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The Churo^™^^^^''^'' 
 
 
 AND 
 
 The Moral World: 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE HOLINESS 
 OF THE CHURCH 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. AUG. J. THEBAUD, SJ. 
 
 'Estate .r^o vos perfecti, sicut ei Pater vester ccelestis perfectus 
 
 est:' 
 —Matt. v. 48. 
 
 New York, Cincinnati, and St. Louis : 
 
 BENZIGER BROTHERS. 
 
 Printers to the Holy Apostolic See. 
 881. 
 
Copyright, 1880, by Aug. J. Th£baud, S. 
 
 LOAN STACK 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In describing in a previous work the rapid extension of the 
 Christian Church at the time of its first establishment, the intention 
 of the writer was to insist on its instantaneous universality as a 
 proof of its divine origin. This is what theologians call a mark or 
 note of the true Church, and they say that any religious organization 
 which is not catholic or universal cannot be the Spouse of Christ, 
 whom He espoused when He died on the Cross for all men. 
 
 Many well-known circumstances of that mighty event suffi- 
 ciently indicated that, at the same time, a great moral change took 
 place among the converted nations. Not only was polytheism 
 destroyed and a pure worship everywhere introduced in place 
 of a debased superstition ; not only a complete revolution in the 
 annals of mankind marked the advent of the God-man, and left 
 the footprints of His Church deeply impressed forever after in 
 history ; but a new code of morals was given to the world, and 
 Christian holiness began to spread the fragrance of pure virtue 
 wherever moral corruption had prevailed and unblushing vice 
 had openly unveiled its depravity. 
 
 Sanctity, therefore, was one of the most prominent characters 
 of the new and universal religion, and sanctity naturally fol- 
 lowed its introduction among all nations of the globe. As, how- 
 ever, the chief object of our former work was to describe the 
 rapidity and universality of the early Christian movement, the 
 character of holiness was left, as it were, in the background; it 
 must now be brought forward. 
 
 For it is as great a proof of a divine origin as any other mark 
 that can be proposed. Nay, it can be maintained that it is the 
 greatest and the most absolute sign that it comes from heaven. 
 God is not only Maximiis ; He is chiefly Optimus. His power 
 
 G5C0 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 Strikes with awe, His goodness attracts with an irresistible force. 
 The same is true with regard to the Church. Her extraordinary 
 strength, her magnanimous deeds, her universal dominion, impose 
 even on the unbeliever the task of bowing his head before her. 
 But the mild and pure virtues which spring up under her feet in 
 her pilgrimage through the world have a much greater power to 
 subdue the heart and bring men to her. The important point is 
 to place that character of sanctity in a strong and vivid light, so 
 that no one can refuse to acknowledge it. 
 
 This was scarcely possible when all the strength of the argu- 
 ment lay in the character of universality. For this reason it is 
 important to take here that of holiness apart, and concentrate on it 
 alone all the reflections the subject naturally suggests. Chiefly is 
 this necessary in this age when on every side the purity of Chris- 
 tian morals is openly assailed; and some go even so far as to pre- 
 tend that the moral world since Christ appeared is not of a very 
 different character from what it was in the most pagan times, yea, 
 when the first Roman emperors horrified mankind by their incon- 
 ceivable immorality. The task of demonstrating the folly of this 
 assumption appears easy, and does not require great effort to con- 
 vince a candid mind; but unfortunately in our day the more 
 bold an assertion is, though altogether unsupported, the more it 
 finds a following among men for whom everything is a matter of 
 opinion, and who willingly embrace the most extreme doctrines, 
 extreme even to the verge of absurdity. 
 
 The question, however, must rest on its own merits; and in the 
 present case the proofs are so overwhelming that little attention 
 can be paid to the insane clamor of adversaries. We may occa- 
 sionally discuss their objections and show the weakness of their 
 attacks. But our chief concern will be to place before the reader 
 the solid ground on which the Christian moralist rests, and the 
 profound reason he has to repeat every day in his prayers, Credo 
 in Unam, Sanctam Ecclesiam. 
 
 The volume is naturally divided into two Books, and the first 
 would suffice to demonstrate the Holiness of the Church. For its 
 only object is to place before the reader the principles or sources of 
 sanctity evidently possessed in their fulness by the Catholic 
 Church. Any institution endowed with such privileges as those 
 cannot but be holy, and it would be the duty of opponents to 
 prove that the ChurcTi docs not possess them. They never have 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 attempted to do so ; and if they were to try it, the whole religious 
 history of mankind in modern times would protest against their 
 boldness. But the attempt would be futile chiefly on account of 
 the incontrovertible facts contained in the Second Book. That the 
 Church has been holy, and continues to be holy to this day, is 
 now a matter of simple history, and the Catholic can proudly 
 offer those facts even to an unbelieving world. 
 
 The second branch of the subject embraces both the first cen- 
 turies of Christianity under the sway of Rome, and the ages 
 which followed the barbarian invasions until recent times. Less 
 details will naturally be furnished for the primitive epoch, down 
 to the fifth century, than for the subsequent period of time. 
 Much has already been said on the subject of this first part, in 
 the "Church and Gentile World," which it would be unnecessary 
 to repeat. But the matter which embraces the conversion of bar- 
 barians, the middle ages, and our own day is altogether new, and 
 was not even touched in the previous work. On this account it 
 required on our part a greater amount of effort to give as thorough 
 an idea of it as space and time permitted. 
 
 The whole of this i. ;e must bring the conviction that if 
 
 ever sanctity has floui -lea on earth it was under the wings of 
 the Catholic Church, and that she alone has spread in the entire 
 universe the " kingdom of God " which Christ came to establish 
 forever. All ages have equally contributed to the work, and all 
 nations have gloried in the "legions of saints" which their annals 
 contain. Yea, the great majority of European families known to 
 history have placed their "canonized ancestors" among the most 
 precious links of their lineage. Many kingly races particularly 
 have set a higher value on those of their own kin who have prac- 
 tised an heroic virtue on the throne than on the mighty conquerors 
 or wise lawgivers their pedigree could show. Germany has 
 boasted of her Henry II., France of her Louis IX., England of her 
 Edward the Confessor, Castile of her Ferdinand III., more than 
 of their greatest legislators and warriors. Of all the images of 
 ancestors that were then kept in the glorious houses of princes, 
 dukes, and barons, those that were most honored and preserved 
 with greatest reverence were the mild portraits of saintly 
 popes and bishops, humble and zealous monks, pure and pious 
 nuns, all having the nimbus of sanctity encircling their heads. 
 All the cities of Europe, during many ages, offered also to the 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 traveller, in their courts of justice, town halls, or places of records, 
 the portraitures on canvas of innumerable "blessed" or "saints" 
 who had honored their country by the perfect fulfilment of the 
 Gospel precepts. 
 
 If all this is now gone, it is, however, a glorious memory. It 
 is well known that an attempt has been made, and is still going 
 on at this hour, to publish all the lives of those who have deserved 
 a place of honor in the annals of the Catholic Church; and the 
 Acta Sanctorum, by the Bollandists, are now found in all the 
 libraries of Europe and this country. The full list of their names 
 alone fills a large folio volume; still the collection is far from 
 being complete. It is doubtful if the next century will witness 
 the achievement of a task of which Bollandus himself, the origi- 
 nator of the scheme, had certainly no conception when he began. 
 Meanwhile this immense compilation fills with delight all Catho- 
 lics who can peruse its pages The rationalists, unbelievers, — nay, 
 atheists, — if they have any taste for the beautiful, often go so far as 
 to profess the greatest admiration for that noble work ; and 
 among them M. Ernest Renan acknowledges that in the sixty 
 large folios of which the work is now composed he always finds a 
 delightful reading, a sound erudition, and an inexhaustible source 
 of the feelings naturally engendered^ by " the true, the good, and 
 the beautiful." 
 
 In conclusion, the only remark on which we must insist is the 
 noteworthy fact that the Acta Sanctorum present to the eye of the 
 reader a panorama of holiness from which no age of the Church is 
 excluded. What is called by many modern writers the dark 
 period of Catholicism offers in those pages to the admiration of 
 mankind as glorious a galaxy of moral heroes as those ages which 
 are confessedly recognized as the purest and holiest in Christian- 
 ity. It can be, therefore, maintained that the priceless compilation 
 of the Bollandists contains the irrefragable demonstration of one 
 of the most important parts of this volume ; namely, that in which 
 the author vindicates the middle ages and the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries from the rash aspersions of open enemies or 
 doubtful friends. Would to God that more copious details could 
 have been furnished ! The blind themselves would have been 
 constrained to see and acknowledge this solemn truth, that there 
 is not a single moment in the life of the Church when she was 
 shorn of the ray of sanctity. 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 Meanwhile the reader will easily understand that the " moral 
 world " in the Catholic Church is far superior, purer, and more 
 comprehensive than out of it. From the beginning, it is true, the 
 Eternal Word, as St. John says at the head of his gospel, has 
 "enlightened every man that cometh into the world," and has 
 given to the human conscience the true principles of right. But as 
 this " enlightenment" took place only through our human faculties, 
 it could not produce more than natural effects, and the virtues that 
 man could thus know and practise belonged of necessity to the 
 natural order. But since the Eternal Word became incarnate, and 
 the God-man began His mission oi grace among'us. He adopted us 
 into His own Sonship, and raised us to a supernatural plane in which 
 morality as well as belief was transformed, so as to give to the 
 moral world a completely different meaning. There was a new 
 lawgiver, Christ ; a new sanction, His own promise of life eternal ; 
 a new code, formed on the model of the sublime virtues practised 
 by the Redeemer ; a new view of life, based on the firm ground of 
 eternal truths ; a substantial sanctity, resulting from the influence 
 of Christ over His members ; a mystic body, in fine, partaking both 
 of heaven and earth, endowed with new powers, and with a higher 
 aptitude for virtue, ending at last in holiness. 
 
 Sanctity in the Catholic Church is consequently peculiar; and 
 it is necessary it should be so, since, according to St. Peter, 
 God has given us through Christ " the highest and most precious 
 promises, so that we become through them partakers of the divine 
 nature" (2 Pet. 4). 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 FIRST BOOK. 
 
 DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PACK 
 
 THE FIRST SOURCE OF HOLINESS IN THE CHURCH IS DERIVED FROM THE 
 BELIEF IN THE ORIGINAL RIGHTEOUSNESS OF MAN AT HIS CREATION. 
 
 1. Place of man in creation i6 
 
 2. Of man's creation in general 23 
 
 3. Mr. Darwin's hypothesis 25 
 
 4. Man was created to the image and likeness of God 37 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 SECOND PRINCIPLE OF HOLINESS IN THE CHURCH — THE PRESERVATION OF 
 THE DECALOGUE AS INTERPRETED BY CHRIST, AND ITS EXTENSION TO 
 THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE. 
 
 1. Necessity of the written precepts of the Decalogue 51 
 
 2. The Decalogue as explained by Christ 60 
 
 3. The Decalogue, as explained by the Saviour in his Sermon, was con- 
 
 firmed on the day of Pentecost for the whole human race 65 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 THE CHURCH PROPOSES THE LIFE OF JESUS AS THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL — THIRD 
 SOURCE OF HOLINESS. 
 
 1. Christ as pattern of sanctity 7^ 
 
 2. The Evangelical Counsels, as derived from the life of Christ, open a new 
 
 and higher source of holiness in the Church 79 
 
12 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CATHOLIC DOCTRINE ON THE MORAL AND INDEFINITE PERFECTIBILITY OF 
 MAN — AIMING AT PERFECTION — FOURTH PRINCIPLE OF HOLINESS IN THE 
 CHURCH. 
 
 1 . Unreliable systems of human perfectibility 95 
 
 2. The true theory of the moral perfectibility of man 99 
 
 3. The moral perfectibility of man is unfolded in the Christian life even in 
 
 the common path of the Commandments ) 107 
 
 4. The best development of human perfectibility is carried out in the prac- 
 
 tice of the Evangelical Counsels 119 
 
 5. Aiming at perfection 130 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ETERNAL DESTI^^Y OF MAN, CONTRASTED WITH TEMPORAL THINGS, 
 GIVES TO THE FOREGOING PRINCIPLES THEIR MAIN STRENGTH AND EF- 
 FICACY WITH REGARD TO THE PURSUIT OF HOLINESS ON EARTH. 
 
 1. The irremediable defect of all moral codes which are not founded on 
 
 Christian principles comes from the want of a sanction, in the absence 
 
 of a hereafter 145 
 
 2. Can there be a solid objection made against the Christian code of morals ? 153 
 
 3. The contrast of temporal with eternal things is promotive of good morals 
 
 and holiness 160 
 
 SECOND BOOK. 
 
 FACTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MORAL CHANGE EFFECTED BY THE APOSTLES OF CHRIST IN JERUSALEM AND 
 THE JEWLSH RACE. 
 
 1. What is to be understood by the "kingdom of God" which Christ our 
 
 Lord came to establish ? 167 
 
 2. First establishment of God's kingdom on earth — Origin of the Church 
 
 at Jerusalem 175 
 
 3. Extraordinary characteristics if the Judeo-Christian congregations 182 
 
 4. Did the first Judeo-Christians hate those of their countrymen who did not 
 
 embrace the faith ? 186 
 
 5. Character of the community of goods among the first Christians in Jeru- 
 
 salem 192 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 13 
 
 PAGE 
 
 6, Was ever the virtue of charity practised in any other religion or institu- 
 
 tion as well as in the Catholic Church ? jq5 
 
 7. Holiness was fostered among the first Judeo-Christians by the obser- 
 
 vance of the Mosaic law — A word on the Essenes 206 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 CHRISTIAN HOLINESS IN THE EAST — THE THERAPEUT/E IN EGYPT, AND 
 THEIR RELATIONS WITH THE CHURCH AT JERUSALEM — FIRST DEVELOP- 
 MENTS OF MONASTICISM. 
 
 1. Who were the Therapeutae ? — Their connection with Jerusalem 213 
 
 2. Description of the primitive Christian life in Egypt 219 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HOLINESS IN UPPER SYRIA AND MESOPOTAMIA — EDESSA, THE CENTRE OF THE 
 MOVEMENT. 
 
 1. Christianity was preached at Edessa in the Apostolic age 225 
 
 2. Monasticism and theology, two sources of holiness at Edessa 227 
 
 3. The theology and poetry of Edessa were eminently conducive to holmess. 235 
 
 4. Some objections are answered and conclusions drawn 241 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHRISTIAN HOLINESS IN THE WEST — MORAL CHANGE EFFECTED IN ROME AT 
 THE FIRST PREACHING OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1. This moral change began very early 249 
 
 2. Can this moral change be explained by natural causes ? 259 
 
 3. This is confirmed by the new moral doctrine which could not be derived 
 
 from any previous religion or philosophy 269 
 
 4. Some further proofs of the Church's holiness in Rome. '. 278 
 
 5. The moral change effected in Rome during the Apostolic age was perma- 
 
 nent 282 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE BARBARIAN WORLD CONFRONTED BY THE CHURCH AND BROUGHT TO 
 THE PRACTICE OF THE HIGHEST CHRISTIAN VIRTUES. 
 
 1. A short sketch of German and Scandinavian tribes before their con- 
 
 version 297 
 
 2. Remarkable moral change effected in all German and Scandinavian na- 
 
 tions by Christianity 314 
 
 3. Holiness among the Anglo-Saxons in Great Britain, a sufficient test of 
 
 the previous opinion 324 
 
 4. A few words on the conversion of the Germans to Christianity 340 
 
14 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHRISTIAN HOLINESS DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. Difference of opinion on the subject 348 
 
 2. The first period of the Middle Ages consisted on the part of the Church 
 
 in a rude training of wild tribes; hence violence, crime, immoraUty, were 
 to be expected from the greatest number : the ages of faith had not 
 really commenced 356 
 
 3. Formation of Christian congregations' in cities mainly by bishops; in 
 
 the country particularly by monks 370 
 
 4. The true foundation of holiness laid down in redeemed Europe 380 
 
 5. The ages of faith were likewise ages of holiness 390 
 
 6. The dark side of the Middle Ages is briefly explained 425 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 1 . A short summary of facts so far unfolded 451 
 
 2. How far did corruption invade the sanctuary previous to the so-called 
 
 Reformation ? ' 453 
 
 3. The moral teaching of the Church was at that time as firm as ever 456 
 
 4. A large array of facts proves that the principle of regeneration in the 
 
 Church was always active in the midst of a widespread corruption .... 459 
 
 5. Holiness continued in the Church during the darkest period of the great 
 
 schism 464 
 
 6. The Catholic Church in the present age continues its work of regenera- 
 
 tion with the vigor of renewed youth 473 
 
The Church and the Moral World. 
 
 FIRST BOOK. 
 DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FIRST SOURCE OF HOLINESS IN THE CHURCH IS DERIVED FROM 
 THE BELIEF IN THE ORIGINAL RIGHTEOUSNESS OF MAN AT HIS 
 CREATION. 
 
 The Church is "the kingdom of God on earth." One of its 
 first characteristics, on this account, must be holiness; and since it 
 is composed of men, man himself within her precincts must be 
 holy. Not only the facts of the Church's history must reflect a 
 posteriori this attribute; but all her doctrine, all the principles she 
 inculcates, considered a priori^ must deeply lay the foundation of 
 virtue. For this reason the present volume affects naturally a 
 two-fold ^\V\^\ov\.\ principles and facts. 
 
 We place at the head of the first the Church's doctrine on the 
 origin of man, because it is chiefly at his origin that the design of 
 God in creating him must have appeared. In the very act of 
 giving him existence, God declared what he was to be. Had human 
 nature been destined only to be placed at the head of the animal 
 kingdom, it would have been circumscribed within the limits of 
 animality, and the physical laws of sensation and emotion would 
 have sufficed to guide human destiny. But according to Scripture 
 and the Church's doctrine, man came out of the hands of his 
 Creator a moral person, created in integrity and holiness; and by 
 
1 6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the very initial movement of his being, he was above all preor- 
 dained to the practice of sublime virtues. By his moral nature 
 he was to be chiefly distinguished from animals. 
 
 This is called a principle, though it is not an axiom but a fact. 
 It is, however, a fact declaring on the part of the Creator what 
 must be the spring of all human actions. From it the whole 
 destiny of man on earth is derived; and the necessity of actual 
 holiness follows as a strict conclusion from an indubitable premiss. 
 Let us, therefore, briefly discuss what the Church teaches on our 
 origin, as being from her a first declaration of the duty of holiness 
 on the part of man; and to do so more effectually, it is proper to 
 begin by considering man's position in the universe. 
 
 I. Place of Man in Creation. 
 
 The doctrine of the Church on this subject is, as usual, derived 
 from Scripture and the Fathers. For besides reason there are 
 only two sources of truth; namely, the written word of God, con- 
 signed in the sacred records of the Old and New Testament, and 
 the unwritten revelation of the same divine word, transmitted 
 orally by the Apostles and their successors whom we call eminently 
 the Fathers. Both testimonies may give us a more accurate means 
 of knowing man's nature than the simple discoveries of naturalists 
 on the same subject. Still we must not discard this last means of 
 information, since natural truth is the handmaid of revealed truth, 
 and both come from God. 
 
 Consider first, therefore, how Scripture anticipated science in 
 the order it assigned to the appearance of man on earth. He 
 came only after his dwelling had been prepared and the whole 
 inorganic, vegetable, and animal creation had been settled in 
 permanent order. This precise statement of Moses in the first 
 chapter of Genesis distinguishes his narrative from all ancient 
 cosmogonies outside of his own. 
 
 The Fathers insisted principally on this remarkable disposition 
 described in Genesis to prove that there was a providential design 
 from the very beginning. God had prepared the dwelling of man 
 before introducing him into it, the same as a palace of a king is 
 furnished with everything necessary or convenient previous to the 
 monarch coming on to sit on his throne and issue his commands. 
 Many Fathers, in fact, compare man to a ruler for whom this world 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 17 
 
 was made, as he was himself made for God. Hence he has been 
 called "the king of creation," though this title is unjustly denied 
 him by many scientists of our day. Some Fathers, however, were not 
 satisfied with this, and Gregory of Nyssa did not scruple to pen 
 the following words: " It was proper that man, ordained beforehand 
 to enjoy in heaven all divine gifts, should possess on earth in his 
 nature some attributes of Him whose partner he was destined to 
 be. Hence was he adorned with life, speech, wisdom, all possible 
 heavenly graces."* Cyril of Alexandria! says on the same subject: 
 "The earth was first filled to repletion with everything which could 
 glorify man, in order that when he finally ca'me he could from their 
 beauty judge of the Creator's glory." Gregory Nazianzen, on this 
 account, gives to man at the moment of his creation the highest titles 
 and prerogatives. J He calls him "a second world placed in an in- 
 ferior one; standing on earth an angel in greatness; alone able truly 
 to adore, to contemplate intelligently the visible creation, to pene- 
 trate the mysteries of the invisible world ; king of every earthly thing, 
 at the same time earthly and heavenly." Gregory of Nyssa again 
 wrote the following words on the same subject, in a book which he 
 purposely composed on the " Creation of Man" (ch. 2): " The prince 
 and ruler could not appear when there was yet nothing over which 
 he could rule. But as soon as the empire had been set in order, 
 the coming of the monarch was announced." Among the Latin 
 Fathers, Lactantius, opening a new view of the same object, draws 
 a proof that the world was created for man " from his erect posi- 
 tion, owing to which his eyes are directed toward heaven, his face 
 looks toward God, and the proud attitude of his head is common 
 to him and to his Maker. For, in the act of raising him from the 
 ground, God enabled him to contemplate the divine Majesty face 
 to face." II 
 
 Many other texts of the Fathers on the same chapter of Gen- 
 esis could be quoted. These are sufficient for the purpose. If 
 they differ so completely as they do from the appreciations of 
 modern naturalists, it must not be directly concluded that the 
 Fathers' judgment was based merely on fancy, and the recent one 
 of scientists on facts. But the first arorued from Scripture, and 
 the second from a supposed identity of human physical nature 
 with that of inferior animals. If on the one side Scripture is the 
 
 * Cathech. cap. 5. f Glaph. i. % Oratio 38. | Inst. Divin. cap. 7. 
 
l8 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 word of God, as Christians give strong proofs of it, and if on the 
 other the modern naturalists judge of man only from his physical 
 nature, as is evident from many of their books, it is not difficult 
 to decide on which side truth must be. And many other reflec- 
 tions on which we are going to enter will abundantly prove it. 
 
 The Fathers, arguing from Scripture, had acknowledged in man 
 a master of the world which was made for him, a ruler, a king of 
 creation, an angel in moral stature, a partner of God in the gov- 
 ernment of this earth; but they also stated the rational ground of 
 all those titles, by calling him a microcosm — an epitome of the uni- 
 verse. On this account they said that he was the last created, 
 because it was proper that the creative power should rest after 
 having given him birth, as the Book of Genesis positively affirms. 
 But because their knowledge of nature was far less extensive 
 and sure than ours, this concept is much better adapted to the 
 men of our age, who besides the word of God have a far more 
 accurate knowledge of physical facts which must agree w^ith God's 
 word. It is proper consequently to examine what is known from 
 reason of man's nature, and to see the harmony of both revealed 
 and rational truths. It is certain that all the chief organs of 
 inferior animals are reproduced in man; but how far more per- 
 fect they are in him than in all their prototypes! Comparative 
 anatomy alone could prove this superiority in many points at least; 
 the demonstration of it is still far more convincing when physi- 
 ology intervenes, even without taking any account of man's spiritual 
 faculties. The main object, however, which must be kept in view 
 here is the universal plan of the animal kingdom altogether cul- 
 minating in man; so that after him our mind cannot conceive 
 any physical organized being more perfect which could give rise to 
 the addition of a single higher individual species over and above 
 what already exists. Hence man is the last, and a compendium 
 of the whole. 
 
 It is well known that the establishment of what is called the " na- 
 tural system in zoology " has cost long years of labor to a number of 
 great scientists in France, England, Germany, and Italy. All those 
 labors had for their object to study and ascertain the place assigned 
 by God to each being in the universal scheme. Have they not all 
 agreed that with respect to animals, starting from the lowest insect 
 or worm, and going successively through all classes, orders, fami- 
 lies, genera, and species, man is reached at last, above whom noth- 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 19 
 
 ing more can be found or even supposed ^ This is the object of all 
 treatises on natural history. 
 
 Strange to say, it is true, this stupendous fact, which must be for 
 a reasonable man the strongest proof of a design in nature, has 
 given rise to the pretended system of evolution, which by many at 
 least is intended to do away with the need of a designer, but this 
 aberration can no'more invalidate the cogency of the proof itself than 
 the light of the sun can be denied on account of some clouds which 
 obscure it temporarily. There is no need of entering extensively 
 into those considerations, since the present object is to state plainly 
 and fully what the Church teaches, not what men have imagined on 
 the same subject. A few paragraphs, however, of Agassiz* may 
 clear away some prejudices which the theory of evolution has cre- 
 ated in many minds. Hear him on the classification of animated 
 beings. We retranslate from the French: 
 
 "Nature," he says, "proves the existence of a thinking God as 
 surely as man manifests the faculty of thinking, when he ac- 
 knowledges the natural concatenation of things. The existing cor- 
 relation of all the parts of nature embraced into a system reduced 
 to fact reveals an intellect which far surpasses the highest facul- 
 ties of which man is proud. The actual division of the animal king- 
 dom into branches, classes, orders, families, genera, and species, 
 represent the categories of divine thought ; they are the headings 
 of chapters in the great book of creation, which the naturalist is 
 only bound to interpret. The systems invented by the masters of 
 science are thus the simple translation in human speech of the Cre- 
 ative Thought. 
 
 " The whole universe can be considered as a school where man 
 learns to know himself, his relation to other creatures, and the First 
 Cause of every thing that exists. . . . If it is proved that the plan 
 of creation has not originated from the necessary action of physical 
 laws, but has been freely conceived by an Almighty Intellect, there 
 will be an end of the theories which refer only to material laws in 
 order to explain all the wonders of the universe. Now the laws 
 which suffice to explain the phenomena of the inorganic material 
 world are perfectly incompetent to account for the existence of liv- 
 ing beings, even when they have a body. . . . 
 
 *On Species and Classification in Zoology. French translation by F. Vogeli; 
 Paris, 1869. 
 
2C THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 " The student of nature experiences a profound surprise when 
 he sees how far animals are independent from the physical forces 
 in the midst of which their life is developed and maintained. 
 That independence is so great that it can be attributed only to a 
 Sovereign Power ruling at once the physical forces, the plants, and 
 the animals, and preserving among them all an harmonious 
 relation by a mutual adaptation. The modifications which result 
 from the influence of physical causes on living beings have only 
 a secondary importance with regard to animal life, and scarcely 
 touch the general plan and the various complications of the 
 physical structure. Almost all those things which are generally 
 ascribed to the influence of physical agents on organized beings 
 prove only correlations resulting from the general plan of nature. 
 
 " Nothing is more striking than the unity of plan in the struc- 
 ture of the most divers types. From pole to pole mammalia, 
 birds, reptiles, fishes, reveal a single plan of formation. This plan 
 denotes conceptions of the highest order, and surpasses by far the 
 vastest generalizations of human thought. It has required the 
 most laborious researches for man to merely recognize the simple 
 idea of it. . . . Those rational relations, that admirable harmony, 
 that infinite variety in unity, could not have for their origin forces 
 incapable of thinking, of combining ideas, of realizing them in 
 time and space. . . . How could that system of which man is only 
 a fragment have been produced at all, except by a Sovereign Intel- 
 lect, a Designer and Creator?" 
 
 These few reflections of Agassiz, well pondered and developed, 
 suffice by themselves to show the perfect inanity of Darwinism. 
 We will only add that the great Swiss naturalist in calling man a 
 fragment meant surely that man enters into the system as an 
 individual element. But he would not have denied that man is 
 not only the highest of them, but the resume of the whole and the 
 compendium of creation, and he says so in several beautiful pas- 
 sages of his writings. 
 
 From the very origin man's position in the whole scheme has 
 been so high that he cannot be included in any branch or 
 class common to him with other animals. The doctrine of the 
 Fathers has been mentioned which makes of him a ruler, a king, 
 a partner with God. We hail with joy the open declaration of 
 many scientists, in France particularly, who place him in a com- 
 manding position apart from all other animal classes over which 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 2i 
 
 he is appointed to rule. M. dc Quatrefages has been for many 
 years a powerful advocate of this opinion, which it is to be hoped 
 the majority of scientists will soon adopt. This belief is predicated 
 first on the moral character of man, which raises him far above any 
 class of mere animals whatever, and second on the unity of his 
 personality. The naturalist (M. de Quatrefages contends) can- 
 not separate the intellectual and moral faculties in man from those 
 that are purely physical, because man would not be any more 
 what he is if his intellectual and moral faculties were taken away. 
 To find his place in creation both his physical and spiritual 
 natures have to be considered as united in a single personality. 
 M. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, when living, was also strongly of 
 this opinion, which was in ancient times that of Aristotle, and in 
 the middle ages that of Albert the Great. But when this is done 
 and man is studied in his complexity, it is evident that he cannot 
 be entirely included in the animal kingdom, from which he is 
 divided by the whole abyss of the spiritual world. There is 
 as much distance, at least, between him and the highest animals 
 as there is between the animal and the vegetable kingdoms, as 
 thfere is even between the vegetable and the mineral. Man, there- 
 fore, m.ust be placed in a kingdom apart, which must be called the 
 human kingdom. These ideas are so clear, so simple and true that 
 there can be no doubt of their adoption in a near future by all rea- 
 sonable and sincere scientists who care more for truth than for 
 the success of some pet theory or other. M. de Quatrefages has 
 clearly proved it in his last book, L Espece Humaine. 
 
 That this hope is not delusive but, on the contrary, probable 
 follows from the recent conversion to spiritualistic ideas of former 
 Darwinists; yea, of ardent supporters of the gradual physical de- 
 velopment of man, Mr. A. R. Wallace in particular. For a long time 
 this gentleman appeared to have adopted the most advanced, that 
 is atheistic, ideas of the evolutionists. He shared entirely the 
 notions of Mr. Darwin, and was thought even by many to have 
 anticipated them. The supposed immense influence of natural 
 selection for the production of new species was a doctrine which 
 he conceived simultaneously with Mr. Darwin himself. As early as 
 1855 arid 1858, consequently before this last author had published his 
 " Origin of Species," Mr. A. R.Wallace had developed the same ideas 
 intwoessays which made a great sensation at the time. But in 187 1 
 his " Contributions to the theory of natural selection " announced an 
 
2 2 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 important change in his views, since he openly professed that these 
 supposed laws — of natural selection — could not be claimed for the 
 development of man. In his new opinion he declared, first, that the 
 size ol the skull in man and the distribution of the hair on his body 
 supposed a totally different cause, and simple evolution could not 
 have produced them. Secondly, he proved the same to be the 
 fact from the shape of the foot and of the hand in man, as well as 
 from his larynx and his aesthetic taste for music. All this, he 
 thought, supposed a preparation formally designed for a future 
 state of civilization, because, he continued to admit, the primi- 
 tive state of man had been barbarous. But in a third place he 
 went much farther still in considering the intellectual and moral 
 faculties of man ; and he proved triumphantly that evolution 
 could have no share in them. He touched particularly the 
 right key when he said that "although the practice of benevolence, 
 of honesty, of veracity, etc., may have been useful to primitive 
 human tribes " — this is the great argument of Mr. Darwin to 
 evolve morality from mere matter — "yet this does not explain why 
 the idea of saiutityy holiness, is attached to those actions which men 
 even in the tribal state consider as good and moral, in contra- 
 distinction to those which are simply useful." This Mr. Wallace 
 developed admirably; and we cannot be surprised that in a pam- 
 phlet anterior to the Cantributio/is he had mainly for his object 
 to show "that in nature man occupies 2^ place apart^ is not only the 
 head and the highest point in the grand series of organized beings, 
 but a new being in some degree." In all those considerations the 
 gifted author is not yet a Christian, and is far from admitting 
 what the Church teaches on the origin of man; but he is on the 
 way to it. At least he has fairly begun to prove the incompetency 
 of natuj-al selection alone to explain the nature and position of man 
 in creation; and from the day of this first attack on Darwinism, the 
 manifold deficiencies not only of natural but likewise of sexual 
 selection have been eagerly canvassed, and are now fully admitted 
 by such writers as Mr. Peschel himself and other Germans of the 
 same rationalistic school. 
 
 The Christian, therefore, cannot be called any longer an 
 obscurantist, because he believes in the primitive dignity of man. 
 All in the end will be bound to admit it. But enough of this ; let 
 us come back to the Fathers and Scripture, leaving aside the 
 scientists and reason. Scripture says that man was created "to 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 23 
 
 the image and likeness of God," and it is from this simple text 
 particularly that most of the Fathers conclude that he was created 
 holy, and destined to the most sublime sanctity; namely, to copy 
 that of God Himself. This is the great characteristic of his origin, 
 which includes all those of true civilization. 
 
 2. Of Ma?is Creatio?i in General. 
 
 Holy Scripture enunciates an axiom of simple good sense in 
 stating that God created the universe and man. Neither the one 
 nor the other could have ever existed without Him ; and creation is 
 the only simple and rational way of accounting for their appear- 
 ance. God is the only Infinite and necessary being ; and what 
 we call the universe cannot be any more infinite in time than 
 in space. To suppose either is puerile ; still it is the opinion 
 of many pretended scientists. A child only can believe that 
 to be limitless to which his imagination can assign no limit. 
 The mijid of a man tells him that whatever is contingent in 
 the philosophical sense — that is, not absolutely necessary — 
 must have depended on another for its existence. That other 
 is the only Infinite Being, and He could not communicate His 
 attributes in full to those things which He might have refused 
 to create. Whoever objects to even pronounce the name of God, 
 and acknowledges the existence only of what falls under his 
 senses, is bound indeed to believe them eternal and infinite ; 
 but in doing so he abjures the possession of human intellect, 
 which says that whatever can be supposed not to exist has 
 not subsisted from all eternity. There must, moreover, have 
 been a beginning for whatever is subject to change, because change 
 supposes the non-possession of full reality, and only what is 
 immutable can exist a se. 
 
 Again, the men who call themselves positivists, in order to 
 explain their cosmogony, have to suppose a. protoplasm j and this 
 very word — plasma — includes the notion of creation. In fact, 
 matter is absolutely incomprehensible without a previous designer. 
 As the human mind alone can discuss it and use it, so the divine 
 mind was necessary to give it existence. Who can imagine mat- 
 ter existing alone ? It is at best an instrument ; and an instru- 
 ment supposes necessarily an artisan or an artist. Still every 
 strict evolutionist pretends that at the beginning matter existed 
 
24 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 alone. Are they conscious that they themsetves have a mind 
 who speak so?> The bee, in constructing her cell, could give them 
 a lesson which they should not forget, if the wish to escape from 
 their responsibility to God has not made them perfectly unreason- 
 able. 
 
 In speaking of man's creation, the first thing to be remarked is 
 that, according to Genesis, God Himself acted not only consciously— 
 the contrary would be absurd— but most deliberately, since He is 
 represented as holding counsel within Himself, Faciamiis hominem. 
 The previous creation of the inorganic and organic world, though 
 far inferior to that of man, cannot be supposed to have been left to 
 the action of unconscious forces. We have heard Mr. Agassiz on the 
 subject: "The rational relations, the admirable harmony, that infinite 
 variety in unity, visible everywhere in nature, could not have had for 
 their origin forces incapable of thinking, of combining ideas, of reaUz- 
 ing them in time and space." But if this is true of the world outside 
 of man, it is much more so of man himself, who, according to Mr. A. R. 
 Wallace, though he is a positivist, is "notonly the head and the highest 
 point in the grand series of organized beings, but a new being in some 
 degree, so that in nature man occupies a place apart:' This phrase 
 he had previously explained by man's moral nature, and by the idea 
 of sanctity which even savages attach to the precepts of human ethics, 
 without stopping at their usefulness, though this is the only principle 
 of morality recognized by strict evolutionists. 
 
 Thus Genesis, in narrating the formation of all things previous to 
 man, had attributed it directly to God, but to a simple fiat of His 
 infinite power. Not so when there was- question of the creation of 
 man, for which an unconscious cause can be called the most absurd 
 of all suppositions. How could consciousness have appeared in man 
 unless it had been derived from an all-conscious power .^ Hence Holy 
 Scripture expressly mentions a sort of deliberation on the part of the 
 divine mind, which, it seems, was not needed for the production of 
 unconscious beings. Facia??ius hominejn ad imaginem nostram. But 
 before this text is fully explained, it is important to briefly discuss the 
 theory which has been broached in our day, in opposition to the 
 dogma of creation. A few words on this will be useful the better to 
 understand the true theory. A short discussion of this question 
 cannot be omitted, owing to the efforts made on all sides to substi- 
 tute for creation an array of unreflecting and blind forces which many 
 suppose can replace God. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES, 25 
 
 3. Mr. Darwin s Hypothesis. 
 
 Listen to Mr. Darwin, and you will hear that the world's formation 
 was the most simple affair, provided sufficient time is granted. This 
 time must be long indeed, but have we not eternity to fall upon ; the 
 eternity, namely, of matter which could not have had any beginning } 
 There is, no doubt, already a deep mystery here, and our reason is 
 perfectly unable to understand it. The word eternity should be ex- 
 punged from the rationalist's vocabulary. On this account, surely, 
 Mr. Darwin uses it, if ever, as sparingly as he can; still he cannot do 
 without it, since his system absolutely needs it and supposes it. He 
 prefers, nevertheless, to use the less objectionable phrase, the deep 
 recesses of tiine. We object to this as too poetical in a philosophical 
 book. 
 
 It has just been said that his system needs eternity and supposes 
 it, because, since he discards creation alogether, there cannot have 
 been any beginning to what exists, and the whole of it resolves itself 
 into an endless chain. It is preferable, in our opinion, to come at 
 once to the old pagan principle that matter is eternal, though this is 
 absolutely incomprehensible. 
 
 That system, moreover, cannot admit any but spontaneous causes; 
 and conscious design is always strictly set aside by Mr. Darwin from 
 any operation which brings on the endless variety of effects. It is 
 consequently important to deal, from the very beginning, with this 
 aspect of it, and expose the irrationality of the attempt by a closer 
 look at it. For it is a mighty effort to exclude mind entirely from the 
 origin and government of this world ; and certainly man himself is 
 supposed by it to owe his existence not to the benevolent will of a 
 superior being, but to an innumerable set of " unthinking and uncon- 
 scious forces/' as Mr. Agassiz calls them. 
 
 A short sketch of the whole scheme is on that account necessary, 
 in order to know if by its supposed agency reason explains more sat- 
 isfactorily the origin of the universe than by merely stating that " God 
 created it." This will not take too much time, because it can be 
 reduced to a few bold assertions of the inventor of the system. It is 
 true that in the numerous volumes published by him, particularly in 
 his " Origin of Species," in his '' Expression of the Emotions in Man 
 and Animals," and finally in his " Descent of Man," there is brought 
 forward an immense number of facts of natural history which often be- 
 
26 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 wilder the reader and incline him to suppose that they prove his main 
 assertions. It is not difficult to prove that the greatest number of those 
 facts have scarcely any bearing on the true question, and that some 
 of them might be taken as proofs of the contrary. But this would 
 require a great labor which does not seem necessary for the object 
 presently intended ; and it will be sufficient, we think, to look simply 
 at the assertions themselves in order to convince any rational mind 
 how gratuitous they are in the main, considering the conclusions which 
 are drawn from them. 
 
 This is the Darwinian scheme in its simplicity, as far as we were 
 able to understand it after a close and most attentive reading: 
 
 1. The classification of organized beings forming the various 
 groups called classes, orders, families, genera, and species is altogether 
 arbitrary and conventional, unless it is based on " the amount of differ- 
 ence between the several groups ; that is, the amount of modification 
 which each has undergone ; and as we have no record of the lines of 
 descent, these lines can be discovered only by observing the degrees 
 of resemblance between the beings which are to be classified." More- 
 over the various groups, exclusive of species, depending on this last 
 element, and species being essentially variable, the whole of it is 
 constantly on the move toward the production of higher beings which 
 result from "the struggle for life" and "the survival of the fittest." 
 
 2. The two great causes which secure this result of real "progress," 
 are the "natural selection" and the "sexual selection," by which in 
 the struggle for life the fittest only survive, and new species of a 
 higher grade are constantly produced. 
 
 3. It all resolves itself into what is called "evolution," by which 
 one being passes into another by insensible and gradual steps. 
 
 4. This evolution alone can give a reason for the successive appear- 
 ance not only of material beings, but also of those belonging to 
 the moral and intellectual orders. 
 
 5. Those various operations require an excessively long time; but 
 the study of geology and astronomy has accustomed us to consider 
 the elements of time and space as being practically without limits. 
 
 This, I think, is a fair representation of the main ideas of Mr. 
 Darwin; and there is no presumption in calling them mere assertions 
 without adequate proof. A short discussion will convince the reader 
 that they are far from being as rational as is the Christian belief that 
 God created the universe, such as we see it, in the unity of its plan 
 and the immense variety of its details. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 27 
 
 First, it is not true that the classification of organized beings into 
 classes, etc., is altogether arbitrary and conventional, unless it is based 
 on the amount of modification which each group has undergone. The 
 great naturalists who with an immense labor have at last agreed, or 
 nearly so, on what they call "the natural system in zoology," never 
 thought that they were merely settling an arbitrary nomenclature, the 
 same, for instance, as shorthand writers have agreed upon for the 
 adoption of arbitrary signs to render easy the work of the transcriber. 
 They — the naturalists — called their system "natural" because it is 
 based on the natural characters of organized beings; and these are 
 called 7iatural characters because they were literally bestowed by the 
 Creator on each group, and on every individual being in each group 
 and form, as it were, their essence. 
 
 Mr. Agassiz has told us that the great men who founded " the 
 natural system in zoology" had merely translated in human speech 
 the thoughts of God as manifested in creation. Consequently this 
 first assertion of Mr. Darwin is so far from being true that " the 
 natural system in zoology" continues to be taught to this day in 
 France, England, Germany, Italy, and Spain, in fact the whole of 
 Europe, without introducing into it any of those pretended modi- 
 fications which would certainly have been found out in great number 
 had the opinion of Mr. Darwin on the subject produced any convic- 
 tion on the European mind. 
 
 As to his suggestion that the classification in natural history, in 
 order to cease to be arbitrary and conventional, " must be based only 
 on the amount of modification introduced by evolution in each 
 group" (in the course of ages, no doubt). This was a cool propo- 
 sition addressed to all European scientists to admit first the Darwinian 
 system and then base their classifications upon it. Their universal 
 silence in answer to this proposition meant purely that they would 
 think of doing so after he had furnished the proof that real and essen- 
 tial modifications had, in the course of ages, been introduced into 
 organized beings. And since this demand of Mr. Darwin included 
 species as well as genera, families, etc., it amounted to the bold asser- 
 tion that in reality species had been constantly changing; and he 
 thought he had proved it in his " Origin of Species," but the greatest 
 number of scientists did not think so. 
 
 This variableness of species is the main prop of the system of 
 evolution. It cannot be denied that a respectable number of natu- 
 ralists thought that Mr. Darwin had proved it for a certain number of 
 
2 THE CHURCH AXD THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 plants. And there is nothing very surprising in this. Botany is a 
 vast field comprising millions perhaps of distinct species, independ- 
 ently of an immense number of varieties; and it is sometimes difficult 
 to ascertain if a given plant is a pure specimen of a distinct species 
 or merely a variety of the same. To come to a decision is often 
 hazardous, not only because hybridity is still much more frequent in 
 plants than in animals, but also because the minuteness of many of 
 those small organisms necessitates the use of the microscope, which 
 may often give rise to deception. Thus although we firmly believe, 
 on the strenth of Genesis alone, that God has created all plants, even 
 the smallest, "each after its kind," still we are not surprised that the 
 best botanists are sometimes mistaken as the natural characters of 
 some of them. Let Mr. Darwin and his supporters make the most 
 they can of this concession. 
 
 But we demur from admitting that the same obscurity rests on the 
 natural characters of animals, if we except those whose nature cannot 
 be well determined because they form the link between the fields 
 of zoology and botany. They are mainly called, on that account, 
 zoophytes. As to all those beings which possess evidently the char- 
 acters of distinct animals, we do not believe that the variableness of 
 species has ever been proved for a single one of them. In France 
 particularly, where the study of natural history has always been pur- 
 sued with vigor and accuracy, the doctrine of transfonnism^ as it is 
 called there, continues, to this day, to be altogether rejected by all the 
 chief leaders in the science. And the same is the case to a great 
 extent in England and Germany. The fossil species are thought by 
 some to have been the origin and cause of many modern ones ; but 
 even these writers do not think that the species are constantly chang- 
 ing. They only did so once, they think, on account of the violent 
 revolutions in nature v;hich accompanied the passage from one geo- 
 logical epoch to another. 
 
 Secondly, another powerful reason for calling this principle of 
 Darwinism a mere assertion is the fact that the two main causes 
 which are everywhere assigned for the mutability of species — namely, 
 natural selection and sexual selection — are admitted now nearly by 
 all scientists to be a delusion having scarcely any foundation in fact. 
 This requires some development, because if it is well ascertained the 
 consequence must be that Mr. Darwin has altogether lost his time 
 and trouble. His system vanishes in thin-air. 
 
 To understand this clearly, it is proper to remark that long before 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 29 
 
 Mr. Darwin began his labors there was an "artificial selection" going 
 on actively in the animal kingdom, and carried out by a class of 
 people who had no great pretension to the title of scientists, but 
 who practically rendered more service to natural science than many 
 "leaders of thought." These were the improvers of the breed of 
 animals. Horses, cattle, dogs, swine, fowls, birds of every descrip- 
 tion, were the great object of their practical study. And most of 
 them did it not so much for the sake of science as for the sake of 
 gain. A new stallion, having a long genealogy of noble ancestors, 
 born in their stable, with finer characters than any of its progenitors, 
 might be sold in London for many thousand pounds, in Paris for 
 hundreds of thousands of francs, in New York for an incredible 
 amount of dollars. This was the mainspring of their efforts which 
 followed strictly the rules of a judicious "artificial selection." They 
 " selected" well the dam and the sire ; the object of their " selec- 
 tion" fell likewise on the season for breeding, on the food, on the 
 drink, on a hundred other circumstances of which we know little, as 
 we never felt any inclination for that kind of craft. 
 
 Selection in such cases as these was called artificial, because it 
 was not left to the blind impulse of nature, but was directed by 
 the mind of man, and powerfully helped by the teaching of ex- 
 perience. For this useful art is not of recent origin. The Arabs 
 have carried it on, with regard to* the improvement of the horse, 
 from the most remote antiquity. In all ages the breeding of all 
 domesticated animals has been the constant care of pastoral peo- 
 ple, and Genesis has told us how Jacob overreached Laban in the 
 production of many-colored sheep and goats. 
 
 During so many ages of study and experiment, it is certain 
 that if man could have produced by artificial selection any new 
 species of animals, the same would have been recorded in the an- 
 nals of mankind; and that very species still existing in our day 
 would be pointed out by everybody as the creation of man and 
 not primarily of God. But it is notorious that from all those 
 attempts at improving the breed of animals nothing has come out 
 but varieties. Varieties, however, without number. For who 
 could count those of the sheep, of the ox, of the horse, of the dog 
 particularly ? 
 
 Mr. Darwin knew this well, and, afraid that this alone might 
 be fatal to his system, he strongly insisted on the divergences of 
 opinion among naturalists with regard to the characters of species; 
 
30 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 and thus introduced some confusion into the whole matter, as if 
 it was really impossible in many cases to distinguish varieties from 
 the original stock. But this was all in vain. Naturalists often 
 differ, it is true, in stating theoretically how species in animals can 
 be distinguished from varieties; but practically they all agree as 
 to the ultimate result; and there are few indeed, if any, who would 
 pretend that artificial selection has in fact introduced any new 
 species into the animal kingdom. Not a single example of it could 
 be stated by Mr. Darwin. 
 
 This point being considered as settled, there remains now to 
 examine the next question; namely. If artificial selection has never 
 produced a single new species of animals, could natural selection 
 do it ? The statement of the query carries with it its answer. 
 There is no mind to direct natural selection; it is therefore blind 
 and rests only on chance. The improvers of the breed of animals 
 have likewise the benefit of chance, if there is any benefit to be 
 derived from it. They have, besides, their own ingenuity, skill, 
 reflection, coupled with the long experience of those who have 
 preceded them. How is it that with all those advantages human 
 practitioners have never succeeded in creating a single new species, 
 whilst on the other side all the species in existence are the result of 
 natural and sexual selection, at least in the system of Mr. Darwin? 
 Only a simpleton can believe it. ♦ 
 
 Time and space forbid us any longer discussion of this subject. 
 There is, moreover, scarcely any need of it ; since it seems now 
 generally admitted that Mr. Darwin's explanation is perfectly inad- 
 equate to the production of the intended effect. ]\Ir. A. R. Wallace 
 himself, to whom the evolutionists' theory owes, it seems, its origin, 
 is now confident that even in case natural selection had sufficed to 
 account for the changes effected in animals, it does not explain 
 the origin of the intellectual and moral faculties of man ; and this 
 is sufficient for our present purpose (see his "Contribution to the 
 Theory of Natural Selection "). It has been also previously re- 
 marked that Mr. Peschel likewise refuses to admit the adequacy 
 of such cause for the production of organic beings, and this 
 seems to be now the general opinion of scientists. 
 
 But Mr. Darwin still insists ; and he says that "in the struggle 
 for life the fittest is sure to survive ; and in that survival, owing 
 to the law that organs of the greatest advantage must have always 
 the preeminence, new species must be produced, and have been pro- 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 31 
 
 duced from the beginning." The reply is ready and calls for a 
 rejoinder. If they have been produced to the extent which is 
 claimed by Mr. Darwin, the same must continue in our age, and 
 he is unable to show a single case in point except among the 
 doubtful specimens of the vegetable kingdom, on which a sufficient 
 explanation has already been given. 
 
 If a single fact of this nature was perfectly authenticated among 
 animals, it would be the beginning of a show of evidence favora- 
 ble to the new theory ; but nothing more. Since the Darwinian 
 pretension consists in claiming this origin for all the species in ex- 
 istence, it must be a universal process going on constantly in the uni- 
 verse, and a single isolated fact, which might be only a monstrosity, 
 could not furnish a sufficient support for establishing a thesis of 
 so extensive a nature. Still Mr. Darwin cannot offer us a single 
 case except within the range of doubtful plants, none certainly 
 among animals. Palaeontology, moreover, would show it, if such 
 had been the origin of the world ; and this new branch of geology 
 entirely disproves it. But this is by itself a vast subject which can- 
 not be discussed here. Meanwhile it must be maintained that 
 nothing has been proved, and the whole system ends in a mass of 
 pure assertions. 
 
 But though evolution rests mainly on the mutability of spe- 
 cies through natural selection, it is in itself a vast subject which 
 must be discussed /;/ abstracio. And it is good to remark at once 
 that it cannot be proved, and thus becomes /;/ toto a simple asser- 
 tion. A very fatal want of proof is that the first link of its long 
 chain of suppositions is an absurd hypothesis. Matter has always 
 existed: this is the starting point. Most of the evolutionists, in 
 order to give it a concrete nature, call it protoplasm existing abceterno. 
 They have no right to use such a word as this which supposes a 
 design; namely, that of serving for the formation of other beings. 
 Since in their opinion there was no Mind at first, protoplasm can- 
 not be admitted. There are here consequently two absurdities : 
 the supposition of eternal matter, which is inconceivable and repug- 
 nant to our mind, and the assertion that this primitive substance 
 had an object, being a protoplasm, which is repugnant to the fun- 
 damental axiom of evolutionists, since it rejects design. 
 
 Out of this protoplasm the whole series of beings is evolved, 
 each new substance coming strictly from the previous one in an un- 
 broken succession. From inorganic substances, they pretend that 
 
52 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 there arose the first organized cells, and life luas born. This is par- 
 ticularly the illogical assumption of Mr. Herbert Spencer, who thinks 
 that the homogeneous can become heterogeneous through differen- 
 tiation. This explanation is a mere jumble of words which can 
 have no meaning. An inorganic being cannot produce life, and 
 the living alone generate the living. How can sensible men be 
 satisfied with these first steps of a theory which is announced as 
 the only one acceptable to reason ? 
 
 Once there is animal life, the rest follows without great diffi- 
 culty, in the imagination of the evolutionists. Sensation, emotion, 
 consciousness, memory, reason, and at last conscience or some sort 
 of morality, are the spontaneous products from protoplasm through 
 evolution, which at last culminates in man ; until the irresistible 
 progress of natural things will probably bring on some new being 
 as superior to mari as he is himself above common brutes. 
 
 All this, of course, is supposed to be derived from " uncon- 
 scious and unthinking" forces, without any design, except at the 
 end of the series: the designs, namely, of the hawk against the 
 sparrow, of the sparrow against the worm, of the worm against 
 the foliage of plants, to say nothing of the designs of man against 
 all inferior creatures. This is called the struggle for life, which 
 is said to promote natural selection, and thus generates the only 
 order acknowledged in the universe; namely, that of nomencla- 
 ture and authorized classification. We remember Mr. Darwin's 
 axiom on this subject. 
 
 The reader is begged to believe that there is no exaggeration 
 in all these statements. Condense or develop all the books of 
 Mr. Darwin in order to obtain the pure substance of their pro- 
 ducts, and I do not believe you will extract an5'thing else of 
 importance. Inorganic beings are supposed to have existed at 
 first without any cause whatever. The life of organized beings is 
 supposed to have sprung up from mere matter. Yet there is an 
 absolutely impassable gulf between both. The same is evidently 
 the case between mere sensation and intellect, particularly because 
 this last attribute is always coupled with a moral conscience. All 
 these axioms of evolutionists are not only simple assertions, but 
 they evidently are absolute impossibilities. Mr. Darwin thinks 
 he has proved them by his natural and sexual selections. A 
 selection, it must be remembered, not directed by mind, but the 
 pure effect of chance, which is called here the struggle for life! 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 33 
 
 Again, this scheme intended to explain the world supposes no 
 plan whatever, since there cannot be any with unthinking and 
 unconscious forces. The whole, besides, is resumed in a single 
 line of successive formation, and this goes directly against all the 
 facts of creation which we all witness. Not only we see that 
 there is a plan in nature, and consequently a directing Mind; 
 but we cannot close our eyes to the fact that this Supreme and 
 Spiritual Power has not chosen to dispose His creatures on a 
 single line of evolution, though It might have done so. Sev- 
 eral of these are visible in the exterior world. . I think the 
 naturalists distinguish five of them for animals alone. There 
 may be a kind of evolution for each of them; but there is not 
 evidently a single plan of development comprising the whole. 
 To quote only an example, the mammalia and the radiata cannot 
 be the result of the same plan. The whole of natural history 
 could be unfolded here as against the system. 
 
 The fact is that Darwinism is totally unscientific. It unsettles 
 all the principles of classification as well as of science itself. A 
 book of natural history written and published according to the 
 assumptions of the new system not only would not satisfy the 
 claims of reason and logic, but could not even give any satisfac- 
 tory account of the universe. It would be the best means of ren- 
 dering the world incomprehensible, and of retarding the progress 
 of science for centuries. 
 
 The strange delusion under which the author of the system 
 evidently labors for reducing the world to a single line of forma- 
 tion has emboldened him to fall upon embryology as a strong 
 proof in his favor; and he seems confident of success when he 
 says, ("Descent of Man,"i. 31): " The embryo of a man, dog, seal, 
 bat, reptile, etc., can at first hardly be distinguished from each 
 other." Hardly is a convenient expression, which he nevertheless 
 would probably have preferred to replace by a simple not. The 
 word hai'dly is sufficient, however, for the destruction of his system, 
 since the smallest possible difference in the embryo contained in 
 the ^^^ suffices as a starting-point for a different evolution "in a 
 man, seal, dog, reptile, bat, etc." But he is careful not to men- 
 tion, though he must have been fully aware of it, that the study 
 of embryology, which has been carried in France farther than 
 anywhere else, has proved that the embryo in animals is not de- 
 veloped, in most cases, according to a single line of increase, but 
 
34 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 is in fact a stage of various transformations comparable to those 
 of the larva, chrysalis, and winged insect in the butterfly. Very 
 often, in fact, a natural development has nothing to do with those 
 transformations which follow various plans assigned to them by 
 the Creator, and are often disconnected from each other. 
 
 We are glad to have met almost unexpectedly this mighty word 
 Creator, which brings us back to the question propounded a 
 few pages back. Is it not more rational, as well as more simple, 
 to explain the present Vv^orld by a strict creation dependent on the 
 will of an Infinite Power than leave its production to any atheis- 
 tic system ? Which of the two is more scientific than the other ? 
 This is the next thing to be examined. 
 
 Science is either the induction of well-ascertained f^lcts going 
 to prove some general principles: 'this is called ^;^^z/r^/V, that is, 
 the scientific process from the known to the unknown. Or it is 
 the deduction from well-settled principles, or evident axioms, to 
 particular details involved in the premises: this is called synthesis, 
 and was preferred by the ancients, who always liked best to start 
 from generalities because their minds were more comprehensive 
 than ours in their first grasp. But whichever scientific process is 
 preferred, Darwinism must be condemned and rejected altogether 
 from the field of science, in the matter of evolution. Synthesis — to 
 begin with it as we like it best — is still followed in our day by all 
 great mathematicians, who invarialy use its process to invent new 
 theorems or to find out laws until their time unknown or not 
 proved. Kepler, among many others, was a master in that mag- 
 nificent branch of knowledge so fertile in splendid discoveries. 
 We have always been unable to see why this admirable process 
 has been called mathematical analysis; for thus all elements of 
 mathematics call it. It would be, in our opinion, much more 
 proper to design it as mathematical synthesis. But whatever may 
 be thought of this, it cannot be denied that the usual process fol- 
 lowed by modern scientists and naturalists has no point of con- 
 tact with real synthesis; and Mr. Darwin, in particular, must be 
 pronounced a thorough-going analyst. It would be, consequently, 
 useless to examine his claim to science under this first aspect, of 
 which he does not seem even to be aware. It remains only to inquire 
 if he follows the strict rules of analysis, and can hope to reach truth 
 scientifically by the way he applies those rules. The chief of them 
 are first, that the peculiar facts from which induction has to pro- 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 35 - 
 
 ceed should be well ascertained and exactly stated; second, that 
 no bias should be given to those facts with the view of making them 
 tell more than they do; third, that their list should be complete, 
 and not opposed by other contrary facts; fourth and last, that no 
 conclusion should be drawn more general than the facts them- ' 
 selves are in their complexity. With these rules analysis is a sure 
 guide. 
 
 Now of all of them the first is the only one that Mr. Darwin 
 follows strictly. He and his friend Mr. Huxley are most remark- 
 able men for their painstaking labors in collecting facts of natural 
 history. Their erudition in that line is most wonderful; and not 
 only their followers admire them in that regard, but their oppo- 
 nents even gladly concede that it would be difficult to go farther 
 in industry and care. Mr. Darwin, particularly, has thus obtained 
 the admiration of many scientists opposed to his views. It 
 seems it was for this reason that M. de Quatrefages endeav- 
 ored to obtain his admission among, the honorary and corres- 
 ponding members of the Academy of Sciences in Paris. But this 
 learned body twice refused, on account, no doubt, of the deficien- 
 cies of Mr. Darwin in other respects. Those deficiencies are so 
 glaring, with regard to all the other rules of a strict analysis, 
 that it is impossible to admit his claim to the name of scientist. 
 Thus after having stated the facts accurately, he knows how to 
 accommodate them unduly to the needs of his system. His work 
 on the " Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals " is an 
 obvious example of it. He may prove in it that the sa/ne muscles 
 are used by both to express their emotions; but he goes out of his 
 strict province by giving to those emotions the same significance, 
 as if they argued exactly the same inward principle, and as if the 
 explosion of laughter, for instance, in a monkey and in a man ex- 
 pressed really the same inward feeling. But it is particularly the 
 last rule which is constantly left aside by Mr. Darwin; and often 
 from some very trifling facts, few in number, he concludes rashly, 
 and draws consequences which would excite the smiles of a child 
 as soon as he would understand the question. 
 
 Yet this farrago of conjectures, possibilities, unfounded asser- 
 tions, and occasionally absolute absurdities, is pompously set forth 
 as a system giving a rational and scientific explanation of the 
 world far preferable to the supposition of its production by an 
 Infinite Power. If, nevertheless, science is a strict ami rationai 
 
30 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 deduction of clear co7iseqiienccs frojn well-asceriaincd principles^ the 
 dogma of creation can be called perfectly scientific, whilst Dar- 
 winism is not. And it precisely falls out that, independently of 
 Revelation and the Word of God contained in Holy Scripture, 
 truth can be elicited most felicitously by both the synthetic and 
 the analytic methods applied to this belief. 
 
 Synthetically first, for the world is a great synthesis where 
 the name of God can be read everywhere. It is all comprised in 
 the text of St. Paul:* Invisibilia {Dei)^ a creatura 7nundi^ per ea 
 quce facta simt intellecta conspiciuntiir. ^' The invisible things of God, 
 from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood 
 by the things that He made." God, therefore, manifested Him- 
 self by bringing the world into being. We see in it His immen- 
 sity, omnipotence, justice, love, and providence, in spite of the 
 opinion of a few pessimists. God alone explains rationally the 
 world. Whoever does not suppose Him first can understand 
 nothing of what we all clearly see. But as soon as He is acknow- 
 ledged and adored the great book opened before our eyes speaks 
 to our intellect, and unveils what was before hidden and mysteri- 
 ous. Man particularly, his relations to the universe and to its 
 Author, are no more incomprehensible enigmas. Besides the 
 material world, that part of it so superior to the first which 
 includes the great principles of order, harmony, true beauty, 
 moral feeling, conscience and its sanction, the duty of holiness, 
 sanctity itself as reflected from the bosom of God on the heart of 
 man — all those sublime things and many others become clear at 
 once. Truly indeed our path is strewn with light and glory! 
 The development of the universe as a divine synthesis would 
 require pages of description, and we must hurry on. 
 
 The language of analysis is the same. When, satiated finally 
 with a long-protracted look at the world as a whole, we come to 
 pluck a flower on the way, play with a tame bird in an aviary, 
 follow with our eyes a bright insect making its bed of the petals 
 of a rose, it is still God that we perceive in the smallest objects 
 after having admired Him in the infinity of space. But particu- 
 larly when we analyze our feelings, aspirations, desires, noble 
 aims and leanmgs, the process attains at once the height of 
 
 * Rom. i. 20. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 37 
 
 demonstration. Our destiny is no more a problem; it is written 
 with the sweetest characters in the deepest recesses of our soul. 
 We know for certain that we have a father in heaven; an eternity 
 of happiness is our blessed lot; and the conviction remains for- 
 ever firm with us that we were born for immortality. 
 
 Is not this the language of reason, of true science, of natural 
 intuition.^ Yet nothing is said here of the happy privilege of the 
 Christian who relies, besides all this, on the very Word of God to 
 strengthen his faith and hope. Let the reader compare this pic- 
 ture with the fair expose that has been made of Darwinism. It 
 w^ould be useless to speak at length of the fourth and fifth articles 
 of its scheme; those, namely, fhat regard the evolution of the 
 moral order, and the long time the system must assume for its 
 operations. A word must suffice. For the attempt of Mr. Darwin 
 to account for the evolution of the moral order must be admitted 
 to be an absolute and thorough failure by all those who have a 
 true appreciation of scientific processes. It has been seen that 
 Mr. Wallace himself was obliged to give up evolution in-the case 
 of man considered in his moral character; and there is nothing to 
 add to the few words which were said on the subject. 
 
 5th. The immense period of time required by the system of 
 strict evolution would not have called for a single remark of ours, 
 had not its greatest advocate insidiously insinuated the idea that 
 these " deep recesses of time" of which he speaks go in fact to an 
 antecedent eternity. The fallacy of the supposition has been 
 sufficiently exposed. The word eternity itself being incomprehen- 
 sible, alone refutes the system. 
 
 4. Man was created to the image and likeness of God. 
 
 /Mightier minds and nobler hearts than evolutionists' can be 
 must now be heard speaking of man's creation. They will give 
 us a far higher view of our race; and this alone would be sufficient 
 to assure us that it is true as well as noble. Even since his fall 
 man has preserved so many marks of his original grandeur that 
 whatever lowers him in the scale of beings is repugnant to his 
 nature. Mr. Darwin has felt it; and in his ''Descent of Man" in the 
 very book where he pretends to administer the proof that man is 
 descended proximately from an ape and remotely from an ascidian^ 
 
38 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 he imagines that we can still be proud of our origin, and he writes 
 the following strange lines:* " We have given to man a pedigree 
 of prodigious length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality. 
 The world, it has often been remarked, appears as if it had been 
 long preparing for the advent of man; and this in one sense is 
 strictly true, for he owes his birth to a long line of progenitors. 
 If any single link in this chain had never existed, man would not 
 have been exactly what he now is. Unless we wilfully close our 
 eyes, we may, with our present knowledge, approximately recog- 
 nize our parentage; nor need we feel ashamed of it. The most, 
 humble organism is something much higher than the inorganic 
 dust under our feet; and no onjs with an unbiassed mind can 
 study any living creature, however humble, without being struck 
 with enthusiasm at its marvellous structure and properties.y' 
 
 The writer of this paragraph evidently laughs at us. In his 
 scheme any organism being the result of "unthinking and uncon- 
 scious" forces cannot be nobler than mere inorganic dust ; and to 
 feel any "enthusiasm" for the structure and properties of any 
 object, we must first be persuaded that it comes from an All-wise 
 and All-good Creator. When this is denied, any disposition of 
 matter, however striking and orderly in appearance, cannot excite 
 any feeling of admiration, since it is the work of chance; and an 
 "unthinking" simpleton alone can admire and praise it. 
 
 But if anybody is so easily satisfied as to be enraptured at 
 the sight of an "humble organism," the sublime declarations of 
 the highest Doctors of the Church, on the subject of our origin, 
 are much more calculated to excite enthusiasm in our heart than 
 the cold theories of all materialistic philosophers. And since 
 those declarations are based on the testimony of Scripture, they 
 are much better entitled to our respect and belief. 
 
 Genesis had first spoken of man's physical organization. He 
 appeared after all the animals, and without any connection with 
 their particular formation except that the ideal of his future 
 bodily frame was evidently the pattern on which all those inferior 
 beings had been previously modelled. For this reason the Fathers 
 called him a mic7'ocosm. His body, however, was composed only 
 of the inorganic elements of the earth; but the hand of God had 
 raised it up to Himself and placed it in an erect position, so that 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 205. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 39 
 
 at his first moment of existence man could look on God face to 
 face, as Lactantius said; and the animals created for him had to 
 revere him as their god who was to rule over them, since they 
 were made for him. 
 
 This the Fathers have already told us. But when they speak 
 of the creation of his soul, their language is far more sublime. 
 Following Holy Scripture, they say that it came from the breath- 
 ing of God Himself, and by this divine insufflation man's soul 
 was "made to the image and likeness of his Creator." 
 
 Any one curious of knowing in extenso their doctrine on the 
 subject will find the substance of it in Petavius' Dogmata T/ieo- 
 logica. But there is a view of it entertained by many Fathers 
 which requires of us a particular examination. They make 
 in general a distinction between imago and similitudo. Man, they 
 say, is the image of God in his spiritual nature, and he bears the 
 similitude of God by the practice of supernatural virtue. Hence 
 after his fall he is still the image of God, because he has not been 
 deprived by it of his natural gifts; but being now a sinner he has 
 lost the similitude of God, and does not enjoy any longer the super- 
 natural gifts he had received at his creation. 
 
 It is most remarkable that Plato had received, from tradition 
 probably, some insight of this noble truth; and he says in his 
 Laws :^ "The virtuous man is dear to God, because he resembles 
 God; the depraved man is no more like unto God, but dissimilar 
 and unjust." And better still in Tkecetetos : " To fly from sin is to 
 resemble God as far as is allowed us; and this resemblance consists 
 in being just, holy, and wise." It is precisely the doctrine of 
 Christ, who commands us " to love our enemies that we may be 
 like unto our heavenly Father, "f 
 
 Man at his creation, therefore, bore the similitude of God, be- 
 cause his soul was adorned with all supernatural virtues. The 
 Fathers are unanimous on the subject; and the doctrine of the 
 Church has never varied as to the god-like integrity (as it is called) 
 of the father of our race. Holiness was his first characteristic. 
 This holiness, it is true, was lost by the Fall; but man can recover 
 it by the grace of the Spirit; and it must be the object of his best 
 efforts to conquer his passions and re-establish in his soul the reign 
 of virtue, nay, of sanctity, the true similitude of God. 
 
 Lib. iv. f Matth. v. 45. 
 
40 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 Irenaeus declares ^ " Whoever has lost the life of his soul (by 
 sin) is reduced to animalism. . . . He possesses still the image of 
 God impressed on the nature of man at his birth {plasmate)^ but 
 he does not bear any longer the similitude of God, through the 
 operation of the Spirit." "The sons of God," says St. Cyprian, f 
 " must be so perfect as to show in their life a heavenly second 
 birth. . . . The divine similitude, which Adam had lost by his sin, 
 must shine in their actions and be manifested in their daily 
 work. St. Ambrose, X after having said that the image of God 
 is reflected in the three faculties of the human soul, intellect, will, 
 and memory, adds § that the similitude of God consists in justice 
 and virtue, and " the more a man practises them the nearer he 
 comes to God and the greater similitude he bears with Him." 
 
 It would be tedious to continue the enumeration of those texts. 
 We would find only the repetition of the same thought more or 
 less strongly impressed on the reader. But it is important to in- 
 sist on a particular remark most appropriate to our present object. 
 The various texts which have been just brought forward, and 
 many others which could be added, give us of the primitive dig- 
 nity of man a far higher idea than any of the previous passages, 
 where there was question only of the physical condition of man 
 and of his natural gifts. Yet this last view is in our day the only 
 aspect of the question which is taken into consideration. When 
 it has been established that man at his creation was placed far 
 higher than any animal even of the highest grade, that he cannot 
 be included in any order or class such as natural history discusses 
 and sets in order, that his moral nature, independently of his su- 
 pernatural gifts raises him up to a region above this earth, every- 
 thing which appears to be required in the present state of our 
 knowledge has been set forth; and if the same is proved, all the 
 modern theories of the materialistic order crumble into dust and 
 disappear. All this certainly is a great deal, and deserves to be 
 insisted upon. 
 
 But the Fathers of the Church are not satisfied with raising 
 man up to that region which is merely above our sublunary atmos- 
 phere. They must place him as far up as God himself, and rep- 
 resent him as reflecting in his supernatural endowments all the 
 
 * Lib. v., adv. haer. c. 6. f De bono patientiae. 
 
 X De dignitatc condit. horn., c. 2. § Ibid., cap, 3. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 41 
 
 moral grandeur of Deity. He must be wise, virtuous, just, nay, 
 perfect as the Heavenly Father; and through and by virtue he 
 must be shown to be really God-like. This is to be examined 
 with more attention, because it is the real foundation of the holi- 
 ness of the Church; that is, of redeemed man; which is the precise 
 object of this volume. The discussion must necessarily prove 
 that Christian virtue, sanctity, is of a kind which is exalted as far 
 up as the throne of God, so that natural morality remains far 
 below. 
 
 And to begin at once, it is proper to ask, What is the most 
 prominent characteristic in human destiny ^ What is the view 
 we must first take of man ? Is he to be appreciated only from his 
 physical qualifications ? or from his merely natural though spiritual 
 endowments ? For what end chiefly was he made ? He was 
 evidently made for God and eternity; and sanctity is the neces- 
 sary condition for fulfilling this high destiny. Let us look at this 
 with care. Man's aspirations cannot be satisfied short of an eter- 
 nal companionship with God in heaven, wiiich supposes primarily 
 the most strict holiness on earth. Let us examine this more in 
 detail. 
 
 To see in man the lineal descendant of lower beings, destined 
 like them to perish entirely; to derive all his faculties from un- 
 thinking and unconscious forces, and place him, by the simple 
 chance of natural selection and the struggle for life, at the head of 
 a materialistic organization, is not only unwarranted by all we 
 know of purely physical laws, and opposed to all the principles of 
 science itself, but must be considered as a most abject doctrine 
 which can find room in its tenets only for the lowest kind of mo- 
 rality. Its abettors, in spite of all their efforts to prove that they 
 do not discard entirely human conscience, know well that its pre- 
 tended origin from protoplasm through a blind evolution leaves 
 it absolutely without a sanction, and cannot subject man to any 
 moral responsibility. If their system were to prevail, human so- 
 ciety could mot be placed logically under the control of any law; 
 and, the most violent passions remaining unbridled and unamen- 
 able to the sense of duty, the society of wild beasts would be 
 preferable to that of man. It would be a kind of insult to keep 
 the reader any longer on these considerations. Simple good 
 sense must tell him that this first way of explaining human des- 
 tiny is at once degrading and unwarranted by true science. 
 
42 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 The second supposition is far above this first one, yet cannot 
 satisfy our real aspirations. It is that of the pure deist, who recog- 
 nizes the spiritual but not the supernatural order. It consists in 
 admitting the mysterious but not miraculous creation of man by God 
 Himself, and for a merely natural end. Man is made for happiness, 
 but a happiness such as we can enjoy in this life, only in a higher 
 degree. Eternal life is admitted, but of a purely natural order. The 
 future life, if there is one, is merely the continuation of this, which 
 comprises the totality of human aims and aspirations. No superna- 
 tural union of God with man can be imagined, as long as we re- 
 main in the domain of pure reason ; and that of Revelation being 
 discarded in this second system, we are neither the real image of 
 God, nor destined to become similar with Him by the practice of 
 supernatural virtue. 
 
 Still in this system there is room for a true, though limited, 
 morality, accompanied with a real sanction in another world. 
 That system of a holy life comprises all the principles of pure 
 ethics imprinted in the heart of man by its Creator. It is what 
 Mr. Lecky calls ''the intuitive school of morals." 
 
 This view of human destiny is so far above the first that even 
 Christians must admit that God might have been satisfied with it 
 in creating man. It is not, therefore, absurd as the first. Nay, 
 its conception gives of humankind an exalted idea, so far as the 
 material world is concerned. For everything that was said by 
 the Fathers on the physical creation of Adam according to Gen- 
 esis, answers admirably to the mere theistic explanation. Man 
 was placed at the head of the world to rule it ; his position in the 
 plan of creation is that of leader and master ; alone he is endowed 
 with an immortal soul, not destined to perish like the beasts of 
 the field. The Latin pagan poets, except Lucretius, had received 
 from tradition the deposit of those natural truths, and Ovid partic- 
 ularly has transmitted them to us in many beautiful lines. We 
 find room only for the following quotation from I. Metamorph.: 
 
 " Sanctius his animal, mentis que capacius altae 
 Deerat adhuc, et quod dominari in caetera posset ; 
 Natus homo est." 
 
 This system, however, cannot fulfil the real aspirations of m.an, 
 because it discards entirely Christianity ; and man, such as God has 
 really made him, cannot be supposed without Christ. Neither in his- 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIRLES. 43 
 
 tory nor in anthropology, itself considered in all its bearings, can the 
 human problem be solved without the dogma of the Incarnation. 
 Not in history first : try to write the history of the earth without the 
 God-man, either expected in the old world or actualized in modern 
 times, and you will have an unaccountable narrative, leaving the uni- 
 verse without plan and object, because deprived of the only bond 
 which can connect it with heaven. The plan of the deist in that 
 regard is not positively degrading, but childish and altogether un- 
 able to satisfy human reason as enlightened by history. Christ in 
 fact is the centre of all rational narratives giving a true account of 
 humankind. These considerations could be extended indefinitely ; 
 we leave them to the meditations of an enlightened reader. 
 
 But it is particularly when we consider the peculiar nature of 
 each of us — namely, true anthropology — that the plan carried out in 
 Revelation appears indispensable, rationally speaking. The deist 
 admits that God is All-good, All-wise, All-provident ; yet man in 
 his opinion has been left to himself, without any other guide than 
 the feeble glimmer of his reason. He has to secure an eternal hap- 
 piness in the next world, in which he tries his best to believe ; but 
 he scarcely sees how he can do it, agitated as he is by strong 
 passions all allied together to lead him astray. On many occa- 
 sions the light of his conscience is at best obscure, and still he has 
 no other guide to follow. His sad experience has taught him that 
 he often fails in his duty, that he has frequently in his life gone 
 openly against the most important commands of his God. He is 
 awfully alive to the fact that he has been many times guilty of 
 what he is bound to consider as sin, and even crime. Yet he can- 
 not be certain of his forgiveness, even should he sincerely repent, 
 because he has not received from Heaven any sure means of recon- 
 ciliation. The bond between heaven and earth is totally broken 
 in this system, because the God-man alone is that bond and the 
 Deist refuses to acknowledge him. O God ! the more one reflects 
 on it, the more it becomes clear that what is called the superna- 
 tural is absolutely necessary to the individual man, as well as to 
 the whole race in the complexity of its annals. The natural order 
 cannot suffice in the supposition of an All-good, All-wise, All- 
 I provident Creator ; and the cry of Isaias, repeated substantially by 
 Plato, is after all the most natural cry of the human heart: "Oh, 
 j that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down !" 
 • Thus complete morality and holiness cannot belong to man in 
 
44 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the deistic system ; and consequently it does not fully unveil his 
 real destiny, and the deist cannot appreciate his true dignity. It 
 is in fact by his moral nature that man is primarily distinguished ; 
 and his moral nature, in order to satisfy his aspirations, must be 
 carried up to the height of holiness. Let us see this somewhat 
 leisurely. 
 
 That we are made for eternity is a truth which cannot be even 
 obscured by the materialistic systems invented from the time of 
 Lucretius dowm to our own. The human conscience protests 
 against them ; and as they do not explain our origin by their silly 
 schemes, they cannot be supposed to give the least idea of our real 
 destiny. To their senseless theories we proudly oppose the plan 
 of Revelation as testified to in Scripture and authoritatively de- 
 veloped by the Fathers. It is the only one which renders a true 
 account of the appearance of man on earth, unveils the end of his 
 creation, and reveals his grandeur. 
 
 That the moral nature of man is the highest of his character- 
 tics cannot create any difficulty for any one who reflects. Neither 
 his physical endowments, nor his intellectual acumen, nor even 
 his social qualities can compete with the high privilege he enjoys 
 of having a conscience, and through it the means of a strict discri- 
 mination between moral good and evil. By this last alone he is 
 totally distinguished from, animals, who have certainly great physi- 
 cal qualities, a respectable share of sense, and often a highly de- 
 veloped sociability. But none of them have a conscience, none 
 can be actuated by the sense of moral duty, none can be account- 
 able to any tribunal but that of man on earth, their master and 
 often their tyrant. Mr. Darwin, who in all the productions of his 
 pen does his best to lower man, seems to be bent on doing still 
 more to raise animals above their proper level. He does not 
 shrink often from granting them real virtues or vices ; and the 
 third chapter, on Moral Sense, in his " Descent of Man," is 
 almost 4 serious attempt at confounding all the notions of virtue 
 and duty by making them common to animals with man. At page 
 88 (Appletons' edit.), he is bold enough to say : " We hardly use 
 the word ought in a metaphorical sense, when we say hounds ought 
 to hunt, pointers to point, and retrievers to retrieve their game. If 
 they fail thus to act, they fail in their duty and act wrongly." 
 Many other expressions of the same kind in the same chapter mdi- 
 cate the deliberate intention of the author to grant to animals a 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 45 
 
 true conscience, a real sense of duty, and the possession of a strict 
 moral sense. But the attempt is too futile to be successful, and 
 only the most infatuated among the strict evolutionists will con- 
 sent to follow Mr. Darwin in this more than childish attempt. It 
 will continue to remain perfectly certain that on earth moral 
 sense belongs to man alone, and that all animals without excep- 
 tion are altogether deprived of it, whilst they share evidently to a 
 remarkable extent in many other human qualifications. 
 
 This being evident, none of us can be surprised that Adam at 
 his creation is represented by Catholic theology as endowed with 
 a perfect moral integrity which impressed upon him the similitude 
 of God, so that he alone on earth shared in the divine virtues of 
 wisdom, jusiice, temperance, prudence, etc. And these were in 
 him of a supernatural character, because they had been infused 
 into his soul by the Creator when He impressed upon him His 
 similitude. 
 
 To better understand this point, it is proper to remark with 
 Bellarmine,* that "human nature consists of a body and a soul. 
 By the first, man comes in contact with animals ; by the second, 
 he shares in the spiritual nature of angels. There is naturally a 
 conflict between the inclinations of either ; and if Adam had not 
 received a peculiar help of a supernatural character, he would have 
 naturally experienced the effects of that conflict, such as we all 
 feel since the Fall. But the benevolent Creator, to show his pecu- 
 liar love for man, gave him at the beginning more than his nature 
 strictly required, and developed his moral sense to such a degree 
 that the conflict between body and soul ceased, and the sensual 
 appetite became altogether obedient to reason. This privilege 
 was evidently supernatural, since it could not come from any of 
 the natural prerogatives of man." 
 
 This was effected in Adam when he was created "to the likeness 
 of God." By this he received much more than was contained in 
 the material frame, by which he resembled mere animals, and even 
 in the spiritual soul, by which he partook of the nature of angels. 
 This supernatural favor continued to bless his existence as long 
 as he remained obedient to the command of God ; for he kept all 
 the while his free will, and he could disobey — as he did in fact — 
 though he never experienced any moral conflict. By his dis- 
 
 * " De Gratia Primi Horn.," cap. 5. 
 
46 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 obedience he and his race were deprived only of this supernatural 
 boon, and the integrity of nature was forever preserved for us. 
 Whatever, therefore, the Church teaches of the dignity of man in 
 the present state, it must be far inferior to what we can conceive 
 belonged to it before the Fall. 
 
 The whole of it is comprised in a short phrase: "Holiness as 
 derived from similitude with God." It is often expressed in a 
 still shorter compass by calling it "original righteousness." A 
 still greater light is thrown on the subject by St. Paul when he 
 says * that "we are called by Christ to enjoy again that righteous- 
 ness in which man had been first created." Thus the holiness to 
 which we are invited by the Church is that of Adam at his crea^ 
 tion. The same is repeated by the apostle.f The Council of Trent 
 finally has made it a dogma of faith by its decree on original sin 
 in its fifth session. 
 
 The consequence of this doctrine is that Adam in paradise was 
 not only a just man but a holy man, owing to his similitude with 
 God and through the operation of the Holy Spirit ; and all Chris- 
 tians are called to the practice of the same supernatural virtues. 
 
 A long array of texts from the Fathers and mediaeval Doctors 
 could be quoted to prove that this belief in primitive righteousness, 
 and in its restoration through Christ, has always been the Christian 
 and Catholic doctrine. This, it is true, is ridiculed in our day as a 
 dream, an Utopia, a fable of the supposed golden age, etc. Man, 
 in the opinion of nearly all modern writers, was at first a barbarian, 
 nearly allied to the ape if he was not descended from it. As to 
 virtue — not to speak of holiness — he first completely ignored it, 
 and if he gradually came to acquire the lowest notions of it 
 through a long moral evolution, it was only by strong efforts and 
 severe studies that he reached at last the abstract idea of duty. Mr. 
 Darwin in particular, in his "Descent of Man," derives all pos- 
 sible virtues from " social instincts." which, being common to ani- 
 mals with men, entitles the beasts of the field to a share in the 
 strict notions of conscientious duty. And he glories in the fact, 
 to use his own expression, that, " so far as he knows, no one has 
 [before him] approached it" (the great question of moral sense) 
 "exclusively from the side of natural history," A rational and 
 reliable origin indeed! 
 
 We could remain satisfied with this simple exposition of the 
 
 Eph. iv f Col. iii. ; also i Cor. xv. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 47 
 
 two systems, and merely say that at least the believers in natural 
 history must concede that the Catholic Church starts from a 
 higher stand-point than they do. 
 
 But we cannot rest contented with this short method of plead- 
 ing for the truth; and the question itself of the origin of virtue on 
 earth must be briefly discussed on its own merits. For it is diffi- 
 cult to see with equanimity the name of virtue so much abused as 
 to be openly granted to the brutes. 
 
 Have we retrograded so far in our backward progress that we 
 do not understand any more that the idea of holiness is far ante- 
 rior to the creation of the material world? To hear the strict 
 evolutionists, it looks as if the knowledge of it did not exist before 
 "hounds began to hunt, pointers to point, and retrievers to retrieve 
 game." Have they not heard that pagan philosophers, and among 
 them Plato, called all the notions of virtue "eternal ideas"? Where 
 could the actual upholders of strict evolution discover when they 
 were young men the notion they now have of it? In what books 
 of wisdom could they find, even at that recent epoch, the simplest 
 hint that virtue originated in a pack of hounds? In none certainly. 
 They may boast that it is a discovery of their own. Though 
 many Greek philosophers were atheists and materialists, they 
 would not have dared to publish it in case it had come to their 
 own mind. The precious truth that virtue came from heaven 
 was still too fresh in the memory of men to be openly blasphemed 
 in the name of philosophy. This was reserved for our own age, 
 and for a generation of searchers after wisdom in the low regions 
 where animals multiply, live, and perish. 
 
 There had been before them, however, ardent investigators of 
 it who made it their delight to hunt after truth, pursue it with 
 ardor, until they finally reached it, and captured it, but only to 
 fall at its feet, and profess their imperishable devotion to it. 
 What would they have said had they heard the pretended dis- 
 coveries of this nineteenth century? They would have simply 
 repeated to the new scientists the speech of the Egyptian priest 
 to Solon, related by Herodotus: "O foolish babblers, you imagine 
 that all men are like you, children, and that the annals of the 
 world have not been faithfully kept by any people before. You 
 prate about what you know not, and you pretend to be wise, 
 when you are only prattling babes." Listen to the wisdom of the 
 ancients: 
 
 From all eternity the only Omnipotent, Infinite, and Necessary 
 
1 
 
 48 TI/£ CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 Being existed in the Immensity of its own Essence. To imagine 
 that it was then the reign of emptiness is a thought worthy of 
 him who is nothing but a ''natural historian." There was in 
 God as rich a wealth of Greatness, of Power, of Love, as there 
 has ever been since He thought of creating the world. Exterior 
 creation could add nothing substantial to what existed previously; 
 since even human science shows that the addition of any number 
 of finite terms does not change the sum total of an Infinite Series. 
 
 Still the Almighty had decreed to give existence to beings dis- 
 tinct from Himself. From that moment time began as an inferior 
 image of eternity. The first works of His hands were pure spirits, 
 because they were the nearest copies of His attributes. But after 
 these He created matter which could not be in His design, but an 
 instrument left to the use of other spiritual beings destined to 
 form the uniting link between Himself and the material world. 
 
 Matter itself, moreover, was raised to the dignity of becoming 
 an expression, however inferior, of His own attributes; since He 
 remained always the Great Pan through whose power and by 
 whose design and will would forever subsist and act whatever 
 was created even in the material order. For this reason St. Paul 
 wrote that Invisibilia Dei per ea quce creata sunt conspiciuntur. 
 
 Thus we understand that the great design extended even to 
 matter, which could not exist ab ceterno and still sprung out of an 
 "eternal idea" contained in God. When the moment came that 
 the design should be realized, the solar or stellar dust (as the 
 expression has it in modern books of astronomy) was ready to 
 fill the space, and form its concentric rings and orbs revolving in 
 the immense extent of creation. There were already seen in the 
 vast expanse of the heavens His infinity. His power, His love. His 
 beauty, when the stars, as Job said, sang in the morning of their 
 existence a hymn to His greatness. To their song responded 
 that of the angels created long before, who admired in the appa- 
 rently illimitable space the little orb where the Son of God Him- 
 self, the Eternal Word, was to assume our flesh and consecrate 
 matter by His hypostatic union with it. 
 
 If this was an '' eternal idea" worthy of God, though its object 
 was only an inferior substance, deprived of an inward energy, 
 and productive of effect mainly through the activity of spiritual 
 beings, is it not still more true that all immaterial attributes, such 
 as virtue, holiness, power, love, existed primarily in the " eternal 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 49 
 
 ideas" of God, and could only come from Him as the source of 
 " all good gifts"? How can we conceive the idea of virtue and 
 holiness springing up in the mind of angels or men except from a 
 divine source? 
 
 The reader is aware that in speaking of " eternal ideas" in 
 God, and referring tiiem to Plato's doctrme, the intention is not 
 to admit them in the sense of the founder of the Academy. It is 
 known that he fell into a grave error in making of these ideas 
 entities having a self-existence of their own and almost inde- 
 pendent of God. When we speak of them, we mean merely the 
 divine thoughts, and not anything distinguished from His essence. 
 They were eternal because God Himself is eternal; and whatever 
 He thinks cannot have begun in time. It is in fact His designmg 
 Mind that we suppose all along, and which cannot be imagined as 
 absent whenever there is question of the world. To entirely sepa- 
 rate the world from it is to introduce dualism, or what has been 
 justly called Manicheism. 
 
 Virtue, holiness, was one of the most important of those " eter- 
 nal ideas" of God. It is called even one of His attributes, and 
 includes all that we can designate as supreme moral goodness. 
 From the divine bosom a ray of its mild splendor fell on the heart of 
 man at his creation, to bestow on him a conscience impressed with the 
 sense of duty. Man alone, on earth, has received that inestimable 
 boon; but all men, without exception, show that they are the pos- 
 sessors of it. Let a Christian missionary find himself alone in 
 the midst of barbarians who until that moment had never looked 
 on an European face, as soon as the man of God can understand 
 them and be understood by them he will have unmistakable 
 proofs that the moral law has been imprinted on their hearts. It 
 is there, but came from God; and animals even of the highest 
 order have been altogether denied this privilege. As free will 
 has not been bestowed on them, they need no moral guidance, 
 and are left to their instincts, which are never wrong. Man, on the 
 contrary, owing to his freedom of choice between good and evil, 
 is absolutely in want of a guide, and conscience is for him the 
 voice of God by which he is repeatedly invited to follow^ the path 
 of duty. 
 
 But there is still a step farther to go in order to fully under- 
 stand the divine origin of virtue. As soon as the interior voice of 
 conscience is heeded, and man of whatever race or country follows 
 
50 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 it, he is not only the happy possessor of a treasure on which he 
 can constantly draw, but if he in fact draws on it and actually 
 practises virtue, then all the Fathers of the Church use a strange 
 expression which they profess to derive from the written word of 
 God. They unanimously say that man has acquired some si?nili- 
 tude with God; and that all that is needed to resemble Him in 
 truth is to be in our own small measure and capacity v/hat God is 
 essentially and fully; namely, just, charitable, loving, chaste, having 
 sin in horror and detestation, and shunning it as any one shuns 
 the plague. 
 
 This admirable prerogative of resembling God as perfectly as J 
 our limited nature admits explains the word of Christ, as quoted 
 at the head of this volume, which othenvise would be mysterious,, 
 or rather unintelligible: "Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father 
 is perfect." By the practice of virtue man becomes like unto God;, 
 and by doing so constantly and adequately so far as he is able, he' 
 becomes perfect as God is, not in degree but in kind. This is 
 the abstract of the Church's doctrine on the origin of holiness on 
 earth, and the reader has already been carried to the bosom of 
 God himself, and to the very depths, not of creation, but of eter- 
 nity. Still we have so far considered only the first source of it, 
 and we must pass on to considerations of a different nature having 
 the same object in view. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SECOND PRINCIPLE OF HOLINESS IN THE CHURCH: THE PRESERVATION 
 OF THE DECALOGUE AS INTERPRETED BY CHRIST, AND ITS EX- 
 TENSION TO THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE. 
 
 I . Necessity of the Written Precepts of the Decalogue. 
 
 Holiness considered subjectively in man is the exact, nay, 
 perfect conformity of his actions with the moral law. Morality, 
 therefore, is the basis of holiness; and the first question to be 
 considered regards its standard. We maintain that the Church 
 alone places that standard in our hands, and the only compendium 
 of the moral law which can be practically relied upon is contained 
 in the Decalogue. The Church in the Old Law jealously kept it 
 in the ark of the covenant, and has extended it in the New to 
 the whole of mankind, after Christ had explained it more thor- 
 oughly than could be done in the old dispensation. This is the 
 first stepping-stone of the Christian moralist. 
 
 The moral law is, no doubt, imprinted in our hearts, and this 
 interior promulgation might strictly suffice for our guidance. Its 
 inadequacy, however, must strongly come out in this chapter, on 
 account of the hesitancies and positive errors which naturally fol- 
 low when there is no other rule than what is called the " intuitive " 
 teaching. It is important to look at this question with care, be- 
 cause many suppose in our day that mankind has scarcely been 
 benefited by the text of the Ten Commandments, and that pro- 
 vided we look into our interior, we must immediately find a sure 
 guide. 
 
 And, first, it would be a great error to suppose that the moral 
 precepts followed during the first ages of human history (as was 
 proved in Ge7itilisvi) came only from the inward consciousness of 
 right and wrong. As this would have been insufficient in our 
 fallen state, it is certain that the patriarchs received from heaven 
 
52 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 a true revelation embracing the rules of human action as well as 
 of human belief — crcJcndorum ct agciidorum. Outside even of the 
 Hebrew patriarchs from Abraham down to Moses, the Zends 
 afford a strong proof that this was the case for other races besides 
 the Jewish. The Book of Job likewise is not Jewish but patri- 
 archal. But in order not to rely on strong conjectures only 
 like this of Zoroaster, we must come directly to the promulgation 
 of the Ten Commandments as preserved in Exodus and Deutero- 
 nomy, and examine first if it were not proper — nay, necessary — that the 
 great principles of the moral law should be written down and not 
 confided solely to human tradition, supposing even its transmission 
 from a previous revelation. This oral method of preserving among 
 mankind the saving precepts imparted by God Himself to the fathers 
 of the race had been mainly followed since Adam and Noe ; and 
 for this reason probably, in the time of Moses, moral corruption was 
 already universal, whilst the world was a prey to the debasing doc- 
 trines of polytheism. Compare Palestine, for instance, in the days of 
 Abraham with the same country at the epoch of the Exodus. All the 
 details given in the Pentateuch of the promulgation of the Ten Com- 
 mandm:;nts prove also that the Israelites themselves absolutely needed 
 a written code. They would soon have become as debased morally 
 as were the Chanaanites, had not the tables of the law been brought to 
 them by Moses. And it was evidently in order that pure morality 
 should be preserved at least among them that the Decalogue was 
 made, as it were, their private property and privilege, though it con- 
 tains simply the expression of the moral law binding on all man- 
 kind and imprinted on the hearts of all. 
 
 It is proper to look somewhat attentively at that great fact wit- 
 nessed on Mount Sinai so many centuries before Pentecost, and 
 compare it with this last effusion of the Spirit of God. In both 
 it will be easy to perceive a never-failing source of holiness for 
 nations gushing forth from high Heaven, either in the midst of 
 thunder and lightning on Sinai or through the activ^e energy of 
 tongues of fire at Jerusalem; the second being merely a develop- 
 ment of the first. Until the gathering of Israel in that arid desert 
 in front of the rugged and burning mountain, the sons of Jacob had 
 not yet been a nation. They were rather a family than a tribe 
 when they entered Egypt; and during the greater part of their 
 sojourn in the country of the Pharaos they had been groaning 
 under oppression and servitude. Before occupying the territory 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 53 
 
 allotted to them in Palestine they were to receive a national exist- 
 ence from a supernatural source; for Moses, their lawgiver, was 
 only the mouth-piece of God. It is to be remarked that this birth 
 of a nation, considering all its circumstances, foreshadows already 
 their cosmopolitan character so striking to the eyes of any one 
 who looks at them without a preconceived bias. As among them, 
 and of their blood, was to be born ''the Desired of all nations," so 
 likewise, before His coming, their destiny was to raise in the midst 
 of all the races of man in the ancient world the standard of virtue 
 and holiness. It was not for themselves alone that the precepts of 
 the law engraved by the finger of God were placed in the ark of 
 the covenant, but for all the children of Adam groping so soon as 
 this in moral darkness through the inextricable maze of error and 
 corruption. 
 
 At the head of the written moral law was enjoined the majestic 
 belief in the unity of God, because polytheism had been the source 
 of immorality, as St. Paul so justly remarks in his Epistle to the 
 Romans. Still this was called the law of fear, because man was 
 yet a child susceptible chiefly of the stern discipline of admonitions 
 and threats. The same law was to take a very different character 
 on Pentecost day, when mankind, prepared for the restoration of 
 all its birthrights, would be thenceforth treated with the affection 
 due to God's sons and placed under the sweet yoke of the law of 
 love. 
 
 It is important to listen first to the austere voice of Sinai 
 and examine its main identity with the sermon of Christ on the 
 Mount, which the gentle coming down of the Holy Ghost on Pen- 
 tecost day was to imprint forever on the heart of man. 
 
 And, first, " law" is always a restraint on what is called " man's 
 liberty." Consequently law, being distasteful to corrupt human 
 nature, is unavoidably opposed by whomsoever dislikes even the 
 semblance of a restraint. There can be, therefore, nothing sur- 
 prising in the fact that the Ten Commandments, although so 
 evidently necessary for the well-being of human society, have 
 always found a violent opposition on the part of many men who 
 have refused to admit a lawgiver of any kind over themselves. 
 During many ages that bold opposition was displayed by open 
 heretics, either Gnostics and Manicheans or, later on, Protestant sects 
 which took avowedly the name of AntiiioiJiians (opposed to law.) 
 In our day the same antagonism takes an apparently milder form, 
 
54 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 and consists simply in ignoring the Decalogue to substitute for 
 it the "inner moral consciousness" of man; that is, the simple voice 
 of the human conscience with its hesitation and perplexity. This 
 is in fact a return to the previous destitute condition of our race, 
 before the Ten Commandments were given on Mount Sinai. The 
 modern rationalists, therefore, would bring back mankind to a 
 period of four thousand years ago. There seems to be little fear at 
 this day that the immoral theories of Gnosticism and Manicheism 
 should revive, and even that the Antinomianism first preached by 
 Luther, and afterwards violently opposed by him when he saw 
 the consequences drawn from it by Agricola of Eisleben, should 
 produce again the violent commotions so startling to the reader of 
 the religious history of the sixteenth century. 
 
 But the supercilious ignoring of the law of God as promul- 
 gated by Moses is a much more insidious and deadly evil, deserv- 
 ing at least some observations on the threshold of our inquiry. It 
 takes in our day a practical form whose consequences cannot but 
 be baneful and even fatal. The complete severance in modern 
 education between religious morality and instruction (so that appa- 
 rently through fear of sectarianism everything bearing the least 
 supernatural character is directly discarded) tends evidently to a 
 total rejection of the morality of the Bible, under the plea of leav- 
 ing it to family or Church training. Gradually and little by little 
 the Decalogue's text becomes forgotten, and, worse still, the very 
 children appear to be ashamed of it. It is time to point out briefly 
 the plain consequences of this anti-sectai-ian system; and this is 
 certainly the occasion of it. It is important to prove that the 
 simple rehearsal of the Ten Commandments cannot be dispensed 
 with in our day and replaced by the morality of the *' intuitive 
 school," as it is called; and that the Church is much more likely to 
 establish among men the true principles of virtue by insisting on 
 the course she has invariably pursued until this time, than in con- 
 senting to lay aside the " tables of the law" as they were brought 
 down by Moses after forty days of communication with God on 
 the summit of Sinai. 
 
 The solution of this question will be found in the nature of the 
 human conscience, which it is first necessary to analyze.thoroughly. 
 Conscience is a most important attribute of our soul ; depends on, 
 or uses, all its other faculties without ever communicating to them 
 any real share of itself. The intellect is used by it as a substratum 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 55 
 
 to all its acts ; still the human conscience does not impart to the 
 intellect anything of its own moral character. The will in man is 
 the peculiar instrument used by conscience in all its decisions, still 
 the will can be imagined as independent from any moral idea ; its 
 essence consists in determination, fixedness of purpose ; it is only 
 its object which gives it a moral character. Conscience alone, there- 
 fore, constitutes the moral world in man. And since it is mainly 
 by his moral nature that man is distinguished not only from the 
 physical universe but also from all other organic beings subjected 
 to our control, conscience may be said to be the first and foremost 
 attribute of the soul. Particularly is it so because free v^ill seems to 
 be the most essential characteristic of our moral nature, and con- 
 science is the only faculty which enhghtens human free will and 
 directs it to moral good. 
 
 It is in fact a hght imparted to man by the Eternal Word, as St. 
 John sa) s at the beginning of his gospel : " Erat lux vera quae illuminat 
 omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum." This seems to give a 
 powerful strength to the theory of "the intuitive school," but we advo- 
 cate only truth, and this is undoubtedly true. Qualifications, how- 
 ever, must come later on, to show the weak point in the '* intuitive" 
 doctrine. 
 
 And it is also in behalf of truth alone that we think proper to 
 warn the reader against the mistake of many French philosophers 
 who give the name of conscience to any reflex act of the human soul 
 from the internrJ or external world on to itself. Thus they confound 
 with it self-consciousness, which is totally different and has no part 
 in morahty. But the modern evolutionists, Mr. Darwin in particular, 
 err much more egregiously still by confounding conscience with social 
 instinct, and thus making it common to man and all animals, as was 
 previously seen. Jean Jacques Rousseau, with all his errors, came 
 much nearer to the truth when he called the human conscience un 
 instinct diimi^juge du juste et de Vinjuste. 
 
 The Catholic moralists conclude from all this that it is the supreme 
 rule of our moral actions, and that we must follow at all times the 
 voice of our conscience, even when it happens to speak falsely. It looks 
 indeed as if the moraHst philosophers of "the intuitive school" had 
 gained a decisive point in this discussion, and that after all the text 
 of the Decalogue was not necessary. 
 
 Sed co7itra, as Thomas Aquinas would say ; all these principles are 
 firm and true when man is considered in his primitive integrity, but 
 
56 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 give rise to many difficulties since the Fall; and if even then man is 
 bound to follow his conscience, he must help himself, for following the 
 path of virtue, with exterior adjuncts which he necessarily requires 
 for his safe guidance. The Fall has not only obscured the intellect 
 and weakened the will; it has chiefly rendered the conscience irreso- 
 lute, vacillating, and faltering. If left alone it cannot be called any 
 longer a safe guide on all occasions. The tempter had deceived Eve 
 by telling her that if she ate the forbidden fruit she would " know 
 good and evil." What is the meaning of these pregnant words ? Could 
 she not, could not Adam, know evil without experiencing its fatal 
 effects ? What increase of knowledge did concupiscence bring to our 
 first parents when it induced them to remain deaf to the voice of their 
 conscience and to disobey God.^ St. Augustine examines several of 
 those questions in his treatise, De Genesi ad Litteratn j and their 
 consideration is most important at this moment, for our present pur- 
 pose. 
 
 He proves (book viii. c. i6) that man could understand what 
 moral evil is before he had made the sad experience of it, merely by 
 arguing from his knowledge of moral good and supposing the very 
 contrary of what this is in itself. He brings on there a multitude of 
 examples to show that this is the usual means of knowing many things 
 of which we cannot judge by the consideration of their own nature. 
 This negative knowledge of moral evil was the great thing required 
 to secure an unbiassed conscience. 
 
 In a previous chapter (the fourteenth) Augustine had given what 
 can be called the full analysis of the human conscience, without, 
 however, naming it ; and here it is proper to quote his text. "God," 
 he says," is the immutable Good. Man, considered in the nature he 
 received at his creation, is good but not immutable. He acquires, 
 nevertheless, a greater degree of unchangeableness by adhering to 
 the immutable Good, loving and serving It by his own rational and 
 free will. Consequently his nature is good in a high degree, precisely 
 because he can adhere to the nature of the supreme Good. Should he 
 refuse, he deprives himself of a great good, which is to him a great 
 evil deserving a punishment on the part of the justice of God. It 
 would be in fact very unjust to allow that man to go unpunished who 
 has forsaken the cause of goodness. This cannot be. Sometimes, 
 no doubt, the loss of it is not felt as long as a far inferior good is pre- 
 ferred and possessed. But the divine justice requires that he who 
 willingly has lost what he ought to have loved comes to lose with 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 57 
 
 grief the unworthy object of his love. And this is fair, because even 
 that inferior object contains some degree of goodness. For unless 
 there was something good left in fallen human nature man could not 
 regret the loss of anything good." 
 
 In this admirable passage of the great Doctor of Hippo, substitute 
 instead of nature and man the human conscience^ and a flood of light 
 is thrown on the subject under discussion. This is evidently his 
 meaning: ' It would have been far preferable to man that his con- 
 science should never have known evil except by its opposition to 
 whatever is good, and never to have acquired that knowledge by a 
 sad and positive experience.* And on this first part of the subject he 
 brings on the fact of the Man Christ who remained obedient to the 
 law of God without any experience of moral evil in his human nature. 
 There was no room to quote that long but splendid paragraph. 
 
 Sinful man, however, is in a very different position from that of 
 Christ. ' He keeps still his conscience in his fallen state and could 
 adhere to God ; but often he does not, and he prefers an inferior good, 
 which becomes a great evil deserving of punishment. Conscience, nev- 
 ertheless, is so much blinded by the enjoyment of the inferior good 
 that it generally necessitates the loss of it to bring man to his senses, 
 and win him over to the practice of the divine law.' The holy Doctor 
 might have added that the denunciations and threats of the Deca- 
 logue were intended to open the eyes of man even before sinning and 
 strengthen the voice of his conscience, too weak in his present state to 
 guide him safely when passion — which St. Augustine calls the love of 
 an inferior good — speaks to his heart. This shows the necessity of an 
 exterior law. 
 
 In many cases, therefore, the admonition of conscience will not 
 suffice, and must be supplemented by a more powerful voice ; namely, 
 that of God speaking from Sinai ; and this is confirmed by all human 
 experience. Before leaving this subject, however, a few words must 
 be added to give a more thorough understanding of the office of that 
 faculty of our soul, and grant to the philosophers of the "intuitive 
 school" the full advantage of whatever they have a right to, but 
 nothing more. 
 
 If we suppose a man naturally passionless, with a great develop- 
 ment of a solid mind, and a positive disposition toward virtue, the 
 teaching of the verbal decalogue might not be absolutely necessary 
 for him, though no one can deny that it would not be altogether use- 
 less even in this case. But the number of persons is very small indeed 
 
58 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 to whom all those traits of character belong. The mass of mankind 
 is precisely the reverse, fullof passion, with a small mind, and a strong 
 inclination to moral evil. For them conscience alone does not suffice. 
 
 Again, there is no doubt that remorse is an integrant part of the 
 human conscience, and that those only have lost all susceptibility of 
 remorse who have destroyed it by the most unblushing and constant 
 practice of vice. We willingly admit that this is a powerful natural 
 help to bring man back to the path of duty. Some one has said 
 with justice, in French : "On eprouve souvent du remords pour des 
 actions qui plaisaient avant qu'on les fit. qu'on approuvait en les 
 faisant, et dont on a tire profit apres les avoir faites." "Man often 
 experiences remorse for actions which pleased him before he con- 
 sented to them, which he approved during the act itself, and of which 
 he drew profit after they were done." But remorse is not retroactive, 
 and when it takes place virtue has been lost and morality outraged. 
 It cannot, consequently, be a guide, but only a warner. 
 
 The question, therefore, remains in all its strength : Can any phi- 
 losopher of the " intuitive school " boast openly of his attempt at 
 replacing the Decalogue by his theory which supposes man almost 
 sinless and naturally good and holy, though descended either from a 
 barbarian ancestor or from a mere animal of a lower species.^ This at 
 least many of them pretend to be the case. 
 
 Listen first to the Law itself, * and judge what must be its effect 
 on man : 
 
 " I am the Lord thy God. . . . Thou shalt not have strange 
 gods before me. . . . Thou shalt not adore them nor serve them. 
 I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of 
 the fathers upon the children. . . . Thou shalt not take the 
 name of the Lord thy God in vain. . . . Six days shalt thou 
 labor. . . . But on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord 
 thy God: thou shalt do no work on it. . . . 
 
 " Honor thy father and thy mother. . . . 
 
 "Thou shalt not kill. 
 
 "Thou shalt not commit adultery. 
 
 "Thou shalt not steal. 
 
 "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 
 
 " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house ; neither shalt thou 
 desire his wife. . . ." 
 
 *Exod. •x.x. passim. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 59 
 
 These precepts belong to the natural order, and every one can 
 know them by only consulting the voice of his conscience. Still, in 
 case he should do so without any bias, and entirely free from the 
 disturbance of passion, had he no other means in his reach he never 
 could clearly perceive the strictness of his obligation, did he not hear 
 the solemn and majestic voice of Deity proclaiming them as His own 
 injunctions. Without this formal proclamation many men might con- 
 sider those precepts as being only the promptings of nature, over which 
 man is after all more or less master. Virtue is lovable solely when 
 passion is silent. It is not every one on earth who can persuade him- 
 self that these natural dicta always vindicate themselves when they 
 are disobeyed ; and even those who pretend they can do so may very 
 seldom see in it a sufficient sanction for their observance. In fact, in 
 this case the lawgiver is scarcely visible. Hence it is indubitable 
 that for the great majority of men the threats of God are absolutely 
 required for securing their perfect submission and obedience. Who- 
 ever removes from his sight the stupendous spectacle offered to the 
 Hebrews from the heights of Sinai is in great danger of making a 
 small account of the whole moral law. 
 
 And not only does it thus remain without a sufficient sanction ; 
 its meaning when left to the interpretation of every one becomes at 
 once obscure and liable to perversion. Read in Mr. Lecky's " His- 
 tory of European Morals " the long array of opinions entertained by 
 the most strict philosophers of the " intuitive school " on the founda- 
 tion of virtue ; that is, on the essence of moral principles. Since they so 
 poorly agree on such a subject, it is manifest that practically the na- 
 tural law is covered with a thick veil for the most acute eyes in point 
 of mind and information. The Decalogue, on the contrary, was by 
 the precise command of God deposited in the tabernacle, and en- 
 trusted to the priesthood as to its meaning and practical working, not 
 left to private interpretation. It became eminently so in the new 
 dispensation, and the Church of Christ alone was made the true in- 
 terpreter of the divine law. Who can believe that humankind has 
 gained nothing by this divine economy.? What effect, on the contrary, 
 has ever had in the world the moral teaching of Socrates ; of Plato, his 
 disciple; of Zeno ; of Seneca; of Epictetus himself (though this last 
 philosopher was already enlightened by the Christian doctrine), com- 
 pared with the simple teaching of the catechism in the Church .? Mil- 
 lions of children, of adult people among the rude and ignorant, to say 
 nothing of the more refined in human society, have been brought to 
 
6o THE CHURCH AXD THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the practice of a holy life by adoj^ting for their rule of conduct the 
 simple text of the Decalogue. 
 
 A few concluding words are opportune here, before considering 
 the Decalogue as explained by Christ in His Sermon on the Mount. 
 It was brought down by Moses from Sinai, engraved on two tables of 
 stone. The precepts regarding the worship of God are supposed to 
 have been written on the first ; and on the second those that concern 
 man's relations to his fellow-men. The number itself of the Com- 
 mandments is not the same for all interpreters. These differences . 
 are of little importance, and need not be discussed here. We suppose 
 that there were ten, as it is the prevailing opinion ; and that the three 
 first filled the first table, the seven others being inscribed on the 
 second. Manv Catholic interpreters, however, think that the fourth 
 precept, on the honor due to parents, accompanied on the first table 
 the prescriptions which regarded the worship of God, because in the 
 moral law the parents are the representatives of God himself with 
 regard to their children. Enough of this. Considerations of a far 
 higher importance wait for the reader. 
 
 2. The Decalogue as explained by Christ. 
 
 There are many passages of the gospels in which our Saviour gave 
 some particular explanation of individual points of the Law ; none, 
 however, so forcible as are found in the Sermon on the Mount, which 
 comes naturally in the line of the present inquiry. The sermon itself 
 contains matter far superior to any article of the Decalogue under- 
 stood in the highest meaning; and the beatitudes which form its in- 
 troduction may be called the code of the purest spirituality and holi 
 ness. This will be the subject of further reflections. The evangelical 
 counsels alone, to which the Ten Commandments have no reference, 
 can explain this heavenly doctrine of the Saviour. With justice, con- 
 sequently, Maldonatus in his admirable interpretation of this part of 
 St. Matthew's gospel proves that the Apostles alone were present 
 when the Saviour delivered this discourse. This was not for the ear 
 of the multitude. 
 
 But many passages of the sermon allude to the Law of Moses, and 
 it is to these alone that the present remarks must be confined. There 
 is, however, a preliminary question on which a word only can be 
 said. When our Lord declares that his disciples must follow a doc- 
 trine more strict than that of the scribes and Pharisees, and when 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 6 1 
 
 he explains with a greater rigor what was said to " the men of old," 
 does he intend to supply the deficiencies of the Law, or does he mere- 
 ly wish to correct the abuses introduced by " the traditions of men "? 
 Maldonatus is strongly of the first opinion ; and he seems to admit 
 a striking difference between the precepts of Deuteronomy and those 
 of the Gospel. Although far less rigid than Martin Becan,he appears 
 to belong to the same school of exegesis. The question has been 
 discussed in the first chapter of " The Church and the Gentile World," 
 to which the reader is referred. It suffices here to remark that the 
 celebrated Spanish author of the Conunentaria^ in spite of his just- 
 mentioned opinion, sees in the Decalogue and generally in the Mosaic 
 code a pure expression of the moral law and a strict introduction to 
 that of the Gospel. In this he is far superior to Becan and comes 
 very near to Suarez* opinion. In the seventeenth verse of the fifth 
 chapter of St. Matthew, " Do not think that I am come to destroy the 
 law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil," 
 Maldonatus distinguishes in the old dispensation four things ; name- 
 ly, the prophecies, the Ten Commandments, the ceremonial prescrip- 
 tions, and the judicial enactments ; and he proves that Christ fulfilled 
 them all — Christus omnia complevit. In his opinion, therefore, the dif- 
 ference between the Law and the Gospel, though striking, does not 
 touch any essential point. 
 
 Taking apart, however, the precepts of the Decalogue, which form 
 the main object of this discussion, the reader must remember what 
 was said in " The Church and the Gentile World " on the inner spirit 
 of Jews and Christians. The reflections made on that occasion prove 
 conclusively that the morality of the Old Law was really conducive to 
 holiness, and that the precept of charity in particular was under- 
 stood in the Mosaic code as it is by us under the new dispensa- 
 tion. To render this, nevertheless, clearer still, I find in Father H. 
 J. Coleridge's " Sermon on the Mount " (chapter iv,) a remarkable 
 passage which it will suffice to copy for the complete satisfaction of 
 the reader 
 
 " It must be remembered that the Mosaic law was not the first 
 declaration of the will of God as Lawgiver to men, and that even its 
 highest precepts were republications and fresh declarations of the na- 
 tural law which had existed from the first, and to which the conscience 
 of every man bore witness, whether he were aware or not of the for- 
 mal promulgations of Mount Sinai. This natural law is unchangeable 
 and everlasting; it requires the service of the heart as well as external 
 
62 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 obedience, and it did not derive its intrinsic authority from the de- 
 clarations of the Decalogue. It aimed at making men holy, lovers 
 and servers of God with all their hearts and minds and souls and 
 strength. As far as the Mosaic law was nothing more than a fresh pro- 
 mulgation of the natural law, there could be no question at all of its 
 being relaxed or destroyed by any new legislation. In this sense, 
 therefore, our Lord's words are easily understood. No declaration, 
 however perfect and sublime, as to the will of God or the duty of 
 man could possibly be antagonistic to, or a destruction of, the Law 
 and the Prophets, because the natural law, on which those last were 
 founded, cannot possibly be changed. 
 
 " Nor, in the second place, could He possibly undo, though he 
 might certainly fulfil and make perfect, the Law of Moses under that 
 other aspect which we find often spoken of by St. Paul, as when he 
 says that 'the Law is not set for a just man,' or that it was added 
 ' because of transgressions ; ' that is, in order to brand sin as sin, and 
 to threaten it with punishment in a matter which could not be mis- 
 taken or forgotten. For such is the advantage of a written over an 
 unwritten law, of a law which is enshrined in positive enactments, 
 and so made certain and unchangeable, placed in the view of all, 
 and entrusted to definite tribunals and officers and sanctions for its 
 enforcement and vindication. In a perfect state there would be no 
 need for such a written law, because the interior principle of charity 
 would be enough to guide men into all justice. But, in the actual 
 state of mankind, the written and positive law which was given by 
 Moses was one of the greatest blessings ever bestowed upon a nation, 
 as is shown by a comparison of the state of the Jews at the time of 
 our Lord with that of any other nation in the w^orld, however ele- 
 vated in character and advanced in civilization and mental culture." 
 
 This offers a clearer view of the doctrine previously developed. 
 
 There can be no question that even at this day, after the preach- 
 ing of Christ, and under the law of grace, if the written precepts of 
 the Decalogue came to be forgotten or set aside, mankind Avould soon 
 be in danger of retrograding morally and returning to the state of 
 all the pagan nations at the time of the coming of Christ; and that, 
 consequently, the care taken by the Church to keep alive among men 
 the text itself of the Ten Commandments, accompanied with her inter- 
 pretation, is one of the most powerful means of preserving among 
 men the purity of public and private morals. 
 
 This interpretation of the Church is the same that Christ gave, 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 63 
 
 because the Church is the representative of Christ on earth and has 
 received all His powers. The Sermon on the Mount does not give 
 an exhaustive review of all the Christian moral precepts, and is not 
 properly a theological treatise on the Decalogue ; but the particular 
 points examined in it give the key to the interpretation even of those 
 which are not mentioned therein. The reader can consult on the 
 subject, in particular, what Father Coleridge says on the sins of anger 
 and of lust as adverted to in the discourse of the Saviour. 
 
 From all this it strictly follows that there is for the Christian, even 
 before he reaches manhood, a strictness of moral precepts which can- 
 not exist for any philosophers of the " intuitive school," and that it 
 is a very sorry attempt on their part to ignore the Decalogue, as they 
 do, and substitute in its place the inner consciousness of man. Christ 
 knew better what were our needs ; and by explaining the Mosaic law 
 in His sermon, He has shown the importance of it for all time to come. 
 
 What renders this more palpable still is the facility which the text 
 of Exodus or Deuteronomy gives to every one for examining his con- 
 science. Men do not sufficiently reflect on this. On the very thres- 
 hold of these considerations it has been remarked that although the 
 intellect and the will in man have of themselves no moral character, 
 still they are ancillary to the human conscience, which constitutes for 
 us the whole moral world. The necessity of a strict examen of con- 
 science, as a subjective foundation of individual virtue, carries with 
 it, therefore, the use of the intellect and the will, and thus enables 
 every one to obtain an exact and, it may be said, scientific knowledge 
 of himself. This knowledge is the true source of wisdom, and be- 
 comes the beacon-light to direct us in the performance of duty. Now 
 it can be maintained that it is not possible to find a surer and shorter 
 way to it than to oblige man from the dawn of his reason to consider 
 the precepts of the Decalogue as a rule of conduct in order to find 
 out, through his intellect, his moral deficiencies and strengthen his 
 will in the determination of correcting them; inspiring us first with 
 a thorough detestation of them, and a firm determination to oppose all 
 evil inclinations. This must carry the assent of a mere philosopher; 
 the Christian knows that, besides this, he can rely on the grace of 
 God, without which, as Christ said, man can do nothing : Sine me 
 nihil potestis facere. * 
 
 These reflections are strongly corroborated by the plain assertion 
 
 * John XV. 5. 
 
64 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 of the Saviour in several passages of the Gospel. He not only said 
 that he had not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to 
 fulfil them. He added on many occasions that the whole moral 
 doctrine of the Law and the Prophets consisted in the love of God 
 above all things, and in the love of the neighbor as ourselves. In 
 saying so, He no doubt referred to the two tables of the Law, the 
 first of which contained the precepts which concerned the worship 
 and love of our Creator, whilst the second prescribed our chief duties 
 toward our fellow-men. Who does not perceive that whenever a 
 human being is solidly grounded in this theoretical system of morals, 
 and In the practical application of those principles to human conduct, 
 he becomes truly wise, and that should he continue during a number 
 of years in a serious practice of this simple method he will become 
 truly virtuous and find little difiiculty In overcoming temptation } 
 
 This is the natural and daily result of what we Christians call the 
 examen of our conscience, which the constant remembrance of the 
 Decalogue renders of an easy accomplishment; whilst all those who 
 forget It, discard it, and refuse to make use of it, soon find themselves 
 groping in moral darkness, a prey to all base passions, contemptible 
 in their own eyes, however they may pretend to be strict adherents to 
 all the doctrines of the " intuitive school." 
 
 This becomes in a high degree striking to all " directors of souls" 
 when they compare the various classes of children, both boys and 
 girls, who apply to them for confession. Those who have received 
 instruction from Christian teachers are in general wonderfully clear in 
 the view they present of themselves, can analyze their feelings, 
 describe their spiritual maladies, are anxious for the correction of 
 their defects, and show a real appreciation of the beauty of virtue 
 and the heinousness of vice, even in a tender age. The others, on 
 the contrary, whose education has been entrusted to mere professors 
 of secular learning, seem often to have no Idea whatever of the moral 
 world. Their conscience is a blank in which they cannot see any 
 spot, Inasmuch as nothing has yet been written upon it. Duty for 
 them is often a mere word, and tlie love of God a nonentity. They 
 give already all the signs of the most complete selfishness, and seem 
 to be dead to anything above sense, to any moral consideration 
 whatever. Will sensible people refuse to acknowledge that it would 
 be greatly to their benefit if the threatening voice of Sinai could reach 
 them and impress them with something of the fear of God, since they 
 have been so far altogether o-it of the reach of His love .? 
 
 i 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 65 
 
 3. The Decalogue, as explained by the Saviour in his Sermoft, zuas 
 co7ifirmed and consecrated on the Day of Pentecost. 
 
 It is not sufficient for the Christian to consider the Decalogue as 
 a strict but exterior moral code, promulgated with a solemn grandeur 
 calculated to create a feeling of awe and fear. It would not even suf- 
 fice to add to its prescriptions the explanations of the Saviour on the 
 Mount, if they are viewed only as an exterior rule of conduct, though 
 giving to the New dispensation a most remarkable superiority over 
 the Old one. The reflections which have just been made were con- 
 fined to the passages of the Sermo?t that have a reference to the pre- 
 cepts of the Old Law, and the question of the evangelical counsels 
 was not even touched upon. There will be soon occasion to come 
 back to it. But even should we, so early as this, enter into this most 
 important discussion (which we do not intend to do as yet) and treat 
 at once of the whole moral view of Christianity, embracing the way of 
 common life and the way of perfection, we would have to take, apart 
 from all this, the solemn interior promulgation of the law of love on 
 the day of Pentecost. It gives a much stronger view of holiness 
 which is altogether interior, and would be insufficient if it were con- 
 fined to exterior duties and practices. It has been, moreover, 
 promised, and for a Christian the majestic spectacle of Sinai must 
 always be supplemented by the warm and strengthening radiance of 
 the "tongues of fire" at Jerusalem. 
 
 The view generally taken of this solemn scene is faulty. It is 
 supposed that the whole effect of it was confined to the Apostles. By 
 the coming down of the Holy Ghost over them, it is said, they were 
 changed into men full of courage and strength, able to conquer the 
 world even by the shedding of their blood. This is very true, but 
 not adequate. The only thing that can be maintained with regard to 
 the Apostles is that the immediate effect of the "descent" of the 
 Holy Spirit was confined to them. They alone had received from 
 the Saviour the injunction to spend ten days in prayer as a prepara- 
 tion ; and it is only on them, with the addition of the Blessed Virgin, 
 however, that the " tongues of fire" rested. It would be a suppression 
 of truth not to mention those circumstances. But is it not known 
 from the Book of Acts that from that day forth the Holy Ghost 
 descended also, sometimes visibly, on all the faithful as soon as they 
 professed their belief, were baptized, and received confirmation from 
 the Apostles .? Was not the pouring out of the Holy Spirit over all, 
 the great feature of those days in the primitive Church ? A complete 
 
66 THE CHURCH AXD THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 list of all the passages, not only of the Acts but likewise of the Epistles 
 having more or less reference to it, would surprise perhaps any one 
 who should peruse it. 
 
 The fact is that the scene of Pentecost was enacted for all 
 Christians of that age and of the following ages to the end of time. 
 It was the solemn act foretold long before by the Prophets, by which 
 the Spirit of God was to take possession of the whole earth — Spiritus 
 Domini replevit orbem terrarum. It was the Eternal, Divine, Overflow- 
 ing Source of Holiness spreading its waters over the globe to purify and 
 sanctify it. It was the universal promulgation of the interior law of 
 love destined to replace forever that of fear promulgated on Mount 
 Sinai, 
 
 To thoroughly understand this a few words on Imu and grace are 
 absolutely necessary. St. Paul has been made by the Tubingen 
 school the great antagonist of law and the great upholder of grace. 
 St. Peter and St. James, on the other side, were, according to the 
 same school of pretended theologians, strongly in favor of the first 
 against the second. The truth, is that those gentlemen have very 
 incomplete notions of both, such as they have always been understood 
 by Christians. Because St. Paul openly pronounced himself against 
 the necessity of subjecting the converted gentiles to the observance 
 of the old ceremonial law, of circumcision in particular, he is repre- 
 sented as entirely opposing the Mosaic code. Should any one ask if 
 ever the Apostle of the gentiles stood up manfully for the entire sup- 
 pression of the Decalogue, which was not only a part of that code 
 but the very head and substance of it, it is to be hoped that the gen- 
 tlemen of the Tubingen school would not pretend that such was his 
 moral theology. Therefore he was not opposed to the law. Should 
 any one ask, on the other side, if St. Peter and St. James at the 
 council of Jerusalem did not declare that the gentiles should not 
 be subjected to the ceremonial enactments of Moses' law, it is to be 
 hoped that the majority of them would acknowledge it and not take 
 refuge in the last shift of the boldest among them by denying the 
 authority of the book of St. Luke. Therefore the majority of them 
 must acknowledge that even St. Peter and St. James were not 
 upholders of the law in the sense of the Tiibingen school. 
 
 Why not, therefore, have the good sense to comeback to the inter- 
 pretation of these words Imu and grace as given by all theologians 
 from the beginning.? Law is a command promulgated by any legitimate 
 authority, and binding all those subjected to its control. Grace is an 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 67 
 
 interior help given by Almighty God to fallen man that he may be 
 profitably able to observe His law. This law is called divine because 
 i.t came from God, who gave it formerly to the Jews through Moses, 
 and more recently to all men through Christ. It is particularly for 
 the observance of this divine law that interior grace is necessary. The 
 human lawgiver has not the power to confer it on those who are sub- 
 ject to his enactments. He is reduced to tell them : "I have jails and 
 hangmen for the law-breakers." 
 
 Our actual view, therefore, is restricted to the divine laws, for the 
 observance of which alone grace is bestowed on us from heaven. How 
 stand both dispensations, the old and the new, with respect to the 
 influence of God's grace.? It is generally said, and it is true in many 
 respects, that the old law did not give grace, which is abundantly pro- 
 vided in the new. It is certain, however, that the Jews were, to say the 
 least, no more deprived of it than the pagans were ; and it is, thank God, 
 an article of our holy faith that no man has ever been left without some 
 interior help from God. It might have happened, nevertheless, that 
 the Jews could have received interior grace on many occasions with- 
 out deriving it from their law, though it was divine, since, according 
 to the common saying of the schools, the Mosaic law did not give it. 
 We must, therefore, examine if there never was any grace for the 
 Jews in their observance of the Mosaic law as such. The question 
 has already been treated to some extent in " The Church and the 
 Gentile World." It was proved there that "if the Mosaic rites, sacra- 
 ments, and laws could not confer grace and justify ex opere operato^ as 
 the theologians say, they prescribed and made a strict obligation of 
 many things to which justification was attached, so that this law was 
 to the Jews the source of many spiritual blessings far superior to 
 whatever the gentiles possessed." Owing, however, to many positive 
 declarations of St. Paul, no Catholic can believe that the Mosaic law 
 possessed and gave to the Jews any direct means of justification ; and 
 on this account the great event of Sinai bears no resemblance what- 
 ever to that of Pentecost. The dogma of the Trinity in God, if adum- 
 brated in the Old Testament, was not sufficiently known to the Jews 
 to become a basis of justification properly so called. There was for 
 them a general hope of a Redeemer, but not sufficiently explained to 
 establish a thorough confidence in His merits as a Saviour. Above 
 all, the diffusion and influence of the Holy Ghost, not only through the 
 whole universe but particularly in the heart of every human individ- 
 ual, was then absolutely unknown ; and nothing of it could be said by 
 
68 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 Moses when he came down from Sinai and promulgated the law is 
 the people. Still in that very diffusion and influence of the Holy 
 Spirit consists the inward working of grace. Consequently grace was 
 altogether absent from the scene described with such pomp in the 
 Pentateuch. Instead of a promise of help from above, we hear only 
 threats of punishment. It is the rod that is to govern the Jewish 
 world; and this is so much the more remarkable that the Holy Spirit 
 — the Holy Breathing, in Hebrew — as a personality in God is every- 
 where spoken of in the Old Testament. The prophets announced 
 His coming. His universal diffusion, with the greatest majesty and 
 distinctness. But it was only a prediction, it was an immense future 
 event that the whole earth would one day witness. Grace, therefore, 
 was announced, but not given. 
 
 At Pentecost it predominates. St. Peter openly declared it in his 
 first speech on that day : " This is that which was spoken of by the 
 prophet Joel : and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the 
 Lord, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and 
 your daughters shall prophesy. . . . And it shall come to pass 
 that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be 
 saved." 
 
 The Son of God had appeared before, clothed in our nature ; and 
 St. John afterwards declared that "the Word was made flesh and 
 dwelt among us . . . full of grace and truth ; . . . and of 
 His fulness we all have received, and grace for grace." His coming, 
 no doubt, sufficed to establish on earth the everlasting reign of that 
 holy union and co-operation of God with man to which we give the 
 name of grace. Still He wished to do more, and after His Last Sup- 
 per, just before His passion, he said to His apostles: "I will ask the 
 Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide 
 with you forever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, 
 because it seeth Him not, nor knoweth Him. But you shall know Him ; 
 because He shall abide with you and shall be in you." For reasons 
 which we cannot know, the God-man was enjoined by His Father not 
 to stay with us, but go to heaven and remain there till the last day. 
 He said, however, that He did ?2ot 7uish us to remain orphans, so He 
 would not only remain invisibly with us, but send us the Holy Ghost 
 to govern His Church and establish His tabernacle^ according to the 
 strong expression of St. Paul, in the heart — nay, in the body — of 
 each of us. 
 
 This immanency of God's presence began on Pentecost day, and 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 69 
 
 gives to it a character altogether different from that of Sinai. The 
 object of both days, however, was in some sense the same, namely, 
 to promulgate the eternal law of God, on the first occasion exte- 
 riorly, and on the second inwardly. But even in this last contin- 
 gency the former text of the law remained ; Only it was no more 
 engraved on "tables of stone," but, as St. Paul says, "in the fleshy 
 tables of our heart." This could not be done except by purifying 
 and sanctifying it ; and thus the text of the law which primitively pro- 
 moted holiness but did not give it came at last to be impregnated 
 with God's holy breathing which creates sanctity in us, as His first 
 breathing on the body of Adam in paradise created his soul and made 
 him a living, rational, God-like creature. In these few words we have 
 the true analogy of the two Testaments. 
 
 Thus was the Decalogue not only confirmed, but also consecrated 
 on the day of Pentecost ; and it is proper to speak briefly of this con- 
 secration, which alone could establish the reign of sanctity on earth. 
 It will be the best way to prove the existence of the supernatural or- 
 der in point of morality, and to show the insufficiency of natural 
 ethics. 
 
 The Mosaic law, by giving only an exterior promulgation and 
 sanction to the eternal principles of right, had conferred an immense 
 benefit on mankind, since its knowledge was not strictly confined to 
 the Jewish people whom it governed, but it became gradually known 
 to the surrounding nations, and finally through the dispersion of the 
 Jews nearly to the whole earth. Nevertheless, as it was only a clearer 
 enunciation of the natural law, history does not show that the nations 
 learned from it and consequently followed in their life the principles 
 of pure virtue. The process of moral degradation among them con- 
 tinued, on the contrary, without any perceptible change. But as soon 
 as the order of grace was established at Pentecost a universal diffu- 
 sion of holiness took place, which it will be our agreeable duty to de- 
 scribe in the Second Book of this volume. There must have been a 
 profound reason for this difference ; and by looking closely at it, it is 
 easily perceived that it could not come but from a real consecration 
 given on that day to the Decalogue which it did not possess before. 
 
 This consecration resulted from the effusion of the Holy Spirit, 
 who thenceforth accompanied with His gifts the exterior promulga- 
 tion of the moral law. Fallen man required interior help, and this 
 could not come but from a supernatural source. This is admirably 
 described in the Acts of the Apostles. Though the "impetuous 
 
70 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 wind," the "tongues of fire," the "single meaning" understood by 
 spectators used to "various languages," were as many exterior phe- 
 nomena speaking only to the senses, it was evident that the chief cir- 
 cumstance of the whole scene consisted in the presence of the Divine 
 Spirit coming down from heaven to take possession of men's hearts, 
 and to give to virtue the supernatural consecration of holiness. 
 
 Henceforth a virtuous act was not to be produced by man alone 
 reduced to his natural faculties, and following his inward conscious- 
 ness of right. God was to act with him, and bestow on him the 
 moral strength he did not possess in his fallen state. He was thus 
 truly redeemed, and that redemption was interior. A change would 
 take place in his soul which would give it a higher degree of sanctity 
 than he possessed even in the integrity of his first creation. 
 
 This was the great result accomplished on that day when the 
 Church was solemnly founded and dedicated, as it were, in pres- 
 ence of the multitude. But to give of it a still clearer idea, it is 
 important to add that at the same time the Mosaic law was replaced 
 by the law of the Gospel, and the Decalogue was thereby sancti- 
 fied and became the property of the whole human race through 
 the Church. A word will suffice in conclusion. The immense supe- 
 riority of the Gospel's precepts over those of Judaism strikes every 
 one who compares them. It is, in particular, impossible not to 
 acknowledge it when placing in juxtaposition Christian life in mod- 
 ern times and Jewish morality in former ages. The reader under- 
 stands that by Christian life is meant here that which is truly inspired 
 by the spirit of the Gospel. 
 
 But it is indubitable that the difference between both comes from 
 this, that the Decalogue is not understood in the same way by the 
 modern Christian as it was by the ancient Jew. The superiority of 
 the one over the other comes evidently from the new impress given to 
 the former Ten Commandments by the breathing of the Holy Spirit 
 when He took possession at the same time of the earth itself and of 
 the heart of redeemed man. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CHURCH PROPOSES THE LIFE OF JESUS AS THE CHRISTIAN 
 IDEAL. THIRD PRINCIPLE OF HOLINESS. 
 
 I. Christ as Patter ?i of Sanctity. 
 
 From the apostolic age, and throughout the following 
 centuries, the Church has made a positive precept of the Saviour's 
 imitation. All must partake of His inner life according to the 
 degree of their calling. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus Him- 
 self commands His disciples "to be perfect as their heavenly Father 
 is perfect."* Both prescriptions agree, because of the identity of 
 Christ with his Father. Thus are we invited to a holiness far 
 superior to the morality simply derived from the precepts of the 
 Decalogue. This, consequently, is of a much higher importance 
 than anything contained in the previous considerations. It partakes, 
 as Cornelius a Lapide remarks on this text, of the nature both of 
 precepts and of counsels, as many passages of the Sermon on the 
 Mount evidently do. A greater degree of attention, therefore, is 
 required of the reader who must be brought to the consideration 
 of a virtue which far transcends the order of nature, and cannot 
 be even thought of by the mere philosopher. It will be, however, 
 the most simple way to teach us why the Christian religion is 
 called supernatural; and by knowing how far above the Mosaic 
 law it must be placed, we will by the very fact understand that 
 the purest morals derived only from '*our inner consciousness" 
 sink into insignificance when they are compared with the holiness 
 to which the Christian is called. 
 
 St. Paul has spoken magnificently in many passages of his 
 epistles of the necessity for all Christians to copy in their lives 
 that of Christ, and to rise gradually to perfection, until they reach 
 the age of spiritual manhood in that holy attempt to become like 
 
 * Matt. V. 48. 
 
72 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 unto their model. In three of them particularly — namely, to the 
 Galatians the Colossians, and the Ephesians— he has established 
 the true characters of the sublime sanctity whereto the Church 
 herself and her disciples are invited. The only difficulty is for 
 our mind to reach the height of this doctrine, since the moral per- 
 fection of the God-man is the point aimed at, and according to St. 
 Paul himself: "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
 corporally."* 
 
 The details, however, given by the apostle of the gentiles prove 
 that this is not only possible for man, but becomes easy, simple, 
 and natural, if we may use this expression in a matter which be- 
 longs entirely to the supernatural order. This invitation to copy 
 Christ, to aim at the perfection of Christ, is addressed sometimes 
 to "babes;" that is, to new Christians, still weak in the faith, and 
 walking with tottering steps in the path of a holy life. This 
 results evidently from the wonderful expressions of St. Paul to 
 the Galatians: "My little children, of whom I am in labor again 
 until Christ be formed in you." The new disciples of Galatiahad 
 so little understood the doctrine of St. Paul when he had appeared 
 and labored among them, though they were apparently full of 
 enthusiasm and love for him, that many among them thought they 
 Vv'ere bound by the precepts of the Mosaic law, and they expressed 
 the intention of submitting to the right of circumcision, as if the 
 painful subduing of the passions through a sincere imitation of 
 Christ did not now replace the obsolete Jewish rite, simply typi- 
 cal in its character. The apostle naturally felt a sort of indigna- 
 tion at the absurd construction they had given to his words, and 
 he exclaimed: " O senseless Galatians, who hath bewitched you 
 that you should not obey the truth?" Still, directly after, he 
 addresses endearing terms of affection to them, and declares that 
 he is engaged in giving them a new birth, " until Christ be formed 
 in them." No language could be stronger to prove that Christ's 
 life is the true pattern for the humblest and less intelligent disci- 
 ples, as well as for the highest and most advanced in virtue. And 
 there can be nothing surprising in this, since all, to whatever rank 
 they belong in the Church, are sons of God through the Incarna- 
 tion; and on this account they are bound to copy the perfection of 
 their heavenly Father. This must appear incomprehensible to 
 
 Col. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 73 
 
 'men of the world, who, having no other standard of holiness than 
 the " intuitive teaching of their inner consciousness," cannot but 
 feel that there is too infinite an abyss between God and man, to 
 be thus bridged over by the simple moral considerations addressed 
 afterwards by the apostle to his "little children."* "The works 
 of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, im- 
 modesty, luxury. . . . But the fruit of the spirit is charity, joy, 
 peace, patience, . . . modesty, continency, chastity. Against such 
 there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified their 
 flesh with its vices and concupiscences." This by the apostle is 
 attributed to Christ's influence, derived consequently from heaven. 
 
 These prescriptions in fact, though so simple and plain, directly 
 belong to the highest order, and raise the man who follows them 
 to the very level of God, because Christ, who gave us the example 
 of them all, possessed "the fulness of the Godhead corporally." 
 Consequently, though the doctrine of the Incarnation is a deep 
 mystery, it is nevertheless radiant with light, because it is the only 
 way to fully understand and satisfy the highest, (which are also 
 the simplest) aspirations of our nature; by which we are powerfully 
 drawn toward whatever is above it. Let us see this more in detail. 
 
 The whole of it is comprised in the simple reflection that the 
 "natural order" is limited to this world, but "our essential aims" 
 cannot be satisfied with it; and to bring us up to a level such as the}'" 
 demand, a superior economy of means required the Incarnation 
 of the Son of God, whom we are bound to imitate. This briefly 
 developed will prove that the natural order in man must be supple- 
 mented by the supernatural, and will demonstrate the high degree 
 of holiness to which we are called. This is to be briefly examined. 
 The natural order cannot satisfy our aspirations, because our heart 
 is too great to be filled by it. Those only who have succeeded in 
 deadening their moral sense by a gross and sensual life can ima- 
 gine the contrary. It is probably on this account that often man 
 gives himself over to unnatural y3L.ss\ons of which animals are never 
 guilty. These passions are most degrading, but at the same time 
 they attest the insatiable avidity of our souls, since man is often 
 carried by them beyond all natural limits, and they show the ex- 
 traordinary extent of its desires. The awful crime of suicide also 
 might be given as another strong proof of the same truth. This 
 
 * Gal. iv. 19. seq. 
 
74 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 must be admitted by all reflecting men, and the whole history of 
 our race can be said to furnish its full demonstration. The insa- 
 tiability of our nature is written in all the pages of mankind's 
 annals. 
 
 At the same time that man is so great by his soul, he falls 
 almost to the level of the brutes by his body. The union of both 
 in a single personality is one of the most admirable works of the 
 Creator; but it has been the source of untold evils owing to the 
 disorder introduced into the human economy by the fall of our 
 first parents. This, as was seen above, is the only way of explain- 
 ing our present moral condition. Henceforth the soul instead of 
 commanding often obeys, or rather submits to the slavery of the 
 senses. 
 
 God through His infinite mercy decreed our reconciliation with 
 Him; and as He had Himself created us. He wished also person- 
 ally to work our redemption. This second great act on His part 
 may be said to be as high above the first as our soul is above the 
 material universe. To redeem man — in the supposition that man 
 was to be redeemed — could not consist on the part of God in 
 merely issuing a decree, as Calvin imagined; and then declaring 
 that man, totally depraved (as he was and always remained^ was 
 nevertheless worthy of being called the son of God. This is the 
 monstrous theology of the great patriarch of Presbyterianism. 
 It has never been that of the Church. Man was to be redeemed 
 infact and not by imputation ; and his nature was to be really re- 
 stored to its primitive purity. What is called concupiscence w^as 
 to remain because our soul's faculties had been weakened by sin; 
 but remedies of concupiscence, as theologians say, were to be found, 
 so as to restore the original harmony between man's soul and 
 body. Man would thus be able to practise virtue, and would not 
 remain depraved. For on this condition alone could he be read- 
 mitted unto God's friendship — nay, sonship. 
 
 A new father of the human race was necessary for this mighty 
 purpose. For the race itself was to be new. Adam, who had lost 
 for himself and his posterity the chief privileges of his first birth, 
 could not be the head of a renewed race. Not only did he not 
 deserve it; but he was justly condemned to ''eat his bread at the 
 sweat of his brow," to spend his long earthly career in mourning 
 and tears. The infinite love of God the Father solved the problem 
 by decreeing the incarnation of His Son. God had personally 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 75 
 
 created the world and man; it was proper that personally He should 
 redeem and renew both. The reason assigned for it by St. John, 
 or rather Jesus Himself, is so resplendent with light, that a single 
 phrase of the Gospel suffices to put an end to all the twaddle of in- 
 fidels past, present, or future on the subject — " God has so loved 
 the world that He gave His only begotten Son." 
 
 Christ, therefore, is the new head of our race. In Him the natural 
 and supernatural orders are closely combined in the same person, 
 because he is true Man and true God. By His union with us He has 
 given us a title which we could not receive from the first Adam. We 
 are called, and we are indeed, the adopted sons of God. Admitting 
 this '' adoption" can there be a single aspiration of our soul, however 
 high and sublime, which will remain unfulfilled? These aspirations 
 have been called " essential aims," and it was said that on account of 
 them the natural order did not suffice any more, and that it must be 
 supplemented by the supernatural. We need this most imperiously. 
 Nothing in this world can altogether satisfy us, and we must look up 
 to a higher one. This higher world Christ, in coming down from 
 heaven, has in truth brought on earth, without, however, disturbing 
 the natural order which he has assumed in His own person. We feel 
 instinctively that our greatness as Christians is so inconceivable that 
 nothing under God can entirely fill our hearts. W^ealth, power, 
 knowledge, everything we can conceive, leaves us positively empty as 
 long as we have not the hope of heaven. But with that hope, the 
 most wretched condition on earth is not only tolerable ; it has been 
 often preferred by many men to the most brilliant position that any 
 one can covet. But if we examine well what it is that produces such 
 a prodigious change in our estimation; that makes us, for instance, 
 choose poverty rather than wealth in order to obtain heaven; that 
 causes us consequently to give the preference to our heavenly aspira- 
 tions over the earthly ones, we will find that it is supernatural virtue. 
 Christ has brought it in His ovn person ; He is our pattern by His 
 example, and our helper by His grace, and thus the even balance of 
 our being is restored between soul and body. The natural order 
 remains, and we do not lose it, because Christ has assumed and puri- 
 fied it. But the supernatural prevails over it not only in our aspira- 
 tions but practically in our deeds. Thus we become through Christ 
 truly — nay, personally — virtuous, and as such we can be embraced 
 again by Almighty God as His sons. This is the great result of the 
 mystery of the Incarnation. 
 
^6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 All this process goes on constantly in the Church under the inspi- 
 ration and guidance of God's grace; but the view we must take of it 
 here, as it was promised at the head of this section, is to consider 
 particularly that Christ is the true and adequate pattern for his disci- 
 ples, who find thus in His life a true source of holiness of so exalted 
 a nature that the precepts of the Decalogue could not give us an idea 
 of it. Being the God-man, He has adopted us as partners in His moral 
 greatness ; and remaining on earth we can soar up to heaven in prac- 
 tising the highest virtues. Not only the passions of the human heart 
 are thus subdued, tamed, and purified; but by looking on Christ, our 
 elder brother, we see in Him the model who " taking the form of a 
 servant, being made in the likeness of men, .... humbled himself, 
 becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross." * 
 
 To embrace at once the whole of this imitation of the Saviour, it 
 is evident from the Gospel's narrative that the admirable and perfect 
 life of the God-man is most easy and simple to copy, either in child- 
 hood, when " He went down with His parents and came to Nazareth, 
 and was subject to them;" \ or during His youth when His 
 own countrymen, the people of His town, would not believe in the 
 reality of His wonderful deeds, exclaiming, " Is not this the carpen- 
 ter, the son of Mary.^" J or even during His public career, when 
 He appeared subject to all the laws which govern humanity, suffering 
 from hunger and thirst, opposed by many, followed by a few, and these 
 of the humblest sort; at all times reaching the highest self-sacri- 
 fice in the midst of the most common occurrences. This is the 
 pattern proposed to all men, and which all men can evidently imi- 
 tate. God shows His goodness in nature by covering the earth 
 with blossoms and fruits, which all can admire and use. In the moral 
 world He shows His love by rendering the path of sanctity accessible 
 to all of us through Jesus, and thus strews over it attractiveness and 
 charm. What can be more attractive than to copy the virtues of the 
 Saviour, and what more charming than to look at the sweet effusion of 
 His love? 
 
 And it is not only through a simple and easy imitation that 
 the inner life of the disciple copies that of Christ, but chiefly through 
 a divine influence, proceeding from the union of both in the recep- 
 tion of the sacraments. This powerful means of holiness is explained 
 by St. Paul in his epistle to the Colossians, where he opens before 
 
 * Phil. il. 7, 8. f Luke ii. 51. % Mark vi. 3. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES, 77 
 
 our eyes a new horizon which we regret not to be able to survey 
 thoroughly, but only briefly and inadequately. Simple imitation, in 
 fact, would be incompetent for the task, because it supposes man 
 struggling with only his natural powers to attain an end far above 
 them. How can man truly imitate God, when there is such a moral 
 abyss between both ? He can at best copy exteriorly whatever he 
 sees has been practised by his model, the Divine Being manifested in 
 the fiesh. But the interior act of virtue resplendent in the soul of 
 Christ, with its perfect disinterestedness, purity, and sublime aim 
 because divine, cannot be imagined as being communicated to man by 
 a simple act of imitation, because it far transcends the mightiest effort 
 of the human will. A real union of that will with God must identify 
 in us, as it were, both the divine and human natures. The Chris- 
 tian cannot understand holiness otherwise ; for him it would not be 
 real and substantial sanctity; although this is precisely what is 
 incomprehensible to mere philosophy. It is proper to remark on 
 this subject that Christianity from the beginning has fully taught to 
 man the doctrine of grace, as it is called in theology. Yet, even 
 since it has been explained so thoroughly by our great writers, the 
 Fathers and Doctors of the Church, philosophical writers appear 
 never to have had their eyes opened to the great truth, that in order 
 to be truly holy we must be raised to a level far above any human 
 scope ; and this cannot take place without help from heaven and a 
 real union with God which supposes the order of grace. This is true 
 at least in our fallen state. 
 
 Christ alone, by uniting both natures in Himself, has rendered 
 this possible; and so again it is owing to the Incarnation that true 
 holiness is practicable. St. Paul knew it when he told the Colos- 
 sians :* " Christ is the head of the body, the Church. He is the 
 beginning, the first born from the dead ; that in all things he may 
 hold the primacy. Because in Him it has well pleased the Father 
 that all fulness should dwell. And through Him to reconcile all 
 things unto Himself, making peace through the blood of His cross. 
 . . . And you, whereas you were some time alienated and enemies 
 in mind, in evil works ; yet now He hath reconciled. ... to present 
 you holy and unspotted and blameless before Him." 
 
 This, the apostle directly remarks, is a doctrine far above philoso- 
 phy, whose aim is to cheat the Christian of his knowledge of and 
 
 * Col. i. 18. 
 
78 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 union with Christ.* But he adds : " In Him dwelleth all the fulness 
 of the Godhead corporally; and you are filled in Him who is the 
 head. . . . And when you were dead in your sins, He hath quickened 
 you together with Him in baptism, forgiving all your offences." 
 
 The divine reason of it he gives a little farther on f " Let no 
 man seduce you" (through philosophy), "not holding the Head" 
 (Christ Jesus) "from which the whole body" (the Church) "by 
 joints and bands being supplied with nourishment, and firmly united 
 together, groweth unto the increase of God." 
 
 These surprising words in their extreme condensation require for 
 an ordinary reader, even a Christian, at least a short commentary, 
 and nothing better, we think, can be adduced than the few words of 
 Cornelius a Lapide which we translate : " As the vital force neces- 
 sary in the body for life, sensation, and motion flows down from the 
 head through the nerves and their ramifications, through the articu- 
 lations of the limbs and all the physical organs, so as to communicate 
 to all parts of the body the faculties of sensation and motion ; so 
 likewise the spirit oi grace ^ as a divine force, flowing from Christ, the 
 Head, into all the members of the mystic body — that is, all the faithful 
 Christians (through the articulations of a mutual union and charity) — 
 imparts to them all spiritual life and motion, so that the whole body 
 of the Church increases in God, that is to say in faith and the spirit 
 of God, according to the plainer text of the Peshito." If every word 
 of this short commentary is well weighed, the doctrine will be suffi- 
 ciently known. 
 
 This is still better explained by St. Paul in the third chapter of 
 the same epistle where he speaks of the necessity for the Christian 
 "of stripping himself of the old man with his deeds, and putting on 
 the new." J; 
 
 The new man here is Christ Himself, the second Adam, as the 
 same apostle explains in some other part of his epistles. The Chris- 
 tian thereby is taught that in order to practise holiness he must be 
 united to Christ, from whom alone true virtue must flow. Philoso- 
 phy, therefore, is altogether incompetent to give us an adequate code 
 of morals, and more incompetent still to bestow on us the moral 
 strength required for the practice of true virtue. If the philosophers 
 of the " intuitive school " refuse to admit this, they must at least con- 
 fess that their doctrine can never reach on this subject the elevation 
 
 * Col. ii. 8. f lb. i8, 19. X Col. Hi. 9, 10. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 
 
 79 
 
 of tliat of Christianity. Virtue with them cannot be divine, cannot 
 rest on an eternal foundation, is fluctuating with the mind of man 
 subject to the same errors and miseries, has consequently never found 
 yet a uniform expression among them, leaves thus their disciples at 
 the mercy of opinion, cannot support them efficiently in times of 
 temptation and doubt, and cannot possibly act with the same power 
 as does the conviction of the Christian, independently of its truth. 
 How can any one pretend that the holiness prescribed and fostered 
 by the Church is not greater than that of the worldly philosopher? 
 Who can refuse to admit that the pattern offered by the Church in 
 the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is unapproachable to mere philoso- 
 phy ? If rationalists could well understand and persuade themselves 
 that the imitation of an irreproachable model must be accompanied 
 by a divine help which we call grace, in order to produce fruits of 
 substantial holiness, they would be far nearer the true system of 
 human ethics than they are at present, or have ever been since phi- 
 losophy was born. 
 
 This shall appear more evident still by considering a further 
 explanation of the same sublime doctrine contained in the epistle of 
 St. Paul to the Ephesians.* The new details this will place under 
 our eyes shall bring us on to the consideration of the various degrees 
 of Christian holiness ; so as not to be satisfied with keeping the pre- 
 cepts of the law, but follow likewise the counsels of the Gospel. This 
 will open for us a new prospect of higher questions. 
 
 2. The Evangelical Counsels as Derived fi'om the life of Christ Open a 
 New and Higher Source of Holiness in the Church. 
 
 So far the foundation of virtue has been considered only as rest- 
 ing on the precepts of the Decalogue, and on those prescriptions of 
 the Sermon on the Mount which more strictly explain the text of the 
 Mosaic law. The effects of the life of the Saviour, both as a model 
 for imitation and a source of grace, has been also pointed out as the 
 great treasure of holiness open to all Christians. To this free gift on 
 the part of heaven all were invited ; nay, all were declared as bound 
 to use it. The epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians opens a new 
 view on the subject, by establishing gradations and distinctions among 
 the followers of the Saviour. 
 
 *Chap. iv. 
 
8o THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 In order that those Christians who are called to a higher holiness 
 might not fancy for themselves a proud superiority over their breth- 
 ren, the apostle begins by declaring that in the Church there is "one 
 body and one Spirit; ... one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one 
 God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us 
 all." These last words are evidently an allusion to the influence of 
 divine grace on all Christians indiscriminately by which they are all 
 made partakers of the inner life of the God-man, or as St. Peter 
 expressed it, somewhat differently, divince consortes nature, " partakers 
 of the divine nature." It is impossible to conceive anything more 
 sublime; and the highest rulers in the Church, even if penetrated 
 with the deepest sense of their. dignity, and supposing them worthy 
 of it by their virtues, cannot but look with complacency on the hum- 
 blest of their flock, admire the simplicity and purity of their lives, 
 and rejoice that they are really the children of God, animated with the 
 divine Spirit, and copying in their daily actions those of their Saviour 
 and model. How could a prelate, a metropolitan, a pope, despise 
 any of them as below himself, when he knows that they have the 
 authority of St. Peter for firmly believing that they truly "partake of 
 the divine nature" } 
 
 All, therefore, as St. Paul says,* must be " careful to keep the unity 
 of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Still he declares immediately 
 after \ that to every one of us is given grace, according to the meas- 
 ure of the giving of Christ." In the following lines he enters into 
 fuller details by saying that " He gave some [to be] apostles, and 
 some prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors 
 and doctors ; for the perfecting of the saints, for the vi^ork of the 
 ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; until we all meet 
 into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, 
 unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of 
 Christ.". 
 
 In this passage there is a positive distinction made between 
 Christians, which does not appear in the epistles to the Galatians 
 and to the Colossians. And it is herein stated that it is based 
 upon the fact that ''to every one of us is given grace, according 
 to the measure of the giving of Christ." The God-man, there- 
 fore, does not grant the same measure of grace to every one. To 
 some more is afforded, to others less; but all belong to the same 
 
 *Col. iv. 3. fib. 7. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 81 
 
 mystic body, and have *'one Lord, one faith, one baptism." The 
 question is to know what kind of grace that is; namely, if it is 
 simply a gift embracing only exterior privileges, such as the power 
 of ruling in the Church, of administering validly the sacraments, 
 even of prophesying and performing miracles, such as the apostles 
 had certainly received from Christ. This kind of privilege is 
 called by theologians gratia gratis data, is conripatible with the state 
 of sin; and although it imposes on the recipient the duty of a holy 
 life, it is separable from it, and it has too often happened that 
 "the bestower of the gifts cf God " to other men was at the same 
 time the slave of Satan. It seems at first sight as if St. Paul spoke 
 only of this; and the enumeration contained in the eleventh verse of 
 the fourth chapter of this epistle refers certainly to the exterior offices 
 of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and doctors. But must 
 we admit that the other superior kind of grace, called by theolo- 
 gians ^r^^'/zw /<2n>;/^, by which those offices are performed holily, so 
 that " the bestower of the gifts of God " is God-like himself, and 
 worthy of his ministry, is here excluded by St. Paul? By no means; 
 and the whole text of the epistle to the Ephesians would protest 
 against this supposition. From the first line to the last the apostle 
 unveils the cardinal mystery of the Christian religion, which con- 
 sists in the divine influence of the God-man on the whole Church 
 and on each one of the faithful, in order that true holiness should 
 be possible on earth. He speaks everywhere of holiness and 
 of nothing else. He shows that philosophy could not give it; that 
 Christ alone, the thrice-hol}^ is the true bestower of it, not only 
 by the exterior example of His actions on earth, but above all by 
 the communication of His own inner life to the Church in general 
 and to each Christian in particular; and in the sixteenth verse of 
 the same chapter he repeats in equivalent terms what he said to the 
 Colossians on that sublime mystery of the oneness and holiness of 
 the Church through Christ, as imparted to the members of His 
 mystic body. 
 
 It is, therefore, but natural to understand of the second kind 
 of grace mentioned above — gratia gratiim facieiis — what the writer 
 had affirmed previously; namely, that '' to every one is given grace, 
 according to the measure of the giving of Christ." This evidently 
 means that God does not bestow on every one the same degree of 
 interior grace. Some are called to a higher perfection; others 
 must be satisfied w4th a common degree of sanctity. Still all be- 
 
82 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 long to the same body; all are holy according to the measure 
 granted them; none can despise the other; all must be "careful 
 to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." 
 
 It is important, consequently, to examine in what precisely con- 
 sists that distinction between Christians, and what kind of holiness 
 it introduces on earth above what is common to all. The same 
 must be derived from Christ, who is the only source and perfect 
 model of sanctity. A few paragraphs back some particulars of His 
 life have been mentioned, as being a mirror and pattern for all in- 
 discrimately, in his childhood, youth, and manhood. Cannot a 
 number of other peculiarities be found in the same God-like career 
 which evidently were not intended to be copied by the majority of 
 men, but only by a few comparatively of His most fervent disciples ? 
 Nothing is more easy and simple, especially for this reason, that 
 the Church herself has pointed them out by her subsequent insti- 
 tutions, and the Church in doing so could not deceive us, since 
 she is the Bride of Christ, invested with all His powers. We must 
 here enter into some details which will be illustrated by several 
 remarkable passages of the Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 The life of the Redeemer, as portrayed through the Gospel, is 
 at the same time most simple and easy of imitation by all His dis- 
 ciples, and also offering the highest character of holiness, of most 
 difficult performance, such as a God-like being alone could present. 
 He certainly reached the most eminent perfection that a human 
 being can be supposed to attain. Not only in all the actions of 
 His life the least defect cannot be ever detected; but in all cir- 
 cumstances, even the most trying and sudden. His exterior acts, as 
 well as whatever we can discover of His motives and purposes, dis- 
 close the utmost excellence our mind is able to appreciate. Nay, 
 His whole life transcends whatever our human ability in point of 
 discovery of character can even imagine, because we cannot go 
 beyond the natural order, and the life of Christ must be admitted 
 to be far superior to it. 
 
 Although it is important to illustrate this point by some details 
 at least, there is scarcely any need of it when the appreciation of 
 the true blessedness He promises by the very first words of His 
 discourse on the Mount is considered. All these extraordinary 
 blessings which he pronounces on the head of His disciples He 
 exemplified first in His own person. It is impossible to give a 
 more truthful picture of His whole life than is condensed by St. 
 
 J 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 83 
 
 Matthew in a few phrases. Does He not invite us to the very sum- 
 mit of moral perfection which He first practised Himself ^ He 
 was truly poor in spirit, meek and humble, mourning and sorrow 
 ful, hungering and thirsting after justice, merciful, clean of heart, 
 a peace-maker, and persecuted. If these are blessings, He was 
 undoubtedly blessed above all other human beings; and all His 
 disciples must, in their own degree of grace, aspire to be His imi- 
 tators under all those respects. No one certainly will deny that 
 the whole of this enumeration lies outside of the natural order, and 
 that Christ by giving Himself as the pattern, and inviting all to 
 follow Him, wished to establish on earth a society altogether dif- 
 ferent from any other society, and raised far above whatever is 
 purely natural and earthly. 
 
 But did the Saviour impose on all the precept of practising vir- 
 tue to the degree of perfection He reached Himself ? Evidently 
 no; there can be no difference of opinion on the subject. Did He 
 require that all His disciples should practise it to the same degree 
 of perfection among themselves ? The text of St. Paul previously 
 quoted proves that He did not.^ It strictly follows that the per- 
 fection of the Beatitudes is not "of precept," since whatever 
 has this character is of strict obligation for all men. Some theo- 
 logians and able writers of our time think that all Christians are 
 bound to the practice of the Beatitudes, which are, they say, the 
 code of the New Law as the Decalogue was that of the Old Law, 
 and the main reason they give of it is that the Sermon on the 
 Mount contains the essential spirit of Christianity, as the precepts 
 promulgated from Sinai embraced the substance of the Mosaic 
 dispensation. Much could be said in opposition to this; one sin- 
 gle remark will suffice here: The precepts of the Decalogue belong 
 to the New as well as to the Old Law, and no real opposition can 
 be supposed between them. That the Beatitudes breathe the 
 sweetest aroma of the religion of Christ, and that no sincere dis- 
 ciple of the Saviour can be imagined as living in opposition to 
 them; that, moreover, during the ages of faith, when the maxims 
 of the Gospel prevailed generally, human society presented a near 
 approach to the sublime realization of that sublime code, cannot 
 be denied. This demonstrates the error of those who pretend that 
 Christianity is opposed to the welfare of mankind and to human 
 
 *Eph. iv. 7. 
 
84 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 nature itself. But all these remarks do not prove that the Saviour 
 made it a duty on all His disciples to reach the same degree of 
 perfection in the observance of that holy code. As He knew that 
 all His followers, without exception, would fall back far behind 
 Himself in the path which He was the first personally to pursue, 
 so He allowed the plasticity of human nature, of which He w^as 
 the author, to have its way; and St. Paul, inspired by Him, de- 
 clared that '' to every one of us is given grace, according to the 
 measure of the giving of Christ." 
 
 Consequently Cornelius a Lapide is right when he states in his 
 " Commentary on St. Matthew's Gospel " that in the Sermon on the 
 Mount, particularly in the Beatitudes, "there are some things which 
 are of precept," and others which are " of counsel." On this account 
 he thought, as well as Maldonatus, that the apostles alone were 
 present when He spoke on the Mount. At least He believed that 
 the multitude was not present the whole time; but Jesus spoke 
 partim ad discipulos, partim ad turbaj?t, and we may suppose that to 
 the apostles alone He unfolded w^hat was to be " of counsel " in the 
 Christian law. 
 
 At any rate it is certain that Christ practised all His life what 
 we now call the evangelical " counsels" as -well as "precepts," and 
 that His apostles followed Him in both, each one according to his 
 own degree of grace. The Church in her subsequent institutions 
 consecrated the distinction between them. All theologians and 
 canonists are agreed on this subject; and it is knowm, moreover, 
 that they all condense the "counsels" of the Gospel into the 
 three vows of religious poverty, chastity, and obedience. It is 
 evident, besides, that those vows as explained by the Church, and 
 practised by devout religious when they follow the rules laid down 
 by their founders, realize in human life the sublime scheme of 
 Christian society as portrayed by Christ Himself in the Beati- 
 tudes. For what is the essence of " religious" life in the Church 
 if not poverty of spirit, meekness, mercy, mourning, thirst after 
 justice, purity of heart, and readiness to suffer persecution ? Read 
 the history of religious orders, such as they have arisen succes- 
 sively in the various ages since the beginning; examine attentively 
 all the circumstances of their origin, the divers objects they had 
 in view, and the way they set at it; the terms of the approval they 
 received from Popes and Councils and Bishops; everything, in 
 fact, that went to form their first establishment; and it will not be 
 
 I 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES, 85 
 
 difficult to find in all those particulars a realization of the entranc- 
 ing picture presented to us by St. Matthew and St. Luke in the 
 Beatitudes. Should any one object to the falling off of many of these 
 orders from their primitive fervor, the sad degeneracy of the chil- 
 dren from the fathers, gold turned into lead, and virtue unto cor- 
 ruption: this very picture of human frailty would but confirm the 
 truth that they were in reality founded in order to give actuality 
 and being to the Beatitudes preached by Christ. As soon as the 
 spirit of their institution was forgotten their former blessed state 
 disappeared; they did no more receive the approval of God and 
 men. The Church had to labor earnestly to bring them back to 
 their first fervor. She often employed for it reproaches, threats, 
 censures; and the solicitude of Christian rulers did not rest until 
 a reformation was accomplished. 
 
 We must, however, consider the strict practice of the evangeli- 
 cal counsels by our Lord, in order to understand something of the 
 sublime holiness He brought on earth, and of the ever-flowing 
 source of sanctity issuing from His sacred heart to fertilize and 
 beautify the garden of His Church. 
 
 Of what kind of poverty do the Beatitudes speak? Interpreters 
 may vary on the subject. But it cannot be difficult to understand 
 the text accurately by considering the life of Christ. We all 
 know that He was born poor, although descended from a long line 
 of kings. The grotto of Bethlehem speaks eloquently to the Chris- 
 tian heart whenever the Christmas season recurs. Look on the 
 Son of God Himself, wrapped up in rags and laid in a manger. 
 Read in St. Luke's gospel all the details of that wonderful birth, 
 and say how it was that angels came proclaiming "glory to God 
 on high, and on earth peace to men of good will." This was the 
 first glorification of poverty. There will henceforth be peace on 
 earth, since the greatest cause of contestation has always been the 
 acquisition of wealth. A God, born of an humble virgin, calls 
 around His cradle shepherds and kings, that the first may not 
 complain of the many needs which they cannot satisfy, nor the 
 second refuse to their poorer brethren the superfluous gold they 
 possess. 
 
 But see how firm was the purpose of our great Model to inspire 
 men with the abhorrence of superfluity. He is a young man, and 
 can direct His course in whatever channel He likes. Still He 
 hides Himself in Nazareth, a mere village, and leads a poor life 
 
86 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 in the midst of poor people. Until He reaches manhood He will 
 toil at a carpenter's bench, and He bows down willingly under the 
 sentence pronounced on man at his fall: *' Thou shalt eat thy bread 
 at the sweat of thy brow." How can the poor complain at the 
 sight of their Lord and God working like an humble artisan for 
 the support of Himself and His mother? If that astonishing 
 spectacle were better heeded how different would be the world in 
 which we live in this age ! We would not hear of those guilty 
 conspiracies which now threaten the universal peace and portend 
 ages of woe. The angels knew it when they proclaimed peace to 
 men of good will; namely, to those who would strive to imitate 
 the humility of their Saviour, and to no other. 
 
 But either in Bethlehem or at Nazareth Jesus preached the love 
 of poverty to all men without exception. The immense majority of 
 mankind is doomed to toil and labor. It will continue to be so to 
 the end of time ; and all the vain theories of modern thinkers 
 and economists will never change this decree of Fate. On this 
 account did Christ spend nearly the whole of His' life to preach 
 by His example submission to an inexorable law. During the last 
 three years and a half of it He became chiefly the pattern of those 
 who would, in the course of ages, embrace the same kind of ministry 
 as He did and become His apostles to the end of time. For them 
 it must be a voluntary poverty, as it was for Him. It is no more 
 the involuntary distress to which most men are condemned. Con- 
 template the strictness of it as He embraced it of His own free 
 will, and say if it could be greater. He declared Himself that 
 " the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests ; but the Son 
 of man hath not where to lay His head.* Always travelling on foot 
 through towns and villages, reduced to liv^e on alms, He would not 
 carry Himself the purse which contained the humble sums of 
 money absolutely necessary for His support and that of His apos- 
 tles. He often suffered from hunger and thirst, and never used 
 for His own needs the miraculous power He possessed by which 
 He was once enabled to feed five thousand persons with a few 
 loaves and fishes. This lasted strictly to the last day of His life, 
 when a much more thorough poverty was exacted from Him by the 
 will of His Father. All Christians must often deeply meditate on 
 
 *Luke ix. 58. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 87 
 
 the complete destitution of the Saviour on the cross, when even 
 His garments became by lot the property of His tormentors. 
 
 These few details would be sufficient to prove that the Beati- 
 tudes contain many things which are " of counsel," not " of precept." 
 For although certainly, as was said, Christ intended m this simple 
 code to give us a thorough idea of the spirit of His religion, and 
 wished to exemplify it in His own person in all its strictness. 
 Still no one can pretend that He made it a duty to all His disci- 
 ples to do exactly as He had done, and to carry it to the same 
 degree of perfection. His dearest friends, those who would 
 endeavor to follow more closely in His footsteps, and embrace 
 after Him an apostolic life, might also, like Francis of Assisium, 
 proclaim holy and voluntary poverty their queen, and divest them- 
 selves of property of any kind ; but the great bulk of Christians 
 would follow the more ordinary road. For them the poverty of 
 spirit preached in the Beatitudes would consist in being detached 
 from this world although still encumbered with some of its wealth. 
 They would be the providers of their poorer brethren ; but in 
 giving abundant alms they would bestow on others what belonged 
 truly to themselves, and on that account would it be meritorious. 
 
 But the great truth advocated at this moment requires many 
 more details from the life of Christ. It is proper, in a second 
 place, to see how the Saviour became the model of His nearest 
 followers by His voluntary obedience, as it has just been proved 
 that He was by His voluntary poverty. He declared in so many 
 words by the inspired pen of St. John that " He came down from 
 heaven not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent him." * 
 Any one who reads the four gospels attentively cannot but be con- 
 vinced that the God-man had truly resigned His human will into 
 that of His Father. He always considered the prophecies which 
 had announced His coming ages before, and minutely described 
 the chief circumstances of His life as the expression of Heaven's 
 will in His regard, and He was most careful to see that they were 
 accomplished in His person, with all the peculiarities they contained. 
 This is particularly true of His passion ; and His very last word 
 would suffice to prove it. The passage of St. John's gospel where 
 it is narrated is most striking, and cannot offer any loophole for a 
 
 * John vi. 38. 
 
88 THE CHURCH AXD THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 difference of interpretation : "Jesus knowing that all things were 
 now accomplished, that the scripture jnight be fulfilled, said : I 
 thirst. Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar ; and 
 they, putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, brought it to 
 His mouth. Jesus therefore, when He had taken the vinegar, said: 
 It is consummated. And bowing His head, He gave up the ghost." 
 The passage of the Psalms in which this peculiarity of the passion 
 of Christ IS foretold is well known : " They gave me gall for my 
 food, and in my thirst ttiey gave me vinegar to drink." It is one 
 of the less important details contained in the prophecies of the 
 Old Testament. Still Christ would not die before He had accom- 
 plished it, because it was the will of His Father that He should. 
 
 Go through the Gospel narrative, and you will find only one 
 occasion when the Redeemer appeared to hesitate a moment in 
 His perfect submission to the will of Heaven. It was in the garden 
 of Gethsemani when He exclaimed: " My Father, if it be possible, 
 let this chalice pass from me." * St. Luke relates the same circum- 
 stance in equivalent terms. But that hesitation lasted but a 
 moment, for He added directly, " nevertheless not as I will, but as 
 Thou wilt." Catholics know well that in fact there was not the 
 least irresolution in the will of Christ, and it was merely for our 
 sake, and in order to be a perfect model against temptation on 
 account of our want of determination, and of our hesitancies, that 
 He voluntarily submitted to that momentary weakness; but this is 
 not to be examined here, and the passage is quoted only because 
 there can be no better proof of the thorough and constant 
 obedience of the Incarnate Son of God to the will of His Father. 
 But in another chapter of the gospel of St. John there is an 
 expression of our Lord which renders it perfectly certain that 
 during a/l His human life He had present to His mind the hand of 
 God, as directing and leading Him from the height of heaven, to 
 whose guidance He committed Himself unreservedly. It is found 
 directly after the long conversation of Christ with the Samaritan 
 woman, when the disciples, knowing that He was fatigued and 
 must feel hunger, offered Him the food they had just brought from 
 the city: '* I have food to eat," He said, which you know not. 
 The disciples therefore said one to another: Hath any man brought 
 Him to eat ? Jesus saith to them: My food is to do the will of Him 
 
 * Matth. xxvi. 3g. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. S9 
 
 that sent me, that I may perfect His work." As man needs con- 
 stantly food, and cannot spend a single day without it, so the 
 Saviour needed always the guiding hand of His Father. This of 
 course is understood of His human will, which alone He could sub- 
 mit to another's; but from these words it is evident that His obedi- 
 ence was always perfect, and this is most remarkable, for it does 
 not appear to have been altogether necessary for the work of our 
 redemption. We can suppose that .Christ might have done in 
 perfection the great thing for which He came, without surrender- 
 ing His human will, which was always hypostatically united to the 
 personality of the Eternal Word. Then He would have acted 
 from His own human impulse; and this is more easily understood 
 by our mmd than the contrary supposition of a complete sub- 
 jection in everything. Subjection in Christ is, in fact, a mystery 
 which we have to explain by that of the Incarnation. It was for 
 Him a work of supererogation, if we can use such a word in His 
 regard. It was a real and profound act of humility on His part; 
 and if we can understand it at all, it is as a consequence of the 
 doctrine by which, according to St. Paul, " being in the form of 
 God ... He annihilated Himself, taking the form of a servant, 
 being made in the likeness of men. ... He humbled Himself, 
 becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross." * 
 
 Christ became thus the model of those who, being called to a 
 higher perfection than ordinary Christians, resign their own will 
 into that of their superiors, and consent to have no will of their 
 own with regard to their position in life, their occupations, their 
 place of dwelling, and the like. But this, again, is only "of 
 counsel," not "of precept." Still it is evidently embraced in the 
 blessing conferred on the "meek," which is the second of the 
 Beatitudes. Meekness is opposed in a direct manner to pride, and 
 nothing is more calculated to do away with it than the surrender- 
 ing of one's will. There can be no pride possible in any one who 
 constantly and absolutely does the will of another and not his 
 own. 
 
 Finally, in a third place, the most unsullied chastity, resplen- 
 dent in the life of the Saviour, becomes the beacon-light of those 
 who feel an instinctive attraction towards an angelic purity rather 
 than remain wedded to even innocent pleasures. The most cur- 
 
 Phil, ii. 6. seq. 
 
90 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 sory perusal of the Gospel impresses the reader with the soaring 
 aloft of the Saviour over the world of sense, and every pure- 
 minded man feels an innate repugnance to bring together even in 
 imagination the idea of the God-man and that of sensual indul- 
 gence of any kind It cannot, therefore, be the intention here to 
 awaken, although remotely, any image bordering on the sensuous. 
 It would be indeed sacrilegious to do so. But chastity is so 
 attractive a virtue in itself, particularly when every contrary 
 suggestion is sternly removed, that there is nothing so calculated 
 to exalt the character of Christ as looking at Him in the perfection 
 o! His purity. What renders it more sublime and wonderful is 
 the deep tenderness of His heart, the acuteness of His affection, 
 the perfect sensibility of His whole being, closely united with the 
 total absence of self-indulgence of any sort. 
 
 To prove this with entire satisfaction it would be necessary to 
 unfold all the circumstances related in the Gospel when the Sa- 
 viour ever came in contact with women; beginning by His most 
 pure mother and ending by the penitent Magdalen, or better still 
 by the suddenly converted adulteress rescued from a just condem- 
 nation without any wound inflicted on justice. A large volume 
 could be composed on the subject, if all proper details were laid 
 down; and it might be made one of the most interesting and in- 
 structive books ever written. How many entrancing pages could 
 not be penned on the single fact related by St. Luke in his seventh 
 chapter ? It is indeed a strange spectacle to see Jesus reclining at 
 table in the triclinium of a rich man, allowing a woman, a sinner, 
 to come behind, to shed tears over His naked feet, to wash them 
 with the flood running from her eyes, to wipe them with the long 
 tresses of her hair, and anoint them with the perfume she has 
 brought with her. The Pharisee is scandalized. It is the only cir- 
 cumstance of His life which ever excited suspicion. Nowhere else 
 is it found that anything He did or allowed to be done to Him 
 could give rise to the most remote doubt of the purity of His soul. 
 But as soon as He condescends to answer to the foul thought of 
 His accuser, who could refuse to admire in Him the transcendant 
 height of the most sublime virtue ? Not only this woman was no 
 more a sinner, but she had already reached the summit of true di- 
 vine love, far above the pretended holiness of the Pharisee. On this 
 account only had the Saviour allowed her this surprising familiarity. 
 
 Vll. 37. SCq, 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 9 1 
 
 Read again in St. John's and St. Luke's gospels what preceded 
 the resurrection of Lazarus, particularly the mention made by the 
 first of these evangelists that ''Jesus loved Martha, and her sister 
 Mary, and Lazarus." Human affection, consequently, had entered 
 His heart, or rather burned brightly in it, and never for a moment 
 grew cold or turned into indifference. All the details given 
 by St. John,* together with several circumstances mentioned 
 by St. Luke,t show that the inclination of our Lord for the 
 two sisters was not only most tender, but likewise discriminating 
 and not equally balanced. He preferred Mary, and openly said 
 so, but gave the reason for it: " Martha, Martha, thou art full of 
 cares, and art troubled about many things. But one thing is ne- 
 cessary. Mary hath chosen the best part which shall not be taken 
 away from her." In His affections what He looks to is the heart ; 
 the purity of the soul is the only thing that can move Him. No 
 exterior excellence of any kind seems to attract His attention. No 
 one will ever find in the Gospel any word, hint, allusion, of the 
 Saviour having any reference to the world of sense in anything 
 which excited His human feelings. Even in the surroundings of 
 a happy and comfortable home like that of Lazarus, in the midst 
 of its graceful inmates surrounded by many objects of taste if not 
 of luxury, the reader will never find a word intimating that Jesus 
 minded in the least the attractive world of art or physical beauty; 
 although this also comes from Him as the primary source of the 
 beautiful. Not only the slightest impropriety and the faintest 
 approach to sinfulness cannot be even thought of; but what is 
 purely of a worldly character, altogether indifferent to virtue or its 
 opposite, cannot be brought in as a part of the scene, nor enter as 
 the remotest element of the world in which Jesus moves. Though 
 He lives on earth, His soul is always in heaven. Placed in front 
 of Martha and Mary, or holding, if you like, both by the hand, it 
 looks as if He could not perceive any object except what is spirit- 
 ual and heavenly. 
 
 These considerations present themselves still with greater force, 
 when meditating on another slight incident of the life of Christ, 
 mentioned by St. John. It is certain that the Saviour after His 
 resurrection appeared first to several holy women, among them 
 to Mary Magdalen. They were commanded by Him to go and 
 announce it to the apostles, chiefly to Peter. Thus our Lord 
 
 * Ch. xi. f Ch. X. 
 
92 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 showed a real predilection for the female sex, even compared with 
 His most intimate apostles. But in His apparition to Magdalen 
 there is an expression on which interpreters, it is true, do not 
 agree, yet which can very well be understood as strongly cor- 
 roborative of the previous reflections. Mary had been looking in- 
 to the empty sepulchre, and had been asked by the angels, whom 
 she saw and mistook for ordinary men, why she was shedding 
 tears. Turning round to go away, Jesus appeared to her without, 
 however, unveiling Himself, so that she mistook Him for the 
 gardener. It is only when He pronounced her name, " Mary," 
 that her eyes were opened, and she rushed toward Him to pros- 
 trate herself and embrace His feet. But suddenly the Saviour 
 checks her and forbids her to touch Him, as she had been wont to 
 do before His resurrection. " Do not touch me," He says, " for I 
 am not yet ascended to my Father." These expressions are cer- 
 tainly strange, and are understood quite differently by many 
 Fathers. Justin Martyr's interpretation is to our mind one of the 
 most sensible and probable, although Cornelius a Lapide discards 
 it to introduce his own. The good Christian philosopher thought 
 that by these words, which were the very first uttered to any dis- 
 ciple after His resurrection, Jesus wished to establish between 
 Himself and His faithful friends during the following forty days 
 a different mode of intercourse from the one He had admitted in 
 His previous life. At that time He permitted them to remain with 
 Him as long as they chose, and Mary Magdalen particularly 
 during His public career was one of those holy women who fol- 
 lowed Him everywhere. But during the forty days which were to 
 elapse before His ascension he prescribed to their familiarity 
 more narrow limits, in order to prepare them for a total separation 
 after His final departure. He would thenceforth appear to them 
 occasionally, but for a very little while each time; they could not 
 follow Him during the short period that would elapse between 
 His various apparitions. Thus Mary Magdalen could not be 
 allowed to remain with Him and embrace His feet as formerly. 
 Noli me taiigere. 
 
 This interpretation is evidently extremely natural, and very 
 probably true. It opens a long vista of most impressive considera- 
 tions on the holy freedom our Lord allowed His apostles to take 
 with Him, during His mortal life, not excluding the simple women 
 who accompanied Him. But together with all this familiarit}- of 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 
 
 91 
 
 intercourse, the infinite elevation of the Saviour over the world of 
 sense looms up as the great feature of the intimate companionship 
 between Jesus and His friends. He saw their souls and loved 
 them; they admired His goodness and would have given their 
 life for Him. Holy purity, such as it had never yet appeared 
 on earth, spread its lustre as a divine halo around that little 
 company of a few disciples which then formed the Church of 
 Christ. 
 
 But the author of the "Commentaries on Holy Scripture," Cor- 
 nelius a Lapide, finds fault chiefly with the interpretation of this pas- 
 sage by Justin Martyr, on account of the meaning he attaches to the 
 words "lam not yet ascended to my Father," which are certainly 
 explained by the Christian philosopher with less acumen than is 
 usual with him, and for this reason we will not refer to them here 
 with more detail. But what could prevent any one from inter- 
 preting them in quite a different manner, connected, however, 
 much more strictly with what Justin had said so far.? For 
 instance, cannot the idea be proposed that the Saviour, in establish- 
 ing between Himself and His apostles during the forty days 
 previous to His ascension a mode of intercourse less familiar than 
 the one usual before His passion, wished to induce them to sub- 
 mit to it willingly by announcing at the same time that He would 
 act with more apparent affection after taking possession of heaven, 
 and when He would, at the end of their lives, call them all to 
 Himself? Who can imagine the intimate union of Christ in eter- 
 nity with His saints: a union in which the body itself, spiritualized 
 and almost divinized, as St. Paul describes so eloquently, will have 
 its part as well as the soul ? " Do not touch me, because I have 
 not yet ascended into heaven." When this will happen, and I have 
 brought you around me, then I will not prevent you from touching 
 me, from embracing me; but as, during the remainder of your 
 lives, you will not be able to enjoy that privilege after my final 
 departure from you, it is better you should be weaned gradually 
 from it, as long as I remain still on earth and appear occasionally 
 among you. 
 
 This interpretation is offered for what it is worth in the opinion 
 of any Christian reader. But the reflections that have been so 
 far insinuated on this subject, independently of many more which 
 could be suggested by other passages of the gospels, give to Jesus' 
 character a transcendent lustre of purity. He came to establish 
 
94 THE CHURCH AXD THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 it on earth among His disciples of every degree. The greatest 
 number of them would follow an ordinary path and enter the 
 bonds of marriage. No one can refuse to admit that the inflexible 
 laws which He established, particularly in His Sermon on the 
 Mount, with regard to the marriage state could never have been 
 imagined by any human lawgiver before Him, and that as to the 
 Jews themselves, though living under a divine code. His new 
 doctrine made a profound alteration in their ideas. He brought 
 at once the first element of human society — namely, the family — to 
 the ideal standard of elevation so remarkable in Christian society; 
 raised woman from her previous degradation, and placed her hand 
 into that of man; gave henceforth to the general intercourse be- 
 tween both sexes that varnish of purity, simplicity, and taste 
 which has always distinguished the Christian nations; and from 
 that time forward, good breeding alone obliged the vicious among 
 men to cover at least their foul thoughts under the appearance of 
 innocence and courtesy. 
 
 But Christ did much more. He preached perfect celibacy by 
 His own example, and by some very clear expressions which the 
 Gospel contains. We would here refer the reader to a passage of 
 St. Matthew which can have but one meaning, and clearly proves 
 that our Saviour wished that a certain number of His disciples 
 at least should endeavor to imitate, after Him, the angels in 
 their purity. It is needless to repeat that this could not be made 
 a precept for all, and was consequently to remain an " evangelical 
 counsel." 
 
 This has been invariably, likewise, the doctrine of the Church, 
 and it has become for her a principle, an axiom, on which she has 
 never varied, and which suffices alone to give her a pre-eminence 
 of holiness over any other earthly institution. When we come to 
 consider the facts which her whole history displays, we may be 
 able to prove that her principles are not Utopias and theories only, 
 but have in fact been, and are every day, reduced into practice. 
 Meanwhile we must consider this new system of ethics introduc- 
 ing among men the idea of moral perfection, altogether unknown 
 before Christ. Moral perfection, in fact, is the whole aim and scope 
 of the evangelical counsels. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CATHOLIC DOCTRINE ON THE MORAL AND INDEFINITE PERFECTIBILITY 
 OF MAN AIMING AT PERFECTION — FOURTH PRINCIPLE OF HOLI- 
 NESS IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 I. Unreliable Systems on Human Perfectibility. 
 
 During the last hundred years many theories have been ad- 
 vanced on the perfectibility of man, but not in the Christian sense. 
 There was first the attempt made to prove that the human mind 
 had constantly progressed since the time of primitive and univer- 
 sal barbarism; and the conclusion was drawn that it would con- 
 tinue to progress until it reached perfection. Man henceforth be- 
 ing thoroughly civilized, enlightened, intelligent, and wise, nature 
 would be entirely subdued by him, and human society would offer 
 the spectacle of perfect harmony and peace. The most ardent ad- 
 vocate of this opinion was, in France, the Marquis de Condorcet, 
 and he developed his ideas in his Essai d'un tableau historiqtce des 
 progres de r esprit humain. It was written after his proscription by 
 the Convention, on account of his being a Girondin, and during a 
 concealment of nine months in the house of a friend. France was 
 then rapidly going back to barbarism, and the horrors so well de- 
 scribed by M. Ternaux and M. Taine were daily spreading dis- 
 may all over the world. Still the Marquis de Condorcet continued 
 hoping against hope. He could dream of a continuous social and 
 mental progress, whilst he had under his eyes the spectacle of uni- 
 versal disorganization and ruin. He was still under the spell of 
 a rose-colored vision, such as had before him guided the pen of a 
 Voltaire and a Turgot. Had they both lived to see what Condor- 
 cet witnessed, they would most probably have modified their ideas 
 and ceased to expatiate on the constantly increasing happiness 
 and knowledge of mankind, precisely when faith was weakened 
 or, better still, totally destroyed. The Marquis de Condorcet was 
 
96 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 too much wedded to his anti-Christian fanaticism to confess his 
 error under the iron rule which then oppressed France. He per- 
 severed in it even to the last day of his life, when he took poison to 
 escape the guillotine. The apostles of unbelief often have a faith 
 far more unreasonable and obstinate than the Christians, to whom 
 both epithets are applied in spite of many proofs to the contrary. 
 
 That the amount of our knowledge increases with time is un- 
 doubtedly true. That our mind itself becomes day by day, or 
 rather century by century, stronger is as certainly false. If human 
 progress, as understood by Condorcet, is absolutely true, no greater 
 and stronger minds could have existed, say, three thousand years 
 ago than are known in our age ; and at the present period the 
 average human mind would be far above that of primitive times. 
 But the reverse is precisely the fact. To quote only a few in- 
 stances, sufficient for our purpose: In philosophy, was not the 
 mind of Aristotle far greater and stronger than that of Emanuel 
 Kant ? In medicine, was not Hippocrates a greater man than any 
 practising physician of our day ? In poetry, was not Job, indepen- 
 dently of his inspiration, far superior to any poet of our age, taken 
 in any country you choose ? In architecture, were not the builders 
 of the pyramids above the greatest architects of the present age ? 
 In art — that is, painting, sculpture, and ornamental work — did not 
 the ancient Greeks perform wonders which the best artists of our 
 age cannot so much as imitate ? In fertility of invention, were 
 not the discovery of writing, of working in metals, of music, vocal 
 and instrumental, of solving intricate problems in geometry and 
 arithmetic, on a par at least with the most wonderful discoveries 
 of the present day ? The enumeration and comparison might be 
 made much longer. 
 
 With regard to fertility of inve?ition, antiquity does not appear 
 at first sight as being far superior to modern times, owing to the 
 innumerable little conveniences which have been lately added to 
 our stock of knowledge, and which certainly increase considerably 
 our comfort. But when one reflects that in antiquity man had to 
 discover everything by the strength of his own mind, that he knew 
 scarcely anything to start from, whilst in our day the knowledge 
 previously acquired serves as a point of vantage to advance con- 
 stantly further ; when, moreover, the remark is made that every 
 new invention comes naturally as a consequence from the anterior 
 ones, it is seen at a glance that in this last case it is not so much 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES, gj 
 
 a Strong mind that is required as a keen sense of observation, 
 helped by innumerable and almost perfect instruments. But the 
 actual question is to Compare the mind of primitive man with our 
 own, and not the facility we possess of progressing farther. 
 
 We feel instinctively that our intellect is not growing and de- 
 veloping itself from an innate power of evolution; but that it has 
 come from God with all its faculties and all its native energy. It 
 is not, therefore, surprising that it was as strong at least at the 
 beginning as at the present moment. The impression made upon 
 us by the examples quoted a moment ago, would even make us 
 believe that it was then stronger. But this comes merely from 
 the fact that in ancient times man was less preoccupied than he is 
 now by a thousand cares and thoughts, which fill our days with 
 distracting objects almost v/ithout number. It is nevertheless 
 false to say that the human mind has materially progressed in its 
 essence. We know that every human soul is created immediately 
 by the Almighty; and if soul differs from soul according as God 
 thinks proper to create them, still at all the epochs of man's 
 history we find that great minds have suddenly appeared: more of 
 them formerly than to-day. 
 
 It has been said also that the average human intellect was 
 stronger in ancient times. This is evident to every one who reads 
 attentively what is recorded of ancient nations, as nations, either 
 in the interior of Asia and Africa, compared with those who live 
 in the same continents in our time, or even in Europe, where the 
 phenomenon is not so striking owing to causes which cannot be 
 enumerated at the present moment. Was not the Pelasgic mind 
 stronger than the Hellenic? Did not the Celtic nations show 
 more mental power at the beginning, when they covered a great 
 part of Europe, than they did later on, when their spread became 
 contracted and opposed by surrounding tribes ? The same may 
 be said of all ancient races, and has been sufficiently proved in 
 Gentilism, 
 
 The foundation of Condorcet's theory on the perfectibility 
 of man is thus unable to stand; and the writers best inclined 
 toward him admit that his Essai is devoid of criticism and erudi- 
 tion. They try to excuse this fatal defect in a subject which 
 requires both by the circumstances in which he wrote, being then 
 proscribed and in concealment, deprived of books and references 
 of any kind. But, even so, the best that can be said in his favor is 
 
9^ THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 that his theory is not, but might have been proved in different 
 circumstances. The attempt at doing so has not been renewed 
 by any writer that we know, although Condorcet's thesis is gene- 
 rally supposed to be true, and is for a great number of men a 
 demonstrated axiom. It is maintained by them that the mind of 
 man is better developed and stronger than formerly; that society 
 is laid consequently on better foundations; that the happiness of 
 the greater number is better attended to and realized; that man 
 by rising constantly by his own innate efforts will surely reach a 
 very high degree of perfection and self-control, etc. etc. To 
 whomsoever reflects on the subject this seems to be a bitter irony 
 contradicted by all the facts we witness. We can safely leave the 
 conclusion to the reader. 
 
 Another system on the perfectibility of man has arisen in this 
 century which requires only a passing notice. Man's moraln2XMt^ 
 is undoubtedly supposed by the originators of the scheme to be 
 advancing and ameliorating; but they seem to attach more import- 
 ance to t\iQ physical progress and well-being of man. It all resolves 
 itself into the doctrine of evolution which has been briefly com- 
 mented upon in a previous chapter. The delusion has been suffi- 
 ciently exposed, and we cannot come back to it ex prof esso. There 
 has been no more physical than mental continuous progress for 
 mankind. The men we read of in primitive history were as active, 
 energetic, and powerful as men are to-day, if they were not even 
 more athletic, more strongly constituted, and longer-lived than the 
 average men of our age. In spite of all the prehistoric discoveries, 
 which must at best be regarded as conflicting, unreliable, and 
 local, the records of Holy Scripture have not been contradicted, 
 and cannot be. Innumerable discoveries, besides, are being made 
 every day, confirming powerfully the most marvellous assertions 
 of our Bible. So that it is not true that man has been gradually 
 evolved in body from a low-built barbarian, if not from an ape, to 
 the stature and form he assumes under our eyes — a puny being 
 indeed! — and that he can hope to rise still much higher — how 
 much higher! — in the scale of organized beings. Among these, 
 they say, he has reached at last the first rank in creation after 
 millions of years of a successful struggle for life, and after the 
 innumerable physical and organic combinations he has successively 
 entered into through natural and sexual selection. This dream of 
 Mr. Darwin and his followers is still less substantial and less likely 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 
 
 99 
 
 to be true than the previous one of Condorcet; and since we have 
 to propose to the consideration of the reader a scheme of human 
 perfectibility far preferable to any other, we must hasten on to its 
 exposition and elaboration, leaving behind all those fanciful 
 opinions. 
 
 2. The True Theory of the Moral Perfectibility of Man. 
 
 It is pointedly expressed by our Lord in the following phrase: 
 ^^Be ye perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.'' * By exhorting 
 man to perfection, Jesus Christ intimates thsit perfectio?i is possible 
 for him. It is evident, however, that the last part of the proposi- 
 tion, ''as also your,'' etc., means on the model of, etc., the Saviour could 
 not intend to excite in us the hope of ever reaching the moral 
 height of the Godhead. All that the most ardent of His disci- 
 ples can expect is to be able to rise gradually and constantly along 
 the straight line of holiness, whose last term is God Himself, who 
 remains meanwhile at an infinite distance from the most perfect of 
 His creatures. 
 
 Was this exhortation addressed to all, or only to the chosen 
 few who are called on to follow the evangelical counsels, as ex- 
 plained in the last chapter? If the Sermon on the Mount, in 
 which the text under consideration is found, was addressed to the 
 apostles only, as Maldonatus and Cornelius a Lapide think, then 
 the second supposition may be true. Another passage of the 
 Gospel might be brought forward in support of this opinion. A 
 young man having said to Jesus that he had kept from his youth 
 the commandments of God, and asking what was yet wanting to him, 
 Jesus replied: ''If thou zailt be perfect, go sell what thou hast . . . and come 
 follow me." \ No text could be clearer to establish the difference be- 
 tween the path of the Commandments and that of the evangelical 
 counsels, and to this. last class of men alone the exhortation to perfec- 
 tion seems to be attached. Many Fathers, however, and in general 
 the orthodox interpreters of Holy Scripture, think that the Sermon 
 on the Mount was not spoken by our Lord before the apostles 
 alone but before the multitude, and that the doctrine it contains 
 is obligatory on all Christians, as it is certainly the purest expres- 
 sion of the spirit He came to spread on earth. This exegetical 
 
 * Matth. V. 48. f Matth. xix. 21. 
 
100 THE CHURCH AXD THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 difficulty might give rise to some controversy on the subject. But 
 there is no need of discussing this matter, because all Christians 
 are agreed that every follower of Christ, to whatever degree he 
 may belong, is constantly exhorted in the Church to aim at per- 
 fection in his own state of life; and it is not only the "religious," 
 as they are called— namely, those who have freely embraced the 
 practice of the evangelical counsels — who are bound to advance 
 every day more and more in the path of virtue, but all more or less 
 are directed to do so, according to the degree of grace granted them. 
 The Christian belief of the strict account all will have to render to 
 God after death would sufiftce to render this duty imperative for 
 all without distinction. Let us, therefore, examine to what height 
 of holiness all Christians are called, and how it is true that man 
 is indefinitely perfectible, in a sense far superior to whatever has 
 been imagined^by philosophers and naturalists. 
 
 To treat this subject so as to render it evident and conclusive, 
 some preliminary remarks are required on the differences which 
 exist between the civil and religious orders in society, on their 
 correlations, and on the necessary superiority of one above the 
 other. The r/?-// order (the life of the citizen) must be considered 
 first; afterwards, the religious order (the life of the Christian) must 
 be discussed, to thoroughly understand the perfection it leads us 
 to, either in the common path — that of the Commandments — or 
 along the extraordinary road of the evangelical counsels. The 
 discussion must clearly indicate how far the moral perfectibility 
 of man can be carried in the Church, under Christ's influence. 
 
 And first let us examine the most important question of our 
 day; namely, would it be possible and advantageous, in consider- 
 ing man's perfectibility, to separate altogether the civil from the 
 religious order? Many men think it would; and they imagine 
 that it might be the best means of procuring at the same time 
 peace to society. To prove that it is a fallacy a very simple re- 
 mark will suffice. Man is composed of soul and body, and he has 
 but one personality. ' To separate both is death; and if it is true 
 of the individual, it must be true likewise of any agglomeration of 
 individuals. In human society the civil order is the body; the 
 religious, the soul. This simple assertion must at this moment 
 suffice; and to draw instruction from it, it is proper to consider 
 apart this soul and this body: their needs, aims, and ultimate des- 
 tiny. The body craves for food, raiment, the preservation of 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. loi 
 
 health, and the prolongation of life; the body, again, aims at enjoy- 
 ment — let us suppose that it will be without excess, as wisdom and 
 good sense requires; finally, the natural destiny of the body is to 
 perish, to return into its primitive elements and disappear. Is it 
 for this alone that civil order is established among men ? Those 
 who wish to separate entirely the civil from the religious order 
 would have to be satisfied with it, if they were logical. For it 
 can be demonstrated that the civil order, in its necessary limits, 
 cannot go beyond the concerns of the body. The department of 
 the human soul, with all its adjuncts, escapes from its control ab- 
 solutely and entirely, in the supposition of a total separation from 
 religious life, which is here the case. The State, having in its pos- 
 session an armed force, can command my exterior compliance to 
 its orders, never my interior obedience. How can it pretend to 
 regulate, for instance, the development of my tnind by its laws on 
 education ? It would be sheer tyranny; because the development 
 of my mind is the expansion of my soul, and my soul belongs to 
 me alone. Considering only the natural laws in the social state, I am 
 the perfect master of my spiritual faculties as soon as I have reached 
 the full age of reason. And this is so true that God Himself has lim- 
 ited His omnipotence with regard to my free will ; and — awful to 
 say ! — I can disobey His positive commands. The most the State can 
 do with regard to' my human acts is to restrain me by its armed force 
 when I violate public order, as they say. It can shut me up in its 
 jails, feed me on bread and water, and even deprive me of life ; but it 
 cannot mould my soul — that is, my mind, my will, my interior acts of 
 any sort — according to its pretensions. This is as clear as sunlight ; 
 no one can answer to that argument ; and it remains true that to sep- 
 arate both orders renders the civil one incompetent in many ways. 
 
 Has this theory of total separation ever been carried into effect 
 somewhere on earth .^ And if so, what has been the result .? It would 
 be impossible to find a perfect example of it in the annals of man- 
 kind ; and this alone would provd that there cannot be a total separa- 
 tion of both orders in human society. But the 'Chinese have come as 
 near as can be to perfection in the establishment of this system ; and it 
 is worth while to examine its effects in the Flowery Kingdom. When 
 Matthew Ricci reached Peking and began that apostleship of patience 
 and good sense which so nearly, at one time, resulted in complete 
 success, he found that immense empire, under the last emperors of 
 the Ming dynasty, in an apparently flourishing condition without any 
 
I02 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 State religion worth naming ; the State power enforcing a morality of 
 its own, and ending all its decrees with the dread formula, Tremble and 
 obey. The missionaries did not understand the complete working of 
 those strange institutions, because nothing of the kind could tally 
 with the ideas of Europeans in their age, and thus the men of God 
 took a rather rose-colored view of the subject, particularly because 
 the exquisite politeness of the Chinese won them over completely. It 
 is much more easy for us at this moment to take in an intelligent sur- 
 vey of the whole social field in China such as it was at that time ; 
 and it fortunately happens that it has not changed since the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 In that empire, the first in the world in point of population, 
 beside the single million of Catholics lost among the three hundred 
 millions of pagans, two numerous religions or sects divide at this 
 day the people, outside of the official worship of the mandarins. 
 They are the sects of Lao-tseu and of Fo or Buddha; both 
 of which may as well be left aside because they have nothing to do 
 with the religion of the State which tolerates and protects them, 
 without allowing its own officials to take part in their rites and 
 ceremonies, at least in their official capacity. Buddhism, therefore^ 
 and the religion founded by Lao-tseu, called by him Tao, or Reason, 
 are altogether foreign to our present purpose. The State openly 
 professes only the religious doctrine of Confucius, if it can be 
 called religious in any sense. China consequently does not offer in 
 appearance a complete separation, but a union rather, of Church 
 and State. It is, however, only an appearance and nothing more. 
 For it is simply a system of moral philosophy, taught not by a priest- 
 hood but by the State, in which the four cardinal virtues, accord- 
 ing to State theology — that is, piety, morality, justice, and wisdom 
 — combine with purely physical attributes or energies of matter, 
 such as moisture, fire, wind, water, thunder, earth, etc. Heaven 
 and Earth, with Man, form the heads of a three-fold classification 
 of beings. But it is very difficult to know if originally, in the 
 doctrine of Confucius, Heaven, called in the Chinese tongue Tien 
 or S/ianti, was only the material heaven or in truth the God of 
 heaven. We say originally, for at this time it is certainly the 
 material heaven alone, and the name Tien or Shanti cannot be 
 given to the Christian's God, as many missionaries had done pre- 
 vious to the decision of Rome on the subject. 
 
 In consequence of this there is not in the mandarin or State 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. \qx 
 
 religion of the empire any worship of God properly so called. 
 The official cult is atheistic. The worship of ancestors, which has 
 exteriorly all the characters of a religious act, partakes more of a 
 superstition than of a religion, unless it is a purely civil ceremony, 
 as some imagine. It strictly follows that there is in China neither 
 a union nor a separation of the civil and the spiritual orders, as 
 previously explained. The State has absorbed the whole of it, 
 and the spiritual order has entirely disappeared. 
 
 This is so true that it is now admitted generally that for the Chi- 
 nese who follow the supposed worship of the State there is nothino- 
 above this earth nor after this life. The upper classes of society 
 are left absolutely without a religion of any kind, except the 
 vague and undefined veneration of ancestors; they do not believe 
 in a personal God, nor in the immortality of the soul; they live 
 brutally in this world, and die with a complete indifference as ex- 
 pecting no other. The Emperor is evidently the god of the State. 
 He enforces by his decrees the natural morality of Confucius, and 
 never appeals, that we know, to superior powers. It is precisely 
 what modern European radicals would wish to establish by having 
 openly proclaimed the total separation of Church and State. The 
 Church might enjoy liberty or not; for it is known that there are 
 among the supporters of this scheme two distinct opinions on the 
 subject. The State, nevertheless, in either case, would be para- 
 mount and would enforce what is called morality. But this morality 
 could not have any supernatural sanction, and would be reduced 
 to securing public order, as it is called, by the simple instrumen- 
 tality of the police. 
 
 The question from which we started is now to be examined, 
 and in its simplicity it is expressed in two words : Is this possi- 
 ble, and what would it produce ? The remark has been made 
 and cannot be set aside: Man is composed of soul and body, and 
 his spiritual nature has aims and needs as well as the rtiaterial 
 part of his being. Nay, the first is far superior to the second; and 
 if the State cannot look to it directly and by its own action, it 
 must see that man is not deprived of his rights as clearly defined 
 by the needs and aims of his spiritual nature. And if there is 
 reason to think that those needs and aims have been placed under 
 the guardianship of a heavenly constituted authority, it is the 
 duty of the State to concur with it for the attainment of its spirit- 
 ual object. The necessity of concurrence for securing this right 
 
104 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 is derived from the oneness of man. The two natures of which 
 he is composed form but one person. The whole cannot possibly 
 be divided, so that a part of it might be given to the State and 
 the other to the Church. The State has to take care of man in 
 his complexity, as well as the Church. The impossibility of an 
 actual division obliges them to concur in their respective action; 
 and the civil part of it regarding only this life whilst the religious 
 one regards eternity, the first can be, with regard to spiritual mat- 
 ters, only subsidiary to the second, the same as the present life, on 
 account of its probational character, is primarily nothing more 
 than a means of securing the happiness of heaven. Unless the 
 State goes so far as to repudiate and condemn altogether Christian 
 ideas and turn its back upon them by open persecution, this is 
 logically certain; and it becomes evident that the total separation 
 of Church and State is logically impossible. 
 
 In case, however, this fatal determination be taken (which is 
 far from improbable), what will be the result ? This is the second 
 branch of the proposed question. We can have some idea of it 
 by looking on China, where the doctrine has been for a long time 
 in full sway. It will be shown afterwards, however, that with 
 respect to former Christian nations the result would be far worse, 
 and the reasons of this difference will be given. 
 
 Yes, look at China, and examine attentively what has there 
 resulted from neglecting entirely the spiritual nature of man, 
 treating him merely as a social animal, and sternly refusing to 
 concur for his guidance with any supernatural authority. The 
 natives of the country are certainly docile, intelligent, fond of 
 peace and good order. There are among them all the elements 
 of a well-regulated State. They show their good sense by refusing 
 stubbornly to adopt the atheistic maxims enforced upon them by 
 law. The doctrine of Confucius remains confined to the class of 
 officials, a small minority of the nation, and the mandarins them- 
 selves follow it, probably, because it is attached to their office and 
 they cannot help it. The mass of the people are either Buddhists 
 or disciples of Lao-tseu. Still, the open atheism and materialism 
 of the State is for them a source of moral corruption and degrada- 
 tion. They have become practically atheists and materialists en 
 masse. If they address any prayers to their idols, it is only to 
 obtain favors in this life; they do not think of another. The State 
 showing the most complete indifference for their soul, it is doubt- 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 105 
 
 ful if they think they have any. Their spiritual nature has been 
 almost totally obliterated; and the State can boast that it rules 
 over them without any opposition, because in fact they have be- 
 come mere machines or lumps of gross matter. This could be 
 developed indefinitely; it is better to leave it to the meditation of 
 the reader. It is evident, however, that the moral state of China 
 comes from the theory adopted by the State. 
 
 For such a state of society there is only one government 
 possible; and we see it flourishing in China, but in China alone of 
 all nations. As there is in the whole country only one man, the 
 Emperor — all the others are his tools — all powers are concentrated 
 in his hands. There is not even the possibility of an aristocracy 
 to help him. The highest mandarins are absolutely his creatures, 
 none of them lords b}^ birthright; and they receive only from 
 him the ephemeral authority they enjoy. He has made them, and 
 can unmake them at will; and they can exercise no control over 
 his absolute autocracy. Imagine, if you wish, the government of 
 three hundred millions of people absolutely entrusted to a single 
 individual, and this often weak in intellect and body. But it 
 might be demonstrated that with the system which prevails in that 
 empire — namely, the total absorption of the spiritual order by the 
 State, or rather its total abrogation — there is no other government 
 possible. Nothing is so easy to prove. If an aristocracy, at least, 
 was possible in any way (there can be no question of a democracy 
 at all), it would be a spiritual aristocracy; namely, that of a priest- 
 hood. It has always been the first order of nobility in all ancient 
 nations; and if Europe has obtained in modern times the hegemony 
 of the world, it can be proved that it was originally due to its 
 clergy, which has ruled Christendom for several hundred years. 
 But the system which prevails in China debars forever the nation 
 from the hope of having a spiritual aristocracy, and consequently 
 a nobility of any kind, to temper the Emperor's authority. And 
 this would certainly result in all European nations if a total 
 separation of Church and State were carried out. We cannot see 
 any other power than what we call a clergy able to check that of 
 the ruler, unless it were that of the mob. But this would be open 
 anarchy. The universal opposition of all European governments 
 to the Church springs certainly from an inward feeling that it is 
 so. 
 
 Oh ! let modern thinkers reflect, and see whither their theories 
 
io6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 are hurrying them on. Let them not imagine that what has been 
 the case m China for several centuries would be the worst they 
 could fear. The evil would be far greater in the west of the old 
 continent than in the far Orient. There is not in China any other 
 government possible than that of an autocrat. An aristocracy 
 cannot exist, and a democracy cannot be thought of. The Euro- 
 pean populations on the other side, if such a thing were attempted 
 among them, would not be so submissive as the Chinese flock. 
 The materialistic doctrines spread through all the classes of society 
 would not result only, as it does in China, in creating a stolid in- 
 difference to live or die. The immense activity of the former 
 Christian mind would not run smoothly through the ordinary 
 channels of agriculture and industry, as is the case with these 
 eastern Mongolians. Europeans would do something else besides 
 improving their manufactures of porcelain, or their fabrics of cotton 
 and silk. It is useless to speculate on the subject. But the heart 
 recoils with horror at the prospect which the mind could disclose 
 as the sure fate of the European nations in such a supposition as 
 this. 
 
 It is time, however, to come back strictly to the object consid- 
 ered in this chapter. These few words must suffice on the nature 
 of the civil order when it is entirely free from the concurrence of 
 any spiritual authority. The perfection of man being the actual 
 subject of consideration, it is evident that the civil order alone 
 cannot procure in any degree that perfection to which human 
 nature must aspire. The very character of the State limits its 
 action to the temporal order, and this cannot satisfy human aspira- 
 tions. For man is evidently made for heaven. We must, there- 
 fore, turn our eyes toward the spiritual power which is alone 
 established to rule over the better part of our nature; and for us 
 there is no other than the Church. The life to which she invites 
 us is called the Christian life. What is it ? What system of per- 
 fectibility does it offer to man, either in the path of the Command- 
 ments or in that of the counsels, and how is this carried out? This 
 brings us naturally to the subject announced in the heading of 
 this chapter. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 107 
 
 3. The Moral Perfectibility of Man is unfolded in the Christian Life, 
 even in the Common Path of the Commandmejits. 
 
 The Church alone guides man in the road of Christian life, and 
 inspires him with the desire of aiming at perfection. On this the 
 attention of the reader must be concentrated. The civil power 
 can have no authority whatever in this matter, except so far as to 
 concur with the Church. The God-man who came down from 
 heaven for this purpose, who alone could promise celestial bliss, 
 and wished to found the " kingdom of God " on earth as a pre- 
 paration for it, passed over His authority to the Church when He 
 left this world. He did not entrust it to the State. It was, how- 
 ever, a visible Church that He came to organize, and He gave it 
 all the characters of an exterior and visible power. It has human 
 rulers; particularly the successors of Peter, with whom originates 
 the episcopate. It has an exterior law, the Gospel, which regulates 
 Christian life; an exterior polity in the sacraments, visible as to the 
 rites and invisible as to the grace; an exterior sanction for its laws 
 in Its foru7n exterjium^ by which its subjects are either acknowledged 
 as being in good standing and participating in all the privileges 
 of its citizenship, or as having fallen under censure — which can 
 even go so far as cutting them off from the visible body of the 
 faithful. 
 
 It forms thus a vast republic, embracing the whole world, which 
 it claims as its own. But the ultimate object is always the salvation 
 of souls and their preparation for heaven. No civil power evi- 
 dently can encroach on such sacred ground except as a helper. 
 But the present object is to examine this Christian life around 
 which everything else revolves, since it is the only means of at- 
 taining the end. And the first aspect in which it is to be studied 
 is the one offered by the great mass of the faithful, who are satis- 
 fied with a common life. That common life was so uncommon 
 when it was first proposed to mankind that the very sight of it 
 produced then a wonderful revolution in all the minds of men, 
 or rather a general upheaving of the whole moral world. It could 
 not be adopted without changing entirely the framework of human 
 society; and nothing can better express its first effect than the 
 simple words, total opposition of heathendom to Chi'istendom. 
 
 All of us had the happiness of being born in a land (wherever 
 
io8 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 that was} in which for many centuries the maxims and precepts 
 of Christ had resounded with power, even if some discordant 
 voices could be heard. We can therefore with great difficulty- 
 form any idea of the strangeness of the occurrence when the 
 Ten Commandments were published to mankind, and from the 
 dead contents of the Hebrew or Greek Bible took the living form 
 which the tongue of authorized preachers could give them. Look- 
 ing back on what we know of the apostolic age, let us compare 
 the fierce opposition they met at first from the great majority of 
 men, and, on the other side, the sudden awakening to the contem- 
 plation of a "new creation" by the far smaller number of the first 
 disciples. The solemn tone with which they were ushered in, first 
 on Mount Sinai and afterwards from the lips of Christ, started a 
 ferocious war which lasted several centuries: "I am the Lord thy 
 God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me!" What torrents 
 of blood began to flow and continued to drench the earth on 
 account of these simple words, until victory crowned at last the 
 martyrdom of the Christians, and idols fell prostrate! 
 
 Still it is said with justice that the Decalogue is engraved on the 
 heart of man. Unfortunately the impress of it was then thickly 
 covered with the text of the adversary. Instead of the adora- 
 tion of the true God, the world had adopted the worship of 
 demons. This mockery of religion did not allow any rest to man, 
 and labor being confined to slaves, they had to toil the whole year 
 round to support their masters in idleness and debauchery. No 
 day of rest, no Sabbath for them! To believe in the sacredness 
 of labor and the necessity of rest was the first blow given to the 
 universal system of human slavery, and this again brought on war. 
 The simple and open proscription of anger, hatred, murder, was the 
 absolute condemnation of a world governed hitherto tyrannically 
 by the devil, who "was a murderer from the beginning."* The 
 condemnation of adultery and lust was a clear denunciation of a 
 society given up entirely to it. To forbid the use even of the 
 tongue against a brother-man argued a simplicity so obsolete as 
 to be despised. But particularly to denounce an open anathema 
 against stealing and covetousness was to blaspheme the modern 
 policy of Rome. She might have been in former times honest in 
 her dealings with foreign nations. But this belonged to a long- 
 
 * John viii. 44. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 109 
 
 forgotten age, when her dictators were taken from the plough and 
 her great generals ate radishes dipped in salt, refusing haughtily 
 the bribes of the enemy. Her modern refinement had turned 
 proudly its back on such rustic notions as those. The palaces of 
 her patricians were now adorned with spoils openly stolen from 
 Sicilians, Greeks, Asiatics, and Africans. You could not open 
 your eyes in the capital of the world without witnessing the con- 
 secration and success of public theft and robbery. It is true this 
 took the name of the " right of conquest;" but whatever name it 
 took, it was the enriching of a city at the expense of the whole 
 world. And this was strictly forbidden by the text which said, 
 "Thou shalt not steal." As to "covetousness," who could bear to 
 hear that the new religion anathematized it? Was it not lawful 
 for any man to desire what he did not possess, if the object was 
 pleasant and would increase his enjoyments? This was for pagans 
 the great law of aspirations natural to the heart of man; and to 
 forbid it was an attempt to destroy the spring of life and the only 
 means to attain happiness; namely, a noble ambition. Thus all 
 the precepts of the Decalogue could not but meet with the fiercest 
 opposition. 
 
 This may appear exaggerated to many men who imagine that 
 the pagans in ancient times possessed a conscience as keen as ours. 
 We, thank God, have been fashioned and moulded by eighteen 
 hundred years of Christianity; the heathen of the old world had 
 inherited from their ancestors, during many ages, a bluntness of 
 moral perception of which we can scarcely form an exact idea in 
 our day. 
 
 It may be said, however, that even at that epoch the human 
 laws condemned murder, theft, adultery. They did; and these 
 crimes were punished with a savage legislative cruelty. Retaliation 
 was the law of that age, and barbarous punishments were inscribed 
 in the codes of all nations. It is certain, nevertheless, that human 
 conscience had lost so much of its primitive keenness and sense of 
 right that few saw anything else in those grave injunctions and threats 
 than simple penal eractments. Every one felt at liberty to ward off 
 the consequences by concealing his evil deeds from the eyes of man. 
 Whoever could escape being found out had nothing to fear from the 
 remorse of his conscience. He was the more happy that he not only 
 enjoyed what he had coveted, but he, moreover, nad obtained it at 
 the price of some danger, which always enhances the taste of stolen 
 
no THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 fruit. In case those human laws had not then existed and been 
 occasionally enforced, human society would have altogether perished. 
 But it is evident that the true sense of morality, which in a well- 
 organized commonwealth must always precede and accompany the 
 observance of law, had almost entirely disappeared. 
 
 Otherwise the establishment of Christian morals derived from the 
 Decalogue would not have met in heathendom the opposition it met. 
 It is undoubtedly true that it was, on the other side, its enforcement 
 by the Church which mainly attracted toward her all those choice 
 spirits for whom the Gospel of Christ was a gefiume treasure-trove, 
 and who embraced it with so great an ardor. But for the great ma- 
 jority of pagans, that very holiness of the new religion was the main \ 
 reason which turned them against it irretrievably. The first outburst 
 of that hatred is generally ascribed by historians to the calumnies spread 
 broadcast against the Christians. It was said that they were atheists, 
 they were cannibals, they were given up to an unbridled lust. This is 
 true, but it was most probably a mere pretext, and in their inmost souls 
 the pagans knew better. Who can imagine that they had become all 
 at once the open advocates of religion and morality, and hated the 
 Christians only because the new religionists offended against both.? 
 
 Tacitus assigns to it a much more probable cause : the Christia?is 
 hated mafikind—^'odiujf I generis hu7nani" They showed bluntly their 
 opposition to the loose manners of the age. Inde ircB. This is a more 
 rational explanation of the fact, and comes very near to our own. If 
 the popular pretext had had any reality, it would soon have given way 
 before a more exact knowledge of the truth ; and this would have 
 produced a revulsion of feeling in favor of Christianity which never 
 took place. All things considered, the practice of the Decalogue's 
 precepts was directly opposed to heathen nature, and this must have 
 been the true cause of the fierce antagonism which has just been de- 
 scribed. We shall be still better convinced of it by considering to 
 what height of holiness the practice of the Ten Commandments car- 
 ried directly the new converts, even those who followed the common 
 life proposed to all the disciples of Christ : the natural antagonism of 
 pagans will come out in a bolder relief. 
 
 The first aspect it took was towards God Himself. The Saviour has 
 declared that to love God above all things is the first and the greatest 
 commandment. This had never been so openly proclaimed before to 
 mankind, and alone it would have sufficed to bring back holiness on 
 earth. For the love which is here prescribed embraces all the facul- 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. Ill 
 
 ties of the human soul, and consecrates the entire man to God : " Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole 
 soul, and with thy whole mind." * The old law had already command- 
 ed it, t but it had so far been known almost exclusively to the Jews; 
 Christ extended its knowledge to all nations, and by it He proposed to 
 them at once an eminence of holiness which otherwise could not have 
 been so much as imagined by man. For the love of God, carried to 
 the perfection contained in these words of Christ, suffices to enable 
 any one to reach the very summit of virtue on earth. This is to be 
 seen somewhat in detail. 
 
 First, God is to be loved as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. 
 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the fundamental dogma of 
 the Christian ; and the simplest meaning of it is this three-fold aspect 
 under which God has condescended to be known by us. These con- 
 cepts are not abstract notions only, and metaphysical ideas dimly 
 perceived in God's unity; they are substantial perceptions proved 
 to be in fact three distinct persons. We call them the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost. Can we even conceive how far up that 
 love must go which is to embrace our Creator, our Redeemer, and the 
 Sanctifier of our souls; that is, the Almighty Father of all, the 
 Saviour of mankind, the Bestower of all spiritual gifts ? A large vol- 
 ume has been written by Faber to express only the relations of the 
 Creator towards His creatures ; and there is not a page of the book 
 which does not breathe feelings of the deepest affection on the part of 
 man towards his Author. Yet who can suppose that this mighty sub- 
 ject has been exhausted by the tender-hearted Oratorian } The very 
 idea of creation supposes that we owe to God the Father absolutely 
 everything we possess or claim; if love is to be measured by its 
 mutual communication of everything that is good, can there be any 
 limit to the human love for God, when we know that from His liber- 
 ality the immensity of creation is ours ; since we can claim as of right 
 not this earth only, but whatever the universe contains ? Measure, if 
 you can, the height of holiness to which this love alone is able to 
 carry us up. 
 
 But the particular feature of this holy subject which must be con- 
 sidered apart is the total submission to God which the title of crea- 
 ture imposes on man, as the mightiest step he can take toward perfect 
 sanctity. There can be no question of independence in any degree, 
 
 * Matt. xxii. 37. f Deut. vi. 5. 
 
112 THE CHURCH AXD THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 when the very name of creature is analyzed. When it is considered 
 that no faculty of the soul, no organ or function of the body, no out- 
 ward advantage of any kind, can be claimed by us as derived either 
 from ourselves or from any other source than the infinite goodness of 
 the Almighty Father, how can we lose for a single moment the con- 
 sciousness of belonging entirely to God ? This simple consideration 
 imposes upon man the absolute necessity of a constant self-repression, 
 lest he should offend the most pure eye of the Father, which is all the 
 time beaming on him. And let no one fancy that this must engender 
 fear. As nothing comes from the infinite source of all goodness but 
 what is the offspring of divine love, so likewise every throb of the 
 human heart, every instinctive feeling of the creature we call a human 
 being, every reflex thought of the human soul, and every active emotion 
 of the human personality, cannot but resolve itself into an ardent love 
 which, as a Father has said, "drives away all fear." Then the loss of 
 independence is sweet; the absolute subjection of our whole being to 
 the divine influence is the highest happiness ; and nothing thereby is 
 more easy and simple than the practice of the most perfect holiness. 
 For every one who loves God with "his whole heart, his whole soul, 
 and his whole mind," cannot but be holy ; and this is after all the 
 shortest road to sanctity. 
 
 Thus far this doctrine does not suppose even revelation. With- 
 out it, no doubt, man might have scarcely been able to soar so high 
 in the spiritual regions ; still unassisted reason can deduce the whole 
 doctrine from the truths engraved on the human heart. But the love 
 of God as Redeemer transcends entirely what reason teaches us; and 
 because this new insight into the higher world is far brighter, the love 
 and the holiness it suggests is still in a certain sense higher and purer. 
 
 Our title of creature is here replaced by that of son; and we 
 could never have understood the dignity to which we are raised by 
 it, unless the true and natural Son of God had condescended to 
 reveal it to us by becoming Incarnate in our own human nature. 
 This, therefore, of necessity belongs to revealed doctrine, and can- 
 not be fathomed or even dimly discovered by unassisted human rea- 
 son. To be the rational creature of the Almighty Father, to belong 
 to Him entirely, and, by a total submission to Him, to claim as a 
 right the possession of the immensity of creation towards which our 
 whole being aspires, is apparently the highest limit of our most 
 ambitious aims. But God can do infinitely more than we can 
 imagine or desire; and by the temporal birth of His Eternal Son 
 
DOCTRIiYE OR PRINCIPLES. 113 
 
 from one of the children of men — a Virgin Mother — He has made 
 us all His adopted sons, and given us a right not only to material 
 creation in all its immensity as seen above, but likewise to the incom- 
 prehensible spiritual creation of heaven itself which revelation alone 
 can unfold. This is the strict consequence of the dogma of the 
 Incarnation ; and for this reason, also, Christ in the New Testament 
 calls Himself indiscriminately the Son of man and the Son of God, to 
 show how both are merged into one. 
 
 Look at Him, either in the cave of Bethlehem, a babe just born 
 on earth, whilst his heavenly generation is eternal and divine ; or 
 under the humble roof of Nazareth, a young man toiling and living 
 at the sweat of his brow, clothed in our weak humanity, yet enjoying 
 heavenly rest in His most divine personality ; or at last on the cross, 
 bearing in His humanity all the sins of mankind, but conqueror of 
 hell in His death, and sure that according to prophecy "His sepulchre 
 should be glorious." 
 
 It is on account of all the circumstances of this birth, this life, this 
 death, that Christians must and do love Him. And in loving Him 
 they love their God, the Incarnate Son of the Father. In taking up 
 our nature and appearing as a man among us. He has rendered easy 
 for all the children of Adam, even the most humble and uninformed, 
 the love of the Creator, who has consented to become our Redeemer. 
 For this the Christian is not reduced to metaphysical considerations 
 of the highest order, deduced from whatever the reason of man can 
 know of the nature of the Infinite. A very few intellects can penetrate 
 into the secrets of heaven, where Scripture says that the angels them- 
 selves veil their faces when looking on the Lord.* We are, besides, 
 warned by the wise man that "the searcher of majesty shall be over- 
 whelmed by glory." f But there is no fear of falling through intellec- 
 tual pride, when the Christian on his knees adores the humble Son of 
 Mary, and feels emboldened even to kiss His feet and bedew His 
 divine hands with his tears. Abstract reflections on the infinite 
 attributes of God, supposing them to be guarded and accurate, can 
 scarcely warm the heart, where alone love nestles and expands ; and 
 the safest metaphysicians, armed with all the subtlety of philosophy, 
 [seldom feel their imagination entranced and their bosom agitated by 
 any emotion of rapture, any warmth even of tender affection. The 
 whole is almost concentrated in the intellect. 
 
 * Is. vi. 2. f Prov. XXV. 27. 
 
114 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 But the life of Christ seems to have been purposely planned for 
 drawing from the heart of man, even if naturally hard as adamant 
 and cold as ice, an ever-gushing source of deep devotion and an 
 ardent flame of persistent enthusiasm. The more a man is unaffected 
 and simple (however limited his knowledge may be) the more is he 
 fit to be strongly affected by the reading of the Gospel. There is no 
 need of a strong reasoning power, of an acute mind, to detect sure 
 principles and draw from them infallible consequences. An unvar- 
 nished fact briefly told, a phrase fallen carelessly in appearance from 
 the lips of the God-man, a word only of His disciple John, kindle 
 directly in the heart a soft and gentle fire, active enough to mettle 
 the hardest nature, yet so harmless as only to vivify, not to burn ; to 
 draw tears from the eye, no pain from the frame ; to create a new soul 
 endowed with new affections, not to destroy anything worth keeping 
 in whatever belongs to our humanity. An habitual reading of the 
 inspired volume serves but to confirm a first impression. Soon the 
 life of the Saviour becomes so deeply impressed in the human heart 
 that to look simply on His image — either as beaming with joy in His 
 infancy and resting on the knees of His mother; or dwelling with 
 Joseph and Mary in the cottage of Nazareth; or walking through 
 Judea in the midst of His apostles, sitting with them at His last 
 supper, and finally expiring ignominiously on Calvary — suffices for 
 entrancing the Christian soul with delight and devotion, filling our 
 solitude with the company of the angels who once ministered to Him 
 on earth, and changing our dull life into an ever-revolving circle of 
 festive or tender devotions. Innumerable generations of men, chiefly 
 in the middle ages, have had scarcely any other food for their soul 
 but what was then called "the poor man's Bible;" namely, the vari- 
 ous circumstances of Christ's life painted on the windows of their 
 churches or sculptured on the walls of their cathedrals, or, finally, 
 engraved on wood and printed for the use of those who could not 
 read. This sufficed for kindling in those simple souls a fire of deep 
 piety resolving itself entirely into the love of Christ as their God. 
 Then religion was not a mere name, but a strong and lasting feeling; 
 it was a tree deeply planted in their hearts, producing, besides leaves 
 and flowers, a profusion of fruits, called then good works, works of 
 mercy, scarcely remembered in our day, but whose precious list 
 formed the holy staple of the morality of those ages. 
 
 How many millions of men, women, and children have thus 
 ardently loved their Redeemer ! They have abundantly fulfilled the 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 1 15 
 
 first precept of the law : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
 thy whole heart, and thy whole soul, and thy whole mind.'" Many of 
 them have carried that love to a degree of perfection which puts to 
 the blush the men of our age, who have certainly a far greater degree 
 of knowledge and enjoy, also, the privilege of reading the same Gos- 
 pel, but imagine, in their blindness, that they have many better things 
 to do in this life than reduce the mental food of their souls to the 
 simple diet of their forefathers. 
 
 The present age, however, must not be made worse than it is. 
 There are still people who love Christ; and the world will never be 
 without them, because His life sheds on earth too strong a light to be 
 ever entirely obscured by the " shadow of death." These ardent dis- 
 ciples of the Saviour sanctify still in our day all the walks of human 
 activity even in the higher classes of society; though they are far 
 more numerous in the humbler ranks of life. How often does not 
 the minister of God wonder that after the Saviour has pronounced 
 that awful "woe to the rich," there are still so many of them who try 
 at least to keep within the line of the strict Commandments ! They 
 submit willingly to Christian discipline in order to save their soul ; 
 and if too often " the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of 
 riches choketh up the word " in their heart, and renders them unfaith- 
 ful to duty, they repent after a while, and humble themselves so far 
 as to acknowledge their guilt at the feet of a man, and thus they are 
 not unworthy of pardon. 
 
 But the most precious jewels of Christ's crown are His humble 
 
 i"ollowers in the path of despised poverty. For them the love of the 
 
 Saviour is everything, since they cannot love the world which dis- 
 
 )wns them. The whole life of many of them has scarcely ever been 
 
 jouched by mortal sin ; and they cannot remember the time when their 
 
 iieart was altogether cold towards their Redeemer. Is not this true 
 
 )f a large proportion of the humble classes of society in the Catholic 
 
 "hurch } If a number of them have not been blameless during their 
 
 :'outh, and even have for a considerable time disregarded the clearest 
 
 recepts of religion, they will tell you that this was long ago. Dur- 
 
 ag many years of a penitent life they have endeavored to obtain a 
 
 ardon of which they are always afraid of not being worthy ; and 
 
 aving nothing to reproach themselves since their first conversion to 
 
 Tod, they continue to accuse themselves of former transgressions 
 
 'hich they consider as a load on their conscience, after having so 
 
 ften thrown it away. Is it not evident, therefore, that tjhe first pre- 
 
Ii6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 J 
 
 cept of the Decalogue, so comprehensive and weighty, keeping e 
 balmed m itself the strongest, and surest, and most absolute test o 
 sanctity, is still followed by innumerable thousands of people, for 
 whom the love of God in Christ is more important than any other 
 concern of human life ? 
 
 We have not, however, considered so far the whole extent of this 
 "kingdom of God on earth." Besides the love of the Creator and 
 of the Redeemer, it embraces likewise that of the " Sanctifier," and 
 suggests considerations as important perhaps as those which have pre- 
 ceded, though they must be very shortly suggested. 
 
 The benefits of creation and redemption are truly marvellous and 
 cannot be explained in words, because they are in fact, chiefly the 
 second, incomprehensible. The divine love which they excite in the 
 hearts of those who reflect upon them surpasses human comprehension, 
 and calls forth particularly the wonder of the happy men who feel it. 
 Still God has found in His infinite goodness a closer bond of union 
 with us, by consenting to make His dwelling in our hearts and grant 
 ing us the permanent and familiar presence of His Holy Spirit. He 
 is called the "Sanctifier, the " Consoler," the " Bestower of spiritual 
 gifts." Christ had promised Him before leaving the earth; and St. 
 Paul in particular has spoken eloquently of the fulfilment of that 
 promise. This indwelling of the Spirit of God in man, in the state 
 of grace, is very different from the assistance granted to the Church at 
 large, by bestowing upon her the gifts of infallibility and sanctity. 
 We here speak of the individual influence of the Holy Ghost over 
 each of us, of which we are assured by many words of Christ and by 
 numerous texts contained in apostolic epistles. This is the thin 
 part of the economy of grace, the benefits of creation and redemptio; 
 being the two first ones. This last is peculiar, altogether confin 
 in the interior of man, but on this account most precious and pr 
 motive of the love of God. In fact, the chief object of this interi 
 mission of the Holy Ghost, as it is called, is to create and nourish i 
 our soul that supernatural love which is the main end for which 
 have been created and redeemed. After this new proof of divine li 
 erality towards us, nothing more can be imagined which the infinit< 
 power of the Almighty could do. The Most Holy Trinity has ex 
 hausted itself in enriching man, since the Holy Ghost is the third anc 
 last person composing it. The reader can see at a glance that it i 
 the highest source of holiness for man, because the only possible ob 
 ject of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in His rational creatures i 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 117 
 
 to make them holy. Volumes upon volumes could be written on this 
 the highest prerogative of the Christian, since by the virtue of it he 
 is not only a creature of God, not only a Son of God, but a partaker 
 of all the gifts of God ; of His very nature, as St. Peter says.* 
 
 But we are forced to leave these sublime considerations to the 
 meditation of the reader, in order to enter into a general view of their 
 consequences with regard to the whole Decalogue in its complexity. 
 So far w^e have spoken only of the great precept which forms the 
 main object of the first table of the law. 
 
 In general it can be said that the class of precepts contained in 
 the second table is intimately derived from those of the first. If 
 man "loves God with his whole heart, his whole soul, and his whole 
 mind," he wall love his neighbor as himself on account of Christ's 
 command, and himself only according to the strict injunctions of the 
 divine law. But the detail of whatever is enjoined by the seven last 
 commandments belongs as well to the natural as to the supernatural 
 order. As belonging to the first they are in fact engraved in the 
 heart of all men, as St. Paul remarks. As belonging to the second 
 they were surely promulgated on Mount Sinai first, but afterwards 
 they were reasserted and explained by Christ Himself as part and 
 parcel of what He came to reveal. If we love God with the perfec- 
 tion required by the "first and greatest commandment," we cannot 
 but be faithful to what He has so clearly written in our hearts and 
 decreed with such power on the Mount of the Beatitudes. As author 
 of nature, as Creator consequently, we owe Him that perfect love 
 described previously as a necessity of our being. The precious 
 deposit of His law contained in the inmost recess of our hearts must 
 be, therefore, considered as the most inestimable heirloom left us by 
 His condescension after the fall of Adam. Had He altogether 
 rejected us, we would not have in our possession' such a priceless 
 advantage as the testimony of our conscience undoubtedly is. Its 
 voice is the echo of that of God Himself. We feel it, we know it ; the 
 pagans themselves have acknowledged it. 
 
 But this second table of the law, which evidently comes from God 
 as the author of nature, comes from Him likewise as the author of 
 grace. The Divine Redeemer has from His. own lips repeated the 
 mjunctions contained in the Mosaic Decalogue. He has explained 
 them, left them to His Church as a sacred deposit, to be interpreted 
 
 * 2 Peter i. 4. 
 
Il8 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 by her whenever some particular point should appear obscure owing 
 to the passions of men. He has consequently, as Redeemer, secured 
 forever their usefulness on all occasions, and for all moral purposes. 
 It is a far superior advantage to the one possessed by the Jews, who 
 had only the synagogue to listen to in time of doubt and hesitation. 
 The Commandments have thus become, owing particularly to their 
 clearness, one of the most important results of the scheme of redemp- 
 tion ; and since the title of Redeemer assumed by our God in the 
 person of His Son is one of the highest incentives of love towards 
 Him on the part of man, this love, being now supremely in our pos- 
 session, carries with it the necessity of fulfilling His precepts of the 
 second class, which are, as He says, " like the first." 
 
 Finally, the consecration of this holy doctrine by the indwelling 
 of the Holy Spirit in us, as previously explained, extends also to this 
 second branch. For if the heart of the Christian in the state of 
 grace becomes the dwelling of the Holy Ghost, that divine Spirit's 
 gifts must be applied to the fulfilment of the whole law and the 
 establishment of a supreme holiness. This could not be possible 
 unless the precepts of the divine law even of the second class, which 
 were at first merely natural and moral precepts, become elevated to 
 the higher plane of a supernatural influence. And it is for this 
 reason certainly that Christ said that the second precept (to love our 
 neighbor) was "like unto the first." 
 
 It is, therefore, easy to understand how all Christians, even those 
 who follow the common life of the precepts, are called to the practice 
 of a real and supreme holiness. The general considerations just 
 offered to the reader suffice for it without entering into a detailed 
 and successive account of each and all these Commandments. What 
 remains to be done for the complete elucidation of this question 
 consists in explaining briefly how the most simple Christian is thus 
 placed on the high-road of perfectio?i, and truly fulfils the injunction 
 of our Lord, " Be ye perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect." 
 To do this requires evidently a real and constant progress in the way 
 of God. For as it is impossible to reach in reality perfection in this 
 life, the injunction of Christ must mean that His disciples are bound 
 to aim at it, and consequently to perfect themselves more and more 
 in the practice of virtue, to progress consequently day after day, as 
 long as human life lasts. 
 
 To judge of it easily and thoroughly it is sufficient to consider for 
 a moment in what a Christian life consists. Nothing is more simple 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 119 
 
 and clear; and a child will say that a Christian life is merely the 
 imitation of Christ. All His disciples are bound to it, but not all in 
 the same degree. Whatever that degree may be, however, it always 
 partakes more or less oi perfectioji. To imitate Christ, the most hum- 
 ble and uneducated of His disciples must constantly rise above na- 
 ture and enter the superior regions of a moral world incomprehensi- 
 ble outside of Christianity. He must love his enemies and do them 
 good when he can ; he must despise lucre if it involves in the least 
 dishonesty ; he must bow his head resignedly when afflicted by sick- 
 ness, poverty, and all the other natural ills of life ; he must endeavor 
 to subdue the passions of lust, avarice, ambition, hatred; he must 
 constantly remember that life is short, eternity long, death sure, and 
 heaven to be reached only through a hard and narrow road. Pages 
 of this kind could be written to describe the Christian life such as it 
 is, without gloss and varnish and in all the nakedness of truth. In 
 this, in a few words, consists for all the imitation of Christ. And it 
 is not a work of supererogation, but it is a duty incumbent on all 
 those who wish to be sincerely the followers of the God-man. They 
 must aim 2X perfection. 
 
 Is not all this the road to supreme holiness on earth } Is it not 
 far superior to the path followed by the great majority of men.? 
 
 No one can do it unless he keeps his eyes constantly on Christ, 
 and tries to copy in his own person the model left us nineteen-hun- 
 dred years ago and preserved in the pages of the eternal Gospel. 
 The Church has always endeavored to foster among men the thorough 
 imitation of that heavenly model, because it is the most sure and easy 
 way of attaining holiness on earth ; and the most common life of the 
 Christian is holiness itself compared to that of those men who are 
 not. 
 
 4. The Best Development of Human Peifectibilky is carried out in the 
 Practice of the Evangelical Counsels. 
 
 The short sketch of a few particulars of the Saviour's life given a 
 moment ago was intended to illustrate some of the examples He gave 
 having no reference to what is generally called the evangeHcal coun- 
 sels. But if He is the perfect model of all Christians, even of those 
 who follow a common path ; if He thus invites them all to perfection 
 according to their degree of grace, His life furnishes likewise the true 
 pattern of a heroic holiness to those who, like the young man in the 
 
I20 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 Gospel, do not feel satisfied with keeping the Commandments and 
 wish to advance farther on perfection's road. Should any one try to 
 analyze those "counsels," denounced by Luther as encouraging su- 
 perstition and openly opposed to the law of God, he will easily dis- 
 cern that they resolve themselves into the spirit of self-sacrifice. 
 
 A simple glance at them will show that to submit our will to that 
 of another is undoubtedly the sacrifice of our will ; to subdue the 
 sexual desire by continency and render it submissive to reason sup- 
 poses the same constant surrender of our sensual leanings ; to de- 
 prive one's self of the possibility of acquiring and possessing property 
 is a third manner of self-immolation, as unpalatable to human nature 
 as the two others. But many men in our day refuse to admit that 
 human perfectibility is in the least concerned in either of these. 
 They think that Christian holiness cannot be promoted at the expense 
 of all that is dear to man ; and some of them go even so far as to pre- 
 tend that such practices as these are disgraceful to humanity, loath- 
 some in the eyes of God, and the outcome of barbarism rather than of 
 genuine Christianity. 
 
 Our object cannot be to convince menv/ho refuse to be convinced, 
 and to bring them to the admission of principles altogether repugnant 
 to their nature. They understand this last word in a way peculiar to 
 them, and they must be left in the firm persuasion that they are right. 
 But it will be profitable, we hope, to a great number of candid and 
 sincere people to open before the eyes of all what is in fact the high- 
 est and most abundant fountain-head of true holiness on earth, and 
 the irrefragable proof that man is indeed indefinitely perfectible in his 
 moral nature. To ])lace this beyond the reach of contradiction, the 
 most simple and at the same time forcible way is to consider virtue 
 in its various degrees from the lowest to the highest, and attentively 
 examine, first, the difficulty it finds in establishing itself in the human 
 heart and, secondly, the masterly manner with which it finally sub- 
 dues it and perfects it through Christ's counsels. The agency of divine 
 grace in the whole process is always to be supposed in the Christian 
 understanding of it, but here it seems better not to insist on this pe- 
 culiarity, and develop only what is visible and sensible in the arduous 
 struggle which invariably takes place in the human soul. 
 
 I. Virtue is a moral force, and force supposes a resistance to be 
 overcome. All men know that there is no greater resistance to virtue 
 than is found in the evil inclinations to which we are all naturally sub- 
 ject. In thoughts, words, or actions we m.orally fail at every moment 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 12 1 
 
 of our lives, unless we are extremely cautious at first in a kind of de- 
 sultory warfare against all possible temptations without any apparent 
 order and system, and afterwards apply ourselves to the task with 
 more energy and success, when principles have been finally recog- 
 nized and some virtuous habits have been at last acquired. The 
 lowest degree of virtue consists in that first supposed fight at random 
 against a number of spiritual enemies by which we are at once assailed. 
 This happens chiefly in the first bloom of youth, when, prompted by a 
 holy but still vague desire of keeping himself pure, a young man re- 
 sists evil almost instinctively, and without much order and precision 
 in his efforts. Virtue is not yet solidly established in the soul ; evil 
 inclinations are strong; and there is nothing surprising in the fact 
 that with the best intentions this young man often experiences humi- 
 liating defeats, and at times despairs almost of conquering peace by 
 the most valiant struggles. 
 
 No one who has studied himself during his whole life will refuse 
 to recognize his own history in this short description of what has been 
 called a desultory warfare. Each act of virtue may be a brave one, 
 but — to continue the simile — the whole campaign is often a failure. 
 Let us examine a moment some particular point of this moral encoun- 
 ter; and as the great epic poet, in the midst of a general description 
 of an universal battle, brings on suddenly the individual fight of two 
 of his heroes, so likewise it will be profitable, to analyze more fully 
 some single moral combat in which we remember that we have been 
 formerly engaged, in order to know the fearful difficulty that always 
 meets those who propose to themselves not to allow animalism to pre- 
 vail through life over their best instincts. 
 
 A young man, for instance, has remarked his almost unconquerable 
 inclination to idleness and sloth : either for rising early in the 
 morning, accepting and following the order of the day assigned by 
 parents and teachers, applying his mind to a systematic study, keep- 
 ing a firm purpose of steady progress and advance; or, in a quite dif- 
 ferent line, for discarding a friend who comes to entice him away 
 from his actual duty, putting away the occasion he meets of indulging 
 his leaning to idleness — conquering himself, in fact. Imagining at 
 first that few, if any, will be aware of his weakness, he feels an in- 
 vincible repugnance, an almost unconquerable opposition. He is 
 fully aware, consequently, of the immense difficulty there is for him 
 in practising the virtue of steadfastness or abstaining from the vice 
 of sloth. Being still a novice in both, he too often finds out that 
 
122 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 after many strong resolves and promises he is the same wavering 
 boy that he has always been ; he has not yet acquired a positive habit 
 of the virtue of which he feels the need, without which he knows his 
 life will be ill-spent and end perhaps in disgrace and dishonor. 
 
 The example which has been chosen here is one of the most par- 
 donable in a boy, when it is not carried to extreme. There are many 
 other defects or vices which could present a much stronger case for 
 the object in view. But some private reflections on the subject will 
 enable any one to see that nothing is so difficult as to establish 
 solidly the reign of holiness in the heart of man, at the very beginning. 
 
 2. The result will be more conclusive still by considering a higher 
 degree of virtue, after having analyzed a single case belonging to a 
 lower class of facts. The boy has now become almost a man; life 
 assumes for him a more serious aspect. Let us suppose that he re- 
 flects often on the consequences of his acts, and that he begins to 
 more thoroughly understand the baneful effects of a single immoral 
 habit. He takes an honest resolution not to allow himself to be en- 
 slaved like the great number of his companions, whom he daily sees 
 addicted to vices on account of which they often blush without hav- 
 ing the courage of freeing themselves from their tyranny. He is be- 
 sides fully aware of the difficulty of the task. For there are dangers 
 on all sides, and snares laid for his fall all around him. His natural 
 inclinations conspire against him with the allurements of a corrupt 
 world ; and he shudders at the sight of so many bad examples, so 
 many loose maxims of conduct, so many scandalous successes in life, 
 which go to form the aggregate of human society. He, therefore un- 
 derstands that if he wishes to preserve himself from moral corruption, 
 he must adopt strict principles of conduct and never deviate from 
 them. He begins to lay under his feet solid foundations of virtue. 
 Aside from the power which man receives from God when he 
 asks it, and which we purposely lay aside in these considerations, the 
 supposed efforts of this young man are the only means that can be 
 imagined of acquiring a firm virtue through life. But does it not 
 suppose a constant practice of self-sacrifice ? Can a well-ordered and 
 persistent conduct be founded on any other ground than on the im- 
 molation of self at all times and on all occasions .'' Virtue and self- 
 sacrifice are, therefore, identical; and the more complete is the last 
 the more exalted will be the first. 
 
 From this single example it is easy to understand that the sub- 
 mission of the individual will to a higher one, the total subjection 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 1 23 
 
 of the senses to reason, and the abdication of worldly goods and 
 worldly hopes for the sake of charity, being in their combination 
 the most absolute expression of self-renouncement, must be also 
 for man the highest means of acquiring virtue, or rather the very 
 essence of moral perfection on earth, and the highest exponent 
 of the moral perfectibility of man. This, however, must be more 
 clearly brought out, in order that it may offer no difficulty to the 
 understanding of any one. 
 
 There can be no more absolute generalization of manhood and 
 its surroundings than w^hat embraces our spiritual faculties, our 
 bodily leanings, and our exterior advantages. The sacrifice of all 
 these at once is that of the whole man. All man's spiritual faculties 
 are evidently concentrated in his will, which naturally supposes his 
 understanding. His bodily leanings mean here the sensible and 
 sensuous part of his being, which, when it is altogether subjected 
 to reason by a particular vow, is made a total sacrifice of, in the 
 presence of God. Finally, the totality of his exterior advantages, 
 as they relate to worldly possessions or the hope of them, comprises 
 whatever is generally understood by the object of the vow of pov- 
 erty. On this account the solemn pronouncing of the " religious 
 vows" has often been called a holocaust of the whole man on 
 God's altar. A longer explanation is not required, because, under 
 this simple and short expression, it is evident at once that there 
 can be no higher and no more universal self-sacrifice for man than 
 what is understood by " religious vows," and self-sacrifice is the 
 essence of virtue. The only difficulty relates to matters of detail, 
 and can be better disposed of by stating with simplicity some ob- 
 jections of unorthodox writers who not only refuse to admit that 
 the matter of these vows constitutes a way of perfection but pre- 
 tend, on the contrary, that they are unnatural, unholy, and offensive 
 to God and to man. These objections, so far as they have any 
 strength, rest altogether on misconceptions, and it will require a 
 very short discussion to establish it. 
 
 3. A first general observation may be sufficient for the Chris- 
 tian. The religious vows are commended in the Gospel by Christ 
 Himself, and the Church has always highly approved the firm 
 determination of those who freely embrace their practice. The 
 counsels of voluntary poverty and continency are as clearly ex- 
 pressed by the Saviour as it is possible for the human language to 
 do it; and as to the submission of man's will to a higher one, the 
 
124 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 whole life of Christ, as was seen, is but a commentary on it, and 
 no better example of " religious" obedience can be offered than 
 that of the God-man during his whole mortal career. This has 
 already been touched upon, but here is the place to prove it be- 
 yond contradiction. 
 
 First, therefore, nothing but voluntary poverty, such as is 
 practised by the " religious" in the Catholic Church, can answer 
 to the advice given by the Saviour to the young man who had all 
 his life kept the Commandments and wished to do more in order 
 " to have life everlasting." " If thou wait be perfect, go sell what 
 thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have a treasure in 
 heaven; and come follow me." * There is here no need of a com- 
 mentary. From the very words used by Christ it is evident that 
 this is an advice or counsel which is not proposed to all, but only 
 to a few — to those who wish to h^ perfect. It is not a command- 
 ment like those of the Decalogue, and no individual in the Church 
 is absolutely required to do it. It is true that when God gives to 
 a soul an inward and strong leaning to it, so that it looks truly 
 like a divine call, it becomes a sort of commandment to that par- 
 ticular soul, who may endanger its salvation by remaining deaf to 
 the call, like this very young man who after receiving this advice 
 from Christ did not follow it, but " went away sad, for he had 
 great possessions." Admitting all this, however, it cannot be in- 
 cluded in the line of " precepts," and remains for all an evange- 
 lical "counsel," 
 
 Secondly, the same must be said of continency, of which the 
 Saviour speaks absolutely in equivalent terms. For after He had ex- 
 plained at length the unity and indissolubility of marriage, such as it 
 was to remain forever in the Church, the disciples themselves were 
 surprised at the strictness of the bond of matrimony, and exclaimed 
 at once : " If the case of a man with his wife be so, it is not expedient 
 to marry." \ The Saviour answered : "All men accept not this word, 
 but they to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who were born 
 so from their mother's womb; and there are others who were made 
 so by men ; and there are some who have made themselves eunuchs 
 for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take [or understand], let 
 him take it [that is, understand it]."t This passage of the Gospel 
 cannot possibly have reference to anything but the practice of volun- 
 
 * Matt. xix. 21. \ Ibid. lo. % Ibid, ii, 12. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 125 
 
 tary continency. St. Paul understood it so when he recommended 
 virginity to the Corinthian Christians, " not as a precept, but a coun- 
 sel." * A great part of this chapter of St. Paul is but a song in honor 
 of voluntary virginity. But at the same time marriage is honored as 
 an institution necessary for many who otherwise "would burn." 
 That a Christian, after having heard these words of Christ and of St. 
 Paul, could speak disparagingly of holy celibacy must always remain 
 incomprehensible. There are, however, objections often made to it 
 which have an appearance of foundation, of which a few words must 
 be said. 
 
 The apostle of the gentiles, in explaining with a supreme good sense 
 the Church's doctrine on the subject, referred to a peculiarity which 
 is precisely the only reason assigned by those who object to the prac- 
 tice of celibacy. Mind ! he seems to say, " I speak for your profit, 
 not to cast a snare upon you; but for that which is decent." \ Had 
 he made a precept of virginity for all, the objection would have been 
 proper. All cannot keep it, and he had said it himself equivalently. 
 He did not want " to cast a snare upon them." But he had repeatedly 
 declared that the advice he gave was only for those who had reason to 
 think that God called them to that state of comparative perfection, and 
 that the same God would continue to help them. The Church has 
 always likewise put the same limitation to the practice of voluntary 
 celibacy, and has done her best to ascertain the vocation of those 
 who embrace it. There is no doubt that some at least of the exam- 
 ples quoted by the opponents of the Catholic doctrine as incentive to 
 immorality have really taken place, and belong unfortunately to his- 
 tory. But what does it all prove 1 Only this, that the best things in 
 the world are subject to abuse ; nothing more. If a certain number 
 of men have embraced the religious or ecclesiastical state without any 
 of the virtues required for it, it cannot be imputed to the religious 
 state itself, but to the base passions of ambition, avarice, luxury, 
 which naturally corrupt the best institutions when they are secretly 
 indulged by hypocrites and sycophants. That- in general the rulers 
 of the Church, chiefly the popes, have been indefatigable in the pur- 
 suit of those monsters, and have done all that it was possible to do 
 for preserving holy purity in those who make a public profession of 
 it, is easily ascertainable by history, and becomes every day better 
 and better proved by the earnest endeavors of modern historians. 
 
 * I Cor. vii. f I Cor. vii. 33. 
 
126 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 That in times of the greatest corruption there were always in the 
 Church a large number of holy souls living in austerity, and keep- 
 ing their senses in due subjection to reason and the law of God, 
 can as little be disputed by those who have sufficiently investi- 
 gated the matter. With these simple remarks the objection under 
 consideration can very well be left for what it is worth. It can- 
 not weaken in the least the strength of the argument derived from 
 the Gospel itself in favor of virginity. 
 
 But, in a third place, nothing has yet been said of the submis- 
 sion of the will required of the "religious" in the Church, and on 
 this the adversaries of monastic vows are particularly ardent in 
 their opposition. Why has God given us a will, if not to use it 
 ourselves and not to subject it to the will of another? How can 
 man perfect himself if he discards at once the best means he pos- 
 sesses for the development of his own perfectibility? Can the 
 Almighty be honored by the acts of a mere machine, and is not 
 man simply a machine when he has surrendered his will? And 
 much more is said of the same import. But it is as clear as day- 
 light that all this has no bearing whatever on the question. The 
 practice of "religious" obedience does not deprive a man of his 
 will. To subject it to that of another in all cases required by the 
 rule is not, and cannot be, to destroy it and entirely lose it. It 
 remains as strong in the best "religious" in the world as in the 
 most independent man you can choose. Nay, it is much stronger 
 because it is more perfect, less subject to vacillation and incon- 
 stancy, better grounded on principle, and conseqently more firm in 
 Its resolve : all things which are precisely the best characteristics 
 of a strong will. The objection just mentioned in detail supposes 
 always that the more the human will is wavering, capricious, liable 
 to change, because left to the inspiration of the moment, m the individual, 
 the more it deserves its name. In this case the word itself is sim- 
 ply a misnomer. The precept of obedience is moreover imposed 
 on the "religious" chiefly to give efficiency to the arduous labor 
 undertaken by his Order. If each one acted according to his 
 views there would be in reality no head to the whole community, 
 no unity of purpose, and consequently no result worth naming. 
 But does the impulse given by the one who commands deprive 
 each member of his own activity ? The man is altogether blind 
 who does not see that the action of each individual will be much 
 more effective because combined with that of many others. And 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 127 
 
 the consciousness in each of the effect produced by all cannot but 
 increase individual strength and give an immense power to the 
 will of the lowest member of the community. Do not deceive 
 yourselves, gentlemen, and particularly do not undertake to de- 
 ceive others. "Religious" are no more machines than you ; and 
 it is probably on, that very account that there are in our age so 
 many men ardent in their efforts to destroy religious orders and 
 congregations. 
 
 After all, to what does that dreaded submission of the will 
 amount.? To this simply, that the religious cannot dispose at will 
 of his person and surroundings. He cannot choose the place of 
 his residence, arrange his order of the day as he would like, follow 
 his bent for amusement or perhaps worse, idle away his time in 
 unprofitable employments— show, in fine, his want of wisdom in a 
 .thousand ways, just as the great majority of men do m ^\\ the 
 pretended careers they follow. For this is generally the way for 
 men to show that they have a will. Who can imagine that because 
 they have happily deprived themselves of all those pretended 
 advantages, the religious are reduced to the state of machines and 
 have no more will than the dog trained to obey its master? The 
 will they have is of a very different nature. Its consecration to 
 God and to holy purposes not only does not diminish its strength, 
 but powerfully increases it. Look at the work many of them have 
 done, and say, if you dare, that they were deprived of a will. 
 Xavier was ready at any moment to obey Ignatius, leave India or 
 Japan, and come back to teach children in any college of Biscay 
 or Guipuscoa. Who could pretend that he had no will in all his 
 undertakings, and did not splendidly show it during the ten short 
 years of his missions in the far Orient? 
 
 But this is more than sufficient to lay forever at rest the strong- 
 est objection that has ever been raised against the practice of the 
 evangelical counsels. It is time to look at them independently of 
 what men often say on the subject without much reflection, and 
 to bring to bear upon the vow of obedience in particular the bright 
 example of Christ Himself. For holiness precisely consists in 
 imitating the Redeemer, and the nearer man comes to His per- 
 fection the more he deserves to be called holy. 
 
 In a previous passage of this chapter many texts of the Gospel 
 were brought forward to prove that Christ in His humanity con- 
 sidered Himself as strictly bound to obey the will of His Father. 
 
128 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 not only in a general manner and by a sort of habitual inspiration, 
 but concretely, as metaphysicians say, and in each particular event 
 of His life. To use a comprehensive phrase, it can be maintained 
 that He applied in prayer to God in each of His undertakings, in 
 order, as it were, to know His will; and as soon as it was ascer- 
 tained He followed it implicitly. This, at least, is the best inter- 
 pretation that can be given of a great number of passages of the 
 New Testament. It was previously remarked that He appeared 
 to hesitate only once — namely, in the Garden of Olives — and the 
 explanation of the difficulty was given according to the best inter- 
 preters. 
 
 That He intended this should be a rule for all men is proved 
 not only from the fact that it was perfectly unnecessary for Him on 
 account of His own divine nature, and that consequently He could 
 have no other object in doing so than to afford us a powerful ex-. 
 ample. But moreover the clause of the prayer which He left us — 
 " Thy will be done on earth," etc. — shows that He wished us to 
 think constantly of the will of God in order to do it, and not to 
 abide too much by the individual will the Creator has given us. 
 
 But it is also evident that the holiness which He came to esta- 
 blish on earth among men would always find in him a perfect 
 pattern; and no Christian will deny that to copy that pattern is 
 the highest virtue which a man can practise. This peculiarity of 
 the life of Christ consequently — namely. His constant and unre- 
 served obedience to the will of His Father — teaches us that we 
 must submit our will at least to the will of God, in all and each of 
 our actions, as He did. Here a serious difficulty presents itself. 
 Our communication with God even in the most fervent prayer is 
 not, like that of Christ, above the danger of misconception and j 
 delusion. To suppose that each attraction of our mind and heart 
 consequent upon prayer comes surely from heaven would directly i 
 lead to fanaticism; and the sad history of religious aberrations of' 
 this kind is too well ascertained to leave any doubt on the subject. 
 The only way to be sure of the will of God, and not to be deluded 
 by our fancy, is to take the means which His providence furnishes 
 us by listening to the voice of those appointed to rule over us, 
 and think that God governs us by our civil and ecclesiastical 
 superiors. To be sure, they are men and can command what is 
 wrong. Hence we are warned that should they prescribe what is 
 evidently forbidden by some well-ascertained divine law, not 'only 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 
 
 129 
 
 are we not bound to comply, but we must positively disobey, even 
 at the peril of our life. Outside of these extraordinary cases their 
 voice must be considered as the voice of God, whom we obey by 
 obeying them. 
 
 This is the plain and simple "way of precepts" for all men 
 whatsoever; and the " way of counsels" naturally follows for the 
 guidance of those who wish to imitate Christ more perfectly. 
 They submit their will to that of some particular man established 
 over them by the prescriptions of ecclesiastical law. Simple good 
 sense entitles them to consider the commands thus enjoined upon 
 them as coming from God Himself, whenever there is nothing in 
 those commands evidently opposed to the divine law. Their object 
 is to place themselves under a stricter discipline with a view to 
 doing more good. Their individual will, as a human interior 
 faculty, becomes thereby much stronger and more effective; they 
 put under restraint only the part of it which might play false and 
 lead them into error. They deprive themselves of many whims 
 which are left to the free choice of other men; but they lose 
 nothing of what truly ennobles a man. Quite the contrary; they 
 make the sacrifice — a holocaust it has been called — of mere dross, 
 in order to possess the pure and refined gold of a strong will alto- 
 gether devoted to God and the cause of humanity. They, in fine, 
 rejoice to think that if in order to obtain that result they submit 
 themselves to many acts of self-restraint unpleasant to human 
 nature, Christ, their Model, has done it before them much more 
 absolutely still and effectually. 
 
 It is time now at last to come to the precise object of this chap- 
 ter, and prove that in the process just described of " evangelical 
 counsels" there is a sure means of attaining the highest degree of 
 moral perfectibility in man, and that perfect holiness expands 
 from it as a flower from a bud. This will naturally explain the 
 meaning of the phrase, aiming at perfection, which is said to be 
 the particular duty of the "religious." It is an expression alto- 
 gether and exclusively Christian, which alone would go to prove 
 that Christianity has at least a theory on the subject of the indefinite 
 perfectibility of man in morals, and that this theory is constantly 
 reduced in the Catholic Church into a serious practice, so far as a 
 well-meant attempt is concerned. In the second part of this volume, 
 in which facts shall be considered, another step in advance will be 
 taken, and the reader will be able to judge if holiness among 
 
130 THE CHURCH AXD THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 Christians is only a Utopia. Let us proceed with order, and ex- 
 amine first what is indefinite perfectibility in morals, and how far it 
 can be carried out in human life. 
 
 5. Aiming at Perfection. 
 
 Our scheme confines us here to the consideration of the 
 progress of the soul towards holiness. There can be question neither 
 of physical man as one of the special objects of natural history, 
 nor even of the summum bomim within the limits of this life, such as 
 the Greek and Roman philosophers undertook to define, and which 
 is also the only scope of modern moralists. The soul for us is both 
 spiritual and immortal, and its perfectibility must partake of both 
 characteristics. Instead of bodily organs and functions (the only 
 thing considered by naturalists) we have before us an immaterial 
 substance whose aims tend constantly towards the infinite,and whose 
 faculties of intellect and will reflect in their essence the image of 
 God Himself. Instead of an exterior harmony and beauty as 
 seen in man's mortal frame, or, on the other side, of an unseemly 
 deformity introduced by the author of all evil, we either assist at 
 the spectacle of sublime virtues born of self-sacrifice and adorn- 
 ing the earth with something of the radiance of heaven, or we 
 are forced to contemplate with sorrow the degradation of sinful 
 man changing the earth into the abode of demons. Finally, in 
 place of the natural satisfaction produced during this life by a sim- 
 ple adherence to the moral laws of the created world, or of the 
 temporary well-being resulting from the mere subjection of 
 animalism without any further object of a higher nature, we have 
 the sublime evolution of an immortal spirit born in the bosom of 
 God in heaven, exiled a moment for probation on this earth, and 
 starting on its forward career toward the goal of perfection, en- 
 dowed consequently with the noble prerogative of an indefinite 
 perfectibility. 
 
 The mere concerns of human life as illustrated in the world of 
 politics, of science, of art, of civilization, pale before the effulgence 
 of the human soul as it is revealed before us by the doctrines of 
 Christianity. The simple ideas of spirituality and immortality 
 transport us at once to heaven ; the earth cannot be called any longer 
 our country; the whole of creation itself is too narrow for our 
 dwelling, since the bosom of God is infinitely larger than creation. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 131 
 
 It is now demonstrated that the universe must be limited; what 
 is material is absolutely confined ; God alone is without limits ; 
 but He has communicated to us something of His own infinity 
 ,by creating us immortal and giving to our aspirations, even on 
 earth, infinite aims and a boundless extension. On this is firmly 
 grounded the doctrine of the indefinite perfectibility of the human 
 soul; and it becomes clearer still when some other dogmas of our 
 holy faith are considered. 
 
 The image of God was already impressed on man's soul in the 
 very act of creation; but this became much truer still in the act of 
 redemption by which we were made sons of God through Christ. 
 Both ideas have been previously developed, and the whole circle 
 of the doctrine was completed by considering the work of the 
 Holy Ghost in the rehabilitation of fallen man. Sanctification, 
 holiness, the peculiar object of the Holy Spirit's mission, became 
 the ultimate result of the whole plan of the Christian religion; 
 and that holiness must be such as becomes the adopted sons of God. 
 
 This is the sublime object which is to be attained, and which 
 the Christian faith places constantly before our eyes. Yet in order 
 to reach such a height of moral goodness man must start from 
 very humble beginnings, and gradually follow a line of constant 
 progression, always aiming higher and higher. 
 
 The commencement indeed must be humble, because man un- 
 fortunately, born in sin, is inclined to evil, and this leaning is 
 chiefly visible when he has not yet conquered himself ; that is, at 
 the beginning of his career. It is at the price of constant efforts, 
 never to be relaxed, always to be renewed, that he can indulge 
 the hope of advancing. Endowed with free will, loaded with a 
 heavy moral responsibility, he must co-operate with the divine 
 grace in his own sanctification ; and since the ultimate term is per- 
 fection itself, and the highest degree ends in God from whom it 
 all originated, it is clear that there is no limit to the exertions of 
 the soul for so sublime an object. 
 
 To understand fully, therefore, what is called "aiming at per- 
 fection" it is necessary to reflect on the difficulties which are 
 encountered from the very starting point, and to examine how 
 they have to be gradually smoothed down and removed. 
 
 Consider a moment, better still than it could be done in a pre- 
 vious passage, how strong are the fetters which bind us to sin. 
 They have been called by the Catholic masters of spiritual life 
 
132 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the three concupiscences, derived from a celebrated passage of St. 
 John.* ''All that is in the world," says the apostle of love, "is 
 the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, 
 and the pride of life." Catholic exegetists agree that the second 
 of these, the concupiscence of the eyes, which alone offers a diffi- 
 culty, means here the love of gold, with which man procures every- 
 thing calculated to please the senses, and particularly that of sight: 
 fine houses, pictures, statues, furniture, elegant dresses, etc. St. 
 John, therefore, teaches us that the sources of all worldly tempta- 
 tions by which we are enticed into sin can be referred to liist^ 
 avarice^ and pride. And it was not difficult to those who have 
 analyzed the human heart to show that all offences against moral- 
 ity are derived from these three heads, as from three prolific and 
 adequate sources. This is the starting point of progression. 
 
 Every one is aware of the sort of fatality w^hich pursues the 
 man given to lewdness. No consideration of honor, of health, of 
 respect for the rights of others, of anything which must make 
 impression even on mere worldings, can check him a moment in 
 his wild career. How many fearful crimes have stained the annals 
 of mankind, all traceable to that degrading vice! It kills the body 
 and debases the mind. It ruins the most prosperous families and 
 destroys the hopes of thousands. It is as loathsome as calamitous. 
 Yet few indeed are happy enough to avoid its snares, and to re- 
 main all their life pure from its hateful embrace. It is the first 
 obstacle which young men always meet when they generously 
 resolve to enter the path of virtue, and it is often the last heavy [ 
 yoke which old men have to drag along before they rest finally in 
 their grave. 
 
 St. Augustine knew it well, and on this account he intoned in 
 his Confessions a song to holy Chastity: f *' Powerful habits kept 
 me wedded to pleasure, and in the midst of my hesitations seemed 
 to tell me: 'Canst thou live without us?' But it was already a 
 faint voice. For on the opposite side, in the direction toward 
 which I had just turned my face (irresolute, however, and 
 trembling still with apprehension), the chaste and noble figure of 
 Continence appeared to my eyes, beaming with serenity and a 
 joy altogether different from that of dissoluteness. Looking 
 honestly into my face, she emboldened me to go to her and not 
 
 John ii. i6. f Lib. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 133 
 
 to fear. She outstretched her arms, and her holy hands prepared 
 to press me on her bosom, her hands so rich in good works, so 
 full of attractive examples of virtue. Around thee, O lady (I 
 thought), I see a multitude of children, both boys and girls: I see 
 young people, and men of every age, and venerable widows, and 
 pure maidens that have already reached an old age. In the 
 midst of that graceful throng, thou art not barren, O prolific and 
 chaste mother of so many sons! Thy holy womb bore them to 
 the Lord who wedded thee. And the noble figure smiled as if to 
 mock at what she l.ad read in my thoughts, and she appeared to 
 say: ' Canst thou not do what these boys and girls, these men 
 and women, accomplish so easily? They are not reduced to their 
 own strength, they have the Lord God to help them. The Lord 
 God gave them to me.' " 
 
 Thus self-sacrifice shows already its power in opposition to the 
 first and greatest obstacle to perfection. But from impurity the 
 text of St. John takes us to avarice^ to the greed of gold, which he 
 calls " the concupiscence of the eyes." For, as Cornelius a Lapide 
 justly remarks on this passage (o?nne quod est in tmindo), the word 
 fuimdus, in the mind of the apostle, may have had several mean- 
 ings; the most natural is here " the whole universe," embracing 
 chiefly the part of it which entices man to evil, in the sense of 
 another passage of St John where he says that mimdiis totus in 
 inalig7io positus est — "the whole world is seated in wickedness." 
 x\fter considering, therefore, whatever in it leads to the carnal grati- 
 fication of sense, he passes to the brilliant part of it, which is the 
 result of wealth; and he calls it " the concupiscence of the eyes." It 
 is undoubtedly one of the greatest sources of moral evil; not only 
 because it gives to man all the means of satisfying his passions, 
 but chiefly because it makes him forget that he has another and 
 better country. The greed of gold, when it is gratified, throws 
 a veil, as it were, on the spiritual part of man, and allows him to 
 see only what is perishable in his nature. He becomes entirely 
 wedded to this world, so beautiful in appearance, and remains 
 altogether indifferent to a hereafter. The consideration of a 
 future life becomes unwelcome and burdensome. We are led to 
 try our best not to believe in it; and this is the main reason why 
 so many people in our day live in this world as if there was no 
 other. Have not the means of sensual gratification been fearfully 
 increased of late by a greater diffusion of wealth ? and is not the 
 
134 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 persuasion of a large number of men 'that wealth is everything' 
 the source of the degrading materialism which prevails ? What 
 are the principles of morality good for, when its sanction has dis- 
 appeared in the universal forgetfulness of a hereafter, if not in a 
 positive disbelief in its existence? If the law of God is after all 
 the only true support of human society, we must shudder at the 
 idea of what this human society will become when the law of God 
 is altogether forgotten in the insane pursuit after money. 
 
 Even in a human point of view see what has been the fate of 
 the most powerful nations which have ever existed, as soon as all 
 the attention of their citizens was engrossed by the worship of 
 Mammon. They fell ingloriously under the blows of barbarians 
 who were poor, whose only property consisted in having strong 
 arms and sharp weapons. In reading history we are naturally 
 struck by the outward view of these contests, and we seldom 
 reflect on the true cause of the victory which invariably sides with 
 the uncouth and naked against the refined and pompously attired 
 combatant. On the one side the soldiers have muscles of steel fed 
 by a substantial but coarse fare; on the other the pampered 
 bodies of their would-be rivals have lost all the generous blood 
 which ran of old in the veins of the nation. They can scarcely 
 stand on their feet: how could they answer blows by equally strong 
 blows. The praise of poverty came from the lips of Roman 
 dictators during the glorious age of the republic; their effeminate 
 posterity lived in palaces, boasted of their immense wealth, and 
 could not resist any longer the impetuosity of hungry savages. 
 
 Such being the result o'f effeminacy produced by wealth and, 
 on the contrary, the strength given to nations by abstemiousness, 
 the fruit of poverty, it is possible to calculate the powerful effect 
 of self-renouncement applied to the goods of this life. Thus the 
 evangelical counsels prove their strength in this second branch of 
 inquiry, as much as they did in the first with regard to chastity. 
 Evangelical, that is voluntary, poverty gives an effective blow to 
 the "concupiscence of the eyes;" the second baneful source of evil 
 on earth is dried up at once, and a most powerful obstacle to per- 
 fection is instantly removed. 
 
 That perfection, the reader knows, is spiritual and belongs to an 
 immortal soul. By accepting willingly poverty as a queen and a 
 mistress, as St, Francis called her, the infinite superiority of a 
 higher sphere is asserted at once over and against all the glitter of 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 135 
 
 the pomps of this world. The soul is directly freed from the fet- 
 ters which enchained her as a slave adscripta glebcE^ " made fast to 
 this world;" she can henceforth soar toward a better one and 
 acknowledge it with joy as her true country. Attachment to the 
 goods of the present life, therefore, is renounced as a drag on the 
 natural aspirations of an immortal spirit; and the source of a thou- 
 sand cares, anxieties, nay, sins and crimes, is altogether drained 
 and exhausted. The first step to perfection is undoubtedly to 
 throw away all hinderances to it; its ulterior goal will be mani- 
 fested before long, when the whole power of Christian and apos- 
 tolic poverty will be unfolded, as a ladder on which man ascends 
 to the highest perfection. 
 
 There remains to be briefly considered the third baneful char- 
 acteristic of this world, according to St. John, which is " the pride 
 of life " — superbia vitcE. Pride, or the undue estimate of one's great- 
 ness, was the primitive cause of Lucifer's fall. It brought to per- 
 dition at once a third part of heaven. What must be its effect on 
 poor puny man! That so wretched a creature as any of the unre- 
 deemed sons of Adam should lose sight of his deplorable con- 
 dition and indulge in dreams of superiority, is a mystery which 
 can be explained only by the blindness incident to the Fall itself, 
 by which every faculty of man was distorted and dwarfed so as to 
 appear to the angels a^very mockery of his original condition. 
 Still man is proud! Every one must know it by this time, after so 
 long a period of his history. Without entering into a long enume- 
 ration of all the aberrations of human arrogance, and denouncing 
 by the mere statement of them the ridiculous features of its 
 innumerable manifestations, it is more than sufficient to briefly 
 allude to the inconceivable proofs of it we all have in this age. 
 Are they not proud, those powerful statesmen of Europe to whom 
 seems to have been entrusted the guidance of the modern world? 
 Yes, they know well, or rather they are fully persuaded, that 
 their wisdom rules it. And that no one should remain ignorant 
 that it is so, they openly announce that heaven has no share in the 
 affairs of this world! It is their own exclusive department! It is 
 only in this age that politics has been openly set free from the 
 divine laws of morality. For it is now an axiom with human 
 rulers that power does not come from God. As according to the 
 new theories He has not presided at the origin of human society, 
 it is useless to apply to Him for guidance on any particular 
 
136 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 occasion. Human force is all-sufficient to rule the world; and 
 prayer to obtain divine help for that object is childish prejudice, 
 which may have been good for the infancy of political associations, 
 but can have no place in our improved theories of government. 
 This is the corner-stone of the edifice of "modern liberalism," on 
 which the whole fabric stands and must stand forever. This is a 
 proud affirmation which at once disconnects earth from heaven, 
 and gives to political talent a splendid occasion for showing its 
 wisdom and securing the happiness of nations without the inter- 
 ference of priests. 
 
 This admirable project has been sufficiently tested by this time. 
 And what do we see? Complaints everywhere, dark conspiracies 
 plotted in the bosom of the most prosperous nations; the word 
 revolution inscribed at the head of the programme set forth by 
 numerous political parties. This ominous word, first introduced 
 in France with a new meaning a hundred years ago, has now gone 
 round the world, and is heralded everywhere as destined to stand 
 forever in a constant succession of fierce uprisings before the eyes 
 of the people. No rest, consequently, is to be expected on any 
 spot cursed by the new theories. It is an endless chain of woes, 
 whose circle begins anew as soon as it has gone round. Still the 
 bewildered leaders of the nations affirm that they are competent 
 for the task; and at the very moment that the clouds lower down 
 and threaten another frightful storm, they announce that a new 
 sun is just on the point of dawning, and that after the atmosphere 
 is purified by lightning the zephyrs will blow gently and the eter- 
 nal peace of the elements shall be proclaimed. 
 
 Can blindness and folly go farther? Yes, they must, since the 
 very claps of popular thunder do not awaken those sleepy fools. 
 They would further proclaim that everybody is happy under their 
 rule, and that they are " the beloved of the nations" at the very 
 moment that all are enraged against them and preparing to tear 
 them to pieces. See at this moment the antics of European states- 
 men with the socialists in front of them, and say if there is any 
 exaggeration in this picture. 
 
 But this is only one sample of human pride in this age together 
 with the exposure of its folly. What could not be said of scien- 
 tific arrogance when it is carried to the point of materialism and 
 atheism, as is so often the case under our eyes? The more true 
 science advances the more is resplendent the glory of God, because 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 137 
 
 He is the infinite source of knowledge, and away from Him there 
 is only darkness and error. Yet see how the very idea of religion 
 is scouted by many who think they know everything because they 
 deny God. They have openly proclaimed in their pride " an an- 
 tagonism between science and religion;" and their meaning can 
 scarcely be misunderstood. They declare that any one who be- 
 lieves in a personal God cannot be a scientific man. They think 
 they can explain everything in the universe -without the need of a 
 Creator and Preserver. The object here cannot be to discuss 
 their pretensions. Its mere statement is another proof of the folly 
 which always follows pride. Science without God is light without 
 a cause. By denying its origin they turn it into darkness. They 
 become afflicted with a disease which a contributor to the Revue 
 des questions scientifiques of Bruxelles has called, with much preci- 
 sion and justice, "scientific blindness." See how they grope their 
 way in the dark, and look for truth where it cannot be found. They 
 announce boldly the demonstration of their system, and they fail 
 ludicrously. Their generalizations are senseless because the first 
 link is always wanting. They walk cautiously at first, and seem 
 to throw a flood of light in the eyes of their admiring listeners; 
 they group phenomena together, and show a sad talent in arrang- 
 ing them so as to prepare the way for the great object they have 
 in view, which is nothing else than the total exclusion of God from 
 His domain; they here and there throw an innuendo or two as 
 stepping-stones going towards an abyss which they intend to fill 
 afterwards with the empty bag of sonorous words; and finally, 
 when the massive scientific construction is all complete except the 
 head concealed in the clouds, they make a bold use of an unmean- 
 ing word like protoplasm or such like, and everybody must be sat- 
 isfied or consent to remain among the unscientific crowd. Did 
 ever the world witness in previous ages a higher and at the same 
 time emptier pretension in the noble ranks of the learned ? And 
 what would be the result of the attempt if it could succeed ? It 
 would take away from mankind its hopes and highest aspirations; 
 deprive human society of all principles on which it can securely 
 rest; destroy morality, religion, virtue — everything which must be 
 dear to man; give us no other heirloom on the day we are born 
 than "the survival of the fittest " in this world and " nothingness" 
 in the next. 
 
 If pride produces such fatal results among the highest classes of 
 
138 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 mankind, such as are political rulers and scientists; if it turns 
 them into ludicrous theorists and adventurous mountebanks, what 
 kind of vile poison will it give to drink to the vulgar herd, to the 
 niany in contradistinction to the/t^t'/ Here we are not so much 
 struck by the ludicrous as by the mournful aspect it assumes. It 
 fills the heart of the poor with envy, with hatred toward those who 
 have reached a higher round of the social ladder; it violently excites 
 their desires for whatever is unapproachable to them; it leaves 
 them forever disconsolate and unhappy, and not unfrequently it 
 leads them to despair. Can there be for them a passion more 
 baneful than pride? The subject could be indefinitely enlarged; 
 our limits prevent us from developing it further. 
 
 Against such a terrible evil as this the Christian religion has 
 taught us to press to our bosom a virtue which the world cannot 
 appreciate, but whose name must be constantly dinned into its 
 ears. It is humility; the precious jewel which Christ brought us 
 from heaven, when He annihilated Himself according to St. Paul. 
 And in order that man could put this virtue more easily into prac- 
 tice, the third evangelical counsel, called "religious obedience," in- 
 tervenes and effectually roots out pride, one of the vices most 
 opposed to perfection. A previous short explanation of the Ser- 
 mon on the Mount has shown that humility is the essence of Chris- 
 tianity. It inculcates all the lowly virtues: meekness, forgiveness 
 of injury, mercy, compunction of heart, unconquerable patience 
 and peacefulness. All this is resumed in the comprehensive word 
 obedience. Nothing subdues in man the spirit of pride to such a 
 degree as the voluntary practice of it. To surrender one's will in 
 the sense explained above is the first step to take in order to be- 
 come truly humble, and when continued for a long time that prac- 
 tice necessarily conduces to the highest perfection of it. 
 
 But so far the described process has been confined to the act 
 of removing the chief obstacles we meet in our way to holiness. 
 Attention must now be given to the farther advance necessitated 
 by the perfectibility of the soul. For if it is indefinitely perfecti- 
 ble, the first step such as it has been described, is not sufficient. 
 It was only given as the first term of a series which supposes a 
 large number of subsequent terms or steps. Here the virtues to 
 be acquired must be considered in themselves, and not precisely 
 as opposed to the contrary vices. Chastity is to be offered to the 
 eyes of the reader in its inward beauty and not as the counterpart 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 139 
 
 of a very ugly sin. And it must be, moreover, set forth in tne va- 
 rious degrees of its course following a constantly ascending scale. 
 
 Look, then, at that sublime prerogative by which men are ena- 
 bled to emulate the purity of the angels. To win it, that is to ac- 
 quire it, in any remarkable degree is the greatest moral conquest 
 of which man can be proud. For it supposes that the body is 
 obedient to the soul, which is the main object proposed by what is 
 ^called morality; and the subjugation of a whole empire is not to 
 be compared to it, as being of an inferior nature. All our spiritual 
 faculties are enhanced by it and partake of its loveliness. The 
 mind grown stronger through it soars far above sense, and can 
 dwell at ease on lofty contemplations without any interference 
 from the vapors of a low, sensuous atmosphere; the ivill acquires 
 all its vigor and, besides enjoying the entire strength of its deter- 
 mination, seems clothed with the angelic cleanness of innocence 
 and the buoyancy of perpetual youth; the 7?te?nory, free at last from 
 all foul imaginations, revels in the warmth of guileless feelings, 
 reflecting the purity of heaven, where she thenceforth habitually 
 dwells. Oh, happy those who after long struggles are finally wedded 
 to holy chastity ! They find in her an anticipation of eternal hap- 
 piness, since the great blessing of the hereafter promised us by re- 
 ligion consists in the ecstasy of divine love unmixed with the 
 slightest annoyance from sense unsubdued. St. John Chrysostom 
 tells us that this virtue raises man above the angels, since, dragged 
 down as he is by the burden of his bodily organs, he has obtained 
 such mastery over them that he can be compared to those blessed 
 spirits whom God has not subjected to a union with matter. 
 
 But to better judge of it, let us see how tedious is the process, 
 how arduous is the task. The great obstacle, it is supposed, has 
 been removed. Whatever improper habit existed previously has 
 been conquered, and the progress toward true virtue must imme- 
 diately commence. It is not sufficient not to surrender any longer 
 to the enemy as soon as he appears; the permanence of good purpose 
 must be maintained. Habits of purity, in consequence, must be 
 acquired. Do we sufficiently reflect on the labor required for the 
 permanent acquisition of any habit whatever } We can easily 
 know it by remembering what it has cost us for the possession of 
 those which are almost purely of a physical nature and require 
 very little mental exertion. What care, attention, and length of 
 time is not necessary for walking straight, reading fast, writing 
 
I40 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 rapidly, playing correctly on any instrument, even for managing a 
 horse, using a sword skilfully, shooting a bird on the wing; in 
 general, for any swift and effective command of our muscles, limbs, 
 weapons, and utensils ! Each of these exercises of the body begins 
 with ludicrous attempts; and it is only after months and years of 
 constant practice that we are at last masters of our movements 
 and sure of the intended effects. The same is the case for the 
 operations of the mind, for the application of our principles of 
 logic in conversation or written composition, for the instant per- 
 ception of all the consequences derived from one single principle, 
 for every quick manifestation of intellect and judgment. It must 
 be true likewise of our moral nature. Loose manners are not im- 
 mediately replaced by strict and correct ones. After the first have 
 been mended, the second must be slowly introduced by a process 
 similar to the one just described for physical and mental habits. 
 If men in general attached as much importance to the improve- 
 ment of their morals as to the development of the body or the 
 mind, they would soon find that the process required in the first 
 case is still more difficult than in the two others. But unfortu- 
 nately a strict morality is so burdensome and so uncongenial to the 
 great majority of men that they too often close their eyes to its 
 importance, refuse to listen to the voice of their conscience, and, 
 because its reward is more to be expected in another world than 
 in this, they wait for reformation until the latter part of their life, 
 in case they are so lucky as not to forget it altogether. 
 
 This is the main reason why so little is done by many for the 
 improvement of their moral nature. But those few who have 
 a keener sense of their responsibility to God, and of the strict 
 account they will have one day to render Him, can testify, how 
 difficult a task it is to acquire habits of virtue particularly with 
 regard to chastity. The world and its maxims, the devil and his 
 suggestions, the evil inclinations of our nature and their alluring 
 seductions, are all banded together to oppose the slightest projects 
 of reform. It is a regular fight that is to be carried on at every 
 moment of life against the flesh, the world, and the devil. To 
 speak of the flesh alone, is it not true that a constant watcl^i must 
 be kept over all our senses at once, and each one of them in par- 
 ticular ? A number of habits, consequently, must be acquired by 
 which our eyes, our tongue, and ears, and hands are placed under 
 a constant restraint. All that mass of corruption must be purified 
 
 I 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 141 
 
 and consecrated to God by holy chastity. In order that our minds 
 and hearts should be chaste, all our senses have to be first chas- 
 tened. Do we not begin to perceive how long a time it will take, 
 and how slow our pace must first be before we can hope of run- 
 ning in the road of perfection ? Yet all this is absolutely necessary 
 for giving a practical turn to the perfectibility of our soul. We 
 cannot say otherwise that we are "aiming at perfection." 
 
 In that warfare no account has been taken of the interior world, 
 so superior in seduction to our senses themselves ; namely, of our 
 memory, imagination, natural instincts. These enter, however, as 
 a powerful factor in the difficulties of the problem. And to make 
 a complete enumeration of those difficulties, the temptations of 
 the devil and the allurements of a licentious world would have 
 to come under consideration. This is a very incomplete sketch of 
 the tedious work which man must undertake if he seriously 
 wishes to " perfect " his own soul, as the majority of people feel 
 the importance of doing for the improvement of their bodily ad- 
 vantages and mental endowments. To render the view of it more 
 adequate, and place it more vividly before the mind, a word must 
 be said on the chief instrument which requires to be used for ob- 
 taining the intended effect. This is nothing else than a persevering 
 effort at keeping the eyes of our conscience open, at placing on 
 paper, as it were, a daily, nay, hourly account of what passes at 
 every moment within the inmost recesses of our soul. It is called 
 by all Catholics the examen of conscience; all undoubtedly 
 practise it, more or less however, according to the degree of at- 
 tention they bestow upon it. 
 
 To repeat, and repeat again the series of operations demanded 
 by the process which has been just mentioned, is far from being 
 pleasant to nature. Yet it is absolutely necessary to do so in 
 order to acquire solid habits of virtue, particularly in the matter of 
 chastity. It is as indispensable as the slow operation of the 
 novice flute-player, when with his fingers ready, his eyes bent on 
 the instrument, his mouth pressed on the aperture, he so ludi- 
 crously tries to charm our ears with the melody of a simple tune. 
 To work on the harmony of the soul, to draw from her songs of 
 joy and purity when she has lost even the memory of these 
 sweet sounds, necessitates operations as painfully elaborate as 
 those of a juvenile pianist. Let the operator, however, keep up his 
 courage and not mind the titters of his audience. The time will 
 
142 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 surely come when he will be a skilful artist, provided he shows 
 perseverance and industry. 
 
 But the question may be put: Can the soul, an immortal and 
 immaterial spirit, be perfected by a process of this sort, only fit in 
 appearance for the lowest beings in the scale of intellect? If the 
 human soul had remained what it was at its creation, nothing of 
 this would be needed and such a laborious course of action would 
 never have been put in practice among men, since they would not 
 have lost any part of their original integrity. But after the Fall 
 the soul found itself rigidly wedded to matter; and to start again 
 on the way to a far-distant perfection, material help was wanted, 
 material means were to be taken; and even with these it was but 
 the plodding along on a hard road by a being less than half spirit 
 and more than half matter. In these considerations, it is true, no 
 account has been taken of the grace of God, without which, how- 
 ever, nothing at .all could have been accomplished. The reason of 
 it has been previously assigned. But it must be remembered by 
 the Catholic reader that the grace of God is not the pretended 
 help invented by Luther and Calvin by which God does every- 
 thing and man absolutely nothing. As the Church does not be- 
 lieve that human nature was totally depraved by the Fall, so 
 likewise she teaches that man must co-operate with the grace of 
 God for his own rehabilitation. We must not, therefore, be surprised 
 that the perfectibility of the soul must be worked out more than 
 half materially, and that " aiming at perfection" consists at first 
 in dabbling in little measures of moral safety, such as they have 
 just been detailed. 
 
 But how could be described the last stage of this progress, so 
 different from the slow initial movement? When the Christian 
 has earnestly labored in plodding along — to repeat the word that 
 has been just used — the time comes at last when not only the 
 enemies are conquered and t>he obstacles overcome, but the habit 
 of virtue is solidly established, and the permanent love of holy 
 purity triumphant. This must be examined a moment to under- 
 stand how the soul is in truth indefinitely perfectible. Look at a 
 musician who has become a perfect master in his art. He has 
 acquired two wonderful habits which have cost him years of toil, 
 but which he considers as sufficient for his reward. He can read 
 at sight, as they say, the most difficult composition, and his instru- 
 ment is perfectly under his control. With what a pure delight is 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 1 43 
 
 not his soul entranced whenever he renders with precision and 
 feeling the masterpieces of the kings of song! He makes his own 
 the productions of the greatest composers that have ever lived, and 
 feels that the noble^ blood which coursed through the veins of a 
 Mozart or a Beethoven warms up his own breast and circulates 
 through all his frame. How gladly now he rejoices that he has 
 spent so much time and employed so much labor in the arduous 
 task in which he has consumed his youth! Had he been deterred 
 by sloth at the beginning of his career, he would at this moment 
 neither see the multitude of his listeners enraptured by the flood of 
 harmony which he pours forth with the ease of a warbling night- 
 ingale, nor hear the thunder of their applause at the end of one 
 of his mightiest efforts to please. 
 
 Far greater is the delight experienced by the noble athlete 
 who has manfully fought and gloriously conquers. Helped by 
 the grace of God he is the happy possessor of two habits likewise, 
 but far more marvellous than those of the best musical performer. 
 He has subdued by years of labor the interior world of his own 
 imagination, memory, and instincts; and his exterior senses, now 
 perfectly subject to his control, are reduced to be only the instru- 
 ments of a pure mind and a clean heart. If he does not, on this 
 account, receive the applause of men, he knows at least that he is 
 rich of the approval of God and of the admiration of the angels. 
 
 Let not any cynic philosopher pretend that this is all a dream 
 unrealizable in this life, and at best the dishonest boast of mere pre- 
 tence. We know that in the Holy Church of Christ there are 
 thousands, nay, millions — of pure souls such as have been just de- 
 scribed; and they mainly owe their happy state to the strict daily 
 examination of their conscience under the inspiration of God's 
 grace. No one, at least, can deny that there is an immense num- 
 ber of people in all countries under the sun who have consecrated 
 their virginity to God, and cannot be called hypocrites by men 
 who are altogether unable to read into their souls. What motive 
 could they have to feign purity without having it ? If they are ra- 
 tional beings, would it not be better for them, in every respect, to 
 live chastely in marriage than labor under such an imputation out 
 of it ? But besides those who have most willingly placed them- 
 selves under the restraint of the first of the " evangelical counsels," 
 it is certain that there are still a far greater number of holy souls 
 in the Church who live among men as if they were in the cloister, 
 
144 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 who have so perfectly subdued their senses that they lead in truth 
 an angelical life, although they are surrounded with all the dan- 
 gers of the world. 
 
 Would not this alone prove that the soul of^man is perfectible, 
 nay, indefinitely perfectible in this mortal life, and that the possi- 
 bility or rather the duty of "aiming at perfection" is the highest 
 prerogative she has obtained from God during her pilgrimage, and 
 while remaining under the necessity of a personal union with a 
 corruptible body ? For the process w^hich has been studied so far 
 affects the soul herself in her highest moral qualifications, and 
 under it the best part of man is undoubtedly "perfected;" that is, 
 amended, raised on a higher level, intimately ennobled, and 
 brought nearer to God. The reader begins to see how the Chris- 
 tian religion by the principles it inculcates deeply lays the foun- 
 dation of true morality and holiness, and no other institution in 
 the world can compete with it for the reformation of man and the 
 establishment of God's kingdom on earth. 
 
 Similar considerations could be laid down and developed in 
 the same manner with regard to the two other " evangelical coun- 
 sels," and it would be as easy to prove that voluntary poverty and 
 willing obedience contribute to the same result after they both 
 have removed the obstacles opposed to perfection by covetousness 
 and pride. What could not be said of the life-long effect produced 
 by the disinterestedness incident to a total renouncement of worldly 
 advantages ? Is not the soul far more free and " perfect" when 
 all motives of acquiring what is called property are removed ? 
 Look at the loveliness of St. Francis' character. Can there be 
 found in the whole range of man's history a purer mind, a nobler 
 heart, a higher soul in every respect ? But it was undoubtedly the 
 exuberant feelings created in him by his love for holy poverty that 
 inspired his whole life. Let any one feel as he did in that regard, 
 and the' same result will be obtained; and it would be so for the 
 majority of men if they were impressed with the same sentiment. 
 Then, how radically would the world be changed ! merely be- 
 cause the souls of men would be far more perfect than they are, 
 and human society would be governed by far higher principles of 
 moralit}^ Voluntary obedience added to the two other evangeli- 
 cal counsels would complete the process, and change in fact the 
 whole face of the moral world. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ETERNAL DESTINY OF MAN, CONTRASTED WITH TEMPORAL 
 THINGS, GIVES TO THE FOREGOING PRINCIPLES THEIR MAIN 
 STRENGTH AND EFFICACY WITH REGARD TO THE PURSUIT OF 
 HOLINESS ON EARTH. 
 
 I . The Irremediable Defect of all Moral Codes which are not Founded on 
 Christian Principles comes from their Want of a Sanction in the Ab- 
 sence of a Hereafter. 
 
 There is a strange inconsistency in the writings of nearly all mod- 
 ern philosophers when they treat of morality. They often criticise 
 Christian ethics, find fault with them in many points, openly accuse 
 the obedient children of the Church of following in their actions a 
 moral code which cannot be reconciled with the principles inculcated 
 by reason and human conscience. Some of them even go so far as to 
 pretend that history does not justify the claim of the Church when 
 she declares herself to be the great teacher of sanctity ; and the main 
 object of this volume is to disprove this strange accusation. But their 
 inconsistency chiefly consists in this, that finding fault with the 
 Church's ethics, they replace them by a code deprived of any effect- 
 ive sanction, because they never dare to mention the retributions of a 
 future life. 
 
 They seem to imagine that in order to establish holiness among 
 men it is sufficient to enumerate the various pronouncements of intuitive 
 reason with regard to morality. If it were so all, men would be holy, 
 because all know, or at least can easily know, what each one has to 
 do to be virtuous. They do not seem to perceive that with this 
 knowledge nearly all men do precisely the contrary, and that conse- 
 quently the mere voice of reason or of conscience is insufficient. 
 What does, in fact, their boasted teaching amount to 1 It is effectually 
 reduced to the vain resounding of an echo in the wilderness ; it is a 
 voice that comes and goes ; and they pretend to be better teachers 
 
146 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 than He who exclaimed : " Now the axe is laid to the root of the tree. 
 Every tree, therefore, that does not yield good fruit shall be cut 
 down and cast into the fire"! They pretend to be better preachers 
 of morality than the Church, and they forget the most important part 
 of the preaching! Let them at least adopt the measure best calcu- 
 lated to insure success, and there will be more consistency in their 
 proceedings, particularly when the proofs of a hereafter are so plain. 
 
 But their reason for remaining mute on such an important point 
 must be carefully examined, because we may find in it the best way 
 of judging on which side is the true, the trustworthy teacher. When 
 religion is altogether discarded and philosophy steps in its place, 
 Heaven's commands cannot be intimated with confidence, and the 
 moralist is reduced to inculcate the simple precepts of reason. Is this 
 sufficient as a solid basis of simple ethics.^ It would be irrational to 
 speak in this case of the spread of "holiness." This word, in fact, 
 must be altogether struck off from the vocabulary of philosophers. 
 They themselves understand that it would be almost ludicrous to use it 
 in their teaching. But confining the inquiry to ordinary morality only, 
 not of a high order of sanctity, it is proper to consider how far a human 
 teacher can solidly establish it. There is no question here of a mere 
 statement of principles. All agree that this is possible, because those 
 principles are all based in reason, and reason is competent to write a 
 full catalogue of them. But the attempt made in earnest by those 
 philosophical teachers goes much farther. Either they undertake to 
 establish morality among men, or all their books are perfectly useless. 
 Now no one can pretend that a written catalogue of virtues suffices 
 for this establishment. By printing a few pages in the form of the 
 celebrated Epictetus' Table, and giving a copy to every living man, 
 woman, and child, the process would be completed and morality tri- 
 umphant. Something more than this must be required, as every one 
 perceives, and philosophical clubs on the plan of those of Pythagoras 
 must be set on foot and practically introduced among men. That 
 this can be done by philosophers, to a slight extent, is not denied; 
 but that it can comprise large classes of mankind is absolutely unten- 
 able. 
 
 The reason of it is chiefly derived from the infinite variety of 
 interests that would oppose this project if it were seriously enter- 
 tained. Motisieur Jourdain^ in the celebrated comedy of Moliere, has 
 given, after all, the best cause of the universal opposition it woul( 
 meet, by exclaiming : " Hang your moral philosophy that teaches m( 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 147 
 
 how to keep down my temper ! I want for one to get mad when I 
 choose ; and you, reverend professor of morals, get out of my sight 
 right away, or I may fall upon you and drive you off." 
 
 To speak seriously, the very idea of morality independent of 
 religion cannot enter into the head of a sane man, unless he 
 wishes to ruin both. True religion can no more be separated from 
 the pursuit of the "good" than the "good" can exist unless it 
 comes from God, the source of true religion. And this is the ulti- 
 mate reason why there must be a religious sanction to any good 
 code of ethics, and without it morality is a sham. At least no one 
 can deny that the actual practice of true virtue by a great number 
 of men, the formation of a large class in mankind known by their 
 strict moral principles and applying them habitually in their daily 
 life, absolutely requires that religion should intervene by pointing 
 out to them as their goal the heavenly and eternal reward that 
 God alone can promise. 
 
 A word has just been said of the "variety of interests" which 
 always oppose the projects invented by philosophers for the 
 " foundation of virtue." All the passions of the human heart, all 
 the maxims of a specious but corrupt world, most of the social 
 axioms current among mankind, form a web of well-connected 
 hindrances firmly set against all those projects; and because the 
 motives for virtue suggested by the most earnest reformers, even the 
 , strongest and most effective which they propose, are invariably 
 I taken from advantages which are more or less connected with 
 1 earthly and transitory happiness, the opposing motives for self- 
 indulgence, being likewise earthly and ending with this life, cannot 
 be effectually resisted and overcome. This must be so particularly 
 because in the constant conflict w^hich naturally exists betw^een 
 virtue and vice, vice is always more alluring, and invariably assumes 
 in moments of hesitation the brighest shape to entice the 
 human heart, at the very moment that a veil is thrown over the 
 conscience. Human motives of each kind put in both scales of 
 the balance cannot keep it level; much less can the virtuous side 
 prevail and conquer. It is very remarkable though very strange, 
 in our opinion, that the philosophers of the " intuitive school," 
 as it is called, take always for granted that human nature will 
 assume on all occasions the shape and direction indicated by 
 their moral systems, and that if a conflict is possible it will always 
 be short and of a weak character. This only proves that they are 
 
148 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 poorly acquainted with human nature. Christian moralists, on 
 the contrary, insist particularly on the terrible aspect which the 
 contest often assumes, and on the ominous consequences which 
 depend on the result. These last guides are more to be believed 
 than the first, not only because they derive the doctrine they 
 endeavor to inculcate from the teachings of theology, which is far 
 preferable to philosophy in that respect, but chiefly because, being 
 the acknowledged confidants of a great part of mankind, they can 
 dive deeper into the human soul and know far better its most 
 secret mysteries. They will all tell you that if a man hesitating 
 between good and evil is told that by following his evil inclinations 
 he ruins his healthy destroys his prospects in life, alienates his best 
 friends, etc., he may listen with some attention, appear even to 
 have profited by the advice ; but his amendment will be very 
 slight and not endure long, because pleasure for him is more 
 enticing than health, enjoyment is after all the best prospect in life, 
 booti coinpa7iions are in his eyes the best friends he could find, and 
 so of the other strong motives of virtue you might propose. But 
 if he has yet some principles of religion and you tell him that he 
 openly disobeys God, cannot escape from the future judgment, 
 is sure, if he continues, of an impending and eternal doom — in case 
 the man has still some of his reason left, and he has not by previous 
 crimes entirely stifled the voice of his conscience and excluded 
 himself from all the influence of grace, he surely will retrace his 
 steps and walk again along the path of virtue. 
 
 It appears incredible that there are men who cannot appreci- 
 ate the strength of these reasons; yet there are, and many. The; 
 heading of this section has told us that " the irremediable defect 
 of all moral codes which are not founded on Christian principles 
 comes from their want of a sanction in the absence of a hereafter.' 
 This is to be discussed with some care, since it is the main question 
 with us here. First, therefore, these philosophers may say that: 
 they do not exclude the " hereafter ;" only they do not speak of it 
 being entirely limited to considerations derived from humai 
 reason. They must mean that they are in truth incompetent 
 because the existence of a future life with the necessary accoi 
 paniment of punishments and rewards belongs as much to thj 
 province of reason as the existence of our soul, nay, as the actuj 
 existence of the universe itself. Christian philosophers hav| 
 proved it before this time ; and to deny it would require that thei 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 149 
 
 proofs should be at least answered. The philosophers with whom 
 the present discussion is mainly carried on must certainly admit 
 it, if they remain consistent with their own principles. We have 
 no doubt that most of them are fully persuaded that there is a 
 future life, and that man's position in it will depend on his con- 
 duct during this one. Yet in their books on morals they never 
 speak of it, and the only reason that can be seen for this strange 
 reticence is that they feel their own incompetency. They are not 
 religious teachers, and they can scarcely enter into the conscience 
 of their fellow-men. This doctrine, besides, appertains as much 
 to revelation as to reason, and they are in dread of the super- 
 natural, which they constantly oppose. They shrink from placing 
 themselves even on the borders of it, and feel the necessity of 
 leaving in the shade whatever belongs to the departments of both 
 religion and pure reason. But in doing so, they must acknowledge 
 their incompetency not only for preaching openly a hereafter, but 
 even for teaching morality at all. This is the second reason why 
 there is an " irremediable defect in all their moral codes." The 
 supernatural cannot be excluded from those codes; and some 
 reflections are required to render it evident and satisfy the most 
 incredulous that it is so. 
 
 Why is it that sin is sin, if not because it is opposed to the will 
 of God ? The prescriptions of the divine law alone can convince 
 man that he has prevaricated when he has acted against them. 
 Tear away the golden cord which unites earth with heaven, and 
 there cannot be any more mention of sin or of virtue. It is not 
 sufficient to say that every one is convinced that reason comes 
 from God, and that whatever reason prescribes in point of moral- 
 ity is prescribed in fact by the great Author of reason. It is not 
 sufficient to affirm that every one is interiorly convinced of it, and 
 yet never acknowledge it in so many terms. It must be openly 
 stated as the necessary foundation of morality. The principles of 
 ethics must be proclaimed as expressing "God's Commandments," 
 and nothing else. But this includes the true basis of a supernatural 
 doctrine. The whole moi-al edifice raised upon it is nothing but 
 the efflorescence of the tree which has thus been planted in the 
 firm ground. If God has given "commandments," He has reveal- 
 ed Himself to man, and the details of that revelation must neces- 
 sarily come afterwards. It is not logical to say that this revelation 
 needs not have been exterior, and that the inward consciousness 
 
150 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 of the soul of man contains the only revelation he has ever received. 
 For in this case the revelation would amount to nothing, on ac- 
 count of the well-known hesitations of human reason when left to 
 itself, and of the absolute impossibility for the greatest part of 
 mankind to frame an irreproachable. and invariable moral code, 
 unless man relies on a supernatural teacher. 
 
 Are all the philosophers agreed upon the ethical principles 
 which go to form the "foundation of virtue" ? Mr. Lecky proves 
 most clearly, without wishing it, that they are not, by the very 
 enumeration of the great number of systems elaborated on the 
 subject by the chief upholders of the doctrine. If the masters of 
 the science cannot agree, how will the mass of unintelligent peo- 
 ple fare in the result? They will surely be altogether unable to 
 make a single step in the path of virtue, whose ''foundation" they 
 cannot know. And the mass of unintelligent people is the mass 
 of mankind. There are many millions of them to a single one of 
 the bright luminaries who are their self-appointed guides. Who 
 of them will dare say that there is no other revelation in point of 
 ethics than the inner consciousness of reason ? It would be not 
 only proud and bold on their part, but most cruel and inhuman, 
 since it would amount to the acknowledgment that man has really 
 been left without the light he craves and the guide he absolutely 
 needs, which cannot be confined to their own individuality. What 
 did I say — bold and cruel ? It would be worse still in some sense 
 for the philosophers. It would convince them of having entirely 
 stultified themselves by undertaking a task which they must feel 
 is completely above human competency. They cannot exactly 
 know what morality is as long as they reject the supernatural; they 
 grope their way in the dark, and they stumble at every step. Still 
 they pretend to teach mankind what it is to be virtuous, and they 
 often go so far as to impeach and call in question the noble prin- 
 ciples which the Church gives to men in order to practise virtue 
 and walk securely on the road to perfection. 
 
 The plain doctrine of a hereafter is for the Christian absolutely 
 unassailable as coming from the mouth of Christ, and thus his 
 moral principles have a most firm foundation. The more so that 
 many supernatural agencies are involved in Christian doctrine, and 
 the basis of ethics, as was just seen, to be solid must rest mainly 
 on the supernatural. But the peculiar aspect it takes with respect 
 to the Founder of the Christian religion makes it still more appro- 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 151 
 
 priate to the moral needs of man; and this particular advantage 
 is altogether denied to the mere philosopher. This must be seen 
 somewhat more in detail in order to appreciate the advantage of 
 the eternal over the temporal. 
 
 One of the most abundant sources of holiness in the Church is 
 undoubtedly the example of Christ and the love which His divine 
 character inspires to His disciples. An eloquent passage of Mr. 
 Lecky himself on the subject is quoted in the " Church and Gentile 
 World," (ch. iii.), but its effect on the soul of the true Christian can 
 scarcely be apprehended by any one who does not believe. The 
 inward agency of practical religion alone enables a man to fully 
 understand how life itself can be sacrificed for an object of love 
 which cannot be seen, and which is known only by report, as Jesus 
 Christ is undoubtedly. But independently of such an act of he- 
 roism as this, required only of a few, and not usually entertained 
 as a possible contingency, nearly all the actions of the Christian 
 during an ordinary life are more or less influenced by the example 
 of the Saviour and animated by the love which all the children of 
 His Church naturally feel for Him. There is scarcely a single 
 human concern on which some passage of the Gospel does not 
 bear. The pious young man and woman, the enlightened Chris- 
 tian of any sex or condition, knows this practically if he has 
 had any religious training of importance. The views of life gen- 
 erally taken by people of this class are more or less grounded on 
 gospel truth. From the crib of Bethlehem to the cross of Calvary, 
 the thirty-three years which went to compose the mortal career of 
 the Redeemer are full of incidents which can be taken as moral 
 examples of the highest and purest order. 
 
 Not only is this all connected with the supernatural, but we 
 maintain that all this has more or less some reference to a here- 
 after, and that mainly on this account it is most powerful to pro- 
 mote morality, or rather to lead man surely, nay, infallibly on the 
 road toward holiness and perfection. This is what was meant 
 when in a previous page it was said that questions of the simplest 
 moral doctrine must always be connected with the supernatural. 
 
 Is it not true that owing to the divine character of the Saviour 
 He has indeed transferred heaven on earth, and we cannot think 
 of Him and of His human actions without having before our eyes 
 the spectacle of a hereafter turned into the present time ? The 
 expression may be bold, but it is exact, and the most simple re- 
 
152 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 flection will show its truth to any one who pays the least attention 
 to it. It is in fact the only meaning which can be attached to the 
 pregnant phrase of our Lord so frequent in the Gospel, when He 
 speaks of having come to establish the "kingdom of God on 
 earth." Can the philosophers of the intuitive school be so little 
 aware of the true position of the Christian as to imagine that he 
 thinks of a future life only when he meditates on death and judg- 
 ment ? This may be true of the philosophers, if they ever consent 
 to occupy their mind with such gloomy subjects as these. The 
 Christian has a thousand occasions to reflect on the same subjects 
 with an exuberance of joy. Or rather, though death and judgment 
 are often set aside by him, he is always keenly alive to the truth 
 that through Christ his soul is in constant communication with 
 heaven. Can any one be blind enough not to perceive that this 
 must have at all times a powerful effect on morality, or rather on 
 holiness ? 
 
 This truth will be rendered more forcible still — the subject is of 
 so paramount an importance that even excess in this case must be 
 pardoned by the reader — by a fact of almost daily occurrence, but 
 to which people generally do not pay sufficient attention. No book 
 can produce so powerful an effect on young people when they are 
 somewhat seriously inclined as the "History of the Bible" when it 
 is related with simplicity and accuracy. It is on many occasions suf- 
 ficient to settle their religious and moral convictions for life, and it 
 invariably improves their manners wonderfully. We have experi- 
 enced it many times, and every one who will take the trouble of 
 making the trial will be altogether satisfied of it. Now, what is 
 the cause of it if not that the history of the Bible is in substance 
 the narrative of the incessant action of God on the affairs of men, 
 and particularly His inner dealings with the soul of each of us? 
 It teaches us that we cannot for a moment remain out of His sight; 
 that He is always intent on doing us good, as the most tender of 
 friends, the most indulgent of fathers; it transports us at once into 
 a world altogether different from this and accustoms us to con- 
 sider ourselves as citizens of a holier commonwealth, the coheirs of 
 Christ, the brothers of saints and angels, the happy companions of 
 the blessed in heaven. Can anything be equal to this in training 
 men up to well-doing? Do they not thus imbibe pure morality 
 with life? In this commingling of earth with heaven, the here- 
 after becomes the present time, as was said before; the kingdom 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 153 
 
 of God has come; the holiness of heaven must be that of earth. 
 This may be called a dream by philosophers of the intuitive school; 
 but we tell them that this dream is realized at this very moment 
 by millions of the Church's children; and as there is yet, thank God, 
 some innocence, guilelessness^ purity, love of God and of Christ 
 on earth, it is there that it can be found. Of course the mere 
 philosophers must consent to admit that there is nothing of the 
 kind on their side; and in their earnest efforts to spread pure 
 morality by their dissertations On European and other morals, 
 they cannot avail themselves of this childish means, as they pre- 
 tend, which they must leave to the Catholic Church. But the 
 strict consequence of it is that there is no hereafter for them, and 
 their disciples must be left to the cold comfort that in practising 
 virtue they attend to a concern of this life only, they cannot expect 
 any other reward than the testimony of their conscience; they 
 meanwhile are often in doubt as to what their conscience teaches, 
 they chiefly are left alone in their solitary grandeur unsupported by 
 heaven and yet merged into the endless troubles of the present life. 
 
 [ 2. Can there be a Solid Objection made Against the Christian Code of 
 
 Morals! 
 
 It is not intended here to advert to any of those objections in 
 detail, and to answer them on the model of a scholastic dispute. 
 They are often reduced to trifling points, when they are not 
 altogether evident sophisms. The time and space consumed in 
 such a task as this could not be repaid by any advantage that 
 would accrue. The chief one of those difficulties even, which con- 
 sists in affirming that among Christian nations morality has 
 never been on a higher level than among pagans, does not deserve 
 to be treated apart, because the Second Book of this volume will 
 abundantly prove that it Cannot be entertained by any man possess- 
 ing the least degree of historical lore. The only measure that 
 can be adopted on the present occasion consists in a general sur- 
 vey of the question at issue; and by grouping together all the 
 conditions required for a high degree of moral goodness, it will 
 directly become evident that they are all found in the Catholic 
 Church and in no other institution on earth. 
 
 In order that a high degree of morality may be found anywhere, 
 the precepts imposed by the code must be clear, so that the path to 
 
154 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 be followed may be well known; the same precepts must form 
 a complete system of moral law, so as not to leave out any principle 
 of virtue or any check against vice in matters of importance; the 
 same must be imposeci on man by an authority w^hich cannot be re- 
 pudiated or set aside. With regard to man himself, his conscience 
 must be kept in a high degree of keenness by the very principles he 
 has adopted; he must have rules to find out if the dictates of his 
 conscience can be altogether trusted; and in no case must it be 
 allowed to remain grossly in error for any length of time. Finally, 
 there must be a powerful sanction to enforce this code, and at all 
 times this sanction must remain present before the eyes of the 
 doer. This last condition is the most important at this particular 
 point of our investigations. 
 
 Can all those conditions be found together in any institution on 
 earth, except it be a divine one.^ Does it not require the action of 
 God Himself to have prepared for the moral guidance of man such a 
 simple and at the same time perfect concordance between his interior 
 faculties, his manifold duties, and the eternal object of his creation .'' 
 It could be absolutely demonstrated that all this is found nowhere on 
 earth except in the Catholic Church ; but within its precincts the 
 whole of it is admirably kept in its integrity. The philosophers of 
 the intuitive school would undoubtedly be at a loss to find in their 
 system all the particulars of this enumeration. We have had lately 
 occasijon to speak of their absolute silence on the belief in a hereafter 
 as a necessary moral sanction. A cojnplete list of moral precepts will 
 never be found in their pages ; and after they have insisted on a few 
 moral axioms of the natural law, they think they have fulfilled the re- 
 sponsible duty they had assumed of guiding men in the path of virtue ; 
 and these axioms refer only to some of our duties toward our fellow- 
 men. As to conscience and the/^(»;' of error in following its voice, they 
 too often speak of it only for the purpose of finding fault with the Church, 
 which is nevertheless the only institution which has ever undertaken 
 the arduous task of purifying and enlightening the conscience of men, 
 and done it, too, in all ages, and in millions upon millions of cases, for 
 the great benefit of mankind. But, in general, because they remain 
 in total ignorance of her earnestness, and zeal in promoting virtue, this 
 action upon men's conscience is for them only a contemptible piece of 
 casuistry, if it is not a veil thrown over moral corruption, and a snare 
 to deceive souls. But whatever may be said to the contrary, the Church 
 is in possession of that high trust, and has been for the last nineteen 
 
 1 i 
 
 I 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 155 
 
 hundred years ; and if her duty in that regard had been as poorly ful- 
 filled as her adversaries are pleased to say, she would have lost it long 
 ago ; and the indignation of mankind against her for assuming unduly 
 such a tremendous power would long before this have been raised 
 against a truly sacrilegious presumption. On the contrary, among the 
 ever-increasing number of her children during this age of real pros- 
 'perity for her, the confidence, nay, the childlike reliance of the great 
 majority of them seems to be as strong as ever, and in their eyes 
 she is always the judge of morals, the upholder of virtue, the opposer of 
 wrong-doing, the o}'acle of God in dictating what is to be done as 
 well as what is to be believed. 
 
 We regret that space does not allow us to fully develop the pre- 
 vious paragraph, in which the conditions for a high degree of morality 
 are enumerated and can be proved to exist in the Catholic Church. 
 It would form by itself a full vindication of her claim as a guide to 
 holiness. But we feel compelled to leave this subject to the considera- 
 tion of the reader. Any one sufficiently well acquainted with Catho- 
 lic moral theology can easily complete the task. It is in fact alto- 
 gether elementary with us ; but it often happens that the most simple 
 facts with us become wonderful objects for outsiders. In this case it is 
 so to a remarkable degree, and we sincerely wish we could at this 
 moment enter into all the required details. But if we feel obliged to 
 omit them, there is a line of general reflections which will not require 
 such a long array of particulars derived from moral theology, and yet 
 suffice for reaching the same conclusion. The question is about the 
 Christian moral code and the objections which can be raised against 
 it. Those who do so are always careful to speak only of the Catholic 
 Church, not of Christ, as if both could be separated. We have just 
 intimated that the solution of this question cannot remain in doubt 
 even in the false supposition of such a separation. Moral theology, 
 however, would become in this case the battle-field ; and a long dis- 
 cussion would have to be undertaken to thoroughly vindicate it. We 
 prefer to say that the Christian code is the code of Christ ; and on 
 this assertion we say that the whole case rests. The Church's adver- 
 saries openly deny it. They are used, on many occasions, to praise 
 the doctrine of our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount. It is proper 
 to examine if they can be altogether sincere in finding a great discrep- 
 ancy between that doctrine of the Saviour and the main moral prescrip- 
 tions of the Catholic Church. To an impartial man it is clear at first 
 sight that the Beatitudes confain the very moral points against which 
 
156 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 our opponents object. The whole is comprised in few words, but full 
 of meaning : humility, lowliness, the surrendering of rights, the forgive- 
 ness of injury, the neglect of earthly advantages, the choosing of the 
 narrow and hard road, an ardent hankering after everything painful 
 to nature. In fact, all the details set forth in a previous chapter 
 when speaking of the " evangelical counsels," are embodied in this 
 Sermon of our Lord as the main substance of Christianity. The' 
 Church in her application of the doctrine to the needs of weak mortals 
 has softened it whenever it is susceptible of mitigation ; but she could 
 not repudiate its spirit and tendency, which consists in renouncement 
 and self-sacrifice. For this she has been abused as if by doing so she 
 had changed the religion brought down by Christ from heaven, and 
 given a repulsive look to the Bride of the Saviour. This crime on her 
 part has been ascribed to her casuistry, to her harsh feeling toward 
 humanity, to a denial of Christian meekness. Hence the morose aus- 
 terity of her monks, the unnatural enforcement of celibacy, the 
 degradation of the human will by voluntary obedience, have been 
 harshly descanted upon. Still any one who listens to the clear utter- 
 ances of Christ in the Gospel must admit that the only fault of the 
 Church — an irremissible one in the eyes of the world — is her too 
 strict faithfulness in following the injunctions of Christ. Christ, 
 therefore, is attacked through the Church, and the question recurs, 
 Is Christ's code liable to any objection .? 
 
 The man who believes in the authority of the Gospel as an in- 
 spired book, in the divinity of the Saviour as the Eternal Son of 
 Almighty God, and in the strict communication of all His power 
 to the Church as His representative on earth, cannot experience 
 a moment of doubt as to the purity of morals which the Gospel, 
 the Redeemer, and the Church herself uphold. He is firmly per- 
 suaded that there have never been on earth — nay, that there cannot 
 be in the world — better teachers of good manners than all three, 
 whose complete agreement is always assured. He even goes so far as 
 to be convinced that all other teachers are only "wolves under the 
 garb of sheep," such as the Saviour called them when He pro- 
 claimed Himself the only true Shepherd of souls. To confirm 
 him in his belief he has the teaching of history itself, which tells 
 him that whenever mankind has been left to its own guidance — \ 
 that is, to that of philosophers and self-appointed teachers — the in- 
 variable result has been a gradual decline in morals, ending at last 
 in degradation. On the other side, Christianity produced, sudden- 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 157 
 
 ly at first, such a change for the better in the moral world that only 
 a blind man cannot see it as a universal fact in history. More- 
 over, Christ's religion keeps in its bosom such a well-spring of 
 purity and holiness that whenever the fickleness and evil incli- 
 nations of men have brought on corruption in the Church there 
 has always been at hand a remedy to bring on the needed regene- 
 ration. 
 
 Again, that multitude of men who in our day seem to have 
 lost their faith, and on whom the voice of the Church, of the Gos- 
 pel, of Christ Himself, can scarcely make any impression, have an 
 easy means to ascertain if, as they mostly pretend, the Christian 
 is or is not far above the pagan in morality. Let them look at 
 the world as it is, and they may change thoir opinion; for there 
 are still pagans in the* world. To make the comparison they must 
 not be satisfied with considering only the exterior or public aspect 
 presented by the so-called Christian nations as a whole. It is 
 generally the view taken of it when this point is discussed; and 
 there are unfortunately powerful elements of corruption intro- 
 duced by unbelief in modern Christian society. These defective 
 points come uppermost in considerations of this nature, and 
 Christianity is made responsible for the moral deformity w^hich in 
 fact belongs to modern paganism. To properly compare the in- 
 fluence of Christianity in promoting good morals with that of 
 pagan principles, we must select in modern society that part of it 
 which is really influenced by Christian teaching; and there can be 
 no doubt that this golden portion of the modern world is far above 
 what is best in the paganism of our day. The two classes, Chris- 
 tian and pagan, are now to be seen at work side by side in all large 
 European cities; and the simple view of it brings directly to the 
 mind the powerful description of both such as they existed in the 
 Roman world, fifteen hundred years ago, and have been described 
 by St. Augustine in his great work De Civitate Dei. 
 
 This will become more forcible still from another series of con- 
 siderations having the same object in view. At this moment the 
 Christian nations have the hegemony of the world. They rule it, 
 and loom up above the rest of mankind, as if they were of a supe- 
 rior nature. This does not date of yesterday, but has been ac- 
 quired by several centuries of intercourse, trade, colonization, and 
 political connections. It has been, undoubtedly, often the source 
 of great evils, of untold abuses, of awful crimes. But the unde- 
 
158 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 niable facts of oppression, invasion of rights, greed, and rapacity of 
 some Christian nations in their colonies do not impair and weaken 
 the truth that the present hegemony of the world by Europe was 
 mainly the fruit of her superiority. And this superiority must be 
 admitted as well in morals as in civilization, art, and military dis- 
 cipline. This last phase of European power was the main factor 
 in the acquisition of social and political ascendency among the in- 
 numerable races which Europe undertook 'to subdue. But any 
 one may see that military discipline in the modern sense supposes 
 Christian principles. Fortunately for mankind it is still the Chris- 
 tian moral code which invariably directs modern warfare. Owing 
 to this the countries where war is carried on are spared the former 
 horrors of pagan times; and even on battle fields, on the only 
 places where blood is shed, there are humane rules to follow 
 which could not exist for pagans. It is sufficient to mention the 
 care taken of the wounded belonging to the enemy, and the im- 
 mediate friendly intercourse which directly follows the fiercest 
 encounters. 
 
 This is extremely remarkable ; but the same view of the subject 
 must be taken on a much larger scale when speaking of the 
 superiority at this moment under consideration. If the whole 
 question is examined more closely, it is easily seen that Europeans 
 have acquired their present proud position in the world by their 
 whole system of morals, still more than by their theoretical knowl- 
 edge and universal culture. They brought to foreign nations 
 principles of right, of justice, of humanity, of real benevolence, 
 which were not known among them before, and which Europeans 
 themselves owed only to Christianity. Their missionaries preached 
 the Gospel ; they themselves built hospitals, asylums, houses of 
 education. They changed at once the face of the moral world all 
 over those benighted countries. Those various institutions of 
 charity, enlightenment, and peace cannot exist except among 
 nations blessed by a moral code worthy of the name and pro- 
 ductive of an immense amount of good. The picture could be 
 easily enlarged, and include the priceless advantages each of us 
 derived from the institutions founded by those who preceded us in 
 the various regions where we all had the happiness to be born. 
 It was a blessing which we do not sufficiently appreciate unless 
 we reflect seriously upon it. And it must be remarked that if 
 the religion of Christ was to disappear at once from all places 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 159 
 
 where it sheds still its holy influence, all these proofs of a superior 
 morality would also vanish at once. It would be an unreasonable 
 presumption to imagine that the exterior benefits of our holy 
 religion would continue if its interior spirit had altogether ceased 
 to exist, and if its name was completely disowned. 
 
 But there is still a further step to take, and a word of admonition 
 to be addressed to the teachers of a rationalistic morality, should 
 they be disposed kindly to listen for a moment. They consider 
 the doctrine they preach as far above any other, and occasionally 
 find fault with that of the Church. If it is not presumptuous on 
 our part, we will ask them if they think they have derived it from 
 any other source than from Christianity. They will surely 
 answer that they found it in their own mind, as they do not admit 
 any principles except those contained in human reason. There 
 seems to be a great force in this remark, and we cannot but 
 acknowledge it, because we also proclaim the rights of reason, and 
 even its infallibility within its own range. But must it be con- 
 ceded as a thing above contradiction, that if Christianity had 
 never existed, human reason would be as enlightened as it is? 
 Have not philosophers been benefited by it as well as other men ? 
 and are not many of their principles mere axioms openly pro- 
 claimed by Christian teachers long before the philosophy of the 
 intuitive school was born ? ' This is a fact easily ascertained by 
 merely looking into the philosophical and theological treatises of 
 Fathers and schoolmen. 
 
 A simple observation, finally, may not be without force. The 
 philosophy of the intuitive school is not accepted by all philosophers. 
 There are many men of other schools ; for instance, the utilitarians. 
 Why is it that the mind of the first has easily admitted the purer doc- 
 trine they follow, whilst the second reject it and are satisfied with 
 a system far inferior in all respects? There can be no other 
 answer to this question than to say the first have better kept the 
 Christian principles they imbibed in their infancy than the second 
 did. For both were Christian at first, as was universally the case 
 not much more than a hundred years ago. With this we may 
 conclude this partial discussion. 
 
l6o THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 3. The Contrast of Temporal with Eternal Things is Promotive of Good 
 Morals and Holiness. 
 
 The main object of our Lord's preaching being to conquer sin 
 and establish virtue on earth, He constantly insisted on the neces- 
 sity of despising this world and looking up to heaven: " Lay not 
 up to yourselves treasures on earth, where the rust and moth con- 
 sume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to 
 yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither the rust nor moth 
 consume, and where thieves do not break through and steal."* 
 And farther on, describing the future judgment at the end of the 
 world: "Then shall the King say to them that shall be on his 
 right hand : Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom 
 prepared for you from the foundation of the world. . . . And 
 He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand : Depart 
 from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared ^or 
 the devil and his angels." f 
 
 All the moral precepts Christ inculcated were supported by 
 this consideration of eternal rewards and punishments. He wished 
 his disciples to keep constantly before their eyes the transitory 
 and perishable character of all earthly blessings contrasted with 
 the solidity and permanence of whatever is promised us in the 
 eternal city. This must be the whole philosophy of the Christian; 
 with the understanding, however, that during his pilgrimage he 
 is not forbidden to use the things needful for this life, but he must 
 not be* "over-solicitous" in their pursuit, and if he have faith he 
 is directed to think that his heavenly Father will not let him be 
 deprived of them. 
 
 The Church as the representative of Christ cannot have 
 another doctrine, and this she inculcates and urges on the mind 
 of her children on all possible occasions. Let us see a moment if 
 there can be a more powerful incentive toward holiness. Reason 
 alone tells us that if kept constantly in view it abundantly suffices 
 to preserve a man from moral delinquency, and to induce him to 
 practise the highest virtue. Faith, it is true, requires, besides, that 
 the grace of God should help us; but in the present inquiry no 
 account is taken of it, and man is supposed to be left to his own 
 
 * Matt, vi ig, 20. f lb. xxv. 
 
 i 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. l6l 
 
 natural ability, which, however, is never left unaided, since God 
 has promised to help those who help themselves. The advantages 
 resulting in general from any line of action are the springs which 
 always act upon human nature to urge it on in the pursuit. See 
 the vigor displayed by the worshippers of money, the votaries of 
 pleasure, the candidates for political honors, the aspirants to fame. 
 Is there any exertion which they are not ready to make at every pos- 
 sible sacrifice? And the stronger is the incentive the mightier will 
 be the effort. This is invariably the case in the world; and it 
 results from the very nature of man. What moral strength will 
 not inspire the Christian who sees before him life eternal such as 
 the Gospel discloses it? True, it is an unseen reward; but St. 
 Paul tells us that faith is " the substance of the unseen." If one 
 has faith, the guerdon promised him, though invisible, has a great 
 deal more reality for him than anything earthly. It is said, also, 
 that it is a far-distant reward both in space and time. Heaven, 
 they pretend, is far removed from this earth, and eternity will begin 
 only at the end of this world. The Christian thinks, on the con- 
 trary, that heaven is near and that eternity has already begun. 
 Heaven is near, since Christ not only has made us heirs of it, but 
 has placed it m our very possession whenever we keep His grace 
 within our hearts. Is it not true that the practice of virtue on 
 earth is what the Saviour often called " the kingdom of heaven'} 
 Did He not say that His faithful disciples actually had it, since He 
 brought it down with His divine person? We know and believe 
 that in the state of grace the soul is in communion with God and 
 His saints. Hence is derived the efficacy of prayer which is 
 for earthly beings nothing else than the means of communicating 
 with God. Heaven consequently exists wherever there are im- 
 mortal spirits who have preserved their purity or recovered it. It 
 is this conviction which fills the Christian soul with rapture and 
 renders it so strong against temptation. His only fear is to lose 
 his rights by falling away from grace. He is not yet in heaven, 
 merely because he may after all be declared unworthy of it, and 
 also because there is in the present life a veil which conceals from 
 his eyes the unseen world, of which, however, according to St. 
 Paul, he possesses " the substance" by faith. All this is Catholic 
 theology which thus places heaven very near us. But it has been 
 said, moreover, that eternity has already begun. Nothing is more 
 easy to believe for any one who reflects seriously. The soul is 
 
l62 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 essentially eternal; from the first moment of its creation its eter- 
 nity has become a fact. Its temporal union with the body cannot 
 change anythmg essential to it. That body even is to be resumed 
 on the day of resurrection. Who does not see, consequently, that 
 man on the day of his birth has begun a career which is to last 
 forever-* The eternity of the triumphant Church in heaven is not 
 different from ours, except that the destiny of those we call the 
 Blessed or the Saints is assured and ours is still hanging in the bal- 
 ance. But we are all citizens of 2. permanent city, as Scripture says. 
 
 All these considerations give an immense power to the Chris- 
 tian in his pursuit of holiness. Nothing can promote morality 
 with more efficacy than the guerdon placed before his eyes and 
 which he, as it were, obtains in the very act of practising virtue. 
 But in all this not a word has been said of the co-operation of 
 Christ Himself in these supernatural agencies; and yet it cannot 
 be set aside. He promised His disciples two great blessings 
 which must be considered a moment ; namely, to abide with us and 
 to come personally and visibly at the end of time — what is called 
 His second advent. We envy with justice the happiness of the 
 first apostles, who lived several years in the company of the 
 Saviour. But to console them at the moment of parting. He 
 said that " He would abide with them forever." This was said 
 of us as well as of them. The invisible presence and sure pro- 
 tection of Christ is* as certain for each of us as it was for 
 those who heard the promise. And this is a new way of realiz- 
 ing heaven in the present time. If we believe that we are in 
 His company and, as it were, under His wings, the earth is not 
 what it often seems to be, a lonely cell in a gloomy prison. 
 It is rather the most brilliant part of creation, since St. John 
 tells us that luccrna ejus est Agnus — '* the LaYnb is the lamp of 
 heaven" and on that account " the glory of God hath enlightened 
 it." Though He is not perceptible to our mortal eyes, He can be 
 seen by those of faith; and He has, moreover, promised that His 
 visible presence would not be forever denied, but He would come 
 again and appear full of mercy to His friends, amidst the terrors 
 of the last day. This firm belief is for the Christian the source of 
 a powerful incentive to virtue. 
 
 This is, moreover, perfectly independent from a gross millenar- 
 ianism, and is undoubtedly contained in the Apocalypse of St. 
 John (xx. 4-6). Hence the first Christians were all ardently looking 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 1 63 
 
 for the second advent of Christ; and if we were as firmly convinced 
 as they were, our feelings in that regard would be the same as 
 theirs. It is true those who regard the Gospels as ordinary books 
 take advantage of this, and imagine they have found m that fact 
 a sure proof that gospel teaching is often a delusion. It is proper 
 to consider this a moment, and show the fallacy of those preten- 
 sions. Christ had openly said that no one knew when the last 
 judgment would happen, except His Father.* 
 
 The Apostles, who had set it down in the records they wrote, 
 could not but remember it and teach it to their disciples. The 
 Saviour, however, had not stated even in a general way if His second 
 coming would take place soon or not. Everyone was free to think 
 on the subject as he thought more probable; and from the fierce per- 
 secutions which began almost immediately after presenting to many 
 of them all the characters which had been announced as the fore- 
 runners of the last days, a great number of disciples thought the 
 moment was near. They were therefore ready to rejoice, because 
 the Saviour had encouraged His disciples to do so as soon as 
 they would perceive the signs of His advent: "When these things 
 begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because 
 your redemption is at hand."f Many did so and were deceived; 
 but there is not a single passage of the New Testament going to 
 prove that any of the Apostles shared in the delusion. The Apo- 
 calypse of St. John cannot be quoted in support of it, as it is well 
 known that this grand Revelation, unveiled to the disciple of love, 
 is still a sealed book for us, and that in announcing the last days 
 with great clearness and power, not only not a word is said of 
 the time, but everything on the subject of that future epoch is so 
 obscure that nearly all the interpreters widely differ from each 
 other. It is in our opinion a proof that St. John kept before his 
 eyes all the time he wrote the assertion of St. Matthew, " Of that 
 day and hour no one knoweth, no, not the angels of heaven, but 
 the Father alone." Still in the face of all these circumstances, 
 perfectly well ascertained and incontrovertible, many rationalists 
 have persuaded themselves that the common teaching of the apos- 
 tles was in favor of an almost immediate end of the world; and if 
 they were deceived on that occasion, they must have been deceived 
 on many others. The only text they can bring to bear on their pre- 
 
 * Matt. xxiv. 36. t Luke xxi. 28. 
 
1 64 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 conceived opinion is the single phrase of the Saviour recorded by 
 St. Matthew and copied afterv^rards by St. Mark: "This genera- 
 tion shall not pass till all these things be done." They under- 
 stand the word generation as meaning (according to Webster) the 
 people of the same period, or living at the same time. It is gen- 
 erally supposed to include, a short period of thirty-three years. 
 But it is unwarrantable to rely only on such a meaning, when 
 there are several ^thers very different. The Jews at the time of 
 the Saviour could scarcely have understood it in that sense; a 
 generation meant for them, what it does for us too, a family, a race 
 —here the human race (see again Webster). In Greek, the Ian- 
 guage of the New Testament, it was certainly the principal mean- 
 ing of the word yevea. Homer knew no other. If later Greek 
 authors, like Thucydides, attribute occasionally to it the sense of 
 " the present age," it has then always a vague meaning answering 
 to the phrase " the men of our age," never the precise sense con- 
 tained in the words, " three generations make a century." 
 
 But our Lord could not possibly attribute to the word yevea 
 this last meaning, because He would have contradicted Himself, 
 and assigned in fact the almost exact epoch of His second coming, 
 after He had a moment before solemnly asserted that this was known 
 to the Father alone. But this is amply sufficient on a trifling con- 
 troversy which is but incident here. For the present object is to 
 insist on the feeling of confidence and trust experienced by tne pri- 
 mitive Christians, and resting on the certainty they had that the 
 Saviour was not lost to them forever. He would come again and 
 appear on earth in the midst of them. And this sweet conviction 
 is also a blessing we enjoy in this age as well as our forefathers 
 of the first century. To this we must return for a moment longer. 
 
 The whole of it is most clearly expressed in a passage of the 
 discourse of our Lord to His apostles at the end of His last sup- 
 per, and recorded by St. John:* "A little while, and you shall 
 not see me; and again a little while, and you shall see me, because 
 I go to the Father. . . . Amen, amen, I say to you that you shall 
 lament and weep [during my absence,] but the world shall rejoice; 
 and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned 
 into joy. A woman when she is in labor hath sorrow because 
 her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she 
 
 * Chap, xvi, i6, seq. 
 
DOCTRINE OR PRINCIPLES. 165 
 
 remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into 
 the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow, but I will see 
 you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall 
 take from you. . . . These things I have spoken to you that in 
 me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but 
 have confidence; I have overcome the world." 
 
 This was evidently said not for the encouragement of the apostles 
 alone, but for that of all His faithful disciples till the end of time. 
 The entire history of the Church is, we may say, epitomized in 
 these few words of Christ. If He '' abides" with us as He 
 promised He would, it is in an invisible manner, because, as He said, 
 He has gone to the Father. He often leaves the Church, in 
 appearance, to the mercy of her enemies. He seems, at times, to 
 have forgotten her, and she dwindles away in number, power, 
 influence, everything that can attract towards her the respect of 
 the world. Then the heart of the Christian grieves at the sight 
 of the constant increase of iniquity, and he shudders when he 
 remembers the words of Christ, pronounced on another occasion: 
 "But yet the Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think 
 you, faith on earth ?" *• Then the only hope, the great desire 
 excited in the heart of the true Christian, is to see Him come 
 again, appear visibly, this time with majesty and power, so as to 
 triumph at once over all the hostile forces that have combined 
 against His Church. And this is not an illusion, a dream destined 
 to vanish like smoke. Of all the prophecies ever uttered by our 
 Lord there is not a single one which He has repeated so often as 
 this, and in clearer terms. It must happen one day, if the world 
 has been created by God and redeemed by Christ. This firm 
 hope is occasionally almost the only link which unites the earth 
 with heaven, but it is a link that cannot break. Otherwise both 
 would have parted from each other long, long ago. 
 
 Thus the perpetual contrast existing for the Christian between 
 temporal and eternal things (so that the future world is always 
 present to his mind) cannot but secure forever his morality from 
 swerving; or if ever it gives way, it is only for. a moment. Those 
 reflections prove the solidity of the moral structure which Christi- 
 anity has raised on earth, and the futility of all systems which 
 discard in moral science the consideration of a hereafter. 
 
 * Luke xviii. 8. 
 
1 66 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 So far, however, this has been established only a priori, because 
 the object of this First Book was merely to prove the strength of 
 \\\^ principles on which the Church's holiness has rested from the 
 first day of her existence, and continues to rest through all ages. 
 The question must be now examined a posteriori, by looking at the 
 facts of history, in order to discover if she has been in reality what 
 she has all along professed to be. There is no need of mention- 
 ing that this is the most important part of the present work. Only 
 time and space will scarcely allow the writer to develop it to the 
 full extent it deserves. 
 
SECOND BOOK, 
 
 FACTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MORAL CHANGE EFFECTED BY THE APOSTLES OF CHRIST IN JERUSALEM 
 AND IN THE JEWISH RACE. 
 
 I. What is to be Understood by the "■ King do? ft of God'* which Our Lord 
 came to Establish ^ 
 
 The " kingdom of God" which the Saviour so often announced 
 was nothing else than that of virtue, or rather of holiness. To be 
 convinced of it, it suffices to go through the various passages of 
 the New Testament in which this ''kingdom" is openly proclaimed. 
 Before Christ appeared, John the Baptist had announced that it 
 was " at hand." * But when the Saviour sent his seventy-two dis- 
 ciples to preach His Gospel, He commanded them to openly pub- 
 lish that " the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you."t Should 
 any one ask in what it precisely consists, the Saviour answers that 
 it is opposed to that of Satan, which, every one knows, is sin. " If 
 I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God 
 come upon you." \ The same meaning is also expressed in the 
 various similes used by St. Matthew in his thirteenth chapter (v. 
 47-50). But the strongest proof of it is furnished by St. Luke (xvii. 
 21) on the occasion of the same question being addressed by the 
 Pharisees to our Lord; namely, "when the kingdom of God 
 should come." He answered: " The kingdom of God cometh not 
 with observation For lo, it is within you." 
 
 * Matt. iii. 2. f lb. x. 19. | lb. xii. 28. 
 
1 68 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 A few words of comment are required on two at least of these 
 last quotations. There is, first, the one contained in the verses 47- 
 50 of the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew : " The kingdom of 
 heaven is like to a net cast into the sea, and gathering together all 
 kind of fishes, which, when it was filled, they drew out, and sitting 
 by the shore, they chose out the good into vessels, but the bad 
 they cast forth : so shall it be at the end of the world. The angels 
 shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just." 
 
 The "wicked," cannot belong in the "hereafter" to the king- 
 dom of heaven, no more than they could on earth when acting 
 " wickedly." The just, on the contrary, by their virtues belong to 
 it in both cases ; and it is in view of the proposed reward that 
 they encounter and overcome the world's temptations. Thus the 
 termination of all earthly things was proposed to the Christian by 
 the Saviour as the great sanction of morality. No philosophy as 
 such can offer this supernatural motive as being naturally con- 
 tained in the foundation of virtue ; and no ancient religion, in- 
 cluding even the Jewish, did it to the same extent as that of Christ. 
 It is thus seen at once that the reign of holiness on earth prepar- 
 ing for happiness in heaven is repeatedly called in the New 
 Testament the " kingdom of God ;" and the Saviour had an- 
 nounced its actual appearance on earth as the consequence of 
 His coming. In case Christianity had failed to bring it on, the 
 Saviour's promise would have remained unrealized; and this no 
 one can pretend, considering Christ's character. 
 
 But the other short text of St. Luke must be examined at a still 
 greater length, because it places more vividly still before the eyes 
 the great fact we are considering at this moment. 
 
 Some of the Pharisees inquired of our Lord when " the king- 
 dom of God" should come ; and He answered: " Lo, it is within 
 you." The Saviour could read into those inquirers' heart. Whilst 
 we cannot do it, still it is possible for us to guess at the meaning 
 of those Pharisees without great fear of error. It is well known 
 that at that precise moment when Christ spoke, and for a long 
 time previous, the question of the arrival of God's kingdom, 
 thoroughly engrossed the Jewish mind. All knew that the fulfil- 
 ment of the ancient prophecies was at hand, and they all expected 
 that IsraeVs kingdom should be restored. This was understood, no 
 doubt, in various ways; and some went so far as to predict, even 
 among the pagans, that "a people coming from the east" — that is 
 
FACTS. 169 
 
 to say, the Jews — "would acquire universal dominion." This is at 
 least the meaning of a well-known phrase of Suetonius. Many 
 Hebrews found in this fond hope the source of that fanaticism 
 which caused the destruction of so many thousands of them at the 
 siege and capture of Jerusalem by Titus. But even the Israelites 
 who were not under the influence of these powerful and deceiving 
 emotions were nevertheless "waiting for the consolation of Israel," 
 as St. Luke relates of Holy Simeon when Mary went to the temple 
 for her purification. And in the same chapter* Anna, the 
 prophetess, "spoke of Him (Jesus) to all that looked for the 
 redemption of Israel." It is, moreover, to be remarked that even 
 among Jesus' disciples, during His public career, wrong notions 
 on the same subject were current, as we know from St. Matthew's 
 gospel, t The mother of the sons of Zebedee asks of the Saviour 
 that her two children should sit at his right and left hands in His 
 "kingdom." 
 
 All these false interpretations of old prophecies were set aside 
 by the Saviour's answer to the Pharisees: " Lo, the Kingdom of 
 God is within you." There could be no question of Israel's re- 
 storation here. No stronger assertion could be made that the 
 "kingdom" He came to establish was simply that of virtue or 
 holiness. For expressed in these words it comprises the whole 
 extent of the interior moral, world in man, which, St. John 
 says, receiveth enlightenment from the true light; namely, the 
 Eternal Word, This cannot but apply to the light of conscience 
 illumined from above. There are, however, apparently two mean- 
 ings of this short phrase of Jesus, and they must be briefly dis- 
 cussed, to choose the only one which is truly acceptable. 
 
 The first meaning would limit this "enlightenment" (men- 
 tioned by St. John in the first chapter of his gospel) to the uni- 
 versal action of the Eternal Word when " He enlighteneth every 
 man that cometh into the world." This cannot be the "kingdom 
 of God" in Christ's intention, for reasons which will be presently 
 given. For it means only that the principles of morality and 
 holiness have been originally impressed on man's soul by the 
 divine light coming from the Eternal Word. It is what Mr. 
 Lecky calls the principles of the " intuitive school " of morality, 
 which we would prefer to say are the immutable rules of action 
 
 *Lukeii. Ch. xx. 21. seq. 
 
lyo THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 forming the basis of our moral nature, as the eternal truths form 
 that of our intellect. All truly great philosophers, even in pagan 
 times, have recognized this immutability of moral principles, and 
 placed its origin in heaven. This is also the " law" which St. 
 Paul says is "written in the heart of all." "^ On this account it 
 cannot be the " kingdom" which Christ brought us, since man, 
 according to St. John and St. Paul, always had the first in his 
 possession, and the one of which Christ repeatedly spoke depended 
 evidently on his coming, and was a new boon conferred on man- 
 kind. 
 
 The first and universal privilege, dating from" man's creation, 
 was undoubtedly an inappreciable benefit which alone would 
 show how far God has loved our race ; since not only He at first 
 conferred it generously on us all, but He did not take it away 
 from fallen man, and left it to him in his forlorn condition as a 
 persevering mark of his truly divine origin. By it, more than by 
 any other characteristic, we are distinguished from animals in, 
 which moral nature is altogether absent; and by it also man could 
 rise after his fall. 
 
 In this age of universal denial, it is true, many scientists rele- 
 gate it among fables, do not believe in immutable principles of 
 right, and would wish to deprive us of this last proof of our 
 primitive dignity. On this account we cannot but honor those 
 men who, like the author of the " History of European Morals," pro- 
 fess to believe in it, and ardently defend it on all occasions. Theyi 
 acknowledge in man immutable principles of moral goodness, 
 and Mr. Lecky in particular speaks approvingly of St. Paul's 
 "law of nature," meaning no doubt the text of the Epistle to the 
 Romans mentioned above. 
 
 But we must repeat again that this is not the " kingdom of 
 God" that Christ brought on earth, and which nevertheless He 
 said is within us. If the Saviour had meant nothing more, thei 
 new revelation He came down from heaven to bestow upon usi 
 would "have been useless in point of morals at least; and no su- 
 periority of any kind could be perceived in the Christian religion-*? 
 over gentilism and Judaism. Christ in this case would not have' 
 spoken, as He often did, of the "kingdom of God," destined to 
 form a new dispensation ; and in His moral teaching He would 
 
 * Rom. ii. 15. 
 
FACTS. 
 
 171 
 
 have entirely confined Himself to the law and the prophets. It 
 must be proved, therefore, that He went much farther, and that 
 besides the immutable principles of right which are in the hearts 
 of all, we have received a peculiar light from His doctrine, which 
 has, by the help of grace, opened in us a new moral sense ; and 
 this is truly God's kingdom within us. This deserves a most 
 serious consideration in treating of Christian holiness. 
 
 Firstly, it must be at once admitted that the pure ethical code 
 written primitively in man's conscience, and the development 
 given to it in the Decalogue and the Mosaic Law, have not been 
 superseded by the new lawgiver, except as to the ceremonial part 
 of the Jewish Pentateuch. All the chief moral prescriptions in 
 the gentile and Hebrew worlds were founded on man's nature 
 and written by God's finger, either in their hearts or on the tables 
 of stone. On this account Christ Himself said in his Sermon on 
 the Mount that He did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil 
 it.* But if He had taken away nothing essential from it. He must 
 have added considerably to it ; otherwise the modern rationalists 
 would justly pretend that a new revelation was not needed, since 
 our moral nature was sufficiently enlightened and helped by the 
 previous benevolent designs of God's providence. Secondly, a 
 strong proof must be furnished that the Saviour's mission has be- 
 stowed on us a new code, far superior to the first, though sup- 
 posing it, and easily distinguished from it by any one who chooses 
 to look at the Gospel. This is manifestly found in the Sermon on 
 the Mount, and particularly in the Beatitudes which form its in- 
 troduction. Any one who is but slightly acquainted with the true 
 character of Christ's religion must admit that His whole moral 
 code is based on the Beatitudes and on the explanation He gave 
 of them; and consequently that the spirit if not the letter of the 
 new law is altogether different from that of gentilism and Juda- 
 ism. A close consideration of this difference will presently 
 enable the reader to understand that the virtues fostered by 
 Christianity are placed on the ethical scale far above those 
 of the natural order. Thirdly and finally, these virtues, which 
 we call supernatural, must be shown to have all been eminently 
 practised by Christ Himself, who according to St. Luke, ccepii 
 facere et docere, leaving us in His life and words the true mean- 
 
 * Matt. V. 17. 
 
172 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 ing of the one by the othen This must be seen somewhat in 
 detail. 
 
 The inquirer, after merely looking over the fifth chapter of St. 
 Matthew's gospel, will do well to ask himself if amoral law based 
 on such principles of blessedness as those had ever been proclaimed 
 to mankind, and can be said to be contained in the immutable 
 principles of right and wrong, or even in the divine voice heard 
 by Moses on the summit of Mount Sinai: "Blessed are the poor 
 in spirit, . . . Blessed are the meek .... Blessed are they that 
 mourn .... Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice. 
 . . . . Blessed are the merciful .... Blessed are the clean of 
 heart .... Blessed are the peacemakers .... Blessed are they 
 that suffer persecution for justice' sake . . . Blessed are ye w^hen 
 they shall revile you and persecute you," etc. 
 
 The general spirit of this code consists in deriving blessedness 
 or happiness — that is, the end of human life in the estimation of 
 all — from what the most virtuous man, if reduced to the immutable 
 principles of morality, would be at best, obliged to consider as a 
 most painful obligation. To esteem one's self happy when poor, 
 when humble and lowly (which is the meaning of meek here), 
 when mourning or suffering, when hungering after justice (with- 
 out having it meted out to himself), when reviled and persecuted, 
 etc. etc., is undoubtedly a doctrine which had never before been 
 preached to men. Still no one can deny that this is the spirit of 
 Christianity, and the true foundation of virtue for all sincere 
 Christians. That it could not be contained in the best philoso- 
 phers' codes, even in the slightest degree, is clear from the fact 
 that it is evidently opposed to some of the most lawful natural 
 appetites of man. That it was altogether foreign to the Mosaic 
 law is well known to any one who has read the Old Testament, in 
 whose records the holiest men complain often bitterly of the 
 burden of poverty, of the acute pain of suffering, of the bitterness 
 of persecution, etc., and on the contrary thank God with joy in 
 times of worldly prosperity and .abundance. Any enlightened 
 Christian will, no doubt, recognize that the doctrine of the Beati- 
 tudes teaches indeed the moral perfection to which our redeemed 
 nature is called; and he will never complain that it is unnatural 
 and incomprehensible; but if he does not, it is because he is 
 redeemed, and he has received the new moral sense required for a 
 willing adherence to the Gospel's prescriptions. A philosopher of 
 
FACTS. 
 
 173 
 
 the purest type, on the contrary, a Jew bent on the most strict 
 observance of the Mosaic law, will never be able to come to the 
 same conclusion; and either of them will refuse to say that they 
 can feel happy when they are poor, or in a lowly condition, or 
 persecuted and reviled, etc. Therefore there is a great deal of 
 difference between Christian and natural morality, though both 
 come from God. That Christ intended His disciples should 
 as strictly follow this moral code as redeemed human nature is 
 able to practise it is clear from this, that He Himself gave the 
 perfect example of it in His divine person. Go through the list 
 of Beatitudes, and directly after revolve in your mind the chief 
 circiimstances of Christ's life : you will directly perceive the 
 beautiful harmony of both ; and it is chiefly this correspondence 
 of the one with the other which renders the reading of the first 
 eleven verses of St. Matthew's fifth chapter so inexpressibly sweet 
 to the true Christian. Who has not in his youth, if he were pious, 
 shed tears in going over these harmonious lines reading like an 
 entrancing poem with the constantly recurring rhythm: *' Blessed 
 are the poor. . . . Blessed are the meek. . . . Blessed are the 
 clean of heart ". . . ? And this chiefly because these lines placed 
 before his eyes the perfect image of the Redeemer. 
 
 What effect would' this doctrine produce on mankind if it were 
 universally adopted has been often made a question. And after 
 what has been just said of its difference from the philosophical 
 principles of the highest order, there is nothing surprising in the 
 fact that some rationalists have thought that it would be im- 
 possible to found a human commonwealth on such a basis. They 
 must certainly think it is a pure Utopia, unrealizable among ordi- 
 nary mortals. But they are mistaken. It has been realized at all 
 times in all the faithful members of the Catholic Church, since 
 she has always placed these lines of Christ at the head of her 
 code; and I tell worldly people, though they may not believe it, 
 that there are at this rhoment millions of simple souls who have no 
 other rule of conduct, and who consider it a sin whenever they in 
 the least deviate from it. 
 
 That it was so chiefly at the beginning, and particularly in the 
 churches of Jerusalem and Rome, is one of the questions we will soon 
 discuss. But, what is very remarkable, some mere philosophers 
 of the "intuitive school" have perceived the truth of it and 
 admirably expressed it. We allude here to Mr. Lecky in his 
 
174 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 " History of European Morals." It is true he does not make any 
 direct allusion to the doctrine of the Beatitudes in the passage we 
 are going to quote; but the reader will easily recognize that it 
 was an oversight on his part, and it would have given much more 
 point to his remarks. 
 
 "It is not surprising," he says, "that a religious system which 
 made it a main object to inculcate moral excellence, and which by 
 its doctrine of future retribution, by its organization, and by its 
 capacity of producing a disinterested enthusiasm, acquired an 
 unexampled supremacy over the human mind, should have raised 
 its disciples to a very high condition of sanctity. There can, in- 
 deed, be little doubt that, for nearly two hundred years" (why not 
 three hundred?) "after its establishment in Europe, the Christian 
 community exhibited a moral purity which, if it has been equalled, 
 has never for any long period been surpassed." When and where 
 was it ever surpassed or equalled ? "Completely separated from 
 the Roman world that was around them, abstaining alike from 
 political life, from appeals to the tribunals, and from military 
 occupations; looking forward continually to the immediate advent 
 of their Master, and the destruction of the empire in which they 
 dwelt, and animated by the fervor of a young religion, the 
 Christians found within themselves a whole order of ideas and 
 feelings sufficiently powerful to guard them from the contamina- 
 tion of their age." * 
 
 Had the author alluded in this passage to the Beatitudes, which 
 the Christians kept constantly before their eyes and tried to copy 
 in their lives, his description might have been still more pointed. 
 Some details would have been dropped and others added, and the 
 whole would have been more satisfactory and true. The last 
 period, in which he says that "the Christians found within them- 
 selves a whole order of ideas and feelings sufficiently powerful to 
 guard them against the contamination of their age," would not 
 have been limited to this last result, however important it may be. 
 The fact was that *' the whole order of ideas and feelings" which 
 the Christians found within themselves, or rather in the help 
 furnished by their religion, raised them completely above the 
 natural order, as is proved by the text of the Beatitudes, and made 
 of them holy beings, " partakers of the divine nature," according 
 
 * Hist, of Europ. Morals, vol. ii. p. ii (New York, edit. 187.7). 
 
FACTS. 
 
 175 
 
 to the text of St. Peter. It was the proclamation of a true super- 
 natural life. 
 
 This "new order of ideas and feelings" was the infallible re- 
 sult of the new moral code given them by Christ, which is not only 
 succinctly expressed in the eleven verses of the Beatitudes, but in 
 many other passages of the Sermon on the Mount. The Saviour, 
 in saying that His disciples should not neglect to keep the pre- 
 scriptions of the law and the prophets, insisted at the same time 
 on the remark that the injunctions made to the " men of old " do 
 not suffice for His disciples. All his new precepts suppose the 
 doctrine inculcated in the fifth chapter of St. Matthew on poverty, 
 meekness, mourning, mercy, thirst for justice, and love of ene- 
 mies; and this had never been so far required of men. Still, the 
 first Christian's, even before the gospels were ivritten, knew that this 
 was imposed upon them as a duty; and it was the literal fulfil- 
 ment of these new laws which gave to the primitive Church the 
 charming character it directly assumed. 
 
 2. First Establishment of God's Kingdom on Earth. — Origin of the 
 Church at Jerusalem. 
 
 Among all cities in the world Jerusalem has always been dis- 
 tinguished by its sanctity. In patriarchal times it was called 
 Salem, and Melchisedec ruled in it over his tribe as high-priest 
 and king. St. Paul did not hesitate to write of him that he was 
 " first indeed by interpretation king of justice, and then also . . . 
 king of peace; without father, without mother, without genealogy, 
 having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but likened to 
 the Son of God, he continueth a priest forever."* Melchisedec 
 was, therefore, a prototype of Christ, and his city was already the 
 City of God. 
 
 David made it his capital, and, alluding to the offering of bread 
 and wine by its ancient ruler and high-priest, he addressed the 
 future Messias by the solemn words: "Thou art a priest forever, 
 according to the order of Melchisedec." This secured for it a 
 high and everlasting destiny. In its precincts, near Mount Sion, 
 David also appointed a place for the future Temple which Solo- 
 mon built. During more than nine hundred years it was the 
 
 * Heb. vii. 2, 3, 
 
176 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 only spot on earth where the true God was publicly worshipped. 
 Jerusalem was then called emphatically the Holy City, the City 
 of God; and it has ever since continued to bear that name, to our 
 very day, in spite of its desecration by Mohammedanism. Isaias 
 and Tobias particularly, among the prophets of the old law, have 
 given it that title in the highest burst of their enthusiasm. Nay, 
 more; even after its destruction by the Romans the disciple of 
 love has forever consecrated this glorious epithet by transferring 
 it to the Church in heaven, which he called "the New Jerusalem, 
 the City of God." 
 
 Our Saviour, it is true, in shedding tears over its future fate 
 complained of this city as having put the prophets to death: 
 Je7'usalemy Je?'Msale??i, quce occidis prophetas. He knew that after 
 having persecuted God's messengers, it would at last slay God's 
 Incarnate Son. But of all its crimes this would be the only one 
 inexpiable. Until that last moment, Jerusalem was always pun- 
 ished for its iniquities as a child is chastised by his father, with a 
 view to reformation; and being brought back by severe discipline 
 to a sense of its sinfulness, it was again received into favor, and 
 never ceased to be the "City of God." Placed in the centre of 
 the ancient world, with Europe to the west, Asia to the east and 
 north, and Africa to the south, it continued during long ages pro- 
 claiming God's unity in the midst of idolatrous nations, and pre- 
 paring the future union of the human race in the same belief, 
 hope, and love. Oh, how ardently Christ loved it! chiefly when He 
 shed tears and announced its fall; which was npt nevertheless to 
 be final, since it is destined to rise again from its ashes and to be 
 brought back to more than its former splendor : Calcabitur a gen- 
 tibus douce implea7itur tempora nationum.^ 
 
 Our Lord, however, wished at that last hour to make Jerusa- 
 lem the centre of His religion; and it is proper to see a moment 
 how He prepared everything for that great object. When He 
 entered the city in triumph, and was received by the whole people 
 with loud hosannahs, there seemed to be a prospect of 5t. The 
 Jews proclaimed Him the Son of David, and by giving Him this 
 title they seemed to acknowledge Him as the Messias. He 
 directly made the Temple His residence and that of His disciples 
 during several days, retiring for the nights to the Mount of Olives. 
 
 Luke XXI. 24. 
 
FACTS. 
 
 177 
 
 It is the positive statement of St. Luke;* and He had never before 
 in His life taken such a bold step. 
 
 His previous progress from Galilee is minutely described by 
 the evangelist from the 31st verse of the eighteenth chapter to the 
 end of the nineteenth. Whilst walking from Jericho to Jerusalem, 
 a circumstance is given in detail \ which makes it certain that the 
 Saviour still intended to make of this last city the capital of His 
 kingdojjt, though He foretold at the same time the Jews' obduracy. 
 
 It is also remarkable that on entering into the Temple directly 
 after His arrival, "He began to cast out them that sold therein 
 and them that bought." He was evidently taking possession of 
 His house, for so He called it: " My hous^ is the house of prayer, 
 and you have made it a den of thieves." His wish, therefore, of 
 saving Jerusalem persevered still in spite of His foreknowledge 
 that His benevolent designs would be frustrated. Nothing proves 
 better than these passages of the Gospel that man remains always 
 free to reject the grace of God even of the most affective and 
 enduring nature. The Jansenistic efficacious grace is thus most 
 evidently disproved. 
 
 But there is another fact more extraordinary yet in the same line 
 of thought, which must be examined, because it goes still farther and 
 proves that Jerusalem and the Temple should not have been for- 
 saken even after Christ's death, if the Jews had at last opened their 
 eyes at the preaching of the apostles. This can be concluded from 
 the whole course of action of the Saviour during these five or six 
 days employed by Him in preaching to the multitude. 
 
 He had taken possession of the Temple, as was seen-; and He evi- 
 dently wished to make of it the first Christian Temple, not only in 
 point of time, but likewise in point of splendor and glory.. This 
 gorgeous edifice had never before heard such a powerful voice as 
 resounded in it to the admiration of thousands of hearers. Several 
 passages of our Lord's sermons at that time, such as St. Luke sets 
 them forth m his chapters twentieth and twenty-first, can be con- 
 sidered by themselves as a proof of Christ's divinity. No one but 
 a God could speak thus. What a magnificent opening it was of the 
 new Law with such a preacher! How true it was that, as had been 
 foretold long before, this last temple was at that moment far more glo- 
 rious than that of Solomon ! For it had been said : X " The Angel of 
 
 lb. xxi. 37. 38. • t lb xix. 11-23. t iMal. iit 
 
178 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the Testament, whom you desire, shall come to His temple, . . . 
 and the sacrifice of Juda and of Jerusalem shall please the Lord," 
 etc." Oh, the blindness of the Jews who did not perceive the accom- 
 plishment of the promise they had heard ! 
 
 But stranger stilL When, " by killing the author of life," as St. 
 Peter said in his second sermon, the Jews had finally forfeited all 
 their claims to the title of God's people, another attempt was made 
 to win them over ; and had they listened at this last hour, Jerusalem 
 would still have been the centre of the new religion, and the Jewish 
 Temple the true seat of God's glory. The apostles did not yet think 
 of going to the gentiles, and for many days after Pentecost the 
 Temple was their place of meeting, praying, and preaching, undoubt- 
 edly from the injunction of Christ Himself. 
 
 After the apostles had remained ten days in retirement, and re- 
 ceived the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, Peter converted 
 almost instantaneously by his preaching eight thousand of his coun- 
 trymen, and a congregation or church was formed which must 
 now attract all our attention. The first circumstance most worthy 
 of it is the custom which was directly established among the old 
 disciples and the new converts of meeting in the Temple every 
 day. This is expressly stated after the first sermon of Peter, 
 when already three thousand had declared their belief in Christ: 
 " They continued daily with one accord in the Temple.''''' The apostles 
 were with them, and at the very beginning of the third chapter 
 it is said that " when Peter and John went up into the Temple at 
 the ninth hour of prayer, a certain man, who was lame from his 
 mother's womb, was carried," etc. This is the first miracle 
 recorded in the new dispensation after that of Pentecost. And 
 from the expressions used by the sacred writer it appears that 
 the apostles with their followers began directly to follow the 
 custom of going to the holy place every time there was in it a 
 public meeting for devotion. 
 
 A second sermon of Peter brought on a new flock of five 
 thousand converts, and we still perceive that the increased multi- 
 tude continued "to come with one accord in Solomon's Porch," 
 
 There was not, evidently, on the part of the neiv believers in 
 Jesus, no more than on that of the first disciples, any wish to 
 conceal their belief; and their manifest intention was to use the 
 
 *Acts ii. 46. 
 
FACTS, 179 
 
 Temple altogether as the place of their ordinary meetings, until, 
 having embraced in their fold the great majority of the nation, 
 the old Temple of Jerusalem would have become the first Church 
 of the Christians, and even their most secret assemblies would 
 meet in it. This is the natural conclusion of several texts. 
 
 But from the beginning of this movement the "priests and 
 the officers of the Temple" had made up their minds to oppose 
 a further increase of the new religion; and the measures of 
 coercion they began to adopt soon spread terror among those 
 who were in great number thinking of following the first con- 
 verts' example. St. Luke remarks on the subject that "of the 
 rest no man durst join themselves unto them;" that is, there was 
 a sudden check given to open conversions. It was simply the 
 effect of cowardice. They listened with pleasure to the apostles, 
 they admired those who had the boldness to declare openly their 
 conviction; they were themselves convinced of the truth; but 
 they were afraid. That the people's conversion was becoming uni- 
 versal as early as the miraculous cure performed by St. Peter and 
 St. John on the lame man is clear from the .21st and 22d verses of 
 the fourth chapter: "All men glorified what had been done in that 
 wonder which had come to pass. For the man was above forty 
 years old in whom that miraculous cure had been wrought." But 
 as soon as the persecution of the apostles and their disciples by 
 the priests and officers of the Temple began in earnest, we read in 
 the fifth chapter (v. 13): "Of the rest no man durst join himself 
 unto them; but the people magnified them." It was, therefore, 
 pure cowardice that prevented the bulk of the nation from 
 acknowledging Christ. Had they been courageous men; had they 
 stood up for the right they had of embracing the truth, the only 
 thing required before long for making Jerusalem a Christian 
 city would have been the substitution of the priests of the new 
 law — that is, the apostles — in place of those appointed by the old 
 dispensation, who then had only a shadow of authority, dependent 
 almost altogether on the people's will. We see nowhere that the 
 Roman power contrived to confer the high priesthood on its 
 tools against the nation's wish. It merely in general sanctioned 
 the majority's choice; and Pilate on Christ's trial had reminded 
 the Jews that "they had their law." The decision, in fact, re- 
 mained in the hands of the Jews. 
 
 There was a moment, consequently, when the total conversion of 
 
i8o THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 Jerusalem to Christianity was not only possible but easy. Partly for 
 this reason, probably, the apostles not only did not openly reject the 
 Mosaic law, but continued to practise it. In their daily meetings in 
 the Temple together with their disciples, they, no doubt, followed 
 strictly all the prescriptions even of the ceremonial law, except when 
 it contained mere types of a future Christ, which it was now necessary 
 to forego, since Christ had come. All the prayers of the ritual, there- 
 fore, except those of a sacrificial character typical of a future victim ; 
 all the ceremonies attendant on public devotion, as standing up, rais- 
 ing the hands, bending of the body, prostrations, festivals and fasts, 
 etc., were strictly attended to. A stranger, a Greek, for instance, look- 
 ing up from the gentiles' court, and contemplating that multitude 
 which every day surrounded the apostles in the vast precincts of Sol- 
 omon's Porch, would have sworn that they were Jews and most faith- 
 ful observers of the Jewish rites. It has been said that the Hebrew 
 converts to Christianity were allowed to continue to practise the Mo- 
 saic law only for the sake of " burying the synagogue with honor." 
 There might have been at first a better reason, and this is the one 
 which has just been mentioned. They were waiting for the Temple 
 and its adjuncts to fall into their hands. Nevertheless we give these 
 considerations only for what they are worth, and consequently with 
 some diffidence. 
 
 Several passages of the Acts of the Apostles, which it would be use- 
 less to quote, show that besides the eight thousand converts numeri- 
 cally mentioned as the fruits of St. Peter's two days' preaching, many 
 more joined the Christian Church on the following days. We would 
 refer chiefly to the fourteenth verse of the fifth chapter. It seems 
 even that a " multitude " of the inhabitants of all the cities in the 
 neighborhood of Jerusalem were constantly bringing in the sick and 
 those possessed by the evil spirit, in order that the apostles should 
 restore them to health ; and it is not rash to infer that in their grati- 
 tude many of them embraced the new religion. It is not possible, it 
 is true, to say how many additional thousands must be comprised in 
 those various classes of people. It can, however, be maintained that 
 the Christian ChurcTi at Jerusalem^ after a few days, or perhaps weeks, 
 of existence, formed a very respectable body of people, even in the 
 immense throng which crowded the city at the time of Pentecost. It 
 is proper now to consider them apart from those Jews who " durst not 
 join them." We must begin to speak of the Christian Church of Je- 
 rusalem as such. The Temple was not. their only place of meeting, 
 and it is important to consider this peculiarity with attention. 
 
FACTS. l8i 
 
 Although they met in it several times a day, they had also public 
 assemblies among themselves in private houses, and St. Luke relates 
 in his second chapter of the Acts the chief object of these reunions. 
 The distinction between both religious meetings is clearly indicated 
 in verse 46 : " And continuing daily with one accord /;z the Temple, 
 and breaking bread frojn house to hoiise^ they took their meat with 
 gladness and simplicity of heart." He had already said in verse 42 : 
 " They were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles, and in the 
 communication of ih.Q breakmg of breads and in prayers/' All Pro- 
 testant as well as Catholic interpreters agree that mention is made here 
 of the Eucharist ; and that the reception from " house to house" of 
 the sacrament by the faithful followed a meal called henceforth agapce. 
 Most Protestant writers, however, in our day imagine that it is more 
 conformable to the text to understand even the participation in this 
 sacrament as a simple receiving of bread and wine. They say that it 
 was much later, in the second century only, that Christians believed 
 it to be the body and blood of Christ. It is important to examine 
 this question directly, though very briefly, because, in our firm belief, 
 it was the worthy daily reception of the Saviour Himself, under the 
 species or appearance of the elements, which was the chief source of 
 sanctity in the first Christians. 
 
 On this subject it is somewh"at remarkable that St. Luke, who wrote 
 the Acts of the Apostles, and calls there the Sacrament, //^^ breaking of 
 bready uses exactly the same expressions in his gospel when he speaks 
 of the institution of the holy Eucharist by our Saviour: "And taking 
 bread. He gave thanks, and brake." The same terms also are used 
 by St. Matthew and St. Mark on the same occasion. But all of them 
 immediately add that our Lord, in giving the Sacrament to His 
 apostles, said ; " This is my body which is given for you .... 
 In like manner the chalice also . . . saying : This is the 
 chalice,- the new testament i7i my bloody These are the very 
 expressions of St. Luke ; St. Matthew and St. Mark speak equiva- 
 lently. The words used in the Acts, consequently, must have meant 
 not only the breaking of bread in general, but the same as containing 
 the body and blood of Christ ; and in that sense the first Christians 
 must have understood this passage. There cannot be any necessity 
 of going down to the second century for finding this belief in the 
 real presence as current in the Church. It was undoubtedly propa- 
 gated by the apostles themselves. And this is sufficient for our pur- 
 pose here ; for this is not the place to discuss further the figurative 
 sense invented by the Sacramentarians in Luther's time. The literal 
 
i82 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 sense is certainly the obvious one contained in the gospels ; and the 
 figurists, if we may use this expression, must prove that it is not the 
 true one, and that their own is the only one admissible. It, is certain 
 that the whole Church understood the eucharistic dogma as Catholics 
 do until Berengarius proposed the figurative meaning in the twelfth 
 century. But his opinion was directly anathematized by all the 
 churches ; so that the archdeacon of Angers had absolutely no fol- 
 lowing until Zuingli and the other reformers of the sixteenth century 
 came to teach religion as their fancy dictated, and raised the ire of 
 Luther himself. It is well known what became of it altogether under 
 the Sacramentarians' successors. 
 
 We perceive, therefore, in Jerusalem, directly after Pentecost, the 
 new Christians meeting daily in the Temple for prayer, thanksgiving, 
 and other religious exercises, except sacrifice. This chief rite of every 
 religion worthy of the name was performed in private houses., because 
 they had not as yet any building devoted to their own religious offi- 
 ces, and perhaps also because, as already mentioned, they had 
 reason to hope that the Temple would soon be devoted entirely to 
 Christian worship. It remains only to remark that the great sacrifice 
 of the new law announced by Malachi, the last of the prophets, was 
 thus first of all offered up in Jerusalem, and very near the consecrated 
 spot where the blood of Christ had gushed forth on the Cross in 
 atonement for sin. This was undoubtedly the great source of holi- 
 ness in the Church at its origin. 
 
 3. Extraordittary Characteristics of the Judeo-Christian Congregations. 
 
 Nothing will be better calculated than these characteristics to im- 
 press the reader as to the height of sanctity to which the Hebrew race 
 was at once raised. Firstly, their faith, — that is, their supernatural 
 belief in the old and new dispensations,— must have directly acquired 
 a strength sufficient to bring them up to the heroism of martyrdom, 
 such as Stephen had already given them the example. They all had 
 known Christ, and what they had seen of Him when He was in their 
 midst, what they had heard and witnessed from the apostles since 
 Pentecost day, filled them with a firmness of belief scarcely to be 
 comprehended in our day. They clearly saw the accomplishment of 
 the prophecies which they had read with delight all their lifetime. 
 They soon had to bear persecution together with the apostles ; and 
 it is seen nowhere, such was the ardor of their faith, that a single one 
 
FACTS. 183 
 
 of them faltered at the moment of temptation. There were certainly 
 cowards in Jerusalem— thus have they been called — but none amongst 
 those who had openly joined the Church. It was only of the multi- 
 tude which durst not join it, though convinced of the truth, that the 
 Acts of the Apostles mention this want of determination. 
 
 It is true that in the eyes of philosophers faith is not a virtue, and 
 is too often only a delusion leading to fanaticism. We beg to differ 
 from them. Faith is in fact the firmest foundation of true morality, 
 and is called by the Church the first of the theological virtues. On 
 this account it depends on grace as all virtues do, and is a gift from 
 God, who alone can infuse it int(^ the mind and heart of man. But 
 independently of this, every one can easily perceive that the source, 
 the active principle, and the sanction of morality rest on faith. Its 
 source is God Himself, from whom all virtues originate ; so that the 
 immutable principles of right and wrong imprinted in the heart and 
 mind of man are eternal only because they are first and foremost in 
 God. But faith alone can fully apprehend this sublime origin of our 
 moral ideas, not the reason of man. If reason also can be convinced 
 of it to some extent, the utilitarian doctrine so common among men 
 in our day proves that it often falters in the pursuit of this principle, 
 and faith alone can secure it with stability to the human mind. Man, 
 therefore, will be virtuous when he believes in God as the source of 
 virtue. 
 
 In a second place, faith is the active pri?iciple of morality ; because 
 the passions arrayed in the heart of man on the side of wrong and 
 against right are always so insidious, and often so overwhelming, 
 that man on many occasions surrenders even the conviction of his 
 reason in order to follow the fascination of his appetites. Faith alone 
 becomes then the active, daily, nay, hourly principle which can secure 
 for us the victory over our senses and passions. Any one who has 
 studied himself and tried to establish the reign of virtue in his heart 
 knows it without fear of being mistaken. Thirdly and lastly, faith is 
 after all the best, often the only, sanction of morality ; because human 
 motives confined to this world and irrespective of another life cannot 
 in the majority of cases overcome the obstacles always opposed to 
 the practice of virtue. There must be in us a conviction that there 
 is a judge in heaven, and a dispensation of rewards and punishments 
 after death, in order to become effectually superior to temptation. 
 Much more could be said on this interesting subject. This must 
 suffice. But it is not difficult to understand the solid basis of the 
 
1 84 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 purest morality which the new faith of the Jewish converts placed and 
 laid down firmly under their feet, for them to stand upon in the 
 eyes of God and man, as the supporters of justice and the 
 followers of Jesus, the great moral model proposed to mankind. 
 This new pattern was far above that of the Mosaic law, and the 
 belief which introduced it was far holier than their old faith. 
 
 The second characteristic of the new Christian- congregation 
 was charitw, without which faith remains inoperative. It is forcibly 
 expressed in the 2,26. verse of the fourth chapter of the Acts : 
 Midtitudinis autem credentium erat cor umim et anwia u?ta. "The 
 multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul." This 
 was for them, at the same time, ^e source and the proof of a high 
 sanctity. For Christ has said that all His moral law is contained 
 in the love of God and of the neighbor. The text of the Acts is 
 remarkable ; and it is doubtful if it could be possible to express in 
 stronger terms the close bond of a holy brotherhood such as 
 united together the first Christians of Jerusalem. The love of 
 one's country, — true patriotism, — it is said, makes of all the citi- 
 zens a band of brothers. But when has it happened that an 
 historian of ancient Rome, — for instance, at the time of the repub- 
 lic, when patriotism was most exalted and ardent, — could say that 
 all Romans had but one heart and one soul ? There may have 
 been some particular occasion, like the coming of the Carthaginian 
 enemy under the lead of Hannibal in front of the very walls of the 
 city, when all the ordinary feuds and contentions between patri- 
 cians and plebeians were merged into one grand purpose; namely, 
 the firm resolve of dying rather than of being conquered. But 
 the terms used by St. Luke do not refer to some particular 
 occasion or other ; they are general, and indicate the habitual state 
 of feeling among the Christians. It will soon be proper to come 
 back to this comparison between the religious feeling mentioned 
 here and the 7'iriiie of patriotism among the ancients ; because the 
 pretended want of that virtue among the Jewish Christians 
 frequently becomes with Mr. Lecky aground of accusation against 
 Christianity itself, and in particular against the first converts at 
 Jerusalem. But for the moment we must consider their close 
 union alone. This was so intimate that they had but "one heart 
 and one soul " It is known that it was the intention of Christ, 
 when He established "the kingdom of God" on earth, to inspire 
 all His followers with that strong principle of concord, with that 
 
FACTS. 185 
 
 undying affection for each other ; and we see here that His 
 benevolent design was carried out in perfection at the very first 
 preaching of the apostles to their countrymen. 
 
 The law of Moses, undoubtedly, upheld as a duty among Jews 
 the same harmony and union; and many texts of the Pentateuch 
 and of the Prophets could be brought forward to prove it. But 
 how was this Mosaic precept obeyed generally among them ? 
 There is no question of private or individual cases; many could 
 be cited to show that the precept was well known and heroically 
 acted upon. Nothing brighter could be brought forward, even in 
 Christian annals, than the Book of Tobias. But take the whole 
 nation together or some large portion of it, and try to ascertain 
 if there was ever among them "one heart and one soul." And to 
 come to a more practical example, compare the new Church at 
 Jerusalem with the mass of those Israelites who refused to become 
 Christians. All the circumstances preceding, accompanying, and 
 following the siege of Jerusalem, which happened so soon after- 
 wards, are perfectly well known, and have been recounted in 
 detail by Flavins Josephus. How different appear the Judeo- 
 Christians on one side and the patriotic Jews on the other, during 
 the whole period which intervened between Pentecost and the 
 capture of the city by Titus ! Among the first there is concord, 
 harmony, a holy charity ready at all times not only to support 
 but to help practically each other. Among the second, strife, dis- 
 cord, the most inveterate hatred, the bitter division of parties 
 until the whole nation is dissolved and utterly destroyed. It has 
 been said, however, that the first picture, so enticing and bright, is 
 known only from a few words of St. Luke. But independently of 
 this writer's inspiration, which Catholics are unfortunately almost 
 the only ones to admit, St. Luke suffices as an historian, because he 
 had been an eye-witness, spoke to the purpose, and was contradicted 
 by nobody. There will soon be an occasion to speak more in detail 
 of that spirit of pure charity when we examine the holy and free com- 
 munity of goods which soon became the most marked feature of the 
 Church at Jerusalem, at a time when it already contained so many 
 thousand members. For it must not be forgotten that this bright 
 picture was not confined to a few families, but comprised a not in- 
 considerable part of the population of the city and its neighborhood. 
 
 Before this is done, however, it is proper to state and discuss what 
 has been said lately of the want of patriotism among the first Judeo- 
 
1 86 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 Christians, so as to suppose in their heart not only indifference for, 
 but a real hatred of, their countrymen. It is a violent accusation 
 which in a noted passage of the " History of European Morals" is 
 brought against them, and in various other parts of the same work 
 is directed against Christianity in general. This accusation, if sup- 
 ported, would fearfully detract from the virtue of charity, which 
 would cease to be the characteristic of the first Christians in spite of 
 what St. Luke may say in their favor. It is proper to discuss this at 
 some length. 
 
 4. Did the first Jiideo-Christians hate those of their Countrymen who 
 had not Embraced the Faith ? 
 
 These are Mr. Lecky's words in his first volume (page 416, 
 Appleton's edition) : " The Jew, who deemed the abandonment of the 
 law the most heinous of crimes, and whose patriotism only shone with 
 a fiercer flame amid the calamities of his nation, regarded the Chris- 
 tian with an implacable hostility. Scorned and hated by those around 
 him, his temple levelled to the dust, and the last vestige of his inde- 
 pendence destroyed, he clung with a desperate tenacity to the hope^ 
 and privileges of his ancient creed. In his eyes the Christians were 
 at once apostates and traitors. He could not forget that in the last 
 hour of his country's agony, when the armies of the gentiles encom- 
 passed Jerusalem and when the hosts of the faithful flocked to its 
 defence, the Christian Jews had abandoned the fortunes of their race^ 
 and refused to bear any part in the heroism and suffering of the closing 
 sce?te. They had proclaimed that the promised Messiah, who was to 
 restore the faded glories of Israel, had already come; that the privi- 
 leges which were so long the monopoly of a single people had passed 
 to the gentile world ; that the race which was once supremely blessed 
 was for all future time to be accursed among mankind." 
 
 It seems clear that the writer adopts here the well-known opinion 
 of the Jews with regard to the Christians' want of patriotism. The 
 passage I have taken the liberty to underline would alone justify this 
 supposition. More still, the whole paragraph was evidently penned 
 with the intention of producmg the same impression on the reader's 
 mind. Moreover, what is said in Mr. Lecky's second volume of the 
 want of civic virtues or patriotism among the primitive Christians of 
 the whole Roman Empire (to which we will presently allude) is a 
 proof that this is with the gifted author a standing objection applic- 
 
FACTS. 187 
 
 able to the whole of Christianity, at least in the primitive ages ; and 
 thus the tender union of all the new converts among themselves, 
 a union remarked by the pagans themselves, who could not but 
 exclaim, "See how those Christians love each other," is made to 
 appear as a kind of positive selfishness. It looks as if the followers 
 of Christ despised, or rather hated, the whole of mankind, particu- 
 larly their own countrymen, owing to their fanatical attachment to 
 the new religion. This is altogether untrue, and it must be proved 
 that it is. The case of the Judeo-Christians must be first considered. 
 
 Patriotism is a great civic virtue, commanded by religion as 
 well as by the principles of the " intuitive school" of philosophy. 
 The precept of the Saviour is well known: the Christian must love 
 his neighbor — that is, all mankind — as much as himself. But those 
 Catholic theologians who have speculated on the details of charity 
 (Fenelon among them, if I remember well) say that he must love 
 his country more than the generality of mankind, and that he 
 must love those bound to him by blood-relationship more still 
 ithan his country /// ^^j-/a^^/^. There are certainly cases when he 
 must sacrifice everything, including himself, to the just demands 
 of his fatherland. But if his countrymen are evidently wrong, 
 he must sorrowfully stand aside without, however, taking part 
 ■ against them. This, I think, is true patriotism as understood by 
 jCatholic theologians. The ultraist ideas of Greek and Roman 
 [pagans on the subject are not the standard by which the Chris- 
 tian must regulate his conduct. What rule did the Judeo- 
 Christians follow on this subject from the day of Pentecost to 
 the downfall of Jerusalem ? This is the question which must be 
 discussed w^th attention and exactness. 
 
 It can be proved that they followed the path of good citizens, 
 though not that of fanatical Stoics. As Jews, they must have evi- 
 dently shared in the feelings of the good Israelites of the period, 
 such as the Gospel represents them to us. Many Judeo-Chris- 
 tians must have known by reputation at least both Simeon, who 
 before he died had so long waited ''for the consolation of 
 Israel," * and Anna, Phanuel's daughter, who spoke v/ith joy to 
 all those w^ho were " expecting Israel's redemption." \ All those 
 former Jews had loved their country ; it must have been the same 
 with the new Christians who followed in their footsteps. And 
 
 * Luke ii. 25. | lb. 38. 
 
IQQ THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 let not any one say that, in point of fact, at the downfall of Jeru- 
 salem they hated it and refused to contribute to its defense. This 
 " hatred" is not proved; and they had good reasQns for " standing 
 aside," which is the only thing they did. They had the positive 
 precept of Christ, which they followed implicitly. He had pre- 
 dicted all the details of that terrible day, and had forewarned His 
 followers to leave the city at the approach of the Romans. Can 
 it be pretended that Christ did not love His country, when the 
 Gospel says so positively that He " shed tears" over its fate .? What 
 reason has Mr. Lecky to think that the heart of all Judeo-Christians 
 of that epoch who had listened to Christ did not also bleed, when 
 they contemplated from afar the frightful calamity ? 
 
 But were they not "apostates and traitors".? They may have been 
 so called by those madmen who disgraced their race and religion, 
 particularly during the siege of Jerusalem ; they were not in truth in 
 the just appreciation of impartial observers. Not only had they not 
 apostatized from Judaism, but whilst, according to the teachings of 
 the apostles, the law had been fulfilled by Christ and replaced by a 
 better one, they continued to keep all its precepts. With James, 
 their bishop, they regularly worshipped in the temple ; James him- 
 self was allowed to enter the holy of holies. Let Mr. Lecky listen 
 to the gentlemen of the Tubingen school, and they will tell him 
 (which is, however, going too far) that they all were strong partisans 
 of the Petrine theology; and this doctrine pretended to impose cir- 
 cumcision and all the Mosaic rites even on the Gentiles. On the 
 contrary, they all were bitterly opposed to the Pauline doctrine, 
 which considered the law as worthy of no respect. If this is an ex- 
 aggeration of the Tubingen theologians, at least it cannot be denied that 
 all Judeo-Christians kept the Mosaic law ; some say in order to bury 
 the synagogue with honor, we say perhaps in order to keep Jerusalem 
 as the centre of the new religion. Apostates from Judaism ! Who can 
 say so, whilst they are seen everywhere during the apostleship of St. 
 Paul, keeping their synagogues open on the Sabbath, even most 
 probably after their conversion, although at the same time they cele- 
 brated every other day of the week the new Pasch of the Christians? 
 Did not St. Paul often worship with them in the synagogues when 
 he preached to them before going to the Gentiles } 
 
 That they were no more " traitors" to their country than " apos- i 
 tates" from their religion must be clear to every one who pays atten- 
 tion to the teachings of Christ when He spoke to them as a Jew to 
 
FACTS. 189 
 
 Jews. Had He not commanded them, during His passion, to weep 
 over the fate of their country, and not over His own fate ? *' Daugh- 
 ters of Jerusalem, weep not over me, but weep for yourselves and 
 for your children. For behold, the days shall come wherein they 
 will say : Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, 
 and the paps that have not given suck." Following the open teach-* 
 ings of Christ as explained by St. Paul in several chapters of his 
 Epistle to the Romans, they must have believed that Israel had not 
 been rejected by Almighty God. For after having declared in chapter 
 X. (v. 12) that "there was no distinction between the Jew and the 
 Greek, but that God was the Lord of all, rich in blessings for all 
 those who invoke Him," he said in conclusion (ch. xi. 25, 26) 
 that " the blindness of Israel was only temporary until the fulness of 
 the gentiles should have entered the fold. Then the whole of Israel 
 would be saved." They would have openly transgressed the pre- 
 cepts of their new teachers had they been traitors to their country. 
 It is certain, on the contrary, that they all expected Jerusalem would 
 rise from her ashes ; the same as all Christians must believe that the 
 day of her glory shall inf^libly come — a glory far greater than the 
 first. 
 
 Consequently, the expressions of Mr. Lecky at the end of the 
 paragraph previously quoted — namely, " that the race which vi^as 
 iOnce supremely blessed was for all future time to be accursed 
 \among mankind'' — are positively untrue. The first Judeo-Chris- 
 jtians entertained no idea of this kind with regard to their own 
 jrace; and those of their countrymen who refused to acknowledge 
 Christ could not have imagined that in order to become Christians 
 ■this persuasion would be first required of them. Their refusal to 
 ijoin the Church could not have been grounded on this supposition. 
 
 We might rest here; but in order not to come back to the ques- 
 tion relative to the want of patriotism and civic virtues among 
 the first Christians in general, it is preferable to speak of it in 
 this place. It will give more point still to what has just been 
 j5aid of the accusation brought forward against the first Judeo- 
 
 hristians of Jerusalem. 
 The author of " European Morals" treats of it in his second 
 volume; and in the Table of Contents it is headed, "Decline of 
 :he Civic Virtues." Many details contained in this part of the 
 |;vork are as true as they are interesting; but the conclusions 
 'irawn by the author from this Decline are either unwarranted or 
 
I90 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 at least exaggerated, and to attribute to it, as he does, " one 
 cause of the downfall of the Roman Empire" is completely 
 erroneous. This must be the main object of this brief discussion. 
 
 In the first place, it is principally to the spirit of asceticism 
 that Mr. Lecky attributes this declension of patriotism; and the 
 •monks are made to appear truly haters of the world and of their 
 country. A few words have been written on this subject in the 
 first volume of " The Church and the Gentile World " to prove 
 that they " hated " nobody and no institutions. But a very 
 important remark on this subject could not find place in that 
 previous work. Among the various facts brought forward by 
 Mr. Lecky against Christianity to prove his point, the most 
 striking are generally ascribed with justice to heretics, such as 
 the Donatists, the Monophysites, etc. In Mr. Lecky's opinion 
 they were all Christians, and thus the burden falls on Chris- 
 tianity itself. But we will take the liberty to remark that the 
 Church cannot be made responsible for the excesses of her most 
 ardent enemies; and to bring as a proof that the Christians did 
 not care for their country, or hated it, the indisputed fact, for 
 instance, that "the conquest of Egypt by the Mohammedans was 
 in a great measure due to an invitation from the persecuted 
 Monophysites," cannot have any weight in the opinion of im- 
 partial men who are aware that this " invitation" could not have 
 been prompted by the spirit of Christianity, or rather was totally 
 opposed to it. The Monophysites had openly renounced the 
 Church's teaching. 
 
 But independently of this observation, it must be firmly main- 
 tained that the decline of patriotism in the Roman Empire 
 originated long before asceticism began, and consequently it 
 could not be one of the causes of it, as Mr. Lecky pretends. 
 That the primitive Christians were compelled by their religion to 
 refuse altogether to bear arms and enlist as soldiers, is well 
 known to have been the opinion of Tertullian; but Tertullian was 
 at that time a Montanist, and this was one of the tenets of that 
 sect. Many facts on the other side could be brought to prove 
 the contrary with regard to the orthodox Christians, and Mr. 
 Lecky himself admits several examples of it. In general it can 
 be affirmed that whenever Christian soldiers, during the first 
 three hundred years, threw down their arms and their military 
 belt, it was because they were commanded to do as soldiers i 
 
FACTS. 
 
 191 
 
 things which God's law forbade: such ars to offer incense to idols 
 or to the image of the god-Caesar. There are in ecclesiastical 
 history pathetic examples of that nature; and on those occasions 
 the true patriotism of the Christian soldier is often depicted in 
 glowing terms. 
 
 As a confirmation of this it must be admitted by all impartial 
 writers that after Constantine's conversion the majority of fight- 
 ing men in the empire was composed of Christians. Yet at that 
 time monachism had already spread all over the world; and if 
 occasionally soldiers were allowed to leave the ranks in order to 
 enter a monastery, there was no fear that this should become 
 general and deprive the empire of armies. Then as now, men 
 preferred the license of the camp to the strict and obscure life of 
 a convent. 
 
 These considerations, however, are mere trifles in the present 
 discussion. The decline of patriotism had begun long before St. 
 Anthony withdrew into the wilderness. The great cause of it 
 must be found in the corruption and degradation of the Romans 
 under the first emperors. Christianity would, in fact, have 
 brought back the civic virtues if the western races in Italy and 
 Greece had not been profoundly tainted by a notoriously luxurious 
 life. Mr. Lecky is fair when he declares somewhere in the same 
 part of his work that the luxurious living of even many ecclesi- 
 astics and prelates in the fourth and fifth centuries cannot be 
 attributed to any of the principles of Christianity, but to the 
 immoral atmosphere in which they were born and brought up, 
 These are not his expressions, but his thoughts. All things con- 
 sidered, it looks as if the idea of the Abbe Darras in his " History 
 of the Church" was true; namely, that western and southern 
 Europe, on account of its excessive corruption, could not be 
 altogether reformed by Christianity itself; and that the destruc- 
 tion of the Roman Empire by the barbarians was necessary, pre- 
 vious to a perfect penetration of pure morals throughout a reno- 
 vated society. 
 
 Be this as it may, it is certain that the " civic virtues" suffered 
 nothing, or very little, from asceticism or Christianity in the prim- 
 itive ages, and that the causes of the decline in the Roman Empire 
 must be looked for in a quite different direction. 
 
192 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 5. Characteristics of the Community of Goods among the First Chris- 
 tians in Jerusale77i. 
 
 This has been called communism by several Christian writers. 
 The word itself is rather objectionable, owing to the modern asso- 
 ciation of ideas with which it is connected. But, these aberrations 
 of new theorists being severely set aside, it expresses energetic- 
 ally the truth, and a better one could scarcely be found. 
 
 The subject is twice mentioned in the Book of St. Luke, and 
 both texts must be first quoted. We read in the Acts (ch. ii. v. 
 44, 45) : " All they that believed were together; and had all things 
 common. Their possessions and goods they sold, and divided 
 them to all, according as every one had need." And a little far- 
 ther on (ch. iv. V. 32) : " The multitude of believers had but one 
 heart and one soul. Neither did any one say that aught of the 
 things which he possessed was his own, but all things were com- 
 mon unto them." 
 
 It must be first understood that this was not imposed by the 
 apostles as an obligation. The story of Ananias and Sapphira, 
 which is recounted in the fifth chapter, proves it (v. 4). It was sug- 
 gested only as an advice which they could follow or not, as they 
 chose. But after giving their consent they were bound to per- 
 form their promise. All, meanwhile, gave their willing consent, 
 as the second chapter (v. 44) proves ; and this was the first brilliant 
 example of charity given to the world by Christ's followers. It 
 did not this time come from the heart of those impulsive Celts of 
 Galatia, who subsequently would .have willingly "plucked out 
 their eyes" and offered them to St. Paul. It was willingly adopt- 
 ed by that harsh, calculating, and selfish race of Abraham, which 
 from the time of Jacob and Esau has always known so well how 
 to strike hard bargains and require their fulfilment. At the time 
 of our Lord the Jews were in general more selfish than ever. Yet 
 we see that "a multitude of believers" among them not only 
 had together but " one heart and one soul," and consequently 
 were full of interior feelings of love ; but they at once go much 
 further: "^//," without exception, " /z^^«// ////«^.y ^^ww^/;." None 
 of them wished any more to say that " aught of the things which he 
 possessed was his own. All things were conwion unto them.'' 
 
 The fact of dispossessing one's self altogether of personal property 
 
FACTS. 193 
 
 so as to effectually confer its advantages to the whole community, 
 is one of the hardest practical acts of charity as a virtue. We call 
 with justice those men charitable who, keeping their property in 
 their hands and under their entire control, distribute a good part 
 of their revenue to the poor ; we praise them as giving the best 
 practical proof that they love their neighbor. But the first Chris- 
 tian Jews of Jerusalem were not satisfied with this. The rich 
 among them became in reality poor in order that the poor should 
 receive their portion as their due. Almsgiving was not destined 
 any more either to engender pride in the heart of the giver or to 
 create a blush on the cheeks of the receiver. All were to be on 
 the same footing as brothers, and the humane feeling was to 
 assume a new form which had not yet appeared on this earth. 
 
 This was the simple way brotherly charity was introduced 
 among men ; and a Jewish Christian Church gave the first exam- 
 ple of it. But it soon became common among Christ's followers, 
 and from that time down to this it has become the distinguishing 
 characteristic of the Catholic Church. In our cold age it is still 
 as bright as ever. Wherever you go through Catholic lands you 
 see thousands of establishments devoted to its practice ; and 
 the first care of the Catholic missionary in heathen countries is 
 to call the people to him by the attraction of his abundant gifts. 
 Those who were not born in the Church, w^ho even often oppose 
 her and find fault with her, are bound, if they are not altogether 
 blinded by prejudice, to acknowledge this most remarkable social 
 fact : that the Catholic Church has always been, and is still, most 
 active and zealous in charitable deeds and in tenderness for the 
 poor. Mr. Lecky on this subject never professes two opinions. 
 To his honor it must be said that he never ceases to repeat that 
 the social virtues, and particularly deeds of the most ardent 
 charity, have always adorned the Catholic Church ; that as it was 
 inexhaustible in the first ages, it has continued ever since to be 
 at least extremely remarkable ; and in the worst time (which was 
 for him the mediaeval period !) it went rather too far by freeing 
 the poor from the need of almost any exertion, and depriving 
 them consequently of self-reliance and personal activity. Much 
 could be said in ansvvrer to this ; but we prefer to feel satisfied 
 with this acknowledgment by the author of " European Morals " 
 of the inexhaustible treasure of love which has always flowed 
 from the Church's heart. 
 
194 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 She has converted the world more by the constant and universal 
 practice of this virtue than, perhaps, by her teaching, miracles, and 
 exhibition of power. In our age even, if she still brings constantly 
 back to her bosom many erring children from heresy or schism, it is 
 particularly the spectacle of her charitable exertions for the poor of 
 every age and condition that brings conviction to those who were 
 farthest from her on account of the prejudices of their birth. And 
 this is true of this new world of America, as it has always been of the 
 old continent. 
 
 This priceless virtue originated in Jerusalem ; and it is seen there 
 at once carried to perfection. The community of goods among the 
 first Christians was established chiefly to help the poor, and the apos- 
 tles themselves undertook to preside at the daily or weekly distribu- 
 tions. In spite of their high dignity complaints soon arose, and the 
 difficulty of conciliating their priestly functions with this charitable 
 office being soon made evident, seven deacons were chosen and 
 ordained for the purpose of introducing perfect order and efficiency 
 in the just apportionment of charity. A new order was thus intro- 
 duced into the Church's hierarchy merely for the sake of charity. 
 There must have been a second motive for it which is not mentioned 
 in the Acts, but is derived from the new Christian spirit. As it 
 affected the entire body of believers, if the poor were benefited the 
 rich became acquainted with a new virtue, self-renouncement. This, 
 which is called voluntary poverty, is the first of the " evangelical coun- 
 sels" in the Saviour's teaching. It brought to this earth the first 
 appearance of what has been justly called the " religious life." It was 
 not as yet in Judea a complete scheme, because celibacy was not openly 
 proclaimed ; but from the practice of voluntary poverty the Christians 
 not in Judea alone, but everywhere, would be henceforth invited to 
 follow Christ in chastity and obedience as well as in His total disre- 
 gard for worldly possessions. 
 
 These two motives, charity and self-renouncement, which brightly 
 shine in the communism of the first disciples at Jerusalem place it at 
 once at an incomparable height above all other earthly projects of 
 philosophers and theorists. As a French author in the Encyclopidie 
 Catholique (Paris, 1854) has justly remarked: "The social form of 
 communism (abstractedly from religious communities) is the worst of 
 all political institutions, and the most pregnant of baneful conse- 
 quences for humanity. Sympathies and repugnances are violently 
 opposed ; society falls into atony ; personal rights are bound up with 
 
FACTS. 195 
 
 iron manacles ; injustice becomes permanent, . . . The members of 
 this kind of state have no property; but the community Qn]oys the 
 whole; and what is the community itself ? It is personified in the 
 rulers of this strange association. Either in case these rulers receive 
 their right from their birth, as in the ancient sacerdotal castes, or 
 when their authority is the result of elections, they are in fact com- 
 plete masters. Labor is exacted ; passive obedience is rigorously 
 prescribed. Human activity, talent, and life is the state's property; 
 every other private corporation, the family among others, is pro- 
 scribed. The state is a huge machine which cannot bear any com- 
 petition." 
 
 These are generally the offensive features of communism as pro- 
 posed in modern theories; but the spirit of charity and self-renounce- 
 ment could not subsist with them in Jerusalem. The picture pre- 
 sented by the Christian community was precisely the reverse. The 
 rulers instead of being harsh and despotic masters were the servants of 
 all. We do not see that labor was organized as in a modern manu- 
 factory. If obedience was the rule, it was sweet as rendered to God 
 and not to man. The stern axiom that the activity, talent, and life 
 of the individual is the state's property was never invoked as the 
 Church's rule. Self-sacrifice was left to the initiative of every one, 
 and if it was in its effects as thorough as in any communistic associa- 
 tion, it was the offspring of the heart and expected its reward from 
 Heaven. This has been the model copied in all religious communi- 
 ties in after-time. 
 
 States as individuals can be judged from their fruits: a fructibus 
 eorum cognoscetis eos. Communistic organizations, even simple at- 
 tempts at them, have before this excited the dislike of mankind. The 
 Jerusalem community, on the contrary, has furnished to all subsequent 
 ages of the Church a theme of admiration and a model for imitation. 
 For it is a mistake to imagine that this sublime example has never 
 been reproduced. At the first establishment of Christianity in all 
 countries something of the same nature has been perceptible at least 
 in the precincts of particular houses devoted to a life of perfection. 
 It was only in Jerusalem that all the Christians embraced this life, 
 and it lasted but a short time in all its splendor ; but everywhere the 
 same ardor was displayed by multitudes of men and women who felt 
 irresistibly impelled to follow their Saviour and Master. As long as 
 the Catholic Church shall exist the example of the first Christians 
 will be followed by hundreds and thousands. The heart of Christ 
 
196 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 throbs ill her bosom because she is His Bride and can never be 
 unfaithful to Him. 
 
 6. Was ever the Virtue of Charity Practised in any other Religion or 
 Institutio7i as well as i?i the Catholic Church ? 
 
 In the opinion of many men charity is practised in all religions, 
 is encouraged by all philosophies, is the natural fruit of all civiliza- 
 tions, and the Catholic Church cannot claim the monopoly of it. In 
 a certain sense that holy virtue is fostered by the natural feelings of 
 the human heart ; and it would be absolutely erroneous to deny its 
 existence outside of the visible pale of the Church. It must be 
 maintained, however, that the true motive of charity, as it was first 
 displayed at Jerusalem — namely, the love of others and the renounce- 
 ment of self — can scarcely be supposed entirely free from selfishness, 
 unless it is prompted by the love of Christ as its source. The love 
 of God among men cannot properly have any other origin ; and that 
 of the neighbor is but the corollary of the first. 
 
 A great number of modern writers on morality, however, pretend 
 that the stream of pure charity is nearly, if not quite, as broad and 
 deep anywhere on earth as in the Church's bosom. They speak of the 
 Buddhists in the eastern part of Asia, of some Roman emperors 
 of the Antonine dynasty, of the Mussulmans even (those eternal 
 readers of the Koran), of the constant and active display of 
 charity among Protestant nations, as if the Church of Christ had 
 nothing better to boast of. It is unavoidable to allude to these 
 various facts to which many authors of our day give a great 
 prominence. Unfortunately the discussion must be brief on a 
 subject which would require volumes. For the sake of order we 
 will follow chronology, begin by the Antonines in Rome, and 
 end by the followers of Gautama in our age. 
 
 In speaking of the Antonines, we first advisedly exclude the 
 emperors who preceded them; though Mr. Lecky, in his second 
 volume, gives a great importance to the distribution of corn and 
 salt and land to poor citizens, from the prosperous days of the 
 republic down to Christian times long after Constantine. He 
 thus includes in the scheme several centuries before the Anto- 
 nines. The author of the " History of European Morals," who 
 enumerates those " various measures" as being eminent among 
 the brightest pagan acts of beneficence, shows, nevertheless, his 
 
FACTS. 197 
 
 usual fairness by adding that " neither in practice nor in theory, 
 neither in the institutions that were founded nor in the place that 
 was assigned to it in the scale of duties, did charity in antiquity 
 occupy a position at all comparable to that which it has obtained 
 by Christianity. Nearly all relief was a state measure, dictated 
 much more by policy than by benevolence; and the habit of sell- 
 ing young children, the innumerable expositions, the readiness 
 of the poor to enroll themselves as gladiators, and the frequent 
 famines, show how large was the measure of unrelieved dis- 
 tress." * 
 
 This is sufficient for the present purpose, and, in Mr. Lecky's 
 book, applies to the Antonines as well as to the previous or sub- 
 sequent emperors. Still a broad distinction must be made in 
 favor of the Antonine dynasty, because it seems indubitable that 
 several of those princes were truly animated by a benevolent spirit, 
 altogether superior to that which had previously prompted the 
 periodical distribution of " corn and salt and land;" and, moreover, 
 the majority of authors who oppose pagan charity to that of the 
 Church confine themselves to the period included between Nerva 
 and Septimius Severus. This is in fact the only period of the 
 pagan empire in which there can be question of charity. Before 
 that epoch every measure of relief for the poor was mere policy; 
 after it, if some emperor like Alexander Severus was still ani- 
 mated with a spark at least of the Antonine spirit, it was, as it 
 were, a spasmodic effort which does not deserve to be taken into 
 consideration. 
 
 In spite of the remarkable enumeration of charitable deeds per- 
 formed by emperors of that dynasty, such as Mr. Lecky gives it 
 in his first volume, \ although he must have taken a great 
 deal of pains to gather examples from all possible authors, 
 from monuments, and from medals, in order to place the 
 whole under the eyes of his readers (he cannot be blamed for it), 
 still it must be confessed by the author himself that it is rather a 
 meagre exhibit during a period of a full century, at the time of 
 the greatest prosperity of the empire. It cannot be doubted that 
 there is, at this moment in Paris alone, in France, ten times more 
 active benevolence and charity displayed by the government and 
 private individuals than there was then in the whole Roman 
 
 * Hist, of Europ. Morals, vol. ii. p. 78. f Page 76, foil. 
 
198 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 Empire. Still Paris has lately passed through several bloody re- 
 volutions, the first of which entirely destroyed, at a fell blow, all 
 the institutions which the charity of ten centuries had accumu- 
 lated. But without coming to so late and recent an example, it 
 can be maintained that when this new benevolent spirit of the 
 Antonines gave these proofs of its active existence, the seven dea- 
 cons in Rome, helped in their researches by the seven notaries, 
 did more to assuage the misery of the Roman poor than Nerva 
 and Trajan and Hadrian and Antoninus the Philosopher, and 
 Antoninus the Pious, and the great Marcus Aurelius himself, ever 
 could do for the same object. And, moreover, none of those 
 princes would probably have thought of it had it not been for 
 the side view they already had of the Church, although their policy 
 confined her to the Catacombs. 
 
 And the same difference between the pagan and the Christian 
 spirit continued ever after. So that when Julian the apostate came 
 on the field of the great struggle between the old and the new, as 
 he could judge better of the state of affairs, because he had him- 
 self been baptized, what did he see ? and what did he say ? He 
 saw that the Church had triumphed, owing to her all-embracing 
 charity, and that paganism was nearly dead, owing to its inborn 
 selfishness ; and he said to his priests and hierophants, and to the 
 mystic philosophers of Alexandria: " Follow the example of the 
 Christians, and establish everywhere houses of relief both for the 
 soul and the body." But it was too late. What he saw only irri- 
 tated him; and what he said did not produce any effect whatever. 
 Enough of Roman pagan charity. 
 
 Must I come, in a second place, to the spirit of Moslem and 
 Turkish benevolence ? I blush at the very idea of discussing 
 such a subject as this. But a thousand voices all around compel 
 me to answer them. For to our shame there is no denying that 
 in this age many pretended Christians are lost in their admiration 
 of a few verses of the Koran, and entirely shut their eyes to the 
 world-wide effects of the strange charity which that book pretends 
 to preach. It must seem to every one that Mohammedanism has 
 had a fair field for proving the true spirit which animates it. It 
 has subjected to its sway the fairest countries of this earth. After 
 having subdued them by the sword, centuries have been given it to 
 mould them at its will. Having entirely destroyed the ancient 
 institutions that had ruled over those populations, it has imposed 
 
FACTS. 199 
 
 everywhere its own inborn despotism. What benefit has accrued 
 to mankind from the indubitable and immense changes it has in- 
 troduced into the world ? If it has " inculcated, on the whole, an 
 extremely high and noble system of morals," as Mr. Lecky pre- 
 tends,* it must have had a very beneficent influence over those 
 nations which have been subject to its control during so many 
 centuries. For nothing is calculated to make men happy and 
 prosperous like the establishment among them of " God's king- 
 dom," which is virtue itself; that is, " a high and noble system of 
 morals." But is it not demonstrated by this time that every coun- 
 try in Africa, Asia, or Europe which has been for a long period 
 under the sway of Mohammedanism is now reduced almost to the 
 lowest stage of degradation ? Look at Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, 
 Persia, Armenia, Arabia, Hindostan, and contemplate the baneful 
 effects of Moslem or Turkish rule. The fairest part of the globe 
 has been made the ugliest; the richest has become the poorest. 
 What was active and progressive is now torpid or dead. What- 
 ever the Mussulman has touched falls to the ground and lies pros- 
 trate, altogether unable to rise again. The description could be 
 indefinitely prolonged; we leave it to the reader's imagination. 
 
 What are, after all, the remarkable advantages which have re- 
 sulted for the world from the doctrines of the Koran and the prac- 
 tical application of them by Turk or Saracen ? The majority of 
 those writers who seem to believe that there are many are satis- 
 fied with generalities, and never condescend to give us particulars. 
 The author of " European Morals," knowing that this cannot suf- 
 fice, has done his best to offer us a list of them in his second vol- 
 ume, f Firstly, therefore, "it has preached the purest monotheism 
 among ignorant and barbarous men." To qualify this pretension, 
 which is the strongest in point of fact, it must be said, also, that it 
 has barbarously destroyed in Persia, together with Christian mono- 
 theism, that of Zoroaster's religion, which was the noblest in Asia, 
 at least in ancient times. It has driven to apostasy many Chris- 
 tian nations in Europe, although a Catholic Review in England, 
 relying on some verses of the Koran has maintained, not long ago, 
 that the Mussulmans have everywhere tolerated, or perhaps favored, 
 the religion of Christ. This is altogether false. As to the pagan 
 nations which it has subdued, it must be said that in Africa, at 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 251. f Page 251, foil. 
 
200 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 least, it has tiot given many proofs of zeal for the destruction of 
 fetichism, most probably with a view to keeping on the Dark Con- 
 tinent a large supply of men eminently fitted for slavery, to which 
 the Koran forbids to reduce "the believers." 
 
 Secondly, it is maintained that " it has inculcated, on the whole, 
 an extremely high and noble system of morals." A word has just 
 been said on the subject, and it seems sufficient on account of the 
 glaring result of this " system of morals" over the whole world. 
 We will only add that whenever the Koran teaches a high moral- 
 ity (which it does here and there) it always copies from the Gos- 
 pel, to which the honor of it must be referred. 
 
 Thirdly, Mr. Lecky praises it again for " having borrowed from 
 Christianity that doctrine of salvation by belief which is perhaps the 
 most powerful impulse that can be applied to the characters of men." 
 If Mr. Lecky understands by this the Protestant " doctrine of salva- 
 tion by faith," he is mistaken in placing it among the moral advan- 
 tages of Mussulmanism, because the Koran does not teach it, and 
 the Mohammedans do not practise it ; they have fatalism in its place. 
 Besides, the doctrine of salvation by faith, understood in the sense 
 of Luther and Calvin, instead of being " the most powerful impulse 
 applied to the characters of men," is one of the most baneful dogmas 
 invented by heretics of ancient and modern times; is, in fact, 
 destructive of all morals when it is strictly understood. This is not 
 the place to prove it. Every one can judge of it by looking over 
 Moeller's " Symbolism." 
 
 Fourthly, according to Mr. Lecky, " Mohammed's religion possessed 
 a book which, however inferior to that of the opposing religion, has 
 nevertheless been the consolation and the support of millions in many 
 ages." If the Koran has been the source of such a blessing "to many 
 millions," it is only owing to the ignorance and besotting stupidity of 
 those deluded peoples ; for there is scarcely anything in that book 
 which the reason of man can approve, his conscience sanction, and 
 his good taste avow, excepting always what it has " borrowed from 
 Christianity." As to calling it only "inferior" to the Bible, Mr. 
 Lecky evidently did not sufficiently reflect on the impropriety of com- 
 paring it in any sense to it. A perfect farrago of nonsense (which the 
 Koran certainly is when it does not "borrow from Christianity") can- 
 not be mentioned in the same phrase with the Bible, the greatest 
 boon that was ever conferred on man, after the living teaching of 
 the Church. 
 
FA CIS. 20 1 
 
 Finally, the author of "European Morals" says a word of praise 
 ovi fatalism itself. As to this question it seems to us altogether 
 useless, nay, absurd to discuss it. Whilst Christianity has made, 
 with such an earnest zeal, of the great duty of confidence in God, 
 of resignation to His will, of a complete reliance on His fatherly 
 care, a true foundation of virtue, to find any moral beauty in 
 fatalism, such as the Koran teaches it, implies an obliquity of 
 vision which we are surprised to see in so eminent a writer and so 
 acute a reasoner. This is all that can be said in favor of Moham- 
 medanism. Yet the question of charity is scarcely touched in those 
 considerations. The sum total of it consists in building fountains 
 for the thirsty traveller, and caravanseries for the pilgrim, besides 
 some hospitals for the insane. 
 
 We experience as great a repugnance to speak, in a third place, 
 of Buddhistic charity as we felt in discussing the moral beauties 
 of Mussulmanism. Still a word is absolutely required here, on 
 account of the great number of men who, following the lead of 
 Mr. Max Miiller, find in the moral doctrines of Gautama almost 
 the exact counterpart of those of Christ. It is one of the most 
 remarkable aberrations of our age that whilst Christianity offers 
 the spectacle of all the virtues, in a form which is acceptable at 
 the same time to the most refined and enlightened and to the 
 rudest and most ignorant men, many learned and clever writers 
 try their best to find fault with it ; and being scarcely able to bring 
 against it any reasonable accusations, they use their truly exten- 
 sive knowledge to discover on the face of the globe spots unknown 
 before them where some travellers pretend that there are moral 
 wonders which can be brought into comparison with it. And 
 forthwith descriptions are written which throw almost into the 
 shade whatever any one of us can see in our Christian surround- 
 ings of moral beauty and perfection. It is precisely the reverse of 
 the evolutionists' process, who, having everywhere under their 
 eyes the spectacle of a dignified humanity worthy of coming from 
 the hands of God, gather from every side whatever they find in 
 travellers' books of monstrous samples of degradation and barba- 
 rism, which they instantly give as the faithful portraiture of our 
 species, and the proof that we came originally from some ape or 
 ascidian ! 
 
 It is said, therefore, that the Buddhists of eastern Asia have in 
 their books the solemn injunction of the highest moral precepts, 
 
202 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 which they exactly follow in their lives; that Gautama's doctrine 
 gives to his code of ethics as strong a sanction in its promise of 
 Nirvana's blessings as can l?e that of Christianity; and finally that 
 if the Christians have the example and the love of Christ to urge 
 them on to the practice of holiness, the same is true of Buddhism 
 with regard to what is reported of Gautama's life, and of the ardent 
 devotion which all true Buddhists experience for him. This is 
 the objection in all its strength, and we do not remember to have 
 seen it presented in so vivid a shape in whatever Mr. Max Miiller 
 has said in favor of it. 
 
 First, therefore, we beg leave to say that it would be too long 
 to wade through the fourteen Buddhistic folio volumes — this we 
 think is the number of them — of nonsense and puerilities, in the 
 midst of which a few moral maxims, derived from antique Hindoo 
 wisdom, are thrown at random. It seems, however, that there are 
 in those books many beautiful precepts which (according to some 
 travellers of the stamp of the Abbe Hue) the poor, unsophisticated 
 Tartars of the Gobi desert repeat constantly and try to follow the 
 best way they can. But this is not a precise code like that of 
 Christianity ; and there is nowhere in the immense compilation of 
 Sakya-mouni an3'thing like the Decalogue and the Sermon on the 
 Mount. Those Buddhistic precepts are mere traditional sayings 
 which pass from mouth to mouth, and are interpreted by every one 
 to the best of his ability. Any one who is acquainted with Gauta- 
 ma's biography must be persuaded that he received them from 
 the Brahmans of his day, who themselves had inherited them from 
 their ancestors or read them in the Vedas or the Zends. The true 
 character of these sacred books of Hindostan and central Asia is 
 well known ; and it is now almost demonstrated that they con- 
 tain at least a part of the primitive revelation communicated 
 by God Himself to the first patriarchs. They are consequently 
 part and parcel of Christianity which began in fact on the day of 
 creation, and will last till the day of judgment. This, however, 
 does not give to Buddhism a semi-divine character ; because in 
 itself it was a heresy from Brahmanism, and a very evident cor- 
 ruption of primitive doctrine. This, in few words, is the answer 
 to the first branch of the objection. 
 
 With regard to the sanction which Gautama gave to his moral 
 code in the promise of Nirvana, it is a great subject of wonder 
 that any one should compare it with the sanction of the Christian 
 
FACTS. 203 
 
 code which consists in the promise of eternal life. It is well known 
 that in the idea of Sakya-mowii Nirvana was a positive annihilation, 
 in order to escape from the endless transmigrations of Brahman- 
 ism ; and that the knaves who are even at this time at the head of 
 this pretended religion are well aware of it, and share in the same 
 delusion with their founder. Mr. Max Miiller acknowledged it in 
 a short lecture he delivered in praise of Buddhism; and his 
 excuse for insisting on what he thinks to be the admirable sanction 
 of this code is that the ignorant people do not think that by 
 Nirvana they will ever be annihilated, but on the contrary trans- 
 ferred at once to a heavenly paradise as enticing as that of 
 Mohammed. This is sufficient, in our opinion; and it would be only 
 a loss of time to discuss any longer the supposed resemblance or 
 equality of sanction both in Lamaism and Christianity. In the 
 jfirst it is imposture and hypocrisy; in the other, the asseveration 
 of a God-man. 
 
 A word also must suffice for the third branch of the objection. 
 A Christian must consider it a disgrace to be reduced to examine 
 if there is any resemblance — setting entirely aside the equality — 
 between the example of Christ and that of Gautama; and also 
 between the love we feel for our Lord and that which the Bud- 
 dhists experience for their living Buddhas. The inward conscious- 
 ness we have that Christ is true God, coupled with the wonderful 
 knowledge we possess of the divine attributes themselves, consti- 
 tute a motive for virtue so far above any other consideration, and 
 particularly so eminently superior to the gross ideas the Bud- 
 dhists have of the Deity, that it is positively incomprehensible any 
 one should assume that there is any resemblance between both 
 systems of religion, with regard to the love of a divine founder. 
 The more is it so that Buddhism professedly rejects the existence 
 of God, as Mr. Max Miiller admits.* In Gautama's well-declared 
 opinion, the world is the result of " a concatenation of causes and 
 effects ;" as to God there is none other. So he was, after all, so 
 early as his time, a learned evolutionist, and could no more by his 
 concatenation of causes and effects give a real sanction to his 
 
 * This gentleman acknowledges that there is a passage in Gautama's books 
 in which the founder of the sect gives as a reason of his rejection of Brahman ism 
 that the creation of the world is attributed in the Vedas to Brahma or God. which 
 is, he pretends, an imposture. 
 
204 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 moral code than the partisans of the system of evolution can do 
 it at the present day. 
 
 There remains to consider charity in Protestantism, to com- 
 plete the circle prescribed to the present inquiry. At a first 
 glance it looks indeed as if there was among Protestants a 
 powerful stream of benevolence, entirely distinct from the priceless 
 treasure constantly gathered in and generously lavished from the 
 bosom of the true Church. At least in this happy country how 
 many non-Catholic families endeavor to rival m this respect what 
 is most generous in Christendom ! We could quote from our 
 own experience admirable examples of it which might bring 
 sweet tears of sympathy from the eyes of many readers. We 
 prefer to bring others' testim*ony rather than our own. This is 
 the emphatic acknowledgment of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 
 who do not hesitate to say — at least I have heard it from their 
 own lips — that they are helped m their ministrations to old and 
 infirm people as much if not more, by most respectable persons 
 who unfortunately do not belong to our Holy Church than by 
 the Catholics themselves. There can be no doubt of this ; and 
 the extent of those charities is much greater than many people 
 imagine, and they are very often as generous as they are unos- 
 tentatious. But we are bound to say that this is not to be attrib- 
 uted to the Protestant spirit, but to that of genuine Christianity. 
 Whatever view may be taken of the Reformation, even in the 
 supposition of those who think falsely that there was in the primi- 
 tive reformers a sincere religious zeal, it is impossible to deny 
 that the result was most fatal to the previous working of true 
 charity. All that had been done so abundantly, magnificently, 
 and universally to assuage human misery was at once destroyed, 
 or at least modified so as to entirely change its character. Wil- 
 liam Cobbett has proved it in his ''History of the Reformation," 
 and there is no need of enlarging on the subject. As this strange 
 phenomenon was not true only of England, where alone Cobbett 
 examined it, but became as worthy of note in Germany and Scan- 
 dinavia as in Great Britain itself, it must be pronounced to be 
 essential to the new system of religion originating in the north of 
 Europe during the sixteenth century. Protestantism expunged 
 at once brotherly charity from the list of Christian virtues, if not 
 expressly and by issuing a new command against it, at least de 
 facto and by the natural influence of the new principles. 
 
FACTS. 205 
 
 If, therefore, genuine charity has continued to be practised by 
 many excellent men born in Protestantism, it must not be attrib- 
 uted to their religion, but to the "testimony of a Christian soul" 
 which remains in them. And that it is so in truth is proved 
 by the fact that at least a great number of those benevolent 
 people who are not, and probably never v^ill be, Catholics can- 
 not likewise be called Protestants, because they do not make pro- 
 fession of belonging to any one of the sects. Most of them 
 declare emphatically that they are Christians and nothing else ; 
 and we must believe them when they say so. It is the misfortune 
 of their birth that has been the reason why they do not profess 
 any creed ; and the feeling which must be in our hearts preferably 
 to any other toward them is the sincere desire and prayer that 
 their charity for the poor should be at last rewarded by the 
 knowledge of the truth which has not yet reached their mind. 
 We maintain that their deeds are altogether independent of their 
 Protestantism, if there is in them any remnant of it ; and the 
 source of their benevolence is not distinct from that of the Catho- 
 lic Church. 
 
 This digression will have been most useful if it brings on the 
 conviction that from the bosom of the true Church alone the 
 source of true charity has ever gushed forth ; and it is time at 
 last to bring: back the reader's mind to the consideration of the 
 first Christians in Jerusalem, from which we first started. In our 
 day socialism and communism are endeavoring to ape that primi- 
 tive organization as it was shaped by Christ's apostles. But in 
 vain do they pretend to bring the same blessings to the poor ; in 
 vain do they proclaim the brotherhood of mankind, and the neces- 
 sity of reforming abuses and restoring to the people their rights. 
 Their godless system is only calculated to increase the evil, and 
 destroy human society without the hope of rebuilding it ; precise- 
 ly because they discard at once all ideas of religion and morality. 
 Without these, however, it is as impossible to establish happiness 
 and virtue on earth as to build an Egyptian pyramid without 
 foundation, or to construct a material city in the clouds. 
 
2o6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 7. Holiness was Fostered among the First Judeo-Christians, by the Ob- 
 scrvance of the Mosaic Law. — A Word on the Essenes. 
 
 The Jews, who were destined to realize in the church of Jerusa- 
 lem a moral commonwealth recalling to the mind the still-remem- 
 bered felicity of the golden age, had possessed in the Mosaic Law 
 the strictest precepts ever given to a nation. Their code was 
 essentially adapted to the whole of mankind, because the Deca- 
 logue was in itself an open and exterior promulgation of the moral 
 principles which God has deposited in the human conscience. 
 
 The priests, to whom was assigned the duty of explainmg the 
 moral law, and the prophets, who, besides foretelling the future, had 
 also received the mission of correcting abuses when they arose, 
 had during long ages maintained the pure doctrine among the 
 people. Their morality was essentially the same with ours, as has 
 been proved; and owing to the help they obtained through train- 
 ing and instruction, they could easily form to themselves an 
 enlightened conscience ; whilst the pagans, uninstructed and 
 untrained, could with the greatest difficulty unravel the entangled 
 web of the natural law hidden in the inmost recesses of their souls. 
 
 In the course of ages, it is true. Sophists had also appeared 
 among the Jews, and unsafe teachers had obscured by their com- 
 ments the purity of the original text. The Saviour had come to 
 apply a remedy to those aberrations; and without destroying thej 
 former law, He had announced a more perfect one based on Hisi 
 example as well as on His teaching. This was the plain and at 
 the same time sublime ground-work on which the apostles built ;,! 
 and the first edifice raised according to the Saviour's plan was the: 
 particular church of Jerusalem, which would probably have become 
 the head of the universal future Church had it not been for the 
 stubbornness and blindness of the great majority of the nation. 
 
 Let us, therefore, contemplate a moment what would most likely 
 have been the pattern of all Christian congregations throughout 
 the universe in case the headship of the new religion had remained 
 in the hands of the Hebrews. For it is very probable that if Jeru- 
 salem had continued to be the Church's centre, as it certainly was 
 during the first ten years of the apostolic preaching, it would like- 
 wise have continued to be the pattern for all other churches; so 
 that instead of Linus and Clement, both from the gentile world, 
 
 f 
 
FACTS. 207 
 
 the first successors of Peter would have belonged also to the 
 Jewish race. 
 
 In the first place, the general rule would most probably have 
 been that of equality in point of wealth among the Christians. ' 
 There would have been no poor people and very few rich men 
 ftmong them. The great majority of wealthy converts would have 
 continued to bring the total value of their property to the spiritual 
 rulers' feet, and the portion of the poorest would have been pro- 
 portionately increased. It is impossible now to judge accurately 
 what would have been the total result. It is clear, however, that 
 universal comfort would have been the rule among Christian 
 nations. 
 
 In a second place, if the apostles did not take upon themselves 
 to dictate to the new converts what part of their goods they should 
 keep and what part they should give in charity, they insisted, 
 nevertheless, on the clear precept of the Saviour that " His disciples 
 must not be attached to this world," and that " they must do to 
 •others what they would wish others should do to them." They 
 inculcated likewise the great truths that " God blesses the poor," 
 and that *^the rich can but with difficulty enter heaven." These 
 are principles of human or rather heavenly management far pref- 
 erable to those which go to form what is now called the science of 
 political economy. There can be scarcely any doubt that in case 
 the Jewish capital had not been destroyed, and had become the 
 head city of Christianity, the same model being copied everywhere, 
 a comfort and happiness would have been established among 
 mankind such as the world has never seen and shall never see. 
 It would have been the complete realization of St. Paul's saying, 
 "Godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the life 
 that now is and of that which is to come." * But even in that 
 supposition no one must imagine that this "comfort and hap- 
 piness" would have been the great, most important, and supreme 
 object of religion. If modern socialists could by their sys- 
 tems procure the same amount of well-being to humanity, they 
 would consider themselves as the great benefactors of mankind, 
 and they never would suppose that anything more could be done 
 for man, though nevertheless the highest aspirations of his nature 
 would still remain unfulfilled. But Christianity could not remain 
 
 * I Tim. iv. 8. 
 
2o8 THE CHURCH AND fHE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 satisfied with such a paltry boon; and since the whole doctrine of 
 the Gospel preaches the renouncement of the w^orld and the 
 impossibility of man ever reaching true happiness in it, it is evi- 
 dent that in the beautiful picture the Acts of the Apostles give us 
 of the first Christian congregation there must have been some- 
 thing far superior to its exterior outlook. It was indeed at the 
 same time Tabcniaculum Dei- cti77i ho minibus^ and this immense privi- 
 lege of being " the dwelling-place of God among men" was the^ 
 true and unfailing source of that charity which procured even so 
 many worldly blessings. We must, therefore, briefly see, in a 
 third place, the part there was in it for " God and the soul," as 
 coming both from the Mosaic and the Christian precepts. God 
 was, in fact, everything to them. For Him they were at this mo- 
 ment turning their backs on the worldly promises of the Law, 
 though they continued to practise it. For, if it is not true that 
 under its dispensation eternal life was unknown, and that it never 
 was promised to them, still it is sure that there was in the Mosaic 
 Law more mention made of this world's happiness than of the 
 other's. The new doctrine, on the contrar}^ told them that, even 
 for this life, they must rely on God and on Him alone. They must 
 not accumulate treasures which " the moth consumes and the rob- 
 ber steals away; " they must rely on Providence for the necessa- 
 ries of life, and be satisfied with them. 
 
 Their ancestors had been *' God's people," but their countrymem 
 were no more so. The new gathering among them, originating 
 with Christ, was to form a new race, and they were to be forever 
 '* a people acceptable to God, a pursuer of good works."* 
 They must on that account entirely belong to Him. God wasi 
 never to be out of their aims— out of their thoughts. They 
 were to sacrifice to Him everything they had, everything theyl 
 hoped, and to be persuaded that in giving all they had to th» 
 poor they gave it to God. This was to be the great principle of I 
 the " Christian economy." For the sake of God alone they must 
 throw far behind them all selfish considerations; and self-interest,; 
 which always lies at the base of all systems of human benevolence,, 
 must be discarded as below the dignity of a Christian. 
 
 The simple words of the Acts of the Apostles, on which we now 
 comment, will necessarily give to any one who reads them atten-^ 
 
 *Tit. ii. 14. 
 
FA CTS. 209 
 
 tively the idea that this was in truth the groundwork of the picture 
 by which the church of Jerusalem was represented by St. Luke in 
 those glowing and attractive colors. It was because God had come 
 to establish " His tabernacle among men," that the inhabitants of 
 the new city had but " one heart and one soul," and brought to 
 the feet of the apostles all they possessed, in order to distribute 
 it among all. The new kingdom of God, in fact, visible in the 
 "exterior" peace and harmony, was nevertheless altogether "in- 
 terior" — Reg7ium Dei intra vos est. And as it has been proved by 
 several texts of the New Testament that God's kingdom con- 
 sisted essentially in holiness, which is thus inseparable from the 
 .Church, it was the sublime though simple practice of the highest 
 conceivable virtue which was the real source of the universal 
 well-being. Not only, therefore, God ever present was at the 
 base of the system, but the soul was the actual field on which 
 this system was entirely .carried out; and for this reason par- 
 ticularly " God's kingdom" was said to be " interior" — intra vos est. 
 
 It was proper to enter into these details, because the holiness 
 of the Church is our theme, and nothing can more effectually 
 strike the reader than to see sanctity itself enthroned at Jerusalem 
 on the very first day of the Church's existence. The life of St. 
 James, the first Christian bishop of the city, is one of the inost 
 precious examples of that sanctity; and we may with fairness 
 assume that the moral conduct of the people was to a great 
 extent a copy of that of their pastor. The details of it have been 
 preserved by Eusebius of Caesarea from a most precious fragment 
 of Hegesippus, which all the Catholic histories of the Church 
 invariably reproduce. 
 
 The Christians of Jerusalem, not satisfied with the new obliga- 
 tions imposed upon them by the Gospel, practised at the same 
 time most strictly all the injunctions of the Mosaic .law. St. Paul 
 himself called this a heavy burden, and would not allow it to be 
 imposed on the gentiles. He went so far*as to call the Galatians 
 foolish, inse7isati, because by submitting to the rite of circum- 
 cision they had contracted the obligation of bearing that burden. 
 It is known to theologians that the Mosaic precepts, rites, and 
 ceremonies did not contain ex se the source of grace, nor, conse- 
 quently, of sanctity. Still, as it was a constant restraint on 
 human freedom of action, it cut off ^t least a great number of 
 occasions of sin, which are generally held out to man, when he 
 
2IO THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 allows his inclinations to follow their free bent, even in matters 
 otherwise allowable. The church at Jerusalem, on that account, 
 must have presented a spectacle never seen in our Christian con- 
 gregations, except on the part of the small number who devote 
 themselves to a monastic life. The rules of a monastery, in fact, 
 are alone a near reproduction of the burdensome prescriptions of 
 the Pentateuch; and the first chapters of St. Luke's book, which 
 vividly describe the daily life of the apostles and their new 
 brethren, either in the Temple or in private houses, complete the 
 picture of holiness which the portraiture of charity and mutual 
 help and love had so exquisitely begun. 
 
 It is easy to understand the whole of it, if one remembers 
 what Philo and Josephus have written of the Essenes, who pre- 
 cisely flourished at the time of our Saviour. These were only 
 Jews, and they had for their guidance only the precepts of the 
 Mosaic law. They never became Christians; and because they 
 lived east of the Jordan river, at a good distance from either 
 Jerusalem or Galilee, they never could have any intimate relation 
 with incipient Christianity. In course of time they became 
 fanatical Jews, like those who fought against the Romans; and 
 as they disappeared from history shortly after the destruction of 
 Jerusalem by Titus, it can be therefrom inferred that this was a 
 fatal blow to their organization. If Pliny speaks later of them it 
 is only as of a sect perishing in his time, when it is known that it 
 was then reduced to a few individuals. Consequently the effort 
 made by some modern writers to identify them with the Chris- 
 tians of Jerusalem, and even to represent our divine Lord as an 
 Essene at the beginning of His career, is altogether futile, and 
 disproved by the whole of their history, and particularly by their; 
 dogmatic tenets. 
 
 But is it not wonderful to contemplate the nobleness of their 
 ethical code and the purity of their lives, whilst it is certain that 
 their only moral guide was the Pentateuch of Moses, modified by! 
 some Alexandrine tenets? The high character of their strict 
 monotheism; their firm belief in the immortality of the soul: 
 their rejection of bloody sacrifices as being inferior to the prac- 
 tice of self-renouncement; their morals, in fine, which could be 
 resolved into three short prescriptions — namely, love of God, love 
 of virtue, love of men; aH this is calculated to prove that the 
 Mosaic law, when practised strictly and intelligently, could bring 
 
FA CTS. . 2 11 
 
 its adherents to a high round of the moral ladder, and that it 
 truly fostered holiness among the Judeo-Christians. 
 
 What is most surprising in the Essenes is first their strict 
 observance of continency, refusing even to enter the bonds of 
 marriage; and secondly, their absolute renouncement of personal 
 property, so as to have everything in common {KOivcDvia), exactly 
 the same as we have admired it in the first Christians of the Holy 
 City, 'fhe picture of both, Christians and Essenes, is so per- 
 fectly alike that one can scarcely imagine they could have 
 coexisted at the same time and near each other without coales- 
 cing. Nevertheless it is altogether certain that they never 
 belonged to the same organization, and that the Essenes never 
 professed any of the Christian tenets, such as originar sin, re- 
 demption by Christ, the necessity of a sacramental system, of 
 baptism in particular, etc. etc. The sameness of both bodies 
 with regard to the points mentioned above came only from the 
 fact that both were adherents to the Mosaic law, which the Chris- 
 tians practised in perfection together with the great St. James, 
 their apostle and bishop. 
 
 But besides the law of Moses the new Christians had the Gos- 
 pel, which raised them morally far above the Essenes. If any 
 one wished to know how this could be, how there could be a 
 moral teaching superior to Philo's doctrine, a holiness more 
 Striking and complete, he has only to inquire more particularly 
 from Philo himself in what consisted that " love of men" which 
 formed the third or last of their moral prescriptions. He will 
 soon learn that this " love" was restricted to the " brethren of the 
 order," and even only as long as they remained brethren. Yes, 
 none of those beautiful details of a common life (KOivGOVza), 
 by which they renounced personal property, extended farther 
 than an organization which at the time of its greatest prosperity 
 did not embrace more than four -thousand souls. And as was just 
 seen, in case a member of this community fell into a heavy sin 
 he was immediately cut off from it and refused all help and as- 
 sistance in his greatest need. According to Josephus,* the case 
 had happened, and the unfortunate brother had died of hunger 
 because his former friends would not grant him a crust of bread. 
 The Judeo-Christians of Jerusalem could not be guilty of such 
 
 * Antiq., viii. § 8. 
 
212 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 an enormity as this, because Christ and St. Paul had extended 
 the meaning of the word " brother" to the human race. 
 
 Did they not all, Jews and Hellenes, partake of the same Eu- 
 charist; that is, of the body and blood of Christ, who being the 
 head of the body, made of all the members the partakers of the 
 same privileges, the partakers, in fact, of what St. Peter called 
 the " divine nature" ? This was the source of the holiness to 
 which the Jews of Jerusalem had been raised, and before which 
 the sanctity of any other community of men must pale and 
 dwindle away. 
 
 \ 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHRISTIAN HOLINESS IN THE EAST — THE THERAPEUTvE IN EGYPT, 
 
 AND THEIR RELATIONS WITH THE CHURCH AT JERUSALEM 
 
 FIRST DEVELOPMENTS OF MONASTICISM. 
 
 I. Who were the Therapeutce ? Their cojinection with Jerusalem, 
 
 That the Therapeutae in Egypt had been for several centuries 
 intimately connected v^^ith the Essenes in Palestine is now ad- 
 mitted by all critics. Both were branches growing on the same 
 stem, and that stem can be called Hebrew pietism, to use a 
 modern expression. The Essenes, as was just seen, never became 
 Christian ; and thou-gh their moral code was very superior to that 
 of pagans, they were left far behind by the converts made by the 
 apostles in Jerusalem. The Therapeutae, differing in this from 
 the Essenes, became the first disciples of St. Mark m Alexandria, 
 and their total conversion to Christ induced the belief, universal 
 formerly, that they mainly composed the primitive church of that 
 city ; that they had not existed before the arrival of St. Mark; 
 and that the disciples merely took the name of Therapeutae on 
 the banks of the Nile, as they were called Christians at Antioch. 
 
 This opinion is now disproved. They flourished in the country, 
 during a couple of centuries before Christianity was preached ; 
 and originally they were only pious Jews, leading the holy life 
 described by Philo in his book De Vita Conteinplativa. But 
 their name disappeared afterwards, because, having all become 
 Christian, there was no need for them of a distinct appellation. 
 
 Many Judeo-Christians in Palestine were inoculated with Ebi- 
 onism after the death of St. James. That baneful heresy never 
 made any proselytes in Egypt, though there must have been a 
 constant intercourse between the Therapeutae and the church at 
 Jerusalem; and it is proper first to convince ourselves of this, on 
 account of the great influence it had in shaping the moral ideas 
 of the Egyptian Christians and making them, as it were, a branch 
 of the Palestine church. 
 
214 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 It is known that during a long time before and after the apos- 
 tolic age, the Hebrew schools of Alexandria were more celebrated 
 even than those of Jerusalem; and nfany Jews must have con- 
 stantly travelled from the banks of the Jordan to those of the 
 Nile. We know likewise from the Acts of the Apostles (vi. 9) 
 that there were at that time in the Holy City synagogues of Jews 
 belonging to Cyrenaika and to Alexandria, Thus on one side 
 the African Israelites had their particular places of worship and 
 religious instruction in Jerusalem, whilst on the other Hebrews 
 from Palestine went to Africa to study in the peculiar schools of 
 the Alexandrine Museum alloted to them. 
 
 We are not reduced, however, to these general considerations 
 in order to conclude from them the intithate relations which must 
 have existed between the primitive church on Mount Sion and 
 that of Egypt. This might, no doubt, amply suffice when we con- 
 sider the sameness of both institutions and the peculiar holiness 
 which prevailed in both, evincing evidently an identity of origin. 
 But there are, besides, positive testimonies of great weight to con- 
 firm those views and to make them absolutely certain ; so that 
 the primitive Alexandrine church can be considered as a faithful 
 copy of that of Jerusalem, and the same holiness must have obtained 
 in both. 
 
 These testimonies are those of Eusebius, St. Jerome, and Cas- 
 sian. But as they are mainly grounded on Philo's writings, it is 
 proper to briefly discuss a couple of points which have been 
 strongly controverted with regard to this last writer. Was Philo 
 ever a Christian? Did he intend to describe the first Christians 
 of Alexandria when he spoke of the Therapeutae? These two 
 questions deserve a moment's consideration. Both Eusebius and 
 St. Jerome believed that Philo embraced Christianity very late in 
 his life. St. Augustine was of a contrary opinion. Whatever side 
 may be adopted, the evident conclusion is that he was not a 
 Christian when he wrote his books. But the question of his 
 religion has absolutely nothing to do with the intimate relation 
 existing between the Egyptian Therapeutae and the Jerusalem 
 Christians. Yet this remark was necessary, because some modern 
 critics speak on this subject almost as if no Therapeutae were 
 Christians in case Philo was not. This is altogether unallowable. 
 Philo's case does not decide that of the Churches. It remains for 
 us to consider a moment if the Jewish writer intended to describe 
 
FACTS. 215 
 
 the first Alexandrine Christians when he spoke of the Therapeutae 
 jn his book De Vita Contemplativa. 
 
 St. Jerome was emphatically of that opinion.* At the be- 
 ginning of the eighteenth century there was in France a lively con- 
 troversy on the subject, and undoubtedly those who sided with St. 
 Jerome (Montfaucon particularly) had in our belief the best of the 
 controversy. But even independently of this, supposing that Philo 
 did not intend to describe actual Christians when he portrayed the 
 Therapeut^, what does it matter if in point of fact it must be admitted 
 that they were 1 The Jewish author's intention cannot be known, 
 and it is idle to put even the question, since he has not himaelf 
 revealed it to mankind. But let us examine the testimonies of Euse- 
 bius, of St. Jerome, and of Cassian on the subject, the last chiefly, 
 who lived so long in Egypt and must have reflected the Egyptian 
 tradition. Do not those testimonies stand by themselves independ- 
 ently of the private opinion of any writer on Philo's religion or inten- 
 tion .^ They must be quoted to be appreciated. 
 
 In the time of Eusebius it is extremely probable, if not absolutely 
 certain, that all the Therapeutae had been converted and were actu- 
 ally Christians. From the eremitical life which was at first universal 
 among them they had' gradually passed to the cenobitical phase of 
 monachism. This last institution had spread before this all over 
 Egypt, and was then flourishing and still daily progressing. The 
 bishop of Csesarea gave a short description of those monasteries in 
 the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of the second. book of his " Ecclesi- 
 astical History." His main object was to prove the perfect identity of 
 the monastic life practised in his time with that of the previous 
 Therapeutae ; and in this second part of his discussion he simply 
 uses Philo's book as an authoritative exposition of that ancient Jew- 
 ish asceticism. He does not, consequently, rely on Philo's religion or 
 intention, but only on his faithful delineation as that of an eye-wit- 
 ness; and from the life of the monks well known in Eusebius' age he 
 concludes as to the perfect identity of both. "Those ancient men," 
 he says, " were called SepaTtevrai and merai by Philo. The first 
 <word {OepaTtEvrai) indicated that their great object was both to 
 ,worship and care for'' (Eusebius derives both meanings from this 
 •1 single Greek word); "namely, to worship God with the greatest dih- 
 igence, and to care for their own souls by curing them from all moral 
 
 * In Catalogo. 
 
2i6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 distempers. They were called likewise Dterai — that is, suppliant — 
 because their principal office was to beseech and supplicate God." 
 
 There can be no doubt that in the opinion of Eusebius the Ther- 
 apeutae, personally known to Philo more than two hundred years 
 before his time, had led the life of monks, a life agreeing in the main 
 points with that of the first Jerusalem Christians ; consisting particu- 
 larly in having but "one heart and one soul," and in being detached 
 from this world in which they could possess nothing. For his object 
 all along was to prove the identity of both. Living himself so near 
 Egypt, and being in constant intercourse with some old bishops of 
 his own neighborhood, who had been personally acquainted with 
 Origen (as was remarked in the " Church and Gentile World"), he must 
 have been perfectly well informed as to the origin of Christianity 
 in Alexandria. He knew that in his time the Therapeutae had all 
 embraced the new religion, or nearly so, and this alone would prove 
 that Montfaucon was right in his controversy with President Bouhier 
 at the beginning of the eighteenth century. This last gentleman 
 brought forward a great amount of erudition to prove that the Ther- 
 apeutae of Egypt had been only Jewish philosophers and ascetics, and 
 he concluded there had never been Christians among them. He did 
 not perceive that if they had been only Jewish ascetics before the 
 apostolic age (which nobody denies), the case was very different with 
 them since the time when St. Mark appeared on the banks of the 
 Nile ; and the fact of their being all Christians in the age of Euse- 
 bius precisely demonstrates what Bouhier pretended to disprove. 
 
 But St. Jerome's testimony v^ill place the truth in a still 
 clearer light. He lived, it is true, much later than the celebrated 
 bishop of Coesarea; but he had thoroughly studied Christian an- 
 tiquity, and in his time Christian antiquity u^as a recent affair. 
 He not only spent many years in Palestine, on the confines of the 
 Egyptian desert, but he had frequent intercourse with many 
 Egyptian monks, visited their monasteries, and must have been 
 familiar with all their traditions. 
 
 This he writes of the primitive church in Alexandria: * " Mark 
 went to Egypt, carrying with him the Gospel he had written, and 
 being the first to announce Christ in Alexandria he founded the 
 Church there, with such a height of doctrine and holiness of life 
 that he brought up all the followers of Christ to his own pattern 
 
 I 
 
 Lib. de Script. Eccl. — de Sto. Marco. 
 
FACTS. 217 
 
 of excellence. So that Philo, the most learned and eloquent of 
 the Jews, taking notice that the first Alexandrine church followed 
 still Jewish rites {adhuc judaizanteiyi), wrote a book on their way of 
 life, as a matter of praise for his own nation." And in the same 
 work, in his biography of Philo himself, Jerome speaks more 
 pointedly still and to the purpose : " Philo the Jew, born in Alex- 
 andria, of a sacerdotal race, is placed by me among the ecclesi- 
 astical writers, because, when he wrote on the church founded in 
 Alexandria by the evangelist Mark, he openly praised the Chris- 
 tians. . . . From his words it appears that those first followers of 
 Christ led a life exactly similar to that of our monks. None of 
 them possessed any property; there were neither poor nor rich 
 among them; they distributed their goods among the needy; they 
 spent much time in psalmody and prayer; they applied to their 
 own advancement in sacred learning and purity of life, exactly as 
 St. Luke relates was the case with the first Christians in Jeru- 
 salem." 
 
 St. Jerome, in this last passage, may have been mistaken as to 
 Philo's intention. It is very probable that the Jewish writer knew 
 not that what he saw and described was a new efflorescence of 
 piety coming from Christ, with whom he was not, perhaps, tho- 
 roughly acquainted. He knew that the Essenes in Palestine and 
 the Therapeutae in Egypt had flourished for a couple of centuries; 
 and it is very likely that he intended to speak only of Jewish asce- 
 tics, not of Christians. But in point of fact many of those pious 
 men had already, in Philo's time, embraced Christianity, at least 
 in Egypt; and they were, all gradually destined to take the same 
 step; and St. Jerome was perfectly right in saying that the life of 
 those primitive Egyptian disciples was exactly similar to that of 
 the monks living in his age, and also to that of the first disciples 
 in Jerusalem, as described by St. Luke. This is all that is pre- 
 tended before coming to an exact description of the peculiar holi- 
 ness then prevailing in Egypt. 
 
 A word remains to be said of Cassian's testimony. He does 
 not speak of the Jewish author of Be Vita Contemplativa, and confines 
 himself to the cenobites living in his time. But there is a short 
 passage in his second book, De Cmnobiorum Institutis, which precisely 
 falls in with our actual purpose, and proves that the life of the 
 first Christians in Egypt was precisely like that of the first disci- 
 ples in Jerusalem; and moreover, that-' in his opinion, it had con- 
 
2i8 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 tinued to his very time, and was reproduced in his day by the 
 monks among whom he remained for about ten years of his own 
 life. This is important, because the details of that peculiar holi- 
 ness are perfectly well ascertained by this work of Cassian, and 
 by his still more copious Collationes; so that we can form a correct 
 idea of it such as it was practised by the first Christians of Palestine 
 and Egypt. This .is his exact meaning translated, from the origi- 
 nal Latin: ^ 
 
 " When the Christian faith was propagated (in Egypt) there 
 were already in the country some holy men, truly worthy of bear- 
 ing the name of monks, who received from the evangelist Mark of 
 blessed memory, the first Alexandrme bishop, a rule of life which 
 expressed to the letter the eminent character of the primitive 
 church in Jerusalem as we find it in the Acts of the Apostles. That 
 is to say, ' The multitude of believers had but one heart and one 
 soul ; neither did any one say that aught of the things which he 
 possessed was his own ; but all things were common unto them; 
 etc. Nay, they went much farther than this ;" and Cassian 
 directly begins to give copious details of the cenobites' daily life 
 which the first Jerusalem Christians did not altogether practise, 
 since they continued to live with their wives and did not withdraw 
 into solitude; still the life of both was otherwise alike. 
 
 It is evident from the whole passage that in Cassian's time 
 the Christians in Egypt firmly believed that at the very cradle of 
 Christianity in their country the holiness of the first Jerusalem 
 congregation prevailed also in Alexandria. It had been brought 
 by Mark, who had himself witnessed the first outburst of that 
 piety in Jerusalem, and did his best to bring up his Egyptian con- 
 verts to the same height of sanctity. The author of the work 
 De C(E7iobioru77i I?istitutis does not say a word of the former 
 Therapeutae,.probably because in his time they were all Christians 
 and had lost their former name. But he must have believed like 
 Eusebius and St. Jerome that they had formed Ihe nucleus of that 
 primitive Alexandrine congregation of which he speaks so highly. 
 It must be, therefore, considered as proved that what has been 
 said a few pages back of the Judeo-Christians in Jerusalem is 
 true also of the Egyptian primitive church ; and if there was 
 need of it, other witnesses could be found in Epiphanius, Palladius, 
 and many other ecclesiastical writers. 
 
FACTS. 
 
 2. Descriptmi of the Primitive Christian Life in Egypt. 
 
 At first convents were unknown, and it is much later that 
 Pachomius opened the first monastery. But in Egypt more than in 
 Palestine ascetics lived apart from each other, though they did not 
 go as yet into the wilderness, but they built their cells in the 
 neighborhood of cities and towns. It was the fury of the persecu- 
 tions, particularly those of Decius and Diocletian, which obliged 
 those holy men to withdraw into the desert ; and the Egyptian 
 Paul was, for this reason, called the first hermit. Before him, 
 however, and from the dawn of Christianity in Alexandria, there 
 were already hermits, anchorites, ascetae, by whatever name you 
 wish to call them, who devoted themselves to a life of prayer and 
 manual labor such as the world had never witnessed before. 
 
 Some very interesting details of it are given by Cassian in his 
 second book, De Institutis which are precisely those we need, 
 because he describes there not what took place in his time, but 
 what was customary when -"the primitive church's perfection" — 
 Ecclesice illius. priinitivce perfectio — " was in full vigor." * 
 
 " They withdrew," he says, " into the most hidden and retired 
 places they could find in the suburbs of towns — Suburbiorum loca ; 
 and there practised abstemiousness to such a degree that it was 
 a matter of wonder particularly to those who were not yet Chris- 
 tians. They spent whole days and nights in reading the Holy 
 Scriptures, in prayer, and manual labor; the appetence of food, 
 even the memory of it, appeared to be forgotten, and it was only 
 after two or three days of an absolute fast that they consented to 
 take the necessary food and drink, in which, however, they never 
 indulged before sunset. They thought that the entire day must 
 always be spent in the soul's care, and the body allowed its 
 ' refreshment only at night." 
 
 According to the same author the memory of those ancient 
 monastic customs all over Lower Egypt must have continued for 
 a long time to be known in all its details by- tradition, since it was 
 only after true monasteries began to flourish — that is, after Pacho- 
 mius, that it was thought necessary to write down rules of the 
 most exact precision, in order to prevent divisions and schisms. 
 
 * Lib. ii. cap. v. 
 
2 20 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 During nearly three centuries, therefore, custom alone ruled, a 
 custom well known, as he says, indigenarum relatione — " from the 
 constant report of the inhabitants." It can be concluded from this 
 passage of Cassian that the conventual rules in vigor in after-times 
 were merely the written expression of a former state going up to 
 the very cradle of the Christian religion. 
 
 These rules are given out at length in both the Institutes and 
 Conferences of Cassian. It does not enter into our scope to trans- 
 late or copy them even compendiously. But St. Jerome has 
 written an admirable and graphic abridgment of them, in his 
 twenty-second letter Ad Eustochium^ de custodia Virginitatis. A few 
 passages of it on the cenobites cannot be omitted : 
 • "The first rule among them is to obey the superiors and do 
 whatever is commanded. They are divided into bands of te7i and 
 of a hundred; so that nine of them recognize an officer in the tenth 
 man, and the ten officers in their turn are under the authority of 
 the hundredth one. As to the order of the day, it is as follows: 
 All remain in solitude in their cells until the ninth hour "—three 
 o'clock in the afternoon. " The only persons who can then enter 
 the cells are the officers of the decades, whose chief function is to 
 bring consolation and comfort to whomsoever is agitated and in 
 grief. At the ninth hour all meet in a comrpon hall. Psalms are 
 sung, Holy Scripture is read, and when the' prayers are over all 
 sit down to listen to the one whom they call Father, who begins to 
 address them. . In the midst of the most profound silence no one 
 either looks on^another or is heard even to breathe. The copious 
 tears of the audience are the only praise of the speaker; and 
 mourning never breaks forth into groans. When the Father 
 dwells upon the kingdom of Christ and the future beatitude in 
 glory, you might see their lips moving and, with their eyes turned 
 toward heaven, saying softly with the Psalmist: 'Who will give 
 me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest.' 
 
 " After this, the meeting being over, they go to their meal, at 
 which all in turn help and serve the others. At table no noise is 
 ever heard, and no one speaks even with his neighbor. Their 
 fare consists of bread, of herbs and roots, with no other condi- 
 ment than salt. Wine is drank only by the old men, and in small 
 quantity by the children, in order that the advanced age of the 
 first may be supported, and the tottering steps o-f childhood may 
 be strengthened. ... The daily labor of each one is supervised 
 
FACTS. 221 
 
 « 
 by the officer of each decade, and the total produce of the whole 
 is faithfully reported every month to the superior of the house. 
 To him devolves the charge of tasting the food before it is placed 
 on the table, and of procuring for each member of the commu- 
 nity the clothing and linen he needs. For no one can take the 
 liberty of asking a new tunic or cloak, or a new set of mats for 
 reclining at night. If any one gets sick he is immediately taken 
 to a larger and well-ventilated apartment, where some old brothers 
 take such care of him that he cannot long for the comforts of 
 any city, or even the affection of a mother. 
 
 " On Sundays the whole time is spent in prayer and reading, 
 which is also the case during the week, after they have completed 
 their daily task. Every day some chapter of the Scriptures is 
 studied. They all follow the same rule of fasting the year round; 
 that is, till the ninth hour. But during Lent each one can fol- 
 low his own inclination for holy austerity, and prolong his fast 
 according to his devotion. From Easter to Pentecost the meal 
 is anticipated; so that fast is broken by an early dinner and not 
 by supper only; but though their life is thus made less austere, 
 agreeably to ecclesiastical tradition, they never load their stomachs 
 by taking two meals a day." 
 
 This passage of St. Jerome suffices to give an idea of the ab- 
 stemious and holy life of the first Christians in Egypt. If mod- 
 ern moralists complain that, with the practice of some virtues, 
 many others are not mentioned which must go to compose a 
 complete course of ethics, an answer can be given oomprehensive 
 enough for the purpose. This short sketch is far from being even 
 an adequate abridgment of Cassian's book. As was stated, this 
 could not enter into the present scheme; but by a simple refer- 
 ence to both the Institutes and Conferences, it will be easily seen 
 that the practice of all the Christian virtues was strictly taught 
 and enforced in those holy houses. And not only positive holi- 
 ness was the rule according to David's precept, Fac bonum; but 
 the contrary vices were strongly checked in obedience to the 
 first part of the Psalmist's verse, Declina a malo. It is sufficient 
 to go cursorily through the various chapters of Cassian's works, 
 to be persuaded of the thoroughness of the method. 
 
 But is it necessary in this age to come down to a vindication 
 of this kind of life ? In the sketch of it that has just been drawn,, 
 none of the shocking features objected by Mr. Lecky against Egyp- 
 
222 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 • 
 tian monasticism in his " European Morals" can be perceived. 
 
 The simple reason of it is that this unobjectionable rule was the 
 usual tenor, of life in those houses; and the extraordinary facts 
 brought together by the author of " European Morals" were 
 only anomalies which the accompanying text often explains and 
 renders more acceptable to reason. It cannot be denied, how- 
 ever, that this sublimity of virtue is little in keeping %ith the 
 fastidious habits of our modern civilization. Must we condescend 
 again to apologize for it ? A slight attempt at it has been made 
 in the '' Church and Gentile World," and, as we expressly speak 
 in this volume of Christian holiness, we would consider it derog- 
 atory to our very object to renew the attempt. The thing cannot 
 be supposed to be subject to controversy. Both in Palestine and 
 Egypt the origin of those holy rules and customs went up to the 
 Apostles, and consequently to Christ Himself. Every Christian 
 must be persuaded, for that reason, that they expressed the purest 
 evangelical doctrine. To find fault with some details because 
 they differ a great deal from our way of life is unworthy of a 
 moralist, not to say of a Christian. It is not only in this age that 
 this captious spirit has been manifested, but at all times there 
 have been many instances of it, and St. Jerome had already to 
 rebuke Vigilantius for his violent attacks on the monks of his 
 day. But in spite of these bitter vituperations there have been 
 in all ages multitudes of men and women ready to embrace and 
 practise whatever was most particularly impugned; and a greater 
 multitude still of ordinary Christians who did not indeed feel the 
 courage to walk in the same road of perfection, yet admired it 
 and encouraged it to the best of their ability. 
 
 The intimate relation existing between the primitive church 
 in Palestine and that of Egypt would give rise to very important 
 considerations. Had the majority of the Jews been converted 
 and Jerusalem been spared, it is very probable that the same 
 extraordinary kind of holiness would have prevailed at the origin 
 of Christianity all over the earth, and that what seems now to us 
 an idyllic and gracefnl story, belonging only to the Judeo-Chris- 
 tians of the Holy City in Palestine, would have been repeated in 
 all countries visited by the primitive apostles. We will see in the 
 next chapter that the same was likewise very probably true of the 
 church at Edessa, which originated simultaneously with that of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
FACTS. 
 
 223 
 
 It is interesting, therefore, to look a moment at the moral pros- 
 pect which would have been offered to the eye by those immense 
 Oriental regions, in case the Jewish race, sanctified at once by the 
 practice of these extraordinary virtues, had continued in posses- 
 sion of the leadership in the great social revolution which Chris- 
 tianity was to effect. The Jews were at this epoch dispersed 
 through the whole world, but particularly in the East. Any one 
 who reads the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, in which 
 St. Luke speaks of those who had come to Jerusalem for the feast 
 of Pentecost, will be struck by this remark, and conclude that the 
 whole Orient was full of them. The Christian converts among 
 them who would have been the Church's rulers in the present 
 supposition could not but have copied exactly the proceedings of 
 the first apostles in the Holy City. What has just been called 
 the intimate relation of the Alexandrine primitive congregation 
 with that of Jerusalem would have become a universal fact in the 
 whole Orient at least, for a longer or shorter period, according as 
 the primeval fervor would have lasted a longer or shorter time. 
 The apostleship of St. Paul shows that even after the Jews had 
 repeatedly refused to listen, he continued to address them every- 
 where preferably to the gentiles. Before St. Peter went to Rome 
 he considered himself as the apostle of the Jews. It was only at 
 Caesarea that, in consequence of a vision, he received into the 
 church the family of the Roman Cornelius ; and at Antioch, as an 
 exception, he preached to the Greeks as well as to his country- 
 men. Everywhere else he devoted all his energy to the formation 
 of the Judeo-Christian congregations. Had there been a suf- 
 ficient response from those whom he addressed, the Church would 
 have undoubtedly presented at least in the whole Orient the spec- 
 tacle offered primitively in the limited field assigned to St. James 
 in the Holy City. 
 
 But a question remains to be briefly examined, before passing 
 on to the next chapter. So far Egyptian holiness has been con- 
 sidered only among the Therapeutae, who were the first disciples 
 of St. Mark in Alexandria. Can the same be equally attributed 
 to the whole Egyptian nation after the conversion of this extraor- 
 dinary people ? Would the descriptions of St. Jerome and of 
 Cassian be as appropriate for the inhabitants of Upper Egypt as 
 for those at the mouth of the Nile? The answer to these ques- 
 tions must be affirmative without possibility of contradiction. 
 
224 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 The whole Coptic church originally was eminently monastic ; 
 and it extended as far south as Nubia, and farther. The same 
 holiness of life so remarkable on the shores of the Mediterranean 
 Sea, at Nitria for instance, prevailed likewise at Tabennae, near 
 the tropics. The copious details furnished by ecclesiastical his- 
 tory cannot leave any doubt on the subject. And moreover, in 
 the fourth and fifth centuries, at the time of Palladius and of Cas- 
 sian it continued in its primitive fervor. Athanasius witnessed it 
 everywhere in his travels when Constantius forced him to flee 
 from his see. Along the Nile as far as the first cataract, in the 
 wilderness east of the river nearly to the shores of the Arabian 
 Gulf, it was the same heavenly life that flourished in those arid 
 solitudes. Virtue had prevailed over the depravity of paganism. 
 The idols lay prostrate all over the country, and the only divinity 
 that was universally worshipped was the Triune God, the great 
 source of holiness and life. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 HOLINESS IN UPPER SYRIA AND NORTHERN MESOPOTAMIA — EDESSA 
 THE CENTRE OF THE MOVEMENT. 
 
 I. Christianity was Preached at Edessa in the Apostolic Age. 
 
 Though the number of Jews in the first century of our era was 
 very considerable in Southern Mesopotamia, particularly at Baby- 
 lon and its neighborhood, there is no positive proof that the same 
 was true either of the northern part of this celebrated country or 
 of the adjoining state of Edessa under the Abgar dynasty. The 
 Syriac civilization and literature, moreover, which then began to 
 throw an extraordinary splendor over the East, would seem to in- 
 dicate that the elements of this high culture were native to the 
 land, and did not receive any important increase from Hebrew 
 proselytes. It does not appear, consequently, that there could be 
 any intimate communication between the Jews of Palestine and 
 the Christians of Edessa. It is, on the contrary, certain that 
 neither Essenes nor Therapeutse ever flourished on the banks of 
 the Upper Euphrates ; and there is not, in this case, the strong 
 conjecture which has afforded a first test of the close connection 
 between the primitive churches of Palestine and Egypt. 
 
 Still, the perfect sameness of the primitive Christian institu- 
 tions in both countries, particularly the complete identity in both 
 of the same kind of monasticism, naturally bring on the conviction 
 that the Church began in Edessa as in Jerusalem by exhibiting to 
 the world the spectacle described in the Acts of the Apostles. De- 
 tails must be furnished more abundant still than have yet been 
 brought forward; and they may produce a strong persuasion that 
 the holiness of the primitive congregation at Edessa bore a great 
 resemblance to that of Jerusalem and Alexandria. It was the same 
 sanctity of the same universal church. In a first place, it has been 
 proved in " The Church and the Gentile World " that Christianity 
 was preached in Lesser Armenia almost as early as at Jerusalem; 
 
2 26 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 and, we must add here, by some of the same apostles and disciples, 
 who must have done their best to kindle in the hearts of those new 
 neophytes the identical fire of faith and charity their preachmg 
 had produced in the city of David. According to a universal tra- 
 dition, preserved all over the Orient, but particularly prevalent m 
 Edessa itself, Thaddseus, one of the seventy-two disciples of Jesus, 
 was sent, soon after Pentecost, by St. Thomas the apostle to King 
 Abgar, who then ruled over this country. The process of conver- 
 sion was already going on with the friendly help of Abgar, when 
 Thomas himself arrived, and remained so long in the city and its 
 neighborhood that many have thought he never went to India, but 
 confined his mission to Western Armenia and the adjacent terri- 
 tories. This opinion is disproved; and it must be now admitted 
 that after several years of labor on the Upper Euphrates, Thomas 
 went East through the vast regions of Central Asia, which he was 
 the first to evangelize. But according to the best-authenticated 
 opinion, after his departure St. Jude, called also Thaddoeus, 
 coming himself to Edessa from Palestine, became the apostle of 
 all Mesopotamia, north and south. Christianity was, therefore, 
 preached on the Euphrates by two at least of the apostles who had 
 established the Church at Jerusalem. 
 
 The city of Abgar was thus evangelized just at the time when 
 Jerusalem was beginning to offer to the world the spectacle of 
 holiness previously described, and several years at least before 
 Mark had begun his ministry in Upper and Lower Egypt. All 
 this is not only upheld by tradition, but Eusebius of Caesarea 
 thought he possessed proofs enough of it to consider it historical, 
 and has given it a place in his " Ecclesiastical History." 
 
 Edessa soon became a thoroughly Christian city, and was most 
 probably the first in the whole world which deserved the name. 
 Hence, according to Assemani,* it was eminently called tlieholy and 
 the blessed. As early as Trajan's reign, that part of Armenia being 
 already annexed to the Roman Empire, numerous martyrs hon- 
 ored it by their constancy, and shed their blood for Christ. Bar- 
 simceus, its bishop, was one of them ; and several of its citizens 
 are known by name as having perished in the same persecu- 
 tion. 
 
 The strongest reason, however, that can be given of the very 
 
 *Bibl. Orient., i. 201, 278, 417. 
 
FACTS. 227 
 
 early establishment of Christianity in Lesser Armenia is the fact 
 mentioned in a previous work, that the total translation of the New 
 Testament in Syriac, the language of Edessa, cannot be supposed 
 to have been completed later than the middle of the second cen- 
 tury; that is, about 150, fifty years only after the death of St. 
 John. The Greek and Latin Scriptures, in Greece and Italy, can- 
 not be traced to so high an epoch; and although it is absolutely 
 certain that they were then known all over the western world, still 
 there are not of their existence the same strong proofs which we 
 now have of that of the Feshito or Syriac version. It required a 
 great Christian vitality to possess so early as this the whole New 
 Testament. 
 
 But what reasons have w^e to think that the heroic virtues prac- 
 tised by the* Christians of Jerusalem and Alexandria flourished 
 likewise at the same time on the Upper Euphrates ? This is to be 
 considered attentively. 
 
 2. Monasticism and Theology^ Two Sources of Holiness at Edessa. 
 
 It must be held as certain that monasticism existed very early 
 at Edessa and in its neighborhood, as well as at Nisibis, and in the 
 whole of Northern Mesopotamia. We have not, it is true, any pre- 
 cise account of its origin there as there is for Egypt. But it ap- 
 pears in full vigor in the third and fourth centuries ; and it seems 
 that it began also by the hermit's cell, as it did along the Nile. 
 Nearly all the great men who became celebrated in the Church by 
 their labors for the faith, in that country, prepared themselves for 
 their ministry by a longer or shorter period of total retirement 
 from the world. They usually removed from the towns into some 
 remote and desert places, and lived mostly in caves, spending their 
 time in prayer, the study of Holy Scriptures, and the practice of 
 austerities, preparatory to an apostolic life in the world. It was a 
 repetition of what was taking place at the same time in Egypt. 
 Often men who belonged to the noblest families adopted this 
 severe kind of life as a preparation for preaching or teaching. St. 
 James of Nisibis, whose mother became the wife of an Armenian 
 king, spent several years in a desert before he began to preach 
 the word of God. This peculiarity gave to Syrian asceticism an 
 aspect somewhat different from that of Egypt, where the anchor- 
 ites continued all their life in retirement. Still the austerities 
 
2 28 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 practised in both countries were nearly the same, and since Mr. 
 Lecky calls the monks along the Nile maniacs, and almost brutes, 
 on account of their mortified life, he might have applied the same 
 epithets to those of Syria, if another Rosweide had published their 
 Vitce Patrum. We shall presently see what to think of it. 
 
 We do not possess, unfortunately, the same abundance of 
 details for the beginnings of monasticism in and around Edessa 
 that Rosweide's celebrated work gives us for the Egyptian 
 monasteries. But the multitude of holy houses of that kind 
 along the Upper Euphrates in the third and fourth centuries is 
 an irrefragable proof that those institutions must have begun at 
 the very origin of Christianity in that country. 
 
 Did they spring up from the native soil or were they imported 
 from outside ? No positive answer can be given to this question. 
 Still, the remarkable differences which can be perceived between 
 both kinds of establishments would justify the opinion that those 
 of Edessa did not come from any other country, but must have 
 originated there; and in this case it must have been the fruit of 
 the first preaching of the apostles Thomas and Jude in that city. 
 This point is of such an importance that it must be examined 
 more closely. 
 
 Though essentially the same with that of Egypt, the monas- 
 ticism flourishing on the Upper Euphrates in the third and fourth 
 centuries presents such a peculiar aspect that it is difficult to 
 believe it came either from Palestine or Egypt. There are 
 chiefly two particulars which impress the mind as deciding the 
 case without almost any fear of error. These are first the high 
 intellectual range of the Syrian schools, and secondly their ardor 
 for the propagation of the faith in foreign parts. This gave rise 
 to two features which can be seen nowhere else to the same 
 extent ; namely, schools of the highest excellence inside of their 
 monasteries, and missionary work of the most extensive character 
 outside of them. 
 
 Neither of these two features appear in the least in the Egyptian 
 convents, and very little in those of Palestine. In all of them, it is 
 true, the monks read and studied; but the schools of Edessa and 
 Nisibis present a totally different character from those of the two other 
 countries. Study in these last was all directed to the individual 
 and strictly ascetic improvement of the monks ; in the first, on 
 the contrary — namely, those of Syria — it soared directly up into the 
 
FACTS. 229 
 
 highest regions of poetry and theology, as a preparation for prose- 
 lytism. 
 
 Nearly everything which has come down to us from the monas- 
 teries of Egypt in a literary form consists of what is called Verba 
 Fatrum—t\\Q Words of the Fathers. In these there are often pro- 
 found views of human nature, and a high and accurate appreciation 
 of this and the next world. The most attentive critic will not find 
 in all the sayings of the seven wise men of Greece anything to com- 
 pare with what often issued from the mouths of those austere monks 
 who had the folly, according to Mr. Lecky, of making their habitual 
 dwelling in the sepulchres of the dead. But as was said, everything 
 was directed among them toward the spiritual improvement of the 
 monks alone, and all their studies were confined within those limits. 
 The same was also the case in Palestine. Nay, there was no great 
 difference in this regard, later on, in the monasteries of western 
 Europe, at the beginning at least, under the rule of Benedict, of 
 Bernard, of Francis. 
 
 It was not so on the Upper Euphrates. Every monastery, so far 
 as we can trace their history, contained a school of the highest order 
 of intellect. It is true the various branches of learning which now 
 engross the entire attention of modern Europeans were perfectly 
 unknown in those holy establishments, although profane learning was 
 not ahogether excluded. But the Christian religion in its highest 
 development offered an inexhaustible field of culture to those gifted 
 Asiatic minds. The most sublime and at the same time exact 
 theology transported them into a world very different from ours, but 
 far more entrancing and profitable to the soul. Not of those men 
 could Mr. Lecky say that they had a grovelling mind, though the 
 phrase is certainly misapplied by him in the case of the Egyptian 
 cenobites. The reader will soon have an occasion to listen to some 
 strains of that divine harmony coming from Edessa, and our only 
 regret will be that it could not be possible to make quotations as 
 numerous as we would wish. 
 
 But theology, under the pen of those great writers, soared aloft 
 on the wings of a truly inspired poetry ; and the spectacle has, per- 
 haps, never been seen anywhere else on earth, of truth, absolute 
 truth, presented to the gaze of men under the brilliant garb of the 
 most alluring fancy. These schools, being as numerous as the 
 monasteries themselves, were found everywhere in the country, and 
 many of them had been in the fifth century so long in. existence that 
 
230 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the epoch of their foundation was absolutely unknown. Edessa and 
 Nisibis contained many; but no city of importance was altogether 
 deprived of them. 
 
 The second feature which distinguished the Syrian monasteries 
 from all others was the missionary work they undertook, sometimes 
 to a great distance from their habitual place of dwelling. In the 
 monastery of the Acoemetes, at Edessa, the monks were divided into 
 squads of one hundred and fifty men, and each squad was composed 
 of missionaries speaking one at least of four languages— namely, 
 Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Persian— so that they might "evangelize 
 the whole world." They went as far as Palmyra, Antioch, Jerusalem, 
 and Constantinople. All these countries being civilized, they had 
 prepared themselves for their gigantic intellectual work by long 
 studies all derived from Holy Scripture and the tradition of the 
 Fathers; and we may suppose that their way of propagating the 
 Gospel was somewhat different from the one subsequently adopted by, 
 the Irish monks who in the eighth century left likewise their island 
 to convert the barbarians of Gaul and Germany. The Syrian 
 ascetics had to evangelize refined people. 
 
 These two most remarkable features of the old Syrian monasteries 
 seem to furnish a sufficient proof that they were of native growth, 
 and consequently can be traced back, at least in their incipient stage, 
 to the very apostles who first evangelized the country; namely, 
 Thomas and Jude. The schools, which were all pure monastic estab- 
 lishments, could certainly be traced to a high antiquity, since Barde- 
 sanes, who flourished about 150 of our era and must have been born 
 a very few years after the death of St. John, had been educated in 
 one of those schools of his native city, his parents being at the same 
 time already Christian. Let the reader ponder on this and judge of 
 the antiquity of monasticism at Edessa. 
 
 But what of holiness, which is all along the important considera- 
 tion for us? It will be directly seen that the question is already 
 decided, though it has not been treated in a direct manner. It 
 naturally follows from all the circumstances which have been just 
 narrated. If monastic life in Northern Mesopotamia differed con- 
 siderably in two particular points from that of other countries, it 
 remained essentially the same in every other respect. Consequently 
 the supernatural virtues which made of the primitive church in 
 Palestine and Egypt a paragon of holiness and a paradise of bliss 
 were likewise practised on the LTpper Euphrates, so as to be an exact 
 
FACTS. 231 
 
 reproduction of them. If we are altogether deprived of details in 
 this last case, with regard to the incipient stage of this happy state, 
 as soon as authentic documents are furnished in the third and fourth 
 centuries the reader becomes convinced of a perfect identity in all 
 those primeval shoots of the Christian tree. The eighteen opuscules 
 of St. James, bishop of Nisibis, which have fortunately come down 
 to us, would suffice to furnish a demonstration of it. The spirit 
 of faith, charity, chastity, obedience, and true -humility, which 'he 
 describes as being the holy obligations imposed on the Christian 
 ascetic, is precisely the same mainspring by which the neophytes of 
 Jerusalem and Alexandria were moved. The whole of it was evi- 
 dently derived from the*doctrine of the Beatitudes, from the Sermon 
 of Christ on the Mount. 
 
 And that this is the faithful picture representing the life followed 
 at Edessa by the majority of its inhabitants, even out of the monasteries, 
 is proved by the title of " the holy," " the blessed," which Assemani 
 tells us the city itself had early acquired throughout the whole 
 eastern world. But besides the general description left us by the 
 learned Maronite, we happily possess a much better means of being 
 convinced of it. This consists in the numerous songs of Ephrem, 
 which in the best editions of his works bear the name of 7i2crosima, 
 or cantus funebres. It seems that this most learned and pious deacon 
 v/as invariably chosen to speak at the grave of all those who died in 
 his time within the precincts of Edessa. That he would have con- 
 sidered it a sacrilege to utter a lie on any of those solemn occasions 
 must be admitted by all who are acquainted with his character and 
 sanctity. That everything he said of the dead was true to the letter 
 cannot be doubted by any one who has perused those funeral dis- 
 courses even in the poorest translations. Go through the whole col- 
 lection ; it is long; it contains nearly a hundred of those composi- 
 tions ; but no one will ever find the task tedious. If the translation 
 is accurate and sufficiently well done, it will be one of the most attrac- 
 tive books that can be found in the literature of any nation. Still, it 
 is the simple description of what was then the ordinary life of this 
 Christian people. Many of them were monks, and the reader will 
 soon find it by some casual expressions of the speaker. But there 
 were also common folks, following the various avocations of an ordi- 
 nary life; there were children brought to the grave almost before 
 they had tasted the sweetness cf it. There are many mournful expres- 
 sions addressed to the relations and friends of the dead, speaking of 
 
232 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 their loss, of their just grief; but always opening before their eyes 
 the prospect of heaven as the just reward of the most eminent 
 virtue. 
 
 It must be confessed that in our age the same praise is often 
 addressed to the dead, whose rich coffins are brought to the foot of 
 the altar profusely covered with flowers and handled with the deepest 
 veneration and respect. Still, no one can conclude that our age is a 
 reproduction of the first days of the Christian Church ; and should 
 society become still much worse than it is at present, the same 
 fulsome panegyrics would probably be heard around the grave of our 
 modern Christians. But the same cannot be supposed when the 
 speaker was Ephrem, and those of whom he spoke were his dead 
 countrymen, who had been known to all those present. People had 
 not yet reached in the process of civilization the period of insincerity 
 which distinguishes our own. They would not have tolerated it. 
 
 No! the deacon of Edessa could not utter untruths when he had 
 before him the cold remains of a Christian who was at that time 
 already judged by his Maker, and beginning the endless existence 
 in which there could not be any more deceit and fraud. In these 
 circumstances the cajitus funebres of the Syrian monk afford the 
 proof that the holiness of the Christian Church in Palestine and 
 Egypt was also that of Edessa and the country around. 
 
 There was in it, however, a peculiar character derived from the 
 two extraordinary features mentioned above. It was essentially 
 the same as that of other countries, since it sprung from the spirit 
 of self-sacrifice which undoubtedly characterized all of them. Still 
 there appeared to be in Palestine and Egypt more simplicity; in 
 Edessa more sublimity. Pure holiness embraces both expressions. 
 There can be nothing more simple than virtue itself, which is 
 always without guile; there can be also nothing more sublime, 
 because it raises man to God. And what is most remarkable, true 
 sublimity is always most simple. Pagans even knew it, as 
 appears from Longinus. 
 
 The extraordinary elevation of thought so remarkable in the 
 Christians of Edessa deserves to be closely studied, in order to 
 rightly judge of their true holiness. For their subjects of medi- 
 tation were all concerned about God and a higher life; and there 
 was nothing earthly in their contemplation. This is always for 
 man one of the greatest sources of sanctity. Consequently theii 
 literature sprung up entirely from Christianity, without any pro] 
 
FACTS. 233 
 
 fane admixture; and it has just been said that it was confined to 
 the deepest theology and the highest poetry; the first always exact, 
 the second always brilliant. No offspring of a sensuous imagina- 
 tion could go hand in hand with these two virgin daughters of 
 Heaven. 
 
 It has been remarked also that there was no Syriac literature 
 before the Christian era. There was no fear of the previous my- 
 thology being mixed up with revealed truth, as in Rome and 
 Greece. Thus it became at once the highest expression of the 
 true holiness which Christianity alone can give; and all know that 
 the literature of any people is invariably the exact expression of 
 its character. Let us see this more in detail. 
 
 Depth and exactitude in theology have been supposed to be 
 derived from the peculiar aptitudes of the Greek and the Latin 
 minds, setting aside from view the action of the Holy Spirit on 
 the Church, by which alone the purity of doctrine is secured. This 
 conception of the development of theology is true in the main; 
 and, undoubtedly, if God had not given us the Latin and Greek 
 doctors, much of what we know of the supernatural world would 
 not have yet come within the domain of our intellect. But in the 
 benevolent designs of Providence, the whole Oriental world was 
 not to depend entirely on the European (Greek or Latin) interpre- 
 tation of Scripture and Tradition, which is, as everybody knows, 
 the source of theology. The Orientals could also study Scripture, 
 and they had their own traditions; and if the spirit of holiness 
 animated them, they could also find out the meaning of Holy 
 Writ, provided they remained humbly dependent on the last word 
 of the true Interpreter — the Church. 
 
 It was evidently with this intention that God determined there 
 should be a text for the eastern mind, as there were two for the 
 western; and the Peshito of the New Testament appeared at least 
 as early at Nisibis and Edessa as the Greek complete Testament 
 at Alexandria and the Vetus Itala at Rome. Anteriorly to Chris- 
 tianity the Old Testament was known in Europe; but its Peshito 
 or Syriac version was, according to the common opinion, only con- 
 temporaneous with that of the New. The Christians of Edessa, 
 and with them the whole East, had, therefore, as early as the West 
 the written word of God, old and new, in their possession; and 
 doctors could speculate on those great subjects, on the banks of 
 the Euphrates, at the very time that other doctors began to do it 
 
234 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 along the Nile and the Tiber. Let the reader keep in his mind 
 this first fact : that nearly all the Latin and Greek Fathers of the 
 Church published in the co\irse of their life commentaries on all the 
 books of the Old and the New Testament ; and by the open discus- 
 sion in councils of the opinions contained in those commentaries the 
 science of theology began its course, which is not yet ended, but of 
 which the Council of the Vatican is destined to give us the highest 
 expression ever yet produced. Now let every one be persuaded that 
 the same took place in northern Mesopotamia, taking the Peshito as a 
 basis ; and Ephrem, and James of Sarug, and many other Syrian doc- 
 tors wrote commentaries, most of which have unfortunately perished 
 or have never been translated into our modern languages. These 
 are the precise theological speculations which are to be briefly studied 
 in order that we should become somewhat acquainted with the science, 
 and chiefly with the holiness that those men of the Orient derived 
 from the Christian doctrine they had embraced. The object to be 
 reached is now plain ; the execution will leave many things in an 
 unsatisfactory state, on account of the small number of quotations 
 our space will permit. The reader, however, must start from the 
 thought that if one of the greatest motives we have for thinking the 
 Church holy is derived from the expression of that holiness contained 
 in the writings of the Latin and Greek Fathers, he will have at least 
 some slight idea that the same is true likewise of the Syrian doctors 
 in theology. 
 
 But after this simple word on theology, and before coming to quo- 
 tations, a word more must be added of Syriac poetry. It was 
 said a moment ago that if the theology at Edessa was exact, the 
 poetry was brilliant, and that nowhere else, perhaps, were the sub- 
 limest thoughts on God and the soul clothed with the most alluring 
 garb of fancy. And even this last aspect of the case is not discon- 
 nected from the question of holiness, which must remain paramount 
 in all these considerations. For the imaginative faculty in man has 
 unfortunately been seldom devoted to the furtherance of virtue. In 
 the fine arts, in poetry, in eloquence, it has often become a great 
 source of corruption. But it was proper that when " the kingdom of 
 God" would be established on earth this faculty should be purified 
 of its dross, and altogether consecrated to the exaltation of true 
 beauty. The Latin and Greek Doctors of the Church undoubtedly 
 did it to a great extent in the West ; and their pages are full of the 
 most brilliant and alluring images that human fancy has ever con- 
 
FACTS. 235 
 
 ceived. This poetical gift, however, often reaches among the Orientals 
 a far higher degree of excellence. They seem to be unable to express 
 their thoughts unless under the veil of transcendent metaphors, which 
 emit sparks of fire and rays of light, so as to dazzle the beholder and 
 transport the listener with rapture. This can be called the consecra- 
 tion of fancy to holiness. After resurrection it will be one of the most 
 delightful emotions of beatified man in heaven, and it is certainly one 
 of the sweetest feelings of the purified heart of man on earth. It is 
 in our eyes one of the evidences of Christianity ; for the religion of 
 Christ alone has restored to us this gift which must have been most 
 prominent in our first parents in paradise, but which they nearly lost 
 by their fall: a fall which turned, in fact, its beauty into lewdness 
 and changed the heavenly aspirations of fancy into earthly and grovel- 
 ling sensations. 
 
 It has been maintained by some German critic, whose name I 
 forget, that the fancy of Ephrem and of James of Sarug soars 
 often toward the highest regions of poetry, but occasionally falls 
 flat into diffusion and iinmeaningness. This is the thought: the ex- 
 pression need not be absolutely required. It is very likely that 
 in case this German author had been born of native parents on 
 the banks of the Upper Euphrates or of the Ganges, he would 
 have been more able to appreciate the ?neaning of those great men, 
 and he would not have called diffusion what was with them only a 
 natural development of their deep thoughts. Any European 
 endowed with some imagination cannot possibly find anything 
 unmeaning or diffuse in whatever fell from the pen either of the 
 deacon of Edessa or of the great bishop of Sarug. 
 
 3. The Theology aftd Poetty at Edessa were eminently Conducive to Holi- 
 ness. 
 
 St. Ephrem often delivered discourses on Faith. Eighty-seven 
 of them have come down to us; and they always are a mine of 
 deep divinity. The chief dogmas of the Christian religion are 
 passed in review, and often explained with the splendor of the 
 most exalted fancy. Hear how he finds the image of the Trinity 
 in the sun— (the translation of the Rev. J. B. Morris of Oxford 
 is mainly used:) 
 
 "The sun is our luminary, and none is able to know it; how 
 much less to know man, and still less God ! The light of the sun 
 
236 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 is not subsequent to it; neither was he at any time without it 
 The sun itself being the first, the light is the second, and the 
 warmth the third ; these two last depart not from it, nor are they 
 identical with it. Look at the sun m his altitude, which is thought 
 to be one ; descend, and look, and behold his light, a second ; try 
 and feel and search his heat, a third. They are like, and yet not 
 like, one to another. The second is blended with him, though 
 well distinguished from him; and the third is mingled with him, 
 distinguished, blended, and mingled." It would be difficult to 
 find a more forcible image of the divine Trinity, with the chief mys- 
 teries it contains. But let us go on: 
 
 ''Light, and heat, and the sun are individual subsistences; 
 there are in them three kinds mingled in a three-fold way: him- 
 self, and also the light, and the heat the third, dwelling one in the 
 other, and agreeing without stint. Mingled, yet not confused; 
 blended, yet not bounden; assembled, yet not compelled; free, 
 yet not divergent. Let then the disputers ponder the things 
 which are seen; for lo, one are these three, and the three are one; 
 blended, yet not compounded; distinct, yet not several! There is 
 a marvel in all these things which putteth us to silence." 
 
 All metaphors are of course defective; and a captious man 
 could object that the personalities of the Son and of the Holy 
 Spirit are not sufficiently brought forward by this splendid image 
 of the sun. St. Ephrem knew it as well as any caviller ; and in 
 the next discourse — the forty-first — he comes back again to this 
 figure of the Trinity. Fully aware that the heretics often support 
 their erroneous opinions by material comparisons which can be 
 distorted to any purpose, he exclaimed: "As to the Lord of na- 
 tures, His Nature is hidden from all. Grant me, O Lord — and this 
 would be preferable — to form no shape of Thy Nature by the 
 creatures. But if any one shapes it out so, with the evident inten- 
 tion to lead the daring astray, the Gospel is the faultless mirror, 
 and in it the Three-fold are seen without possible contradiction, 
 since in them the apostles went forth and baptized (in the name 
 of the Trinity) without wrangling." The meaning of the holy' 
 deacon is evidently here that if metaphors are used to express 
 mysteries, their sense must be explained by the simple words of 
 the Gospel, not that of the Gospel by the metaphors. Here we 
 perceive the accuracy of the dialectician associated with the ima- 
 gery of the poet. 
 
FACTS. 237 
 
 Who will not recognize both of them in the following passages 
 on the Incarnation, taken from the fifty-first discourse on Faith ? 
 
 "Who is able to requite Thee for having humbled thy Majesty 
 unto our own littleness, for having brought thy Highness down 
 to the limits of the lowliest condition, and brought Thine own 
 Life down to the rank of mortality? Thine inexhaustible Richness 
 came down and dwelt in indigence ; and Thou hast subjected 
 Thy Lordship to the yoke of dependence. Praises be to Thy 
 goodness ! Who, Lord, can gaze upon and understand how Thy 
 invisibleness came down to a visible state. Thy mysterious con- 
 cealment came to the light and to an unclose manifestation, and 
 Thy eternal seclusion came forth to boundless openness ? These 
 things happened to Thee, Lord, because Thou wert Son of Man. 
 Praises to Him that sent Thee ! 
 
 " Who would not be afraid at the sight of it ? since though 
 Thy rising and Thy Human Birth were so manifest, still so incom- 
 prehensible is Thy Generation that it hath baffled the proudest 
 investigators. For there are that preacheth that it was a body 
 only that Thou tookest ; and there are that teacheth that it was a 
 soul and a body; others have erred in thinking it was a heavenly 
 frame. Praises to Thy Generation ! Lord, seal our mouth: for, 
 if Thy revealed estate has baffled the wise (since they have not 
 been able to grasp Thy Birth of Mary), if also men comprehended 
 not Thy Humanity, who ever shall be equal to Thy Divine Gen- 
 eration ? Praises be to Him that begot Thee ! 
 
 " Whatsoever may be allowed, let us sing, O Lord, upon our harp : 
 let MS utter nothing thereon which is not permitted, seeing it is the 
 harp of frail creatures. Neither are our sounds of it equal to the 
 probing of Thy Generation, nor even on the harps high and spiritual 
 of the highest angels can It be comprehended. Praises to Thy 
 mysterious secretness ! Lord, let my tongue be a pan for Thy glory, 
 and let the Finger of Thy grace mark out and write therewith words 
 of edification. The pen, Lord, cannot, without one to hold it, write 
 at its own will. Let not my tongue sHde off into speaking, without 
 Thee, aught which edifieth not. It would be audacity in us to call 
 Thee by a name different from what Thy Father called Thee, who 
 called Thee ' My Son' alone on the river Jordan. When Thou, even 
 Thou, wert baptized, the mystery of the Trinity baptized Thy 
 Humanity ; the Father by His voice, and the Son by His power, and 
 the Spirit by His overshadowing. . . . True is it that by the 
 
238 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 names wherewith Thy body was baptized our bodies also are baptized; 
 'and though there be very many Names of the Lord of all, He hath 
 baptized us in the Father and the Son and the Spirit distinctly. 
 Praises to Thy majesty ! 
 
 " Who hath seen in the subtle air a way akin to the way which a 
 fowl wendeth, or a man walking as upon the back of the wind ? The 
 breeze is spread out, and makes a path for that which walketh there, 
 and admonisheth not to go outside of it at all, for outside of it is 
 death. Praises be to Thy admonishing ! Lord, make me also to be 
 fully instructed by that danger, and to be afraid of going beyond the 
 boundary of my faith. The Truth is easy and straight : to them that 
 believe it is easy ; and to them that are perverse it is difficult. The 
 simple disentangle themselves, and escape ;^the learned err and fall into 
 the pit of disputatiousness. Oh, that the Lord may lift them out ! 
 Praises to Him who findeth all!" 
 
 Beauties of this kind can be met with in almost-every page written 
 by the Fathers of the Syrian Church, or rather by the Syrian monks; 
 since all those holy men were monks; and the reader may begin to, 
 perceive how the monasticism of Syria promoted also holiness, though 
 in a different manner from that of Egypt. Unable to go on indefinitely 
 in the same path, and unwillingly compelled to prescribe ourselves 
 narrow limits in these translations, we wnll conclude by a last quota- 
 tion on " the mystery of the Cross," in which Ephrem found with 
 justice the essence of Christianity and the most attractive views of 
 Christian theology. The whole is taken from the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth discourses on Faith. 
 
 "God, seeing that He was never at any time sufficiently searched 
 out by man, clothed Himself with a body which can easily be searched 
 out. We might thus cease from searching into His Divine Nature, and 
 rest ourselves in the Generation of His Human Nature. He thus 
 gently induced us to ask how the divine nature came down, and in j 
 the womb was for nine months silent. Thirty years also He remained 
 on earth, that by His long stay we might become used to Him. He 
 left those above, and became a companion unto those below. He 
 even on earth left those that were found, and sought for those that 
 were lost. He left those that were wise ; He chose those that were 
 simple ; and by them He spread His simple preaching unto every 
 man. He left the chariot of the four living creatures in heaven 
 (Ezechiel), and came down; and of the Cross He made Himself a 
 chariot unto the four quarters of the world. 
 
FACTS. 239 
 
 " Thou art the Son of the Living One, and Thou art the Son of 
 a mortal. Thou art the Son of our Creator, O Lord, who in Thee ' 
 established all things, and also the Son of Joseph,* that workman who 
 learnt by Thee. By Thee it was that the Maker without teaching 
 established all things ! with Thy Finger the Creator fashioned all the 
 creatures ! by Thee it was that Joseph fashioned his carpenter's work, 
 since he saw that Thou wert his Teacher! Hail! Son of the Creator. 
 Hail to the Son of the carpenter ! who, when creating, created every- 
 thing in the mystery of the Cross. And haply even in the house of 
 Joseph, that carpenter, with the Cross he was busied all day. 
 
 " The young of a bird, unless it be matured, is not able to break 
 through its covering (the egg's shell), owing to its imperfect state, and 
 faith which is under silence is also imperfect. Oh, perfect it. Thou 
 that perfectest all things ! The race of birds is brought up by a 
 three-fold advance, from the belly to the egg ; from hence to the nest, 
 and when it is perfected it flieth in the air; it spreadeth its wings in 
 the mystery of the Cross. And faith, too, is perfected by a three-fold 
 advance. For since in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy 
 Ghost the apostles believed, thus the faith flew unto the four quarters 
 of the world in the mystery of the Cross. The three-fold names are 
 sown in a three-fold way : in the spirit, and in the soul, and in the 
 body, as in the mystery of the Cross. When our Trinity was perfected 
 by the Three-fold One, it reigned unto the ends of the earth. 
 
 " If the little bird drew in its wings, and refused to receive 
 the silly mystery of the Cross, the air would then refuse her, and 
 not bear her up; but her wings praise the Rood. And if a ship 
 spreadeth her sails on the sea, in the mystery of the Rood and 
 from the yoke of the wood, she maketh a bosom for the wind; 
 when she hath spread forth the Rood, then is the course spread 
 clearly out for her voyage. If the ship was that of the Jew, the 
 Cross rebuked him by his deed, since, though not intending it, in 
 the ship himself with his own hands hath spread and displayed 
 the mystery of the Rood. Thus the sea by the Rood was sub- 
 jected to the unbelievers : for unless the crucifiers had made wood 
 into the form of a cross, and upon it had hung the sail as a Body, 
 the voyage would have halted. 
 
 * At the end of these quotations the meaning of this expression will be 
 sufficiently explained. It is several times repeated in this paragraph ; a single 
 word at the end of this long passage will show in what sense Ephrem believed 
 that Jesus was the son of Joseph. 
 
240 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 •' Neither again does the land yield itself to the crucifiers, 
 without the fair mystery of the shining Rood. It is the sign of 
 a Rood (the plough) which worketh it and softeneth it, and scat- 
 tereth the seed therein. ... If the crucifier buyeth a lamb and 
 killeth it, upon wood he hangs it. Lord, that he may shadow 
 forth the slaughter of Thee. And again when he hideth wheat 
 in the earth, the living seed preacheth thy resurrection. . . . And 
 in his vineyard is the cluster full of the type of Thy blood; and 
 when upon his tree the fruit hangeth, it is the type of Thy Cross 
 and of the Fruit of Thy Body. 
 
 " Lo ! in the house of unbelievers the preacher of Thee crieth 
 aloud : Ye that sleep, arise, be watchful ! since it is plain what he 
 signifies by hanging and clapping his w4ngs there (on the cross). 
 Lo ! he proclaimeth the resurrection of the dead to that buried 
 living man (the Jew). And if in her nest, by mere touch, a bird 
 conceiveth holily in her womb by the warmth of the cherishing 
 wings, and hath her issue without other intercourse, then lo ! in 
 his own house he hath a mln'or of Mary.'' 
 
 St. Ephrem was mistaken in thinking that this could happen 
 to any bird; but it was universally believed in his time of some 
 kinds of fowls. At least this last phrase expresses the sense in 
 which the holy deacon had called Jesus the Son of Joseph and the 
 Son of the Carpenter. Pity that more of this cannot be transcribed. 
 For nothing could be better calculated to give us a thorough knowl- 
 edge of the Christians of Edessa than their theology and their poetry 
 combined into one grand whole, and bearing the truthful expression 
 of their minds and hearts. It was Christianity alone that had pro- 
 duced this magnificent efflorescence of beauty ; and in this splendid 
 literature there was absolutely nothing which was not thoroughly 
 Christian and promotive of the highest morality. 
 
 The social and moral state of that noble country before the 
 preaching of- the Gospel is well known. After the brilliant perioc 
 of the Assyrian Empire it had sunk down into the immoralities ol 
 pagan Semitisra, and of its literature at that time nothing is kno^ 
 because there was none. Suddenly one of the grandest outbursts oi 
 eloquence and poetry begins by Bardesanes in 150, to last severz 
 centuries, and end, unfortunately, by the bastard Christianity of Nes 
 torius in the sixth age. During more than four hundred years, con- 
 sequently, it produced a number of powerful writers fully equal toj 
 the greatest doctors of the Greek church at the same epoch. But il 
 
 4\ 
 
 ■:jM 
 
 m 
 
FACTS. 241 
 
 must be insisted upon here : In the Syrian church it was altogether 
 the product of monasticism. And this monasticism was exactly 
 alike to that of Egypt and Palestine in its interior spirit, though 
 somewhat different as to its exterior manifestation. And the reason 
 of the difference was that on the Upper Euphrates the monastic in- 
 stitutions embraced a course of higher studies in theology and ora- 
 tory, of which those of Egypt and Palestine were almost wholly 
 deprived. But read the private lives of James of Nisibis, of James 
 of Sarug, of Ephrem, and many others — in fact, of all those Syrian 
 Fathers whose biographies have come down to us — and their austere 
 life is fully equal to that of Anthony, of Pachomius, of Paul the her- 
 mit, of Hilarion, and scarcely inferior to that of Simeon Stylites. 
 
 The Christian virtues of humility, of the love of lowliness, of 
 abstemiousness and chastity, of disinterestedness and separation from 
 the world, were as remarkable and heroic in Nisibis and Edessa as 
 they were in the Thebais, in Tabennae, in Nitria, and in the wilder- 
 ness around the stern Mount Sinai. To the primitive Christianity of 
 Jerusalem and Alexandria, which have already been recognized as 
 identical, was to be added that of Northern Mesopotamia, as ancient 
 as the others. It exhibited to the world the same spectacle of sim- 
 plicity and greatness, of stern austerity and sweet charity ; namely, 
 the perfect reaUzation of the doctrine of Christ in His Sermon on 
 the Mount. 
 
 4. So77ie Objections are Answered^ and Conclusions Drawn. 
 
 T^x^ facts which have been thus far enumerated are calculated 
 to strike powerfully only when they are accompanied with suffi- 
 cient details. This was scarcely possible within the limits natu- 
 rally prescribed to this volume. A captious reader may complain 
 that the subject was not fully elaborated; and he may say that 
 history until the present age was written in this unsatisfactory 
 manner; but more is now required by criticism. There is some 
 truth in this remark. Still, it can be insisted on that the descrip- 
 tion of a peculiar sanctity so far given out with respect to the 
 primitive ages of Christianity in Palestine, Egypt, and Syria is 
 strictly sufficient for all purposes. And this is true for the fol- 
 lowing reasons: 
 
 In a first place the previous work, "The Church and the Gen- 
 tile World," is intimately connected with this one, and forms the 
 
242 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 first link of a series which is not yet ended. As its object was to 
 describe not only the early propagation of Christianity, but like- 
 wise the immediate moral change it effected in the world, many 
 details strictly appertaining to the object of the present work 
 were given which it is not necessary to repeat. With respect to 
 Palestine and Egypt, particularly, the description of the purity of 
 manners and of the sublimity of virtue, as contrasted with- the 
 previous corruption of paganism, cannot have been so soon for- 
 gotten by the reader. All this must be taken in connection with 
 the facts and reflections to which we have so far confined our- 
 selves here. 
 
 This has been even remarked in the short preface to the pres- 
 ent work. But it is must be said, besides, that this apparent short- 
 coming owing to paucity of details is sufficiently redeemed by the 
 general considerations contained in the First Book, which have 
 naturally a bearing on the whole volume. When they are kept in 
 mind the most unsatisfactory narration of facts acquires a great 
 strength; and what would be in other cases a weak basis of certi- 
 tude often turns out so strong as to raise the subject to the height 
 of demonstration. 
 
 However few are the details brought forward to prove the 
 sanctity of any community or nation, as soon as it is known that 
 the sources of that sanctity were then of such a character as has 
 been described in the First Book it is impossible to resist the con- 
 viction that it was of the highest order, and transcended at once 
 the limits of natural ethics. The knowledge possessed by this 
 community that their first ancestor had been a godlike being at 
 his creation, and that even in his fallen state man is destined to 
 be not only restored to his former privileges, but even raised 
 higher so as to partake, as it were, of the divine nature, is suf- 
 ficient to show at once the goal toward which he is constantly 
 advancing. As soon as this is firmly believed by any people the 
 motive of a powerful exertion becomes pre-eminent, and must act 
 on the whole scheme of morals. Chiefly is it so when this belief 
 is not unwarranted, but is contained in a primitive revelation 
 fully known formerly to all mankind, and even later on kept still 
 under the veil of myths in its traditions. Particularly when this 
 truth is proclaimed after centuries of obscuration by the infallible 
 voice of a God-man and His Church, this becomes a most power- 
 ful incentive to the practice of the highest virtue. The original 
 
FACTS. 243 
 
 dignity of man, and his restoration through redemption by Christ, 
 was as strongly maintained by the early Fathers as it has been ever 
 since, and this took place in the West as well as in the East. But 
 the most numerous and splendid texts on the subject were penned 
 by Eastern Doctors. Even among the few examples we could fur- 
 nish they were far more numerous than the Latin Fathers. 
 
 But the peculiar sanctity of those primitive Christian nations 
 was still much more powerfully affected by the other sources of a 
 high virtue which have been sufficiently developed in our First 
 Book. The Decalogue w^iich Christ had reaffirmed and explained, 
 becoming henceforth the heirloom of the whole human race, was 
 to be forever a constant well-spring of the holiest morality. In its 
 new state of development through Christ's teaching, it took, as 
 was seen, deeper roots in the Hebrew mind and heart; and from 
 them it was directly conveyed to the neigboring nations. Egypt 
 and Syria must have been the first to receive it from the apostles; 
 and it is easy to conceive how the conscience of these highly cul- 
 tivated peoples must have been suddenly enlightened and strongly 
 confirmed in virtue by its clear enunciation and strict precepts. 
 The Decalogue, it has been proved, has been instrumental in 
 giving to modern nations a high moral superiority over the 
 ancients. But as we imbibe its precepts, as it were, with the milk 
 of our mothers, it does not produce upon us the powerful effect 
 which followed its first introduction among mankind. The reader 
 must remember what has been said of the advantages possessed 
 by a written and exterior code over the simple averment of our 
 "inner consciousness," The clear knowledge of God's will and 
 the resounding of His voice, as it were, became for the Egyptians 
 and Syrians the most powerful incentive for practising virtue in 
 the highest degree, chiefly as they were the first among pagan 
 nations to enjoy that privilege. Thus it is seen at once that, how- 
 ever scanty are the materials used for a general description, the 
 portraiture is all-sufficient to give a correct idea of the substantial 
 holiness which is all along the subject of our theme. 
 
 This becomes more clear still when, in a third place, the life of 
 those races of men is known to have been altogether influenced 
 by the example and grace of the Redeemer. What is it that chiefly 
 impressed on the character of those new-born nations a type of 
 excellence such as had never been seen before? It was undoubt- 
 edly the divine pattern which their new religion had placed con- 
 
244 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 stantly under their eyes. None of the Egyptians and Syrians, it 
 is true, had seen the Saviour during His mortal career; and they 
 could not, like the Jews of Palestine, remember the acts of sub- 
 lime virtue and of unbounded benevolence which attested His 
 divinity, chiefly owing to His absolute pov.'er over nature. But 
 they knew them from those who had been their happy witnesses; 
 namely, the apostles who had accompanied Jesus during the last 
 three years of His life. The apostles preached only Jesus and 
 "Him crucified." There were no other means taken by them for 
 propagating the new religion. During several years, no doubt, 
 the gospels had not yet been written ; but did not the 
 preachers know the gospels — namely, the life of Christ — by 
 heart, particularly since the Saviour had foretold that the Para- 
 clete would come over them and "bring all things to their mind, 
 whatsoever he should have said to them "? The Paraclete had 
 come down on the day of Pentecost, to remain with them forever. 
 Under His constant mspiration they could not preach a false 
 Christ; the one they announced, of whom they constantly spoke, 
 whose actions and discourses they were enabled to relate with the 
 most minute circumstances, was the true " One w^hich was from 
 the beginning, which they had heard, which they had seen with 
 their eyes, which they had looked upon, and their hands had 
 handled (namely), the word of life." Thus St. John spoke at the 
 beginnmg of his first Epistle; and all the apostles could and did 
 repeat the same. 
 
 The Egyptians, instructed by St. Mark, and the Syrians, by 
 St. Thomas and St. Jude, were therefore far more privileged with 
 regard to the knowledge of Christ than we can be at this distance 
 of time; since the gospels which we possess contam a very small 
 part of the Redeemer's life, and the apostles knew it in its 
 entirety. Still, we are aware that in our age the Christians find 
 in the example of the Saviour, whom they are bound to imitate, 
 one of the greatest incentives to virtue. What must it have been 
 for those who received that knowledge from unimpeachable eye- 
 witnesses, whose narratives were naturally impressed with the 
 warmth of a true apostolic faith and the ardor of a true apostolic 
 zeal ? 
 
 But, as has been seen, it was not only Christ's example, as an 
 exterior model for imitation, which became for those new nations 
 a powerful source of sanctity. It was chiefly Christ's influence 
 
FACTS. 245 
 
 as head of a new human race, from whom holiness flowed in a 
 copious stream through all the members of the mystic body — the 
 Church. The process has been described from numerous pas- 
 sages of St. Paul's Epistles. It briefly explains the supernatural, 
 nay, divine character of Christianity, and carries with it an essen- 
 tial holiness as a necessary consequence. It consists not only 
 in the presence and influence of Christ, who, as He promised, 
 "abides with us," but also in the "indwelling of the Holy Ghost" 
 who resides in the Christian's heart as in a temple, according to 
 St. Paul's expressions.* 
 
 If this sublime truth is destined to be, to the end of time, the 
 firm ground on which our belief in the Church's sanctity rests, it 
 must have appeared with a greater degree of excellence at the 
 beginning of Christianity, when we know from the Acts of the 
 Apostles and from the apostolic Epistles that there was then a 
 superabundant effusion of the Holy Spirit's gifts, far superior to 
 whatever we can witness in our day. - Still, every Christian knows 
 and firmly believes that if there is at this moment an ever-flowing 
 source of sanctity in the Church, it is mainly owing to the divine 
 influence of the Head over the members, and to the perpetual 
 immanence of the Paraclete. 
 
 The few facts, therefore, to whose recital the writer was natu- 
 rally confined, and to which many more might have been added 
 if time and space had allowed, receive a powerfully-increased 
 strength when those a priori considerations, as they have been 
 called, are kept in the mind with respect to those eastern 
 races which were the first conquests of Christianity after Pales 
 tine. It has been seen, moreover, that in Egypt at least all the 
 features of the first Jerusalem congregation were reproduced, so 
 as to make of both a single picture of the most entrancmg moral 
 beauty. All historians have admitted that the Church founded 
 by the apostles in Palestine was a paragon of purity and holiness; 
 and when remarks from our First Book, drawn from history and 
 revelation, are attentively examined, the same must be said of the 
 first Christian congregations on the banks of the Nile. 
 
 Finally, the considerations derived from the practice of the evan- 
 gelical counsels, and the firm belief in a hereafter, complete the 
 intended demonstration. It has been strictly proved that both in 
 
 * 1 Cor. iii. 16. 
 
246 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 Egypt and in Syria " the way of perfection" was followed by a large 
 number of the new disciples; and this from the very beginning of the 
 Christian religion. The few facts which have been mentioned on 
 this subject could have been indefinitely supplemented by the numer- 
 ous details given out in the writings of St. Jerome and of Cassian. 
 In the impossibility of doing it, recourse can again be had to our 
 lengthened ^/r/r^z-z reflections on this never-failing source of sanc- 
 tity in the Catholic Church. By this simple process, warranted by 
 all the rules of logic, the primitive churches of Egypt and Syria again 
 become the exact reproduction of the sublime picture first drawn by 
 Christ Himself in the simple sketch of the Beatitudes. The new 
 moral sense imparted thereby by the Saviour to His disciples, so supe- 
 rior, as was seen, to the simple light of reason, and even to the pre- 
 cepts of the Decalogue, became a new guide leading the Christian 
 neophytes to the practice of numerous virtues until that time per- 
 fectly unknown to mankind, and placing them at once on the high 
 road toward moral perfection. The Beatitudes contain the essence of 
 Christianity ; and even those who are satisfied with the common way 
 of " precepts " must do their best to submit to their holy influence, 
 and to become animated with tlieir sublime spirit. But those disci- 
 ples who feel themselves impelled by a superior calling to a higher 
 life, and propose themselves to follow the extraordinary way of the 
 " evangelical counsels," find in the doctrine of the Beatitudes a clearer 
 light to guide them, and a far more sublime scheme of virtue. They 
 alone follow strictly the advice of St. Paul " to put off the old man 
 whom the desires of error have corrupted . . . and put on the 
 new man;" namely, Christ Jesus. For, as was seen, Christ in His 
 human life has followed in perfection the road of the " evangelical 
 counsels," and only those who endeavor to strictly walk in His foot- 
 steps can hope to reach the summit of sanctity. 
 
 This the first Christians of Egypt and Syria did with an ardent 
 zeal, to the great scandal of modern rationalists, who openly express 
 their antipathy, because they completely ignore, nay, they absolutely 
 refuse to study, the true scheme of redemption. Having made up 
 their minds to exclude the supernatural from whatever concerns our 
 humanity, it is not surprising that the Christian scheme seems to them 
 superstitious, even when it is evidentthat it is absolutely derived from 
 the doctrine of Christ and His apostles. 
 
 The disciples of St. Mark in Egypt and of the saints Thomas and 
 
FACTS. 247 
 
 Jude in Syria reasoned differently, and, seeing that the new revela- 
 tion came evidently from heaven, they strove with a holy ardor to 
 reach- as far in virtue as the new doctrine impelled them and the 
 example of Christ showed them the way. Thus, even should we have 
 given a smaller amount of details than we did, the evident conclusion 
 would still be that their virtue was most eminent, and that the preach- 
 ing of Christianity among them produced a moral change altogether 
 unexpected, and began among them an era of holiness such as the 
 world had never yet witnessed. 
 
 It is sufticient, in conclusion, to add that the plain doctrine of a 
 hereafter, henceforth introduced among them with all the strictness 
 that the voice of God Himself could give it, gave to their new moral 
 sense, as it has been called, a sanction as firm as the new edifice of 
 holiness was extensive and magnificent. 
 
 Many consequences could be drawn from the narrative con- 
 tained in these three initial chapters of our Second Book. The 
 first would be the extraordinary character of the " new creation," 
 so different from what had ever appeared before in the moral 
 world among men. The precepts given, the virtues encouraged, 
 the counsels insinuated, were all of a new pattern. An immense 
 number of men threw themselves at once with the most extraor- 
 dinary ardor in the path just open before them. This proved that 
 Christianity was congenial to the highest human aspirations. 
 Nothing appeared impossible to the neophytes, because they 
 looked only to heaven above their head, and they despised a world 
 which cannot satisfy the infinite ambition of the human soul. 
 
 Others shrank from such an arduous enterprise, and either 
 were satisfied with a half effort toward moral goodness, remaining 
 far behind the great Leader, Christ, and His most enthusiastic 
 followers; or, worse still, some turned their back on a religion 
 •which proposed to man a goal elevated out of view in the clouds, 
 and preferred to remain grovelling on this earth. These men 
 remained pagans, and were the ancestors of our modern rational- 
 ists or positivists. Still, the new religion went on increasing in 
 power until it covered the earth with sublime institutions of 
 charity, intellectual progress, and, last not least, lowly and alto- 
 gether hidden self-sacrifice. Thus began the modern epoch in 
 history. 
 
 A second consequence worthy of being studied would be the 
 
248 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 astonishing literature which walked in the footsteps of the new 
 religion, and became so remarkable in Lower Egypt and Syria. 
 Only a word of it could be said in these pages. 
 
 A third and last conclusion would result from the considera- 
 tion of all the social, political, and individual ameliorations which 
 the new virtues preached by Christianity brought on in their train. 
 All this must be left to the reader's consideration, in order to see 
 the change effected in the West after this inadequate description 
 of it in the East. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IHRISTIAN HOLINESS IN THE WEST — MORAL CHANGE EFFECTED IN 
 THE ROMAN EMPIRE AT THE FIRST PREACHING OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I. This Moral Chafige Began very Early. 
 
 We will not attempt to minutely describe the depth of corrup- 
 ion into which Rome had sunk when the first apostles, Peter and 
 'aul, came to regenerate it. The modern researches, which have 
 rompletely unveiled the moral degradation of the Romans, would 
 nake it easy to go through the chief details of the shocking 
 picture. But besides the painful character of the task both for 
 ;he writer and the reader, it is doubtful if the most accurate pencil 
 :ould adequately represent the monstrous figure in all its 
 ieformity, and give a sufficient idea of it. Mr. Lecky in his "His- 
 ory of European Morals"* has justly said: " The mass of the 
 Oman people were plunged in a condition of depravity which no 
 nere ethical teaching could adequately correct. The moral con- 
 dition of the empire is indeed in some respects one of the most 
 lippalling pictures on record, and writers have much more fre- 
 quently undertaken to paint or even to exaggerate its enormity 
 :han to investigate the circumstances by which it may be ex- 
 plained." 
 
 I These " circumstances" he details in the next pages of his book, 
 land he thinks they were " the imperial system, the institution of 
 slavery, and the gladiatorial shows; each of these," he says, 
 "exercised an influence of the widest and most pernicious char- 
 acter on the morals of the people." These three sources of cor- 
 ruption Mr. Lecky examines at length, and he chiefly develops, with 
 great justice, the deleterious effects of the gladiatorial shows. 
 But though the celebrated writer attaches a great importance to 
 this investigation of causes, because he always tries to explain 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 255. 
 
 R, 
 
250 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 every fact naturally, we may be allowed the liberty of thinking 
 that there were other " circumstances" as powerful as these to pro- 
 duce the excessively low moral state of Rome. One of these was 
 undoubtedly the , enormous wealth unjustly acquired by the 
 patricians during the two previous centuries, when the riches of 
 the whole world were concentrated in the capital and made of it, : 
 according to the expression of Sallust, " the sink of the universe. 
 A Christian might find another cause, more pow^erful still, but the ,i 
 expression of which might bring a smile on many lips in this 
 age. This was nothing else than the one expressed by all the 
 Fathers, and based on the Apocalypse of St. John; namely, that 
 *' pagan Rome was the seat of Satan's empire." We entirely share 
 in that conviction, whatever others may think; and in the midst 
 of the broad denial so emphatic in our day with regard to the 
 devil's existence, we persist in maintaining that this "existence" 
 gives the best explanation of the dark side of history. 
 
 Be this as it may, the sources of Roman corruption may be 
 discussed; but people will continue to disagree about them. The 
 only important point is that it was a dreadful fact and remains, as 
 Mr. Lecky said, "one of the most appalling pictures on record;" 
 and, moreover, it was such, according to the same writer, that " no i ; 
 mere ethical teaching could adequately correct it;" which means, ,t 
 we suppose, that even the Stoic's doctrine, so much admired by : 
 Mr. Lecky, was incompetent in the matter. This agrees perfectly J 
 with our own opinion, and it will be abundantly proved in the J 
 following discussions. 
 
 Thie present view of the subject must be confined to describ- 
 ing, as accurately as possible, the change effected in Rome among 
 the patricians as well as among the plebs in a remarkably short 
 space of time; and this is also fully admitted by the author of 
 " European Morals" when he says: * " There can be little doubt that, 
 for nearly two hundred years after its establishment in Europe, 
 the Christian community exhibited a moral purity which, if it has 
 been equalled, has never for a long period been surpassed." We 
 may rest satisfied with this admission, though the facts which will 
 be passed in review must carry the reader much farther, and con- 
 vince him that the "moral purity" of the Roman Christians "sur- 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. II. 
 
FACTS. 251 
 
 passed" indeed everything that the world has seen before or since, 
 except from Christians elsewhere. 
 
 First, there is the remarkable fact of the "great multitude" of 
 those who, according to Tacitus, suffered martyrdom under Nero 
 St. Peter had been in the city about twenty-five years, and St. 
 Paul a little more than two, when this astonishing proof of a 
 mighty change in Rome was afforded. To judge of it the chief 
 circumstances of the fact, well known from Tacitus, will amply 
 suffice. A short discussion is required here. 
 
 Nero had set on fire a great part of Rome, and was soon 
 frightened by the feeling of horror it excited against him among 
 the citizens. Out of fourteen " regions" into which the city was 
 divided, four only remained entire; three had been totally de- 
 stroyed; in the seven others a few houses were left standing, 
 most of them tottering and half-burnt. Thousands of people had 
 perished, objects of art without number had disappeared, and the 
 private wealth of many had been devoured by the flames. All 
 accused Nero of the crime; "therefore," says Tacitus, "Nero 
 threw the blame on those whom the vulgar called Christians, 
 and who were the object of public hatred, being accused of enor- 
 I mities." 
 
 I The great Roman historian did not trouble himself much as to 
 I the truth of these " enormities"— y7<2^///^. He thought, however, that 
 jthe Christians were less truly convicted of incendiarism than of the 
 "hatred of the human race" — odium genei'is hiunani. This is rather 
 an ambiguous phrase, as is often the case in Latin. It may mean 
 that they " hated the human race," or that " the human race hated 
 them." Both meanings will be presently examined; but a prelimi- 
 nary remark must be first made, of some importance in the present 
 case. There is no ambiguity in Tacitus with regard to the name of 
 the new "superstition." Those who are infected with it are called 
 Christians even by the vulgar. They are no more confounded with 
 the Jews. This alone would go a great way to prove that a large 
 majority of them were Romans, not Israelites, and that there were 
 already a very great number of Christians in Rome. 
 
 But what were those "enormities" charged to them.? They 
 could not be the calumnies spread later on against them, which be- 
 came universally believed by the pagans only under the Antonines. 
 Pf^ople had scarcely heard yet of these pretended orgies. Dom 
 
252 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 Gueranger thinks it was simply a fulfilment of Christ's prophecy: 
 "You will be an object of hatred to all, on accoimt of my namey^ 
 But something special must have been brought forward against the 
 Christians, in order to explain that hatred naturally. It may have 
 been only the secrecy of their meetings which induced the vulgar to 
 attribute to them what was known to be the fact for many impure 
 oriental sects then prevailing in Rome. Tacitus not having given 
 any details, we are reduced to conjectures. But as it is sure that 
 many pretended crimes were objected to them, the mere name of 
 Christians, derived from that of the Saviour, became odious to the 
 rabble. 
 
 This is probably what Tacitus meant when he wrote that they 
 were " convicted of mankind's hatred." This may signify, as was 
 said, either that the Christians hated mankind or that mankind hated 
 the Christians. Many modern non-Catholic writers adopt the first 
 meaning, although if we look at the w^hole passage it is not the most 
 natural The best commentators on this phrase of Tacitus admit the 
 other. If the first interpretation is preferred, it was of course a 
 calumny, since every one must recognize that Christianity has always 
 preached the brotherhood of mankind and the precept of charity 
 towards all men, and has particularly done so at its first estabUsh- 
 ment. The second meaning of that phrase is, on that account, much 
 to be preferred to the first. Yes! mankind, chiefly at that time, 
 hated the Christians, and consequently the name of Christ. 
 
 Was there a motive for it? One might be found in the fierce 
 opposition which the moral principles of this " superstition," as it 
 was called, must have raised among the Romans of that period. For 
 was it not shocking, in the pagan's ideas, that a set of men should 
 place another world above this, above the glorious Roman Empire 
 particularly; should renounce every pleasure that this brilliant society 
 aff"orded; should distribute their property to the poor, and proclaim 
 that voluntary poverty was a holy object of ambition .? Did not also 
 the Roman vulgar already know that the Christians openly denounced 
 sin in any shape, and avowed on their part the purpose of radically 
 changing, in this respect, the notions of mankind, and establishing 
 the reign of conscience over that of a polished depravity? This was 
 sufficient motive for war. Tacitus himself, who like other Stoics 
 pretended to uphold the most strict principles of virtue, must have 
 
 * Matt. X. 22. 
 
FACTS. 253 
 
 imagined that the virtue of the Christians was degrading, slavish, 
 worthy of detestation or at least contempt. This superstition, conse- 
 quently, was to be crushed. 
 
 But there was still a stronger motive at the bottom of that 
 deep hatred. The proselytism of the new " sect" was so active 
 that no class of Roman society could escape its approaches. It 
 had already penetrated into the ''household of Caesar;" outside 
 of it, patricians had before this entered its ranks; and a much 
 greater number of the poor and the slaves had become the open 
 disciples of Peter and Paul. Each new member, filled with a 
 holy ardor for the salvation of others, did their best to communi- 
 cate what they called their happiness to their former friends and 
 acquaintances. So far there had not been any open persecution 
 against them; and they already " persecuted mankind" by their 
 entreaties and perhaps threats; yes, threats of the wrath of God, 
 of the coming days of dishonor for the state and their own indi- 
 vidual ruin. Was not this intolerable ? The Jews were likewise 
 proselytizing in Rome, though Mr. Lecky unaccountably thinks 
 they were not. The proofs of it are too well known for denial, 
 and the discoveries of M. De Rossi in Jewish cemeteries have 
 placed it beyond contradiction. But the Jews did not speak so 
 much of sin as the Christians did; and the glory of their Mes- 
 sias' kingdom was to burst forth on earth and not in heaven. 
 Thus the Jews might have been despised by many; they were 
 deeply hated by very few. They were allowed to proselytize 
 quietly, as it was easy for those whom they approached on the 
 subject to laugh at them and have done with them simply by a 
 witty word or two. The Christian proselytism was very different, 
 and if anybody laughed at it, it was a laughter of the kind called 
 sardonic, which is not precisely promotive of kind feelings. 
 
 These short preliminary remarks were necessary to properly 
 understand what took place when Nero took advantage of the 
 popular hatred against the Christians, in order to turn away from 
 himself the public suspicion of incendiarism. All the circum- 
 stances described by Tacitus will tend to prove what kind of men 
 were those whom Peter and Paul had converted in Rome, and it 
 will be easy to judge what immense moral change the apostles 
 had already effected among a great number of Romans. The 
 glowing words of St. Peter in his first Epistle will finally render 
 the text of the great Roman historian luminous in its atrocity; 
 
254 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 for St. Peter in his first Epistle most probably spoke of that perse- 
 cution, as well and better than Tacitus. 
 
 In a first place, though Nero accuse the Christians of having set 
 Rome on fire, few, if any, according to the Roman historian, believed 
 it ; but the great crime of which they were co?ivicted^\2iS only their name. 
 " The author of that name" — auctor nominis — says the historian, 
 " was Christ, who, during Tiberius' reign, had been condemned to 
 death by the procurator Pontius Pilate. The execrable superstition 
 repressed at first by this public execution was again spreading, not 
 only throughout Judea, but in the city itself — Rome — whither all 
 possible evils come to converge." 
 
 The first who were arrested by the Roman police or by the 
 pretorians — Tigellinus, their infamous prefect seems to have been very 
 active during this persecution — confessed, it seems, their guilt of 
 incendiarism, and denounced a "great multitude," "who were 
 less guilty," says Tacitus, "of arson than of mankind's hatred." 
 This very guarded narrative evidently implies that the first who were 
 arrested, and who denounced a " large multitude" of others, were 
 simply Tigellinus' tools. That nefarious man's plot succeeded but 
 too well ; but it evidently supposed that there was no other accusa- 
 tion brought against the " great multitude" of others than their name 
 of Christians ; and the Epistle of St. Peter will soon give us the 
 positive proof of it. At that moment, to be a Christian was the 
 same as having been guilty of burning Rome. If those who were 
 " first arrested" confessed that they had individually participated in 
 a plot of incendiarism, in "denouncing," as they did, a. great multi- 
 tude of others they could not bring individual proofs against so 
 many ; and there cannot be any reasonable doubt in the mind of an 
 impartial reader that the only thing that was done consisted in 
 " denouncing" them as Christians ; and this was sufficient for their 
 "conviction." 
 
 It is not read anywhere that what invariably was the case in all 
 subsequent persecutions, happened likewise in this one ; namely, 
 that the denial of being a Christian was a sufficient justification, 
 or, what is better still, that the act of professing repentance and 
 renouncing his religion made a man directly free from all pur- 
 suits. This would not have suited Nero, who wanted victims. 
 Neither Tacitus nor any other Roman historian tells us that the 
 Christians protested in any way against these atrocious proceed- 
 ings ; and what is worse for the writer of the Annaks, he him- 
 
FACTS. 255 
 
 self never protests in his narrative against such a flagrant injus- 
 tice. On the contrary, he describes with the greatest coolness, in 
 all its horrible details, that immolation of several thousand per- 
 sons in the gardens of Nero, without saying a word to excite com- 
 passion for their fate. He states, it is true, that the spectators at 
 last began to feel pity at the fearful sight — miseratio oi-icbatur — 
 but it cannot be known from his story what he himself felt. He 
 was too great a Stoic to let it appear. 
 
 No attempt can be made here at any description of these hor- 
 rors. But it is very important to briefly examine the astonishing 
 heroism of these Roman Christians, They seem to have submit- 
 ted uncomplainingly to tortures which the human imagination can 
 scarcely conceive. Dom Gueranger, in his Sainte Cecile, thinks 
 that the words of Seneca to his friend Lucilius, in his 78th letter, 
 refer to them. Seneca must certainly have been a personal wit- 
 ness of that awful drama ; and the details he gives in that letter 
 can scarcely have reference to any other scene enacted at that 
 epoch, except to the execution of these Christian martyrs. " No 
 human suffering can be compared," he says, " to the action of fire 
 on living limbs, to the rack, to burning blades, to instruments of 
 steel opening again half-closed wounds and penetrating deeper 
 into the flesh. Still, men have suffered all this without uttering a 
 groan ! Nay, more: they have not asked any respite ! What do 
 I say? The judge could not extort from them a word of answer. 
 They have been seen smiling in the midst of these tortures-; and 
 the smile came from the heart." Tacitus' narrative in its coolness 
 and dryness does not contain a word which would in the least 
 weaken this passage of Seneca. 
 
 What could have been the source of the strength which sup- 
 ported these heroes of religion? They all were converts; they had 
 been pagans a great part of their lives; and many of them may 
 have led a life of sin before their conversion. On the other side 
 they were not mere Stoics. Pride did not enable them to make a 
 show of courage and heroism. They were the humble followers 
 of an humble Saviour. If we wish to explain their wonderful 
 behavior we have only to open the First Epistle of St. Peter. It 
 was not written for them, it is true; but the Galilean Fisherman 
 could not speak to the Jews of Pontus and Galatia to whom that 
 letter was sent in one way, and in another to his Roman disciples. 
 He must have often repeated, during his long apostolate in Rome, 
 
2S^ THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the ver}^ words he had penned carefully in that epistle; words 
 which he knew would be treasured up by the whole Church in all 
 ages. This text of the prince of the apostles will have besides 
 this advantage, that it will throw a flood of light on this sublime 
 tragedy enacted in the valley of the Vatican, where Nero had his 
 pleasure-gardens. The doctrine Peter had preached to the Ro- 
 mans was the ground of their strength, and had already raised 
 them to the highest pitch of holiness. 
 
 The wonderful state of sanctity to which all Christians are 
 called, and of which the Romans were to give very early many 
 examples, is particularly described in the second chapter of this 
 Epistle — the first one having chiefly feference to converted Jews. 
 " Laying aside," says St. Peter, " all malice, and all guile, and dis- . 
 simulations, and envies, and all detractions; as new-born babes, 
 desire ye to be fed with the rational milk of guilelessness, that 
 thereby you may grow into salvation: if so, you have tasted that 
 the Lord is sweet." It is impossible to describe with more sim- 
 plicity and accuracy, at the same time, a new society totally 
 unknown in Rome a few years previous, and which can now be 
 appreciated in many of its details, from the acts of martyrs, the 
 inscriptions in the catacombs, and the lives of many of its young 
 saints, as Agnes, Petronilla, Emerentiana, Csecilia, etc. All these, 
 with many others, must have often read this short passage written 
 by St. Peter in their city, since they have expressed it so well in 
 their lives: " Laying aside all malice, and all guile; ... as 
 new-born babes, desire ye to be fed with the milk of guileless- 
 ness: ... if so, you have tasted that the Lord is sweet." 
 
 A few lines farther on the apostle himself declares that this 
 holy society w^as the result of a mighty change which all could 
 witness. " You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy 
 nation, a purchased people, that you may declare by your conduct 
 the virtues of Him — Christ — who hath called you out of darkness 
 into His marvellous light. You who in time past were not a 
 people, but are now the people of God; who had not obtained 
 mercy, but now have obtained mercy." A short sentence of the 
 Second Epistle of the same apostle comes here so appropriately 
 and naturally that it may as well be added to what precedes: * 
 "Through Christ God hath given you most great and precious, 
 
 * Chap. i. V. 4. 
 
FACTS. 257 
 
 promises; that by these you may be made partakers of the Divi?i€ 
 Nature; flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is m 
 the world." 
 
 Could the prince of the apostles have written such a descrip- 
 tion of the Judeo-Christian church in Pontus (which was repro- 
 duced in perfection and on a far larger scale in Rome) without 
 having at the same time under his eyes the blessed reality of it ? 
 Are not passages of this kind — and there are many in the canoni- 
 cal Epistles — a sure voucher of the Church's holiness at her birth ? 
 But what must chiefly attract the attention of the reader is the 
 reference made in it to the Neronian persecution as described by 
 Tacitus. It is only a conjecture, but a strong one. These are 
 the main grounds of it: 
 
 Peter in his first chapter (v. xi.) lays down the true founda- 
 tion of the Christian's hope that "by suffering he will acquire 
 eternal glory;" namely, the words of the ancient prophets, "who 
 had foretold those sufferings that are in Christ, and the glories 
 that should follow." Christ is the great pattern; and after His 
 example martyrdom is to be expected by His disciples as a step- 
 ping stone to beatitude. This thought comes up everywhere in 
 this Epistle. 
 
 On the model of Christ, therefore, he insinuates in the second 
 chapter (v. 12): " Let your conversation be good among the gen- 
 tiles; in order that, whereas they speak against you as evil doers, 
 they may in future time, by the good works which they shall be- 
 hold in you, glorify God in spite of themselves, on the day of His 
 visitation." 
 
 A new step in advance is made from verse 19 to the end of the 
 chapter: " This deserves a reward, if for conscience's sake toward 
 God a man endure sorrow, suffering wrongfully. For what 
 glory is it to commit sin and be buffeted for it ? But if doing 
 well 3^ou suffer patiently, this is worthy of reward before God. 
 Indeed, unto this you are called; because Christ also suffered for 
 us, leaving you an example that you should follow His steps; 
 who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who 
 when He was reviled did not revile, when He suffered He 
 threatened not; but delivered Himself to him that judged Him 
 unjustly." 
 
 Did not this doctrine of Peter — for it was, and has ever since 
 been, a Christian doctrine — thoroughly explain the fortitude of 
 
258 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 the Roman Christians under Nero ? And in the fourth chapter a 
 positive allusion is made to the title of Christian mentioned by 
 Tacitus : " Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a railer, 
 or a coveter of other men's goods. But if as a Chnstia?i, let him 
 not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this name. For the 
 time has come that judgment should begin at the house of God. 
 And if first at us, what shall be the end of them that believe not 
 the gospel of God ? And if the just man shall scarcely be saved, 
 where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? Wherefore, let 
 them that suffer according to the will of God, commend their souls 
 in good deeds to the faithful Creator." * 
 
 This may be called a splendid commentary on the passage of 
 the Roman annalist. Tacitus was the first profane writer who 
 called the new believers by their true name. Christians. Until his 
 day they had been confounded with the Jews.; from that time 
 forth they began to form a body apart. Peter was the first in- 
 spired writer who used the same expression on the eve of a great 
 persecution in the Roman world. It is true that, according to the 
 Acts of the Apostles, it was at Antioch the followers of Jesus re- 
 ceived that title; but this book does not mention who gave it to 
 them. It may have been still unauthorized, and may have be- 
 come frequent only from the time Peter let it escape from his 
 pen. It is difficult not to see here a connection of some kind be- 
 tween both the profane and the ecclesiastical writers. Peter must 
 have often used that expression when addressing his flock in 
 the senator Pudens' house; and as we know from Tacitus that 
 this name became the innocent cause of the death of a great 
 number of people under Nero, the apostle, enlightened from 
 above, must have referred to this in addressing his people on the 
 eve of their own martyrdom. Thus the name given to the fol- 
 lowers of Christ by both Peter and Tacitus; the mention suggested 
 by both of them that the Christians died for that name and not 
 for any crime punishable by human laws; the heroism displayed 
 by the victims, which Peter fully explains by the example of Christ, 
 whilst Tacitus cannot; all the chief circumstances of that fearful 
 tragedy allow us to conclude that Peter truly spoke of it in this 
 Epistle; and the holiness of the sufferers is the strict conclusion 
 of the whole story. For can there be a higher holiness than that 
 
 { 
 
 N 
 
 * Chap. iv. V. 15, sea. 
 
FACTS. 259 
 
 of Christ, which Peter proposed to his Roman flock as their pat- 
 tern, and which they copied so faithfully chiefly in their death ? 
 This is a first indication of a great moral change in Rome. 
 
 2. Can this Moral Change be Explained by Natural Causes! 
 
 Nothing was so much opposed to the humility diXid guilelessness 
 of the Saviour as the stern pride of the Roman people, chiefly of 
 the patricians. It is, however, customary to many writers in our 
 day to represent them as having been prepared, even by their 
 universal dominion, for the feeling of meekness which the Chris- 
 tian religion was destined to spread everywhere. M. Mommsen 
 has pretended that " the polity of the Caesarian state was really 
 nothing but a citizenship of the world, and its nationality nothing 
 but humanity" (quoted by Fisher, " Beginnings of Christianity," 
 p. 69). This has been equivalently repeated by many modern 
 authors whose chief object is to prove that Christianity was only 
 the explosion of the philosophical and humanitarian doctrines 
 which Stoicism and the liberal views of the period had originated 
 among pagans. But in spite of so many assertions apparently 
 supported by texts and facts, it remains certain that if it had not 
 been for the mission of Christ and His apostles, the whole world 
 probably would have fallen under the crushing weight of despo- 
 tism which the " Caesarian state" had undoubtedly brought into 
 existence. What would, in this case, have become of the " citizen- 
 ship of the world " brought on, according to M. Mommsen, by 
 "the Caesarian state"? It could not have been anything else than 
 "the citizenship" of slavery. That is, the very fact of being a 
 Roman citizen would have imposed on the wearer of that title the 
 heavy burden of submission to the most despotic laws. To under- 
 stand it it is sufficient to look at the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, 
 Nero, and Domitian. Can any one believe that it would have 
 been a pleasant yoke to carry, and that the h^ppy citizens of this 
 universal empire would have enjoyed all the sweetness of social 
 intercourse which the Christian religion afterwards knew how to 
 impart? 
 
 The Antonine dynasty in Rome has brought into this discus- 
 sion a confusion of ideas which it is proper briefly to clear up. 
 Because the imperial despotism has been administered during 
 about seventy years by a few princes of a mild disposition; and 
 
26o THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 because under their sway the laws did not bear too heavily on 
 the citizens, people conclude directly that the comparative mild- 
 ness of their administration was due to the Caesarian state; and 
 M. Mommsen was emboldened to maintain that this most des- 
 potic form of administration was nothing but "a citizenship of 
 the world," and that it became the real source of the mild social 
 maxims which have been since attributed to Christianity. 
 
 But was it possible that the Roman Empire should continue 
 forever to be ruled by princes of the type of Nerva, Antoninus, 
 Alexander Severus, etc.? Think of Commodus, of Elagabalus, of 
 Caracalla, and others, and inquire if the Caesarian state under 
 their sway was nothing but the citizenship of the world, and if 
 the Roman nationality was then equivalent to humanity. There 
 is an evident sophism in that brilliant sentence of the great Ger- 
 man writer. 
 
 Mr. Lecky likewise in his '' History of European Morals" props 
 up the same ideas by a number of facts and texts, of which it is 
 proper to discuss a few of the most important. He does not, 
 however, attribute the citizenship of the world to the Caesarian 
 state; and the short answer just given to Mommsen cannot be 
 addressed to him. He ascribes it first to the process of amalga- 
 mation in the Roman world which had begun from the very days 
 of the republic, and gave to many Roman writers new and large 
 views on "the duty of charity to the human race." He takes this 
 last phrase from Cicero,* and gives many other texts of the same 
 author.f He thinks that " the same principles were reiterated 
 with increasing emphasis by the later Stoics," and speaks on the 
 subject as strongly as any other modern writer. The intention 
 is evidently to make it appear that the ideas of "the human 
 brotherhood," of " charity for all," etc., did not originate from 
 Christianity, but from Greek and Latin philosophy; and on that 
 subject \\^ proves that the Greek social disposition was far more 
 tender than the Roman spirit, which was always remarkable for 
 its sternness and austerity. Plutarch is the author whom he chiefly 
 admires for that gentleness of soul, and of him he makes almost a 
 Christian. 
 
 The Stoics, who, he believes, contributed powerfully to spread 
 the ideas of universal brotherhood, were not, in his opinion, ani- 
 
 * De finibus. f De.off., De Legibus, etc. 
 
FACTS.. 261 
 
 mated with the same moderation and sweetness of temper as 
 Plutarch was; and he confesses that their doctrine had nothing 
 to do with the gentle virtues of humility, charity, and tenderness 
 for the poor which has constantly distinguished the religion of 
 Christ. In this he is perfectly right, and the little he says on the 
 subject affords already a proof that Zeno's tenets could not have 
 brought about the conversion of Rome. This conversion, how- 
 ever, he thinks to have been perfectly natural; and being ourself 
 fully convinced that he is in error, we must discuss the question at 
 some length. 
 
 As a preliminary remark it is not to be denied that the writ- 
 ings of Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, Pliny, and the Neoplatonists 
 contain many things which can be called, to a certain extent, a 
 preparation for Christianity; there is something looking like Gos- 
 pel precepts here and there inculcated in those philosophical 
 treatises. Many texts and facts quoted by Mr. Lecky cannot be 
 set aside and scornfully rejected. But the question remains, 
 Could all this have brought on among mankind the practice of 
 the "milder virtues" as they are enforced in the Sermon on the 
 Mount, of which the Roman Church in the first three centuries 
 has left such heroic and delightful examples ? If the modern the- 
 ories on the conversion of Rome must be admitted as naturally 
 explaining the wonderful change which then took place, there 
 must have been a real and easily perceived coincidence between 
 the social and moral ideas current among the pagans of that 
 epoch and the state of things which struck the eyes of all, for 
 instance, when the catacombs were freely opened under Constan- 
 tine. This view indeed revealed to the world the lowly but price- 
 less virtues which had been practised there by millions of human 
 beings during two hundred and fifty years. Was there anything 
 like it in the previous Greek and Roman philosophy? 
 
 This is to be examined and discussed briefly, but as exactly as 
 the importance of the subject requires. 
 
 Mr. Lecky himself tells us ,equivalently that this was not to be 
 expected from Stoicism itself, which " was quite capable of repre- 
 senting the widening movement, but not equally capable of repre- 
 senting the softening movement, of civilization." * That is to say, 
 in his opinion Stoicism prepared mankind for Christianity, through 
 
 * Page 247. 
 
262 ^ THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the progress of civilization, by its doctrine of universal brother- 
 hood; but " its condemnation of the affections, and its stern, tense 
 ideal . . . were unsuited for the mild manners. ... of the age 
 
 of the Antonines A class of writers began to arise who, like 
 
 the Stoics, believed virtue rather than enjoyment to be the 
 supreme good, . . . but who at the same time (unlike the Stoics) 
 gave free scope to the benevolent affections, and a more religious 
 and mystical tone to the whole scheme of morals." These writers 
 were, according to him, the eclectics, peripatetics, and Platonists, 
 among whom he mentions particularly Pliny the younger and 
 Plutarch, chiefly the last. 
 
 This seems, therefore, to be the theory of Mr. Lecky on the 
 conversion of Rome: Christianity, as the explosion of civilization, 
 was not the result of the Stoics' doctrines alone; but many other 
 writers flourishing at the same time or shortly after actually in- 
 troduced the spirit of the "mild virtues" which the Christians 
 were to practise in perfection during two centuries, and no longer. 
 In all sincerity I believe this to be the candid opinion of the author 
 of " European Morals,"' and the essence of his most interesting 
 book. And as he has persuaded of it a great number of people in 
 our day, and to my personal knowledge some educated Catholics 
 are inclined to adopt his conclusions, it is important to prove that 
 this cannot explain the conversion of Rome. We have, fortunately 
 for this demonstration, most clear historical data on the holiness 
 of the Roman Christians of that primitive epoch; and it will be 
 neither difficult nor long and tedious to prove that the whole mass 
 of eclectic and peripatetic and Platonist philosophers had 
 absolutely nothing to do with that wonderful result which we 
 call: the cstablisJnnent of the religion of Christ in the capital of the 
 world. The great and unique causes of this astonishing fact were 
 the grace of God, the preaching of the apostles, and the practical 
 acceptance by an immense number of Romans of the doctrine of 
 the " Beatitudes." Plutarch, no more than Epictetus, could not 
 predispose the Romans for it. The only thing that might be said 
 is that it was not perhaps so difficult, or rather impossible, for a 
 Roman to feel a kind of attraction towards the Gospel morality 
 as it had been when Stoicism ruled alone. Had Mr. Lecky con- 
 fined himself to this, there would have been no need of entering 
 into any discussion on the subject. 
 
 In the first place, the doctrine of Plutarch, on which Mr. Lecky 
 
 I 
 
FACTS. . 263 
 
 relies a great deal to prove his thesis, has been discussed at some 
 length in our book on "The Church and the Gentile World;" and 
 it is difficult to see how it could have any influence in bringing 
 the Greek and Roman worlds to a due appreciation of the 
 Christian virtues. The ^uthor of " European Morals" scarcely 
 brings forth any fact which could invalidate the opinion advocated 
 in that volume; namely, that the writer of the "Parallel Lives" 
 had no perceptible influence in preparing mankind for higher 
 aspirations than those of his dear polytheism. The strongest 
 remark of Mr. Lecky* is simply this: "Plutarch, in a beautiful 
 treatise on 'The Signs of Moral Progress,' treated the culture of 
 the feelings with delicate skill. The duty of serving the Divinity 
 with a pure mind rather than by formal rites became a common- 
 place of literature, and self-examination one of the most recog- 
 nized of duties." This is something, but it is far from being 
 adequate to the introduction of the Christian " Beatitudes." 
 Christianity, besides, had formal rites, and its self-examination 
 was far different from that of the Stoics. 
 
 From Plutarch Mr. Lecky passes on to Marcus Aurelius, in 
 whose life he finds almost all the Christian virtues practised in 
 perfection. But as all he could say of him as a philosopher is 
 derived from his "Meditations,'^ which he himself acknowledges 
 "consist of rude fragmentary notes . . . written for the most 
 part in hasty, broken, and sometimes almost unintelligible sen- 
 tences amid the turmoil of a camp," f Mr. Lecky cannot give 
 i him a prominent place among those who prepared the coming of 
 Christianity. The more so that the same Marcus Aurelius became 
 a fierce persecutor of the Christians, and the God he adores in 
 I his " Meditations" is either a harsh Fatiun or a Universal Soul, to 
 ! whom no man will ever have to give an account, even after having 
 examined daily his conscience during life. Mr. Lecky does not 
 say a word of this. Still, it is generally admitted at this time by 
 all sincere critics and Greek scholars; and he himself confesses 
 that "on the subject of a future world his — Marcus Aurelius' — 
 \ mind floated in a desponding doubt."]; 
 
 I' In a second place, after this hasty sketch of " Stoic, eclectic and 
 
 I Platonic" philosophers who are supposed to have predisposed the 
 
 Romans to the sublime moral ideal of Christianity, it is necessary to 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 249. \ Page 250. % Page 253. 
 
264 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 look at this ideal, to understand its true purport, to know by whom 
 it was preached, and how it was accepted by an immense number of 
 the inhabitants of Rome. This must come entirely fiom ourselves, 
 because the historian of " European Morals" never says a word of it, 
 and seems to be satisfied that everybody knows perfectly well what 
 Christianity is, and was at its first establishment. Unfortunately, 
 however, Mr. Lecky poorly understands it ; at least had he given us 
 his ideas on the subject, they would most probably have widely dif- 
 fered from the truth, since he scarcely admits the supernatural in any 
 shape. In his opinion the religion of Christ is a religion like any 
 other, which he thinks resulted from civilizatioji^ and must have, con- 
 sequently, been naturally evolved by an indefinite rising of the human 
 scale in point of morality, owing to what is called progress. This 
 may be said to constitute the essence of his book, and to this we must 
 demur. 
 
 The moral purport of Christianity was to establish holiness on 
 earth. Christ came to preach the kingdom of God; that is, virtue; 
 and He announced that He was the only pastor of souls, all others 
 being hirelings. The character of that holiness is described particu- 
 larly in the Sermon on the Mount, and it is summed up in the eight 
 Beatitudes. This is well known, and scarcely deserved to be repeated. 
 But it is proper to insist here that this could not have been the result 
 of a natural development of morality, such as Mr. Lecky and the men 
 of his school understand it. That Christ was a heavenly teacher and 
 brought us a heavenly doctrine must be admitted by all those who 
 believe in the supernatural characters of His religion ; and none of 
 these will be inclined to admit that it was simply a natural develop- 
 ment of human progress. But here we do not write for the true 
 Christian; we must for a moment address ourselves to those who 
 have not yet discarded that title and nevertheless give it a com- ■ 
 pletely different meaning. The question which is to be briefly dis- 
 cussed is simply this : Can the Evangelical Beatitudes be the resull 
 of human thought and direct men to a purely human destiny.? li 
 Christianity is only a form of human civilization," it must be alto-^ 
 gether included within the limits of this world, and it can neithei 
 have a divine origin nor lead to a divine hereafter. The philosc 
 phers of the intuitive school refuse to admit either of these. Wouh 
 the Beatitudes proclaimed by Christ be of any value, morally speak- 
 ing, if they were thus understood ? And another question can b< 
 added: Did Christ Himself understand it so.? The answer t( 
 
FACTS. 265 
 
 this last question being the most simple and easy, it is proper to 
 begin by it. 
 
 Why is it that our Lord requires of His disciples to be " poor in 
 spirit ";* He gives the reason of it directly : " For theirs is the king- 
 dom of heaven." Why must they be meek.? Because " they shall 
 possess the land." This cannot be an earthly land, which is never 
 procured by " meekness." Why are they " blessed when they 
 mourn".? Because "they shall be comforted." In another world 
 certainly, since this " beatitude" of mourning must continue as long 
 as they remain in this. Why is it that those who suffer persecution 
 are "blessed"? "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven," is the answer. 
 Go through all these "beatitudes," and you see the same. 
 
 Christ, therefore, declared that the civilization which He was 
 bringing us was not to be confined to this world ; that it supposed 
 " heaven" both as its origin and its end ; that human progress was 
 not His main object, but an eternal hereafter. If we speak of the 
 Christian religion, we must suppose that Christ knew it; and the 
 ideas of Mr. Lecky and of his school are not the only ones suited to 
 determine what must be the Christian "virtues." This is already a 
 great deal, and we might stop here. 
 
 But there is to examine also the first of the two questions which 
 have been just proposed. Would the Beatitudes proclaimed by 
 Christ be of any value, morally speaking, if they were circumscribed 
 by the limits of this world .? In other words, would they bring on 
 the moral progress of which Mr. Lecky speaks .? This is an impor- 
 tant point for those who do not raise their moral ideas above the 
 human compass, and refuse to admit anything supernatural even in 
 the moral world. 
 
 There is in this age a greater depth of anti-Christian ideas on this 
 subject of moral development than is contained in the theory of Mr. 
 Lecky. He at least acknowledges that man did not begin his career 
 as a brute, and he admits in the lowest tribes of mankind a full pos- 
 session of the natural law. He explains to the best of his ability the 
 apparent anomalies as to the moral code which have been found 
 among savages; but he does not pretend that in rising in the scale 
 of civilization they gradually elaborate principles of virtue which they 
 had not at first. These principles, he justly thinks, are the heirloom 
 of the human race. In this he fully agrees with St. Paul. 
 
 The contrary absurdity, which does not deserve a refutation, and 
 of which enough has been said in the First Book of this volume, is 
 
266 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 totally repudiated by the historian of " European Morals." But he 
 often reiterates in his first volume his firm belief that, the principles 
 of the natural law common to all being presupposed, there is every- 
 where among mankind a constant rising in the moral scale by their 
 own agency. This he does at length in his first chapter on the 
 " Natural History of Morals." When, later on, he comes to the con- 
 sideration of the pagan empire, and chiefly to the conversion of 
 Rome, he applies evidently to the matter in hand, the principles of 
 this system which he has elaborately laid down ; and his main object 
 is to prove that the history of morals is a ftatural one — such being 
 the word used in his first chapter — and even Christianity cannot be 
 excluded from the system. Its moral precepts have been, according 
 to him, naturally developed from previous philosophical tenets. 
 Only, it is no more a simple philosophy as were the "ethics of 
 paganism." "Those of Christianity were part of a religion." Un- 
 fortunately, however, the author does not examine if that religion 
 was divine. It was evidently, in his appreciation, an efilorescence of 
 the previous religions, or of the enthusiasm of its Founder. Its moral 
 system was only a new link in the continuous chain of development 
 which had taken place among men from the beginning, and which 
 particularly obtained a great extension in Rome under the Antonines. 
 We maintain that there was in point of fact no link between the 
 moral doctrines of the most advanced pagan writers of that period 
 and the principles of the Sermon on the Mount summed up in the 
 Beatitudes. It can even be said that there is no possibility of a link 
 between both, for the simple reason that the highest moral doctrine 
 of the pagans considered only this life as its object, and the Beati- 
 tudes looked chiefly to the next. The first was from the earth, 
 earthly ; the second from heaven, heavenly. The first was undoubt- 
 edly well adapted to advance civilization as usually understood ; the 
 second left this civilization in the background, though it secured it 
 in the end. Morally speaking, therefore, if we adhere only to Mr. 
 Lecky's ideas, the Beatitudes would have had no value, would have 
 produced scarcely any effect ; because they were not intended directly 
 to increase the happiness of man on earth. This is to be discussed 
 at some length. 
 
 This celebrated writer never, to our knowledge, speaks of the 
 Sermon of Christ on the Mount, and never mentions the Beati- 
 tudes. He thinks, no doubt, that Christianity is sufficiently w^ell 
 known and appreciated when it is said that " it preached the 
 
FACTS. 267 
 
 milder virtues;" that " it carried benevolence and charity much 
 farther than Seneca or Plutarch;" that " for nearly two hundred 
 years after its establishment in Europe, the Christian community 
 exhibited a moral purity which, if it has been equalled, has never 
 for any long period been surpassed." This, however, is not suffi- 
 cient, and does not give a true idea of the primitive Church, whose 
 extraordinary condition of sanctity was based on the "Beatitudes" 
 and on nothing else; and these solemn " blessings" of Christ could 
 not stop there, nay, they surely did not stop there. Their realiza- 
 tion in Rome, particularly, proved that the new Christian morality 
 did not only carry the principles of the natural law farther than 
 the pagan philosophers had done, but was of a peculiar kind 
 which the first did not even suggest, and could not be, conse- 
 quently, a further link in their development. Christianity indeed 
 left the principles of the natural law intact; nay, supposed them, 
 and required first and foremost from its adherents a thorough 
 fulfilment of them. But its ideal was far above those principles, 
 aud to pretend that this ideal was altogether realized by the prac- 
 tice of the " milder virtues," etc., is to show a profound ignorance 
 of the Christian religion as to its moral object. We are sorry to 
 use such an expression in the present case, but it is unfortunately 
 true that any one who limits the divine mission of Christ to a 
 mere natural standard is profoundly ignorant of its purport. 
 
 That purport was to establish on earth the reign of supernatu- 
 ral virtue — what is called Christian holiness This belongs abso- 
 lutely to the "order of grace," and cannot be included in the 
 " order of nature." Not only its origin must be divine; and faith, 
 hope, and charity, the fundamental basis of the whole moral sys- 
 tem, must be gifts of God, and obtained by prayer like all other 
 supernatural "graces;" but all the virtues which flow from these 
 first belong to the same order, or they would not be Christian. The 
 strict consequence is that if all the acts of virtue performed by the 
 pagans were not so many sins, as Luther pretended, still those 
 natural acts could not introduce the soul into heaven, and could 
 be connected but very remotely with the scheme of redemption. 
 For Christianity is the scheme of redemption, and nothing else. 
 
 This is Catholic theology, Mr. Lecky will say; and he could 
 not as a philosophical writer bring it into discussion. This may 
 appear a perfect excuse in his eyes. We must, therefore, endeavor 
 to prove that he is bound to accept this " Catholic theology" or 
 
268 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 renounce his reason; because it is the only way to fully explain 
 the scheme of Christ, and to understand the conduct of the first 
 Christians in Rome, who did not certainly think that their religion 
 was the efTlorescence of any philosophy. 
 
 Not only the Beatitudes proposed openly heaven as the great 
 objective of morality, and thus placed the whole system altogether 
 outside of the previous pagan moral scheme; but their acceptance 
 by the Roman Christians proved that they relied wholly on 
 " grace" for the practice of virtue, such as Peter and Paul had 
 preached it to them. It is here a question of facts, and not posi- 
 tively of " Catholic theology " Mr. Lecky himself will admit that 
 the moral doctrine inculcated by the first apostles in Rome must 
 have been that of Christ. But nothing is so clear in the Gospel 
 as the inslstance of the Saviour on the necessity of prayer, more 
 still to obtain spiritual blessings than temporal ones. Oportet orare 
 et innnquam deficere — The Christian " must always pray, and never 
 faint." * " The Christian cannot do anything for his salvation ex- 
 cept with the help of heaven through Christ."f There is no 
 need of a greater number of texts. The simple reading of the 
 Gospel proves that this was the doctrine preached by the apos- 
 tles and practised by the Christians, chiefly at the beginning. 
 Go into the Roman catacombs, and see how they understood 
 the duty of constant prayer and always expected miraculous 
 effects from it. The virtues, consequently, which it was their 
 duty to perform they considered as heavenly, as gifts of God. It 
 was not on their lips that could be found the well-known pagan 
 prayer; "Give me, O ye gods, long life and wealth; as to virtue, 
 I will know how to practise it." 
 
 The truth is that Catholic theology alone explains fully to our 
 reason the misery of man and his greatness ; and all its teaching 
 is but the faitliful expression of our moral condition. We would 
 fail in duty every day and hour of our life if we had not God to 
 help us ; for nature is weak, and divine grace alone lifts us up to 
 the highest regions of what is called holiness. If any men on 
 earth ever understood this, the first Roman Christians were 
 prominent among them. They knew that the religion which they 
 had just embraced placed them far above the moral level of their 
 ancestors, They themselves expressed it by words very common 
 
 * Luke xviii. i. f John xv. 5. 
 
FACTS. 269 
 
 among them : "''Their eyes had been opened by the divine myste- 
 ries, and they could see the realms of bliss unknown to them 
 before. Their ears had been opened likewise, and the heavenly 
 harmony had now a meaning for them. A new flavor had per- 
 fumed their palate, and they could taste how the Lord is sweet. 
 They were in fact new creatures, and from sons of men they had 
 become sons of God." Let not Mr. Lecky say that this is only 
 Catholic theology. Knowing so well as he does Christian anti- 
 quity, he will himself acknowledge that all this and much more 
 was included in the new Roman moral code. How can it be said 
 that this was only a further link of the former ethical teaching of 
 Stoic, eclectic, and Platonic philosophers? 
 
 3. This Truth is Confinfied by the New Moral Doctrine, which could 
 not be Derived from any Previous Religion or Philosophy. 
 
 The doctrine of the Beatitudes must have been the main 
 ground of the apostolic teaching, and the whole life of the first 
 disciples in Rome gives a thorough illustration of it. The apos- 
 tles must have preached ''poverty;'* and though we do not hear 
 of a community of goods among them, as was the case in Jerusa- 
 lem, still many well-ascertained facts prove that practically it 
 amounted nearly to the same. The alms of the first Roman 
 Christians were not only profusely scattered among the poor of 
 the great city, as the genuine acts of St. Lawrence's martyrdom 
 evidently suppose ; but they were soon sent abroad in abundance, 
 and spread generously through the whole world, wherever Chris- 
 tian churches had already been founded. The primitive history 
 of the Church, even with the scanty materials we possess, fur- 
 nishes a great number of examples of it ; yet undoubtedly many 
 facts of a similar character have never come down to our knowl- 
 edge, and are now buried in oblivion. 
 
 This must have taken place from the very first years of St. 
 Peter's pontificate in Rome ; and it is believed by many that St. 
 Paul positively alludes to it in his Epistle to the Romans, when 
 he says of them: ''Your faith is spoken of in the whole world." 
 Their faith was known by their deeds of charity. This meaning 
 can very well be admitted here, since the best way to announce 
 to the world that there v/ere believers in Rome as well as in Jeru- 
 salem consisted in the universal distribution of their bounty. It 
 
270 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 is not probable that so early as this an epistolar}^ correspondence 
 between all the churches had been established ; charity must 
 have been the first to spread the news of faith. 
 
 This resulted in Rome as well as anywhere else from the first 
 beatitude, ''Blessed are the poor in spirit." This had never been 
 preached to men as the foundation of happiness; that is, of virtue. 
 To be so totally detached from this world as to give up personal 
 property and bestow it on others goes far beyond any moral pre- 
 scription addressed heretofore to mankind. Even on Mount Sinai 
 God Himself, giving His law to the Jewish people, had not so 
 much as alluded to it. Alms-giving was undoubtedly a virtue in 
 Israel, and the admirable exhortation of Tobias to his son speaks 
 apparently as a prophetic echo of the Gospel. Still, there is an 
 immense difference between both. The elder Tobias did not 
 induce his son to become poor himself in order to relieve more 
 effectually the poor. The voluntary poverty which has always 
 been advocated and practised in the Christian Church could not 
 enter into the ideas of the most faithful Israelite. But at the very 
 head of the eight Beatitudes of Christ it is proclaimed as the foun- 
 dation-stone of the new moral system. How could it naturally 
 spring from any former one ? 
 
 If it could not, it can, on the other side, explain perfectly this 
 unbounded effusion of charity which has ever since been the dis- 
 tinguishing mark of the Catholic Church. Whatever accusations 
 her enemies may bring against her, they are obliged to confess 
 that nothing has ever equalled her profound commiseration for all 
 tlie misfortunes of mankind. And this has been the case in all 
 ages and all countries. At this moment the fact is as striking as 
 it has ever been; and in the age of Claudius and Nero it was 
 already pre-eminent. If any one wishes to know the true reason 
 of it, he has only to reflect on this fact: that the Catholic Church 
 is the only one which preaches " voluntary . poverty" in the 
 thorough sense inculcated by Christ at the very opening of His 
 first sermon to the multitude. The divine Redeemer has con- 
 ferred His first blessing on that holy virtue; and this has been the 
 true foundation of the Christian moral system which originates, 
 proceeds, and culminates in charity. 
 
 An apparently serious difficulty, however, requires here a short 
 discussion. *' Voluntary povert}^" which is proved for Jerusalem, 
 does not seem equally proved in the case of the primitive Chris- 
 
FACTS. 271 
 
 tians of Rome. St. Peter does not seem to have enforced it in this 
 last city, as he did in the persons of Ananias and Sapphira in Jeru- 
 salem; and no text can be adduced to show that the Roman 
 Christians had everything in common. It is undoubtedly true 
 that this doctrine, as far as it supposes a common life, did not 
 pass immediately into the institution of monasteries, in which 
 "vows" are taken by which the religious state is constituted. This 
 seems to have been done in Rome at a comparatively late epoch. 
 Still, the individual and voluntary renouncement of personal 
 property to a very great extent must have been practised from the 
 very beginning. 
 
 It is proved beyond question that there were persons practising 
 asceticism in some of the noblest Roman families. The "vow" of 
 virginity was strictly pronounced by many disciples of Christ who 
 aspired to perfection. Agnes and Caecilia are two remarkable 
 examples of it. It is certain, likewise, that the charity of the new 
 Christians was unbounded; and St. Denys of Corinth, writing to 
 the Roman Church under Soter, who was raised to the Papacy in 
 161, could not only praise that holy Pontiff for the abundance of 
 his alms, but he used in his letter these very words preserved by 
 Eusebius of Caesarea: " In your present liberality you only imi- 
 tate, O Romans, the example which has been given to the world, 
 from the very beginning, by your ancestors, the Christians of Rome." 
 This was but repeating that their generosity had always been 
 proverbial. 
 
 To show how poverty was practised, though there were no 
 convents, the example of Lucina can be quoted. The identity of 
 this lady with the Pomponia Graecina of Tacitus has been all but 
 demonstrated by De Rossi, whose proofs have been admirably 
 condensed by Dom Gueranger in his Ste. C/cile. She was accused, 
 according to Tacitus, of having renounced the national religion 
 and embraced a "foreign superstition." This was as early as a.d. 
 57, under Nero. She was tried by the domestic tribunal; that is, 
 by her husband Plautius and nearest relatives. They declared 
 her not guilty — insons — which means, probably, that the proofs 
 brought against her did not carry conviction. The Roman annal- 
 ist remarks* that Pomponia lived a long time after this, since she 
 died "forty years" after the execution of Julia, Drusus' daughter, 
 
 *Lib. xiii. 
 
272 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 which happened under Claudius. Thenceforth " she always wore 
 a mourning dress, and appeared in public sad and dejected. As 
 long as Claudius lived she did it silently and with impunity; after 
 him it was for her a matter of glory." These words of Tacitus 
 have exercised the critics. Justus Lipsius thought that instead of 
 forty years it must have been fourteen. She could not, he 
 thought, remain so long in mourning for Julia. Frenschemius 
 answered that Tacitus' text ought to be respected, all the MSS. 
 mention forty years, etc. But De Rossi, in proving the identity 
 of Pomponiawith the Christian matron Lucina, has rendered easy 
 of comprehension this passage of the celebrated historian. The 
 lady, he said, had found an easy means of practising her religion 
 unmolested. Her pretended mourning exempted her from being 
 present at pagan pomps; and her sadness allowed her to carry on 
 without suspicion the digging of her Christian cemetery, which 
 has been proved to have been one of the most ancient in Rome. 
 
 Henceforth her life was entirely devoted to works of charity. 
 Probably her husband died long before her, and she could use 
 her immense wealth for any object she chose. She thus became 
 the great model in Rome of Christian "widows," as described by 
 St. Paul.* But what is most remarkable is that the name she 
 took, Lucina, was likewise adopted by several other Roman ladies 
 who followed her example. In the Church's annals during the 
 first three centuries we meet with the charitable doings of other 
 Lucinas, and all of them are represented as entirely devoting 
 themselves to alms-giving and works of mercy. This evidently 
 supposes "voluntary poverty" in those who undertake to lead 
 such a life. Thus, although there were not yet monasteries in 
 Rome, the first of Christ's " Beatitudes" became the groundw^ork 
 of the new Christian morality, without the formality of a "vow." 
 
 It is time to speak of the second: " Blessed are the meek; for 
 they shall possess the land." Though the Saviour's lips uttered this 
 sentence in Judea, and in the midst of a multitude " from Galilee, the 
 Decapolis, Jerusalem, and the country beyond the Jordan,"! it can 
 be maintained that He had, even at that time, the Romans before 
 His eyes, and He intended that His apostles should, at the proper 
 moment, din this doctrine into the ears of the proud inhabitants 
 of that powerful capital of the world. It was not certainly 
 
 * I Tim. V. 5, seq. f Matt. iv. 25. 
 
FACTS. 273 
 
 through "meekness" that Rome had "possessea the land." Her 
 stern policy of conquest is well known; and at that epoch, more 
 than ever before, she held the civilized world in her firm grasp. 
 It is easy for a modern philosopher to speak of her "polished 
 manners" and of the " milder virtues" of the " Antonines." But 
 it is hard to believe that this philosophical humanity could have 
 been the introducer of the Gospel's " meekness," which is of a 
 very different type. How can both be compared together ? Mar- 
 cus Aurelius himself, in spite of the tender strains of his Medita- 
 tions, which Mr. Lecky says " breathe a spirit, if not of Christian 
 humility, at least of the gentlest and most touching modesty," 
 was, after all, a gloomy and desponding more than a meek man. 
 
 "We," says the historian of "European Morals," "who have 
 before us the records of his inner life, can have no difficulty in 
 detecting the deep melancholy that overshadowed his mind; and 
 his closing years were darkened by many and various sorrows. 
 His wife . . . was not worthy of his affection. . . . His only 
 surviving son had already displayed the vicious tendencies that 
 afterwards made him one of the worst of rulers. . . ." And after 
 several other circumstances of the same character, the writer con- 
 cludes a long paragraph by saying: " Shortly before his death he 
 dismissed his attendants and, after one last interview, his son; 
 and he died as he long had livedo alone." The Italics are ours. 
 Gloom and misanthropy would be the proper words for such a 
 kind of meekness as this. 
 
 And what was the result of all his philosophical teachings ? 
 Mr. Lecky says it directly after: "The mass of the Roman people 
 were plunged in a condition of depravity which no mere ethical 
 teachings could adequately correct." 
 
 The principles of the apostles on " meekness" were already at 
 that time succeeding far better than the doctrine of those pro- 
 fessors of the "milder virtues" so highly praised by the same 
 writer. There is not, certainly, in "the whole range of litera- 
 ture," to use a phrase almost common with Mr. Lecky, anything 
 like the new language and the new manners the Church had in- 
 troduced in so short a time among all classes of the Roman 
 people. For De Rossi and Dom Gueranger have proved that in 
 nearly all the great patrician families the Church had made con- 
 verts even before the celebrated epoch of the " Antonines," as 
 early as the domination of the Flavia Gens ; namely, under Ves- 
 
274 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 pasian and Domitian, or, if you like better, at the very end of 
 Nero's reign. We refer here to the noble work of the Abbe de 
 Solesmes, La Society Ro77iai7ie aux deux premiers siecles. The 
 proofs are there offered that in the proudest Roman families there 
 were most vieek Christians, whose gentleness of disposition has 
 never been surpassed if it has been equalled in any age or 
 country. Read the Pastor of Hermas, the Epistles of St. Igna- 
 tius and St. Clement, which, together with St. Mark's gospel, 
 formed the daily food of their minds. See the paintings still pre- 
 served in the catacombs of Domitilla, of Lucina, of Pretex- 
 tatus, etc., all of them belonging to the apostolic age, and say if 
 ever before the world had witnessed such a purity, simplicity, 
 gentleness; to which the Saviour had invited all His followers by 
 the heavenly expression, Blessed are the meek! 
 
 How can any thoughtful man believe that this transformation 
 of the Roman character was effected by the reading of the Me- 
 ditations of Marcus Aurelius, who was a fierce persecutor of the 
 Christians, or by the mild philosophy of Plutarch, who did not 
 suspect that there were thousands of people around him, all of 
 them meek disciples of a meek Saviour, although he must have 
 seen them ? To suppose it requires a strange aberration of 
 mind, or rather an incredible thoughtlessness. For those who 
 invent these theories to explain naturally the sudden appearance 
 of new virtues perfectly unknown until then, persuade them- 
 selves that it was so before endeavoring to persuade others of it. 
 They evidently do not reflect on the complete dissimilarity of two 
 moral systems such as were those of Greek and Roman theorists and 
 those of Jesus' followers, who had received their belief and way 
 of life from the simple teaching of Jewish apostles. Should they 
 examine the facts with more care they would undoubtedly per- 
 ceive that the word meekness may mean very different things. 
 New theories might have been introduced able to modify the for- 
 mer sternness, or rather harshness, of the Roman nation, so as to 
 render them less barbarous than they were formerly; so as to 
 produce some little change in the way of dealing with slaves, of 
 treating women and children, of organizing government among 
 conquered tribes, etc. But the meekness which has received 
 the Saviour's blessing, which He practised first and afterwards 
 preached through Himself or His apostles to all nations, was a 
 virtue which not even the best pagan moralists could appreci- 
 
FACTS. 275 
 
 ate, which they even despised when they saw it at work, which 
 increased, in fact, their hatred of the Christians, as frequently 
 happened at the time. Had any one told Marcus Aurelius, or 
 Pliny, or Plutarch, or any other promulgator of the " milder vir- 
 tues" that their fine sentences would culminate in the introduc- 
 tion of that Christian spirit which they all considered as the 
 basest and most contemptible in existence, they would have 
 laughed him to scorn, and denied with energy that the doctrine 
 they announced had the least resemblance with " that low and 
 grovelling superstition," as they called it. And it is proper to 
 conclude these reflections by the remark that if, on one side, the 
 pagan philosophers would have refused to admit any point of co- 
 incidence betw^een their theories and the new religious spirit, the 
 Christians themselves, on the other, would have protested with 
 more energy still against a supposition which appears so natural 
 to many persons in our day. 
 
 The following beatitude is, if possible, a greater proof of the 
 same truth : *' Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be com- 
 forted." Here the absolute impossibility of deriving this heavenly 
 doctrine from any previous teaching whatever is too apparent to 
 require any discussion. Yet this was one of the first axioms of 
 the new moral code which the Roman Christians hastened to 
 adopt with a visible eagerness. Their life during nearly three 
 hundred years was a life of " mourning" indeed; and they thanked 
 God in the midst of persecution, because they knew the most easy 
 way to heaven is through suffering. With this new moral doc- 
 trine martyrdom became a boon, and luxurious life a curse. 
 There is no possibility of denying this; and every one must admit 
 that this is the very substance of Christianity, since St. Paul him- 
 self said that the only thing he preached was " Christ crucified," 
 and that he himself was nailed to the cross with Christ — Christo 
 confixus sum criici. * 
 
 Mr. Lecky, who does not say a word of this "beatitude," no 
 more than of any othe'r, speaks nevertheless of the persecu- 
 tions; and his main object is to disprove the opinion of those 
 authors who maintain " that the triumph of Christianity in Rome 
 is naturally inexplicable, and who reply (to the observation that 
 a religious transformation was then inevitable) by pointing to the 
 
 * Gal. ii. 19. 
 
276 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 persecutions which Christianity had to encounter." He had 
 already endeavored to do the same with regard to miracles, in 
 which he does not believe, and which, he thinks, are a completely 
 unsatisfactory evidence of religion. But he is much more profuse 
 on the subject of persecutions, which he imagmes could not pre- 
 vent the Christian religion from triumphing, independently even 
 of the slightest supernatural cause. The heroism of the Chris- 
 tians, which he fully admits, was, in his opinion, as natural an 
 effect as is the stubbornness of any man who upholds a great 
 cause; and he thinks he has thus removed from his path the great- 
 est obstacle to the establishment of his system, by which every- 
 thing becomes easy without the intervention of God. 
 
 It would not be very difficult to prove that Christian heroism 
 was inspired by heaven, and had nothing to do, for instance, with 
 the stubbornness of atheists, some of whom have actually died by 
 fire in support of their absurd denial of God's existence. But we 
 will take the liberty of remarking that the question is not there. 
 It lays in the "beatitudes" preached by Christ, and in nothing 
 else; and our simple means of conviction is to show that these 
 " beatitudes" could not come but from heaven. That of " mourn- 
 ing" particularly is absolutely inexplicable by reason alone. It 
 could not come from the previous doctrine of philosophers preach- 
 ing "the milder virtues;" it was opposed to all the natural incli- 
 nations of man; it declared that man was not created for the mere 
 enjoyments of this life; and if the simple promise of being "com- 
 forted " in an eternal hereafter was sufficient to make it accept- 
 able to man, this was the most irrefragable proof that man is a 
 supernatural being coming from God, and returning thither by 
 the " royal way of the cross" — Regia via saiidce crucis, as the 
 author of the "Following of Christ " says. 
 
 This was the main support of the martyrs in the terrible ordeal 
 they had to go through. They despised this world and aimed at 
 another. They accepted unhesitatingly the word of Christ, Blessed 
 are those that ??iourn; it was altogether a new virtue never preached 
 as yet by any philosopher. They called it the great virtue of 
 patience; but they gave to this word its original Latin sense, pati, 
 namely, to suffei-; yes, to suffer every kind of tortures, and to con- 
 sider themselves happy when their flesh was torn by the execu- 
 tioners' hook and their bones were crushed by the teeth of the - 
 wild beasts. St. Ignatius of Antioch said it was the only way tol 
 
FACTS. 277 
 
 become the wheat of Christ. No atheist, no supporter of heresy, 
 could ever find in this doctrine the ground of his fortitude. Mr. 
 Lecky will be bound to confess that this was altogether superhu- 
 man; for it is not from his pen that the accusation of fanaticism 
 would fall, in writing on the persecutions; and the last paragraph 
 of this long chapter of his book is an admirable picture of the 
 sublime courage of our Christian ancestors. 
 
 The reader will feel, 1 hope, the strength of this demonstra- 
 tion. It lies in this: Powerful writers of our age bring all the 
 fascination of their style, all the copiousness of their erudition, 
 all the subtlety of their minds to prove that Christianity was estab- 
 lished without the intervention of God; that consequently the vir- 
 tues which it preached were only natural virtues, and the holiness 
 which it spread on earth was earthly, apt to be dimmed, obscured, 
 nay, liable to corruption, and infallibly tending to looseness of 
 morals and social evil, as they pretend has been the case m Chris- 
 tianity. The great means taken by those writers to produce that 
 impression on mankind consists in deriving all the gradual im- 
 provement of morals among men from our inner consciousness, 
 and from no other source. A natural history of European morals 
 is gradually, copiously, and magnificently, in some respects, elabo- 
 rated, so that the series of its development looks as if we had 
 before our eyes the simple monograph of any animal genus in natu- 
 ral history. The thirty or forty species included within that genus 
 are there described, showing the gradual change naturally effected 
 in each of them, and their natural generic correlation. If God 
 has at all acted in this last case of the Christian virtues, to produce 
 thirty or forty special new ones, it is evidently only through man 
 alone as a secondary cause. He has, meanwhile, remained in the 
 solemn grandeur of His rest; and what falls under our eyes is all 
 natural, and can be explained naturally from our inward con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 If we can prove that there is not in fact such a correlation as 
 is here supposed; that one system of morals cannot possibly come 
 from the other; that in their origin, progress, and ultimate object 
 those virtues or truths betray constantly a diversity which can 
 neither be gainsaid nor explained naturally, it is clear that the 
 great diagram is a delusion as applied to morality, and that a 
 totally different picture is to be made of it as to its true origin 
 and progress. This, I think, has just been done. 
 
278 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 The simple exposition of three or four " beatitudes" or bless- 
 ings of Christ have sufficed to prove that this is the case for the 
 Christian system of morals; and it would be altogether useless to 
 go through the others. The reader can easily do so himself with- 
 out our help; he has only to read the fifth chapter of St. Matthew 
 and follow our rules of interpretation. The most simple mind, 
 provided it is sincere, can easily perceive that between the phi- 
 losophy of the Stoics, eclectics, and Platonists on the one side and 
 that of Christ on the other there is such a doctrinal and impass- 
 able abyss that it is sheer folly to derive one from the other. To 
 attempt it even is a useless task; and the greatest talent in the 
 world cannot succeed in deceiving others for a long time; and 
 here our limits prescribe that we should rest. 
 
 It would be, however, unpardonable to be satisfied with the 
 scanty details which have been so far furnished of the holiness of 
 the first Christians in Rome. A somewhat more extended picture 
 of it must be drawn, and to this we now proceed. 
 
 4. Some Further Proofs of the Church's Holiness in Ro?ne. 
 
 A word has been said of asceticism in the Eternal City, and the 
 names of Agnes and Caecilia have been mentioned. But we are 
 not reduced to this simple statement. There is a work of St. 
 Clement of Rome which has been the subject of some controversy, 
 though everything goes to prove its genuineness. It gives a remark- 
 able insight into the purity which began to flourish from the days 
 of St. Peter in the most corrupt city of the whole universe, in that 
 infamous Babylon which was anathematized by the mildest of the 
 apostles, St. John himself. There is good reason to consider this 
 little book as an authentic expression of the exquisite purity of 
 life among the Roman Christians. 
 
 True, it is said in general that the first epistle of St. Clement 
 is the only genuine piece of writing we have from him, and that 
 the second and third are considered spurious by all critics. It 
 would be, however, preferable only to maintain that there is no 
 possibility of taking the least exception to that first epistle. But 
 at the beginning of last century the learned John James Wetstein, 
 from Basle, for a long time professor of theology at Amsterdam, 
 a Protestant consequently, found at the end of a Syriac manuscript 
 which he had received from Aleppo two letters attributed to the 
 
FACTS. 279 
 
 same Pope Clement, addressed to virgins. He translated them 
 into Greek and Latin, ^nd soon became persuaded of their 
 authenticity. The immense amount of erudition he brought to 
 bear on the question would have convinced all minds, had it not 
 been for the opposition of Venema, divinity professor at Franeker, 
 who attacked the opinion of Wetstein and found a large following 
 among many Protestants. 
 
 Still, the proofs afforded by the Amsterdam professor were far 
 from being invalidated; and the objections of Venema, whatever 
 may be their critical value, possess in fact very little strength, 
 particularly for one reason which must always have a great 
 weight in the opinion of Catholics. The doctrine on virginity 
 contained in these two letters is perfectly in accordance with 
 Roman early traditions, and bears consequently a great proba- 
 bility of internal evidence. For it must be carefully remembered 
 that what is well known of the Roman church in the second and 
 third centuries is a sure voucher that the same existed already in 
 germ in the first, whenever there is no positive proof of the con- 
 trary. But In the second and third centuries the picture was In 
 the main the same as described In these two epistles of St. 
 Clement, from which the subsequent' holiness must have been 
 derived. 
 
 A short passage of these letters will be sufficient for the 
 present purpose: "Whoever aspires to a higher life must live as 
 do the angels, in a divine and heavenly atmosphere. The virgin 
 shrinks from sensual longings. Not only she gives up her right 
 to satisfy them in whatever is otherwise lawful; but she clings 
 only to that hope of which God, who cannot deceive, gives us the 
 sure warrant. That hope is far above the one to which men only 
 look when they wish to be surrounded by children of their own. 
 As a reward for her generous self-sacrifice she will have a share 
 in the felicity of the angels themselves." 
 
 To understand well the strength of these few words, we must 
 transcribe the reflections which Dom Gueranger has made on 
 them in his Socie'te Romaine : *' Such was the language of St. 
 Peter's disciple, whom the prince of the apostles had chosen to 
 bring about the renovation of the Roman Babylon. Nothing less 
 than this strong language could oppose a sufficient flood-gate to 
 the devastating stream of corruption which then overspread the 
 empire. Had Christianity only proposed to men the practice of 
 
28o THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 what was then called honestum, as the philosophers did, its efforts 
 would have been fruitless. Stoicism could, by inspiring pride, 
 give strength enough to despise death; it was above its power to 
 give the death-blow to those sensual doctrines which were at that 
 time the strongest prop of the Caesars' tyranny. The ideal of 
 chastity presented to the eyes of all in that corrupt world could 
 alone stem the torrent of depravity which had well-nigh over- 
 whelmed the dignity of man. For the good of mankind Chris- 
 tian morality began to shine in the universal gloom, and, many 
 bright examples of it in the upper ranks of society coming in aid 
 to its open maxims of true virtue, the exterior world had to take 
 an account of it. Roman corruption was struck with awe in hear- 
 ing that virginity was an open object of veneration for a large 
 number of the new religionists, whilst the highest social privileges 
 and the most terrible punishment could scarcely keep in the line 
 of their duty the six vestal virgins on whom rested the honor and 
 safeguard of the Eternal City." 
 
 Soon after St. Clement, Justin Martyr gave to the pagan 
 Romans the simple details of the most holy life which was already 
 led by a great many of their countrymen. " There are among 
 us," he said, "in this city men and women in great number who 
 have reached the age of sixty or seventy, and, having from their 
 infancy lived under Christ's law, they have persevered to this day 
 in the holy state of virginity." Athenagoras a little later on could 
 say the same equivalently in his Apology to Marcus Aurelius. 
 
 We are not, therefore, reduced to a few authorities with regard 
 to this austere asceticism so remarkable from the origin of Chris- 
 tianity in the city of Rome, and were we to quote the numerous 
 facts preserved by the Roman traditions and ascertained in this 
 age by recent discoveries in the catacombs, a much greater num- 
 ber of examples, belonging to the first century and to the follow- 
 ing epoch of the Flavian dynasty, would give to this truth the 
 strength of a demonstration. But there is after all no need of it, 
 since the author of the " History of European Morals" himself 
 admits willingly that Christian purity in Rome during the two 
 first centuries has never been surpassed for any long period in 
 any part of the world. 
 
 This transformation of Rome was so striking, and took imme- 
 diately such large proportions, that even in the apostolic age the 
 Church of Christ was already personified on the seven hills as the 
 
FACTS, 281 
 
 City of God, the society of the saints, the reproduction, in a finer 
 form, of the first earthly paradise. Hermas began doing it in his 
 First Book of Visions, when the Church appeared to him as a 
 woman at the same time old and venerable, young and beautiful, 
 etc. The whole Christian literature of that primitive epoch is 
 redolent of the perfume of holiness and clothed in the garb of a 
 holy simplicity, such as no one could have expected to see in the 
 midst of a depravity unheard of as yet in the annals of the world. 
 
 Any one, however, aware that the Gospel had just been writ- 
 ten, and that the fifth chapter of St. Matthew had already pro- 
 claimed the ideal of the new religion, could not wonder at the 
 sight of the sublime virtues practised by the new disciples. They 
 were but the realization of the promises of Christ when He had 
 pronounced his "blessings" on the head of His future followers: 
 " Blessed are the poor," " blessed are the meek," " blessed are 
 they that mourn," "blessed are the clean of heart," "blessed are 
 the peacemakers," " blessed are ye when they shall revile you." 
 
 This conveys the best idea that could be given of the moral 
 change effected in Rome by the simple preaching of St. Peter and 
 St. Paul. By comparing the pagan city such as it is now known 
 from the labors of recent archaeologists with the new Christian 
 community formed on the pattern laid down in the Sermon on 
 the Mount, the conviction is irresistible that from the foulest cor- 
 ruption a great number of its inhabitants had reached at once the 
 highest sanctity. 
 
 A short passage from " The Church and the Gentile World " * 
 will be, 1 hope, most appropriate to the present occasion. The 
 Roman on becoming a Christian "fell prostrate before the 'power 
 and wisdom' of God, surrendered himself to the impulse of divine 
 grace, and, closing his eyes to all earthly things, he was guilty of 
 the greatest folly — stultitiam — a man, as man, could commit. But 
 in this act of madness he directly experienced an immense moral 
 change, and became a new man, a unit among many, destined to 
 form a heavenly community, such as the world had never seen 
 before. Who could be able to describe it with the scanty mate- 
 rials we have at hand ? The gloomy corridors of the catacombs 
 
 . . begin to unfold under our eyes the spectacle of that city 
 of God so different from the city of the world which at the time 
 
 * Vol. 11. p. 430. 
 
282 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 gloried in its name — Rome, strength — and in its eternal destiny. 
 De Rossi has already extended his discoveries far enough to 
 embalm forever the sweet memory of primitive Christianity in the 
 City of the Seven Hills; and when his task shall be accomplished 
 then we will completely know the new and holy generation to 
 which Peter and Paul gave birth. Petronilla, Pudens, and Puden- 
 tiana . . . will then be familiar names to every Christian," etc. 
 We must simply refer to that work for the ampler details it 
 contains on the subject. 
 
 5. The Moral Change Effected in Rome during the Apostolic Age was 
 
 Permanent. 
 
 A strong objection is brought forth that " after the first two cen- 
 turies the purity of the Christian Church in Rome did not remain 
 what it first was, and a great decline took place. Holiness seemed 
 to have departed, and corruption crept in under a civil legislation 
 better certainly than that of paganism, but very far from fulfilling 
 the Christian ideal of morality. This was chiefly remarkable in 
 Constantinople, which was called the New Rome, and had been 
 founded by Constantine with the view of making it a Christian 
 city, from which, for this reason, every vestige of an idolatrous 
 worship had been strictly excluded." 
 
 This is said equivalently, and with many details, by the author 
 of the "History of European Morals." The intention is evidently 
 to 'insinuate that the new religion of the Romans was mainly 
 responsible for that corruption which has become proverbial when- 
 ever mention is made of that dark period of Roman history, the 
 Lower Empire. 
 
 Instead of shrinking from giving the objection its whole 
 strength, we consider it a duty to quote verbatim by and by the 
 most strikmg details furnished by the celebrated author, so that 
 the reader may be able to judge, when he hears the answer, if at 
 that epoch the Church had really lost her ideal of sanctity. 
 
 I. In these strictures on Christian morals, very little is said of 
 the Western Empire; that is, of Rome itself. There was a more 
 promising field of objections in the East, and this is immediately 
 taken advantage of. But the primary question concerns Rome 
 and the West; and before coming down to the Byzantine period, 
 it is important to examine if, after Constantine had left Rome for 
 
FACTS. 283 
 
 Byzantium, there was, in truth, a decline in the morals of the Ro- 
 man Christians. The emperor had embraced the new religion; 
 but a considerable number of his subjects in the West were still 
 pagans; and whatever might be his wish, he had to legislate 
 according to the actual moral state of the empire. His desires 
 were repeatedly expressed in public proclamations, in which he 
 earnestly exhorted all the Romans to follow his own example. 
 Seeing the impossibility of obtaining it, he acted prudently in 
 enacting laws which were not a pure expression of the Christian 
 ideal. Mr. Lecky admits that they were better than those of 
 paganism; and if time and space allowed, it could be easily proved 
 that many of them went a great step in advance of former human 
 legislation. But they did not, and could not, go beyond that scope. 
 It would be a pure sophism to make the Church responsible for 
 these legal deficiencies. The Church had no dealing whatever in 
 their enactment. She had her own laws; and to prove a decline 
 on her part, it would be necessary to point out any change that 
 had taken place, at least, in her discipline. This cannot- be done, 
 and the author of " European Morals" has not attempted it. 
 
 After the emperor had left, the popes remained in the old city, 
 which was soon to become the capital of Christendom. They were 
 the true and sole legislators of the Christians. It was only a long 
 time after that they became masters in civil and religious matters. 
 Did they meanwhile allow morality to perish, or even to decline, 
 in the mass of their increasing flock? If they did, it would be 
 proper to prove it; and no proof whatever of it is afforded. There 
 are, on the other side, strong reasons for believing that the popes 
 performed their duty. 
 
 First, there was an unbroken succession among them which 
 makes it difficult to suppose, on their part, a change of conduct in 
 their spiritual administration, unless facts show it. Miltiades 
 and Sylvester, who witnessed the end of persecutions, were the 
 immediate successors of those heroic pontiffs who sustained the 
 shock of the whole Roman power under Diocletian and Galerius. 
 No mention is made by any contemporary author of a relaxation 
 in the strict discipline which had prevailed during the era of mar- 
 tyrdom. The only feature which strikes any one who studies 
 attentively that transition period is the care taken by Sylvester 
 and the popes who followed him to organize most strictly the 
 whole material framework of the Church; and this must have 
 
284 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 highly contributed to the correctness of Christian life A great 
 number of decrees were passed to establish with more precision 
 and vigor the various degrees of the hierarchy, from the patriarchs 
 and metropolitans down to the lowest grades of the clergy. The 
 lay people were not forgotten; and a further attempt was particu- 
 larly made to check the progress of slavery and to secure the 
 sanctity of marriage. Julius I. chiefly, whose election dates from 
 337, fixed the degrees of consanguinity which made marriage 
 unlawful, and proclaimed the natural right the slaves possessed to 
 contract it. He made a special decree to render valid the union 
 of a master with his female slave. The Christian policy which 
 was destined to entirely abolish the ancient laws on servitude was 
 so early as this inaugurated. 
 
 In a second place, in the conflict which immediately began 
 between orthodoxy and heresy the popes displayed an extraordi- 
 nary activity, not only in order to secure the dogma, but also to 
 strengthen the bonds of discipline. They were mainly instru- 
 mental in promoting the reunion of bishops in councils. Thus 
 the Arian troubles brought on a great number of those assemblies 
 in the east and west, precisely as the previous Donatist contro- 
 versy had done in Africa and Rome. But the custom was soon 
 introduced to enact in all councils decrees of discipline as well as 
 decrees of faith. The loose conduct of heretics, besides, becoming 
 better known in spite of great distances, spurred on the zeal of the 
 popes to prevent the introduction of bad manners and even of 
 slight abuses. The modern authors who descant on early Chris- 
 tianity know in general very little of the activity of the Roman 
 pontiffs at that epoch; and owing to this want of knowledge they 
 cannot judge of their influence over the morals of their age. Should- 
 they consult the large Latin collection of Migne, they would cease 
 to pretend that there was then a moral decline in the Church. 
 The great cause of their error is probably their habitual want of 
 discrimination between the pagans and the Christians in the fourth 
 and fifth centuries. Polytheism and its concomitant, immorality, 
 had not lost its hold on a large number of men; and though the 
 Church was free, it did not embrace the universality of citizens. 
 The Christians, owing to their newly acquired liberty, were mixed 
 up with the pagan part of the population in a degree which had 
 not been equalled during the previous centuries. The depravity 
 which was still prevalent appeared to affect the Christians them- 
 
FACTS. 285 
 
 selves, and whoever judges of them only from the common reports 
 of contemporary writers on the morality of the age will form of 
 them an estimate far below their true worth. It must be insisted 
 again that the popes w^ere their only legislators; and from' the 
 action of the popes we must conclude what the disciples were in 
 the main. 
 
 Thirdly and lastly, the consideration of the personal merit of 
 the Roman pontiffs in the fourth and fifth centuries is a most 
 striking proof that there could not have been any moral declen- 
 sion in the Church at that time. Who can detect in Miltiades, 
 Sylvester, Julius I., Liberius, Damasus, Siricius, and Anastasius 
 I. less holiness, zeal, and energy than in the best popes of the 
 second and third age ? They all belonged to the fourth, and are 
 better known than their predecessors, owing to the universal peace 
 proclaimed by Constantine. The only question raised against 
 any of them concerned Liberius, who was said to have given way to 
 the threats of Constantius. This reproach of the Galileans has 
 been proved to be an error founded chiefly on some interpolations 
 by heretics in the text of St. Athanasius, The admirable letter 
 of this pope to the Arian emperor would be sufficient to prove 
 him incapable of giving way to even a moment of weakness. And 
 not only this letter vouches for his energy, but more still for his 
 truly apostolic spirit and pure virtue. The third paragraph of it 
 must absolutely be quoted : " Your sagacity," he tells Constantius, 
 "must suggest to you that no feeling can enter my soul which 
 should be unworthy of a servant of God. The Almighty is my 
 witness, and the whole Church will confirm the testimony, that I 
 have always trampled under my feet all worldly aspirations, and 
 looked with faith and fear before God only to motives approved by 
 the Gospel and apostolic tradition. When I was still in a subor- 
 dinate ecclesiastical office I followed as my rule not the impul- 
 siveness of passion, but the divine law always prescribed to and 
 observed by Christians ; and I tried to repress self-importance and 
 the love of glory in my observance of the divine precepts. With 
 regard to the position I now hold, God is my witness that I was 
 placed in it in spite of myself. I hope to remain in it without 
 God's offence as long as I live. The line of conduct I now follow 
 is not of my own choice, but it is prescribed to me by apostolic 
 rule, which must always remain firm and in force. Following con- 
 stantly the traditions of our forefathers in the faith, I have never 
 
286 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 tried to add anything to the prerogatives of a Roman bishop ; 
 but I have never allowed their curtailment. Attached to the faith 
 which has been transmitted to us by the succession of so many 
 great bishops, many of whom have been martyrs, I wish to pre- 
 serve it forever inviolate." 
 
 Of all the pontiffs w^hose names have been mentioned above 
 it is doubtful if a single one would have felt his inner life un- 
 worthy of such a testimony to himself. At least, in all the docu- 
 ments that have been preserved as coming from them the same 
 conscientious spirit of devotedness to duty is visible. And those 
 of the following century were not inferior to them. Nay, it would 
 not be rash to maintain that during the first nine centuries of the 
 Christian religion the Roman bishops were mainly actuated by 
 the same noble sentiments. If there was, therefore, a decline in 
 the morals of the people, it came from external circumstances 
 over which the Church and her rulers had no control. Such were 
 the barbarian invasions and the spread of heresy. But the Bride 
 of Christ remained pure; nay, immaculate, without wrinkle and 
 deformity, as the apostle said. 
 
 There has certainly never been in the world's history any 
 dynasty of rulers so worthy of the gratitude of mankind, and of 
 public veneration for their virtues, as the popes have been during 
 many ages. At the same time that they appeared on the world's 
 stage as powerful men in State concerns, they offered to the eyes 
 of men the spectacle of holy pontiffs, true vicars and representa- 
 tives of Christ, preservers and propagators of Gospel truth, and 
 the highest promoters that the world has ever seen of morality 
 and true virtue. Was there ever a public crime they did not con- 
 demn? an incentive to holiness they did not foster? Did ever 
 the poor, the weak, the defenceless find better advocates and pro- 
 tectors against their oppressors? All this belongs now to elemen- 
 tary history. The author we take the liberty of criticising is not, 
 certainly, the man to din in our ears the absurd tales of anti-papal 
 ranters. He respects himself and his readers too much to en- 
 dorse senseless accusations which he well knows are altogether 
 groundless. 
 
 Still, he occasionally makes mistakes. In the passage pre- 
 viously alluded to he attributes to the popes of the fourth 
 century a legislation which was not their own, as was seen, but 
 
FACTS. 287 
 
 belonged to Constantine, and was not intended purely for Chris- 
 tians but for a still pagan empire. Mr. Lecky, however, as was 
 said, is very sparing of objections concerning Rome when he 
 wishes to prove that there was a moral decline in the Church. He 
 falls, consequently, on some of the Fathers, and, I am sorry to 
 say, he speaks of things which he did not know sufficiently. Thus 
 he finds that "a fertile source of degrading superstition" was 
 already contained in the teaching of St. Augustine, ''which to- 
 gether with the progress of asceticism gradually introduced the 
 doctrine of the utter depravity of man."* Yea, he firmly believes 
 in "the Christian notion of the enormity of little sins, . . . the 
 belief that weaknesses of character and petty infractions of duty 
 . . . may be made the ground of eternal condemnation beyond the 
 grave, though this was altogether unknown to the ancients." This 
 is attributed, perhaps, to the popes, certainly to the Fathers of the 
 Church in the fourth and following centuries, and would undoubt- 
 edly have been a decline in sound morals. 
 
 But Mr. Lecky may rest assured that the teaching of St. Augus- 
 tine, in particular, never introduced the doctrine of the utter depravity 
 of man ; and that the enormity of little sins, the belief that weaknesses 
 of character may be made the ground of eternal condemnation, has 
 never been a " Christian notion" at least in the Catholic Church. 
 These were altogether Protestant aberrations in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, of which Christianity cannot be made responsible. It is Calvin 
 who first proclaimed the *' utter depravity of man." As to the other 
 strange doctrine about " little sins," etc., it is but the consequence of 
 the denial of purgatory by all the Protestant sects. This has been 
 already hinted at before. 
 
 The Calvinistic dogma of Adam's fall may have been propped up 
 by heterodox theologians with the help of some scraps of phrases 
 found in St. Augustine's works. But these few sentences could 
 not convey the sense given to tjiem, because the great doctor of/ 
 Hippo never believed in the "utter depravity of man." The best 
 proof of it is contained in the well-known passage of the " City of 
 God" where he speaks of the "virtues" of the pagan Romans, to 
 whom, he thought, God had given an almost univer.sal empire as a 
 reward for their sobriety and purity of character. Mr. Lecky is, 
 
 * Vol. ii. pp. 5, 6. 
 
288 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 however, excusable on this point, because, not knowing sufficiently 
 Catholic theology, he could not understand the purport of the " Pela- 
 gian controversy," of which he has attempted in this place to say a 
 word which could not be but a blunder. 
 
 To admit such radical changes in moral teaching as Mr. Lecky 
 openly proclaims supposes that the Church is not an infallible 
 teacher in such matters as these; and naturally this is the starting- 
 point of modern rationalistic theories. These theories are conse- 
 quently propped up by every semblance of alteration in doctrine. 
 But Catholic writers can demur to this supposition and prove that 
 the alteration did not take place, and could not have become " the 
 source of a degrading superstition," as has just been done. This 
 first stepping-stone of the gifted author furnished him, however, with 
 the opportunity of launching forth, later on, into many details on the 
 Catholic doctrine concerning " hell and purgatory during the middle 
 ages," which he evidently meant, so early as the fourth century, to 
 have been "the source of a degrading superstition." But there can- 
 not be as yet question of the middle ages. It suffices here to main- 
 tain that the doctrine on hell and purgatory has never varied in the 
 Church. The first — that on hell — is clearly the doctrine of the 
 Saviour Himself in the Gospel; the second— on purgatory— inde- 
 pendently of Scripture, is so clearly an outcome of reason that all 
 those who in our age believe still in future rewards and punishments, 
 without being children of the true Church, confine them to a sort of 
 purgatory, by refusing to admit an eternal retribution even for the 
 greatest crimes. 
 
 Still, it is insisted upon that there was an immense change in that 
 regard. During the three first centuries, it is said, "Christianity was 
 regarded rather as a redemption from error than from sin." * But 
 later on the doctrine of the "utter depravity of man" became so 
 prominent that a most terrific legislation was enacted in the Church 
 for the punishment of sin. Excommunication was the last and high- 
 est of these ; and " the excommunicated man must live hated and 
 alone in this world, and be prepared for damnation in the next. "f 
 And in several passages of Mr. Lecky's book excommunication 
 is represented as altogether inexpiable, and leaving man" without 
 the faintest prospect of pardon in this world and the next. Had 
 there been such an alteration in the moral teaching of the Church, 
 
 * Page 5. f Page 7. 
 
FACTS. 289 
 
 she would not undoubtedly have remained the same Church; and 
 primitive Christianity, as it was called, would have in reality disap- 
 peared very early. But all this is altogether untrue. 
 
 In a first place, it cannot be proved that during the first three 
 centuries Christianity was regarded rather as a redemption from error 
 than from sin. M. de Pressense in his Histoire des Trois premiers 
 Siccles may say so ; but he cannot prove it. For, in this case, the 
 Christian doctrine would have already been altogether different from 
 that of the apostles and of Christ Himself. 
 
 No man who has read the Gospel and remembers something of 
 it can maintain this. Christ came to preach against sin^ and bring 
 back the sinner to the path of virtue. All the apostles without ex- 
 ception reproved men for their sins^ and exhorted them to repentance 
 and reformation. All the Fathers of the earliest ages preached the 
 same doctrine, and denounced the most terrible punishments against 
 sinners. It can even be maintained that if at the same time Chris- 
 tianity was also "regarded as a redemption from error," these errors 
 of which Christianity redeemed man were represented as most heinous 
 crimes. The greatest of these was idolatry, which was from the be- 
 ginning denounced as the head and front of all other siiis^ etc. etc. 
 
 But to pretend that "excommunication" took the form it ob- 
 tained in the tenth century owing to a radical change in the polity 
 and the morals of the Church, is both to ignore entirely the apos- 
 tolic teaching and to attribute to the mediaeval Church a doctrine 
 altogether inconsistent with her practice. It was St. Paul who 
 "excommunicated" the incestuous man in Corinth; and it was St. 
 John himself who in his second Epistle (v. 10), speaking of any 
 apostate, commanded the faithful "not to receive him into the 
 house nor say to him, God speed you. For he that saith to him, 
 God speed you communicateth with his wicked works." The 
 mediaeval Church never said anything stronger than St. Paul and 
 St. John against excommunicated persons, and the mediaeval 
 Church always received back the repentant sinner to communion 
 even if 'he had been excommunicated, though the period of recon- 
 ciliation was sometimes removed to the time of death. 
 
 There never was, consequently, in the Church any change of 
 the kind attributed to her. She always taught the same princi- 
 ples of holiness, and enforced them in the same spirit, though her 
 discipline was not always the same ; because there must always be 
 in a living organization a development conformable to the succes- 
 
290 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 sive needs of an advancing or receding civilization. This suffices 
 for the West ; since nothing more of importance is found in the 
 objections of Mr. Lecky with regard to that part of the empire. 
 
 II. It is in Constantinople and' the East that the author of 
 "European Morals" finds the strongest proofs of a complete altera- 
 tion in the morals of Christianity. There is undoubtedly a great deal 
 of strength in the difficulties proposed by the gifted writer. It 
 can be proved, however, that if many facts seem to support his 
 opinion, they all took place after the total separation of the East 
 from the West, of the Patriarchs of Constantinople from the Roman 
 Pontiffs. The popes cannot be made responsible for the moral 
 and social aberrations of the eastern schismatics. This must be as 
 clearly explained as space and time will permit. 
 
 "The history of the (Eastern) Empire," says Mr. Lecky,* "is 
 a monotonous story of the intrigues of priests, eunuchs, and women; 
 of poisonings, of conspiracies, of uniform ingratitude, of perpetual 
 fratricides. After the conversion of Constantine there was no prince 
 in any section of the empire altogether so depraved, or at least so 
 shameless, as Nero or Heliogabalus ; but the Byzantine Empire 
 can show none bearing the faintest resemblance to Antonine or 
 
 Marcus Aurelius At last the Mohammedan invasion 
 
 terminated the long decrepitude of the Eastern Empire. Constan- 
 tinople sank beneath the Crescent, its inhabitants wrangling about 
 theological differences to the very moment of their fall." 
 
 This picture may appear perfect to "the general reader," as 
 the expression now has it ; but it is far too much condensed to 
 treat worthily of the question. It is not by a generalization of 
 this kind that the Church can be fairly judged ; and serious accusa- 
 tions grounded on it can have no strength in the eyes of any im- 
 partial man. A first remark that may suffice to disprove the whole 
 paragraph is simply this : The deficiencies of the State are all 
 along in this passage, and in several others, attributed to the 
 Church, which seems to have fallen behind the former "pagan 
 civilization," as it is somewhere else asserted. Still, nothing is so 
 well known as the fact that the great fault of many of those Byzan- 
 tine rulers was precisely their insistance on ruling despotically 
 over the Church, to which had they been completely masters they 
 would have given so early as this the form it has assumed in mod- 
 
 Vol. ii. p. 13. 
 
FACTS. 291 
 
 ern Russia. The Church and the State must not be, therefore, 
 confounded. 
 
 But the chief fault which can be found in this wholesale accu- 
 sation is the length of time it embraces — a full thousand years. 
 During that long period there were centuries when scarcely any 
 objection of the kind could be raised. Even were it true that 
 after Constantine there was not any ruler to be compared with 
 Marcus Aurelius — we will not attempt to disprove this, though it 
 might, perhaps, be easily done — still, a general remark of this 
 kind does not even touch the question. The only subject to be 
 discussed is simply this, was there not in the Byzantine Empire, 
 directly after Constantine, whatever the State might be, a Church 
 teaching men the most sublime doctrine, and fostering on all oc- 
 casions the highest purity of morals ? It is in fact directly after 
 Constantine as well as in his own time, that we find in the East 
 the highest development of both faith and sanctity. It is suffi- 
 cient to mention the names of Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of 
 Nyssa, Basil, Cyril of Jerusalem, Cyril of Alexandria, without 
 saying a word of John Chrysostom, a host in himself, who fol- 
 lowed almost immediately after. 
 
 Is it of these men and of their epoch that Mr. Lecky says : * 
 "The Christian faith planted in the dissolute cities of Asia Minor 
 had produced many fanatical ascetics and a feiu illustrious theo- 
 logians, but it had no renovating effect upon the people at large." 
 If this was really his intention, he has seldom written anything 
 less commendable and worthy of acceptance. It cannot be 
 doubted, on the contrary, that there never was, perhaps, in the 
 history of the world a period more illustrious and more glorious 
 morally and intellectually; and the renown of it accrues to the 
 Church alone. The few names just mentioned could be sur- 
 rounded by a brilliant galaxy of others, followed by a multitude 
 of excellent Christians; but there is no need of it in the eyes of 
 any one acquainted with the history of Asia Minor at that period, 
 lasting very near two centuries. 
 
 It is at the same epoch, likewise, that were convened the Gen- 
 eral Councils of Constantinople, of Ephesus, of Chalcedon; and 
 whatever may be said of some pretended councils of the same 
 time, where the majority of bishops were Arian or Nestorian, no 
 
 * Page 14. 
 
292 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 violence can be objected to those great assemblies in which the 
 Christian dogmas were solidly explained and established, to gov- 
 ern henceforth the whole world and give to Europe that moral 
 preponderance which she has not yet lost. When was it that 
 Christianity was more majestic, more holy, more visibly the 
 solemn organ of God Himself, than in those discussions, animated 
 it is true sometimes, but always ending m the establishment of 
 truth '' Can any writer, chiefly if learned and impartial, pretend 
 that there was a decline in the Church directly after Constantine 
 either in faith or morals ? 
 
 The author of the " History of European Morals" speaks 
 of the councils only, we think, on one occasion and unfortu- 
 nately he falls here into two blunders: the first in relying on 
 Dean Milman, of whom he quotes in a note an outrageous pas- 
 sage; and the second in making religion responsible for the 
 deplorable disorders which generally accompanied the councils of 
 heretical prelates. He actually makes it a blot on the purity of 
 Christ's Bride that, " in the * Robber Council ' of Ephesus, Flavi- 
 anus, the bishop of Constantinople, was kicked and beaten by the 
 bishop of Alexandria," Had he explained who that bishop of 
 Alexandria was, the reader would not have been induced to 
 believe -that it was a crime chargeable to the account of the 
 Church. It must be maintained again that the deeds of Arian 
 or Nestorian bishops cannot be imputed to the Church b)^ whom 
 they had been condemned, nay, excommunicated. 
 
 A second period in the long duration of the Byzantine Empire 
 could be made of the sixth century and the beginning of the 
 seventh; and though the policy of many rulers of that age in 
 Constantinople already prepared the era of decadency, which soon 
 began rapidly to increase, still there were bright exceptions to 
 this, and Catholic historians call attention to the fact that invari- 
 ably periods of reform took place in the East whenever the em- 
 perors and the patriarchs of Constantinople came back to a 
 thorough union with Rome. In fact, was there space and time, 
 it could be proved that the dark picture drawn by Mr. Lecky of 
 the moral degradation of Greek society in the Lower Empire was 
 precisely the result of a schismatical tendency, more or less preva- 
 lent, by which the unity of the Church was loosened through the 
 
 * Page 197. 
 
FACTS. 293 
 
 disregard of Roman authority: and this took place only after the 
 seventh century. 
 
 The degradation for which the modern Greeks have often been 
 justly upraided became total and final only after the com- 
 plete separation of the East from the West. Thenceforth we 
 entirely admit the truth of Mr. Lecky's strictures. It is conse- 
 quently evident that his spirited generalization on the Byzantine 
 Empire was far too much condensed, and could not be called a 
 solution of the present question. 
 
 But for this last period even the actual case required some 
 qualifications. If it must be admitted that *' the Mohammedan 
 Invasion terminated the long decrepitude of the Eastern Empire, 
 and Constantinople sank beneath the Crescent, its inhabitants 
 wrangling about theological differences to the very moment of 
 their fall," an impartial writer must also acknowledge the impor- 
 tant qualification that this happened only after a struggle of six 
 hundred years with the Moslems. 
 
 In less than half a century the Mohammedans had completely 
 subjugated the whole Orient: Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, Persia, 
 etc., to the very borders of India and Turkestan; but in order to 
 destroy thoroughly the degraded Byzantine Empire, it took fully 
 six centuries to complete the business. This alone would prove 
 that there was still some energy left in those people "led by 
 priests, eunuchs, women," etc. That energy they chiefly derived 
 from their religion. This was no doubt a lame Christianity, 
 deprived of much of its power by division and schism. Still, 
 there were in it precious germs of recuperation, and owing to this 
 the fleets of the Turks could not reach the Sea of Marmora and 
 lay siege to Constantinople before the whole country around had 
 been reduced, to slavery by the enormous power of immense 
 armies enriched by the plunder of the Eastern world. 
 
 It is doubtful if the modern writers who take a visible pleasure 
 in heaping reproaches on the heads of " degraded " Christians 
 will take notice of this remark. It is here made, however, in a 
 spirit of fairness and impartiality toward the modern Greeks, a 
 fairness of which many men boast in our age without being 
 always consistent, and showing it whenever occasion requires. 
 
 It would not be difficult to bring forward an immense number of 
 examples of heroism and holiness of which the Church can boast in 
 those centuries of pretended decline, between Constantine and the 
 
294 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 end of the Roman Empire, both in the West and in the East. That 
 she continued during the whole period to teach mankind, and to 
 educate the new generations in the strict Gospel maxims established 
 by Christ and His apostles, in spite of state deficiencies, would be 
 easy of demonstration. But the limits prescribed to this work pre- 
 vent it, and allow us only to conclude this part of it by a few con- 
 siderations. 
 
 This long period of time was entirely devoted to the consolidation 
 of the moral change effected everywhere by the apostles during their 
 short lifetime. Had there not been a perseverance of the same 
 principles, and a constant agency of the same causes ; that is to say, 
 had not God continued to act as He had done at the very beginning 
 of Christianity, the heroic efforts so fruitful at first would soon have 
 completely vanished. The subsequent Church organization coming 
 only from men animated by a spirit of their own, naturally different 
 from that of their predecessors, would have taken a shape differing 
 widely, if not altogether, from the previous and primitive one. 
 
 We would soon have seen in the Christian Church a process of 
 variations in morals such as the Protestant sects have constantly 
 displayed in point of belief from the time of their origin. Who can 
 perceive in the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans of our day the 
 exact reproduction of their prototypes in the time of Luther, Calvin, 
 and Henry VIH. .? Bossuet, as early as the seventeenth century, 
 proved the radical changes introduced into those human systems, so 
 successful at first as to threaten the total destruction of Catho- 
 licity. But the immense power of that admirable work on " The Vari- 
 ations of Protestant Churches" cannot at this time produce any- 
 thing like the impression it made at the beginning, when so many 
 were converted by only reading it. It is seldom indeed, in our day, 
 that any Protestant feels the force of that unanswerable demonstra- 
 tion. They all, or almost all, say that in the nature of the case 
 variations were necessary ; and the most radical cf those that are now 
 introduced please them instead of being distasteful. The visible 
 consequence of it is at last the open denegation of every former 
 Christian principle dogmatic or moral, and this cannot produce on 
 them any impression of dread or awe, because they all have come to 
 consider Christianity as simply an outcome of human reason, which 
 is naturally always active and on the move, ready to admit to-day 
 what was denied yesterday, and longing for new systems in the per- 
 suasion that the former ones have crumbled down into dust. 
 
FACTS 295 
 
 The same would undoubtedly have happened to Christianity 
 itself, as early as the epoch of Constantine, if God had not directed 
 and governed His Church as He had visibly established it. It would 
 be now impossible to find any resemblance between the Christians of 
 the age of Pope Sylvester and those of the time of Gregory I. The 
 dissemblance would have increased much more as the distance would 
 have been greater from the original starting-point. Yet it is now im- 
 possible to point out a remarkable diversity, particularly in the matter 
 of virtue and holiness. Read the biographies of the saints belonging 
 to both epochs, and you will be surprised to find how the feelings 
 were the same and the belief identical. The extraordinary moral 
 purity of the two first centuries, which extorted from Mr. Lecky the 
 avowal that "it has never been surpassed," is as remarkable in many 
 holy souls living in the fourth or fifth ages and later on. The only 
 difference that can be perceived is this : In the apostolic period and 
 directly after, the Christians were yet comparatively few and, the 
 memory of the apostles being still fresh, all the faithful shone 
 brilliantly by their virtues ; and the contrast of the universal corrup- 
 tion in the whole pagan world rendered the phenomenon more 
 striking and wonderful. Under the Christian emperors of the fifth 
 and following centuries, the great majority of the Romans had em- 
 braced the faith ; and there were among them many, no doubt, who 
 did not live up to their profession. But all those who did so differed 
 in nothing from the primitive disciples in Rome. In purity, charity, 
 devotion to duty, and strength of faith they were not behind their 
 former brethren, whose heroic examples they constantly kept under 
 their eyes. The Christian religion appeared exteriorly to have 
 declined owing to the lukewarmness of many ; the Christian prin- 
 ciples had not varied an iota, and were still professed and practised 
 by a sufficient number to show that the source of holiness was still 
 as warm and as copious as it had ever been. As an example in point, 
 it is impossible not to see in all the Christian friends of Jerome and 
 Augustine, in the bright examples of the most sublime virtues which 
 they both relate in their letters and tracts, a perfect identity with 
 those of an apparently purer age. 
 
 This general reflection can apply to the whole history of the Chris- 
 tian Church. Because she is always the same Teaching Body, and 
 has received from her Founder and Spouse the care of souls for all 
 time to come; because, also, the source of grace in her is constantly 
 the same through the abiding of the Holy Spirit ; it follows there can be 
 
296 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 no change in the morality she teaches, nay, in the holiness which is 
 her great characteristic, and which she fosters with all possible 
 care in her children. Hence we have constantly before our eyes the 
 spectacle of the highest virtues, whose eminent practice must always 
 be strictly proved in any one before he is admitted among "the 
 saints." This is true of the tenth and following centuries as well as 
 of the first; and in proper times and places the remark must be 
 repeated, particularly for the mediaeval period, which has always been 
 more or less misrepresented. 
 
 Before this is reached, however, the spread of the highest Chris- 
 tian holiness among the northern barbarians when they came to 
 destroy the Roman Empire must be briefly mentioned, and shall be 
 the subject of the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE BARBARIAN WORLD CONFRONTED BY THE CHURCH, AND BROUGHT 
 TO THE PRACTICE OF THE HIGHEST CHRISTIAN VIRTUES. 
 
 I. A Short Sketch of Gerinan and Scandinavian Tribes before their 
 
 Conversion. 
 
 Every Latin scholar is acquainted with the glowing descrip- 
 tion of German manners by Tacitus in his small book called 
 Germania. Is it a reliable document? Nearly all modern writers 
 accept it on trust; and they take occasion from it to attribute 
 much of the subsequent civilization of Europe to the virtues of 
 those northern tribes by whom the Roman Empire was destroyed. 
 It is proper to examine this question with care. 
 
 In a first place, what means had the great Latin annalist to 
 know for certain all the details he gives? He acknowledges him- 
 self that the Germans wrote no books.* He could not form 
 any judgment of their thoughts, scarcely any of their institu- 
 tions, which he knew only from hearsay. It may be pretended 
 that he had received his information from Roman generals — 
 chiefly Agricola — who had fought in Germany, and were often 
 excellent observers of men and things. But every detail they 
 could communicate had come to them only from some casual in- 
 tercourse with German prisoners, or perhaps occasionally with 
 German chieftains who came to the Roman camp for international 
 negotiations. 
 
 The Romans at the time of Tacitus had never seen the work- 
 ing of German institutions in any German country. They in fact 
 never conquered any extensive tract of that distant territory, as 
 they had in Gaul. Yet it is known that in this last case the whole 
 clan system of the Gauls had escaped the observation of so acute 
 a man as Julius Caesar. For it is evident from his Commentaries 
 
 * Cap. ig. 
 
298 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 that he had not the least idea of that system after having resided 
 ten years in the country and witnessed every day the social 
 organization of those tribes. How could any Roman general 
 form an exact judgment of German polity and manners, whilst 
 they were always severely excluded from any insight into those 
 social concerns? The Germans throughout their wars against 
 Rome hated and despised the Romans; and they would never 
 allow them to look into the privacy of their homes. What ren- 
 dered the case still more hopeless was the fact, mentioned in par- 
 ticular by Tacitus, that the Germans had no cities, and they all 
 lived apart from each other, each family constructing its dwelling 
 wherever fancy dictated. How could their institutions be studied ? 
 
 A great deal of importance, it is true, is given by some critics 
 to the fact that Pliny the Elder, according to his nephew, had com- 
 manded a large division — alani — of a Roman army, and had after- 
 wards extensively travelled through the country; some say he had 
 visited it to its extreme eastern confines. He certainly wrote 
 twenty books de bellis Germanicis^ which have been lost, but which 
 Tacitus undoubtedly perused. It was probably the best docu- 
 ment the great Roman historian possessed. But as Pliny's object 
 was to write of the wars between Rome and the northern tribes, 
 it must have been only the narrative of a man speaking of cau- 
 tious enemies, as the Germans were, who never showed the least 
 confidence to the Romans, and never for certain allowed them to 
 enjoy the freedom of intercourse which is always absolutely re- 
 quired to form a right judgment of a nation. 
 
 Pliny the Elder, besides, was not a close observer of human 
 manners, no more than of natural productions or animals, of which 
 he relates more fables than true and reliable facts. It is very 
 likely that Tacitus has given us the substance of what was reason- 
 able in the narrative of the naturalist, whose name he never men- 
 tions. But he must have added much of his own, or perhaps given 
 to the facts a turn favorable to. his object, which was to satirize 
 the vices of his countrymen. That Pliny had travelled to the ex- 
 treme eastern limits of Germany is not proved and cannot be 
 believed. The only thing certain is that he had visited the west- . 
 ern coast as far as the Elbe, and he had seen the source of the 
 Danube, which every one knows is very near Switzerland. 
 
 But in a second place, every close reader of Tacitus' Germania 
 soon becomes convinced that his chief purpose in writing this 
 
FACTS, 299 
 
 book was not so much to praise Germany as to put Rome to 
 shame. The whole of it, in fact, is a violent satire against the 
 corruption of the great Imperial City, or rather of the whole pre- 
 tended republic. The learned critics who have written notes to 
 the Delphin edition do not fail to remark it in many places; and 
 when this fact is acknowledged by such men it is most surprising 
 that serious authors should still draw from it proofs of German 
 virtue, when the writer intended chiefly to speak of Roman vice. 
 
 For the purpose of estimating the true character of those 
 northern barbarians, it seems far preferable to consult the writers 
 who had occasion to see them at work for a sufficient time, after 
 they had established themselves, with all their customs and insti- 
 tutions, either in Gaul or Italy. Such a writer is undoubtedly 
 Salvian of Marseilles. Nay, in his celebrated book De guber- 
 natione Dei, he may be considered to have leant too much in 
 favor of the barbarians; because in his priestly heart he felt too 
 acutely the vices of the pretended Romans of his day. It must 
 be universally acknowledged that he knew those tribes much bet- 
 ter than Tacitus, because he was for many years in the midst of 
 them, and could see the working of their social organization, and 
 the byplay of their virtues or their vices. When he wrote his 
 book the northern hordes had already taken possession of the 
 greatest part of Gaul and of a good portion of Italy and Spain. 
 They were at the time carrying their devastations to Africa, where 
 we shall have occasion to examine the virtues of the Vandals. 
 Salvian fortunately wrote a great deal of them, as well as of several 
 other Germanic nations. 
 
 It would be easy to find other writers giving to the picture 
 darker colors still, as for instance the iVfrican historians, who de- 
 scribe the horrors of the persecutions of the Catholics by the 
 Vandal Arians, or, in Great Britain, Gildas, speaking of the 
 Anglo-Saxons. Salvian purposely, it seems, passed over the bar- 
 barian vices as lightly as he could, because his main object was 
 to upraid the degenerate Christians of Gaul, Spain, or Italy, for 
 the moral disorders by which they had called on themselves the 
 wrath of God. On this account he is to be preferred, in order 
 not to fall into the exaggeration of some Catholic writers who 
 have given to the barbarian invasions a darker hue than the facts 
 themselves warranted. Chateaubriand was one of them. In de- 
 scribing those calamitous times in his Etudes /listoriques, his ex- 
 
300 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 pressions almost convey the idea that at the end of the scourge 
 there was scarcely a human being of the former population 
 remaining alive and able to resume the thread of history. This is 
 absolutely untrue. 
 
 The presbyter of Marseilles in his powerfully written book 
 speaks of a certain number of German tribes which Tacitus never 
 mentioned; and of the many names of nations recorded in the 
 Annals of the Roman historian not a word is said, apparently, in 
 the eight books De giibej'uatione Dei. It is proper to say a pre- 
 liminary word on this strange anomaly. Tacitus speaks of a 
 great number of nations living along the Rhine and on the shore 
 of the German Ocean as far as the Elbe, because this was always 
 at that time the seat of war between Rome and Germany, to- 
 gether with the Lower Danube. This was the only part of Ger- 
 many really known to Tacitus and his countrymen. Of the im- 
 mense eastern and south-eastern territory it can scarcely be 
 said they knew anything. Tacitus speaks particularly of the 
 Cauci and Suevi, who were subdivided into many tribes. Then he 
 passes to those living on the Danube, of whom the Romans could 
 have some knowledge, since at the time of the great historian 
 war was constantly going on along that river. 
 
 When Salvian wrote, the great invasion which the Romans had 
 succeeded in beating back during more than three centuries had 
 finally taken place, and the barbarians of the East as well as of' 
 the West were everywhere victorious. They already occupied a 
 large part of western and southern Europe; and in their own in- 
 ternal complications new combinations of tribes had arisen, and 
 new names had come uppermost in popular nomenclature. To 
 give a single example of it, the Franks, unknown to Tacitus 
 under that name, were in fact the coalition of several tribes 
 which the Roman historian mentions, such as the Bructeri and 
 Angrivarii or Ampsivarii, etc. The same is true of the Saxons, of 
 whom Tacitus does not seem to speak; but the Longobardi and 
 Angli, whom he mentions, belonged certainly to that race. The 
 narrative of Salvian is preferable, because the names he gives to 
 the Germans remained forever afterwards the same, and he had. 
 all possible opportunity of observing their manners and customs, 
 as he lived in the midst of them. 
 
 To be more accurate in his descriptions he speaks first of 
 those who were still pagans, intending to make us acquainted 
 
FACTS. 301 
 
 later on with those whom he calls heretics namely; Arians. For 
 a good number of them had, so early as this, embraced a bastard 
 Christianity which we will have occasion to know better after- 
 wards, particularly in the case of the Vandals, who were ardent 
 promoters of Arianism. 
 
 Of the pagan tribes he mentions first the Saxons, who, he says, 
 were ferocious — gens /era. The word means in Latin that they were 
 cruel 'like wild beasts— /<?r^ — that is, ardent in shedding blood and 
 inflicting on their victims the most excruciating tortures. He did 
 not consider if, as Germans, they were more chaste than the Romans, 
 and preferred liberty to death. This was what Tacitus looked to. 
 Salvian was struck by the exterior characteristic of the nation, which 
 was an inborn ferocity that in course of time became the peculiar dis- 
 tinction of all Scandinavian tribes. For .the Saxons came primitively 
 from the neck of the Cimbrian Chersonesus, what we now call the 
 province of Holstein, and belonged, consequently, to Scandinavia. 
 If there was anything remarkable in the numerous tribes which then 
 inhabited the shores of the Baltic Sea and the vast peninsula of what 
 we now call Norway and Sweden, it was their barbarous cruelty and 
 their thirst for human blood. Thus Salvian was a better reader of 
 character that Tacitus himself. 
 
 Of the Franks he says in the same place that they were untrust- 
 worthy — gefts Fra7icorum infidelis. If we look to the Historia Fran- 
 corum of Gregory of Tours nothing is more striking, even after 
 Chlovis, when they had embraced Christianity, than their treacherous 
 disposition ; and the whole history of the nation, under the Merovin- 
 gian dynasty, is a succession of horrors perpetrated through the most 
 horrible deception and hypocrisy. Salvian had thus anticipated the 
 judgment of history, and given to the Franks the character they were 
 to assume most prominently at their first settlement in Gaul. But 
 the reader must at the same time remember that there was subse- 
 quently a total change in the nation ; and nothing became more 
 remarkable in them that their deep sense of honor and their invinci- 
 ble repugnance against deceit. It is in France chiefly that chivalry 
 I prevailed during the whole of the middle ages ; and until the begin- 
 ning of the Revolution of 1789, the French nobility continued to give 
 to the world the example of the most chivalrous virtues. This was 
 undoubtedly the result of the deep influence the Christian religion 
 obtained at last over their naturally treacherous character. For even 
 after they became Christians they continued for a couple of centuries, 
 
302 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 and perhaps more, to act in accordance with their native disposition, 
 which Salvian pronounced to be infidelis; that is, untrustworthy, de- 
 ceitful, in common language treacherous, and abominably cruel under 
 the garb of friendship. 
 
 The reader, however, must not implicity believe what Mr. Lecky 
 insinuates when he speaks of the Franks of the first dynasty. He 
 pretends that Gregory of Tours, St. Gregory the Great, and many 
 holy bishops approved of crimes committed with the most atrocious 
 artifice by Chlovis, Clotaire, Fredegonde, Brunehaut, and others. 
 This cannot be concluded from their words. Many of the expres- 
 sions, in which they profess to admire the benevolent workings of 
 Divine Providence, by whose instrumentality these horrible vices 
 turned to the benefit of the nation, can be resumed into the simple 
 truth that God knows how to draw good from evil. The justly 
 admired popes, bishops, Christian historians of those times have 
 given in their writings and throughout their lives sufficient proof of 
 their deep acquaintance with Christian morality, and their unswerv- 
 ing faithfulness to its precepts. Every impartial writer is bound to 
 give to their words a meaning consistent with their well-known prin- 
 ciples. But the men who generally refuse to admit the interference 
 of God in the affairs of this world think they must discard with a 
 sort of horror the idea that whenever morality is transgressed God 
 can be supposed to interfere in the act, either by turning it to a good 
 account or even by punishing it. To preserve His own dignity, God 
 must, in their notion, remain supremely indifferent to it and severely 
 independent of it in His thought or action. A Christian cannot 
 share in these views. This was the reason why Gregory of Tours 
 wrote of it in the terms he used. 
 
 In speaking, however, of the treachery of the Franks, Salvian 
 insists, as he often does elsewhere, on his firm persuasion that the 
 sins of the barbarians were not of so heinous a nature as those of 
 the Roman Christians ; and the reason he gives of it is very re- 
 markable as proving the unfitness of those barbarians for receiving 
 the Gospel's doctrine. He says : " If the Frank forswears himself, 
 what does it matter to him, since he thinks that his perjury is rather 
 a simple way of speaking than a crime ?" And a little farther on he 
 adds : " Is it wonderful that the barbarians are fond of deceiving 
 others, when we know that they ignore the guilt of deception ? Their 
 acts do not imply the contempt of the divine precepts, since they 
 do not know that these are 'commandments of God.' The man 
 
FACTS. 303 
 
 who is ignorant of the law does not infringe the law by his act. 
 But for us, Christians, the guilt is certain, because we are 
 acquainted with the divine law ; and when we sin openly against 
 written precepts we at the same time profess to know that they 
 are from God, and yet we trample under our feet His orders and 
 commandments," Let not Mr. Lecky say here that Salvian evi- 
 dently did not know in speaking thus that there is a natural law 
 of God inscribed in the hearts of all men. Salvian knew it per- 
 fectly well ; and on this account he ascribes the advantage of the 
 Christian over the pagan to the peculiarity of his having a written 
 law ; tiamely, the Decalogue. The natural law inscribed in the 
 pagan's heart was, in Salvian's opinion, so much obscured by his 
 passions and appetites that he could be said to be ignorant of it. 
 How far he was guilty was the secret of God. The presbyter of 
 Marseilles knew that the pagan sinned also when he perjured him- 
 self ; all he maintained was that the Christian's guilt was still 
 more grievous. 
 
 R Many other passages in the book De gtibernatione Dei go to 
 prove that the barbarians did not any more listen to the voice of 
 conscience. Practically it was dead ; and the first step to dispose 
 them to accept Christianity was to awaken it from its deep lethargy, 
 from a sleep which amounted to an almost complete extinction of 
 moral life. How could it be done naturally ? 
 
 From the Franks Salvian passes on to the Gepidae and he says 
 that this nation was inhumana^ deprived of humane feelings. They 
 did not go so far as the Saxons in their brutality. The first were 
 like "wild beasts "^/<?;'^ — the second had simply lost the mild 
 feelings natural to the heart of man as long as he remains man 
 morally. 
 
 The Gepidae having come originally from Scandinavia like the 
 Saxons, there is nothing surprising in the fact that they were only 
 inferior to these in brutality. It would, however, be difficult at 
 this time to state in detail in what precisely consisted that insensi- 
 bility to humane feelings. The Gepidae never had, as a nation, so 
 much importance in history as the Saxons and the Franks. They 
 were compelled by Attila to serve under him against their will; 
 and directly on recovering their independence after the death of 
 " the Scourge of God," they were first shorn of their power by a 
 severe defeat they experienced at the- hand of Theodoric, and 
 finally were totally destroyed by Alboin, king of the Lombards in 
 
304 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 566. We must simply remark here the acuteness of Salvian, who, 
 seeing clearly a shade of difference in inhumanity between them 
 and the Saxons, called these last people gens f era and the Gepidae 
 inhumana. 
 
 The Huns appear directly after in the short catalogue of bar- _ 
 barian tribes given by Salvian. These were not properly Ger- | 
 mans; but under their great leader Attila, who called himself " the 
 Scourge of God," they had come from beyond the Danube. The 
 general opinion about them now is that they belonged originally 
 to a very distant country in central Asia, and were Turanians by 
 race; consequently, very different from the other western tribes, 
 who belonged undoubtedly to the great Japhetic stock. It is 
 believed that the Hungarian Magyars are the outcotne of the 
 Huns. The presbyter of Marseilles did not take heed of what is 
 now called ethnology. His object was to describe briefly the chief 
 nations of the north who invaded and destroyed the Roman Empire 
 in his own time; and the Huns were undoubtedly one of the 
 fiercest and most important. It is the same object we have in 
 view; and the origin and ethnical characters of those barbarians, 
 not being a factor in the problem, can be excluded from the ques- 
 tion. The only thing worth considering is the chief feature 
 remarked by Salvian in the Huns. He says of them they were 
 gens impudica; that is, renowned for their lewdness. 
 
 Tacitus has praised the chastity of the Germans; and though his 
 object must have been particularly to reflect on the gross inconti- 
 nence of the Romans of his time, his testimony in this case must 
 be accepted purely and simply. We will soon have occasion to 
 speak of what Salvian says of the Vandals, whose cruelty is so well 
 known, but whose chastity was undeniable. The Huns, it is true, 
 were eastern Turanians, not German; but this difference of race, 
 as was said, cannot be taken into account, because the present 
 scope is to inquire what prospect there was of converting those 
 wild nations to Christianity, and this was evidently independent , 
 of their origin. \ 
 
 It must be, moreover, maintained that when Germany is praised . 
 for the native chastity of its inhabitants, it cannot be pretended 
 that they practised this virtue in the same degree as the Christian 
 ascetics, or even as married people in a well-behaved Christian com- 
 munity. The only real ground of this good opinion was that they 
 were not so profligate as the Romans of the fifth century. 
 
FACTS. 305 
 
 Of the Huns the same could not be said. Such was the extent 
 of that loathsome vice among them that when they took possession, 
 for instance, of a corrupt Roman city, their brutal lewdness ex- 
 ceeded all the bounds imposed by whatever remained of decency 
 among the unfortunate and vicious' inhabitants. Though the 
 degraded Romans were every day witnesses, in time of peace, of 
 private and public excesses among themselves, which were con- 
 demned alike by their religion and by the most ordinary moral 
 sense, the horrors perpetrated in tirnie of war by the barbarous 
 Hunnic conqueror were of such a horrible nature that even their 
 imagination could not have anticipated it. 
 
 It miist be acknowledged, nevertheless, that the inconceivable 
 devastations carried on by the Huns — who destroyed everything 
 in the countries they invaded, so that it was the boast of Attila 
 that grass could not grow any longer in the soil trampled upon 
 by his troops — often drew away the attention of the victims from 
 the bestial lust of the conquerors. In the universal ruin which 
 overwhelmed those wretched populations, scarcely anything dis- 
 tinct could be perceived worthy of a particular notice. Conse- 
 quently the few writers who have preserved the records of that 
 calamitous epoch seldom make mention of this loathsome vice of 
 the Huns. In those lamentable chronicles events are recounted 
 without peculiar details. It is as in the sack of Troy under the 
 pen of Virgil : Fuit Ilium., and enough has been said. 
 
 They do not, however, forget to mention that Attila, who had 
 a large number of wives and concubines contrary to the custom 
 of all German chieftains, wished to add to them Honoria, the 
 grand daughter of Theodosius, merely to show his contempt for 
 that great imperial family. It is known that the invasion of the 
 West depended on this demand of the barbarian, and that on the 
 refusal of Valentinian III., Gaul and the empire appeared doomed 
 to destruction, and were saved only by the skill and valor of 
 Aetius. 
 
 The testimony of Salvian alone, however, is amply sufficient 
 to prove the lewdness of the Huns. 'He lived and wrote precisely 
 at the time this frightful calam.ity took place. He had all possi- 
 ble opportunity of observing the Huns, who devastated Gaul and 
 the north of Italy under his eyes. He always paid a great 'atten- 
 tion to the moral or immoral habits of the barbarians he de- 
 scribed. What Tacitus had said in general of the Germans, that 
 
3o6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 they were chaste, he confirmed with regard to several of those 
 nations, some of whom were most barbarous and cruel, as for 
 instance the Vandals. When, therefore, he says of the Huns that 
 they were gens impicdica, it must be true. And this must suffice 
 for the present purpose. 
 
 It would be tedious to expatiate at length on the other pagan 
 tribes mentioned in the book De gubernatione Dei. It will not be 
 possible even to speak so profusely of those whom Salvian calls 
 heretics; that is to say, Arians; and our remarks on this subject 
 must be confined to the Vandals, who may be said to include in 
 their characteristics those of all the other German nations belong- 
 ing to the. same category of Christians, but heretics. 
 
 Yes, Christianity had so early as this conquered some of those 
 wild tribes, but unfortunately they were not the children of the 
 true Mother, and on this account they had not been changed from 
 wolves into lambs. The history of the invasion of Arianism 
 among them has not yet been sufficiently elucidated. The sub- 
 ject would prove of great interest if undertaken with earnestness 
 and discretion. For there was a moment when it appeared prob- 
 able that all Europe, through the barbarians, would have em- 
 braced the doctrines of Arius. When Chlovis with his Franks 
 submitted to the Catholic Church's authority, all the other Ger- 
 man nations were Arians. The Goths in all their subdivisions, 
 the Burgundians, the Vandals, the Alani, and many other tribes, 
 not only did not acknowledge Rome's spiritual supremacy, but 
 most of them were fierce haters and persecutors of the Catholics. 
 How did this great evil originate? It seems it came from the 
 Goths. 
 
 A good number among them — the Goths — had been formerly 
 and very early converted by Greek captives from Asia Minor ; and 
 Theophilus, their bishop, had assisted at the Council of Nice and sub- 
 scribed the Catholic Symbol. But Ulphilas, his successor, who 
 translated the Bible for them into Gothic, embraced Arianism later on, 
 for reasons scarcely known at this time ; and his great reputation 
 for learning and piety among his people induced the whole nation 
 to adopt his heresy. It is probable that it was the example of the 
 Goths which induced many other German tribes to embrace at the 
 same time Christianity and Arianism. For in the whole of the 
 fourth and fifth centuries the Goths, Visigoths, and Ostrogoths had 
 obtained a great influence over the whole barbarian world. 
 
FACTS. 307 
 
 It -S probable likewise that those wild tribes preferred Arianism, 
 because the bishops of that sect were invariably at that time more 
 addicted to intemperance of language and action than became mild 
 followers of an humble Saviour; and this possibly pleased the Ger- 
 mans more than a strict enforcement of the precepts of charity and 
 forgiveness of injuries would have done. The whole history of 
 Arianism in the fifth century proves that those sectarians, to what- 
 ever class they belonged, bishops, monks, magistrates, soldiers, simple 
 laymen, thought they were rendering a service to God — obseqicium se 
 prastare Deo — when they pursued with the most violent, hatred those 
 who adhered to orthodoxy. It was congenial to the northern hordes 
 to wreak their vengeance on those they thought God's enemies, and 
 thus Arianism attracted them. 
 
 Of all the barbarians who were animated with such feeHngs as 
 these, Salvian chose to speak first and foremost of the Vandals, and 
 we most willingly follow him. The western churches had been pre- 
 served from the baneful doctrine of Arius by the popes and such 
 men as Hilary of Poitiers and Ambrose of Milan ; a fierce German 
 people was going to show its zeal against them by following unre- 
 servedly its native ferocity. Religious hatred among them was ably 
 seconding their natural thirst for human blood ; and the atrocity of 
 their devastations has to this day deeply remained engraved in the 
 traditions of all Europe, and has been stereotyped in all European 
 languages, in which the words Vandal and Vandalic mean simply 
 destruction. 
 
 It just happens that a full narrative of their inhuman irruptions 
 has been written by Dom Ruinart, the celebrated and most accurate 
 author of Acta sincera martyrum ; and a short sketch derived from 
 his " Historical Commentary on the VandaUc Persecution" will give 
 the reader a sufficient idea of the native ferocity of these barbarians. 
 As it was, after all, a pure and simple expression of Teutonic leanmgs 
 in the Vandals at that primitive epoch, it will be easy to judge what 
 obstacles the Church had to overcome in order to inspire them all 
 with the most common Christian feelings. 
 
 Whatever may have been their place of origin, the Vandals first 
 became known to Europe at' the very beginning of the fifth century, 
 when Stilicon thought of using them to depose Honorius and treach- 
 erously place his own son Eucherius on the imperial throne. The 
 ■ Vandals, defeated at first by the Franks, succeeded afterwards in 
 crossing the Rhine on the 31st of December, 407, according to the 
 
3o8 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 computation of the best authors. They were not alone; many other 
 ferocious nations came along with them ; but they were the stan- 
 dard-bearers of the invasion, and to them the worst excesses of 
 barbarism can be attributed. The whole of Gaul, from the Belgian 
 frontier to the Pyrenees, was at once entirely devastated, so that a 
 contemporary writer could say in a short poem, De Provideiitia divi- 
 na : " The ruin of Gaul would have been less complete and thorough 
 if the whole ocean, breaking through its barriers, had overwhelmed 
 the whole country."* 
 
 St. Jerome in a letter to Agerruchia summarily described the 
 scourge : " Whatever is comprised between the Alps and the Pyrenees, 
 between the ocean and the Rhine, has been completely laid waste by 
 the Quades, the Vandals, etc. Mentz, such a noble city, has been 
 taken and destroyed ; thousands of its inhabitants have been slaugh- 
 tered in the church. The capital of the Vangiones (Worms) has per- 
 ished after a long siege. The inhabitants of the powerful cities of 
 Reims, Amiens, Arras, Tournay, . . . Strasburg, have been sent 
 as slaves to Germany. The provinces of Aquitania, Novempopula- 
 nia, Lyons, and Narbon have been entirely ravaged, except a few 
 towns reduced to an abject fear and to the extremity of famine. I 
 cannot without tears speak of Toulouse, which the merits of Exsu- 
 perius, her bishop, have alone so far saved from destruction." 
 
 Salvian, an eye-witness, has described the same calamity in terms 
 more forcible still than Jerome did, because he related what he had 
 seen. " In all cities the same horrible spectacle struck the eye of the 
 survivors. I have seen with my own eyes, and touched with my 
 hands, the nude corpses of men and women left on the ground, bleed- 
 ing and torn, a prey to dogs and to carnivorous birds." 
 
 The fury of the barbarian wars spread like the ocean over the 
 whole territory ; and finding in the Pyrenees an obstacle to its pro- 
 gress, the bloody stream recoiled, to finish the work of devastation in 
 Gaul. During a full decade of years the Vandals, with and after the 
 Visigoths, made of it a charnel-house, and of the proud monuments of 
 the country a total wreck. 
 
 When this country had been turned into a wilderness, the treach- 
 ery of some Roman general, who was still at the head of an army, in 
 what we now call Languedoc (Novempopulania) allowed them to 
 
 Si totus Gallos sese efifudisset in agros 
 Oceanus, vastis plus superesset aquis. 
 
FACTS. 309 
 
 cross over the mountains, and they rushed over Spain as they had 
 done over Gaul, as they were destined to do afterwards over Africa. 
 For it has been remarked by a contemporary author that those savage 
 hordes might have established themselves in Gaul, had they simply 
 wished for their dwelling a rich agricultural country, enjoying a mild 
 climate. This purpose is the motive generally assigned by modern 
 writers to the invasion of the south of Europe by the northern tribes. 
 No object of this kind appears in the wild wanderings of the Vandals. 
 They seemed to devastate the finest regions of the south for the mere 
 pleasure of laying them waste; and the destruction of Spain as 
 described by Salvian, in the work of Dom Ruinart, looked indeed as 
 if they had no other object. The only foot-prints which remained 
 after them were famine and pestilence. What has been related with 
 horror by Josephus of a single mother who, in the siege of Jerusalem, 
 fed on the flesh of her own children is attributed to many mothers 
 in Spain by Idatius, a bishop of Gallaecia, who was an eye-witness to 
 those horrors. This is a short passage of his lamentable description: 
 " Famine raged to such a degree that human flesh became the food 
 of human beings; na}^ mothers went so far as to slaughter their own 
 offspring, and prepare from their limbs a foul aliment. The beasts of 
 prey, accustomed after a while to feed on those who had perished by 
 the sword or through pestilence, became bold enough to attack 
 strong and athletic living men, as if they were bent on destroying the 
 human race." 
 
 The Vandals remained long enough in Spain to give their own 
 name to the southern province of Andalusia, called from them Van- 
 dalousia. It is known they were finally induced to pass on to Africa 
 by the Roman general Bonifacius, who, believing the false reports of 
 Aetius, turned traitor to avert what he thought to be his own impend- 
 ing doom. The barbarians were led by Genseric, who began a fierce 
 persecution of the Catholics as soon as he had firmly established his 
 power in Mauritania and Numidia. This persecution has been 
 described chiefly by Victor Vitensis, a contemporary bishop in the 
 province of Byzacene. Suflicient details of it will be found in Rohr- 
 bacher's Histoi7'e de VEglise^ by any one curious to know them. 
 It is doubtful if the pagan emperors Diocletian and Galerius ever car- 
 ried barbarity against the Christians in the Roman Empire so far as 
 the Arian kings Genseric and Hunneric did against the orthodox 
 bishops and people of Africa. 
 
 This short sketch, however meagre and defective, cannot but 
 
3IO' THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 impress the reader with the fact that Tacitus had no adequate knowl- 
 edge of the Germans when he wrote his short book De Germania. 
 Had he even been sincere in the praises he bestowed upon them, he 
 did not, he could not, know them sufficiently well. In his time the 
 Germans had not penetrated far enough into the Roman Empire to 
 furnish a true estimate of their characteristics ; and they never had 
 allowed the Romans to dwell among them, so as to study their man- 
 ners, customs, or leanings. Salvian and Victor Vitensis are much 
 safer guides for those who wish to form a correct idea of those fero- 
 cious hordes, when suddenly from the fifth century down to the tenth 
 they confronted the Church of Christ in the whole extent of western 
 Europe. 
 
 And since the question of fairness of description with regard to 
 the Teutonic race has naturally come to be discussed here, it is proper 
 to return a moment to the Anglo-Saxons, whom even Salvian knew 
 imperfectly, because in his time they had not yet reached the south of 
 Germany. He could only say that they \VQrQ gejis /era, and by this 
 simple word he showed a better appreciation of them than Tacitus. 
 At this time, however, much more is known ; and precisely because • 
 there are still writers who openly bestow a fulsome admiration on 
 them, even when they were pagans, it is proper to examine the sub- 
 ject more attentively. An historian must tell the truth, though he 
 must severely avoid even the semblance of exaggeration. But to 
 judge of the difficulty the Church must have met in her holy purpose 
 when she first applied to the conversion of those tribes, it is just and 
 proper to show what they were. And it precisely happens that Mon- 
 talambert, in all good faith and simplicity, repeated for the Scandi- 
 navians the blunder of Tacitus for the Germans in general. For his 
 narrative, when speaking of the Anglo-Saxons in his " Monks of the 
 West," leaves the reader under the impression that among all nations 
 of the world those bordering on the Baltic Sea were even origi- 
 nally composed of the moral stuff of which true, noble, persevering 
 Christians are made. We firmly believe the contrary, and must 
 show the reasons of our belief; protesting, however, of our pro- 
 found respect for the author of the life of St. Elizabeth. He wrote 
 what he thought was true; he wished to serve the Church in writ- 
 ing what he did of the Anglo-Saxons. But in our opinion he was 
 mistaken; his always ardent admiration of England biassed his 
 judgment; and he did not see clearly enough that there has prob- 
 bly never been in the whole history of the Church so extraordi- 
 
« 
 
 FACTS. 311 
 
 nary and unexpected a conquest as that of the Baltic tribes. Mon- 
 talembert had some idea of it; and a few phrases here and there 
 prove that he was not totally blind on the subject, but he was 
 firmly convinced of the original greatness and nobleness of the 
 Scandinavian nations, and on account of that conviction he dic- 
 tated several most beautifully written pages in the third volume 
 of his " Monks of the West," to which we must give presently a 
 word of reply. 
 
 . " The Anglo-Saxons," * he says, " brought with them to Great 
 Britain a language, social institutions, and race characteristics of 
 a powerful, or rather indestructible, originality. Language, insti- 
 tutions, characteristics, have triumphed in their essential traits 
 over the vicissitudes of time and chance; they have survived all 
 subsequent defeats, all foreign influences; and sending down their 
 roots into the primitive soil of Celtic Britain, they subsist still as 
 the indestructible basis of the social edifice of England." 
 
 A couple of pages farther on, he adds: " This race of pirates, of 
 men given to prey over, to hunt after, and steal their fellow-men, 
 possessed, nevertheless, the essential element of true social 
 order. . . . They alone founded in Great Britain an inexpugnable 
 society, whose solid base was already laid down when monastic 
 missionaries came to bring them the light of faith and of Chris- 
 tian virtue." A great deal more is said of the same purport; and 
 the reader feels inclined to conclude that if England is so powerful 
 to-day she owes it more to her Anglo-Saxon origin than to her 
 conversion to Christ; since many other nations, which have been 
 converted likewise, do not show the same harmonious characters 
 of solidity and endurance; and these characters are attributed to 
 the Saxons before they became Christians. 
 
 The general objection which can be justly raised against such 
 generalizations as these is that the difference between the social and 
 moral orders existing in those tribes when they were pagan and what 
 they became under the influence of Christianity is not sufliciently 
 marked. It looks as if the change effected among them — a change 
 admitted here and there by the gifted author — was but of a secondary 
 character, leaving the primitive moral features of those tribes nearly 
 the same as they were under the influence of paganism ; and to that 
 permanency of characteristics the main attributes of the English 
 
 * French edit., 1866, vol. iii. p. 336. 
 
312 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 nation in modern times are ascribed. This impairs essentially the 
 writer's judgment on the whole subject. 
 
 It becomes glaringly evident when mention is made, directly after, 
 of the political institutions among those northern hordes. "The 
 portion of Great Britain," says Montalembert, "which has since been 
 called England, was composed (under the Heptarchy) of an agrega- 
 tion of tribes, and of independent communities, among whom the 
 exigencies of war against their, neighbors of the north and west were 
 developing a gradual tendency toward unity. It formed an aristo- 
 cratic federation in which families of a supposed divine origin pre- 
 sided over the social and military life of each tribe, whilst personal 
 independence remained the foundation of the whole edifice. This 
 independence always knew how to revindicate its rights when a 
 prince more able or energetic than others had begun to weaken them. 
 . . Every right which freemen had not expressly given up and 
 passed over to chiefs elected by themselves, or to constitutional bodies 
 freely acknowledged by all, remained inviolably their own." 
 
 This is indeed a dream of the past ; and few will be induced to 
 admit that the fierce Anglo-Saxons of Hengist had already the germ 
 of a constitution nearly as perfect as that of England in this age or 
 the last. It is useless to bring forward any more quotations. The 
 only thing we will allow ourselves in answer will be to give the 
 opinion of Lingard on the moral and social state of those rude tribes. 
 He at least establishes a broad distinction between the pagan Anglo- 
 Saxons and their Christian posterity in the time of Bede ; and we 
 cannot be afraid of exaggerating in strictly following an author so 
 judicious and moderate in everything he wrote. Every one must 
 remember that he was the first Catholic author who compelled the 
 Protestant English themselves to adopt in the main his historical 
 statements, and in general submit to his well-laid-down judgments of 
 men and things either for ancient times or modern transactions. 
 
 "By the ancient writers" * he says, " the Saxons are unanimously 
 classed with the most barbarous of the nations which invaded and 
 dismembered the Roman Empire. Their valor was disgraced by its 
 brutality. To the services they generally preferred the blood of their 
 captives ; and the man whose life they condescended to spare was 
 taught to consider perpetual servitude as a gratuitous favor. Among 
 themselves a rude and impei'fect system of legislation enti'ustcd to private 
 
 * Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, vol. i. ch. i. 
 
FACTS. 313 
 
 revenge the punishment of private injuries; and the ferocity of their 
 passions continually multiplied these deadly and hereditary feuds. 
 Avarice and the lust of sensual enjoyment had extinguished in 
 their breasts some of the first feelings of nature. The savages of 
 Africa may traffic with Europeans for the negroes whom they 
 have seized by treachery or captured in open war. But the more 
 savage Saxon conquerors of the Britons sold without scruple, to 
 the merchants of the continent, their own countrymen and even 
 their own children. Their religion was accommodated to their man- 
 ners and their manners were perpetuated by their religion. In 
 their theology they acknowledged no sin but cowardice, and revered 
 no virtue but courage. Their gods they appeased with the blood 
 of human victims. Of a future life their notions were faint and 
 wavering; and if the soul were fated to survive the body, to 
 quaff ale out of the skulls of their enemies was to be the great 
 reward of the virtuous, and to lead a life of hunger and inactivity 
 the endless punishment of the wicked. 
 
 "Such were the pagan Saxons. But their ferocity soon 
 yielded to the exertions of the missionaries," etc. 
 
 This is the true verdict of history with regard to this question. 
 Modern writers, it is true, pretend that the Eddas and the Sagas, 
 better known to-day than in the time of Lingard, oblige the his- 
 torian to modify this harsh judgment of the celebrated English 
 writer. One thing is certain: that admitting all possible reversal of 
 .judgment, this cannot be carried to the extent alleged by Monta- 
 lembert in his "Monks of the West." Lingard's judgment 
 remains still much nearer to the truth; and to be convinced of it 
 one has only to read what Cantu has written on the Scandinavian 
 tribes in his " Universal History," and the copious extracts he gives 
 from the very Eddas and Sagas which are invoked as a proof of 
 nobleness of character and generosity of disposition in those fero- 
 cious savages of the North Sea. The great Italian historian quotes 
 a very long list of books printed from Icelandic and Norwegian 
 I MSS.; and the substance he gives of their contents is assuredly 
 I an almost complete vindication of Lingard's opinion. It is par- 
 ' ticularly impossible to admit that their political and social organi- 
 zation resembled in the least the admirable balancing of checks 
 and counterchecks which form the safety of the English constitu- 
 tion in our -age. Especially the spirit of social compromise by 
 which Great Britain has effectually escaped the revolutionary 
 
314 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 excesses so rife in all other European nations cannot even be 
 thought of when there is question of the pagan Saxons. The 
 description of their " rude and imperfect system of legislation" 
 by Lingard is in complete accordance with the simple records of 
 all ancient writers on the subject. It is perfectly true that "the 
 ferocity of their passions continually multiplied among them 
 deadly and hereditary feuds." As to the other statement that 
 "avarice and the lust of sensual enjoyments had extinguished in 
 their breasts some of the first feelings of nature," it is fully borne 
 out by many texts quoted by Cantu, whose judgment could not 
 be biassed on any English political or social question, because he 
 was an Italian without any connection whatever with England. 
 
 ?.* Rema7-kable Moral Change effected by Christianity in all Germanic 
 and Scandinavian Nations. 
 
 To proceed with order and lucidity in a subject w^hich is 
 naturally very intricate, those nations will be considered first 
 who embraced the Christian religion outside of their own country 
 during their invasion of southern Europe; and in a second place, 
 those to whom Christianity was preached in Germany itself by 
 English or Irish missionaries. The narrative must be very suc- 
 cinct and brief. 
 
 I. The first are mainly those just described in the preceding 
 section. Except the Franks they all became Arians, and most of 
 them persecuted the Catholic Church with a violence not inferior 
 to that of former pagan princes. It is proper to examine at the 
 outset what moral change, if any, their Arian Christianity brought 
 among them. 
 
 It is difficult to perceive in the Visigoths and Suevi, in Spain, 
 in the Vandals in Spain likewise, and afterwards in Africa, in the 
 Lombards in northern Italy, any progress in morality, any per- 
 ceptible mildness of manners, any attempt at Christian discipline, 
 any germ of what has been so far called holiness, although they 
 were Christian Arians. It is related with justice * that the Visi- 
 goths led by Alaric showed some humanity in the sack of Rome, 
 as St. Augustine remarked at the very beginning of his great 
 work De Civitate Dei ; and this is attributed in the " Manual of 
 
 * Alzog, Am. ed. 
 
FACTS. 315 
 
 Universal Church History" to the fact that the Visigoths were 
 Germans. But on the very next page it is admitted by the same 
 writer that this horde of barbarians, being afterwards led by 
 Ataulf into Gaul, where they settled around Toulouse, " this first 
 kingdom established in Europe by the Germans was, even after it 
 liad assumed a distinctively Christian character., conspicuous for deeds 
 of barbaric violence, which were i^sually followed by the more 
 terrible scourges of pestilence and famine." 
 
 Again, the same writer acknowledges that after the Vandals, 
 Alani, and Suevi — all German tribes — had overspread Spain, " they 
 began their work of pillage by sacking cities, pulling down churches, 
 and putting to death Catholic bishops and priests," though they were 
 Christians. 
 
 There is no need of repeating that the same is said of the Vandals 
 under Genseric and Hunneric in Africa, though Tery few exam- 
 ples of it have been previously given by us. The reader having gone 
 I so far in the " Manual of Church History" comes back naturally to 
 i the beginning of the chapter, and wonders when he reads again " that 
 the mildness and clemency exhibited by the barbarians on this occa- 
 ; sion [the sack of Rome by Alaric] are evidence of that humane feeling 
 so characteristic of the Germans." We must continue to be of the 
 opinion previously expressed : Originally Germans were savages. 
 : This time, however, it assumes a much stronger form, not only 
 I because the native ferocity of those nations had not evidently been 
 i touched by their conversion to Arian Christianity, but also because 
 i they had not even understood that their new religion, being that of 
 ! Christ, obliged them to adopt a strict discipline both sacramental 
 : and ascetic, as invariably happened whenever any nation embraced 
 ( Catholicity. No ecclesiastical writer has ever mentioned that in 
 I those Arian churches of the Visigoths in France and Spain, of the 
 ' Vandals in Africa, of the Lombards in Italy, the least zeal was mani- 
 fested by their clergy for the reformation of m.anners, the correction 
 of abuses, and the extirpation of sin. No council of Arian bishops 
 has ever been recorded for such purposes in Spain, whilst, on the 
 contrary, as soon as Arianism disappeared under Reccared we hear 
 of those numerous Catholic councils of Toledo which remain still 
 to-day one of the greatest glories of old Spain. 
 
 Again, in Roman Africa the student of history sees with dismay 
 all the previous moral organization of tlie Catholic Church demolished 
 at once ; all the former provisions of synods and councils discarded 
 
3i6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 at a blow; all the strict rules of discipline disappearing, though so far 
 they had been enforced more or less according as the zeal of eccle- 
 siastical rulers grew more or less ardent ; yea, all these precious means 
 of reform and sanctification which sustained the spiritual life of 
 Catholicity in Africa were blotted out at once, without being replaced 
 by any effort of zeal on the part of the Arian bishops. So that when 
 the Moslems arrived, a few yeajs afterwards, Christianity disappeared 
 entirely and suddenly in that part of the world. Not a vestige of it 
 remamed in Mauritania and Numidia, whilst there have remained 
 Christians to our own day in Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, where 
 Mohammedanism was so early triumphant and' enjoyed such an im- 
 mense power in the very centre of its empire. Was not this differ- 
 ence brought on by Arianism, which neglected everything except the 
 persecution of Catholics } 
 
 Mr. Lecky might interpose here, and say that the Franks, though 
 they were a Catholic nation, did not appear, under the Merovingian 
 dynasty, to have improved much in point of morality from the time 
 when they were pagans ; and many facts related by St. Gregory of 
 Tours show a rather slight alteration in their former barbarous cus- 
 toms. It is proper to touch this question, although few Catholics 
 of the present day will admit a parity between them and the Arian 
 Germans. It is only to the rationalists that we address ourselves 
 here. 
 
 In a first place, it is remarkable that when Gregory of Tours relates 
 the atrocious deeds of Chlovis and his posterity, the horrible narrative 
 affects only the rulers of the nation, and they always act from 
 some well-known political motive. They want to reach power by 
 the destruction of their enemies, or, what is worse, by doing away 
 with their own relatives in order to reign in their place. But in 
 spite of some innuendoes of the author of " European Morals," they 
 all knew that their religion did not approve of their deeds. If occa- 
 sionally Gregory of Tours, himself a bishop, speaks of the Providence 
 of God making use of those crimes for furthering the good of the 
 Church or of the people, it can always be understood in the Christian 
 sense of St. Paul himself, who teaches that God knows how to draw 
 good from evil. But those Merovingian monsters knew very well 
 that, according to the teaching of their religion, a proportionate 
 atonement in this world or the next would be required of them. In 
 their most atrocious deeds the Franks acted only like all Christians 
 who blindly follow their passions. Nothing more can be concluded 
 
FACTS. 317 
 
 from that monstrous history. It cannot be pretended that even for 
 the worst of them no moral change whatever had taken place when 
 they had bec'ome Christians. For they had at least acquired some 
 gleams of conscience which they had not before their conversion; 
 they knew their crimes were crimes, which before they did not 
 seem to suspect. 
 
 But in a second place, all those Frankish rulers were not of the 
 class which alone Mr. Lecky has described. Gregory of Tours men- 
 tions some beautiful instances of pure virtue among them, of which 
 nothing is said in the " History of European Morals." It is proper 
 that a few examples of it should be given here, and these will be con- 
 fined to the men, for the good deeds of holy women among the 
 Franks would carry us too far. We will thus be able to see if they 
 had gained nothing from Christianity. 
 
 There was during the reign of Chilperic a certain Duke Chrodin 
 or Rodin, whom the author of the Historia Frajtcorum calls " a man 
 of excellent goodness and piety, much given to alms-deeds, a great 
 purveyor of the poor in their necessities ; always ready to enrich the 
 Church and support the clergy. He was all the time founding new 
 country villages, planting vineyards, building houses, opening wild 
 districts to cultivation. When bishops had no great means to help 
 the poor, he called them to his house, gave them a dinner, and at 
 the end of it he distributed among them his newly built villages al- 
 ready occupied by husbandmen ; and giving them money, utensils, 
 servants, with cloth and linen, he told them with the, greatest be- 
 nignity and good nature : * All this, mind ye, is given to the Church, 
 that whilst the poor enjoy the benefit of it they may by their prayers 
 obtain for me mercy from God.' " * 
 
 It is impossible to say more in these few words. This simple 
 picture of true charity is perfect ; and it must be allowed that those 
 Frankish dukes, after all, were not all bad men. The reader learns 
 besides from this short passage that when a rich man gave anything 
 to the Church, it was not done in order to gratify the gluttony of a 
 few prelates or monks, but to benefit the poor through the Church, 
 which alone could then possess in security, and without the fear of 
 plunderers, what was given, as they thought, for all time to come. 
 To give to the Church was to give to the poor ; and the bishops 
 understood well, when they received presents of the kind mentioned 
 
 * Hist. Francorum, lib. vi. cap. 20. 
 
3i8 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 here by Gregory of Tours, that they were merely trustees of a fund 
 which belonged in fact to their wards, and of which they would 
 have to give an account to God. 
 
 That the Franks in the worst times of the Merovingian dy- 
 nasty enjoyed a fine appreciation of the highest Christian virtues 
 is proved by many details contained in the Historia Francorum and 
 in the Liber de gloria Coufesso7'um of Gregory, who wrote mainly for 
 the Franks. If they had been the brutal savages they are represen- 
 ted to be by some modern writers, the following rather long story 
 would have been absolutely above their ken. They could not 
 have appreciated any detail of it. Yet many other passages of 
 the same books were written for them in the same spirit, and 
 would have been, in the language of the Gospel, " pearls thrown 
 before swine," if the Prankish nation had been the set of bar- 
 barians which is naturally supposed by the one-sided selections 
 made from their history by Mr. Lccky. The books of Gregory, 
 I repeat, were mainly written for them, and many of them knew 
 Latin ; this is a well ascertained fact. 
 
 "About the same time" — namely, when Nepotianus was bishop 
 of Clermont in Auvergne, the fifth on the list, towards the end of 
 the fourth century — "Injuriosus, an Alvernian senator, asked in 
 marriage a young lady of the same rank in life, and the day of 
 nuptials was appointed. Both were the only children of their 
 parents. At the end of the ceremony they were conducted to the 
 bridal bed; but the bride, turning herself to the wall, began to 
 shed a flood of tears, and appeared in the deepest affliction. 'What 
 is the matter,' said the young man; 'please tell me, dearest.' And 
 as she kept silent, 'I beseech thee,' he added, 'in the name of Jesus 
 Christ the son of God, that thou tellest me the cause of thy grief.* 
 Then the bride turning herself toward him, 'If I were,' she said, 
 'to shed tears all the days of my life, they could not allay my sor- 
 row. I had determined to keep immaculate my virginity for 
 Christ's sake; but alas ! what I have kept so far unsullied I am 
 at the moment of losing. Christ the Immortal had promised me 
 paradise for my dowry, and He leaves me in the arnis of a mortal 
 man. . . . But why should I speak longer? Wretched is my fate; 
 heaven was promised me, and I am plunged in an abyss of woes ! 
 Why was not my first day the last? Death would have been wel- 
 come rather than the milk which sustained my life. To the sweet 
 embraces of my nurse I would have preferred the gloom of a 
 
FACTS. 319 
 
 funeral. The simple sight of earthly blessings terrify me when I 
 look on the hands of my Redeemer pierced with nails for the 
 world's salvation. What is to me a diadem brilliant with gems, 
 when I see the crown of thorns around His head? I turn away 
 from the thought of thy far-spreading estates to think only of 
 paradise's beauty.' ... In the midst of that heart-rending lamen- 
 tation the young man, full of compassionate pity, said at last: 
 ' Our noble parents, wishing to leave heirs after them, have thought 
 of our union in order that after their demise their ancestral pos- 
 sessions should not go to a stranger.' At these words the bride 
 exclaimed: ^What is the world? what is wealth? all is vanity. 
 Life itself is a dream in comparison with that other life which 
 knows no end. There alone is found eternal beatitude, and a 
 light undimmed by a period of darkness. And "what is more, the 
 presence of God Himself fills the soul with the sweetness of an 
 eternal contemplation, raising man to the condition of angels, the 
 true source of an ineffable and undying joy.' 'Dearest,' exclaimed 
 the young man, 'thy thrilling words have opened my eyes, and 
 eternal life appears to me like a brilliant ray filling all space and 
 reaching heaven. If thou wishest to remain pure in wedded life, 
 I will bind myself to the same sublime effort.' To this she an- 
 swered : ' It is hard for a man to grant this to a wife. If, however, 
 thou succeedest in doing it, and we both remain pure in the midst 
 of this life's trials, I will give thee a share in the dowry which the 
 Lord Jesus Christ has promised me on the day when I swore to 
 remain forever His servant and His spouse.' Arming himself 
 with the sign of the cross, Injuriosus promised to do what his 
 bride wished; and both, holding each other's hand, fell into a 
 sweet repose. They continued many years faithful to their reso- 
 lution. And it was only at their death that the world became 
 aware of it. 
 
 "The bride was the first to die; and on the day of her funeral, 
 when Injuriosus placed her in the sepulchre, he said : 'I give Thee 
 thanks, O Eternal God, that as I received this treasure from Thee, 
 the same I return immaculate to Thy hands.' The dead lady re- 
 vived at these words, and, smiling, she said: 'Why dost thou 
 reveal what nobody asked of thee?' Then the tomb was closed, 
 and not long after he followed her." 
 
 This story is very different from those invariably chosen by 
 the author of " European Morals" to amaze his readers. Still 
 
320 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 there are many others of the same style in the Histoi'ia Francorum 
 of Gregory of Tours. Injuriosus was not probably a Frank but 
 a Gallo-Roman. The book, however, was undoubtedly written 
 for the Ff'a?iks. Can any one suppose that a northern barbarian, 
 able to appreciate such an exalted virtue and to relish the read- 
 ing of this beautiful legend, had not received from his new reli- 
 gion a moral ideal far superior to whatever he knew of morality 
 before ? It was a complete change of thoughts and aspirations. 
 
 And the Franks soon learned to aspire personally to the same 
 sublimity of virtue. Thus we read that " Friedeburga, the daugh- 
 ter of Duke Gonzo, though affianced to Sigebert, the son of 
 Thierry II., withdrew to the church, and there, clinging to the 
 altar and covered with a nun's veil, declared in presence of her 
 betrothed her intention of dedicating her virginity to God. The 
 prince generously waived his claim." * It is known, besides, that 
 many noblemen and not a few princes and kings among the 
 Anglo-Saxons embraced also the life of the cloister; and the 
 story of Henry, Emperor of Germany, who lived with his wife 
 Cunegunda as brother and sister, is not ignored even by those 
 who have a very slight acquaintance with history. 
 
 But there are in Gregory of Tours' works many other facts 
 which powerfully illustrate the holiness of many Franks under 
 the Merovingian dynasty. No one must imagine that all the 
 rulers and chieftains belonging to the nation were like Chlovis, 
 Fredegonde, and Brunehaut. Several Merovingian kings and 
 princes gave examples of virtue which could be attributed to the 
 Christian religion alone, and particularly there was very soon in 
 the whole nation a political, military, and social advance resulting 
 from their Christianity, which placed them far above their pre- 
 vious level. 
 
 The modern historians who speak of Guntran do so in general 
 as if he had been a weak prince, of a very irresolute character, 
 and given over to superstitious practices rather than to genuine 
 religion. This judgment is not borne out either by Gregory of , 
 Tours or by Fredegarius, the only reliable authors who have writ- 
 ten on those times. His supposed irresolution was in fact Chris- 
 tian prudence, and his religious feelings were exactly those of 
 Duke Chrodin briefly described a few pages back. Weiss and 
 
 * Alzog, vol. ii. p. 103. 
 
FACTS. 321 
 
 Fievee, the writers of the article Gontran in Michau^s Biographie 
 UiiiverseUe^ have given in detail the explanation of the apparent 
 weakness of character of this excellent king, and showed that he 
 could not act otherwise in the political circumstances in which he 
 found himself involved. They have perfectly well understood the 
 narratives of Gregory of Tours in his History, and of Frede- 
 garius in his Chronicon. 
 
 As to his religious feelings, those authors who see everywhere 
 
 superstition in the prodigalities bestowed on the Church by kings 
 
 and rich men will do well to attend to the details previously 
 
 given on the practical charity of Duke Chrodin. They will soon 
 
 I perceive that this is precisely the kind of religion inculcated by 
 
 I St. James in the celebrated passage which always bears repeating: 
 
 ''Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: 
 
 I to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulations, and to 
 
 keep one's self unspotted from this world." 
 
 This was the religion of Duke Chrodin and King Guntran 
 among the Franks. The details given by Fredegarius particu- 
 larly are convincing proofs of it. Guntran's character, in fact, 
 takes almost the form of that of Louis IX. in France. Both are 
 inscribed in the Calendar of Saints. 
 
 If Dagobert I. did not carry Christian holiness so high above 
 human weakness, still he receives from Fredegarius such a testi- 
 mony that few French monarchs at any time deserved it. "This 
 king," he says, "was kind-hearted to his faithful subjects, but 
 terrible to those guilty of perfidy; a lamb toward the well- 
 intentioned, a lion toward the rebellious. . . . He filled the 
 heart of the poor with joy by rendering them justice. And his 
 justice was such a one as God Himself approves." 
 
 But it is proper to say a word in conclusion on the immense 
 advantages acquired by the Christian Franks with regard to their 
 influence over Europe through diplomacy and military organiza- 
 tion. This, it is true, scarcely belongs to morals, yet it is strictly 
 connected with them. During many ages the Franks had been 
 hovering along the Rhine before Chlovis' conversion, almost un- 
 known to Europe, and deprived even of the most simple chroni- 
 cles; but a couple of hundred years later we see them in constant 
 i intercourse, either by war or diplomacy, with Spain, Italy, Ger- 
 imany, and even Constantinople. This contrast is a strong proof 
 that the Christian religion had wrought among them a wonderful 
 
32 2 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 change. This appears chiefly in the reigns of Chlovis, Theode- 
 bert I., Guntran, and Dagobert; and as soon as the Merovingian 
 line becomes unworthy of governing such a noble-spirited people 
 as the Franks v^ere, the Carlovingian dynasty steps on the stage 
 of history, and furnishes directly in close succession such men as 
 Charles Martel, Pepin the Short, and Charlemagne. Is not this a 
 complete demonstration of the truth that whilst the Germanic 
 nations who had embraced Arianism do not seem to have made 
 any moral and social progress in renouncing their former idolatry, 
 the Catholic nation of the Franks can be proudly pointed out as 
 the irrefragable proof of the contrary. 
 
 As a last confirmation of the previous reflections it must be 
 remarked that not only the worst Merovingian rulers had at least 
 a conscience of which they were totally deprived when pagans; 
 not only many Merovingian princes and kings gave proof of a 
 genuine Christian spirit; but, in a third place, the bishops who 
 then ruled the Church in the Frankish dominions were most of 
 them men of the highest virtue and the most exalted character. 
 A great number of instances of it might be brought out. The 
 Historia Fra?ico?'U?n and the Liber de gloria Confessoric7n (both cele- 
 brated works of Gregory of Tours) could furnish the materials of 
 a large volume. Unfortutiately time and space forbid it. The 
 only thing possible is to maintain that the ecclesiastical history of 
 the Merovingian period is one of the most glorious in the whole 
 brilliant annals of the French church. Alzog condescends to say:* 
 " Dissension and debauchery were for many years after the death 
 of Chlovis familiar to the house of the Merovingians; and those 
 bishops who had the courage to rebuke the royal libertines were 
 sent into exile." "These," he adds, "were frequently the ablest 
 and most fearless defenders of the Church." It seems surpris- 
 ing that, writing as he did a " Manual of Church History," he 
 has not at least given out some of their names. Nothing more 
 was required for this than to go through the headings of many 
 chapters in Gregory of Tours. This plain-speaking and forcible 
 writer does not hesitate to call many of these bishops saints ; for 
 they were not only "able and fearless defenders of the Church," 
 they were also holy men, and their names have been inscribed in 
 the Roman Calendar. To supply this deficiency of Alzog it will 
 
 Christianity among the Franks, § 155. 
 
FACTS. 323 
 
 be sufficient here to give a few words of Gregory quoted from a 
 work of Paulinus now lost: "If you look at those holy Priests of 
 the Lord — namely, Exsuperius of Toulouse, Simplicius of Vienna, 
 Diogenianus of Albiga, Dynamius of Ecolisma, Venerandus of 
 Auvergne, Alithius of Cahors, and at this time Pegasius of Petro- 
 corium — you will find that wherever evil prevails there are directly 
 most worthy prelates ready to guard the deposit of holiness, of 
 faith, and of religion." 
 
 Turning from the Catholic nation of the Franks, it is proper 
 to cast a last look on the other Arian tribes. The baneful heresy 
 of Arius had invaded the whole barbarian world at the first 
 epoch of their conversion. The Franks alone had adopted Catho- 
 licity. Soon it appeared, after the settlement of the Germans in 
 southern Europe, that the whole of Spain, the whole of Mauritania 
 and Numidia (which then belonged to Europe), a great part of 
 jnorthern Italy and of Switzerland, and finally what remained of 
 fthe population of Germany after the emigration of so many tribes, 
 'were destined, in rejecting Christ's divinity, to remain rationalist 
 iphilosophers rather than Christians. This was the aspect pre- 
 ;sented by the religious world in the fifth and a part of the sixth 
 |centuries. 
 
 I Had there not been over those nations a powerful influence of 
 idivine grace, there would soon have been an end of Christianity; 
 since if you take away the belief in the divinity of our Lord the 
 whole supernatural • character disappears from it, and there 
 remains only a cold rationalism which cannot any more be called 
 !a religion. Moreover, in becoming Arians they had received 
 nothing of the mild disposition inculcated by the doctrine of the 
 Gospel. They had remained iHie bloodthirsty savages that they 
 were when pagans, and it could not be said of them that Christi- 
 anity had effected a complete moral change in the world. 
 
 But how strange! how unaccountable! A hundred and fifty 
 years pass away, and Arianism has completely disappeared! 
 France is not the only Catholic nation; Spain, Italy, Germany, 
 enjoy that title with her; and Europe begins that long career 
 of progress, civilization, and superiority over the whole world 
 which must have come from her union with and subordination to 
 Rome, since no other cause whatever can account for it. 
 
 How did it come about ? How did Arianism perish in Europe ? 
 No one can say. The ecclesiastical history of Spain during the fifth 
 
324 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 and sixth centuries, ending in the seventeen celebrated Councils of 
 Toledo, tells something of it for that noble country; but the recur- 
 rence of the same fact of conversion from Arianism among other 
 nations is not explained by what took place in the Spanish peninsula. 
 No historian has yet undertaken to unravel the mystery of that 
 great providential event. It is a pregnant subject indeed for 
 any Catholic writer who would have time and opportunities at 
 his command. But in the midst of all this obscurity a great truth 
 strikes the beholder: The barbarian world has been transfigured! 
 Holiness is now possible, nay, easy; and that sweet Figure of the 
 early Church in Jerusalem, in Alexandria, in Edessa, in Rome, 
 will be again offered to the world in Great Britain, in the Prank- 
 ish dominions, in the wilderness of the Asturias, in the forests of 
 Saxony, nay, on the frozen shores of Scandinavia, Iceland, and 
 Greenland. 
 
 3. Holiness a??w?ig the Anglo-Saxo?is in Great Britain — A Sufficient 
 Test of the Previous Opinion. 
 
 To describe the virtues practised among all the northern nations 
 toer their conversion to Christ would go far beyond our neces- 
 sary limits. At this moment we are still occupied with those tribes 
 which were Christianized after their migration from their native 
 territory ; and we will have, farther on, to speak, though briefly, 
 of the settlement of Christianity in the whole territory of Germany 
 itself and Scandinavia. On the outset of so long a task, it 
 seems preferable to choose a single one of those races and examine 
 to what degree of holiness they soon arrived, as a test for all of 
 them ; and it seems there are reasons for choosing the Anglo- 
 Saxons in Great Britain preferably to all others. They were 
 primitively, as Lingard says, "classed with the most barbarous 
 of the nations which invaded and dismembered the Roman Empire." 
 They for a long time opposed a sturdy resistance to the spread 
 of Christianity among them, not only in Germany, but likewise in 
 Great Britain after they had entirely devastated it, and established 
 their coarse idolatry over the whole of it outside of Wales and 
 Cornwall. With the exception of this last refuge of the Britons, 
 there remained absolutely no Christians in the whole island when 
 St. Austin arrived in Kent with his companions. After many 
 years of labor the Roman missionaries sent by Pope Gregory had 
 
FACTS. 325 
 
 scarcely made any progress, when the holy work was undertaken 
 in the north by the Irish monks of Lindisfarne led by St. Aidan. 
 All the details of the difficulty peculiar to the conversion of the 
 Saxon tribes can be read in the " Monks of the West," by Montalem- 
 bert ; and when studied with attention those details prove that it 
 was a far more arduous task for the Church to subdue these 
 'barbarians, and inspire them with the mild manners of the Gospel, 
 than the conversion of Greece or Rome had ever been. On this 
 account, probably, rationalist writers have never pretended that 
 these northern savages were naturally prepared to accept Chris- 
 tianity. It has been often insisted upon, though preposterously, 
 that the Greek and Roman polytheists had been led by philosophy 
 to embrace the doctrines of Christ. No one has maintained this 
 opinion likewise for the Germans and Scandinavians. All admit 
 that they could not feel any attraction for the maxims inculcated 
 in the Sermon on the Mount ; and the resistance of the Anglo- 
 Saxons during so many years after their migration into Great 
 Britain is perfectly in accordance with the well-known propensities 
 of these wild tribes. 
 
 Had it not been the work of divine grace, and had they only 
 consented for some natural reason or other to turn their back on 
 the worship of Thor, Woden, and Freya, and to substitute Christ 
 in their place, the aspect Christianity w^ould have assumed among 
 them would have been completely different from what has been 
 seen of it in Jerusalem, Alexandria, Edessa, and Rome. Sup- 
 posing only the natural order, the difference would have been 
 absolute; and particularly the high purity of morals, so con- 
 spicuous in those celebrated Christian centres of Asia and Europe, 
 would have been altogether impossible in the island of Great 
 Britain, in the midst of the single Anglo-Saxon element. Still, it 
 is easy to demonstrate that the same practices of the highest sanc- 
 tity obtained at last universally among the posterity of the wildest 
 among the Scandinavian nations in Great Britain. There is, for- 
 tunately in proof the unexceptionable testimony of Bede, himself 
 an Anglo-Saxon, a man full of a just admiration for his own race 
 after it had become Christian, whose declarations are as unanswer- 
 able as they are clear. 
 
 To feel the absolute strength of the demonstration the reader 
 has first to imagine all the labor required of the first missionaries, 
 and see how reluctantly all the various states of the Heptarchy 
 
326 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 had become Christian. Then he has to examine what was the real 
 character of the religion they had successively embraced and they 
 were at the time practising. A simple look given at the short 
 statement of the previous labor and difficulty, such as it was, found 
 in Alzog's " Manual of Church History," * will render the subse- 
 quent sketch of the result drawn by Bede very striking, and enable 
 the modern mind to wonder at the height of virtue to which those 
 uncouth barbarians had been at last raised. I merely refer the 
 reader to the historical narrative of Alzog ; an abridgment of it 
 would not suffice, and the whole narrative cannot be copied here. 
 
 As 'to Bede, to render more easy the present writer's labor, it 
 just happens that the good Anglo-Saxon monk, at the end of his 
 "Ecclesiastical History," gives a bird's-eye view of the whole An- 
 glo-Saxon church on the very year he completed his great work ; 
 that is, two hundred and eighty years after the first landing of the 
 Angles on the island. It is proper to copy this, in order, as it 
 were, to locate the details, full of the perfume of holiness, which 
 must be forthcoming afterwards. 
 
 "At the present moment, Tatuini and Adulf preside as bishops 
 over the churches of the Cantuarians [Canterbury]. Inguald is 
 the bishop of the eastern Saxons [London and Westminster]. 
 Aldbert and Hadalac are the bishops of East Anglia. Danihel and 
 Forheri rule over the western Saxons. In the province of the 
 Mercians Alduini is bishop ; and Walchstod in that part of INIercia 
 which is beyond the Sabrina [Severn] toward the west. Wilfrid 
 (not the great Wilfrid of York, who comes soon after) rules 
 over the Huiccians; Cyniberet over Lindisfarne. The bish- 
 opric of the island of Vecta [probably Wight] is in the hands of 
 Danihel. The southern Saxons [Sussex], having been already sev- 
 eral years without a bishop, are under the administration of the 
 prelate who rules over the western Saxons [Wessex]. All those 
 southern provinces, as far as the Humber, are governed in tem- 
 poral matters by their own kings, who are, however, subject to 
 vEdibald, king of the Mercians. In the province of Northumbria, 
 which is under the power of King Ceolwulf, there are four bish- 
 ops, namely: Wilfrid, in the city of York ; Ediluald, in Lindis- 
 farne; Acca, in Hagulstad ; Pecthelm, in the city called Casa Can- 
 dida, which, owing to the large increase in the number of the 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 50, seq. 
 
FACTS. 
 
 327 
 
 faithful, has been lately made a bishop's see. The Pict nation, at 
 peace now with the Angles, has received the truth, and now enjoys 
 it in union with the universal Church. The Scots [Irish] who live 
 in Britain are satisfied with the territory they occupy [Scotland], 
 and have ceased to quarrel and plot." (Bede was never fond of 
 them.) " Among the Angles, owing to the peaceful and serene 
 time in which we live, a great number of the Northumbrians, both 
 gentle and simple, prefer to consecrate themselves and their chil- 
 dren to the monastic vows, and, having laid down their arms and 
 subdued their warlike feelings, they consent to have their heads 
 shaven, and thus humbly wear the monk's tonsure. What will be 
 the end of all this the following centuries will show. This is the 
 present state of the whole of Britain in this year, the two hun- 
 dred and eighty-fifth since the advent of the Angles into it, and 
 the seven hundred and thirty-first since the Incarnation of our 
 Lord. In Whose name and eternal kingdom let the whole earth 
 rejoice; and let Britain congratulate herself that she has received 
 His faith ; and let the islands of the sea be glad above measure, 
 and by their deeds bear testimony to His holiness." 
 
 Could there be found a more appropriate text to introduce 
 the picture of Anglo-Saxon sanctity ? The only drawback is that 
 the few examples we will be reduced to choose among so many 
 contained in Bede's writings can scarcely give to the reader a 
 satisfactory idea of it. 
 
 He has just told us that in Northumbria the Angles (a tribe 
 of Anglo-Saxons) had at last embraced Christianity, and from 
 ferocious warriors, such as they were, many of them had become 
 humble monks. A remarkable instance of the various steps re- 
 quired to produce this extraordinary change of disposition is nar- 
 rated at some length in the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Angloruni:* 
 Peada, the son and heir of the ferocious Penda, ruled over the 
 Middle Angles, His father, king of Mercia, had been undoubt- 
 edly the most cruel and unrelenting enemy of the Northumbri- 
 ans, chiefly of those who were Christians among them. He 
 perished subsequently in a battle against Oswy, their king. 
 Peada, however, his son, sues for the hand of Alchfleda, the 
 daughter of Oswy. It was said that she had vowed her vir- 
 ginity to God. The king of the Northumbrians, nevertheless, 
 
 * Lib. iii. cap. 21. 
 
328 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 does not refuse, under that pretext, to give his daughter to the 
 young chieftain of the Middle Angles. He only protests that 
 Alchfleda shall not marry him unless he becomes a Christian with 
 all his nation. Perhaps he thought that Peada would not accept 
 such a proposition as this. But the young king consents to be 
 instructed; and when he hears that all Christians have received 
 the promise of a heavenly kingdom, that all enjoy the hope of resur- 
 rection after death, and of a future immortality, he declares that he 
 will embrace this doctrine though the king's daughter should not be 
 given him in marriage ; and instantly his nation is ready to receive 
 baptism with him. Finan, an Irish bishop from Lindisfarne, ad- 
 ministers the holy rite to Peada, to his nobles and his soldiers, and 
 to all their servants, in a place called now Vaubottle (some say 
 Walton). 
 
 This is a strange story which no rationalist will willingly admit, 
 at least so far as the grounds and sincerity of the faith are con- 
 cerned. But when several details of this extraordinary tale are 
 known the doubts of the rationalists themselves may be somewhat 
 shaken. Before this is done, however, the remainder of the story 
 must be given out. Four priests are sent with Peada and his wife 
 to administer the rites of religion to the new Christians of Middle 
 Anglia. These four priests were Cedd or Cedda, Adda, Berti, and 
 Diuma. The three first were Angles, the last an Hibernian. Their 
 ministration was so successful that Diuma w^as consecrated their 
 first bishop by Finan ; and at his death Ceollach, another Irishman, 
 succeeded him. 
 
 This first peculiarity of the story is a strong reason why this re- 
 markable conversion should be thought real and sincere ; and this 
 must be seen somewhat in detail. 
 
 In reading Bede, not only on this occasion, but all along his 
 "Ecclesiastical History," it is manifest that the great instrument used 
 by the providence of God for bringing those wild tribes to the 
 practice of genuine Christianity was the Irish race; namely, the 
 monks from Lindisfarne or from lona. Sometimes the missionaries 
 came from Ireland itself, chiefly from the great bee-hive of Bangor. 
 Bede, putting aside for a moment his Anglo-Saxon prejudices, ad- 
 mits ungrudgingly the Christian spirit of the Irish, who, in their 
 island opening freely their schools to all strangers, cherished par- 
 ticularly the Anglo-Saxon youths, to whom they gave not only free 
 education and free board in their houses, but furnished them wtihj 
 
FACTS. 329 
 
 books and everything required for pursuing their studies. And 
 he does not fail to often mention that if a large number of converts 
 among the Anglo-Saxons entered also with spirit into the arduous 
 labor of converting their countrymen, many of these had been edu- 
 cated in Ireland or in the Irish establishments of lona and Lindis- 
 farne. But all those who are acquainted with Montalembert's 
 " Monks of the West" are fully aware of all these details. 
 
 If they are briefly copied here, it is not so much to refresh the 
 reader's memory as to call his attention to the strong basis it 
 gives to the opinion of those who firmly believe in the sincerity 
 of the moral change effected among the savage conquerors of 
 the Britons. The Irish are now acknowledged to have been the 
 best missionaries of the eighth century. If so far we have not 
 placed them in the glorious category of those nations who have 
 honored the primitive Church by their holiness, it is simply for 
 the reason that nobody can refuse them that precious prerogative. 
 Our own ideas have never varied from those expressed in the 
 Irish Race. They were from the beginning Christians of Chris- 
 tians, and have remained so to our very day. Ardent believers 
 in the supernatural, they practised first what they preached; and 
 they preached what they knew to be true. It was not an idle and 
 unfounded superstition that they spread over the earth. In their 
 primitive universities, which were merely convent schools, they 
 made a deep study of the true foundations on which Christ's 
 religion rests; and before they admitted any individual or nation 
 to the rites of baptism, they first ascertained that" the cate- 
 chumens were aware of all the dogmatic and moral obligations 
 they contracted in becoming Christians. Because Bede, in briefly 
 relating the chief events which illustrated the primitive history 
 of the Anglo-Saxon church, is satisfied with the meagre sketch 
 we have copied, the reader must not conclude that in the space of 
 two or three days Bishop Finan had merely mumbled over them 
 some prayers and recited rome biblical stories to them, and then 
 taking the Saxons by the hand had plunged them in the stream 
 and forthwith declared them to be Christians. 
 
 Who was that Irish bishop Finan ? It is proper to look a little 
 more closely to this. Bede has haply given in full his description 
 and the high character of his practices and proceedings. It is 
 important to quote the passage exactly: "Whatever I have so far 
 written of this great man \znn] and of his works (never praising 
 
330 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 his wrong notions about the Pasch, nay, detesting them as I have 
 done in the book which I have composed, De Temporibus) I have 
 explained with the veracity of an historian. I have exactly 
 described what he did, and praised all his acts which were 
 worthy of praise, and which deserved to be recorded as likely to 
 be useful to the reader, namely: the deep attention he paid to 
 peace, charity, continence, and humility; his soul raised above 
 anger and avarice, pride and vain-glory; the care he took to 
 practise the divine precepts before teaching them to others ; the 
 long time he gave to reading and holy vigils ; the authority 
 worthy of a priest with which on one side he rebuked the proud 
 and the powerful, and on the other the sweetness with which he 
 consoled the afflicted and gave support and defence to the poor. 
 This man — to embrace many things in a few words — took the 
 greatest care not to neglect anything prescribed in the gospels^ or 
 in the books of the prophets or apostles^ but, on the contrary, to 
 fulfil to the letter and to the best of his ability everything con- 
 tained therein. This we have heard from those who knew him 
 well personally. For these reasons I have always cherished and 
 loved this holy prelate, being sure that all this was highly 
 pleasing to God." 
 
 This was the testimony which Bede gave to Finan, though the 
 difference of practice of the Irish church with regard to the cele- 
 bration of Easter deeply rankled in the bosom of the Anglo- 
 Saxon monk. He had certainly no reason to praise Finan, 
 except the necessity he felt of upholding the truth. But even 
 a rationalist philosopher will admit that a minister of religion 
 having constantly before his eyes not only the precepts of the 
 Gospel, but particularly the injunctions of the apostles (St. Paul, 
 for instance, when he describes his indefatigable labors to bring 
 up all his proselytes to the perfection of Christ Himself, and 
 when he so powerfully enjoins the same to his disciples Timothy 
 or Titus), could not receive into the Church a king and his nation 
 without due preparation and proper worthiness. 
 
 In a second place, to prove it still better, it is proper to 
 examine who were the missionaries other than the Irish who 
 labored likewise in the same field of Anglo-Saxon proselytism. 
 We do not take into consideration those who came from Italy or 
 France, Vv^ith Austin at their head. Not that we feel inclined to 
 depreciate their labors in this great cause, but only because they 
 
FACTS. 331 
 
 do not seem to enter so strikingly in our line of demonstration. 
 These missionaries other tha)i the Irish were Saxons of every type 
 from Essex, Sussex, etc., or Angles from every district of the 
 country which ,was then called Anglia. These last had been 
 mostly, at first, educated in Irish monasteries, until the Angles 
 began to have convents and houses of study of their own. They 
 invariably, according to Bede, tried to reflect in their own per- 
 sons the chief features of such men as Finan or, better still, of 
 the great Aidan, the preceptor of Finan himself. The reader will 
 find in the "Monks of the West" many precious details on Aidan. 
 
 It is but natural that, this general Irish impulse having been 
 given to the whole body of missionaries, the same mode of action 
 was adopted by all; and this will render easy of comprehension 
 the holiness which soon began to sweeten with its perfume the 
 entire nation all over Great Britain. We possess, fortunately, a 
 good example of it in the biography of Cedd or Cedda, whose 
 name has been merely mentioned in a previous paragraph. He 
 was by birth an Angle from Mercia, and became one of the four 
 first priests sent to the Middle Angles by Bishop Finan. In 
 course of time, after having evangelized this nation, he was called 
 by King Sigebert to Essex, where the Christian religion, after 
 having been preached and established under Austin and his 
 monks, had been openly repudiated by the people, who obliged 
 Mellitus, their bishop, to fly away. He also found time to preach 
 the Gospel in East Anglia. A part of his biography will be found 
 in the " Monks of the West;" but the curious reader will prefer to 
 read the longer account given of it by Bede. The principal event 
 connected with it, and appropriate to our present object, is re- 
 corded at the end of the twenty-second chapter (Book III.), where 
 it is said that "in a place called Tilabury [Tilbury] he brought 
 together a swarm of Christ's servants, among whom he estab- 
 lished the discipline of regular life, such as people still rude in 
 manners could practise." 
 
 This was a purely Anglo-Saxon monastery; and as it is said 
 that the discipline of regular life in it was " such as people still 
 rude in manners could practise," it is proper to look more closely 
 at this "monastic discipline," which was in truth the greatest 
 means of conversion used among the Angles and Saxons of Great 
 Britain, and which in a very short time brought them up to the 
 height of Christian perfection. 
 
332 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 It is to be remarked that all those tribes of Great Britain, 
 when they successively became Christians, had no other means of 
 judging what was the Gospel's morality than the private and 
 public conduct of their teachers. In this they were a great deal 
 more favored than their German brothers who invaded Gaul, 
 Italy, and Spain. In these European continental countries, 
 besides the admirable bishops and priests w^ho undertook their 
 conversion, there was a very corrupt mass of people who pro- 
 fessed Christianity and lived, many of them, like pagans. This 
 was a stumbling-block for many of those rude tribes. In Great 
 Britain the Saxons and the Angles found the country occupied by 
 the Britons; all Christians, it is true, but in whom the new-comers 
 found nothing to admire, and whom they fell directly to destroy. 
 Nearly as long as this process of destruction lasted the Anglo- 
 Saxons continued in their gross idolatry without bestowing a 
 thought on the religion of the inhabitants. When they succes- 
 sively were exhorted by men of God to renounce their idols 
 and worship a meek Saviour, they saw no other Christians but 
 the monks, since they had driven away the Britons. Moreover, 
 they must have thought that the Britons had no religion what- 
 ever, because the infatuated Celts, even the bishops and priests 
 among them, had obstinately refused to bring to the knowledge 
 of the true God the ferocious enemies who appeared only bent on 
 their destruction. The only Christians, therefore, to whom they 
 paid attention were the monks. 
 
 It was probably for this reason that St. Austin and his companions 
 produced directly such an effect on the pagan inhabitants of Kent. 
 They were struck by those austere strangers. It is known, neverthe- 
 less, that the Italian and Galilean missionaries, after their first suc- 
 cess, found a great inconstancy and mistrust in their proselytes; and 
 that the work of conversion became remarkable and of a permanent 
 character only from the time when the Irish monks from the north 
 labored among them all over the country. 
 
 We must, consequently, examine who were those monks ; what 
 perfection they practised; what was the character of the religion they 
 came to announce — a character undimmed by the loose conduct of 
 other Christians known to the Saxons. Then it will be easy to see 
 that the perfection of monastic life soon became the almost universal 
 aim of those nations, bringing supernatural holiness in its train. 
 
 The high personal sanctity of the Celtic missionaries from Lindis- 
 
FACTS. ^^^ 
 
 fame, lona, or Bangor has been admirably described by Bede in 
 many passages of his Historia Ecclesiastica. It was the exact repro- 
 duction of Columba's life so graphically sketched by Montalembert. 
 St. Patrick had given to Ireland the first spectacle of it ; and it is in 
 trying to copy it that the Irish people became so thoroughly Christian. 
 The daily deportment of Aidan, of Finan, of Diuma, and so many 
 others in Great Britain, became for the Saxons of Northumbria, 
 Mercia, and Anglia the pattern they tried to imitate ; and soon the 
 monastic discipline was embraced by these tribes ; at first such as 
 suited their rude manners^ but before long with all the heroism of holi- 
 ness and the sweetness of the tenderest piety. So that the marvels 
 witnessed primitively in Jerusalem, Egypt, and Rome were repro- 
 duced on the Humber, the Severn, and the Tyne. 
 
 Lingard, in our opinion, is the author who has given the best 
 description of it, in his " Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," from 
 Bede and other approved sources; and our easy task will con- 
 sist in giving the substance of his sketch, with some textual quota- 
 tions. God's grace will directly shine as the source cf their holiness. 
 
 After having spoken of the different religious orders introduced 
 among the Anglo-Saxons, he remarks that if in the distribution of 
 time, the arrangement of fasts and prayers, etc., they differed from 
 each other, "they all equally adopted the three engagements which 
 are still considered as essential to the monastic institute: (i) an un- 
 limited submission to the lawful commands of their superiors; (2) a 
 life of perpetual celibacy ; (3) a voluntary renunciation of private 
 property." 
 
 We see, consequently, among them the same means of sanctification 
 which have been previously proved as existing in the primitive Church 
 among a number of the faithful, and which have been called the true 
 path of perfection, established from the beginning by our Saviour and 
 His apostles. This is altogether the working of grace. 
 
 I. Lingard demonstrates that obedience was strictly enforced by 
 all the rules of religious orders which in course of time flourished in 
 Great Britain from the very time of the Heptarchy. He finds those 
 rules not only in the houses of the Benedictine order, such as St. 
 Dunstan promulgated them in the tenth century, but likewise in the 
 much more ancient order of St. Columba, which we have seen radia- 
 ting from lona all over Scotland and North Britain. " The obedience," 
 he says, "which is required must be prompt and cheerful; it com- 
 prises the decisions of the judgment no less than the resolves of the 
 
334 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 will. But it admits of one exception. When the commands of 
 the superior are contrary to the law of God, the monk is exhorted 
 to throw off the shackles of obedience and boldly to hazard the 
 frowns of his abbot, rather than incur the displeasure of the 
 Almighty." 
 
 In the Historia Ecdesiastica of Bede there are often praises 
 bestowed on those who were faithful to follow their superiors* 
 injunctions. Thus of Fursy, the celebrated Irish abbot, favored 
 with so many visions and supernatural gifts, it is related that 
 " from the time of his childhood he had bestowed much care on 
 sacred studies \lectiombus sacris\ and on all holy monastic prac- 
 tices; but what above all distinguishes pious people^ he was most atten-. 
 tive to do whatever had bee7i commanded him ^ * 
 
 Of the necessity of a monk obeying God rather than his abbot, 
 there is a splendid example contained in the twenty-fifth chapter of the 
 same Book III. After a long discussion on the proper time for cele- 
 brating Easter between Colman, an Irish abbot and bishop, who held 
 for Columba's computation, and the young priest Wilfrid, who became 
 later on the celebrated archbishop of York, and held for Rome, the 
 decision given by King Oswy, who presided at the meeting, is most 
 remarkable. For, Colman having tried to prove his side of the ques- 
 tion by the former command of Columba, the great founder of lona 
 and apostle of the Scots, and Wilfrid having shown from Scripture 
 that the government of the Universal Church had been given by God 
 to Peter of Rome and not to Columba of lona, and consequently 
 that the Pope, the successor of Peter, was the mouth-piece of God, 
 whom all must obey rather than the most holy man, Oswy exclaimed : 
 " I tell you that I for one cannot think of disobeying the man who 
 holds the keys of heaven. As much as I can, I wish to follow strictly 
 his orders rather than those of any other holy man ; for fear that if I 
 ever reach the gates of paradise, no one could be found there able to 
 open them against the authority of the gate-keeper himself." And 
 all abided by this decision. 
 
 II. The writer of the " Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," 
 speaking of monastic chastity, remarks that " to the Saxons, in whom 
 during the time of conquest the opportunity of gratification had 
 strengthened the impulse of the passions, a life of chastity appeared 
 the most arduous effort of human virtue. They revered its professors as 
 
 * Bede iii. 19. 
 
FACTS. 335 
 
 beings of a nature in this respect superior to their own, and learned 
 to esteem a religion which could elevate man so much above the 
 influence of his inclinations." And he gives proofs of it of which it 
 will be our pleasing duty to speak before long. But it is proper to 
 quote a few lines of his further observations : " To secure the chas- 
 tity of their disciples, the legislators of the monks had adopted the 
 most effectual precautions which human ingenuity could devise. The 
 necessity of mortifying every irregular inclination was inculcated both ■ 
 by precept and example. The sobriety of their meals and the mean- 
 ness of their dress perpetually recalled to their minds that they had 
 renounced the world and its concupiscence, and had dedicated their 
 souls and bodies to the service of the Deity. They were commanded 
 to sleep in the same room ; and a lamp which was kept burning dur- 
 ing the darkness of the night exposed the conduct of each individual 
 to the eye of the Superior. The gates of the convent were shut 
 against the intrusion of strangers. ... To the precautions of pru- 
 dence were added the motives of religion. The praises of chastity 
 were sung by the poets and extolled by the preachers. Its votaries 
 were taught to consider themselves as the 'immaculate spouses of the 
 Lamb;' and to them was promised the transcendent reward which 
 the book of the Apocalypse describes as reserved for those 'who 
 have not been defiled with women.' " 
 
 III. With regard to the voluntary renunciation of poverty, we 
 prefer to quote Bede alone, as he is profuse on the subject, and his 
 writings are not so accessible to the ordinary reader as the work of 
 Lingard. There is particularly a passage of the twenty-sixth chapter 
 of the Third Book which proves that the voluntary poverty of the 
 Irish monks from lona and Lindisfarne was not confined to each 
 individual religious, but that everything around them, in their 
 houses, their churches, their corporate dealings with the highest per- 
 sonages of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, breathed the very spirit of 
 poverty — or parsimony, as Bede himself calls it. He speaks again here 
 of Colman, the pupil of Aidan : 
 
 " How far he, following the example of his holy predecessor, car- 
 ried parsimo7iy is proved by the buildings of the very monastery 
 which he governed. When he left it with his companion, there were 
 besides the church a very few houses of the poorest kind which can 
 be called decent. They had no money whatever; only flocks of 
 sheep. If rich people happened to give them money, they directly 
 distributed it to the poor. Not even for the reception among them 
 
33^ THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 of great and powerful people was there any need of coin or of 
 splendid halls. The highest men of the nation never came to their 
 church but to pray or to hear the word of God. The king himself 
 when he thought proper to visit them took with him five or six at- 
 tendants only, and after having said his prayers in the church with- 
 drew. If by chance some refreshment had to be offered to the royal 
 party, it consisted of the simple fare of which the brethren usually 
 partook; and the visitors expected nothing more. The only solici- 
 tude of those holy doctors was to serve God, not the world. They 
 paid attention to the souls, not to the stomachs, of those who applied 
 to them." 
 
 This description is perfect ; and the reader must conclude that 
 since the community itself presented such an admirable spectacle 
 of holy poverty, each individual monk could not think of treating 
 himself better than were treated the king and his high officials 
 when they came to the convent. St. Francis of Assisium carried 
 almost to perfection the same religious principle in a far subse- 
 quent age ; and his order has been admired by the whole world 
 for the love of povertv which the founder had so highly recom- 
 mended by precept and example. 
 
 This meagre sketch of monastic perfection can scarcely be sup- 
 posed adequate to the task of rendering easy of comprehension 
 the immense influence it obtained over the Anglo-Saxon mind and 
 heart. Still, our present object is to explain how the same kind of 
 holiness soon spread among the whole people. 
 
 For this object Bede comes directly to our help ; and from his; 
 words it is easy to understand how the popukir enthusiasm which! 
 he briefly describes was natural and simple, and how it excited 
 them to a holy emulation. This comes directly after the passagCj 
 quoted above : "It can be easily conceived that the simple habit 
 [or costume] of religion became at that time an object of venera- 
 tion. So that wherever any priest or monk showed himself, all 
 received him with joy as a servant of God. Nay, if they simply 
 met' any of them on the public road, they ran to him, and bending; 
 the head, they felt happy if he touched them with his hand or 
 blessed them with his lips. On Sundays they came in crowds tc' 
 the church or the monaster}', not to receive any bodily help, bul 
 only to hear the word of God. In case any priest chanced tc 
 appear in a village, directly the villagers expected to hear fron: 
 
FACTS. 337 
 
 him the word of life. For the priests and clerics had no other 
 object in entering any town except to preach, baptize, visit the 
 sick ; in a word, attend to the souls of the people. The religious 
 were so perfectly free from any taint of avarice that it required a 
 kind of force on the part of rich and great men to make them 
 accept land or property of any kind for the construction of their 
 monasteries." 
 
 What could be the moral effect produced by the sight of such 
 a disinterested virtue, if not to impress the rude Anglo-Saxons 
 with a high esteem and deep love for the religious life. And as 
 this was the invariable spectacle displayed by all the ministers of 
 God, the people could not have any other idea of religion than 
 the practice of the same virtues. For those simple souls, to be a 
 Christian consisted in imitating those who preached to them 
 Christianity by example better still than by word of mouth. In 
 their good moments, therefore, when the natural ferocity of their 
 souls was gradually tamed by what they heard or saw, they must 
 have felt a sweet inclination to enter into the same kind of life. 
 They could not at once aspire to the highest perfection of monas- 
 tic discipline. For this reason it has been seen that when the 
 Angle Cedd or Cedda was sent by the Celtic bishop Finan to preach 
 in Essex, this zealous apostle of Middle Anglia and Essex thought 
 of founding a convent where the natives themselves should be 
 received as monks. He was, however, prudent enough not to re- 
 quire of them more than they could bear ; and he only bound 
 them to a monastic discipline such as their rude man?iers could 
 submit to : /;z qumitum riides adhuc capere poterant. 
 
 Soon, nevertheless, the doctrine of humility, forgiveness of in- 
 juries, necessity of arduous labor, springing from a supernatural 
 source, became possible for them, together with obedience, chastity, 
 and poverty. Nay, more: it was not only in the lower or middle 
 ranks of life that the Saxons and the Angles presented themselves 
 as candidates in the path of perfection. The great, the powerful, 
 the rich, vied with their humble brethren in devotedness and self- 
 sacrifice. So that it is in Catholic England more, perhaps, than 
 anywhere else in the Church that kings and queens, noblemen 
 and noblewomen of every degree, from the duke to the simple 
 knight, adorned the cloister during the Anglo-Saxon period with 
 the most exalted religious heroism. And several of them even, who 
 

 33^ THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 for some political or civil motive could not enter openly a convent, 
 practised in the world the virtues of the monk or nun, after hav- 
 ing bound themselves by a secret but most precise vow. 
 
 Of all the examples of this extraordinary life given out by 
 Bede, that of Edilthrida* is no doubt most remarkable; and as 
 Lingard copies it almost textually from the good Anglo-Saxon 
 monk, it is but natural to give a few paragraphs of it, and for 
 those who have already read it it can bear repeating : "As they 
 [the Saxons] became acquainted with the maxims of the Gospel, 
 their veneration for this virtue [chastity] increased; and whoever 
 compares the dissolute manners of the pagan Saxons with .the 
 severe celibacy of the monastic orders will be astonished at the 
 immense num.ber of male and female recluses who voluntarily 
 embraced a life of perpetual continency. Nor was the pious en- 
 thusiasm confined within the walls of convents. There were many 
 who, in the midst of courts and in the bonds of marriage, emu- j 
 lated the strict chastity of the cloister. Of these Edilthrida may j 
 be cited as a remarkable example. She was the daughter of Anna, j 
 the king of the East Angles, and at an early period of life had 
 bound herself by a vow of virginity. But her secret wish was 
 opposied by the policy of her friends, and she was compelled to 
 marry Tondberet, Ealdorman of the Girvii. Her entreaties, how- 
 ever, moved the sympathy of her husband ; and compassion, 
 perhaps religion, prompted him to respect her chastity. At his 
 death she retired to a solitary mansion in the unfrequented i'sle 
 of Ely; but her relations invaded the tranquillity of her retreat, 
 and offered her again in marriage to Egfrid, the son of the king 
 of Northumbria, a prince who had scarcely reached his fourteenth 
 year. Notwithstanding her tears, she was delivered to the care of 
 his messengers and conducted, a reluctant victim, to the North- 
 umbrian court. Her constancy, however, triumphed over his , , 
 passion; and after preserving her virginity during the space of |^ 
 twelve years, amid the pleasures of the palace and the solicita- 
 tions of her husband, she obtained his permission to take the veil 
 in the monastery of Coldingham. 
 
 "Absence revived the affection of Egfrid. He repented of his 
 consent; and was preparing to take her by force from her con- 
 vent, when she escaped to her former residence in Ely. After a 
 
 * Book iv. c. 19. 
 
 I 
 
FACTS. 339 
 
 certain period her reputation attracted round her a sisterhood of 
 nuns, among whom she spent the remainder of her days in the 
 practice of every monastic duty, and was always distinguished by 
 her superior fervor and superior humility." 
 
 Particularly in the family of Oswy, king of Northumbria, sev- 
 eral princesses adorned the Church by the practice of the most 
 arduous virtue in conventual life. There was first the sister of 
 Oswy himself, Ebba, who became abbess of the monastery of 
 Coldingham whither Edilthrida had retired from the court of 
 Egfrid. Ebba received often the visits of St. Cuthbert, who was 
 at that time evangelizing that part of the country, and a holy 
 friendship continued all their life to subsist between them. There 
 was likewise Elfleda, the niece of both Oswald and Oswy, and the 
 very sister of King Egfrid, whom St. Cuthbert honored also with 
 his friendship. She had for him such a veneration that, having 
 been attacked by a severe illness and the physicians being unable 
 to relieve her, she protested that if some object belonging to 
 Cuthbert was sent her she would soon recover her health. The 
 holy man hearing of it sent her a linen belt, which being placed 
 around her waist brought her in a few days to a full recovery. 
 
 Ealdormen, dukes, and kings followed the examples afforded 
 them by their female relatives. But this is so well known that it 
 would be useless to insist longer on it. Thus, during the Hep- 
 tarchy the Saxons practised all the humble and lowly virtues 
 recommended by our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount. A few 
 years before the irruptions of the Danes, which interrupted for a 
 while this period of holiness and peace, Bede could use the words 
 we have previously quoted, but which it is good to repeat here: 
 
 "This is [was] the present state of the whole of Britain in 
 the year, . . . the seven hundred and thirty-first since the In- 
 carnation of our Lord. In Whose name and eternal kingdom let the 
 whole earth rejoice; let Britain congratulate herself that she has 
 received His faith, and let the islands of the sea be glad above 
 measure, and by their deeds bear testimony to His holiness." 
 
 Bede, therefore, was the witness (in the midst of the profound 
 peace which he proclaims as reigning around) that the eternal 
 kingdom of God had been established in the whole earth, Britain 
 sharing in it not only by the precious gift of faith which she had 
 received, but moreover by the holiness of her deeds, in which con- 
 sists the true kingdom of God on earth. 
 
340 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 4. A Few Words on the Convei'sion of the Germans to Christianity. 
 
 I. The previous narrative was intended as a test for the Ger- 
 man and Scandinavian nations in general, particularly for those 
 who were converted in consequence of their migration to other 
 countries in which they met face to face the Christian religion 
 and its ministers. The gradual steps by which the Saxons were 
 brought in Great Britain from the coarsest paganism and the 
 most ferocious manners to the practice of the highest Christian 
 virtues suffice as an example to demonstrate the same for all the 
 other tribes natives of the north of Europe. Those of them who 
 passed first through Arianism, like the Vandals, have been cited 
 as a proof that a fundamentally heretical Christianity such as 
 Ariapism was could not produce any great moral change in those 
 nations as long as they remained Arian. But as soon as in the 
 seventh century they unaccountably, as it were, professed to believe 
 in Christ's divinit}^, and returned to the bosom of Catholicism, the 
 road to holiness was immediately opened before them. This was 
 remarkable for the Burgundians in Gaul and the Visigoths in 
 Spain. It is impossible not to see in these historical facts the 
 working of a powerful cause operating unceasingly in the bosom 
 of the Catholic Church for the incessant production of fruits of 
 holiness, all of them bearing the same character and reproducing 
 the same type on the frozen shores of Scandinavia and in the 
 burning clime of Egypt, 
 
 Who will refuse to acknowledge the finger of God in the stu- 
 pendous concourse of so many events affecting nations of com- 
 pletely dissimilar characters, still giving to all of them the same 
 form of sanctity? No one can suppose there could be any cause 
 for it except the one assigned by St. Paul in the magnificent twelfth 
 chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, where he says: 
 " There are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit ; and there 
 are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord. . . . All these 
 things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one 
 according as He will. For as the body is one and hath many 
 members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are 
 many, yet are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were 
 we all baptized into one body; whether Jews or gentile, whether 
 bond or free ; and in one Spirit we all have been made to drink." 
 
FACTS. 341 
 
 Turn as they may, reflect and think and write as they can, the 
 rationalists will never be able to find as good a reason of the 
 moral sameness of the highest type of virtue existing in all nations 
 after their conversion to Christianity as this one; namely. It is 
 the same God, the same Holy Spirit, the same Christ, who ani- 
 mates the whole body. Therefore the holiness produced by the 
 effusion of this Holy Spirit must be of the same kind in all nations, 
 however different they may have been originally in character, aspi- 
 rations, habits, and customs. But because this great universal 
 source of a sanctity alike in them all is no other than God Him- 
 self, it is consequently altogether supernatural ; and it would be 
 absolutely superfluous to look for it in the numerous catalogue of 
 natural, rational, purely human and worldly causes. 
 
 In these considerations the facts adduced in proof were natu- 
 rally confined to the primitive ages of the Church. It will soon 
 be proved that the following centuries do not offer to the pen of 
 the historian a different result. The same holiness has existed 
 and shall continue fofever to exist in the Church. If human 
 instruments were used and human means adopted, they were 
 absolutely inadequate to produce a general result, universal in 
 its extent and bearing the same character in the most dissimilar 
 nations, except through the Holy Spirit's inspiration. 
 
 II. But at this moment we must examine, very briefly indeed, 
 the nations which remained in Germany after the powerful mi- 
 grations of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries. Only a few 
 words can be said on a subject naturally immense. But at least 
 the circle prescribed to our inquiry will have been completed, and 
 no link will be missed in the chain. 
 
 The irruptions of the German races into the Roman Empire 
 were not caused chiefly, as has been pretended, by a desire of 
 settling in more favored countries. A barbarian tribe has seldom 
 been prompted to migrate by such a motive as this. It is now 
 proved that if the whole of Germany threw itself over Gaul, Spain, 
 and Italy in the centuries following the fourth, it was mainly be- 
 cause they were driven away Irom their own territory by more 
 powerful nations coming from eastern Europe or Asia, such as 
 the Huns, the Slavs, or the Sarmatians. 
 
 After the violent passage of so many hostile armies over that 
 devoted part of Europe, Germany remained exhausted and at 
 the mercy of any one powerful enough to occupy and colonize 
 
342 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 it. Whoever has read even cursorily the History of the Huns^ 
 byDe Guignes, understands perfectly well the ground over which 
 were undertaken the glorious missions of the Anglo-Saxon monks 
 of Great Britain, and of the Irish missionaries of the Columban 
 order, as they have been called by Montalembert. The gifted 
 author of the "■ Monks of the West" has given in its pages such a 
 brilliant individuality to the heroic agency of the great Colum- 
 banus that the Columban order of monks has become a fact 
 which all must now admit. When they began their work of zeal 
 in Germany in the seventh century, together with the mission- 
 aries led by Willibrord and Winfried from Anglo-Saxon England, 
 who followed them in the eighth, Germany and Gaul were rapidly 
 returning to their primitive savage state. The Merovingians in 
 Gaul and the petty princes of Frisia and Thuringia in Germany 
 were constantly at war with each other; and the Christianity 
 which had already flourished to a certain extent in those countries 
 had nearly disappeared, as well as agriculture and industry. 
 
 This must be insisted upon; for it must be admitted that the 
 apostolic labors of the holy men who had previously preached 
 the Gospel along the Rhone, the Rhine, and the Danube, as well 
 as in the mountains of Switzerland and the Tyrol, had been 
 nearly swept away by the devastating hordes which had ravaged 
 those regions of central Europe from the fifth to the seventh 
 century. Alzog acknowledges it when he says that " no full, 
 satisfactory, and precise account of the conversion of the Ger- 
 man people exists of a date anterior to the seventh century.'* 
 Consequently the bishoprics established in Helvetia, in Rhaetia, 
 in Wurtemberg, etc., some of which dated from the second or 
 third age, can scarcely be considered as belonging to the ecclesi- 
 astical history of Germany. And a new effort was to be made to 
 plant again the Christian religion in those countries. This his- 
 tory begins, in fact, by the apostleship of Columbanus and Gall 
 his disciple in Burgundy, Switzerland, and Upper Italy, as well 
 as by the labors of Willibrord and Winfried in Frisia, Thurin- 
 gia, Hesse, and other Germanic countries. Winfried particularly, 
 better known as Boniface, is justly considered as the first apostle 
 of those vast regions which extend north as far as Scandinavia. 
 
 Not only the previous Christian faith which a great part of 
 those countries had professed, chiefly along the Upper Rhone, the 
 Rhine, and the Danube, had nearly perished; but it would have 
 
FACTS. 343 
 
 been almost impossible for the new apostles to make any progress 
 all over that vast territory, owing to the ferocity of the new 
 inhabitants, had it not been for the Merovingian kings, who ruled 
 over a great part of it when Columbanus and his companions came 
 from Ireland, and also on account of the first Carlovingian rulers, 
 who were in possession of that country at the arrival of Willibrord 
 and Winfried from England. The whole territory was then occu- 
 pied by wild tribes scarcely ever known before, all of them pagan 
 and of a most ferocious character, such as the Frisians, Turin- 
 gians, Hessians, Saxons, etc., to whom a religion was openly 
 offered for acceptance which was altogether opposed to their 
 instincts, and which they did not see at work around them. The 
 missionaries had to go boldly to them, since these tribes did not 
 intend to go farther south to the only countries in which Chris- 
 itians could be found. Thus a great number of those zealous 
 I messengers of God were destined to receive at the hands of these 
 'barbarians the crown of martyrdom as the most precious reward 
 ;of their labors. These countries offer otherwise an almost unex- 
 plored field which few historians have labored to glean over. 
 
 The Irish missionaries — Columbanus, Gall, and th^ir companions 
 — met even with a difficulty which probably they had not expected. 
 I If some Merovingian rulers like the good King Guntran protected 
 jthem effectually, others, the degenerate sons of the first Prankish 
 IChristian kings, persecuted them; and Columbanus himself 
 jwas temporarily driven away from the country by Thierry of 
 jAustrasia. 
 
 I The Carlovingians, however, became far more generous pro- 
 tectors of the Church than the Merovingians had been; and from 
 Pepin of Heristal down to Charlemagne they all took the liveliest 
 I interest in the conversion of the northern tribes. But the best 
 proof which can be afforded of the difficulty of the enterprise is 
 that after many efforts had been made to civilize them through 
 i Christianity, by means of persuasion, it was found impossible to 
 ido so for some of them at least. Open coercion was adopted for 
 ithat purpose only after all other means had failed with regard to 
 ';the Saxons. Alzog disapproves of it; and all must admit that 
 simple persuasion w^as the only natural and Christian way. But 
 if the question is presented under another form, and reduced to 
 inquire which was preferable, either to leave those tribes to enjoy a 
 freedom necessarily accompanied with lawlessness, ferocity, and 
 
344 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 constant danger to their neighbors, or to bind them down to 
 milder manners by the forced adoption of Christianity, perhaps 
 the policy of Charlemagne toward the Saxons will not appear 
 worthy of condemnation and irreconcilable with Christian ethics. 
 But it was, after all, a State policy in which the Church was not 
 concerned. 
 
 The author of the " Manual of Universal Church History" 
 gives a succinct account of the chief difficulties which stood in 
 the way of the conversion of German tribes. " The difficulties 
 were," he says, " of a character peculiar to the people, and more 
 numerous and appalling than those of any other nation. Among 
 these were the deadly feuds and hereditary hatred of the various 
 tribes; the apprehension, not unfrequently well founded, that 
 foreign missionaries might disguise hostile intentions under pre- 
 tence of a holy zeal; their aversion to everything Roman — a name 
 which they associated with all that is vile and base; and, finally, 
 their peculiar notions of morality and personal liberty. They 
 carried their notions of personal liberty to such a length that they 
 esteemed the privilege of bearing arms the most sacred of human 
 rights, and f^t bound, as a matter of honor, to take a bloody 
 revenge on any one who should give them offence. Hence they 
 could not comprehend and fully appreciate how One who suffered 
 patiently and met death willingly and without resistance, could 
 become the Saviour of mankind. The conversion of Germany 
 was, therefore, a labor requiring time and patience, accompanied 
 wih many difficulties and doubtful struggles, and was not brought 
 to a successful issue till near the close of the eighth century." 
 
 Nay, it might be properly maintained that it would never have 
 reached a " successful issue" if God had not by His grace changed 
 the heart of these barbarians, and obtained at last from them that 
 they should bow humbly under the yoke of the Gospel. 
 
 Under the Merovingian kings of Gaul, the missionaries who 
 labored in France and Germany were chiefly Irish and Scotch. 
 Besides Columbanus and Gall, whose names have already been 
 mentioned, it is proper to glance a moment at several others. 
 There was Fridolin, renowned all over Germany even at the 
 present day. An Irishman by birth, he spent several years at 
 Poitiers near the tomb of St. Hilary. *' But in the year 511," says 
 Alzog, "he arrived on the banks of the Upper Rhine, and founded 
 at Sackingen [a town situated on an island of that river above 
 
FACTS. 345 
 
 Basle] a nunnery and monastery of monks." From that retreat he 
 visited all the tribes living on both banks of the Rhine. 
 
 Later than Fridolin, St. Trudpert evangelized the country around 
 Freyburg in Breisgau as far as Schutern. Bishop Killian and his 
 companions, Colman and Totnan, preached in Franconia. Together 
 with Columbanus and Gall, a number of Irish missionaries, whose 
 names have not been preserved, labored either in Burgundy, 
 around the celebrated monastery of Luxueil founded by them, or 
 in Helvetia and Allemania, which St. Gall entirely converted before 
 his death in 646. 
 
 Bavaria, called at that time Noricum and Vindelicia, ow^ed its 
 conversion mainly to Frankish missionaries, the chief one among 
 them being Emmeram of Poitiers. 
 
 But the man to whom after God was due the Christianization 
 of the Germans was the Anglo-Saxon priest Winfried, better 
 kn6wn as St. Boniface. Many of those who accompanied and 
 helped him came likewise from Great Britain ; and their labors 
 began when the last Merovingian kings were giving way to the 
 Carlovingians and Charles Martel was de facto king of the French. 
 Boniface presented himself to Charles with letters' from the Pope 
 in 723 ; and from that moment he began those arduous labors 
 which have been fully described in several complete biographies 
 written both in Latin and German. 
 
 It would be impossible to enter here into details, however 
 
 i important and interesting they might be. The Frisians were the 
 
 j first nation to which he carried the Gospel; and this took place 
 
 i before his first interview with Charles Martel. From Frisia 
 
 I he passed over to Thuringia and Hesse, where he received into 
 
 I the Church the princes Dierolf and Detdig, together with many 
 
 ! thousands of the pagan inhabitants in the surrounding countries. 
 
 ■ Then seeing the vast field which opened before him, he directly 
 
 thought of founding monasteries and nunneries, as the best means 
 
 I of spreading holiness and light over an immense region given 
 
 over so far to superstition and darkness. He called on his Anglo- 
 
 \ Saxon friends for that purpose; and, says Alzog, "of those who 
 
 \ answered his call, Burchard, Lullas, Willibald, his brother Wuni- 
 
 bald, and Wita are the best known. Many female religious also 
 
 came over, among whom were the learned Anigilde and her 
 
 daughter Berathgit, Cunitrude, and Thecla, who belonged to the 
 
 nunneries of Kitzingen and Ochsenfurt, on the Main ; Lioba, who 
 
346 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 was at Bischofsheim, on the banks of the Tauber; and Walpurgis, 
 at Heidenheim in the Saulafield." 
 
 The intention cannot be to go through the whole life of this 
 great man, who died at last a martyr at the hands of barbarous, 
 unconverted Frisians. But he left at his death the Church firmly 
 established all over Germany. Most of the celebrated bishoprics 
 which in the course of the following ages formed the main web of 
 Church history in the north of Europe had been founded by him, 
 or through his instrumentality; particularly those of Mentz, 
 Wurtzburg, Eichstadt, Baraburg, Erfurt, Utrecht, Tongres, Co- 
 logne, Worms, and Spire. 
 
 It would also be too long to speak in detail of the monasteries 
 which were then built in every part of the country. It must suf- 
 fice to mention that of Fulda, " which when completed," says Alzog, 
 " was placed under the charge of Sturm, the most beloved of Bon- 
 iface's disciples. Like St. Gall and Reichenau, Fulda was for a 
 long time the nursery in which the bishops of Germany were edu- 
 cated and trained, and the home of the arts and sciences." 
 
 It would be but a repetition of what has been said of Anglo- 
 Saxon England, both as to the obstacles it offered to conversion 
 and the height of holiness it at last attained, to rehearse again the 
 various steps through which those wild nations along the Rhine, 
 the Danube, the Elbe, and the shores of the Baltic Sea, passed 
 gradually from the rankest idolatry and the coarsest cu-stoms of 
 barbarism to ordinary Christian life at first, and finally to the 
 practice of the virtues which our Lord had openly proclaimed in 
 His Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 It is particularly known to what degree the Saxons carried at 
 first their opposition to Christianity. It is likewise known that if 
 at various times they appeared to give way to conviction after 
 the severe defeats inflicted on them by the Carlovingian kings, it 
 was but a feint on their part, and on the other side "the Franks," 
 says Alzog, ''forced them to profess Christianity and receive bap- 
 tism." 
 
 It is the only time this happened during the whole history of 
 the Church ; and it could not be expected that holiness should be 
 established among the Saxons by such measures as these. This 
 strange fact must be regarded as a simple expedient of policy on 
 the part of the Carlovingian kings, in which the Church could take 
 no part. Consequently it is not surprising to hear from Alzog 
 
FACTS. 347 
 
 that "this policy was continued [by Charlemagne alone] without 
 interruption and with untiring perseverance for a period of thirty- 
 three years, and was iitiiformly resisted with the most hearty and deter- 
 mined obstinacy^ It was not, therefore, by Charlemagne's armies 
 that the Saxons were converted. The more severely they were 
 defeated the more obstinate they remained, even when they 
 appeared to yield and consented to be baptized. 
 
 Their conversion began only after all these attempts had 
 been made in vain ; and it was chiefly due to St. Ansgar, arch- 
 bishop of Hamburg, to whom it was, as Alzog says, " a work of 
 love." With Ansgar the bishops of Osnabruck, Paderborn, Min- 
 den, and Verden labored assiduously with the same ardor ; and at 
 last the Saxons were converted as all the other barbarian nations 
 of the north have been before or since, by God's grace. 
 
 Details cannot be given here. They are found, however, in all 
 ecclesiastical histories. The only thing of importance is to merely 
 mention the remarkable degree of holiness introduced among all 
 those nations of Bavaria, Austria, Saxony, and the Baltic coast. 
 Nay, there does not seem to be any need of describing it at this 
 moment. For it culminated in Germany and France under 
 Charlemagne and his successors. Every one is aware that this 
 was precisely the period of history known as the Middle Ages. 
 The following chapter will be entirely devoted to the description 
 of that peculiar piety and exquisite sanctity which has always 
 been the characteristic mark of the ^' ages of faith." If there are 
 shadows in the picture, they will not be of such character as to 
 render that name unsuitable ; and it will be easy to prove that 
 with all possible shadows and drawbacks they cannot be called 
 "dark ages." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHRISTIAN HOLINESS DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 I. Difference of Opinion on the Subject.^ 
 
 The appreciation of the middle ages, so conflicting and contra- 
 dictory in our day, may refer to government, polity, customs, ideas, 
 science and art ; what is called civilization, and public opinion may 
 more or less vary on these various subjects. But this cannot be the 
 object of inquiry at the present moment. There is only question here 
 of the mdrality prevailing at that epoch ; and many authors in treat- 
 ing of it fall into the mistake of bringing together subjects of a quite 
 different nature like those just mentioned ; whence arises an unlucky 
 confusion, the cause of many false views. 
 
 Writing simply on the Church's holiness, we must strictly confine 
 the present investigation to facts bearing on Christian ethics ; but 
 even on this very subject there is a total disagreement between Prot- 
 estant and rationalistic writers on the one side and Catholic authors 
 on the other. Luther, Calvin, and in general all the prime movers in 
 the sixteenth century's heresies, openly accused the whole Church of 
 having fallen before their time into the grossest immorality. Their 
 followers have continued to this day repeating their assertions ; and 
 the middle ages have invariably been represented by them as dark, 
 corrupt, abominable. In the rationalistic camp the same has likewise 
 in the main been the case till very recently, when this historical sub- 
 ject has been studied with more impartiality and attention. Alzog 
 in the second volume of his " Manual of History" quotes passages 
 from Galle, Jacob Grimm, Daniel, Bohmer, and Kraus (American 
 edition, sub initio)^ which prove a great change of opinion outside of 
 the Catholic Church. 
 
 The perversion of history on this important question had been 
 formerly so complete that a- large class even of Catholic writers had 
 adopted something akin to Protestant views, chiefly in France, owing 
 
FACTS. 
 
 349 
 
 no doubt to Gallican principles. M. de Montalembert justly says 
 on this subject in the introduction to his "Monks of the West:" 
 " The clergy itself [in France] felt ashamed of those ages, which its 
 own writers called barbarous, and during which, nevertheless, the 
 Church had been so powerful and prosperous, so free and respected, 
 so much obeyed and loved. Yes, historical ignorance — or, if you pre- 
 fer, thoughtlessness — had so far invaded the sanctuary itself that the 
 clergy, exclusively preoccupied with the frailties and scandals of 
 those times which we willingly acknowledge, did not hesitate to sacri- 
 [fice the purest glories of its Order to the dislikes and prejudices of 
 worldlings. Yes, it must be said, in order to show the progress we 
 have lately made, that with regard to the most heroic conflicts of the 
 Church we have [in France] during two centuries accepted on trust 
 the open lies of our enemies and persecutors, and we have re-echoed 
 them. Many have been the Christians, and among them priests and 
 Catholic doctors, who, taking side with the strongest in those former 
 conflicts, have openly advocated the bad against the good cause, and 
 described in their books lay tyranny as being the innocent victim of the 
 Church. Scarcely a hundred years have passed since French bishops 
 ■n their circulars expressed the wish to see ' the plots of Gregory VII. 
 3uried in an eternal oblivion ' ! Fleury, so long our oracle in point 
 Df ecclesiastical history, prostituted his extensive learning and his 
 undeniable talent to the service of Rome's enemies; and when he 
 pame to write of the time which elapsed from St. Benedict to St. 
 jBernard, he dared indite these very words: the golden age of the 
 Church is 7iow gone T 
 
 It is doubtful if a single Catholic writer would in our day coincide 
 !n the least with those French authors of the last two centuries. Dis- 
 :overies have been made in the field of history which preclude the 
 )ossibility of such an extraordinary blindness. And it is scarcely 
 conceivable for us that men who professed to believe that the Church 
 s "the kingdom of God," that not only she has received the promise 
 i)f inerrancy in point of faith, but likewise the privilege of purity in 
 norals (such as becomes the Bride of Christ), still imagined that 
 here was a time when both these gifts had been well-nigh lost by 
 ler. To us devolves at this moment the grateful task of proving that 
 lot only this was not the case, but that, on the contrary, the middle 
 ges were principally a period of sanctity in spite of all the moral 
 drawbacks of that epoch. 
 
 M. de Montalembert says again vi^ith justice: ''This new and 
 
350 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 salutary impulse given to history wiiich the last forty years have 
 witnessed, and which has so much benefited the Church, was no 
 the work of clergymen. They have rather followed than inspirec 
 this moral rehabilitation. But it has been commenced by Protes 
 tants [in France, M. Guizot; in Germany, John von Muller, Voight 
 Leo, Hurter, and both Menzels]; it has been helped by neutrals 
 sometimes by open adversaries; it has been chiefly continued anc 
 carried on by Catholic laymen" (and here he quotes K, Digby 
 the author of " Ages of Faith"). 
 
 Since this was written by Montalembert more has been founc 
 out than even he believed. For after having said, a little farthe: 
 on, that " since the first great defiance thrown down by the estab 
 lishment of Christianity to the triumph of evil in the world, neve 
 perhaps has the empire of the devil been so much shaken anc 
 contested" as in the middle ages, he adds, nevertheless: " The^ 
 have been called the ages of faith, and they have been justly S( 
 called, for faith was then more supreme than at any other epocl 
 of history. But there we must stop. This is much, but it i 
 enough for the truth. We cannot venture to maintain that virtu 
 and happiness have been throughout these ages on a level witl 
 faith." Thus he himself believed there were dark shadows ii 
 those times, in point of morality. 
 
 Perhaps indeed virtue and happiness at that epoch have no 
 been quite on a level with faith. But they have been superior t< 
 whatever was witnessed in all Europe before or after. This i 
 certain, and this begins to be known to impartial students of thj 
 past. But it cannot yet at this moment be a subject of discus- 
 sion. It must result from the facts themselves, and these wil 
 soon be forthcoming. 
 
 Though, however, many, prejudices against the mediseva 
 Church have so far given way before the light of history, th 
 whole truth is still far from being known on account of the ex 
 traordinary delusion created in all classes of society by the arden 
 hatred of the first reformers against Catholicity. And this grea 
 cause of all modern prejudices must be examined somewhat atten 
 lively, to know better the true source of the fallacy, and to rende, 
 more striking the intended demonstration when it will be time tj 
 furnish it. 
 
 Christ had plainly spoken when He announced the Church' 
 perpetuity. He clearly foretold, it is true, there would be scar 
 
FACTS. 351 
 
 dais. Still, the Church was never to perish, and, to use His own 
 expression, "the gates of hell should jiot prevail against it." 
 Consequently, to secure its permanency, there would forever 
 remain in it an interior principle of purification, renovation — refor- 
 mation^ to employ the term generally used. To declare that the 
 Church had altogether disappeared, and that there was need of 
 building up a new one from without, was not onjy blasphemous, 
 as being an open contradiction given to Christ, but it was abso- 
 lutely senseless and absurd, since it would have required in the 
 new reformers an authority for rebuilding it equal to that of the 
 Son of God. Had the reformers been consistent, they would have 
 felt bound to put forth such an extravagant claim. They did not 
 dare openly so to do; still, they maintamed that they had actually 
 received a mission from heaven to that effect. They were, there- 
 fore, in fact the apostles of an altogether new gospel, since very 
 soon indeed in tracing up the source of the corruptions of which 
 they complained, they had to go up as far as the first apostles 
 themselves. Did not Luther declare that the Epistle of James 
 was an epistle of straw? 
 
 No separatists had ever before assumed such pretensions as 
 these. In the eyes of former heretics the Church's history pre- 
 vious to their unfortunate separation was their own church his- 
 tory; and they treated with reverence everything connected with 
 ij ancient traditions and old records. But the position taken by 
 ! the Protestants from the very start made it a necessity for them 
 I to depreciate everything anterior to them. Whenever there had 
 ; been, since the beginning of Christianity, any antagonism between 
 r I two sets whatever of doctrines, opinions, or customs, it had never 
 I amounted to the total opposition which immediately appeared 
 between the new Protestant faith and that of the middle ages. 
 This opposition was as strongly marked as that which exists be- 
 tween light and darkness. . Every one can judge of it by com- 
 paring what the Christians of the middle ages believed with the 
 pretended faith imposed by the new teachers. Consequently 
 these new teachers could not but hate and despise the epoch that 
 had just preceded them; and the most violent abuse was the best 
 expression of that hatred and contempt. But why did the whole 
 world admit it in the wake of the reformers ? Why did the 
 middle ages become at once almost infamous ? It would be long 
 and difficult to state all the reasons there were for this. It will be 
 sufficient to mention briefly the chief ones. 
 
352 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 There had been real abuses in the Church; and these were 
 taken advantage of to prejudice a great number of men against 
 an age which few, if any, had known in its purity. M. de Mon- 
 talembert again points out some of those objections: " A thousand 
 incontrovertible witnesses rise up to recall the general insecurity 
 (at that time), the top frequent triumphs of violence, iniquity, 
 cruelty, deceit, sometimes even of refined depravity; they seem 
 to demonstrate that the human and even diabolical element then 
 reasserted, only too strongly, their ascendency in the world. By 
 the side of the opened heavens, hell always appeared; and in 
 juxtaposition with those prodigies of sanctity, which are so rare 
 at other times, were to be found ruffians scarcely inferior to those 
 Roman emperors whom Bossuet calls ' monsters of the human 
 race.' 
 
 " The Church, which is always influenced up to a certain point 
 by contemporary civilization, allowed to exist many abuses and 
 scandals the very idea of which would to-day horrify both her 
 subjects and her enemies. They proceeded sometimes from that : 
 corruption which is inseparable from the exercise of great power 
 and the possession of great wealth; sometimes, and most fre- 
 quently, from the invasion of the lay spirit and temporal power, j 
 Yes, cupidity, violence, and debauchery rebelled often, and with »' 
 success, against the injunctions of the Gospel, even among its own 
 ministers; they often infected the organs of the very law which 
 had been intended for their repression. AVe can and must 
 acknowledge it without fear, because all these excesses were 
 redeemed by marvels of self-denial, penitence, and charity," etc. 
 
 This being undoubtedly true, it is not difficult to imagine how 
 the reformers could not only persuade their own followers that 
 those ages had been profoundly corrupt, but likewise suggest to 
 many Catholics doubts, at least, as to the reality of the holiness 
 which then prevailed. These doubts would soon give place to a 
 certainty as to the existence of universal depravity. The only 
 process required for this was to throw in the shade the innumer- 
 able proofs of the sanctity of millions living at that time, and to 
 give prominence to the monstrous corruption of a few desperate 
 characters of whom alone the new historians would speak. And 
 ■this policy v/as certainly adopted by Protestant ecclesiastical 
 •writers from the beginning, as the " Centuries of Magdeburg " 
 abundantly prove. It is surprising that for a long time the 
 
 I 
 
FACTS, 353 
 
 Catholic controversialists scarcely perceived the importance of 
 remonstrating against this most unfair proceeding. Baronius, in 
 the preface to his " Annals," complains that he was the first to 
 undertake it on a large scale, and in his time the evil had fear- 
 , fully spread. The first page of his great work shows how un- 
 blushing was the partiality exhibited, particularly by the Cen- 
 turiators of Magdeburg, though they always affected a great 
 show of veracity. Many unwary Catholics, no doubt, imbibed 
 the tempting poison, and even in the true Church the traducers of 
 the morality of the middle ages became numerous. 
 
 To fully understand the fatal effect this must have produced 
 on so important a subject, one has only to remember what a 
 single man, Pascal, did for the defamation of the Jesuits, his 
 enemies. His ^'Provincial Letters" are now well known, and 
 acknowledged as being full of calumnies, slanders at least, and 
 unjust aspersions. Still, on some minor points, as, for instance, 
 the mo7'ale relachee of two or three casuists, there is some truth, 
 since their works have been censured by the Holy See. And this 
 has sufficed to hoodwink millions of men who from that time to 
 this have considered the majority of the members of the Society 
 of Jesus as dangerous men, morally fatal to those simple souls 
 who placed themselves under their direction. The Protestant 
 historians of Magdeburg had given the first example of these 
 treacherous tactics. 
 
 A second cause which powerfully contributed to the same 
 result was the deleterious action of the numerous body of men 
 called humanists^ which was brought into existence by what has 
 been called the revival of learning. Even before Protestantism 
 arose they had already predisposed a great number of people 
 against the pretended rudeness, nay, grossness and vulgarity of 
 the times which immediately preceded them. Much has been 
 written of late concerning their character and influence over a 
 great part of Europe. Though admired by many modern writers, 
 they have been openly accused by others of wishing to restore 
 paganism; and several facts mentioned by Cantu in his Reforma 
 in Italia seem to prove it for a few of them. In general, however, 
 they were simply, in our opinion, conceited pedants, most fas- 
 tidious in their classical taste, extremely narrow in their petty 
 vanity, and altogether incapable of judging rightly of their 
 immediate predecessors, whom they despised and abused. They 
 
354 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 must have been considered great oddities by the simple men by 
 whom they were still surrounded, because the middle ages were 
 yet in full vigor when they appeared. Imagine a class of literati, 
 bookworms, searchers after old Greek and Latin manuscripts, 
 worshippers of the exquisite taste of Greece and Rome, and 
 ardent revilers of Gothic art and literature. For them purity of 
 style had replaced purity of morals; for it is unfortunately proved 
 that the majority of them were fearfully corrupt, if one can judge 
 from their habitual thoughts and niany productions of their pen. 
 Their Catholic faith, consequently, hung rather loosely on their 
 shoulders, though only few of them ever thought of rerivi?ig 
 paganism and actually worshipping Jove and Athene. The dis- 
 covery of some old parchment, perhaps on cookery or gymnastics, , 
 which was thought to have been lost and suddenly came to light ) 
 was far more interesting to them than the preser\'ation of many 
 useful arts openly practised during the middle ages, which they 
 allowed, about that time, to perish; so that they are now perfect 
 enigmas, or at least puzzles. Their inner life was spent among 
 authors two thousand years old or more, and they profoundly 
 despised the many great and noble things they saw around them. 
 The grand cathedrals, just finished in their day; the proud Gothic 
 castles; the beautiful and artistic bridges over rivers and lakes; the 
 solid and brilliant furniture of the houses; the rich and substantial 
 dresses of lords and ladies, burghers and simple citizens, were in 
 their eyes full of bad taste, because they were not constructed on 
 the models of the four old orders of architecture, nor copied from 
 classic paintings, nor made on the pattern of Etruscan vases, 
 Greek tripods, and Roman lamps. If so they judged and mis- 
 judged in point of art, they were not proof against misjudgment 
 in point of morals and holiness. The stern stoicism of Cato or 
 Thraseas was a far higher virtue in their eyes than the valor of 
 the crusader, the devotedness of the Christian nun, and the 
 austerity of the Christian monk. There is no need of expatiating 
 any longer on the subject. It must be admitted by all impartial 
 thinkers that they were not justified in despising the artless 
 candor and modest purity so prevalent even in their time. Still, 
 they were instrumental in passing on to us a false judgment on 
 those high themes. 
 
 But the reformers, when they came, eagerly welcomed to their 
 bosom that humanists' mania for pure style, of which they had in 
 
FACTS. 355 
 
 general rather a small share. Who can admire the refined taste 
 of Luther in his Latin or of Beza in his Greek? Still it was a 
 great help to prop up their own hatred of Catholic morality by 
 the undisguised contempt the humanists had felt for the same. 
 Every one must now recognize the combined effect of both to the 
 detriment of what began to be called the Dark Ages. Morality, 
 according to them, must have been at a very low ebb, since 
 people had then so different a look from the proud Roman or the 
 sprightly Hellene. And this opinion became in course of time 
 more confirmed still by the care each European nation took to 
 conform its arts, its literature, its ordinary life to the former 
 classic model, and to leave mediaeval patterns in the background. 
 A third reason must be briefly mentioned to explain the uni- 
 versality of the opinion adverse to the cause herein advocated by 
 us. This is nothing else than the weakening of faith, which 
 soon became a source of almost complete estrangement between 
 modern times and the preceding centuries. Everybody is aware 
 that antagonism in point of art and literature between various 
 epochs of history is the greatest source of unreliable judgments 
 from the one to the other. The middle ages were principally 
 ages of faith. Our own is chiefly an epoch of disbelief. All the 
 motives which so powerfully acted on the Europeans of those 
 times appear delusions and childish errors to the men of our own. 
 The sanctity which then prevailed is called a vain superstition, 
 and the biographies of the greatest saints living at that epoch 
 are supposed to be legends, or rather ridiculous tales. It is not 
 possible to expect a fair appreciation when there is such a differ- 
 ence between the ideas and aims of both periods. This could be 
 indefinitely developed; it is sufficient to leave it to the reflections 
 of the reader. But evidently no one need be surprised that the 
 opinions of our contemporaries differ so widely on the subject. 
 There remains only to discuss a simple question, namely: Was it 
 true virtue w^hich then governed society, or rather superstition, 
 error, nay, brutality and vice? 
 
356 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 2. The First Period of the Middle Ages Consisted on the part of the 
 Church in a Rude Training of Wild Tribes. Hence Violetice, Cri?ne, 
 Immorality could still be Expected from the Greatest Number. The 
 Ages of Faith had not Really Commenced. 
 
 In speaking of the Anglo-Saxons in Great Britain, the fact has 
 been pointed out of a great difference between the first period of 
 their ecclesiastical history and that which followed. Directly 
 after their conversion the immorality and cruelty they had 
 brought with their paganism from Scandinavia, and which ob- 
 tained among them the whole time they remained pagan m their 
 new country, frequently reappeared in their manners. They were 
 i-ude — rudes — even in their first monasteries. Particularly their 
 warfare continued to be cruel and barbarous. 
 
 This was unavoidable, and proves only the indefatigable care 
 taken by the Church in forming her children on Christ's pattern 
 by slow beginnings and with an accommodating spirit. She never 
 was disheartened by the arduous labor required for the protracted 
 education of some of the rudest tribes known to history, as were 
 the Anglo-Saxons. The same happened for all the German, 
 Sarmatian, and Hunnic nations which invaded the south of 
 Europe from the fifth century to the tenth. . And this has been 
 precisely the great mine of objections worked out by the Church's 
 accusers. 
 
 Yet it is evident, when the whole history of those times is 
 examined, that the Church was constantly hard at work to pre- 
 vent frightful evils before they occurred, or to heal the wounds 
 inflicted on society, after they had suddenly burst out and horri- 
 fied mankind. Because the bishops never despaired of those they 
 were training, and because, after a long life of exhortation, instruc- 
 tion, threats, and correction, each of them often saw his efforts 
 reduced to naught by the obstinacy and brutishness of barbarians, 
 it has been concluded that this very obstinacy was the result of the 
 religion itself in which they were instructed. At least the reflec- 
 tion is often made that this was the Christianity of those days, 
 and this suffices for drawing the conclusion that such a Christianity 
 Tjas bad. It is important to insist also on the difficult task imposed ; 
 not only on bishops, but likewise on innumerable missionaries, 
 Gallo-Roman, Irish, English, and Gallo-Celtic, who stood face to 
 
FACTS. 
 
 357 
 
 face, on the coming of these hordes from the north, with no other 
 weapon than a crucifix, and no other means of persuasion than 
 God's word. It will then be easily understood that this period of 
 transition must necessarily have ^ been an epoch of violence or 
 crime, and cannot be properly included among the ages of faith, 
 which began undoubtedly afterwards ; and that the disorders of 
 those times cannot be attributed to the Church. 
 
 The most arduous labor on the contrary, fell on both bishops 
 amd monks, whose lives are well-nigh unknown, owing to the almost 
 total want of contemporary chronicles. The devastations were so 
 horrible, universal, and protracted that no one could think of 
 devoting his time to the writing of records. The only resource 
 left us is a general description which, however, is so well attested 
 by the current events of those times that it must be respected by 
 the most severe critics. Those nations will be first examined who 
 were still pagan when the invasions began ; afterwards the Arian 
 tribes, which immediately followed or accompanied the first, will 
 come up for discussion. The Franks in all their subdivisions ; the 
 Alleniamii, or All-men (pure Germans), in their various tribes ; the 
 Huns and Tartars, coming from the extreme end of Asia, were 
 the chief pagan nations which swept like a besom of destruc- 
 tion over the fairest portions of the Roman Empire. They 
 seemed at first to have no other object in view than to de- 
 stroy. Still, some of them soon seemed inclined to settle in a 
 more favored country than their own, after having decimated the 
 native population. The greatest number, however, were driven 
 from behind by more powerful and barbarous tribes; and in order 
 to escape from the blast in the East they fell upon the populous, 
 rich, and civilized countries of the West. Finally, the most terri- 
 ble and destructive of all were those who, like the Huns, seemed 
 to be led only by an unconquerable impulse toward a useless and 
 thorough devastation. Pagans or Arians, it made no difference. 
 
 Strange to say, the leading pagan hordes, even the worst among 
 them, did not appear to have had the deliberate intention of killing 
 and destroying everybody and everything they met in their way, as 
 did the first Arian Goths and the Vandals who followed them. The 
 Franks and Allemanni particularly would have been apparently satis- 
 fied with living in contact and settling quietly among the Greeks, 
 Romans, and Celtic nations which previously occupied the territory. 
 All they asked was a sufficient quantity of land and the full liberty 
 
I 
 
 358 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 to follow their native customs. Still the commotion they produced,' 
 chiefly among the Gallo-Romans, was at first as terrible as the sudden 
 opening of a volcano in the midst of a rich agricultural country. 
 There was an abrupt interruption of all the ordinary ways of life 
 common during many ages under Rome's authority. The political, 
 social, and municipal habits prevalent in the west of Europe from the 
 time of Julius Caesar down to the fifth century — that is, during four or 
 five hundred years — were so totally upset that the most acute and 
 learned historians and antiquarians have been unable so far to decide 
 if the municipal laws which resulted from the establishment of the 
 communes in the twelfth century among the former barbarians had 
 anything in common with the old Roman mu?iicipia. The most ordi- 
 nary opinion is that this Roman institution had altogether perished 
 during the invasions ; and that the priceless freedom bestowed upon 
 the cities of western Europe by the communal system in the twelfth 
 century was altogether of mediaeval origin. If the primitive muni- 
 cipal laws which had regulated the daily life of Gallo- Roman citizens 
 thus totally disappeared, how could anything remain of their former 
 political and social customs.? This reflection can give a more exact 
 idea of the devastation caused by the barbarian invasions than the 
 most sweeping description of all their horrors could do. 
 
 But in the midst of those elements of terror, a totally different 
 spectacle strikes the attention, and inspires the hopes of better things. 
 All the institutions the barbarians met in their way were destined to 
 perish, except the Church. Strange indeed ; the uncouth and devas- 
 tating northern tribes appeared at once struck with awe and became 
 respectful in presence of the sacred ministers of religion, except ike 
 Arians. To pretend that because these were Christians they felt well 
 disposed toward the Catholic Gallo-Romans (as some modern 
 writers have thought) argues a total ignorance of history. A 
 remarkable example, it is true, is insisted upon, that on one 
 occasion the Arian Visigoth army led by Alaric spared the 
 churches in Rome in 410. But the well-attested facts of the total 
 ruin of Gaul, Spain, and Africa by Arian troops throws alto- 
 gether in the shade this momentary relenting of a single army at 
 the command of its chief. 
 
 Of all the pagan tribes, on the contrary, which took a part in 
 those expeditions, the northmen from Scandinavia were the only 
 ones who took pleasure in pillaging and burning churches as well 
 as palaces and monuments, in killing bishops and monks together 
 
FACTS. 359 
 
 with patricians and citizens. All the other pagan nations acted 
 differently. 
 
 It can at least be said in general that the Franks, Allemanni, and 
 Suevi, though they often plundered churches, respected clergy- 
 men everywhere; and it is of them that we must first study the 
 Christian education. This, as was said, was brought about by 
 bishops and monks, and the reader's attention must now be called 
 to it. 
 
 From the day that Constantine gave freedom to the Church, 
 he honored its rulers in a particular manner, and entirely left them 
 the control of spiritual affairs. His noble conduct at Niclea is 
 particularly well known. But some of his sons, Constantius chiefly, 
 adopted the policy which was afterwards followed by many 
 European princes. They simply wished to make themselves 
 supreme in Church and State. To this pretension must be mainly 
 attributed the extension and baneful influence of Arianism m 
 the whole extent of the Roman Empire. The ministers of religion 
 would, in consequence, have become mere tools in the hands of the 
 State rulers had it not been for the opposition of the popes sup- 
 ported by the great majority among the bishops. When the first 
 barbarians came, the whole framework of the civil government fell 
 almost at once; and it w^ould have been the same with regard to 
 religion had the schemes of Constantius and his abettors suc- 
 ceeded. Fortunately for Europe, what has been called, much later 
 on, Erastianism did not prevail; and the bishops remained in pos- 
 session of their rightful authority. This alone saved society from 
 entire ruin. For, on account of the respect invariably manifested 
 at that epoch by the rudest soldiers toward the Christian priest- 
 hood, "government, administration, public order, civilization, 
 everything of a saving nature took refuge [at the coming of the 
 barbarians] under the pastoral crozier." These are the very 
 expressions of M. de Riance in his Histoire du Monde,* and they per- 
 fectly express the solemn fact. 
 
 Chateaubriand in his Etudes Historiques has developed the same 
 idea in so masterly a manner that we cannot do better than trans- 
 late the whole passage. It is, however, proper to state that this took 
 place in its entirety only in course of time, and was simply begin- 
 ning when the first invasions burst out in all their fury. With this 
 
 * Vol. vi. p. 456. 
 
360 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 qualification the description is perfect, and suffices to give i-. 
 thorough idea of those times. "'A bishop baptized, heard confes-j 
 sions, preached, imposed private and pubUc penances, placed sinnenj 
 under anathema, or raised from them the sentence of excommunica- 
 tion, visited the sick, was at the bedside of the dying, buried th(, 
 dead, redeemed the captive, fed the pobr, the widows and orphans 
 He founded and endowed hospitals for ordinary diseases and fo: 
 lepers, managed the church property, pronounced as a justice of the 
 peace between individuals, and as an arbiter between cities. H« 
 published at the same time treatises on morals,^ on discipline, or 
 theology, wrote against heresiarchs and against philosophers, studiecj 
 science and history, dictated letters to those who consulted him 01! 
 religion, corresponded with the various churches and with bishops 
 monks, hermits. He took his seat in councils and synods, wa. 
 called to the cabinet council of the emperors, and entrusted witll 
 negotiations in state affairs, and often he was sent to usurpers or t(i 
 barbarian chieftains in order to disarm or repress them. Thus thij 
 three powers, religious, political, and literary, were concentrated ii 
 the bishop's hands." 
 
 All this and more is undoubtedly true ; and no one can be surf 
 prised that Attila refrained from attacking Rome at the simplj 
 word of Pope Leo I., and that " the Scourge of God" withdre^j 
 from Gaul at the sight of St. Lupus and St. Germanus. The titl 
 of defensor civitatis became attached to the episcopal dignity, and i 
 is unheard of in the history of those times that any bishop eve 
 feared to boldly present himself before the hardy conquerors who ha- 
 come from the wilds of Scythia or Germany. 
 
 When the first invasion took place (Franks, Allemanni, Suev 
 etc.) nearly all the Gallic bishops were Gallo-Romans ; and man,' 
 were distinguished by the noblest qualities of mind and hear^ 
 Three of them, however, especially attract our attention : Sidonii:! 
 Apollinaris. bishop of Clermont; Remigius, of Rheims; and Perpetij 
 us the fifth successor of St. Martin to the see of Tours. They weii 
 all contemporaries of Chlovis, and witnessed his wars first again: | 
 the Romans commanded by Syagrius, and afterwards against ttj 
 Allemanni, the Visigoths, and Burgundians. 
 
 As soon as the Roman power disappeared with all its institutior' 
 — social, political, and municipal — a large part of Europe becairj 
 the theatre of internecine wars between uncouth tribes contendirj 
 together for the possession of the disputed territory. Then u\ 
 
FACTS, _ 361 
 
 episcopal dignity remained alone standing ; and the bishops, though 
 Gallo-Romans and belonging, consequently, to the conquered race, 
 became the mediators, or rather arbiters^ between the vanquished and 
 the conquerors. 
 
 Sidonius ApoUinaris felicitously expressed it in his speech at 
 Bourges, on the occasion of the election and consecration of Sim- 
 plicius, a new bishop who was to replace the late one : * " Do you 
 look at the age of the candidate, this one has the vivacity of youth 
 and the maturity of years. Do you think of genius and literary at- 
 tainments, it is doubtful if he possesses more native talent or a 
 iiti greater amount of acquired knowledge. ... If you reflect on the 
 c \ necessity imposed now t)n bishops of frequently assuming the duty 
 of legates in behalf of the people, this man has already appeared 
 11 i more than once in the presence of kings covered with furs [barba- 
 'ir I rian chieftains] or before princes adorned with the purple [Roman 
 rulers].", 
 
 Sidonius ApoUinaris was not only a great writer for his age ; he 
 was not distinguished alone for his virtue and holiness ; he belonged 
 { to one of the noblest families of Gaul, and was related to Avitus and 
 ' Majorian, who became emperors of the West. The renown for vir- 
 tue, talent, and wealth distinguished also both St. Remigius, who 
 iiM \ converted Chlovis, or rather the French nation, and Perpetuus, 
 i \ who, at the same epoch, was bishop of Tours. Both were very rich, 
 though they did not belong to any imperial family. 
 
 It is to be deplored that few documents remain by which 
 we might judge of the private lives of those great prelates who 
 i presided at the creation of modern Europe by their mighty influ- 
 if. j ence over their age. There are, however, some delightful relics 
 :■ I of their time, of which we cannot refrain from furnishing at least 
 one example. This is simply the last will and testament of Per- 
 petuus, of which we possess still an authentic copy.f I deeply 
 regret, however, that I cannot give the whole of it, on account of 
 its length. It deserves to be written in golden letters, and shows 
 better than anything else how Europe was saved by the charity 
 of the bishops. The preamble alone is worthy of a saint: 
 
 "In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I, Perpetuus, a sinner, 
 priest of the church of Tours, cannot consent to die without hav- 
 ing written my last will. This neglect would defraud the poor 
 
 Epist. ix. lib. 7. \ Spicil. Acheri, vol. v. 
 
Z^2 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 of those goods which the grace of God has so liberally and lov- 
 ingly bestowed upon me, though undeserving, and I do not wish 
 that the property of a priest should pass to others than to the 
 Church." 
 
 The wealth of this holy bishop was immense, and the greatest 
 part of it, if not the whole, was his personal property, inherited 
 from his ancestors, and used during his life for the needs of his 
 diocese. 
 
 To the priests, deacons, and clerics of his church he leaves the 
 peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and wishes them to remain stead- 
 fast in the faith, avoid schism, and follow only the Gospel's 
 rule. At the end of the paragraph he exclaims: "Peace to the 
 Church! peace to the people in cities, in country places! the peace 
 of God the Father, of the Lord Jesus Christ!" None of his prop- 
 erty went, therefore, to the priesthood. 
 
 Of the disposition to be made of his body this is .what he 
 wrote: "Ye priests, deacons, and clerics of my church, I permit 
 you, after having taken advice with Count Agilo, to bury my 
 corpse wherever you choose. This is perfectly indifferent to me. 
 I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that in the flesh I will see 
 my Saviour. Still, if you do me the favor to listen to me, though 
 unworthy of it, I would wish you should let me rest until the day of 
 judgment at the feet of holy Martin. See to it, however, judge your- 
 selves, and decide; whatever you will do I approve." 
 
 Then, after having given their freedom to his servants (for slavery 
 was not yet abolished), who must have been very numerous, he 
 devises to the cathedral of Tours two extensive villas: the one called 
 Saponaria^ with its mills, its sheep-walks, meadows, and ponds; the 
 other called De Bertiiiiaco^ with its woods and arable lands, which he 
 had bought himself from a rich deacon called Daniel. And he con- 
 cludes this paragraph with the declaration that whatever shall be due 
 him on the day of his death shall be considered as paid, so that hit. 
 debtors could not be sued for it. 
 
 His relatives and friends were then remembered, and they were 
 presented with small gifts ; his property was not to go to them ; he 
 left them only reliquaries, gold or silver crosses, chalices, and vest- 
 ments if they were priests. But what he did in behalf of his two sis- 
 ters deserves to be quoted in full : " To my sister Julia Perpetua 
 I leave the small golden cross in which there are relics of our Lord " 
 (some piece of the holy cross, no doubt). " I, however, beg of her 
 
FACTS. 
 
 363 
 
 that if she happens to die before Dadolena, she will leave the cross 
 with her. As to thee, sister Dadolena, I will that at thy demise the 
 cross passes to any church thou choosest, that it may not fall into 
 unworthy hands. But in case Dadolena dies before thee, dearest 
 sister Fidia Julia Perpetua, it will be thy duty to leave the cross to 
 any church thou likest. Remember me, my most beloved. Amen." 
 
 After these and some other legacies comes finally the disposal of 
 the bulk of his property in the following words, which evidently come 
 from his heart : 
 
 " As for you, my soul and love, my dearest brothers, my crown of 
 joy, my lords and masters, my dear children ; ye, the poor of Christ, 
 reduced to indigence, to the begging of your bread, to a life of sor- 
 row; ye, widows, orphans, waifs abandoned on the roadside; I 
 declare you my heirs and successors. After having disposed of the 
 previous legacies, I will that whatsoever else I possess in fields, pas- 
 tures, meadows, groves and forests, vineyards, manses and farms, gar- 
 dens, ponds, rivers and lakes, mills and barns ; and besides in gold, 
 silver, garments and linen, everything else of which I have not other- 
 wise disposed, shall go to you, my sole heirs. And that everything 
 j may be done properly, conveniently, promptly, I will that as soon 
 ! as possible after my demise all this property shall be reduced into 
 money, of which three equal parts will be made. Two of these shall 
 ! be distributed to the male part of the population entitled to it by 
 I their indigence — under the care and supervision of the priest Agrarius 
 and the Count Agilo. The other third part is to be divided among 
 the widows and poor women, at the discretion of my sister Dado- 
 lena." 
 
 I read nowhere that Dadolena bitterly complained that after hav- 
 ing received, of all the immense property of her brother, only a small 
 golden cross, which she was simply to keep during her life, she had 
 besides the trouble of distributing among poor females unknown to 
 her a full third of the property of which herself and her sister Julia 
 were, after all, the only rightful and natural heirs. Modern civiliza- 
 tion and jurisprudence have given us very different ideas on the 
 subject of inheritance from those which prevailed among our 
 Christian ancestors of fourteen hundred years ago. But the view 
 Perpetuus entertained of the use of his wealth was more calcu- 
 lated to make an impression on the Franks and Burgundians, and 
 convert them, than the modern idea of strict justice, which is at 
 this time the rule universally followed. Charity was a new virtue 
 
364 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 of which the barbarians scarcely had any notion, and they could 
 not but be struck with admiration when they perceived how 
 wealthy bishops practised the precepts they inculcated. Had we 
 the text of the last will and testament of St. Remigius and of 
 other Gallo-Roman bishops of the sixth century, it would be, no 
 doubt, a repetition of the one which has just been noticed. For 
 the perfume of the most heavenly charity which exhaled from 
 Perpetuus' heart must have been the usual way good bishops 
 expressed their interior feelings at that epoch. Gregory of Tours 
 speaks of a great number of them in his works, and often men- 
 tions that they were men eximice charitatis; though his great object 
 everywhere was to extol their power in heaven by the recital of 
 the miracles performed at their sepulchres. 
 
 There lived, no doubt, at the same time men unworthy of their 
 high calling, who scandalized the Church by their ambition and 
 avarice. The writer of the Historia Fra?ico?'u??i does not fail to 
 speak in proper terms of those blots on the ecclesiastical body. But 
 a close persual of that history and of his other writings will convince, 
 the reader that greed among bishops was the exception and liberality ; 
 the rule. And this makes it easy to understand how the barbarians! 
 were converted, though for a long time still they retained their former 
 ferocity. 
 
 A strong exception to this, however, is taken by Mr. Lecky in his 
 " History of European Morals."* He speaks precisely of St. Gregory 
 of Tours, who was undoubtedly one of the best Gallo-Roman bishops 
 of the sixth century. He quotes passages of the saint's writ-j 
 ings which to a modern reader appear to justify him in his conclu-* 
 sions that "Gregory's ethics sometimes exhibit the most singular: 
 distortion," and that "the moral judgments of this unhappy age I 
 [the sixth century] were distorted by superstition." To discuss the 
 whole subject would require many pages of a strict criticism. For, 
 the facts adduced in proof are numerous, and apparently conclusive. 
 I doubt not that the author of " European Morals" has himself ex- 
 amined the texts, and has not been satisfied with second-hand quota- j 
 tions. It is sure, nevertheless, that he was not the first to propose^ 
 these objections. In France M. Ampere (the younger) in his His- 
 toire litteraire^ etc., and M. Fauriel in his Histoire de la Gaule 
 meridionale^ had previously brought forward the same texts of Greg- 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 240 seq. 261, 277. 
 
FACTS. 365 
 
 ory of Tours, and taken very nearly the same views of them. But 
 the Abbe Gorini in his Defense de t Eglise * has strictly demonstrated 
 that the texts can very well bear totally different conclusions, and 
 that the meaning of the holy bishop has been entirely misunderstood 
 by both M. Ampere and M. Fauriel. The same must be said of 
 Mr. Lecky in the eyes of any one who has read attentively the book 
 of Gorini, to which I am reduced to refer. The only truth that re- 
 mains is that the bishops were holy men, but the barbarians were 
 monsters of cruelty and lust, and could not immediately practise 
 Christian virtues in their purity. 
 
 But the bishops were not alone working for their conversion. We 
 have spoken of monks who heroically labored for the same object. 
 Gallo-Roman, Irish, British, and Celtic missionaries, as was said, 
 faced at once the hordes coming from the North, but could not 
 directly inspire them with the spirit of exalted holiness. This 
 is to be briefly seen. There were monasteries in the West at a very 
 early age, long before that of Benedict. Montalembert has proved it 
 in his "Monks of the West." I do not allude here to the primitive 
 examples of asceticism in Rome, going as far back as the apostolic 
 age, when delicate young girls, like Agnes and Caecilia, embraced a 
 life of prayer and virtue, and consecrated their virginity to God. 
 These holy women lived in their families because there were not as 
 yet any monastic establishments either in Italy or in Gaul and 
 Spain. Near Milan there was a house of this kind at the beginning 
 of the fourth century, since the young Martin, afterwards ♦bishop of 
 Tours, coming back from Pannonia to Gaul, spent a short time in it, 
 and began there his long life of austerities. He directly after, founded 
 at Liguge near Poitiers the first house of cenobites in Gaul under the 
 direction of Bishop Hilary, so well known by his opposition to Arian- 
 ism. The monastery of Marmoutier was the second of the founda- 
 tions of Martin. 
 
 St. Honoratus landed in 410 on the island of Lerins near Toulon, 
 and soon gathered around his attractive person a multitude of men 
 desirous of devoting their lives to God. and to the conversion of pagans. 
 The virtues practised until that time in Upper Egypt began to flour- 
 ish on this far shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Many bishops of 
 Gaul received their apostolic training in it; and it is well known 
 that St. Patrick did so likewise before he went to convert the Irish. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 140 seq. 
 
366 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 Cesarius of Aries had been brought up at Lerins, and powerfully 
 contributed to the propagation of monasticism, by the celebrated 
 rules he wrote both for monasteries of men and convents of women. 
 
 In the very centre of Gaul, in the former country of Vercinge- | 
 torix, the only worthy foe of Julius Caesar among the Gallic Celts, " 
 a branch of monasticism altogether independent from Lerins is 
 seen already flourishing early in the third century. Austremonius, 
 sent to Auvergne by Pope Fabian, had built in the midst of those 
 towering mountains, for the most part extinct volcanoes, a number 
 of holy houses, several of which continued down to a very late 
 period. Issoire was one of them. Sidonius Apollinaris, in his 
 time bishop of Clermont, speaks particularly of another near his 
 episcopal city, which was generally called Suhurbanum Arvenwriim 
 monasterium. It is from those ancient fountain-heads of prose- 
 lytism and holiness that came forth the apostles who primitively 
 evangelized the central part of Gaul, long before Maur, St. Bene- 
 dict's disciple, arrived for the same object. 
 
 Farther east, in the Jura Mountains, Romanus, who had been 
 brought up in a religious house near Lyons, established himself 
 as a simple anchoret in the thick forests which bordered on Hel- 
 vetia, and founded the monastery of Condat, better known under 
 the name of St. Claude. Soon the holy institute spread so rapidly 
 that all those rugged chains of mountains in eastern Gaul were liter- 
 ally covered with holy houses, ready to meet the ferocious Burgun- 
 dians and other Germanic tribes when they should come to de- 
 vastate the country. 
 
 In those establishments the majority of the inmates were Gallo- 
 Romans, among whom Franks, Burgundians, Goths, Vandals, 
 came to live after their conversion; so that a large number of 
 men belonging to those barbarian tribes became also missionaries 
 in course of time, and continued the previous work of Gallo-Roman 
 apostles. Finally, Irishmen came with • Columbanus ; British 
 Celts with Gildas and Samson ; Anglo-Saxons with Wilfrid, Willi- 
 brod, and at last Winfried, better known as St. Boniface. 
 
 To have a sufficient idea of the extent to which the monastic 
 houses had multiplied at the time of the first great invasions, 
 when the Franks arrived led by Chlovis, or shortly after, we have j 
 only to refer to the most interesting memoir of M. Mignet quoted 
 by Montalembert, under the title Matwire surja co?iversion dc V Allc- 
 viagne par les fnoines. The celebrated French historian ascertained 
 
FACTS. 367 
 
 by his researches that throughout the sixth century there were 
 eighty monastic establishments in the valleys of the Saone and 
 Rhone ; ninety-four from the Pyrenees to the Loire ; fifty-four 
 from the Loire to the Vosges Mountains ; and finally ten from the 
 Vosges to the Rhine. Still the Benedictine monasteries were few 
 in number at the end of this period of time. The majority of the 
 monks must therefore have belonged to the anomalous orders 
 previously mentioned, whose rules have never been known, or 
 rather which had no other rule than the abbot's will. It is but ' 
 gradually that St. Benedict's rule penetrated among them ; but in 
 course of time it supplanted the archaic or arbitrary laws of each 
 of those houses ; but it is not known at what precise epoch this 
 happened for any of them. The Benedictine order found no diffi- 
 culty in absorbing all the others, except that of Columbanus, 
 which resisted for a long time, because it had received from its 
 founder more precise rules than any ancient institution. 
 
 After these preliminaries, the process of conversion in the bar- 
 barian world can be easily followed. It will directly be seen that 
 it must have been very slow, surrounded with difficulties, and that 
 holiness, If gradually increasing, must have been hampered by the 
 previous vices of those nations. It must have taken a long time 
 for the true ages of faith to begin. 
 
 Without the bishops the monks would have been unable to 
 succeed in their arduous undertaking, because every grace must 
 come originally through the hierarchy. There was, besides, a 
 particular reason it should be so at that time. This was nothing 
 else than the absence of strict rules among the monks, which 
 necessitated the supervision of the bishops over them, and many 
 councils in Gaul decreed it at that time as being of absolute 
 necessity. 
 
 Both bishops and abbots, therefore, concurred in the great 
 work of the formation of Christian Europe. In the "History of 
 the Franks," by the Bishop of Tours, are found everywhere con- 
 vincing proofs of the immense authority religion then acquired 
 even over pagan savage tribes. The various Merovingian kings 
 submitted almost constantly to that authority. Still, 6very one is. 
 now aware that even after their conversion they remained for a 
 long time slaves to the same violent passions, and scarcely ap- 
 peared to differ from what they were when pagans. But there 
 was for them a kind of fascination in the episcopal or monastic 
 
S6S THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 character, derived from its holiness. Thus, although Thierry, 
 king of Metz, often received the most severe admonitions from 
 Abbot Nizier, on account of his immoralities and cruelties, he 
 insisted, however, on having him raised to the dignity of bishop 
 of Treves, though he knew that the holy man would thereby 
 become still bolder in his denunciations and threats. J 
 
 Most of those holy men who acquired such a power over bar- " 
 barian chieftains were, for a long time, Gallo-Romans only, and 
 belonged to the conquered race. The first Prankish abbot, known 
 to history under the name of Marculph, died in 558, and it is only 
 much later that barbarian names become common among bishops 
 and abbots. 
 
 The Celtic monks from Wales who landed in Armorica, being 
 driven away from Great Britain by the Anglo-Saxons, and whose 
 immigration lasted a full hundred years — from 450 to 550 — met 
 likewise with a stubborn resistance from the Celtic Armoricans, 
 whom they found pagans, but whom they at last converted so 
 thoroughly that the name of Breton and Catholic in France is 
 still synonymous. The monks were more instrumental than the 
 bishops in the conversion of that part of Gaul ; hence the whole 
 peninsula of Brittany became toward the end of the sixth century 
 a huge bee-hive, as it were, in which the monks' incessant labor 
 did for that country what the colaborers and successors of St. j 
 Patrick did for Ireland. It is possible that the identity of method 
 in both cases produced an identity of result. If in modern times 
 seldom or never whole nations are at once converted, so that mis- ; 
 sionaries have now to be satisfied with a larger or smaller number ! 
 of neophytes in the midst of an alien population, the cause of this j 
 partial failure is, perhaps, that the former method is never \ 
 adopted at this time. The most zealous missionaries of our age j 
 seldom think of planting numerous monasteries among their con- j 
 verts. This is very different from the question of a native clergy ] 
 which produced such a sensation in Catholic Europe thirty years j 
 ago, and of which nobody now speaks. 
 
 The conversion of western Europe by bishops and monks, the ob- 
 stacles it met, the length of time it required to overcome previous | 
 habits and prepare the northern nations for holiness is now suffi- 
 ciently known. There remain only a few words to add on the Arian 
 tribes of Goths, Vandals, Lombards, etc., who came together with 
 the pagan German nations, and offered almost unsurmountable ob- 
 
FACTS. 369 
 
 stacles to their conversion to Catholicism. We are acquainted with 
 their ferocious manners, and know that their pretended profession of 
 Christianity made the case less hopeful than if we were considering 
 only their former barbarism. Their total reduction to the dogmas 
 and discipline of the Church during the sixth and seventh centuries 
 is one of the most remarkable facts of ecclesiastical history. 
 
 The persecuting spirit of the Arians became first a most serious 
 drawback everywhere to the general advance toward holiness, and it 
 was only after their conversion that sanctity became at last conspicu- 
 ^ous in the ages of faith. As was previously seen, a great part of 
 Gaul, the whole of Spain, and the Latin portion of Africa were com- 
 pletely devastated under the scourge of this heresy. It went so far 
 in Numidia and Mauritania that, the rule of the Vandals being im- 
 mediately followed by that of the Saracens, Christianity entirely dis- 
 appeared from those countries which zealous missionaries at this 
 time find it so difficult to bring back to Christ. People do not suf- 
 ficiently reflect that it is the only occasion when the Cross absolutely 
 disappeared before the Crescent. Everywhere else except, perhaps, 
 in farthest Asia, many Christians and even Catholics remained in 
 the midst of Mohammedans ; in north-west Africa it was a com- 
 plete extirpation, though so many bishops' sees had formerly existed 
 in the country. This alone is sufficient to prove the extent of the 
 evil brought by Arianism. 
 
 The only northern Arians who, for a considerable time, did not 
 persecute the Catholics were the Visigoths of north Italy. Theodoric 
 in particular, left the Church, and even the Pope perfectly free. At 
 the end of his reign, however, he began to adopt the policy carried 
 out everywhere by his coreligionists ; so that the universality of the 
 fact remains uncontested. 
 
 Persecution, however, was resorted to by the Arians only after 
 some attempt at proselytism had failed. Those heretical chieftains 
 and bishops pretended to be theologians, and could prove from 
 Scripture and tradition that Christ was not consubstantial with His 
 Father. The Catholics never refused the contest, though they knew 
 their theological victory would be followed by the prison, the rack, 
 and death. Striking , examples of this are found in the writings of 
 Gregory of Tours, Sidonius Apollinaris, and Victor Vitensis. This 
 fury for both arguments and blood proves the tenacity with which 
 those nations held to their errors in point of faith. For on such 
 occasions as these it is not reason which is consulted, but passion 
 
37° THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 which is obeyed; and in general the more the radical fault of an ar- 
 gument is pointed out, the more is it adhered to on the mere strength 
 of empty words. In our days it is still obvious particularly in the 
 obstinacy of Protestant Sacramentarians, who pretend they entirely 
 rely on the words of the Gospel, yet refuse to admit the dogma of 
 the real presence in the Eucharist, although the expressions of the 
 Saviour are so precise. 
 
 But the Arianism of German nations lasted but a century or 
 two, when it suddenly gave way nearly at the same time in Spain, 
 Gaul, and Italy. The Franks took a noble part in effecting it; 
 some holy princesses married to Arian kings became most efficient 
 agents of the grace of God; and^ the incessant zeal of Catholic 
 bishops and monks was also instrumental in bringing on this 
 happy result. Still, the rapid action of those causes is almost 
 unexampled in the Church's annals. Let us ascribe it to the 
 benevolent designs of Providence. Arianism in the West was an 
 immense obstacle to the introduction of holiness among the lately 
 converted tribes. Europe could not run rapidly in the path of 
 evangelical perfection before it was first united in the profession 
 of a single faith, and the middle ages could not begin before this 
 took place. God, therefore, swept Arianism away. 
 
 From these considerations a strict conclusion follows: The 
 period of violence, passion, and crime which is comprised within 
 the whole Merovingian epoch in Gaul, and even a part of the 
 Carlovingian, must not surprise any one and seem inexplicable to 
 anybody. This was to be expected from all the circumstances of 
 the case, and the study of our proper subject begins from the end 
 of these troublous times. 
 
 3. Formation of Christian Congregations, in Cities mainly by Bishops, in 
 the Country particularly by Monks. 
 
 It seems unfit to attribute holiness — namely, the highest 
 development of the inner Christian feeling — to a period when 
 Europe, divided into small fragments, was cursed with the worst 
 features of feudalism, deprived apparently of self-action under a 
 growing despotism, and on an evident return to barbarism, or 
 rather savagery. The more so that those states which still pre- 
 served some strength in these primitive feudal times, and were 
 not altogether deprived of material prosperity, showed already 
 
FACTS. 371 
 
 signs of rebellion against the Church; as it soon happened to 
 the dukes of Normandy and the kings of England, previous to the 
 Caesarian pretensions of the German emperors. Still, it is per- 
 fectly true that at this very time of an apparent disorganization 
 the deep foundation was laid of modern Catholic Europe, and all 
 the elements of her grand destiny v^ere already at work in the 
 deep feeling of faith which became then pre-eminent, and in the 
 pure principles of the highest morality, infallibly leading to holi- 
 ness, which were broadly and effectively taught to the people by 
 bishops and monks. 
 
 For we are not speaking here of princes, emperors, and kings, 
 but of the mass of Christians, '^ the people^'' who were soon gently 
 taken in hand by bishops and counts in cities, and by monks of 
 the Benedictine order in the rural districts created, in fact, by 
 their industry. It has been seen that the bishops became the 
 protectors of cities, and in general they were helped for this by the 
 counts who had the civil management of townships. In the coun- 
 try the converted barbarians found immense forests that had 
 been allowed to grow and invade the cultivated districts, first by 
 the wretched policy of the latter Roman Empire, which took 
 notice only of cities by its municipal system, and afterwards by 
 the constant commotions of the Merovingian epoch. The Ger- 
 man tribes had brought from their respective countries a great 
 attraction and fitness for cultivating the land, but they were at 
 first frightened by the intolerable labor necessary for clearing 
 it of woods. The Benedictine monks gave them the example, 
 founded their monasteries over the burnt remains of the forests 
 they had cut down, and invited the people to come and build their 
 huts around their own bee-hives. This was the origin of many 
 villages in the Europe of a later period, and even a large number 
 of cities have had no other derivation. This was the true source 
 of modern civilization, and it must be brought to view somewhat 
 in detail. It is in the large aggregate of common men belonging 
 to all the northern races, more than in their feudal rulers, that we 
 must look for the elements of faith and virtue which became the 
 chief characteristic of the following centuries. The Christian 
 ^to^\&—poptilus Christianus—\s the strong and pure individuality 
 which must attract all our attention. In our way we may meet 
 with several emperors or kings, dukes or barons, worthy of those 
 heroic times. We will, in such cases as this, consider them 'as 
 
372 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 belonging to the mass, and there is no distinction to be made, for 
 instance, between Louis IX. of France and the most obscure of his 
 subjects to whom he administered justice under the shade of the 
 renowned Vincennes oak. 
 
 How this Christiaii people was formed is the first question to be 
 examined. A remarkable text taken from the Etudes Historiques 
 of Chateaubriand has already placed before our eyes the various 
 functions, ecclesiastical or civil, which were considered at that 
 time as essentially belonging to the episcopal ofhce. It can be 
 easily seen that all those functions had fortheir object the spiritual 
 or temporal good of the people. By analyzing that comprehen- 
 sive paragraph of the great French writer, and taking each phrase 
 of it apart, it would be easy to illustrate the whole subject by a 
 great number of facts taken from the history of that epoch. This 
 would be a strict demonstration of its truth; but it would result 
 in a large volume. Every one can do it for himself by taking a 
 single author belonging to that epoch, in whose writings the 
 action of bishops is concerned. For the incipient stage of it, 
 which we consider at this moment, Gregory of Tours would 
 suffice. For besides his "History of the Franks," he has written 
 a book, De gloria M arty rum ; another, De gloria Confessorum j and 
 another remarkable one, called VitcB Patrum. 
 
 Many of the stories related by him have no reference to the 
 present subject. But there are numerous details which power- 
 fully confirm all the assertions of Chateaubriand. It is impossible 
 to quote here more than one or two, and they are given as being 
 mere samples of many others. In the Life of St. Nicet, bishop 
 of Lyons (chap, viii.), a curious example is pointed out of the way 
 a bishop could help the poor when he had no more money to 
 give. Nicet merely wrote a note by which he recommended this 
 poor person to the charity of the faithful. It is what is often 
 done in our day; but there w^ere circumstances at the time of 
 Gregory which do not frequently happen in this age. One of 
 those notes had procured for the man to whom it was given a 
 comfortable living during the life of the saint, and after his death 
 the alms were still more abundant, on the presentation of the 
 note, on account of the dear memory of the holy man. The 
 mendicant found himself at last the possessor of six gold pieces 
 {sex aureos) besides the note, which was indeed the hen with the 
 golden eggs. A thievish Burgundian became aware of it, and, 
 
FACTS. 373 
 
 following the mendicant in the woods, assaulted him and robbed 
 him of his treasure and of his note. In his extremity the poor 
 man begged of the barbarian to give him back at least the piece 
 of paper, which could be of no use to him. This was done with- 
 out difficulty, and the new bishop of Lyons, successor to Nicet, 
 being apprised of all the circumstances, placed the whole case in 
 the hands of the count of the city. With the help of his police 
 the count had the Burgundian apprehended, but he openly denied 
 everything of which he was accused, until the bishop requested 
 him to swear to his statement with his hand raised over the signa- 
 ture of the saint at the end of the note. He boldly endeavored 
 to do it, but was struck down with a violent attack of epilepsy. 
 After a fit of two hours' duration he came to himself, acknowl- 
 edged his crime, and, the Lyons bishop interceding for him with 
 the count, he was only condemned to return the money with two 
 additional pieces taken from his own purse. 
 
 Daily facts of this kind happened in most dioceses of western 
 Europe, and it is difficult to exaggerate the influence the bishops 
 acquired by the constant practice of justice and charity. What 
 power must they have obtained over the minds and hearts of 
 those entrusted to their charge! How different was their position 
 in Church and State from what we witness in our day over the 
 same countries in western Europe! 
 
 Gregory of Tours, directly after relating this touching story, 
 exclaims with confidence in the presence of numberless witnesses 
 ready to confirm his assertions: "How many prisoners loaded 
 with chains in the ergashilu??i have been set free by this holy 
 bishop! How many heavy chains of iron have been broken down 
 by him under the hammer! To have an idea of it one has only 
 to look at that ponderous mass of metal which is still preserved 
 in his cathedral, and was composed altogether of instruments of 
 torture. Quite lately I have heard Syagrius, the bishop of Autun, 
 relate in the presence of King Guntran, that in one single night 
 during his life the holy man entered unbidden seven prisons of 
 the city and let free all the prisoners therein confined, and the 
 judges did not dare to have them arrested again." 
 
 Bishop Nicet had, no doubt, previously ascertained the inno- 
 cence of those who had been incarcerated and whom he restored 
 to freedom. Acts of this kind necessarily suppose a perfect holi- 
 ness of life on the part of him who boldly performs them; and 
 
374 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the generations in the midst of which they are enacted not only 
 admire them and bless them, but they are ready to fall prostrate 
 at the feet of those benefactors of mankind, and will implicitly 
 obey and follow them. 
 
 Another Nicet, bishop of Treves, is celebrated with the same 
 enthusiasm by Gregory of Tours in his Vitce Patrum (chap. xvii.). 
 He was first a simple monk in a monastery, in the north of Gaul, 
 of which he was elected abbot. And so remarkable was the 
 reformation he effected among the brethren that Theodoric, king 
 of Metz, venerated him, and allowed him often to remonstrate 
 against his own crimes. This dissolute prince, who had experienced 
 some inclination toward a change of life at the instigation of the 
 zealous abbot, could not rest satisfied at the death of the arch- 
 bishop of Treves unless Nicet was appointed his successor. The 
 people and clergy assented with pleasure, and a troop of lords 
 and grandees of the kingdom were appointed to go to Nicet's 
 monastery and bring him to Treves. Toward the end of their 
 journey these gentlemen prepared to spend the night in the 
 midst of rich fields where the corn was ripening, and after sunset 
 they had their tents erected and began to let loose their horses, 
 who directly rushed among the wheat of the poor people. " Call 
 back your horses instantly," cried out the blessed Nicet, "or I 
 shall excommunicate you." But these lords replied with indig- 
 nation: "Thou art not yet a bishop, and thou already speakest of 
 excommunication!" "I tell you," retorted the holy man, "that 
 the king in having me taken by force from my monastery intends 
 to place that burden over my shoulders. But if I become a 
 bishop, it is the will of God that I intend to do; and if the king's 
 will is opposed to it, I shall certainly defeat his evil purposes," 
 And at the same moment the good man ran into the fields and 
 brought back the horses before they had destroyed the crops. 
 Thus he entered the city of Treves in the midst of the admiring 
 crowds of citizens. 
 
 Under the reign of Theodebert, the son of Theodoric, the same 
 bishop proved still better that he was no respecter of persons. 
 For the king, naturally excluded from the offices of religion by 
 his criminal conduct, dared to enter the church on a Sunday, with 
 a large number of attendants, all more or less under the Church's 
 censures by the infamy of their lives. The bishop ordered them 
 all out with circumstances which deserve to be read in the text of 
 
FACTS. 375 
 
 Gregory himself; and in spite of the resistance of these proud 
 courtiers and princes, he succeeded in his purpose, and celebrated 
 the divine mysteries as soon as the sacred edifice was purged from 
 their presence. 
 
 But these extraordinary displays of zeal, though well calcu- 
 lated to form the character of new and rude nations, could not 
 happen every day. The constant action of the bishops by preach- 
 ing, administering the sacraments, visiting the sick and poor, 
 educating the children, and performing all the ordinary functions 
 of the holy ministry, served better still for the grand purpose, so 
 well described by the author of the Etudes Historiques. This can- 
 not be proved in detail, but results from all the circumstances of 
 those times. The frequency of the intervention of Providence by 
 miraculous agency, so constantly alluded to by Gregory of Tours 
 in all his works, might be likewise enumerated as a powerful 
 source of morality and holiness among the new converts from bar- 
 barism and idolatry. We prefer not to insist on it, though we 
 think most of the time their truth cannot be questioned when they 
 are weighed by the scrutiny of simple human reason. But there 
 is another circumstance which not even a rationalist can set aside, 
 because it is in itself a grand historical fact of daily occurrence in 
 those ages. We are speaking of the early formation of the Chris- 
 tian character in mediaeval cities by bishops. They had been 
 Gallo-Roman cities, and were then being transformed into Prank- 
 ish, Gothic, Burgundian, or Lombard towns over a great part of 
 western Europe. But the most striking exterior fact of these 
 apparently barbarous times was the constant building up of in- 
 numerable churches in all cities. Any reflective mind is deeply 
 surprised at the reading of Gregory's works. Everywhere there 
 are contentions and feuds, and spilling of blood, and enormous 
 crimes, as if society was on the point of dissolution. But in the 
 midst of that moral darkness, not only the virtues of the bishops 
 shine strangely and beautifully, but they appear everywhere the 
 greatest church-builders that the Church's annals ever witnessed. 
 These holy edifices were not only the consecrated spots in which 
 religion could proceed in peace in the performance of her holy 
 functions; they were likewise sanctuaries of refuge whither the 
 oppressed and afflicted could run in time of danger, and were 
 sure to find sustenance and protection. They were just adapted 
 to the best formation of the character of those rude tribes. 
 
376 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 Such were the most remarkable causes which contributed to the 
 buildmg up of modern Europe, and prepared the advent of the 
 middle ages; rendering at last holiness possible in a world 
 apparently convulsed and ready to perish in disorder and anarchy. 
 But to complete the picture, the action of the rnonks for the same 
 great object, in country places and hamlets, in mountains and 
 plains, forests and wild deserts, must be examined, if but for a 
 moment. With the bishops in cities, they prepared western Europe 
 for its high destiny. 
 
 Montalembert has, fortunately, achieved this very task in the 
 second volume of his " Monks of the West." This is the chapter 
 entitled Les Moines et la Nature — The Monks and Nature — and the 
 reader must be content with the simple translation of a few para- 
 graphs: 
 
 " Picture to yourself the whole of Gaul and the surround- 
 ing countries — that is, the France of our day with Switzerland. 
 Belgmm, and both banks of the Rhine" — he might have made the 
 enumeration longer — " covered with forests such as are scarcely; 
 seen in America at this time, whilst not a vestige of them remain.': 
 m the ancient world. Look at those vast agglomerations of woods' 
 gloomy, impenetrable, spread over mountains and valleys, the 
 highest places as well as the low marshy grounds, going dowi; 
 as far as the mouths of rivers and the sea itself; furrowed here amj 
 there by deep-water streams wildly running through the roots ancj 
 prostrated trunks of gigantic trees; cut up by swamps and morassej 
 where animals and men could be swallowed up and perish ; the datj 
 abode, in fine, of numerous beasts of prey unused to flee at th' 
 approach of man, and of which several species have now disappearec 
 
 " To penetrate into these dreadful jungles, and confront ther; 
 monstrous animals, remembered still in an universal tradition, am 
 whose remains are often exhumed, required a courage which is neve- 
 put to the test in our actual world. Nothing of the kind exists eve 
 in the forests and deserts of America. . . . Yet the monk altogeth^ 
 unprepared, without arms, without sufficient tools, often without eve 
 a companion, plunged headlong into those deep solitudes. He cane 
 from an old world which the surfeit of civilization and the onset < 
 barbarians had unnerved and made decrepit, to dive at once into tb 
 unknown. But he felt within himself a strength which nothing ca 
 surpass or even equal, the strength communicated to man by faith 
 a living God, and on account of it he was full of contempt for m 
 
FACTS. 377 
 
 tterial enjoyment, and looked only toward a supernatural and future 
 'life. . . . 
 
 "Behold them, therefore; look with attention; they know 
 ■only prayer and penance ; they are the hardy pioneers of Chris- 
 Itian civilization and of modern society. . . . They pene- 
 trate into those dark recesses, carrying with them a light which 
 
 shall never be quenched — Ibimt de daritate in claritatem 
 
 They boldly walk in, sometimes only with a hatchet, followed 
 occasionally by a troop of faithful new converts, or by a mob of 
 [astonished and indignant pagans who boil over with rage at the 
 sight of their sacred trees, the great object of popular super- 
 
 istition, uprooted and lying on the ground unhonored 
 
 [No obstacle, no danger can make them desist ; the deeper is the 
 gloom of those dark forests, the stronger is the attraction. . . . 
 Sometimes they had to creep under the low and intricate 
 branches of trees, to discover at last a narrow and dim cavern 
 blocked up by rocks or briers ; at this sight they felt ready for 
 the occasion. It was just at the entrance of such a den that the 
 Burgundian priest Sequanus, creeping on his knees and entering 
 in a hole from which ferocious beasts would have recoiled, ad- 
 dressed to God this prayer : ' O Lord, who hath created the heaven 
 and the earth, who listeneth to the prayers of those who implore 
 Thee, from whom everything good cometh, and without whom 
 human weakness can do nothing. If Thou commandest me to 
 dwell in this solitude, give me some sign of it, and bring to per- 
 fection this beginning of a holy intention.' Then, feeling consoled 
 at the end of his prayer, he began to build on this very spot the 
 cell which became the origin of the abbey and of the actual town 
 of St. Seine." 
 
 The author of the "Monks of the West" relates then how those 
 holy anchorites were often followed by multitudes of people, rich 
 or poor, learned or ignorant, who wished either to become monks 
 under their rule, or at least to dwell around them and cultivate 
 the ground the same as they did. And thus were numerous Chris- 
 tian congregations formed in the most forbidding localities of 
 western Europe. He then describes the clearing up of the woods, 
 the tilling of land, and the settlement of farms over that immense 
 territory : 
 
 "The clearing up of woods, which in our day has become a 
 ijfl calamity, was the most urgent necessity of those times. It was, 
 
378 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 however, carried out with prudence and discretion. Ages and 
 ages passed by before the penury of timber was felt in our south- 
 ern provinces, where the growing of trees ssems now impossible. 
 During those ages the monks incessantly continued the process of 
 cutting up regularly wide furrows through the huge standing mass 
 of woods. They divided them, they brought light into them, they 
 formed of them large fields which constantly grew in size, and 
 were now forever given to cultivation. . . . They spent 
 their whole lives in transforming into meadows and arable lands a 
 soil previously occupied by oaks and briers. . . . Occasion- 
 ally they had to open themselves a way by fire, in order to do 
 away with useless wood. But oftener they used the spade, the 
 pick-axe, the shovel, to prepare at last the ground for receiving 
 the seed and being changed into a meadow. This process began i 
 just around the primitive cell, which was generally built near a 
 water-course. By and by the light of heaven penetrated under 
 the thickest foliage. The gigantic oaks fell down, and gave place 
 to a field of waving corn. Most of those monks who had read the 
 Latin poets could remember the beautiful lines of Lucan: 
 
 ' Tunc omnia late 
 Procumbunt nemora, et spoliantur robore sylvae, . . .' 
 
 " These examples of industry soon acted on the rural populations 
 of the neighborhood. Many went to look at these wonders ; and not ; 
 a few practically set at it themselves. . . . Thus is naturally ex- \ 
 plained the rapid increase of the population all round the monastic ; 
 establishments, as well as the immense amount of labor under- ■ 
 taken by the cenobites, whose results subsist still and are for us a 
 subject of wonder. The richest agricultural districts of modem ; 
 France have had no other origin than this. ... \ 
 
 " The monks were not satisfied with inculcating habits of labor, i 
 and teaching improved processes of agriculture, among the Frankish 
 population of Gaul. They attached still much more importance to 
 spiritually cultivate so many souls precious in the eyes of God. By | 
 their examples and exhortations, by their active charity as well as by 
 their oral teaching, they deeply penetrated into those rude natures, 
 and planted in them the germs of virtue and eternal life. It is owing 
 to their influence, no doubt, that must be attributed the solicitude 
 Avhich several provincial councils of Gaul manifested at that time for the 
 spiritual instruction of the rural inhabitants. 'The priests,' said the 
 
FACTS, 379 
 
 :ouncil of Rouen in 650, 'will give notice to their parishioners that it 
 s the duty of farmers to send to mass, at least on Sundays and holi- 
 lays, the men that they employ as laborers or keepers of their flocks 
 nd cattle, all those, in fact, who spend their lives in the fields or in 
 he woods and there are exposed to become beasts among beasts. 
 :hose who neglect that duty will be severely called to account. For 
 ur Lord on coming among us has not chosen for His first disciples 
 earned and noble men, but fishermen and lowly people. It is not to 
 jhose of a high intellect, but to poor shepherds, that the angel first 
 Innounced the nativity of our Redeemer.* 
 
 "To provide for the spiritual needs of these graziers and laborers, 
 le monks either helped or replaced the secular clergy by building 
 1 the most remote and out-of-the-way places their cells or oratories. 
 hese in course of time became churches. Around them the peas- 
 nts' cots were erected. . . . 
 
 " The monks, often in spite of themselves, became the fathers of 
 numerous spiritual progeny. Thus the monastic community and 
 le rustic village were soon united in the same bonds of faith, labor, 
 nd common prayer. Everywhere, in the midst of those woods so 
 mg inaccessible, of those former deserts now teeming with multi- 
 ides, was heard the hymn of joy, of thankfulness, of adoration, 
 jjaias' prophecy was fulfilled under their eyes, for them and by them: 
 The mountains and hills shall sing a canticle, and the trees of the 
 )rest shall applaud,' etc. . . .* 
 
 "Are we not occasionally tempted to lend an ear and listen, ex- 
 jscting that at least a faint echo of this bewitching harmony shall 
 pach us through the long waves of former ages.? Never, certainly, 
 id a more harmonious concert go up to heaven from our earth than 
 'as heard when the wonderful symphony of so many pious and 
 -ire voices, rising at once from the clearings in the woods, from the 
 ^clivity of rocky hills and the precipitous sides of cascades and tor- 
 ■nts, broke out in unison to celebrate the happy birth of a new era. 
 ) at morn we hear the birds hidden under the thick foliage, or, bet- 
 r still, our own babes and infants just awakening from sleep, war- 
 ing with joy their innocent carols, to welcome the dawn of day, with- 
 it so much as thinking of its storms or its declining hours. 
 
 The Church has known more solemn and brilliant epochs, times 
 ore worthy to excite the admiration of sages, the fervor of pious 
 
 * Chap. Iv. 12. 
 
380 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 souls, the unshaken confidence of her children. I doubt if she evei 
 exhaled a sweeter perfume than during this first period of monastic 
 life. 
 
 " Gaul had during five hundred years been oppressed under th( 
 ignominious yoke of the Roman Caesars. During the barbarian inva- 
 sions the whole country had been a battle-field where blood-shed- 
 ding, arson, carnage, had reigned supreme. Now, on the contrary 
 Christian virtue under the discipline of penance and self-sacrifice was 
 budding forth, and faith was expanding as the leaves and blossoms oj 
 shrubs after winter. On all sides moral life was reviving, the same aj 
 do the green boughs of trees in the spring; and already under the 
 hoary branches of the former Druidic forests the youthful espousals 
 of the Church with the Frankish — say European — people were bein^ 
 celebrated." 
 
 The ground was at last prepared for the "new creation ;" Eu 
 rope was Christian and no more barbarous. Holiness couk 
 flourish, and the middle ages had begun. 
 
 4. The True Foimdation of Holiness Laid Down in Redeemed Europt^ 
 
 This had been set down firmly by Christ Himself in the Gos' 
 pel, and its conditions were afterwards explained by Popes anr 
 the Fathers of the Church. But it was time the whole of it shoulq 
 be authoritatively summed up and placed entirely before the re' 
 deemed barbarians, so that all classes of men could understan'i 
 the true value of life, and direct their steps in a clear path illui 
 mined by the sun above, and leading to the high regions of morci 
 heroism and sanctity. It had been done formerly for civilize; 
 people in Rome and Greece. It was to be done for rude peoplj 
 in the ninth century, when the Carlovingian line in Gaul was e: 
 piring, and Europe was at the point of being parcelled out in a 
 immense number of small states; all, however, united by the sair 
 faith and bearing the general name of Christendom. Of all tl 
 books that were then written for the guidance of the faithful noi 
 became so fruitful of good results, for public morals, as those < 
 Jonas, bishop of Orleans. From their publication we date tl' 
 true origin of the ages of faith, though these ages were alreac 
 born and would have accomplished their providential destii 
 without the help of any book whatever. The works of Jonas, 
 fact, were the fruit of the times, and they came at the best m 
 
FACTS. 381 
 
 ment for fulfilling thoroughly their work. It cannot be ques- 
 tioned that their salutary agency was pre-eminent, and from their 
 publication dates a new era in the moral world. 
 
 Jonas succeeded Theodulph to the see of Orleans in 821, 
 died in 842, and during the twenty-two years of his episcopate he 
 rendered immense services to Church and State. His first literary 
 production, De Institutione Laicali^ and the one which followed, De 
 Institutione Regia, may be considered as having been of paramount 
 importance for the promotion of virtue in Europe at that epoch. 
 We do not speak of his other book, De Cultii Imaginum, which does 
 not enter into our scope. To fully understand the moral value of 
 these writings, it is proper to remark that so far what is called 
 here the basis of holiness, which is merely its code, had been con- 
 tained only in the Gospel and the writings of the Fathers. The 
 whole subject was undoubtedly treated in full, both in the in- 
 spired records of the New Testament and in the authoritative 
 explanations given by Heaven-appointed teachers. Still, the 
 ivhole matter had never been before embraced in any systematic 
 :reatise. The great schoolmen who were to do it, both for dogma 
 ind ethics, had not yet appeared ; and each particular teacher of 
 ■eligion — nay, each one of the faithful — had to extract the sub- 
 itance of the Christian code from texts apparently disconnected, 
 :hiefly from the Saviour's teaching which came from His lips, as 
 ;very one knows, on all possible occasions arising during His 
 iiversified missionary life. This, however, had been sufficient, 
 ogether with the interior grace of God, to produce those abundant 
 ruits of holiness which have been previously described both in 
 he East and in the West. To the highly impressive Orientals 
 md Greeks the process was easy, and their hearts were moved to 
 L deep feeling of piety, making them susceptible of a great degree 
 >f sanctity, by any passing word or action of our Lord or His 
 postles. But the systematic and logical mind of Europeans, 
 uch as it was destined to be developed and exparided, required in 
 he teaching imparted to them a greater connection between the 
 ifferent parts, so as to bring under view, if possible, the whole 
 ubject at once. 
 
 This Jonas of Orleans did first in his work De Institutione 
 -aicali^ so as to anticipate the moral theologians of every possible 
 ge. Luke d'Achery, who gave the first edition of it in modern 
 mes, calls it aureum opus; and it is indeed a golden book which 
 
382 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 can highly edify a Christian of the nineteenth century as it die 
 the Franks of the ninth. It is one of those productions whicl 
 never grow old and appear always appropriate to one's needs; S( 
 that I am firmly convinced that if a good translation of it wa; 
 now made in some modern language it would be devoured witl 
 avidity by all solidly pious people; more, perhaps, than the "De 
 vout Life" of St. Francis of Sales, to which it has been compared 
 It is in those entrancing pages of the Orleans bishop that all me 
 diseval Christians were destined to dig deeply, in order to fim 
 out the nutritious root of holiness contained therein. I canno 
 give here even an abridgment of the work. But although Frencl 
 ecclesiastical writers, such as Fleury, Rohrbacher, and the author: 
 of the Histoire Litteraire de la France, have highly praised the logica 
 character of the book, adding that, as usual, the author merely 
 comments on texts of the New Testament and of the Fathers, the; 
 in fact do not in the least give any idea of it. This strict metho( 
 had never been usual before Jonas of Orleans, and he truly antic: 
 pated the great schoolmen of the following centuries. He wa 
 the first to collect not only a few but all the passages of Scriptur! 
 bearing strictly on his subject; and it is wonderful how he chos* 
 only those whose meaning was most clear and striking, leavin' 
 aside the dubious ones because they wanted precision and forc| 
 The comments of the Fathers, also, which he gave w^ere ahva}i 
 opportune and felicitous; and as the Latin style is truly elegai 
 though simple, the book is always read with relish and pleasur 
 It is in truth a masterpiece; and this was the moral code whic 
 was to be henceforth in the hands of all prelates and priests 
 whom the moral education of the people was entrusted. 
 
 There is not a single important question of Christian mora 
 which is not there explained and illustrated, and the casuists 
 the following centuries would not do better than read it constar 
 ly and explain it efficiently. It is there, no doubt, that the spirj 
 ual food on which the mediaeval Christians were fed is found ' 
 its wholesome purity, and it may be called the moral vade meci' 
 of the ages of faith. But if I cannot enter into details, there is : 
 least one peculiarity which must be mentioned. It is alluded ) 
 in particular at the end of the First Book,* and it can give \xk 
 perfect idea of Jonas's intention in writing this work, and also f 
 
 * Chap. XX. 
 
II 
 
 I 
 
 FACTS. 383 
 
 the state of morality in the Christian world at that epoch, tie 
 there asserts several times that his great object was to bring back 
 the people of his day to the full practice of heroic sanctity, such 
 as it was carried out in the church at Jerusalem under the apos- 
 tles, because faith and charity had in his time grown cold in the 
 hearts of some, and it was important to revive it in all the follow- 
 ers of Christ. The quotation of a few passages will render his 
 meaning perfectly clear : " If we read again the Acts of the 
 Apostles, and attentively examine the devotion that prevailed 
 among the Christian people in the apostolic age, we will find that 
 the piety of the faithful at this moment is very inferior to it. All 
 those ancestors of ours were full of ardor and devotion to duty; a 
 certain number {nonmilli^ at present lag far behind them in good 
 works. At the very birth of the Church faith shone brightly in 
 the deeds of all believers; now faith is dim in several (apud quos- 
 dam), because the practice of good works is often neglected. In 
 the words of St. Augustine, * Christ is the same for us that He 
 was for them; but if we have the same -belief, we have not the 
 same ardor of devotion. By them brotherhood in Christ was 
 more valued than brotherhood by blood. All having the same 
 faith, property was the same among all; and since Christ was 
 common to them, they thought that wealth must be common too.' 
 
 " In those young days of God's Church the ardor of faith was 
 such that ' they were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles, 
 and in the communication of the breaking of bread, and in 
 prayers; and they had all things common, and they partook of 
 food with joy and simplicity of heart, praising God.' But the 
 Christians' devotion in our day is far from being so ardent, be- 
 cause secular business is preferred by some {a qttibusdam) to the 
 apostles' doctrine," etc. 
 
 The same remark is made whenever in this book the author 
 compares his time to that of primitive Christianity. The evil of 
 his epoch consisted, according to him, in the lukewarmness of a 
 certain number; and he wished to repair the evil, so as to bring the 
 practice of religion among all up to the initial point at Jerusalem. 
 Nothing can be plainer in the whole text of Jonas, and the strict 
 conclusion is evidently that in fact, in his time, a great number of 
 the faithful lived so piously that they did not appear in their con- 
 duct to have degenerated from the first Christians. This, after 
 all, is a great praise bestowed upon an age which immediately 
 
384 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 followed centuries of social convulsions such as the world had 
 never witnessed before. A second conclusion is likewise derived 
 from the same fact; namely, that the conversion of the barbarians 
 had not been a failure but, on the contrary, a great success so far. 
 The only thing that remained to be done consisted in giving them 
 a friendly impulse toward the height of holiness, which is the 
 ultimate goal and object the Christian religion on earth has always 
 in view. 
 
 It is important to dwell a moment on this consideration, for, 
 this particular reason, namely, that the epoch of the Carlovingian- 
 line in Europe is generally considered as being scarcely less barba- 
 rous than the Merovingian (both showing, it is said, how little the 
 Christian religion had so far acted on the human mind and heart). 
 This is in general the verdict passed upon those ages, and it is a ver-: 
 diet most unjust, nay, preposterous, which the work of Jonas of 
 Orleans, De Institutioiie Laicali^ absolutely disproves. 
 
 For you have in the three short Books of that masterpiece a code of 
 morality which had never yet been given to mankind in its entirety. 
 clearness, and systematic arrangement. Let Mr. Lecky expatiate 
 at length (as he has done with great justice and force) on the prin- 
 ciples of his intuitive code of morals. Let him show that the ruk 
 of action {regula agendoruvi^ as it has been called by Ferraris) is ir 
 fact eternal, has always been the same for all nations, does not de- 
 pend on climate, racial leanings, hereditary habits, etc., but is imprint- 
 ed in the heart of all, as St. Paul says; the author of the " Histor) 
 of European Morals" must, nevertheless, admit that this rule of ac-; 
 tion, so truly divine, though in the reach of human reason, is ofter- 
 powerless against the voice of passion and prejudice, has not pre-j 
 vented many nations from running a career of vice and crime, anci 
 often can be made a pretext for excusing the greatest excesses 0:1 
 immorality. In fact, it is extremely difficult to extract practicall}-; 
 from those great principles composing the moral world in man ar 
 unimpeachable and unimpeached code of morals. Plato, Aristotle, 
 Cicero, have not done it in the old world; all the philosophers OJJ 
 the "intuitive school" in modern times, as quoted by Mr. Lecky, 
 disagree about it; and if we look in our day into the doctrines o: 
 the greatest professors of moral science in England, Germany; 
 France, etc., whenever they take no account of the Gospel, wti 
 find the same want of unanimity, the same inability to succeed iri 
 giving us a code acceptable to all, and capable of directing ouj 
 
FACTS. 385 
 
 great-grand-children for many generations in the same path of 
 virtue and sanctity. 
 
 Yet soon after the troublous times of the Clothairs and 
 Theodorics and Dagoberts; immediately after the disgraceful 
 quarrels of Louis the Pious with his children; under Charles the 
 Bald, and directly before the time of Hugh Capet and his rude 
 contemporaries, a simple bishop of Orleans writes a book of 
 moral theology which at once decides broadly all the questions 
 which the old philosophers of the " intuitive school" were unable to 
 clear up. The doctrine is unassailable. The only objection that 
 some might prefer consists in a certain severity of morals which 
 no one would expect after such a period of lawlessness and vio- 
 lence. Few strict Christian moralists of our day would express 
 so forcibly as the book does the rules prescribed, for instance, 
 for the sins of thought and the sanctity of the marriage-bed. 
 Still, this noble work is immediately accepted by the whole Chris- 
 tian world as the code which is to be proposed to the young, 
 the ignorant, the poor, as well as to the learned, powerful, and 
 wealthy. Is not the conclusion manifest that the barbarians had 
 been truly converted, and that before long they would aspire to 
 a heroic holiness to which they were at last invited ? 
 
 But Jonas did more. He wrote another work as wonderful as 
 this first one, and he called it De Institiitione Regia. The rulers 
 of the Christian world, the emperors, kings, and princes, were to 
 have their code of morals as well as their own subjects. For it 
 was not only individual piety which was to flourish, but the po- 
 litical bonds of the various nations were henceforth to be conse- 
 crated by religion. Holiness as a guide was to replace expedi- 
 ency, ambition, the wiles of diplomacy, and the crushing action 
 of might, which had been so far the only rules followed by sove- 
 reigns. A hasty glance must be given to this extraordinary 
 production. 
 
 Some rules had been promulgated in the Mosaic law* with 
 regard to the future conduct of kings in Israel when the time 
 should come for the election of hereditary rulers among the Jews, 
 and several texts of the Old Testament prescribed to them the 
 observance of equal rights, justice, mercy, and truth, f But a 
 
 * Deut. xvii. 14, seq. 
 
 f See Eccl. xxxii. i, Prov. xx. 28 and xxix. 14. 
 
 li 
 
3^6 THE' CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 much higher conception of the kingly office was to be the privi- 
 lege of Christian times. With Constantine we observe already 
 the supremacy and total independence of the sacerdotal office in 
 spiritual matters. His successors, however, profoundly disturbed 
 the mutual action of the two powers spiritual and temporal, and 
 when the barbarians came it was to be feared that, even after 
 their conversion, the rulers of the new kingdoms would insist on 
 proclaiming the slavish obedience of all to their despotic will on 
 matters civil and ecclesiastical. It required, in fact, the con- 
 stancy and heroism of many great bishops to vindicate the rights 
 of the Gospel over the fierce passions of Merovingian monarchs, 
 and it would have seemed a wild and impossible project to 
 devise for them any Christian rules of conduct based on the noble 
 principles of the new religion. How could they ever be brought 
 to admit that the meanest of their subjects was their equal before 
 God; that their authority should be enforced only in accordance 
 with justice and right; that their individual, conscience required ' 
 from them a strict daily examen and a still more strict restraint ; 
 of every hour; that, finally, they were accountable to a superior | 
 power for all their actions and thoughts? And this was reduced: 
 to the practical rule that popes and bishops were appointed over 
 them as not only advisers but positive directors and guides, whom; 
 they were bound implicitly to obey in all spiritual matters. 
 
 Charlemagne was the first who came to an open acknowledg- 
 ment of all these new principles of action regulating the policy of 
 the state rulers in the new dispensation. But nothing was yet 
 written on the subject, and every individual case was left to a fair 
 understanding of the Gospel laws as they were given out in the 
 New Testament. It is not surprising, therefore, that Louis the: 
 Pious, his son, a man Christian to the core and more careful ofi 
 his soul than of his authority, should submit blindly to his fate,! 
 when his sons rose against him, and should agree to his own! 
 degradation at the dictation of unworthy prelates, whose great' 
 aim was to meddle merely in political matters. This was forbid- 
 den them by the constitution of the Church, and in all doubtful, 
 cases they could not act without consulting the Pope, to whon: 
 they did not even apply; but no precise code existed yet. 
 
 Jonas of Orleans was one of the few Prankish bishops whcj 
 stood firmly on the side of the unfortunate emperor against hij' 
 unnatural children. He had not taken part in the pretendec 
 

 FACTS. 387 
 
 I council at Compiegne in ^^:^, presided over by Ebbo, archbishop 
 of Rheims, by which Louis the Pious was deposed and subjected 
 to public penance, and he was one of the most active prelates in 
 the council of Thionville in 835, when the previous sentence 
 against Louis was reversed and Ebbo was compelled to resign 
 his see. It is needless to say that Pope Gregory IV. confirmed 
 the action of this last assembly. 
 
 Jonas was thus the man most competent to prescribe the rules 
 by which Christian kings should be governed in their administra- 
 tion without giving up any of their just rights, so that State and 
 Church should help each other and both benefit human society. 
 This was done in the book JDe Iiistitutio7ie Regia, which settled the 
 principles of monarchical government such as they were under- 
 stood during the middle ages. It can be said, in a single sentence, 
 that thereby holifiess was made the governing principle of courts, 
 as the same had been firmly established the guide of common citi- 
 zens in the previous work, De Institutione Laicali. 
 
 This new book was addressed to Pepin, king of Aquitania, 
 with whom Jonas had lived on terms of intimacy. The preface is 
 a model of simplicity and good breeding, and the repeated expres- 
 sions of tender affection and regard for the unaffected virtues of 
 the young sovereign attract at once the attention, and display to 
 the eyes a new political world unfolded by the mild doctrines of 
 Christianity. It is a very strong proof that the Gospel indeed 
 had brought together all ranks of society almost on the same 
 moral level, without interfering with the hierarchy of ranks and 
 offices. This was done by instilling into all minds suavity of 
 manners and a courteous respect for whatever is worthy of it. 
 True politeness was born with the new religion, and never before 
 in the most refined circles of Greece or Rome had anything been 
 seen or heard comparable to it in simple good taste and cordial 
 sympathy. And this is the more remarkable that it happened so 
 soon after the rough explosion of savagery which had devastated 
 
 t Europe. It is a fact almost inexplicable except through the super- 
 natural action of Christianity. 
 
 But if the expressions are redolent of suavity and of the mild- 
 est spirit, the tone is earnest and the doctrine most^ strict if not 
 severe: " Oh, my most serene lord and king, in thinking of what 
 I must do for your salvation, which indeed I desire above all 
 things, ... I humbly remind your highness to consider at- 
 
S^^ THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 tentively how swiftly time carries everything in its course; that its 
 joys end invariably in grief ; that worldly honor and love and 
 pomp and sweetness engender finally bitterness, because every 
 son of Adam is destined as food to the worms and the rottenness 
 of the sepulchre. The voice of God has declared it to our first 
 parent: 'Thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.' " 
 
 The whole of it is written in the same warm style, breathing 
 always affection and a most tender sympathy. As to the book 
 itself, which is much shorter than the one destined for laymen, it 
 must be sufficient here to give the headings of a few of its chap- 
 ters. The first and second speak of the sacerdotal authority and 
 of its functions with regard to the spiritual guidance of temporal 
 rulers, Constantine had acknowledged it when he said to bishops : 
 *'God has made you priests and given you the power to judge 
 us ; and it is with justice that you undertake to do it." The third 
 chapter explains at length " what a king is, what he must do and 
 avoid." In a few words the ruler's power is broadly distinguished 
 from that of the tyrant ; and many texts of Scripture and of the 
 Fathers are brought out to describe the virtues he must practise 
 and the excesses he must abhor. The fourth chapter speaks of 
 the "kingly ministry;" that is, of his special functions as a Chris- 
 tian ruler ; and it may be said that this was kept constantly before 
 the eyes of kings during the middle ages, even when they were 
 most unwilling to listen to the admonition: "The ministry of 
 the king consists especially in governing God's people with equity 
 and justice, and in securing peace and concord. He is first and 
 foremost the defender of the churches and of the servants of God. 
 For it belongs chiefly to his office to provide for the safety and 
 peaceful ministration of the priesthood ; and employ, if necessary, 
 his soldiers to protect and secure from harm the Church of Christ; 
 namely, all those members of it whose helplessness requires it, 
 such as widows, orphans, and the poor in general. His great care 
 must be to see, if possible, that no injustice is perpetrated, and in 
 case any wrong is done that it be set to rights, and that its 
 authors do not escape from justice either by hiding themselves or 
 securing their impunity by boldness and force of arms. 
 
 The abuse of authority was provided against in the fifth chap- 
 ter, which prescribed to the king the choice of upright judges and 
 faithful officials to prevent public infraction of the kingly office, 
 and to watch over the peace and contentment of the subjects. It 
 
FACTS. 389 
 
 is curious to see the rules the king had to follow in making his 
 choice of officials, and what kind of men he was directed to select : 
 "The men constituted in authority for such an object must 
 know that Christ's people, over whom they are placed, are in fact 
 their equal by nature and in the eyes of God. The power they 
 receive is only intended for the good of the community, and 
 does not authorize them to domineer over inferiors. Let them 
 not suppose that the men over whom they preside are their people, 
 and are in their hands mere tools for promoting their own glory 
 and securing their purposes. This would not be the reign of jus- 
 tice, but the unjust sway of tyranny. . . ." 
 
 It is remarkable that this was written when the maxims of 
 feudalism were spreading all over Europe. It might be called a 
 solemn protest against the radical injustice of the new system. 
 
 The three following chapters represented the kingly authority as 
 coming from God, and consequently requiring the most faithful obedi- 
 ence from the subjects. But no one must imagine that this amounted 
 to the acknowledgment of the "divine right of kings" as preached 
 subsequently by James I. of England and all Protestant theologians. 
 There is, hovever, no time and space to show the difference of both. 
 
 The other chapters, from the ninth to the seventeenth, speak of the 
 law of God in general, as imposed on monarchs as well as on their 
 subjects. The details are exactly like those given in the book Dg 
 Jnstitutione Laicali ; and the main object is to intimate that the kings 
 are men like all others, and could not enjoy privileges with regard 
 to God's laws. 
 
 It is important to mention at the end of these short abstracts that 
 this second book of Jonas of Orleans attracted immediately so much 
 attention, and exerted so powerful an influence, that the whole of it, 
 except the preface and the last chapters, was inserted among the 
 canons of the Sixth Council of Paris, which took place in 829. It 
 thus became a public document acknowledged by the ecclesiastical 
 authority ; and consequently formed a part of the canon law, at least 
 in France. There is no need of alluding again to the importance it 
 immediately acquired for imparting to the middle ages a special 
 feature which could not but lead to holiness in high places— that is, 
 in the princely courts and political circles of those times— as the work 
 De Institutio7ie Laicali had done for the common class of society. 
 
 Europe, being provided with a code for kings and another for the 
 people, could rapidly progress on the road to sanctity. The more so 
 
390 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 that another code had already been given to a powerful branch of the 
 social world at that epoch. This refers to the rules of St. Benedict; 
 by which all the monasteries of Europe were at last governed. A 
 word has been said on the gradual absorption of all the religious 
 orders existing previously to that of St. Benedict. At the precise 
 epoch which is now under consideration — the end of the ninth cen- 
 tury — the transformation had taken place. There was but one rule 
 for all the ascetic establishments ; and this rule in its primitive sim- 
 plicity has always been regarded as the embodiment of the most strict 
 spirit of Christianity. Holiness reigned in the cloister; it was rapidly 
 acquiring the preponderance in society. This must be seen in the 
 following section, as briefly as the copiousness of the subject will 
 allow. 
 
 5. The Ages of Faith were likewise Ages of Holiness. 
 
 Kenelm Digby in his Mores Catholici has treated this subject in 
 extenso. To give the substance of this great and admirable work 
 would far exceed the limits assigned to ours. Besides, it would be 
 impossible to condense a book which merely consists in the narration 
 of an immense number of facts ; chiefly because the strength of the 
 demonstration depends entirely on that number and their circum- 
 stances and connection. The dark side of those times, moreover, is 
 but slightly given by Digby, and this has subjected the work to a 
 just criticism which it is intended here to avoid. Another plan musti 
 therefore be adopted. | 
 
 The general idea followed by the author — to represent the evan-J 
 gelical beatitudes as eminently practised during the middle ages — is 
 no doubt excellent and to the purpose, since the essence of holiness 
 consists in the strict practice of the virtues preached by our Lord in 
 His Sermon on the Mount. But to adopt the same plan would neces-i 
 sarily bring on the same length of details, or at least something of it.' 
 It is preferable to suppose that the reader knows sufficiently the work 
 entitled Mores Catholici, but that his conviction requires to be 
 strengthened, particularly with regard to its weak points; and this 
 cannot be done better than by a simple, short, but exact description 
 of those most abused ages extending from the tenth to the fifteenth 
 centuries. Europe formed then a powerful commonwealth which 
 was called Christendom. All nations composing it had common 
 features which they had received from their common religion ; and 
 
FACTS. 
 
 391 
 
 the simple recital of these universal peculiarities will ensure the con- 
 viction that a high degree of sanctity must have everywhere flour- 
 ished, simply from the whole array of circumstances then existing on 
 the whole western continent. For this object it will be sufficient to 
 consider the public worship of those people, their charity, general 
 manner and morals, family habits, and finally their death. The 
 objections consequent upon what is known of simony and incon- 
 tinence among the secular clergy, and the prevalent state of war, will 
 
 .,, J be briefly reviewed and answered at the end of these considerations. 
 
 |j[ I. The Catholic v^orship, in its public character, wore then a 
 ' peculiar aspect which had not been seen in the previous Roman 
 world; which has passed away in our cold age; and probably 
 will never again appear. At all times this adoration of God has 
 been holy and fostered holiness in the Church; during the middle 
 ages it was eminently so. It is important to glance at it in the 
 numerous monasteries then flourishing, and in the innumerable 
 cathedrals, parish churches, chapels, and oratories with which 
 Europe was profusely and literally covered. 
 
 After a long period of superstition and heathenism on the 
 whole earth, which had followed the simplicity of the patriarchal 
 age, a worship worthy of God was at last introduced everywhere 
 by the religion of Christ. The Father in heaven was finally 
 adored through the mediation of His Eternal Son and under 
 the wide-spread influence of the Holy Spirit, Who had taken 
 possession of the universe and dwelt in the heart of each of His 
 creatures. Whatever has ever been devised by the ingenuity of 
 
 . man, in his rashness to invent rites which Heaven had not revealed, 
 and were intended to supplant the true religion, has invariably 
 ended in a miserable failure. The Christian rites alone have 
 survived all the attempts of deists or rationalists, so as to satisfy 
 the cravings of the human heart toward the propitiation of Heaven, 
 and the deep sense of dependence of the creature on his Creator. 
 The burst of piety which astonished mankind on Constantine 
 at last granting liberty to the Church was for that enlightened 
 age the proof that it came from heaven. Ceremonies so noble, so 
 grand, so full of majesty and power, could not but take their rise 
 in the action of God teaching His children how to adore Him. No 
 Greek, no Roman could imagine that the efforts of man to reach 
 heaven by his prayers could take a higher and holier form. As 
 long as the Empire stood the Christian heart remained satisfied 
 
39- THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 that human godliness could never go farther. And with respect 
 to the essentials of the worship this was true, and there could be 
 no change since the new dispensation was to be the last. 
 
 But soon after the untold calamities which followed this first 
 triumph of religion, livhen it seemed that a terrible barbarian out- 
 break had for a long time silenced the former Christian solemnities, 
 a sight was revealed to the eyes of men which the spectacle of 
 religious pomp in all former Greek and Roman cities had certainly 
 never equalled. 
 
 An immense number of large monastic establishments have just 
 been constructed as if by magic, not only in populous centres, but 
 in the wilderness of the forest or on the top of hills and mountains. 
 The rivers of Italy, Africa, Spain, Gaul, Germany, England, are lined, 
 as it were, by these monuments of religion and industry. But the . 
 most eminent feature of those noble piles is always a vast 
 church edifice, rising above the low cells and long cloisters, where 
 hundreds, nay, thousands of cowled monks or pious rustics are stand- 
 ing or kneeling in profound adoration. Though the fields around are 
 tilled with care by swarms of laborers, the service of God goes on 
 unceasingly under those arched vaults, along those spacious naves* 
 and aisles, chiefly in the dim-lighted and mysterious sanctuary. Yes,' 
 the night as well as the day is devoted to a worship which must; 
 represent that of Heaven, since there is no intermission in the praise,; 
 and the love, and the songs of angels and saints. Splendid storied; 
 windows speak to the humblest and the most ignorant of the life of i 
 Christ, the providence of God, the sweetness of Mary, the constant; 
 ministrations of pure spirits in their flight from heaven to earth..' 
 Hear the deep and soft tones of that new instrument unknown to thai 
 highly artistic Greeks of old, but invented by a monk and played 
 upon by another. Listen to those deep-cadenced voices intoning the^ 
 noble songs of an inspired poetry, and telling in distinct accents} 
 the story of the earth's creation, the fall of the first man, his redemp-' 
 tion and sanctification, and the high destiny to which he is called.; 
 Almost every day long processions of priests, children, and deep-pray-j 
 ing men come from a distant shrine and enter the sacred edifice with' 
 song and litany ; all with their eyes intently looking on the highly' 
 wrought tabernacle which rises in the midst of the mystic altar where 
 the Holy of holies resides. 
 
 But the bell has ceased tolling, the voices are hushed, the organ 
 either murmurs softly or is silent. It is the most solemn moment on 
 
FACTS. 393 
 
 earth, for Heaven has come down. The Eternal Son is present ; 
 Angels and powers surround Him ; the crowd in the nave is prostrate 
 on the ground; and all hearts are lifted up to heaven. It is the only 
 sacrifice worthy of the Divine Majesty. The Man-God Himself 
 adores in the midst of His adorers, and offers to His Father the 
 blood He shed on the cross. A drop of it would have sufhced to 
 cleanse the whole world; and man can consider himself redeemed. 
 
 This was the firm belief of all those mediaeval Christians; and 
 the strongest human intellect may without fear be defied to show 
 that a higher and holier worship could be devised. God alone, 
 through His infinite love, had designed it; and as it is His last 
 and eternal covenant with man, nothing can be added to or taken 
 away from it. 
 
 This was at that time taking place daily in the most remote 
 and wild parts of western Europe. In the cities a still more 
 solemn pomp surrounded the divine mysteries. For each city 
 had its bishops, and each bishop his cathedral. The mind is be- 
 wildered when those solemn edifices are considered with at- 
 tention: their immense size, their artistic beauty, their lofty 
 vaults and loftier pinnacles; the endless groups of statuary 
 surrounding the sanctuary; the large number of dignitaries 
 standing or kneeling around the prelate, all clad in the most' 
 costly vestments, all deeply engaged in prayer or song; the mul- 
 titude of people, to the number of ten or twenty or thirty thou- 
 sand, sending to heaven a stream of harmony which resounds 
 through the thick forest of columns and pilasters; the brilliant 
 windows illustrated with biblical scenes or legendary stories; the 
 incense filling the aisles with perfume, and the soft and colored 
 light reflected from walls and woodwork tracery. Where on earth 
 would anything like it be seen ? Yes, the age that saw the build- 
 ing of these piles was an age of wonders; and the most incredu- 
 lous is obliged to confess that the mediaeval worship of God has 
 surpassed in grandeur and sanctity whatever has been seen before 
 or since. 
 
 I But neither monastic churches nor cathedrals could cover 
 every rood of ground in mediaeval Europe, on account of their 
 costliness and the time required for building them. Still, the 
 people had then solemnly declared with the prophet of old 
 that "the earth was the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." Every 
 hamlet, therefore, must have its church; every turn of the public 
 
394 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 roads its oratory; every crag and nook and corner in mountains 
 or hills its shrine; every house its statue; every tree, almost, its 
 holy symbol. Men were then proud of their religion. They did 
 not wish to conceal it as something to be ashamed of. Rural 
 solemnities were devised to encircle the whole year round. The 
 village parish had its priest, the smallest oratory its pious chap- 
 lain; and, because man needs rest, it was universally thought 
 that one day in the week was not sufficient. I will not attempt 
 to describe all the saints' feasts, all the holy seasons of religious 
 festivity. Think of Christmas and Easter and Pentecost and the 
 Lady days and Midsummer Night and Michaelmas and All 
 Saints ! 
 
 Here I am reminded that it must have been a priest-ridden 
 age. So it was indeed, but the people liked it. Some pretend 
 still at this late hour that poor men could not then earn their 
 bread, being prevented from working a great part of the year. 
 But it has been lately proved that the reverse was true, and the 
 poorest of the rustics were then as comfortable as well-to-do far- 
 mers in our day. Happy they .were that the clang of the hammer 
 in factories was often silent, and the hard labor at the plough 
 suspended. Do the economists of our age imagine that working 
 men are now more happy because their labor is incessant, and be- 
 cause their poorly rewarded toil, in many cases, does not know 
 any intermission ? If so they think, let them ask the opinion of 
 our proletarians, as they are called, and they may be at last en- 
 lightened. 
 
 But this is indeed too long a digression. The question at 
 hand seems to have been forgotten, and we must return to it. 
 The few details just given, with which we must remain satisfied., 
 have proved beyond question that in mediaeval times the worship, 
 of God was peculiar; and that at any other epoch the earth has 
 never seen anything like it. A few reflections must be devoted tc, 
 proving that it was calculated to foster holiness ; since there arej 
 men who pretend that the highest morality, holiness consequently.; 
 is independent even of the belief in God, independent conse- 
 quently of a more or less pure worship. 
 
 Yes, our ears are stunned by the clatter of many voices 
 eulogizing atheism itself, and pretending that those even whc 
 " have felt constrained to abandon their former faith in a Creator' 
 not only may be, but actually are, exemplary men practising al. 
 
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 FACTS. 395 
 
 the virtues of the sage, which they say are the same as those of 
 the Christian. It seems, therefore, that we were mistaken in 
 counting the pure worship of God during the mediaeval times as 
 the proof of a high degree of holiness. Mr. Mallock has thought 
 proper to discuss this very question, and to disprove the new 
 pretension of modern thinkers, in his excellent work, "Is Life 
 Worth Living ? " I could simply refer to it ; a few words, however, 
 will not delay us long, and may be sufficient for the purpose, 
 independently of the strict reasoning of that gifted writer. 
 
 I will confine myself to a short line of argument ; remarking 
 first, as a preliminary matter, that the question must not be one of 
 persons, but of tendency. That there are some pe7'sons whose 
 moral character is pure though they do not believe in God is 
 irrelevant to the present question. The object is to inquire if the 
 tendency of atheism is to foster a holy life. Reduced to these terms, 
 the question cannot offer any difficulty. 
 
 Mr. Mallock believes that the present originators of atheistic 
 thought in England are men of exemplary lives; and we are our- 
 selves persuaded that Lalande in France, a pronounced atheist of 
 last century, was eminently what is called a good man. Can any 
 one conclude from this that their disbelief in the existence of God 
 was or is their main reason for practising what is called virtue? 
 Would there not be still a better reason for it, were they firmly 
 convinced of the contrary? Is it the same with regard to morality, 
 to have no fear of a future judge; or to be fully convinced of a 
 strict accountability to God ? Individual men are acted upon 
 by a thousand motives in the performance of their actions. The 
 question is not, Is individual atheism absolutely incompatible with 
 morality? — the word holiness would be misplaced here — but // 
 must be the general one, Which is the best motive for a pure life, a 
 firm belief in God or the reverse? We are right, therefore, to say 
 that it is a question of tendency, not of persons. This being 
 admitted, we proceed in our line of argument. 
 
 The very essence of the matter under consideration refers to 
 a large mass of people, since it embraces the whole of western 
 Europe and includes nations of various races, aptitudes, and 
 leanings. They have to be brought, at least in a great number, 
 to the perfection of holiness. What will be the best motives to 
 conduce to it? There maybe several; but one of the strongest 
 must be the fear and love of God, and consequently His pure 
 
396 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 worship. There is question here of the multitude, not of a few 
 individuals among them. No one can hesitate to say that the 
 more ardent the religion of the multitude will be, the higher they 
 will rise in holiness. First, they have constantly before their 
 eyes the highest pattern of it, since God has said: Perfecti estate 
 sicut et Pater vester ccelestis perfectiis est. Our Saviour knew what 
 holiness must be, and He declared that the first and greatest com- 
 mandment was to love God above all things. Pure worship must 
 be, therefore, the highest and most effective inducement to good 
 morals. Again, Moses brought down from Sinai the two tables 
 of the law; and the first contained only the precepts of re- 
 ligion. To strike these off at a blow is to deprive morality of 
 its better half. And this is not only Christian teaching; it is the 
 natural teaching of the human heart; because those precepts of 
 the first table were inscribed on it before they were engraved on 
 the stone. It is only at this late hour in the course of time that 
 sophists pretend the contrar5^ The pagans themselves admitted 
 it, since they invariably inculcated the fear of the gods as the 
 beginning of wisdom and the first inward utterance of our moral 
 sense. 
 
 But even in our day this is perfectly well understood by the 
 common-sense of the people. No one believes that the worship- 
 pers of God in any Christian temple can be put down on a level, j 
 in point of morality, with those who never darken the door of a 
 church. There may be a few hypocrites among the worshippers; 
 but those who are sincere are universally, considered as far better 
 morally than men who have no religion whatever. Go and in- 
 quire of those who have under their charge the peace of the com- \\ 
 munity, and ask them if when a burglary or murder takes place 
 they look first in a Christian congregation to find the criminal. 
 
 But if this is true at all times and in our own in particular, it 
 was eminently so at the epoch under consideration. All are 
 aware of the low morality of the barbarians when they first 
 rushed on southern Europe; and a description has been at-j 
 tempted of the efforts required from bishops and monks to tame 
 them and instil into their hearts the most common feelings of 
 humanity. In the course of a few centuries the success was com- 
 plete. This was chiefly because the Huns as well as the Franks, 
 the Burgundians as well as the Vandals, worshipped the same 
 God, had their children baptized in the same fount, and were 
 

 ■» ■" C y o, '207 
 
 themselves fed with the same Eucharist. It was a wonderful 
 change, which, however, need not be described in detail at this 
 moment So late as the Carlovingians even, directly after the 
 frightful outbreak of the Northmen, if many Europeans were on 
 the road to sanctity, they had not yet attained it. Many crimes, 
 on the contrary, continued to horrify mankind. Still, when during 
 the centuries which followed we contemplate the solemn worship 
 of the Christian religion spread at last among them all, and offer- 
 ing the wonderful features which have been so briefly and so 
 inaccurately portrayed, have we not reason to say that they were 
 already holy people ? The new habits of piety, of tender devo- 
 tion, of universal dependence on God, they had so remarkably 
 acquired, could not but foster in their hearts the most strict moral 
 sense, the strongest attachment to duty; in fine, what we Chris- 
 tians call the perfect fulfilment of the whole Decalogue, with the 
 addition besides of the virtues preached by our Lord in His 
 Sermon on the Mount. This is far superior to the highest moral- 
 ity taught by any philosopher of the "intuitive school," and par- 
 ticularly superior to the moral tendency fostered hy positivism ; 
 and this was eminently the result of the religion they had been 
 taught to honor and practise, which culminated in the grand dis- 
 play offered by their noble worship of God. 
 
 The great misfortune is that people in our day do not like any 
 more to speak of "holiness;" they prefer to use the words "pure 
 ethics." The only thing we must require of them is to admit that 
 holiness comprises all the pure ethics known to the moral philoso- 
 pher, besides something far above them; namely, a certain conse- 
 cration of the whole subject to heaven. This is to be considered a 
 moment. 
 
 Let any moral philosopher point out, if he can, a single article 
 of "ethical science" which is not already prescribed by "revealed 
 doctrine." He will be brought to acknowledge his inability to do 
 so, for the very simple reason that "ethical science," if exact, is 
 nothing but the voice of conscience promulgating the external 
 nd unchangeable principles of the moral order. But in the pre- 
 epts of the Mosaic decalogue, as well as in those of the Chris- 
 lan religion, this is always presupposed, because grace supposes 
 
 ture^ and as the decretum Gratiani said many centuries ago: "In 
 rinciple the natural law is the same that is contained in that of 
 
 OSes and in the Gospel," 
 
398 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 But the natural law such as it is, when brought out from the 
 inner world of the human conscience and dissected by the scal- 
 pel of the mere philosopher, seems to be only a part and parcel 
 of our poor humanity, such as are its other faculties of body and 
 mind, and can scarcely be imagined to contain anything holy, 
 since holiness belongs, after all, to heaven. The revealed doctrine, 
 on the contrary, appertains to the order of grace, which is alto- 
 gether heavenly; and consequently it must impart to ethical mat- 
 ters what has been called a sort of consecration. This consecra- 
 tion, the result of God's grace, is the only thing which is added 
 to the practice of natural virtue; that is, to the power of doing 
 good derived from the native moral strength of man. Can the 
 philosophers of the "intuitive school" object to this? Must they 
 not admit, on the contrary, that the supposition is far from being, 
 absurd, and that if it really takes place it will be very beneficial 
 for morality, and give it a true title to the quality of holiness? 
 For "the true light," as St. John says,* "which enlighteneth' 
 every man that cometh into this world," is the natural light of 
 reason, which does not come precisely to the soul by a direct ray 
 from the Eternal Word but, as it w^ere, in a reflex manner through 
 our human faculties. Though coming originally from heaven, it 
 does not receive a heavenly consecration^ but can produce only a 
 human virtue having no claim to true holiness. 
 
 But as soon as " the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among 
 us," as St. John maintains farther on,t then "we saw His 
 glory, the glory , . . of the only begotten Son of the Father, 
 full of grace and truth." Here the ray of light is direct, and can. 
 reach the soul in a supernatural manner. No wonder that the] 
 virtue produced is no more a human virtue, but a heavenly one, 
 carrying holiness with it. It is the result of the direct action of 
 the Son of God on the soul, and explains perfectly the inborn 
 sanctity of the Christian, who himself deserves to be called 
 Son of God by adoption. 
 
 It is, therefore, in a strict sense that the Christian can be 
 called holy when his life comes up to his profession. His sanctity 
 is not a cloak like the imputation of Luther, leaving the sore of 
 his sins festering inwardly in the eyes of God. The soul has 
 been thoroughly cleansed, and the smile of heaven approves the 
 purity of the new-born creature. 
 
 * Chap. i. V. 9. \ lb. v. 14. 
 
FACTS. 399 
 
 It seems now easy to understand that the sublime worship of 
 Almighty God so prevalent during mediaeval times, being the 
 outgrowth of grace imparted by the God-man, was altogether 
 calculated to engender true virtue in the heart of those people, 
 and was at the same time a proof that they were holy. Their 
 virtue was not natural only. It came from God and went back 
 to Him. 
 
 If, on the contrary, you dissever morality from religion under 
 the pretext that even some atheists can recoil with horror from 
 injustice, robbery, adultery, murder, etc., and can also be unselfish, 
 charitable, patient, etc., you commit the imprudence of leaving 
 the mass of mankind at the mercy of their unruly passions. It 
 is safe to deny that this mass is capable enough of self-restraint 
 to avoid rushing into the most deplorable excesses. Deliver 
 them from the fear of God, as Lucretius wished to do for the 
 men of his generation, and the earth will become the fit image 
 of Tartarus. Virtue will be derided and crime eulogized. This 
 would certainly have happened to Europe at the epoch of which we 
 treat, if the barbarians had learned from the degenerate Romans 
 that the fear of hell and the hope of heaven were pure bugbears. 
 They learned, on the contrary, that the love of God is the basis 
 of all virtues, and that His holy worship is the greatest concern 
 of human life, and the surest means for any one of becoming 
 holy, as a step to an eternal reward; they placed their reliance 
 chiefly on the grace of Christ, who had established the kingdom 
 of heaven in their hearts. After this first characteristic of the 
 mediaeval period the consideration of the second is likewise of 
 great importance; and this is the admirable spirit of charity which 
 then prevailed. 
 
 . II. The difficulty here consists in the copiousness of matter. 
 It would require a large volume, with a great care taken for con- 
 densation, to bring forth only the most remarkable facts connect- 
 ed with the subject. It would be worth while to do it, since no 
 better description of the middle ages can be made than to go 
 through a mere rehearsal of their unbounded benevolence. Still, 
 it cannot be done here. Fortunately, Mr. Lecky in his fairness 
 has drawn a picture of it which, though condensed in a few 
 pages, is, I think, one of the best of its kind that has ever been 
 written. 
 
 The admirable generalization of the gifted author begins from 
 
400 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the epoch immediately anterior to the mediaeval times, and that 
 part of it does not seem to enter into our actual scope. But as 
 this first branch of the subject seems' to be very useful at least to 
 appreciate what follows, it seems far from irrelevant to have the 
 whole of it presented at once:* 
 
 " The active, habitual, and detailed charity of private persons, 
 which is so conspicuous a feature in all Christian societies, was 
 scarcely known in antiquity, and there are not more than two or 
 three moralists who have even noticed it." Here he quotes Cicero, 
 De Officiis. " Christianity for the first time made charity a rudimen- 
 tary virtue, giving it a leading place in the moral type and in the 
 exhortations of its teachers. Besides its general- influence in 
 stimulating the affections, it effected a complete revolution in this 
 sphere, by regarding the poor as the special representatives of the _ 
 Christian Founder, and thus making the love of Christ, rather i 
 than the love of man, the principle of charity. Even in the days ; 
 of persecution, collections for the relief of the poor were made at \ 
 the Sunday meetings. The agapae, or feasts of love, were intended j 
 mainly for the poor, and food that was saved by the fasts was j 
 devoted to their benefit. A vast organization of charity, presided j 
 over by the bishops and actively directed by the deacons, soon 
 ramified over Christendom, till the bond of charity became 
 the bond of unity, and the most distant sections of the Christian 
 Church corresponded by the interchange of mercy. Long : 
 before the era of Constantine, it was observed that the charities 
 of the Christians were so extensive— it may, perhaps, be said 
 so excessive— that they drew very many impostors to the Church; i 
 and when the victory of Christianity was achieved, the enthusiasm 
 for charity displayed itself in the erection of numerous institu- \ 
 lions that were altogether unknown to the pagan world. A Roman 
 lady, named Fabiola, in the fourth century founded at Rome, as 
 an act of penance, the first public hospital ; and the charity planted 
 by that woman's hand overspread the world, and will alleviate, 
 to the end of time, the darkest anguish of humanity. Another 
 hospital was soon founded by St. Pammachus ; another of great 
 celebrity by St. Basil, at Csesarea. St. Basil also erected at' 
 Ccesarea what was probably the first asylum for lepers. Xeno- 
 dochia, or refuges for strangers, speedily rose, especially along 
 
 * Hist, of Europ. Morals, vol. ii. p. 79. 
 
FACTS. 
 
 401 
 
 the paths of the pilgrims. St. Pammachus founded one at Ostia; 
 Paula and Melania founded others at Jerusalem. The Council of 
 Nice ordered that one should be erected in every city. In the time 
 of St. Chrysostom the church of Antioch supported three thousand 
 widows and virgins, besides strangers and sick. Legacies for the 
 poor became common; and it was not unfrequent for men and 
 women who desired to live a life of peculiar sanctity, and especially 
 for priests who attained the episcopacy, to bestow their entire proper- 
 ties in charity. Even the early Oriental monks, who for the most 
 part were extremely removed from the active and social virtues, 
 supplied many noble examples of charity. St. Ephrem, in a time 
 of pestilence, emerged from his solitude to found and superintend 
 a hospital at Edessa. A monk named Thalasius collected blind 
 beggars in an asylum on the banks of the Euphrates. A mer- 
 chant named Apollonius founded on Mount Nitria a gratuitous 
 dispensary for the monks. The monks often assisted by their 
 labors provinces that were suffering from pestilence and famine. 
 We may trace the remains of the pure socialism that marked the 
 first phase of the Christian community in the emphatic language 
 with which some of the Fathers proclaimed charity to be a matter 
 not of mercy but of justice, maintaining that all property is based 
 on usurpation, that the earth by right is common to all men, and 
 that no man can claim a superabundant supply of its goods 
 except as an administrator for others. A Christian, it w^as main- 
 tained, should devote at least one tenth of his profits to the poor." 
 — Mr. Lecky may have somewhat misunderstood the bearing of 
 some of the numerous authorities he quotes here. 
 
 " The enthusiasm of charity, thus manifested in the Church, speed- 
 ily attracted the attention of the pagans. The ridicule of Lucian 
 and the vain efforts of Julian to produce a rival system of charity 
 within the limits of paganism emphatically attested both its pre- 
 eminence and its catholicity. During the pestilences that desolated 
 Carthage in a.d. 326 and Alexandria in the reigns of Gallienus and 
 of Maximian, while the pagans fled panic-stricken from the con- 
 tagion, the Christians extorted the admiration of their fellow-country- 
 men by the courage with which they rallied around their bishops, 
 consoled the last hours of the sufferers, and buried the abandoned 
 dead. In the rapid increase of pauperism arising from the emancipa- 
 tion of numerous slaves their charity found free scope for action, and 
 its resources were soon taxed to the utmost by the horrors of the 
 
402 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 barbarian invasions. The conquest of Africa by Genseric deprived 
 Italy of the supply of corn upon which it almost wholly depended, 
 arrested the gratuitous distribution by which the Roman poor were 
 mainly supported, and produced all over the land the most appalling 
 calamities. The history of Italy became one monotonous tale of 
 famine and pestilence, of starving populations and ruined cities. But 
 everywhere amid this chaos of dissolution w^e may detect the majestic 
 form of the Christian priest mediating between the hostile forces, 
 straining every nerve to lighten the calamities around him. When 
 the Imperial City was captured and plundered by the hosts of Alaric, 
 a Christian church remained a secure sanctuary which neither the 
 passions nor the avarice of the Goths transgressed. When a fiercer 
 than x\laric had marked out Rome for his prey, the Pope St. Leo 
 arrayed in his sacerdotal robes, confronted the victorious Hun as 
 the ambassador of his fellow-countrymen, and Attila, overpowered 
 by religious awe, turned aside in his course. When, two years later, 
 Rome lay at the mercy of Genseric, the same pope interposed with 
 the Vandal conqueror, and obtained from him a partial cessation of 
 the massacre. The archdeacon Pelagius interceded with similar 
 humanity and similar success, when Rome had been captured by 
 Totila. In Gaul Troyes is said to have been saved from destruction 
 by the influence of St. Lupus, and Orleans by the influence of St. 
 Agnan. In Britain an invasion of the Picts was averted by St. Ger- 
 main of Auxerre. The relations of rulers to their subjects, and of 
 tribunals to the poor, were modified by the same intervention. When 
 Antioch was threatened with destruction on account of its- rebellion 
 against Theodosius, the anchorets poured forth from the neighbor- 
 ing deserts to intercede with the ministers of the emperor, while the 
 Archbishop Flavian v/ent himself as a suppliant to Constantinople. ' 
 St. Ambrose imposed public penance on Theodosius on account of ■ 
 the massacre of Thessalonica. Synesius excommunicated for his I 
 oppressions a governor named Andronicus ; and two French councils I 
 in the sixth century imposed the same penalty on all great men j 
 who habitually ejected the poor. Special laws were found necessary 
 to restrain the turbulent charity of some priests and monks who 
 impeded the course of justice and even snatched criminals from ' 
 the hands of the law. St. Abraham, St. Epiphanius, and St. Basil i 
 are all said to have obtained the remission or reduction of oppressive '■ 
 imposts. To provide for the interests of the widows and orphans 
 was part of the official ecclesiastical duty, and a Council of Macon | 
 
FACTS. 403 
 
 anathematized any ruler who brought them to trial, without first 
 apprising the bishop of the diocese. A Council of Toledo threatened 
 wiih excommunication all who robbed priests, monks, or poor men, 
 or refused to listen to their expostulations. One of the chief causes 
 of the inordinate power acquired by the clergy was their mediatorial 
 office ; and their gigantic wealth was in a great degree due to the 
 legacies of those who regarded them as the trustees of the poor. 
 
 "As time rolled on, charity assumed many forms, and every mon- 
 astery became a centre from which it radiated. By the monks the 
 nobles were overawed, the poor protected, the sick tended, travellers 
 sheltered, prisoners ransomed, the remotest spheres of suffering ex- 
 plored. During the darkest period of the middle ages, monks founded 
 a refuge for pilgrims amid the horrors of the Alpine snows. A soli- 
 tary hermit often planted himself, with his little boat, by a bridgeless 
 stream, and the charity of his life was to ferry over the traveller. 
 When the hideous disease of leprosy extended its ravages over 
 Europe, when the minds of men were filled with terror not only by 
 its loathsomeness and its contagion, but also by the notion that it was 
 in a peculiar sense supernatural, nev/ hospitals and refuges over- 
 spread Europe, and monks flocked in multitudes to serve in them. 
 Sometimes, the legends say, the leper's form was in a moment trans- 
 figured, and he who came to tend the most loathsome of mankind 
 received his reward, for he found himself in the presence of his Lord. 
 
 " There is no fact of which an historian becomes more speedily 
 and more painfully conscious than the great difference between 
 the importance and the dramatic interest of the subjects he treats. 
 Wars or massacres, the horrors of martyrdom or the splendors 
 of individual prowess, are susceptible of such brilliant coloring 
 that with but little literary skill they can be so portrayed that 
 their importance is adequately realized, and they appeal powerfully 
 to the emotions of the reader. But this vast and unostentatious 
 movement of charity, operating in the village hamlet and in the 
 lonely hospital, stanching the widow's tears 'and following all 
 the windings of the poor man's grief, presents few figures the 
 imagination can grasp, and leaves no deep impression upon the 
 mind. The greatest things are often those which are most im- 
 perfectly realized; and surely no achievements of the Christian 
 Church are more truly great than those which it has effected in 
 the sphere of charity. For the first time in the history of man- 
 kind it has inspired many thousands, men and women, at the 
 
404 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 sacrifice of all wordly interests, and often under circumstances of 
 extreme discomfort and danger, to devote their entire lives to the 
 single object of assuaging the sufferings of humanity. It has 
 covered the globe with countless institutions of mercy absolutely 
 unknown to the whole pagan world. It has indissolubly united, 
 in the minds of men, the idea of supreme goodness with that of 
 active and constant benevolence. It has placed in every parish a 
 religious minister who, whatever may be his other functions, has 
 at least been officially charged with the superintendence of an 
 organization of charity, and who finds in this office one of the 
 most important, as well as one of the most legitimate, sources of 
 his power." i 
 
 In this admirably condensed sketch, Mr. Lecky does not seem { 
 precisely to recognize the middle ages as having been the most ; 
 prominent in the practice of charity; and he appears even to inti- | 
 mate that it was a "dark period" in the history of the Church, \ 
 only illumined by many remarkable instances of that sublime j 
 virtue. Still, he has written at least a sentence which, in its com- 1 
 prehensiveness, restores in fact to that much-abused epoch its true , 
 character and its substantial glory, when he said that "by the j 
 monks the nobles were overawed, the poor protected, the sick 1 
 tended, travellers sheltered, prisoners ransomed, the remotest j 
 spheres of suffering explored." It is almost impossible to say j. 
 more, and the legitimate development of these few words would \, 
 embrace the whole subject, and present a picture which has never }■ 
 been seen even in the history of the Church, glowing with more | 
 splendor, and expressing with more fidelity the true portrait of | 
 Christianity and its Founder. j 
 
 Frederick Hurter in his Tableau du Moyen Age, translated from 1; 
 the German by J. Cohen,* had long before Mr. Lecky fulfilled the j: 
 same task, and given still more details, all derived from the history !' 
 of the middle ages. A few words of this long description will \\ 
 make amend for some deficiencies in the English author, duel! 
 mainly to the brevity of his generalization: "It was not only in ] 
 monasteries that travellers, the poor, the necessitous, found an 
 asylum and met with people ready to help and serve them; it was 
 not only near cathedral churches that houses had been constructed 
 for that purpose. But charitable establishments of every degree 
 
 *Tom ii. p. 492, seq. 
 
FACTS. 405 
 
 had been founded, and were profusely scattered over Europe. 
 Sometimes they were entrusted to the care of religious orders; 
 sometimes they were given in charge to men who consented to 
 live under certain obligatory rules, though they were not religious. 
 On a river bank, where no bridge had yet been constructed; in a 
 lonely valley, w^here the traveller might lose his way in the dark- 
 ness of the night; on the top of mountains, where no human 
 j habitation was near and no refreshment could be procured, Chris- 
 tian benevolence had erected houses for no other object than to 
 1 offer shelter and food to the pilgrim. From the eighth century 
 I down to a much later epoch, chapels and oratories had been built 
 for the simple purpose of furnishing to the poor of the neighbor- 
 hood a weekly allowance of the provisions they needed, ..." 
 
 But the author of the " History of European Morals " has 
 qualified his description by the enumeration of other facts of a 
 totally different character, and calculated to represent the middle 
 ages under a rather repulsive aspect. He confines, however, his 
 derogatory remarks to only two points, one relating to the insane, 
 the other to a want of judgment in the charitable distributions. 
 I Nothing is more simple and easy than the answer to the first 
 ' objection. The healing art had made but little progress since the 
 time of Hippocrates, and Christianity is not responsible for it. 
 The causes of the terrible maladies by which man is deprived of 
 his reason were totally unknown, and have remained so until our 
 age; remedial agents could not be properly applied, and it is 
 difficult to see how this could be attributed to any want of charity 
 on the part of the Church. It is true that, as Mr. Lecky insists, 
 insanity was considered to a certain degree as having often 
 supernatural causes; and how can it be proved that it has not? 
 The ideas of ''witchcraft and diabolical possession" may have 
 been occasionally unjustly connected with it, and some deplorable 
 results, no doubt, were the consequences of it. But how can it 
 be maintained that this argued any hardness of heart on the part 
 of Christians, when there are so many brilliant proofs of the con- 
 trary? A simple error of judgment and its painful consequences 
 leave the admirable spirit of charity then existing absolutely 
 entire, since nobody could think that there was the least connec- 
 tion or opposition between the two. They were most charitable, 
 but they believed in the power of the Evil One so clearly indicated 
 by Jesus Christ Himself. 
 
4o6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 As to the supposed injudicious use of charity which, in the 
 opinion of Mr. Lecky, " directly increased the poverty which it 
 was intended to relieve," this is a mighty question which cannot 
 be discussed here. It affects in no way the holy virtue of which 
 we treat, since people at that epoch could not perceive that they 
 were " injudicious." They implicitly followed the impulse which 
 they felt inwardly for the literal fulfilment of the precept and the 
 perfect imitation of the example of Christ, and in this they truly 
 practised that sublime virtue which is the only important consid- 
 eration for us at this moment. But without entering into the 
 question which Mr. Lecky discusses at length, it is not out of 
 place to remark that political economy, whose teachings he seems 
 to consider of great importance, is now regarded by the best 
 sociologists as having completely failed in the great object its 
 supporters had in view; and it is not from the principles either of 
 Adam Smith or of the Manchester school that the Christian 
 charity of mediaeval times can receive its condemnation. 
 
 The ground is now prepared for the special consideration of 
 the active bearing this charity had on holiness in the case under 
 review. And, first, it is seen at once that if the worship of God, 
 such as it was then practised, imparted to the virtues of those 
 Christians a heavenly consecration alone capable of giving them 
 a truly holy character, the same was the result of their ardent 
 love for their afflicted brethren, for the lowly, the poor, the sick, 
 the friendless, the needy. As has been justly remarked in the 
 long passage quoted from the " History of European Morals," "the 
 Christian Church has indissolubly united, in the minds of men, 
 the idea of supreme goodness" — that is, of holiness — '' with that 
 of active and constant benevolence." Since holiness in man must 
 consist in the imitation of God carried to a heroic degree, accord- 
 ing to Christ's recommendation, Perfecti estate sicut et Patervester 
 ccElestis perfectus est; and since mankind, in its worship of God, has 
 always called Him not only the Greatest — Maximus — but also and 
 chiefly the Best — Optimus, — man to be holy must actively work to 
 the advantage of his fellow-men, the same as God does incessant- 
 ly by His providence for us. The Church, consequently, in call- 
 ing the religious state one of perfection, declares that its members 
 must not only attend to their own salvation — that is, their own 
 good — but also to the salvation — that is, the good — of others. There 
 are, no doubt, some religious orders which are called contempla- 
 
FA CTS. 407 
 
 ^ive and do not practise exterior benevolence. They are often 
 accused, on this account, of being useless to mankind;, but every 
 3ne of us knows that through their prayers heavenly graces are 
 laily obtained, often far preferable to any temporal blessings. 
 
 In the Christian scheme, therefore, charity is a great part of 
 loliness ; and thus because the middle ages were eminently 
 charitable they must be called eminently holy. For this reason, 
 probably, all men, unless they are barbarians, feel an instinctive 
 jreverence for those who devote themselves to their neighbors' 
 jjervice. It is universally felt that there is in them something 
 Df God's holiness which calls for veneration ; and often, indeed, 
 Darbarians — since the name has been used — have fallen prostrate 
 It the feet of a benefactor who had rescued them from misery 
 md death. 
 
 This must not be considered as an unfounded instinct derived 
 :rom unreasoned feelings, and deserving to be classed among 
 ,Tiany other amiable weaknesses of our human nature. There is 
 |i real foundation for it, and it is not difficult to find it out. Chris- 
 tian charity, when it i caches a certain degree, supposes that the 
 Intense selfishness which crops out of our nature at every moment 
 of our lives has been overcome ; and not only it seems to be dead 
 n those who are ardently benevolent, but it is replaced by an 
 inward feeling of self-sacrifice which does not belong any more to 
 i;his earth, but assumes immediately the highest supernatural 
 |"orm. There have been men, it is true, who have given even 
 j;heir life for their country, their children, their friends ; and their 
 JTiotives may have belonged altogether to this world. Ancient 
 liistory is full of examples of this kind, and every educated man 
 :cnows at least some of them. But this is very different from 
 he self-sacrifice of the Christian when he devotes his whole life 
 |.o the service of his neighbor. This is to be seen. 
 
 The virtues of the pagans were not sins, as Luther pretended; 
 ;hey were real natural virtues, which St. Augustine believed God 
 lad often rewarded by great temporal blessings. They conse- 
 liuently supposed self-sacrifice, and required real efforts to over- 
 borne selfishness. But the sphere in which they were embraced 
 vas limited to the low grounds of this world, and could not possi- 
 bly rise above it. The highest act of virtue, probably, ever per- 
 "ormed by a pagan was that of Regulus when he surrendered 
 limself to the Carthaginians ; that is, devoted himself to a most 
 
4o8 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 cruel death in order not to break his word. It is very doubtful if 
 he attached to it the idea of duty in our modern sense, and it may 
 have been only the result of a stoical pride which none of us can 
 call a virtue. But even in the more charitable and probable sup- 
 position, there is no proof that, even at this early time of the 
 Roman republic, the idea of a duty of this kind was in any way 
 connected with the idea of God and religion. It is rather very 
 likely, if not altogether certain, that this connection did not exist.' 
 Consequently there could be nothing supernatural in the highest 
 virtues of the heathen, as there is nothing above nature also in; 
 the highest virtues inculcated by the modern "intuitive school 
 of morals." But it has been seen that this is only the practice ofi 
 "pure ethics," not of holiness, for the reasons formerly assigned., 
 
 The mediaeval Christians took a widely different view of the; 
 subject. In sacrificing themselves to their neighbors they sacri- 
 ficed themselves to God. They positively intended to honor and! 
 imitate the God-man by their charity ; and being thus intimately! 
 united to Him, they absolutely belonged to the supernatural; 
 world of which Christ is the centre. Their ideas of virtue, conse-j 
 quently, were as high as heaven itself; and thus their actions re-j 
 ceived that consecration of holiness of which a word has been said; 
 
 For this reason it was not only a high but also a wide-spreac; 
 virtue ; because, since the birth of Christianity, the Holy Ghosij 
 has taken possession of the universe ; and as He is the source or 
 our moral strength, it must be widely diffused over the earth 
 Remark well the difference between that universal diffusior 
 resulting from the Christian scheme and the few sporadic exam- 
 ples of it that the pagan world ever furnished. Among th(j 
 ancient heathen these heroic acts can be counted by the dozeni 
 among the inediaeval Christians by the million. And there vj 
 another difference between them which is most remarkable. Al 
 the noble actions recorded of the Greeks and Romans took place 
 as it were, on the spur of the moment. In the vehemence of .' 
 generous enthusiasm they threw their lives away. But the self 
 sacrifice of the monk, of the nun, of the simple Christian, last:, 
 most often during the whole span of their existence, or at leas; 
 the best part of it. It is a slow mart3'rdom, whose reward canno 
 be seen but at a great distance, whilst their constancy is even, 
 day tried by the obscurity of labor, the violence of temptationi 
 the wearisomeness of common duty. 
 
FACTS. 409 
 
 , Such a virtue as this has never been seen in the world except 
 
 I among the followers of Christ. It belongs, consequently, to the trans- 
 
 ! cendental order, and can be called true sanctity. It may appear 
 
 I presumptuous in the eyes of the world to use such a word as this; it 
 
 I was but simple and natural, however, in their especial position. 
 
 ' Hence if any one of them habitually recoiled from calling himself 
 
 holy, they did not scruple to admit that they belonged to a generation 
 
 \ of saints. The name was openly taken by the Christians of the very 
 
 [ first ages, and was pubHcly sanctioned by the apostles themselves. 
 
 1 In mediaeval times this was more true than ever, as there was a large 
 
 number of them spread over the whole of Europe, all engaged in the 
 
 same holy avocation. Look at them everywhere '' protecting the 
 
 [ poor, overawing the nobles, tending the sick, sheltering the travellers, 
 
 ransoming the prisoners, exploring the remotest spheres of suffering 
 
 in order to assuage it. Every monastery has become a centre from 
 
 which charity radiates." These words of Mr. Lecky cannot be too 
 
 often repeated, and they express the simple truth. But all this is 
 
 done at the expense of an immense amount of self-sacrifice ; and the 
 
 bestowers of the benefit are almost as numerous as the recipients of 
 
 \ it. Who can refuse to admit that holiness reigned then supreme in 
 
 \ redeemed Europe } 
 
 III. The next point promised for discussion may well seem super- 
 : fiuous, but is not. This is the consideration of mediaeval morals 
 as a third proof of holiness. Christ has said that His law consists 
 only of two precepts, the love of God and the love of the neighbor. 
 Both have just been satisfactorily discussed with regard to the middle 
 ages, and it could be directly concluded that nothing more to prove 
 in them a high morahty is needed. But the great objection raised 
 against this epoch refers precisely to the morals or manners of the 
 people, which are said to have been gross, vulgar, violent, barbarous, 
 so as to have impeded for a long time the progress of civilization. If 
 such were the fact, it would be preposterous to call that time a Chris- 
 tian age, much less a holy epoch ; and in spite of all the possible 
 worship of God and display of charity, it would be, perhaps, proper 
 to consign it to the obscurity and obloquy that shrouded it a century 
 or two ago. This has to be examined. 
 
 The word morals includes often in modern English a great deal 
 more than is strictly understood by it. It refers not only to the hu- 
 man acts dependent on the control of conscience, and essentially be- 
 longing to the moral order; but it often relates simply to exterior forms 
 
4IO THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 of conduct perfectly indifferent to virtue or sin, and which are much 
 more exactly expressed by the word inatmers. This has introduced 
 into the English tongue an unhappy confusion of ideas which is to be 
 carefully guarded against in the matter under consideration. Man- 
 ners which are to a certain degree indecorous, owing to our modern 
 ideas of taste, are directly pronounced immoral, though conscience 
 cannot be affected in any way by them ; and thus holiness is supposed 
 to be impossible without culture. 
 
 In judging of the middle ages and of the morals of the people 
 during their continuance, a great attention must be paid to this 
 difference of meaning. It shall soon be proved that there was real 
 refinement in the thoughts and habits of the mediaeval Christians, and 
 that the age which originated chivalry was not barbarous. But this 
 is not precisely the state of the question ; and in speaking of the 
 exquisite holiness prevailing at that time, we must be very careful to 
 understand it in the Christian sense as the reign of a heroic virtue, 
 not the paragon of a fastidious culture, which certainly did not exist 
 at that time. 
 
 To do this in extenso would transcend our limits. The task 
 has been admirably accomplished in the Mores Catholici of K. 
 Digby. It is impossible to go through those volumes without 
 experiencing a keen delight at the sight of so many charming 
 pictures in which true heroism partakes of a childish simplicity, 
 and the splendor of heaven seems to be blended with the primi- 
 tive scenery of an earthly paradise. We must be content with a 
 few flowers culled in that delightful garden. To understand their 
 importance it is fair to remark that it is easy, if somewhat un- 
 profitable, to ransack the annals of any nation of the highest 
 moral character and find in it examples of a startling corruption. 
 The author of Philosophumetia has represented the papal reign of 
 Zephyrinus as one of bribe, intrigue, and foul crimes, and has ; 
 attributed the lowest passions of greed and hypocrisy to men who 
 have been until our day honored by the Church as saints. The , 
 loose reputation of the fifteenth century has also been rendered ] 
 still much worse by the wild gossip of a Guicciardini, whose con- j 
 jectures and calumnies have been taken as facts by many modern j 
 historians. So, likewise, captious critics have taken the trouble j 
 of selecting with care scandalous stories of every description, true j 
 or not, and have placed them on record as the best picture which j 
 could be given of the ages of faith. Simple readers imagined | 
 
FACTS. 41, 
 
 that the question had been sifted to the bottom; and public 
 opinion openly condemned the morals of those times because the 
 manners of men widely differed from ours. Until Kenelm Digby 
 undertook the heavy task of collecting innumerable facts of a 
 very different nature, belonging to the same epoch, no one sup- 
 posed that so much could be said in favor of the darkest period of 
 history ; and it turns out that it was one of the brighest in the 
 moral order that ever blessed this earth by its sanctity. 
 
 To begin directly with it, one of the worst features of that 
 period consisted, as was believed, in its violence and disposition 
 to shed blood. All cities were said to have been at war with each 
 other, and in each of them factions of the most inveterate charac- 
 ter divided the citizens into furious groups, intent only on their 
 mutual destruction. But the author oi. Mores Catholici has given 
 on his side pictures of peace, tranquillity, civic virtues which it 
 would be difficult, or rather impossible, to find in our boasted era 
 of refinement and mild manners. We will quote one or two of 
 them, taking care to select only a few traits in each story for the 
 sake of brevity. 
 
 The first is taken from a celebrated work of Antonio Ferrari, 
 surnamed Galateo because he was born in Galatina, in Apulia, 
 toward the end of the fifteenth century. Near that town there 
 was another called Gallipolis, whither he retired when he left the 
 court of the King of Naples, to follow his taste for a quiet life. 
 It is in that city that he wrote all his works, which have always 
 been placed in Italy among the best of that age. His Descriptio 
 urbis Gallipolis is still read with the keenest delight by all lovers 
 of good Latinity. Paul Jove compared its style to that of the best 
 authors of antiquity. In this book Ferrari or Galateo describes 
 what he had seen during many years among the quiet people of 
 the city and its neighborhood; and there is no doubt that the same 
 picture could have been drawn of many other places in Italy, 
 though the end of the fifteenth century was far less irreproachable 
 than the two previous ones. We suppose that Mr. Digby 's trans- 
 lation is correct:* 
 
 "Here men are most pure, most moral; not liars, not rapacious, 
 not seditious, not intemperate, not ambitious; and what Plato 
 ascribed to maritime cities, not unjust, not fraudulent, but vera- 
 
 * Dolman, London, 1846, vol. ii. p. 37. 
 
412 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 cious, faithful, abstemious, contented, charitable; and notwith- 
 standing their sea-Iife and the multitude of mercenary troops and 
 the influx of foreigners, preserving their integrity and constancy: 
 In peace mild, tractable, and humane; and of their bravery in war 
 the Venetians, Spaniards, and French can best speak. The educa- 
 tion of boys and young men is liberal and modest. Arrogance 
 and insolence are not found among our youth, who are full of love 
 for one another, and benevolence. But what is above all impor- 
 tant, the people are not negligent of religion and the divine wor- 
 ship. St. Agatha, patroness of the city, they piously venerate; and 
 what we have such difficulty to persuade other people to do, these 
 people, whether about to live or die, of their own accord have 
 constant recourse to the sacraments. The virtue of the women 
 corresponds to these manners; they are chaste, industrious, and' 
 obedient. On holy days they stay much at home; on other days 
 they spin. ... At thirteen you will find few unmarried. Good 
 men and lovers of truth cannot pass over in silence the virtue of 
 an enemy. Thus though the Venetians are not styled most Chris- 
 tian, yet, w^hen they took our city, as true Christians and Italians 
 they respected the women, and guarded them diligently in the 
 church of St. Agatha. . . . Upon the whole, my dear Sum-, 
 monti, I know of no city more capable of serving the purposes of - 
 a happy life, if one knows how" to enjoy it; none more fit for a 
 sweet and tranquil existence. . . . Here is the image and 
 shadow of that holy city which will be in heaven, and which from 
 heaven has never yet descended." 
 
 Another description, by Bernardin Gomez, of the manners pre-- 
 vailing among the Valencians and Catalonians during the reign of 
 Diego I. of Arragon, in Spain, would deserve to be copied in full; 
 but, unfortunately, this is impossible, through want of space. 
 The same is also true of what the annalists of Salamanca and other 
 cities in Spain would furnish. But with regard, again, to those of 
 Italy, the emphatic declaration of the Puritan Milton in his 
 ''Setond Defence of the People of England" cannot possibly be 
 omitted; and, fortunately, it is concisely expressed in a compre-, 
 hensive phrase: "I fled to Italy, not as the place of refuge to the 
 profligate, but because I knew and had found before that it is 
 the retreat of civility and of all polite learning." 
 
 But the best and shortest proof that can be given of the 
 Christian feeling of remorse, the keen qualms of conscience so 
 
FACTS. 413 
 
 easily aroused in those simple souls by the voice of religion and 
 the reformation instantly effected in their manners when they had 
 disobeyed the voice of duty, is the tremendous effect of the 
 preachmg of St. Francis and St. Dominic in the thirteenth 
 century. 
 
 The brief sketch of it given by Digby,* to which are added 
 many scenes of the same nature following the exhortations of 
 Jordan of Pisa, Berthold of Ratisbon, Anthony of Padua, John 
 d'Avila, and others, would suffice to prove that those times were 
 holy because, when negligence had crept in, it was the work of a 
 moment to bring back the inhabitants of a populous city, of a 
 large district, sometimes of a whole kingdom, to the most heroic 
 resolutions carried out to the letter. These are a few of the 
 words of a monk living at the time in the convent of St. Justina 
 at Padua, who described the moral revolution in Lombardy 
 effected by Francis and Dominic: ''All began to fear and obey 
 God, to forgive one another, to forget injuries, to bury hatred, to 
 renounce usury, to make restitutions, to avoid pomp and plays 
 and every kind of luxury. ... At Cortemilla the country people 
 left their ploughs and implements in the fields and flocked in 
 to hear Francis' discourses on the vanity of the world which 
 passes away, the penalty that awaits sinners, and the everlasting 
 beatitude of the just. The hardest hearts were split like the rocks 
 of the desert, and the waters of contrition flowed from them." 
 
 It cannot be too often repeated that this argues a keen percep- 
 tion of the supernatural, and a profound reverence for the doctrine 
 of holiness even when it had been neglected. People were then 
 deeply impressed with the idea that the heavenly world was the 
 country prepared for man, and that he could by righteousness 
 have a foretaste of it in this vale of tears ; that all the beauty of 
 nature was only a pale reflection of that of heaven, and heaven 
 could come down in the heart of man by the practice of Christian 
 virtues. This made holiness at the same time simple and easy. 
 i This sublime theory of the espousals of heaven with earth, 
 which it is so difficult for men of this day to comprehend, was 
 pasily understood and put in practice by the simplest men of that 
 period. There is a most beautiful passage of Hugo of St. Victor 
 in his Instihitiones Monasticce deVanitate Mundi lib. ii.) which renders 
 
 *Vol. ii. p. 156. 
 
4^4 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 this palpable, and places at once the middle ages on a level with 
 the most refined in point of what is called spirituality; that is, the 
 intercommunication of a superior world with this. The holy 
 writer takes for his text these words of the Gospel : "Unless you 
 become like little children," etc., and he says : 
 
 " What are the manners of a boy, of a simple child ? He is not 
 solicitous nor covetous. He exercises himself in simple and inno- 
 cent play, . . . He knows his father's grounds ; now he is in 
 the field, . . . the garden, . . . the orchard, . . mead- 
 ow, . . . vineyard. He knows the peculiar delights which 
 belong to each season of the year. In the spring he follows plough- 
 ing, ... in the summer reaping, in the autumn the vintage. 
 . . He loves to gather the new fruits, to roast the unripe 
 corn, to pick out the first ripe grape. . . . If he knows that 
 his father is about to go to any town or castle, ... he wishes 
 to go with him, that he may see new and unaccustomed things, 
 so that on his return he may relate what he has seen. . . . 
 But if in going out he were not to hope for a quick return, 
 .... he would not leave his father's house without lamenta- 
 ble groans and great sorrow. He is glad to find diversion abroad, 
 but he wishes to have no permanent abode anywhere, except in 
 his father's house, with his domestics, among whom he was born 
 and with whom he was bred. . . . He would not be separated 
 from them even in death. Nothing beyond this he seeks, nothing 
 more does he desire. 
 
 " Like this boy, let us study to converse in the house of the 
 Lord, and we too shall find peace and rest and pleasure. Let us 
 be simple, not desiring foreign things, loving more the delights 
 which God hath prepared for us and which are found in His house, 
 rather than the blandishments of this world. Here we have 
 transparent fountains, flowery meadows, wide and swelling fields, 
 rich vineyards, irrigated gardens, abundant flocks, fertile crops, 
 fruitful trees, delights of every kind; all, in short, that the soul can 
 desire or possess. Do you ask what are these fountains, meadows, 
 and gardens? They are the examples of the just^ the sources of 
 wisdom, and the sweets of all virtue. For we have our feet 
 directed in the ways of the commandments of God in order that, 
 remembering His mercies which have been from all generations, 
 we may exercise our heart and enkindle our desire in His love. 
 We can indeed contemplate all the works of our restoration and 
 
FACTS. 
 
 415 
 
 redemption from the beginning to the end of the world, according 
 to the course of time, the events of things, and the deeds of men." 
 
 It is impossible to express more happily the facility with which 
 holiness can be attained in this world, when this world is con- 
 sidered as the house of God. In the middle ages this was an ele- 
 mentary knowledge which all possessed, and no* one can be sur- 
 prised that so many at that time reached a high degree of it. How 
 could these ages be called barbarous, cruel ? 
 
 And the sanctity peculiar to that age was accompanied with a 
 nobleness of thought, a delicacy of feeling, nay, a poetical spirit 
 which are precisely the reverse of the grossness and vulgarity 
 generally attributed to that epoch. Here is a last passage, taken 
 this time from Petrus Blesensis, copied by Frederick Hurter in 
 his Tableau des Mmirs de VEglise au Moyen Age* It is doubtful if 
 many of the best writers of this century could carry to a greater 
 perfection this nobleness of thought, delicacy of feeling, and true 
 poetry. Still, no one accustomed to the style of mediaeval writers 
 is surprised to find it on this occasion, because it was then natu- 
 ral, frequent, and often expected. It is addressed by the writer 
 to a young lady of a high parentage, who preferred a cloistered 
 life to the hand of the Duke of Burgundy's nephew, promised her in 
 marriage. Her name was Anselma. 
 
 " This young prince undoubtedly excels in comeliness of form ; 
 his bravery and gracefulness are admired by all without exception. 
 All the gifts which can attract a young woman he possesses : the 
 most charming conversation, an unbounded generosity, and perfect 
 dignity in his bearing. But your wisdom has chosen the better part, 
 and if the struggle has been painful, and its issue doubtful for a 
 moment, the final victory has been on this account more glorious. 
 If you were still in the world, it is true, men of the highest rank 
 would surround you preferably to other noble ladies; diamonds and 
 jewels would give /e/af to your beauty ; you might some day feel 
 justly proud of the number of your relatives and children ; every one 
 of them would constantly consult your wishes to gratify them. In- 
 stead of all this, the narrow walls of a convent contain the world in 
 which you move ; there is not any more for you the freedom of quit- 
 ting it ; no worldly joys, no worldly pleasures, no boisterous festivi- 
 ties; your dress is coarse and invites you to mourning; dry bread 
 
 * Vol. iii. p. 272. 
 
41 6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 and boiled herbs your fare. But how uncertain and short-lived are 
 the pleasures of this world ! After them follow occasionally repent- 
 ance and often suffering. Anxious care is inseparable from wealth 
 and honors; pomp and popular favor are dreams. Remember that 
 a woman cannot become a mother except through dangers and pangs; 
 sickness, confinement in a dungeon, revolutions worse than death, can 
 deprive her of a son in whom she concentrates her happiness. Watch 
 over your heart, keep yourself holy. Nothing is so valuable as the 
 treasure of virginity ; the Lamb follows her alone ; alone she makes us 
 like unto the angels of God." 
 
 Was it a barbarous age in which such lines as these were written .> 
 And how many pages of the same nature would we have to transcribe 
 in order to give an exact idea of the refined holiness common then in 
 all classes of society, but particularly among the poor 1 
 
 It was seen previously that holiness properly consists in the vol- 
 untary fulfilment of the religious vows ; that they contain the very 
 essence of the beatitudes preached by our Lord on the Mount; and, 
 in fact, the only perfection attainable in this life consists in the 
 rigorous practice of obedience, chastity, and voluntary poverty. 
 Those alone who have bound themselves by these holy obliga- 
 tions, and are faithful to them, can practise the pure charity of 
 the Christian toward his neighbor, and assure themselves that 
 they have attained the height of self-sacrifice, in which consists 
 the true imitation of Christ. It is at least very difficult, if not 
 impossible, for people in the world to devote themselves entirely 
 to a life of good works continued unceasingly till death and the 
 grave. 
 
 If ever this has been the case on earth, it was during a time 
 when the whole of Europe was covered by monasteries and con- 
 vents which had not yet degenerated from their primitive fervor, 
 w^hose inmates daily sacrificed themselves to the good of their 
 fellow-men. The sanctity which flourished in those holy houses 
 spread its fragrance all over the country, and was soon the welcome 
 guest in the hut of the peasant. The rustics themselves became, 
 as it were, transfigured. The universality of this fact during the 
 middle ages must strike every one who peruses the contemporary 
 writings, and Mr. Lecky has been brought to acknowledge it, 
 though he attributes it entirely to a secondary cause which alone 
 could not have produced it. He imagines that it was only the 
 sight of the pictures and images placed everywhere at that time 
 
FACTS. 
 
 417 
 
 under the eyes of all beholders which transformed entirely the 
 character of the peasant class and rendered their manners so gentle 
 and often refined, as if the constant sight and conversation of the 
 monks was not a still more powerful inducement. The passage, 
 however, deserves to be quoted, because it is as true as graphic: 
 
 "The grateful beings with which the creative fancy of pagan- 
 ism peopled the universe — in ancient Greece and Rome — shed a 
 poetic glow on the peasant's toil. Every stage of agriculture was 
 presided over by a divinity, and the world grew bright by the com- 
 panionship of the gods. But it is the peculiarity of the Christian 
 types that while they have fascinated the imagination they have 
 also purified the heart. The tender, winning, and almost feminine 
 beauty of the Christian Founder, the Virgin-mother, the agonies 
 of Gethsemane or Calvary, the many scenes of compassion and 
 suffering that fill the sacred writings, are the pictures which for 
 eighteen hundred years have governed the imaginations of the 
 rudest and most ignorant of mankind. Associated with the 
 fondest recollections of childhood, with the music of church-bells, 
 with the cloister's light, and the tinsel splendor, that seemed to 
 the peasant the very ideal of majesty; painted over the altar 
 where he received the companion of his life, around the cemetery 
 where so many whom he had loved were laid, on the stations of 
 the mountain, on the portal of the vineyard, on the chapel where 
 the storm-tossed mariner fulfils his grateful vow; keeping guard 
 over his cottage door, and looking down upon his humble bed, 
 forms of tender beauty and gentle pathos forever haunt the poor 
 man's fancy and silently win their way into the very depths of his 
 being. More than any spoken eloquence, more than any dogmatic 
 teaching, they transform and subdue his character, till he learns 
 to realize the sanctity of weakness and suffering, the supreme 
 majesty of compassion and gentleness." 
 
 There was certainly a transformation effected in the European 
 peasant by his religion. Henceforth the halo of holiness was to 
 surround him as long as he remained faithful to its teachings. 
 But though the beautiful objects Christianity placed under his 
 eyes had a great effect in softening his passions and purifying his 
 heart, the spectacle of the living saints that he saw constantly, and 
 their gentle admonitions or stern rebukes, produced a greater 
 still, principally because the dogma was never absent, and the 
 images he saw were only the symbols of it. 
 
41 8 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 IV. Holiness in the family is the next topic ; and it is with 
 sincere regret that I am compelled to pass by the delightful 
 descriptions of domestic manners profusely scattered over the 
 third chapter of Digby's sixth book. A short and comprehensive 
 sketch is all that is possible here ; and as the whole depends on 
 the idea of marriage entertained by the mediaeval people, it is 
 proper to consider it first. This was essentially and totally a new 
 and Christian idea, and for the first time in man's history the 
 chief aspect of it was that of sanctity. Marriage was a sacrament, 
 a hol}^ thing, not only blessed by the Church, but containing mys- 
 teries of the highest order in human conception. St. Paul had 
 clearly declared it.* There is, perhaps, nothing more sublime in 
 the doctrine of this eloquent apostle than what he says repeatedly 
 of the union of God with man through Christ, of the function of 
 the God-man in the economy of salvation. The Church is a body 
 through which a divine life circulates as blood in the human 
 frame. Christ being the head, it is from Him that flows the 
 stream which vivifies the whole. This is the grand image by 
 which we are enabled to understand the text of St. Peter, where 
 he says that we are "partakers of the divine nature." 
 
 But, according to the same apostle, Christ is the bond of 
 another union ; namely, that of husband and wife, through the 
 sacrament of marriage. They are united together as the God- 
 man is united with the Church, and for this reason must the hus- 
 band love his wife and the wife her husband. Can anything 
 holier be conceived? Is it not true that sanctity must henceforth 
 be associated with the idea of a wedded pair's union ? 
 
 No doubt this was known to Christians long before the middle 
 ages ; in fact, from the very beginning. But it may be fairly 
 maintained that it was not universally understood and acted upon 
 as thoroughly as in mediaeval times. Those noble ideas must 
 have but slowly entered into the mind of the greatest number of 
 converts in Roman and Grecian countries. Such of them as had 
 reached a high degree of spiritual refinement rushed with ardor 
 into celibacy, which the apostles praised still far above the mar- 
 ried state. The mass was but slowly trained to adopt the most 
 sublime social views of religion, particularly about marriage ; 
 precisely the same as it took a long time to w^ean them over from 
 
 * Eph. V. 32. ■" 
 
FACTS. 419 
 
 the superstitions of polytheism. To exculpate them from adher- 
 ing still to many pagan practices, as it is known was the case, 
 it is now proposed by Christian antiquaries* to distinguish 
 between what was entirely indefensible in idolatry, which was 
 . forbidden, and what belonged to natural religion which could not 
 be absolutely condemned. Thus habits of a doubtful orthodoxy 
 continued to exist in Rome and Constantinople among Christians. 
 
 The same was the case with the purity of morals taught by the 
 new religion. Its sublimity was not at first entirely understood 
 and put in practice by a great number of neo-Christians ; and 
 though the essentials of morality were certainly adopted, because 
 enforced by popes and bishops, still the sweetness of its perfume 
 vaporized in a socially corrupt atmosphere. It became worse 
 still during the barbarian invasions. So that the precise moment 
 when Europe was thoroughly Christianized was also the epoch 
 when perfection of manners must have been reached ; and this was 
 toward the end of the ninth century ; that is, at the very date of 
 Jonas of Orleans' episcopate, though the full effect of it was some- 
 what retarded by feudalism. 
 
 This is fully confirmed by all contemporary writers, as is 
 proved by Kenelm Digby's great work. It could not, in fact, be 
 otherwise, owing to the devotion they all felt henceforth for the 
 Holy Family. Mary and Joseph with the divine Infant w^ere con- 
 stantly before their eyes ; and even rationalists must admit that 
 this picture of a model household was calculated to act profoundly 
 upon the whole framework of society. Christ w^as the pattern of 
 children, as Joseph and Mary were those of married people and 
 parents. It is proper to consider apart each of these social ele- 
 ments. 
 
 The Holy Infant of Bethlehem, who soon became the youth of 
 Nazareth, was the Son in eternity of the Eternal Father and in 
 time of the Virgin Mary, Heaven and earth embraced each 
 other in His divine person ; and if the heavenly element was 
 known to be unfathomable, the earthly fell under the senses and 
 acted most sweetly on all human emotions. All the particularities 
 either of his birth in an abandoned cave or of his laborious life 
 as a mechanic in Galilee were treasured up in the heart of hearts 
 of all mediaeval Christians. The Christmas carols, particularly, 
 
 * See the London Month for October, 1879. 
 
420 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 that were then sung all over Europe would fill a large library if 
 they all had been printed since the fifteenth century. Some par- 
 tial attempt at it has been made lately for France ; and it is 
 indeed wonderful to see the multitude of those nods, as they are 
 called, which have survived, though they are, no doubt, but a small 
 number compared to those that have perished. The extremely 
 popular legend of the translation by angels of the Nazareth 
 house from Palestine to Italy proves that the youth of our Lord 
 was always, also, an object of tender devotion in those ages of a 
 holy simplicity. All knew then that almost the only fact recorded 
 in the gospels during so many years of a divine life was that 
 Christ "was subject to his parents." Was not this the most elo- 
 quent teaching of subordination in families ? There was then no 
 captious interpretation of a clear text. All firmly believed what 
 they read. A.God had been obedient not only to Mary, his 
 mother, but to a man, Joseph, who was not his father. In ancient 
 pagan Rome there was a fierce authority given to the father over 
 his children : he could sell them into slavery or put them to death. 
 This terrible legislation was thought necessary in so important a 
 matter as family concord and subordination. It must be main- 
 tained that the Christian submission of children to parents during 
 the middle ages was still far better enforced by the sweet picture 
 of Bethlehem and Nazareth than it could be iri Rome by the 
 odious sway of patria potestas. Filial piety had a meaning in 
 Christian Europe which it could not have near the Tarpeian rock. 
 But since we speak of marriage itself and not of its surroundings, 
 it is particularly the union of Mary and Joseph which should be con- 
 sidered here, because it was this chiefly which gave to conjugal love 
 in mediaeval times its truly divine character. It could never be pre- 
 sented under a more alluring and graceful form than the one it took 
 during so many years under the humble roof of Nazareth ; and this 
 was the standard of purity and holiness which was daily offered to 
 the contemplation of any wedded pair. The senses had no part to 
 bear in it, and precisely on that account love burned brighter in the 
 heart for being altogether spiritual and above the senses. It was the 
 first time marriage was declared to exist in essentials independently 
 of sexual union. Few would carry the ideal of it to the perfection of 
 the pattern offered to all ; but all at least should understand that 
 Christian wedlock was principally a union of hearts. A holy and 
 spiritual love, a most tender but chaste affection was the essential 
 
FACTS. 421 
 
 prerogative of the Christian institution of matrimony. Everything 
 else of a physical nature became lawful on account of the ultimate 
 object, the procreation of children ; but the aim of the Christian must 
 always tend higher than mere sensuality, otherwise how could any 
 one look without a blush on Mary and Joseph's household ? 
 
 A divine religion alone could offer such a teaching as this to mor- 
 tal man ; and it is surprising how many examples the middle ages 
 furnished of a perfect imitation of the proffered pattern ; whilst the 
 immense majority were at least induced to refrain from an excessive 
 indulgence, which in modern times has become almost the rule. 
 Kenelm Digby gives a list of some " illustrious queens who lived a 
 cloistral life upon the throne. Such were the wife of Charlemagne ; 
 Cunegonde, wife of Henry the Second, Emperor of Germany ; Agnes, 
 wife of the Emperor Henry the Third; Elizabeth, wife of the Emperor 
 Albert; Radegonde, wife of Clothair; Adoere, wife of Chilperic; 
 Bathilde, wife of Chlovis; and Agnes of Bohemia, wife of Frederick 
 the Second." Digby does not mention the emperors or kings; 
 but Mr. Lecky does not forget the names of Henry H. of Germany, 
 Edward the Confessor, of England, and Alphonso H. of Spain. 
 
 Since mention is made again of the author of " European Morals,*' 
 it must be incidentally remarked that by a strange error of judgment 
 he brings this as a proof that in the middle ages " it would be difficult 
 to conceive anything more coarse and more repulsive than the man- 
 ner in which they regarded marriage." And the reason he gives of 
 it is that " the tender love which it elicits, the holy and beautiful 
 domestic qualities that follow in its train, were almost absolutely 
 omitted from consideration." This is as unaccountable as untrue, 
 when the previous reflections are minded. Not only the view taken 
 of it was not "coarse and repulsive," but it was eminently refined 
 and pure, as has been proved. The eminent author of the " History 
 of European Morals" finds fault likewise with the occasional absti- 
 nences from marriage intercourse either prescribed by the ritual of 
 those times or consented to by both parties for pious purposes ; and 
 he condemns it because he seems to think that one of the parties was 
 always unwilling. But from all the accounts which refer to such 
 cases as these it is evident he is mistaken ; and with regard to the 
 propriety of those ascetic usages a Christian will always be satisfied 
 with the advice* of St. Paul on which they were mainly based. 
 
 * I Cor. vii. 5. 
 
42 2 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD, 
 
 The Christian ideal in marriage evidently transcends everything 
 that human legislation has ever invented to give it stability and 
 dignity. The Mosaic law, though divinely revealed, allowed the 
 libellus repudii, which was simply a divorce a vinculo. Our Lord 
 declared that this had been granted to the Jews only "because of the 
 hardness of their heart," * but "it had not been so from the begin- 
 ning;" and in the new dispensation the husband and wife were to be 
 "two in one flesh," and "what God had united man should not 
 presume to sunder." This was perfectly well understood and accepted 
 in the middle ages ; and the popes invariably stood firm on that point 
 against the wild passions of several kings and emperors. In those 
 contests the people always sided with the spiritual authority, even in 
 the last case of Henry VIII. For if he carried his point by force, 
 history has recorded how the cause of Catherine of Arragon was 
 dear to the popular heart. 
 
 In treating the general subject of sanctity with regard to other 
 times and countries, the main object has been to show in detail how 
 the Christian religion early developed in Jerusalem and Palestine, in 
 Egypt and Syria, and finally in Rome and the West, the highest possible 
 pattern of morality offered to man by the doctrine of the Sermon on 
 the Mount. An effort also was made to concentrate the whole of it 
 into what has been called "the religious vows." Here this matter of 
 holiness takes a somewhat different aspect. In this very chapter 
 scarcely anything has been said of the branch of asceticism in which 
 voluntary poverty, religious obedience, and unsullied chastity were 
 openly professed, though there were many monasteries at that time. 
 The reason of the difference is plain, and redounds to the honor of 
 the middle ages. In other times and countries Christianity had un- 
 doubtedly effected an immense revolution in the morals of nations. 
 It would be idle to deny it in the face of the latest discoveries in the 
 field of history. But it is proper to give more development to some 
 reflections which have already been made in too condensed a fonn-. 
 The corruption of polytheism had been of so universal and thorough 
 a character that it required centuries to raise the whole mass of man- 
 kind to the high level of Christian purity. The conversion of so 
 many nations to a better faith, and the adoption by them of at least 
 tolerable moral habits, was a most surprising fact which God alone 
 could bring about. But the grossness of many habits contracted 
 
 * Mark x. 5. 
 
FACTS. 423 
 
 during so many ages of a rank idolatry opposed a sturdy resistance 
 to the undimmed purity of the moral doctrine preached by Christ 
 and His apostles. The opposers of Christiarity object often this 
 looseness of life which strikes the reader when he finds in the his- 
 torians of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries proofs that the neo- 
 converts or their children of the next generation were still addicted 
 to many vices which appeared to disgrace their religion. Read, they 
 say, the strictures of St. John Chrysostom against the Christians of 
 Antioch in his time, to whom he preached some of the finest homilies 
 ever written; and go through many other testimonies of the same 
 purport. The mass indeed of the people was still very corrupt, though 
 they believed in Christ. This is the objection. 
 
 But the irrefragable proof that this was not due to their new 
 religion, nay, that it was in spite of it that they continued, many of 
 them, to wallow in vice, is the undeniable fact of the vast number of 
 ascetics, either in the cloister or in the world, who practised to the 
 letter the highest virtues which ever honored humanity. At the same 
 time, therefore, that the Antiochian Christians were every day shout- 
 ing in the circus, proclaiming their admiration or their contempt for 
 the many- colored charioteers, and engaged in factions and broils, often 
 to the extent of bloodshed, there were in the suburbs of the city many 
 monasteries where pious, monks devoted their lives to the practice of 
 the most arduous virtues, and filled the world with the perfume of their 
 sanctity. This was the spectacle offered nearly everywhere during 
 the first five centuries of our era. Consequently, in describing the 
 exquisite character of the primitive Church, the writer is mainly bound 
 to present to the reader's admiration that part of the Good Shepherd's 
 flock among whom the moral doctrine of Christ bloomed in all its 
 beauty, and this is sufficient for the purpose, because it was there only 
 that it had attained its true ideal. During the middle ages Christi- 
 anity had finally prevailed not only in many individuals, but generally 
 in the mass. Paganism had entirely disappeared ; and if some rem- 
 nant of its superstitions lingered still in Europe, it was only in a few 
 remote and sequestered spots which can be entirely neglected in the 
 general account, and ascetics were not the only true Christians. 
 
 An objection, however, can be urged as to the epoch which is 
 assigned here for the beginning of this happy period. The ninth 
 century and the first quarter of the tenth are known as the dark- 
 est period of Catholic history. The Supreme Pontificate itself 
 was at the mercy of profligate noblemen in Rome, the highest 
 
424 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 offices in the Church were invaded by rapacity and violence, 
 simony rampant, and incontinence in the secular clergy already 
 prevalent. The objection is not without strength; an answer 
 shall be given, after the present subject is concluded in the next 
 paragraph. 
 
 V. The last consideration, previously announced, refers to the 
 way people generally ended their life during the middle ages. 
 This will be the work of a few moments. Faith was their chief 
 characteristic, but they particularly firmly believed in a future 
 state of rewards and punishments. The least doubt or misgiving; 
 never affected their mind on this subject; and such was the im-i 
 pression it made on them that during their sleep they often saw! 
 vividly what was to them a personal proof of the torments of hell 
 or the joys of heaven. This has been objected to those ages as if| 
 it were a proof of superstition. It was simply the attestation of j 
 a deep-seated conviction of the Gospel's truth; for the words ofj 
 our Lord are a sufficient evidence in the eyes of the Christian. 
 Many details of those dreams, created undoubtedly by imagina- 
 tion,'might be subject to criticism. They all were, however, more 
 or less warranted by the sentence which the Saviour predicted 
 would be pronounced at the last day on the wicked. 
 
 So profound must have been the effect produced on those 
 simple and impulsive souls that it must have kept them, most ofj 
 the time, in the strict observance of God's commandments. It 
 was only in their unguarded moments that they fell into those 
 irrepressible excesses of which the chronicles of that epoch have 
 preserved the memor}^ •' 
 
 Some of them, no doubt, were during many years the slaves of 
 violent and disgraceful passions. It could not have been the case- 
 for the great majority of them, who were constantly kept within, 
 proper bounds by the fear of the Lord and of His judgments.] 
 Scripture says that it is "the beginning of wisdom;" and whoever] 
 is strongly impressed by that holy fear is at least on the way to 
 holiness, and will surely reach it by the means of sanctification 
 the Church gives him. If the great mass of mankind is now 
 almost beyond the pale of hope, it is mainly on account of theirj 
 contempt for the threats of God and of their own conscience.) 
 When no one thinks of his last end, but only of present enjoy-| 
 ment, there can be scarcely any prospect of reformation. Fori 
 medieval Christians the door of amendment was always open beforej 
 
FACTS. 425 
 
 their eyes, and the worst of them felt constantly impelled to 
 knock at that door, let it be on account of dreams or not; to them 
 it was a reality. 
 
 Consequently there is no wonder that the greatest profligates 
 returned at last to the path of virtue, occasionally long before the 
 end of their life. It became one of the characteristics of the 
 times; and it is so often recorded in contemporary writings that 
 it is always expected by the reader whenever darker crimes than 
 usual are unveiled and shock his feelings. When this happened 
 the simple and holy people around expressed no surprise at hear- 
 ing that some great lord, known for his abominable excesses, had 
 suddenly disposed of his estates and his titles to enter an austere 
 monastery, where he soon began to edify his brother-monks by 
 the severity of his penance and the practice of the most exalted 
 virtue. There is now no country in Europe, no district of any 
 size in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, or England, where some 
 tradition does not exist of a reformed baron, a converted viscount, 
 some repentant knight, at least, who spent long years of self- 
 inflicted expiation either as a recluse in a church or as a lay brother 
 in an austere community. This alone argues a high standard of 
 virtue in the nation, because it supposes a keen sense of remorse 
 in the vicious, whilst, on the contrary, if a holy life is unknown 
 among the multitude, the most guilty men can scarcely feel the 
 need of reformation. 
 
 6. The Dark Side of the Middle Ages is briefly Explained. 
 
 From the time of the last Carlovingians in Germany and Gaul 
 
 —the latter half of the tenth century — down to the permanent 
 
 ) \ settlement of the Capetians in France during the eleventh, west- 
 
 ■ ern Europe was given over to an almost complete anarchy. The 
 state constitution established by Charlemagne was replaced by 
 pure feudalism; and Hugh Capet is justly called the first feudal 
 
 ! French king. Such a political revolution in the midst of the 
 r" I devastations of the Northmen in the West and of the Huns or 
 i 1 Magyars in the East could not but bring in its train almost a 
 
 ■ social disorganization. The Church suffered in her discipline as 
 the State in its welfare. Still, this is precisely the period when, in 
 our opinion, the ages of faith began. The frightful disorders 
 which convulsed Europe are now attributed to the barbarism of 
 
426 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the people, though they were then for the first time in history 
 thoroughly Christian; and some even of the best Catholic writers 
 assert that " virtue was not then on a level with faith." They 
 remind us with justice that there were at that epoch " great abuses 
 in the Church, awful crimes in society, a constant state of war," 
 etc. This must surely be admitted; but we complain that in the 
 terms in which this is stated there is an unfortunate confusion. 
 All this is attributed to the middle ages in general, and as 
 Catholicity was their true spirit, the reader naturally infers that 
 even religion was compromised by the public evils of those times, 
 and that the period which has been justly called the golden age 
 of Christendom was far less happy and virtuous than ours, for 
 instance. 
 
 To do away with this delusion it is proper to point out what 
 were the causes of those abuses, disorders, crimes; and it will be 
 easy to perceive that they came entirely from the pagan barba- 
 rism of the Northmen and the Huns, from the political institutions 
 that those savages brought with them, and from the social anar- 
 chy necessarily caused by the sudden dissolution of the Prankish 
 Empire founded by Charles the Great. Not only the Church was 
 completely irresponsible for all those calamities, but she alone di- 
 rectly after regenerated and totally Christianized those new pagans 
 in an incredibly short period of time. Nay, as long as the evil 
 continued there was always in the people everywhere a deep 
 spirit of holiness 'such as has been described. The abuses were , 
 in the main confined to the upper classes of society; and even 1, 
 these, instead of being altogether corrupt, offered occasionally the j 
 spectacle of eminent virtues. This is to be examined somewhat \ 
 in detail. 
 
 The full extent of the moral and social corruption prevalent , 
 at that epoch can be referred to the unchastity of the secular I 
 clergy, the scandalous excess of simony, and the constant state of j 
 war. Each of these subjects of inquiry must be studied apart, j 
 But to fully understand their bearing on the question of holiness \ 
 in the Church it is important to speak, though very briefly, of the • 
 true origin of those extraordinary abuses. This was undoubtedly a 
 three-fold fact; namely, the pagan barbarism of the new invaders 
 of Europe (the Northmen and Huns), the feudalism which they j 
 brought with them, and the anarchy that followed the dissolu- 
 tion of the Prankish Empire. 
 
FACTS. 427 
 
 I. Attention is not sufficiently paid to the remark that the sud- 
 den arrival of the Northmen and the Huns, almost at the same 
 moment, was a new invasion of paganism, this time greatly worse 
 than that of the former German nations. When the Church had 
 fully obtained a victory which all subsequent ages have admired; 
 when, with an untiring labor lasting fully four hundred years, 
 she had finally transformed and civilized them and brought them 
 to a holy life, she saw with dismay swarms of other barbarians 
 bringing with them the revolting worship of Thor, Wodan, and 
 Freya. These were not German divinities, but the new mytho- 
 logy came from Scandinavia. Of all the tribes which had de- 
 vastated Europe during the previous four centuries, the Anglo- 
 Saxons were the only ones who sacrificed human beings to 
 the monstrous Trinity of the North; and the Anglo-Saxons had 
 not ravaged any other country than Great Britain. They had 
 become at last devout Christians like the Franks, Burgundians, 
 and Goths. The Danes, who came a little later on and professed 
 the same kind of idolatry as the Anglo-Saxons, had only ravaged 
 England and Ireland, and had also embraced the worship of 
 Christ. But now from the dark north of the Baltic Sea other 
 tribes were coming more ferocious still, and worshipping the same 
 murderous gods. They arrived when, all former barbarians being 
 already converted, the ages of faith had fairly begun everywhere 
 their mild sway; and the student of history is aware of the de- 
 vastations by the Northmen which ensued in Gaul, Holland, Ger- 
 many, Spain, and Italy itself directly after the splendid reign of 
 Charlemagne. It is known that the fury of those savages was 
 chiefly directed against whatever bore the character of Christ. 
 Churches, asylums, monasteries, convents of women, were the 
 great objects of their rage. They were not awed into respect at 
 the sight of pontiffs or monks, as the Franks, Germans, and Goths 
 had been. This is proved by all the records of those times. If 
 the Church discipline became relaxed, if monks left often the 
 walls of their convents and forgot their ascetic rules, can a re- 
 proach of It be made to Christendom, to the Church which had 
 just given such proofs of holiness and zeal during several centu- 
 ries ? Is it not, on the contrary, wonderful that these new sav- 
 ages themselves were so soon converted and entered also in the 
 path of holiness > Must we not believe that sanctity, indeed, had 
 all the while continued to flourish among the new apostles who 
 performed again such wonders '* 
 
42 8 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 The Huns, who likewise contributed powerfully to the disorders 
 prevalent in the tenth century, did not, probably, belong to the 
 nation which had been led by Attila five hundred years before. 
 At least there was no connection between both events. The ances- 
 tors of the Hungarians, called also Magyars, are the only ones 
 with whom we are now concerned when we speak of Huns here. 
 Nothing positive is known of their religion, which must have been 
 a most crude superstition, since their manners were, according to 
 all historians, most cruel and barbarous. But the confusion into 
 which they invariably threw all the countries they invaded must 
 have bpen as pernicious as that which resulted from the North- 
 men's incursions in the West. Between both the whole of Europe 
 was convulsed to the very centre, and the few reflections just sug- 
 gested in the case of the Scandinavians need not be repeated 
 with regard to those ferocious Magyars. It is indeed wonderful 
 that the mediaeval Church did not perish altogether; and there 
 must have been in it a great development of sanctity to have 
 resisted the shock. 
 
 But it is particularly through the institution of feudalism that \ 
 the door was open to the abuses that crept in at that time in the ! 
 form of concubinage and simony; and this subject must be clearly 
 laid bare and explained. 
 
 II. Modern writers in general do not agree as to the true origin 
 of feudalism. Some go so far as to attribute it to the Romans; 
 but they are evidently w^rong. Many believe that it was a direct , 
 importation from Germany, and that it had spread in Europe long ; 
 before the tenth century. With the single exception of the Anglo- 
 Saxons in Great Britain, this is not true. The tribes of the Jutes 
 and Angles, who destroyed or drove away the Britons from their 
 native country, were truly Scandinavians, and had introduced 
 feudalism in Great Britain several centuries before the period 
 now under consideration. But they had not spread this institu- 
 tion on the continent, where the Carlovingians established, on the j 
 contrary, a governmental system totally different from the feudal, ; 
 since it was highly centralized. This is a positive proof that the ' 
 Germans and Franks of Pepin and Charlemagne did not know; 
 feudalism in their native country; and the contrary case of the 
 Anglo-Saxons confirms the opinion of those who trace the origin 
 of feudalism to Scandinavia. It is undeniable that under the hep- 
 tarchy in Great Britain Scandinavians had established in that 
 
FACTS. 
 
 429 
 
 I 
 
 island a social system which was essentially feudal; and that as 
 soon as the Northmen (Scandinavians likewise) made settlements 
 on the continent in Germany, France, and Italy, pure feudalism 
 began to prevail everywhere, whilst it had not before to any 
 extent. The conclusion is evident. 
 
 To understand it more thoroughly, it is good to examine with 
 some care a few facts which cannot but strike the reader. The 
 system followed by Charlemagne had been essentially one of cen- 
 tralization; but as soon as the Capetians appear, principalities 
 almost independent de facto, and organized under the feudal form, 
 show themselves everywhere. To speak of France in particular, 
 as soon as Hugh Capet is acknowledged king (a.d. 987), "the 
 country is divided into a number of fiefs, of which those imme- 
 diately dependent on the crown were X\\& four dukedoms of Francia, 
 Normandy [including Bretagne], Aquitaine or Guyenne, and Bur- 
 gundy; and the three counties of Toulouse, Flanders, and Verman- 
 dois." * 
 
 Normandy and Flanders were the centres and starting-points 
 of these new political organizations, because these countries were 
 the first conquests of the Northmen on the continent. A simple 
 look into the history of that epoch would offer the same spectacle 
 in Germany and Italy. The former central system of Charlemagne 
 was everywhere replaced by a fragmentary society under numerous 
 chiefs, and it is then \h2Xfiefs begin to appear. 
 
 It is true that there was some plausibility in the opinion of those 
 historians who formerly attributed the origin of feudalism to the 
 social disorganization consequent upon the breaking up of the 
 Frankish Empire, of which there will be occasion to speak shortly. 
 In the midst of a universal anarchy, they said, chieftains arose every- 
 where who took possession of a smaller or greater territory, accord- 
 ing to their individual power, and would acknowledge in the sovereign 
 only a nominal authority. Hence this division of Europe in an infi- 
 nite number of small fragments. It was not a system that had come 
 from Scandinavia, but it sprang from a universal decomposition of 
 society. So they said plausibly, and their opinion prevailed. 
 
 Had this been the case, however, the new fragmentary states 
 would not have been modelled everywhere on exactly the same pat- 
 tern such as they invariably were afterwards. Feudalism was abso- 
 
 * Alzog, Univ. Church Hist., vol ii. p. 309. 
 
43° THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 lutely the same in Sicily and the Abruzzo as in Flanders or southern 
 France ; and feudalism was a very complicated system. 
 
 This could not have happened unless there had been a central 
 starting-point from which it had originally come, to insure unity 
 in the whole ; and the-fe is no other supposition which satisfies the 
 mind except when looking to Scandinavia for it. Let this be seen a 
 moment. 
 
 The essence of feudalism, it is well known, consisted in this, that 
 the possession of land was originally vested only in the king, who 
 had primarily distributed it in the form of beneficia or fiefs, to his 
 followers {fidelcs), under the obligation of obeying his summons to 
 war whenever he called them. An act of disobedience on those 
 occasions cancelled the boieficium^ which returned to the crown. But 
 the king's great vassals, as long as they remained faithful {fideles), 
 had the same power of conveying a part of their own territory to other 
 lower vassals, under the same condition of military service. Hence 
 in purely feudal countries the king alone possessed the land Jure 
 propria ; the beneficium or fief ennobled the recipient as long as he 
 kept it, and made him a freeman. A man, therefore, was free and 
 noble who had a parcel of land, though his possession of it depended 
 only on his fidelity to the king. Those who were not land-owners 
 were not freemen, could not be called citizens, were of no account in 
 the state, except as serfs on the parcel of land which they were enti- 
 tled to till. Whence could such a system as this have originated.** 
 
 It is known from history that in pagan Scandinavia whenever, 
 from outlawry or from inability to subsist on a frozen land, a Viking 
 looked to the south for booty or, better still, for making a new setde- 
 ment, he engaged a number of adherents to his cause, who promised 
 to obey him absolutely, in the hope of sharing in his success. Either 
 in a fight at sea or in a pillaging expedition on land, the Viking's 
 authority was considered absolutely paramount. No one among 
 Scandinavians would have dared to complain of the portion he had 
 received from his lord, and scarcely considered himself as possessor 
 of it unless he continued faithful to his trust. This became a univer- 
 sally received principle whenever a permanent settlement was. effected 
 by them on some devoted point on the coasts of France or of Italy. 
 Dudo of St. Quentin in his rude poem admirably describes the survey 
 and division of Normandy made by the order of Rollo, after all the 
 inhabitants had been either destroyed or driven off. Bretagne was 
 afterwards added to Normandy by a cunning treaty, but was not so 
 
FACTS. 
 
 431 
 
 easily disposed of. It is wonderful how soon this system was adopted 
 everywhere in Europe, with scarcely any modification. All lands 
 were henceforth subject to feudal rules; and no one could be land- 
 owner without promising personally military service. It was only 
 'two or three hundred years later that this obligation contracted by 
 a vassal of following his superior lord to the wars could be changed 
 into a tax ; so that henceforth money replaced personal attendance 
 on the battle-field. This was the main source of all the abuses that 
 crept into the Church, as will be presently seen. 
 
 Though wonderful it is not difficult to imagine how this sys- 
 tem spread so rapidly over western Europe. There had been con- 
 stant invasions following each other for the last six hundred 
 years. No one could be sure that other irruptions would not fol- 
 low. On two occasions a highly centralized government had not 
 resisted the shock. The Roman power with its former prestige 
 had succumbed ingloriously. The brilliant Carlovingian Empire 
 had not obtained a better success. On this last occasion anarchy 
 had been so complete that every small community, either district 
 or township, was reduced to its own resources in every case of 
 present danger. The fierce spirit of Scandinavia had embodied 
 itself into a multitude of small armies with a most striking or- 
 ganization never before seen on earth. It had succeeded in over- 
 turning the empire of Charlemagne in less than a century. Was 
 there need of looking anywhere else than on feudalism for a 
 bulwark against a foreign foe ? And in case any one had looked 
 for something different and equally serviceable, would he have 
 found it? There was evidently no other resource than this strange 
 military system for enjoying peace; and hence every one rushed 
 to it. 
 
 It has been remarked, in fact, that the feudal system was ad- 
 mirably organized for war. One single chieftain at the head; 
 strict military service required from all subjects; the steel battle- 
 axe superior to any Roman sword; iron plates for a covering of 
 the body; and strong castles, with walls twelve feet thick, as the 
 only sure refuge for women and children under the protection of 
 valorous knights. Who can be surprised that Europe then 
 adopted the feudal system against all further invasions ? 
 
 It was, however, a barbarous institution, in which society was 
 reduced to its most simple elements. .Had it not been for the 
 Church, which placed the pope over the head of kings and ob- 
 
432 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 liged them to admit that he was their natural adviser, the judge 
 of their morals, the reprover of their iniquity, the protector of 
 the weak, and the refuge of the oppressed, Europe would have 
 certainly returned to barbarism and perished in blood and flames. 
 The feudalism of the thirteenth century under St. Louis in France 
 was exteriorly that of Scandinavia, but interiorly that of a Chris- 
 tian nation. The maxims of the Gospel had overcome and tamed 
 the selfishness and coarseness of the former chieftains. But we 
 are concerned here with the first outcome of this system of gov- 
 ernment, and must examine what effect it had naturally on me- 
 diaeval morals, and who was accountable for it. 
 
 III. We must first consider, though but for a moment, how far 
 moral disorder had followed the state of anarchy introduced by 
 the new invaders, and see if Christians had on account of it for- 
 gotten their religion and lost all their claims to holiness of 
 life. This is so far from being true that it was precisely at that 
 moment that Germany flourished under the Saxon emperors, and 
 France began to revive under the Capetian dynasty. The ex- 
 cesses of simony and unchastity had not yet penetrated to any 
 considerable extent north of the Po and the Danube. Henry the 
 Fowler, Otho the First and the Second, and particularly Henry 
 the Second, acted powerfully with the German bishops, and gen- 
 erally with the popes, to preserve morality pure and faith entire. 
 The celebrated monastery of Cluny in Burgundy spread its influ- 
 ence over all the monastic establishments in France, Italy, and 
 the north, and thus contributed to restore discipline well-nigh 
 destroyed during the Norman and Hungarian invasions. Under 
 the rule of St. Majolus and St. Odilo, Cluny became the admira- 
 tion of the world. Bishops, cardinals, popes, visited it together 
 with kings, dukes, rulers of nations. In spite of this extreme 
 prosperity the monks continued fervent in their ascetic rules, and 
 spread far and wide the odor of sanctity. When the history of 
 this epoch is studied with attention, people are surprised that 
 there was still such ah exuberance of piety; and it must be in- 
 ferred that the mass of the population had remained pure, though 
 a few years before they were subjected to such unheard-of calami- 
 ties. This will become more evident when the depth of the evil, 
 which soon extensively broke out, is examined more attentively. 
 
 IV. This has already been resumed under the three-fold head- 
 ing of unchastity, simony, and a universal state of war, and to 
 
FACTS. 433 
 
 this we must turn our attention in order to vindicate, to a great 
 extent, the character of the middle ages from these wholesale 
 accusations. 
 
 a. With regard to the first — unchastity — it is important to 
 examine when it began, because many writers often speak as if it 
 had been a universal plague whose origin was lost in a fabulous 
 antiquity, going back almost to the first days of Christianity in 
 the West. It is very fortunate that a man so learned as the Bene- 
 dictine Mabillon has thoroughly studied this question, and ex- 
 pressed succinctly and clearly his opinion of it in his Acta SS. 
 Bened* We translate a short paragraph of it: "When Gregory 
 VII. openly attacked clerical unchastity, there were more than a 
 hundred years since the celibacy of the clergy [until that time 
 undefiled, consecrated by the practice of so many centuries, and 
 by the authority and virtue of so many great men in the Chyrch] 
 had been impugned and openly assailed by a certain number 
 \(iuibusdani\ of corrupt and dissolute church ministers. At that 
 moment [the tenth century] unworthy pontiffs occupied the Ro- 
 man See, and the evil finally broke out so violently that some 
 priests [(^uosda??t presbyteros] dared to contract publicly marriage. 
 One of the first examples of it that we find in history" (here 
 Mabillon quotes his own Ajialecta \) " was that of a certain parish 
 priest of Chalons in Gaul by the name of Angelricus, who had 
 taken a wife in the presence of his own parishioners. After the 
 ceremony, when he prepared to take her to his house, the pious 
 and faithful people of the place stood in his way to prevent the 
 accomplishment of his nefarious purpose, and at the same time 
 lodged against him their complaint with the Chalons bishop, 
 named Mancion. The priest was summoned to appear before his 
 superior in a synod convoked for the nones of May. There he 
 humbly acknowledged his fault, and was sent by the bishop to 
 his metropolitan, Fulco [archbishop of Rheims]. Mr.ncion had 
 taken this step because he was in doubt what kind of punishment 
 it was his duty to inflict for such a new and perverse disposition 
 in a clergyman. Nothing is known .of Fulco's answer; but from 
 Mancion's letter, which we still possess, it must be inferred that 
 the crime of the parish priest was a new one, altogether unheard 
 of at that time." 
 
 * Praef. ad part ii., Saeculi iii. p. 41. f Vol. iii. p. 438. 
 
434 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 From Gams' tables, Series Episcoporwn Ecclesice. Catholicce, it ap- 
 pears that Mancion the bishop of Chalons, died in 893, and Fulco 
 of Rheims had been assassinated {occisus) a few years before. It 
 is permitted, therefore, to conclude that cases of this kind did not 
 happen in France before the beginning of the tenth century. It is 
 known from other sources that in Germany the same happened 
 only under the Hohenstaufens: later, consequently. In Lombardy, 
 particularly at Milan, under the Lombard dynasty, and owing 
 probably to the neighborhood of Rome, the evil was at first great- 
 er ; but the citizens opposed to it a sturdy resistance, of which it 
 shall be our duty to speak presently. 
 
 The evil, which increased rapidly until the popes, particularly 
 St. Gregory VII., put a stop to it, was unfortunately greatly pro- 
 moted by the political state of Rome at the very beginning of the 
 tenth century. The Lombards, who, coming from the banks of the 
 Elbe and even, it is thought, from the shores of the Baltic Sea, had 
 long before settled in northern Italy, to which they gave the name 
 of Lombardy, had brought feudalism with them as the Anglo- 
 Saxons did in Great Britain. It may not have been of so strict and 
 barbarous a character as the subsequent feudalism of the Nor- 
 mans ; still, the country had been divided in a great number of 
 small duchies and counties, whose chieftains enjoyed a despotic 
 power. This system was gradually introduced into Tuscany and 
 the Roman states ; and at the end of the ninth century the Mar- 
 grave Albert of Tuscany considered Rome and the country around 
 as his fief. Theodora the Elder, a celebrated courtesan, obtained 
 under him an immense power which passed over to her daughters, 
 Marozia and Theodora the Younger. In all feudal countries the 
 ecclesiastical dignities soon became simple fiefs which were grant- 
 ed by the sovereigns to their creatures ; and this became the great 
 source of simony, as shall soon be seen in detail. 
 
 It was natural that the Church preferments (which until that 
 time had depended on the free election on the part of clergy and 
 people, and latterly in many cases on chapters of cathedrals and 
 monastic assemblies) should henceforth mainly depend on the 
 arbitrary choice of the head of the State. This had already been 
 often the case in Merovingian Gaul, though feudalism had not yet 
 appeared. Immense evils had resulted from it, as may be seen in 
 the "History of the Franks" by Gregory of Tours. A remedy had 
 been applied to this abuse under the Carlovingians with a full 
 
FACTS. 435 
 
 understanding and consent on the part of Rome. But as soon as 
 feudal law became universal in Europe, the sovereigns everywhere 
 insisted on appointing bishops, abbots, prelates of every degree, 
 down to the very parish priests, because all these preferments had 
 become ^^/i- and could not escape from the consequences. 
 
 The election of the popes, therefore, at the beginning of the 
 tenth century was openly vested in Albert of Tuscany, and three 
 infamous women became all-powerful in the choice of the Supreme 
 Pastor of Christendom. It could be naturally expected from this 
 that the Roman pontificate should have suddenly become a sink 
 of iniquity ; and it is the conclusion immediately drawn by many 
 writers of the last century, and by Protestant or rationalist 
 authors of this age. Mr. Lecky himself, generally cautious and 
 fair in his statements, does not hesitate to say that "the Papacy 
 during almost the whole of the tenth century was held by 
 men of infamous lives,"* This is altogether untrue ; and it is 
 now easy to prove that scarcely two or three popes during the 
 whole extent of that period deserved to be stigmatized by anything 
 like this bold assertion. 
 
 Not less than twenty-five popes governed the Church during 
 the tenth century, so that the average length of each pontificate 
 was only five years. Of the whole number it can be broadly stated 
 that John XII. alone deserves a thorough condemnation. He was 
 the son of Alberic Duke of Tuscany, the husband of Marozia, and 
 Alzog cannot be accused of injustice when he says of him that, 
 "though young in years, this unworthy occupant of the papal 
 chair was old in profligacy, and brought disgrace upon his exalted 
 'office by his many vices and shameful excesses. But the Church" 
 he adds, ''then in a most humiliating state of bondage, cannot be made 
 responsible for the outrageous conduct of this young debauchee.'" 
 
 Of John XI., son likewise of Marozia and of Alberic, her first hus- 
 band, the record is rather dark, because he was throughout his pon- 
 tificate under the influence of his mother and brother. But scarcely 
 any other pope of that age can be compared to either this one or to 
 John XII. Luitprand, bishop of Cremona, has accused several others 
 of open crimes; but his testimony is openly contradicted by that of 
 Flodoard and Deacon John, who disculpate entirely Sergius III. ; and 
 is proved to be unreliable in the case of John X. Luitprand is, m 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 329. 
 
43^ THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 general, too favorable to secular princes as against ecclesiastical rulers. 
 He was in poiht of time one of the first admirers of the system called 
 afterwards Caesarism ; and perhaps he was the very first writer who 
 employed the words "sacred majesty" as applied to the emperors of 
 Germany. Whenever Flodoard is opposed to him — and this is often 
 the case — his assertions must be discarded as unworthy of trust. 
 
 On the other side, many of those unfortunate pontiffs of the tenth 
 century were worthy of sitting in Peter's chair. Among them we 
 can only name John IX., Benedict IV., Anastasius III., Leo VI., Leo 
 VIL, Stephen VIIL, Marinus II., and Agapetus II. It is useless to 
 say that the last pope on the list, Sylvester II., was one of the greatest 
 and best pontiffs that ever ruled the Church ; and it is indeed hard 
 to say how the author of the " History of European Morals" could 
 write the short phrase which has given rise to this very imperfect 
 discussion. 
 
 It is, nevertheless, indubitable that the odious state of bondage in 
 which many popes of the tenth century were held by the Tuscan and 
 Roman tyrants acted most disastrously with regard to the morality 
 of the clergy during those troublous times. How could the supreme 
 pontiffs fulfil their high duty of supervision over the whole Church 
 whilst they were mainly occupied with the constant disorders of the 
 city in which they lived, and whose civil and religious control escaped 
 almost from their grasp .? Several popes died of violence ; many sat 
 a very short time in the chair of St. Peter. It is indeed surprising 
 that they did so much for Rome, for Italy, for the whole world. For 
 their records are not altogether void of great and glorious events. 
 But our limits prevent us from even mentioning them in particular. 
 Meanwhile it is true that feudal Europe was left almost without a 
 head. Clerical discipline could not but become relaxed. Ignorance 
 of the most important religious truths increased; and it is said that 
 Christian people scarcely knew anything more than the Lord's Prayer 
 and the Creed. It seems, therefore, that Europe had indeed fallen 
 mto barbarism ; that holiness of life not only had disappeared, but 
 could not possibly retain a name in such a disorganized society. This 
 is what is generally believed. 
 
 But in the first place, if this had been truly the case, the Church 
 at least could not be reproached with having been the cause of it. 
 The great importance many modern writers attach to a full descrip- 
 tion of the dark side of this epoch consists in fastening on the Chris- 
 tian Church the blame of what is odious in it. They find a kind of 
 
FACTS, 437 
 
 delight in placing her on the stool of repentance as guilty. But the 
 reader understands that at least this is not true. The Church was 
 the victim of the passions of men ; she was altogether irresponsible 
 for the evils of those times, which were all mainly derived from 
 feudalism. 
 
 In a second place, the picture must not be taken as being alto- 
 gether without any redeeming features. We will quote but two of 
 them. The first was a complete reformation of monasteries, those 
 
 . fertile sources of holiness which can be called in the history of the 
 Church a well-spring of constant regeneration, in spite of occasional 
 drawbacks. Cluny has been named ; it is proper to return to it for a 
 moment. Rohrbacher in his Histoire de VEglise Catholique* says of 
 it without any exaggeration, and in a rather too concise form : " The 
 virtues practised at Cluny brought to its solitude a great number of 
 men distinguished by their birth and high station in life. Not only 
 laymen of illustrious blood came thither to embrace a life of penance, 
 but often canons and even bishops left their churches to devote the 
 remainder of their days to asceticism. Counts and dukes vied with 
 
 . each other in introducing into the monasteries dependent upon them 
 the rule of Cluny, in order that the holy abbot [Odo] might reform 
 them. Soon Odo did not confine his zeal to the walls of his convent, 
 but labored assiduously to re-establish the monastic discipline in the 
 whole of France and in Italy. The most renowned monastic houses 
 to which he succeeded in giving his rule were Fleury-sur-Loire in 
 the diocese of Orleans, St. Pierre-le-Vif at Sens, St. Julian of Tours, 
 Carlieu in the Macon diocese, St. Paul at Rome, and St. Augustine at 
 Pavia." 
 
 Alzog goes still farther. Speaking of Odo's successors he 
 says: "Under Aymar, Majolus, and particularly Odilo and Hugh, 
 this asylum of holiness and learning (Cluny) went on steadily 
 increasing in importance and influence, till finally toward the close 
 of this epoch (1048) there were to be found many monasteries 
 even in Spain and far-off Poland, which recognized the jurisdic- 
 tion of the abbot of Cluny. William, the worthy disciple of 
 Majolus, labored effectually for the reformation of monasteries 
 and the establishment of schools in Normandy and northern 
 France; and Richard, abbot of Vannes at Verdun, was equally 
 successful m correcting the abuses which had crept into the 
 
 '" Vol, xiii. p. 30. 
 
438 
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 monasteries of Belgium." From these holy houses chiefly was to 
 come the reformation of the clergy in point of morals. 
 
 A second redeeming feature of this epoch is the number of 
 great personages who practised the highest Christian virtues. At 
 the beginning of these reflections we thought we were authorized 
 to say that in the middle ages holiness prevailed at least in the 
 lower classes of society, and that the disorders and crimes which 
 now are made a subject of virulent reproach against the ages of 
 faith were confined to the feudal nobility. Vv^e thus appeared to 
 have given up the justification of the highest classes as a complete 
 impossibility. But this was not our formal intention; and here 
 it is proper to quality our meaning. Hofler in the Did. de TheoL 
 Cath. (art. Empire d'AIle?nagne), speaking of the German emperor 
 Henry II. and of his time, which coincides with the period under 
 review, says with justice: "No emperor of Germany ever carried 
 out more completely than Henry II. the wise design he had 
 formed of placing excellent bishops at the head of the various 
 dioceses. Later on his successors thought they could derive an 
 abundant source of revenue from the sale of bishops' sees, and 
 transformed simony into what they called a royal tax {Jus regale\ 
 Henry II., on the contrary, kept always in view the spiritual in- 
 terest of the Church, and gloriously ended the period of the 
 Saxon emperors. This period was rich in princes, bishops, 
 abbesses, great military men, statesmen, and saints, all of them 
 of royal blood. None of the kingly races that foUow^ed Henry 
 II., and obtained the imperial crown, produced so many rulers 
 distinguished by a righteous will, a devoted heart, a life alto- 
 gether given up to the accomplishment of the noblest designs. 
 As soon as the empire was founded [by this Saxon race] the Ger- 
 mans obtained the hegemony of the world, and the venerable 
 empire of Charlemagne kept anew the leadership of peoples and 
 kingdoms as long as it remained faithful to the principles of its 
 origin." 
 
 This is perfectly true, and could be proved by an infinity of 
 details. But this alone would suffice to show the incorrectness of 
 the prevalent opinion with regard to the pretended loose morality 
 in mediaeval times. It cannot be said absolutely that "virtue was 
 not then on a level with faith;" the proposition must be corrected 
 at least by the remark that there were then a great number of 
 men of the highest rank in whom virtue was fully on a level with 
 
FACTS. 439 
 
 faith, though it could not be said of a certain number of others. 
 Would to God the same might be true of our age ! 
 
 In a third place, having previously traced up the origin of 
 unchastity in the secular clergy, and proved that it was not older 
 than the beginning of the tenth century, it is important to look at 
 its extent and at the various checks it received. The conclusion 
 must be that the evil was not so wide-spread as is generally sup- 
 posed, and that its existence is far from arguing a deep corruption 
 in society. 
 
 For a long time — most of the time, in fact — it was almost con- 
 fined on the continent to a part of France and to Lombardy. 
 Germany during the reign of the Saxon and Franconian em- 
 perors was totally exempt from it. Most of the measures taken 
 against it in several councils referred to France and northern 
 Italy alone. Simony was spread much more extensively, as will 
 be presently seen. England, however, was touched by the evil as 
 early as the epoch of the Heptarchy, for a short period of time. 
 St. Dunstan, acting with energy and prudence, sufficed for bring- 
 ing on in Great Britain a complete reformation. The history of 
 Gregory VII. proves that he experienced a much greater difficulty 
 in suppressing avarice than lust. It follows that the general idea 
 on the subject is greatly exaggerated, particularly if we look at 
 the checks the evil received. 
 
 We will mention only two of these checks; namely, one that 
 came from the people, the other from the Church's rulers; but 
 both suffice to vindicate the truth that in mediaeval times holiness 
 reigned to a great extent. 
 
 It would be a great error to imagine that clerical immorality 
 was ever looked upon with indifference both by the faithful in 
 general and by the ecclesiastical rulers. The fact above men- 
 tioned, taken from Mabillon, which, he says, was one of the first 
 examples of this vice recorded in history, is yet fresh in the 
 reader's memory. The action immediately taken by the people of 
 the parish where it took place is most remarkable. They were 
 evidently shocked at this sudden display of priestly corruption so 
 far never heard of in their neighborhood, at least. The bishop of 
 Chalons-sur-Marne, to whom they carried the culprit, was himself 
 so much surprised that he did not know what punishment the 
 canons of the Church inflicted for this degrading vice, and referred 
 the case to his metropolitan, the archbishop of Rheims, But 
 
440 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 what is most important here is the feeling of horror excited in 
 the citizens of an ancient city, such as Chalons was, at a sight 
 which none of them could have expected. If the records of those 
 times were thoroughly sifted for such a purpose, it would no 
 doubt be found that the same was the case for a great many other 
 localities ; and the annals of- the Church of Milan furnish, we may 
 say, the proof of it. 
 
 It has been already remarked that northern Italy, and Lom- 
 bardy in particular, was one of the most noted parts of Europe where 
 clerical unchastity spread earlier and was carried to the greatest 
 excess. This might be attributed to the feudal customs which 
 were introduced along the Po by the Lombards as early as the 
 fifth or sixth centuries. All the dioceses and parishes were fiefs, and 
 the lords of fiefs were independent. The open abuse of concubin- 
 age, however, did not break out in northern Italy much earlier than 
 in France; and suddenly we are the witnesses of a spectacle which 
 undoubtedly proves that the people were not disposed to look on 
 it with indifference, and that their own virtue made them indig- 
 nant at the sight of it. What rendered the evil worse in the arch- 
 diocese of Milan, in particular, was that for several years the arch- 
 bishop himself was openly guilty of that crime; and it may be 
 fairly supposed that on this account the greatest number of in- 
 ferior clergymen rushed into it. The Council of Pavia in 1022, 
 presided over by Pope Benedict VIII., passed a number of decrees 
 against clerical unchastity; but Guido archbishop of Milan, took 
 no account of them, and his clergy followed his example rather 
 than obey the Church. They were supported in their contumacy 
 by the bulk of the Lombard aristocracy; but the people in- 
 stinctively recoiled at the sight of these excesses. They required 
 only an organization with leaders at their head to prove their stern, 
 determination of upholding virtue. 
 
 Two good priests, Ariald and Landulf, became ostensibly their 
 chiefs; and although this new party was composed mainly of the 
 lower classes of society, they soon grew bold enough to express their 
 firm determination of putting an end to the scandal. The aristocratic 
 party was at first amazed at the audacity of this rabble, and thought 
 that ridicule would suffice to put it down. They called W\^m patarim, 
 ixompatarta, which in the Milanese dialect meant a popular faction, 
 of good-for-nothing fellows. But the new organization, instead of 
 being cowed down by this vulgar insult, accepted the name and boasted 
 
FACTS. 441 
 
 of being patarini indeed. They grew bolder and more numerous 
 every day, though they had no political power on account of their 
 inferiority of caste, and used only the influence of religion and virtue 
 to obtain their end. 
 
 It is most remarkable that they obtained it at last; and this 
 apparently ridiculous insurrection of the rabble against the wealthy, 
 the influential, the powerful classes of Milanese citizens, compelled 
 the body of the clergy in 1057 to subscribe a document by which they 
 promised to faithfully observe the rules of celibacy. 
 
 If in the most corrupt parts of Christendom the people thus openly 
 checked the spread of unchastity in the clergy, it will be easily admit- 
 ted that in places less tainted by vice they exerted likewise their 
 efforts for the same object, though scarcely any records of it have 
 remained. 
 
 That the rulers of the Church also did not, on their part, remain 
 indifferent to the same evil is abundantly proved by all the ecclesi- 
 astical history of that age; and to render the proof of it striking it 
 would be necessary only to bring forward a multitude of facts well 
 known by this time, when the middle ages have been so thoroughly 
 studied. The life of Gregory VII., in particular, would suffice to 
 demonstrate that the highest virtue, rising often to heroism, was dis- 
 played for this object by many popes, cardinals, prelates, to whom 
 the Church's purity was entrusted. The scope of the present volume 
 does not admit of such a vast historical development ; and it is not 
 needed, because many special books of great ability and learning have 
 been written on this subject. We must pass on to the next stage of 
 the present discussion. 
 
 b. The second class of accusations directed against the middle 
 ages refers to simony, which, as has just been said, spread at that 
 epoch in the Church much more extensively than unchastity. And 
 simony being a much nearer outcome from feudalism than the other 
 vice, many other disorders connected with it, which evidently grew 
 from feudal customs (such as the open disrespect of canonical laws 
 which debarred ecclesiastics from engaging in war, from meddling 
 with temporal concerns, oppressing the poor, and the like), must be 
 considered at the same time. It will be plainly evident that had 
 there been no simony, the other excesses would not have afflicted the 
 Church; but with feudalism it was not possible that it should not 
 prevail. Gregory VIL, therefore, and many other popes who fought 
 valiantly against this vice of simony were in fact attacking feudalism 
 
442 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 in its most essential features. This has not been sufficiently re- 
 marked, or rather has seldom been even noticed by historians, and 
 will give to this part of the discussion an interest of its own, at the 
 same time that it will effectually free the Church from the excessive 
 obloquy she has been subjected to on this account. 
 
 The meaning of the word simony is sufficiently well understood. 
 It arose from the fact recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, when 
 Simon Magus offered money to St. Peter in return for a purely spirit- 
 ual gift.* To exchange some temporal advantage — money or any- 
 thing else — against a spiritual gift of any kind is simony. This 
 crime has often been attempted in the Church, even in primitive 
 ages ; but it can be maintained that under the feudal legislation it was 
 unavoidable, A very able article written by M. Alphonse Callery in the 
 Revue des questions Historiques (for October, 1879), entitled Llmpot 
 du Roi, has spread an extraordinary and altogether new light on 
 many feudal transactions. And though the writer does not speak of 
 simony in his paper and intends only to discuss the origin of impots 
 particularly in France, he has completely explained, without even 
 thinking of it, the strange fact of the most unblushing simony which 
 suddenly appeared everywhere in Christian Europe at the very be- 
 ginning of the middle ages. This vice must be now admitted as 
 being inherent to feudalism; and the popes, in order to preserve the 
 Christian principles in the matter of investitures, for instance, had to 
 move heaven and earth, as it were, to enlighten the Christian con- 
 science on so vital a question, and to insist on the strict limits which 
 feudal princes could not transgress in granting their be?ieficia. From 
 the very principles of feudalism, all ecclesiastical dignities had gradu- 
 ally become so many fiefs, which could not be granted to any one 
 unless he promised military service or — at a later epoch — gave a com- 
 pensation for it in disbursing a sum of money. From this it is evi- 
 dent that, bishop's sees being strictly fiefs granted by the prince, no 
 bishop-elect could take possession of his office, before or after his con- 
 secration, without binding himself towards his lord — the emperor, 
 king, or duke — to a strictly personal military service whenever called 
 for it, or without purchasing a change of this obligation by a sum of 
 money commensurate with the importance of his new functions. The 
 feudal laws at that time were considered binding in all Europe ; the 
 Christian conscience was naturally brought to believe that there 
 
 * Acts viii. ig. 
 
FACTS. 443 
 
 could not be a crime or fault in obeying them. But the worst part 
 of the whole system was the singular fact that these feudal customs 
 were not grounded on natural or divine or ecclesiastical right, but 
 only on national prejudices which had originated in northern Europe 
 during pagan times and had taken possession of all Christian coun- 
 tries. M. Alphonse Gallery, probably without wishing it, has touched 
 here the most fatal sore of that old gangrene so long admired by many 
 excellent men ; namely, the feudal power. This must be seen more 
 attentively. 
 
 As previously remarked, feudalism essentially consisted in the 
 promise of military service to a lord by his vassal, as a compensation 
 — a quid pro quo — for the granting of a benefice or fief — feudum. In 
 course of time — for this took place very gradually, as M. Gallery 
 shows — military service was replaced by a sum of money, which at 
 last was turned into a tax ; and the special object had in view by the 
 writer oi V Impot du Roi is simply to render an account of the various 
 steps by which taxes were introduced in France, and thus free the 
 kings, particularly Philip the Fair, from the odium of having acted 
 arbitrarily in imposing many of them. But to elucidate the subject 
 under all its aspects, M. Gallery is bound to remark that feudal laws 
 were never considered as founded on strict right — that is, on natural 
 or Roman law — but they were only national customs whose origin, 
 according to him, cannot be pointed out. 
 
 To prevent an unhappy confusion on the subject M. Gallery, 
 therefore, calls public attention to the fact that many modern 
 v^rriters on feudal laws, particularly the more modern ones, are 
 altogether unreliable, because, in their anxiety for explaining every- 
 thing according to legal principles, they often have recourse to the 
 natural, or Roman — and, we ourselves would add, the canon — law, 
 whilst, as he justly says, there was not the least connection be- 
 tween all these branches of jurisprudence and feudalism, which 
 was simply a collection of national customs irrespective of right or 
 wrong. He ends these considerations by stating in a note that it 
 was "the Roman law which in fact killed outright the feudal 
 regime'' by making right prevail over absurd customs. 
 
 We perceive, therefore, at the very beginning of the middle 
 ages, among nations fundamentally and radically Ghristian, a 
 pagan code ruling them by simple customs in which even the nat- 
 ural law was not consulted, to which even in many cases it was 
 opposed. No one, surely, will pretend that the Church had intro- 
 
444 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 duced it. Still, no one appeared to be aware of this serious anom- 
 aly ; and it was with a perfectly good conscience that the feudal 
 prescriptions were followed. Hence when a man of noble blood, 
 having entered the career of Church preferment, was offered by his 
 lord a benefice, such as a bishop's see or a rich abbey, he did not 
 feel the least scruple in taking his oath that he would follow his 
 lord in all his wars, fight for him against all comers, and shed 
 blood in torrents to prove his fidelity to his sovereign. If this 
 sovereign wanted money rather than a soldier, the new bishop or 
 abbot could not even see any difficulty in giving money instead of 
 military service. And by this very simple process, in the matter 
 of ecclesiastical preferments, simony directly spread as far and 
 wide as feudalism itself went. Is this a proof that the middle 
 ages were a very corrupt epoch ? 
 
 Before examining this last question, however, it is proper to 
 qualify what has just been said. In the crudity with which it has 
 been presented, owing to M. Gallery's blunt exposition, it seems 
 it must be supposed that the feudal ideas then prevalent had ex- 
 tinguished the moral sense in people subjected to them ; and that 
 whatever the Gospel and canon law prescribed against simony 
 and the shedding of blood by ecclesiastics had been entirely for- 
 gotten. This, surely, could not be. When the pagan Northmen 
 embraced Christianity, they received a new code which enlightened 
 their consciences on many points, and gradually civilized them 
 and prepared them for holiness. It is known how those nations 
 became finally alive to and susceptible of the most refined moral 
 ideas. The various steps they passed through in this spiritual 
 progress could be easily ascertained by historical researches ; and 
 it would be easy to distinguish by a higher moral pattern the age 
 of St. Louis of France, for instance, from that of Hugh Gapet and 
 his immediate successors. The feudal laws regulating the duties 
 of the vassal toward his lord, and expressing the hierarchical 
 rights of the lord toward his vassal, were gradually cleared up 
 and fundamentally changed by the Christian code which all Eu- 
 rope obeyed. So that when the popes remonstrated against the 
 abuses engendered by feudalism, they struck in the public con- 
 science a key which awakened Christian feelings that otherwise 
 would have remained dormant. Consequently the execution of 
 feudal laws must have left tl;ie Christian conscience in a state of 
 
FACTS. 445 
 
 It is nevertheless undeniable that the temptation to prefer the 
 prescriptions of that strange code to those of the Gospel was on 
 many occasions very strong. The feudal ideas had during many 
 ages entwined themselves with the whole life of the people ; for 
 they embraced all the phases of life, and recurred at every mo- 
 ment of it. Those nations could not even understand a state of 
 society different from the one under which they lived; and for this 
 reason it required many centuries to abolish feudalism. If the 
 Roman law, according to M. Gallery, killed it, it took many cen- 
 turies to accomplish the measure. In fact, when a long-established 
 custom is in opposition to any law, human or divine, a very long 
 I period of time is necessary for the human and even divine law to 
 < prevail. There are always, in such cases as these, wretched com- 
 positions with the human conscience which appear lawful to the 
 great number of men ; and it is only among those in whom the 
 moral sense is most keen that the sophism on which the custom 
 rests will be directly perceived and opposed. 
 
 Thus it is very probable that when a German emperor of the 
 Hohenstaufen race required of a high dignitary in the Church the 
 oath of a vassal, as it was then understood by all classes of society, 
 the vassal scarcely reflected that, the investiture of the office being 
 given through the proffer of the crosier and the ring, the emperor 
 in fact assumed the right of granting spiritual authority itself, to- 
 gether with the temporalities attached to the office. So the popes 
 'understood it directly, and opposed the attempt with all their 
 energy. But the temporal interests connected with this feudal 
 ceremony were of so attractive a nature that many churchmen 
 succumbed to the temptation. Nearly all the sees in Germany 
 were soon filled with prelates who had surrendered the rights of 
 the Church, and acknowledged the State as the source of spiritual 
 power. There was directly an inextricable confusion created be- 
 tween the temporal and spiritual authority. If military service or 
 money was required as compensation for the beneficium, the new 
 :anonists pretended that it was granted only in view of what was 
 of a temporal nature in the transaction, and not in view of the 
 spiritual office. It was, however, impossible to distinguish be- 
 :ween the one and the other. Thus simony had crept in under 
 ■alse colors, and Europe was soon infected by it ; for it did not 
 ong remain confined to Germany. 
 
 Any one who has read the history of those times knows with 
 
 
446 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 what zeal the popes opposed the granting of investitures with the 
 circumstances resulting from the feudal code. For a long time 
 this was attributed to ambition and pride on their part. Modern 
 researches have completely justified them. Nay, at tl^is day their 
 heroic struggles followed by a well-bought triumph is the best 
 vindication of the Church's holiness at that time. No one can pre- 
 tend that all members of the Church must be holy in order to secure 
 that character to the organization itself. It is sufficiently upheld 
 when the interpreters of Christ's will, those who have been entrust- 
 ed with His authority, are faithful to their trust. It is not the 
 conflict that obscures the principle ; it is the end that clears it 
 up. It just happened that this conflict did not begin in France, 
 under Philip the Fair, before it had terminated in Germany by 
 the triumph of right ; and France, in her turn, by the brutal vic- 
 tory of Nogaret over Boniface VIII. failed at last in her purpose, 
 because she thereby raised the indignation of Europe against her. 
 Dante himself, the pretended Ghibelline, sangit in verse that shall 
 never perish. 
 
 For the popes were not unsupported in their conflict against 
 wrong. They had on their side human conscience, v/hich proved 
 its soundness in the general result. How could the pontiffs alone 
 have carried on the warfare for so long a time, and brought it at 
 last to a happy issue, had they not been supported first by the 
 whole mass of the people, and then by a great number of princes, 
 prelates, warriors even, together with heroic women like Mathilda 
 of Tuscany? Let the reader reflect that the contest was essential- 
 ly a moral one. The question was: Which of the two sides would 
 prevail, virtue or vice? Innocent III., among other pontiffs, set- 
 tled the question, and no one can pretend to-day that the heart of 
 the Christian world at that time was corrupt, since without neces- 
 sitating the fall of the skies the reign of justice was at last estab- 
 lished. To those v/ho would refuse to acknowledge the Church's 
 holiness at that epoch on account of the prevalent scandals, the 
 strong antagonism againt those scandals on the part of the people 
 and their spiritual rulers can be successfully opposed as a proof 
 of moral soundness at the core. The more so that right at last 
 prevailed, and the thirteenth century, with its admirable virtues 
 and transcendent heroism, bringing in its train a most remark- 
 able prosperity among European nations, will ever be a cause of 
 just pride for Catholicity, and a sufficient answer to all its accu- 
 
FACTS. 
 
 447 
 
 sers. It was a period of excessive activity for good as well as for 
 evil, but in the end good preponderated, and the Gospel's precepts 
 at last ruled over society. If at that time, as Montalembert has 
 said, " by the side of the opened heavens hell always appeared," 
 the key of the abyss remained in the hand of the Supreme Pon- 
 tiff, who would have closed it by a last victory had it been time 
 for the world to come to an end. 
 
 c. The last indictment against the middle ages, and the strong- 
 est in appearance, is the universal state of war which then pre- 
 vailed in Europe. It is useless to describe it here, since it can be 
 found in hundreds of books which, nevertheless, often exaggerate 
 it and overcharge the picture. It can be easily proved, on the 
 contrary, that, admitting all the facts well known by this time, it 
 was emphatically an age of peace, particularly if we compare it 
 with our own. The last but one of the beatitudes proclaimed by 
 Christ on the Mount was the blessing He bestowed on peace- 
 makers, and mediaeval Christianity bore eminently that character. 
 
 The complete demonstration of this apparently strange propo- 
 sition has been furnished by Kenelm Digby in the aumirable work 
 from which we have often quoted. And as it would be impossible 
 to perform the task more satisfactorily, it will suffice to give a 
 short abstract of the headings prefaced to his ninth book, in 
 which he fully discusses the subject; Unfortunately the delight- 
 ful and most convincing details in which he indulges as usual 
 must be altogether passed over. No one, however, is prevented 
 ■from consulting the original, and it is undoubtedly one of the 
 most agreeable pastimes any one can afford himself. 
 « The eminent author furnishes ample proof that the love and 
 desire of peace prevailed in the ages of faith, and that nations in 
 general assumed a pacific character. Peace was extolled, war 
 regarded with horror. The demon himself, in whom all then firmly 
 believed, and whom they all strongly hated, was known chiefly 
 as the enemy of peace. The people detested war, and warriors 
 often felt deep remorse for engaging in it. 
 
 The heart-felt yearning after peace was expressed in the 
 prayers, hymns, and regular offices of the Church. No object of 
 hope or desire was oftener repeated. Devotions, public supplica- 
 tions, processions were of frequent occurrence for the same pur- 
 pose. 
 
 The peace invoked by the people and promised by the Prince 
 
448 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 of peace was, above all, internal — peace of the heart. It was en- 
 joyed, first, as against internal disorder, for men were then at 
 peace with God, and therefore at peace with the evils of life, with 
 death, with the grave itself. Secondly, they were at peace with them- 
 selves, hence they. had the spirit of wisdom. Thirdly, they were at 
 peace with men, even with the enemies of truth. But they renounced t 
 an evil peace which is often looked for in wealth, in honors, in the 
 world's vanities. Particularly would they have felt horror for the 
 cold peace of the unbeliever, which in our age is called indifference. 
 The internal peace of the middle ages, on the contrary, is well ex- 
 pressed in all the paintings and statues they have left us as the pure 
 emblem of an undisturbed tranquillity. 
 
 From internal peace followed that of domestic life. The simple 
 manners of these ages promoted it. There was then peace between 
 all the members of. the house. The patriarchal character of Catholic 
 families indicated it. As there was then invariably peace in mar- 
 riages, often family feuds were put an end to by the happy union of 
 two of their members. 
 
 From domestic peace followed peace through society. Catholic 
 life always bore a pacific character. Litigation was denounced and 
 shunned. The legal profession was sanctified; still, a holy horror 
 prevailed against lawsuits. Men then preferred suffering loss. Hence 
 civil causes were often referred to the arbitration of the clergy. The 
 trial by battle, another baneful fruit of feudalism, was condemned as 
 contrary to peace. To all disputes men were averse; ambitious 
 desires were repressed ; they were excluded by the prevailing taste 
 for natural joys. Hence cheerful life in cities and in the country. 
 Truly the spirit of peace had descended through religion upon men.- 
 
 From the domestic and social elements peace passed to all the 
 details of the poUtical constitution. The ideal of all government in 
 the ages of faith was essentially pacific. This was seen in the ritual 
 of coronations and the representations of monarchy; in the pacific 
 education of princes; in the pacific symbols of power; in the pacific 
 instructions given to kings; in the dispositions required of their 
 councillors; in the softening intervention of women in the govern- 
 ment. The judicial character of a monarch was preferred to his war- 
 like spirit. Th-e action of parliament and of all administrators was 
 mainly pacific. Peace also was greatly promoted by the harmony 
 between the temporal and spiritual powers. The desire of establish- 
 ing a unity of empire in Europe arose from the desire of peace. The 
 
FACTS. 
 
 449 
 
 pacific ideal of subjects was implied in the views of government, and 
 the good of the people was recognized as essential to states. 
 
 The pacific ideal of government v^as realized to a great extent, 
 as is proved by the great number of pacific kings, princes, and 
 nobles. The funeral monuments we still possess of those ages 
 bear testimony to it. The middle ages enjoyed more peace than 
 modern writers pretend. This is also proved by the origin and 
 nature of the truce of God. 
 
 Peace naturally ensued from the union of all nations promoted 
 by the Catholic Church. . . . Political peace was desired and 
 ; ratified on religious grounds. 
 
 The general character of warlike operations in the middle ages 
 is to be attentively considered. Wars in general were commenced, 
 conducted, and terminated in the spirit of peace. The calamities 
 of war did not fall on all men, and multitudes enjoyed exemption 
 from them. Wars did not interrupt works of peace. Destructive 
 modes of warfare were prohibited. Pacific instructions were 
 given to soldiers. Chivalry was instituted with a view to coun- 
 teract their vices and promote peace. Three kinds of wars were 
 sanctioned: wars of justice, wars for mercy, the crusades to rescue 
 oppressed brethren. 
 
 The object of border wars was to repel invaders. That of 
 internal wars was to put down disturbers of peace. The only 
 wars liable to objection were those of the tyrannical feudal lords, 
 cooped up in their monstrous castles. But the Church always 
 cried out against those local tyrants. Brotherhoods were insti- 
 tuted to defend the country against them. The royal power was 
 invoked. Italy succeeded in subduing them. The French kings 
 always fought against them, and greatly curtailed their power. 
 The clergy used the temporal power they had acquired, and in 
 order to defend the people erected castles themselves. The Ger- 
 man bishops warred against the castles of the robber-knights. 
 
 Finally, a review is made of the blessed peace-makers, including 
 kings, princes, feudal lords, knights adverse to duelling in the modern 
 sense; obscure men and women; the clergy generally, who condemned 
 tournaments as contrary to peace, the sovereign pontiffs, the papal 
 legates, the great prelates ; the monks and friars. 
 
 This sketch includes the whole subject of wars in the middle ages, 
 and ends in what can be called their complete justification. Being in 
 the form of a table of contents, it seems at first sight to be a mere 
 
45© THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 array of assertions. But that these assertions are made good by the 
 eminent author will be readily admitted by any one who will consent 
 to read the entire ninth book of Mores Caiholici. The most important 
 part, however, is the chapter on the "tyrannical feudal lords," which 
 precisely enumerates most of the facts objected to the mediaeval 
 epoch. It is doubtful if a stronger case against the evils of those 
 times could ever be made by any reviler of the middle ages. The 
 substance of all the usual outcries against feudalism is certainly 
 brought forward by Mr. K. Digby. But he victoriously proves that 
 this ugly feature, hdwever detestable in itself, instead of detracting from 
 their pacific character, confirms it on the contrary, and places on 
 record the best possible proof that the Christian spirit reigned 
 supreme in the midst of those feudal disorders and crimes. With 
 these few reflections we close the discussion on the character of holi- 
 ness fostered by the Catholic Church during the three or four cen- 
 turies which have been most unjustly called the darkest period of 
 human history. The picture would be greatly enhanced if besides the 
 religious and moral questions involved in it, the social, civil, ana 
 material aspect of Europe at that time could be sufficiently illustrated. 
 But this would go beyond our scope. It has been done lately by 
 some eminent writers ; and the more this epoch of history is studied 
 in authentic documents and the true sources, the more impartial 
 men become convinced that a great injustice has been done by 
 previous authors in the invariable description they drew of w^hat they 
 called the " dark ages." Even economists now admit that the well- 
 being and happiness of the lower classes of society at that time was 
 far superior to what it is at the present day ; and if social economy 
 continues to progress on the road on which M. Le Play was the first 
 to place it, the well-wishers of the people in this age will insist on a 
 return to many of the institutions which have been misrepresented 
 and abused since the beginning of the sixteenth century. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 I. A Short Sumvia7'y of Facts so far Unfolded. 
 
 The Church's beneficial action on the morals of men has thus 
 far been described from the beginning of Christianity down to the 
 end of the middle ages. To complete our task, it must be briefly 
 sketched for modern times. The stream of holiness flowing from 
 her lips and heart can suffer no interruption as long as the king- 
 dom of God is to continue on earth. 
 
 Is it not wonderful to see how invariably she has brought all 
 nations to the practice of the most exalted virtues ? Among the 
 Jews, Egyptians, Syrians, Persians, and the innumerable tribes of 
 the far Orient, as well as among the Greeks, the Romans, and 
 the Celts in the West, this was most remarkable primitively on 
 account of the superstitions and vices prevalent among them all. 
 But the conversion of the barbarian world, and the introduction 
 among them of the most sublime morality, was more wonderful 
 still, owing to their savage ferocity and their former indulgence 
 in the most unbridled passions. Still, the Saxons in Great Britain, 
 the Northmen in central Europe, the Huns along the Danube and 
 farther east, became, through the Church's exertion, the humble 
 followers of a meek Saviour, and placed their glory in the thorough 
 performance of the mild virtues inculcated by Christ in his Ser- 
 mon on the Mount. Could the Church have succeeded in such an 
 extraordinary task had she not been herself eminently holy ? The 
 blemishes appearing in some of her spiritual rulers, as recorded 
 by the impartial historian, must have been at that time rare excep- 
 tions resulting from the weakness of human nature, of which the 
 Church cannot be made responsible, since they were so clearly 
 opposed to her own teaching. But it is important to remark that 
 those exceptions were, no doubt, but comparatively few, since they 
 
452 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 did not prevent the establishment of true holiness among so many 
 millions of simple hearers and beholders. With corrupt leaders 
 the Church would have spread corruption, not virtue. New con^ 
 verts must have generally practised not precisely what they heard, 
 but chiefly what they saw. If the inner life of the Redeemer grew 
 up so quickly and so brightly among the new Christians as his- 
 tory teaches it did, there could be no other reason for it except 
 that it was also conspicuous in the teachers, and the simple chroni- 
 cles of those fourteen centuries abound with a further proof of it 
 in the numerous biographies they have left us of those primitive 
 apostles, bishops, and monks. What an expansion of charity, of 
 piety, of self-sacrifice, is spread over the pages in which the candid 
 recital is written! The annals of the world present no other spec- 
 tacle comparable to this; and the sanctity of the Christian Church 
 blooms as eminently and "exclusively in human history as the 
 brightness of the sun in its noontide splendor outshines all other 
 sources of light. 
 
 It evidently culminated during the middle ages; because the 
 Church's influence was then paramount, and her moral direction 
 was in the main heeded. It was only from a comparatively small 
 number of emperors, kings, and princes that an emphatic voice of 
 disobedience was occasionally heard. But because the doings of 
 those great men in the world formed then the main staple of history, 
 the reader of those simple and primitive records is occasionally 
 induced to believe that contumacy was then rife and the Church's 
 power closely restricted and ineffectual. But it is fair to remem- 
 ber that besides the Fredericks and Henrys of Germany, the 
 Philips of France, the Plantagenets and Tudors of England, there 
 were millions and millions of fervent Christians not only in the 
 cloister and in the wilderness of the forests, but in towns and 
 cities, in hamlets and farm-houses, w^hose lives were spent in the 
 constant praise of God and the fulfilment of the most arduous 
 duties. Yes, great virtues were then practised not only in Italy and 
 Spain and Gaul, but in England and Scotland and Germany and 
 Sarmatia, and in Scandinavia itself. Have not all these countries," 
 which then comprised an immense number of smaller states, a sur- 
 prising list of saints inscribed in their respective hagiographies ? 
 Each province of France, to my knowledge, enjoys at least the 
 advantage of a numerous array of holy people who have embalmed 
 the mediaeval epoch by the perfume of their virtues. In Brittany, 
 
FACTS. 453 
 
 where I was born, several folio volumes have been published con- 
 taining the biographies of a small number of them. The great 
 majority of them will never be known but to God. The same is 
 true of all European countries which have to this day remained 
 Catholic; and among those which are now Protestant the memory 
 of the former heroes of holiness is still vividly kept by many among 
 the people. 
 
 This is intended only to introduce the special subject of this 
 chapter. The continuance of that sublime privilege in the Catholic 
 Church must be proved even for modern times — nay, for our very 
 day — in spite of the universal lowering of the moral standard. 
 
 2. How far did Corruption Invade the Sanctuary previous to the so-called 
 
 Reformation ? 
 
 On the threshold of these considerations we are met by a 
 universal reproach addressed to the Church itself. Popes, 
 bishops, monks, it is said, had become excessively corrupt in the 
 fifteenth century, so that or> every side a reformation was called 
 for and never effected. The Roman Church received the name of 
 the new Babylon even from Catholic writers; and the pontiffs, 
 though they all promised a change at their accession to the chair 
 of Peter, invariably demurred from undertaking it as soon as 
 they were seated on the pontifical throne. Details are not neces- 
 sary here, since they are found in all modern histories; and the 
 conclusion first openly proclaimed by Luther is drawn indistinctly 
 by ardent foes and pretended friends, that the Church had lost 
 her privilege of sanctity. 
 
 In the exaggerated picture which is generally sketched of 
 those deplorable times, one feature is invariably left out; namely, 
 the zeal displayed by a great number of other popes, bishops, 
 and religious who actually prevented corruption from spreading 
 deeply among the people, so that the bulk of the Church was not 
 affected by it. Impartiality alone would prompt any writer to 
 bring this forward. But before doing so, as our duty prescribes, it 
 is important to examine leisurely the extent and limits of the 
 evil, and also to look into the most vital question connected with 
 the whole matter under consideration. This is the important 
 inquiry concerning the Church's moral teaching at that time. 
 For the reformers, when they came on the stage of action, wished 
 
454 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 to spread the belief that immorality as well as superstition had 
 become the main doctrine preached to the people. This was not 
 true; and the most unworthy of spiritual rulers at that time never 
 failed to teach what they did not practise themselves, and their 
 exhortations were invariably those of true successors of the 
 apostles. The principles of holiness, consequently, remained as 
 firm and were as strongly upheld in the darkest period of the 
 fifteenth century as they had ever been previously. This alone 
 would be a sufficient proof that the Church never forfeited her 
 right to be called the moral teacher of mankind. 
 
 But before anything else, the total measure of moral evil must 
 be accurately inquired int9 and ascertained; and it is important 
 afterwards to examine if around the immorality generally pre- 
 vailing in higher circles there was not a large field which had 
 not been tainted by corruption, and which reproduced still the 
 Christian virtues of a former age. 
 
 To judge well of the plague-spot in its nakedness, its chief 
 causes must be first briefly stated. The main one was a repro- 
 duction at that time in Rome of the disorders resulting from 
 feudalism in the tenth century. The papal elections, it is true, 
 had been placed by Gregory VII. in the hands of the cardinals, 
 and there was no more fear that the tools of ambitious margraves 
 and of corrupt women should sit on the papal throne. But be- 
 cause in the middle ages the popes, generally siding with liberty, 
 had never seen fit to centralize their power, and had left a great 
 political freedom to the people and their barons, this at last 
 degenerated into frequent disorders bordering sometimes on 
 anarchy. The petty chieftains of villages or towns around the 
 holy city became almost independent, and the state of war be- 
 tween them was nearly incessant. Rome itself was the prey of 
 factions ruled by a few families. The papal temporal power 
 dwindled almost to nothing, and the pontiff's spiritual authority 
 suffered immensely from it. They could scarcely remain in Rome. 
 
 This brought on the transfer of the papacy to Avignon, which 
 the popes could not avoid, and, the Great Schism of the West being 
 the consequence of it, Christendom was almost disorganized, 
 because people were left in doubt as to the origin of power in the 
 Church. 
 
 If the unity of the Church appeared broken, the Empire itself 
 was in a state of disorganization, and the kings of Europe refused 
 
FACTS. 455 
 
 to acknowledge a suzerain in His Imperial Majesty. Each of 
 them claimed a paramount authority in his dominions.* They 
 soon began, in consequence, to oppose the mandates of the 
 sovereign pontiffs as the German emperors had done; and the 
 kings of France particularly, beginning with Philip the Fair, 
 resumed in their limited spheres the policy of the Hohenstaufens. 
 Legists were pitted against canonists, and the principles of right 
 itself became tainted. The Catholic Church had rigorously no 
 share in all those causes of demoralization. 
 
 The deleterious effects of those sources of disorder were, how- 
 ever, immensely magnified by the wealth of the clergy, which had 
 been accumulated during the whole of the middle ages, and which 
 then became the origin of untold abuses and of a too-visible 
 corruption. 
 
 Wealth had come unbidden to the clergy, who morally suffered 
 from it though not guilty of its introduction. But the multipli- 
 city of benefices bestowed on single persons, and the number of 
 monasteries given in commendam to secular prelates, cannot be so 
 easily excused, and form almost the total amount of facts from 
 which pernicious effects followed. The heart bleeds, however, in 
 mentioning these deplorable facts, chiefly on account of their con- 
 sequences. How could the dioceses, the parishes, the monasteries, 
 be duly supervised and administered, when the one who had the 
 title and enjoyed the revenues either could not but neglect them en- 
 tirely, owing to their multiplicity in one single hand, or gave them 
 to hirelings with an insufficient salary ? Hence from every side bit- 
 ter complaints arose. Those who had at heart the good of the 
 Church remonstrated against such glaring abuses. The popes as 
 loudly as any others. It is said that Benedict XII. proposed to the 
 cardinals to resign all their benefices except one, and he promised 
 as a supplement to fund a rental of a hundred thousand golden 
 florins, besides half the revenue of the papal states; the project 
 failed because the majority of those interested did not think it 
 sufficient to support their state. Zealous men at last, like Jerome 
 Savonarola, inveighed openly against the corruption which had 
 invaded the sanctuary. For a long time good men applauded 
 him, until at last he appeared to reject all superior authority; and 
 though it seems that he acknowledged his error at the last mo- 
 
 * See Cantu. 
 
45 6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 ment, and accepted his fate as an expiation, it remains doubtful if 
 he can be numbered among those who called for a legitimate re- 
 form. 
 
 Meanwhile, among other deplorable circumstances, many mo- 
 nasteries had been given /;/ co}nmenda?fi, and in consequence disor- 
 ders crept into those establishments from which the Church could 
 have expected a great help for her regeneration. It is unfortu- 
 nately true that in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries they had 
 in general degenerated from their primitive fervor. If the vile 
 calumnies of Aretino and Capilupo in Italy against them cannot 
 even be read, much less trusted, the reproaches addressed to many 
 religious by holy men of that age are too precise and pointed to 
 be set aside. It is indeed a sad picture of houses which have 
 always been the glory and the joy of the Church. Still, in the 
 midst of these lamentable evils it can be maintained that holiness 
 had not disappeared, and it must be proved. 
 
 3. The Moral Teaching of the Church was at that Time as Firm as 
 
 Ever. 
 
 Had Christianity been only a human institution, in the midst 
 of this moral decomposition the worst theories in ethics would 
 certainly have prevailed. The Roman pontiffs themselves, not 
 having in this supposition the privilege of inerrancy, the conse- 
 quence would have been that in the decisions of councils, in the 
 bulls of the popes, in some at least of the authoritative documents 
 which were issued so copiously at that epoch, proofs would have 
 been afforded that many streams in the Church's life being cor- 
 rupted, the source itself was corrupt. Nothing of this ever ap- 
 peared even in the worst period of the fifteenth century. No 
 Protestant reformer has ever been able to point out any article of 
 moral teaching as being evidently opposed to God's law. The 
 Calvinists were reduced to inveigh against the worship of images 
 and the veneration rendered to the Pope as to a God ! The more 
 sensible among the Protestants confined themselves to drawing 
 fanciful and odious pictures from well-ascertained facts such as 
 those which have been just described. They concluded that the 
 teaching must have been bad since the life of many among the 
 clergy was so reprehensible. They were soon answered, however, 
 that our Lord had commanded His disciples to do what the priests 
 
FACTS. 457 
 
 of the law prescribed, but not what they did. He had given tliem 
 infallibility, not impeccability. 
 
 To quote a single example of this most remarkable feature 
 of those times, the Bullarium of the pontiffs who governed the 
 Church in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries exists still and 
 has been published. It is impossible to find any difference in its 
 tone, in its moral directions, in its enforcement of virtue, from 
 similar documents of the best ages. Among the bulls of Alexan- 
 der VI. the only one that has been openly attacked is precisely 
 the one which has been most unexceptionably useful to mankind. 
 It is the drawing of the line of demarcation between the Spanish 
 and Portuguese possessions in America. Had it not been for this 
 papal decision it is certain that there would have been a constant 
 state of wrangling or open war between those two nations in the 
 New World; whilst, on the contrary, disagreement between them 
 has always been both slight and rare. This is one of the last acts 
 of arbitration of the popes ; and it would be difficult to find an- 
 other more pregnant of good for humanity. 
 
 But the best proof that the Church did not then fail in her moral 
 teaching is derived from the strict continuance of the same doctrine 
 in ethics as well as in dogma from the previous ages. It is known 
 that from the time of Jonas of Orleans there have been a long succes- 
 sion of great teachers authorized by the Church and devoted to her 
 service. They have been called the schoolmen. St. Thomas Aquinas 
 was the greatest of them. If in their writings there were occasionally 
 some points that the Church disapproved and others which the 
 Church left every one free to accept or reject, the main substance of 
 them was authoritatively sanctioned, and formed a complete body of 
 what was to be believed and practised — credendorum et agendorum. It 
 was this which gave to the middle ages their peculiar character of 
 faith and holiness. 
 
 Had there been later on any change in the moral doctrine of the 
 Church, a new set of pretended doctors would have appeared, and the 
 previous schoolmen would have been attacked by these new teachers. 
 The loose manners of the epoch would have been fostered by what 
 was taught in universities, academies, and schools, and the disorders of 
 the clergy would have been at least palliated by a new interpretation 
 of God's law. Nothing of the kind ever appeared; and the good 
 men who constantly and earnestly called for reform did not cease to 
 refer to the old ecclesiastical law as existing still and forming always 
 
458 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the basis of duty. The popes never objected to their remonstrances, 
 and often approved of them. Savonarola himself was never opposed 
 by Alexander VI. except when the infatuated monk dared to deny 
 papal authority. These are well-ascertained facts which suffice for a 
 complete demonstration. 
 
 To give it the last and highest degree of power, it is not inoppor- 
 tune to remark that the Protestant reformers in their violent reproaches 
 addressed to the Catholic Church embraced the schoolmen in their 
 reprobation as well as the theologians of their time. It is from their 
 wholesale abuse that the mediaeval period began to be misunderstood 
 and vilified. By attacking the scholastic philosophers and theo- 
 logians, they knew they were striking at the Church of their time; 
 and consequently they identified with justice the doctrine of St. 
 Thomas with that of the more modern doctors flourishing in the 
 fifteenth century. The old universities founded formerly by the 
 popes continued to exist ; they followed the same methods and sup- 
 ported the same propositions in faith and morals. The strictures, vio- 
 lent abuse, and gross satires of Luther and other reformers were even 
 chiefly directed against the founders of scholasticism, and Thomas 
 Aquinas was particularly abused by them. And the main reason 
 of it was that the immortal writings of the primitive schoolmen were 
 only commented on by the more modern professors, and were found 
 in the hands of all philosophical and theological students. Luther, 
 who certainly had received the same instruction in his Augustmian 
 convent of Wittenberg, was perfectly well acquainted with this fact ; 
 and he would not have committed the blunder of ascribing the dis- 
 orders of his day, of which he spoke so violently and which he 
 habitually exaggerated, to a change in the teaching of the old masters ; 
 that is, of the Church herself, who had approved and sanctioned them. 
 He attacked both. 
 
 This suffices to establish the truth under consideration. The 
 Catholic Church, even in the most deplorable times, continued to be 
 the teacher of the nations, and imparted to them the wholesome 
 doctrine of the Redeemer in all its primitive purity; and the prin- 
 ciples of holiness never were departed from or even obscured. 
 
FACTS. 459 
 
 4. A Large Array of Fads Prove that the Pri7iciple of Re<::^enera- 
 tion in the Church was always Active in the Midst of a Wide- 
 spread Corruption. 
 
 The residence of many popes at Avignon during the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries has been pointed out as one of the great causes 
 of the prevailing evils. Still, a false impression on the subject pre- 
 vails which must be removed. It is generally supposed that the 
 whole was a dark period. But from 1305, when Clement V. was elected, 
 till 1378, when an antipope who took the name of Clement VII, was 
 placed in opposition to Urban VI. (the precise origin of the schism), 
 nine pontiffs governed the universal Church, and resided at Avignon. 
 All of them were recognized as legitimate by all Christians; fulfilled 
 their duty ; and most of them maintained a strict discipline in the 
 secular and regular clergy, as well as among the people. Some of 
 them, even, can be considered among the best successors of St. Peter; 
 and one particularly, Benedict XII., not only lived on the throne as an 
 austere Cistercian monk, but eventually became an ardent reformer 
 of all abuses. Rohrbacher in his Histoire de T Eglise* has demon- 
 strated it in the admirable sketch of the life of this pope, which he 
 drew from authentic documents. It is wrong, consequently, to sup- 
 pose that the whole fourteenth century was a corrupt age. A great 
 part of it can be compared to some of the best periods in the history 
 of the Church. In the impossibility of reproducing all the facts 
 brought forward by the painstaking and loyal French historian, a few 
 points at least must be mentioned to vindicate particularly for 
 Benedict XII. the title of a true reformer and a great pope. 
 
 And first, his policy towards kings and princes, if conciliatory, was 
 always firm and based on duty. It can be at once appreciated from 
 the answer he gave to Philip of Valois in 1337, the third year of his 
 pontificate, in the city of Avignon, whither the French kmg had come 
 to visit him : " Sire," he said, " had I two souls, I would willingly give 
 one of them to do your pleasure and satisfy your wish ; but 1 have 
 only one, which I must preserve from sin. Whenever you desire to 
 ask me anything, see first that there is nothing in it contrary to God's 
 law, nothing that I cannot grant without injury to my conscience and 
 danger to my salvation. What you ask me to do is not such as would 
 
 * Vol. 20, p. 229, seq. French edit. 1858. 
 
46o THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 be safe for me; and I am compelled to say that I cannot consent to 
 it and gratify you." This was said to a powerful monarch, a short 
 time after Philip the Fair had well-nigh destroyed the temporal power 
 of the Holy See, and Pope Benedict was then living in the midst of 
 the French possessions and, as it were, at the mercy of the king. 
 
 In a second place, with regard to his own court, at the very begin- 
 ning of his pontificate he announced publicly in a great consis- 
 tory that all ecclesiastics and prelates not attached to,his person must 
 withdraw from Avignon and return to their respective benefices with- 
 in a month, under the pains prescribed by the canon law; unless 
 there was for any of them some peculiar reason, of which he himself 
 should be the judge, to remain longer at his court. As to the colla- 
 tion of benefices, it is known that he was always opposed to their 
 accumulation into one hand, and if he could not obtain from the cardi- 
 nals that they should resign those they possessed, keeping one only, 
 he imposed it severely on other dignitaries. He was, besides, most 
 careful never to grant any benefices except to worthy persons, and he 
 preferred to leave them vacant. As to his own relatives, he never was 
 guilty of prefering them to others, and nepotism could not be laid to 
 his charge. He himself said that a pope must be like Melchisedech, 
 "without father, mother, genealogy." 
 
 In a third place, he very early set at reforming the secular and 
 regular clergy. The canons of the cathedral of Narbonne were 
 known for their scandalous life; he applied himself vigorously to 
 their reformation a few months after his accession. He appointed 
 at the same time visitors to institute inquiries in the various 
 chapters of the provinces of Narbonne and x\rles, and recom- 
 mended them also to look into the affairs of the monks of St. 
 Benedict and of the Premonstratenses in the same districts. 
 
 He did not neglect his own order, that of the Cistercians, and 
 issued a most remarkable bull to strengthen the bonds of disci- 
 pline in all the branches of the Benedictine brotherhood. The 
 Annals of Raynaldi, the Bidlarium Romamim, besides Baluze and 
 the Histoire de V Eglise Gallicane^ give fnost precious details on 
 those important matters. Yet, strange to say, neither M. de 
 Lepinois, in his Gouverne7nent des Papes, nor Cesare Cantu, in his 
 Reforma hi Italia, speak of it. They must have been ignorant of 
 it, for neither of them can be suspected of wilfully concealing 
 anything advantageous to the popes. Cantu speaks openly of 
 the successful efforts made by many holy men and women for the 
 
FACTS. 461 
 
 refori^iatlon of Benedictine monasteries in Italy, without a word 
 in reference to the decrees of Benedict XII., which must have 
 been still more powerful for the intended effect than all indi- 
 vidual action. The pope sent the original document to the 
 abbots of St. Denys, near Paris, and of St. Columba of Sens, with 
 the order to publish it in a provincial chapter w^hich met the follow- 
 ing June, 1336, in the abbey of St. Germain des Pres at Paris. 
 This day was the origin of a new regeneration of the order, which 
 began directly to set about the people's reformation as monks knew 
 so well how to do. The document itself has been known since as 
 the "Benedictine Bull." 
 
 Another was soon issued with regard to the mendicant orders, 
 which were at that time beginning to fall off from their primitive 
 fervor. A number of those religious preferred to appear at the 
 papal court in Avignon rather than reside in their convents or 
 apply to works of zeal. They were first sent back to their regular 
 avocations, the same as secular ecclesiastics and prelates had been 
 previously ordered to go. The bull destined for them revived the 
 strictness of their rules with regard to public oflices in their 
 churches, to the prescribed modesty and humility in their dress 
 and intercourse with the people, and warned them against too 
 ardent a zeal, which had already been the cause among them of 
 many disorders and disputes. This papal decree was published 
 in a general chapter of the Franciscans held at Cahors in June, 
 
 1337. 
 
 Several less important injunctions were likewise laid upon the 
 members of the Dominican order, and the friar-preachers applied 
 with a new ardor to their missions which Vincent Ferrer was soon 
 destined to render forever illustrious all over Europe. All this 
 was effected in less than three years after Benedict XII. *s installa- 
 tion into ofiice; and the purity of religious life, which was the 
 main result of it, contributed powerfully to the reformation of 
 manners among the people and to the introduction of sacerdotal 
 virtues in the secular priesthood. Cantu in his Reforma in Italia 
 does not spare his vituperations against the parochial clergy at that 
 time. He openly accuses them "of gross ignorance, of simony in 
 the administration of the sacraments, of frequent intoxication, of 
 unbridled passions." He does not allude to any positive facts of 
 this character either in his text or in his notes, and his accusa- 
 tions are too general and too sweeping to be believed in their 
 
462 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 entirety. Still, there can be no doubt that a thorough reforma- 
 tion was sorely needed. The zeal of the bishops was kindled by 
 the pope's exhortations and fostered by the renewed energy of 
 the monks. Rohrbacher remarks that under the pontificate of 
 Benedict XII. provincial councils were celebrated at Rouen, Sala- 
 manca, Bourges, Chateau Gontier, Tarragona, Treves, Avignon, 
 Aquileia, Toledo, Barcelona, and Canterbury. It is known that 
 on those occasions decrees are always issued, not only for the 
 moral good of the people, but chiefly for the revival of piety and 
 virtue among all classes of the clergy. 
 
 The reader must not imagine that Benedict XII. was the only 
 Avignon pope who labored earnestly and effectually for the good 
 of the Church. It has already been asserted that of the nine 
 supreme pontiffs who resided at Avignon, from Clement V. to 
 Urban VI. (that is, previous to the Great Schism of the West), 
 not a single one of them can be accused of open dereliction of 
 duty. But if time and space allowed, interesting details could be 
 furnished of the constant efforts made by Innocent VI. to continue 
 the reforming policy of his great predecessor; of the whole life of 
 Urban V., one of the best popes that ever governed the Church. 
 He labored ardently for the reunion of the Greeks with Rome, 
 revived Catholicity in all the Danubian provinces, did not forget 
 the Chinese, to whom he sent Minorites as missionaries, and 
 finally returned to Rome in spite of the popular factions which 
 continued to disgrace it. He would probably, had he lived 
 longer, put an end to the terrible wars between France and Eng- 
 land which lasted a hundred years. In the expressed intention 
 of reconciling the two kings he went back to Avignon, where, un- 
 fortunately, he soon died, so that his successor, Gregory XL, was 
 naturally induced to remain in that city. The residence of the 
 popes in Rome was still well-nigh impracticable on account of 
 the violent and constant feuds which ra^ed in the papal states, 
 particularly in the city, where the Colonnas and Orsinis continued 
 to wrangle among themselves, and often shed blood in torrents. 
 Cesare Cantu and other impartial historians mainly assign to this 
 cause the prolonged exile from Rome of the pontiffs, many of 
 whom sincerely wished to occupy again their see, but were fright- 
 ened by the violence of feudal barons. 
 
 It is only from the time of the schism — namely, from the 
 pontificate of Urban VI. in 1378 — that the popes of Avignon 
 
FACTS. 463 
 
 deserve severe censure; and as the schism was effectually extin- 
 guished by the election of Martin V. in 141 7, the dark period of 
 that epoch extends only to about forty years. This remark is 
 important and in point, because nearly the whole of this very 
 time was occupied by the fruitful missions of St. Vincent Ferrer, 
 carried on over a great part of Europe. It is, therefore, almost 
 preposterous to suppose that the Church remained at any moment 
 without an active principle of regeneration working in her. To 
 this we must now turn our attention. 
 
 The schism originated from the election of Clement VII. As 
 to the virtues of the true pope, Urban VI., the only thing objec- 
 tionable in them was his too great severity, which the dissolute 
 manners of many men could not brook. He wished to bring 
 down the cardinals to the austere life he had himself adopted, and 
 to oblige them, for instance, never to have more than one dish on 
 their table. This, together with other sumptuary laws he pro- 
 posed to enact for the sacred college, frightened them so that they 
 pretended they had not been free on the day of his election. 
 They had, however, during three months acknowledged him 
 as pope, announced his accession in letters sent by them to all 
 the courts of Europe, and received favors and dignities from 
 him. Still, they maintained they had not been free, and meeting 
 together at Fondi, in the Neapolitan kingdom, they proceeded to 
 another election and chose Robert of Geneva, who took the name 
 of Clement VII. and went to reside at Avignon. Urban VI. 
 remained in Rome, as all his successors did after him. As three 
 cardinals only remained faithful to him (the only Italians of the 
 sacred college), he directly promoted twenty-six prelates to the 
 cardinalate, and thenceforth there were two papal courts, one at 
 Avignon, evidently schismatical, the other at Rome, regular and 
 legitimate. France, Scotland, Naples, Arragon, and some minor 
 states followed the Avignon pope; the remainder of Christendom 
 submitted to the Roman pontiff. There was properly no schism 
 among the people, because even those who acknowledged Clement 
 VII. — the schismatical pope — were fully persuaded he was the true 
 pope, having universal authority, and they never thought of form- 
 ing only a fragment of the Church. 
 
 This remark of Abbe Darras is in point, and gives a less 
 gloomy view of the state of the Church at that time. Still, it 
 cannot be denied that the authority of each of the two popes was 
 
464 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 seriously lessened by these unfortunate events. Their chief occu- 
 pation was often to attack each other, either by mutual sentences 
 of excommunication or by exciting their princely and kingly 
 friends to war against their respective antagonists. They, more- 
 ever, felt less free to address boldly reproaches to the. bishops and 
 inferior clergy who favored them; and this was the main cause of 
 the moral disorders that spread over Europe during the whole 
 time of the schism, and furnished the subject of many eloquent 
 pages to Catharine of Siena, Bridget of Sweden, Antoninus of 
 Florence, Vincent Ferrer, and many other friends of the Church 
 of Christ. 
 
 These disorders, however, did much more injury to good 
 morals in the districts ruled by the Avignon popes than in those 
 under Roman rule. The long schismatical pontificates of Clement 
 VII. and Benedict XIII. (Peter da Luna) became a fruitful source 
 of corruption in France, Naples, and Arragon, and caused the 
 previous attempts at reformation to be disregarded. The moral 
 life of cardinals, prelates, inferior clergymen, chiefly in those 
 countries, became deplorable. Still, it must be repeated again 
 that the Church was at no time left to the wild guidance of the 
 passions of men. The apostolic life of Vincent Ferrer is alone a 
 sufficient proof of it. 
 
 5. Holiness continued in the Church during the Darkest Period of the 
 
 Great Schism. 
 
 Vincent Ferrer was born in 1350. He died in 1419, two years 
 after the election of Martin V. His life, therefore, was coexten- 
 sive with the dark period under consideration. His apostolate, 
 particularly, embraced the worst part of it, and he reluctantly held 
 high offices under the antipope Benedict XIII. His biography is 
 perfectly well known, and the Bollandists have cleared up all the 
 difficulties which could throw some obscurity over it. They 
 mainly follow the work of Ranzano, a Dominican like Ferrer, which 
 they publish in full. But many other sources of information were 
 consulted by the authors of Acta Sanctorum, and the most severe 
 criticism cannot find fault with their conclusions. 
 
 The field over which Vincent labored embraced a great part of 
 central Europe; and no better test than his life could be applied 
 to the important question : How far had moral corruption extended? 
 
FACTS, 465 
 
 and to the other: Did this attempt at regeneration succeed? He 
 began to preach in 1398, and continued until his death in 1419. 
 Consequently his labors lasted twenty-one years; and he was not 
 alone in those holy expeditions, but he was always accompanied 
 by at least twelve of his Dominican brethren and a great number 
 of prelates and priests, besides many pious laymen and women. 
 Thousands, in fact, helped him in producing the extraordinary 
 reformation in morals he effected everywhere. 
 
 The BoUandists give copious details and proofs of his extensive 
 travels, according to the chronological order, and they point out 
 the successive steps of his apostolate year after year, month after 
 month, and occasionally even day after day. It is not possible to 
 copy this most interesting but necessarily long sketch; and our pur- 
 pose does not require it, It suffices to state in general that he evan- 
 gelized successively: ist. All the provinces of Spain, including the 
 kingdom of Granada, whither he was called by the Mussulman 
 prince Mohamed Aben-Baba, and converted thousands of Arab 
 Moslems and Jews. 2d. All the provinces, likewise, of France, 
 from the most southern — namely, Provence and Gascony — to the 
 farthest north — that is, Champagne, Picardy, and Lorraine. 3d. 
 The independent dukedoms west and north of France; namely, 
 Brittany, Normandy, and Flanders. 4th. Henry VI. of England 
 sent purposely a vessel to Gallicia and brought him to Great 
 Britain, where he spent more than a year (1406) in England and 
 Scotland, whence he passed over to Ireland. 5th. In northern 
 Italy he evangelized Savoy, the republic of Genoa, Piedmont, and 
 Lombardy. 6th. In central Italy he preached among the Floren- 
 tines, the Pisans, the Sienese, and in some of the papal provinces 
 along the Adriatic Sea. 7th, and last. Several other coun- 
 tries of minor importance could not be mentioned in this hasty 
 enumeration, such as the Balearic Isles, Switzerland, the valleys of 
 the Alps particularly, where he converted many Waldenses, Cathari, 
 and even some pagans who worshipped the sun. He does not 
 seem to have penetrated into Germany; and though he was twice 
 invited to Constance on the borders of it, by the fathers of the 
 Council, he found good reasons to be excused. His only motive 
 seems to have been that he did not wish to interrupt his missions 
 in order to concern himself with the affairs of Church and State, 
 which were then thrown into an utter confusion. He thought, 
 with justice, that the best way to oppose the evils of the times was 
 
466 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 to labor effectually for the reformation of morals among clergy 
 and people. 
 
 The effect he produced among both was indeed wonderful. To 
 use the words of his last biographer, the Dominican Andrew Pra- 
 del; " The moment St. Vincent entered a city it immediately wore 
 the appearance of Ninive when Jonas preached penance to it. 
 People wept when they heard the saint's mass; but their tears 
 were most abundant when he exhorted them to repentance. It 
 was then that sighs, groanings, and lamentations filled the air. It 
 might have been thought that each one mourned the death of a 
 first-born, or of a father or a mother. The spectacle of the vast 
 plains which alone could contain his auditory gave an idea of the 
 universal judgment. It anticipated, in fact, the future terror and 
 lamentation of all the tribes of the earth when they shall be gath- 
 ered together in the valley of Josaphat. But as Nicholas of Cle- 
 mangis, an eye-witness, observes, the most lukewarm souls and 
 hearts of stone were softened, and gave vent to their sorrow in 
 tears and accents of the bitterest anguish. 
 
 " We may, moreover, picture to ourselves the extraordinary con- 
 fluence of people. The saint's hearers were not only the inhabitants 
 of the city where he preached; there were frequently gathered 
 around his pulpit more than fifty thousand people, even when he 
 spoke in small villages. They gladly went several leagues to hear 
 him. During his sermons all the artisans of the place abandoned 
 their labor, and the merchants their warehouses. In cities where 
 there were schools the masters suspended their lectures. Neither 
 the inclement season, wind, nor rain prevented the multitudes from 
 collecting in the public squares where the saint was to preach. 
 The sick who had sufficient strength to walk left the hospitals, 
 others were bodily carried; all hoped to enjoy, by simply hearing 
 Vincent, the health of body and soul at the same time, and this 
 hope was frequently realized. 
 
 "As to the general fruit of his apostolate, we must quote from 
 an authentic document; namely, a letter written by the Council of 
 Orihuela to the Bishop of Carthagena in Spain: 'The arrival of 
 Vincent Ferrer has produced immense good in this country; it 
 has been a grand occasion of salvation to all the faithful. This 
 city in particular, at the close of his preaching, and by God's grace, 
 is delivered from every vice and public sin. . . . All noisy enter- 
 tainments have been given up. . . . On Sundays and feasts of 
 
FACTS. 467 
 
 obligation all go to mass with devotion, such as no one believed 
 eould have happened, much less expected to witness. . . . There 
 no longer exists in this city either rancor or enmity against any 
 one; but each one, spontaneously and for God's honor, pardons 
 the other. We have counted more than one hundred and twenty- 
 three reconciliations; sixty-six deaths and a host of broken limbs 
 have been pardoned. Now every one lives in peace and concord. 
 In the great city of Tolosa all the women of abandoned character 
 have renounced their disorders.' " 
 
 What is said here of Orihuela and Tolosa in Spain could be 
 repeated of all other cities where St. Vincent preached; and in the 
 extensive sketch given by the Bollandists the great majority of 
 Spanish towns are particularly mentioned. In the compendium 
 previously given of it, nothing more could be said than that Vin- 
 cent ''evangelized all the provinces of Spain." Further details 
 were necessarily omitted. But in Arragon, Castile, Navarre, Anda- 
 lusia, Valentia, and Murcia the general process of reformation 
 took place. It is even remarkable that Vincent was not satisfied 
 with going once through every locality in those provinces; but 
 subsequently he returned once, twice, three times, to cities where 
 he had produced such a remarkable change during a first " mis- 
 sion." The same was true, likewise, of many provinces of France; 
 and he even went twice to Brittany, so distant and insignificant 
 a country, at the urgent solicitation of the duke and duchess. He 
 died at Vannes during his second appearance among his dear Bre- 
 tons ; and he is on this account more particularly honored by 
 them. No French or foreign priest who enters the little city of 
 Vannes forgets to say mass at least once in the humble but most 
 holy room where he lived and died. It has been changed into a 
 chapel, and has continued during nearly five hundred years to be 
 the most devout spot in all Brittany after St. Anne d'Auray. 
 
 When reflecting on all. these circumstances, the mind is struck 
 by the fact that of all the countries which he succeeded in regen- 
 erating morally, the only ones which were in the following cen- 
 tury permanently invaded by Protestantism were England, Scot- 
 land, and a few towns of Switzerland, such as Geneva. All the 
 Latin nations were by him evangelized; he successively visited 
 and revisited them several times, and bestowed on them his most 
 arduous labors. On the contrary, he spent in England and Scot- 
 land only a little more than- a year, and appeared in Geneva but 
 
468 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 once, I think, and for a few days. Modern writers assign several 
 causes to the steady adherence of the Latin nations to Catiiohcism 
 in the time of Luther, and to the defection in general of the north- 
 ern countries. Would it be presumptuous to think that the labors 
 of St. Vincent Ferrer had their little share in this strange fact? If 
 the wonderful effects of his zeal had disappeared at his death, 
 nothing could be concluded from it with regard to what took 
 place a hundred years later, when Protestantism arose. But it is 
 certain that his own order at least, the Friar-Preachers, had 
 helped him along all his life, and were animated with the same 
 spirit. They continued very active after Vincent's death during 
 the whole of the fifteenth century, and their monasteries were 
 profusely scattered among all Latin nations. Besides the Domini- 
 cans, the biographers of St. Vincent speak of prelates and priests 
 of other orders — that is, abbots and monks — who accompanied 
 him everywhere in great numbers. These were, no doubt, Fran- 
 ciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians, who must have concurred 
 afterwards with the Dominicans in rendering permanent the good 
 effected by the apostle — for thus St. Vincent was called. 
 
 This proves that the reformation effected by the bulls of Bene- 
 dict Xn. in the religious orders had persevered and continued 
 until Protestantism appeared. The Jesuits, who came later on, 
 were destined not to prevent but only to check its progress per- 
 manently, as has been recorded by modern historians. Mean- 
 while the popes who governed the Church after the Great Schism 
 (some of whom, unfortunately, were more politicians than high 
 priests) never forgot, however, that they were the successors of 
 Peter, and that they possessed his prerogatives for the spiritual 
 good of mankind. Their biiUarium affords the proof of it; and if 
 some of them did not contribute personally to the sanctification 
 of Christians by encyclicals and dogmatic or moral treatises, as 
 the Leos, Gregorys, and Innocents had done before them, they 
 nevertheless allowed full liberty to the religious orders to carry 
 on the great object of their institutes by their constant labors in 
 the field of moral regeneration. No more striking case in point 
 can be adduced than the preaching of the great Dominican monk 
 Jerome Savonarola, who would have been cheered even by Alexan- 
 der VI. himself on account of the reformation he brought about 
 among the Florentines, had he not, as it seems, shown at last a 
 rebellious spirit against lawful authority. Can there be found. 
 
FACTS. 469 
 
 we repeat, a single moment when the Church appeared shorn of 
 her prerogative of sanctity ? 
 
 A curious proof that the answer to this question must be neg- 
 ative is given by Cantu in his Reforma in Italia. He begins thus 
 his Discorso X/ on \.\\^ politician popes, and Alexander VI. in particu- 
 lar (we translate from the French version): 
 
 "The moral evils just described — under Alexander VI. — were 
 enormous ;* the providence of God opposed against them an 
 ardent zeal, a solid piety, a ripe science. No one can hesitate to 
 recognize that the spirit of truth and sanctity which must animate 
 the Church until the end of time gave them a clear proof of its 
 perseverance. It was principally in the religious orders that men 
 arose ready to revive the Christian spirit ; and all those orders 
 during that time present at once — if any one looks attentively for 
 them — an array of eminent personages distinguished by their vir- 
 tues, noted for their learning. Bernardine of Siena was then trav- 
 elling through Italy, promoting peace among its citizens, scatter- 
 
 * This was already written and sent to the press when I became aware that a 
 book had lately appeared in Italy which completely disproves the calumnies 
 accredited during the last two hundred years, or more, against the character of 
 Alexander VI. The author is a learned member of the religious congregation 
 called "the Pious Schools." His name is A. Leonetti, and the title of his work 
 is Papa Alessajidro VI. secondo doctimenti e carteggi del tempo. From irrefragable 
 documents and letters written at the time of Alexander himself, and without any 
 ulterior view to publication, the conduct of this pope is thoroughly vindicated. 
 Nay, more ; the origin and cause of the fables published and believed in after- 
 times is presented with details which must carry conviction. The writer spared 
 neither time nor expense to discover in the chief libraries of Italy and France 
 manuscripts which had been buried in oblivion since they were written. No one 
 had yet undertaken to examine the question thoroughly ; and mendacious authors 
 in the pay of Florence chiefly, whose government at that time was bitterly opposed 
 to the grand policy of Alexander, had an open field to spread their slanders over 
 all Europe. 
 
 The Civilth Cattolica, in its number for August 21, 1880, resumes its opinion 
 of this book in the following words, which we translate from the Italian: "All 
 the arguments and judgments of the author will not appear equally evident to all 
 readers. Still, any one who will go through the work must experience the con- 
 viction that a like farrago of absurd and impudent calumnies, of lies and false- 
 hoods, invented by human passion and believed by human credulity, such as the 
 pretended history of this pontiff exhibits, has not found its parallel in the case of 
 any other man," 
 
 Had I known this book sooner, several passages of this chapter would have 
 
 taken another form. 
 
47° THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 ing alms among the needy, building churches, convents, hospitals, 
 and founding bee-hives of missionaries whose swarms took wing 
 directly and were wafted over the whole world. Bernardine of 
 Feltro enraptured the people by his eloquence and holiness, by his 
 readiness to hear the' complaints of widows and orphans; he 
 labored to propagate monti di picta (pawnbroking establishments), 
 a new institution designed by Barnaba, a Franciscan of Perusia, 
 to save the poor from the extortions of usurers. Giacomo of Mon- 
 tebrandone, in the Marchie j Pietro di Moliano and Antonio di 
 Stroconio, in Umbria ; Pacifico di Credano, in the Novarese ter- 
 ritory ; Angelo di Chivasso, revered by the people at Cuneo ; Gia- 
 como d'lllyria, in a convent near Bari ; Vincenzo d'Aguila, known 
 by his austere life ; and many other Franciscans obtained for their 
 sanctity the honors of public veneration. The Dominicans were 
 kept in their primitive fervor by Antonio of the Roddi family, and 
 by St. Antonine, archbishop of Florence. This great man lived as 
 a monk ; and when he travelled used only a mule ; but his palace 
 his purse, and his granaries were freely opened in times of scarcity 
 and pestilence. To those who pretended that a great prelate like 
 him must inspire respect by exterior pomp he simply answered, 
 without uttering a word, by going to Rome dressed in a monkish 
 cowl, astride an old mule, with a small and poor retinue ; still, 
 wherever he went the greatest honors were paid him by all classes 
 of society ; people knelt in the public streets to receive his bless- 
 ing, whilst proud bishops and cardinals blushed to see themselves 
 neglected as soon as he appeared among them." 
 
 To copy the full enumeration of holy personages living at the 
 time of Alexander VI. and given out by the accurate Italian his- 
 torian would go beyond our scope ; particularly because the list 
 of celebrated and holy women living at the s-ame time, which im- 
 mediately follows in Cantu's book, is still longer than that of the 
 men. But it was proper to make this short mention of it on ac- 
 count of the misconception under which many labor in our age, 
 with regard to the epoch of Alexander VI. in particular. It seems 
 to be admitted that the Church had then sunk into a universal 
 state of moral decomposition for which there was no other remedy 
 than the fearful shock of heresy which soon followed. It can be, 
 on the contrary, maintained that the mass of the people not only 
 had kept the faith, but were preserved in the practice of all Chris- 
 tian virtues by the zealous exertions of bishops, monks and nuns, 
 
FACTS. 471 
 
 many of whom belonged to the highest families of the Italian race. 
 The same would be found to be true of Spain, France, and other 
 European nations. 
 
 These were the conclusions drawn by me from a close study 
 of ecclesiastical history during the time of the Great Schism and 
 the short period immediately following. It was indubitable that 
 the Latin nations had been preserved from corruption by the 
 great and zealous preachers who then arose. 
 
 But it seemed also that the northern nations of Europe, par- 
 ticularly Germany, had not participated to a great degree in the 
 blessings of this true reformation. They must have remained 
 corrupt, and thus the success of Luther was rationally explained. 
 Still, all this was a misconception which a powerful work lately 
 published in Germany has altogether disproved. Germany was 
 no more corrupt at that time than the southern races, and owing to 
 M. J. Janssen, professor at Frankfort, we now have most copious 
 proofs of it. Under the simple title of "A History of the Ger- 
 man People from the End of the Middle Ages" — a most serious 
 and learned work in six large volumes — he gives such a com- 
 plete demonstration of the morality and well-being of Germany 
 at that epoch that it has created an immense sensation, and 
 elicited the applause of all learned men, Protestants as well as 
 Catholics. M. Janssen begins his labors from the second half 
 of the fifteenth century, because he thinks that modern German 
 history commences from that epoch. It is precisely the worst 
 time of the Great Schism. Still, the most copious and conclusive 
 documents he possessed enable him to draw an astonishing pic- 
 ture of prosperity and Christian civilization. He gives thorough 
 details on instruction and education, on science and art, on agri- 
 culture, industry, commerce, on political, social, and domestic 
 economy, on everything, in fine, which make a nation prosperous, 
 moral, and happy. 
 
 All this, he says, was the consequence of the deep religious 
 feeling which had prevailed during the middle ages. The spirit 
 of that golden age had not died out. It was deeply implanted in 
 the German nation, and burst out afresh under the influence of 
 Nicholas de Cusa. This great cardinal was, he thinks, for the 
 north the restorer of science and piety, and he alone succeeded 
 in doing in Germany what many holy men had effected in the 
 south. It is a pity that we cannot, at this moment, enter into 
 
472 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 more details on a work which is destined to effect a complete 
 revolution in the ideas which have so far prevailed on that much- 
 abused epoch the middle ages. 
 
 But the most important point to be considered is the conclu- 
 sion M. Janssen draws with regard to the Protestant rebellion 
 which soon followed. Not only he does not think that the pre- 
 tended reformation was the natural result of a deep-seated cor- 
 ruption; he is fully persuaded that "the revolution of the six- 
 teenth century did not embrace only religious questions, but was 
 effected chiefly on economical, social, and political grounds. The 
 more I advance, in my studies," he says, "the more I become con- 
 vinced that this revolution consisted in the total abandonment of 
 faith operating through good w^orks. The works of faith and 
 justice being once abandoned as a useless doctrine, the natural 
 consequence was the destruction of social order such as the mid- 
 dle ages had created it." 
 
 Before long Protestantism in Germany will be fully under- 
 stood, owing to the mighty efforts of her great w^riters, as the 
 character of the French revolution will be known from the works 
 of M. Taine and other candid inquirers. 
 
 But this most imperfect sketch of M. Janssen's work could 
 not give any idea of its importance with regard to the state of 
 morality in the German Church during the worst period of the 
 fifteenth century. It is important to furnish a few more details 
 particularly concerning the religious and moral character of the 
 people. The Church, the school, and the family combined their 
 efforts for this mighty object. The whole of Germany was cov- 
 ered, as it were, with popular schools, independently of the uni- 
 versities, in which Nicholas de Cusa had promoted a high devel- 
 opment of theological, philosophical, classical, and mathematical 
 studies, which still continued to flourish a long time after his 
 death. But the important point, at this moment, regards the pri- 
 mary schools for the people, and the results of the combined 
 efforts of both the Church and the family for the moral improve- 
 ment of the lower classes. The author minutely describes the 
 popular morals at a time which was considered by modern writers 
 as mainly characterized by ignorance and vice. He shows, on the 
 contrary, that the domestic circle was distinguished with the 
 greatest suavity of manners. He gives the titles of many ascetic 
 books full of the most tender piety written for the common people. 
 
FACTS. 473 
 
 He enters into many details on the ordinary way of preaching, 
 and proves that sermons in the churches were as frequent as in 
 our age, and a stricter obligation was made on all classes to hear 
 the word of God in the pulpit. More than fifty editions of the 
 Bible in the vulgar language, and an immense number of books 
 destined to instruct the people on their religion, such as cate- 
 chisms, tables of sins, etc., prove that not only religious instruc- 
 tion was not neglected, but that it was pursued with as much zeal 
 as in the most flourishing times. 
 
 He gives many details on the activity prevailing in literary 
 circles. Directly after the invention of printing an immense num- 
 ber of editions of ancient and modern authors came out from the 
 German presses. There was then among printers a sort of Chris- 
 tian apostolate such as had animated the monks when they wrote 
 their splendid manuscripts. From 1457 to 1500 more than thirty 
 thousand works were published, some of them in several folio 
 volumes, and no one could then foresee that printing would ever 
 be used for evil purposes. 
 
 But what is more wonderful still is the extraordinary develop- 
 ment of art which then took place. Architects, sculptors, paint- 
 ers, musicians vied with each other to spread morality and reli- 
 gion among all classes. The author passes in review the names of 
 many great masters in art, such as goldsmiths, painters on glass, 
 engravers on wood and on copper or steel, embroiderers, musical 
 composers, and admirable performers on every kind of instru- 
 ments. And at the end of all these considerations he devotes an 
 entire chapter to describing " popular life" ( Volks Wirthschaft) so 
 as to carry the admiration and enthusiasm of his readers. 
 
 It would be, after this, useless to repeat that even the fifteenth 
 century was an age of virtue and happiness not only among the 
 Latin nations, but even in the heart of Germany and the north 
 of Europe. 
 
 6. The Catholic Church in the Present Age Continues its Work of 
 Regeneration with the Ardor of Renewed Youth. — Conclusion. 
 
 Considered from any possible stand-point, the Catholic Church 
 has given us unmistakable proofs of its divine origin. Its prepa- 
 ration by Gentilism and Judaism carries it back to the first 
 appearance of man on earth, and demonstrates its adaptation to 
 
474 THE CHURCH AXD THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 human nature both in the unity of the design and the variety of 
 its appUcations. Its early spread all over the globe at the coming 
 of Christ, by the preaching of a few Jewish apostles, is a sure 
 voucher of the divinity of its Founder, and of a providential work- 
 ing in its establishment. The sudden turn in human history, and 
 the immense improvement in morals which makes of its birth so 
 remarkable a feature in mankind's annals, proves that God Him- 
 self directs the spiritual affairs of men, and in the matter of moral 
 goodness does not leave our race to the feeble guidance of reason. 
 But particularly the sublime holiness that has distinguished it, 
 during the whole extent of the nineteen centuries which go to 
 compose its glorious records, is the most complete demonstration 
 that at this day, as well as in the previous ages, the Holy Spirit 
 animates it and renders it fruitful in good works. 
 
 This last proof of its heavenly origin — the continuance to this 
 day of its sanctity — must be the most convincing for us all be- 
 cause we all are the witnesses of it, and any one who reflects can- 
 not but be struck by the spectacle. To develop it in all its details 
 would require a long work, and only a few pages remain at our 
 disposal. Let a last faithful statement, therefore, as compendious 
 as possible, be made of the Church's action at this moment for 
 the moral regeneration of mankind; namely, for what has been 
 called the spread of God's kingdom on earth. 
 
 I. The first consideration of importance here is the immense 
 number of human beings within the Church's precincts whom God 
 inspires with the thought of sacrificing themselves for the moral 
 improvement of their fellow-beings. This has always been a 
 characteristic mark of the Catholic Church, and is at this mom.ent 
 as prominent as at any previous epoch. It is known that in all 
 communities of men, whatever may be their state of civilization 
 and enlightenment, whatever may be even their religion and 
 their belief in a hereafter, a certain number are found with a 
 greater keenness of conscience than others and a better apprecia- 
 tion of the moral sense, which all indeed have, but a" few only 
 feel deeply. Still, it is a prerogative peculiar to the Church of 
 Christ that in its bosom this is not confined to a simply natural 
 and individual leaning, having scarcely any reference to others. 
 It is derived from a supernatural source, and directh^ thrives to 
 expand as broadly as the soul itself, whose aspirations can be 
 called infinite. These chosen people instinctively feel that they 
 
FACTS, 475 
 
 have received a peculiar call from God Himself. To obey Him 
 they must first sanctify themselves and enter the path of the 
 evangelical counsels, in order to be ready for an apostolic life and 
 raise others after them to the height of sanctity. This is found 
 in the Catholic Church alone. 
 
 From this holy band women are not excluded. They are often 
 the most ardent. They are the Church's crown and glory; but 
 precisely on account of their instinctive impetuosity under the 
 divine impulse they are severely placed under a strict direction, 
 which becomes sweet to them because they understand the need 
 they have of it. For in this most remarkable galaxy of choice 
 souls, in the women as well as in the men, everything must be 
 ruled by reason and good sense; nothing must be left to eccen- 
 tricity, extravagance, fanaticism. Strange indeed! the motives 
 are the highest, the prospects the brightest, the feelings the 
 keenest; still, the working of the whole is the most rational, 
 sober, almost demure. Is there anything on earth comparable to 
 this ? Could anything of this kind be devised and arranged by 
 human skill and ingenuity? 
 
 Look at their number and their variety of temperament. It 
 would not be, we think, an exaggeration to say that in the whole 
 Catholic Church there are at this moment at least a million of 
 human beings who have felt this call to holiness and realize it in 
 the way just described. They belong to all classes of society; 
 there are among them children of princes and lords, and there are 
 also children of poor people and of simple rustics. They are 
 scattered among all nations; many in the most refined countries 
 of southern and central Europe; a good number in the frozen 
 regions of the north or in the forests of the New World. Asiatics 
 as well as Europeans and Americans are often desirous of em- 
 bracing that holy state, and the Catholic virgins of China are as 
 devoted as those of Syria or Palestine. 
 
 But though they belong to races of so many different leanings 
 and adaptations, they all follow the same rules, which can be 
 reduced to two: To look first after their own moral improvement 
 and perfection, and then to ardently labor for the sanctification of 
 others. And in their enumeration it must be said that at this 
 time particularly the secular clergy hold a most -honorable place. 
 The time has gone by when seculars and regulars were antago- 
 nistic. Look at both in Germany, in France, in Italy, in Spain, 
 
47 6 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 and all over this continent, and say if they are not a band of 
 brothers engaged in the same holy work of bringing back the 
 nations to Gospel sanctity. In case any exceptions are found 
 here and there, they are so few and insignificant that they may be 
 passed over as of no account in the general result. 
 
 All this has been the effect, after God, of the wise provisions 
 and decrees of the Council of Trent. From that time down to 
 this the reformation effected in the secular and regular clergy has 
 been constantly increasing and brightening till our own day, 
 when it is as perfect as human weakness permits. Look at the 
 hierarchy particularly, and you will try in vain in the whole 
 history of the Church to find an epoch when it was more submis- 
 sive to the Holy See, more learned and zealous, more animated 
 with the spirit of a tender piety reflected in the purity of their 
 lives. 
 
 It is in the hands of those servants of God that the distribution 
 of the Church's charities is entrusted. And it may be doubted if 
 there has ever been an epoch when that golden virtue flowing 
 from the heart of Christ has produced more abundant fruits than 
 in this age. At the origin of Christianity St. Paul collected alms 
 in Macedonia for the faithful in Jerusalem; in our day the needs 
 of the most distant nations in India, China, and the heart of 
 Africa are supplied by the Christians of the great cities of west- 
 ern Europe and of this continent. The Catholics of New York, 
 for instance, are not satisfied with the numerous calls addressed 
 to them in behalf of their destitute fellow-citizens ; they find 
 besides the means to help the famine-stricken Irish, the destitute 
 Indians of the north-west, the struggling Catholic communities of 
 Palestine, of Algeria, of all countries from which the cry of dis- 
 tress is heard. But in the absolute impossibility of an adequate 
 description we must pass on to a second consideration. 
 
 II. The Church, not satisfied with practically teaching the doc- 
 trine of holiness to her submissive children through her orders 
 and hierarchy, holds aloft before the eyes of all mankind the only 
 standard of morality acceptable to human reason. Its code is not 
 veiled in mystery; its moral doctrine is not esoteric and destined 
 only for the private ear of the catechumen. The great voice 
 which proclaims the true principles of action {agendonwi) resounds 
 through the whole earth, and can be heard by whomsoever listens, 
 even among outsiders. 
 
FACTS, ' 477 
 
 The councils, based on the word of God, have in all ages de- 
 clared that the teaching body in the Church, with Peter at its 
 head, is infallible in point of morals as well as of faith. Peter 
 alone is the source of it, and communicates it to his successors. 
 In this scheme there can be no question of opinion, hesitation, 
 doubt. The pronouncements of simple philosophy in ethics are 
 too often of that character. Moral philosophers of the strictest 
 class, when they do not call to their help the Church's authority, 
 form only schools which always differ from each other in many 
 important points. Reason alone, though in theory able to reach 
 the truth, is often in practice biassed by prejudice and passion. 
 If this is true of those non-Christians who admit eternal principles 
 of right, the case is greatly worse for those who endeavor to found 
 morality on a basis independent of God. The doctrine they pro- 
 claim is necessarily unreliable ; their principles once admitted 
 would leave every one at the mercy of his passions; and if this 
 deflection from both reason and faith became general, morality 
 would entirely perish among men, or its shifting code would be a 
 most unsafe guide. This, fortunately, shall never happen univer- 
 sally, because the Church has the promise of perpetuity; and its 
 doctrine must ultimately prevail. Meanwhile, though in the midst 
 of enemies, opposed by discordant teachings of mere opinion and 
 fancy, it holds firmly in its grasp the standard of right, of true 
 morals, of holiness itself. Suppose that at this moment the 
 Church's voice proclaiming the true axioms of divine law was 
 suddenly silenced, what would become among men of the sacred 
 institutions of marriage, of the family, of the right of property, of 
 social truths and political constitutions ? Every bond through 
 which the framework of human society is held together would 
 snap like a tube of glass, or vanish like a soap-bubble. Every 
 one acquainted with the wild theories advocated to-day by large 
 associations of men is aware that this is neither a bugbear nor 
 even a simple exaggeration. 
 
 Look well around you, and endeavor to find which is the insti- 
 tution on which alone rests the hope of the future; and few among 
 men will refuse to admit that the Church is that institution more 
 at this time perhaps than ever before. 
 
 III. After these general reflections it is proper to come to some 
 particular points of great importance in the present discussion. 
 An attentive observer will easily remark that the Church sows 
 
478 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 the seed of holiness, and reaps its most abundant fruits in all 
 classes of society. It begins with the child to whom through its 
 parents it first imparts the knowledge and the love of God's law. 
 Among the admonitions invariably given in the tribunal of 
 penance, the most important consists in ascertaining if married 
 people fulfil their duty in this regard. Not only this is always 
 inquired into, but directions are also given particularly to the 
 uneducated with regard to the method they have to follow. It is 
 a most powerful means of securing to future men and women the 
 habits of a Christian life at a time when their tender age disposes 
 them to receive readily the most lasting impressions. But re- 
 ligious instructors are not satisfied with advice given to parents. 
 They soon take the young in charge; and who cannot see how 
 powerful for good must be the usual preparation for confirmation 
 and communion ? What care is not taken in our day to form good 
 habits in baptized infants as soon as they become conscious and 
 capable of sin ? What means are not adopted to root out from 
 their young hearts the first growth of sinful habits ? 
 
 Look, further on, at the Church's action on young people when 
 they reach the adult period. All moralists, even if not Christian, 
 must confess that the time of life comprised between fifteen and 
 twenty-five years is the most critical and perilous. The majority 
 of those whose career becomes a wreck, and are destined either to 
 perish early or to drag a miserable existence, a prey to shameful 
 passions, owe, undoubtedly, their moral loss to a want of proper 
 direction at that dangerous period of human life. But the ques- 
 tion may be fairly put. Where and by whom is youth properly, 
 • tenderly, and actively cared for, taken in hand, and saved from 
 moral snares and pitfalls ? There, can be but one answer to these 
 questions, because the Catholic Church alone undertakes this most 
 delicate and important moral work. In its bosom only is there a 
 safe harbor for those who are tempest-tossed and at the moment 
 of perishing. At the time of the fiercest temptations there is 
 always hope for the young man or young woman who chooses to 
 secure and receive the help of the Church's sacraments. It is in 
 this particular case that the well-known adage is fulfilled literally: 
 " Out of the Church there is no salvation." 
 
 Within its precincts, on the contrary, not only the young are 
 saved, but after an almost complete shipwreck the vicious, even if 
 advanced in age, can be rescued from the waves. In every mission 
 
FACTS, 479 
 
 given in the Catholic Church numerous examples always occur to 
 prove that God truly receives to reconciliation the most obdurate 
 sinners. Death-bed repentance is often derided, and is always 
 insecure; still, true reconciliation with an offended God at the last 
 moment is a thing of daily occurrence in the Church of Christ. 
 
 IV. Not satisfied with securing the salvation of her own chil- 
 dren, the Catholic Church undertakes to reclaim from superstition 
 and vice those innumerable nations who walk still " in the shadow 
 of death." What is the object of those ''foreign missions," so 
 remarkable at the precise time this is written ? It is exactly the 
 same the first apostles had in view; namely, to spread the "king- 
 dom of God," or the reign of virtue and holiness, on earth. It is 
 impossible to attempt here even a slight sketch of it. Either in 
 the decaying churches of the East, among the former Christian 
 populations trampled upon during so many centuries by the bar- 
 barous Moslem power; or in the midst of the heathen Hindoos; 
 or among the Buddhistic tribes of China, Mongolia, Tibet; or still 
 more, all over the dark continent of Africa, from its whole circum- 
 ference toward its now renowned centre, the country of its great 
 lakes, and the sources of its mightiest rivers, men and women are 
 seen at this moment with only one aim, guided by one single 
 directing hand. That aim is to restore to the blind their eyesight, 
 and to those morally dead the life of conscience. The directmg 
 hand is that of the Supreme Pontiff, the successor of Peter, the 
 one the middle ages loved to call " The Apostolic." Except 
 directly after the discovery of the road to India, and of the vast 
 continent called the new world, the Church never had such a 
 mighty occasion of showing her activity and zeal as at this day. 
 All the obstacles to her universal action and sway are now thrown 
 down; the whole globe embraced now by commerce is open to a far 
 higher object in which ardent apostles — men and women — throw 
 heir whole soul. They are decimated by death, but their ranks, 
 as in a mighty army on the battle-field, are immediately reformed 
 nd reinforced. The heroes of to-day were unknown ten years 
 "ago, and in ten years more nothing shall remain of them except 
 their souls in heaven and their imperishable memory on earth. 
 But the work will continue to go on until its completion, which is 
 sure to arrive, because that " the earth is the Lord's, and the ful- 
 ness thereof," was predicted by David, and must sooner or later 
 :ome to pass. 
 
480 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 It would be, however, futile to insist here on a description 
 which a full volume could scarcely succeed in detailing. It is 
 simply expressed by the mere words of the heading to this sec- 
 tion: " In this work the Church to-day displays to the world an 
 ardor of renewed youth," It is good, however, to mention briefly 
 some characteristics of that "ardor." 
 
 V. To carry on this work of regeneration at home and abroad, 
 the Church spares neither labor nor solicitude nor material means. 
 The labor is incessant, arduous, heroic. But no one complains that 
 there is no intermission, no softening down, no place for the satisfac- 
 tion of simple human feelings. It must forever co?itiniie^ or no satis- 
 factory effect could be produced. It is always a hard climbing up 
 without the prospect of a softer life in a gentle declination to lower 
 ground, because whatever is great is always arduous, looking con- 
 stantly to higher regions. It is consequently of its nature heroic^ and 
 no noble heart can ever murmur against the necessity of becoming a 
 hero, chiefly when the victory secures "glory to God in the highest, 
 and peace on earth to men of good-will." This is our short com- 
 mentary on this incessant, arduous, and heroic labor. A word must 
 be said, in a second place, on the solicitude displayed by the Church 
 for the inward formation of Christ in His members. 
 
 Those who know anything of the untiring activity which distin- 
 guishes the Church of Rome in the choice of means adopted for the 
 obtaining of its mighty end cannot choose a better word to charac- 
 terize it than by calling it a motherly solicitude. Look at it in the 
 selection of its agents, in the instructions forwarded to them, in the 
 various steps it takes for their encouragement, proper reward, or, on 
 the other side, remonstrances, correction, disapproval, and you will 
 distinctly recognize the feelings of a true mother. It extends to 
 everything: to the proper education of the young; to the holiness of 
 the sanctuary; to a truly angelic life in women's convents; to the 
 strict observance of the rule in men's monasteries ; to the decency, 
 nay, splendor of divine service; to the needs of Christ's poor; to the 
 conversion of sinners, the perseverance of the just, the extension of 
 God's kingdom among the heathen ; and, last not least, to a stern 
 opposition against every form of error or vice. In all those branches 
 of a divinely inspired activity, the Church after St. Paul becomes a 
 true mother in its incessant solicitude. Moderation, tenderness of 
 heart accompanied with firmness and uncompromising adherence to 
 duty, form the character of its polity. It is not, certainly, in this ^ge 
 
FACTS. 481 
 
 that the life of its rulers is a sinecure. They know that they are 
 appointed by Almighty God to continue among men the ministry of 
 His Son; and as the public life of Christ is their pattern, they do not 
 expect rest in this world, and look only to heaven for repose and 
 enjoyment. 
 
 In a: third place, the material means at their command deserve a 
 moment's consideration. The time has gone by when the gratitude 
 of mankind had placed in their hands all that was requisite for secur- 
 ing their object. Many reproaches have been formerly addressed to 
 popes, cardinals, prelates of every degree, as if the immense wealth 
 they enjoyed had been mainly used for their selfish gratification. No 
 doubt, owing to human weakness, abuses had crept in, and the life of 
 Christian pastors was not always conformable to the evangelical pre- 
 cepts. Still it must be repeated, since people seem to have forgotten 
 it, that in the worst times there was at least a great part of the 
 wealth bestowed by the pious for the good of the Church, which 
 could not be touched by the most ambitious and greedy among the 
 clergy. It is indubitable that, even at that deplorable epoch, charity 
 at least abounded ; and there was not a single human misery which 
 was not relieved. Hospitals, asylums, reformatories, houses of edu- 
 cation, all funded and apparently forever secured against greediness 
 and rapacity, furnished abundant means for systematized relief and 
 the alleviation of all human distress. But our present concern re- 
 gards only the means left at the Church's disposal in our day. In 
 every country she has been despoiled, and left bare of every shred of 
 property. More than this, legislation has everywhere interfered to 
 prevent her from becoming rich again ; and in case means of impor- 
 tance were again accumulated in her hands, the prospect is never 
 absent from her sight that confiscation by the State would be again 
 resorted to. Still, the needs required for such a gigantic work as the 
 Church must necessarily undertake are enormous, and mankind would 
 suffer if it was deprived of them for a single day. 
 
 Fortunately the providence of God is inexhaustible ; and in the 
 total absence of permanent wealth, the Church's children are inspired 
 with an irresistible desire of coming to their mother's help. For 
 daily wants daily alms are required ; and not a day passes that the 
 purse of individual Christians does not become the treasury of a 
 universal Institution. Remember how the process of it has been 
 already for many years going on among the Catholics of France, of 
 England, of this country. See how it begins to operate among those 
 
482 THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL WORLD. 
 
 of Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Germany is now learning how to do 
 it in the unutterable distress of persecution and spoliation. Details 
 are unavoidably excluded here ; but it suffices to remind the reader 
 that as the Church is thus resuming the way of life which distin- 
 guished the beginning of its career, the same holiness must prevail 
 in its head and metfibers which struck the eyes of the pagan world 
 around its cradle in Jerusalem and Rome. This, thank God ! must 
 be the concluding word of this volume, 
 
 VI. During the last two hundred years and more, the progress in 
 the path of sanctity has been steadily going on among the pastors of 
 the flock of Christ. It has never been more remaikable than at the 
 present day. The development of these two propositions would 
 necessitate details which every one can easily ascertain by referring 
 to this most modern phase of history. Who does not know that at 
 least from the reign of Louis XIII. in France (a longer period would 
 be unnecessary) the see of Peter has been occupied by a series of 
 pontiffs highly impressed with the holiness of their office, and atten- 
 tive only to the call of duty.? Under their rules at once mild and 
 strict, prelates, bishops, and clergy have been gradually brought to 
 the practice of a truly evangelical life. Some decline may have been 
 perceptible, in spite of the popes, among the French during the last 
 century, and in the German episcopate under the Josephine vexa- 
 tions. But it v/as only a temporary check, extending but slightly to 
 other countries. The scourge of persecution and war has purified at 
 last the whole Church from this last dross ; and the result has been 
 what all sincere Christians must perceive with admiration. Is not 
 holiness at last triumphant in the Vatican, turned almost into a prison ; 
 in nearly every bishop's house throughout Christendom; in the hum- 
 ble residences of secular clergymen ; in the pious houses of religious 
 men and women devoted to the service of God 1 This is, in very 
 few words, the spectacle offered universally throughout the world. 
 Insignificant anomalies, redressed as soon as perceived, cannot mar 
 the general beauty of the scene which surrounds every temple raised 
 to God on earth. The sanctuary is nowhere polluted, but every- 
 where worthy of its destination. Around the altar of Mary pure 
 souls can meet without fear of desecration. The statue of Christ 
 opening His bosom to show His divine heart to the faithful calls 
 them all to the purity He brought on earth. Canticles of praise and 
 thanksgiving resound night and day from the lips of innocent chil- 
 dren, of pure women, of men full of faith, and never recoiling from 
 its profession. 
 
FACTS. 483 
 
 This description might be indefinitely prolonged. It is not neces- 
 sary, particularly for those who know that it is but the effect of the 
 infinite love of Christ for His Church, Who ''delivered Himself up 
 for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it in a bath of water by 
 the word of life ; that He might find in it a glorious Church with- 
 out any spot or wrinkle, but that it should be holy and without 
 blemish."^ 
 
 * Eph. V. 25, seq. 
 
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