LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 / Q - 
 
 , f. 
 
 Christianity and Modern 
 Civilization
 
 Christianity and Modern 
 Civilization 
 
 Being 
 
 Some Chapters in European History 
 
 with 
 
 an Introductory Dialogue on the 
 Philosophy of History 
 
 By 
 
 William Samuel Lilly 
 
 Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge 
 
 " In Lebensffuthen, im Thatensturm 
 Wall' ich auf und ab, 
 Webe bin und her ! 
 Geburt und Grab, 
 Bin ewiges Meer, 
 Ein wechselnd Weben, 
 Ein gliihend Leben, 
 
 So schafF ich am sausenden Webstuhl der Zeit, 
 Und wirke der Gottheit lebendiges Kleid," 
 
 GOETHE. 
 
 London : Chapman & Hall, Ld. 
 1903
 
 Advertisement 
 
 IN 1886 the Author published a work in two volumes 
 entitled Chapters in European History. It has long 
 been out of print, and, for several reasons, he has 
 not seen well to republish it in its original form. In 
 this book a considerable portion of it finds place : 
 viz. the Chapters on The Christian Revolution, The 
 Turning-point of the Middle Ages, and The Age 
 of Faith all being more or less rewritten as well 
 as the Introductory Dialogue on the Philosophy 
 of History. The Chapters on The Nascent Church, 
 The Inquisition, and Holy Matrimony have been 
 reclaimed, by the kind permission of Mr. James 
 Knowles, from the Nineteenth Century, where they 
 originally appeared, and have received various altera- 
 tions and additions. The Chapter on The Age of the 
 Martyrs, with the exception of a few pages, is now 
 published for the first time. The Dedicatory Letter 
 prefixed to the original work is retained, in an 
 abridged form, as a tribute of gratitude and affection 
 to a friend now no more. 
 
 January i, 1903.
 
 TO 
 
 THE REV. JAMES PORTER, D.D., 
 
 MASTER OF PETERHOUSE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 MY DEAR MASTER, 
 
 IN asking permission to inscribe this 
 book to you, I desire to pay a tribute to a friendship 
 extending from the days when, as a Scholar of Peter- 
 house, I enjoyed the advantage of your tuition. I 
 desired also to associate a work, the fruit of studies 
 then begun, with the " dear and dedicated name " 
 of the College which, besides much else, owes chiefly 
 to your unflagging energy and unwearied zeal, the 
 architectural restorations so admirably conceived and 
 so effectively carried out. 
 
 I could wish, indeed, that these Chapters in 
 European History were less unworthy of Peterhouse 
 and of you. I am well aware that each of them, for 
 the adequate treatment of its subject, should be ex- 
 panded into a volume. But I think that readers who 
 bestow upon them a more than superficial examina- 
 tion, will find that they are informed by a real unity 
 of thought. The well-known dictum of Hegel pro- 
 foundly true, it seems to me that the philosophy of
 
 Vlll 
 
 history is the supreme end of philosophy, may serve 
 to indicate the spirit in which I have written. And 
 while I must not anticipate your agreement with all 
 that is said in these pages, I am assured, from 
 experience, of finding in you a critic like the counsellor 
 of his youthful Muse commemorated by Pope a 
 
 "... judge and friend, 
 Who justly knew to blame or to commend ; 
 To failings mild, but zealous for desert ; 
 The clearest head, and the sincerest heart." 
 
 I am, my dear Master, 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 W. S. LILLY. 
 
 Jan. i, 1886.
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 WHAT CAN HISTORY TEACH us? i 
 
 I. THE NASCENT CHURCH 47 
 
 II. THE AGE OF THE MARTYRS 88 
 
 III. THE CHRISTIAN REVOLUTION 131 
 
 IV. THE TURNING-POINT OF THE MIDDLE AGES . . .162 
 V. THE AGE OF FAITH 244 
 
 VI. THE INQUISITION 297 
 
 VII. HOLY MATRIMONY 335 
 
 INDEX 359
 
 Summary 
 
 WHAT CAN HISTORY TEACH US? 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Can anything be made of history ? i 
 
 Imperfect and fragmentary as our knowledge of the past is, the 
 
 general facts stand out clearly 3 
 
 The question is, whether what we know of man's past career, can 
 teach us any moral lesson. Our ignorance of the great world 
 order is beside that question 6 
 
 Every historian is more or less of a philosopher .... 8 
 
 The macrocosm must be interpreted by the microcosm : history 
 
 must be viewed in the light of primary ethical truths . . 10 
 
 St. Augustine and Bossuet's synthesis is imperfect. But their 
 main idea, which is evolution, is the real basis of historical 
 philosophy II 
 
 Evolution, Progress, Development is the universal law . . .12 
 
 The history of man is, in spite of immense drawbacks, a history of 
 
 material, social, ethical, and religious progress . . . -14 
 
 The never-ceasing process of evolution, the perpetual becoming, 
 which prevails throughout the universe is, in man, conscious : 
 and the highest form of it is the feeling after the Infinite . . 22 
 
 Obedience to law is the condition of progress material, social, 
 
 ethical, and religious 26 
 
 The law of virtue is the law we are born under: it rules over 
 nations as over individuals : the first fact about man is his 
 concept of duty 26 
 
 The root of all greatness, national or individual, is in loyalty to 
 truth, to right, to justice, all summed up in the old phrase of 
 fearing God 27 
 
 The progressive and conservative principle of civilization is the 
 idea of God, and of the duties binding upon us because He is 
 what He is 28 
 
 The probation of nations, as of individuals, is in their following 
 the highest ideal set before them. " The history of the world 
 is the judgment of the world " 30 
 
 Here too we are thrown back on free will, and the last word is 
 
 personality 33
 
 xii Summary 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Our inability to reconcile the solidarity of races, of nations, of 
 families, with individual responsibility, is no reason for denying 
 either of these truths 33 
 
 Great men are the founts of great thoughts ; and the trial of the 
 multitude lies in the loyalty with which they follow the Revela- 
 tions made at sundry times and in divers manners, by these 
 Prophets of the Most High 35 
 
 Mr. Spencer's contrary doctrine examined 37 
 
 Great men are authoritative teachers so far as they are ethical, so 
 
 far as they correspond with the truth of things, and no further 44 
 
 The great lesson deducible from history is Discite justitiam moniti 45 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE NASCENT CHURCH 
 
 Object of the present volume : to consider some of the relations 
 
 between Christianity and Modern Civilization .... 47 
 
 What is meant by Modern Civilization 47 
 
 Plan of the present volume 49 
 
 Subject of Chapter I. : Christianity in its earliest epoch, extending 
 
 to the year 70 50 
 
 Three successive phases in this epoch 50 
 
 What Christianity was in its first phase the three years of its 
 
 Divine Founder's preaching and teaching . . . .51 
 
 Sources of evidence as to that preaching and teaching examined . 51 
 Substance of Christ's teaching the Fatherhood of God and the 
 
 exhibition of Himself as the Way to God 53 
 
 His Gospel no catalogue of dogmas, but the manifestation of a 
 
 Person 56 
 
 The second phase of Primitive Christianity extends from the 
 
 Crucifixion to the year 43, when the disciples were first called 
 
 Christians 57 
 
 Vivid picture of it in the Acts of the Apostles . , * . -57 
 St. Paul's conversion . . . . . . , , , .62 
 
 His destined task . .63 
 
 Sources of St. Paul's history 64 
 
 The Pauline transformation of Christianity 70 
 
 The third phase of Primitive Christianity, from the year 43 to the 
 
 year 70 72 
 
 During the first fourteen years of it, Antioch is the head-quarters 
 
 from which St. Paul's work is done, and the centre of activity 
 
 and progress 72 
 
 St. Paul and the Mosaic Law 72 
 
 His victory over the Judaizing party 74 
 
 His religious philosophy 74 
 
 His method of ratiocination 76 
 
 His style 77 
 
 St. Paul, St. James, and St. Peter . . . . . . . 78
 
 Summary xiii 
 
 The Johannine writings 79 
 
 Asceticism of Primitive Christianity in its third phase ... 80 
 
 Its high estimate of religious celibacy 81 
 
 Character of its religious assemblies ....... 82 
 
 Its intolerance 83 
 
 Place held in it by Baptism and the Eucharist .... 84 
 
 Its polity 85 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE AGE OF THE MARTYRS 
 
 Arbitrariness of chronological divisions in history .... 88 
 The Age of the Martyrs is taken in this Chapter as extending from 
 
 the Fall of Jerusalem (70) to the Council of Nicaea (325) . . 88 
 It may, strictly speaking, be regarded as initiated by Nero's 
 persecution (64) and as terminated by the Edict of Tolera- 
 tion (313) 88 
 
 Darkness which hangs over the history of the Christian Church 
 from the date of St. Paul's arrival in Rome (61) till late in 
 
 the second century 89 
 
 Martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul in Rome 90 
 
 Nero's persecution 91 
 
 Cause of the conflict between the Church and the Roman Empire 93 
 
 The victory of Christianity the personal victory of its Founder . 97 
 Development of dogma in the Age of the Martyrs : first, as to 
 
 Christ's Divinity ... 99 
 
 Secondly, as to the Communion of Saints . ... 102 
 
 Development of the religious life ... ... 105 
 
 Development of a canon of Scripture . . ... 107 
 
 Development of ritual . . . 1 10 
 
 Development of polity ... 117 
 
 Importance of the formation of the hierarchy round the Roman See 128 
 
 Significance of the Council of Nicaea 129 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN REVOLUTION 
 
 Object of this Chapter : to consider, a little more closely, the revolu- 
 tion wrought by Christianity, first, on the individual man and, 
 secondly, on that civil society which is man's normal state . 131 
 We shall learn this best and most clearly from St. Augustine, and 
 
 especially from his Confessions and his City of God . . .131 
 
 Sketch of his life 132 
 
 And of his times 134 
 
 His was an age of political, intellectual, and moral dissolution . 135 
 Early in life he asks himself, What is the end of life ? . . .137
 
 xiv Summary 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Neo-Platonists reveal to him the Absolute and Eternal, but 
 
 "fleshly habit " weighs him down from ascending to It . . 137 
 
 He reads in St. Paul's Epistles of " the grace of God by Jesus 
 
 Christ," powerful to deliver him from the body of this death . 139 
 
 The story of the holy and ascetic lives of St. Anthony and the 
 
 solitaries of the Thebaid inflames him 140 
 
 Tolle et lege 141 
 
 He finds the ideal : Induimini Dominum Jesum Christum . . 141 
 
 The change that was wrought in him 143 
 
 The work of the Christian Revolution upon the individual was 
 to substitute self-sacrifice, after the example of Christ, for 
 enlightened selfishness, as the supreme law of life : a law whose 
 practical outcome is duty, founded upon the constraining 
 influence of Divine charity 145 
 
 And it was this principle of self-sacrifice which transformed society 151 
 
 As the spiritual empire grows up, it supplants the old order of the 
 
 Roman world, and civilization becomes ecclesiastical . . i $ i 
 
 Hence Christendom, a social organization based upon the Christian 
 
 religion 154 
 
 As Christianity recreated the individual and the family, so did it 
 
 slowly re-create the public order 156 
 
 Here, as in individual life, the Cross of Christ was confessed to be 
 
 the interpretation of life and the measure of the world . . 157 
 
 In all that constitutes civilization in its highest sense, the medieval 
 
 period is superior to the times that preceded it . . . . 159 
 
 And this superiority flowed from the self-abnegation of which the 
 Divine Founder of Christianity is the Great Exemplar, and 
 which is the central idea of His religion 161 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE TURNING-POINT OF THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 Importance of the re-creation of the Western Empire in 800 . .162 
 It denotes the final rupture from the old civilization, represented 
 by the corrupt Church an.d degenerate autocrats of Constanti- 
 nople 163 
 
 The Papacy becomes the founder of a new civilization revolving 
 round the centre formed by two Chiefs, the Pontifical and the 
 
 Imperial 163 
 
 This separation between the spiritual and the temporal a new 
 
 thing in the world 164 
 
 It deprives the State of half its ancient domain . . . .166 
 And the growth of feudalism completes the work of dissolution by 
 
 breaking up the unity of civil authority 166 
 
 True character of feudalism 167 
 
 It was a vast military and territorial aristocracy, in which the ideas 
 of individual freedom and political right had become merged 
 in the relations between lord and vassal 169
 
 Summary xv 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Side by side with the feudal system had grown up the spiritual com- 
 monwealth called Christendom, based upon the supreme worth 
 of personality, and fitted to counteract the evils of feudality . 170 
 
 Of this spiritual commonwealth the Roman See was the centre and 
 head, and, as a matter of fact, the close union between that See 
 and the several Churches throughout Europe, was the guarantee 
 of the independence of the spiritualty 172 
 
 The tendency of feudalism, as of all great movements in the public 
 order, was to bring all things into subjection unto itself, or else 
 to break them in pieces 175 
 
 How nearly it triumphed over the ecclesiastical element in the two 
 centuries between Nicholas I. and Gregory VII., the history 
 of the Papacy itself shows 175 
 
 The prospect before the world at the beginning of the eleventh 
 century was that the spiritualty would be merged in the feudal 
 system 1 80 
 
 If this result had been attained, the whole future of Europe would 
 
 have been disastrously different 180 
 
 For it would have meant the extinction of the Church as a society 
 perfect and complete in herself, and with her the extinction of 
 the great principles of which she was the sole representative 
 in the world the principles of the supremacy of law ; of the 
 freedom of conscience ; of the real equality of all men ; of 
 their brotherhood in the Christian faith ; of the essentially 
 fiduciary and limited nature of human authority . . .180 
 
 That these great ideas were not blotted out from the mind of the 
 new nationalities, was, humanly speaking, the work of one man, 
 and that man was Hildebrand : the Pontificate of Gregory VII. 
 is the Turning-Point of the Middle Ages 180 
 
 The conditions in which his work was done 181 
 
 Sketch of his early life 184 
 
 He accompanies St. Leo IX. to Rome in 1049, and is the trusted 
 
 adviser of that Pontiff and of the four next Popes . . .189 
 
 His great achievement before his own election to the Apostolic 
 
 Chair, is his vindication of the freedom of Papal elections . 193 
 
 His election as Pope in 1073, and his thoughts concerning it . .196 
 
 He addresses himself to the purification of the Church from simony 
 and incontinence, appealing to the communis sensus of the 
 faithful 199 
 
 Knowing well that the root of these evils was in the custom of lay 
 investiture, whereby the clergy were drawn into the meshes of 
 the feudal system, he determines utterly to prohibit that custom 210 
 
 And in 1075 he publishes a decree absolutely forbidding it . .214 
 
 He is thus brought into direct conflict with the Emperor Elect 
 Henry IV. : it was the throwing down of the gauntlet of the 
 spiritual power to feudalism 215 
 
 Henry attempts to terminate the nascent strife by seizing the 
 
 Pontiff's person 215 
 
 But Cenci's plot failing, he causes a Council of simoniacal and 
 incontinent prelates, convened at Worms, to decree the Pope's 
 deposition 220
 
 xvi Summary 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Gregory replies by pronouncing against Henry a sentence of 
 excommunication and of suspension from the government 
 of the whole realm of the Germans and of Italy (1076) . .221 
 
 The conflict thus engaged lasts for the remaining nine [years of 
 Gregory's Pontificate, and may be said to constitute a drama 
 of two Acts 223 
 
 The first ends at Canossa (1077) where Henry, abandoned by the 
 Prelates and Princes of Germany, presents himself before 
 Gregory to obtain relief from the bond of excommunication . 226 
 
 Having obtained it, he immediately proceeds to violate the con- 
 ditions upon which it was given, and resumes his simoniacal 
 and other flagitious practices 229 
 
 In 1081 he appears with an army before Rome, and in 1084 he 
 obtains possession of the City, Gregory retiring to Salerno, 
 where he dies (25 May, 1085), thinking he had failed . .231 
 
 Gregory had not failed : he had won the battle which he fought ; 
 for the victory was truly his, although its fruits were reaped by 
 his successors 234 
 
 The modern world owes to Gregory civil as well as religious liberty : 
 for the triumph of the spiritual element over brute force in- 
 volved the triumph of municipal and national freedom over 
 feudal tyranny 235 
 
 Gregory must be judged, not by the principles of the twentieth 
 
 century, but by the principles of the eleventh .... 238 
 
 The key of the enigma . . . 241 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE AGE OF FAITH 
 
 Monachism the dominant spiritual and intellectual fact of the 
 
 Middle Ages 244 
 
 The civilization of the twentieth century owes to the monks all that 
 
 is most valuable in it 244 
 
 Object of the present Chapter : to inquire what manner of men 
 those monks were, as to their thoughts, their aims, their aspira- 
 tions, or, in a word, their life-philosophy 244 
 
 Much light on this matter is radiated by the verse in which that 
 life-philosophy has been recorded the medieval hymns of 
 Catholicism 245 
 
 This sacred poetry is a peculiar product of the medieval order, 
 growing gradually as it grew, developing as it developed, culmi- 
 nating when it culminated, and declining when it declined, and 
 possesses special value for the history of Modern Civilization, 
 as the natural outcome of the deepest feelings and most assured 
 convictions of the generations which produced it ... 246 
 
 The language in which it is composed . . . . . . 247 
 
 Prudentius * 249 
 
 St. Ambrose . . . . . . . . . . 252
 
 Summary xvii 
 
 The great volume of medieval Latin poetry opens definitely with 
 
 Venantius Fortunatus (530). Birth of the modern lyric . -255 
 
 The golden age of this department of literature .... 258 
 
 During the last hundred and fifty years of the Middle Ages 
 Latin poetry is in full decadence. The Renaissance is its 
 grave 275 
 
 In the verse of the medieval hymnists we see into the inner shrine 
 
 of the religion of that period 278 
 
 The Middle Ages are commonly called the Age of Faith. But in 
 order to a correct appreciation of those ages, it is not enough 
 to grasp the fact of their absorbing Supernaturalism : we must 
 know also of what kind the Supernaturalism was. This will 
 best be seen by comparing it with the Supernaturalism of 
 Pagan antiquity 278 
 
 In ancient Paganism, as it lived and ruled in the popular mind of 
 Greece and Rome, there was an almost total absence of the 
 idea conveyed to us by the word " God." The nearest approxi- 
 mation to that idea was the mysterious Power personified as 
 Fate or the Fates. Fatalism is the key to the religions and 
 philosophies of Paganism 280 
 
 Men turned away from the thought of this dark unapproachable 
 "stream of tendency," to the intermediate, anthropomorphic 
 existences, whom they supposed to direct the phenomena of 
 the external world ; who could give their votaries wealth, 
 power, voluptuous delights, and who might be propitiated and 
 bargained with 282 
 
 Ancient Polytheism enshrined no ethical law. Its office was to 
 assuage the fear which had called it into existence by turning 
 men's eyes from the darker problems of existence, and concen- 
 trating their attention on the finite, which was the sphere 
 where its deities were supposed to have power .... 283 
 
 The medieval view of the Supernatural differs from this view in 
 
 two important particulars 284 
 
 First, in the place of blind Fate, we have the great Hebrew Theistic 
 conception, cast into a new form by Christianity, through the 
 doctrines of the Incarnation and the Cross .... 285 
 
 It is a great error to regard what is called the Christian Mythology 
 as merely a new edition of that of ancient Paganism. How- 
 ever far the cult of Saints and Angels was carried in the Middle 
 Ages, the supreme worship of sacrifice was never offered to 
 them. Through the puerile fables and ludicrous superstitions 
 of those Ages, the idea of the Infinite God revealed in the 
 Word-made- Flesh, shines forth undimmed .... 286 
 
 Secondly, as the difference between the Pagan and Medieval views 
 of the nature of the Supernatural is essential, so is the differ- 
 ence between those views as to the sphere of its action . . 287 
 
 The men of Medieval Christendom regarded human life, not as its 
 own end, but as a preparation for a life hereafter. They 
 deemed of the material universe and of the senses whereby it 
 appeals to us which had been all in all to antique Paganism 
 as instruments of probation 288
 
 xviii Summary 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The difference between the views of the Classical and the Medieval 
 mind as to the relations of man with the Supernatural, may be 
 summed up in the statement that the one projected this world 
 into the invisible, the other brought the invisible world into this 292 
 
 Parallel between the progress of the European mind from the age 
 of Socrates to the age of Juvenal, and from the close of the 
 medieval period to the twentieth century . . , . . 292 
 
 The question of the day . . . . . . . . . 295 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE INQUISITION 
 
 Subject of this Chapter : the action of the Catholic Church for the 
 
 repression of what is called " heretical pravity "... 297 
 First, the facts will be presented ; then, they will be considered 
 
 in their relations with Modern Civilization .... 297 
 
 Attitude of the Church towards heretical pravity in the First Age . 297 
 
 And in the Age of the Martyrs 297 
 
 When the Empire becomes Christian, heresy is accounted a crime, 
 
 and is punished as such . . . . f - . . . 298 
 
 The first instance of capital punishment for heresy .... 298 
 
 First appearance of Inquisitors 298 
 
 Repression of heresy from the fourth century to the thirteenth . 298 
 
 Bishops ex m termini Inquisitors within their respective dioceses . 299 
 
 Establishment of the Papal Inquisition by Gregory IX. in 1229 . 299 
 
 Its long career 300 
 
 Its procedure best studied in its last phase, which may be dated 
 
 from Paul III.'s Bull, Licet ab initio (1542) .... 300 
 Of that procedure, Father Elisha Masini's Sacro Arsenals is a 
 
 complete and admirably arranged manual 300 
 
 Some account of this work 301 
 
 A trial before the Inquisition . . ... . . . 306 
 
 Father Masini's apology for Torture . . . . . . .317 
 
 The uses of Torture 318 
 
 Varieties of Torture . . . 320 
 
 Niceties of Inquisitorial jurisprudence . . ... . 321 
 
 The application of Torture 322 
 
 The last stage of the trial 324 
 
 A proof of progress 327 
 
 Why in the days of the Christian State, transcendent guilt attached 
 
 to heresy 328 
 
 The Inquisition " a natural evolution of the forces at work in the 
 
 thirteenth century " 330 
 
 And its severities congenial to the spirit of that age . . . 330 
 
 The principle of toleration essentially modern 331 
 
 Effect of the Inquisition upon European Civilization . . . 332 
 The principle of repression played out : its place taken by the 
 
 principle of toleration 333
 
 Summary xix 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 HOLY MATRIMONY 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Every moral revolution which has taken place in the world is the 
 
 manifestation of an idea 335 
 
 The idea peculiar to Modern Civilization is the idea of human 
 
 personality 335 
 
 Which bears therein a new sense, derived from Christianity . . 335 
 
 Christianity was, in fact, a new principle of individuality . . . 336 
 
 Revealing the dignity we may say, the sanctity of human nature 336 
 
 By this revelation, the weaker half of humanity benefited far more 
 
 than the stronger half 336 
 
 The proclamation of the spiritual equality of woman with man, not- 
 withstanding her natural subjection to him, economically, may 
 well appear the most wonderful part of the change due to the 
 influence of Christianity 337 
 
 But Christianity did not merely vindicate the personality of woman : 
 
 it protected her personality by the new creation of marriage . 338 
 
 The lifelong union of two equal personalities, consecrated by religion, 
 and made Holy Matrimony, is the Magna Charta of woman in 
 Modern Civilization 338 
 
 Influence of the cultus of the Blessed Virgin on the position of 
 
 women in Modern Civilization 339 
 
 The characteristic specially marking off the Christian family from 
 the other families of the earth, is that it is founded on woman, 
 not on man . . 340 
 
 The conception of Holy Matrimony, which was so powerfully to 
 affect Modern Civilization, was not fully and firmly established 
 for centuries 340 
 
 But at the opening of the Middle Ages we find the absolute indis- 
 solubility of marriage, rightly contracted, save by the death of 
 one of the contracting parties, recognized and enforced by the 
 Canon Law 342 
 
 Since then this doctrine has been universally accepted in the 
 
 Catholic Church 342 
 
 In the Greek Church it has never been accepted at all . . . 342 
 
 And one cause of the manifest superiority of Western society over 
 Eastern, is the higher position which woman has occupied in 
 the West a position unquestionably resting upon the indissolu- 
 bility of marriage 344 
 
 The ethos of society is determined by women, whose goodness or 
 badness depends upon their purity the root of all feminine 
 virtues, and the source of a people's genuine greatness . . 344 
 
 The great bulwark of woman's chastity is the absolute character 
 of matrimony, the vindication of which Modern Civilization 
 owes to the Catholic Church 345 
 
 Those who cast off the authority of the Apostolic See in the six- 
 teenth century, mutilated much of the doctrine and discipline
 
 xx Summary 
 
 PAG* 
 
 which it upheld ; and the doctrine and discipline of marriage 
 
 did not escape this fate 347 
 
 In England the institution was left intact in theory, though not in 
 
 practice 347 
 
 But the sects founded by Luther and Calvin, from the first allowed 
 
 divorce for certain reasons 348 
 
 And as Protestantism developed, the pronouncements of its pundits 
 
 concerning the bond of marriage became ever laxer . . . 348 
 The publicists of the French Revolution, by the law of 1792, reduced 
 
 marriage to a civil contract, terminable on various grounds . 349 
 The Third Republic, by an enactment somewhat less licentious 
 
 than this law, brought back divorce in 1884 .... 350 
 This French legislation proceeds from a false ideal of the family, 
 
 derived from Rousseau 350 
 
 The attack on the permanency of marriage by so-called Liberalism, 
 throughout Europe, is an attempt to realize that ideal ; an 
 
 ideal essentially anarchic 351 
 
 What has been already achieved by the opponents of indissoluble 
 
 marriage in Europe 351 
 
 And in the United States of America 352 
 
 The causes which have brought marriage into its present condition 
 in Modern Civilization are yet working, and with ever-increasing 
 
 activity 354 
 
 And assuming that the revolution in the relations of the sexes, 
 steadily progressing since the destruction of the religious unity 
 of Europe, will continue unchecked, the prospect seems to be 
 that Modern Civilization will return to the morals of the poultry- 
 yard 356 
 
 Keason cannot indeed be reckoned among the forces which militate 
 against marriage. From the ethical principles to which the 
 human reason, properly disciplined and correctly exercised, can 
 attain, the true norm of matrimony is derivable . . . 356 
 But instinct points to polygamy, to concubinage, to promiscuity . 357 
 And the tendency of a popular school of philosophy is to ignore the 
 very existence of reason, in the proper sense of the word, and 
 
 to enthrone instinct in its place 357 
 
 Moreover, the vast multitude are quite incapable of following reason 
 as the guide of life ; for them the only effective curb of instinct 
 
 is religion 357 
 
 But among the religions of the world, only one witnesses for the 
 
 absolute character of Holy Matrimony 357 
 
 The Catholic Church warns men that to degrade indissoluble mar- 
 riage to a mere dissoluble contract, will be to throw back 
 Modern Civilization into that wallowing in the mire from which 
 she rescued it 358
 
 What can History teach us? 
 
 GRIMSTON. Proof-sheets again, I see. Some Chapters 
 in European History. " Of making many books there 
 is no end." And, I suppose, as long as the public will 
 buy, authors will write. But, of all subjects that can 
 occupy the mind of man, this of human history seems 
 to me to be one of the vainest. You remember 
 Goethe's saying : " The history of the world in the 
 eyes of the thinker is nothing but a tissue of ab- 
 surdities, a mass of madness and wickedness : nothing 
 can be made of it." 
 
 LUXMOORE. I yield to no one in admiration of 
 Goethe's greatness. But it had its limits. His 
 judgments are sometimes narrow, as this seems to 
 me to be. His methodic spirit was not at home in 
 history. I recognize the madness and the wickedness 
 in the annals of the world as fully as any one can. 
 But I certainly think that some further facts may be 
 drawn from them. Here comes our friend Temperley. 
 I wonder what he would have to say about it ? 
 
 TEMPERLEY. About what ? You know I am one 
 of Shakespeare's " dumb wise men." 
 
 GRIMSTON. " Seul le silence est grand." But Your 
 Grandeur must know that Luxmoore has written a 
 
 ,*
 
 2 What can History teach us ? 
 
 book of history, and I am telling him, upon the 
 authority of Goethe, that it is but lost labour. 
 
 LUXMOORE. The truth is our too candid friend 
 and I are both blessed cursed, he would say with 
 the taste for great questions. And what a great 
 question is that of the moral significance of history ! 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Well, I should like very much to hear 
 what you and Grimston have to say about it. I am 
 an excellent listener, as you know; and, having no 
 opinions in particular of my own on the subject, I 
 can promise benevolent neutrality to both of you. 
 You meet on the common ground that history dis- 
 closes a vast number of facts about the past career 
 of humanity. The point at issue is, I suppose, Can 
 we learn anything from those facts regarding the 
 great enigma of human existence ? or can they even 
 yield us any practical lessons for the guidance of life ? 
 
 GRIMSTON. Yes ; we meet on the common ground 
 of facts the ddbris of the past. But remember, that 
 those facts are confined to a very limited period of 
 the existence of our race, that they are most frag- 
 mentary and imperfect, and that no man living, how- 
 ever encyclopedic his knowledge, can be acquainted 
 with more than a few of them. Not very promising 
 materials for a philosophy of history ! 
 
 LUXMOORE. True, the historic period of humanity 
 goes back but a little way, and, of course, much of 
 the record of human action during that time is lost. 
 But much remains. A vast number of details are 
 enwrapped in hopeless obscurity. They would not 
 add much to our real information if we knew them.
 
 What Materials have we ? 3 
 
 The general facts stand out with sufficient clearness 
 in the life of the race a vast series, throwing 
 abundant light upon man and his environment and 
 development during three or four thousand years. 
 
 GRIMSTON. Three or four thousand years ! Make 
 it five thousand, as you certainly may. But what is 
 this but a mere fragment of the ages during which 
 our race has existed and has had a history ? How- 
 ever, I will be generous, and will let you throw in 
 the prehistoric period too. I am far from under- 
 valuing the marvellous display of scientific induction 
 by which our knowledge of the past has been ex- 
 tended beyond any historical monuments. Indeed, 
 I confess that this unconscious history seems to me 
 to be of much more value than what I read in the 
 professed historians whose narrative, I strongly sus- 
 pect, is mainly what Napoleon called it, " a fable 
 agreed upon." Myths are truer than literature; 
 language does not lie. Comparative mythology 
 reveals to us the condition of our race in remote 
 ages, when no historian existed or could exist ; com- 
 parative philology discloses to us archaic facts, which 
 are, even now, the most important factors in our 
 every-day life : the filiation of races, nascent religions, 
 aboriginal laws, the fundamental constitution of human 
 speech, when, as our friend Sayce conjectures, vocal 
 signs superseded pictorial as vehicles of man's thought. 
 But our geologists go back further, and show us the 
 River Drift and Cave men of their Tertiary period 
 and the strange forms of earlier animate existence 
 in the two periods which preceded it : while our
 
 4 What can History teach us ? 
 
 astronomers and chemists, lifting the veil of ages 
 higher still, reveal epochs well ascertained, though 
 incalculable, before the earth could have become the 
 seat of life. Think of the planetary period, the solar 
 period, the molecular period, nay, the atomic period, 
 containing the promise and potentiality of all that 
 was to come after. Remember what you no more 
 doubt than I do that the whole solar system is but 
 a point in the vast order of the universe. And then 
 consider what man really is, what the importance of 
 the individual or the race can possibly be, in the sum 
 of things. A mere parasite of the earth, crawling on 
 this planet for some brief hour of its brief existence 
 while the earth again is a mere satellite of a star, 
 one of the countless myriads of the like conglomera- 
 tions of nebulous atoms peopling space man is a 
 very nothing : his supposed royalty is the emptiest of 
 illusions. We are such stuff as dreams are made of ; 
 and yet you talk of a science or philosophy of human 
 action, and seek in that, I suppose, the key to the 
 great enigma. " Oh, Madness ! Pride, Impiety " ! 
 
 TEMPERLEY. You too, Luxmoore, might quote the 
 Essay on Man 
 
 " All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
 Whose body nature is, and God the soul : " 
 
 but, probably you won't answer our friend so. 
 
 LUXMOORE. No. I would rather follow Grimston 
 just now to the limits of our knowledge. Time is no 
 more. Space ceases. If you like to put it so, Kant's 
 antinomies warn us, Thus far shalt thou go, and no
 
 The Limits of our Knowledge. 5 
 
 further. We are brought face to face with the 
 Infinite. And in the presence of the Infinite, small 
 and great, past and present, are words quite devoid 
 of meaning. Can we shut up the Absolute within 
 the region of the Relative ? bound It by the Forms 
 and Categories and what they reveal ? The philo- 
 sophy of history, like all philosophy, brings us at 
 length to the noumenal. Follow it far enough, and 
 the science of history, if there be such science, leads 
 to that which transcends phenomena. The nothing- 
 ness of man ! Most true. 
 
 " We feel that we are nothing : for all is Thou and in Thee. 
 We feel that we are something : that also has come from Thee." 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Well, don't let us become dithyr- 
 ambic and lose ourselves in " Infinite Idealities, 
 Immeasurable Realities." Let us avoid Cloud 
 Cuckoo Town, and keep on terra firma. Grimston's 
 point, I take it, is, that in the face of what we now 
 know of the great world order, we must all admit 
 that, as the earth is not the centre of the Universe, 
 so it is not the special scene or stage on which the 
 drama of divine justice is played before the assembled 
 angels of heaven. I am repeating the words of some 
 one else, I believe, but I don't remember who, nor 
 does it matter. I think we must agree with Grimston 
 that the view of our race, and of its importance in 
 the sum of things, taken by those who saw in the 
 sun only a great light to rule the day, in the stars 
 merely " blessed candles of the night," is not possible 
 to us.
 
 6 What can History teach us ? 
 
 LUXMOORE. We must speak cautiously, and accord- 
 ing to our knowledge, and that is confined to our 
 planet. Of the modes and vicissitudes of existence 
 in other worlds we know nothing whatever. And so 
 we have no means of comparison : no data from 
 which to construct a theory of the Universe. What 
 is my soul in the measureless creation ? e*> d/Aerpifro) 
 Krtcret asked the wise man two thousand years ago. 
 And we can only echo the What ? Still the highest 
 fact in the order of existence of which we have know- 
 ledge after the Absolute and Eternal is Man. And, 
 as Temperley suggests, we shall do well to confine 
 ourselves strictly to our proper theme, which is 
 whether what we know of man's past career can teach 
 us any moral lesson, and, if so, what. 
 
 GRIMSTON. You glide skilfully away from thin ice, 
 my dear Luxmoore. But you are right. What can 
 history teach us ? is our subject. Well, let us suppose 
 that you have collected your facts, religious, com- 
 mercial, physiological, industrial, literary, artistic, 
 political, and military, and have operated upon them 
 according to the most approved modern methods : 
 analyzing and classifying them, exhibiting their rela- 
 tions and interdependence, seizing the general ideas 
 which underlie them, and deducing the laws which 
 complete and prove them ; let us suppose you have 
 accomplished this laborious task with that passion for 
 exactness, patience in research, judicial appreciation 
 of authorities, which it demands : then comes the 
 question, What philosophy is to be the outcome of it ? 
 Shall we say with Taine, that in the vast battle-field
 
 Facts and Philosophies 7 
 
 of human existence, with all its confusion and tumult, 
 everything obeys the command of Necessity, and 
 moves towards an inevitable end ? or with Littr6, that 
 history is a natural phenomenon explicable by the 
 theory of physiological determinism ? or with Bunsen, 
 that it is mainly the growth of the religious conscience 
 of mankind ? or with Hegel, that it is the development 
 of spirit the essence of which is freedom in an 
 unbroken continuity of cause and effect, and that all 
 its phenomena are reasonable and intelligible ? or with 
 Schiller, that it is a long contest between self-will and 
 the universal will ? or with Buckle, that the great 
 motive force in it is intellect manifested in physical 
 science ? or with Renan, that time and a tendency to 
 progress explain everything ? Shall we adopt Comte's 
 law of the three states ? or subscribe to the nine 
 propositions in which Kant sets forth his cosmopolitical 
 idea ? Shall we agree with Schelling, that history is 
 the evolution of the Absolute, a gradual self-manifes- 
 tation of God ? or shall we go back to St. Augustine 
 and his two cities, or to Bossuet's variation on the 
 same theme ? or adopt Schlegel's later attempt to 
 solve the enigma by the creed of Catholicism ? I 
 might continue my catalogue of philosophies of 
 history almost indefinitely. But our dumb wise man 
 yonder will perhaps prefer "not to die a listener." 
 Don't you think, however, when we consider the 
 conflict of authority between historical philosophers, 
 that history had better let philosophy alone, and 
 confine itself to narrative, as Thiers did ? " L'histoire 
 c'est le portrait," was a dictum of his, I remember.
 
 What can History teach us ? 
 
 LUXMOORE. Well, but even Thiers had his philo- 
 sophy of history, such as it was : a philosophy of 
 materialistic fatalism which may be formulated in his 
 hero's famous phrase, that God is on the side of the 
 heaviest battalions. Indeed, every historian above 
 the rank of a chronicler or annalist must be more or 
 less of a philosopher. Man is so made that he seeks 
 himself everywhere : in the story of the past, as in 
 the physical world. 
 
 " Bornd dans sa nature, infini dans ses voeux 
 Imparfait ou de"chu, 1'homme est le grand mystere." 
 
 For the rest, I think there is much to be learned from 
 all the writers on the philosophy of history whom 
 you have mentioned, and from many more whom you 
 spared us. Perhaps Buckle is the least instructive of 
 them, belonging as he did to the "most straitest sect" 
 of Determinism. Besides, with all his energy and 
 perseverance, he was unfortunately quite unable to 
 distinguish a good book from a bad one. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Well, but what we want to know is 
 your own view of the philosophy of history. The 
 question asked long ago by the Latin poet goes to the 
 heart of the matter 
 
 " Curarent Superi terras, an nullus inesset 
 Rector, et incerto fluerent mortalia casu." 
 
 Do you hold that history is, in any sense, a revela- 
 tion ? Can we find in it God ? Providence ? a divine 
 government of the world ? 
 
 LUXMOORE. Yes, and No. Here too it is true that 
 the eye sees what it brings with it to see. Religious
 
 A Great Question 9 
 
 faith is spoken of by theologians as an illumination 
 a spiritual sight. History is a looking-glass. The 
 man whose eyes have been opened, will assuredly see 
 God there, for he sees Him everywhere. And as 
 assuredly the man whose eyes are holden, will not see 
 Him there, for he sees Him nowhere. "Quidcseco 
 cum speculo ? " 
 
 GRIMSTON. That seems like a variation on the old 
 tune, " Sapientes qui sentiunt mecum." 
 
 LUXMOORE. I know it must sound so. And, in a 
 sense, you are right. Cardinal Newman has said, 
 " It is a great question whether Atheism is not as 
 philosophically consistent with the phenomena of the 
 physical world taken by themselves that is, apart 
 from psychological phenomena, apart from moral 
 considerations, apart from the moral principles by 
 which they must be interpreted, apart from that idea 
 of God which wakes up in the mind under the stimu- 
 lus of intellectual training as the doctrine of a 
 creative and governing Power." And whether this be 
 so or not as regards the material world, it certainly 
 seems to me to hold good as to human history. 
 
 GRIMSTON. Newman has always appeared to me 
 one of those men whose doubts are a good deal better 
 than their certainties. There is a saying of Kenan's, 
 which I dare say you remember, about the Great 
 Unconscious Artist who seems to preside over the 
 apparent caprices of history. Well, I account that 
 I am speaking in sober sadness to be a most reli- 
 gious and reverent saying. When we consider what 
 the annals of the world really are, the sadness, the
 
 io What can History teach us? 
 
 hopelessness, the aimlessness, the desolation, written 
 upon every page of them I say that the conception 
 of an Unconscious First Cause is most reverent and 
 religious, for the best excuse for such a creation is 
 that the Creator did not know what He was doing. 
 
 LUXMOORE. I do not deny that you may read 
 Hartmann's Unconscious or Schopenhauer's Will into 
 history. I do not deny that the facts lend themselves 
 to many interpretations. Change the lights, and you 
 change the landscape. The question is, I suppose, 
 whether it is possible to view the facts in Bacon's 
 " lumen siccum," and to let them speak for themselves. 
 I do not pretend to be able to deduce from history, 
 to your satisfaction, the doctrine of an All- Holy, All- 
 Wise, and All- Loving Father of all. I admit that the 
 phenomena, taken by themselves, if they point to any 
 Deity at all, indicate rather Siva, the Destroyer, than 
 Vishnu, the Preserver. But if you look at the macro- 
 cosm without, in the light shed by the microcosm 
 within, if you call to your aid what, as I judge, is the 
 most certain of all our knowledge, I mean those 
 primary ethical truths which rest upon the intuitions 
 of the practical reason, I think that history does 
 witness for the Living and True God, and that it is a 
 Preacher of great moral verities. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. You admit, at all events, if I appre- 
 hend you rightly, that the old ecclesiastical way 
 of writing history is no longer possible : that St. 
 Augustine's historical philosophy or Bossuet's is out 
 of date. And indeed I suppose that no man outside 
 a Catholic Seminary would now maintain that the
 
 The Old Answer n 
 
 Church is a sufficient answer to the enigma of the 
 World. 
 
 LUXMOORE. St. Augustine and Bossuet are right, 
 in my judgment, as to their fundamental thought. 
 Their synthesis is imperfect. How could it help being 
 so ? It is impossible to read the City of God, or the 
 Discourse on Universal History, without falling under 
 the spell of those mighty masters. The majestic 
 march of their narrative, their pictorial phrases, the 
 wealth of meaning which they often concentrate into 
 a single word, the loftiness of their ethical tone, and 
 that indescribable something of the prophet which we 
 find in them especially in St. Augustine take us 
 captive. But if we weigh the matter coldly and 
 critically, we must allow that their vision was limited ; 
 that the pictures which they have drawn, however 
 finely conceived, are wanting in historical perspective ; 
 that their philosophy to a large extent Bossuet's 
 almost entirely depends upon an arbitrary arrange- 
 ment of a narrowly restricted collection of facts fitting 
 in with their theories. The beauty and sublimity of 
 ancient Hellas, the majesty and wisdom of the great 
 Roman Commonwealth, made no adequate impression 
 upon them. Of the vast civilizations of Asia, which 
 carried commerce, physics, philosophy, theosophy, so 
 far, while Europe lay still in its primeval forests, they 
 had no knowledge. And of those conquests of the 
 modern mind over the physical world which have so 
 altered our ways of thought and action, they did not 
 even dream. 
 
 GRIMSTON. Yes : they would have found it difficult
 
 1 2 What can History teach us ? 
 
 to dovetail Buddhism or the Newtonian astronomy 
 into their scheme of things : while as to Darwin's 
 discoveries but I spare you. I admit with you that 
 their great literary gifts impose on one. But their 
 dominant idea is it not that until the age of Augustus 
 the whole world was given over to decadence and 
 corruption, with the doubtful exception of a small 
 Semitic tribe, well described by Buckle as " an obsti- 
 nate and ignorant race, which owed to other peoples 
 any scanty knowledge they ever attained " ? 
 
 LUXMOORE. No. I do not find that their dominant 
 thought. It seems to me that the great, the most true, 
 idea which informs their pages is the idea of Evolution, 
 which I take to be the irrefutable lesson of human 
 history, and the real basis of historical philosophy. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. This is interesting. If you are not 
 playing with the word which I do not suppose and 
 can establish your position, you will be binding old 
 and new together to some purpose. 
 
 LUXMOORE. It is clear to me that in the moral as 
 in the physical world, Evolution, Progress, Develop- 
 ment, is the universal law. Everywhere there is 
 expansion and concentration : advance from the 
 homogeneous to the heterogeneous, from the less to 
 the more determined, by a gradual explication of 
 latent force ; while, on the other hand, there is a 
 process of differentiation from simplicity to com- 
 plexity, as the multiplicity of parts becomes co-ordi- 
 nated and subordinated, in order to the preservation 
 and expansion of the whole. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Well, I suppose that one of the most
 
 " Ex uno et in unum " 13 
 
 definitive conquests of the modern mind is the 
 establishment of the unity of all natural forces and 
 operations. Do many thinkers of account now doubt 
 the identity of universal being ? All the sciences are 
 drawing together, and everywhere there is solidarity 
 and development. Laws apparently the most diverse 
 are but variations on this eternal theme. I think 
 there can be no doubt Luxmoore, I feel sure, 
 won't doubt it that social and moral problems, I 
 may say religious problems too, assume quite a new 
 aspect in the light cast upon them by the physical 
 sciences. 
 
 LUXMOORE. No, I do not question it. Solidarity 
 or the vital unity of things, their necessary subjec- 
 tion to one law, and consequent adaptation each to 
 each, is undeniable, if we would not stultify science. 
 The spectroscope shows it as regards matter : the 
 microscope as regards bodily organisms : the recur- 
 rences, averages, seeming fatalities of history as 
 regards man the spirit robed in flesh. If all things 
 are ex uno, there must be solidarity. And it is an 
 article of the universal creed that all things are ex 
 uno. Are they also in unum ? tending towards a 
 centre, which is at the same time an apex, drawing 
 them not only onwards, but also upwards ? Surely 
 they are, and there is the law of evolution, the 
 existence of which, as it seems to me, no one capable 
 of forming a sane opinion on the matter can now 
 question. The controversy begins when we ask 
 whether that law is subordinate or supreme. Let 
 us pass it by, for the time at all events. It would
 
 14 What can History teach us ? 
 
 take us too far. I hold that all our knowledge 
 radiates from one centre, and that it all points to one 
 truth. Leibnitz says that a single monad, an imper- 
 ceptible atom, is a mirror of the universal order. 
 Much more so is man, the sum of so many and so 
 diverse monads. In him all the powers of nature meet. 
 The infinitely complex phenomena which unite in him 
 are all reducible to one law. And by a necessity of 
 our nature we seek that law, in history as in physics. 
 
 GRIMSTON. I like this. But explain further, please. 
 Although, indeed, I am afraid that it will be as Talley- 
 rand said : " Si nous nous expliquons, nous cesserons 
 de nous entendre." 
 
 LUXMOORE. To come, then, to our proper theme. 
 If we take the whole career of man on this planet, so 
 far as we know it, and the human race as a whole, 
 surely the fact is beyond dispute that, materially, 
 socially, ethically, there has been vast progress. Of 
 the subjugation of the external world I need hardly 
 speak. From the day that the first skin was made 
 into a garment, the first flint rudely shaped into an 
 arrow-head, the first crooked stick used to scratch the 
 ground, to this age of broadcloth, breech-loaders, and 
 steam ploughs, the victory of mind over matter has 
 gone on progressing ; for on that day the law of 
 natural selection was vanquished: man burst the 
 bonds in which nature was bound, and asserted his 
 freedom. Again, look at the social order. The unit 
 of archaic society is the family. The individual does 
 not exist. Gradually he is evolved with his attri- 
 butes of personal liberty and private property, and
 
 Progress 1 5 
 
 we can trace the steps of the process, from the 
 cumbrous legal fictions by which the films familias 
 acquired his freedom, and the right of testamentary 
 disposition was established, down to the latest effort 
 of contemporary jurisprudence for the emancipation 
 of women. And so in ethics, the notion of obligation 
 TO Seoi> which is the root of the moral idea, no 
 doubt exists in our nature. It is a form of the 
 mind : an attribute of human personality, conscious 
 of self and non-self. "Justice," said the ancient 
 jurists, " is the constant and perpetual will to render 
 to each his due " " constans et perpetua voluntas jus 
 suum cuique tribuendi." The whole history of ethics 
 is the history of the development of that idea. Even 
 in our poor relations, the lower animals, respect for 
 one another's rights is the best test of their progress. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. I don't know why you should say 
 "even." Surely ethical phenomena, like physical 
 and intellectual, may be generalized. The difference 
 is vast between the various scales of being ; but it is 
 a difference of degree, not of kind. There is really 
 only one animal. But, don't let me break in upon 
 your argument. 
 
 LUXMOORE. Well, it will be better perhaps that I 
 should not venture upon an excursion into the subject 
 to which your words point, though the temptation is 
 strong. I was saying that the moral progress of 
 mankind, viewed as a whole, seems to me a palpable 
 fact. It may be said that the great principles of 
 ethics were as well known in the days of Moses, of 
 Gotama, of Socrates, as in the days of Kant ; that no
 
 1 6 What can History teach us ? 
 
 real development of them is possible. But I say No ; 
 ethical ideas, like all others, have grown in the human 
 mind. Think of the views held by Cato that fine 
 type of Roman excellence regarding slavery. And 
 then compare them with those of Wilberforce. Is 
 there no growth there ? I cite the first instance that 
 occurs to me. I might give a hundred others. But 
 I go on to say that side by side with this unquestion- 
 able fact of moral progress there is another to me no 
 less unquestionable. The religious idea is the indis- 
 pensable guardian of the ethical, and the only source 
 of its authority. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Surely that is a strong statement. 
 
 GRIMSTON. And surely an untenable one. Were 
 the antique cults for example, the worship of 
 Aphrodite and Priapus guardians of any ethical 
 idea ? Mr. Swinburne, I remember, finds in the 
 fact that they were not, a reason for judging them 
 superior to the " creeds that refuse and restrain " in 
 the modern world. 
 
 LUXMOORE. You mistake me. I am by no means 
 asserting that particular cults are essential to morality. 
 I distinguish between religion and religions. I know 
 well that there are ages of the world in which religion 
 must be sought by the wise outside the popular 
 worship : in which the devout soul may say, with 
 Schiller 
 
 " Welche Religion ich bekenne ? Keine von alien 
 Die Du mir nennst. Und warum keine ? aus Religion." 
 
 But my contention is that morality, in its highest 
 and truest sense, is not merely a correct ethical taste,
 
 Religion and Ethics 17 
 
 not even a passion for right, nor an enthusiasm of 
 humanity : still less is it a calculation of self-interest. 
 A sanction is essential to it. The idea of obligation 
 underlies it. Experience amply verifies the dictum 
 of Kant : " Without a God, and without a world 
 invisible to us now but hoped for, the glorious ideas 
 of morality are, indeed, objects of admiration, but 
 cannot be the springs of purpose and action." It 
 seems to me to be clear from history that the moral 
 idea has ever been most closely connected with the 
 religious idea, which has vivified it and made it oper- 
 ative : more, that the two have been evolved together. 
 The names which mark epochs for us in the annals 
 of religions are those of men to whom the great 
 families of the human race have owed ethical con- 
 ceptions at once enlarged and more imperative. Con- 
 fucius, Gotama, Socrates, Mohammed, are all apostles 
 of the moral law : and all insist upon its supersensible 
 foundations. While, to come to a greater name still, 
 if we consider the work of Christianity in the sphere 
 of ethics, what is it, in its essence, but this : that it 
 has proclaimed the indefeasible supremacy of con- 
 science as the voice of God within ? that it has 
 indoctrinated the mind of the races of mankind that 
 have received it with a belief that the highest good 
 is to follow the monitions of this internal guide ? the 
 supreme loss to disobey them ? 
 
 TEMPERLEY. I am quite with you, as I suppose 
 ninety-nine sensible men out of a hundred would be, 
 in admitting the fact of progress. And I am much 
 pleased, if you will let me say so, with your tolerant 
 
 c
 
 1 8 What can History teach us ? 
 
 tone about non-Christian religions. It reminds me 
 of a remark made to me the other day by an excellent 
 French Catholic somewhat to my surprise: "Notre 
 religion," the good man said, " est sans doute la seule 
 bonne : mais nous avons fait tant de mal par son 
 moyen que quand nous parlons des autres il faut etre 
 modeste." I could wish, indeed, that you had dwelt 
 a little more upon the progress which has been made 
 in the religious sphere. For example, consider the 
 idea of Deity. Take the conception of God now 
 generally prevalent in this country. Doubtless it 
 leaves much to be desired : it represents the Infinite 
 and Eternal as " the head of the clerical interest : as 
 a sort of clergyman : a sort of schoolmaster : a sort 
 of philanthropist," Mathew Arnold objected. Well, 
 but that is a great advance upon the fetish of savage 
 tribes, or upon the Hebrew Jehovah, before whom 
 Samuel hewed Agag in pieces, or upon the Deity 
 honoured by the fiery rites of the Inquisition. I was 
 reading the other day, in an old ecclesiastical history, 
 how at the sack of Toulouse, during the crusade 
 against the Albigenses, most of the inhabitants of the 
 city having been put to the sword, a few hundreds 
 were preserved from the common fate, in order that 
 they might be burned alive to satisfy the piety of 
 the pilgrims, who beheld the spectacle with huge 
 delight " cum ingenti gaudio " the devout chronicler 
 says. I take it that the religious instinct has now 
 been educated to such a point throughout the civilized 
 world, as to make a return to such peculiar expressions 
 oi piety impossible. Even in Spain, the stronghold
 
 Religious Advance 19 
 
 of sanguinary superstition, there has not been an 
 auto dafe for more than a century. 
 
 GRIMSTON. And to whom do we owe this curbing 
 of fanaticism ? To Voltaire more than to any one 
 else. 
 
 LUXMOORE. " Messieurs, vous sortez de la question." 
 I am not going to defend the Inquisition, or the civil 
 legislation which gave such terrible effect to its judg- 
 ments. A formal apology for both, logically sufficient, 
 would be easy. But I prefer to say frankly, that I 
 believe a return to penal laws as the guardian of 
 religious uniformity impossible : and one reason why 
 it is impossible is because we have advanced to a 
 juster conception, in this respect, of the spirit of 
 Christ than was possessed by our fathers. Voltaire, 
 again, profoundly irreligious and inhuman as he was 
 I say inhuman, because of his tone about the common 
 people I quite allow to have been, in some respects, 
 a minister of true progress. He exploded some lies : 
 gave the death-blow to some cruelties : and opened , 
 fields of thought as in history which sounder 
 thinkers have since fruitfully cultivated. And now, 
 after this digression, shall we go back to our proper 
 theme ? 
 
 GRIMSTON. You trump our best cards. But to 
 proceed. History, you contend, reveals a clear 
 advance of our race in physical science, in social 
 organization, in ethical and religious conceptions. But 
 has this advance added to the greatest happiness of 
 the greatest number ? " Happiness," you will object, 
 is a vague word. Take it how you will. Say, if you
 
 2O What can History teach us ? 
 
 like, " Virtue alone is happiness below." Do you 
 think that there is more virtue in the world now than 
 there was a century, ten centuries, two thousand 
 centuries, ago ? I much doubt it. I incline to think 
 the sum total of virtue and vice always pretty much 
 the same. Or take happiness in the Benthamite 
 sense of plenty of pig's wash. There is more pig's 
 wash in the world, you say : much of it very savoury, 
 and the average quality of the whole better. But 
 what advantageth it to the rank-and-file of the herd ? 
 Progress ? Yes : and, as Henry George has reminded 
 us, Poverty. Think of the antinomies of civilization 
 and industry. Consider the condition of the great 
 majority of the populations of our large cities, 
 aggravated, as it is, by the spectacle of senseless 
 profusion daintily flaunted in their faces. It has been 
 said, and with simple truth, that our present state of 
 society is in many respects one of the most horrible 
 the world has ever known : boundless luxury and 
 self-indulgence at one end of the scale : and at the 
 other a condition of life as cruel as that of a Roman 
 slave, and more degraded than that of a South Sea 
 Islander. Contemporary history, like past history, if 
 we take any but the most superficial view of it, is 
 essentially tragedy, as individual life is. Schopen- 
 hauer asks with great force, " Whence did Dante take 
 the materials for his Inferno but from this actual world 
 of ours ? And yet he made a very proper hell of it." 
 Optimism, when not mere thoughtless babble, is a 
 wicked way of thinking : for it is a bitter mockery of 
 the unspeakable suffering of humanity.
 
 The Dark Side of Life 21 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Ohe jam satis ! my dear Grimston. 
 Don't give us any more Schopenhauer, please. The 
 dark side of life, individual and collective, is only too 
 evident. Who can doubt that there is a rift in the 
 constitution of things ? There is a terrible passage 
 in De Maistre where he speaks of the earth as an 
 immense altar, ever crying for the blood of man and 
 beast. It is a probable hypothesis enough that history 
 should be viewed as a vast expiation of some aboriginal L 
 fault. Plausible too is that other theory that Siva 
 and Vishnu are merely different energies of the same 
 power. 
 
 LUXMOORE. If any fact is unquestionable, it is this 
 of the abounding misery in the world. The creature 
 is subject to vanity : is in the bondage of corruption. 
 The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain 
 together. Everywhere, in every age, there is evil : 
 within and without. The waste and ruin in history 
 have their counterpart in the physical world and in the 
 heart of man. The phenomenal is a vast outrage on 
 the ideal. But in spite of immense drawbacks I think 
 that the progress of our race, on the whole, is un- 
 questionable ; that the gradual evolution of humanity 
 is a patent fact. Well, then, has this fact any meaning ? 
 Is there a normal working of things in the moral 
 world as in the physical ? Surely there is. I agree 
 with Mr. Spencer and it is always a pleasure to me 
 to find myself in accord with so clear a thinker " that 
 good and bad results cannot be accidental, but must 
 be the necessary consequences of the constitution of 
 things," and that " it is the business of moral science
 
 22 What can History teach us ? 
 
 to deduce from the laws of life and the conditions of 
 existence what kinds of actions tend to produce 
 happiness, and what kinds to produce unhappiness." 
 It seems to me that history teaches a moral lesson of 
 the most tremendous kind : and that here its teaching 
 is in unison with the teaching of the physical world. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. And so we get back to St. Augustine 
 and his " two cities," I suppose. 
 
 LUXMOORE. We get back to the great thought 
 which dominated the mind of St. Augustine, and which 
 the whole advance of the human intellect from his 
 day to our own has brought into clearer relief: the 
 thought of the universal reign of law. As Music, 
 Geometry, the movement of the stars, the necessary 
 relations of numbers, speak to him of a universal 
 order, and of One who has established it, so does the 
 course of human history reveal One "qui profert 
 numerose saeculum," One who rules the " fluxum 
 saeculorum ordinate turbulentum." It seemed to him 
 impossible he has unfolded the argument with sin- 
 gular beauty and skill in a well-known chapter of the 
 De Civitate that while order and design and har- 
 mony are impressed upon every minutest feature of 
 the physical world, the course of human events, the 
 vicissitudes of commonwealths, the rise and fall of 
 empires, should have been left to irrational chance or 
 blind fate. In the manifold striving and endeavour, 
 travail and sorrow, of mankind, he delighted to see 
 "toil co-operant to an end." " Deus ordinem saecu- 
 lorum tanquam pulcherrimum carmen ex quibusdam 
 quasi antithetis honestavit," he finely says. And here,
 
 " Toil Co-operant to an End " 23 
 
 let me note in passing, he is the mouthpiece of an 
 aspiration common to the race : the interpreter to 
 itself of " the prophetic soul of the wide world dream- 
 ing on things to come." What is the magnificent myth 
 of Prometheus, the great founder of civilization, who 
 taught the Cave men the use of fire, numbers, and 
 writing, nay, astronomy, medicine, navigation, divina- 
 tion, and who, bound to the rock and gnawed by the 
 vulture, predicts the eventual fall of tyrannous Zeus 
 and the triumph of justice what is it but the embodi- 
 ment of the thought of progress ? What is that most 
 beautiful eclogue of Virgil the sweetest strain of the 
 sweetest of singers but a fantasia upon the same 
 theme ? The doctrine of Zoroaster whatever may 
 be obscure in it clearly points to the ultimate 
 triumph of light and truth, when, as we read in the 
 Zamydd Vast, the victorious Saoshyant and his 
 helpers shall restore the world, which will thenceforth 
 never grow old and never die, when life and immor- 
 tality shall come and the Evil Principle shall perish. 
 Even in India, dominated as it was by its fatalistic 
 philosophy, there was the ideal, due, as Rhys Davids 
 thinks, to reminiscences of Vedic thought, of the 
 perfectly wise Man, the Buddha, who, when all flesh 
 has corrupted its way upon earth, appears and founds 
 a Kingdom of Righteousness. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. But Christianity ? 
 
 LUXMOORE. I am coming to that. Christianity, un- 
 folding a divine purpose which runs through the ages 
 and culminates beyond time Christianity, which has 
 been truly called a transcendent theory of progress,
 
 24 What can History teach us ? 
 
 has cast this ideal into the mould in which it has most 
 potently affected mankind; how potently, who can 
 say ? Is not the belief in progress at this very time 
 at the root of all that is most hopeful in the world ? 
 Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Freethinkers, 
 Pantheists and Positivists, Mystics and Materialists 
 all acknowledge the influence of this idea. Even 
 Cobden confessed its sway, and interpreted it of " a 
 calico millennium." It is the source of all that is most 
 excellent in all. If you could destroy it but you 
 cannot, for it is rooted in human nature you would 
 smite the earth with a curse far more terrible and 
 appalling than any mankind has ever known. You 
 ask me what history can teach us. Well, here is one 
 lesson. History exhibits this thirst for perfection, 
 this gradual moving upwards towards the attainment 
 of it, as a chief note of the career of our race. Here, 
 as in the rest of the universe, there is a never-ceasing 
 process of evolution, a perpetual becoming. The 
 plant, the animal, the man, the social order issuing 
 from man all display a progressive metamorphosis. 
 In the physical world this striving after perfection 
 seems to be blind, unintelligent : whether it is really 
 so or not, I do not undertake to say. But in man it 
 is certainly conscious : and the highest form of it is 
 the religious sentiment which is a feeling after the 
 Infinite. Supreme truth alone can satisfy the in- 
 tellect: supreme love alone can fill the heart: supreme 
 righteousness alone can content the conscience. But 
 when we say Supreme Truth, Supreme Love, Supreme 
 Righteousness, we say GOD. It is under the
 
 The Law of Progress 25 
 
 influence of this transcendent ideal that the human soul 
 reaches its amplest development, its highest elevation 
 in the scale of being : and Jesus Christ has given us 
 its noblest and simplest expression, " Be ye perfect, 
 even as your Father in heaven is perfect." The first 
 great lesson that history teaches us, from the collected 
 experiences of our race, is that man lives under the 
 law of progress which is the striving after perfection, 
 and of which the highest expression is the quest of 
 the All- Perfect. " Fecisti nos ad Te," says St. 
 Augustine. And history justifies his saying. 
 
 GRIMSTON. Well, Hartmann, you know, considers 
 this notion of progress an illusion, and he has formu- 
 lated its three stages. In the antique world it took 
 the shape of happiness for the individual in the pre- 
 sent scene : in the Middle Ages, of a vague beatitude 
 in an imaginary heaven : the modern version of it is, 
 apparently, the perfection of the species in an inde- 
 finite future. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. I incline to think the ancient con- 
 ception is still pretty largely held. Certainly most 
 of my acquaintances, whatever their professions, 
 resemble in their practice that dear old French lady, 
 
 " qui pour plus de suretd 
 Fit son paradis dans ce monde." 
 
 But we check our friend's eloquence. His exposition 
 is by no means done. Pray forgive us, my dear 
 Luxmoore, and proceed, please. 
 
 LUXMOORE. I would say that as St. Augustine 
 has discerned, however dimly and imperfectly, this.
 
 26 What can History teach us ? 
 
 great fact of progress and the main lesson which it 
 teaches, so he has rightly apprehended its condition 
 obedience to law, the innermost essence of things, 
 which, in Hooker's fine phrase, is " the very voice of 
 God." Man may obey or disobey this law that is 
 his awful and mysterious prerogative. But to follow 
 it is the only condition of advance, of freedom : 
 "Summa Deo servitus, summa libertas." It is by 
 conformity to the laws of the external world that 
 the human race has so wonderfully subdued physical 
 forces, and made them our servants. It is by obedi- 
 ence to the laws of the human organism that man 
 has ameliorated his hygienic condition. His ethical 
 advance is due to his following the law within. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Yes ; that " civilization is nothing else 
 but the knowledge and observance of natural laws," 
 has always seemed to me the stupidest of sophisms. 
 
 LUXMOORE. The elements of civilization are chiefly 
 moral. Intellect is but its instrument. I know well that 
 this truth has been for a season obscured by the school, 
 or rather schools, of writers who set aside virtue, 
 benevolence, love of God, of country, and hold out 
 physical science as the sole factor of human progress. 
 But it is true all the same the first of truths : and I 
 have no fear but that it will be so recognized when 
 the brief hour of materialistic tyranny is overpast, for 
 the world cannot live without it. I hold with Butler 
 that " the law of virtue, written on our hearts, is the 
 law we are born under," and that in obedience to it 
 is the condition of all well-being, as for individuals so 
 for nations.
 
 The Root of Greatness 27 
 
 GRIMSTON. I remember a dictum of Machiavelli, 
 that the Roman Commonwealth was built up rather 
 by virtue than by arms. 
 
 LUXMOORE. It is true. So were the words 
 spoken by the wise Duke of Weimar, when the First 
 Napoleon was at the height of his success " It is 
 unjust: it cannot last." What is commonly called 
 the force of circumstances is only another name for 
 eternal law : for that adamantine chain of moral 
 gravitation which we cannot formulate aypafos the 
 Greeks well termed it but from which we can no 
 more escape than from its counterpart in the physical 
 world. As in the history of the individual, so in 
 the history of nations, God is primarily revealed 
 under the attribute of Retributive Justice. The first 
 fact about man is his concept of duty : " Thou 
 Oughtest : it is thy supreme good to follow that 
 Categorical Imperative : thy supreme loss to dis- 
 obey it." And this is the first fact, too, about the 
 aggregation of men which we call a people. In 
 loyalty to truth, to right, to justice all summed up in 
 the old phrase of " fearing God " is the highest law 
 of collective human life, and it is fenced round with 
 terrible penalties which are the natural sequence of 
 its violation. The root of all greatness, national or 
 individual, is a great thought : or a great deed, which 
 is merely a great thought actualized. The ideal is 
 the moral life of the world. But the highest of all 
 ideas is the Divine. And it is precisely as that idea 
 has lived in the minds of peoples, that they have been 
 truly great. Piety towards the gods was the very
 
 28 What can History teach us ? 
 
 root of Roman greatness : read Fustel de Coulanges' 
 chapter Le Romain. Consider the medieval period, 
 rude in physical comfort and the mechanic arts, but 
 how great in individualities, in men ! Think of its 
 monuments which still remain to us : cathedrals, 
 such as those of Siena, Amiens, Canterbury ; the 
 pictures of Giotto, Orcagna, Fra Angelico ; the song 
 of Dante ; the philosophy of Aquinas. All that was 
 great in those ages sprang from their faith : from 
 the divine ideal on which they lived. Or look at 
 England or the United States in this twentieth 
 century. In the old Puritan beliefs which still main- 
 tain their hold over the popular mind is the salt which 
 keeps society from dissolution. And then turn your 
 eyes on France, solemnly installing concupiscence 
 aptly typified by the Goddess of Reason in the place 
 of conscience, and elevating the dumb buzzard idol, 
 Man in the abstract, and his fictitious rights, in the 
 place of the living God, and the duties binding upon 
 us because He is what He is : look at France, I say, 
 if you would see an example of the hell which a 
 people prepares for itself when it maketh and loveth 
 a lie. I know the country well : and every time I 
 visit it I discern terrible evidence of ever-increasing 
 degeneracy. The man seems to be disappearing. 
 There is a return to the simious type. The eye 
 speaks of nothing but dull esuriency. The whole face 
 is prurient. The voice has lost the virile ring, and 
 has become shrill, gibberish, baboon-like. Go into 
 the Chamber of Deputies, the chosen and too true 
 representatives of the people. The looks, the gestures,
 
 National Atheism 29 
 
 the cries, remind you irresistibly of the monkey-house 
 in Regent's Park. The nation for it must be judged 
 by its public acts has for a hundred years been trying 
 to rid itself of the perception which is the proper 
 attribute of man : to cast out the idea of God, which 
 Michelet has well called the progressive and con- 
 servative principle of civilization : to live on a 
 philosophy of animalism : and it is rapidly losing all 
 that is distinctively human, and is sinking below the 
 level of the animals. 
 
 GRIMSTON. I confess France seems to me to be 
 going back to a state of nature, not as that delirious 
 charlatan Rousseau deemed of it "ce polisson de 
 Jean- Jacques," Voltaire called him : for my own part, 
 I think it a nice point whether he was more black- 
 guard or madman but as it really existed when men 
 first crawled forth on the earth, "mutum et turpe 
 pecus," and fought, tooth and nail, for acorns and 
 sleeping-places, and other things that shall be name- 
 less. You may read it all in Horace, who has 
 anticipated the very latest scientific views of human 
 origin. But to keep to our theme, you say that 
 history reveals God primarily to you as an Avenger 
 wroth with the work of His own hands. But why 
 have called the human race into existence, with all its 
 errors and crimes, only to punish it ? 
 
 LUXMOORE. Not "only." To reward and to 
 punish. As for your Why, it is the idlest of ques- 
 tions. What is clear to me, as it was to Schiller, is 
 that the history of the world is the judgment of the 
 world. Before nations, as before individuals, are set
 
 30 What can History teach us ? 
 
 life and death, blessing and cursing. Their well-being 
 depends upon their choice 
 
 " Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, 
 Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." 
 
 We are thrown back upon free-will. You shake your 
 head ; you call it a non ens. To me it is the first of 
 facts, and rests upon the strongest of evidence, the 
 testimony of consciousness which, if it tells me any- 
 thing, tells me that. I say that this is to me the first 
 fact of individual life : and a nation is primarily an 
 aggregation of individuals. I do not say that it is 
 merely that. It is an organism, a corporate entity, 
 all its parts interdependently bound, and with powers, 
 attributes, characteristics, of its own. Still Mr. Spencer 
 speaks most truly when he tells us that the welfare of 
 a society and the justice of its arrangements are, at 
 bottom, dependent upon the character of its members. 
 I must agree with him it is self-evident that social 
 phenomena have their roots in the phenomena of 
 individual life, and those again in general vital phe- 
 nomena. National spirit is, in the last resort, the 
 spirit of the individuals composing the nations. The 
 development of mankind is the development of the 
 men who make up mankind. The qualities which are 
 distinctive of any people, which inform its laws and 
 determine its policy, and are reflected in its institu- 
 tions and are expressed in its manners, are the quali- 
 ties of the persons who compose the people. Here 
 too the last word is "personality." 
 
 GRIMSTON. It is a good mouth-filling word. But 
 what do you mean by it ?
 
 Personality 3 1 
 
 LUXMOORE. Well, I have no pocket definition to 
 offer you. Indeed, in strictness, I do not think per- 
 sonality can be defined : by its very nature it seems 
 to me to be incapable of expression in phenomenal 
 symbols. Personality is the human thing-in-itself : 
 it is in its essence transcendental. I can no more 
 define it for you than I can define reason or beauty 
 or God. But we may know, feel, and believe what 
 we cannot shut up in a formula. Comprehension is 
 one thing. Apprehension, another. 
 
 GRIMSTON. But before we rest upon personality 
 we ought to be quite sure that it is something more 
 than an empty word. I came upon an argument the 
 other day, in a book of Mr. Samuel Butler's, which 
 struck me as very ingenious, and which I will present 
 to you, but in language more decorous than his, for he 
 uses great plainness of speech. It is this : The man 
 of eighty is held to be personally identical with the 
 new-born infant, out of whom he has been developed. 
 But the new-born infant is certainly identical with 
 the infant before birth, and this too must be thought 
 identically the same in all stages of its embryonic 
 existence, till we arrive at the elementary living cell 
 to which science traces the human and every other 
 organism. For "omne vivum ex ovo." But that 
 bioplasm or protoplasm has itself a history : it is not 
 one element, but two, which are at first severally 
 identical with the individual organisms whence they 
 were derived : in other words, with the distinct 
 personalities of which their child is the offspring. 
 Thus may he claim a personal identity with both his
 
 32 What can History teach us ? 
 
 parents : nor can it be denied, without violating first 
 principles, that he is, physically and organically, as 
 much a part of them as the apple blossom is of the 
 apple tree. If ever he was one with them, it follows 
 that he is one with them. In like manner, by an 
 easy chain of reasoning, we reach the conclusion that 
 he is personally identical with all his ancestors : and 
 finally with the individual bioplastic cell in which the 
 whole race was summed up and lay hidden, and out 
 of which all its innumerable representatives have been 
 unfolded. All the blossoms are one with and in the 
 apple tree : so are all men identified with the one 
 human race, which is nothing but a long-lived indi- 
 vidual. And those marvellous instances of heredity 
 which we see in man, but still more clearly in the 
 lower animals, he explains, reasonably enough, as 
 mere manifestations of unconscious memory. A duck 
 hatched by the hen makes straight for the water. 
 Why ? Because it remembers what it did when it 
 was one individuality with its parents, and when it 
 was a duckling before. An old piece of wolf-skin is 
 set before a little dog who has never seen a wolf, and 
 he is thrown into convulsions of fear by the slight 
 smell attaching to it. Why ? Because the skin 
 brings up the ideas with which it had been associated 
 in the dog's mind during his previous existences, so 
 that on smelling it he remembers all about wolves 
 perfectly well. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. I am not acquainted with Mr. 
 Samuel Butler's writings, but his doctrine seems to 
 present some analogy to that of Schopenhauer, who
 
 Solidarity 33 
 
 holds that the begotten and the begetter, though phe- 
 nomenally different, are in themselves according to 
 the idea identical ; that the true person is the species, 
 not the individual. But what does our friend Lux- 
 moore say to this ? 
 
 LUXMOORE. I incline to say to Mr. Samuel Butler, 
 with Sganarelle : " Je ne sais que dire, car vous 
 tournez les choses d'une maniere qu'il me semble que 
 vous avez raison : et cependant il est vrai que vous 
 ne 1'avez pas." The ultimate appeal is to conscious- 
 ness, which testifies to the distinction between self 
 and non-self: which declares to me that in some 
 wonderful sense I stand alone : weighted with duties, 
 fenced round with responsibilities, endowed with 
 choice. Mr. Butler's ingenious theory no doubt has 
 a true side; it points to facts inconsistent with what, 
 to use a Buddhist phrase, I may call " the heresy of 
 individuality," the political embodiment of which is 
 the Jacobin doctrine of the sovereignty of the indi- 
 vidual : a doctrine pungently and truly described by 
 Renan as applicable only to a state of society in 
 which men should be born foundlings and die bache- 
 lors. No : the individual does not stand alone : the 
 solidarity of races, of nations, of families, is a great 
 truth. 
 
 GRIMSTON. But how reconcile it with that other 
 doctrine of individual responsibility ? 
 
 LUXMOORE. Frankly, I do not know ; but my 
 inability to reconcile two truths is no reason for my 
 denying either or both. The proverb concerning the 
 land of Israel, " The fathers have eaten sour grapes, 
 
 D
 
 34 What can History teach us ? 
 
 and the children's teeth are set on edge," was true ; 
 and the Divine word which came by the prophet, " I 
 will judge every one according to his ways," is true 
 also. Unquestionably a nation's wrong-doing is visited 
 on the third and fourth generations. What man whose 
 moral sense is not hopelessly blunted can doubt the 
 heavy penalty which has still to be paid by England 
 for her centuries of tyrannous oppression and sense- 
 less cruelty in Ireland ? It is with collective as with 
 single human life. The offspring of the just man 
 reaps the reward, both in his physical and moral con- 
 stitution, of his father's virtue : " fortes creantur 
 fortibus." Gout, consumption, scrofula, are among 
 the penalties we pay for our ancestors' contempt of 
 the laws of right living. Quinet has well remarked 
 that adulterine children usually manifest in their 
 lives the fraud and dishonour in which they are en- 
 gendered : " Delicta majorum immeritus lues." The 
 parallelism between the individual and the corporate 
 organism which might be established in so many other 
 ways holds good in this also, that both are under the 
 moral law. Progress, advance towards perfection, is 
 the reward of obedience to it : degradation, retro- 
 gression in the scale of being, the penalty of resistance. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. I suppose we must all agree that the 
 question, What is the significance of history ? depends 
 upon another, What is the significance of human 
 life? 
 
 LUXMOORE. Unquestionably. I think that history 
 may be truly described as the simultaneous evolution 
 of the individual and of the social order in which is
 
 Three Great Facts 35 
 
 the individual's normal place. But I will go on still 
 further, if you will let me. I said just now that the 
 root of all greatness, national or individual, seemed 
 to me to be a great thought or a great action, which 
 is a great thought actualized. But of these great 
 thoughts, great men are the founts. I fully agree 
 with Carlyle it seems to me the most valuable 
 lesson he taught that " universal history, the history 
 of what man has accomplished in this world, is, at 
 the bottom, the history of the great men who have 
 worked here : " that all " things which we see standing 
 in this world are, properly, the outward material 
 result, the practical realization and embodiment of 
 thoughts that dwelt in the great men sent into the 
 world." But more. I find, as I investigate the 
 annals of our tece, that from time to time Saints, 
 Sages, and Heroes have risen up to place before men 
 ideals ; and that men, drawn by the instinct which 
 leads us to recognize something divine in greatness, 
 have more or less followed those ideals, and by that 
 following have been elevated in the scale of being. 
 Yes : the history of the world is the judgment of the 
 world, as Schiller said. The trial of men lies, for the 
 most part, in the readiness with which they receive, 
 and the loyalty with which they follow, the ideals set 
 before them ; or, if I may so express it, the Revelations 
 made at sundry times and in divers manners by the 
 Prophets of the Most High. That man, by a necessity 
 of his nature, strives after perfection, that obedience 
 to law, universal and divine, is the condition of per- 
 fection, that the great men sent into the world from
 
 36 What can History teach us ? 
 
 time to time are the preachers of that law these are 
 the three great facts which seem to me to be writ 
 large in history. And the third, like the other two, 
 witnesses for God. Consider the ordinary human 
 biped as he lives and moves and has his being in 
 London, in Bagdad, in Pekin, in Rangoon. Follow 
 him through his twenty-four hours of work or amuse- 
 ment, of eating, digestion, and sleep. What is it that 
 makes him something more than matter in move- 
 ment ? The influence of some great idea, some true 
 thought, coming to him from Jesus Christ, from 
 Mohammed, from Confucius, from Gotama, that has 
 mainly formed the spiritual atmosphere which he 
 breathes, and by which, unconsciously, his moral 
 being lives. And this holds good of the freest free- 
 thinker as of the most ardent believer. Renan speaks 
 
 / the simple truth when he says, " Chacun de nous doit 
 a Jesus ce qu'il y a de meilleur en lui." His confession, 
 " Au fond je sens que ma vie est gouvernee par une 
 foi que je n'ai plus," applies as much to Modern Civi- 
 
 f lization as it did to his individual self. What fact is 
 more extraordinary, more miraculous in the true sense 
 of the word, than this : that three short years of one 
 human life, led, two thousand years ago, in an obscure 
 corner of Asia, should have sent forth an influence 
 which has changed the face of the Western world, 
 and which is still as strong as ever as strong, or 
 stronger ? The personality of Jesus Christ, a poor 
 despised peasant, whose dolorous career was cut short 
 by a cruel and infamous death, is at this moment the 
 most potent force in the world.
 
 Mr. Herbert Spencer's Doctrine 37 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Yes. " Ca donne a penser." 
 
 GRIMSTON. And so we end in the great-man 
 theory. You have parted company with Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer. 
 
 LUXMOORE. Unfortunately, Mr. Spencer subordi- 
 nates mind to matter, character to environment : hence 
 he is necessarily led to the extremest sensationalism. 
 His doctrine, as I understand it, is, that it was not the 
 great men sent into the world who moulded circum- 
 stances, but circumstances which made and fashioned 
 them : that their thoughts were nothing but the result 
 of structure : their minds a mere attribute of their 
 material substance : that to the philosophic eye they 
 are nothing but an aggregate of conditions. I 
 do not know anything which more forcibly illus- 
 trates the truth of Lord Bacon's admirable dictum : 
 " Qui Deos esse negant, nobilitatem generis humani 
 destruunt." 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Mr. Spencer would not consider that 
 a fatal objection, probably. 
 
 LUXMOORE. I dare say he would deny that it is in 
 logic a sound argument. But, in truth, it is an appeal 
 to the final Court of the scientific, as of the unscientific, 
 judgment : to consciousness which declares that man is 
 something more than an automaton. Let us, however, 
 look at Mr. Spencer's view a little more closely. Upon 
 what is it really founded ? Does it not rest upon the 
 abstract and quite fallacious assumption, so potent in 
 the minds of men since Rousseau gave it such wide 
 currency, that the world is peopled by an infinity of 
 units, alike not merely in their nature, which I am far
 
 38 What can History teach us ? 
 
 from denying, but in their individual share of the gifts 
 of Nature : equal in degree, because resembling one 
 another in kind : all in their origin equally endowed 
 and starting fair in the race for pre-eminence ? Surely 
 this cannot be granted by the latest philosophy any 
 more than by the oldest : nay, not so much, for the 
 survival of the fittest implies that all do not start equal. 
 Let us keep to the facts. The commonest experience 
 of actual life is enough to show us that, given the 
 same aggregate of conditions, we cannot be confident, 
 whether as regards the individual or society, that the 
 same results will follow. The science of sociology 
 has by no means got so far as this. It cannot show us 
 even that twins will be marked by the same spiritual 
 characteristics, or will be alike in mind, because subject 
 to " the same aggregate of conditions " in their origin. 
 I quite admit that the conceptions by which any 
 historical personality becomes conscious of the facts of 
 its own times, are those in which the thought of the 
 age in general finds expression. But it is quite 
 another thing to say that in the antecedents and 
 environment of such a personality we have a complete 
 explanation of it. Is it possible, if we weigh the 
 matter well, to refer "the vision and the faculty 
 divine " of a great poet to merely external causes ? or 
 to account for it by talking of inherited predispositions, 
 when, from the millions of past generations, there arises 
 one Virgil, one Dante, one Goethe ? Take, again, 
 that great stream of enthusiasm which, ever and anon, 
 we see welling up from a single man, and bearing, 
 irresistibly, before it whole generations until its force
 
 Carlyle's Doctrine 39 
 
 is spent. Can we believe that it arose, as from its 
 fountain-head, from any "aggregate of conditions," 
 and was logically and mathematically deducible from 
 a state of society which, instead of continuing, it 
 ended ? 
 
 TEMPERLEY. I remember a passage of your friend 
 Carlyle which may be worth quoting, perhaps. " The 
 great man was the ' creature of the Time/ they say : 
 the Time called him forth : the Time did everything : 
 he nothing, but what we, the little critic, could have 
 done too ! This seems to me but melancholy work. 
 The Time call forth ? Alas, we have known Times 
 call loudly enough for their great man ; but not find 
 him when they called ! He was not there. Providence 
 had not sent him : the Time calling its loudest had to 
 go down to confusion and wreck, because he would 
 not come when called." 
 
 LUXMOORE. Carlyle never said anything better : 
 and he said many things excellently well. For my 
 part to sum up my argument I hold that there are 
 in man "abysmal depths of personality," which no 
 plummet of physical science has ever sounded, or ever 
 will sound : that it is the perception of the ideal and 
 the power to express it, rooted in the very essence of 
 our nature, which makes us self-conscious and self- 
 determined : and that great men are the source and 
 fount of ideas, the figures which alone give historic 
 meaning and value to the ciphers " numeri, fruges 
 consumere nati " as which we must account the vast 
 majority of mankind. Those mighty spirits who rule 
 us from their urns were, indeed, as other men, subject
 
 40 What can History teach us ? 
 
 to the laws of time and matter : but not wholly subject : 
 their thought, their energy, their action, their suffering, 
 have wrought wonders beyond time and matter, and 
 the effects of mechanical force, how subtle soever ; and 
 their lives, taken simply as evidence, might furnish 
 foundations for grander spiritual philosophies tran- 
 scending, not denying, the truths of the physical 
 universe than the world has yet dared to formulate. 
 But that is too large a subject. 
 
 GRIMSTON. Let us go back to Mr. Spencer, please. 
 He writes : " If, not stopping at the explanation of 
 social problems, as due to the great man, we go a step 
 further, and ask, Whence comes the great man ? the 
 question has two conceivable answers : his origin is 
 supernatural, or it is natural. Is his origin super- 
 natural ? then he is a demigod : and we have theocracy 
 once removed, or rather not removed at all." 
 
 LUXMOORE. Well, what is the harm of that ? 
 Why should we not have theocracy if we can get it ? 
 The word "demigod" is out of fashion. I have no wish 
 to bring it back. Still, it might serve, for want of a 
 better, to characterize one who is marked off from his 
 fellows of the race of men by what Cicero terms 
 " magna et divina bona : " great and divine endow- 
 ments : which are distinct from temperament, from 
 environment, from evolution, from heredity : which you 
 cannot tie up in a formula nor explain by analysis : 
 and as the highest and rarest of which we must reckon 
 a true, an original thought, well denominated by 
 Krause Schauen vision. But vision of what ? Of 
 Him who is the Truth, of whom all truth is part.
 
 The Reproach of Supernaturalism 41 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Mr. Spencer is right then. And you 
 land us in full supernaturalism. 
 
 LUXMOORE. The words "Natural" and "Supernatu- 
 ral " have an invariable meaning in scientific theology, 
 where they are employed to distinguish the " Order 
 of Nature " from the " Order of Grace," and are anti- 
 thetical, though not incompatible in the same act or 
 faculty. Modern literature and metaphysics, over- 
 looking or not knowing this distinction, identify the 
 Natural, now with the Material, and now with the 
 Orderly. From which it follows that the Supernatural 
 sometimes signifies no more than the Hyperphysical, 
 and sometimes, as I suspect in the passage which our 
 friend has quoted from Mr. Spencer, no less than the 
 Irrational. Its meaning should never be taken on 
 trust. If by "Natural" Mr. Spencer means subject 
 simply to the laws of matter, and resulting merely 
 from material antecedents, then I deny that the origin 
 of the great man is natural, for the origin of no man 
 is : " Est Deus in nobis ; agitante calescimus illo." 
 "We also are His offspring." But if by "Natural" 
 he means what Butler wrongly, as I think accounts 
 its only meaning, namely, "stated, fixed, or settled," 
 then, since the great man appears according to a fixed 
 plan of Divine Providence, his origin may, in this 
 sense, be deemed natural. All is upon this supposi- 
 tion natural, if history, notwithstanding the abounding 
 sin of man, which is to me one of the most palpable 
 facts in it, be a drama, wherein all the movement is 
 done in fulfilment of the will of the Highest : Aco? 8' 
 ereXetero fiovXij. All is supernatural if, by a perversion
 
 42 What can History teach us ? 
 
 of terms, the presence and action of the Creator in His 
 creation be called supernatural. " Of Him, and through 
 Him, and to Him are all things," and in all things is 
 He revealed : in the external world by the beauty 
 which is the dim adumbration of His perfect loveli- 
 ness ; in the heart of man by the voice of conscience, 
 His perpetual witness and indefeasible priest ; in 
 history by those great souls who from time to time 
 light up the world's dreary and ignoble fasti, and 
 whom our forefathers by a true instinct let us not 
 hesitate to say it called Divine men. 
 
 GRIMSTON. Your doctrine seems to have much in 
 common with Bunsen's : that personality, which he 
 regards as divine self-manifestation, is "the lever of 
 the world's history." Well, Christian Charles Josiah 
 von Bunsen was a good man. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Don't call him "a good man." He 
 was better than that. Whatever we may think of his 
 philosophy of history, we must allow that his was a 
 singularly comprehensive and well-disciplined intellect, 
 loyally devoted to the service of truth. His breadth 
 of thought stands out conspicuously if you compare 
 him with the two writers of whom we have just been 
 talking Carlyle and Herbert Spencer. 
 
 GRIMSTON. Carlyle and Herbert Spencer ! You 
 remind me of a good story, which has not yet found 
 its way into print, I think. A man who numbered 
 among his acquaintance those two eminent persons 
 was anxious that his son, an undergraduate at Oxford, 
 should be introduced to them. So one day he took 
 the youth to call on Mr. Spencer, and as they were
 
 "Two Eminent Men" 43 
 
 departing he said, " We are going on to see Mr. 
 Carlyle." "Ah, Mr. Carlyle!" Mr. Spencer is 
 reported to have replied : " I am afraid he has done 
 more to propagate error than any other writer of the 
 age." Nothing daunted, they made their pilgrimage 
 to Chelsea, and when their interview with the sage of 
 Cheyne Row came to an end, the father observed : 
 " This will be a day for my boy to look back upon, 
 Mr. Carlyle ; for in it he has been introduced to two 
 eminent men yourself and Mr. Herbert Spencer." 
 " Herbert Spencer, Herbert Spencer ! an im-mea-sur- 
 able ass ! " was the response of the oracle. 
 
 LUXMOORE. " Immeasurable ! " Carlyle had a 
 curiosa felicitas in his epithets. Still, he might have 
 learnt a great deal from Mr. Spencer. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. But not about his great-man theory, 
 you think ? 
 
 LUXMOORE. No ; that theory seems to me to be 
 defective : but to complete it Carlyle should have 
 gone to quite another school than Mr. Spencer's. 
 It is true as to its foundation, but it wants to be 
 moralized. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. How "moralized" ? Carlyle certainly 
 had an intensely strong feeling of ethical law. He 
 conceived of God, so far as I can understand, as the 
 personification of that law. 
 
 LUXMOORE. That is so. But his doctrine of great 
 men I think defective, in that it fails to inculcate this 
 verity that they are authoritative teachers only so 
 far as they follow the divine illumination in them : in 
 other words, so far as they are ethical : so far as they
 
 44 What can History teach us ? 
 
 correspond with the truth of things : so far and no 
 further. You know the saying of Butler : "If con- 
 science had power as it has authority, it would govern 
 the world." It is the supreme authority for it is 
 divine which ought to govern, and which, in effect, 
 does in the long run govern. Great men interpret 
 the law of the universe, which is the law of God and 
 therefore the perfection of ethics, more clearly than 
 others, because they discern it, in one province or 
 another, by the intuition of genius, which is inspira- 
 y tion. All truth is part of God : all knowledge is 
 knowledge of God : and He alone is the light which 
 illumines our minds. A man is great so far as he 
 walks in that light. Hence you may truly call a great 
 man the Categorical Imperative individualized. 
 
 GRIMSTON. Most edifying : although, perhaps, 
 merely a copy-book maxim in fine words. But is it 
 true ? Do you call Goethe the Categorical Imperative 
 individualized ? 
 
 LUXMOORE. You could not have chosen a better 
 example to illustrate my meaning. Goethe's great 
 endowment was his marvellous vision in certain intel- 
 lectual provinces, and his absolute veracity. He sees 
 things as they are, and he paints them as they are. 
 Carlyle well says, " The word that will describe the 
 thing follows of itself from such clear, intense insight 
 of the thing." He had, in a supreme degree, the 
 morality of the intellect. And his power lies there. 
 Outside that sphere who looks up to him as a teacher ? 
 You ask a great man, " What do you see ? " And he 
 tells you. He may say as the Greatest said " I
 
 Kant's Signpost 45 
 
 bear testimony of myself, and my testimony is true." 
 It is of no use to consult him about matters which he 
 does not see. You would not go to St. John Baptist 
 for a theory of Bildung, or to Goethe for the doctrine 
 of sexual purity. 
 
 TEMPERLEY. Your general conclusion, then for I 
 must go would seem to be a kind of union of ideal- 
 istic optimism and realistic pessimism. You too have 
 your Utopia : and the way to it for the race, as for 
 the individual, you declare to be the way of Virtue. 
 Kant's Categorical Imperative, on which you insist 
 so much, may, I take it, be considered as a rough 
 wooden signpost announcing so much to a belated 
 twentieth century To Eldorado. And shrivelled-up, 
 staring-eyed old Kant is the last of the Prophets ! 
 I always think of him as a kind of ghost with a cold 
 in his head. 
 
 LUXMOORE. That is your light way of putting 
 it. But it is true. "Adveniat regnum tuum," the 
 Great Master has taught us to say : " Thy kingdom 
 come." The first law of that interior kingdom is 
 righteousness. And the great lesson deducible from 
 history seems to me to enforce it : " Discite justitiam 
 moniti." 
 
 GRIMSTON. It will be much if that law will stand 
 in the breaking up of religious beliefs and "uni- 
 versal exodus from Houndsditch" what a grand 
 phrase ! which is just now taking place. But will 
 it ? I am afraid, my dear Luxmoore, that you will 
 be "vox clamantis in deserto" like your St. John 
 Baptist.
 
 46 What can History teach us ? 
 
 TEMPERLEY. But happily with this difference : that 
 our milder-mannered Herods and Herodiases won't 
 cut off your head. The extremest penalty with which 
 they will visit you will be not to buy your book. 
 " Absit omen ! "
 
 Christianity and Modern 
 Civilization 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE NASCENT CHURCH 
 
 I 
 
 I PROPOSE, in this volume, to consider some of the 
 relations between Christianity and Modern Civilization. 
 I shall begin by stating, as precisely as I can, what 
 I understand by the words " Modern Civilization." By 
 " modern " I mean conterminous with the Christian 
 era. I mean by "civilization" that ordered social state 
 which rests upon the exercise of the faculty proper to 
 man, and which is man's natural state. For man is 
 what Aristotle called him two thousand years ago, " a 
 political animal." He is found only in civil society. 
 The extra-social man of Rousseau's speculations is 
 fabulous. Such a being to quote Aristotle again 
 would be either a wild beast or a god. The phrase 
 " civilized man " is just as much a pleonasm as the 
 phrase " free will." The endowment of will implies 
 some amount of freedom, however limited and con- 
 ditioned. And man, as we know him in the present, 
 
 47
 
 48 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 and as history reveals him in the past, is found only 
 in civil society, which implies some degree a very 
 low degree, it may be of civilization. Man is a 
 gregarious animal. In living in community we merely 
 obey a law of our being, just as bees and ants do. 
 Human society is marked off from the societies of 
 bees and ants by this that it always is, and must be, 
 civilized, and that they never are or can be. 
 
 That is the impassable gulf between aggregations 
 of human and of other animals. What is the cause 
 of it ? The cause resides in the essential difference 
 between man and other animals. Which difference 
 I hold to be that while other animals possess, in 
 common with us, sensuous experience, and a power of 
 associating that experience by an exercise of memory 
 and of expectant imagination, they do not attain to 
 intellection, and are still further removed from the 
 apprehension of general concepts, abstract ideas, uni- 
 versals, which is the special characteristic of reason 
 and the distinctive attribute of man. Man, and man 
 alone, is animal rationale? Here, risking the reproach 
 of dogmatism, I must confine myself to stating what 
 I hold on this subject. But I may be permitted to 
 refer any of my readers desirous to know the grounds 
 upon which I hold it, to the Second Chapter of my 
 First Principles in Politics. My point is that, as a 
 matter of fact, the lower animals live under the law of 
 instinct only, and exhibit no capacity for a higher law ; 
 
 1 " Is." Whether our race has always exercised the faculty of reason 
 is a large question, which I do not here discuss. Kant thought not. He 
 was of opinion that " man was not always animal rationale, but was once 
 merely animal rationabile, possessing the germ whence reason developed."
 
 i.] What Civilization means 49 
 
 while men live not only under the law of instinct, but 
 also under the law of reason, which means civilization. 
 It is on rational thought, represented by verbal 
 language, that civilization rests. 
 
 And therefore, as it appears to me, there are no 
 human communities, however simple their polity, 
 however rude their industrial arts, however inchoate 
 their ethics, which can properly be described as un- 
 civilized. 
 
 There are, of course, almost endless types of civili- 
 zation. In this volume I am concerned with only one 
 type : with that order of society which arose as the 
 Christian Church developed, and captured the Roman 
 Empire, and drew into her fold the new nationali- 
 ties ; that Modern Civilization which has expanded 
 during well-nigh two thousand years, and into which we 
 have been born. To say that this civilization has been 
 made and moulded by Christianity would be to say 
 too much. But, unquestionably, its relations with 
 Christianity have been very close and very momentous. 
 In the following Seven Chapters I shall endeavour to 
 exhibit some of the most noteworthy of them. 
 
 In the First Chapter of this work I shall inquire 
 what Christianity was in its earliest epoch Nascent 
 Christianity, we may call it when the world knew it, 
 and despised it, as a petty Jewish sect : an epoch 
 which we may take to close with the Fall of Jerusalem 
 in the year 70. In the Second, I shall trace its 
 growth through the Age of the Martyrs, till we find it 
 revealed to the world, at the Council of Nica^a, in the 
 year 325, as an organized polity, a spiritual kingdom, 
 
 E
 
 50 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 conterminous with the Roman Empire. In the Third 
 Chapter we will glance at the revolution wrought by 
 it, both on the individual man and on society that 
 transformation by the renewing of the mind, of which 
 one of its earliest teachers speaks. The Fourth will 
 be devoted to its remodelling of the European order 
 by the formation of Christendom a process culmi- 
 nating in the great struggle against principalities and 
 powers for the freedom of the Church, which fills 
 the Pontificate of the Seventh Gregory, and which is, 
 assuredly, a Turning-point in European history. The 
 Fifth Chapter will exhibit its life-philosophy when it 
 reigned, unquestioned, over the general mind in what 
 is termed the Age of Faith. The Sixth will deal 
 with the penal procedure employed by it to protect 
 the Faith, when it had obtained the power of the civil 
 sword. In the Seventh Chapter I shall speak of its 
 work for the family which it may be said to have 
 re-created, as it re-created the individual. 
 
 II 
 
 First, then, what was Christianity in its earliest 
 epoch the period of the Nascent Church ? In this 
 epoch we may distinguish three successive phases : 
 the first is confined to the three years of its Divine 
 Founder's preaching and teaching ; the second extends 
 from the Crucifixion to the year 43, when the disciples 
 of Christ were first distinguished from their fellow-
 
 i.] Three Phases 51 
 
 Jews by the name of Christian ; the third is marked 
 by what is sometimes called " the Pauline trans- 
 formation" of the new religion from a Jewish sect 
 into an autonomous Church, and may, with sufficient 
 accuracy for our present purpose, be regarded as 
 beginning in 43 and ending in 70, when, with the Fall 
 of Jerusalem, most Judaic fetters fell away from the 
 Christian community. We will, in this Chapter, glance 
 at each of these successive phases. 
 
 Now, whatever view we may take as to the date, 
 authorship, or authority of the documents which make 
 up the New Testament a question upon which I 
 shall have to touch presently it is incontestable that 
 nineteen hundred years ago a Teacher lived among 
 the green hills and clear streams of Galilee, and 
 gathered around Him a little band of disciples, for 
 the most part humble and unlettered men, who gained 
 their bread by daily toil : that His life of poverty, 
 humility, and detachment from family ties, was spent 
 in inculcating religious and ethical doctrine, and was 
 crowned by an ignominious death : that His influence 
 did not die with Him ; nay, that it was vastly enhanced 
 after His departure from the scene of His ministry, 
 so that, according to His own word, His followers did 
 greater works than himself; works which are not 
 bygone, but are with us, fruitfully operant unto this 
 day. What, then, was His teaching ? 
 
 There are three sources of evidence, differing in 
 value, according to their acknowledged nearness to the 
 time of Christ's ministry. These are the Church, the 
 Gospels, the Epistles. What is their relative worth ?
 
 52 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 The Church, represented by Justin Martyr, Irenseus, 
 Tertullian, Hippolytus, and in some degree by Origen 
 and Clement of Alexandria, gives us the view of His 
 doctrine which was accepted by the great body of His 
 followers about the year 200. The Gospels, even if 
 we take our stand with the most extreme criticism, 
 show what was held between the years 150 and 100. 
 But the letters of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, 
 Galatians, Romans, and Corinthians, the First Epistle 
 of St. Peter, the Epistle of St. James, and the 
 Apocalypse all authentic beyond reasonable doubt 
 enable us to get back within a short generation from 
 Christ's death : certainly as far back as the year 60. 
 As much must be said of the Acts of the Apostles, so 
 far as they are contemporary with St. Paul. Again : 
 it cannot be doubted that not only the Xdyta, but the 
 main incidents of the Divine Life, were, at the earliest 
 date, embodied in fixed oral traditions, or catecheses* 
 with which our present Gospels stand in the closest 
 connection ; so that we are not reduced to the study of 
 such fragmentary documents as are left when criticism 
 has done its worst upon the Gospels. We are still in 
 possession of St. Paul's unquestioned writings ; we 
 still have the Apocalypse, the First Epistle of St. 
 Peter, and the Epistle of St. James. Out of these, 
 and even out of the two Epistles last mentioned, it is 
 easy to construct a doctrine which the Gospels only 
 enlarge, and do not in any degree modify. St. Paul 
 is not, indeed, a direct witness for Christ, and, as I 
 shall shortly have occasion to remark, he remained a 
 Jewish Rabbi, even when he was commenting on the
 
 i.] The First Note of Christ's Teaching 53 
 
 Sermon on the Mount ; nevertheless, we can trace in 
 him the Christian teaching, though dealt with in a 
 subtle spirit, and from an axiomatic mysticism become 
 a theology. Thus we may view the Gospel at a 
 distance of twenty years, instead of a hundred or a 
 hundred and fifty, from the events which it relates. 
 This has been completely forgotten by modern critics. 
 It follows, of course, that when we have gained such a 
 near standpoint, we can argue not only for the Gospel, 
 but the Gospels ; since their incomparable freshness 
 and fulness are strong evidence that what they incor- 
 porate is not a somewhat worn tradition, but the very 
 speech of Christ upon the lips of His first disciples. 
 
 Now, the three sources of evidence at which we 
 have just glanced, agree as to the main lines of Christ's 
 teaching. There can be no doubt at all about its 
 essential character. Thus it is clear that the Father- 
 hood of God not the God merely of the Hebrews, 
 but of all the families of the earth, unto whom all 
 live was the first and dominant thought that breathed 
 through His discourses. This doctrine, indeed, of 
 the filial relationship of man to God, of the affinity of 
 the better side of human nature with the Divine, was 
 the fount from which His moral and religious pre- 
 cepts flowed. Injuries are to be forgiven. Why ? 
 Because, " if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither 
 will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses." 
 Enemies are to be loved ; those who curse are to be 
 blessed ; those who hate, to be benefited ; those who 
 persecute, to be prayed for. Why ? " That ye may 
 be the children of your Father which is in heaven,
 
 54 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 for He maketh His sun to shine on the evil and on 
 the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the 
 unjust." Perfection is to be aimed at. Why ? Because 
 " your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Solicitude 
 about the necessities of life is condemned. Why ? 
 Because " your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have 
 need of all these things. He feedeth the fowls of the 
 air ; are ye not much better than they ? He arrayeth 
 the lilies of the field, as Solomon in all his glory was 
 not arrayed; shall He not much more clothe you?" 
 Continuance in prayer is enjoined. Why ? Because 
 "if ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto 
 your children, how much more shall your Father 
 which is in heaven give good things to them that 
 ask Him ?" Purity of intention is prescribed. Why ? 
 Because "your Father seeth in secret." This is the 
 first great note of the teaching of Jesus Christ. The 
 ethical precepts delivered by Him contain little or 
 nothing that was novel in the world, or to which the 
 unassisted reason of mankind might not attain. It 
 has been said, and I believe truly, that there is not 
 one of them which might not be paralleled from the 
 maxims of the earlier Rabbis. But what is new in 
 the Evangelical teaching is the sanction on which it 
 rests those precepts, the supernatural motive which it 
 imparts for right action. I do not, of course, mean 
 that the conception of the Fatherhood of God was 
 new. 1 What I mean is, that it was presented by 
 
 1 But the term "Father" is seldom applied to God in the Old 
 Testament. St. Augustine observes, " Nusquam invenitur preceptum 
 populo Israel ut diceret Pater noster, aut ut oraret Patrem Deum." 
 De Serm. Dom. in Man., ii. 4.
 
 i.] The Second Note of Christ's Teaching 55 
 
 Jesus Christ in, if I may so speak, a new light, and 
 from a mere abstract doctrine was changed into a 
 living and life-giving principle of conduct. 
 
 For the second great note of the teaching of Christ 
 is no less clear and unmistakable than the first. He 
 exhibited the Divine Paternity as a vital reality, and 
 the first of realities. He exhibited himself as the 
 Way to God, by virtue of a Divine Sonship and the 
 indwelling in himself of the Divinity ; * as the 
 Deliverer of men from the tyranny of that lower self, 
 whereby they were held back from the Divine Father 
 who had sent Him. The claims which He made for 
 himself not only transcend in degree those of any 
 other prophet, of any other founder of a religion, but 
 are different in kind. And unquestionably those 
 claims were both the grounds of His condemnation 
 and execution, and the cause of the marvellous 
 triumphs of His Faith. Here we are in the region, 
 not of conjecture, but of fact. What was it which, 
 so to speak, made the Christian Church ? It was 
 assuredly no system or theory, most assuredly no 
 exhibition of thaumaturgic power, which attracted men 
 to Jesus Christ, but the irresistible influence of soul 
 
 1 M. Renan has pointed out, truly enough, that the popular mind 
 in Judaea was prepared for such a declaration, and was not likely to 
 be shocked by it. " La croyance que certains hommes sont des incar- 
 nations de faculte"s ou de puissances divines, e"tait re"pandue ; les 
 Samaritains posse"daient vers le meme temps un thaumaturge nomme" 
 Simon qu'on identifait avec la grande vertu de Dieu. Depuis pres de 
 deux siecles les esprits speculatifs du judaisme se laisaient aller au 
 penchant de faire des personnes distinctes avec les attributs divins ou 
 avec certaines expressions qu'on rapportait a la diviniteV' Vie de Jisus, 
 p. 248.
 
 56 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 upon soul. And to those who forsook all, and took 
 up their cross, and followed Him such renunciation, 
 such self-devotion, He warned them, were the very 
 conditions of His discipleship He exhibited no set 
 of doctrines, no code of laws, but himself, as being, 
 in very deed, that Truth which is the supreme desire 
 of the soul. Daily to converse with the Master, ever 
 to ponder His words and His deeds, gradually to 
 drink into His mind, to wean the heart from all 
 earthly affection, even the tenderest and the purest, 
 until it could be said, " I live, and yet not I, but 
 Christ liveth in me" this was the spiritual dis- 
 cipline undergone by His scholars in the desert, or on 
 the mountain, or by the lake. And when the Cross 
 had taught the supreme lesson of sacrifice, of humilia- 
 tion, of self- con sum ing charity, and the disciples went 
 everywhere preaching the word, the lesson which 
 they taught was precisely that which they had learnt. 
 "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the 
 Lord," is the testimony of one of them : and it is 
 applicable to all. The Gospel which, as St. Paul 
 reminds the Corinthians, he delivered to them, which 
 they also received, and wherein they stood, and by 
 which they were saved, was no catalogue of dogmas, 
 but the manifestation of a Person, in whom the eter- 
 nally ideal had become the historically real, and who 
 claimed for himself the heart of man, to reign there 
 as in His proper throne. 1 
 
 1 " Dilectus tuus talis est naturae ut alienum non velit admittere, 
 sed solus vult cor tuum habere, et tanquam rex in proprio throno 
 sedere." De Imitatione Christt, 1. ii. c. 7.
 
 i.] The Second Phase 57 
 
 III. 
 
 Such was Primitive Christianity in its earliest 
 phase, when its Divine Founder taught and preached. 
 Let us now go on to glance at it in what we may 
 account its second phase, the period extending from 
 the Crucifixion to the year 43, when the new religious 
 community received the name of Christians a period 
 especially associated with the city of Jerusalem, the 
 cradle of the infant and still innominate Church. For 
 a knowledge of it we are entirely dependent upon 
 the first eleven chapters of the book known as the 
 Acts of the Apostles a work by no means fulfilling 
 the promise of that title, for which its author is not 
 responsible. Of the lives, labours, and deaths of 
 most of the Apostles, it tells us hardly anything. 
 Even of St. Paul, to whom more than half of it is 
 devoted, its account, though of incomparable value, 
 is incomplete. But assuredly any reader who has 
 eyes to see, will find in it a singularly vivid picture 
 of the disciples in the second phase of the Nascent 
 Church if Church we may call them. They were, 
 rather, a Jewish sect, practising all the requirements 
 of the Jewish Law, and nourishing their religious 
 life from the Jewish Sacred Books. Their attitude 
 towards the Jewish Church was singularly like the 
 attitude towards the Church of England of "the 
 people called Methodists " during the life especially 
 the earlier portion of the life of John Wesley. They 
 by no means dissented from it. On the contrary, they
 
 58 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 gladly used its ministrations, merely adding thereto 
 certain peculiar religious observances of their own. 
 They were Jews in their worship, Jews in their 
 beliefs. All their distinctive rites were of Jewish 
 origin. Baptism was an ordinary Hebrew ceremony 
 of the initiation of proselytes. The laying on of hands 
 was a Hebrew mode of dedication to an office. The 
 Eucharist, " breaking of bread " they called it, which 
 wore the aspect of a social meal the Agape or Love 
 Feast not having as yet been separated from " the 
 mystery of faith" unquestionably sprang from the 
 Hebrew Passover. The Messianic doctrine, which 
 was their distinctive tenet, was an expression of a 
 Hebrew idea. There is no trace of metaphysics in 
 those small and scanty rudiments, that embryonic 
 beginning, of a Church. "The community rested 
 on the belief," Pfleiderer correctly observes, "in the 
 miracle of the Resurrection of Jesus . . . and on the 
 hope of the miracle of His speedy return to judge 
 the world." The hope, or rather the confident expec- 
 tation. And here lay the secret of their detachment, 
 their self-denial. The familiar and beautiful lines of 
 a poet of our own day admirably express their attitude 
 of mind 
 
 " Poor is our sacrifice, whose souls 
 
 Are lighted from above ; 
 We offer what we cannot keep, 
 What we have ceased to love." 
 
 Hence it was that "as many as were possessors 
 of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices 
 of the things that were sold, and laid them down at
 
 i.] Christian Socialism 59 
 
 the Apostles' feet ; and distribution was made unto 
 every man according as he had need : neither said any 
 of them that ought of the things which he possessed 
 was his own, but they had all things common." It 
 was the translation into fact of the maxim, " De chacun 
 selon son habilite ; a chacun selon ses besoins." But 
 it was the Socialism, not of selfishness, but of self- 
 sacrifice. Though in the world, they were not of 
 the world. Their lives were led in a supernatural 
 element. Visions and revelations of the Lord were 
 habitual to them, and supplied the guidance for the 
 regulation of the community and of individual life. 
 They dwelt in dreamland, those first Saints and 
 Martyrs of the new faith. 
 
 Thus did they lead, in the world, that life angelical 
 which later ages sought in the cloister, meeting day 
 after day, in Solomon's Porch, for religious meditation 
 and musing, and drawing to themselves pious souls 
 to quote the saying concerning St. Philip Neri "as 
 the magnet draws iron." Conspicuous among those 
 who were added to them were St. Barnabas, St. Mark, 
 St. Philip the Deacon, all three destined to serve 
 the new religion effectively as zealous preachers and 
 indefatigable missioners; and St. Stephen, destined 
 to serve it more effectively in the conversion of that 
 "soul of fire" who has been called, by a too bold 
 hyperbole, its second founder. They lived under 
 the guidance of the Twelve, among whom, as Renan l 
 
 1 "Pierre avail parmi les apotres une certaine primaute'" (Les 
 Apotres, p. 90). " Pierre . . . avait dans les affaires ge'ne'rales le plus 
 d'autorite" " (ibid., p. 279).
 
 60 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 points out, " St. Peter had a certain primacy and most 
 authority in general affairs ; " but the ethos of the 
 community was so to speak democratic. It is 
 notable that in the election to the Apostolic College 
 to fill the vacancy caused by the apostasy of Judas, 
 all the disciples took part. In some respects, indeed, 
 they resembled a modern friendly society more than 
 a modern Church. And it was the difficulty arising 
 from the administration of their funds that led to 
 an event the importance of which they could not 
 possibly have divined : the institution of deacons, 
 the first step, as it proved, in the constitution of 
 the ecclesiastical hierarchy still in the womb of the 
 future. 
 
 But the importance of the creation of the diaconate 
 does not lie only in this. It is notable as the outcome 
 of the first dissension in the Nascent Church : of a 
 " rift within the lute " which was to widen swiftly, 
 and well-nigh to make mute the music of the celestial 
 song, " Pax hominibus bonse voluntatis." The dis- 
 ciples were composed of two different classes of Jews. 
 There were Jews of Palestine " Hebrews " they are 
 called in the Acts of the Apostles whose language 
 was Aramaic, and there were the " Grecians," as the 
 same document terms them, Hellenized Jews who 
 spoke, as a rule with no great purity, the tongue 
 of Hellas, and who came chiefly from Syria, Asia 
 Minor, Egypt, and the parts of Libya about Cyrene. 
 It was the complaint of these latter that their widows 
 were neglected in the daily ministration, which led 
 the Apostles to suggest the choosing by universal
 
 i.] Hebrews and Grecians 61 
 
 suffrage of " seven men of honest report, full of the 
 Holy Ghost and wisdom," to attend to that business 
 a suggestion which pleased the multitude, and which, 
 when carried out, stilled for a time the incipient strife. 
 But for a time only. The opposition between the 
 ethos of the "Hebrews" and the ''Grecians" was 
 soon to break out again concerning a much graver 
 matter than the daily ministration. Here it may be 
 noted that all the seven deacons would appear from 
 their names to have been Hellenistic Jews, and that 
 the foremost of them, St. Stephen, undoubtedly struck 
 the note of opposition to the Mosaic Law which, in 
 the mouth of St. Paul, was to become a trumpet-blast, 
 potent to cast down the walls of that spiritual Jericho. 
 The accusation against him was that he ceased not 
 to speak against the temple and the Law. And 
 although the witnesses who supported it are charac- 
 terized as " false," his own declaration, in his discourse 
 before the Sanhedrim, that "the Most High dwelleth 
 not in temples made with hands," was a hardy defiance 
 of masterful Hebrew prejudice, and an assertion of 
 a universal truth irreconcilable with Jewish particu- 
 larism. The devout men who carried him to his 
 burial, and made great lamentation over him, little 
 dreamed that his death rendered far nobler service 
 to their cause than could possibly have been rendered 
 by his life, however full of successful activity, and 
 however prolonged. 
 
 For, as we all know, the sequel of the martyrdom 
 of St. Stephen was the conversion of the young man 
 whose name was Saul, at whose feet the witnesses of
 
 62 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 that act of savage fanaticism laid down their clothes, 
 and who was consenting unto his death. It is an event 
 of capital importance in the history of Christianity. 
 For speaking ex humano die and it is solely from 
 that point of view that I am writing here St. Paul 
 it was who transformed the new faith from a Jewish 
 sect into a universal religion, who sent it upon its 
 career of ecumenical conquest, and who furnished it 
 with the weapons wherewith its victory was won. 
 The merely secular historian may, perhaps, be well 
 warranted in saying, "If Christianity had remained 
 in the hands of those good men at Jerusalem, shut 
 up in a conventicle of illuminati, leading a community 
 life, it would have gone out like the Essenes, and 
 have left no trace behind." 
 
 It is worth while to dwell a little upon St. Paul's 
 singular qualifications for his destined task. Sprung 
 from Hebrew parents at Tarsus, a Greek city of 
 Cilicia, he possessed Roman citizenship in virtue of 
 the place of his nativity. A Jew by religion, a Greek 
 Roman by birth, he stood on the confines of two 
 worlds, speaking the language and quoting from the 
 literature of both, but especially versed in the Rab- 
 binical lore which he had learnt at the feet of Gamaliel. 
 As for his spiritual character, it is summed up in the 
 words which I have already applied to him : he was, 
 verily and indeed, " a soul of fire." And the circum- 
 stances of his conversion from a persecutor to a 
 preacher of the new faith, were such as to inflame 
 him to the highest degree. In his mystic transports, 
 his missionary labours, his militant ardour, he reminds
 
 i.] St. Paul's Destined Task 63 
 
 us now of St. Theresa, now of St. Francis Xavier, 
 now of St. Dominic. All that was greatest in those 
 great souls was in him, in far ampler measure. Like 
 his brethren in the faith, he lived in an atmosphere 
 of apparitions and inspirations. And the abundance 
 of the revelations with which he was favoured kept 
 him in a perpetual state of spiritual exaltation. Nor 
 was the fact that he had not known the Divine 
 Founder of Christianity "after the flesh," by any 
 means a disqualification for the work, which, little as 
 he knew it, was before him, as the founder of Chris- 
 tian dogmatic theology. For the Being whom his 
 eyes were opened to see on the road to Damascus 
 was not merely "the Man Christ Jesus," in whom 
 Messianic prophecies had their fulfilment, and with 
 whom the Twelve had walked and talked, and eaten 
 and drunk, but "the Lord from heaven," risen and 
 glorified, the Object as well as the Author of Faith, 
 the archetypal spiritual Man, in whom all shall be 
 made alive, even as in the first man, of the earth, 
 earthy, all died : at whose Name " every knee shall 
 bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
 things under the earth ; and every tongue shall 
 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of 
 God the Father." 
 
 I shall have to touch again on this topic. Here 
 let me say a few words in passing upon the sources 
 of our knowledge of St. Paul and his work. They 
 are three : the fragment of his biography in the Acts 
 of the Apostles ; such of his letters as remain to us ; and 
 ecclesiastical tradition. The precise date at which
 
 64 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 the book known as the Acts of the Apostles was 
 written, is a question of extreme difficulty. It breaks 
 off abruptly with a picture of St. Paul at Rome, 
 dwelling in his own hired house for two years, and 
 there receiving all who came to him. It says no 
 word of his martyrdom an omission which may well 
 seem inexplicable, and which, in my judgment, has 
 certainly received no satisfactory explanation, if the 
 book was written subsequently to that event. It 
 takes us up to the year 63, and there it leaves us. 
 The natural inference clearly is and until the rise 
 of the higher criticism this inference was universally 
 drawn that it was written in the year 63, or at all 
 events before the year 66, if indeed that was the year 
 when St. Paul sealed his testimony with his blood. 
 On the other hand, there is no reasonable ground for 
 doubting that the Acts of the Apostles and the Third 
 Gospel proceeded from the same pen, and that the 
 Third Gospel was written first : " The former treatise 
 have I made, O Theophilus." But hitherto the chief 
 doctors of the higher criticism have referred that 
 Gospel, as well as the Gospels bearing the names 
 of St. Matthew and St. Mark, to the second century, 
 or, at the earliest, to the end of the first and with 
 it, of course, the Acts of the Apostles. This view, 
 however, appears to be dissolving. An earlier date 
 is now very generally allowed for all the synoptic 
 Gospels. And Harnack, in his monumental work, The 
 Chronology of Early Christian Literature, expresses 
 the opinion that the Acts of the Apostles was written 
 before the Fall of Jerusalem in the year 70. " Beyond
 
 i.] Sources for St. Paul's History 65 
 
 that," he thinks, "we cannot go one single step." 
 Who knows ? At all events, from the year 70 to the 
 year 63 is not a very long step. And no one who 
 has watched the divagations of the higher criticism for 
 the last half-century or more, would be very much 
 surprised, I suppose, should it end if, indeed, it ever 
 does end in allowing the old traditional view of the 
 date of the Acts of the Apostles. Of course this would 
 imply an earlier date than that generally admitted 
 for " the former treatise," at all events in its original 
 shape, which is not necessarily its present shape. 
 
 But, however this may be, no one as it appears 
 to me can reasonably doubt that in the latter portion 
 of the Acts of the Apostles, which chronicles the doings 
 of St. Paul, we have a historical document of the 
 highest possible value : the direct testimony of a 
 candid, cautious, and clear-headed eye-witness to the 
 events which he describes. So much as to our first 
 source of information concerning St. Paul. Our second 
 is to be found in such of his letters certainly a small 
 proportion of what he wrote as have come down to 
 us. Not until early in the second century was any 
 collection of them made. It is certain that the temper 
 of those times was absolutely uncritical. The best 
 minds had neither ability nor inclination for an ana- 
 lytical examination into the authenticity and genuine- 
 ness of a document purporting to be of Apostolic 
 authorship. If what it contained appeared a whole- 
 some doctrine and necessary for the times, that was 
 enough. Feeling, not judgment, decided in favour 
 of it. The present canon of the New Testament 
 
 v
 
 66 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 contains fourteen letters attributed to St. Paul. The 
 higher criticism, speaking through the mouth of Baur, 
 in the first flush of its too facile triumphs, would admit 
 only four of them as genuine : the one to the Gala- 
 tians, the two to the Corinthians, and the one to the 
 Romans. But this view gradually fell into discredit. 
 And now the reaction against it, and against that 
 curious amalgam of doubt and dogmatism which cha- 
 racterized the earlier writers of the Tubingen school 
 generally, has gone far indeed. 1 The most careful 
 of recent investigators in this field are chary of 
 rejecting altogether any of the writings claiming to 
 be Pauline, with one exception. Even the Epistles to 
 SS. Timothy and Titus, once so unhesitatingly pro- 
 nounced spurious, and so confidently relegated to the 
 middle of the second century, are beginning to recover 
 credit. Although not actually written by St. Paul, 
 they are generally admitted, Harnack tells us, to be 
 founded (aufgebauf) upon real letters of his. The 
 Epistle to the Hebrews is, I suppose, the only one of 
 the documents bearing his name the authorship of 
 which is hopelessly dark. "God only knows who 
 
 1 Thus Harnack writes, in the preface to his Chronologic der altchrist- 
 lichen Literatur bis Eusebius : " The oldest literature of the Church is, 
 in essentials and in most particulars, considered from the literary- 
 historical point of view, genuine and trustworthy. In the whole New 
 Testament there is probably only one document which can be described 
 as pseudonymous, in the strongest sense of the word, viz. the Second 
 Epistle of Peter"; and Professor Ramsay, in the preface to his The 
 Church and the Roman Empire before A.D. 170, expresses his opinion 
 that, in " the case of almost all the books of the New Testament it is as 
 grave an outrage on criticism to hold them for second-century forgeries 
 as it would be to class the works of Horace and Virgil as forgeries of the 
 time of Nero."
 
 i.] Documents 67 
 
 wrote it," Origen observes. And notwithstanding a 
 library of guesses, more or less ingenious, we must 
 say the same. But I need dwell no longer upon 
 these critical difficulties. The four great Epistles of 
 St. Paul which even Baur admitted, and the Epistles 
 to the Thessalonians and Philippians, the authenticity 
 of which no sane critic contests, are documents of the 
 highest historical value as to what Christianity in St. 
 Paul's time was : and the rest of the letters attributed 
 to him add comparatively little to their testimony. 
 
 Before I quit this topic, I should like to make two 
 remarks. In no Christian community, so far as I am 
 aware, is it held by theologians to be " of faith " that 
 any writing now included in the Old or New Testa- 
 ment canon, was written at any specified date, or by 
 the person whose name has been prefixed to it when 
 or by whom, in most cases, we know not. The 
 intrinsic worth of a Biblical document does not wholly 
 depend upon its authorship. Even if that be doubtful 
 or unknown, it may be of highest value, not only 
 theologically which is not my present concern but 
 historically. The Epistle to the Hebrews, for example, 
 whatever its date which, indeed, cannot well be later 
 than the year 70 is of the greatest authority as 
 evidence of that development of the doctrine of the 
 Epistle to the Romans which has received the name 
 of Deutero- Pauline. My second remark is that we 
 should be on our guard against harsh views of the 
 pious writers who fathered their own compositions 
 upon Apostles. We must not judge them by our 
 rules of literary ethics. We might as well judge the
 
 68 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 Hebrew patriarchs, or the Hebrew monarchs, by our 
 rules of sexual ethics. The modern standard of 
 literary probity did not prevail in the early ages of 
 the Church, or, indeed, until long after those ages had 
 passed away. Here, as in other segments of life, we 
 find " with the process of the suns " an ever-increasing 
 appreciation of the dictates of righteousness, an ever- 
 increasing tenderness of conscience. 
 
 It remains to speak of the third source of informa- 
 tion about St. Paul : ecclesiastical tradition. Origin- 
 ally, tradition was the only history. That is certain. 
 Equally certain is it that now much history is only 
 written tradition. Such, for example, is the history 
 of the Nascent Church related in the earlier chapters 
 of the Acts of the Apostles. Criticism is sometimes 
 called the enemy of tradition. And so it is, in a 
 sense. It is the business of criticism to sift, test, and 
 judge traditions, and to seek to appreciate them at 
 their true value. There are traditions possessing the 
 highest authority. A conspicuous instance of these 
 is the tradition that St. Peter laboured in Rome, 
 which Dollinger does not hesitate to term "a fact 
 abundantly proved and deeply imbedded in the earliest 
 Christian history," "a universally admitted fact." But 
 even the rankest growth of tradition must have sprung 
 from some root of fact. Criticism should, if possible, 
 find that root. So much may suffice concerning 
 tradition in general. As concerning St. Paul, it is 
 chiefly to tradition that we must go for information 
 regarding his labours when the testimony of the Acts 
 of the Apostles ends.
 
 i.] An Astonishing Career 69 
 
 To sketch his career during the quarter of a 
 century from his conversion to his martyrdom, even 
 in the briefest outline, would be beside my present 
 purpose. An astonishing career it is : one of the 
 most astonishing, surely, in human history. Think of 
 those three missionary journeys of his, so graphically 
 narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, in which he 
 published his gospel in Asia Minor, in Macedonia 
 and Achaia. Think of his captivity in Rome, and 
 of his testimony there. What a life-work, even if 
 we reject the tradition of his preaching in Spain, and 
 of his final visit to the Asiatic Churches. " Quse 
 regio in terris nostri non plena laboris ? " is the 
 reflection which might well have occurred to him 
 when his course was finished, and the axe of the lictor 
 was uplifted to confer on him the final victory in the 
 good fight which he had so strenuously fought. And 
 then recall the conditions under which his work was 
 done ; his own hand supporting him as he went from 
 region to region, to be scourged in one place, im- 
 prisoned in another, and stoned in a third : "In 
 journeyings oft, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, 
 in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the 
 heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilder- 
 ness, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and 
 painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, 
 in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." The 
 number of converts made by him we have no means 
 of estimating. 1 But each became in his turn a 
 
 1 An ingenious guess of Kenan's places them at about a thousand. 
 (See his St. Paul, p. 562.)
 
 70 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 propagator of the new faith. Every Church founded 
 by him, however small, was a nucleus whence his 
 gospel spread far and wide. 
 
 I am, however, concerned here with his work on 
 rather than for Christianity. The exponents of the 
 higher criticism are wont to speak of the Pauline 
 transformation of that religion. The phrase is strictly 
 accurate. St. Paul's special mission was to free the 
 nascent faith from the fetters of Hebraism, and to 
 equip it with the dogmatic teaching necessary for its 
 world-wide mission in other words, to convert it from 
 a Jewish sect into a Church. That was the work for 
 which, as he was convinced so he expresses himself 
 in his letter to the Galatians he was set apart from 
 his mother's womb, and divinely called. It is notable 
 that this conviction came to him gradually. The 
 three years immediately succeeding his conversion he 
 spent in preaching to the Jews the faith which he 
 had embraced. Then he went to Jerusalem, " to see 
 Peter," l in whose house he abode during his fort- 
 night's visit to the Holy City. It was the beginning 
 of the close bond between the two Apostles to which 
 their martyrdom a quarter of a century afterwards set 
 the final seal : for in their death they were not divided. 
 During this brief visit to Jerusalem began his friend- 
 ship with St. Barnabas, which was soon to shape his 
 Apostolic career. Of the other Apostles saw he none 
 but St. James, who, too, was largely to influence his 
 
 1 Kephas is the right reading : lffroprj<rai Krj^ai/ : " to visit Kephas." 
 f l(TTopr)<raj, as Lightfoot notes, is somewhat emphatic : " a word used," says 
 St. Chrysostom, " by those who go to see great and famous cities."
 
 i.] The Third Phase 71 
 
 subsequent life. From Jerusalem he returned to 
 Syria, to continue his preaching to his fellow-country- 
 men, Tarsus being his head-quarters. Meanwhile the 
 great controversy in which he was to play so memor- 
 able a part had begun. The brethren who had fled 
 from Jerusalem upon the marytrdom of St. Stephen, 
 " when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the 
 Gentiles, preaching the Lord Jesus," and made many 
 converts. The Church at Jerusalem was startled by 
 tidings of these things. The principle of the evange- 
 lization of the heathen had, in some sort, been con- 
 ceded by St. Peter's baptism of Cornelius. But the 
 admission to the fold of a man of exceptionally good 
 dispositions, upon his own application, seemed a very 
 different thing from throwing open its gates to the 
 world at large, and inviting all who would to enter. 
 St. Barnabas was sent as Apostolic Delegate to 
 Antioch. He approved of what had been done, and 
 determined to invite the co-operation of St. Paul to 
 carry on the work. He himself went to Tarsus to seek 
 his fellow- labourer, who returned with him to Antioch. 
 This was in the year 43, a date for ever memorable 
 in the fasti of the world. It was in that year that 
 " the disciples were first called Christians," and 
 Antioch was the place where the name was given to 
 them. If Jerusalem was the birthplace of Christianity, 
 Antioch was the place of its baptism. The Nascent 
 Church now enters upon a third phase.
 
 72 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Antioch was the greatest city in the empire after 
 Rome and Alexandria. It possessed, as was com- 
 puted, some half a million of inhabitants ; it was a 
 vast emporium of trade and commerce ; it ranked, 
 practically, as the metropolis of the East. A wide- 
 spread tradition, which there is no sufficient reason 
 for doubting, specially associates St. Peter with the 
 Church planted there by the refugees from Jerusalem. 
 The Feast of his Chair at Antioch, which witnesses 
 to it, is of extreme antiquity. But, unquestionably, 
 for the fourteen years immediately following St. Paul's 
 arrival, it was the head-quarters from which that 
 Apostle's work was done and the centre of activity 
 and progress. Jerusalem, indeed, was the seat of the 
 Apostolic College, and might have claimed the proud 
 title afterwards inscribed on the Lateran Basilica, of 
 " Mother and Head of all the Churches." But it 
 was destined that Antioch should increase, and that 
 Jerusalem should decrease. Of this one sign, and a 
 significant sign, was the adoption of Greek, the tongue 
 most commonly spoken there, and the lingua franca 
 of the Roman Empire, as the first language of the 
 new Church. 
 
 From the very beginning of his work among the 
 heathen, St. Paul was brought face to face with the 
 question of their relation to the Mosaic Law. Judaism 
 was monotheism equipped with certain distinctive 
 practices, designed to mark the Jews off from the
 
 i.] Dissension and Disputation 73 
 
 rest of the world as " a chosen nation, a peculiar 
 people." Of these the chief were circumcision, the 
 prohibition of mixed marriages, which the Rabbis 
 regarded as no better than fornication, and certain 
 dietary and hygienic prescriptions. To the converts 
 from heathenism these practices were extremely in- 
 convenient and distasteful. St. Paul found that they 
 hindered and compromised his work. He was led to 
 consider, in the light of first principles, whether in 
 truth they were binding upon Gentile proselytes. He 
 determined that they were not. Certain members of 
 the Church of Jerusalem who came to Antioch were 
 scandalized by his liberality. There arose " no small 
 dissension and disputation." And SS. Paul and 
 Barnabas were deputed to go to the Holy City in 
 order that the question might be decided there by the 
 mother Church. It was a most momentous crisis in 
 the history of Christianity. Party spirit ran high 
 among the Christians of Jerusalem. They were, for 
 the most part, strict Jews, " zealous for the Law." 
 They never dreamed that the Messianic kingdom, 
 which they expected soon to be set up, could rest 
 upon any other foundation than the Jewish theocracy ; 
 they never doubted the permanent validity of the 
 Mosaic code. Such were the faithful at Jerusalem, as 
 a body. Even some of the Apostles, nurtured in 
 Jewish prejudices and traditions, viewed unfavourably 
 the revolutionary proceedings of St. Paul. The action 
 of St. Peter saved the future of Christianity. The 
 decree agreed upon at his suggestion was drawn up, 
 through the influence of St. James, in narrower terms
 
 74 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 than St. Paul would perhaps have desired. Certainly, 
 the rule subsequently laid down by him touching 
 meats offered to idols, went beyond the text of the 
 letter containing the decision of the Church of Jeru- 
 salem. Still, the victory remained to him in this first 
 battle of the lifelong war which he waged with the 
 Judaizing party, to whom his success rendered him, 
 as Bishop Hinds expresses it, "particularly odious." 
 It was, however, not till the destruction of the temple, 
 in 70, when the rod of ecclesiastical power passed 
 from Mount Sion to the Vatican Mount, that the 
 emancipation of Christianity from Judaism was effec- 
 tively wrought out. Up to that time the Mosaic rites 
 were considered obligatory upon Jewish Christians. 
 
 But the question at issue really went beyond that 
 raised in Jerusalem. " The Law " was regarded by 
 the Rabbis as one and indivisible. And so St. Paul 
 regarded it. For him it meant not only the cere- 
 monial observances, but the whole code, religious and 
 ethical, referred to Moses. And he soon came to 
 conceive of that code as abrogated by Christ. What 
 was to take the place of it ? The great desire of a 
 good Jew was for justice or righteousness. That is 
 evident from every page of the Old Testament, and 
 especially of the Psalms. The question which St. 
 Paul, like Luther, asked himself, before all others, 
 was : How can a man be justified, or made just, 
 before God ? His answer to that question is given, 
 at greatest length, in the Epistle to the Romans. In 
 his creative mind the Messianism of the earliest 
 disciples was developed into a system of religious
 
 i.] The Pauline Theology 75 
 
 philosophy. He saw in Christ something more than 
 the Jewish Messiah. He discerned in Him the 
 Second Adam, who paid for all the penalty of the 
 broken Law incurred by the First Adam ; satisfying 
 it, dying to it, and by His death becoming the end 
 of it. The Hebrew Rabbis knew that, in the nature 
 of things, sin involves punishment that is, suffering 
 of some sort. But they held that the suffering might 
 be vicarious : that the innocent might make atonement 
 for the guilty. This, of course, is the root-idea of all 
 sacrifice. In general, too, they maintained that the 
 unmerited sufferings of a just man possessed an expia- 
 tory character that they availed in satisfaction for 
 the transgressions of his brethren, nay, of his nation. 
 St. Paul carried the conception further, and applied 
 it to the whole human race, whose moral unity he 
 clearly discerned, as is evident from a famous passage 
 in his sermon on Areopagus. And Christ he regarded 
 as the representative of the race. It is on the per- 
 sonality of Christ that he raises his whole dogmatic 
 edifice. " Other foundation can no man lay," he 
 declares. Upon the details of the Divine Life he 
 does not dwell. Whence some have been led to con- 
 clude that he was not intimately acquainted with them. 
 He lays especial, we may say unique, stress upon the 
 Crucifixion and Resurrection. In these supreme 
 events, he held, the work of Christ finds its temporal 
 culmination. There are a dozen words in his Epistle 
 to the Romans in which this doctrine is summed up : 
 "He was delivered for our offences and raised again 
 for our justification." And in His Crucifixion and
 
 76 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 Resurrection the faithful are mystically united with 
 him. They are buried with Him by Baptism into 
 death. They are to live with Him in newness of life 
 a life which is not to be their own, but His in them. 
 They are delivered from the curse of the Law through 
 Him who was made a curse for them. And the 
 instrument of their deliverance, and of their mystical 
 union with their Deliverer, is faith. It is through 
 faith that they obtain the righteousness, or justice, 
 which is of God. This mysticism is the end and 
 crown of the Pauline theology, which is essentially 
 " heart religion." It is with the heart that man be- 
 lieveth unto righteousness and is justified without 
 the works of the Law. Nay, he affirms that it ever 
 was so : that Abraham, the father of the faithful, 
 "believed God, and it was accounted unto him for 
 righteousness." 
 
 Such, in brief outline, is the root-idea of the 
 Pauline theology : a doctrine subtle, obscure, abstract, 
 and presenting a most interesting analogy with those 
 legal fictions which play so great a part in archaic 
 jurisprudence : a doctrine which, although obviously 
 resting upon man's free will, is set forth side by side 
 with a doctrine of predestination hard to reconcile 
 with it ; indeed, St. Paul does not attempt the recon- 
 ciliation. And the difficulty of the doctrine itself is 
 indefinitely enhanced by the way in which it is pre- 
 sented. Not only St. Paul's cast of thought, but his 
 method of ratiocination, is rabbinical. It does not 
 conform to the canons of ordinary logic. Nothing is 
 more curious than the way in which, after the manner
 
 i.] St. Paul's Style 77 
 
 of the Rabbis, he presses into the service of his argu- 
 ment the most unlikely fragments of the Old Testament 
 Scriptures, as, for example, in his exposition of the 
 veil of Moses, or in his interpretation of the precept 
 against muzzling the ox that treadeth out the corn 
 an interpretation enforced by the question, " Doth 
 God take care for oxen ? " which so jars upon ears 
 attuned to the more compassionate teaching 
 
 "He prayeth best who loveth best 
 
 All things both great and small : 
 For the dear God who loveth us, 
 He made and loveth all." 
 
 Again. The peculiarities of his style, abrupt, 
 vehement, parenthetical, sometimes render it extremely 
 difficult really to grasp his meaning. This is so even 
 in the most carefully composed of his writings, his 
 Encyclical Letter it is really that which bears the 
 address of the Romans. His other Epistles Briefs, 
 not Encyclicals are evidently occasional composi- 
 tions dictated in hot haste amid the overwhelming 
 pressure of " the care of all the Churches." Assuredly 
 no writer ever stood in greater need of editing 1 in 
 order to render him even intelligible to modern 
 readers the sort of editing which Carlyle has per- 
 formed for the letters and speeches of Cromwell, whose 
 style presents a notable analogy with his. 
 
 Once more. Certain it is that the Pauline doctrine, 
 nakedly stated, runs the greatest risk of misinterpreta- 
 tion in a sense which the Apostle would have been 
 
 1 Kenan's rendering of the Epistle to the Galatians in his St. Paul is 
 an admirable specimen of such editing.
 
 78 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 the first to repudiate with horror. Centuries after- 
 wards, it was thus misinterpreted by the powerful 
 but coarse mind of Martin Luther, into that system 
 of unconscious Antinomianism which still constitutes 
 popular Protestantism. And what happened in the 
 sixteenth century happened in the first Critics, early 
 and late, have indeed failed to recognize the Petrine 
 authorship of the Second Epistle bearing St. Peter's 
 name. But there can be no question that the writer 
 of it expressed the view of St. Peter, and of the 
 Apostolic College generally, when he spoke of St. 
 Paul's letters as containing " things hard to be under- 
 stood, which they that are unlearned and unstable 
 wrest to their own destruction." I, for my part, do 
 not doubt that as the Epistle to the Romans became 
 known it was written in 58 these considerations 
 led St. James to indite the Encyclical which bears his 
 name, a short time before his martyrdom in 62. 1 A 
 most beautiful composition it is, one of the finest 
 pieces of the first Christian literature, Renan well 
 judges, recalling now the Gospel, now the sweet and 
 restful wisdom of Ecclesiastes, impregnated with a sort 
 of Apostolic perfume, coming to us as the direct echo 
 of the words of the Divine Master, breathing most 
 vividly the life and sentiment of Galilee. And, as 
 he points out, it is perfectly in keeping with the cha- 
 racter ascribed to St. James by tradition, a spirit 
 
 1 I am aware that very considerable critical authority, including that 
 of Harnack, is against me as to the date and authorship of this Epistle 
 and the First of St. Peter. Still, the view which I take of these docu- 
 ments, and which has been very ably maintained by Renan in the 
 Introduction to his Antichrist, appears to me by far the most probable.
 
 i.] St. Paul, St. James, and St. Peter 79 
 
 ecclesiastical, extremely mortified in life, observing 
 religious celibacy, spending long hours in prayer and 
 meditation in the temple, and possessing, in ample mea- 
 sure, the gift of tears. Nor to come to our immediate 
 point does it seem open to reasonable doubt that the 
 paragraph in which St. James insists upon the necessity 
 and value of good works, must have been written with 
 a well-known passage of the Epistle to the Romans 
 before him. He deals there, as will be remembered, 
 with the very case of Abraham cited by St. Paul, and 
 draws from it quite another lesson than the Pauline. 
 It was reserved for the large and ruling mind of St. 
 Peter to conciliate the differing views contained in 
 these two documents. The teaching of the first of 
 his Epistles, of which the date is probably 64, has 
 become the accepted Catholic doctrine : a doctrine in 
 which the Pauline and Jacobean pronouncements are 
 unobtrusively blended, in which two tendencies or 
 schools of thought are reconciled by being raised to 
 a higher level. 
 
 The most remarkable fact in this third phase of 
 Primitive Christianity is the germination of the ideas 
 latent in it from the first ; the swift development of 
 dogma ; the more tardy and gradual evolution of polity. 
 Singularly interesting would it be to trace in detail 
 the growth of Christian doctrine in this period, culmi- 
 nating, as it does, in the conceptions set forth in the 
 Johannine writings conceptions which were certainly 
 current during the later portion of it, whatever the 
 real date of the several documents wherein they 
 are embodied. Perhaps all history offers no more
 
 80 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 conspicuous example of the fulness of fruitful ideas, 
 the felicitous union of ancient speculations with recent 
 facts, the bold amplitude of theories embracing the 
 origin and career of humanity, the genesis of evil, the 
 final destiny of man. But to dwell upon this, even in the 
 barest outline, would take me too far. It must suffice 
 here to point out some of the more salient character- 
 istics of Primitive Christianity in this its third phase. 
 
 We find, then, that the first great note of the new- 
 born Christian Community, as of the Jewish Church 
 from which it sprang, was separation from the world 
 around it. " A chosen race (yeVos), a royal priesthood, 
 an holy nation, a peculiar people," St. Peter calls them. 
 And the word ecclesia, implies all this. They were 
 called out of the world. This is the very meaning of 
 the term " elect." And their constant endeavour was 
 to keep themselves " unspotted by the world." And 
 so they were led " to shun man's common lure, life's 
 pleasant things." There can be no question that the 
 Gospel, whether as preached by St. Peter, St. Paul, 
 or St. James, whether as received and practised by 
 Judaic or Gentile converts, was a doctrine of renuncia- 
 tion, a severely ascetic doctrine. The very things 
 which made up life 1 for the world around, the baths 
 and all that the baths meant were regarded as 
 "matter of concupiscence." I need not dwell upon 
 this ; it must be patent to any one who has eyes to 
 see what is written plainly upon every page of St. 
 
 1 It is hardly necessary to refer to the well-known lines 
 " Balnea, vina, Venus corrumpunt corpora nostra, 
 Sed vitam faciunt balnea, vina, Venus."
 
 i.] Asceticism 8 1 
 
 Paul. It is written equally plainly upon the scanty 
 notices of early Christianity which we find in heathen 
 authors, and is the reason and in a sense the justi- 
 fication of the conception of Christians as morose, 
 unsocial, void of public spirit. 
 
 One special manifestation of the ascetic character 
 of Apostolic Christianity is presented by its high 
 estimate of religious celibacy. The monastic insti- 
 tute, in which that estimate was formally embodied, 
 is of course the creation of a later age. No doubt St. 
 Paul's teaching on this matter was influenced by his 
 undoubting belief in the parousia. " The time is 
 short," he tells the Corinthians. "The world will 
 endure but little longer. Its course is well-nigh run. 
 Christ will soon return. And in view of His appear- 
 ing, what does celibacy or marriage matter ? " But 
 apart from that thought, which was habitual with him, 
 it is evident that he distinctly held voluntary chastity 
 a higher condition than wedlock. Mgr. Duchesne 
 does not think that the germ of Christian asceticism is 
 to be found in this doctrine of St. Paul : 1 and perhaps 
 he is right. Certainly he is right when he observes 
 that ascetism is anterior to Christianity, and is by no 
 means peculiar to it. Nor was the practice of ascetic- 
 ism originally associated in the Church with deeds of 
 charity. The holy women who, when the semi-com- 
 munism of the first years of spiritual exaltation had 
 disappeared, were specially charged with the corporal 
 works of mercy, the deaconesses, were widows, and 
 are mentioned by that name in the First Epistle 
 
 1 Origines du Culte Chrttien, p. 405. 
 
 G
 
 82 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 to St. Timothy : it is, indeed, their most common 
 designation ; but they do not appear to have lived a life 
 of special austerity. I may remark, in passing, that 
 they became, all unconsciously, the true emancipators 
 of womanhood. Renan finely and truly observes, " It 
 was they who created the dignity of their sex, pre- 
 cisely because they spoke no word of its rights ; they 
 accomplished more than men, while seeming to restrict 
 themselves to men's service." 
 
 We have no reason to suppose that these holy 
 women were dedicated to their work by any ceremony, 
 or that they bound themselves by any formal vows. 
 The ecclesiastical organization of those times was of 
 the simplest, and yet it was strong enough to bear the 
 rudest shock of Jewish attacks and of internal contro- 
 versy ; it was rooted and grounded in charity. All 
 was spontaneous, unconstrained, self-devoted, in those 
 spiritual democracies. Their assemblies had more in 
 common with the modern Catholic Confraternity and 
 the modern Methodist Class Meeting there are points 
 of resemblance with both than with the modern 
 Church. They met for mutual help, mutual edifi- 
 cation, mutual consolation, mutual gladness. Nothing 
 could be more erroneous than the supposition that 
 the extreme purity of their lives was accompanied 
 by Puritanical sourness. Morose and unsocial they 
 seemed to the outside world, when they ran not to the 
 same excess of riot as the Gentiles who knew not God. 
 But among themselves they were bright and happy in 
 the possession of " peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." 
 And " the melody in their hearts " found expression in
 
 i.] Intolerance 83 
 
 their assemblies through improvised psalms, hymns 
 and spiritual songs. Glossolaly, or speaking with 
 tongues, still lingered among them indeed, we find 
 traces of it as late as the third century. But St. Paul, 
 though claiming that peculiar gift for himself in amplest 
 measure, evidently thought slightingly of it in com- 
 parison with the more practical powers of edification 
 and consolation manifested by their prophets, or 
 preachers. They were not persons of high intellectual 
 endowments, those Apostolic Christians, or of great 
 social position. They were of the poor of this world. 
 Their only wealth was the Faith. That treasure they 
 guarded with godly jealousy. The standard of ortho- 
 doxy was most rigidly enforced. It is a vast error to 
 suppose that St. Paul the Apostle was one whit more ^ 
 tolerant than Saul the Pharisee. It is, indeed, a gross 
 anachronism to import the essentially modern notion 
 of toleration into those times. The Apostolic teaching 
 as to faith and morals was binding under anathema. 
 He who deviated from it was accursed ; nor was the 
 curse regarded as merely an empty fulmination, devoid 
 of penal sanction. The secular arm was not, as yet, 
 available to enforce ecclesiastical censures. But the 
 diabolical arm, as the faithful undoubtingly believed, 
 was. A sentence of excommunication was the phrase 
 is St. Paul's a sentence of delivery unto Satan 
 for the destruction of the flesh, by the process of 
 physical disease, then commonly attributed to the 
 agency of demons. The end proposed was of course 
 remedial, just as in the subsequent ages the severities 
 of the Holy Office were directed ad salutem anima.
 
 84 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 What did the destruction of the flesh matter, provided 
 the spirit was saved in the day of the Lord ? It is 
 not too much to say that here we have the Inquisition 
 in germ. To quote an admirable sentence of Bishop 
 Creighton's : " The step from St. Paul's denunciations 
 of false teaching to the practice of the Inquisition, is one 
 which can be filled in by a series of small gradations." 1 
 We should not fail here to note how, in this third 
 phase of the Nascent Church, the two chief distinctive 
 rites of the new faith have grown in the consciousness 
 of the faithful. Baptism, as St. Paul brings out with 
 singular fulness and directness, was apprehended as the 
 mystic participation in the great act of redemption the 
 death of Christ. And the touching practice which had 
 grown up of vicariously administering the regenerating 
 rite to those who had passed away without receiving 
 it, sufficiently testifies to the current belief in its high 
 efficacy. The Eucharist was now definitively sepa- 
 rated from the Agape, and St. Paul's exhortations to 
 the Corinthian Christians concerning it, abundantly 
 prove with what deep veneration and religious awe it 
 was regarded. Specially significant is the comparison 
 which he draws between it and the sacrifices of the 
 Jews and the heathen, although we do not find the 
 word "altar" applied to it in any of the New Testament 
 writings, unless perhaps 2 in one well-known passage 
 
 1 Persecution and Tolerance, p. 60. These words must not be taken 
 as expressing the Bishop's own opinion. They set forth a view which he 
 sought to combat. I may be permitted to express my high appreciation 
 of the whole of my lamented friend's argument in the Lecture where they 
 occur, as an admirable specimen of special pleading. 
 
 2 I say "perhaps" in deference to numerous critics of name who
 
 i.] Growth of Doctrine 85 
 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Those Apostolic 
 Christians were not versed in the philosophy which 
 led the Western Church, in the Middle Ages, to 
 formulate the doctrine of transubstantiation. But it 
 may safely be affirmed that, like the Easterns, they 
 held the doctrine, though without the formula. They 
 unquestionably regarded the Eucharist as pre-emi- 
 nently " the mystery of faith : " an effective com- 
 memoration, or showing forth, of the death of Christ, 
 in which the sacramental elements, no untrue figure of 
 a thing absent, became verily and indeed, though in 
 some way transcending sense, His body and blood, 
 and the merits of His Passion were realized. Their 
 Eucharistic Offices were scanty and simple, and doubt- 
 less varied in the different Churches ; but all certainly 
 included that portion of the canon which contains the 
 words of institution. What other portions, if any, of 
 the liturgies we now possess were then employed, 
 there are no means for determining, for it was not 
 until long after that any liturgy was reduced to writing. 
 Apparently a weekly celebration had now taken the 
 place of the daily celebration of the first Church in 
 Jerusalem, and it was held in the evening. 
 
 As regards the polity of the Nascent Church, in 
 that third phase with which we are at present con- 
 cerned, its distinctive note is the evolution, vague and 
 inchoate indeed, of what is now accounted the second 
 
 explain otherwise the word "altar" in Heb. xiii. 10 (xM 6 " 
 The passage is doubtless obscure ; but the most natural explanation 
 seems to be that the writer is setting the Christian altar against the 
 Jewish altar. See some very judicious remarks in Bellinger's Christen- 
 thum iind Kirche in der Zeit der Grundlegting^ Bk. iii, c. 3, 

 
 86 The Nascent Church [CH. 
 
 of the Sacred Orders. Elders, probably in most cases 
 popularly chosen, were ordained by the Apostles in 
 every city. The office was doubtless borrowed from 
 the Jewish polity. Every synagogue was administered 
 by a body of officials known by that name. There 
 was nothing in the dress or manner of life of these 
 primitive elders to distinguish them from their 
 brethren. They were grave, earnest men, no longer 
 young, in many respects resembling the worthy 
 functionaries now bearing the same designation in the 
 Scottish Kirk. The word "bishop," when it occurs 
 in the Acts of the Apostles or the Epistles, merely 
 means "overseer." It is often a synonym for "pres- 
 byter." But it is sometimes used in a more general 
 sense, as indeed are the terms "elder" and "deacon." 
 Dollinger is well warranted when he says, " There 
 are no fixed names of [ecclesiastical offices] in the 
 New Testament." Diocesan episcopacy had not then 
 come into definite form, although there is no reason 
 for doubting the extremely ancient and general tra- 
 dition which attributes to St. Peter a special presidency 
 of the Church at Rome, and to St. James the like 
 pastoral care at Jerusalem. To quote Dollinger again, 
 " The office afterwards called ' episcopal ' was not yet 
 marked off; the episcopate slept in the Apostolate." 
 It is in St. Clement's Epistle which Harnack dates 
 between 93 and 95 that we first find three degrees 
 of Sacred Orders clearly indicated : the Apostolate 
 as exercised by the Apostles themselves, and by 
 "approved men after their death ; " the presbyterate ; 
 and the diaconate. It is notable that St. Clement
 
 i.] Evolution of Polity 87 
 
 himself, whom we are accustomed to speak of, and 
 rightly, as one of the early Bishops of Rome, is called 
 by Irenseus writing in the middle of the second 
 century an Apostle. 
 
 So much as to Primitive Christianity, the Christi- 
 anity of the Nascent Church. I suppose one reflection 
 which will occur to the judicious reader is that it differs 
 vastly from any Christianity now discoverable in the 
 world. No doubt it does. But, as La Mennais has 
 admirably observed, " Did any one believe that 
 Christianity has always been what it is to-day, the 
 thing believed in would not be Christianity." Indeed, 
 here the paradox holds good : " Plus $a change et 
 plus c'est la meme chose." 1 
 
 1 Among the modern books which I have especially kept before me 
 in writing this Chapter, I may here mention the following : Dollinger's 
 Christenthum und Kirche in der Zeit der Grundlegung; Kenan's Les 
 Origines du Christianisme ; Ritschl's Die Entstehung der altkatho lischen 
 Kirche; Lightfoot's The Epistles of St. Paul; Pfleiderer's Das Urchrist- 
 enthum; Ramsay's The Church in the Roman Empire before 170, and 
 St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen; Mgr. Duchesne's Les 
 Origines du Culte Chretien; and Harnack's Die Chronologie der alt- 
 christlichen Litter atur bis Eusebius.
 
 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE AGE OF THE MARTYRS 
 I 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL divisions in history are always more 
 or less arbitrary. The epochs, periods, ages, into 
 which, for the sake of convenience, we parcel out the 
 annals of the world, constantly overlap. The year 70 
 is a convenient date for marking the close of the first 
 Christian era, because the Fall of Jerusalem, which 
 occurred in that year, freed the new religion from 
 most of the elements of Judaism still adhering to 
 it. But the Age of the Martyrs, regarding which 
 I am now to say something, and which I shall take 
 as extending to the Council of Nicaea in 325, began 
 six years before the Fall of Jerusalem. It was initi- 
 ated by Nero's persecution in 64. And it may, in 
 strictness, be regarded as closed by the Edict of 
 Toleration published in 313. We must remember 
 that history is living, complex, and contingent : we 
 must be content, in writing it, with approximately 
 correct categories of time. 
 
 The development of Christianity from what has 
 been called I know not whether very happily the
 
 ii.] A Bewildering Obscurity 89 
 
 undefined mysticism of its first era, to the Creed 
 formulated at Nicsea, the transformation of its teachers 
 from the itinerant handicraftsmen, who were its earliest 
 ministers, into the organized hierarchy there assem- 
 bled, is one of the most interesting chapters in the 
 career of our race. But it is a chapter which can 
 never be adequately written. The arrival of St. 
 Paul in Rome marks the beginning of a thick dark- 
 ness which covers the new Church a bewildering 
 obscurity as of a London fog, soon to be fitfully 
 illuminated by the lurid glare of the ghastly festivals 
 devised by Nero's fiendish ingenuity for his great 
 persecution. Among the victims of that persecution, 
 according to very ancient tradition, were the Apostles 
 SS. Peter and Paul the fisherman and the tent- 
 maker, and the future spiritual sovereigns of the 
 Western world. And, as St. Clement writes in his 
 Epistle, " Unto these men of holy lives was gathered 
 a vast multitude of the elect." But the achievements 
 and fate of the rest of the Apostolic College what 
 they did, where they went, how they died are veiled 
 in impenetrable night. As the second century draws 
 to its close, we find the Christian Church definitely 
 constituted this is not too much to say as the 
 greatest moral power the world has ever seen, and 
 as a social power strong enough to disquiet the rulers 
 of Imperial Rome. But how, in that short space of 
 time, its organization grew and its doctrine developed ; 
 how the grain of mustard seed, planted by the Gali- 
 laean Prophet, sprang up into that great tree, whose 
 leaves were for the healing of the nations, " we know
 
 90 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 not, and no search will make us know." We are left 
 to a few vague indications and to many uncertain 
 conjectures. As, Professor Ramsey observes, " His- 
 tory begins for the Christians late in the second 
 century." 
 
 Christianity was probably introduced into Rome 
 about the year 50 by certain disciples from Syria. 
 No doubt the tradition usually followed by Catholic 
 writers, that St. Peter arrived in that city in the year 
 42, is ancient ; and it is supported by the authority 
 of St. Jerome and Eusebius. But there is a strong 
 case against it. It must be erroneous if, as seems 
 most likely, Herod Agrippa's persecution, of which 
 St. Peter was the object, took place in 44. And the 
 silence concerning him in St. Paul's Epistle to the 
 Romans, the date of which is almost certainly about 
 the year 58, and in the last Chapter of the Acts 
 of the Apostles, relating St. Paul's arrival in Rome 
 in the year 61, strongly militates against it. Mgr. 
 Duchesne appears therefore to speak judiciously when 
 he expresses the opinion that "the twenty-five years 
 of the Roman Pontificate of St. Peter come into con- 
 tact with rather serious difficulties." 1 But whatever 
 may have been the date of that Apostle's arrival in 
 Rome, it is open to no reasonable doubt, as was 
 observed in the preceding Chapter, that he did come 
 there, and teach there, and suffer there. Apart from 
 other evidence and it is considerable and cogent 
 the testimony of St. Clement and St. Ignatius both 
 authorities of the very first order seems decisive. 
 
 1 Les Origines Chrdtiennes, vol. i. p. 73.
 
 ii.] Persecutions 9 1 
 
 It is incredible that St. Clement should have men- 
 tioned the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul in Rome, 
 unless the fact really happened. It is incredible that 
 St. Ignatius should have spoken of them as the 
 teachers of the Christians at Rome, 1 unless they really 
 were such. 
 
 The ecclesiastical historians reckon ten General 
 Persecutions general, or rather ecumenical, as ex- 
 tending through the ot/cou/u,^, or Roman Empire, the 
 first of these being Nero's, which began in 64. The 
 reckoning is out of date. Some of these Persecutions 
 were very far from being so widespread as to be 
 rightly called ecumenical. Indeed, it would seem 
 that only to two of them the Persecution under 
 Decius (249-251), called the Seventh, and to the 
 Persecution under Diocletian and Maximian (303-305, 
 continued by Galerius and Maximin to 311) which 
 is called the Tenth, can the term be rightly applied. 
 
 There appears to be no sufficient reason for 
 questioning the very ancient tradition above spoken 
 of, that SS. Peter and Paul obtained the crown of 
 martyrdom in Nero's Persecution, the occasion of 
 which was supplied by the great fire which burst 
 out in Rome on the i9th of July, 64. Public opinion 
 regarded the Emperor Nero himself as the author 
 of the conflagration. " In order to put down the 
 rumour," writes Tacitus, " he set up as objects of 
 accusation and punishment those whom, already hated 
 for their wickedness, the people called Christians." 
 The sentiment of horror with which Christians 
 
 1 Oi>x *>s HfTpos Kal IlarfAos Siaruffao/jiai vjiiv.
 
 92 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 regarded the Roman worship and the most venerable 
 fanes devoted to it, their separation from the interests 
 and pleasures of the Pagan population "the world," 
 which their religion commanded them not to love 
 still more their expectation of the speedy destruction 
 of the visible frame of things by fire, lent colour to 
 Nero's accusation. But its flimsiness soon became 
 apparent, and the unexpectedly great number of the 
 Christians in Rome having become apparent also, he 
 fell back upon another charge the charge of " hos- 
 tility to the human race : " the human race meaning 
 the Roman world ; men living according to the 
 Roman manner and customs. The frightful details 
 of his Persecution are given in the well-known pas- 
 sage just quoted from, of Tacitus, who, though writing 
 fifty years after the event, appears entitled to full 
 credit. The Emperor selected his own gardens on 
 the Vatican as the scene of the entertainment, where- 
 with he ministered to his own savagery and the 
 Roman people's by a spectacle of blood and fire such 
 as the world had never before witnessed. The very 
 spot where now stands the vast basilica of the Prince 
 of the Apostles, and the palace of his successor, served 
 as the arena, with its vast arcades, spina, and obelisk 
 the very obelisk from Heliopolis, now in the centre 
 of the Piazza, of St. Peter's. There, amid " the trans- 
 ports of a fierce and monstrous gladness," Nero drove 
 in his chariot, surveying the tortures of his victims, 
 some burning as torches, some clad in beasts' skins 
 and torn to pieces by dogs, some suffering death in 
 dramas borrowed from the tragedies of ancient Hellas.
 
 ii.] The Cause of the Conflict 93 
 
 The day of this festival was probably the ist of 
 August, 64, and Renan well remarks, "It was the 
 most solemn day in the history of Christianity since 
 the day on which Jesus expired on Golgotha. The 
 orgy of Nero was the great baptism of blood which 
 marked out Rome as the City of the Martyrs, to 
 play a new part in the history of Christianity, and to 
 be its second Holy City." l 
 
 II 
 
 It is not necessary for my present purpose that 
 I should follow in detail the course of the conflict 
 between the new faith and the Roman Empire. But 
 a few words should here be said as to the cause of it. 
 First we must remember how close was the connection 
 between the Roman ordering of society and the Roman 
 religion. The well-known lines of Horace are literally 
 true 
 
 " Dis te minorem quod geris imperas : 
 Hinc omne principium, hue refer exitum." 
 
 Mr. Ramsey does but expand the poet's words 
 when he observes, "The Roman religion was the 
 expression of Roman patriotism, the bond of Roman 
 unity, the pledge of Roman prosperity/' To that 
 religion Christianity was utterly opposed. No recon- 
 ciliation, no compromise, between the two was possible. 
 And this fact soon became apparent to the rulers of 
 
 1 Conferences &Angleterre> p. 93.
 
 94 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 Rome : how soon, indeed, is matter of controversy. 
 Mr. Ramsey thinks that the Christians who suffered 
 under Nero were not martyrs in the strict sense of 
 the word : that their " religion was not in itself a 
 crime." It was later, he observes, that "refusal to 
 comply with the established and official worship of 
 the Emperors" became "a standing charge and the 
 regular test and touchstone of persecution." No 
 doubt that is so. But we may demur when he proceeds 
 to add, " This marks the stage when they suffered 
 for the Name, and when their death constitutes them 
 witnesses (/xct/arvpes) to the Name : " a stage which he 
 takes to have begun under the Flavian Emperors. 
 In the First Epistle of St. Peter the genuineness of 
 which no sober critic doubts, and the date of which, 
 pace Mr. Ramsey, cannot well be other than 64 
 reproach for the Name of Christ, in the fiery trial 
 which is to try the faithful, is expressly mentioned as 
 a ground for happiness : suffering as a Christian is 
 accounted a reason for glorifying God. And as Mr. 
 Pullan well argues, in his interesting History of Early 
 Christianity \ " Tacitus (Ann., xv. 44) says, concerning 
 the Christians who suffered under Nero, igitur primum 
 correpti qui fatebantur. What did they confess ? 
 Obviously not the charge of incendiarism. For 
 Tacitus believes that the charge was false, and that 
 the populace ultimately regarded it as false. The 
 populace would have changed its opinion if Christians 
 had confessed the crime. The only alternative is to 
 believe that they confessed that they were Christians. 
 Nero took advantage of the confession, and punished
 
 n.] " Odium Humani Generis " 95 
 
 them for their religion." " The charge of incendiarism 
 brought against the Christians was altered into the 
 wider and safer accusation of odium humani generis. 
 To save his own reputation, Nero was obliged to 
 treat the burning of Rome as a comparatively inci- 
 dental expression of a general hostility to civilization. 
 He was thus able to incriminate men whose only 
 crime was their religion. He assumed that their 
 religion was a crime." " Persecution for the Name 
 or what amounted to persecution for the Name might 
 have happened at any time since A.D. 64. The 
 Christian might be liable to capital punishment either 
 for disobedience to the State, involved in the refusal 
 to worship the public gods, or for legal atheism a 
 charge from which they could not shelter themselves 
 by a profession of the Jewish religion. 1 They might 
 also be treated as guilty of high treason for refusal to 
 worship the Emperor." 
 
 It is easy to understand why the Imperial Power 
 regarded Christianity as an irreconcilable foe. The 
 very fundamental principle upon which the Empire 
 rested was that no organization distinct from its own 
 could exist side by side with it. The Church, upon 
 the other hand, claims to be a kingdom, spiritual, it 
 is true, but visible, with a right to rule, direct, con- 
 demn, or absolve her subjects, in complete independence 
 of other authority. Internal organic unity is one of 
 her main notes, marking her off from the other two 
 great religions, Buddhism and Islam, which, like her, 
 profess universality. It was the most striking difference 
 
 1 A rtligio licita, which Christianity was not.
 
 96 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 between her and the cults and philosophies which 
 surrounded her in the Roman Empire ; the difference, 
 I mean, which would most forcibly strike the Imperial 
 authorities, and which, as a matter of fact, was the 
 very gist of their accusations of her. True was the 
 instinct which prompted the unbelieving Jews of 
 Thessalonica to raise against St. Paul and St. Silas 
 the cry of contravening the decrees of Caesar by 
 saying, " There is another King, one Jesus." It was 
 a charge of Icesa majestas ; the charge that, of all 
 others, would appeal strongly to the rulers of the 
 Roman State, and most strongly to the best among 
 them to men like Trajan, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, 
 and Hadrian, who believed the cause of civilization to 
 be bound up with the Empire, which, as the Greek 
 rhetorician said, with the picturesque exaggeration of 
 his profession, had made of the world one city ; for 
 which the great geographer of antiquity claimed that 
 " it had taught humanity to man." Well might those 
 politic princes, as they surveyed from their high place 
 their ecumenical domain, and considered the splendour 
 of the literary and philosophical achievements, the 
 sagacity of the jurisprudence, the stability of the 
 organization, guarded by " the immense majesty of 
 the Roman peace" well might they be led to 
 safeguard all this greatness by every means in their 
 power ; well might they resolve to put down, by the 
 severest penalties, a revolutionary sect that counted 
 it all as dross in comparison of a visionary life to 
 come, preached by One who was dead, but whom His 
 fanatical followers affirmed to be alive, and shortly to
 
 ii.] Love and Death 97 
 
 return, to judge the world by fire. If ever Kulturkampf 
 was set on foot with a specious air of justification, it 
 was this. It failed. The victory remained with the 
 spiritual order. Paganism may be said to have been 
 conquered with its own weapon. It recognized no 
 law but the right of the strongest. And love is 
 stronger than death. Of what avail to slay those who 
 counted not their lives dear in the service of their 
 invisible King nay, who judged that by losing life 
 for Him they, in the truest sense, found it ? 
 
 I do not understand how any one who knows the 
 records of those times can shut his eyes to a plain fact 
 of history. It was from the Person of Jesus Christ 
 appealing to them as at once human and Divine, when 
 they gazed upon it, uplifted on the cross, that the 
 strength of the martyrs came. The aged Bishop, 
 journeying to the place where the lions awaited him, 
 "still alive, but longing to die," writes to his flock, 
 " Now do I begin to be Christ's disciple." The 
 tender Sicilian maiden looks calmly upon her bleeding 
 bosom, mutilated by the persecutor's knife, as she 
 reflects, " I shall not be less beautiful in the eyes of 
 my heavenly Bridegroom." Sanctus the deacon, his 
 limbs covered with plates of burning brass, so that his 
 body was one entire wound, and deprived of the form 
 of man, would but say to all the questions of his 
 tormentors, " I am a Christian," and, as those who 
 stood by testified, remained upright and unshrinking, 
 "bathed and strengthened in the heavenly fount of 
 living water which flowed from the Heart of Christ." 
 Eusebius speaks of the crowds whom he beheld in 
 
 H
 
 98 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 Egypt offering themselves to death. " Scarcely was 
 sentence pronounced against the first company, before 
 a second presented themselves at the tribunal to 
 profess themselves Christians, with joy and gladness 
 receiving the capital sentence, singing hymns and 
 returning thanks until their last breath." They 
 endured, that noble army of martyrs, in the strength 
 of Him whom, not having seen, they loved. The 
 one feeling which dominated them and their brethren 
 who gazed with envy upon their passion, and who 
 reared their humble shrines, was jubilation at becoming 
 partakers of Christ's sufferings. I know of no more 
 conspicuous instance of overmastering, blinding pre- 
 judice, than that which is afforded by those who can 
 read the early history of the Christian Church, the 
 genuine Acts of the Martyrs, the Peristephanon of 
 Prudentius that sublime monument of primitive faith 
 and worship and not discern this most patent fact. 
 Whether or no we are to believe the legend which 
 represents the dying Emperor to have said, "Gali- 
 Isean, Thou hast conquered ! " x the words express the 
 literal and exact truth. The victory of Christianity 
 was the personal victory of its Founder. It was no 
 body of doctrine, no code of ethics, but the Prophet 
 of Nazareth himself, whom men slew and hanged 
 upon a tree, that triumphed over the majesty of the 
 Csesars, and founded upon the ruins of the ancient 
 Roman polity a mightier and more enduring empire. 
 
 1 I suppose the Ney^/cas raXtXa?e of Theodoret auctor mihi valde 
 siispectus must be relegated to the domain of the fabulous. But it is 
 one of those fables that are truer than most facts.
 
 ii.] Germination 99 
 
 III 
 
 But the Age of the Martyrs was not only the Age 
 of the victory of the invisible King, of the triumph of 
 His soldiers so they delighted to call themselves 
 equipped not with carnal but with spiritual weapons, 
 over principalities and powers and the rulers of the 
 darkness of this world. It was also, as has been 
 previously intimated, the Age in which His Kingdom 
 was manifested as a universal organization, in which 
 " the Gospel," to quote the quaint phrase of De Wette, 
 "was expanded into the Church." Dogma, ritual, 
 polity, alike developed from the seed which, according 
 to the Evangelical similitude, the Great Sower had 
 cast into the religious consciousness of mankind. Let 
 us dwell a little on this, if only in the barest outline, 
 which, indeed, is all that is possible here. 
 
 I suppose the day is done when any one of even 
 average intelligence can maintain the old, unhistorical 
 view of Christian dogma the view which represents it 
 as having sprung, full formed, from the Divine Founder 
 of Christianity, like Pallas from the head of Zeus. 
 As a matter of fact, devotion comes before creeds. 
 Religious sentiment is prior to the doctrines in which 
 it embodies itself, by a process as gradual as necessary, 
 by a natural and unconscious evolution. Hegel was 
 well warranted in the scorn which he expressed for 
 the " religion without dogma," so highly recommended 
 by some of his contemporaries. Dogma is as essential 
 to religion as language to thought. Neither the one
 
 ioo The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 nor the other can exist without symbols. True, the 
 symbolized is greater and deeper and older than the 
 symbols : " Alles vergangliche ist nur ein Gleichness." 
 The ideas are eternal and unchanging : the symbols, 
 depending, as they do, in great part, upon the intel- 
 lectual culture of the times, are subject to development. 
 To live is to change : and religions, like languages, are 
 in a perpetual state of metamorphosis so long as they 
 are alive. But this view of dogma does not in the 
 least deny or impugn the Christian revelation. The 
 facts of the Divine Life, with their redemptive and 
 recreative energy, are not the subject of evolution. 
 The significance of these facts has been gradually 
 apprehended ; and the formulas, in which the Catholic 
 Church embodies its appreciation and interpretation of 
 them, have been slowly elaborated to express and pro- 
 tect them. It is impossible to deny this without shutting 
 our eyes to the plainest lessons of ecclesiastical history. 
 But we cannot allow for one moment that the gradual 
 growth of the Christian creed occulto velut arbor 
 cevo supplies a valid argument against it, any more 
 than we can allow that facts established by modern 
 exegesis concerning the date, authorship, scientific 
 conceptions, or historical assertions of the Christian 
 Sacred Books, affect their real claim upon our religious 
 reverence. 
 
 So much in general as to the evolution of dogma. 
 The Age of the Martyrs is of especial interest as 
 exhibiting the swift germination of what was latent in 
 the idea of Christ. Take, for example, the doctrine of 
 His Divinity. I suppose all the later teaching may
 
 ii.] The Divinity of Christ 101 
 
 be said to have been implicitly contained in the pro- 
 position with which St. Paul begins the Epistle to the 
 Romans, that He "was declared to be the Son of God 
 with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by 
 the resurrection from the dead." And we may clearly 
 trace the development of that teaching in the three 
 centuries after these words were written. First of 
 course, I touch only upon the more salient points 
 Justin Martyr, in a curious passage, speaks of Him as 
 a second God. Tertullian, later in the second century, 
 insists upon His consubstantiality and equality with 
 the Eternal Father. In the next, Origen maintains 
 His eternal generation, but thought Him worthy of 
 a secondary honour after the God of all. The word 
 "Trinity" appears to have been used first by Theophilus 
 in the second century ; but his teaching, both as to the 
 Second and Third of the Divine Persons, is vague and 
 confused. Early in the fourth century, St. Athanasius, 
 " contending for the proportion of faith," maintains the 
 orthodox view of the full and perfect Godhead of 
 Christ, and the Nicene Council embodies it in the 
 well-known Symbol. It may be noted that this Symbol 
 originally ended with the words, " I believe in the 
 Holy Ghost." Fifty years afterwards, what such belief 
 implies, was unfolded by the additions to the Creed 
 made by the Council of Constantinople, which contain 
 more precise statements regarding the Divine Spirit. 
 How vaguely that term was used in the Early Church 
 has been succinctly pointed out by Cardinal Newman : 
 " The word ' Spirit,' if the Fathers are to be our 
 expositors, means sometimes Almighty God without
 
 102 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 distinction of Persons, sometimes the Son, and more 
 commonly the Holy Ghost." 1 
 
 IV 
 
 And as the idea of Christ thus swiftly grew in the 
 Christian consciousness, and found dogmatic expression, 
 so did the idea of the Communion of Saints, His 
 mystical body. The Martyrs who had witnessed for 
 Him a good confession, and had thus merited a share 
 in His glory, were regarded as being still the helpers 
 and the advocates of the Church militant here on 
 earth, and speedily became the objects of an enthusi- 
 astic devotion. The Fathers of the Council of Trent 
 were entirely warranted in asserting the authority of 
 " the primitive times of Christianity " for the doctrine 
 that " the Saints, who reign together with Christ, offer 
 up their own prayers to God for men ; that it is good 
 and useful suppliantly to invoke them ; that veneration 
 and honour are due to their relics." Possibly the 
 germ of this devotion may be found in Judaism. 
 The great Rabbis, after their decease, were believed 
 to help their disciples by their merits and intercession ; 
 and the ancient Hebrew practice of visiting graves, 
 there to supplicate for the sick, is thus explained by 
 the mystics : " The dead then pray for the suffering 
 ones to God, and, indeed, with greater efficacy, because 
 they stand nearer to God." It seems natural, there- 
 fore, that the author of the Apocalypse should believe 
 1 Cardinal Newman's Athanasius, vol. ii. p. 304.
 
 ii.] The Cultus of Saints 103 
 
 the Martyrs to intercede for their brethren fighting 
 the good fight here below. It is certain that this 
 belief soon filled the hearts of men, and that the 
 doctrine and practice of the invocation of the Saints, 
 and of the veneration of their relics, became firmly 
 established in the Church from the very beginning of 
 the second century. The Acts of the early Martyrs 
 I speak, of course, of the genuine Acts are replete 
 with evidence of this. And so to quote no other 
 authority is the Peristephanon of Prudentius. It is 
 true that Prudentius wrote in the fourth century. But 
 he is entitled to fullest credit as an expositor of the 
 thought of the third century, and even of the second : 
 he is the spokesman of the whole Age of the Martyrs. 
 Poets do but reflect and embellish the traditions of their 
 times : they do not create them. They may stereo- 
 type beliefs : they do not invent a devotion or originate 
 a doctrine. They are the echoes, nay, the emanations, 
 of popular sentiment. They merely put into rhythmic 
 form the ideas which they find prevailing. And their 
 testimony is the more valuable because it is undesigned 
 and indirect. I shall have to speak again of Pruden- 
 tius in the Fourth Chapter. I note here that it was as 
 triumphant witnesses for Christ that those who suffered 
 death for Him received religious reverence, though 
 the name "Martyr" was not originally restricted to 
 them. The distinction between Martyr and Confessor 
 was not fixed before the Decian Persecution. 
 
 The Martyrs were the first Saints, in the technical 
 sense of the word : the first whose intercession was 
 invoked, whose relics were honoured, to whom churches
 
 104 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 were dedicated. And, gradually, the Virgin Mother 
 of Christ came to be regarded as Queen of Martyrs, 
 Queen of all Saints. It was probably not until after 
 the period with which this Chapter is concerned, that 
 she attained that prominent place since held by her in 
 the devotion alike of the Western and the Eastern 
 Church. 1 But when the Council of Ephesus in 431 
 decreed to her the title of Theotokos " Mater Dei," 
 " Mother of God," are clumsy translations, although 
 the best which the Latin and English tongues allow 
 it only set its seal to a term, as Cardinal Newman 
 observes, " which was familiar to Christians from 
 primitive times and used, among other writers, by 
 Origen, Eusebius, St. Alexander, St. Ambrose, St. 
 Gregory Nazianzen, St. Gregory Nyssen, and St. 
 Nilus." 2 In truth, the subsequent explications even 
 the very latest of the doctrine received by Christians 
 concerning the Blessed Virgin, spring naturally from 
 the conception of her as "the Second Eve," which 
 was a commonplace in the Early Church, and are but 
 the logical result of what is said about her in well- 
 known passages of St. Irenaeus. It is extremely 
 improbable that this Father ever dreamed of the dogma 
 of the Immaculate Conception. It is just as im- 
 probable that he would have experienced the slightest 
 difficulty in receiving it. 
 
 1 But there can be no doubt that the devotion in the Early Church 
 to the Blessed Virgin is generally underrated. On this subject see 
 Lehner's Die Marienverehrimg in den ersten J ahrhunderten, and the 
 Sixth Chapter of Hosier's Der Katholische Dichter Aurelius Prudentius 
 Clemens, Part II. 
 
 2 Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine^ p. 145 (new 
 edition).
 
 ii.] The Religious Life 105 
 
 V 
 
 Again. I n the Age of the Martyrs we find the ever- 
 growing exaltation of the state of detachment and self- 
 denial subsequently called "the religious life," which 
 was so potently to affect Modern Civilization. It was 
 the natural fruit of the growth of the idea of Christ 
 in the Christian consciousness. His Passion, in 
 which the Martyrs shared, was but the supreme con- 
 summation of an earthly existence of sacrifice. And 
 to follow closely "the blessed steps of His most holy 
 life," soon became the supreme desire of multitudes 
 who were not called to the fellowship of His sufferings. 
 He himself had indicated the surrender of family 
 ties, the choice of voluntary poverty, the practice of 
 voluntary obedience, as the conditions of perfection. 
 From the first we may discern the efforts of ardent 
 souls to follow these counsels, to take this yoke upon 
 them. As we saw in the last Chapter, among those 
 earliest disciples of whom we have an account in the 
 initial portion of the Acts of the Apostles^ private 
 property did not exist. St. Paul's writings and the 
 Apocalypse afford clear evidence of the recognition of 
 religious celibacy as a higher and holier state than 
 matrimony. And on well-nigh every page of the 
 Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, there are indi- 
 cations of that unquestioning sacrifice of the individual 
 will which prevailed among the primitive Christians. 
 But we do not find the monastic state, properly so 
 called, either in the Nascent Church or in the Age of
 
 106 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 the Martyrs. Nuns, using the word in the widest 
 sense, are a much more ancient institution in Chris- 
 tianity than monks. In the Church of the first three 
 centuries the sacred or ecclesiastical virgins 1 were 
 held in the highest honour ; but they did not live 
 together in community, nor, apparently, until some 
 time in the third century, did they make public or 
 solemn vows. St. Augustine seems to have been the 
 first to prescribe a rule of life for the religious women 
 under his direction, who were bound to poverty, 
 but not to strict enclosure. In the middle of the 
 second century there are indications of Christian 
 ascetics as a distinct class, which in the third century 
 becomes more sharply defined. And before the fourth 
 century is far advanced, that asceticism begins to 
 assume a corporate character. St. Paul the Hermit, 
 whose life St. Jerome has written, and St. Anthony of 
 Egypt, we should perhaps regard as the founders of 
 monasticism. But St. Pachomius, who early in the 
 fourth century built monasteries in the Thebaid, appears 
 to have been the originator of the coenobite life. In 
 these holy men we may recognize the forefathers of 
 the religious of future ages, just as they are the 
 spiritual children of the Christians of the first age. 
 Cassian puts the matter quite accurately when he 
 writes 
 
 "Those who preserved the Apostolical fervour, recalling 
 
 1 "Les vierges sacrdes, aux quelles on adjoint les veuves resides fideles, 
 apres un court mariage, a la profession de viduite', forment comme une 
 aristocratic dans la communante des fideles." Duchesne, Les Origines 
 du Culte Chrttien, p. 406.
 
 ii.] Sacred Books 107 
 
 primitive perfection, quitted towns, and the society of such as 
 believed themselves permitted to live with less severity : they 
 began to choose secret and retired places, and to practise for 
 themselves, and in private, the things which they remembered 
 to have been appointed by the Apostles for the whole body 
 of the Church in general. Thus began the formation of the 
 discipline of those who had quitted the contagion of the 
 world, as they lived separate from the rest of the faithful : 
 abstaining from marriage, and having no communication 
 with the world, even with their own families. In the progress 
 of time, they were called monks, or juova^ovree, in considera- 
 tion of their singular and solitary life." * 
 
 VI 
 
 Once more. Christianity, like the other great 
 world-religions, soon experienced the need of Sacred 
 Books of its own. And very early in the Age of 
 the Martyrs there were collections of the literature 
 concerning the Person and office of Christ, though 
 unquestionably, for a time, Apostolic tradition, orally 
 transmitted, was the sole rule of faith and practice. 
 No doubt the Christians of the first century cannot be 
 described as being, in any sense, " Bible Christians," 
 for the simple reason that they had not " the Bible." 
 They had, of course, the Old Testament, and it was 
 very highly prized by them : they seem, indeed, to 
 have regarded it as inspired, literally. In the middle of 
 the second century, however, an inchoate New Testa- 
 ment made its appearance. I suppose I need hardly 
 
 1 Conlatio, 18, c. v.
 
 io8 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 say that the genesis of the documents composing the 
 New Testament, as it now exists, is a subject which 
 has greatly exercised the doctors of what is called 
 " the higher criticism," without their attaining to 
 very clear conclusions. Thus, concerning the origin 
 of the Gospels, as we have them to speak of those 
 treatises only these learned men radiate but dim 
 and uncertain light. There is an assertion of St. 
 Irenseus that St. Matthew wrote his book when 
 SS. Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome and 
 forming the Church there. The chief masters 
 of modern exegesis, while inclining to accept this 
 statement of St. Irenaeus, think that as St. Peter pro- 
 bably knew little or no Greek, St. Matthew's book 
 was composed in Aramaic ; and that the book pur- 
 porting to be his, which we now possess, was derived 
 from that Aramaic original, and enriched with liberal 
 additions and interpolations ; but they do not deny 
 that it was given to the world early in the second 
 century. St. Irenaeus also tells us that St. Luke wrote 
 down in his book " the Gospel which Paul preached." 
 The critics above referred to, while recognizing " the 
 prevailing Pauline tendency " of the book called after 
 St. Luke, and referring it, largely, to the Aramaic 
 original of St. Matthew's Gospel, allow that in its pre- 
 sent form it was produced not many years later than 
 the work bearing the name of that Evangelist. The 
 Second of our Gospels, probably derived, they tell us, 
 from the same Aramaic source as the First and Third, 
 they account the oldest of the three ; and concede that 
 it may not improbably have existed before the year
 
 ii.] The New Testament Canon 109 
 
 100. As to the Fourth Gospel, Dr. Davidson wrote, 
 a quarter of a century ago, that "the Johannine author- 
 ship has receded before the tide of modern criticism, 
 which, though arbitrary at times, is here irresistible." 1 
 But of late the view that this Gospel is virtually the 
 work of St. John himself, the record, by his disciples, 
 of his memories and conversations, has found increasing 
 acceptance among the learned. Anyhow, it certainly 
 existed in the year 140, and may have existed long 
 before. Harnack thinks that its date is not later than 
 no, and may be as early as Catholic tradition avers. 
 Whatever opinion we may form on these obscure and 
 difficult topics, regarding which I do not feel myself 
 competent to express any opinion at all, and which do 
 not specially interest me, certain it is that the writings 
 constituting our New Testament speedily obtained 
 reverence as possessing Divine authority, and came to 
 be regarded as inspired in the same sense as the 
 Jewish Sacred Books. No doubt, until the middle of 
 the second century, writings now relegated to a lower 
 place were considered as belonging to the most 
 authoritative class of Christian literature : for example, 
 the Epistles of St. Barnabas and St. Clement, the 
 Apocalypse of St. Peter, and the Shepherd of Hermas. 
 Justin Martyr seems to have considered the Acts of 
 Pilate and the Gospel of the Hebrews inspired. The 
 attempt apparently the first which we find in the 
 second half of the second century at a canon of the 
 New Testament, is of uncertain origin and of dubious 
 authority, as, indeed, might have been expected. Even 
 
 1 The Canon of the Bible, by Samuel Davidson, D.D., p. 127.
 
 no The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 in the canon given by Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical 
 History, the Epistle of St. James, the Second Epistle 
 of St. Peter, the Second and Third Epistles of 
 St. John, and the Apocalypse of that Apostle, are 
 included, not among "the writings generally received," 
 but among those "controverted." It is notable that 
 the Nicsean Council decided nothing about a Scripture 
 canon, and, so far as we know, did not even consider 
 the subject. Perhaps the reason was that there ap- 
 pears then to have been a practical unanimity among 
 Christians concerning it ; or, to use the words of Dr. 
 Davidson, "a certain spiritual consciousness mani- 
 fested itself throughout the East and West in the 
 matter." In 332 Eusebius, by order of the Emperor 
 Constantine, compiled a New Testament canon which 
 obtained general acceptance, and which appears to 
 have included all the New Testament writings now 
 received, except the Apocalypse. 
 
 VII 
 
 Even more striking than the development of a 
 canon of Scripture in the Age of the Martyrs, is the 
 development of the Church's ritual. From the first, the 
 great act of Christian worship was the Eucharist, in 
 which Christ was believed both to be given to, and to be 
 offered by, the faithful. For myself, I cannot doubt that 
 this is the liturgizing, 1 the " ministering to the Lord," 
 
 8^ avriav T$ Kvpi^ (Acts xiii. 2). The fact that fasting 
 is represented to have accompanied the liturgizing, certainly points to 
 this meaning of the word teiTovpyovvrw, for in the Primitive Church
 
 ii.] The Primitive Eucharist in 
 
 mentioned in a well-known passage of the Acts of the 
 Apostles. But, as was observed in the last Chapter, 
 the liturgies of those early disciples were very scanty 
 and simple. The undeveloped ritual of the Eucha- 
 rist in the Didache has led M. Sabatier to place its 
 date in the middle of the first century. But it does 
 not seem that even in the time of Justin Martyr the 
 development had proceeded very far. It may be 
 worth while to quote, from his First Apology, written 
 in 152, his account of the Christian Sacrifice, as he 
 calls it, holding it to be " the pure oblation " foretold 
 by the Prophet Malachi. 
 
 " On the day of the Sun * all those who inhabit towns or 
 villages assemble in one place ; and the memoirs of the 
 Apostles, or the books of the Prophets are read, as long as 
 time permits. Then, the reader having finished, he who 
 presides exhorts the people with suitable words to the 
 imitation of these good things. Next, we all rise together 
 
 fasting and the Eucharist went together. So Prudentius, in his " Hymnus 
 Jejunantium" (the Vllth of the Cathemerinori) says of fasting 
 
 " Hoc est quod atri livor hostis invidet, 
 Mundi polique quod gubernator probat, 
 Altaris aram quod facit placabilem" 
 
 1 Mgr. Duchesne writes : " Possibly the choice [by Christians] of 
 this day had not been originally dictated by any hostility to Jewish 
 practices, but solely by the desire of having, beside the ancient sabbath, 
 which they celebrated with their brethren of Israel, a day consecrated 
 to meetings exclusively Christian. The idea of transferring to the 
 Sunday the solemnity of the sabbath, with all its requirements, is an 
 idea foreign to Primitive Christianity. . . . The Sunday was originally 
 juxtaposed to the sabbath ; and as the breach between the Church 
 and the Synagogue widened, the sabbath became less important, and 
 ended by being completely neglected." Origines dit Culte Chretien, 
 p. 46.
 
 112 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 and offer hearty prayers in common, for ourselves and for 
 those who had been just baptized, as for all others in what- 
 soever country, that, having acquired the knowledge of the 
 truth, we may be counted worthy by our works also to be 
 found good citizens and keepers of the commandments, so 
 that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation. Having 
 ended the prayers, we salute each other with a kiss. Then 
 are offered to the President of the brethren, bread and wine 
 mixed with water, having received which things, he gives 
 glory and praise to the Father of the universe through the 
 Name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and continues for 
 some time in the rendering of thanks for our being counted 
 worthy to receive these things from His hands. These 
 prayers and thanksgivings being finished, all the people 
 assisting express their assent by saying ' Amen.' This word 
 'Amen* answers in the Hebrew language to ylvotro. And 
 when the President has given thanks, and all the people have 
 expressed their assent, those who are called by us deacons, 
 give to each of those present to partake of the bread and 
 wine mixed with water over which the thanksgiving was 
 pronounced, and to those who are absent they carry away 
 a portion. And this divine food is called among us the 
 Eucharist, of which, assuredly, no one is allowed to partake but 
 the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, 
 and who has been washed with the washing which is for the 
 remission of sins and unto regeneration, and who is so living 
 as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and 
 common drink do we receive these ; but in like manner as 
 Jesus Christ our Saviour having been made flesh by the Word 
 of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise 
 have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the 
 prayers of His Word, and from which our flesh and blood by 
 transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that 
 Jesus who was made flesh. For the Apostles in the memoirs 
 composed by them which are called Gospels, have thus 
 delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them : that Jesus 
 took bread and after rendering thanks, said, ' Do this in
 
 ii.] Concelebration 113 
 
 remembrance of Me: this is My body ;' and that after the 
 same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He 
 said, ' This is My blood: " * 
 
 This simple worship was invested with ever-grow- 
 ing solemnity in the first three centuries ; but few 
 details of the process are known to us. Pope Sixtus I. 
 (132) is said to have ordained that none should touch 
 the sacred vessels save priests and deacons. A century 
 later it is recorded that Pope Zephyrinus prohibited 
 the use of any other material than gold and silver for 
 the sacramental chalice ; and Pope Urban I. (226) is 
 said to have bestowed sacred vessels of gold, and lamps 
 in silver, upon various churches. The clergy officiated 
 in the classic white vestments ordinarily worn by 
 Roman citizens ; nor, indeed, were they laid aside 
 until the ninth century. It was in the time of 
 Constantine that the Bishops first assumed purple 
 raiment. The earliest altar was a plain wooden table ; 
 but soon the Eucharistic Sacrifice was celebrated on 
 the tombs of the martyrs ; and in the third century 
 the original wooden altar appears to have been 
 generally superseded by a structure of solid stone with 
 relics inserted in a cavity under the mensa. At this 
 period few churches had more than one altar. 
 
 " In the early Church concelebration was the rule : the 
 bishop, that is, used to consecrate with the presbyters around 
 him, and with the other bishops, should any be present. . . . 
 
 1 It is curious, as Mgr. Duchesne points out, that of the four elements 
 of public worship borrowed by the Church from the Synagogue lection, 
 sermon, prayers, and singing of Psalms the last is not here mentioned 
 by St. Justin, Origines du Cidte Chrdtien^ p. 49. 
 
 I
 
 H4 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 This concurrence was the common Roman practice in the 
 sixth century. . . . Authors disagree as to the date when 
 private mass, that is, mass celebrated by a presbyter alone, 
 was first permitted. ... At Rome the Solemnity of the Mass 
 at first began with long readings from the historical books 
 and Prophets, ending with a long collecta> or prayer said by 
 the Bishop, who entered for the purpose. This formed the 
 catechttmens' mass; but in other places the catechumens 
 were not dismissed until the Gospel had been read. This 
 service up to the collecta was conducted by the deacons. 
 The missa fidelium was incorporated with this previous 
 service, and both together formed the missa, or mass, which 
 was already in' use in the fourth century. Even the present 
 high mass does not adequately represent this great cor- 
 porate act, in which people, presbyters, deacons, and bishop 
 each had their part." * 
 
 And now I will put before my readers the com- 
 plete and vivid account of the ritual of the Eucharist 
 in the fourth century, given by Hemans, in his learned 
 but little-known work on Ancient Christianity and 
 Sacred Art. 
 
 " Primitive worship was, as we have seen, simple, pure, 
 intelligible. With the reports of its character in earlier times 
 we may now confront what authorities state respecting its 
 more majestic and complex celebration in the fourth century. 
 St. Cyril of Jerusalem supplies the fullest details (Mystagog^ 
 v.) as to the sacramental rites which had already been called 
 'Missa' (hence 'Mass' the Latin term being first used in 
 that sense by St. Ambrose, Ep. liv., date 385) ; mentioning 
 in due order the preparatory ablutions at the altar (significant 
 of the purification of the soul for holiest ministry), the kiss 
 
 1 The Liturgy in Rome, by M.A.R.T., p. 4. I am glad to have an 
 opportunity of calling attention to this most admirable handbook, and 
 to the others of the same series.
 
 ii.] The Eucharist in the Fourth Century 115 
 
 of peace, the chanted preface beginning with the exhorta- 
 tion, 'Lift up your hearts;,' the Sanctus ; the Consecration, 
 followed by prayers for the Universal Church, for Rulers, the 
 sick and afflicted, and the faithful departed ; finally, the 
 general communion in both kinds, all receiving the Host in 
 the right, laid across the left hand ; all present being invited 
 to the altar in words sung to heavenly music, ' Taste and see 
 that Christ is the Lord.' Much analogy with the Latin High 
 Mass of the present day is here apparent ; and yet the 
 discrepancies are also marked. Though the doctrine of 
 the Real Presence is emphatically enounced by St. Cyril, 
 no mention is made of the elevation or adoration of the 
 Eucharist ; and the communion of all present in both kinds 
 appears to have been invariable indeed, obligatory. The 
 clergy officiated in long white vestments (see the ancient 
 mosaics in Rome's churches), over which a. pallium (or woollen 
 band studded with black crosses) was worn by the Bishop, not 
 otherwise distinguished as yet either by mitre or by crozier. 
 Incense sent up its fragrant cloud, emblem of the sentiment 
 that adores and the rite that consecrates ; precious balsams 
 burned in the sanctuary; and a profusion of lights from 
 candelabra or pendant lamps (around and above, but not 
 upon, the altar) illumined the sacred scene. The consecra- 
 tion was usually in unleavened bread, and wine with a little 
 water, set apart out of the oblations made by the faithful for 
 such use, and for the support of their ministers ; offerings 
 which were in various kinds corn and oil, birds, fruit, 
 legumes, milk, honey, besides bread, wine, and incense ; 
 sometimes also in money ; these offerings not being brought 
 into the church, but into the oblationarium (or gcusopkylacium^ 
 where the deacons examined them to ascertain whether they 
 were worthy that is, presented by worthy subjects. The 
 Eucharist, in one kind, was reserved either in a silver taber- 
 nacle, or pendant dove of some precious material, thus to 
 be ready, as required, for the communion of the sick or 
 captives : travellers also being allowed to carry it with them 
 on long journeys for a participation which, of course, was
 
 1 1 6 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 private ; and the Hermits of the desert had the frequent 
 privilege of retaining it in their solitude. How the ancient 
 practice of reserving the Holy Eucharist, and sending it to 
 those unable to communicate in public worship, appears from 
 the affecting story of the young martyr, an acolyte (see 
 ' Acts of Pope St. Stephen '), who was beaten to death in a 
 Roman street for refusing to discover that sacred object he 
 had been entrusted to convey, and which his persecutors 
 sought for in vain on his person ! The communion in one 
 kind, that of the cup, seems to have been early adopted for 
 children ; in other cases but rarely and within a few dioceses 
 alone. . . . Liturgies, 1 it is evident, were for the first three 
 centuries handed down to use in the several churches, dif- 
 ferent, though all formed on a common type, without being 
 ever drawn up in writing ; in this respect liberty being the 
 rule, the large constitution of the Primitive Church allowing 
 each Bishop to compose a new, or alter an ancient liturgy, 
 without reference to other arbitration. . . . Prayer for the 
 dead certainly prevailed, and took established form at a very 
 early period. ... At Solemn Mass their names, with those 
 of all the living entitled to the Church's prayers, used to be 
 read from the ' diptych ' by some subordinate minister on the 
 anniversaries of their decease, and what is now known as 
 the Requiem Mass would be celebrated." 
 
 Thus during the Age of the Martyrs was the cele- 
 bration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice invested with ever- 
 growing solemnity, practices gradually becoming rites, 
 and rites developing into ceremonies more or less 
 significant, more or less complicated. It was the act 
 of Christian worship at which alone the attendance of 
 the faithful was obligatory ; the solemn and supreme 
 function of the religion of Christ. We should note, in 
 
 1 It is hardly necessary to say that they were all originally in the pre- 
 dominant vernacular of the country.
 
 n.] The Expansion of Ritual 117 
 
 passing, that the ritual of the other great Sacrament 
 of the New Law also received expansion during the 
 Age of the Martyrs. The forehead, ears, eyes, and 
 breast of the neophyte were anointed with conse- 
 crated chrism ; salt was placed on his tongue ; he was 
 clothed in white robes, and, after a triple immersion, 1 
 he was fed with milk and honey. It may also be 
 observed that, throughout the Age of the Martyrs, 
 there is abundant evidence of various religious prac- 
 tices still obtaining both in the Latin and Greek 
 Churches, but discarded by most Protestant sects. 
 The use of the sign of the cross and of holy water 
 certainly dates from a very early period of Chris- 
 tianity. The same may be said of sacramental con- 
 fession, which appears in the Age of the Martyrs to 
 have been sometimes public, sometimes private that 
 is, addressed to a priest. But the penitential discipline 
 of the Early Church is too large and difficult a subject 
 to be entered upon here. 
 
 VIII 
 
 It remains, before concluding this Chapter, to 
 speak of the development of the ecclesiastical 
 
 1 I should observe that " immersion " does not necessarily mean total 
 immersion. In the representations of the administration of baptism 
 found on the ancient monuments, the neophyte stands in the water, which 
 the celebrant pours over him. As Mgr. Duchesne observes, " L'immer- 
 sion dont parlent les anciens textes n'est pas autre chose que 1'affusion 
 actuelle, pratique*e sans doute avec plus d'abondance, mais sans difference 
 essentielle." Les Eglises Separtes, p. 95.
 
 1 1 8 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 organization of Christianity in the Age of the Martyrs : 
 of the growth into an ecumenical polity of the visible 
 kingdom of Christ, the invisible King. And here, 
 although as to many details we have but little light, 
 the main facts stand out in clearest outline. The 
 Seven Epistles of St. Ignatius, who suffered at Rome 
 about no, constitute a document the authenticity of 
 which is, I suppose I may say, universally admitted, 
 and the authority of which is of the very first order. 1 
 Now, what Cardinal Newman calls " their pronounced 
 ecclesiasticism " is most significant. As he observes, 
 they present to us " the Catholic system, not in an 
 inchoate state, not in doubtful dawnings, not in mere 
 tendencies, or in implicit teaching, or in temper, or in 
 surmises, but in a definite, complete, and dogmatic 
 form." 2 There can be no question at all that when 
 St. Ignatius wrote, the term episcopus had become 
 specialized. It denotes, technically, the religious 
 office of a Bishop, in the sense which the word has 
 ever since borne in the Christian Church. For him, 
 the Bishop is the ruler who claims obedience by right 
 Divine, whose authority is of Apostolic origin, and who 
 is the pledge and instrument of unity, for he speaks of 
 Bishops as " established unto the ends of the earth." 
 Probably we should not be wrong in dating the 
 specialization of the term " Bishop " at the beginning 
 of the second century. In St. Clement's Epistle, 
 written in 97, the word bears its New Testament 
 
 1 Renan thought them spurious, but I doubt if any scholar of name 
 now takes that view. Kenan's critical faculty was far below his 
 constructive. 
 
 2 Essays Critical and Historical, vol. i. p. 222.
 
 ii.] Hierarchical Development 119 
 
 sense as synonymous with "presbyter." But St. 
 Clement clearly recognizes a threefold ministry : he 
 speaks of " approved men " as a class distinct from 
 the presbyters or episcopoi and the deacons, and as 
 appointed by the Apostles. What is certain is, that 
 in the middle of the second century we find episco- 
 pacy, as we understand the word, established as the 
 universal form of government in the Christian Church. 
 Equally certain is it that we must seek the key to 
 the interpretation of the Apostolic Age in the age 
 which succeeded it. What was matured in the 
 second, in the third century, was present, in germ, in 
 the first. 
 
 But more. At this very early period we find not 
 merely episcopacy : we find, at all events the rudi- 
 ments of the hierarchy which was to come. Each 
 Church was ruled by its Bishop ; but it was not an 
 isolated organization. From the first, the Christians 
 of all countries felt themselves to be brethren in 
 Christ : members as of Him, so of one another. It 
 is certain that this conception of the catholicity of the 
 Church prevailed from the very beginning ; and in 
 the earliest times it was kept alive by the all-pervading 
 activity of Apostles and Apostolic men, who went 
 everywhere, instructing, warning, encouraging their 
 brethren. When those times passed away, the unity 
 and catholicity of the Church were destined to find 
 expression in its hierarchy, grouped around Rome 
 and the Roman Bishop. 
 
 " Jerusalem," writes Mgr. Duchesne, " existed only as a 
 remembrance. Clearly the Holy City was not predestined
 
 lao The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 to become the metropolis of Christianity. It was to the 
 great Babylon of the West, so cursed by Jewish Prophets, 
 that this part fell. Though situated at the extremity 
 of the Greek world nay, beyond it Rome was the centre 
 to which all the world gravitated. From the moment 
 that Christianity aimed at embracing the whole Orbis 
 Romanus, it could have no other capital. Besides, Rome 
 was consecrated by the preaching and the martyrdom of the 
 two greatest Apostles. The memory of them was still fresh. 
 The other missionary Apostles, except St. John, had dis- 
 appeared without leaving precise recollections. Legend, 
 which soon fastened on them, appears to have had all the 
 more freedom, since it met only with some fugitive traditions. 
 Rome, capital of the empire, see of St. Peter, shrine of the 
 Apostles, became, without opposition, the metropolis of the 
 Church." i 
 
 Evidence of this hierarchical princedom I use 
 the expression advisedly of Rome, is found very 
 early in the Age of the Martyrs. Even before the 
 capture of Jerusalem by Titus, the authority of the 
 Christian Church in the Holy City, gathered around 
 and dominated by the family of Jesus, had begun to 
 wane. The victory of the Roman general reduced 
 it to a secondary rank. The Church in Rome grew 
 into ever-increasing importance and predominance. 
 And before the first century is over, we see its 
 Bishop, St. Clement, intervening, unasked, in the 
 dissensions of the Church of Corinth, and speaking 
 as one having authority like that of a modern Pope. 2 
 His place in the order of the Roman Bishops is, 
 
 1 Origines du Culte Chrttien, p. 14. 
 
 Thus, for example (I use Dr. Salmon's translation), " If any dis- 
 obey the words spoken through us, let them know that they will entangle
 
 ii.] The Primacy of Rome 121 
 
 perhaps, not quite certain, though it can hardly be 
 doubted that he sat at the feet, and learnt the 
 doctrine, of SS. Peter and Paul. It is quite certain, 
 to quote the picturesque words of Renan, that, 
 " enveloped and half lost, as he is, in the luminous 
 dust of a far-gone past, he is one of the great 
 figures of nascent Christianity, out of which he looks 
 upon us like an old, half-effaced fresco of Giotto, still 
 recognizable by his aureole of gold, and by some 
 vague tints of a radiance at once pure and sweet." l 
 
 We may say that from his time the ecclesiastical 
 destiny of Rome was fixed as the centre of unity, the 
 source of authority, "the Mother and Mistress of all 
 the Churches." And thus a hundred years later we 
 find St. Irenaeus, in his work Against Heresies, using 
 language which seems quite conclusive as to the 
 position the Roman Church then occupied. In the 
 Third Book of this treatise, written some time between 
 184 and 192, he maintains that the faithful every- 
 where must resort to it, as containing the quintes- 
 sence of the tradition of the whole Church, and insists 
 upon its " potentior principalitas " 2 an authority, or 
 rather primacy, derived, as the whole tenor of his 
 argument shows him to have held, from its foundation 
 by the " two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul." 
 
 themselves in transgression and no small danger." " You will cause us 
 joy and exaltation if, obeying the things written by us through the Holy 
 Spirit, you cut off the lawless passions of your jealousy." 
 
 1 Conferences de Angleterre, p. 126. 
 
 2 We have only the Latin translation of this work ; the words are, 
 "Ad hanc ecclesiam, propter potentiorem principalitatem, necesse est 
 omnem convenire ecclesiam."
 
 122 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 It is no wonder that Ziegler, in his learned mono- 
 graph, speaks of St. Irenaeus not only as recognizing 
 in Rome "the most suitable, natural, and therefore 
 necessary centre of unity for the whole Church," but 
 also as "passing, so to speak, prophetically beyond him- 
 self, and anticipating the Papal Church of the future." l 
 "The Papal Church of the future." The phrase 
 suggests a caution which, perhaps, may be not un- 
 necessary before we proceed further. We must be 
 ever upon our guard against that " fatal imposture and 
 force of words " which leads us to transport into far-off 
 ages the thoughts of later times. True as this is of 
 history generally, it is especially true of ecclesiastical 
 history. Thus we are accustomed to speak of the 
 rulers of the Roman Church, from the first, as Popes 
 and, in a sense, we rightly so speak. But it is well 
 to remember that they did not specially designate 
 themselves by that title till long after the Age of the 
 Martyrs. The word, borrowed from a Greek original, 
 which is a childlike term of endearment for " father," 
 was applied originally to all the clergy, as it is at this 
 day in the Eastern Church. After a few centuries one 
 cannot speak more precisely it appears to have been 
 restricted, in the West, to Bishops ; but not until the 
 year 1073 did St. Gregory VII., by a decree published 
 in a Roman Council, specialize it as a title reserved 
 exclusively to the Bishops of Rome. This is not an 
 
 1 Irenaus, der Bischof -von Lyon, p. 150. It maybe noted that St. 
 Augustine, writing centuries after, uses an expression very like the 
 "potentior principalitas " of St. Irenasus, and an excellent comment on 
 it. He declares that in the Roman Church " semper Apostolicae Cathedrae 
 viguit principatus " (Ep. xliii. n. 7).
 
 ii.] A Necessary Caution 123 
 
 unimportant matter. It is one of many instances 
 which might be quoted to show how, as the hierarchy 
 of the Church developed, the authority of the Roman 
 see developed, until in its occupant the words were 
 fulfilled, " Let people serve thee and nations bow down 
 to thee : be lord over thy brethren." l As the Roman 
 Bishops, in the Age of the Martyrs, were not called 
 Popes in the sense which the word now bears, so 
 were they not invested with some of the attributes 
 most distinctive of the Supreme Pontiffs of later 
 times. What was latent in the idea of "the Chair 
 of Peter " received explication only in the slow course 
 of centuries. We do not find any of its occu- 
 pants, in those far-off days, appointing Patriarchs, 
 " preconizing " Bishops, or summoning a General 
 Council as yet, General Councils were not just as 
 we do not find there the College of Cardinals as the 
 Pope's electors, or the Sacred Congregations as his 
 administrative Boards, or the triple crown as his 
 distinctive head-dress. " The Papal Church," as we 
 know it, is " the long result of time." 
 
 That result was indeed inevitable. It is the out- 
 come of the necessary laws which rule the develop- 
 ment of institutions, as of the ideas underlying them. 
 And for that is my present point there are unmis- 
 takable traces, throughout the earliest Christian 
 centuries, of the action of those laws, in the rapid 
 growth of the central authority of Rome. From the 
 time of St. Clement the Roman Church manifests, 
 
 1 There is a world of significance in the title of " Venerable Brother " 
 by which the Pope still addresses Bishops.
 
 124 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 in an ever-growing degree, the tradition of order, of 
 subordination, of discipline. " Factus est obediens " 
 He was made obedient are words written of Christ. 
 It is not too much to say that the Roman see insisted 
 upon this principle of obedience as the very funda- 
 mental principle of His kingdom. Renan observes, 
 aptly, that the dictum of the French Archbishop, so 
 much criticized when uttered, "My clergy is my 
 regiment," is found, almost in terms, in St. Clement's 
 Epistle. This is the special note of the Roman see 
 in those days. There are few great names among 
 its occupants : no names like Tertullian, Clement of 
 Alexandria, Origen, representing lives of fruitful 
 intellectual toil, and legacies of thought destined to 
 influence the world's spiritual history. Perhaps not 
 until the beginning of the fifth century does a man 
 of genius adorn the long list of St. Clement's succes- 
 sors, in the person of St. Leo the Great. But long 
 before he had entered upon his office, the Roman see 
 was in the plenitude of its power, its intervention 
 supreme, its judgment final. Neander is well war- 
 ranted when he says, " Very early indeed " the Popes 
 assumed "that to them, as successors of St. Peter, 
 belonged a paramount authority in ecclesiastical 
 disputes." l He has in view especially the action of 
 Victor (190), of Zephyrinus (200), and of Stephen 
 (250), upon which I need not here dwell. And we 
 may adopt the words of Renan, in another sense 
 than that in which he employs them, that " the spirit 
 which in 1870 decrees the Pope's infallibility, may be 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 298 (Eng. trans. ).
 
 ii.] The Source of Unity 125 
 
 discerned, by already unmistakable signs, from the 
 end of the second century." l I add that at this 
 period, as later, spurious documents were employed, 
 doubtless in the best of faith, and by men whose 
 integrity is beyond question, in building up the 
 authority of the Roman Church. The False Decre- 
 tals, so powerful an agent in riveting the claims of 
 the medieval Papacy, had their counterparts, during 
 the Age of the Martyrs, in works falsely ascribed to 
 Apostles and Apostolic personages. 
 
 And it was around the Papacy, thus ever acquiring 
 ampler authority, that the hierarchy grew up. I do 
 not know who has more clearly indicated this than 
 St. Cyprian when, in his Fifty-fifth Epistle, written 
 in the middle of the third century, he speaks of the 
 see of Rome as " the Chair of Peter and the primary 
 Church (cccUsiam principalem) whence the unity of 
 the priesthood arose (unde unitas sacerdotalis exorta 
 est) ; " and, again, when in his Sixteenth Epistle he 
 maintains that there is "one Church, founded upon 
 Peter, for the origin and purpose of unity." Christi- 
 anity was at first entirely urban. The very term 
 " countryman " paganus soon came to denote an un- 
 converted idolater. Each city (civitas) had its deacons, 
 presbyters, and Bishop. The diocese, in the modern 
 
 1 It is only right to quote Kenan's own words : " Les pauvres arte*- 
 monites (sorte d'ariens anticipes) ont beau se plaindre de 1'injustice du 
 sort qui fait d'eux des he're'tiques, tandis que jusqu' a Victor toute 1'figlise 
 de Rome pensait comme eux : ou ne les e"coute pas. L'^lglise de Rome 
 se mettait des lors au-dessus de 1'histoire. L'esprit qui en 1870 fera 
 proclamer I'infaillibilite" du pape, se recommit des la fin du 1 1", siecle, a 
 des signes ddja reconnaissables." Conferences (TAngleterre, p. 171.
 
 ia6 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 acceptation of the word, did not exist. The Bishop 
 was a sort of rector of a city parish, under whose 
 pastoral charge were the few scattered faithful, dwell- 
 ing within reasonable, but not strictly dilimited, dis- 
 tance of the city walls. As the ecclesiastical character 
 of the ministry became more marked, extraordinary 
 spiritual gifts glossolaly, free prophecy, and the like 
 tokens of individual inspiration disappeared. We 
 can the better realize the process, as we have seen 
 it accomplished among the Irvingites of the last 
 century. These things were incompatible with eccle- 
 siastical decency and order. But it must always be 
 remembered that this hierarchical constitution of the 
 Church rested on a democratic basis. It was the 
 issue of that voluntary surrender of the individual 
 will which, though realized perfectly only in the 
 religious life, is a fundamental principle of the doctrine 
 of Christ. It was the outcome, too, of the free choice 
 by the faithful of those who should have the rule over 
 them. This was the source of the legislative and 
 executive character of the rulers, but not, indeed, of 
 their spiritual authority. That, and all involved in 
 it, was believed to come from on high : from Jesus 
 Christ himself, through the channel of canonical 
 ordination, transmitted from the Apostles. Thus did 
 " the happy anarchy of the first century " give place, 
 in the second and the third, to what Origen calls " the 
 hierarchy parallel to that of the State, founded by the 
 Word of God everywhere." 1 
 
 And as this hierarchical organization spread more 
 
 1 Contra Celsum, I. viii. c. 75. 

 
 ii.] The Office of the Roman Bishop 127 
 
 widely, the necessity of a central authority was ever 
 more deeply felt. The Bishops of a province meet in 
 synod, usually presided over by the Bishop of the 
 provincial city, soon to develop into an Archbishop. 
 But this episcopal gathering turns for guidance to the 
 Roman see, whose Bishop becomes the Bishop of 
 Bishops ; his office, like that of St. Peter, to strengthen 
 his brethren. Mgr. Duchesne remarks, writing of 
 this period 
 
 " The Churches of the entire world experienced in all 
 things, in faith, in discipline, in government, in ritual, in 
 works of charity, the unceasing action of the Roman Church. 
 She was everywhere known, as St Irenaeus says, everywhere 
 present, everywhere respected, everywhere obeyed. No com- 
 petitor, no rival, confronted her. No one had any idea of 
 putting himself on the same footing with her. Later on, 
 there will be patriarchates and other lower primacies. But 
 in the course of the third century we hardly see even the 
 vaguest outlines of them. 1 Above these inchoate organisms, 
 as above the collection of isolated Churches, rise the Roman 
 Church in its majestic sovereignty : the Roman Church, 
 represented by its Bishops whose long succession is linked to 
 the two leaders of the Apostolic College : the Roman Church, 
 which feels itself, which proclaims itself, which is considered 
 by all the world, the centre and the organ of unity." a 
 
 1 I give Mgr. Duchesne's words as I find them. But I think he 
 underrates the rank and influence in the third century of the patriarchates 
 of Alexandria and Antioch. To refer to merely one bit of evidence, the 
 language of the sixth canon of the Nicene Council its text will be 
 found at p. 173 is difficult to reconcile with Mgr. Duchesne's view. 
 
 2 Les Eglises Separdes, p. 155. It is notable that Pope Innocent I., in 
 his Epistle to the Council of Carthage (416), which had referred to him 
 in some doubtful matters, commends it for so doing, as " keeping to the 
 precedents of ancient tradition and mindful of the discipline of the 
 Church." And in the next year, writing upon a similar occasion to the
 
 128 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 IX 
 
 The hierarchical development of Christianity, round 
 the Roman see, may be said, in a sense, to have saved 
 Christianity. It supplied an international bond and a 
 common authority which enabled the new religion to 
 become the religion of the Roman world : the religion 
 which higher destiny should be the constructive, 
 regulative, corrective principle of Modern Civilization. 
 The Edict of Toleration in 3 1 1 brought to a close 
 the most heroic period in the history of this new 
 religion : the period of the ecclesia pressa. But that very 
 pressure had made of it " a city that is at unity with 
 itself." It came out of its great tribulation an organ- 
 ized and victorious polity. And I suppose we may 
 regard the First General Council, held at Nicaea in 325, 
 as the outward symbol of its victory. The prolonged 
 endeavour of the Empire to suppress it, had failed. 
 The sagacious mind of Constantine conceived the idea 
 of using it as the bond to hold the Empire together. 
 He himself attributes his resolve to convoke the 
 Council to "a kind of Divine inspiration." Unques- 
 tionably, its meeting was a most momentous event, 
 as well as a deeply significant sign of the times. In 
 
 Council of Milevis, he praises it for " following the form of the ancient 
 rule, which" (he adds) " you know, as well as I, has ever been preserved 
 in the whole world." In the absence of early Decretals of the Bishops 
 of Rome the series existing begins with Siricius (384) this is as good 
 evidence as is procurable regarding the practice of previous centuries. 
 It is not probable that Pope Innocent would have made such an appeal 
 to ancient tradition and ancient rule and ecclesiastical discipline, unless 
 the facts warranted it. 

 
 ii.] The Victory of Christ 129 
 
 response to the Imperial letter, three hundred and 
 eighteen Bishops repaired to that little town of Asia 
 Minor, from every quarter of the Roman Empire; 
 17 otKou/iei^, the inhabited world, as it was wont to 
 be called, in ignorant disdain of the vast regions lying 
 beyond its borders. The geographical limits of the 
 Empire and of the Church were, indeed, practically 
 the same. 1 Only two prelates who owed no allegiance 
 to Caesar attended the Synod John, a Persian, and 
 Theophilus, a Scythian. It does not fall within my 
 plan to dwell upon the proceedings of that august 
 assembly, the special office of which was to put 
 before the world the clear image of Christ and His 
 kingdom. I merely point to it as the outward visible 
 sign of the progress made by the Church during the 
 Age of the Martyrs. Just fifty-five years afterwards, 
 an Imperial decree proclaims Christianity the religion 
 of the Empire. A memorable event, indeed ; but still 
 more memorable is the spectacle exhibited only a little 
 later, when the Emperor whose will is recorded in that 
 decree, prostrated himself before St. Ambrose, seeking 
 relief from the sentence of excommunication where- 
 with the Saint had bound him after the massacre of 
 Thessalonica, and, as Theodoret relates, " tore his hair, 
 struck his forehead, and shed torrents of tears, while 
 
 1 There is extremely little evidence regarding the spread of Christi- 
 anity without the limits of the Empire in the first three centuries, and I 
 strongly doubt whether, with the exception, perhaps, of Persia, it was 
 carried much beyond the Roman frontier. The passages usually cited 
 for the contrary view from Justin Martyr (Dial, cum Tryp., 117), 
 Tertullian (Adv. Judczos, c. 7), and Origen (Contra Celsttm, I. i. 27, 
 I. ii. 13), are evidently rhetorical exaggerations ; and, as evidently, 
 Irenaeus (Adv. Har., I. i. 5) is speaking of provinces of the Empire. 
 
 K
 
 130 The Age of the Martyrs [CH. 
 
 he implored forgiveness of God." The faith preached 
 by St. Paul and St. Silas had indeed " turned the 
 world upside down." Caesar had acknowledged the 
 supremacy of that other King, " one Jesus," whom they 
 had proclaimed.
 
 in.] A Representative Man 131 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN REVOLUTION 
 
 WE will go on, in this Chapter, to consider, a little 
 more closely, the great revolution wrought by Chris- 
 tianity, and inquire what was its effect first upon the 
 individual man, and then upon that civil society which 
 is man's normal state. And here let us put ourselves 
 under the guidance of one whom we may, I think, 
 account the greatest man produced by Latin Chris- 
 tianity. In the writings of St. Augustine we have not 
 only the most complete revelation of the workings of an 
 individual mind which human literature offers, and the 
 most vivid image of the society in which he lived : 
 we have also the adumbration, as in high dream and 
 solemn vision, of the age which was to come, and 
 which he, more than any one else, was to mould and 
 shape. He sums up in himself the results of four 
 centuries of moral and spiritual transition. He cast 
 European thought into the form in which it was to 
 rule Western civilization for a thousand years. His 
 mind was as some vast lake, into which flowed the 
 many streams of philosophic speculation proceeding
 
 132 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 from the antique world, and whence issued the two 
 great rivers of medieval theology, the dogmatic and 
 the mystical, that were to make glad the city of 
 God. 
 
 The life of St. Augustine extends from the year 
 354 to the year 430. Its external incidents are so 
 generally known that it will not be necessary here to 
 do more than most briefly sketch them. The son of a 
 burgess of Tagaste, in Numidia, of narrow fortune, and 
 educated by the self-denying devotion of his parents, 
 first at Madaura, and then at Carthage, he adopted, 
 on arriving at man's estate, the profession of rhetoric 
 in his native town. His father, Patricius, lived a 
 Pagan, but received baptism at the point of death, 
 being won to Christianity by that prudence, patience, 
 and piety of St. Monica, of which her great son has 
 left so beautiful and touching a picture. Augustine 
 was naturally of restless intellect, and of strong desires. 
 Vehement alike in his worldly pursuits and his animal 
 impulses, in his secular friendships and in his spiritual 
 aspirations, his life for the first thirty-three years was 
 spent without fixed principles in religion or philosophy ; 
 in coquettings now with one system and now with 
 another. He does not seem to have been what the 
 common standard of his day or, indeed, of ours 
 would judge a libertine. There is no reason for sup- 
 posing him to have been unfaithful to his mistress, 1 
 whom he took at the age of eighteen, and who lived 
 
 1 Concubina. I need hardly remark that in St. Augustine's time 
 concubinage was almost recognized in Roman law as a lower form of 
 marriage. The jurists call it " licita consuetude."
 
 in.] St. Augustine's Career 133 
 
 with him for thirteen years, bearing him one son, to 
 whom he gave the name of Adeodatus. In the year 376 
 the loss of a dearly loved friend induced him to leave 
 Tagaste. The place, he says, in his vehement way, 
 became intolerable to him ; his heart " was utterly 
 darkened, and whatever he looked upon was death." 
 He removed to Carthage, and there practised his 
 profession of a " seller of words " (as he calls it), until 
 the year 383 ; then he went to Rome, whence two years 
 afterwards he repaired to Milan as public lecturer in 
 rhetoric. There, four years later, he was baptized by 
 St. Ambrose, selling all his goods and giving the pro- 
 ceeds to the poor. In the year 388 he left Italy for 
 Hippo Regius, a seaport of Numidia, and founded a 
 religious community. The next year Valerius, the 
 bishop, ordained him priest, the insistence of the 
 people overcoming his unwillingness. In the year 395 
 the same popular pressure forced him to become the 
 coadjutor of Valerius, whom he succeeded in the see a 
 few months afterwards. The remaining thirty-five 
 years of his life were passed in the administration of 
 his episcopal office, in polemical discussions against 
 Manicheans, Pelagians, Donatists ; in expounding, 
 developing, and consolidating the philosophy and the 
 theology of the Catholic Church. He died in the year 
 430, in the third month of the siege of his city by the 
 Vandals, to the last doing with all his might the duties 
 laid upon him, and never wavering in his perfect con- 
 fidence in the Divine government of the world, while 
 all around him men's hearts were failing them from 
 fear, and for looking after those things which were
 
 134 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 coming upon the earth. " Thou art just, O Lord, and 
 Thy judgment is right," was, as his biographer tells 
 us, his habitual thought amid those " storms of sad 
 confusion," which might well seem to portend the 
 foundering of a world. 
 
 In its outward circumstances the career of St. 
 Augustine might be closely paralleled from the lives 
 of many other ecclesiastics of his times. What 
 renders him of peculiar importance to us, and especi- 
 ally for my present purpose, is that he has laid bare 
 for us his inner life. There is not one of his writings 
 which does not do for us in its measure, and, as it 
 were, by the way and unpremeditatedly, what is done 
 more fully, and of set purpose, in the Confessions, 
 that wonderful history of a soul, written as if in 
 "starlight and immortal tears." It is, perhaps, the 
 greatest treatise of mystical philosophy which the 
 world possesses : great, not only in the high intel- 
 lectual power which breathes throughout it, but in its 
 purity, its sanity, its self-repression. Here he shows 
 us how it was that the faith of Christ subdued him, 
 and brought him into a captivity which is true liberty, 
 and what the change was which it wrought in him. 
 Let us listen to the tale which he unfolds. 
 
 II 
 
 But first we will glance at the conditions of his 
 age. It would be as unphilosophical to leave them 
 out as it would be to consider nothing else but them.
 
 ni.] St. Augustine's Times 135 
 
 It was the age, then, when the great fabric of imperial 
 power which had been raised upon the ruins of Roman 
 liberty, was hastening to its fall. Seventeen years 
 before St. Augustine was born, the first division of 
 the Empire took place between the sons of Constan- 
 tine. The year before his birth witnessed the solder- 
 ing together of the fragments under Constantius ; the 
 year afterwards there is a new partition, and Valens 
 and Valentinian fix their capitals, the one at Con- 
 stantinople, the other at Milan. In the year 392 Theo- 
 dosius again brings East and West into one polity. 
 But in the year 395 his reign of sixteen years comes to 
 an end, and with it the united Empire. This is the 
 great event which marks the close of the fourth century. 
 A great event, indeed ; the token of swiftly- 
 advancing political dissolution. But it was an age 
 of intellectual and moral dissolution too. The old 
 popular creeds of the countries which had passed 
 under the civilizing yoke of conquering Rome had 
 long been discredited for higher minds. Their 
 spiritual guides were the philosophers, and the air 
 resounded with the din of systems, in which every 
 variety of opinion known to our own times seems to 
 have been, more or less closely, anticipated. Augus- 
 tine, 1 quoting Varro, tells us of no less than two 
 hundred and eighty-eight doctrines which prevailed 
 as to the primary question of the true end of human 
 action. But in one respect all the teachers of de- 
 cadent Paganism were alike. They were all lacking 
 in " consciousness of the sanctity of God, and of the 
 
 1 De Civitate Dei, lib. xix. c. 1.
 
 136 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 need of sanctification in man." 1 This must be said of 
 the noblest of them, such as the Stoics, and even the 
 Neo-Platonists. The evil in the world they recog- 
 nized clearly enough, and as time went on with ever 
 increasing clearness. But between physical and moral 
 evil they drew only the slightest distinction. Fatalism 
 is at the bottom of all their metaphysical ideas, and is 
 the last word of their arguments. I by no means 
 underrate the loftiness of thought, the purity of motive, 
 and integrity of life which distinguished many of these 
 seekers after truth, of whom Marcus Aurelius is the 
 , noblest type. But the philosophy to which, with 
 whatever measure of success, they turned as the guide 
 of conduct, was the prerogative of a few favoured 
 souls. The multitudes were left to a gross naturalism 
 at once voluptuous and cruel : and to the outworn 
 cults, which, if they outraged the reason, at all events 
 ministered to the passions, and found their sanction in 
 the lower self the self of the ape and tiger when 
 they pressed bloodshed and impurity into the service 
 of religion. Throughout the Roman Coliseum, the 
 temple of the Sun, there ran " the transports of a 
 fierce and monstrous gladness," as eighty thousand 
 spectators looked down upon hecatombs of human 
 victims in their dying agonies. The theatre, reared 
 under the invocation of Venus, was devoted to 
 obscenities as revolting as those wherewith the 
 worship of "Reason" was celebrated in the churches 
 of Paris by the sages of the first French Republic. 
 However highly we may rate the philanthropy, the 
 
 1 Dollinger's Heidenthum und Judenthum, p. 633.
 
 in.] The Quest of Truth 137 
 
 universal sympathy, the great jurisprudential ideas 
 which we find in the literature of the decadent 
 Empire, it is impossible to doubt that the popular 
 mind was informed by no conception of the dignity 
 and value of human personality ; as indeed how should 
 it have been in a society based upon slavery ? This 
 is the capital fact which marks off that antique civili- 
 zation from our own. In it, not only was the place 
 filled among us by what we call "the masses" held by 
 slaves, not inferior in race to their owners, but the 
 physicians, the artists, the singers, the pedagogues 
 were to a large extent persons of servile condition : 
 the mere goods and chattels of their masters : helpless 
 victims of cruelty, or avarice, or lust. 
 
 Such was the age into which Augustine was born. 
 And early in life his keen, restless intellect asked the 
 old question : What is the end of life ? It was a 
 book of Cicero's, now lost, a treatise containing an 
 exhortation to philosophy, and called Hortensius, 
 which inflamed him with the love of wisdom : which 
 made all things seem vile to him in comparison of 
 Truth, and kindled in his soul the desire to attain to 
 it. He sought it on all sides : among the Manichees, 
 whose claim that their doctrine was the religion of 
 science, was proved vain by his happy scepticism ; 
 among the philosophies of Paganism, but none con- 
 tented him, great and precious as were the verities 
 which they enshrined. In Plato especially, as pre- 
 sented to him in the writings of the Neo-Platonists, 
 he found lofty theistic conceptions, and noble thoughts 
 as to man's true end in the vision of the Absolute
 
 138 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 and Eternal, and in union with It. This was the 
 last word of Hellenic philosophy, and in some respects 
 the best : and Augustine, 1 writing in after-years, 
 records his great obligations to it. He learned from 
 Plotinus "magnus ille Platonicus," he calls him 
 that the rational soul has above it no nature save that 
 of God, the Creator of the world, and its Creator and 
 Illuminator, in participation of whose Divine light 
 is our beatitude. But this God was a mere soul of 
 Nature " universitatis anima" and the Neo-Platonic 
 doctrine as to the way of union with the Divine 
 (TO etoz>) was " as vague as all unsweet." Ascending, 
 as he says in a memorable chapter 2 of his Confessions, 
 from corporeal forms to the sentient soul (" sentientem 
 per corpus animam "), and thence to its inner faculty 
 (vis), to which the bodily senses make their reports, 
 and thence again to the reasoning power which passes 
 judgment upon the things thus signified to it, and 
 from thence to the intellectual brightness by which 
 the mind is illumined to discern truly, he attained to 
 That Which Is, " in ictu trepidantis aspectus " 
 
 " as when the light of sense 
 Goes out, but with a flash that has revealed 
 The invisible world." 
 
 The Unchanging, the Self-existing, the Absolute and 
 the Eternal stood revealed to him. But how to get 
 to it, how to attain union with it, he found not. " I 
 was drawn, irresistibly, up to Thee by Thy beauty, 
 and presently I was dragged down, down, by the 
 
 1 De Civ., 1. x. c. 2. 2 Confess., 1. vii. c. 17.
 
 in.] Hindrances 139 
 
 weight of my burden : and this burden was fleshly 
 habit " : " et pondus hoc consuetude carnalis." l 
 
 What, then, was the " consuetude carnalis " which 
 thus weighed to the earth this soul of fire, striving to 
 ascend to Him who is " igneus fons animarum " ? 2 
 It was that love of the world and of the things of the 
 world which, according to the Apostolic doctrine, is 
 incompatible with the love of the Father : the fas- 
 cination exercised upon him by the visible, sensible 
 frame of things, appealing to the concupiscence of the 
 flesh, and the concupiscence of the eye, and the pride 
 of life. " I longed for honours, for riches, for wed- 
 lock," 3 he says. And this longing held him back. 
 And then he turned to St. Paul's Epistles, and there 
 he read what the books of the Neo-Platonists told him 
 not : of the law of sin reigning in his members and 
 warring against the law of his mind and leading him 
 captive : and " of the grace of God by Jesus Christ," 
 powerful to deliver him from the body of this death. 
 And these things sank marvellously into his inmost 
 being, and he considered the Divine Works and was 
 afraid. 4 For him it was a question of entire self- 
 surrender or of none : of the religion of Jesus Christ 
 in its highest form of the life of detachment and 
 asceticism, or not at all. The easier state (mollior 
 
 1 Confess., 1. iii. c. I. 
 
 2 I need hardly refer to the opening line of the magnificent Burial 
 Hymn of Prudentius 
 
 " Deus ignee fons animarum." 
 
 3 Confess.^ 1. vi. c. 6. 
 
 4 " Haec mihi inviscerabantur miris modis et consideraveram opera 
 tua et expaveram." Ibid.) 1. vii. c. 2.
 
 140 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 locus)? conceded to those who could not receive the 
 hard saying counselling perfection, was not for him. 
 " I had found the pearl of great price," he says, " and 
 what I had to do was to sell all that I had and buy it : 
 and I hesitated." It was the example of others that 
 decided him. One Pontitianus, a Christian, holding 
 a high place in the Imperial Court, came to see him, 
 on some trivial business, as he was sitting with his 
 friend Alypius, reading St. Paul's Epistles; and 
 finding him deeply interested in matters pertaining 
 to the Christian faith, discoursed with him of such 
 topics, and among other things spoke of the holy and 
 ascetic lives of St. Antony and the solitaries of the 
 Thebaid, and of two friends of his own, who, while in 
 attendance with him upon the Emperor at Treves, 
 had been smitten with the charm of the religious life, 
 and in order to embrace it had abandoned their 
 secular career and their affianced wives. 2 This story 
 inflamed Augustine, and made him seem utterly vile in 
 his own eyes. 3 But fetters, once deemed silken, now 
 strong as iron, held him fast. " Those ancient mis- 
 tresses of mine," he says, " trifles of trifles, and 
 vanities of vanities, as they were, kept me back, and 
 plucked me by the garment of the flesh, and mur- 
 mured in my ear, * Are you then, in very truth, going 
 to send us away ? And, from this moment, will you 
 not see us again for eyer ? And will you never, 
 
 1 Confess., 1. viii. c. I. 
 
 2 " Et habebant ambo sponsas : quae posteaquam hoc audierunt , 
 dicaverunt etiam ipsas virginitatem Tibi." Ibid., 1. viii. c. 6. 
 
 3 " Constituebas me antefaciem meam utviderem quam turpis essem. 
 quam distortus et sordidus, maculosus et ulcerosus." Ibid., c. 7.
 
 in.] "Tolle et lege !" 141 
 
 never, again do this and that ? ' And what a this and 
 that was it which they suggested to me, O my God ! 
 What vileness, what disgrace ! " The interior conflict 
 moved him to tears, and he went apart to be alone. 
 Then as he kept saying to himself : " How long, how 
 long ? to-morrow and to-morrow ; and why not now ? " 
 the famous words fell upon his ears : " Tolle et lege ! 
 tolle et lege ! " " Take it up and read it ! take it up 
 and read it !" And remembering what he had just heard 
 about St. Antony how the Saint from lighting, by 
 chance, as it seemed, upon the verse of the Gospel : 
 " Go, sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and 
 thou shalt have treasure in heaven : and come, follow 
 Me," had been led to embrace the eremite life he 
 went back to the place where he had left the book of 
 St. Paul's Epistles, beside his friend Alypius. " I took 
 it up," he tells us ; "I opened it and perused in 
 silence the words upon which my eyes first fell : ' Not 
 in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and 
 wantonness, not in strife and envying : but put ye on 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the 
 flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.' I had no wish to 
 read more : nor was there need. No sooner had I 
 finished the sentence than light and peace seemed to 
 be infused into my heart, and doubt and darkness 
 fled away." 
 
 " Induimini Dominum Jesum Christum." Here 
 was the ideal which he had at last found. Henceforth 
 his rule of action was not his former perverse will, 
 but " the good and acceptable and perfect Will " to 
 which he sought to be conformed by the renewing
 
 142 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 of his mind : " nolle quod volebam et velle quod 
 volebas." 1 The objects of concupiscence which had 
 so fascinated him, the love of wealth, of honour, of 
 woman, now seemed to him vain and unsubstantial 
 as phantoms of the night. He was a blind man 
 whose eyes had been opened. In his own phrase, the 
 sweetness of eternal things had expelled the desire of 
 temporal. What he had most feared to lose it was 
 now a joy to him to put away. He had attained 
 freedom from " the biting cares " of worldly pursuits : 
 the freedom of which the condition is entire detach- 
 ment " renonciation douce et totale," in the words of 
 the writer who, of all others, in modern times, seems 
 to have drunk most deeply into his spirit : 
 
 " Love took up the harp of life and smote on all the chords with might : 
 Smote the chord of self, that trembling passed in music out of sight." 
 
 I know of nothing in literature that breathes a 
 deeper spirit of solemn jubilation than the pages of 
 the Confessions* in which Augustine recounts these 
 things ; pages which are like Beethoven's Funeral 
 March of a Hero done into words. They are indeed 
 the burial psalm of his old self and the prelude to his 
 new life. Then another theme is introduced, and in 
 chapters in which deep human tenderness, and ecstatic 
 aspiration, and sorrow, but not as of those who have 
 no hope, contend for the mastery, he tells us of his 
 
 1 Compare Fe"nelon : " Tout passe devant mes yeux, mais rien ne 
 mimporte; rien n'est mon affaire sinon 1'afFaire unique de faire la 
 volont de Dieu." 
 
 18 In the earlier portion of the ninth book of his Confessions, which all 
 who can should read in the original. No translation can present more 
 than a dim adumbration of its splendour and pathos.
 
 m.] The New Life 143 
 
 mother, Monica, and of the closing scenes of her 
 earthly pilgrimage. After that he goes on to speak of 
 himself as he had become since he had bowed his head 
 to the yoke and laid upon himself the burden of 
 Christ, and had taken up His cross and followed Him. 
 Many, he says, whether they themselves knew me in 
 former days or knew me not, or have heard from me 
 or of me, would fain know what manner of man I am 
 now : what my inner self is. To such will I unfold 
 myself, as far as I may : for what man knows himself 
 wholly : knows, as he is known to Him who made 
 him ? One thing, indeed, he knows and is assured 
 of: that the Divine Word, quick and piercing, and 
 sharper than any two-edged sword, has wounded his 
 heart and has inflamed it with the love of God : 
 " Non dubia sed certa conscientia, Domine, amo Te : 
 percussisti enim cor meum Verbo Tuo, et amavi Te." 
 But what is it that he loves when he loves God ; and 
 where does he find God ? The whole universe of 
 order and beauty proclaims the Supreme Intelligence 
 that made it ; reveals Him, while it veils Him ; con- 
 fesses, I am not He, but He made me. Nothing 
 material can be He. The mind must be more ex- 
 cellent than the matter which it vivifies. But God 
 is the life of our life. And so Augustine turns to his 
 own mind, and considers its faculties and powers, and 
 in pages of marvellous subtlety and sweetness ex- 
 plores "the plains and spacious halls of memory." 
 Surely God dwells there : but how ? Not among the 
 images of corporeal things, not among the affections 
 of the mind, not in that very seat of the mind itself
 
 144 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 which is fixed in the memory. " But why speak of 
 place," he asks, " as though in very truth place existed 
 there ? In my memory dost Thou certainly dwell, for 
 I remember Thee since I learnt Thee : and there do I 
 find Thee when I remember Thee." And then he 
 bursts forth : " Too late have I loved Thee, O Beauty, 
 so old and so new ; too late have I loved Thee ! And 
 behold ! Thou wast within and I without : and there 
 did I seek Thee, greedily rushing in my deformity 
 after those fair forms which Thou has made. Thou 
 wast with me when I was far from Thee. And those 
 things which exist but because Thou art in them, they 
 held me back from Thee. Thou calledst me, Thou 
 criedst after me, Thou overcamest my deafness : Thou 
 sentest forth Thy lightnings, Thou shinedst in Thy 
 splendour, and didst put to flight my blindness. Thy 
 sweet fragrance encompassed me, and I drew in my 
 breath and panted after Thee. I have tasted of Thee, 
 and I hunger and thirst still. Thou didst lay Thy 
 hand upon me and I burned for Thy peace." Thus 
 much, as to his inner self, the Saint is sure of. Sure, 
 too, is he of the daily conflict which is waged in him 
 between the higher law and the other law that is in 
 his members. What is the life of man but a warfare 
 upon earth ? Every one of his senses is a possible 
 avenue for sin. Every action of life is a possible 
 occasion of falling. " Many and great," he confesses, 
 " are the sicknesses of my soul : but Thy medicine is 
 more than sufficient to heal them. Well might we 
 have thought Thy Word far removed from union with 
 men, but that He was made flesh and dwelt among
 
 in.] Two Ideals 145 
 
 us." Here is his hope of instruction for his ignorance : 
 of healing for his infirmity. But for this, he should 
 despair. And hence his rule of life, according to the 
 Apostolic dictum : " Therefore Christ died for all, that 
 they who live should no longer live unto themselves, 
 but unto Him who died for them." This is that ^ 
 aboriginal law of self-sacrifice which links the Supreme 
 to His creatures : a law of which the practical outcome 
 is duty, founded upon the constraining influence of *- 
 Divine charity. 
 
 Here, then, is a type of the work wrought in the 
 individual by the Christian Revolution ; the story of 
 countless millions, writ large. The highest ideal of 
 ancient Paganism was to live out one's impulses with- 
 out restraint : to warm " both hands before the fire 
 of life," in the words of a modern writer who drank 
 deeply into its spirit : but with prudence which 
 Landor, indeed, cannot be said to have exhibited 
 so as not to burn one's fingers. Or to change the 
 metaphor, and to use the words of Cicero, and, as 
 I think, of Socrates too so to go through human 
 existence that when the inevitable hour of departure 
 arrives we may quit it like a guest satisfied with the 
 banquet of which he has partaken. I suppose we are 
 warranted in saying that Aristotle's /LteyaXoi/fv^os is 
 the loftiest conception of man known to the ancient 
 philosophy ; and I am far from denying the greatness 
 of the magnanimous or high-minded character, as he 
 has depicted it in a well-known chapter of the Nico- 
 machean Ethics. High-mindedness, he says, is the 
 crown of all virtue, and the high-minded man occupies 
 
 L
 
 146 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 himself with honour, and lays claim to it, and takes 
 pleasure in it, but not excessive pleasure, for he has 
 obtained only what he merits, and perhaps less than 
 he merits : he loves to confer a favour, but feels shame 
 at the reception of one, for that implies in him a cer- 
 tain inferiority : he is generally esteemed arrogant, 
 and no wonder, for he justly despises his neigh- 
 bour : he is open in his enmities and his loves, and 
 bears himself to ordinary men with moderation, for 
 haughtiness towards the lowly is a sign of bad 
 breeding. Now turn to the Christian ideal, as you 
 find it in the Sermon on the Mount, with its glori- 
 fication of poverty, mourning, meekness, hunger and 
 thirst after righteousness, mercy, peaceableness and 
 purity that distinctively Christian virtue which has 
 been accounted by some "a new disease brought 
 into the world by Christ." Christianity changed the 
 lives of men by changing their ideal of life. The 
 magnitude of the revolution which it wrought upon 
 the individual may be judged of by comparing the 
 Stagirite's high-minded man with the humble and 
 holy man of heart of the Beatitudes. The one 
 deifies and worships human nature and its passions : 
 the other crucifies the flesh with the affections and 
 lusts. Enlightened selfishness is the highest word 
 of Aristotle. "If any man will come after Me, let 
 him deny himself : " " Whoever will save his life shall 
 lose it" such is the very substance of the doctrine 
 of Christ. 
 
 And it was precisely this ideal of self-renuncia- 
 tion, it was precisely this asceticism, this "ddain
 
 ni.] " Internum Sternum" 147 
 
 transcendant," 1 as Renan happily phrases it the true 
 doctrine of liberty of souls, he judges which is of 
 the essence of Christianity, that appealed to and 
 overcame Augustine. But such self-renunciation was 
 not irrational. Although not the result of calculation, 
 it justified itself by an appeal to the infinitely greater 
 value of one soul over the whole universe of matter. 
 It founded itself upon the vanity and nothingness of 
 what was given up. It was the lower self that was 
 abolished, mortified, done to death ; or, in St. Paul's 
 phrase, kept under and brought into subjection. The 
 life which was lost was that phantasmal life of the 
 senses which St. Augustine has described in a memor- 
 able passage. 2 One of the leading thoughts in his 
 writings is the impermanence, the illusoriness of the 
 visible frame of things. He has summed it up in two 
 pregnant words, " internum seternum." The parallel 
 between his doctrine and Gotama's in this respect is 
 singularly close. The main difference is that the place 
 which in the Buddhist system is held by Nirvana, 
 is filled in his by what he calls Idipsum, the Self 
 Same, or, as we may perhaps say, the Thing in 
 Itself: the only true reality, for he does not allow 
 that the phenomenal universe is, in the highest sense, 
 real. The reality beneath it, without which it would 
 crumble into nothingness, is the will of Him who 
 alone can say " Ego Sum Qui Sum : " I am the Self 
 Existent. He alone is the One Who Is : dwelling in 
 
 1 Vie de Jhus, p. 119. 
 
 * "Quorum vita est spectare, contendere, manducare, bibere, con- 
 cumbere, dormire, et in cogitatione sua nihil aliud quam phantasmata 
 quae de tali vita colliguntur amplexari." De Vera Religione, c. 54.
 
 148 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 the light which no man can approach unto : and Jesus 
 Christ is the Mediator by whom man is strengthened 
 for the knowledge and fruition of Him "the image 
 of the Invisible God ; " the realization of the last 
 wish of the religious instinct : the Eternal made flesh 
 of our flesh and bone of our bone and blood of our 
 blood ; proving all sorrows in His sacred humanity ; 
 one with us in the great sacrament of suffering, and 
 able to call us in the truest sense His brethren. 
 Christ is a visible, personal, living law, realizing the 
 conception of Pagan antiquity ; virtue incarnate, and 
 drawing all hearts by its beauty. But the life of 
 Christ was a long battle against the world. He is 
 the supreme example of detachment from its pleasant 
 things the objects of concupiscence. 1 It is the God 
 uplifted on the Cross in an unfathomable mystery 
 of love and sorrow who at once raises morality to the 
 height of sanctity : a conception unknown to the 
 ancient world, which never went beyond the honestum. 
 St. Augustine dwells upon this in a striking passage 
 of his short, but quite invaluable, treatise On True 
 Religion. 
 
 "The nations," he writes, "were thirsting, to their own 
 destruction after riches as the ministers of pleasure : He 
 willed to be poor. They longed for honour and power : He 
 
 1 It may not be superfluous to point out that I use the word in its 
 technical sense ; that habitual inclination to desire finite things inordi- 
 nately, which, according to the Council of Trent, is not strictly speaking 
 sin, but " ex peccato est et ad peccatum inclinat " (Sess. v. c. 5), and that 
 for two reasons ; first, because it turns man away from his true final end, 
 which is God ; and, secondly, because it cannot be gratified save at the 
 expense of others.
 
 in.] The Transformation of Morality 149 
 
 refused to be a king. They esteemed children, after the flesh, 
 a great good : He despised such wedlock and such offspring. 
 In the plenitude of their pride they abhorred insults : He 
 suffered them in every form. They deeme^ injuries intoler- 
 able : what greater injury could there be than the condemna- 
 tion of the Just, the Innocent? They loathed corporal 
 suffering : He was scourged and tormented. They feared to 
 die : He suffered death. They thought the Cross the most 
 shameful kind of death : He was crucified. Everything for 
 love of which we lived amiss, He did without and stamped 
 as worthless. Everything to avoid which we have shrunk 
 from the Truth, He endured and made easy to us. For it is 
 impossible to commit any sin, save by seeking after the 
 things which He despised, or by flying from the things which 
 He endured. And so His whole life on earth, in the human 
 nature which He deigned to assume, was a system of moral 
 discipline." 1 
 
 III 
 
 So much as to the effect of the Christian Revolu- 
 tion upon the individual. I am, of course, far from 
 saying that it wrought in this supreme degree upon 
 the mass. It had its perfect work in comparatively 
 few. Those few best exhibit its working. What it 
 was to them it was in some degree in a degree 
 almost infinitely varying to all who received the 
 faith of Christ, even though their lives were led upon 
 the lower levels of humanity. To all it proposed 
 Him as the one type "our Life," in the emphatic 
 words of the sacred writer the perfect ideal. And 
 
 1 De Vera Religione, c. xvi.
 
 150 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 the furthest removed from that type, the least like 
 that ideal, knew well that the all-important fact about 
 himself was his citizenship of a spiritual kingdom, 
 of which conformity to the mind of Christ was 
 the first law. It is absolutely certain that Chris- 
 tianity presented itself to the decadent and moribund 
 civilization of the Roman Empire as an ascetic 
 doctrine : 1 a doctrine of abstinence, not only from the 
 things which it branded as positively sinful, but from 
 many things in themselves licit. The world, which 
 St. John exhorts his disciples not to love, because the 
 love of it is incompatible with the love of the Father, 
 which he describes as lying in the wicked one, which, 
 over and over again in the New Testament the dis- 
 ciples of Christ are bidden to forsake and overcome, 
 and which such is the vitality of phrases stands, 
 even in our own day, for the complete antithesis of 
 the Church, is the present visible frame of things, 
 doomed, as those early preachers believed, soon to 
 pass away with the lust thereof: the flesh in which 
 St. Paul declared no good thing to dwell, which it 
 was his daily endeavour to keep under and bring into 
 subjection, is the whole of man's lower or animal 
 nature. Whatever is doubtful, this is clear. And 
 to those who do not admit it we may say, without 
 discourtesy, that, whether through ignorance or pre- 
 judice, they are so hopelessly in the dark on this 
 
 1 " Cette abnegation de soi-mme et de tout ce qu'il y a de terrestre 
 de sensible ou d'humain en nous et hors de nous, est le caractere propre 
 et Eminent de la philosophic chre*tienne a laquelle, sous ce rapport, nulle 
 autre ne peut e'tre compared et qui surpasse tout ce que la philosophic 
 des anciens a de plus e"leveV' Maine de Biran, PensJes, p. 282.
 
 in.] Society New Made 151 
 
 matter, as to render any argument with them 
 regarding it mere waste of time. 
 
 The principle, then, which transformed the indi- 
 vidual by the renewing of his mind, was the principle 
 of self-sacrifice. And this was the principle which 
 transformed society. Christianity was primarily a 
 message to the individual soul. It was a calling 
 addressed to each, without distinction of race, or rank, 
 or sex, or secular condition. But it was a calling into 
 a polity. The words eVocX^cri'a and e/cXe/crol speak for 
 themselves. The disciples of Christ were called out 
 of the world and into the Church, which was truly a 
 society, with its own King, its own laws, its own 
 magistrates. In the last Chapter I have indicated, in 
 outline, the growth of this society its marvellous 
 hierarchical development, as it overlaps the secular 
 state and the ecclesiastical organization grows up on 
 the lines of the civil, the Diocese, the unit, then the 
 Province (the ecclesiastical use inverted the civil 
 dignity of the two terms) and lastly, the Patriarchate, 
 corresponding more or less closely with the Pre- 
 fecture : while the ruler of the Roman Church imper- 
 ceptibly takes the place of the Priest of Jupiter 
 Capitolinus Pontifex Maximus, " the Priest," as 
 Festus says, "of the world rather than of the City." 
 I now go on to describe how this spiritual empire 
 affected civil society : to point oiit the main lines 
 of the revolution which it wrought on Modern 
 Civilization. 
 
 And here, too, I shall follow St. Augustine. As 
 in his Confessions he has revealed to us the operation
 
 152 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 of the Christian Revolution upon the individual, so 
 in his City of God he has traced its operation upon 
 society. His keenly attuned ear caught the sound 
 of "the Spirit of the years to come, yearning to mix 
 himself with life." Even when he wrote, civilization 
 was growing ecclesiastical. It was his gift to seize, 
 and set down, and creatively to shape, its main 
 characteristics. 
 
 It has been well observed by Ozanam, that no 
 event of supreme importance to the world has ever 
 occurred without producing an imperishable poem, 
 although it may be a different sort of poem from 
 what we should have expected. Thus, to the battle 
 of Actium, which marks the rise of the Empire, he 
 refers the inspiration to which we owe the ^Eneid ' : 
 while the entry of Alaric into Rome, in A.D. 410 
 the signal of its fall unquestionably produced the 
 magnificent prose poem of Augustine. A great and 
 exceeding bitter cry went up that this overwhelming 
 catastrophe was the work of the new religion. And 
 Augustine undertook to "justify the ways of God 
 to men." His City of God is the first systematic 
 attempt to exhibit in their close relations and inter- 
 dependence, philosophy, history, and theology. 
 
 Two commonwealths (civitates), he declares, exist 
 among men : the City of the Earth, built by the love 
 of self, carried to the degree of contempt of God : 
 the Heavenly City, reared by the love of God, carried 
 to the degree of contempt of self. Of the one he 
 sees the type and founder in Cain, of the other in 
 Seth ; but for the origin of both he goes back to the
 
 in.] The City of God 153 
 
 separation of " the angels who kept not their first 
 estate," from their compeers loyal to the Divine 
 Majesty. He traces the history of the two cities 
 throughout the ages, using with great skill the com- 
 paratively slender materials available to him : for, of 
 course, the philosophies and theologies and annals of 
 the East were no more known to him than were the 
 revelations whereby physical science in these latter 
 days has so vastly enlarged, and so largely trans- 
 formed, our conceptions of the material universe. He 
 goes on to point out it is the first time that we 
 meet with the thought how the Roman Empire, by 
 bringing the nations into one polity, and subjecting 
 them to the same jurisprudence which he elsewhere 
 recognizes as a Divine creation 1 prepared the way 
 for the spread of the Christian faith. Then he dwells 
 upon the diverse ends of the two commonwealths ; 
 the one resting upon the doctrine of the Greek sophist 
 that man is the measure of all things, making life its 
 own object, and the seen and temporal the bound of 
 human aspirations ; the other measuring all things 
 by the ideal of Christ, and reaching forward to "an 
 inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and reserved in 
 heaven." Here the two commonwealths are inter- 
 mingled, for they exist side by side. But the City of 
 the Earth is doomed to perish. The City of God has 
 its foundations upon " the holy hills : " it is the 
 Jerusalem, the Vision of Peace, which is from above, 
 whose King is Truth, whose Law is Charity, whose 
 
 1 He somewhere says, " Leges Romanorum divinitus per ora princi- 
 sum emanarunt."
 
 154 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 mode (modus) is Eternity. In it alone is true liberty 
 the liberty of those whom Christ has made free from 
 sin. The City of the Earth, governed by the lust of 
 power, is the slave of concupiscence, even when it 
 boasts itself the conqueror of the world. 
 
 Such is a bird's-eye view of the main argument of 
 this famous treatise I am not concerned with the 
 merely apologetic part of it the great and lasting 
 value of which seems to me to lie in its emphatic 
 proclamation of the spiritual nature of man as a 
 domain over which the civil order has no power ; a 
 principle by the assertion of which the Church had 
 been revealed to the world. The ancient jurist had 
 declared, like the modern demagogue, that all is 
 Csesar's. St. Augustine sketches a spiritual society 
 based upon a higher law even than the jurisprudence 
 of Imperial Rome, and bearing allegiance to a greater 
 potentate than its ruler. It was a new concep- 
 tion in the world, and was destined most potently to 
 influence the structure of society. It gave rise to 
 what was called Christendom a word which, by 
 itself, if we rightly understand it, is sufficient to 
 indicate the vastness of the Revolution wrought by 
 the Faith of Christ in the public order. The first fact 
 about a man for a thousand years after the City of 
 God was written, was not his race, but his religion. 
 That, I say, was held to be the prime fact of life, and 
 upon it the public order was professedly based. In 
 pre-Christian Europe, religions had been viewed in a 
 very different light. They occupied, indeed, a highly 
 important place in the State, as being the bonds of
 
 m.J The New Social Unit 155 
 
 nations and society. They were deemed necessary 
 to corporate existence ; and thus we find Plato, in the 
 Republic, describing " the erection of temples and the 
 appointment of sacrifices and other ceremonies in 
 honour of the gods," and "all the observances we 
 must adopt in order to propitiate the inhabitants of 
 the unseen world," as " the most momentous, the 
 most august, and the highest acts of legislation," 
 And they were regarded strictly as matters of public 
 concern ; they were the religions of nations, not of 
 individuals ; they were tribal, not personal ; for the 
 nation was originally a tribe. But the tribe, again, 
 was merely an enlarged family. It was the family, 1 
 natural or artificial, not the individual, that was the 
 unit of archaic society ; and this comes out very 
 distinctly in the sphere of religion. Thus Cato says, 
 in his instructions to his Bailiff: "It is the pater- 
 familias who offers worship for the whole family : " 2 
 in a religious, as in a civil point of view, the per- 
 sonality of its members was merged in him. But 
 Christianity did in the religious sphere what Roman 
 jurisprudence was doing in the civil : it substituted 
 the individual for the family as the unit of which it 
 took account, ranking him higher than the State, and 
 the law of conscience before the law of public interest. 
 Thus, by proclaiming the ineffable worth of human 
 personality, did it re-create the individual. And 
 
 1 " Groups of men united by the reality or the fiction of blood-relation- 
 ship," as Sir Henry Maine puts it. Ancient Law, p. 126. 
 
 2 " Scito dominum pro tota familia rem divinam facere." De Re 
 Rust., c. 143.
 
 156 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 similar was the transformation which it wrought upon 
 the family. The jurisprudence of ancient Rome, like 
 the philosophy of ancient Hellas, assigned to woman 
 a position of servitude and seclusion. Cicero trans- 
 lates and adopts a passage of Plato expressing horror 
 of a state of society " in which the slave refuses to 
 obey his master, and the wife claims equality with 
 her husband." Aristotle accounts woman as of an 
 inferior species ; and even Seneca from whom better 
 things might have been expected declares her 
 "animal imprudens, ferum, cupiditatum impatiens." 
 It is true, as Boissier has shown, in his well-known 
 work, 1 that in the second century of the Christian era 
 she had practically acquired, in spite of law and 
 philosophy, a certain degree of emancipation, nay, 
 was often able to exercise considerable social and 
 political influence. But certain is it that Christianity, 
 by proclaiming her spiritual equality with man, first 
 raised her to her true position ; and that by setting 
 upon monogamy the seal of sacramental indissolubility, 
 it made her preservation of that place an essential part 
 of its system ; nay, further, that it gradually sublimated 
 into an ideal sentiment what in the ancient world had 
 been little more than an animal appetite. I shall 
 have to return to this subject in the Seventh Chapter. 
 The effect of Christianity upon the public order 
 was, for long, indirect ; but it was not, upon that 
 account, the less potent. Starting with the assertion 
 of man's moral liberty and responsibility, the very 
 postulates of her doctrine, the Church poured into 
 1 See his La Religion Romaine (PAuguste aux Antonins, lib. iii. c, 2
 
 in.] Christendom 1 57 
 
 the nations crushed and degraded by imperialism, 
 a new virility, freeing and invigorating the human 
 faculties ; while by her self-made constitution, her 
 elected rulers, her deliberative councils, she kept 
 alive the free democratic traditions, which Caesar- 
 ism had almost strangled, and trained the barbarian 
 tribes who entered her fold in the principles and 
 exercise of true liberty. As the subjects of the City 
 of the Earth became the subjects of the City of God, 
 the civil polity was informed by new principles. In 
 the quaint language of Jeremy Taylor, the " Chris- 
 tians, growing up from conventicles to assemblies, 
 from assemblies to societies, introduced no change in 
 the government, but by little and little turned the 
 commonwealth into a Church." l It was felt that a 
 society of Christians ought to be a Christian society, 
 and gradually the civil order was guided and governed 
 by the principles of religion. An eminent English 
 judge once laid it down the dictum is now somewhat 
 musty that Christianity is part of the law of England. 
 Of Christendom, while Christendom was, it might 
 truly be said that the law was part of the religion. 
 Everywhere the cross of Christ was confessed to be 
 the interpretation of life and the measure of the world, 
 and a supernatural end was kept in view. Thus, 
 St. Thomas Aquinas declares that the chief object 
 which the civil ruler ought to have before him is the 
 eternal beatitude of himself and his subjects : 2 and 
 
 1 Life of Christ, Preface. 
 
 2 " Finis ad quern principaliter rex intendere debet in seipso et in 
 subditis est aeterna beatitude." De Regim. Princ. y l, 2, c. 3. Observe 
 the force of the word " principaliter."
 
 158 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 what may seem almost incredible in these days, even 
 in guilds of the most distinctly industrial character, 
 the making of money was not the first thing sought 
 after. " They set up something higher than personal 
 gain or mere materialism," Mr. Toulmin Smith well 
 observes : " their main characteristic was to make the 
 teaching of love to one's neighbour be not coldly 
 accepted as a hollow dogma of morality, but known 
 and felt as a habit of life." l " In the accounts of the 
 Company of Grocers," writes Dr. Brentano, "it is 
 mentioned that at their very first meeting they fixed 
 the stipend of the priest who had to conduct their 
 religious services and to pray for their dead. In this 
 respect," he adds, " the craft gilds of all countries are 
 alike, and in reading their statutes we might fancy 
 sometimes that these old craftsmen cared only for the 
 well-being of their souls." 2 
 
 I take these instances almost at random. Every 
 department of life, in the Ages of Faith, tells the 
 same tale. The dominant idea everywhere is the 
 Fatherhood of God revealed in Him who pleased not 
 Himself, but humbled Himself unto death, making 
 the great law of sacrifice the first law of His religion. 
 And it is precisely this idea which marks off those 
 ages from the times preceding them, and which is the 
 source of their true greatness. Let no one suppose 
 that I have the least sympathy with that religious 
 romanticism which paints for us a medieval period 
 
 1 Traditions of the Old Crown House, p. 28. 
 
 2 The Original Ordinances of more than One Hundred Gilds, Introd. 
 P- 13-
 
 in.] Medieval Civilization 159 
 
 full of seraphic sweetness. I know well the dark 
 side of the history of the Middle Ages, recorded in 
 terrible distinctness alike by saints and sinners, by 
 doctors and heresiarchs 
 
 " Face loved of little children long ago ! 
 Head hated of the priests and rulers then ! 
 Say, was not this Thy Passion to foreknow 
 In Thy death's hour, the works of Christian men ! " 
 
 True it is that medieval iniquities were upon the 
 same scale with medieval virtues. But, on the other 
 hand, it seems to me unquestionable that, as Littre 
 says, the medieval period " is, on more sides than one, 
 superior to the times which preceded it," and that as 
 he goes on to add, "it is especially so in the social 
 state." 1 For myself, I would claim for it, that resting, 
 as it did, upon the morality of self-renunciation, it 
 is superior to the times that preceded it in all that 
 makes up civilization in the higher sense of the word : 
 that it is " further advanced in the road to perfection ; 
 happier, wiser, nobler." 2 Christianity, preaching piti- 
 fulness and courtesy, deifying sorrow, simplicity, weak- 
 ness and humility, poverty and purity, had opened an 
 ever-flowing fount of tenderness, of compassion, of 
 pure love, which caused the very desert places of 
 humanity to rejoice and blossom as the rose. Main 
 
 1 Etudes sur les Barbares et le Moyen Age, p. 239. 
 
 2 " The word ' civilization ' is a word of double meaning. We are 
 accustomed to call a country civilized if we think it more improved, 
 more eminent in the best characteristics of man and society, further 
 advanced on the road to perfection, happier, nobler, wiser. But, in 
 another sense, it stands for that kind of improvement which distinguishes 
 a wealthy and powerful nation from savages or barbarians." J. S. Mill, 
 Discussions and Dissertations, vol. i. p. 160.
 
 160 The Christian Revolution [CH. 
 
 tests of the social position of any community are the 
 places held in it by women and children, by the 
 indigent and the aged : and judged by these tests, 
 Christendom stands far above any previous organiza- 
 tion of society. But its superiority appears to me to 
 be hardly less clearly marked in its public polity, its 
 literature, and its art, which were all informed by the 
 same spirit. The notion of unlimited dominion, of 
 Csesarism, autocratic or democratic perhaps the most 
 baneful manifestation of human selfishness had no 
 place among its political conceptions, which regarded 
 authority as limited and fiduciary : nor did it allow 
 of absolutism in property ; the canon law expressly 
 lays down that extreme necessity makes all things 
 common, so that what would otherwise be theft, ceases 
 to be theft ; that both clergy and laity are at all times 
 bound to provide alms, as a duty of strict justice, 
 even if need be by their own manual labour ; for 
 alms, in the words of St. Ambrose, are the right of 
 the poor : and the giving them is rather to be regarded 
 as the discharge of a debt than the extension of a 
 voluntary bounty. In its literature Dante sounds a 
 deeper note than had gone forth from his master, 
 Virgil ; and the very source of his inspiration is the 
 austere spiritualism of the Catholic creed. In its 
 philosophy St. Thomas Aquinas surveys the field of 
 human thought from a loftier standpoint than any 
 sage of Greece or Rome, and maps it out with a ful- 
 ness and precision unattained even by him whom he 
 reverently calls " the Philosopher : " and it was from 
 the Crucifix that the Angelic Doctor derived his
 
 m.] The Source of Medieval Greatness 161 
 
 intellectual light, and there he discerned according 
 to the beautiful legend his only and exceeding great 
 reward. Medieval art, even in its rudest stage, is 
 informed by a higher ideal than ever dawned upon 
 the mind of Hellenic painter or sculptor or architect : 
 by the sentiment of the Infinite, revealed in the 
 divinely human Person of the Man of Sorrows, the 
 Son of the Mater Dolor osa. All that was great in 
 that vanished public order which we call Christendom, 
 flowed from the self-abnegation of which the Divine 
 Founder of Christianity is the Great Exemplar, and 
 which is the central idea of His religion.
 
 1 62 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE TURNING-POINT OF THE MIDDLE AGES 
 I 
 
 VILLEMAIN, in his picturesque way, has called St. 
 Augustine's City of God " the funeral oration of the 
 Roman Empire pronounced from a cloister." The 
 Saint's prophetic instinct was not at fault as to the 
 times that were coming upon the earth dark times, 
 indeed, of barbarism triumphant and of violence pre- 
 dominant. The darkness is illumined, in the closing 
 fifth century, by the rays which beam from the mild 
 figure of Benedict of Nursia, betaking himself a 
 youth of fourteen to his retreat among the mountains 
 of Subiaco, whence was to issue Western monachism ; 
 in the closing sixth, by the aureole playing round the 
 head of Gregory the Great, saint and statesman, the 
 father of the new order to be called Christendom. 
 Without him, humanly speaking, the Papacy would 
 have been powerless to preserve what survived out of 
 the ruins of Roman civilization, or to re-create the 
 Western Empire as a distinctively Christian power. 
 
 There are few more dramatic events in the annals 
 of mankind than the scene enacted at the Papal High
 
 iv.] A New Principle 163 
 
 Mass on Christmas Day, 800 few which have so 
 potently affected the course of Modern Civilization. 
 Little could St. Augustine, when writing his City of 
 God, have imagined it. And yet that book of his 
 largely helped to bring it about. It was one of the 
 very favourite books of the great Charles the book, 
 his biographer tells us, which he oftenest caused to be 
 read to him at meals. And though, as he himself 
 declared, the action of Pope Leo III. in crowning and 
 anointing him was without his foreknowledge or desire, 
 who can doubt that his investiture with the Imperial 
 dignity, now in abeyance for three hundred and thirty 
 years, must have occurred to his mind as a means for 
 carrying out his vast designs ? However that was, 
 " this re-establishment of the Western Empire may be 
 considered as the final rupture with the old civilization 
 represented by the corrupt Church and degenerate 
 autocrats of Constantinople : the substitution of a new 
 principle, infusing life and vigour into reconstituted 
 nationalities. The Papacy thus became the founder 
 of a new Civilization, that revolved around the centre 
 formed by two Chiefs, henceforth sharing supreme 
 power in the spiritual and temporal order : the Pon- 
 tifical naturally allowed precedence in idea ; the 
 Imperial regarded as its delegate deputed to the 
 headship of Christendom, in regard to mundane 
 interests, by consent of Christ's Vicar, source and 
 representative of all legitimate authority upon earth." 
 
 1 Heman's Ancient Christianity and Sacred Art, p. 484.
 
 164 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 II 
 
 This separation between the spiritual and the tem- 
 poral was a new thing in the world. The Roman 
 theory of sovereignty, in the shape which it assumed 
 under Augustus, meant the concentration of all power 
 in the hands of one man. The old republican forms, 
 indeed, remained. The nominal seat of authority 
 was still the " Senatus Populusque Romanus." Here 
 was the source and fount whence the prerogatives of 
 the Ruler were derived. But the shadow of this great 
 name merely furnished the thinnest veil to the supreme 
 irresponsible dictatorship wielded by Caesar, as the 
 perpetual and indefeasible representative of the 
 Roman people. 1 And the Imperial power was not 
 merely political. It was also religious. It extended 
 into what we know as the domain of conscience. Not 
 only was the Emperor, as Pontifex Maximus, the 
 supreme head of all cults ; he was also the final 
 arbiter of the moral law, which, it is needless to say, 
 was a separate matter from the worships of pagan 
 antiquity. Nor was his apotheosis an idle imagination 
 of servile flattery. 
 
 " Coelo Tonantem credidimus Jovem 
 Regnare : praesens divus habebitur 
 Augustus : " 
 
 sings Horace. But " the present deity " was the real 
 one, in whom men trusted and before whom they 
 
 So Justinian, Inst., i. tit. 3, 6 : " Quod principi placuit legis habet 
 vigorem quum lege regia quae de ejus imperio lata est, populus ei et in 
 eum omne suum imperium et potestatem concessit."
 
 iv.] The Enfranchisement of Conscience 165 
 
 trembled ; and, as time went on, the Olympian 
 Thunderer became more and more shadowy, until, 
 a century later, the satirist could affirm that only 
 babes believed in him. It fell, that great fabric of 
 Imperial power, crushed out, so to speak, as the 
 spiritual empire of the Christian Church rose slowly 
 into ecumenial proportions like the stone cut out 
 without hands, in the vision of the Hebrew seer and 
 overwhelmed by the vigorous hordes of barbarians 
 from the forests of Germany. It fell, and great was 
 the fall of it. But long before its final catastrophe 
 the Church had stripped it of its moral and spiritual 
 authority. To her the " prsesens divus " of the Roman 
 poet was no divinity, but a type and forerunner of 
 Anti-Christ "that man of sin who opposeth and 
 exalteth himself above all that is called God or 
 is worshipped : so that he, as God, sitteth in the 
 temple of God, showing himself that he is God." 
 Even so early as the second century we find Tertullian, 
 with a boldness difficult for us adequately to appre- 
 ciate, writing, " I pray for the Emperor, for his armies, 
 for the security of the Empire, for the peace of the 
 world. As to other things, I am independent of him. 
 For my Lord is One, the Omnipotent and Eternal 
 Lord, and the selfsame is his Lord also." l Here 
 is, in few words, the cause for which the Martyrs 
 victoriously died. The enfranchisement of the human 
 conscience from secular chains was the gift which, 
 purchased at the price of their own blood, they gave 
 unto men. 
 
 1 Apology.
 
 1 66 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 Thus was the State shorn of half its ancient 
 domain. And as the years went on, a new political 
 order, of Teutonic origin, but largely affected by 
 Roman influences, completed the work of dissolution 
 by breaking up the unity of civil authority. Charles 
 the Great had dreamed of an Imperial realm, in which 
 he as Emperor and the Pope as Pontifex Maximus, 
 the first of his prelates, should share the supreme 
 rule that had been concentrated in the hands of earlier 
 Csesars. His vast design received but an imperfect 
 accomplishment. As one after another of his 
 successors sinks under the weight of the Imperial 
 crown, the union between the Empire and the Papacy 
 becomes weaker, while everywhere the tendency is 
 to substitute in the secular order a hierarchy of powers 
 for the one supreme direct ruler. The ninth and 
 tenth centuries are the period of a social and political 
 revolution : " Magnus ab integro sseculorum nascitur 
 ordo." That new great world order was the feudal 
 system, and its dominant note was, if I may use a 
 modern word, Positivism. 1 The Empire, despotism 
 as it was, yet was avowedly based upon the spiritual 
 power of law, and professedly derived from popular 
 delegation ; and so was in itself a confession, how- 
 ever hypocritical, of those rights of the immaterial 
 
 1 It is necessary "to speak by the book" in making mention of 
 Positivism. Let me, therefore, say that I use the word in the sense 
 indicated by Littre* : " La philosophic positive est 1'ensemble du savoir 
 humain dispose" suivant un certain ordre. . . . Mais comment ddfinerons- 
 nous le savoir humain ? Nous le ddfinerons 1'dtude des forces qui 
 appartiennent a la matiere et des conditions ou lois qui rdgissent ces 
 i forces." Angus te Comte et la Philosophic Positive, p. 42.
 
 iv.] The Ethos of Feudalism 167 
 
 part of man's nature, the recognition of which is the 
 only true safeguard of individual freedom. Feudalism 
 recognized little else than matter and force. 
 
 It is of much importance that the true character 
 of feudalism should be accurately apprehended. It 
 arose in an age full of violence and confusion, when 
 might was well-nigh equivalent to right, when the 
 great idea of law seemed to have perished, and, with 
 law, liberty, of which it is the life. " By liberty," 
 Bossuet truly says, "the Romans, like the Greeks, 
 meant a state where men were subject only to law, 
 and where the law was more powerful than men." 
 It is manifest that where the servile maxim prevailed, 
 " Quidquid principi placuit legis habet vigorem," 
 liberty thus conceived of was ill-assured. Still, even 
 in the darkest times of antique Csesarism, the idea 
 of the supremacy of law as the guarantee of personal 
 freedom remained. In feudalism taken by itself 
 that idea was wanting. It was a military or material- 
 istic reorganization of society broken into chaotic 
 fragments by the disappearance of the great Imperial 
 power. Its tendency was to annihilate individual 
 rights, to shut men up in categories of dependence, 
 to make the arbitrary will of another take the place 
 of " that will which is the norm or rule for all men." 
 Taine has observed that voluntary engagement was 
 the only root ("la racine unique") of the feudal 
 system. 1 It is a saying which certainly requires 
 
 1 " Lorsqu'on considere la soci&e' fdodale k son origine on s'apergoit 
 qu'elle a pour racine unique . . . 1'engagement volontaire." Nouveaux 
 Essais de Critique et cCHistoire, p. 200.
 
 1 68 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 much modification to bring it into accord with the 
 facts. True it is that "the sphere occupied in them 
 by contract principally distinguishes feudal institutions 
 from the unadulterated usages of primitive tribes." 
 But it is also true that "a fief was an organically 
 complete brotherhood of associates whose proprietary 
 and personal rights were inextricably blended to- 
 gether ; " that " it had much in common with an 
 Indian village community, and more in common with 
 a Highland clan;" that "the lord had many of the 
 characteristics of a patriarchal chieftain." l The very 
 essence of the feudal system is that every one was 
 the man of some one else. The good vassal was its 
 highest social type. Inflexible if I may so speak, 
 canine fidelity to one's lord was the supreme virtue. 
 It is extremely difficult for us in the present day to 
 realize the all-absorbing closeness of the relation 
 involved in feudal fealty. A book which chances to 
 lie before me as I write Gower's Confessio Amantis 
 may serve to supply an illustration of it before I 
 pass on. The poet tells us that it was "for King 
 Richard's sake " that he wrote : that is, upon a sug- 
 gestion thrown out by the King 
 
 " To whom belongeth my legeaunce 
 With all min herte's obeisaunce 
 In all that ever a lege man 
 Unto his king may don or can." 
 
 Such expressions as these, if we really understand 
 them, will avail better than many a ponderous 
 dissertation to reveal the true spirit, the ethos of 
 
 1 Maine's Ancient Law, p. 365.
 
 iv.] The New Public Order 169 
 
 feudalism. I do not know that it is too much to say 
 that, to a large extent, the system was an undoing of 
 the work of so many generations of Roman juriscon- 
 sults, and a going back from contract to status as the 
 foundation of civil relations. 
 
 Feudalism was a vast military and territorial 
 aristocracy, in which the ideas of individual freedom 
 and political right had become merged in the relations 
 between lord and vassal. Bishop Stubbs well describes 
 it as " a graduated system of jurisdiction based on 
 land tenure, in which every lord judged, commanded, 
 and taxed the class next below him ; in which abject 
 slavery formed the lowest, and irresponsible tyranny 
 the highest grade ; in which private war, private 
 coinage, and private prisons took the place of the 
 Imperial institutions of power." 1 And, as this learned 
 and careful writer elsewhere remarks, " Land has 
 become the sacramental tie of all public relations. 
 The poor man depends on the rich, not as his chosen 
 patron, but as the owner of the land that he cultivates, 
 the lord of the court to which he does service, the 
 leader whom he is bound to follow to the host." 2 
 Such were the main features of the public order 
 which had sprung up upon the ruins of the majestic 
 fabric of Roman polity and Roman law. But to 
 prevent a misapprehension which I should regret, 
 let me point out that I recognize as fully as any one 
 the beneficent work which feudalism had to do in 
 the modern world. While dissenting as widely as 
 
 1 Constitutional History, vol. i. pp. 255-256. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 167.
 
 170 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 possible from the Positivist school of historians, I 
 acknowledge a profound truth in the canon that 
 everything which has existed has had its reason for 
 existing. Feudalism was a stern schoolmaster to 
 the new nationalities, coming to them with a rod, 
 and by no means in the spirit of meekness. But 
 its discipline was not less salutary than rude. It 
 was, to borrow the words of Thierry, " a necessary 
 revolution," "a natural bond of defence between the 
 lords and the neighbouring peasants ; " and, guided 
 by religion, it was the instrument of the slow but 
 sure elevation of the peasants. It found them, for 
 the most part, slaves. It led them, through serfdom, 
 to enfranchisement. 
 
 For feudality was not the only great fact of the 
 age which witnessed the rise of the new nations. 
 Side by side with it had grown up the great eccle- 
 siastical system by which Europe had been formed 
 into a spiritual commonwealth called Christendom. 
 The principles upon which the Church was based 
 were precisely those most urgently needed to correct 
 in the world the evils of the feudal organization. 
 Feudalism tended to the annihilation of the individual. 
 The Church taught, and could not keep from teaching, 
 as her first postulate, the supreme worth of human 
 personality. Feudalism, essentially aristocratic, set 
 the greatest store upon "the glories of our birth 
 and state." The Church maintained the absolute 
 equality of all men, not in secular rights, as the 
 sophists of 1789 feigned, but in their common 
 spiritual nature, in their common dependence upon
 
 iv.] The Christian Republic 171 
 
 and accountability to God. The supreme argument 
 of feudalism was the sword. The Church wielded 
 mightier weapons, not carnal but spiritual, the terrors 
 of that Divine Law, ruling over all, which has its 
 sanctions in man's conscience and instinct of retri- 
 bution. The highest ideal of feudalism was the loyal 
 and valiant soldier, the probus miles. The Church set 
 forward the example of nobler heroes tender maidens 
 like St. Agnes, courtesans like St. Afra, beggars like 
 St. Alexius, who "through faith subdued kingdoms, 
 wrought righteousness . . . out of weakness were made 
 strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the 
 armies of the aliens." Feudalism sternly forbad the 
 individual to break "his birth's invidious bar." The 
 Church proclaimed loudly the doctrine of a career for 
 talents. Her constitution was still largely democratic. 
 The suffragium de persona, which the general body of 
 the faithful had, from the earliest times, possessed in 
 the choice of their pastors, however intermittently 
 exercised, yet subsisted as a fact. Her religious 
 houses were so many little republics scattered up 
 and down Europe. Her councils and synods were 
 real deliberative assemblies. Her free institutions 
 were the germ and norm of the civil franchises which 
 were afterwards to spring up. Once more. Feu- 
 dalism was, by its very nature, disruptive ; its tendency 
 to universal war ; its practical effect to render pere- 
 grinus as of old a synonym for hostis} But as 
 political unity perished from Europe a higher unity 
 
 1 " Hostis enim apud majores nostros is dicebatur, quern nunc 
 peregrinum dicimus." Cicero, De Officiis, 1. i. c. 12.
 
 172 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 developed, and " from the bosom of the most frightful 
 disorder the world has ever seen, arose the largest 
 and purest idea, perhaps, which ever drew men to- 
 gether the idea of a spiritual society." 1 
 
 Of that society the Roman Church was the centre 
 and head. No period in ecclesiastical history is more 
 worthy of careful and exact study of much more 
 careful and exact study than it has as yet received 
 than the period between the death of Charles the 
 Great and the rise of Hildebrand. The immediate 
 effect of the departure of the great Prankish monarch 
 from the scene where he had played so high a part 
 was to add vastly to the authority of the Roman 
 Pontiff. Relieved from the shadow of his great 
 name, the Apostolic See grew into a hitherto un- 
 known strength. " Charles," remarks Villemain, in 
 his rhetorical way, " in decorating the Pope with so 
 many titles, had merely wished to raise a gilt 
 statue which should place the Imperial crown upon 
 his own head. After Charles, when his empire was 
 ruled with a feebler hand and divided by factions, 
 the Pontifical statue came to life, and wanted to 
 reign." 2 The similitude is striking, and so, helpful 
 
 1 Guizot, Lecture XII. 
 
 2 Histoire de Gregoire VII., vol. i. p. 145. I am far from underrating 
 this brilliant work, in which are so strikingly displayed the author's cha- 
 racteristic excellences his taste for picturesque details, the vividness and 
 beauty of his colouring, the luminousness and distinctness of his images ; 
 but his Introductory Discourse on the history of the Papacy certainly 
 reveals both a very defective acquaintance with the mass of authorities 
 he cites, and a very imperfect power of appreciating evidence. For 
 example, he writes: "Le Concile de Nice'e, sous 1'inspiration de Con- 
 stantine, qui voulait que 1'Eglise eGt des assemblies, mais pas d'autres
 
 iv.] The Growth of the Papacy 173 
 
 to the imagination. But it must not be pressed too 
 far. Villemain certainly underrates the ecumenical 
 jurisdiction, the exercise of which by the Popes, as 
 we saw in the Second Chapter, is clearly traceable 
 from the dawn of ecclesiastical history. 
 
 It is certain that, " as the Church grew into form, 
 so did the power of the Pope develop." l We may 
 give what explanation we will of the fact. But no 
 well-instructed scholar will question it. And it is 
 equally beyond question that long before the time of 
 Charles, "the centralizing process by which the See 
 of St. Peter became the Sovereign Head of Christen- 
 dom " 2 was in all essentials complete. Not the less 
 clear, however, is it that in the half-century from the 
 death of Charles, in 814, to the election of Pope St. 
 
 chefs, que lui-mme, avait declare' le patriarche d'Alexandrie e'gal en 
 honneurs et en privileges a 1'eVeque de Rome" (vol. i. p. 47). He is, of 
 course, referring to the sixth canon of the Nicene Council, but it is 
 difficult to believe that he can have read it. That canon merely provides 
 for the maintenance of the ancient custom whereby the great sees of 
 Alexandria and Antioch exercised over the whole civil diocese, the one 
 of Egypt, the other of the East, original jurisdiction, similar to that 
 exercised by the See of Rome in the West. There is not one syllable 
 in the canon about equality in honours and privileges, and the declaration 
 which the Council made was of nothing new (as Villemain implies) but 
 merely of an existing fact. Here is the text of the canon : Ta apxata ^i 
 
 Kparflrw, ra iv Aiyvirrcp, Kal AijSujj, Kal TlevrairStei SiffTf rbt> 'A\eai/Speias firiffKOirov 
 irdVran/ ro'urwv fX flv r ^l v Qovtriav, fireiS?) Kal ri? tv TJJ 'Ptfyij? einaWwijp TOVTO ffvv7i6es 
 tff-riv d/Aoiias Se Kal Kara r^v '&.vri6xeiav t Kal fv rtus &\\ais firapxiais, ra 7rpecr/3e?a 
 <ri&e<r6ai rats e/c/cA.7j<r(aJS. Kado\ov Sf irp65r)\ov eKfivo, Sri, el TIS x&pls TTJS yvc&/j.i)s 
 rov fj.Tirpoiro\lrov yevoiro iirfoKovos, rbv roiovrov rj fj.eya\7) ffwoSos &piffe (ify Sf"iv 
 efvat firfoKoirov, fav /j.fvroi rri Kotvri irdirrui' ^(py fv\6ycp oUay Kal Kara Kav6va 
 ^KK\7]<riaa'TiKb>' Svo ^ rpeis Sia oiKflav <pt,\oveiKlav avTi\fy<i>ffi, Kpareirw ff TUV ir\ei6vwv 
 M<t>os. (Mansi, t. ii. p. 669.) 
 
 1 Cardinal Newman's Development of Christian Doctrine, p. 154, 
 ed. 1878. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 155.
 
 174 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 Nicholas I., in 858, the nature, extent, and attributes 
 of the Papal sovereignty were more clearly, precisely, 
 and universally apprehended. And no one can read 
 the life of that great ecclesiastical statesman, as we 
 find it in the graphic narrative of his contemporary, 
 Anastasius, without feeling that he realized the aim 
 and ideal of the Supreme Pontificate in a way un- 
 trodden by any of his predecessors. His short reign 
 of nine years is the translation into fact of the ecclesi- 
 astical system set forth in the decretals of Isidore 
 documents which, whatever the real history of them, 
 though false in form, are certainly true in substance. 
 And so Neander: "The pseudo- Isidore was, at all 
 events, but the organ of a tendency of the religious 
 and ecclesiastical spirit which prevailed among the 
 great masses of the men among whom he lived. He 
 had no idea of introducing a new code, but only of 
 presenting, in a connected form, the principles which 
 must be recognized by every one as correct, and on 
 which depended the well-being of the Church." l 
 
 As a matter of fact, and apart from all theories, 
 the close union thus subsisting between the Roman 
 See and the several Churches throughout Europe 
 constituted the true strength of the spiritualty, and 
 offered the sole guarantee for its independence. The 
 Church is in the world, and it is impossible for her, 
 in any age, to escape the influence of contemporary 
 events and institutions. And it was the tendency 
 of feudalism, as it is the tendency of every great 
 movement in the public order, to bring all things into 
 
 1 Church History^ vol. vi. p. 7, Eng. trans. (Bohn).
 
 iv.] Feudalism and the Church 175 
 
 subjection unto itself; to bend them into its own 
 mould, or, if it could not so bend them, to break 
 them in pieces as out of harmony with the age and 
 as obstacles to its own development. How nearly 
 feudalism triumphed over the ecclesiastical element 
 in the two centuries between Nicholas I. and Gregory 
 VII., the history of the Papacy itself may serve to 
 show. I am well aware that the estimate long 
 current of the saddest portion of that period, the 
 hundred years which closed the first Christian millen- 
 nium, needs large qualification to make it just. Iron, 
 leaden, dark as that age was, it was the time when 
 the monastic orders were informed by fresh energy 
 and sanctity, and the great Cluniac foundation 
 supplied the norm for the reformed religious life ; 
 when the new school of Latin lyric poetry was matur- 
 ing its laws and developing its capacities, and already 
 giving a foretaste of the glories to come in the strains 
 of sweet singers like Godescalcus and St. Notker; 
 while in architecture it is memorable for the introduc- 
 tion of the acute arch. It was the age of Theodora 
 and Marozia, but it was also the age of St. Romuald 
 and St. Nilus. It is darkened by the conspicuous 
 badness of many of the Pontiffs who disgraced the 
 Apostolic throne, " they lived for the most part 
 rather like monsters or wild beasts than bishops," is 
 Mabillon's judgment of them, but it is relieved by 
 the exemplary virtues of others. Against a Stephen 
 VII., guilty of the brutal indecency of dragging the 
 body of a dead predecessor through the streets, may 
 be set such a holy and humble man of heart as Leo
 
 176 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 VII.; against a John XII., accused publicly, and 
 apparently on too good grounds, of "homicide, 
 perjury, sacrilege, of incest with his relatives and 
 two sisters, of drinking wine in honour of the 
 devil, and of invoking, in gambling, Jupiter, Venus, 
 and other demons," may be set a John X., 1 no saint, 
 indeed, but apparently a virtuous man, zealous for 
 the restoration of religious discipline, and the deliverer 
 of his subjects from the Saracen invader. But what 
 I am concerned to point out is that whether the Popes 
 were good or bad, they were penetrated by the feudal 
 spirit. This John X., just mentioned, was a valiant 
 warrior, more, a general of some ability. And John 
 XII., a man of blood from his youth, made himself 
 notorious, in a by no means tender-hearted age, for 
 his savagery to his enemies. 2 Nor did Otho's re- 
 formation unfeudalize the Papacy or breathe into 
 its occupants a spirit ecclesiastical. He delivered 
 it, indeed, more or less, from its bondage to the 
 Tusculan barons, whose unprincipled ambition and 
 shameless intrigues had been the immediate cause of 
 its degradation. But he brought it into captivity to 
 
 1 Baronius judges this Pope severely, and, as Gregorovius shows, 
 unfairly 
 
 "Summus erat Pastor tune temporis Urbe Joannes 
 Officio affatim clarus sophiaque repletus," 
 
 is the account given of him by the contemporary author of the poem 
 De Laudibus Berengarii. 
 
 2 The fate of this unexemplary Pontiff, perhaps the most singular 
 Vicar of Christ the world has ever seen, is thus related : " Dum se 
 cujusdam viri uxore oblectaret, in temporibus adeo a diabolo est percussus, 
 ut inter dierum octo spatium eodem sit vulnere mortuus." Contin. 
 Lititprand, 1. vi. c. n.
 
 iv.] The Degradation of the Papacy 177 
 
 the Imperial authority. The Pontiffs changed masters ; 
 but they did not change manners. Violence and 
 impurity reigned in the Apostolic throne no less after 
 than before the establishment of the new relations 
 between the tiara and the Imperial crown. 
 
 But violence and impurity were not the only 
 scandals which disgraced the Chair of Peter. Simony 
 was no less conspicuous ; and it passed into a proverb 
 that everything in Rome had its price. The eleventh 
 century, indeed, opens auspiciously with the too 
 short pontificate of the learned and virtuous Gerbert 
 (Sylvester II.), the fitting successor of the learned 
 and virtuous, but severe, 1 Gregory V.; and in 1012 
 Benedict VIII. assumes the tiara, a Pope who, as 
 Giesbrecht observes, " recognized it as his mission to 
 provide for the welfare of all Western Christianity, 
 and who feared neither weariness nor exertion to 
 restore to his high office the value it had lost." 2 Still 
 it is to the early portion of this eleventh century that 
 we must go for the most scandalous examples of 
 simoniacal vice in the Roman See. John XIX., who 
 had himself, when a mere layman, purchased the 
 Popedom upon the death of Benedict VIII., 3 offered 
 to confer the title of Universal Bishop upon the Patri- 
 arch of Constantinople for a pecuniary consideration. 
 
 1 " Durus ille Pontifex," Damiani calls him, and certainly not without 
 reason, if the account is true which has come down to us of his treatment 
 of the anti-Pope, Philagathus. 
 
 2 Gesch, der Deutschen Kaiser zeit, vol. ii. p. 172. 
 
 3 " Largitione pecuniae repente ex laicali ordine neophytus constitutus 
 praesul ... ex laico (nefas dictu) est transformatus in Papam." 
 Baronius, ad ann. 1024, quoting Glaber, a writer of that age. 
 
 N
 
 178 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 His successor, Benedict IX., who is stated to have 
 been ordained at the age of twelve, after a career of 
 which, according to the chronicler, the chief incidents 
 were " many vile adulteries, and murders perpetrated 
 by his own hands," 1 resolved to wed his first cousin, 
 and finding that public opinion would not tolerate 
 a married Pontiff, sold the Papacy to John Gratian, 
 and himself consecrated him by the name of Gregory 
 VI., in 1044. It is under this Pope, whose virtues 
 were singularly out of keeping with the manner of 
 his elevation, that we first find Hildebrand at Rome 
 in an official capacity. He is described as the 
 Pontiff's chaplain (capellanus). 
 
 So much as to the condition of the Papacy in 
 the century and a half succeeding the death of St. 
 Nicholas I. It still maintained the sacramentum uni- 
 tatis. But how feebly, how precariously, is obvious. 
 Thus was the head affected by the evils of feudality. 
 The members suffered still more. 2 The tendency 
 everywhere had been to convert the bishops into 
 
 1 Bonizo, apud Watterich, Pont. Roman. Vita, vol. i. p. 75. 
 
 2 Bruno, in his life of St. Leo IX., gives the following account of the 
 condition of Christendom at the period of that Pontiff's election in 1048 : 
 " Mundus totus in maligno positus est, defecerat sanctitas, justitia 
 perierat et veritas sepulta est : regnabat injustitia, avaritia dominabatur, 
 Simon Magus ecclesiam possidebat, episcopi et sacerdotes voluptatibus 
 et fornicationi dediti sunt. Non erubescebant sacerdotes uxores ducere, 
 palam nuptias facere, nefanda matrimonia contrahebant et legibus eas 
 dotabant cum quibus secundum leges, nee in una domo simul habitare 
 debebant Sed quod his omnibus deterius est vix aliquis inveniebatur 
 qui vel simoniacus non esset, vel a simoniacis ordinatus non fuisset. Talis 
 erat ecclesia, tales erat episcopi et sacerdotes, tales et ipsi Romani 
 Pontifices, qui omnes alios illuminare debebant." Apud Watterich, Pont. 
 Roman. Vita, vol. i. p. 96.
 
 iv.] Concubinage and Simony 179 
 
 feudal barons ; and the transformation had to a very 
 large extent been effected. Under the successors of 
 the great Charles, the episcopate had practically become, 
 in large measure, a royal donative, and abbacies, like 
 sees, had been conferred by the nomination of the 
 prince. The spiritual character of the higher clergy 
 was obscured by their employment as councillors of 
 State, ministers of princes, governors of provinces. 
 They became more familiar with the helmet than the 
 mitre. St. Fulbert of Chartres testifies l that he knew 
 prelates better acquainted with the laws of war than 
 most secular potentates. And with the occupations of 
 feudal lords they assumed their way of living. For 
 the first time in ecclesiastical history we read of 
 bishopesses (episcopissce) and of the transmission to 
 these women's sons of their fathers' office. The same 
 evil, as was natural, affected more sorely the inferior 
 clergy. The priest's concubine, whether he had gone 
 through the form of marriage with her or not, was 
 almost a recognized member of the sacerdotal house- 
 hold ; and the appellation " son of a priest " took 
 high rank among vituperative expressions : it may be 
 regarded, indeed, the equivalent of a term attributive 
 of canine maternity, much in favour as an opprobrious 
 epithet among mariners in our own day. Simony 
 gradually became universal. At the beginning of the 
 eleventh century the traffic in livings was conducted 
 openly and unblushingly. 
 
 Simony, as the natural consequence and companion 
 
 1 Ep. 112. "De episcopis ad bellum procedentibus." Migne, Pat. 
 Lat., vol. cxli. p. 255.
 
 180 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 of incontinence, may, like it, be referred directly to 
 the invasion of the ecclesiastical order by the feudal 
 spirit. Feudal benefices, like ecclesiastical, had ori- 
 ginally been mere life estates. The process by which 
 they at first become heritable, and then alienable, 
 is so well known in this country, through our real 
 property law, that I need not dwell upon it. The 
 same process was going on in the feudalized Church, 
 x The prospect before the world, in the earlier part of the 
 eleventh century, apparently was that the spiritualty 
 would be merged in the feudal system, that the priest- 
 hood would become a caste, holding churches and 
 lands on a secular tenure, and gradually, like secular 
 holders, acquiring power of alienation. It is not too 
 much to say that, if this result had been attained, the 
 whole course of Modern Civilization would have been 
 disastrously different. For it would have meant the 
 extinction of the Church as a society perfect and 
 complete in herself, and with her the extinction of the 
 great principles of which she was the sole represen- 
 tative in the world the principles of the supremacy 
 of law ; of the freedom of conscience ; of the real 
 equality of all men ; of their brotherhood in the 
 Christian faith ; of the essentially fiduciary and limited 
 nature of human authority. That these great ideas 
 were not blotted out from the mind of the new 
 nationalities, was, humanly speaking, the work of one 
 man, and that man was Hildebrand. And the ponti- 
 ficate of Gregory VII. as the turning-point of the 
 Middle Ages, is the subject to which I shall devote 
 the remainder of this Chapter.
 
 iv.] Eleventh-Century Europe 181 
 
 III 
 
 But no adequate appreciation of Hildeb rand's work 
 is possible unless we realize the conditions in which it 
 was done. And this is no easy matter, so wide is the 
 difference between the Europe of the eleventh century 
 and the Europe of the twentieth, in many of the things 
 that most largely make up human existence. The 
 thoughts of the men of that age about this life and 
 the next, their social relations, their political organiza- 
 tions, their standard of rights and duties, are as far 
 removed from ours as is their speech, and require the 
 like careful study to become intelligible. When Hilde- 
 brand was born, somewhere in the second decade of 
 the eleventh century, England, notwithstanding the 
 constructive work of the kings of the line of Egbert, 
 can hardly be said to have been fully welded into a 
 single nation. It was Cnut, the organizer also, in 
 great measure, of the Scandinavian States of Denmark, 
 Norway, and Sweden, over which he likewise ruled, 
 whose reign of twenty years, from 1017 to 1035, began 
 among us that definitive work of consolidation, which 
 two centuries of foreign kings, Norman and Angevin, 
 were to carry forward a work the result of which 
 should be to make "our Britain whole within herself." 
 On the Continent of Europe a similar process was 
 taking place. The previous century had witnessed the 
 dissolution of the inheritance of the great Charles. 
 And now was the time for re-formation. For nearly 
 eighty years after the division of 887, the Holy Roman
 
 1 82 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 Empire was " in a kind of abeyance." It was in the 
 second half of the tenth century that it began to shape 
 itself definitely as a German power under the Saxon 
 Otho the Regnum Teutonicum, its backbone, if I may 
 so speak, although the iron crown of Lombardy, imposed 
 at Milan, was a splendid accessory, and the Imperial 
 diadem, bestowed at Rome, conferred the prestige of 
 the most sacred and venerable of secular titles, the 
 incommunicable majesty of the Caesars. France, in 
 the sense which the word conveys to us, as yet was 
 not. The kingdom of the West Franks, Karolingia, 
 had, indeed, begun to receive this name. And it is 
 from the death of Louis le Faineant, the last of the 
 Carlovingians, and the election of the first of the 
 Capets, Hugh, that the beginning of the French State 
 must be traced. But at the date of which I am 
 speaking the date of Hildebrand's birth Robert II., 
 who ruled in Paris, reigned directly only over the royal 
 domain, which " took in the greater part of the Isle of 
 France, the territory to which the old name specially 
 clung, and the greater part of the latter government of 
 Orleans, besides some outlying fiefs holding directly 
 from the King," 1 while around his territories were 
 grouped the great feudatory Dukes and Counts of 
 Normandy, Brittany, and Champagne, of Burgundy 
 and Aquitaine, of Toulouse, Gascony, and Flanders. 
 The process of absorption whereby "the King of the 
 Franks " was to add to his own dominions the lands of 
 one great feudatory after another, and to aggrandize 
 them by the acquisition of foreign territory, had not yet 
 1 Freeman's Historical Geography of Europe, vol. i. p. 330.
 
 iv.] The New Nations 183 
 
 begun. Indeed, the ruler of the great Norman fief, 
 which, cut off a century before from the duchy of 
 France, extended from the Epte to the sea westwards, 
 was a far more powerful potentate than his royal 
 suzerain, while the Norsemen over whom he ruled, 
 although forgetful of the language, the habits, and the 
 traditions of their pirate ancestors, yet retained those 
 ineradicable characteristics of their race, that restless 
 energy, that enthusiasm for the ideal, that dauntless 
 daring, that " Berserker rage," which were so potently 
 to influence the course of European history. Spain, 
 like France, was still a thing of the future, only its 
 nucleus existing in the States which had sprung up as 
 the tide of Saracen invasion had receded from the 
 Iberian peninsula. In Eastern Europe the monarchy 
 which took its name from the recently converted Slave 
 people who dwelt in the valley of the Vistula the 
 Polacks, people of the plains was shaping itself under 
 the great king Boleslas. And Turanian Hungary, 
 which had received the faith about the same time as 
 Poland, was being wrought into a Christian polity by 
 a still more famous monarch St. Stephen. Of the 
 empire of New Rome, now practically Greek, I need 
 not speak. It lay outside the limits of Latin Christen- 
 dom, as also did Russia, Greek too in religion and 
 civilization, and as yet hardly accounted a European 
 power. 
 
 Such, in brief outline, is the aspect which the map 
 of Europe exhibits as the eleventh century opens. 
 Everywhere the new nations are struggling into full 
 life, assuming the forms, distinct though inchoate, which
 
 1 84 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 they were to present in the modern world. So that 
 we have, in some sort 
 
 " The baby figure of the giant mass 
 Of things to come at large." 
 
 And as we can now see, with the wisdom easy ot 
 attainment after the event, the great question was in 
 what mould these embryonic and plastic organisms 
 should be cast. That was the question fought out in 
 the pontificate of Gregory VII. 
 
 It was in a carpenter's shop, in the little Tuscan 
 town of Soano, that the future Pontiff first saw the 
 light. An attempt was made in after-years, by to 
 use a phrase of Carlyle's " genealogists of the flunkey 
 species," to trace his lineage to the noble family of 
 the Aldobrandini. But it would seem to be beyond 
 question that, as we read in a remarkable letter 1 
 addressed to him by a contemporary abbot, upon his 
 elevation to the Pontificate, he was "vir de plebe," 
 fit origin for the great champion of religious demo- 
 cracy in the Middle Ages, "the holy athlete of the 
 Christian faith," 2 as Dante sings, who was to main- 
 tain the cause of the poor against the violence of a 
 military aristocracy. His father, the carpenter, had a 
 brother, or a kinsman, who was the head of the 
 monastery of St. Mary on the Aventine. Thither 
 Hildebrand was sent, when a mere boy, to learn the 
 liberal arts and moral discipline. There he was first 
 
 1 Quoted by the Bollandists in his Acts. William of Malmesbury 
 speaks of him as " despicabilis parentelse." Apud Pertz., Monumenta 
 GermanicB Historica, vol. xii. p. 474. 
 
 2 " Delia fede cristiana il santo atleta." 
 
 Paradiso, canto xii.
 
 iv.] The Youth of Hildebrand 185 
 
 brought into contact with John Gratian, arch-priest of 
 the Roman Church, who was subsequently to be his 
 first Papal patron ; and there he made the acquaint- 
 ance of Odilo, Abbot of Clugny, a " Saint of gentleness 
 and meekness," whose playful answer to those that 
 blamed him for showing too much mercy in the 
 execution of his office, " If I am to be damned, I 
 would rather it were for excess of pitifulness than for 
 excess of severity," is in itself a revelation of his 
 beautiful and winning character. To the great 
 religious house over which Odilo ruled, so famous for 
 the magnificence of its church, the exactness of its 
 ritual, the strictness of its discipline, Hildebrand 
 migrated in entering upon manhood. 1 He remained 
 there for several years, drinking more deeply at its 
 abundant founts of the ecclesiastical spirit with which, 
 as his biographers testify, he had been deeply imbued 
 from his earliest youth. St. Peter Damiani relates in 
 his life of St. Odilo, that the prescient mind of that 
 holy person discerned, by the second sight of sanctity, 
 the coming greatness of the neophyte, applying to him 
 the words spoken of an earlier reformer " Iste puer 
 magnus erit coram Domino" " He shall be great in 
 the sight of the Lord." Whether he completed his 
 monastic novitiate at Clugny or at St. Mary's on the 
 Aventine, is uncertain. But, "after some years," as 
 the chronicler writes, with a disdain of exact chrono- 
 logy somewhat uncongenial to the modern mind, he 
 set out to return to Rome, spending some time on 
 his way, probably upon business of his order, at 
 
 1 "Adolescentiam ingressus." Paul. Bern.
 
 1 86 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 the court of the Emperor Henry III., where he 
 preached a sermon which drew from that prince the 
 testimony, " Never have I heard man proclaim the 
 word of God with so much boldness." It would 
 appear that he reached Rome about the time of the 
 election of his old patron, John Gratian, to the 
 Apostolic throne, under the title of Gregory VI. 
 
 To the cause of this unfortunate Pontiff he 
 attached himself, and, although only in subdeacon's 
 orders, was appointed, as we have seen, one of the 
 Papal chaplains. The election of Gregory VI. took 
 place in 1044 ; but his predecessor, Benedict IX., 
 finding himself unable to procure the bride he desired, 
 returned to Rome after a three months' absence, and, 
 occupying the Lateran palace, resumed the Pontifical 
 name and functions, while at the same time John, 
 Bishop of Sabina, was designated Pope by a faction 
 of the Roman nobles, under the title of Sylvester III. 
 In this scandalous condition of the Papacy the Romans 
 appealed to the Emperor Henry III., a prince of 
 irregular life but animated by deep sentiments of 
 personal religion, who caused a Council to be sum- 
 moned at Sutri, where Gregory presided, as unques- 
 tionably the lawful Pope. Here Benedict withdrew 
 his claims to the Pontificate, and Sylvester was 
 sentenced to degradation from his ecclesiastical rank 
 and to imprisonment for the rest of his life within a 
 monastery. And now Gregory's turn was to come. 
 " Idiota et mirae simplicitatis," as the chronicler l calls 
 
 1 Bonizo, apud Watterich, Pont. Roman. Vital, vol. i. p. 85 ; and again, 
 " Ut erat idiota omnem suae electionis pravitatem aperuit."
 
 iv.] Hildebrand's First Patron 187 
 
 him with half-contemptuous pity, he acknowledged to 
 the assembled prelates the unworthy means by which 
 he had obtained the supreme pastorate, and was 
 exhorted by them to judge himself no earthly 
 authority being held competent to judge him so that 
 he might not be judged of the Lord. " Better will it 
 be for thee," they are represented as saying, " to live 
 like the holy Peter, poor in this world and to be 
 blessed in another, than, like the magician Simon, 
 whose example misled thee, to shine in riches here, 
 and to receive the sentence of condemnation there'' 
 The conscience-stricken Pontiff gave ear to them, and 
 thus pronounced sentence upon himself: "I, Gregory, 
 Bishop, servant of the servants of God, adjudge that 
 on account of the most shameful trafficking of heretical 
 simony which, through the craft of the old enemy, 
 crept into my election, I am deprived of the Roman 
 See." The Emperor carried the fallen Pope with 
 him to Germany, and as the chronicler Bonizo relates, 
 " Hildebrand, beloved of God (Deo amabilis\ attended 
 him thither, wishing to show reverence towards his 
 lord." Nine months after, the life and troubles of the 
 sixth Gregory came to an end in his place of exile on 
 the banks of the Rhine. Then Hildebrand returned 
 to Clugny. This was in the year 1046. 
 
 So far as we can judge, it would seem to have 
 been Hildebrand's intention, at this period, to devote 
 himself thenceforth to the monastic life in that great 
 centre and home of it Shortly after his return to 
 Clugny he appears to have been elected prior 
 probably second or deputy prior under St. Odilo,
 
 1 88 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 who, weighed down with the burden of eighty-five 
 years, still ruled as abbot the monastic brethren. 
 Two years afterwards, the Papal Chair being vacant, 
 the Emperor Henry III. summoned a Council at 
 Worms for the purpose of providing an occupant for 
 it. The conciliar, or rather the imperial choice, 1 fell 
 on Bruno, Bishop of Toul, a kinsman of the Emperor. 
 Bruno, a man of holy life, benign manners, and eccle- 
 siastical spirit, shrank from the dignity, and, after 
 praying and fasting for three days, made aloud a 
 general confession of his faults to the Council, by way 
 of showing his unworthiness of it (spontaneam suam 
 cor am omnibus dixit confessionem}. It is worth 
 while to pause for a moment to try to picture to 
 one's self the scene : the assembled prelates sitting 
 round the Emperor in the great church at Worms, 
 and the Pontiff-designate, worn by his tridiio of morti- 
 fication and self-examination, tearfully unburdening 
 himself of those " things of man " which " the spirit 
 of a man alone knows," and which, in these days, the 
 devoutest think it penance enough to whisper into the 
 ear of a confessor. Adequately to realize this, may 
 help us to understand how far the world has travelled 
 in the last nine centuries. But, as might have been 
 expected, Bruno's humility availed him nothing, and 
 a few days before Christmas, in the year 1048, he was 
 proclaimed Pope, under the title of Leo IX. 
 
 Shortly after his election, the new Pontiff was 
 
 1 "Eligitur ab Heinrico presentibus Romanorum legatis," is the 
 account in the Regesta. By legati we must understand the deputies of 
 the Roman clergy and people, whose right to elect the Pontiff was never 
 questioned, although at this period it was in practice made void.
 
 iv.] Hildebrand and St. Leo IX. 189 
 
 brought into intercourse with Hildebrand. Where 
 they met whether at Worms, in which city, as some 
 authorities relate, 1 Hildebrand happened to be on 
 certain business of his order ; or at Besanc,on, where, 
 according to the Regesta, the new Pope spent the 25th 
 and 26th of December ; or at Clugny, whither, as 
 others say, Leo turned aside to visit the new Abbot 
 Hugh, who had just been elected in succession to the 
 venerable Odilo is uncertain, nor does it much matter, 
 although, indeed, the last of these accounts seems to 
 me the most probable. It is certain that, from the 
 first, the new Pope clave to the young monk, and 
 desired to attach him to the Pontifical Court. The 
 Abbot Hugh, between whom and Hildebrand there 
 was one of those firm monastic friendships which the 
 cloistral writers delight in comparing to the love of 
 David and Jonathan, "passing the love of women," 
 was unwilling to allow the sub-prior to depart, and it 
 was with difficulty that his unwillingness was overcome 
 by Leo's entreaties " quern ab abbate multis precibus 
 vix impetravit," says Bonizo. But a further difficulty 
 arose. Hildebrand had scruples. The election of 
 the Pope had been uncanonical. A contemporary 
 chronicler, who tells us that he derived his informa- 
 tion in after-years from Gregory himself, relates in 
 simple language what took place. 2 " I cannot go with 
 you," said Hildebrand, in answer to the invitation of 
 the Pontiff. " Why ? " " Because without canonical 
 
 1 " Erat ibi raonachus, quidam Romanus Hildebrandus nomine," etc. 
 Bruno, in Vita S. Leonis PP. IX., apud Watterich, vol. i. p. 96. 
 
 2 Bruno, u. s. " Multa nobis beatus Gregorius Papa narrare sole- 
 bat," etc.
 
 190 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 institution, and by the mere warrant of royal and 
 secular power, you are going to take possession of the 
 Roman Church." The devout Bishop was affected, 
 and, at once laying aside the Pontifical ornaments, 
 assumed the habit of a pilgrim. 
 
 It was on the 28th of December, 1048, that Leo 
 and Hildebrand rode forth upon their journey to 
 the Papal city. The contrast between the two was 
 striking. Leo, akin to the Emperor, to whom he 
 owed his elevation, trained in the use of arms and 
 conversant with the ways of courts, represented, 
 Saint as he was, the aristocratic and feudal element 
 in the Catholic hierarchy. And his external appear- 
 ance was in keeping with this character. " Cestui 
 Pape Lyon," says the French chronicler, " e"tait moult 
 bel et 6tait roux et 6ta.it de stature seignoriable : " 1 a 
 handsome man, of ruddy countenance, and of lordly 
 proportions. Hildebrand, on the other hand, is repre- 
 sented as little (homuncio exilis staturtz*), of mean 
 presence, pot-bellied, and short-legged (venire lato, 
 crure curto 3 ), of tawny complexion and black hair * 
 probably a somewhat vulgar-looking ecclesiastic of a 
 type still common enough in Italy, while his origin, 
 as we have seen, was of the humblest, and his training 
 had been of the severest. One thing which the two 
 men had in common was intense religious fervour. 
 And the iron will, the far-reaching mind, of Hildebrand 
 
 1 Aime" de Monte Casino, Fystoire de li Normant; quoted by Wat- 
 terich, vol. i. p. 109, note. 
 
 2 See Pertz., Monumenta Germania Historica, vol. xii. p. 474. 
 
 3 Ibid., vol. xiii. pp. 654-656. 
 
 * See Pertz., Monumenta Germania Historica^ vol. xvi. p. 69.
 
 iv.] Hildebrand Archdeacon 191 
 
 were the necessary complement of Leo's simplicity 
 and gentleness. 1 The harmlessness of the dove re- 
 quired, for the task that was in hand, to be united 
 to the wisdom of the serpent. 
 
 From that day the young subdeacon, soon raised 
 to the cardinalate, and shortly afterwards made Arch- 
 deacon of the Roman Church, was the trusted friend 
 and counsellor of the Pontiffs who in succession 
 occupied the Apostolic chair, until the time came for 
 him to go up higher and himself sit thereon. With 
 Leo " a new light seemed to have risen for the world," 
 writes one of his contemporaries, 2 and it was Hilde- 
 brand who, more than any other, ministered the oil 
 which kept bright the sacred flame during the six 
 years' reign of that Pope, and during the four pontifi- 
 cates which fill up the nineteen years between it and 
 his own elevation. It is not my object to write his 
 history. I wish rather to indicate the nature of the 
 work which he did for Modern Civilization, as we now 
 may judge of it, after the event. For be it remem- 
 bered that we, at this distance of time, are able to 
 contemplate it in its wholeness and in its fruits, as he 
 did not and could not contemplate it, and so may 
 estimate it more accurately than was possible to him. 
 It is a grave error to impute to him a clear or even 
 a dim prevision of the consequences, nay, of the 
 tendencies, of all his acts. It is a graver error still, 
 
 1 " Natura simplex atque mitissimus." Bruno, u. s. It is worth 
 noting that he was an accomplished musician. 
 
 2 Desiderius, Abbot of Monte Casino, Gregory VII.'s immediate 
 successor under the title of Victor III. Dialog^ i. iii.
 
 192 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 and just now a very popular one, to suppose that he 
 nourished " a great scheme of theocratic empire," that 
 he dreamed of "a vast ideal of sacerdotal despotism." 
 The intelligent reader, who wishes to afford his intel- 
 ligence a fair chance in this matter, should give all 
 diligence to clear his mind of that cant And I know 
 of nothing which will more effectually help him in 
 doing so, than to get, and honestly read for himself, 
 Hildebrand's own letters. It must be invincible 
 prejudice which can refuse to see that the writer of 
 them lived, as we all live, from day to day, dealing 
 with problems as they arose ; dealing with them, like 
 us, with reference to the exigencies of the time, the 
 opportunities of the hour, the calculations, the inspira- 
 tions of the moment ; but, unlike most of us, dealing 
 with them too on clear and immutable principles, and 
 with an eye unswervingly fixed upon a definite aim 
 far above " the vulgar range of low desire." That 
 aim was the liberty of the Church. To free her from 
 the fetters, whether of vice or of earthly tyranny, to 
 vindicate her claims to absolute independence in 
 carrying out her mission, as a society perfect and 
 complete in herself, divine in her constitution, divine 
 in her superiority to the limits of time and space, in 
 the world but not of it, a supernatural order amid the 
 varying forms of secular polity, such was the work 
 which his hands found to do, and at which, for thirty- 
 six years, he laboured with all his might. I shall 
 here proceed to consider how he acquitted himself in 
 this lifelong task, and I shall dwell specially upon 
 three things : his action in the matter of Papal
 
 iv.] Hildebrand's First Achievement 193 
 
 elections ; his action against simony and clerical in- 
 continence ; and his action against lay investiture. 
 
 IV 
 
 Hildebrand's great achievement before his acces- 
 sion to the Apostolic Throne, was his vindication of 
 the freedom of Papal elections. As we have seen, St. 
 Leo IX. had been practically nominated to the Papacy 
 by the Emperor Henry III., although subsequently, 
 under the influence of Hildebrand's counsels, he had 
 submitted himself to the formal choice of the Roman 
 clergy and people. His successor, Victor II., who 
 was also an Imperial nominee, appears to have fol- 
 lowed the example of his predecessor in demand- 
 ing the ratification of those with whom the election 
 canonically rested. On the death of Victor, after a 
 short Pontificate of two years, Hildebrand seems to 
 have thought that the time was come for freeing the 
 Supreme Pastorate from its dependence upon the 
 Emperor. Henry III. was dead, and his successor 
 was a child under the guardianship of the devout 
 Empress Agnes. Upon the recommendation of Hilde- 
 brand, Frederick, Abbot of Monte Casino, brother of 
 the powerful and able Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine, was 
 elected Pope under the title of Stephen IX., in due 
 canonical form " by the Roman clergy and people," 
 without foreign intervention ; and from that time 
 Imperial nominations to the Papacy ceased. But it 
 was not until two years afterwards that is to say, in 
 
 o
 
 1 94 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 1059 that the final and definite steps were taken for 
 placing this important matter upon a sound footing. 
 In that year the newly elected Pontiff, Nicholas II., 
 acting under the counsels of Hildebrand, formulated, 
 in a Council held in the Lateran, a decree, regulating 
 the elections to the Papal throne. It, in substance, 
 regulates them still, and defying, as it has, the storms 
 of so many centuries, it may justly be regarded as 
 a product of the highest ecclesiastical statesmanship. 
 It was designed to put an end to the ancient demo- 
 cratic elections, which had assumed a feudal character 
 since the close of the ninth century, and to the 
 Imperial nominations, which had practically super- 
 seded them. 
 
 "It concentrated the choice of the Popes," Mignet ob- 
 serves, "in a small assembly of high dignitaries of the 
 Roman Church, who, more enlightened, more prudent, more 
 religiously minded, were better qualified to make a suitable 
 choice. It excluded from it, in some sort, the interested power 
 of the Emperor, and the tumultuary power of the people ; for 
 to restrict the one to confirmation, and the other to approval, 
 was in effect to substitute the obligation of assenting for the 
 right of choosing. This system, which was completed by 
 the speedy cessation of the Imperial confirmation, and by 
 the somewhat more tardy disuse of popular consent, founded 
 in the College of Cardinals an electoral body, religious and 
 aristocratic, which became the senate of the new Rome, 
 and furnished it with regular principles and precedents of 
 government." l 
 
 This was the first great reform brought about by 
 Hildebrand, the first definitive victory won by him 
 
 1 Journal des Savants, January, 1861, p. 23.
 
 iv.] The Sacred College 195 
 
 over the feudalizing spirit in the ecclesiastical order, 
 the first decisive recovery of ground lost by the 
 Church. It might at first seem as though a sacrifice 
 of the popular principle were involved in it, as though 
 it meant the transfer of the appointment to the first 
 see in Christendom from the free suffrages of the 
 faithful to a close corporation. But in truth it was 
 only the shadow of freedom which was sacrificed, 
 while the substance was gained. In the condition of 
 things which prevailed in that age, with feudal barons 
 upon the one hand and a feudal Emperor on the other, 
 the spontaneous action of the Christian democracy 
 which had so largely influenced episcopal elections at 
 Rome, as elsewhere, in earlier ages, was no longer 
 possible. And it must be admitted that " the powers 
 which the Roman laity no less than the German 
 Caesar forfeited, they had seldom exercised with dis- 
 crimination, never once in view of the Church at 
 large." 1 But the Sacred College was no caste 
 assembly. Its doors stood open to all the faithful. 
 Its idea was that it should be representative of all 
 that was best in Christendom; that it should be an 
 aristocracy in the noblest and truest sense, not of 
 birth, but of merit ; ever accessible to high desert ; the 
 flower and crown of the liberty, equality, and fraternity, 
 which in those days were found in the Catholic Church 
 and nowhere else. Nay, are they in truth found 
 elsewhere now ? This is, indeed, a question which 
 may make us pause. But to return to Hildebrand. 
 It is certain that the independence of Papal 
 
 1 The Papal Monarchy, by William Barry, D.D., p. 202.
 
 1 96 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 elections secured by the decree of Nicholas II. was 
 a measure of the highest importance ; and that with- 
 out it the rest of Hildebrand's work would so far as 
 we can judge have been done in vain. It is curious, 
 however, that upon the occasion of his own election, 
 that decree was to a considerable extent infringed. 
 It was on the 22nd of April, 1073, tnat the strange 
 and striking scene took place of which so vivid an 
 account has come down to us. The obsequies of 
 Alexander II., dead only the day before, were being 
 celebrated in St. John Lateran, and Hildebrand, as 
 Archdeacon, was taking his appointed part in the 
 sacred rites, when suddenly there was a great multi- 
 tude of the Roman clergy and people in the church 
 crying out and saying, " Blessed Peter has chosen 
 Hildebrand, the Archdeacon." Was it a sudden 
 inspiration of the Roman democracy, or was it a 
 movement planned by zealous men who wished to 
 compel to the steerage of Peter's bark those strongest 
 hands which shrank, as they well might, from the 
 immense responsibilities of the task ? However that 
 may have been, here at least the proverb held good, 
 "Vox populi, vox Dei." Vainly did the object of 
 their choice rush to the pulpit and endeavour to calm 
 the tumult. His attempts at speech served only to 
 make the thronging people cry out so much the more, 
 " Hildebrand !" The members of the Sacred College 
 hastily consulted together, and with one accord con- 
 fessed that the popular demand did but anticipate their 
 own decision. Hugh the White, Cardinal- Priest, 
 ascended the pulpit and spoke as follows : " Behold,
 
 iv.] Hildebrand Pope 197 
 
 most dear brethren, yourselves know perfectly that 
 since the time of the holy Pope Leo, this Archdeacon 
 as a man prudent and approved, has very much exalted 
 the Roman Church, and has delivered this City from 
 immense perils. We can find no one better qualified 
 for the government of the Church and the defence of 
 the City ; and we, Bishops and Cardinals, have elected 
 him for ourselves and you to be the Bishop and Pastor 
 of your souls." And then, as is the custom, putting 
 upon him the scarlet robe, and putting upon his head 
 the Papal mitre, they led him to the Apostolic throne, 
 " unwilling and sad." 1 And they said to the people, 
 " We choose for our Pastor and our Pontiff a devout 
 man ; a man mighty in human and Divine knowledge ; 2 
 a distinguished lover of equity and justice ; a man firm 
 in adversity and temperate in prosperity ; a man 
 according to the saying of the Apostle, of good be- 
 haviour, blameless, modest, sober, chaste, given to 
 hospitality, and one that ruleth well his own house ; a 
 man from his childhood generously brought up in the 
 bosom of this Mother Church, and for the merit of his 
 life already raised to the archidiaconal dignity. We 
 
 1 "Indutus rubea chlamyde, sicut moris est, et Papali mythra 
 insignitus, invitus et mcerens in Beati Petri cathedra fuit inthronizatus." 
 Card. Aragon, apud Migne, Patrol. Lat,, vol. cxlviii. p. 1 14. 
 
 2 " Geminaa scientias prudentia pollentem." Bowden of whose ex- 
 cellent translations in his Life of St. Gregory VII. I avail myself, from 
 time to time, with such alterations as seem fitted to bring out more clearly 
 the sense of the original somewhat oddly renders these words, " skilled 
 in interpreting the Scriptures." Their meaning, I think, is undoubtedly 
 that which I have given. Dante says, two kinds of light mediate between 
 truth and the mind, reason and grace ; and so St. Thomas Aquinas, at 
 the beginning of the Summa.
 
 198 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 choose, namely, our archdeacon Hildebrand to be 
 Pope and successor to the Apostle, and to bear hence- 
 forward and for ever the name of Gregory." 1 And 
 all the people cried out with loud and continued 
 acclamation, " St. Peter has chosen our Lord Gregory 
 Pope." 
 
 V 
 
 " Unwilling and sad " Gregory may well have 
 been on that eventful day, a turning-point in the 
 history of the modern world. The Apostolic Throne 
 was to be his cross. It may truly be said of him, as 
 of his Master, "regnavit a ligno." He well under- 
 stood what lay before him in carrying out the great 
 work which was given him to do. But to him, as to 
 devout souls in every age, the Sacred Scriptures, by 
 which his spiritual life was nourished, were a very 
 present help in trouble. He knew no one better 
 that " their language veils our feelings, while it gives 
 expression to them ; restrains and purifies, while it 
 sanctions them." Overcome, and unnerved, he writes 
 from his bed, 2 on the morrow of his election, by the 
 hand of another, to his friend Desiderius, Abbot of 
 Monte Casino, " I am come into deep waters, so that 
 the floods run over me ;" " Fearfulness and trembling 
 are come upon me, and darkness hath covered me." 
 And to Duke Godfrey, the brother of the late Pope 
 
 1 Paul. Bern., c. iii. 
 
 8 " In lecto jacens valde fatigatus." Ep. t lib. i. I.
 
 iv.] The Task before Hildebrand 199 
 
 Stephen, he says, a few weeks after, in answer to a 
 congratulatory letter 
 
 "That exaltation which, to you and to others of the 
 faithful, causes affectionate thoughts of us, and joy, awakens 
 in us the bitterness of inward grief, and brings us to the 
 streights of overpowering anxiety. We see what care sur- 
 rounds us ; we feel how heavy is the burden laid upon us ; 
 under which, while the consciousness of our infirmity appals 
 us, our soul rather desires the peace of a dissolution in Christ, 
 than a life in the midst of such dangers. The consideration 
 of the task imposed on us so harasses us, that unless, after 
 God, some confidence in the prayers of spiritual men sustained 
 us, our mind must needs sink beneath the greatness of our 
 cares, for so completely, through the agency of sin, does the 
 whole world lie in the wicked one, that all men, and those 
 more especially who bear rule in the Church, strive rather to 
 disturb her than by faithful devotion to defend and adorn 
 her ; and, while straining after their own advantage, or the 
 desires of present glory, oppose themselves as enemies to 
 religion and to the justice of God. Most especially must this 
 grieve us, who, amid such difficulties, can neither duly 
 administer the Church's government, upon which we have 
 entered, nor safely desert it. ... But we may not set aside 
 the law of God through respect of persons, nor swerve from 
 the path of right for the sake of human favour. As the 
 Apostle says, ' If I should wish to please men, I should not 
 be the servant of God.' " 1 
 
 The task which lay before him, indeed, was not 
 one in executing which he was likely to please men. 
 Far from it. The emancipation of the Church from 
 lay domination, and her purification from simony and 
 incontinence, were precisely the things which princi- 
 palities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of 
 
 1 Ep. t lib. i. 9.
 
 2oo The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 this world least desired. The spirit of the age was 
 against him ; and the spiritualty was deeply infected 
 with the spirit of the age. Feudalism was gradually 
 drawing the hierarchy, throughout Europe, into its 
 system. And the concubinary clergy had to rely 
 upon the secular rulers for giving an hereditary 
 character to the benefices they had bought. . The 
 Pontiff knew well his twenty-five years' experience 
 since he came to Rome with St. Leo IX. was enough 
 to teach him that in the conflict in which he was 
 about to engage, his worst foes would be those of his 
 own household ; for in that quarter of a century there 
 had been afforded him the amplest opportunity of 
 understanding the intensity of the opposition offered 
 to ecclesiastical discipline by clerics who hated to be 
 reformed. He had measured his foes. But not a 
 thought of fear, a doubt of the eventual issue, with- 
 held him from the contest. His past career, indeed, 
 offered warrant for his confidence. Seventeen years 
 before, he had been sent by Pope Victor into France 
 as legate d latere to reform the concubinary and 
 simoniacal abuses so largely prevalent there, as else- 
 where throughout Christendom ; and so great was the 
 awe inspired by his presence that forty-five Bishops 
 and twenty-seven other dignitaries are related to have 
 come forward to accuse themselves and to resign their 
 benefices. Upon this occasion, as often at other times, 
 he is said to have manifested the singular power he 
 possessed of reading the thoughts of men's hearts. 1 
 
 1 Among other instances of the exercise of this gift, take the following, 
 related by Paulus Bernriedensis : Hildebrand, then Archdeacon, and
 
 iv.] Damiani at Milan 201 
 
 It was by his counsel, too, that his friend, Peter 
 Damiani, had been sent by Nicholas II. to reform the 
 Church of Milan, where, as Baronius relates on con- 
 temporary authority, "numbers of priests passed their 
 lives in hunting or hawking ; others frequented taverns 
 and brothels ; some were known as shameless usurers; 
 almost all lived openly in concubinage or with public 
 women ; all practised the most scandalous simony : 
 from the greatest to the lowest none were without 
 reproach." The mission nearly cost Damiani his life, 
 which, indeed, he counted not dear in such a cause ; 
 but in the end he succeeded in causing the Archbishop 
 and clergy to pledge themselves by oath against 
 simony and incontinence not, as the event showed, 
 a very stable guarantee. Thus had Gregory, so to 
 speak, served his apprenticeship to the great work to 
 which he proceeded to address himself, with all the 
 energy of his nature, upon his elevation to the 
 Apostolic Chair, 1 remembering, as his three score 
 
 Hugh, Abbot of Clugny, were travelling together on their return from a 
 synod where sentence of deposition had been passed upon a certain 
 Bishop, and had come to a stream. Hildebrand crossed it first, and, 
 pausing on the bank for his companion, addressed to him, on his arrival, 
 the question, " Why have you thought such things of me ? " To whom 
 Hugh, in astonishment : " Are you then God, to know the thoughts of 
 men ? " " No," replied Hildebrand ; " but I heard what you were saying 
 to yourself, in your own mind. You were asking whether it was not 
 rather from pride than from zeal for God that I had deposed that Bishop. 
 I looked at you as you were coming through the stream, and this came 
 as by a thread from your mouth to my ears." And so on another 
 occasion, upon Hugh asking him how he could have divined his thoughts, 
 Hildebrand is stated to have replied, " Hac ex animo tuo, quasi per 
 fistulam, ad aures meas deducta est." William of Malmesbury, apud 
 Pertz., Monumenta Germanics Historica^ vol. xii. p. 474. 
 
 1 "Ipse autem qui per multum tempus ad libertatem ecclesiaa
 
 2O2 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 years might well serve to remind him, how swiftly 
 the night was coming wherein no man can work. In 
 the Lent of the year following his election, he held a 
 Council at Rome, in which he promulgated the follow- 
 ing decrees : i. That clerics who had obtained any 
 grade or office of sacred order by payment, should 
 cease to minister in the Church. 2. That no one who 
 had purchased any church should retain it, and that 
 no one for the future should be permitted to buy or 
 sell ecclesiastical rights (ecclesice jura). 3. That all 
 who were guilty of incontinence should cease to 
 exercise the sacred ministry. 4. That the people 
 should in no wise receive the ministrations of clerics 
 whom they saw setting at nought these Apostolical 
 ordinances. 
 
 Such was the trumpet-blast of no uncertain sound 
 sent by Gregory throughout Christendom. The 
 prophetic instinct of St. Odilo was justified. The 
 reformation was undertaken in stern earnest by one 
 who, like the Baptist, set about his mission in the 
 spirit and power of Elias. There was, of course, 
 nothing new in the prohibition of simony and in- 
 continence. Pope after Pope, Council after Council, 
 had fulminated against these evils. What was in a 
 sense new, was the appeal of Gregory to the faithful 
 at large his constituting the people the executors 
 of his decrees. It was an appeal to the religious 
 
 obtinendam privatus laboraverat jam ad sacerdotalem dignitatem 
 provectus, a ccepto desistere indignum ducens, tarn ob hoc quam pro 
 simonia exstirpanda ac incontinentia clericorum reprimenda plurimum 
 desudabat." Otto Frising., lib. vi. c. 34, apud Migne, Patrol. Lat. y vol. 
 cxlviii. p. 214.
 
 iv.] The Spirit and Power of Elias 203 
 
 instincts of a Christian people; and those religious 
 instincts responded to it. " It is impressed upon the 
 consciences of all Christians," wrote Lanfranc, the 
 contemporary Archbishop of Canterbury, "that no 
 less than if the acts were those of St. Peter himself, 
 they should tremble when his successors threaten, 
 and reverently rejoice when they show themselves 
 serene." l The words of the Pope awoke millions of 
 echoes in human hearts throughout Christendom. 
 Public opinion it was, the public opinion of an age 
 of faith, which sharpened the edge of his spiritual 
 sword, and directed against the guilty the thunder 
 of his anathemas. And in the strenuousness of the 
 resistance which the vigorous action of the Pontiff 
 elicited, we have a sufficient indication of its neces- 
 sity. In Germany, when the storm broke forth, and 
 Siegfried, Archbishop of Mentz, quailed before it, 
 Gregory sought to strengthen the trembling prelate 
 by a characteristic appeal. " Much should it shame 
 us," he urges in one of his epistles, "while soldiers of 
 this world daily join in battle for a temporal prince, 
 and with scarce a thought of fear hazard their lives, 
 if we, called priests of the Lord, fight not for our 
 King, who abhorred not to undergo the penalty of 
 death for us, and has promised us an eternal reward." : 
 In France and Normandy the indignation of the con- 
 cubinary and simoniacal clergy was no less vehement 
 than in Germany. The Archbishop of Rouen, we 
 read, while endeavouring to enforce the decree of 
 celibacy, was pelted with stones, and fled for his life, 
 
 1 Baron., Anna!., ad an. 1072. 2 Lib. Hi. 4.
 
 204 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 crying out, " Deus, venerunt gentes in hereditatem 
 Tuam ! " " O God, the heathen have come into Thine 
 inheritance ! " In Spain the Papal Legate was threat- 
 ened and outraged at the Council of Burgos. And 
 so it was throughout the rest of Europe. 
 
 It is not necessary that I should follow in detail 
 the progress of the strife, or dwell upon the irregu- 
 larities, the profanations, the sufferings, incidental 
 to it. The people are rough justiciars. Even when 
 their instinct is right, their method is usually wrong. 
 The Christian democracy of the eleventh century, 
 roused by the appeal of Gregory, exhibited as little 
 discrimination as was displayed by the people of 
 the Hebrews when, summoned by Elias to choose 
 between the commandments of the Lord and Baalim, 
 they " took the prophets of Baal and brought them 
 down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there." 
 The sufferings of these miserable men, and of the 
 partners and offspring of their guilt, have long passed 
 away, lost in the vast record of lamentation, and 
 mourning, and woe, which is the history of the human 
 race. But the gain of the victory won over them 
 remains. The immedicabile vulnus was cut out of 
 the spiritual body, and the plague was stayed. The 
 celibacy of the clergy, as a recent learned writer, 
 much prejudiced against it, confesses, was " a necessary 
 element of sacerdotalism, the abolition of which would 
 have required the entire destruction of the Papal 
 system, and the fundamental reconstruction of ecclesi- 
 astical institutions." x That this " necessary element " 
 
 1 Lee's Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 226 (2nd ed.).
 
 iv.] The Appeal to the People 205 
 
 of Catholicism was not destroyed, was, humanly 
 speaking, the work of St. Gregory VII. 
 
 Before I pass away from this part of my subject, 
 I would make four remarks. The first is, that in his 
 prohibition of clerical marriage, as of simony, Gregory 
 was merely carrying out what was clear ecclesiastical 
 law. Apart from all theories, it is certain that the 
 prohibitory rule was of long standing. To go back 
 no further, "direct condemnations of the practice are 
 found in Nicholas's reply to the Bulgarians, 860 ; in 
 the Synod of Worms, 868 ; in Leo VII.'s Epistle to 
 the Gauls and Germans, 938 ; in the decrees of Augs- 
 burg, 952 ; and in Benedict VIII.'s speech, and the 
 decrees passed at Pavia about 1020. Hincmar of 
 Rheims, in 845, Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, in 950, 
 Councils at Metz in 888, and at Nantes at the end 
 of the same century, had confirmed the rule with 
 additional circumstances of strictness." l Secondly, 
 I would note that in turning to the people, Gregory 
 was but applying a principle sanctioned by the im- 
 memorial tradition of the Roman Pontiffs. It is to 
 the communis sensus of the faithful that they, from 
 the first, have appealed in the supreme ecumenical 
 assemblies of the Church. Schaff goes so far as to 
 say that the root of the growing influence of the 
 papacy in the primitive age was in public opinion. 2 
 " Let no Bishop be given to those who are unwilling 
 to receive him," writes Pope St. Celestine I. in the 
 fifth century, adding, " The consent and desire of 
 
 1 Cardinal Newman's Essays Critical and Historical, vol. ii. p. 289. 
 
 2 History of the Christian Church, vol. i. p. 430.
 
 206 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 the clergy and people are necessary." * It was to the 
 people that the Second and Third Gregory appealed 
 against the Emperor in the great controversy about 
 the veneration of images, and it was by the support of 
 popular influence that they were upheld. And such 
 is ever the true basis of a power which is not a 
 political but a moral power : of a kingdom which is 
 not of this world. It can have no other basis. 
 Thirdly, it may not be amiss to correct a misappre- 
 hension as to the effect of the Gregorian prohibition 
 against the ministrations of the concubinary clergy 
 the more so, as it has of late years received the 
 sanction of the fascinating historian of Latin Christi- 
 anity. " The decree of the synod held in Rome in 
 in the eleventh month of Gregory's pontificate," 
 Dean Milman writes, " absolutely invalidated all 
 sacraments performed by simoniacal or married 
 priests," 2 thus imputing to the Pope the opinion of 
 the Montanists. The mistake of this brilliant writer 
 is all the more curious as the authority, cited in a 
 note, upon which he founds himself should have pre- 
 served him from it. " The synod removed married 
 priests from the exercise of the sacred ministry, 
 and interdicted the laity from hearing their Mass," 
 
 1 Ep. iv. c. 5. " Necessary," that is, to a valid election as the law of 
 the Church then stood ; not necessary to the episcopal character. Pope 
 Celestine would have taught, as clearly as the Council of Trent teaches, 
 that " in ordinatione episcoporum, sacerdotum et ceterorutn ordinum, nee 
 populi nee cujusvis saecularis potestatis et magistratus consensum, sive 
 vocationem, sive auctoritatem ita requiri ut sine ea irrita sit ordinatio." 
 Sess. xxiii. c. 4. 
 
 2 Latin Christianity, vol. iii. p. 118. 
 
 3 "Uxoratos sacerdotes a divino officio removit, et laicis missam 
 eorum audire interdixit."
 
 iv.] Misconceptions 207 
 
 we there read : which is not the same thing as 
 "invalidating the sacraments performed by them." 
 Fourthly, I would observe how difficult it is for a 
 Protestant clergyman, however scholarly and accom- 
 plished, really to enter into the spirit of an age 
 dominated by religious conceptions so radically 
 opposed, in some important respects, to those of 
 which he is the professed exponent. The dis- 
 tinguished man of letters whom I have just quoted 
 may serve, as well as another, to illustrate what I 
 mean. Dean Milman observes in one of his notes, 
 " Damiani must be read to understand his sacred 
 horror at priestly wedlock." * No doubt that is so ; 
 but it is quite possible to read Damiani and not to 
 understand his sacred horror at priestly wedlock. 
 When St. Peter Damiani, and other ecclesiastical 
 writers of his age, speak of the female member of 
 the sacerdotal household as scortum, pellex, meretrix, 
 obsccena, meretricula, and the like, their epithets are 
 no mere flowers of vituperative rhetoric, but are 
 accurately descriptive. The partner of the medieval 
 priest was merely an unfortunate female, the lowest 
 and most degraded of her unhappy class. And if 
 the tie which bound her to the criminous clerk 
 with whom she cohabited was nominally that of 
 marriage, it but served to add the guilt of sacrilege 
 to the sin and shame of incontinence ; for according 
 to the canon law of the Church, with which public 
 opinion was wholly in harmony, such a union was 
 absolutely void and the mere profanation of a 
 
 1 Vol. iii. p. 65.
 
 208 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 sacrament. 1 Nor can it be pleaded that the effect of 
 these unhallowed connections was to save from graver 
 turpitude the clerics who contracted them. Mr. 
 Lecky truly remarks that "the knowledge that their 
 marriages were illegal was peculiarly fatal to the 
 fidelity of such priests as took wives ; " and that 
 " bigamy and extreme mobility of attachments were 
 especially common among them." 2 
 
 VI 
 
 The conflict with the incontinent and simoniacal 
 clergy was not waged without much personal suffering 
 to Gregory himself. Even in his own city of Rome a 
 party was formed against him, consisting of ecclesi- 
 astics who had resigned their benefices rather than 
 give up their concubines, of their friends and relatives, 
 and of others who dreaded the Pope's severity, and 
 whose consciences whispered to them that their own 
 turn would come next. At the head of these mal- 
 contents was found Guibert, Archbishop of Ravenna, 
 who, in the event, was to figure as an anti-Pope. The 
 
 1 Ratherius, Bishop of Verona (he died in the second half of the 
 tenth century), puts the matter plainly : " Hoc eodem modo quum omnes 
 noverint quia omnis qui praeter uxorem legitimam cogit aut fornicationem, 
 aut adulterium facit ; presbyter vero vel diaconus uxorem legitimam non 
 possit habere," etc. Apud d'Achdry, vol. i. p. 370. So St. Peter Damiani 
 pointed out to certain concubines of priests, when urging them to leave 
 the partners of their guilt, that the religious ceremonies and legal 
 documents which accompanied their pretended marriages were idle : 
 " Totum hoc quod apud alios est conjugii firmamentum, inter vos vanum 
 judicatur et frivolum." 
 
 2 History of European Morals, vol. ii. p. 351.
 
 iv.] Nigh unto Death 209 
 
 Pontiff was worn out, and in the autumn of 1074 he 
 sank into an illness of such gravity that his life was 
 despaired of. His convalescence he describes as "a 
 thing rather to be lamented than rejoiced at." " Our 
 soul," he tells the Countess Beatrice and her daughter 
 Matilda, "was tending towards, and with all desire 
 panting for, that country where He who observes our 
 labour and sorrow, prepares for the weary rest and 
 refreshment." l And again, writing at the same time 
 to his friend Hugh, Abbot of his beloved monastic 
 home of Clugny 
 
 " Contemplating in mental vision the regions of the West, 
 the South, or the North, I perceive scarcely any Bishops law- 
 fully admitted to their office, and leading lives conformable to 
 their sacred character, who rule Christ's people for the love of 
 Christ, and not for the ends of earthly ambition. Nor do I 
 find among the secular princes any who prefer God's honour 
 to their own, or justice to gain. Those nations among whom 
 I dwell the Romans, the Lombards, and the Normans I 
 conceive, as I often declare to them, to be in some sense 
 worse than Jews or Pagans. And turning to myself, I find 
 myself so oppressed with the burden of my own works that 
 no hope of salvation remains to me but in the mercy of 
 Christ alone. Did I not trust to attain to a better life, and 
 to do service to Holy Church, I would, on no account, remain 
 in Rome ; in which city it has been by compulsion, as God is 
 my witness, that I have dwelt for twenty years past. Whence 
 it comes to pass that, between the grief which is daily re- 
 newed in me and the hope which is, alas ! too long deferred, 
 I live as it were in death, shaken by a thousand storms. And 
 I await the coming of Him who bound me with His chains, 
 who led me back, against my own wish to Rome, and who has 
 here girt me about with countless difficulties ; and often do I 
 
 1 Ep., lib. ii. 9. 
 
 P
 
 2i o The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 say to Him, ' Hasten, tarry not ; come quickly, delay not : and 
 deliver me for the love of Blessed Mary and St. Peter.' " 1 
 
 Not the less earnestly, however, did he address 
 himself, until his hour of deliverance should come, to 
 the task which his hand found to do. And he dis- 
 cerned that the time was now ripe when he should 
 enter upon a mightier struggle than any in which he 
 was yet engaged. The root of clerical incontinence 
 and simony, as he knew well, lay in the custom of lay 
 investiture a practice which in effect drew the prelates 
 of the Church into the meshes of the feudal system, 
 and which had attained its most disastrous develop- 
 ment in Germany. This is a subject upon which 
 polemical prejudices have falsified the judgment of 
 writers of every school. Thus, there are Catholic 
 authors who use language which implies that the pre- 
 tensions of the Emperor 2 Henry IV. were new. On 
 the other hand, Ranke, usually so anxious to be 
 accurate, speaks in terms hardly less likely to mislead. 
 " The constitution of the Empire," he writes, " rested 
 on the connection between temporal and spiritual in- 
 stitutions ; the link between them was the investiture ; 
 the stripping of the Emperor of this ancient privilege 
 was equivalent to a revolution." 3 The truth is, that 
 
 1 Ep. t lib. ii. 49. 
 
 Not in strictness Emperor, but Emperor-elect. He was never 
 crowned ; his mock-coronation by an anti-Pope of course counts for 
 nothing. 
 
 3 Popes of Rome, vol. i. p. 18 (Eng. trans.). So Mr. Bryce, in The Holy 
 Roman Empire: "When Gregory VII. declared that it was sin for the 
 ecclesiastic to receive his benefice under conditions from a layman . . . 
 he aimed a deadly blow at all secular authority" a statement which 
 really takes away one's breath.
 
 iv.] An Imperial Auctioneer 211 
 
 in the ninth and tenth centuries, as the feudal system 
 developed, the custom had gradually grown up that 
 Bishops and Abbots should receive their investiture 
 from the hands of the feudal lord by the delivery of 
 the episcopal symbols the staff and ring and this 
 without any regard to the nature of their temporali- 
 ties, which consisted not only of feudal holdings and 
 seignorial rights, but to a very large extent of free or 
 allodial lands, and also without regard to the vital 
 distinction between their episcopal authority and their 
 temporal status. 1 This custom, which it would be a 
 grave error to regard as a mere form nothing was a 
 " mere form " in the Middle Ages obviously tended 
 to present the temporal lord as the source of spiritual 
 jurisdiction ; and supplemented as it was by the right 
 of designation to vacant sees, claimed by the civil 
 ruler, it led, in the vast majority of cases, to the abso- 
 lute disposal of ecclesiastical offices by the sovereign 
 in entire disregard of the right of election canoni- 
 cally vested in the clergy and people the mode of 
 disposal very frequently adopted being that of open 
 sale. Lambert of Aschaffenberg, one of the most 
 trustworthy of the authorities upon the affairs of the 
 Empire in the eleventh century, tells us how the royal 
 palace was turned into a mart for the sale of benefices 
 by Henry IV., the imperial auctioneer officiating oc- 
 casionally, and knocking down bishoprics and abbeys 
 
 1 Godfrey of Vendome distinguishes between two kinds of investiture : 
 " Alia est investitura quae episcopum perficit, alia vero quae episcopum 
 pascit. Ilia ex divino jure habetur, ista ex jure humano." Opus., vi. 
 Migne, clvii. p. 219.
 
 2 1 2 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 to the highest bidder. And so great had become the 
 scandal thus given, that in 1073, Gregory's immediate 
 predecessor, Alexander II., in a Council held at Rome, 
 had charged the Archbishop of Bamberg present there 
 with Apostolic letters, requiring the Teutonic monarch 
 to appear before the Pontifical throne to answer for 
 himself regarding it ; l but the Pope's death, occurring 
 shortly afterwards, the summons had fallen to the 
 ground. Gregory resolved to go to the root of the 
 matter and to eradicate simony by utterly prohibiting 
 lay investiture under pain of excommunication. Upon 
 this matter, Bowden has a passage which I venture 
 to quote, for I know not who else has so correctly and 
 impartially stated the case 
 
 "Under Charlemagne and his descendants, prelates be- 
 came identified with barons, the hierarchical governors of the 
 Church with the feudal dignitaries of the empire ; [and] in 
 this blending of dissimilar characters, the sacred and unearthly 
 dignity, which was the object of faith, became merged, to the 
 public eye, in that which was tangible and conspicuous. 
 Under this state of things the sovereign, naturally con- 
 ceiving himself entitled to a preponderating voice in the 
 nomination of his representative and vassal the custom 
 silently become universal, that episcopal elections should be 
 ratified by what was styled regal investiture. Though, in 
 earlier and purer ages of the Church, the binding a bishop by 
 any kind of formal oath, would have been thought a degra- 
 dation of the episcopal character, the prelates nominated by 
 Charlemagne or his descendants saw no impropriety, when 
 
 1 '" Heinricum IV. regem datis Annoni archiepiscopo Bambergensi 
 literis vocat ad satisfaciendum pro symoniaca heresi aliisque nonnullis 
 emendatione dignis quae de ipso Romae fuerunt audita." Regesta Pont. 
 Roman., p. 401.
 
 iv.] Lay Investiture 213 
 
 becoming the beneficed vassals of the throne, in pledging 
 themselves, in the ordinary way, to fidelity and devotion, or 
 in receiving the emblems of their appointment from the regal 
 hand. The symbols adopted for this purpose were the sacer- 
 dotal ring and the pastoral staff; symbols which, naturally as 
 they in the first instance suggested themselves, could scarcely 
 fail to escape the indignant criticism of Churchmen in a more 
 thoughtful age. For, when their purport was weighed, they 
 could scarcely be regarded as indicative of those civil rights, 
 royalties, and privileges, which, emanating as they did from 
 the fountain of secular honours, bishops might fairly be 
 admitted to hold in subservience to, and as derivative from, 
 the regal authority. They were episcopal, not baronial 
 adornings. They typified, the one the espousals which the 
 bishop, in Christ's stead, contracted with His Church, the 
 other, the pastoral superintendence which, as representing 
 the Great Shepherd, he was authorized to exercise over His 
 flock. And, under the influence of that primitive feeling 
 which sought to trace, in things of a holy nature, the unseen 
 in the seen to watch for glimpses and shadowy indications 
 of the correspondences which connect the earthly and tangible 
 accidents of the Church with her essential and hidden glories 
 the more religious contemporaries of Gregory VII. regarded, 
 as though fraught with a mysterious potency of meaning, 
 these honoured instruments and appendages of her ministry. 
 In the rod they beheld the antitype of that which, in the 
 hand of Moses, had brought water from the rock to the relief 
 of a perishing people. And with regard to the ring, they, 
 with St. Ambrose, beheld in it the seal of a pure faith and 
 the impress of the truth. ' He who hath the ring,' the Saint 
 hath thus spoken, ' hath the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost. For God hath sealed us, whose image is Christ, and 
 hath given His Spirit to be a pledge in our hearts ; that we 
 may recognize, in the ring which is placed upon the hand, 
 that signet with which the inward parts of our hearts, and the 
 ministry of our outward actions, are sealed.' Impressed with 
 sentiments reverential as these, they could not but shudder
 
 2 1 4 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 to behold the practice of lay investiture, such as it existed 
 around them ; to behold the symbols, fraught to their eyes 
 with a significancy so awful, handled and dispensed to Christ's 
 ministers by a licentious monarch, or, as was the case with 
 many benefices, by his feudatory nobles, as though in exercise 
 of the ordinary privileges and prerogatives of their secular 
 dignity. And when we reflect that a ceremony, in itself so 
 odious to them, was rendered still more obnoxious in their 
 eyes by its connection with the existing prostration of the 
 Church before the temporal sovereignty, as well as by its 
 tendency to perpetuate the system of simony which disgraced 
 the times, we may, in some degree, appreciate the intensity 
 of the feeling with which, when once appealed to on the 
 subject, they were found to insist on its total and perpetual 
 abolition." l 
 
 Such, unquestionably, were the considerations 
 which led Gregory to promulgate, in 1075, tne fl~ 
 lowing decree : " If any one shall, from henceforward, 
 receive a bishopric or abbey from the hand of any lay 
 person, let him not be reckoned among Bishops or 
 Abbots, nor let the privilege of audience be granted to 
 him as to a Bishop or Abbot. We, moreover, deny to 
 such a one the favour of St. Peter, and an entrance 
 into the Church, until he shall have resigned the 
 dignity which he has obtained, both by the crime of 
 ambition and of disobedience, which is as idolatry. 
 And in like manner do we decree concerning the 
 lesser dignities of the Church. Also if any Emperor, 
 Duke, Marquis, Count, or any secular person, or power 
 whatsoever, shall presume to give investiture of any 
 bishopric or other ecclesiastical dignity, let him 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 327. To economize space, I omit the authorities cited by 
 Bowden in his notes ; but they are well worthy of reference.
 
 iv.] The Gauntlet thrown down 215 
 
 know himself to be bound by the force of the same 
 sentence." * 
 
 Thus was the gauntlet of the spiritual power 
 thrown down to feudalism : thus was the supreme 
 conflict for the liberty of the Church engaged. The 
 moment was opportunely chosen by Gregory. The 
 Saxons were in full, and apparently successful, revolt 
 against Henry, who thought well to address to the 
 Pope a temporizing letter. But his complete victory 
 over them two months afterwards, at the battle of the 
 Unstrutt, led to an entire change in his demeanour. 
 The simoniacal traffic was carried on by him as openly 
 and unblushingly as before ; the decree concerning 
 investiture was ostentatiously set at nought ; and the 
 prelates of Saxony were deprived, by his sole authority, 
 of their sees. Upon tidings of these things reaching 
 Gregory, two legates were despatched by the Pontiff 
 with letters to the King, requiring him to appear at 
 Rome to justify himself. They were driven with 
 insult from the Imperial Court at Worms, whither a 
 Council of the simoniacal and incontinent prelates of 
 the Empire was hastily summoned with a view of 
 deposing the Pope. By way of facilitating the task 
 of this assembly, a plot had been formed for seizing 
 his person. The leader of it, Cenci, a dissolute Roman 
 Baron, had written, promising to bring Gregory into 
 the King's presence, 2 and the measures taken to carry 
 out that assurance afford so singular an insight into 
 
 1 Pagi, Critica in Ann. Saron. t ad an. 1075. 
 
 2 " Promittens eundum patrem regis conspectui repraesentandum." 
 PauL Bern., c. v.
 
 2 1 6 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 the times * that it is worth while to pause a little over 
 the graphic contemporary narratives of them. 
 
 On Christmas Eve of the year 1075, a ver y stormy 
 and tempestuous night, the Pope was singing the mid- 
 night Mass at St. Mary Major in the Chapel of the 
 Holy Crib. The rite was well-nigh over. The Pon- 
 tiff had himself received the Sacrament, and, having 
 given communion to the clergy present, was communi- 
 cating the rest of the faithful, when suddenly the place 
 was filled with armed men. It was Cenci and his 
 band, who, sword in hand, rushing to the altar, seized 
 the Pontiff and dragged him away from the unfinished 
 mysteries with blows and wounds. Gregory did not 
 strive nor cry, but with undiminished calm and eyes 
 uplifted to heaven, suffered himself to be stripped of 
 his pallium and chasuble, and to be hurried, still 
 wearing his amice and stole, without the church, 
 where, like a thief, he was placed on a horse behind 
 the back of some ruffian (cujusdam sacrilegt) and 
 hurried off to one of the towers of Cenci. Thence 
 they propose to bear him beyond the walls of the 
 city ; but by this time warning has been given and 
 the fury of the elements has abated. The gates 
 are quickly secured by the people, ample guard being 
 stationed at each, and all night long the city is in 
 confusion with the clangour of trumpets and the ring- 
 ing of bells, as men hurry to and fro, seeking in vain 
 the place where their pastor is hidden, if peradventure 
 he be still alive. In the morning a great multitude is 
 gathered together at the Capitol. The word goes out 
 
 1 Most of these details will be found in Paulus Bernriedensis, c. v.
 
 iv.] Christmas Eve, 1075 217 
 
 that the Holy Father is imprisoned in a certain tower 
 under the custody of Cenci, the friend of the German 
 King. Siege is at once laid to it. Catapults and 
 battering-rams are brought Fires are lighted before 
 the door. The first rampart yields, and the people 
 reach the foot of the tower itself. Meanwhile the 
 Pontiff remains shut up in a chamber of the fortress. 
 In the confusion which had reigned, a pious Roman 
 citizen and a devout and noble matron had passed in 
 with him ; and while the one seeks fur to wrap round 
 the old man, half perished by the cold of that incle- 
 ment night and fireless prison, and warms in his own 
 bosom the frozen feet of the Apostolic captive, the 
 other essays to wash and dress, as b~st she may, 
 his wounds ; and, like another Magdalene, devoutly 
 kisses his breast and his hair amid her fast-falling 
 tears. Side by side with these pious persons stands 
 the sister of Cenci, not afraid to pour forth curses on 
 the Holy Father ; and Cenci himself, who, with sword 
 upraised stern, minatory, and every way terrible 1 
 seeks to exact from the Pontiff an order for the 
 delivery of the Papal treasury and strongholds, 
 Gregory returning to these demands the "non 
 possumus," which, as all the world knows, was the 
 invariable reply of one of his latest successors to 
 more successful brigands. The menaces of Cenci 
 are reinforced by one of his followers (traditoris 
 minister et sequipeda), who, brandishing his weapon, 
 
 1 " Gladio super ilium furialiter stricto, torvus, minax et omniferiam 
 terrificus." Bertholdus, apud Pertz., Monumenta Germanics Historica, 
 vol. vii. p. 282.
 
 2 1 8 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 swears with many blasphemies that he will on that 
 very day cut off the head of the Pope ; when happen- 
 ing to show himself upon the battlements, a javelin, 
 thrown from below, puts an end alike to his threaten- 
 ing and his life. 1 As the morning wears on, Cenci 
 perceives the hopelessness of his situation. The 
 surging crowds around the tower increase. The 
 thuds of the battering ram shake the walls. It is 
 plain that shortly the situation will be changed, that 
 the captor of the Pontiff will speedily find himself the 
 captive of the Pontiff's deliverers. He throws himself 
 at the feet of the most blessed Pope (procidit ad pedes 
 beatissimi Papcz) ; calls himself parricide ; the violator 
 of the sanctuary of the Mother of God, and of the 
 Holy Crib of Jesus Christ; and sues for pity, for 
 penance, for protection from the people raised against 
 him by the most just judgment of God. Gregory, 
 with no touch of anger, turns towards the terror- 
 stricken ruffian grovelling before him on the ground. 
 "The wrong that thou hast done me," he declares, 
 " I pardon as a father {paterne indulgeo) ; but the sin 
 that thou hast committed against God, and His 
 Mother, and the Apostles, or rather the whole Church, 
 I order thee to redeem by penance." And as the 
 condition of absolution, he appoints a pilgrimage to 
 Jerusalem, so that haply the sinner may find again the 
 grace of God, and from an example of perdition be- 
 come an example of repentance. Then, appearing at 
 the window of the tower, he shows himself to the 
 people, motioning to them, with his hands, to desist 
 1 " Sicque ad tartarum misit," adds Paulus.
 
 iv.] The German King 219 
 
 from the attack. But his gestures are construed as a 
 sign of encouragement, and the assault being pushed 
 forward with renewed energy, the fortress is speedily 
 taken. The first thought of the rescued Pontiff was 
 to return to the Church of St. Mary Major, there to end 
 the sacred rite from which he had been sacrilegiously 
 torn on the evening of the previous day. Thither 
 was he borne upon the shoulders of the rejoicing 
 people. There, still fasting and upheld by others, he 
 finished at eventide the Mass which he had begun at 
 midnight. Then, having made his thanksgiving, he 
 sought the repose which he so sorely needed, in his 
 palace of the Lateran. Meanwhile Cenci, protected 
 by the Apostolic pardon, escaped, not to make his 
 promised pilgrimage, but to seek refuge in a castle 
 in the Campagna, whence he harried, with frequent 
 forays, the Pontifical territories. In the course of the 
 year he died, suffocated by an ulcer in the jaws, as 
 Arnulphus relates, who in his fate finds an analogy 
 with that of Judas : " Quemadmodum Judas, proditor 
 nexu laquei strangulatus." 
 
 This was the issue of the attempt to terminate the 
 nascent strife between the Papacy and the Empire by 
 Cenci's plot. Its chief practical effect was to reveal 
 to the Pontiff more clearly the character of the adver- 
 saries with whom he had to do. The German King 
 had previously given ample proof that he feared not 
 God, neither regarded man. But this deed was evi- 
 dence of a supreme contempt of that public opinion of 
 Christendom which was the only force whereon the 
 spiritual power had to rely. Thirteen days after it, the
 
 22O The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 Pope addressed to Henry a letter which (as Villemain 
 observes), although no mention is made therein of the 
 affair of Cenci, is couched in terms of such calm and 
 commanding gravity, that we cannot fail to trace in it 
 the presentiment of the mortal strife that was at hand. 
 Gregory begins by saying that, considering to what an 
 inexorable Judge he must give account of the exercise 
 of the ministry committed to him by the Prince of the 
 Apostles, it is not without doubt that he imparts to 
 the monarch his Apostolic benediction. And then, 
 after comparing the fair words and foul deeds of Henry, 
 he concludes : " Sinner and unworthy as we are, we 
 occupy the chair and Apostolic office of Peter. It is 
 he who receives that which thou sendest us in writing, 
 or causest to be said to us by word of mouth. And 
 while we peruse thy letters, or give ear to the words 
 that are uttered on thy behalf, he sees with unerring 
 eyes the heart, whence have proceeded the things 
 addressed to us." l Meanwhile Henry was tired of 
 the mask which he had so long worn, and was pre- 
 pared to accept the challenge thrown down to him 
 in Gregory's citation. The prelates whom he had 
 gathered together at Worms were quite ready to 
 accomplish his will. No doubt Villemain is well 
 founded in his opinion that, apart from their desire of 
 flattering the prince, the severe rule of the Pontiff had 
 excited against him the enmity of many, whence the 
 language full of bitter hatred in which the decree 
 of the pretended Council is drawn up. The disre- 
 gard of Imperial authority in Gregory's election, his 
 
 1 Ep., lib. iu, 10,
 
 iv.] The Bond of Anathema 221 
 
 proceedings concerning the incontinent clergy, and 
 specially his appeal to the people against them, are 
 dwelt upon in many words, and he is accused of treason 
 (Icesa majestas), divine and human. For these causes, 
 the document ends, the Emperor, Bishops, senate, and 
 Christian people declare him deposed, and will no 
 longer leave the flock of Christ to the guardianship 
 of this ravening wolf. Gregory replied by a sentence 
 of excommunication and suspension from the govern- 
 ment of the whole realm of the Germans and of Italy * 
 such sentence to become definitive unless the King 
 should repent and give satisfaction within a year. 
 All Christians were released from their oath of fealty 
 to Henry. All were prohibited from yielding him 
 obedience. " I bind him," the sentence concludes, 
 " O Peter, in thy stead, with the bond of anathema. 
 I bind him on the faith of thy power, so that the 
 
 1 "Totius regni Teutonicorum et Italiae gubernacula contradico." 
 Mansi, torn. xx. p. 467. It was not, in strictness, a sentence of deposition. 
 The incapacity to govern and the dissolution of fealty were, juxta legent 
 Teutonicorum^ the civil consequences of the excommunication. In 
 England, down to the beginning of the last century, the effect of ec- 
 clesiastical censures was very similar. "An excommunicated person 
 in England was placed almost wholly beyond the protection of the law. 
 He could not be a witness or a juryman. He could not bring an action 
 to secure or recover his property. If he died without the removal of his 
 sentence he had no right to Christian burial. Nor was this all. After 
 forty days' contumacy he might be arrested by the writ ' De excommuni- 
 cato capiendo,' issued by the Court of Chancery, and imprisoned till he 
 was reconciled to the Church. It is a singular fact that such a tremendous 
 power, which, in theory at least, might extend even to perpetual im- 
 prisonment, should, during the whole of the eighteenth century, have 
 been lodged with an ecclesiastical court, and that it might be applied to 
 men who had committed such trivial offences as the non-payment of fees 
 or costs. Nor was it by any means a dead letter." Lecky, History of 
 England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii. p. 495.
 
 222 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 nations may know and experience that 'Thou art 
 Peter; and upon this Rock the Son of the living 
 God has built His Church, and the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against her.' ' 
 
 Such was the formal initiation of the great duel 
 between the Papacy and the Empire. To outward 
 view, nothing could seem more disproportionate than 
 the forces massed against one other. On the one 
 side, a young prince, ruling over the greatest of 
 secular sovereignties, and supported by the magnates 
 of his vast dominions. On the other, an aged priest, 
 the son of a carpenter, so powerless in his own city 
 that, as we have seen, his personal liberty was well- 
 nigh at the mercy of any chance band of ruffians. 
 But, in truth, the conflict was merely an acute phase 
 of the great strife carried on, with ever- varying issues, 
 through the ages of the world's history, as in that 
 microcosm, the heart of each individual man, of which 
 human society is but a vastly magnified representation ; 
 the strife of which the Apostle speaks in words of 
 universal application : " The flesh lusteth against the 
 spirit." The cause of Henry was the cause of man's 
 lower nature of the beast which is in him, and of the 
 passions of the beast acting on matter, and employing 
 its natural weapon of material force. The cause of 
 Gregory was the cause of that higher law which has 
 its sanctions in the consciences of men. " God is our 
 witness," wrote the Pontiff in an Epistle to the whole 
 Church, "that no personal motive, no secular end, 
 impels us to raise against ourselves bad princes and 
 impious priests, but solely the consideration of our
 
 iv.] The Real Issue 223 
 
 bounden duty and the power of the Apostolic chair, 
 which presses upon us day by day. Better were it for 
 us to suffer the death of the body a debt which all 
 must pay at the hand of tyrants, than to consent by 
 our silence, whether from fear or favour, to the de- 
 struction of the Christian law." l That was the point 
 at issue ; whether the claims and rights of the spiritual 
 part of man were to be preserved ; whether any 
 principle higher than materialism was to rule among 
 the new nationalities then being formed. And this it 
 is which renders that great conflict so momentous a 
 crisis in the career of Modern Civilization. 
 
 It was in the midst of this conflict that the re- 
 maining nine years of Gregory's pontificate were 
 passed. They constitute, so to speak, a drama of two 
 acts. The first ends at Canossa. Soon after the 
 promulgation of the Papal sentence, death removes 
 Henry's two chief followers. Godfrey, Duke of Lor- 
 raine, his most powerful and constant vassal, is smitten 
 by the dagger of an unknown assassin, hired ap- 
 parently by a feudal neighbour; and leaves his wife, 
 Matilda, entirely unshackled in the administration of 
 her Tuscan domain, and thenceforth able to give the 
 Pontiff that unbounded support and entire devotion 
 which constituted his chief earthly consolation. 
 William, Bishop of Utrecht, the principal of the 
 monarch's ecclesiastical advisers, is suddenly struck 
 down by a mortal disease on Easter Day, in his 
 Cathedral Church, while publicly deriding the Pon- 
 tifical decree of excommunication, and reviling its 
 
 1 " Ad Universes Christianos," Ep., lib. iv. I.
 
 224 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 author ; l and quickly there spreads far and wide the 
 story of the terrible agony of unavailing remorse in 
 which the sacrilegious prelate passed away ; how in his 
 despair he returned for answer to a message from Henry: 
 " Tell him that I and all the fautors of his iniquity are 
 damned to all eternity ; " how to those who surrounded 
 his bed of death, he cried out, " Demons are waiting 
 around for my soul ; by the just judgment of God I 
 have lost this life and the next." No incident is better 
 fitted than this to bring home to the modern mind the 
 profound unquestioning conviction of the justice of 
 the Pontiff's cause, which reigned in the hearts even of 
 his bitterest enemies. The first fact about the age was 
 its faith not its superstition, "an infirmity which, 
 taking human nature as it is, is the sure companion of 
 faith, when vivid and earnest " faith as unquestioning 
 in the bad as in the good : in souls angelical where it 
 worked per caritatem, as in souls diabolical which, 
 in full view of " a fearful looking for of judgment," 
 wrought wickedness. Properly to grasp the signifi- 
 cance of such a scene as that upon which we have just 
 looked, is to enter a long way into the secret of that 
 vanished time. 
 
 There can be no question of the deep terror 
 produced throughout the Empire by the fate of the 
 schismatical Bishop, whose body lay unburied until 
 
 1 '" Parum antem de tractatu locutus Evangelico, statim se ad blas- 
 phemiam Papae Gregorii casco corde menteque vesana prorupuit," etc. 
 This, indeed, appears to have been the style of his preaching : " Omnibus 
 paene diebus solemnibus inter missarum solemnia rabido ore clamabat, 
 perjurum eum, adulterum et pseudo-Apostolum appellans," we are told. 
 Migne, Patrol. Laf., vol. cxlviii. p. 77.
 
 iv.] Henry and the German Princes 225 
 
 permission for its interment, without religious rites, 
 came from Rome. One by one Henry's chief 
 partisans fell away. The prelates whose voices had 
 been raised most loudly in his support at Worms, 
 now stand aloof from him, and seek means for recon- 
 ciliation with the Apostolic See. His feudatories set 
 at nought his behests ; his vassals withhold their 
 duty. Finally, in pursuance of an understanding 
 among the principal magnates, the princes and pre- 
 lates meet in Diet at Tribur, on the i6th of October, 
 1076, to consider the state of the German kingdom; 
 Henry meanwhile lying at Oppenheim, on the 
 opposite bank of the Rhine, with a scanty retinue. 
 The election of another King is debated in the Diet. 
 Henry humbly sends messengers, promising repent- 
 ance and amendment. At last, it is agreed that the 
 whole cause shall be left to the arbitrament of the 
 Roman Pontiff, in a Diet to be held under his 
 presidency at Augsburg, on the coming Feast of the 
 Purification (February 2nd), and that meanwhile 
 Henry shall reside in the city of Spires, dismissing 
 the simoniacal prelates in his train and the rest of 
 his excommunicated followers. No sooner, however, 
 do the magnates leave Tribur, than Henry sends 
 messengers to the Pope, beseeching that he may 
 present himself for judgment in Rome. Gregory 
 refuses the request, and sets out for Germany under 
 the armed escort of the Countess Matilda, when 
 suddenly he learns that the King, almost alone, has 
 crossed the Alps into Italy, resolved, at all hazards, 
 to escape the peril and ignominy of a public trial in 
 
 Q
 
 226 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 the presence of his assembled feudatories. By the 
 advice of Matilda, the Pontiff turns aside from his 
 route, and returns with her to her mountain fastness 
 of Canossa. 
 
 There, as Bertholdus relates, Gregory spent his days 
 and nights in prayer imploring the Divine guidance 
 at this difficult crisis. It was on the 25th of January, 
 1077, that the scene took place, which, as is natural, 
 has seized so strongly upon the popular imagination, 
 and has so often supplied a theme for the brush of 
 the painter, the periods of the rhetorician, the verse of 
 the poet. It is not surprising, perhaps, that the plain 
 facts of the case have been somewhat overlaid by 
 the embellishments of these artists. It may be well 
 briefly to recall them. It was not the Pope, then, who 
 summoned Henry to Canossa, but Henry who sought 
 the Pope there, and that for a very plain and intelligible 
 end of his own. The King was bent upon escaping at 
 any sacrifice from the bond of excommunication and 
 from his engagement to appear before the Pontiff, at 
 the Diet summoned at Augsburg for the Feast of the 
 Purification. The character in which he presented 
 himself before Gregory was that of a penitent, throw- 
 ing himself in deep contrition upon the Apostolic 
 clemency, and desirous of reconciliation with the 
 Church. The Pope, after so long experience of his 
 double-dealing, disbelieved in his sincerity, while, as a 
 mere matter of policy, it was in the highest degree 
 expedient to keep him to his pact with the German 
 princes and prelates. The King pleaded that the 
 sentence of excommunication was weighing on his
 
 iv.] Canossa 227 
 
 soul, 1 that the year of grace wherein he might purge 
 himself from it, assigned by the Papal decree, was 
 fast expiring; that he was willing, if absolved, to 
 put himself into the Pontiff's hands and to perform 
 any penance that might be imposed upon him. On 
 three successive days did he appear barefooted in 
 the snowy courtyard of the castle, clad in the white 
 garb of a penitent, suing for relief from ecclesias- 
 tical censures. It was difficult for Gregory to resist 
 the appeal thus made to his fatherly compassion, the 
 more especially as Hugh, Abbot of Clugny, and 
 the Countess Matilda besought him " not to break 
 the bruised reed." Against his better judgment, and 
 in despite of the warnings of secular prudence, the 
 Pope consented on the fourth day to admit to his 
 presence the royal suppliant. Accompanied by his 
 excommunicated followers, Henry entered the castle, 
 and falling on the ground before the Pontiff, in the 
 form of a cross, sued for reconciliation to the Church. 
 Gregory wept, moved at the sight of this prodigal re- 
 turning with the confession, " Father, I have sinned ; " 
 touched too, it may be, by that "sense of tears in 
 mortal things " which the spectacle was apt to sug- 
 gest. The conditions of absolution imposed upon 
 the King were mainly four: that he should present 
 
 1 Lambert, in explanation of Henry's eager desire for absolution, 
 writes, " Rex etiam certo sciens, omnem suam in eo verti salutem si 
 ante anniversariam diem excommunicatione absolveretur, . . . quia 
 nisi ante earn diem anathemate absolveretur, decretum noverat communi 
 principum sententia ut . . . regnum sine ullo deinceps resitutionis 
 remedio amisisset." Apud Pertz., Monumenta Germanics Historica, 
 vol. vii. pp. 254-256. Paulus Bernriedensis gives a similar account of what 
 he calls Henry s " simulata posnitentia."
 
 228 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 himself upon a day and at a place, to be named by 
 the Pontiff, to receive the judgment of the Apostolic 
 See upon the charges preferred by the princes and 
 prelates of Germany ; that he should abide the 
 Pontifical sentence his subjects meanwhile remaining 
 released from their oath of fealty; that he should 
 respect the rights of the Church and carry out the 
 Papal decrees ; and that breach of this engagement 
 should entitle the Teutonic magnates to proceed to 
 the election of another King. Such were the terms 
 to which Henry solemnly pledged himself, and on 
 the faith of that pledge the Pontiff, assuming the 
 vestments of religion, proceeded to absolve him with 
 the appointed rites. Then followed the Mass, which 
 Gregory himself celebrated. At the consummating 
 moment of the sacrifice he turned to Henry, holding 
 in his hand the sacred Host, and enumerating the 
 charges which had been brought against him by the 
 monarch, said, "I might justify myself by proof: I 
 might appeal to the evidence of witnesses who have 
 known me from my childhood, and by whose suffrages 
 I occupy the chair I fill. But I turn from human 
 testimony to that which is Divine. Behold the Body 
 of the Lord. Be It this day the witness of my inno- 
 cence. May Almighty God free me this day, if I be 
 innocent, from suspicion of guilt. May He smite me, 
 if I be guilty, by a sudden death this day." And so, 
 before them all, he broke the Host and received one 
 half of It. Then, turning to Henry, he said, with 
 many solemn words, " If thou be innocent, my son, do 
 likewise." The King, in great confusion, demanded a
 
 iv.] " More Guilty than he came " 229 
 
 moment to confer with his counsellors, and by their 
 advice excused himself from communicating. 1 
 
 So ends the first act in this great tragedy. 
 Gregory's misgivings as to the King's sincerity soon 
 receive too ample justification. " Fear not," the 
 Pontiff is reported to have said, 2 with half-con- 
 temptuous sadness to the Saxon envoys who com- 
 plained of his lenity to the monarch : " Fear not, 
 I send him back to you more guilty than he came." 
 Henry's words to the Pope had been softer than 
 butter ; but he had departed with war in his heart ; 
 and the cold reception given him by his allies, the 
 Lombard prelates men steeped in simony, and, 
 well-nigh all of them, living openly with women 
 had not tended to make his thoughts less bitter. 
 Soon he lays a plot for seizing Gregory at Mantua, 
 whither the Pontiff is invited for the purpose of 
 presiding over a Council. But the vigilance of the 
 Great Countess foils the proposed treachery. Shortly 
 the ill-advised monarch again assumes an attitude of 
 open hostility to the Pope ; sets at nought the con- 
 ditions to which he had solemnly pledged himself 
 at Canossa, and, according to the expression of the 
 historian Lambert, breaks through the bonds of 
 ecclesiastical law, as though they had been cobwebs. 
 Cobwebs as they seemed to be, he soon discovers 
 
 1 I follow the received account, as given by Lambert and other con- 
 temporary writers. Dollinger, in his Geschichte der Christlichen Kirche, 
 is of opinion, on grounds which I venture to think insufficient, that Henry 
 did receive communion upon the occasion in question. 
 
 2 " Ne solliciti sitis quoniam culpabiliorem eum reddo vobis." Wai- 
 tram is, I believe, the only considerable authority who vouches for the 
 saying.
 
 230 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 that they are of iron. The Teutonic princes, glad 
 to throw off an authority which they loathe and 
 despise not heeding the advice to pause given by 
 the Roman legates proceed at the Diet of Forcheim 
 to the election of another King. Their choice falls 
 upon Rudolph of Swabia, who is crowned at Metz 
 on the 26th of March, 1077. 
 
 The situation is now complicated by the strife 
 between the two rival sovereigns. Gregory protests 
 that his heart is full of sorrow and heaviness at the 
 sight of the effusion of Christian blood, the trouble 
 of religion, and the threatened ruin of the Roman 
 Empire occasioned by the conflict, and seeks to judge 
 the cause of the pretenders, requiring from each a 
 safe-conduct for his journey to Germany for that 
 purpose. Rudolph gives it, but Henry evades com- 
 pliance. At last, in Lent, 1080, Gregory, no longer 
 able to tolerate the continual violation by Henry of 
 the pledges given at Canossa, and greatly moved by 
 tidings of his new and manifold sacrileges and cruel- 
 ties, pronounces again the sentence of excommunication 
 against him, releasing his subjects from their obedience, 
 and recognizing Rudolph as King. Henry thereupon 
 calls together some thirty simoniacal and incontinent 
 prelates at Brixen, and causes them to go through the 
 form of electing an anti-Pope in the person of Guibert, 
 Archbishop of Ravenna, an ecclesiastic some time pre- 
 viously excommunicated by Gregory for grave offences. 
 Then the tide turns in Henry's favour. At the battle 
 of the Elster (isth October, 1080), Rudolph is defeated 
 and mortally wounded, and on the same day the army
 
 iv.] " Non Possumus" 231 
 
 of the Great Countess is overthrown and dispersed at 
 La Volta, in the Mantuan territory. Next year, in 
 the early spring, Henry crosses the Alps and advances 
 towards Rome. Gregory's advisers counsel a com- 
 promise. But the aged Pontiff is animated by the 
 prescient mind of the antique Roman, 1 and puts aside 
 the unworthy proposal. 
 
 A little before Pentecost Henry appears under the 
 walls of the Papal city, expecting that his party within 
 it will throw open the gates to him ; but his expecta- 
 tion is disappointed, and being unprovided with the 
 means for laying a regular siege to it, he is compelled, 
 in July, to withdraw from the unwholesome plains of 
 the Campagna. In 1082 the monarch again advances 
 upon Rome and ineffectually assaults it. In the next 
 year he makes a third and more successful attempt, 
 and captures the Leonine city. Again he seeks to 
 win the Pontiff to a modus vivendi, and the Romans, 
 worn out with the privations and horrors of so long a 
 state of war, beseech Gregory's compliance with tears. 
 But the Pope's reply was a "non possumus." "I 
 know, by long experience, this king's wiliness and 
 treachery. Nevertheless, if he will make amends to 
 God and His Church for the sins which he has 
 notoriously committed against them, I am ready and 
 willing to absolve him, and to place the Imperial 
 Crown upon his head. But if he will not do this, I 
 ought not, I dare not, to listen to your prayer." In 
 
 1 " Dissentientis condicionibus 
 Fcedis et exemplo trahenti 
 Perniciem veniens in asvum."
 
 232 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 November of this year Gregory holds a Council the 
 last in which he ever presided and addresses to the 
 small number of Bishops able to attend it a discourse 
 "breathing rather angelical than human eloquence," 
 speaking to them " of the great doctrines of the faith, 
 of the conversation incumbent upon its professors, and 
 of the firmness and constancy required of them under 
 the pressure and troubles of the times, until the whole 
 assembly around him is melted into tears." x On the 
 2ist of March, 1084, the Lateran Gate is opened to 
 Henry by the treacherous Romans, and the excom- 
 municated monarch, with the anti-Pope by his side, 
 rides in triumph through the streets. The next day, 
 Guibert solemnly takes possession of St. John Lateran, 
 and bestows the Imperial Crown upon Henry in the 
 Vatican Basilica. Meanwhile, Gregory is shut up in 
 the Castle of St. Angelo. Thence, after six weeks, 
 he is delivered by Guiscard, Duke of Calabria, the 
 faithful vassal of the Holy See. But the burning of 
 the city by Guiscard's troops, upon the uprising of 
 the Romans, turns the joy of his rescue into mourning. 
 Eight days afterwards he quits the smoking ruins of 
 his once beautiful Rome, and after pausing for a few 
 days at Monte Casino, reaches Salerno, where his life- 
 pilgrimage is to end. A sure presentiment tells him 
 that the time of his departure is at hand, the hour of 
 deliverance for which he had so often sighed under 
 the twelve years' burden of his world- wide charge. 
 And as his malady progresses, and his vital force 
 decays, he passes the days until his change shall come, 
 1 Bowden, vol. ii. p. 310; citing Harduin, torn. vi. pt. i. p. 1612.
 
 iv.] An Apostolic Reward 233 
 
 in reviewing his work by the clearer light of approach- 
 ing death and anticipated eternity. We know what 
 was his testimony of himself at that supreme hour, in 
 full vision of the dread meeting, face to face, with the 
 Great Taskmaster, to whom, as he had ever remem- 
 bered, his account must be rendered. Like the 
 Apostle in whose name he had so often spoken, he 
 could aver that he had fought the good fight ; that he 
 had followed even to the end, his appointed course ; 
 that he had kept the faith. And he had earned an 
 Apostolic reward. " I have loved righteousness and 
 hated iniquity ; therefore I die in exile." They are 
 the last words he ever spoke. And one of them that 
 stood by made answer, "In exile thou canst not die, 
 Vicar of Christ and His Apostle ; thou hast received 
 the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utmost parts 
 of the earth for thy possession." Fitting commenda- 
 tion for the passing of that " strong heroic soul." 
 
 VII 
 
 More than eight centuries have rolled by since 
 Gregory passed away. But his work has not passed 
 away. No true work ever wholly passes away. 
 " Great things done endure." And that this is so is 
 perhaps the one consideration which renders the faith- 
 ful study of human history endurable. The story of 
 our race, in every age, might well turn to gloom any 
 mind which contemplates it in its naked reality, were 
 it not for the Divine element kept alive in it by those
 
 234 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 witnesses to unswerving truth, and severe holiness 
 and inflexible justice, of whom the world is not 
 worthy, but of whom the world is never left wholly 
 destitute. Of the number of these was St. Gregory 
 VII. The world has been made better by that man's 
 life and doing better for us in this twentieth cen- 
 tury. He laboured ; and we the heirs of all the 
 ages have entered into his labours. Let me briefly 
 set down what it is that we immediately owe him. 
 
 The debt of the modern world to Gregory is mainly 
 this : that by his heroic courage and faith unfailing, 
 the triumph of monarchical absolutism throughout 
 Europe was retarded for two centuries centuries 
 during which the new nationalities, rallied closely 
 round the Apostolic throne, were informed with the 
 conception of a higher law than any resting merely 
 on material power, of a more sacred fealty than any 
 due to secular rulers. His earliest biographer de- 
 scribes him as wrestling against and overcoming 
 " Kings, Tyrants, Dukes, Princes, and all the jailers 
 of human souls." And this is an exact description 
 of the battle which he fought and won. For the 
 victory was truly his, although it was not until the 
 pontificate of Callixtus II., thirty-eight years after his 
 death, that the last and greatest of the issues debated 
 by him the question of the investiture was settled, 
 substantially in favour of the Church. His successors 
 were animated by his spirit; they did but unswerv- 
 ingly adhere to his principles ; in their lofty words 
 we seem to catch the accents of him, though dead, 
 yet speaking. To him it is primarily and especially
 
 iv.] Hildebrand's Work for the Church 235 
 
 due that the institution of Bishops, as the basis of 
 episcopal government, ceased to be confounded with 
 investiture. The collect in his Office rightly speaks 
 of him as the defender of ecclesiastical liberty. We 
 owe it to him that the Latin Church did not sink, 
 like the Greek, into the puppet of Imperial despotism, 1 
 and that the human conscience was recognized in the 
 Western world as a domain into which the jurisdiction 
 of temporal princes did not extend. 
 
 But Gregory was the saviour of political freedom 
 too. 2 He was the founder of communal liberty in 
 
 1 " No contest about investiture was possible in the Greek Empire ; 
 the Emperor, as later the Sultan also, gave to the new Patriarch the 
 pastoral staff as sign of the dignity conferred upon him by God through 
 the Emperor's hand. . . . The arbitrary depositions of Patriarch became 
 more and more frequent ; the last vestige of ecclesiastical freedom was 
 lost. . . . Only too true is what Gregory IX. wrote in 1232 to Germanus 
 II., 'When the Church of the Greeks divided herself from the unity 
 of the Roman Chair, she lost at once the privilege of ecclesiastical 
 freedom."' Cardinal Hergenr other's Pkotius, vol. iii. pp. 841-843. 
 
 2 He occasionally uses language at which the most liberal of his 
 modern critics stand aghast. Thus, in one of his epistles he writes 
 " Quis nesciat reges et duces ab iis habuisse principium qui Deum 
 ignorantes, superbia, rapinis, perfidia, homicidiis, postremo universis 
 pasne sceleribus, mundi principe, diabolo, videlicet, agitante, super pares, 
 scilicet homines, dominari caeca cupiditate et intolerabili presumptione 
 affectaverunt ? " (lib. viii. 21). Upon this passage Villemain exclaims, 
 " Est-ce, en effet. un austere et saint pontife, est-ce un de*mocrate moderne 
 qui prononce ce terrible anatheme centre toutes ces dignity's de la terre, 
 denonce'es comme autant d'inventions diaboliques, dont quelques hommes 
 se sont servis pour marcher sur la tete des autres hommes, que la nature 
 avait erne's leurs e"gaux ? " (vol. ii. p. 75). Villemain here, as in so many 
 other places, goes too far. St. Gregory VII. says nothing, either in this 
 passage or anywhere else, in contravention of the Catholic doctrine 
 taught by the Apostle : " Non est enim potestas nisi a Deo ; quae autem 
 sunt, a Deo ordinatae sunt." Civil authority, in the abstract, is from 
 God, but not in its concrete form, not he who dispenses it. For the rest, 
 the words of Gregory describe with exact accuracy the historical origin
 
 236 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 Italy; the apostle of Italian independence. The 
 triumph of the spiritual element over brute force 
 involved the triumph of municipal and national 
 freedom over feudal tyranny. The liberty of the 
 Church, in every age, is in exact proportion to the 
 general liberties enjoyed. And the distinction between 
 the two powers, spiritual and temporal, the two orders, 
 ecclesiastical and civil, is the very foundation on which 
 individual freedom rests, in this modern world of 
 ours the supreme gain of modern society over the 
 polities of antiquity. It is a distinction which Mate- 
 rialism, the expression of the Paganism innate in 
 human nature, manifesting itself in the public order in 
 the doctrine of the omnipotence of the State, is ever 
 attempting to obliterate. It seemed to have disap- 
 peared from the world in what has been happily called 
 the " sensuous tumult of the Renaissance," and in the 
 period of absorbing and absolute monarchy which 
 followed. Especially during the eighteenth century, 
 the century of the Christian era in which the Catholic 
 Church reached her deepest degradation and no- 
 where was she more degraded than in Catholic 
 countries but few traces of it are to be found by 
 the most diligent search in Continental Europe, 
 although in England, thanks to the casting out of the 
 " new monarchy" in 1688, it gradually established 
 itself under the altered form, which the dissolution 
 
 of most of the polities existing in his day or in our own. And the view 
 of this subject taken by St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, lib. xix. c. 15, and 
 De Doct. Christ., lib. i. 23, whence the expression of Gregory, given above, 
 about the natural equality of men is borrowed) and by most of the early 
 Fathers, is identical with his.
 
 iv.] Hildebrand's Work for the World 237 
 
 of religious unity had compelled it to assume, of 
 freedom of worship and freedom of the press. That 
 liberty of conscience before human law, which the 
 English-speaking- races enjoy in this twentieth cen- 
 tury, is but the expression, in the shape required by 
 this changed time, of the great principle for which 
 Gregory fought. There is not a Glassite, a Sande- 
 manian, a Seventh- Day Baptist, a Recreative Reli- 
 gionist among us, who is not directly indebted to this 
 Catholic Saint for his right to the enjoyment of his 
 uncouth shibboleths ; not a newspaper exponent of 
 sensualism or secularism, of the dissidence of dissent 
 and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion, who 
 does not owe to this great Pontiff the right to abound 
 in his own sense or nonsense. 
 
 To me it seems clear that we owe to Gregory the 
 rescue of liberty of conscience the first and most 
 precious of all our liberties in that moment of the 
 history of the modern world when it was in greatest 
 danger of perishing. He preserved it, in his day, by 
 the only means possible in that day, and in the only 
 form possible. He has made the task of those who 
 have subsequently fought and suffered for it, if not 
 less arduous, at least more hopeful. This was the 
 work which he did for the new nationalities, in their 
 most plastic period a work never, as I believe, to be 
 undone, whether by the pride of kings or the madness 
 of peoples. 
 
 "But Gregory went too far." It would be no 
 great argument against him if this were true. " Omnis 
 Pontifex ex hominibus assumptus circumdatus est
 
 238 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 infirmitate." Every Pontiff taken from among men 
 is encompassed with infirmity : and this Pontiff was 
 eminently human. The weakness incident to our 
 mortal state dims and falsifies our vision. " Larger, 
 other eyes than ours " are needed to discern the exact 
 bounds which should regulate our action. But, apart 
 from this consideration, it may be noted that the 
 historians and publicists who have judged Gregory 
 most harshly, have, for the most part, forgotten that 
 he must be judged, not by the principles of our 
 times, but by the principles of his own. Take, for 
 example, his assertion of the deposing power, so great 
 a stumbling-block to the modern mind. Now, what 
 is certain about the deposing power is that it was no 
 invention of Gregory's, but part of the public law 
 which he was called upon to administer as the common 
 father and supreme judge of Christendom, and that it 
 was the principal and most efficacious check upon 
 monarchical violence and oppression. His prede- 
 cessors had spoken of the Divine testimonies before 
 kings as loftily as he. The second Gregory had 
 released Italy from its allegiance to an heretical 
 Emperor. Pope Zachary had deposed Chilperic, or, 
 at the least, had ratified his deposition and the sub- 
 stitution of Pepin as King. But, in fact, the so-called 
 deposing power was, strictly speaking, only an incident 
 which attended upon excommunication. 1 It was con- 
 trary to the spirit, to the universal sentiment, of an 
 age of faith, that a Christian people should serve a 
 monarch who had been cut off from Catholic unity, 
 1 See the note on p. 221.
 
 iv.] The Deposing Power 239 
 
 and who was to them as a heathen man and a publican. 
 In earlier times even the Bishops of the several 
 Christian nations took upon themselves to exclude 
 princes from Church-membership, and to release their 
 subjects from fealty, as in the remarkable instance 
 where the French prelates assembled at Compiegne 
 laid under ecclesiastical censures Louis le Debonnaire 
 and pronounced him deposed. The same centralizing 
 tendency, which, as Christendom was formed round 
 the Apostolic Chair, reserved to the Supreme Pontiff 
 the power of canonization, anciently vested in each 
 member of the episcopate, reserved to him also the 
 right to excommunicate princes. 
 
 And this right was the safeguard of their subjects. 
 For it must ever be remembered that in the medieval 
 public order the notion of absolute and irresponsible 
 monarchy had no place. The authority of kings rested 
 everywhere upon constitutional pacts, varying in form, 
 but the same in substance. It was limited, fiduciary, 
 and liable to be forfeited for grave infringement of the 
 laws which they had sworn to administer, of the rights 
 which they had sworn to respect, of the duties which 
 they had sworn to perform. And of monarchs so 
 transgressing, according to the public law which had 
 gradually grown up, and was in force in Gregory's 
 time, the Pope was the judge. Hence the Apostolic 
 Chair was the safeguard of right, the help of the 
 helpless, the refuge of the oppressed. It was also, if 
 I may so speak, a permanent court of international 
 arbitration, and so the nexus of the public order of 
 Europe. And I do not think that any impartial
 
 240 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 student of the acts of those who sat therein, from 
 Gregory's time to the time of the Great Schism, will 
 deny that, upon the whole, they rose to the height of 
 their mission. The world has changed all that now. 
 Christendom has disappeared, and with it the con- 
 ception of a supreme tribunal judging among the 
 nations by a recognized right and a Divine prerogative. 
 Europe has gone back to that mutually balanced fear 
 (TO avTiTraXov Seog) which the greatest of ancient his- 
 torians apparently regarded as the only bond of 
 States. The deposing power has been replaced by 
 "the right of insurrection," supplemented by the regi- 
 cidal scaffold, the assassin's dagger or bomb. It may 
 be doubted whether the change is wholly for the 
 better. 
 
 So much as to the general question of the deposing 
 power. For the rest it cannot be doubted that Gregory 
 was carried by the tide of events further than he had 
 intended to go that from vindicating the spiritualty 
 against the encroachments of feudalism, he was led to 
 use feudalism as an instrument to bring the Empire 
 into subjection to the Papacy, to make its head "the 
 man " of the Pope. This was natural ; nay, inevitable. 
 His work was done in his own day, and primarily for 
 his own day, and by the means which lay ready to his 
 hand : he could find no other. And so, in dealing 
 with other potentates than the Emperor, the tie of 
 fealty by which he sought to bind them to the Holy 
 See was no new device of his. He found it existing ; 
 all he did was to strengthen it. And his policy has 
 been amply justified by the event, for it contributed
 
 iv.] A Fanatic 241 
 
 more than anything else to preserve national independ- 
 ence and to foster national development. Upon this 
 subject Cardinal Hergenrother has some extremely 
 sound observations. 
 
 " It is an unfounded assertion," this very judicious writer 
 remarks, "that Gregory VII. treated all princes as vassals of 
 the Holy See. It was neither unusual nor uncommon for 
 princes to place themselves and their dominions under the 
 protection of St. Peter. There was a universal subjection of 
 States in matters of religion, but beyond this, in many 
 instances, there was a special subjection founded on various 
 titles, generally the personal desire of the ruling prince. 
 They dedicated themselves to the Prince of the Apostles, or 
 to some other saint, or to some holy place, and made them- 
 selves tributary thereto. This subjection served to show that 
 a prince placed under the protection of Heaven and the 
 Saints was independent of any earthly power. Certain it is, 
 that the Popes acted in this matter on no widespread, deep- 
 laid political scheme, inherited by one from the other. 
 Things took shape spontaneously, fashioned by impending 
 dangers, by the spirit of chivalry or by religious enthusiasm." l 
 
 " Religious enthusiasm ! " it is the key of the 
 enigma. And many a writer of our own times, sur- 
 veying the great figure of Gregory, and finding here a 
 sufficient account of him and his work, labels him 
 a fanatic, and dismisses him as unworthy of further 
 consideration from "modern thought." It is, as I 
 
 1 Catholic Church and Christian State, vol. i. pp. 401-409 (Eng. trans.). 
 I am far from denying that there are arguments in Gregory's Epistles 
 see, for example, lib. iv. 2, 24 ; lib. vii. 6 ; lib. viii. 21 which, if carried to 
 their logical consequences, would supersede all law, positive or natural, 
 by the Papal authority. And, as a matter of fact, some of his successors 
 sought so to develop them, unmindful of the counter-arguments by which 
 they should have been modified. 
 
 R
 
 242 The Turning-point of the Middle Ages [CH. 
 
 know well, a heavy charge in the age in which we 
 live. As a powerful French novelist puts it, " Nous 
 avons appris a peser le pour et le centre, et nous avons 
 appris que la verite" n'est qu'une nuance. Apres cela 
 le moyen de se fanatiser ! " But Gregory lived eight 
 hundred years before this discovery. There were no 
 nuances in his mind. On the one side was righteous- 
 ness, which he loved ; on the other iniquity, which he 
 hated. For him it was the whiteness of snow or the 
 redness of scarlet. If this is fanaticism, he was a 
 fanatic. But his fanaticism was informed by the widest 
 and most comprehensive discernment of the needs of 
 his age ; a discernment that made of him a great edu- 
 cational reformer, a great liturgical reformer, and one 
 of the founders of that vast system of canon law 
 which, amid the chaotic mass of feudal customs, some 
 barbarous, some ridiculous, all narrow, preserved the 
 broad scientific principles and rules of the Roman 
 jurisconsults, and rendered them available for the 
 needs of medieval society. It was a fanaticism, too, 
 consistent with the truest liberality to those without 
 the Christian pale, "who believe and confess, though 
 in a different way, one God, and daily praise and adore 
 Him, as the Creator of all ages and the Governor 
 of the world," the true Light "that enlighteneth 
 every man that cometh therein," "without whom we 
 cannot do or think anything that is good." x Gregory 
 was a fanatic, as St. Ambrose, St. Anselm, Savonarola, 
 
 1 I am quoting from his striking letter the last in the Third Book 
 of his Epistles to Anzir [Anazir], the Saracen Prince of Mauritania 
 Sitiphensis.
 
 iv.] The Secret of Hildebrand's Success 243 
 
 were fanatics ; as Moses, Gotama, and Mohammed 
 were fanatics ; nay, as He, the Fount of grace and 
 truth, was a fanatic, of whom the judgment of the 
 cool and cautious intellects of His day was, "He hath 
 a devil, and is mad." The reproach of Gregory is 
 the reproach of Christ ; and herein is the secret of his 
 success. The cool and cautious intellects pass away, 
 and the "little dust of praise" stirred by admiring 
 contemporaries soon falls, and for the most part 
 serves but to hide their tombs ; " their memorial is 
 perished with them." Great enthusiasms are the 
 strongest and most enduring things in the world. 
 " La solidit6 d'une construction est en proportion de la 
 somme de verite", de sacrifices, de devouement qu'on a 
 depose" dans ses bases. Les fanatiques seuls fondent 
 quelque chose." l 
 
 1 Renan, Conferences cPAngleterre, p. 94.
 
 244 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE AGE OF FAITH 
 
 I 
 
 IN St. Gregory the Seventh we have the greatest 
 of the monks. And in Monachism we have the 
 dominant spiritual and intellectual fact of the Middle 
 Ages. The " many nations " of religious, of whom 
 St. Benedict may be regarded as the father, were the 
 founders of the literature, the creators of the arts, the 
 masters of the philosophy, the sages of the juris- 
 prudence, the pioneers of the physical sciences, the 
 originators of the agriculture of the modern world. 
 To them the civilization of which and with reason 
 we, in this twentieth century, make such proud 
 boasting, owes all that is most valuable in it. I need 
 not dwell upon a twice-told tale, familiar to every 
 schoolboy. I propose in the present Chapter to 
 inquire what manner of men those monks were a 
 subject upon which much less knowledge is commonly 
 current. I do not mean as to the external accidents of 
 their life, their food and raiment, " the trivial round, the 
 common task " of their daily existence ; but as to the 
 hidden man of the heart their thoughts, their aims,
 
 v.] A Key to Religions 245 
 
 their aspirations, in a word, their life-philosophy. And 
 for light on this matter, I shall turn to the verse in 
 which that life-philosophy has been, undesignedly, 
 recorded for us. 
 
 Every religion has its hymns, and in those hymns 
 are to be found the truest indications of its real and 
 essential character. Thus if we go back to the child- 
 hood of our race, the Vedic songs of our Aryan 
 ancestors speak to us chiefly of their deep awe-stricken 
 consciousness of a mysterious Presence alike mani- 
 fested and veiled by external nature ; while the Hebrew 
 psalms are instinct with that personal apprehension of 
 a living and true God, the Creator and Final End of 
 the worshipper, which constitutes the great underlying 
 idea of Judaism. And so it is if we survey what is 
 perhaps the latest creed offered to a world which 
 labours under an invincible need of believing. If 
 we consider attentively that humanistic gospel which 
 proclaims " the dignity of man as a rational being 
 apart from theological determinations," it is in rhythmic 
 utterances such as those wherewith Mr. Swinburne 
 invokes " our Lady of Pain " to " come down and 
 redeem us from virtue," that we shall find the true 
 key to its mysteries and the right interpretation of 
 its aspirations. My present concern is not, however, 
 with devotional poetry in general, or even with the 
 religious verse of Christianity as a whole, but with 
 one important branch of it, too little known and appre- 
 ciated, the medieval hymns of Catholicism : " that 
 wonderful body of hymns," Dean Church has justly 
 termed them, " to which age after age has contributed
 
 246 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 its offerings from the Ambrosian hymns to the Veni 
 Sancte Spiritus of a King of France, the Pange Lingua 
 of Thomas Aquinas, the Dies Irce and the Stabat 
 Mater of the two Franciscan brethren Thomas of 
 Celano and Jacopone." 
 
 In speaking of these hymns as medieval, I employ 
 the word in a large sense, for in strictness the medieval 
 period must be held to begin with the re-creation 
 of the Roman Empire by Pope Leo III., when, to 
 use the words of his diploma, he " consecrated as 
 Augustus " l the great Frankish Monarch on Christ- 
 mas Day in the year 800. But the definite beginnings 
 of the Middle Ages, the visible germination and 
 unfolding of the distinctive feelings, beliefs, principles, 
 embodied in the new order, may beyond question be 
 clearly traced long before the time of Leo III. and 
 Charles the Great, long before St. Benedict gave to 
 his disciples the rule which was to be the norm of the 
 monastic institute : they may be traced from the days 
 of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, of Prudentius and 
 Pope St. Damasus. The sacred poetry with which 
 we are concerned in this Chapter, is a peculiar 
 feature and product of that order, growing gradually 
 as it grew, developing as it developed, culminating 
 when it culminated, declining when it declined ; and 
 supplies an important means for judging it from an 
 important point of view : we may, indeed, say the 
 most important. Religion is " the substance of 
 humanity," creatively determining the character of 
 
 1 " Quern, auctore Deo, in defensionem et provectum universae S. 
 Ecclesiae Augustum hodie sacravimus."
 
 v.] " Low Latin " 247 
 
 the art, the literature, and political institutions of a 
 people. These hymns, then, as the natural outcome 
 of the deepest feelings and most assured convictions of 
 the generations in which they were composed, are 
 of special value as documents of the history of Modern 
 Civilization : and it is as such that I now propose 
 chiefly to consider them. 
 
 II 
 
 But before I proceed to give some account of this 
 great field of European literature, and to cull from 
 it some characteristic specimens, I should point out, 
 emphatically, that it is a distinct field, possessing, 
 among other peculiarities, a language of its own. 
 For long years indeed, for centuries the tongue in 
 which are enshrined some of the noblest results of 
 philosophical speculation and of the imaginative 
 faculty, lay under proscription as barbarous ; dog- 
 Latin, monkish Latin, Low Latin, being common terms 
 of opprobrium used for designating it. But medieval 
 Latin is no uncouth patois ; it is a real language, with 
 definite rules, principles, and powers. To us, indeed, 
 it is dead : but to the men of the Middle Ages it was 
 in the fullest sense living : 1 and it can no more be 
 
 1 It was the common tongue throughout Europe of the learned the 
 language in which they wrote, spoke, and thought. But in Italy it was 
 something more down to a late period. As Ozanam remarks, "Au 
 onzieme siecle, au douzieme, jusqu'au treizieme, la langue latine n'avait pas 
 cesse* d'etre comprise en Italic, non des lettre's settlement, mais de tous. 
 C'e"tait en latin qu'on prSchait le peuple, en latin qu'on le haranguait, en latin 
 qu'on lui composait des chants de guerre." Les Poetes Franciscains, p. 33.
 
 248 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 judged of by the standards of the Augustan age than 
 Westminster Abbey by the rules of Vitruvius. No- 
 where, perhaps, has the vast influence wielded by 
 Christianity upon Modern Civilization been more 
 significantly illustrated than in its effects upon human 
 speech. It has created the languages and literature 
 of modern Europe ; but it previously called into 
 existence that new Latin out of which one large 
 group of those languages has come, and from which 
 all of them have derived much. 
 
 As the Western Church formed Christendom, so 
 she formed anew the tongue which for long ages was 
 to be the lingua franca of her spiritual empire. And 
 in this process of re-formation she came upon the 
 poetical forms of the classical literature of Pagan 
 Rome : forms not, indeed, indigenous to Italy, but 
 adaptations of Hellenic metres, which, naturalized by 
 the genius of Ennius and Lucretius, of Catullus and 
 Horace, had supplanted the old Italian or Saturnian 
 versification, based upon rhythm. She came upon 
 these forms, and tried them, and found them wanting. 
 More than one of her poets, indeed, used them, and 
 not without skill ; but it may be truly said of them, 
 that they perished in the using. Thus Prudentius, 
 the greatest who attempted them the dimeter iambic 
 is the favourite metre of his hymns, but asclepiads 
 and trimeters are not unfrequent assumes a large 
 licence in altering the value of syllables. His latest 
 editor, Dressel, well observes, " The new faith drew to 
 itself a new mode of expression, whence it came about 
 that we see the language of the ancients changed as
 
 v.] Prudentius 249 
 
 occasion required." l And Dressel goes on to observe 
 how he disregards the quantities both of proper names 
 and of words, and how "stress is more frequently 
 laid on accent, the law of quantity being put aside." 
 It is much to be regretted that this great poet "the 
 Horace and Virgil of the Christians," Bentley does 
 not hesitate to call him is little more than a name to 
 us. Some authentic biography of him would supply 
 a valuable illustration of the times in which he lived. 
 But none such exists. All we know of him is derived 
 from forty-five beautiful and pathetic verses which 
 are prefixed by way of Preface to his Works. It 
 seems that he was a Spaniard, born in the year 348 ; 
 that he received a liberal education, and after practis- 
 ing for some years as a pleader, twice filled high 
 judicial office. 2 Subsequently he received from the 
 Emperor promotion, the nature of which has much 
 exercised his commentators. Archbishop Trench 
 describes it as "a high military appointment at 
 Court" 3 an interpretation which at all events com- 
 pletely fits the poet's own words. At the age of 
 fifty-six he appears to have become imbued with a 
 profound sense of the nothingness of the things among 
 
 1 " Aurelii Prudentii dementis quae exstant carmina ad Vaticc. alio- 
 rumque codicum et optimarum editionum fidem recensuit, lectionum 
 varietate illustravit, notis explicavit Albertus Dressel." Lipsise, 1860. 
 Prolegomena, p. xvii. 
 
 " Bis legum moderamine 
 Frenos nobilium reximus urbium, 
 Jus civile bonis reddidimus, terruimus reos ; " 
 
 words which Dressel (as I think, rightly) explains, not of the Consulate, 
 but " de munere provinciae rectoris seu praesidis." 
 3 Sacred Latin Poetry -, p. 119.
 
 250 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 which and for which he had lived. 1 From that time 
 forth he devoted himself to sacred poetry. The works 
 in which he discusses theological subjects in vigorous 
 hexameters, are little read now. Although they 
 contain many noble passages, the questions with 
 which they deal, burning enough in his time, have 
 for the most part burnt out. It is upon his Liber 
 Cathemerinon Christian Day, we may call it and 
 his Liber Peristephanon, or Martyrs' Garlands, that 
 his fame chiefly rests. I will quote a few stanzas from 
 his Burial Hymn (Ad Exequias Defuncti\ the finest, 
 perhaps, which he ever wrote, although there are 
 others hardly less noble. I essay an English version, 
 for which I fear the only merit that can be claimed is 
 that it is an almost literal rendering of the original 
 
 " Jam moesta quiesce querela, Now hushed be all sorrow and sighing, 
 
 Lacrimas suspendite matres ; Restrain your fast tears, O ye mothers ; 
 
 Nullus sua pignora plangat : Let no one bemoan his lost loved ones, 
 
 Mors haec reparatio vitae est. This death is but life's reparation. 
 
 " Nunc suscipe terra fovendum Now receive him and lovingly tend 
 Gremioque hunc concipe molli ; him, 
 
 Hominis tibi membra seques- O earth : in thy soft bosom fold him. 
 
 tro, To thee a man's frame I surrender ; 
 
 Generosa et fragmina credo. The relics I give thee are noble. 
 
 " Tu depositum tege corpus, Hide well this deposited body, 
 
 Non immemor ille requiret For He, not unmindful, will seek it 
 
 Sua munera fictor et auctor Whose it is : whose hands fashioned 
 
 Propriique aenigmata vultus. and made it, 
 
 And created it in His own likeness. 
 
 " Numquid talia proderunt 
 Carnis post obitum vel bona vel mala, 
 Cum jam, quidquid id est, quod fueram, mors aboleverit ? "
 
 v.] New Ideals 251 
 
 " Nos tecta fovebimus ossa, We will honour the bones thou en- 
 
 Violis et fronde frequenti, shroudest, 
 
 Titulumque et frigida saxa With violets and many a green leaf, 
 
 Liquido spargemus odore." The cold stones and the legend graved 
 
 on them, 
 With odorous unguents bedewing. 
 
 It must be owned that Prudentius is often of a 
 more than Wordsworthian prolixity, but in the midst 
 of much misplaced rhetorical ornament, due to the 
 degenerate taste of the age, which we could well wish 
 away, there is constant evidence of a high poetic 
 faculty. And his verses are of great value as afford- 
 ing an insight into the religious conceptions and 
 practices of the times. One of their chief notes is 
 a stern, heroic, almost fierce asceticism. Fasting he 
 treats as a prime means of Christian life. And he 
 carries his seventy so far as to anticipate the repudia- 
 tion of animal food, 1 which has become part of the 
 rule of certain religious orders. In his hymn in 
 honour of St. Eulalia he records his admiration of 
 the severe manners of that martyr, who, when a 
 little child, despised the flowers, toys, and trinkets 
 dear to girlhood, giving, thus early, signs of her 
 high calling. The vast change which for four cen- 
 turies had been coming over the European mind is 
 
 1 "Absit enim procul ilia fames, 
 Caedibus ut pecudum libeat 
 Sanguineas lacerare dapes. 
 
 " Sint fera gentibus indomitis 
 Prandia de nece quadrupedum : 
 Nos oleris coma, nos siliqua 
 Feta legumine multimodo 
 Paverit innocuis epulis."
 
 252 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 faithfully reflected in Latin literature. How far off 
 are the Lydia and Acme of Catullus, the Chloe and 
 Lyce of Horace, from the Virgin Saint of the 
 Christian poet ! * 
 
 Contemporary with Prudentius was St. Ambrose, 
 whose hymns were such a living power with his great 
 convert, St. Augustine. 2 Most of those which com- 
 monly bear his name certainly are not his. Cardinal 
 Thomassin, a high authority, would refer to him 
 some twenty compositions now extant. But Dr. 
 Neale is probably right in reducing the number to 
 ten. I shall give the text of one about which there 
 can be no doubt " his immortal hymn," Archbishop 
 Trench calls it "Veni Redemptor gentium." The 
 translation, which I place side by side with it, is Dr. 
 Neale's 
 
 " Veni Redemptor gentium, " Come, Thou Redeemer of the earth, 
 
 Ostende partum Virginis : Come, testify Thy Virgin Birth : 
 
 Miretur omne saeculum, All lands admire, all times applaud, 
 
 Talis decet partus Deum. Such is the birth that fits a God. 
 
 1 "Jam dederat prius indicium, 
 Tendere se Patris ad solium, 
 Nee sua membra dicata toro : 
 Ipsa crepundia repulerat 
 Ludere nescia pusiola. 
 
 " Spernere sucina, flere rosas, 
 Fulva monilia respuere, 
 Ore severa, modesta gradu, 
 Moribus et nimium teneris 
 Canitiem meditata senum." 
 
 2 See, among other instances, that afforded by a passage in the Con- 
 fessions, lib. ix. c. xii. : " Ut eram in lecto recordatus sum veridicos 
 versus Ambrosii tui," etc.
 
 New Poetical Forms 
 
 2 53 
 
 " Non ex virili semine, 
 Sed mystico spiramine, 
 Verbum Dei facta est caro, 
 Fructusque ventris floruit. 
 
 " Alvus tumescit Virginis ; 
 Claustrum pudoris permanet 
 Vexilla virtutum micant : 
 Versatur in Templo Deus. 
 
 " Procedit e thalamo suo, 
 Pudoris aula regia, 
 Germinae gigas substantiae 
 Alacris ut currat viam. 
 
 " Egressus ejus a Patre, 
 Regressus ejus ad Patrem : 
 Excursus usque ad inferos, 
 Recursus ad sedem Dei. 
 
 " Begotten of no human will, 
 But of the Spirit, mystic still, 
 The Word of God, in flesh arrayed, 
 The promised fruit to man displayed. 
 
 " The Virgin's womb that burden 
 
 gained, 
 
 With Virgin honour all unstained : 
 The banners there of virtues glow : 
 God in His Temple dwells below. 
 
 " Proceeding from His Chamber free, 
 The Royal Hall of chastity, 
 Giant of two-fold substance, straight 
 His destined way He runs elate. 
 
 " From God the Father He proceeds, 
 To God the Father back He speeds : 
 Proceeds as far as very hell : 
 Speeds back to Light ineffable. 
 
 " O equal to the Father, Thou ! 
 Gird on Thy fleshly mantle now ! 
 The weakness of our mortal state, 
 With deathless might invigorate. 
 
 " Thy cradle here shall glitter bright, 
 And darkness breathe a newer light, 
 Where endless faith shall shine 
 
 serene, 
 And twilight never intervene." 
 
 One very important feature in the verses of St. 
 Ambrose is the frequency of rhymes. He was not, 
 indeed, the first of Latin poets to use them. They 
 are distinctly to be traced in the hymns of St. Hilary, 
 who died Bishop of Poitiers in 368, and we find them 
 in germ long ages before. 1 But it was not until the 
 
 1 " Verses with middle and with final rhymes occur," Archbishop 
 Trench points out, " in every one of the Latin poets." " As we reach the 
 silver age they become more frequent. They abound in Lucan." 
 Sacred Latin Poetry ', p. 39. 
 
 eterno Patri 
 Carnis stropheo cingere, 
 Infirma nostri corporis 
 Virtute firmans perpeti. 
 
 " Praesepe jam fulget tuum, 
 Lumenque nox spirat novum, 
 Quod nulla nox interpolet, 
 Fideque jugi luceat."
 
 254 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 end of the fourth century that the two features which 
 were to become distinctive of the new lyrical Latin 
 poetry are clearly marked on the one hand neglect 
 of metre, and on the other employment of rhyme, not, 
 at first, doubtless, "as an accurately defined beauty, 
 but as an almost unconscious development of the new 
 system," as an " arbitrary ornament rather than as an 
 essential element of the rhythm." 1 From this time 
 forth these two features become of ever-increasing 
 importance. Here, as in so many provinces, the old 
 order is changing, giving place to the new. The 
 strictness of metrical observances becomes more and 
 more relaxed, and accent, marked and defined by 
 rhyme, takes their place. Thus, as Ampere well 
 expresses it, what had at first been a mere " fantasy 
 of the ear " grows in the event to "an imperious 
 need," and is " transformed into a law." " At first 
 the rhymes were often merely vowel or assonant ones, 
 the consonants not being required to agree ; or the 
 rhyme was adhered to, when this was convenient, but 
 disregarded when the needful word was not readily at 
 hand ; or the stress of the rhyme was suffered to fall 
 on an unaccented syllable, thus scarcely striking the 
 ear ; or it was limited to the similar termination of a 
 single letter ; while sometimes on the strength of this 
 like ending, as sufficiently sustaining the melody, the 
 whole other construction of the verse and arrange- 
 ment of the syllables was neglected." And so we 
 may trace the progress of that which was to become 
 
 1 Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 39.
 
 v.] The Birth of the Modern Lyric 255 
 
 the basis of modern prosody, " step by step, from its 
 rude, timid, and uncertain beginnings, till in the later 
 hymnologists of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 
 an Aquinas or an Adam of St. Victor, it displayed all 
 its latent capabilities and attained its final glory and 
 perfection, satiating the ear with a richness of melody 
 scarcely anywhere to be surpassed." 1 
 
 Without pausing to follow this progress in detail, 
 let us hasten on to the epoch of which Archbishop 
 Trench speaks with such enthusiasm. It is with 
 Venantius Fortunatus that the great volume of 
 medieval Latin poetry we might, indeed, say of 
 modern lyrical poetry may be held to open. Born 
 in 530, he appears, like Prudentius, to have been 
 wholly absorbed during his youth and early manhood 
 in worldly pursuits. They were, however, pursuits 
 of a less grave kind than those which occupied the 
 Spanish poet. " A master of vers de soctitt, he 
 wandered, a highly favoured guest, from castle to 
 cloister in Gaul, repaying the hospitalities which he 
 everywhere received, with neatly turned compliments 
 in verse." All at once he broke off from this way of 
 life, and entered a monastery at Poitiers, where he 
 remained until his death in 609. His Vexilla Regis 
 marks an epoch. This world-famous hymn was com- 
 posed on occasion of the reception of certain relics by 
 St. Gregory of Tours and St. Radegund, previously to 
 
 1 Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 37. A critic of a very different school 
 Schopenhauer remarks, "In no language does rhyme produce at 
 all events on me so pleasing and powerful an impression as in Latin : 
 the medieval rhymed Latin poems have a peculiar charm." Die Welt als 
 ^ etc., vol. ii. c. 37.
 
 256 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 the consecration of a church at Poitiers, and was 
 afterwards adopted in the Passion-tide services of the 
 Latin Church, where, in a mutilated form, it holds its 
 place to this day. For the greater part of the English 
 version of it I am indebted to the accomplished pen 
 of the late Mr. Digby S. Wrangham 
 
 " Vexilla regis prodeunt, 
 Fulget crucis mysterium, 
 Quo carne carnis Conditor 
 Suspensus est patibulo. 
 
 " Quo vulneratus insuper, 
 Mucrone diro lanceae, 
 Ut nos lavaret crimine, 
 Manavit unda et sanguine. 
 
 " Impleta sunt quae concinit, 
 David fideli carmine, 
 Dicens : in nationibus, 
 Regnavit a ligno Deus. 1 
 
 " Arbor decora et fulgida, 
 Ornata regis purpura, 
 Electa digno stipite, 
 Tarn santa membra tangere. 
 
 " Beata cujus brachiis 
 Pretium pependit sasculi, 
 Statera facta corporis, 
 Praedamque tulit tartaris." 
 
 " The Banners of the King go forth ; 
 Bright gleams the mystic Cross o'er earth, 
 Where He in flesh, who flesh did frame, 
 Was hung upon the tree of shame : 
 
 " Where, wounded by the pointed head 
 Of cruel javelin, He shed 
 His blood, with water mixed therein, 
 That He might cleanse us from our sin. 
 
 " Fulfilled is that which David sang 
 In verse,that from true prescience sprang; 
 When to the nations he proclaimed 
 That from the tree the Lord hath 
 reigned. 
 
 " O tree most beautiful, most bright, 
 With regal purple richly dight ! 
 Elect to touch with honoured stem 
 The limbs of such a sacred frame ! 
 
 " Blessed, upon whose arms outflung 
 The ransom of the whole world hung ; 
 The balance where His body lay, 
 Who carried off from hell its prey." 
 
 As Dr. Neale points out, the rhymes here are for 
 the greater part only assonant ; but the principle was 
 firmly established. A still greater step, however, was 
 made by Venantius Fortunatus in his mastery over 
 
 1 The Italic version reads, in Psalm xcv. 10 : " Dicite in nationibus 
 quia Dominus regnavit a ligno.''
 
 The New School of Poets 
 
 257 
 
 the trochaic tetrameter, "a measure which with 
 various modifications was to become the glory of 
 medieval poetry." There are one or two examples 
 of this metre in Prudentius, but Fortunatus was the 
 first to group it into stanzas. By way of specimen of 
 it, I give a few verses from his famous hymn, Pange 
 Lingua, as to which Daniel says, " That it must be 
 ranked among the most beautiful, no one will deny 
 who is not quite ignorant of the power, nay of the 
 very nature, of sacred poetry." l The admirable 
 English version is by Dr. Neale. 
 
 " Crux fidelis inter omnes, arbor " Faithful Cross ! above all other, one 
 
 una nobilis, 
 Nulla talem silva profert 
 
 fronde, flore, germine ; 
 Dulce lignum, dulci clavo, 
 
 dulce pondus sustinens. 
 
 " Flecte ramos arbor alta, tensa 
 
 laxa viscera, 
 Et rigor lentescat ille quern 
 
 dedit nativitas, 
 Ut superni membra regis miti 
 
 tendas stipite. 
 
 " Sola digna tu fuisti ferre pre- 
 
 tium saeculi, 
 Atque portum praeparare nauta 
 
 mundo naufrago 
 Quern sacer cruor perunxit 
 fusus agni corpore." 
 
 and only noble Tree ! 
 None in foliage, none in blossom, 
 
 none in fruit thy peers may be ; 
 Sweetest wood and sweetest iron, 
 
 sweetest weight is hung on thee ! 
 
 " Bend thy boughs, O Tree of Glory ! 
 
 thy relaxing sinews bend : 
 For awhile the ancient rigour, that 
 
 thy birth bestowed suspend ; 
 And the King of heavenly beauty on 
 
 thy bosom gently tend. 
 
 " Thou alone wast counted worthy this 
 
 world's ransom to uphold ; 
 For a shipwreck'd race preparing 
 
 harbour, like the Ark of old : 
 With the sacred blood anointed from 
 the smitten Lamb that roll'd." 
 
 Ill 
 
 Venantius Fortunatus, then, definitely opened the 
 new school, and it formed rapidly. From his time 
 
 1 Thesaurus, vol. i. p. 165. 
 
 S
 
 258 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 Latin lyrical poetry lays aside entirely what Ampere 
 calls the shreds of classical metres, and rhyme is 
 recognized as an essential element of a hymn. A 
 great crowd of poets from the opening seventh 
 century developed and elaborated the system which 
 the hymnologists of the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries were to complete. Among them were 
 the Venerable Bede, Godescalcus, St. Odo of Clugny, 
 Notker, the inventor of the Sequence, and the authors 
 of the hymns Apparebit repentina, Veni Creator 
 Spiritus (attributed to Charlemagne), Gloria laus et 
 honor, Urbs beata Jerusalem, Deus tuorum militum. 
 
 But the golden age of this department of literature 
 is the period opening with St. Peter Damiani and 
 King Robert II. of France, and closing with St. 
 Thomas Aquinas and Thomas of Celano. It was 
 in this period, extending, roughly speaking, from the 
 year 1000 to the year 1300, that there flourished 
 those supreme masters of sacred song to whom we 
 owe what may be called without hyperbole " the 
 highest holiest raptures of the lyre." Chief among 
 them, besides the four just mentioned, are Adam of 
 St. Victor, Jacopone, Bernard of Morlaix, and his 
 sainted namesake of Clairvaux ; although, indeed, 
 there are hymns, the work of unknown composers, 
 little if at all inferior to theirs in lofty thought, musical 
 sweetness, and deep emotion. In choosing a few 
 specimens of their verses, the main difficulty arises 
 from the number and excellence of the compositions 
 which present themselves. Perhaps the best course 
 will be to pass by poems more generally familiar, in
 
 v.] Aquinas as Poet 259 
 
 favour of others less likely to be met with save by 
 those who have made a special study of this branch of 
 literature. And so I will not quote King Robert's 
 hymn, Veni Sancte Spiritus, the loveliest, as Arch- 
 bishop Trench deems, in the whole circle of sacred 
 Latin poetry, because it is only a little less widely 
 known than the Veni Creator for which also, as we 
 have seen, a royal author is claimed, and, like it, may 
 be found in almost any book of Catholic devotions. 
 For the same reason I will not cite the Jesu I dulcis 
 memoria, usually ascribed to St. Bernard. Nor shall 
 I give the text of Dies Ires. Daniel truly remarks, 
 " Those who know no other Latin ecclesiastical 
 poetry know this : " the grandest of all the productions 
 of the medieval Muse, which so powerfully affected 
 Goethe, and fragments of which were among the 
 last words heard from the dying lips of Sir Walter 
 Scott. Again, I may regard myself as dispensed 
 from giving any of the four hymns 1 which have 
 come down to us from St. Thomas Aquinas. All 
 of them have a great place in high solemnities of 
 the Latin Church, and one, the Lauda Sion, has 
 become very widely known beyond the limits of that 
 Communion through the music to which Mendelssohn 
 
 1 All four are upon the same theme, that of the Feast of Corpus 
 Christi, for which, at the bidding of Pope Urban IV., St. Thomas com- 
 posed the office. Daniel finely remarks, " Est venerabilis sacrament! 
 laudator Thomas summus, quern non sine Numinis afflatu cecinisse 
 credas, nee mireris sanctum poetam postquam hoc unum carminis thema 
 spiritale et paene cceleste tarn praeclare, ne dicam unice, absolverit, 
 prorsus in posterum obticuisse. Peperit semel, sed leonem." Thesaurus, 
 vol. ii. p. 98.
 
 260 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 has wedded it; music to which the highest praise 
 that can be given is that it is no unworthy setting 
 of the sublime verse of the Angelic Doctor. It is to 
 another master of the art of musical sound that many 
 owe a knowledge which probably they would not 
 have otherwise possessed of the inimitably pathetic 
 verses of Jacopone. To me, I confess, it is a signal 
 proof of the depth of degradation to which ecclesi- 
 astical music has fallen in Italy, that a composer so 
 redolent of the operatic footlights as Rossini, should 
 have deemed the Stabat Mater a fitting subject for 
 the exercise of his gifts. Still, painfully incongruous 
 as are the " light quirks of music, broken and uneven," 
 to which he has linked the richest offering made by 
 medieval piety to the Mater Dolorosa, I am here 
 under an obligation to him for contributing towards 
 the widely diffused knowledge of that incomparable 
 poem which relieves me from the necessity of tran- 
 scribing it. Robert II., St. Thomas Aquinas, St. 
 Bernard, Jacopone, and Thomas of Celano, I shall 
 therefore pass over; nor shall I quote from Bernard 
 de Morlaix, whose poem beginning 
 
 " Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus," 
 
 first rescued from oblivion by Archbishop Trench, has 
 been published in all its best parts by Dr. Neale, with 
 a translation from which the hymn Jerusalem the 
 Golden, now so widely popular, is taken. The 
 greatest remaining name of those which I have 
 enumerated is Adam of St. Victor ; and it is a very 
 great name : " the foremost among the sacred Latin,
 
 v.] Adam of St. Victor 261 
 
 poets of the Middle Ages," 1 Archbishop Trench judges, 
 particularly specifying among his excellences his pro- 
 found acquaintance with the theology of his time, the 
 exquisite art and variety with which for the most 
 part his verse is managed and his rhymes are disposed, 
 their rich melody multiplying and ever deepening at 
 the close, the strength which often he concentrates 
 into a single line, his skill in conducting a story, and 
 above all the evident nearness of the things which 
 he celebrates, to his own heart of hearts. Nothing 
 is known about his life, beyond the fact that he 
 belongs to the twelfth century of our era, and was 
 a monk of the great foundation of St. Victor at Paris. 
 He was buried in the cloisters of that monastery, 
 and his epitaph graven on a plate of copper remained 
 there until the French Revolution. Out of the 
 hundred and odd sequences of his which remain to 
 us, I shall here give only two. The following was 
 composed for the Feast of All Saints : 
 
 " Supernae matris gaudia " The Church on earth with answering 
 
 Reprsesentet ecclesia ; love, 
 
 Dum festa colit annua, Echoes her Mother's joys above ; 
 
 Suspiret ad purpetua. These yearly feast-days she may 
 
 keep, 
 And yet for endless festals weep. 
 
 " In hac valle miseriae, " In this world's valley dim and wild, 
 
 Mater succurat filias ; That Mother must assist the child ; 
 
 Hie ccelestes excubiae, And heavenly guards must pitch 
 
 Nobiscum stent in acie. their tents, 
 
 And range their ranks in our defence. 
 
 " Mundus, caro, dsemonia, " The world, the flesh, and Satan's rage, 
 
 Diversa movent prcelia ; Their differing wars against us wage ; 
 
 1 See his Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 57.
 
 262 
 
 The Age of Faith 
 
 [CH. 
 
 Incursu tot phantasmatum, 
 Turbatur cordis sabbatum. 
 
 " Dies festos cognatio, 
 Simul haec habet odio, 
 Certatque pari foedere, 
 Pacem de terra tollere. 
 
 " Confusa sunt hie omnia, 
 Spes, metus, mceror, gaudium, 
 Vix hora vel dimidia 1 
 Fit in ccelo silentium. 
 
 " Quam felix ilia civitas, 
 In qua jugis solemnitas, 
 Et quam jocunda curia, 
 Quae curae prorsus nescia. 
 
 " Nee languor hie, nee senium, 
 Nee fraus, nee terror hostium, 
 Sed una vox laetantium, 
 Et unus ardor cordium. 
 
 " Illic cives angelici, 
 Sub ierarchia triplici, 
 Trinse gaudent et simplici 
 Se monarchiae subiici. 
 
 " Mirantur nee deficiunt, 
 In ilium, quern prospiciunt, 
 Fruuntur nee fastidiunt, 
 Quo frui magis sitiunt. 
 
 And when the phantom-hosts come 
 
 on, 
 The Sabbath of the heart is gone. 
 
 " This triple league, with fierce dislike, 
 At holy festivals would strike ; 
 And set the battle in array, 
 To drive their peace from earth away. 
 
 " And storms confused above us lower, 
 Of hope and fear and joy and woe ; 
 And scarcely e'en for one half-hour, 
 In silence in GOD'S House below. 
 
 " That distant City, oh how blest, [rest! 
 Whose feast-days know nor pause nor 
 How gladsome is that Palace gate, 
 Round which nor fear nor sorrow 
 wait ! 
 
 " No languor here, nor weary age, 
 Nor fraud, nor dread of hostile rage ; 
 But one the joy, and one the song, 
 And one the heart of all the throng ! 
 
 1 Archbishop Trench quotes from Hugh of St. Victor (De Claus. 
 Animce, c. 36, the following passage in explanation of this and the follow- 
 ing line : " De hoc secreto cordis dictum est : Factum est silentium in 
 coelo quasi media hora. Ccelum est quippe anima justi. Sed quia hoc 
 silentium contemplationis et haec quies mentis in hac vita non potest esse 
 perfecta, nequaquam hora integra factum in coelo dicitur silentium, sed 
 quasi media : ut nee media plene sentiatur, cum praetermittitur quasi : quia 
 mox ut se animus elevare cceperit, et quietis intima? lumine perfundi, 
 redeunte motu cogitationum confunditur et confusus csecatur." Sacred 
 Latin Poetry, p. 320. ,
 
 v.] The Saint of the Roman Women 263 
 
 " Illic patres dispositi, 
 Pro dignitate meriti, 
 Semota iam caligine, 
 Lumen vident in lumine. 
 
 " Hi sancti, quorum hodie " The Saints whose praise to-day we 
 
 Celebrantur solemnia, sing, 
 
 Iam revelata facie Are standing now before the Throne, 
 
 Regem cernunt in gloria. And face to face behold the King, 
 
 In all His Majesty made known. 
 " Illic regina virginum, [num, 
 
 Transcendens culmen ordi- 
 
 Excuset apud Dominum 
 
 Nostrorum lapsus criminum. 
 
 " Nos ad sanctorum gloriam, " In that serene and glorious place, 
 Per ipsorum suffragia, When this life's many toils are past, 
 
 Post praesentem miseriam, Christ, of His everlasting grace, 
 
 Christi perducat gratia." Grant us to join the Blest at last." l 
 
 The other verses of Adam of St. Victor, which I 
 shall present, are in honour of a Saint whose story 
 has exercised a singular fascination over devout 
 minds from the very date of her passion " that holy 
 child, the blessed Saint Agnes," as Cardinal Newman 
 speaks, " who at the age of thirteen resolved rather 
 to die than deny the faith, and stood enveloped in 
 an atmosphere of purity, and diffused around her a 
 heavenly influence in the very home of evil spirits 
 into which the heathen brought her." 2 St. Jerome 
 
 1 The English rendering, which is Dr. Neale's, is one of his best, but 
 is marred by his unfaithfulness to the original. Without any hint to his 
 readers, few of whom were likely to refer to the Latin text, he has omitted 
 sixteen characteristic lines and mistranslated the last strophe, so that 
 while professing to give Adam of St. Victor's poem, " one of the loveliest 
 he ever wrote," he does not in truth give it, but merely an adaptation 
 of it. 
 
 2 Discourses to Mixed Congregations, p. 57.
 
 264 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 tells us in his rhetorical way that "the tongues and 
 pens of all nations were employed in her praises who 
 overcame both the cruelty of the tyrant and the 
 tenderness of her age, and crowned the glory of 
 chastity with that of martyrdom." St. Ambrose, 
 St. Augustine, and Prudentius, 1 all of whom belong 
 to the century in which she suffered, supply abundant 
 evidence of the enthusiastic cultus of which she was 
 the object, and which they were zealous to spread. 
 St. Martin of Tours was singularly devout to her, 
 and one of the most striking of the sermons of 
 Thomas a Kempis was composed for her festival. 
 
 1 Prudentius's Hymn on St. Agnes is one of his best ; but, like so 
 much of his work, it is marred by undue length and ill-judged rhetorical 
 ornament. It may with advantage be compared with the verses which I 
 am about to cite from Adam of St. Victor. It opens finely 
 
 " Agnes sepulchrum est Romulea in domo ; 
 Fortis puellae, Martyris inclitae. 
 Conspectu in ipso condita turrium 
 Servat salutem Virgo Quiritium, 
 Nee non et ipsos protegit advenas 
 Puro ac fideli pectore supplices. 
 Duplex corona est praestita Martyri 
 Intactum ab omni crimine virginal 
 Mortis deinde gloria liberae." 
 
 And not less fine is the invocation of the recent Martyr, with which 
 he concludes 
 
 " O Virgo felix, o nova gloria, 
 Ccelestis arcis nobilis incola, 
 Intende nostris colluvionibus 
 Vultum gemello cum diademate, 
 Cui posse soli cuntiparens dedit 
 Castum vel ipsum reddere fornicem. 
 Purgabor oris propitiabilis 
 Fulgore, nostrum si jecur impleas. 
 Nil non pudicum est quod pia visere 
 Dignaris, almo vel pede tangere."
 
 v.] The Passion of St. Agnes 265 
 
 Nor has the lapse of nearly sixteen centuries dimmed 
 her memory in her native city. " St. Agnes," writes 
 Mrs. Jameson, " is the favourite saint of the Roman 
 women. . . . Often have I seen the steps of her 
 church [in the Piazza. Navona], and the church itself, 
 so crowded with kneeling worshippers . . . that I 
 could not make my way through them." 1 The 
 sequence which the " Schiller of the Middle Ages," 
 to use Rambach's phrase, has consecrated to her, is 
 one of the best examples of his majestic grace in 
 narrative, of the "easy vigour" of his verse, and of 
 the deep unconscious earnestness of his devotion. I 
 attempt an English rendering of it, quite inadequate, 
 as I know too well, but reproducing as faithfully as 
 I can, both the metres and thought of the poet 
 
 " Animemur ad agonem, 
 Recolentes passionem 
 Gloriosas virginis. 
 Contractantes sacrum florem, 
 Respiremus ad odorem 
 Respersae dulcedinis. 
 
 " Pulchra prudens et illustris, 
 Jam duobus Agnes lustris 
 Addebat triennium : 
 Proles amat hanc prasfecti 
 Sed ad ejus Virgo flecti 
 Respuit arbitrium. 
 
 " Mira vis fidei, 
 Mira virginitas, 
 Mira virginei 
 Cordis integritas. 
 
 To life's strife, our heart renewing, 
 Let us gird ourselves reviewing 
 How the Maid the victory won. 
 Flower divine ! whose scents most 
 
 precious 
 
 As we touch its leaves, refresh us 
 Till the battle's day is done. 
 
 Fair and wise and well descended, 
 Agnes, twice six summers ended, 
 Entered on her thirteenth year. 
 Her the prefect's son beholding 
 Seeks, a tale of love unfolding, 
 Which Christ's bride disdains to hear. 
 
 Oh wondrous power of faith, 
 Oh wondrous chastity, 
 Oh wondrous heart beneath, 
 Virginal constancy ! 
 
 1 Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. ii. p. 604.
 
 266 
 
 The Age of Faith 
 
 [CH. 
 
 Sic Dei filius 
 Nutu mirabili 
 Se mirabilius 
 Prodit in fragili. 
 
 " Languet amans, cubat lecto 
 Languor notus fit prsefecto 
 Maturat remedia. 
 Offert multa, spondet plura 
 Periturus peritura 
 Sed vilescunt omnia. 
 
 " Nudam prostituit 
 Prseses flagitiis ; 
 Quam Christus induit 
 Comarum fimbriis 
 Stolaque coelesti. 
 Coelestis nuncius 
 Assistit propius ; 
 Cella libidinis 
 Fit locus luminis ; 
 Turbantur incesti. 
 
 " Caecus amans indignatur 
 Et irrumpens praefocatur 
 A maligno spiritu. 
 Luget pater, lugent cuncti ; 
 Roma flevit pro defuncti 
 Juvenis interitu. 
 
 " Suscitatur ab Agnete, 
 Turba fremit indiscrete : 
 Rogum parant Virgini. 
 Rogus ardens reos urit, 
 In furentes flamma furit 
 Dans honorem Numini. 
 
 " Grates agens Salvatori, 
 Guttur offert haec lictori, 
 Nee ad horam timet mori, 
 Puritatis conscia. 
 
 So doth our Lord most high, 
 By His almighty will, 
 To weak ones strength supply, 
 And with Himself fulfil. 
 
 Sick and sad the baffled lover 
 Lies : the prefect's eyes discover 
 Whence his pain: the Maid is 
 
 brought ; 
 
 Vain the gifts the vain man proffers, 
 Vile are all his richest offers, 
 In the faithful Virgin's thought. 
 
 Disrobed, was Agnes sent 
 
 To vilest den of sin, 
 
 But Christ, her Lord, hath lent 
 
 A robe to fold her in, 
 
 A marvellous growth of hair. 
 
 Then was there seen by her 
 
 An angel messenger, 
 
 Who turning into light, 
 
 That loathsome cellar's night 
 
 The lewd confounded there. 
 
 Blind with rage the lover fumeth, 
 And is, when he thither cometh, 
 Choked by a malignant fiend. 
 Mourns the father: sorrowing for him 
 All in Rome with tears deplore him 
 Who, so young, meets such an end. 
 
 Agnes prays, and he reviveth, 
 Which the crowd to such wrath 
 
 driveth 
 
 That the pile for her they fire ; 
 She untouched, the flame outleaping 
 Slays her foes, the Highest reaping 
 Glory from their furious ire. 
 
 Then her Saviour's power confessing, 
 Death no dread for her possessing, 
 To the lictor's axe, with blessing 
 Bows her head, Christ's unstained 
 bride.
 
 St. Peter Damiani 
 
 267 
 
 Agnes, Agni salutaris 
 Stans ad dextram gloriaris, 
 Et parentes consolaris 
 Invitans ad gaudia. 
 
 " Ne te flerent ut defunctam 
 Jam coelesti sponso junctam 
 His sub agni forma suam 
 Revelavit, atque tuam 
 Virginalem gloriam. 
 Nos ab agno salutari 
 Non permitte separari, 
 Cui te totam consecrasti : 
 Cujus ope tu curasti 
 Nobilem Constantiam. 1 
 
 Lamb-like Maid, in thy bright station 
 By the Lamb, who brought salvation, 
 Thou, thy parents' desolation 
 Soothing, bidst them to thy side. 
 
 And lest they should mourn as 
 
 perished 
 
 Thee, His bride so dearly cherished, 
 He, by vision, revelation 
 Gave them, of thy exaltation, 
 With His virgin glory crowned. 
 Pray for us ; permit us never 
 From His faith and love to sever, 
 Whose thou wert in full possession, 
 From whom, through thy intercession 
 Noble Constance healing found. 
 
 Vessel choice, of fame transcending, 
 Flower of sweetness never ending, 
 Thee, the Angel choirs commending, 
 Hymn, for truth and pureness blend- 
 ing, 
 
 Show the world their type in thee. 
 Thou, who victory's palm art bearing, 
 And the Virgin's crown art wearing, 
 Yet, for us unworthy caring, 
 Send us help, some place preparing, 
 For us in eternity. 
 
 The next hymn which I shall give is in another 
 key. It is from the pen of a Churchman in the 
 eleventh century, who may stand as a type of all 
 that was highest and best in his age, and who was 
 only less conspicuous for ability in the conduct of 
 public affairs than for singleness of mind and sanctity 
 of living. A stern reformer in a wicked and adul- 
 terous generation, St. Peter Damiani was no unworthy 
 
 1 On this line Daniel has the following note : " Constantia fuit filia 
 Constantini, gravi quidem morbo affecta. Quaa auditis miraculis a 
 Domino per beatam Agnetem factis, venit ad ejus tumulum recuperandas 
 sanitatis gratia. Neque earn spes fefellit." Thesaurus, vol. ii. p. 77. 
 
 " Vas electum, vas honoris, 
 Incorrupti flos odoris, 
 Angelorum grata choris, 
 Honestatis et pudoris 
 Formam praebes saeculo. 
 Palma fruens triumphali, 
 Flore vernans virginali 
 Nos indignos speciali 
 Fac sanctorum generali 
 Vel subscribi titulo."
 
 268 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 precursor and coadjutor of one greater than he 
 Hildebrand, his Sanctus Satanas the most Titanic 
 figure in the long line of Roman Pontiffs, whose life 
 and work we considered in the last Chapter. De- 
 voted from his youth to the severest practices of the 
 monastic institute, it needed nothing less than a 
 Pontifical threat of excommunication to withdraw 
 him from his cell to the cares and duties of high 
 ecclesiastical station. And gladly did he lay down 
 his Cardinal's hat and his Ostian bishopric, to return 
 to his still retreat with his religious brethren at Santa 
 Croce d'Avellano. It was probably there, in the 
 calm evening of his laborious and ascetic day, and in 
 the steady contemplation and expectation of its close, 
 that these verses were written "the Dies Irce of in- 
 dividual life," as they are happily called by Dr. Neale, 
 from whom I borrow the translation of the last verse ; 
 for the rest I have to thank Mr. Digby Wrangham. 
 
 " Gravi me terrore pulsas 
 
 vitse dies ultima, 
 Moeret cor, solvuntur renes, 
 
 laesa tremunt viscera ; 
 Tuam speciem dum sibi 
 mens depingit anxia. 
 
 " Quis enim pavendum illud, 
 explicet spectaculum, 
 
 Quum dimenso vitas cursu 
 carnis aegra nexibus, 
 
 Anima luctatur solvi 
 propinquans ad exitum. 
 
 " O last day of life, thou mak'st me 
 With a weight of terror shake, 
 Grieves the heart, the reins are 
 
 loosened, 
 
 All within doth fear and quake, 
 As the anxious mind depicteth 
 What the shape is thou wilt take. 
 
 " For who is there can foreshadow 
 That dread spectacle of fear, 
 
 When life's journey well-nigh over, 
 From flesh-trammels to be clear, 
 
 The enfeebled spirit struggles, 
 And the end is drawing near ? 
 
 " Peril sensus, lingua riget, 
 resolvuntur oculi, 
 
 " Feeling dies, the tongue grows rigid, 
 And the eyes dissolve in death ;
 
 v.] The " Dies Ira " of Individual Life 269 
 
 Pectus palpitat, anhelat 
 raucum guttur hominis, 
 
 Stupent membra, pallent ora, 
 decor abit corporis. 
 
 " Prsesto sunt et cogitatus, 
 verba, cursus, opera, 
 
 Et prae oculis nolentis 
 glomerantur omnia : 
 
 I Hue tendat, hue se vertat, 
 coram videt posita. 
 
 " Torquet ipsa reum suum, 
 
 mordax conscientia, 
 Plorat acta corrigendi 
 defluxisse tempora, 
 Plena luctu caret fructu 
 sera poenitentia. 
 
 " Falsa tune dulcedo carnis 
 
 in amarum vertitur, 
 Quando brevem voluptatem 
 
 perpes pcena sequitur : 
 Jam quod magnum credebatur 
 
 nil fuisse cernitur. 
 
 " Quaeso Christe rex invicte, 
 
 tu succurre misero, 
 Sub extrema mortis hora 
 
 quum iussus abiero, 
 Nullum in me ius tyranno 
 
 prsebeatur impio. 
 
 " Cadat princeps tenebrarum, 
 cadat pars tartarea ; 
 
 Pastor ovem iam redemptam 
 tune reduc ad patriam, 
 
 Ubi te videndi causa 
 perfruar in saecula." 
 
 Palpitates the sick man's bosom, 
 Gasps his husky throat for breath ; 
 
 Limbs are numb and lips grow pallid, 
 Fleshly beauty vanisheth. 
 
 "Then rise up old thoughts and say- 
 ings, 
 
 Habits formed, and actions done ; 
 And, as an unwelcome vision, 
 Crowd upon him every one : 
 Turn he hither, stretch he thither, 
 From his sight they ne'er are gone. 
 
 " Conscience' self with gnawing twinges, 
 Racks within his guilty breast, 
 
 He laments the fitting seasons 
 For amendment that are past : 
 
 Full of grief, but wholly fruitless, 
 Proves his penitence at last. 
 
 " Fleshly pleasure's lying sweetness 
 Then to bitterness is turned, 
 
 When the endless torment follows 
 By its short-lived transports earned } 
 
 What he once thought great, already 
 As mere nothing is discerned. 
 
 " Christ, unconquered King ! I pray 
 
 Thee 
 
 Be a sinner's help and tower : 
 When the summons for departure 
 Reaches me at death's last hour, 
 O'er me let the impious tyrant 
 Arrogate no right, no power. 
 
 " Let the Prince of Darkness vanish, 
 
 And Gehenna's legions fly ; 
 Shepherd i Thou Thy sheep, now 
 
 ransomed, 
 
 To Thy country lead on high. 
 Where for ever, in fruition, 
 I may see Thee, eye to eye." 
 
 And now I will give a few specimens of medieval 
 sacred verse from unknown poets. The hymn
 
 270 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 " Verbum bonum et suave," one of the most popular 
 throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, may come 
 first, and I shall accompany it with an English version 
 upon which Mr. Wrangham, undeterred by its con- 
 summate difficulties, at my request, heroically ventured. 
 It is worthy of attention as an example of a mode of 
 interpretation of Holy Scripture as far removed from 
 the modern mind as is well conceivable. It does not 
 fall within my present scope to inquire into the merits 
 of the allegorizing method which beneath the text of 
 the sacred writings discerns a mystical sense, or rather 
 an indefinite number of mystical senses. 1 But, as a 
 matter of fact, every expositor from St. Paul and St. 
 Barnabas, not to go further back, down to Luther and 
 Calvin, pursued that method, and most carried it to 
 lengths at which the Biblical student of our own days, 
 formed in other schools, stands aghast. 2 The canonical 
 books were for them, as St. Augustine speaks, "tot 
 paginarum opaca secreta. 3 Not only in facts and per- 
 sons, but in names and numbers, were believed to be 
 hidden "treasures of wisdom and knowledge," 4 to the 
 extraction of which the devoutest minds and the subtlest 
 intellects devoted incredible labour. Throughout the 
 
 1 Four principal senses of Holy Scripture were recognized by the 
 school I have in view, according to the verse 
 
 " Litera gesta refert, quid credas allegoria, 
 Moralis quid agas, quid speres anagogia." 
 
 2 Bishop Perowne characterizes the patristic interpretations as " alle- 
 gorical cobwebs," and is of opinion that " for the first true exposition of 
 Scripture, and especially of the Old Testament, we must come, to the 
 time of the Reformation." The Book of Psalms > Pref. xxv. 
 
 3 S. Aug. Confess., 1 xi. c. 1. 4 Ibid.
 
 v.] The Allegorical Method 271 
 
 Old Testament they saw prefigured the personages 
 and events of the new dispensation, and, in particular, 
 the Mother of Christ, as her cult developed, became 
 the centre of a whole system of typical allusion. 
 " When thou hearest that God speaks in the bush," 
 asks Theodorus, " seest thou not the Virgin ? " * 
 " She is the rod of the stem of Jesse ; the Eastern 
 Gate, ever shut, through which the High Priest alone 
 goes in and out," says St. Jerome. 2 " The mystical 
 new heavens, the fruitful vine," says St. Ephrem. 3 
 " The manna pleasanter than honey," says St. Maxi- 
 mus. 4 Such was the system of interpretation which 
 the religious writers of the Middle Ages received from 
 the Fathers, nor did they fail to better the instruction. 
 It is well known how distasteful these similitudes were 
 to Luther, over whose Rhadamanthine severity 5 in 
 dealing with them, Daniel heaves a gentle sigh. 
 
 " Verbum bonum et suave, " Word, good news and gladsome telling ! 
 Personemus illud Ave Forth now let that ' Hail ! ' be swelling, 
 
 Per quod Christi fit conclave Which fit home for Christ's indwelling, 
 Virgo, mater, filia. Virgin, mother, daughter, made. 
 
 " Per quod Ave salutata " Through that ' Hail's ' sweet salutation 
 
 Mox concepit fecundata, Straight a maid of David's nation 
 
 Virgo David stirpe nata, Fruitful grew in generation, 
 
 Inter spinas lilia. 6 'Mid sharp thorns a lily bred. 
 
 " Ave, veri Salomonis " Hail, true Solomon's maid-mother ! 
 
 Mater, velius Gideonis Gideon's fleece ! whom, like none other 
 
 1 Harduin, Concilia, vol. i. p. 1655. 2 Hier. in Is. xi. 
 
 3 Opp. Syr., torn. 3, p. 607. * Horn. 45. 
 
 6 Thesaurus, vol. ii. p. 93. 
 
 6 As Daniel remarks, " Ex ilia licentia, quam illius aevi homines sibi 
 sumpsisse novimus, poeta propter 6fioiort\tvrov novam atque inauditam 
 vocem sibi finxit." Vol. ii. p. 94.
 
 2/2 
 
 The Age of Faith 
 
 [CH. 
 
 Cuius magi tribus donis 
 Laudant puerperium : 
 
 " Ave, solem genuisti 
 Ave, solem protulisti 
 Mundo lapso contulisti 
 Vitam et imperium. 
 
 " Ave, sponsa Verbi summi, 
 Maris portus, signum dumi, 
 Aromatum virga fumi, 
 Angelorum domina : 
 
 " Supplicamus : nos emenda, 
 Emendates nos commenda 
 Tuo nato, ad habenda 
 Sempiterna gaudia." 
 
 In thy travail with man's brother, 
 Wise men praise with three fold dower ! 
 
 " Hail, who bore the sun from heaven ! 
 Hail, who birth to Him hast given ! 
 To a world to ruin driven 
 
 Thou hast granted life and power. 
 
 " Hail, the spouse that God's word chooses ! 
 Mary-port, bright bush of Moses ! 
 Spray that scents' sweet fumes diffuses ! 
 Queen of the angelic host ! 
 
 " We beseech thee, purify us ; 
 And, thus purified, stand by us, 
 When thy Son shall come to try us, 
 Lest our deathless joys be lost ! " 1 
 
 1 " Neque tacendum est," observes Daniel, " hymnos et sequentias 
 integras paucisque mutatis a profanis hominibus in usum suum esse 
 conversa. Unum sufficiat exemplum sequentiae, proprie ad Beatissimam 
 Virginem pertinentis, nunc autem in potantium clamorem permutatae : 
 nam Germanos semper semperque potatores fuisse et futures esse ex his 
 quoque carminibus perspicuum est. Legitur autem Sequentia de vino 
 apud Aufsessium Anzeiger, etc." Vol. ii. p. 190 
 
 " Vinum bonum et suave 
 Bonis bonum, pravis prave, 
 Cunctus dulcis sapor, ave 
 Mundana lastitia. 
 
 " Ave, felix creatura 
 Quam produxit vitis pura, 
 Omnis mensa fit secura 
 In tua presentia. 
 
 " Ave, color vini clari, 
 Ave, sapor sine pari, 
 Tua nos inebriari 
 Digneris potentia. 
 
 " Ave, placens in colore, 
 Ave, fragrans in odore, 
 Ave, sapidum in ore 
 
 Dulcis linguae vinculum. 
 
 Upon this carmen irrisorium 
 
 " Ave, sospes in molestis 
 In gulosis mala pestis, 
 Post amissionem vestis 
 Sequitur patibulum. 
 
 " Monachorum grex devotus, 
 Omnis ordo, mundus totus, 
 Bibunt ad aequales potus 
 Et nunc et in saeculum. 
 
 " Felix venter quern intrabis, 
 Felix lingua quam rigabis, 
 Felix os quod tu lavabis 
 Et beata labia. 
 
 " Supplicamus, hie abunda 
 
 Per te mensa sit facunda 
 
 Et nos cum voce jocunda 
 
 Deducamus gaudia." 
 
 Daniel judiciously enough remarks,
 
 v.j Fra Angelico in Verse 273 
 
 Far more beautiful, but far less known, is a hymn 
 on the Incarnation, printed for the first time by Dr. 
 Neale, in his volume of Sequences. 1 I will venture 
 upon a translation of it, although I despair of pre- 
 senting in any degree the exquisite simplicity and 
 " tender grace " of the original. 
 
 " Laetare puerpera, 
 
 Laeto puerperio ; 
 Cujus pura viscera 
 Foecundantur Filio : 
 
 " Lacte fluunt ubera 
 
 Cum pudoris lilio : 
 Membra fovens tenera 
 Virgo lacte proprio. 
 
 " Patris Unigenitus, 
 
 Per quern fecit omnia, 
 Hie degit humanitus 
 Sub matre paupercula 
 
 " Ibi sanctos angelos 
 
 Reficit laetitia : 
 Hie sitit et esurit 
 Degens in infantia. 
 
 " Ibi regit omnia ; 
 
 Hie a matre regitur : 
 Ibi dat imperia ; 
 Hie ancillae subditur : 
 
 " Ibi summi culminis 
 Residet in solio ; 
 Hie legatus fasciis 
 Vagit in praesepio. 
 
 In thy joyful childbirth show 
 Heartfelt joy, thou pregnant one ; 
 
 Whose unspotted womb is now 
 Teeming with the Eternal Son. 
 
 Purest lily, thy breasts fill, 
 Nor is maidenhood defiled, 
 
 With thine own milk, virgin still, 
 Thou dost feed thy little Child. 
 
 He, the Only Son, by whom 
 God the Father all things made, 
 
 In a lowly mother's home 
 With our nature clad, is laid. 
 
 There to look upon His face, 
 Is of Angel hosts the bread ; 
 
 Here He holds an infant's place, 
 Thirsts and hungers, and is fed. 
 
 There as King of all He lives, 
 Here His Mother's word obeys ; 
 
 There supreme commands He gives, 
 Here His life His handmaid sways. 
 
 There on heaven's highest throne, 
 Glorious in His strength appears ; 
 
 Here is swathed with many a moan, 
 And in manger laid with tears. 
 
 " Ecclesia, turn temporis secura et tranquilla, eiusmodi nugas eadem 
 passa est lenitate, qua in ecclesiasticis asdificiis, qua? gothica dicuntur, 
 monstrosas figuras et alia inepta ornamenta." Vol. i. p. 282. 
 1 " Ex Missali Noviomensi." Sequentice, p. 10.
 
 274 
 
 The Age of Faith 
 
 [CH. 
 
 O homo, considera, 
 Revocans memoriae 
 
 Quanta sunt haec opera 
 Divinae dementias. 
 
 Non desperes veniam 
 Si multum deliqueris : 
 
 Ubi tot insignia 
 Caritatis videris. 
 
 " Sub Matris refugio 
 
 Fuge, causa veniae : 
 Nam tenet in gremio 
 Fontem indulgentiae. 
 
 " Hanc salutes ssepius 
 Cum spei fiducia : 
 Dicens flexis genibus, 
 Ave, plena gratia ! 
 
 " Quondam flentis lacrymas 
 
 Sedabas uberibus : 
 Nunc iratum mitigas 
 Pro nostris excessibus. 
 
 " Jesu, lapses respice 
 
 Piae Matris precibus ; 
 Emendates effice 
 Dignos coeli civibus." 
 
 Ponder well, O man, in thought 
 
 Bringing back to memory, 
 These transcendent wonders wrought 
 
 By divinest clemency. 
 
 Never let despair prevail, 
 Many though thy sins may be, 
 
 When thou goest o'er the tale 
 Of God's wondrous charity. 
 
 To the Mother go for grace, 
 
 To her side for pardon fly, 
 Nestling close to her sweet face, 
 
 See the Fount of clemency. 
 
 Oft salute her lovingly, 
 
 Give to doubt and fear no place ; 
 Meekly kneeling on thy knee, 
 
 Say, ' Hail, Mary, full of grace ! " 
 
 Once the milk from thy pure breast 
 Stayed His tears and infant cries, 
 
 Now for us, with sin oppressed, 
 When thou plead'st, His anger flies. 
 
 Jesus ! through Thy Mother's prayers, 
 Look on us with pitying eye, 
 
 Heal our souls, and make us heirs 
 Of Thy blissful realms on high. 
 
 Nicolas well asks, "Where shall we find poetry 
 in its most vivid reality, its most touching expression, 
 if not here ?" 1 It is like a picture of Fra Angelico's 
 done into verse. 
 
 The following very beautiful little poem, which I 
 take from Mone's collection, is in a different strain. 
 My translation has the demerit of not preserving the 
 original metre. 
 
 1 La Vierge Marie, torn. iii. p. 286.
 
 v.] The Grave of Medieval Literature 275 
 
 " Filii prassentia 
 
 Mater destituta, 
 
 Gabrielum nuntium 
 
 Sic est allocuta : 
 
 " ' Ave, plena gratia ! ' 
 
 Mihi protulisti ; 
 Nunc amaritudine 
 Sum repleta tristi. 
 
 " Subsequenter inquiens : 
 
 ' Dominus est tecum ; ' 
 Heu iacet in tumulo, 
 Non est ultra mecum. 
 
 " Omnis benedictio, 
 
 Quam tu spopondisti, 
 Mihi fit contraria 
 Propter mortem Christi." 
 
 Gone her Son, the Mother 
 
 Wept alone, alone ; 
 And to angel Gabriel 
 
 Thus did make her moan : 
 
 " Once thy voice did greet me, 
 ' Full of grace, all hail !' 
 
 Now all full of sorrow, 
 I lament and wail. 
 
 " Next, ' The Lord is with thee ' 
 
 In my ear did sound : 
 Now He is far from me, 
 
 Lying on the ground. 
 
 " All the words of blessing 
 
 That to me were said, 
 Now are turned to mourning: 
 
 For my Son is dead.' " 
 
 Mone prints this poem from a MS. of the four- 
 teenth century ; but it was probably composed some- 
 what earlier. 
 
 During the last hundred and fifty years of the 
 Middle Ages, if we reckon them to close with the 
 taking of Constantinople in 1453, Latin poetry was in 
 full decadence. The old founts of inspiration seemed 
 to have run dry. Sinai and Calvary were deserted 
 for Parnassus and Olympus. The Renaissance was 
 the grave of medieval literature. In the new era, 
 imitation takes the place of invention, pedantry of 
 inspiration ; for an Adam of St. Victor, or a Jacopone, 
 we have a Vida and a Sannazaro. Soon the impure 
 hand of the renascent paganism was laid upon the 
 offices of religion, and at one time the scheme was 
 officially entertained of replacing the whole existing 
 body of Breviary hymns by new compositions, in the
 
 276 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 spirit, metre, and language of classical Rome. It was 
 to Zacharias Ferrerius that Clement VII. entrusted 
 the task of manufacturing the desiderated verses, and 
 the following doxology may serve as a specimen of 
 his " nova politissimaque carmina : " 
 
 " Unus est divum sacer imperator 
 Triplicis formae, facie sub una, 
 Qui polum, terras, tumidosque fluctus 
 Temperat alti." 
 
 Ferrerius published his book with the Papal ap- 
 probation, and Clement authorized the use of his 
 compositions by the clergy in the Divine Office, 1 but, 
 according to Merati, no one availed himself of the 
 permission, which is much to be wondered at, for the 
 new poetry was certainly in full harmony with the 
 spirit of the age. Unfortunately, however, the versi- 
 fiers of the Renaissance did not confine themselves to 
 the production of turgid bombast of their own. The 
 ecclesiastical authorities, if unable to get rid altogether 
 of the Breviary hymns, were determined to " reform " 
 them, that is, to reduce them to classical style and 
 metre ; and for this purpose they called to their aid 
 from time to time the most approved pedants of the 
 day. It is not necessary for me to give here the 
 details of the Procrustean treatment which was pur- 
 sued ; and I gladly pass over the miserable tale, how 
 the most beautiful and venerable verses suffered 
 amputation, elongation, incision, and excision, at the 
 
 1 "Undaufdies Machwerk konnte Clemens VII. (cujus approbatio 
 libro praefixa est) 1523, rescribiren : ut quilibet sacerdos eosdem hymnos 
 etiam in divinis legere et eis uti possit concedimus. Sed, ut ait Merati, 
 nemo ea facultate usus est." Daniel's Thesaurus, vol. iv. p. 294.
 
 v.] The Achievements of Renascent Paganism 277 
 
 hands of men whose highest accomplishment was to 
 " torture one poor word a thousand ways." It was 
 in the pontificate of Urban VIII. that the hymns in 
 the Offices of the Latin Church assumed the form in 
 which they have been since current. Three members 
 of the Society of Jesus, Famianus Strada, Tarquinius 
 Gallucius, and Hieronymus Petruccius, were entrusted 
 with the task of reducing them " ad bonum sermonem 
 et metricas leges." A few escaped with very slight 
 alteration ; the great majority suffered a process of 
 recasting, the result being not unlike that achieved 
 by Borrimini in St. John Lateran, or by Fuga in St. 
 Mary Major. Archbishop Trench justly observes, 
 " Well-nigh the whole grace and beauty and even 
 vigour of the compositions have disappeared in the 
 transformation." 1 It was in Urban's time, too, that 
 most of the new hymns were added to the Breviary, 
 although some are of later date. These compositions 
 do not fall within my present subject, and there is 
 little to tempt one to an excursion among them ; for 
 in their frigid artificiality and tasteless pedantry they 
 represent the last stage of poetical decay. 
 
 IV 
 
 And now let us return to the point from which we 
 started, the great value of the body of sacred poetry 
 of which we have taken, if I may so speak, a bird's- 
 
 1 Sacred Latin Poetry, Introd. p. 15. In the first volume of Daniel's 
 Thesaurus the ancient text and the modern Breviary reading of many 
 hymns are given side by side,.
 
 278 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 eye view, as a revelation of the medieval mind. The 
 Middle Ages are rightly so called, standing as they do 
 halfway between the ancient and modern worlds, one 
 foot in each, but belonging to neither. The old 
 civilizations had emptied themselves into them. In 
 philosophic Greece, in Imperial Rome, in wild Ger- 
 many, in theocratic Judaea, are the sources of their 
 intellectual, moral, and spiritual life. And dead as 
 they are to us in many respects, in this new time, in 
 others they yet live. " Far off/' " yet ever nigh," we 
 come upon them in a thousand ways in our daily walk 
 through the world. They are, perhaps, the most fruit- 
 ful period in all history for the philosophical student, 
 unhappily by no means so common a character among 
 us as could be desired. And in the verse of the 
 medieval hymnists we see into the inner shrine of the 
 religion of that period into its very heart. They 
 interpret for us its external action, and unfold for us 
 the secret of its most distinctive peculiarities. The 
 works of the hands of Orcagna and Giotto, of Niccolo 
 Pisano and Lorenzo Maitani, of the forgotten artists 
 of storied pane and illuminated missal, have a fuller 
 and deeper meaning for us if regarded in the light 
 shed from the pages of the monkish lyrists, where the 
 tale of those material monuments is " writ large " for 
 such as have eyes to see. 
 
 The primary and most striking characteristic, then, 
 of the medieval period is that which is indicated in 
 the title so often given to it of the Age of Faith. 
 The mind of Europe was saturated with the spiritual, 
 the supernatural, the mysterious. Things possessed
 
 v.] Diversities of Supernaturalism 279 
 
 were counted as dross in comparison with things 
 hoped for ; things visible faded into nothingness 
 before the keen vision of things unseen. Every one 
 who has the most rudimentary knowledge of the 
 Middle Ages knows this. And, perhaps, it would 
 not be unfair to say that many a scholar who deems 
 his knowledge of those Ages by no means rudi- 
 mentary, knows little more than this of their dominant 
 element. But, in truth, we have made but very little 
 progress towards a correct apprehension of the 
 medieval mind by merely grasping the fact of its 
 absorbing supernaturalism. Intense realization of a 
 spiritual world is a common enough fact in human 
 history. In Greece up to the beginning of the third 
 century before the Christian era, in Rome until the 
 commencement of that era, faith in invisible realities 
 surrounding man on every side, in powers and agencies 
 of a superhuman character, directly and intimately 
 affecting him, was as strong, as unquestioning, as 
 operative in the popular mind, as it was in the time of 
 St. Bernard and St. Francis of Assisi. To under- 
 stand the Middle Ages it is necessary not merely to 
 discern the fact of their supernaturalism, but correctly 
 to appreciate its character. It is not enough to know 
 that they were penetrated by the most vivid concep- 
 tions of a world-transcending sense ; it is essential to 
 know also of what kind those conceptions were ; and 
 here, perhaps, comparison may serve as a most useful 
 instrument. Pagan antiquity and medieval Christi- 
 anity were both instinct with the supernatural. But 
 in their views of it there were radical differences of
 
 280 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 vital practical importance ; and those differences I 
 shall endeavour briefly to exhibit. 
 
 The most striking fact about ancient Paganism, as 
 it lived and ruled in the popular mind l of Greece and 
 Rome, is the well-nigh total absence from it of any 
 idea at all nearly corresponding to that which the 
 term " God " conveys, more or less distinctly, to the 
 European mind of the present day. It has been 
 profoundly remarked that the word "contains a 
 theology in itself." But even to the most uncultured 
 and unscientific in Christian countries, it denotes 
 however difficult they might find it to express the 
 notion a Supreme Being, the Creator, Upholder, 
 Governor, and Sovereign Lord of all : self-dependent, 
 and the only Being who is such ; Eternal, and the 
 only Eternal ; all-sufficient, all-blessed, and ever- 
 blessed ; the Supreme Good ; omnipotent, omniscient, 
 omnipresent, ineffably One, absolutely perfect ; Sove- 
 reign over His own actions, though always according 
 to the eternal Rule of right and wrong, which is him- 
 self; yet in the works of creation, conservation, 
 government, retribution, making himself, as it were, 
 the minister and servant of all ; taking an interest 
 and having a sympathy in the matters of time and 
 
 1 I say " the popular mind." I am far from ignoring the glimpses of 
 this great idea which visited from time to time " those wise old spirits 
 who," in Jeremy Taylor's happy phrase, "preserved natural reason and 
 religion in the midst of heathen darkness." Take, for instance and it is 
 the most striking instance known to me the fragment of Xenophanes 
 preserved by Clement of Alexandria (Strom., v. p. 601) 
 
 E?s flebs ev re Ofoiffi ol a.vBp<Siiroiffi fj
 
 v.] Christian Theism 281 
 
 space, and imposing on rational beings, on whose 
 hearts He has written the moral law, the duty of 
 worship and service. 1 Of this great idea we find but 
 small trace in the popular theology of the ancient 
 world. It is therefore that Clement of Alexandria, 
 in a noteworthy passage, speaks of the polytheists of 
 Greece as Atheists. " With reason," he writes, " I 
 call those Atheists who know not the true God ; " 2 
 and he refers to St. Paul's phrase, aOeoi ev TO> KOO-/AO), 
 the full force of which is generally so little appre- 
 hended. Again, in another place in the same treatise 
 he upbraids them as " foolish and silly men," who, 
 defaming the supercelestial region, have dragged 
 religion down to the ground by fashioning to them- 
 selves earth-gods ; and, by going after created objects 
 instead of the uncreated Deity, have sunk into deepest 
 darkness. 
 
 For the nearest approximation in classical antiquity 
 to what we understand by the word " God," we must 
 turn, not to any of the anthropomorphic deities, but 
 to that vague, mysterious, awful power, personified as 
 Fate or the Fates, which ruled irresistibly, not only 
 over the generations of mortal men, but also over 
 the " gods many and lords many " of Olympus and the 
 Roman Pantheon. Deep down in the heart of the 
 ancient world, underlying all religious conceptions, 
 alike of the noblest minds and of the most vulgar, was 
 the idea of a Supreme Will, irresistible, inscrutable, 
 
 1 See the very fine passage in Cardinal Newman's Idea of a Uni- 
 versity, p. 63 (third edition), from which the foregoing sentence has 
 been abbreviated. 
 
 8 Protrept., c. n, 23.
 
 282 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 inexorable; and this all-pervading Fatalism is the 
 key to the religions and the philosophies of Paganism. 1 
 There is a profound truth in the words of Petronius, 
 " Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor." Men turned 
 shudderingly away from the thought of a dark un- 
 approachable " stream of tendency," " non lenis 
 precibus," to the intermediate existences which they 
 supposed to direct the phenomena of the external 
 world. As Grote observes, " Divine personal agents 
 were invoked as the producing and sustaining powers 
 of Nature." "Men asked themselves, 'Who rains 
 and thunders ? Who produces earthquakes ? ' " 2 
 And they peopled the heaven above, and the earth 
 beneath, and the waters under the earth, with beings 
 who were, indeed, superhuman, but yet were of like 
 passions with themselves. They conceived of human 
 life as a struggle with destiny, hopeless in the event, 
 however protracted, and they turned to the kindly and 
 beautiful earth-gods for aid while the struggle lasted. 
 Those deities might, at all events, be propitiated. 
 By omens, by oracles, by sortilege, by the science of 
 the Augurs, by the art of the Haruspices, their pleasure 
 might be divined. Nay, more, it was possible for man 
 
 1 It is not necessary to cite authorities for a proposition which will be 
 admitted by every competent scholar. But I may remark that the words 
 of the Chorus at the close of the noblest production of the Greek tragic 
 Muse 
 
 OVK (ffn OvijTots l-vfitftopas ai 
 
 (Antigone, 1300), sum up the whole matter as the classical mind conceived 
 of it. 
 
 2 Grote's Plato, vol. ii. p. 2, 3rd edit. Mr. Grote happily refers to 
 Strepsiades' question in the Nubes (364) : 'AAAd rts Sef ;
 
 v.] Pagan Theism 283 
 
 to confer upon them gratifications, and to bargain with 
 them, " votis pacisci," as the poet speaks. Over the 
 dim mysterious region beyond the grave they were 
 indeed powerless. This world was the scene of their 
 activity ; but even in this world it was only the things 
 of sense that were under their control. They could 
 give their votaries wealth, power, voluptuous delights : 
 on those who neglected or offended them they might 
 inflict all temporal misfortunes, or even death itself 
 the greatest of calamities ; but upon the immaterial 
 part of man what power had even "the mighty hand 
 of thundering Jove " ? The soul, the conscience, the 
 affections, were not their domain. They were sup- 
 posed, indeed, by the popular thought, to watch over 
 the sanctity of oaths ; their altars were the refuge 
 of suppliants. But their legendary histories hardly 
 qualified them for reverence as the guardians of the 
 moral law, as the ministers of that righteous retri- 
 bution whereof we are warned by the teachings of our 
 natural conscience. 1 
 
 I am speaking of the popular cults of antiquity, not 
 of its " wise old spirits " who witnessed for the dictates 
 of eternal righteousness. The priests of those cults were 
 in no sense spiritual teachers : they had nothing to offer 
 to the inquiring mind or restless heart. Ancient poly- 
 theism witnessed, indeed, to the existence of a world 
 of unseen beings surrounding man ; but, as has been 
 
 1 If Horace's " Immunis aram si tetigit manus " be cited against this 
 view, it should be remembered that the poet was writing, not as the 
 exponent, but as the corrector of the popular creed. And a similar 
 explanation may be given of the numerous passages which may be 
 quoted to the same effect.
 
 284 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 said, it confined their action to the physical order. Its 
 office was to assuage the fear which had called it into 
 being, and it did this by turning away men's eyes from 
 the darker problems of human existence and concen- 
 trating their attention upon the finite. To make the 
 most of to-day was its highest Gospel, and the func- 
 tion of its gods was to help men in this task. Hence 
 what Heine calls "the cheerful intoxication of life" in 
 pagan antiquity, a life in which there is no element 
 of self-denial : in which both the intellect of man and 
 the invisible immaterial powers which are above man, 
 exist but to minister to the cravings of his bodily 
 senses. It is not to be wondered at that philosophy, 
 when it arose, turned away in loathing from such 
 conceptions. The instinct of the fierce democracy of 
 Athens was not at fault when it recognized in Socrates 
 a foe to the ancient gods ; although, indeed, it was by 
 a very different thinker that the most deadly wound 
 was inflicted upon the polytheism of the ancient world. 
 It was chiefly through the influence of the school of 
 Epicurus that the deities of classic paganism fell into 
 contempt, and that men learnt at the same time to 
 trample under foot the religious idea itself. 
 
 But I must not linger over the decadence of classic 
 polytheism, or pause to consider the influence exer- 
 cised by the various sects of philosophy whose rise 
 was contemporaneous with its decline. Let us repass 
 the intervening centuries, and return to the period 
 whose religious poetry is our immediate subject. The 
 medieval view of the supernatural differs from the 
 view of antique paganism in two very important
 
 v.] The Incarnation and the Cross 285 
 
 particulars : first, as to its nature, and then as to its 
 sphere of action. In the place of the idea of blind 
 Fate which underlay the old polytheism, we find in 
 the Middle Ages the great Theistic conception which 
 had been transmitted from the Hebrew people : the 
 conception of a Living God, and the Fountain of 
 Life ; a Supreme Disposer of Events, and Judge of 
 Men, but a Hearer of Prayer ; as merciful as great, 
 and standing in the closest, the most direct, and most 
 immediate relations with the children of men. Long 
 the hidden treasure of a small and exclusive tribe of 
 Northern Semites, this conception had been cast by 
 Christianity into a new shape through the doctrines of 
 the Incarnation and the Cross ; and, stamped with the 
 image of the Eternal Child and the Man of Sorrows, 
 had become the " current coin " of the Western world. 
 Through all the clouds and darkness of error and 
 passion, the puerile fables, the ludicrous superstitions 
 which hang over those Middle Ages, the great thought 
 of the Infinite God revealed in the Word-made- Flesh, 
 whom to know is life, but who, in St. Augustine's 
 phrase, " non cognoscitur nisi amando," shines forth in 
 luminous beauty. 
 
 This was the Oriens ex alto, the day-spring from 
 on high, before whose " bright beams of light " the 
 dark and abhorred vision of Fate fled away like a 
 phantom of the night. And with it the earth-gods 
 disappeared too. They were cast out together with 
 the fear which had evoked them. But the region 
 which they had occupied in the human imagination 
 was not to remain vacant. It was gradually peopled
 
 286 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 by a host of glorified beings, whose cultus, as we have 
 seen in the Second Chapter, at once assumed a promi- 
 nent place in the devotions of the faithful, when the 
 new religion passed out of what some have called its 
 fluid state, and hardened into ritual and dogmatic forms. 
 Nothing, however, can be more erroneous than the 
 view which regards what a certain school terms " the 
 Christian Mythology " as merely a new edition of that 
 of ancient Paganism. It is a view which has been 
 held widely, and carried far, in modern times, but 
 which is by no means new. Fourteen hundred years 
 ago we find Faustus, the Manichean, objecting to St. 
 Augustine, " You have turned the idols of the heathen 
 into your Martyrs, whom you worship with similar 
 prayers." 1 And so writers of our own day have 
 sought to find Apollo beneath the lineaments of 
 Christ, and to discern in His Virgin Mother a pale 
 and passionless Venus. It is easy to see how this 
 theory arose. There can be no question that the 
 Church, as she struggled upwards to Imperial power, 
 borrowed largely from the outward ornaments of the 
 Pagan religion for her ritual, as she used the existing 
 philosophy for the purposes of her teaching; and 
 Theodoret, writing in the fifth century, presses it as 
 an argument upon the heathen that " the Lord had 
 introduced His own dead in the place of their gods." 
 " Of these," he says, "He hath made a riddance ; 
 their honour He hath conferred upon those." 2 But 
 even in the most ignorant and superstitious minds 
 
 1 St. August., Contra Faust, xx. 4. 
 
 2 Theod., Adv. Gentiles, viii.
 
 v.] Pagan Gods and Christian Saints 287 
 
 among the adherents of the new faith, confusion could 
 hardly have arisen between the anthropomorphic 
 divinities whom they had forsaken, and the new 
 objects of their veneration. If any fact stands out 
 as clear beyond a doubt in the history of Christian 
 teaching, where so much is doubtful, it is this that 
 from St. Paul to Savonarola the deities of classic 
 Paganism were undeviatingly regarded as devils. 
 Such resemblances as may be traced between the 
 old gods and the supernatural protectors, intercessors, 
 patrons, to whom men looked in medieval Christendom, 
 are confined to the accidental externals of worship. 
 Not only was there the widest difference between 
 their attributes, their legends, and the manner in 
 which they were conceived to operate ; but above and 
 beyond this, it is certain that, however far the cultus 
 of angelic existences and " Divine men " was carried 
 in the Middle Ages, the supreme religious honours 
 of the altar were never paid to them. The Eucha- 
 ristic Sacrifice, round which Christianity centres, has 
 ever been offered to God alone. 1 
 
 So much as to the essential difference between the 
 classical and the medieval view of the nature of the 
 powers invisible to man's bodily sight, but potent over 
 human life. Nor is the difference less in the view 
 
 1 So St. Augustine, in words as applicable to every Christian century 
 as to his own : " Quis autem audivit aliquando fidelium stantem 
 sacerdotem ad altare etiam super sanctum corpus Martyris ad Dei 
 honorem cultumque constructum, dicere in precibus, ' Offero tibi sacri- 
 ficium, Petre, vel Paule, vel Cypriane ' ? . . . Non autem esse ista 
 sacrificia Martyrum novit, qui novit unum, quod etiam illic offertur 
 sacrificium Christianorum." De Civ. Dei, 1. viii. c. 27.
 
 288 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 taken of the sphere of their action. The life-theory 
 of paganism is as far removed as possible from that 
 of the Middle Ages. The ancient Greek or Roman, 
 to whom human life was its own end, turned away 
 from the tomb, little curious to pry into its desolating 
 darkness, or, if he at any time admitted the thought 
 of it, sought thereby to enhance the value of the 
 fleeting hour to " spice his fair banquet with the dust 
 of death." 
 
 Far other was the aspect in which the grave pre- 
 sented itself to the men of medieval Christendom. 
 For them it was not dark, or, if dark, only so " with 
 excessive bright." Their eyes were steadily fixed upon 
 it in trembling hope, as " the gate of life," and in the 
 illumination from the next world which streamed 
 through it, they looked at their present scene, and 
 judged of human existence. And their judgment of 
 human existence had this in common with that of 
 classical antiquity, that they regarded it as a conflict. 
 But it was no longer a hopeless conflict. Man from a 
 victim had become a warrior. He might serve under 
 an invincible Captain, and be more than conqueror, not 
 only over " mors indomita," but over a very different 
 class of enemies, of whose existence the Roman poet 
 had never dreamed. The great battle-field of the world, 
 as medieval thought judged, was the heart of man, 
 and the supremely important fact about man was that 
 he was " master of his fate ; " his will was free ; he 
 might choose his side. His real enemies were not the 
 sufferings of this present life, but ceaseless unseen 
 foes, who had their best allies in the cravings of his
 
 v.] Two Views of Life 289 
 
 own lower nature. Ever to war against these "to 
 resist," if need be, "unto blftod, striving against sin" 
 such was the medieval view of man's true part in 
 the fragment of his life here. His reward was there ; 
 the victor's crown beyond the grave : the beatific 
 vision "far in the spiritual city." 
 
 It is manifest how this view of human existence 
 must have transformed the world for those who held 
 it, not otiosely, as a notion, but with the most vivid 
 and real apprehension, as a fact. The material 
 universe, and the senses whereby it appeals to us, 
 which had been all in all to antique Paganism, are no 
 longer the end of life, but instruments of probation. 
 Self denial and patience, "continere et sustinere," as 
 St. Augustine sums the matter up, to give no 
 credence to the world's estimate, whether of felicity or 
 infelicity such are the two great principles proposed 
 for the regimen of life. The whole body of medieval 
 religious verse may be truly said to be a long refrain 
 upon the theme De Contemptu Mundi. But it is 
 curious to observe how through the fierce asceticism 
 of the age there thrills a strain of the loftiest and most 
 exultant jubilation, such as the world had never known 
 before. Life was not sad to those grown-up children, 
 stern as was the way in which they viewed it. The 
 literature of the cloister, in which that view found its 
 most perfect expression, was not the work of unhappy 
 men. We take up, for example, the letters written by 
 St. Anselm while a monk at Bee, and we are amazed 
 at what Dean Church happily calls the " almost light- 
 hearted cheerfulness" which breathes through them. 
 
 U
 
 290 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 And yet he and his fellows had given up all which in 
 the ordinary judgment of mankind makes life worth 
 living worldly wealth, the tenderest and most sacred 
 human relations, nay, even their own wills. They 
 might well seem to have lost their life. They appear 
 to have found it. Nothing is more striking than the 
 contrast between the joy and peace which breathe 
 through the austerest medieval verse, and the deep 
 undertone of melancholy pervading the strain of the 
 *- most voluptuous of the ancient poets. 
 
 The great difference, then, between the conception 
 of the sphere of supernatural action in the two epochs, 
 arose from this, that medieval religion embraced, and 
 judged of supreme importance, that immaterial side 
 of man's nature which Greek and Roman Paganism 
 ignored. The visible manifestations of the unseen 
 spiritual powers were indeed believed by our fore- 
 fathers in the Middle Ages to be matters of the 
 most ordinary occurrence. Like the ancients, they 
 accounted as miraculous everything abnormal in the 
 physical order ; or, to speak more correctly, they drew 
 the slightest distinction between the ordinary and 
 the extraordinary action of the Divine volition to 
 which they referred all phenomena. But, unlike the 
 ancients, they recognized with a keenness which it is 
 very difficult for us properly to appreciate, the direct 
 influence of the spiritual order upon the soul of man. 
 It was as if their eyes had been opened, and they saw 
 the things which transcend sense, as objective reali- 
 ties. The visible world fades into nothingness before 
 the "vision splendid" of the open heavens, or only
 
 v.] Two Kinds of Transcendentalism 291 
 
 retains its power to please because of the "celestial 
 light" wherewith it is apparelled. The first of the 
 long succession of hymnists of whom I have been 
 writing, struck the key-note of all, in accounting the 
 most coveted prizes of life "false and frivolous as 
 visions of the night." l It was the unseen which was 
 true and real : the seen which was delusive and 
 phantasmal. 
 
 The great fact to the men of Christendom was 
 that they were citizens of a spiritual empire not sub- 
 ject to the conditions of time and space, in which 
 the Saint who, hundreds of years before, had thrown 
 off " this earthly load of death called life," was side by 
 side with them, though their eyes were holden that 
 they saw him not. It was no mere flight of the 
 imagination when the monkish poet turned to the 
 martyred Roman maiden for help in life's strife ; or 
 when the knightly Crusader, bowing his head to the 
 Saracen's axe, found comfort by thinking of his fellow- 
 ship in the Passion of his glorified Patroness. 2 It 
 was just in this spirit of realization of the timeless 
 
 1 " Sunt nempe falsa et frivola, 
 Quae mundiali gloria 
 
 Ceu dormientes egimus : 
 Vigilemus, hie est veritas. 
 
 " Aurum, voluptas, gaudium, 
 Opes, honores, prospera, 
 Quaecunque nos inflant mala, 
 Fit mane, nil sunt omnia." 
 
 Prudentius, Hymnus ad Galli Cantum. 
 
 2 " Et lors me seignai, et m'agenoillai au pie de 1'un d'eulz qui tenoit 
 une hache danoise a charpentier, et dis ; ' Ainsi mourut sainte Agnes.' " 
 Joinville.
 
 292 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 unseen that the medieval artists worked. Not time 
 but eternity, was the medium in which they saw the 
 sacred persons and events they set themselves to body 
 forth. Thus it is that they bring together, without a 
 thought of anachronism, Saints whose work was done 
 in ages widely differing : thus that they depict the 
 Apostles, not as Syrian peasants, but as Princes over 
 all the earth : thus that they invest the Mother of 
 the King of Saints with " the crown of pure gold " 
 and the " raiment of needlework." They were realists 
 in their way, and of an intense kind. But it was 
 the realism, not of sight, but of faith. The great 
 difference between the view of the classical and the 
 medieval mind as to the relations of man with the 
 supernatural, may be summed up in the statement, 
 that the one projected this world into the invisible, 
 the other brought the invisible world into this ; that 
 the one materialized the unseen, the other spiritualized 
 the seen. 
 
 V 
 
 It is often said that history is ever repeating itself: 
 and in a certain sense this saying is true. Especially 
 interesting and instructive are the similitudes which 
 may be traced between the movements of man's 
 intellect in different ages, and under diverse con- 
 ditions of life. Thus a parallel curiously close, in 
 some respects, might be drawn between the progress 
 of the European mind from the age of Socrates to the
 
 v.] Philosophical Solvents 293 
 
 age of Juvenal, and from the close of the medieval 
 period to our own day. The philosophy called 
 Baconian has proved as powerful a solvent as the 
 doctrine of Epicurus. As physical science has ad- 
 vanced, phenomena of the material universe, once 
 most mysterious and awful, have yielded up their 
 secrets ; while in the limelight of criticism, sacred 
 stories long received as veritable histories, have been 
 exhibited as legendary myths, and documents for 
 ages venerated for the great names attached to them, 
 as mosaics unskilfully put together long after their 
 reputed authors had passed away. Man may say in 
 the twentieth century 
 
 " It is not now as it hath been of yore, 
 Turn where I may, 
 By night or day, 
 The things which I have seen I now can see no more." 
 
 " Heaven" no longer "lies about us" as it encom- 
 passed the men of medieval Christendom. The 
 supernatural, with its "trailing clouds of glory," 
 recedes from our view : as we gaze, we perceive it 
 
 "... die away, ' 
 And melt into the light of common day." 
 
 The action of a Divine Will is denied alike in the 
 physical and the spiritual order : nay, the very exist- 
 ence of the spiritual order is denied, and with it con- 
 science, free volition, and moral responsibility. Matter 
 and force, we are told, explain everything : and force, 
 we are assured, " is a quality of matter," whatever that
 
 294 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 may mean. Again the shadow of an iron necessity 
 falls upon the world. On every hand we witness 
 what has been called " the sad and terrible spectacle 
 of a generation of men and women, professing to be 
 cultivated, looking around in purblind fashion and 
 finding no God in the universe." Nor is this all. 
 The spirit of the age has penetrated within the 
 Christian camp, and even in those whose devotional 
 instincts are the strongest, and whose spiritual aspira- 
 tions the most fervent, religion has lost much of its 
 objective character. Religion is becoming less a 
 creed and more an emotion : it is passing from the 
 region of persons and things to the domain of phrase 
 and sentiment. It is no longer the great fact upon 
 which the public order is based, but a private opinion 
 or an individual speculation. 
 
 Such is, in brief, the change which has come over 
 European thought with regard to the supernatural 
 since the close of the Middle Ages ; and it is a change 
 which fills many pure and pious souls with dismay. 
 The devout mind turns sadly from such a time as 
 ours to the earlier and simpler epoch, when the ques- 
 tionings of the modern spirit had not perplexed the 
 understanding nor troubled the heart of man ; reverts 
 fondly to it, as age reverts to the walks of childhood. 
 It is natural : nor, remembering always that our 
 work is in the age in which our day is cast, not 
 " among the mouldered lodges of the past," is such 
 retrospection without its use. The man may learn 
 from the child : the twentieth century from the thir- 
 teenth. Things hidden from the wise and prudent
 
 v.] The Question of the Day 295 
 
 are revealed to babes. The folly of the superstitious 
 may be wiser than the wisdom of the sceptic. 
 
 The existence of the supernatural is the question 
 of the day. It is too large a question for me to enter 
 upon here : nor, indeed, does its discussion fall within 
 my present scope. I will merely observe how fatal 
 it is in such matters to put aside facts for speculations, 
 to take " the high priori road," and to ignore the 
 collective experience of the human race which we call 
 history, as well as the individual experiences for a 
 knowledge of which such countless sources are open 
 to us. The aspirations and emotions of the soul are 
 facts. The physicist may ignore them if he pleases 
 they do not come within his sphere but they are 
 still facts. Faith rests upon the need of believing. 
 The surest foundation of religion lies in man's spiritual 
 intuitions, in the voice of conscience, in the longing 
 for the Infinite. No philosophy can long satisfy him 
 which ignores those intuitions, which refers that 
 voice, whether to the action of the physical organism, 
 or to " the habit of judging from the point of view 
 of all, not of one ; " which, in place of " living bread," 
 offers him the stone of natural science to satisfy an 
 immortal hunger. 
 
 These are, indeed, what Pascal calls " reasons of 
 the heart." But who that knows human nature can 
 deny the cogency of such reasons ? The philosophers 
 of materialism do not know human nature. Their 
 capital error is that they only see one side of it, the 
 lowest, which they mistake for the whole. Their 
 " learned ignorance " is just now predominant in the
 
 296 The Age of Faith [CH. 
 
 world. This is their "hour, and the power of dark- 
 ness." But it will not last. All things in the affairs 
 of men have their ebbs and flows. That great stream 
 of religious faith which so long watered the earth and 
 blessed it, has, for a season, been receding. Bare are 
 many portions of its ancient bed ; parched are many 
 lands which once drank of its waters. But let no 
 man dream that it shall be dried up. Its sources are 
 in the everlasting hills. However changed its course 
 by the moral and intellectual earthquakes which shake 
 the world, it will flow on through the ages and 
 acquire 
 
 "... if not the calm 
 Of its early mountainous shore, 
 Yet a solemn peace of its own, 
 As it grows, as the towns on its marge 
 Fling their wavering lights 
 On a wider, statelier stream : 
 As the banks fade dimmer away 
 As the stars come out and the night-wind 
 Brings up the stream, 
 Murmurs and scents of the Infinite Sea."
 
 vi.] Delivery to Satan 297 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE INQUISITION 
 I 
 
 IN this Chapter I shall speak of the action of the 
 Catholic Church in respect of what is called " heretical 
 pravity." I shall first briefly present the facts. I 
 shall then consider them in their relations with 
 Modern Civilization. 
 
 From the very beginning of Christianity, the ex- 
 tremest importance was attached by the Church to 
 orthodoxy. Thus, in her First Age, St. Paul, writing 
 to the Galatians, smites with anathema teachers who 
 deviate from his doctrine ; in the Epistle to St. Titus 
 it is enjoined that a heterodox person, who after due 
 admonition persists in misbelief, is to be rejected ; and 
 in the First Epistle to St. Timothy we read of the 
 delivery to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, of 
 persons who, apparently, had been guilty of heretical 
 blasphemy. During the Age of the Martyrs the 
 purity of the faith was not less jealously guarded 
 than in the previous epoch. Only spiritual weapons 
 were then available for restraining or resisting teachers 
 who sought to corrupt the Church's message or to 
 contravene her decisions. But those who had
 
 298 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 suffered so much from the Empire when it was Pagan, 
 discovered that, after it had become Christian, its 
 employment of the civil sword for such ends was 
 legitimate, nay, obligatory. Very soon, heresy was 
 accounted a crime, and was punished as such by the 
 Imperial tribunals. The principle is succinctly for- 
 mulated in the Theodosian Code (438) : " What is done 
 against the Divine Majesty, is an injury to all." And 
 as time went on, this principle increasingly found 
 embodiment in the laws of the Christian State. The 
 first instance of capital punishment for heresy appears 
 to have occurred in 385, when the Emperor Maximin 
 put to death Priscillian and six of his disciples. St. 
 Martin of Tours disapproved of this severity. But 
 Pope Leo I., writing in 447, justifies it, and declares 
 that if followers of opinions so damnable were allowed 
 to live, there would be an end of all law, human and 
 divine. In successive Imperial edicts death was the 
 punishment decreed for Manichsean ringleaders. We 
 may note, in passing, that the name Inquisitor appears 
 first in an edict of Theodosius I. This Emperor 
 directs the pretorian prefects to appoint officials 
 bearing that title for the discovery and prosecution 
 of Manichaans. 
 
 From the fourth century to the thirteenth, the civil 
 sword was used throughout Christendom, more or less 
 effectively, for the extirpation of heresy, on its exist- 
 ence being notified by the Bishop to the secular 
 tribunals. But the first instance of an organized 
 campaign against it, is supplied by what is called 
 " The Albigensian Crusade." This " Crusade " was
 
 vi.] Gregory IX 299 
 
 really a war waged, for twenty years, with extreme 
 cruelty and perfidy, its chief object there were other 
 objects of a political kind being the extermination 
 of the Cathari dwelling in the South of France. A 
 vast multitude of those sectaries perished by the 
 sword, the stake, and other forms of death ; but a 
 considerable remnant was left to be dealt with when 
 the " Crusade " was over. Nor, of course, were the 
 Cathari confined to the South of France. They were 
 spread throughout Christendom, as were other heretical 
 sects. The public opinion of that Age of Faith de- 
 manded their extirpation ; and the existing machinery 
 was inadequate for the purpose. Heretical pravity 
 came, within the purview of the spiritual court attached 
 to each episcopal see. The Bishops were ex vi termini 
 Inquisitors within their respective dioceses. But over- 
 whelmed as they were with other employments, they 
 were insufficient for the inquisitorial duty. Pope 
 Gregory IX. determined, therefore, upon the creation 
 of a special tribunal to attend continually upon this 
 very thing. In 1229 he formally established the Papal 
 Inquisition. I observe, in passing, that there is no con- 
 temporary evidence for the statement which represents 
 it as having been founded some years earlier, with St. 
 Dominic as its head. Milman appears well warranted 
 when he observes that this statement belongs not 
 to history, but to legend. " Technically," writes Mr. 
 Lea, "there was no difference between the episcopal 
 and the papal Inquisitions, . . . yet the papal Inquisition 
 was an instrument of infinitely greater efficiency for 
 the work in hand. However zealous an episcopal
 
 300 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 official might be, his efforts were necessarily isolated, 
 temporary, and spasmodic. The papal Inquisition, 
 on the other hand, constituted a chain of tribunal 
 throughout Continental Europe, perpetually manned 
 by those who had no other work to do : [it] had a 
 long arm, a sleepless memory ; and we can well under- 
 stand the terror inspired by the secrecy of its opera- 
 tions, and its almost supernatural vigilance." * 
 
 II 
 
 Such was the institution which Gregory IX. launched 
 upon its long career in 1229. Until towards the-close 
 of the eighteenth century it was in good working 
 order throughout Southern Europe. Nay, even in 
 the nineteenth century it was re-established, though 
 with attenuated attributes, after the Congress of 
 Vienna, in Spain, Portugal, Bavaria, and the Papal 
 States. Its new existence in the first three mentioned 
 countries was indeed brief. But in Rome it lingered 
 as a spiritual tribunal, with power to inflict temporal 
 penalties, until the downfall of the Pope's Civil 
 Princedom in 1870. I shall now give some account 
 of its procedure, and we shall do well, for this purpose, 
 to consider it in its last phase, which we may date 
 from the issue of Paul III.'s Bull, Licet ab initio, in 
 1542, because its practice, though in its essentials the 
 same as in earlier ages, had then become more regular, 
 more settled, more, if I may use the word, scientific. 
 
 1 A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 364.
 
 vi.] The "Sacred Arsenal" 301 
 
 And in doing this I shall found myself entirely upon 
 the Sacro Arsenale of Father Elisha Masini, a vade 
 mecum, so to speak, of Inquisitorial procedure, very 
 much valued and very widely used by officials of the 
 Holy Office. The compiler of this Manual, a religious 
 of the Order of St. Dominic, was for many years a 
 highly esteemed Inquisitor at Bologna, where he made 
 full proof of his ministry, wielding with much effect 
 the weapons which he has, so to speak, collected and 
 arranged for the use of his brethren. The edition 
 which I possess is the third, and is dated Rome and 
 Bologna, 1716. It is enriched by the insertion of 
 several rules made by Father Thomas Menghini, 
 of the same religion, also a famous Inquisitor in his 
 day, first at Ancona and then at Ferrara; and by 
 copious notes from the authoritative pen of Dr. John 
 Pasqualone, Fiscal of the Supreme General Inquisition 
 of Rome. It was, of course, published with proper 
 authorization Con Licenza de Superiori and bears 
 due episcopal Imprimatur and Reimprimatur. It is 
 written chiefly in Italian, with a not unpleasing 
 admixture of Latin. Thus, in the specimens which 
 it gives of the examinations of accused persons and 
 witnesses, the interrogatories are in the learned 
 tongue, and the replies in the vernacular. It is a 
 practical book for practical men ; and unquestionably 
 merits the praise which it obtained as a complete and 
 admirably arranged manual. If, as certain teachers of 
 the present day assert, the test of goodness is adjust- 
 ment of means to ends, the Sacred Arsenal must be 
 esteemed a superlatively good book. It is most
 
 302 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 admirably adjusted to its end the formation of a 
 perfect and complete Inquisitor, lacking nothing 
 necessary to the effective discharge of the work of 
 the Holy Office. That commendation cannot honestly 
 be withheld from it. 
 
 The key-note of the work, so to speak, is struck in 
 Father Masini's Dedication of it to " Peter, the Great 
 Martyr, the most unconquered Champion and most 
 firm Rock of the Holy Faith, the Honour and Glory 
 of the Domenican Order, and the Egregious Captain 
 (Capitano Egregio] of Apostolic Inquisitors." This 
 Peter, it may not be amiss to explain for the benefit 
 of those unversed in Catholic hagiology, is the St. 
 Peter Martyr so often represented by Italian painters 
 with an axe in his head. He was born in Verona 
 about the beginning of the thirteenth century, and, in 
 early youth, was a convert to Catholicism from the 
 sect of the Cathari, whom, after he had become a 
 Domenican and an Inquisitor, he did his best to 
 exterminate. He was murdered on the 7th of April, 
 1252, at the bidding of certain Venetian gentlemen 
 who had suffered many things of him ; and was 
 canonized within a year by Pope Innocent the Fourth. 
 He soon became one of the most popular saints in 
 Italy. I suppose most of my readers will remember 
 the wonderful Titian at Venice, of which his martyr- 
 dom is the subject : " the most perfect scenic picture 
 in the world," it has been called perhaps justly. 
 
 The Sacred Arsenal is introduced by an excellent 
 summary of contents, and concludes with a copious 
 index. And what renders it of peculiar value is that
 
 vi.] Famous Inquisitors 303 
 
 it gives us the actual text of the documents used in 
 the Holy Office : Forms of Citation, of Caption, of 
 Abjuration, of Canonical Purgation, of Decrees of 
 Torture, of Confiscation, of Final Sentence, and the 
 like, together with several important Papal Consti- 
 tutions and Decrees of the Roman Inquisition : all 
 finding their proper place in one or other of the ten 
 parts into which the work is symmetrically divided. 
 It is not necessary for my present purpose that I 
 should go into detail upon all this. I mention it 
 merely to show the claims which the work has upon 
 our confidence. What I shall go on to do is to use the 
 copious and authoritative materials provided by Father 
 Masini, in order to describe the course of a trial 
 before the Holy Office in the eighteenth century, when 
 I suppose its practice had been brought most nearly to 
 perfection. But first let us see what the learned and 
 pious author has to tell us regarding the functions of 
 the Inquisitor and the persons against whom they were 
 exercised : topics to which is devoted Part I. of the 
 Sacred Arsenal. 
 
 " Great," he tells us, " is the dignity, sovereign the 
 authority, and eminent the office of the Inquisitor." 
 And he gives three reasons why this is so. The first 
 is because "the Inquisitor is immediately delegated 
 by the Holy Apostolic See 1 to take cognizance of, 
 and to determine, causes concerning the faith and 
 religion, and holds the place of the Sovereign Pontiff, 
 
 1 The Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition, founded by Paul the 
 Third in 1542, ranks first among the Roman Congregations. The Pope 
 himself is its Prefect, and the Senior Cardinal is its Secretary.
 
 304 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 and represents the person of His Blessedness." The 
 second reason is because of the excellence, majesty, 
 and number (dalV eccellenza, e dalla maestd, e dalla 
 copia) of the great personages who, from the begin- 
 ning of the world to our own times, have followed 
 that calling ; conspicuous among them being Almighty 
 God himself a marvellous and astonishing Inquisitor 
 {Inquisitor* maraviglioso fti Iddio benedetto), as Adam 
 and Eve, the people of Israel, and many others 
 experienced David, Nebuchadnezzar King of Baby- 
 lon, Christ our Redeemer, the First and Supreme 
 Inquisitor of the Evangelical Law, St. John the Evan- 
 gelist, St. John the Baptist, St. Peter who condemned 
 to death Ananias and his wife, St. Peter Martyr, and 
 St. Pius the Fifth. The third reason is because of 
 the ample jurisdiction of the Holy Office, extending, 
 as it does, over all sorts and conditions of men, living 
 and dead, and conferring, as it does, the power to 
 command, prohibit, cite, examine, torture, decree, 
 sentence, absolve, and condemn, and also to con- 
 fiscate temporal goods, and to deprive of honours and 
 dignities : to the great terror of the wicked (huomini 
 cattivt) and the inestimable consolation of the good. 
 Such is the divine, the heavenly occupation followed 
 by the Inquisitor (divino e celeste e il carico ck' egli 
 tiene) for the conservation of the doctrine of Christ, 
 the maintenance of the Catholic faith, and the increase 
 of the glory of God. 
 
 Five classes of persons against whom the Holy 
 Office proceeds are enumerated in the Sacred Arsenal: 
 (i) Heretics and Suspected Heretics; (2) Fautors of
 
 vi.] Varieties of Heresy 305 
 
 Heresy ; (3) Magicians, Wizards, and Enchanters ; 
 (4) Blasphemers ; (5) Persons who oppose the Holy 
 Office or its officials. 1 A few words of explanation 
 may be necessary with regard to the first, second, 
 and fourth of these classes. The difference between 
 Formal Heretics and Suspected Heretics is this : 
 Formal Heretics are those who impugn, in terms, 
 whether by speech, signs, or writing, some tenet of 
 Catholicism; and "those who deny the Holy Faith, 
 making themselves Turks or Hebrews" (gvelli che 
 rinegano la Santa Fede> facendosi Turcki, 6 Hebret). 
 A Suspected Heretic is one who, by his words or 
 actions, gives reason to suppose that he is no good 
 Catholic : who, for example, uses language concerning 
 matters of faith which offends pious ears ; or who 
 abuses any Sacrament of the Church, or Sacramental 
 Things, such as Holy Water or Blessed Candles ; or 
 who possesses, or gives to others, books prohibited 
 by the Index ; or who does not make his Easter 
 Communion, or observe days of fasting and abstinence ; 
 or who listens even once to heretical sermons ; or 
 who is on terms of amity with heretics ; or who, 
 when cited to appear before the Holy Office, con- 
 tumaciously disobeys. Among Fautors of Heresy 
 are such as defend, favour, or aid those against whom 
 the Holy Office proceeds, and such as knowing any 
 person to be a Heretic, or Suspected Heretic, do 
 not denounce him to the Holy Office. Not all 
 
 1 F. Masini points out that if a secular judge does not immediately 
 comply with a requisition of Bishops or Inquisitors in causes of faith, he 
 incurs ipso jure excommunication ; and if he continues it for a year, he 
 may be condemned as a heretic. 
 
 X
 
 306 The Inquisition [ CH - 
 
 Blasphemers are within its jurisdiction. Although, as 
 the pious author of the Sacred Arsenal observes, all 
 blasphemy is worthy of grave punishment, the 
 Holy Office takes cognizance of only one kind of 
 blasphemy, namely, heretical: by which is meant 
 blasphemy that impugns some article of the faith ; 
 for example, any of the attributes of God say His 
 Sanctity. It may be noted that Jews, Idolaters, 
 Mohammedans, and other sects of Infidels, were not 
 ordinarily subject to the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, 
 although they might have brought themselves within 
 it in various ways, as by blasphemous speeches, or 
 by the possession of prohibited books, such as the 
 Talmud. 
 
 Ill 
 
 And now, having thus cleared the ground by 
 these explanations, let us go on, with the Sacred 
 Arsenal as our guide, to the procedure of the 
 Inquisition. A trial before it might have been 
 instituted in two ways : * first by Denunciation, when 
 any one appears before an Inquisitor, and, whether 
 for the relief of his own conscience, or out of zeal 
 for religion, or in obedience to his confessor, or 
 through fear of himself getting into trouble as a 
 Fautor of Heresy, denounces a man or woman as 
 guilty of some offence of which the Holy Office takes 
 
 1 There was also the way of Accusation, the Sacred Arsenal informs us ; 
 but the object of the volume being practical, that way is not dwelt upon, 
 as it was very rarely followed, and did not materially differ from the way 
 of Denunciation.
 
 vi.] The Inquisitor on the Judgment-seat 307 
 
 cognizance. In the absence of such Denunciation, 
 the Inquisitor might himself have proceeded by way 
 of Inquisition, rumour (fama o voce publica) having 
 reached him of the perpetration of some offence 
 against the Holy Faith within his jurisdiction. But 
 the way of Denunciation was the commonest, and 
 for the sake of brevity we will confine ourselves 
 to that, and follow the course of proceedings so 
 instituted. 
 
 Let us picture to ourselves, then, the Inquisitor 
 sitting on the judgment-seat in the Examination 
 Hall of the Holy Office, a Notary by his side, and 
 the Denunciator appearing before him, as the formal 
 opening of the Process duly records 
 
 "Die 5 mensis Junii anni 1710 comparuit person- 
 aliter sponte coram M. R. P. F. N. Inquisitore N. 
 sedente in Aula Sancti Officii N. in meique Notarii," 
 etc. 
 
 The first thing, of course, was to swear the 
 Denunciator to tell the whole truth. The next, to 
 take down his story in his own words. Then 
 "Particular Interrogatories" were put to him to 
 elicit whether he spoke of his own knowledge or 
 from hearsay, who else were acquainted with the 
 circumstances narrated by him, and other necessary 
 particulars. After these followed " General Inter- 
 rogatories," questions as to his relations with the 
 Accused, as to his own fulfilment of the duties of the 
 Catholic religion, and the like. But it will be best 
 to avail ourselves here of the model or skeleton of a 
 Process drawn up by Father Masini for the instruction
 
 308 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 of his Vicarii Foranei in a case of Blasphemy. The 
 Denunciator, Titio Cerari, all particulars about him 
 being duly noted, deposes as follows : 
 
 " About a year ago, I don't remember the precise 
 day, nor the month, but it was a little before or after 
 Whitsuntide (Pasqua Rosata), I chanced to be in the 
 Piazza, near the City Gate called the ' Great Gate,' 
 and there, on the left side of the gate, Martio Belloni, 
 Florido Gellanti, and Beltramo Agosti, all shoemakers, 
 were playing at dice. And Beltramo, because he lost, 
 said in anger four or five times, Puttana di Dio. 1 
 And I know it, because I was present, and heard 
 him with my own ears. Beltramo was reproved by 
 Martio ; but instead of correcting himself, said, 
 ' Don't bother me (non me rompere la Testa], unless 
 you want me to hit you.' And I have come here 
 to ease my conscience by order of my confessor." 
 
 The Inquisitor. Do you know, or have you 
 heard, that the said Beltramo has blasphemed upon 
 other occasions ? 
 
 The Denunciator. Father, I do not know, and 
 have not heard, that Beltramo has, at any other time, 
 blasphemed. 
 
 The Inquisitor. Why have you so long delayed 
 to denounce the said Beltramo to the Holy Office ? 
 
 The Denunciator. I did not come before because 
 I did not think I was obliged to ; but my confessor 
 having opened my eyes, I have come to fulfil my 
 duty. 
 
 1 A shocking expression, which I must be excused from trans- 
 lating.
 
 vi.j Interrogatories 309 
 
 The Inquisitor. What sort of a character does the 
 said Beltramo bear ? 
 
 The Denunciator. He is a passionate man ; but I 
 know nothing else against him. 
 
 This ends the Particular Interrogatories. Then 
 the General Interrogatories follow, viz. : Whether 
 the Denunciator is at enmity with Beltramo, because 
 in that case, as Dr. Pasqualone observes in a note, 
 his allegations will be entitled to less credence, but 
 still must be received for what they may be worth 
 unless, indeed, the enmity is of a deadly kind inquiry 
 being made into the cause of it, and whether there 
 has been a reconciliation. If enmity be denied by 
 the Denunciator, he must be asked whether he is 
 actuated by regard per amore for the Accused, 1 or 
 by a wish to serve any one at his expense. Another 
 General Interrogatory is whether the Denunciator 
 confessed and communicated during the past year, 
 at least once, viz. at Easter, as Holy Church requires. 
 These Interrogatories and such others as are judged 
 necessary, being put and satisfactorily answered, the 
 deposition is read over to the Denunciator, and cor- 
 rected if he desires it, and then his signature is taken, 
 and he is dismissed, having made oath of silence 
 (guibus habitis, et acceptatis dimissus fuit, juratus de 
 silentio, et perlecto ei suo examine, se subscripsif). The 
 signature of the Notary follows the signature of the 
 Denunciator, and the Denunciation is complete. 
 
 The next step is to summon the witnesses. This 
 
 1 Such regard, I suppose, exhibiting itself in a desire for his chastise- 
 ment, to his spiritual profit, by the Inquisition.
 
 310 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 might be done by formal citation. But the course 
 usually adopted, for the sake of secrecy, was to 
 despatch to each witness the mandatory of the Holy 
 Office, with a verbal message that the Father Vicar 
 wanted to say a word to him (che il Padre Vicario 
 del Santo Officio gli vuol dire una parola]. And 
 now I will give, in a somewhat compressed state, 
 the examination of the First Witness, Martio Belloni. 
 The usual oath being administered, and the usual 
 questions as to his name, occupation, and so forth, 
 being asked, the Inquisitor proceeds 
 
 The Inquisitor. Do you know, or imagine, the 
 reason of your summons here, and of your present 
 examination ? 
 
 The\First Witness. No; I do not know or imagine 
 why your Reverence has sent for me, and now wishes 
 to examine me. 
 
 The Inquisitor. Are you acquainted with any 
 Heretic, Magician, Blasphemer, Polygamist, or with 
 any one in any way suspected of heresy ? 
 
 The First Witness. I don't know any person of 
 that sort. 
 
 The Inquisitor. What were you doing last year ? 
 How were you occupied ? With whom were you 
 intimate ? 
 
 The First Witness. I was in this city the whole 
 of last year. I am a shoemaker by trade, and have 
 been occupied in making shoes. In the evening I 
 amuse myself with my companions. 
 
 The Inquisitor. State your amusements, and the 
 place and hour of them, and name your companions.
 
 vi.] <c Do you remember ? " 311 
 
 The First Witness. Sometimes I play at ball 
 (palla), sometimes at cards, sometimes at dice. We 
 play at ball from one end to the other of the Piazza, 
 and at cards and dice the other side of a big stone set 
 up on the left of the gate of the city called the ' Great 
 Gate.' I have a good many companions, but my 
 special intimates are Beltramo Agosti and Florido 
 Gellanti, and I am in the habit of playing with them 
 about twenty-three o'clock. 
 
 The Inquisitor. Do you remember playing last 
 year at Whitsuntide, at the hour you mention, at dice, 
 by the stone of which you speak ; and who were your 
 companions ? 
 
 . The First Witness. I do not remember precisely 
 what you are asking me about. But I do remember 
 that one day, last year, towards evening, I was playing 
 at! dice with my two companions, when a woman, by 
 name Marfisa, passed with a bunch of roses, and I 
 took them out of her hand, and helped myself to one, 
 giving her back the rest. And from that I guess that 
 it might be a little before or after Whitsuntide (Pasqua 
 Rosata). Who my companions were, I don't for 
 certain remember, but I feel pretty sure that they were 
 Florido and Beltramo, with whom I am in the habit 
 of playing most frequently, they being of my trade. 
 
 The Inquisitor. At the place and time in question 
 did any one, having lost at play, blaspheme ? 
 
 The First Witness. I don't recollect. 
 
 The Inquisitor. At the time and place in question 
 did any one, having lost his temper, blaspheme against 
 God?
 
 312 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 The First Witness. Not that I know of. 
 
 The Inquisitor. At the time and place in question 
 did any one, having lost at play, in his anger, blaspheme 
 against God, saying Puttana di Dio? four or five times, 
 and then, when one present rebuked him, reply, 
 " Don't bother me, or I'll hit you " ? 
 
 The First Witness. I don't recollect. 
 
 The Inquisitor. We have it in the Process (in 
 Processu) that this was so. Why don't you candidly 
 tell the truth ? 
 
 The First Witness. I say that I heard nothing of 
 the kind. 
 
 The Inquisitor. You had better tell the truth, 
 for should the Holy Office discover that you have 
 concealed the truth, it will punish you as a per- 
 jurer, and you will, moreover, incur excommunication, 
 from which only the Holy Office itself can absolve 
 you. 
 
 The First Witness. Now I do remember 2 that last 
 
 1 Dr. Pasqualone, whose running commentary on the Process is most 
 interesting, and must have been extremely helpful to neophytes of the 
 Holy Office, points out that the interrogation, now coming to the capital 
 point of the alleged blasphemy, begins with the genus, proceeds to the 
 species, and ends with the individual. First, on the occasion in question, 
 did any one blaspheme? Then, did any one blaspheme against God? 
 (The blasphemy might have been against the Blessed Virgin or the 
 Saints, which, though bad enough, would have been less grave.) And 
 lastly, did any one blaspheme, using the words Puttana di Dio ? 
 
 2 It will be seen that The First Witness prudently gives in to the 
 Inquisitor's threat. Had he not done so, he might have been subjected 
 to the Torture which the Holy Office had the power to employ against 
 a recusant witness presumed to be well informed (Testimonio che si pre- 
 sume Tjerisimilmente informato, e negd). At page 263 of the Sacred 
 Arsenal the form of a Decree of Torture against such a witness is 
 given.
 
 vi.] Witnesses and the Accused 313 
 
 year it must have been about Whitsuntide, by token 
 of the rose I took from the hands of that woman 
 while I was playing, in the place I have mentioned, 
 at dice with Beltramo and Florido, Beltramo, on 
 account of his great ill luck in losing, began to blas- 
 pheme against God, saying several times, but how 
 often I don't remember, Puttana di Dio. 
 
 The Inquisitor. Was Beltramo, at the said place 
 and time, and on the said occasion, reproved by any 
 person or persons ? 
 
 The First Witness. I cried out to Beltramo, but 
 that made him all the more angry, and he threatened 
 to hit me. 
 
 The Inquisitor. Who was present besides Florido 
 when Beltramo uttered the said blasphemies ? 
 
 The First Witness. There were many standing by 
 to look at the play ; but I don't remember who they 
 were. 
 
 The First Witness is then interrogated as to Bel- 
 tramo's character, and the terms he is on with him, 
 and as to his own fulfilment of his Easter duties, just 
 as the Denunciator was, and the oath of silence being 
 administered to him, his Deposition closes in the same 
 way as the Denunciator's. 
 
 It is not necessary to follow in detail the evidence 
 of the Second Witness, Florido, who, when called, 
 corroborates the testimony of Martio. The witnesses, 
 it must be remembered, were very seldom examined 
 in the presence of the Accused although that course 
 might be adopted if the Inquisitor saw fit the reason 
 given being that " such a procedure is not fitting for
 
 314 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 so sacred a tribunal " (cib non si conviene a cost santo 
 Tribunate). The next step is to secure the presence 
 of the person denounced by writ of citation or caption, 
 although, if the Holy Office thought fit, he might 
 have been arrested at an earlier stage. Let us suppose 
 Beltramo taken into custody by the familiars of the 
 Inquisition, and lodged in its secret prison. In course 
 of time it was sometimes rather a long time he is 
 brought up for examination. His name and all other 
 particulars being taken down by the Notary, an oath 
 to speak the truth, and to keep the proceedings secret, 
 is administered to him. And then his interrogation 
 begins. The first question put to him is whether he 
 knows or suspects the cause of his incarceration, and 
 of the present examination. If he answers affirma- 
 tively, he is asked to explain himself further ; and if 
 he acknowledges the commission of the blasphemy 
 alleged against him, his confession is minutely recorded. 
 Then, as heretical words 1 raise a presumption of 
 heretical intention which suspicion may be light, 
 vehement, or violent Beltramo is examined about 
 his theological views ; and this examination may be 
 of the kind called rigorous, that is, under torture, 
 concerning which I shall have to speak presently. 
 If, however, Beltramo does not confess, he is solemnly 
 exhorted by the Inquisitor to speak the truth and 
 relieve his conscience ; since it does not seem probable 
 
 1 The jurisprudents of the Holy Office were strict logicians. " Evil 
 words," they held, "raise a presumption of evil premeditation'' ("Le 
 parole malamente dette, e scritte, si presumono anco malamente premedi- 
 tate. Che perci6 ben dice quel dottissimo Giurisconsulto : ' Nemo 
 credendus est dixisse quod non prius mente agitaverit ' ").
 
 vi.] Precautions 315 
 
 that witnesses would have sworn they had heard him 
 blaspheme unless they really had. He is further 
 admonished that otherwise he will be kept longer in 
 confinement, and his cause protracted, and that he 
 will be more severely punished if convicted on the 
 mere evidence of the witnesses, without his own 
 penitent confession. Should he continue obstinate 
 in his denial, he is conducted back to prison. 
 
 Special care is taken in the examination of the 
 Accused that he does not get to know who his 
 Denunciator is, or who are the witnesses against him. 
 Should he affirm that the charge has been got up 
 against him by his enemies, and should the persons 
 on whose information the Holy Office has, in fact, 
 proceeded be among those whom he specifies as such, 
 the Inquisitor and Notary are warned to be on their 
 guard against any word, act, or gesture which might 
 lead him to guess that this is so. And all his 
 demeanour while he is under examination is to be 
 carefully noted : whether he is pale, or trembles, or 
 is involved in speech, or is proud, or arrogant, or 
 angry, or disdainful. 
 
 We left Beltramo remitted to his prison. At such 
 time as the Inquisitor thinks fit, he may again be 
 brought before the Tribunal and re-examined. The 
 Inquisitor asks him whether he has more carefully 
 examined his conscience an melius cogitavit super 
 conscientiam suam and is in better dispositions to 
 speak the truth. The depositions of the Denunciator 
 and the witnesses may be read over to him, their 
 names, and all that would give a clue to them, being
 
 316 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 left out suppressis supprimendis is the technical 
 phrase and he may be significantly threatened that 
 the resources of the Holy Office are not exhausted. 
 If Beltramo still persists in his denial and we will 
 take it that he does he is sent back to prison. Or, 
 in the words of the Process, " Et cum nihil aliud ab 
 ipso posset haberi, demissum fuit examen, et ipse 
 Constitutus remissus fuit ad locum suum." 
 
 But it may be said Has the Accused no power of 
 defending himself? The Holy Office, we read in the 
 Sacred Arsenal? fully recognizes that the accused 
 person is entitled by natural right to make a defence, 
 and, should he think well to make one, will provide 
 him with an Advocate the Advocatus Reorum Sancti 
 Officii unless he prefers to choose an Advocate of 
 his own. And the Advocate is furnished with a copy 
 of the Process suppressis supprimendis. He is bound 
 over by oath to secrecy as to the cause ; he is bound 
 also, in case he thinks the Accused culpable, to urge 
 him to confess and sue for penance ; and he has to 
 walk very warily in defending his client, lest he should 
 himself incur suspicion of heresy, or render himself 
 culpable as a Fautor of Heresy. 2 Of course, nothing 
 
 1 Father Masini finds here a signal proof of the compassionateness 
 and just dealing of the Holy Office. " Tanta, e cosi segnalata e la pieta, 
 e integrita del Santo Tribunale dell' Inquisitione, che al Reo non piena- 
 mente convinto, ne confesso, non solamente non si negano avanti la 
 Tortura giammai le difese, ove egli le domandi, ma spontaneamente 
 anche gli si offeriscono." 
 
 2 Or even as a heretic. " An Advocate who tries to make out that 
 not to be heresy which is really such, must be esteemed a heretic," we 
 are told : " L' Avvocato, che piglia a defendere, non esser eresia quella 
 che veramente e eresia, deve essere stimato Eretico."
 
 vi.] An Apology for Torture 317 
 
 in the nature of cross-examination of the Denunciator 
 and witnesses against the Accused can take place. 
 The principal functions of the Advocate are to procure 
 evidence rebutting that of the Process as to the 
 alleged criminous fact corpus delicti alleged against 
 his client, and in favour of his character as a good 
 Catholic. He may also serve his client by showing 
 who are his enemies, and what their machinations and 
 threats against him have been ; and if the Denunciator 
 and the witnesses who corroborate him are among 
 these, their credit will of course be shaken, in greater 
 or less degree. 
 
 The Holy Office has for its object not only the 
 eradication of heresy, and the punishment of heretics 
 and their fautors, but also the salvation of the souls of 
 heretics. This is one reason why it attaches so much 
 importance to their confession of their heresy. And 
 if there is a sufficient case against, and the Accused 
 makes no defence or an inadequate defence, and will 
 not confess, he may be tortured in order to make him 
 confess ; the Torture being, when applied by the 
 Holy Office, "not a punishment, but a remedy for 
 getting out the truth " (non pena ma reme'dio ad 
 eruendam veritatem). The sixth part of the Sacred 
 Arsenal is devoted to the methods of interrogating in 
 torture ; and begins with an apology for that mode 
 of examination Rigorous Examination, it is termed 
 which I will translate. 
 
 If the Accused denies the offences laid to his charge, and 
 they are not fully proved, and if within the time assigned
 
 318 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 him for making his defence he has not stated anything in his 
 exculpation, or, having attempted a defence, has not in any 
 way cleared himself from the charge which results against 
 him from the Process, it is necessary, in order to have the 
 truth of it, to subject him to Rigorous Examination, the 
 Torture having been expressly devised to supplement the oral 
 testimony of the witnesses when they cannot bring complete 
 proof against the Accused. Nor is that at all inconsistent 
 with ecclesiastical mildness and benignity. Even when the 
 proof is legitimate, clear, and, as the phrase is, conclusive in 
 suo genere, the Inquisitor may, and ought, without in any 
 way incurring blame, to employ it, in order that the Accused, 
 confessing their crimes, may be converted to God, and, by 
 means of this chastisement, may save their souls. It would 
 be an unbecoming and unjust thing, repugnant to all laws, 
 human and divine, to subject any one to torments save in a 
 lawful way and upon evidence; and besides that, the con- 
 fession so obtained would be invalid and of no account, even 
 though the Accused should persist in it, 1 for we must never 
 begin with torture, but with evidence. And even if subse- 
 quently evidence should be forthcoming, such confession 
 would not be validated. But since in a matter of so great 
 importance errors may easily be committed, either to the 
 notable prejudice of justice, if crimes remain unpunished, or 
 to the most serious and irreparable loss of the Accused, the 
 Inquisitor, in order to proceed cautiously, should put before 
 the Consultors of the Holy Office the case for the accusation 
 and for the defence, and be guided by their learned and wise 
 opinion although they have only a consultative, not a 
 decisive voice. Or, if the matter be grave, let him put it 
 before the Sacred and Supreme Tribunal of the Holy and 
 Universal Roman Inquisition. 
 
 1 But if, after a considerable interval of time (doppo qualche notabile 
 intervallo di tempo), he is summoned by the Judge and questioned con- 
 cerning the confession thus wrongfully obtained, and repeats it, the 
 renewed confession will be esteemed voluntary and spontaneous (libera e 
 spontanea).
 
 vi.] The Uses of Torture. 319 
 
 The learned Inquisitor then proceeds to consider 
 the various forms of Rigorous Examination according 
 to the variety of cases which may occur in the Holy 
 Tribunal. Thus the Torture may be given merely 
 to ascertain the criminal fact sopra il fatto ; or pro 
 ulteriori veritate et super intentionem, when the Accused 
 confesses only one portion of the things laid to his 
 charge and denies heretical opinions (la mala credenza). 
 It may be given to make the Accused disclose his 
 accomplices ; it may be given to witnesses who vary, 
 vacillate, or contradict themselves, or who have extra- 
 judicially affirmed what they deny when examined by 
 the Holy Office. It might be repeated after a proper 
 interval, and, in some cases, it might be given a third 
 time. There is an interesting section of the Sacred 
 Arsenal in which the process of confronting in Torture 
 the Accused with an alleged accomplice is described 
 Modo di confrontare un Complice con /' altro Complice 
 Reo in Tortura. B., the Accused, in the course of 
 his examination, has confessed, and has named N. 
 as an accomplice. The Inquisitor orders N. to be 
 brought and confronted with B., who is then asked 
 whether, upon the oath administered to him, he is 
 ready to maintain, under Torture, if necessary, in the 
 face of N. here present, what he has laid to that 
 person's charge. If he replies affirmatively, he is 
 taken at his word, and is conducted to the Torture 
 Chamber, as is also N. Thither the Inquisitor also 
 proceeds, together with the Bishop or his Vicar, whose 
 presence is always required when the Torture is 
 administered.
 
 320 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 Then [the Process continues], in order to remove all doubt 
 which might arise concerning the person and utterances of 
 the said B. and the alleged complicity, as also all stain 
 (maculam) which might thereby attach to his person, and to 
 make a greater impression (ad magis afficienduiri) upon the 
 said N., and for every other better end and effect (ac ad 
 omnem afaim meliorem finem et effectual), and also to the effect 
 of getting from the said B. the truth concerning his intention 
 and belief, the said J udges commanded the said B. to be led 
 to the place of Torture. Who, being brought thithef, was 
 benignly admonished by the Judges, and advised to have the 
 fear of God before his eyes, and to confess the pure and 
 simple truth, and to take great care not to inculpate unduly 
 any person, because he would have to answer for that in this 
 world and in the next. 
 
 And was then tortured. 
 
 The Strappado was the Torture specially affected 
 by the Italian Inquisition. The hands of the person 
 to be tortured were fastened behind his back, and he 
 was attached by his wrists to a cord, and elevated by 
 means of a pulley almost to the roof of the Torture 
 Chamber, and was then let fall, with all the weight 
 of his body, to within a short distance of the floor. 
 Sometimes plummets were attached to his feet, to 
 increase the severity of this Torture. The Torture 
 of Fire had its admirers. It consisted in exposing 
 the feet of the Accused, well anointed with lard and 
 securely fastened, to fierce heat. But, although per- 
 suasive of confession, it was found to be very dangerous 
 (molto pericoloso), and on that account was seldom 
 used, as repugnant to the mildness and benignity of 
 an ecclesiastical tribunal. The Boot and the Thumb
 
 vi.] Nice Points 321 
 
 Screw were occasionally employed for those who were 
 medically or surgically declared to be unfit subjects 
 for the Strappado. But fancy Tortures if one may 
 so speak were disallowed. And a wise provision 
 enjoined that no Torture should be given until nine 
 or ten hours after food. Of course, all confessions 
 made under Torture would not receive equal credence. 
 If the Accused confessed things wildly improbable 
 maria et monies was the cant phrase in the Holy 
 Office l a judicious Inquisitor would receive them 
 with prudent scepticism. And any confession obtained 
 by Rigorous Examination had to be subsequently rati- 
 fied in cold blood, if the expression may be allowed. 
 Refusal to ratify would expose the recusant to a 
 repetition of the Torture. It may here be noted with 
 what pains the jurisprudents of the Holy Office 
 applied themselves to determine equitably nice points 
 which arose from time to time in their practice. 
 Take, for example, the question : "If the Judge in 
 the Tribunal of Examination not in the Torture 
 Chamber should say to the Accused, ' Confess, or 
 I will give you the Strappado,' and the Accused 
 accordingly confesses, should such a confession be 
 regarded as extorted by fear of the Strappado ? " 
 " No," answers Father Masini, " for it is a light 
 menace (e lieve territione), and seems rather a bit of 
 bragging by the Judge than anything else (e sembra 
 
 1 Because, as Father Masini wisely observes, the Accused might 
 perhaps, through the force of the torments, have confessed things which 
 he never even thought of doing : " potendo essere, che il Reo per forza 
 di tormenti habbia confessato quelle cose che non hebbe mai in pensiero 
 d' operare." 
 
 Y
 
 322 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 piu tosto una cotal giattanza del Giudice che altro), 
 always provided that the Judge is not a person of 
 terrible aspect, and accustomed to say such things 
 and to do them ; for in that case the confession should 
 be regarded as obtained by fear of torments." 
 
 But we have no time to linger over these nice- 
 ties of Inquisitorial jurisprudence, interesting and 
 important as they are. Let us return to Beltramo. 
 We left him consigned to prison a second time, on 
 his denial of the blasphemy alleged against him, with 
 a threat of further proceedings that is to say, of the 
 Torture. The threat is now to be carried out, and 
 he is to be examined on the Strappado as to the 
 alleged criminal act (sopra il fatto). He is brought 
 into the Judgment Hall, where the Inquisitor and the 
 Bishop, or the Bishop's Vicar, are seated ; the usual 
 oaths to speak the truth and to observe secrecy are 
 administered to him, and his examination begins and 
 is duly recorded by the Notary. His Advocate, it 
 should be observed, is not allowed to be present at 
 this stage of the proceedings. The interrogation is 
 now of a much simpler character, the circumlocutions 
 used in the former examinations being avoided. Let 
 us follow the graphic sketch of it given in the Sacred 
 Arsenal. 
 
 The Judges. Does it occur to you to say anything 
 further about your case ? 
 
 The Accused. No ; I have nothing more to 
 say. 
 
 The Judges. Did you blaspheme, using the words 
 Puttana di Dio ?
 
 vi.] "We shall have to torture you" 323 
 
 The Accused. I did not. 
 
 The Judges. You had better tell the truth, and at 
 last withdraw from your numerous falsehoods, for you 
 must yourself see that there is no room for denial left 
 to you. 
 
 The Accused. I have nothing more to say. 
 
 The Judges. Unless you make up your mind to 
 tell the truth, we must take further proceedings 
 against you. 
 
 The Accused. I have told the truth. 
 
 The Judges. We shall have to torture you. 
 
 Then [proceeds the Sacred Arsenal] their Lordships on 
 the Seat of Judgment (D. D. Sedentes), considering the per- 
 tinacity and obstinacy of the Accused, and having seen and 
 maturely considered the whole tenour of the Process, and all 
 and everything contained in it, perceiving that it exhibits 
 sufficient evidence why the Accused may be, and ought to 
 be, tortured (quastionibus exponi), decreed the Procurator 
 Fiscal of the Holy Office so demanding that the said 
 Accused should be tortured in order to arrive at the truth 
 concerning the alleged blasphemy, and further ordered that 
 he should be conducted to the place of torture and there 
 stripped, bound, and fastened to the rope. And while the 
 Accused, duly conducted to the place of torture, was being 
 stripped, bound and fastened to the rope, their Lordships 
 benignly and paternally admonished him at last to tell the 
 truth, and to recede from his obstinacy, and not to wait 
 until he is elevated on the rope, as he assuredly will be if 
 he persist in his obstinacy (nee expectet quod in funem ele- 
 vetur, prout elevabitur, quatenus adhuc in ejus obstinatione 
 persistaf). And seeing that he altogether refused to confess 
 the truth, they ordered the executioners to proceed, and 
 during the Torture they interrogated him from time to time 
 whether he uttered the blasphemy or not.
 
 324 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 The replies of the Accused were, of course, care- 
 fully recorded by the Notary, whose business it was 
 also as we read in the Sacred Arsenal not only to 
 note any speeches and gestures (ragionamenti e moti) 
 which he might make while on the Torture, but also 
 all his sighs, cries, laments, and tears (ami tutti i 
 sospiri, tutte le grida, tutti i lamenti, e le lagrime, che 
 manderd). As for example 
 
 Qui, sic elevatus, coepit dicere, Ohim&, Ohim&, O Sancta 
 Maria. Deinceps tacuit. 
 
 If the Accused promises to confess, the Judges order 
 him to be taken gently off the Torture and put upon 
 a wooden bench (leviter de Tortura deponi et super 
 scamno ligneo deponi], and if he fulfils his promise, his 
 confession is duly written down. If he does not fulfil 
 his promise, he is put back on the Torture. Should 
 he persist in denial, the examination concludes as 
 follows : " And since nothing more could be got from 
 him, their Lordships ordered the said prisoner to be 
 gently taken down from the Torture, to be unbound, 
 to have his arms put in joint (brachia reaptari), to 
 be reclothed and taken away to his place \_i.e. his 
 prison], after he had been on the Torture for half an 
 hour." 
 
 It should be noted that if Beltramo confessed, 
 whether in Ordinary or Rigorous Examination^ the 
 criminal fact the blasphemous words but denied 
 heretical intention in uttering them, he might be sub- 
 jected to Rigorous Examination to make him confess 
 such intention.
 
 vi.] Suspicion of Heresy 325 
 
 And now let us come to the last stage. The 
 learned author of the Sacred Arsenal enumerates 
 twelve ways in which a Process in the Holy Office 
 may be ended. It will not be necessary, for our 
 present purpose, to follow him here in detail. One 
 way, of course, is by acquittal. If it should appear 
 that the witnesses against Beltramo to return to 
 that concrete instance were false, and were animated 
 merely by deadly enmity against him, he will be 
 released. If the case against him as to the fact 
 alleged the utterance of the blasphemy is too weak 
 for a conviction, but strong enough for suspicion, 
 whether light, vehement, or violent, he may be ad- 
 mitted to Canonical Purgation. This consists in his 
 making oath of his innocence and orthodoxy, in his 
 providing unimpeachable witnesses to aver that they 
 believe him, and in his receiving Absolution from the 
 Inquisitor with the caution to be more careful in 
 future : " Sis cautior in futurum et ab iis omnibus 
 maxime abstine unde haeresis suspicio possit oriri." 
 But if it be clearly established that Beltramo did use 
 the heretically blasphemous words alleged, the case 
 will be much graver. " Heretical words," Father 
 Masini lays down, "are of such a nature and kind 
 that they induce the suspicion of heretical intention. 
 And although the Accused confessing this fact denies, 
 even in Torture, such intention, he does not clear 
 himself from suspicion of heresy, but only from formal 
 heresy : " " Sua negativa altro effeto non opera giam- 
 mai, se non ch' egli non si ha per Eretico formale." 
 The suspicion again may be light, vehement, or
 
 326 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 violent, and the sentence will vary accordingly. In 
 the first case, Abjuration, and a more or less severe 
 penance, would suffice ; in the second, seven years of 
 the galleys (servire per remigante alia Galera per sett 
 anni) is mentioned as an appropriate punishment 
 which might be added to this ; in the third, perpetual 
 imprisonment. 1 The best that Beltramo could reason- 
 ably hope for would, perhaps, be a conviction and 
 sentence de Vehementi. Dellon, in his extremely 
 interesting narrative of his own experiences of the 
 Inquisition at Goa, tells us of a case in point. " At 
 the Act of Faith I observed one who had a gag in 
 his mouth fastened to his ears with a pack-thread. I 
 learned from the reading of his Process that this 
 punishment was inflicted upon him for having used 
 divers blasphemies in play. This blasphemer, besides 
 the shame of appearing in that equipage, was more- 
 over condemned to a banishment of five years." Of 
 course Beltramo might console himself for figuring at 
 the Act of Faith in such an equipage, by the reflection 
 that he might conceivably have been condemned to 
 appear in a still more disagreeable one, namely, the 
 sanbenito of, say, a pertinacious heretic delivered over 
 to the secular arm to be burnt " all alive," as the 
 Sacred Arsenal emphatically puts it. " L' Eretico 
 pertinace, cui non havra uffitio alcuno di Christiana 
 
 1 Violent suspicion of heresy is defined as a most strong presumption, 
 called by the learned juris et de jure, which forces and constrains the 
 Judge to believe that the Accused is a heretic : " una gagliardissima 
 presuntione chiamata da i Dottori juris et de jure, che sforza et costringe 
 il Giudice a credere che il Reo sia Eretico."
 
 vi.] A Proof of Progress 327 
 
 pieta potuto indurre a convertirsi, dovra non sola- 
 mente al Braccio Secolare rilasciarsi, ma anche vivo 
 vivo abbruciarsi." 
 
 It is curious to reflect that the scene so vividly 
 pictured by the devout author of the Sacred Arsenal, 
 was of frequent occurrence during the eighteenth 
 century. 1 I suppose that it is impossible for any 
 one at this day, however inured to spectacles of 
 horror, to think without shuddering wonder of the 
 shoemaker Beltramo on the Torture, and the Judges 
 the Inquisitor and the Bishop benignly admon- 
 ishing him to confess the alleged blasphemy, or inter- 
 rogating him as to his theological intention in uttering 
 it. We realize with difficulty that we are so near an 
 era in which such things were still possible throughout 
 a not inconsiderable part of Europe. Perhaps this 
 difficulty is one of the most satisfactory proofs of the 
 real advance which European society has made since 
 " in ruins fell that outworn world," overthrown by the 
 French Revolution. I am not one of those who are 
 constantly raising paeans over the glories of this 
 enlightened age. Surely, however, the disappearance 
 from Europe for ever, as we may believe of that 
 savage jurisprudence, does indicate a progress in man 
 himself: does denote a rise in the moral level of 
 humanity : does lead us to recognize the truth that 
 the world, with whatever retrogressions, moves up- 
 wards and onwards : E pur si muove. 
 
 1 During the reign of Philip the Fifth of Spain (1700-1745), 1500 
 persons perhaps the figures are not quite trustworthy are stated to 
 have been burnt alive by the Spanish Inquisition.
 
 328 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 IV 
 
 But let us look, from the point of view of first 
 principles, at the whole question of the repression 
 of what is accounted religious error. The conception 
 of the State prevailing throughout Europe up to the 
 French Revolution was theological. It had never 
 crossed the minds of men that a State without 
 religious credenda and religious rites, binding on its 
 subjects, could exist. The very idea of a polity 
 appeared to them to involve the public profession of 
 a common faith. Religion was regarded both as 
 the greatest bond of political unity, and as the most 
 effective instrument of public morality. When the 
 vision of the seer of Patmos was realized, and 
 "the kingdoms of this world" or at all events of 
 the Western world had become "the kingdoms 
 of our Lord and of His Christ," the first note of 
 the State was Christianity. It was no idle form 
 of words when Monarchs declared themselves to 
 reign "by the grace of God:" nor did any one 
 doubt that their first duty had reference to religion. 
 "The end," writes Aquinas as we saw in the Third 
 Chapter "which the ruler should chiefly keep in 
 view, both for himself and for his subjects, is eternal 
 beatitude." All other ends of government were 
 held subordinate to that end, and of infinitely less 
 importance. 
 
 Hence the transcendent guilt which, in the days
 
 vi.] Heresy and Treason 329 
 
 of the Christian State, attached to heresy. It was 
 accounted not merely as bad as treason, but far 
 worse, since it was a rebellion against a Divine, not 
 a human, lord. And this principle was carried out to 
 its juridical consequences. Every one was bound to 
 inform against the heretic, as against the traitor. In 
 trials for heresy, as for treason, the names both of 
 accuser and witnesses might be withheld from the 
 accused, and torture might be employed to extort 
 confession. The convicted heretic, like the convicted 
 traitor, suffered not only death, but confiscation of 
 property, of which his children and heirs were likewise 
 deprived. The capital penalty, of course, was never 
 actually inflicted by the Inquisition. The heretic 
 judged to deserve that fate, was handed over to 
 the secular arm. And here it may be noted that 
 " the practice of burning the heretic alive was not the 
 creature of positive law, but arose gradually and 
 spontaneously : and its adoption by the Legislature 
 was only the recognition of a popular custom." l It 
 is certain that the procedure of the Inquisition was 
 not more severe than that of the secular tribunals 
 which, in countries where it was not established, took 
 cognizance of the same class of offences. Beltramo 
 assuredly would not have fared better in eighteenth- 
 century France than in eighteenth-century Italy. 
 This may be seen from the case of the Chevalier 
 de la Barre, who, like Beltramo, was accused of 
 heretical blasphemy. The following perfectly accurate 
 
 1 Lea's History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, vol. i, p. 222,
 
 330 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 account of the matter is given in Voltaire's Philo- 
 sophical Dictionary : 
 
 " Lorsque le Chevalier de la Barre, petit-fils d'un lieutenant 
 ge'ne'ral des arme*es, jeune homme de beaucoup d'esprit, mais 
 ayant toute I'e'tourderie d'une jeunesse effre'ne'e, fut convaincu 
 d'avoir chante" des chansons impies, et meme d'avoir passe* 
 devant une procession de capucins sans avoir 6te son chapeau, 
 les juges d'Abbeville, gens comparables aux secateurs 
 remains, ordonnerent, non-seulement qu'on lui arrachat la 
 langue, qu'on lui coupat la main, et qu'on brulat son corps 
 a petit feu ; mais qu'ils Pappliqueraient encore a la torture 
 pour savoir precise'ment combien de chansons il avait chant6s, 
 et combien de processions il avait vues passer, le chapeau sur 
 la tete. Ce n'est pas dans le treizieme ou dans le quatorzieme 
 siecle que cette aventure est arrived, c'est dans le dix- 
 huitieme." 
 
 We must agree, then, with Mr. Lea, that "the 
 Inquisition was not an organization arbitrarily devised, 
 and imposed upon the judicial system of Christendom 
 by the ambition or fanaticism of the Church : it was 
 rather a natural one may almost say an inevitable 
 evolution of the forces at work in the thirteenth 
 century." * And, of course, the men of the Middle Ages 
 found a justification for its worst severities in the 
 Sacred Scriptures. For what, indeed, have men not 
 found a justification there ? In support of the punish- 
 ment of death by fire a verse of St. John's Gospel was 
 confidently relied on : " If a man abide not in Me, he 
 is cast forth as a branch, and is withered : and men 
 gather them together, and cast them into bundles, and 
 
 1 A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, Preface.
 
 vi. J A Justification logically Sufficient 331 
 
 they are burned." It then appeared, both to the 
 rulers and the people, that the only way to extirpate 
 heresies was to extirpate heretics. And the task 
 was congenial to the spirit of those times. Hemans 
 notes that in the fourteenth century " the disposition 
 to expatiate on the horrors of eternal punishment, and 
 continually to direct the mind to the contemplation 
 of them, becomes more and more marked in the 
 range of Art, Literature, and Theology." He con- 
 jectures that " the habit of contemplating such dreadful 
 pageantries of eternal woe as art was now constantly 
 holding up to contemplation, may have confirmed the 
 temper with which heretics or supposed sorcerers were 
 hunted to death ; or the disposition to look with 
 approval if not with actual pleasure on such suffer- 
 ings as were publicly inflicted on men and women 
 accused before spiritual tribunals." And he refers to 
 "the view maintained by St. Thomas Aquinas, that 
 the joy of the blessed throughout eternity will partly 
 consist in beholding the sufferings of the damned 
 (Beati in regno ccelesti videbunt poenas damnatorum ut 
 beatitudo illis magis complaceaf]^ * 
 
 It is not necessary here to pursue further this 
 train of thought. Certain it is that when Christians 
 once obtained the power of the civil sword, they 
 proceeded to use it in defence of their faith ; and 
 that, viewing the matter as their first principles led 
 them to view it, a justification, logically sufficient, 
 may be found for them. Certain is it also that in 
 so doing they were following the most authoritative 
 
 1 Medieval Christianity and Sacred Art, p. 590.
 
 332 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 precedents of the world's history. Of the Hebrew 
 legislation against heresy it is unnecessary to speak : 
 every schoolboy is acquainted with it. But it may 
 be well to recall the fact that Plato, in his Laws, 
 uses language which, Bishop Creighton justly ob- 
 serves, "does not materially differ from that of the 
 Inquisition ; " T and that to quote Renan's graphic 
 expression "Athens had a veritable Inquisition." 2 
 We cannot too strongly impress upon our minds 
 that the principle of toleration is essentially modern. 
 It is to some extent I am far from saying altogether 
 the outcome of religious scepticism and religious 
 indifference : of the spirit which led Montaigne to 
 protest that " to roast a man alive in honour of one's 
 conjectures, is really to rate them too highly." 
 
 Such, then, is the explanation why Christianity 
 adopted penal legislation in defence of its teaching. 
 " The Catholic Church," observes Cardinal Newman, 
 " as Protestantism also, has availed herself of the 
 civil sword . . . because, in certain ages, it has 
 been the acknowledged mode of acting, the most ex- 
 peditious and open, at the time, to no objection, and 
 because, where she has done so, the people clamoured 
 for it, and did it in advance of her." 3 But what, it 
 may and should be asked, was the effect of this upon 
 Modern Civilization ? Well, so far as the medieval 
 period is concerned, it seems not too much to say that 
 the severe measures adopted against heretical pravity 
 
 1 Persecution and Tolerance, p. 7. 
 
 2 Conferences (FAngleterre, p. 26. 
 
 3 Discourses to Mixed Congregations, p. 254.
 
 vi.] Loss and Gain 333 
 
 saved the social order then existing. " The sects of 
 the Gnostics, the Cathari, and Albigenses," writes 
 Dollinger, " against whom it was necessary to wage a 
 sanguinary warfare, were the Socialists and Commu- 
 nists of the times. They attacked marriage, the family, 
 and property. Had they triumphed, the consequence 
 would have been general ruin, a return to barbarism 
 and heathen licentiousness." l Not less strongly, a 
 writer of a different school, Archbishop Trench, 
 declares that " what the triumphs of Islam were in the 
 East, such would have been the triumph of any one 
 of these sects in the West." 2 Whether the battle 
 against them might have been fought, and won, by 
 any means and weapons other than those actually 
 employed, who can say ? At all events, the battle 
 was fought and won. So much must be allowed. 
 
 And if we come to later centuries, say the seven- 
 teenth and eighteenth, it cannot be denied that in those 
 countries where the Inquisition had a free hand, so to 
 speak, such as Spain and Italy, anti-Catholic propa- 
 gandism was effectually checked. No doubt, from the 
 point of view of the Inquisitor, this was so great a 
 gain as to outweigh all loss. But the merely secular 
 historian cannot fail to observe that the loss is as 
 manifest as the gain. Nothing is more striking than 
 the intellectual torpor in which the Inquisition left 
 Spain and Italy. In religion, as elsewhere, perpetual 
 combat seems the law and the condition of vitality. 
 Is not that the moral pointed by the condition of the 
 
 1 Kirche und Ktrchen, p. 51. 
 
 2 Lectures on Medieval Church History, p. 227.
 
 334 The Inquisition [CH. 
 
 Church of England in the eighteenth century, fenced 
 in by penal enactments, accorded a monopoly of 
 political power, exposed to no struggle for existence 
 with rival communions and sunk into a mere ineffec- 
 tive system of moral police ? 
 
 The Church is in the world, and the world is in 
 the Church. During fifteen Christian centuries the 
 spiritual, like the temporal polity, acted upon the 
 principle of repression. It could not help itself. 
 Blame would be out of place. But, as a matter of fact, 
 both in the spiritual and in the temporal polity, the 
 principle of repression is played out, and the principle 
 of toleration, so slowly evolved during those long ages 
 of persecution, has taken its place. St. Bernard 
 admonished a contemporary Pope, bent on proceeding 
 against religious dissidents, " Attack them, not with 
 the sword, but with the word (Aggredere eos, sed 
 verbo non ferro)" The Saint's counsel could not be 
 acted upon in those days. It is realized, however 
 imperfectly, in our own. Who can doubt that it is 
 the " more excellent way " ? That the mind of St. 
 Bernard on this matter is most consonant with the 
 mind of Christ ?
 
 vii.] Personality 335 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 HOLY MATRIMONY 
 I 
 
 EVERY moral revolution which has taken place in the 
 world, and which has changed it, for better or for 
 worse, is the manifestation of an idea. What is the 
 idea peculiar to Modern Civilization ? Hegel replies 
 that it is the idea of human personality. " Entire 
 quarters of the globe," he tells us, " Africa and the East, 
 have never had, and do not now possess, this idea. 
 The Greeks and Romans, Plato, and Aristotle, and the 
 Stoics had it not. It came into the world through 
 Christ." This statement certainly requires modification. 
 Still certain it is that in Modern Civilization personality 
 bears a new significance, which is derived from Chris- 
 tianity. " A person is a man endowed with a civil 
 status " (civili statu prceditus), was the definition of 
 Latin jurisprudence. And this was the conception of 
 personality which Christianity found in the Roman 
 Empire, and transformed. Far other was its teaching 
 as to personality. Christianity revealed human nature 
 to itself, exhibiting man as self-conscious, self-deter- 
 mined, morally responsible ; as by his very nature
 
 336 Holy Matrimony [CH. 
 
 invested with rights inalienable and imprescriptible, 
 and encompassed with correlative duties ; as lord of 
 himself in the sacred domain of conscience, and 
 accountable there only to Him whose perpetual 
 witness conscience is. It was, in fact, a new principle 
 of individuality. The individual of the later Roman 
 jurisprudence was the citizen, just as the individual 
 among the Germanic invaders of the decadent Empire 
 was the member of the tribe. Slaves were regarded 
 as mere things. Christianity vindicated the moral and 
 spiritual freedom of men as men, proclaimed their 
 universal brotherhood as children 1 of God, and insisted 
 that before their Creator and Judge, rich and poor, 
 bond and free, meet together in the essential equiva- 
 lence of human personality. Victor Hugo's picturesque 
 saying is literally true truer even than he realized : 
 " The first Tree of Liberty was that Cross on which 
 Jesus Christ offered Himself in sacrifice for the liberty, 
 equality, and fraternity of mankind." 
 
 So much as to the root-idea of Modern Civilization: 
 the idea differentiating it from all other civilizations : 
 the idea of human personality. "Tu homo, tantum 
 nomen si te scias" " How great, O man, is the name 
 thou bearest, if thou only knewest ! " said St. Augus- 
 tine. But by this revelation of the dignity of human 
 nature I might say the sanctity, homo res sacra homini 
 the weaker half of humanity benefited far more than 
 the stronger half. The proclamation of the spiritual 
 equality of woman with man in the new order " In 
 
 1 Or "offspring" (yevos), as St. Paul puts it, in his sermon on 
 Areopagus, quoting, with approval, the striking line of Aratus.
 
 vii.] Woman in the Antique World 337 
 
 Jesus Christ there is neither male nor female " not- 
 withstanding her natural subjection to him, economi- 
 cally, brought about what may well appear the most 
 wonderful part of the great change due to the influence 
 of Christianity. The estate of woman in the Roman 
 Empire has been pithily described by one of the most 
 recent, and not the least authoritative, of its historians. 
 " She was degraded in her social condition," writes 
 Merivale, " because she was deemed unworthy of 
 moral consideration ; and her moral consideration, 
 again, sank lower and lower, precisely because her 
 social condition was so degraded." l Among the Jews, 
 at the beginning of the Christian era and we must 
 never forget that Christianity first came before the 
 world as a Jewish sect her place was no higher. 
 Divorce was practised by the Hebrews to an extent 
 unknown even in the lowest decadence of Imperial 
 Rome. The text in Deuteronomy authorizing a man 
 to put away his wife if he found in her some blemish 
 aliquant fceditatem, as the Vulgate has it was inter- 
 preted most liberally by the Rabbis. Any cause of 
 offence was sufficient, according to Hillel; for example, 
 if a woman let the broth burn : and Akiva lays it down 
 that a man might give his wife a bill of divorcement if 
 he could find a better-looking spouse. Polygamy, too, 
 was at the least tolerated, if it was not largely practised; 
 indeed, it still survives among the Jews of the East, 
 and did not disappear among those dwelling in the 
 West until the prohibitory law of Rabbi Gershom ben 
 Jehudah was passed in the Synod of Worms (A.D. 1020). 
 1 Con-version of the Northern Nations > p. 144. 
 
 Z
 
 338 Holy Matrimony [CH. 
 
 But Christianity did not merely vindicate the 
 personality of woman. It protected her personality 
 by what a learned writer has well called "the new 
 creation of marriage." There are few things in 
 history more astonishing we may say, in the strictest 
 sense, miraculous than the fact, for fact it is, that a 
 few words spoken in Syria two thousand years ago by 
 a Jewish peasant, "despised and rejected of men," 
 brought about this vast change, which has wrought so 
 much to purify and ennoble Modern Civilization. De 
 Wette remarks, with his usual judiciousness, " Christ 
 grounds wedlock on the original interdependence 
 (Zusammengekorigkeif) of the two sexes, established 
 by God, and lays it down that as one cannot exist 
 without the other, the inseparability of their union 
 should follow. This union is, indeed, the work of 
 man ; but it takes place, and ever should take place, 
 through an inner tendency (Drang), proceeding from 
 the original interdependence of the sexes, through 
 love. The separation, on the other hand, . . . [of 
 those who thus come together] takes place through 
 human arbitrariness (Willktir), or through lusts and 
 passions, which unfairly or inconsistently annul what 
 was ordained in conformity with the original law of 
 Nature." 1 
 
 This is the Magna Charta of woman in Modern 
 Civilization : this lifelong union of two equal person- 
 alities : this gift of one woman to one man as adju- 
 torium simile sibi, a help like unto him " not like to 
 
 1 Kurzgefassles exegetisches Handbuch sum Neuen Testament, vol. i. 
 
 p. 202.
 
 vii.] A New Type of Womanhood 339 
 
 like, but like to difference ; " a union, a gift, consecrated 
 by religion and made Holy Matrimony. But, I may 
 observe in passing, Christianity did even more than 
 this to secure the position of feminine humanity in 
 that new order of society which it was potently to 
 influence. Soon how soon the Catacombs bear 
 witness the type of womanhood idealized in the 
 Virgin Mother assumed a prominent place in the 
 devotions of the faithful ; and as this idea germinated 
 in the Christian consciousness, Mary received a 
 worship inferior only to that offered to her Son. The 
 conception presented by the Madonna would have 
 been foolishness to the antique Greeks, and Romans 
 too. It was a stumbling-block to the Jews, con- 
 temptuous of the daughters of her who figures so 
 poorly in the account received by them "of man's 
 first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree." 
 The Christian Church, from the earliest times, de- 
 lighted to think of Mary as " the Second Eve," who 
 had undone the work of the first, and had brought life 
 instead of death into the world, mutans Eva nomen ; 
 changing the name of the temptress into the " Ave " 
 of the angelic salutation. And when a thousand years 
 had passed away, and chivalry arose, the "all but 
 adoring love" of Christians for her, powerfully 
 stimulated the quasi-religious veneration paid in the 
 Middle Ages to the graces of feminine nature : a 
 veneration which, striking a note before unheard in 
 the world, has inspired the highest poetry of Modern 
 Civilization. Such was the influence exercised on the 
 place of her sex in the new order of society by " the
 
 34 Holy Matrimony [CH. 
 
 Mother of fair love, and fear, and knowledge, and 
 holy hope." " Born of a woman " is the true account 
 of the modern home, with its refined and elevating 
 influences. That is the characteristic specially mark- 
 ing off the Christian family from the other families 
 of the earth. It is founded on woman, not on man. 
 
 II 
 
 We must, however, remember that the conception 
 of Holy Matrimony, which was so powerfully to affect 
 Modern Civilization, was not fully and firmly estab- 
 lished for centuries. Lotze excellently observes, "The 
 relation of Christianity towards the external condition 
 of mankind, was not that of a disturbing and subversive 
 force. But it deprived evil of all justification for per- 
 manent continuance . . . when the spirit of Christian 
 faith made itself felt in the relations of life." l The 
 Church at the beginning accepted, generally, the mar- 
 riage customs prevailing in the Roman Empire. 2 The 
 Christian bride, like her Pagan sisters, wore the long 
 white robe with the purple fringe, the yellow veil, the 
 girdle which the bridegroom was to unloose. The 
 ring, the coronation still retained in the Eastern 
 Church the joining of hands, continued to beautify 
 the nuptial rite for the votaries of the new faith. But, 
 
 1 Mtcrocosmus, Book VII. c. v. 
 
 2 Mgr. Duchesne observes, " Sauf ce qui a un caractere nettement 
 religieux, surtout 1'aruspicine et les sacrifices, tout le rituel nuptial 
 remain a e'te' conserve* dans 1' usage chrdtien." Origines du Culte 
 Chretien, p. 419.
 
 vn.] A Sacrosanct Bond 341 
 
 for them, it was hallowed by a prayer of benediction, 
 offered by a bishop or priest ; and, sometimes, by the 
 Eucharistic Sacrifice. Again, the Church, like the 
 Roman legists, recognizes the essence of marriage as 
 residing in the free consent of the man and woman 
 contracting it. But, from the first, she regarded it as 
 something more than a contract as a state of life 
 divinely ordained for ends of the natural order, but 
 hallowed by a supernatural significance into an august 
 mystery of religion. And therefore she utterly re- 
 jected the view which she found prevalent in the 
 Roman Empire, that, as it had been contracted by 
 mutual consent, so by mutual consent it might be 
 dissolved. From the first she insisted upon its 
 permanency as well as upon its unity. So much is 
 absolutely certain. But was it possible for this sacro- 
 sanct bond to be dissolved in its essential character ? 
 It is quite clear that the early Church never held as 
 lawful the remarriage of either husband or wife during 
 the lifetime of either, 1 if separated for any other cause 
 than adultery. It is equally clear that on the question 
 whether, if adultery did invalidate the bond, both the 
 innocent and the guilty party, or either of them, might 
 remarry, the Church gave no certain sound for long 
 
 1 And a second marriage, after the death of husband or wife, was 
 regarded with much disfavour, as it still is in the Greek Church. Athena- 
 goras calls it " a decent adultery ; " Clement of Alexandria, " fornication." 
 St. Gregory Nazianzen, while conceding to the digamist "pardon and 
 indulgence," terms a third marriage " iniquity," and pronounces that he 
 who exceeds that number is " manifestly bestial." St. Jerome allows that 
 those who contract more than one marriage may remain in the Church, 
 but on sufferance only, and likens them to the unclean beasts in Noah's 
 ark.
 
 342 Holy Matrimony [CH. 
 
 centuries. The balance of authority among her 
 weightiest teachers is against all such remarriage. 
 But they are divided in opinion ; nay, some of the 
 greatest of them waver in their judgment, inclining 
 now to one side, now to the other. Gradually the 
 loftier and sterner view of the Christian concept was 
 apprehended in the West, and maintained by the 
 Roman Pontiffs, 1 though not till the opening Middle 
 Ages was the absolute indissolubility of marriage, 
 rightly contracted, save by the death of one of the 
 contracting parties, firmly established in the canon 
 law. It is the doctrine set forth by Gratian, whose 
 Decretum (A.D. 1140), a work of supreme authority, is 
 the basis of the Corpus Juris Canonici ; and from his 
 time to our own it has been universally accepted 
 throughout the Catholic Church. In the Greek 
 Church it has never been accepted at all. Consensual 
 divorce, indeed, the Eastern patriarchs and bishops 
 always opposed. And their opposition resulted in its 
 prohibition from the beginning of the tenth century. 
 But with this exception marriage among the Greek 
 Christians, from the time of Justinian, has always been 
 almost as easily dissoluble as among the Pagans of 
 decadent Rome. And so it is still. A wife may be 
 
 1 Even so late as A.D. 726 Pope Gregory the Second, in a letter to 
 St. Boniface it will be found in Harduin, Coll. Condi., torn. 3, p. 1858 
 while recommending that a man whose wife's health forbade conjugal 
 intercourse should not marry again, left him free to do so, provided he 
 maintained her. Gratian remarks that this concession "is altogether 
 opposed to the sacred canons ; nay, even to the Evangelical and Apostolic 
 doctrine." It is certainly opposed to the view taken by all Gregory's 
 successors in the Roman See, and, so far as we know, by all his prede- 
 cessors.
 
 vii.] Woman in the Greek Empire 343 
 
 divorced not only for adultery, but "for sharing re- 
 pasts of strange men, or visiting the baths in their 
 company ; " " for attending the circus or the theatre 
 without her husband's knowledge or against his 
 command ; " " for spending a night away from the 
 conjugal dwelling, save in her parents' house, without 
 his permission." Her facilities for divorcing her 
 husband are much less ample. It is notable that in 
 the Greek Church a married man's intercourse with 
 an unmarried woman is not accounted adultery a view 
 which admits, indeed, of plausible defence. Another 
 peculiarity of that Church, more notable still, is its 
 regarding sponsorship as a dissolvent of matrimony. 
 A husband or wife desiring divorce, has only to stand 
 as godparent to one of their children. This mode of 
 cancelling the nuptial bond is much in favour. 
 
 Nothing has been more strongly marked during 
 the last fourteen centuries of the Christian era than 
 the difference of ethos between the Christians of the 
 Roman and of the Eastern Patriarchates. In the 
 Greek Empire, society was from the first stationary or 
 decadent. There was no advance in aesthetics, in litera- 
 ture, in industrial inventions, in political conditions; 
 there was rather retrogression. Meanness and medio- 
 crity are stamped on public and private life. Hardly 
 a trace can be found of the robuster virtues, or even 
 of the robuster vices. The women least open to 
 reproach have the minds of courtesans; the men at 
 their best have the merits of casirati. The triumph 
 of the Ottoman invaders was due as much to internal 
 decay as to external defencelessness. Far otherwise
 
 344 Holy Matrimony [CH. 
 
 was it in that Christendom which the Roman Pontiffs 
 created and nurtured, and which the teaching of the 
 Latin Church informed. There we find a progressive 
 energy, a vital and spermatic force, whence resulted 
 the masterpieces of poetry and art, the progress in 
 the physical sciences, and the amelioration of political 
 institutions, which are the special glory of Modern 
 Civilization. The dominant note of Western society 
 in the Middle Ages is precisely that which is wanting 
 in Byzantine it is virility. Montalembert is amply 
 warranted when he writes, "In public life, as in private, 
 what is manifested above all things is vigour, is 
 magnanimity ; great characters, great individualities 
 abound. This we shall do well to note it is the 
 true, the incontestable superiority of the Middle 
 Ages, that it was an epoch fruitful in men : magna 
 parens virum" l Such was the manifest superiority 
 of Western society over Eastern. And who can 
 doubt that one main cause of this I do not say the 
 sole cause was the higher position which woman 
 occupied in the West, a position unquestionably rest- 
 ing on the indissolubility of marriage ? It is a true 
 saying that a man is formed at the knees of his 
 mother. The kind of men found in a social order 
 depends upon the kind of women found in it. The 
 ethos of society what Burke called "the moral basis " 
 is determined by women. And their goodness or 
 badness, as our very language bears witness, depends 
 upon their purity. That is the root of all feminine 
 virtues, and the source of a people's genuine great- 
 
 1 Les Moines cF Occident, Int. cclvi.
 
 VIL] The Bulwark of Woman's Chastity 345 
 
 ness. Renan's saying is so true as to be almost a 
 truism : " La force d'une nation c'est la pudeur de ses 
 femmes." And the great bulwark of woman's chastity 
 is the absolute character of matrimony. 
 
 Ill 
 
 We owe, then, to the severe teaching of the 
 Catholic Church that institution of indissoluble mono- 
 gamy which, more than anything else, marks off our 
 Modern Civilization from all other civilizations. It is 
 matter of history, over which we need not linger, how 
 unflinchingly the Catholic Church 1 has upheld the 
 integrity of that institution throughout the ages. Nor 
 need we examine the arguments adduced by her 
 divines in support of it. I may, however, make an 
 observation on the criticism to which one of those 
 arguments is manifestly open. Theological writers, 
 
 1 It cannot be too emphatically stated that, in the Catholic Church, 
 divorce, in the modern sense of the word the dissolution of the marriage 
 bond is never granted, and is never recognized. The common phrase, 
 "the divorce of Henry the Eighth," has given rise to much popular 
 misapprehension. It was not a divorce, as the term is now understood, 
 but a declaration of nullity, which Henry the Eighth sought, and the 
 Holy See refused. Among the many mistakes disfiguring the Report on 
 Divorce of the Convocation of York, one of the least venial is the state- 
 ment, "A few years ago Lady Mary Hamilton was divorced by the 
 Cardinals of Rome from the Prince of Monaco." What Lady Mary 
 Hamilton obtained, not from " the Cardinals of Rome," but from Leo the 
 Thirteenth, after full judicial investigation, was a sentence of the nullity 
 of her marriage with the Prince of Monaco, on the ground that it had 
 not been freely contracted by her. Metus even the reverential fear of 
 a child for a parent invalidates the nuptial contract, the essence of 
 which is the perfectly free consent of the contracting parties.
 
 346 Holy Matrimony [CH. 
 
 when maintaining that indissoluble monogamy is 
 divinely instituted and surely with reason, for it 
 issues from the divinely ordained nature of things 
 in their ethical relations have been confronted with 
 the obvious difficulty presented by the practice of 
 Hebrew patriarchs and kings, of acknowledged sanc- 
 tity, with whom they claimed solidarity. One 
 favourite expedient for meeting this difficulty is the 
 hypothesis that a divine dispensation for polygamy 
 was granted to the human race from the time of the 
 Flood, associated with that familiar figure of our child- 
 hood, the Noachian ark, and was revoked by Christ. 
 It is objected that the manner in which this stupen- 
 dous indulgence was proclaimed to mankind is not 
 disclosed, and that no explanation is given why know- 
 ledge of its summary cancellation was withheld from 
 the countless millions affected thereby. The objectors 
 do not understand that theological fictions, like legal, 
 have their proper office in certain stages of social 
 evolution, as necessary stepping-stones on which our 
 race rises to higher things. 
 
 But, as a matter of fact, the institution of marriage 
 in our Modern Civilization rests not on argument, but 
 on authority. The nations to which the Catholic 
 Church taught the doctrine of Christ did not heckle 
 their teacher ; they received her as the prophet of 
 God, and believed her on her bare word. The great 
 religious revolution of the sixteenth century is con- 
 gruously termed Protestantism. Its initiators differed 
 widely upon a great many matters. But Henry the 
 Eighth and Luther, Calvin and Zwingli, Knox and
 
 viz.] Mutilation 347 
 
 Miinzer, however varying their private judgments in 
 things theological, were all agreed in protesting 
 against the authority of the Pope, and in substituting 
 for it their own. And when the authority of the 
 Apostolic See was cast off, much of the doctrine and 
 discipline which it upheld was mutilated. The doc- 
 trine and discipline of marriage did not escape this 
 fate. In England, indeed, though the schism arose 
 from the refusal of the Sovereign Pontiff to prosti- 
 tute Holy Matrimony to the lust of a tyrant, the 
 institution itself was left intact. 1 This, it may be 
 observed in passing, was by no means due to Cranmer. 
 His own history, perhaps, sufficiently explains his 
 aversion from the Catholic doctrine of marriage. At 
 all events, it is abundantly clear that he was as willing 
 to relax the nuptial bond for the world in general, as 
 to cancel it for his master. The legislation on divorce 
 which he proposed to substitute, in the Reformat 
 Legum Ecclesiasticarum, for the Catholic law, might 
 have satisfied even Luther, one of the chief notes of 
 whose teaching was the rejection of the old canons 
 of sexual morality, or, as Heine concisely puts it, "the 
 emancipation of the flesh." Luther's mind, powerful, 
 indeed, but coarse and material in its view of all 
 things, was unattuned to the noble and lofty ideas of 
 the Catholic religion concerning the virtue of chastity, 
 virginal and marital. His own teaching on that virtue 
 
 1 In theory, but not in practice. Between the Reformation and the 
 establishment of the Divorce Court (A.D. 1857) many marriages were 
 dissolved by Act of Parliament, the Anglican bishops not protesting, and 
 in some cases expressly consenting. 
 
 \
 
 348 Holy Matrimony [CH. 
 
 may be found, by those who care to see it, clearly set 
 forth in his famous sermon, De Matrimonio a teach- 
 ing of which Dollinger justly says that " the natural 
 conscience of a mere Pagan would have rejected it 
 with horror." His practice is sufficiently indicated 
 by his " ignominious marriage," as Mozley calls it, by 
 the lubricity of his reported conversation, and by the 
 dispensation for polygamy given by him to the Land- 
 grave Philip of Hesse. 
 
 The earlier generations of the Lutheran sect appear 
 to have followed its founder's views concerning the 
 relations of the sexes haud passibus cequis. From the 
 first, indeed, it allowed divorce for adultery and mali- 
 cious desertion, as did also the sect founded by Calvin. 
 But it was not until the eighteenth century that the 
 dissolution of the matrimonial tie was accorded by 
 Protestant consistories for such reasons as "uncon- 
 geniality," "irreconcilable enmity," and the like. In 
 fact, as Protestantism developed, the pronouncements 
 of its pundits concerning the bond of marriage became 
 ever laxer. Nor was this laxity confined to its more 
 rationalistic forms. Even the greatest of the Puritans, 
 John Milton, in that masterpiece of eloquence, erudi- 
 tion, and invective, The Doctrine and Discipline of 
 Divorce, "pushes the Protestant licence," to borrow 
 the phrase of his editor, very far. The position which 
 he sets himself to establish is "that indisposition, 
 unfitness, and contrariety of mind, arising from a 
 cause in nature unchangeable, hindering and ever 
 likely to hinder the main benefits of conjugal society, 
 which are solace and peace, is a greater reason of
 
 vii.] A Great " Reform " 349 
 
 divorce than natural frigidity, especially if there be 
 no children, and that there be mutual consent." 
 
 This was, substantially, the position taken by the 
 publicists of the French Revolution the second act 
 in that great European drama which opened with 
 the Protestant Reformation. Of course, the foulness 
 which they preached in their crusade against Chris- 
 tianity, would have been rejected with horror by 
 Milton's God-fearing soul. Purity they regarded as 
 "a new disease brought into the world by Christ;" 
 modesty as " a virtue fastened on with pins ; " Holy 
 Matrimony as " a superstitious servitude." And their 
 legislation, when they obtained the power to legislate, 
 was the faithful expression of these opinions. Their 
 great " reform " was to reduce marriage to a civil 
 contract, terminable by the consent of the contracting 
 parties. Other grounds of divorce enumerated by 
 their law of 1792 were insanity, desertion, absence, 
 emigration, and incompatibility of temper on the alle- 
 gation of either husband or wife. The measure seems 
 to have been successful even beyond the expectation 
 of its authors. During the twenty-seven months 
 following its enactment, six thousand marriages were 
 dissolved in Paris alone, and in the year 1797 the 
 divorces actually outnumbered the marriages. Duval, 
 in his Souvenirs Thermidoriens, tells us 
 
 " People divorced one another with the least provocation ; 
 nay, they divorced without any provocation, and with no 
 more ado than they would have made for an expedition to 
 gather lilacs in the meadows of Saint Gervais, or to eat 
 cherries at Montmorency. The husband had a mistress, and
 
 350 Holy Matrimony [CH. 
 
 was tired of his wife ; the wife had a lover, and desired 
 nothing better than to be rid of her husband. They informed 
 one another of the state of the case, set out together for the 
 city hall, acquainted the mayor that they could no longer 
 bear each other, and on the same day, or the next, the divorce 
 was granted for incompatibility of temper. And the children 
 what became of them ? What did it matter ? The spouses 
 were free from one another ; the most important thing was 
 achieved. Moreover, it was not rare, on account of the ease 
 with which marriages could be dissolved, to find couples who 
 had been divorced five or six times in as many months. 
 Occasionally very ludicrous things happened. Once two 
 couples acted after the manner of La Fontaine's Troqueurs, 
 that is to say, they arranged an exchange of husband and 
 wife among themselves : and the two couples were on such 
 good terms that the double wedding breakfast was held at 
 their joint expense." 
 
 The Napoleonic Code somewhat curbed this 
 bestiality, and at the Restoration the Catholic doctrine 
 and discipline of marriage were reinstated in France. 
 But the Third Republic has re-enacted divorce by the 
 law of the 2yth of July, 1884, carried by the persistent 
 endeavours of M. Naquet : a measure which, though 
 going beyond the corresponding legislation in England, 
 is less licentious than the law of the First Republic. 
 
 The French Revolution is the immediate source 
 of a number of sophisms concerning man and 
 society which worked their way into popular favour 
 throughout Europe during the last century, and now 
 tyrannize as shibboleths. They are, one and all, 
 underlain by that spurious individualism which is of 
 the essence of Rousseau's teaching, and which the 
 Revolution, happily described by Burke as "an armed
 
 vii.] A False Ideal 351 
 
 doctrine," endeavoured to translate into fact. The 
 atomism, real or imaginary, of certain unstable tribes 
 in very low stages of civilization, was for Rousseau 
 the true ideal of the family. It is a false ideal ; but 
 it is the ideal which so-called Liberalism has per- 
 sistently endeavoured to realize. There can be no 
 doubt that the attack on the permanency of marriage 
 throughout Europe, which has already been crowned 
 with so much success, is an outcome of this ideal 
 an ideal essentially anarchic. When the Divorce 
 Court was established in England, that sagacious 
 publicist, Le Play whose writings, I fear, are hardly 
 known in this country saw in it "a symptom of 
 the decline of public morality ; " elle affaiblit," he 
 observed, " dans 1'esprit de la nation le principe de 
 1'ordre sup6rieur." l But, of course, what has been 
 accomplished here by the opponents of indissoluble 
 marriage, falls far short of their achievements else- 
 where. In Germany, " insuperable aversion " is 
 recognized as a ground for divorce ; so is " hopeless 
 insanity," or "malignant inconsistency," or "quarrel- 
 someness," or "a disorderly mode of life," or "drunken- 
 ness," or " extravagance." In Sweden, " hatred, ill will, 
 prodigality, drunkenness, or a violent temper," suffices. 
 The Protestants of Austria may divorce one another for 
 "violent dislike." In Switzerland, "marriage relations 
 greatly strained " are recognized as a valid reason 
 for dissolving the marriage. But in the last-mentioned 
 country a still further " reform " is desired by the party 
 of " progress," and an appeal, by way of referendum, 
 1 La Constitution de FAngleterre, vol. i. p. 193.
 
 352 Holy Matrimony [CH. 
 
 to the "yea and no of general ignorance" is con- 
 templated, with a view of legalizing divorce whenever 
 " a profound disorganization " of such relations occurs. 
 These are the fruits of the campaign against 
 Holy Matrimony carried on in Europe by those 
 who are called libres penseurs. Why they are so 
 called I do not know ; for, as has been truly said 
 of them, " ils ne pensent que peu, et point librement." 
 But it is to the United States of America that we 
 must go if we would see divorce fully rampant. The 
 causes for which it is granted vary in the different 
 States, but are summed up in the Report of the 
 Convocation of York as follows : 
 
 " Adultery is a cause in forty-six States ; desertion, in 
 forty- four States ; disappearance, in forty-two ; cruelty or 
 fear of violence, in forty ; imprisonment, in thirty-eight ; 
 drunkenness, intemperance, or habitual intoxication, in thirty- 
 seven ; impotency, in thirty-six ; failure to provide, in twenty- 
 one ; sin before marriage, in thirteen ; indignities, in seven ; 
 insanity, in five ; joining the sect of Mother Lee, in three ; 
 when divorce has been obtained in another State, in three ; 
 living apart, in two ; gross neglect of duty, in two ; guilty of 
 being a vagrant, in two ; refusal of wife to move into a State, 
 in one ; turning wife out of doors, in one ; habitual violent 
 temper, in one ; public defamation, in one ; any other cause 
 deemed sufficient by the courts, in one." 
 
 The American courts take a very liberal view of 
 cruelty. It appears that they have granted divorce 
 to a petitioning wife on this ground when her husband 
 "did not wash himself, thereby inflicting great mental 
 anguish on her ; " when " he accused her sister of 
 stealing, thereby sorely wounding her feelings ; " when,
 
 vii.] The Nonconformist Conscience 353 
 
 " after twenty-seven years of marriage, he said, ' You 
 are old and worn out ; I do not want you any longer ; ' ' 
 when "he would not cut his toe-nails, and she was 
 scratched severely every night ; " when " he persisted 
 in the use of tobacco, thereby aggravating sick head- 
 aches, to which she was subject." A petitioning 
 husband, on the other hand, has obtained from them 
 the dissolution of his marriage for such instances of 
 cruelty as the following : when " his wife pulled him 
 out of bed by the whiskers ; " when " she upbraided 
 him, and said, ' You are no man at all/ thereby 
 causing him mental suffering and anguish ; " when 
 " she refused to keep his clothes in repair, and even 
 to cook, and never sewed on his buttons ; " when " she 
 struck him a violent blow with her bustle." 
 
 Before I pass away from the subject of divorce 
 in the United States, I should observe that the 
 degradation of marriage in that country the most 
 ignoble feature of its still struggling civilization 
 is due to the prevalence there of "the dissidence of 
 Dissent and the Protestantism of the Protestant 
 religion," rather than to the direct influence of the 
 French Revolution. President Woolsey an un- 
 suspected witness in his work, Divorce and Divorce 
 Legislation^ testifies, " One thing stands out pro- 
 minently, and that is that the commonwealths 
 founded by the Puritans, and the parts of the 
 other States settled by their descendants, seem to 
 be the chief abode of divorces." This is what 
 might have been expected. The Nonconformist con- 
 science, while scandalized by what it foolishly labels 
 
 2 A
 
 354 Holy Matrimony [CH. 
 
 " State regulation of vice " that is, the action of 
 public authority to moderate and mitigate prostitution, 
 and to guard the public health against the maladies 
 propagated thereby has ever tolerated loose views 
 of the nuptial bond, and has not been shocked by 
 the legislative sanction given to them in the United 
 States. It may be noted, in passing, that eighty 
 per cent, of the divorce suits in that country are 
 brought by women, who, I suppose, are constitution- 
 ally inclined to excesses of individualism and the 
 craving for novelty. 
 
 IV 
 
 Such is the condition into which Holy Matrimony 
 has come. And the causes to which this is due 
 are yet working, and with ever-increasing activity. 
 Materialism, disguised and undisguised, is the fashion- 
 able philosophy of the day. 1 It is fatal to the idea 
 of human personality, and, consequently, to the 
 spiritual prerogatives of woman. It means for her, 
 Dean Merivale has well observed, in his striking 
 Lectures on the Conversion of the Northern Nations, 
 from which I quoted in an earlier portion of this 
 Chapter, " a fall from the consideration she now holds 
 among us." It means that she must "descend again 
 to be the mere plaything of man, the transient com- 
 panion of his leisure hours, to be held loosely, as the 
 chance gift of a capricious fortune." 
 
 1 For the proof of this statement I may refer the reader to my work 
 On Right and Wrong, and particularly to Chapter I., and to the 
 Appendix.
 
 vii.] Prognostications 355 
 
 Such transient companionship, such loose holding, 
 appear to many careful observers the substitute for 
 Holy Matrimony which will be found in the world as 
 Christianity becomes generally discredited ; a con- 
 summation which they deem imminent. To quote at 
 length even the more considerable of contemporary 
 publicists who have expressed this view, would take 
 me far beyond the limits of this Chapter. I can here 
 cite only a very few words from three of them. Mr. 
 Karl Pearson, in his learned and able work, The Ethic 
 of Free Thought, writes, " Legalized life monogamy 
 is, in human history, a thing but of yesterday ; and no 
 unprejudiced person can suppose it a final form. A 
 new sex-relationship will replace the old. Both as to 
 matter and form it ought to be a pure question of 
 taste, a simple matter of agreement between the man 
 and woman." Mr. Charles H. Pearson, in his most 
 suggestive volume, National Life and Character, 
 holds that as " the religion of the State " replaces 
 Christianity, which he thinks it is swiftly and surely 
 doing, it will be " impossible to maintain indissoluble 
 marriage," and " the tie between husband and wife *' 
 will " come to be easily variable, instead of per- 
 manent." Similarly, Mr. H. G. Wells, in his sin- 
 gularly interesting Anticipations, deems it "impossible 
 to ignore the forces making for a considerable relaxa- 
 tion of the institution of permanent monogamous 
 marriage in the coming years ; " and holds it 
 " foolish not to anticipate and prepare for a state of 
 things when not only will moral standards be shifting 
 and uncertain, admitting of physiologically sound
 
 356 Holy Matrimony [CH. 
 
 manages of very variable status, but also when vice 
 and depravity, in every form that is not absolutely 
 penal, will be practised in every grade of magnificence, 
 and condoned." 
 
 These prognostications of the return of Modern 
 Civilization to the morals of the poultry-yard seem 
 well warranted by the signs of the times. They rest, 
 indeed, upon the assumption that the revolution in 
 the relations of the sexes, steadily progressing since 
 the destruction of the religious unity of Europe, will 
 continue unchecked. Whether that assumption is 
 correct, "only the event will teach us, in its hour." 
 Of course, we must not forget that human affairs 
 seldom advance for very long in a straight line. 
 "Inest in rebus humanis quidam circulus." The future 
 rarely corresponds with the forecasts of even the 
 wisest. Still, as we look round the world, it is impos- 
 sible not to recognize the strength of the forces 
 which militate against marriage. I know well that 
 we cannot count reason among them. The human 
 reason, properly disciplined and correctly exercised, 
 is capable of ascertaining the ethical principles neces- 
 sary to enable man to arrive at his natural ideal the 
 harmonious development of all his powers in a com- 
 plete and consistent whole. And from those principles 
 is derived the true norm of matrimony so well ex- 
 pressed by the great jurisconsult of ancient Rome : 
 "Conjunctio maris et feminse et consortium omnis 
 vitse ; divini et humani juris communicatio." A state 
 of life involving the fusion of two personalities, and 
 fraught with consequences most momentous to both,
 
 vii.] Reason and Instinct 357 
 
 and to society, its unity and indissolubility issue from 
 the nature of things in their ethical relations, as I noted 
 in a former page. Such is the conclusion of reason. 
 But instinct points another way. It points to poly- 
 gamy, it points to concubinage, it points to promis- 
 cuity, for the gratification of the capricious sexual 
 appetite. And the tendency of a popular school of 
 philosophy is to ignore the very existence of reason, 
 in the proper sense of the word ; to make it, practi- 
 cally, a function of nerves and cells ; to enthrone 
 instinct in its place. But apart from that, how many 
 men are capable of following reason as the guide of 
 life ? Of using it to bring into subjection what Plato 
 called " the wild beast within us " ? For the vast 
 multitude the only effective curb of instinct is religion. 
 And what are the religions of the world doing ? 
 what is Christianity, even, doing, in all its types 
 and travesties to meet the passionate attacks upon 
 Holy Matrimony ? Attacks made everywhere and 
 in every form, from the scientific treatise to the silly 
 tale, from the philosophical prelection to the problem- 
 play. We have seen, in the foregoing pages, the heavy 
 indictment which in this matter lies against the Eastern 
 Church and against Protestantism generally. In the 
 Anglican Communion, no doubt, there are many men 
 of good will who view with dismay the contemporary 
 assault upon marriage, the growing derogation from 
 its strictness, the increasing decline in the moral tone 
 of women, and consequently of society. But what 
 can they effect in a Church divided against itself, 
 where bishop differs from bishop, and provincial synod
 
 358 Holy Matrimony [CH. vn. 
 
 contradicts provincial synod, upon this grave subject ? 
 A Church which is a mere multitude of individuals, 
 for every one of whom his own private judgment, or 
 inclination, is the ultimate arbiter of faith and morals ? 
 A Church " set up," as Cardinal Newman said, " in an 
 Act of Parliament," and the puppet of a Parliamentary 
 majority, whose ministers are bound to adapt them- 
 selves to the law of the land, and the decisions of its 
 tribunals concerning marriage, as concerning all 
 matters of doctrine and discipline ? The only real 
 witness in the world for the absolute character of Holy 
 Matrimony is the Catholic Church. And whether 
 men will hear, or whether they will forbear, she warns 
 them that to degrade indissoluble marriage to a mere 
 dissoluble contract, to a mere regulation of social 
 police, to a mere material fact governed by the animal, 
 not the rational nature, will be to throw back Modern 
 Civilization to that wallowing in the mire from which 
 she rescued it.
 
 Ind 
 
 ex 
 
 Acts of the Apostles, historical value of, 
 
 57,65 
 
 question of the date of, 63-65 
 Adam of St. Victor, his hymns, 255, 
 
 260-267 
 
 Agatha, St., her martyrdom, 97 
 Agape, the, originally joined with the 
 
 Eucharist, 58 
 definitively separated from the 
 
 Eucharist, 84 
 Agnes, St., fascination of her story, 
 
 263-267 
 Aime de Monte Casino, his description 
 
 of Pope St. Leo IX., 190 
 Akika, on divorce, 337 
 Albigenses, the, incident in the crusade 
 
 against, 18 
 their doctrines, 333 
 Albigensian Crusade, the, 298, 299 
 Allegorical method, the, 77, 270 
 Alms, the Christian view of, 160 
 Altar, meaning of the word in Heb. 
 
 xiii., 84 
 
 the earliest Christian, 113 
 in the third century, 113 
 Ambrose, St., excommunicates the 
 
 Emperor Theodosius, 129 
 on alms, 1 60 
 
 on the episcopal ring, 213 
 his hymns, 252, 253 
 Ampere, on the rise of modern poetical 
 forms, 254 
 
 Anathema, the bond of, 83, 221, 297 
 Animals, the lower, test of progress in, 
 
 IS 
 live under the law of instinct only, 
 
 48 
 Anthony of Egypt, St., one of the 
 
 founders of monasticism, 106 
 effect of his ascetic life on St. 
 
 Augustine, 140 
 Antioch, the place of the baptism of 
 
 Christianity, 71 
 its importance in the early history 
 
 of the Christian Church, 72 
 Aquinas, St. Thomas, on the chief 
 object of the civil ruler, 157, 328 
 the source of his intellectual light, 
 
 1 60 
 
 his poetry, 255, 259 
 on an element in the joy of the 
 
 blessed, 331 
 Aristotle, on man, 47 
 
 his (jieya\fyvxos, 145 
 his opinion of woman, 156 
 Art, medieval, its ideal, 161 
 
 its realism, 292 
 
 Artemonites, the, Renan on, 125 
 Astronomers, lift the veil of ages, 4 
 Athenagoras, on a second marriage, 341 
 Augustine, St., his philosophy of his- 
 tory, 7, II, 152-154 
 on the end of man, 25 
 on the term Father as applied to 
 
 God, 54 
 apparently the first to prescribe a
 
 3 6 
 
 Index 
 
 Augustine, St. continued. 
 
 rule of life for religious women, 
 
 1 06 
 on the authority of the Roman See, 
 
 122 
 
 a representative man, 131 
 sketch of his life, 132-134 
 sketch of his times, 134-137 
 his spiritual history, 137-145 
 on the ascent of the mind to That 
 
 WJiich Is, 138 
 
 on the life of the senses, 147 
 parallel between his doctrine and 
 
 Gotama's, 147 
 on the life of Christ, 148 
 his City of God, 152-154, 162, 163 
 recognizes Roman jurisprudence 
 
 as a divine creation, 153 
 on the natural equality of men, 236 
 greatly influenced by the hymns of 
 
 St. Ambrose, 252 
 on the cult of Saints, 287 
 on the two principles for the guid- 
 ance of life, 289 
 Austria, divorce among the Protestants 
 
 of, 351 
 
 E 
 
 Baptism, in the Apostolic Age, 58, 84 
 in the Age of the Martyrs, 117 
 
 Barre, the Chevalier de la, Voltaire's 
 account of his punishment, 330 
 
 Barry, Dr. William, on the part played 
 by the Roman laity and the Ger- 
 man Caesar in Papal elections, 
 
 195 
 
 Baur, on St. Paul's Epistles, 66 
 
 Benedict VIII., Pope, some account 
 of, 177 
 
 Benedict IX., Pope, some account of, 
 178 
 
 Biran, Maine de, on the distinctive 
 characteristic of Christian philo- 
 sophy, 150 
 
 Bishop, meaning of the term in the 
 
 New Testament, 86 
 in St. Clement's Epistle, 118 
 in the Epistles of St. Ignatius, 118 
 specialization of the term at the be- 
 ginning of the second century, 
 118 
 what a bishop was in the Age of 
 
 the Martyrs, 126 
 an inquisitor ex vi termini within 
 
 his diocese, 299 
 Bishopesses, 179 
 Boissier, on the position of woman in 
 
 the second century, 156 
 Bossuet, his philosophy of history, 7, 1 1 
 on the ancient meaning of liberty, 
 
 167 
 Bowden, an error of, corrected, 197 
 
 on lay investiture, 212-214 
 Brentano, Dr., on medieval guilds, 158 
 Bruno, his account of Christendom in 
 
 1048, 178 
 authoritative character of his work, 
 
 189 
 
 Bryce, Mr. on lay investiture, 210 
 Buckle, his philosophy of history, 7 
 his defects, 8 
 on the Jews, 12 
 
 Bunsen, his philosophy of history, 42 
 Butler, Bishop, on the law of virtue, 26 
 
 on conscience, 44 
 
 Butler, Samuel, on personal identity, 
 31-32 
 
 Caesarism, is unchristian, 160 
 what it really was, 164 
 crushed out by the Christian 
 
 Church, 165 
 Canon law, the, 242 
 Canon of the New Testament, the, 
 
 formation of, 107-110 
 Canonical Purgation, an account of, 
 
 325 
 Canossa, St. Gregory VII. at, 226-229
 
 Index 
 
 361 
 
 Carlyle, on great men, 39 
 
 versus Mr. Herbert Spencer, 43 
 
 his conception of God, 43 
 
 his doctrine of great men defective, 
 
 43 
 
 on Goethe, 44 
 Carmen irrisorium, a specimen of a 
 
 medieval, 272 
 Cassian, on the origin of monasticism, 
 
 1 06 
 
 Cathari, the, their doctrines, 333 
 Categorical imperative, the, 44, 45 
 Cato, his view of slavery, 16 
 
 on the paterfamilias, 155 
 Celibacy, religious, high estimate of, 
 
 in Apostolic Christianity, 8 1 
 in the Age of the Martyrs, 105-107 
 Celibacy, sacerdotal, a necessary 
 
 element in Catholicism, 204 
 Cenci, his plot, 216-219 
 Charles the Great, much influenced by 
 St. Augustine's City of God, 163 
 his coronation, 163, 246 
 his polity, 163, 166 
 Chemists, lift the veil of ages, 4 
 CHRIST. See JESUS CHRIST 
 Christendom, its law, 157 
 
 its superiority to previous social 
 
 organizations, 159 
 the source of its greatness, 161 
 its growth, 170 
 its condition in 1048, 178 
 Christianity, a doctrine of progress, 23 
 in its earliest epoch, 50-87 
 three phases in that epoch, 50, 51 
 the first phase, 51-56 
 the second phase, 57-71 
 St. Paul's work for, 62 
 the third phase, 72-87 
 development of, in the Age of the 
 
 Martyrs, 88-130 
 proclaimed the religion of the 
 
 Roman Empire, 129 
 how far spread in the first three 
 centuries beyond the Roman 
 Empire, 129 
 
 Christianity continued. 
 
 was a calling out of the world and 
 
 into a spiritual polity, 151 
 its view of political power, 160 
 its view of property, 160 
 its central idea, 161 
 recasts the Theistic conception of 
 
 the Hebrews, 285 
 centres round the Eucharistic 
 
 Sacrifice, 287 
 
 its work for woman, 336-340 
 Christian Revolution, the, as exhibited 
 
 by St. Augustine, 131-161 
 its work on the individual, 134-149 
 its work on society, 149-161 
 Church, Dean, on the medieval hymns 
 
 of Catholicism, 245 
 on the letters of St. Anselm, 289 
 Church of England, the moral pointed 
 
 by its condition in the eighteenth 
 
 century, 334 
 and Holy Matrimony, 347, 357- 
 
 358 
 Church, the Christian, the Nascent, 
 
 47-87 
 
 formation of, 51-71 
 genuineness of the oldest literature 
 
 of, 66 
 
 its first language, 72 
 first great note of the Primitive, 
 
 So 
 
 organization of the Primitive, 82 
 worship in the Primitive, 84-85 
 polity of the Primitive, 85-87 
 its conflict with the Roman Empire, 
 
 93-98 
 
 is the expanded Gospel, 99 
 development of its dogmas, 99-104 
 growth of its religious orders, 
 
 105-107 
 formation of its scripture canon, 
 
 107-110 
 
 development of its ritual, 110-117 
 
 of its polity, 117-128 
 
 its employment of the civil sword, 
 
 298-334
 
 362 
 
 Index 
 
 Church, the Greek, its total loss of 
 
 freedom, 235 
 divorce in the, 342-343 
 Cicero, on hostis and peregrinus, 171 
 Circumstances, the force of, another 
 
 name for eternal law, 27 
 City of God, St. Augustine's, II, 22, 
 
 152-154, 162, 163 
 Civilization, its elements, 26 
 
 progressive and conservative prin- 
 ciple of, 29 
 
 what the word means, 47 
 is man's natural state, 47 
 on what it rests, 49 
 Modern, 49 
 Mill on the word, 159 
 influence of woman on, 339, 344 
 Clement, St., called by St. Irenseus an 
 
 Apostle, 87 
 mentions the martyrdom of SS. 
 
 Peter and Paul in Rome, 91 
 meaning of the term bishop in his 
 
 Efts tie, 118 
 
 recognizes a threefold ministry, 1 19 
 uses language like that of a 
 
 modern Pope, I2O, 124 
 one of the great figures of nascent 
 
 Christianity, 121 
 Clement of Alexandria, on second 
 
 marriages, 341 
 
 Cnut, his consolidating work, 181 
 Cobden, his "calico millennium," 24 
 Comte, his philosophy of history, 7 
 Concubinage, how viewed in St. 
 
 Augustine's time, 132 
 prospect of the degradation of Holy 
 
 Matrimony to, 354-358 
 Concubines of priests, their position in 
 
 the Middle Ages, 207-208 
 Concupiscence, installed by the French 
 Revolutionists in the place of 
 conscience, 28 
 what the word means, 148 
 Concelebration, 113 
 Confession, sacramental, its antiquity, 
 117 
 
 Confessions of St. Augustine, the im- 
 portance of, 134 
 
 his account of himself in, 134-149 
 Conscience, supremacy of, proclaimed 
 
 by Christianity, 17, 42, 336 
 liberty of. See Liberty 
 Consciousness, the ultimate court of 
 
 appeal, 37 
 Coulanges, Fustel de, his Cite Antique 
 
 referred to, 28 
 Cranmer, his proposed legislation on 
 
 divorce, 347 
 his aversion from the Catholic 
 
 doctrine of marriage, 347 
 Creighton, Bishop, on intolerance in 
 
 the early Church, 84 
 on Plato's intolerance, 332 
 Criticism, the higher, 64, 66, 108, 293 
 
 and tradition, 68 
 Cromwell, Oliver, analogy between his 
 
 style and St. Paul's, 77 
 Cross, the sign of the, antiquity of its 
 use, 117 
 
 D 
 
 Damiani, St. Peter, on St. Odilo's 
 prescience of Hildebrand's 
 greatness, 185 
 sent to reform the Church of 
 
 Milan, 201 
 
 on clerical marriage, 207, 208 
 his poetical compositions, 268 
 Daniel, on the Dies Ira, 259 
 
 on the poetry of St. Thomas 
 
 Aquinas, 259 
 on a medieval carmen irrisorittm, 
 
 272 
 Dante, the source of his inspiration, 160 
 
 on St. Gregory VII., 184 
 Davidson, Dr., on the date of the fourth 
 
 Gospel, 109 
 on the settlement of the New 
 
 Testament canon, no 
 Deacons, institution of, 60-61
 
 Index 
 
 3 6 3 
 
 Deaconesses, in the Primitive Church, 
 
 81 
 Deities, heathen, regarded by Christians 
 
 as demons, 176, 287 
 Deity, progress in the idea of, 18 
 Dellon on the proceedings of the 
 
 Inquisition at Goa, 326 
 Democracy, traditions of, kept alive by 
 
 Christianity, 157, 171 
 Deposing Power, the, 238 
 Deuteronomy, the text in, authorizing 
 
 divorce, 337 
 Didache, the, date assigned to, by M. 
 
 Sabatier, in 
 Dies Ira:, the, 259 
 
 Discourse on Universal History, Bos- 
 suet's, 7, ii 
 Divorce, in the Roman Empire, 337, 
 
 341 
 
 among the Jews, 337 
 not permitted in the Catholic 
 
 Church, 340-342, 345 
 in the Greek Church, 342, 343 
 in England, 347, 351 
 among Lutherans and Calvinists, 
 
 348 
 
 Milton on, 348 
 in France, 349-350 
 and the French Revolution, 350 
 in Germany, 351 
 in Sweden, 351 
 among the Protestants of Austria, 
 
 3SI 
 
 in Switzerland, 351 
 in the United States of America, 
 
 352-354 
 Dollinger, on St. Peter's labours in 
 
 Rome, 68 
 on the names of ecclesiastical 
 
 offices in the New Testament, 86 
 on the heretical sects of the Middle 
 
 Ages, 333 
 Duchesne, Mgr., on the germ of 
 
 Christian asceticism, 8l 
 on St. Peter's Roman Pontificate, 
 
 90 
 
 Duchesne continued. 
 
 on the ecclesiastical virgins, 106 
 
 on the Christian Sunday, in 
 
 on the elements of Christian 
 
 worship borrowed from the 
 
 synagogue, 113 
 on immersion in baptism, 117 
 on Rome as the metropolis of the 
 
 Church, 120 
 on the Roman Church as the 
 
 centre and organ of unity, 127 
 Duval, or divorce in the first French 
 
 Republic, 349 
 
 Earth, the, what it is, 4 
 
 not the centre of the universe, 5 
 Ecclesia, what the word means, 80 
 Elders, in the Primitive Church, what 
 
 they were, 86 
 Emperor, the Roman, his apotheosis, 
 
 164 
 
 Empire, the Roman, antagonism be- 
 tween it and Christianity, 93-98 
 Enthusiasm, 241 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, the, its peculiar 
 
 value, 67 
 
 Ethics, primary truths of, 10 
 root of, 15 
 evolution of, 15-16 
 source of authority of, 16 
 vivified by religion, 17 
 work of Christianity in the sphere 
 
 of, 17 
 Eucharist, the, in the Primitive Church, 
 
 58,85 
 
 in the Age of the Martyrs, 1 10-1 16 
 always the centre of Christianity, 
 
 287 
 
 Europe, political condition of, as the 
 
 eleventh century opens, 181-184 
 
 Eusebius, on the Egyptian Martyrs, 
 
 98 
 
 compiles a New Testament canon, 
 
 no
 
 3 6 4 
 
 Index 
 
 Evolution, the universal law, 12, 14 
 of Christian dogma, 99-104 
 of the religious life, 105-107 
 of the New Testament, 107-110 
 of the Church's ritual, 110-117 
 of the ecclesiastical organization of 
 Christianity, 117-127 
 
 Excommunication, what it was in the 
 
 Primitive Church, 83, 297 
 civil effects of, 221 
 
 Facts of history, few and fragmentary, 2 
 general, stand out clearly, 3 
 what philosophy is to be their out- 
 come ? 6 
 
 Faith, the Pauline doctrine of, 76, 79 
 medieval, 224, 278, 290-292 
 what it rests on, 295 
 False Decretals, the, early counterfeits 
 
 of, 125 
 true in substance though false in 
 
 form, 174 
 Family, the, was the unit of ancient 
 
 society, 155 
 work of Christianity for, 156, 338- 
 
 340 
 
 modern attacks on, 347-358 
 Fatalism, the key to ancient religions 
 
 and philosophies, 282 
 Father, the term seldom applied to God 
 
 in the Old Testament, 54 
 Fenelon, his "affaire unique," 142 
 Ferrerius, Zacharias, a specimen of his 
 "nova politissimaque carmina," 
 276 
 Festus, on the Priest of Jupiter Capi- 
 
 tolinus, 151 
 Feudalism, rise of, 1 66 
 its character, 167-172 
 invades the Church, 174-179 
 Fra Angelico in verse, 273 
 France, present degeneration of, 28 
 growth of, 182 
 divorce in, 349-350 
 
 Fulbert of Chartres, St., on warrior 
 prelates, 179 
 
 Germany, divorce in, 351 
 
 Gershom ben Jehudah, Rabbi, his law 
 prohibiting polygamy, 337 
 
 Glossolaly, traces of, found as late as 
 the third century, 83 
 
 Gnostics, their doctrines, 333 
 
 GOD, popular conceptions of, 1 8 
 what the word implies, 24, 280 
 idea of, the progressive and con- 
 servative principle of civilization, 
 29 
 
 Carlyle's conception of, 43 
 the Hebrew conception of, recast 
 by Christianity, 285 
 
 Gospel, the, preached by the disciples 
 of Christ, what it was, 56 
 
 Gospels, the, do not incorporate a 
 somewhat worn tradition, 53 
 origin of, according to "the 
 higher criticism," 108 
 
 Gotama, an Apostle of the moral law, 
 
 17 
 
 parallel between his doctrine and 
 
 St. Augustine's, 147 
 in what sense a fanatic, 243 
 Gratian sets forth the doctrine of 
 
 the absolute indissolubility of 
 
 marriage, 342 
 Greek Empire, the, society stationary or 
 
 decadent in, 343 
 Gregory VII., Pope St., specializes 
 
 the designation Pope as a title 
 
 reserved exclusively for the 
 
 Bishops of Rome, 122 
 his pontificate the turning-point of 
 
 the Middle Ages, 1 80, 184 
 his birth (about 1013) and early 
 
 training at St. Mary on the 
 
 Aventine, 184 
 migrates to Clugny, 185
 
 Index 
 
 365 
 
 Gregory VII. continued. 
 
 St. Odilo predicts him future great- 
 ness, 185 
 
 effect of his preaching on the 
 Emperor Henry III., 186 
 
 is appointed Chaplain to Gregory 
 VI. (1044), 186 
 
 follows that Pontiff, after his de- 
 position, to Germany, 187 
 
 returns to Clugny (1046), and is 
 elected prior, 187 
 
 is carried by St. Leo IX. to Rome, 
 189 
 
 is shortly raised to the Cardinalate 
 and made Archdeacon of the 
 Roman Church, 191 
 
 his work under St. Leo IX. and 
 the four preceding Pontiffs, 191- 
 192 
 
 vindicates the freedom of Papal 
 elections, 193-195 
 
 is elected Pope (1073), 196-198 
 
 his thoughts upon his election, 
 198, 199 
 
 his decrees against simony and 
 clerical incontinence (1074), 202 
 
 resistance to his decrees, 203-204 
 
 falls seriously ill, 209 
 
 his thoughts on his convalescence, 
 209 
 
 prohibits lay investiture, 210-215 
 
 is seized and imprisoned by Cenci 
 (1075), 215-219 
 
 is deposed by a pretended council 
 summoned by the Emperor-Elect, 
 Henry IV., at Worms (Jan. 23, 
 1076), 220 
 
 excommunicates and deposes 
 Henry IV., 221 
 
 sets out for Germany to judge the 
 cause of Henry IV. and the 
 German princes, but turns aside 
 to Canossa, where that mon- 
 arch presents himself and is 
 conditionally absolved (1077), 
 225 
 
 Gregory VII. continued. 
 
 again excommunicates Henry IV. 
 for non-fulfilment of promises 
 (1080), 230 
 
 is shut up in the castle of St. 
 Angelo on the capture of the 
 Leonine city by Henry IV. 
 (1083), 232 
 
 delivered thence by Guiscard, Duke 
 of Calabria, and proceeds to 
 Salerno (1084), 232 
 dies there (May 25, 1085), 233 
 debt of the modern world to, 234- 
 
 237 
 his assertion of the deposing power, 
 
 238-241 
 
 his "fanaticism," 241-243 
 Gregory VI., Pope, obtains the Papacy, 
 
 178 
 
 his deposition, 186, 187 
 Gregory the Second, Pope, singular 
 concession of, concerning di- 
 vorce, 342 
 Gregory Nazianzen, St., on second and 
 
 third marriages, 341 
 Grote, on the personification by the 
 Greeks of the powers of nature, 
 282 
 
 Guizot, on the idea of the Catholic 
 Church, 172 
 
 H 
 
 Happiness, Benthamite sense of, 20 
 Harnack, on the date of the Acts of the 
 
 Apostles ; 64 
 on the trustworthiness of the oldest 
 
 Christian literature, 66 
 on the date of the Gospel of St. 
 
 John, 109 
 
 Hartmann, on progress, 25 
 Hegel, his philosophy of history, 7 
 
 on personality, 335 
 
 Hemans, on Primitive worship, 1 14-1 16 
 on the re-establishment of the 
 Western Empire, 163
 
 366 
 
 Index 
 
 Hemans continued. 
 
 on the cruel temper of the four- 
 teenth century, 331 
 
 Henry IV., Emperor-Elect, his pre- 
 tensions not new, 2IO 
 
 his simony, 211 
 
 his plot to seize St. Gregory VII., 
 215-219 
 
 throws off the mask, 220 
 
 at Canossa, 226-229 
 
 his invasion of the Pontifical terri- 
 tory, 231 
 
 his coronation by the anti-pope 
 
 Guibert, 232 
 
 Henry VIII., the common phrase con- 
 cerning his "divorce" mislead- 
 ing. 345 
 
 Heresy, how dealt with in the early 
 Church, 83, 297 
 
 very early accounted a crime by 
 the Christian States, 298 
 
 first instance of capital punishment 
 for, 298 
 
 repressed by the civil sword from 
 the fourth to the thirteenth 
 centuries, 298 
 
 Papal Inquisition founded for the 
 repression of, 299 
 
 varieties of, 305 
 
 reason of the transcendent guilt 
 attached to, by the Christian 
 State, 329 
 
 scriptural justification cited for its 
 punishment, 330 
 
 social danger of, in the Middle 
 
 Ages, 332-333 
 
 Hergenrb'ther, Cardinal, on the loss of 
 ecclesiastical freedom by the 
 Church of the Greeks, 235 
 
 on tributary and vassal kingdoms 
 
 of the Holy See, 241 
 Hierarchy, the, rudiments of, 119 
 
 its development, 119-128 
 Hilary, St., his hymns, 253 
 Hildebrand. See Gregory VII. 
 Hillel, on divorce, 337 
 
 History, how viewed by Goethe, I 
 by Napoleon, 3 
 
 materials for the philosophy of, 3 
 unconscious, value of, 3 
 brings us to the noumenal, 5 
 philosophies of, 6, 7 
 facts of, taken by themselves, what 
 
 they point to, 9 
 teaches progress, 12, 24-25, 34 
 reveals God under the attribute of 
 
 Retributive Justice, 27, 29, 30 
 "HoLY GHOST," vague employment 
 of the term in the early Church, 
 101 
 
 Holy water, antiquity of its use, 117 
 Hugo, Victor, on the first tree of 
 liberty, 336 
 
 Ignatius, St., his testimony to the 
 
 teaching of SS. Peter and Paul 
 
 in Rome, 91 
 
 on the prospect of his own martyr- 
 dom, 97 
 pronounced ecclesiasticism of his 
 
 Seven Epistles, 118 
 on episcopacy, 118 
 Individual, the, evolution of, 14 
 
 Jacobine doctrine of the sovereignty 
 
 of, M. Renan upon, 33 
 recreated by Christianity, 155, 336 
 Individuality, Christianity introduces 
 
 a new principle of, 336 
 in the antique and in the modern 
 
 world, 336 
 Innocent I., Pope, on the supremacy of 
 
 the Roman See, 127-128 
 Inquisition, first step towards an, in 
 
 St. Paul's denunciation of false 
 
 teaching, 84 
 the episcopal, 299 
 the Papal, establishment of, 299 
 long career of the, 300 
 re-establishment of the, in the 
 
 nineteenth century, 300
 
 Index 
 
 Inquisition continued. 
 last phase of the, 300 
 Sacred Congregation of the, 303 
 procedure of the, 306-327 
 effect of the, in the Middle Ages, 
 
 333 
 
 the, in the seventeenth and eigh- 
 teenth centuries, 333 
 Inquisitor, name first found in an edict 
 
 of Theodosius I., 298 
 the Bishop ex vi termini an, 299 
 Father Masini on the dignity of 
 
 an, 303, 304 
 
 an, on the judgment seat, 307-313 
 Instinct and marriage, 357 
 Investiture, lay, the question of, 210- 
 
 215 
 Ireland, heavy penalty still due for 
 
 English oppression of, 34 
 Irenaeus, St., his account of the origin 
 of the Gospels of St. Mark and 
 St. Luke, 108 
 on the position of the Roman See, 
 
 121, 122 
 Isidore, the pseudo, 174 
 
 James, St., his Epistle, 78 
 
 his character, 78, 79 
 Jerome, St., on second marriages, 341 
 Johannine Gospel, the, its date, 109 
 Johannine writings, the, their charac- 
 ter, 79-80 
 
 John XII., Pope, his character, 176 
 John X., Pope, his character, 176 
 John XIX., some account of, 177 
 JESUS CHRIST, what is incontestable 
 
 about Him, 51 
 sources of evidence as to His 
 
 teaching, 51-53 
 essential character of His teaching, 
 
 53-56 
 
 the spread of Christianity His 
 personal victory, 97-98, 130 
 
 JESUS CHRIST continued. 
 
 is the supreme example of de- 
 tachment and self-denial, 105, 
 MS 
 
 His life a system of moral dis- 
 cipline, 149 
 as Inquisitor, 304 
 Justice, definition of, by the ancient 
 
 jurists, 15 
 
 Justin Martyr, SL, seems to have 
 thought the Acts of Pilate and 
 the Gospel of the Hebrews in- 
 spired, 109 
 his account of the Eucharist, in- 
 
 "3 
 
 Justinian, his account of the Imperial 
 power, 164 
 
 K. 
 
 Kant, his philosophy of history, 7 
 
 on the springs of purpose and 
 
 action, 17 
 
 his message to the twentieth cen- 
 tury, 45 
 on man as a rational animal, 
 
 48 
 Knowledge, limits of our, 4, 6 
 
 Lambert of Aschaffenberg, on Henry 
 
 IV.'s simony, 21 1 
 his explanation of Henry IV. 
 eager desire for absolution, 227 
 Lanfranc, Archbishop, on Papal acts, 
 
 203 
 
 Latin, " low," 247 
 Lea, Mr., on the celibacy of the clergy, 
 
 204 
 on the origin of the practice of 
 
 burning heretics, 329 
 on the origin of the Inquisition, 
 330
 
 3 68 
 
 Index 
 
 Lecky, Mr., on clerical marriages, 208 
 on the civil consequences of ex- 
 communication, 221 
 Leibnitz, on the universal order, 
 
 14 
 
 La Mennais, on the development of 
 
 Christianity, 87 
 Leo IX., St., his elevation to the 
 
 Popedom, 1 88 
 
 his attachment to Hildebrand, 189 
 description of, 190 
 Liberty, what it meant among the 
 
 Romans and the Greeks, 167 
 the foundation of modern, 236 
 Liberty of conscience, the principle 
 for which Gregory VII. fought, 
 
 237 
 
 proclaimed by Christianity, 334 
 Libres Penseurs, absurdity of the term, 
 
 352 
 
 Life, Pagan and Christian, views of, 
 287-291 
 
 Littre, his philosophy of history, 7 
 
 on the greatness of the medieval 
 
 period, 159 
 
 his definition of positive philo- 
 sophy, 1 66 
 
 Liturgies in the Nascent Church, 85 
 in the Age of the Martyrs, 116 
 
 Livings, traffic in, in the eleventh cen- 
 tury, 211 
 
 Lotze, on the relation of Christianity 
 towards the external condition 
 of mankind, 340 
 
 Love, the passion of, work of Chris- 
 tianity on, 156 
 
 Luther, Martin, his misinterpretation 
 
 of St. Paul's teaching, 78 
 and the virtue of chastity, 347 
 
 M 
 
 Mabillon on the Popes of the tenth 
 
 century, 175 
 Macrocosm, the, must be judged in 
 
 the light of the microcosm, 10 
 
 Maine, Sir Henry, his account of the 
 antique family, 155 
 on the feudal system, 168 
 Maistre de, on the earth as an altar 
 
 crying for blood, 21 
 Man, his nothingness, 4 
 
 seeks himself everywhere, 8 
 his progress, 14, 15, 23-25 
 primeval, 26, 29 
 his trial, 35 
 
 a gregarious animal, 48 
 and other animals : essential differ- 
 ence between, 48 
 Marriage, new creation of, 338 
 
 on what grounded by Christ, 338 
 customs, Christian, origin of, 340 
 essence of, 341, 345 
 is something more than a contract 
 
 in Christianity, 341 
 its unity and permanency always 
 
 insisted on by the Catholic 
 
 Church, 341 
 a second, regarded with disfavour 
 
 in the early Church, 341 
 in the Greek Church, 342-343 
 its absolute indissolubility taught 
 
 by the Catholic Church, 342, 345 
 how dealt with by Protestantism, 
 
 347-349 
 and by the French Revolution, 
 
 349. 350 
 attacks on the permanency of, 
 
 throughout Europe, 35 1 
 and in the United States of 
 
 America, 352, 353 
 present prospects of, 354-358 
 true norm of, derivable from 
 
 reason, 356 
 Martyrs, the early Christian, 93-98 
 
 antiquity of the cultus of, 102-103 
 Mary, the Blessed Virgin, her cultus 
 
 in the Age of the Martyrs, 104 
 growth of devotion to, 339 
 her influence on the place of her 
 
 sex in Modern Civilization, 339- 
 
 340
 
 Index 
 
 3 6 9 
 
 Masini, Father, some account of, 301 
 
 Masses, the position of the, in the 
 ancient world, 137 
 
 Matilda, the Great Countess, 223 
 
 Merivale, Dean, on the condition of 
 women in the Roman Empire, 
 337 
 
 on the effect of materialism on the 
 position of women, 354 
 
 Methodists, Wesleyan, and early Chris- 
 tians, parallel between, 57, 82 
 
 Michelet, on the progressive and con- 
 servative principle of civiliza- 
 tion, 29 
 
 Middle Ages, the, source of their true 
 
 greatness, 161 
 the Papacy in, 239-241 
 life-philosophy of, 245-247, 278- 
 
 292 
 dominant note of, 344 
 
 Mignet, on Pope Nicholas's reform 
 of Papal elections, 194 
 
 Milman, Dean, certain errors of, cor- 
 rected, 206, 207 
 
 Milton, John, his teaching as to 
 divorce, 348 
 
 Mohammed, an apostle of the moral 
 
 law, 17 
 in what sense a fanatic, 243 
 
 Monachism, origin of, 105-107 
 
 medieval, obligations of the modern 
 world to, 244 
 
 Monk, origin of the name, 107 
 
 Montaigne, on the stake as a preserva- 
 tive of orthodoxy, 332 
 
 Montalembert, on the dominant notejof 
 the Middle Ages, 344 
 
 Mythology, comparative, its value, 3 
 
 N 
 
 Natural, proper meaning of the word, 
 
 41 
 
 Natural selection, law of, when van- 
 quished by man, 14 
 
 Neander, on the authority of the early 
 
 Popes, 124 
 
 on the False Decretals, 174 
 Nebuchadnezzar, King, as Inquisitor, 
 
 304 
 Neo-Platonists, their lofty conceptions, 
 
 137 
 
 Newman, Cardinal, on atheism and 
 
 the physical world, 9 
 on the primitive use of the term 
 
 " Holy Ghost," 101 
 on the term " Theotokos," 104 
 on the Epistles of St. Ignatius, 1 18 
 on clerical marriage, 205 
 on the employment of the civil 
 sword by the Catholic Church 
 and by Protestantism, 332 
 Nicaca, Council of, the, its creed, 101 
 significance of, 128, 129 
 what its sixth canon provides, 173 
 Nicholas I., St., his work for the 
 
 Papacy, 174 
 Nonconformist conscience, the, and 
 
 the nuptial bond, 353-354 
 Nuns, antiquity of, in Christianity, 106 
 
 Odilo, St., his character, 185 
 
 his prediction of Hildebrand'b 
 
 greatness, 185 
 Optimism, a wicked way of thinking, 
 
 20 
 Orthodoxy, extreme importance always 
 
 attached to, by the Church, 83, 
 
 297 
 Otho, the Emperor, his reform of the 
 
 Papacy, 176 
 Ozaiiam, on the occasion of great 
 
 poems, 152 
 on medieval Latin, 247 
 
 Pachomius, St., the originator of the 
 coenobite life, 106 
 
 2 B
 
 37 
 
 Index 
 
 Paganism, ancient, its highest ideal, 
 
 HS 
 
 its unethical character, 283 
 Painting, medieval, its high ideal, 
 
 161 
 
 Papacy, the, in the first century, 120 
 a hundred years later, 121, 122 
 in the Age of the Martyrs, 1 23 
 in the second and third centuries, 
 
 Neander on, 1 24 
 in the third century, Mgr. Duch- 
 
 esne on, 127 
 the founder of a new civilization, 
 
 128, 163 
 
 development of, 173-174 
 its condition between the times of 
 
 St. Nicholas I. and St. Gregory 
 
 VII., i 74 - I7 8 
 election to, vested in the College 
 
 of Cardinals, 194 
 its place in medieval Europe, 239- 
 
 241 
 and the repression of heresy, 298, 
 
 299 
 
 and Holy Matrimony, 342, 345 
 Parousia, primitive belief in the, 58, 
 
 81 
 
 Paul, St., his conversion, 61 
 his work, 62 
 his qualifications for his destined 
 
 task, 62 
 sources for our knowledge of him 
 
 and his work, 63-68 
 his astonishing career, 69 
 his transformation of Christianity, 
 
 70-74 
 
 his religious philosophy, 74-76 
 his cast of thought, 76 
 his style, 77 
 and St. James, 78 
 his teaching, how influenced by his 
 
 belief in the parwtsia, Si 
 his gift of glossolaly, 83 
 his intolerance, 83-84 
 on baptism and the Eucharist, 84 
 his martyrdom, 91 
 
 Paul the Hermit, St., one of the 
 
 founders of monasricism, 106 
 Pearson, Mr. Charles H., on indis- 
 soluble marriage, 355 
 Pearson, Mr. Karl, on a new sex re- 
 lationship, 355 
 Penstephanon of Prudentius, the, its 
 
 historical value, 98, 103 
 Persecutions, the Ten General, 91 
 Personality, what it is, 31 
 
 Mr. Samuel Butler on, 31-32 
 Schopenhauer on, 33 
 worth of, proclaimed by Christi- 
 anity, 155, 335 
 Hegel on, 335 
 
 definition of, by Roman jurispru- 
 dents, 335 
 conception of, transformed by 
 
 Christianity, 335 
 
 is the root idea of Modern Civili- 
 zation, 336 
 
 Peter, St., his primacy, 59 
 St. Paul's visit to, 70 
 his chair at Antioch, 72 
 saves the future of Christianity, 
 
 73 
 
 his Epistles, 78 
 conciliates the differing views of 
 
 St. Paul and St. James, 79 
 his description of the early Chris- 
 tian community, 80 
 his Roman pontificate, 90 
 his martyrdom, 91 
 viewed as an Inquisitor, 304 . 
 Peter Martyr, St., some account of, 
 
 302 
 
 Petronius, on the origin of gods, 282 
 Philip V. of Spain, number said to have 
 been burnt by the Spanish Inqui- 
 sition during his reign, 327 
 Philology, comparative, its historical 
 
 value, 3 
 
 Plato, his view of religion, 155, 332 
 Play, le, his view of the establishment 
 of the Divorce Court in England, 
 351
 
 Index 
 
 Poetry, religious, its historical value, 
 
 103, 247 
 Polygamy, tolerated among the ancient 
 
 Jews, 337 
 
 still survives among them in the 
 East, though prohibited in the 
 West, 337 
 
 instinct points to, 357 
 Pope, the term, early use of, 122 
 
 specialized as a title reserved ex- 
 clusively for the Bishops of 
 Rome, 122 
 Positivism in the Middle Ages, Littre's 
 
 definition of, 166 
 Poultry-yard, the, morals of, 356 
 Progress, the fact of, 14 
 Hartmann on, 25 
 the law of, 26 
 the instruments of, 35-42 
 Prometheus, myth of, 23 
 Property, how viewed in Catholic 
 
 theology, 160 
 
 Protestantism, popular, a system of 
 
 unconscious Antinomianism, 78 
 
 Prudentius, his Peristephanon referred 
 
 to, 98 
 his evidence as to the early cultus 
 
 of Saints, 103 
 some account of, 249 
 extracts from, 250, 251, 264 
 his view of human life, 251, 291 
 Public opinion, the support of Papal 
 
 power in the Middle Ages, 203 
 Pullan, Mr., on the early Christian 
 
 Martyrs, 94-95 
 
 Purity, the virtue of, and Luther, 347 . 
 how estimated by the Jacobins, 
 
 349 
 and the Nonconformist conscience, 
 
 353 
 
 Quinet, Edgar, on adulterine children, 
 34 
 
 Rabbis, the Hebrew, on sin and 
 
 punishment, 75 
 
 their method of ratiocination, 76 
 the great, supposed after their 
 decease, to intercede for their 
 disciples, 102 
 Ramsey, Mr., on the Roman religion, 
 
 93 
 
 on the early Christian Martyrs, 94 
 Ranke, on the question of lay investi- 
 ture, 210 
 
 Ratherius, Bishop, on clerical mar- 
 riages, 208 
 Reason, the distinctive attribute of 
 
 man, 48 
 
 the true norm of matrimony, de- 
 rivable from, 356 
 
 Reformat Legum Ecclesiasticarttm, 
 the, proposed legislation on 
 4 divorce in, 347 
 
 Relics of the Saints, the antiquity of 
 
 the veneration of, 102-103 
 Religion, in the twentieth century, 293 
 its surest foundation, 295 
 the only effective curb of instinct 
 
 for the vast multitude, 357 
 Renan, his philosophy of history, 7 
 on " the Great Unconscious Artist," 
 
 9 
 
 on the Jacobin doctrine of the 
 sovereignty of the individual, 33 
 
 on Jewish belief in Divine Incar- 
 nations, 55 
 
 on the primacy of St. Peter, 59 
 
 on the mjmber of St. Paul's con- 
 verts, 69 
 
 his rendering of the Epistle to the 
 Galatians, 77 
 
 on the date and authorship of the 
 Epistle to the Romans and the 
 Epistle of St. James, 78 
 
 on the true emancipation of 
 womanhood, 82 
 
 on Nero's persecution, 93
 
 37 2 
 
 Index 
 
 Renan continued. 
 
 doubted the genuineness of the 
 seven Epistles of St. Ignatius, 
 iz8 
 
 on St. Clement, 121, 124 
 on the Papacy in the second cen- 
 tury, 124 
 
 on the Artemonites, 125 
 on fanaticism, 243 
 on the chastity of women, 345 
 Republics, the medieval Italian, debt 
 of, to St. Gregory VII., 235- 
 236 
 Requiem Mass, the, in the Age of the 
 
 Martyrs, 116 
 Reservation of the Eucharist, antiquity 
 
 of the practice, 116 
 
 Revolution, the Christian. See Chris- 
 tian Revolution. 
 
 Revolutionists, French, their view of 
 purity and treatment of marriage, 
 349-350 
 Rhyme in poetry, use and progress of, 
 
 253-255 
 
 Rights, respect for, the test of progress, 
 
 15 
 
 Romanticism, religious, 158 
 
 Rome, the See of, its destiny as a centre 
 
 of unity, 12 1 
 St. Irenseus on, 121, 122 
 development of its authority, 123- 
 
 127 
 Pope Innocent I. on its authority, 
 
 127 
 
 Rousseau, Voltaire on, 29 
 his extra social man, 47 
 essence of his teaching, 350 
 
 Sabbath, none in Christianity, III 
 Sacred Arsenal, Father Masini's, some 
 
 account of, 301-327 
 Sanctus the deacon, his martyrdom, 97 
 Saints, great antiquity of the cultus of, 
 
 102 
 
 Saints continued. 
 
 invocation of, probably derived 
 
 from the Jews, 102-103 
 Christian, not identical with Pagan 
 
 gods, 286 
 Sanctity, the conception of unknown, 
 
 to the ancient world, 148 
 Schelling, his philosophy of history, 7 
 Schopenhauer, on human life, 20 
 
 on medieval rhymed Latin poems, 
 
 255 
 
 Seneca, his account of woman, 156 
 
 Senses, the life of the, 147 
 
 Simony, in the eleventh century, 177, 
 00 
 
 Sixtus I., Pope, his Eucharistic legisla- 
 tion, 113 
 
 Smith, Mr. Toulmin, on medieval 
 guilds, 158 
 
 Socialism, Christian and unchristian, 
 
 59 
 
 Socrates, an apostle of the moral law, 
 
 *7 
 
 Solidarity, 13, 33 
 
 "Son of a Priest," an opprobrious 
 
 epithet in the Middle Ages, 179 
 
 Sovereignty, unlimited, unchristian, 160 
 
 the theory of, in Imperial Rome, 
 
 164 
 Spencer, Mr. Herbert, on good and bad 
 
 results, 21 
 on the roots of social phenomena, 
 
 30 
 
 character of his philosophy, 37 
 on great men, 37 
 his use of the words natural and 
 
 supernatural, 40, 41 
 on Carlyle, 43 
 
 Stephen, St., his martyrdom, 61 
 Stephen VII., Pope, his brutal in- 
 decency, 175 
 
 Strappado, the, some account of, 320 
 Stubbs, Bishop, on the feudal system, 
 
 169 
 
 Sunday, the Christian, not a transferred 
 Sabbath, ill
 
 Index 
 
 Supernatural, proper meaning of the 
 
 word, 41 
 
 Supematuralism, various kinds of, 279 
 Superstition, medieval, 224 
 Sweden, divorce in, 351 
 Swinburne, Mr., his preference for the 
 
 antique cults, 16 
 significance of his invocation of our 
 
 Lady of Pain, 245 
 Switzerland, divorce in, 351 
 
 Tacitus, on Nero's persecution, 91 
 Taine, his philosophy of history, 6 
 
 on the feudal system, 167 
 Taylor, Jeremy, on the formation of 
 
 Christendom, 157 
 
 Tertullian, on the freedom of the con- 
 science, 165 
 
 Theodoret, his Nej/i/ojKos raAiAeue, 98 
 on the penitence of the Emperor 
 
 Theodosius, 129 
 Theodosian code, principle concerning 
 
 heresy formulated in, 298 
 Theology, medieval, its two rivers, 132 
 "Theotokos," Cardinal Newman on 
 
 the term, 104 
 
 Thierry, M., on the feudal system, 170 
 Thiers, his view of history, 7 
 Thomas, St. See Aquinas. 
 Thought-reading, Hildebrand's power 
 
 of, 200-20 1 
 Torture, Father Masini's apology for, 
 
 3I7-3I8 
 
 his account of the uses of, 319 
 varieties of, 320 
 the application of, 323-324 
 Transubstantiation, doctrine of, held 
 by Apostolic Christians, though 
 without the formula, 85 
 Trench, Archbishop, on the office held 
 
 by Prudentius, 249 
 on the origin and progress of rhyme 
 in poetry, 253, 254-255 
 
 373 
 
 Trench continued. 
 
 on Adam of St. Victor, 261 
 on Renaissance recasting of medie- 
 val hymns, 277 
 on the heretical sects of the Middle 
 
 Ages, 333 
 Trent, the Council of, on the cultns 
 
 of the Saints, 102 
 its definition of concupiscence, 148 
 on the ordination of bishops, 206 
 
 U 
 
 United States of America, divorce in 
 
 the, 354 
 
 Unity of all natural forces, 13 
 Universe, the, no data for a theory 
 
 of, 6 
 Urban I., Pope, his gifts to various 
 
 churches, 113 
 
 Vassal kingdoms of the Holy See, 
 
 241 
 Venantius Fortunatus, some account 
 
 of, 255, 256-257 
 Villemain, M., his description of St. 
 
 Augustine's City of God, 162 
 his account of the growth of Papal 
 
 power criticised, 172, 173 
 merits and defects of his ffistoire 
 
 de Grigoire VII., 172, 173 
 on Gregory VII. f s " Radicalism," 
 
 235 
 
 Virgil, his doctrine of progress, 23 
 Virgins, ecclesiastical, held in highest 
 
 honour in the Primitive Church, 
 
 1 06 
 Voltaire, in some respects a minister of 
 
 progress, 19 
 on Rousseau, 29 
 his account of the affair of the 
 
 Chevalier de la Barre, 330
 
 374 
 
 Index 
 
 w 
 
 Wells, Mr. H. G., on the future of 
 marriage, 355 
 
 Wette, de, on the inseparability of the 
 marriage union, 338 
 
 Will, the endowment of, what it 
 implies, 47 
 
 William, Bishop of Utrecht, his death, 
 223, 224 
 
 William of Malmesbury, on St. Gre- 
 gory VII.'s parentage, 184 
 on St. Gregory VII.'s power of 
 reading men's thoughts, 201 
 
 Woman, work of Christianity for, 156, 
 
 336, 339 
 her place in the antique world, 
 
 337 
 
 Woolsey, President, on divorce in the 
 United States of America, 
 
 353 
 World, the, Schopenhauer on, 20 
 
 Worship, Christian, in the First Age, 
 
 57-58,82 
 
 in the Age of the Martyrs, 110- 
 117 
 
 York, the Convocation of, its Report 
 
 on Divorce, an error in, 345 
 summary given in of the grounds 
 on which divorce is granted in 
 the United States of America, 
 352 
 
 Zamyad Vast, the, referred to, 23 
 Zephyrinus, Pope, ordains the use of 
 precious metals for the sacra- 
 mental chalice, 113. 
 Ziegler, his monograph on St. Irensens, 
 
 122 
 
 Zoroaster, his doctrine of progress, 23 
 
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