably more intense that it alone could be called +real. Sulphur was mixed with it, partly to increase its +heat, and partly, too, in order that an insufferable stench +might be added to the misery of the lost, while, unlike +other flames, it emitted, according to some visions, no light, +<pb n='223'/><anchor id='Pg223'/> +that the horror of darkness might be added to the horror of +pain. A narrow bridge spanned the abyss, and from it the +souls of sinners were plunged into the darkness that was +below.<note place='foot'>The narrow bridge over hell +(in some visions covered with +spikes), which is a conspicuous +feature in the Mohammedan pictures +of the future world, appears +very often in Catholic visions. See +Greg. Tur. iv. 33; St. Greg. <hi rend='italic'>Dial.</hi> +iv. 36; and the vision of Tundale, +in Delepierre.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Such catalogues of horrors, though they now awake in an +educated man a sentiment of mingled disgust, weariness, and +contempt, were able for many centuries to create a degree of +panic and of misery we can scarcely realise. With the +exception of the heretic Pelagius, whose noble genius, anticipating +the discoveries of modern science, had repudiated the +theological notion of death having been introduced into the +world on account of the act of Adam, it was universally +held among Christians that all the forms of suffering +and dissolution that are manifested on earth were penal +inflictions. The destruction of the world was generally believed +to be at hand. The minds of men were filled with +images of the approaching catastrophe, and innumerable +legends of visible dæmons were industriously circulated. It +was the custom then, as it is the custom now, for Catholic +priests to stain the imaginations of young children by ghastly +pictures of future misery, to imprint upon the virgin mind +atrocious images which they hoped, not unreasonably, might +prove indelible.<note place='foot'>Few Englishmen, I imagine, +are aware of the infamous publications +written with this object, that +are circulated by the Catholic +priests among the poor. I have +before me a tract <q>for children and +young persons,</q> called <hi rend='italic'>The Sight of +Hell</hi>, by the Rev. J. Furniss, C.S.S.R., +published <q>permissu superiorum,</q> +by Duffy (Dublin and London). +It is a detailed description of the +dungeons of hell, and a few sentences +may serve as a sample. <q>See! +on the middle of that red-hot floor +stands a girl; she looks about sixteen +years old. Her feet are bare. +She has neither shoes nor stockings.... +Listen! she speaks. She +says, I have been standing on this +red-hot floor for years. Day and +night my only standing-place has +been this red-hot floor.... Look +at my burnt and bleeding feet. Let +me go off this burning floor for one +moment, only for one single short +moment.... The fourth dungeon +is the boiling kettle ... in the +middle of it there is a boy.... +His eyes are burning like two burning +coals. Two long flames come +out of his ears.... Sometimes +he opens his mouth, and blazing +fire rolls out. But listen! there is +a sound like a kettle boiling.... +The blood is boiling in the scalded +veins of that boy. The brain is +boiling and bubbling in his head. +The marrow is boiling in his bones.... +The fifth dungeon is the red-hot +oven.... The little child is +in this red-hot oven. Hear how +it screams to come out. See how +it turns and twists itself about in +the fire. It beats its head against +the roof of the oven. It stamps its +little feet on the floor.... God +was very good to this child. Very +likely God saw it would get worse +and worse, and would never repent, +and so it would have to be punished +much more in hell. So God in His +mercy called it out of the world in +its early childhood.</q> If the reader +desires to follow this subject further, +he may glance over a companion +tract by the same reverend +gentleman, called <hi rend='italic'>A Terrible Judgment +on a Little Child</hi>; and also a +book on <hi rend='italic'>Hell</hi>, translated from the +Italian of Pinamonti, and with +illustrations depicting the various +tortures.</note> In hours of weakness and of sickness their +<pb n='224'/><anchor id='Pg224'/> +overwrought fancy seemed to see hideous beings hovering +around, and hell itself yawning to receive its victim. St. +Gregory describes how a monk, who, though apparently a +man of exemplary and even saintly piety, had been accustomed +secretly to eat meat, saw on his deathbed a fearful +dragon twining its tail round his body, and, with open jaws, +sucking his breath;<note place='foot'>St. Greg. <hi rend='italic'>Dial.</hi> iv. 38.</note> and how a little boy of five years old, +who had learnt from his father to repeat blasphemous words, +saw, as he lay dying, exulting dæmons who were waiting to +carry him to hell.<note place='foot'>Ibid. iv. 18.</note> To the jaundiced eye of the theologian, +all nature seemed stricken and forlorn, and its brightness and +beauty suggested no ideas but those of deception and of sin. +The redbreast, according to one popular legend, was commissioned +by the Deity to carry a drop of water to the souls of +unbaptised infants in hell, and its breast was singed in +piercing the flames.<note place='foot'>Alger's <hi rend='italic'>History of the Doctrine +of a Future Life</hi> (New York, +1866), p. 414. The ignis fatuus was +sometimes supposed to be the soul +of an unbaptised child. There is, I +believe, another Catholic legend +about the redbreast, of a very +different kind—that its breast was +stained with blood when it was +trying to pull out the thorns from +the crown of Christ.</note> In the calm, still hour of evening, +<pb n='225'/><anchor id='Pg225'/> +when the peasant boy asked why the sinking sun, as it dipped +beneath the horizon, flushed with such a glorious red, he was +answered, in the words of an old Saxon catechism, because it +is then looking into hell.<note place='foot'>Wright's <hi rend='italic'>Purgatory of St. +Patrick</hi>, p. 26. M. Delepierre +quotes a curious theory of Father +Hardouin (who is chiefly known +for his suggestion that the classics +were composed by the mediæval +monks) that the rotation of the +earth is caused by the lost souls +trying to escape from the fire that +is at the centre of the globe, climbing, +in consequence, on the inner +crust of the earth, which is the +wall of hell, and thus making the +whole revolve, as the squirrel by +climbing turns its cage! (<hi rend='italic'>L'Enfer +décrit par ceux qui l'ont vu</hi>, p. 151.)</note> +</p> + +<p> +It is related in the vision of Tundale, that as he gazed +upon the burning plains of hell, and listened to the screams +of ceaseless and hopeless agony that were wrung from the +sufferers, the cry broke from his lips, <q>Alas, Lord! what +truth is there in what I have so often heard—the earth is +filled with the mercy of God?</q><note place='foot'>Delepierre, p. 70.</note> It is, indeed, one of the +most curious things in moral history, to observe how men +who were sincerely indignant with Pagan writers for attributing +to their divinities the frailties of an occasional jealousy +or an occasional sensuality—for representing them, in a word, +like men of mingled characters and passions—have nevertheless +unscrupulously attributed to their own Divinity a degree +of cruelty which may be confidently said to transcend the +utmost barbarity of which human nature is capable. Neither +Nero nor Phalaris could have looked complacently for ever on +millions enduring the torture of fire—most of them because +of a crime which was committed, not by themselves, but by +their ancestors, or because they had adopted some mistaken +conclusion on intricate questions of history or metaphysics.<note place='foot'>Thus, in a book which was +attributed (it is said erroneously) to +Jeremy Taylor, we find two singularly +unrhetorical and unimpassioned +chapters, deliberately enumerating +the most atrocious acts +of cruelty in human history, and +maintaining that they are surpassed +by the tortures inflicted by the +Deity. A few instances will suffice. +Certain persons <q>put rings of iron, +stuck full of sharp points of needles, +about their arms and feet, in such +a manner as the prisoners could +not move without wounding themselves; +then they compassed them +about with fire, to the end that, +standing still, they might be burnt +alive, and if they stirred the sharp +points pierced their flesh.... +What, then, shall be the torment +of the damned where they shall +burn eternally without dying, and +without possibility of removing?... +Alexander, the son of Hyrcanus, +caused eight hundred to be +crucified, and whilst they were yet +alive caused their wives and children +to be murdered before their +eyes, that so they might not die +once, but many deaths. This rigour +shall not be wanting in hell.... +Mezentius tied a living body to a +dead until the putrefied exhalations +of the dead had killed the living.... +What is this in respect of +hell, when each body of the damned +is more loathsome and unsavoury +than a million of dead dogs?... +Bonaventure says, if one of the +damned were brought into this +world it were sufficient to infect +the whole earth.... We are +amazed to think of the inhumanity +of Phalaris, who roasted men alive +in his brazen bull. That was a +joy in respect of that fire of hell.... +This torment ... comprises +as many torments as the body of +man has joints, sinews, arteries, +&c., being caused by that penetrating +and real fire, of which this +temporal fire is but a painted fire.... +What comparison will there +be between burning for a hundred +years' space, and to be burning +without interruption as long as God +is God?</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Contemplations on the +State of Man</hi>, book ii. ch. 6-7, in +Heber's Edition of the works of +Taylor.</note> +<pb n='226'/><anchor id='Pg226'/> +To those who do not regard such teaching as true, it must +appear without exception the most odious in the religious +history of the world, subversive of the very foundations of +morals, and well fitted to transform the man who at once +realised it, and accepted it with pleasure, into a monster of +barbarity. Of the writers of the mediæval period, certainly +one of the two or three most eminent was Peter Lombard, +whose <q>Sentences,</q> though now, I believe, but little read, +were for a long time the basis of all theological literature in +Europe. More than four thousand theologians are said to +have written commentaries upon them<note place='foot'>Perrone, <hi rend='italic'>Historiæ Theologiæ +cum Philosophia comparata Synopsis</hi>, +p. 29. Peter Lombard's work +was published in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1160.</note>—among others, +Albert the Great, St. Bonaventura, and St. Thomas Aquinas. +Nor is the work unworthy of its former reputation. Calm, +clear, logical, subtle, and concise, the author professes to expound +<pb n='227'/><anchor id='Pg227'/> +the whole system of Catholic theology and ethics, +and to reveal the interdependence of their various parts. +Having explained the position and the duties, he proceeds to +examine the prospects, of man. He maintains that until the +day of judgment the inhabitants of heaven and hell will +continually see one another; but that, in the succeeding +eternity, the inhabitants of heaven alone will see those of the +opposite world; and he concludes his great work by this +most impressive passage: <q>In the last place, we must enquire +whether the sight of the punishment of the condemned will +impair the glory of the blest, or whether it will augment +their beatitude. Concerning this, Gregory says the sight of +the punishment of the lost will not obscure the beatitude of +the just; for when it is accompanied by no compassion it can +be no diminution of happiness. And although their own +joys might suffice to the just, yet to their greater glory they +will see the pains of the evil, which by grace they have +escaped.... The elect will go forth, not indeed locally, +but by intelligence, and by a clear vision, to behold the +torture of the impious, and as they see them they will not +grieve. Their minds will be sated with joy as they gaze on +the unspeakable anguish of the impious, returning thanks +for their own freedom. Thus Esaias, describing the torments +of the impious, and the joy of the righteous in witnessing it, +says: <q>The elect in truth will go out and will see the corpses +of men who have prevaricated against Him; their worm +will not die, and they will be to the satiety of vision to all +flesh, that is to the elect. The just man will rejoice when +he shall see the vengeance.</q></q><note place='foot'><q>Postremo quæritur, An pœna +reproborum visa decoloret gloriam +beatorum? an eorum beatitudini +proficiat? De hoc ita Gregorius +ait, Apud animum justorum non obfuscat +beatitudinem aspecta pœna +reproborum; quia ubi jam compassio +miseriæ non erit, minuere +beatorum lætitiam non valebit. Et +licet justis sua gaudia sufficiant, +ad majorem gloriam vident pœnas +malorum quas per gratiam evaserunt.... +Egredientur ergo electi, +non loco, sed intelligentia vel visione +manifesta ad videndum impiorum +cruciatus; quos videntes non dolore +afficientur sed lætitia satiabuntur, +agentes gratias de sua liberatione +visa impiorum ineffabili calamitate. +Unde Esaias impiorum tormenta +describens et ex eorum visione lætitiam +bonorum exprimens, ait, +Egredientur electi scilicet et videbunt +cadavera virorum qui prævaricati +sunt in me. Vermis eorum +non morietur et ignis non extinguetur, +et erunt usque ad satietatem +visionis omni carni, id est electis. +Lætabitur justus cum viderit vindictam.</q>—Peter +Lombard, <hi rend='italic'>Senten.</hi> +lib. iv. finis. These amiable views +have often been expressed both by +Catholic and by Puritan divines. See +Alger's <hi rend='italic'>Doctrine of a Future Life</hi>, +p. 541.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='228'/><anchor id='Pg228'/> + +<p> +This passion for visions of heaven and hell was, in fact, +a natural continuation of the passion for dogmatic definition, +which had raged during the fifth century. It was natural +that men, whose curiosity had left no conceivable question of +theology undefined, should have endeavoured to describe +with corresponding precision the condition of the dead. +Much, however, was due to the hallucinations of solitary +and ascetic life, and much more to deliberate imposture. +It is impossible for men to continue long in a condition of +extreme panic, and superstition speedily discovered remedies +to allay the fears it had created. If a malicious dæmon was +hovering around the believer, and if the jaws of hell were +opening to receive him, he was defended, on the other hand, +by countless angels; a lavish gift to a church or monastery +could always enlist a saint in his behalf, and priestly power +could protect him against the dangers which priestly sagacity +had revealed. When the angels were weighing the good and +evil deeds of a dead man, the latter were found by far to +preponderate; but a priest of St. Lawrence came in, and +turned the scale by throwing down among the former a +heavy gold chalice, which the deceased had given to the +altar.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Legenda Aurea.</hi> There is a +curious fresco representing this +transaction, on the portal of the +church of St. Lorenzo, near Rome.</note> Dagobert was snatched from the very arms of dæmons +by St. Denis, St. Maurice, and St. Martin.<note place='foot'>Aimoni, <hi rend='italic'>De Gestis Francorum +Hist.</hi> iv. 34.</note> Charlemagne +was saved, because the monasteries he had built outweighed +<pb n='229'/><anchor id='Pg229'/> +his evil deeds.<note place='foot'>Turpin's <hi rend='italic'>Chronicle</hi>, ch. 32. In +the vision of Watlin, however (<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> +824), Charlemagne was seen tortured +in purgatory on account of +his excessive love of women. (Delepierre, +<hi rend='italic'>L'Enfer décrit par ceux +qui l'ont vu</hi>, pp. 27-28.)</note> Others, who died in mortal sin, were raised +from the dead at the desire of their patron saint, to expiate +their guilt. To amass relics, to acquire the patronage of +saints, to endow monasteries, to build churches, became the +chief part of religion, and the more the terrors of the unseen +world were unfolded, the more men sought tranquillity by +the consolations of superstition.<note place='foot'>As the Abbé Mably observes: +<q>On croyoit en quelque sorte dans +ces siècles grossiers que l'avarice +étoit le premier attribut de Dieu, +et que les saints faisoient un commerce +de leur crédit et de leur protection. +De-là les richesses immenses +données aux églises par des +hommes dont les mœurs déshonoroient +la religion.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Observations +sur l'Hist. de France</hi>, i. 4.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The extent to which the custom of materialising religion +was carried, can only be adequately realised by those who +have examined the mediæval literature itself. That which +strikes a student in perusing this literature, is not so much +the existence of these superstitions, as their extraordinary +multiplication, the many thousands of grotesque miracles +wrought by saints, monasteries, or relics, that were deliberately +asserted and universally believed. Christianity had +assumed a form that was quite as polytheistic and quite as +idolatrous as the ancient Paganism. The low level of intellectual +cultivation, the religious feelings of half-converted +barbarians, the interests of the clergy, the great social importance +of the monasteries, and perhaps also the custom of +compounding for nearly all crimes by pecuniary fines, which +was so general in the penal system of the barbarian tribes, +combined in their different ways, with the panic created by +the fear of hell, in driving men in the same direction, and +the wealth and power of the clergy rose to a point that +enabled them to overshadow all other classes. They had +found, as has been well said, in another world, the standing-point +<pb n='230'/><anchor id='Pg230'/> +of Archimedes from which they could move this. No +other system had ever appeared so admirably fitted to endure +for ever. The Church had crushed or silenced every opponent +in Christendom. It had an absolute control over +education in all its branches and in all its stages. It had +absorbed all the speculative knowledge and art of Europe. +It possessed or commanded wealth, rank, and military power. +It had so directed its teaching, that everything which terrified +or distressed mankind drove men speedily into its arms, +and it had covered Europe with a vast network of institutions, +admirably adapted to extend and perpetuate its +power. In addition to all this, it had guarded with consummate +skill all the approaches to its citadel. Every +doubt was branded as a sin, and a long course of doubt +must necessarily have preceded the rejection of its tenets. +All the avenues of enquiry were painted with images of +appalling suffering, and of malicious dæmons. No sooner +did the worshipper begin to question any article of faith, or +to lose his confidence in the virtue of the ceremonies of his +Church, than he was threatened with a doom that no human +heroism could brave, that no imagination could contemplate +undismayed. +</p> + +<p> +Of all the suffering that was undergone by those brave +men who in ages of ignorance and superstition dared to +break loose from the trammels of their Church, and who laid +the foundation of the liberty we now enjoy, it is this which +was probably the most poignant, and which is the least +realised. Our imaginations can reproduce with much vividness +gigantic massacres like those of the Albigenses or of +St. Bartholomew. We can conceive, too, the tortures of the +rack and of the boots, the dungeon, the scaffold, and the slow +fire. We can estimate, though less perfectly, the anguish +which the bold enquirer must have undergone from the +desertion of those he most dearly loved, from the hatred of +mankind, from the malignant calumnies that were heaped +<pb n='231'/><anchor id='Pg231'/> +upon his name. But in the chamber of his own soul, in the +hours of his solitary meditation, he must have found elements +of a suffering that was still more acute. Taught from his +earliest childhood to regard the abandonment of his hereditary +opinions as the most deadly of crimes, and to ascribe +it to the instigation of deceiving dæmons, persuaded that +if he died in a condition of doubt he must pass into a state +of everlasting torture, his imagination saturated with images +of the most hideous and appalling anguish, he found himself +alone in the world, struggling with his difficulties and his +doubts. There existed no rival sect in which he could take +refuge, and where, in the professed agreement of many minds, +he could forget the anathemas of the Church. Physical +science, that has disproved the theological theories which +attribute death to human sin, and suffering to Divine vengeance, +and all natural phenomena to isolated acts of Divine +intervention—historical criticism, which has dispelled so +many imposing fabrics of belief, traced so many elaborate +superstitions to the normal action of the undisciplined imagination, +and explained and defined the successive phases of +religious progress, were both unknown. Every comet that +blazed in the sky, every pestilence that swept over the land, +appeared a confirmation of the dark threats of the theologian. +A spirit of blind and abject credulity, inculcated as the first +of duties, and exhibited on all subjects and in all forms, +pervaded the atmosphere he breathed. Who can estimate +aright the obstacles against which a sincere enquirer in such +an age must have struggled? Who can conceive the secret +anguish he must have endured in the long months or years +during which rival arguments gained an alternate sway +over his judgment, while all doubt was still regarded as +damnable? And even when his mind was convinced, his +imagination would still often revert to his old belief. Our +thoughts in after years flow spontaneously, and even unconsciously, +in the channels that are formed in youth. In +<pb n='232'/><anchor id='Pg232'/> +moments when the controlling judgment has relaxed its +grasp, old intellectual habits reassume their sway, and +images painted on the imagination will live, when the intellectual +propositions on which they rested have been wholly +abandoned. In hours of weakness, of sickness, and of drowsiness, +in the feverish and anxious moments that are known +to all, when the mind floats passively upon the stream, the +phantoms which reason had exorcised must have often reappeared, +and the bitterness of an ancient tyranny must have +entered into his soul. +</p> + +<p> +It is one of the greatest of the many services that were +rendered to mankind by the Troubadours, that they cast +such a flood of ridicule upon the visions of hell, by which +the monks had been accustomed to terrify mankind, that +they completely discredited and almost suppressed them.<note place='foot'>Many curious examples of the +way in which the Troubadours burlesqued +the monkish visions of hell +are given by Delepierre, p. 144.—Wright's +<hi rend='italic'>Purgatory of St. Patrick</hi>, +pp. 47-52.</note> +Whether, however, the Catholic mind, if unassisted by the +literature of Paganism and by the independent thinkers who +grew up under the shelter of Mohammedanism, could have +ever unwound the chains that had bound it, may well be +questioned. The growth of towns, which multiplied secular +interests and feelings, the revival of learning, the depression +of the ecclesiastical classes that followed the crusades, and, at +last, the dislocation of Christendom by the Reformation, +gradually impaired the ecclesiastical doctrine, which ceased +to be realised before it ceased to be believed. There was, +however, another doctrine which exercised a still greater +influence in augmenting the riches of the clergy, and in +making donations to the Church the chief part of religion. +I allude, of course, to the doctrine of purgatory. +</p> + +<p> +A distinguished modern apologist for the middle ages +has made this doctrine the object of his special and very +characteristic eulogy, because, as he says, by providing a +<pb n='233'/><anchor id='Pg233'/> +finite punishment graduated to every variety of guilt, and +adapted for those who, without being sufficiently virtuous +to pass at once into heaven, did not appear sufficiently +vicious to pass into hell, it formed an indispensable corrective +to the extreme terrorism of the doctrine of eternal +punishment.<note place='foot'>Comte, <hi rend='italic'>Philosophie positive</hi>, +tome v. p. 269.</note> This is one of those theories which, though +exceedingly popular with a class of writers who are not without +influence in our day, must appear, I think, almost grotesque +to those who have examined the actual operation of the +doctrine during the middle ages. According to the practical +teaching of the Church, the expiatory powers at the disposal +of its clergy were so great, that those who died believing its +doctrines, and fortified in their last hours by its rites, had no +cause whatever to dread the terrors of hell. On the other +hand, those who died external to the Church had no prospect +of entering into purgatory. This latter was designed altogether +for true believers; it was chiefly preached at a time +when no one was in the least disposed to question the powers +of the Church to absolve any crime, however heinous, or to +free the worst men from hell, and it was assuredly never +regarded in the light of a consolation. Indeed, the popular +pictures of purgatory were so terrific that it may be doubted +whether the imagination could ever fully realise, though the +reason could easily recognise, the difference between this state +and that of the lost. The fire of purgatory, according to the +most eminent theologians, was like the fire of hell—a literal +fire, prolonged, it was sometimes said, for ages. The declamations +of the pulpit described the sufferings of the saved +souls in purgatory as incalculably greater than any that were +endured by the most wretched mortals upon earth.<note place='foot'><q>Saint-Bernard, dans son sermon +<hi rend='italic'>De obitu Humberti</hi>, affirme que +tous les tourments de cette vie sont +joies si on les compare à une seconde +des peines du purgatoire. +<q>Imaginez-vous donc, délicates +dames,</q> dit le père Valladier (1613) +dans son sermon du 3<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>me</hi> dimanche +de l'Avent, <q>d'estre au travers de +vos chenets, sur vostre petit feu +pour une centaine d'ans: ce n'est +rien au respect d'un moment de purgatoire. +Mais si vous vistes jamais +tirer quelqu'un à quatre chevaux, +quelqu'un brusler à petit feu, enrager +de faim ou de soif, une heure de +purgatoire est pire que tout cela.</q></q>—Meray, +<hi rend='italic'>Les Libres Prêcheurs</hi> +(Paris, 1860), pp. 130-131 (an extremely +curious and suggestive +book). I now take up the first +contemporary book of popular Catholic +devotion on this subject which +is at hand, and read: <q>Compared +with the pains of purgatory, then, +all those wounds and dark prisons, +all those wild beasts, hooks of iron, +red-hot plates, &c., which the holy +martyrs suffered, are nothing.</q> +<q>They (souls in purgatory) are in +a real, though miraculous manner, +tortured by fire, which is of the +same kind (says Bellarmine) as our +element fire.</q> <q>The Angelic Doctor +affirms <q>that the fire which torments +the damned is like the fire +which purges the elect.</q></q> <q>What +agony will not those holy souls +suffer when tied and bound with +the most tormenting chains of a +living fire like to that of hell! and +we, while able to make them free +and happy, shall we stand like uninterested +spectators?</q> <q>St. Austin +is of opinion that the pains of a +soul in purgatory during the time +required to open and shut one's +eye is more severe than what St. +Lawrence suffered on the gridiron;</q> +and much more to the same effect. +(<hi rend='italic'>Purgatory opened to the Piety of +the Faithful.</hi> Richardson, London.)</note> The rude +<pb n='234'/><anchor id='Pg234'/> +artists of mediævalism exhausted their efforts in depicting +the writhings of the dead in the flames that encircled them. +Innumerable visions detailed with a ghastly minuteness the +various kinds of torture they underwent,<note place='foot'>See Delepierre, Wright, and +Alger.</note> and the monk, +who described what he professed to have seen, usually ended +by the characteristic moral, that could men only realise those +sufferings, they would shrink from no sacrifice to rescue their +friends from such a state. A special place, it was said, was +reserved in purgatory for those who had been slow in paying +their tithes.<note place='foot'>This appears from the vision +of Thurcill. (Wright's <hi rend='italic'>Purgatory +of St. Patrick</hi>, p. 42.) Brompton +(<hi rend='italic'>Chronicon</hi>) tells of an English landlord +who had refused to pay tithes. +St. Augustine, having vainly reasoned +with him, at last convinced +him by a miracle. Before celebrating +mass he ordered all excommunicated +persons to leave the church, +whereupon a corpse got out of a +grave and walked away. The corpse, +on being questioned, said it was the +body of an ancient Briton who refused +to pay tithes, and had in consequence +been excommunicated and +damned.</note> St. Gregory tells a curious story of a man +who was, in other respects, of admirable virtue; but who, +<pb n='235'/><anchor id='Pg235'/> +in a contested election for the popedom, supported the wrong +candidate, and without, as it would appear, in any degree +refusing to obey the successful candidate when elected, continued +secretly of opinion that the choice was an unwise one. +He was accordingly placed for some time after death in +boiling water.<note place='foot'>Greg. <hi rend='italic'>Dial.</hi> iv. 40.</note> Whatever may be thought of its other +aspects, it is impossible to avoid recognising in this teaching a +masterly skill in the adaptation of means to ends, which +almost rises to artistic beauty. A system which deputed its +minister to go to the unhappy widow in the first dark hour +of her anguish and her desolation, to tell her that he who +was dearer to her than all the world besides was now burning +in a fire, and that he could only be relieved by a gift of +money to the priests, was assuredly of its own kind not +without an extraordinary merit. +</p> + +<p> +If we attempt to realise the moral condition of the society +of Western Europe in the period that elapsed between the downfall +of the Roman Empire and Charlemagne, during which the +religious transformations I have noticed chiefly arose, we shall +be met by some formidable difficulties. In the first place, our +materials are very scanty. From the year <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 642, when the +meagre chronicle of Fredigarius closes, to the biography of +Charlemagne by Eginhard, a century later, there is an almost +complete blank in trustworthy history, and we are reduced +to a few scanty and very doubtful notices in the chronicles of +monasteries, the lives of saints, and the decrees of Councils. +All secular literature had almost disappeared, and the thought +of posterity seems to have vanished from the world.<note place='foot'>As Sismondi says: <q>Pendant +quatre-vingts ans, tout au moins, +il n'y eut pas un Franc qui songeât +à transmettre à la postérité la mémoire +des événements contemporains, +et pendant le même espace +de temps il n'y eut pas un personnage +puissant qui ne bâtit des +temples pour la postérité la plus +reculée.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Hist. des Français</hi>, tome +ii. p. 46.</note> Of the +first half of the seventh century, however, and of the two +centuries that preceded it, we have much information from +<pb n='236'/><anchor id='Pg236'/> +Gregory of Tours, and Fredigarius, whose tedious and repulsive +pages illustrate with considerable clearness the conflict of +races and the dislocation of governments that for centuries +existed. In Italy, the traditions and habits of the old Empire +had in some degree reasserted their sway; but in Gaul the +Church subsisted in the midst of barbarians, whose native +vigour had never been emasculated by civilisation and refined +by knowledge. The picture which Gregory of Tours gives us +is that of a society which was almost absolutely anarchical. +The mind is fatigued by the monotonous account of acts of +violence and of fraud springing from no fixed policy, tending +to no end, leaving no lasting impress upon the world.<note place='foot'>Gibbon says of the period +during which the Merovingian dynasty +reigned, that <q>it would be +difficult to find anywhere more vice +or less virtue.</q> Hallam reproduces +this observation, and adds: <q>The +facts of these times are of little other +importance than as they impress +on the mind a thorough notion of +the extreme wickedness of almost +every person concerned in them, +and consequently of the state to +which society was reduced.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Hist. +of the Middle Ages</hi>, ch. i. Dean +Milman is equally unfavourable +and emphatic in his judgment. <q>It +is difficult to conceive a more dark +and odious state of society than +that of France under her Merovingian +kings, the descendants of +Clovis, as described by Gregory of +Tours. In the conflict of barbarism +with Roman Christianity, barbarism +has introduced into Christianity +all its ferocity with none of its +generosity and magnanimity; its +energy shows itself in atrocity of +cruelty, and even of sensuality. +Christianity has given to barbarism +hardly more than its superstition +and its hatred of heretics +and unbelievers. Throughout, assassinations, +parricides, and fratricides +intermingle with adulteries +and rapes.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>History of Latin Christianity</hi>, +vol. i. p. 365.</note> The +two queens Frédégonde and Brunehaut rise conspicuous above +other figures for their fierce and undaunted ambition, for the +fascination they exercised over the minds of multitudes, and +for the number and atrocity of their crimes. All classes +seem to have been almost equally tainted with vice. We +read of a bishop named Cautinus, who had to be carried, +when intoxicated, by four men from the table;<note place='foot'>Greg. Tur. iv. 12. Gregory mentions +(v. 41) another bishop who +used to become so intoxicated as to +be unable to stand; and St. Boniface, +after describing the extreme +sensuality of the clergy of his time, +adds that there are some bishops +<q>qui licet dicant se fornicarios +vel adulteros non esse, sed sunt +ebriosi et injuriosi,</q> &c.—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +xlix.</note> who, upon +<pb n='237'/><anchor id='Pg237'/> +the refusal of one of his priests to surrender some private +property, deliberately ordered that priest to be buried alive, +and who, when the victim, escaping by a happy chance from +the sepulchre in which he had been immured, revealed the +crime, received no greater punishment than a censure.<note place='foot'>Greg. Tur. iv. 12.</note> The +worst sovereigns found flatterers or agents in ecclesiastics. +Frédégonde deputed two clerks to murder Childebert,<note place='foot'>Ibid. viii. 29. She gave them +knives with hollow grooves, filled +with poison, in the blades.</note> and +another clerk to murder Brunehaut;<note place='foot'>Ibid. vii. 20.</note> she caused a bishop of +Rouen to be assassinated at the altar—a bishop and an archdeacon +being her accomplices;<note place='foot'>Ibid. viii. 31-41.</note> and she found in another +bishop, named Ægidius, one of her most devoted instruments +and friends.<note place='foot'>Ibid. v. 19.</note> The pope, St. Gregory the Great, was an +ardent flatterer of Brunehaut.<note place='foot'>See his very curious correspondence +with her.—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> vi. 5, +50, 59; ix. 11, 117; xi. 62-63.</note> Gundebald, having murdered +his three brothers, was consoled by St. Avitus, the bishop of +Vienne, who, without intimating the slightest disapprobation +of the act, assured him that by removing his rivals he had +been a providential agent in preserving the happiness of his +people.<note place='foot'>Avitus, <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> v. He adds: <q>Minuebat +regni felicitas numerum regalium +personarum.</q></note> The bishoprics were filled by men of notorious +debauchery, or by grasping misers.<note place='foot'>See the emphatic testimony of +St. Boniface in the eighth century. +<q>Modo autem maxima ex parte per +civitates episcopales sedes traditæ +sunt laicis cupidis ad possidendum, +vel adulteratis clericis, scortatoribus +et publicanis sæculariter ad +perfruendum.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> xlix. <q>ad Zachariam.</q> +The whole epistle contains +an appalling picture of the +clerical vices of the times.</note> The priests sometimes +celebrated the sacred mysteries <q>gorged with food and dull +with wine.</q><note place='foot'>More than one Council made +decrees about this. See the <hi rend='italic'>Vie +de St. Léger</hi>, by Dom Pitra, pp. +172-177.</note> They had already begun to carry arms, +and Gregory tells of two bishops of the sixth century +<pb n='238'/><anchor id='Pg238'/> +who had killed many enemies with their own hands.<note place='foot'>Greg. Tur. iv. 43. St. Boniface, +at a much later period (<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> +742), talks of bishops <q>Qui pugnant +in exercitu armati et effundunt +propria manu sanguinem hominum.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +xlix.</note> There +was scarcely a reign that was not marked by some atrocious +domestic tragedy. There were few sovereigns who were not +guilty of at least one deliberate murder. Never, perhaps, +was the infliction of mutilation, and prolonged and agonising +forms of death, more common. We read, among other atrocities, +of a bishop being driven to a distant place of exile +upon a bed of thorns;<note place='foot'>Greg. Tur. iv. 26.</note> of a king burning together his rebellious +son, his daughter-in-law, and their daughters;<note place='foot'>Ibid. iv. 20.</note> of a +queen condemning a daughter she had had by a former marriage +to be drowned, lest her beauty should excite the passions +of her husband;<note place='foot'>Ibid. iii. 26.</note> of another queen endeavouring to strangle +her daughter with her own hands;<note place='foot'>Ibid. ix. 34.</note> of an abbot, compelling +a poor man to abandon his house, that he might commit +adultery with his wife, and being murdered, together with his +partner, in the act;<note place='foot'>Ibid. viii. 19. Gregory says +this story should warn clergymen +not to meddle with the +wives of other people, but <q>content +themselves with those that they may +possess without crime.</q> The abbot +had previously tried to seduce the +husband within the precincts of +the monastery, that he might murder +him.</note> of a prince who made it an habitual +amusement to torture his slaves with fire, and who buried +two of them alive, because they had married without his +permission;<note place='foot'>Ibid. v. 3.</note> of a bishop's wife, who, besides other crimes, +was accustomed to mutilate men and to torture women, by +applying red-hot irons to the most sensitive parts of their +bodies;<note place='foot'>Ibid. viii. 39. She was guilty +of many other crimes, which the +historian says <q>it is better to pass in +silence.</q> The bishop himself had +been guilty of outrageous and violent +tyranny. The marriage of +ecclesiastics appears at this time +to have been common in Gaul, +though the best men commonly deserted +their wives when they were +ordained. Another bishop's wife (iv. +36) was notorious for her tyranny.</note> of great numbers who were deprived of their ears +<pb n='239'/><anchor id='Pg239'/> +and noses, tortured through several days, and at last burnt +alive or broken slowly on the wheel. Brunehaut, at the +close of her long and in some respects great though guilty +career, fell into the hands of Clotaire, and the old queen, +having been subjected for three days to various kinds of +torture, was led out on a camel for the derision of the army, +and at last bound to the tail of a furious horse, and dashed +to pieces in its course.<note place='foot'>Fredigarius, xlii. The historian +describes Clotaire as a perfect +paragon of Christian graces.</note> +</p> + +<p> +And yet this age was, in a certain sense, eminently +religious. All literature had become sacred. Heresy of +every kind was rapidly expiring. The priests and monks +had acquired enormous power, and their wealth was inordinately +increasing.<note place='foot'><q>Au sixième siècle on compte +214 établissements religieux des +Pyrénées à la Loire et des bouches +du Rhône aux Vosges.</q>—Ozanam, +<hi rend='italic'>Études germaniques</hi>, tome ii. p. 93. +In the two following centuries the +ecclesiastical wealth was enormously +increased.</note> Several sovereigns voluntarily abandoned +their thrones for the monastic life.<note place='foot'>Matthew of Westminster (<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> +757) speaks of no less than eight +Saxon kings having done this.</note> The seventh +century, which, together with the eighth, forms the darkest +period of the dark ages, is famous in the hagiology as +having produced more saints than any other century, +except that of the martyrs.<note place='foot'><q>Le septième siècle est celui +peut-être qui a donné le plus de +saints au calendrier.</q>—Sismondi, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. de France</hi>, tome ii. p. 50. +<q>Le plus beau titre du septième +siècle à une réhabilitation c'est le +nombre considérable de saints qu'il +a produits.... Aucun siècle n'a +été ainsi glorifié sauf l'âge des +martyrs dont Dieu s'est réservé de +compter le nombre. Chaque année +fournit sa moisson, chaque jour a +sa gerbe.... Si donc il plaît à +Dieu et au Christ de répandre à +pleines mains sur un siècle les +splendeurs des saints, qu'importe +que l'histoire et la gloire humaine +en tiennent peu compte?</q>—Pitra, +<hi rend='italic'>Vie de St. Léger</hi>, Introd. p. x.-xi. +This learned and very credulous +writer (who is now a cardinal) afterwards +says that we have the record +of more than eight hundred saints +of the seventh century. (Introd. p. +lxxx.)</note> +</p> + +<p> +The manner in which events were regarded by historians +was also exceedingly characteristic. Our principal authority, +<pb n='240'/><anchor id='Pg240'/> +Gregory of Tours, was a bishop of great eminence, and a +man of the most genuine piety, and of very strong affections.<note place='foot'>See, e.g., the very touching passage +about the death of his children, +v. 35.</note> +He describes his work as a record <q>of the virtues of saints, +and the disasters of nations;</q><note place='foot'>Lib. ii. Prologue.</note> and the student who turns to +his pages from those of the Pagan historians, is not more +struck by the extreme prominence he gives to ecclesiastical +events, than by the uniform manner in which he views +all secular events in their religious aspect, as governed +and directed by a special Providence. Yet, in questions +where the difference between orthodoxy and heterodoxy +is concerned, his ethics sometimes exhibit the most singular +distortion. Of this, probably the most impressive example +is the manner in which he has described the career of +Clovis, the great representative of orthodoxy.<note place='foot'>Greg. Tur. ii. 27-43.</note> Having +recounted the circumstances of his conversion, Gregory +proceeds to tell us, with undisguised admiration, how that +chieftain, as the first-fruits of his doctrine, professed to be +grieved at seeing that part of Gaul was held by an Arian +sovereign; how he accordingly resolved to invade and +appropriate that territory; how, with admirable piety, he +commanded his soldiers to abstain from all devastations when +traversing the territory of St. Martin, and how several +miracles attested the Divine approbation of the expedition. +The war—which is the first of the long series of professedly +religious wars that have been undertaken by Christians—was +fully successful, and Clovis proceeded to direct his +ambition to new fields. In his expedition against the +Arians, he had found a faithful ally in his relative Sighebert, +the old and infirm king of the Ripuarian Franks. Clovis +now proceeded artfully to suggest to the son of Sighebert +the advantages that son might obtain by his father's death. +The hint was taken. Sighebert was murdered, and Clovis +<pb n='241'/><anchor id='Pg241'/> +sent ambassadors to the parricide, professing a warm friendship, +but with secret orders on the first opportunity to kill +him. This being done, and the kingdom being left entirely +without a head, Clovis proceeded to Cologne, the capital of +Sighebert; he assembled the people, professed with much +solemnity his horror of the tragedies that had taken place, +and his complete innocence of all connection with them;<note place='foot'>He observes how impossible it +was that he could be guilty of shedding +the blood of a relation: <q>Sed +in his ego nequaquam conscius +sum. Nec enim possum sanguinem +parentum meorum effundere.</q>—Greg. +Tur. ii. 40.</note> +but suggested that, as they were now without a ruler, they +should place themselves under his protection. The proposition +was received with acclamation. The warriors elected +him as their king, and thus, says the episcopal historian, +<q>Clovis received the treasures and dominions of Sighebert, +and added them to his own. Every day God caused his +enemies to fall beneath his hand, and enlarged his kingdom, +because he walked with a right heart before the Lord, and +did the things that were pleasing in His sight.</q><note place='foot'><q>Prosternebat enim quotidie +Deus hostes ejus sub manu ipsius, +et augebat regnum ejus eo quod +ambularet recto corde coram eo, et +faceret quæ placita erant in oculis +ejus.</q>—Greg. Tur. ii. 40.</note> His +ambition was, however, still unsated. He proceeded, in a +succession of expeditions, to unite the whole of Gaul under +his sceptre, invading, defeating, capturing, and slaying the +lawful sovereigns, who were for the most part his own +relations. Having secured himself against dangers from +without, by killing all his relations, with the exception of +his wife and children, he is reported to have lamented +before his courtiers his isolation, declaring that he had no +relations remaining in the world to assist him in his +adversity; but this speech, Gregory assures us, was a stratagem; +for the king desired to discover whether any possible +pretender to the throne had escaped his knowledge and his +<pb n='242'/><anchor id='Pg242'/> +sword. Soon after, he died, full of years and honours, and +was buried in a cathedral which he had built. +</p> + +<p> +Having recounted all these things with unmoved composure, +Gregory of Tours requests his reader to permit him +to pause, to draw the moral of the history. It is the +admirable manner in which Providence guides all things +for the benefit of those whose opinions concerning the Trinity +are strictly orthodox. Having briefly referred to Abraham, +Jacob, Moses, Aaron, and David, all of whom are said to +have intimated the correct doctrine on this subject, and +all of whom were exceedingly prosperous, he passes to more +modern times. <q>Arius, the impious founder of the impious +sect, his entrails having fallen out, passed into the flames of +hell; but Hilary, the blessed defender of the undivided +Trinity, though exiled on that account, found his country in +Paradise. The King Clovis, who confessed the Trinity, +and by its assistance crushed the heretics, extended his +dominions through all Gaul. Alaric, who denied the Trinity, +was deprived of his kingdom and his subjects, and, what was +far worse, was punished in the future world.</q><note place='foot'>Lib. iii. Prologue. St. Avitus +enumerates in glowing terms the +Christian virtues of Clovis (<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xli.), +but, as this was in a letter addressed +to the king himself, the eulogy may +easily be explained.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It would be easy to cite other, though perhaps not quite +such striking, instances of the degree in which the moral +judgments of this unhappy age were distorted by superstition.<note place='foot'>Thus Hallam says: <q>There are +continual proofs of immorality in +the monkish historians. In the +history of Rumsey Abbey, one of +our best documents for Anglo-Saxon +times, we have an anecdote of a +bishop who made a Danish nobleman drunk, +that he might cheat +him out of an estate, which is told +with much approbation. Walter de +Hemingford records, with excessive +delight, the well-known story of +the Jews who were persuaded by +the captain of their vessel to walk +on the sands at low water till the +rising tide drowned them.</q>—Hallam's +<hi rend='italic'>Middle Ages</hi> (12th ed.), iii. p. +306.</note> +Questions of orthodoxy, or questions of fasting, appeared to +the popular mind immeasurably more important than what +<pb n='243'/><anchor id='Pg243'/> +we should now call the fundamental principles of right +and wrong. A law of Charlemagne, and also a law of the +Saxons, condemned to death any one who ate meat in Lent,<note place='foot'>Canciani, <hi rend='italic'>Leges Barbarorum</hi>, +vol. iii. p. 64. Canciani notices, +that among the Poles the teeth of +the offending persons were pulled +out. The following passage, from +Bodin, is, I think, very remarkable: +<q>Les loix et canons veulent qu'on +pardonne aux hérétiques repentis +(combien que les magistrats en +quelques lieux par cy-devant, y ont +eu tel esgard, que celui qui avoit +mangé de la chair au Vendredy +estoit bruslé tout vif, comme il fut +faict en la ville d'Angers l'an mil +cinq cens trente-neuf, s'il ne s'en +repentoit: et jaçoit qu'il se repentist +si estoit-il pendu par compassion).</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Démonomanie +des Sorciers</hi>, +p. 216.</note> +unless the priest was satisfied that it was a matter of absolute +necessity. The moral enthusiasm of the age chiefly drove +men to abandon their civic or domestic duties, to immure +themselves in monasteries, and to waste their strength by +prolonged and extravagant maceration.<note place='foot'>A long list of examples of extreme +maceration, from lives of the +saints of the seventh and eighth +centuries is given by Pitra, <hi rend='italic'>Vie de +St. Léger</hi>, Introd. pp. cv.-cvii.</note> Yet, in the midst +of all this superstition, there can be no question that in +some respects the religious agencies were operating for good. +The monastic bodies that everywhere arose, formed secure +asylums for the multitudes who had been persecuted by +their enemies, constituted an invaluable counterpoise to the +rude military forces of the time, familiarised the imagination +of men with religious types that could hardly fail in some +degree to soften the character, and led the way in most +forms of peaceful labour. When men, filled with admiration +at the reports of the sanctity and the miracles of some +illustrious saint, made pilgrimages to behold him, and found +him attired in the rude garb of a peasant, with thick shoes, +and with a scythe on his shoulder, superintending the labours +of the farmers,<note place='foot'>This was related of St. Equitius.—Greg. +<hi rend='italic'>Dialog.</hi> i. 4.</note> or sitting in a small attic mending lamps,<note place='foot'>Ibid. i. 5. This saint was +named Constantius.</note> +whatever other benefit they might derive from the interview, +they could scarcely fail to return with an increased sense of +<pb n='244'/><anchor id='Pg244'/> +the dignity of labour. It was probably at this time as much +for the benefit of the world as of the Church, that the +ecclesiastical sanctuaries and estates should remain inviolate, +and the numerous legends of Divine punishment having +overtaken those who transgressed them,<note place='foot'>A vast number of miracles of +this kind are recorded. See, e.g., +Greg. Tur. <hi rend='italic'>De Miraculis</hi>, i. 61-66; +<hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> iv. 49. Perhaps the most +singular instance of the violation of +the sanctity of the church was that +by the nuns of a convent founded +by St. Radegunda. They, having +broken into rebellion, four bishops, +with their attendant clergy, went +to compose the dispute, and having +failed, excommunicated the rebels, +whereupon the nuns almost beat +them to death in the church.—Greg. +Tur. ix. 41.</note> attest the zeal with +which the clergy sought to establish that inviolability. The +great sanctity that was attached to holidays was also an +important boon to the servile classes. The celebration of the +first day of the week, in commemoration of the resurrection, +and as a period of religious exercises, dates from the earliest +age of the Church. The Christian festival was carefully +distinguished from the Jewish Sabbath, with which it never +appears to have been confounded till the close of the sixteenth +century; but some Jewish converts, who considered +the Jewish law to be still in force, observed both days. In +general, however, the Christian festival alone was observed, +and the Jewish Sabbatical obligation, as St. Paul most +explicitly affirms, no longer rested upon the Christians. The +grounds of the observance of Sunday were the manifest +propriety and expediency of devoting a certain portion of +time to devout exercises, the tradition which traced the +sanctification of Sunday to apostolic times, and the right of +the Church to appoint certain seasons to be kept holy by its +members. When Christianity acquired an ascendancy in the +Empire, its policy on this subject was manifested in one of +the laws of Constantine, which, without making any direct +reference to religious motives, ordered that, <q>on the day of +the sun,</q> no servile work should be performed except +<pb n='245'/><anchor id='Pg245'/> +agriculture, which, being dependent on the weather, could +not, it was thought, be reasonably postponed. Theodosius +took a step further, and suppressed the public spectacles on +that day. During the centuries that immediately followed +the dissolution of the Roman Empire, the clergy devoted +themselves with great and praiseworthy zeal to the suppression +of labour both on Sundays and on the other leading Church +holidays. More than one law was made, forbidding all +Sunday labour, and this prohibition was reiterated by +Charlemagne in his Capitularies.<note place='foot'>See Canciani, <hi rend='italic'>Leges Barbarorum</hi>, +vol. iii. pp. 19, 151.</note> Several Councils made +decrees on the subject,<note place='foot'>Much information about these +measures is given by Dr. Hessey, +in his <hi rend='italic'>Bampton Lectures on Sunday</hi>. +See especially, lect. 3. See, too, +Moehler, <hi rend='italic'>Le Christianisme et l'Esclavage</hi>, +pp. 186-187.</note> and several legends were circulated, +of men who had been afflicted miraculously with disease or +with death, for having been guilty of this sin.<note place='foot'>Gregory of Tours enumerates +some instances of this in his extravagant +book <hi rend='italic'>De Miraculis</hi>, ii. 11; +iv. 57; v. 7. One of these cases, +however, was for having worked on +the day of St. John the Baptist. +Some other miracles of the same +nature, taken, I believe, from English +sources, are given in Hessey's +<hi rend='italic'>Sunday</hi> (3rd edition), p. 321.</note> Although +the moral side of religion was greatly degraded or forgotten, +there was, as I have already intimated, one important exception. +Charity was so interwoven with the superstitious +parts of ecclesiastical teaching, that it continued to grow and +nourish in the darkest period. Of the acts of Queen Bathilda, +it is said we know nothing except her donations to the +monasteries, and the charity with which she purchased slaves +and captives, and released them or converted them into +monks.<note place='foot'>Compare Pitra, <hi rend='italic'>Vie de St.-Léger</hi>, +p. 137. Sismondi, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des +Français</hi>, tome ii. pp. 62-63.</note> While many of the bishops were men of gross and +scandalous vice, there were always some who laboured +assiduously in the old episcopal vocation of protecting the +oppressed, interceding for the captives, and opening their +sanctuaries to the fugitives. St. Germanus, a bishop of Paris, +<pb n='246'/><anchor id='Pg246'/> +near the close of the sixth century, was especially famous for +his zeal in ransoming captives.<note place='foot'>See a remarkable passage from +his life, cited by Guizot, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de la +Civilisation en France</hi>, xvii<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>me</hi> leçon. +The English historians contain +several instances of the activity of +charity in the darkest period. Alfred +and Edward the Confessor +were conspicuous for it. Ethelwolf +is said to have provided, <q>for the +good of his soul,</q> that, till the day +of judgment, one poor man in ten +should be provided with meat, +drink, and clothing. (Asser's <hi rend='italic'>Life +of Alfred</hi>.) There was a popular +legend that a poor man having +in vain asked alms of some sailors, +all the bread in their vessel was +turned into stone. (Roger of Wendover, +<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 606.) See, too, another +legend of charity in Matthew of +Westminster, <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 611.</note> The fame he acquired was +so great, that prisoners are said to have called upon him +to assist them, in the interval between his death and his +burial; and the body of the saint becoming miraculously +heavy, it was found impossible to carry it to the grave till +the captives had been released.<note place='foot'>Greg. Tur. <hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> v. 8.</note> In the midst of the complete +eclipse of all secular learning, in the midst of a reign of +ignorance, imposture, and credulity which cannot be paralleled +in history, there grew up a vast legendary literature, clustering +around the form of the ascetic; and the lives of the saints, +among very much that is grotesque, childish, and even +immoral, contain some fragments of the purest and most +touching religious poetry.<note place='foot'>M. Guizot has given several +specimens of this (<hi rend='italic'>Hist. de la Civilis.</hi> +xvii<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>me</hi> leçon).</note> +</p> + +<p> +But the chief title of the period we are considering, to +the indulgence of posterity, lies in its missionary labours. +The stream of missionaries which had at first flowed from +Palestine and Italy began to flow from the West. The +Irish monasteries furnished the earliest, and probably the +most numerous, labourers in the field. A great portion of +the north of England was converted by the Irish monks of +Lindisfarne. The fame of St. Columbanus in Gaul, in +Germany, and in Italy, for a time even balanced that of St. +Benedict himself, and the school which he founded at Luxeuil +became the great seminary for mediæval missionaries, while +<pb n='247'/><anchor id='Pg247'/> +the monastery he planted at Bobbio continued to the present +century. The Irish missionary, St. Gall, gave his name to +a portion of Switzerland he had converted, and a crowd of +other Irish missionaries penetrated to the remotest forests of +Germany. The movement which began with St. Columba +in the middle of the sixth century, was communicated to +England and Gaul about a century later. Early in the +eighth century it found a great leader in the Anglo-Saxon +St. Boniface, who spread Christianity far and wide through +Germany, and at once excited and disciplined an ardent +enthusiasm, which appears to have attracted all that was +morally best in the Church. During about three centuries, +and while Europe had sunk into the most extreme moral, +intellectual, and political degradation, a constant stream of +missionaries poured forth from the monasteries, who spread +the knowledge of the Cross and the seeds of a future civilisation +through every land, from Lombardy to Sweden.<note place='foot'>This portion of mediæval history +has lately been well traced +by Mr. Maclear, in his <hi rend='italic'>History of +Christian Missions in the Middle +Ages</hi> (1863). See, too, Montalembert's +<hi rend='italic'>Moines d'Occident</hi>; Ozanam's +<hi rend='italic'>Études germaniques</hi>. The original +materials are to be found in Bede, +and in the <hi rend='italic'>Lives of the Saints</hi>—especially +that of St. Columba, by +Adamnan. On the French missionaries, +see the Benedictine <hi rend='italic'>Hist. lit. +de la France</hi>, tome iv. p. 5; and on +the English missionaries, Sharon +Turner's <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of England</hi>, book x. +ch. ii.</note> +</p> + +<p> +On the whole, however, it would be difficult to exaggerate +the superstition and the vice of the period between the dissolution +of the Empire and the reign of Charlemagne. But +in the midst of the chaos the elements of a new society may +be detected, and we may already observe in embryo the +movement which ultimately issued in the crusades, the feudal +system, and chivalry. It is exclusively with the moral +aspect of this movement that the present work is concerned, +and I shall endeavour, in the remainder of this +chapter, to describe and explain its incipient stages. It +consisted of two parts—a fusion of Christianity with the +<pb n='248'/><anchor id='Pg248'/> +military spirit, and an increasing reverence for secular +rank. +</p> + +<p> +It had been an ancient maxim of the Greeks, that no +more acceptable gifts can be offered in the temples of the +gods, than the trophies won from an enemy in battle.<note place='foot'>Dion Chrysostom, <hi rend='italic'>Or.</hi> ii. (<hi rend='italic'>De +Regno</hi>).</note> Of +this military religion Christianity had been at first the +extreme negation. I have already had occasion to observe +that it had been one of its earliest rules that no arms should +be introduced within the church, and that soldiers returning +even from the most righteous war should not be admitted to +communion until after a period of penance and purification. +A powerful party, which counted among its leaders Clement +of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Lactantius, and Basil, +maintained that all warfare was unlawful for those who had +been converted; and this opinion had its martyr in the celebrated +Maximilianus, who suffered death under Diocletian +solely because, having been enrolled as a soldier, he declared +that he was a Christian, and that therefore he could not +fight. The extent to which this doctrine was disseminated +has been suggested with much plausibility as one of the +causes of the Diocletian persecution.<note place='foot'>Gibbon, ch. xvi.</note> It was the subject of +one of the reproaches of Celsus; and Origen, in reply, frankly +accepted the accusation that Christianity was incompatible +with military service, though he maintained that the prayers +of the Christians were more efficacious than the swords of +the legions.<note place='foot'>Origen, <hi rend='italic'>Cels.</hi> lib. viii.</note> At the same time, there can be no question +that many Christians, from a very early date, did enlist in +the army, and that they were not cut off from the Church. +The legend of the thundering legion, under Marcus Aurelius, +whatever we may think of the pretended miracle, attested +the fact, and it is expressly asserted by Tertullian.<note place='foot'><q>Navigamus et nos vobiscum +et militamus.</q>—Tert. <hi rend='italic'>Apol.</hi> xlii. +See, too, Grotius <hi rend='italic'>De Jure</hi>, i. cap. ii.</note> The +<pb n='249'/><anchor id='Pg249'/> +first fury of the Diocletian persecution fell upon Christian +soldiers, and by the time of Constantine the army appears +to have become, in a great degree, Christian. A Council of +Arles, under Constantine, condemned soldiers who, through +religious motives, deserted their colours; and St. Augustine +threw his great influence into the same scale. But even +where the calling was not regarded as sinful, it was strongly +discouraged. The ideal or type of supreme excellence conceived +by the imagination of the Pagan world and to which +all their purest moral enthusiasm naturally aspired, was the +patriot and soldier. The ideal of the Catholic legends was +the ascetic, whose first duty was to abandon all secular +feelings and ties. In most family circles the conflict between +the two principles appeared, and in the moral atmosphere of +the fourth and fifth centuries it was almost certain that +every young man who was animated by any pure or genuine +enthusiasm would turn from the army to the monks. St. +Martin, St. Ferreol, St. Tarrachus, and St. Victricius, were +among those who through religious motives abandoned the +army.<note place='foot'>See an admirable dissertation +on the opinions of the early Christians +about military service, in Le +Blant, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptions chrétiennes de la +Gaule</hi>, tome i. pp. 81-87. The +subject is frequently referred to by +Barbeyrac, <hi rend='italic'>Morale des Pères</hi>, and +Grotius, <hi rend='italic'>De Jure</hi>, lib. i. cap. ii.</note> When Ulphilas translated the Bible into Gothic, he +is said to have excepted the four books of Kings, through +fear that they might encourage the martial disposition of the +barbarians.<note place='foot'>Philostorgius, ii. 5.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The first influence that contributed to bring the military +profession into friendly connection with religion was the +received doctrine concerning the Providential government +of affairs. It was generally taught that all national catastrophes +were penal inflictions, resulting, for the most part, +from the vices or the religious errors of the leading men, and +that temporal prosperity was the reward of orthodoxy and +<pb n='250'/><anchor id='Pg250'/> +virtue. A great battle, on the issue of which the fortunes of +a people or of a monarch depended, was therefore supposed +to be the special occasion of Providential interposition, and +the hope of obtaining military success became one of the +most frequent motives of conversion. The conversion of +Constantine was professedly, and the conversion of Clovis +was perhaps really, due to the persuasion that the Divine +interposition had in a critical moment given them the +victory; and I have already noticed how large a part must +be assigned to this order of ideas in facilitating the progress +of Christianity among the barbarians. When a cross was +said to have appeared miraculously to Constantine, with an +inscription announcing the victory of the Milvian bridge; +when the same holy sign, adorned with the sacred monogram, +was carried in the forefront of the Roman armies; +when the nails of the cross, which Helena had brought +from Jerusalem, were converted by the emperor into a +helmet, and into bits for his war-horse, it was evident that +a great change was passing over the once pacific spirit of the +Church.<note place='foot'>See some excellent remarks on +this change, in Milman's <hi rend='italic'>History +of Christianity</hi>, vol. ii. pp. 287-288.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Many circumstances conspired to accelerate it. Northern +tribes, who had been taught that the gates of the Walhalla +were ever open to the warrior who presented himself stained +with the blood of his vanquished enemies, were converted to +Christianity; but they carried their old feelings into their +new creed. The conflict of many races, and the paralysis of +all government that followed the fall of the Empire, made +force everywhere dominant, and petty wars incessant. The +military obligations attached to the <q>benefices</q> which the +sovereigns gave to their leading chiefs, connected the idea +of military service with that of rank still more closely than +it had been connected before, and rendered it doubly honourable +<pb n='251'/><anchor id='Pg251'/> +in the eyes of men. Many bishops and abbots, partly +from the turbulence of their times and characters, and partly, +at a later period, from their position as great feudal lords, +were accustomed to lead their followers in battle; and this +custom, though prohibited by Charlemagne, may be traced +to so late a period as the battle of Agincourt.<note place='foot'>Mably, <hi rend='italic'>Observations sur l'Histoire de France</hi>, i. 6; Hallam's <hi rend='italic'>Middle +Ages</hi>, ch. ii. part ii.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The stigma which Christianity had attached to war was +thus gradually effaced. At the same time, the Church +remained, on the whole, a pacific influence. War was +rather condoned than consecrated, and, whatever might be +the case with a few isolated prelates, the Church did nothing +to increase or encourage it. The transition from the almost +Quaker tenets of the primitive Church to the essentially +military Christianity of the Crusades was chiefly due to +another cause—to the terrors and to the example of Mohammedanism. +</p> + +<p> +This great religion, which so long rivalled the influence +of Christianity, had indeed spread the deepest and most +justifiable panic through Christendom. Without any of +those aids to the imagination which pictures and images +can furnish, without any elaborate sacerdotal organisation, +preaching the purest Monotheism among ignorant and barbarous +men, and inculcating, on the whole, an extremely +high and noble system of morals, it spread with a rapidity +and it acquired a hold over the minds of its votaries, which +it is probable that no other religion has altogether equalled. +It borrowed from Christianity that doctrine of salvation by +belief, which is perhaps the most powerful impulse that can +be applied to the characters of masses of men, and it elaborated +so minutely the charms of its sensual heaven, and the +terrors of its material hell, as to cause the alternative to +appeal with unrivalled force to the gross imaginations of the +<pb n='252'/><anchor id='Pg252'/> +people. It possessed a book which, however inferior to that +of the opposing religion, has nevertheless been the consolation +and the support of millions in many ages. It taught a fatalism +which in its first age nerved its adherents with a matchless +military courage, and which, though in later days it has +often paralysed their active energies, has also rarely failed to +support them under the pressure of inevitable calamity. +But, above all, it discovered the great, the fatal secret of +uniting indissolubly the passion of the soldier with the +passion of the devotee. Making the conquest of the infidel +the first of duties, and proposing heaven as the certain +reward of the valiant soldier, it created a blended enthusiasm +that soon overpowered the divided counsels and the +voluptuous governments of the East, and, within a century +of the death of Mohammed, his followers had almost extirpated +Christianity from its original home, founded great monarchies +in Asia and Africa, planted a noble, though +transient and exotic, civilisation in Spain, menaced the +capital of the Eastern empire, and, but for the issue of a +single battle, they would probably have extended their +sceptre over the energetic and progressive races of Central +Europe. The wave was broken by Charles Martel, at the +battle of Poitiers, and it is now useless to speculate what +might have been the consequences had Mohammedanism +unfurled its triumphant banner among those Teutonic tribes +who have so often changed their creed, and on whom the +course of civilisation has so largely depended. But one +great change was in fact achieved. The spirit of Mohammedanism +slowly passed into Christianity, and transformed +it into its image. The spectacle of an essentially military +religion fascinated men who were at once very warlike and +very superstitious. The panic that had palsied Europe was after +a long interval succeeded by a fierce reaction of resentment. +Pride and religion conspired to urge the Christian warriors +against those who had so often defeated the armies and +wasted the territory of Christendom, who had shorn the +<pb n='253'/><anchor id='Pg253'/> +empire of the Cross of many of its fairest provinces, and +profaned that holy city which was venerated not only for its +past associations, but also for the spiritual blessings it could +still bestow upon the pilgrim. The papal indulgences proved +not less efficacious in stimulating the military spirit than the +promises of Mohammed, and for about two centuries every +pulpit in Christendom proclaimed the duty of war with the +unbeliever, and represented the battle-field as the sure path +to heaven. The religious orders which arose united the +character of the priest with that of the warrior, and when, +at the hour of sunset, the soldier knelt down to pray before +his cross, that cross was the handle of his sword. +</p> + +<p> +It would be impossible to conceive a more complete +transformation than Christianity had thus undergone, and it +is melancholy to contrast with its aspect during the crusades +the impression it had once most justly made upon the world, +as the spirit of gentleness and of peace encountering the +spirit of violence and war. Among the many curious habits +of the Pagan Irish, one of the most significant was that of +perpendicular burial. With a feeling something like that +which induced Vespasian to declare that a Roman emperor +should die standing, the Pagan warriors shrank from the +notion of being prostrate even in death, and they appear to +have regarded this martial burial as a special symbol of +Paganism. An old Irish manuscript tells how, when +Christianity had been introduced into Ireland, a king of +Ulster on his deathbed charged his son never to become a +Christian, but to be buried standing upright like a man +in battle, with his face for ever turned to the south, defying +the men of Leinster.<note place='foot'>Wakeman's <hi rend='italic'>Archæologia Hibernica</hi>, +p. 21. However, Giraldus +Cambrensis observes that the Irish +saints were peculiarly vindictive, +and St. Columba and St. Comgall +are said to have been leaders in a +sanguinary conflict about a church +near Coleraine. See Reeve's edition +of Adamnan's <hi rend='italic'>Life of St. Columba</hi>, +pp. lxxvii. 253.</note> As late as the sixteenth century, it is +said that in some parts of Ireland children were baptised by +<pb n='254'/><anchor id='Pg254'/> +immersion; but the right arms of the males were carefully +held above the water, in order that, not having been dipped +in the sacred stream, they might strike the more deadly +blow.<note place='foot'>Campion's <hi rend='italic'>Historie of Ireland</hi> (1571), book i. ch. vi.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It had been boldly predicted by some of the early Christians +that the conversion of the world would lead to the establishment +of perpetual peace. In looking back, with our +present experience, we are driven to the melancholy conclusion +that, instead of diminishing the number of wars, ecclesiastical +influence has actually and very seriously increased it. We may +look in vain for any period since Constantine, in which the +clergy, as a body, exerted themselves to repress the military +spirit, or to prevent or abridge a particular war, with an energy +at all comparable to that which they displayed in stimulating +the fanaticism of the crusaders, in producing the atrocious +massacre of the Albigenses, in embittering the religious contests +that followed the Reformation. Private wars were, no +doubt, in some degree repressed by their influence; for the +institution of the <q>Truce of God</q> was for a time of much +value, and when, towards the close of the middle ages, the +custom of duels arose, it was strenuously condemned by the +clergy; but we can hardly place any great value on their +exertions in this field, when we remember that duels were +almost or altogether unknown to the Pagan world; that, +having arisen in a period of great superstition, the anathemas +of the Church were almost impotent to discourage them; and +that in our own century they are rapidly disappearing before +the simple censure of an industrial society. It is possible—though +it would, I imagine, be difficult to prove it—that the +mediatorial office, so often exercised by bishops, may sometimes +have prevented wars; and it is certain that during the +period of the religious wars, so much military spirit existed +in Europe that it must necessarily have found a vent, and +<pb n='255'/><anchor id='Pg255'/> +under no circumstances could the period have been one of +perfect peace. But when all these qualifications have been +fully admitted, the broad fact will remain, that, with the +exception of Mohammedanism, no other religion has done so +much to produce war as was done by the religious teachers of +Christendom during several centuries. The military fanaticism +evoked by the indulgences of the popes, by the exhortations +of the pulpit, by the religious importance attached to +the relics at Jerusalem, and by the prevailing hatred of misbelievers, +has scarcely ever been equalled in its intensity, and +it has caused the effusion of oceans of blood, and has been +productive of incalculable misery to the world. Religious +fanaticism was a main cause of the earlier wars, and an +important ingredient in the later ones. The peace principles, +that were so common before Constantine, have found scarcely +any echo except from Erasmus, the Anabaptists, and the +Quakers;<note place='foot'>It seems curious to find in so +calm and unfanatical a writer as +Justus Lipsius the following passage: +<q>Jam et invasio quædam +legitima videtur etiam sine injuria, +ut in barbaros et moribus aut <emph>religione</emph> +prorsum a nobis abhorrentes.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Politicorum +sive Civilis Doctrinæ +libri</hi> (Paris, 1594), lib. iv. ch. ii. +cap. iv.</note> and although some very important pacific agencies +have arisen out of the industrial progress of modern times, +these have been, for the most part, wholly unconnected with, +and have in some cases been directly opposed to, theological +interests. +</p> + +<p> +But although theological influences cannot reasonably be +said to have diminished the number of wars, they have had a +very real and beneficial effect in diminishing their atrocity. +On few subjects have the moral opinions of different ages +exhibited so marked a variation as in their judgments of +what punishment may justly be imposed on a conquered +enemy, and these variations have often been cited as an +argument against those who believe in the existence of +natural moral perceptions. To those, however, who accept +<pb n='256'/><anchor id='Pg256'/> +that doctrine, with the limitations that have been stated in the +first chapter, they can cause no perplexity. In the first dawning +of the human intelligence (as I have said) the notion of duty, +as distinguished from that of interest, appears, and the mind, +in reviewing the various emotions by which it is influenced, +recognises the unselfish and benevolent motives as essentially +and generically superior to the selfish and the cruel. But it +is the general condition of society alone that determines the +standard of benevolence—the classes towards which every +good man will exercise it. At first, the range of duty is the +family, the tribe, the state, the confederation. Within these +limits every man feels himself under moral obligations to +those about him; but he regards the outer world as we +regard wild animals, as beings upon whom he may justifiably +prey. Hence, we may explain the curious fact that the terms +brigand or corsair conveyed in the early stages of society no +notion of moral guilt.<note place='foot'><q>Con l'occasione di queste cose +Plutarco nel <hi rend='italic'>Teseo</hi> dice che gli eroi +si recavano a grande onore e si reputavano +in pregio d'armi con l'esser +chiamati ladroni; siccome a' tempi +barbari ritornati quello di Corsale +era titolo riputato di signoria; +d'intorno a' quali tempi venuto Solone, +si dice aver permesso nelle +sue leggi le società per cagion di +prede; tanto Solone ben intese +questa nostra compiuta Umanità, +nella quale costoro non godono del +diritto natural delle genti! Ma +quel che fa più maraviglia è che +Platone ed Aristotile posero il ladroneccio +fralle spezie della caccia +e con tali e tanti filosofi d'una gente +umanissima convengono con la loro +barbarie i Germani antichi; appo +i quali al referire di Cesare ì ladronecci +non solo non eran infami, ma +si tenevano tra gli esercizi della virtù +siccome tra quelli che per costume +non applicando ad arte alcuna così +fuggivano l'ozio.</q>—Vico, <hi rend='italic'>Scienza +Nuova</hi>, ii. 6. See, too, Whewell's +<hi rend='italic'>Elements of Morality</hi>, book vi. ch. ii.</note> Such men were looked upon simply +as we look upon huntsmen, and if they displayed courage and +skill in their pursuit, they were deemed fit subjects for +admiration. Even in the writings of the most enlightened +philosophers of Greece, war with barbarians is represented as +a form of chase, and the simple desire of obtaining the barbarians +as slaves was considered a sufficient reason for invading +them. The right of the conqueror to kill his captives +<pb n='257'/><anchor id='Pg257'/> +was generally recognised, nor was it at first restricted by any +considerations of age or sex. Several instances are recorded +of Greek and other cities being deliberately destroyed by +Greeks or by Romans, and the entire populations ruthlessly +massacred.<note place='foot'>The ancient right of war is +fully discussed by Grotius, <hi rend='italic'>De Jure</hi>, +lib. iii. See, especially, the horrible +catalogue of tragedies in cap. 4. +The military feeling that regards +capture as disgraceful, had probably +some, though only a very subordinate, +influence in producing +cruelty to the prisoners.</note> The whole career of the early republic of Rome, +though much idealised and transfigured by later historians, +was probably governed by these principles.<note place='foot'><q>Le jour où Athènes décréta +que tous les Mityléniens, sans distinction +de sexe ni d'âge, seraient +exterminés, elle ne croyait pas dépasser +son droit; quand le lendemain +elle revint sur son décret et +se contenta de mettre à mort mille +citoyens et de confisquer toutes les +terres, elle se crut humaine et indulgente. +Après la prise de Platée +les hommes furent égorgés, les +femmes vendues, et personne n'accusa +les vainqueurs d'avoir violé le +droit.... C'est en vertu de ce +droit de la guerre que Rome a +étendu la solitude autour d'elle; du +territoire où les Volsques avaient +vingt-trois cités elle a fait les marais +pontins; les cinquante-trois villes +du Latium ont disparu; dans le +Samnium on put longtemps reconnaître +les lieux où les armées romaines +avaient passé, moins aux +vestiges de leurs camps qu'à la +solitude qui règnait aux environs.</q>—Fustel +de Coulanges, <hi rend='italic'>La Cité +antique</hi>, pp. 263-264.</note> The normal +fate of the captive, which, among barbarians, had been death, +was, in civilised antiquity, slavery; but many thousands +were condemned to the gladiatorial shows, and the vanquished +general was commonly slain in the Mamertine +prison, while his conqueror ascended in triumph to the +Capitol. +</p> + +<p> +A few traces of a more humane spirit may, it is true, be +discovered. Plato had advocated the liberation of all Greek +prisoners upon payment of a fixed ransom,<note place='foot'>Plato, <hi rend='italic'>Republic</hi>, lib. v.; Bodin, +<hi rend='italic'>République</hi>, liv. i. cap. 5.</note> and the Spartan +general Callicratidas had nobly acted upon this principle;<note place='foot'>Grote, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Greece</hi>, vol. viii. +p. 224. Agesilaus was also very +humane to captives.—Ibid. pp. +365-6.</note> +but his example never appears to have been generally followed. +In Rome, the notion of international obligation was +<pb n='258'/><anchor id='Pg258'/> +very strongly felt. No war was considered just which had +not been officially declared; and even in the case of wars +with barbarians, the Roman historians often discuss the sufficiency +or insufficiency of the motives, with a conscientious +severity a modern historian could hardly surpass.<note place='foot'>This appears continually in +Livy, but most of all, I think, in +the Gaulish historian, Florus.</note> The later +Greek and Latin writings occasionally contain maxims which +exhibit a considerable progress in this sphere. The sole +legitimate object of war, both Cicero and Sallust declared to +be an assured peace. That war, according to Tacitus, ends +well which ends with a pardon. Pliny refused to apply the +epithet great to Cæsar, on account of the torrents of human +blood he had shed. Two Roman conquerors<note place='foot'>Scipio and Trajan.</note> are credited +with the saying that it is better to save the life of one citizen +than to destroy a thousand enemies. Marcus Aurelius mournfully +assimilated the career of a conqueror to that of a simple +robber. Nations or armies which voluntarily submitted to +Rome were habitually treated with great leniency, and +numerous acts of individual magnanimity are recorded. The +violation of the chastity of conquered women by soldiers in +a siege was denounced as a rare and atrocious crime.<note place='foot'>See some very remarkable +passages in Grotius, <hi rend='italic'>De Jure Bell</hi>. +lib. iii. cap. 4, § 19.</note> The +extreme atrocities of ancient war appear at last to have been +practically, though not legally, restricted to two classes.<note place='foot'>These mitigations are fully +enumerated by Ayala, <hi rend='italic'>De Jure et +Officiis Bellicis</hi> (Antwerp, 1597), +Grotius, <hi rend='italic'>De Jure</hi>. It is remarkable +that both Ayala and Grotius base +their attempts to mitigate the +severity of war chiefly upon the +writings and examples of the Pagans. +The limits of the right of conquerors +and the just causes of war are discussed +by Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Offic.</hi> lib. i.</note> +Cities where Roman ambassadors had been insulted, or +where some special act of ill faith or cruelty had taken place, +were razed to the ground, and their populations massacred or +delivered into slavery. Barbarian prisoners were regarded +almost as wild beasts, and sent in thousands to fill the slave +market or to combat in the arena. +</p> + +<pb n='259'/><anchor id='Pg259'/> + +<p> +The changes Christianity effected in the rights of war +were very important, and they may, I think, be comprised +under three heads. In the first place, it suppressed the +gladiatorial shows, and thereby saved thousands of captives +from a bloody death. In the next place, it steadily discouraged +the practice of enslaving prisoners, ransomed immense +multitudes with charitable contributions, and by slow and +insensible gradations proceeded on its path of mercy till it +became a recognised principle of international law, that no +Christian prisoners should be reduced to slavery.<note place='foot'>In England the change seems +to have immediately followed conversion. +<q>The evangelical precepts +of peace and love,</q> says a very +learned historian, <q>did not put an +end to war, they did not put an end +to aggressive conquests, but they +distinctly humanised the way in +which war was carried on. From +this time forth the never-ending +wars with the Welsh cease to be +wars of extermination. The +heathen English had been satisfied +with nothing short of the destruction +and expulsion of their enemies; +the Christian English thought it +enough to reduce them to political +subjection.... The Christian +Welsh could now sit down as subjects +of the Christian Saxon. The +Welshman was acknowledged as a +man and a citizen, and was put +under the protection of the law.</q>—Freeman's +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. of the Norman +Conquest</hi>, vol. i. pp. 33-34. Christians +who assisted infidels in wars +were <hi rend='italic'>ipso facto</hi> excommunicated, +and might therefore be enslaved, +but all others were free from slavery. +<q>Et quidem inter Christianos +laudabili et antiqua consuetudine +introductum est, ut capti +hinc inde, utcunque justo bello, non +fierent servi, sed liberi servarentur +donec solvant precium redemptionis.</q>—Ayala, +lib. i. cap. 5. <q>This +rule, at least,</q> says Grotius, +<q>(though but a small matter) the +reverence for the Christian law +has enforced, which Socrates vainly +sought to have established among +the Greeks.</q> The Mohammedans +also made it a rule not to enslave +their co-religionists.—Grotius, <hi rend='italic'>De +Jure</hi>, iii. 7, § 9. Pagan and barbarian +prisoners were, however, +sold as slaves (especially by the +Spaniards) till very recently.</note> In the +third place, it had a more indirect but very powerful influence +by the creation of a new warlike ideal. The ideal +knight of the Crusades and of chivalry, uniting all the force +and fire of the ancient warrior, with something of the tenderness +and humility of the Christian saint, sprang from the +conjunction of the two streams of religious and of military +<pb n='260'/><anchor id='Pg260'/> +feeling; and although this ideal, like all others, was a creation +of the imagination not often perfectly realised in +life, yet it remained the type and model of warlike excellence, +to which many generations aspired; and its softening +influence may even now be largely traced in the character of +the modern gentleman. +</p> + +<milestone unit='tb' rend='rule: 50%'/> + +<p> +Together with the gradual fusion of the military spirit +with Christianity, we may dimly descry, in the period before +Charlemagne, the first stages of that consecration of secular +rank which at a later period, in the forms of chivalry, the +divine right of kings, and the reverence for aristocracies, +played so large a part both in moral and in political history. +</p> + +<p> +We have already seen that the course of events in the +Roman Empire had been towards the continual aggrandisement +of the imperial power. The representative despotism +of Augustus was at last succeeded by the oriental despotism +of Diocletian. The senate sank into a powerless assembly of +imperial nominees, and the spirit of Roman freedom wholly +perished with the extinction of Stoicism. +</p> + +<p> +It would probably be a needless refinement to seek any +deeper causes for this change than may be found in the ordinary +principles of human nature. Despotism is the normal +and legitimate government of an early society in which +knowledge has not yet developed the powers of the people; +but when it is introduced into a civilised community, it is of +the nature of a disease, and a disease which, unless it be +checked, has a continual tendency to spread. When free +nations abdicate their political functions, they gradually lose +both the capacity and the desire for freedom. Political talent +and ambition, having no sphere for action, steadily decay, +and servile, enervating, and vicious habits proportionately +increase. Nations are organic beings in a constant process +of expansion or decay, and where they do not exhibit a progress +of liberty they usually exhibit a progress of servitude. +</p> + +<p> +It can hardly be asserted that Christianity had much influence +<pb n='261'/><anchor id='Pg261'/> +upon this change. By accelerating in some degree +that withdrawal of the virtuous energies of the people from +the sphere of government which had long been in process, it +prevented the great improvement of morals, which it undoubtedly +effected, from appearing perceptibly in public +affairs. It taught a doctrine of passive obedience, which its +disciples nobly observed in the worst periods of persecution. +On the other hand, the Christians emphatically repudiated +the ascription of Divine honours to the sovereign, and they +asserted with heroic constancy their independent worship, in +defiance of the law. After the time of Constantine, however, +their zeal became far less pure, and sectarian interests wholly +governed their principles. Much misapplied learning has +been employed in endeavouring to extract from the Fathers +a consistent doctrine concerning the relations of subjects +to their sovereigns; but every impartial observer may +discover that the principle upon which they acted was exceedingly +simple. When a sovereign was sufficiently orthodox +in his opinions, and sufficiently zealous in patronising +the Church and in persecuting the heretics, he was extolled +as an angel. When his policy was opposed to the Church, +he was represented as a dæmon. The estimate which Gregory +of Tours has given of the character of Clovis, though far +more frank, is not a more striking instance of moral perversion +than the fulsome and indeed blasphemous adulation +which Eusebius poured upon Constantine—a sovereign whose +character was at all times of the most mingled description, +and who, shortly after his conversion, put to a violent death +his son, his nephew, and his wife. If we were to estimate +the attitude of ecclesiastics to sovereigns by the language of +Eusebius, we should suppose that they ascribed to them a +direct Divine inspiration, and exalted the Imperial dignity +to an extent that was before unknown.<note place='foot'>The character of Constantine, +and the estimate of it in Eusebius, +are well treated by Dean Stanley, +<hi rend='italic'>Lectures on the Eastern Church</hi> +(Lect. vi.).</note> But when Julian +<pb n='262'/><anchor id='Pg262'/> +mounted the throne, the whole aspect of the Church was +changed. This great and virtuous, though misguided sovereign, +whose private life was a model of purity, who carried +to the throne the manners, tastes, and friendships of a philosophic +life, and who proclaimed and, with very slight exceptions, +acted with the largest and most generous toleration, +was an enemy of the Church, and all the vocabulary of invective +was in consequence habitually lavished upon him. +Ecclesiastics and laymen combined in insulting him, and +when, after a brief but glorious reign of less than two years, +he met an honourable death on the battle-field, neither the +disaster that had befallen the Roman arms, nor the present +dangers of the army, nor the heroic courage which the fallen +emperor had displayed, nor the majestic tranquillity of his +end, nor the tears of his faithful friends, could shame the +Christian community into the decency of silence. A peal of +brutal merriment filled the land. In Antioch the Christians +assembled in the theatres and in the churches, to celebrate +with rejoicing the death which their emperor had met in +fighting against the enemies of his country.<note place='foot'>Theodoret, iii. 28.</note> A crowd of +vindictive legends expressed the exultation of the Church,<note place='foot'>They are collected by Chateaubriand, +<hi rend='italic'>Études hist.</hi> 2<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>me</hi> disc. +2<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>me</hi> partie.</note> +and St. Gregory Nazianzen devoted his eloquence to immortalising +it. His brother had at one time been a high official +in the Empire, and had fearlessly owned his Christianity +under Julian; but that emperor not only did not remove +him from his post, but even honoured him with his warm +friendship.<note place='foot'>See St. Gregory's oration on +<hi rend='italic'>Cesarius</hi>.</note> The body of Julian had been laid but a short +time in the grave, when St. Gregory delivered two fierce +invectives against his memory, collected the grotesque +calumnies that had been heaped upon his character, expressed +a regret that his remains had not been flung after +death into the common sewer, and regaled the hearers by an +<pb n='263'/><anchor id='Pg263'/> +emphatic assertion of the tortures that were awaiting him in +hell. Among the Pagans a charge of the gravest kind was +brought against the Christians. It was said that Julian died +by the spear, not of an enemy, but of one of his own Christian +soldiers. When we remember that he was at once an emperor +and a general, that he fell when bravely and confidently +leading his army in the field, and in the critical moment of a +battle on which the fortunes of the Empire largely depended, +this charge, which Libanius has made, appears to involve as +large an amount of base treachery as any that can be conceived. +It was probably a perfectly groundless calumny; +but the manner in which it was regarded among the +Christians is singularly characteristic. <q>Libanius,</q> says +one of the ecclesiastical historians, <q>clearly states that +the emperor fell by the hand of a Christian; and this, probably, +was the truth. It is not unlikely that some of the +soldiers who then served in the Roman army might have +conceived the idea of acting like the ancient slayers of +tyrants who exposed themselves to death in the cause of +liberty, and fought in defence of their country, their families, +and their friends, and whose names are held in universal +admiration. Still less is he deserving of blame who, for the +sake of God and of religion, performed so bold a deed.</q><note place='foot'>Sozomen, vi. 2.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It may be asserted, I think, without exaggeration, that +the complete subordination of all other principles to their +theological interests, which characterised the ecclesiastics +under Julian, continued for many centuries. No language +of invective was too extreme to be applied to a sovereign +who opposed their interests. No language of adulation was too +extravagant for a sovereign who sustained them. Of all the +emperors who disgraced the throne of Constantinople, the +most odious and ferocious was probably Phocas. An obscure +centurion, he rose by a military revolt to the supreme power, +<pb n='264'/><anchor id='Pg264'/> +and the Emperor Maurice, with his family, fell into his hands. +He resolved to put the captive emperor to death; but, first of +all, he ordered his five children to be brought out and to +be successively murdered before the eyes of their father, who +bore the awful sight with a fine mixture of antique heroism +and of Christian piety, murmuring, as each child fell beneath +the knife of the assassin, <q>Thou art just, O Lord, and +righteous are Thy judgments,</q> and even interposing, at the +last moment, to reveal the heroic fraud of the nurse who +desired to save his youngest child by substituting for it her +own. But Maurice—who had been a weak and avaricious +rather than a vicious sovereign—had shown himself jealous +of the influence of the Pope, had forbidden the soldiers, +during the extreme danger of their country, deserting their +colours to enrol themselves as monks, and had even encouraged +the pretensions of the Archbishop of Constantinople to +the title of Universal Bishop; and, in the eyes of the Roman +priests, the recollection of these crimes was sufficient to +excuse the most brutal of murders. In two letters, full of +passages from Scripture, and replete with fulsome and +blasphemous flattery, the Pope, St. Gregory the Great, wrote +to congratulate Phocas and his wife upon their triumph; he +called heaven and earth to rejoice over them; he placed their +images to be venerated in the Lateran, and he adroitly insinuated +that it was impossible that, with their well-known piety, +they could fail to be very favourable to the See of Peter.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xiii. 31-39. In the second +of these letters (which is addressed +to Leontia), he says: <q>Rogare forsitan +debui ut ecclesiam beati +Petri apostoli quæ nunc usque +gravibus insidiis laboravit, haberet +Vestra Tranquillitas specialiter +commendatam. Sed qui scio quia +omnipotentem Deum diligitis, non +debeo petere quod sponte ex benignitate +vestræ pietatis exhibetis.</q></note> +</p> + +<p> +The course of events in relation to the monarchical power +was for some time different in the East and the West. +Constantine had himself assumed more of the pomp and +<pb n='265'/><anchor id='Pg265'/> +manner of an oriental sovereign than any preceding emperor, +and the court of Constantinople was soon characterised by an +extravagance of magnificence on the part of the monarch, and +of adulation on the part of the subjects, which has probably +never been exceeded.<note place='foot'>See the graphic description in Gibbon, ch. liii.</note> The imperial power in the East +overshadowed the ecclesiastical, and the priests, notwithstanding +their fierce outbreak during the iconoclastic +controversy, and a few minor paroxysms of revolt, gradually +sank into that contented subservience which has usually +characterised the Eastern Church. In the West, however, +the Roman bishops were in a great degree independent of the +sovereigns, and in some degree opposed to their interests. +The transfer of the imperial power to Constantinople, by +leaving the Roman bishops the chief personages in a city +which long association as well as actual power rendered the +foremost in the world, was one of the great causes of the +aggrandisement of the Papacy and the Arianism of many +sovereigns, the jealousy which others exhibited of ecclesiastical +encroachments, and the lukewarmness of a few in +persecuting heretics, were all causes of dissension. On the +severance of the Empire, the Western Church came in contact +with rulers of another type. The barbarian kings were +little more than military chiefs, elected for the most part by +the people, surrounded by little or no special sanctity, and +maintaining their precarious and very restricted authority by +their courage or their skill. A few feebly imitated the pomp +of the Roman emperors, but their claims had no great +weight with the world. The aureole which the genius of +Theodoric cast around his throne passed away upon his death, +and the Arianism of that great sovereign sufficiently debarred +him from the sympathies of the Church. In Gaul, under a +few bold and unscrupulous men, the Merovingian dynasty +emerged from a host of petty kings, and consolidated the +<pb n='266'/><anchor id='Pg266'/> +whole country into one kingdom; but after a short period it +degenerated, the kings became mere puppets in the hands of +the mayors of the palace, and these latter, whose office +had become hereditary, who were the chiefs of the great +landed proprietors, and who had acquired by their position +a personal ascendancy over the sovereigns, became the +virtual rulers of the nation. +</p> + +<p> +It was out of these somewhat unpromising conditions +that the mediæval doctrine of the Divine right of kings, and +the general reverence for rank, that formed the essence of +chivalry, were slowly evolved. Political and moral causes +conspired in producing them. The chief political causes—which +are well known—may be summed up in a few words. +</p> + +<p> +When Leo the Isaurian attempted, in the eighth century, +to repress the worship of images, the resistance which he met +at Constantinople, though violent, was speedily allayed; but +the Pope, assuming a far higher position than any Byzantine +ecclesiastic could attain, boldly excommunicated the emperor, +and led a revolt against his authority, which resulted in the +virtual independence of Italy. His position was at this time +singularly grand. He represented a religious cause to which +the great mass of the Christian world were passionately +attached. He was venerated as the emancipator of Italy. +He exhibited in the hour of his triumph a moderation +which conciliated many enemies, and prevented the anarchy +that might naturally have been expected. He presided, at +the same time, over a vast monastic organisation, which +ramified over all Christendom, propagated his authority +among many barbarous nations, and, by its special attachment +to the Papacy, as distinguished from the Episcopacy, contributed +very much to transform Christianity into a spiritual +despotism. One great danger, however, still menaced his +power. The barbarous Lombards were continually invading +his territory, and threatening the independence of Rome. +The Lombard monarch, Luitprand had quailed in the very +<pb n='267'/><anchor id='Pg267'/> +hour of his triumph before the menace of eternal torture +but his successor, Astolphus, was proof against every fear, +and it seemed as though the Papal city must have inevitably +succumbed before his arms. +</p> + +<p> +In their complete military impotence, the Popes looked +abroad for some foreign succour, and they naturally turned +to the Franks, whose martial tastes and triumphs were +universally renowned. Charles Martel, though simply a +mayor of the palace, had saved Europe from the Mohammedans, +and the Pope expected that he would unsheath his +sword for the defence of the Vatican. Charles, however, was +deaf to all entreaties; and, although he had done more than +any ruler since Constantine for the Church, his attention +seems to have been engrossed by the interests of his own +country, and he was much alienated from the sympathies of +the clergy. An ancient legend tells how a saint saw his soul +carried by dæmons into hell, because he had secularised +Church property, and a more modern historian<note place='foot'>Baronius.</note> has ascribed +his death to his having hesitated to defend the Pope. His +son, Pepin, however, actuated probably in different degrees +by personal ambition, a desire for military adventure, and +religious zeal, listened readily to the prayer of the Pope, and +a compact was entered into between the parties, which proved +one of the most important events in history. Pepin agreed +to secure the Pope from the danger by which he was +threatened. The Pope agreed to give his religious sanction +to the ambition of Pepin, who designed to depose the +Merovingian dynasty, and to become in name, as he was +already in fact, the sovereign of Gaul. +</p> + +<p> +It is not necessary for me to recount at length the details +of these negotiations, which are described by many historians. +It is sufficient to say, that the compact was religiously +observed. Pepin made two expeditions to Italy, and completely +<pb n='268'/><anchor id='Pg268'/> +shattered the power of the Lombards, wresting from +them the rich exarchate of Ravenna, which he ceded to the +Pope, who still retained his nominal allegiance to the +Byzantine emperor, but who became, by this donation, for +the first time avowedly an independent temporal prince. +On the other hand, the deposition of Childeric was peaceably +effected; the last of the Merovingians was immured in a +monastery, and the Carlovingian dynasty ascended the throne +under the special benediction of the Pope, who performed on +the occasion the ceremony of consecration, which had not +previously been in general use,<note place='foot'>Mably, ii. 1; Gibbon, ch. xlix.</note> placed the crown with his +own hands on the head of Pepin, and delivered a solemn +anathema against all who should rebel against the new king +or against his successors. +</p> + +<p> +The extreme importance of these events was probably not +fully realised by any of the parties concerned in them. It +was evident, indeed, that the Pope had been freed from a +pressing danger, and had acquired a great accession of +temporal power, and also that a new dynasty had arisen in +Gaul under circumstances that were singularly favourable +and imposing. But, much more important than these facts +was the permanent consecration of the royal authority that +had been effected. The Pope had successfully asserted his +power of deposing and elevating kings, and had thus acquired +a position which influenced the whole subsequent course of +European history. The monarch, if he had become in some +degree subservient to the priest, had become in a great +degree independent of his people; the Divine origin of his +power was regarded as a dogma of religion, and a sanctity +surrounded him which immeasurably aggrandised his power. +The ascription, by the Pagans, of divinity to kings had had +no appreciable effect in increasing their authority or restraining +the limits of criticism or of rebellion. The ascription of +<pb n='269'/><anchor id='Pg269'/> +a Divine right to kings, independent of the wishes of the +people, has been one of the most enduring and most potent of +superstitions, and it has even now not wholly vanished from +the world.<note place='foot'>There are some good remarks +upon the way in which, among the +free Franks, the bishops taught the +duty of passive obedience, in +Mably, <hi rend='italic'>Obs. sur l'Histoire de +France</hi>, livre i. ch. iii. Gregory of +Tours, in his address to Chilperic, +had said: <q>If any of us, O king, +transgress the boundaries of justice, +thou art at hand to correct +us; but if thou shouldest exceed +them, who is to condemn thee? +We address thee, and if it please +thee thou listenest to us; but if it +please thee not, who is to condemn +thee save He who has proclaimed +Himself Justice.</q>—Greg. Tur. +v. 19. On the other hand, +Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, +strongly asserted the obligation of +kings to observe the law, and denounced +as diabolical the doctrine +that they are subject to none but +God. (Allen, <hi rend='italic'>On the Royal Prerogative</hi> +(1849), pp. 171-172.)</note> +</p> + +<p> +Mere isolated political events have, however, rarely or +never this profound influence, unless they have been preceded +and prepared by other agencies. The first predisposing +cause of the ready reception of the doctrine of the Divine +character of authority, may probably be found in the prominence +of the monastic system. I have already observed +that this system represents in its extreme form that exaltation +of the virtues of humility and of obedience which +so broadly distinguishes the Christian from the Pagan type +of excellence. I have also noticed that, owing to the concurrence +of many causes, it had acquired such dimensions +and influence as to supply the guiding ideal of the Christian +world. Controlling or monopolising all education and +literature, furnishing most of the legislators and many of the +statesmen of the age, attracting to themselves all moral +enthusiasm and most intellectual ability, the monks soon left +their impress on the character of nations. Habits of +obedience and dispositions of humility were diffused, revered, +and idealised, and a Church which rested mainly on tradition +fostered a deep sense of the sanctity of antiquity, and a +natural disposition to observe traditional customs. In this +<pb n='270'/><anchor id='Pg270'/> +manner a tone of feeling was gradually formed that assimilated +with the monarchical and aristocratical institutions of +feudalism, which flourished chiefly because they corresponded +with the moral feelings of the time. +</p> + +<p> +In the next place, a series of social and political causes +diminished the personal independence for which the barbarians +had been noted. The king had at first been, not the +sovereign of a country, but the chief of a tribe.<note place='foot'>The exact degree of the authority +of the barbarian kings, and the +different stages by which their +power was increased, are matters +of great controversy. The reader +may consult Thierry's <hi rend='italic'>Lettres sur +l'Hist. de France</hi> (let. 9); Guizot's +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. de la Civilisation</hi>; Mably, +<hi rend='italic'>Observ. sur l'Hist. de France</hi>; Freeman's +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. of the Norman Conquest</hi>, +vol. i.</note> Gradually, +however, with more settled habits, the sovereignty assumed a +territorial character, and we may soon discover the rudiments +of a territorial aristocracy. The kings gave their leading +chiefs portions of conquered land or of the royal domains, +under the name of benefices. The obligation of military +service was attached to these benefices, and by slow and +perhaps insensible stages, each of which has been the subject +of fierce controversy, they were made irrevocable, and +ultimately hereditary. While society was still disorganised, +small landlords purchased the protection of the Church, or of +some important chief, by surrendering their estates, which +they received back as tenants, subject to the condition of the +payment of rent, or of military service. Others, without +making such surrender, placed themselves under the care of +a neighbouring lord, and offered, in return, homage or military +aid. At the same time, through causes to which I have +already adverted, the free peasants for the most part sank +into serfs, subject to and protected by the landowners. In +this manner a hierarchy of ranks was gradually formed, of +which the sovereign was the apex and the serf the basis. +The complete legal organisation of this hierarchy belongs to +<pb n='271'/><anchor id='Pg271'/> +the period of feudalism, which is not within the scope of the +present volume; but the chief elements of feudalism existed +before Charlemagne, and the moral results flowing from them +may be already discerned. Each rank, except the very +highest, was continually brought into contact with a superior, +and a feeling of constant dependence and subordination was +accordingly fostered. To the serf, who depended for all +things upon the neighbouring noble, to the noble, who held +all his dignities on the condition of frequent military service +under his sovereign, the idea of secular rank became indissolubly +connected with that of supreme greatness. +</p> + +<p> +It will appear evident, from the foregoing observations, +that in the period before Charlemagne the moral and political +causes were already in action, which at a much later +period produced the organisation of chivalry—an organisation +which was founded on the combination and the glorification +of secular rank and military prowess. But, in order +that the tendencies I have described should acquire their full +force, it was necessary that they should be represented or +illustrated in some great personage, who, by the splendour +and the beauty of his career, could fascinate the imaginations +of men. It is much easier to govern great masses of men +through their imagination than through their reason. Moral +principles rarely act powerfully upon the world, except by +way of example or ideals. When the course of events has +been to glorify the ascetic or monarchical or military spirit, a +great saint, or sovereign, or soldier will arise, who will concentrate +in one dazzling focus the blind tendencies of his +time, kindle the enthusiasm and fascinate the imagination of +the people. But for the prevailing tendency, the great man +would not have arisen, or would not have exercised his great +influence. But for the great man, whose career appealed +vividly to the imagination, the prevailing tendency would +never have acquired its full intensity. +</p> + +<p> +This typical figure appeared in Charlemagne, whose +<pb n='272'/><anchor id='Pg272'/> +colossal form towers with a majestic grandeur both in history +and in romance. Of all the great rulers of men, there has +probably been no other who was so truly many-sided, whose +influence pervaded so completely all the religious, intellectual, +and political modes of thought existing in his time. Rising +in one of the darkest periods of European history, this great +emperor resuscitated, with a brief but dazzling splendour, the +faded glories of the Empire of the West, conducted, for the +most part in person, numerous expeditions against the barbarous +nations around him, promulgated a vast system of +legislation, reformed the discipline of every order of the +Church, and reduced all classes of the clergy to subservience +to his will, while, by legalising tithes, he greatly increased +their material prosperity. He at the same time contributed, +in a measure, to check the intellectual decadence by founding +schools and libraries, and drawing around him all the scattered +learning of Europe. He reformed the coinage, extended +commerce, influenced religious controversies, and convoked +great legislative assemblies, which ultimately contributed +largely to the organisation of feudalism. In all these +spheres the traces of his vast, organising, and far-seeing +genius may be detected, and the influence which he exercised +over the imaginations of men is shown by the numerous +legends of which he is the hero. In the preceding ages the +supreme ideal had been the ascetic. When the popular +imagination embodied in legends its conception of humanity +in its noblest and most attractive form, it instinctively +painted some hermit-saint of many penances and many +miracles. In the Romances of Charlemagne and of Arthur +we may trace the dawning of a new type of greatness. The +hero of the imagination of Europe was no longer a hermit, +but a king, a warrior, a knight. The long train of influences +I have reviewed, culminating in Charlemagne, had done +their work. The age of the ascetics began to fade. The age +of the crusades and of chivalry succeeded it. +</p> + +<pb n='273'/><anchor id='Pg273'/> + +<p> +It is curious to observe the manner in which, under the +influence of the prevailing tendency, the career of Charlemagne +was transfigured by the popular imagination. His +military enterprises had been chiefly directed against the +Saxons, against whom he had made not less than thirty-two +expeditions. With the Mohammedans he had but little +contact. It was Charles Martel, not his grandson, who, by +the great battle of Poitiers, had checked their career. Charlemagne +made, in person, but a single expedition against them +in Spain, and that expedition was on a small scale, and was +disastrous in its issue. But in the Carlovingian romances, +which arose at a time when the enthusiasm of the Crusades +was permeating Christendom, events were represented in a +wholly different light. Charles Martel has no place among +the ideal combatants of the Church. He had appeared too +early, his figure was not sufficiently great to fascinate the +popular imagination, and by confiscating ecclesiastical property, +and refusing to assist the Pope against the Lombards, +he had fallen under the ban of the clergy. Charlemagne, on +the other hand, was represented as the first and greatest of +the crusaders. His wars with the Saxons were scarcely +noticed. His whole life was said to have been spent in +heroic and triumphant combats with the followers of +Mohammed.<note place='foot'>Fauriel, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de la Poésie +provençale</hi>, tome ii. p. 252.</note> Among the achievements attributed to him was +an expedition to rescue Nismes and Carcassonne from their +grasp, which was, in fact, a dim tradition of the victories of +Charles Martel.<note place='foot'>Ibid, p. 258.</note> He is even said to have carried his victorious +arms into the heart of Palestine, and he is the hero +of what are probably the three earliest extant romances of +the Crusades.<note place='foot'>Le Grand D'Aussy, <hi rend='italic'>Fabliaux</hi>, +préf. p. xxiv. These romances +were accounts of his expeditions to +Spain, to Languedoc, and to Palestine.</note> In fiction, as in history, his reign forms the +<pb n='274'/><anchor id='Pg274'/> +great landmark separating the early period of the middle +ages from the age of military Christianity. +</p> + +<p> +On the verge of this great change I draw this history to +a close. In pursuing our long and chequered course, from +Augustus to Charlemagne, we have seen the rise and fall of +many types of character, and of many forms of enthusiasm. +We have seen the influence of universal empire expanding, +and the influence of Greek civilisation intensifying, the +sympathies of Europe. We have surveyed the successive +progress of Stoicism, Platonism, and Egyptian philosophies, +at once reflecting and guiding the moral tendencies of society. +We have traced the course of progress or retrogression in +many fields of social, political, and legislative life, have +watched the cradle of European Christianity, examined the +causes of its triumph, the difficulties it encountered, and the +priceless blessings its philanthropic spirit bestowed upon +mankind. We have also pursued step by step the mournful +history of its corruption, its asceticism, and its intolerance, +the various transformations it produced or underwent when +the turbid waters of the barbarian invasions had inundated +the civilisations of Europe. It remains for me, before concluding +this work, to investigate one class of subjects to +which I have, as yet, but briefly adverted—to examine the +effects of the changes I have described upon the character +and position of woman, and upon the grave moral questions +concerning the relations of the sexes. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='275'/><anchor id='Pg275'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter V. The Position Of Women.</head> + +<p> +In the long series of moral revolutions that have been +described in the foregoing chapters, I have more than once +had occasion to refer to the position that was assigned to +woman in the community, and to the virtues and vices that +spring directly from the relations of the sexes. I have not, +however, as yet discussed these questions with a fulness at +all corresponding to their historical importance, and I propose, +in consequence, before concluding this volume, to devote +a few pages to their examination. Of all the many questions +that are treated in this work, there is none which I approach +with so much hesitation, for there is probably none which it +is so difficult to treat with clearness and impartiality, and at +the same time without exciting any scandal or offence. +The complexity of the problem, arising from the very large +place which exceptional institutions or circumstances, and +especially the influence of climate and race, have had on the +chastity of nations, I have already noticed, and the extreme +delicacy of the matters with which this branch of ethics +is connected must be palpable to all. The first duty of an +historian, however, is to truth; and it is absolutely impossible +to present a true picture of the moral condition of different +ages, and to form a true estimate of the moral effects of +different religions, without adverting to the department of +morals, which has exhibited most change, and has probably +exercised most influence. +</p> + +<pb n='276'/><anchor id='Pg276'/> + +<p> +It is natural that, in the period when men are still perfect +barbarians, when their habits of life are still nomadic, and +when, war and the chase, being their sole pursuits, the +qualities that are required in these form their chief measure +of excellence, the inferiority of women to men should be +regarded as undoubted, and their position should be extremely +degraded. In all those qualities which are then most prized, +women are indisputably inferior. The social qualities in +which they are especially fitted to excel have no sphere for +their display. The ascendancy of beauty is very faint, and, +even if it were otherwise, few traces of female beauty could +survive the hardships of the savage life. Woman is looked +upon merely as the slave of man, and as the minister to +his passions. In the first capacity, her life is one of continual, +abject, and unrequited toil. In the second capacity, she is +exposed to all the violent revulsions of feeling that follow, +among rude men, the gratification of the animal passions. +</p> + +<p> +Even in this early stage, however, we may trace some +rudiments of those moral sentiments which are destined at a +later period to expand. The institution of marriage exists. +The value of chastity is commonly in some degree felt, and +appears in the indignation which is displayed against the +adulterer. The duty of restraining the passions is largely +recognised in the female, though the males are only restricted +by the prohibition of adultery. +</p> + +<p> +The first two steps which are taken towards the elevation +of woman are probably the abandonment of the custom of +purchasing wives, and the construction of the family on the +basis of monogamy. In the earliest periods of civilisation, the +marriage contract was arranged between the bridegroom and +the father of the bride, on the condition of a sum of money +being paid by the former to the latter. This sum, which +is known in the laws of the barbarians as the <q>mundium,</q><note place='foot'>The ἕδνα of the Greeks.</note> +<pb n='277'/><anchor id='Pg277'/> +was in fact a payment to the father for the cession of his +daughter, who thus became the bought slave of her husband. +It is one of the most remarkable features of the ancient laws +of India, that they forbade this gift, on the ground that the +parent should not sell his child;<note place='foot'>Legouvé, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire morale des +Femmes</hi>, pp. 95-96.</note> but there can be little +doubt that this sale was at one time the ordinary type of +marriage. In the Jewish writings we find Jacob purchasing +Leah and Rachel by certain services to their father; and +this custom, which seems to have been at one time +general in Judea,<note place='foot'>Gen. xxix., xxxiv. 12; Deut. +xxii. 29; 1 Sam. xviii. 25.</note> appears in the age of Homer to have +been general in Greece. At an early period, however, of +Greek history, the purchase-money was replaced by the +dowry, or sum of money paid by the father of the bride for +the use of his daughter;<note place='foot'>The history of dowries is +briefly noticed by Grote, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of +Greece</hi>, vol. ii. pp. 112-113; and +more fully by Lord Kames, in the +admirable chapter <q>On the Progress +of the Female Sex,</q> in his +<hi rend='italic'>Sketches of the History of Man</hi>, a +book less read than it deserves to +be. M. Legouvé has also devoted +a chapter to it in his <hi rend='italic'>Hist. morale +des Femmes</hi>. See, too, Legendre, +<hi rend='italic'>Traité de l'Opinion</hi>, tome ii. pp. +329-330. We find traces of the +dowry, as well as of the ἕδνα, in +Homer. Penelope had received a +dowry from Icarus, her father. +M. Michelet, in one of those fanciful +books which he has recently +published, maintains a view of the +object of the ἕδνα which I do not +remember to have seen elsewhere, +and which I do not believe. He +says: <q>Ce prix n'est point un achat +de la femme, mais une indemnité +qui dédommage la famille du père +pour les enfants futurs, qui ne +profiteront pas à cette famille mais +à celle où la femme va entrer.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>La +Femme</hi>, p. 166.</note> and this, although it passed into the +hands of the husband, contributed to elevate the wife, in the +first place, by the dignity it gave her, and, in the next place, +by special laws, which both in Greece and Rome secured it +to her in most cases of separation.<note place='foot'>In Rome, when the separation +was due to the misconduct of the +wife, the dowry belonged to her +husband.</note> The wife thus possessed +a guarantee against ill-usage by her husband. She ceased to +be his slave, and became in some degree a contracting party. +<pb n='278'/><anchor id='Pg278'/> +Among the early Germans, a different and very remarkable +custom existed. The bride did not bring any dowry to her +husband, nor did the bridegroom give anything to the father +of the bride; but he gave his gift to the bride herself, on the +morning after the first night of marriage, and this, which +was called the <q>Morgengab,</q> or morning gift, was the origin +of the jointure.<note place='foot'><q>Dotem non uxor marito sed +uxori maritus offert.</q>—Tac. <hi rend='italic'>Germ.</hi> +xviii. On the Morgengab, see +Canciani, <hi rend='italic'>Leges Barbarorum</hi> (Venetiis, +1781), vol. i. pp. 102-104; +ii. pp. 230-231. Muratori, <hi rend='italic'>Antich. +Ital.</hi> diss. xx. Luitprand enacted +that no Longobard should give +more than one-fourth of his substance +as a Morgengab. In Gregory +of Tours (ix. 20) we have an +example of the gift of some cities +as a Morgengab.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Still more important than the foregoing was the institution +of monogamy, by which, from its earliest days, the Greek +civilisation proclaimed its superiority to the Asiatic civilisations +that had preceded it. We may regard monogamy +either in the light of our intuitive moral sentiment on the +subject of purity, or in the light of the interests of society. +In its Oriental or polygamous stage, marriage is regarded +almost exclusively, in its lowest aspect, as a gratification of +the passions; while in European marriages the mutual +attachment and respect of the contracting parties, the formation +of a household, and the long train of domestic feelings +and duties that accompany it, have all their distinguished +place among the motives of the contract, and the lower +element has comparatively little prominence. In this way it +may be intelligibly said, without any reference to utilitarian +considerations, that monogamy is a higher state than polygamy. +The utilitarian arguments in its defence are also +extremely powerful, and may be summed up in three +sentences. Nature, by making the number of males and +females nearly equal, indicates it as natural. In no other +form of marriage can the government of the family, which is +one of the chief ends of marriage, be so happily sustained, +<pb n='279'/><anchor id='Pg279'/> +and in no other does woman assume the position of the equal +of man. +</p> + +<p> +Monogamy was the general system in Greece, though +there are said to have been slight and temporary deviations +into the earlier system, after some great disasters, when an +increase of population was ardently desired.<note place='foot'>See, on this point, Aul. Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct. Att.</hi> xv. 20. Euripides is +said to have had two wives.</note> A broad line +must, however, be drawn between the legendary or poetical +period, as reflected in Homer and perpetuated in the tragedians, +and the later historical period. It is one of the +most remarkable, and to some writers one of the most +perplexing, facts in the moral history of Greece, that in the +former and ruder period women had undoubtedly the highest +place, and their type exhibited the highest perfection. Moral +ideas, in a thousand forms, have been sublimated, enlarged, +and changed, by advancing civilisation; but it may be +fearlessly asserted that the types of female excellence which +are contained in the Greek poems, while they are among the +earliest, are also among the most perfect in the literature of +mankind. The conjugal tenderness of Hector and Andromache; +the unwearied fidelity of Penelope, awaiting through +the long revolving years the return of her storm-tossed +husband, who looked forward to her as to the crown of all +his labours; the heroic love of Alcestis, voluntarily dying +that her husband might live; the filial piety of Antigone; +the majestic grandeur of the death of Polyxena; the more +subdued and saintly resignation of Iphigenia, excusing with +her last breath the father who had condemned her; the +joyous, modest, and loving Nausicaa, whose figure shines like +a perfect idyll among the tragedies of the Odyssey—all these +are pictures of perennial beauty, which Rome and Christendom, +chivalry and modern civilisation, have neither eclipsed +nor transcended. Virgin modesty and conjugal fidelity, the +<pb n='280'/><anchor id='Pg280'/> +graces as well as the virtues of the most perfect womanhood, +have never been more exquisitely pourtrayed. The female +figures stand out in the canvas almost as prominently as the +male ones, and are surrounded by an almost equal reverence. +The whole history of the Siege of Troy is a history of the +catastrophes that followed a violation of the nuptial tie. +Yet, at the same time, the position of women was in some +respects a degraded one. The custom of purchase-money +given to the father of the bride was general. The husbands +appear to have indulged largely, and with little or no censure, +in concubines.<note place='foot'>Aristotle said that Homer +never gives a concubine to Menelaus, +in order to intimate his +respect for Helen—though false. +(<hi rend='italic'>Athenæus</hi>, xiii. 3.)</note> Female captives of the highest rank were +treated with great harshness. The inferiority of women to +men was strongly asserted, and it was illustrated and defended +by a very curious physiological notion, that the +generative power belonged exclusively to men, women having +only a very subordinate part in the production of their +children.<note place='foot'>Æschylus has put this curious +notion into the mouth of Apollo, +in a speech in the <hi rend='italic'>Eumenides</hi>. It +has, however, been very widely +diffused, and may be found in +Indian, Greek, Roman, and even +Christian writers. M. Legouvé, +who has devoted a very curious +chapter to the subject, quotes a +passage from St. Thomas Aquinas, +accepting it, and arguing from it, +that a father should be more loved +than a mother. M. Legouvé says +that when the male of one animal +and the female of another are +crossed, the type of the female +usually predominates in the offspring. +See Legouvé, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. morale +des Femmes</hi>, pp. 216-228; Fustel +de Coulanges, <hi rend='italic'>La Cité antique</hi>, pp. +39-40; and also a curious note by +Boswell, in Croker's edition of +Boswell's <hi rend='italic'>Life of Johnson</hi> (1847), +p. 472.</note> The woman Pandora was said to have been the +author of all human ills. +</p> + +<p> +In the historical age of Greece, the legal position of +women had in some respects slightly improved, but their +moral condition had undergone a marked deterioration. +Virtuous women lived a life of perfect seclusion. The foremost +and most dazzling type of Ionic womanhood was the +<pb n='281'/><anchor id='Pg281'/> +courtesan, while, among the men, the latitude accorded by +public opinion was almost unrestricted. +</p> + +<p> +The facts in moral history, which it is at once most +important and most difficult to appreciate, are what may be +called the facts of feeling. It is much easier to show what +men did or taught than to realise the state of mind that rendered +possible such actions or teaching; and in the case before +us we have to deal with a condition of feeling so extremely +remote from that of our own day, that the difficulty is preeminently +great. Very sensual, and at the same time very +brilliant societies, have indeed repeatedly existed, and the +histories of both France and Italy afford many examples of +an artistic and intellectual enthusiasm encircling those who +were morally most frail; but the peculiarity of Greek sensuality +is, that it grew up, for the most part, uncensured, +and indeed even encouraged, under the eyes of some of the +most illustrious of moralists. If we can imagine Ninon de +l'Enclos at a time when the rank and splendour of Parisian +society thronged her drawing-rooms, reckoning a Bossuet +or a Fénelon among her followers—if we can imagine these +prelates publicly advising her about the duties of her profession, +and the means of attaching the affections of her +lovers—we shall have conceived a relation scarcely more +strange than that which existed between Socrates and the +courtesan Theodota. +</p> + +<p> +In order to reconstruct, as far as possible, the modes of +feeling of the Greek moralists, it will be necessary in the +first place to say a few words concerning one of the most +delicate, but at the same time most important, problems +with which the legislator and the moralist have to deal. +</p> + +<p> +It was a favourite doctrine of the Christian Fathers, that +concupiscence, or the sensual passion, was <q>the original sin</q> +of human nature; and it must be owned that the progress of +knowledge, which is usually extremely opposed to the ascetic +theory of life, concurs with the theological view, in showing +<pb n='282'/><anchor id='Pg282'/> +the natural force of this appetite to be far greater than the +well-being of man requires. The writings of Malthus have +proved, what the Greek moralists appear in a considerable +degree to have seen, that its normal and temperate exercise +in the form of marriage, would produce, if universal, the +utmost calamities to the world, and that, while nature seems +in the most unequivocal manner to urge the human race to +early marriages, the first condition of an advancing civilisation +in populous countries is to restrain or diminish them. +In no highly civilised society is marriage general on the first +development of the passions, and the continual tendency of +increasing knowledge is to render such marriages more rare. +It is also an undoubted truth that, however much moralists +may enforce the obligation of extra-matrimonial purity, this +obligation has never been even approximately regarded; and +in all nations, ages, and religions a vast mass of irregular +indulgence has appeared, which has probably contributed +more than any other single cause to the misery and the degradation +of man. +</p> + +<p> +There are two ends which a moralist, in dealing with this +question, will especially regard—the natural duty of every +man doing something for the support of the child he has +called into existence, and the preservation of the domestic +circle unassailed and unpolluted. The family is the centre +and the archetype of the State, and the happiness and goodness +of society are always in a very great degree dependent +upon the purity of domestic life. The essentially exclusive +nature of marital affection, and the natural desire of every +man to be certain of the paternity of the child he supports, +render the incursions of irregular passions within the domestic +circle a cause of extreme suffering. Yet it would appear as +if the excessive force of these passions would render such +incursions both frequent and inevitable. +</p> + +<p> +Under these circumstances, there has arisen in society a +figure which is certainly the most mournful, and in some +<pb n='283'/><anchor id='Pg283'/> +respects the most awful, upon which the eye of the moralist +can dwell. That unhappy being whose very name is a shame +to speak; who counterfeits with a cold heart the transports +of affection, and submits herself as the passive instrument of +lust; who is scorned and insulted as the vilest of her sex, +and doomed, for the most part, to disease and abject +wretchedness and an early death, appears in every age as the +perpetual symbol of the degradation and the sinfulness of +man. Herself the supreme type of vice, she is ultimately +the most efficient guardian of virtue. But for her, the unchallenged +purity of countless happy homes would be +polluted, and not a few who, in the pride of their untempted +chastity, think of her with an indignant shudder, would +have known the agony of remorse and of despair. On that +one degraded and ignoble form are concentrated the passions +that might have filled the world with shame. She remains, +while creeds and civilisations rise and fall, the eternal priestess +of humanity, blasted for the sins of the people. +</p> + +<p> +In dealing with this unhappy being, and with all of her +sex who have violated the law of chastity, the public opinion +of most Christian countries pronounces a sentence of extreme +severity. In the Anglo-Saxon nations especially, a single +fault of this kind is sufficient, at least in the upper and middle +classes, to affix an indelible brand which no time, no virtues, +no penitence can wholly efface. This sentence is probably, +in the first instance, simply the expression of the religious +feeling on the subject, but it is also sometimes defended by +powerful arguments drawn from the interests of society. It +is said that the preservation of domestic purity is a matter of +such transcendent importance that it is right that the most +crushing penalties should be attached to an act which the +imagination can easily transfigure, which legal enactments +can never efficiently control, and to which the most violent +passions may prompt. It is said, too, that an anathema +which drives into obscurity all evidences of sensual passions +<pb n='284'/><anchor id='Pg284'/> +is peculiarly fitted to restrict their operation; for, more than +any other passions, they are dependent on the imagination, +which is readily fired by the sight of evil. It is added, that +the emphasis with which the vice is stigmatised produces a +corresponding admiration for the opposite virtue, and that a +feeling of the most delicate and scrupulous honour is thus +formed among the female population, which not only preserves +from gross sin, but also dignifies and ennobles the +whole character. +</p> + +<p> +In opposition to these views, several considerations of +much weight have been urged. It is argued that, however +persistently society may ignore this form of vice, it exists +nevertheless, and on the most gigantic scale, and that evil +rarely assumes such inveterate and perverting forms as when +it is shrouded in obscurity and veiled by an hypocritical appearance +of unconsciousness. The existence in England of +certainly not less than fifty thousand unhappy women,<note place='foot'>Dr. Vintras, in a remarkable +pamphlet (London, 1867) <hi rend='italic'>On the +Repression of Prostitution</hi>, shows +from the police statistics that the +number of prostitutes <emph>known to +the police</emph> in England and Wales, +in 1864, was 49,370; and this is +certainly much below the entire +number. These, it will be observed, +comprise only the habitual, +professional prostitutes.</note> sunk +in the very lowest depths of vice and misery, shows sufficiently +what an appalling amount of moral evil is festering +uncontrolled, undiscussed, and unalleviated, under the fair +surface of a decorous society. In the eyes of every physician, +and indeed in the eyes of most continental writers who have +adverted to the subject, no other feature of English life +appears so infamous as the fact that an epidemic, which is +one of the most dreadful now existing among mankind, which +communicates itself from the guilty husband to the innocent +wife, and even transmits its taint to her offspring, and which +the experience of other nations conclusively proves may be +vastly diminished, should be suffered to rage unchecked +<pb n='285'/><anchor id='Pg285'/> +because the Legislature refuses to take official cognisance of +its existence, or proper sanitary measures for its repression.<note place='foot'>Some measures have recently +been taken in a few garrison towns. +The moral sentiment of the community, +it appears, would be +shocked if Liverpool were treated +on the same principles as Portsmouth. +This very painful and +revolting, but most important, subject +has been treated with great +knowledge, impartiality, and +ability, by Parent-Duchâtelet, +in his famous work, <hi rend='italic'>La Prostitution +dans la ville de Paris</hi>. +The third edition contains very +copious supplementary accounts, +furnished by different doctors +in different countries.</note> +If the terrible censure which English public opinion passes +upon every instance of female frailty in some degree diminishes +the number, it does not prevent such instances from +being extremely numerous, and it immeasurably aggravates +the suffering they produce. Acts which in other European +countries would excite only a slight and transient emotion, +spread in England, over a wide circle, all the bitterness of +unmitigated anguish. Acts which naturally neither imply +nor produce a total subversion of the moral feelings, and +which, in other countries, are often followed by happy, +virtuous, and affectionate lives, in England almost invariably +lead to absolute ruin. Infanticide is greatly multiplied, +and a vast proportion of those whose reputations and lives +have been blasted by one momentary sin, are hurled into the +abyss of habitual prostitution—a condition which, owing to +the sentence of public opinion and the neglect of legislators, +is in no other European country so hopelessly vicious or so +irrevocable.<note place='foot'>Parent-Duchâtelet has given +many statistics, showing the very +large extent to which the French +system of supervision deters those +who were about to enter into +prostitution, and reclaims those +who had entered into it. He and +Dr. Vintras concur in representing +English prostitution as about the +most degraded, and at the same +time the most irrevocable.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It is added, too, that the immense multitude who are +thus doomed to the extremity of life-long wretchedness are +not always, perhaps not generally, of those whose dispositions +seem naturally incapable of virtue. The victims of +<pb n='286'/><anchor id='Pg286'/> +seduction are often led aside quite as much by the ardour of +their affections, and by the vivacity of their intelligence, as +by any vicious propensities.<note place='foot'>Miss Mulock, in her amiable +but rather feeble book, called <hi rend='italic'>A +Woman's Thoughts about Women</hi>, +has some good remarks on this +point (pp. 291-293), which are all +the more valuable, as the authoress +has not the faintest sympathy with +any opinions concerning the character +and position of women which +are not strictly conventional. She +notices the experience of Sunday +school mistresses, that, of their +pupils who are seduced, an extremely +large proportion are <q>of +the very best, refined, intelligent, +truthful, and affectionate.</q></note> Even in the lowest grades, the +most dispassionate observers have detected remains of higher +feelings, which, in a different moral atmosphere, and under +different moral husbandry, would have undoubtedly been +developed.<note place='foot'>See the very singular and painful +chapter in Parent-Duchâtelet, +called <q>Mœurs et Habitudes des +Prostituées.</q> He observes that +they are remarkable for their +kindness to one another in sickness +or in distress; that they are not +unfrequently charitable to poor +people who do not belong to their +class; that when one of them has +a child, it becomes the object of +very general interest and affection; +that most of them have lovers, to +whom they are sincerely attached; +that they rarely fail to show in +the hospitals a very real sense of +shame; and that many of them +entered into their mode of life for +the purpose of supporting aged +parents. One anecdote is worth +giving in the words of the author: +<q>Un médecin n'entrant jamais dans +leurs salles sans ôter légèrement +son chapeau, par cette seule politesse +il sut tellement conquérir +leur confiance qu'il leur faisait +faire tout ce qu'il voulait.</q> This +writer, I may observe, is not a +romance writer or a theorist of any +description. He is simply a physician +who describes the results of +a very large official experience.</note> The statistics of prostitution show that a great +proportion of those who have fallen into it have been impelled +by the most extreme poverty, in many instances +verging upon starvation.<note place='foot'><q>Parent-Duchâtelet atteste +que sur trois mille créatures perdues +trente cinq seulement avaient +un état qui pouvait les nourrir, et +que quatorze cents avaient été précipitées +dans cette horrible vie par +la misère. Une d'elles, quand elle +s'y résolut, n'avait pas mangé depuis +trois jours.</q>—Legouvé, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. +morale des Femmes</hi>, pp. 322-323.</note> +</p> + +<p> +These opposing considerations, which I have very briefly +indicated, and which I do not propose to discuss or to +<pb n='287'/><anchor id='Pg287'/> +estimate, will be sufficient to exhibit the magnitude of the +problem. In the Greek civilisation, legislators and moralists +endeavoured to meet it by the cordial recognition of two +distinct orders of womanhood<note place='foot'>Concerning the position and +character of Greek women, the +reader may obtain ample information +by consulting Becker's <hi rend='italic'>Charicles</hi> +(translated by Metcalfe, 1845); +Rainneville, <hi rend='italic'>La Femme dans +l'Antiquité</hi> (Paris, 1865); and an +article <q>On Female Society in +Greece,</q> in the twenty-second +volume of the <hi rend='italic'>Quarterly Review</hi>.</note>—the wife, whose first duty +was fidelity to her husband; the hetæra, or mistress, who +subsisted by her fugitive attachments. The wives of the +Greeks lived in almost absolute seclusion. They were +usually married when very young. Their occupations were to +weave, to spin, to embroider, to superintend the household, +to care for their sick slaves. They lived in a special and +retired part of the house. The more wealthy seldom went +abroad, and never except when accompanied by a female +slave; never attended the public spectacles; received no +male visitors except in the presence of their husbands, and +had not even a seat at their own tables when male guests +were there. Their pre-eminent virtue was fidelity, and it is +probable that this was very strictly and very generally observed. +Their remarkable freedom from temptations, the +public opinion which strongly discouraged any attempt to +seduce them, and the ample sphere for illicit pleasures that +was accorded to the other sex, all contributed to protect it. +On the other hand, living, as they did, almost exclusively +among their female slaves, being deprived of all the educating +influence of male society, and having no place at those public +spectacles which were the chief means of Athenian culture, +their minds must necessarily have been exceedingly contracted. +Thucydides doubtless expressed the prevailing sentiment +of his countrymen when he said that the highest +merit of woman is not to be spoken of either for good or for +<pb n='288'/><anchor id='Pg288'/> +evil; and Phidias illustrated the same feeling when he represented +the heavenly Aphrodite standing on a tortoise, typifying +thereby the secluded life of a virtuous woman.<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Conj. Præc.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +In their own restricted sphere their lives were probably +not unhappy. Education and custom rendered the purely +domestic life that was assigned to them a second nature, and +it must in most instances have reconciled them to the extra-matrimonial +connections in which their husbands too frequently +indulged. The prevailing manners were very gentle. +Domestic oppression is scarcely ever spoken of; the husband +lived chiefly in the public place; causes of jealousy and of +dissension could seldom occur; and a feeling of warm affection, +though not a feeling of equality, must doubtless have in most +cases spontaneously arisen. In the writings of Xenophon +we have a charming picture of a husband who had received +into his arms his young wife of fifteen, absolutely ignorant of +the world and of its ways. He speaks to her with extreme +kindness, but in the language that would be used to a little +child. Her task, he tells her, is to be like a queen bee, +dwelling continually at home and superintending the work of +her slaves. She must distribute to each their tasks, must +economise the family income, and must take especial care +that the house is strictly orderly—the shoes, the pots, and +the clothes always in their places. It is also, he tells her, a +part of her duty to tend her sick slaves; but here his wife +interrupted him, exclaiming, <q>Nay, but that will indeed be +the most agreeable of my offices, if such as I treat with kindness +are likely to be grateful, and to love me more than +before.</q> With a very tender and delicate care to avoid +everything resembling a reproach, the husband persuades +his wife to give up the habits of wearing high-heeled boots, +in order to appear tall, and of colouring her face with vermilion +and white lead. He promises her that if she faithfully +<pb n='289'/><anchor id='Pg289'/> +performs her duties he will himself be the first and +most devoted of her slaves. He assured Socrates that when +any domestic dispute arose he could extricate himself admirably, +if he was in the right; but that, whenever he was +in the wrong, he found it impossible to convince his wife +that it was otherwise.<note place='foot'>Xenophon, <hi rend='italic'>Econ.</hi> ii.</note> +</p> + +<p> +We have another picture of Greek married life in the +writings of Plutarch, but it represents the condition of the +Greek mind at a later period than that of Xenophon. In +Plutarch the wife is represented not as the mere housekeeper, +or as the chief slave of her husband, but as his equal and +his companion. He enforces, in the strongest terms, +reciprocity of obligations, and desires that the minds of +women should be cultivated to the highest point.<note place='foot'>Plut. <hi rend='italic'>Conj. Præc.</hi> There is +also an extremely beautiful picture +of the character of a good wife in +Aristotle. (<hi rend='italic'>Economics</hi>, book i. cap. +vii.)</note> His +precepts of marriage, indeed, fall little if at all below any +that have appeared in modern days. His letter of consolation +to his wife, on the death of their child, breathes a spirit +of the tenderest affection. It is recorded of him that, +having had some dispute with the relations of his wife, she +feared that it might impair their domestic happiness, and she +accordingly persuaded her husband to accompany her on a +pilgrimage to Mount Helicon, where they offered up together +a sacrifice to Love, and prayed that their affection for one +another might never be diminished. +</p> + +<p> +In general, however, the position of the virtuous Greek +woman was a very low one. She was under a perpetual +tutelage: first of all to her parents, who disposed of her hand, +then to her husband, and in her days of widowhood to her +sons. In cases of inheritance her male relations were +preferred to her. The privilege of divorce, which, in Athens, +at least, she possessed as well as her husband, appears to +have been practically almost nugatory, on account of the +<pb n='290'/><anchor id='Pg290'/> +shock which public declarations in the law court gave to the +habits which education and public opinion had formed. +She brought with her, however, a dowry, and the recognised +necessity of endowing daughters was one of the causes of +those frequent expositions which were perpetrated with so +little blame. The Athenian law was also peculiarly careful +and tender in dealing with the interests of female orphans.<note place='foot'>See Alexander's <hi rend='italic'>History of +Women</hi> (London, 1783), vol. i. p. 201.</note> +Plato had argued that women were equal to men; but the +habits of the people were totally opposed to this theory. +Marriage was regarded chiefly in a civic light, as the means of +producing citizens, and in Sparta it was ordered that old or +infirm husbands should cede their young wives to stronger +men, who could produce vigorous soldiers for the State. +The Lacedæmonian treatment of women, which differed in +many respects from that which prevailed in the other Greek +States, while it was utterly destructive of all delicacy of +feeling or action, had undoubtedly the effect of producing a +fierce and masculine patriotism; and many fine examples are +recorded of Spartan mothers devoting their sons on the altar +of their country, rejoicing over their deaths when nobly won, +and infusing their own heroic spirit into the armies of the +people. For the most part, however, the names of virtuous +women seldom appear in Greek history. The simple modesty +which was evinced by Phocion's wife, in the period when her +husband occupied the foremost position in Athens,<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Phocion</hi>.</note> and a +few instances of conjugal and filial affection, have been +recorded; but in general the only women who attracted the +notice of the people were the hetæræ, or courtesans.<note place='foot'>Our information concerning +the Greek courtesans is chiefly derived +from the thirteenth book of the +<hi rend='italic'>Deipnosophists</hi> of Athenæus, from +the <hi rend='italic'>Letters</hi> of Alciphron, from the +<hi rend='italic'>Dialogues</hi> of Lucian on courtesans, +and from the oration of Demosthenes +against Neæra. See, too, +Xenophon, <hi rend='italic'>Memorabilia</hi>, iii. 11; +and among modern books, Becker's +<hi rend='italic'>Charicles</hi>. Athenæus was an +Egyptian, whose exact date is +unknown but who appears to have +survived Ulpian, who died in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> +228. He had access to, and gave +extracts from, many works on this +subject, which have now perished. +Alciphron is believed to have lived +near the time of Lucian.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='291'/><anchor id='Pg291'/> + +<p> +In order to understand the position which these last +assumed in Greek life, we must transport ourselves in +thought into a moral latitude totally different from our own. +The Greek conception of excellence was the full and perfect +development of humanity in all its organs and functions, +and without any tinge of asceticism. Some parts of human +nature were recognised as higher than others; and to suffer +any of the lower appetites to obscure the mind, restrain the +will and engross the energies of life, was acknowledged to be +disgraceful; but the systematic repression of a natural appetite +was totally foreign to Greek modes of thought. Legislators, +moralists, and the general voice of the people, appear to have +applied these principles almost unreservedly to intercourse +between the sexes, and the most virtuous men habitually and +openly entered into relations which would now be almost +universally censured. +</p> + +<p> +The experience, however, of many societies has shown +that a public opinion may accord, in this respect, almost +unlimited licence to one sex, without showing any corresponding +indulgence to the other. But, in Greece, a concurrence +of causes had conspired to bring a certain section +of courtesans into a position they have in no other society +attained. The voluptuous worship of Aphrodite gave a kind +of religious sanction to their profession. Courtesans were +the priestesses in her temples, and those of Corinth were +believed by their prayers to have averted calamities from their +city. Prostitution is said to have entered into the religious +rites of Babylon, Biblis, Cyprus, and Corinth, and these as +well as Miletus, Tenedos, Lesbos, and Abydos became famous +for their schools of vice, which grew up under the shadow of +the temples.<note place='foot'>According to some writers the +word <q>venerari</q> comes from <q>Venerem exercere,</q> on account of the +devotions in the temple of Venus. +See Vossius, <hi rend='italic'>Etymologicon Linguæ +Latinæ</hi>, <q>veneror;</q> also La Mothe le +Vayer, <hi rend='italic'>Lettre</hi> xc.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='292'/><anchor id='Pg292'/> + +<p> +In the next place, the intense æsthetic enthusiasm that +prevailed was eminently fitted to raise the most beautiful +to honour. In a land and beneath a sky where natural +beauty developed to the highest point, there arose a school +of matchless artists both in painting and in sculpture, and +public games and contests were celebrated, in which supreme +physical perfection was crowned by an assembled people. In +no other period of the world's history was the admiration +of beauty in all its forms so passionate or so universal. It +coloured the whole moral teaching of the time, and led the +chief moralists to regard virtue simply as the highest kind +of supersensual beauty. It appeared in all literature, where +the beauty of form and style was the first of studies. It +supplied at once the inspiration and the rule of all Greek +art. It led the Greek wife to pray, before all other prayers, +for the beauty of her children. It surrounded the most +beautiful with an aureole of admiring reverence. The +courtesan was often the queen of beauty. She was the +model of the statues of Aphrodite, that commanded the +admiration of Greece. Praxiteles was accustomed to reproduce +the form of Phryne, and her statue, carved in gold, +stood in the temple of Apollo at Delphi; and when she was +accused of corrupting the youth of Athens, her advocate, +Hyperides, procured her acquittal by suddenly unveiling her +charms before the dazzled eyes of the assembled judges. +Apelles was at once the painter and the lover of Laïs, and +Alexander gave him, as the choicest gift, his own favourite +concubine, of whom the painter had become enamoured +while pourtraying her. The chief flower-painter of antiquity +acquired his skill through his love of the flower-girl Glycera, +whom he was accustomed to paint among her garlands. +Pindar and Simonides sang the praises of courtesans, and +<pb n='293'/><anchor id='Pg293'/> +grave philosophers made pilgrimages to visit them, and their +names were known in every city.<note place='foot'>On the connection of the +courtesans with the artistic enthusiasm, +see Raoul Rochette, <hi rend='italic'>Cours +d'Archéologie</hi>, pp. 278-279. See, +too, Athenæus, xiii. 59; Pliny, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> xxxv. 40.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It is not surprising that, in such a state of thought and +feeling, many of the more ambitious and accomplished women +should have betaken themselves to this career, nor yet that +they should have attained the social position which the +secluded existence and the enforced ignorance of the Greek +wives had left vacant. The courtesan was the one free +woman of Athens, and she often availed herself of her freedom +to acquire a degree of knowledge which enabled her to +add to her other charms an intense intellectual fascination. +Gathering around her the most brilliant artists, poets, historians, +and philosophers, she flung herself unreservedly into +the intellectual and æsthetic enthusiasms of her time, and +soon became the centre of a literary society of matchless +splendour. Aspasia, who was as famous for her genius as +for her beauty, won the passionate love of Pericles. She is +said to have instructed him in eloquence, and to have composed +some of his most famous orations; she was continually +consulted on affairs of state; and Socrates, like other philosophers, +attended her assemblies. Socrates himself has +owned his deep obligations to the instructions of a courtesan +named Diotima. The courtesan Leontium was among the +most ardent disciples of Epicurus.<note place='foot'>See the very curious little +work of Ménage, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Mulierum +Philosopharum</hi> (Lugduni, <hi rend='smallcaps'>mdxc.</hi>); +also Rainneville, <hi rend='italic'>La Femme dans +l'Antiquite</hi>, p. 244. At a much later +date Lucian described the beauty, +accomplishments, generosity, and +even modesty, of Panthea of +Smyrna, the favourite mistress of +Lucius Verus.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Another cause probably contributed indirectly to the +elevation of this class, to which it is extremely difficult to +allude in an English book, but which it is impossible altogether +<pb n='294'/><anchor id='Pg294'/> +to omit, even in the most cursory survey of Greek +morals. Irregular female connections were looked upon as +ordinary and not disgraceful incidents in the life of a good +man, for they were compared with that lower abyss of +unnatural love, which was the deepest and strangest taint of +Greek civilisation. This vice, which never appears in the +writings of Homer and Hesiod, doubtless arose under the +influence of the public games, which, accustoming men to the +contemplation of absolutely nude figures,<note place='foot'>The ζῶμα, which was at first in +use, was discarded by the Lacedæmonians, +and afterwards by the +other Greeks. There are three +curious memoirs tracing the history +of the change, by M. Burette, in +the <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de l'Académie royale des +Inscriptions</hi>, tome i.</note> awoke an unnatural +passion,<note place='foot'>On the causes of paiderastia +in Greece, see the remarks of Mr. +Grote in the review of the <hi rend='italic'>Symposium</hi>, +in his great work on Plato. +The whole subject is very ably +treated by M. Maury, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des +Religions de la Gréce antique</hi>, tome +iii. pp. 35-39. Many facts connected +with it are collected by Döllinger, +in his <hi rend='italic'>Jew and Gentile</hi>, and +by Chateaubriand, in his <hi rend='italic'>Études +historiques</hi>. The chief original +authority is the thirteenth book of +Athenæus, a book of very painful +interest in the history of morals.</note> totally remote from all modern feelings, but which +in Greece it was regarded as heroic to resist.<note place='foot'>Plutarch, in his <hi rend='italic'>Life of Agesilaus</hi>, +dwells on the intense self-control +manifested by that great +man, in refraining from gratifying +a passion he had conceived for a +boy named Megabetes, and Maximus +Tyrius says it deserved greater +praise than the heroism of Leonidas. +(<hi rend='italic'>Diss.</hi> xxv.) Diogenes Laërtius, in +his <hi rend='italic'>Life of Zeno</hi>, the founder of +Stoicism, the most austere of all +ancient sects, praises that philosopher +for being but little addicted +to this vice. Sophocles is said to +have been much addicted to it.</note> The popular +religion in this, as in other cases, was made to bend to the +new vice. Hebe, the cup-bearer of the gods, was replaced +by Ganymede, and the worst vices of earth were transported +to Olympus.<note place='foot'>Some examples of the ascription +of this vice to the divinities +are given by Clem. Alex. <hi rend='italic'>Admonitio +ad Gentes</hi>. Socrates is said to have +maintained that Jupiter loved +Ganymede for his wisdom, as his +name is derived from γάνυμαι and +μῆδος, to be delighted with prudence. +(Xenophon, <hi rend='italic'>Banquet</hi>.) The +disaster of Cannæ was ascribed to +the jealousy of Juno because a +beautiful boy was introduced into +the temple of Jupiter. (Lactantius, +<hi rend='italic'>Inst. Div.</hi> ii. 17.)</note> Artists sought to reflect the passion in their +<pb n='295'/><anchor id='Pg295'/> +statues of the Hermaphrodite, of Bacchus, and the more +effeminate Apollo; moralists were known to praise it as the +bond of friendship, and it was spoken of as the inspiring +enthusiasm of the heroic Theban legion of Epaminondas.<note place='foot'>Athenæus, xiii. 78. See, too, +the very revolting book on different +kinds of love, ascribed (it is said +falsely) to Lucian.</note> +In general, however, it was stigmatised as unquestionably a +vice, but it was treated with a levity we can now hardly +conceive. We can scarcely have a better illustration of the +extent to which moral ideas and feelings have changed, than +the fact that the first two Greeks who were considered worthy +of statues by their fellow-countrymen are said to have been +Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who were united by an impure +love, and who were glorified for a political assassination.<note place='foot'>Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> xxxiv. 9.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It is probable that this cause conspired with the others to +dissociate the class of courtesans from the idea of supreme +depravity with which they have usually been connected. +The great majority, however, were sunk in this, as in all +other ages, in abject degradation;<note place='foot'>There is ample evidence of +this in Athenæus, and in the +Dialogues of Lucian on the courtesans. +See, too, Terence, <hi rend='italic'>The +Eunuch</hi>, act v. scene 4, which is +copied from the Greek. The majority +of the class were not called +hetæræ, but πόρναι.</note> comparatively few attained +the condition of hetæræ, and even of these it is probable that +the greater number exhibited the characteristics which in +all ages have attached to their class. Faithlessness, extreme +rapacity, and extravagant luxury, were common among +them; but yet it is unquestionable that there were many +exceptions. The excommunication of society did not press +upon or degrade them; and though they were never regarded +with the same honour as married women, it seems generally +to have been believed that the wife and the courtesan had +each her place and her function in the world, and her own +peculiar type of excellence. The courtesan Leæna, who was +a friend of Harmodius, died in torture rather than reveal +<pb n='296'/><anchor id='Pg296'/> +the conspiracy of her friend, and the Athenians, in allusion +to her name, caused the statue of a tongueless lioness to be +erected to commemorate her constancy.<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>De Garrulitate</hi>; +Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> xxxiv. 19. The feat +of biting out their tongues rather +than reveal secrets, or yield to +passion, is ascribed to a suspiciously +large number of persons. Ménage +cites five besides Leæna. (<hi rend='italic'>Hist. +Mulier. Philos.</hi> pp. 104-108.)</note> The gentle manners +and disinterested affection of a courtesan named Bacchis +were especially recorded, and a very touching letter paints +her character, and describes the regret that followed her to +the tomb.<note place='foot'>See, upon Bacchis, several of +the letters of Alciphron, especially +the very touching letter (x.) on her +death, describing her kindness and +disinterestedness. Athenæus (xiii. +66) relates a curious anecdote illustrating +these aspects of her character.</note> In one of the most remarkable of his pictures of +Greek life, Xenophon describes how Socrates, having heard +of the beauty of the courtesan Theodota, went with his +disciples to ascertain for himself whether the report was +true; how with a quiet humour he questioned her about the +sources of the luxury of her dwelling, and how he proceeded +to sketch for her the qualities she should cultivate in order +to attach her lovers. She ought, he tells her, to shut the +door against the insolent, to watch her lovers in sickness, to +rejoice greatly when they succeed in anything honourable, +to love tenderly those who love her. Having carried on a +cheerful and perfectly unembarrassed conversation with her, +with no kind of reproach on his part, either expressed or +implied, and with no trace either of the timidity or effrontery +of conscious guilt upon hers, the best and wisest of the Greeks +left his hostess with a graceful compliment to her beauty.<note place='foot'>Xenophon, <hi rend='italic'>Memorab.</hi> iii. 11.</note> +</p> + +<p> +My task in describing this aspect of Greek life has been +an eminently unpleasing one, and I should certainly not +have entered upon even the baldest and most guarded +disquisition on a subject so difficult, painful, and delicate, +had it not been absolutely indispensable to a history of +morals to give at least an outline of the progress that has +<pb n='297'/><anchor id='Pg297'/> +been effected in this sphere. What I have written will +sufficiently explain why Greece, which was fertile, beyond all +other lands, in great men, was so remarkably barren of +great women. It will show, too, that while the Greek +moralists recognised, like ourselves, the distinction between +the higher and the lower sides of our nature, they differed +very widely from modern public opinion in the standard of +morals they enforced. The Christian doctrine, that it is +criminal to gratify a powerful and a transient physical appetite, +except under the condition of a lifelong contract, was +altogether unknown. Strict duties were imposed upon Greek +wives. Duties were imposed at a later period, though less +strictly, upon the husband. Unnatural love was stigmatised, +but with a levity of censure which to a modern mind appears +inexpressibly revolting. Some slight legal disqualifications +rested upon the whole class of hetæræ, and, though more +admired, they were less respected than women who had +adopted a domestic life; but a combination of circumstances +had raised them, in actual worth and in popular estimation, +to an unexampled elevation, and an aversion to marriage +became very general, and extra-matrimonial connections +were formed with the most perfect frankness and publicity. +</p> + +<p> +If we now turn to the Roman civilisation, we shall find +that some important advances had been made in the condition +of women. The virtue of chastity has, as I have shown, +been regarded in two different ways. The utilitarian view, +which commonly prevails in countries where a political +spirit is more powerful than a religious spirit, regards +marriage as the ideal state, and to promote the happiness, +sanctity, and security of this state is the main object of all its +precepts. The mystical view which rests upon the natural +feeling of shame, and which, as history proves, has prevailed +especially where political sentiment is very low, and religious +sentiment very strong, regards virginity as its supreme type, +and marriage as simply the most pardonable declension from +<pb n='298'/><anchor id='Pg298'/> +ideal purity. It is, I think, a very remarkable fact, that at +the head of the religious system of Rome we find two sacerdotal +bodies which appear respectively to typify these ideas. +The Flamens of Jupiter and the Vestal Virgins were the two +most sacred orders in Rome. The ministrations of each were +believed to be vitally important to the State. Each could +officiate only within the walls of Rome. Each was appointed +with the most imposing ceremonies. Each was honoured with +the most profound reverence. But in one important respect +they differed. The Vestal was the type of virginity, and +her purity was guarded by the most terrific penalties. The +Flamen, on the other hand, was the representative of Roman +marriage in its strictest and holiest form. He was necessarily +married. His marriage was celebrated with the most solemn +rites. It could only be dissolved by death. If his wife died, +he was degraded from his office.<note place='foot'>On the Flamens, see Aulus Gell. <hi rend='italic'>Noct.</hi> x. 15.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Of these two orders, there can be no question that the +Flamen was the most faithful expression of the Roman sentiments. +The Roman religion was essentially domestic, and +it was a main object of the legislator to surround marriage +with every circumstance of dignity and solemnity. Monogamy +was, from the earliest times, strictly enjoined; and it was +one of the great benefits that have resulted from the +expansion of Roman power, that it made this type dominant +in Europe. In the legends of early Rome we have ample +evidence both of the high moral estimate of women, and +of their prominence in Roman life. The tragedies of Lucretia +and of Virginia display a delicacy of honour, a sense of the +supreme excellence of unsullied purity, which no Christian +nation could surpass. The legends of the Sabine women +interceding between their parents and their husbands, and +thus saving the infant republic, and of the mother of Coriolanus +<pb n='299'/><anchor id='Pg299'/> +averting by her prayers the ruin impending over her +country, entitled women to claim their share in the patriotic +glories of Rome. A temple of Venus Calva was associated +with the legend of Roman ladies, who, in an hour of danger, +cut off their long tresses to make bowstrings for the soldiers.<note place='foot'>Capitolinus, <hi rend='italic'>Maximinus Junior</hi>.</note> +Another temple preserved to all posterity the memory of the +filial piety of that Roman woman who, when her mother was +condemned to be starved to death, obtained permission to +visit her in her prison, and was discovered feeding her from her +breast.<note place='foot'>Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> vii. 36. +There is (as is well known) a +similar legend of a daughter thus +feeding her father. Val. Max. +Lib. v. cap. 4.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The legal position, however, of the Roman wife was for +a long period extremely low. The Roman family was constituted +on the principle of the uncontrolled authority of its +head, both over his wife and over his children, and he could +repudiate the former at will. Neither the custom of gifts to +the father of the bride, nor the custom of dowries, appears to +have existed in the earliest period of Roman history; but +the father disposed absolutely of the hand of his daughter, +and sometimes even possessed the power of breaking off +marriages that had been actually contracted.<note place='foot'>This appears from the first +act of the <hi rend='italic'>Stichus</hi> of Plautus. The +power appears to have become quite +obsolete during the Empire but the +first legal act (which was rather of +the nature of an exhortation than +of a command) against it was +issued by Antoninus Pius, and it +was only definitely abolished under +Diocletian. (Laboulaye, <hi rend='italic'>Recherches +sur la condition civile et politique +des femmes</hi>, pp. 16-17.)</note> In the +forms of marriage, however, which were usual in the +earlier periods of Rome, the absolute power passed into +the hands of the husband, and he had the right, in +some cases, of putting her to death.<note place='foot'>Aul. Gell. <hi rend='italic'>Noct.</hi> x. 23.</note> Law and public opinion +combined in making matrimonial purity most strict. For +<pb n='300'/><anchor id='Pg300'/> +five hundred and twenty years, it was said, there was no +such thing as a divorce in Rome.<note place='foot'>Val. Maximus, ii. 1, § 4; Aul. +Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct.</hi> iv. 3.</note> Manners were so severe, +that a senator was censured for indecency because he had +kissed his wife in the presence of their daughter.<note place='foot'>Ammianus Marcellinus, xxviii. +4.</note> It was +considered in a high degree disgraceful for a Roman mother +to delegate to a nurse the duty of suckling her child.<note place='foot'>Tacitus, <hi rend='italic'>De Oratoribus</hi>, xxviii.</note> +Sumptuary laws regulated with the most minute severity all +the details of domestic economy.<note place='foot'>See Aulus Gellius, Noct. ii. 24.</note> The courtesan class, +though probably numerous and certainly uncontrolled, were +regarded with much contempt. The disgrace of publicly +professing themselves members of it was believed to be a +sufficient punishment;<note place='foot'><q>More inter veteres recepto, +qui satis pœnarum adversum impudicas +in ipsa professione flagitii +credebant.</q>—Tacitus, <hi rend='italic'>Annal.</hi> ii. 85.</note> and an old law, which was probably +intended to teach in symbol the duties of married life, +enjoined that no such person should touch the altar of Juno.<note place='foot'>Aul. Gell. iv. 3. Juno was the +goddess of marriage.</note> +It was related of a certain ædile, that he failed to obtain +redress for an assault which had been made upon him, because +it had occurred in a house of ill-fame, in which it was disgraceful +for a Roman magistrate to be found.<note place='foot'>Ibid. iv. 14.</note> The sanctity +of female purity was believed to be attested by all nature. +The most savage animals became tame before a virgin.<note place='foot'>The well-known superstition +about the lion, &c., becoming docile +before a virgin is, I believe, as old +as Roman times. St. Isidore +mentions that rhinoceroses were +said to be captured by young +girls being put in their way to +fascinate them. (Legendre, <hi rend='italic'>Traité +de l'Opinion</hi>, tome ii. p. 35.)</note> +When a woman walked naked round a field, caterpillars and +all loathsome insects fell dead before her.<note place='foot'>Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> xxviii. 23.</note> It was said that +drowned men floated on their backs, and drowned women on +their faces; and this, in the opinion of Roman naturalists, +was due to the superior purity of the latter.<note place='foot'>Ibid. vii. 18.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='301'/><anchor id='Pg301'/> + +<p> +It was a remark of Aristotle, that the superiority of the +Greeks to the barbarians was shown, among other things, +in the fact that the Greeks did not, like other nations, regard +their wives as slaves, but treated them as helpmates and +companions. A Roman writer has appealed, on the whole +with greater justice, to the treatment of wives by his fellow +countrymen, as a proof of the superiority of Roman to Greek +civilisation. He has observed that while the Greeks kept +their wives in a special quarter in the interior of their houses, +and never permitted them to sit at banquets except with +their relatives, or to see any male except in the presence of a +relative, no Roman ever hesitated to lead his wife with him +to the feast, or to place the mother of the family at the head +of his table.<note place='foot'><q>Quem enim Romanorum pudet +uxorem ducere in convivium? aut +cujus materfamilias non primum +locum tenet ædium, atque in celebritate +versatur? quod multo fit +aliter in Græcia. Nam neque in +convivium adhibetur, nisi propinquorum, +neque sedet nisi in interiore +parte ædium quæ <emph>gynæcontis</emph> appellatur, +quo nemo accedit, nisi propinqua +cognatione conjunctus.</q>—Corn. +Nepos. præfat.</note> Whether, in the period when wives were +completely subject to the rule of their husbands, much +domestic oppression occurred, it is now impossible to say. +A temple dedicated to a goddess named Viriplaca, whose +mission was to appease husbands, was worshipped by Roman +women on the Palatine;<note place='foot'>Val. Max. ii. 1, § 6.</note> and a strange and improbable, if not +incredible story, is related by Livy, of the discovery during +the Republic, of a vast conspiracy by Roman wives to poison +their husbands.<note place='foot'>Liv. viii. 18.</note> On the whole, however, it is probable that +the Roman matron was from the earliest period a name of +honour;<note place='foot'>See Val. Max. ii. 1.</note> that the beautiful sentence of a jurisconsult of the +Empire, who defined marriage as a lifelong fellowship of all +divine and human rights,<note place='foot'><q>Nuptiæ sunt conjunctio maris +et feminæ, et consortium omnis +vitæ, divini et humani juris communicatio.</q>—Modestinus.</note> expressed most faithfully the +<pb n='302'/><anchor id='Pg302'/> +feelings of the people, and that female virtue had in every +age a considerable place in Roman biographies.<note place='foot'>Livy, xxxiv. 5. There is a +fine collection of legends or histories +of heroic women (but chiefly +Greek) in Clem. Alexand. <hi rend='italic'>Strom.</hi> +iv. 19.</note> +</p> + +<p> +I have already enumerated the chief causes of that +complete dissolution of Roman morals which began shortly +after the Punic wars, which contributed very largely to the +destruction of the Republic, and which attained its climax +under the Cæsars. There are few examples in history of a +revolution pervading so completely every sphere of religious, +domestic, social, and political life. Philosophical scepticism +corroded the ancient religions. An inundation of Eastern +luxury and Eastern morals submerged all the old habits of +austere simplicity. The civil wars and the Empire degraded +the character of the people, and the exaggerated prudery of +republican manners only served to make the rebound into +vice the more irresistible. In the fierce outburst of ungovernable +and almost frantic depravity that marked this +evil period, the violations of female virtue were infamously +prominent. The vast multiplication of slaves, which is in +every age peculiarly fatal to moral purity; the fact that a +great proportion of those slaves were chosen from the most +voluptuous provinces of the Empire; the games of Flora, in +which races of naked courtesans were exhibited; the pantomimes, +which derived their charms chiefly from the audacious +indecencies of the actors; the influx of the Greek and Asiatic +hetæræ who were attracted by the wealth of the metropolis; +the licentious paintings which began to adorn every house; +the rise of Baiæ, which rivalled the luxury and surpassed the +beauty of the chief centres of Asiatic vice, combining with +the intoxication of great wealth suddenly acquired, with the +disruption, through many causes, of all the ancient habits and +beliefs, and with the tendency to pleasure which the closing +of the paths of honourable political ambition by the imperial +<pb n='303'/><anchor id='Pg303'/> +despotism, naturally produced, had all their part in preparing +those orgies of vice which the writers of the Empire +reveal. Most scholars will, I suppose, retain a vivid recollection +of the new insight into the extent and wildness of +human guilt which they obtained when they first opened the +pages of Suetonius or Lampridius; and the sixth Satire of +Juvenal paints with a fierce energy, though probably with +the natural exaggeration of a satirist, the extent to which +corruption had spread among the women. It was found +necessary, under Tiberius, to make a special law prohibiting +members of noble houses from enrolling themselves as prostitutes.<note place='foot'>Tacitus, <hi rend='italic'>Annal.</hi> ii. 85. This +decree was on account of a patrician +lady named Vistilia having so enrolled +herself.</note> +The extreme coarseness of the Roman disposition +prevented sensuality from assuming that æsthetic character +which had made it in Greece the parent of Art, and had +very profoundly modified its influence, while the passion for +gladiatorial shows often allied it somewhat unnaturally with +cruelty. There have certainly been many periods in history +when virtue was more rare than under the Cæsars; but there +has probably never been a period when vice was more +extravagant or uncontrolled. Young emperors especially, +who were surrounded by swarms of sycophants and panders, +and who often lived in continual dread of assassination, +plunged with the most reckless and feverish excitement into +every variety of abnormal lust. The reticence which has +always more or less characterised modern society and modern +writers was unknown, and the unblushing, undisguised +obscenity of the Epigrams of Martial, of the Romances of +Apuleius and Petronius, and of some of the Dialogues of +Lucian, reflected but too faithfully the spirit of their time. +</p> + +<p> +There had arisen, too, partly through vicious causes, and +partly, I suppose, through the unfavourable influence which +the attraction of the public institutions exercised on domestic +<pb n='304'/><anchor id='Pg304'/> +life, a great and general indisposition towards marriage, +which Augustus attempted in vain to arrest by his laws +against celibacy, and by conferring many privileges on +the fathers of three children.<note place='foot'>Dion Cassius, liv. 16, lvi. 10.</note> A singularly curious speech +is preserved, which is said to have been delivered on this +subject, shortly before the close of the Republic, by Metellus +Numidicus, in order, if possible, to overcome this indisposition. +<q>If, Romans,</q> he said, <q>we could live without wives, +we should all keep free from that source of trouble; but since +nature has ordained that men can neither live sufficiently +agreeably with wives, nor at all without them, let us consider +the perpetual endurance of our race rather than our own +brief enjoyment.</q><note place='foot'><q>Si sine uxore possemus, +Quirites, esse, omnes ea molestia +careremus; sed quoniam ita natura +tradidit, ut nec cum illis satis commode +nec sine illis ullo modo vivi +possit, saluti perpetuæ potius quam +brevi voluptati consulendum.</q>—Aulus +Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct.</hi> i. 6. Some of +the audience, we are told, thought +that, in exhorting to matrimony, +the speaker should have concealed +its undoubted evils. It was decided, +however, that it was more honourable +to tell the whole truth. Stobæus +(<hi rend='italic'>Sententiæ</hi>) has preserved a +number of harsh and often heartless +sayings about wives, that were +popular among the Greeks. It was +a saying of a Greek poet, that <q>marriage +brings only two happy days—the +day when the husband first +clasps his wife to his breast, and +the day when he lays her in the +tomb;</q> and in Rome it became a +proverbial saying, that a wife was +only good <q>in thalamo vel in tumulo.</q></note> +</p> + +<p> +In the midst of this torrent of corruption a great change +was passing over the legal position of Roman women. They +had at first been in a condition of absolute subjection or +subordination to their relations. They arrived, during the +Empire, at a point of freedom and dignity which they subsequently +lost, and have never altogether regained. The +Romans recognised two distinct classes of marriages: +the stricter, and, in the eyes of the law, more honourable, +forms, which placed the woman <q>in the hand</q> of her husband +and gave him an almost absolute authority over her person +and her property; and a less strict form, which left her +<pb n='305'/><anchor id='Pg305'/> +legal position unchanged. The former, which were general +during the Republic, were of three kinds—the <q>confarreatio,</q> +which was celebrated and could only be dissolved by the most +solemn religious ceremonies, and was jealously restricted to +patricians; the <q>coemptio,</q> which was purely civil, and +derived its name from a symbolical sale; and the <q>usus,</q> +which was effected by the mere cohabitation of a woman with +a man without interruption for the space of a year. Under +the Empire, however, these kinds of marriage became +almost wholly obsolete; a laxer form, resting upon a simple +mutual agreement, without any religious or civil ceremony, +was general, and it had this very important consequence, +that the woman so married remained, in the eyes of the law, +in the family of her father, and was under his guardianship, +not under the guardianship of her husband. But the old +<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>patria potestas</foreign> had become completely obsolete, and the +practical effect of the general adoption of this form of marriage +was the absolute legal independence of the wife. With +the exception of her dowry, which passed into the hands of +her husband, she held her property in her own right; she +inherited her share of the wealth of her father, and she +retained it altogether independently of her husband. A very +considerable portion of Roman wealth thus passed into the +uncontrolled possession of women. The private man of +business of the wife was a favourite character with the +comedians, and the tyranny exercised by rich wives over +their husbands—to whom it is said they sometimes lent +money at high interest—a continual theme of satirists.<note place='foot'>Friedländer, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des Mœurs +romaines</hi>, tome i. pp. 360-364. On +the great influence exercised by +Roman ladies on political affairs +some remarkable passages are collected +in Denis, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des Idées +Morales</hi>, tome ii. pp. 98-99. This +author is particularly valuable in +all that relates to the history of +domestic morals. The <hi rend='italic'>Asinaria</hi> of +Plautus, and some of the epigrams +of Martial, throw much light upon +this subject.</note> +</p> + +<p> +A complete revolution had thus passed over the constitution +<pb n='306'/><anchor id='Pg306'/> +of the family. Instead of being constructed on the +principle of autocracy, it was constructed on the principle of +coequal partnership. The legal position of the wife had +become one of complete independence, while her social +position was one of great dignity. The more conservative +spirits were naturally alarmed at the change, and two +measures were taken to arrest it. The Oppian law was +designed to restrain the luxury of women; but, in spite of +the strenuous exertions of Cato, this law was speedily repealed.<note place='foot'>See the very remarkable discussion +about this repeal in Livy, +lib. xxxiv. cap. 1-8.</note> +A more important measure was the Voconian law, +which restricted within very narrow limits the property +which women might inherit; but public opinion never fully +acquiesced in it, and by several legal subterfuges its operation +was partially evaded.<note place='foot'>Legouvé, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Morale des +Femmes</hi>, pp. 23-26. St. Augustine +denounced this law as the most unjust +that could be mentioned or +even conceived. <q>Qua lege quid +iniquius dici aut cogitari possit, +ignoro.</q>—St. Aug. <hi rend='italic'>De Civ. Dei</hi>, iii. +21—a curious illustration of the +difference between the habits of +thought of his time and those of +the middle ages, when daughters +were habitually sacrificed, without +a protest, by the feudal laws.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Another and a still more important consequence resulted +from the changed form of marriage. Being looked upon +merely as a civil contract, entered into for the happiness of +the contracting parties, its continuance depended upon +mutual consent. Either party might dissolve it at will, and +the dissolution gave both parties a right to remarry. There +can be no question that under this system the obligations of +marriage were treated with extreme levity. We find Cicero +repudiating his wife Terentia, because he desired a new +dowry;<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Cicero</hi>.</note> Augustus compelling the husband of Livia to repudiate +her when she was already pregnant, that he might +marry her himself;<note place='foot'>Tacit. <hi rend='italic'>Ann.</hi> i. 10.</note> Cato ceding his wife, with the consent +of her father, to his friend Hortensius, and resuming her +<pb n='307'/><anchor id='Pg307'/> +after his death;<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Cato</hi>; Lucan, <hi rend='italic'>Pharsal</hi>. +ii.</note> Mæcenas continually changing his wife;<note place='foot'>Senec. <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> cxiv.</note> +Sempronius Sophus repudiating his wife, because she had +once been to the public games without his knowledge;<note place='foot'>Val. Max. vi. 3.</note> +Paulus Æmilius taking the same step without assigning any +reason, and defending himself by saying, <q>My shoes are new +and well made, but no one knows where they pinch me.</q><note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Paul. Æmil.</hi> It is +not quite clear whether this remark +was made by Paulus himself.</note> +Nor did women show less alacrity in repudiating their +husbands. Seneca denounced this evil with especial +vehemence, declaring that divorce in Rome no longer brought +with it any shame, and that there were women who reckoned +their years rather by their husbands than by the consuls.<note place='foot'>Sen. <hi rend='italic'>De Benef.</hi> iii. 16. See, +too, <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xcv. <hi rend='italic'>Ad Helv.</hi> xvi.</note> +Christians and Pagans echoed the same complaint. According +to Tertullian, <q>divorce is the fruit of marriage.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Apol.</hi> 6.</note> +Martial speaks of a woman who had already arrived at her +tenth husband;<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Epig.</hi> vi. 7.</note> Juvenal, of a woman having eight husbands +in five years.<note place='foot'>Juv. <hi rend='italic'>Sat.</hi> vi. 230.</note> But the most extraordinary recorded instance +of this kind is related by St. Jerome, who assures us that +there existed at Rome a wife who was married to her twenty-third +husband, she herself being his twenty-first wife.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> 2.</note> +</p> + +<p> +These are, no doubt, extreme cases; but it is unquestionable +that the stability of married life was very seriously +impaired. It would be easy, however, to exaggerate the +influence of legal changes in affecting it. In a purer state of +public opinion a very wide latitude of divorce might probably +have been allowed to both parties, without any serious consequence. +The right of repudiation, which the husband had +always possessed, was, as we have seen, in the Republic +never or very rarely exercised. Of those who scandalised +good men by the rapid recurrence of their marriages, probably +<pb n='308'/><anchor id='Pg308'/> +most, if marriage had been indissoluble, would have refrained +from entering into it, and would have contented themselves +with many informal connections, or, if they had married, +would have gratified their love of change by simple adultery. +A vast wave of corruption had flowed in upon Rome, and +under any system of law it would have penetrated into +domestic life. Laws prohibiting all divorce have never +secured the purity of married life in ages of great corruption, +nor did the latitude which was accorded in imperial Rome +prevent the existence of a very large amount of female +virtue. +</p> + +<p> +I have observed, in a former chapter, that the moral +contrasts shown in ancient life surpass those of modern +societies, in which we very rarely find clusters of heroic or +illustrious men arising in nations that are in general very +ignorant or very corrupt. I have endeavoured to account +for this fact by showing that the moral agencies of antiquity +were in general much more fitted to develop virtue than to +repress vice, and that they raised noble natures to almost the +highest conceivable point of excellence, while they entirely +failed to coerce or to attenuate the corruption of the depraved. +In the female life of Imperial Rome we find these contrasts +vividly displayed. There can be no question that the moral +tone of the sex was extremely low—lower, probably, than +in France under the Regency, or in England under the +Restoration—and it is also certain that frightful excesses of +unnatural passion, of which the most corrupt of modern +courts present no parallel, were perpetrated with but little +concealment on the Palatine. Yet there is probably no +period in which examples of conjugal heroism and fidelity +appear more frequently than in this very age, in which +marriage was most free and in which corruption was so +general. Much simplicity of manners continued to co-exist +with the excesses of an almost unbridled luxury. Augustus, +we are told, used to make his daughters and granddaughters +<pb n='309'/><anchor id='Pg309'/> +weave and spin, and his wife and sister made most of the +clothes he wore.<note place='foot'>Sueton. <hi rend='italic'>Aug.</hi> Charlemagne, +in like manner, made his daughters +work in wool. (Eginhardus, <hi rend='italic'>Vit. +Car. Mag.</hi> xix.)</note> The skill of wives in domestic economy, +and especially in spinning, was frequently noticed in their +epitaphs.<note place='foot'>Friedländer, <hi rend='italic'>Mœurs romaines +du règne d'Auguste à la fin des +Antonins</hi> (trad. franç.), tome i. p. +414.</note> Intellectual culture was much diffused among +them,<note place='foot'>Much evidence of this is collected +by Friedländer, tome i. pp. +387-395.</note> and we meet with several noble specimens, in the sex, +of large and accomplished minds united with all the gracefulness +of intense womanhood, and all the fidelity of the truest +love. Such were Cornelia, the brilliant and devoted wife of +Pompey,<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Pompeius</hi>.</note> Marcia, the friend, and Helvia, the mother of +Seneca. The Northern Italian cities had in a great degree +escaped the contamination of the times, and Padua and +Brescia were especially noted for the virtue of their women.<note place='foot'>Martial, xi. 16. Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> i. +14.</note> +In an age of extravagant sensuality a noble lady, named +Mallonia, plunged her dagger in her heart rather than yield +to the embraces of Tiberius.<note place='foot'>Suet. <hi rend='italic'>Tiberius</hi>, xlv.</note> To the period when the legal +bond of marriage was most relaxed must be assigned most of +those noble examples of the constancy of Roman wives, +which have been for so many generations household tales +among mankind. Who has not read with emotion of the +tenderness and heroism of Porcia, claiming her right to share +in the trouble which clouded her husband's brow; how, +doubting her own courage, she did not venture to ask +Brutus to reveal to her his enterprise till she had secretly +tried her power of endurance by piercing her thigh with a +knife; how once, and but once in his presence, her noble +spirit failed, when, as she was about to separate from him +for the last time, her eye chanced to fall upon a picture of +the parting interview of Hector and Andromache?<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>.</note> Paulina, +<pb n='310'/><anchor id='Pg310'/> +the wife of Seneca, opened her own veins in order to +accompany her husband to the grave; when much blood +had already flowed, her slaves and freedmen bound her +wounds, and thus compelled her to live; but the Romans +ever after observed with reverence the sacred pallor of +her countenance—the memorial of her act.<note place='foot'>Tacit. <hi rend='italic'>Annal.</hi> xv. 63, 64.</note> When Pætus +was condemned to die by his own hand, those who knew the +love which his wife Arria bore him, and the heroic fervour +of her character, predicted that she would not long survive +him. Thrasea, who had married her daughter, endeavoured +to dissuade her from suicide by saying, <q>If I am ever called +upon to perish, would you wish your daughter to die with +me?</q> She answered, <q>Yes, if she will have then lived with +you as long and as happily as I with Pætus.</q> Her friends +attempted, by carefully watching her, to secure her safety, +but she dashed her head against the wall with such force that +she fell upon the ground, and then, rising up, she said, <q>I +told you I would find a hard way to death if you refuse me +an easy way.</q> All attempts to restrain her were then +abandoned, and her death was perhaps the most majestic in +antiquity. Pætus for a moment hesitated to strike the fatal +blow; but his wife, taking the dagger, plunged it deeply +into her own breast, and then, drawing it out, gave it, all +reeking as it was, to her husband, exclaiming, with her +dying breath, <q>My Pætus, it does not pain.</q><note place='foot'><q>Pæte, non dolet.</q>—Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +iii. 16; Martial, <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> i. 14.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The form of the elder Arria towers grandly above her +fellows, but many other Roman wives in the days of the +early Cæsars and of Domitian exhibited a very similar fidelity. +Over the dark waters of the Euxine, into those unknown +and inhospitable regions from which the Roman imagination +recoiled with a peculiar horror, many noble ladies freely +followed their husbands, and there were some wives who +<pb n='311'/><anchor id='Pg311'/> +refused to survive them.<note place='foot'>Tacit. <hi rend='italic'>Annal.</hi> xvi. 10-11; +<hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> i. 3. See, too, Friedländer, +tome i. p. 406.</note> The younger Arria was the faithful +companion of Thrasea during his heroic life, and when he +died she was only persuaded to live that she might bring up +their daughters.<note place='foot'>Tacit. <hi rend='italic'>Ann.</hi> xvi. 34.</note> She spent the closing days of her life with +Domitian in exile;<note place='foot'>Pliny mentions her return +after the death of the tyrant (<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +iii. 11).</note> while her daughter, who was as remarkable +for the gentleness as for the dignity of her character,<note place='foot'><q>Quod paucis datum est, non +minus amabilis quam veneranda.</q>—Plin. +<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> vii. 19.</note> +went twice into exile with her husband Helvidius, and was +once banished, after his death, for defending his memory.<note place='foot'>See Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> vii. 19. Dion +Cassius and Tacitus relate the +exiles of Helvidius, who appears +to have been rather intemperate +and unreasonable.</note> +Incidental notices in historians, and a few inscriptions which +have happened to remain, show us that such instances were +not uncommon, and in Roman epitaphs no feature is more +remarkable than the deep and passionate expressions of conjugal +love that continually occur.<note place='foot'>Friedländer gives many and +most touching examples, tome i. pp. +410-414.</note> It would be difficult to +find a more touching image of that love, than the medallion +which is so common on the Roman sarcophagi, in which +husband and wife are represented together, each with an arm +thrown fondly over the shoulder of the other, united in death +as they had been in life, and meeting it with an aspect of +perfect calm, because they were companions in the tomb. +</p> + +<p> +In the latter days of the Pagan Empire some measures +were taken to repress the profligacy that was so prevalent. +Domitian enforced the old Scantinian law against unnatural +love.<note place='foot'>Suet. <hi rend='italic'>Dom.</hi> viii.</note> Vespasian moderated the luxury of the court; +Macrinus caused those who had committed adultery to be +bound together and burnt alive.<note place='foot'>Capitolinus, <hi rend='italic'>Macrinus</hi>.</note> A practice of men and +women bathing together was condemned by Hadrian, and +afterwards by Alexander Severus, but was only finally suppressed +<pb n='312'/><anchor id='Pg312'/> +by Constantine. Alexander Severus and Philip +waged an energetic war against panders.<note place='foot'>Lampridius, <hi rend='italic'>A. Severus</hi>.</note> The extreme +excesses of this, as of most forms of vice, were probably +much diminished after the accession of the Antonines; but +Rome continued to be a centre of very great corruption till +the influence of Christianity, the removal of the court to +Constantinople, and the impoverishment that followed the +barbarian conquests, in a measure corrected the evil. +</p> + +<p> +Among the moralists, however, some important steps +were taken. One of the most important was a very clear +assertion of the reciprocity of that obligation to fidelity in +marriage which in the early stages of society had been imposed +almost exclusively upon wives.<note place='foot'>In the oration against Neæra, +which is ascribed to Demosthenes, +but is of doubtful genuineness, the +licence accorded to husbands is +spoken of as a matter of course: +<q>We keep mistresses for our pleasures, +concubines for constant attendance, +and wives to bear us +legitimate children, and to be our +faithful housekeepers.</q></note> The legends of +Clytemnestra and of Medea reveal the feelings of fierce +resentment which were sometimes produced among Greek +wives by the almost unlimited indulgence that was accorded +to their husbands;<note place='foot'>There is a remarkable passage +on the feelings of wives, in different +nations, upon this point, in +Athenæus, xiii. 3. See, too, Plutarch, +<hi rend='italic'>Conj. Præc.</hi></note> and it is told of Andromache, as the +supreme instance of her love of Hector, that she cared for his +illegitimate children as much as for her own.<note place='foot'>Euripid. <hi rend='italic'>Andromache</hi>.</note> In early +Rome, the obligations of husbands were never, I imagine, +altogether unfelt; but they were rarely or never enforced, +nor were they ever regarded as bearing any kind of equality +to those imposed upon the wife. The term adultery, and all +the legal penalties connected with it, were restricted to the +infractions by a wife of the nuptial tie. Among the many +instances of magnanimity recorded of Roman wives, few are +more touching than that of Tertia Æmilia, the faithful wife +of Scipio. She discovered that her husband had become +<pb n='313'/><anchor id='Pg313'/> +enamoured of one of her slaves; but she bore her pain in +silence, and when he died she gave liberty to her captive, for +she could not bear that she should remain in servitude whom +her dear lord had loved.<note place='foot'>Valer. Max. vi. 7, § 1. Some +very scandalous instances of cynicism +on the part of Roman husbands +are recorded. Thus, Augustus +had many mistresses, <q>Quæ [virgines] +sibi undique etiam <emph>ab uxore</emph> +conquirerentur.</q>—Sueton. <hi rend='italic'>Aug.</hi> lxxi. +When the wife of Verus, the colleague +of Marcus Aurelius, complained +of the tastes of her husband, +he answered, <q>Uxor enim dignitatis +nomen est, non voluptatis.</q>—Spartian. +<hi rend='italic'>Verus</hi>.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Aristotle had clearly asserted the duty of husbands to observe +in marriage the same fidelity as they expected from their +wives,<note place='foot'>Aristotle, <hi rend='italic'>Econom.</hi> i. 4-8-9.</note> and at a later period both Plutarch and Seneca enforced +this duty in the strongest and most unequivocal manner.<note place='foot'>Plutarch enforces the duty at +length, in his very beautiful work +on marriage. In case husbands are +guilty of infidelity, he recommends +their wives to preserve a prudent +blindness, reflecting that it is out +of respect for them that they choose +another woman as the companion +of their intemperance. Seneca +touches briefly, but unequivocally, +on the subject: <q>Scis improbum +esse qui ab uxore pudicitiam exigit, +ipse alienarum corruptor uxorum. +Scis ut illi nil cum adultero, sic +nihil tibi esse debere cum pellice.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +xciv. <q>Sciet in uxorem +gravissimum esse genus injuriæ, +habere pellicem.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xcv.</note> +The degree to which, in theory at least, it won its way in +Roman life is shown by its recognition as a legal maxim by +Ulpian,<note place='foot'><q>Periniquum enim videtur +esse, ut pudicitiam vir ab uxore +exigat, quam ipse non exhibeat.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Cod. +Just. Dig.</hi> xlviii. 5-13.</note> and by its appearance in a formal judgment of +Antoninus Pius, who, while issuing, at the request of a +husband, a condemnation for adultery against a guilty wife, +appended to it this remarkable condition: <q>Provided always +it is established that by your life you gave her an example of +fidelity. It would be unjust that a husband should exact a +fidelity he does not himself keep.</q><note place='foot'>Quoted by St. Augustine, <hi rend='italic'>De +Conj. Adult.</hi> ii. 19. Plautus, long +before, had made one of his characters +complain of the injustice of +the laws which punished unchaste +wives but not unchaste husbands, +and ask why, since every honest +woman is contented with one husband, +every honest man should not +be contented with one wife? (<hi rend='italic'>Mercator</hi>, +Act iv. scene 5.)</note> +</p> + +<pb n='314'/><anchor id='Pg314'/> + +<p> +Another change, which may be dimly descried in the +later Pagan society, was a tendency to regard purity rather +in a mystical point of view, as essentially good, than in the +utilitarian point of view. This change resulted chiefly from +the rise of the Neoplatonic and Pythagorean philosophies, +which concurred in regarding the body, with its passions, as +essentially evil, and in representing all virtue as a purification +from its taint. Its most important consequence was a +somewhat stricter view of pre-nuptial unchastity, which in +the case of men, and when it was not excessive, and did not +take the form of adultery, had previously been uncensured, +or was looked upon with a disapprobation so slight as +scarcely to amount to censure. The elder Cato had expressly +justified it;<note place='foot'>Horace, <hi rend='italic'>Sat.</hi> i. 2.</note> and Cicero has left us an extremely +curious judgment on the subject, which shows at a glance +the feelings of the people, and the vast revolution that, +under the influence of Christianity, has been effected in, at +least, the professions of mankind. <q>If there be any one,</q> he +says, <q>who thinks that young men should be altogether restrained +from the love of courtesans, he is indeed very +severe. I am not prepared to deny his position; but he +differs not only from the licence of our age, but also from the +customs and allowances of our ancestors. When, indeed, +was this not done? When was it blamed? When was it +not allowed? When was that which is now lawful not +lawful?</q><note place='foot'><q>Verum si quis est qui etiam +meretriciis amoribus interdictum +juventuti putet, est ille quidem +valde severus; negare non possum; +sed abhorret non modo ab hujus +sæculi licentia, verum etiam a majorum +consuetudine atque concessis. +Quando enim hoc factum non est? +Quando reprehensum? Quando non +permissum? Quando denique fuit +ut quod licet non liceret?</q>—Cicero, +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Cælio</hi>, cap. xx. The whole +speech is well worthy of the attention +of those who would understand +Roman feelings on these matters; +but it should be remembered that +it is the speech of a lawyer defending +a dissolute client.</note> Epictetus, who on most subjects was among the +most austere of the Stoics, recommends his disciples to abstain, +<pb n='315'/><anchor id='Pg315'/> +<q>as far as possible,</q> from pre-nuptial connections, and +at least from those which were adulterous and unlawful, but +not to blame those who were less strict.<note place='foot'>Περί ἀφροδίσια, εἰς δύναμιν πρὸ +γάμου καθαρευτέον. ἁπτομένῳ δέ, +ὢν νομιμόν ἐστι, μεταληπτέον, μὴ +μέν τοι ἐπαχθὴς γίνου τοῖς χρωμένοις, +μηδὲ ἐλεγκτικός, μηδὲ πολλαχοῦ τό, +Ὅτι αὐτὸς οὐ χρῇ, παράφερε.—<hi rend='italic'>Enchir.</hi> +xxxiii.</note> The feeling of the +Romans is curiously exemplified in the life of Alexander +Severus, who, of all the emperors, was probably the most +energetic in legislating against vice. When appointing a +provincial governor, he was accustomed to provide him with +horses and servants, and, if he was unmarried, with a concubine, +<q>because,</q> as the historian very gravely observes, <q>it +was impossible that he could exist without one.</q><note place='foot'><q>Et si uxores non haberent, +singulas concubinas, quod sine his +esse non possent.</q>—Lampridius, <hi rend='italic'>A. +Severus</hi>. We have an amusing +picture of the common tone of +people of the world on this matter, +in the speech Apuleius puts into +the mouth of the gods, remonstrating +with Venus for being angry +because her son formed a connection +with Psyche. (<hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> lib. v.)</note> +</p> + +<p> +What was written among the Pagans in opposition to +these views was not much, but it is worthy of notice, as +illustrating the tendency that had arisen. Musonius Rufus +distinctly and emphatically asserted that no union of the +sexes other than marriage was permissible.<note place='foot'>Preserved by Stobæus. See +Denis, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des Idées morales dans +l'Antiquité</hi>, tome ii. pp. 134-136, +149-150.</note> Dion Chrysostom +desired prostitution to be suppressed by law. The +ascetic notion of the impurity even of marriage may be +faintly traced. Apollonius of Tyana lived, on this ground, +a life of celibacy.<note place='foot'>Philos. <hi rend='italic'>Apol.</hi> i. 13. When a +saying of Pythagoras, <q>that a man +should only have commerce with +his own wife,</q> was quoted, he said +that this concerned others.</note> Zenobia refused to cohabit with her +husband, except so far as was necessary for the production of +an heir.<note place='foot'>Trebellius Pollio, <hi rend='italic'>Zenobia</hi>.</note> Hypatia is said, like many Christian saints, to +have maintained the position of a virgin wife.<note place='foot'>This is asserted by an anonymous +writer quoted by Suidas. See +Ménage, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Mulierum Philosopharum</hi>, +p. 58.</note> The belief +<pb n='316'/><anchor id='Pg316'/> +in the impurity of all corporeal things, and in the duty +of rising above them, was in the third century strenuously +enforced.<note place='foot'>See, e.g., Plotinus, 1st Eun. +vi. 6.</note> Marcus Aurelius and Julian were both +admirable representatives of the best Pagan spirit of their +time. Each of them lost his wife early, each was eulogised +by his biographer for the virtue he manifested after her +death; but there is a curious and characteristic difference in +the forms which that virtue assumed. Marcus Aurelius, we +are told, did not wish to bring into his house a stepmother to +rule over his children, and accordingly took a concubine.<note place='foot'>Capitolinus, <hi rend='italic'>M. Aurelius</hi>.</note> +Julian ever after lived in perfect continence.<note place='foot'>Amm. Marcell. xxv. 4.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The foregoing facts, which I have given in the most condensed +form, and almost unaccompanied by criticism or by +comment, will be sufficient, I hope, to exhibit the state of +feeling of the Romans on this subject, and also the direction +in which that feeling was being modified. Those who are +familiar with this order of studies will readily understand +that it is impossible to mark out with precision the chronology +of a moral sentiment; but there can be no question that +in the latter days of the Roman Empire the perceptions of +men on this subject became more subtle and more refined +than they had previously been, and it is equally certain that +the Oriental philosophies which had superseded Stoicism +largely influenced the change. Christianity soon constituted +itself the representative of the new tendency. It regarded +purity as the most important of all virtues, and it strained to +the utmost all the vast agencies it possessed, to enforce it. +In the legislation of the first Christian emperors we find +many traces of a fiery zeal. Panders were condemned to +have molten lead poured down their throats. In the case of +rape, not only the ravisher, but even the injured person, if +she consented to the act, was put to death.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> lib. ix. tit. 24.</note> A great service +<pb n='317'/><anchor id='Pg317'/> +was done to the cause both of purity and of philanthropy, by +a law which permitted actresses, on receiving baptism, to +abandon their profession, which had been made a form of +slavery, and was virtually a slavery to vice.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Cod. Theod.</hi> lib. xv. tit. 7.</note> Certain +musical girls, who were accustomed to sing or play at the +banquets of the rich, and who were regarded with extreme +horror by the Fathers, were suppressed, and a very stringent +law forbade the revival of the class.<note place='foot'><q>Fidicinam nulli liceat vel +emere vel docere vel vendere, vel +conviviis aut spectaculis adhibere. +Nec cuiquam aut delectationis desiderio +erudita feminea aut musicæ +artis studio liceat habere mancipia.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Cod. +Theod.</hi> xv. 7, 10. This curious +law was issued in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 385. St. +Jerome said these musicians were +the chorus of the devil, and quite +as dangerous as the sirens. See +the comments on the law.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Side by side with the civil legislation, the penitential +legislation of the Church was exerted in the same direction. +Sins of unchastity probably occupy a larger place than any +others in its enactments. The cases of unnatural love, and of +mothers who had made their daughters courtesans, were +punished by perpetual exclusion from communion, and a +crowd of minor offences were severely visited. The ascetic +passion increased the prominence of this branch of ethics, +and the imaginations of men were soon fascinated by the +pure and noble figures of the virgin martyrs of the Church, +who on more than one occasion fully equalled the courage of +men, while they sometimes mingled with their heroism traits +of the most exquisite feminine gentleness. For the patient +endurance of excruciating physical suffering, Christianity +produced no more sublime figure than Blandina, the poor +servant-girl who was martyred at Lyons; and it would be +difficult to find in all history a more touching picture of +natural purity than is contained in one simple incident of +the martyrdom of St. Perpetua. It is related of that saint +that she was condemned to be slaughtered by a wild bull, +and, as she fell half dead from its horns upon the sand of the +<pb n='318'/><anchor id='Pg318'/> +arena, it was observed that even in that awful moment her +virgin modesty was supreme, and her first instinctive movement +was to draw together her dress, which had been torn +in the assault.<note place='foot'><p>Ruinart, <hi rend='italic'>Act. S. Perpetuæ</hi>. +These acts, are, I believe, generally +regarded as authentic. There is +nothing more instructive in history +than to trace the same moral feelings +through different ages and religions; +and I am able in this case +to present the reader with an illustration +of their permanence, which +I think somewhat remarkable. The +younger Pliny gives in one of his +letters a pathetic account of the +execution of Cornelia, a vestal +virgin, by the order of Domitian. +She was buried alive for incest; +but her innocence appears to have +been generally believed; and she +had been condemned unheard, and +in her absence. As she was being +lowered into the subterranean cell +her dress was caught and deranged +in the descent. She turned round +and drew it to her, and when the +executioner stretched out his hand +to assist her, she started back lest +he should touch her, for this, according +to the received opinion, was +a pollution; and even in the supreme +moment of her agony her +vestal purity shrank from the unholy +contact. (Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> iv. 11.) +If we now pass back several centuries, +we find Euripides attributing +to Polyxena a trait precisely +similar to that which was attributed +to Perpetua. As she fell +beneath the sword of the executioner, +it was observed that her +last care was that she might fall +with decency. +</p> +<p> +ἡ δὲ και θνήσκουσ᾽ ὅμως πολλὴν πρόνοιαν εἶχεν εὐσχήμως πεσεῖν,<lb/> +κρύπτουσ᾽ ἂ κρύπτειν ὄμματ᾽ ἀρσένων χρεών. +</p> +<p> +Euripides, <hi rend='italic'>Hec.</hi> 566-68. +</p></note> +</p> + +<p> +A crowd of very curious popular legends also arose, +which, though they are for the most part without much +intrinsic excellence, have their importance in history, as +showing the force with which the imaginations of men were +turned in this direction, and the manner in which Christianity +was regarded as the great enemy of the passions of the flesh. +Thus, St. Jerome relates an incredible story of a young +Christian, being, in the Diocletian persecution, bound with +ribands of silk in the midst of a lovely garden, surrounded +by everything that could charm the ear and the eye, while a +beautiful courtesan assailed him with her blandishments, +against which he protected himself by biting out his tongue +and spitting it in her face.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Vita Pauli.</hi></note> Legends are recounted of young +<pb n='319'/><anchor id='Pg319'/> +Christian men assuming the garb and manners of libertines, +that they might obtain access to maidens who had been +condemned to vice, exchanging dresses with them, and thus +enabling them to escape.<note place='foot'>St. Ambrose relates an instance +of this, which he says occurred +at Antioch (<hi rend='italic'>De Virginibus</hi>, +lib. ii. cap. iv.). When the Christian +youth was being led to execution, +the girl whom he had saved +reappeared and died with him. +Eusebius tells a very similar story, +but places the scene at Alexandria.</note> St. Agnes was said to have been +stripped naked before the people, who all turned away their +eyes except one young man, who instantly became blind.<note place='foot'>See Ceillier, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. des Auteurs +ecclés.</hi> tome iii. p. 523.</note> +The sister of St. Gregory of Nyssa was afflicted with a cancer +in her breast, but could not bear that a surgeon should see it, +and was rewarded for her modesty by a miraculous cure.<note place='foot'>Ibid. tome viii. pp. 204-207.</note> +To the fabled zone of beauty the Christian saints opposed +their zones of chastity, which extinguished the passion of the +wearer, or would only meet around the pure.<note place='foot'>Among the Irish saints St. +Colman is said to have had a girdle +which would only meet around the +chaste, and which was long preserved +in Ireland as a relic (Colgan, +<hi rend='italic'>Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ</hi>, Louvain, +1645, vol. i. p. 246); and St. +Fursæus a girdle that extinguished +lust. (Ibid. p. 292.) The girdle +of St. Thomas Aquinas seems to +have had some miraculous properties +of this kind. (See his <hi rend='italic'>Life</hi> in +the Bollandists, Sept. 29.) Among +both the Greeks and Romans it was +customary for the bride to be girt +with a girdle which the bridegroom +unloosed in the nuptial bed, and +hence <q>zonam solvere</q> became a +proverbial expression for <q>pudicitiam +mulieris imminuere.</q> (Nieupoort, +<hi rend='italic'>De Ritibus Romanorum</hi>, p. +479; Alexander's <hi rend='italic'>History of Women</hi>, +vol. ii. p. 300.)</note> Dæmons +were said not unfrequently to have entered into the profligate. +The garment of a girl who was possessed was brought +to St. Pachomius, and he discovered from it that she had a +lover.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Vit. St. Pachom.</hi> (Rosweyde).</note> A courtesan accused St. Gregory Thaumaturgus of +having been her lover, and having refused to pay her what +he had promised. He paid the required sum, but she was +immediately possessed by a daemon.<note place='foot'>See his <hi rend='italic'>Life</hi>, by Gregory of +Nyssa.</note> The efforts of the +saints to reclaim courtesans from the path of vice created +<pb n='320'/><anchor id='Pg320'/> +a large class of legends. St. Mary Magdalene, St. Mary of +Egypt, St. Afra, St. Pelagia, St. Thais, and St. Theodota, in +the early Church, as well as St. Marguerite of Cortona, and +Clara of Rimini, in the middle ages, had been courtesans.<note place='foot'>A little book has been written +on these legends by M. Charles +de Bussy, called <hi rend='italic'>Les Courtisanes +saintes</hi>. There is said to be some +doubt about St. Afra, for, while her +acts represent her as a reformed +courtesan, St. Fortunatus, in two +lines he has devoted to her, calls +her a virgin. (Ozanam, <hi rend='italic'>Études +german.</hi> tome ii. p. 8.)</note> +St. Vitalius, it is said, was accustomed every night to visit +the dens of vice in his neighbourhood, to give the inmates +money to remain without sin for that night, and to offer up +prayers for their conversion.<note place='foot'>See the <hi rend='italic'>Vit. Sancti Joannis +Eleemosynarii</hi> (Rosweyde).</note> It is related of St. Serapion, +that, as he was passing through a village in Egypt, a courtesan +beckoned to him. He promised at a certain hour to visit +her. He kept his appointment, but declared that there was +a duty which his order imposed on him. He fell down on +his knees and began repeating the Psalter, concluding every +psalm with a prayer for his hostess. The strangeness of the +scene, and the solemnity of his tone and manner, overawed +and fascinated her. Gradually her tears began to flow. +She knelt beside him and began to join in his prayers. He +heeded her not, but hour after hour continued in the same +stern and solemn voice, without rest and without interruption, +to repeat his alternate prayers and psalms, till her repentance +rose to a paroxysm of terror, and, as the grey morning +streaks began to illumine the horizon, she fell half dead at +his feet, imploring him with broken sobs to lead her anywhere +where she might expiate the sins of her past.<note place='foot'>Tillemont, tome x. pp. 61-62. +There is also a very picturesque +legend of the manner in which St. +Paphnutius converted the courtesan +Thais.</note> +</p> + +<p> +But the services rendered by the ascetics in imprinting +on the minds of men a profound and enduring conviction of +the importance of chastity, though extremely great, were +<pb n='321'/><anchor id='Pg321'/> +seriously counterbalanced by their noxious influence upon +marriage. Two or three beautiful descriptions of this +institution have been culled out of the immense mass of the +patristic writings;<note place='foot'>See especially, Tertullian, <hi rend='italic'>Ad +Uxorem</hi>. It was beautifully said, +at a later period, that woman was +not taken from the head of man, +for she was not intended to be his +ruler, nor from his feet, for she +was not intended to be his slave, +but from his side, for she was to +be his companion and his comfort. +(Peter Lombard, <hi rend='italic'>Senten.</hi> lib. ii. +dis. 18.)</note> but, in general, it would be difficult to +conceive anything more coarse or more repulsive than the +manner in which they regarded it.<note place='foot'>The reader may find many +passages on this subject in Barbeyrac, +<hi rend='italic'>Morale des Pères</hi>, ii. § 7; +iii. § 8; iv. § 31-35; vi. § 31; +xiii. § 2-8.</note> The relation which +nature has designed for the noble purpose of repairing the +ravages of death, and which, as Linnæus has shown, extends +even through the world of flowers, was invariably treated as +a consequence of the fall of Adam, and marriage was regarded +almost exclusively in its lowest aspect. The tender love +which it elicits, the holy and beautiful domestic qualities +that follow in its train, were almost absolutely omitted from +consideration.<note place='foot'><q>It is remarkable how rarely, +if ever (I cannot call to mind an +instance), in the discussions of the +comparative merits of marriage +and celibacy, the social advantages +appear to have occurred to the +mind.... It is always argued +with relation to the interests and +the perfection of the individual +soul; and, even with regard to that, +the writers seem almost unconscious +of the softening and humanising +effect of the natural affections, the +beauty of parental tenderness and +filial love.</q>—Milman's <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of +Christianity</hi>, vol. iii. p. 196.</note> The object of the ascetic was to attract men +to a life of virginity, and, as a necessary consequence, marriage +was treated as an inferior state. It was regarded as being +necessary, indeed, and therefore justifiable, for the propagation +of the species, and to free men from greater evils; +but still as a condition of degradation from which all who +aspired to real sanctity should fly. To <q>cut down by the axe +of Virginity the wood of Marriage,</q> was, in the energetic +language of St. Jerome, the end of the saint;<note place='foot'><q>Tempus breve est, et jam +securis ad radices arborum posita +est, quæ silvam legis et nuptiarum +evangelica castitate succidat.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +cxxiii.</note> and if he +<pb n='322'/><anchor id='Pg322'/> +consented to praise marriage, it was merely because it +produced virgins.<note place='foot'><q>Laudo nuptias, laudo conjugium, +sed quia mihi virgines +generant.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> xxii.</note> Even when the bond had been formed, +the ascetic passion retained its sting. We have already seen +how it embittered other relations of domestic life. Into this, +the holiest of all, it infused a tenfold bitterness. Whenever +any strong religious fervour fell upon a husband or a wife, its +first effect was to make a happy union impossible. The more +religious partner immediately desired to live a life of solitary +asceticism, or at least, if no ostensible separation took place, +an unnatural life of separation in marriage. The immense +place this order of ideas occupies in the hortatory writings of +the Fathers, and in the legends of the saints, must be familiar +to all who have any knowledge of this department of +literature. Thus—to give but a very few examples—St. +Nilus, when he had already two children, was seized with +a longing for the prevailing asceticism, and his wife was +persuaded, after many tears, to consent to their separation.<note place='foot'>See Ceillier, <hi rend='italic'>Auteurs ecclés.</hi> +xiii. p. 147.</note> +St. Ammon, on the night of his marriage, proceeded to greet +his bride with an harangue upon the evils of the married +state, and they agreed, in consequence, at once to separate.<note place='foot'>Socrates, iv. 23.</note> +St. Melania laboured long and earnestly to induce her +husband to allow her to desert his bed, before he would +consent.<note place='foot'>Palladius, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Laus.</hi> cxix.</note> St. Abraham ran away from his wife on the night +of his marriage.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Vit. S. Abr.</hi> (Rosweyde), cap. i.</note> St. Alexis, according to a somewhat later +legend, took the same step, but many years after returned +from Jerusalem to his father's house, in which his wife was +still lamenting her desertion, begged and received a lodging +as an act of charity, and lived there unrecognised and +unknown till his death.<note place='foot'>I do not know when this legend +first appeared. M. Littré mentions +having found it in a French MS. of +the eleventh century (Littré, <hi rend='italic'>Les +Barbares</hi>, pp. 123-124); and it also +forms the subject of a very curious +fresco, I imagine of a somewhat +earlier date, which was discovered, +within the last few years, in the +subterranean church of St. Clement +at Rome. An account of it is given +by Father Mullooly, in his interesting +little book about that Church.</note> St. Gregory of Nyssa—who was +<pb n='323'/><anchor id='Pg323'/> +so unfortunate as to be married—wrote a glowing eulogy of +virginity, in the course of which he mournfully observed +that this privileged state could never be his. He resembled, +he assures us, an ox that was ploughing a field, the fruit of +which he must never enjoy; or a thirsty man, who was +gazing on a stream of which he never can drink; or a poor +man, whose poverty seems the more bitter as he contemplates +the wealth of his neighbours; and he proceeded to descant in +feeling terms upon the troubles of matrimony.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>De Virgin.</hi> cap. iii.</note> Nominal +marriages, in which the partners agreed to shun the marriage +bed, became not uncommon. The emperor Henry II., +Edward the Confessor, of England, and Alphonso II., of +Spain, gave examples of it. A very famous and rather +picturesque history of this kind is related by Gregory of +Tours. A rich young Gaul, named Injuriosus, led to his +home a young bride to whom he was passionately attached. +That night, she confessed to him, with tears, that she had +vowed to keep her virginity, and that she regretted bitterly +the marriage into which her love for him had betrayed her. +He told her that they should remain united, but that she +should still observe her vow; and he fulfilled his promise. +When, after several years, she died, her husband, in laying +her in the tomb, declared, with great solemnity, that he +restored her to God as immaculate as he had received her; +and then a smile lit up the face of the dead woman, and she +said, <q>Why do you tell that which no one asked you?</q> +The husband soon afterwards died, and his corpse, which had +been laid in a distinct compartment from that of his wife in +the tomb, was placed side by side with it by the angels.<note place='foot'>Greg. Tur. i. 42.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='324'/><anchor id='Pg324'/> + +<p> +The extreme disorders which such teaching produced in +domestic life, and also the extravagances which grew up +among some heretics, naturally alarmed the more judicious +leaders of the Church, and it was ordained that married +persons should not enter into an ascetic life, except by +mutual consent.<note place='foot'>The regulations on this point +are given at length in Bingham.</note> The ascetic ideal, however, remained +unchanged. To abstain from marriage, or in marriage to +abstain from a perfect union, was regarded as a proof of +sanctity, and marriage was viewed in its coarsest and most +degraded form. The notion of its impurity took many +forms, and exercised for some centuries an extremely wide +influence over the Church. Thus, it was the custom during +the middle ages to abstain from the marriage bed during the +night after the ceremony, in honour of the sacrament.<note place='foot'>Muratori, <hi rend='italic'>Antich. Ital.</hi> diss. xx.</note> It +was expressly enjoined that no married persons should participate +in any of the great Church festivals if the night +before they had lain together, and St. Gregory the Great +tells of a young wife who was possessed by a dæmon, because +she had taken part in a procession of St. Sebastian, +without fulfilling this condition.<note place='foot'>St. Greg. <hi rend='italic'>Dial.</hi> i. 10.</note> The extent to which the +feeling on the subject was carried is shown by the famous +vision of Alberic in the twelfth century, in which a special +place of torture, consisting of a lake of mingled lead, pitch, +and resin is represented as existing in hell for the punishment +of married people who had lain together on Church +festivals or fast days.<note place='foot'>Delepierre, <hi rend='italic'>L'Enfer décrit par +ceux qui l'ont vu</hi>, pp. 44-56.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Two other consequences of this way of regarding marriage +were a very strong disapproval of second marriages, and a +very strong desire to secure celibacy in the clergy. The first +of these notions had existed, though in a very different form, +and connected with very different motives, among the early +Romans, who were accustomed, we are told, to honour with +<pb n='325'/><anchor id='Pg325'/> +the crown of modesty those who were content with one marriage, +and to regard many marriages as a sign of illegitimate +intemperance.<note place='foot'>Val. Max. ii. 1. § 3.</note> This opinion appears to have chiefly grown +out of a very delicate and touching feeling which had taken +deep root in the Roman mind, that the affection a wife owes +her husband is so profound and so pure that it must not +cease even with his death; that it should guide and consecrate +all her subsequent life, and that it never can be transferred +to another object. Virgil, in very beautiful lines, +puts this sentiment into the mouth of Dido;<note place='foot'><p><q>Ille meos, primus qui me sibi junxit, amores<lb/> +Abstulit; ille habeat secum, servetque sepulchro.</q> +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Æn.</hi> iv. 28. +</p></note> and several +examples are recorded of Roman wives, sometimes in the +prime of youth and beauty, upon the death of their husbands, +devoting the remainder of their lives to retirement and to the +memory of the dead.<note place='foot'>E.g., the wives of Lucan, Drusus, +and Pompey.</note> Tacitus held up the Germans as in +this respect a model to his countrymen,<note place='foot'>Tacit. <hi rend='italic'>German.</hi> xix.</note> and the epithet +<q>univiræ</q> inscribed on many Roman tombs shows how this +devotion was practised and valued.<note place='foot'>Friedländer, tome i. p. 411.</note> The family of Camillus +was especially honoured for the absence of second marriages +among its members.<note place='foot'>Hieron. <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> liv.</note> <q>To love a wife when living,</q> said one +of the latest Roman poets, <q>is a pleasure; to love her when +dead is an act of religion.</q><note place='foot'><p> +<q>Uxorem vivam amare voluptas;<lb/> +Defunctam religio.</q> +</p> +<p> +Statius. <hi rend='italic'>Sylv.</hi> v. in proœmio. +</p></note> In the case of men, the propriety +of abstaining from second marriages was probably not felt so +strongly as in the case of women, and what feeling on the +subject existed was chiefly due to another motive—affection +for the children, whose interests, it was thought, might be +injured by a stepmother.<note place='foot'>By one of the laws of Charondas +it was ordained that those +who cared so little for the happiness +of their children as to place a +stepmother over them, should be +excluded from the councils of the +State. (Diod. Sic. xii. 12.)</note> +</p> + +<pb n='326'/><anchor id='Pg326'/> + +<p> +The sentiment which thus recoiled from second marriages +passed with a vastly increased strength into ascetic Christianity, +but it was based upon altogether different grounds. +We find, in the first place, that an affectionate remembrance +of the husband had altogether vanished from the motives of the +abstinence. In the next place, we may remark that the ecclesiastical +writers, in perfect conformity with the extreme coarseness +of their views about the sexes, almost invariably assumed +that the motive to second or third marriages must be simply +the force of the animal passions. The Montanists and the +Novatians absolutely condemned second marriages.<note place='foot'>Tertullian expounded the +Montanist view in his treatise, +<hi rend='italic'>De Monogamia</hi>.</note> The +orthodox pronounced them lawful, on account of the weakness +of human nature, but they viewed them with the most +emphatic disapproval,<note place='foot'>A full collection of the statements +of the Fathers on this subject +is given by Perrone, <hi rend='italic'>De Matrimonio</hi>, +lib. iii. Sect. I.; and by +Natalis Alexander, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Eccles.</hi> +Sæc. II. dissert. 18.</note> partly because they considered them +manifest signs of incontinence, and partly because they regarded +them as inconsistent with their doctrine that marriage +is an emblem of the union of Christ with the Church. +The language of the Fathers on this subject appears to a +modern mind most extraordinary, and, but for their distinct +and reiterated assertion that they considered these marriages +permissible,<note place='foot'>Thus, to give but a single instance, +St. Jerome, who was one of +their strongest opponents, says: +<q>Quid igitur? damnamus secunda +matrimonia? Minime, sed prima +laudamus. Abjicimus de ecclesia +digamos? absit; sed monogamos +ad continentiam provocamus. In +arca Noe non solum munda sed et +immunda fuerunt animalia.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +cxxiii.</note> would appear to amount to a peremptory condemnation. +Thus—to give but a few samples—digamy, or +second marriage, is described by Athenagoras as <q>a decent +adultery.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>In Legat.</hi></note> <q>Fornication,</q> according to Clement of Alexandria, +<q>is a lapse from one marriage into many.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Strom.</hi> lib. iii.</note> <q>The first +Adam,</q> said St. Jerome, <q>had one wife; the second Adam +<pb n='327'/><anchor id='Pg327'/> +had no wife. They who approve of digamy hold forth a +third Adam, who was twice married, whom they follow.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Contra Jovin.</hi> i.</note> +<q>Consider,</q> he again says, <q>that she who has been twice +married, though she be an old, and decrepit, and poor +woman, is not deemed worthy to receive the charity of the +Church. But if the bread of charity is taken from her, +how much more that bread which descends from heaven!</q><note place='foot'>Ibid. See, too, <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> cxxiii.</note> +<q>Digamists,</q> according to Origen, <q>are saved in the name of +Christ, but are by no means crowned by him.</q><note place='foot'>Hom. xvii. in Luc.</note> <q>By this +text,</q> said St. Gregory Nazianzen, speaking of St. Paul's +comparison of marriage to the union of Christ with the +Church, <q>second marriages seem to me to be reproved. If +there are two Christs there may be two husbands or two +wives. If there is but one Christ, one Head of the Church, +there is but one flesh—a second is repelled. But if he forbids +a second, what is to be said of third marriages? The +first is law, the second is pardon and indulgence, the third is +iniquity; but he who exceeds this number is manifestly +bestial.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Orat.</hi> xxxi.</note> Digamists were excluded from the priesthood +and from the distributions of Church charity; a period of +penance was imposed on them before they were admitted +to communion,<note place='foot'>Perrone, <hi rend='italic'>De Matr.</hi> iii. § 1, art. +1; Natalis Alexander, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Eccles.</hi> +II. dissert. 18. The penances are +said not to imply that the second +marriage was a sin, but that the +moral condition that made it necessary +was a bad one.</note> and two English statutes of the Middle +Ages withheld the benefit of clergy from any prisoner who +had <q>married two wives or one widow.</q><note place='foot'>See Stephen's <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of English +Criminal Law</hi>, i. p. 461.</note> The Council of +Illiberis, in the beginning of the fourth century, while in +general condemning baptism by laymen, permitted it in case +of extreme necessity; but provided that even in that case +the officiating layman must not have been twice married.<note place='foot'>Conc. Illib. can. xxxviii. +Bingham thinks the feeling of the +Council to have been, that if baptism was not administered by a +priest, it should at all events be +administered by one who might +have been a priest.</note> +<pb n='328'/><anchor id='Pg328'/> +Among the Greeks fourth marriages were at one time +deemed absolutely unlawful, and much controversy was +excited by the Emperor Leo the Wise, who, having had +three wives, had taken a mistress, but afterwards, in defiance +of the religious feelings of his people, determined to raise her +to the position of a wife.<note place='foot'>Perrone, <hi rend='italic'>De Matrimonio</hi>, tome +iii. p. 102.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The subject of the celibacy of the clergy, in which the +ecclesiastical feelings about marriage were also shown, is an +extremely large one, and I shall not attempt to deal with it, +except in a most cursory manner.<note place='foot'>This subject has recently been +treated with very great learning +and with admirable impartiality +by an American author, Mr. Henry +C. Lea, in his <hi rend='italic'>History of Sacerdotal +Celibacy</hi> (Philadelphia, 1867), which +is certainly one of the most valuable +works that America has produced. +Since the great history of +Dean Milman, I know no work in +English which has thrown more +light on the moral condition of the +middle ages, and none which is +more fitted to dispel the gross illusions +concerning that period which +High Church writers, and writers +of the positive school, have conspired +to sustain.</note> There are two facts connected +with it which every candid student must admit. The +first is, that in the earliest period of the Church, the privilege +of marriage was accorded to the clergy. The second is, +that a notion of the impurity of marriage existed, and that it +was felt that the clergy, as pre-eminently the holy class, +should have less licence than laymen. The first form this +feeling took appears in the strong conviction that a second +marriage of a priest, or the marriage of a priest with a +widow, was unlawful and criminal.<note place='foot'>See Lea, p. 36. The command +of St. Paul, that a bishop or deacon +should be the husband of <emph>one</emph> wife +(1 Tim. iii. 2-12) was believed by +all ancient and by many modern +commentators to be prohibitory of +second marriages; and this view is +somewhat confirmed by the widows +who were to be honoured and supported +by the Church, being only +those who had been but once married +(1 Tim. v. 9). See Pressensé, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. des trois premiers Siècles</hi> (1<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>re</hi> +série), tome ii. p. 233. Among the +Jews it was ordained that the high +priest should not marry a widow. +(Levit. xxi. 13-14.)</note> This belief seems to +<pb n='329'/><anchor id='Pg329'/> +have existed from the earliest period of the Church, and was +retained with great tenacity and unanimity through many +centuries. In the next place, we find from an extremely +early date an opinion, that it was an act of virtue, at a later +period that it was an act of duty, for priests after ordination +to abstain from cohabiting with their wives. The Council +of Nice refrained, by the advice of Paphnutius, who was +himself a scrupulous celibate, from imposing this last rule as +a matter of necessity;<note place='foot'>Socrates, <hi rend='italic'>H. E.</hi> i. 11. The +Council of Illiberis (can. xxxiii.) +had ordained this, but both the +precepts and the practice of divines +varied greatly. A brilliant summary +of the chief facts is given in +Milman's <hi rend='italic'>History of Early Christianity</hi>, +vol. iii. pp. 277-282.</note> but in the course of the fourth century +it was a recognised principle that clerical marriages were +criminal. They were celebrated, however, habitually, and +usually with the greatest openness. The various attitudes +assumed by the ecclesiastical authorities in dealing with this +subject form an extremely curious page of the history of +morals, and supply the most crushing evidence of the evils +which have been produced by the system of celibacy. I can +at present, however, only refer to the vast mass of evidence +which has been collected on the subject, derived from the +writings of Catholic divines and from the decrees of Catholic +Councils during the space of many centuries. It is a popular +illusion, which is especially common among writers who have +little direct knowledge of the middle ages, that the atrocious +immorality of monasteries, in the century before the Reformation, +was a new fact, and that the ages when the faith of +men was undisturbed, were ages of great moral purity. In +fact, it appears, from the uniform testimony of the ecclesiastical +writers, that ecclesiastical immorality in the eighth +and three following centuries was little if at all less outrageous +than in any other period, while the Papacy, during +almost the whole of the tenth century, was held by men of +<pb n='330'/><anchor id='Pg330'/> +infamous lives. Simony was nearly universal.<note place='foot'>See, on the state of things in +the tenth and eleventh centuries, +Lea, pp. 162-192.</note> Barbarian +chieftains married at an early age, and totally incapable of +restraint, occupied the leading positions in the Church, and +gross irregularities speedily became general. An Italian +bishop of the tenth century epigrammatically described the +morals of his time, when he declared, that if he were to +enforce the canons against unchaste people administering +ecclesiastical rites, no one would be left in the Church except +the boys; and if he were to observe the canons against bastards, +these also must be excluded.<note place='foot'>Ratherius, quoted by Lea, p. +151.</note> The evil acquired such +magnitude that a great feudal clergy, bequeathing the ecclesiastical +benefices from father to son, appeared more than +once likely to arise.<note place='foot'>See some curious evidence of +the extent to which the practice of +the hereditary transmission of ecclesiastical +offices was carried, in Lea, +pp. 149, 150, 266, 299, 339.</note> A tax called <q>Culagium,</q> which was in +fact a licence to clergymen to keep concubines, was during +several centuries systematically levied by princes.<note place='foot'>Lea, pp. 271, 292, 422.</note> Sometimes +the evil, by its very extension, corrected itself. Priestly +marriages were looked upon as normal events not implying +any guilt, and in the eleventh century several instances are +recorded in which they were not regarded as any impediment +to the power of working miracles.<note place='foot'>Ibid. pp. 186-187.</note> But this was a +rare exception. From the earliest period a long succession +of Councils as well as such men as St. Boniface, St. Gregory +the Great, St. Peter Damiani, St. Dunstan, St. Anselm, +Hildebrand and his successors in the Popedom, denounced +priestly marriage or concubinage as an atrocious crime, and +the habitual life of the priests was, in theory at least, generally +recognised as a life of sin. +</p> + +<p> +It is not surprising that, having once broken their vows +and begun to live what they deemed a life of habitual sin, +<pb n='331'/><anchor id='Pg331'/> +the clergy should soon have sunk far below the level of the +laity. We may not lay much stress on such isolated instances +of depravity as that of Pope John XXIII., who was condemned +among many other crimes for incest, and for adultery;<note place='foot'>Lea, p. 358.</note> +or the abbot-elect of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, who +in 1171 was found, on investigation, to have seventeen +illegitimate children in a single village;<note place='foot'>Ibid. p. 296.</note> or an abbot of St. +Pelayo, in Spain, who in 1130 was proved to have kept no +less than seventy concubines;<note place='foot'>Ibid. p. 322.</note> or Henry III., Bishop of +Liège, who was deposed in 1274 for having sixty-five +illegitimate children;<note place='foot'>Ibid. p. 349.</note> but it is impossible to resist the +evidence of a long chain of Councils and ecclesiastical writers, +who conspire in depicting far greater evils than simple concubinage. +It was observed that when the priests actually took +wives the knowledge that these connections were illegal was +peculiarly fatal to their fidelity, and bigamy and extreme +mobility of attachments were especially common among +them. The writers of the middle ages are full of accounts of +nunneries that were like brothels, of the vast multitude of +infanticides within their walls, and of that inveterate +prevalence of incest among the clergy, which rendered it +necessary again and again to issue the most stringent enactments +that priests should not be permitted to live with their +mothers or sisters. Unnatural love, which it had been one +of the great services of Christianity almost to eradicate from +the world, is more than once spoken of as lingering in the +monasteries; and, shortly before the Reformation, complaints +became loud and frequent of the employment of the confessional +for the purposes of debauchery.<note place='foot'>The reader may find the most +ample evidence of these positions +in Lea. See especially pp. 138, +141, 153, 155, 260, 344.</note> The measures +taken on the subject were very numerous and severe. At +first, the evil chiefly complained of was the clandestine +<pb n='332'/><anchor id='Pg332'/> +marriage of priests, and especially their intercourse with +wives whom they had married previous to their ordination. +Several Councils issued their anathemas against priests <q>who +had improper relations with their wives;</q> and rules were +made that priests should always sleep in the presence of a +subordinate clerk; and that they should only meet their +wives in the open air and before at least two witnesses. Men +were, however, by no means unanimous in their way of +regarding this matter. Synesius, when elected to a bishopric, +at first declined, boldly alleging as one of his reasons, that +he had a wife whom he loved dearly, and who, he hoped, +would bear him many sons, and that he did not mean to +separate from her or visit her secretly as an adulterer.<note place='foot'>Synesius, <hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> cv.</note> A +Bishop of Laon, at a later date, who was married to a niece +of St. Rémy, and who remained with his wife till after he +had a son and a daughter, quaintly expressed his penitence +by naming them respectively Latro and Vulpecula.<note place='foot'>Lea, p. 122. St. Augustine +had named <emph>his</emph> illegitimate son +Adeodatus, or the Gift of God, and +had made him a principal interlocutor +in one of his religious dialogues.</note> St. +Gregory the Great describes the virtue of a priest, who, +through motives of piety, had discarded his wife. As he lay +dying, she hastened to him to watch the bed which for forty +years she had not been allowed to share, and, bending over +what seemed the inanimate form of her husband, she tried to +ascertain whether any breath still remained, when the dying +saint, collecting his last energies, exclaimed, <q>Woman, begone; +take away the straw; there is fire yet.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Dialog.</hi> iv. 11.</note> The +destruction of priestly marriage is chiefly due to Hildebrand, +who pursued this object with the most untiring resolution. +Finding that his appeals to the ecclesiastical authorities and +to the civil rulers were insufficient, he boldly turned to the +people, exhorted them, in defiance of all Church traditions, +to withdraw their obedience from married priests, and +<pb n='333'/><anchor id='Pg333'/> +kindled among them a fierce fanaticism of asceticism, which +speedily produced a fierce persecution of the offending pastors. +Their wives, in immense numbers, were driven forth with +hatred and with scorn; and many crimes, and much intolerable +suffering, followed the disruption. The priests +sometimes strenuously resisted. At Cambrai, in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1077, +they burnt alive as a heretic a zealot who was maintaining +the doctrines of Hildebrand. In England, half a century +later, they succeeded in surprising a Papal legate in the arms +of a courtesan, a few hours after he had delivered a fierce +denunciation of clerical unchastity.<note place='foot'>This is mentioned by Henry +of Huntingdon, who was a contemporary. +(Lea, p. 293.)</note> But Papal resolution +supported by popular fanaticism won the victory. Pope +Urban II. gave licence to the nobles to reduce to slavery +the wives whom priests had obstinately refused to abandon, +and after a few more acts of severity priestly marriage became +obsolete. The extent, however, of the disorders that +still existed, is shown by the mournful confessions of +ecclesiastical writers, by the uniform and indignant testimony +of the poets and prose satirists who preceded the +Reformation, by the atrocious immoralities disclosed in the +monasteries at the time of their suppression, and by the +significant prudence of many lay Catholics, who were accustomed +to insist that their priest should take a concubine +for the protection of the families of his parishioners.<note place='foot'>The first notice of this very +remarkable precaution is in a canon +of the Council of Palencia (in +Spain) held in 1322, which anathematises +laymen who compel their +pastors to take concubines. (Lea, +p. 324.) Sleidan mentions that it +was customary in some of the Swiss +cantons for the parishioners to +oblige the priest to select a concubine +as a necessary precaution for +the protection of his female parishioners. +(Ibid. p. 355.) Sarpi, in +his <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of the Council of Trent</hi>, +mentions (on the authority of +Zuinglius) this Swiss custom. +Nicolas of Clemangis, a leading +member of the Council of Constance, +declared that this custom +had become very common, that +the laity were firmly persuaded +that priests <emph>never</emph> lived a life of +real celibacy, and that, where +no proofs of concubinage were +found, they always assumed the +existence of more serious vice. +The passage (which is quoted +by Bayle) is too remarkable to +be omitted. <q>Taceo de fornicationibus +et adulteriis a quibus qui +alieni sunt probro cæteris ac ludibrio +esse solent, spadonesque aut +sodomitæ appellantur; denique +laici usque adeo persuasum habent +nullos cælibes esse, ut in plerisque +parochiis non aliter velint presbyterum +tolerare nisi concubinam +habeat, quo vel sic suis sit consultum +uxoribus, quæ nec sic quidem +usquequaque sunt extra periculum.</q> +Nic. de Clem. <hi rend='italic'>De Præsul. Simoniac.</hi> +(Lea, p. 386.)</note> +</p> + +<pb n='334'/><anchor id='Pg334'/> + +<p> +It is scarcely possible to conceive a more demoralising +influence than a priesthood living such a life as I have described. +In Protestant countries, where the marriage of the +clergy is fully recognised, it has, indeed, been productive of +the greatest and the most unequivocal benefits. Nowhere, +it may be confidently asserted, does Christianity assume a more +beneficial or a more winning form than in those gentle clerical +households which stud our land, constituting, as Coleridge said, +<q>the one idyll of modern life,</q> the most perfect type of domestic +peace, the centre of civilisation in the remotest village. Notwithstanding +some class narrowness and professional bigotry, +notwithstanding some unworthy, but half unconscious +mannerism, which is often most unjustly stigmatised as +hypocrisy, it would be difficult to find in any other quarter +so much happiness at once diffused and enjoyed, or so much +virtue attained with so little tension or struggle. Combining +with his sacred calling a warm sympathy with the +intellectual, social, and political movements of his time, +possessing the enlarged practical knowledge of a father of a +family, and entering with a keen zest into the occupations +and the amusements of his parishioners, a good clergyman will +rarely obtrude his religious convictions into secular spheres, +but yet will make them apparent in all. They will be revealed +by a higher and deeper moral tone, by a more +scrupulous purity in word and action, by an all-pervasive +gentleness, which refines, and softens, and mellows, and adds +as much to the charm as to the excellence of the character +<pb n='335'/><anchor id='Pg335'/> +in which it is displayed. In visiting the sick, relieving the +poor, instructing the young, and discharging a thousand +delicate offices for which a woman's tact is especially needed, +his wife finds a sphere of labour which is at once intensely +active and intensely feminine, and her example is not less +beneficial than her ministrations. +</p> + +<p> +Among the Catholic priesthood, on the other hand, +where the vow of celibacy is faithfully observed, a character +of a different type is formed, which with very grave and +deadly faults combines some of the noblest excellences to +which humanity can attain. Separated from most of the ties +and affections of earth, viewing life chiefly through the +distorted medium of the casuist or the confessional, and +deprived of those relationships which more than any others +soften and expand the character, the Catholic priests have +been but too often conspicuous for their fierce and sanguinary +fanaticism, and for their indifference to all interests except +those of their Church; while the narrow range of their +sympathies, and the intellectual servitude they have accepted, +render them peculiarly unfitted for the office of educating the +young, which they so persistently claim, and which, to the +great misfortune of the world, they were long permitted to +monopolise. But, on the other hand, no other body of men +have ever exhibited a more single-minded and unworldly +zeal, refracted by no personal interests, sacrificing to duty +the dearest of earthly objects, and confronting with undaunted +heroism every form of hardship, of suffering, and +of death. +</p> + +<p> +That the middle ages, even in their darkest periods, produced +many good and great men of the latter type it would +be unjust and absurd to deny. It can hardly, however, be +questioned that the extreme frequency of illicit connections +among the clergy tended during many centuries most actively +to lower the moral tone of the laity, and to counteract the +great services in the cause of purity which Christian teaching +<pb n='336'/><anchor id='Pg336'/> +had undoubtedly effected. The priestly connections were +rarely so fully recognised as to enable the mistress to fill a +position like that which is now occupied by the wife of a +clergyman, and the spectacle of the chief teachers and +exemplars of morals living habitually in an intercourse +which was acknowledged to be ambiguous or wrong, must +have acted most injuriously upon every class of the community. +Asceticism, proclaiming war upon human nature, +produced a revulsion towards its extreme opposite, and even +when it was observed it was frequently detrimental to +purity of mind. The habit of continually looking upon marriage +in its coarsest light, and of regarding the propagation +of the species as its one legitimate end, exercised a peculiarly +perverting influence upon the imagination. The exuberant +piety of wives who desired to live apart from their +husbands often drove the latter into serious irregularities.<note place='foot'>This was energetically noticed +by Luther, in his famous sermon +<q>De Matrimonio,</q> and some of the +Catholic preachers of an earlier +period had made the same complaint. +See a curious passage +from a contemporary of Boccaccio, +quoted by Meray, <hi rend='italic'>Les Libres prêcheurs</hi>, +p. 155. <q>Vast numbers of +laymen separated from their wives +under the influence of the ascetic +enthusiasm which Hildebrand created.</q>—Lea, +p. 254.</note> +The notion of sin was introduced into the dearest of relationships,<note place='foot'><q>Quando enim servata fide +thori causa prolis conjuges conveniunt +sic excusatur coitus ut +culpam non habeat. Quando vero +deficiente bono prolis fide tamen +servata conveniunt causa incontinentiæ +non sic excusatur ut non +habeat culpam, sed venialem.... +Item hoc quod conjugati victi concupiscentia +utuntur invicem, ultra +necessitatem liberos procreandi, +ponam in his pro quibus quotidie +dicimus Dimitte nobis debita nostra.... +Unde in sententiolis +Sexti Pythagorici legitur <q>omnis +ardentior amator propriæ uxoris +adulter est.</q></q>—Peter Lombard, +<hi rend='italic'>Sentent.</hi> lib. iv. dist. 31.</note> +and the whole subject was distorted and degraded. +It is one of the great benefits of Protestantism +that it did much to banish these modes of thought and +feeling from the world, and to restore marriage to its simplicity +and its dignity. We have a gratifying illustration +<pb n='337'/><anchor id='Pg337'/> +of the extent to which an old superstition has declined, in +the fact that when Goldsmith, in his great romance, desired +to depict the harmless eccentricities of his simple-minded and +unworldly vicar, he represented him as maintaining that +opinion concerning the sinfulness of the second marriage of a +clergyman which was for many centuries universal in the +Church. +</p> + +<p> +Another injurious consequence, resulting, in a great +measure, from asceticism, was a tendency to depreciate +extremely the character and the position of women. In +this tendency we may detect in part the influence of the +earlier Jewish writings, in which an impartial observer +may find evident traces of the common Oriental depreciation +of women. The custom of purchase-money to the +father of the bride was admitted. Polygamy was authorised,<note place='foot'>Many wives, however, were +forbidden. (Deut. xvii. 17.) +Polygamy is said to have ceased +among the Jews after the return +from the Babylonish captivity.—Whewell's +<hi rend='italic'>Elements of Morality</hi>, +book iv. ch. v.</note> +and practised by the wisest man on an enormous +scale. A woman was regarded as the origin of human ills. +A period of purification was appointed after the birth of +every child; but, by a very significant provision, it was +twice as long in the case of a female as of a male child.<note place='foot'>Levit. xii. 1-5.</note> +<q>The badness of men,</q> a Jewish writer emphatically declared, +<q>is better than the goodness of women.</q><note place='foot'>Ecclesiasticus, xiii. 14. I +believe, however, the passage has +been translated <q>Better the badness +of a man than the blandishments +of a woman.</q></note> The types of +female excellence exhibited in the early period of Jewish +history are in general of a low order, and certainly far +inferior to those of Roman history or Greek poetry; and the +warmest eulogy of a woman in the Old Testament is +probably that which was bestowed upon her who, with circumstances +of the most aggravated treachery, had murdered +the sleeping fugitive who had taken refuge under her roof. +</p> + +<pb n='338'/><anchor id='Pg338'/> + +<p> +The combined influence of the Jewish writings, and of +that ascetic feeling which treated women as the chief source +of temptation to man, was shown in those fierce invectives, +which form so conspicuous and so grotesque a portion of the +writings of the Fathers, and which contrast so curiously with +the adulation bestowed upon particular members of the sex. +Woman was represented as the door of hell, as the mother of +all human ills. She should be ashamed at the very thought +that she is a woman. She should live in continual penance, +on account of the curses she has brought upon the world. +She should be ashamed of her dress, for it is the memorial +of her fall. She should be especially ashamed of her beauty, +for it is the most potent instrument of the dæmon. Physical +beauty was indeed perpetually the theme of ecclesiastical +denunciations, though one singular exception seems to have +been made; for it has been observed that in the middle ages +the personal beauty of bishops was continually noticed upon +their tombs.<note place='foot'>This curious fact is noticed +by Le Blant, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptions chrétiennes +de la Gaule</hi>, pp. xcvii.-xcviii.</note> Women were even forbidden by a provincial +Council, in the sixth century, on account of their impurity, +to receive the Eucharist into their naked hands.<note place='foot'>See the decree of a Council of +Auxerre (<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 578), can. 36.</note> Their +essentially subordinate position was continually maintained. +</p> + +<p> +It is probable that this teaching had its part in determining +the principles of legislation concerning the sex. The +Pagan laws during the Empire had been continually repealing +the old disabilities of women, and the legislative movement +in their favour continued with unabated force from Constantine +to Justinian, and appeared also in some of the early +laws of the barbarians.<note place='foot'>See the last two chapters of +Troplong, <hi rend='italic'>Influences du Christianisme +sur le Droit</hi> (a work, however, +which is written much more in +the spirit of an apologist than in +that of an historian), and Legouvé, +pp. 27-29.</note> But in the whole feudal legislation +<pb n='339'/><anchor id='Pg339'/> +women were placed in a much lower legal position than in +the Pagan Empire.<note place='foot'>Even in matters not relating +to property, the position of women +in feudalism was a low one. <q>Tout +mari,</q> says Beaumanoir, <q>peut +battre sa femme quand elle ne veut +pas obéir à son commandement, ou +quand elle le maudit, ou quand +elle le dément, pourvu que ce soit +modérément et sans que mort +s'ensuive,</q> quoted by Legouvé, p. +148. Contrast with this the saying +of the elder Cato: <q>A man +who beats his wife or his children +lays impious hands on that which +is most holy and most sacred in +the world.</q>—Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Marcus +Cato</hi>.</note> In addition to the personal restrictions +which grew necessarily out of the Catholic doctrines concerning +divorce, and concerning the subordination of the weaker sex, +we find numerous and stringent enactments, which rendered it +impossible for women to succeed to any considerable amount +of property, and which almost reduced them to the alternative +of marriage or a nunnery.<note place='foot'>See Legouvé, pp. 29-38; +Maine's <hi rend='italic'>Ancient Law</hi>, pp. 154-159.</note> The complete inferiority +of the sex was continually maintained by the law; and that +generous public opinion which in Rome had frequently +revolted against the injustice done to girls, in depriving +them of the greater part of the inheritance of their fathers, +totally disappeared. Wherever the canon law has been the +basis of legislation, we find laws of succession sacrificing the +interests of daughters and of wives,<note place='foot'><q>No society which preserves +any tincture of Christian institutions +is likely to restore to married +women the personal liberty conferred +on them by the middle +Roman law: but the proprietary +disabilities of married females +stand on quite a different basis +from their personal incapacities, +and it is by keeping alive and consolidating +the former that the expositors +of the canon law have +deeply injured civilisation. There +are many vestiges of a struggle +between the secular and ecclesiastical +principles; but the canon law +nearly everywhere prevailed.</q>—Maine's +<hi rend='italic'>Ancient Law</hi>, p. 158. I +may observe that the Russian law +was early very favourable to the +proprietary rights of married +women. See a remarkable letter +in the <hi rend='italic'>Memoirs of the Princess +Daschkaw</hi> (edited by Mrs. Bradford: +London, 1840), vol. ii. p. +404.</note> and a state of public +opinion which has been formed and regulated by these laws; +nor was any serious attempt made to abolish them till the +<pb n='340'/><anchor id='Pg340'/> +close of the last century. The French revolutionists, though +rejecting the proposal of Siéyès and Condorcet to accord +political emancipation to women, established at least an equal +succession of sons and daughters, and thus initiated a great +reformation of both law and opinion, which sooner or later +must traverse the world. +</p> + +<p> +In their efforts to raise the standard of purity, the +Christian teachers derived much assistance from the incursions +and the conquests of the barbarians. The dissolution +of vast retinues of slaves, the suspension of most public +games, and the general impoverishment that followed the +invasions, were all favourable to female virtue; and in this +respect the various tribes of barbarians, however violent and +lawless, were far superior to the more civilised community. +Tacitus, in a very famous work, had long before pourtrayed +in the most flattering colours the purity of the Germans. +Adultery, he said, was very rare among them. The adulteress +was driven from the house with shaven hair, and +beaten ignominiously through the village. Neither youth, +nor beauty, nor wealth could enable a woman who was +known to have sinned to secure a husband. Polygamy was +restricted to the princes, who looked upon a plurality of +wives rather as a badge of dignity than as a gratification of +the passions. Mothers invariably gave suck to their own +children. Infanticide was forbidden. Widows were not +allowed to re-marry. The men feared captivity, much more +for their wives than for themselves; they believed that a +sacred and prophetic gift resided in women; they consulted +them as oracles, and followed their counsels.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Germania</hi>, cap. ix. xviii.-xx.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It is generally believed, and it is not improbable, that +Tacitus in this work intended to reprove the dissolute habits +of his fellow-countrymen, and considerably over-coloured the +virtue of the barbarians. Of the substantial justice, however, +<pb n='341'/><anchor id='Pg341'/> +of his picture we have much evidence. Salvian, who, about +three centuries later, witnessed and described the manners of +the barbarians who had triumphed over the Empire, attested +in the strongest language the contrast which their chastity +presented to the vice of those whom they had subdued.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>De Gubernatione Dei.</hi></note> The +Scandinavian mythology abounds in legends exhibiting the +clear sentiment of the heathen tribes on the subject of purity, +and the awful penalties threatened in the next world against +the seducers.<note place='foot'>See, for these legends, Mallet's +<hi rend='italic'>Northern Antiquities</hi>.</note> The barbarian women were accustomed to practise +medicine and to interpret dreams, and they also very +frequently accompanied their husbands to battle, rallied their +broken forces, and even themselves took part in the fight.<note place='foot'>Tacitus, <hi rend='italic'>Germ.</hi> 9; <hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> iv. +18; Xiphilin. lxxi. 3; Amm. +Marcellinus, xv. 12; Vopiscus, +<hi rend='italic'>Aurelianus</hi>; Floras, iii. 3.</note> +Augustus had discovered that it was useless to keep barbarian +chiefs as hostages, and that the one way of securing +the fidelity of traitors was by taking their wives, for these, +at least, were never sacrificed. Instances of female heroism +are said to have occurred in the conquered nations, which +might rival the most splendid in the Roman annals. +When Marius had vanquished an army of the Teutons, their +wives besought the conqueror to permit them to become the +servants of the Vestal Virgins, in order that their honour, at +least, might be secure in slavery. Their request was refused, +and that night they all perished by their own hands.<note place='foot'>Valer. Max. vi. 1; Hieron. +<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> cxxiii.</note> A +powerful noble once solicited the hand of a Galatian lady +named Camma, who, faithful to her husband, resisted all his +entreaties. Resolved at any hazard to succeed, he caused her +husband to be assassinated, and when she took refuge in the +temple of Diana, and enrolled herself among the priestesses, +he sent noble after noble to induce her to relent. After +a time, he ventured himself into her presence. She feigned +<pb n='342'/><anchor id='Pg342'/> +a willingness to yield, but told him it was first necessary to +make a libation to the goddess. She appeared as a priestess +before the altar, bearing in her hand a cup of wine, which +she had poisoned. She drank half of it herself, handed the +remainder to her guilty lover, and when he had drained the +cup to the dregs, burst into a fierce thanksgiving, that she +had been permitted to avenge, and was soon to rejoin, her +murdered husband.<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>De Mulier. Virt.</hi></note> Another and still more remarkable +instance of conjugal fidelity was furnished by a Gaulish +woman named Epponina. Her husband, Julius Sabinus, +had rebelled against Vespasian; he was conquered, and +might easily have escaped to Germany, but could not bear to +abandon his young wife. He retired to a villa of his own, +concealed himself in subterranean cellars that were below it, +and instructed a freedman to spread the report that he had +committed suicide, while, to account for the disappearance of +his body, he set fire to the villa. Epponina, hearing of the +suicide, for three days lay prostrate on the ground without +eating. At length the freedman came to her, and told her +that the suicide was feigned. She continued her lamentations +by day, but visited her husband by night. She became +with child, but owing, it is said, to an ointment, she succeeded +in concealing her state from her friends. When the +hour of parturition was at hand, she went alone into the +cellar, and without any assistance or attendance was delivered +of twins, whom she brought up underground. For +nine years she fulfilled her task, when Sabinus was discovered, +and, to the lasting disgrace of Vespasian, was +executed, in spite of the supplications of his wife, who +made it her last request that she might be permitted to +die with him.<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Amatorius</hi>; Xiphilin. +lxvi. 16; Tacit. <hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> iv. 67. +The name of this heroic wife is +given in three different forms.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The moral purity of the barbarians was of a kind altogether +<pb n='343'/><anchor id='Pg343'/> +different from that which the ascetic movement +inculcated. It was concentrated exclusively upon marriage. +It showed itself in a noble conjugal fidelity; but it was +little fitted for a life of celibacy, and did not, as we have +seen, prevent excessive disorders among the priesthood. The +practice of polygamy among the barbarian kings was also +for some centuries unchecked, or at least unsuppressed, by +Christianity. The kings Caribert and Chilperic had both +many wives at the same time.<note place='foot'>On the polygamy of the first, +see Greg. Tur. iv. 26; on the +polygamy of Chilperic, Greg. Tur. +iv. 28; v. 14.</note> Clotaire married the sister +of his first wife during the lifetime of the latter, who, on the +intention of the king being announced, is reported to have +said, <q>Let my lord do what seemeth good in his sight, only +let thy servant live in thy favour.</q><note place='foot'>Greg. Tur. iv. 3.</note> Theodebert, whose +general goodness of character is warmly extolled by the +episcopal historian, abandoned his first wife on account of an +atrocious crime which she had committed; took, during her +lifetime, another, to whom he had previously been betrothed; +and upon the death of this second wife, and while the first +was still living, took a third, whom, however, at a later +period he murdered.<note place='foot'>Ibid. iii. 25-27, 36.</note> St. Columbanus was expelled from +Gaul chiefly on account of his denunciations of the polygamy +of King Thierry.<note place='foot'>Fredegarius, xxxvi.</note> Dagobert had three wives, as well as a +multitude of concubines.<note place='foot'>Ibid. lx.</note> Charlemagne himself had at the +same time two wives, and he indulged largely in concubines.<note place='foot'>Eginhardus, <hi rend='italic'>Vit. Kar. Mag.</hi> +xviii. Charlemagne had, according +to Eginhard, four wives, but, as +far as I can understand, only two +at the same time.</note> +After this period examples of this nature became +rare. The Popes and the bishops exercised a strict supervision +over domestic morals, and strenuously, and in most +cases successfully, opposed the attempts of kings and nobles +to repudiate their wives. +</p> + +<pb n='344'/><anchor id='Pg344'/> + +<p> +But, notwithstanding these startling facts, there can be +no doubt that the general purity of the barbarians was from +the first superior to that of the later Romans, and it appears +in many of their laws. It has been very happily observed,<note place='foot'>Smyth's <hi rend='italic'>Lectures on Modern +History</hi>, vol. i. pp. 61-62.</note> +that the high value placed on this virtue is well illustrated +by the fact that in the Salic code, while a charge of cowardice +falsely brought against a man was only punished by a fine +of three solidi, a charge of unchastity falsely brought against +a woman was punished by a fine of forty-five. The Teutonic +sentiment was shown in a very stern legislation against +adultery and rape,<note place='foot'>Milman's <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of Latin +Christianity</hi>, vol. i. p. 363; Legouvé, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. Morale des Femmes</hi>, +p. 57.</note> and curiously minute precautions were +sometimes taken to guard against them. A law of the +Spanish Visigoths prohibited surgeons from bleeding any +free woman except in the presence of her husband, of her +nearest relative, or at least of some properly appointed +witness, and a Salic law imposed a fine of fifteen pieces of +gold upon any one who improperly pressed her hand.<note place='foot'>See, on these laws, Lord +Kames <hi rend='italic'>On Women</hi>; Legouvé, p. 57.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Under the influence of Christianity, assisted by the barbarians, +a vast change passed gradually over the world. The +vice we are considering was probably more rare; it certainly +assumed less extravagant forms, and it was screened from +observation with a new modesty. The theory of morals had +become clearer, and the practice was somewhat improved. +The extreme grossness of literature had disappeared, and the +more glaring violations of marriage were always censured +and often repressed. The penitential discipline, and the +exhortations of the pulpit, diffused abroad an immeasurably +higher sense of the importance of purity than Pagan antiquity +had known. St. Gregory the Great, following in the +steps of some Pagan philosophers,<note place='foot'>Favorinus had strongly urged +it. (Aul. Gell. <hi rend='italic'>Noct.</hi> xii. 1.)</note> strenuously urged upon +<pb n='345'/><anchor id='Pg345'/> +mothers the duty of themselves suckling their children; and +many minute and stringent precepts were made against +extravagances of dress and manners. The religious institutions +of Greece and Asia Minor, which had almost consecrated +prostitution, were for ever abolished, and the courtesan +sank into a lower stage of degradation. +</p> + +<p> +Besides these changes, the duty of reciprocal fidelity in +marriage was enforced with a new earnestness. The contrast +between the levity with which the frailty of men has +in most ages been regarded, and the extreme severity with +which women who have been guilty of the same offence have +generally been treated, forms one of the most singular +anomalies in moral history, and appears the more remarkable +when we remember that the temptation usually springs from +the sex which is so readily pardoned; that the sex which +is visited with such crushing penalties is proverbially the +most weak; and that, in the case of women, but not in the +case of men, the vice is very commonly the result of the most +abject misery and poverty. For this disparity of censure +several reasons have been assigned. The offence can be more +surely and easily detected, and therefore more certainly +punished, in the case of women than of men; and, as the duty +of providing for his children falls upon the father, the introduction +into the family of children who are not his own is a +special injury to him, while illegitimate children who do not +spring from adultery will probably, on account of their father +having entered into no compact to support them, ultimately +become criminals or paupers, and therefore a burden to +society.<note place='foot'>These are the reasons given by Malthus, <hi rend='italic'>On Population</hi>, book +iii. ch. ii.</note> It may be added, I think, that several causes +render the observance of this virtue more difficult for one sex +than for the other; that its violation, when every allowance +has been made for the moral degradation which is a result of +<pb n='346'/><anchor id='Pg346'/> +the existing condition of public opinion, is naturally more +profoundly prejudicial to the character of women than of +men; and also that much of our feeling on these subjects is +due to laws and moral systems which were formed by men, +and were in the first instance intended for their own protection. +</p> + +<p> +The passages in the Fathers, asserting the equality of the +obligation imposed upon both sexes, are exceedingly unequivocal;<note place='foot'>St. Augustine (<hi rend='italic'>De Conj. +Adult.</hi> ii. 19) maintains that adultery +is even more criminal in the +man than in the woman. St. +Jerome has an impressive passage +on the subject: <q>Aliæ sunt leges +Cæsarum, aliæ Christi; aliud +Papianus, aliud Paulus nostri +præcepit. Apud illos viris impudicitiæ +fræna laxantur et solo +stupro atque adulterio condemnato +passim per lupanaria et ancillulas +libido permittitur, quasi culpam +dignitas faciat non voluntas. Apud +nos quod non licet feminis æque +non licet viris; et eadem servitus +pari conditione censetur.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Ep.</hi> +lxxvii. St. Chrysostom writes in +a similar strain.</note> +and although the doctrine itself had been anticipated +by Seneca and Plutarch, it had probably never before, and it +has never since, been so fully realised as in the early Church. +It cannot, however, be said that the conquest has been +retained. At the present day, although the standard of +morals is far higher than in Pagan Rome, it may be +questioned whether the inequality of the censure which is +bestowed upon the two sexes is not as great as in the days +of Paganism, and that inequality is continually the cause of +the most shameful and the most pitiable injustice. In one +respect, indeed, a great retrogression resulted from chivalry, +and long survived its decay. The character of the seducer, +and especially of the passionless seducer who pursues his +career simply as a kind of sport, and under the influence of +no stronger motive than vanity or a spirit of adventure, has +been glorified and idealised in the popular literature of +Christendom in a manner to which we can find no parallel +in antiquity. When we reflect that the object of such a man +is by the coldest and most deliberate treachery to blast the +<pb n='347'/><anchor id='Pg347'/> +lives of innocent women; when we compare the levity of +his motive with the irreparable injury he inflicts; and when +we remember that he can only deceive his victim by +persuading her to love him, and can only ruin her by +persuading her to trust him, it must be owned that it would +be difficult to conceive a cruelty more wanton and more +heartless, or a character combining more numerous elements +of infamy and of dishonour. That such a character should +for many centuries have been the popular ideal of a considerable +section of literature, and the boast of numbers +who most plume themselves upon their honour, is assuredly +one of the most mournful facts in history, and it represents +a moral deflection certainly not less than was revealed +in ancient Greece by the position that was assigned to the +courtesan. +</p> + +<p> +The fundamental truth, that the same act can never be at +once venial for a man to demand, and infamous for a woman +to accord, though nobly enforced by the early Christians, has +not passed into the popular sentiment of Christendom. The +mystical character, however, which the Church imparted to +marriage has been extremely influential. Partly by raising +it into a sacrament, and partly by representing it as, in +some mysterious and not very definable sense, an image of +the union of Christ with His Church, a feeling was fostered +that a lifelong union of one man and one woman is, under +all circumstances, the single form of intercourse between the +sexes which is not illegitimate; and this conviction has +acquired the force of a primal moral intuition. +</p> + +<p> +There can, I think, be little doubt that, in the stringency +with which it is usually laid down, it rests not upon the law +of nature, but upon positive law, although unassisted nature +is sufficient to lead men many steps in its direction. Considering +the subject simply in the light of unaided reason, +two rules comprise the whole duty of man. He must abstain +from whatever injures happiness or degrades character. +<pb n='348'/><anchor id='Pg348'/> +Under the first head, he must include the more remote +as well as the immediate consequences of his act. He must +consider how his partner will be affected by the union, the +light in which society will view the connection, the probable +position of the children to be born, the effect of these births, +and also the effect of his example upon the well-being of +society at large. Some of the elements of this calculation +vary in different stages of society. Thus, public opinion in +one age will reprobate, and therefore punish, connections +which, in another age, are fully sanctioned; and the probable +position of the children, as well as the effect of the births +upon society, will depend greatly upon particular and +national circumstances. +</p> + +<p> +Under the second head is comprised the influence of this +intercourse in clouding or developing the moral feelings, +lowering or elevating the tone of character, exciting or allaying +the aberrations of the imagination, incapacitating men for +pure affections or extending their range, making the animal +part of our nature more or less predominant. We know, by +the intuition of our moral nature, that this predominance is +always a degraded, though it is not always an unhappy, condition. +We also know that it is a law of our being, that +powerful and beautiful affections, which had before been +latent, are evoked in some particular forms of union, while +other forms of union are peculiarly fitted to deaden the +affections and to pervert the character. +</p> + +<p> +In these considerations we have ample grounds for +maintaining that the lifelong union of one man and of one +woman should be the normal or dominant type of intercourse +between the sexes. We can prove that it is on the whole +most conducive to the happiness, and also to the moral +elevation, of all parties. But beyond this point it would, +I conceive, be impossible to advance, except by the assistance +of a special revelation. It by no means follows that because +this should be the dominant type it should be the only one, +<pb n='349'/><anchor id='Pg349'/> +or that the interests of society demand that all connections +should be forced into the same die. Connections, which were +confessedly only for a few years, have always subsisted side +by side with permanent marriages; and in periods when public +opinion, acquiescing in their propriety, inflicts no excommunication +on one or both of the partners, when these +partners are not living the demoralising and degrading life +which accompanies the consciousness of guilt, and when +proper provision is made for the children who are born, it +would be, I believe, impossible to prove, by the light of +simple and unassisted reason, that such connections should be +invariably condemned. It is extremely important, both for +the happiness and for the moral well-being of men, that lifelong +unions should not be effected simply under the imperious +prompting of a blind appetite. There are always multitudes +who, in the period of their lives when their passions are most +strong, are incapable of supporting children in their own +social rank, and who would therefore injure society by +marrying in it, but are nevertheless perfectly capable of +securing an honourable career for their illegitimate children +in the lower social sphere to which these would naturally +belong. Under the conditions I have mentioned, these +connections are not injurious, but beneficial, to the weaker +partner; they soften the differences of rank, they stimulate +social habits, and they do not produce upon character the +degrading effect of promiscuous intercourse, or upon society +the injurious effects of imprudent marriages, one or other of +which will multiply in their absence. In the immense +variety of circumstances and characters, cases will always +appear in which, on utilitarian grounds, they might seem +advisable. +</p> + +<p> +It is necessary to dwell upon such considerations as these, +if we would understand the legislation of the Pagan Empire +or the changes that were effected by Christianity. The +legislators of the Empire distinctly recognised these connections, +<pb n='350'/><anchor id='Pg350'/> +and made it a main object to authorise, dignify, and +regulate them. The unlimited licence of divorce practically +included them under the name of marriage, while that name +sheltered them from stigma, and prevented many of the +gravest evils of unauthorised unions. The word concubine +also, which in the Republic had the same signification as +among ourselves, represented in the Empire a strictly legal +union—an innovation which was chiefly due to Augustus, +and was doubtless intended as part of the legislation against +celibacy, and also, it may be, as a corrective of the licentious +habits that were general. This union was in essentials +merely a form of marriage, for he who, having a concubine, +took to himself either a wife or another concubine, was +legally guilty of adultery. Like the commonest form of +marriage, it was consummated without any ceremony, and +was dissoluble at will. Its peculiarities were that it was +contracted between men of patrician rank and freedwomen, +who were forbidden by law to intermarry; that the concubine, +though her position was perfectly recognised and honourable, +did not share the rank of her partner, that she brought no +dowry, and that her children followed her rank, and were +excluded from the rank and the inheritance of their +father.<note place='foot'>See Troplong, <hi rend='italic'>Influence du +Christianisme sur le Droit</hi>, pp. 239-251.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Against these notions Christianity declared a direct and +implacable warfare, which was imperfectly reflected in the +civil legislation, but appeared unequivocally in the writings +of the Fathers, and in most of the decrees of the Councils.<note place='foot'>We find, however, traces of a +toleration of the Roman type of concubine +in Christianity for some +time. Thus, a Council of Toledo +decreed: <q>Si quis habens uxorem +fidelis concubinam habeat non communicet. +Cæterum is qui non habet +uxorem et pro uxore concubinam +habet a communione non repellatur, +tantum ut unius mulieris, aut uxoris +aut concubinæ ut ei placuerit, sit +conjunctione contentus.</q>—1 <hi rend='italic'>Can.</hi> +17. St. Isidore said: <q>Christiano +non dicam plurimas sed nec duas +simul habere licitum est, nisi unam +tantum aut uxorem, aut certo loco +uxoris, si conjux deest, concubinam.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Apud +Gratianum</hi>, diss. 4. Quoted +by Natalis Alexander, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Eccles.</hi> +Sæc. I. diss. 29. Mr. Lea (<hi rend='italic'>Hist. of +Sacerdotal Celibacy</hi>, pp. 203-205) +has devoted an extremely interesting +note to tracing the history of +the word concubine through the +middle ages. He shows that even +up to the thirteenth century a concubine +was not necessarily an abandoned +woman. The term was applied +to marriages that were real, +but not officially recognised. Coleridge +notices a remarkable instance +of the revival of this custom in +German history.—<hi rend='italic'>Notes on English +Divines</hi> (ed. 1853), vol. i. p. 221.</note> +<pb n='351'/><anchor id='Pg351'/> +It taught, as a religious dogma, invariable, inflexible, and +independent of all utilitarian calculations, that all forms of +intercourse of the sexes, other than lifelong unions, were +criminal. By teaching men to regard this doctrine as axiomatic, +and therefore inflicting severe social penalties and +deep degradation on transient connections, it has profoundly +modified even their utilitarian aspect, and has rendered them +in most countries furtive and disguised. There is probably +no other branch of ethics which has been so largely determined +by special dogmatic theology, and there is none which +would be so deeply affected by its decay. +</p> + +<p> +As a part of the same movement, the purely civil marriage +of the later Pagan Empire was gradually replaced by +religious marriages. There is a manifest propriety in +invoking a divine benediction upon an act which forms so +important an epoch in life, and the mingling of a religious +ceremony impresses a deeper sense of the solemnity of the +contract. The essentially religious and even mystical character +imparted by Christianity to marriage rendered the +consecration peculiarly natural, but it was only very +gradually that it came to be looked upon as absolutely +necessary. As I have already noticed, it was long dispensed +with in the marriage of slaves; and even in the case of +freemen, though generally performed, it was not made compulsory +till the tenth century.<note place='foot'>Legouvé, p. 199.</note> In addition to its primary +object of sanctifying marriage, it became in time a powerful +<pb n='352'/><anchor id='Pg352'/> +instrument in securing the authority of the priesthood, who +were able to compel men to submit to the conditions they +imposed in the formation of the most important contract of +life; and the modern authorisation of civil marriages, by +diminishing greatly the power of the Catholic priesthood +over domestic life, has been one of the most severe blows +ecclesiastical influence has undergone. +</p> + +<p> +The absolute sinfulness of divorce was at the same time +strenuously maintained by the Councils, which in this, as +in many other points, differed widely from the civil law. +Constantine restricted it to three cases of crime on the part +of the husband, and three on the part of the wife; but the +habits of the people were too strong for his enactments, and, +after one or two changes in the law, the full latitude of +divorce reappeared in the Justinian Code. The Fathers, on +the other hand, though they hesitated a little about the case +of a divorce which followed an act of adultery on the part of +the wife,<note place='foot'>See some curious passages in +Troplong, pp. 222-223. The Fathers +seem to have thought dissolution +of marriage was not lawful on account +of the adultery of the husband, +but that it was not absolutely +unlawful, though not commendable, +for a husband whose wife had committed +adultery to re-marry.</note> had no hesitation whatever in pronouncing all +other divorces to be criminal, and periods of penitential +discipline were imposed upon Christians who availed themselves +of the privileges of the civil law.<note place='foot'>Some of the great charities of +Fabiola were performed as penances, +on account of her crime in +availing herself of the legislative +permission of divorce.</note> For many centuries +this duality of legislation continued. The barbarian laws +restricted divorce by imposing severe fines on those who +repudiated their wives. Charlemagne pronounced divorce to +be criminal, but did not venture to make it penal, and he +practised it himself. On the other hand, the Church threatened +with excommunication, and in some cases actually +launched its thunders against, those who were guilty of it. +It was only in the twelfth century that the victory was +<pb n='353'/><anchor id='Pg353'/> +definitely achieved, and the civil law, adopting the principle +of the canon law, prohibited all divorce.<note place='foot'>Laboulaye, <hi rend='italic'>Recherches sur la Condition civile et politique des +Femmes</hi>, pp. 152-158.</note> +</p> + +<p> +I do not propose in the present work to examine how far +this total prohibition has been for the happiness or the moral +well-being of men. I will simply observe that, though it is +now often defended, it was not originally imposed in Christian +nations, upon utilitarian grounds, but was based upon the sacramental +character of marriage, upon the belief that marriage +is the special symbol of the perpetual union of Christ with +His Church, and upon a well-known passage in the Gospels. +The stringency of the Catholic doctrine, which forbids the +dissolution of marriage even in the case of adultery, has +been considerably relaxed by modern legislation, and there +can, I think, be little doubt that further steps will yet be +taken in the same direction; but the vast change that was +effected in both practice and theory since the unlimited +licence of the Pagan Empire must be manifest to all. +</p> + +<p> +It was essential, or at least very important, that a union +which was so solemn and so irrevocable should be freely +contracted. The sentiment of the Roman patriots towards +the close of the Republic was that marriage should be +regarded as a means of providing children for the State, and +should be entered into as a matter of duty with that view, +and the laws of Augustus had imposed many disqualifications +on those who abstained from it. Both of these inducements +to marriage passed away under the influence of Christianity. +The popular sentiment disappeared with the decline of civic +virtues. The laws were rescinded under the influence of the +ascetic enthusiasm which made men regard the state of +celibacy as pre-eminently holy. +</p> + +<p> +There was still one other important condition to be +attained by theologians in order to realise their ideal type of +<pb n='354'/><anchor id='Pg354'/> +marriage. It was to prevent the members of the Church +from intermarrying with those whose religious opinions +differed from their own. Mixed marriages, it has been truly +said, may do more than almost any other influence to assuage +the rancour and the asperity of sects, but it must be added +that a considerable measure of tolerance must have been +already attained before they become possible. In a union in +which each partner believes and realises that the other is +doomed to an eternity of misery there can be no real +happiness, no sympathy, no trust; and a domestic agreement +that some of the children should be educated in one religion +and some in the other would be impossible when each parent +believed it to be an agreement that some children should be +doomed to hell. +</p> + +<p> +The domestic unhappiness arising from differences of +belief was probably almost or altogether unknown in the +world before the introduction of Christianity; for, although +differences of opinion may have before existed, the same +momentous consequences were not attached to them. It has +been the especial bane of periods of great religious change, +such as the conversion of the Roman Empire, or the Reformation, +or our own day when far more serious questions +than those which agitated the sixteenth century are occupying +the attention of a large proportion of thinkers and scholars, +and when the deep and widening chasm between the religious +opinions of most highly educated men, and of the immense +majority of women, is painfully apparent. While a multitude +of scientific discoveries, critical and historical researches, and +educational reforms have brought thinking men face to face +with religious problems of extreme importance, women have +been almost absolutely excluded from their influence. Their +minds are usually by nature less capable than those of men +of impartiality and suspense, and the almost complete omission +from female education of those studies which most discipline +and strengthen the intellect increases the difference, while at +<pb n='355'/><anchor id='Pg355'/> +the same time it has been usually made a main object to +imbue them with a passionate faith in traditional opinions, +and to preserve them from all contact with opposing views. +But contracted knowledge and imperfect sympathy are not +the sole fruits of this education. It has always been the +peculiarity of a certain kind of theological teaching that +it inverts all the normal principles of judgment, and absolutely +destroys intellectual diffidence. On other subjects we +find, if not a respect for honest conviction, at least some sense +of the amount of knowledge that is requisite to entitle men +to express an opinion on grave controversies. A complete +ignorance of the subject-matter of a dispute restrains the +confidence of dogmatism; and an ignorant person, who is +aware that, by much reading and thinking in spheres of +which he has himself no knowledge, his educated neighbour +has modified or rejected opinions which that ignorant person +had been taught, will, at least if he is a man of sense or +modesty, abstain from compassionating the benighted condition +of his more instructed friend. But on theological +questions this has never been so. Unfaltering belief being +taught as the first of duties, and all doubt being usually +stigmatised as criminal or damnable, a state of mind is +formed to which we find no parallel in other fields. Many +men and most women, though completely ignorant of the +very rudiments of biblical criticism, historical research, or +scientific discoveries, though they have never read a single +page, or understood a single proposition of the writings of +those whom they condemn, and have absolutely no rational +knowledge either of the arguments by which their faith is +defended, or of those by which it has been impugned, will +nevertheless adjudicate with the utmost confidence upon +every polemical question; denounce, hate, pity, or pray for +the conversion of all who dissent from what they have been +taught; assume, as a matter beyond the faintest possibility of +doubt, that the opinions they have received without enquiry +<pb n='356'/><anchor id='Pg356'/> +must be true, and that the opinions which others have +arrived at by enquiry must be false, and make it a main +object of their lives to assail what they call heresy in every +way in their power, except by examining the grounds on +which it rests. It is probable that the great majority of +voices that swell the clamour against every book which is +regarded as heretical are the voices of those who would deem +it criminal even to open that book, or to enter into any real, +searching, and impartial investigation of the subject to which +it relates. Innumerable pulpits support this tone of thought, +and represent, with a fervid rhetoric well fitted to excite the +nerves and imaginations of women, the deplorable condition +of all who deviate from a certain type of opinions or of +emotions; a blind propagandism or a secret wretchedness +penetrates into countless households, poisoning the peace of +families, chilling the mutual confidence of husband and wife, +adding immeasurably to the difficulties which every searcher +into truth has to encounter, and diffusing far and wide +intellectual timidity, disingenuousness, and hypocrisy. +</p> + +<p> +These domestic divisions became very apparent in the +period of the conversion of the Roman Empire; and a natural +desire to guard intact the orthodoxy and zeal of the converts, +and to prevent a continual discordance, stimulated the +Fathers in their very vehement denunciations of all mixed +marriages. We may also trace in these denunciations the +outline of a very singular doctrine, which was afterwards +suffered to fall into obscurity, but was revived in the last +century in England in a curious and learned work of the +nonjuror Dodwell.<note place='foot'><q>A discourse concerning the +obligation to marry within the true +communion, following from their +style (<hi rend='italic'>sic</hi>) of being called a holy +seed.</q> This rare discourse is appended +to a sermon against mixed +marriages by Leslie. (London, +1702.) The reader may find something +about Dodwell in Macaulay's +<hi rend='italic'>Hist. of England</hi>, ch. xiv.; but +Macaulay, who does not appear +to have known Dodwell's masterpiece—his +dissertation <hi rend='italic'>De Paucitate +Marturum</hi>, which is one of the finest +specimens of criticism of his time—and +who only knew the discourse on +marriages by extracts, has, I think, +done him considerable injustice.</note> The union of Christ and His Church +<pb n='357'/><anchor id='Pg357'/> +had been represented as a marriage; and this image was not +regarded as a mere metaphor or comparison, but as intimating +a mysterious unity, which, though not susceptible of any +very clear definition, was not on that account the less real. +Christians were the <q>limbs of Christ,</q> and for them to join +themselves in marriage with those who were not of the +Christian fold was literally, it was said, a species of adultery +or fornication. The intermarriage of the Israelites, the +chosen seed of the ancient world, with the Gentiles, had been +described in the Old Testament as an act of impurity;<note place='foot'>Dodwell relies mainly upon +this fact, and especially upon Ezra's +having treated these marriages as +essentially null.</note> and +in the opinion of some, at least, of the Fathers, the Christian +community occupied towards the unbelievers a position +analogous to that which the Jews had occupied towards the +Gentiles. St. Cyprian denounced the crime of those <q>who +prostitute the limbs of Christ in marriage with the Gentiles.</q><note place='foot'><q>Jungere cum infidelibus vinculum +matrimonii, prostituere gentilibus +membra Christi.</q>—Cyprian, +<hi rend='italic'>De Lapsis</hi>.</note> +Tertullian described the intermarriage as fornication;<note place='foot'><q>Hæc cum ita sint, fideles +Gentilium matrimonia subeuntes +stupri reos esse constat, et arcendos +ab omni communicatione fraternitatis.</q>—Tert. +<hi rend='italic'>Ad Uxor.</hi> ii. 3.</note> and +after the triumph of the Church, the intermarriage of Jews +and Christians was made a capital offence, and was stigmatised +by the law as adultery.<note place='foot'>See on this law, and on the +many councils which condemned +the marriage of orthodox with +heretics, Bingham, <hi rend='italic'>Antiq.</hi> xxii. 2, +§§ 1-2.</note> The civil law did not +prohibit the orthodox from intermarrying with heretics, but +many councils in strong terms denounced such marriages as +criminal. +</p> + +<p> +The extreme sanctity attributed to virginity, the absolute +condemnation of all forms of sexual connection other than +marriage, and the formation and gradual realisation of the +Christian conception of marriage as a permanent union of a +<pb n='358'/><anchor id='Pg358'/> +man and woman of the same religious opinions, consecrated +by solemn religious services, carrying with it a deep religious +signification, and dissoluble only by death, were the most +obvious signs of Christian influence in the sphere of ethics +we are examining. Another very important result of the +new religion was to raise to a far greater honour than they +had previously possessed, the qualities in which women +peculiarly excel. +</p> + +<p> +There are few more curious subjects of enquiry than the +distinctive differences between the sexes, and the manner in +which those differences have affected the ideal types of different +ages, nations, philosophies, and religions. Physically, +men have the indisputable superiority in strength, and +women in beauty. Intellectually, a certain inferiority of +the female sex can hardly be denied when we remember how +almost exclusively the foremost places in every department +of science, literature, and art have been occupied by men, +how infinitesimally small is the number of women who have +shown in any form the very highest order of genius, how +many of the greatest men have achieved their greatness in +defiance of the most adverse circumstances, and how completely +women have failed in obtaining the first position, +even in music or painting, for the cultivation of which their +circumstances would appear most propitious. It is as impossible +to find a female Raphael, or a female Handel, as a +female Shakspeare or Newton. Women are intellectually +more desultory and volatile than men; they are more occupied +with particular instances than with general principles; +they judge rather by intuitive perceptions than by deliberate +reasoning or past experience. They are, however, usually +superior to men in nimbleness and rapidity of thought, and in +the gift of tact or the power of seizing speedily and faithfully +the finer inflexions of feeling, and they have therefore often +attained very great eminence in conversation, as letter-writers, +as actresses, and as novelists. +</p> + +<pb n='359'/><anchor id='Pg359'/> + +<p> +Morally, the general superiority of women over men, is, +I think, unquestionable. If we take the somewhat coarse +and inadequate criterion of police statistics, we find that, +while the male and female populations are nearly the same +in number, the crimes committed by men are usually rather +more than five times as numerous as those committed by +women;<note place='foot'>Many curious statistics illustrating +this fact are given by M. +Bonneville de Marsangy—a Portuguese +writer who was counsellor of +the Imperial Court at Paris—in +his <hi rend='italic'>Étude sur la Moralité comparée +de la Femme et de l'Homme</hi>. (Paris, +1862.) The writer would have +done better if he had not maintained, +in lawyer fashion, that the +statistics of crime are absolutely +decisive on the question of the comparative +morality of the sexes, and +also, if he had not thought it due +to his official position to talk in a +rather grotesque strain about the +regeneration and glorification of +the sex in the person of the Empress +Eugénie.</note> and although it may be justly observed that men, +as the stronger sex, and the sex upon whom the burden of +supporting the family is thrown, have more temptations than +women, it must be remembered, on the other hand, that +extreme poverty which verges upon starvation is most common +among women, whose means of livelihood are most +restricted, and whose earnings are smallest and most precarious. +Self-sacrifice is the most conspicuous element of a +virtuous and religious character, and it is certainly far less +common among men than among women, whose whole lives +are usually spent in yielding to the will and consulting the +pleasures of another. There are two great departments of +virtue: the impulsive, or that which springs spontaneously +from the emotions; and the deliberative, or that which is +performed in obedience to the sense of duty; and in both of +these I imagine women are superior to men. Their sensibility +is greater, they are more chaste both in thought and +act, more tender to the erring, more compassionate to the +suffering, more affectionate to all about them. On the other +hand, those who have traced the course of the wives of the +poor, and of many who, though in narrow circumstances, +<pb n='360'/><anchor id='Pg360'/> +can hardly be called poor, will probably admit that in no +other class do we so often find entire lives spent in daily persistent +self-denial, in the patient endurance of countless trials, +in the ceaseless and deliberate sacrifice of their own enjoyments +to the well-being or the prospects of others. Women, +however, though less prone than men to intemperance and +brutality, are in general more addicted to the petty forms of +vanity, jealousy, spitefulness, and ambition, and they are +also inferior to men in active courage. In the courage of +endurance they are commonly superior; but their passive +courage is not so much fortitude which bears and defies, as +resignation which bears and bends. In the ethics of intellect +they are decidedly inferior. To repeat an expression I have +already employed, women very rarely love truth, though +they love passionately what they call <q>the truth,</q> or opinions +they have received from others, and hate vehemently those +who differ from them. They are little capable of impartiality +or of doubt; their thinking is chiefly a mode of feeling; +though very generous in their acts, they are rarely generous +in their opinions or in their judgments. They persuade +rather than convince, and value belief rather as a source of +consolation than as a faithful expression of the reality of +things. They are less capable than men of perceiving qualifying +circumstances, of admitting the existence of elements +of good in systems to which they are opposed, of distinguishing +the personal character of an opponent from the opinions +he maintains. Men lean most to justice and women to +mercy. Men excel in energy, self-reliance, perseverance, and +magnanimity; women in humility, gentleness, modesty, and +endurance. The realising imagination which causes us to +pity and to love is more sensitive in women than in men, +and it is especially more capable of dwelling on the unseen. +Their religious or devotional realisations are incontestably +more vivid; and it is probable that, while a father is most +moved by the death of a child in his presence, a mother +<pb n='361'/><anchor id='Pg361'/> +generally feels most the death of a child in some distant land. +But, though more intense, the sympathies of women are commonly +less wide than those of men. Their imaginations +individualise more; their affections are, in consequence, concentrated +rather on leaders than on causes; and if they care +for a great cause, it is generally because it is represented by +a great man, or connected with some one whom they love. +In politics, their enthusiasm is more naturally loyalty than +patriotism. In history, they are even more inclined than +men to dwell exclusively upon biographical incidents or +characteristics as distinguished from the march of general +causes. In benevolence, they excel in charity, which alleviates +individual suffering, rather than in philanthropy, +which deals with large masses and is more frequently employed +in preventing than in allaying calamity. +</p> + +<p> +It was a remark of Winckelmann that <q>the supreme +beauty of Greek art is rather male than female;</q> and the +justice of this remark has been amply corroborated by the +greater knowledge we have of late years attained of the +works of the Phidian period, in which art achieved its +highest perfection, and in which, at the same time, force and +freedom, and masculine grandeur, were its pre-eminent +characteristics. A similar observation may be made of the +moral ideal of which ancient art was simply the expression. +In antiquity the virtues that were most admired were almost +exclusively those which are distinctively masculine. Courage, +self-assertion, magnanimity, and, above all, patriotism, were +the leading features of the ideal type; and chastity, modesty, +and charity, the gentler and the domestic virtues, which are +especially feminine, were greatly undervalued. With the +single exception of conjugal fidelity, none of the virtues that +were very highly prized were virtues distinctively or pre-eminently +feminine. With this exception, nearly all the +most illustrious women of antiquity were illustrious chiefly +because they overcame the natural conditions of their sex. +<pb n='362'/><anchor id='Pg362'/> +It is a characteristic fact that the favourite female ideal of +the artists appears to have been the Amazon.<note place='foot'>See Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> xxxiv. +19.</note> We may +admire the Spartan mother, and the mother of the Gracchi, +repressing every sign of grief when their children were +sacrificed upon the altar of their country, we may wonder at +the majestic courage of a Porcia and an Arria; but we extol +them chiefly because, being women, they emancipated themselves +from the frailty of their sex, and displayed an heroic +fortitude worthy of the strongest and the bravest of men. +We may bestow an equal admiration upon the noble devotion +and charity of a St. Elizabeth of Hungary, or of a Mrs. +Fry, but we do not admire them because they displayed these +virtues, although they were women, for we feel that their +virtues were of the kind which the female nature is most +fitted to produce. The change from the heroic to the saintly +ideal, from the ideal of Paganism to the ideal of Christianity, +was a change from a type which was essentially male to one +which was essentially feminine. Of all the great schools of +philosophy no other reflected so faithfully the Roman conception +of moral excellence as Stoicism, and the greatest +Roman exponent of Stoicism summed up its character in a +single sentence when he pronounced it to be beyond all other +sects the most emphatically masculine.<note place='foot'><q>Tantum inter Stoicos, Serene, +et ceteros sapientiam professos interesse, +quantum inter fœminas et +mares non immerito dixerim.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>De +Const. Sapientis</hi>, cap. i.</note> On the other hand, +an ideal type in which meekness, gentleness, patience, +humility, faith, and love are the most prominent features, is +not naturally male but female. A reason probably deeper +than the historical ones which are commonly alleged, why +sculpture has always been peculiarly Pagan and painting +peculiarly Christian, may be found in the fact, that sculpture +is especially suited to represent male beauty, or the beauty of +strength, and painting female beauty, or the beauty of softness; +<pb n='363'/><anchor id='Pg363'/> +and that Pagan sentiment was chiefly a glorification +of the masculine qualities of strength, and courage, and conscious +virtue, while Christian sentiment is chiefly a glorification +of the feminine qualities of gentleness, humility, and +love. The painters whom the religious feeling of Christendom +has recognised as the most faithful exponents of Christian +sentiment have always been those who infused a large +measure of feminine beauty even into their male characters; +and we never, or scarcely ever, find that the same artist has +been conspicuously successful in delineating both Christian +and Pagan types. Michael Angelo, whose genius loved to +expatiate on the sublimity of strength and defiance, failed +signally in his representations of the Christian ideal; and +Perugino was equally unsuccessful when he sought to pourtray +the features of the heroes of antiquity.<note place='foot'>This is well illustrated, on the +one side, by the most repulsive representations +of Christ, by Michael +Angelo, in the great fresco in the +Sistine Chapel (so inferior to the +Christ of Orgagna, at Pisa, from +which it was partly imitated), and +in marble in the Minerva Church +at Rome; and, on the other side, +by the frescoes of Perugino, at +Perugia, representing the great +sages of Paganism. The figure of +Cato, in the latter, almost approaches, +as well as I remember, +the type of St. John.</note> The position +that was gradually assigned to the Virgin as the female ideal +in the belief and the devotion of Christendom, was a consecration +or an expression of the new value that was attached +to the feminine virtues. +</p> + +<p> +The general superiority of women to men in the strength +of their religious emotions, and their natural attraction to a +religion which made personal attachment to its Founder its +central duty, and which imparted an unprecedented dignity +and afforded an unprecedented scope to their characteristic +virtues, account for the very conspicuous position that female +influence assumed in the great work of the conversion of the +Roman Empire. In no other important movement of thought +was it so powerful or so acknowledged. In the ages of +<pb n='364'/><anchor id='Pg364'/> +persecution female figures occupy many of the foremost +places in the ranks of martyrdom, and Pagan and Christian +writers alike attest the alacrity with which women flocked +to the Church, and the influence they exercised in its favour +over the male members of their families. The mothers of +St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, St. Gregory +Nazianzen, and Theodoret, had all a leading part in the +conversion of their sons. St. Helena, the mother of +Constantine, Flacilla, the wife of Theodosius the Great, St. +Pulcheria, the sister of Theodosius the Younger, and Placidia, +the mother of Valentinian III., were among the most +conspicuous defenders of the faith. In the heretical sects the +same zeal was manifested, and Arius, Priscillian, and +Montanus were all supported by troops of zealous female +devotees. In the career of asceticism women took a part +little if at all inferior to men, while in the organisation of +the great work of charity they were pre-eminent. For no +other field of active labour are women so admirably suited as +for this; and although we may trace from the earliest period, +in many creeds and ages, individual instances of their +influence in allaying the sufferings of the distressed,<note place='foot'>In that fine description of a +virtuous woman which is ascribed +to the mother of King Lemuel, we +read: <q>She stretcheth out her hand +to the poor; yea, she reacheth +forth her hands to the needy.</q> +(Proverbs xxxi. 20.) I have +already quoted from Xenophon +the beautiful description of the +Greek wife tending her sick slaves. +So, too, Euripides represents the +slaves of Alcestis gathering with +tears around the bed of their +dying mistress, who, even then, +found some kind word for each, +and, when she died, lamenting her +as their second mother. (Eurip. +<hi rend='italic'>Alcest.</hi>) In the servile war which +desolated Sicily at the time of the +Punic wars, we find a touching +trait of the same kind. The +revolt was provoked by the cruelties +of a rich man, named Damophilus, +and his wife, who were +massacred with circumstances of +great atrocity; but the slaves +preserved their daughter entirely +unharmed, for she had always +made it her business to console +them in their sorrow, and she had +won the love of all. (Diodor. Sic. +<hi rend='italic'>Frag.</hi> xxxiv.) So, too, Marcia, +the wife of Cato, used to suckle +her young slaves from her breast. +(Plut. <hi rend='italic'>Marc. Cato</hi>.) I may add +the well-known sentiment which +Virgil puts in the mouth of Dido: +<q>Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere +disco.</q> There are, doubtless, +many other touches of the +same kind in ancient literature, +some of which may occur to my +readers.</note> it may +<pb n='365'/><anchor id='Pg365'/> +be truly said that their instinct and genius of charity had +never before the dawn of Christianity obtained full scope for +action. Fabiola, Paula, Melania, and a host of other noble +ladies devoted their time and fortunes mainly to founding +and extending vast institutions of charity, some of them of a +kind before unknown in the world. The Empress Flacilla +was accustomed to tend with her own hands the sick in the +hospitals,<note place='foot'>Theodoret, v. 19.</note> and a readiness to discharge such offices was +deemed the first duty of a Christian wife.<note place='foot'>See the beautiful description +of the functions of a Christian +woman in the second book of Tertullian, +<hi rend='italic'>Ad Uxorem</hi>.</note> From age to age +the impulse thus communicated has been felt. There has +been no period, however corrupt, there has been no Church, +however superstitious, that has not been adorned by many +Christian women devoting their entire lives to assuaging the +sufferings of men; and the mission of charity thus instituted +has not been more efficacious in diminishing the sum of human +wretchedness, than in promoting the moral dignity of those by +whom it was conducted. +</p> + +<p> +Among the Collyridian heretics, women were admitted to +the priesthood. Among the orthodox, although this honour +was not bestowed upon them, they received a religious +consecration, and discharged some minor ecclesiastical functions +under the name of deaconesses.<note place='foot'>See, upon the deaconesses, +Bingham's <hi rend='italic'>Christian Antiquities</hi>, +book ii. ch. 22, and Ludlow's +<hi rend='italic'>Woman's Work in the Church</hi>. +The latter author argues elaborately +that the <q>widows</q> were not +the same as the deaconesses.</note> This order may be +traced to the Apostolic period.<note place='foot'>Phœbe (Rom. xvi. 1) is +described as a διάκονος.</note> It consisted of elderly +virgins, who were set apart by a formal ordination, and were +employed in assisting as catechists and attendants at the +baptism of women, in visiting the sick, ministering to martyrs +<pb n='366'/><anchor id='Pg366'/> +in prison, preserving order in the congregations, and accompanying +and presenting women who desired an interview +with the bishop. It would appear, from the evidence of +some councils, that abuses gradually crept into this institution, +and the deaconesses at last faded into simple nuns, but they +were still in existence in the East in the twelfth century. +Besides these, widows, when they had been but once married, +were treated with peculiar honour, and were made the +special recipients of the charity of the Church. Women +advanced in years, who, either from their single life or from +bereavement, have been left without any male protector in +the world, have always been peculiarly deserving of commiseration. +With less strength, and commonly with less +means, and less knowledge of the world than men, they are +liable to contract certain peculiarities of mind and manner to +which an excessive amount of ridicule has been attached, and +age in most cases furnishes them with very little to +compensate for the charms of which it has deprived them. +The weight and dignity of matured wisdom, which make +the old age of one sex so venerable, are more rarely found +in that of the other, and even physical beauty is more +frequently the characteristic of an old man than of an old +woman. The Church laboured steadily to cast a halo of +reverence around this period of woman's life, and its religious +exercises have done very much to console and to occupy it. +</p> + +<p> +In accordance with these ideas, the Christian legislators +contributed largely to improve the legal position of widows in +respect to property,<note place='foot'>A very able writer, who takes +on the whole an unfavourable +view of the influence of Christianity +on legislation, says: <q>The +provision for the widow was +attributable to the exertions of the +Church, which never relaxed its +solicitude for the interests of wives +surviving their husbands, winning, +perhaps, one of the most arduous +of its triumphs when, after exacting +for two or three centuries an +express promise from the husband +at marriage to endow his wife, +it at last succeeded in engrafting +the principle of dower on the +customary law of all Western +Europe.</q>—Maine's <hi rend='italic'>Ancient Law</hi>, p. +224.</note> and Justinian gave mothers the guardianship +<pb n='367'/><anchor id='Pg367'/> +of their children, destroying the Pagan rule that +guardianship could only be legally exercised by men.<note place='foot'>See Troplong, <hi rend='italic'>Influence du +Christianisme sur le Droit</hi>, pp. +308-310.</note> The +usual subservience of the sex to ecclesiastical influence, the +numerous instances of rich widows devoting their fortunes, +and mothers their sons, to the Church, had no +doubt some influence in securing the advocacy of the clergy; +but these measures had a manifest importance in elevating +the position of women who have had, in Christian lands, a +great, though not, I think, altogether a beneficial influence, +in the early education of their sons. +</p> + +<p> +Independently of all legal enactments, the simple change +of the ideal type by bringing specially feminine virtues into +the forefront was sufficient to elevate and ennoble the sex. +The commanding position of the mediæval abbesses, the great +number of female saints, and especially the reverence bestowed +upon the Virgin, had a similar effect. It is remarkable that +the Jews, who, of the three great nations of antiquity, +certainly produced in history and poetry the smallest number +of illustrious women, should have furnished the world with +its supreme female ideal, and it is also a striking illustration +of the qualities which prove most attractive in woman that +one of whom we know nothing except her gentleness and +her sorrow should have exercised a magnetic power upon +the world incomparably greater than was exercised by the +most majestic female patriots of Paganism. Whatever may +be thought of its theological propriety, there can be little +doubt that the Catholic reverence for the Virgin has done +much to elevate and purify the ideal of woman, and to soften +the manners of men. It has had an influence which the +worship of the Pagan goddesses could never possess, for these +had been almost destitute of moral beauty, and especially of +that kind of moral beauty which is peculiarly feminine. +<pb n='368'/><anchor id='Pg368'/> +It supplied in a great measure the redeeming and ennobling +element in that strange amalgam of religious, licentious, and +military feeling which was formed around women in the age +of chivalry, and which no succeeding change of habit or belief +has wholly destroyed. +</p> + +<p> +It can hardly, I think, be questioned that in the great +religious convulsions of the sixteenth century the feminine +type followed Catholicism, while Protestantism inclined more +to the masculine type. Catholicism alone retained the +Virgin worship, which at once reflected and sustained the +first. The skill with which it acts upon the emotions by +music, and painting, and solemn architecture, and imposing +pageantry, its tendency to appeal to the imagination rather +than to the reason, and to foster modes of feeling rather than +modes of thought, its assertion of absolute and infallible +certainty, above all, the manner in which it teaches its +votary to throw himself perpetually on authority, all tended +in the same direction. It is the part of a woman to lean, it +is the part of a man to stand. A religion which prescribes +to the distracted mind unreasoning faith in an infallible +Church, and to the troubled conscience an implicit trust in +an absolving priesthood, has ever had an especial attraction +to a feminine mind. A religion which recognises no authority +between man and his Creator, which asserts at once the +dignity and the duty of private judgment, and which, while +deepening immeasurably the sense of individual responsibility, +denudes religion of meretricious ornaments, and of most +æsthetic aids, is pre-eminently a religion of men. Puritanism +is the most masculine form that Christianity has yet assumed. +Its most illustrious teachers differed from the Catholic +saints as much in the moral type they displayed as in the +system of doctrines they held. Catholicism commonly softens, +while Protestantism strengthens, the character; but the softness +of the first often degenerates into weakness, and the strength +of the second into hardness. Sincerely Catholic nations are +<pb n='369'/><anchor id='Pg369'/> +distinguished for their reverence, for their habitual and vivid +perceptions of religious things, for the warmth of their +emotions, for a certain amiability of disposition, and a certain +natural courtesy and refinement of manner that are inexpressibly +winning. Sincerely Protestant nations are distinguished +for their love of truth, for their firm sense of duty, +for the strength and the dignity of their character. Loyalty +and humility, which are especially feminine, flourish chiefly +in the first; liberty and self-assertion in the second. The +first are most prone to superstition, and the second to +fanaticism. Protestantism, by purifying and dignifying +marriage, conferred a great benefit upon women; but it must +be owned that neither in its ideal type, nor in the general +tenor of its doctrines or devotions, is it as congenial to their +nature as the religion it superseded. +</p> + +<p> +Its complete suppression of the conventual system was +also, I think, very far from a benefit to women or to the +world. It would be impossible to conceive any institution +more needed than one which would furnish a shelter for the +many women who, from poverty, or domestic unhappiness, +or other causes, find themselves cast alone and unprotected +into the battle of life, which would secure them from the +temptations to gross vice, and from the extremities of suffering, +and would convert them into agents of active, organised, +and intelligent charity. Such an institution would be almost +free from the objections that may justly be urged against +monasteries, which withdraw strong men from manual labour, +and it would largely mitigate the difficulty of providing labour +and means of livelihood for single women, which is one of +the most pressing, in our own day one of the most appalling, +of social problems. Most unhappily for mankind, this noble +conception was from the first perverted. Institutions that +might have had an incalculable philanthropic value were +based upon the principle of asceticism, which makes the +sacrifice, not the promotion, of earthly happiness its aim, and +<pb n='370'/><anchor id='Pg370'/> +binding vows produced much misery and not a little vice. +The convent became the perpetual prison of the daughter +whom a father was disinclined to endow, or of young girls +who, under the impulse of a transient enthusiasm, or of a +transient sorrow, took a step which they never could retrace, +and useless penances and contemptible superstitions wasted +the energies that might have been most beneficially employed. +Still it is very doubtful whether, even in the most degraded +period, the convents did not prevent more misery than they +inflicted, and in the Sisters of Charity the religious orders of +Catholicism have produced one of the most perfect of all the +types of womanhood. There is, as I conceive, no fact in +modern history more deeply to be deplored than that the +Reformers, who in matters of doctrinal innovations were +often so timid, should have levelled to the dust, instead of +attempting to regenerate, the whole conventual system of +Catholicism. +</p> + +<p> +The course of these observations has led me to transgress +the limits assigned to this history. It has been, however, +my object through this entire work to exhibit not only the +nature but also the significance of the moral facts I have +recorded, by showing how they have affected the subsequent +changes of society. I will conclude this chapter, and this +work, by observing that of all the departments of ethics +the questions concerning the relations of the sexes and the +proper position of women are those upon the future of which +there rests the greatest uncertainty. History tells us that, +as civilisation advances, the charity of men becomes at once +warmer and more expansive, their habitual conduct both +more gentle and more temperate, and their love of truth +more sincere; but it also warns us that in periods of great +intellectual enlightenment, and of great social refinement, +the relations of the sexes have often been most anarchical. +It is impossible to deny that the form which these relations +at present assume has been very largely affected by special +<pb n='371'/><anchor id='Pg371'/> +religious teaching, which, for good or for ill, is rapidly +waning in the sphere of government, and also, that certain +recent revolutions in economical opinion and industrial +enterprise have a most profound bearing upon the subject. +The belief that a rapid increase of population is always +eminently beneficial, which was long accepted as an axiom +by both statesmen and moralists, and was made the basis of +a large part of the legislation of the first and of the decisions +of the second, has now been replaced by the directly opposite +doctrine, that the very highest interest of society is not to +stimulate but to restrain multiplication, diminishing the +number of marriages and of children. In consequence of +this belief, and of the many factitious wants that accompany +a luxurious civilisation, a very large and increasing proportion +of women are left to make their way in life without any +male protector, and the difficulties they have to encounter +through physical weakness have been most unnaturally and +most fearfully aggravated by laws and customs which, resting +on the old assumption that every woman should be a +wife, habitually deprive them of the pecuniary and educational +advantages of men, exclude them absolutely from very many +of the employments in which they might earn a subsistence, +encumber their course in others by a heartless ridicule or by +a steady disapprobation, and consign, in consequence, many +thousands to the most extreme and agonising poverty, and +perhaps a still larger number to the paths of vice. At the +same time a momentous revolution, the effects of which can +as yet be but imperfectly descried, has taken place in the +chief spheres of female industry that remain. The progress +of machinery has destroyed its domestic character. The +distaff has fallen from the hand. The needle is being rapidly +superseded, and the work which, from the days of Homer to +the present century, was accomplished in the centre of the +family, has been transferred to the crowded manufactory.<note place='foot'>The results of this change have been treated by Miss Parkes +in her truly admirable little book +called <hi rend='italic'>Essays on Woman's Work</hi>, +better than by any other writer +with whom I am acquainted.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='372'/><anchor id='Pg372'/> + +<p> +The probable consequences of these things are among the +most important questions that can occupy the moralist or +the philanthropist, but they do not fall within the province +of the historian. That the pursuits and education of women +will be considerably altered, that these alterations will bring +with them some modifications of the type of character, and +that the prevailing moral notions concerning the relations of +the sexes will be subjected in many quarters to a severe and +hostile criticism, may safely be predicted. Many wild +theories will doubtless be propounded. Some real ethical +changes may perhaps be effected, but these, if I mistake not, +can only be within definite and narrow limits. He who +will seriously reflect upon our clear perceptions of the +difference between purity and impurity, upon the laws that +govern our affections, and upon the interests of the children +who are born, may easily convince himself that in this, as in +all other spheres, there are certain eternal moral landmarks +which never can be removed. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='373'/><anchor id='Pg373'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Index.</head> + +<lg> +<l>Abortion, diversities of moral judgment respecting, i. 92.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History of the practice of, ii. <ref target='Pg020'>20</ref>, <ref target='Pg024'>24</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Abraham the Hermit, St., ii. <ref target='Pg110'>110</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Acacius, his ransom of Persian slaves, ii. <ref target='Pg072'>72</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Adultery, laws concerning, ii. <ref target='Pg313'>313</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Æschylus, his views of human nature, i. 196.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His violation of dramatic probabilities, 229</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Affections, the, all forms of self-love, according to some Utilitarians, i. 9.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Subjugation of the, to the reason, taught by the Stoics, &c., 177, 187.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Considered by the Stoics as a disease, 188.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Evil consequences of their suppression, 191</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Africa, sacrifices of children to Saturn in, ii. <ref target='Pg031'>31</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effect of the conquest of Genseric of, <ref target='Pg082'>82</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Agapæ, or love feasts, of the Christians, how regarded by the pagans, i. 415; ii. <ref target='Pg079'>79</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Excesses of the, and their suppression, <ref target='Pg150'>150</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Agnes, St., legend of, ii. <ref target='Pg319'>319</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Agricultural pursuits, history of the decline of, in Italy, i. 266.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Efforts to relieve the agriculturists, 267</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Albigenses, their slow suicides, ii. <ref target='Pg049'>49</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Alexander the Great: effect of his career on Greek cosmopolitanism, i. 229</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Alexandria, foundation of, i. 230.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effect of the increasing importance of, on Roman thought, 319.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Decian persecution at, 451.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Excesses of the Christian sects of, ii. <ref target='Pg196'>196</ref>, <ref target='Pg197'>197</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Alexis, St., his legend, ii. <ref target='Pg322'>322</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Alimentus, Cincius, his work written in Greek, i. 230</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Almsgiving, effects of indiscriminate, ii. <ref target='Pg090'>90</ref>, <ref target='Pg091'>91</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Amafanius, wrote the first Latin work on philosophy, i. 175, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Ambrose, St., his miraculous dream, i. 379.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His dissection of the pagan theory of the decline of the Roman empire, 409.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His ransom of Italians from the Goths, ii. <ref target='Pg072'>72</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His commendation of disobedience to parents, <ref target='Pg132'>132</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>American Indians, suicide of the, ii. <ref target='Pg054'>54</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Ammon, St., his refusal to wash himself, ii. <ref target='Pg110'>110</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Deserts his wife, <ref target='Pg322'>322</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Amour, William de St., his denunciation of the mendicant orders, ii. <ref target='Pg096'>96</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Amphitheatres, history and remains of Roman, i. 273</l> +</lg> + +<pb n='374'/><anchor id='Pg374'/> + +<lg> +<l>Anaxagoras, on the death of his son, i. 191.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On his true country, 201</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Anchorites. <hi rend='italic'>See</hi> <ref target='Index-Ascetics'>Ascetics</ref>; <ref target='Index-Monastic'>Monasticism</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Angelo, Michael, in what he failed, ii. <ref target='Pg363'>363</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Anglo-Saxon nations, their virtues and vices, i. 153</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Animals, lower, Egyptian worship of, i. 166, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Humanity to animals probably first advocated by Plutarch, 244.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Animals employed in the arena at Rome, 280.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Instances of kindness to, 288, 307.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legends of the connection of the saints and the animal world, ii. <ref target='Pg161'>161</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Pagan legends of the intelligence of animals, <ref target='Pg161'>161</ref>, <ref target='Pg162'>162</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legislative protection of them, <ref target='Pg162'>162</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Views as to the souls of animals, <ref target='Pg162'>162</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Moral duty of kindness to animals taught by pagans, <ref target='Pg166'>166</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legends in the lives of the saints in connection with animals, <ref target='Pg168'>168</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Progress in modern times of humanity to animals, <ref target='Pg172'>172</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Antigonus of Socho, his doctrine of virtue, i. 183, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Antioch, charities of, ii. <ref target='Pg080'>80</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its extreme vice and asceticism, <ref target='Pg153'>153</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Antisthenes, his scepticism, i. 162</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Antoninus, the philosopher, his prediction, i. 427</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Antoninus the Pious, his death, i. 207.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His leniency towards the Christians, 438, 439.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Forged letter of, 439, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His charity, ii. 77</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Antony, St., his flight into the desert, ii. <ref target='Pg103'>103</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His mode of life, <ref target='Pg110'>110</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His dislike to knowledge, <ref target='Pg115'>115</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legend of his visit to Paul the hermit, <ref target='Pg157'>157</ref>, <ref target='Pg158'>158</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Aphrodite, the celestial and earthly, i. 106</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Apollonius of Tyana, his conversation with an Egyptian priest respecting the Greek and Egyptian modes of worshipping the deity, i. 166, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Miracles attributed to him, 372.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His humanity to animals, ii. <ref target='Pg165'>165</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Apollonius, the merchant, his dispensary for monks, ii. <ref target='Pg081'>81</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Apuleius, his condemnation of suicide, i. 213.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His disquisition on the doctrine of dæmons, 323.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Practical form of his philosophy, 329.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Miracles attributed to him, 372.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His defence of tooth-powder, ii. <ref target='Pg148'>148</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Archytas of Tarentum, his speech on the evils of sensuality, i. 200, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Argos, story of the sons of the priestess of Juno at, i. 206</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Arians, their charges against the Catholics, i. 418, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Aristides, his gentleness, i. 228</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Aristotle, his admission of the practice of abortion, i. 92.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Emphasis with which he dwelt upon the utility of virtue, 124.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His patriotism, 200.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His condemnation of suicide, 212.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His opinions as to the duties of Greeks to barbarians, 229</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Arius, death of, ii. <ref target='Pg196'>196</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Arnobius, on the miracles of Christ, i. 375</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Arrian, his humanity to animals, ii. <ref target='Pg164'>164</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Arsenius, St., his penances, ii. <ref target='Pg107'>107</ref>, <ref target='Pg114'>114</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His anxiety to avoid distractions, 125, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<anchor id='Index-Ascetics'/> +<l>Ascetics, their estimate of the dreadful nature of sin, i. 113.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Decline of asceticism and evanescence of the moral notions of which it was the expression, 113.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condition of society to which it belongs, 130.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Decline of the ascetic and saintly qualities with civilisation, 130.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of the ascetic movement, ii. <ref target='Pg102'>102</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its rapid extension, <ref target='Pg103'>103-105</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Penances attributed to the saints of +<pb n='375'/><anchor id='Pg375'/> +the desert, <ref target='Pg107'>107-109</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Miseries and joys of the hermit life, <ref target='Pg113'>113</ref> <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Dislike of the monks to knowledge, <ref target='Pg115'>115</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their hallucinations, <ref target='Pg116'>116</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Relations of female devotees with the anchorites, <ref target='Pg120'>120</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Ways in which the ascetic life affected both the ideal type and realised condition of morals, <ref target='Pg122'>122</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Extreme animosity of the ascetics to everything pagan, <ref target='Pg136'>136</ref>, <ref target='Pg137'>137</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Decline of the civic virtues caused by asceticism, <ref target='Pg139'>139</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Moral effects of asceticism on self-sacrifice, <ref target='Pg154'>154</ref>, <ref target='Pg155'>155</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Moral beauty of some of the legends of the ascetics, <ref target='Pg156'>156</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legends of the connection between the saints and the animal world, <ref target='Pg161'>161</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Practical form of asceticism in the West, <ref target='Pg177'>177</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of asceticism on chastity, <ref target='Pg319'>319</ref>, <ref target='Pg320'>320</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On marriage, <ref target='Pg320'>320</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the estimate of women, <ref target='Pg337'>337</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Asella, story of her asceticism, ii. <ref target='Pg133'>133</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Asia Minor, destruction of the churches of, ii. <ref target='Pg014'>14</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Aspasia, the Athenian courtesan, ii. <ref target='Pg293'>293</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Asses, feast of, ii. <ref target='Pg173'>173</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Association, Hartley's doctrine of, i. 22.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Partly anticipated by Hutcheson and Gay, 23.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Illustrations of the system of association, 26-30.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The theory, how far selfish, 30.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The essential and characteristic feature of conscience wholly unaccounted for by the association of ideas, 66</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Astrology, belief in, rapidly gaining ground in the time of the elder Pliny, i. 171, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Atticus, his suicide, i. 215, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Augustine, St., on original sin, i. 209.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His belief in contemporary miracles, 378.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the decline of the Roman empire, 410.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His condemnation of virgin suicides, ii. <ref target='Pg047'>47</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Augustus, his solemn degradation of the statue of Neptune, i. 169.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His mode of discouraging celibacy, 232.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Miraculous stories related of him, 258.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His superstition, 376.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Advice of Mæcenas to him, 399.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His consideration for the religious customs of the Jews, 406</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Aulus Gellius, his account of the rhetoricians, i. 313.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Compared with Helvétius, 313</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Aurelius, Marcus, on a future state, i. 184.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On posthumous fame, 186.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Denied that all vices are the same, 192, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the sacred spirit dwelling in man, 198.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His submissive gratitude, 199.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His practical application of the precepts of the Stoics, 202.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His wavering views as to suicide, 213.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His charity to the human race, 241.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Mild and more religious spirit of his stoicism, 245.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His constant practice of self-examination, 249.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His life and character, 249-255.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Compared and contrasted with Plutarch, 253.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His discouragement of the games of the arena, 286.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His humanity, 308.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His disbelief of exorcism, 384.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His law against religious terrorism, 422.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His persecution of the Christians, 439, 440.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His benevolence, ii. <ref target='Pg077'>77</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His view of war, <ref target='Pg258'>258</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Austin, Mr., his view of the foundation of the moral law, i. 17, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His advocacy of the unselfish view of the love we ought to bear to God, 18, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Character of his <q>Lectures on Jurisprudence,</q> 22, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Avarice, association of ideas to the passion of, i. 25</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Avitus, St., legend of, ii. <ref target='Pg159'>159</ref></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='376'/><anchor id='Pg376'/> + +<lg> +<l>Babylas, St., miracles performed by his bones, i. 382, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His death, ii. <ref target='Pg009'>9</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bacchus, suppression of the rites of, at Rome, i. 401</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bacon, Lord, great movement of modern thought caused by, i. 125.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His objection to the Stoics' view of death, 202</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bacon, Roger, his life and works, ii. <ref target='Pg210'>210</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bain, Mr., on pleasure, i. 12, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His definition of conscience, 29, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Balbus, Cornelius, his elevation to the consulate, i. 232</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Baltus on the exorcists, i. 381, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Baptism, Augustinian doctrine of, i. 96</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Barbarians, causes of the conversion of the, i. 410</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Basil, St., his hospital, ii. <ref target='Pg080'>80</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His labours for monachism, <ref target='Pg106'>106</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bassus, Ventidius, his elevation to the consulate, i. 232</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bathilda, Queen, her charity, ii. <ref target='Pg245'>245</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bear-gardens in England, ii. <ref target='Pg175'>175</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Beauty, analogies between virtue and, i. 77.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their difference, 79.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Diversities existing in our judgments of virtue and beauty, 79.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of these diversities, 79.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Virtues to which we can, and to which we cannot, apply the term beautiful, 82, 83.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Pleasure derived from beauty compared with that from the grotesque, or eccentric, 85.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The prevailing cast of female beauty in the north, contrasted with the southern type, 144, 145, 152.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Admiration of the Greeks for beauty, ii. <ref target='Pg292'>292</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bees, regarded by the ancients as emblems or models of chastity, i. 108, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Beggars, causes of vast numbers of, ii. <ref target='Pg094'>94</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Old English laws for the suppression of mendicancy, <ref target='Pg096'>96</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Enactments against them in various parts of Europe, <ref target='Pg098'>98</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Benedict, St., his system, 183</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Benefices, military use of, ii. <ref target='Pg270'>270</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Benevolence; Hutcheson's theory that all virtue is resolved into benevolence, i. 4.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Discussions in England, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as to the existence of, 20.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Various views of the source from which it springs, 22.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Association of ideas producing the feeling of, 26.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Hartley on benevolence quoted, 27, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Impossibility of benevolence becoming a pleasure if practised only with a view to that end, 37.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Application to benevolence of the theory, that the moral unity of different ages is a unity not of standard but of tendency, 100.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influenced by our imaginations, 132, 133.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Imperfectly recognised by the Stoics, 188, 192</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bentham, Jeremy, on the motives of human actions, i. 8, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the pleasures and pains of piety quoted, 9, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On charity, 10, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On vice, 13, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the sanctions of morality, 19, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>, 21.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Throws benevolence as much as possible into the background, 21.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Makes no use of the doctrine of association, 25, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His definition of conscience, 29, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On interest and disinterestedness, 32, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the value and purity of a pleasure, 90, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Besarion, St., his penances, ii. <ref target='Pg108'>108</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Biography, relative importance of, among Christians and Pagans, i. 174</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Blandina, martyrdom of, i. 442</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Blesilla, story of her slow suicide, ii. <ref target='Pg048'>48</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Blondel, his denunciation of the forgeries of the Sibylline books, i. 377</l> +</lg> + +<pb n='377'/><anchor id='Pg377'/> + +<lg> +<l>Boadicea, her suicide, ii. <ref target='Pg053'>53</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bolingbroke's <q>Reflections on Exile,</q> i. 201, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bona Dea, story and worship of, i. 94, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Popularity of her worship among the Romans, 106, 386</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Boniface, St., his missionary labours, ii. <ref target='Pg247'>247</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bonnet, his philosophy, i. 71</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bossuet, on the nature of the love we should bear to God, i. 18, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Brephotrophia, in the early church, ii. <ref target='Pg032'>32</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Brotherhood, effect of Christianity in promoting, ii. <ref target='Pg061'>61</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Brown, on the motive for the practice of virtue, i. 8, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On theological Utilitarianism, 16, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Brunehaut, Queen, her crimes, approved of by the Pope, ii. <ref target='Pg236'>236</ref>, <ref target='Pg237'>237</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Her end, <ref target='Pg237'>237</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Brutus, his extortionate usury, i. 193, 194</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Buckle, Thomas, his remarks on morals, i. 74, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the difference between mental and physical pleasures, 90, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His views of the comparative influence of intellectual and moral agencies in civilisation, 103, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bull-baiting in England, ii. <ref target='Pg175'>175</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Bulgarians, their conversion to Christianity, ii. <ref target='Pg180'>180</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Butler, Bishop, maintains the reality of the existence of benevolence in our nature, i. 20, 21, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the pleasure derived from virtue, 32, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His analysis of moral judgments, 76.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His definition of conscience, 83</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Byzantine Empire, general sketch of the moral condition of the, ii. <ref target='Pg013'>13</ref>, <ref target='Pg014'>14</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Moral condition of the empire during the Christian period, 147</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cædmon, story of the origin of his <q>Creation of the World,</q> ii. <ref target='Pg204'>204</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cæsar, Julius, denies the immortality of the soul, i. 182.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His condemnation of suicide, 213.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His colonial policy, 233.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His multiplication of gladiatorial shows, 273</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Caligula, his intoxication with his imperial dignity, i. 259.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His superstitious fears, 367</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Calvinists: tendency of the Supralapsarian to deny the existence of a moral sense, i. 17, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Camma, conjugal fidelity of, ii. <ref target='Pg341'>341</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Capital punishment, aversion to, ii. <ref target='Pg039'>39</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Carlyle, Thomas, on self-sacrifice, i. 57, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The influence of conscience on the happiness of men, 62</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Carneades, his expulsion from Rome proposed by Cato, i. 399</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Carpocrates, licentiousness of the followers of, i. 417</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Carthage, effect of the destruction of, on the decadence of Rome, i. 169.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Decian persecution at, 452</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Carthaginians, the, amongst the most prominent of Latin writers, i. 235</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cassius, the tyrannicide, his suicide, i. 215</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Castellio, his exposure of the forgeries of the Sibylline books, i. 377</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Catacombs, the, i. 453, 455</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Catholicism, Roman, the system of education adopted by, contrasted with that of the English public schools, i. 114.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Conflict of the priests with political economists on the subject of early marriages, 114, 115.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The teaching of, on many points the extreme antithesis of that of the pagan philosophers, 208.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its view of death, +<pb n='378'/><anchor id='Pg378'/> +208, 210.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Little done by it for humanity to animals, ii. <ref target='Pg173'>173</ref>, <ref target='Pg177'>177</ref>, <ref target='Pg188'>188</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence on despotism, <ref target='Pg186'>186</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its total destruction of religious liberty, <ref target='Pg194'>194-199</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of the indifference to truth manifested in its literature, <ref target='Pg241'>241</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Protestantism contrasted with it, <ref target='Pg368'>368</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cato, his refusal to consult the oracles, i. 165, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His stoicism, 185.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His inhumanity to his slaves, 193.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His study of the <q>Phædon</q> the night he committed suicide, 212.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His opposition to Greek philosophy, 231.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His view of pre-nuptial chastity, ii. 314</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cattle plague, theological notions respecting the, i. 356</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Catullus, on the death of a sparrow, ii. <ref target='Pg165'>165</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cautinus, Bishop, his drunkenness, ii. <ref target='Pg236'>236</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Celibacy among the ancients, i. 106.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Catholic monastic system, 107.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>How discouraged by Augustus, 232.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Celibacy the primal virtue of the Christians of the fourth and fifth centuries, ii. <ref target='Pg122'>122</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effect of this upon moral teaching, <ref target='Pg122'>122</ref>, <ref target='Pg123'>123</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History of the celibacy of the clergy, <ref target='Pg328'>328</ref>, <ref target='Pg336'>336</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Celsus calls the Christians Sibyllists, i. 376.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And jugglers, 384</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Celts, Spanish, their worship of death, i. 206, 207.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of their passion for suicide, 207, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their lamentations on the birth of men, 207, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Censors, Roman, minute supervision of the, i. 168</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Character, influence of, on opinion, i. 172.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Governed in a great measure by national circumstances, 172</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Chariot races, passion for, at Constantinople, ii. <ref target='Pg037'>37</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Charity, a form of self-love, according to the Utilitarians, i. 9, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Impossibility of charity becoming a pleasure if practised only with a view to that end, 36.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Charity of the Stoics, 191.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Cicero's emphatic assertion of the duty, 240.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Exertions of the Christians in the cause of charity, ii. <ref target='Pg075'>75</ref>, <ref target='Pg079'>79</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Inadequate place given to this movement in history, <ref target='Pg084'>84</ref>, <ref target='Pg085'>85</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Christian charity, in what it consists, <ref target='Pg073'>73</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Laws of the Romans, <ref target='Pg073'>73</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Pagan examples of charity, <ref target='Pg078'>78</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Noble enthusiasm of the Christians in the cause of charity, <ref target='Pg078'>78</ref>, <ref target='Pg079'>79</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Charity enjoined as a matter of justice, <ref target='Pg081'>81</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Theological notions of charity, <ref target='Pg085'>85</ref>, <ref target='Pg090'>90</ref>, <ref target='Pg091'>91</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Evils of Catholic charity, <ref target='Pg093'>93-94</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legends respecting the virtue, <ref target='Pg245'>245</ref>, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Charlemagne, his law respecting Sunday, ii. <ref target='Pg245'>245</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Fascination exercised by him over the popular imagination, <ref target='Pg271'>271</ref>, <ref target='Pg272'>272</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His polygamy, <ref target='Pg343'>343</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Charles V., the Emperor, his law against beggars, ii. <ref target='Pg097'>97</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Charles Martel, his defeat of the Mohammedans, at Poictiers, ii. <ref target='Pg273'>273</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Charondas, law of, on second marriages, ii. <ref target='Pg325'>325</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Chastity, in Utilitarian systems, i. 12, 49.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Sketch of the history of, 103-107.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Catholic monastic system, 107.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Modern judgments of, ii. <ref target='Pg282'>282</ref>, <ref target='Pg283'>283</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Cato's views, <ref target='Pg314'>314</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Mystical views, <ref target='Pg315'>315</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Services of the ascetics in enforcing the duty of chastity, <ref target='Pg318'>318-320</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Children, charge of murdering infants, among the early Christians, i. 417.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Abortion, ii. <ref target='Pg020'>20-24</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Infanticide, <ref target='Pg024'>24</ref>, <ref target='Pg026'>26</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Exposed children, <ref target='Pg032'>32</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Institutions of the +<pb n='379'/><anchor id='Pg379'/> +Romans for the benefit of children, <ref target='Pg077'>77</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Chilon, his closing hours, i. 207</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cholera, theological notions respecting the, i. 356</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Christian and pagan virtues compared, i. 190</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Christianity; distinctions between the pagan and Christian conceptions of death, i. 208.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The importance of Christianity not recognised by pagan writers, 336.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of this, 338.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Examination of the theory which ascribes part of the teaching of the later pagan moralists to Christian influence, 340.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Theory which attributes the conversion of Rome to evidences of miracles, 346.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Opinion of the pagans about the credulity of the Christians, 347.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Incapacity of the Christians of the third century for judging historic miracles, 375.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And for judging prophecies, 376.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Contemporary miracles represented as existing among them, 377.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Christian miracles had probably little weight with the pagans, 385.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Progress of Christianity to what due, 386, 387.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Singular adaptation of it to the wants of the time, 387.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Heroism it inspired, 390.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Explanation of the conversion of the Roman Empire, 393.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Account of the persecutions of the Christians, 395.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reasons why the Christians were more persecuted than the Jews, 403, 406, 407.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The first cause of the persecution of the Christians, 406.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Charges of immorality brought against them, 414.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Due in a great measure to Jews and heretics, 416, 417.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The disturbance of domestic life caused by female conversions, 418.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Antipathy of the Romans to every system which employed religious terrorism, 421.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Christian intolerance of pagan worship, 423.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And of diversity of belief, 424-427.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History of the persecutions, 429.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Nero's, 429.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Domitian's, 431.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condition of the Christians under the Antonines, 434.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Become profoundly obnoxious to the people, 436.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Marcus Aurelius, 439, 440.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Introduction of Christianity into France, 442, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Attitude of the rulers towards it from M. Aurelius to Decius, 451, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condition of the Church on the eve of the Decian persecution, 448.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Gallus, 454.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Valerian, 454.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Gallienus, 455.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Erection of churches in the Empire, 457.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Persecutions of Diocletian and Galerius, 458.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>End of the persecutions, 463.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Massacre of Christians in Phrygia, 464.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Moral efficacy of the Christian sense of sin, ii. <ref target='Pg003'>3</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Dark views of human nature not common in the early Church, <ref target='Pg005'>5</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The penitential system, <ref target='Pg006'>6</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Empire Christianity attained in eliciting disinterested enthusiasm, <ref target='Pg008'>8</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Great purity of the early Christians, <ref target='Pg010'>10</ref>, <ref target='Pg011'>11</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The promise of the Church for many centuries falsified, <ref target='Pg012'>12</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The first consequence of Christianity a new sense of the sanctity of human life, <ref target='Pg017'>17</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence in the protection of infant life, <ref target='Pg020'>20-32</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>In the suppression of gladiatorial shows, <ref target='Pg034'>34</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its effect upon persecutions, <ref target='Pg040'>40</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The penal code not lightened by it, <ref target='Pg042'>42</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condemnation of suicide, <ref target='Pg043'>43</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Second consequence of Christianity Teaches universal brotherhood, <ref target='Pg061'>61</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Slavery, <ref target='Pg061'>61-66</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Ransom of captives, <ref target='Pg072'>72</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Charity, <ref target='Pg073'>73</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Exertions of the Christians in the cause of charity, <ref target='Pg075'>75</ref>, <ref target='Pg079'>79</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their exertions when the Empire was +<pb n='380'/><anchor id='Pg380'/> +subverted, <ref target='Pg081'>81</ref>, <ref target='Pg082'>82</ref>, <ref target='Pg088'>88</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Theological notions concerning insanity, <ref target='Pg085'>85-90</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Almsgiving, <ref target='Pg090'>90-92</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Beneficial effect of Christianity in supplying pure images to the imagination, <ref target='Pg099'>99</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Summary of the philanthropic achievements of Christianity, <ref target='Pg100'>100</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Ways in which the ascetic mode of life affected both the ideal type and realised condition of morals, <ref target='Pg122'>122</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History of the relations of Christianity to the civic virtues, <ref target='Pg140'>140</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Improvements effected by Christianity in the morals of the people, <ref target='Pg153'>153</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Attitude of Christianity to the barbarians, <ref target='Pg178'>178</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>How it achieved their conversion, <ref target='Pg179'>179-181</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Tendency of the barbarians to adulterate it, <ref target='Pg181'>181</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legends of the conflict between the old gods and the new faith, <ref target='Pg181'>181</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Fierce hatred of rival sects, and total destruction of religious liberty, <ref target='Pg194'>194</ref>, <ref target='Pg200'>200</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Polytheistic and idolatrous form of Christianity in mediæval times, <ref target='Pg229'>229</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The doctrine of purgatory, <ref target='Pg232'>232</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Benefits conferred by the monasteries, <ref target='Pg243'>243-245</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The observance of Sunday, <ref target='Pg245'>245</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of Christianity upon war, <ref target='Pg254'>254</ref>, <ref target='Pg259'>259</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Upon the consecration of secular rank, <ref target='Pg260'>260</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Upon the condition of women, <ref target='Pg316'>316</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Strong assertion of the equality of obligation in marriage, <ref target='Pg345'>345</ref>, <ref target='Pg346'>346</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Relation of Christianity to the female virtues, <ref target='Pg358'>358</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Chrysippus on the immortality of the soul, i. 183</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Chrysostom, St., his labours for monachism, ii. <ref target='Pg107'>107</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His treatment of his mother, <ref target='Pg132'>132</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cicero on the evidence of a Divine element within us, i. 56, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His definition of conscience, 83.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His conception of the Deity, 164.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His opinion of the popular beliefs, 165.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Instance of his love of truth, 176, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His desire for posthumous reputation, 185, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His declaration as to virtue concealing itself from the world, 185.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His belief in the immortality of the soul, 204.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His view of death, 205, 206.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His complacency on the approach of death, 207.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His conception of suicide, 213.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His maintenance of the doctrine of universal brotherhood, 240.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>How he regarded the games of the arena, 285.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His friendship with his freedman Tiro, 323.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His remarks on charity, ii. <ref target='Pg079'>79</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His rules respecting almsgiving, <ref target='Pg092'>92</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Circumcelliones, atrocities of the, ii. <ref target='Pg041'>41</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their custom of provoking martyrdom, <ref target='Pg049'>49</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Civic virtues, predominance accorded to, in ancient ethics, i. 200</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Civilisation, refining influence of, on taste, i. 79.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Pleasures of a civilised and semi-civilised society compared, 86.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Views of Mill and Buckle on the comparative influence of intellectual and moral agencies in, 102, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effect of education in diminishing cruelty, and producing charity, 134.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Moral enthusiasm appropriate to different stages of civilisation, 136.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Increase of veracity with civilisation, 137.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Each stage of civilisation specially appropriate to some virtue, 147</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Clarke, on moral judgments, i. 77</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Classical literature, preservation of, ii. <ref target='Pg199'>199</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Manner in which it was regarded by the Church, <ref target='Pg200'>200-204</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Claudius, his delight in gladiatorial shows, i. 280.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His decree as to slaves, 307</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Claver, Father, his remark on some persons who had delivered a +<pb n='381'/><anchor id='Pg381'/> +criminal into the hands of justice, i. 41, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cleanthes, his suicide, i. 212</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Clemency, Seneca's distinction between it and pity, i. 189</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Clement of Alexandria, on the two sources of all the wisdom of antiquity, i. 344.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the Sibylline books, 376.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On wigs, ii. <ref target='Pg149'>149</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Clemens, Flavius, put to death, i. 433</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cleombrotus, his suicide, i. 212, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Clergy, corruption of the, from the fourth century, ii. <ref target='Pg150'>150</ref>, <ref target='Pg237'>237</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Submission of the Eastern, but independence of the Western, clergy to the civil power, <ref target='Pg264'>264-268</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History of their celibacy, <ref target='Pg328'>328</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Climate, effects of, in stimulating or allaying the passions, i. 144</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Clotaire, his treatment of Queen Brunehaut, ii. <ref target='Pg237'>237</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Clotilda, her conversion of her husband, i. 410; ii. <ref target='Pg180'>180</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Clovis, his conversion, i. 410; ii. <ref target='Pg180'>180</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Gregory of Tours' account of his acts, <ref target='Pg240'>240</ref>, <ref target='Pg241'>241</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cock-fighting among the ancients and moderns, ii. <ref target='Pg164'>164</ref>, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>, <ref target='Pg175'>175</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cock-throwing, ii. <ref target='Pg164'>164</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>, <ref target='Pg175'>175</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Coemgenus, St., legend of, ii. <ref target='Pg111'>111</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Coleridge, S. T., his remarks on the practice of virtue as a pleasure, i. 28, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His admiration for Hartley, 28, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the binding ground of the belief of God and a hereafter, i. 55, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Colman, St., his animal companions, ii. <ref target='Pg170'>170</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His girdle, <ref target='Pg319'>319</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Colonies, Roman, the cosmopolitan spirit forwarded by the aggrandisement of the, i. 233</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Colosseum, the, i. 275.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Games at the dedication of the, 280</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Columbanus, St., his missionary labours, ii. <ref target='Pg246'>246</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Comedy, Roman, short period during which it flourished, i. 277</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Comet, a temple erected by the Romans in honour of a, i. 367</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Commodus, his treatment of the Christians, i. 443</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Compassion, theory that it is the cause of our acts of barbarity, i. 71, 72</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Concubines, Roman, ii. <ref target='Pg350'>350</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Concupiscence, doctrine of the Fathers respecting, ii. <ref target='Pg281'>281</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Condillac, cause of the attractiveness of utilitarianism to, i. 71.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Connection with Locke, i. 122, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Confessors, power of the, in the early Church, i. 390, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Congo, Helvétius, on a custom of the people of, i. 102, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Conquerors, causes of the admiration of, i. 94, 95</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Conscience, association of ideas generating, i. 28.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Recognised by the disciples of Hartley, 29.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Definitions of Hobbes, Locke, Bentham, and Bain, 29, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The rewards and punishments of conscience, 60-62.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Unique position of, in our nature, 83.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>As defined by Cicero, the Stoics, St. Paul, and Butler, 83</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Consequences, remote, weakness of the utilitarian doctrine of, i. 42-44</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l><q>Consolations,</q> literature of, leading topics of, i. 204</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Constantine, the Emperor, his foundation of the empire of the East, ii. <ref target='Pg012'>12</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His humane policy towards children, <ref target='Pg029'>29</ref>, <ref target='Pg030'>30</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His sanction of the gladiatorial shows, <ref target='Pg035'>35</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His laws mitigating the severity of punishments, <ref target='Pg042'>42</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His treatment of slaves, <ref target='Pg064'>64</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His law +<pb n='382'/><anchor id='Pg382'/> +respecting Sunday, <ref target='Pg244'>244</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Magnificence of his court at Constantinople, <ref target='Pg265'>265</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Conventual system, effect of the suppression of the, on women, ii. <ref target='Pg369'>369</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cordeilla, or Cordelia, her suicide, ii. <ref target='Pg053'>53</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Corinth, effect of the conquest of, on the decadence of Rome, i. 169</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cornelia, a vestal virgin, incident of her execution, ii. <ref target='Pg318'>318</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cornelius, the bishop, martyrdom of, i. 454</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cornutus, his disbelief in a future state, i. 183</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Corporations, moral qualities of, i. 152</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Councils of the Church, character of the, ii. <ref target='Pg197'>197</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Courtesans, Greek, ii. <ref target='Pg287'>287</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of their elevation, <ref target='Pg291'>291-294</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>How regarded by the Romans, <ref target='Pg300'>300</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cousin, Victor, his criticism of the Scotch moralists, i. 74, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His objection against Locke, 75, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Crantor, originates the literature of <q>Consolations,</q> i. 204</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cremutius Cordus, trial of, i. 448, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Crime, value attached by the monks to pecuniary compensations for, ii. <ref target='Pg213'>213</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Catalogue of crimes of the seventh century, <ref target='Pg237'>237-239</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Criminals, causes of our indulgent judgment of, i. 135</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Critical spirit, the, destroyed by Neoplatonism, i. 330</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cromaziano, his history of suicide, i. 216, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cruelty, origin and varieties of, i. 132, 134.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Cruelty to animals, utilitarian doctrine concerning, 46, 47</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Crusius, his adherence to the opinion of Ockham as to the foundation of the moral law, i. 17, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cudworth, his analysis of moral judgments, i. 76</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Culagium, a tax levied on the clergy, ii. <ref target='Pg330'>330</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cumberland, Bishop, his unselfish view of virtue, i. 19, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cynics, account of the later, i. 309</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cyprian, St., his evasion of persecution by flight, i. 452.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His exile and martyrdom, 455</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Cyzicus deprived of its freedom, i. 259</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Dæmons, Apuleius' disquisition on the doctrine of, i. 323.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The doctrine supersedes the Stoical naturalism, i. 331.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The dæmons of the Greeks and Romans, 380.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And of the Christians, 382</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Dale, Van, his denial of the supernatural character of the oracles, i. 374</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Dead, Roman worship of the, i. 168</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Death, calmness with which some men of dull and animal natures can meet, i. 89.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Frame of mind in which a man should approach death, according to Epictetus, 195.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Preparation for death one of the chief ends of the philosophy of the ancients, 202.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Bacon's objection to the Stoics' view of, 202.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Irish legend of the islands of life and death, 203.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The literature of <q>Consolations,</q> 204.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Death not regarded by the philosophers as penal, 205.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Popular terrors of death, 205, 206.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Instances of tranquil pagan deaths, 207.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Distinctions between the pagan and Christian conceptions of death, 208</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Decius, persecution of the Christians under, i. 449, 450</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Defoe, Daniel, his tract against beggars, ii. <ref target='Pg098'>98</ref>, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Delphi, oracle of, its description of the best religion, i. 167</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Deogratias, his ransom of prisoners, ii. <ref target='Pg072'>72</ref></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='383'/><anchor id='Pg383'/> + +<lg> +<l>Despotism, Helvétius' remarks on the moral effects of, i. 129, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Diagoras, his denial of the existence of the gods, i. 162</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Diodorus, the philosopher, his suicide, i. 215</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Dion Chrysostom, his denunciation of images of the Deity, i. 166, 167, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His life and works, 312</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Dionysius of Halicarnassus, on the creed of the Romans, i. 167</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Disinterestedness, Bentham's remarks on, quoted, i. 32, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Disposition, what constitutes, according to the theory of association, i. 30</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Divination, a favourite subject of Roman ridicule, i. 166.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Belief of the ancients in, 363</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Divorce, unbounded liberty of, among the Romans, ii. <ref target='Pg306'>306-308</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condemned by the Church, <ref target='Pg350'>350</ref>, <ref target='Pg351'>351</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Docetæ, their tenets, ii. <ref target='Pg102'>102</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Dog-star, legend of the, ii. <ref target='Pg162'>162</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Dolphin, legends of the, ii. <ref target='Pg162'>162</ref>, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Domestic laws, Roman, changes in, i. 297, 298</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Domestic virtues, destruction of the, by the ascetics, ii. <ref target='Pg125'>125</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Domitian, his law respecting suicide, i. 219.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Anecdote of his cruelty, 289.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His law as to slaves, 307.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His persecution of the Stoics and Christians, 431, 432</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Domitilla, banishment of, i. 433</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Domnina, her suicide with her daughters, ii. <ref target='Pg046'>46</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Donatists, their intolerance, ii. <ref target='Pg195'>195</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Dowry of women, rise of the, ii. <ref target='Pg277'>277</ref> and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Dreams, opinions of the Romans concerning, i. 366, 367, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Dumont, M., on vengeance quoted, i. 41, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Duty, theory of morals must explain what is, and the notion of there being such a thing as, i. 5.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Paley on the difference between it and prudence, 15, 16, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Distinction between natural duties and those resting on positive law, 93.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Duty a distinct motive, 180</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Dwarfs, combats of, in the arena, i. 281</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Earthquakes, how regarded by the ancients, i. 369.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Cause of persecutions of the Christians, 408</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Easter controversy, bitterness of the, ii. <ref target='Pg198'>198</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Eclectic school of philosophy, rise of the, i. 242.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its influence on the Stoics, 245</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Eclipses, opinions of the ancients concerning, i. 366</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Education, importance ascribed to, by the theory of the association of ideas, i. 30.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Contrast between that adopted by the Catholic priesthood and that of the English public schools, 114.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its influence on the benevolent feelings, 133, 134.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Two distinct theories of, 187</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Egypt, the cradle of monachism, ii. <ref target='Pg105'>105</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Mohammedan conquest of, <ref target='Pg143'>143</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Triumphs of the Catholics in, <ref target='Pg196'>196</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Egyptians, their reverence for the vulture, i. 108, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their kindness to animals, 289.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Contrast of the spirit of their religion with that of the Greeks, 324.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Difference between the Stoical and Egyptian pantheism, 325</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Elephants, legends of, ii. <ref target='Pg161'>161</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Emperors, Roman, apotheosis of, i. 170, 257</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Endura, the Albigensian practice of, ii. <ref target='Pg049'>49</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>England, national virtues and vices +<pb n='384'/><anchor id='Pg384'/> +of, i. 153.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Ancient amusements of, ii. <ref target='Pg174'>174</ref>, <ref target='Pg175'>175</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Ephrem, St., his charity, ii. <ref target='Pg081'>81</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Epictetus, his disbelief in a future state, i. 183.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His life and works, 184, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the frame of mind in which a man should approach death, 195.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His views of the natural virtue of man, 198.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On suicide, 214, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>, 220.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On universal brotherhood, 254.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His stoicism tempered by a milder and more religious spirit, 245, 246.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His remarks on national religious beliefs, 405</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Epicureans, their faith preserved unchanged at Athens, i. 128, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their scepticism, 162.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Roman Epicureans, 162, 163.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Epicureanism the expression of a type of character different from Stoicism, 171, 172.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>But never became a school of virtue in Rome, 175.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Destructive nature of its functions, 176.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Esteemed pleasure as the ultimate end of our actions, 186.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Encouraged physical science, 193.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their doctrine as to suicide, 214, 215, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Epicurus, the four canons of, i. 14.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Vast place occupied by his system in the moral history of man, 171.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His character, 175, 176, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Lucretius' praise of him, 197.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His view of death, 205.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Discovery of one of his treatises at Herculaneum, 205, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Epidemics, theological notions respecting, i. 356</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Epiphanius, St., his miraculous stories, i. 378.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His charges against the Gnostics, 417.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legend of him and St. Hilarius, ii. 159</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Epponina, story of her conjugal fidelity, ii. <ref target='Pg342'>342</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Error, the notion of the guilt of, ii. <ref target='Pg190'>190-193</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Essenes, virginity their ideal of sanctity, i. 109, ii. <ref target='Pg102'>102</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Euhemerus, his explanation of the legends, i. 163</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Euphrates the Stoic, his answer to Pliny the Younger, i. 202.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Has permission from Hadrian to commit suicide, 218, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Euphraxia, St., ii. <ref target='Pg110'>110</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Euripides, beauty of the gentler virtues inculcated in the plays of, i. 228</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Eusebius, on the allegorical and mythical interpretations of paganism, i. 163, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His account of the Christian persecutions, i. 463</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Eusebius, St., his penances, ii. <ref target='Pg108'>108</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Eustathius, condemnation of, by the council of Gangra, ii. <ref target='Pg131'>131</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Evagrius, his inhumanity to his parents, ii. <ref target='Pg125'>125</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Evil, views of Hobbes and the Utilitarians of the essence and origin of, i. 8-10</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Excellence, supreme, how far it is conducive to happiness, i. 56</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Excommunication, penalties of, ii. 7</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Executioners, always regarded as unholy, i. 41</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Exorcism, among the early Christians, i. 378, 380.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Origin of the notions of possession and exorcism, 380.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Jews the principal exorcists, 380.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Belief of the early Christians in, 382.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Contempt of the pagans for it, 384.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Ulpian's law against exorcists, 384.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Probable explanation of possession and exorcism, 385.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Speedy decline of exorcism, 385.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The practice probably had no appreciable influence in provoking persecution of the Christians, 420</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Experience, general statement of the doctrine which bases morals upon, i. 5</l> +</lg> + +<pb n='385'/><anchor id='Pg385'/> + +<lg> +<l>Fabianus, martyrdom of, i. 446</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Fabiola, founded the first public hospital, ii. <ref target='Pg080'>80</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Fabius, his self-sacrifice, i. 185</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Fabius Pictor, his works written in Greek, i. 230</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Faculty, moral, the term, i. 75</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Fairies, belief in, i. 348, 349</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Fatalism, Æschylus the poet of, i. 196</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Felicitas, St., her martyrdom, i. 444.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>In prison, ii. 9</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Fénelon, on the unselfish love we should bear to God, i. 18, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Fetishism, latent, the root of a great part of our opinions, i. 350</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Fidenæ, accident at the amphitheatre at, i. 275</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Fights, sham, in Italy in the middle ages, ii. <ref target='Pg037'>37</ref>, <ref target='Pg038'>38</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Fire, regarded by the ancients as an emblem of virginity, i. 108, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Fish, symbol of the early Christians, i. 376</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Flamens of Jupiter, ii. <ref target='Pg298'>298</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Flora, games of, i. 276</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Forethought, brought into a new position by industrial habits, i. 140</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Foundlings, hospitals for, ii. <ref target='Pg023'>23</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>, <ref target='Pg032'>32</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>In ancient times, <ref target='Pg028'>28</ref>, <ref target='Pg029'>29</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Adversaries of, <ref target='Pg098'>98</ref>, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>France, condition of, under the Merovingian kings, ii. <ref target='Pg236'>236</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Francis of Assisi, St., story of his death from asceticism, ii. <ref target='Pg049'>49</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His kindness to animals, <ref target='Pg172'>172</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Franks, cause of their conversion, i. 410</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Frédégonde, Queen, her crimes, ii. <ref target='Pg236'>236</ref>, <ref target='Pg237'>237</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Freedmen, influence of, at Rome, i. 233.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condition of the freedmen of the Romans, 236</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Frenchmen, the chief national virtues and causes of their influence in Europe, i. 152.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Compared with Anglo-Saxon nations, 153</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Friendship, Utilitarian view of, i. 10</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Galerius, his persecution of the Christians, i. 458, 461.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His illness, 462.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Relents towards the Christians, 462</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Galilæans, their indifference to death, i. 392, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gall, St., legend of, ii. <ref target='Pg182'>182</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His missionary labours, <ref target='Pg247'>247</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gallienus, proclaims toleration to the Christians, i. 455, 457</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gallus, the Emperor, persecutions of the Christians under, i. 454</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gambling-table, moral influence of the, i. 148</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gaul, introduction of Christianity into, i. 442.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Foundation of the monastic system in, ii. <ref target='Pg106'>106</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Long continuance of polygamy among the kings of, <ref target='Pg343'>343</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gay, his view of the origin of human actions, quoted, i. 8, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His suggestion of the theory of association, 23, 24</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Genseric, effect of his conquest of Africa upon Italy, ii. <ref target='Pg082'>82</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His capture of Rome, <ref target='Pg083'>83</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>George of Cappadocia, his barbarity, ii. <ref target='Pg195'>195</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Germanicus, the Emperor, fury of the populace with the gods, in consequence of the death of, i. 169</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Germanus, St., his charity, ii. <ref target='Pg245'>245</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Germany, conversion of, to Christianity, ii. <ref target='Pg246'>246</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Marriage customs of the early Germans, <ref target='Pg278'>278</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their chastity, <ref target='Pg340'>340</ref>, <ref target='Pg341'>341</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gervasius, St., recovery of his remains, i. 379.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Girdles of chastity, ii. <ref target='Pg319'>319</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gladiatorial shows, influence of Christianity on the suppression of, i. 34.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reasons why the Romans saw nothing criminal in them, 101.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History and effect on the Romans of, 271-283.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>How regarded by moralists and historians, 284.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The passion for them not inconsistent +<pb n='386'/><anchor id='Pg386'/> +with humanity in other spheres, 288.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gnostics, accusations against the, by the early Fathers, i. 417.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their tenets, ii. 102</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>God, the Utilitarian view of the goodness of, i. 9, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Question of the disinterestedness of the love we should bear to, 18.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Our knowledge of Him derived from our own moral nature, 55.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Early traces of an all-pervading soul of nature in Greece, 161, 162, 170.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Philosophic definitions of the Deity, 162, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Pantheistic conception of, by the Stoics and Platonists, 163.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Recognition of Providence by the Roman moralists, 196.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Two aspects under which the Stoics worshipped the Divinity—providence and moral goodness, 198</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gods, the, of the ancients, i. 161, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Euhemerus' theory of the explanation of the prevailing legends of the gods, 163.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Views of Cicero of the popular beliefs, 165.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Opinions of the Stoics, of Ovid, and of Horace, 166.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Nature of the gods of the Romans, 167.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Decline of Roman reverence for the gods, 168, 169</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Good, pleasure equivalent to, according to the Utilitarians, i. 8, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>, 9</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gracchi, colonial policy of the, i. 233</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Grazers, sect of, ii. <ref target='Pg109'>109</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Greeks, ancient, their callous murder of children, i. 45, 46.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Low state of female morality among them.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their enforcement of monogamy, 104.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Celibacy of some of their priests and priestesses, 105.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Early traces of a religion of nature, 161.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Universal providence attributed to Zeus, 161.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Scepticism of the philosophers, 161, 162.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Importance of biography in the moral teaching of the, i. 74.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Difference between the teaching of the Roman moralists and the Greek poets, 195.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On death, and future punishment, 205, 206.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Greek suicides, 212.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Gentleness and humanity of the Greek character, 227.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence on Roman character, 227, 228.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Greek spirit at first as far removed from cosmopolitanism as that of Rome, 228.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of Greek cosmopolitanism, 229.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Extent of Greek influence at Rome, 230.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Gladiatorial shows among them, 276.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Spirit of their religion contrasted with that of the Egyptians, 324.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their intolerance of foreign religions, 406.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condition and fall of their empire of the East, ii. <ref target='Pg012'>12-14</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their practice of infanticide, <ref target='Pg025'>25-27</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their treatment of animals, <ref target='Pg164'>164</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their treatment of prisoners taken in war, <ref target='Pg257'>257</ref>, <ref target='Pg258'>258</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their marriage customs, <ref target='Pg277'>277</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Women in the poetic age, <ref target='Pg278'>278</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Peculiarity of Greek feelings on the position of women, <ref target='Pg280'>280</ref>, <ref target='Pg281'>281</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Unnatural forms assumed by vice amongst them, <ref target='Pg294'>294</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gregory the Great, his contempt for Pagan literature, ii. <ref target='Pg201'>201</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His attitude towards Phocas, <ref target='Pg264'>264</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gregory of Nyssa, St., his eulogy of virginity, ii. <ref target='Pg322'>322</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gregory of Tours, manner in which he regarded events, ii. <ref target='Pg240'>240-242</ref>, <ref target='Pg261'>261</ref>, <ref target='Pg277'>277</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Grotesque, or eccentric, pleasure derived from the, compared with that from beauty, i. 85</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gundebald, his murders approved of by his bishop, ii. <ref target='Pg237'>237</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Gunpowder, importance of the invention of, i. 126</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Guy, Brother, his society for protection and education of children, ii. <ref target='Pg033'>33</ref>, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='387'/><anchor id='Pg387'/> + +<lg> +<l>Hadrian, the Emperor, his view of suicide, i. 219.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Gives Euphrates permission to destroy himself, 218, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His laws respecting slaves, 307.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His leniency towards Christianity, 438.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His benevolence, ii. <ref target='Pg077'>77</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hair, false, opinions of the Fathers on, ii. <ref target='Pg149'>149</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hall, Robert, on theological Utilitarianism, i. 15 <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l><q>Happiness, the greatest, for the greatest number,</q> theory of the, i. 3.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The sole end of human actions, according to the Utilitarians, 8, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The best man seldom the happiest, 69.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Mental compared with physical happiness, 87.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of health and temperament on happiness, 88, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hartley, his doctrine of association, i. 22.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Coleridge's admiration for him, 28, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On animal food, 48, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His attempt to evade the conclusion to which his view leads, quoted, 67, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His definition of conscience, 82</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hegesias, the orator of death, i. 215</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Heliogabalus, his blasphemous orgies, i. 260</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hell, monkish visions of, ii. <ref target='Pg221'>221</ref> and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Glimpses of the infernal regions furnished by the <q>Dialogues</q> of St. Gregory, <ref target='Pg221'>221</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Modern publications on this subject, <ref target='Pg223'>223</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Helvétius, on the origin of human actions, i. 8, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On customs of the people of Congo and Siam, 102, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Compared with Aulus Gellius, 313</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Herbert, of Cherbury, Lord, his profession of the doctrine of innate ideas, i. 123</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hercules, meaning of, according to the Stoics, i. 163</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hereford, Nicholas of, his opposition to indiscriminate alms, ii. <ref target='Pg096'>96</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Heresy, punishment of death for, i. 98; ii. <ref target='Pg040'>40</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hermits. <hi rend='italic'>See</hi> <ref target='Index-Ascetics'>Asceticism</ref>; <ref target='Index-Monastic'>Monasticism</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Heroism, the Utilitarian theory unfavourable to, i. 66.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>War, the school of heroism, 173</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hilarius, St., legend of him and St. Epiphanius, ii. <ref target='Pg159'>159</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hildebrand, his destruction of priestly marriage, ii. <ref target='Pg322'>322</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hippopotamus, legend of the, ii. <ref target='Pg161'>161</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Historical literature, scantiness of, after the fall of the Roman empire, ii. <ref target='Pg235'>235</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hobbes, Thomas, his opinions concerning the essence and origin of virtue, i. 7, 8, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His view of the origin of human actions, quoted, 8, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His remarks on the goodness which we apprehend in God, quoted, 9, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And on reverence, 9, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On charity, 9, 10, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On pity, 10, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Review of the system of morals of his school, 11.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Gives the first great impulse to moral philosophy in England, 19, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His denial of the reality of pure benevolence, 20, 21.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His definition of conscience, 29, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His theory of compassion, 72, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Holidays, importance of, to the servile classes, ii. <ref target='Pg244'>244</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Homer, his views of human nature and man's will, i. 196</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Horace, his ridicule of idols, i. 166.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His description of the just man, 197</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hospitality enjoined by the Romans, ii. <ref target='Pg079'>79</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hospitals, foundation of the first, ii. <ref target='Pg080'>80</ref>, <ref target='Pg081'>81</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Human life, its sanctity recognised by Christianity, ii. <ref target='Pg018'>18</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Gradual acquirement of this sense, <ref target='Pg018'>18</ref></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='388'/><anchor id='Pg388'/> + +<lg> +<l>Human nature, false estimate of, by the Stoics, i. 192</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hume, David, his theory of virtue, i. 4.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Misrepresented by many writers, 4.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His recognition of the reality of benevolence in our nature, 20, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His comment on French licentiousness in the eighteenth century, 50, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His analysis of the moral judgments, 76.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Lays the foundation for a union of the schools of Clarke and Shaftesbury, 77</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Humility, new value placed upon it by monachism, ii. <ref target='Pg185'>185</ref>, <ref target='Pg187'>187</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hutcheson, Francis, his doctrine of a <q>moral sense,</q> i. 4.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Establishes the reality of the existence of benevolence in our nature, 20.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His analysis of moral judgments, 76</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Hypatia, murder of, ii. <ref target='Pg196'>196</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Iamblichus, his philosophy, i. 330</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Ideas, confused association of. Question whether our, are derived exclusively from sensation or whether they spring in part from the mind itself, 122.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The latter theory represented by the Platonic doctrine of pre-existence, 122.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Doctrine of innate ideas, 122</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Idols and idolatry, views of the Roman philosophers of, i. 166.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Discussion between Apollonius of Tyana and an Egyptian priest respecting, 166, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Idols forbidden by Numa, 166, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Plutarch on the vanity of, 166, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Ignatius, St., his martyrdom, i. 438</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Ignis fatuus, legend of the, ii. <ref target='Pg224'>224</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Imagination, sins of, i. 44.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Relation of the benevolent feelings to it, 132, 133.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Deficiency of imagination the cause of the great majority of uncharitable judgments, 134-136.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Feebleness of the imagination a source of legends and myths, 347.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Beneficial effects of Christianity in supplying pure images to the imagination, 299</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Imperial system of the Romans, its effect on their morals, i. 257.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Apotheosis of the emperors, 257</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>India, ancient, admiration for the schools of, i. 229</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Inductive, ambiguity of the term, as applied to morals, i. 73</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Industrial truth, characteristics of, i. 137.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of the promotion of industrial life upon morals, 139-140</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Infanticide, history of the practice of, ii. <ref target='Pg024'>24</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Efforts of the Church to suppress it, <ref target='Pg029'>29</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Roman laws relating to, <ref target='Pg031'>31</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of, in England, <ref target='Pg285'>285</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Infants, Augustinian doctrine of the damnation of unbaptised, i. 96.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Sacrament given to, in the early Church, ii. <ref target='Pg006'>6</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Insanity, alleged increase of, ii. <ref target='Pg060'>60</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Theological notions concerning, <ref target='Pg086'>86</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The first lunatic asylums, <ref target='Pg088'>88</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Insurance societies among the poor of Greece and Rome, ii. <ref target='Pg078'>78</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Intellectual progress, its relations to moral progress, i. 149-151</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Interest, self-, human actions governed exclusively by, according to the Utilitarians, i. 7, 8, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Summary of the relations of virtue and public and private, 117</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Intuition, rival claims of, and utility to be regarded as the supreme regulator of moral distinctions, i. 1, 2.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Various names by which the theory of intuition is known, 2, 3.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Views of the moralists of the school of, 3.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Summary of their objections to the Utilitarian theory, i. 69.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The intuitive school, 74, 75.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Doctrines of Butler, Adam +<pb n='389'/><anchor id='Pg389'/> +Smith, and others, 76-77.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Analogies of beauty and virtue, 77.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Distinction between the higher and lower parts of our nature, 83.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Moral judgments, and their alleged diversities, 91.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>General moral principles alone revealed by intuition, 99.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Intuitive morals not unprogressive, 102, 103.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Difficulty of both the intuitive and utilitarian schools in finding a fixed frontier line between the lawful and the illicit, 116, 117.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The intuitive and utilitarian schools each related to the general condition of society, 122.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their relations to metaphysical schools, 123, 124.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And to the Baconian philosophy, 125.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Contrasts between ancient and modern civilisations, 126, 127.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Practical consequences of the opposition between the two schools, 127</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Inventions, the causes which accelerate the progress of society in modern times, i. 126</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Ireland, why handed over by the Pope to England, ii. <ref target='Pg217'>217</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Irenæus, his belief that all Christians had the power of working miracles, i. 378</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Irish, characteristics of the, i. 138.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their early marriages and national improvidences, 146.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Absence of moral scandals among the priesthood, 146.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their legend of the islands of life and death, 203.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their missionary labours, ii. <ref target='Pg246'>246</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their perpendicular burials, <ref target='Pg253'>253</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Isidore, St., legend of, ii. <ref target='Pg205'>205</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Isis, worship of, at Rome, i. 387.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Suppression of the worship, 402</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Italians, characteristics of the, i. 138, 144</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Italy, gigantic development of mendicancy in, ii. <ref target='Pg098'>98</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Introduction of monachism into, <ref target='Pg106'>106</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>James, the Apostle, Eusebius' account of him, ii. <ref target='Pg105'>105</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>James, St., of Venice, his kindness to animals, ii. <ref target='Pg172'>172</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Jenyns, Soame, his adherence to the opinion of Ockham, i. 17, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Jerome, St., on exorcism, i. 382.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the clean and unclean animals in the ark, ii. <ref target='Pg104'>104</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legend of, <ref target='Pg115'>115</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Encouraged inhumanity of ascetics to their relations, <ref target='Pg134'>134</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His legend of SS. Paul and Antony, <ref target='Pg158'>158</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Jews, their law regulating marriage and permitting polygamy, i. 103.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their treatment of suicides, 218, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of their manners and creed at Rome, 235, 337.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Became the principal exorcists, 380, 381, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Spread of their creed in Rome, 386.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reasons why they were persecuted less than the Christians, 402, 407.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>How regarded by the pagans, and how the Christians were regarded by the Jews, 415.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Charges of immorality brought against the Christians by the Jews, 417.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Domitian's taxation of them, 432.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their views of the position of women, ii. <ref target='Pg337'>337</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Joffre, Juan Gilaberto, his foundation of a lunatic asylum in Valencia, ii. <ref target='Pg089'>89</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>John, St., at Patmos, i. 433</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>John, St., of Calama, story of, ii. <ref target='Pg128'>128</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>John XXIII., Pope, his crimes, ii. <ref target='Pg331'>331</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Johnson, Dr., his adherence to the opinion of Ockham, i. 17, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Julian, the Emperor, his tranquil death, i. 207, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Refuses the language of adulation, 259.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His attempt to resuscitate paganism, 331.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Attitude of the Church towards him, ii. <ref target='Pg261'>261</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Joy at his death, <ref target='Pg262'>262</ref></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='390'/><anchor id='Pg390'/> + +<lg> +<l>Julien l'Hospitalier, St., legend of, ii. <ref target='Pg084'>84</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Jupiter Ammon, fountain of, deemed miraculous, i. 366, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Justinian, his laws respecting slavery, ii. <ref target='Pg065'>65</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Justin Martyr, his recognition of the excellence of many parts of the pagan writings, i. 344.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the <q>seminal logos,</q> 344.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the Sibylline books, 376.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Cause of his conversion to Christianity, 415.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His martyrdom, 441</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Juvenal, on the natural virtue of man, i. 197</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Kames, Lord, on our moral judgments, i. 77.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Notices the analogies between our moral and æsthetical judgments, 77</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>King's evil, ceremony of touching for the, i. 363, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Labienus, his works destroyed, i. 448, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Lactantius, character of his treatise, i. 463</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Lætorius, story of, i. 259</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Laughing condemned by the monks of the desert, ii. <ref target='Pg115'>115</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Law, Roman, its relation to Stoicism, i. 294, 295.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its golden age not Christian, but pagan, ii. <ref target='Pg042'>42</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Lawyers, their position in literature, i. 131, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Legacies forbidden to the clergy, ii. <ref target='Pg151'>151</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Power of making bequests to the clergy enlarged by Constantine, <ref target='Pg215'>215</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Leibnitz, on the natural or innate powers of man, i. 121, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Leo the Isaurian, Pope, his compact with Pepin, ii. <ref target='Pg266'>266</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Leonardo da Vinci, his kindness to animals, ii. <ref target='Pg172'>172</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Licentiousness, French, Hume's comments on, i. 50, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Locke, John, his view of moral good and moral evil, i. 8, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His theological utilitarianism, 16, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His view of the sanctions of morality, 19.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His invention of the phrase <q>association of ideas,</q> 23.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His definition of conscience, 29, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Cousin's objections against him, 75, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His refutation of the doctrine of a natural moral sense, 123, 124.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Rise of the sensual school out of his philosophy, 123, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Famous formulary of his school, 124</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Lombard, Peter, character of his <q>Sentences,</q> ii. <ref target='Pg226'>226</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His visions of heaven and hell, <ref target='Pg228'>228</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Longinus, his suicide, i. 219</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Love terms Greek, in vogue with the Romans, i. 231, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Lucan, failure of his courage under torture, i. 194.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His sycophancy, 194.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His cosmopolitanism, 240</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Lucius, the bishop, martyrdom of, i. 454</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Lucretius, his scepticism, i. 162.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His disbelief in the immortality of the soul, i. 182, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His praise of Epicurus, 197.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His suicide, 215.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On a bereaved cow, ii. 165</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Lunatic asylums, the first, ii. <ref target='Pg089'>89</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Luther's wife, her remark on the sensuous creed she had left, i. 52</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Lyons, persecution of the Christians at, i. 441</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Macarius, St., miracle attributed to, ii. <ref target='Pg040'>40</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His penances, <ref target='Pg108'>108</ref>, <ref target='Pg109'>109</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legend of his visit to an enchanted garden, <ref target='Pg158'>158</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Other legends of him, <ref target='Pg158'>158</ref>, <ref target='Pg159'>159</ref>, <ref target='Pg170'>170</ref>, <ref target='Pg220'>220</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Macedonia, effect of the conquest of, on the decadence of Rome, i. 169</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Mackintosh, Sir James, theory of morals advocated by, i. 4.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Fascination +<pb n='391'/><anchor id='Pg391'/> +of Hartley's doctrine of association over his mind, 29</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Macrianus, persuades the Emperor Valerian to persecute the Christians, i. 455</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Macrina Cælia, her benevolence to children, ii. <ref target='Pg077'>77</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Magdalen asylums, adversaries of, ii. <ref target='Pg098'>98</ref>, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Mallonia, virtue of, ii. <ref target='Pg309'>309</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Malthus, on charity, ii. <ref target='Pg092'>92</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Mandeville, his <q>Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue.</q> His thesis that <q>private vices are public benefits,</q> i. 7.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His opposition to charity schools, ii. <ref target='Pg098'>98</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Manicheans, their tenets, ii. <ref target='Pg102'>102</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their prohibition of animal food, <ref target='Pg167'>167</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Manilius, his conception of the Deity, i. 163</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Manufactures, influence upon morals, i. 139</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Marcellinus, Tullius, his self-destruction, i. 222</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Marcia, mistress of Commodus, her influence in behalf of toleration to the Christians, i. 443</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Marcian, St., legend of the visit of St. Avitus to him, ii. <ref target='Pg159'>159</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Marcus, St., story of, and his mother, ii. <ref target='Pg128'>128</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Marriage, how regarded by the Jews, Greeks, Romans, and Catholics, i. 103, 104.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Statius' picture of the first night of marriage, 107, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reason why the ancient Jews attached a certain stigma to virginity, 109.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Conflict of views of the Catholic priest and the political economist on the subject of early marriages, 114.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Results in some countries of the difficulties with which legislators surround marriage, 144.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Early marriages the most conspicuous proofs of Irish improvidence, 144.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of asceticism on, ii. <ref target='Pg320'>320</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Notions of its impurity, <ref target='Pg324'>324</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Second marriages, <ref target='Pg324'>324</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Marseilles, law of, respecting suicide, i. 218, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Epidemic of suicide among the women of, ii. <ref target='Pg055'>55</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Martial, sycophancy of his epigrams, i. 194</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Martin of Tours, St., establishes monachism in Gaul, ii. <ref target='Pg106'>106</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Martyrdom, glories of, i. 390.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Festivals of the Martyrs, 390, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Passion for, 391.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Dissipation of the people at the festivals, ii. <ref target='Pg150'>150</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Mary, St., of Egypt, ii. <ref target='Pg110'>110</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Mary, the Virgin, veneration of, ii. <ref target='Pg367'>367</ref>, <ref target='Pg368'>368</ref>, <ref target='Pg390'>390</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Massilians, wine forbidden to women by the, i. 96, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Maternal affection, strength of, ii. <ref target='Pg025'>25</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Maurice, on the social penalties of conscience, i. 60, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Mauricus, Junius, his refusal to allow gladiatorial shows at Vienna, i. 286</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Maxentius, instance of his tyranny, ii. <ref target='Pg046'>46</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Maximilianus, his martyrdom, ii. <ref target='Pg248'>248</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Maximinus, Emperor, his persecution of the Christians, i. 446</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Maximus of Tyre, account of him and his discourses, i. 312.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His defence of the ancient creeds, 323.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Practical form of his philosophy, 329</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Medicine, possible progress of, i. 158, 159</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Melania, St., her bereavement, ii. <ref target='Pg010'>10</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Her pilgrimage through the Syrian and Egyptian hermitages, 120</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Milesians, wine forbidden by the, to women, i. 94, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Military honour pre-eminent among the Romans, i. 172, 173.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History of the decadence of Roman military virtue, 268</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Mill, J., on association, 25, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='392'/><anchor id='Pg392'/> + +<lg> +<l>Mill, J. S., quoted, i. 29, 47, 90, 102</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Minerva, meaning of, according to the Stoics, i. 163</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Miracles, general incredulity on the subject of, at the present time, i. 346, 348.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Miracles not impossible, 347.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Established by much evidence, 347.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The histories of them always decline with education, 348.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Illustration of this in the belief in fairies, 348.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Conceptions of savages, 349.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legends, formation and decay of, 350-352.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Common errors in reasoning about miracles, 356.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Predisposition to the miraculous in some states of society, 362.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Belief of the Romans in miracles, 363-367.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Incapacity of the Christians of the third century for judging historic miracles, 375.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Contemporary miracles believed in by the early Christians, 378.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Exorcism, 378.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Neither past nor contemporary Christian miracles had much weight upon the pagans, 378</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Missionary labours, ii. <ref target='Pg246'>246</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Mithra, worship of, in Rome, i. 386</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Mohammedans, their condemnation of suicide, ii. <ref target='Pg053'>53</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their lunatic asylums, <ref target='Pg089'>89</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their religion, <ref target='Pg251'>251</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effects of their military triumphs on Christianity, <ref target='Pg252'>252</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Molinos, his opinion on the love we should bear to God, condemned, i. 18, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<anchor id='Index-Monastic'/> +<l>Monastic system, results of the Catholic monastic system, i. 107.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Suicide of monks, ii. 52.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Exertions of the monks in the cause of charity, 84.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of the monastic movement, 102.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History of the rapid propagation of it in the West, 183.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>New value placed by it on obedience and humility, 185, 269.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Relation of it to the intellectual virtues, 188.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The monasteries regarded as the receptacles of learning, 199.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Fallacy of attributing to the monasteries the genius that was displayed in theology, 208.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Other fallacies concerning the services of the monks, 208-212.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Value attached by monks to pecuniary compensations for crime, 213.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of their corruption, 217.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Benefits conferred by the monasteries, 243</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Monica, St., i. 94, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Monogamy, establishment of, ii. <ref target='Pg372'>372</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Monophysites, the cause, to some extent, of the Mohammedan conquest of Egypt, ii. <ref target='Pg143'>143</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Montanists, their tenets, ii. <ref target='Pg102'>102</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Moral distinctions, rival claims of intuition and utility to be regarded as the supreme regulators of, i. 1</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Moral judgments, alleged diversities of, i. 91.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Are frequently due to intellectual causes, 92.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Instances of this in usury and abortion, 92.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Distinction between natural duties and others resting on positive law, 93.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Ancient customs canonised by time, 93.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Anomalies explained by a confused association of ideas, 94, 95.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Moral perceptions overridden by positive religions, 95.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Instances of this in transubstantiation and the Augustinian and Calvinistic doctrines of damnation, 96, 97.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>General moral principles alone revealed by intuition, 99.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The moral unity of different ages a unity not of standard but of tendency, 100.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Application of this theory to the history of benevolence, 100.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reasons why acts regarded in one age as criminal are innocent in another, 101.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Views of Mill and Buckle on the comparative influence of intellectual and moral agencies in civilisation, 102, 103, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Intuitive morals not unprogressive, 102, 103.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Answers to miscellaneous +<pb n='393'/><anchor id='Pg393'/> +objections against the theory of natural moral perceptions, 109.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effect of the condition of society on the standard, but not the essence, of virtue, 110.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Occasional duty of sacrificing higher duties to lower ones, 110, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Summary of the relations of virtue and public and private interest, 117.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Two senses of the word natural, 119</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Moral law, foundation of the, according to Ockham and his adherents, i. 17, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Various views of the sanctions of morality, 19.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Utilitarian theological sanctions, 53.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The reality of the moral nature the one great question of natural theology, 56.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Utilitarian secular sanctions, 57.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Utilitarian theory subversive of morality, 66.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Plausibility and danger of theories of unification in morals, 72.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Our knowledge of the laws of moral progress nothing more than approximate or general, 136</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l><q>Moral sense,</q> Hutcheson's doctrine of a, i. 4</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Moral system, what it should be, to govern society, i. 194</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Morals, each of the two schools of, related to the general condition of society, i. 122.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their relations to metaphysical schools, 123, 124.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And to the Baconian philosophy, 125.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Contrast between ancient and modern civilisations, 125-127.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes that lead societies to elevate their moral standard, and determine their preference of some particular kind of virtues, 130.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The order in which moral feelings are developed, 130.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Danger in proposing too absolutely a single character as a model to which all men must conform, 155.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Remarks on moral types, 156.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Results to be expected from the study of the relations between our physical and moral nature, 158.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Little influence of Pagan religions on morals, 161</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>More, Henry, on the motive of virtue, i. 76</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Musonius, his suicide, i. 220</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Mutius, history of him and his son, ii. <ref target='Pg125'>125</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Mysticism of the Romans, causes producing, i. 318</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Myths, formation of, i. 351</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Naples, mania for suicide at, ii. <ref target='Pg055'>55</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Napoleon, the Emperor, his order of the day respecting suicide, i. 219, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Nations, causes of the difficulties of effecting cordial international friendships, i. 156</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Natural moral perceptions, objections to the theory of, i. 116.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Two senses of the word natural, 118.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reid, Sedgwick, and Leibnitz on the natural or innate powers of man, 121, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Locke's refutation of the doctrine of a natural moral sense, 124</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Neoplatonism, account of, i. 325.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its destruction of the active duties and critical spirit, 329</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Neptune, views of the Stoics of the meaning of the legends of, i. 163.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His statue solemnly degraded by Augustus, 169</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Nero, his singing and acting, i. 259.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His law about slaves, 307.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His persecution of the Christians, 429</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Newman, Dr., on venial sin, i. 111, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi> on pride, ii. <ref target='Pg188'>188</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Nicodemus, apocryphal gospel of, ii. <ref target='Pg221'>221</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Nilus, St., deserts his family, ii. <ref target='Pg322'>322</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Nitria, number of anchorites in the desert of, ii. <ref target='Pg105'>105</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Nolasco, Peter, his works of mercy, +<pb n='394'/><anchor id='Pg394'/> +ii. <ref target='Pg073'>73</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His participation in the Albigensian massacres, <ref target='Pg095'>95</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Novatians, their tenets, ii. <ref target='Pg102'>102</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Numa, legend of his prohibition of idols, i. 166, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Oath, sanctity of an, among the Romans, i. 168</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Obedience, new value placed on it by monachism, ii. <ref target='Pg185'>185</ref>, <ref target='Pg186'>186</ref>, <ref target='Pg269'>269</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Obligation, nature of, i. 64, 65</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Ockham, his opinion of the foundation of the moral law, i. 17, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Odin, his suicide, ii. <ref target='Pg053'>53</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>O'Neale, Shane, his charity, ii. <ref target='Pg096'>96</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Opinion, influence of character on, i. 171, 172</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Oracles, refuted and ridiculed by Cicero, i. 165.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Plutarch's defence of their bad poetry, 165, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Refusal of Cato and the Stoics to consult them, 165.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Ridiculed by the Roman wits, 166.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Answer of the oracle of Delphi as to the best religion, 167.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Theory of the oracles in the 'De Divinatione' of Cicero, 368, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Van Dale's denial of their supernatural character, 374.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Books of oracles burnt under the republic and empire, 447, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Origen, his desire for martyrdom, i. 391</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Orphanotrophia, in the early Church, ii. <ref target='Pg032'>32</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Otho, the Emperor, his suicide, i. 219.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Opinion of his contemporaries of his act, 219, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Ovid, object of his <q>Metamorphoses,</q> i. 166.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His condemnation of suicide, 213, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His humanity to animals, ii. 165</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Oxen, laws for the protection of, ii. <ref target='Pg162'>162</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Oxyrinchus, ascetic life in the city of, ii. <ref target='Pg105'>105</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pachomius, St., number of his monks, ii. <ref target='Pg105'>105</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pætus and Arria, history of, ii. <ref target='Pg310'>310</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pagan religions, their feeble influence on morals, i. 161</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pagan virtues, the, compared with Christian, i. 190</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Paiderastia, the, of the Greeks, ii. <ref target='Pg294'>294</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pain, equivalent to evil, according to the Utilitarians, i. 8, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Palestine, foundation of monachism in, ii. <ref target='Pg106'>106</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Becomes a hot-bed of debauchery, <ref target='Pg152'>152</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Paley, on the obligation of virtue, i. 14, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the difference between an act of prudence and an act of duty, 16, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the love we ought to bear to God, 18, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the religious sanctions of morality, 19.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the doctrine of association, 25, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On flesh diet, 49, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the influence of health on happiness, 88, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the difference in pleasures, 90, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pambos, St., story of, ii. <ref target='Pg116'>116</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pammachus, St., his hospital, ii. <ref target='Pg080'>80</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Panætius, the founder of the Roman Stoics, his disbelief in the immortality of the soul, i. 183</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pandars, punishment of, ii. <ref target='Pg316'>316</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Parents, reason why some savages did not regard their murder as criminal, i. 101</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Parthenon, the, at Athens, i. 105</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pascal, his advocacy of piety as a matter of prudence, i. 17, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His adherence to the opinion of Ockham as to the foundation of the moral law, 17, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His thought on the humiliation created by deriving pleasure from certain amusements, i. 86, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Patriotism, period when it flourished, i. 136.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Peculiar characteristic of the virtue, 177, 178.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of the predominance occasionally accorded +<pb n='395'/><anchor id='Pg395'/> +to civic virtues, 200.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Neglect or discredit into which they have fallen among modern teachers, 201.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Cicero's remarks on the duty of every good man, 201.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Unfortunate relations of Christianity to patriotism, ii. <ref target='Pg140'>140</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Repugnance of the theological to the patriotic spirit, <ref target='Pg145'>145</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Paul, St., his definition of conscience, i. 83</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Paul, the hermit, his flight to the desert, ii. <ref target='Pg102'>102</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legend of the visit of St. Antony to him, <ref target='Pg158'>158</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Paul, St. Vincent de, his foundling hospitals, ii. <ref target='Pg034'>34</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Paula, story of her asceticism and inhumanity, ii. <ref target='Pg133'>133</ref>, <ref target='Pg134'>134</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Paulina, her devotion to her husband, ii. <ref target='Pg310'>310</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pelagia, St., her suicide, ii. <ref target='Pg046'>46</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Her flight to the desert, <ref target='Pg121'>121</ref>, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pelagius, ii. <ref target='Pg223'>223</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pelican, legend of the, ii. <ref target='Pg161'>161</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Penances of the saints of the desert, ii. <ref target='Pg107'>107</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Penitential system, the, of the early church, ii. <ref target='Pg006'>6</ref>, <ref target='Pg007'>7</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pepin, his compact with Pope Leo, ii. <ref target='Pg267'>267</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Peregrinus the Cynic, his suicide, i. 220</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pericles, his humanity, i. 228</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Perpetua, St., her martyrdom, i. 391, 444; ii. <ref target='Pg317'>317</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Persecutions, Catholic doctrines justifying, i. 98.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Why Christianity was not crushed by them, 395.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Many causes of persecution, 395-397.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reasons why the Christians were more persecuted than the Jews, 403, 406, 407.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of the persecutions, 406, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History of the persecutions, 429.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Nero, 429.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Domitian, 431.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Trajan, 437.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Marcus Aurelius, 439, 440.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>From M. Aurelius to Decius, 442, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Gallus, 454.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Valerian, 454.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Diocletian and Galerius, 458-463.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>End of the persecutions, 463.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>General considerations on their history, 463-468</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Petronian law, in favour of slaves, i. 307</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Petronius, his scepticism, i. 162.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His suicide, 215.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His condemnation of the show of the arena, 286</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Philip the Arab, his favour to Christianity, i. 445</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Philosophers, efforts of some, to restore the moral influence of religion among the Romans, i. 169.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The true moral teachers, 171</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Philosophical truth, characteristics of, i. 139, 140.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its growth retarded by the opposition of theologians, 140</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Philosophy, causes of the practical character of most ancient, i. 202.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its fusion with religion, 352.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Opinions of the early Church concerning the pagan writings, 332.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Difference between the moral teaching of a philosophy and that of a religion, ii. <ref target='Pg001'>1</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its impotency to restrain vice, <ref target='Pg004'>4</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Phocas, attitude of the Church towards him, ii. <ref target='Pg263'>263</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Phocion, his gentleness, i. 228</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Physical science affects the belief in miracles, i. 354, 355</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Piety, utilitarian view of the causes of the pleasures and pains of, i. 9, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>A matter of prudence, according to theological Utilitarianism, 16</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pilate, Pontius, story of his desire to enrol Christ among the Roman gods, i. 429</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pilgrimages, evils of, ii. <ref target='Pg152'>152</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pior, St., story of, ii. <ref target='Pg129'>129</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pirates, destruction of, by Pompey, i. 234</l> +</lg> + +<pb n='396'/><anchor id='Pg396'/> + +<lg> +<l>Pity, a form of self-love, according to some Utilitarians, i. 9, 10, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Adam Smith's theory, 10, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Seneca's distinction between it and clemency, 189.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Altar to Pity at Athens, 228.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History of Marcus Aurelius' altar to Beneficentia at Rome, 228, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Plato, his admission of the practice of abortion, i. 92.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Basis of his moral system, 105.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Cause of the banishment of the poets from his republic, 161, 162.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His theory that vice is to virtue what disease is to health, 179, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reason for his advocacy of community of wives, 200.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His condemnation of suicide, 212, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His remarks on universal brotherhood, 241.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His inculcation of the practice of self-examination, 248</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Platonic school, its ideal, i. 322</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Platonists, their more or less pantheistic conception of the Deity, i. 163.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Practical nature of their philosophy, 329.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Platonic ethics ascendant in Rome, 331</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pleasure the only good, according to the Utilitarians, i. 7.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Illustrations of the distinction between the higher and lower parts of our nature in our pleasures, 83-85.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Pleasures of a civilised compared with those of a semi-civilised society, 86.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Comparison of mental and physical pleasures, 87, 88.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Distinction in kind of pleasure, and its importance in morals, 89-91.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Neglected or denied by Utilitarian writers, 89, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pliny, the elder, on the probable happiness of the lower animals, i. 87, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the Deity, 164.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On astrology, 171, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>, 164, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His disbelief in the immortality of the soul, 182.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His advocacy of suicide, 215.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Never mentions Christianity, 336.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His opinion of earthquakes, 369.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And of comets, 369.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His facility of belief, 370.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His denunciation of finger rings, ii. <ref target='Pg148'>148</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pliny, the younger, his desire for posthumous reputation, i. 185, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His picture of the ideal of Stoicism, 186.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His letter to Trajan respecting the Christians, 437.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His benevolence, 242; ii. <ref target='Pg077'>77</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Plotinus, his condemnation of suicide, i. 214.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His philosophy, 330</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Plutarch, his defence of the bad poetry of the oracles, 165, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His mode of moral teaching, 175.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Basis of his belief in the immortality of the soul, 204.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On superstitious fear of death, 206.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His letter on the death of his little daughter, 242.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>May justly be regarded as the leader of the eclectic school, 243.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His philosophy and works compared with those of Seneca, 243.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His treatise on <q>The Signs of Moral Progress,</q> 249.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Compared and contrasted with Marcus Aurelius, 253.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>How he regarded the games of the arena, 286.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His defence of the ancient creeds, 322.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Practical nature of his philosophy, 329.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Never mentions Christianity, 336.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His remarks on the domestic system of the ancients, 419.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On kindness to animals, ii. <ref target='Pg165'>165</ref>, <ref target='Pg166'>166</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His picture of Greek married life, <ref target='Pg289'>289</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pluto, meaning of, according to the Stoics, i. 163</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Po, miracle of the subsidence of the waters of the, i. 382, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pœmen, St., story of, and of his mother, ii. <ref target='Pg129'>129</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legend of him and the lion, <ref target='Pg169'>169</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Political economy, what it has accomplished respecting almsgiving, ii. <ref target='Pg090'>90</ref></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='397'/><anchor id='Pg397'/> + +<lg> +<l>Political judgments, moral standard of most men in, lower than in private judgments, i. 151</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Political truth, or habit of <q>fair play,</q> the characteristic of free communities, i. 139.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Highly civilised form of society to which it belongs, 139.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its growth retarded by the opposition of theologians, 140</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Polybius, his praise of the devotion and purity of creed of the Romans, i. 167</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Polycarp, St., martyrdom of, i. 441</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Polygamy, long continuance of, among the kings of Gaul, ii. <ref target='Pg343'>343</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pompeii, gladiatorial shows at, i. 276, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pompey, his destruction of the pirates, i. 234.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His multiplication of gladiatorial shows, 273</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Poor-law system, elaboration of the, ii. <ref target='Pg096'>96</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its pernicious results, <ref target='Pg097'>97</ref>, <ref target='Pg099'>99</ref>, <ref target='Pg105'>105</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Poppæa, Empress, a Jewish proselyte, i. 386</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Porcia, heroism of, ii. <ref target='Pg309'>309</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Porphyry, his condemnation of suicides, i. 214.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His description of philosophy, i. 326.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His adoption of Neoplatonism, i. 330</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Possevin, his exposure of the Sibylline books, i. 377</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pothinus, martyrdom of, i. 442</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Power, origin of the desire of, i. 23, 26</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Praise, association of ideas leading to the desire for even posthumous, i. 26</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Prayer, reflex influence upon the minds of the worshippers, i. 36</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Preachers, Stoic, among the Romans, i. 308, 309</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pride, contrasted with vanity, i. 195.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The leading moral agent of Stoicism, i. 195</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Prometheus, cause of the admiration bestowed upon, i. 35</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Prophecies, incapacity of the Christians of the third century for judging prophecies, i. 376</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Prophecy, gift of, attributed to the vestal virgins of Rome, i. 107.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And in India to virgins, 107, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Prosperity, some crimes conducive to national, i. 58</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Prostitution, ii. <ref target='Pg282'>282-286</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>How regarded by the Romans, <ref target='Pg314'>314</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Protagoras, his scepticism, i. 162</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Protasius, St., miraculous discovery of his remains, i. 379</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Prudentius, on the vestal virgins at the gladiatorial shows, i. 291</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Purgatory, doctrine of, ii. <ref target='Pg232'>232-235</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Pythagoras, sayings of, i. 53.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Chastity the leading virtue of his school, 106.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the fables of Hesiod and Homer, 161.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His belief in an all-pervading soul of nature, 162.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His condemnation of suicide, 212.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Tradition of his journey to India, 229, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His inculcation of the practice of self-examination, 248.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His opinion of earthquakes, 369.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His doctrine of kindness to animals, ii. 165</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Quakers, compared with the early Christians, ii. <ref target='Pg012'>12</ref>, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Quintilian, his conception of the Deity, i. 164</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Rank, secular, consecration of, ii. <ref target='Pg260'>260</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Rape, punishment for, ii. <ref target='Pg316'>316</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Redbreast, legend of the, ii. <ref target='Pg224'>224</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Regulus, the story of, i. 212</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Reid, basis of his ethics, i. 76.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His distinction between innate faculties evolved by experience and +<pb n='398'/><anchor id='Pg398'/> +innate ideas independent of experience, 121, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Religion, theological utilitarianism subverts natural, i. 54-56.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Answer of the oracle of Delphi as to the best, 167.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Difference between the moral teaching of a philosophy and that of a religion, ii. <ref target='Pg001'>1</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Relations between positive religion and moral enthusiasm, <ref target='Pg141'>141</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Religions, pagan, their small influence on morals, i. 161.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Oriental, passion for, among the Romans, 318</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Religious liberty totally destroyed by the Catholics, ii. <ref target='Pg194'>194-199</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Repentance for past sin, no place for, in the writings of the ancients, i. 195</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Reputation, how valued among the Romans, i. 185, 186</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Resurrection of souls, belief of the Stoics in the, i. 164</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Revenge, Utilitarian notions as to the feeling of, i. 41, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Circumstances under which private vengeance is not regarded as criminal, i. 101</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Reverence, Utilitarian views of, i. 9, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of the diminution of the spirit of, among mankind, 141, 142</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Rhetoricians, Stoical, account of the, of Rome, i. 310</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Ricci, his work on Mendicancy, ii. <ref target='Pg098'>98</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Rochefoucauld La, on pity, quoted, i. 10, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And on friendship, 10, 11, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Rogantianus, his passive life, i. 330</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Roman law, its golden age not Christian, but pagan, ii. <ref target='Pg042'>42</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Romans, abortion how regarded by the, i. 92.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their law forbidding women to taste wine, 93, 94, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reasons why they did not regard the gladiatorial shows as criminal, 101.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their law of marriage and ideal of female morality, 104.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their religious reverence for domesticity, 106.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Sanctity of, and gifts attributed to, their vestal virgins, 106.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Character of their cruelty, 134.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Compared with the modern Italian character in this respect, 134.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Scepticism of their philosophers, 162-167.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The religion of the Romans never a source of moral enthusiasm, 167.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its characteristics, 168.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of the disappearance of the religious reverence of the people, 169.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Efforts of some philosophers and emperors to restore the moral influence of religion, 169.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Consummation of Roman degradation, 170.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Belief in astrological fatalism, 170, 171.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The stoical type of military and patriotic enthusiasm pre-eminently Roman, 172-174, 178.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Importance of biography in their moral teaching, 178.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Epicureanism never became a school of virtue among them, 175.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Unselfish love of country of the Romans, 178.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Character of Stoicism in the worst period of the Roman Empire, 181.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Main features of their philosophy, 185, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Difference between the Roman moralists and the Greek poets, 195.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The doctrine of suicide the culminating point of Roman Stoicism, 222.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The type of excellence of the Roman people, 224, 225.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Contrast between the activity of Stoicism and the luxury of Roman society, 225, 226.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Growth of a gentler and more cosmopolitan spirit in Rome, 227.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of this change, 228, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Extent of Greek influence at Rome, 228.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The cosmopolitan spirit strengthened by the destruction of the power of the aristocracy, 231, 232.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History +<pb n='399'/><anchor id='Pg399'/> +of the influence of freedmen in the state, 233.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effect of the aggrandisement of the colonies, the attraction of many foreigners to Rome, and the increased facilities for travelling, on the cosmopolitan spirit, 233, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Foreigners among the most prominent of Latin writers, 235.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Results of the multitudes of emancipated slaves, 235, 236.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Endeavours of Roman statesmen to consolidate the empire by admitting the conquered to the privileges of the conquerors, 238.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Stoical philosophy quite capable of representing the cosmopolitan spirit, 239.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of eclectic philosophy on the Roman Stoics, 244.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Life and character of Marcus Aurelius, 249-255.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Corruption of the Roman people, 255.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of their depravity, 256.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Decadence of all the conditions of republican virtue, 256.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effects of the Imperial system on morals, 257-261.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Apotheosis of the emperors, 257.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Moral consequences of slavery, 262.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Increase of idleness and demoralising employments, 262.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Increase also of sensuality, 263.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Destruction of all public spirit, 264.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The interaction of many states which in new nations sustains national life prevented by universal empire, 264.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The decline of agricultural pursuits, 265.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And of the military virtues, 268.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History and effects of the gladiatorial shows, 271.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Other Roman amusements, 276.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effects of the arena upon the theatre, 277.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Nobles in the arena, 283.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effects of Stoicism on the corruption of society, 291.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Roman law greatly extended by it, 294.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Change in the relation of Romans to provincials, 297.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Changes in domestic legislation, 297.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Roman slavery, 300-308.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Stoics as consolers, advisers, and preachers, 308.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Cynics and rhetoricians, 309, 310.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Decadence of Stoicism in the empire, 317.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of the passion for Oriental religions, 318-320.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Neoplatonism, 325.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Review of the history of Roman philosophy, 332-335.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History of the conversion of Rome to Christianity, 336.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>State of Roman opinion on the subject of miracles, 365.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Progress of the Jewish and Oriental religions in Rome, 386, 387.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The conversion of the Roman empire easily explicable, 393.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Review of the religious policy of Rome, 397.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its division of religion into three parts, according to Eusebius, 403.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Persecutions of the Christians, 406, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Antipathy of the Romans to every religious system which employed religious terrorism, 420.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>History of the persecutions, 429.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>General sketch of the moral condition of the Western Empire, ii. <ref target='Pg014'>14</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Rise and progress of the government of the Church of Rome, <ref target='Pg014'>14</ref>, <ref target='Pg015'>15</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Roman practice of infanticide, <ref target='Pg027'>27</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Relief of the indigent, <ref target='Pg073'>73</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Distribution of corn, <ref target='Pg074'>74</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Exertions of the Christians on the subversion of the empire, <ref target='Pg082'>82</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Inadequate place given to this movement, <ref target='Pg085'>85</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Horrors caused by the barbarian invasions prevented to some extent by Christian charity, <ref target='Pg081'>81-84</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of Christianity in hastening the fall of the empire, <ref target='Pg140'>140</ref>, <ref target='Pg141'>141</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Roman treatment of prisoners of war, <ref target='Pg256'>256-258</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Despotism of the pagan empire, <ref target='Pg260'>260</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condition of women under the Romans, <ref target='Pg297'>297</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their concubines, <ref target='Pg350'>350</ref></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='400'/><anchor id='Pg400'/> + +<lg> +<l>Rome, an illustration of crimes conducive to national prosperity, i. 58, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Conversion of, 336.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Three popular errors concerning its conversion, 339.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Capture of the city by the barbarians, ii. <ref target='Pg082'>82</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Romuald, St., his treatment of his father, ii. <ref target='Pg135'>135</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Rope-dancing of the Romans, i. 291</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sabinus, Saint, his penances, ii. <ref target='Pg108'>108</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sacrament, administration of the, in the early Church, ii. <ref target='Pg006'>6</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Salamis, Brutus' treatment of the citizens of, i. 194</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sallust, his stoicism and rapacity, i. 194</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sanctuary, right of, accorded to Christian churches, ii. <ref target='Pg040'>40</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Savage, errors into which the deceptive appearances of nature doom him, i. 54.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>First conceptions formed of the universe, 349.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The ethics of savages, 120, 121</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Scepticism of the Greek and Roman philosophers, i. 162-166.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of, on intellectual progress, ii. <ref target='Pg193'>193</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Scholastica, St., the legend of, ii. <ref target='Pg136'>136</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Scifi, Clara, the first Franciscan nun, ii. <ref target='Pg135'>135</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sectarian animosity, chief cause of, i. 134</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sedgwick, Professor, on the expansion of the natural or innate powers of men, i. 121, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sejanus, treatment of his daughter by the senate, i. 107, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Self-denial, the Utilitarian theory unfavourable to, i. 66</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Self-examination, history of the practice of, i. 247-249</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Self-sacrifice, asceticism the great school of, ii. <ref target='Pg155'>155</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Seneca, his conception of the Deity, i. 163, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>, 164.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His distinction between the affections and diseases, 189, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And between clemency and pity, 189.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His virtues and vices, i. 194.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the natural virtue of man and power of his will, 197.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On the Sacred Spirit dwelling in man, 198.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On death, 205.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His tranquil end, 207.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Advocates suicide, 213, 220.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His description of the self-destruction of a friend, 222.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His remarks on universal brotherhood, 241.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His stoical hardness tempered by new doctrines, 244.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His practice of self-examination, 248.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His philosophy and works compared with those of Plutarch, 243, 244.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>How he regarded the games of the arena, 286.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His exhortations on the treatment of slaves, 306.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Never mentions Christianity, 336.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Regarded in the middle ages as a Christian, 340.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On religious beliefs, 405</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sensuality, why the Mohammedans people Paradise with images of, i. 108.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Why some pagans deified it, 108.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Fallacy of judging the sensuality of a nation by the statistics of its illegitimate births, 144.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of climate upon public morals, 144.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Of large towns, 145.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And of early marriages, 146.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Absence of moral scandals among the Irish priesthood, 146, 147.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Speech of Archytas of Tarentum on the evils of, 200, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Increase of sensuality in Rome, 263.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Abated by Christianity, ii. <ref target='Pg153'>153</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The doctrine of the Fathers respecting concupiscence, <ref target='Pg281'>281</ref>.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Serapion, the anthropomorphite, i. 52.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Number of his monks, ii. <ref target='Pg105'>105</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His interview with the courtesan, <ref target='Pg320'>320</ref></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='401'/><anchor id='Pg401'/> + +<lg> +<l>Sertorius, his forgery of auspicious omens, i. 166.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Severus, Alexander, refuses the language of adulation, i. 259.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His efforts to restore agricultural pursuits, 267.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Murder of, 444.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His leniency towards Christianity, 444.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His benevolence, ii. <ref target='Pg077'>77</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Severus, Cassius, exile of, i. 448, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Severus, Septimus, his treatment of the Christians, i. 443</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sextius, his practice of self-examination, i. 248</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Shaftesbury, maintains the reality of the existence of benevolence in our nature, i. 20.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On virtue, 76, 77</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sibylline books, forged by the early Christians, i. 376, 377</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Silius Italicus, his lines commemorating the passion of the Spanish Celts for suicide, i. 207, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His self-destruction, 221</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Silvia, her filthiness, ii. <ref target='Pg110'>110</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, his martyrdom, i. 438</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Simeon Stylites, St., his penance, ii. <ref target='Pg111'>111</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His inhumanity to his parents, ii. <ref target='Pg130'>130</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sin, the theological doctrine on the subject, i. 111, 112.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Conception of sin by the ancients, 195.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Original, taught by the Catholic Church, 209, 210.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Examination of the Utilitarian doctrine of the remote consequences of secret sins, 43, 44</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sisoes, the abbot, stories of, ii. <ref target='Pg126'>126</ref>, <ref target='Pg127'>127</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sixtus, Bishop of Rome, his martyrdom, i. 455</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sixtus V., Pope, his efforts to suppress mendicancy, ii. <ref target='Pg097'>97</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Slavery, circumstances under which it has been justified, i. 101.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Origin of the word servus, 102, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Crusade of England against, 153.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Character of that of the Romans, 235.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Moral consequence of slavery, 262.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Three stages of slavery at Rome, 300.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Review of the condition of slaves, 300-306.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Opinion of philosophers as to slavery, 306.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Laws enacted in favour of slaves, 306.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effects of Christianity upon the institution of slavery, ii. <ref target='Pg061'>61</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Consecration of the servile virtue, <ref target='Pg068'>68</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Impulse given to manumission, <ref target='Pg070'>70</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Serfdom in Europe, <ref target='Pg070'>70</ref>, <ref target='Pg071'>71</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Extinction of slavery in Europe, <ref target='Pg071'>71</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Ransom of captives, <ref target='Pg072'>72</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Smith, Adam, his theory of pity, quoted, i. 10, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His recognition of the reality of benevolence in our nature, 20.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His analysis of moral judgment, 76</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Smyrna, persecution of the Christians at, i. 441</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Socrates, his view of death, i. 205.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His closing hours, 207.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His advice to a courtesan, ii. <ref target='Pg296'>296</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Soul, the immortality of the, resolutely excluded from the teaching of the Stoics, i. 181.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Character of their first notions on the subject, 182.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The belief in the reabsorption of the soul in the parent Spirit, 183.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Belief of Cicero and Plutarch in the immortality of the, 204.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>But never adopted as a motive by the Stoics, 204.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Increasing belief in the, 331.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Vague belief of the Romans in the, 168</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sospitra, story of, i. 373</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Spain, persecution of the Christians in, i. 461.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Almost complete absence of infanticide in, ii. <ref target='Pg025'>25</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The first lunatic asylums in Europe established in, <ref target='Pg089'>89</ref>, <ref target='Pg090'>90</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Spaniards, among the most prominent of Latin writers, i. 235.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their suicides, ii. <ref target='Pg054'>54</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Spartans, their intense patriotism, i. 178.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their legislature continually extolled as a model, 201.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condition of their women, ii. <ref target='Pg290'>290</ref></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='402'/><anchor id='Pg402'/> + +<lg> +<l>Spinoza, his remark on death, i. 203</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Anecdote of him, 289</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Staël, Madame de, on suicide, ii. <ref target='Pg059'>59</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Statius, on the first night of marriage, i. 107, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Stewart, Dugald, on the pleasures of virtue, i. 32, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Stilpo, his scepticism and banishment, i. 162.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His remark on his ruin, 191.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Stoics, their definition of conscience, i. 83.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their view of the animation of the human fœtus, 92.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their system of ethics favourable to the heroic qualities, 128.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Historical fact in favour of the system, 128.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their belief in an all-pervading soul of nature, 162.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their pantheistic conception of the Deity, 163.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their conception and explanation of the prevailing legends of the gods, 163.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their opinion as to the final destruction of the universe by fire, and the resuscitation of souls, 164.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their refusal to consult the oracles, 165.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Stoicism the expression of a type of character different from Epicureanism, 172.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Rome pre-eminently the home of Stoicism, 172.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Account of the philosophy of the Stoics, 177.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Its two essentials—the unselfish ideal and the subjugation of the affections to the reason, 177.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The best example of the perfect severance of virtue and interest, 181.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their views concerning the immortality of the soul, 182-184.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Taught men to sacrifice reputation, and do good in secret, 186.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And distinguished the obligation from the attraction of virtue, 186.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Taught also that the affections must be subordinate to the reason, 187-191.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their false estimate of human nature, 192.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their love of paradox, 192.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Imperfect lives of many eminent Stoics, 193.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their retrospective tendencies, 193.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their system unfitted for the majority of mankind, 194.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Compared with the religious principle, 195.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The central composition of this philosophy, the dignity of man, 195.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>High sense of the Stoics of the natural virtue of man, and of the power of his will, 195, 196.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their recognition of Providence, 196.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The two aspects under which they worshipped God, 198.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Stoics secured from quietism by their habits of public life, 199-201.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their view of humanity, 202.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their preparations for, and view of, death, 202.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their teaching as to suicide, 212, 213, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Contrast between Stoicism and Roman luxury, 225, 226.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Stoical philosophy quite capable of representing the cosmopolitan spirit, 239, 240.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Stoicism not capable of representing the softening movement of civilisation, 241.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of the eclectic spirit on it, 244.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Stoicism becomes more essentially religious, 245.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Increasingly introspective character of later Stoicism, 247.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Marcus Aurelius the best example of later Stoicism, 249-255.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effects of Stoicism on the corruption of Roman Society, 291, 292.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>It raised up many good Emperors, 292.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>It produced a noble opposition under the worst Emperors, 293.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>It greatly extended Roman law, 294.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Stoics considered as the consolers of the suffering, advisers of the young, and as popular preachers, 308.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Rapid decadence of Stoicism, 317, 318.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Difference between the Stoical and Egyptian pantheism, 324.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Stoical naturalism superseded by the theory of dæmons, 331.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Theory that the writings of the Stoics +<pb n='403'/><anchor id='Pg403'/> +were influenced by Christianity examined, 332.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Domitian's persecution of them, 432</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Strozzi, Philip, his suicide, ii. <ref target='Pg056'>56</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Suffering, a courageous endurance of, probably the first form of virtue in savage life, i. 130</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Suicide, attitude adopted by Pagan philosophy and Catholicism towards, i. 211, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Eminent suicides, 215.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Epidemic of suicides at Alexandria, 216.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And of girls at Miletus, 216, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Grandeur of the Stoical ideal of suicide, 216.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influences conspiring towards suicide, 217.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Seneca on self-destruction, 217, 218, 220.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Laws respecting it, 218, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Eminent instances of self-destruction, 219, 221.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The conception of, as an euthanasia, 221.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Neoplatonist doctrine concerning, 331.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effect of the Christian condemnation of the practice of, ii. <ref target='Pg043'>43-61</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Theological doctrine on, <ref target='Pg045'>45</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The only form of, permitted in the early Church, <ref target='Pg047'>47</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Slow suicides, <ref target='Pg048'>48</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Circumcelliones, <ref target='Pg049'>49</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Albigenses, <ref target='Pg049'>49</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Suicides of the Jews, <ref target='Pg050'>50</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Treatment of corpses of suicides, <ref target='Pg050'>50</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Authorities for the history of suicides, <ref target='Pg050'>50</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reaction against the mediæval laws on the subject, <ref target='Pg051'>51</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Later phases of its history, <ref target='Pg054'>54</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Self-destruction of witches, <ref target='Pg054'>54</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Epidemics of insane suicide, <ref target='Pg055'>55</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Cases of legitimate suicide, <ref target='Pg055'>55</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Suicide in England and France, <ref target='Pg058'>58</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sunday, importance of the sanctity of the, ii. <ref target='Pg244'>244</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Laws respecting it, <ref target='Pg245'>245</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Superstition, possibility of adding to the happiness of man by the diffusion of, i. 50-53.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Natural causes which impel savages to superstition, i. 55.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Signification of the Greek word for, 205</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Swan, the, consecrated to Apollo, i. 206</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Sweden, cause of the great number of illegitimate births in, i. 144</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Swinburne, Mr., on annihilation, i. 182, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Symmachus, his Saxon prisoners, i. 287</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Synesius, legend of him and Evagrius, ii. <ref target='Pg214'>214</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Refuses to give up his wife, <ref target='Pg332'>332</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Syracuse, gladiatorial shows at, i. 275</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Tacitus, his doubts about the existence of Providence, i. 171, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Telemachus, the monk, his death in the arena, ii. <ref target='Pg037'>37</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Telesphorus, martyrdom of, i. 446, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Tertia Æmilia, story of, ii. <ref target='Pg313'>313</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Tertullian, his belief in dæmons, i. 382.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And challenge to the Pagans, 383</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Testament, Old, supposed to have been the source of pagan writings, i. 344</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Thalasius, his hospital for blind beggars, ii. <ref target='Pg081'>81</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Theatre, scepticism of the Romans extended by the, i. 170.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effects of the gladiatorial shows upon the, 277</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Theft, reasons why some savages do not regard it as criminal, i. 102.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Spartan law legalising it, 102</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Theodebert, his polygamy, ii. <ref target='Pg343'>343</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Theodoric, his court at Ravenna, ii. <ref target='Pg201'>201</ref>, <ref target='Pg202'>202</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Theodorus, his denial of the existence of the gods, i. 162</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Theodorus, St., his inhumanity to his mother, ii. <ref target='Pg128'>128</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Theodosius the Emperor, his edict forbidding gladiatorial shows, ii. <ref target='Pg036'>36</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Denounced by the Ascetics, <ref target='Pg139'>139</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His law respecting Sunday, <ref target='Pg245'>245</ref></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='404'/><anchor id='Pg404'/> + +<lg> +<l>Theological utilitarianism, theories of, i. 14-17</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Theology, sphere of inductive reasoning in, 357</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Theon, St., legend of, and the wild beasts, ii. <ref target='Pg168'>168</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Theurgy rejected by Plotinus, i. 330.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>All moral discipline resolved into, by Iamblichus, 330</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Thrace, celibacy of societies of men in, i. 106</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Thrasea, mildness of his Stoicism, i. 245</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Thrasea and Aria, history of, ii. <ref target='Pg311'>311</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Thriftiness created by the industrial spirit, i. 140</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Tiberius the Emperor, his images invested with a sacred character, i. 260.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His superstitions, 367, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Timagenes, exiled from the palace by Tiberius, i. 448, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Titus, the Emperor, his tranquil end, i. 207.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Instance of his amiability, 287</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Tooth-powder, Apuleius' defence of, ii. <ref target='Pg148'>148</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Torments, future, the doctrine of, made by the monks a means of extorting money, ii. <ref target='Pg216'>216</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Monastic legends of, 220</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Tragedy, effects of the gladiatorial shows upon, among the Romans, i. 277</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Trajan, the Emperor, his gladiatorial shows, i. 287.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Letter of Pliny to, respecting the Christians, 437.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Trajan's answer, 437.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His benevolence to children, ii. <ref target='Pg077'>77</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legend of St. Gregory and the Emperor, <ref target='Pg223'>223</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Transmigration of souls, doctrine of, of the ancients, ii. <ref target='Pg166'>166</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Travelling, increased facilities for, of the Romans, i. 234</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Trinitarian monks, their works of mercy, ii. <ref target='Pg073'>73</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Troubadours, one of their services to mankind, ii. <ref target='Pg232'>232</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>'Truce of God,' importance of the, ii. <ref target='Pg254'>254</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Truth, possibility of adding to the happiness of men by diffusing abroad, or sustaining, pleasing falsehoods, i. 52.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Saying of Pythagoras, 53.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Growth of, with civilisation, 137.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Industrial, political, and philosophical, 137-140.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Relation of monachism to the abstract love of truth, ii. <ref target='Pg189'>189</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causes of the mediæval decline of the love of truth, <ref target='Pg212'>212</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Tucker, his adoption of the doctrine of the association of ideas, i. 25, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Turks, their kindness to animals, i. 289</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Types, moral, i. 156.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>All characters cannot be moulded in one type, 158</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Ulpian on suicide, i. 218, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Unselfishness of the Stoics, i. 177</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Usury, diversities of moral judgment respecting, i. 92</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Utilitarian school. <hi rend='italic'>See</hi> Morals; Virtue; Vice</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Utility, rival claims of, and intuition to be regarded as the supreme regulators of moral distinctions, i. 1, 2.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Various names by which the theory of utility is known, 3.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Views of the moralists of the school of, 3, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Valerian, his persecutions of the Christians, i. 454</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Valerius Maximus, his mode of moral teaching, i. 174</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Vandals, their conquest of Africa, ii. <ref target='Pg150'>150</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Varro, his conception of the Deity, +<pb n='405'/><anchor id='Pg405'/> +i. 163.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On popular religious beliefs, 167</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Venus, effect of the Greek worship of, on the condition of women, ii. <ref target='Pg291'>291</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Vespasian, his dying jest, i. 259.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effect of his frugality on the habits of the Romans, 292.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Miracle attributed to him, 347.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His treatment of philosophers, 448, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Vice, Mandeville's theory of the origin of, i. 7.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And that <q>private vices were public benefits,</q> 7.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Views of the Utilitarians as to, 12.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The degrees of virtue and vice do not correspond to the degrees of utility, or the reverse, 40-42.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The suffering caused by vice not proportioned to its criminality, 57-59.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Plato's ethical theory of virtue and vice, 179.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Grote's summary of this theory, 179, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Conception of the ancients of sin, 195.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Moral efficacy of the Christian sense of sin, ii. <ref target='Pg003'>3</ref>, <ref target='Pg004'>4</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Virgil, his conception of the Deity, i. 163.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His epicurean sentiment, 193, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>On suicide, 213.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His interest in animal life, ii. <ref target='Pg165'>165</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Virginity, how regarded by the Greeks, i. 105.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Æschylus' prayer to Athene, 105.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Bees and fire emblems of virginity, 108, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reason why the ancient Jews attached a certain stigma to virginity, 109.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Views of Essenes, 109</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Virgins, Vestal, sanctity and gifts attributed to the, i. 106, 107, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Executions of, 407, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reasons for burying them alive, ii. <ref target='Pg041'>41</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>How regarded by the Romans, <ref target='Pg297'>297</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Virtue, Hume's theory of the criterion, essential element, and object of, i. 4.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Motive to virtue according to the doctrine which bases morals upon experience, 6.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Mandeville's the lowest and most repulsive form of this theory, 6, 7.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Views of the essence and origin of virtue adopted by the school of Utilitarians, 7-9.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Views of the Utilitarians of, 12.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Association of ideas in which virtue becomes the supreme object of our affections, 27.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Impossibility of virtue bringing pleasure if practised only with that end, 35, 36.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The utility of virtue not denied by intuitive moralists, 39.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The degrees of virtue and vice do not correspond to the degrees of utility, or the reverse, 53.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The rewards and punishments of conscience, 59, 60.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The self-complacency of virtuous men, 64, 65, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The motive to virtue, according to Shaftesbury and Henry More, 76.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Analogies of beauty and virtue, 77.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their difference, 78.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Diversities existing in our judgments of virtue and beauty, 79, 80.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Virtues to which we can and cannot apply the term beautiful, 82.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The standard, though not the essence, of virtue, determined by the condition of society, 109.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Summary of the relations of virtue to public and private interest, 117.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Emphasis with which the utility of virtue was dwelt upon by Aristotle, 124.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Growth of the gentler virtues, 132.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Forms of the virtue of truth, industrial, political, and philosophical, 137.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Each stage of civilisation is specially appropriate to some virtue, 147.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>National virtues, 151.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Virtues, naturally grouped together according to principles of affinity or congruity, 153.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Distinctive beauty of a moral type, 154.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Rudimentary +<pb n='406'/><anchor id='Pg406'/> +virtues differing in different ages, nations, and classes, 154, 155.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Four distinct motives leading men to virtue, 178-180.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Plato's fundamental proposition that vice is to virtue what disease is to health, 179.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Stoicism the best example of the perfect severance of virtue and self-interest, 181.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Teachings of the Stoics that virtue should conceal itself from the world, 186.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And that the obligation should be distinguished from the attraction of virtue, 186.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The eminent characteristics of pagan goodness, 190.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>All virtues are the same, according to the Stoics, 192.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Horace's description of a just man, 197.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Interested and disinterested motives of Christianity to virtue, ii. <ref target='Pg003'>3</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Decline of the civic virtues caused by asceticism, <ref target='Pg139'>139</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of this change on moral philosophy, <ref target='Pg146'>146</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The importance of the civic virtues exaggerated by historians, <ref target='Pg147'>147</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Intellectual virtues, <ref target='Pg188'>188</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Relation of monachism to these virtues, <ref target='Pg189'>189</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Vitalius, St., legend of, and the courtesan, ii. <ref target='Pg320'>320</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Vivisection, ii. <ref target='Pg176'>176</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Approved by Bacon, <ref target='Pg176'>176</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Volcanoes, how regarded by the early monks, ii. <ref target='Pg221'>221</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Vultures, why made an emblem of nature by the Egyptians, i. 108, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>War, its moral grandeur, i. 95.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The school of the heroic virtues, 173.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Difference between foreign and civil wars, 232.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Antipathy of the early Christians to a military life, ii. <ref target='Pg248'>248</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Belief in battle being the special sphere of Providential interposition, <ref target='Pg249'>249</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effects of the military triumphs of the Mohammedans, <ref target='Pg251'>251</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influences of Christianity upon war considered, <ref target='Pg254'>254</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Improved condition of captives taken in war, <ref target='Pg256'>256</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Warburton, on morals, i. 15, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>, 17, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Waterland, on the motives to virtue and cause of our love of God, quoted, i. 9, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>, 15, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Wealth, origin of the desire to possess, i. 23.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Associations leading to the desire for, for its own sake, 25</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Western Empire, general sketch of the moral condition of the, ii. <ref target='Pg014'>14</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Widows, care of the early Church for, ii. <ref target='Pg366'>366</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Will, freedom of the human, sustained and deepened by the ascetic life, ii. <ref target='Pg123'>123</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Wine, forbidden to women, i. 93, 94, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Witchcraft, belief in the reality of, i. 363.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Suicide common among witches, ii. <ref target='Pg054'>54</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Wollaston, his analysis of moral judgments, i. 76</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Women, law of the Romans forbidding women to taste wine, i. 93, 94, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Standards of female morality of the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, 103, 104.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Virtues and vices growing out of the relations of the sexes, 143.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Female virtue, 143.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effects of climate on this virtue, 144.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Of large towns, 146.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And of early marriages, 145.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Reason for Plato's advocacy of community of wives, 200.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Plutarch's high sense of female excellence, 244.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Female gladiators at Rome, 281, and <hi rend='italic'>note</hi>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Relations of female devotees with the anchorites, ii. <ref target='Pg120'>120</ref>, <ref target='Pg128'>128</ref>, <ref target='Pg150'>150</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Their condition in savage life, <ref target='Pg276'>276</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Cessation +<pb n='407'/><anchor id='Pg407'/> +of the sale of wives, <ref target='Pg276'>276</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Rise of the dowry, <ref target='Pg277'>277</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Establishment of monogamy, <ref target='Pg278'>278</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Doctrine of the Fathers as to concupiscence, <ref target='Pg281'>281</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Nature of the problem of the relations of the sexes, <ref target='Pg282'>282</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Prostitution, <ref target='Pg282'>282-284</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Recognition in Greece of two distinct orders of womanhood—the wife and the hetæra, <ref target='Pg287'>287</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condition of Roman women, <ref target='Pg297'>297</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legal emancipation of women in Rome, <ref target='Pg304'>304</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Unbounded liberty of divorce, <ref target='Pg306'>306</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Amount of female virtue in Imperial Rome, <ref target='Pg308'>308-312</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Legislative measures to repress sensuality, <ref target='Pg312'>312</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>To enforce the reciprocity of obligation in marriage, <ref target='Pg312'>312</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And to censure prostitution, <ref target='Pg315'>315</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Influence of Christianity on the position of women, <ref target='Pg316'>316</ref>, <hi rend='italic'>et seq.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Marriages, <ref target='Pg320'>320</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Second marriages, <ref target='Pg324'>324</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Low opinion of women, produced by asceticism, <ref target='Pg338'>338</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The canon law unfavourable to their proprietary rights, <ref target='Pg338'>338</ref>, <ref target='Pg339'>339</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Barbarian heroines and laws, <ref target='Pg341'>341-344</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Doctrine of equality of obligation in marriage, <ref target='Pg346'>346</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The duty of man towards woman, <ref target='Pg347'>347</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condemnation of transitory connections, <ref target='Pg350'>350</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Roman concubines, <ref target='Pg351'>351</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The sinfulness of divorce maintained by the Church, <ref target='Pg350'>350-353</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Abolition of compulsory marriages, <ref target='Pg353'>353</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Condemnation of mixed marriages, <ref target='Pg353'>353</ref>, <ref target='Pg354'>354</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Education of women, <ref target='Pg355'>355</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Relation of Christianity to the female virtues, <ref target='Pg358'>358</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Comparison of male and female characteristics, <ref target='Pg358'>358</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>The Pagan and Christian ideal of woman contrasted, <ref target='Pg361'>361-363</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Conspicuous part of woman in the early Church, <ref target='Pg363'>363-365</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Care of widows, <ref target='Pg367'>367</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Worship of the Virgin, <ref target='Pg368'>368</ref>, <ref target='Pg369'>369</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Effect of the suppression of the conventual system on women, <ref target='Pg369'>369</ref>.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Revolution going on in the employments of women, <ref target='Pg373'>373</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Xenocrates, his tenderness, ii. <ref target='Pg163'>163</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Xenophanes, his scepticism, i. 162</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Xenophon, his picture of Greek married life, ii. <ref target='Pg288'>288</ref></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Zadok, the founder of the Sadducees, i. 183, <hi rend='italic'>note</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Zeno, vast place occupied by his system in the moral history of man, i. 171.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His suicide, 212.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His inculcation of the practice of self-examination, 248</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l>Zeus, universal providence attributed by the Greeks to, i. 161</l> +</lg> + +</div> + +</body> +<back rend="page-break-before: right"> + <div id="footnotes"> + <index index="toc" /> + <index index="pdf" /> + <head>Footnotes</head> + <divGen type="footnotes"/> + </div> + <div rend="page-break-before: right"> + <divGen type="pgfooter" /> + </div> +</back> +</text> +</TEI.2> |