I U.LOWAY & PORTER, u L^A- STUDIES CONTEIBUTED TO THE "DUBLIN KEVIEW." STUDIES CONTRIBUTED TO THE "DUBLIN REVIEW >> BY THE LATE Dk. J. E. GASQUET With Introduction by The Right Rev. J. C. HEDLEY, O.S.B. Bishop of Newport. Edited by Dom. H. N. BIRT, O.S.B. Westminster : ART AND BOOK COMPANY 1904. Gr3 A Tribute of Affectionate Bemembrance. C. G. <:*» INTRODUCTION. The late Dr. Joseph Raymond Gasquet was a physician in practice at Brighton. Those who had the happiness of his acquaintance do not need to be reminded of his genial and interesting personality, his extraordinarily wide reading, his professional sagacity and his Catholic zeal. But few, even among his friends, will not be surprised at the wideness of his sound and extensive learning, evidences of which are found in the papers reprinted in this volume. From his earliest youth Dr. Gasquet had ex- tended his studies beyond the limits of his pro- fession. His intellectual temperament led him to consider his Catholic faith as worthy of the best and most strenuous efforts of his mind. As a Catholic layman he felt that if he made himself perfectly competent in the noble profession he had chosen, he could make use of his expert knowledge for the defence and support of religion. He also felt that every Catholic layman had an interest in viii. Introduction Church history, and even in theology. Studies of this kind, even if they seemed to attract a man from his special work, were pleasant and useful, and they tended to lift up the intelligence to a wider view of life and nature than we usually find in professional men. These papers show how he carried out these views. The studies included in this volume may be divided into three classes. First there are three or four which treat of medical subjects in their relation to religion, or perhaps more properly, of certain religious matters in their connection with medical science. The article entitled, • The Cures at Lourdes," is a clear, learned and extremely tem- perate statement of principles, facts and conclu- sions. That on " Hypnotism " provides the priest and the general reader with such preliminary information on a burning subject as will enable them to follow it up in its modern developments. There is also an interesting study of the " Physiological Psychology of St. Thomas," which shows an acquaintance with the text of the Angelic Doctor, and a grasp of his methods very unusual in priest or layman. St. Thomas, who is always right in Psychology, was never very far out even in Physi- ology. It is here shown how well his analysis and dissection of the human soul fits in with the best and soundest conclusions of modern biological science. Introduction ix. Dr. Gasquet assures his readers that he did not undertake this " apologia " for the scholastic psychology on account of any preconceived sense of duty, but simply because he found in the course of his reading that there was nowhere any state- ment of the theory of " life " in its relation with the observed facts of life, so scientific and adequate as in the writings of Aristotle and St. Thomas. Beyond all doubt this is true. The second division of these reprints contains the writer's excellent studies on Church History and Apologetics. We have articles on the recently discovered Didache, on the Teaching of the Apostles, on the History of the Apostles' Creed, on Baptism, on the Earliest Liturgies of the Mass, and on Bishop Lightfoot's View of the Earliest Christian Ministry. The paper on the Mass especially, which is made up of three articles contributed to the Dublin Review, is an admirable presentment of the best and most recent Catholic and non-Catholic archaeo- logical study. Without going so far as to say that in these papers, which were first given to the light ten or twenty years ago, readers will find the very last word of science, it may safely be asserted that they will never be found to be misleading. They present a very large amount of research in a clear and readable form. The writer seems to have had no mean acquaintance with the Fathers, and to x. Introduction have kept abreast of all that was important in modern patristic literature, whether in England, in France, or in Germany. One or two miscellaneous papers complete the volume. There is a statement in one of " The present position of the arguments for the Existence of God," which is remarkable for the new and somewhat original turn which is there given to the ontological proof, commonly called St. An- selm's. This might well have been worked out at greater length. The primary interest of this volume will doubtless lie in the picture which it gives of a fine, cultured, and earnest Catholic intelligence. To the many friends and admirers of the writer it will be a precious and touching memorial. They will still think that it does not exhaust all that he was capable of doing. They will see in it the evidence of strong studies and gradually maturing judgment ; but they will continue to believe that, if health had not failed, he would have taken a very high position as an expert Catholic apologist. It may be hoped that the writer's good example will not be thrown away. In the controversies in which religion is at present involved, what we require above everything is what Dupanloup used to call fortes etudes — strong studies. In scientific, biblical and patristic discussion, no man is listened Introduction xi. to who has not read, searched, noted, analysed, and remembered. To qualify for taking part in the modern battle, a man must begin young, he must be put in the right way, and he must be determined not to spare himself. It is only by such means that one can attain that absolute, first hand, accurate, and honest mental equip- ment that will make a disputant felt in the wide battle of talk that goes on in modern days. It is consoling to see how many of the present genera- tion of Catholics in this country, lay and clerical, are really studying. But more students are still wanted. This book should especially stimulate our young laymen. There are not many men, however busy, or taken up with professional pur- suits, who cannot seriously study some branch of Christian divinity or philosophy. A few men of this kind would strongly influence their genera- tion, and we might hope that there would appear, not unfrequently, a commanding intelligence, who would arrest the attention of the world by that union of good science and strong faith which might be realised more frequently were science less insolent and faith more laborious. ^ John Cuthbert Hedley, O.S.B. TO THE READER. Joseph Raymond Gasquet, the author of the studies reprinted in this volume, was the eldest son of the late Raymond Gasquet, Esq., F.R.C.S., a surgeon practising for many years of his life in London. He was born on August 24, 1837, in the metropolis, and after passing a short time at Oscott College, received the main portion of his education at the London University College School. Electing to follow his father in the choice of a profession, he took his medical degrees with distinction at the University of London, and for some time practised in Bayswater. During this period he was a con- stant attendant at the newly-opened Church of St. Mary of the Angels, where, being an enthusiastic lover of Gregorian music, he regularly assisted in the choir. During these years was formed a life- long friendship with the late Cardinal Manning, who frequently consulted him on literary matters and always held his judgment and his extensive scientific and theological knowledge in the highest regard. It was at this time that he married a daughter of Charles J. Manning, Esq., the Cardinal's brother. From early youth, acting upon the advice of the late Canon Glennie, then head of the Hammersmith Training College, he devoted his leisure to the xiv. To the Header systematic study of philosophy and theology. As the Bishop of Newport points out in his Intro- duction, he was well read in patristic literature generally, especially in the works of the early Fathers of the Church, and he had an extensive acquaintance with the early schoolmen. The Summa of St. Thomas, and the same author's Contra Gentiles he knew almost by heart. He was induced by Cardinal Manning to join the Metaphysical Society. Here, together with the Cardinal, Dr. Ward, and Father Dalgairns, he found himself thrown with such eminent men as Dean Stanley, Sir William Gull, Dr. Andrew Clarke, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Selborne, the late Duke of Argyll, Tennyson, Ruskin, J. A. Froude, the Posi- tivist Mr. Frederic Harrison, and the Unitarian Dr. James Martineau. With many of these he made friends and corresponded on philosophical subjects. With Dr. Martineau in particular he was in frequent communication, and that eminent man formed a high opinion of Dr. Gasquet's abilities, and greatly respected his judgment. Thus he wrote on one occasion : " . . . Your gracious words of encouragement and sympathy . . . are welcome to me because I know their serious value, and find in them the support of a judgment to which I can look up." Further he refers to " your excellent paper in the Dublin Review. I have read it with great interest and very prevailing con- currence, and am especially delighted with its effective vindication of the Teleological argument " (see p. 46 sqq. of this volume). At another time Dr. Martineau wrote : "I greatly value your approval, where you can give it ; and the oppor- tunity of reconsidering my own judgments, when To the Header xv. they are at variance with yours." Another member wrote of Dr. Gasquet : " I much admired his clear philosophical insight, which was much helped by his exact physiological knowledge." On the opening of St. George's Retreat, Burgess Hill, in 1867, Dr. Gasquet gave up his general practice, and devoted himself, as a specialist, to the treatment of mental disease ; and to this he kept to the end. Although a busy life such as his was is little conducive to literary pursuits, yet, in addition to numerous papers on professional subjects published in the Journal of Mental Science, and various communications to the proceedings of the Brighton and Sussex Medical Society, the articles he from time to time contributed to the Dublin Review attest the wide scope of his interests and the extent and depth of his reading. The difficulty, consequently, in editing this volume has been mainly one of selection. The choice has been confined to the pages of the Dublin Review ; and only about half of Dr. Gasquet's papers there published have here been put under contribution. The guiding principle has been to show the catho- licity of the author, not only as to faith, but as to interests. Thus he may be studied as an historian, a medical specialist, a metaphysician, but above all as a Catholic apologist ; and it is this corpus of ecclesiastico-archaeology which will be found of special value, because being the work of a layman, it may possibly appeal to a class which looks with habitual suspicion at anything that proceeds from a clerical source. More articles might have followed those here reprinted or referred to, had not increasing ill-health incapacitated Dr. Gasquet almost entirely for literary work. During xvi. To the Beader the last eight or nine years of his life he was a great invalid, but bore with exemplary Christian fortitude the sufferings to which he finally suc- cumbed on August 13, 1902. He was buried in the cemetery at Downside, near Bath. A complete list of Dr. Gasquet's articles would be of some value, but for various reasons it would be practically impossible to compile one that would be exhaustive. The following catalogue is, there- fore, merely tentative. It remains for me to record my thanks to the Right Rev. Mgr. Canon Moves, D.D., the Editor of the Dublin Beview, for the courteous permission accorded by him to reprint these articles. Henry Norbert Birt, O.S.B. AETICLES, &c, BY THE LATE J. R. GASQUET. (Not to be taken as exhaustive, but typical.) Published separately — Cardinal Manning : a biography. Catholic Truth Society, 1895. The Cures at Lourdes (reprinted from the Dublin Beview). Catholic Truth Society, 1895. Madmen of the Greek Theatre (reprinted from the Journal of Mental Science, 1874). Encyclopedia Britannica — " Jenner." CyclopcedAa of the Practice of Medicine (H. W. von Ziemssen), 1875, &c., 8vo. Section in vol. xiii. by H. Curschmann (translated from the German). Articles, dec. xvii. Journal of Mental Science — Progressive Locomotor Ataxia. July, 1867. Madmen of the Greek Theatre. April, July, October, 1872 ; January, April, July, 1873 ; January, April, 1874. The Use of Analogy in the Study of Mental Disease, April, 1876. Italian Psychological Retrospect. April, 1879 ; January, 1880; January, 1881; January, 1884; January, 1887; April, 1888; January, 1891. On Atropine as a Sedative. April, 1882. On Moral Insanity. April, 1882. Some Mental Symptoms of Ordinary Brain Disease. April, 1884. Dublin Beview — (See also Table of Contents, p. xix.) Theories of Sensitive Perception. January, 1864. — Authority of the Scholastic Philosophy. July, 1869. Alcohol, its Action and Uses. April, 1879. Recent Research on Nerves and Brain. April, 1880. (And others). The Month— The Insane Catholic Poor. November, 1873. Natural Science and the Real Presence. April, 1883. Papers read before the " Metaphysical Society " (and after- wards printed) — Is Causation, or Power in Nature, a Reality, or a mere Anthropomorphic Fancy ? December, 1879. The Relation of Metaphysics to the Rest of Philosophy. April, 1880. Bevieius of Books (in the Dublin Beview) — Martineau's Types of Ethical Theory. — ^ Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology. Von Gebbart und Harnack's Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des AlchristUchen Literatur, Band V., Heft 1. TABLE OF CONTENTS. I. Taine's French Eevolution 1 [October, 1882.] II. The Present Position of the Arguments for the Existence of God 34 [July, 1885.] III. Teaching of the Twelve Apostles 57 [January, 1888.] IV. The Apostles' Creed and the Rule of Faith. I. ... 79 [October, 1888.] V. The Apostles' Creed and the Rule of Faith. II. 106 [April, 1889.] VI. The Early History of the Mass. I ".. 129 [October, 1889.] VII. The Early History of the Mass. II. ... ... 150 [April, 1890.] VIII. The Early History of the Mass. Ill 173 [July, 1890.] IX. Celebration of Mass in Ante-Nicene Times ... 198 [October, 1890.] X. The Early History of Baptism and Confirmation 210 [January, 1895.] xx. Table of Contents PAGK XI. The Canon of the New Testament 227 [April, 1893.] XII. Lightfoot's St. Ignatius and the Eoman Primacy 248 [April, 1887.] XIII. Hypnotism 282 [April, 1891.] XIV. The Cures at Lourdes 306 [October, 1894.] XV. The Physiological Psychology of St. Thomas ... 329 [April, 1882.] STUDIES CONTRIBUTED TO THE "DUBLIN REVIEW." TALNE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION. Les Origines de la France Contemporaine. Par H. Taine, de l'Acad£mie Fran9aise. Onzi^me Edition. Paris. 1882. One hundred years ago, the great historian of that time paused in his study of the decline and fall of ancient civilisation to inquire, with anxious curiosity, whether Europe was threatened with a repetition of those calamities which formerly oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome. After a survey of every possible source of danger, and an admission that there might be fear from some yet unknown barbarian tribe, he concluded that men might confidently hope for the unin- terrupted advance of the wealth, the happiness, and perhaps the virtue, of the human race. We all know how far the facts have answered to Gibbon's confident forecast. Within ten years, one of the most impartial observers of the Revolution replied : " The Huns, the Heruli, the Vandals and the Goths will not come from the North, or from 2 ,•« \ : y ■ .*• : ' , ; *• ... stijpies the Euxine : they are in our midst " ; and in twenty years more these invaders had overrun the whole continent of Europe and altered the future history of the world. Nor was Gibbon alone in his ignorance of what was about to happen. In the very country where these calamities broke out, and even after they had begun, philosophers, statesmen, poets, and men of the world were all agreed that the true home of every virtue was to be found among those lower classes who were then involving them in one common ruin. Here and there only a solitary preacher, accustomed to look beyond the horizon of this world, importunately disturbed the chorus of believers in the perfectibility of the human race, by his denunciations of woe to a society which was past recovery, and which was rushing on to its destruction. He preached, indeed, to deaf ears and to a faithless generation ; yet not in vain, if we may learn not to reject the like warn- ings. His prophecies were the hardly seen eddies, betokening the swiftness of that mighty stream, as it hurried towards the rapids ; or, like the voice of Tiresias and Cassandra, they were the fore- shadowings of the awful drama which was then opening. For such in truth is the Great Revolu- tion — not a play after the modern type, but a tragedy like those of old Greece. Nothing is wanting to the perfect resemblance — even the unities of time and place, so dear to French play- wrights, are observed, while the passions and the very persons of the actors seem to us preter- naturally overstrained. Above all, the plot and motif are Greek. The scene opens upon an ancient and brilliant Court, confident in its inheritance of TAINE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION 3 a thousand years, and, like (Edipus or Pentheus, in its over- weening pride, rejecting the warnings of the seers. Meanwhile we, the audience, know that these forebodings will be more than fulfilled, that already v/3pi$ igavdova iicdpiraxTe (rrd^vv arr}<; vdev 7rdy/c\avTov e^afici Oepos, and that the end of the play will be horror and ruin. This would be indeed enough to rouse our keenest interest ; but there is more beyond. We have seen the first, perhaps the second, day's play, but the end is not yet come. The benches of the theatre are filled with eager spectators ; but the future is as dark to them as it was to their fathers, and they know not how the Divine Author will close his awful trilogy, and vindicate his ways with men. What wonder, then, that the theme is fascinating to all ? If men would be roused to admiration of deeds of high emprise and lofty virtue, or to loathing of violence and crime, here they are in plenty and in their extremes ; or, if more reflective, they would look into futurity, and, perchance, try to guess at the next page of the world's tale, they can only do so by studying the causes of that great catastrophe, and seeing if they are not still at work. With such sources of deepest interest, what wonder if the French Revolution continues to be one of the chief studies of historians, each of whom, after his fashion, describes its terrible course, and draws his own moral therefrom. Hitherto, at any rate in France, it has been found that writers have been too near to the events they narrate to describe them with 4 STUDIES perfect impartiality. They may be great his- torians in spite of this — de Tocqueville is no more impartial than Tacitus or Thucydides — and their account will probably gain in vigour and brilliancy for being one-sided, but it can hardly be resorted to by those who wish simply to acquire the most accurate information on the subject. The time, however, seems now to have come when the Revo- lution can be examined sine ira et studio by a Frenchman, who has apparently begun his investi- gation with no preconceived political theories, but with the single desire to discover the truth. For such a writer M. Taine clearly is, and this single merit seems to have ensured the great popularity of his work in France, in spite of defects of style and arrangement which would be fatal to any other of his countrymen. His work, indeed, is very far from attaining that perfection of order and form at which Frenchmen, above all others, aim, and which they most nearly reach. We are far from the " facundia" and " lucidus or do " of de Tocqueville, which made that great author's works such easy reading, while they impressed his conclusions on the memory. The reader, as well as the writer, is oppressed in M. Taine's work by the multiplicity of details, while these are not relieved by any clear and lucid summary of the result of his investi- gations. This, however, as he urges beforehand in his defence, is precisely what he desired to do ; he wished not to impose his conclusions upon his readers, but to leave them to draw their own. Another defect almost equally injures his book as a work of art. We did not look here for the flowery style of a Lamartine or a Chateaubriand — we should have been sorry to be condemned to taine's feench bevolution 5 read it — but we might fairly expect that one of the illustrious Forty of the French Academy would do his best to sustain the classical character of the language he has been selected to control. Instead of this, his style is unconventional and full of new and familiar words, hardly becoming the dignity of the Muse of History ; while the honest indignation with which the crimes of revo- lutionary heroes inspire him somewhat loses its effect in the long sentences of rather feminine invective (and French is a very fertile language for scolding) which he pours forth. But, when we have remarked on these — after all very second- ary — points we have little else but praise for the work. Perhaps its greatest merit is its perfect impartiality. We shall, perhaps, have occasion presently to point out several matters in which we believe M. Taine to be mistaken ; but, if so, we do not doubt that he has fairly drawn what seemed to him the correct inference from the facts before him. Next, his enormous industry, and the assistance he has received from the officials of the National Library and Archives of France, have enabled Mm to read a great mass of official reports, accounts, letters, and statistics, from which he has extracted so many interesting details, that he is fully justified in claiming that " the History of the Revolution had not previously been written." He has thus succeeded in giving us a view of the condition of all classes under the ancien regime less vivid and picturesque, but more detailed and more trustworthy, than those which Macaulay has drawn for England in the seventeenth century. But it is time for us to proceed to a more detailed account of the book ; and in doing so, we propose 6 STUDIES only to dwell on those main features of the catas- trophe which M. Taine has placed in a new or stronger light, reserving, for a more detailed separate examination, the account which he gives of religion and of the Church in France. The work — as yet incomplete — is divided into three parts. In the first, the author describes all those elements of the ancien regime which made its ruin inevitable and imminent ; in the second, he details the uncertain, contradictory, and suicidal attempts to build up a new order of things upon the remnants of that which was dying ; while in the last part, he shows how a very small minority of criminals and fanatics, by virtue of knowing their object and being prepared to risk all for it, conquered France and deluged it in blood. In his study of the ancien regime, Taine confines himself almost entirely to the social conditions which led to the Revolution. He thereby avoids clashing with de Tocqueville, whose account of the political causes of the catastrophe is so admirable ; yet the two are so intimately connected, that both works should be read together by any one who desires to have a complete view of pre-revolutionary France. But as the state of a society is the resultant of many causes, among which its govern- ment is only one of the principal, we are brought by our author a stage nearer to the Revolution than we were before. Probably the most striking example of the retributive justice which despotism had worked out for itself was to be found in the case of the king. After Louis XIV. had ended the struggle between the sovereign and the nobles, he set before them, in place of any useful function in the State, TAINE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION 7 the position of mere ornaments of the most brilliant Court ever known, as the highest object of their ambition. This degradation was so eagerly accepted by the aristocracy, that life became insupportable to them away from the Court ; a sentence of banishment was almost like death ; and (to take a slight but characteristic instance) " it was a matter of politeness to leave the royal presence before another person, since he who came last enjoyed the sight of the king longest." We will not dwell upon the minute ceremonial prescribed for the life of such a Court, or the five series of persons who had the right of entree during the course of his dressing when rising in the morning, every detail of which was regulated by an inexorable etiquette ; or the reverence paid even to his table and his bed. It is enough to say that his whole life had to be spent in public, surrounded by at least one hundred of the nobility, and in the observ- ance of a ceremonial from which he could only seek some relief in the chase. Such a burden seemed so intolerable to other sovereigns, that Frederick II. used to say, were he king of France, his first act would be to appoint some one else to officiate in his place. A more serious drawback than the tediousness of such a fife was the waste of time and energy which it involved. Louis XV. could spare at most one hour a day for business, and it was thought a great proof of application that Louis XVI. devoted three or four hours a day to his Ministers or his Council, save on the many days given up to hunting. Meanwhile the central- ising tendency, which had been at work since the Middle Ages, had (as M. de Tocqueville showed) reached the height which still prevails ; and it 8 STUDIES would have needed the energy of a Frederick or a Napoleon to have administered a despotism which undertook all the functions of government for twenty-five millions of men. It would be strange, indeed, if a young, inexperienced king had been able to do more than Louis XVI. ; to introduce from time to time a few improvements, to modify a few unimportant laws, while leaving the chief abuses of government unaltered. This inability is most strangely marked in the expendi- ture of the royal household. The magnificence of the Court could, of course, not be kept up without a large staff of officers and servants, and we are told that there were 4,000 persons on the civil establishment of the king, and 9,000 to 10,000 on his military establishment. In his personal expen- diture Louis XVI. was economical, simple, and even saving ; but he was accessible to the impor- tunities of his courtiers, and, above all, to the caprices of the queen. He distributed highly paid sinecures and pensions without even any nominal reason ; paid the debts of his courtiers and of his family ; even his well-meant economies were half measures, and often resulted in further waste. In consequence of this inability to direct the whole administration of the country from Versailles, and of the constant changes in the king's advisers, all the details of government continually varied. The mode of taxation in particular was continually changed, though it always fell on the same class ; and laws, cruel and arbitrary in appearance, were applied with extraordinary, though irregular, indul- gence. De Tocqueville pointed out. the importance of this factor, in leading to a contempt for all government, and M. Taine supplies much corrobora- TAINE S FRENCH REVOLUTION 9 tive evidence for it. Meanwhile, the nation made no allowance for the inevitable causes of failure in the Government, which had undertaken every administrative function, and was therefore held to blame for all shortcomings by ill-natured, because irresponsible, critics. If such were the sources of ruin to the State from the condition of the monarchy, the noblesse was in as precarious a condition. Its privileges and power had been originally essential for the development of the nation; but the centralising policy of the Crown had gradually withdrawn all the real power (and with it much of the means of doing good) and had only left the privileges, which then became odious and harmful. In this case, too, the tendency to become mere courtiers at Versailles was the chief source of evil. With but few ad- mirable exceptions, all the nobility who could afford it became hangers-on at Court, and neglected their estates and their tenantry. Taine calculates that all the evils of an absentee proprietary, which we have seen exemplified in Ireland, prevailed in a much worse degree over one- third of France. The contrast between an absentee and a resident proprietor was most marked in the monastic estates, of which the commendatory abbot's two-thirds lay waste and fallow, so as to produce less than the adjoining third allotted to the monks, usually highly cultivated. Even the most wealthy nobles were in debt or in difficulties, owing to the mal- administration of their estates and their prodigal extravagance ; they were therefore compelled to exact all their dues pitilessly, even when these were not already in the hands of usurers. In many instances they had gradually parted with all their 10 STUDIES hereditary estates, and only retained their tolls and profits from the use of the mill, bakehouse, and the like. On the other hand, many of the richest proprietors only visited the country in order to hunt. For this purpose, over a great part of France, and especially for thirty leagues round Paris, deer and wolves, as well as lesser game, were carefully preserved, to the ruin of farming. The few grands seigneurs and more numerous small proprietors, who resided on their estates, though haughty towards the bourgeoisie, were not village tyrants, but (as M. Taine shows) kindly and charitable landlords, beloved by their tenantry, though deprived by a jealous despotism of any share in local government. Under such influences it is hardly surprising that the privileged classes should have striven to avoid bearing any part of the burdens of the State. In this respect the clergy were the greatest offenders : having a corporate representation, they were enabled to bargain with the king as to their share in taxa- tion, to tax themselves (almost the whole being paid by the inferior clergy), and finally, by an ingenious arrangement of borrowing at the expense of the State, in some years to receive money instead of contributing to the revenue of the country. The nobility had recourse, more shamelessly, to every kind of private influence and solicitation in order to avoid paying the small share of the imposts to which they were liable. The bourgeoisie, in turn, were only too ready to follow the example set by their superiors, and where they had the control of local taxation, endeavoured to raise it upon articles of general consumption and not of luxury. The aristocracy, being thus gathered from every TAINE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION 11 part of France to Paris and Versailles, relieved from every duty, and living on the taxation of the poor, incurred all the dangers to which such a highly abnormal society is always liable. We gladly omit the darker shades of the picture which M. Taine rightly sets before us. A generally low standard of morality and of all family ties has unfortunately been a common curse of such an idle and selfish caste. But the character of the nation determined the special risks to which this society was exposed. Frenchmen are too active to sink contentedly into the mere sloth which slowly rusts away an Italian or Spanish aristocracy ; while their vanity and sociability led them to occupy themselves with the only diversion within their reach — the arts of social intercourse and conversation. For this the good qualities and defects of their mind alike fitted them, their lucidity and quickness, no less than their want of applica- tion and of depth. In this way was produced the most enchanting and most seductive, yet most fragile, society the world has ever known. The lives of the nobility were passed in a succession of fetes, in the exchange of mutual compliments and of gaiety ; so that they were unable even to conceive of the existence of suffering and poverty, and when the moment of danger came, knew not how to strike a blow in their own defence, and could only die with dignity and grace. This danger they had themselves introduced and welcomed — they had nurtured and fondled in their palaces the monster which was to devour them all. In their ardour for conversational dis- play, Frenchmen spared no subject, however intricate and however sacred. The primary truths 12 STUDIES of natural and revealed religion, the moral govern- ment of the world, the fundamental laws of ethics and politics, had to be discussed every day, wittily and intelligently, but with no time for their study, before an audience keen-witted indeed, but most impatient of aught that it could not seize without effort. The result was what might have been expected : since it is easier to have the appearance of originality in denying than in defending estab- lished truths, and much easier to gain a reputa- tion for wit by ridiculing things sacred than those which have no such associations. Infidelity had made rapid strides even during the latter years of the reign of Louis XIV., and of the seventeenth century ; but now the flood-gates were thrown open, and it infected the whole of society. It is usual to ascribe the spread of free- thinking, and hence of opinions dangerous to Church and State, to Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists ; but we are satisfied that M. Taine is right in saying that they played a subordinate, though most destructive, part. Voltaire, indeed, covered with the slaver of his obscene yet unrivalled wit, every hallowed thing, human and divine ; and his suc- cessors continued the work which he had done for revealed religion and established government, applying it to the primary truths of natural religion and morals, on which these must rest. Such teaching was doubly grateful to a generation which relished their wit, and welcomed their free- dom from the trammels of morality ; but a merely destructive philosophy cannot long satisfy even the most superficial mind, still less can it supply a motive and a basis for attacking the systems which it criticises — it may discredit, but cannot TAINE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION 13 supplant them. For this purpose a positive system was needed, and this was supplied by Rousseau, who may be fairly called the prophet of the new movement, and the apostle of the Revolution. M. Taine is so convinced of this truth that he devotes a considerable portion of this volume to an analysis of the causes of Rousseau's paramount influence over the latter half of the eighteenth century, which we may briefly sum up thus. Like all men who have ever gained an ascendancy over their fellows, the secret of his power was, that he was ready to impress on his audience, with an ardent conviction of the importance of his mission, the very truths, or half-truths, which they were best prepared to hear. For this merit he was forgiven all those grave moral faults which even that indulgent age could not ignore ; and, though an alien, a Protestant, and a plebeian, he became the leader of thought in aristocratic and sometime Catholic France. One proof of his widespread influence must often have struck those who (like the present writer) have been familiar with any of the generation born before the Revolution : the language even of religious men savoured of Rousseau, just as so many persons now unwittingly express themselves in terms derived from Spencer or Mill. It may be admitted that Rousseau's influence was not wholly evil. No man has more earnestly pleaded for a belief in the moral govern- ment of God, the immortality of the soul, and the supremacy of the voice of conscience ; and that these retained their hold on Frenchmen after they had abandoned revelation must be to some extent set down to his credit. He gained also by heading and directing a reaction against the artificial 14 STUDIES life of the time, of which men were beginning to be wearied. He dwelt earnestly on the happiness of domestic life, and simple country pleasures, of which he drew touching pictures, and thus roused an interest in the poor to which the rich had long been strangers. From this time the unbounded confidence in the virtues of the peasantry grew up, which survived even many of the early horrors of the Revolution. This humanitarian tendency, strengthened by the gentle and polished manners of the time, was mistaken for weakness by the people, who readily believed themselves to possess all those virtues which their betters ascribed to them. At the same time Rousseau's political philosophy was excellently calculated to rouse their discontent ; and in this respect his influence was entirely evil. He found an open field for his speculations on politics. The Church, since the destruction of its true liberties by Louis XIV., had ceased to put forward that ideal of a Christian State, in which all members of the community should have rights and duties, which its greatest thinkers had derived from the Old Testament and from Aristotle. It had acquiesced silently, if not actively, in the theory of despotism put forth by the king, now so roughly handled. 1 Instead of building his science of politics upon the real neces- sities of human nature, and the data supplied by • De Tocqueville pointed out that the demands of the clergy in 1789 for liberty were fully as enlightened as those of the other two orders, and more feasible ; and that not a word was to be found in them on " divine right." We have been told that a preacher on one occasion developed, before Louis XVIII., when in exile in London, the theory of government as laid down by St. Thomas, to the natural indignation of his Court at such an unseasonable and unheard-of admonition. TAINE's FRENCH REVOLUTION 15 existing societies, the sophist raised it in the clouds upon an imaginary definition of man in the abstract, from which he mathematically deduced all the rights supposed to be absolutely inherent in each individual. Such a method was too well suited to the character of the French mind to be neglected ; and it became the fashion to string together platitudes on the liberty, equality, and sovereignty of man, and to express them in ideal constitutions, of which the young Sismondi's attempt (Art. I., " Tous les Francais seront vertueux." Art. II., " Tous les Francais seront heureux") is scarcely a caricature. For the aristocracy, of course, this was little more than a speculative pastime, neither of the privi- leged orders having at first any desire or intention of leaving their vantage ground. But through the whole of Louis XVI.'s reign the bourgeoisie had made enormous progress in wealth, and in all that cultivation which wealth brings with it. Irritated at the line of demarcation which separated them so sharply from the nobility, and which the latter took care to let them feel, they eagerly accepted the new doctrines, and, from having previously demanded reform in details, now desired fundamental changes. These subjects were dis- cussed by all classes before the people, whom they believed to be indifferent, but who were greedily learning fragments of socialistic philosophy, and applying it to their own case. And so deplorable was that case that they may be excused for desir- ing any change. This has long been known, but it is one great merit of M. Taine's work to have collected details. The most obvious injustice from which they suffered was the incidence of taxation. 16 STUDIES It has been already stated that the clergy escaped altogether, while the nobility contributed only about one- tenth to the revenue of the country. Most of the remainder fell upon the small farmer ; and it is calculated that throughout France the direct taxes came to 53 per cent, of his net income, while in some parts the amount was greater still. To this have to be added one-tenth for the poll- tax, one-seventh each for the tithes and seignorial dues, charges instead of the corvee, and local taxes, leaving the proprietor only about one-third of his income. Labourers were proportionately taxed just as heavily, paying from eight to twenty francs a year poll-tax. The mode of collection greatly aggravated the evil, collectors being appointed in each parish yearly, and held responsible for the amount to be raised. They were almost always uneducated persons, often labourers or women, whom the loss of time and non-payment constantly ruined. The amount levied was so excessive, that every one feigned poverty, and few parishes paid until they were forced to do so, although the expenses thereby incurred greatly added to their burdens. At the same time the people were oppressed by an indirect taxation, even more vexatious than the amount raised directly. The worst tax was on salt, which had the effect of increasing the price of that necessary of life to thrice its present amount. Every one was bound to purchase at least seven pounds of salt each year, to be used only with food ; and the constant attempts at evasion of the law, in one way or another, led each year on an average to 4,000 seizures, 3,400 imprisonments, and 500 sentences of degrees of severity ranging from whip- TAINE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION 17 ping to the galleys. The duties upon wine, again, amounted to more than 30 per cent, of its value ; while, like the other taxes, they were so clumsily raised as to oppress equally the grower, the mer- chant, and the consumer. This system of internal taxation, and the arbitrary rules as to rotation of crops, were far more fatal to the progress of agriculture than the actual amount levied. During the whole of the eighteenth century large tracts of country gradually went out of cultivation, and the remainder, farmed in the most primitive manner, returned little more than half its present yield. In ordinary years the peasantry, and the lower classes in the towns, were able to procure sufficient of the coarsest food to keep themselves from absolute starvation ; but on the slightest failure absolute famine broke out, relieved only by the charity of a few rich proprietors and reli- gious communities. Such famines, and the bread- riots which they occasioned, became more and more frequent in the thirty years preceding the Revolution ; the food of the poor became worse, so that they were often reduced to eat grass and wild herbs. The general appearance of the ham- lets and small country towns, the filth of the inhabi- tants and of their dwellings, was the same (Taine remarks) as in Ireland. It was to be expected that vagrancy and mendicity would continually increase, in spite of the severest penalties, so that on an attempt to suppress them in 1764, 50,000 vagrants were collected and imprisoned in France. Education, also, was at the lowest ebb. In most villages, we are told by Turgot, no one could read ; and it appears to be a fair sample of the state of things, when we learn that near Toulouse there 2 18 STUDIES were only ten schools in fifty parishes. It was before such a people, constantly brutalised by want, and occasionally stung to madness by starva- tion, that the privileged classes airily discussed the fashionable politics of the day. How should these poor folk not believe that virtue had taken up its home among them ; how should they not agree that all the evils of the time were due to the existing state of society ; how not do their best to establish the millennium of liberty and equality by force % The army, the only means of ensuring order in a country so disposed, was drawn from the lowest classes of the poor ; it was demoralised by defeats in the field, and constant changes of discipline at home ; the pay, food, and lodging were so miserable that discontent had become general for some years before the Revolution. By that time desertion had grown so frequent, that 15,000 deserter soldiers in the neighbourhood of Paris are said to have led the rioters. Such is a very inadequate summary of the pic- ture which M. Taine draws of the social causes of the Revolution. On looking back now we can see that the catastrophe was inevitable, and that the whole history of the ancien regime was merely a prolonged suicide. The policy of Richelieu and Louis XIV. had secretly and slowly, but therefore the more surely, sapped the foundations of civic virtue in France. It had divided in order to rule, setting, not merely class against class, but even the sections of each class at variance, so that their selfishness, as well as their inexperience of public life, made them quite unfit for self- government. It had left untouched the forms taine's fkench revolution 19 and shadows of former institutions, but had built up under their cover a perfectly centralised des- potism. Such a system of centralisation seemed the only conceivable method of government even to the destroyers of the ancien regime, probably because itself had rendered all other government impossible ; so that even the Revolution only completed the work of the old monarchy, and the France of to-day is administered by the spirit of the " Grand Monarque." It was De Tocque- ville's merit to bring this point out most fully ; and it will seem no paradox to any one who believes that nations cannot, any more than individuals, separate themselves from their past life, and must retain the impress of those manifold conditions which have gone to build up their character. We have dwelt at such length upon M. Taine's first volume, as being the most full of instruction for us, that we have left but little room for noticing his account of the progress of the Revolution. We regret this the less, because, though equally valuable as a collection of documentary evidence, there is less that will be new to English readers. Moreover, this part of the work suffers more than the former by the comparative exclusion of political facts from a narrative with which they are so closely interwoven. We can only select some of the most important points in these two latter volumes. Our author has proved, with a mass of evidence which can leave no doubt, that the Revolution assumed, from the first moment of its existence, the same destructive character which it had throughout. Camille DesmOulins revealed from the beginning the whole Jacobin programme ; and the anarchical nature of the movement was 20 STUDIES recognised by the American Minister. This dis- poses of the distinction drawn by many so-called " Liberals " l in France, between the Revolution of 1789 and the Terror of 1792 ; both are but different stages of the same process. And indeed nothing else could be expected. The Constituent Assembly was from the first singularly wanting in men of practical experience, and the vast majority of its members were disciples of Rousseau, believers in the absolute virtue of a people whom they attempted to govern by appeals to their emotions and their sentiments. By forbidding its members to become Ministers, it deprived them of the only hope of their learning moderation from a sense of responsibility. In order to seize upon the Government, it at first suffered and afterwards aroused rioting and disorder ; it thus inevitably fell under the domination of the populace it had invoked, whose centre was to be found at first in the Palais Royal, and afterwards in the Jacobin clubs. An organised band, receiving forty sous a day for their services, filled the galleries and approaches of the Chamber, hooted down the Royalist members, and constantly threatened and ill-treated them on leaving the Assembly. Money for this, and for other purposes, was undoubtedly found by the Duke of Orleans, who hoped to succeed to the throne on Louis XVI.'s fall. Mean- while the extreme reactionary party adopted the foolish course in which they have always since 1 The word in this sense is never to be allowed to pass without protest. As Burke said : " There may be some apprehension from the very name of liberty, which, as it ought to be very dear to us, in its worst abuses carries something seductive. It is the abuse of the first and best of the objects which we cherish." 21 persisted ; they encouraged the worst excesses of the Revolutionists, hoping thereby to disgust the nation with the more moderate Liberals ; and the most suicidal measures — such as the " self-denying ordinance," which declared members of the Con- stituent Assembly ineligible for its successor — were carried by their assistance. These were the principal conditions which unfitted the central authority for its task ; the local authorities, in turn, were scarcely more capable. In the first two years of the Revolution local government fell mainly into the hands of the more cultivated bourgeois, who, being like the members of the National Assembly, philosophers of Rousseau's school, were wholly incapable of restraining a nation in the agonies of dissolution. A lower and more unscrupulous class gradually became dominant in most of the 40,000 municipal bodies which ruled France ; and at last, the most powerful of them, the Commune of Paris, laid hands upon the govern- ment of the whole country. But, such is the force of any established order, that universal confusion did not at once prevail. M. Taine describes seven successive " Jacqueries " as breaking out between 1789 and 1793, in the most capricious manner here and there, and thus gradually changing the face of the country ; this entirely coincides with what the present writer formerly heard from those who had been sufferers in the catastrophe. The course of these emeutes was usually the same. The poorest class were roused by some appeal to their cupidity or their fears, and would take the lives and destroy the property often of those to whom they were most attached, or who had done the most for them. Probably in the small country towns and 22 STUDIES villages some of the most atrocious crimes were perpetrated under the influence of utterly irrational fear, when men were literally mad with fright, while the larger towns were seized upon by gangs of criminals professing to be patriots. M. Taine makes it perfectly clear that all this violence was the work of a very small class. The enormous majority of the people desired a moderate constitutional government with a system of repre- sentation and equal taxation ; above all, they were sincerely attached to the king's person and office. He estimates from several sources the number of the populace who tyrannised over Paris (and through Paris over France) at about 5,000 men and 2,000 women ; and the proportion of Jacobins seems to have been equally small throughout the country. But their strength lay in this : that they, whether madmen, fanatics, criminals, or all three combined, knew what they aimed at, and would risk all for it ; while the passive majority, trained to habits of submission, hardly ventured to unite in their own defence, and had no definite object. Not the least service which M. Taine has ren- dered to history is the complete and, we trust, final destruction of the Girondin legend. Such beliefs die hard ; but we hardly think any admira- tion for the Girondin leaders can survive the ridiculous light in which our author places them. Their pedantic adherence to their theories, and their absolute incapacity, thinly veiled by the poorest declamation and fragments of second-hand classical learning, were even more pernicious than the wild excesses of the Jacobins, who used them for their own purposes, and then crushed them. TAINE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION 23 In this matter, as in so many others, time has justified the estimate which Burke's almost inspired sagacity formed of the Girondists, whom later writers have taken for men of understanding and honour. Our author further shows that their atheistical tenets made them more intolerant than the Jacobins, not only towards Catholics, but even towards all who professed any belief in the existence of a God. Two other points of importance are superabun- dantly proved by M. Taine : that the war with Germany and the September massacres were caused by no accident or impulse, but by the deliberate purpose of the extreme revolutionists, who wished to seize upon the government, and to put " a river of blood " between themselves and the past. How well they knew the character of their countrymen, the result proved. That centralisation which (as we have seen) was the chief cause of the ruin of the ancien regime saved France when she seemed in the agonies of dissolution. The old monarchy had so firmly welded together the provinces which it had gradually absorbed, that the whole energy of the nation was diverted to repel the invader. In the presence of the enemy on French soil, no question of internal government could divide Frenchmen, and the Jacobins were left unmolested to finish their work. But that the war, with all its terrible consequences to France and to the rest of Europe, was their doing, no one who has read M. Taine's work can doubt. Such is a very imperfect account of the points which have struck us most forcibly in studying this work. We have reserved for separate notice our author's account of the Church and religion 24 STUDIES in France during the same period, so as to dwell upon it in some detail. This appears to us the more desirable, because, as far as we can learn, no work upon this subject seems to have been attempted of late years by the clergy or Catholic laity of France. They appear to have been content to leave the history of their predecessors to be related by a bigoted admirer of the Jansenists, 1 who has stooped to every art which a partisan writer can employ to defend his cause. We need hardly say that M. Taine's spirit is very different. We realise, indeed, from time to time, that he unhappily has not the gift of faith — and nowhere more obviously than when he relates, unmoved, scandals which would rouse the indignation of every Catholic — but none can doubt his perfect fairness. The details scattered through his work are full of interest, and we only regret our inability to do more than scanty justice to them. The collapse of the ecclesiastical regime in France is even more dramatic in its suddenness and com- pleteness than the fall of its secular government. If ever Church were tempted to rely on her pride of place and her many splendours, to forget the true source of her power, and echo in her heart the vain boast, " I am rich and wealthy and have need of naught," that must have been the glorious Church of France. Of the hundred and thirty-one Sees into which she was divided, many dated back to apostolic times, and she alone had survived the barbarian floods which had destroyed all else in France. To her the new lords of the country 1 Le Olerge de Quatre-vingt-neuf. Par Jean Wallon. Paris. 876. TAINE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION 25 owed, not merely religion, but the rudiments of government and the arts of life ; and their piety and gratitude had endowed her munificently. As France grew into a nation, she had waxed with its growth ; hers was the only lawful religion in the country ; her king gloried in the title of Eldest Son of the Church. She had been graced, too, with more spiritual favours ; she had been the fertile mother of saints and doctors ; the religious life had flowered nowhere more luxuriantly than on her soil. Nor had she failed from length of years ; the brightness of noon-day had broken forth again in her evening ; St. Vincent and St. Francis were no unworthy successors of St. Hilary and St. Bernard. And yet, as if by some apoca- lyptic sign of the wrath of God, she was cast down in one hour from her high estate, and ceased to be. No wonder that such a portent should seem terrible even to statesmen and men of the world. De Tocqueville says : — I have been surprised and almost alarmed, to find that less than twenty years before Catholic worship was abol- ished without resistance and the churches were profaned, the plan sometimes adopted by the Government to learn the population of a district was this — the cures supplied the number of those who had made their Easter, who, after the sick and children had been allowed for, made up the whole population. But when we come to look more clearly, we see that her downfall might have been long predicted, and that its causes had long been at work. The most serious of these were, perhaps, her great wealth and privileges, which might at first sight have seemed her chief security. This wealth was most unequally distributed. The average income 2b STUDIES of a bishop was £4,000 a year ; but in some instances, such as Paris and Cambrai, it probably amounted to thrice that sum, and considerably exceeded it in the case of some very small dioceses. In the same way, there were thirty- two abbeys of monks, where the income of the abbot was from £2,000 to £10,000 a year, 1 and twenty-seven religious houses of women, where the abbess received from £1,600 to £8,000 yearly. It is to be remembered, that these sums correspond to double the amount at the present day ; and that a bishop might, and fre- quently did, hold one of these great abbacies in commendam. This latter abuse is too well known for us to dwell upon it ; it was probably less injurious than we might at first sight suppose, since no one expected any ecclesiastical spirit from an abbe commendataire. A much more serious grievance was caused by the number of impro- priators, clerical and lay, who received the tithes upon which the cures should have depended for their support. The sum which the cure received from the impropriator (la portion congrue) was miserably small, being only raised in the later years of the monarchy to 750 francs a year, con- siderably less than the smallest stipend at present ; moreover, the holders of these livings being non- resident, the presbyteries and churches became dilapidated. This, and the unequal incidence of taxation, to which we have before referred, divided 1 These large sums, it need not be said, were never touched by any member of a religious community. They were appro- priated to the " Abbot Commendatory," sometimes a minister, sometimes a great secular ecclesiastic, and very often a young member of the nobility, who had received the tonsure and nothing more. taine 's feench be volution 27 the clergy of the second order from the prelates, And, like all other classes in France, to borrow De Tocqueville's subtle distinction, though not free they were independent. Diocesan discipline abounded in a multitude of exemptions, sub- ordinate jurisdictions, and the like ; so that, for example, in the diocese of Besancon, the arch- bishop presented to less than 100 benefices out of a total of 1,500. Under these circumstances, it is not strange that the clergy should have acted in opposition to the bishops in the early days of the Assembly ; and their defection, it will be remembered, was one of the turning points of the Revolution. The state of the religious orders was in some respects still less satisfactory. The non- residence of their nominal superiors was necessarily demoralising, and led to considerable laxity of discipline. It says much for the power of the religious life over even its most half-hearted and indifferent followers, that, in spite of this laxity, and the low state of general morality, there should have been so few grave scandals in the monasteries at that time. All writers on the subject admit this ; and, as far as we can see, one case only (the Bernardins of Grandselve) is referred to by authors and admitted by them to be a " deplorable excep- tion." At the same time, as M. Taine is careful to point out, a very large proportion preserved the fervour and strictness of true religious. This was particularly the case with the nuns, who (with the exception of a few houses of canonesses) were living up to the spirit of their vocation. M. Taine quotes their entreaties, which, as he says, are " most earnest and touching," to be allowed to remain in their convents, when the storm of the 28 STUDIES Revolution broke. One- third at least of the com- munities of monks he considers to have been as edifying ; and he quotes numerous instances of self-denying and enlightened charity to the poor even in the less strict monasteries. When their suppression was proposed in 1789, petitions were presented to the Assembly from all parts of France, imploring that the religious of their own neigh- bourhood — " the fathers of the poor " — should be allowed to remain undisturbed. The interference of the State, though probably well meant, had been prejudicial to the religious orders. In 1766 a mixed commission of bishops and lawyers was appointed for their reform. With- out consulting the Holy See, they suppressed more than 1,500 of the smaller houses, abolished nine orders entirely, and closed all houses with less than sixteen members in towns, and twelve in the country. The most serious step which they took was to alter the age at which religious could be professed, from that fixed by the Council of Trent, to twenty-five for men and eighteen for women. From that time the number of professions rapidly diminished ; both seculars and regulars ascribing the diminution to this rule, which, in spite of their protests, was never abrogated. M. Taine is no doubt right in supposing that, if the same policy had been continued, the religious orders would have decreased still more rapidly. It needed the rude hand of the persecutor to make them revive : " they will always spring up again, for they are in the blood of every Catholic race." M. Taine has taken much pains to ascertain the number of religious in 1789 : and he calculates that there must have been about 60,000 monks and 37,000 taine's feench revolution 29 nuns ; while in 1866 they had already grown, since the revival of religion in France, to 18,500 men and 86,300 women. Finally, the episcopate had lost much of its influence in the country. The bishops had long been chosen from among the aristocracy, by a rule which was never infringed save for one or two eveches de laquais, and by the most distin- guished merit. Living, therefore, at Court, grands seigneurs by birth, education, and surroundings, it would hardly have been conceivable that they should not have yielded to the attractions of a fascinating and luxurious society. It is rather to their lasting honour, and that of the Church which they governed, that so many of them should have been distinguished for their piety and charity, and that so few grave scandals can be alleged even against the less exemplary. It was a proof that they were not corrupted by wealth and luxury, that, when evil days fell upon them, and they had to choose between subscribing to a schismatical constitution, or going into poverty and exile, they accepted the latter without a murmur. M. Taine speaks as if many of the bishops were unbelievers ; but his authority for this statement is only a mot of Champfort's, which is insufficient to bear such an inference. As far as we can ascertain, there were but three members of the episcopate — Jarente, Brienne, and Talleyrand — against whom so heavy a charge could fairly be brought. It is, however, remarkable that Catholic nations have been always more alienated from the faith by the sight of prodi- gality and waste than by failure in faith or morals, on the part of the clergy ; and it must be confessed that the French bishops gave ample grounds for complaint. 30 STUDIES Such were the dangers springing mainly from the endowments of the Church ; there were others no less serious connected with its relation to the State as the established religion. In consequence of the policy of Louis XIV., which checked as far as possible all communication with the Holy See, ecclesiastical questions came to be raised before the civil courts, and particularly before the Parlia- ment of Paris. That body, profoundly Jansenist in its traditions, and full of the pedantic conceit which was a note of the sect, had no doubt of its competency to decide theological questions. The whole of the latter part of Louis XV. 's reign was disturbed by the constant appeals to the Parlia- ment by religious and laymen, to whom the sacra- ments had been refused by order of the bishops, because they were " appellantists." The Par- liament was rejoiced to have such an opportunity of showing its sympathy with Jansenism or semi- Jansenism. We are told that, within a few years, the Archbishop of Paris was subjected to a heavy fine ; the Bishop of Nantes twice had his goods seized and sold by auction ; a letter of the Arch- bishop and Bishops of the province of Auch was burned by the hangman ; the Bishops of Troyes, Aix, Montpellier, Orleans, were exiled. More than all this, Paris witnessed the scandal of seeing the tabernacle broken open by order of a court of law, and the sacred Host carried under the pro- tection of gendarmes to persons to whom the clergy and bishop had refused communion. This persecution was not ended until the king issued an order in 1756 that the bishops alone should decide as to the administration of the sacraments. But the warfare of the Parliament with the Church taine's feench eevolution 31 was continued all through the century in other ways. To take no other examples, we find it forbidding the use of the offices of the Sacred Heart, of St. Gregory VII., and (it will be scarcely thought possible) of St. Vincent de Paul. M. Taine does not notice these facts, but they appear to us of considerable importance. They must necessarily have accustomed men to see the State overrule the Church, and prepared them for the final act of tyranny which crushed the latter. Such acts of usurpation were continued to the end ; even under the religious government of Louis XVI., in 1776, we find the bishopric and chapter of Digne suppressed in spite of the pro- tests of the persons concerned, and without any reference to Rome. Our author has, however, remarked upon the effect of the long-continued Jansenist agitation (of which the Parliament was the centre) as one factor in the discontent with the Government. He fully recognises that the three enemies of the Church — Gallicanism, Jan- senism, and Free-thinking — worked together to compass its ruin. This has been more clearly brought out in the very valuable and impartial history of " The Gallican Church and the Revo- lution." M. Taine also admits the schismatical character of the Civil Constitution, and the tyranny of which the Assembly was guilty in imposing it upon the clergy ; we call attention to both these points, because they have been denied by Gallican writers of the present day. But, even with so many causes of weakness in her own fold, and such relentless enemies without, the Church of France was not all at once cast down. There are few more interesting passages 32 STUDIES in M. Taine's work than those where he notes how long the people, even of Paris, continued to be earnestly attached to their religion. Thus we learn that, as late as May, 1793, the Blessed Sacra- ment was publicly carried through the streets to the sick, and that every one knelt in the street, men, women, and children running to adore. A few weeks later, the reliquary of St. Leu was carried in procession, and was received with the usual respect, the guard even of one of the Jacobin sections turning out in its honour. The " dames de la Halle " soon after compelled the revolutionary committee of St. Eustache to authorise another procession which was attended with even more devotion and fervour. These facts will appear the more striking, when it is remembered that in less than six months all Christian worship was abolished in Paris, the Churches were profaned, and the " Goddess of Reason " was crowned in Notre Dame. And, if we come to later times than M. Taine has studied, we find that whenever persecution relaxed for a while, in 1795 and 1797, the faithful flocked eagerly to the churches which were re- opened, or to the chapels which were temporarily used by the orthodox clergy. The more dis- sembled and more enduring opposition of the Directory to every form of Christian worship was more effectual, since a generation grew up under it without Catholic education and surroundings, to whom religion was therefore not a necessity. The important truth, that the Church has nothing to fear from persecution, however severe, but everything from the loss of the training of her children, was never more strikingly illustrated than in the great Revolution. TAINE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION 33 We have endeavoured to give some account of the most important recent contribution to the history of the French Revolution ; and to express, however inadequately, the main impression we have derived from the work. This will have been seen to be that, far from being a sudden catastrophe, it was one which had become inevitable by the slow but silent operation of causes which had long been at work. The ancient polity of France, like some mighty monarch of the forest, primo nutat casurus sub euro, or like some headland overhanging the sea, toppled over in one moment ; but it had long been undermined by secret decay. Those who were overtaken by that great Revolution could no more have checked it than they could have arrested the convulsions of Nature ; but they might have changed its character and made it harmless or even beneficial. A more resolute king, a more unselfish aristocracy, a more far-sighted and patient people, would have used the energies then set free to secure true liberty and good govern- ment for France. The occasion was let pass never more to return ; and they might fairly plead in excuse that the calamity which was to overwhelm them was beyond the experience of man. We have now no such justification ; we have learned from their fate how terrible are the forces which are ever ready to overwhelm religion and civilisa- tion — be it ours to meet them with every public virtue, justice, unselfishness, timely concession, yet equally timely resistance ; and the future is assured to us. 34 THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. ' I need hardly protest that I have no intention of attempting any complete, or even connected, exposition of the proofs of the existence of God ; for an adequate treatment of such an all-important subject would of course require, not the few pages of an article, but a volume. Nor is want of space my only reason for not undertaking such an enter- prise. Only extreme vanity or ignorance could suppose that the whole subject had not been long since threshed out, and that any new argument remained to be discovered. I would indeed go beyond this, and say, that to my own mind the proofs have never been put in a clearer or more satisfactory form than that delivered by pre- Christian antiquity into the guardianship of the Church, and enshrined in her philosophy. I believe that modern objections, on the one hand, and the kind of assistance we derive from science, on the other, both lead us to follow more closely than ever the exact lines of argument followed by St. Thomas. At the same time, we have to express these in modern language, so as to bring them into contact with present thought ; and this is the task I shall very fragmentarily and imperfectly attempt. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 35 If this paper should be read by persons unac- customed to philosophical speculation, I fear they will be disposed to think my arguments very feeble and inadequate, and may even be shocked to see how little I have to say on behalf of a conviction which is the life and centre of their whole being. Part of such apparent deficiency must be ascribed to a want of clearness on my part in stating difficult and abstract matters, of which I am very sensible. But there is a further reason for disappointment, which lies in the nature of the case, and which it is important to remark. Cardinal Newman has abundantly shown that the arguments producible for any conviction are by no means proportioned to the truth and importance of such conviction, or to the intensity with which it is held by man- kind. Indeed, paradoxical as it may seem, the cogency and abundance of such arguments are rather in an inverse ratio to the fundamental importance and necessity of the conclusions they enforce. What proof have we of the validity of those ultimate laws of thought upon which our very existence as reasonable beings depends ; or of any external reality at all ; or of those general principles of morality without which human society could not exist ? Every one who has studied such questions must at first have been disappointed when he discovered how very little argument could be adduced to prove any one of these uni- versal convictions of mankind. Moreover, the sense of inadequacy is increased, in this particular case, by the character of the grounds on which the existence of God is really held by each of us, as distinguished from the arguments producible to others. The sense of moral accountability and 36 STUDIES dependence constitutes an argument to the mind of every man not " debauched by philosophy," which lies outside the circle of reasoning as distinct from reason. Still less can it approach what is to the Christian, and even more to the Catholic, immeasurably the strongest evidence of the divine existence — the revelation of God in the face of Christ Jesus ; His perpetual presence and mysterious union with the Christian soul ; the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, whereby we recognise our kinship to our Divine Father — all these are beyond the reach of argument, and illumine the believing heart with a light beside which all earthly argu- ments are dim indeed. I. I need not consider at length the so-called " ontological " proof that God exists. In the form which St. Anselm first gave to it, it was rejected by the whole School, 1 and substantially for the same reasons which have induced Kant and all since his time to abandon the Cartesian argument. It is indeed obvious that from the mere analysis of the idea of God we can extract no evidence of His actual existence ; we obtain simply a hypo- thetical proposition, that if He exists, He must be a necessary being. We do not go outside the circle of our own minds, or obtain any evidence of the objective reality of the idea with which we started. This seems so clear that I should not have mentioned it, but that the argument is now confounded with another (of more importance and validity as it seems to me), which has been thereby 1 As far as I know, ^Egidius was the only Schoolman who supported it. But Scotus, in one place at least (De Princ. Rerum, cap. iv. No. 24), and St. Bonaventure, give it a qualified support. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 37 discredited. Thus both Principal Caird and Pro- fessor Caird regard this argument as pointing to the ultimate unity of thought and being, which is the presupposition and end of all knowledge. Taken in this sense, the argument is but one example of the principle that abstract or imper- fect conceptions of reality give rise to contradictions, and so force us to put them in relation to the other concep- tions which complement and complete them. 1 This language is somewhat vague and confused, as might be expected of Hegelians ; but it seems to point to a totally different argument. St. Thomas urged, and to my mind with considerable force, that all knowledge presupposes a correspond- ence 2 between thought and reality, that there is a primary basis and standard of thought, and that we may therefore fairly conclude that there is a like basis and source of reality. This is the third argument for the existence of God in the Summa contra Gentiles, the fourth in the Summa Theo- logica ; and its repetition in the latter work shows that St. Thomas's deliberate judgment was in favour of its validity. He appears to have derived it from the appeal to human reason, which runs through all the works of St. Augustine, and which Thomassinus has crystallised into one sentence of his lucid and elegant Latin : " The primary and highest principles of logic, and indeed of all the arts and sciences on which the rest depend, are so many eternal, unchanging, evident rules and laws, which can only shine upon us by a light 1 Philosophy of Kant, p. 645. 2 It is well to note that he employs this word : Correspon- dentia adaequatio rei et intellectus dicitur (i. Ver. 1). 38 STUDIES borrowed from the everlasting sun of truth." l St. Anselm repeated the same argument more dis- tinctly, 2 besides the one with which his name is particularly associated. But it had so far rather been implied than explicitly stated, that such first principles in the mind are derived from an external reality to which they correspond, and, so far as I can learn, St. Thomas first gave this development to the reasoning. His argument differs from the earlier one in adding the appeal to the gradations of human knowledge as an evidence of the primary nature of its first truths. The result of this appeal is to bring out more plainly the objective value of the whole process. As long as we speak only of the funda- mental truths of human knowledge, of the uni- versal and necessary bases of mathematics, logic, or ethics, it may be plausibly objected that we are dealing merely with abstractions of the mind. But when we realise that these primary truths are the starting points and standards of a pro- cess of comparison which is an essential element in all our knowledge, this objection loses its force. We come to see that if there be any such correspond- ence at all between thought and reality as is implied in knowledge, there must be some primary Being without, answering to the ultimate basis of thought within. The latter is indeed in our own minds merely an abstraction ; but it would be untrue (thereby invalidating the whole process of knowledge which rests on it) if it had not its corre- lative in an actual reality without. 1 De Deo, i. cap. 23. 2 Monolog., cap. 66, 68. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 39 This argument may be fairly named " psycho- logical," to correspond to the terms " cosmological," " teleological," and " ontological," applied to the others. If we bear in mind the amount of authority in its favour, especially the great names of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, we can hardly fail to think it has been subsequently neglected. The strict Thomists, indeed, defended it against the later sceptics among the Schoolmen, and it always appears among their proofs of the existence of God, down to Libera tore and Zigliara ; but they merely repeat St. Thomas's own words, and attach no particular importance to it. Tongiorgi omits it altogether, while Palmieri and Caretti think it may be considered a suasio, but not a per- suasio. F. Kleutgen alone has dwelt strongly upon it, especially in the Institutiones Theologicae, which he unfortunately left unfinished. Several causes have probably contributed to this compara- tive neglect. The arguments for a first motor and a designer of the world are so much more easily stated, and so much more persuasive to non- philosophical minds, that the psychological proof has seemed superfluous ; also, the language of the Vatican Council, enforcing St. Paul's teaching that the Divine existence is to be demonstrated per ea quae facta sunt, points at first sight in the same direction. Finally, I suspect the proof has suffered to some degree by being confused with that upheld by St. Anselm and Descartes. I have already, I hope, said enough to show that this is not the case. I think it must be equally clear that the argument lies strictly within the lines of the teaching of the Apostle and the Vatican Coun- cil. The laws of human thought are as much part 40 STUDIES of the creation as the laws of the physical universe ; so that an argument based upon them will be equally per ea quae facta sunt with those drawn from efficient and final causes. And although it perhaps cannot be stated so as to appeal to many minds, there seem to have been some at every time who have found it specially persuasive. Cicero, Fenelon, Cudworth, and, above all, St. Augustine, would echo Tertullian's words — " Ut et naturae et Deo credas, crede animae." At the present time, beyond all others, we cannot afford to let any argument lie idle which has been found to carry conviction to a whole class of minds, and this is my excuse for having dwelt on it so fully. II. The cosmological group of arguments, which proceed from the phenomena of the universe, to prove the existence of a first motor and efficient cause, are so much better known than the psycho- logical proof, that I need not recite them in their ordinary shape. It is more important for my purpose to dwell upon the objections that have been raised to them. The Associationist school urge that there is no necessary connection between cause and effect, but merely the association of antecedent and consequent, and that hence no argument from cause and effect justifies us in passing beyond experience. Such an objection, if allowed, would indeed overturn the cosmological argument for Theism, but a great deal more would go with it which the objectors would less like to lose. It would equally invalidate all prevision, whether of science or of e very-day business. We cannot take a step in this life without the hypothesis of the uniformity of Nature, which cannot possibly^ be THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 41 derived from experience : it is rather the condition which makes experience possible. Nor can science afford to admit that we have no knowledge of aught beyond the ken of sense. The existence of the luminiferous ether, for example, is universally admitted ; yet it is known to us directly by none of the senses, and indeed must possess properties which differ widely from any object that we can see, or hear, or handle. It would be interesting to see the logical sieve which could allow the existence of the luminiferous ether to pass, and yet exclude the arguments for the existence of God. In this, as in other kindred questions, the Associationist view fails to satisfy the first criterion of a philosophical hypothesis — it does not account for all the facts. It would be almost more plausible to say that the law of causality is a merely logical one, and of no objective validity ; that it is a " regulative," not a " constitutive," law of our minds ; that the colour is in the glass through which we look upon the landscape, and not in the objects themselves. It is indeed the masterpiece of scepticism to make the very universality and necessity of a belief testify to its being purely subjective. But the supporters of this objection have omitted to remark that the same testimony which affirms the law of causality affirms at the same time, with equal emphasis, its objective validity ; and that we have no right to choose arbitrarily what we will accept and what reject of the deliverance of consciousness. There is no meaning in a law of causality unless as applied to objects outside itself, and it cannot be true in any intelligible sense unless it be true of them. 42 STUDIES Thirdly, Kant and his followers have put for- ward a much more specious difficulty. They admit that the law of causality leads us to the knowledge of a first cause and mover of the world ; but they affirm that it only justifies us in asserting the existence of a Supreme Being Who should be a part of the universe — in their own language, an " immanent," not a " transcendent," Deity. They urge that to pass from the contingent to the necessary, from the finite to the infinite, is a step impossible to reason, a ^erd^aa^ efc aXko yevos, which the mind cannot be made to take. This objection completely evades the true meaning and force of the cosmological argument. Its very point is that the human mind is driven to take this " salto mortale," which alone can land it on firm ground. The universe is inconceivable and inex- plicable, unless a Being is supposed to exist beyond it : the contingent postulates the necessary, the finite postulates the infinite. This may be best shown, as it seems to me, by taking one case, the need of a first cause of all movement or change ; and by appealing, not to the ordinary experience of life, but to science, in which that experience is verified and set forth accurately. Modern science, as is well known, takes a mechanical view of the universe ; and the more completely we admit that it is governed by the laws of mechanics, the more clearly will it appear that we must affirm the existence of a prime motor beyond the universe, because outside the series of changes which are the subject matter of physical science ; for there are only two alternatives beside this, and both of them are unacceptable to science. The first is, to deny Newton's first law of motion, and so to pull down THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 43 about our ears the whole structure that has been raised thereon. Some of our bolder Agnostics have not shrunk from such a course. Professor Tyndall, for instance, invited the British Associa- tion in 1874 to abandon the definitions of matter found in our text-books, and to look upon it as " the dawn and potency of all the forms and qualities of life." If these words have any mean- ing, they obviously suggest that matter can change itself. Moleschott more explicitly rejects the basis of all physics. He says : l " One of the most general characters of matter is to be able, under favourable circumstances, to put itself in motion." The great sophist of our time and country makes a similar assumption the basis of his whole process of evolution. He supposes this to start from the absolutely homogeneous, which he proceeds to say is unstable ; and he then treats this " instability of the homogeneous " as if it could be an internal principle of action. He has been led into this confusion by forgetting that by true instability physicists mean a state in which, equilibrium being very delicate, a very slight external force is enough to disturb it ; whereas his own hyopthesis debars him from any force at all external to the universe. 2 It does not require much reflection to see that no internal change whatever could take place in a 1 Krei8lauf des Lebens, Brief 17. I am indebted for this quotation to M. E. Naville's Physique Moderne, an exceedingly suggestive work. 2 I cannot forbear quoting Mr. Malcolm Guthrie's homely remark in his very able Examination of Mr. Spencer's Theory of Evolution : "A country friend of mine describes evolution as ' a lump with a start in it.' The instability of the homogeneous is ' the start.' " 44 STUDIES truly homogeneous universe, without violating the first law of motion. There is still a second alternative which is some- times put forward — the series of causes and effects might be infinite, and so we might never come to a first cause at all. I will not here enlarge upon the metaphysical difficulties involved in such an hypothesis, which even Kant thought were for- midable ; they may be found in most manuals of philosophy. But I have to point out, in the first place, that evolutionists at any rate are precluded from resorting to it. Evolution being a process, obviously implies a commencement at a definite, however distant and unknown, point in the past. If we suppose, for instance, the nebular hypothesis, in its extremest form, to be true, we are all the more constrained to believe that movement began at some moment in time. How ? Either from some cause in the matter itself, which is contrary to the first law of motion ; or without any cause, which would be to deny the basis of all science ; or, finally, from some extraneous cause. We are thus brought back finally to Aristotle's and St. Thomas's " primum movens immobile." It is also to be remarked that natural science gives no countenance whatever to the hypothesis of an infinite series of causes ; as far as it can bear witness at all, its tendency is very strongly the other way. The theory of heat most decidedly points to a definite origin of the present state of things at a certain and perhaps calculable date in the past. It is true that we are not thereby constrained to believe in creation at that assignable date ; physical science alone will not take us so far. It is open for any one who chooses to follow THE EXISTENCE OF GOD -45 Professor Clifford in denying creation ; but he will have to admit that there was an absolute com- mencement of the present state of things, and that this was brought about by other than the now visibly acting causes. 1 The present state of things is in its nature finite ; as it must one day have an end, so it must have had a beginning. Any hypo- thesis, then, which assumes that the series of causa- tion is infinite, must be purely imaginary, and can derive no support from facts. An argument akin to the cosmological proof of the existence of God has been brought forward by Lotze and his school. I derive my knowledge of it mainly from Professor Bowne's Metaphysics, an exceedingly able American work ; for Lotze's own writings, though highly interesting and sug- gestive, are hard to follow. His point is, that none of the explanations given by philosophers to account for the interaction of bodies are satis- factory. The only tolerable view he takes to be the existence of " a basal unity," which can render the mutual relations of beings in the universe possible. As he states it, the argument seems to me hardly to escape the dangers of " occasion- alism " on the one hand, or of pantheism on the other. But I can believe that, once the existence of a first cause is recognised, his continual action in the universe throws a clear light upon the other- wise obscure problem of interaction. In this way Lotze's argument would legitimately confirm the cosmological proof ; just as any scientific hypo- 1 Clifford's First and Last Catastrophe (in Lectures and Essays, vol. i.). The whole subject is most fully stated by Professor Tait {Recent Advances in Physical Science, p. 22), and Jevons (Principles of Science, vol. ii., p. 439). 46 STUDIES thesis is strengthened when it is found to explain indirectly other phenomena than those for which it was originally designed. III. A further question remains to be considered. We have seen that no explanation can be given of the existence and phenomena of the universe, unless by supposing some cause and mover beside it. But this is not sufficient ; we are in like manner compelled to admit that the universe is unintelligible and inexplicable, unless we admit that there is an intelligence beside it. This brings me to the teleological proof of theism. It might at first sight have been supposed that the purely mechanical view of physical science which now prevails would have lessened the force of an appeal to the evidences of design and adap- tation in the universe. The reverse, however, is the case. In the first place, the necessary laws established by this conception of Nature have non-suited all those appeals to " chance " which were the favourite resource of the freethinkers of a former age. But they do much more than this. Force, acting according to necessary law, can of itself determine nothing, but must work in given circumstances and conditions, which may be called the " arbitrary constants " of a system. Gravity, for example, is compatible with rest, with move- ment in a straight line, and with every possible variety of orbital motion. Dr. Chalmers first called attention to this in the first Bridgewater Treatise. He remarked that the collocations of the material world are at least as important as the laws which objects obey, and that mere laws would have afforded no security against a turbid and disorderly chaos. This statement is so obvious THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 47 that I am not aware it has ever been called in question. Mr. J. S. Mill admitted its truth ; and it has been so clearly stated by Professor Huxley that I venture to quote his words, though they have often been reproduced before : — The more purely a mechanist a speculator is [he says], the more firmly does he assume a primordial molecular arrangement, of which all the phenomena of the universe are the consequences ; and the more completely is he thereby at the mercy of the teleologist, who can always defy him to prove that this primordial molecular arrange- ment was not intended to evolve the phenomena of the universe. This compels us to suppose that the existing collocations of matter are the results of other collocations of matter antecedent to all the laws of motion. In other words, the present condi- tion of the universe is simply the consequence of that original condition of its parts upon which the mechanical laws first came into play. But that is the same as saying that, if there be an order and harmony now recognisable, it must be due to an original order and harmony impressed upon the system by some agent external because anterior to it. Mr. H. Spencer, by one of his frequent inconsistencies, recognises implicitly this truth. When he comes to describe the so-called " homo- geneous," which, as I have said, is the starting point of his hypothesis of evolution, he is com- pelled to assume that it is diffused matter, endowed with all its present properties and moving slowly through an ethereal medium. I have just said, " if there be an order and har- mony now recognisable " ; but I need scarcely have stated the point hypothetically. There is, of 48 STUDIES course, a consensus among theists that the evidences of design and adaptation are stronger now than ever before, but we can fortunately appeal to wit- nesses who cannot be suspected of partiality. In the first place, biologists are compelled to assume an end, object, and design in organic Nature, even when, like Haeckel, they deny it. Still more remarkable is it to find a considerable number of thinkers assert the presence of an intelligence in all Nature, although they do not admit that it exists independently of the universe. Schopen- hauer's connection with natural science was so slight as to make him hardly worth quoting, but he led the way to this doctrine of an " immanent " intelligence in Nature. Hartmann is a Manichaean pantheist, believing in the existence of two immanent principles — one good and one evil — in the universe. Theism, therefore, does not warp his mind ; yet no Bridgewater Treatise contains more numerous or more detailed examples of design than does his Philosophy of the Unconscious. He is, in particular, careful to point out that Darwin's system is essentially teleological. The same has been done by a much more powerful thinker than Hartmann — the physiologist and philosopher, Wundt, also, unfortunately, not a believer in God. He points out that not merely are Darwin's laws purely teleological in character, but that the teleo- logical method of studying vital phenomena is advancing in every department of biology. So persuaded is he of this, that he " completely inverts the view ordinarily taken of the relations between body and mind. The psychical life is not a pro- duct of the bodily organism, but the bodily organism is a psychical creation in all that, by its purposive THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 49 power of self-regulation, gives it precedence over complex inorganic bodies." I need not therefore insist longer upon the exist- ence of purpose, design, and adaptation in the world. I am rather concerned to point out again that the mechanical conception of the universe — the universality and uniformity of the laws of motion — compels us to suppose that these characters were impressed upon Nature from its very com- mencement, and therefore by an agent anterior to it. The hypothesis of an intelligence forming an integral part of the universe fails, and must be replaced by that of an intelligent Being Who tran- scends creation. It may indeed be objected, with Kant, that we have no proof that the first cause and mover of the universe is also its designer ; that the lines of argument run up in different directions and point to different beings. There is probably a basis of truth in this objection, inasmuch as the two arguments lead to different appropriate, personalia, just as the psychological proof points to a third. But it may be replied, in the first place, that we are not justified in supposing the existence of two supra-mundane beings when one will suffice — " entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem." Moreover, any independent action, either of the first motor or of the ordering intelli- gence, would so limit the other process as to make it an inadequate explanation of the phenomena for which we have to account. The two must have proceeded in perfect combination from the very beginning, for the result to be a cosmos such as we see it, and not a chaos. The argument from design is so immeasurably the most popular one ; it is so capable of abundant 50 STUDIES and interesting illustration, that some self-denial is needed to abstain from developing it more fully ; whereas my present purpose is not to present in detail the arguments for the existence of God, but to point out what I conceive to be the shape in which they should at present be stated. In this connection I shall perhaps be pardoned for repeating that the argument for design is greatly strengthened by the wide acceptance of the doctrine of evolution. I have already remarked that Hart- mann and Wundt recognise its teleological bearings, which are (so far as I know) only disputed by Lange. It has been lately pointed out in the Quarterly Review, 1 that even such a prejudiced Agnostic as Haeckel is obliged to use language implying design when he writes as a naturalist. Besides these unsuspected witnesses, the Duke of Argyll has supplied ample evidence of the teleological character of Darwin's theory in his Reign of Law and Unity of Nature. I can here only mention two very acute remarks made by Dr. Temple in his recently published Bampton Lectures. 2 The first is, that Paley's familiar argument is immeasurably strength- ened thereby. We have now to account, not merely for the existence of an ordinary watch, but of a watch which should be capable of producing other watches of gradually increasing perfection. The second remark is, that the old argument from design did not exclude the possibility of a multitude of designers, but that evolution necessarily points to a single intelligence. 1 Vol. cxlv., p. 52. * The Relations between Religion and Science (being the Bampton Lectures for 1884). THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 51 I have throughout the teleological argument been dealing with evolution merely as an hypothesis, and arguing ad hominem, without inquiring into the precise sense in which it is true. I cannot but regret, with Mr. Sully, 1 that this one word should be used for such different hypotheses as the unfold- ing of existence due only to its own inherent necessity, and the development of a plan and order impressed upon the universe by an intelligence. I have argued that the former hypothesis is un- tenable, and must be abandoned for the latter. As the word " evolution " has obtained such an unfortunate connotation, it would be better to apply the term " development " to the unfolding of a design in Nature, and call those who advo- cate it " de velopmentalists , ' ' not ' ' evolutionists . " It would be travelling beyond my present task to determine the limits of such development ; this is, I suppose, the only point that can be doubted ; for that development, to some extent or other, does take place, no one can question. It may be thought from what I have said that the evidences of design are drawn exclusively from organic Nature. This is by no means the case, though it is true they are more obvious where the internal ends 2 of such design are before us in the preservation and multiplication of organised beings. 1 Encycl. Britannica {Eighth Ed.), art. Evolution. ■ Aristotle (p. 1075, a. 11) pointed out that the external and internal ends (Ktx a3 P L(J 'H-* vov a-nd Ka & o.vt6) of the universe and its parts were quite distinct, illustrating this by the example of an army : " Totus enim or do universi est propter primum moventem : ut, scilicet, explicetur in universo ordinato id quod est in intellectu et voluntate primi agentis " (St. Thomas, xii., Metaph., lect. 12). 52 STUDIES But my argument applies equally to what we call inorganic Nature. The progress of physical science has made it increasingly manifest that the pheno- mena of non-living bodies must be traced to an inconceivable complexity and yet stability in the ultimate atoms of matter. Chemistry demands that the atoms of each element should be endowed with numerous properties, be all alike in these properties, and unchangeable — that is, as Sir J. Herschel remarks, " bear the stamp of manufac- tured articles." Professor Clifford indeed objected our very partial and uncertain knowledge of chemistry to this argument for design. But he thereby missed the point of the reasoning, which is not dependent on this or that chemical theory. It is simply a particular case of what I have said before — that actual order and harmony (without which the universe would be a chaos, not a cosmos) is due to order and harmony impressed upon the system in the very beginning. The same is to be recognised in Laplace. When trying his hand at philosophy, he rejected the doctrine of final causes ; but when he speaks as an astronomer, he takes into account the " intelligence supreme" which must have so disposed matter as to produce the solar and stellar systems. The application of teleological principles has been as fruitful a source of discovery in the realm of inorganic Nature as in biology. The law of parsimony was Copernicus's guide in the revolution he effected in astronomy, and has frequently been invoked by astronomers since ; the law of stability, employed by Laplace, is also purely teleological. It is remarkable that the ancient philosophers argued for the intelligence that presides over the THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 53 universe from the fact that art imitates Nature, and the argument is of course perfectly valid. 1 But the instances of it are few and unimportant indeed, compared with those of the reverse process. The triumphs of modern science have been obtained by considering the universe as if it had been a work of human art, and applying to its study the laws which govern human intelligence. The law of parsimony (Natura iter brevissimum instituit), the law of continuity (Natura non facit saltus), and the like, are so many instances of this. They may be all reduced to the general rule that the laws of Nature must be considered as an unity estab- lished by an intelligence. And in giving such laws this intelligence must be supposed to have had regard to our cognitive faculties, and to have made possible a system of experience which is founded on the laws of Nature. 2 One serious difficulty yet remains. The prac- tical value of these arguments for the existence of God is much lessened by the contention, that we can have no knowledge of a Being so infinitely our superior beyond the bare fact of His existence. The strength of this objection is derived from our utter inadequacy to comprehend the Divine nature. Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of the Most High ; Whom, although to know be life, and joy to make mention of His name. 1 " Ideo res naturales imitabiles sunt per artem, quia ab aliquo principio intellectivo tota natura ordinatur ad finem suum : ut sic opus naturae videatur opus intelligentiae, dum per determinata media ad certos fines procedit, quod etiani in operando ars imitatur." (St. Thomas, ii., Phys. 4.) - Kant, Kritik d. Urtheilskr. Einleitung, 4, 5. 54 STUDIES yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know Him not as indeed He is, neither can know Him ; and our safest eloquence concerning Him is our silence, when we confess without confession that His glory is inexplicable, His greatness above our capacity and reach. He is above, and we upon earth ; therefore it behoveth our words to be wary and few. It would be impossible at the end of an article to enter upon the consideration of such a difficult subject, and I can therefore only remark upon its connection with what I have already said. It will be plain that the arguments which I have en- deavoured to state would be entirely invalid unless the ideas of truth, power, and intelligence were used in the same sense in the conclusion as they were in the premises ; or the syllogisms would be vitiated by the ambiguity of their middle terms. Either, therefore, the arguments prove nothing at all, or they prove that the Divinity is powerful and intelligent in a real sense of those words. Even Kant can admit the force of this : — If I say we are obliged to look upon the world as if it were the work of the highest understanding and will, I only say that, just as a watch, a ship, a regiment, are related to the watchmaker, the ship-builder, the general, so is this sensible world related to the unknown being. I say it is unknown, for I only know it, not as it is in itself, but in its relation to me — that is, to the world of which I am part. 1 It would seem that any one who can go so far cannot refuse to go into details, and to admit that we have a real knowledge of the Divinity. As to the application of the argument from analogy 1 Prolegomena, 57. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 55 (the point which has been chiefly debated), it is worth remarking that the greatest English meta- physician adopted the teaching and even the lan- guage of St. Thomas and Suarez. 1 Much of the difficulty which men experience in this manner is due to their being unable to realise that not man, but God, is the intellectual centre of the universe ; that the human reason and will are but copies of a Divine original, and owe their power of knowing Him, however imperfectly, to their likeness to the Divinity. This seems to me the most satisfactory point in the neo-Kantian English philosophy : with much that is incomplete and inconsistent, such writers as the late Professor T. H. Green have done good service indeed by pointing out the priority of the eternal consciousness, which must have preceded our own to make our knowledge of the universe possible. Much will always remain dark and obscure to us, partly because our feeble mental vision is dazzled when we gaze upon the source of light ; partly because words lag behind thought and cumber it, when we turn to unwonted subjects. ("0 quanto e corto 'I dire, e come fioco, al mio con- cetto ! ") Yet we cannot complain of any failure of reason, for indeed she has done us the highest service of which she is capable when we have learned from her that we have a Divine Author and Creator, Whose offspring and likeness we are. This is an ample basis and justification for our reverence and fear and love ; beyond this point reason passes into faith. But, compared with Berkeley, Fourth Dialogue, §§ 20, 21. 56 STUDIES what we know to lie beyond our ken, how little have we learned of the Godhead ! Quis est iste tarn communis in vocibus, tarn longe in rebus ? Quomodo, quern nostris loquimur verbis, in sua reconditus majestate, nostros penitus et aspectus effugit, et affectus f Dicimur amare, et Deus ; dicimur nosse, et Deus ; et multa in hunc modum. Sed Deus amat ut caritas, novit ut Veritas, sedet ut aequitas, dominatur ut majestas, regit ut prinei- pium, tuetur ut salus, operatur ut virtus, revelat ut lux, assistit ut pietas. 57 THE "TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES." Doctrina Duodecim Ayostolorum, Canones Apostolorum Ecclesiastici, ac reliquae doctrinae de Duabus Viis Expositiones veteres. Edidit F. X. Funk. Tu- bingse: H. Laupp. 1887. In the year 1873, Bryennios (who became sub- sequently the Greek Metropolitan of Nicomedia) discovered a manuscript of considerable value in the Jerusalem Monastery at Constantinople, where he was professor. The library in which it was found had not been unknown to the learned of Western Europe ; yet it had hitherto concealed the most important addition which has been made in modern times to the very scanty literature of early Christianity. The volume in question yielded, amongst other matters of interest, the complete text of St. Clement's Epistle. But Bryennios also recognised in the title of another tract which it contained — " Teaching of the Twelve Apostles " (AcBaxn tcov 8a)8e/ca WrnrocrroXcov) — a work placed by early writers only just below the canonical books of Scripture, and long believed to be lost to the world. By a singular coincidence, Krawutsky, a Catholic scholar, had, almost at the same time, succeeded in reconstructing a great part of the work from the later compilations which had bor- rowed from it. In 1883, Bryennios introduced his 58 STUDIES discovery to the world, accompanying it with learned notes and prolegomena ; and it may be safely said that no work has in our days received so much attention from theological students. Nine- teen editions, or translations, have been published in Europe and America, while the articles and essays which have been written upon it can hardly be numbered. Some of the questions it raises, and its bearing on the religious controversies of our own time, claim the attention of Catholic readers, independently of its interest as a very early monu- ment of primitive Christianity. We are, there- fore, glad to have the opportunity of reviewing the edition before us, which has been lately pub- lished by the learned successor of Hefele in the Catholic faculty of Tubingen. Those who are acquainted with his scholarly edition of the Apos- tolic Fathers, will know that they may look for a high standard of excellence in the present volume ; and they will not be disappointed. We cannot do better, upon the whole, than take him as our guide, in giving the general reader some idea of the probable date and origin of the work, and its bearing upon the religious controversies of to-day. A book that is classed by Eusebius with the Apoca- lypse, and by St. Athanasius with the Deutero- canonical books of Scripture, must in any case be very ancient. Its date may be more nearly ascer- tained by comparing it with the Shepherd of Hermas, and the so-called Epistle of Barnabas. It is almost certainly quoted by the former ; as to Barnabas, a comparison shows that the " Teaching " is the original work from which the Epistle has borrowed largely. Even Harnack, the most strenuous and able defender of the priority of Barnabas, has " TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES " 59 recently admitted that both are alike derived from a Jewish manual. This would give about a.d. 120 as the latest date at which the Didache could have been published, and for any further informa- tion we are reduced to the very uncertain indica- tions of internal evidence. For reasons which will presently appear, Catholics and High Church Anglicans have, on the whole, inclined to as early a date as possible, while Lutherans and Dissenters have put it later. We shall be safe in following our editor, who fixes no more precise date than the latter half of the first century. It is commonly assigned to Egypt, but Funk considers it to have been written in Palestine, from the special mention of Pharisees, and a reference to corn grown on the mountains. Dr. Taylor, in his very interesting lectures at the Royal Institution, first argued in favour of the Jewish origin of the book, and the same idea has been put forward in an able article in the Church Quarterly Review (April, 1887) to account for many of the difficulties which it raises. But the passages that savour of Judaism may be more plausibly explained by supposing the author to have been a converted Jew, using the language familiar to those around him, while there are many references to St. Matthew's Gospel and to other parts of the New Testament which could only come from a Christian. The purpose of the work is catechetical and practical, the first part at any rate answering to St. Athanasius's description, that it was used for the instruction of catechumens, while the remainder is not put forward with any appearance of completeness. We will now proceed to give a brief analysis of 60 STUDIES the work as a whole, and then dwell in detail upon the points which have excited most attention and controversy. Those of our readers who wish to study it more carefully will find every facility for doing so in the excellent edition with the Latin version now before us, and in the English transla- tions, of which several have appeared in the last few years. The work opens with the words : " There are two ways, one of life, the other of death " ; a figure used frequently in the Old Testament, 1 and adopted by our Lord and the Apostles, so that the very phrase, " the way " (j 6S6?) was em- ployed by St. Luke 2 as a name for the Christian religion. The way of life is then shortly defined to be the two-fold precept of charity, the golden rule being expressed negatively (" what things soever thou desirest not be done unto thee, do thou not unto another "). Then follow, as far as the end of the fourth chapter, the details of the precept of charity, and next a brief but vivid description of the " way of death," reminding one of St. Paul's account in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans ; there is also a short expla- nation that all the precepts are not universally binding. It would appear, from the opening words of the seventh chapter (" say first all this, and baptise . . . ."), that this first part of the work was an abridgment of the moral teaching of Christianity for the use of catechumens. The form of the sacrament of baptism is given in the 1 E.g., Pa. i. 1 ; Ps. cxviii. ; Jerem. xxi. 8. - Tn Acts ix., xxii., xxiv. ; cf. 2 Pet. ii. 5 ; 1 John i. 5- " TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES " 61 words of St. Matthew (xxviii. 19). 1 Running water is to be used if possible, and cold water in prefer- ence to warm. If sufficient water is not available for immersion, it is to be poured on the head thrice, this being by far the earliest and most certain testimony to baptism by aspersion or affusion. These minute directions and the general command to baptise are also a sufficient evidence that lay baptism was, at least sometimes, permissible. The person to be baptised, and the minister of the sacrament, are both to be fasting, the former for two days ; those who assist are also to fast if possible. There are to be two fast-days in each week, " not with the hypocrites (i.e., Pharisees), for they fast on Monday and Thursday, but do you fast on Wednesday and Friday." Nor are the faithful to pray like the hypocrites, but the Lord's Prayer is to be said thrice each day. This ends with the Doxology, which, being repeated after two other prayers in this book, evidently did not form part of the original Pater Noster. The three hours of prayer in the day are no doubt the third, sixth, and ninth hours, so frequently mentioned in the Acts and by early Christian writers. The account of the Eucharist, which comes next, is the most obscure part of the book. It will be enough to say that in our opinion it was intended for the use of the faithful, not of the ministers. This will account for its consisting only of two prayers, one to be said in connection with the Chalice, the other with the Host ; 2 a prayer 1 But the expression, " to be baptised in the name of Christ," is also given as equivalent. 1 7repl tov K\d<r/j.a.Tos : a word not used in this sense elsewhere. The prayers were probably said before consecration ; such is, at least, the opinion of our editor, and of Bickell, a considerable authority. 62 STUDIES follows for use after the Agape, 1 if not after the communion. The Liturgy had evidently been already fixed ; for a discretionary power was reserved to a class not hitherto mentioned — the Prophets — to offer what prayers they will. 2 Some surprise has been expressed at the omission of the words of institu- tion ; but it was hardly possible we should find them in an elementary treatise when they are omitted even in liturgies of much later date. 3 The greatest difficulty in this section is the inverse order in which the Sacred Elements are spoken of. There is, so far as we know, no other instance in which the Chalice is spoken of before the Host ; 4 and we can only suppose there has been accidental misplacement. The " Teaching " next passes on to describe the different grades in the Church ; but this is prefaced by a very important caution, almost identical with the language of St. John and St. Paul, that the very first requisite to be looked for in a new teacher is conformity with doctrine already known to be revealed. 1 fMera rb £fATr\r](r9rjvai. 2 Prof. Funk compares this with a similar power he under- stands St. Justin (Apolog. i. 67) allows to the bishop. The meaning of the words referred to is at least doubtful. (Cf. Otto's note, in loc.) It seems to us more probable that St. Paul's warning to those who possessed the gift of tongues is a closer parallel (1 Cor. xiv. 16) — eVei 4av ivXoyfjs rco iryev/xari, 6 avairKr^poiv rbu t6jtov rov Ididorov ir&s ipei rb ajj.T]V £ir\ rfj cry ivxc-piO'Tia. 3 Hammond : Antient Liturgies, p. 59. 4 The following note was pencilled by J. R. G. into the copy of the article from which this is edited, " I trusted to my editor. But see 1 Cor. x. 16 and 21." This modifies the whole sentence as left in the text. "teaching of the twelve apostles" 63 Whosoever shall come and teach you all that hath been said so far, receive ye him ; but if the same teacher turn away, and teach another doctrine, so as to destroy the former, hearken not unto him. This is followed by instructions how the apostles and prophets are to be received, " according to the command of the Gospel." x We are told that every " apostle is to be received as the Lord " ; but that he is only to stay one day, or at most two ; " if he stay three days, he is a false prophet " ; again, " if he asks for money, he is a false prophet." The manner in which prophets are to be received is described in more detail. Every one known to be a prophet is not to be proved when he " speaks in the spirit." 2 There are certain tests, however, to which those who speak in the spirit must corre- spond, before they can be received as true prophets. They may be known by their fruits ; even though they teach the truth, if they do not practice what they teach, they are false prophets. Especially any attempt to obtain money or food for them- selves condemns them. All strangers who " come in the name of the Lord " are to be hospitably received ; if they are travellers, they are to be helped as far as possible, but are not to tarry longer than two, or at most three, days. But if such an one wish to stay, and is an artisan, " let him work and eat." If he know no handicraft, he is to be judiciously 1 Apparently referring to such passages as Matt. x. 5, 12 ; or Luc. ix. 1-6. This seems a parallel to St. Paul's language in 1 Cor. xiv. 37, concerning the Charismata. 2 Cf. 1 Cor. xii. 3 ; Apoc. i. 10, iv. 2, &c. 64 STUDIES provided for, " so that no Christian may live among you idle." Every true prophet, wishing to remain in any place, is to be supported ; the firstfruits of all the produce of the earth are to be given to the prophets — " for they are your high priests." So, too, the teachers (of whom we now hear for the first time) are worthy of their living ; if there be no prophet to support, the firstfruits are to be given to the poor. The author of the " Teaching " next passes to the subject of public worship ; and his words are of sufficient importance for us to transcribe the whole passage : — On each Lord's Day meet together, break bread, and give thanks ; first confessing yonr trespasses, in order that your sacrifice may be clean. Let any one that hath a difference with his comrade not join you until they are reconciled, so that your sacrifice be not defiled ; for this is the sacrifice that hath been spoken of by the Lord ; in every place and time to " offer a clean sacrifice ; because I am a great King, saith the Lord, and My name is won- derful among the nations." Elect, therefore, for your- selves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord .... for they too minister unto you the ministry of the prophets and teachers. Contemn them not, for they are the men honoured among you, together with the prophets and teachers. Then follows an exhortation to fraternal correc- tion ; and the work ends with a warning to be always ready, for the troubles of the latter days, and the coming of the Lord, are at hand. Even those who have no further acquaintance with the " Teaching " than this brief analysis, which is all we are able to give, will notice the "teaching of the twelve apostles" 65 new and unexpected light it throws upon the different ecclesiastical grades in the primitive Church. Presbyters are not mentioned at all, eiri(TK07roi and hiaicovoL being the only two sacred orders spoken of with which we are familiar. This might have been anticipated in a document contemporaneous with the earliest Apostolic Fathers. But no one was prepared for the promin- ence given to apostles, prophets, and teachers, which is, on any hypothesis, remarkable. As might have been expected, attempts have been made to harmonise their position with every reli- gious system of the present day. The most impor- tant of these attempts, in consequence of the learning and ingenuity of its author, is that of Professor Harnack. He had embraced eagerly the theory of the Christian ministry put forward by Dr. Hatch in the Bampton Lectures for 1880. Starting from the names of the different Christian ministers, Dr. Hatch showed, with great learning, that eirio-KOTTos was a title given to the presiding officer of many heathen charitable associations. He next passed to St. Justin's account of the reception of alms by the bishop in the Christian assemblies, and argued that the bishop was origin- ally the administrative officer of the community, presiding over the deacons, and that his conducting the services followed thereon. The term presbyter, on the contrary, he admitted, is of Jewish origin ; the elders being chiefly concerned with the exercise of discipline. Professor Harnack laid even greater stress upon the essential difference, and almost opposition, between the presbyters and the " epis- copo-diaconal organisation." Until the Didache was published he could not account, to his own 5 66 STUDIES satisfaction, for the prominent part taken by the bishop in public worship. He then concluded that there were originally two kinds of ministry in the primitive Church — viz., apostles, prophets, and teachers, who taught, preached, and conducted public worship ; and bishops, deacons, and pres- byters, whose functions were administrative. By degrees, he supposed, the bishops drew to them- selves the spiritual functions of the former class of ministers ; and " the apostolic succession took the place of the Charismata." Catholicism [he says] is right in supposing that all the essential elements of its ecclesiastical order pre-existed in germ in the apostolic age ; but it is a fiction to trace the combination of these elements as far back as that period. This combination is the root of the matter, and Protestantism is right, as against Catholicism, in affirming the independent authority of " the ministry of the Word " not derived from men. To this Lutheran conception of the Christian ministry, Harnack has since added subsidiary hypotheses, of which the most interesting is an account of the origin of the Lectorate, 1 which he endeavours to show is lineally derived from the Charisma of teaching. It is a great advantage to have these views advocated with such learning and ability, which call our attention to details of primitive Christianity we might otherwise have overlooked. But we may fairly say our greatest gain is to find that even Harnack cannot establish the thesis he sets himself to prove. The very starting point of Dr. Hatch's theory may be at 1 Texte und Untersuchungen. Gesch. der Altchrist. Literatur, von O. von Gebhardt und A. Harnack. Bd. ii., Heft. 5. 1886. the least pronounced unproved. A not unfriendly critic has pointed out 1 that there is very little evidence indeed of the use of the term liriGKoiroi for the administrators of the funds of heathen societies ; and even that little points to their having been overseers of persons, rather than of works. But were the theory fully proved, it would argue nothing as to the Christian use of the word. 'Attoo-toXo? was used by the Jews for those who brought the tithes and other dues up to Jerusalem, but no one thinks of this as an argument against the spiritual office of the Apostles. The word iirlo-KOTros occurs so frequently in the Septuagint that it is far more likely to have been derived from the Old Testament than from heathen use ; and this probability becomes almost a certainty when we find St. Clement and St. Irenaeus expressly deriving it from Isaias. But, indeed, we may go much farther, and point out that in the New Tes- tament itself the word eiriaKoiro^ has an un- doubtedly spiritual connotation when it is applied by St. Peter to the Father, 3 and when St. Paul defines the office of bishops to be the government of the Church. We are inclined to think Professor Salmon's language is not too severe 4 when he accuses Dr. Hatch of excluding the light which the New Testament throws upon this subject, and adds : " This is just what one does when one wants to exhibit fancy pictures with a magic lantern." Thus, to take another instance, the sharp distinc- 1 Dr. Sanday, Expositor, Feb., 1887. 2 Caimet, in 2 Cor. viii. 23. 3 1 Pet. ii. 25 ; c/. 1 Clem. 1. 3. 4 Expositor, July, 1887. 68 STUDIES tion this thesis demands between bishops and deacons on the one hand, and presbyters on the other, is entirely opposed to such passages as Acts xx. 17 and 28 ; and Tit. i. 5 and 7. It is true and interesting to remark, as Harnack points out, that the qualifications required of bishops and deacons in the pastoral epistles are much more alike than those expected of presbyters ; but this is at least as well accounted for by the less violent supposition that the two former orders alone were concerned in the actual government of the faithful. Nor does the Didache itself give any support to the view, beyond proving that the prophets of whom it speaks at least sometimes conducted public worship. That they did not always do so is clear from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, where St. Paul contemplates the case of women prophesying, yet distinctly bids them be silent in church. And the Didache itself, in spite of its brevity, bears unequivocal testimony of the same kind. It shows that there were communities in which there was, even then, no prophet ; the faithful being directed in that case to give their alms to the poor. And in another passage, which we have also quoted above, after stating the pre- cept binding the faithful to assist at the Sacrifice on the Lord's Day, the author adds, " Elect there- fore for yourselves bishops and deacons," thereby showing what, in his opinion, as in that of St. Clement, 1 was the chief function of these persons. The rapid disappearance of apostles, prophets, and teachers, as special grades in the Church, and the total absence of any evidence of such a struggle 1 1 Cor. xliv. 4. " TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES " 69 as must have taken place if they had been sup- pressed, are extremely strong objections to Har- nack's view. So far we are in complete agreement with Angli- can writers on this subject, and we gladly acknow- ledge the learning and skill with which they have handled it. 1 They hardly seem to us, however, to have realised the full importance and bearing of the condition of things which the Didache reveals. The reason is not far to seek. Dr. Sanday remarks that " in some respects the Nonconformist com- munities of our time furnish a closer parallel to the primitive state of things than an Established Church can possibly do." It is highly charac- teristic of the mental attitude of our countrymen, that Dr. Sanday should never have turned his eyes to that Church, which is at once the greatest establishment and the largest missionary body in the world. Had he done so, some of the resem- blances between the Catholic Church and the community for which the Didache was composed lie so much on the surface, that he could hardly have failed to notice them. We are not aware, for instance, that any other Christian religious body sends out its missionaries in a state of volun- tary poverty, and dependent upon alms, like the apostles and prophets in the book before us. 2 So, too, it is fully admitted by Anglicans that the 1 We would refer our readers particularly to an able article in the Church Quarterly Review for April, 1887, for the High Church Anglican treatment of the question. 2 The link between these and our own missionaries is supplied by the interesting account given by Eusebius (H. E. y iii. 37) of the " Evangelists," who distributed their goods to the poor and led a missionary life. 70 STUDIES apostles, prophets, and teachers of the Didache were endowed with special Charismata, or gratiae gratis datae, direct miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit. It would indeed have been impossible to interpret otherwise the precise language of the Epistle to the Ephesians and the First to the Corinthians. But they go on to argue that the supreme power of the apostles and prophets is preserved in an episcopate, which, to do it justice, would be the first to repudiate the possession of any such gift. The Catholic Church, on the contrary, claims that the Apostolic Charisma is continued in the successor of St. Peter, and is shared by the epis- copate in communion with him. Nor can any one say that this pretension is of recent origin. As soon as Gnostic and Marcionite pressure compelled Catholics to define and analyse the grounds of their faith, they felt the necessity of proving that it had been preserved unaltered ; and this proof could only be based upon a living testimony. St. Polycarp had thought it enough to appeal to the continuity of tradition in the Church. 1 But, when the need for something more precise arose, St. Irenaeus and Tertullian showed no hesitation in saying where the guardianship of such tradition lay. They narrowed their argument to this, that the communities guaranteed the inviolability of the apostolic deposit, because there was in them an " or do episcoporum ab initio decurrens." St. Irenaeus in particular, as is well known, connected this descent from the apostles with the gift of 1 Eusebius, H. E., iv. 2 : fxiav xhi fi6ut]y rdvrr)v aKt]deiav Krjpi^as viro tuiv airo(Tr6\u)v irapei\7j(pcva.i, r^)v virh rrjs ^KK\rj<rlas irapatieSouevriv. 71 infallibility — the " Charisma veritatis certum" 1 which he expressly derived from St. Paul's account of the Apostolic Charisma. 2 It was enough for his purpose to trace a lineal descent from the Apostles in one case — selecting the Bishops of Rome as the principal Church in the world. His well-known testimony on this subject has been so often disputed that it may be as well to quote Harnack's opinion of it : — St. Irenseus [he concludes] must have intended to say that, as a matter of fact within his ken, the faith of the Roman community was held to be the decisive rule, and that many communities had recourse to Rome to obtain recognition. It is not surprising, therefore, to find Harnack considers that the first explicit claim to the Apos- tolical succession was made by the Bishops of Rome. This is all the more remarkable, because it is clear that the antipope Hippolytus was at one with his opponent St. CaUistus in claiming the Apostolic character. 3 But there is sufficient evidence that the claim is a much earlier one. St. Clement's language is grammatically ambiguous (tt]v Xeirovpyiav avT&v), i. 44, 2), but his argu- ment requires that those of whom he speaks should 1 We have not the original Greek of this phrase ; but it may be conjectured from the description of the creed as kolvS>v r^s aArjdtias aK\tvT]s (i. 9, 4). 2 " Paulus docens ait : Posuit Deus in Ecclesia primo apos- tolos, secundo prophetas, tertio doctores. Ubi igitur charismata Domini posita sunt, ibi discere oportet veritatem, apud quos est ea quae est ab Apostolis successio " (iv. 33, 8). 8 Philc-8, Praef. and ix. 11, 12. Tertullian did not venture to deny that the " doctrina apostolorum " was inherent in St. Callistus's office, but only denied him the " potestasP His mocking address to Callistus as " Apostolice " is very remarkable. 72 STUDIES be successors of the Apostles. Hegesippus's cata- logue of the Roman Pontiffs, and the importance he attached to it, would be inexplicable unless, like St. Irenseus, he considered the truth was preserved by their descent from St. Peter. When, therefore, we assert that the Charisma veritatis certum resides in the Apostolic See, and is the same gift as the Charisma of the Apostolate, we are but repeating the thoughts and language of the Catholics of the second century, and especially of St. Irenaeus. The prophets form a class, in St. Paul's enumera- tion so often referred to, below the Apostles, but above the possessors of the Charismata. 1 Their real character, and the nature of the special grace with which they were endowed, are more easily gathered from the numerous passages in which mention is made of them in the New Testament, than from the scanty notices in the Didache ; though the discovery of that work has called atten- tion to much that had previously passed unnoticed. In the first place, it is clear that the gift of prophecy was not limited to either sex, or to any age. 2 The daughters of Philip are specially mentioned, and St. Paul incidentally speaks of women prophesying. 3 In one of the few glimpses of an infant community we find that there were in Antioch prophets and teachers, who are enumerated ; the arrangement of the conjunctions (as Harnack points out) making it probable that Barnabas, Simon, and Lucius were 1 1 Cor. xii. 28. Harnack rightly lays stress upon the irpanov, fievrepov and rplrov ; and upon the e7retra, which separates them from all others mentioned. 2 Acts ii. 17, 18. 3 1 Cor. xi. 5. "TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES " 73 the prophets, Manahen and Saul the teachers. We find prophets sometimes foretelling future events, sometimes (as Judas and Silas, Acts xv. 32) address- ing words of exhortation to their brethren. The more abundant notices of the prophets in St. Paul's Epistles give us the same general idea of their office. In that to the Ephesians (iii. 6, 7) we find that the calling of the Gentiles has been made known to them in the Spirit. From the First Epistle to the Corinthians (chap, xiv.) we find that they spoke unto men edification, exhortation, and comfort ; that they edified the Church ; that they spoke by two or three, the rest discerning ; prophesying one by one, so that all might learn and be comforted. If any unbeliever entered the assembly, the secrets of his heart were made known, and he was reproved by all. St. Timothy's calling had, in like manner, been manifested by prophecy. There is no suggestion in the New Testament that this gift should cease after the first establish- ment of the Church ; and we find in ecclesiastical history unmistakeable proofs of its continuance. It is true that the word " prophet " was very soon restricted to the prophets of the Old Testament ; but the term " prophetic charisma " is often used ; and we find the clearest affirmation of the exist- ence of this gift in St. Irenseus and St. Justin. The latter in particular says that the gift of the Holy Spirit, which had been bestowed on the prophets of the Old Law, ceased whilst our Lord was on earth, and was given again after His ascen- sion. In proof of this statement he points to both men and women possessing the gift. 1 Origen, in 1 Apol. cc. 82 and 88. 74 STUDIES like manner, speaks of the vestiges still remain- ing, in his t me, of the descent of the Holy Ghost, referring evidently to this and the other gratiae gratis datae. 1 But our fullest and most interest- ing information comes from Eusebius. Quadratus, apparently the bishop of that name, is spoken of, as well as one Ammias, as having the prophetic Charisma. But the account of Montanism is most instructive. This sect was only possible, he says, because there were still in different Churches very many " wonderful effects of the divine Char- isma " {irapaZo^oiroilai rov Oeiov %aplo'fiaTO$). The orthodox writers, whose fragments Eusebius has preserved for us, argued against Mont anus, Maxi- milla, and their followers with every weapon at their command. They pointed out that Montanus, a recent convert, had worked himself into a frenzy ; that the matter of his prophecies was opposed to tradition and the teaching of the Church ; that his own life and those of his followers were un- worthy of true prophets (noticing particularly their avarice, which, it will be remembered, the Didache mentions as a test) ; they had taught the dissolu- tion of marriage, and instituted fasts without authority ; 2 their predictions did not come true. But no one objects that the spirit of prophecy had ceased in the Church, which would have been a decisive argument to use. On the contrary, it 1 Ant, Gels. i. 46 and vii. 8. - Dr. Salmon compares this with the institution of the feasts of Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart at the instigation of women ! It is to be hoped he has no idea with how much care and precaution the Church moves in such cases, and how far she is from allowing even the greatest saints to institute feasts on their own authority. ''TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES " 75 is objected by the Catholic Alcibiades that Montanus and Maximilla are the last of their race of prophets, whereas " the Apostle lays down, that the pro- phetic Charisma must remain in all the Church until the perfect ' Advent.' " We have dwelt upon this, because the present tendency is to look upon Montanism as a revival, and a return to primitive Christianity ; whereas it professed to have received a new revelation. It is at any rate decisive as to the belief in the early Church in the continued manifestation of the prophetic gift ; a belief which has been handed down as part of the ordinary theology of the Church. 1 But it is probably true that the excesses of Montanism led to the disuse of the word " prophecy " for the gifts of discernment of hearts, spiritual exhortation and consolation, which, as we have seen, made up the prophetic Charisma in the New Testament. In this sense it has not ceased, and never shall cease, in the Catholic Church until the second Advent. The mantle of Silas fell upon St. Francis of Sales ; the spirit that rested on the daughters of Philip dwelt in St. Catherine of Siena and St. Teresa. The glimpse given us in the Didache of the infant Church is full of interest and value. But it is so only because we recognise the same spiritual lineaments that grace her full stature ; the main difference being the greater abundance of those gifts in earlier times. At any rate, we who claim for the Church a permanent indwelling of the prophetic spirit, subject to the supreme authority 1 St. Thomas expressly says : " Singulis temporibus non defuerunt aliqui prophetiae spiritum habentes, non quidem ad novam doctrinam fidei promovendam, sed ad humanorum actuum directionem " (2a. 2se., qu. 174, art. 5). 76 STUDIES of the Apostolate, are prima facie, the true heirs of St. Irenseus and St. Justin. The description of the Holy Eucharist as a sacrifice, which we have quoted in full, is a still more important testimony of the Didache to the Catholic faith. It will be noticed that the word sacrifice (Ovaia) is twice repeated ; moreover, the pronoun referring it to the sacrifice foretold by Malachias is also in the feminine (avrrj yap ianv 7] pi?0€L<ra). The whole account derives still greater significance from its close resemblance to the well-known passages in St. Justin. In both we find two accounts of the Holy Eucharist treating separately of its ordinary celebration, and of the Sunday Liturgy ; l both quote the prediction of Malachias (St. Justin, it is true, in another work), both tell us that the term Eucharist was already applied to the sacred elements. It therefore makes it all the more certain that St. Justin was expressing the recognised teaching of the Church ; the date of which is carried back at latest to the end of the first century — very far from Hofling's view, current among Protestants, that St. Cyprian was the first Father who knew anything of a Christian sacrifice. Harnack has recognised this with his usual frank- ness. He says : — 2 The conception of the Lord's Supper as a sacrificial action is found clearly in the Didache, in Ignatius, and above all in Justin. Clement of Rome also assumes it, 1 Apolog. caps. 66 and 67. Is it not possible that the two Liturgies in the Apostolic Constitutions (in Books ii. and viii.) are connected with this seeming repetition in these earliest accounts of the Holy Eucharist ; and that they all point to a primitive two-fold form of the Liturgy ? * Dogmengeschichte, Bd. i. s. 152. " TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES " 77 since he compares the bishops and deacons with the priests and Levites of the old law, and points out that their chief function Was trpo<r<p4p€iv tcj Sapa. This is not the place to discuss the sacrificial nature of the Holy Eucharist and the character of the Christian priesthood. It may be supposed that all that vast learning and ability can bring against the Catholic doctrine, is to be found in Dr. Light- foot's Essay on the Christian Ministry. If so, it is strange how little this comes to. He objects that the Pastoral Epistles are silent on the matter ; whereas St. Paul's very first care (1 Tim. ii. 1) is to direct public worship, in words which signified to Origen the several parts of the Liturgy. So, too, he accumulates evidence from the Scripture and Fathers, of the spiritual priesthood of all Christians, and the sacrifices they offer. This is but to waste time, as long as phrases are quoted which are taken verbatim, or equivalently, from the Old Testament ; and would therefore be as fatal to a Jewish priesthood. 1 The Christian Church, in union with its head, is a priestly race, and its every supernatural act is a sacrifice, in a far more real sense than was the case under the older covenant ; but that is no more incompatible with the existence of a sacrifice and a priesthood strictly so called, in the one dispensation than in the other. It is significant that no one more strongly emphasises these facts than St. Justin 1 It is satisfactory to find this recognised by Protestants, in the following sentence (Expositor, 1885) : " The text (1 Pet. iii. 9) is used by polemical text-mongers as if overthrowing the Roman theory of an official hierarchy. They would probably be surprised to find that it comes from the law of Moses (Exod. xix. 6)." 78 STUDIES and Tertullian, who also most clearly urged the sacrificial character of the Holy Eucharist. This unequivocal testimony of the Didache to the Catholic faith is doubly precious to us, because it touches the Blessed Sacrament. Nothing more completely demonstrates to us the continuity of the Church of to-day with that built up on the apostles and prophets, than to find that the sun and centre of our own religious life was the source of light and devotion to the Christians of the earliest times. The manner in which the Blessed Sacrament is used to prove the resurrection of the body and other doctrines, the loving expres- sions concerning it which fall from the pen of St. Ignatius — above all, the reverent silence which, even in the face of persecution, sheltered the heavenly mystery from heathen derision and scorn ; these things move a Catholic, as no other details of primitive Christianity can do. They teach him to realise, what indeed he knew before, though the details were hidden from his view, that he and the disciples of the Apostles have knelt at the very same altar, and that the Church of the Fathers is the home of the children of God. 79 THE APOSTLES' CREED AND THE RULE OF EAITH. 1. Lehre und Gebet in den drei ersten Jahrhunderten. Von Dr. F. Probst. Tubingen. 1871. 2. Bibliothek der Symbole und Glaubensregeln der Alten- kirche. Von Dr. A. Hahn. 2 Ausgabe. Von Dr. G. L. Hahn. Breslau. 1877. 3. Quellen zur Geschichte des Tauf symbols und der Glau- bensregel. Von. Dr. C. P. Caspari. 3 Bande. Christiania. 1866-75. 4. The Nicene and Apostles* Creeds : their Literary History. By C. A. Swainson, D.D., &c. London : J. Murray. 1875. There is no testimony to the continuity of the Catholic Church, and to its lineal descent from the Apostles, comparable to that Creed which we learned in infancy next after the Lord's Prayer, and have since recited day by day. If this con- stant use did not blunt our perception, we could not fail to be impressed with the fact, that the earliest extant statement of the faith is the watch- word of the Church in our own time. The Divine Office has grown and expanded in the course of ages into the splendours of the Breviary ; the Liturgy itself has undergone the changes which the altered discipline of the Church required ; but 80 STUDIES we not merely hold the same faith, we confess it in the same language, as did our forefathers of the Church of Rome in the times of heathen perse- cution. Hidden amid the darkness which shrouds so many details of the infant Church, the apostolic origin of the Creed has ever been a firm tradition of the faithful ; who for that very reason have made but little inquiry into the documentary proofs of its antiquity. The Maurists, indeed, have inseparably connected their name with this as with every other department of Patristic litera- ture, and Dom Touttee's excursus, in the Benedictine edition of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, is still one of the chief authorities on the subject. Besides this, I only know of one Catholic work on the creed — Meyers' De Symboli Apostolici titulo origine et auctoritate (Treves, 1849). But, providentially, the work which Catholics have not thought necessary has been taken up earnestly by Anglicans and Lutherans. For, wonderful as it must seem when we reflect that our Creed of to-day has come to us from the earliest ages of Christianity, it is far more portentous that those who separated from the Church of Rome at the Reformation should have carried with them a symbol, which comes to them only from that Church. They had to seek a historical basis for the Creed, and much was written on the subject, the best known work being of course that of Pearson. In the last generation Professor Hahn, of Breslau, published a collection of all the Symbols of the early Church, which, in the new edition brought out by his son, is the most convenient work for reference. But the most exhaustive treatise is that of Professor Caspari, of Christiania, who in the nine years 1866-75 ran- THE APOSTLES' CREED AND RULE OF FAITH 81 sacked every library in Europe for unnoticed passages bearing on the Creed, collected all those from the early Fathers in which it is referred to, and critically examined the whole. This is now, and will probably long remain, the chief authority on the Creed ; and it is hardly possible to do more than to verify and weigh anew the mass of informa- tion it contains. Unfortunately it is ill-arranged, exceeding even the licence allowed to German professors. The reader loses himself in excur- suses and notes of prodigious length, interesting indeed, but digressions from the main point, which is to be found in the notes to the third volume. The principal service I can hope to perform, is to bring his conclusions before my readers in an endurable order and bulk. Had Professor Cas- pari's work not been so considerable as to dwarf all others, I should have had more frequent occa- sion to quote Dr. Heurtley's Harmonia Symbolica, of which I can only here acknowledge the learning and judicial character. Dr. Swainson's volume is one of greater bulk and pretensions, but not, as I venture to think, of more value. It contains the results of much original study of manuscripts, particularly bearing on the history of the Athanasian Creed, which are of permanent interest, but it is marred by gratuitous innuendoes against those who differ from him, such as his assurances that he, at least, " will not lie for God," and the severity of his remarks upon Cardinal Newman and the other editors of the Oxford Library of the Fathers, for errors, which, if they exist at all, are trivial indeed compared to those which we shall see he has himself committed. These are the principal authorities on which I 6 82 STUDIES shall rely. We meet, however, with a difficulty at the outset, which has to be resolved before we can proceed further in our study of the subject. In the earliest Christian writers we find no Creed given us literally and entirely, this being only what we might expect, since later Fathers unanimously declared that it was not to be committed to writing, but handed down as an unwritten watchword. This is, of course, a hindrance to our obtaining any evidence of the primitive form of the Creed. But the difficulty is much increased by finding that St. Irenseus, Tertullian, Origen, and others often refer to a collection of doctrines, following the same general order and covering the same ground as the Baptismal Symbol, which they term the " Rule of Faith, or of the Truth," "The Preaching of the Apostles, or of the Church." We have, then, first to determine whether this is the same as the Creed and, if not, what is the relation between them. For this purpose we cannot do better than follow the guidance of Probst, the chief modern Catholic authority in all departments of Ante- Nicene Christian history. His view is briefly this : the whole Apostolic College agreed upon a common basis and order for their teaching, a doctrina tradita, which they handed down to their successors as a summary of the defined and publicly recognised teaching of the Church. As such, it was known to the early Fathers as the Rule of Faith, or of the Truth, and is found in them with a remarkable agreement in the matter, though with slight verbal differences. This teaching of the Church was summarised in her two most important formu- laries : the Canon of the Liturgy and the Baptismal Creed. To go into the matter in detail, we must THE APOSTLES' CREED AND RULE OF FAITH 83 begin with the New Testament. We find in the Acts, in the sermons of St. Peter and St. Paul, 1 several expositions of Christian doctrine, all remark- ably alike, and covering the same ground as the Creed. This similarity arose, no doubt, from the re- quirements which the Apostles had to meet. They had to testify to the Jews the Godhead, public life, death, and resurrection of our Lord, with their consequences — the resurrection and judgment of all mankind ; and to these doctrines, when preach- ing to the heathen, St. Paul had to prefix that God was the creator of heaven and earth. The similarity between these discourses extends, how- ever, to the language and turn of the sentences, as will to some extent appear when I presently compare the Creed with the New Testament, and as can be more completely seen by reading them together ; and this fact suggests that there must have been an agreement among the Apostles as to the form as well as the matter of their teaching. The same conclusion follows from a study of the several descriptions of the public teaching of the Church in the New Testament and Apostolic Fathers. Perhaps the most interesting is con- nected with the word Kr/pv^ and its derivatives. It was evidently adopted from the Septuagint in order to claim for Christian teachers the infallibility belonging to the inspired prophets of the Old Law. St. Paul significantly connects the act of preaching with being sent, and in his own case laid the Gospel which he preached privately before the heads of the Church in Jerusalem (Rom. x. 14, 15 ; Gal. ii. 2). K?}/ovf, again, is twice used by him in a manner which implies that it had acquired a definite : Acts ii., iii., iv., x., xvii. 84 STUDIES connotation at the time the Pastoral Epistles were written (1 Tim. i. 7 ; 2 Tim. i. 11). There is still more evidence that the word /crjpvy/jLa gradually obtained a technical sense, in St. Paul and the early Christian writers, for the denned and official teaching of the Church. This is inevitably obscured in the Latin and other versions, where praedicatio, " preaching," has to do duty for the act of preach- ing as well as for the things preached, the matter of the doctrines taught by the Apostles. Probst avoids this ambiguity by using the word "Kerygma" wherever it is possible to do so. When this is done, the significance of the word comes out in such passages as — " the foolishness of the Kerygma " (1 Cor. i. 21); "that through me the Kerygma might be fully proclaimed " (2 Tim. iv. 17) ; " the Kerygma wherewith I was intrusted " (Tit. i. 3). But the most remarkable passage for our purpose is 1 Cor. xv., in which it has sometimes been thought that the Apostle was quoting the Creed. It would take too long, in what is only the introduction to my subject, to show in detail that his appeal is really to the defined and universally received teaching of the Church. But I think this will be clear to every one who carefully reads the whole passage. I will only call attention to the unusual emphasis of v. 1 ; the appeal to a common teach- ing in "whether it be I or they," of v. 11 ; and the correlation between this teaching and the belief of the faithful in vv. 11 and 14. It will also be noticed that St. Paul reminds the Corinthians, not merely of what they had been taught, but of the language employed. 1 In St. Irenaeus, and in the 1 rivi hSycp evr\yye\LadjX7]v vfuv .... ctre oZv iybo, efre e/celvoj (the other Apostles) ovtws K-ripvaaofxev. THE APOSTLES' CEEED AND BULE OF FAITH 85 precious fragments of the early Christian writers preserved for us by Eusebius, 1 we find the word constantly used in the same sense, the most remark- able instance for us being where he quotes St. Irenaeus as saying that the tradition of the Apostles and the Kerygma of the truth had reached the Christians of his time by the apostolic succession of the Bishops of Rome. 2 The amplest evidence of the use of the term is to be found in Origen. In the preface to his treatise De Principiis, his object is to show that, beyond the doctrines which must be held as of faith, there are large fields open to theological speculation. He begins by saying (sect. 2) : " Let the Kerygma of the Church, 3 delivered by the order of succession from the Apostles, be observed " ; also that the Apostles delivered " most openly " to the faithful what they considered necessary to be believed, going on to enumerate (sects. 4-10) the doctrines thus publicly taught in the same order as the Creed does. The word " deposit " used by St. Paul for the same body of doctrines is not employed by the early Fathers ; but Tertullian explicitly recognises its meaning to be, not an " occultum evangelium" but the public teaching of the Church. 4 On the other hand, they — St. Irenaeus, Tertullian and Nova- tian — use a term for the Kerygma which we do not find in Scripture : tcav&v tj/s aXrjOeias. Regula 1 H. E. iii. 27 ; iv. 22 ; v. 28, and in many other places. 2 t?7 aurij Ta£et, ical ttj avTrj 5m5ox?7> V t* " 7r ^ ) T & v o-ttocttSXuiv TrapaHSo-is, KaX rt r?]S aXrjdeias K^pvy/J.a, Kar^UTT]Key els Tj/J-as (v. 6). 3 This, in the fragments preserved by Pamphilus (in Titum), is called the " regula pietatis " and " Ecclesiastica regula" 4 Praesc. Haer. 25. 86 STUDIES fidei, or veritatis. 1 But on comparing the passages I refer to, it will be seen that the same thing is intended by all these different phrases. 2 Another interesting example of the same is to be found in St. Irenseus, who (iii. 3, 3) points out that St. Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians has the Kerygma for its framework, while that Pontiff himself begins by appealing to " the glorious and venerable rule of our tradition." 3 We seem here to have got at the origin of the term " Rule " as applied to the teaching of the Church. The Rule of Faith, which thus originated in the apostolic preaching, impressed itself on the most solemn act of worship, the Holy Sacrifice. This is most obvious in the earliest extant form of the Liturgy, found in the Apostolic Constitutions* but it can still be discerned in the Mass we use to-day. In the Clementine Liturgy the celebrant recites, in the long preface, the blessings of creation and government of the universe, next commemo- rates the Son as Redeemer, the Words of Institu- tion being inserted after the mention of His Passion and Death, and then speaks of the Holy Spirit. The similarity is too great to be accidental, and 1 St. Irenseus, i. 10, 1 ; iii. 4, 2 ; iv. 33, 7. Tertull. Vel. Virg. 1 ; Praesc. Haer. 13 ; Contra Praxeam, 2. Novatian de Tim. 7. 3 St. Irenseus expressly calls his Rule of Faith, rovro rb Knpvy/xa (i. 10, 2). 3 e\6co/j.€v £tt\ rbv ivtcAej] Ka\ (Tefxvbv rijs irapadocrews tj/jluv nav6va (vii. 2). 4 See Probst, Liturgie, and Bickell, Messe und Pascha. The lately recovered passages of St. Clement contain so many co- incidences with the Clementine Liturgy, as materially to strengthen their argument. The Liturgy itself may be most conveniently studied in Hammond's Antient Liturgies. THE APOSTLES' CREED AND RULE OF FAITH 87 shows that the Eucharistic prayer traversed the whole extent of revealed truth to find material for thanksgiving and praise. The connection between the Rule of Faith and the Baptismal Symbol is, naturally, much more intimate. It is, indeed, so close that Anglican divines have generally followed Bingham in sup- posing that the term " Rule of Faith " is merely a synonym for the Creed ; and among Catholics, Denzinger, if we may judge from his Enchiridion, is of the same opinion. The arguments adduced by Probst and Canon Swainson are, however, I think, conclusive that the two are not identical. Dom Massuet recognised a distinction between them in St. Irenaeus, 1 whose language would be the strongest basis for the other opinion. They are clearly distinguished by Clement of Alexandria, and even more explicitly by St. Cyprian, who first applied the term Symbolum to the Creed, while he calls the Rule of Faith Lex. 2 Later, St. Cyril of Jerusalem and St. Isidore are decisive witnesses to the same. I think it will also be seen that St. Paul in one passage 3 intends to distinguish the " form " or formulary " of sound words," which had been learned from himself, by word of mouth, from the " good deposit," which was to be preserved by the Holy Spirit that dwelt in himself and in 1 Or iii. 3, 1. - Ep. lxix. 7 ; Ed. Hartel. Firmilian's use of the word (lxxv. 11) seems, however, to imply that Symbolum was even then the generally received term for the Baptismal Creed. 3 2 Tim. i. 13, 14. The absence of articles before viroTvicaxriv and uyicuuSvTwu \6ya>v suggests that the phrase had already acquired a technical meaning. 88 STUDIES Timothy. The Rule of Faith, as St. Irenseus says/ was committed to the Bishop ; while the Creed was intended for the laity ; hence it did not con- tain the more strictly theological portions of the former, which were directed against heresy. The chief object of the Symbol, besides the instruction of the faithful, was to serve as a pass- word, whereby they might recognise each other ; great pains were therefore taken to preserve its precise language, and to teach it secretly just before baptism ; 2 while the Rule of Faith varied in its expressions, and was delivered openly. Probst points out another difference, which is not without interest : the Rule of Faith consisted of two members, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity being mentioned (as in the apostolic ser- mons) after our Lord's ascension, the account then returning to the second coming ; while in the Creed, from its connection with baptism, the Holy Ghost is the subject of a separate article. This is, however, not so absolute as he represents it to be. But the distinction between the Creed and the Rule of Faith must not be too strongly pressed. For, in the first place, the different instances of the latter which have reached us have so many features of resemblance to each other and to the Creed as to suggest that this was a compendium of the public teaching of the Church, from which it was derived, compiled for the use of the faithful in that public profession of faith which had to 1 IV. 26, 4. 2 St. Cyril, for instance, bids the competentes whom he is instructing to learn the Creed which he repeats to them, " word for word " ; " having a care, that no catechumen should over- hear what has been delivered to you." THE APOSTLES' CREED AND RULE OF FAITH 89 be made by the newly baptised from the earliest times. 1 Secondly, the early Eastern creeds, as far as we know them, were ampler in language, more variable in expression, and therefore much more like the Rule of Faith, than the Symbol of the great Church of the West. Probably this variability — designed to meet heresies as they arose 2 — was the chief reason why the Creed of Nicsea so easily took the place of them all, even before the Council of Ephesus directed that no other should be used at baptism. A few Oriental symbols are, however, extant, independent of Nicene influence ; for instance, the formularies put forward by Arius and Eunomius, the Creed of the Council of Antioch which ordained Gregory to take the place of St. Athanasius, that which Dom Touttee extracted from the Catecheses of St. Cyril, and the Symbol recited by Charisius before the Fathers at Ephesus. These are enough to show that the Ante-Nicene creeds of the East were more like the Roman Symbol than those drawn up in the councils. We shall presently use them, in the same way as the Rule of Faith, to prove the great antiquity of the Apostles' Creed. The Western Symbol, on the contrary, owes its continuous existence to the zeal with which its literal identity was preserved. Of this there is 1 The " profession " (6/j.o\oyia) made on the occasion when St. Timothy " was called to eternal life " can hardly have been any other than this. So, too, St. Justin (Apol. 61) speaks of the person to be baptised expressing his belief and assent (tov TrcTreiiTfMeuov Kal crvyKarareOeifxeuov). - In the West there was less tendency to modify even the Rule of Faith to meet new heresies. (See Tertullian Adv. Hermog. cap i.) 90 STUDIES abundant evidence. St. Ambrose tells us that in his day " Rome kept ever uninjured the Symbol of the Apostles " ; and Rufinus, that " in other Churches some additions are found, but in the Church of the city of Rome this is not the case." 1 The Creed was asserted by the same witnesses to be derived from the Apostles, but not by them alone. St. Leo and Cassian, and a host of later writers, testify to the universal belief of the West, which indeed found expression in the very term, " Apostles' Creed." The word avfi^oXov being not unnaturally thought in the West to mean something made up of many contributions, it came to be supposed that each Apostle had contributed an article ; and this in its turn developed into the well-known legend that assigns each article to its supposed author. 2 There is a striking parallel to this in the East, in the Rule of Faith as described in the Apostolical Constitutions* which shows the universality of this belief as early as the third century. But the apostolical origin of the Creed was asserted nowhere else than in Rome ; not even, as Dom Touttee remarks, in the Church of Jerusalem, where we should most of all expect to find such a tradition. Its constant prevalence, therefore, in the Church of Rome, and nowhere else, is a strong antecedent probability of its truth ; but for detailed evidence we must look further. Our first step must clearly be to ascertain what 1 St. Ambrose, Ep. i. ad Siric. Rufinus, Expos. Symboli. cap. iii. As Probst remarks, we may accept the latter s testi- mony to the fact, without endorsing his reason, that it is because heresy was unknown in Rome. 2 Pseudo-Aug. Serm. 240 (Hahn, sect. 46). 3 VII. 4. THE APOSTLES' CEEED AND RULE OF FAITH 91 are the wording and date of the earliest Creed that has reached us. I have already remarked on the extreme importance which was attached to its not being written, but kept from non-Catholics -, 1 Rufinus and St. Jerome are witnesses to this as well as St. Cyril. It is therefore remarkable that we find a complete example of the Creed as early as the fourth century. This is preserved in the treatise of Rufinus, to which I have several times referred. It will be most convenient to start from this ; first trace the Creed upwards as far as possible and then see how it came into its present state. The Creed of Rufinus runs as follows : — Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, et in Christum Iesum, unicum filium eius, dominum nostrum. Qui natus est de spiritu sancto ex Maria Virgine, crucifixus sub Pontio Pilate et sepultus, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis, ascendit in coelos, sedet ad dexteram Patrw, inde venturus est, iudicare vivos et mortuos. Et in spiritum sanctum, sanctam eccle- siam, remissionem peccatorum, carnis resurrectionem. This is identical, in all but a few trivial details, with the Symbols of the churches of Milan (as recorded for us by SS. Ambrose and Augustine 2 ), of Turin (as supplied by St. Maximus), and of Ravenna. 3 Our next step carries us back some fifty years, to an interesting episode of ecclesiastical history. 1 This was the reason why the Creed was called Symbolum, a "tessera" or watchword. It is remarkable this Greek word was not so employed in the East (unless Firmilian's letter be an instance) ; iricrris being used instead. - So at least Caspari and Hahn, following Cardinal Mai, who discovered this MS. of St. Ambrose. Denzinger ascribes it to St. Maximus. 3 Et Maria Virgine appears to be the Roman form, instead of ex, as we shall see later. 92 STUDIES Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, was accused of heresy, and was deposed from his See by a Council held in Constantinople in 337 or 338. He, with several other bishops, went to Rome to appeal to Pope Julius, who, " in virtue of the prerogative of the Church of Rome," and " because the care of all belonged to him on account of the dignity of his See," 1 restored Marcellus to his bishopric. St. Epiphanius has preserved for us the letter which he addressed to the Pope in his justification before leaving Rome after a fifteen months' stay there. This is a statement of the faith he had received from the Church in baptism, " and had learned from the Holy Scriptures, and from his forefathers in the faith." The main point on which he had to dwell was his belief concerning the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. This he supports by quota- tions from Scripture, and in the course of his argu- ment introduces the Creed, saying, " I believe, therefore, in God Almighty," and the rest, as follows : Tlio-revas €t? deov iravTOKparopa' ical els XpLGTOV ^\t)(TOVV, TOV ViOV OLVTOV TOV fjLOVOyeVTJ, TOV Kvpuov rjfjicov, rbv <y6W7]0evra i/c irvevjxaTos ayiov ical Mapias TTJ? irapdevov, rov eVl UovtIov TIiXcltov crravpcoOivra ical ra^evra, ical rfj Tpirr) rjfjbepa ava- aravTa etc rwv veicpcov, dva/3dvTa els tovs ovpavovs, ical KaOrjjjLevov ev Se^ca rov iraTpos, odev epyerai Kplvetv Zcovra? teal ve/cpovs' ical els to dytov irvevpa, dylav eiacXqaiav, afyeatv dfjuapncov, crapicbs dvdo~Tao~Lv, ^corjv dioaviov. It will be seen that this is identical with the Symbol of Rufinus in all respects but the omission 1 are TrpovS/xia rrjs iv Y<ajxr) iKKkrjfftas ixovcrrjs (Soc. H. E. ii. 13). rcou ir&vroiv KTjdffiovias avT<$ rpo(T'qK.6vi7ris 8ia ri]v a^iav rov Qpbvov (Sozom. H. E. iii. 8). THE APOSTLES' CEEED AND EULE OF FAITH 93 of the word " Father," and the insertion of the last article. These two peculiarities have been the only basis for several hypotheses concerning this Creed. Swainson supposed it to be Marcellus's own composition ; but the similarity to the Roman Creed is so complete as to make this highly im- probable. Moreover, Marcellus's object being to establish his orthodoxy, the very worst course he could adopt would be to put forward a creed of his own, and the best to profess the Symbol which the Roman Church held in such veneration. Lequien and Meyers, more weighty authorities, looked upon it as a translation, by Marcellus him- self, of the Roman Creed. I cannot here follow the minute examination — spreading over fifty pages of his work — in which Caspari shows that this is opposed to all the internal evidence of language and order of words. It will be sufficient to remark that there could have been no reason for a fresh translation. A creed must have existed for the use of the Greek-speaking Christians of that city. Nor is the original letter likely to have been written by Marcellus in Latin, and translated by St. Epiphanius ; for the Pope, we know, was acquainted with Greek, while there is no evidence that Mar- cellus knew Latin, a rare accomplishment among the Oriental bishops at that time. It is much more natural to conclude that the two variations are due to an error of the copyist, especially since the extant MSS, of this part of the " Panarion " are derived from only one source, and that we have here the Symbol used by the Greek Christians of Rome in the fourth century. This is further proved by a coincidence which is of particular interest to us in England. There is in the library of the British 94 STUDIES Museum a MS. (Cott. MSS. Galba A. xviii.) called " The Psalter of iEthelstane," at the end of which, in a collection of collects and miscellaneous prayers, are a Litany, the Lord's Prayer, the Sanctus, and the Creed in Greek, but written in Anglo-Saxon characters. This volume, as Heurtley and Caspari have shown, must have been written in the ninth century, and have been used for liturgical purposes. Considering the absolute conformity of the Anglo- Saxon Church to that of Rome, we are justified in supposing that the Creed must have been brought from Rome, and one is inclined to think that it was introduced by Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus, or Abbot Hadrian, into England. However this may be, we have here a creed identical in all but trifling points with that of Marcellus, except that it has the word " Father " and omits the last clause. It therefore corresponds completely with the Symbol of Rufinus. Whether the Greek or the Latin form of this Creed is the original, or whether both date back to the earliest times, is not clear. There are Grsecisms in the Latin Creed and Latinisms in the Greek one, 1 but neither sufficiently distinct to prove translation. And if we look at the general conditions of primitive Christianity in Rome, we shall not find much more to help us to a positive conclusion. No doubt the Greek-speaking Christians preponderated there for a considerable time. Besides the evi- dences of catacomb inscriptions, we find the few traces of public worship show that it was carried 1 rrj rplrr) Tjfiepq. before avaardvra is a Latinism ; while the use of the infinitive iudicare is a Grsecism, though one not without parallels in the classics and in Tertullian. THE APOSTLES' CEEED AND RULE OF FAITH 95 on in Greek. But there are, at the same time, signs that Latin was also used by the Roman Christians ; such as the Latinisms of St. Mark's Gospel, the use of the word statio by the Greek Hermas, and the early date (before 170) of the Latin translation of his work. We should, there- fore, think it probable that two versions of the Creed, a Greek and a Latin one, have existed side by side from very early times. This is confirmed by an examination of the Rules of Faith. One at least in Tertullian 1 (a Roman Christian by baptism) is connected with the Greek Symbol ; while that of Novatian seems to be based on a Latin creed. In seeking evidence of the antiquity of the Roman Creed we first naturally turn to the accounts of the Rule of Faith given by the early Fathers. For although, as I have shown above, they are not identical with the Creed, yet they are closely con- nected with it, and in several instances we are in doubt which is being referred to by the writer. Thus St. Irenaeus speaks of " the immovable Rule of Faith which the Catholic has received by bap- tism " ; 2 and St. Justin apparently refers to the Creed in at least three places, as he is treating of exorcisms, for which it was very early employed. 3 But there is quite sufficient evidence in Tertullian 1 Virg. Vel. i. The articles describing our Lord's life are all expressed by participles, as in the Greek ; " natum ex Maria virgine, crucifizum svb Pontio Pilato, tertia die resus- citatum a mortuis" &c. 1 Cont. Haer. i. 9, 4. 6 kolv&v rrjs aKrjdelas attKivlis, ov dia rov fiaiTTi(Tfxaros etA^^e ; which is presently spoken of as y vwb rrjs iKK\y}<rias K"qpv(T<T0jx4vr] a\f)94ia. 3 See Dial. 1. 85, 126 and 132, with Otto's valuable notes. 96 STUDIES alone that a Creed had been in existence for a considerable time in his day, that it had been communicated as a password by the Roman Church to that of Africa, and that it was essentially, at any rate, the same as the Creed of Rufinus. To prove the sufficiency of tradition, he says, many things are done in the Church without any warrant in Scripture, but in virtue of a " consuetudo inveterata " and he takes, as an example, baptism, in which the Christian answers " something more than the Lord directed in the Gospel." 1 This tells us of a bap- tismal Creed containing something more than the profession of belief in the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. Elsewhere we are told the can- didate for baptism professed " the law of the faith," one of the synonyms for the Rule of the Faith. 2 From other passages it is clear that the baptismal profession included our Lord's birth, passion, and resurrection, and a belief in Holy Church. 3 In a still more formal manner, he tells us that the Church of Rome had a password in common with the Church of Africa ; and that this began with a profession of belief in the Creator, went on to the Incarnation, and ended with the resurrection of the flesh. 4 We have thus identified, from Tertullian's account of 1 " Ter mergitamur, amplius aliquid respondentes quam Dominus in Evangelio determinavit" (Cor. Mil. 35). The anti- quity of the consuetudo may he estimated from the date of this treatise, which is put at latest at a.d. 203. 2 De Spectac. 4, compared with Virg. Vel. 1, and Praesc. Haer. 14. 3 De Bapt. 6 and 13. 4 " Videamus quid (Romana Ecclesia) didicerit, quid docuerit, quid cum Africanis ecclesiis contesserarit. Unum Deum novit, creatorem universitatis, et Christum Iesum ex Virgine Maria, filium Dei Creatoris, et carnis resurrectionem " (Praesc. Haer. 36). THE APOSTLES' CREED AND RULE OF FAITH 97 the Creed as distinguished from the Rule of Faith, the Roman Symbol of Rufinus with that current in Tertullian's time ; and, putting the date of his works at the beginning of the third century, we may safely say the same Creed must have been recognised at least as much as fifty years earlier. Having got so far, we may now call in the various accounts which have been left us of the Rule of Faith, and compare the Creed with them. For St. Irenseus, Tertullian, St. Justin and Origen agree so closely in their manner of stating the Kerygma, that we cannot doubt they had some common formula before them all ; and that this must have corresponded very nearly to the Symbol of the Church of Rome. I am not able, nor is it necessary, to give all these in detail, for any one who wishes to study the subject can easily verify my statement, but I must point out the differences between them and the Roman Creed. In the first place, it is remarkable that we do not find in the accounts of the Rule of Faith any mention of the Church or of the forgiveness of sins ; but there can be no doubt Caspari correctly ascribes the omission to these two articles not being required for the purpose for which the Rule was generally quoted — that of refuting the Gnostics. This is confirmed by St. Cyprian, in the next age, mentioning these very clauses, as soon as they were needed to oppose heresy. 1 1 The " Interrogate Baptismi " of the Novatians, and there- fore of the Catholic Church before that schism, contained the question : " Gredis remissionem peccatorum et vitam aeternam per sanctam Ecclesiam ? " (Ep. 69.) 98 STUDIES On the other hand, there are certain points omitted in the Apostles' Creed, as we have it in its early form, which are found in the other Creeds and Rules of Faith ; and these are of great import- ance, as enabling us to fix approximately the age of the Roman Symbol. For it is easy to see how additions should have been made to the statement of Christian doctrine or to its abbreviation, the Baptismal Creed ; while it is quite inconceivable that an article once incor- porated by the Church's teachers in either of these should be omitted, especially when the heresy which it contradicted was actively dangerous to the faith of Catholics. Thus, it is very striking that we do not find the word eva, unum, before Deum and Iesum Christum, in the Roman Creed. The first unum is found in every one of the Oriental Creeds, and in all the accounts of the Rule of Faith, without exception ; the second in all save the Apostolic Constitutions and the Antiochene Sym- bol. Now, the Church in Rome was greatly troubled by heretics between the years 140 and 167, and it would have been specially important to have retained the affirmation of the unity of God against the Gnostics, had it already existed in the Creed used there. We may, therefore, safely conclude that these two words were added in other Churches to exclude Gnosticism ; that the Roman Creed was earlier than such additions, and therefore more ancient than the middle of the second century. The same applies to the absence of the article Creator em coeli et terrae. The Father must have been defined to be the Creator at a very early date ; for this is found, with emphasis, in Hermas, in St. Justin, and the other apologists ; THE APOSTLES' CEEED AND RULE OF FAITH 99 in the versions of the Rule of Faith given by St. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, and the Apostolic Constitutions, as well as in all the Oriental Bap- tismal Creeds. It is, of course, evident that it must have been one of the first articles of faith proposed to the heathen, as in St. Paul's sermon at Athens : " Deus qui fecit mundum et omnia quae in eo sunt " (Acts xvii. 24). This, again, carries our Symbol back before the rise of Gnosticism in the middle of the second century. The absence of Gatholicam as an attribute of the Church is a less decisive proof of the antiquity of the Roman Creed, but tells in the same direc- tion. The first instance of its use in a technical sense 1 is in the Muratorian Canon, about a.d. 170, and very soon after we find it used in con- troversy with the Montanists, and by Clement of Alexandria ; by the middle of the third century it became general. This omission, then, dates the Roman Creed before the rise of Montanism. Vitam aeternam is found in St. Irenaeus's and Origen's account of the Rule of Faith ; 2 and, in one shape or another, in all the extant Eastern Creeds of the fourth and fifth centuries. Again, a clause connecting the Holy Ghost with the prophets was part of the Kerygma as known 1 Lightfoot appears to me to prove that St. Ignatius {Smyrn. 9) does not employ the word technically. Its use in the letter of the Church of Smyrna (a.d. 169) is well known. It is most remarkable that St. Irenseus, to whom the catholicity of the Church was such an important dogma, should never have the word ; but perhaps communes ecclesiasticos, the name given by the Valentinians to the orthodox (ii. 15, 2), may have been a translation of this. 2 Adv. Haer. i. 10, 1 ; De Princ. Praef. 5. 100 STUDIES to St. Justin, St. Irenaeus, and Origen, and is found in St. Cyril's Creed, in that in the Apostolic Con- stitutions, and in many later ones. It can be traced back, of course, to St. Peter and St. Clement ; x and could not have been omitted from the Roman Creed after the spread of Marcionism. I believe, indeed, that a claim to even higher antiquity might be made on this ground alone. Let it be remembered that from before the middle of the second century, Rome was the place to which heretics chiefly flocked, some to make prose- lytes in the capital of the world, others more boldly striving to gain the ear of the Popes, and to make the Holy See their accomplice. Some of them at least had been Catholics, two even members of the Roman presbytery. Heretics and Catholics alike appealed to the identity of their teaching with that of the Apostles ; thus St. Poly carp brought many heretics into the Church by assert- ing that he only taught what he had received from the Apostles and delivered to the Church ; while the followers of Artemon argued that all the early Christians, and the Apostles themselves, taught as they did, and that the Holy See had only fallen into error after the time of St. Victor. The bap- tismal profession was watched with special care, as we know that tampering with it was one of the principal charges brought against Novatian, 2 hence in such surroundings it is inconceivable that a new Symbol could have been recently introduced 1 2 Pet. i. 21 ; 1 Clem. xlv. 2, et passim. St. Justin, Apol. 61 ; St. Iren. i. 10, 1 ; Orig. De Princ. 5. St. Justin treats it as part of the baptismal profession. 2 Euseb. H. E. iv. 12 ; v. 28 ; viii. 8. THE APOSTLES' CREED ANET RULE OF FAITH lOl into the Church, or altered afterwards, without provoking challenge and criticism. How could Tertullian have appealed to the Rule of Faith, " which had anticipated all heresies " ; or how could he have refrained from pointing his bitter invective, when he left the Church, with some mention of what would have been such a damning fact? Such an acknowledgment of the Roman Creed, by friend and foe alike, surely implies an antiquity of at least fifty years, and carries us back to the end of the first century, and to sub-apostolic times. We shall be led to the same conclusion if we com- pare the Creed with the New Testament and the earliest Christian writings which are left to us. It is, of course, in absolute agreement with Holy Scripture in substance ; but its language is not borrowed from it, as is the case with the later Creeds, after the Canon of Scripture had been established. Its modes of expression rather run parallel to the New Testament, and where they differ, as they do in some remarkable particulars, the Creed coincides with the language of the earliest Apostolic Fathers ; who also, as is well known, do not use the precise words of the New Testament so frequently as the writers of the next age. I. For instance, omnipotente?n, iravroKparopa, though common in the Old Testament, is confined in the New almost exclusively 1 to the Apocalypse, in which it is frequently used, being especially attributed to the Father. 2 It is equally connected 1 For 2 Cor. vi. 18, refers directly to the Old Testament. 2 For instance, xix. 7 ; xxi. 22. So, too, St. Justin often uses the word, and especially connects it with the Father (Dial. 136). 102 STUDIES with the First Person of the Trinity in St. Clement, who often uses the word ; but does not, I think, occur in other Apostolic Fathers. II. The construction credere in aliquem is prac- tically unknown to any of the New Testament writers except St. Paul and St. John, the former of whom uses it not uncommonly and the latter frequently. III. The word Odirrco, sepelio, is not mentioned in any of the accounts of our Lord's death, except (the exception is notable) 1 Cor. xv. 4, where, as we have seen, St. Paul appears to be quoting from the Rule of Faith. IV. Resurrexit a mortuis is to be found at the end of St. Paul's sermon at Athens, where we may suppose, as I have pointed out before, that he was following the lines of the Kerygma. V. Ascendit in caelos, eZ<? tovs ovpavovs. The singular is read in every passage in which the ascension is spoken of in the New Testament ; * I do not notice it in any of the Apostolic Fathers. St. Justin has the singular. VI. iv Seljca tov irarpo^ is read in Marcellus's Creed, following the universal rule of the Epistles, while in the Synoptic Gospels i/c is used. VII. Sanctam Ecclesiam. The adjective does not occur as applied to the Church in Holy Scripture, though we have it spoken of as " sanctified," and the faithful are called " saints." It is very com- mon in the Apostolic Fathers, 2 and still commoner in the next age. 1 But see Acts ii. 34 (where David is spoken of), and Eph. iv. 10. 2 Bam. 14 ; St. Ign. Trail. Inscr. ; Mart. Pol. Inscr. The adjective does not come in St. Clement. I may note in passing THE APOSTLES' CEEED AND RULE OF FAITH 103 VIII. But the most remarkable verbal pecu- liarity of the Creed is the phrase carnis resur- rectionem. In Scripture we always find the resurrection said to be from, or of, the dead ; and whenever the corporeal resurrection is men- tioned, it is the body, and not the flesh, that is said to rise again. The language of the Creed, therefore, here departs from that of the New Testament. But we find an instance of the same in the Epistle of St. Clement, 1 who quotes Job xix. 26, substituting crdpi; for hepfia, which is the text of the Septuagint he follows elsewhere. We are reminded of the parallel manner in which St. Ignatius emphasises the reality of our Lord's Body against the Docetists by the frequent use of the word " flesh " applied to it. It can hardly be doubted that the word is chosen in the Creed for the like purpose, to exclude disbelief in the reality of the bodily resurrection. This was a heresy current in the second century, but which existed in Corinth in St. Paul's day. 2 So that this divergence from the letter of Scripture, which at first sight might seem adverse to the antiquity of the Roman Creed, is, as Caspari acutely points out, really in its favour. Whether he is also correct in believing that the Creed was brought from Asia Minor to Rome in sub-apostolic times, that Harnack points out that the holiness of the Church was connected as early as Hegesippus (Euseb. H. E. iv. 22) with purity of doctrine. 1 Cap. xxvi. 3. 2 1 Cor. xv. 12-56 ; Tatian, Theophilus, the so-called second letter of St. Clement, St. Justin, are further but later witnesses to the importance which the heresy had in the second century. So, too, Hermas (Sim. v. 7) ; jSAeVe /*?/ avafif iirl rr\v KapSiav <rov, tt\v <rdpna crov ravrrju (pdaprfyv %ivai> 104 STUDIES I cannot say. There appears to me no ground for conjecturing this rather than its independent composition in Rome, or (as the old legend has it) before the separation of the Apostolic College. If I hazard an opinion, it is to remark upon its likeness to the thoughts and language of St. Clement, and to suggest that its form may, in part at least, be due to that great Pontiff, " in whose ears was still ringing the Kerygma of the Apostles," and " who delivered the tradition he had lately received from them," 1 I have now traced the Apostles' Creed to the highest point which the evidence known to me enables us to reach, and have next to show how it grew into its present shape. But for this, and for the further question, whether the primitive Christians derived its authority from Scripture or from the Church, I should need more space than I can now give ; and I therefore hope to deal with them in another paper. Meanwhile, it will be seen that the main result of an inquiry that I fear I have rendered wearisome is to prove that the Apostles' Creed, as we now have it, is slightly altered and expanded from the Baptismal Symbol of the Church of Rome in the middle of the second century, which in all proba- bility is more ancient still, and goes back to the immediate successors of the Apostles. I can find, then, nothing in modern research to contradict, and much to confirm, the constant tradition of the Church, embodied finally in the Tridentine Catechism, that the Roman Creed is of apostolic origin. I wish I could at the same time have 1 St. Iren. iii. 3, 3. THE APOSTLES' CEEED AND KULE OF FAITH 105 imparted to my readers the luminous manner in which the continuity of the Catholic belief stands revealed on reading the original documents of primitive Christianity. This is a pleasure that amply over-pays the labour of Patristic study : it is to have conversed oneself with the children of the Apostles, and heard from them the lessons which they had so lately learned from the Son of God Himself. 106 THE APOSTLES' CREED AND THE RULE OF FAITH. II. In the preceding paper I gave an account of the evidence which proves, with a very high degree of probability, that the Apostles' Creed can be traced to sub-apostolic times. I there started with the Creed as we find it in Rufinus and Mar- cellus of Ancyra ; and this differed in a few par- ticulars from the Creed as we now use it. I now propose to examine, as far as I can, the additions which have brought it into its present shape ; an inquiry which, if less important than the early history of the symbol, yet has some points of considerable interest. How these additions came to be incorporated into a Creed which had been so jealously preserved from any alteration is a question we may more profitably consider after going through them in detail. But we can at once remark two conditions in the Church of the fourth and following centuries which would be likely to permit of such changes. The extension of the Roman Symbol to the churches of the West, where its verbal identity was less minutely guarded, must have inevitably led to many slight variations in the wording of a formula which was still handed THE APOSTLES' CREED AND RULE OF FAITH 107 down by word of mouth and not by writing. At the same time, the multiplication of symbols in the East during the great Arian controversy, and their employment as tests instead of mere watch- words, led to a selection everywhere of such local variations as were found to define the faith more explicitly than the original Roman Creed. 1. The first clause which has been added is Creator em coeli et terrae. I need not remark that this was part of the Apostolic preaching and of the Rule of Faith from the beginning. From one passage in Tertullian (Virg. Vet. i) it seems as if mundi conditorem was found in the African Creed in his day ; but the first unequivocal evidences of the clause being found in any Symbol come from the East, where its occurrence in the Creed of St. Cyril, in the Apostolical Constitutions, 1 and in the so-called liturgy of James, implies its general reception before the Council of Nicsea. We next find the equivalent phrase, universorum conditorem regem saeculorum, immortalem et invisibilem, in a creed expounded by St. Augustine 2 and St. Ful- gentius, and in one ascribed by Caspari to the Sardinian church and to Lucifer of Cagliari. It first appears in its present shape in a sermon probably by St. Caesarius of Aries, 3 showing that it was current in Southern Gaul at the end of the fifth century. It is, indeed, not in the Creed of Faustus of Riez, of about the same time and place ; 1 VII. 41. 2 Serm. 215. This reads like a paraphrase, but Denzinger first showed conclusively that it is part of the text of the creed St. Augustine was explaining. 3 Serm. suppos. St. Aug. No. 242. 108 STUDIES but other omissions in the same document make this less remarkable, and its presence later is so uniform as to make further details unnecessary. It is only noteworthy that in the Bangor (Irish) Antiphonary in the Ambrosian Library, we meet with the variant invisibilem, omnium creaturarum visibilium et invisibilium conditorem. This evidence seems to prove that the clause existed equivalently from a very early period in the Eastern and African Churches, and that its present form and adoption into the Roman Creed is probably due to the influence of the Nicene Symbol. 2. Natus est de Spiritu Sancto et virgine Maria seems to have been the original form of the Roman Creed ; we so find it in Marcellus, in one of St. Augustine's sermons, and even as late as St. Leo's letter to Flavian. But elsewhere in Italy the ordinary form was ex Maria virgine, which appears from Tertullian, SS. Augustine and Fulgentius, to have been also the use of the Church of Africa. Early evidence in the East is scanty, but points to the same variation ; thus Origen must have had et in his Creed, and it is found also in the sym- bol of Salamis, and probably in that followed by St. Cyril (Hahn, Nos. 67, 62) ; but the commoner Oriental form must have been equivalent to ex Maria Virgine. St. Augustine (Enchir. xii.) pointed out that the ordinary clause might be misinter- preted ; and no doubt this led to the various attempts to improve it which we afterwards meet with. Such are Natus de virgine Maria per Spiritum Sanctum (in the Gallican Sacramentary at Bobbio) ; Natus de Spiritu Sancto ex utero Mariae virginis (Mozarabic Liturgy). The present shape of the THE APOSTLES' CKEED AND RULE OF FAITH 109 clause first occurs in a Homily by Faustus, a monk of Lerins, who was afterwards Bishop of Riez in Provence in 462. 3. Mortuus is first certainly found in the Creed of Aquileia, as expounded by St. Nicetas, which otherwise differs in several particulars from the Roman Symbol ; perhaps it also occurs in an African Creed explained by St. Augustine. 1 It forms part of the apostolic Kerygma used by St. Paul in 1 Cor. xv. 4, and of the Rule of Faith as stated by St. Ignatius, St. Justin, Origen, and Tertullian, 2 but not of those given by St. Irenaeus. It is found in a few Oriental creeds, orthodox and semi-Arian, but cannot have been general in the East, nor have been introduced into the Roman creed from their influence. 4. Descendit ad inferos. This clause has a more remarkable history than any of the other additions to the creed. Not to refer to any other proof from Scripture, which would not be to the present purpose, it formed part of the Apostolic preaching in Acts ii. 31. It is found in the apocryphal but early account of Thaddaeus's preaching to Abgarus, translated from the Syriac by Eusebius. 3 It is testified to by St. Justin, St. Irenseus, Origen, and Tertullian, but is in none of these authors treated as part of the Rule of Faith. 4 Its first appearance 1 Serm. in Redd. Symboli, 215. ? Trail, ix. ; Dial. 85 ; Princ. i. 4 ; adv. Prax. 2. 3 H. E. i. 13. But it is not in the longer apocryphal Acta of Thaddseus published by Tischendorf. Its development in the Gospel of Nicodemus is too well known to need more than mention. 4 Dial. 72 ; Gont. Haer. v. 31, I. ; Huet in Origen, iv. 135, and the passages there quoted ; Tert. de An. 5 and 55. 110 STUDIES in any creed extant is in what is called the fourth Sirmian formulary. This was a symbol drawn up in Latin at Sirmium by Mark of Arethusa, one of Constantius's court bishops. The Emperor, in the pursuance of his merely secular policy, wished a creed to be submitted to the assembled bishops at Rimini and Seleucia, which should obtain as many subscriptions as possible, Catholic, Arian, and semi- Arian, and so supersede the Nicene Confession. It is singular that this very doctrine of the descent into hell was pressed by the orthodox against Arius and his followers who (like Apollinaris later) denied the existence of our Lord's human soul. 1 It seems as if this insertion was a concession to the Catholics, perhaps also to the semi-Arians, with the design of obtaining their more ready acceptance of an heretical creed. We find in this formula another example of the same intention, in the many titles of honour which it ascribes to the Son, in the hope that " Consubstantial " might perhaps be thought superfluous. All mention of our Lord's burial is omitted ; the clause running thus in the Greek translation, which alone remains — " Who died, and went down into the lower world, and ordered things therein ; whom the doorkeepers of Hades, shuddering, beheld, and He arose again the third day " 2 It is quite conceivable that an Arian might, without much insincerity, 1 So St. Athanasius frequently in the Contra Apolinarium, e.g., 'Apelos capita ^6vr\v irpbs airoKpvtpijv rrjs dedrrjros 6/J.oAoyei .... riju tou iraOovs i/Sr/criv, na\ tV e£ aoov avacrraaiv ttj OedrrjTi irpocrdyeiv to\m (ii. 3 ; Tom. i. p. 942). 2 . . . . airodavovra ital els tc\ Karaxd6via /caTeA0<Wa, ital tc\ e/c€?<re oiKovofi'ficravTa ' tv irvAcaphi qdov \Z6vres ecppi^av • kc\i avacncivTa k.t.K. —(Socrates, H. E. ii. 37).' THE APOSTLES' CREED AND EULE OF FAITH 111 have accepted this as merely equivalent to a con- fession of our Lord's burial, and as no admission that he had a human soul. As a matter of fact, we know that a belief in the doctrine was not con- fined to those who accepted the Nicene definition — for instance, the interpolator of the Ignatian letters, who seems to have been an Arian or an Apollinarian, went out of his way to insert it. 1 St. Cyril dwelt upon it at length in his Catechetical Lectures (xiv. 17, 18, 19) ; the account of our Lord's reception by the just reading like the well- known passage in the Gospel of Nicodemus. Still, this is sufficient, as Grabe pointed out, 2 to show that the clause cannot have been inserted, as Pearson thought, against the Arians ; though Grabe' s own viewj that it was directed against the Marcionites and Gnostics, is devoid of all founda- tion. This creed having been accepted by the unorthodox bishops of Rimini, the Arian leaders carried it to Nike, a town in Thrace, where they caused it to be subscribed by a small packed Synod, so that from the similarity of name it might pass for that of Nicsea. Our clause, however, is ex- pressed rather differently from the Sirmian creed, running thus : " Dead and buried, and who descended into the under world, before whom Hades itself trembled." 3 The same symbol was repeated, with only trivial alterations, at an Homoian Council held at Constantinople in 360, and there accepted, among others, by Ulfilas, the apostle of the Goths. 4 But the clause does not 1 Troll, ix. 4. 2 Note 13 on Bull's Judicium Ecc. Cath. 3 Theodoret, ii. 21. 4 Socrates, H. E. ii. 41. 112 STUDIES occur in any of the synodical or personal professions of faith, orthodox and the contrary, which were so numerous in the East at that time. Its absence is most remarkable from the creed subscribed at Seleucia, since that Council was called at the same time as the one at Rimini. This appears to me to strengthen the presumption that it was proposed at the latter place because it was already received in some parts of Italy. The language used tells in the same direction, ra KaraxOovia being evi- dently the Greek version of inferna (see Phil. ii. 8) ; and descendit ad inferna is the form in which it first appears in the Western creeds. We thus find it, according to Rufinus, in the Creed of Aquileia thirty or forty years later, and towards the end of the century in Africa and Southern Gaul, if we may trust Caspari's ascription of two creeds to Vigilius of Thapsus and St. Csesarius respectively. Such a wide diffusion seems to prove that the clause must have formed part of many Western symbols for a considerable time. Next it is found as the creed of the Spanish and Gallic churches ; in St. Ildephonsus and the Gallican Sacrament ary published by Mabillon ; finally, in the creed as given by Amalarius of Treves. The present form descendit ad inferos occurs first in the Irish Bangor Antiphonary, and was no doubt generally accepted as expressing the doctrine that our Lord had descended to deliver the souls in Limbus. 5. The original form of the article sedet ad dex- ter am Dei Patris omnipotentis was, as we have seen, sedet ad dexteram Patris. The additions do not occur in any Oriental symbol ; we find Dei added first in one of St. Augustine's expositions of the African Creed, and next in the Spanish THE APOSTLES' CREED AND RULE OF FAITH 113 Creeds of St. Ildephonsus and the Mozarabic Liturgy. Patris omnipotentis seems to have been the earliest Gallic form ; and the coalescence of the two, producing our clause as it now stands, is found in Faustus of Riez and the Irish service- books. I may remark that both these words were absent from what seems to have been the earliest form of the Athanasian Creed (Hahn, sect. 81). 6. I have said something in my previous article of the omission of the attribute Catholicam from the primitive form of the Roman Creed. It must evidently have been contained in many Oriental symbols before the Nicene Council ; for we find it in the second formula of Arius, and in the creeds of the predecessor of St. Athanasius, and of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. After Nicaea it becomes an ordinary part of the Eastern symbols. In the West it appears later ; in St. Ildephonsus, Faustus of Riez, and the Irish and Gallic service-books. In the Bangor Antiphonary the variant sanctam esse Ecclesiam Catholicam occurs. 7. Sanctorum communionem is not found in any of the early creeds. As far as I can trace, it is first seen in the sermon ascribed to St. Caesarius, to which I have several times referred ; after that in Faustus of Riez, and in the Mozarabic and Gallo-Irish liturgies. There can be no doubt Pear- son was right in pointing out the stress that was laid by early writers upon the unity between the Church militant and the Church triumphant, as one of the principal reasons for the insertion of this article ; besides the passages he quotes, the language of the sixth Council of Toledo — Omnis ecclesia collocata iam in regno coelesti et degens in saeculo praesenti — is worth remarking for its clear- 8 114 STUDIES ness. We may conclude, from a sermon of Faustus of Riez, 1 that this article was employed, if not introduced into the Creed to condemn the heresy of Vigilantius, who had recently opposed the cultus of the Saints, on the ground that they were not yet united to Christ in Heaven. Faustus's words are : " Ut transeamus ad sanctorum communionem. Illos hie sententia ista confundit, qui sanctorum et amicorum Dei cineres non in honore debere esse blasphemant, qui beatorum martyrum gloriosam me- moriam sacrorum reverentia monumentorum colen- dam esse non credunt." But it seems to me that a further reason may possibly have led to its intro- duction in the first instance, and that it was only later used to meet the errors of Vigilantius. In the African Creed, as far back as St. Cyprian, we find the later articles ran thus : Credo remissionem peccatorum et vitam aeternam per sanctam ecclesiam, thus expressing, with great distinctness, that the Church was the means of sanctification, and its members were consequently holy. 2 From one of Tertullian's accounts of the Creed or of the Rule of Faith 3 it seems as if this peculiarity existed in his day ; and St. Fulgentius witnesses 4 that the same form of the last articles of the Creed 1 In Caspari ; Quellen, iv. 273, and quoted by Harnack, Dogmengeschichte, ii. 450. 2 St. Cyp. Ep. 67, 7 ; 70, 2 ; ed Hartel : " Voce sua ipsi confitentur, remissionem peccatorum non dari nisi per sanctam ecclesiam posse. . . . intelligimus, remissionem peccatorum nonnisi in ecclesia dari, apud haereticos autem, ubi ecclesia non sit, non posse peccata dimitti^ 3 Yirg. Vel. i. . . . iudicare vivos et mortuos, per carnis etiam resurrectionemP 4 Contra Fab. x. THE APOSTLES' CBEED AND RULE OF FAITH 115 was used in Africa two centuries after St. Cyprian. I need not do more than remind the reader that this last aspect of the communion of saints is so strongly emphasised by St. Paul's using the very word " saint " as synonymous with " Christian " ; and that in the Epistle to the Hebrews both grounds for the article are brought together (xii. 22-24). 1 8. Vitam aeternam. We know from St. Jerome, as well as from Rufinus and the other authorities formerly quoted, that the primitive Roman Creed did not contain this article. But its equivalent must obviously have been included in the Apostolic Kerygma, and, indeed, is in one passage of Scrip- ture associated with the resurrection of the dead as one of the elementary truths of Christianity. 2 It is in the Rule of Faith as stated by St. Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen ; and must have been the last clause in, at any rate, some Oriental creeds, as it is found in St. Cyril's and that of Antioch (Hahn, 62-63). But the more usual form in the East was ^oorjv tov /juiWovros aiwvos, which occurs as early as the second formulary of Arius, and the Apostolical Constitutions ; then in the Creed of Salamis, which is the source of the Nicene symbol we now use. This was probably a modifi- cation of the original article to meet the errors of Marcellus of Ancyra, against whom another clause of the same creed is directed : "of whose kingdom there shall be no end." 1 See the remarkably "distinct language of the earliest Apos- tolic Father, St. Clement, on justification, and the remission of sins through the prayers of the " saints " (xxx. i. ; lvi. i. ; lvii. i.). 2 Heb. vi. 1, 2 . . . . rov rrjs apxv s rov Xpiarov \6yov .... 6en4\ioy .... avacrdo'ews vskowv, Kal Kpl/xaros aiwpiov. 116 STUDIES But the addition to the Apostles' Creed did not come from the East. It had been current in Africa in St. Cyprian's day, as we see from the passages I have just quoted for another purpose ; it is found in the sermon of St. Augustine's to which I have before referred as giving an African Creed, 1 also in St. Fulgentius. In Italy it is first met with in a sermon of St. Nicetas (Hahn, 25), which shows that it was part of the Creed of Aqui- leia in the middle of the fifth century. After that it is common, is in the Spanish and Gallic service- books, in Faustus of Riez, and the Creed of Treves. I have endeavoured to relate, very inadequately, the history of the several additions to the original Roman Creed. On comparing them it will be seen that one only — descendit ad inferos — can have been introduced from the East, and even that was probably already used in Italy, though the actual form of the article, Creator em coeli et terrae — was probably taken from the Oriental symbols. Almost all the changes and additions are first traceable to Africa ; they are next found in Southern Gaul and Spain. It is in accordance with this that the first example of a creed, which corresponds in all respects but one with that we now use, comes to us from Gaul. It is found in a work by Pirminius, a monk who lived in France and Germany in the middle of the eighth century. We are left to conjecture how the various alterations and addi- tions came to be combined in one symbol. But there can be little doubt it was due to the desire for liturgical uniformity which prevailed in Gaul, 1 No. 215. The form here is resurrectionem carnis et vitam aeternam per sanctam ecclesiam. THE APOSTLES' CREED AND RULE OF FAITH 117 as we learn from the Synods of Vannes (461), Agde (506), and Epaone (517), for this would lead to a comparison of the various creeds current, and to a selection of the best points in each. How the Creed so shaped came to receive universal acceptance in the West there is also no direct evidence to show. Canon Swainson laid stress on its having grown up in Gaul, and ascribed its currency merely to Charlemagne's influence. But other non-Catholic authors — Dr. Heurtley, Prof. Lumby, 1 and Harnack 2 — are far more likely to be right in supposing that the approval of the Holy See must have preceded the general reception of the Creed. It is incredible that the Bishops of Italy should have accepted a Gallic creed, unless under the authority of Rome, and the same may be said of the Church of England, which had in 747, at the second Council of Clovesho, prescribed strict conformity to the Roman rite. Nor is it incon- sistent with what we otherwise know that a creed current in France should have been authorised by the Pope ; we know that in the same manner the Gallican replaced the Roman Psalter, and the Gloria in Excelsis came into the Mass. There is sufficient evidence of Charlemagne's zeal in matters doctrinal and liturgical to warrant us in supposing 1 History of the Creeds, chap. iii. I am glad here to acknow- ledge the learning, fairness, and judicial character of this work, which had until recently escaped my notice. It is unfor- tunate that the author should either have been unacquainted with Caspari's labours, or not have availed himself of them, and that that portion, at any rate, of the work which deals with the Apostles' Creed should be practically out of date. 2 Dogmengesch., ii. p. 299. " Rome, and through Rome, the West, finally received the Gallo-Frankish form of the Apostles' Creed." 118 STUDIES that this revised version of the Creed was brought before the Pope by his authority. There would be the less difficulty in its reception, since several of the changes were already current in Italy, and all would be recognised as improvements. The wide extent of Charlemagne's empire would soon cause the Creed to be rapidly accepted throughout Western Christendom, though older forms would linger for a time in countries which lay, like England and Ireland, beyond the direct influence of the Empire. The latest change was the substitution of inferos for inferna in the fifth article. Pir- minius's Creed retained the latter word, but inferos is already found in some psalters of the ninth century. Such is the later history of the Apostles' Creed, and it is remarkably consistent with what we learned before of its origin. The great symbol of the West grew into being and completeness with the spontaneous unconsciousness of some living organism. Or rather, it is the ev^fiov o-To/ua <j>povTi$o<; ; the language that our Mother, the Church, puts into our mouths at the moment of our spiritual birth. The creeds produced during the era of the great Oriental Councils are in the sharpest contrast to this. Questions of some difficulty arise concern- ing them, but their history abounds in documents, and they are obviously the result of much thought and analysis, designed to express the truth with the utmost accuracy, and to exclude heresy as distinctly as possible. Each is alike a function of the Church, but the one is a direct expression of her belief, the other, the carefully defined state- ment of the same. In this difference of character is to be found the reason for a difference of treat- ment, which has sometimes proved a stumbling- block to non-Catholics. THE APOSTLES' CREED AND RULE OF FAITH 119 The nature of this confusion comes out so clearly in Dr. Swainson's work, and the subject is of such importance, that it is worth while to consider his statements in detail. He begins by making an admission of vital importance : that the Rule of Faith, on which the Creed was based and to which it ran parallel, was a collection of unwritten doc- trine, handed down by oral tradition, and inde- pendent of Scripture. To quote his own words : " That there was a doctrina tradita, a traditionary teaching of the Church, delivered in the first instance vivd voce, and independently of the writings of the Apostles, no one can question." l No student, indeed, of the monuments of primitive Christianity, could come to any other conclusion. I have recited much of the evidence for it in my account of the Kerygma and the Rule of Faith, and will therefore here only mention a few points which bear more particularly on tradition. The great storehouse of information as to the mind of the Church in the second century, in this as in most other questions, is St. Irenaeus. He tells us that St. Clement received the Rule of Faith from the Apostles, and that it and the Apostolic tradition were handed down to his own times by the Church of Rome by means of the apostolic succession of its bishops. 2 Those who had received this succession were the proper custodians of the faith and interpreters of Scrip- ture. Most remarkable of all, the authority of tradition was so fully established, that even the early heretics did not venture to deny it. As Franzelin points out, 3 both Gnostics and Catholics 1 Op. cit. p. 26. 2 III. 3. 3 ; iv. 26, 5, and 33, 8. 3 De Trad, et Script., cap. 2, thes. viii. 120 STUDIES alike appealed to tradition, the former maintaining that it was a secret inheritance of their own, the latter that it was in the public guardianship of the successors of the Apostles. This is the basis of St. Irenseus's argument, and it comes out as strongly in his disciple Tertullian. 1 When Mar- cion claimed the right to interpret Scripture inde- pendently of tradition, Tertullian at once recog- nised that such a licence was as fatal to any certainty in faith as the claim to erase from the Canon all such books and passages as did not suit his purpose. 2 The precious fragments of early writers embedded in the History of Eusebius bear the same witness to the authority of tradition. Thus the author of a work against Artemon calls it " the mind of the Church, the rule of the primitive faith," and Papias considered he would not gain so much from what he found in the books as from what came from living and enduring speech. 3 I need not multiply quotations, as it is satisfactory to find Canon Swainson in agreement with us as to the indepen- dent existence and authority of tradition in the 1 Praescr. Haer., especially cap. 25 ; so too Origen, " Ilia sola credenda est Veritas quae in nullo ab ecclesiastica et apostolica discordat traditione." De Princ. Praef. 2. 2 " Tantum veritati obstrepit adulter sensus, quantum et corruptor stilus. . . . Ergo non ad Scripturas provocandum est, in quibus aut nulla aut incerta victoria est, aut parum certa . ordo rerum desiderabat, illud prius proponi, quibus competat fides ipsa, cuius sint Scripturae, a quo et per quos et quando et quibus sit tradita disciplina qua fvunt Christiani, ubi enim apparuerit esse veritatem disciplinae et fidei Christianae, illic erit Veritas Scripturarum et expositionum et omnium traditionum Christianorum." Praescr. Haer. 17-19. 3 to €KK\r)<na<rTiKbj' (ppowfifia, mffrews apxaias ko.v&v (v. 28). Ou yap ra e/c rav j8tj8Aio>j/ rocrovrov fie axpeheiu inre\dfJil3auov, offov ra irapa (ctKTTjs (pwvrjs Kai /xevovo-rjs (iii. 39). THE APOSTLES' CREED AND RULE OF FAITH 121 primitive Church. We may take it for granted (though he does not appear to say so) that he considered the Apostles' Creed, like the Rule of Faith, to have been a part of the unwritten teach- ing of the Roman Church. But he goes on to affirm that as soon as any question arose which was not explicitly decided by the Rule of Faith the Fathers appealed to Scripture as the only test ; and consequently that the creeds of the era of the Councils were based upon Scripture alone. It is natural to ask when we find the first evidence in ecclesiastical history of such a change. The first distinct example of an appeal to Scripture only is at the rise of the Arian heresy, but with this remarkable charac- teristic, that it is the Arians and Eusebians who did this, their loudest and most plausible com- plaint being that the orthodox had introduced a word — " homoousion " — consubstantial — not found in the Bible. Those who had been the cause of the introduction of a term not to be found in Holy Writ [says Professor Lumby] 1 were, as might have been expected, loudest in their outcry against it, and for a century or more their language was constantly that of the Sirmian Synod, that all mention of substance should be omitted from a profession of faith, as it was an expression which none could understand, and was not to be found in the Scriptures. Fortunately, Canon Swainson has not contented himself with general assertions, he goes into par- ticulars, and, in many instances, quotes at length the passages on which he relies — a practice which, as he says, is convenient for those who wish to 1 Op. cit. p. 41. 122 STUDIES test his statements. The examination of a few of these will, I think, be sufficient and not unin- teresting. Thus, he tells us that the Council of Carthage, reported by St. Cyprian, 1 "appealed to Scripture as the one authority when tradition failed." There is, of course, a sense in which this proposition is perfectly true ; but, true or false, it is not what they said : " We should revert to the divine original, and to the evangelic and apos- tolic traditions." Again, the Council of Antioch based its condemna- tion of Paul of Samosata, according to our author, upon Scripture. But if their letter be read it will be found to begin by affirming, " the faith which they had received from the beginning .... as it has been kept in the Catholic Holy Church even unto this day, being proclaimed by continuous succession from those blessed apostles," after which exordium passages of Scripture are quoted. In the same way, the reader is told that Lucian the Martyr, and Alexander, the predecessor of St. Athanasius, based their arguments on Scripture ; the truth being that they respectively begin by saying, " We believe, as the Apostolic Church teaches," and " in accordance with the evangelic and apostolic tradition." St. Augustine, again, is said to have taught that the contents of the Creed are simply extracted from the sacred writings, but the passage quoted in support of this assertion explicitly says (Serm. 214) the contents of the Creed are to be found " in Sanctis scripturis et in ecclesiasticis sermonibus." Such habitual inaccuracy, to use no harder 1 Ep. lxxiv. 10. THE APOSTLES' CEEED AND EULE OF FAITH 123 word, will prepare the reader for still more sur- prising statements. The climax is probably reached in the following passage : " The treatises of Augus- tine on the Descent into Hell, and of Basil on the Holy Ghost, are the best examples of appeal to Scripture only in support of the doctrine of the Church, as is the principle of the Church of Eng- land." The reference to St. Augustine is soon disposed of. I suppose it to mean either Ep. 164 or 187, probably the former. Both of these are professedly only expositions of a difficult passage of Scripture, put forward as his personal opinion, and with no suggestion whatever that Scripture is the sole Rule of Faith. Any Catholic commentator on the Bible might, with equal reason, be claimed as an adherent of the Anglican doctrine. The reference to St. Basil is more instructive. What strange fatality led Dr. Swainson to cite this Father, and above all his book on the Holy Ghost, I cannot guess. This treatise has always been regarded by Catholics as one of the strongest Patristic testimonies to the authority of tradition ; and it is not too much to say that no Catholic writing at the present day could use clearer or more emphatic language on the subject. A few of the more decisive passages are all that I can give here. The faithful are distinctly told (in cap. ix.) that the Church's use and reception of words in Scripture is the true test of their mean- ing. With this the conduct of heretics is contrasted (cap. x.) who " are striving to shake the solidity of the Christian faith, by levelling to the ground and effacing the apostolic tradition. Wherefore, like bond- fide creditors forsooth, they call loudly for proofs from the Scriptures, dismissing the 124 STUDIES unwritten testimony of the Fathers as of no worth." Again — " Of the public and private doctrines of the Church, some are derived religiously from the written teaching, and others from the tradi- tion from the Apostles which has been delivered to us, but both have equal force unto godliness." l In order to ascertain the sense of crvv in the Bible, he appeals to tradition, saying (cap. xxix.), " I take it to be an Apostolic command to abide also by the unwritten traditions," quoting 1 Cor. xi. 3, and 2 Thess. ii. 14. Lastly, in reference to the particular point with which we are concerned — the origin of the Creed — St. Basil's language is not uncertain. He says : " Time would fail me to enumerate the unwritten mysteries of the Church. I leave the rest ; the very confession of the faith in Father, Son and Holy Ghost. From what Scriptures do we derive it ? " 2 This brief examination of Canon Swainson's statements is enough to show they cannot be trusted. He would have done better to take the advice of the Maurist editors of St. Basil, not to select the authority of the Church and tradition as his battlefield, since defeat is fatal, and every circumstance favours his opponent. 3 A learned German Protestant, who is encumbered with no theories, has lately given a much fairer apprecia- 1 Twv iv rfj 'EKKAycria 7re(pv\ayfx4ya}v $oy[x6.Toov na\ Kr]pvyfxdrwv, ra /xev 4k rrjs iyypd<pov SidafficaXias e%Ojuej/, to. 5e e« rrjs twv ' Atto(Tt6\u}u TrapaB6(Teoos SiaSoOevra yj/mv^ iv fxvffriqplcf TrapeSe^dfieOa • airep afi(p6repa ttjv avrrju laxvv e^et irpbs tt\v ev<re&4iav (cap. xxvii. 1). 2 €7riA.enJ/ei /xe r) Tj/nepa, ra &ypa<pa rrjs 'EKKXrjcrias ixvcnr)pia Styyovfxe- vov. 'Eco r&Wa ' avrrjv Se rrjv ofioXoyiav rr\s iriffrecos els Harepa /ecu 'tibv Kal ayiop Tlvevjxa, e/c iroi&v ypajXfA.drcavJixojJi.ev (cap. xxvii. 1). 3 Praef. sect. vi. 1. THE APOSTLES' CEEED AND RULE OF FAITH 125 tion of the facts as they come out in ecclesiastical history. Professor Harnack says 1 : — The revolution which is characterised by the isolation of Scripture, its separation from the authority of eccle- siastical tradition, and the destruction of the latter, first began in the sixteenth century In anti- quity, on the contrary, the bond between Scripture and the maternal organisation of the Church was in no way severed everything in the Church was held to be Apostolic, and the guidance of the Church by the Holy Ghost preserved this Apostolic element from any change. Harnack goes on, indeed, to point out some ambiguities which he considers due to the stress laid at the same time on the independent authority of Scripture, and remarks that there is a difference in this matter between different schools in the Church of the fourth and fifth centuries : — The Orientals, most of all the Antiochenes, but also Cyril of Jerusalem, held more exclusively to Scripture, the Alexandrines and Cappadocians adhered more decidedly to tradition. At any rate, the difference is very obvious on comparing Theodoret with Cyril of Alexandria. It is not possible to reply to this point without a much less superficial knowledge of the Fathers of that period than I possess. It is enough here to remark that the Antiochene school, as a whole, gave birth to the heresies of that time, which does not commend its method to those who believe the cause of orthodoxy was more consistently served by the Fathers of Alexandria and Cappa- docia. St. Cyril of Jerusalem must be taken separately. His well-known association with the 1 Dogmengeschichte, vol. ii., p. 84. 126 STUDIES semi-Arian party might have explained some uncertainty in dealing with our subject ; but I think it will be seen that, on the contrary, his language is remarkably clear and precise. The following sentences are from that one of his cate- chetical Sermons which immediately preceded his delivery of the symbol to the catechumens : — Receive and keep that Creed only which is now de- livered to thee by the Church, and is fortified 1 from all Scripture. For, since all cannot read the Scriptures, but some are hindered by ignorance, others by want of leisure, we receive the whole doctrine of the Faith in these few articles Now, hearing it word for word, remember the Creed, and at the proper time receive the confirmation (or comparison, trvtrrdurw) of each point it contains from the Divine writings. For the Creed was not drawn up as it pleased men, but the most needful points chosen out of all Scripture make up the one teach- ing of the Faith. 2 Two propositions come out very plainly from this account : (1) The whole contents of the Creed are to be found in Holy Writ ; and (2) the passages necessary to be believed are not left to individual selection, but are chosen and proposed as credenda by the Church. Dr. Swainson's attention has, perhaps not unnaturally, been attracted only to the former ; and much of his confusion is due to not recognising that both were taught by St. Cyril as well as by the Church before and after his day. A few examples will prove this. Origen lays down 1 No one would suspect Dean Church of the least conscious bias, but his rendering of u>xvpojM€vr) as " established," in the Oxford Library of the Fathers, conveys a stronger meaning than the original at any rate demands. 2 Catech., v. 12. THE APOSTLES' CREED AND RULE OF FAITH 127 that the Kerygma of the Church contains nothing which is not to be found in Scripture ; but he also asserts — " Ilia sola credenda est Veritas, quae in nullo ab ecclesiastica et apostolica discordat tra- ditione " (de Princ. Praef. 2). St. Augustine has written abundantly, as everyone knows, on the place of tradition and the authority of the Church ; yet he also says explicitly — " In eis, quae in Scrip- turis posita sunt, inveniuntur ilia omnia quae con- tinent fidem, moresque vivendi, spem scilicet atque caritatem " [de Doct. Christ, cix.) ; while he sums up both these elements, which together make up the Rule of Faith, by saying : " Consulat regulam fidei, quam ex Scripturarum planioribus locis et Ecclesiae auctoritate percepit " (de Doct. Christ, iii.). Marcellus of Ancyra — to take only one more example, — says in the apology to Pope Julius to which I have before referred, that he " both learned his Creed " (from the Church at his baptism. Cas- pari, iii. p. 30) " and was taught it from the Holy Scriptures." Canon Swainson expresses his satis- faction (apparently not unmixed with surprise) that St. Thomas considered the contents of the Creed were taken from the Scriptures, and not added to them. It would probably have seemed to him still more remarkable that such a zealous controversialist as Bellarmine should have held the same opinion, which is so general that the phrase compendium Scripturarum is an ordinary term for the Creeds. 1 It must be plain on con- sideration, even to any non-Catholic, that there is no contradiction between the two propositions which have been always held by the Church. On 1 Franzelin, de Trad, et Script, p. 228. 128 STUDIES the one hand she maintains that there is nothing in any of the creeds that she puts forth which is not to be found in Scripture, either equivalently as in the Apostles' Creed, or textually, as in the later symbols. On the other hand she asserts, with at least as much warrant from antiquity, that the choice of the subjects to be included in a profession of faith can be made by no human authority, but that she selects them, and teaches their true meaning by the ministers of her divine prerogative. This is the true issue between our- selves and all who are without the Church — whether the Spirit of God is still in the world, teaching us infallibly and bestowing upon us the gift of faith. We in the twentieth 1 century can but repeat the language of the second : — If the Apostles had not left the Scriptures to us, ought we not to follow the order of tradition, which they de- livered to those to whom they committed the churches ? This ordinance many barbarian races accept, who believe in Christ, having salvation written in their hearts by the Spirit, and diligently keeping the primitive tradition. . . . For where the Church is there too is the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of God there is the Church, and every grace ; now the Spirit is truth. 2 1 This was, of course, nineteenth as originally written. 2 St. Irenseus iii., 4, 1 ; 24, 1. 129 THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS. I. 1. Messe und Pascha. Von Prof. Dr. G. Bickell. Mainz. 1872. 2. Liturgie der drei ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte. Prof. Dr. F. Probst. Tubingen. 1870. 3. Liturgies Eastern and Western. By C. E. Hammond. M.A., Lecturer at Exeter College. Oxford : The Clarendon Press. 1878. 4. The Greek Liturgies, chiefly from Original Authorities. Edited by C. A. Swainson, D.D., Lady Margaret's Reader in Divinity, Cambridge. At the University Press, Cambridge. 1884. I endeavoured lately, in the Dublin Review, to give an account of the bearing of modern research on the early history of the Catholic Rule of Faith and of the Apostles' Creed. No subject could be more important, for it is the groundwork of our belief ; but I now venture to approach one incomparably more sacred. The chastisement of Oza is a terrible warning which must be ever in the minds of those who would touch the Ark of the Covenant, even to support it, with uncon- secrated hands ; while the origin of the Christian Liturgy is withdrawn from a rash and curious scrutiny, not merely by its own sanctity, but also by the obscurity in which it would seem to have been providentially veiled. Like that mysterious 9 130 STUDIES type of the Christian priesthood, whom the Church commemorates in the most solemn moment of the Mass, the Liturgy comes before us, as Mel- chisedec appears in Holy Writ, with no visible parentage nor beginning of days, so that these can only be traced by careful and laborious investi- gation. The chief work in this direction has, of course, been done by Catholic scholars in the past — Bona, Le Brun, Muratori, and Mabillon being only a few of the most eminent among liturgiolo- gists. The most important recent authors, too, are Catholics ; Bickell and Probst, whose names I have placed at the head of this article, are ad- mitted by all to be the chief authorities on the subject in our generation. Besides these, it is a special pleasure to welcome so many Anglican High Churchmen as fellow-labourers with us in this field. I shall have occasion to point out details in which they seem to me mistaken, for I think the exigencies of their position have led them to strain the documentary evidence for a primitive Liturgy beyond what it will bear. I therefore all the more gladly acknowledge their zeal and industry, and the valuable additions they have made to our knowledge of the Liturgy. These have been insufficiently known to Catholics, and one of my principal objects is to direct attention to their labours. The earliest and most important of these works is probably Sir W. Palmer's Origines Liturgicae ; next to it we may reckon Archdeacon Freeman's Principles of Divine Service and Scuda- more's Notitia Eucharistica, though both these latter suffer from the disadvantage of attempting to show the primitive character of the Anglican service. A like drawback diminishes the value of THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 131 Dr. Neale's liturgical writings ; he entertained too strong an opinion of the antiquity of the extant Greek Liturgies, and overlooked facts which were adverse to his theory. Perhaps the most valuable work done by Angli- cans has been the preparation of texts in a form convenient for study. Dr. Neale's editions of the Eastern Liturgies, in Greek and in English, are well known. Mr. Hammond has laid all students of liturgiology under even greater obligations by his handy and inexpensive volume which has been published by the Clarendon Press, and which con- tains all the offices which had to be sought before in many rare and costly works. The first critical edition of the Eastern Liturgies comes to us from the sister university of Cambridge, which has published Dr. Swainson's careful reconstruction of the text of the Oriental Liturgies, based upon a complete collation of all the Greek MSS. known to exist. The field thus opened and rendered accessible to every student is far too extensive for these pages, and for the patience of the general reader, even if I possessed the learning and the leisure needed for treating it properly. I purpose merely to point out the main conclusions to which the study of the Liturgy has led, and the directions which further inquiry must take. It will be seen from what I shall say that fresh discoveries, and those of a very interesting character, will probably reward the investigator who starts with a know- ledge of the present state of liturgiology. For instance, it is almost certain that a minute examina- tion of the early Fathers would yield many more liturgical allusions than even Probst's careful 132 STUDIES search disclosed. Again, recent discoveries have introduced a fresh series of liturgical problems. Thus the newly recovered portions of St. Clement of Rome's letter seem to bear such testimony to the primitive existence of the liturgy of St. Mark, and also that of the Church of Rome, as to call for a fresh examination of the great Alexandrian writers. In a less degree the Didache raises some fresh questions, several of which I have already noticed in these pages. It is obvious that any inquiry into the early history of the Holy Sacrifice must start from its original institution at the Last Supper. I believe the only important attempt which has been made to show the connection between the two is due to Professor Bickell, the learned Catholic Orientalist of Innsbruck. It is contained in the pamphlet I have referred to in the heading of this article, and has been further developed in several papers in a German Catholic periodical (Zeitschrift flir kath. Theol., 1880). His suggestions have been received with marked interest and assent by Anglicans, such as Mr. Hammond and Mr. Field, the learned author of The Apostolical Liturgy and the Epistle to the Hebrews ; but, so far as I know, they have attracted no notice from Catholics in this country. It is particularly unfortunate that Dr. Edersheim, the only Englishman perhaps who was qualified to express an independent opinion on Bickell' s work, should have only mentioned it in a manner which shows he cannot have read it. 1 Professor Bickell begins by dividing the Mass into two naturally distinct parts — the Anaphora, 1 The Life and Times of the Messiah, vol. ii., p. 510. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 133 or sacrificial office proper, and the pro-anaphoral or preparatory service. This division is not quite the same as that between the " Missa Catechu- menorum " and " Missa Fidelium," which was due to the discipline of the Early Church : since the Ana- phora begins with the Preface, while the " Missa Fidelium " commences at the Offertory. He derives the earlier part of the Liturgy from the Sabbath- morning service of the Synagogue ; and the Ana- phora from the Paschal ritual of the Jewish Church. Beginning with the latter, I omit designedly all the perplexing questions that may be raised as to our Lord's having eaten the Passover at the Last Supper ; for, whether it was or was not the legal Pasch, our Lord Himself spoke of it as " this Passover," and it must therefore have been closely connected with the Paschal service. I must give Bickell's account of this at some length, which I the less regret, as I believe there is no such descrip- tion of it accessible to English readers. He gives first his reasons for asserting that the Paschal ritual, as given in the Talmud, represents faith- fully that followed in our Lord's day, excepting a few points which can be readily discerned. The chief external argument on which he relies is, that the schools of Shammai and Hillel had already begun to dispute about details in the second cen- tury ; while the very complexity of the ritual in the Mishna is an internal evidence of its anti- quity. It is to be remembered that the Paschal lamb was a true sacrifice ; it was slain in the Temple, its blood was sprinkled by the priest on the altar, and part was burned there. As these conditions could not be fulfilled after the destruc- tion of the Temple, an essential change was made 134 STUDIES in the ceremony, which I shall mention as I pro- ceed. The meal began by each guest filling his cup with wine, which, in the case of this as of all the following cups, was mixed with water. A prayer named the " Kiddush " was then recited : this thanks God for the institution of all holy seasons, particularly of the Passover ; also for having preserved those present until that hour. The cup was then drunk, and hands were washed for the first time. Before the destruction of the Temple, the Paschal viands were next brought in ; now they are on the table from the beginning. In place of the Paschal lamb a third unleavened bread is now taken, besides the two previously used ; this is broken in half, and one of the halves is reserved, being therefore called the " Afikoman," to be eaten at the end of the repast instead of the lamb. Dr. Edersheim suggests that our Lord anticipated what was to be the rule after the destruction of the Temple ; and that the " Afiko- man " was the bread which he consecrated. We should expect some mention of this departure from the established order of the Passover in the Gospels if this had been done by our Lord ; instead of which the absence of an article before the word aprov in St. Mark, and probably also in St. Matthew, implies that no special bread was used for the Holy Eucharist. However this may be, I cannot forbear pointing out how significant it is that the Jews should have chosen bread as the symbol to take the place of the Paschal lamb. One would be glad to know whether this was a rule introduced during the Babylonian Captivity ; but I am not aware of any information on the subject. THE EAELY HISTORY OF THE MASS 135 After several ceremonies of minor importance, the table was removed, and the second cup was mixed. The youngest person present then asked : " Why is this night different from all other nights ? " The master of the house answered by reciting Deut. vi. 21 : " We were bondmen of Pharao in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out with a strong hand." From this as a text, he proceeded to describe the history of the Jewish people, from the call of Abraham to the delivery from bondage, dwelling in detail on the plagues of Egypt, and the blessings conferred on the people of God. This commemora- tion, called the " Haggada," was considered to be commanded in several passages of the law j 1 there can therefore be little doubt that it was observed by our Lord. The table was then set back in its place, and the symbolical meaning of the viands explained. The cup was elevated, while a short thanksgiving was said, after which the first part of the " Hallel " was sung, 2 and the cup was drunk. The master of the house then washed his hands again, took one of the unleavened breads, broke it (a rite which seems to have been peculiar to the Paschal supper), placed it under the whole one, elevated both, pronounced the ordinary bless- ing said over bread at meals, ate a portion of both 1 Exod. xii. 26, xiii. 6 ; Deut. vi. 20. It may seem remark- able that there is no direct mention of this touching ceremony in the New Testament accounts of the Last Supper. Indirectly, however, it is twice referred to in St. Paul's narrative of the commemorative Sacrifice of the New Law. The emphatic phrase, ds r-fjv e>7?j/ avdfj.vr)<riv — "for my memorial" — points to a memorial which was not of Christ ; and KaTayyeXere is the literal translation of the Hebrew word " Haggada." 1 Ps. cxii.-cxiii. 8, Laudate pueri and In exitu to Non nobis. I use throughout the Septuagint- Vulgate arrangement. 136 STUDIES the whole and the broken bread, and passed them to the guests. The bitter herbs, " Chagigah," and Paschal lamb were then eaten, followed by the usual supper, the last food partaken of being a portion of the lamb, in place of which the reserved bread is now eaten. The hands were now washed again, and the third cup was mixed ; over it was said the grace after meals, containing two thanksgivings for food and all other benefits. After grace this cup was drunk. The fourth cup was mixed, and the second part of the " Hallel " (Ps. cxiii. 9 to cxvii., Non nobis to Confitemini Domino) recited : probably followed by a benediction. Then was said what is called the " Great Hallel " (Ps. cxxxv., Confitemini Domino), followed by a long hymn of praise and thanksgiving ; the blessing over the wine was said, and the fourth cup was drunk. Grace was not said after this cup, as it was not considered part of the meal, but a benediction was pronounced, in which God was thanked for the fruit of the vine and the gift of the promised land. A fifth cup is spoken of by some later authors, but not by the Talmud. This very brief sketch of the Paschal ritual will enable us to appreciate Dr. BickelPs view as to the relation between it and the Mass. The principal question is : when was the Holy Eucharist consecrated, whether during or after the meal, and if the former, at what point in the repast ? The general opinion of the older Catholic com- mentators has been that the Host was consecrated during the supper, and the Chalice after ; St. Thomas, for instance, gives a mystical reason for THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 137 this separation between the two consecrations. 1 This supposition was based on the words, " as they were eating " (iaBiovrcov avrcov) in St. Matthew's and St. Mark's accounts. This note of time is, however, not sufficient for us to rely on, as is plain from its being also used for the prophecy of the betrayal, which St. Luke puts later. St. Luke and St. Paul have no note of time for the consecration of the Host, but they fix that of the Chalice after supper ; and, as Father Coleridge argues, it is hardly conceivable that the two consecrations should have been separated. It is therefore much more probable that the Host was also consecrated after the supper, as indeed the highest patristic authority asserts. 2 The lan- guage of St. Luke and St. Paul might apply either to the third or fourth cup taken at the Paschal ceremony ; though strictly speaking the former formed part of the supper. The general tendency has been to connect it with the third cup ; Schegg and Haneberg, for instance, among Catholics, and Edersheim among non-Catholics, expressly saying so. The only ground for this is, that the Rabbis called this cup " the cup of blessing," the phrase used by St. Paul for the Chalice. The expression, however, seems merely to have meant the cup taken at the grace after meals, was used for any cup that was drunk with thanksgiving, and was 1 Christus corpus suum tradidit inter coenam, sed sanguinem suum dedit expresse post coenam. Cujus ratio est, quia corpus Christi repraesentat mysterium incarnationis, quae facta est legali- bus observantiis adhuc statum habentibus ; sed sanguis in Sacra- mento directe repraesentat passionem, per quam est effusus, et per quam sunt terminata omnia legaHar (1 Cor. xi. lect. 6.) 2 St. Jerome, lib. iv. in Matih. cap. 26. 138 STUDIES even employed metaphorically : l so that no argu- ment can be based upon it. Bickell, on the con- trary, urges that the third cup was part of the supper, and, indeed, was common to all ordinary meals, while the fourth was peculiar to the Passover. It was therefore more likely to have been employed by our Lord, and it conforms more closely to the words " after supper " in St. Luke and St. Paul. Dr. BickelPs explanation of the order of the insti- tution starts from this. He points out that at the ordinary Paschal meal each guest drank from his own cup, and that on filling the fourth cup our Lord must have said, " Drink ye all of this," and " Take this and divide it among yourselves," as a necessary preparation for passing round the cup He was about to consecrate. On looking back to the account given above of the Paschal ritual, it will be seen that part of the " Hallel " was recited after the fourth cup was rilled. Bickell supposes that the Preface of the Mass is the slightly modified form of the last Psalm (cxvii.) of this series. The resemblance is seen to be greater when we learn from the Talmudic commentaries on the Psalm the manner in which it was recited. In each of the first four verses the first half was said by the celebrant, the second half by the assistants. These correspond to the versicles and responses which precede the Preface ; the body of which answers in turn to the next twenty verses, which were said alternately. The twenty-fifth and twenty- sixth verses were again broken up like the first four ; it will be remarked that they contain the " Hosanna " and " Benedictus," in which the con- gregation join after the Preface. The remaining 1 Ps. cxvi. 3 ; Smith's Bible Dictionary, s.v. Passover. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 139 verses were recited alternately, like the central portion. After a short prayer, this was followed by the " Great Hallel " (Ps. cxxxv.), the first half of each verse being recited by the celebrant, and the burden, " for His mercy endureth for ever," repeated by the assistants. This corresponds to the commemoration of the work of redemption which follows the Preface in the Clementine and other ancient Liturgies, the redemption taking the place of the delivery from Egypt. On arriving at verse twenty-five ("Who giveth food to all flesh"), Bickell suggests that our Lord stopped, consecrated the Host and Chalice, broke the former first into halves, then into portions for distribution, and passed round the Chalice. The Babylonian Gemara, a very early authority, states that Psalm xxiii. (Dominus regit me) was sung after the " Great Hallel." Its appropriate- ness after Communion makes it probable that this was the hymn mentioned by the first two Evangelists as sung by our Lord and the Apostles before they went out to the Mount of Olives. We will now go back to the earlier part of the Mass, which, as I have said, Bickell derives from the Sabbath-morning service of the Synagogue. This part of the Mass has, for reasons which will by and by appear, undergone more change than the Canon. The general reader will, however, obtain a sufficiently accurate notion of the primi- tive form of this part of the Roman Liturgy for purposes of comparison, from the Good Friday Mass of the Pre-sanctified, as far as the Adoration of the Cross. 1 The Sabbath-morning service con- 1 This earliest form of the Roman Mass is really closer to the Synagogal service than the Oriental Liturgies that Bickell 140 STUDIES sis ted of four parts, of which we have only to consider the last and most important. It began with a varying lesson from the Pentateuch, followed by another from the Prophets. The Christian Church inserted a psalm after each lesson, and some portion of our Lord's life, at first orally, then by a reading from the Gospels ; the sermon followed in the Jewish as in the Christian service. * After the sermon came a series of prayers termed the " Shacharith. " These corresponded very closely with the intercessory prayers that follow the Gospel on Good Friday. The several petitions were " bidden " in the Synagogue by a precentor, as in the Christian Church by a deacon. The Shacharith began with prayer for the whole Jewish people, for their rulers, and for the Rabbis ; then went on to intercede for the congregation and its members, for those who had built syna- gogues or brought gifts for religious purposes ; then for the sick ; and for the Sovereign. Lastly, there was a commemoration of the martyrs and a prayer for the dead. This was followed by part of the prayer called the " Shemoneh Esreh," or Eighteen Benedictions, of which only the first three and the last two were used on Sabbaths. The parallelism between the contents of the Shacharith and the Good Friday intercessory prayers will be obvious. A still more distinct chooses for comparison, though there are points of difference winch I shall note as I proceed. 1 There is an interesting description of this part of the Jewish service in Acts xiii. 14, 15. St. Paul and his companions had sat down in the Synagogue on a Sabbath, and, " after the read- ing of the Law and the Prophets," the rulers sent to ask them to address the congregation. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 141 connection can be established between one of them and the Sabbath portion of the " Shemoneh Esreh," which has been shown independently of Dr. Bickell, and seems to me a crucial test of the correctness of his theory. Since he wrote, the liturgical passage in St. Clement of Rome's letter has been recovered, and Dr. Lightfoot 1 at once pointed out its connection with this Jewish prayer on the one hand and with the petitions in the Liturgy of St. Mark on the other. I shall here- after show that these portions of the Alexandrian Liturgy are the Good Friday prayers to which I have been referring, and that there is good reason for believing they were used by the Church of Rome at least as early as Tertullian. 2 After the third benediction of the " Shemoneh Esreh " was inserted a prayer named the " Ke- dusha," which is strikingly like the conclusion of the Preface and the Sanctus. The precentor said, " May we hallow Thy Name on earth as it is hallowed in heaven ; as it hath been written by Thy prophets, the one cried out to the other and said." The congregation responded, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of His majesty." It will be remarked that this does not correspond in place to the Preface, which we have connected above with Psalm cxvii. ; but its present position in the Jewish service is also incongruous, occurring as it does in the middle of the Benedictions. It is therefore not unreason- 1 St. Clement of Rome. Appendix, p. 461. 2 The prayer which corresponds to the " Shemoneh Esreh" is that for all necessities (" cunctis mundum purget erroribns"), and what would be otherwise anomalous in its occurrence here is fully accounted for by its origin. 142 STUDIES able to suppose it originally came later in the Sabbath-morning office. Before the last petition of the " Shemoneh Esreh," if a priest was present he pronounced the Aaronic benediction with up- lifted and outstretched hands over the congrega- tion. The Christian priesthood on succeeding to the Jewish used originally the same form here, as we find in the earliest account extant, 1 which puts the Aaronic benediction at this point of the Liturgy. It was soon replaced in the East by 2 Cor. xiii. 13, or an equivalent form, while in the Roman and Alexandrian Masses the sacerdotal blessing is put after the Communion. The last prayer of the " Shemoneh Esreh " is a petition for peace ; and in all liturgies except the Roman the celebrant's benediction is followed by the prayer for peace and the " Pax." I have now brought down the comparison between the Jewish and Christian services as far as the Anaphora, from which it will be remembered I started, to compare this latter part of the Mass with the Paschal Liturgy. My account of Dr. Bickell's attempt to trace the origin of the Mass in the services of the Jewish Church has been necessarily so abridged as to be inadequate. I can only hope that any one who looks upon it sceptically, as I did at first, will follow the details in the author's own writings, where the evidence will be found much more convincingly stated than I have been able to do within my limits. It may appear antecedently very improbable that the Mass should have been derived from two separate Jewish offices. But it is to be borne in mind, that the 1 Constit. Apost., ii. 57. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 143 distinction between the two parts of the Liturgy, still discernible enough, particularly in a Pontifical Mass, was much more marked in early ages. There is even reason to believe that in Egypt the introductory part was used on certain days as a separate service. The theory does not account for the " Sursum Corda," which is found in every Liturgy, and which we must therefore suppose to be primitive ; and several passages, such as the " Sanctus," need transposition ; but with these exceptions it seems to fulfil all that can be looked for in an hypothesis which is to connect the Mass with the ritual used in the time of our Lord. As far as I know only one other sugges- tion has been made on this subject. Archdeacon Freeman supposed that the Last Supper was not a Paschal meal, but one on the previous evening ; and he derived the whole Liturgy from the syna- gogal Sabbath-eve service, which is said on Friday evening after the office for the day is finished, combined with a domestic rite the same evening, which commemorates the Passover at the ordinary meal. The resemblance is, however, more remote, and the whole is based, not on the Talmud and other- ancient authorities, but upon a modern Jewish prayer-book, in which prayers originally public may have been diverted to private use. I now turn to another branch of my subject, to inquire what traces of a liturgical service are to be found in the New Testament. It is hardly fanciful to suppose that, in the first mention of the meetings of Christians for prayer after the day of Pentecost, we have a distinct enumeration of the several parts of the Liturgy. In Acts ii. 42, we are told that they were persevering " in 144 STUDIES the teaching of the Apostles, and the communion ; in the breaking of the bread and the prayers." This, which appears to be the connection of the words in the best-established texts, separates the service into two parts, the preparatory service, consisting of the Apostolic teaching and the Agape (for so apparently we must understand rfj Koivwvia) ; and the breaking of the Eucharistic bread with its attendant prayers. It is to be remarked also that the articles 1 imply a series of acts which St. Luke knew would be recognised by his readers. Probably the Mass was said daily, though the " day by day " of verse 46 may possibly refer to the attendance in the Temple only, and not to " the breaking bread at home." In the phrase " praising God " of verse 47, we have the first indication of the Eucharistic character of the rite. It would be too great a digression to consider the gradual omission of the Agape, which lingered in the African Church as late as St. Augustine's day on Maundy Thursday. It will be interesting to us to remark that the last instance of its per- mission is in England, where St. Gregory (Epistolae ii. 76) allowed it on the feast of the dedication of a church. That the oral teaching of the Apostles was soon replaced by the reading of their Epistles, is clear from St. Paul's directions less than twenty years later (1 Thess. v. 27 ; Col. iv. 16). We also find him enjoining public reading as one of the chief duties of a bishop ; the Apocalypse is professedly 1 %<rav Trpoo-Kaprepovi/res rrj 8i8axp tG>v aTroarrSAcov, /cot ri) noivoovia ; 7 7} KAdVei rov ftprov nal rats irpoaevx^s. THE EAELY HISTOKT OF THE MASS 145 intended for public reading, and at the end a blessing is invoked on the reader and the hearers of the prophecy. As Christians usually — if not always — assembled to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, we must suppose, with Bona, that such readings formed part of the service. We are confirmed in this belief by the benedictions, which occur so frequently in the Epistles. These are Eucharistic in character, and, as Freeman points out, are often preceded by two other liturgical formulae — the words of peace, and the kiss of peace — always in the order in which they occur in the Liturgies. Probst points out that most probably the out- pourings of the Charismata of tongues and pro- phecy took the place, upon occasion, of the lessons from the Old Testament and the Apostolic letters. If this be so we may gather some interesting details concerning the first part of the Mass from the rules laid down by St. Paul for the Charismata (1 Cor. xiv.). Unbelievers were allowed to be present (v. 16), the congregation sat during this part of the service (v. 30), there were only two or three lessons (vv. 27, 29). In like manner we get glimpses from the Epistles of other parts of the Liturgy. The Eucharistic prayer seems to be referred to, with the people's response, when St. Paul says, " through Him is the Amen unto the Glory of God through us " (2 Cor. i. 20). He orders intercessory prayer for rulers and all in authority, and on the other occa- sions commends himself to the prayers of the faithful. The men of the congregation were to pray with outstretched hands (1 Tim. ii. 8), as is still directed by the deacon at the consecration in the Liturgy of St. Mark ; they were to have 10 146 STUDIES their heads uncovered, while women were to be veiled (1 Cor. xi.). The kiss of peace is described in the earliest Epistle (1 Thess. v. 25, 26), and placed after the prayer, this being its liturgical position in the time of St. Justin. For an account of the external ceremonial of the Mass we must turn to the Apocalypse. The description of heaven in the fourth chapter of that book corresponds in so many points with the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, that we cannot suppose the resemblance to be accidental. The faithful, at any rate, of a hundred years later, when they heard this passage read in church, would recognise all the chief features of the Mass at which they were going to assist. The bishop, seated on his throne at the end of the church, in the midst of his twenty-four white-robed pres- byters ; the lamps burning before the divine presence ; the chant of the Sanctum begun by the mysterious living creatures, and taken up by the elders ; the Eucharistic praises for the blessings of creation and redemption, were all common to the figure before them, and the reality beyond their sight. If any doubt had remained in their minds, the descent into their midst of the central figure, the Lamb, " standing as it were slain," showed that the type and the antitype were identical. It is, indeed, certain that much of the ritual was moulded on this description ; but unless the ceremonies described already existed in the Christian service, their significance would have been lost upon the disciples of St. John. One other point has to be considered, under the head of the relation of the liturgy to the New Testament. There are a certain number of passages THE EAELY HISTORY OF THE MASS 147 which are verbally the same in the Epistles and in the Liturgies. Dr. J. M. Neale argued, with much learning, that in all such cases the latter are the source from which St. Paul is quoting ; and he has been followed in this opinion by Mr. Moultrie and other Anglican writers. It is, of course, not antecedently impossible ; for it is well known that in several places St. Paul quotes hymns and prayers, so that if a Liturgy had been already drawn up in a fixed shape we should expect to find such traces of it. The direct evidence in favour of this view is, however, exceedingly scanty, and quite inadequate to overcome the improba- bility, that a fixed Liturgy should have existed before the Pauline Epistles were written. Dr. Neale relies mainly on the quotation in 1 Cor. ii. 9 ; a passage, any way, of acknowledged difficulty. In the Epistle the quotation begins with a rela- tive, a, which has no grammatical antecedent ; whereas in the Liturgy of St. James it occurs in the prayer of the Great Oblation, regularly connected with the immediately preceding word, ScDprjfjLara. This is practically the only ground for supposing that the Apostle is quoting the Liturgy, for the other arguments adduced are answers to objections either made or anticipated. To most critics the very smoothness of connec- tion, as the passage stands in the Liturgy, would be a reason for thinking it the later form, on the well-known principle, "ardua lectio praestat faciliori" Beyond this, however, it is so abun- dantly clear that the Greek Liturgies as we have them now have undergone considerable and repeated alterations, that a verbal point of this 148 STUDIES kind is of no value. 1 Probst has already pointed out that this quotation is used by several of the Eastern Liturgies, in different parts of the service, as referring to the Blessed Sacrament ; just as St. Justin took Isaias xxxiii. 13-19, to refer to our Lord's presence in the Holy Eucharist. 2 Mr. Field has enlarged the scope of Dr. Neale's argu- ment, and presented it in a form with which we shall be in less disagreement. While rejecting what he very justly calls Dr. Neale's " most unfor- tunate corollary," that in parallel passages St. Paul quotes the Liturgy, and not vice versa, he urges that the Epistles and the Apostolic Liturgy must have been written under the influence of the same ideas, and by persons familiar with the same language, derived from Old Testament and current Jewish literature. As a principle, this will be easily admitted ; but there is much in Mr. Field's application of it which I cannot accept. For instance, the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews is closely parallel to the Prayer of the Veil in the Liturgy of St. James ; but it by no means follows that the latter is the original 1 The following is a striking example of what I mean. Dr. Neale relied upon the 7jfuy in the sentence, " us His Apostles and disciples," just before the words of institution, to prove the antiquity of the Liturgy of St. James. Dr. Swainson has, however, shown conclusively that this word is a sixteenth century interpolation. 2 " It is clear that he is speaking in this prophecy of the bread which our Christ directed us to consecrate .... and of the cup which He directed us to consecrate with giving of thanks And that we shall see this very king in glory the same prophecy shows " (Dialogues c. 70). Origen's application of Matth. xi. 25, to the Blessed Sacrament is an even closer parallel. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 149 which the Apostle was imitating : the converse is far more probable. The only positive evidence in the New Testa- ment — St. Paul's language to the Corinthians (1 Cor. xi. 23, 34) — points away from any hypo- thesis of a fixed written Liturgy at that time, and implies that both the general principles of the Holy Sacrifice and the details of its celebration were communicated orally by the Apostles to the communities they founded, and supplemented as need arose. The same conclusion follows irre- sistibly from the local differences in detail, which we find at a very early period ; for instance, between the Church of Alexandria and the other Orientals. The general framework was everywhere the same, and many of the details were identical. But there was sufficient variation in lesser points to make it incredible that the Apostles should have delivered to their disciples a Liturgy complete in all par- ticulars and unalterable. It is, on the contrary, the fact that the Eucharistic service, both in the East and the West, underwent many more changes in the first few centuries than have been made since. The same Spirit which inspired the Apostles has never ceased to suggest to their successors the fittest means of honouring the Holy Sacrifice ; so that every period has left its trace in the great central act of worship — the Mass. We, the for- tunate heirs of all the ages, worship in a temple of which the foundations were laid under the older covenant, and which has been enriched by the piety and loving care of each succeeding genera- tion. I shall endeavour to show, in a subsequent paper, how these changes produced the Mass as we now have it. 150 THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS. * II. I have already endeavoured to give an account of the manner in which the Liturgy was probably derived from the Jewish services. I was anxious to state Professor BickelPs view with a fulness which may have seemed unnecessary, because, so far as I know, he has been the first among Catholics to suggest a definite hypothesis whereby the frame- work of the Mass could be connected with sources anterior to Christianity. There has always been a tradition in the Church, as SS. Jerome and Gregory Nazianzen, 1 for instance, bear witness, that the Christian Church derived its services from the Synagogue. But the great liturgiologists of former times were deterred from further inquiry by a belief which I must consider before I can proceed further. They held that in the earliest ages of the Church there was no definite Liturgy beyond the words of Institution and the Lord's Prayer, which, they thought, were alone used whenever stress of persecution or other circumstances made it expedient to shorten the Mass as much as possible. It is only due to the authority of these illustrious scholars that this opinion should be carefully 1 S. Hieron. Ep. ad Evag. 85 ; S. Greg. Naz. Horn, in Pentec. THE EABLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 151 examined. It was based, so far as I can see, solely upon the supposed authority of St. Gregory the Great. In a passage which has been much dis- puted he has been generally thought to say that the Apostles were wont to use the Lord's Prayer only at the offering of the sacrifice. 1 It is, however, equally possible grammatically, as Probst points out, to connect " oblaiionis " with " orationem" taking the two words together as equivalent to our " Canon," and in opposition to the " oratio dominica." As St. Gregory's object was to direct " orationem dominicam mox post canonem did" this construction would be much more consistent, and removes all difficulty. If St. Gregory's language admitted of no such simple interpretation, we should be driven, with Le Brun, respectfully to put aside his authority for this historical statement, for it is hardly possible he should have been unaware that several of his predecessors had explicitly affirmed the Apostolic origin of parts of the Liturgy. The same conclu- sion follows as certainly from all that we know of early liturgical history. I have already remarked upon St. Paul's language to the Corinthians, as showing that he delivered to his disciples, not merely the formula of consecration, but also such liturgical details as he thought needful ; and a hundred years later- St. Justin states that the 1 " Orationem vero dominicam idcirco mox post precem dicimus, quia mo8 apostolorum fuit, ut ad ipsam solummodo orationem oblationis hostiam consecrarent ; et valde mihi inconveniens visum est, ut precem, quam scholasticus composuerat, super obla- tionem diceremus, et ipsam traditionem, quam redemptor noster composuit, super eius corpus et sanguinem taceremus. Sed et dominica oratio apud Oraecos ab omni populo dicitur, apud nos vero a solo sacerdote^ — Ep. ad Joan. Syr. 1, 9 ; Ep. 12. 152 STUDIES Liturgy had been handed down to the faithful of his own time from the Apostles. 1 Again, the agreement of all Liturgies, not merely in their general character, but also in many details, must point to a common origin, which can hardly be other than the Apostles themselves. 2 Finally, the recovery of the lost passages of St. Clement's Epistle has revealed so much that is even verbally identical with the Alexandrian Liturgy as to lead to the belief that the Pontiff was quoting the text of the Mass. Even such a cautious scholar as Dr. Lightfoot was satisfied that in St. Clement's time — the end of the first century — there must have been already not only a definite framework, but more or less uniformity in the substance and very language of the Liturgical petitions. We may, then, safely assume that the main substance of the Liturgy was delivered, and delivered orally, by the Apostles to their disciples ; the next question will naturally be : if there is any evidence, how long it continued unwritten. Le Brun supposed that it was handed down by word of mouth alone until the fifth century ; but the passages on which he based this opinion — and Dr. Lightfoot could not add to their number — are all susceptible of different interpretations. St. Justin speaks of the bishop as pronouncing 1 " We Christians have learned the divine worship through the Apostles of Jesus, from the law and the word which have gone forth from Jerusalem." — Dial. cap. 110. See, too, Tertullian, de Corona Militis, 3 and 4. 2 Such details are : the Lessons and the Gospel ; the " Sursum Corda" the Preface, the Consecration ; the "Unde et memores"; the Intercession for the Living and the Dead ; the Lord's Prayer ; and the Fraction. THE EAELY HISTORY OF THE MASS 153 the Liturgical prayers oarj Svvajm avrco, a phrase which may refer merely to fervency of supplica- tion, and occurs also in a written Liturgy. Ter- tullian, when he said u ut quisque de Scripturis Sanctis, vel de proprio ingenio, provocatur in medium canere," was evidently not speaking of the celebrant, and apparently not of the strictly liturgical part of the service ; and St. Basil points out that the Liturgy has its warrant in tradition, as distinguished from Scripture. 1 On the con- trary, Celsus stated that he had seen the " bar- barous books " of the Christian priests " with daemonic names and portentous expressions " ; and Origen's reply seems to show that this must refer to liturgical books, and not merely to the diptychs, as has been supposed. 2 However this may be, it is clear that definite liturgical formulae must have existed in the second century. Much of the evidence for this will appear from what I shall have to say hereafter, so that I will here only mention two points which will not recur. The irofjurai /cat v^ivot of St. Justin, the irpoo-ra'xPeicraL evyai* of Origen, can only be sup- posed to mean set forms ; and this is completely proved by finding the closest identity, not merely in substance, but even in expression, between the Liturgies and the liturgical allusions in these and 1 To these passages might now be added the permission in the Didache (xi. 7) for the prophets to " give thanks as much as they would " — evxapio-rw oaa 64\ou<riv. This obscure phrase seems to me to refer to the outpourings of the Charismata, which I have before remarked probably took the place of the Lessons in the primitive Church upon occasion. But the concession of such a liberty shows that there was even then a liturgical order binding on the faithful. 2 Contra Celsum, vi. 40. 154 STUDIES others of the early Fathers. Again, St. Irenseus and Tertullian could not have blamed the Gnostics for corrupting the Liturgy if a text did not already exist. At the same time, it is not to be thought that the Liturgy was looked upon as fixed and unchange- able. A large amount of discretion in modifying details was clearly in the hands of every bishop, and was exercised — to mention no less illustrious names — by such great Pontiffs as St. Leo and St. Gregory in Rome, and St. Basil and St. Cyril of Alexandria in the East. The circumstances of the early Church, differing much in various places, are a sufficient explanation of this liberty, which probably existed from the beginning, since the very earliest testimonies we have to the Liturgies imply that there were already local differences. Thus the account in St. Justin corresponds most closely to the Clementine Liturgy ; the charac- teristic features of the Roman Mass may be recog- nised in Tertullian ; and Probst has shown that some of the chief peculiarities of the Alexandrine rite are to be found in Clement and Origen. Sir W. Palmer has very justly remarked that this twofold aspect of the Liturgy — identity of general characters and divergence in details — is the strongest proof of its Apostolic antiquity. " The uniformity between these Liturgies, as extant in the fourth or fifth century, is such as bespeaks a common origin. Their diversity is such as to prove the remoteness of the period at which they were originated." 1 The local conditions that produced particular 1 Orig. Liturg., vol. i, p. 80. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 155 liturgical developments cannot, however, now be estimated. Fortunately, we are able to form a better judgment of those much more important general influences which have moulded the Litur- gies into their present shapes ; and some account of these is necessary to any understanding of our subject. 1. The disciplines arcani. The early Church, as is well known, kept from the heathen, as far as possible, the knowledge of those mysteries of the Faith which were likely to be misunderstood ; and only imparted them even to inquirers who were fitted for their reception by the intellectual and moral training of the catechumenate. This reserve applied more urgently to the Holy Eucharist than to any other part of Christian belief or prac- tice. Around it had gathered the most senseless and revolting heathen accusations, of hidden orgies and Thyestean banquets ; and it is wonderful to note how the Christians hardly ever attempted more than a simple denial of the atrocities with which they were charged. Nothing can account for their silence, save the knowledge that the miracle wrought on Christian altars would have been unintelligible to the Pagan mind, and would have been received with blasphemous incredulity. Even when St. Justin broke through the rule, we can see that his account of the Holy Sacrifice, though intelligible to us, can have given his non- Christian readers no information as to the essential character of that mystery. Archdeacon Freeman, then, is quite right in assuming that the discipline/, arcani must have played an important part in shaping the Liturgy. But the instances he sug- gests are conjectural, for there is no evidence that 156 STUDIES the entrance of the elements or the Lord's Prayer have been moved from the beginning of the ser- vice to their present positions. But in one respect the law of reserve, and the catechumenal discipline which was connected with it, have left a deeper mark upon the Mass than any other ecclesiastical conditions. I mean, of course, the dismissal of the catechumens after the sermon and before the sacrificial part of the service began ; whence the division of every ancient Liturgy into the " Missa Catechumenorum " and " Missa Fidelium." 2. The penitential discipline of the early Church had the same effect. As is well known, those who were sentenced to public penance had to leave the church after the catechumens and before the " Missa Fidelium," with the exception of the ^vo-TcLvTes, or " Consistentes," who were allowed to assist at the whole of Mass, though not admitted to communion. One Liturgy still in use — that of St. Chrysostom — retains the form of dismissal of the catechumens ; and we learn from St. Gregory and St. Ambrose that in their time, in Rome and Milan, 1 the deacon proclaimed " qui non com- municatis excite." Happily, a Liturgy is extant, though not in use, which shows how the discipline of the Church was carried out ; and I can imagine nothing more calculated to impress on our minds the awfulness of those holy mysteries which are now unveiled to us all. In the Liturgy called the Clementine, which we may on other grounds sup- pose to be the most ancient, 2 we have the rubrics 1 Dial, ii. 23. 2 The publication of the eighth book of the Apostolical Constitutions, which contains this Liturgy, is put by Drey THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 157 of a Mass when the discipline of the early Church was in full vigour. According to this, four classes were excluded from assisting at the Holy Sacrifice — the catechumens ; the energumens, or possessed ; the " competentes," (f>Q)Ti%6/j,€voi,, who had finished their course of instruction and were awaiting bap- tism ; and the penitents. Over each of these classes in turn the deacon pronounced a bid- ding-prayer calling upon the faithful for their intercession, the people answering, " Kyrie eleison " ; they were desired to bow their heads while the cele- brant pronounced a prayer over them, and then left the church. The prayer over the penitents will give some idea of this very beautiful part of the service : — " Almighty eternal God, Lord of the Universe, Creator and Governor of all things, who didst through Christ design man to be the ornament of the world, and gavest him an innate law and a written one, that he might live as is reasonable according to Thy precepts, and granted him when he had sinned Thine Own goodness as a ground for repentance : look down on those that have bowed their souls and bodies to Thee, for Thou wiliest not the death of the sinner, but his repent- ance, that he may be converted from his evil way and live. Thou that didst receive the repentance of the Ninivites ; Thou that wiliest all men to be at the beginning of the fourth century, but the documents it embodies are doubtless much older. I will here only notice the striking similarity between the prayer over the energumens, presently referred to, and St. Justin's language on Possession. It seems impossible to resist Mr. Moultrie's conclusion, that the prayer must have been known to that Father in the middle of the second century. 158 STUDIES saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth ; Thou that didst with a fatherly heart receive, because of his repentance, the son that had wasted his substance riotously ; do Thou Thyself even now receive the penitence of Thy suppliants ; since there is no man that sinneth not before Thee, for if Thou, O Lord, shalt mark iniquities, Lord who shall abide it ? because with Thee there is mercy. And restore them to Thy Holy Church in their former repute and honour, through Christ our God and Saviour, through Whom," &c. The Kyrie eleison before the Gloria of our present Mass seems to me a vestige, directly or indirectly through the Alexandrian Mass, of these prayers. St. Gregory speaks of the Kyrie as in use before his time ; it was prescribed in Gaul early in the sixth century ; and there is a tradition that St. Silvester introduced it from the East. In the Alexandrian Liturgy there are nine Kyrie eleison, divided equally by three prayers which are clearly of later date than the Council of Chalcedon. 3. The relaxation of the discipline of the Church — catechumenal and penitential — probably began soon after persecution ceased, though it was com- pletely effected at different times in various parts of Christendom. 1 The disuse of the prayer over the catechumens and penitents left a void which was filled in the Roman Mass by the Gloria in Excelsis, and by the Collects, of which such a wealth is found in the earliest sources. 1 Innocent I. speaks of the penitential discipline as long obsolete even in his time ; and it is not found even in the oldest Sacramentaries (Funk : in Wetzer and Welte's KircherUexicon, s.v. Bussdisciplin). THE EAELY HISTORY OF THE MASS 159 4. The gradual development of the festivals of the ecclesiastical year led, in the West, to the multiplication of variables to commemorate the several mysteries celebrated, the special Prefaces and additions to the Communicantes — at first so numerous — being designed for this purpose. There are indications of variations on different days at a very early period. The different accounts of the Liturgy in the Didache and St. Justin are probably thus explained ; and we find in Origen that in his day the Scripture was not read through in order, a lesson from Leviticus following one from Isaias. 5. Finally, the separation between the East and West, which began with Constantine, caused further divergence between the Liturgies. The supremacy of the Holy See led to the gradual substitution of the Roman rite for the Hispano-Gallican, the other great Liturgy of the West. It is well known that the latter survives only in the Mozarabic ser- vices which have been perpetuated by the care of Cardinal Ximenes at Toledo. The Gallican rite has been suppressed ever since the ninth century, but it left behind considerable traces in the Uses of mediaeval England, France and Germany, which were Roman with peculiarities of Hispano-Gallic origin. At the same time the Gallican Liturgy reacted to a less extent on the Roman, some even of the later additions to the Roman Mass being derived from that source. In the East the political supremacy of Constantinople, and its theological orthodoxy at the time of the great heresies bearing on the Incarnation, gave it an ascendency over the rest of the Orthodox Church, so that all the Liturgies were modified by conformity with the 160 STUDIES Constantinopolitan. Their earlier forms can, how- ever, be in great part traced by comparing the rites which the Nestorians on the one hand and the Monophysites on the other took with them when they left the Church. Such are the chief conditions which have pro- duced the Liturgies as we now find them. A very summary account of them, with their several characteristics, which I borrow mainly from Mr. Hammond's valuable text-book, will be necessary to make the relations of the Roman Mass to them intelligible. The Oriental Liturgies, in the first place, are distinguished from Western ones by having no variable parts except the lections and subordinate hymns. The Eastern ones may be divided into the following groups, the distinctive mark chosen by liturgiologists being the position of the Inter- cession for the Living and the Dead : — 1. In the West Syrian group this is placed after the Invocation of the Holy Ghost, which in the Eastern Liturgies follows the words of Institution. The earliest Liturgy known of this type is called the " Greek St. James," which seems to be descended from the Clementine, noticed above, with several changes to bring it into conformity with the rite of Constantinople. It has in turn been the parent on the one hand, of the numerous Liturgies used by the Syrian Jacobites, and, on the other, of the Liturgy of St. Basil, which there is some ground for connecting with that saint. Later modifications of the same Liturgy are the Armenian and that named after St. Chrysostom. The latter is the usual Mass of the Greek Church, the Liturgy of St. Basil being said on the Sundays THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 161 in Lent and a few other days. This group corre- sponds roughly in its original extent with the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. 2. The East Syrian family seems to have grown up in the Patriarchate of Antioch ; it is now used only by the Nestorians. The Malabar Liturgy, used by the Christians of St. Thomas in India until the Portuguese conquest, belongs to this family, the distinguishing mark of which is the position of the Intercession between the words of Institution and the Invocation of the Holy Ghost. 3. The Alexandrian group is marked by the prominent place assigned to the deacon in the Office, and the position of the Intercession in the middle of the Preface. The earliest extant docu- ment of this family is the Greek Liturgy known as "St. Mark's," which has evidently been modi- fied under the influence of Constantinople, and represents the rite followed by the few orthodox Christians who remained in Egypt after the Monophy sites broke off from the Church. The Liturgies which these took with them, and still u?e, enable us to form a clear idea of what was the Alexandrian norm at the time of the Council of Chalcedon in the middle of the fifth century. These Liturgies are : two used by the Copts, St. Basil's and St. Cyril's, and the Ethiopic, which is the Mass of the Monophy sites of Abyssinia. Turning to the Western Liturgies, the most striking peculiarity of the Hispano-Gallic family is the precise opposite of the Oriental Liturgies — the great abundance of variable elements. Not only do the Collects and Prefaces change with every holiday, but the greater part of the prayers corresponding to our Canon vary also. In other 11 162 STUDIES respects its affinities are with the Eastern Litur- gies rather than with the Roman ; for example, the Kiss of Peace comes before the Anaphora ; there are " Preces " like the Deacon's Litany of the Orientals ; and the exclamation " Sancta Sanctis " comes after the consecration. The origin of this Liturgy is still rather a crux to liturgiolo- gists. Since Sir W. Palmer's researches, it has been generally believed in this country that it is derived from a type which prevailed in Asia Minor before the Council of Laodicea in the fourth cen- tury. The Abbe Duchesne, 1 however, takes a different view. He urges that the very highly developed character of the Hispano-Gallic rite points to its importation from the East at a much later date than the first or second century ; and that the Church of Lyons had not, after that time, the ascendency in Gaul which would be required to account for the wide diffusion of the rite. He prefers to think it was introduced directly into Milan from the East by the Arianising Bishop Auxentius about the middle of the fourth century, and spread thence over Gaul and Spain. As far as I can judge with my much more limited know- ledge, I am unable to follow him in this. I can hardly doubt that the Liturgy was sufficiently developed in its main structure in the time of St. Irenseus to allow of its transference from Asia 1 Origines du Cvlte chretien (Paris : Thorin), chap. iii. This learned work has appeared since I began to write on this subject, or I should have had frequent occasion to refer to it. It is devoted to describing the Western Liturgies from the fourth to the ninth century, and the production of the present Mass by their fusion. I cannot too warmly recommend it to all who wish for more than the very brief account which is all I have been able to give of this stage of Liturgical evolution. THE EAELY HISTOEY OF THE MASS 163 Minor to Gaul, as a tradition of great antiquity 1 asserted. On the other hand, it is exceedingly improbable that a Liturgy could have been brought in so late, and under such unsatisfactory auspices, and have supplanted those which had then been long in possession of the West. It is, however, very likely that some of the details of this rite may have been so imported from the East ; it is certainly difficult to account for them otherwise. Finally, the Roman Liturgy is distinguished from all others by the separation of the Inter- cession into two parts, the Prayer for the Living being said before the Consecration, and that for the Dead after it. This is also the only Liturgy which puts the Pax after the Consecration. The Mass of the ancient Church of Africa was doubtless closely allied to that of Rome. There has been more doubt concerning the Ambrosian Liturgy ; but the general opinion is that it was an early offshoot of the Roman, with a few traces of Oriental and Gallican influences. Many of the Liturgies I have briefly mentioned are now obsolete, and our knowledge of them is based upon one or two manuscripts only. More- 1 I refer, of course, to the fragment of an Irish MS. in Spel- man's Concilia, i., p. 177, assigned by that antiquary to the date 681 or 682. As the extract which Palmer gives suppresses the first part, in which the early prevalence of the Roman rite in Southern Gaul is stated, I give a longer quotation : " B. Trofimus Ep. Arelatensis, et S. Photinus martyr, discipulus S. Petri in Gallia, sicut et refert Iosephus et Eusebius, cursum Romanum in Galliis tradiderunt B. Ireneum Clemens ordinavit ; hoc in libro ipsius S. Irenei repperies. ... Ioannes Evangelista primum cursum Gallorum cantavit ; inde postea B. Polycarpus discipulus S. Ioannis ; inde postea Ireneus qui fuit Episcopus Lugdunensis, tertius ipse ipsum cursum decantavit in Galleis." 164 STUDIES over, the development even of those which are still in use, such as the Roman in the West, and St. Chrysostom's in the East, can only be studied by going back to the earliest documents which have preserved them. In the case of the Roman Liturgy these have been rendered accessible and edited critically by the great scholars of past generations, from Thomasius to Daniel, though it is more than probable that a fresh collation of the original texts would yield results of interest and importance. But the Greek Liturgies have, strangely enough, never been examined critically since their first publication in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries until Dr. Swainson took them in hand. His edition demands, and would well repay, a detailed notice ; I can here only give the shortest summary of the results of his careful and competent labours. It is clear that many more changes have been made in the course of time in even the oldest Liturgies extant than had been generally suspected. " We must look to the Anaphora in each, com- mencing with the Apostolic Benediction and end- ing with the Lord's Prayer, as containing the only ancient parts of the service." 1 The earlier part of the Mass, of course, in each instance, con- tains much of great antiquity ; but so many changes of position and so many additions have been made that no part is to be regarded as ancient without independent evidence. Thus, the Greek St. James, which has been looked upon as the most primitive rite by many scholars, is (according to Dr. Swain- son) not older in its present form than the seventh 1 Swainson' s Greek Liturgies , p. xlii. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 165 century, and is clearly much indebted to other Liturgies. 1 Again, the growth of the Liturgies of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom may be to a great extent traced, the pro-Anaphoral parts having been combined and recast between the eighth and eleventh centuries ; and we are also informed that the preparatory prayers are considerably later still. We also learn that the name of St. John Chrysostom was in the earliest MS. given only to two of the prayers in this Liturgy, whence it must have spread to the whole. It will not be thought that I refer to this evidence of the changes which time has wrought in the Oriental Liturgies as derogating in the least from the value of these venerable rites. Immobility in the public worship of the Church, as in every other matter, is only a sign of death, and the beauty of the Liturgy is enhanced by traces of the piety of successive generations. Yet Dr. Swainson's results are of great importance as showing that the verbal anti- quity of the Eastern Liturgies cannot be pressed. The belief that considerable portions of them are word for word the same as in the days of the Apostles appeals with seductive force to the imagina- tion, and has also, I fear, been exaggerated in order to suggest by implication that the Roman Mass is less primitive ; but it will not bear examination. I now turn to the history of the Roman Mass alone, and it will be convenient that I should first give a short account of the oldest documents con- taining it, to which I shall frequently need to refer. 1 Thus, I have already mentioned that the rifuv in the Com- memoration of the Institution, which Dr. Neale regarded as denoting the authorship of an Apostle for St. James, turns out to be a very late addition. 166 STUDIES 1. The most ancient is a Sacramentary dis- covered by Blanchini at Verona, and attributed by him to St. Leo the Great ; but most authorities differ from him, and ascribe it, with Muratori and the Ballerini, to an unknown Roman ecclesiastic of the time of Felix III. (483). It contains only variable parts of the Mass — Collects, Prefaces, Post-Communions, and Benedictions — and is, un- fortunately, mutilated, beginning with April. The very disorder and incompleteness of the collection is a strong proof of its antiquity, and that it must have been compiled before any order had been introduced into these parts of the Mass. 2. The Gelasian Sacramentary is derived from the comparison of various MSS. published by Cardinal Thomasius and Gerbert, which date from the eighth to the tenth century. There seems no reasonable doubt that the greater part of the Canon and variables they contain are the recen- sion of Pope Gelasius (492), who, as we know independently, revised the Liturgy. 1 This collec- tion is much more orderly in its arrangement than the preceding one ; it contains two Collects for every Sunday, and a large number of special Pre- faces and additions to the Canon. M. Duchesne points out that Thomasius's MS. must have been brought into France about the seventh century, that it contains many Gallican peculiarities, and probably belonged originally to the celebrated Abbey of St. Denis. 3. St. Gregory the Great, at the end of the 1 Anastasius says of him, " Fecit sacramentorum praefationes et orationes cauto sermone" ; and Walafridus, " Preces tarn a se quam ab aliis compositas dicitur ordinasse." THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 167 sixth century, revised the Liturgy — " multa sub- trahens, pauca convertens, nonnulla superadjiciens " (Joan. Diac.) — and practically reduced the Canon of the Mass to its present form, making the last addition to it (" diesque nostros . . . numerari") and placing the Pater noster immediately after the Canon. He omitted most of the special Prefaces and additions to the Canon given in the earlier Sacramentaries, reduced the number of Collects to one, and rearranged them all. M. Duchesne gives reasons for believing that the Gregorian Sacramentary, as it has reached us, dates from the time of Hadrian I. (about 790), to whom Charlemagne applied for the Roman Mass, which he wished to introduce into his empire. In order to arrive at some idea of the Mass in its earliest form, we had best start from it as we have it now, and note all the additions of any importance that have been made, with their sources and dates. We shall find that the chief altera- tions that took place in the later Middle Ages were the gradual addition of prayers, which can be traced back for many centuries in France and Germany, though they were at first only local and optional. The latest are the Gospel of St. John, at the end of the Mass, and the Psalm Judica, at the beginning, both of which were introduced into the Roman Missal at the revision of St. Pius V. But the former had been for some time recited in many dioceses ; and the latter is found in many mediaeval Missals, being probably derived from the Gallican Liturgy. It was generally recited as the celebrant went from the sacristy to the altar, but was recommended by Innocent III. to be said as at present. The Domine non sum dignus is 168 STUDIES of about the same date ; it is found in at least one mediaeval Missal, but was not in general use until the end of the sixteenth century. It must, however, have been recognised as an appropriate prayer before Communion from very early times, for it is recommended as such by Origen. 1 The three prayers after the Agnus Dei are all ancient, but did not come into general use until the end of the Middle Ages. The third prayer {Perceptio corporis Tui) is probably the oldest ; it alone is found in the Good Friday Mass, and it is closely similar to the prayer before Communion in almost all the Oriental Liturgies. The Confiteor was inserted at the beginning of Mass in the eleventh century. There is, however, reason to suppose that a confession was made by the priest before the Offertory at least as early as St. Augustine's day, and it would seem from the Didache to have formed part of the Liturgy in sub-apostolic times. There were no fixed prayers at the Offertory until the twelfth century, the priest before then making the offering in silence, with the exception of the Oratio super oblata, or Secret. Those now contained in the Missal were derived from the Hispano-Gallic rite, the Offerimus and In spiritu from the Gallican, the Suscipe and Veni sanctifi- cator apparently directly from the Mozarabic. The last is particularly interesting, as containing the Invocation of the Holy Ghost ; it originally con- tained the words Sancte Spiritus, and even in Le Brun's time the Veni sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda or the Veni Creator was recited in its stead in some churches in France. 1 Horn. vi. in Evang. THE EAELY HISTORY OF THE MASS 169 The two prayers after Communion were also added in the Middle Ages, though somewhat earlier than the Offertory prayers. They first occur as Post-Communions in the Missale Gothicum of the eighth century. About the same time the latter part of the Orate fratres was added by way of explanation, the request for the prayers of the people being older. Other responses were made in various places, such as Spiritus sanctus superveniet in te, et virtus Altis- simi obumbrabit tibi (also used in Greek Liturgies), or Memor sit Dominus sacrificii tui. The Agnus Dei is considerably more ancient, having been introduced by Sergius I. in 680 ; but the ending dona nobis pacem is later, having been brought in, according to Innocent III., at a time of special trouble in the Church. The use of the Gloria in excelsis on Sundays and holy-days by priests must be also mediaeval, since the Gre- gorian Sacramentary only permits this to bishops, others saying it on Easter Sunday only. 1 If John the Deacon's authority, three hundred years later, is to be accepted, St. Gregory drew up the Introits, Offertories, and Communions very much as we have them now, being abridgments of the Psalms originally sung by the choir on the entrance into the Church, while the gifts were being placed on the altar, and while Communion was being given. I shall return to these later ; mean- while it may be remarked that we have one sur- vival of the long Offertory in the Mass for the Dead, ! The rubric " Sic dicitur etiam in Missis B.V.Mr which has given rise to inquiry, is to exclude the mediaeval additions to the Gloria in Masses " de Beato." 170 STUDIES where probably it was retained because the custom of offering lingered longer than in other Masses. The principal change concerning the Introit, Offer- tory, and Communion during the period we are now studying was that the celebrant came to recite these parts of the service, which were at first choral ; I suppose the custom began with private Masses, and extended thence to all. It may be well to remark that liturgiologists believe the " Or emus " before the Offertory did not originally belong to that prayer, but to one before the unveiling of the chalice, still preserved as the " oratio super sin- donem " in the Ambrosian rite. The Creed was first brought into the Mass in the West by the third Council of Toledo in 589, whence it spread into France and Germany to exclude the Adoptionist heresy in the eighth century. It occupies the same position in the Oriental Liturgies as in our Mass ; but the Mozarabic rite puts it after the Consecra- tion, and during the Fraction. We can now form a tolerably accurate concep- tion of the Ordinary of the Mass as it must have been in St. Gregory's day. A Psalm, or part of one, was sung by the choir on the entrance of the cele- brant, who then said the Collect. The Epistle followed, separated from the Gospel by a Psalm, represented by our Gradual or Tract ; and after the Gospel came the sermon, and the withdrawal of those who had no right to assist at the Holy Sacrifice. The choir sung a Psalm while the faith- ful brought their offering, the celebrant making the oblation in silence, and ending with the Secret. Then came the Preface and Canon, as at present, followed by the Lord's Prayer, the Fraction, and the Kiss of Peace. The celebrant and faithful then THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 171 received Communion, a Psalm being sung mean- while ; and the Mass was concluded by a variable Post-Communion and a " Benedictio super populum" It will be remarked that none of the alterations and additions I have enumerated affect the Canon. This most important part of the Mass remains now word for word the same as it was when St. Gregory revised it 1,300 years ago. Two changes have, indeed, been made since then, but neither has affected the verbal identity of the Canon in all that time. The first is, the addition of the Elevation, after the Consecration, as a protest against the heresy of Berengarius in France in the eleventh century. The Elevation of the Greek Liturgies appears to correspond more to what has been called the " lesser elevation " at the end of the Canon. The other change is at the conclusion of the Canon. It seems from the Gelasian Sacra- mentary that the words Per quern haec omnia . . . . praestas nobis were originally the end of a Benediction of the new fruits of the spring. Many mediaeval Missals, too, direct that bread, oil, and other things should be blessed at this part of the Mass, so that the custom of doing so must have long prevailed. This appears to give the original meaning of the words haec omnia bona and creas, though there is no doubt that — as Le Brun urges — they are now very fitly applied to the Blessed Sacrament. Even these exceptions, it will be seen, do not touch the words of the Canon, which remains the same now as when it left the hands of St. Gregory. Nothing further would be needed to justify the measured language of the Council of Trent. It was there laid down (Sess. xxii. cap. 4) that " the Church instituted the holy Canon of the 172 STUDIES Mass many centuries ago," and that " it consists of the very words of our Lord, of the traditions of the Apostles, and of the devout institutions of holy Pontiffs." We can now, however, trace the main order and structure of the Roman Liturgy, and even part of its language, to a much earlier period ; and this is what I propose to do next. 173 THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS. III. The greatest change made in the Holy Sacrifice during the centuries immediately preceding St. Gregory, was the introduction of the variable parts of the Mass known as Collects, Secrets, Post- Communions and Prefaces. These last, indeed, became so numerous in the earlier Sacramentaries, that St. Gregory dealt with them in the same way as St. Pius V. treated the Sequences and other mediaeval additions to the Missal ; only a few were retained, as examples of what had once been so frequent. It is not easy to determine when, and under what influences, these parts of the Mass had their origin. Their profusion in the Gelasian Sacramentary — which, after supplying Col- lects to many of the post-Gregorian additions to the Missal, still contains many of great beauty that are unused — implies that they were not of recent introduction when that work was com- piled. The same is true of the earlier Leonine Sacramentary, though here the irregularity of their number and arrangement shows that we have got nearer to their first employment in the Mass. Many of the Collects and Prefaces so closely resemble the thoughts and the terse anti- thetical style of St. Leo, that we can hardly be wrong in ascribing them to that great Pontiff. 174 STUDIES The alternative, that they were extracted from his works, would hardly survive an examination of the parallel passages collected by Muratori and the Ballerini — an examination which might easily be extended. Moreover, the stress laid in so many of them on the necessity of divine grace points to a time when Pelagianism was rife. Contemporaneously with St. Leo, we find the fourth Council of Carthage speaking of Collects as in use, and the Council of Milevi (416) prohibit- ing those which had not been approved. To go farther back, M. Duchesne points out that some of the Gelasian variables refer to the influence of the anchorites in Rome in the time of SS. Damasus and Siricius. Nor will Sala's statement appear incredible, that some of the prayers, espe- cially for baptism, must date from a time when paganism was still prevalent, and must therefore go back as far as SS. Silvester and Julius in the fourth century. There are distinct traces of prayers like our Collects at a much earlier period, such as this passage in St. Irenseus : " Lord, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob and Israel, who art the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; God Who, out of the abundance of Thy mercy, hast been pleased that we should know Thee, Who didst make heaven and earth, governest all things, art the only true God, above Whom there is none other, grant, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that the Holy Ghost too may govern us " (iii. 6, 4). St. Fulgentius testifies that the prayers ended in his day in Africa with the same words we now employ. 1 1 " In orationibu8 sacerdotum per Dominum nostrum J. C, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, per universal THE EARLY HISTOEY OF THE MASS 175 There is good reason, then, for believing that prayers of this kind have been used in the Western Church from a very early period ; we have next to inquire under what influences they became part of the Roman Mass. Palmer conjectured that they were due to the example of the Church of Alexandria. He pointed out that Cassian describes such prayers as said by the monks in Egypt ; these are, however, connected in Cassian's account with the Office rather than with the Liturgy. He also noticed the close resemblance between our Collects and certain prayers in the Coptic St. Basil. The latter, however, are not variable, so that the analogy fails in an essential particular. Nor will any Oriental rite furnish us with parallels to the special Prefaces and additions to the Canon that have also to be accounted for. All of these are to be found in the Hispano-Gallic Liturgies ; and (assuming the antiquity of this Liturgy) I would therefore rather look to it for the influence which introduced the variables into the Roman rite. The position of the Collect seems to point to the Spanish Mass, in which the Gloria expands into a special termination for each feast. We are able to date more satisfactorily the introduction of the psalm at the Introit, since it is ascribed to St. Celestine (421-430). We learn from St. Augustine that at the same time selections from the psalms were first sung in Africa : " sive ante oblationem, sive cum distribueretur populo id quod fuisset oblatum" (Retract ii. 11). Here paene Africae regiones dicer e Catkolica consuevit Ecclesia^ (Ad Ferrand.) Tertullian's language (Apol. 21) seems to imply that a similar form was used in his time. 176 STUDIES an Eastern, and in particular an Alexandrian, influence is more obvious. We find in the works of the so-called Areopagite an account of the Alexandrian Mass in the fourth century, 1 from which it appears that a psalm was " almost always " sung before the lessons, and another at the un- veiling of the Elements, which corresponded to our Offertory. From the Apostolical Constitutions and St. Jerome, we learn that in the East the 33rd Psalm was sung during the Communion, being no doubt selected on account of the verse, " Taste and see that the Lord is sweet," which is so often referred to the Blessed Sacrament by early Christian writers. The psalms after each lesson, from which our Gradual and Tract are derived, have been in use for a much longer period. I mentioned in my first paper that they were chanted in the Jewish Synagogal service ; they seem to be referred to by Tertullian, and they are described in the earlier account of the Liturgy in the Apostolical Consti- tutions (ii. 57). The prayers for the catechu- mens, energumens, and penitents, before their exclusion from the sacred mysteries, must have been omitted from the Roman Mass about the same time as the Introits and Offertories were introduced. I have already said that this part of the Liturgy is extant only in the so-called Clementine Liturgy of the Apostolical Constitutions (viii. 6-9) ; but we have evidence that it must at one time have been contained in the Roman Mass. Tertullian tells us 2 that the sermon was followed 1 Eccl. Hier., cap. 3, ss. 2, 3. 2 Apol. 39. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 177 by " exhortationes , castigationes, et censura divina" these terms being respectively applicable to the prayers over the catechumens, the possessed, and the penitents. It must have been retained in Rome as late as Sozomen. That historian was much impressed by the fervour of the peni- tents, who " cast themselves on the ground groan- ing and lamenting. The bishop, weeping, comes forward to meet them, prostrates himself with them, and the whole congregation sheds tears. Then the bishop, rising up himself, raises those who are prostrate, dismissing them with a prayer suitable for repentant sinners." 1 In St. Gregory's days so much at least of the ancient discipline was preserved that the deacon proclaimed, " If any one does not communicate, let him depart " 2 ; just as in the Ethiopic Liturgy even now the deacon says, Qui non communicatis exite. Abundant evidence is to be found in St. Justin of these prayers, but I cannot appeal to him for proof of their existence in the Roman Mass, because there is so much doubt whether he describes the ordinary Liturgy of the Church of Rome at all. This part of the Mass has passed away, leaving no trace in our present service ; that which fol- lowed it in the primitive Liturgies has fortunately been preserved for us. After the exclusion of those who were deemed unfit to assist at the holy 1 H. E. vii. 16. Compare with this the vivid picture in Tertullian's De Pudicitia, where the penitents implore the intercession of the faithful, and the Pope is moved to indulgence by their united prayers. 2 Dial. ii. 23. 12 178 STUDIES sacrifice, a series of prayers followed in which all present joined, which were therefore called the " Prayers of the Faithful." 1 It seems to be generally admitted that these are represented in our Missal by the prayers which on Good Friday follow the Passion, and precede the Adoration of the Cross. M. Duchesne, the latest Catholic writer on this subject, points out that these occupy the exact place of the Prayers of the Faithful, and that nothing in them is so characteristic of Good Friday as to have caused their special insertion on that day. It is infinitely more likely that in this, as in many other respects, the Good Friday Mass is the only survival of an earlier stage of the Liturgy. M. Duchesne thinks the Oremus at the Offertory is the last remains of this part of the Office in our present Mass. It is strange that, so far as I know, no one has examined these prayers critically with a view to determine their age and original character. If I now do so only as far as they concern my present subject, it is in the hope that some one may be induced to study, more completely than I have done, this very interesting part of the service. It will be at once remarked that the Good Friday prayers, consist of two series : bidding - prayers which precede the Flectamus genua, and Collects, which follow the Levate. The latter may, I believe, be set aside at once as much later in date than the former. Their style shows that they come from the same hands as the collects of the Sacra- e7T6iTO aviffrdficOa Koivij Trdvres Kal ivxks irefiirofiw. We all stand up together and pray," St. Justin, Apol. 67. THE EAELY HISTOBY OF THE MASS 179 mentaries ; they have no analogues in the Oriental Liturgies ; and so far as my reading goes, they are quoted by no writer of antiquity. The bid- ding-prayers, on the contrary, are referred to sufficiently often and clearly to establish their existence at an early period. Thus St. Celestine (about 432) says : " Praesules .... tota secum ecclesia congemiscente postulant et precantur . . . . ut idololatrae ab impietatis suae liberentur error ibus, ut Iudaeis ablato cordis velamine lux veritatis appareat y ut haeretici catholicae fidei per- ceptione resipiscant, ut schismatici spiritum redivivae caritatis accipiant, ut lapsis poenitentiae remedia conferantur, ut denique catechumenis ad regenera- tionis sacramenta perductis coelestis misericordiae aula reseretur ." I think, too, there can be no doubt that St. Augustine refers to the same prayers when he says : " Quando audis sacerdotem Dei ad altar e exhortantem populum Dei orare pro incredulis ut eos Deus convertat ad fidem, et pro Catechumenis et pro fidelibus " ; and the prayers are described by him elsewhere as " Obsecrationes quas facimus in celebratione sacramentonim, ante- quam illud quod est in Domini mensa incipiat bene- dici. m St. Optatus quotes the bidding-prayer for the Church ; 2 and Arnobius evidently alludes to the general tenor of them all. 3 Lastly, Tertul- lian refers to them in general terms, 4 and, as we shall presently see, reproduces great part of 1 Ep. 107 vel 217, ad Vitalem ; Ep. 149 ; so, too, Ambro- siaster, de Sac. iv. 4. 2 Contra Parmen. ii., p. 40. 3 Adv. Nat. p. 171 ed. Reifferschied. ' Apol. 39. 180 STUDIES one of them at the end of his treatise on prayer. An examination of the grammar and phraseology of these bidding-prayers adds greatly to the evi- dence for their antiquity. They are not grammati- cally correct, but are composed in the " lingua latina vulgaris," in which such solecisms as infirmantibus , elegit eum in ordine episcopatus, and diaconibus abound. 1 The irregular form for diaconis is, of course, common in St. Cyprian, as well as in later writers ; but the other instances I have given cannot be matched in his works. The like are, however, to be found in the pseudo-Cyprianic works, which are for the most part of Roman authorship, and in the letters of the Roman clergy and confessors to St. Cyprian during the vacancy of the see before the election of St. Cornelius. (Epp. 30 & 31, ed. Hartel.) 2 The language and phraseology of these same documents supply so many parallels to the Good Friday prayers, that it cannot be doubtful that the latter were used in Rome in the earlier half of the third century. For instance, the two Roman letters, and they only, in enumerating the several orders in the Church, mention confessors in the same way the Good Friday prayers do : Conlatione consiliorum facta cum episcopis presbyteris dia- conibus confessor ibus par iter et stantibus laicis. (Ep. 30, 5 ; 31, 6.) 3 1 Levate is probably not to be construed with corpora veatra, understood as Duchesne suggests, but as a reflective verb, like the well-known verse in Virgil ; Sese attollens cubitoque innixa levavit. 2 Infirmo is, however, only to be found much later in the active, according to Ronsch (itala und Vulgata). 3 Menardus supposed, on the strength of two inconclusive conciliar canons, that the word confessor here was equivalent THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 181 Mater Ecclesia, lavacrum regenerationis, ianua misericordiae, aures praecordiorum, are all phrases that will be found in the pseudo-Cyprianic works — the first, indeed, in St. Cyprian. The most notable, because the most frequently recurring phrase, Deus et Dominus noster, seems to be a protest against the Gnostic heresies, whence the impor- tance attached to it by St. Irenaeus and Tertul- lian j 1 it, therefore, points to the end of the second century. These parallels have been noted on a very hasty examination of the early Latin ecclesiastical writers. I have no doubt they might be greatly multiplied by a search, particularly among the catacomb inscriptions, which I have not been able even to look through ; but as they stand they are no doubt enough to show that the bidding-prayers were used in Rome in the third century. Much of the evidence I have adduced, indeed, comes from Africa ; but it is admitted that Rome bestowed her creed and ritual, with her faith, on that country ; 2 and that the Roman and African Liturgies were identical. There is a close simi- larity in general character and contents between to cantor ; while Duchesne remarks that it is often used for the ascetae in the fourth and fifth centuries. The passages I have quoted above, however, seem to fix its meaning to those who had confessed the Faith, and therefore held a special grade in the Church. (Cf. Hippolytus Can. Ar. 6, and St. Cyprian Ep. 34.) 1 Adv. Haer. iii. 6-8 ; Adv. Hermog. 1-3. See, too, Novatian's rfe Trinitate and Ruinart Acta S. Vine. vi. The phrase is also found repeatedly in the De Pascha computus, a Roman tract of date 243. 2 " Videamus quid (Roma) didicerit, quid docuerit, quid cum Africanis quoque ecclesiis contesserarit Inde . euchari8tia pascit" — Tertullian : Praescr. Haer. 36. 182 STUDIES these prayers and the Prayers of the Faithful, which, in slightly varying shapes, are to be found in every Oriental liturgy. But Archdeacon Free- man was, so far as I know, the first to point out that many parts of the bidding-prayers are to be found, in the same words, in the Commemo- ration of the living and the dead which is inter- polated in the Preface of the Greek Alexandrian Mass. He thought this was their earlier form, and that they were changed from an intercession by the celebrant into bidding-prayers by the deacon when they were adopted in Rome. This, how- ever, is impossible. Not only do the other two ancient Eastern rites (the Liturgies of St. Clement and St. James) give them as the Roman Good Friday Mass does, but the Coptic form of the Alexandrian Liturgy also puts them into the mouth of the deacon as invitations to the faithful to pray. No doubt the Roman form of these prayers under- went frequent minor alterations in those early ages when the liturgical formulae were not con- sidered unchangeable ; but they bear much fewer internal traces of change than the intercession in the Liturgy of St. Mark, which has only reached us in two corrupt manuscripts. As an instance of change in the Good Friday prayers, I may mention the prayer for the Emperor, which is evidently later than the rest. The original prayer for the Sovereign seems to be now fused with the first prayer — that for the Church ; for in the Alexandrian rite the words subiiciantur Mi barbaras gentes . . . . ut vitam tranquillam et placidam ducamus in omni pietate, form part of the prayer for the King, and the reference to 1 Tim. ii. 2 shows that this was their original appli- THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 183 cation. But there can hardly be any reasonable doubt that these prayers in their general character are apostolic in origin, being lineally descended from the Jewish bidding-prayers called the " Shac- harith," which I briefly described in my first paper. They occurred in the Sabbath morning service, as in the Mass, after the lessons and the sermon, and they were bidding-prayers chanted by a precentor, to which the congregation responded Amen. 1 In the case of one of the prayers — that for special necessities — we can now fill up the gap between the origin of Christianity and the third century. It will be seen by the parallel extracts which I subjoin, that many of the petitions in this prayer are to be found at the end of Tertullian's De Ora- tione, so that we can hardly doubt he had it in his mind when he wrote. But the same phrases also occur in the Alexandrian Liturgy, and they are again found in that portion of the Epistle of St. Clement which was recovered in 1875. Dr. Lightfoot pointed this out at the time, and re- marked that " the coincidences are far too numerous and close to be accidental." It will hardly be thought that the liturgy borrowed these expres- sions from St. Clement ; and it is far more probable that:., both took them from one common source. This Dr. Lightfoot found in the " Shemoneh Esreh," or " Eighteen Benedictions " ; but he 1 The prayer for the Sovereign, which I take from Bickell, will give an idea of their character. " May He, Who giveth victory to kings, bless, preserve, maintain, support, exalt, and make great our glorious ruler N. N. ; may He put into his heart and into the hearts of all his councillors and generals to do good to us and to all Israel ; let us say : Amen." 184 STUDIES was apparently unaware that Bickell had already shown that these were inserted at this point of the Jewish synagogal service. We have then converging evidence sufficient, to prove that this bidding prayer is derived from a Jewish source ; and to strengthen greatly Lightfoot's suggestion, that St. Clement was quoting liturgical prayers, which were already — at the end of the first cen- tury — assuming a definite shape in the Roman Church. I need not here dwell upon all the points which are suggested by the following parallels ; I will only remark that Tertullian seems to have been acquainted with a longer form of this prayer than the one we have in our present Missal, and one which contained the first point, not found in St. Clement or the Alexandrian Liturgy. 1. The Shemoneh Esreh. (Lightfoot.) — "Thou bringest the dead to life. Thou supportest them that fall, and healest the sick, and loosest them that are in bonds." 2. St. Clement of Rome (Cap. lix.). — rovs tv 6\tyei rjfjicov <ra)aov, tovs TreTTTayKoras eyeipov, 7ov<? aaOevel? Xaaau, T0O9 ifkavw/JLevov? rov Xaov aov GTriGTpe'tyov, ^opraaov rov? Treivwvras, \vrpcoa-ai rods heafjLiovs rjjicov, i^avdarrjaov rovs aadevovvras, irapa- Kakeaov tovs oXcyoyjrv^ovvras. 3. Alexandrian Liturgy (Greek from St. Mark's: Latin from St. Cyril's). — igeXov rovs iv ay ay /ecus, lapsos erige, vevoaTj/coras taaai, irenrXav- rffievovs eirlaTpe'tyov, esurientes satia, Xvrpcoa-at Seoyuof 9 i^avdarrjaov rovs aadevovvras, oXcyoyfrv^ovv- ra<; irapaKaXeaov. 4. Tertullian. {De Oratione, cap. 39). — . . . . " Defunctorum animas ab ipso mortis itinevo- care, debiles reformare, aegros remediare .... THE EAKLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 185 claustra carceris aperire, vincula innocentium sol- vere .... pusillanimos consolatur, peregri- nantes deducit, fluctus mitigat .... lapsos erigit, cadentes suspendit, stantes continet." 5. Roman Liturgy. (Feria vi. in Parasceve.) — .... "Morbos auferat, famem depellat, aperiat carceres, vincula dissolvat, peregrinanti- bus reditum, infirmantibus sanitatem, naviganti- bus portum salutis indulgeat." I do not know of any evidence showing when and under what influence these prayers were omitted from the ordinary Mass and restricted to Good Friday (the Gregorian Sacramentary directs them to be said also on the Wednesday in Holy Week). They appear to have been still in use in the time of St. Augustine and St. Celes- tine, and to have been provided with Collects about the time of St. Leo. Previous to that there was an interval for silent prayer after Flectamus genua, ended by Levate. 1 We shall probably not be wrong in supposing that they were omitted from the Roman Mass under the influence of the other great Liturgy of the West. There seem to have been no prayers of the faithful in the Hispano-Gallie Mass, and as variable Collects and Secrets came into use they would be less required. The only other point in the pro-anaphoral part of the Mass which need detain us is the lessons from Scripture. We have seen that in the Synagogue two passages were read, one from the law and the other from 1 Menardus, note 242. Post paululum elicit, Levate {Sac. 0ela8.). 186 STUDIES the prophets ; and that the Christian Church added to these readings from the Epistles and Gospels. All of these are represented in the Good Friday Mass, the Passion being the lesson from the New Testament. But from a very early period the number of lessons was reduced on many days to one, either from the Old or New Testa- ment, the older custom being retained on certain days. 1 When we turn to the more solemn part of the Mass — the Preface and Canon — we are met at once by a great obstacle to further research. The discipline of the Church prevented its being made known to the uninitiated, so that we find at most allusions and references, instead of the tolerably numerous quotations which have enabled me to trace the history of the earlier parts of the Liturgy. A good deal can, however, be done, as will be seen, and more interesting results still probably await greater patience and skill than I have been able to give to the task. The earliest quotation of any notable portion of the Canon of the Mass is to be found in the treatise De Sacramentis , which is included among the works of St. Ambrose, though certainly not written by that Father. It must date from about the end of the fourth century, since, on the one hand, St. Ambrose is quoted, and, on the other, paganism is spoken of as still flourishing. Duchesne con- 1 This appears from St. Augustine, Serm. 45 and 176, and from St. Justin, who expressly says : " The memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the Prophets are read." Not remark- ing the " or," Palmer and Swainson believed they had detected a discrepancy between the account in St. Justin and the Roman Mass which does not exist. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 187 jectures that it was written in some town of Northern Italy — perhaps Ravenna — where Roman and Milanese influences were combined. In this work all the Canon is quoted, with a few unimpor- tant differences, from Quam oblationem to the words summus sacerdos tuns Melchisedech after the Consecration. But, though we are not able to adduce any direct proof of the identity of the present Canon with that used at an earlier date than this work, we have a good deal of indirect evidence on dif- ferent lines which proves a higher antiquity. Thus we have Roman Pontiffs of the fifth and sixth centuries asserting that it is of apostolical origin. St. Vigilius (538) speaks in this way of the Canon, distinguishing it from the " capitula et preces " (the variable Communicantes) which have been added for certain feasts. He sent the Roman Ordinary of the Mass to Pr of u turns, with the Paschal proper as a sample of the additions which might be made at the discretion of the latter. More than a hundred years earlier we find St. Innocent claiming an apostolical origin for the Roman Mass, mentioning at the same time its two most distinctive peculiarities — the recital of the offerers' names in the Canon, and the position of the Pax after the Lord's Prayer. This brings us within the time when the great schism was still active, which had divided the Christians of Rome for two centuries. It is not conceivable that the apostolical origin of the Roman Liturgy could have been asserted by the Popes, if the Novatians were able to point to a different rite, which they had taken with them when they left the Church in the middle of the third century. 188 STUDIES Sir W. Palmer brought forward another very strong argument for the antiquity of, at least, the general order and structure of the Roman Mass. The Liturgy of the Church of Africa is sufficiently known to us, from the references in the great writers of that Church, to enable us to say it was practically identical with the Roman. We must, therefore, suppose it was brought from Rome at the first introduction of Christianity into that country, since it could not have originated independently, or have been imposed later without some evidence of such a change. In like manner, the Ambrosian rite has differed from the Roman since the fifth century, yet in the opinion, I believe, of all liturgiologists save Duchesne, it is of Roman origin. Here, again, the entire absence of any history of a later introduction leads us to believe that the first missionaries took their Liturgy with them from Rome, when they evangelised Northern Italy. If this argument is accepted, we can carry up the chief characteristics of our present Mass to very early, probably sub-apostolic, times. Another argument of the same kind has not, I think, been sufficiently considered. The simi- larity between the Roman and Alexandrian Litur- gies has been recognised by many authorities, and is, indeed, obvious on any comparison. 1 Both appear to have begun with a threefold repetition of the Kyrie eleison, interposed between prayers which have been omitted from the Roman Mass ; 2 1 Encore ne serait-il pas impossible de ramener le type gallican au type syrien ; et de conjecturer que 1' usage d'Alexandrie derive pour une certaine mesure de celui de Rome. (Duchesne : Origines du Gulte chrdtien, p. 55.) 2 See St. Gregory, Ep. ix. 12. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 189 and in both the solemn Benediction of the celebrant was given at the end of the Mass, instead of before the Preface, as in the Oriental rites. Both seem to have had originally two intercessory prayers ; the prayer of the faithful before the Preface, and the commemoration made by the celebrant during the Canon ; and this is probably the reason why we now find the latter intercalated in such a singular manner in the Alexandrian Preface. 1 Still more remarkable, as showing a common origin, are the passages which are verbally the same in both Liturgies. I have already mentioned that many parts of the prayers of the faithful are the same, and for these I will refer the reader to a comparison of the originals. But, besides these, we find portions of the Roman Canon which are word for word identical with prayers in the Alexandrian Liturgy, so that we cannot doubt of the common origin of at any rate the following prayers : — 1. Roman. — " lube haec perferri per mantis sancti Angeli tui, in sublime altar e tuum Digneris accepta habere, sicut accepta habere dig- natus es munera pueri tui iusti Abel, sacrificium patriarchae nostri Abrahae Partem ali- quam et societatem donare digneris cum Sanctis 2. Alexandrian. — rcov irpoa^epovrcov .... t«9 Trpocrcfyopd? irpocrSe^ai 6 #€o? et? to .... hrovpdviov .... gov OvGiao-rrjpiov, et? ra fieyedv tcjv ovpavwv, 8ca T779 dp%ayy€\i/cri<$ gov Xeirovpylas .... irpooSe^ai 1 " Huius interpositionis exemplum, et si in Oriente rarissimus, subministrat tamen Canon Latinus, qui eadem ferme capitula sed brevissime perstringit" (Renaudot, i. p. 360.) 190 STUDIES . . . . &>9 irpo<T€§e%w ra Scopa rov Bitcdiov <rov "A/3e\, rrjv Overlay rov ircurpo^ tj/jlwv y A/3pad/j, .... So? fjfuv fieplBa icai tcXrjpov e^eLV fiera iravreov rwv dylcov crov. . . . The first two of these passages occur in a prayer over the offerings ; the last immediately precedes them, but, like the nobis quoque peccatoribus , follows the reading of the Diptychs of the dead. It is difficult to believe that either of these two great patriarchal Churches borrowed these prayers from the other ; x and still more difficult to account thus for the many coincidences between the two liturgies in thought but not in language. It is more natural to suppose that the Church of Alexandria received its Liturgy from Rome at the hands of the Evangelist who founded it. This would appear to follow from the account given by Eusebius of St. Mark's mission to Alexan- dria by St. Peter, when he took with him the Gospel which the former had approved for public (and therefore liturgical) use in Church. 2 The later Greek ecclesiastical historians recognised the antiquity of the tradition which connected the liturgical customs of Rome and Alexandria ; 3 but I have only met with one testimony to St. Mark as their common source. The curious Irish fragment which I have already quoted as deriving the Gallican Liturgy from St. John, is equally explicit in ascribing the Roman and Alexandrian 1 The last extract is found, as a quotation from the Liturgy, in Origen (In Hierem. torn. Hi. p. 217), and therefore, if there has been any borrowing, it must have been Rome that derived it from Alexandria. 2 H. E. ii. 15, 16, Kvpaxrai r-fjv ypa<p-i\v els €vrev£iv rciis £iac\r)(rlais. 3 Socrates, v. 22 ; Sozomen, vii. 19. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 191 Liturgies to St. Mark. 1 Though the account is confused and inaccurate, it may be cited — valeat quantum — as the witness of the author, probably a Scoto-Irish monk, to the tradition of a school where learning had lingered longer than elsewhere in the West. He says : " B. Marcus Evangelista, sicut refert Iosephus et Eusebius in quarto libro, totam Aegyptum et Italiam praedicavit sicut unam ecclesiam Tanta fuit sua praedicatio unita, et postea Evangelium ex ore Petri Apostoli edidit." 2 Without laying any stress on this authority, it seems as if we must look to St. Peter as the most likely common source of these two liturgies. This conclusion is greatly strengthened by recall- ing the coincidences I have noted above between St. Clement's Epistle and the Alexandrian and Roman prayers of the faithful, coincidences which are not to be traced in any other liturgy. It is natural to suppose with Dr. Lightfoot that when St. Clement wrote the letter, of which the very beautiful passage referred to is the climax, the Liturgy of the Church of Rome was already assuming a fixed form. The language of the Pontiff, in calling the Corinthians to prayer, " runs into those antithetical forms and measured cadences which his ministrations in church had rendered habitual with him." 3 1 This MS. was not traced by Haddan and Stubbs, but is in the British Museum (Cotton MSS. Nero A. ii.), and has been fully described by Mr. (now Sir Edward) Maunde Thompson. It is probably not so old as Spelman thought, but dates at latest from the end of the eighth century. - I cannot here enter on an explanation of the blunder which brings in Josephus and the fourth book of Eusebius. ■ St. Clement of Rome, Appendix, pp. 269 sqq. 192 STUDIES I therefore think it may be asserted that the Roman Mass may be traced to sub-apostolic times, and even to St. Peter himself, through his disciples, St. Mark and St. Clement. But it must not be thought that the Canon has come down to us from those early days without altera- tion. Its identity is like that of some living being, not inconsistent with change and renewal of many of its parts, provided the original form and pur- pose are preserved. It is, to begin with, admitted that the language current among the first Roman Christians was Greek, and that their public worship must have been originally in that tongue. But it is uncertain when, and in what circumstances, Latin came to be employed. Comely, the latest Catholic writer I can find who has treated this subject, holds that Greek alone must have been used in Rome for the two first centuries, Latin being first required for the use of the Church in Africa ; he might have added for that of Northern Italy also. There are reasons, which I gave in a former article on the Creed, which lead me to think Latin was probably used at an earlier period than the third century in Rome, at any rate in some con- gregations, the two languages being used simul- taneously in different churches ; so at least I understand a passage of Origen. 1 The cause which most probably led to the general adoption of Latin in Rome, seems to me to be the great schism, which began with Hippolytus, and 1 xpowTat eV raisivxaLS . . . . di u\v 'EWfyes 'E^tjvikois, di Se 'Paifiaiot 'Pa^iSt/coTs, Kai ovrus tKacrTos Kara ttjv kavrov SidheKTOv evx*Tat t<£ 0ecj}, ko,i ufive? avrbu m SiWtcu. (Contra Gels., viii. 37.) THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 193 was consummated by Novatian. The schismatics were, on the whole, the aristocratic and literary class of Christians in Rome, while I have referred above to the uncultivated style of the letters of the Roman clergy who elected St. Cornelius, and of other Roman documents of that time. The constant communication between Rome and proconsular Africa must have been another in- fluence acting in the same direction. Both of these seem to me more plausible suggestions than Mr. Hammond's, that the confusion produced by the great plague may have caused the change. We may suppose from what has just been said that the earliest Latin text of the Canon must have borne traces of its Greek origin, 1 and must have been written in the same " lingua vulgaris " as the Good Friday prayers, unless, indeed, the African Mass was from the first more polished, and was adopted in Rome. There can be little doubt that these characters have been removed from the Mass, as we have it now, by the recensions it must have undergone as the Catholics of Rome increased in numbers and culture. Some of the phrases, by their anti- thetical rhythm, suggest the authorship of St. Leo ; and a tradition asserts that he added the clause sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam. It has been suggested by Anglican writers that he broke up the original Liturgy of the Roman Church, incorporating many fragments of it in the Secrets which he composed ; but there is 1 I only remark two Grsecisms in the present Canon, ex hoc and postquam coenatum est ; both are in the account of the Insti- tution, and in the text of the Itala as read by St. Cyprian. 13 194 STUDIES no evidence of this, and all that I have adduced in favour of the antiquity of the Roman Mass is against it. Nor need I here consider the inge- nious theories of Probst and Bickell, each of whom suggests a different rearrangement of the Canon in its primitive order; for the reasons they offer are too purely conjectural to detain us. It is more necessary to dwell on the signs which the Canon still exhibits of extreme antiquity, in spite of the many alterations it must have undergone. One of the most remarkable is its independence of the letter of Scripture. Thus the account of the Institution in every other Liturgy has been more or less closely based upon St. Paul's lan- guage, beginning in each case with " the night He was betrayed " instead of the Roman " the day before He suffered." 1 In like manner all the other Liturgies end the account of the Institu- tion by 1 Cor. xi. 26 ; while the Roman has " As often as ye do these things, ye shall do them in remembrance of Me." So, too, in all other litur- gies the additions to the words of Institution are (with one remarkable exception) obtained by combining the different Scriptural accounts ; but in the Roman Mass we find elevatis oculis in coelum ; aeterni, and mysterium fidei, which do not occur in the New Testament. The last of these phrases has been assigned by some to St. Leo ; there can, however, be no doubt that it is far more ancient, for it is found also in the Clementine Liturgy, which has come down to us unaltered from the 1 The Alexandrian Liturgies (Greek St. Mark and Coptic St. Cyril) go on to commemorate the Passion and Death of our Lord in a manner which leads one to suppose they must have formerly begun like the Roman. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 195 fourth century. But the words are there placed earlier in the account, the passage running thus : " . . . . gave to His disciples, saying, ' This is the mystery of the new covenant ; take, eat ' . . . . " and this position must be due to a transposition, made when the original precise meaning of the words had been lost. I do not lay stress on Mr. Field's argument 1 that the " mys- tery of the faith " in 1 Tim. iii. 9 is contrasted with " much wine," though the point is remark- able. But two reasons come out clearly in the early Christian writers why the words should be applied to the consecration of the Chalice and not to that of the Host. 2 In the first place, the separate consecration of the blood of our Lord is, as St. Justin would have said, a pvaT^piov rr\<; eKKkrjaLa^, a symbolical act, intended to be the sign of His death. And, secondly, almost all the early Fathers attribute a special importance to the prophecy that Juda should " wash his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes " (Gen. xlix. 11), as referring to the form in which the Precious Blood should be presented to men." 3 Another instance in which the Canon shows 1 The Apostolical Liturgy and the Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 595. 2 " In consecratione corporis Christi non repraesentatur nisi passionis substantia ; sed in consecratione sanguinis reprae- sentatur passionis mysterium ; non enim a corpore Christi sanguis eius seorsum fuit nisi per passionemP (St. Thomas in 4 Sent. Dist. viii. qu. 2.) 3 So, for example, St. Cyprian (Ep. lxiii. 6) " quando sanguis uvae dicitur t quid aliud quatn calicis dominici sanguis osten- ditur ? " See, too, Tertullian, adv. Marc. iv. 40, and the passages from St. Justin, Origen and Clement Alex., adduced by Dr. Taylor in The Theology of the Didache. 196 STUDIES its independence of the text of Scripture, is the order of the Apostles in the Communicantes. As is well known, we have four arrangements of the Apostolic College in the New Testament ; that in the Mass does not conform to any one of these. It differs from them, not merely by the omission of the traitor, and the insertion of St. Paul with St. Peter ; but also by bringing up SS. Thomas and James above Philip, Bartholomew, and Matthew, in other respects following the order of St. Luke's Gospel. Other evidences of a remote antiquity are the coincidences which are numerous between the Canon and such early writers as Tertullian and St. Irenaeus. Probst has collected many of these ; and I therefore need not burden the reader with more than a few of the most remarkable. The catalogue of the three first Roman Pontiffs in the Communicantes is that presented to us by the earliest witnesses — Hegesippus and St. Irenaeus — from which, as is well known, later writers departed. Offerimus Tibi de Tuis donis et datis seems to be directed against the Gnostics, as in St. Ire- naeus's Offerimus ei quae sunt eius (iv. 18, 4) ; so, too, the same Father repeats the synonyms dona, munera, sacrificia (iv. 19, 1), like the Missal. Finally, locus refrigerii, lucis et pads is to be met with repeatedly. Refrigerium is used for the state of the blessed after death, most often by Tertullian ; locus refrigerii comes twice in St. Irenaeus ; and the somnus pads is frequent in catacomb inscriptions. And we get the two words — light and refreshment — used together in the THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MASS 197 Letter of the Roman clergy to St. Cyprian, which I have before had occasion to quote. 1 Much remains unsaid, which I should be glad to relate, and which would interest, I believe, many readers. But I am too conscious that I have not been able to avoid being tedious, to dwell any longer on details which, after all, are only of secondary importance. I hope I have at least attained my chief objects : to point out the direction which modern research has taken, and the road by which further advance is to be made. In a final article I hope to sum up the results obtained ; and to compare them with the only contemporary account we have of Mass in Rome in the second century. 1 " Paravit Deus refrigeria, sed paravit etiam aeterna sup- plicia ; paravit inaccessibilem lucem, sed paravit etiam . . . . vastam aeternamque caliginem" (St. Cyp. Ep. xxx. 7.) 198 CELEBRATION OF MASS IN ANTE- NICENE TIMES. I am only too conscious that the details on which I have been obliged to dwell have obscured the main point which I desired to bring out in this series of papers, and it therefore seems to me necessary to sum up the results at which I have arrived, in a description of the Mass as it must have been celebrated in Ante-Nicene times. Let the reader, then, imagine that the bishop, with his attendant twenty-four presbyters and seven deacons, has made his preparation privately, either in the church, or more probably before entering. The service began by the reading of one or two lessons, a psalm being sung between each ; after these came the Gospel. This was followed by the sermon — a practical exposition of the portions of the Scripture which had just been read. As long as the early discipline of the Church prevailed, the catechumens, penitents, and all who were not privileged to assist at the holy mysteries, were next excluded. The principal deacon now bade the faithful rise, and called on them to pray for the intentions which he successively announced : for the whole Church, for the Pope and all its ministers, for the Sovereign, for all necessities, for catechumens, heretics, Jews, and heathen, the faithful kneeling after each bidding-prayer and THE MASS IN ANTE-NICENE TIMES 199 praying for a while in secret. Then the celebrant saluted the congregation, and said the Sursum Corda, which was answered as now, by Habemus ad Dominum (St. Cyprian, de Or. Dom. 31). He sang the Eucharistic Preface — the " Super panem gratiarum actio" ending with the Sanctus, in which the whole congregation, at any rate as early as the middle of the second century, 1 joined. The Canon, which followed, must, as I have shown, have been to a great extent identical with that now used. The faithful joined silently (" sine monitore" Tert., Apol. 30), and with outstretched hands, in the intercession of the celebrant, the silence being broken by the deacon publishing before the consecration the names of those offer- ing ; 2 and probably after the consecration the names of the departed who were specially com- memorated. The Canon ended then, as now, with the Amen, signifying the union of the faithful with the celebrant, which is particularly referred to by St. Paul, St. Justin, and Tertullian. 3 Until St. Gregory's revision, the fraction of the Host and the commixture followed the Canon imme- diately, as is still the case in the Ambrosian rite. The Lord's Prayer was preceded by the same prefatory sentence as now, as we may conclude 1 See Tertullian De Orat. iii., and St. Saturus's vision of heaven in Ruinart, Pass. SS. Perp. et Felicit. xii. We may sup- pose that the word Hosanna had passed into liturgical use by the time St. Mark wrote his Gospel, since, contrary to his usual custom, he does not translate it. ■ St. Jerome has preserved for us an account which shows how readily abuses must have grown out of this custom : " Tantum offert ilia ; tantum Me pollicitus est. . . . placent sibi ad plausum populi." {In Ezech. 16.) 3 1 Cor. xiv. 16 ; 1 Apol. 67 ; ds Spectac. 25. 200 STUDIES from St. Cyprian and St. Jerome ; x and was followed by the " Embolismus," or prayer against all evil, into which the last clause expands. There must have been a prayer in immediate preparation for communion, corresponding to the " oratio inclinationis " of all the early liturgies, and repre- sented by the " Perceptio corporis tui " of our Mass. The celebrant then received himself and gave communion to the ministers and congrega- tion, the thirty-third Psalm being meanwhile sung. This was apparently followed by a post-communion, like the " Quod ore sumpsimus" and the Mass ended with the celebrant's benediction. It may be interesting to note some details con- nected with the administration of Holy Com- munion. The deacons assisted in the distribution of both the Body and Blood of our Lord ; and they set apart the particles needed for the absent and for the faithful to receive in their own homes, as well as those reserved for the sick. The faithful stood to receive, the sacred particle being placed in the right hand of the men ; women received it on the dominicale — a linen cloth. Minute direc- tions are given by the Fathers for its reception, 2 and the utmost care enjoined lest any portion should fall. At the end of the fourth century, in Italy and Africa, the celebrant said, in giving Communion, " Corpus Christi" and " Sanguis Christi," to which the communicant answered 1 " Inter sua salutaria monita et praecepta divina. . . . etiam orandi formam ipse dedit." (de Or. Dom. 2.) 2 See especially St. Cyril Jer. : Cat. Myst. xxiii. 5, and Dom Touttee's notes. THE MASS IN ANTE-NICENE TIMES 201 Amen. 1 By St. Gregory's day the form had become almost the same as now : " Corpiis Domini nostri conservet animam tuam." 2 Eusebius has fortunately preserved a passage in one of St. Cornelius's letters denouncing Novatian, which I quote in full, not merely because it shows how Communion was administered in the middle of the third century, but also because it testifies to the intense belief in the Real Presence which caused Novatian to act as he did. It reads more like an episode in some mediaeval history than one from the Church of the catacombs : — After he had made the oblation, and divided a part for each, when he gives it to the communicants, instead of the usual blessing, he constrains the unfortunate man, holding with both his hands the hands of the communi- cant, and releasing them not until the communicants have sworn as follows (for I will use his own words) : " Swear to me, on the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you will never leave me, and turn to Cornelius." And the wretched man does not receive until he has first cursed himself thus. And he who takes this bread, instead of saying the " Amen," says, " I will never more return to Cornelius." 3 Communicants were carefully instructed by St. Cyril of Jerusalem how they were to hold out their hands, " making the left hand a throne for the right, which is about to receive the King, and hollowing the palm, receive the body of Christ while answering the Amen." The piety of the 1 Pseudo-Ambrose IV. de Sacram. 5 ; S. Aug. Serm. 272, and contra Faust, 12. In Alexandria the corresponding phrase was aw/iia ayiov. 2 Vita S. Gregorii a Joan. Diac. 3 Hist. Eccl. vi. 43. 202 STUDIES faithful led to various devout practices, such as applying the Sacred Host to their eyes before receiving, and signing their lips with the sign of the Cross, immediately after taking the Precious Blood, 1 practices which were commended by the Greek Fathers from Origen to Theodoret, but which were liable to abuses that led to their pro- hibition in the West. The amount of ceremony with which the Holy Sacrifice was offered must have varied from a very early period according to opportunity. The few scattered references which bear on this sub- ject in Origen show that the pomp and ceremonial with which a High Mass was celebrated in his day must have been considerable. And we have a more detailed account of a High Mass in Egypt at the beginning of the fourth century, in the works of the so-called Areopagite, which with a very few modifications might serve as a description of a Pontifical High Mass at the present day. On the other hand, it will be remembered, I quoted an opinion of the older liturgiologists that, under stress of persecution, the Holy Sacrifice was offered in the early ages with merely the words of Insti- tution and the Lord's Prayer. This view was based upon several passages in the Fathers which at least show that a form of the Liturgy with less ceremonial, corresponding to our Low Mass, must have existed ; and there are others which imply the same, such as Tertullian's belief that St. Paul (Acts xxvii. 35) said Mass on board ship. There is, at any rate, good ground for supposing 1 See other instances in Dom Touttee's Admon. Praev. to St. Cyr. Jer. : Cat. Myst. xxxiii. THE MASS IN ANTE-NICENE TIMES 203 that the ordinary Sunday Liturgy differed at a very early time from that used on other occasions. The Didache gives two accounts of the Liturgy ; one apparently referring to the First Communion of a convert, and the other being the Sunday Mass. St. Justin follows the lines of this treatise in this matter as in so many others ; and his description is the more valuable because it is the sole in- stance when a Christian writer broke through the " discipline of reserve," and endeavoured to give an account of the great act of Christian wor- ship to the heathen. In the sixty-fifth chapter of the Apology which he addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, before the middle of the second cen- tury, he describes the Sacrament of Baptism, and then says that the newly baptised Christian is led to the assembly of the brethren. In the account which follows we can distinctly recognise the prayer of the faithful, the kiss of peace, the obla- tion by the bishop (6 irpoearm) of the bread and wine mixed with water. Then came the Preface, in which the celebrant " sends up praise and glory to the Father of all things in the name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and makes thanksgiving at length for having been deemed worthy to receive these things from Him." The faithful responded Amen at the end of the Eucharistic prayer (Canon), after which the deacons distributed to all present the bread and wine and water, over which thanks had been given, and took away a portion for the absent. In the next chapter, St. Justin explains that the word " Eucharist " was already used for the consecrated elements ; and that none were allowed to receive them, save those who had been baptised and lived according to our Lord's precepts. 204 STUDIES For it was not received as common bread and wine, but as the Body and Blood of Jesus incarnate, changed by the words of prayer which came from Him, as He took on Himself flesh and blood by the Word of God. 1 The words used in consecra- tion are next given, as the words of Institution : " Do this in My remembrance ; this is My Body " ; and " this is My Blood." In chapter sixty-seven, St. Justin describes the Sunday Mass as follows : — On the day which is called the Sun's, there is an assembly of all, whether they live in the towns or the country. As much is read of the memoirs of the Apostles, or writings of the Prophets, as time will allow. When the reader has finished, the president (6 irpoearrus) exhorts and urges us by a discourse to imitate the excellent things (that have just, been read). Next we all stand up together and offer prayers. And, as we have said before (cap. 65), bread, and wine, and water are brought forward, and the president offers up both prayers and thanksgivings to the best of his power, to which the people testify their assent by saying Amen. The elements for which thanks have been given ( T a>v ivxapta-r-ndevTcay) are distributed to all and partaken of by them, and sent by the deacons to the absent. The chief points in the early Mass, as I have described it above, will be easily recognised in this account. The reading of Scripture, the ser- mon, the prayers of the faithful, the Eucharistic and intercessory Preface and Canon, and the Communion, are very distinct. In two respects, however, it differs from the Roman Mass as we have hitherto dealt with it, so as to lead us to 1 The sentence in which this is expressed is long and involved ; but there can be no doubt as to its meaning. THE MASS IN ANTE-NICENE TIMES 205 believe that either St. Justin is describing some other rite, or the Liturgy of Rome must have been altered after his time. There are plausible reasons for choosing the former of these alterna- tives. St. Justin was a native of Syria, and it is therefore not improbable that he may have frequented some church of his own nation where the Syrian rite was followed, such peculiar uses having been always permitted and even encouraged in Rome. This is the more likely, because there are so many coincidences in his works with the language and thoughts of the Clementine Liturgy in the Apostolic Constitutions, as to show that he must have been familiar with the early form of the Syrian rite from which that Liturgy is derived. On the other hand, Cardinal Wiseman, amid that wealth of learning which may be found in Fabiola, points out that St. Justin, in his Acts, is made to say that he only knew one Christian assembly in Rome, " the house of one Martin at the Timothine bath." This appears to have been the house of Pudens, and if so, the rite used must have been the Roman, and the Trpoearm was the Bishop of Rome. 1 If this alternative is accepted, two changes must apparently have been made in the Mass since St. Justin wrote, in the middle of the second century. In the first place, it will be noticed that he speaks of the Preface as a thanksgiving " at great length " (eVt tto\v) ; which description, taken with the indication of its contents, seems to correspond with the long 1 Probst remarks, in another connection, that there is some reason to suppose Trpoecrrds was ordinarily used only of the Pope by early Christian writers. 206 STUDIES Preface of the Clementine Liturgy rather than with the short ordinary Preface of the Roman Mass. I have observed no such evidence of familiarity with the Clementine Preface in other early Roman writers as would decide this point. A priori, it seems more probable that a long Pre- face — itself derived from the " Great Hallel " of the Jewish Paschal service — should have been shortened, than that a short one should have been expanded into the shape which it now presents. The position of the " Pax " is one of the points in which the Roman Liturgy differs from all others ; and St. Justin only follows the rule in placing it before the Canon of the Mass. It is, however, remarkable that he does not mention it at all in his account of the ordinary Sunday Mass, and in the description in chapter sixty-five, the kiss of peace may be specially connected with the reception of the newly baptised convert. We are, therefore, not able to conclude decidedly from this passage whether the Pax occupied the same position at St. Justin's day in the Roman Mass as in the others. Even in them its place does not seem to have been at an early period fixed. If anything can be argued from 1 Thess. v. 25, 26, it must originally have preceded the Preface, and followed the prayers of the faithful ; and this is its position in the passage before us, in Origen, and in the Clementine Liturgy. On the other hand, the account of the Mass in the second book of the Apostolical Consti- tutions puts it before the prayer of the faithful, and immediately after the exclusion of the cate- chumens. Probably such a change may have been made to facilitate that mutual recognition which was relied upon as the surest means of excluding THE MASS IN ANTE-NICENE TIMES 207 those who had no right to assist at the Holy Sacri- fice ; and it is possible that a like alteration was made in Rome to keep from Communion the heretics who abounded there in the second century, and who mixed so freely with the faithful. By the fourth century, at any rate, we know from SS. Augustine, Jerome, and Innocent I., that the Pax occupied its present place in the Mass. Tertullian is commonly quoted as proving that it had the same position two hundred years earlier ; but his rhetorical language is ambiguous. 1 With this contemporary account of the Mass in the second century, I may fitly close this series of papers. They have run to a greater length than I contemplated when I began them ; for I found that, to show the antiquity of the Roman Mass, I had to go into details which must have been wearisome. Lest in following these the general purpose should be missed, I may briefly recapitulate what may be considered as established, as distinguished from what is doubtful or unproved. I believe I have shown that : — 1. All liturgies are found to agree more closely the farther they are traced back. Thus our Good Friday service and the Greek St. James are much more alike than their lineal descendants, the Roman Mass and the Liturgy of Constantinople of the present day. 2. The points in which all Liturgies agree must 1 De Or at. 14. " Quale sacrificium est a quo sine Pace preceditur ?" looks like a Pax at the end of Mass. But "quae oratio cum divortio sancti osculi Integra ? Quern Domino officium facientem impedit Pax ? " suggests rather a kiss of peace in close connection with the prayer of the faithful, and before the Canon. He distinctly proves that the Pax was not given on Good Friday. 208 STUDIES have been derived from some common source, and no other can be suggested than the teaching of the Apostles, who, while allowing much latitude in details, must have prescribed everywhere uni- formity in the general structure and character of the service. 3. The following are the points in which all early liturgies are agreed, differing from each other only in their order and in the language in which they are expressed : the reading of Scrip- ture, the prayer of the faithful, the kiss of peace, the Preface preceded by the Sursum corda and followed by the Sanctus, the commemoration by the celebrant of the living and the dead, the recital of the institution of the Holy Eucharist with the words of consecration, the commemoration of our Lord's passion and death, the Pater Noster, the Communion with its preparation and thanksgiving. 4. All but one of these features of the Liturgy are preserved in the Roman Mass of to-day — the prayer of the faithful being found only in the Mass of the Presanctified. As to its contents, therefore, our present Mass is of apostolic origin. 5. The general arrangement and structure of the Roman Mass, and even some of its language, can be traced, with a high degree of probability, to St. Clement, and even to St. Peter. 6. The Canon of the Mass must have undergone changes of uncertain extent during the first two centuries after apostolic times. By the beginning of the fourth century it must have existed in very nearly its present shape (pseudo- Ambrose) ; and the few alterations which St. Gregory the Great made in it, left it, thirteen hundred years ago, the same as we have it now. THE MASS IN ANTE-NICENE TIMES 209 It may appear strange to some of my readers that I have made no attempt to show the decisive bearing of the facts and inferences I have brought forward on the controversies which have been raised concerning the Holy Sacrifice since the sixteenth century. A sentence of the great litur- giologist, Renaudot, which Mr. Hammond has very justly chosen as the motto for his book, will best express my reason for thinking it utterly vain to point a controversial moral : " Hence shines out clearly that likeness of prayers and rites which confirms the ancient doctrine of the whole Church concerning the Eucharist." Those who cannot see for themselves that all ancient liturgies, orthodox and heretical, are based upon the sacrificial character of the Holy Eucharist, and our Lord's Real Pres- ence therein, are beyond the reach of arguments from liturgical details. But there is still stronger reason for silence. In studying the history of the Mass, we find ourselves, as it were, in some ancient, vast cathedral, where the Holy Sacrifice has been offered since the day of Pentecost. It would be unendurable that the discordant murmurs of unbelief and doubt should be allowed to break in upon the hymns of thanksgiving and praise, which the Church has unceasingly offered with that Sacrifice on the altar on high before the Throne of God. 14 210 THE EARLY HISTORY OF BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION. 1. Sakramemte unci Sakramentalien. Von Dr. F. Probst. Tubingen. 1872. 2. Les Origines du Culte Chretien. Par L'Abbe L. Duchesne. Paris. 1889. The history of the two sacraments of initiation into the Christian life is only secondary in import- ance to that of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Indeed, from a merely historical point of view their history has this advantage, that the changes made during the last fourteen centuries in the administration of Baptism and Confirmation have been even fewer than those in the Mass itself. The rites attending those two sacraments carry us back, therefore, directly to the days of the infant Church ; and we can easily picture to ourselves the impressive scene, when, on the eve of Easter or Pentecost, the catechumens went through the final ceremonies prescribed for their initiation, renounced Satan and all his works, and professed their acceptance of the doctrines and practices of that religious body, which, though small and despised, was beginning already to leaven the world. The subject has naturally attracted less study than has been devoted to the Liturgy proper, but HISTOKY OF BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 211 modern authorities are not wanting. The work of Probst, which stands at the head of this article, has left little more for his successors to do than the task of filling in details, and of adding a few points which had escaped him, or which have become known since his time. The work suffers to some extent by its being strictly limited to the first three centuries ; for the ante-Nicene history of these sacraments is hardly intelligible, apart from the ritual development of the period imme- diately following. Happily, M. Duchesne's 1 excellent book takes up the subject at the fourth century, from which point onwards no better guide could be desired. Of older writers, Dom Martene is perhaps the most useful ; and almost all our in- formation is, of course, derived from the Fathers, and from the invaluable notes of the great Bene- dictine editors, especially those on St. Ambrose and St. Jerome, above all from Dom Toutee's commentaries on St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Among Anglican writers, Dr. Mason, whose recent work I shall have occasion to refer to, 2 merits high praise for his candour and learning. I should be going out of my way were I to discuss his main thesis, which is, that Baptism and Confirmation form but one sacrament, but that each has its specific effect, which in the case of Confirmation is the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. This is, of course, a nearer approach to Catholic doctrine than the ordinary Anglican view, which Dr. Mason rightly says is not to be found in the primitive 1 Now Mgr. Duch'esne. 3 The Relation of Confirmation to Baptism in the Western Church. By Dr. A. Mason. 212 STUDIES Church ; but it is open to like historical objec- tions, besides the obvious difficulty of conceiving a sacrament which should be single, and yet double in all that constitutes a sacrament. It does not seem that much light it to be thrown on the details of these two sacraments by an examination of the ceremonies used by the Jews. Schiirer and others, indeed, have supposed that the so-called baptism of the proselytes served as a precedent for St. John ; but this rite is most probably later than the fall of Jerusalem, as it is not mentioned by Philo, Josephus, or the Tal- mud. 1 The Baptist is much more likely to have followed the example of the frequent washings prescribed by the old Law, and multiplied by the Pharisees. In like manner, the laying on of hands, anointing with oil, and the use of unguents, were customs familiar to the Jews, and were, for that reason, raised by our Lord to the office of con- veying and symbolising the moral and spiritual gifts His Apostles were to impart. It is important at the present day to bear in mind the very obvious truth, that Christianity had its origin in a nation where these external practices were habitual, and that they were adopted by our Lord for His Own and His disciples' use. By practically leaving the New Testament out of account, a modern school, of which Dr. Hatch has been the most influential member in England, has been able to gain credence for the view that all such rites are of heathen origin and due to the influence of Greek thought and practice on the early Church. If, however, the New Testament and the ecclesiastical history 1 See Schanz on Matth. iii. 6. HISTORY OF BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 213 of the first three centuries are studied together, they will be recognised as parts of one organic whole, and either will be found to throw much light on what is obscure in the other. There are, as is well known, two forms for bap- tism in the Roman Ritual, that used for the baptism of adults differing considerably in its ceremonies from that of infants. The latter is, however, almost entirely an abridgment of the former, which alone I shall examine here. On close study, its internal evidence strongly sug- gests that it has been condensed, and that the prayers and ceremonies which now immediately precede baptism must originally have been spread over a much longer time. Thus the three renuncia- tions of the devil and his works, and the three interrogations as to the faith, occur twice, at the beginning and just before baptism. The candidate is made to repeat the Lord's Prayer thrice ; and after each recital the godparent is bidden to make the sign of the cross on the candidate's forehead. The language of some of the prayers and exorcisms points in the same direction ; for instance, it is said that the candidate in huius seculi nocte vagatur incertus et dubius, and ut idoneus efficiatur accedere ad gratiam baptismi, percepta medicina. The history of the administration of the sacra- ment entirely confirms this view. The earliest examples of baptism in the Acts, indeed, show us that it was often conferred without more pre- liminary instruction or preparation than was needed to elicit an act of faith in our Lord and of desire to be baptised. But in most of these cases there was no time for detailed instruction, and sometimes (as in the first reception of Gentile 214 STUDIES converts into the Church) the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit took the place of further train- ing. But we also find instances — such as the gradual instruction of Apollos — which show that time, when available, was taken before baptising converts ; and the " catechisers " of Gal. vi. 6, and " pedagogues " of 1 Cor. iv. 15, imply that St. Paul had at least made considerable way towards the establishment of the catechumenate. The education of intending converts would clearly run on one of two lines, according as they started from Judaism or heathenism ; and hence common schemes of instruction would become convenient, if not necessary. The Didache fortunately supplies us with evidence of such a scheme, in its simplest, and probably earliest, form. The first six chapters of that work are made up of precepts and pro- hibitions, chiefly moral, based on the love of God and one's neighbour, which we are expressly told were to be taught to candidates for baptism. 1 This seems to have been mainly, if not exclusively, intended for converts from Judaism, who were already sufficiently acquainted with the funda- mental doctrine of the unity of God, and with the Decalogue. But those who approached the Church from heathenism — who soon became the great majority of all converts- had much more to unlearn and to learn before they could be received. It is clear, even from the account given by St. Justin, and yet more from Clement and Tertullian, that the catechumens first learned those truths of natural religion and morality which heathenism 1 BaTrriffare ravra iravTCt irpoenrSi/res (Did. 7, 1). HISTORY OF BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 215 had confused and obscured ; and then were in- structed in the mysteries of revealed religion. 1 Origen tells us, what we should naturally expect, that an inquiry was first made as to the probable sincerity of the candidate for further instruction, and also into such of his circumstances, whether a slave, soldier, married or single, &c, as might be a difficulty in the way of his reception. If the result of this inquiry was satisfactory, the candi- dates were admitted into the catechumenate, in which they were usually kept about three years. Apparently the admission to the catechumenate was marked by an explicit profession of desire on the part of the inquirer to be received into the Church, made to the Bishop or his delegate, who made the sign of the cross on the candidate's forehead. Tertullian's language 2 suggests that the opening words of our present baptismal service date at least from his day ; and that they are the remains of the ceremony of reception into the catechumenate. The catechumens were then in- structed in the elementary truths of natural and revealed religion, the general lines of the Rule of Faith being followed, and they were also carefully trained in the vast difference between the Christian and heathen standards of morality. Clement's Paedagogus gives a good idea of the profound and detailed practical education which a Pagan needed 1 So much, I think, is certain from Probst's detailed account (Lehre und Gebet, pp. 79-182), although Prof. Funk has shown that there is not sufficient evidence that the catechumens were formally divided into two or three classes, as Probst and others had supposed. 1 M Norint petere salutem, ut petenti dedisse videaris" (Bapt. 18.) 216 STUDIES before reception into the Church of Christ ; and this is no doubt the explanation of what may seem to us the long time during which the cate- chumens were detained under instruction and observation. They were probably not allowed to go further until they professed their readiness and ability to take up the responsibilities of a Christian life, and to bear the yoke of the Gospel. 1 We learn from Tertullian that the proximate preparation for baptism lasted forty days, occupy- ing, therefore, the time of Lent, if — as was the rule — the sacrament was conferred at Easter. During this period the catechumens were more fully instructed in the mysteries of the faith, and probably to some extent in the nature of the sacra- ments they were so soon about to receive ; they also learned by heart the baptismal Creed and the Lord's Prayer. Probst remarks that in the Testimonia of St. Cyprian we apparently have a specimen of part of the catechetical course of dogmatic instruction ; while the character of the practical teaching of prayer is exemplified in the commentaries on the Paler noster which Origen, Tertullian, and St. Cyprian have left us. These forty days of immediate preparation for the sacraments were rendered still more solemn by the religious practices and ceremonies which were assigned to them. In the East, we are told by an author of the second century, 2 that " fast- ings, supplications, prayers with outstretched hands, 1 Didache, 6 ; St. Justin, Apol. 1. 61. 2 Excerpta Theodoti, 88. HISTOKY OF BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 217 and genuflexions precede baptism " ; while Ter- tullian uses the same language in the West. 1 On examining these in detail, we shall find that the ceremonies of this stage of the catechumenate constitute almost entirely the pre-baptismal part of our present Ritual. In the Church of Africa — and therefore, we may safely conclude, in that of Rome — the beginning of this period was marked by a formal renunciation of the devil, of his pomps and his works. This was distinct from the renunciation which imme- diately preceded baptism, though it was made in the same words : Tertullian 2 expressly mentions the repetition, which, as I have remarked above, is to be found in the baptism of adults at the present day. This first renunciation was made, not in the baptistery, but in the church, 3 in the presence of the Bishop who placed his hand on the head of the candidate and exorcised him. 4 This renunciation almost everywhere had the form of answers to questions, as at present. The only exception was apparently the Church of Syria, especially in Jerusalem, where the neophyte, turning to the West, " the region of darkness," addressed the devil as present, and with out- 1 " Ingressuros baptismum orationibus crebris ieiuniis genicula- tionibus et pervigiliis orare oportet, et cum confessione omnium retro delietorum." (De Bapt. 20.) - Cor. Mil. 3 ; de Spectac. 13. 3 So St. Justin, Apol. i. 61 ; and Tertullian, " aliquanto prius in ecclesia sub antistitis manu contestamur nos renuntiasse diabolo et pompae et angelis eiusT {Cor. Mil. 3.) 4 " Per manus inpositionem in exorcismo." (Cone. Carthag. vii., and Gone. Illib. Can. xxxix.) 218 STUDIES stretched hands said : "I renounce thee, Satan." 1 The word " pomp," common from the earliest period to the East and West, carries us back to a time when the danger of indirect idolatry spread over almost every detail of daily life. 2 The renouncement of Satan was followed by a short profession of faith, which also was in the shape of answers to questions, everywhere but in Syria. This form was that adopted by the Roman law in all solemn contracts, and must have been used for the engagements entered into at baptism from the earliest times. One cannot lay stress on the interrogation of the Eunuch by Philip (Acts viii. 37), because of the uncertainty of the text ; but there can be no reasonable doubt that the iir6pcorr]fjia of 1 Peter iii. 21, refers to the interrogation at baptism, and it is highly probable that the ofioXoyia of 1 Tim. vi. 12, does so also. :j In the next century there is sufficient evidence that the custom was general throughout the entire Church, 4 and at any rate by the third century the form had been long fixed ; 5 and was the same 1 St. Cyr. Hier. Cat. Myst. i. 2 ; Const. Apost. vii. 41. 2 " The pomp of the devil is the folly of theatres and hippo- dromes and hunts and all such vanity." (Cyr. Hier, loc. cit. ; Tertullian de Spectac, 24.) 3 The tenses point to some definite occasion when this con- fession was made, and that it was when the disciple was called to eternal life ; therefore to his baptism, and not to ordination, as has been supposed. 4 Dionysius of Alexandria (Eusebius, H. E. vii. 9) ; Ter- tullian de Pud. 9, and Res. cum., 48 ; Origen in Exod. horn, v. 1. 5 " Usitate et legitima interrogationis verba." (Firmilian in Cyp. Opera, ed. Hartel, p. 818.) HISTORY OP BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 219 as the one used now. 1 It included, besides a profession of faith in the Blessed Trinity, an act of faith in the sacrament of baptism. In Jeru- salem, the candidate turned to the East, and said : " I believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and in one baptism of penance." 2 The forty days thus begun were employed in instructing the convert more fully, and especially in impressing on him the enormity of sin, and in training him for the Christian life. Fasting and other bodily mortifications occupied a prominent place. We have seen these mentioned by Theo- dotus and Tertullian, but there are much earlier evidences of the former ; the Didache and St. Justin, agreeing in this as in so many points, tell us that at any rate early in the second century those who assisted at a baptism fasted as well as the convert. 3 Another important preparation for baptism was confession. This is mentioned by Tertullian, but his language has been generally thought to refer to a general self-accusation — such as that in the Mass, or at Prime or Compline — and not to a specific confession of sins. But I think with Probst that it is impossible to read Tertullian' s words with care, and to doubt that he intended the latter. The confession he speaks of was a secret, not a public, one ; and the shame of making it was part of the satisfaction for sin. 4 Somewhat 1 St. Cyprian, p. 768. The closing words of cap. 61 of St. Justin's Apology suggest a formula like our own. 2 St. Cyr. Hier. Cat. Myst. i. 9 ; Const. Apost. loc. cit. 3 Didache, vii. 4 ; Apol. i. 61 ; see also Clem. Recog., in. 67 ; vii. 37. 1 " Nobis gratulandum est si non publice confitemur iniqui- tates aut turpitudines nostras ; simul enim satisfacimus de 220 STUDIES later, in the East we find evidence of the same 1 in various places. Tertullian refers to Matth. iii. 6, as a precedent ; he seems therefore to have believed that the confession made before John's baptism was also a specific one, as indeed the plural " sins " would naturally, but not certainly, imply. He does not notice the closer parallel of Acts xix. 8, where the confession was apparently a specific one, and made by persons who believed, but were not yet baptised. A little later still, we find confession before baptism usual in St. Ambrose's day in Milan. 2 Frequent prayer in the penitential posi- tion of kneeling was enjoined ; and the candi- dates were repeatedly examined to ascertain if they were fit subjects for receiving the sacraments. The " scrutinia " were held everywhere, but with most solemnity in Rome, where they were repeated seven times during Lent. 3 The most important of them was on the Wednesday of the fourth week in Lent, when the Lord's Prayer and the Creed were solemnly delivered to the catechumens. This day, called in apertione aurium, is still characterised in the Roman Missal by the beautiful Ferial Mass of the day, all of which refers to the sacrament about to be conferred. The usage differed in details in different churches of the West ; for instance, it appears from several passages of St. pristinis conflictatione carnis et spiritus, et de subsecuturis temp- tationibus munimenta praestruimus" (De Bapt. 20.) 1 Cyr. Hier. Cat. Myst. i. 5 and ii. ; Eusebius, Vita Const. iv. 61 ; Socrates, H. E. v. 17. 2 In Lucam, lib. 6 ; see, too, the author of the De Sacra- mentis, iii. 2. 3 Martene tells us that the Churches of Laon and Vienne still retained the " scrutinia " when he wrote. HISTORY OF BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 221 Augustine that in Africa the Lord's Prayer and the Creed were repeated by the candidate after some days' interval, so as to ensure their being perfectly remembered. I suppose this was origin- ally the Roman custom also, and that this was the source of the repetition of the Pater nosier in the present baptism of adults. We learn from several authors that special attention was paid in Rome to the verbal accuracy of the Creed, which the catechumens recited from a raised platform. 1 Having learned the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, the convert passed into the class of the competentes, and his name was given in for baptism, if this had not been done at the beginning of Lent ; for the practice evidently varied. 2 The choice of a " Christian " name must have been common in the East at a very early period ; 3 and must have been required to take the place of names derived from heathen mythology, which would be abhorrent to Christians. With this was connected the institution of sponsors or godparents, first explicitly mentioned by Tertullian, 4 although the custom must have existed before his time. 5 Corresponding with these preparations on the part of the catechumen, a series of ceremonies 1 St. Aug. Gonf. viii. 2. - De Sacram, iii. 2. 3 Clem. Recog. iii. 67 ; Dionysius of Alexandria in Eusebius, H. E. vii. 25 ; and the case of the martyrs of Palestine. * De Bapt, 19. 3 Hippolytus (ix. 15) tells us that the Elchasaites had seven sponsors who undertook that the neophyte should lead a moral and religious life. According to the Areopagite, the avaS6xos assisted in the instruction of the candidate. (Cael. Hier. 2.) 222 STUDIES were prescribed for the ministers of the sacrament. I have already mentioned that the period of im- mediate preparation for baptism began with an exorcism and reconciliation of the convert, marked by the Bishop's laying hands on the candidates, and making the sign of the cross on their foreheads. Similar rites and exorcisms were frequently repeated during Lent at the " scrutinia" ; and are the origin of those in the pre-baptismal part of our present service. Some of these were accompanied, as now, with insufflation and exsufflation, of which there is abundant evidence in the Eastern Church j 1 and which was called a " consuetudo antiqua," by St. Augustine in the West. 2 Touching the nose and ears with saliva seems to have been a Western custom of rather later date ; at any rate, the earliest evidence I find of it is in St. Ambrose, 3 in whose day the same words seem to have been used as at present. The use of salt is not certainly mentioned until later still ; for a passage which has been relied on in Origen 4 is probably allegorical ; and a reference of the date of St. Cyprian and two passages in St. Augustine are also doubtful. 5 1 $v(rri<r4is re ical avTupvo-rjcreis (Greg. Naz.) ; Kal ifKpvarjOijs, Kal 4iropKt(r6fjs (Cyr. Hier.). 2 De Nupt. et Cone. ii. 29; de Symbolo, i. 6; see, too, Ter- tullian, Apol. 23. 8 De My st. 1. The Benedictine editors of St. Ambrose date this treatise about 387. The author of the De Sacramentis i. 1, puts this as the first of all the baptismal ceremonies ; but also mentions a touching of the eyes at the time of admission to the competentes. This diversity leads one to suppose the rite must have been already one of some antiquity. 4 " Non es aqua lota in salutem, nee sale salita^ {Horn. 6, in Ezeeh. 6.) 5 Cone. Carth. viii. 8; Confess. 11; Cat. Rud. 26. HISTORY OF BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 223 Excluding these, we find it expressly mentioned first in the letter on baptism of Joannes Diaconus to Senarius, 1 written about 512 ; and then by St. Isidore about a century later. While these ceremonies were apparently intro- duced, others were omitted, such as the washing of the feet, at one time general, but prohibited by the 48th Canon of Elvira, probably because a sacramental efficacy had become erroneously at- tached to it. 2 In Rome, and in most other parts of the West, these preliminary ceremonies were performed in the church, where the catechumens assisted at the earlier part of the Liturgy, which during Lent seems to have been specially designed for their instruction ; while in Milan and a few Oriental Churches the baptistery was used for the purpose. 3 It is clear from St. Justin's language that a special baptistery was in use by the middle of the second century ; and it was everywhere employed for the rites immediately preceding baptism. These began on Holy Saturday morning by reading the " Prophecies," which summed up all the instruc- tion that had been given as to the dealings of God with mankind under the dispensations that had prepared the way for Christianity. Then followed the anointing with oil ; a ceremony which has had a remarkable history. The earliest evidence for it is almost entirely found in writings of an heretical, or at least a doubtful, character ; 1 Migne, P. L. lix. p. 399. 2 See de Mysteriis, 6, and the notes to de Sacram. iii. 1. 3 The details may be found in Dom Toutee's Diss. 2, cap. 5, on St. Cyril. 224 STUDIES such as the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, the practice of certain Gnostic sects mentioned by St. Irena?us, and the Clementines. 1 Dr. Hatch, fol- lowing Renan, infers from this that anointing was derived from the influence of non-Christian, Oriental, ideas. 2 He omits, however, to take into account that the symbolical use of oil was familiar to the Jews, and was sanctioned by our Lord and the Apostles ; so that we need not look beyond the New Testa- ment for examples of Christian anointing. And it is hardly conceivable that a custom of Gnostic origin should have attained such importance in the Church in the next and the following centuries, when orthodox writers agree in putting the pre- baptismal anointing almost on a level with baptism itself and with confirmation. 3 It is far more likely that the heretics took with them this ceremony with others when they left the Catholic Church. It will be observed that all the authorities I quote are Oriental, and that there is no such early evidence of anointing in the West ; indeed, the silence of Tertullian and St. Cyprian, and an incidental remark of St. Optatus, seem to prove that it was not in use, at least in Africa, in their time. But it must at any rate have been cus- tomary in Rome and Gaul before the fifth century, 1 Acta Matthaeae et Thomae, ed. Teschendorf, pp. 186, 213 ; Adv. Haer, i. 21, iii. ; Recog. iii. 67 ; and the third letter of Clement. 2 Hibbert Lectures, 1888, p. 308. 3 Const. Apost. iii. 15 ; vii. 22, 42 ; St. Cyr. Hier. Gat. Myst. ii. 3 ; St. Joan. Chrys. Horn. 6 in Col. ; Cael. Hier. 2 ; Theodoret in Cant. ; qu. 137 ad Orthod. among the works of St. Justin ; and Can. Hippolyti, xix. 9, 10. HISTORY OF BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 225 for a reply either of Siricius or Innocent I. to cer- tain bishops of the latter country shows it must by then have been established ; l and there is abundant evidence of it later in the Latin Church. The symbolical meaning of this anointing is variously stated : Hofling is too absolute in saying that in the East a positive grace is assigned to it, while in the West its effect was considered as negative. The commonest view is that expressed by St. John Chrysostom, that the catechumen is " anointed like the athletes before they go into the stadium." The unction was followed by a repetition of the renunciations which had been pronounced at the beginning of Lent ; 2 after which the font was blessed, this being mentioned in the Apostolic Constitutions, by SS. Cyril and Basil, in the East, and by St. Ambrose and the author of the de Sacra- mentis in Italy ; the Areopagite is the first to speak of the addition of chrism to the blessed water. But it is impossible to read Tertullian's treatise on baptism 3 without recognising the identity of thought, and even of language, with the present Blessing of the Font on Holy Saturday ; and one is inclined to believe that TertuUian was amplifying a ritual already existing, rather than to suppose that the Church adopted the words of 1 Canones ad Gallos, 11, in Coustant. The text is hopelessly corrupt ; but it is clear that the Pope lays down it is immaterial when the " oleum exorcisatum " is used, provided it be before baptism. See, too, de Sacramentis, i. 2. 2 " Aquam adituri ibidem sed et aliquanto prius in eccleaia sub antistitis manu contestamur nos renuntiasse diabolo et pompae et angelis eius." (Tertullian, Cor. Mil. 3, and Spectac, 4 ; de Sacramentis, i. 2 ; and de Mysteriis, 2.) 3 Especially caps. 2-5 and 9. 15 226 STUDIES that author. In either case it carries us back to the second century. The catechumen's clothes were now entirely put off, if, as in the East, that had not been already done before the anointing ; even rings were taken off, and he went down into the font and was im- mersed thrice. 1 A single immersion seems to have been introduced in Spain to emphasise the unity of the Godhead, and was first distinctly permitted by St. Gregory the Great. Baptism by immersion is still prescribed by the Ritual where it is the custom, and was undoubtedly the rule in the early ages of the Church. But the validity of affusion has of late years received a very unexpected primi- tive witness in the Didache, and was evidently employed in the " clinical " baptism of the sick. I have now reached a point at which it is con- venient to break off, since the subject cannot be dealt with in one article, even in the very imper- fect way which is all I have been able to attempt. I hope to be able to take it up on some subsequent occasion, to complete the history of baptism, and to give an account of confirmation. 2 1 Tertullian, de Bapt. 13, and adv. Prax. 26. a It is a subject of deep regret that growing infirmity pre- vented the realisation of this hope. The research displayed in this and foregoing articles would have resulted in further valu- able archaeological and historical disquisitions. But it was not to be.— H. N. B. 227 THE CANON OF THE NEW- TESTAMENT. 1. Histoire du Canon du Nouveau Testament. Par L'Abbe A. Loisy ; Lecons Professees a Vficole Supe'rieure de Th&ologie de Paris, 1890-91. Paris : Maisonneuve. 1891. 2. Introductio Generalis in Utriusque Testamenti Libras Sacros. Auctore R. Cornely, S.J. Paris : Lethiel- leux. 1889. 3. History of the Canon of the New Testament. By B. F. Westcott (Bishop of Durham). Cambridge. 1855. 4. History of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures in the Chris- tian Church. By Prof. E. Reuss ; translated by D. Hunter, B.D. Edinburgh: Hunter. 1891. 5. Geschichte des Neutestamentlichen Kanons. Von Th. Zahn. Erlangen: Deichert. 1888-91. It is a commonplace to observe that the vast mass of detail which has been accumulated by the intellectual activity of the last hundred years has oppressed every department of human know- ledge. It becomes daily more difficult to discern the bearing of facts that lie so thick on every side ; to see the forest because of the trees. The disadvantages of this are obvious and generally recognised ; one counterbalancing gain is less noticed, yet is of much importance. The collec- tion of facts, the tendency of which is unknown, 228 STUDIES excludes at least the influence of prejudice, and insensibly rectifies conclusions which had been based on one-sided grounds. This result has, as we should expect, been most marked in the pro- gress of religious controversy. Points that had been hotly contested since the Reformation, have been implicitly or explicitly abandoned by non- Catholics, so that new issues have been substituted for old ones, often without the change being per- ceived by either party to the controversy. One of the most important of these disputed questions is the position occupied by Scripture in the primi- tive Church. The subject has been approached not dogmatically, but from the historical side, and in answer to the question, in what circumstances, and at what time, did the collection of books known to us as the New Testament come to be recognised as inspired. This question arose out of the attack on the authenticity and inspiration of Holy Scrip- ture which has continued throughout the last cen- tury. Catholics, who have been less directly interested than orthodox Protestants, have good reason to be grateful to the latter for the zeal, ability, and learning with which the attack has been met. To mention only the chief among many excellent works — Dr. Westcott's volume was an effective reply to the objections of the Tubingen school in its earlier phases. The author of Super- natural Religion will have done the permanent service of eliciting from Dr. Lightfoot the essays in which he finally disposed of the pretensions of that work, and from Dr. Sanday a valuable con- tribution to the same subject. More recently Dr. Salmon's Introduction to the Study of the New Testa- ment has summed up the evidence for the orthodox THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 229 position so vigorously, that his work might be warmly recommended to Catholic students, if one did not feel that praise from such a quarter would do violence to his aggressive Protestantism. In Germany the amount of work done has been much greater even than here, and its results diverge more widely from the opinions formerly current among non-Catholics. The ground was broken by Credner, in his History of the Canon, which is too well known to need more than mention. Since then it is impossible to enumerate more than the chief writers on the subject — Hilgenfeld, Holtz- mann, Zahn, and Lipsius. Reuss's volume is of value as containing the most outspoken account of the bearing which the history of the Canon must have on the Protestant Rule of Faith . Finally, Harnack in his Dogmengeschichte, and in some of his lesser works, has written much on the subject, so that we are able to profit by his fertility of suggestion and abundant knowledge of the litera- ture of the early Church. It may be said generally of all these writers, that they tend to minimise the evidence for the early reception of the canonical books of the New Testament. I must, of course, not be taken as agreeing with them, if I confine myself strictly to my subject, and do not turn aside to traverse or qualify many of the statements I quote. Such a tendency is an inevitable reaction from the views as to the self-sufficiency of Scrip- ture, formerly current among non-Catholics, and now seen to be untenable. My object is to establish, by the testimony of those outside the Church, that the history of the reception of the New Testament by the Christians of the two first centuries is con- sistent with the Catholic teaching as to the rela- 230 STUDIES tion between Scripture and the authority of the Church, and inconsistent with all other opinions. We shall find, to use Professor Reuss's words, " the Catholic Church has remained faithful to its principle down to our own time." 1 It is hardly necessary for me to specify what that principle is. The Church teaches that she alone is the supreme judge of the meaning of Scripture and the norm by which all interpretation is to be tested. Further, she claims to decide what is, or is not, Scripture ; not as thereby conferring any inspiration on the books thus canonised, but as declaring them to be inspired. In the exercise of this power, she has added from time to time in the past to the Canon of Scripture such books as she judges to be inspired, and reserves the authority to do so in the future. Her judgment that certain books are inspired has been expressed, either by explicit teaching, or by authorising them to be read in public worship. 2 The theory which Luther attempted to set up in place of the Catholic doctrine is more complicated. If I rightly understand it, he claimed, not merely to interpret Scripture, but also to determine, by a subjective test, what books are inspired, by finding in them the doctrine of justification by faith only. The application of this test led him to consider some books — though inspired — of less value than others ; and to reject the Epistle to the Hebrews, and those of St. James and St. Jude. But there was at the same time a tendency in his own mind, and still more in the minds of his 1 P. 77. 2 Franzelin, De Script. Sac. Thesis xv. THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 231 followers, to seek for an objective basis for the books of Scripture, which was found in their uni- versal acceptance by Christians. This was clearly expressed by Brentius in the Confessio Wirtem- bergica (1551): " Sacram Scripturam vocamus eos libros canonicos V. et N. Testamenti, de quorum auctoritate in Ecclesia nunquam dubitatum est." 1 Such a definition would not have included the Second Epistle of St. Peter, which was, nevertheless, accepted by Lutherans ; but with this exception the two statements are not mutually incompatible. Those who framed the Anglican Articles were less successful in escaping from ambiguity. In the Articles of 1552 nothing is said of the books included under the title of Holy Scripture. The omission was supplied in 1562 by borrowing from the Wurtemburg Confession just quoted, and declaring that " in the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority there was never any doubt in the Church." No list was given, but the Church of England did not follow Luther in rejecting the " antilegomena " of the New Testament, as this general principle would have required. Dr. Westcott's statement, there- fore, that " the teaching of the Church of England as to the Canon of the New Testament is not removed beyond all question," is so far within the truth as to be almost ironical. The so-called " Reformed Churches " derived a more consistent test of the Canon from the relent- 1 The best collection of Protestant Confessions on this sub- ject is to be found in Professor Charteris's valuable work, Canonicity, pp. 36 sqq. 232 STUDIES lessly logical mind of Calvin. In the Confession which he and De Chaudieu drew up, he put the consent of the Church in the second place, and appealed chiefly to " the testimony and internal persuasion of the Holy Ghost, who makes us dis- cern ' Scripture ' from the other ecclesiastical books." The same line is taken by all the later Calvinist symbols ; of which the Westminster Confession may be taken as the clearest instance. 1 Barclay, the apologist of the Society of Friends, helped probably by his Catholic training, drew the inconvenient conclusion that the true Rule of Faith was — not Scripture, as the earlier Reformers had asserted, but — the subjective testimony of the Spirit to each individual believer. He consequently urged that this was the only test of the canonicity of any book of Scripture ; that, if it was rejected, men must return to Rome, and accept the infalli- bility of the Church — " let any one find a middle course if he can." 2 These were the chief views as to the origin of the Canon of Scripture put forward when sys- tematic historical investigation was in its infancy. We will now proceed to inquire which of these doctrines was held in the early Church, during the time when the Canon was being formed ; and how far the opinions of orthodox and sceptics outside the Church have been affected by their mutual controversies. 1 " Notwithstanding " the other evidences that Scripture is the Word of God, " our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts " (Art. V.). 2 See the whole remarkable passage quoted in Mohler's Symbolism, p. 388. ' THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 233 Among Anglicans, the chief result has been a clearer recognition of the importance of the Church as the witness to the canonicity of the books of the New Testament. Dr. Westcott frequently in- sists on this truth. He says, for instance : — The strength of negative criticism lies in ignoring the existence of a Christian society from the Apostolic age, strong in discipline, clear in faith, and jealous of innova- tion. It is then to the Church, as a " witness and keeper of Holy Writ," that we must look both for the formation and the proof of the Canon. The written rule of Chris- tendom must rest finally on the general confession of the Church, and not on the independent opinions of its mem- bers. It is impossible to insist on this too frequently or too earnestly. 1 Moreover, he fully admits, with that candour for which he is so conspicuous, 2 that the primitive Church did not consider its office limited to being a witness and keeper of Scripture. The successors of the Apostles did not, we admit, recog- nise that the written histories of the Lord, and the scat- tered Epistles of his first disciples, would form a sure and sufficient source and test of doctrine when the current tradition had grown indistinct or corrupt. 3 Dr. Salmon, too, urges very forcibly that the existence from the beginning of a Christian Church is proof enough that the New Testament did not 1 History of the Canon of the New Testament, p. 15. 2 The following example of Dr. Westcott' s candour is worth repeating here, though it has no connection with my present subject : " There is something mournful in the silent, shadowy line of the Roman Pontiffs during the first three centuries. They seem only to be heard when they claim the powers which their successors gained." (Introd. to Gospels, p. 396.) 3 P. 65. 234 STUDIES originate in the haphazard way supposed by Renan. But he appreciates more fully than the Bishop of Durham, that any authority which should be a real witness to Scripture must be supreme. The supreme authority in the Church [he says] is that which brings Apostles to its bar, tests their writings, and assigns to some the attribute of inspiration which it denies to others (if it be correct to say that the Apostles were not always inspired). But what that authority is I do not know. 1 He appears to relieve himself from the difficulty by suggesting the analogy of general opinion in matters of literary taste which has ruled that Shakespeare is a greater poet than Beaumont and Fletcher. The older non-Catholic view of the New Testa- ment has been affected in another way by modern criticism. Both orthodox and sceptical critics have been led to the conclusion that the three Synoptic Gospels show unmistakable signs of being depen- dent upon a Gospel, oral or written, which had taken a very definite shape before any of them had been put together. I will only mention one point in connection with this very interesting subject. Dr. Salmon gives reasons for supposing that the parts of the narrative common to all three evangelists were derived from a written source ; while the sayings of our Lord — which, though sub- stantially identical, differ in detail — probably reached them as part of an oral tradition. He points out further that the matter common to the three first Gospels (Dr. E. Abbott's " triple tradi- tion ") belongs only to our Lord's Galilean ministry, 1 Appendix, p. 9. THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 235 which few persons would be qualified to relate. An examination of the common matter leads him to think that the most probable witness to all this part of our Lord's life is St. Peter, whom he there- fore believes to have been the author of the common basis of the three first Gospels. 1 Nor are evidences wanting to show that Anglican theologians will be carried still farther from their old positions, as they become more familiar with the results of recent German investigation. For instance, the learned Bampton Lecturer for 1890 seems to have adopted Reuss's teaching as to the origin of the New Testament, without realising that it is inconsistent with the ordinary Anglican view concerning the relations of tradition and Scripture. A few quotations will suffice : — In the Apostolic age there is no traceable idea of any new collection of writings for the use of the Church There is no suggestion that our Lord directed His disciples to write The terms used in the history of the promulgation of the Gospel and the foundation of the Church never include the idea of writing, and they express every cognate idea so fully that they must be taken to exclude it It does not appear that any one of the writers of the New Testament thought of his writing as one which would become of general use in the Church, or would be read apart from the oral teach- ing which had been already communicated, and which formed the substance of the " faith once delivered to the saints." 2 The first three chapters of Reuss's work, to which the Archdeacon refers, contain the amplest 1 Lecture 9. 2 Archdeacon Watkins's Modem Criticism and the Fourth Gospel, pp. 140, 141. 236 STUDIES proof of all these statements. When, leaving apostolic times, the learned Strassburg professor comes to consider the origin of the Canon, he goes still farther. He says with perfect frankness that " the Catholic Church has remained faithful to its principle down to our own time " ; and quotes St. Irenaeus and Tertullian in proof of this, especially relying on the numerous well-known passages in the de Praescriptione Haereticorum. He might have alleged the whole treatise, for its very title — the Demurrer against Heretics — shows the author's object is to point out that heretics have to over- come a preliminary objection before issue can be joined with them, and their arguments heard. No appeal by them to Scripture should be admitted, nor should any argument based thereon be allowed. The only question to be discussed with them is, to whom has the teaching of the faith been delivered ; where this is found, there also will be the truth of the Scriptures and of their interpretation ; an argument based on Scripture can only lead to loss of temper or to confusion. 1 Reuss might have strengthened his case by appealing to the great Alexandrines, Clement and Origen, but as he says — 1 " Ergo non ad Scripturas provocandum est, nee in his con- stituendum certamen quibus aut nulla aut incerta victoria, solum disputandum est cui competat fides ipsa ; a quo et per quos et quibus sit tradita disciplina qua fiunt Christiani ? ubi enim apparuerit esse veritatem disciplinae et fidei, illic erit Veritas Scripturarum et expositionum, et omnium traditionum." (Cap. 16.) As Dr. Westcott relies on this passage to show that the primitive tradition was merely hermeneutic, it is as well to note that Tertullian expressly says the truth of the Scripture, as well as of its interpretation, is dependent on the authority of the teaching body. So, too, St. Irenseus, IV., 33-8 ; rather a fuller statement of the same. THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 237 It is needless to multiply quotations on this point. The Protestant opposition of the sixteenth century of itself testifies that Catholicism remained only too faithful in its attachment to this principle of subordinating Scrip- ture to tradition, and only too logically pushed it to all its consequences. Like other writers of the same school, Reuss has remarked that the heresies of the second century had another somewhat opposed result ; they increased the veneration in which the Scriptures were held in the Church. But, after dwelling on this, he repeats that Irenseus and Tertullian, the representatives of Catholicism, affirm the collec- tive and equal value of Scripture and Tradition, adding, "It is therefore by a singular delusion that certain modern authors transform these fathers into Protestant theologians." Reuss's volume may be said to give the principal results of the criticism of the Tubingen school as far as it bore upon the history of the New Testa- ment Canon ; and I might, instead of him, have quoted Hilgenfeld as an authority for the same statements. A new direction was given to this, as to so many other historical questions, by Har- nack. The principal advance made by him was his endeavouring to distinguish, more accurately than had before been done, the circumstances in which the Canon grew up, and the reasons which determined the choice of certain books as canonical and the exclusion of others. As to the former of these points, he urges that the collection and canonisation of the books which make up the New Testament were necessary results of the struggles with the Gnostics and Marcion. Not only did the heretical appeal to the apostolical 238 STUDIES writings compel Catholics to take these, as it were, out of their opponents' hands, they had also to guard against mutilations and alterations of the text, which were not uncommon. Montanism made it still more urgent that there should be a clear line drawn between the inspired Christian writings and those which could lay claim to no such authority. The essence of this heresy in its early stage was the belief in the prophecies of Montanus, Priscilla, and Maximilla, and the asser- tion that these constituted a secondary and final revelation : to which the Church replied by declar- ing that the epoch of revelation was closed, and that the Holy Spirit had only been given in fulness and without measure to the Apostles. The con- flict led in another way to the formation of the Canon. Doubts were thrown on the authority of certain books alleged by either side in the con- troversy ; and we find that ecclesiastical councils decided the question. 1 Beyond this Harnack considers the early his- tory of the Canon involved in obscurity, until it suddenly breaks upon us as generally accepted in the well-known fragments of Melito and the Mura- torian Canon. This very obscurity is due to the acceptance of the books composing the New Testa- ment being based merely on the authority of the Church, without regard to the individuals who may have been instrumental in selecting them. Clement, Origen, St. Irenaeus, Tertullian, did not mention 1 Gp. Tertullian, de Pud. cap. 10, where he says that the Shepherd of Hernias " ab omni concilio ecclesiarum etiam ves- trarum inter apocrypha et falsa iudicaretur" And again, cap. 20, " receptior apud ecclesias epistola Bamabae (Hebrews) illo apo- crypho Pastor e moechorum." THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 239 who made the collection, but received it simply as delivered to them by the Church ; and later, St. Augustine spoke only generally of the " Sancti et docti homines qui examinare talia pot er ant" 1 One point, however, Harnack regards as certain. The Catholic communities, to meet the needs of the time, canonised those works which on the ground of tradition they held to be apostolical in origin, and chose that recension of the text which was followed in the public services of the Church. In any doubtful case one test, he says, was looked on as of primary importance ; nothing was admitted as inspired which was adverse to the Rule of Faith — that is, to the Catholic doctrine as expounded by the legitimate pastors of the Church. 2 A frag- ment happily preserved for us by Eusebius 3 shows us the practical application of this principle. Serapion, a bishop of Antioch about the end of the second century, found the people of Rhossos in Cilicia had in use a gospel ascribed to St. Peter. After a cursory inspection he submitted it to be publicly read, but withdrew that permission on finding it contained matter contrary to the Catholic faith. Harnack's conclusion is that when the Canon was being formed the essential test whether a book belonged to it was not an historical but a dogmatic one ; not whether it had been written by an Apostle, but whether it conformed to the teach- ing of the Church. This view was traversed not altogether unsuccessfully by Professor Overbeck, 1 Cont. Faustum, xxii. 79. - He refers for the fullest proof of this to Tertwllian, Praescr. Haer., 37 sqq. 3 H. E. y vi. 12. 240 STUDIES of Basel. 1 He admitted, indeed, that the Catho- licity of the contents of any book had been always a condition necessary for its reception into the Canon ; but he urged that the primary requisite was its apostolic authorship. In support of this he appealed with great force to the history of the inclusion of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Canon ; but he laid even more stress on the canonical character of the Epistle to Philemon. He quoted the statement of St. Jerome that many early writers had denied the inspiration of the latter epistle, because it was not written with a view to instruc- tion ; but in spite of this it was received as canonical, because written by St. Paul. 2 In his later works Harnack practically accepts Overbeck's criticisms, with some exceptions on which I need not dwell here. I only want to draw attention to this point : the controversy led both the disputants to consider the relation in the early Church of Scripture to the Rule of Faith, and both were agreed that the teaching of the Church was held to be the norm and test of Scripture, and not conversely. In his History of Dogma, Harnack draws out in a series of " Antitheses " the some- what opposed results which he conceived were due to the establishment of the Canon. Most of these are not to my present point ; and it would not be possible to accept them without considerable qualifi- 1 Zur Geschichte des Kanons. Chemnitz. 1880. 2 Praef. in Ep. ad Philemonem, Opp. vii. 742 sq. The whole passage is of great interest in its bearing on the history of inspiration. St. Jerome does not say who the " plerique veteres " were ; as far as my own reading goes, I have only met with the opinion in Origen (in Joan, i. 5). ; THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 241 cation. But the last gives a sufficiently good idea of their tendency to be quoted in full : — To the Church alone belonged the Apostolical writings, because she alone preserved the Apostolical teaching in the Rule of Faith. This was explained to heretics, and, on principle, no argument with them was based on Scrip- ture, or on the sense of passages of Scripture. But in domestic questions Scripture was the final and completely independent appeal, against which even an ancient tradi- tion was of no avail. Harnack's account of the formation of the New Testament has met with a severe critic in Pro- fessor Zahn, who, in the course of his exhaustive work on the Canon, has been led to differ from some of Harnack's conclusions. The discussion has been conducted at a length, and with a warmth which would hardly be possible out of Germany. 1 I have not followed all its details, nor would they bear on our present subject. Where they differ, it will be found that Zahn is more orthodox than his opponent, putting the existence of a collected New Testament farther back than Harnack does. He traces " the roots of the New Testament to the first generation of Christians," though he agrees that there was a gradual development in the venera- tion in which the sacred writings were held, until by the end of the second century they had attained the position they have ever since occupied. Much of the difference between the two writers is due to a different estimate of the same facts ; both, for instance, admit the impulse given to the forma- 1 Those who desire to follow the controversy will find it in Harnack's Das N. Testament um das Jahr 200, and in Zahn's Bemerkungen zu Ad. Harnack's Prufung ; and a review of the whole in Theol. Studien und Kritiken, 1, 1891. 16 242 STUDIES tion of a Catholic Canon by Marcion's attempt at mutilation ; but Zahn urges that the production of this new Canon is a proof that a Catholic one already existed. Again, Harnack asserted that the books composing the New Testament under- went considerable alteration about the time they were declared canonical ; while Zahn has shown good reason for believing that no such wholesale revision has taken place, and that we have the New Testament substantially as it was in the hands of the Apostolic Fathers. But these are only points of detail ; the two authors differ most in the direc- tions where they have looked for evidences of the Canon. Harnack dwelt particularly on the formal reception of the sacred books by some local council or bishop, after — it is to be supposed — examination of its contents and of the evidence for its Apostolic origin. He attached less than due importance to the informal reception of these works by their being publicly read in the Church services. Zahn has the advantage of calling attention to the omission, and of pointing out that this indirect canonisation carries the evidence for the New Testament farther back than formal decisions would do. The disputants have each laid too exclusive a stress on one of the two ways in which, it will be remembered, I set out by saying the Catholic Church has canonised the books com- posing the New Testament. It would be nearer the truth to say, that these two methods belong to different stages in the history of the Canon. In the earlier period which preceded explicit defini- tion, a position of special honour and authority was given to the writings of the Apostles by their public use in the Liturgy. When dealing with THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 243 this stage of its history, M. Loisy very ably points out how significant it is that the Church should not have formulated a definite Canon, in opposition to the Gnostics on the one hand, who added a flood of apocryphal writings to the New Testament, or to Marcion on the other hand, who mutilated it wholesale. Reuss has suggested that this shows the pastors of the Church did not yet distinctly believe that the books composing the New Testa- ment were divinely inspired. This view is, how- ever, inconsistent, as Zahn has shown at length, with the references to the New Testament in the early Fathers ; and it is inconceivable that books to which no special character attached should have been suddenly put on a level with the Old Testa- ment by the orthodox writers throughout the whole Church. 1 The true solution has been put by M. Loisy with conspicuous ability. Christians believed from the beginning that the Apostles were endowed with the fulness of the Holy Ghost in an extraordinary and special degree. 2 But they had not yet explicitly realised that the inspiration of what the Apostles wrote in the execution of their pastoral office was a necessary effect of the Apostolic charisma, and they consequently did not at first speak of their works as inspired. In this the primitive Church did but follow the example of the Apostles themselves. No express claim to the inspiration of their writings is put forth by 1 The " suddenness with which the New Testament conies on us in Melito, Irenaeus, and Tertullian," is a puzzle to Har- nack, and a serious objection to his theory. 2 S. Clem. Rom., 1, 43 and 47 ; S. Ignat. ad Rom., iv. 3 ; Polyc, 3 ; Novatian de Trin., 29. 244 STUDIES any of the authors of the New Testament, with one exception. That exception — the Apocalypse — was at once put on a level with the prophecies of the Old Testament. Moreover, time was required for the spread throughout the Church of books primarily addressed to individuals and to local communities, even in an age when intercommunica- tion was greater than it has ever been since until our own day. Reuss's explanation being there- fore incorrect, the fact remains, that to the first attacks of heresy on the New Testament the Church did not oppose a formally defined Canon, but her own living authority. " The question of the mutual relations of Scripture and Tradition was thus resolved in fact, the first assault of error having shown the necessity, not for a book, but for an authority teaching the truth." 1 The second stage, of inquiry and formal decision, began in the Church after the rise of Montanism. That heresy, as I have said, called attention to the limits of written revelation, and led Catholics to perceive more clearly than before that this must be confined to works written by the Apostles themselves, or composed under their immediate authority. Hence followed a sharper distinction between canonical and non-canonical books ; of which the principal result was the exclusion of the Shepherd of Hermas. This singular work was acceptable to neither party ; the Montanists rejected it on account of its laxity, while the Catholics could not defend with any warmth a collection of visions, very like those put forward by their opponents, and undoubtedly later than 1 Op. cit., p. 80. THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 245 the Apostolic age. 1 The doubts thrown on the Epistle to the Hebrews were apparently due to a similar tendency. Where Catholics came less closely in contact with Montanism, as in Alexandria, the line of demarcation between inspired Scripture and other primitive religious works was less sharply drawn. This is most conspicuous in Clement, as Harnack points out ; but it may also be noticed in Origen. 2 This writer was the first person of great ability who had been led to study the Canon of the New Testament, and had the advantage of comparing the opinions current in the East with those held in Rome. The test, whether any book was canonical or not, is for him, as for all the primitive Church, not his own judgment con- cerning it, nor its intrinsic character, but its recog- nition by the universal Church. 3 Indeed, in his great theological work he enumerates the inspira- tion and interpretation of Scripture among the subjects which come to us on the authority of the Church. 4 I have now reached the limit of my inquiry. All are agreed that by the time of Origen and Tertullian, at latest, the New Testament, in the same sense as we now have it, had been constituted. Its outline, indeed, was not perfectly distinct, some books were not received throughout the whole 1 This, M. Loisy's suggestion, is by far the most plausible explanation of the discredit into which Hermas gradually fell. * It has not, however, been sufficiently remarked, that both these Fathers often only express their own private opinion when they speak of any non-canonical work as inspired. 3 This is very clearly brought out by Hilgenfeld in Der Kanon tend die Kritih des N. Test., p. 47. 4 De Princip. 1, cap. 8. 246 STUDIES Church, and their claims were handled with a freedom that might surprise us, did we not bear in mind that the Church had issued no definition concerning them. Pending her decision there was not only full liberty to weigh the evidence for and against the canonicity of any given book ; but it was clearly desirable that this should be discussed by those who were competent to do so. Such criticisms as those of Julius Africanus, Origen, and Dionysius of Alexandria, were the natural preludes to authoritative definition. An attempt to decide the limits of the Canon merely by an appeal to history was made in the next century by the person of all others best qualified to do so, had the enterprise been possible. The confusion in which Eusebius left the question was due, as M. Loisy very acutely points out, to his endeavouring to give an answer by history alone to a question which is, partly at least, theological. What Eusebius failed to do can never be accom- plished by those who have not before them a tithe of the evidence which was in his hands. My object has been a much more simple and more feasible one. The relation of Scripture to the rest of Tradition, and of both to the teaching authority of the Church, is admitted by all to be the crucial point of difference between Catholics and non-Catholics. It seemed, then, worth while to inquire which view was held by Christians during the time when the Canon of the New Testa- ment was being formed ; and what principles guided them in selecting some books and excluding others. My very brief survey will have shown that a great amount of information has been accu- mulated by writers outside the Church, to whose THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 247 learning and honesty we are very greatly indebted. The result of their testimony is that, tried by this test, the Christians of the first two centuries were undoubtedly Catholics. It would be interest- ing to carry the history of the subject down to the rise of Protestantism and to the Council of Trent ; but I shall not regret I cannot do so here, if I send those who wish to pursue the subject to M. Loisy's excellent work, which deals with it very fully. 248 LIGHTFOOT'S ST. IGNATIUS AND THE ROMAN PRIMACY. The Apostolic Fathers. Part II.: "St. Ignatius"; "St. Polycarp." By J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., D.C.L., Bishop of Durham. Two Volumes. London : Macmillan and Co. 1885. The least observant student must be forcibly struck in passing from the New Testament to the works of the Apostolic Fathers, with the contrast between the inspired and the uninspired writings. Even if we try to consider both from their merely human side, the difference in clearness of expres- sion and literary power is so enormous, that it is impossible to believe it undesigned by Providence. The pathetic simplicity of the Gospels, and the eloquent pen of St. Paul, were indeed divine instru- ments of great power in the conversion of the world. But, to show that God had chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, the Apostles were succeeded by at least two genera- tions more profoundly indifferent to literary fame than any that have come after them. The hus- bandmen were so few, and the harvest so great, that they had no leisure to write, and would have made St. Cyprian's words their own : " Non magna loquimur, sed vivimusP Moreover, as one of their number has told us, they were happy in ST. IGNATIUS AND THE ROMAN PRIMACY 249 hearing those speak who had been taught by the Divine Master Himself by the Sea of Galilee, or in the Holy City, and rightly thought that " the knowledge gained from books could not be of such service as that which flowed from the living and enduring voice." Yet, however, natural their silence and however providential as establishing the divine origin of Christianity, it is none the less a serious loss to their heirs. And, even of the scanty litera- ture of those times, that has come down to us, so much is anonymous, of doubtful authenticity, or clearly supposititious, that all the known writings of the immediate successors of the Apostles could be readily contained in one small volume. It will be seen at once how this scantiness makes it diffi- cult and unsafe to appeal to their testimony. Above all, it encourages the " fallacy of silence " — the assumption that whatever is not mentioned in these works was then not believed, or non-existent. This opinion is patent as soon as pointed out, and is recognised by all ; but it is so tempting to all who are concerned in denying the Apostolic origin of Catholic doctrine and practices, that it is worth while to give a popular illustration ; others will occur in the course of this article. Protestants and Catholics alike know that our three great English Cardinals 1 have been constant defenders of the faith, and that there is perhaps no Catholic teaching which could not be found in their pages. Yet it would be very easy to extract at random fragments from their works which would make a volume larger than the Opera Patrum Apostoli- corum, and yet leave whole provinces of Catholic 1 I.e., Cardinals Wiseman, Manning, and Newman. 250 STUDIES dogma and discipline unmentioned. The result is, that the first ages of Christianity are a debateable area, and as it were a hunting-ground, in which each one finds what he has gone to seek. To the Anglican they reflect the ideal of the Church of England as he understands it ; to the Presbyterian, a congregational system ; while to French and German Rationalists it is the home of figments, strange and monstrous as those which people the outer regions of media? val charts and travels. We may be glad these last admit that, when the dark- ness lifts, and Origen, Tertullian and Cyprian give us light enough to recognise Christianity, it already has the distinctive features of the Catholic Church. Harnack, to whose works we shall have repeated occasion to refer, for instance, says : — Kenan has clearly seen that the history of dogma has only two periods, and that the alterations which Chris- tianity has lived through since the formation of the Catholic Church bear no appreciable ratio to the changes which it experienced before that Church was established. He only puts the date of that establishment too early in the following passage : " Si nous comyarons le Christianisme, tel qu'U existait vers Van 180, au Christianisme du IV me et Yme siecles, au Christianisme du moyen dge, au Chris- tianisme de nos jours, nous trouvons qu'en realite il s'est augmente de tres peu de chose dans les siecles qui ont suivis." The admission is important enough — indeed, in any other department of history it would probably suffice to command general assent. But it only limits the province of the Catholic apologist, and directs his attention to the ecclesiastical history of the first two centuries as the central position in the battle-field. Happily, we can recognise most fully the learning, diligence, and desire for perfect ST. IGNATIUS AND THE ROMAN PRIMACY 251 fairness of all our chief opponents, even where, alas ! they are led furthest astray by some ante- cedent fallacy, or some misconception of the very nature of revealed truth. Among such honoured opponents Dr. Lightfoot has long held one of the highest places. His com- mentaries on several of St. Paul's Epistles, and his answer to the author of Supernatural Religion, are well known to all students. He has also pub- lished a critical edition of St. Clement of Rome. In the present work he gives us the result of many years' study, all the more valuable because he has modified the opinions with which he started. If, as we have heard, it has delayed the publication of his commentary on the Ephesians, our gain is not unmixed, though this latter volume, we hope, may now soon be accessible to us. A great part of his present work was written before the end of 1878. He was then appointed to the bishopric of Durham, and his leisure has been too scanty to allow of rapid progress. Every student will sympathise with his regret that " for weeks, and sometimes for months together, I have not found time to write a single line " ; all do not know at the cost of how great self-denial his work has been at last accomplished. It has no doubt gained by the opportunities of reconsideration and revision which this delay has given, though we doubt whether the general arrangement has not suffered from such constant interruption. A very com- petent judge has said that it "is the most learned and careful patristic monograph which has appeared in the present century " ; and all will agree that it exhausts its subject, and scarcely allows of the possibility of a future editor. Catholics in par- 252 STUDIES ticular owe him a debt of gratitude for so abun- dantly vindicating a Father, whose letters, as we shall presently show, are one of their most precious inheritances. Independently of their matter, the history of St. Ignatius' s Epistles is of sufficient general interest to call for a short account of them. When literature first began to dawn in the Middle Ages, seventeen epistles, attributed to St. Ignatius, were in circulation in Western Europe. Four of these, purporting to be a correspondence between our Saint and the Blessed Virgin and St. John, were soon recognised to be clumsy forgeries. Dr. Lightfoot is careful to clear St. Bernard of the charge of having thought them genuine. The remaining thirteen were at first naturally accepted, but by degrees it was discovered that Eusebius knew only seven letters ; that the quotations in that author and Theodoret diverged greatly from the text, and that many of the references to early Christian history were gross anachronisms and blunders. At the time of the Reformation another influence came into play ; the support given by the Epistles, as then known, to the supremacy of the Holy See and to episcopacy, led writers to support or deny them, according to their theological doctrines. Catholics generally (with the notable exception of Petavius) accepted them ; Protestants did not deny a nucleus, but excised whatever did not suit their several views. The way in which the shorter text was next discovered is peculiarly interesting to the English reader. Ussher, the learned Protestant Archbishop of Armagh, observed that the quotations from St. Ignatius in three English writers (Robert Grosse teste, the Bishop of Lincoln, and two Franciscans, John Tyssington ST. IGNATIUS AND THE EOMAN PEIMACY 253 and William Wodeforde), while agreeing exactly with the quotations in Eusebius and Theodoret, differed considerably from the " Long Recension " hitherto known. He, therefore, looked for a more correct text in the English libraries ; and his search was rewarded by the discovery of two Latin MSS., which he published in 1644. The original Greek was published two years later by Isaac Voss, except the Epistle to the Romans, which was first brought out by Ruinart in 1689. The discovery of the Vossian text brought no relief to the Presbyterian divines, who had always ad- mitted a genuine nucleus, but excised all the passages testifying to episcopacy. The most learned of these objectors (Daille) was answered by Pearson, as it was generally agreed finally, and the controversy slept for near two hundred years. But in 1845 Cureton published a Syriac version, which con- tained only three epistles and a fragment of a fourth, all in a shorter form than the Vossian recension. He contended that he had now dis- covered the primitive text, of which the Vossian letters were an expansion ; and he was at once answered by his brother Canon of Westminster, Wordsworth, who characteristically asserted that the Syriac was " a miserable epitome made by an Eutychian heretic." At first the current of opinion turned in favour of Cureton's view, the Catholic critics, Hefele and Denzinger, being in a minority in opposing it ; but it has gradually come to be seen that there existed an early Syriac version of the whole thirteen letters (both Vossian and spurious), and that the quotations in early writers are from the Vossian recension ; and it is now generally admitted that Cureton's text is merely 254 STUDIES an abbreviation. Hefele, Alzog, and others con- sidered that it was drawn up with an ascetical aim by some Syrian monk ; Lightfoot is more probably correct in supposing the selections made due to no fixed principle, but to be mainly accidental. It is not so easy to know who composed the addi- tional letters and interpolations of the " Long Recension," and with what object. But a number of circumstances converge in pointing to the middle of the fourth century as their date, Cardinal New- man's critical sagacity having anticipated the results of later inquiry. He considers the writer to have been an Arian, an opinion which Lightfoot endorses so far as to suppose his policy was intended to reconcile Arianism and Catholicism. Funk, the latest Catholic editor, argues (not we think quite satisfactorily) that he was an Apollinarian. The forger must have been greatly indebted to the Apostolic Constitutions, if he was not indeed the author or editor of that work, as Ussher and Harnack suppose. We may, then, take it for granted that the Vossian recension is the original form of the Igna- tian letters ; and the next question is, have we sufficient proof of their authenticity ? The chief evidence is the epistle of St. Poly carp to the Philippians, which refers to them by name, and this is in turn vouched for by St. Irenseus, and further identified by Eusebius and other witnesses. This is so adequate, that Professor Harnack, whose competence is undoubted, and whose religious system makes it inconvenient for him to receive the letters, admits it to be " testimony as strong to the genuineness of the epistles as any that can ST. IGNATIUS AND THE EOMAN PRIMACY 255 be conceived of ." ! We need not, therefore, weary our readers with an analysis of the mass of cor- roborative proof which Bishop Lightfoot's great learning has enabled him to collect, though cumula- tively it is strong confirmation. He also shows that the circumstances of his condemnation, his journey to Rome, and death, are not difficulties (as has often been objected), but support the genuineness of his account. A prisoner of no public importance, but merely one of the many provincial convicts sent to Rome for the wild- beast shows, would be contemptuously allowed just such freedom of intercourse with those who chose to bribe his guards, as the Saint was. Lucian's account of Peregrinus would prove this, even if he did not intend a caricature of St. Ignatius, as Light- foot, with Baur and Renan, suppose. Our Saint's appeal to the Romans, not to prevent his martyrdom, is a strong argument for the genuine- ness, and even for the date, of his epistles. In the early part of Trajan's reign there were Christians enough in high places in Rome to have obtained his pardon ; twenty years earlier, or twenty years later, such could not have been found. We cannot enter upon the other reasons which induce Dr. Lightfoot to follow Eusebius and St. Jerome in assigning the martyrdom to some time in the reign of Trajan (100-118). Harnack argues for a date later than 130, but without any external proba- bility that we can discover, merely because of the difficulties he finds in reconciling the earlier time with his own theories of doctrine and Church discipline. With this exception, no serious attempt 1 The Expositor, sec. 3, vol. iii., p. 11. 256 STUDIES has been made, we believe, to shake Dr. Lightfoot's conclusions ; 1 so that we may safely proceed to treat these letters as the writings of a saint, and a bishop, on his way to martyrdom, in the first quarter of the second century. Their personal interest is unique, and, if we may say so, dramatic. We are not gradually prepared for the beautiful character they reveal to us, nor privileged to witness his advance in holiness, until he was at length worthy of his crown. We have reason to believe that he had been a heathen in early life, but had " found mercy " and at his baptism had taken the name " Theophoros," to keep constantly before his mind his union with God. As to the rest, he comes before us, like Melchisedec, out of the darkness " into the darkness," for one moment only in the light of day. Yet so vivid and dis- tinct are the features of his personality, as revealed to us in the few weeks of his journey from Antioch to his end in Rome, that we have a less intimate knowledge of many saints whose whole life has been before the world. His desire for martyrdom appealed most strongly, of course, to the Church of the times of persecution. The pathetic letter to the Romans, in which he pleads not to be deprived of his crown, became (as Bishop Light- foot says) " a sort of martyr's manual." Its 1 We say this, although we have received for review The Ignatian Epistles entirely Spurious, by Dr. Killen, Principal of the Presbyterian Faculty in Ireland. His language is flippant and often discourteous to one whose services in interpreting St. Paul's Epistles should have commanded his respect ; his competence may be gauged by his ascribing the Ignatian letters to St. Callistus ; and the weakness of his case is shown by the number of gratuitous hypotheses which he has to substitute for Dr. Lightfoot's supported conclusions. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE BOMAN PRIMACY 257 influence can be traced in all the earliest authentic records of martyrdom, and it must have helped unnumbered souls to endure even fiercer torments. One sentence above all, " I am the wheat of God, and am ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ," has had an attraction for the faithful in every age, such as no other uninspired language possesses. It is quoted by the earliest Fathers ; is handed down to us as his characteristic sentence in his life in the Divine Office ; above all, is chosen, with an exqui- site sense of fitness, for the " Communion " in the Mass of his feast. 1 Many other phrases, less commonly known, burn with as intense a desire for suffering and death. To quote only a few : " My birth-pangs are at hand ; pardon me, brethren ; do not hinder me from living. Pardon me ; what is expedient for me I know ; now I begin to be a disciple." And, even more touchingly in another epistle (Smyrn. iv. 2) : " Near the sword, near unto God ; surrounded by beasts, surrounded by God." At the same time there is the humble fear : " I love indeed to suffer, but know not if I be worthy " (Trail, iv. 2). " Being in bonds for Christ's sake I fear the more, as yet imperfect ; but your prayer unto God shall perfect me, that I may obtain the lot which hath been granted me in mercy " (Philad. v. 1). His earnest desire for death is but the most striking instance of that ardent love for his incarnate Lord which is the 1 We do not remark that Dr. Lightfoot notices anywhere the very beautiful Mass for St. Ignatius' s Day in the Roman Missal ; and, therefore, fear he has not the pleasure of being acquainted with it. 17 258 STUDIES motive of every word and act. And it is especially interesting for us to remark, how that love takes the form most familiar to the modern Church, and pours forth its worship and devotion before every detail of the Sacred Humanity. We can conceive no saint of later times uniting himself more heartily with the devotion to the Sacred Heart, to the Precious Blood, to the Five Wounds of our Lord, which are counted a reproach to Catholics to-day, than this disciple of the Apostles. The same is no doubt true of the saints of every time. Even the stately language of St. Clement seems to bend, when he bids the Corinthians " look intently on the Blood of Christ, and see how precious unto God His Father is His Blood, which hath been shed for our salvation, and brought the grace of repentance to the whole world .... For the love He bore us, the Lord Jesus Christ gave His blood for us, His flesh for our flesh, His soul for our soul " (vii. 4 ; xlix. 6). But the works of all the earlier writers were written under circum- stances, of various kinds, which checked the spon- taneous expression of their piety. In St. Ignatius's letters alone we seem privileged to hear the out- pourings of a soul before that mystery of divine condescension, which was the sun and centre of the Catholic spiritual life, then as now. The word " passion " was ever on his lips. In Christ's passion is involved the peace of one Church, and the joy of another. Unto His passion the penitent sinner must return ; from His passion the false heretic dissents ; into His passion all men must die ; His passion the saint himself strives to imitate ; the blood of His passion" purines the water of baptism ; the tree of the passion is the stock from which the Church has sprung; ST. IGNATIUS AND THE EOMAN PEIMACY 259 the passion is a special feature which distinguishes the Gospel. 1 The body and blood of our Lord are the source of his most moving appeals, and are used to signify the essential elements of the life of grace. " Re- generate yourselves in faith, which is the flesh of the Lord, and in charity, which is the blood of Jesus Christ." " I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Christ, Who is of David's seed ; and I desire for drink His blood, which is charity incorruptible." He does not even hesitate to speak of " the blood of God," and " the passion of God," thus using language which, in the case of the Sacred Heart, has been made a reproach to Catholics by some who have not realised the doctrine of the Incarnation, nor the testimony of Scripture and antiquity. We have seen, in the last sentence quoted, the Holy Eucharist is the form in which his thoughts of our Lord's incarnate body and blood naturally flow. But his assertion of the Real Presence is not to be gathered only from such indirect evidence. He has supplied the Church with one of her most beautiful thoughts, when he urges the Ephesians to continue in the breaking of that " one bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote against dying." 2 Again, speaking of the DocetaB, he says : " These abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered 1 Lightfoot : Note on Ephes. Inscr. 2 Jacobson compares the immortalitatis alimonia, of the Post- Communion of the twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost. 260 STUDIES for our sins, and which the Father by His mercy raised again." Here Dr. Lightfoot appears to us to have somewhat missed the point. St. Ignatius is not employing the Blessed Sacrament as an argument for the reality of our Lord's natural body, though of course it might be so used ; he is rather pointing out the practical results of the heresy which denied that reality. But, either way, the sentence would be devoid of all mean- ing, unless written by one who believed in the Real Presence, and assumed his hearers' belief also. 1 In the one case, mere bread and wine would correspond more closely to an apparent than to a real body ; in the other case, there could be no reason why the Doceta? should not join in receiving it. This is strengthened by his presently adding the necessity of priestly consecration, for the valid celebration of the Holy Eucharist. " Let that Eucharist be considered valid (fteftaia) which is celebrated under the Bishop, or by one to whom he hath committed it." The whole spiritual life is summed up in " having Jesus Christ in you " ; in being xP l<jrT0 $<>P 01 * faith is the flesh of Christ, charity His blood. The most distinctively Christian virtue is put upon its true foundation, in the sentence : "If any one is able to remain in virgin purity, to the honour of the Lord's flesh, let him remain also in humility " ; which implies that a life of chastity was highly esteemed, and was already the subject of a vow. 1 This is pressed by Mohler and Freppel. It will hardly be believed that an Anglican divine, Wotton (if Jacobson's note is to be trusted), considered that the last clause of the sentence we have quoted was a denial of the Real Presence, and affirmed merely an action of grace upon the soul of the recipient. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE ROMAN PEIMACY 261 In another sentence, of acknowledged difficulty, St. Ignatius seems to recognise some, widows in outward condition, but virgins in the sight of God. To a mind thus penetrated with the reality and the results of the Incarnation, the prevailing heresy of that day must have been peculiarly hateful. The only trace that Docetism has left behind it is in the decisive testimony of St. Ignatius to the identity of doctrine and devotion in the primitive and the modern Church. The test to which he appeals is characteristic of that early age, and very instructive for our own. The tra- dition of the Apostolic Churches is not set forth to discriminate truth from falsehood, as in the time of St. Irenseus, nor is Scripture quoted, as in later writers ; but the living voice of the Church in its pastors is a sufficient rule of faith. St. Ignatius is, above all others, the great Doctor of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy ; he asserts constantly and urgently, with every variety of argument and metaphor, the claims of the episcopacy to the obedience of the faithful. The Bishop presides in the place of God, the Presbyters in the place of the council of Apostles, and the deacons are entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ. I cried out with a loud voice, with the voice of God, unto them to whom I spake ; attach yourselves to the Bishop and the presbytery and the deacons. ... He is my witness, for whom I am hound, that I have not learned this from man's flesh ; but the Spirit proclaimed this : without the Bishop do nothing. All that are God's and Jesus Christ's, the same are with the Bishops. Whoso seeth the Bishop to be silent, let him fear him the more ; for we must every way receive him whom the master of the house sendeth to govern his family as the sender 262 STUDIES himself. Clearly, then, we must look upon the Bishop as upon the Lord Himself. Such are a few examples, taken almost at ran- dom, from the passages on the ecclesiastical hierarchy of which all the letters, save one, are full. It is the more interesting and satisfactory to us that Bishop Lightfoot should have edited St. Ignatius, because a learned treatise in one of his other works 1 implied what we may without offence call a " low " view of the episcopacy, as well as a denial of the sacerdotal character of the priesthood. The latter subject is outside of our present province ; and for the same reason we are compelled to put aside the question of the Apostolic succession in the episcopate, hoping to be able to return to both on some future occasion. In that which now more immediately concerns us, we are glad to be in greater agreement than we were with the former work. Dr. Lightfoot now, indeed, complains that a meaning has been put upon his language which he did not intend, and we hope, therefore, we may have misunderstood him. He says that he is in substantial agreement with Cardinal Newman's language 2 on this very subject ; thus appearing to accept the Apostolic origin of the episcopate, and only questioning the time at which it became localised. We are quite prepared to grant that jurisdiction may very possibly — nay, probably — have been surrendered by the Apostles at different periods, according to the 1 The Excursus on the Christian Ministry, and note on Phil. i. I., in the Commentary on the Philippians. 2 Note on The Theology of the Seven Epistles of Ignatius ; in Essays, vol. i., p. 251. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE ROMAN PRIMACY 263 respective needs of the places where they conse- crated bishops. But we cannot admit the argu- ment from confusing order and jurisdiction, a fallacy which runs through the present remarks on the episcopate, as well as the Essay on the Chris- tian Ministry ; and we will therefore very briefly state our reasons for not being convinced by his arguments. Dr. Lightfoot's admissions are these ; (1) The Episcopate was clearly established in Jerusalem ; and this is all the more remarkable, if St. James was not an Apostle. (2) The Pastoral Epistles show that Timothy and Titus exercised episcopal functions in Ephesus and Crete, by the appointment of St. Paul. (3) Episcopacy was firmly and widely established, especially in Asia Minor, early in the second century, and therefore under the influence of St. John. " If the evidence for its extension in the regions east of the iEgean at the epoch be resisted, I am at a loss to under- stand what single fact relating to the history of the Christian Church during the first half of the second century can be regarded as established." These statements appear to us to concede all that is necessary in the way of historical evidence, to prove the origin of the episcopal order. But each of them is subject to certain qualifications. (1) As to St. James's position in Jerusalem, Dr. Light- foot remarks that on three occasions the Apostles and the Presbyters of that city alone are men- tioned. It will be seen that in these three cases (Acts xv. 4, 23 ; xvi. 4) the matter treated of is not a diocesan one, but concerns the whole Church. This is surely an exception which proves the rule. (2) He considers that SS. Timothy and Titus were not appointed to fixed sees, but were " apostolic 264 STUDIES delegates," whose position was transitory and whose office was drawing to a close when St. Paul wrote. But of the only passages to which he refers, two (1 Tim. i. 3 ; Tit. i. 5) merely prove that their jurisdiction was derived from the Apostle ; one (1 Tim. iii. 14) that St. Paul himself hoped shortly to visit Timothy ; while the other three (2 Tim. iv. 9, 21 ; Tit. iii. 12) are to recall them "ad limina Apostolorum" for the Apostle's own comfort, and to give an account of their stewardship. (3) There is some amount of evidence that episcopacy was less completely established in other parts of the Church than in Asia Minor or Palestine. Much of this evidence is purely negative, due to our very scanty knowledge of early Church history, and is merely one of the " fallacies of silence " to which we referred above. The positive indications are very slight indeed. Rome we shall deal with presently in connection with the primacy. St. Clement's letter to the Corinthians makes mention of no bishop ; but the circumstances under which it was written imply that the See (as we should now say) was vacant. His language with regard to Apollo — " a man approved by the Apostles "* — taken in connection with 1 Cor. iii. 22, can leave little doubt that Apollo exercised episcopal juris- diction there ; and Dr. Lightfoot himself remarks that fifty years later Primus was Bishop of Corinth, and had been preceded by several others. In Philippi, St. Paul salutes only the " bishops and deacons " ; St. Polycarp only the " presbyters and deacons." Yet the former commends to his " true 1 irpo<reK\idriTe avSpl SeSo/ctfcacr^eV^ irap airoffroXois, cap. 47. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE ROMAN PEIMACY 265 yoke-fellow " a duty which at least implies juris- diction. 1 And in the time of the latter it is scarcely conceivable that Philippi should be an exception to the episcopal government around. Zahn sug- gests that the See was probably vacant ; Rothe, 2 that remonstrance and exhortation, such as St. Polycarp's letter contains, could be suitably con- veyed only to his subordinates in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Besides the particular answers to objections, there is one general one. The words iiriaKoiTo^ and ir pea ftm epos were only two out of a large number of terms used in the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers for bishops and priests (it is convenient in English to follow Dr. Lightfoot, and use these two words, the " sacerdotes primi ordinis et secundi" respectively). Until the time, at least, of St. Irenaeus, they are only employed in their modern precise sense by St. Ignatius ; all other writers rather using them to signify the office, than the order of the persons spoken of. 'E7rt<7 veo7ro? is usually applied to those who have cure of souls, or ordinary jurisdiction, Trpeaftvrepos being used when no such quality is referred to, or when the honour in which they are to be held is brought specially forward. 3 By the time of St. Irenseus eiriaKoiros had become so far re- stricted to bishops, that he was compelled to 1 Phil, iv., 3. 2 Anfdnge d. Chr. Kirche, p. 410. 3 We are, of course, aware that various opinions have been current among theologians concerning the use of these terms. The one stated above is the most generally held, is substan- tially the same as Dr. Lightfoot' s, and appears to follow of necessity from the use made by the Council of Trent of Acts xx., 28. 266 STUDIES paraphrase Acts xx. 17. 1 We are, of course, far from denying that this rapid change of language did not correspond to a real change of ecclesiastical conditions. It is very probable, as Petavius, and many other theologians have held, that the number of persons having episcopal powers and ordinary jurisdiction was in some places very large. Even St. Ignatius expected the bishop to know all that passed in his community, and to be acquainted with each member of it by name. Our only con- tention is, that the episcopate was not " formed out of the presbyterate by elevation," as Dr. Lightfoot thinks ; the reverse would be a closer expression of the facts. The history of the New Testament and of the first two centuries, as he has summed up the facts, seems to us only explicable on the hypothesis that both these orders were originally instituted separately by the Apostles, the exercise of jurisdiction being long reserved to the episcopal order, and only gradually com- municated to priests. Every other view is open to the crushing objection that men, who do not readily submit even to an authority which they know to be divine, could never have been per- suaded to accept it as a novelty without a protest, of which there is no trace. St. Ignatius looked to another test of the living voice of the Church, beyond its expression through its pastors. He most urgently enforces the unity of the Church throughout the whole world. He bids St. Polycarp " have a care for the unity, than which nothing is better." And to others he says : 1 The translation of the Vulgate, majores natu ecclesiae, is apparently another example of this. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE EOMAN PElMACY 267 " All that shall repent and turn to the unity of the Church, they too shall be God's." An earnest warning is given against schism, independently of false doctrine : "Be not deceived, my brethren, if any man follow one who makes a schism (cr/ci&vTi), he doth not inherit the Kingdom of God ; if any one walk in another doctrine, he consenteth not to the Passion." This Church is of universal extension, for " the bishops who are at the ends of the earth are in the mind of Jesus Christ." The Church Universal is therefore distinguished by him from each individual church of which it is made up, and the word " Catholic " is first employed to designate it. " Where the bishop is, there let the multitude be ; just as where Christ is, there is the Church Catholic." 1 The parallel between the particular churches and the Church Universal — the microcosms and the macrocosm — implies a visible head of the whole, as well as of each diocese ; and our Saint leaves us in no doubt where that head is to be found. The most celebrated of all his letters is addressed to the Romans ; its testimony has often been quoted, not always correctly, and it will be interest- ing to see how Dr. Lightfoot deals with it. The inscription of the letter is to " the Church that hath found mercy .... that hath been beloved and been enlightened (7re(f)0)TLcr/jbevrj) by the will of Him Who willeth all things, that are according to the love of Jesus Christ." Then 1 Smym. viii., 2. This sentence has been urged as an objec- tion to the genuineness of the Epistles. Bishop Lightfoot shows, by parallel passages, that, in the sense given above, it involves no anachronism. 268 STUDIES follows a sentence of which the meaning has been much debated — r/ri? 7rpo/cd07)Tai iv to7tg> ^coplov 'Vod/jLaLCDv — the main question being whether the verb is to be taken absolutely 1 or in connec- tion with the words that follow. Catholics have naturally inclined to the former alternative, Pro- testants to the latter. Dr. Lightfoot takes a middle course ; translating with us — " who hath the presidency in the place of the region of the Romans," but explaining that " the latter words probably describe the limits over which the su- premacy or jurisdiction " extends. He rejects the various suggestions which Bunsen, Zahn, Pearson, and others have made, but thinks ". iv f Pa>//# would have been more natural to describe merely the locality of a presiding See." This we venture to doubt. The Roman Church is more often de- scribed by Eusebius and his authorities as r\ tcov 'Vcofiaiwv eKKkricna than in any other manner. The latter part of the sentence has difficulties on any hypothesis, but we fully agree that two? is pleonastic (Syriasm), and that the whole means " in the country of the Romans." This is probably simply equivalent to "in Rome," and is merely an attempt to express the size of Rome, just as we use the prepositions " in " and " at " for large and small towns respectively, in such phrases as " to stay in London, to live at York." We are the less disposed to disagree with Dr. Lightfoot here, because he admits that these words assign a primacy of rank to the Church of Rome, which is all we contend for. 1 As in Magnes. vi. 1, where the same word is used of the presidency of a bishop over his clergy. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE ROMAN PRIMACY 269 We presently come to the still more impor- tant phrase, irpoKaO^fievv tt}? dydir^ ; and here again Bishop Lightfoot adopts an interpretation approaching more nearly to the Catholic than other Protestant editors have done. He admits that there is a reference to the previous sentence, which he takes it to explain : " The Church of Rome, as it is first in rank, is first also in love." This is akin to the ordinary non-Catholic translation, " pre-eminent in charity " ; referring merely to the abundant almsgiving for which the Roman Church was distinguished. We are sorry that so great a scholar has not noticed the grammatical objections — surely worth considering — which Catho- lics have made to this interpretation. To be pre- eminent in any quality, such as charity, would naturally be expressed by ev dydirr) or Kara rrjv dyd7rrjv, rather than by the genitive. The " genitive of relation," as grammarians say, " follows all verbs signifying authority or pre- eminence " (Donaldson) ; and is used of the thing governed. This is the only construction admitted in such lexicons as Stephanus, Liddell and Scott, &c, each of which give parallel instances from Plato, Euripides and many later writers. 1 Nor is there any difficulty in supplying a suitable mean- ing for dydirv in this place. In four other passages St. Ignatius uses the word, as Pearson and Jacobson 1 There is, therefore, no reason for Jacobson' s mild sneer at Bishop's Hefele's quotation from the Byzantine writers. The former quotes, curiously, a sentence in which Cureton uncon- sciously paraphrases aydir/js by iv aydirr), thus confirming what we have advanced above. 270 STUDIES themselves allow, for the Church. 1 It is true that our present editor objects to any such use of aydiTT] as an anachronism, and contends that " charity is intended in each case." No doubt ; but its repetition so frequently in formulae of salutation surely suggests very strongly that more is meant, and that a^airt) was used by our Saint in a secondary sense for the union of charity /car igoxnv* the Church. This peculiar use of the word has its parallel in the use of ?) 686s in the Acts. 2 The phrase will thus mean, without any violence to the grammar, " presiding over the Church." After this, there is no detail of the Epistle to the Romans in which we are at issue with Dr. Lightfoot ; for we fully agree that the words, " ye have taught others " (cap. hi. 1), refer only to the example set to other Christians by the endur- ance of persecution. He makes much of the fact that there is no mention of the Bishop of Rome in the whole epistle, connecting it with a view on which we shall presently dwell, that the Bishop was of less importance in Rome than in the East. The silence of St. Ignatius is undoubted, and is very remarkable ; but there are good reasons for not accepting his editor's reason for it. Bishop Lightfoot admits that Rome was under episcopal government then, and we have seen that St. 1 7} ayaTrr] ~2,iAvpv<Lib}v kcli 'Ecpealow (Trail, xiii. 1), r) hyairq to>v aSeA^wz/ (Smyrn. xiii. 1, and Philad. xi. 2) ; and, most remark- ably of all, 7] ay&irr) rcov iitK\r}<nu)v (Rom. ix. 3). 2 It may be noted that Professor Harnack concedes the point, by the happy translation which cannot be expressed in English, " die Vorsteherin, set es nun in dem Liebesbunde, oder bei den Liebeswei'ke." ST. IGNATIUS AND THE EOMAN PRIMACY 271 Ignatius classes " the Bishops at the ends of the earth " with those he has known in Asia Minor. We cannot then doubt that, had he thought the Romans under-estimated the episcopal office, he would have remonstrated earnestly with them, as he did with the Magnesians in the same case. Cardinal Newman's explanation is far more probable ; "he does not refer to the Bishop, or take him (as it were) under his wing." His eccle- siastical superior was the one Bishop whom he could not thus commend to his readers without impertinence. Instead of exhorting the Romans, as he does the other Churches, he says : "I make no commands to you, as though I were Peter and Paul." His object in writing was to entreat the Romans not to prevent his martyrdom ; and the power to do so would He in the hands of the influen- tial laity. To call in their Bishop to control them would be to put him in an utterly false position, if he were what we believe he was ; and St. Igna- tius's silence is, on our hypothesis, most naturally accounted for. We remarked just now that Dr. Lightfoot admits a primacy, however qualified, of the Roman Church, while minimising the authority of its Bishop. It was necessary that he should take some such position, considering recent advances in patristic discovery. We think Cardinal Newman some- where speculates on what would happen if our modern non-Catholics came suddenly in contact with a Saint of the primitive Church, as to which they theorise so readily. Something of the kind has really happened of late years. Up to the year 1875 the only copy known of the letter of St. Clement of Rome to the Corinthians (con- tained in the celebrated Alexandrine Codex in 272 STUDIES the British Museum) had a considerable gap, where one sheet had been lost. Bryennios, the Greek Metropolitan of Nicomedia, then discovered, in a library at Constantinople, a MS. which, besides other valuable matter, contained St. Clement's Epistle entire ; and by a singular coincidence, a Syriac translation of the whole was acquired by the University of Cambridge in the next year. These additional passages of this earliest Apostolic Father are so important to Catholics, and yet, we believe, so entirely unnoticed by them in this country, that no apology is needed for bringing them before our readers. Before their discovery, St. Clement's letter was, indeed, a strong argu- ment for the primacy of the Holy See. Let the circumstances in which it was written be carefully remarked. St. John was yet alive, and many disciples of the Apostles must have been still living in Corinth, when a revolt against the constituted ecclesiastical authorities took place. There is no reason to suppose that the Corinthians appealed to Rome ; but St. Clement wrote in the name of the Roman Church to point out the gravity of the offence, and to call for submission. He begins by explaining the reasons for his delay in noticing this trouble thus : " By reason of the sudden and repeated calamities which are befalling us, brethren, we consider that we have been somewhat tardy in giving heed to the matters of dispute that have arisen among you, dearly beloved, and to the detestable and unholy sedition .... which a few headstrong and self-willed persons have kindled." 1 This is surely the language of 1 I. 1. We quote throughout Dr. Lightfoot's translation. The calamities were probably the persecution under Domitian, and the revolution which closed that Emperor's reign. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE ROMAN PRIMACY 273 an authority on which there daily pressed anxiety for all the Churches ; and the whole Epistle con- tinues in the same tone. The Corinthians are called upon to be " obedient unto the excellent and glorious will " of God, to " fall down before the Master and entreat Him with tears," to " let the flock of Christ be at peace with its duly appointed presbyters." Most urgently of all, they are bid to make intercession for their transgressing brethren, " that they may yield not unto us, but unto the will of God." It would seem difficult to evade the force of this language, or to suppose it could be addressed by one sister-church to another. But a much more explicit claim to authority is made in the recently discovered passages. The Corinthians are warned that, " if certain persons should be disobedient unto the words spoken by Him (God) through us, let them understand that they will entangle themselves in no slight trans- gression and danger ; but we shall be guiltless of this sin." And again : " Receive our counsel, and ye shall have no occasion of regret." Finally : " Ye will give us great joy and gladness, if ye render obedience unto the things written by us, through the Holy Spirit." 1 It is a strong testimony to Dr. Lightfoot's desire to be perfectly fair that, upon the first publication of the lost passages of St. Clement he should have called attention to the " urgent and almost imperious 1 59, 1 ; 58, 2 ; 63, 2. We do not lay stress upon the claims to " know the irpotrrdy/xaTa koll SiKaici/xara, rov &eov" and to possess " the kw^v r?]s TrapatiS&ecos while the sister churches need instruction." Harnack has rightly urged their importance, but they need developing, and we prefer to keep to what is on the surface. 18 274 STUDIES tones which the Romans adopt in addressing their Corinthian brethren during the closing years of the first century." 1 He describes the letter as " the first step towards Papal aggression," and we need not say that we agree with him — only it is clearly a step that takes us all the way. Leo XIII. has not claimed, and cannot claim, more than is here laid down, in the first Papal document on record, in the assertion " God speaks through us" and "we write by the Holy Ghost." The one difference between the Catholic Church and all religious bodies external to it, is that we affirm and they deny, the presence of the Holy Ghost, teaching the world through the See of St. Peter ; and St. Clement leaves us in no doubt which side he takes in the controversy. Indeed, as writing during the lifetime of an Apostle, he makes a stronger claim to Divine assistance than would be possible for any later Pope. Dr. Lightfoot raises, however, one objection, which it is due to him that we should consider. He fully admits the primacy of Rome, but urges that it is a primacy not of the episcopate, but of the Church. " The substitution of the Bishop of Rome for the Church of Rome," he tells us, "is an all-important point. The later Roman theory supposes that the Church of Rome derives all its authority from the Bishop of Rome, as the successor of St. Peter. History inverts this relation, and shows that, as a matter of fact, the power of the Bishop of Rome was built upon the power of the Church of Rome." The same distinction is urged, more bluntly, by Pro- St. Clement of Rome, pp. 253 sqq. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE EOMAN PEIMACY 275 fessor Harnack, who, in his recent work, 1 after collecting all the ante-Nicene evidences of the primacy of Rome, concludes : " The two proposi- tions, ' Ecclesia Romana semper habuit primatum, y and ' Catholic is fundamentally the same as Roman Catholic,' are gross fictions, if devised in honour of any of the occupiers of the Roman See ; but if transferred to the community of the capital of the world, they contain a truth, of which the non- recognition is equivalent to renouncing any attempt to understand the Catholicising and unifying of the Church." 2 Our chief difficulty with this objection is, that we scarcely see in what its importance consists. 1 Dogmengeschichte, vol. i., pp. 360 sqq. ■ In the remarkable excursus (Katholisch und Romisch) of which this is the last sentence, Harnack accepts the Catholic interpretation of the passages in SS. Clement, Ignatius, and Irenseus bearing on the supremacy of Rome. He also gives such reasons as the following : — (1) The Roman Church alone had a definite baptismal formula, which was proposed as the Apostolic rule of faith as early as 180. It was therefore acknowledged to be alone able to discern with precision true from false doctrine. (2) The New Testament canon is first recognisable in the Roman Church and only later in others. The shape and arrange- ment of the canon is also Roman. (3) The first list of Bishops is to be traced to Rome, in other communities there is none earlier than the reign of Elagabalus. (4) The idea of Apostolical succession was first employed by the Bishops of Rome. This is all the more remarkable because the " monarchical episcopate " was first consolidated in Asia Minor. (5) Tho Oriental Churches referred the most important ques- tions as to the organisation of the Church for decision to the Roman Bishops. (6) Callixtus's " excesses " were opposed by the three great theologians of his time — Tertullian, Hippolytus, Origen— on the very ground that they were unheard-of novelties ; yet within a few decennia all other churches had followed in the same direc- tion. 276 STUDIES Dr. Lightfoot is an Episcopalian, and admits that episcopal government is Apostolic in its origin, therefore apparently of divine institution. If so, the Bishop is appointed by God to govern each diocese ; he is the executive power, and every step taken in the name of the Church must be taken by him. Moreover, as matter of history, the history of the Roman Church is the history of the Roman Pontiffs. Except for the shadowy personality of Hermas, we can recall no Roman Christian of the slightest importance save the Popes, until we come to Hippolytus. It is quite true that we have no pontifical act of theirs pre- served until we come to St. Victor ; but the same " fallacy of silence " would prove that many later Pontiffs did not consider themselves infallible. But we have as much incidental proof of their importance as we could reasonably expect. Euse- bius had no inducement to magnify the office of the Roman Pontiff, nor did he write with that object. But the extreme care which he took to give the list of Bishops of Rome argues that to his informants — Hegesippus and Irenseus — the matter was one of great importance. The former speaks of drawing up a list (BiaSoxrjv eirorfo-a/iriv) of their succession as being one of his principal objects in Rome ; the latter ends his catalogue of the Popes down to St. Elentherius by adding : " By the same order and succession both the tradition from the Apostles in the Church and the preaching of the truth, have come down to 1 rrj auTT? TCt|et, nhi rfj cWj? hiadoxv V T€ &*& tuv airoiTTSXwv iv ttj iKKK-qaia irapctcWts, /col rb ttjs a\ri9eias K^ptry/ta KaT-f)VTr)Kev iis Tjfids, Hist. EccL v. 6. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE EOMAN PEIMACY 277 So, too, the Church of Lyons, being desirous of the peace of the Church, wrote in defence of the Montanists, to their brethren in Asia and Phrygia, where these most abounded ; " but above all (ov Imtjv aXka kcll) to Eleutherius, the then Bishop of Rome." Dr. Lightfoot quotes St. Polycarp's visit to Rome in the time of St. Anicetus, and their conference as to various unimportant matters, as well as the observance of Easter. On this Harnack remarks : " Anicetus did not go to the aged Polycarp, but he to Anicetus." We need not refer to any cases later than St. Victor, because he is admitted to have been " a bishop of autocratic pretensions." The only positive reasons assigned for " surmising (it comes to no more) that the Bishops of Rome were not at the time raised so far above their presbyters as in the churches of the East," are the following : First, the silence of St. Ignatius in his letter to the Romans. We have given reasons above for supposing this to be rather a testimony to the primacy of the Roman Pontiff. Next, the fact that both St. Clement's letter, and one after- wards written by St. Soter to the Corinthians, were addressed in the name of the Church of Rome, not of the Bishops themselves. As to the latter case there can be no serious question. St. Soter had simply sent the proceeds of a collection made in Rome for the benefit of the distressed Corin- thians. Their bishop, in his reply, which was addressed to Soter, acknowledges suitably the assistance, and makes special mention of the charity with which St. Soter had " comforted their brethren who had approached him, like a 278 STUDIES loving father comforts his children, by kindly words." x St. Clement's letter suggests some points of more interest. In the first place, no one doubts that it was " drawn up by him in the name of the Roman Church " ; 2 while at the same time the language of St. Irenseus, as well as of the epistle itself, implies that it was a letter in which the Church of Rome took part. There is nothing in this inconsistent with the personal authority of St. Clement, any more than the form of the sy nodical letter in Acts xv., 23, is inconsistent with the authority of the Apostles. It would appear to have been the custom of the early Pontiffs to decide nothing of importance without assembling the presbyters of Rome ; as St. Victor and St. Cornelius did, 3 certainly with no idea of aban- doning their own authority. Dr. Lightfoot appeals to the Shepherd of Hermas, as agreeing with his own " very modest estimate of St. Clement's dignity." We might ask, in reply to what matter of discipline, or of doctrine, save the possibility of repentance, does that obscure series of allegories testify ? But the writer goes out of his usual course to mention St. Clement, and to refer to his relations to the Church bevond Rome. 4 And 1 iiricncSTrcf) T<p r6re SwTTjpi Trpo<T(poovov<Ta .... \6yois [xaKaptois rovs aviovras a8e\<pbvs &s retcva Trarfyp (piXSaropyos napaKaXwv. — Euseb. H. E. iv. 23. 2 H\v €K irpocrdiirov rrjs '"Pccfxaiccv £nK\T)(rias rfj KopivBiow Sierviruxraro. — Euseb. H. E. iii. 38. 3 Euseb. H. E. v. 23 ; vii. 43. 4 " Clement shall send the book (containing this revelation) to the cities abroad, for this charge is committed unto him." — Vis. ii. 4, 3. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE ROMAN PRIMACY 279 if (as seems probable) he lived at a later period, and merely borrowed the name of Clement, as he did that of Hermas. it is all the greater evidence of the relation of St. Clement to the Christian world. But there is more explicit proof of the eminent position of St. Clement, and of the source where it was derived, in a quarter which has not been sufficiently noticed. Among other arguments for episcopacy, Dr. Lightfoot very justly lays much stress upon the Clementine Homilies, a religious romance written some time during the second century, adding that their divergence from Catholic doctrine makes their agreement here all the more remarkable. Now, prefixed to these Homilies are two letters, one purporting to be from St. Peter to St. James, with which we have no more now to do, the other supposed to be written by St. Clement to St. James. This must have been written some time during the latter half of the second century ; it is well known as the origin of the false Decretals. Its relation to the Clementine Homilies is uncertain ; but it was apparently written to serve as a preface to this or some similar forgery. Dr. Lightfoot will not object to our quoting it in favour of the Primacy, as he has done with the Homilies for Episcopacy. The case is indeed a much stronger one, for the whole Clementine cycle is designed to establish an Oriental Primacy in Jerusalem, and is therefore an unwilling witness to Rome. The letter relates how Peter, " who had been defined to be the foundation of the Church .... the first of the Apostles," foreknew his death, and appointed St. Clement as his successor, the following passages being selected from his long address to the people 280 STUDIES on the occasion : "I entrust to him my seat of teaching." " I give over to him the authority of binding and loosing, so that all he ordains on earth may be decreed in heaven." " Hear ye him, then, as knowing that whatsoever grieves him who pre- sides over the truth, 1 sins against Christ " (cap. 2). . . . . " Do you, beloved brethren, and fellow- servants, obey the president of truth in all things, knowing this, that whoso grieves him receives not Christ, Whose seat he holds." Who can doubt that the author of this letter was compelled to give the attributes " Vicar of Christ," and " President of the Truth," to St. Peter's most illustrious suc- cessor, so as to colour his story with some sem- blance of probability ? Let it be noted that we have nearly contemporaneous evidence that the Popes claimed their power as successors of St. Peter, in the frantic invective of Tertullian. We here have the corresponding admission, also from a hostile witness, that this claim was acknowledged in the East. What Dr. Lightfoot calls " the later Roman theory " can be thus traced back at least as far as the middle of the second century. We have dwelt at length upon the points where we unhappily differ from Dr. Lightfoot ; so much was due to him, as well as to the doctrines we were defending. Even here we are indebted to him for much assistance ; and we have given no idea of the wealth of learning which has been lavished upon this work. It is no small lesson in 1 rhv rrjs a\7]6eias irpoKade^Sfieuov. Dr. Lightfoot has noticed the remarkable parallel which this presents to St. Ignatius' s TrpoKad-fi/jLevT) tt/s ayaTrrjs. It appears to us to strengthen materially the interpretation we have given of that passage. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE EOMAN PRIMACY 281 this age of hurry and distraction to find any man content to give so much labour, out of a busy life, to illustrate one book. Our hearty desire is, that the Saint, on whose behalf he has undertaken this labour of love, may obtain for him a fitting reward. 282 HYPNOTISM. It may appear superfluous to add one more to the numerous articles on hypnotism which have been contributed to the reviews and magazines during recent years. Most of these, however, have aimed — not unnaturally — at describing the marvellous phenomena of hypnotism, rather than at examining the results with care, or suggest- ing any explanation of them. There are great differences of opinion among hypnotists as to nearly all the facts observed, and the inferences to be drawn from them ; so that it seems to me that I shall be doing a service if I attempt to com- pare the various statements made, more carefully than has been done in the popular articles on the subject. Such an examination is a necessary pre- liminary to considering the moral and social bearings of hypnotism ; very grave questions on which I have no intention of intruding, but for which I trust the material I have brought together may be of service. It is needful that I should trace shortly the history of the subject, in order to show the parentage of the two schools, to the one or the other of which hypnotists belong. Hypnotism has had a strange history everywhere, but most of all in this country. Having been long the toy of conjurers and quacks, " animal magnetism " — as it was then called — had the chance of serious study HYPNOTISM 283 fifty years ago by one of the leading physicians of London. His unavoidable mistakes, and still more his eager credulity, gave a handle to the professional bigotry or jealousy of his critics which they were not slow to seize, and Elliotson was condemned to untimely ruin and oblivion. But the investigation which he began was continued in a more sober spirit by a surgeon of Manchester, Mr. Braid, who confined himself to the study of such phenomena as he could verify by physical observation and experiment, using the term hypnotism to mark the new direction he had given to the subject, and not to prejudge the nature of the agent he was investigating. It has been allowed by all who have followed him that the right method of studying the subject dates from Braid. But, whether from the example of Elliotson' s fate, or some other reason, Braid's researches never attracted in this country the interest that might have been expected, and, indeed, remained practically unknown, save for the mention of them by Dr. Carpenter. Hyp- notism did not become a recognised branch of scientific study until it was taken up by one of the greatest of modern physicians, Professor Charcot, of Paris, in 1878. His confessed eminence, com- plete knowledge of allied conditions, and mar- vellous descriptive powers, enabled him to carry the day, but not without a severe struggle ; and I have seldom been more interested than when hearing him describe his anxiety, while he still doubted whether hypnotism might not even prove fatal to his professional reputation. The result of his labours has been the establishment of the largest school for the study of hypnotism at the Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, and to him we owe 284 STUDIES the interest which has been awakened in Germany, Italy, and even in England. But he had been preceded in the study of hypnotism in France by a medical man at Nancy, Dr. Liebeault, who as long ago as 1866 published a short work on the subject. His observations, however, remained un- noticed, until eighteen years later they were brought forward by Bernheim, a professor in the same town, since which time his teaching has been well known to the scientific world. Charcot and Liebeault studying these phenomena independently, have been led to different conclusions, and have thus founded the rival schools of Paris and Nancy, to which it will be so often necessary to refer. In spite of all the ardour and industry which has been displayed, much will be seen to be uncertain, much remains unexplored, and still more is imperfectly understood. But, in what is proved beyond the possibility of doubt, and admitted on all hands as certain, there is so much which has the most important bearing on human responsibility, as to interest, and even alarm, those who seriously consider it. The psychological results of hypnotism, though inferior in practical interest to its moral and social consequences, suggest many problems of importance which open out new fields for study. It will be seen as I proceed that the difference between the two schools of hypnotisers is, to a great degree, due to an ambiguous use of the word hypnotism. It would, therefore, be most logical to begin with the various definitions of the word ; but this we are not in a position to do until some account has been given of the process and the means by which it is carried out. First, as to the means employed. Charcot's school teaches HYPNOTISM 285 that the ordinary and most certain way of hyp- notising subjects is by using physical agencies of various kinds, but all agree in this, that they stimulate monotonously the nervous system. Such are the " magnetic passes " of the old mesmerists, causing the subject to look steadily at some bright object, slight electrical currents, or gentle friction, or the impression may be made on the hearing by means of a monster tuning-fork, a gong, &c. Richet relates the case of a woman who fell into the hyp- notic state at each stroke of the kettle-drum at a concert, and apparently many of the instances of catalepsy during a thunderstorm are to be accounted for in the same way. On the other hand, the school of Nancy hold that hypnotism is produced by suggestion, and that these means which I have just enumerated act simply by putting the subject into a condition of expectancy and con- fident belief. The first part of this statement is undoubtedly true. Long before the recent develop- ment of hypnotism, the Abbe Faria was wont in Paris to mesmerise persons by merely placing them in a chair and saying imperiously Dormez ; and Braid also remarked that mere belief in the power of the operator was enough for the purpose. There is abundant evidence to the same effect since ; the most striking instance being that of persons hypnotised at a distance from the operator, and at a moment chosen by him, which has been done not merely to excitable French girls, but to German medical students, and to others whose cases have been recorded in general periodicals. But Dr. Liebeault's followers seem to go too far when they deny that the manoeuvres described are not the most certain and dependable means of pro- 286 STUDIES ducing hypnotism. It will be sufficient to appeal to Father Kircher's old experiment, in which a cock is hypnotised by holding his beak against a chalk line, to prove that these means act where there can be no expectancy on the part of the subject. Still less can it be said that " the whole thing is mere fancy," as English so-called common- sense is apt too roughly to assume. The contrary is shown conclusively by experiments, not only on animals, but on persons in sound, natural sleep, whom Berger and Gscheidlen have repeatedly hypnotised, no appeal to the imagination being then possible. The proportion of persons susceptible of hyp- notism is so very differently estimated by various authorities — ranging from 10 to 95 per cent. — that it would evidently be unprofitable to go into the question so stated. It is more important to consider whether the susceptibility can be con- nected with any known peculiarities of the subjects. It is, in the first place, certain that mere general excitability is not a necessary, or even a favourable, condition. Some of the most remarkable results have been obtained by Heidenhain and Hensen in phlegmatic German medical students. Nor have we any immunity in this country : the rash and unjustifiable experiments of " electro-biologists " are sufficient to prove this ; and some of the most interesting observations on the results of hyp- notism were made by Mr. E. Gurney on a healthy young baker in Brighton. Indeed, paradoxical as it may seem, quiet, unemotional people are generally more easily hypnotised than excitable ones. The chief requisite is the power of fixing the attention ; and for this reason very young children, idiots, HYPNOTISM 287 and most insane persons cannot be influenced. The susceptibility is greatly increased by practice. Richet, for example, tells us of a girl with whom he entirely failed the first time, the second time he hypnotised her in ten minutes, the third time in five ; after that a look or a word of command acted instantaneously. The fact is abundantly proved, and of great practical importance. The Paris school teach that hypnotism can only be successfully produced in persons of the hysterical temperament ; and, indeed, they go so far as to say that true hypnotism {la grande hypnose) is merely a manifestation of hysteria. They qualify this statement, however, by two additions, which it is important to note. The term hysterical tem- perament is used to denote, not the condition popularly so called, but certain symptoms recog- nisable only by a physician, and compatible with apparent good health. They also admit that incomplete hypnotic states may sometimes be produced in non-hysterical subjects. Very different is the teaching of the school of Nancy ; in their view healthy persons are the more readily influenced, and hysteria is rather an obstacle to hypnotism. This contradiction is connected with an equally opposed way of looking at the phenomena of hyp- notism. Charcot's school consider it to be a diseased condition, closely allied to hysteria, if not merely one of the manifestations of that pro- tean disease, and characterised by three forms or stages, through which every complete access, so to speak, must pass. Each of these stages presents well-marked bodily symptoms, which have been studied with great care, it being thought that in these a security had been found against simulation. 288 STUDIES In the condition they term Lethargy, the subject lies as if asleep and apparently unconscious, though he is sometimes able to say afterwards what has been done to him. Pressure on the nerves and muscles produces contractions which, from their character and extent, are supposed to be the surest guarantee against fraud. When the patient is made to pass into Catalepsy, the muscular condi- tion is quite different. He can be placed in any attitude, and will retain it, no matter how un- natural or contorted, for a period far beyond what would be possible to voluntary effort. The mental state is very remarkable. The subject is incapable of any spontaneous action, and is reduced to the state of a living marionette or automaton, reacting simply to external impressions. For instance, if the limbs be placed in an attitude corresponding to any state of mind, such as pugilism, veneration, prayer, or the like, the features at once assume the expression appropriate to that state, the most perfect tableaux vivants, resembling Michael Angelo's or Da Vinci's drawings, being produced. But the attitudes thus caused gradually fade away, leaving only the impassive mask of catalepsy ; and there is no speculation in those features which had just been animated by the perfect semblance of horror, love, anger, or devotion. Or the cataleptic may be made to perform such simple acts as tapping with the foot, twirling the thumbs, &c, and will then continue them for some time with mono- tonous regularity. There is usually no recollection of what has occurred during catalepsy. In the third stage, Somnambulism, the muscles are in a state of increased irritability, which it would seem impossible to simulate. The skin is usually in- HYPNOTISM 289 sensible, but the other senses are active, hearing in particular being very acute ; and many instances of supposed clairvoyance are evidently due to this acuteness. The state of the mind is even more strange than in catalepsy. As long as the subject is not acted upon from without, the mind appears to be a perfect blank, but the subject can be readily communicated with, and receives unhesitatingly every suggestion made to him by his hypnotiser, whose puppet he becomes. This is the condition in which he is deceived as to the properties of substances given him to taste or to handle, which are the stock experiments of popular " electro- biologists." Hallucinations of any kind may be suggested, and are perceived with all the senses, or, if it be preferred, with one eye or ear only. Or, some person, object, or part of an object, may be blotted out from the subject's perception, or he may be allowed to see only one object ; for instance, one horse only in a crowded street. More strictly mental effects may be suggested. The memory of individual persons or things may be obliterated, or the belief of the subject in his own personality may be changed, and he be made to believe he is a rabbit, an actress, a soldier, &c, acting according to such belief with unquestioning faith. Or the personality remaining, the opinions may be altered, an ardent Bonapartist being con- verted into a Republican. I will not dwell now on the question, whether there are any limits to this power of suggestion, as I shall have to return to that later. This is an exceedingly brief account of the phenomena of hypnotism, according to the school founded by Charcot. Nothing could be more 19 290 STUDIES definite than the three stages I have described, and no other disease has been studied with more enthusiasm, energy, and attention. After saying so much, it will appear confounding to add that the account given by the Nancy hypnotisers is entirely different. According to M. Liebeault and his followers, the hypnotic state is not a diseased condition at all. They believe the fundamental condition is one closely akin to ordinary sleep, produced by the suggestion of the operator and the conviction of the subject. The chief difference from ordinary sleep is, that the subject remains in close relation to the hypnotiser, so that his thoughts and acts are controlled by the latter. This school has also arranged the symptoms of hypnotism in several stages ; but they may all be reduced to three — somnolence, light sleep and profound sleep, which last corresponds to the Paris somnam- bulism (Forel). They hold that, as a rule, the last stage, with all its consequences, is only reached after repeated trials, the " suggestibility " of the subject rapidly increasing with habit. Neither of these parties seems at present dis- posed to yield to the other ; but there can be no doubt that the opinion of foreigners generally, and lately even of some distinguished Parisian physicians, inclines very decidedly to the Nancy explanation. This has, above all, the great advan- tage that it accounts for the phenomena observed by its opponents, as well as for those collected on its own behalf. It will be remembered that the Salpetriere school experiments exclusively upon hysterical persons, who are alone, it teaches, amenable to the hypnotic influence. But every physician is only too well aware of the marvellous HYPNOTISM • 291 power that hysterical women have to counterfeit disease, and of the almost incredible skill, patience, and fortitude which they will employ to simulate any malady that they find renders them objects of interest and attention. When to this is added the force of suggestion inherent in the process of hypnotism, it does not seem at all unlikely that the Paris operators themselves produce, by uncon- scious suggestion, the phenomena they study. Probably phenomena corresponding to the three stages of Charcot occurred in the first case or two observed by that illustrious physician, and suffi- cient care was not thereupon taken to exclude the possibility of unintentional suggestion, of which the importance was then unknown. The slightest hint of manner or word would be sufficient to let the hysterical subjects know what was expected of them, and repeated experiment would but confirm the result of the earliest observations. Most operators outside the Salpetriere school have had the same experience as one of the late t writers on the subject, the distinguished Parisian, M. Dejerine. He says : — I have never yet been able to observe the Salpetriere phenomena in subjects who had never been previously hypnotised, although I have sought for them on each occa- sion with great care, while avoiding the possibility of suggestion. ... On the other hand, in several of these cases I have obtained, by suggestion, all the stages described above, and produced the complete type of " la grande hypnose" sometimes from the beginning, and after a very few trials. ... In a word, the subjects repro- duced at will, either the type of the school of the Salpetriere, or the type of the school of Nancy. In other terms, I have never obtained anything which was spontaneous, 292 STUDIES or personal, so to speak, to the subject under experiment, nothing which in my judgment was not due to suggestion. 1 Whichever of these two ways of looking at the facts that hypnotism has revealed be accepted, these clearly call for some explanation which shall connect them with the other phenomena of mental life. There are difficulties in the way of every hypothesis that can be suggested ; the one that has received the most general assent is due to Professor Heidenhain. He pointed out that all the physical means employed ior hypnotising are slight monotonous stimuli of the sensory nerves, and he supposed — what seems very probable — that the highest nervous centres in the brain are thereby exhausted, and so rendered incapable of their ordinary functions. Now these centres, as I have pointed out in the Dublin Review, 2 are inhibitory or controlling. They limit or check all irregular action of the lower centres, and are thus the necessary condition of the faculty of attention, and thereby of all higher thought. By the temporary disablement of these highest centres the subject, then, would become unable to direct the course of his thoughts, and would unresistingly receive all suggestions that reached him from without. He would lose (as we all do in dreams) that power of comparison with the other data of his mind, which alone enables any of us to judge of the truth or falsity of any state- ment or perception that may be presented to our consciousness. Hypnotism, on this theory, differs 1 Medecine Moderne, January 25, 1891. 2 The Physiological Psychology of St. Thomas, April, 1882, p. 355. (See pp. 345-346 of this volume.) HYPNOTISM 293 from natural sleep chiefly by the power of sugges- tion which the operator acquires over his subject ; and we are thus landed once more in the view taken by the Nancy school. I will not here dwell upon the theoretical and purely psychological results of hypnotism. It has been aptly called " a vivisection of the mind," and the industry and skill with which it has been used for the purpose of psychological research have led to some very interesting and unforeseen results. I will only remark on one of them, which indeed includes them all. Hypnotism strongly con- firms the view of modern science, that much of our mental life is unconscious and ordinarily unknown to us. Since Descartes' revolt from scholasticism, it has been held by psychologists that our mental life reached no further than our consciousness directly showed us ; and that the world of thought within — as the ancients thought of the world without — was measured by our un- aided faculties. The opposite doctrine is expressed — inappropriately enough — by the phrase " uncon- scious cerebration." On this view, the mind of each of us is an unknown territory, lying in dark- ness unexplored, save where our voluntarily directed consciousness casts a narrow ray of light, or where some more urgent perception or memory rises out of the gloom. Catholic philosophers will welcome the reversal of one of Descartes' errors, against which their predecessors had protested in vain. And the practical bearing of such a conception, if grave and serious, is at least wholesome and bsacing. Our sense of responsibility is greatly quickened when we realise that we have to shape our course in life across a much wider field than 294 STUDIES we had previously suspected, and that, without quitting the confines of our own minds, we can range from the highest to the lowest places. The peculiar horror of hypnotism is that we have been taught that this power of self-direction may abdi- cate, and that our organisms — nay, our very minds themselves — may become nothing but elaborate puppets in a stranger's hands. Most of us will agree that such a possibility, if it be true, is more horrible than any legend of Oriental superstition or mediaeval witchcraft ; and we shall anxiously inquire how far our fears are grounded in fact. The answer is not quite reassuring. The power of suggestion does not merely apply to hallucina- tions, opinions, and beliefs ; acts of any kind can be suggested to the subject, and may be performed by him with unresisting obedience. Many of the experiments of this kind that have been tried have been recorded in the articles that have appeared on hypnotism in the periodicals. The reader is therefore probably familiar with instances where subjects have been ordered to shoot or poison their dearest relatives, and have obeyed implicitly as far as lay in their power. The acts suggested are performed with all the accuracy of a machine, and yet often with more skill and fearlessness than the subject normally possesses. For instance, Fere tells us that he has given the order that a certain point on a card should be pierced with a penknife, and the act has been performed with a precision which would only be possible normally after minute measurement. It is impossible to refrain from Fere's reflection that a criminal act would have been executed with the same accuracy. There is no limit to the character of the suggestions HYPNOTISM 295 which may be acted upon ; they may be absurd, immoral, criminal, and dangerous or injurious to the subject himself. They may be remembered after the hypnotic stage has ceased ; but it only needs the command of the operator to ensure absolute oblivion, or the belief that the suggestion comes from an innocent person. If this were all it would be serious enough ; but what is more marvellous and more terrible remains to be told. Any of these suggestions may be made, which are to take effect after the subject has passed out of the hypnotic sleep, and is apparently in his or her usual condition. Nor is this power limited to the time immediately following hypnotism ; the suggestions may be timed to come off and have been performed with unfailing punctuality at a distant period (suggestions a longue echeance). There are numerous instances in which the interval between the hypnotism and the fulfilment of the act suggested has been several weeks ; in one care- fully recorded case an act commanded on August 2 was performed on the following 2nd of October ; and in another, equally authentic, an hallucination appeared 172 days after it had been suggested. Or the patient may be commanded to fall into the hypnotic sleep ; the cases in which persons have been mesmerised at a distance, or by means of an amulet, come under this category, whereby some of the most wonderful effects of the mesmeric power are explained. The power of influencing the mind after the hypnotic sleep is over has been employed in a more satisfactory manner. Habits of intoxication have been combated by French and Swiss physicians, and, by an English clergy- man, by suggesting a dislike to alcohol, with some 296 STUDIES success, and other habits will occur to the ex- perienced which might be treated in the same manner. Its use has been proposed in education, and one case has been recorded of an idle boy who, being hypnotised and told to work, applied himself to his lessons, and could only escape from the necessity of so doing by refusing to be hypnotised again ! For all these commands only operate for a time, and if the hypnotism is not repeated in a week or two the influence of the last seance wears out. A more obvious application of hypnotic sug- gestion is in the treatment of many diseases, which has been carried out on a large scale at Nancy, and with undoubted success in the case of many nervous diseases. It is exceedingly difficult to offer any satisfac- tory explanation of post-hypnotic suggestions, especially those a longue echeance. I think M. Delbceuf's the only plausible one. He found that, if the subject be roused before such suggested acts or hallucinations are completed, there is a con- fused remembrance of them, as of a dream ; while if they be finished they are not remembered. 1 This leads him to suppose that the subject is for the time being thrown into a state of hypnotic trance, during which the suggestion takes effect. We now come to consider whether there are any limits to a power which seems at first sight bound- less, for good or ill as the operator may choose. It is generally admitted that all the more difficult and complicated suggestions, especially post-hyp- notic ones a longue echeance, are usually not to 1 It is fair to say that Mr. Gurney thought this due to some peculiarity in M. Delbceuf s subjects. HYPNOTISM 297 be obtained from a subject at first, but require practice, and, as it were, gradual training. This is, however, not always the case. M. Dejerine, for instance, in the paper I have already quoted, says that he has observed two young men, who had never been hypnotised, in whom he could produce all the more complicated phenomena by simple suggestion. And there is a well-known case where a vagrant, named Castellan, in 1865, hypnotised a young girl in Provence, and used the influence he thus acquired over her to make her leave at once her father's house and live with him, though she looked on him with fear and loathing. The mind of the subject introduces still more important limits to the power of the operator. For when I said that the former is an automaton in the hands of the hypnotiser, I must not be taken to mean that his or her faculties are entirely abolished for the time being. We see this in the ingenuity often displayed in selecting means for carrying out some end which has been determined beforehand by the operator. Thus a woman has had recourse to cajolery and ingenious excuses to induce a supposed victim to drink what she thinks to be a poisoned draught. Such subjects carry out the Calvinist view of free-will, believing themselves to be free, whereas they are simply executing the mandates of a will other than their own. The Nancy school believe that this is true of all subjects — that in the end none can escape the influence of suggestion, and that opposition can always be overborne by stronger pressure on the part of the operator, or removed by gradual training and practice. On the contrary, the Sal- petriere school have gradually come to the con- 298 STUDIES elusion that the power of resistance to suggestions, though weakened, is not entirely lost. They appeal to numerous instances in which a subject has refused to perform an act which is opposed to his or her conscience, habits, or even inclinations. It is true that such resistance can often be overcome by persistence on the part of the operator, and his ascendency grows with habit, but a margin of independence remains. Thus a woman, on being told to steal, refuses, either from moral motives or for fear of detection ; or another, on being ordered to murder some one, replies, " Why should I ? He has done me no harm." In such a case persistence brings on an attack of hysteria, and ends the seance. Indeed, the Paris school go farther, and say that they believe the apparently criminal suggestions made only succeed because in their inmost hearts the subjects know that these are never seriously intended to be carried out ; that they know the stabbing is only to be done with a paper-knife, the pistol is not loaded with ball, or the supposed arsenic is really sugar. It would require a much more extended and prac- tical knowledge of the facts than I possess to decide between these two statements. But, look- ing on the question as an outsider, I remark chiefly these two points : On the one hand, many of the independent observers who follow the Nancy school in other respects, consider that in this they exag- gerate the power of suggestion. On the other hand, it is hard to believe that all the apparent resistance and final consent to some act which revolts the moral sense or the inclinations is mere acting. Perhaps we shall do best to suspend our judgment, and meanwhile to hold that at any HYPNOTISM 299 rate only a very small proportion of hypnotised subjects lose all power of resistance. It is unfor- tunate that there* should be this conflict of opinion concerning the most important practical question of all, but the doubt will probably not greatly affect either way a decision as to the lawfulness of hypnotism in any given case. Even this very slight sketch of hypnotism will be enough to show what a light it throws on some of the most obscure recesses of human life. I will only remark in passing on its analogies to the preternatural phenomena, possession, obsession, and the like ; this is not the place, nor am I the person, to dwell on them farther. The power of hypnotic suggestion shades away into the influence that strong minds have to carry away weaker ones ; an influence that has long been recognised, both as regards individuals and masses of men. And, on another side, the fatality with which hallucinations and acts can be suggested to hypnotised subjects, their latency in the mind until aroused, and the oppression which subjects feel until the act is performed, all bear a striking resemblance to the irresistible impulses and fixed ideas which are sometimes met with in persons of otherwise sound mind. The foregoing is a very brief account of the views at present entertained as to the nature and power of hypnotism. The practical questions raised by the existence of such an influence are, as will be seen on reflection, of the gravest im- portance. Some o: them concern the administra- tion of justice, and these may be studied by all who desire in the exhaustive work of M. Gilles de 300 STUDIES la Tourette, 1 which is recognised as the chief authority on the subject. It has to be borne in mind that the author belongs to the Paris school, and allowance has to be made for this, but his views as to the nature of hypnotism do not affect the value of the collected instances in which this has in one way or another come before the French tribunals. The point that has been most fre- quently raised is the obvious one : the possibility of the commission of criminal assaults during the hypnotic stupor, or as the result of suggestion in somnambulism. This is complicated by the diffi- culty of excluding simulation or false accusations, which are so common in such cases, so that some of the most intricate problems may be brought in this way before a court of justice. The forensic bearing of post-hypnotic suggestion is, at first sight, more alarming. To take only a few instances : subjects have been made to sign cheques for large amounts, or give receipts for money they have never had, as results of suggestions during som- nambulism. Or, again, the subornation of testi- mony has been suggested experimentally in France with complete success. A theft has been suggested to a woman, and at the same time she has been supplied with a story which would cast the blame on some one else. After committing the theft, she has been brought before a sham " Juge d'lnstruc- tion," to whom she has accurately repeated the story prepared for her. The same end might be even more ingeniously attained, if, instead of mere false witness, an hallucination were suggested which 1 L'Hypnotisme et les ttats analogues au 'point de vue medico- I'gal. 2me Edition. Paris. 1889. HYPNOTISM 301 should lead the subject to believe that he had seen an innocent person commit, or had himself com- mitted, some crime. Finally, M. Binet has thought it by no means unlikely that criminals may here- after employ the fearlessness and dexterity of somnambulists by hypnotising one of their number when any difficult feat has to be executed. It is comforting to find that M. de la Tourette considers the risks to society from the criminal applications of hypnotism are much less than we might at first sight expect. As a disciple of M. Charcot, he believes that suggestions can be always rejected by the moral sense or fear of the subject. He also points out that it would be practically impossible for an operator to hypnotise any one repeatedly — as is ordinarily required to gain an influence over the subject — without the knowledge of other persons, who could prove the relation between the two. The subornation of false wit- ness would probably be easily exposed on cross- examination, by showing that the subject could not go beyond the lesson he had been taught by the hypnotiser. Even the greatest danger of all — the commission of criminal assaults during lethargy — is to some extent lessened by the fact that subjects often remember what has passed during that condition, though they may have been powerless, and to all appearance unconscious. The legal responsibility of persons hypnotised has received much attention from French and Italian jurists. Some have thought that they should be treated as wholly or partially irre- sponsible ; but the majority hold that they should fall under the legal provisions made for criminal lunatics. They urge that one who can be readily 302 STUDIES hypnotised, and accepts suggestions when in that state, is a permanent danger to society, because he can be so easily utilised for criminal purposes ; and that the fear of punishment would make him refuse to be operated upon. Further, it seems reasonable that any one who allowed himself to be hypnotised, knowing the probable consequences, should be held responsible before the law, as much as one who commits a crime when intoxicated. All who have had any experience of hypnotism are agreed in condemning the public exhibitions of electro-biology, mesmerism, animal magnetism, or whatever else they may be called. They are attended with considerable danger to the health and reason of the unfortunate persons experimented on by those who are, for the most part, quite unable to judge of the powerful nature of the agent they are employing, and whose only object is to produce startling and violent results. Even spectators who have only assisted at these brutalising exhibitions have been known to suffer from the impression made upon them ; and others have received more permanent injury from the attempts to experiment at home which have been suggested by witnessing the results of a public seance. Such exhibitions are already prohibited in Italy, Austria, and, I believe, in Germany and Belgium. Until the same is done here, it seems to me the duty of all to abstain from countenancing by their presence such de- moralising performances. It is also, I think, almost unanimously held by experts that hypnotism should not be employed, even by those qualified to use it with as little risk as possible, without some adequate reason, for mere purposes of study or idle curiosity. Beyond this point, the strongest HYPNOTISM 303 differences of opinion exist. These were brought out very decidedly by the discussion on hypnotism which took place during the meeting of the British Medical Association held at Birmingham in 1890. Dr. Norman Kerr, who opened the discussion in an impassioned and somewhat rhetorical speech, contended that hypnotism was a morbid condition which should in no circumstances be produced ; that its abuse was inseparable from its use, so that the results were always injurious ; and that even when it succeeded in checking habits of intoxica- tion, it did so by substituting a " teetotal drunken- ness," which was far worse. I do not perceive that any facts were brought forward in support of this unsparing condemnation, which was based on general and abstract grounds. The sense of the meeting was adverse to Dr. Kerr's contention, and a committee of investigation was appointed to study the whole subject. I have no desire to go beyond the scope of my present article, and to do more than endeavour to supply moralists with materials for coming to a conclusion on this subject ; but I will add a few practical suggestions which will at any rate minimise the dangers of hypnotism, supposing the practice be considered lawful. The patient should be made to understand fully that it is a natural process, but one of a delicate character, which requires the same precautions as most other powerful methods of treatment. The operator should always be a trained hypnotiser, and a third party should always be present. It i3 important, that before awakening the subject, he should be told not to allow himself to be hyp- notised by anyone else, as this suggestion makes it very difficult for any other unauthorised person 304 STUDIES to hypnotise him, in case the attempt should ever be made. A sufficient interval should be inter- posed between each seance to prevent the forma- tion of a habit of seeking to be hypnotised without good reason. This craving for a repetition of the process ; the increased facility with which a sub- ject can be affected ; and a dependence, full of risk, of the patient upon the operator, are the principal dangers that would have to be guarded against. If the practice is ever permitted, most of these points have been very clearly and satis- factorily dealt with by the Abbe Trotin, a Professor in the Theological Faculty of Lille, in a pamphlet which was noticed in the Dublin Review when it appeared. 1 I would refer any reader who wishes to see the subject treated from a theological stand- point to its pages, and will only here add that the author is decidedly of opinion that hypnotism, under suitable precautions, is lawful. The above account of hypnotism has been neces- sarily a very incomplete one. I have brought forward only what seem to me the most important points, and have set aside a large mass of very interesting detail. I trust I have at any rate expressed with sufficient clearness the general impression which a study of the subject has left on my own mind. This is in the main a reassuring one. At first sight the dangers of hypnotism seem so great that the temptation is to exaggerate them ; but further consideration reduces them to human proportions, and teaches us they may be controlled. In almost all, if not in all, cases, 1 Etude Morale sur U Hypnotisme. Lille, 1888. Dublin, Review, July, 1888, p. 222. j HYPNOTISM 305 the free-will of man remains a fortress impregnable to this as to every other external agency, unless the gate be opened by consent to the process, or a feeble resistance be offered by the will to sugges- tions after an entrance has been effected. 20 306 THE CURBS AT LOURDES. One of the most striking characteristics of an age which prides itself on eliminating the super- natural from the world, and on relying upon science alone, is the steady increase in the recoveries that take place at Lourdes, and in the attention they attract. During the last thirty-six years the number of sick who visit that shrine has come by degrees to be counted by thousands annually, while more than 150 medical men went there last year (1893) to study the results for themselves. It is not the least part of the irony of events that it is the very progress of science which has made pilgrimages on such a large scale possible, and also has provided means for testing the recoveries satisfactorily. Side by side with the increased number of alleged cures a more systematic and detailed examination of them has grown up, so that the subject can now be studied by the physi- cian in the same manner as any other branch of medicine. All that could be said after a careful study of the Annates de Lourdes may be seen in an able and thoughtful article by Dr. Mackey in the number of the Dublin Review for October, 1880, and the credit is his of having preceded other Catholic medical men in England, where they so long hesitated to follow him. There were good reasons for this delay, if I may judge of others THE CURES AT LOURDES 307 by my own case. Lourdes was known to us almost entirely by the work of M. Lasserre, which, in spite of its brilliant literary qualities, or perhaps because of them, was not calculated to satisfy a physician. The cases reported from time to time in the religious journals, and those which reached us on hearsay evidence, were hardly more con- vincing, and did no more than cause us to suspend our judgment. This state of mind ended, for me at any rate, with the publication of Dr. Boissarie's first book. 1 I then realised for the first time that there was a large mass of medical testimony bearing on the cures, which was available for further study, and seemed to demand it. Among the cases so recorded some seemed to me explicable by the action of the mind on the body ; but others appeared to be wholly out of the ordinary course of Nature, and yet supported by testimony which would be deemed sufficient to establish any im- probable, but not impossible, event. I will presently give two or three instances of the class of cases I refer to, and will only now remark that the number might be easily increased by quoting from the work in question. One doubt, however, and that a grave one, still remained in my mind. One of the hardest lessons that we all learn in life is not to trust to the fairest appearances without careful and personal examination. It might be, I thought, that the love of the marvellous which carries almost everyone away into inaccuracy and exaggeration, had acted with special force on masses of men stirred by religious enthusiasm, and that the fervid imagination of the South had perhaps clothed its • Lourdes : Histoire Mtdicale. Paris : Lecoffre, 1891. 808 STUDIES beliefs in the semblance of a scientific method which might vanish on a nearer scrutiny. My suspicions were enough to make me desire to see the wonders of Lourdes for myself, and to judge on the spot of the way in which the cures are examined and recorded. It seems to me that the testimony of a medical witness, who is at least independent, will be interesting to those who wish for further information ; and this is my reason for appearing perhaps too exclusively occupied with my own experiences and impressions. I make no apology to the general reader for the medical details into which I shall enter, for they are the very essence of the subject. The following are examples of the cases which on perusal seemed to me to be outside the ordinary course of Nature, and yet supported by abundant testimony : — Case 1. — Peter de Rudder, an outdoor servant at Jabekke, a village between Bruges and Ostend, had both bones of his left leg broken by the fall of a tree. The fracture was a compound comminuted one, three inches below the knee ; it did not unite, though treated by six medical men successively. The wound at the seat of the fracture, and a deep ulcer on the dorsum of the foot, remained open ; the patient kept his bed for a year, and then dragged himself about on crutches. This state of things lasted for rather more than eight years, when he went on a pilgrimage to the Lourdes shrine at Oosstaker, where, on April 7, 1875, he recovered completely and instantaneously while in prayer before the statue. Such was his own account at the time, confirmed by a statement signed by the burgomaster of fc the commune, and eleven THE CURES AT LOURDES 309 of the principal inhabitants, within a week of the occur- rence. The whole evidence in this case was gone over carefully last year by Dr. Royer, of Lens St. Remy, accom- panied by a sceptic. He found that de Rudder's ordinary medical attendants were both dead ; but one Dr. van Hoestenberghe, who lives in the neighbourhood, had been told by his deceased colleagues that they looked upon the case as hopeless, and he had himself examined the injury. He saw a deep ulceration in the upper third of the leg, at the bottom of which could be seen the fractured ends of the bones, separated by an interval of about an inch. The limb was movable in every direction, the only limit being the resistance of the soft tissues. The last time the doctor saw the limb was two or three months before the recovery, and he deemed it impossible that a fracture of such long standing and gravity could have healed com- pletely during that time. That no change had taken place during the interval seems to be established by the fol- lowing testimony. Two persons saw the leg, one nine, the other seven, days before the date of the alleged cure, and three persons saw him dress the wound the evening before, when he bent the leg so as to make the fractured ends of the bones project. A ticket porter, who assisted in helping him into the train on his way to Oosstaker, deposed to having seen the leg hanging loose and evidently broken, and to his returning in the evening without crutches and unassisted. De Rudder himself confirmed the account he had formerly given of the suddenness and completeness of his cure, adding some curious details, such as that at first his feet were too tender for him to wear shoes. Dr. Royer examined the limb carefully, and found two cicatrices in the places where the sores had been, and a depression of the crest of the tibia at the seat of the fracture, but no shortening, no thickening, and not the least lameness. I have dwelt on this case at some length, though much of the evidence has been omitted, not only because it is a very remarkable one, but also in the hope that some English surgeon may be induced to investigate 310 STUDIES it independently. De Rudder lives between Bruges and Ostend, so near our shores that it would be almost as easy and as cheap to subject this alleged miracle to cross- examination, as to ridicule or reject it without inquiry. If it is disproved it will be an interesting psychological question how de Rudder succeeded in persuading himself and his neighbours, who were by no means all devout Catholics, that he had been so marvellously cured. Dr. Hoestenberghe, of Stalhille, whom I have mentioned above, offers to accompany de Rudder to either Bruges or Ostend if it is inconvenient for any medical man to go to Jabbeke. Case 2. — Marie Lemarchand came to Lourdes with a certificate from Dr. La Neele, of Caen, stating that she was suffering from phthisis, and also from lupus of the right cheek, lips, and part of the mucous membrane of the mouth. Dr. d'Hombres stated that he saw her waiting for her turn to go into the bath, and that he was struck with the particularly repulsive appearance of her face, which was suppurating profusely. He was shortly after called by one of the baigneuses to see the patient, when he found a fresh, red cicatrix covered by a freshly- formed epidermis where the ulceration had been before. Dr. La Neele writes to Dr. Boissarie that on her return home the skin gradually assumed a healthy aspect, and that the pulmonary evidences of disease had disappeared, leaving the patient perfectly well. Case 3. — Amelie Chagnon suffered from caries of the second left metatarsal bone with a sinus which freely sup- purated. This had gradually become worse during four years, until removal of the bone appeared to be the only course to take ; for the last year there had also been stru- mous disease of the left knee-joint. Both these condi- tions were certified to by her medical attendants, Dr, Dupont, of Poitiers, and Dr. Gaillard, of Parthenay. She went to Lourdes with the national pilgrimage in 1889 ; but returned without any improvement. Dr. Dupont states that he saw her the day before her second* visit in August, 1891, and found her no better than usualA She was bathed THE CUBES AT LOURDES 311 at Lourdes, at first with no result ; at her urgent entreaty she was put back into the bath, when she felt violent pains in the foot, and was aware that she was healed. Six ladies were in the bathroom at the time ; one of them — a Mdme. de la Saliniere — states that she distinctly saw the sore on the foot before the second immersion, and that after the bath its place was taken by a recent but perfect scar. At the Bureau des Constatations immediately after- wards, nothing could be detected wrong with the limb, except this newly formed cicatrix ; and a few days later her own medical attendants certified to her complete recovery. Case 4. — In 1887, Dr. Boissarie saw a woman waiting to bathe her child, a boy of twelve, who had been blind for two years ; he had well-marked interstitial keratitis, and a specific history. After bathing, the boy suddenly and completely recovered his sight, and on examination, Dr. Boissarie found only a few spots and a little cloudiness of the cornea remaining. II. To come to my own experience, I spent May of the year 1894 at Lourdes, and believe that I could not have visited it at a time more favourable for observing all its different aspects. During the first part of the month there were few pilgrimages ; while on Whit-Monday there was a pilgrimage of 5,000 Basque men, but with no invalids. In the last ten days of the month there were two large pilgrimages, with many sick, from Belgium and Lyons ; and I then had occasion to see the Bureau des Constatations Medicates at work, and the way in which the cases are observed and recorded. The number of sick in these two bodies, 60 Belgians and 200 Lyonese, was of course small compared with the vast gatherings in August and 312 STUDIES September ; but for that very reason it was much easier to observe individuals and the pilgrims as a body. I found on my arrival that Dr. Boissarie was not there, that he spends most of his time at his home, at Sarlat in the Dordogne, and only visits Lourdes when the number of sick expected calls for his presence. During his absence the medical bureau is closed, and no plan is provided for recording the recoveries that may take place ; though I suppose the clergy would take down such particulars as might be brought under their notice, which could be afterwards examined at leisure. This may seem strange ; but it is in accord with the other characteristics of Lourdes. The complete absence of any attempt to interfere with the spontaneous devotion of each visitor to the shrine was the feature which impressed me most strongly from the first, and is one of the greatest charms of the place. In ordinary times no attempt is made to lead or direct the prayers of those who are at the Grotto, who are left undisturbed save by the birds singing above, and the rushing torrent hard by. Even during the pilgrimages, though processions, public prayers, and discourses are pro- vided in abundance, every one is perfectly free to attend these or not, as he may prefer, and in any case there is much spare time at his disposal. Miracles, too, fall there into a secondary place, and do not occupy the importance they necessarily assume when they are being exclusively studied. They are, indeed, most eagerly looked for by the pilgrims and other bystanders, and there are the heartiest rejoicings when they are thought to occur. But the ecclesiastical authorities do not take the notice of them I should have expected, and on THE CURES AT LOURDES 313 the whole rather decline to discuss them, leaving their consideration to the medical men in the Bureau, if it is at work. During the pilgrimages when this Bureau des Constatations Medicates is open, it very much resembles an out-patients' department in a hos- pital. There is a public room of fair size, but often insufficient for the number of persons it has to contain ; and other small rooms are pro- vided for the private examination of such cases as may require it. The bureau is under the authority and control of Dr. Boissarie ; and I may say at once that I do not think a man better qualified for the post could have been found. After a successful career as a student in Paris, he was recalled by his father to practise in his native province ; and he appears to me to have profited to the full by the valuable training a country practitioner's life can afford. Before making his acquaintance I had, as I have said, some not unnatural suspicions that he might be too credulous and enthusiastic ; but they were soon dissipated on my coming to know him. I found I had to do with a cautious, hard-headed practitioner, with an excellent knowledge of his profession. Above all, I was most favourably impressed by his desire for the fullest publicity, and by his evidently sincere wish that the alleged cures, and the method of investigation, should be independently studied by any medical visitor. For instance, he asked me to take hi i place at the bureau on the first day it was opened, when he was kept to the hou^e by illness, although he then knew me only as a Catholic medical man, who wished to satisfy himself by personal observa- 314 STUDIES tion. He welcomed most cordially the ten or twelve of our confreres who came to the bureau during the week it was opened ; objections, often vigorously pressed, were always welcomed, and suggestions for the further study of interesting cases were invited. The only thing that appeared to annoy him was the refusal of some to remain long enough to observe for themselves. The records consist of notes taken at the time under the dicta- tion of Dr. Boissarie, or occasionally of some other medical man. Every one is perfectly free to inspect these case-books, and to make independent notes and inquiries. I remarked in particular a physi- cian from Montpelier, who was by no means con- vinced, and whose criticisms were always to the point, able, and trenchant ; he received every assistance and even encouragement to take copious notes for a paper he intended to read before some medical society. I have dwelt upon my impressions of Lourdes and its personnel, because to my mind they are incompatible with the suspicions I had before my visit. It may be thought that the course taken by the clergy and Dr. Boissarie with me and other confreres is part of a policy designed to throw us off our guard, and so to deceive us more easily. Such an idea is absurd to one who. like myself, has carefully watched during five weeks what passed. But supposing it to be true, it would be an easier and more agreeable duty to hoist the deceivers with their own petard, to use their professed desire for publicity and free investiga- tion, so as to show where the fraud lies, or at least where the fallacy comes in. Until this is done, it will only be fair and reasonable to suppose Dr, THE CUBES AT LOURDES 315 Boissarie is sincere in constantly repeating his desire for the closest and most independent examina- tion, provided that it is conducted carefully and impartially. " These questions," as he said lately, " are extremely difficult. In order to understand them it is necessary to free one's mind from all preconceived opinions, and to ground one's judg- ment on serious and long-continued observation, and not on fugitive impressions hastily collected, which cannot be tested." 1 III. I have already said that one of the things which impressed me most at Lourdes was the absence of any attempt to excite or rouse the pilgrims ; corresponding to this is another remarkable charac- teristic. During the whole of my stay there I did not observe any of those manifestations of hysteria which I should almost have expected, nor any hypnotic phenomena, though I looked closely for both. I cannot, of course, answer for what may have been witnessed by others ; I can only say that such occurrences must be rare, as I re- mained at Lourdes longer than most people do, and visited the shrine under all its aspects and at all times of the day and always found the wor- shippers quietly devout, and at any rate externally calm. Much of this tranquillity is no doubt due to the systematic injunction of silence and to the discouragement of gesticulations and contortions ; for I have elsewhere shown that these bodity movements seem to be the principal agents in 1 AnncUes de Lov.rdea. Juki, 1894. 316 STUDIES making religious excitement run on into epidemic hysteria or insanity. The most solemn ceremony of all is when the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession between the ranks of the sick, while the words are chanted which, the Gospels record, were addressed by the blind, the halt and the infirm to our Lord when He was on earth. Nothing can be more stimulating to the religious mind ; but the appeal is an internal one and the very Presence commands silence and stillness. There is unquestionably excitement enough among the bystanders when a miraculous cure is supposed to have taken place ; but as far as my own observa- tion, and the report of persons who appear to me trustworthy, go, it does not run on into anything morbid. I believe the principal force that keeps the emotions of the pilgrims under control is a moral one. Though much is made, of course, of the supernatural cures that are said to occur, they occupy at Lourdes a secondary place, to an extent which it is difficult for any one who has not been there to realise. Moral and spiritual blessings are sought far more earnestly and more generally than the healing of bodily infirmities. Numerous instances are related of persons who have gone to Lourdes to obtain their cure, but who when there have ceased to ask for it, and either offered their prayers for the relief of others whom they thought in greater need, or sought for resignation to bear their own sufferings. In the same way, one hears there of persons who have been healed, as they have thought miracu- lously, and who have ever after lived in dread of the increased responsibilities incurred by the renewal of health and strength. The influence of THE CUBES AT LOUEDES 317 such an atmosphere as this is likely to set bounds even to the craving for life and health which is so deeply rooted in us all. This is a summary of my impressions of the conditions in which the pilgrims are placed at Lourdes ; I can now pass on to describe the practical working of the Bureau des Constatations Medicates. During the great solemnities of August and September, when several thousand sick are brought to Lourdes, it is open from early in the morning until late at night ; but during my visit there were only 260 invalids, and the working hours were from ten to four or five. Several different classes of patients came to the bureau during that time. There were a few cases of persons who came to seek advice before visiting the shrine ; I remarked especially a lady suffering from the results of emotional overstrain, who was handed over to me, and who speedily improved on being encouraged and advised to avoid excitement. Some came to be examined and have a note of their case taken before going to the Grotto ; these were for the most part isolated pilgrims : those who belong to the organised pil- grimages having to be furnished with medical cer- tificates before leaving home. A few, more seriously ill or more nervous than the rest, came to ask if they might safely bathe in the piscines. There were some sad cases where the patients had per- suaded themselves that they were better, or even cured, but where we had to tell them that their condition was so far unchanged. Among these I remember a poor woman with an extensive sar- coma of the face, and — as might be expected — two cases of advanced phthisis with all the hopeful- ness common in that disease. 318 STUDIES But in the great majority of cases that came for examination after visiting the shrine, there was decided improvement, and often complete recovery. Excluding for the moment a few cases to which I will return presently, the improvement was not more than could conceivably be produced by the action of the mind on the body. These patients might be divided into two classes ; in one of which the symptoms were purely neurotic, and where complete recovery was the rule ; and another category of persons in whom examination easily detected the persistence of organic disease, but whose general condition was greatly improved. Of the first class — the simply nervous cases — the most numerous examples that I saw were what is called hysterical 1 paraplegia and paralysis. Such cases appear to me decidedly more common in hospitals on the Continent than in this country, partly perhaps because there are no workhouse infirmaries to receive them, but mainly, I think, because the conditions of life are harder there than with us. The number of such cases that go to Lourdes and the proportion that recover there cannot be ascertained, for the reasons I have given above, but both are considerable, if I may judge from my own experience. I noted seven such cases which recovered, during the first part of my stay there, when the medical bureau was not open, and when the number of pilgrims was small. One of them, indeed, had been cer- 1 I am compelled to use this word with extreme reluctance ; for since the SalpStriere school has so completely changed the connotation of the term hysteria, it has become even more ambiguous than it was formerly. THE CUKES AT LOURDES 319 tified by her physician, a German, to be suffering from " Riickenmarks - schwindsucht " (locomotor ataxia), but her account of herself to me seemed to prove that the case was an hysterica] one. I was particularly struck, in these bad hysterical cases, with the immediate recovery, not merely of the power of movement, but also of the general condition ; patients being at once restored to all the appearances of perfect health, to which they had long been strangers. The two following cases, which appear to belong to this class, are worth quoting in detail, both because of their intrinsic interest, and because they are samples of the rich clinical material that comes before the observer at Lourdes : — Case 5. — A male, 35 years of age, one of the Belgian pilgrims, a painter, had suffered from plumbism for nearly five years. The paralysis affected his lower limbs as well as the upper, and he also had anaesthesia and loss of smell and of taste. He was at first treated by Dr. Houze, in the Hopital St. Jean at Brussels. Two years ago he was sent to Paris to be treated by M. Charcot, who twice tried to hypnotise him, but failed. On his return to Brussels, he was again treated in the hospital there, and some improvement was effected ; but the extensors of both hands were still completely paralysed, the wrists dropped, and the arms could not be raised. After bath- ing at Lourdes on May 17, the left hand and arm recovered power, and the right limb followed on the 20th, only a little weakness remaining. The immediate recovery of this patient after such a long course of fruitless treatment is in any case most remarkable ; but the symptoms of anaesthesia would no doubt be set down to " hysteria," which Charcot and others have shown to be an occasional result of plumbism. If so, it .would in my judgment be impossible to say decidedly 320 STUDIES that the cure exceeded the conceivable influence of the mind on the body. Case 6. — A single pilgrim, a male, 66 years of age, fell from a hay-stack nine months ago and dislocated his left humerus forwards. The dislocation was not reduced, and was followed by paralysis of the flexors of the hand, apparently due to pressure on the median nerve. The loss of power was completely removed, the dislocation being unaffected on bathing the hand at the Grotto on May 22. Here, again, it seems to me it might be said that the immediate effect of the pressure had passed off, and that the paralysis that was cured was purely psychical in character. The second class of these cases, in which, the local disease remaining unaffected, the general state greatly improved, were in my experience fewer than those I have just described. Most of those I saw were instances of osteo-arthritis, a fact not without interest considering the neurotic affinities of the disease. But when we have said that these recoveries do not exceed the possible influence of the mind on the body, their medical interest is by no means exhausted. To say there is nothing remarkable about them, and that they are simply instances of suggestion carried out on a large scale, is merely to provoke the retort : " Why, then, do you not treat your own patients with equal success ? " It must be clear to the most superficial observer that the conditions of suggestion — if suggestion there is — at Lourdes, differ very considerably from those which prevail in the cliniques of Nancy or Paris. There is no evidence of hypnotic manifestations among the pilgrims ; and the number of cures of the various neuroses at different times are in no direct ratio THE CUKES AT LOUEDES 321 to the amount of religious excitement, there being often none during the great pilgrimages and pro- cessions. Whatever suggestion there may be must come from within, and even so, must differ notably from the more common kinds of " auto-suggestion,' * to use the barbarous word which has been coined for the purpose. Thus there can be no certain anticipation of cure on the part of the patients, for all are aware that recovery is the exception, not the rule. It is a matter of every-day experience at Lourdes that many who arrive with the most confident belief that they will be healed derive no benefit there ; while there are sufficient instances — Dr. Boissarie records a very striking one — where persons were cured who had no hope whatever. The truth appears to me to be, that suggestion is potent in the cure of disease, in proportion, not to its directness and imperiousness, but to its forming a part of the normal mental life of the individual. The former kind of suggestion is like a foreign body, which may compel the living tissues to yield to its impact, but cannot restore health, which must be due to the physiological reaction of the organism. For the same reason, I believe that cure by suggestion is less frequent among the puppets of the Charite and the Sal- petriere, than among the patients treated by the simpler process employed at Nancy ; and that it is most real and complete when wrought by the ordinary moral influence of the physician. The wonders worked by this last means will be never fully known, " carent quia vate sacro" but they have more elements of permanence about them than those produced by formal hypnotic suggestion. I do not, however, myself think this is the whole 21 322 STUDIES account of the matter. I believe that contact with the supernatural, not only at Lourdes, but in every place where men call for the help of their Creator, may produce much greater effects than ordinary suggestion or auto-suggestion can accom- plish. Such effects would be produced through the influence of the mind on the body ; and no argument could be based on individual cases, each of which might be paralleled among instances admittedly natural. But if the environment of patients visiting Lourdes be borne in mind, it will appear very improbable that the kind and degree of suggestion existing there should produce so many complete and permanent cures, even of purely nervous ailments. Nor will this seem ante- cedently unlikely to theists, who will be prepared to admit that prayer has a superhuman efficacy to change and renew the moral and spiritual nature of man. Those who grant so much will hardly think it unreasonable to believe that such an action may sometimes overflow into the body, which they know to be so intimately connected with the mind. IV. The great majority of the cures I witnessed at Lourdes were evidently, in one way or another, due to the influence of the mind on the body ; but I saw a few instances which, if they stand the test of further inquiry, I cannot ascribe to any natural agency. I am not writing a formal work on Lourdes ; so that I need not enter into such abstract questions as the limits of the possible influence of the nervous system in healing instan- THE CURES AT LOURDES 323 taneously abscesses, wounds, and other organic maladies. I should have done so with great reluc- tance, because we have not the light of actual experience to guide us. Even Professor Charcot, when he looked for cures parallel to those recorded at Lourdes, found none in his own vast clinique, but had to go back a hundred and fifty years to the tomb of the Jansenist deacon Paris. For- tunately I need only relate what I have seen, and leave my readers to draw their own conclusions ; but before doing so I must describe shortly the way in which the more remarkable cases are studied and tested. All invalids visiting the shrine are requested to bring with them certificates from their ordinary medical attendants; these being obligatory for all who join one of the organised pilgrimages, who also have to bring with them some evidence of their respectability and general antecedents. These certificates are taken as prima facie proof of the state of the patients ; but no one who has experience in such matters will be surprised to learn that they are often very short, wanting in clearness, and inadequate. When a case of recovery is observed which seems to call for further examination, the certifying medical men are written to for further details, and the case is published in the Annates as an apparent cure. Objections have been raised against this latter step ; but I think, with Dr. Boissarie, that the best means of arriving at the truth in matters of fact is by the fullest publicity. In support of this, he is able to quote instances where their publication led to withdrawal on the part of the medical men, or to such other explanations as removed them from the category of the marvellous. 324 STUDIES Seventy cases which recovered were reserved for study in 1893, out of which number twenty at most are likely to be thought sufficiently established ; and these again will be subjected to a further inquiry after two or three years, in order to see if recovery is permanent ; a precaution especially necessary to phthisis, epilepsy, and other diseases that naturally run an irregular course. It will be understood that the following cases have not yet had their past history completely investigated ; I have suggested the principal directions which that inquiry will take. Case 7. — A female, aged 35, a Lyons pilgrim. She has had caries of the left femur for two years ; two incisions have been made, together eleven inches long, through which diseased bone was removed. Three drainage tubes were put in, the suppuration was profuse, and the patient was unable to walk, being carried about Lourdes on a stretcher. During her third bath she experienced severe pain, the drainage-tubes fell out, and the wound healed over ; she was able to walk to the bureau, though still lame. On examination the wound was found to be com- pletely closed, though the cicatrix looked quite recent. The patient and her companion produced bandages which were soiled by free suppuration, which they said had been taken off just before the bath. Here inquiry will have to be made of the medical men who attended her, as to what was the precise state of the wound when last seen at Lyons. Case 8. — A female, aged 45, also a Lyons pilgrim, brought two certificates from two hospital surgeons at Villefranche, stating that she was suffering from organic disease of the hip- joint. For the last eighteen months she has worn an elaborate support, by the help of which she has been able to walk, but with great difficulty. On May 17, after the bath, she was able to walk easily, though stiffly, THE CURES AT LOURDES 325 without the support, to the bureau, where we could dis- cover no sign of disease. This patient, who had been a hospital nurse, had no appearance of being hysterical, but cases of supposed joint disease are always suspicious. Tt will therefore be necessary to make a very close examina- tion of the grounds on which the certifying medical men based their diagnosis. Cases 9 and 10 are both instances of recovery from blindness, certified to by the medical attendants, but with insufficient details. One was sympathetic ophthalmia, the right eye having been previously destroyed by injury, the other had been apparently glaucoma, for which double iridectomy had been performed without success. Both suddenly recovered their sight while at the grotto, and on coming to the bureau were able to read without difficulty. The left eye in the second patient was much smaller than the right. Case 11. — Jean de Brower, 29, of Oudenarde, in Belgium, fell from a ladder on his abdomen thirteen years ago ; he was very ill for some time with severe pain and vomit- ing, and never completely recovered. Three years since he had pleurisy and haemoptysis, and sixteen months ago the abdominal symptoms became aggravated ; there has been ever since much pain and tenderness, considerable distension, vomiting, constipation alternating with diar- rhoea, and occasional melaena. He was treated by the physicians of the hospital at Oudenarde, who certify his case to be one of tubercular peritonitis, his local symp- toms and general condition meanwhile growing steadily worse. He was brought from Belgium to Lourdes in a bed in the guard's van, being judged too ill to travel in the ordinary way, but he suffered so much and was so weak that the doctor who accompanied the Belgian pil- grimage expected him to die on the road. On his arrival at Lourdes I saw him carried into the hospital on a stretcher, and remarked to a bystander that in England it would be thought criminal to bring patients apparently moribund on such a long journey. On the afternoon of the next day — May 17 — he was taken down to the baths, but the 326 STUDIES attendants refused to bathe him. and merely sponged his abdomen with the water. He immediately felt very severe pain, which, however, only lasted a short time ; he wished to walk, but was not allowed to do so. Shortly after he was taken to the bureau, where he was examined by Dr. Boissarie and two other medical men, who found his abdomen soft, free from pain and tenderness, and so much smaller, that his drawers, which before fitted him. were now 30 centimetres (11*81 inches) too large for him in girth. His general weakness and the long disuse of his legs still made walking very difficult to him ; he was accordingly carried back to the hospital, where he made a large meal of soup, meat and bread, which gave him no trouble. When I saw him, on the 19th, there was no sign of illness about him, except some uncertainty of gait, and even this had passed away before he left Lourdes on the 22nd, when he seemed perfectly well. The diagnosis of chronic peritonitis, ordinary or tubercular, is usually easy ; and the history given of this patient entirely sup- ports the opinion of the physicians who had attended him. We have to remember, on the other hand, that abdominal diseases are almost proverbially difficult ; and that " phan- tom tumours," in particular (I do not know if they have ever been seen in a male), deceive even the elect. The evidence in this case requires, therefore, to be completed by full details from Oudenarde. 1 1 This paper was republished in pamphlet form in 1895, by the Catholic Truth Society. That reprint contained the following additional note on this remarkable case : " The Annates de Lourdes for November, 1894, which has appeared since the above was written, gives an account of some further inquiries into this case. A description is given of the physical signs and symptoms of de Brower's illness by the physician who attended him before his recovery, which leaves no room for doubt, in my judgment, that he suffered from tubercular disease of the lungs and peritoneum. He has remained per- fectly well since his return home on June 4 ; and beyond some trifling peculiarities of respiration and pulse, there has been nothing to indicate that he had had such a serious illness. THE CURES AT LOURDES 327 The above cases give, I believe, a very good general idea of the questions that are raised at Lourdes by some of the recoveries, and of the way in which they are investigated. The results of such examination in many other instances may be seen in Dr. Boissarie's second book — Lourdes depuis 1858 jusqu'a nos jours — published in the spring of 1894. The principal difficulty arises from the scantiness of the information furnished by the patients' medical attendants, often indifferent or hostile ; and most of the various remedies suggested for this do not seem to me satisfactory. For instance, it has been suggested that photographs of every patient should be taken before visiting the shrine ; and to some extent this has been done ; I saw some well-executed photographs of ulcers brought by Belgian pilgrims. But the province of photography in such matters is a limited one ; and the identification of the photographs of persons cured would depend on testimony which might be impugned — who is to prove to an inquirer that a photograph of an ulcer of the leg, for example, really belonged to a person who is alleged to be healed ? Again, it is often said that every patient should be examined on arrival at Lourdes by a medical committee. This would not merely be impossible when there are many pilgrims, but the testimony of physicians connected with the shrine might be thought partial and open to some not unnatural suspicion. The recent decision of the Societe de St. Luc to appoint a medical committee to examine the sick who join the August pilgrimage from Paris, seems a step more in the right direction. It also seems to me that something might be done by devising a form of certificate which should be 328 STUDIES supplied to the medical attendants, and which would require the principal symptoms, past and present, as well as the diagnosis based upon them. It is interesting to observe that most of the pre- cautions on which visitors have insisted before they would accept any cure as supernatural will be found to have been realised in one or another of the cases recorded. For instance, it is often said that a case to be satisfactory should have been seen by an independent medical man imme- diately before recovery. Case 2, quoted above, is one in which this condition was fulfilled. In Case 3, again, the cure was witnessed by several non-professional persons, as M. Zola appears to prefer ; while Case 4 meets the wishes of those who think that Dr. Boissarie should have seen a case before as well as after recovery. This, how- ever, is by the way ; the only point I desire to press is that I believe I have made out a case for inquiry on the part of those who can afford the time. Very probably they will see nothing that clearly transcends the power of Nature. Miracles are not worked to order ; and if they were, it is always possible to take refuge in the unknown, or to ask for further evidence. But at least every unprejudiced visitor will see much that is very well worth seeing ; and may be sure of a cordial welcome, and every facility for studying the material that will be so abundantly provided for him. 329 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS. Sancti Thomze Aquinatis Opera Omnia. 25 Vols. Parmse. 1852-71. In a former number of the Dublin Review I gave a very general account of the direction which the study of the nervous system, and particularly of the brain, has recently taken. 1 Besides the interest which the subject must have in itself for every thoughtful mind, I had the further object of enabling my readers to judge of my accuracy, when I pro- ceeded to show that the psychology of Aristotle, as stated by St. Thomas, is in substantial agree- ment with the conclusions of modern science, which I shall now undertake. I do so the more readily, because I was myself led to adopt the Thomist philosophy, not from any preconceived idea of its authority, but from finding it had so completely anticipated, in all its main outlines, the methods and inferences of physiology. I was struck with the contrast between this and the modern schemes of philosophy, which seemed to have no special relation to physical science even when they were not contradicted thereby. In the first place the Thomist philosophy has always prominently asserted the intimate connec- 1 April, 1880 : Recent Research on Nerves and Brain. 330 STUDIES tion between physiology and psychology. In the- earlier half of this century the French " spiritualist " school made this one of their chief objections to scholasticism ; l now the pendulum of human thought has swung in the opposite direction, and we have to protest even more earnestly against the study of the mind being swamped in that of its material instrument. And although Aristotle and, to a less extent, his scholastic followers, were even ludicrously mistaken as to many physiological details, their grasp of the general principles of biology was sin- gularly clear and satisfactory. For example : the theory of evolution, as based upon the differentia- tion of parts, was well known and lucidly stated by St. Thomas, who traces it back to Plato ; and if Aristotle and his school rejected the Darwinian theory, as crudely stated by Empedocles, it was for reasons identical with those which have weighed in modern times with such biologists as Asa Gray and Kolliker. Moreover, the founder of the Peripatetic school and its chief reviver in Europe had both fortunately that habit of mind which can only be developed by the practical study of natural science. It is well known that the insatiable curiosity of Aristotle led him to dissect every available animal, and to base upon his dissections a natural scheme of zoological classification. The labours of Albert the Great have been less heard of, yet they have been described by a modern zoologist of note ; 2 and there can be no doubt that he practically studied 1 See Sanseverino, Dynamilogia, p. 317. 2 Pouchet, Les Sciences Naturelles au Moyen Age. PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS 331 natural history with the industry and thorough- ness of a German. I have only read his zoological works very cursorily, but I remember noticing that he speaks of dissecting the eyes of a mole, the central nervous system of many animals, and the heart of some rare cetacean which had been sent him from the North, besides undertaking journeys to study such natural phenomena as the growth of rare trees or the disappearance of rivers. Under such training St. Thomas was in no danger of ignoring the first claims of natural science and its bearing on philosophy. It is still more important that there was no such difference in the Peripatetic school between the methods of studying mental and bodily pheno- mena as has prevailed since the revolution of Descartes. It is well known that the Comtists, and in England Dr. Maudsley, have protested against the mode of interrogating consciousness proposed by Locke and Mill, and followed by most psychologists. In so doing they are unknowingly returning to the method clearly laid down by Aristotle and St. Thomas — namely, that the objects of thought must be studied before mental acts, and these again before the faculties of the mind can be investigated. 1 In the Peripatetic scheme, indeed, biology and psychology are parts of the same science, as treating of the ^f%*?>> or anima, a word which cannot be expressed by any English equivalent. "If we translate it ' vital principle,' it is this, but a great deal besides ; if ' mind,' we leave out as much at one end as the former 1 Prius oportebit determinare de obiectis quam de actibus, et de actibus prius quam de potentiis (2 De An., lect. 6, and la qu* 84 art. 1 ; 10 Ver. art. 9). 332 STUDIES translation did at the other." 1 Aristotle's concep- tion of the nature of life is, however, so completely implied in all the rest of his psychology that I must attempt some statement of it in modern language, and it will then appear to be entirely compatible with the present state of science. It will be obvious on reflection that any rational explanation of the nature of life in general is only to be sought for in some higher generalisation, which shall connect the phenomena of the inanimate world with those of living beings. It is the peculiar merit of Aristotle's theory to observe this primary condition of the problem, which (so far as I know) has been ordinarily disregarded by other philosophers. Like the earlier physical philosophers of Greece, he was met at the outset of his study of Nature with the difficulty of reconciling the ceaseless change of the material universe with that funda- mental unity and permanence which can be discerned in it. This difficult}'- would be the more pressing to him, because he was more profoundly convinced than his predecessors of the order, regularity, and law which govern the world. He was led to the conclusion that there must be in all material objects two principles — a passive undetermined substratum, and an active deter- mining cause of equilibrium or change ; and these he termed v\rj and etBos, which we translate Matter and Form. Many attempts have been made in the later 1 Grant, Ethics of Aristotle, vol. i., p. 236. PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS 333 history of philosophy to replace this view of Nature by one of greater simplicity, and to account for all the phenomena by the assumption either of forces or atoms alone. But as soon as details have to be considered it is always found necessary to amend both these hypotheses by assuming in the one case that the forces are localised, and in the other that the atoms are heterogeneous. 1 It will be observed that these qualifications reintroduce the dualism which is sought to be avoided ; and the inadequacy of both dynamism and atomism thus revealed comes out more fully on further examination. This has been done by Dr. Martineau ; and it will be difficult, if not impossible, for any one who follows his profound and subtle examination of the subject to avoid his conclusion. He says that " inasmuch as both matter and force are intellectual data, involved respectively in the principle of objectivity and in that of causality, neither can be substituted for the other. For ages each has been struggling to end the divided sway ; but the rival, though often driven from the front, has always founded at last an impregnable retreat, whence its rights return to recognition when the usurping rage is past." 2 It will hardly be necessary for me to say that these two principles are assumed in the Peri- patetic philosophy to be absolutely inseparable, and to be distinguishable, not by any physical or chemical analysis, but by that necessity of our minds which refers diverse phenomena to different 1 Professor Birks (Modern Physical Fatalism, cap. ix.) has given a summary of the principal theories advocated, which will bear out this statement. 2 Modern Materialism, Contemporary Review, February, 1876. 334 STUDIES sources. Thus we seem compelled to ascribe the shape, size and movements of the atoms which make up elementary bodies to some cause other than that which determines their extension. This distinction is even more obvious in the case of chemical compounds, where there must be some immanent power, building up the atoms into molecules, and maintaining them in what must often be a very complex equilibrium. When we come to the simplest animal bodies, we find that the manifold compounds of carbon of which they consist have still more urgent need of some co-ordinating and maintaining principle. This, stripped of scholastic language, is the func- tion of Aristotle's tyvxy> St. Thomas's anima, and so far as I am aware, it is a view of life in no point incompatible with modern science. On the con- trary, it would be easy to multiply quotations such as the following from Professor Tait, which entirely coincide with it : " It seems from the observations of physiologists .... that the vital force, if there be such, is not a force which does work, but merely directs, as it were, the other natural forces how to apply their energies. . . . The labourers are the physical forces and the over- seer the vital force." Those who followed the controversy as to the nature of life, some years ago, between Professor Huxley and Dr. Lionel Beale, will observe that the Thomist view lies between them. The defini- tion of life given by the former — the correlation of physical forces — requires, by a mental necessity, the existence of some co-ordinating unity ; but Dr. Beale exceeded the bounds of proof in supposing that this unity must be an entity distinct from the organism. PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS 335 Several important consequences follow from this view of the nature of the vital principle which I have been endeavouring to state. I may mention one, as a singular illustration of what I said above, that St. Thomas's grasp of general biological prin- ciples is correct, even when he is at fault as to the particular facts before him. He taught that the anima could be divided, by the division of the body, in all animals that were sufficiently elemen- tary to live without a variety of organs. He chose as his example the division of insects and worms, in which the segments appear to live when separated : this we know is an error, the first true instance of the kind having been discovered by Trembley in the last century. 1 Another corollary of this conception of the vital principle is that there can be but one in every living animal, and that the nutrition and growth of the body therefore depend upon it, as well as those highest operations of the mind, which in their scope transcend the organism. This was a point of considerable importance in St. Thomas's day, as it supplied a refutation of the Averroist doctrine then so widely spread that there was only one intellect common to all mankind. St. Thomas, therefore, laid much stress upon it ; and it is interesting to remark that it has been explicitly adopted by several physiologists, such as 1 F. Lepidi, the latest Thomist commentator, seems hardly to have apprehended his master's teaching on this point ; so I quote one of several decisive passages : " Ideo non quaelibet pars animalis est animal, sicut quaelibet pars ignis est ignis, quia omnes operationes ignis salvantur in qualibet parte eius, non autem omnes operationes animalis salvantur in qualibet parte eius, maxime in animalibus perfectis." — De Anima, X. ad 7 m . 336 STUDIES Dr. Carpenter and Mr. G. H. Lewes, the latter of whom says that Aristotle in this " stands at the point of view now generally occupied by the most advanced thinkers," referring specially to Mr. J. IX Morell as an example. Although the connection between the soul and the body was so decidedly held by the Peripatetics to be an immediate one — both being looked upon as inseparable constituents of one whole — St. Thomas was not inconsistent in teaching that in action they were connected by some intermediary. 1 Here, again, he would have the unanimous assent of physiologists, who would all agree (whatever views they entertain as to the nature of consciousness) that its immediate relations to the body, in sensa- tion and motion, are all correlated to the discharge of nerve-force. In this matter, indeed, the new physiology is more consistent with the immateriality of the soul than was the old. The Scholastics believed that the immediate servant of the mind was some Trvorj, or spiritus — attenuated, yet still material. This was consistent with the general Peripatetic doctrine of aWouojcrL*; (or change in the accidental conditions of a substance), which is the weakest point in their scheme of physics. Mr. Herbert Spencer points out 2 that the discovery of insensible motion has enabled even materialist philosophers to realise that mind has no direct kinship with matter, but only with the undulations of imponderable substance. In one other fundamental question as to the 1 " Anima unitur corpori vt forma sine medio, ut motor autcm per medium." — De Anima, art. 9. 2 Principles of Psychology, cap. 10. PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS 337 nature of the mind modern science has given its verdict in favour of the scholastic doctrine, and against the tendency of psychology since Descartes. That philosopher, as is well known, was believed to have made a great discovery in asserting that the essence of the soul is thought, so that the realm of psychology would be simply conterminous with that of consciousness ; and in this he was followed by the philosophers of the eighteenth century, with the single exception of Leibnitz. The Scholastics of that time, from Goudin to Roselli, objected that a large part of our Jives is passed in a state of unconsciousness ; but they laid no stress upon the more fatal objection, that mental processes, often of a very complex kind, must frequently be gone through without any trace of consciousness. This has been abundantly illustrated by modern physio- logists, some of whose observations I have noted in another article : and I need now only refer to Dr. Carpenter's doctrine of " unconscious cerebra- tion," as it is so well known in England. The result of their study of this subject has been to show that Descartes' doctrine of the nature of mind is inconsistent with the present state of science ; and this has been expressly pointed out by M. Bibot, who has devoted such particular attention to physiological psychology. 1 It is interesting to note that the parallel Cartesian doctrine of the nature of matter is likewise rejected by physicists. 2 1 UHtriditf, part iii., cap. 1. 2 " This error runs through every part of Descartes' great work. . We shall find it more conducive to material progress to recognise, with Newton, the ideas of time and space as dis- tinct, at least in thought, from that of the material system." — Clerk Maxwell, Matter and Motion, p. 18. 22 338 STUDIES I now pass from considering the nature of the vital principle in general to some of the details in which the Thomist philosophy harmonises with modern science. As to the nature of the physiological process in sensation, Sir W. Hamilton found (I think hyper- critically) that Aristotle's language was ambiguous. I think he would have no such difficulty with his mediaeval followers, who are perfectly clear in asserting that it is of the nature of alter alio, under which they would have included electrical and chemical changes, and all other forms of molecular (as distinguished from molar) movements. 1 These changes in the nervous system were called by the schoolmen species sensihiles, and have been much derided by late philosophers ; but are obviously necessary intermediaries between the impressions made upon the sense and sensation. These were not looked upon by the schoolmen any more than by men of science to-day, as images of the reality without, but as means by which that is known — *' species sensibilis non est id quod sentitur, sed id quo sentitur." 2 Physiologists, in common with all men who are not " debauched by philosophy," are agreed on this matter, and I have no excuse for dwelling on a distinction, of which the importance 1 " Non est intelligendum, quod huiusmodi motus sit localis, quasi quorumdam corporum defluentium a re visa ad oculum ; sed secundum alterationem quae est motus ad formam." — De Sensu et Sensato, lect. 5. 1 Scotus (Quodlib. xiv.) puts the point clearly: " Aliquid esse medium cognoscendi potest intelligi dupliciter. Uno modo quod sit medium cognitum, sic quod per ipsum cognoscatur aliud^ sicut cognoscitur conclusio per principium ; alio modo quod non sit medium cognitum, sed ratio cognoscendi solum, sicut species sensibilis in sensu est ratio sentiendi." $ PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS 339 to philosophy since Descartes can hardly be exag- gerated. Its neglect was the main cause of that confusion of thought which issued in the idealism of Berkeley, and of which the climax was reached by Sir W. Hamilton, who (to the astonishment of Grote and Mill) rejected the teaching of his predecessors as repugnant to common sense, and yet himself asserted that we see, not external objects, but the rays of light in contact with the retina. The scholastic teaching as to the internal senses is one of the most remarkable anticipations of modern science. Its essential point is the assertion that the sensory impressions derived from without are, in all the higher animals and in man, further elaborated by a series of mental processes, distinct from mere sensation, but equally connected with the action of the nerve-centres. Beyond this general statement, there was much divergence among the followers of Aristotle, owing to the frag- mentary character of his psychological treatises. St. Thomas classified these mental processes into two stages, according as they are concerned with data, either immediately furnished by the external senses, or only implied and suggested by them, which were termed respectively the sensus communis, and aestimcttiva ; with each of these he associated a distinct faculty and organ of memory, that con- nected with the sensus communis being named imapnatio, or phanlctsia, the other memoria. This mode of looking at the higher sensory pheno- mena had, as it seems to me, several very important advantages over the classifications that have since prevailed. In the first place (what has most immediate connection with physiology) an attempt 840 STUDIES was made to localise each of these internal senses in different parts of the brain. This was based upon the vivisections of Galen, 1 which led him and his followers to suppose that the cavities in the brain, called the " ventricles," were the recep- tacles of that itvot) which, as I have said before, was supposed to be the vehicle of sensation and motion. It is hardly possible now to repress a smile at what seems such a ludicrous mistake ; but the principle followed was a sound one, and in remarkable contrast to the endeavours made by phrenologists to localise their ill-assorted groups of faculties. The sensus communis has indeed been expressly assigned a seat by Luys, Meynert, and others, in the optic thalamus, a mass of grey matter at the base of the brain, where the various sensory nerves appear to converge. Physiologists do not generally admit this, but are inclined to hold that the sensorium commune is constituted by the close con- nection of the cells, in the surface of the central hemispheres devoted to sensory functions. Some very remarkable observations on this subject have recently been made by Ferrier and Tamburini, which promise that eventually the seat of this faculty may be fixed with considerable precision. The only attempt at cerebral localisation made by the mediaeval philosophers from which physio- logists would decidedly dissent in principle is their looking for a separate site for the imaginatio and memoria, distinct from that of the senses of which they merely preserve the results. This was probably connected with the mistaken belief that 1 Hipp, et Platonis Dec, vii. 3. PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS 341 sensation was connected with some movement of the irvorj or " vital spirit." which I have before alluded to, and which would need some place for its preservation. Modern science is agreed in teaching that every act of sensation makes some enduring change in the nerve-cells concerned, which registers indelibly what has occurred, and which represents by association its original cause. Yet a modern writer on the functions of the brain — Munk — teaches that the seat of the memory of visual impressions differs from the seat of visual impressions themselves. By the comparison of the data thus collected in the sensor ium commune, Aristotle and his school taught that five precepts, or qualities of body, were learned. These he enumerated as Magnitude, Figure, Motion, Rest and Number, which was probably only intended as a provisional classifica- tion ; the whole of his psychological treatises being very fragmentary and incomplete. St. Thomas subjected these common objects of sense alaOnra kolvcl 1 to a further analysis, and (as Sir W. Hamilton 2 pointed out) was the first to show that they are all modifications of Extension. This suggests that it is interesting to notice what was St. Thomas's opinion on the question, so much debated since Berkeley's time by psychologists, and recently by German physiologists, as to the way in which we acquire our knowledge of exten- sion. It is plain from such passages as the following. 1 He is careful to point out that these are not the products of the 8en8tis communis, seeing that the memory of past sensations would also be required (2 JDe An., lect. 13). ■ Note D on Reid, p. 829. 342 STUDIES which might easily be multiplied, that he derives it from the comparison of the data of touch and sight : "Si esset solus sensus visus, cum ipse color is tantum sit, et color et magnitudo se conse- quantur, inter colorem non possemus distinguere et magnitudinem, sed viderentur esse idem. Sed quia magnitudo sentiiur alio sensu quam visu, color autem non, hoc ipsum nobis manifestat quod aliud est color et magnitudo." 1 There is room in this theory, at any rate, for the results of either the nativist or empiricist views (and St. Thomas ap- pears to incline towards the latter) whenever that very interesting controversy shall be settled. The higher category of sensory faculties was only vaguely indicated by Aristotle, and first defined by Avicenna, to whom, or rather to whose Latin translators, the barbarous terms " aestimatio" and " aestimativa " are due. 2 He pointed out that a large number of the properties of surrounding objects recognised by animals, are only indirectly known by means of the external senses. In spite of much interesting matter in Albert the Great, St. Thomas, and Scotus, the account given by the schoolmen of aestimatio and memoria is more unsatis- factory than that of the other senses. But under the equivalent term " instinct," modern science still confounds some of the most disparate pheno- 1 2, De An., lect. 1. ■ Albertus Magnus {Mem. et Bern., cap. i., tr. 1). — It is un- fortunate for the fame of this great Arabian physician and philosopher that he should have been so completely over- shadowed by his bolder follower Averroes. Even through the medium of barbarous Latin versions, a highly imaginative and poetical mind can be discerned, in great contrast to the philosophers of his age. PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS 343 mena of animal psychology ; and this is the main reason why greater progress has not been made in their study. This is not the place for details ; but it becomes clear, on examination, that many of the most seemingly intelligent actions of animals are " automatic," or mechanical, being provided for by the structures I have described in another article, 1 and being the results of the unconscious experience either of the individual or of the race. This side of the subject has been so ably elucidated by Professor Mivart 2 that any one who desires further information may be referred to his paper. But there are some cases of animal instinct, which, as the Duke of Argyll has argued — and I have seen no reply to his arguments — cannot be thus explained. He points out the difficulty of supposing that many actions could have been originated by animals, which we never see disposed to try a fresh career, or to do anything new. And it if be sup- posed they did so originally, and that what was once a result of inference is now a result of habit (instinct being on this view " lapsed intelligence ") then the faculties of animals must originally have been much superior to what they are at the present day — a singular exception to the doctrine of evolu- tion. Moreover, some of these acts (such as feigning death when captured and leading an enemy away from the neighbourhood of the nest) would be positively prejudicial in the struggle for existence, unless performed very perfectly ; they 1 Cf. Dublin Review, January, 1864 ; Theories of Sensitive Perception. - Contemporary Review, April, 1875. Ibid,, November, 1880. 344 STUDIES can therefore hardly have grown up by gradual development. In such cases we may trace the germ and anticipa- tion of reason ; and this is a subject to which St. Thomas several times recurs. In like manner he traces the anticipation and rudiments of the human will in that conative faculty common to men and beasts, which the schoolmen termed irascibilis (Aristotle's Ov/nyrc/cbv, as distinguished from iwidvfiTjTucbv). With that desire of filling up the apparent gaps in the series of creation which has struck modern critics as a prominent feature in St. Thomas, he several times dwells on this subject, and as it is one of particular importance at the present day, I may be excused for quoting at some length from one of his less known works : — Vis imaginatwa competit animae sensibili secundum propriam rationem ; sed vis aestimativa ineU animae sensibili secundum quod participat aliquid rationis ; unde ratione huius aestimativae dicuntur animalia quamdam prudentiam habere, sicut ovis fugit lapum, cuius inimi- citiam nunquam sensit ; et similiter ex parte appetitivae. Nam, quod animal appetat id quod est delectabile secundum sensum (quod ad concupiscibile pertinet), est secundum propriam rationem sensibilis animae ; sed quod, relicto delectabili, appetat victoriam quam consequitur cum dolore (quod ad irascibilem pertinet), competit ei secun- dum quod attingit aliqualiter appetitum superiorem ; unde irascibilis est propinquior rationi et voluntati quam concupiscibilis. ] These internal senses, as well as the corresponding active faculties, are, according to the Aristotelian view, as entirely dependent on the nerve-centres 1 25 Ver. art. 2. PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS 345 and connected with them as the external senses are, This is true alike of men and of the lower animals ; but there are certain differences between the human and animal functions, which Aristotle suggests and St. Thomas brings into stronger relief. While in the lower animals all these come and go, their presence and prevalence one over another being determined by external influences and varied bodily states alone, in man they can be controlled and directed towards any object that the individual may desire. This distinction is most obvious in the case of the aestimatio, the results of which are attained in man, not usually by a natural instinct, but by comparison and infer- ence from the results of the other senses : so, too, memory is in man developed into the power of recollection. 1 It will be remarked that there is one common requisite for the higher development of these faculties, and that is that there shall be a power of concentration on one subject, and exclu- sion of all others from consciousness. I may quote the words of Mr. Grote, in his Aristotle, to show that this was the Peripatetic view, as understood by one to whom its physiological interest was probably unknown : " The noetic process," he says, "is an arrest of all sensory mental move- ment, a detention of the fugitive thoughts, a sub- sidence from perturbation, so that the attention dwells steadily on the same matter." It may be remembered that in a previous paper I dwelt on the power that the higher nerve-centres possess to prevent or check the action of ganglia 1 See especially De Anima, qu. 13. 346 STUDIES lower than themselves. This " inhibitory " power would seem to be the necessary physiological condition of attention, and therefore of all higher thought ; and the teaching of Bain and Ferrier seems so far fully justified that the functions of the highest nerve-centres are inhibitory. At the same time there is something more to be said. Dr. Maudsley (whose real genius leads him, here and elsewhere, beyond the limits of the mere physiological school) makes the important remark that attention (which this inhibitory power serves) has a positive as well as a negative side — " the force which we mean by attention being rather a vis a fronts attracting consciousness, than a vis a tergo driving it." Be this as it may, if these inhibitory nerve-centres are the highest discoverable by physiology, we must admit that they are governed by some higher force, superior, consequently, to all bodily function. The only alternative would be to believe in an infinite series of nerve-centres, alternately inhibitory and originating, resembling rather the dreams of an Indian cosmogony than the sober conclusions of a science. This brings us to the limits of physiological psychology, its final testimony being in favour of the existence of human powers which are beyond its direct ken. It would be beyond my province to describe and justify the Thomist division of the intelligence into the intellecius possibilis, and intellectus agens — or faculty of abstraction — a distinction which has been ridiculed in St. Thomas, but which Balmez showed has been revived by Kant. This faculty of abstraction, which Dr. Maudsley admits is peculiar to man, was held by Aristotle to owe its power to some special infusion of that PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS 347 supramundane force which was so remarkable a factor in his conception of the universe. Without admitting anything of this kind, St. Thomas taught that the intellectus agens is enlightened by a power superior to human reason. We have seen him recog- nise an analogous power directing'animal instincts, and theologians would tell us that he saw the necessity for a similar assistance for suprahuman intelligences. There is one point of great importance connected with the faculty of abstraction, on which I may dwell. According to St. Thomas, the sole materials on which the intellectus agens has to work are the elaborated results of the internal senses, the " general images " of modern, or phantasmata of mediaeval philosophers. 1 This is expressed in the common axiom of the schools : " Intellectus non intelligit nisi per conversionem ad phantasmata" These general images, or " phantasms " are needed, according to St. Thomas and his master, for the material of every intellectual act ; being employed as symbols even in the most abstract thought, and in recurring to intellectual concepts already formed. He states his opinion most precisely thus : " Propria operatio intellectus hominis in corpore est intelligere intelligibilia in phantas- matibus." 2 These statements will be doubted by no one who has even a superficial acquaintance 1 Both are ill-chosen names, because they erroneously suggest that they are exclusively derived from sight, and most akin to seen objects. The term schemata employed in Germany,* is preferable.'] ^« f l| j ijfcgj j -^ :. 2 See for the fullest statement of this, 3 Dc An. sect. 12 and 15 ; and Mem. et Rem., sect 2. 348 STUDIES with the Thomist philosophy ; they are brought perhaps into the strongest relief by the objections which the Scotists afterwards raised. It is hardly necessary that I should guard against misconception, by pointing out that St. Thomas is very far from supposing that any result, however elaborate, of mere sensory activity can ever be a sufficient cause of intellectual knowledge, of which it can only be said to supply the material. 1 This, however, is not my present point. I wish to lay stress upon St. Thomas's teaching that sensorial always accompanies intellectual activity, because it coincides with the evidence supplied by physiology that the higher cerebral functions are called into play during all intellectual labour. For instance, the manifold proofs of increased tissue-change in the brain during hard mental work are sufficiently accounted for on the Thomist hypothesis, not to require a materialist theory for their explanation. Besides his belief in the correlation between the brain and the intelligence, St. Thomas also affirms in the strongest manner, that the passions (love, fear, hatred, anger and the like) are affections of the body as well as of the mind. Aristotle had indeed taught as expressly that they are affections of both parts of that wonderful compound (tov o-Kevaarov) man ; but the detailed account of them in the Summa enters far more fully into their relations with bodily conditions. Indeed, it is singular that Spinoza's description of the passions, which has 1 Non potest diet quod sensibilis cognitio sit totalis et perfecta causa intellectualis cognitionis, sed quod sit quodammodo materia causae (l a qu. 84, art. 6.) PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS 349 been praised by modern physiologists, is a very fragmentary echo of the Thomist description, which reached him through Descartes. In like manner St. Thomas has, more fully even than Aristotle, allowed for the influence of abnormal bodily conditions on moral responsibility ; so that all those relations between mind and body which have been so minutely studied of late would readily find their place in his philosophy. The author of a modern work on this subject, Professor Calderwood, thus expresses the result of his investigations : " Man possesses a higher order of life than the physical, yet in entire harmony with his physical organism, and so governing it, that the two constitute a unity of being." It will be seen that this sentence corresponds precisely to the sketch of St. Thomas's teaching on this cardinal point of psychology, which is all I have been able to give. The latter has, however, the scientific merits of clearness, precision and analogy with the laws of inorganic being, to an extent unknown in any modern view of the subject. London : John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd. Great Titchfield Street, W. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of 50c per volume after the third day overdue, increasing to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. Books not in demand may be renewed if application is made before expiration of Joan period. "»% •980 OCT 50m-7,'ie YB 30iC« 300768 &3 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY *-■ -..-."• Vv \:rC<-&. ■:■.-;■: -". •..:■;■,£ ^Jr-r:m^m:M';r^- : -■■' ■ •■- • ' . ■■••'-' - ■ ■ ■■:■:■■■ ■ ■ : ■■■■,::■■■,,■> ■■./.:•V-^•■/:::■.^■-;■:■/■^:■;^■^^■.:n'^•:■: ^Vr^V-:--:^-. : ':*■:■. '■'-< r ■■■.■? : . ; ; : ••■ . :■'•-.■'■' ' : ' • : V.: - : -~-'-.>? V,-.; ■■;' '• -v ■■ '.-. :- ■; ?. : : : • -;^> ■r: - -' . . -