Csrffe. Choral- hlr'sk-• 344 - [8] Number of t’e Martyrs.—During the succession of per- secutions which came to an end on the accession of Constantine to supreme power and his adoption of the Christian faith, there were many who submitted to imprisonment, torture, and death. Outline of Church History 47 Not a few, especially after long seasons of quiet, lacked the courage to face the terror, and saved their lives at the cost of their Christian fidelity. To offer sacrifice to the heathen gods, to procure from the heathen false testimonies to the effect that they had renounced Christianity, or to give up copies of the Scriptures on the demand of the magistrates, excluded those guilty of these offences from Christian fellowship. As to the total number of martyrs in the first three centuries, it was doubt- less overestimated by the Church Fathers, but it has been under- rated by Gibbon, who draws a larger inference than is warranted from a passage in Origen. Gibbon, moreover, fails to take into account the multitude of instances where tortures were inflicted that resulted, not at once, yet eventually, in death. It was the heroic age in the history of the Church, when, with no aid from an arm of flesh, the whole might of the Roman empire was vic- toriously encountered by the unarmed and unresisting adherents of the Christian faith. Imperial Rome, the conqueror of the world, was herself overcome by the bands of Christian disci- ples, whose meek but dauntless courage was more than a match for all her power. — G. P. Fisher, “ History of the Christian Church ” p. 50. [9] Death Sentence of a Christian Martyr. — “Your life has long been led in a sacrilegious mode of thought—you have as- sociated yourself with a very large number of persons in crim- inal complicity. You have constituted yourself an antagonist to the gods of Rome and to their sacred observances. Nor have our pious and most hallowed princes, Valerian and Gallien, the Augusti, and Valerian the most noble Caesar, been able to recall you to the obedience of their own ceremonial. And, therefore, whereas you have been clearly detected as the instigator and standard bearer in very bad offences, you shall in your own per- son be a lesson to those whom you have by guilt of your own 'issociated with you. Discipline shall be ratified with your blood.” He then took the prepared tablet and read, “ Our pleasure is that Thascius Cyprianus be executed with the sword.” “ Thanks be to God,” said Cyprian .—From the Life of Cyprian by his Deacon Pontius, in Benson’s “St. Cyprian,” p. 503. [10] The Church Universal and Heresies .—One new heresy arose after another, and the former ones always passed away, and now at one time, now at another, now in one way, now in other ways, were lost in ideas of various kinds and various forms. But the consistent and Catholic and only true Church which is alwavs the same, grew in magnitude and power, "'fleeted its t^cty and simplicity and freedom, and the modest >nd purity of its inspired life and philosophy before everv ny 48 Outline oj Church History tion both of the Greeks and Barbarians. — Eusebius, “ Hist. Ecc.t Book IV., c. y. [ 1 1 ] The Edict of Milan .—Perceiving long ago that religious liberty ought not to be denied, but that it ought to be granted to the judgment and desire of each individual to perform his religious duties according to his own choice, we had given orders that every man, Christian as well as others, should preserve the faith of his own sect and religion. But since in that rescript, in which such liberty was granted them, many and various con- ditions seemed clearly added, some of them it may be, after a little, retired from such observance. When I, Constantine Au- gustus, and I, Licinius Augustus, came under favorable auspices to Milan and took under consideration everything which per- tained to the commonweal and prosperity, we resolved among other things, or rather first of all, to make such decrees as seemed in many respects for the benefit of every one; namely, such as should preserve reverence and piety toward the deity. We resolved, that is, to grant both to the Christians and to all men freedom to follow the religion which they choose, that what- ever heavenly divinity exists may be propitious to us and to all that live under our government, etc. — Eusebius, “Hist. Ecc.,” Book X., c. 5, 2. [12] Sincerity of Constantine—Was Constantine sincere in his famous conversion, or was he moved by deep political calcula- tions? Let us understand what we understand by sincerity and faith. If we mean that penitent compunction which works the reform of the heart’s vices, frees it from earthly attachments, purifies it of the dross of human passion, such a faith was vouch- safed only on his deathbed to the ambitious and often cruel Constantine. If we mean by faith a belief in the Gospel revela- tion, respect for the supernatural power of Christ and for the infallible authority of His Church, a firm will to submit to it, and even to incur grave political embarrassment and real peril, an efficient and deep admiration for the truth—if all these senti- ments, that do not, indeed, suffice to save a soul, yet deserve consideration as guarantees of conscientious conviction, then there can be no reason to doubt the sincerity of Constantine. No motive of self-interest could have urged him to alienate, by the sudden profession of a new religion, more than one-half of his subjects, and to break thereby with all the reminiscences and traditions of his empire. Once a Christian, had he cared for power only he would not have shared in the domestic quarrels of the Church with that peculiar mixture of indecision and ardor; he would have issued his orders without discussion. Given his strength of character and his irresistible power, thi° Outline of Church History 49 very hesitancy, the offspring of scruples only, is a pure proof of his good faith .—De Broglie, “ L’Eglise et I’Etat au quatrieme siecle,” vol. i., p. 381. [13] The Pagan Restoration Under Julian .—Although Julian pretends that in all things he desires to avoid “ novelties,” yet on the aged trunk of paganism he grafted many new ideas and prac- tices. The loans made from Christianity demand especial atten- tion, as they show that the time was ripe for its operation, that it fitted in with the desires and needs of this society, and was made for it, since Julian, who detested Christianity, felt that he could successfully oppose it only by imitating it. But the imitation was a lame one ; it undertook to combine mutually destructive prin- ciples. Neither party recognized its own in this incoherent sys- tem. It was scarcely worth the while to suppress Christianity if its best elements were to be retained. If the world could profit by the Christian life, what better interpreter of it than Chris- tianity? Julian was anxious to save from complete ruin the remnants of ancient civilization, and his intention was praise- worthy. They contained more than one element that deserved survival and engrafting into our modern society. But those very elements were already in process of assimilation by Chris- tianity. They were infiltrating into it from all sides, since it had put off so much of its severity, and come down into the world of everyday life. Soon the amalgam would be complete. The enterprise of Julian was utterly useless; his purpose was being worked out in another manner and under better auspices. His work might well perish ; the world had nothing to lose by his failure .—Gaston Boissier, “ La Fin du Paganisme,” p. 167. [14] Did Decaying Heathenism Corrupt Christianity ?—If we are forced to admit that religious assimiliation played a gravely important role in the breaking up of the old heathen life, we must at the same time acknowledge that, all circumstances con- sidered, the new religion owed its victory to itself alone. Com- promise in some points between the new faith and the old, the solid and prudent organization of the Church, her beneficient ac- tivity, the cooperation of the state, may have been important subsidiary factors in hastening the process of dissolution—they were not the great central force that overthrew paganism. The fourth century merely witnesses the happy termination of the warfare between the superior religious energies of Christianity and the cults of heathenism that had raged in the pre-Constan- tinian period, and laid bare the helplessness of the ancient state during the last phases of the secular struggle. Perhaps in fol- lowing centuries the Christian ideal was neither so sublime nor so pure. It remains true that the heathen world was very far 5o Outline of Church History from offering anything like it. Indeed, in spite of whatsoever contact may have happened with heathenism, Christianity stood over against it as something absolutely new. The humankind of the time was deeply religious in temperament, and could not therefore long escape the conviction that it had entered into the possession of the very highest religious ideal. And the victory of Christianity could not fail to be final and thorough, as soon as it won over the middle classes, in which lingered, as a domestic spiritual heirloom, the ancient spirit of veneration and submis- siveness towards a higher power. Once they were won over, the unthinking multitudes, to whom religion was a mechanical custom, followed wihout difficulty. — Schultze, “ Untergang des Griechsch-roemischen Heidentums,” p. 384. [15] Christian Morality and Roman Civilization.—In this great restoration of civilization which is due mainly to the impulse and the power of Christian morality, a great place must be given to the direct influence of Christian aspects of life and ideas of duty. Christian ideas of purity acted directly on all that was con- nected with family and domestic life. They forbade, with in- tense and terrible severity, before which even passion quailed, the frightful liberty in the relations of the sexes which in Greece, and at last in Rome, had been thought so natural. Here was one great point fixed ; the purification of the home, the sanctity thrown round the wife and the mother, the rescuing of the un- married from the assumed license of nature, the protection given to the honor of the female slave and then of the female servant, were social victories well worth the unrelenting and often ex- travagant* asceticism which was, perhaps, their inevitable price at first So with the fiercer tempers and habits of men; against cruelty; against high-minded oppression and abuse of strength there was a constant unyielding protest in the Christian law of justice and charity, continually unheeded, never unfelt; even war and vengeance were uneasy under the unceasing though unavail- ing rebuke of the Gospel law, and made concessions to it, though too strong, too fatally necessary, to submit to it. — Dean Church, “ Civilization Before and After Christianity,” p. 140. [16] Modifications of Latin Character.—Whence, in these races sprung from the subjects of the sternest of emperors and moulded under its influence, this reversal of the capital and leading marks by which they are popularly known and charac- terized ; this development of the emotional part of their nature, this craving after the beautiful in art? Whence the inexhaus- tible fertility and inventiveness, the unfailing taste and tact and measure, the inexpressible charm of delicacy and considerate forethought and exuberant sympathy, which are so distinctly Outline of Church History 51 French, and which mark what is best in French character and French writings? Whence that Italian splendor of imagination and profound insight into those subtle connections by which ob- jects of the outward senses stir and charm and ennoble the in- ward soul? Who was it who in the ages of confusion which followed the fall of the empire, sowed and ripened the seeds which were to blossom into such wondrous poetry in the four- teenth century, into such a matchless burst of art in the fifteenth and sixteenth? Who touched in these Latin races the hidden vein of tenderness, “ the fount of tears,” the delicacies and courtesies of mutual kindness, the riches of art and the artist’s earnestness? It was the conversion of these races to the faith of Christ. — Dean Church, “ The Gifts of Civilization” P. 203. [17] The Evolution of the Church.—In this time the Church has, indeed, reached the measure of a world-power, a mighty kingdom of the Lord, embracing in a higher unity both Hellene and barbarian, sharing with each higher dignity, and destined to outlive both the one and the other. Equipped with few earthly helps, working through weak human organs, subject to conflict at every step, she still wrests from unwilling hands her inde- pendence; in time she forges new weapons, spiritual and tem- poral, to protect it against new attacks, and to permit her un- ceasingly to interpenetrate and saturate with her spirit the pop- ular life. In place of the lovable but artless ingenuousness and simplicity of worship, doctrinal technology, and discipline, we have the riper charm and witchery of the beautiful, the radiant and mature perfection of form, without quite sacrificing the unassum- ing naturalness of an earlier phase of Christian life. The inner life of the Church could not but exhibit itself in her exterior, and in manifold shapes. All dormant forces had to be aroused; Popes and councils vie with one another in rooting out the tares of evil and in planting the germs of good. From mean beginnings sprang the great corporations of the Orders. On a few simple words of the New Testament were built up mar- velous institutions of charity, masterpieces of literature, lives that acted as magnets of attraction, as inspirations to similar perfection. Over the narrow corridors and chambers of the Catacombs the splendid basilicas lifted their vast, reposeful lines. On all sides the supernatural suffuses with its light the natural, but without doing violence to the latter’s intrinsic bent or trend. The peoples of Greek and Roman culture were in the eventide of their vocation ; strong and youthful races move up into the foreground of history. They are the chosen material with which the Church is to work out more successfully her mission to hu- manity. — Hergenroet 1 er, “ Kirchengeschichte” vol. i., p. 653. 52 Outline of Church History [18] Causes of Byzantine Decay.—The history of Constant! nople is little more than the record of a despotic power. So far from presenting the interest and advantage which must always attach to the history of the most insignificant of free peoples, it is hardly the history of a people at all. It is the story of a government, not of a nation; of a government indeed, which, with all its faults, for many centuries discharged its functions better than any contemporary government in the world, but which never called forth that warmth of patriotic affection which gath- ers round the vilest despotism, if the tyrant is still felt to be the chief of his people. But the emperor of the Romans never be- came a national sovereign to the Egyptian or the Syrian, or even to the Sicilian or Peloponnesian Greek. — Freeman, “ His- torical and Political Essays ” vol. Hi., p. 241. [19] Venerable Bede on Pope Gregory.—At this time, that is, in the year of Our Lord 605, the blessed Pope Gregory, after having most gloriously governed the Roman apostolic see thir- teen years six months and ten days, died, and was translated to the eternal see of the heavenly kingdom. Of whom, in regard that he by his zeal converted our nation, the English, from the power of Satan to the faith of Christ, it behooves us to discourse more at large in our ecclesiastical history, for we may and ought rightly to call him our Apostle ; because, whereas he bore the pontifical power over all the world, and was placed over the churches already reduced to the faith of truth, he made our na- tion, till then given up to idols, the Church of Christ, so that we may be allowed thus to attribute to him the character of an apostle ; for though he is not an apostle to others, yet he is so to us ; for we are the seal of his apostleship in the Lord. — " Ecclesi- astical History of the English People,” Book II., c. 1. [20] The Elevation of Civil Authority.—The most august thing on earth is the royal dignity ; but it is full of danger, solicitude, and fatigue. All power comes from God, but human kings reign, and legislatures fix the laws. You will therefore be obliged to give an account to God of the flock which is confided to you. Above all, observe the duties of piety, and serve the Lord your God with all your soul, and with a pure heart. Maintain with firmness before the whole world justice, without which no so- ciety can last, and distribute to the good their proper reward, and to the wicked their proper punishment. Protect the widows and orphans, the poor and the weak, against all oppression. Be gracious to all who seek to approach you, mild and affable, for that beseems the royal dignity. Fulfill your functions in life, so that men may say that you governed not in your own interest, but w that of the people, and expect the recompense of your Outline of Church History 53 good actions not on this earth, but in heaven. — The “Roman Pontifical” on the Consecration of Kings. [21] Civilization and the Christum Missionaries.—The crowd of unknown saints whose names fill the calendars and live, some of them, only in the titles of our churches, mainly represent the age of heroic spiritual ventures, of which we see glimpses in the story of St. Boniface, the Apostle of Germany; of St. Columban and St. Gall wandering from Ireland to reclaim the barbarians of the Burgundian deserts, and of the shores of the Swiss lakes. It was among men like these—men who were termed emphati- cally “ men of religion ”—that the new races first saw the ex- ample of life ruled by a great and serious purpose, which yet was not one of ambition or the excitement of war; a life of deliberate and steady industry, of hard and uncomplaining la- bor; a life as full of activity in peace, of stout and brave work as a warrior’s was wont to be in the camp, on the march, in the battle. It was in these men, and in the Christianity which they taught, and which inspired and governed them, that the fathers of our modern nations first saw exemplified the sense of human responsibility; first learned the nobleness of a ruled and disciplined life; first enlarged their thoughts of the uses of existence ; first were taught the dignity and sacredness of honest toil. These great axioms of modern life passed silently from the special homes of religious employment to those of civil ; from the cloisters and cells of men, who, when they were not en- gaged in worship, were engaged in field work or book work — clearing the forest, extending cultivation, multiplying manu- scripts—to the guild of the craftsman, the shop of the trader, the study of the scholar. Religion generated and fed these ideas of what was manly and worthy in man. Once started, they were reenforced from other sources ; thought and experience enriched, corrected, and coordinated them. But it was the power and sanction, of a religion and a creed which first broke men into their yoke that now seems so easy, gradually wrought their charm over human restlessness, and indolence, and pride, gradu- ally reconciled mankind to the ideas and the ideas to man- kind, gradually impressed them on that vague but yet real thing which we call the general thought and mind of a nation. — Dean Church, “ Christianity arid the Teutonic Races,” p. 241. [22] Rome and the Anglo-Saxons.—Henceforth the Saxon was no longer the Red Indian of the classic peoples, but a mem- ber of the world-wide Church. Quicker than Frank or Lom- bard, he caught the spirit of Rome, and as long as he held the soil of England was unswervingly faithful to her. Through her came all his culture—the fine arts and music, and the love of 54 Outline of Church History letters. His books came from her libraries, and she sent him his first architects and masons. From her, too, he received with the faith the principles of Roman law and procedure. When he went abroad it was to her that he turned his footsteps, and when he wearied of life in his pleasant island home he betook him- self to Rome to end his days beneath the shadow of St. Peter. In the long history of Christian Rome she never knew a more romantic and deep-set attachment on the part of any people than that of the Angles and Saxons, who for centuries cast at her feet not only their faith and their hearts, but their lives, their crowns, and their very home itself. Surely there must have been something extraordinary in the character of their first apostle, a great well-spring of affections, a happy and sympathetic estimate of the national character, to call forth such an outpouring of gratitude, and such a devotion, not only to the Church of Rome, but to the civilization that she represented. To-day the English- speaking peoples are in the van of all human progress and cul- ture, and the English tongue is likely to become at no distant date the chief vehicle of human thought and hope. Both these peoples and their tongues are to-day great composites, whose ele- ments it would not be easy to segregate. But away back at their fountainhead, where they issue from the twilight of their history, there stands a great and noble figure who gave them their first impetus on the path of religion and refinement, and to whom must always belong a large share of the credit which they enjoy. — T. J. Shahan, “ Gregory the Great,” The Catholic World, Jan., 1895, p. 516. The Old Anglo-Saxon Monasteries.—Yet it was in these re- treats that all the literature the age possessed was written, pre- served, and handed down to posterity. Literature, indeed, was but one of the several industries continually practised by those communities ; for it was only by small societies living in seclusion that the arts of peace and civilization could make any progress in days of violence and barbarism. Hard labor was the es- sential principle of their discipline ; nor would it have been pos- sible for the young communities to subsist without it. Each brother had his appointed work, whether it were in the field, in the garden, in the kitchen, or in the library. The very buildings of the monastery were the work of the monks’ own hands ; nor was there any kind of drudgery needful to the general weal that was held in disrepute. The “dignity of labor” did not require to be vindicated to men who felt its holiness. The architect and the mason were not divided ; and we have it on record that St. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, carried a hod, and labored with his own hands at the building of his own cathedral. — James Gairdner, t( England in Early Chroniclers of Europe” p. 58. Outline of Church History 55 [23] Theory of the Mediaeval Empire.—It is that of an uni- versal Christian monarchy. The Roman Empire and the Cath- olic Church are two aspects of one society, a society ordained by the divine will to spread itself over the whole world. Of this society Rome is marked out by divine decree as the predestined capital, the chief seat alike of spiritual and of temporal rule. At the head of this society, in its temporal character as an em- pire, stands the temporal chief of Roman Christendom, the Ro- man Caesar, At its head, in its spiritual character as a Church, stands the spiritual chief of Christendom, the Roman Pontiff. Caesar and Pontiff alike rule by divine right, each as God’s im- mediate Vicar within his own sphere. Each ruler is bound to the other by the closest ties. The Caesar is the Advocate of the Ro- man Church, bound to defend her by the temporal arm against all temporal enemies. The Pontiff, on the other hand, though the Caesar holds his rank, not of him, but by an independent di- vine commission, has the lofty privilege of admitting the Lord of the World to his high office, of hallowing the Lord’s Anointed, and of making him in some sort a partaker in the mysterious privileges of the priesthood. — Freeman, “ The Holy Roman Em- pire!’ Essays (I). p. 138. [24] The Papacy and Royal Divorces.—The Popes never ren- dered greater service to humanity than when they repressed in the person of princes the excesses of that passion which is terrible even in mild men, but which is beyond description in the case of violent natures, and which will forever laugh at the holi- est laws of marriage, once it knows no fear The holiness of marriage, that basis of the public weal, is of the highest im- portance in royal families where certain disorders have an un- suspected and incalculable effect. Unless the Popes were in a condition to control the great passions of the chiefs of the northern nations, these princes would have gone from one abuse, from one caprice to another, and ended by legalizing divorce and perhaps polygamy. Their example would surely find imita- tors in every class of society. What eye could fathom the limits of such a relaxation of law and order? — De Maistre, “Du Pape,” Book II., c. vii. [2^] The Mediaeval Popes and Public Order.—During the Mid- dle Ages, when there was no social order, the Papacy, alone per- haps, saved Europe from total barbarism. It created bonds of connection between the most distant nations ; it was a common centre, a rallying for isolated States It was a supreme tri- bunal, established in the midst of universal anarchy, and its decrees were sometimes as respectable as they were respected. It prevented and arrested the despotism of the Emperors, com- 56 Outline of Church History pensated for the want of equilibrium and diminished the incon- veniences of the feudal system. — Ancillon, “ Tableau des Revolu- tions,” i., p. 79, 106. [26] Idea of the Monastic Life.—The impulse which led men to join it was the desire to overcome the world and to make themselves ready for immortal experiences. Their daily life kept before them the eternity for which they were preparing. The earth was to perish, and the things of the earth to be burned and to vanish A century hence, what would it matter to any man whether he had to spend a few years in a palace or in a hut; had eaten dainties and slept in state, or had eaten coarse food and slept on the hard pallet of the monk? — Storrs, “Life of St, Bernard,” p. 236. [27] The Benedictines and the Soil of Europe.—The extra- ordinary benefit which they conferred on society by colonizing waste places—places chosen because they were waste and solitary, and such as could be reclaimed only by the incessant labors of those who were willing to work hard and live hard—lands often given because they were not worth keeping—lands, which, for a long while, left their cultivators half starved, and dependent on the charity of those who admired what we must too often call a fanatical ( !) zeal—even the extraordinary benefit, I say, which they conferred on mankind by thus clearing and cultivating, was small in comparison with the advantages derived from them by society, after they had become large proprietors, landlords with more benevolence, and farmers with more intelligence and capi- tal, than any others. — Maitland, “The Dark Ages,” p. 431. [28] The Church as Teacher of Religion.—The Primers which were in the hands of every educated man and woman in the four- teenth or fifteenth century, answered to no small extent to our present book of Common Prayer. They contained the offices said daily in the Church, the seven penitential Psalms, the fif- teen gradual Psalms, the litany, and the offices for the departed, as well as the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the seven deadly sins. Thus the Church, in the Middle Ages, teaching her children either orally or by book, put them in possession of the seed plot from which might grow the fairest forms of devotional life. By the creeds she taught them the faith. In Holy Scripture she pointed them to the true basis of all meditation. By the commandments and the list of the seven deadly sins, she led them to self-examination and penitence. By her public offices she taught them aue harmony of praise, of in- teression and of prayer. Finally, in the daily Eucharist she brought them to renewed self-consecration in the fullness of 57Outline of Church History corporate worship. Mediaeval religion, with all its faults, set before every man a definite scheme of Christian life and duty, and showed him how he might accomplish it. — Wakeman, “An Introduction to the History of the Church of England ” (1897), p. 184. [29] The Function of Medieval Latin.—Just think now what this common familiarity with mediaeval Latin implies. It implies almost as the power of reading English at the present day im- plies with respect to our national classics This facility of learning was limited only by the scarcity of books ; a very fatal limitation, but not half so fatal as the common fault of these days when there are so many more books than there are readers with a will to read them. — Bishop Stubbs. “Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Mediceval and Modern History ” p. 176. [30] The Share of Photius in the Greek Schism.—The in- fluence of Photius has never ceased to make itself felt. Since his days discipline, theology, and ecclesiastical life among the Greeks have moved in ever-deepening antithesis to the Latins. The work of Photius entered into the very marrow of the Greek Church. He was the first to affix the stigma of heresy to the Latins; his doctrine on the procession of the Holy Spirit was quietly handed down during the tenth century ; his polemical cir- cular borrowed a new life from the use made of it by Caerularius, who enriched it with new causes of complaint. In the twelfth century his writings became still more popular ; he is cited as an authority; the points of difference are multiplied; the primacy of Rome attacked with increasing bitterness, and an ever-deepen- ing hate is roused against “ the heretical West.” Henceforth few attempted to defend the cause of union, and even these did so with many restrictions. The crusades and their consequences, the Latin empire of Constantinople, the violence of Western princes, deepened still more the chasm, and fed the savage fanaticism of the clergy, the monks, and the people. In vain did the im- perial policy attempt to set a limit to this movement. The in- tellectual author of this schism was canonized, deified. The doc- trines and system of Photius won so great an influence that no human might and strength sufficed to check them. — Cardinal Her- genroether, “ Photius ” vol. in., p. 876. [31] Rome and the Oriental Churches.—Among the many means by which the Popes endeavored to heal this great schism, or to prevent a prescription, may be enumerated the following : the preservation of Oriental rites intact, the sending of mis- sionaries to invite the schismatics to return, the frequent publica- tion of solemn invitations of bulls, encyclicals, etc., the invitation Outline of Church History58 to Oriental prelates to take part in the general councils, the oc- casional incorporation into the Roman Church of Oriental com- munities, special epistles to the Oriental clergy, the publication of suitable literature, the establishment at Rome of special com- missions for Oriental religious matters, the acknowledgment of the Oriental rite whenever the Pope celebrates a Pontifical Mass as Head of the Church, the habit of naming a patriarch of Constantinople, and the similar one of naming bishops for the patriarches of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. — Pitcipios, “ L’Eglise Orientate,” Book IV., p. 85. [32] The Religious German Humanism.—The period of Ger- man Reform which began in the middle of the fifteenth century, produced the most splendid results. It was a time when culture penetrated to all classes of society, spreading its ramifications deep and wide, a time of extraordinary activity in art and learn- ing. By catechetical teaching, by sermons, by the translations of the Holy Scriptures, by instructional and devotional publication of all sorts, religious knowledge was zealously diffused, and the development of religious life abundantly fostered. In the lower elementary schools and the advanced middle schools, a sound basis of popular education was established ; the universities at- tained a height of excellence and distinction undreamed of be- fore, and became the luminous centres of all intellectual activity. And more even than learning, art was seen to blossom and de- velop on the soil of national and religious life, beautifying all departments of life, public and private, secular and ecclesiastical, in the worthiest manner, while in its many grand and compre- hensive works, inspired by the then prevailing sense of Christian brotherhood, it manifested the real core of the German genius and character. — Janssen, “ History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages,” vol. i., p. 283 (English trans- lation). [33] 'The Personalities of Luther.—The manner in which he treats the persons of his enemies is positively unexampled. We never meet in him that sorrowing love which hates only the error and tries to win over the erring person ; on the contrary, his weapons are contemptuous scorn, violence, mockery, and an overwhelming rush of invective, of personally offensive epithets — at times, even, of the most vile and common character. They flow from his pen as a stream from some inexhaustible spring. It is thoroughly false that in these matters Luther was no worse than his time. Whoever is acquainted with the contemporary and the immediately earlier literature knows that the contrary is true. Indeed, Luther’s writings caused a universal astonishment by their intense personalism. Those who were not his immedi- Outline of Church History 59 ate followers expressed their surprise, reproved him sharply, or called attention to the dangerous consequences of these uncon- trolled attacks. But his disciples consoled themselves by speak- ing of the “heroic sm'rit” of the man, to which no one dared to prescribe either limit or measure. They often claimed for him a sort of an inspiration, and free- dom from the observance of the ordinary laws of morality, spying that what would be immoral and reproachable in others was permissible in him. — Dcellinger, “Luther,” p. 59. Of Luther, the reformer Ulrich Zasius said: Luther has shamelessly turned the entire Scripture of the Old and New Testaments, from the first chapter of Genesis to the very last words, into a series of threats and maledictions against the Pope, bishops and priests, as though through all these long centuries God had no other business on hand except to thunder against priests. This conduct of Luther has begotten enmity, quarrels, factions, sects, hatefulness and murder.—Janssen, “ His- tory of the German People,” vol. ii., p. 135. [34] The Reformers and Ecclesiastical Property.—Luther drew up for the use of those who coveted their neighbors’ goods a code consisting of eight articles, in which legal theft became a com- mandment of God The princes were not mentioned in this plan of division ; but, as Luther in his Argyrophylax said to them. “ in a short while you will see what tons of gold are concealed in the monasteries,” threatening the vengeance of heaven if they did not seize on them, the princes considered themselves authorized to regulate the partition of the booty. They thoroughly comprehend the lion’s share ; from compas- sion they gave to the obstinate monks some clothing that they might beg on the highway—a little money to those that had been obedient to Luther, and by singular generosity the sacred vessels of the secular monasteries to the curate of the parish, if he consented to embrace Lutheranism ; all the rest went to their mistresses and courtiers: and when they were as greedy as the landgrave of Hesse they kept to themselves the sacerdotal robes, tapestries and vessels of the sanctuary.—Audin, “Life of Luther.” vol. it., p. 189. [35] Variations of the English Reformers. —Thus indeed this reign of reformation was one of plunder, wretchedness and disgrace. Three times the form of the new worship was changed : and yet those who adhered to the old worship or went beyond the new were punished with the utmost severity. The nation became every day more distracted and miserable at home. The Church, “ as by law established,” arose, and was enforced 6o Outline of Church History under two protectors or ministers, both of whom deservedly suffered death as traitors. Its principal author (Cranmer) was a man who had sent both Protestants and Catholics to the stake, who had burned people for adhering to the Pope, others for not believing in Transubstantiation, others for believing in it, and who now burned others for disbelieving in it for reasons dif- ferent from his own. A man who openly professed to dis- believe in that, for not believing in which he had burned many of his fellow creatures, and who after this most solemnly de- clared that his own belief was that of those very persons ! As this church “ by the law established ” advanced, all the remains of Christian charity vanished before it. The indigent, whom the Catholic Church had so tenderly gathered under her wing, were now merely for asking for alms, branded with red-hot irons, though no provision was made to prevent them from perishing with hunger and cold. And England, so long famed as the land of hospitality, generosity, ease, plenty and security to persons and property became under a Protestant Church the scene of repulsive selfishness, of pack-house toil, of pinching want, of rapacity, plunder, tyranny, that made the very name of law and justice a mockery. — Cobbett, “ The History of the Protestant Ref- ormation in England and Ireland ” (1896), p. 179. [36] Decay of Schools after the Reformation.—Under the Popes not a child could escape the devil’s broad nets, barring a rare wonder, so many monasteries and schools were there, but now that the priests are gone good studies are packed off with them When I was a child there was a proverb that it was no less an evil to neglect a student than to mislead a virgin This was said to frighten the teachers. — Martin Luther in 1524, “Complete Works ” (Frankfort), XXII., pp. 172-195, cited in Janssen (l. c.), XII.. p. 11. The devil has misled the people into the belief that schooling is useless since the exit of the monks, nuns and priests As long as the people were caught in the abominations of the Papacy, every purse was open for churches and schools, and the doors of these latter were widespread for the free reception of children who could almost be forced to receive the expensive training given within their walls. — Luther in a Sermon of 1530 (Ibid.). In the “ darkness of the Papacy,” wrote Conrad Porta of Eisleben, toward the end of the sixteenth century, “ everyone from the highest to the lowest, even servants and day-laborers, contributed to churches and schools ; but now, in the clear light of the Gospel, even the rich grow impatient, if ever so little be asked, even for the repairing and maintenance of those on hand.” — Janssen (l. c.), p. 73. Outline of Church History 61 [37] Von Ranke on the Council of Trent.—The council that had been so vehemently demanded, and so long evaded, that had been twice dissolved, had been shaken by so many political storms, and whose third convocation had even been beset with danger, closed amid the general harmony of the Catholic world. It may be readily understood how the prelates, as they met to- gether for the last time on the 4th of December, 1563, were all emotion and joy. Even those who had hitherto been antagon- ists congratulated each other, and tears were seen to start into the eyes of many of those aged men.. ’...The faithful were again subjected to the uncompromising discipline of the Church, and in urgent cases to the sword of excommunication. Sem- inaries were founded where young ecclesiastics were carefully brought up under strict discipline and in the fear of God. The parishes were regulated anew, the administration .of the sacra- ments and preaching subjected to fixed ordinances, and the cooperation of the regular clergy subjected to determined laws. The bishops were held rigidly to the duties of their office, es- pecially to the superintendence of the clergy, according to their various grades of consecration. It was a regulation attended with weighty results, that the bishops solemnly bound themselves by a special confession of faith, signed and sworn to by them, to observance of the decrees of the Council of Trent, and to submissiveness to the Pope. — Von Ranke , “A History of the Popes, their Church and State, in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Book III., p. 91. [38] Bossuet as a Historian of Protestantism.—From this separate internal analysis the History of the Variations of Prot- estantism is seen to be the result of extensive reading of the original authorities, and of exact research, a labor that may easily have consumed four years. Whoever will place himself in the same circumstances, with the intention of doing what Bossuet did, will at once see that the latter has collected almost all available information and has judiciously sifted his materials, among which are certain pieces more rare and useful than one would have suspected. As to this method, there is in it a severity, a prudence, a minute and scrupulous carefulness which no one would, at first blush, attribute to an oratorical and syn- thetic character. In formulating his conclusions he dares at times to differ from the views commonly held in his day; modern science, with its wider range and its surer method, has sustained him. — Rebellion, “ Bossuet Historien du Protestantisme ” (1891), P. 520. [39] The Unity and Organisation of Catholicism.—As the Gatholics in zeal and union had a great advantage over the Prot- 62 Outline of Church History estants, so they had also an infinitely superior organization. In truth, Protestantism for aggressive purposes, had no organiza- tion at all. The Reformed Churches were mere national churches. The Church of England existed for England alone. It was an institution as purely local as the Court of Common Pleas, and was utterly without any machinery for foreign opera- tion. The Church of Scotland, in the same manner, existed for Scotland alone. The operations of the Catholic Church, on the contrary, took in the whole world. Nobody at Lambeth or at Edinburgh troubled himself about what was doing in Poland or Ravaria. But Cracow and Munich were at Rome objects of as much interest as the purlieus of St. John Lateran. Our island, at the head of the Protestant interest, did not send out a single missionary or a single instructor to the scene of the great spiritual war. Not a single seminary was established here for the purpose of furnishing such a supply to foreign countries. On the other hand, Germany, Hungary, and Poland were filled with able and active Catholic emissaries of Spanish or Italian birth ; and colleges for the instruction of the northern youth were founded at Rome. The spiritual force of Protestantism was a mere local militia, which might be useful in case of an invasion, but could not be sent abroad and could therefore make no conquests. Rome had such a local militia, but she had also a force disposable at a moment’s notice for foreign service, how- ever dangerous and disagreeable. If it was thought at head- quarters that a Jesuit at Palermo was qualified by his talents and his character to withstand the Reformers in Lithuania, the order was instantly given and instantly obeyed. In a month, the faith- ful servant of the Church was preaching, catechising, confessing beyond the Niemen. — Macaulay, " Essay on Von Ranke’s His- tory of the Popes,” vol. ii., p. 486. PaulistPamphlet Series ON Church History Fire Cents Each : A Brief History of Religion Be Fair! Rev. James M. Gillia, O.S.P. A Century of Catholicism V. Rev. T. J. Shahan, D.D. Chained Bibles Before and After the Reformation Rev. J. M. Lenhart, O.M.Cap. The Condemnation of Galileo Rev. B. L. Oonway, O.S.P. Outline of Church History V. Rev. T. J. Shahan, D.D. Pure vs. Diluted Catholicism V. Rev. A. F. Hewitt, O.S.P. St. Bartholomew’s Day Rev. B. L. Oonway, O.S.P. 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