diff options
Diffstat (limited to '42865-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 42865-0.txt | 3342 |
1 files changed, 3342 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/42865-0.txt b/42865-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a99b351 --- /dev/null +++ b/42865-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3342 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42865 *** + + ENGLISH CONFERENCES + OF + ERNEST RENAN. + + ROME AND CHRISTIANITY. + MARCUS AURELIUS. + + TRANSLATED BY + CLARA ERSKINE CLEMENT. + + [Illustration] + + BOSTON: + JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY. + 1880. + + + + + Copyright, 1880, + By JAMES R. OSGOOD & COMPANY. + + Franklin Press: + Stereotyped and Printed by + Rand, Avery, & Co., + Boston. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE. + + The Hibbert Conferences. + + _First Conference._ The Sense in which Christianity + is a Roman Work 9 + + _Second Conference._ The Legend of the Roman + Church.--Peter and Paul 39 + + _Third Conference._ Rome, the Centre of the Formation + of Ecclesiastical Authority 73 + + _Fourth Conference._ Rome, the Capital of Catholicism 103 + + The Royal Institution Conference. + + Marcus Aurelius 139 + + + + +NOTE. + + +The lectures contained in this volume were delivered by M. Ernest Renan +in London during April of the present year. The first four, upon "Rome +and Christianity," were given under the auspices of "The Hibbert +Foundation," in response to an invitation under which the distinguished +author visited England. The fifth, "Marcus Aurelius," was incidental to +the visit, and was given before "The Royal Institution." The word +"Conferences," though somewhat new to English usage in its present +sense, has been retained as best expressing the author's original title, +"_Conferences d'Angleterre_." + + + + + ROME AND CHRISTIANITY. + + FIRST CONFERENCE, + + London, April 6, 1880. + + THE SENSE IN WHICH CHRISTIANITY + IS A ROMAN WORK. + + + + +FIRST CONFERENCE. + +THE SENSE IN WHICH CHRISTIANITY IS A ROMAN WORK. + + +Ladies and Gentlemen,--I was proud and happy to receive from the +curators of this noble institution an invitation to continue here an +instruction inaugurated by my illustrious confrère and friend, Max +Müller, the usefulness of which will be more and more appreciated. A +broad and sincere thought always bears fruit. It is thirty years since +the venerable Robert Hibbert made a legacy for the purpose of aiding the +progress of enlightened Christianity, inseparable, according to his +idea, from the progress of science and reason. Wisely carried out, this +foundation has become, in the hands of intelligent administrators, the +centre of conferences upon all the great chapters of the history of +religion and humanity: the promoters of this reform have asked, with +reason, why the method which has proved good in all departments of +intellectual culture should not also be good in the domain of religion? +why the pursuit of truth, without regard to consequences, should be +dangerous in theology, when it is approved of in the entire domain of +social and natural science? You believed the truth, gentlemen, and you +were right. There is but one truth; and we are wanting in respect to its +revelation, if we allow that the critic ought to soften his severe +processes when he treats of it. No, gentlemen, the truth is able to +dispense with compliments. I come gladly at your call; for I understand +the duties towards the right exactly as you do. With you, I should +believe that I injured a faith in admitting that it required to be +treated with a certain softness. I believe with you that the worship due +from man to the ideal consists in independent scientific research, +without regard to results, and that the true manner of rendering homage +to the truth is to pursue it without ceasing, with the firm resolution +of sacrificing all to it. You desire that these conferences shall +present a great historic _ensemble_ of the efforts which the human race +has made to resolve the problems which surround it, and affect its +destiny. In the present state of the human mind, no one can hope to +resolve these problems: we suspect all dogmatism simply because it is +dogmatism. We grant willingly that a religious or philosophical system +can, indeed, or that it ought to, enclose a certain portion of truth; +but we deny to it, without examination, the possibility of enclosing the +absolute truth. What we love is history. History well written is always +good; for, even if it should prove that man in seeking to seize the +infinite has pursued a chimera, the history of these attempts, more +generous than successful, will always be useful. It proves, that, in +reality, man goes beyond the circle of his limited life through his +aspirations. It shows what energy he has expended for the sake of his +love of the good and true; it teaches us to estimate him,--this poor +disinherited one, who, in addition to the sufferings which nature +imposes upon him, imposes still further upon himself the torture of the +unknown, the torture of doubt, the severe resistances of virtue, the +abstinences of austerity, the voluntary sufferings of the ascetic. Is +all this a pure loss? Is this unceasing effort to attain the +unattainable as vain as the course of the child who pursues the ever +flying object of his desire? It pains me to believe it; and the faith +which eludes me when I examine in detail each of the systems scattered +throughout the world, I find, in a measure, when I reflect upon all +these systems together. All religions may be defective and incomplete; +religion in humanity is nothing less than divine, and a mark of superior +destiny. No, they have not labored in vain--those grand founders, those +reformers, those prophets of all ages--who have protested against the +false evidences of gross materialism, who have beaten themselves +against the wall of the apparent fatality that encloses us; who have +employed their thought, given their life, for the accomplishment of a +mission which the spirit of their age had imposed upon them. If the fact +of the existence of the martyrs does not prove the exclusive truth of +this or that sect (all sects can show a rich martyrology), this fact in +general proves that religious zeal responds to something mysterious. +All,--as many as we are,--we are sons of martyrs. Those who talk the +most of scepticism are frequently the most satisfied and indifferent. +Those who have founded among you religious and political liberty, those +who have founded in all Europe liberty of thought and research, those +who have labored for the amelioration of the fate of men, those who will +doubtless find means for further amelioration, have suffered, or will +suffer, for their good work; for no one is ever recompensed for what he +does for the good of humanity. Nevertheless they will always have +imitators. There will always be some to carry on the work of the +incorrigibles; some, possessed of the divine spirit, who will sacrifice +their personal interest to truth and justice. Be it so: they have chosen +the better part. I know not what assures me that he who, without knowing +why, through simple nobility of nature, has chosen for himself in this +world the essentially unproductive lot of doing good, is the true sage, +and has discovered the legitimate use of life with more sagacity than +the selfish man. + + +I. + +You have asked me to retrace before you one of those pages of religious +history which places the thoughts which I come to express in their +fullest aspect. The origins of Christianity form the most heroic episode +in the history of humanity. Man never drew from his heart more devotion, +more love of the ideal, than in the one hundred and fifty years which +elapsed from the sweet Galilean vision, under Tiberius, to the death of +Marcus Aurelius. The religious consciousness was never more eminently +creative, and never laid down with more authority the law of the future. +This extraordinary movement, to which no other can be compared, came +forth from the bosom of Judaism. But it is doubtful if Judaism alone +would have conquered the world. It was necessary that a young and bold +school, coming out of its midst, should take the audacious part of +renouncing the largest portion of the Mosaic ritual. It was necessary, +above all, that the new movement should be transported into the midst of +the Greeks and Latins, while awaiting the Barbarians, and become like +yeast in the bosom of those European races by which humanity +accomplishes its destinies. What a beautiful subject he will discourse +upon who shall one day explain to you the part which Greece took in that +great common work! You have commissioned me to show to you the part of +Rome. The action of Rome is the first in date. It was scarcely until the +beginning of the third century that the Greek genius, with Clement of +Alexandria and Origen, really seized upon Christianity. I hope to show +you, that, since the second century, Rome has exercised a decisive +influence upon the Church of Jesus. + +In one sense, Rome has diffused religion through the world, as she has +diffused civilization, as she has founded the idea of a central +government, extending itself over a considerable part of the world. But +even as the civilization which Rome has diffused has not been the small, +narrow, austere culture of ancient Latium, but in fact the grand and +large civilization which Greece created, so the religion to which she +definitely lent her support was not the niggardly superstition which was +sufficient to the rude and primitive inhabitants of the Palatine: it was +Judaism, that is to say, in fact, the religion which Rome scorned and +hated most, that which two or three times she believed herself to have +finally vanquished to the profit of her own national worship. This +ancient religion of Latium, which contented a race endowed with narrow +intellectual wants and morals, among which customs and social rank +almost held the place of a religion during some centuries, was a +sufficiently despicable thing. As M. Boissier has perfectly proved, a +more false conception of the divinity was never seen. In the Roman +worship, as in most of the ancient Italiote worships, prayer was a magic +formula, acting by its own virtue, independent of the moral dispositions +of him who prayed. People prayed only for a selfish end. There exist +some registers called _indigitamenta_, containing lists of the gods who +supply all the wants of men; thus there was no need of being deceived. +If the god was not addressed by his true name, by that under which it +pleased him to be invoked, he was capable of misapprehension, or of +interpreting capriciously. Now these gods, who are in some degree the +forces of the world, are innumerable. There was a little god who made +the infant utter his first cry (_Vaticanus_); there was another who +presided over his first word (_Fabulinus_); another who taught the baby +to eat (_Educa_); another who taught him to drink (_Potina_); another +who made him keep quiet in his cradle (_Cuba_). In truth, the good wife +of Petronius was right, when, in speaking of the Campagna, she said, +"This country is so peopled with divinities, that it is easier to find a +god than a man." Besides these, there were unending series of +allegories, or deified abstractions, Fear, the Cough, Fever, Manly +Fortune, Patrician Chastity, Plebeian Chastity, the Security of the Age, +the Genius of the Customs (or of the _octroi_), and above all (listen, +that one who, to say the truth, was the great god of Rome), the Safety +of the Roman People. It was a civil religion in the full force of the +term. It was essentially the religion of the State. There was no +priesthood distinct from the functions of the State: the State was the +veritable god of Rome. The father had there the right of life and death +over his son; but if this son had the least function, and the father met +him in his path, he descended from his horse, and bent himself before +him. + +The consequence of this essentially political character was, that the +Roman religion remained always an aristocratic religion. A man became +pontiff as he became prætor or consul. When a man desired these +religious functions, he submitted to no examination; he went into no +retreat in a seminary; he did not ask himself whether he had the +ecclesiastical vocation: he proved that he had served his country well, +and that he had been wounded in a certain battle. There was no +sacerdotal spirit. These civil pontiffs remained cold, practical men, +and had not the least idea that their functions should separate them +from the world. The religion of Rome is, in every respect, the inversion +of theocracy. Civil law rules acts: it does not trouble itself with +thoughts; thus did the Roman religion. Rome never had the least idea of +dogma. The exact observation of the rites commanded by the divinity, in +which it did not regard piety or the sentiments of the heart, if the +request was in form, was all that was required. Even more,--devotion was +a fault; calmness, order, regularity, only, were necessary: more than +that was an excess (_superstitio_). Cato absolutely forbade that a slave +should be allowed to conceive any sentiment of piety. "Know," said he, +"that it is the master who sacrifices for all the household." It was not +needful to neglect what was due to the gods; but it was not needful to +give them more than was due: that was superstition, of which the true +Roman had as much horror as of impiety. + +Was there ever, I ask you, a religion less capable of becoming the +religion of the human race than that? Not only was the access to the +priesthood for a long time forbidden to the plebeians, but they were +also excluded from the public worship. In the great struggle for civil +equality which fills the history of Rome, religion is the great argument +with which the revolutionists are opposed. "How," say they, "could you +become a prætor or consul? You have not the right to take the omens." +Above all, the people were very little attached to religion. Each +popular victory was followed, as one may say, by an anti-clerical +re-action: on the contrary, the aristocracy remained always faithful to +a worship which gave a divine sanction to its privileges. + +The matter became still more pressing when the Roman people, by their +manly, patriotic virtues, had conquered all the nations upon the borders +of the Mediterranean. What interest, think you an African, a Gaul, a +Syrian, took in a worship which concerned only a small number of high +and often tyrannical families? The local religions were continued +everywhere; but Augustus, who was still more a religious organizer than +a great politician, made the Roman idea to hover everywhere by the +establishment of the Roman worship. The altars of Rome and of Augustus +became the centre of a hierarchical organization of Flamens and Augustan +_Sevirs_, who served to found, more than one imagines, the divisions of +the dioceses and ecclesiastical provinces. Augustus admitted all the +local gods as Lares; he allowed more than the number of Lares in each +house; at each cross-road an additional Lare was placed,--the Genius of +the Emperor. Thanks to this fellowship, all the local gods and all the +special gods became "Augustan gods." It was a great advance. But this +grand attempt of the worship of the Roman State was notoriously +insufficient to satisfy the religious needs of the heart. There was +elsewhere a god who could not accommodate himself in any way to this +fraternity: it was the God of the Jews. It was impossible to make +Jehovah pass for a Lare, and associate with the Genius of the Emperor. +It was evident that a conflict must be established between the Roman +State and this unchangeable and refractory God, who did not bend to the +complaisant transformations exacted by the politics of the times. + +Ah, well! behold the most extraordinary historical phenomenon, the most +intense irony of all history: it is that the worship which Rome has +diffused through the world is not in the least the old worship of +Jupiter Capitolinus, or Latiaris, still less the worship of Augustus and +of the Genius of the Emperor: it is, in truth, the worship of Jehovah. +It is Judaism in its Christian form that Rome has propagated, without +wishing it, in so powerful a manner, that, from a certain epoch, +Romanism and Christianity have become almost synonymous words. + +Truly, I repeat it, it is more than doubtful if pure Judaism--that which +is developed under the Talmudical form, and which is still in our day so +powerful--would have had this extraordinary fortune. Judaism propagates +itself through Christianity. But one understands nothing of religious +history (some one, I hope, will demonstrate it to you some day), unless +it is fixed as a fundamental principle that Christianity had its origin +in Judaism itself,--Judaism with its fruitful principles of alms and +charity, with its absolute confidence in the future of humanity, with +that joy of the heart of which it has always had the secret,--only +Judaism freed from some observances and distinctive traits which had +been invented to characterize the special religion of the children of +Israel. + + +II. + +If one studies in fact the progress of the primitive Christian missions, +he remarks that they are all directed towards the West: in other words, +they take the Roman Empire as their theatre and limit. If one excepts +some small portions of the vassal territory of the Arsacidæ, lying +between the Euphrates and the Tigris, the empire of the Parthians +received no Christian missions during the first century. The Tigris was +an eastern boundary which Christianity did not pass under the Sassanidæ. +Two great causes--the Mediterranean and the Roman Empire--determined +this capital fact. + +The Mediterranean had been, during a thousand years, the great route on +which all civilizations and all ideas had passed each other. The Romans, +having freed it from piracy, had made it an unequalled way of +communication. It was in a sense the railroad of that time. A numerous +marine of coasting-vessels rendered the voyages along the borders of +this great lake very easy. The relative security which the routes of the +empire afforded, the sure guaranties found in the public powers, the +scattering of the Jews over all the coasts of the Mediterranean, the use +of the Greek tongue in the eastern portion of this sea, the unity of +civilization which the Greeks first, and then the Romans, had created, +made the map of the empire also the map of the countries reserved to the +Christian missions and destined to become Christian. The Roman _orbis_ +became the Christian _orbis_ in the sense in which it may be said that +the founders of the empire were the founders of the Christian monarchy, +or, at least, that they have drawn its outlines. Every province +conquered by the Roman Empire became a province conquered by +Christianity. Let the figures of the apostles be imagined in the +presence of Asia Minor, of Greece, of Italy divided into a hundred +little republics, of Gaul, of Spain, of Africa, of Egypt, with its old +national institutions, and their success can no more be thought of, or +rather it would seem that their project could never have had birth. The +union of the empire was the necessary preliminary condition of all great +religious propagandism, placing it above nationalities. The empire +recognized this in the fourth century. It became Christian. It saw that +Christianity was the religion which it had accepted without knowing +it,--the religion limited by its frontiers, identified with it, capable +of bringing it a second life. + +The Church, on its side, made itself entirely Roman, and has remained to +this day a fragment of the empire. During the middle ages the Church was +the old Rome, seizing again its authority over the barbarians, imposing +on them its decretals, as formerly it had imposed its laws, governing +them by its cardinals, as it had before governed through its imperial +legates and proconsuls. + +In creating its vast empire, Rome imposed, then, the material condition +of the propagation of Christianity. She raised up, above all, the moral +state which served as an atmosphere and a medium for the new doctrine. +While destroying politics everywhere, it created what may be called +socialism and religion. At the close of the frightful wars which for +some centuries had rent the world, the empire had an era of prosperity +and of welfare such as it had never known: we may even be permitted to +add (without a paradox) liberty. Liberty of thought, at least, increased +under this new _régime_. This liberty is often more prosperous under a +king or a prince than under the jealous and narrow-minded plebeian. The +ancient republics did not have it. The Greeks did great things without +it, thanks to the incomparable power of their genius; but it must not be +forgotten that Athens had a fine and noble Inquisition. The king Archon +was the inquisitor; the royal Portico was the holy office in which the +accusations of impiety were adjudged. These were the cases in which the +Attic orators were most frequently engaged. Not only philosophical +crimes, such as the denial of God or of a Providence, but the lightest +attaint of the municipal worship, the preaching of strange religions, +the most puerile infractions of the scrupulous legislation of the +mysteries, were crimes guilty of death. The gods whom Aristophanes +mocked on the stage sometimes destroyed. They destroyed Socrates; they +failed to kill Alcibiades. Anaxagoras, Protagoras, Diagoras of Melas, +Prodicus of Ceos, Stilpo, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Aspasia, Euripides, +were more or less seriously disturbed. Liberty of thought was, in truth, +the fruit of the royalties resulting from the Macedonian conquest. It +was the Attali, the Ptolemies, who first gave to men of thought the +freedom which no one of the old republics had ever offered them. The +Roman Empire held to the same traditions. There was under the empire +more than one arbitrary law against the philosophers; but these always +resulted from their meddling with political affairs. In the laws of the +Romans, before the time of Constantine, no clause is found against the +liberty of thought; in the history of the emperors, no process of +abstract doctrine. No _savant_ was disturbed in his researches. Men +whom the middle ages would have burned, such as Galen, Lucian, Plotinus, +lived tranquilly, protected by law. The empire inaugurated a period of +liberty in the sense that it destroyed the absolute sovereignty of the +family, the city, the tribe, and replaced or modified these +sovereignties by those of the State. Now, an absolute power is as much +more vexatious as the circle in which it is exercised is more narrow. +The ancient republics, the feudalities, tyrannized over the individual +much more than did the State. Unquestionably the Roman Empire persecuted +Christianity severely at times; but at least it did not destroy it. Now +the republics would have rendered it impossible. Judaism, if it had not +been under the Roman authority, would have stifled it. It was the Roman +magistrates who hindered the Pharisees from killing Christianity. Some +lofty ideas of universal brotherhood--results, in the main, of +stoicism,--a sort of general sentiment of humanity, were the fruit of +the least narrow _régime_ and of the least exclusive education to which +the individual was submitted. The people dreamed of a new era and new +worlds. The public riches were great; and, in spite of the imperfection +of the economical doctrines of the time, there was general comfort. + +General customs were not such as are often imagined. It is true, that, +in Rome, all the vices were publicly displayed with a revolting +cynicism: the spectacles, above all, had introduced a frightful +corruption. Certain countries, as Egypt, had descended to the lowest +baseness. But there existed in most of the provinces a middle class, in +which goodness, conjugal fidelity, the domestic virtues, and uprightness +were commonly practised. Does there anywhere exist, in a world of honest +people in small villages, an ideal of family life more charming than +that which Plutarch has left us? What good fellowship! What sweetness of +manners! What chaste and attractive simplicity! Chæronea was evidently +not the only place where life was so pure and so innocent. + +The customs, even outside of Rome, were still somewhat cruel, either +through the remaining spirit of ancient manners, everywhere sanguinary, +or through the special influence of Roman harshness. But there was +progress during this period. What sweet and pure sentiment, what feeling +of melancholy tenderness, has not found expression by the pen of Virgil +or of Tibullus? The world unbent, lost its ancient severity, and +acquired some softness and tenderness. Some maxims for humanity were +spread abroad. Equality and the abstract idea of the rights of man were +boldly preached by stoicism. Woman became more and more the mistress of +herself. The precepts for the treatment of slaves were improved. The +slave was no longer that necessarily grotesque and wicked being which +the Latin comedy introduced in order to provoke bursts of laughter, and +whom Cato recommended to be treated as a beast of burden. Now, times are +much changed. The slave is morally equal to his master: it is admitted +that he is capable of virtue, of fidelity, of devotion, and he gives +proofs of it. The prejudices concerning noble birth grow less. Some very +humane and just laws are made, even under the worst emperors. Tiberius +was a skilful financier: he founded upon an excellent basis an +establishment of _crédit foncier_. Nero inaugurated in the system of +taxation, until then unjust and barbarous, some improvements which shame +even our own time. Legislation was considerably advanced, while the +punishment of death was stupidly prodigal. Love of the poor, sympathy +for all, and almsgiving, came to be considered virtues. + + +III. + +Unquestionably I understand and share the indignation of sincere +liberals against a government which diffused a frightful despotism over +the world. But is it our fault that the wants of humanity are diverse, +its aspirations manifold, its aims contradictory? Politics is not every +thing here below. What the world desired, after those frightful +butcheries of the earlier centuries, was gentleness, humanity. They had +enough of heroism: those vigorous goddesses, eternally brandishing their +spears on the height of the Acropolis, inspired sentiment no longer. The +earth, as in the time of Cadmus, had swallowed her most noble sons. The +proud Grecian races had killed each other. The Peloponessus was a +desert. The sweet voice of Virgil gently took up the cry of humanity, +peace, pity! + +The establishment of Christianity responded to this cry of all tender +and weary souls. Christianity could only have had birth and expansion in +a time when there were no longer free cities. If there was any thing +totally lacking in the founders of the Church, it was patriotism. They +were not cosmopolites, for the entire planet was to them a place of +exile: they were idealists in the most absolute sense. + +A country is a composition of soul and body. The soul is the souvenirs, +the legends, the customs, the misfortunes, the hopes, the common +sorrows: the body is the soil, the race, the language, the mountains, +the rivers, the characteristic productions. Now, was a people ever more +wanting in all this than the first Christians? They did not cling to +Judæa; after a few years they had forgotten Galilee; the glory of Greece +and Rome was indifferent to them. The countries in which Christianity +was first established--Syria, Cyprus, and Asia Minor--no longer +remembered the time when they were free. Greece and Rome, it is true, +still had a grand national sentiment. At Rome, patriotism survived in a +few families; in Greece, Christianity flourished only at Corinth,--a +city which, since its destruction by Mummius, and its reconstruction by +Cæsar, was the resort of men of all races. The true Greek countries, +then, as to-day, very jealous, very much absorbed in the memories of +their past, gave little countenance to the new doctrines: they were +always lukewarm Christians. On the contrary, those gay, indolent, +voluptuous countries of Asia and Syria, countries of pleasure, of free +manners, _de laisser aller_, accustomed to receive life and government +from others, had nothing to resign in the way of pride and traditions. +The most ancient capitals of Christianity--Antioch, Ephesus, +Thessalonica, Corinth, and Rome--were common cities, so to speak, cities +of the modern type of Alexandria, in which all races met, where that +marriage between man and the soil, which constitutes a nation, was +absolutely broken. + +The importance given to social questions is always the inverse of +political pre-occupations. Socialism takes the lead when patriotism +grows weak. Christianity exploded the social and religious ideas, as was +inevitable, since Augustus had put an end to political struggles. +Christianity, if a universal worship, would, like Islamism, in reality +be the enemy of nationalities. Only centuries, only schisms, could form +national churches from a religion which was from the beginning a denial +of all terrestrial countries, which had its birth at an epoch in which +there were no longer in the world either cities or citizens, and which +the old and powerful republics of Italy and of Greece would surely have +expelled as a mortal poison to the State. + +And here was one of the causes of the grandeur of the new religion. +Humanity is a multiform, changeable thing, tormented by conflicting +desires. _La patrie_ is grand, and the heroes of Marathon and Thermopylæ +are saints. But one's country is not all here below: one is a man and a +son of God, before he is a Frenchman, or a German. The kingdom of God, +an eternal dream which is never destroyed in the heart of man, is a +protestation against a too exclusive patriotism. The thought of an +organization of humanity, in view of its greatest happiness and its +moral amelioration, is legitimate. The State knows, and can only know, +one thing,--to organize a collective egoism. This is not indifference, +because egoism is the most powerful and seizable of human motives, but +is not sufficient. The governments which have rested upon the +supposition that man is composed of covetous instincts only, have +deceived themselves. Devotion is as natural as egoism to a true-born +man. The organization of devotion is religion: let no one hope, then, to +dispense with religion, or religious associations. Each progression of +modern society will render this want more imperious. + +A great exaltation of religious sentiment was, then, the consequence of +the _Roman peace_ established by Augustus. Augustus realized it. But I +ask, What satisfaction could the institutions which Rome dared to +believe eternal present to the religious wants which were arising? +Surely almost nothing. All the old worships, of very different origin, +had one common trait. They shared equally the impossibility of reaching +a theological teaching, a practical morality, an edifying preaching, a +pastoral ministry truly fruitful for the people. The Pagan temple, in +its best time, was the same thing as the synagogue and the church: I +wish to say the common house, the school, the inn, the hospital, the +shelter in which the poor sought an asylum, it was a cold _cella_, into +which one seldom entered, where one learned nothing. The affectation +which led the Roman patricians to distinguish the "religion," that is to +say, their own worship, from the "superstition," that is to say, the +worship of strangers, appears to us puerile. All the Pagan worships were +essentially superstitious. The peasant who in our day places a sou in +the box of a miraculous chapel, who invokes some saint on account of his +oxen, or his horses, who drinks certain waters for certain maladies, is +in these acts a Pagan. Indeed, nearly all our superstitions are the +remains of a religion anterior to Christianity, which that has not been +able to entirely uproot. If one would find the image of Paganism in our +day, it must be sought in some obscure village in the depth of some +out-of-the-way country. + +Having as guardians a popular, vacillating tradition, and selfish +sacristans, the Pagan religion could but degenerate in worship. +Augustus, although with a certain reserve, accepted the adoration of his +subjects in the provinces. Tiberius allowed, under his own eyes, that +ignoble concourse of the cities of Asia to dispute the honor of raising +a temple to him. The extravagant impieties of Caligula produced no +re-action: outside of Judaism there was not found a single priest to +resist such follies. Coming forth, for the most part, from a primitive +worship of natural forces ten times transformed by minglings of all +sorts, and by the imagination of the peoples, the Pagan worships were +limited by their past. One could never draw from them what had never +existed in them,--Deism or instruction. The fathers of the church amuse +us when they bring to notice the misdeeds of Saturn as the father of a +family, and of Jupiter as a husband. But without doubt, it was still +more ridiculous to set up Jupiter (that is to say, the atmosphere) as a +moral god who commands, defends, rewards, and punishes. In a world which +aspires to possess a catechism, what could one do with a worship like +that of Venus, which arose from an old social necessity of the first +Ph[oe]nician navigation in the Mediterranean, but became in time an +outrage to that which one regards more and more as the essence of +religion? + +Here is the explanation of that singular attraction, which, towards the +commencement of our era, drew the populations of the Old World towards +the worships of the East. These worships had something more profound +than the Greek and Latin worships: they appealed, moreover, to the +religious sentiment. Almost all were relative to the state of the soul +in another life, and they were believed to contain some pledges of +immortality. From this arose that favor which the Thracian and Sabasian +mysteries enjoyed, the worshippers of Bacchus, and brotherhoods of all +sorts. There was less of coldness in these little circles, in which one +pressed against another, than in the great glacial world elsewhere. Some +minor religions, like that of Psyche, destined solely to console for +death, had immense popularity. Those noble Egyptian worships which +concealed the emptiness within by grand splendor of ceremonies counted +their devotees throughout the empire. Isis and Serapis had their altars +at the extremities of the world. In visiting the ruins of Pompeii, one +would be tempted to believe that the worship of Isis was the principal +one practised there. Those little Egyptian temples had some assiduous +devotees, among whom were counted a large number of persons of the class +of the friends of Catullus and Tibullus. There was a service each +morning,--a sort of mass, celebrated by a tonsured and beardless priest; +there were some sprinklings of holy water, and perhaps an evening +service: it occupied, amused, and quieted. What more is necessary? + +But, more than all others, the Mithraic worship enjoyed in the second +and third centuries an extraordinary popularity. I sometimes allow +myself to say, that, had not Christianity taken the lead, Mithraicism +would have become the religion of the world. Mithraicism had mysterious +re-unions, and chapels which strongly resembled little churches. It +established a very solid bond of brotherhood between its votaries; it +had the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, and bore such a resemblance to the +Christian mysteries, that the good Justin the Apologist saw only one +explanation of these resemblances: it is that Satan, in order to deceive +the human race, sought to mimic the Christian ceremonies, and committed +this plagiarism. The Mithraic tomb of the Catacombs of Rome is as +edifying and deeply mysterious as the Christian tombs. There were some +devoted Mithraists, who, even after the triumph of Christianity, +defended the sincerity of their faith with courage. The people grouped +themselves around these foreign gods: around the Greek and Italiote gods +there were no gatherings. We must say a good word for it: it is only the +small sects that lay the foundation and build up. It is so sweet to +believe one's self a little aristocracy of truth, to imagine, that, in +common with a very few, one owns the repository of truth! Such a foolish +sect in our own time gives to its adherents more consolation than a more +healthy philosophy. In his day, Abracadabra secured some joyous +followers, and, by means of a little good-will, a sublime theology has +been found in him. + + * * * * * + +We shall see, however, in our next conference, that the religious reign +of the future belonged neither to Serapis, nor to Mithra. The +predestined religion grew imperceptibly in Judæa. This would have +greatly astonished the most sagacious Romans, if it had been announced +to them. It would have been shocking to them in the highest degree. But +so often in history have improbable predictions become true, so often +has wisdom been mistaken, that it is not best to rely too much upon the +likes and dislikes of enlightened men, of _bons esprits_ as we say, when +they undertake to predict the future. + + + + + SECOND CONFERENCE, + + London, April 9, 1880. + + THE LEGEND OF THE ROMAN CHURCH.--PETER + AND PAUL. + + + + +SECOND CONFERENCE. + +PETER AND PAUL. + + +Ladies and Gentlemen,--At our last meeting we attempted to show the +situation of the Roman Empire in regard to religious questions during +the first century. There was in the vast gathering of populations which +composed the empire a pressing want of religion, a true moral progress, +which called for a pure worship without superstitious practices or +bloody sacrifices; a tendency to Monotheism, which made the old +mythological recitals appear ridiculous; a general sentiment of sympathy +and of charity, which inspired the desire of association, of assembling +together for prayer, for support, for consolation, for the assurance +that after death one would be interred by his brethren, who would also +make a little feast in his memory. Asia Minor, Greece, Syria, and Egypt +contained masses of the poor,--very honest men, after their manner, +humble, and without distinction; but revolted at the spectacle which the +Roman aristocracy made, full of horror at those hideous representations +in the theatres, in which Rome made a diversion of suffering. The moral +conscience of the human race sent up an immense protestation, and there +was no priest to interpret it, no pitying God to reply to the sighs of +poor suffering humanity. Slavery, in spite of the protestations of the +sages, remained very cruel. Claudius thought to do a grand and humane +act in making a law that the master who should drive from his house an +old and sick slave should lose his right in that slave, if he were +cured. How could gods without compassion, and born of joy and the +primitive imagination, be expected to console for such evils? A Father +in heaven was required, who kept a record of the efforts of man, and +promised him a recompense. A future of justice was desired, in which the +earth belonged to the feeble and the poor. The assurance was necessary, +that, when a man suffered, it was not an entire loss, and that beyond +those sad horizons, veiled by tears, there were happy fields in which +one day he should console himself for his sorrows. Judaism indeed had +all that. By the institution of the synagogues (do not forget, +gentlemen, that it is from the synagogue that the church comes), it +established association in the most powerful form in which it had ever +been realized. In appearance, at least, the worship was pure Deism; no +images, only scorn and sarcasm for idols. But that which above all +characterized the Jew was his confidence in a brilliant and happy +future for humanity. Having no idea based upon the immortality of the +soul, nor upon the remunerations and punishments beyond the tomb, the +Jew, disciple of the ancient prophet, was as if intoxicated with the +sentiment of justice: he wished justice now upon earth. Having little +confidence in the assurances of the eternity which made the Christians +so easily resigned, the Jew grumbled at Jehovah, reproached him with his +ignorance, and demanded how he could leave the earth so long in the +power of the impious. As for himself, he did not doubt that the earth +would one day be his, and that his law would make love and justice to +reign therein. + +In this struggle, gentlemen, the Jew will be victorious. Hope, that +which the Jew calls the _Tiqva_, that assurance of something which +nothing proves, but to which one attaches himself with so much the more +frenzy because it is not sure, is the soul of the Jew. His psalms were +like the continuous sound of a harp, filling life with harmony and a +melancholy faith: his prophets held the words of eternity. For example, +that second Isaiah, the prophet of the captivity, pictured the future +with more dazzling colors than man had ever seen in his dreams. The +Thora, besides that, gives the recipe for being happy (for being happy +here below, I mean), by observing the moral law, the spirit of the +family, and the spirit of duty. + + +I. + +The establishment of the Jews at Rome dated nearly sixty years before +Jesus Christ. They multiplied rapidly. Cicero represented it as an act +of courage to dare to oppose them. Cæsar favored them, and found them +faithful. The people detested them, thought them malevolent, accused +them of forming a secret society whose members were advanced at any +price, to the detriment of others. But all did not approve these +superficial judgments. The Jews had as many friends as detractors: +something superior was noticeable in them. The poor Jewish colporter of +the Trastevere often in the evening returned home rich with the +charities received from a pious hand. Women, above all, were attracted +by these missionaries in rags. Juvenal counts the weakness towards the +Jewish religion among the vices of the ladies of his time. The word of +Zachariah was verified to the letter: the world seized upon the garments +of the Jews, and said, "Lead us to Jerusalem." + +The principal Jewish quarter of Rome was situated beyond the Tiber, that +is to say, in the poorest and dirtiest part of the city, probably near +the present _Porta Portese_. There, or rather opposite to the foot of +the Aventine, the gate of Rome was formerly situated, where the +merchandise brought from Ostia in barges was discharged. It was a +quarter of Jews and Syrians,--"nations born for servitude," as Cicero +said. The nucleus of the Jewish population at Rome was formed, in truth, +of freedmen, descended, for the most part, from those prisoners whom +Pompey had carried there. They had passed through slavery, without +changing their religious customs in the least. That which is admirable +in Judaism is that simplicity of faith which makes the Jew, transported +a thousand leagues from his country, at the end of several generations, +always a very Jew. The intercourse between the synagogues of Rome and +Jerusalem was continual. The first colony had been re-enforced with +numerous emigrants. These poor men disembarked by hundreds at the Ripa, +and lived together in the adjacent quarter of the Trastevere, serving as +street-porters, engaged in small affairs, exchanging matches for broken +glasses, and showing to the proud Italiote populations a type which +later became too familiar to them,--that of the beggar accomplished in +his art. A Roman who respected himself never placed his foot in these +abject quarters. It was as a suburb given up to despised classes and to +infectious employments: the tanneries, the gut-works, the rotting vats +were banished there. These unhappy people lived tranquilly enough in +this remote corner, in the midst of bales of merchandise, low inns, and +porters of manure (_Syri_), who had there their general headquarters. +The police only entered there when affrays were bloody, or occurred too +often. Few quarters of Rome were so free: politics had nothing to do +there. Worship was not only practised there in ordinary times without +obstacles, but its propagation was also accomplished with great +facility. + +Protected by the disdain which they inspired, caring little, moreover, +for the railleries of the men of the world, the Jews of the Trastevere +led a very active religious and social life. They had some schools of +_hakamin_: nowhere was the ritual and ceremonial of the law observed +more scrupulously: the organization of the synagogue was the most +complete ever known. The titles of "father and mother" of the synagogues +were much prized. Some rich converts took biblical names; they brought +their slaves into the church with them, they had the Scriptures +explained by the doctors, built places of prayer, and manifested their +pride of the consideration which they enjoyed in this little world. The +poor Jew found the means, while begging with a trembling voice, to +whisper in the ear of the great Roman lady some words of the law, and +frequently won over the matron who opened to him her hand full of small +coin. To observe the sabbath and the Jewish feasts was to Horace the +trait which classed a man in the crowd of weak minds. The universal +benevolence, the happiness of reposing with the just, the assistance of +the poor, the purity of manners, the gentle acceptance of death +considered as a sleep, are some of the sentiments which are found in the +Jewish inscriptions, with that particular accent of touching unction, of +certain hope, which characterizes the Christian inscriptions. There have +been many rich and powerful Jews in the world, such as Tiberius +Alexander, who arrived at the greatest honors of the empire, who +exercised two or three times the strongest influence upon public +affairs, and even had, to the great grief of the Romans, his statue in +the Forum; but those were not good Jews. The Herods, though practising +their worship at Rome with much show, were also far from being true +Israelites, even if their only sins were their relations with the +Pagans. + +A world of ideas was thus set in motion on the vulgar quay where the +merchandise of the whole world was piled up; but all that would be lost +in a great city like Paris. Undoubtedly the proud patricians, who, in +their promenades on the Aventine, cast their eyes upon the other side of +the Tiber, did not imagine the future that was forming itself in that +little cluster of poor houses at the foot of Janiculum. + +Near the port was a sort of lodging-house well known to the people and +the soldiers under the name of _Taberna Meritoria_. In order to attract +the loungers, a pretended spring of oil coming out of a rock was shown +there. From a very early time this spring of oil was considered by the +Christians as symbolic: it was pretended that its appearance was +coincident with the birth of Jesus. It seems that later the _Taberna_ +became a church. Under Alexander Severus we find the Christians and the +inn-keepers in a contest over a place which formerly had been public: +that good emperor gave it to the Christians. This is probably the origin +of the Church of the Santa Maria of the Trastevere. + +It is natural that the capital should have fully accepted the name of +Jesus before the intermediate countries could be evangelized, as a high +summit is lighted up while the valleys between it and the sun are still +obscure. Rome was the rendezvous for all the Oriental worships,--the +point upon the coast of the Mediterranean with which the Syrians had the +most intercourse. They arrived there in enormous bands. Like all the +poor populations rising for the assault of the great cities to which +they come to seek their fortunes, they were serviceable and humble. All +the world spoke Greek. The ancient Roman plebeians, attached to the old +customs, lost ground each day, drowned as they were in this wave of +strangers. + +We admit then, that towards the year 50 of our era, some Syrian Jews, +already Christians, entered the capital of the empire, and communicated +the faith which rendered them happy to their companions. At this time no +one suspected that the founder of a second empire was in Rome,--a second +Romulus, lodging at the port in a bed of straw. A little band was +formed. These ancestors of the Roman prelates were poor, dirty, common +people, without distinction, without manners, clothed with fetid +garments, having the bad breath of men who are badly fed. Their +dwellings had that odor of misery which is exhaled from persons grossly +clothed and nourished, and huddled together in narrow rooms. We know the +names of two Jews who were the most prominent in these movements. They +were Aquila, a Jew, originally from Pontus, who was like St. Paul an +upholsterer, and Priscilla his wife,--a pious couple. Banished from Rome +they took refuge at Corinth, where they soon became the intimate friends +of St. Paul, and zealous workers with him. Thus Aquila and Priscilla are +the most ancient known members of the Church of Rome. There is scarcely +a souvenir of them there. Tradition, always unjust, because it is always +ruled by political motives, has expelled these two obscure workmen from +the Christian Pantheon in order to attribute the honor of the foundation +of the Church of Rome to a name more in keeping with its proud +pretensions. We do not see the original point of the origin of +Occidental Christianity in the theatrical Basilica consecrated to St. +Peter: it is at that ancient _Ghetto_, the _Porta Portese_. It is in +tracing these poor vagabond Jews, who bore with them the religion of the +world,--these suffering men, dreaming in their misery of the kingdom of +God,--that we shall find it again. We do not dispute with Rome its +essential title. Rome was probably the first point in the Western World, +and even in Europe, where Christianity was established. + +But, instead of these lofty basilicas, in place of these insulting +devices,--_Christus vincit_, _Christus regnat_, _Christus imperat_,--it +would be better to raise a poor chapel to these good Jews who first +pronounced on the quay of Rome the name of Jesus. + +A capital trait, which it is important to note in any case, is, that the +Church of Rome was not, like the churches of Asia Minor, Macedonia, and +Greece, a foundation of the school of Paul. It was fundamentally +Judæan-Christian, re-attaching itself directly to the Church of +Jerusalem. Paul here will never be on his own ground: he will find in +this great church many weaknesses which he will treat with indulgence, +but which will wound his exalted idealism. Attached to circumcision and +outward observances, Ebionite through its taste for abstinences, and by +its doctrine concerning the person and death of Jesus more Jewish than +Christian, leaning strongly towards Millenarianism, the Roman Church +showed, since its first days, the essential traits which will +distinguish it through its long history. Own daughter of Jerusalem, the +Roman Church will always have an ascetic, sacerdotal character, opposed +to the Protestant tendencies of Paul. Peter will be its veritable head; +then, the political and hierarchical spirit of old Rome penetrating it, +it will indeed become the new Jerusalem, the city of the Pontificate, of +the hieratic and solemn religion, of the material sacraments which +justify of themselves, the city of the ascetics of the manner of Jacques +Ohliam with his callous knees and his plate of gold upon his brow. It +will be the authoritative church. If we can believe it, the only mark of +the apostolic mission will be to show a letter signed by the apostles, +to produce a certificate of orthodoxy. The good and the evil which the +Church of Jerusalem did in giving birth to Christianity, the Church of +Rome will do for the Universal Church. It is in vain that Paul will +address to it his beautiful epistle to explain the mystery of the cross +of Jesus and of salvation by faith alone. The Church of Rome will +scarcely comprehend it; but Luther four and a half centuries later will +comprehend it, and will open a new era in a secular series of the +alternate triumphs of Peter and Paul. + + +II. + +An important event in the history of the world took place in the year +61. Paul was led a prisoner to Rome in order to follow up the appeal +which he had made to the tribunal of the emperor. A sort of profound +instinct had always made Paul desire this journey. His arrival at Rome +was almost as marked an event in his life as his conversion. He believed +that he had attained the summit of his apostolic life; and doubtless he +recalled the dream in which, after one of his days of struggle, Christ +had appeared to him, and said, "Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou hast +testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." + +You will not forget the wide divisions which separated the disciples +of Jesus during the first century from the foundation of +Christianity,--divisions so broad, that all the differences which to-day +separate the orthodox, the heretics, and the schismatics of the whole +world, are nothing beside the dissensions of Peter and Paul. The Church +of Jerusalem, obstinately attached to Judaism, refused all intercourse +with the uncircumcised, however pious they might be. Paul, on the +contrary, thought that to maintain the ancient law was an injury to +Jesus, since thus it might be supposed, that, outside the merits of +Jesus, such or such a work could serve for the justification of the +faithful. However strange it may appear, it is certain that the +Judæan-Christians of Jerusalem, with James at their head, organized some +active contra-missions in order to combat the effect of the missions of +Paul, and that the emissaries of these ardent conservatives followed in +some sort the lead of the apostle of the Gentiles. Peter belonged to the +party at Jerusalem, but showed in his conduct that sort of timid +moderation which seems to have been the foundation of his character. Did +Peter also come to Rome? Formerly, gentlemen, this question was one of +the most exciting which could be agitated. Formerly the history of +religion was written, not to recount it, but in order to prove it: +religious history was an annex of theology. During the grand revolt, so +full of courage and of ardent conviction, which, during the sixteenth +century, placed one-half of Europe in opposition to Rome, the negation +of the sojourn of Peter at Rome became a sort of dogma. The Bishop of +Rome is the successor of St. Peter, said the Catholics, and as such the +head of Christendom. How could that reasoning be more strongly refuted +than by maintaining that Peter never placed his foot in Rome? + +As for us, we are permitted to regard this question with the most +perfect disinterestedness. We do not believe, in any sense, that Jesus +intended to give any head whatever to his church; and above all, it is +doubtful whether the idea of such a church as developed later had +existed in the mind of the founder of Christianity. The word _ecclesia_ +occurs only in the Gospel of St. Matthew. The idea of the _episcopos_, +as it existed in the second century, had no place in the mind of Jesus. +He himself was the living _episcopos_ during his brief Galilean +appearance: from that time it is the Spirit who inspires each one until +he may return. In any case, if it had been possible that Jesus should +have had any idea whatever of the _ecclesia_ and _episcopos_, it is +absolutely beyond doubt, that Jesus never thought of giving the future +_episcopos_ of the city of Rome to be the head of his church,--that +impious city, the centre of all the impurities of the earth, of whose +existence he perhaps knew scarcely any thing, and of which he should +have entertained the gloomy opinions which all the Jews professed. If +there is any thing in the world which was not instituted by Jesus, it is +the Papacy, that is to say, the idea that the Church is a monarchy. We +are, then, perfectly at liberty to discuss the question of Peter's +coming to Rome. This question is absolutely without consequence for us; +and from our solution the only result will be to say whether Leo XIII. +is or is not the head of the Christian conscience. Whether Peter was or +was not in Rome, it has for us no political nor moral bearing. It is a +curious question of history: it is useless to pursue it further. + +First, let us say, that the Catholics have laid themselves open to the +peremptory objections of their adversaries by their unfortunate +reckoning of the coming of Peter to Rome in the year 42,--a reckoning +borrowed from Eusebius and St. Jerome, which extends the duration of the +pontificate of Peter to twenty-three or twenty-four years. There is +nothing more inadmissible. In order to leave no doubt in regard to this, +it is sufficient to consider that the persecution of Peter at Jerusalem +by Herod Agrippa occurred in the year 44. It would be superfluous to +oppose longer a thesis which can have no one reasonable defence. It is +possible, in fact, to go much further, and to affirm that Peter had not +yet come to Rome when Paul was taken there, that is to say, in the year +61. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, written about the year 58, is a +very considerable argument here. One can scarcely imagine St. Paul +writing to the faithful, of whom St. Peter was the head, without making +the least mention of the latter. The last chapter of the Acts of the +Apostles is still more demonstrative. This chapter, especially from the +seventeenth to the twenty-ninth verse, cannot be explained, if Peter +was at Rome when Paul arrived there. Let us, then, consider it +absolutely certain that Peter did not come to Rome before Paul, that is +to say, before or about the year 61. + +But did he not come there after Paul? This has never been positively +proved; this late journey of Peter's to Rome was not only probable, but +there are strong arguments in its favor. Besides the testimony of the +Fathers of the second and third centuries, there are three reasons which +do not appear to me unworthy:-- + +1st, It is indisputably certain that Peter suffered a martyr's death. +The testimony of the fourth evangelist, of Clement Romanus, of the +fragment which is called the "_Canon de Muratori_," of Denis of Corinth, +of Caius, of Tertullian, leave no doubt in this respect. Let the fourth +Gospel be apocryphal, allow that chapter xxi. has been added in later +times, it makes no difference. It is clear, that, in the verses in which +Jesus announces to Peter that he shall die by the same suffering as his +own, we have the expression of an opinion established in the Church +about 120 or 130, to which allusions are made as to a fact known to all. +Now, it is not possible to imagine that Peter died a martyr outside of +Rome. It was only at Rome, in fact, that the persecution of Nero was +violent. At Jerusalem, at Antioch, the martyrdom of Peter would have +been much less probable. + +2d, The second reason is found in the Epistle attributed to St. Peter +(v. 13): "The church that is at Babylon ... saluteth you." Babylon, in +this passage, evidently indicates Rome. If the Epistle is authentic, the +passage is decisive: if it is apocryphal, the conclusion to be drawn +from the text is not weakened. The author, in short, whoever he may be, +wishes it to be regarded as the work of Peter. He was consequently +forced, in order to give an appearance of truth to his fraud, to arrange +the circumstances which he related, according to what he knew, or +believed was known in his time, of the life of Peter. If, in such a +spirit, he dated the letter at Rome, it shows, that, in his day, it was +the general opinion that Peter had resided at Rome. But, in any case, +the First Epistle of Peter is a very ancient work, and had very early a +high authority. + +3d, The theory which is founded upon the Ebionite Acts of St. Peter is +also worthy of much consideration. This theory represents St. Peter as +following Simon the Magician everywhere (according to St. Paul), in +order to dispute his false doctrines. M. Lipsius has shown an admirable +critical sagacity in his analysis of this legend. He has shown that the +base of all the different versions of it which have come to us was +written about the year 130. It seems improbable that an Ebionite author +of such early date could have given so much importance to Peter's +journey to Rome, if this journey had not taken place in reality. The +theory of the Ebionite legend must contain some truth at the bottom, in +spite of the fables which are mingled with it. It is quite admissible +that St. Peter might have come to Rome, as he went to Antioch, following +St. Paul, and in part to neutralize his influence. The missions of St. +Paul, and the facility which the Jews had acquired in their voyages had +made long expeditions quite the custom. The apostle Philip is even +represented by an ancient and persistent tradition as having settled +himself in Hierapolis, in Asia Minor. + +I regard, then, as probable, the tradition of the sojourn of Peter at +Rome; but I believe that this sojourn was short, and that Peter suffered +martyrdom soon after his arrival in the Eternal City. + + +III. + +You know the mystery which hovers above the history of primitive +Christianity, which we might desire to know more in detail. The death of +the apostles Peter and Paul remains enveloped in a veil which will never +be penetrated. That which appears the most probable is, that they both +disappeared in the great massacre of Christians commanded by Nero. + +On the 19th of July, in the year 64, a violent fire burst out at Rome. +It originated in that portion of the great Circus near to the Palatine +and C[oe]lian Hills. In this quarter there were many little shops, +filled with inflammable matter, in which the flames spread with +prodigious rapidity. Thence it made the turn of the Palatine, ravaged +the Velabra, the Forum, the Carinæ, ascended the hills, greatly injured +the Palatine, descended again to the valleys, devouring compact +quarters, and piercing tortuous streets, continuing six days and seven +nights. An enormous pile of houses which were torn down near the foot of +the Esquiline, arrested its progress for a time; then it again broke +out, and endured three days more. A considerable number of people +perished. Of the fourteen portions which composed the city, three were +entirely destroyed; of seven, only blackened walls remained. Rome was an +extremely compact city, and the population very dense. This disaster was +frightful, and the like of it had never before been seen. + +When the fire broke out, Nero was at Antium. He returned to the city +about the time when it approached his "transitory" house. It was not +possible to arrest the flames. The imperial houses of the Palatine, the +"transitory" house itself with its dependencies, and the whole +surrounding quarter, were destroyed. Nero did not seem much to regret +the loss of his house. The sublime horror of the spectacle transported +him. Later it was said that he had watched the fire from a tower, where, +in a theatrical costume, with a lyre in his hand, he chanted the ruin of +Ilion to the rhythm of an ancient elegy. + +This was a legend, the fruit of a period of successive exaggerations; +but one point upon which the universal opinion was decisive from the +first was, that Nero had commanded this fire, or at least had revived it +when it seemed about to die out. + +These suspicions were confirmed by the fact, that, after the fire, Nero, +under pretext of removing the ruins at his own cost, in order to leave +the place free to the proprietors, undertook to clear away the _débris_; +and the people were not allowed to approach. This seemed worse when it +was seen that he drew from the ruins what belonged to the country, when +the new palace, that "golden house" which had been the plaything of his +delirious imagination, was seen rising upon the site of the ancient +provisory residence, enlarged by the spaces which the fire had cleared. + +It was believed that he had desired to prepare the place for his new +palace, to justify the reconstruction which he had long contemplated, to +procure money by appropriating the wreck of the fire, in short, to +satisfy his mad vanity, which led him to desire to rebuild the whole of +Rome, so that it might date from him, and be called Neropolis. + +All the honest men of the city were outraged. The most precious +antiquities of Rome, the houses of the ancient leaders, decorated with +triumphal spoils, the most holy objects, the trophies, the ancient +_ex-votos_, the most revered temples, all the belongings of the old +worship of the Romans, had disappeared. It was as if they mourned the +souvenirs and the traditions of the whole country. They celebrated +expiatory services; they consulted the books of the Sibyl: the ladies +especially observed various _piacula_. But the secret consciousness of a +crime and infamy still remained. + +Then an infernal idea took possession of the mind of Nero. He cast about +to see if he could find anywhere some miserable wretches, still more +detested by the Roman plebeians than himself, upon whom he could rest +the odium of the incendiarism. He thought of the Christians. The horror +which they testified towards the temples and the most venerated edifices +of the Romans made the idea plausible, that they should have been the +authors of this fire, the result of which was the destruction of these +sanctuaries. Their air of sadness in regarding the monuments appeared +like an injury to the nation. Rome was a very religious city, and +whoever protested against the national worship was at once remarked. It +should be remembered that certain rigorous Jews went so far as to refuse +to touch money which bore an effigy: they even saw a great crime in +bearing or looking at an image, unless engaged in the occupation of +carving. Others refused to pass beneath a city gate surmounted by a +statue. All this excited the ridicule and ill-will of the people. +Perhaps the idea that the Christians were incendiaries gained force from +their manner of talking about the final conflagration, their sinister +prophecies, their love of reiterating that the world would soon be +ended, and ended by fire. It is even admissible that some of the +faithful might have committed imprudences, and that there were pretexts +for accusing them of having wished, by anticipating the celestial +flames, to justify their oracles, at any price. Four and a half years +later the Apocalypse was to present a chant upon the burning of Rome, +for which the event of 64 probably furnished more than one feature. The +destruction of Rome by fire had been a Christian and Jewish dream; and +it was not merely a dream: the pious sectaries were pleased to see in +spirit the saints and angels applauding from the heights of heaven what +they regarded as a just expiation. + +A certain number of persons suspected of belonging to the new sect were +arrested, and thrown into prison, which was of itself a punishment. The +first arrests were followed by many others. The people were surprised at +the multitude of converts who had accepted these gloomy doctrines: it +was only spoken of with alarm. All sensible men considered the +accusation of having caused the fire as extremely weak. "Their true +crime," said they, "is hatred of the human race." Although persuaded +that the burning was the crime of Nero, many serious Romans saw in this +work of the police a mode of delivering the city from a dreadful +nuisance. Tacitus, in spite of his pity, was of this opinion. And +Suetonius counted the sufferings which Nero heaped upon the partisans of +the new and mischievous superstitions as among his laudable measures. + +These sufferings were something frightful. Such refinements of cruelty +had never been seen. Almost all those arrested were of the _humiliores_ +(the poorest classes). The sentence of these unfortunates, when it +concerned high treason or sacrilege, was to be thrown to the beasts, or +to be burned alive in the amphitheatre. One of the most hideous traits +of Roman manners was that of making a _fête_, a public amusement, of +these tortures. The amphitheatres had become places of execution: the +tribunals furnished the victims. The condemned of the entire world were +forwarded to Rome for the provisionment of the circus and the amusement +of the people. At this time derision was added to the barbarism of these +tortures. The victims were kept for a feast day, to which was given, +without doubt, an expiatory character. "The morning spectacle," +consecrated to the combats of animals, presented an appearance hitherto +unknown. The condemned, covered with the tawny skins of beasts, were +hurried into the arena, where they were torn by dogs. Some were +crucified: others, reclothed with tunics steeped in oil, wax, or resin, +were bound to posts, and reserved to light up the evening _fêtes_. When +the day lowered, these living torches were ignited. For this spectacle, +Nero offered his magnificent gardens beyond the Tiber, which occupied +the site of the present Borgo, the Square, and the Church of St. Peter. +Near by was a circus commenced by Caligula, in which the middle of the +_Spina_ was marked by an obelisk brought from Heliopolis (the same one +which in our day stands in the centre of the Square of St. Peter). This +place had already been the scene of massacres by the light of torches. +Caligula, in one of his walks, decapitated a certain number of consular +personages, senators, and Roman ladies, by the light of torches. The +idea of replacing lanterns by human bodies impregnated with inflammable +substances had occurred to the ingenious Nero. Burning alive was not a +new mode of suffering; it was the ordinary penance of incendiaries: but +it had never been made a system of illumination. By the light of these +hideous torches, Nero, who had established the custom of evening +entertainments, showed himself in the arena, sometimes mingling with the +people in the dress of a charioteer, sometimes conducting his chariot +and seeking applause. Women and young girls were involved in these +horrible games: a _fête_ was made of the nameless indignities which they +suffered. Under Nero, the custom was established of compelling the +condemned to play in the amphitheatre some mythological part entailing +the death of the actor. These hideous operas, where mechanical science +attained to prodigious effects, were very popular. The miserable wretch +was introduced into the arena, richly costumed as god or hero devoted to +death. He then represented by his suffering some tragic scene of the +fables consecrated by sculptors and poets. Sometimes it was the furious +Hercules burned on Mount [OE]ta, tearing the waxed tunic from his skin; +sometimes Orpheus torn in pieces by a bear; Dædalus thrown from heaven, +and devoured by beasts; Pasiphæ struggling in the embraces of the bull; +Attys murdered. Sometimes there were horrible masquerades, in which the +men were dressed like priests of Saturn with a red cloak, the women as +priestesses of Ceres with fillets on the brow; finally, at other times, +some dramatic work of the time, in which the hero was really condemned +to death as Laureolus; or the representations were those of such tragic +acts as that of Mucius Scævola. At the end of these hideous spectacles, +Mercury, with a red-hot iron wand, touched each corpse to see if it +moved. Some masked valets, dressed like Pluto or Orcus, dragged away the +dead by the feet, killing with hammers all who still breathed. The +Christian ladies of the highest respectability even suffered these +monstrosities. Some played the _rôle_ of the Danaïdes, others that of +Dirce. It is difficult to say what fable furnishes a more bloody picture +than that of the Danaïdes. The suffering which all mythological +tradition attributes to these guilty women was not cruel enough to +suffice for the pleasure of Nero and the _habitués_ of his amphitheatre. +Sometimes they were led out bearing urns, and received the fatal blow +from an actor figuring as Lynceus. Sometimes these unhappy beings went +through the series of the sufferings of Tartarus before the spectators, +and only died after hours of torments. The representations of Hell were +quite _à la mode_. Some years previous (the year 41), some Egyptians and +Nubians came to Rome, and made a great success in giving evening +performances, in which they displayed in order the horrors of the +subterranean world, conforming to the paintings of the burial-places of +Thebes, notably those of the tomb of Seti I. + +As for the sufferings of the Dirces, there was no doubt about them. +People know the colossal group now in the Museum of Naples, called the +_Toro Farnese_,--Amphion and Zethus attaching Dirce to the horns of an +unmanageable bull, which is to drag her over the rocks and briers of +Cithæron. This mediocre Rhodian marble, brought to Rome in the time of +Augustus, was the object of universal admiration. How could there be a +finer subject for the hideous art which the cruelty of the time had made +in vogue, and which consisted in reproducing the celebrated statues in +living tableaux? An inscription and a fresco of Pompeii seem to prove +that this terrible scene was frequently repeated in the arenas, when a +woman was the sufferer. Naked, attached by the hair to the horns of a +furious bull, these poor wretches glutted the eyes of a ferocious +people. Some of the Christians immolated in this way were feeble in +body: their courage was superhuman. But the infamous crowd had eyes +alone for their torn bowels and lacerated bosoms. + +After the day when Jesus expired in Golgotha, the _fête_ day in the +Gardens of Nero (it may be fixed about the first of August, 64) was the +most solemn in the history of Christianity. The solidity of any +construction is in proportion to the sum of virtue, of sacrifices, and +of devotion which has been laid down at its base. Only fanatics lay +foundations. Judaism endures still on account of the intense frenzy of +its zealots; Christianity, on account of its first witnesses. The orgy +of Nero was the grand baptism of blood which set Rome apart as the city +of martyrs in order to play a distinct _rôle_ in the history of +Christianity and to be the second Holy City. It was the taking +possession of the Vatican Hill by conquerors hitherto unknown there. The +odious, hair-brained man who governed the world did not perceive that he +was the founder of a new order, and that he signed a charter for the +future, the effects of which would be claimed after eighteen hundred +years. + + +IV. + +As we have said, it is allowable, without improbability, to connect the +deaths of the apostles Peter and Paul with the account which we have +just given. The only historical incident known, by which the martyrdom +of Peter can be explained, is the episode recounted by Tacitus. Some +solid reasons also lead us to believe that Paul suffered the death of a +martyr at Rome. It is then natural to suppose that he also died in the +massacre of July and August, 64. As to the manner of death of the two +apostles, we know with certainty that Peter was crucified. According to +some ancient writings, his wife was executed with him, and he saw her +led to the sacrifice. One accepted account of the third century says, +that, too humble to equal Jesus, he suffered with his head down. The +characteristic trait of the butchery of 64 having been the search for +odious rarities in torture, it is possible that in truth Peter was shown +to the crowd in this hideous attitude. Seneca mentions some cases in +which tyrants have been known to turn the heads of the crucified towards +the earth. Christian piety has seen a mystical refinement in that which +was indeed an odd caprice of the executioner. Perhaps this extract from +the Fourth Gospel--"Thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another +shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not"--includes +some allusion to a peculiarity in the suffering of Peter. Paul, in his +quality of _honestior_, had his head cut off. It is also probable that +he was judged regularly, and that he was not included in the summary +condemnations of the victims in the _fête_ of Nero. All that, I repeat, +is doubtful, and of little importance. True or not, the legend is +believed. At the commencement of the third century, near Rome, there +were already seen two monuments bearing the names of Peter and Paul. One +was situated at the foot of the Vatican Hill, that of St. Peter: the +other, in the way to Ostia, was that of St. Paul. They were called in +oratorial style the trophies of the apostles. In the fourth century two +basilicas were raised above these trophies. One of them is the present +basilica of St. Peter: the other, St. Paul-without-the-Walls, has +retained its essential features until our own century. + +Did the trophies which the Christians venerated about the year 200 +designate the spots upon which these apostles suffered? It is possible. +It is not unlikely that Paul, toward the end of his life, dwelt in the +suburb which extended beyond the Lavernal gate as far as the pine of the +Salvian springs in the way to Ostia. The shade of Peter, on the other +hand, wanders always, according to the Christian legend, towards the +turpentine-tree of the Vatican, not far from the gardens of the Circus +of Nero, and especially about the obelisk. It may be that the ancient +place of the obelisk in the sacristy of St. Peter, now indicated by an +inscription, is nearer to the place where St. Peter upon the cross of +his frightful agony surfeited the eyes of a populace greedy to see him +suffer. However, that is a secondary question. If the basilica of the +Vatican does not really cover the tomb of St. Peter, it points out not +the less for our remembrance one of the spots most truly hallowed by +Christianity. The place which the seventeenth century surrounded with a +theatrical colonnade was a second Calvary; and, even supposing that +Peter was not crucified there, at least we cannot doubt the sufferings +of the Danaïdes and the Dirces. + + * * * * * + +We shall show in our next assembly how tradition disposes of all these +doubts, and how the Church consummates reconciliation between Peter and +Paul, which death perhaps began. This was the price of success. The +Judæan-Christianity of Peter and the Hellenism of Paul, apparently +irreconcilable, were equally necessary to the success of the future +work. The Judæan-Christianity represented the conservative spirit +without which nothing is solid; Hellenism, advance and progress, without +which nothing truly exists. Life is the result of a conflict between two +contrary forces. The absence of all revolutionary spirit is as fatal as +the excess of revolution. + + + + + THIRD CONFERENCE, + + London, April 13, 1880. + + ROME, + THE CENTRE OF THE FORMATION OF ECCLESIASTICAL + AUTHORITY. + + + + +THIRD CONFERENCE. + +ROME THE CENTRE OF THE FORMATION OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. + + +I. + +Almost always the nations created to play a part in universal +civilization, like Judæa, Greece, and the Italy of the renaissance, +exercise their full action upon the world, only after becoming victims +to their own grandeur. They must first die; then the world lives on +them, assimilates to itself that which they have created at the price of +their fever and their sufferings. Nations ought to choose in fact +between the long, tranquil, obscure destiny of that which lives for +itself, and the troubled, stormy career of that which lives for +humanity. The nation which works out social and religious problems in +its own bosom is almost always weak politically. Every country which +dreams of a kingdom of God, which lives for general ideas, which pursues +a work of universal interest, sacrifices through the same its individual +destiny, enfeebles and destroys its _rôle_ as a terrestrial country. +One can never set himself on fire with impunity. Since Judæa made the +religious conquest of the world, it was necessary that she should +disappear as a nation. A revolution of extreme violence broke out in +this country in the year 66. During four years, this strange race, which +seemed created to defy equally that which blessed and that which cursed +it, was in a convulsion before which the historian should pause with +respect as he would before all mystery. + +The causes of this crisis were very old, and the crisis itself was +inevitable. The Mosaic law, a work of exalted Utopians possessed of a +powerful socialist ideal,--the least politic of men,--was, like the +Islam, exclusive of a civil society parallel with a religious society. +This law, which appears to have been drawn up, as we now read it, in the +seventh century before Jesus Christ, would have been the means of +destroying the little kingdom of the descendants of David, even without +the Assyrian conquest. Since the preponderance assumed by the prophetic +element, the kingdom of Judah--embroiled with all its neighbors, seized +with a permanent rage against Tyre, hating Edom, Moab, and Ammon--could +no longer survive. I repeat, a nation which devotes itself to social and +religious problems neglects its politics. The day in which Israel became +"a peculiar people of God, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation," it was +written that she should no longer be a nation as other nations. +Contrary destinies cannot be united: an exaltation is always expiated by +an abasement. + +The Achemenidean kingdom gave Israel little repose. This grand +feudality, tolerant towards all provincial differences, almost analogous +to the Califat of Bagdad and to the Ottoman Empire, was the rule under +which the Jews found themselves most at ease. The Ptolemaic rule in the +third century before Jesus Christ seemed equally sympathetic to them: +there were even no Seleucidæ. Antioch had become an active centre of +Hellenic propagandism. Antiochus Epiphanus felt it necessary to set up +everywhere the image of Jupiter Olympus as the sign of his power. Then +broke out the first great Jewish revolt against profane civilization. +Israel had patiently supported the disappearance of its political +existence since Nebuchadnezzar. It retained no measure in which it saw a +danger to its religious institutions. A race, in general not military, +was seized with an access of heroism; without a regular army, without +generals, without tactics, it conquered the Seleucidæ, maintained its +revealed rights, and created a second period of autonomy. The Asmonean +royalty, nevertheless, was always distracted by profound interior vices. +It endured but one century. The destiny of the Jewish people was not to +constitute a separate nationality. That people dreamed always of +something international. Its ideal was not the city, it was the +synagogue, the free congregation. The same is true of the Islam, which +has created an immense empire, but has destroyed all nationality, in the +sense in which we understand it, among the peoples which it has +subjugated, and leaves them no other country than the mosque and the +_Zaouia_. + +The name of theocracy is often applied to such a social condition, and +rightly so, if we mean by it that the profound idea of the Semitic +religions, and of the empires which came out from them, is the kingdom +of God considered as the master of the world, and universal suzerain. +But theocracy with these nations was not synonymous with the domination +of priests. The priest, properly speaking, plays an unimportant _rôle_ +in the history of Judaism and Islamism. The power belongs to the +representative of God,--to him whom God inspires, to the prophet, to the +holy man, to him who has received his mission from Heaven, and who +proves his mission by a miracle, that is to say, by success. In default +of a prophet, the power belongs to the author of apocalypses, and of +apocryphal books attributed to the ancient prophets, or, better, to the +doctor who interprets the divine law, to the head of the synagogue, and, +still more, to the head of the family who guards the depository of the +law, and transmits it to his children. A civil power, a royalty, has +little to do with such social organization. This organization never +works better than among spread-out peoples, under the rights of +tolerated foreigners, in a grand empire where uniformity does not rule. +It is the nature of Judaism to be politically subordinate, since it +cannot draw from its own bosom a principle of military power. Its +_animus_ has been to form communities with their own laws and their own +magistrates in the midst of other states, until modern liberalism +introduced the principle of the equality of all before the law. + +The Roman rule, established in Judæa sixty-three years before Christ by +the armies of Pompey, seemed at first to realize some of the conditions +of Jewish life. Rome at this epoch did not pursue the policy of +assimilating the countries which she annexed to her vast empire. She +robbed them of the right of peace and war, and arrogated to herself only +the arbitration in great political questions. + +Under the degenerated remains of the Asmonean dynasty and under the +Herods, the Jewish nation preserved a half independence, in which its +religious state was respected. But the interior feeling of the people +was too strong. Beyond a certain degree of religious fanaticism, man is +ungovernable. It should be said that Rome strove without ceasing to +render her power in the East more effective. The little vassal kingdoms +which she had at first preserved, disappeared day by day, and the +provinces made returns to the empire pure and simple. The administrative +customs of the Romans, even in their most reasonable aspects, were +odious to the Jews. In general, the Romans showed the greatest +condescension to the fastidious scruples of the nation; but that was not +sufficient: things had come to a point where nothing could be done +without touching upon a canonical question. These absolute religions, +like Islamism and Judaism, allow no participation: if they do not reign, +they call themselves persecuted. If they feel themselves protected, they +become exacting, and seek to render life impossible to other worships +about them. + +I should depart from my plan if I recounted to you that strange struggle +of which Josephus tells us,--the terror in Jerusalem, Simon Bar-Gioras, +commandant in the city, John of Giscala with his assassins, master of +the temple. Fanatical movements are far from excluding hate, jealousy, +and defiance, from those who take part in them. Very decided and +passionate men associated together ordinarily suspect each other, and in +this there is a force; for reciprocal suspicion establishes terror among +them, binds them as with an iron chain, hinders defections and moments +of weakness. Interest creates the _coterie_. Absolute principles create +division, and inspire the temptation to decimate, to expel, to kill +enemies. Those who judge human affairs superficially believe that a +revolution is quelled when the revolutionists "eat one another," as it +is expressed. It is, on the contrary, a proof that the revolution has +all its energy, that an impersonal ardor presides over it. This is +nowhere more clearly seen than in the terrible drama at Jerusalem. The +actors seem to have entered into the compact of death like some infernal +rounds, in which, according to the belief of the middle ages, Satan was +seen forming a chain to draw into a fantastic gulf numbers of men, +dancing, and holding each other by the hand. So revolution allows no one +to escape from the dance which it leads. Terror is behind the lukewarm. +Turn by turn, exalting some, and exalted by others, they rush into the +abyss. None can recede; for behind each one is a concealed sword, which, +at the moment that he wishes to draw back, forces him to advance. + +The strangest thing of all is that these madmen were not wholly wrong. +The fanatics of Jerusalem, who affirmed that Jerusalem was eternal even +while it was burning, were nearer the truth than those who regarded them +as mere assassins. They deceived themselves upon the military question, +but not upon the distant religious result. These troubled days point +out, in fact, the moment when Jerusalem became the spiritual capital of +the world. The Apocalypse, a burning expression of the love which she +inspired, has taken its place among the religious writings of humanity, +and has there consecrated the image of the beloved city. Ah, how +important it is never to predict the future of a saint or a villain, a +fool or a sage! Jerusalem, a city of common people, would have pursued +indefinitely its uninteresting history. It is because it had the +incomparable honor of being the cradle of Christianity, that it was the +victim of the Johns of Giscala, of the Bar-Gioras,--in appearance the +scourges of their country, in reality the instruments of its apotheosis. +These zealots, whom Josephus treats as brigands and assassins, were +politicians of the highest order, but unskilful soldiers: still they +lost heroically a country which could not be saved. They lost a material +city: they established the spiritual reign of Jerusalem, sitting in her +desolation far more glorious than she was in the days of Herod and of +Solomon. What did these conservatives, these Sadducees, really desire? +They wished something mean,--the continuation of a city of priests like +Emesa, Tyane, Comane. Assuredly they did not deceive themselves when +they declared that the surging enthusiasm was the ruin of the nation. +Revolution and Messianism destroyed the national existence of the Jewish +people; but revolution and Messianism were the true vocation of this +people,--that by which they contributed to the universal civilization. + + +II. + +The victory of Rome was complete. A captain of our race, of our blood, a +man like us, at the head of legions in whose roll, if we could read it, +we should meet many of our ancestors, had come to crush the fortress of +Semitism, to inflict upon the revealed, accepted law the greatest injury +which it had received. It was the triumph of Roman right, or rather +rational right, a creation utterly philosophical, presupposing no +revelation, above the Jewish Thora, the fruit of a revelation. This +right, whose roots were partly Greek, but in which the practical genius +of the Latins made so fine a part, was the excellent gift which Rome +brought to the vanquished in return for their independence. Each victory +for Rome was a victory for right. Rome bore into the world a better +principle in several respects than that of the Jews: I mean the profane +state, reposing on a purely civil conception of society. + +The triumph of Titus was then legitimate in many ways, and still there +never was a more useless triumph. The deplorable religious nothingness +of Rome rendered its victory unfruitful. This victory did not retard the +progress of Judaism a single day: it did not give the religion of the +empire an added chance to struggle against this redoubtable rival. The +national existence of the Jewish people was lost forever; but that was a +blessing. The true glory of Judaism was Christianity, about to be born. +The ruin of Jerusalem and the temple was an unequalled good for +Christianity. + +If the reasoning of Titus according to Tacitus is correctly reported, +the victorious general believed that the destruction of the temple would +be the ruin of Christianity as well as that of Judaism. No one was ever +more completely deceived. The Romans imagined, that, in tearing up the +root, they should eradicate the shoot at the same time; but the shoot +was already a shrub that lived its own life. If the temple had survived, +Christianity would certainly have been arrested in its development. The +surviving temple would have continued to be the centre of all Judaic +works. It would always have been regarded as the most holy place of the +world: pilgrims would have come there, and would there have brought +their tributes. The Church of Jerusalem, grouped around by consecrated +parvises, would have continued, by the strength of its primacy, to +receive the homage of all the world, to persecute the Christians of the +Church of Paul, to exact, that, in order to have the right to call one's +self the disciple of Jesus, one should practise the circumcision, and +observe the Mosaic code. All effectual propagandism would have been +interdicted: letters of obedience signed at Jerusalem would have been +exacted from the missionary. A centre of irrefragable authority, a +patriarchate composed of a sort of college of cardinals under the +presidency of men like James, pure Jews belonging to the family of +Jesus, would have been established, and would have constituted an +immense danger for the new-born Church. When one sees St. Paul after so +many mishaps remaining always attached to the Church of Jerusalem, one +understands what difficulties a rupture with these holy personages would +have presented. Such a schism would have been considered as an enormity. +The separation from Judaism would have been impossible; and this +separation was the indispensable condition of the existence of the new +religion. The mother was about to kill the child. The temple, on the +contrary, once destroyed, the Christians thought no more of it: very +soon, indeed, they will consider it a profane place: Jesus will be every +thing to them. The Christian Church of Jerusalem was by the same stroke +reduced to a secondary importance. It was re-organized around the +element which made its force, the _desposyni_, the members of the family +of Jesus, the sons of Clopas; but it will reign no more. This centre of +hate and exclusion once destroyed, the reconciliation of the opposing +parties in the Church of Jesus will become easy. Peter and Paul will be +brought into accord, and the terrible duality of the new-born +Christianity will cease to be a mortal sore. Lost in the depth of the +interior of the Batanæa and the Hauran, the little group which attached +itself to James and Clopas becomes the Ebionite sect, and slowly dies. + +These relatives of Jesus were pious, tranquil, mild, modest, +hard-working men, faithful to the severest precepts of Jesus concerning +poverty, but at the same time very exact Jews, considering the title of +"Child of Israel" before every other advantage. From the year 70 to +about the year 110, they really governed the churches beyond the Jordan, +and formed a sort of Christian senate. There is no need to demonstrate +the immense danger which these pre-occupations, with genealogies, were +to the new-born Christianity. A sort of nobility of Christianity was +about to be formed. In the political order the nobility is almost a +necessity to the state. Politics having elements of gross struggles +which render it more material than ideal, a state is very strong only +when a certain number of families has, by tradition and privilege, the +duty and interest of guarding its welfare, representing and defending +it. But, in the order of the ideal government, birth is nothing: each +one is valued in proportion to the truth he shows, and the good he does. +The institutions which have a religious, literary, moral end, are lost, +when considerations of family, caste, heredity, prevail in them. The +nephews and cousins of Jesus would have ruined Christianity, if the +churches of Paul had not already been strong enough to act as a +counterpoise to this aristocracy, the tendency of which would have been +to proclaim itself alone respectable, and to treat all converts as +intruders. Some pretensions analogous to those of the Alides in Islam +were established. Islamism would certainly have perished under the +embarrassment caused by the family of the prophet, if the result of the +struggles of the first century of the Hegira had not been to reject, +upon second thought, all those who were too near the person of the +prophet. The true heirs of a great man are those who continue his work, +and not his relatives by blood. Considering the tradition of Jesus as +his own possession, the little _coterie_ of the Nazarenes, as they are +called, would certainly have stifled it. Happily this narrow circle +disappeared in good season: the relatives of Jesus were soon forgotten +in the interior of the Hauran. They lost all importance, and left Jesus +to his true family, the only one which he has recognized,--those of whom +he said, "They hear the word of God, and keep it." + + +III. + +According as the Church of Jerusalem sank, the Church of Rome rose, or, +rather, a phenomenon was evidently manifested in the years which +followed the victory of Titus. It was that the Church of Rome became +more and more the inheritor and the substitute of the Church of +Jerusalem. The spirit of the two churches was the same: what was a +danger at Jerusalem became an advantage at Rome. The taste for tradition +and the hierarchy, and the respect for authority, were in some sort +transplanted from the parvises of the temple to the Occident. James, the +brother of the Lord, had been a sort of pope at Jerusalem. Rome is about +to take up the part of James. We shall have the pope at Rome. Without +Titus, we should have had the pope in Jerusalem, but with this great +difference, that the pope at Jerusalem would have extinguished +Christianity in about one or two hundred years, while the Pope of Rome +has made it the religion of the universe. + +Here appears a very important person, who seems to have been the head of +the Roman Church in the early years of the first century, concerning +whom I am happy to find myself in accord with one of your most scholarly +and enlightened critics, Mr. Lightfoot. I speak of Clement Romanus. In +the penumbra in which he remains, enveloped and almost lost in the +luminous dust of a beautiful far-off history, Clement is one of the +grand figures of early Christianity: one would say that it was the head +of an old effaced fresco of Giotto's, recognizable still from his golden +aureola, and some dim features of striking purity and sweetness. One +thing is beyond doubt: it is the high rank which he held in the utterly +spiritual hierarchy of the church of his time, and the unequalled credit +with which he sustained it. His approval made the law. All parties clung +to him, and wished to shield themselves under his authority. It is +probable that he was one of the most energetic agents of the grand work +that was about to be accomplished: I mean the posthumous reconciliation +of Peter and Paul, without which union the work of Christ could only +have perished. His high personality, aggrandized by tradition, was, +after that of Peter, the most holy figure of the primitive Christian +Rome. + +Already the idea of a certain primacy in the Church of Rome began to +show itself. The right of advising the other churches and of settling +their differences was accorded to this church. It is believed that like +privileges had been allowed to Peter among the disciples. Now a still +closer bond was established between Peter and Rome. In the time of +Clement, great dissensions divided the Church at Corinth. The Roman +Church, being applied to in these troubles, replied by an epistle, +which has been preserved to us. The epistle is anonymous; but a very +ancient tradition teaches that Clement was the author of it. The Church +at Corinth had changed but little since St. Paul. It had the same proud, +disputant, feeble spirit. It is evident that the principal opposition to +the hierarchy was found in this Greek spirit, always mobile, because it +was always full of life, undisciplined (and for my part I like it), not +knowing how to form a flock from a crowd. The women and the children +were in full revolt. Some superior doctors imagined that they possessed +a profound sense in every thing, and mystic secrets analogous to the +gift of tongues and the discernment of spirits. Those who were honored +with these supernatural gifts scorned the ancients, and aspired to +replace them. Corinth had a respectable presbytery, which, however, did +not receive the highest mysticism. The advanced pretenders cast it in +the shade, and put themselves in its place. Some of the _presbyteri_ +were even dismissed. The struggle between the established hierarchy and +personal revelations began, and this struggle fills the history of the +Church; the privileged soul complaining, that, in spite of the favors +with which it is honored, a gross clergy, wanting in spiritual life, +dominates it officially. We see that this was the heresy of individual +mysticism, maintaining the rights of the spirit against authority, +pretending to rise above common mortals and the ordinary clergy by right +of its direct intercourse with divinity. + +The Roman Church was always the church of order, of subordination, and +of rule. Its fundamental principle was that humility and submission were +of more value than the most sublime gifts. Its epistle is the first +manifestation in the Christian Church of the principle of authority. + +A few years since, there was much surprise when a French archbishop, +then a senator, said in the Tribune, "My clergy is my regiment." Clement +had said this before him. Order and obedience were the supreme laws of +the family and the church. "Let us consider the soldiers who serve under +our sovereigns. With what order, what punctuality, what submission, they +obey their commands: all are not prefects, nor tribunes, nor centurions; +but each one in his rank executes the orders of the emperor and of his +chiefs. The great cannot exist without the small, nor the small without +the great. In every thing there is a mingling of diverse elements, and +by this mingling all advances. Let us take, for example, our bodies. The +head is nothing without the feet; the feet are nothing without the head. +The smallest of our organs are necessary, and serve the whole body: all +conspire, and obey the same principle of subordination for the +preservation of the whole." + +The history of the ecclesiastical hierarchy is the history of a triple +abdication; the community of the faithful first placing all its powers +in the hands of the ancients, or _presbyteri_; the presbyteral body at +length delegating its authority to one person who was the _episcopos_; +then the _episcopi_ of the Latin Church recognized as their head one of +themselves, who became the pope. This last progress, if we may call it +so, was not accomplished until our time. The creation of the episcopate, +on the contrary, was the work of the second century. The absorption of +the church by the _presbyteri_ was accomplished before the year 100. In +the Epistle of Clement Romanus it is not yet with the episcopate, but +with the presbytery, that he deals. We find there no trace of a +_presbyteros_ superior to the others, and entitled to dethrone them; but +the author proclaims positively that the presbytery and the clergy are +above the people. The apostles, in establishing churches, chose through +the inspiration of the Spirit the "bishops and the deacons of the future +believers." The power emanating from the apostles has been transmitted +by regular succession. No church has then the right to dethrone its +seniors. The privilege of the rich is nothing in the church. +Accordingly, those who are favored with mystic gifts, instead of +believing themselves above the hierarchy, should be the more submissive. +This involves the great problem, "Who exists in the church? Is it the +people? Is it the clergy? Is it inspiration?" This problem was already +given in the time of St. Paul, who resolved it in the true manner by +mutual charity. One epistle trenches upon the question in the sense of +pure Catholicism. The apostolic title is every thing: the right of the +people is reduced to nothing. We may then safely assert that Catholicism +had its origin at Rome, since the Church of Rome laid down its first +rules. Prescience pertains to spiritual gifts, to science and +distinction: it belongs to the hierarchy, to the powers transmitted +through the medium of the canonical ordination, which attaches itself to +the apostles by an unbroken chain. The free church as Christ conceived +it, and as St. Paul also regarded it, was a Utopia which held nothing +for the future. Evangelical liberty had destroyed it; and it was not +realized, that, with the hierarchy uniformity and death would come in +time. + + +IV. + +Clement had probably not seen either Peter or Paul. His great practical +sense showed him that the salvation of the Christian Church demanded the +reconciliation of the two founders. Did he influence the author of the +Acts which represent to us this reconciliation as accomplished, and with +whom he seems to have had some intercourse, or did these two pious souls +spontaneously fall into accord on account of the bias which he had given +to Christian opinion? We are ignorant for want of proofs. One thing is +sure, the reconciliation of Peter and Paul was a Roman work. Rome had +two churches,--one coming from Peter, the other from Paul. Those +numerous converts who came to Jesus--some through the school of Peter, +and some through that of Paul--were tempted to exclaim, "What! Are +there, then, two Christs?" It was necessary to be able to reply, "No: +Peter and Paul understand each other perfectly: the Christianity of one +is the Christianity of the other." Perhaps (this is an ingenious +hypothesis of M. Strauss) a light cloud was introduced for this purpose +into the evangelical legend of the miraculous fishing. According to the +recital of Luke, the nets of Peter would not contain the multitudes of +fish which could easily have been taken; Peter was obliged to make a +sign to his co-workers to come to his aid. A second bark (Paul and his +friends) was filled as the first, and the fishing of the kingdom of God +was superabundant. + +The life of the apostles begins to become obscure. All those who have +seen them have disappeared: most of them left no writings. One had +entire liberty to embroider on this virgin canvas still. Friends and +enemies profited by the unknown to set up arguments in support of their +theses, and to satisfy their hates. Towards the year 130, that is to say +about sixty-six years after the death of the apostles, a vast Ebionite +legend was produced at Rome, and designated by the title of the +preaching, or the travels, of Peter. The missions of the chief of the +apostles were recounted there, principally those along the coast of +Ph[oe]nicia; the conversions which he had made; above all, his struggles +against the great anti-Christ, Simon the Magician, who was at this epoch +the spectre of the Christian conscience. But frequently under this +abhorred name another person was concealed: it was the false apostle +Paul, the enemy of the law, the veritable destroyer of the Church. The +true Church was that at Jerusalem, presided over by James, the brother +of the Lord. No apostolate was of any value, if it could not show +letters emanating from this central college. Paul had none: therefore he +was an intruder. He was the "man enemy," who came behind to sow the +tares in the steps of the true sower. With what fury Peter gave the +denial to his impostures, to his false allegations of personal +revelations, his ascension to the third heaven, his, pretension of +knowing about Jesus some things which the hearers of the gospel had not +understood, the exaggerated manner in which he and his disciples +interpreted the divinity of Jesus! + +These strange ideas of half ignorant sectaries would have been without +consequences outside of Rome; but every thing which related to Peter +assumed importance in the capital of the world. In spite of its +heresies, "The Preachings of Peter" had much interest for the orthodox. +The primacy of Peter was there proclaimed. St. Paul was thus injured; +but a few retouches extenuated what was shocking in these attacks. +Several attempts were made to diminish the peculiarities of the new +book, and adapt it to the Catholics. This mode of re-modelling books to +suit the sect to which one belonged was the order of the day. Little by +little the force of things was understood: all sensible men saw that +there was safety for the work of Jesus only in the perfect +reconciliation of the two heads of the Christian doctrine. Paul had, +even in the sixth century, some bitter enemies: he had always some +enthusiastic followers like Marcion. Outside of these obstinate men of +the right and left, there was a union of the moderate masses, who, +before their Christianism in one of the schools, fully recognized the +right of the other to be called Christian. James, the partisan of +absolute Judaism, was sacrificed, although he had been the true chief of +the circumcision. Peter, who was much less objectionable to the +disciples of Paul, was preferred before him. James retained no devoted +partisans outside of the Judæan-Christians. + +It is difficult to say who gained the most in this reconciliation. The +concessions came principally from the side of Paul: all Paul's disciples +received the others without difficulty, while those of Peter repulsed +the followers of Paul. But concessions usually come from the strong. In +truth, each day confirmed Paul's victory. + +Each Gentile convert weighted the balance on his side. Outside of Syria, +the Judæan-Christians were swallowed up by the wave of new converts. The +churches of Paul prospered: they had good judgment, solidity of mind, +and some pecuniary resources which the others had not. The Ebionite +churches, on the contrary, grew poorer each day. The money of the +churches of Paul was spent in the support of some glorious poor men, who +were unable to earn any thing, but who possessed the traditional life of +the primitive spirit. The elevated piety and severe manners of these +last were admired by the Christian communities of Pagan origin, who +imitated and assimilated themselves to these customs. It soon happened +that no distinction was manifest: the sweet and conciliatory spirit of +St. Luke and Clement Romanus prevailed. The compact of peace was sealed. +It was agreed that Peter had converted the first-fruits of the +Gentiles, that he had first absolved them from the yoke of the law. It +was admitted that Peter and Paul had been the two heads, the founders of +the Church of Rome; Peter and Paul became the halves of an inseparable +couple,--two luminaries, like the sun and moon. What one taught, the +other taught also. They had always been in accord: they had opposed the +same enemies, had been victims of Simon the Magician. At Rome they lived +like brothers; the Church of Rome was their common work. The supremacy +of this church was established for ages. + +Thus, from the reconciliation of these parties, the settlement of these +primitive struggles, there came forth a grand unity,--the Catholic +Church, the Church of Peter and of Paul, a stranger to the rivalries +which had marked the first century. + +It was, above all, the death of the two apostles which pre-occupied the +parties, and gave an opportunity for the most diverse combinations. The +tissue of tradition grew in this respect, by an instinctive travail, +almost as imperious as that which had presided at the construction of +the legend of Jesus. The end of the life of Peter and of Paul was +commanded _à priori_. It was maintained that Christ had predicted the +martyrdom of Peter, as he had announced the death of the sons of +Zebedee. The need was felt of associating in death the two persons who +had been reconciled by force. It was hoped, and perhaps this was not far +from right, that they died together, or at least as the consequence of +the same event. The places which were believed to have been sanctified +by this bloody drama were early fixed upon, and consecrated by +_memoriæ_. In each case, whatever the people desired came in the end to +be true. Tradition makes history, retrospectively, as it ought to have +been, and as it never is. Not long ago the portraits of Victor Emmanuel +and Pius IX. hung side by side in every frequented place in Italy; and +the people desired that these two men, who represented principles whose +reconciliation was generally considered necessary to Italy, should be in +reality completely united. If, in our time, such views impose themselves +on history, it will one day appear, in documents reputed to be serious, +that Victor Emmanuel and Pius IX. (probably Garibaldi will be added) met +each other secretly, understood and loved each other. During the middle +ages, at different times, similar attempts were made to appease the +hatreds of the Dominicans and Franciscans; to prove that the founders of +these two orders were two brothers living together in the most +affectionate intercourse; that at first their rules were the same; and +that St. Dominic girded himself with the cord of St. Francis. + +Concerning Peter and Paul, the increase of the legend was rich and +rapid. Rome and all its environs, above all the way to Ostia, were full +of souvenirs which were pretended to be connected with the last days of +the two apostles. A crowd of touching circumstances; the flight of +Peter; the vision of Jesus bearing his cross, _iterum crucifigi_; the +final adieu of Peter and Paul; the meeting of Peter with his wife; Paul +at the Salvian waters; Plautilla sending the handkerchief which bound +her hair to bandage the eyes of Paul,--all this presented a beautiful +ensemble, to which was only wanting an ingenuous and skilful writer. It +was too late; the vein of the first Christian literature was spent; the +serenity of the narrator of the Acts was lost; his voice was raised no +more in story or in romance. It is impossible to choose between a crowd +of equally apocryphal writings: in vain one seeks to shield these +recitals with the most venerable names (pseudo-Linus, pseudo-Marcellus); +the Roman legend of Peter and Paul remains always in a sporadic state. +It was more often recounted by the pious guides than seriously read. It +was a local affair: no text concerning it has been consecrated and made +authoritative for reading in the churches. + + * * * * * + +Many among you, ladies and gentlemen, will go to Rome, or will return +there. Ah, well! if you preserve any good remembrance of these +conferences, go, in memory of me, to the Salvian waters, _alle tre +fontane_, to St. Paul-without-the-Walls. It is one of the most beautiful +parts of the Roman Campagna,--deserted, damp, green, and sad. There, in +a deep depression in the soil, crowned by those grand horizontal lines, +disturbed by no living detail,--there are some clear and cold springs. +The fever and mouldiness of the tomb are inhaled there. Some Trappists +are there established, conscientiously practising their religious +suicide. When you are there, sit down a moment, not too long (one +quickly catches the fever there), and, while the Trappists give you to +drink the water which gushes from the three bounds which the head of +Paul made, think of him who came here to talk of these legends with you, +and to whom you have listened with so much courtesy and kind attention. + + + + + FOURTH CONFERENCE, + + London, April 14, 1880. + + ROME, + THE CAPITAL OF CATHOLICISM. + + + + +FOURTH CONFERENCE. + +ROME, THE CAPITAL OF CATHOLICISM. + + +Ladies and Gentlemen,--It is plain that the importance of the churches +in the primitive Christian community was in proportion to their +apostolic nobility. The guaranty of orthodoxy was in the succession of +the bishops, by which the great churches were linked to the apostles. A +direct line appeared to afford a very strong assurance of conformity of +doctrine, and it was jealously maintained. Now, what can be said of a +church founded by both Peter and Paul? It is clear that such a church +ought to endure in order to have a veritable superiority over others. +The _chef-d'[oe]uvre_ of the competency of the Roman Church was the +establishment of this superiority. That once assured, the ecclesiastical +destiny of Rome was established. When this city should have cast off her +secular character, she would have another,--a sacred capacity, +corresponding to that of Jerusalem. + +She would know how to confiscate to her profit this Christianity which +she had so cruelly combated,--so much had humanity suffered, to escape +from those whom fate had designed for this great secular task, _regere +imperio populos!_ + +Under Antonine and Marcus Aurelius, Rome reached its highest grandeur; +its rule of the whole world seemed to be undisputed; no cloud could be +seen upon its horizon. The emigration from the provinces, above all from +the Orient, was augmented rather than lessened. The Greek-speaking +population was larger than it had ever been. All who desired a place in +the world aspired to come to Rome: nothing was sanctioned until it had +received the stamp of this universal exposition of the products of the +entire universe. + +The centre of a future catholic orthodoxy was evidently there. The +well-developed germ of the Papacy existed under Antonine. The Church of +Rome showed itself more and more indifferent to those crude Gnostic +speculations which occupied some minds filled with the intellectual +activity of the Greeks, but tainted with the reveries of the Orient. The +organization of Christian society was the principal labor at Rome. This +extraordinary city applied to this object the energetic moral strength +and the practical genius which she has employed in the most diverse +causes. Careless of speculation, decidedly hostile to dogmatic +innovations, she presided there,--a mistress already trained by all the +changes which had been brought about in discipline and in the +hierarchy. + + +I. + +From the year 120 to 130 the Episcopate was elaborated in the Christian +Church, and the creation of the Episcopate was eminently a Roman work. +All _ecclesiæ_ imply a little hierarchy,--a bureau as it is called +to-day,--a president, some assessors, and a small staff of men in its +service. Democratic associations are careful that these functions shall +be limited as far as possible as to power and duration; but from this +arises that precarious something which has prevented any democratic +association from outlasting the circumstances which have created it. The +Jewish synagogues have had more continuity, although the synagogical +body has never come to be a clergy. This is the result of the +subordinate place which Judaism has held during several centuries: the +pressure from without has counteracted the effects of internal +divisions. If the Christian Church had been left with the same absence +of directorship, it would doubtless have missed its destiny. + +If its ecclesiastical powers had continued to be regarded as emanating +from the Church itself, it would have lost all its hieratic and +theocratic character. It was written, on the contrary, that a clergy +should monopolize the Christian Church, and substitute themselves for +it. Acting as its spokesman, presenting itself as having the sole power +of attorney in every thing, this clergy will be its strength, and at the +same time its gnawing worm,--the principal cause of its future falls. + +I repeat, that history has no example of a more complete transformation +than that which occurred in the government of the Christian Church about +the time of Hadrian and Antonine. What happened in the Christian Church +will happen in any association in which the subordinates could resign in +favor of the bureau, and that again in favor of the president; so that +afterwards the subordinates and the seniors would have no deliberative +voice nor influence, nor any control in the management of the funds, and +the president would be able to say, "I alone, I, am the association." +The _presbyteri_ (seniors) or _episcopi_ (superintending officers) +became very soon the only representatives of the Church; and almost +immediately another still more important revolution took place. Among +the _presbyteri_ or _episcopi_, there had been one, who, through the +habit of occupying the principal seat, absorbed the power of the others, +and became pre-eminently the _episcopos_ or the _presbyteros_. The form +of worship contributed powerfully to the establishment of this unity. +The eucharistic act could only be celebrated by one person, and gave to +the celebrant an extreme importance. That _episcopos_, with a surprising +rapidity, became the head of the presbytery, and, consequently, the +entire Church. His _cathedra_ was placed apart, and, having the form of +an arm-chair, became the seat of honor, the symbol of primacy. From this +time, each church has but one chief _presbyteros_, who is thus called to +the exclusion of the other _episcopi_. Beside this bishop, there were +deacons, widows, and a council of _presbyteri_: but the great step has +been taken; the bishop is the sole successor of the prophets, his +associates have disappeared. Apostolic authority, reputed as transmitted +by the laying-on of hands, suppressed the authority of the community. +The bishops of the various churches soon placed themselves in +communication with the others, and formed of the Universal Church a sort +of oligarchy, which held assemblies, censured its members, decided +questions of faith, and was in itself a true sovereign power. On one +side, the shepherds; on the other, the flock. Primitive equality no +longer existed: in fact, it had endured but a single day. The Church, +however, was only an instrument in the hands of those who guided her; +and these held their power, not from the community, but from the +spiritual inheritance of a transmission claiming to date back to the +apostles in a continuous line. It is evident that the representative +system will never be in any degree whatever the law of the Christian +Church. + +It was the Episcopate, without the intervention of civil power, with no +support from the tribunals, which thus established order above liberty +in a society originally founded upon individual inspiration. This is why +the Ebionites, who had no Episcopate, had also no idea of Catholicity. +At first sight, the work of Jesus was not made to last. Founded upon a +belief in the destruction of the world, which, as years rolled on, was +proved an error, it seemed that his congregation could only dissolve in +anarchy. The prophetic book, the _charismes_, the speaking of tongues, +individual inspiration, were no more than were necessary to bring all +again into the proportions of a common chapel. Individual inspiration +created, but immediately destroyed what it created. After liberty, law +is necessary. The work of Jesus might be considered as saved the day in +which it was admitted that the Church has a direct power, a power +representing that of Jesus. Since then the Church dominates the +individual, drawing him to her bosom through his need. Inspiration +passes from the individual to the community. The clergy is the dispenser +of all pardons, the intermediary between God and the faithful. +Obedience, first to the Church, then to the bishop, becomes the highest +duty. Innovation is the sign of error: schism, henceforth, will be for +the Christian the worst of crimes. + +In a certain regard one may say that this was a decadence, a diminution +of that spontaneity which had been eminently creative until now. It was +evident that ecclesiastical forms were about to absorb, to stifle, the +work of Jesus, that all free manifestations of Christian life would soon +be arrested. Under the censure of the Episcopate, the speaking of +tongues, prophecy, the creation of legends, the making of new sacred +books, would soon become withered powers, the _charismes_ would be +reduced to official sacraments. In another sense, however, such a +transformation was the essential condition of the strength of humanity. +And, moreover, the centralization of powers became necessary when +churches were more numerous: intercourse between these little pious +societies would be impossible, unless they had representatives appointed +to act for them. It is undeniable, moreover, that, without the +Episcopate, the churches, re-united for a time by the souvenirs of +Jesus, would gradually have been dispersed. The divergences of opinion, +the difference in the turn of imagination, and, above all, the +rivalries, and the unsatisfied _amours-propres_, would have operated by +their infinite effects of disunion and disintegration. Christianity +would have expired at the end of three or four centuries, like +Mithraicism and so many other sects which were not allowed to endure. +Democracy is sometimes eminently creative; but it is upon the condition +that the democracy comes forth from conservative institutions which +prevent the revolutionary fever from prolonging itself indefinitely. + +Here was the greatest miracle of the new Christianity. It drew order, +hierarchy, authority, and obedience from the free subjection of desires: +it organized the crowd; it disciplined anarchy. What does this miracle +accomplish other than to strike at the pretended derogations to the laws +of physical nature? The spirit of Jesus strongly inoculated in his +disciples that spirit of sweetness, of abnegation, of forgetfulness of +the present; that unique pursuit of interior joys which kills ambition; +that strong preference given to childhood; those words repeated without +ceasing, as from Jesus, "Whoever is first among you, let him be the +servant of all." The influence of the apostles was not less in that +direction. The apostles lived and ruled after their death. The idea that +the head of the Church held his command under the members of the Church +who had elected him never once occurs in the literature of this time. +The Church thus escaped through the supernatural origin of its power, +that element of decay which exists in delegated authority. A legislative +and executive authority may come from the people; but sacraments and +dispensations of celestial pardons have nothing in common with universal +suffrage. Such privileges come from heaven, or, according to the +Christian formula, from Jesus Christ, the source of all pardon and of +all good. + +The religion of Jesus thus became something solid and consistent. The +great danger of Gnosticism, which was to divide Christianity into +numberless sects, was exorcised. The word "Catholic Church" resounded +everywhere, as the name of that great body which would thenceforth +survive the ages unbroken. The character of this catholicity is already +seen. The Montanists are regarded as sectarian; the Marcionites are +convinced of the falseness of the apostolic doctrine; the different +Gnostic schools are more and more driven from the bosom of the general +church. Something had arisen which was neither Montanism, nor +Marcionism, nor Gnosticism; which was Christianity, not sectarian,--the +Christianity of the majority of bishops, resisting sects, and using them +all, having, if you will, only negative characters, but preserved by +these negative characters from the pietist aberrations, and from +dissolving rationalism. Christianity, like all parties who wish to live, +disciplines itself, and restrains its own excesses. It unites to +mystical exaltation a fund of good sense and moderation which will kill +Millenarism, Charisms, Glossolaly, and all the primitive phenomenal +spirits. A handful of excited men, like the Montanists, running into +martyrdom, discouraging penitence, condemning marriage, are not the +Church. The _juste milieu_ triumphs. Radicals of any sort will never be +allowed to destroy the work of Jesus. The Church is always of a medium +opinion: it belongs to all the world, and is not the privilege of an +aristocracy. The pietist aristocracy of the Phrygian sects and the +speculative aristocracy of the Gnostics are equally stripped of their +pretensions. + +In the midst of the enormous variety of opinions which fill the first +Christian age, the Catholic opinion constitutes a sort of standard. It +was not necessary to reason with the heretic in order to convince him. +It was sufficient to show him that he was not in communion with the +Catholic Church, with the grand churches which trace the succession of +their bishops to the apostles. _Quod semper, quod ubique_ became the +absolute rule of truth. The argument of prescription to which Tertullian +gave such eloquent force reviews all the Catholic controversy. To prove +to any one that he was an innovator, a disturber, was to prove that he +was wrong,--an insufficient rule, since, by a singular irony of fate, +the doctor himself who developed this method of refutation in so +imperious a manner, Tertullian, died a heretic. + +Correspondence between the churches was an early custom. Circular +letters from the heads of the great churches, read on Sunday in the +re-unions of the faithful, were a sort of continuation of the apostolic +literature. The ecclesiastical province, questioning the precedency of +the great churches, appeared in germ. The Church, like the synagogue and +the mosque, is essentially a citadel. Christianity, like Judaism and +Islamism, is a religion of cities. The countryman, the _paganus_, will +be the last resistance which Christianity will encounter. The few rural +Christians came to the church of the neighboring city. The Roman +municipality thus enclosed the church. Among the cities, the _civitas_, +the grand city, was alone a veritable church, with an _episcopos_. The +small city was in ecclesiastical dependence on the great city. This +primacy of the great cities was an important fact. The great city once +converted, the small city and the country followed the movement. The +diocese was thus the unity of the conglomerate Christians. As for the +ecclesiastical province, it corresponded to the Roman province: the +divisions of worship of Rome and Augustus were the secret law which +ruled all. Those cities which had a flamen, or _archiereus_, are those +which later had an archbishop: the _flamen civitatis_ became the bishop. +After the third century, the flamen held the rank in the city which was +later that of the bishop in the diocese. Thus it happened that the +ecclesiastical geography of a country was very nearly the geography of +the same country in the Roman epoch. The picture of the bishops and the +archbishops is that of the ancient _civitates_, according to their line +of subordination. The empire was as the mould in which the new religion +was formed. The interior framework, the outlines, the hierarchical +divisions, were those of the empire. The ancient archives of the Roman +administration, and the church-registers of the middle ages, and even +those of our own day, are nearly the same thing. + +Thus the grand organisms which have become so essential a part of the +moral and political life of European nations were all created by those +_naïve_ and sincere Christians, whose faith has become inseparable from +the moral culture of humanity. The Episcopate under Marcus Aurelius was +fully ripe: the Papacy existed in germ. [OE]cumenical councils were +impossible. The Christian Empire alone could authorize great assemblies; +but the provincial synod was used in the affairs of the Montanists and +of the Passover. The bishop of the capital of the province was allowed +to preside without contest. + + +II. + +Rome was the place in which the grand idea of Catholicity was conceived. +Rome became each day more and more the capital of Christianity, and +replaced Jerusalem as the religious centre of humanity. Its church had a +generally recognized precedence over others. All doubtful questions +which disturbed the Christian conscience demanded an arbitration, if not +a solution, at Rome. This very defective reasoning was used,--that, +since Christ had made Cephas the corner-stone of his church, this +privilege ought to extend to his successors. By an unequalled stroke, +the Church of Rome had succeeded in making itself at the same time the +Church of Peter and the Church of Paul, a new mythical duality, +replacing that of Romulus and Remus. The Bishop of Rome became the +bishop of bishops, the one who admonished others. Rome proclaims its +right (a dangerous right) to excommunicate those who do not entirely +agree with her. The poor Artemonites (a sort of anticipated Arians) had +much to complain of in the injustice of the fate which made them +heretics; while, even until Victor, all the Church of Rome thought with +them; but they were not heard. From this point, the Church of Rome +placed itself above history. The spirit which in 1870 could proclaim the +infallibility of the Pope might see itself reflected at the end of the +second century by certain clear indications. The writing made at Rome +about 180, of which the Roman fragment known as the "_Canon de +Muratori_" makes a part, shows us Rome already regulating the canon of +the churches, making the passion of Peter the basis of Catholicity, and +repulsing equally Montanism and Gnosticism. Irenæus refutes all +heresies by the faith of this church, "the grandest, the most ancient, +the most illustrious, which possesses by continuous succession the true +tradition of the apostles Peter and Paul; to which, on account of its +primacy, all the rest of the Church should have recourse." + +One material cause contributed much to that pre-eminence which most of +the churches recognized in the Church of Rome. This Church was extremely +rich: its goods, skilfully administered, served to succor and propagate +other churches. The heretics condemned to the mines received a subsidy +from it: the common treasury was in a certain sense at Rome. The Sunday +collection, practised continually in the Roman Church, was probably +already established. A marvellous spirit of tradition animated this +little community, in which Judæa, Greece, and Latium seemed to have +confounded their very different gifts, in view of a prodigious future. +While the Jewish Monotheism furnished the immovable base of the new +formation, while Greece continued through Gnosticism its work of free +speculation, Rome attached itself with an astonishing readiness to the +work of the government. All its authorities and artifices served well +for that. Politics recoils not before fraud. Now, politics had already +taken up its home in the most secret councils of the Church of Rome. +Some veins of apocryphal literature, constantly refilled, sometimes +under the name of the apostles, sometimes under that of apostolic +personages, such as Clement and Hermas, were received with confidence to +the limits of the Christian world on account of the guaranty of Rome. + +This precedence of the Church of Rome continued to increase up to the +third century. The bishops of Rome showed a rare competency, evading +theological questions, but always in the first rank in matters of +organization and administration. The tradition of the Roman Church +passes for the most ancient of all. Pope Cornelius took the lead in the +matter of substitution. This was particularly seen in the dismissal of +the bishops of Italy, and the appointment of their successors. Rome was +also the central authority of the churches of Africa. + +This authority was already excessive, and showed itself above all in the +affair of the Passover. This question was much more important than it +appears to us. In the early times all Christians continued to make the +Jewish Passover their principal feast. They celebrated this feast on the +same day as the Jews,--on the 14th of Nisan, upon whatever day of the +week it happened to fall. Persuaded, according to the account of all the +old gospels, that Jesus, the evening before his death, had eaten the +Passover with his disciples, they regarded such a solemnity as a +commemoration of the last supper, rather than as a memorial of the +resurrection. As Christianity became more and more separated from +Judaism, such a manner of regarding it was very much questioned. At +first a new tradition was promulgated,--that Jesus, being about to die, +had not eaten the Passover, but had died the very day of the Jewish +feast, thus constituting himself the Pascal Lamb. Moreover, this purely +Jewish feast wounded the Christian conscience, especially in the +churches of Paul. The great feast of the Christians, the resurrection of +Jesus, occurred in any case the Sunday after the Jewish Passover. +According to this idea, the feast was celebrated the Sunday which +followed the Friday after the 14th of Nisan. + +In Rome this custom prevailed, at least since the pontificates of Xystus +and Telesphorus (about 120). In Asia there were great divisions. The +conservatives, like Polycarp, Meliton, and all the ancient school, +believed that the old Jewish custom conformed to the first Gospels and +to the usage of the apostles John and Philip. This was the object of the +voyage to Rome which Polycarp undertook about the year 154, under the +Pope Anicetus. The interview between Polycarp and Anicetus was very +cordial. The discussion of certain points appears to have been sharp, +but they understood each other. Polycarp was not able to persuade +Anicetus to renounce a practice which had been that of the bishops of +Rome before his time. Anicetus, on the other hand, hesitated when +Polycarp told him that he governed himself according to the rule of John +and the other apostles, with whom he had lived on a familiar footing. +The two religious leaders remained in full communion with each other; +and Anicetus showed Polycarp an almost unprecedented honor. In fact he +desired that Polycarp, in the Assembly of the Faithful at Rome, should +pronounce, in his stead and in his presence, the words of the +eucharistic consecration. These ardent men were full of too lofty a +sentiment to rest the unity of their souls upon the uniformity of rites +and exterior observances. + +Later, unhappily, Rome took the stand of insisting upon its right. About +the year 196 the question was more exciting than ever. The churches of +Asia persisted in their old usage. Rome, always enthusiastic for unity, +wished to coerce them. Upon the invitation of Pope Victor, convocations +of bishops were held: a vast correspondence was exchanged. But the +bishops of Asia, strong in the tradition of two apostles and of so many +illustrious men, would not submit. The old Polycrates, Bishop of +Ephesus, wrote in their name a very sharp letter to Victor and to the +Church of Rome. The incredible design which Victor conceived on account +of the acrimony of this letter proves that the Papacy was already born, +and well born. He pretended to excommunicate, to separate from the +Universal Church, the most illustrious province, because it had not bent +its traditions before the Roman discipline. He published a decree by +virtue of which Asia was placed under the ban of the Christian +community. But the other bishops opposed this violent measure, and +recalled Victor to charity. St. Irenæus, in particular, who, through the +necessity of the country in which he lived, had accepted for himself and +his churches in Gaul the Occidental custom, could not support the +thought that the mother-churches of Asia, to which he felt himself bound +in the depths of his soul, should be separated from the body of the +Universal Church. He energetically persuaded Victor from the +excommunication of the churches which held to the traditions of their +fathers, and recalled to him the examples of his more tolerant +predecessors. This act of rare good sense prevented the schism of the +Orient and the Occident from occurring in the second century. Irenæus +wrote to the bishops on all sides, and the question remained open to the +churches of Asia. + +In one sense, the process which brought about the debate was of more +importance than the debate itself. By reason of this difference, the +Church was brought to a clearer idea of its organization. And first it +was evident that the laity were no longer any thing. The bishops alone +handled questions, and promulgated their opinions. The bishops collected +together in provincial synods, over which the bishop of the capital of +the province presided (the archbishop of the future), or, at times, the +oldest bishop. The synodal assembly came out with a letter, which was +sent to other churches. This was then like an attempt at federative +organization,--an attempt to resolve questions by means of provincial +assemblies, presided over by bishops agreeing among themselves. Later, +questions concerning the presiding over synods and the hierarchy of the +Church sought solution in the documents of this great debate. Among all +the churches, that of Rome appeared to have a particular initiative +right. But that initiative was far from being synonymous with +infallibility; for Eusebius declares that he read the letters in which +the bishops severely blamed the conduct of Victor. + + +III. + +Authority, gentlemen, loves authority. The authoritaires, as we say +to-day, in the most diverse ranks, extend the hand to each other. Men as +conservative as the leaders of the Church of Rome must be strongly +tempted to favor public force, the effect of which is often for good, +as they must admit. This tendency had been manifest since the first days +of Christianity. Jesus had laid down the rule. The image of the money +was for him the supreme criterion of its lawfulness, beyond which there +was nothing to seek. In the height of the reign of Nero, St. Paul wrote, +"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power +but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, +therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." Some +years later, Peter, or the person who wrote in his name the Epistle +known as the First of Peter, expresses himself in an identical manner. +Clement was an equally devoted subject of the Roman Empire. + +In fine, one of the traits of St. Luke (according to my idea there was a +bond between St. Luke and the spirit of the church at Rome) is his +respect of the imperial authority, and the precautions which he took not +to injure it. The author of the Acts evaded every thing which would +present the Romans as the enemies of Christ. On the contrary, he seeks +to show, that, under many circumstances, they defended St. Paul and the +Christians against the Jews. Never a disparaging word against the civil +magistrates. Luke loved to show how the Roman functionaries were +favorable to the new religion, sometimes even embracing it; and how +Roman justice was equitable, and superior to the passions of the local +powers. He insists upon the advantages which Paul owed to his title of +Roman citizen. If he ends his recital with the arrival of Paul at Rome, +it is perhaps in order not to recount the monstrosities of Nero. + +Without doubt, there were in other parts of the empire devoted +Christians who sympathized entirely with the anger of the Jews, and +dreamed only of the destruction of the idolatrous city which they +identified with Babylon. Such were the authors of apocalypses and +sibylline writings. But the faithful of the great churches were of quite +a different way of thinking. In 70, the Church of Jerusalem, with a +sentiment more Christian than patriotic, left the revolutionary city, +and sought peace beyond the Jordan. In the revolt of Barkokébas, the +division was still more pronounced. Not a single Christian was willing +to take part in this attempt of blind despair. St. Justin in his +Apologies never combats the principle of empire. He desired that the +empire should examine the Christian doctrine, approve and countersign it +in some way, and condemn those who calumniated it. The most learned +doctor of the time of Marcus Aurelius, Meliton, Bishop of Sardis, made +still more decided advances, and undertook to show that there is always +in Christianity something to recommend it to a true Roman. In his +Treaty upon Truth, preserved in Syriac, Meliton expresses himself in the +same way as a bishop of the fourth century, explaining to one Theodosius +that his first duty is to establish by his authority the triumph of +truth (without telling us, alas! by what sign one recognizes truth). Let +the empire become Christian, and the persecuted of to-day would find +that the interference of the state in the domain of conscience is +perfectly legitimate. + +The system of the apologists, so warmly sustained by Tertullian, +according to which the good emperors favored Christianity, and the bad +ones persecuted it, was already full blown. "Born together," said they, +"Christianity and the empire have grown up together, and prospered +together." Their interests, their sufferings, their fortunes, their +future,--all was in common. The apologists were advocates; and advocates +in all orders resemble each other. They have arguments for every +situation and all tastes. Nearly a hundred and fifty years rolled on +before these sweet and half sincere invitations were understood. But the +only impression they made in the time of Marcus Aurelius upon the mind +of one of the most enlightened leaders of the Church was as a prognostic +of the future. Christianity and the empire will become reconciled. They +are made for each other. The shade of Meliton will tremble with joy +when the empire becomes Christian, and the emperor takes in hand the +cause of truth. + +Thus the Church already took more than one step toward empire. Through +politeness, without doubt, but only as a very legitimate consequence of +his principles, Meliton does not allow that an emperor can give an +unjust order. It was easy to believe that certain emperors had not been +absolutely opposed to Christianity. It is pleasant to relate that +Tiberius had proposed to place Jesus in the rank of the gods: it was the +senate which objected. The decided preference of Christianity for power +where it hopes for favors is already very transparent. It is shown, +contrary to all truth, that Hadrian and Antonine sought to repair the +evil done by Nero and Domitian. Tertullian and his generation say the +same thing of Marcus Aurelius. Tertullian doubted, it is true, whether +one could be at the same time a Cæsar and a Christian; but this +incompatibility a century later struck no one, and Constantine proved +that Meliton of Sardis was a very sagacious man when he discerned so +well--a century and a half in advance, seeing through the proconsular +persecutions--the possibility of a Christian Empire. + +The hatred of Christianity and of the empire was that of men who must +one day love them. Under the Severi, the language of the Church remained +plaintive and tender, as it had been under the Antonines. The +apologists affixed a species of legitimism, a pretension that the Church +had always from the first saluted the emperor. "There were never among +us," said Tertullian, "partisans of Cassius, partisans of Albinus, +partisans of Niger." Foolish illusion! Certainly the revolt of Avidius +Cassius against Marcus Aurelius was a political crime, and the +Christians did well not to be involved in it. As for Severus, Albinus, +and Niger, it was success that decided between them; and the Church had +no other merit in attaching itself to Severus than that of seeing +clearly who would be the strongest. This pretended worship of legitimacy +was in truth only the worship of a fixed fact. The principle of St. Paul +bore fruit: "All power comes from God: he who holds the sword holds it +from God for good." + +This correct attitude in regard to power clung to exterior necessities +as much as to the principles which the Church had received from its +founders. The Church was already a powerful association. It was +essentially conservative. It needed order and legal guaranties. This was +admirably shown in the act of Paul of Samos, Bishop of Antioch, under +Aurelian. The Bishop of Antioch had become a powerful personage at this +epoch. The goods of the Church were in his keeping: a crowd of men lived +on his favors. Paul was a brilliant man, somewhat mystical, worldly, a +great secular lord, seeking to render Christianity acceptable to men of +the world and authority. The Pietists, as might be expected, considered +him heretical, and dismissed him. Paul resisted, and refused to quit the +Episcopal house. See into what the most exalted sects are led! They were +in possession, and who could decide a question of proprietorship and +possession, if not the civil authority. Aurelian, about this time, +passed on his way towards Antioch; and the question was referred to him. +Here was seen this original spectacle of an infidel sovereign and +persecutor deputed to decide which was the true bishop. Aurelian showed +under these circumstances remarkably good sense for a layman. He +examined the correspondence of the two bishops, took note as to which +was in relation with Rome and Italy, and decided that he was the true +Bishop of Antioch. + +Aurelian made some objections to the theological reasoning used on this +occasion; but one fact was evident: it was, that Christianity could not +live without the empire, and that the empire, on the other hand, could +not do better than adopt Christianity as its religion. The world desired +a religion of congregations, of churches, or of synagogues and +chapels,--a religion in which the essence of the worship should be +re-union, association, and fraternity. Christianity answered to all +these conditions. Its admirable worship, its well-organized clergy, +assured its future. + +Several times in the third century this historical necessity fell short +of realization. This is seen most plainly under those Syrian emperors +whom their quality of foreigners and base origin placed beyond +prejudices, and who, in spite of their vices, inaugurated a largeness of +ideas and a tolerance hitherto unknown. Those Syrian women of +Emesa,--Julia Domna, Julia Mæsa, Julia Mammæa, Julia Soemia,--beautiful, +intelligent, perfectly fearless, and held by no tradition or social law, +hesitated at nothing. They did what Roman women would never have dared. +They entered the Senate, deliberated there, and governed the empire +effectively, dreaming of Semiramis and Nitocris. The Roman worship +seemed cold and insignificant to them. Not being bound by any family +reasons, and their imagination being more in harmony with Christianity +than with Italian Paganism, these women amused themselves with the +recitals of the deed of the gods upon earth. Philostratus enchanted them +with his "Life of Apollonius Tyane." Perhaps they had more than one +secret affinity with Christianity. Certainly Heliogabalus was mad; and +yet his chimera of a central, Monotheistic worship, established at Rome, +and absorbing all the other worships, proved that the narrow circle of +ideas of the Antonines was broken. Alexander Severus went still farther. +He was sympathetic with the Christians: not content with according them +liberty, he placed Jesus in his lararium with a touching eclecticism. +Peace seemed to be made, not, as under Constantine, by the defection of +one of the parties, but by a large reconciliation. The same thing was +seen again under Philip the Arab, in the East under Zenobia, and +generally under those emperors whose foreign origin placed them beyond +Roman patriotism. + +The struggle redoubled in rage when those grand reformers, Diocletian +and Maximian, animated by the ancient spirit, believed themselves able +to give new life for the empire by holding it to the narrow circle of +Roman ideas. The Church triumphed through its martyrs. Roman pride was +humbled. Constantine saw the interior strength of the Church. The +population of Asia Minor, Syria, Thrace, and Macedonia, in a word the +eastern part of the empire, was already more than half Christian. His +mother, who had been a servant in an inn at Nicomedia, dazzled his eyes +with the picture of an Eastern empire having its centre near Nicæa or +Nicomedia, whose nerves should be the bishops and those multitudes of +poor matriculates of the Church who controlled opinion in large cities. +Constantine made the empire Christian. From the Occidental point of +view, that was astonishing; for the Christians were still but a feeble +minority in the West: in the Orient, the politics of Constantine was not +only natural, but commanded. + +Wonderful thing! The city of Rome received from that politics the +heaviest blow it had ever suffered. Christianity was successful under +Constantine; but it was Oriental Christianity. In building a new Rome on +the Bosphorus, Constantine made the old Rome the capital of the West +alone. The cataclysms which followed, the invasions of the barbarians +who spared Constantinople, and fell upon Rome with all their weight, +reduced the ancient capital of the world to a limited and often humble +condition. That ecclesiastical primacy of Rome which burst with so much +effect upon the second and third centuries flourished no longer when the +Orient had an existence and a separate capital. Constantine was the real +author of the schism of the Latin Church and the Church of the Orient. + +Rome took its revenge, principally by the seriousness and depth of its +spirit of organization. What men were St. Sylvester, St. Damasus, and +Gregory the Great! With an admirable courage they labored for the +conversion of the barbarians, attached them to themselves, and made them +their friends and subjects. The master-work of its politics was its +alliance with the Carlovingian house, and the bold stroke by which it +re-established in that house the empire which had been dead three +hundred years. The Church of Rome rose again more powerful than ever, +and became again the centre of all the grand affairs of the Occident +during eight centuries. + + * * * * * + +Here my task is ended, gentlemen. You will confide to others the care of +recounting the prodigious history of the feudal church, its grandeurs +and its abuses. Another still will show you the re-action against these +abuses,--Protestantism returning to the primitive idea of Christianity, +and dividing, in its turn, the Latin Church. Each one of these grand +historical pages will have its charm and its instruction. What I have +recounted to you is full of grandeur. One is impartial only to the dead. +Since Catholicism was an inimical power, a danger to the liberty of the +human mind, it was right to oppose it. Our age is the age of history, +because it is the age of doubt upon dogmatic matters: it is the age in +which, without entering into the discussion of systems, an enlightened +mind says to itself, "If, since right exists, and so many thousand +symbols have made the pretension of presenting the complete truth, and +if this pretension is always found vain, is it indeed probable that I +shall be more happy than so many others, and that the truth has awaited +my coming here below in order to make its definite revelation?" There is +no definite revelation. It is the touching effort of man to render his +destiny supportable. But its reward is not disdain, it is gratitude. +Whoever believes that he has something to teach us concerning our +destiny and our end should be welcome. Recall the account in your old +histories of the judicious and discreet words of the Saxon chief of +Northumbria, in the assembly where the question was discussed concerning +the adoption of the doctrine of the Roman missionaries. + +"Perhaps thou rememberest, O king! something which happens sometimes in +the winter days, when thou art seated at table with thy captains and thy +men-at-arms; that a good fire is lighted, that thy chamber is very warm, +while it rains, snows, and blows without. There comes a little bird, +which crosses the chamber on the wing, entering at one door, and going +out by the other. The moment of this passage is full of sweetness for +him: he no more feels the rain nor the storm. The bird is gone in an +instant, and from the winter he passes again into the winter. Such seems +to me the life of men on this earth, and its course of a moment, +compared to the length of time which precedes and follows it. The time +before birth and after death is gloomy. It torments us by its +impossibility of comprehension: if, then, the new doctrine can teach us +any thing a little certain, it deserves to be considered." + +Alas! the Roman missionaries did not bear this minimum of certainty, +with which the old Northumbrian chief, sage as he was, declared himself +content. Life always appears to us a short passage between two long +nights. Happy those who can sleep in the empty noise of menaces which +trouble at times the human conscience, and should no more than cradle +it! One thing is certain: it is the paternal smile which at certain +hours pierces nature, attesting that one eye regards us, and one heart +follows us. Let us guard ourselves from all absolute formula which might +become one day an obstacle to the free expansion of our spirits. There +is no religious communion which does not still possess some gifts of +life and pardon; but it is on the condition only that an humble docility +succeeds sympathetic adhesion. The comparison of the regiment, invented +by Clement Romanus, and since so many times repeated, ought to be +utterly abandoned. + +You wished that I should recall to you the grandeurs of Catholicism in +its finest epoch. I thank you for it. Some associations of childhood, +the most profound of all, attach me to Catholicism; and, although I am +separated from it, I am often tempted to say, as Job said (at least in +our Latin version), "_Etiam si occideret me, in ipso sperabo._" This +great Catholic family is too numerous not to have still a grand future. +The strange excesses which it has supported during fifty years, this +unequalled pontificate of Pius IX., the most astonishing in history, +cannot be terminated in any ordinary way. There will be thunders and +lightnings such as accompany all the great judgment-days of God. And +will she have much to do in order to still remain acceptable to those +who love her,--this old mother, who will not die so soon? Perhaps she +will find, in order to arrest the arms of her conqueror, which is modern +reason, some magician's arts, some words such as Balder murmured. + +The Catholic Church is a woman: let us distrust the charming words of +her agony. Let us imagine that she says to us, "My children, every thing +here below is but a symbol and a dream. In this world there is only one +little ray of light which pierces the darkness, and seems to be the +reflection of a benevolent will. Come into my bosom, where one finds +forgetfulness. For those who wish fetishes, I have them; to those who +wish works, I offer them; for those who wish intoxication of heart, I +have the milk of my breast, which will make drunk; for those who desire +love, I have an abundance; to those who crave irony, I pour out freely. +Come all: the time of dogmatic sadness is past. I have music and incense +for your funerals, flowers for your marriages, the joyous welcome of +bells for your new-born ones." Ah, well! if she should say that, our +embarrassment would be extreme. But she never will. + +Your great and glorious England has resolved, gentlemen, the practical +part of the question. It is as easy to trace the line of conduct which +the state and individuals should follow in the same matter, as it is +impossible to arrive at a theoretic solution of the religious problem. +All this may be conveyed in a single word, gentlemen,--_liberty_. What +could be more simple? Faith does not control itself. We believe what we +believe true. No one is bound to believe what he thinks false, whether +it is false or not. To deny liberty of thought is a sort of +contradiction. From liberty of thought to the right to express one's +thought, there is but one step; for right is the same for all. I have no +right to prevent a person from expressing his mind; but no one has the +right to prevent me from expressing mine. Here is a theory which will +appear very humble to the learned doctors who believe themselves to be +in possession of absolute truth. We have a great advantage over them, +gentlemen. They are obliged to be persecutors in order to be consistent; +to us it is permitted to be tolerant,--tolerant for all, even for those, +who, if they could, would not be so to us. Yes, let us even make this +paradox: liberty is the best weapon against the enemies of liberty. Some +fanatics say to us with sincerity, "We take your liberty, because you +owe it to us according to your principles; but you shall not have ours, +because we do not owe it to you." Ah, well! let us give them liberty +all the same, and we do not imagine that in this exchange we shall be +duped. No: liberty is the great dissolvent of all fanaticisms. In giving +back liberty to my enemy, who would suppress me if he had the power, I +shall really make him the worst gift. I oblige him to drink a strong +beverage which shall turn his head, while I shall keep my own. Science +supports the strange _régime_ of liberty: fanaticism and superstition do +not support it. We do more harm to dogmatism by treating it with an +implacable sweetness than by persecuting it. By this sweetness we even +inculcate the principle which destroys all dogmatism at its root, by +understanding that all metaphysical controversy is sterile, and that, +for this reason, the truth for each one is as he believes it. The +essential, then, is not to silence dangerous teaching, and hush the +discordant voice: the essential is to place the human mind in a state in +which the mass can see the uselessness of its rage. When this spirit +becomes the atmosphere of society, the fanatic can no longer live. He is +conquered by a pervading gentleness. If, instead of conducting +Polyeuctus to punishment, the Roman magistrate had dismissed him +smiling, and taken him amicably by the hand, Polyeuctus would not have +continued: perhaps even in his old age he would have laughed at his +escapade, and would have become a man of good sense. + + + + + CONFERENCE, + + Royal Academy, London, April 16, 1880. + + MARCUS AURELIUS. + + + + +CONFERENCE AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. + +MARCUS AURELIUS. + + +Ladies and Gentlemen,--I have accepted with great pleasure the +invitation to address you in this illustrious institution devoted to the +noblest researches of science and of true philosophy. I have dreamed +since my childhood of this island, where I have so many friends, and +which I visit so tardily. + +I am a Briton of France. In our old books, England is always called the +Island of the Saints; and, in truth, all our saints of Armorican +Brittany, those saints of doubtful orthodoxy, who, if they were again +alive, would be more in harmony with us than with the Jesuits, came from +the Island of Britain. I have seen in their chapel the trough of stone +in which they crossed the sea. Of all races, the Britain race is that +which has ever taken religion the most seriously. Even when the progress +of reflection has shown us that some articles among the catalogues of +things which we have always regarded as fixed should be modified, we +never break away from the symbol under which we have from the first +approved the ideal. + +For our faith is not contained in obscure metaphysical propositions: it +is in the affirmations of the heart. I have therefore chosen for my +discourse to you, not one of those subtleties which divide, but one of +those themes, dear to the soul, which bring nearer, and reconcile. I +shall speak to you of that book resplendent with the divine spirit, that +manual of submissive life which the most godly of men has left us,--the +Cæsar, Marcus Aurelius Antonine. It is the glory of sovereigns that the +most irreproachable model of virtue may be found in their ranks, and +that the most beautiful lessons of patience and of self-control may come +from a condition which one naturally believes to be subject to all the +seductions of pleasure and of vanity. + + +I. + +The inheritance of wisdom with a throne is always rare: I find in +history but two striking examples of it,--in India, the succession of +the three Mongol emperors, Bâber, Hoomâyoon, and Akbar; at Rome, at the +head of the greatest empire that ever existed, the two admirable reigns +of Antonine the Pious and Marcus Aurelius. Of the last two, I consider +Antonine the greatest. His goodness did not lead him into faults: he was +not tormented with that internal trouble which disturbed without +ceasing the heart of his adopted son. This strange malady, this restless +study of himself, this demon of scrupulousness, this fever of +perfection, are signs of a less strong and distinguished nature. As the +finest thoughts are those which are not written, Antonine had in this +respect also a superiority over Marcus Aurelius. But let us add that we +should be ignorant of Antonine, if Marcus Aurelius had not transmitted +to us that exquisite portrait of his adopted father, in which he seems +to have applied himself, through humility, to painting the picture of a +better man than himself. + +It is he who has sketched in the first book of his "Thoughts,"--that +admirable background where the noble and pure forms of his father, +mother, grandfather, and tutors, move in a celestial light. Thanks to +Marcus Aurelius, we are able to understand how these old Roman families, +who had seen the reign of the wicked emperors, still retained honesty, +dignity, justice, the civil, and, if I may dare to say it, the +republican spirit. They lived there in admiration of Cato, of Brutus, of +Thrasea, and of the great stoics whose souls had never bowed under +tyranny. The reign of Domitian was abhorred by them. The sages who had +endured it without submission were honored as heroes. The accession of +the Antonines was only the coming to power of the society of sages, of +whose just anger Tacitus has informed us,--a society of wise men formed +by the league of all those who had revolted against the despotism of the +first Cæsars. + +The salutary principle of adoption made the imperial court of the second +century a true cradle of virtue. The noble and learned Nerva, in +establishing this principle, assured the happiness of the human race +during almost a hundred years, and gave to the world the best century of +progress of which any knowledge has been preserved. The sovereignty thus +possessed in common by a group of choice men who delegated it or shared +it, according to the needs of the moment, lost a part of that attraction +which renders it so dangerous. + +Men came to the throne without seeking it, but also without the right of +birth, or in any sense the divine right: men came there understanding +themselves, experienced, having been long prepared. The empire was a +civil burden which each accepted in his turn, without dreaming of +hastening the hour. Marcus Aurelius was made emperor so young, that the +idea of ruling had scarcely occurred to him, and had not for a moment +exercised its charm upon his mind. + +At eight years, when he was already _præsul_ of the Salian priests, +Hadrian remarked this sad child, and loved him for his good-nature, his +docility, and his incapability of falsehood. At eighteen years the +empire was assured to him. He awaited it patiently for twenty-two years. +The evening when Antonine, feeling himself about to die, after having +given to the tribune the watchword, _Æquanimitas_, commanded the golden +statue of Fortune, which was always in the apartment of the emperor, to +be borne into that of his adopted son, he experienced neither surprise +nor joy. + +He had long been sated with all joys, without having tasted them: he had +seen the absolute vanity of them by the profoundness of his philosophy. + +The great inconvenience of practical life, and that which renders it +insupportable to a superior man, is, that, if one carries into it the +principles of the ideal, talents become defects; so that very often the +accomplished man is less successful in it than one who is fitted by +egotism or ordinary routine. Three or four times the virtue of Marcus +Aurelius came near being his ruin. The first fault into which it led him +was that of sharing the empire with Lucius Verus, to whom he was under +no obligation. Verus was a frivolous and worthless man. Prodigies of +goodness and delicacy were necessary in order to prevent his committing +disastrous follies. The wise emperor, earnest and industrious, took with +him in his _lectica_ (sedan) the senseless colleague whom he had given +himself. He persisted in treating him seriously: he never once revolted +against this sorry companionship. Like all well-bred men, Marcus +Aurelius discommoded himself continually: his manners came from a +general habit of firmness and dignity. Souls of this kind, either from +respect for human nature, or in order not to wound others, resign +themselves to the appearance of seeing no evil. Their life is a +perpetual dissimulation. + +According to some, he even deceived himself, since, in his intimate +intercourse with the gods, on the borders of the Granicus, speaking of +his unworthy wife, he thanked them for having given him a wife "so +amiable, so affectionate, so pure." I have shown elsewhere that the +patience, or, if one chooses, the weakness, on this point, of Marcus +Aurelius, has been somewhat exaggerated. Faustina had faults: the +greatest one was that she disliked the friends of her husband; and, as +these friends wrote history, she has paid the penalty before posterity. +But a discriminating critic has no trouble in showing the exaggerations +of the legend. Every thing indicates that Faustina at first found +happiness and love in that villa at Lorium, or in that beautiful retreat +at Lanuvium upon the highest points of the Alban mount, which Marcus +Aurelius described to his tutor Fronto as an abode full of the purest +joys. Then she became weary of too much wisdom. Let us tell all: the +beautiful sentences of Marcus Aurelius, his austere virtue, his +perpetual melancholy, might have become tiresome to a young and +capricious woman possessed of an ardent temperament and marvellous +beauty. He understood it, suffered it, and spoke not. Faustina remained +always his "very good and very faithful wife." No one succeeded, even +after her death, in persuading him to give up this pious lie. In a +bas-relief which is still seen in the Museum of the Capitol at Rome, +while Faustina is borne to heaven by a messenger of the gods, the +excellent emperor regards her with a look full of love. It seems that at +last he had deceived himself, and forgotten all. But through what a +struggle he must have passed in order to do this! During long years, a +sickness at heart slowly consumed him. The desperate effort which was +the essence of his philosophy, this frenzy of renunciation, carried +sometimes even to sophism, concealed an immense wound at the bottom. How +necessary it must have been to bid adieu to happiness in order to reach +such an excess! No one will ever understand all that this poor wounded +heart suffered, the bitterness which that pale face concealed, always +calm, always smiling. It is true that the farewell to happiness is the +beginning of wisdom and the surest means of finding peace. There is +nothing so sweet as the return of joy which follows the renunciation of +joy; nothing so keen, so profound, so charming, as the enchantment of +the disenchanted. + +Some historians, more or less imbued with that policy which believes +itself to be superior, because it is not suspected of any philosophy, +have naturally sought to prove that so accomplished a man was a bad +administrator and a mediocre sovereign. It appears, in fact, that Marcus +Aurelius sinned more than once by too much lenity. But never was there a +reign more fruitful in reforms and progress. The public charity founded +by Nerva and Trajan was admirably developed by him. New schools were +established for poor children; the superintendents of provisions became +functionaries of the first rank, and were chosen with extreme care; +while the wants of poor young girls were cared for by the Institute of +_Jeunes Faustiniennes_. The principle that the state has duties in some +degree paternal towards its members (a principle which should be +remembered with gratitude, even when it has been dispensed with),--this +principle, I say, was proclaimed for the first time in the world by +Trajan and his successors. Neither the puerile pomp of Oriental +kingdoms, founded on the baseness and stupidity of men, nor the pedantic +pride of the kingdoms of the middle ages, founded on an exaggerated +sentiment for hereditary succession, and on a simple faith in the rights +of blood, could give an idea of the utterly republican sovereignty of +Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonine, and Marcus Aurelius. + +Nothing of the prince by hereditary or divine right, nothing of the +military chieftain: it was a sort of grand civil magistracy, without +resembling a court in any way, or depriving the emperor of his private +character. Marcus Aurelius, in particular, was neither much nor little a +king in the true sense of the word. His fortune was immense, but all +employed for good: his aversion for "the Cæsars," whom he considered as +a species of Sardanapali, magnificent, debauched, and cruel, burst out +at each instant. The civility of his manners was extreme. He gave to the +Senate all its ancient importance: when he was at Rome, he never missed +a session, and left his place only when the Consul had pronounced the +formula, "_Nihil vos moramar, patres conscripti_." Almost every year of +his reign he made war, and he made it well, although he found in it only +_ennui_. His listless campaigns against the Quadi and Marcomanni were +very well conducted: the disgust which he felt for them did not prevent +his most conscientious attention to them. It was in the course of one of +these expeditions, that, encamped on the banks of the Granicus, in the +midst of the monotonous plains of Hungary, he wrote the most beautiful +pages of the exquisite book which has revealed his whole soul to us. It +is probable, that, when very young, he kept a journal of his secret +thoughts. He inscribed there the maxims to which he had recourse in +order to fortify himself, the reminiscences of his favorite authors, the +passages of the moralists which appealed most to him, the principles +which had sustained him through the day, sometimes the reproaches which +his scrupulous conscience addressed to him. "One seeks for himself +solitary retreats, rustic cottages, sea-shore, or mountains: like +others, thou lovest to dream of these good things. To what end, since it +is permitted to thee to retire within thy soul each hour? Man has +nowhere a more tranquil retreat, above all, if he has within himself +those things, the contemplation of which will calm him. Learn, then, how +to enjoy this retreat, and there renew thy strength. Let there be those +short fundamental maxims, which above all will give again serenity to +thy soul, and restore thee to a state in which to support with +resignation the world to which thou shouldest return." + +During the sad winters of the North, this consolation became still more +necessary to him. He was nearly sixty years old: old age was premature +with him. One evening all the pictures of his pious youth returned to +his remembrance, and he passed some delicious hours in calculating how +much he owed to each one of the virtuous beings who had surrounded him. + +"Examples of my grandfather Verus,--sweetness of manners, unchangeable +patience." + +"Qualities which one valued in my father, the souvenir which he has left +me,--modesty, manly character." + +"To imitate the piety of my mother, her benevolence; to abstain, like +her, not only from doing evil, but from conceiving the thought of it; to +lead her frugal life, which so little resembled the habitual luxury of +the rich." + +Then appeared to him, in turn, Diagnotus, who had inspired him with a +taste for philosophy, and made agreeable to his eyes the pallet, the +covering made of a simple skin, and all the apparel of Hellenic +discipline; Junius Rusticus, who taught him to avoid all affectation of +elegance in style, and loaned him the Conversations of Epictetus; +Apollonius of Chalcis, who realized the Stoic ideal of extreme firmness +and perfect sweetness; Sextus of Chaeroneia, so grave and so good; +Alexander the grammarian, who censured with such refined politeness; +Fronto, "who taught him the envy, duplicity, and hypocrisy of a tyrant, +and the hardness which may exist in the heart of a patrician;" his +brother Severus, "who made him understand Thrasia, Helvidius, Cato, +Brutus, who gave him the idea of what a free government is, where the +rule is the natural equality of the citizens and the equality of their +rights; of a royalty which places before all else the respect for the +liberty of the citizens;" and, rising above all others in his immaculate +grandeur, Antonine, his father by adoption, whose picture he traces for +us with redoubled gratitude and love. "I thank the gods," said he +finally, "for having given me good ancestors, good parents, a good +sister, good teachers, and in my surroundings, in my relations, in my +friends, men almost all filled with goodness. I never allowed myself to +be wanting in deference towards them: from my natural disposition, I +could sometimes have shown irreverence; but the benevolence of the gods +never permitted the occasion to present itself. I am also indebted to +the gods, who preserved pure the flower of my youth, for having been +reared under the rule of a prince, and a father who strove to free my +soul from all trace of pride, to make me understand that it is possible, +while living in a palace, to dispense with guards, with splendid +clothes, with torches, with statues, to teach me, in short, that a +prince can almost contract his life within the limits of that of a +simple citizen, without, on that account, showing less nobility and +vigor when he comes to be an emperor, and transact the affairs of state. +They gave me a brother, whose manners were a continual exhortation to +watch over myself, while his deference and attachment should have made +the joy of my heart. + +"Thanks to the gods again, that I have made haste to raise those who +have cared for my education, to the honors which they seemed to desire. +They have enabled me to understand Apollonius, Rusticus, Maximus, and +have held out to me, surrounded with brilliant light, the picture of a +life conformed to nature. I have fallen short of it in the end, it is +true; but it is my fault. If my body has long supported the rude life +which I lead; if, in spite of my frequent neglect of Rusticus, I have +never overstepped the bounds, or done any thing of which I should +repent; if my mother, who died young, was able, nevertheless, to pass +her last years near me; if, whenever I have wished to succor the poor or +afflicted, money has never been wanting; if I have never needed to +accept any thing from others; if I have a wife of an amiable, +affectionate, and pure character; if I have found many capable men for +the education of my children; if, at the beginning of my passion for +philosophy, I did not become the prey of a sophist,--it is to the gods +that I owe it all. Yes, so many blessings could only be the result of +the aid of the gods and a happy fortune." + +This divine candor breathes in every page. No one has ever written more +simply than did he for the sole purpose of unburdening his heart to +God, his only witness. There is not a shadow of system in it. Marcus +Aurelius, to speak exactly, had no philosophy: although he owed almost +every thing to stoicism transformed by the Roman spirit, it is of no +school. According to our idea, he has too little curiosity; for he knows +not all that a contemporary of Ptolemy and Galen should know: he has +some opinions on the system of the world, which were not up to the +highest science of his time. But his moral thought, thus detached from +all alliance with a system, reaches a singular height. The author of the +book, "The Imitation," himself, although free from the quarrels of the +schools, does not rise to this, for his manner of feeling is essentially +Christian. Take away his Christian dogmas, and his book retains only a +portion of its charm. The book of Marcus Aurelius, having no dogmatic +base, preserves its freshness eternally. Every one, from the atheist, or +he who believes himself one, to the man who is the most devoted to the +especial creeds of each worship, can find in it some fruits of +edification. It is the most purely human book which exists. It deals +with no question of controversy. In theology, Marcus Aurelius floats +between pure Deism, Polytheism interpreted in a physical sense according +to the manner of the Stoics, and a sort of cosmic Pantheism. He holds +not much more firmly to one hypothesis than to the other, and he uses +indiscriminately the three vocabularies of the Deist, Polytheist, and +Pantheist. His considerations have always two sides, according as God +and the soul have, or have not, reality. It is the reasoning which we do +each hour; for, if the most complete Materialism is right, we who have +believed in truth and goodness shall be no more duped than others. If +Idealism is right, we have been the true sages, and we have been wise in +the only manner which becomes us, that is to say, with no selfish +waiting, without having looked for a remuneration. + + +II. + +We here touch a great secret of moral philosophy and religion. Marcus +Aurelius has no speculative philosophy; his theology is utterly +contradictory; he has no idea founded upon the soul and immortality. How +could he be so moral without the beliefs that are now regarded as the +foundations of morality? how so profoundly religious, without having +professed one of the dogmas of what is called natural religion? It is +important to make this inquiry. + +The doubts, which, to the view of speculative reason, hover above the +truths of natural religion, are not, as Kant has admirably shown, +accidental doubts, capable of being removed, belonging, as is sometimes +imagined, to certain conditions of the human mind. These doubts are +inherent to the nature even of these truths, if one may say it without a +paradox; and, if these doubts were removed, the truths with which they +quarrel would disappear at the same time. Let us suppose, in short, a +direct, positive proof, evident to all, of future sufferings and +rewards: where will be the merit of doing good? They would be but fools +whom gayety of heart should hasten to damnation. A crowd of base souls +would secure their salvation without concealment: they would, in a +sense, force the divine power. Who does not see, that, in such a system, +there is neither morality nor religion? In the moral and religious order +it is indispensable to believe without demonstration. It deals not with +certainty: it acts by faith. This is what Deism forgets, with its habits +of intemperate affirmation. It forgets that creeds too precise +concerning human destiny would destroy all moral merit. For us, they +would say that we should do as did St. Louis when he was told of the +miraculous wafer,--we should refuse to see it. What need have we of +these brutal proofs which trammel our liberty? + +We should fear to become assimilated to those speculators in virtue, or +those vulgar cowards, who mingle with spiritual things the gross +selfishness of practical life. In the days which followed the belief in +the resurrection of Jesus, this sentiment was manifested in the most +touching manner. The faithful in heart, the sensitive ones, preferred to +believe without seeing. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet +have believed," became the word for the time. Charming words! Eternal +symbol of tender and generous Idealism, which has a horror of touching +with the hands that which should only be seen with the heart! + +Our good Marcus Aurelius, on this point as on all others, was in advance +of the ages. He never cared to argue with himself concerning God and the +soul. As if he had read the "Criticism of Practical Reason," he saw +clearly, that, where the Infinite is concerned, no formula is absolute; +and that, in such matters, one has no chance of seeing the truth during +his life, without much self-contradiction. He distinctly separates moral +beauty from all theoretical theology. He allows duty to depend on no +metaphysical opinion of the First Cause. The intimate union with an +unseen god was never carried to a more unheard-of delicacy. "To offer to +the government of God that which is within thee,--a strong being ripened +by age, a friend of the public good, a Roman, an emperor, a soldier at +his post awaiting the signal of the trumpet, a man ready to quit life +without regret." "There are many grains of incense destined to the same +altar: one falls sooner, the other later, in the fire; but the +difference is nothing." "Man should live according to nature during the +few days that are given him on the earth, and, when the moment of +leaving it comes, should submit himself sweetly, as an olive, which, in +falling, blesses the tree which has produced it, and renders thanks to +the branch which has borne it." "All that which thou arrangest is suited +to me, O Cosmos! Nothing of that which comes from thee is premature or +backward to me. I find my fruit in that which thy seasons bear, O +Nature! From thee comes all; in thee is all; to thee all returns." "O +man! thou hast been a citizen in the great city: what matters it to thee +to have remained three or five years? That which is governed by laws is +unjust for no one. What is there, then, so sorrowful in being sent from +the city, not by a tyrant, not by an unjust judge, but by the same +nature which allowed thee to enter there? It is as if a comedian is +discharged from the theatre by the same prætor who engaged him. But wilt +thou say, 'I have not played the five acts; I have played but three?' +Thou sayest well; but in life three acts suffice to complete the entire +piece.... Go, then, content, since he who dismisses thee is content." + +Is this to say that he never revolted against the strange fate which +leaves man alone face to face with the needs of devotion, of sacrifice, +of heroism, and nature with its transcendent immorality, its supreme +disdain for virtue? No. Once at least the absurdity, the colossal +iniquity, of death, strikes him. But soon his temperament, completely +mortified, resumes its power, and he becomes calm. "How happens it that +the gods, who have ordered all things so well, and with so much love for +men, should have forgotten one thing only; that is, that men of tried +virtue, who during their lives have had a sort of interchange of +relations with divinity, who have made themselves loved by it on account +of their pious acts and their sacrifices, live not after death, but may +be extinguished forever? + +"Since it is so, be sure, that, if it should be otherwise, they (the +gods) would not have failed; for, if it had been just, it would have +been possible; if it had been suitable to nature, nature would have +permitted it. Consequently, when it is not thus, strengthen thyself in +this consideration, that it was not necessary that it should be thus. +Thou thyself seest plainly that to make such a demand is to dispute his +right with God. Now, we would not thus contend with the gods if they +were not absolutely good and absolutely just: if they are so, they have +allowed nothing to make a part of the order of the world which is +contrary to justice and right." + +Ah! is it too much resignation, ladies and gentlemen? If it is veritably +thus, we have the right to complain. To say, that, if this world has not +its counterpart, the man who is sacrificed to truth or right ought to +leave it content, and absolve the gods,--that is too _naïve_. No, he has +a right to blaspheme them. For, in short, why has his credulity been +thus abused? Why should he have been endowed with deceitful instincts, +of which he has been the honest dupe? Wherefore is this premium given to +the frivolous or wicked man? Is it, then, he who is not deceived who is +the wise man? Then cursed be the gods who so adjudge their preferences! +I desire that the future may be an enigma; but, if there is no future, +then this world is a frightful ambuscade. Take notice that our wish is +not that of the vulgar clown. We wish not to see the chastisement of the +culpable, nor to meddle with the interests of our virtue. Our wish has +no selfishness: it is simply to be, to remain in accord with light, to +continue the thought we have begun, to know more of it, to enjoy some +day that truth which we seek with so much labor, to see the triumph of +the good which we have loved. Nothing is more legitimate. The worthy +emperor, moreover, was also sensible of it: "What! the light of a lamp +burns until the moment in which it is extinguished, and loses nothing of +its brilliancy, and the truth, justice, temperance, which are in thee +shall be extinguished with thee!" All his life was passed in this noble +hesitation. If he sinned, it was through too much piety. Less resigned, +he would have been more just; for surely to demand that there should be +an intimate and sympathetic witness of the struggles which we endure for +goodness and truth is not to ask too much. + +It is possible, also, that if his philosophy had been less exclusively +moral, if it had implied a more curious study of history and of the +universe, it would have escaped a certain excessive rigor. Like the +ascetic Christians, Marcus Aurelius sometimes carried renunciation to +dryness and subtlety. One feels that this calmness, which never belies +itself, is obtained through an immense effort. Certainly, evil had never +an attraction for him: he had no passion to struggle against. "Whatever +one may do or say," writes he, "it is necessary that I should be a good +man; as the emerald might say, 'Whatever one may say or do, I must +remain an emerald, and retain my color.'" But, in order to hold one's +self always upon the icy summit of stoicism, it is necessary to do cruel +violence to nature, and to cut away from it more than one noble element. +This perpetual repetition of the same reasoning, the thousand figures +under which he seeks to represent to himself the vanity of all things, +these frequently artless proofs of universal frivolity, testify to +strifes which he has passed through in order to extinguish all desire in +himself. At times we find in it something harsh and sad. The reading of +Marcus Aurelius strengthens, but it does not console: it leaves a void +in the soul which is at once cruel and delightful, which one would not +exchange for full satisfaction. Humility, renunciation, severity towards +self, were never carried further. Glory--that last illusion of great +souls--is reduced to nothingness. It is needful to do right without +disturbing one's self as to whether any one knows that we do it. He +perceives that history will speak of him: he sometimes dreams of the men +of the past with whom the future will associate him. "If they have only +played the part of tragic actors," said he, "no one has condemned me to +imitate them." The absolute mortification at which he had arrived had +destroyed the last fibre of self-love in him. + +The consequences of this austere philosophy might have been hardness and +obstinacy. It is here that the rare goodness of the nature of Marcus +Aurelius shines out in its full brilliancy. His severity is only for +himself. The fruit of this great tension of soul is an infinite +benevolence. All his life was a study of how to return good for evil. At +evening, after some sad experience of human perversity, he wrote only +as follows: "If thou canst, correct them; on the other hand, remember +that thou shouldest exercise benevolence towards those who have been +given to thee. The gods themselves are benevolent to men: they aid +them,--so great is their goodness!--to acquire health, riches, glory. +Thou art permitted to be like the gods." Another day, some one was very +wicked; for see what he wrote upon his tablets: "Such is the order of +nature: men of this sort must act thus from necessity. To wish it to be +otherwise is to wish that the fig-tree shall bear no figs. Remember, +thou, in one word, this thing: in a very short time thou and he will +die; soon after, your names even will be known no more." The thoughts of +a universal pardon recur without ceasing. At times a scarcely +perceptible smile is mingled with this charming goodness,--"The best +method of avenging one's self upon the wicked is not to be like them;" +or a light stroke of pride,--"It is a royal thing to hear evil said of +one's self when one does right." One day he thus reproached himself: +"Thou hast forgotten," said he, "what holy relationship unites each man +to the human race,--a relationship not of blood, or of birth, but the +participation in the same intelligence. Thou hast forgotten that the +reasoning power of each one is a god, derived from the Supreme Being." + +In the business of life he was always exact, although a little +ingenuous, as very good men usually are. The nine reasons for +forbearance which he valued for himself (book xi. art. 18) show us his +charming good-nature before family troubles, which perhaps came to him +through his unworthy son. "If, upon occasion," said he to himself, "thou +exhortest him quietly, and shalt give to him without anger some lessons +like these,--'No, my child; we are born for each other. It is not I who +suffer the evil, it is thou who doest it thyself, my child!'--show him +adroitly, by a general consideration, that such is the rule; that +neither the bees, nor the animals who live naturally in herds, resemble +him. Say this without mockery or insult, with an air of true affection, +with a heart which is not excited by anger; not as a pedant, not for the +sake of being admired by those who are present; think only of him." + +Commodus (if it was for him that he thus acted) was, without doubt, +little touched by this good paternal rhetoric. One of the maxims of the +excellent emperor was, that the wicked are unhappy, that one is only +wicked in spite of himself, and through ignorance. He pitied those who +were not like himself: he did not believe that he had the right to +obtrude himself upon them. + +He well understood the baseness of men; but he did not avow it. This +willing blindness is the defect of choice spirits. The world not being +all that they could wish, they lie to themselves in order not to see it +as it is. From thence arises an expediency in their judgments. In Marcus +Aurelius, this expediency sometimes provokes us a little. If we wished +to believe him, his instructors, several of whom were men of mediocrity, +were, without exception, superior men. One would say that every one near +him had been virtuous. This is carried to such a point, that one is +forced to ask if the brother for whom he pronounces such a grand eulogy +in his thanks to the gods was not his adopted brother, Lucius Verus. It +is certain that the good emperor was capable of strong illusions when he +undertook to lend to others his own virtues. + +This quality, expressed as an ancient opinion, especially by the pen of +the Emperor Julian, caused him to commit an enormous error, which was +that of not disinheriting Commodus. This is one of those things which it +is easy to say at a distance, when there are no obstacles present, and +when one reasons without facts. It is forgotten at first that the +emperors, who, after Nerva, made adoption so fruitful a political +system, had no sons. Adoption, with the exheredation of the son or +grandson, occurred in the first century of the empire without good +results. Marcus Aurelius was evidently from principle in favor of +direct inheritance, in which he saw the advantage of the prevention of +competition. + +After the birth of Commodus, in 161, he presented him alone to the +people, although he had a twin-brother: he frequently took him in his +arms and renewed this act, which was a sort of proclamation. In 166 +Lucius Verus demanded that the two sons of Marcus, Commodus and Annius +Verus, should be made Cæsars. In 172 Commodus shared with his father the +title of Germanicus. In 173, after the repression of the revolt of +Avidius, the Senate, in order to recognize in some way the family +disinterestedness which Marcus Aurelius had shown, demanded by +acclamation the empire and the tribunitial power for Commodus. + +Already the natural wickedness of the latter had betrayed itself by more +than one symptom known to his tutors; but how shall one foresee the +future from a few naughty acts of a child of twelve years? In 176-177 +his father made him _Imperator_, Consul, Augustus. This was certainly an +imprudence; but he was bound by his previous acts: Commodus, moreover, +still restrained himself. In later years, the evil completely revealed +itself. On each page of the last books of the "Thoughts," we see the +trace of the martyr within the excellent father, of the accomplished +emperor, who saw a monster growing up beside him, ready to succeed him, +and to take in every thing through antipathy, the opposite course from +that which he had believed to be for the good of men. The thought of +disinheriting Commodus must, without doubt, have come often to Marcus +Aurelius. But it was too late. After having associated him in the +empire, after having so many times proclaimed him to the legions as +perfect and accomplished, to come before the world and declare him to be +unworthy would be a scandal. Marcus was caught in his own phrases, by +that style of benevolent expediency which was too habitual with him. +And, after all, Commodus was only seventeen years old: who could be sure +that he would not reform? Even after the death of Marcus Aurelius this +was hoped for. Commodus at first showed the intention of following the +counsels of meritorious persons with whom his father had surrounded him. + +The reproach which is made, then, against Marcus Aurelius, is not that +of not having, but of having, a son. It was not his fault if the age +could not support so much wisdom. In philosophy, the great emperor had +placed the ideal of virtue so high, that no one would care to follow +him. In politics, his benevolent optimism had enfeebled the state +services, above all, the army. In religion, in order not to be too much +bound by a religion of the state, of which he saw the weakness, he +prepared the great triumph of the non-official worship, and left a +reproach to hover above his memory,--unjust, it is true; but even its +shadow should not be found in so pure a life. We touch here upon one of +the most delicate points in the biography of Marcus Aurelius. It is +unhappily certain, that, under his reign, Christians were condemned to +death, and executed. The policy of his predecessors had been firm in +this particular. Trajan, Antonine, Hadrian himself, saw in the +Christians a secret sect, anti-social, dreaming of overturning the +empire. Like all men true to the old Roman principles, they believed in +the necessity of repressing them. There was no need of special edicts: +the laws against the _c[oe]tus illiciti_, the _illicita collegia_, were +numerous. The Christians fell in the most explicit sense under the force +of these laws. Truly, it would have been worthy of the wise emperor who +introduced so many reforms full of humanity, to suppress the edicts +which entailed such cruel and unjust consequences. But it is necessary +to observe primarily, that the true spirit of liberty, as we understand +it, was not then understood by any one; and that Christianity, when it +was master, practised it no more than the Pagan emperors. In the second +place, the abrogation of the laws against illicit societies would have +been the ruin of the empire, founded essentially upon the principle that +the state ought not to admit within its bosom any society differing +from it. The principle was bad, according to our ideas: it is very +certain, at least, that it was the corner-stone in the Roman +constitution. Marcus Aurelius, far from exaggerating it, extenuated it +with all his powers; and one of the glories of his reign is the +extension of the right of association. However, he did not go to the +root: he did not completely abolish the laws against the _collegia +illicita_, and in the provinces there resulted from them some processes +infinitely to be regretted. The reproach which can be made against him +is the same that might be made to the rulers of our day, who do not +suppress with a stroke of the pen all the laws restrictive of the +liberties of re-union, of association, and of the press. + +From the distance at which we stand, we can see that Marcus Aurelius, in +being more completely liberal, would have been wiser. Perhaps +Christianity left free would have developed in a manner less disastrous +the theocratic and absolute principle which was in it; but one cannot +reproach a man with not having stirred up a radical revolution on +account of a prevision of what would occur several centuries after him. +Trajan, Hadrian, Antonine, Marcus Aurelius, could not know the +principles of general history and political economy which have been +understood only in our time, and which only our last revolutions could +reveal. In any case, the mansuetude of the good emperor was in this +respect shielded from all reproach. No one has the right to be more +exacting in this respect than was Tertullian. "Consult your annals," +said he to the Roman magistrates. "You will then see that the princes +who have been severe towards us are of those who have held to the honor +of having been our persecutors. On the contrary, all the princes who +have respected divine and human laws include but one who persecuted the +Christians. We can even name one of them who declared himself their +protector,--the wise Marcus Aurelius. If he did not openly revoke the +edicts against our brethren, he destroyed their power by the severe +penalties which he declared against their accusers." It is necessary to +remember that the Roman Empire was ten or twelve times as large as +France, and that the responsibility of the emperor was very little in +the judgments which were rendered in the provinces. It is necessary, +moreover, to recall the fact that Christianity claimed not only the +liberty of worship: all the creeds which tolerated each other were +allowed much freedom in the empire. Christianity and Judaism were the +exceptions to this rule on account of their intolerance and spirit of +exclusion. + +We have, then, good reason to mourn sincerely for Marcus Aurelius. Under +him philosophy reigned. One moment, thanks to him, the world was +governed by the best and greatest man of his age. Frightful decadences +followed; but the little casket which contained the "Thoughts" on the +banks of the Granicus was saved. From it came forth that incomparable +book in which Epictetus was surpassed, that Evangel of those who believe +not in the supernatural, which has not been comprehended until our day. +Veritable, eternal Evangel, the book of "Thoughts," which will never +grow old, because it asserts no dogma. The virtue of Marcus Aurelius, +like our own, rests upon reason, upon nature. St. Louis was a very +virtuous man, because he was a Christian: Marcus Aurelius was the most +godly of men, not because he was a Pagan, but because he was a gifted +man. He was the honor of human nature, and not of an established +religion. Science may yet destroy, in appearance, God and the immortal +soul; but the book of the "Thoughts" will still remain young with life +and truth. + +The religion of Marcus Aurelius is the absolute religion, that which +results from the simple fact of a high moral conscience placed face to +face with the universe. It is of no race, neither of any country. No +revolution, no change, no discovery, will have power to affect it. + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: + + Phrases in italics are indicated by _italics_. + + Words in the text which were in small-caps were + converted to title-case. + + The "oe" ligature is indicated by "[oe]" (e.g. Ph[oe]nician). + + Missing word added: + pg 34 the word "it" has been added to the phrase: + "if (it) had been announced" + + Words re-arranged: + pg 126 "the be strongest" --> "be the strongest" + + Typos corrected: + pg 32 "Pysche" --> "Psyche" + pg 54 "apochryphal" --> "apocryphal" + pg 95 "Judean" --> "Judæan" (2 occurrences) + pg 109 "Mithracism" --> "Mithraicism" + pg 150 "ctizens" --> "citizens" + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of English Conferences of Ernest Renan, by +Ernest Renan + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42865 *** |