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Jfe « ft ■ ft « ft • ft a ft • ft © • ft w ft • ft a’. ft « ft « ft - ft • ft ■ ft « ft • ft © .« ft a ft * ft « ft « ft- a * ft • ft •* ft • ft • ft ♦ ft © • ft • ft * ft * ft ♦ ft • - ft % ft •i ft - ft * ft ft ft ft ■ ft ft • ft ft « ft » - ft - • # * ft , ■. ♦ ft “ ft • ft ft •t ft • ft - ft • ft • ft « > ft • ft • ft • ft ** ft • ft < # ft ft ft • ft • ft ft ft • ft m ft t * ft - ft a I ft. ft ft ft • ft '. ft • ft * ft » ft ft * * • # ft ft ft ft ft ft '• ft ^ . * ft ♦ ft • ft • ft a • ft ft ft ft ft • ft - * • ft m ft * ft # ft ft • ft ft • ft ft ft> ft ft • ft " ft c< ft • ft • ft ft ft ft ft’ • ft L* ft */ ft ft • ■K 7f% JR 7K MC mi =<* »* »«w ^ • ft a ft a ft a ft m a ft a ft a ft a • ft .a ft a ft a ft # a ft a ft a ft a • ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a • ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft • a ft a ft a • * ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a • ft a ft a ft. a ft' ft a ft a ft a ft a 0 ft a # a ft a ft ft a ft a. ft a ft a • ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a* • ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a ♦ ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft- a ft a • ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a • ft a ft a ft a ft a ft a ft a ft a • ft a ft a ft a ft # a ft a - ft >• ft a • ft a ft a ft • ft ft a ft a ft a ft a • ft a. ft a ft a a ft a ft a ft a ft a • ft a ft a ft a ft # a ft a ft a ft a • ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a • ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a ■ a ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a - • ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a a ft a ft a ft ‘ a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a a ft a ft a ft a ft ft 0 ft a ft a ft a a ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a a ft a ft a # a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a a ft a ft a ft a ft ft • ft a ft a ft a a ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft • ft a ft a • ft a ft ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a - a ft a ft a ft a ft ft a a ft a ft a a ft a ft a ft a ft ft 'a ft a ft a ft a - a ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a a- ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft a a ft a ft a ft • # ft a ft a ft a ft a a ft a ft a ft a ft ft a ft a ft a ft • a ft a ft a ft a ft ft • ft a ft a ft- a a ft a ft a ft a ft • 0 • i ©■ * ^ ft • ^ # • • * • j * • s ft • -3 ft • 3 % , f :. v , •>*' \ BLESSED VIRGIN Ml THE LIFE OF THE a WITH TnE EXCLUSIVE SANCTION AND ADDITIONS OF THE AUTIIOB. .4 'Oa ^ K # NEW YORK: MoMENAMY, HESS & CO., PUBLISHERS, 735 BROADWAY. \ \\ B n ——* 1874. BOSTON COt_UG£ tjeRAWr CHESTNUT MIU.. MASS. co<; ib'jiw 60970 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1370. by FARRELL & SON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States fui tho Southern District of New York. ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE PRESENT EDITION. For the first time, the remarkable work of the Abbe Orsini is here presented in English, complete, and with the sanction and encouragement of the distinguished Author : who has, moreover, enriched this edition with matter not yet published in France. It is scarcely necessary to say more to advance the claims of this edition to support and hearty welcome, as it must at once strike all that it is actually a duty to encourage and sustain the edition exclusively approved by the distinguished Author, and the only one that will make him any return or equivalent. As our volume itself shows, we have spared no pains or expense to render it, in point of typographic beauty, worthy of the genius of the Author, and fitting to the theme so eloquently treated in its pages. — TO THE RIGHT REVEREND BISHOPS AND THE MEMBERS OF THE CATHOLIC CLERGY IN NORTH AMERICA. It is from the East that the divine light of the Gospel has come to us. It began to rise on the horizon of the tall woods of palm and the vine-clad hills of Syria ; the extreme East had remained in shadow when the Apostles and their disciples had already enlightened the remotest parts of the Old World. Now the countries on the Levant are in their turn plunged in darkness, while the sacred lamp of Sion is. rekindled amid the boundless prairies and immense rivers of America, by the unwearied zeal of the Roman Catholic clergy. Your kindness, Messeigneurs, has been extended like a mantle of honor over the earlier editions of my Life of the Blessed Virgin ; I venture to hope that this new edition, alone approved by me and finally corrected, will not be less fortunate than the rest. I humbly place it under your protection, and commend it to your indulgence. Since the publication of my work, our Catholic Europe has witnessed an event as strange as it is deplorable—a “Life of Jesus,” perfidiously written with the aim of depriving the divine Son of Mary of his title of Son of God. In it the Scrip¬ tural facts are disfigured, the Messianic prophecies annihilated, and the Gospel miracles treated as comedies or fables. The Saviour of the world is denied even a Davidic origin, and the Blessed Virgin her quality of daughter of Juda. I have met these blasphemies by a refutation, which has met. with some applause, and it has seemed to me that this little work written in the same spirit as my book, would not be out of place as a sequel to my Life of the Blessed Virgin, of which it is, to some extent, a corroborating document. It has not hitherto, to my knowledge, appeared in America. I have the honor to offer you, Messeigneurs, with the homage of ray liveliest sympathy, that of profound respect, inspired by your evangelical labors. Your Oredjent Servant. Paris, May Gth, I8G9. GREGORIUS PP. XVI. (Bilecte Fili, Salutem et Apostolicam (Benedictionem Jampridem JVobis dono miser as opus gallica lingua a Te elucubratum , at que inscriptum — La Vierge, Histoire de la Mere de Dieu et de son Culte. Jdunc vero cum tuis obsequen= tissimis Litteris alterum ejusdem operis exemplar libenter accepimus, quod a Te auctum pulcherrimisque imaginibus ornatum ac splendidissimis (Parisiensibus typis editum superiori anno rursus evulgandum, curasti. Tuum consilium ecclesiastico viro plane dignum vehementer commendamus , quod eo pohssimum s'pectat, ut pietas erga Sanctissimam (Bei Geneiricem Mariam in fidelium animis magis magisque augeatur, atque excitatur. Agimus autem pro dono gratias, ac paternce nostrce in te caritatis testem, et ccelestium omnium munerum auspicem Apostolicam (Benedictionem Tibi ip si, (Bilecti Fili, intimo cordis affectu impertimur. (Batum (Pomce apud S. Mariam Majorem die 23 Augusti , Anno 184q, CPontificatus nostri anno decimo quinto. GREGORIUS PP. XVI. Dilecto Filio, Presbytero Orsini, Luteti.*: Parjsiorum. f/yitf; -*• — - ]? .A. 1£ T 1. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN: DEDICATED TO HIS SERENE HIGHNESS PRINCE ORSINI, Senator of Rome. ' ' > ■ ■ 4 ? 4 * ‘ . f •: V ! \'X,-Vtdtf I . . * . ■ •i i . *'•“ v r.~ •■ ■*-• - -- — --- TO HIS HIGHNESS PEINOE ORSINI. Your Serene Highness : One of the descendants of Jordan Orsini, Viceroy of Corsica under Henry II., who gloried to have sprung from a younger and transplanted branch of your ancient house, 3omes to ask the favor of laying at the feet of your serene highness a book which has cost him long vigils, and which he had already dedicated to you before tracing the first line. Illustrious Patrician, whose glorious line of ancestors is lost in the shades of the annals of Augustan Rome, and who now stands one of the noblest pillars of the Rome of St. Peter, become the benevolent patron of this poor little work, written for the Madonna and for you. Humble as this homage is, I present it to you with confidence : you will not reject, I trust, the Life of the Mother of God; and if the execution falls below the magnificence of the theme, your serene highness will imitate the goodness of Mary, who welcomes with equal indulgence the diamonds laid on her shrine by royal hands, and the simple mountain floweret with which the shepherd of the Apennines adorns her rustic altars. I have the honor to be, with the most profound respect, Your serene highness’s most humble and obedient servant, M. Orsini. r' i. : ' ;T i •>!* •:• • !• ^ ■ .* ■ ■ >. , ■ * • SI , .. ... . ■ . : • . • ; ' • .» I- • . • e ' ' . .... ... .... T 1 ... . ■■ ■ i *-• ; * V . - PREFACE OF THE SIXTH FRENCH EDITION. This book, which the public has welcomed so kindly, is not an ambitious effort for celebrity it is a work of faith and patience, a flower laid on Mary’s shrine with the heartfelt simplicity of a pilgrim of the good old days. The Blessed Virgin is worthy indeed of a nobler historian; but she could find none more sincerely desirous of adding glory to her name and extending devotion to her. The history of the Queen of Angels, the mysterious Bose of the New Law, is in itself a theme so poetical as naturally to evoke all that is touching and graceful in thought as well as all that is noble and expressive in language. It is an Oriental narrative which mirrors back the manners, the pomps, the scenes of Asia: it cannot then surprise, if it be tinged with an Oriental hue. We are well enough read in the Fathers to know that they did not disdain the graces of style, and in this respect met paganism with weapons as polished as its own. This Saint Jerome, in his figurative language, called “ beheading Goliath with his own weapon.” What can bo more poetical than some descriptions in Saint John Chrysostom ? That sacred orator is often identical in thought with the Oriental poets ; thus, in one of his homilies, we find the comparison of earth embalmed in the perfume of roses, which Saadi at a later day reproduced in his Gulistan. The epistles and homilies of Saint Basil, full of pleasing pictures which Fenelon has imitated but not equalled, have an aroma of poesy decided enough to alarm the timid minds which, in our days, regard poetry as a spectre, and would fain expel it from all their works. What shall I say of Saint Gregory Nazianzen, that sublime Christian dreamer, who ques¬ tioned himself in regard to the nature of his soul, beneath the shade of dense ivoods, while the breezes of the air mingled with the chant of the birds, poured down siveet slumber from the lofty tree-tops where they sang, gladdened by the light; while the cicadce hidden beneath the grass made all the wood resound , and while a limpid water bathed his feet, gliding gently through the woods it freshened. — (St. Gregorii Nazianz., Op. tom. 2.) To convert men, a hearing is the first essential; to recall to the Boman faith the masses tossed in every direction by the wind of evil systems, or chilled amid the arctic ice of religious indifference—exposed, moreover, to the bold attacks of a sect that rears its head higher than ever, for “ Deja de sa faveur on adore le bruit”— we must begin by securing readers. The preacher who would strip the Word of God of every ornament of true eloquence, would soon leave our churches empty, and like the Greek musician, standing alone in the public square, might exclaim: “ Ye temples, hear me!” The religious writer who should affect a dull, dry style amid a nation that prides itself on its taste and literary 14 PREFACE OF THE SIXTH FRENCH EDITION. acquirements, would fare no better, and his book, great as its intrinsic value might be, would, nevertheless, have become the most useless thing in the world; for no one would touch it. So convinced was Saint Basil of this truth, that he urged the young orators of his time to thorough literary studies, so as to infuse their beauties into Catholic works. “ The charms of literature,” says that great doctor, “ are like leaves which serve to cover and adorn the words of wisdom and truth.” Moses and Daniel were the two most brilliant lights of the synagogue, because they had acquired all the arts of the Egyptians. And in fact, as the sumptuous decoration of altars and tabernacles, has been regarded even in the most austere ages of the Church as a good and laudable practice, well adapted to exalt the majesty of Christian worship, why should religious literature be made an arid, icy desert, on which no one would venture to set foot, for fear of perishing by the way of cold and exhaus¬ tion. Are the Holy Scriptures thus conceived, which Saint John Chrysostom declares full of pearls and diamonds ? Is not every kind of composition found in the Bible, from the eclogue to the epic ? The saints of those remote times, which we in our courtesy choose to style barbarous, were far from wishing to deprive religious works of all literary merit. “ What,” says a doctor of the ninth century, “ we enshrine the ashes of the Saints in gold and gems, yet clothe their actions in uncouth and barbarous speech! Tales of passion are clothed with all the graces of diction, and we describe in the dryest, dullest, and most uninteresting manner, the immortal deeds of the heroes of Christianity! Must elegance of style then serve only to deck out the turpitude of iniquity.” If it is ever lawful to scatter a few flowers of poesy over a religious theme, it is surely when treating of the Mystic Eose of the New Law; hence the gravest doctors of other ages have unconsciously become poets when speaking of that glorious creature. Saint Gregory of Neo Caesarea, that cold, austere thaumaturgus, finds charming appellations for the Mother of God, whom he styles Source of Light and Immaculate Flower of Life. Saint Ephrem, that sombre, ardent solitary, compares the Blessed Virgin to the golden censer exhaling the sweetest incense. Saint Epiphanius calls the Blessed Virgin a spiritual ocean containing the celestial pearl; Saint Cyril of Alexandria, the unextinguishable lamp which has brought forth the sun of justice. Saint Gregory the Great compares Mary, that virgin fair and adorned with the glory of her fruitfulness, to a lofty mountain, toivering above the angelic choirs and reaching to the very throne of the Godhead. Aleuin, that light of the Court of Charlemagne, a scholar absorbed in abstract studies, becomes a poet for Mary : “ Thou art my sweet love,” he exclaims, “ thou art my joy and glory, 0 Virgin / thou art the life of heaven, the flower of the flelds, the lily of the ivorld.” Pope Innocent III. com¬ pares Mary to the dawn: Saint Thomas Aquinas, to the “ Star of the sea, which guides to port those who sail upon the billows.” “Hail 1 noble daughter of Icings,” cries the learned and mystical Erasmus, “ thou art more brilliant than the dawn, milder than the silver moon, purer than the fresh- blown lily, whiter than the mountain snow, more delightful than the rose, more precious than the ruby, more chaste than the angels.” Encouraged by these counsels and examples, we have lightly touched with the honey of Engaddi the edge of the cup which we proffer to the people of the world—those spoiled children who reject with disdainful gestures every beverage which does not, like the sherbets of the East, PREFACE OF THE SIXTH FRENCH EDITION. 15 breathe the perfume of the violet and rose. Some rigorists have made this innocent device a crime, and bitterly reproach us with having sacrificed to false gods; but when they began to cite, they did so with no dexterity, unconsciously criticising Scriptural expressions—that is to say, the very Word of God. “I do not always quote my authority,” says Montaigne, “because nothing is more amusing than to see Virgil, Tacitus, Horace, in a word, the greatest writers of antiquity, buffeted in my person by men scarce able to read them.” Precisely the same thing has happened to us; we have heard the prophets gravely condemned as unclassical by critics, who are supposed to know the Bible by heart, and who were in reality afflicted with the worst degree of ignorance of their own ignorance—which is, the Orientals say, the worst ignorance of all. An observation has been made to us, which we deem worthy of a reply. Few people are acquainted with the inner life of the Hebrews, and some have supposed that we drew on our imagination to depict it. Every traveller who has visited the East, every man of letters at all versed in Asiatic history and manners, will absolve us from this suspicion. Our work in this particular is based on long and laborious researches,—nothing is drawn from imagination. We have not even taken it upon us to invent the forms of farewell, or the wishes for a prosperous journey,—all has been drawn from sacred, or at least authentic sources, which we have scrupulously cited, when the point was sufficiently important. Our work has been read, moreover, by learned Orientalists, who have found it correct; and Israelites of the highest rank have praised our scrupulous fidelity in reviving the faded splendor of Sion and the ancient life of their fathers. From the historian, as from the painter, is now required a profound study of local coloring. If an artist were to introduce our western customs and our northern landscapes into a painting, the subject of which was taken from ancient Asia, he would not escape the just censure of connoisseurs. A literary work is equally a painting, which should faithfully reproduce the conformation of the land, the aspect of the skies, the atmosphere of the country, and the traits of the people inhabiting it. We are no longer permitted to throw around the successive groups that appear in our pages accessories taken up at random. The Bomans have given us on this point an example for our imitation. When, after the fall of Jerusalem, they struck medals to show Judea captive, they represented her under the form of a beautiful woman weeping beneath a palm-tree. In writing the life of the Virgin scion of the kings of Juda, we have regarded ourselves bound by the exigencies of our theme. We have deemed it our task not to recast the ancient manners of the East after our modern customs, or deck them out, as Strauss says, in a Western masquerade, but to depict them, as far as possible, such as they were at the epoch when Mary lived. This was the only means to give any life and animation to our narrative, to leave it its ancient tint, and to place our readers in the midst of Jewish society in the days of Herod. It was, too, the only means of adhering to truth. At every page of Scripture we find the manners and customs of the Hebrews, to which Jesus Christ himself deigned to conform ; nor is it doubtful but that the Blessed Virgin had anticipated the example of her divine Son. Hebrew customs were based on Scripture or on the oral tradition of the Temple, which rendered things immutably holy in the eyes of the whole nation. To depart from established usage would have been regarded, not as a harmless eccentricity, but 1 16 PREFACE OF THE SIXTH FRENCH EDITION. as an insolent contempt for the holy books and the memory of their ancestors. Even the veil held over the head of the new married, the wedding garment, the chaplets of flowers worn by the bridegroom and the bride, all were connected with the patriarchal times. In a word, we have done what we could to instruct, to edify, and to rivet attention. With all our efforts we do not hesitate to admit that our work is very imperfect: it is the lot of human labors; perfection is that mountain of the talisman, whose summit it is not given to any mortal man to reach, and the author is further from it than any other. The French press has treated this book as it chose; neither intrigue nor importunity was used to win its favor. This has not prevented its manifesting a great degree of fairness. By circumstances almost providential, it has happened that most of those men who have criticised our work were men of feeling, knowledge, and intellect, and have acted generously toward us. Lions, conscious of their own strength, often magnanimously spare the weaker prey : not so the vipers. Happy the author who falls into the hands of men capable of examining a book with the probity which becomes the high magistracy of thought; for criticism is a task which many assume, but few can execute: it requires learning, taste, and conscience, qualities not possessed by all. A learned prelate who had remained anonymous, the late Mgr. Cotteret, Bishop of Beauvais, a profound theologian and distinguished writer, after having justified our use of Oriental tradi¬ tions—“ traditions which," says the learned Bishop, “ the author is far from giving as articles of faith ,"—proceeds : “ The Abbe Orsini is one of the authors of our time who has most completely mastered its language; he speaks like a true disciple of Chateaubriand.” This was conferring a high honor upon us, and one by no means deserved; we have never had the presumption to follow, even afar off, in the gigantic steps of that great master, and if our style have any, even a slight resemblance to his, we can only say, as did an humble poet of Kurdistan, on a similar occasion : “ I have come forth, like Antar, that famous poet, from the garden of Nischabur; but Antar was the rose of the garden, and I am only a brier.” One of the things that touched us most deeply was the approbation of the author of the Genius of Christianity, of the Pilgrim to Jerusalem. To one who asked his opinion of our Life of the Blessed Yirgin, the noble Yiscount indulgently replied: “ I think the book contains very beautiful pages.” The foreign press, especially in Italy, Germany, and Spain, noticed this Life of the Blessed Virgin. Unable to quote all, we confine ourselves to this extract from a learned article in La Cruz, a Spanish religious, political, and literary journal, which is honored with the patronage of the eminently Catholic clergy of Spain. “ The Abbe Orsini, in tracing the annals of devotion to the Blessed Yirgin, which commenced with Christianity, and in disinterring testimony which but for the author’s labors might perhaps have remained unknown, presents to the reader the titles supporting the hyperdulia and the progressive honor of the Mother of God, which certainly occupies a golden page in the annals of the world, and revives the most glorious associations. Nor is this all that the Abbe Orsini has done; his book includes the biography of our Lord, and in some measure the history of the whole globe, which is inseparable from the fall of man and the promise of a Bedeemer. In the work we commend, there is profound theology, vast erudition, judicious criticism, beauties that enchant and poetry that delights. The translator, Dr. F. y P., has, in the name of Spain, added one diamond more to the crown wherewith European men of letters have adorned the brow of the author of The Complete Life of tJie Mother of God, and the Devotion to her. This book is a great epic of the nineteenth century, worthy to stand beside Chateaubriand’s “ Martyrs.” Many Italian, Belgian, Spanish, and Ger¬ man scholars have honored the Life of the Blessed Virgin with their encomiums. The Bishop of Salamanca has nobly protected it in Spain, the Archbishop of Mechlin has formally approved the Belgian editions; in fine, our own bishop from the first took it under his high protection, as one who needed not the opinion of others to form his own, and who does not wait to be borne along by the crowd before expressing his opinion. And the public, that terrible bar, where so many new-born or unborn works have been or will be dashed to pieces—the public, that supreme judge, whose decisions are without appeal, has shown itself our friend; the masses who seldom read, have read with pleasure the Life of the Blessed Virgin, not only in France, but elsewhere. Prince Orsini, in a letter accepting the dedication of our book, with the urbanity charac¬ teristic of the high Italian nobility, closes with these words of consolation to our heart: “ Borne applauds the eulogiums on your work, and the glory you seek to give the Mother of God redounds on you.” Since these encouraging words were addressed to us, the Life of the Mother of God has obtained the greatest success, not only in Europe, but in Africa, Asia, and America, as we venture to assert, because proofs exist. It has been circulated at Borne with the permission of the Master of the Sacred Palace, published in France with the permission of the Archbishop of Paris, and openly protected in North America? by the archbishops, bishops, and Catholic clergy of the New World. Thanks to Mary’s all-powerful protection, the little grain of mustard-seed has become a tree whose branches have extended afar over all parts of the globe. 2 * i - . : " . _ . ■ ■ . • ' + A THE LIFE <# THE BLESSED VIRGIN > MOTHER OF GOD; AND OF DEVOTION TO HER. CHAPTER I. UNIVERSAL EXPECTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND' THE MESSIAS. T N those days of old that touch the very From that time it was a tradition, among X cradle of earth, when our first pa- the antediluvian generations, that a woman rents, terror-struck and trembling, heard would come to repair the evil which woman beneath the majestic shades of Eden 1 the had done. This consoling tradition, which voice of Jehovah, in thunder, condemning revived the hope in a fallen race, was not them to exile, labor, and death, in punish- effaced from the memory of men at their ment for their mad disobedience,—a mys- great dispersion in the plains of Sennaar ; terious prophecy, in which the goodness they carried with them, beyond mountain of the Creator was seen, even amid the ven- and sea, this sweet and distant hope, with geance of an irritated God, came to revive the worship established by Noe, and the the dejected minds of those two frail crea- wreck of sciences and arts saved from the tures, who had sinned through pride, like deluge. 2 Later still, as the primitive re- - Lucifer. A daughter of Eve, a woman ligion grew weaker, and the ancient tradi- with masculine courage, was to crush the tions were enveloped in clouds, that one head of the serpent beneath her feet, and of the Blessed Virgin and the Messias re- regenerate forever a guilty race.; that wo- sisted, almost alone, the action of time, and man was Mary. rose above the ruins of the old creeds,— (’) The word Eden, among both Arabs and He- (*) It is certain that the race of primitive men, brews, Is the name of the terrestrial Paradise, and which was wild, but not savage, were early ac- of the Paradise of the elect. In Hebrew it signi- quainted with the arts analogous to their wants and fies a place of delights ; in Arabic, a place suitable pleasures. Scarcely do the children of Adam form for pasturing flocks. little groups of men, when we see them establish LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIX MARY. 20 lost, as they were, in the fables of poly¬ theism,—like that evergreen shrub which grows on the ruins of what was once Baby¬ lon the Mighty. 1 Indeed, if we traverse the different re¬ gions of the globe, if we examine from north to south, from west to east, the re¬ ligious annals of nations, we shall find the promised Virgin, and her divine child¬ bearing, to be the basis of almost every the- ogony. In Thibet, in Japan, and in one part of the eastern peninsula of India, it is the god Fo, who, to save mankind, becomes incar¬ nate in the womb of a king’s young be¬ trothed, the nymph Lhamoghiuprul, the fairest and holiest of women. In China, the emperor Hoang-Ti is reckoned among the Sons of Heaven , whose mother con¬ ceived by a gleam of lightning ; another emperor, Yao, contemporary with the del¬ uge, had for his mother a virgin, rendered fruitful by a ray of starlight; Yu, the head of the first Chinese dynasty, owed his life public worship, manufacture tents, build cities, forge iron, cast bronze, invent musical instruments, and follow the course of the stars. The history of astronomy must date back according to Bailly to an antediluvian people, whose memory has perished, and some remains of whose astronomical science have escaped the general revolution. Lalande, fear¬ ing that this assertion might prove too much in favor of the Scriptures, attributes the origin of this science to the Egyptians; but the Hebrews, who, as neighbors, contemporaries, and ancient dwellers among the Egyptians, have a claim to decide this question, declare for Bailly against his opponent, by informing us that the Egyptians owed their first knowledge of astronomy to tra¬ ditions saved from the deluge.—(See Josephus, An¬ tiquities of the Jews.) to a pearl, 2 that emblem of light throughout the East, which fell from heaven into the chaste womb of a young virgin. Heou-Tsi, the head of the dynasty of the Tcheous, was born without sullying the virginity of his mother, who conceived him by divine operation one day when she was at prayer, and brought him forth without effort and without stain, in a deserted grotto, where oxen and lambs warmed him with their breath. 3 The most popular goddess of the celestial empire, Schingmou, conceived by simple contact of a water-flower ; her son, brought up beneath the poor roof of a fish¬ erman, became a great man, and worked miracles. The Lamas say that Buddha was born of the virgin Maha-Mahai. Sommonokho- dom, the prince, lawgiver, and god of Siam, in like manner owes his birth to a virgin, rendered fruitful by the rays of the sun. Lao-Tseu becomes incarnate in the womb of a black virgin, marvellous and beautiful as jasper. The zodiacal Isis of the Egyp- ( 1 ) There is but one solitary tree found amidst the ruins of Babylon; the Persians give it the name of Athele: according to them this tree ex¬ isted in the ancient city, and was expressly and miraculously preserved, in order that their prophet, Ali, son-in-law of Mahomet, might tie his horse to it after the battle of Hilla. It is an evergreen shrub, and so rare in those countries that only one more is found of the same kind, at Bassora.—(Rich’s Me¬ moir.) ( 3 ) “ The pearl,” says Chardin, “ has everywhere distinctive names: in the East, the Turks and Tar¬ tars call it mardjaun, a globe of light; tke Per¬ sians, marvid, product of light.” ( 3 ) We find in the Chi-King two beautiful odes on this marvellous birth of Heou-Tsi; and the glosses and paraphrases of the learned on these ADAM AND EVE DRIVEN FROM EDEN. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 21 tians is a virgin mother. That of the zes, who lays magnificent garments at her Druids is to bring forth the future Saviour. 1 - feet; a heavenly light bathes her counte- The Brahmins teach that when a god be- nance as she sleeps, and she becomes as comes incarnate, he is born in the womb beautiful as the Day-Star. Zerdhucht, Zo- of a virgin by divine operation ; thus Jug- roaster, or rather Ebrahim-Zer-Ateucht, 3 gernaut, the mutilated saviour of the the famous prophet of the Magi, is the fruit world, 2, and Krishna, born in a grotto, of this nocturnal vision. The tyrant Nem- where angels and shepherds come to adore roud, 4 informed by his astrologers that a him in his cradle, are alike virgin born. child, yet unborn, threatens his gods and The Babylonian woman, Dogdo, beholds his throne, put to death all the pregnant in dream a bright messenger from Oroma- women in his dominions. Zerdhucht, nev- verses agree in explaining them in a way which to the author of Mefathi aldloum, Nemroud must makes the resemblance to the divine child-bearing be the same as Gaicaous, the second king of the of Mary still more striking : — “ Every man at his second dynasty of Persia, called the Ca'ianides. birth,” says Ho-Sou, “ bursts from his mother’s The Persian historians give him a reign of nearly womb, and causes her the keenest sufferings. two centuries, which is somewhat long. Some Kiang-Yuen brought forth her son without rup- make him a wicked man, who had the strange fancy ture, injury, or pain. This was because Tien to ascend to heaven in a chest drawn by four of (Heaven) would display its power, and show how those monstrous birds called Tcerlces, which figure much the Holy One differs from men.”—“Having in the romances of ancient Oriental authors. After been conceived by the operation of Tien,” says wandering about in the air some time, he fell down another commentator, Tsou-Tsong-Po, “ who gave again upon a mountain with such violence, say the him his life by miracle, he was to be born without ancient legends of Persia, that it was shaken by it impairing his mother’s virginity.” even to its foundation. According to the Persians, ( 1 ) “ Hinc Druidse statuam in intimis penetrali- this Nemroud ordered Zerdhusht, whom they con- bus erexerunt, Isidi seu virgini dedicantes, ex qua found with Abraham, to be thrown into a burning filius ille proditurus erat (nempe generis humani furnace; according to others, Nemroud was by re- Redemptor).”—(Elias Schedius, de Diis Germanis, ligion a Sabean, and was the first who established cap. 13.) fire-worship.—D’Herbelot, biblioth&que Orientale, ( 5 ) Juggernauth, the seventh incarnation of t. iii. p. 32. Brahma, is represented in the shape of a pyramid, The Jews claim that Abraham, the progenitor without feet and without hands. “ He lost them,” and founder of their people, underwent this say the Brahmins, “ because he sought to carry the persecution of Nemroud, the honor of which the world, in order to save it.”—(See Kircher.) Persians give to Zerdhusht, their lawgiver. St. ( s ) Zer-Ateusht signifies “ washed with silver Jerome relates an ancient tradition of the Jews, this surname was given to Zoroaster, because, say the which declared that Abraham had been cast into the Ghebers, he proved his mission to a Sabean prince, fire by order of the Chaldeans, because he would not who persecuted him, by plunging into a bath of adore it.—(Hieron., Qusest. in Genes.) More re- melted silver.—(See Tavernier, t. ii. p. 92.) cent Jewish rabbis confirm this tradition. R. Chain ( 4 ) This Nemroud, whom Tavernier calls Neu- ben Adda relates that Abraham, having met with bront, is, as some say, Nimrod, the famous hunter ; a young maiden hearing an idol, broke it to pieces : according to others, the tyrant Zhohac, of the Per- a complaint was immediately laid before Nemroud, sians, king of the first dynasty of the princes who who required Abraham to worship fire. The patri- reigned immediately after the deluge. According arch very shrewdly replied, that it would be more ] 22 LIFE OF THE BLESSED YTTCGTX MARY. ertheless, is saved by the ingenuity and pru¬ dence of his mother. 1 The Macenicos, who dwell on the borders of the Lake Zarayas, in Paraguay, relate that at a very remote period a woman of rare beauty became a mother and remained a virgin ; her son, after working extraordinary miracles, raised hinL A? in the air one day, in the presence of his' disciples, and was transformed into a sun. 2 Collect all the scattered traits of these mutilated creeds, and you reconstruct, in almost all its details, the history of the Blessed Virgin and of Christ. The Blessed Virgin, notwithstanding the royal blood that flows in her veins, is of an obscure con¬ dition, like the mother of Zoroaster ; like her also, she receives the visit of an angel bearing a message from heaven. The ty¬ rant Nemroud, who was the worst of a number of very wicked princes, may pass for the type of Herod, and as resolutely seeks the death of the young Magian as the sanguinary spouse of Mariamne seeks the destruction of the infant Jesus: both see their prey escape. Born of a virgin who conceives him during fervent prayer, and brings him forth without stain and without pain, in a poor stable, like the first-born of the noble and pious Kiang-Yuen, our divine Saviour lives in the midst of the poorer classes, like the son of the Chinese god¬ dess ; angels and shepherds come to pay him homage, as was done to Krishna, on the very night of his birth ; then, after natural to adore water, which extinguishes fire, the clouds which produced the water, the wind which collects the clouds, and man, who is a being more perfect than the wind. Nemroud, enraged at this stilling the tempests, walking on the waters, casting out devils, and raising the dead to life, he ascends triumphantly in the pres¬ ence of five hundred disciples, whose daz¬ zled eyes lose sight of him in a cloud, pre¬ cisely as related by the savage hordes of Paraguay. It is surely very strange that these mar¬ vellous legends, which have not been taken from 4he gospel facts, since they are incon¬ testably more ancient, should form, when connected together, the actual life of the Son of God. Can truth then spring from error ? What are we to think of these cu • rious resemblances ? Shall we say, with the sneering philosophers of the school of Voltaire, and a few German visionaries of somewhat later date, that the apostles bor¬ rowed these fables from the various creeds of Asia? But, not to speak of the jealous care with which the books deemed divine were in those times concealed in the im¬ penetrable obscurity of the sanctuaries,— not to speak of the profound horror which the Jews professed of idolatrous legends, and their disdainful contempt for the learn¬ ing of other lands,—how should poor ple¬ beians, whose whole knowledge was limited to steering a bark over the waves of Gen- nesareth, and whose nets were still drip¬ ping with its fresh waters when they were promoted to the apostleship,—how could laborious artisans, obliged to work for their daily bread in the intervals of their preach¬ ing, have studied the sacred books of the bold answer, ordered Abraham to be cast into the fire, which, however, respected him. ( 1 ) See Tavernier, cited above. (*) See Muratori. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 23 Hindoos, Chinese, Bactrians, Phoenicians, and Persians? What likelihood was there that Simon Peter, the sons of Zebedee, or that austere disciple of Gamaliel, who said boldly at Corinth, the rich and learned Greek city, “ I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ ; and him crucified!” would have snatched from that idolatry, which it was their mission to destroy, some few of its old shreds, to join them on fraudulently to the grand and sim¬ ple life of Christ ? Again, if the question were only of borrowing from the mythic le¬ gends of nations bordering on Palestine,— such, for example, as the Egyptians and Phoenicians,—the accusation, however un¬ just, would have had at least some color of probability ; but no! these brilliant points which rise from the deep shades of hea¬ thendom to form, as so many starlets, the halo of the Virgin-born, come from the most remote and least known spots of earth. To say nothing of that Gaul, with its impenetrable forests, which concealed, at the western extremity of Europe, its mysterious doctrines under the shade of oaks ; of the Great Indies, so imperfectly known under Tiberius ; of that Serica, with its porcelain towers, whose distant prov- • inces did not even tempt the greedy Ro¬ mans, 1 how could the apostles have com¬ municated with remote America, separated from the old continent by its green girdle of waves, and lost like a pearl amidst the waters ? But I will suppose that the apostles had, ( 1 ) It was in the reign of Augustus that the Ro¬ man people received the first embassy from the Seres, whom we now call the Chinese: the ambas- —no matter how,—a knowledge of these an¬ cient myths scattered over ever}*- part of the globe. Nay, more, setting aside the native simplicity, the blood-sealed testi¬ mony, the exalted sanctity of these di¬ vine men,—I admit that, carried away, as Rousseau says, by ardor for their Master’s glory, it did, for a moment, occur heir thoughts to weave around the gospel some fabulous circumstances ; even so, the thing would, after all, have been beyond their power. With what face, for example, could they have attributed to that Herod whom all Jerusalem had known, whose glorious and tragical reign every one knew by heart, an atrocious and improbable deed, borrowed from some unknown Per¬ sian monarch, who, perhaps, never existed but in the dreams of the Magi ? If the massacre of the Innocents had been a story fabricated or copied by the apostles, can any one believe that the Bethlehemites, so well aware of what passed in the holy city, whose lofty towers they saw in the horizon, would not have strongly protested against this audacious falsehood ; that those subtile Pharisees, who had sought to ensnare Jesus himself in his speech, would have let it pass current without refutation ; or that the Herodians would have endured with patience to have so black a stain falsely imprinted upon the renown of a prince of whom they had almost made a god, 2 and who had loaded them with riches and hon¬ ors ? If all were silent, it was because the thing was too certain, too public, too re- sadors pretended that they had been three years on their journey. ( a ) The flatterers of Herod I., dazzled with the 24 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. cent as yet to leave the field open to con¬ tradictions ; it was because, within two hours’ journey from Jerusalem, were the mothers of those martyrs who had paid with their young lives for the honor of hav¬ ing been born at the same time with Christ; it was because whole villages had seen the murderous steel glitter, and heard the death-cries ; it was because, at the first attempt to charge the Christians with falsehood, a whole nation would have started up to exclaim, “But we ourselves were there !” 1 So with the divine child-birth of Mary ; the visit of the shepherds sent by the an¬ gels ; the glorious resurrection ; and, in fine, with all the prodigies which sig¬ nalized the coming of Christ. The apos¬ tles wrote in the very lifetime of those w T ho had figured in the scenes which they related ; and, before they consigned to writing those prodigies of the Messias, they had boldly preached them in the very temple of Jehovah, before that immense multitude of Hebrews from every prov¬ ince, who repaired thither to sacrifice, or to grandeur and magnificence of that prince, main¬ tained that he was the Messias. This it was that gave rise to the sect of the Herodians, so fre¬ quently alluded to in the gospels, and whom the pagans knew, since Persius and his scholiast tell us, that even in the time of Nero, the birthday of King Herod was celebrated by his followers, with the same solemnity as the Sabbath. (‘) “Neither Josephus nor the rabbis speak of < the massacre of the Innocents,” says Strauss. “ Macrobius, who lived in the fourth century, is the only one who says a word about the massacre ordered by Herod.” Strauss is mistaken: the Tol- dos, whence Celsus derived some of the antichris- tian statements scattered in his. writings, speaks bring in the first-fruits ; all constituting the most dangerous audience in the world for them if they had spoken falsely. So far from fearing contradictions, which would not have been wanting in case of imposture, St. Peter speaks to this numer¬ ous assemblage as a man sure of a general endorsement of his statement; he is not afraid to appeal to the still recent recollec¬ tions of those who hear him ; he affirms those miracles which mark the mission of the Son of Mary with the seal of the di¬ vinity, even before the great council of the nation, which has contributed its utmost to the crucifixion of Jesus. And the senators of Israel, terrified and furious, ordered St. Peter and St. John to be scourged, to compel them to keep silence ; but as the Talmud shows, they do not deny those prodigies, which they stupidly attribute to magic. Accordingly, they do not say to the apostles, when dragged before them by the keepers of the temple, “You are dreamers or liars,” They say to them, with an agi¬ tation which sufficiently proves their secret fears, “ Hold your peace ! would you have positively of it, and the fact is given in the Talmud. Bossuet thus answers those who deny the gospel fact, and never was answer more decisive: “ Where are they,” says he, “ who, to secure their faith, re¬ quire notice of this cruelty of Herod’s in the con¬ temporary historians of paganism ? As though our faith ought to depend on what the negligence or affected policy of the historians of the world made them say, or leave unsaid, in their histories ! Away with all such feeble ideas; human views alone would have sufficed to prevent the Evangelist from bringing discredit upon his holy gospel by recording so public a fact, if it had not been so cer¬ tain.” LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. the people stone us ?” To which these two men, simple in heart, but great in soul, resolutely answer, “We will not hold our peace ! God commandeth us to speak, and it is better to obey him than men.” Impos¬ ture is not thus fearless. After examining the acts, the character, and position of the apostles, every impar¬ tial man will be forced to admit that they were neither deceivers nor deceived, and that they are no way concerned in those coincidences which are remarked between the gospel facts and the traditions of an¬ cient nations, more or less alloyed with fables. How, then, explain these analogies ? Is it a game of chance, an accidental concur¬ rence ? It has not happened by chance that the mystery of the Incarnation of a God in the chaste womb of a Yirgin is one of the fundamental points of belief in Asia ; it is not merely accidental that the privileged women who bear in their wombs this ema¬ nation of the divinity are always pure, beautiful, holy ; that they have names glo¬ rious and full of mystery, which signify in all the ancient tongues, beauty expected, vir¬ gin immaculate, faithful virgin, felicity of the human race, polar star; and that they are so like each other, that one would say that they were moulded after some remote type, concealed from us by the night of time. In fine, it is not by mere chance that a ray of light unites the divine nature with the human. These opinions, where we recognize the stamp of the primitive times, evidently go back to the infancy of the world. The 25 antediluvian patriarchs,—that chain of aged men whose days were the days of the cedar,—seeking to form an idea of that woman, blessed among all others, whose miraculous maternity was to save the hu • man race, portrayed her to themselves under the features of Eve before her fall ; they gave to her a majestic and sacred beauty, which could create no other senti¬ ment in the souls of the children of men than that of religious veneration ; they made her a lovely star, with a soft, veiled light, whose rising was to prelude that of the Sun of Justice. The means by which God was to cause fecundity in that virginal womb, agree in a striking manner among the different na¬ tions of the world. Take a view of all the ancient religions, you will see in them a sacred fire. Now fire was, among the Per¬ sians, the terrestrial emblem of the sun; and the sun itself was but the dwelling of the Most High—the glorious tabernacle of the God of heaven} The Hebrews, who shared this belief, acknowledged the divine presence, or SheJcina, in the luminous cloud which hov¬ ered between the cherubim of the mercy- seat ; and believed that God was clothed with light as with a garment, when he manifested himself to men on solemn occa¬ sions. It was the opinion of the syna¬ gogue, and the tradition of the temple related, that in the midst of the bush of wild roses, which burnt without being con¬ sumed, on Mount Horeb, where Moses, (1) The Persians suppose that the throne of God is in the sun, says Hanway, and hence their veneration for that luminary. l 26 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. that great shepherd of men, was feed- images, but by terror, whose indelible mg at the time the Arabian flocks of his impression differs from that of poetry. father-in-law, a very beautiful face was The bloody sacrifice, which we find estab- distinguished, resembling nothing that lished from the most distant times among we see here below ; and that this celes- almost all nations, had no other object tial figure, which was brighter than a than to preserve among men the remem- flame and more dazzling than lightning, brance of the promise of the immolation of was undoubtedly the image of the eternal Calvary, as it is ^asy to prove. God. 1 After this, it is not difficult to un- Worship, that manifestation of love, derstand the grounds of the opinion, gen- that homage of gratitude, which Adam erallv spread, that a luminous ray was to and Eve were bound to pay to God imme- bring fecundity to the womb of the Virgin diately after the benefit of their creation, of reparation, who was the expectation of consisted, no doubt, in Eden, of mnocent nations. prayers and offerings of fruits and flowers With this graceful tradition of a pure alone. 3 But when they had ungratefully virgin admitted to celestial nuptials, sur- broken the precept of easy observance, rounded by mystery impenetrable, was which the Lord had imposed on them as a connected the tradition of a God-Saviour, sweet yoke, and solely to make them sen- born of her womb, who was to suffer and sible that they had a Master,—when they die for the salvation of the world. 2 This had lost, with the immortalizing fruits of tradition was not perpetuated like the the tree of life, 4 their talisman against other, by means of brilliant and poetical death, 5 and they descended from the charm- ( 1 ) Philo Jucheus, Life of Moses. tality here below was never acquired by man by ( a ) This tradition is found in the sacred hooks right of birth; every terrestrial body must perish of China.—(See F. Premare’s work, entitled, “ Se- by the dissolution of its parts, unless a special will lecta qusedam vestigia praecipuorum Christianas of the Creator opposes this: such divine will was religionis dogmatum ex antiquis libris eruta.” manifested in favor of our first parents. God ( 3 ) Porphyrins, de Abst., lib. ii. planted, in the delightful garden where he had ( 4 ) God could attach to plants certain natural placed mortal man, the tree of life, a plant of virtues with reference to our bodies, and it is easy heavenly origin, which had the property of avert- to believe that the fruit of the tree of life had the ing death, as the laurel, according to the ancients, power of renewing the body by so suitable and averts lightning. On this mysterious tree de- efficacious an aliment, that, by making use of it, pended the immortality of the human race; away men would not have died.—(Bossuet, Elevations from this protecting tree death recovered his prey, sur les Mysteres, t. i., p. 231.) and man fell back from the height of heaven into (‘) Man was never immortal in this world in his miserable habitation of clay.—(Augustinus, the same way as the pure spirits, for a body formed Qusest. Yet. et Nov. Test., q. 19, p. 450.) No one, I from dust must naturally return to dust; he was imagine, will deny that God used a just right in so by an unexampled favor, granted conditionally, banishing Adam from the earthly Paradise after which exalted him and maintained him in a posi- his disobedience; but banishment involved the tion very superior to his proper sphere. Immor- sentence of death upon man and his posterity; LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 27 ing slopes of Eden to a land bristling with brambles and thorns, whose virgin soil they were obliged to open and till for their support,—to the wild fruits and flowers, produced by the land of exile they added the firstlings of their flocks. This point deserves attention. With perfection of form, Adam combined an intelligent and exalted soul, in which the Lord had planted the germ of every virtue and every science : he could not be devoid of humanity. His fatal condescension to Eve exhibits him to us as loving even to weakness, and thereby susceptible, in the highest degree, of sweet and benevolent affections. How could it enter his mind that the Creator would- be pleased with the violent death of his creature, that an act of destruction could be an act of piety ? The immolation of animals, which has not the most remote connection with man’s vOws and prayers, and which seems merely murderous at this time, when the primitive patriarchs lived exclusively on vegetable food, must have stirred up in the head of the human race a thousand feelings of nat¬ ural repugnance. These poor creatures, deprived of reason, but capable of attach¬ ment, had long composed in Eden the court of the solitary monarch ; he sat with them at the same table, slept on the moss of the same bank, quenched his thirst at the same fountain, and his prayer ascended to heav¬ en at sunrise and sunset together with the warbling of the birds, who seemed also to pour forth their morning or evening hymn. These companions of his happy life, in¬ volved in his misfortune, shared his exiled lotsome, yielding to savage instincts un¬ developed in Paradise, fled to the depths of deserts and into secret mountain caves, whence they soon declared relentless war without the tree of life, he was no longer aught but a frail and perishable creature, subject to the laws which govern created bodies : when the anti¬ dote fails, it is plain that poison kills. Again become mortal, Adam begot children like himself: the children must, follow the condition to which their father had fallen. In this, God did the human race no wrong: we are mortal by our nature ; he has left us such as we were. To with¬ draw a gratuitous favor, when the object of the favor tears up with his own hands the deed which confers it upon him, is not cruelty, hut justice. ( 1 ) We know not exactly how long Adam and Eve remained in the earthly Paradise; yet this abode must have been of some duration, and thus Milton understood it, whom we do not quote here as a poet, but as a profound orientalist. If we recollect, moreover, that it was in Eden that Adam learned to distinguish and call by their names all the birds of the air, all the beasts of the earth, all the fishes which swim in the waters; that there he learned the virtues of plants, and what God thought proper to.teach him of the course of the stars, we shall conclude that this was not the work of one day. The Persians and Chinese make the first man dwell in Paradise for several centuries. Ac¬ cording to the opinion of the Arabs and rabbis, he remained there only half a day; but this half day of Paradise is equivalent, according to them, to five hundred years; for one day of Paradise is a thousand years. This extent of time is, in our •opinion, too long. It is commonly believed that Cain, whose birth is closely connected, in Genesis, with the expulsion of his parents, was born in the year 13 of the creation, which would fix the abode in Paradise at about' twelve years. This term, - though rather short, would have sufficed for the first man to establish his authority over the ani¬ mals subject to his sceptre, and to attach him to his humble subjects by the bonds of habit. ': L ' - 28 LIFE OF THE BLESSED YTRGHST MART. against, their pristine lord; others, inof- attacked him in his strength, at the time fensive and gentle creatures, gathered when he knew nothing, as yet, but good, in round about the grotto of their lord, to the most beautiful abode of the earth, still whom they offered their milk, their labor, deeply impressed with the immense benefit their fleeces, and their melodious concerts, of his creation, free, happy, tranquil, im- to satisfy his wants and alleviate his mis- mortal, and capable of resisting, had he but fortunes. Now, it was among the scanty chosen. From this high position it was ranks of these humble friends, faithful that he fell into the frightful abyss of dis- to him in his distress, that Adam chose, obedience and ingratitude. The justice of numbered, and marked out his victims ; it God demanded a punishment proportioned was in the throat of the heifer, which ex- to the offence : man was condemned to die hausted its udder to feed him, of the dove, a double death ; and there the human race which took shelter in his bosom when the was lost, if a divine Being, predestined be- vulture hovered in the air, of the lamb, fore the birth of time to the work of our which left its flowery pasture to come and redemption, had not undertaken to satisfy lick his hand, that he had the heart to for us all. From that time he was called plunge the knife. Ah! when man, as yet the Messias, and revealed as a Saviour at unversed in killing, stretched at his feet a that very moment when the voice of Giod, poor, gentle, and timid creature, heaving “ that voice which breaket.h down the its death-throes in a stream of gore, he cedars,” pronounced the sentence of the must have stood pale and dismayed, like three guilty ones. “ Because thou hast the assassin after his first murder! This done this,” said God to the serpent se- thought came not from him ; it was not an ducer, who proudly lifted up his head from act of his own choice, but one of painful our ruin, “the seed of the woman — that is, obedience. Who imposed it? He alone a fruit produced from her — shall bruise thy to whom it belongs to dispose of life and head.” death — God. Hebrew tradition adds that God, moved Adam committed a fault so enormous by by the repentance of our first parents, re- its aggravating circumstances and disas- vealed to them by an angel that a just one trous consequences, that to express its full should be born of them, who should destroy enormity the Hebrew tradition relates that the pernicious effects of the fruit of the the sun was darkened with horror. 1 Satan tree of knowledge, 2 by means of a volun- ( 1 ) It is in memory of the sin of Eve, at the with this punishment in expiation of their sin.”— sight of which, according to the Jews, the sun (Basnage, liv. vii., c. 13.) withheld his light, that the Jewish women are ( 3 ) It is generally supposed, among Christians, especially commanded to light lamps, which burn that the tree of knowledge was an apple-tree; the in every house during the night of the Sabbath. Persians, on the contrary, maintain that this fatal “It is just,” say the Hebrew doctors, “that the tree was a fig-tree. In our days, the German Eich- women should rekindle the torch which they have horn makes it a species of manchineel. “ Making extinguished, and that they should be burdened due deduction from the marvellous which surrounds \ chestnut LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tary oblation, and that he should be the salvation of those who should place their hope in him. 1 On the other hand, the Arabian traditions inform us that God, who is indignant and merciful, was pleased to show man how to implore his pardon. This worship, revealed by God, was cer¬ tainly sacrifice, a ceremony at once com¬ memorative, expiatory, and symbolical; by which man confessed that he bad deserved death, and by substituting innocent vic¬ tims in his stead, recalled perpetually to his remembrance the great victim of Cal¬ vary. Thus, then, the institution of the bloody sacrifice, which was no human invention, reposed in reality upon a thought of the divine mercy ; since it perpetuated among all nations that tradition of the Messias, without which the work of redemption would have been a benefit lost. God matures his counsels in the course of ages, for a thousand years are with him * (*) the fall of man,” says the rationalist writer, “ the fact remains that the constitution of the human body was, from its origin, vitiated by the use of a poisonous fruit.”—(Eichhorn’s Argeschichte.) ( 1 ) Basnage, liv. vi., c. 25, p. 417. ( a ) Cain is called Gabel by all the Arabic au¬ thors ; this name, which means the first, is per¬ haps his proper name. The surname of Cain, which signifies traitor, may have been given to him afterward.—(Savary, in a note to c. 5 of the Koran.) (*) Abel, which the Arabs write Habel, is, ac¬ cording to them, only the surname of that youthful shepherd who was the first type of Christ. In fact, it recalls the sad event which threw the family of Adam into mourning, and properly signifies, says Savary, “He has left by his death a mother in t ears ”—(Note to c. 5 of the Koran.) Josephus, 29 as one day; but man is eager to obtain, for man endures but a short time. Eve apparently concluded, from the angel’s words, that she was to be the mother of this Redeemer promised to her, and in this thought she showed transports of ‘ extraordinary joy in bringing forth Cain, 2 whom she took for her Saviour. Unde¬ ceived by the perverse inclinations which he showed, she transferred her hopes to Abel, that beloved son, whose name recalls to mind the mourning and tears of his mother; 3 then to Seth: 4 but in vain, for the gates which angels guarded with fiery swords opened to her no more. The just of the race of Seth, those pure and contem¬ plative men, whom the Scripture calls the sons of God, and whom the Assyrian le¬ gends transform into genii, flattered them¬ selves a long time with the same hope ; for the Jewish tradition represents them to us as wandering about the heights bordering on the garden of Eden, 5 whose giant ce- in like manner, says that the name of Abel signi¬ fies “ mourning.”—(Antiq. Jud., p. 4.) ( 4 ) See Basnage, liv. vi., c. 25. ( 6 ) Arabic traditions place the terrestrial Para¬ dise in that beautiful valley of Damascus which the oriental poets designate by the name of the Emerald of the Desert. Its admirable situation, its beauty and fertility, justify this idea; and a learned commentator on Genesis has not h'esitated to consider this beautiful site as that of the garden of Eden, although the names of the Euphrates and the Tigris indicate a different situation. In sup¬ port of this Arabic tradition there is shown, at half a day’s journey from Damascus, a high moun¬ tain of white marble, overshadowed by beautiful trees, where there is a cavern, which is looked upon as the dwelling of Adam, Abel, and Cain; here, too, is shown the sepulchre of Abel, which is 30 life of the blessed virgin mart. dars 1 they admired with sighs, and where world would be indebted to the miraculous they flattered themselves that one of their child-bearing of a new Eve. At the sight just ones would enable them again to enter. of the bloody sacrifices offered for the un- But it was not the name of a virgin of the expiated fault of their first fathers, he primitive times which was written in the taught his descendants to lift up their eyes immutable decrees of the Eternal; and the to a more august victim, seated at the right earth, yet trembling under the divine male- hand of Jehovah in the starry depths of diction, stood in need of being washed as heaven, a victim of which the oblation of by the ablutions of a baptism, before the heifers and lambs was but a type. 3 feet of Him who was to bring good tidings The nations at first faithfully preserved on the mountains should leave upon them these primitive notions, which are con- their hallowed imprint. stantly met with as the foundation of all When the earth had drunk in the waters creeds. 3 They reared altars at the con- of* the deluge, and the winds had dried it fluence of rivers, in the shade of forests, up, the new family of mankind, reviving on the summits of mountains, on the shores under favorable promises, were eager to of the green ocean, and on the sandy re-establish the worship practised by Enos. downs where the wormwood spreads its Noe added to it the seven precepts which leaves to the desert winds. From the be-" bear his name, without forgetting those ginning soft moonlight lighted those rustic - historical and religious traditions which his temples, which had no boundary but the long existence before the flood had enabled horizon, no ceiling but the sky with all its him to collect. He told of man being stars. At that remote period, God was formed of the earth, of his rebellion, his worthily adored, and with ideas so exact, fall, his future restoration, for which the so sublime, so uniform, and so simple, that much respected by the Turks. The place where from the earth. The Brahmins, who draw enchant- the fratricide was committed is marked by four ing pictures of their chorcam (paradise), place in it columns. — (D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orieutale, a tree, the fruit of which would confer immortal- pp. 772, 780; Father Pacifique, Commentaires sur ity, if it were allowed to partake of it. The Per- la Bible.) sians relate that the evil genius Ahriman seduced ( 1 ) Eden’s tall cedars have remained tradition- our first parents under the form of a snake. The ally in the memory of the Hebrews, who have made history of the woman deceived at the foot of a tree, the terrestrial Paradise their paradise. In most of of the anger of God, and of the first fratricide, was their epitaphs we read these words: “ He has gone a tradition among the Iroquois. The Tartars at- down into the garden of Eden, to those who are tribute our fall to a plant as sweet as honey, and among the cedars.”—(Basnage, t. v., liv. vii.) of marvellous beauty ; the Thibetans, to the fault ( 3 ) “ The old law bears throughout the charac- of having tasted the dangerous plant shimce, sweet ter of blood and death, as a figure of the new law and white as sugar: the knowledge of their state established and confirmed by the blood of Christ.” of nudity was revealed by this fruit. The tradition —(Bossuet, Elevations sur les Myst., t i., p. 428.) of the woman and the serpent was equally known ( 3 ) The Hindoos, Chinese, Peruvians, and Hu- in Mexico, &c.—(Roselly de Lorgues, Le Christ rons acknowledge that the first man was formed devant le Siecle, c. 9.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 31 they evidently could be traced up to him- fortress of refuge against a new deluge, self. which that race, already beginning to grow Nevertheless, an element of supersti- corrupt, felt that it again deserved. And tious terror,—founded upon the terrible when the confusion of tongues forced the and recent remembrance of the drowning descendants of Noe to disperse,—when of the globe, a remembrance of which they saw their precaution, offensive as it visible traces are found in most of the re- was to the sworn clemency of the Lord, ligious festivals of antiquity, 1 glided like a turn to their confusion,—they were only principle of destruction into the divine the more ready to be influenced by fresh worship after the flood. Crowded together terrors. on the elevated table-lands of Caucasus, It must be owned, on their behalf, that and the mountains of Armenia, the de- the earth presented at that time a dis- scendants of Noe had long refused, with an couraging spectacle ; the whole economy of obstinacy which the authority of Noe him- creation was in confusion. The rivers, self had been unable to conquer, to go down turned from their courses, formed immense again into the plain ; so fearful were they ponds of water and putrid marshes 2 in the of a second deluge ! In vain did the rain- vast plains which before the deluge were bow, as of to remove all fear from the enlivened by the graceful tents of the children of men, display in the cloud its shepherds. The cedars lay extended along soft and benign colors, where the green of the sea-shores, whilst the spoils of the the emerald united with the blue of the ocean were found on the summits of tower- sapphire ; this happy pi^gnostic, this ing snow-clad mountains. Naught was seen beautiful sign of a God appeased, dimin- on all sides but towers levelled with the ished, but could not banish, a terror which grass, 3 and silent, ruined towns. The had taken deep root: this the tower of ploughshare everywhere struck against Babel shows. This gigantic monument of bones and rubbish. The vengeance of human pride concealed beneath its insolent provoked heaven had weighed heavily defiance an immensity of fear. It was as a upon the human race, in a manner so over- ( 1 ) See Boulanger, Antiquite devoilee. flowed incapable of cultivation.—(Freret, Chro- (*) History has preserved us proofs of this dis- nique des Chinois, lere partie.) placement of rivers after the deluge. We read in ( 3 ) The tower of Babel, so near to the great Strabo, b. ii., that the Araxes, which waters Ar- deluge, may give some idea of antediluvian archi- menia, was still without any outlet, and inundated tecture; it was constructed of brick and bitumen. the country, when Jason, the chief of the Argo- If, as everything leads us to believe, this immense nauts, opened a subterranean channel, by which tower resembled the ancient and famous tower of the Araxes flowed into the Caspian Sea. In the Bel, at Babylon, it was surrounded by an external celebrated Chou-King of Confucius, the Emperor staircase, of easy ascent, which rose spirally to Yao says that the waters, which formerly rose up the platform, and gave the edifice the appearance to heaven, still bathed the feet of the highest of seven towers one upon another. mountains, and made the plains which they over- - --- > 9 . 32 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. whelming that man, whose heart was still beating with fear at the remembrance of the perils which he had encountered, felt more disposed to dread his sovereign Master with great fear, than to love him with con¬ fiding affection: he was afraid of God! He distrusted his promises and his good¬ ness. Like the drowning victim of ship¬ wreck, he grasped eagerly around for something to help him, which might inter¬ pose and conjure in the hour of need that sacred, but terrible wrath. Noe had spoken of a powerful and divine Being, whose tender love for men was infinite, who was to plead their cause before the Eternal, and take their crimes upon him¬ self ; but who was this anxiously-desired Mediator, this powerful friend ? He was no longer known. The descendants of Sem thought they had found him in the stars which charmed their solitary vigils, and which they supposed to be animated by celestial intelligences d they implored those intelligences to protect them, and lighted ( 1 ) It is a very ancient belief in the East that the stars are living creatures: the Jewish doctors had fallen into this error, which dates far beyond their people. Philo avers that the stars are intel¬ ligent creatures, who had never done any evil, and were incapable of any. According to Maimonides, the stars know God who made them, know them¬ selves, and their actions are always good and holy. —(Philo, de Mundi Opificio, de Gigant., de Som- niis; Maimonides, More nevochim, pt. ii., c. 4, p. 194, et de Fundam. legis, c. 3, § 11.) The modern Persians still sacrifice to the angel of the moon. ( 3 ) According to Rabbi Bechai, the Saheans did not adore the sun ; they only lighted fires on the earth to thank God for the torch which he lighted up for them in the heavens ; and when they looked fires on the heights of mountains in their honor. 2 This was the origin of Sabeanism, which degenerated into idolatry, when the repro¬ bate race of Cham, attaching themselves to the material object, adored fire, water, earth, agitated air; and, insolently deriding the worship practised by Noe, which was a stranger to images, consecrated statues of silver to the moon, and statues of gold to the sun. 3 In time the darkness thickened ; religious systems were loaded with rites ; the worship of the true God was gradually mingled with that of the stars and the elements ; the invention of hieroglyphics completed the confusion; and the few truths which es¬ caped the subversion of religious belief were mysteriously hidden in the recesses of idolatrous sanctuaries, like sepulchral lamps which burn only for the dead. They were carefully witty] rawn from the multitude, 4 who lavished their senseless adorations on stones, trees, rivers, mountains, and at the stars, they besought the angels whom God has placed there to induce them to be propitious to them.—(R. Bechai, Comm, in Genes., c. 1.) The fires still lighted in almost all European countries, and in France called fires of St. John, are rem¬ nants of Sabeanism. ( s ) The ancient Arabs, descended from Cham, despised Noe because he did not serve images; they consecrated statues of silver to the moon, and statues of gold to the sun; they divided the metals and climates among the stars; they believed that they have great influence over things which are devoted to them, and to the images consecrated to them.—(Maimonides, More nevochim, pt. iii., c. 2, p. 423.) ( 4 ) Plato, speaking of the God who formed the universe, says that it is forbidden to make him LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 33 animals, a still more degrading worship, and which ended by enshrining their vices and passions in heaven. Then im¬ postors, speculating upon human credulity, confounded or purposely broke the now attenuated thread of patriarchal traditions, and audaciously substituting remembrance for hope, invested the origin of their fabu¬ lous kings, false prophets, and powerless divinities with the wonders of the incarna¬ tion of the Word, and the primitive reve¬ lations of his exalted and tragical destiny. Thus, according to us, can be explained analogies which at first appear incompre¬ hensible. All the nations of polytheism, however, did not take the mystery of the Messias for an accomplished fact. Just before the Christian era, the Druids still erected, in the dark forests of Gaul, an altar to the Virgin “who was to bring forth.” The Chinese, taught by Confucius, who had himself found this oracle in ancient tradi¬ tions, expected the “ Holy One, born of a virgin and Son of God, who was to die for the salvation of the world,” 1 in the western known to the people. The hooks of Numa, written upon birch bark, and found in his tomb many ages after his death, were secretly burnt as dangerous to polytheism. The Brahmins, who, if some travel¬ lers are to be believed, have a sublime idea of the Divinity, make the Hindoos nevertheless adore the most hideous idols that ever existed. The true religion alone has treated men as immortal and rational creatures. ( 1 ) According to the ancient sages of China, says the learned Schmitt, the Holy One, the mi¬ raculous man, will renew the world, change the manners, expiate the sins of the world, die over¬ whelmed with grief and opprobrium, and open the regions of Asia, and sent after him, by a solemn embassy, less than half a century after the death of the Man-God. The Magi, on the faith of Zerdhusht, studied the constellations to find among them the star of Jacob, which was to guide them to the cradle of Christ.* The Brahmins sighed after the glorious avatar 3 of him who was to “cleanse the world from sin,” and implored him from Vishnu, as they laid upon his gem-studded altar, odoriferous tufts of basil, the favorite plant of the Indian god. The proud sons of Romulus, those idolaters by pre-eminence, who had created whole legions of gods, read in the jealously and politically guarded books of the Cumean Sibyl, contemporary with Achilles and Hector: “the virgin, the divine child, the adoration of the shep¬ herds, the serpent vanquished, and the golden age restored to the earth.” In fine, toward the time of the Messias, all the nations of the East were in ex¬ pectation of a future Saviour ; and Bou¬ langer, better inspired on his death-bed, after showing how general this expecta- gates of heaven—(See Eedempt. du genre humain.) (’) Abulfarage (Historia Dynastiarum) says that Zerdhusht foretold to the Magi the birth of the Messias, born of a virgin; he added that, at the time of his birth, an unknown star would appear, which would lead them to his cradle, and he ordered them to carry him presents. Sharis- tani, a Mussulman author, relates in like manner a prophecy of Zerdhusht, relating to a great prophet who should reform the world, in religion as well as in justice, and to whom the princes and kings of the earth should be subject. ( a ) Avatar, the fabulous incarnation of a Hin doo divinity. . ■ 34 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. lion was, illogically calls it a universal ancestors, might have repeated them to the chimera. 1 father of the faithful. Then it was that a But what were these pale gleams, too mysterious benediction, which comprised weak to scatter the darkness of idolatry, the promise of the Messias, announced that compared with the stream of light which the blessed germ promised to Eve should illuminated the elect people of God ? We be also the germ and offset of Abraham. are struck with astonishment at the sight To the primitive traditions succeeds the of this chain of prophecy ; the first link is grand prophecy of Jacob. The dying pat- riveted to the cradle of the human race, riarch, who beheld in spirit the condition while the last is bound to the tomb of of the twelve tribes as they were to be in Christ. 2 The menace of Jehovah to the Palestine, announces to his sons, assembled infernal serpent includes, as we have al- round his death-bed, that Juda has been readv observed, the first Messianic oracle. chosen, among all his brethren, to be the We have also said, and the Jewish traditions stock of the kings of Israel, and the father confirm it, that this oracle was more par- of that Shiloh so often promised, who is to ticularly explained, in the sequel, to the be the King of kings, and the Lord of exiles of Eden, when they were reconciled lords. The coming of Christ is marked to heaven by repentance. 3 Noe, who was in a precise manner: he shall arise amid constituted by God heir of the faith, 4 trans- the ruins of his country, when the shebet mitted these revelations to Sem ; and Sem, (the sceptre, the legislative authority) shall whose long life nearly equalled those of his be in the hands of the stranger. 5 ( 1 ) “A unanimous testimony is of the greatest word shebet, which we translate by sceptre, equally weight,” says Bernardine de St. Pierre, “ for there signifies the rod which chastises the slave; and can be no universal error upon the earth.”—Etudes they set out from this to maintain that, even if de la Nature, etude yiii., p. 398.) this oracle did refer to the Messias, all that could ( 5 ) It is a tradition taught in the synagogue, be concluded from it would be that their chastise- and admitted as true by the Church, that all the ment would endure till his coming, who was to prophets, without exception, prophesied solely for deliver them from it. In fine, they deny that the the time of the Messias.—(St. Cyprian de Vanitate word Shiloh can be translated Messias. But their Idolorum.) ancient books refute them; this prophecy is under- (’) Basnage, t. iv., liv. vii. stood of the Messias in the Talmud; and the Para- ( 4 ) Hebr. xi. 7. phrase of Onkelos thus explains this passage:— ( 4 ) Christians apply this revelation of Jacob to “Juda shall not be without some one invested the Messias, and prove from it to the Jews that he with supreme authority, nor without scribes of the must have come long ago, since for eighteen cen- sons of her children, till the Messias come.” Jona- turies their tribes have been intermixed, their than, to whom the Jews assign the first place among sacrifices abolished, their political existence ex- the disciples of Hillel, and whom they reverence tinct; that they have no longer a national terri- almost as Moses, translates shebet in the same way tory or princes, and that in all the places where by principality, and Shiloh by Messias; the Para- they are dispersed they submit to the laws of phrase of Jerusalem also adopts this opinion. Thus foreign nations. To elude the force of this argu- the most ancient, authentic, and venerated com- ment, the Jews maintain, now-a-days, that the mentaries furnish victorious arms to combat them. MEETING OF ISAAC WITH REBEKAH, LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 35 The prophet saved from the waters, and whilst Israel were still encamping in who was divinely called to collect and the desert, Balaam, whose maledictions had commit to writing the history of the first been purchased by a Moabite prince, in ages and ancient traditions of the human the Yalley of Willows, 3 came in his turn to race, traditions, the memory of which was confirm the expectation of the Messias, and still fresh among the nations, lends the to mark in a clear and precise manner the support of his imposing testimony to the great epoch of his coming. Standing upon - prophecy of Jacob. “ Adona'i Jehovah— the rocky summit of Phogor, surrounded the Lord thy God,” said he, speaking to the by victims slain for a sacrifice of hate, in people of God, “will raise up to thee a view of the accursed lake and the barren prophet of thy nation, and of thy brethren, mountains of Arabia, the soothsayer from like unto thee: him thou shalt hear.” the banks of the Euphrates, moved by the (Deut. xviii. 15.) And the Lord said: spirit of God, beholds a wonderful vision, “ I will raise them up a prophet out of the as with the eye of a dreamer f his expres- midst of their brethren like to thee : and I sions, interrupted by solemn pauses, are will put my words in his mouth, and he flung without order or art to the winds of shall speak to them all that I shall com- the mountains, like fragments of some mand him : and he that will not hear his mysterious converse held in whispers with words, which he shall speak in my name, I unseen powers : “I shall see him, but not will be the revenger.” 1 (Ib. 17-19.) now. I shall behold him, but not near. Now the synagogue always understood A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a this very clear text as referring to the sceptre shall spring up from Israel, and Messias ; St. Philip applies it, without shall strike the chiefs of Moab.” (Numb. hesitation, to our divine Redeemer when xxiv. 17.) The incoherent words are fol- he says to Nathanael, “We have found lowed by a magnificent, but sombre picture him of whom Moses in the law and the of the conquests of the kingly people. It prophets did write, Jesus the son of is not without purpose that the prophetic Joseph of Nazareth.” vision exhibits Rome at the highest point Toward the end of the mission of Moses, of its colossal power ; then it is that Christ - ( 1 ) Hence comes that hope of a new law which Balaam is very ancient, the very form in which it the Jews expect with the Messias,—a law which is given would sufficiently indicate it. Balaam, they place far above that of Moses. “ The law the Chaldean astrologer, does not prophesy like which man studies in this world is but vanity,” the seers of Juda; he requires a vast horizon, say their doctors, “ in comparison with that of the whence he perceives at once the earth, the sea, Messias.”—(Medrasch-Rabba, in Eccl. xi. 8.) and the sky ; he expresses himself like a man who ( 5 ) The plain of Babylon, intersected by rivers relates to himself the things that he sees at the and canals, and hence very marshy, abounded in moment when he speaks, and who is deeply im- willows. Hence it is called in Scripture the “ Val- pressed. This kind of prophecy somewhat resem- ley of Willows.” bles what the Scotch Highlanders call second (’ ) If we did not know that the prophecy of sight. 36 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. is to visit the earth, and immolate himself in the faith of the Messias : in default of for us upon the tree of infamy. The pro- new revelations, their very life becomes phet depicts this epoch of blood with bold prophetic. Political and religious institu- strokes ; one would say that cities and em- tions, local customs and private manners, pires yet unborn rise before him on the all tend to the same object, all flow from mirage of the desert. He beholds the fleet the same source, all are connected with the • of the Csesars leave the ports of Italy, and generation of the Saviour, born of a direct its victory-loved prows toward the virgin of Juda. It was the coming^ of the low shores of the Syrians ; he beholds the Messias that the prophet Samuel came to ruin of that Judea which is not to be in implore on his knees, in the holy of holies, existence till long after, and where the before the Shekina, his luminous and divine people of God as yet possessed nothing as emblem ; as did also the high priests, who their own but a few sepulchres ; in fine, he succeeded one after another, later on, in follows with his glance the fall of the Ro- the temple of Solomon. With this ex- man eagle, seven hundred years before the pectation of the Messias is connected-that birth of the sons of Ilia, while the wild-goats law of Deuteronomy, which provides that of Latium are browsing peacefully upon the a brother shall raise up an heir to ‘ his shrubby declivities of the seven hills. brother dying without issue, so that his Ages roll on, and other ages after them, name may be preserved in Israel. It is without any other promises from Jehovah ; that lost hope of being related one day, but the Messianic oracles are confided to more or less remotely, to that heavenly tradition, which retains them faithfully, or envoy, which causes that young and gentle written in the sacred law. Israel main- virgin of Galaad to lament on the moun- tains an obscure but incessant and furious tains of Judea, who carries with her no contest against those idolatrous nations other regret to the blood-stained sepulchre which surround and press upon his tribes ; where her father’s race expires. 1 To this at times he gives way to that strange pro- belief, so general among the Hebrews, the pensity which draws him into idolatry, and Thecuite woman alludes, when denouncing then the fatal sword of the Amorrhite and to King David the secret plot which was the Moabite is unconsciously drawn in the contriving against her sole surviving son ; Lord’s cause, and unwittingly avenges the she poetically describes her fears as a injury done to the God of Jacob. But mother, and as a Jewish matron, by that during these varied fortunes, the people do touching sentence, “My lord, they seek to not forget the coming of Christ; they live quench my spark which is left!” ( 1 ) Some rabbis maintain that the daughter of gether, and lament the daughter of Jephte, the Jephte was not sacrificed, but merely condemned Galaadite, for four days.”—(Judges, xi. 40.) People to perpetual celibacy. This assertion is refuted by do not lament for a person living. Flavius Jose- that text of Scripture which says: “That from phus also affirms the immolation of the daughter year to year the daughters of Israel assemble to- of Jephte.—(Antiquities of the Jews,iib. v., c. 9.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Naught but the present incredulity of the Jews could equal in depth the faith of their ancestors. The great concern of those men of ancient times was the coming of the Messias ; those who died at a period still so remote from that in which the divine promises were to be accomplished, died in the firm persuasion that they would be one day fulfilled ; on the threshold of eternity they hailed that hope from afar off, as Moses, the great prophet, hailed, with a sigh, that “ land of milk and honey,” whose portals the Lord closed against him. In the time of David, and the kings of his race, the thread of prophecy reunites, and the mystery of the Virgin and the Messias is more distinctly declared than ever by predictions magnificent and clearer than the sun. The holy king, whom the G-od of Israel had preferred to the race of Saul, beholds the virginity of Mary, and the extraordi¬ nary birth of the Son of God. “ Thy birth, says he, not defiled, like that of the chil¬ dren of men, shall be pure as the morning dew.” Then, lifting up his eyes on high, he beholds Him whom God has given him as a son according to the flesh, seated on the right hand of Jehovah, on a throne more durable than the heavens and the stars. In the earlier prophecies, the Blessed Vir¬ gin, though always pointed out, was never¬ theless a little in the shade, and, so to speak, in the background of the picture ; but from the days of David, the radiant form of Mary no longer presents such vague out¬ lines, and she who was to cause the blood of Abraham, of Jacob, and of Jesse the Just 37 to flow in the veins of the God-Man, is de¬ lineated more distinctly. David had spoken of her virginal child-bearing. Solomon de¬ lighted in tracing her image with graceful strokes of the pencil, which leave far be¬ hind the glowing descriptions of the peris of the East, those smiling and airy divini¬ ties wliich flash across the dreams of the Arabian shepherd. He sees her rising up in the midst of the daughters of Juda, “as a lily among thorns ;” her eyes are sweet and soft, ‘ ‘ like those of doves ;” from her lips, red “as a scarlet lace,” proceeds a voice pure and melodious, like the sound of harps rousing Israel to battle ; her step is light “as the smoke of perfumes,” and her beauty rivals in splendor “the rising moon.” Her tastes are simple and full of poetry ; she loves to stray in the fresh valleys, “where the vines are in blossom,” and the figs cling, like emerald knots, on the leafless branches ; her eyes perceive the red blossoms of the pome¬ granate, the tree of Paradise, 1 and she delights in listening to the plaintive strain of the turtle-dove. Silent and recollected, she steals from the sight of all, and hides in her dwelling, like the dove, “which makes its nest in the clefts of the rock.” She is chosen for a mystical hymen, in preference to the virgins and queens of all nations ; a crown is promised to her by Him “ whom her soul loveth,” and the happy band which unites her to her royal spouse “is stronger than death.” 3 ( 1 ) The orientals call the pomegranate “ fruit of Paradise.” ( a ) All the holy fathers regard the “ Canticle 38 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. Elias, in prayer on Mount Carmel, to obtain the end of that long drought which for three years parches the earth and dries up the springs, discovers the promised Virgin, under the form of a transparent cloud, which rises from the bosom of the waters to announce the return of rain. The blessings of the people hail this favor¬ able omen, 1 and the prophet, who pene¬ trates into divine things, builds an oratory to the future Queen of Heaven. 2 Isaias declares to the house of David, whose chief, Achab, trembles under the threats of the stranger, “like a storm-beaten for¬ est,” that God will give an encouraging sign of the future condition of Judea, a future to be yet long and glorious. “A virgin shall conceive, 8 and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuelf Isaias, vii. 14 (that is, God with us). This child, miraculously given to the earth, shall be an offset from the stock of Jesse, a flower sprung from his root. 4 “ He shall be called God, the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of peace.” (Isa. ix. 6.) He shall “stand for an en¬ sign of peoples, him the Gentiles shall be¬ seech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious.” (Ib. xi. 10.) The mystery of the Messias was entirely unveiled to the prophets ; some of them see Bethlehem rendered illustrious by his of Canticles” as only a continued allegory of the Mother of God. ( 1 ) When rain falls in Palestine, there is general joy among the people; they assemble in the streets, they sing, run about, and cry out as loud as they can, “0 God! 0 blessed!”—(Volney, Voyage en Syrie.) (*) Elias dedicated the oratory which he erected on Mount Carmel to the “ Virgin who was to bring forth,” Virgini pariturce. This chapel was called Semnceum, which means a place consecrated to an empress, who can be no other than Mary, the Em¬ press of heaven and' earth.—(Histoire du Mont Carmel, succession du Saint Prophete, c. 31.) (’) This great oracle of Isaias has been the sub¬ ject of a long and perplexing dispute between the Jews and the Christians. The rabbis, who have commented on the text since Jesus Christ, anxious to alter the proofs which condemn them, and ob¬ scure the words of the prophet, contend that the word halma, which is found in the Hebrew text, signifies merely a young woman, although the Seventy translated it by virgin. The fathers tri¬ umphantly refute this objection. “ The Seventy interpreters,” says St. John Chrysostom, “deserve most credit ; they made their version more than a century before Jesus Christ; they were many to- gether; their time, their number, and their union’ render them far more worthy of credit than the Jews of our days, who have maliciously corrupted many places of the holy Scriptures.”—(St. John Chrysostom, Serm. 4, c. i.) St. Jerome, the most profound Hebraist of all the interpreters and com¬ mentators of Scripture, pronounces, as he says, without fear of contradiction from the Jews, that halma, wherever the word occurs in the Scriptures, , signifies exclusively a virgin in all her innocence, and nowhere a married woman.—(Com. in Isaiam, lib. iii.) Luther, who made so deplorable use of real learning, cries out with characteristic fury and vehemence: “If any Jew or Hebraist can show me that halma signifies in any place a woman of any hind, and not a virgin, he shall have from me one hundred florins, if please God I can find them.”— (Luther, Works, t. viii., p. 129.) Mahomet himself has borne testimony to the virginity of the Mother of God: “And Mary, daughter of Imram, who has kept her virginity; and we have sent of our spirit into her, and she has believed the words of her Lord and his Scriptures.”—(Koran, Surate 66.) ( 4 ) J esse, called also Isai, was the son of Obed and father of David. His memory is in high veneration among the Hebrews, who regard him as a perfectly just man. -r LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 39 birth ; others foretell his triumphant entry ruin will be the work of a people come into Jerusalem, and even describe the from Italy, and the satrap Daniel reckons peaceful and slow-paced animal on which up precisely the weeks which are to elapse he rides. They see him enter the temple, to that time. that sacred high priest according to the “All that happens in the world has its order of Melchisedech; they know the sign before it,” said a man of genius, who number of pieces of silver which the now remains so solitary and so formidable executioners of the synagogue will drop beneath his tent. ‘ ‘ "When the sun is about into the hand of the base wretch who sells to rise, the horizon is tinted with a thou- his master to them ; x they see the punish- sand colors, and the east appears all on ment of slaves, the draught of gall offered fire. When the tempest comes, a dull to the agony of a God, and lots cast by murmur is heard on the shore, and the rude soldiers for the robe, woven by a waves are agitated as if spontaneously.” mother’s hands ; they hear the nails which The figures of the Old Testament, as the tear the bleeding flesh, and sink with a fathers of the Church acknowledge, are the harsh, rough sound into the accursed wood. signs which announce the rising of the Sun And then the scene changes, like those of Justice and of the Star of the Sea. To pictures of Baphael, where the subject Christ, the Son of God, belongs power; to begun upon the earth is continued beyond Mary, grace and merciful goodness. She the clouds. The Man. of Sorrow, the is the tree of life replanted in the abodes humble Messias, whom his own relations of men by the hands of God himself, the have treated with scorn, whom his own earnest of a happiness preferable to that people have not known, looks down in which our first parents enjoyed in Eden; triumph from the highest heavens upon his the dove of the ark which brings the olive prostrate enemies: all the nations of the branch to the earth ; the fountain sealed earth remember their God, forgotten for so up, the waters of which have not been many ages! The nations rally around the sullied by aught impure ; the fleece which standard of the cross, and the empire of receives the dew from heaven ; in fine, the Christ shall have no bounds but those of frail and odoriferous bush of wild roses the world. Nothing is wanting to the ful- through which Moses perceived the Deity, ness of the prophecies: Jacob has marked the bush which, so far from being consumed the coming of the Shiloh at that precise by fire which destroys all things, was in moment when the Jews shall cease to be some measure preserved by it, and lost governed by their own laws, which implies not a leaf or a flower by its contact with the ruin of a state; Balaam adds that this the heavenly flame. 2 ’ ( 1 ) This passage, in which God himself states to the statuary, a goodly price that I was priced at the exact number of pieces of silver of this in- by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver,” famous compact, is stamped with bitter and ter- &c.—(Zach. xi. 13.) rible irony. “ And the Lord said to me: Cast it ( *) Philo, who makes this remark, and who dis- • -——-- 40 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 1 Like tliat enchanting figure which an 1 blood of Holophernes ; 2 Axa, whose hand ancient painter once composed, by borrow- was the prize for a conquered city ; and ing a thousand scattered traits from the that great and unfortunate mother, who most beautiful women of Greece, the chaste beheld all her sons die for the law, were. spouse of the Holy Ghost repeated in her but faint images of her who was to unite in single person all that the most celebrated herself all the perfections of woman and women of the old law had offered to the angel. admiration of their contemporaries. Beau- After an expectation of four thousand tiful as Rachel and Sarah, she united the years, the time marked out by so many prudence of Abigail with the courageous prophecies arrives at last; the shadows of resolution of Esther. Susanna, chaste as the old law disappear, and Mary arises in the flower whose name she bore j 1 Judith, the horizon of Judea, like the star which is whose lily wreath was sprinkled with the the harbinger of day. CHAPTER 11. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. A WOMAN destined from all eternity the creation of the globe, revealed by God ii to be the means of saving the world himself in Paradise, and the avowed end by deifying our nature, and to contain in of all the holy generations who have sue- her chaste womb Him whose “tabernacle ceeded one after the other from the days is the sun, and who bows the heavens be- of* the patriarchs, 3 can be no ordinary neath his feet”—a woman expected from creature, and must have prerogatives covers in this burning bush a mysterious allegory, trate into the tent of Holophernes.”—(Rabbinical applies it erroneously to the Jewish nation by forced Commentary on Judith.) resemblances. Josephus, who sought in like man- ( 3 ) According to St. Augustine, the progeny to ner to understand this mystery, succeeds no better. which all the patriarchs aspire is Jesus Christ, and Those wild roses, emblematical of chaste virgins Jesus Christ in Mary, tc whom alone their fecun- who diffuse their modest perfume in solitude, and dity could extend. “And in fact,” says he, “if whom the contact of the Divinity causes to shine nature iu all her efforts tends to Jesus Christ, who without prejudice to the holy purity of their white is the Lord of ages, it is not that she flatters her- and delicate blossom, are the most striking image self that she shall attain the Son of God by hei of Mary, that mystical Rose of the new law. own power; the extent of her power stops at the (*) Susanna signifies lily. —(Favyn, ii. 2.) humble Mary, who is to bring forth the blessed (*) The ancients attributed to lilies the power germ, not by the power of her forefathers, but by of neutralizing enchantments and averting dangers. the virtue of the Most High.”—(St. Augustine, 5, “ Judith bound her forehead,” say the rabbis, “ with contr. Jul. 9.) a wreath of lilies, that she might fearlessly pene- -— LTFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 41 superior to humanity. The pious belief a view to her divine maternity, was held in the immaculate conception of Mary flows back, as it were, on the brink of the abyss from this feeling of reverence. Descend- which the fatal disobedience of our first ants of an unfortunate head—degraded by parents opened under our feet, and that our rebellious father, disgraced by the her conception was immaculate as her life. sentence which condemns him, instead of This belief, which the Greeks borrowed receiving from him the life of grace, we from Palestine, and adopted with enthusi- have received from him the death of sin, asm, 1 led to the institution of the Feast of and by a fearful destiny, we are condemned the Immaculate Conception, which was before we are born. This misery, inherent celebrated with great pomp at Constanti- in the human race, cursed as one man in nople as early as the sixth century. 2 In . its origin, is common to all, and the Scrip- the West, on the other hand, this doctrine ture has made no exception in favor of any met with opponents, and powerful ones ; child of Adam ; but the piety of the faith- for St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bonaven- ful could not bear the idea that the Mother ture, St. Thomas of Aquin, Albert the of God should be subject to the disgrace- Great, and many other learned and wise ful condemnation which marks us with the personages, all great theologians, and what seal of hell in the wombs of our mothers ; is more, very devout to Mary, maintained they have been persuaded that the sover- that she had been conceived in sin, and sub- eign Judge must have-suspended the gen- ject to the general law, 3 although shortly eral effect of his severe law in favor of her after she had been entirely purified from it who came into the world for no other by a special and surpassing favor, which purpose than to contribute to the accom- begun her glorious state of Mother of God. plishment of the most secret, most incom- But the belief in the immaculate concep- prehensible of the counsels of God—the tion of the holy Yirgin prevailed in the incarnation of the Messias. Notwithstand- end over the opinion of the great doctors ing the silence of the gospel, it has been of the middle ages ; what the eagles of the generally believed that the Yirgin, with schools had not seen was discovered to the ( 1 ) We read in the ancient Menologies, in use manus, Patriarch of Constantinople, added an an- among the Greeks, these words, which clearly set tiphon. forth their belief in the mystery of the Immaculate ( 3 ) The adversaries of the Immaculate Concep- Conception:— “ By a particular providence, the tion glory in reckoning in their ranks St. Anselm, Lord was pleased that the Blessed Virgin should St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas, Alber- be as pure, from the first moment of her life, tus Magnus, &c. Great as are these names, we as it became her who was to be worthy to con- must not allow ourselves to be dazzled by them; ceive and bring forth Jesus Christ, the Word made for by comparing these doctors with themselves, flesh.” we find that they positively maintained opinions ( * ) St. Andrew of Crete mentions this Feast of both for and against, which shows that their the Immaculate Conception, the office for which opinion was not decided on this point, or else that had been composed by St. Sabbas, though St. Ger- they had strange distractions. 12 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. unlearned. The writings of the apostles and doctors were turned over afresh ; what they have bequeathed to us from age to age concerning the grandeurs of Mary was more scrupulously examined, and this research caused strong light to fall on this obscure point of the history of the Mother of Christ. And, in fact, when we go back to the apostles, we already see the title of most holy and immaculate applied to Mary . 1 The apostle St. Andrew, quoted by the Babylonian Abdias, expresses himself in these terms:—“As the first Adam was made of the earth before it was cursed, so the second Adam was formed of virgin earth which was never cursed.” The saints and martyrs who lived in the third century, St. Hippolytus , 2 Origen , 3 St. Dionysius of Alexandria , 4 give to the holy "Virgin the qualification of “pure” and “immaculate.” St. Cyprian 5 is more pre¬ cise, and says plainly that “ there is a very great difference between the rest of mortals and the Virgin, and that all she has in common with them is their nature, and not their fault.” ( 1 ) St. James the Great and St. Mark, in their Liturgies. ( 3 ) St. Hippolytus, in a discourse “ On the Con¬ summation of the World.” (* *) Origen, Homily on St. Matthew. (*) St. Dionysius, in an epistle mentioned in the Bibliotheca Patrum. ( 5 ) St. Cyprian, de Hat. Yirginis. (') “ Virgo in qua nec nodus originalis, nec cortex actualis culpae fuit.”—(St. Ambrose, de Inst. Virg., c. v.) ( 7 ) St. John Chrysostom, in his Liturgy. ( 8 ) Commentaries of St. Jerome, on Ps. Ixxvii. “ Deduxit eos in nube diei: nubes est beata Virgo, quae pulchre dicitur nubes diei, quia non fuit in In the fourth century St. Ambrose, who compares the Virgin to “a straight and shining stem, where there was never found the knot of original, or the bark of actual sin ;” 6 St. John Chrysostom , 7 who pro¬ claims her “ most holy, immaculate , blessed above all creatures;” St. Jerome , 8 who poetically makes her “ the cloud by day which never knew darkness ;” St. Basil, whose footsteps the defenders of the Im¬ maculate Conception have always gloried to follow, have never varied as to that lily purity so applicable to the queen of angels. In the fifth century, St. Augustine 10 can¬ not bear that the name of Mary should even be mentioned where there is any question of sin ; and St. Peter Chrysol- ogus 11 affirms “that all have been saved in the Virgin.” St. Fulgentius, who lived at the begin¬ ning of the sixth century, says that the “holy Virgin was absolutely exempted from the primeval sentence .” 12 “"Wrong¬ fully,” says St. Ildefonsus , 13 Archbishop of Toledo, who flourished in the same cen¬ tury, “ do some seek to subject the Mother tenebris, sed semper in luce.”—“ He led them in the cloud by day: the cloud is the Blessed Virgin, who is beautifully called the cloud by day, because she was not in darkness, but always in light.” ( 0 ) St. Basil, in his Liturgy. ( 10 ) It must be observed that St. Augustine was here defending the doctrine of original sin against the Pelagians. ( 11 ) St. Peter Chiysologus, de Annunciat., Serm. 140 . ( IS ) St. Fulgentius, Sermo de laudibus Marise.— Sermo de duab. nat. Jesu Christi. ( 18 ) St. Ildefonsus, in his book on the Virginity of Mary. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ' 43 & of God to the laws of nature ; it is certain maintained the contrary opinion. But as that she was free from original sin, and a counterpoise, the Feast of the Conception that she removed the malediction of Eve. of the Yirgin was established in several St. John Damascenus, 1 speaking expressly kingdoms. of her conception, calls her “pure and William the Conqueror established this immaculate .” In the ninth century The- feast in Normandy as early as 1074 ; and ophanes, Abbot of Grandchamp ; in the from the reign of his son, Henry I., King tenth, St. Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres; of England and Duke of Normandy, it was toward the middle of the eleventh, Yvo, 2 celebrated at Rouen with extraordinary one of the most brilliant lights of that time, solemnity. “It was instituted,” say the and, shortly after him, St. Bruno, 3 founder ancient chroniclers, “in consequence of a of the Carthusians, evidently favor the Im- holy apparition to an abbot worthy of maculate Conception of the Blessed Yirgin. credit, who had experienced the perils of Islam itself declares for the Immaculate the sea during a tempest.” An old history Conception, and the Arabic commentators of the Antiquities of Rouen adds, that “from on the Koran have adopted, in their way, the very time of the institution of the feast, the opinion of those Catholic divines who an association was founded of the most re- maintain that doctrine. “Every descend- spected personages of the town, who still ant of Adam,” says Cottada, “from the elect every year one of their number to be moment of his coming into the world, is the prince of the confraternity, who, hold- touched in the side by Satan: Jesus and ing the puy , or platform for all speakers, Mary, however, must be excepted; for in all languages, gives excellent and valu- God placed a veil between them and Satan, able prizes to those who most elegantly, which preserved them from his fatal con- faithfully, and appropriately celebrate the tact.” praise of the Yirgin Mary on the subject These testimonies in favor of the Im- of her holy conception, by hymns, odes, maculate Conception of Mary become more sonnets, ballads, royal chants,” &c. 4 feeble and less abundant in the twelfth Thus the Yirgin, full of grace, presided and thirteenth centuries ; few authors of over the revival of poetry, and her Immac- note then wrote in its support, while many ulate Conception furnished pious subjects men eminent for learning and sanctity for the land of the minstrels. ( l ) St. John Damascenus, De Nativ. Mari®, Or.l a . Mary, elect and distinguishe nation by some holy personages and re- site of the apartments of the Virgin, is a ligious writers . 1 From the Virgin’s having distinct appendage of the mosque of Omar, always been sanctity itself, which no one and is not enclosed within that edifice ; yet disputes, it has been inferred that she must the mosque of Omar is built on the very have been placed in the most sanctified place where the temple stood. part of the temple—that is, in the Holy of Father Croiset, in his Exercises of Piety, Holies. This is materially unfounded. has not adopted this opinion ; but, unwilling The • Holy of Holies, that impenetrable to reject it altogether, he attempts a com- sanctuary of the Gfod of hosts, was closed promise. According to him, the Mother against the whole Hebrew priesthood, of God was. not educated in the Holy of except the high priest, who entered it only Holies, but the priests, struck with her once a year, after a number of fasts, vigils, admirable virtues, permitted her to go and and purifications. He did not present pray there from time to time. The Jesuit himself there without being enveloped in Father has forgotten several things in a thick cloud of incense, which interposed adopting this mezzo-termine: first, that between him and the Divinity, “ whom no woman, among the Hebrews, was a being mortal could see without dying,” says the reputed unclean, likened to a slave, and Scripture ; in fine, he remained there only on whom prayer was scarcely obligatory ; 3 a few minutes, during which the people, who was banished to a court, which she prostrate with their faces to the ground, could not pass, and to whom the interior (See Fleury, Moeurs des Israelites et des Chretiens, serpent, and can be expiated only at the coming p. 115.) of their Messias. Prayer is not so obligatory upon ( 1 ) St. Andrew of Crete, George of Nicome- her as upon man; she is not even bound to the dia, etc. greater part of the affirmative commandments: in ( ' ) Prideaux. Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, liv. fine, the Jews still say, in their morning prayer: v., c. 16. “ Blessed be thou, 0 Lord, King of the universe, ( 3 ) The impurity of woman, according to the for not having made me be born a woman.” The rabbis, dates from the seduction of Eve by the woman, in her humiliation says, on her part, with LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 67 of the temple was a forbidden place, even perial palace, and amidst the luxuries were she prophetess, or daughter of a of Borne. 3 Brought up in the strict ob- king. Secondly, that the priests could not servance of the laws of Moses, and con- grant to Mary a privilege which they did forming to the customs of her nation, Mary not enjoy themselves, and that, moreover, it rose at the song of the bird, at the hour would have been exposing her to certain “when the bad angels are silent, and when death. 1 Lastly, even supposing none of prayers are heard most favorably.” 4 She these prejudices and fears to have existed dressed herself with extreme modesty, out among the priests of Jehovah, they would of respect for the glory of God, who pene- not have suffered any one, on any account, trates everywhere, and beholds the actions to go into the Holt of Holies, considering of man, even in the darkest night; then that it was important to withhold from the she thanked the Lord for having added people the knowledge of the disappearance another day to her days, and having pre- of the ark, lost to sight in some obscure served her during her sleep from the snares cavern of the Judean mountains ever since of the evil spirit. 5 Her toilet was not the days of Jeremias. 2 long, and in no wise worldly; she wore This second version, therefore, is no neither pearl bracelets nor gold chains more admissible than the first. “ inlaid.with silver,” nor purple tunics, like The education which Mary received in the daughters of the princes of her race. the temple was as careful as was compatible A robe of hyacinth blue, of soft and velvet- with the knowledge of the time and the like appearance, like that flower of the , manners of the Hebrews ; it turned prin- field, a white tunic confined by a plain cipally on domestic work, from which the girdle, with loose ends, a long veil with its wife and daughter of Augustus Caesar did folds inartificially but gracefully arranged, not think themselves exempt in their im- and so formed as quickly and completely to sad resignation: “ Blessed be thou, 0 Lord, who to reverence this place, and render it inaccessible.’* bast made me what it has pleased thee.”—(Bas- —(Philo, ad Caium, c. 16.) nage, Histoire des Juifs, liv. vii., c. 10, p. 169.) ( 2 ) The Jews are not agreed as to the fate of ( 1 ) “ The Holy of Holies is a place so sacred,” the ark after the destruction of their first temple : says Philo, “ that no one among us but the high some maintain that Jeremias hid it in a cavern in priest alone is allowed to enter it, and that only the mountains, the mouth of which it had never once a year, after a solemn fast, to burn incense been possible to find : others assert that the holy there in honor of God, and humbly implore of him King Josias, warned by Holda, the prophetess, that that this may be a happy year for all mankind. the temple would be destroyed soon after his death, If any one, not merely of the common people of had this precious relic placed in a subterraneous our nation, but even of the chief priests, dared to vault constructed by Solomon. go in thither, or if the high priest himself went in ( 3 ) Augustus never wore any garments but twice a year, or more than once on the day when it those woven by his wife or daughter; and Alex- is lawful for him to do so, it would cost him his ander the Great, by his mother and his sisters. life, beyond any possibility of saving him, so ( *) Basnage, liv. vii., c. 17, p. 309. strictly has Moses, our legislator, commanded us ( 3 ) Basnage, as above. ♦ (38 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. cover the face, and lastly, shoes to match the robe, composed the oriental costume of Mary. 1 After the customary ablutions, the Vir¬ gin, her companions, and the pious women who were responsible to the priests and to God for this sacred trust, proceeded to the gallery surrounded with balconies, 8 where the almas sat, in the place of honor. 3 The. sun was just gilding with his early rays the distant Arabian mountains, the eagle was soaring in the clouds, the sacrifice burned upon the brazen altar amid the blare of the morning trumpets, and Mary, her head bowed down under her veil, after repeating the eighteen prayers of Esdras, besought of God, with all Israel, the Christ so long promised to earth, and so slow to come. “ 0 God! may thy name be glorified and sanctified in this world, which thou hast created according to thy good pleasure ; let thy kingdom reign : may redemption flourish, and may the Messias come speedily.” 4 And the people answered in chorus, “Amen! amen!” Then were sung the concluding verses of that beautiful psalm attributed to the prophets Aggeus and Zacharias : “ The Lord looseth them that are fet¬ tered : the Lord enlighteneth the blind. “ The Lord lifteth up them that are cast down ; the Lord.loveth the just. “The Lord keepeth the strangers; he will support the fatherless and the widow ; and the ways of sinners he will destroy. “The Lord shall reign forever : thy God, 0 Sion, unto generation, and generation.” 5 The reading of the shenud and the bless¬ ing of the priest concluded this public ( 1 ) The Annunciades of Genoa in the sixteenth century wore the costume of the Blessed Virgin, that is to say, white below and sky-blue above , that such a habit might cause a continual remembrance of her. The slippers of the choir-nuns in like man¬ ner are covered with blue leather. —(Rule of the An¬ nunciades of Genoa, c. 2.) In the East, where all seems unchangeable, Lamartine found Mary’s cos¬ tume in that of the women of Nazareth. “ They wear,” says the traveller poet, “ a long tunic of sky-blue, fastened by a white girdle, the ends of which hang down to the ground; the full folds of a white tunic gracefully falls over the blue.” Lam¬ artine traces hack this costume to the times of Abraham and Isaac, and there is nothing improb¬ able in the supposition. It will be seen that there is but a very slight difference between the costume adopted in the sixteenth century from the tradi¬ tions of Italy, and that which the French traveller found in the very places themselves. (’) In the feast of the drawing of the waters, the men were placed below the galleries, which ran round the peristyle of the women. ( s ) Origen, St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Cyril, preserve the tradition which ascribes to the temple virgins an honorable and special place in the women’s peristyle. ( 4 ) This prayer, which is called Kaddish, is the most ancient of all those preserved by the Jews, and as it is read in Chaldaic, it is believed to be one of the prayers made on their return from Babylon. —(Basn., liv. vii., c. 17, p. 314.) Prideaux affirms that it was used long before our Lord’s time, and that the apostles often offered it with the people in the synagogues. It was recited frequently in the service, and the assembly were obliged to answer Amen several times. ( 6 ) Psalm cxlv. 7—10. Leo of Modena. Maimo- nides.. ( 0 ) Leo of Modena, c. 11, p. 29. By the Shema is understood three different sections of Deuter¬ onomy and Numbers. It is a kind of profession LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. prayer, which was offered night and morn¬ ing. 1 After fulfilling this first religious duty with indescribable fervor, Mary and her young companions resumed their accus¬ tomed occupations. Some turned swiftly with their active fingers cedar or ithel 2 wood spindles, others shaded-purple, hya¬ cinth, and gold upon the veil of the temple, or the rich girdles of the priests ; while groups, bending forward over a Sidonian loom, were employed in executing the varied designs of that magnificent tapestry for which the valiant women deserved the praises of all Israel, and which Homer himself has extolled. 3 The Yirgin sur¬ passed all the daughters of her people in these beautiful works, so highly appreciated by the ancients. St. Epiphanius informs us that she excelled in embroidery and in the art of working in wool, fine linen, and gold ; 4 the Proto-evangelion of St. James portrays her to us seated before a distaff of faith which is recited night and morning, hy which they confess that there is but one God, who delivered his people out of Egypt. ( 1 ) It is certain that the Blessed Yirgin must have very often attended the public morning and evening prayers: these were considered more effica¬ cious than others, and some Hebrew doctors even maintain that God hears none but these. ( 8 ) The ithel is a species of acacia, growing in Arabia; it is jet-black, and resembles ebony: it is thought to be the setim-wood of Moses. ( 8 ) See the Iliad, lib. vi. ( 4 ) In the Middle Ages, in remembrance of Our Lady’s working in linen, the weavers ranged themselves beneath the banner of the Annuncia¬ tion. The manufactures of gold brocade and silk stuffs had for their patroness Our Lady the Rich, and bore, her image on their banner, heavy with 69 of wool dyed purple, which revolved under her light hands like the quivering leaf of the poplar ; 5 and the Christians of the East have perpetuated the traditionary opinion of her unrivalled skill in spinning the flax of Pelusium, 6 by giving the name of the Virgin's thread to those webs of dazzling whiteness, and texture almost vaporous, which hover over the deep valleys in the damp mornings of autumn. The serious and pure wives of the primitive Christians, in remembrance of these domestic occupa¬ tions, which the Queen of Angels did not disdain, never failed to consecrate to her a distaff with little bands of purple, and full of spotless wool. 7 But the talents and knowledge of the Yirgin were not confined to this. St. Ambrose attributes to her a perfect under¬ standing of the sacred books; and St. Anselm maintains that she knew perfectly that ancient Hebrew, the language of the terrestrial Paradise, 8 in which Gfod traced magnificent embroidery.—(Alex. Monteil, Hist, des Fran 9 ais des divers etats.) ( 6 ) The church of Jerusalem had early conse¬ crated this memorial by numbering among its treasures the spindles of Mary. These spindles were sent afterward to the Empress Pulcheria, who placed them in the church of the Hodegos, at Con¬ stantinople, (') The vestments worn by the high priests in the morning were, says the Misnah, of fine linen of Pelusium, a town of Egypt, where the flax was exquisite. ( 7 ) This custom still exists in some villages in the north and west of France. ( 8 ) According to the rabbis and commentators on the Bible, the language of the terrestrial Para¬ dise was the ancient Hebrew. 70 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. - with his potent finger, on very thick precious ceals beneath her veil, their faint odor stones, 1 the ten precepts of the Decalogue. scarce perceptible. Whether Mary, by studying the idiom of An ancient poet with servility styled Anna and Debora, had been initiated, Augustus the work of several ages, and during her solitary vigils, in the sublime declared that, since the days of the crea- conceptions of the seers of Israel, or tion, all the master hand of nature had whether she received from that the sancti- been diligently employed to produce him. lying Spirit, who had so richly endowed What was an hyperbole carried to an ab- her, a poetical inspiration like to those surd length, in speaking of the sanguinary harmonious breezes which swept lightly nephew of Ctesar, becomes a demonstrated over the Eolian harp of King David, 2 still truth when applied to the Virgin. Mary we cannot deny that the young prophetess, is the masterpiece of Nature, the flower of who gave to the new law its most beautiful past generations, and the wonder of ages. canticle, must have known the sweetest Never had the earth seen, never will the and most sublime inspirations of genius. earth see, so many perfections combined in Certainly, the woman who composed the a simple daughter of men. All was grace, Magnificat was no ignorant maiden of the holiness, grandeur in this blessed creature : common people, as some Protestant authors conceived in the friendship of God, sancti- have not hesitated to say, and she combined fled before her birth, she was a stranger with unequalled sanctity talents of the to those passions which disorder the soul, highest order. Nevertheless, this brilliant and sin which corrupts the heart. Borne side of her intellect was scarce discerned, toward good by a sweet and natural in- so adroit was she in concealing it beneath clination, bj" favor of her immaculate con- her evangelical modesty. Knowing the ception, her pure and innocent actions were delicate duties and true interests of her like those layers of snow which are silently sex, she avoided display with extreme heaped upon the lofty summits of the care, and passed on without noise, like a mountains, adding purity to purity, and silent star, that pursues its course through whiteness to whiteness, till a dazzling cone the clouds. The rich treasures of her mind is raised, on which the light darts playfully, and heart have been but rarely and imper- compelling man to avert his eyes, as from fectly revealed to earth ; they were the the sun. It has not been given to any sec- roses of Yemen the young Arab girl con- ond creature to present such a life to the ( 1 ) Hebrew tradition.—(Basn., liv. vi., c. 16.) ( 2 ) According to an ancient Jewish tradition, According to some oriental authors, the tables of David had a harp which played by night when a the law were of red rubies, or carbuncles; but the ‘particular breeze blew. Basnage ridiculed these most common opinion among the Arabs and Mus- strings which sound of themselves at the night sulmans, is that they were emeralds, in the inside breeze, and openly treats this assertion as an ab- of which the characters were so cut as to be legi- surdity. The invention, or rather the re-discovery ble on any side.—(D’Herbelot, Bibliotlibque Ori- of the Eolian harp, the magic sounds of which entale, t. ii.) enchant our parks, has justified the rabbis. * LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 71 sovereign Judge of men ; Jesus Christ not tall of stature, though her height was a alone surpassed her,—but Jesus Christ is little above the middle size : her colo-r, the Son of God. slightly gilded, like that of the Sulamitess, Mary entered the temple of God, like by the sun of her country, had the rich one of those spotless victims which the tint of ripe ears of corn ; her hair was Spirit of the Lord had unveiled to Malachy. light, her eyes bright, the pupil being Beautiful, young, nobly born, and fitted to rather of an olive color, her eyebrows per- aspire to any position among a people who fectly arched, and of the deepest black ; often placed beauty upon the throne, 1 she her nose, remarkably perfect, was aqui- bound herself to the horns of the altar by line ; her lips rosy; the shape of her face a a vow of virginity. By this vow, unheard fine oval ; her hands and fingers long. of before, Mary broke down the barrier All the fathers eagerly attest, with one which separated the old law from the new, accord, the admirable beauty of the Virgin ; and plunged so deeply into the sea of the St. Denis the Areopagite, who had seen the evangelical virtues , that it might be said that divine Mary, assures us that she was a she had already sounded almost all its dazzling beauty , and ' that he should have depths, when her divine Son came to re- adored her as a goddess , if he had not known veal it to the children of men. that there is but one God. God does not abruptly change his ways ; But it was not to this assemblage of he announces, he prepares long before, the natural perfections that Mary owed the great events which are to change the face power of her beauty ; it emanated from a . of the earth : a precursor was needed for higher source. St. Ambrose understood the Messias, and he found him in the person it well, when he said that this attractive of St. John the Baptist ; a preliminary was covering was but a transparent veil which requisite to the new law, and the virtues of allowed all the virtues to be seen through it, Mary were to the gospel what a cool and and that her soul, the most noble and purest smiling dawn is to a fine day. that ever was, next to the soul of Jesus St. Epiphanius, quoted by Nicephorus, ' Christ, was entirely revealed in her counte- has left us a charming portrait of the Vir- nance. The natural beauty of Maiy was gin ; this portrait, sketched in the fourth but the distant reflection of her intellectual century, from traditions now effaced, and and imperishable beauties ; she was the manuscripts which we no longer possess, is most beautiful of women, because she was the only one which has come down to us. the most chaste and holy of the daughters The Virgin, according to this bishop, was of Eve. 2 ( 1 ) “ It is neither climate, nor diet, nor bodily (Bernardin cle Saint Pierre, Etudes de la Nature, exercise which determines the beauty of the human etude 10.) form; it is the moral sentiment of virtue, which ( a ) We know that David, Solomon, and the cannot subsist without religion. Beauty of conn- other kings of Juda, raised to their royal couch tenance is the true physiognomy of the soul.”— women of obscure condition; the celebrated Sula- 72 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. God has made a palace of pearly shell afflicted, or mocked at any one. She dis- for the pearl of the Green Sea but it liked all show, was simple in her attire, is the pearl, and not its glittering shell, simple in her manners, and never had a that is set in gold, and taken to incrust the thought of vaunting her beauty, her ancient diadems of kings. Nor were the fathers nobilitv, or the rich treasures of her mind in error. Hence in all they say concerning and heart. Her presence seemed to sanctify the person of Mary, they devote no incon- all around it, and the sight of her banished siderable part to moral beauties,—which the thought of the things of earth. Her alone are not the food of worms. We will politeness was no vain formula, couched in now proceed to collect the little gems words of falsehood: it was an expansion which they have scattered through their of universal good-will, gushing forth from writings, and with them form a mosaic dis- the soul. In fine, her look already dis- playings a second portrait of her who was, covered the Mother of mercy—the Virgin says St. Sophronius, “The Almighty’s gar- of whom it has since been said: “She den of delight.” 2 would ask of God forgiveness even, for Lu- The greatest modesty prevailed in all the cifer, if Lucifer sought pardon.” actions of the Virgin ; she was good, affable, Though scantily provided with earthly compassionate, and never tired of hearing means, Mary was liberal to the poor, and the tedious complaints of the afflicted. She her young maiden alms often dropped un- spoke little, always to the purpose, and an perceived into that box attached to one of untruth never defiled her lips. Her voice the pillars of the peristyle, into which at a was sweet, penetrating, and her words had later period Jesus saw the widow’s mite fall. an unction and comforting power, that St. Ambrose shows us the pure and sacred filled the soul with calm. She was the first source from which Mary derived her alms ; in watchings, the most exact in fulfilling the she deprived herself of everything, grant- divine law, the most profound in humility, ing only to nature what she could not with- the most perfect in every virtue. She was hold from it without dying, and seemed to never seen in anger ; she never offended, live, like the cicadse, upon air and dew. 3 mitess of Solomon was, it is said, a young peasant .... Terriysddi eoixote? care ko3’ vXfjv girl of the little village Sulam, situated at a short /Isvdpsoo itpeZopEvoi oita Xezpiosddav ieXdt. distance from Jerusalem. In the time of Mary, “Like cicadas, which, perched upon the trees, Herod the Great espoused, on account of her send forth a sweet sound, after sipping a little dew.” beauty, Mariamne, the daughter of a mere priest. “Grasshoppers feed only on dew.”—(Theocritus, ( 1 ) Bahr-al-Ahhdhar, a name of the Persian Gulf. Idyl 4: MV rtpwxai diri^ETai oditsp o ;) “Does ( a ) “Vere Virgo erat hortus deliciarum in quo he not feed on dew, like the cicadas ?” And Vir- consita sunt universa florum genera et odoramenta gil: “Dum thymo pascentur apes, dum rore ci- virtutum.”—(Sophronius, Serm. de Assump.) cadse.” “ While bees feed on thyme, while cicadse ( s ) The ancients believed that grasshoppers on dew.” lived on air and dew.—(Philo, de Vita cont., p. On this account Callimachus has called dew, 831.) Homer, in the third book of the Iliad: itpwiov TETTiyoi siStxp, “the food of the cicadas.” LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 73 Her fasts, which were frequent and rigor- the subterranean vaults of his palace, 3 did ous, were in like manner beneficial to the not reach the ear of the young girl; com- poor. But the fasts of the Blessed Virgin pletely absorbed in her religious duties, were not like our fasts in the north, which her soul was at the feet of the great Author last only for a morning, and are confined to of the universe, beyond the limits of the the privation of some articles of food ■ world and the region of storms. “ Never,” they were an abstinence from everything, says St. Ambrose, “ was any one endowed which began in the evening at sunset, and with a more sublime gift of contemplation ; ended the next day at the rising of the her mind, ever in unison with her heart, stars. 1 All this time Mary denied herself never lost sight of Him, whom she loved all that could gratify her taste and her more ardently than all the 'seraphim to- heart: she imposed upon herself the hardest gether; her whole life w T as but one con- tasks, the most disagreeable works of mercy, tinual exercise of the purest love of her put on her poorest garments, slept on the God, and when the sun came to weigh floor, and during these days of mortification down her eyelids, her heart still watched and tears, often prolonged for weeks to- and prayed.” 4 gether, denied herself all but a slender Such were the virtues, such the occupa- repast, composed of bread baked in the tions of Mary in the temple ; she shone embers, bitter herbs, and a cup of water there among her youthful companions like from the fountain of Siloe. 2 Her medita- a rich diamond, which, set amid other gems, tions were frequent, and her prayers so eclipses them all by its brilliancy. Thus recollected, attentive, and profound, that it happened that old men who had grown her soul seemed to dissolve in adoration gray in the priesthood never passed by before the Almighty. The roar of the her without blessing her, and considered tempest and the noise of the thunder, her as the richest ornament of the holy which used to make Cmsar take refuge in house. 4 ( 1 ) The Jews did not consider that day as a fast, scarcely excusable iu a woman. At the least ap- on which the sun did not set. pearance of a storm, he went and hid in deep ( a ) Basnage, liv. vii., c. 18 ; Fleury, Mceurs des vaults, where the noise of the thunder and the Israelites, p. 104. flashes of lightning could not penetrate. ( s ) Augustus, if we may believe Suetonius, was ( 4 ) St. Ambrose, De Virg., lib. ii. afraid of thunder and lightning with a weakness 74 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. CHAPTER VL MARY AN ORPHAN. S TRANGE though it be, it must be ad¬ mitted, that the history of the Virgin is barren of facts and full of chasms: one might compare it to the majestic ruins of some ancient city of the desert. Here, gigantic pillars, whose bases are as im¬ movable as those of the mountains ; there, porticoes which the Arab, fond of marvel¬ lous tales, proclaims as the work of the genii; farther on, temples buried in sand, which imagination can still rebuild ; and then at intervals, the bare and barren sand with not even a single blade of grass for the camel of the Bedouin. The apostles, it would seem, were too much absorbed with the exalted person of Christ, to think of his earthly family, but the fathers introduce us to the virtues,of St. Anne : with them we have entered be¬ neath her humble roof; we have witnessed her vows, her fervent prayers, the joys of her delayed maternity, her outpour of grat¬ itude ; but here the thread of tradition becomes so attenuated that it breaks con¬ tinually, and the rest of St. Anne’s life is almost entirely conjectural. This mother, who had obtained her blessed daughter after so many fasts and prayers, who had environed her childhood with so much love, who had brought her in her arms to the Lord, 1 and deposited her with tears in his ( 1 ) St. Alphonsus, Glories of Mary, Disc. 3. ( a ) Some ascribe to Anne another daughter, named Mary, born twenty years before the Blessed sanctuary, appears again upon the scene but for a moment,—and then it is to die. Yet it is not credible that the spouse of Joachim let nine years pass without seeing Mary again. The exterior buildings of the temple, where children consecrated to the God of Israel were brought up, could not have been forbidden to mothers : a mother has rights sacred and religious also; all nations declare them inviolable ; and, more¬ over, the Scripture informs us that Anna, the wife of Elcana, freely visited her son at Silo, on solemn days, and that she never failed to bring a tunic woven with her own hands to the young prophet whom she had lent to the Lord. Anna had had after the birth of Samuel several children, whom she beheld growing up under her eyes like young olive-plants, and who shared her maternal solicitude with the servitor at the tabernacle ; St. Anne had none but Mary f the sum of her happiness, the hope of her old age, the source of her joy on earth. It is not then to be doubted that, in com¬ pany with her spouse, she came to see her whenever her piety led her to the temple, and that she too sat up, by the light of her domestic lamp, or by the white light of the moon, 3 to weave the virginal robes of her child. It is believed that St. Anne and St. Virgin; but this tradition has not been received by the Church. (’) The Jewish women spun together during the LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 75 Joachim returned to tlieir home after the mountain and plain appear to travel over! Presentation of Mary, and dwelt there She reached by sight, she traversed scores some years before they finally settled in of times in thought, before she reached Jerusalem. Joachim, who was hot an ar- them in reality, the bushes of nopals, the tisan, like Joseph, apparently cultivated clumps of rose-bay, the groves of green the little heritage of his forefathers, and oaks or sycamores which studded her road enjoyed that happy mediocrity which has at intervals; for, each of these points always been aspired to by sages, great gained brought her nearer to her daughter, men, and poets, in the moments when they —her daughter, the gift of the Lord, the repine at fortune. 1 Churches have been child of miracle—to her whom an angel had erected at Sephoris, Nazareth, and Jeru- proclaimed the glory of Israel! With what salem, on sites which formed part of his emotion must she have hailed, from the patrimony ; but the vineyard or field of depth of the valley, that tower Antonia his fathers must have been in the neighbor- rising splendid and defiant from its base hood of Sephoris, and led to his return to of polished marble, 2 to protect the house Lower Galilee. Joachim was a true Is- of prayer ! and how much must the sight of raelite, devotedly attached to the law of the temple, which contained her child and Moses ; he went up to the temple at all the hei' God, have affected that tender and hol^ solemn festivals with his wife and some of soul! his relations, according to the custom of the When evening was come, and the priestly Hebrews; and it is to be supposed that the trumpets called the people to the ceremony, 3 desire of seeing his daughter increased his Anne hastened to adore God, and cast her attraction for the ceremonies of divine wor- eyes upon Her daughter, whom she had not ship. With what joy did his good and seen for months. The court, which had no pious partner take her travelling veil to canopy but the sky, mingled the dazzling journey to the holy city! How long did light of its candelabras 4 with the uncertain those paths which she saw winding over light of the stars ; thousands of lights summer by moonlight, since the Jewish doctors au- ( 2 ) The tower Antonia might be considered the thorized a husband to repudiate his wife when the citadel of the temple ; it had been previously the women who spun ty moonlight spoke ill of her.— palace of the Asmonean princes. The rock on (Sotah, c. 6, p. 250.) This custom of spinning by which it was seated was inaccessible on all sides, moonlight still continues in many southern conn- and fifty cubits high. Herod had faced it with tries. marble from top to bottom, so that no one might ( 1 ) According to St. Gregory Nyssenus, the be able to go up or down it.—(Josephus, Antiquities father of the- Blessed Virgin was “ an honorable of the Jews, bk. xv., c. 14, and Jewish Wars, bk. ii., citizen,” of signal piety, and much fearing God. c. 16.) Father de Valverde (Life of Christ, t. i., p. 46) as- ( 3 ) The religious festivals of the Jews have al- sures us, on the testimony of some fathers of the ways begun in the evening. > Church, that enjoying easy circumstances, Anne (*) These candelabras were of gold, and fifty and Joachim gave one part of their savings to the cubits high. The light which they diffused was temple and the other to the distressed. seen, say the rabbis, who are natural exaggerators, • LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 76 crossed each other beneath the porticoes hung with fresh garlands; 1 and the chief priests passed through the crowd in their splendid vestments, brought from the In¬ dian shores by the caravans of Palmyra. 3 From time to time the harmonies of harps alone seemed to accompany the murmur, like the roar of waves, 3 that rose from a multitude of Hebrews at prayer, men who had come from the banks of the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Tiber, to bend their knee before the one altar of the God of their fathers. 4 Amidst this immense con¬ course of believers, born there and abroad, Anne, who prayed fervently, raised her head but for an instant: it was when Mary and her young companions were passing along, white and veiled, with lamps in their hands like the wise virgins of the gospel. When the feast was over, Anne, after having blessed and embraced Mary, took once more the mountain road with Joachim ; she departed from Jerusalem with lingering step, not venturing to look back, and car¬ ried with her her happiness and recollec¬ tions for all the time till the next festival. When age and labor had spent the strength of Joachim, and he was no longer able to cultivate with his own hands his ancestral field, he determined to come to an incredible distance from Jerusalem, and even in the city the houses were so well lighted that, without the help of their lamps, the cooks could pick out the grain for their soups.—(Talmud, tract. Succa., fol. 3.) ( 1 ) These green garlands were put on during the Feast of Tabernacles.—(Basn., liv. vii., c. 16.) ( a ) The vestments worn by the priests in the evening of solemn feasts came from India, and were very expensive.-—(Basn., liv. viii., c. 15.) nearer to his daughter ; the holy couple finally quitted Lower Galilee, and came to reside at Jerusalem, in a quarter near the temple. Anne’s dearest wish was then gratified : she could serve the Lord in his holy house, and see Mary often. How often, during the fine summer evenings, while turning her spindle on her terrace roof, must she have let it fall from her motionless fingers, while her maternal looks were thoughtfully fixed on the temple-roof of gold and cedar? “Where a man’s treasure is,” says the Scripture, “ there is his heart.” St. Anne might have shortened the term of this painful absence, as the law of Moses would have accepted her compensation. She did not desire it: her gratitude to¬ ward God spoke more powerfully than a mother’s love ; and when the voice of re¬ ligion was heard, the cry of nature was appeased. The Yirgin had lived nearly nine years secluded in the temple, 5 when the first dark cloud came to sadden the sweet and serene sky of her young life : her beloved father, Joachim the just, fell seriously ill, and ere long the symptoms of approaching dissolu¬ tion appeared. Alarmed at his situation, his relatives and friends hastened to dis- ( 5 ) The Jews and Arabs, as all know, pray aloud. ( 4 ) As long as the temple stood, the Jews made it a particular point of devotion to repair thither. More than eleven hundred thousand persons per¬ ished at the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus, because they were assembled for the Feast of the Pasch, when it was besieged.—(Josephus, bk. vii., c. 17.) (*) Father Croiset, Exercises de Piete, t. xviii., p. 59. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 77 play a thousand testimonies of affection and sympathy: for there reigned a great and laudable union among the families of Juda. The d}Jng man benignantly smiled upon his friends and relations ; like Jacob, he had long been a pilgrim upon earth, and it mattered little to him that the wind of death should come to prostrate his tent, for beyond this planet of earth, he beheld in spirit the happy regions whither he was going to rest forever in Abraham’s bosom. When his gradually failing strength told the aged man that life was fleeting from him, he made aloud, in presence of all, the con¬ fession of his sins, after the manner of the Hebrews, 1 and offered up his death to the sovereign Judge in expiation of the faults inherent in our nature, from which the most just is not exempt. This duty ful¬ filled, Joachim asked for his daughter, to give her his blessing. Mary came ; 2 her ardent prayers for the preservation of the author of her days had not been heard ; the jealous God was pleased to loosen by degrees the terrestrial attachments of the spouse whom he had chosen for himself, that she might no longer have any support upon earth but his. (*) Among the Hebrews confession is of the highest antiquity; the Jews made it, at the hour of death, not only aloud but before ten persons and a rabbi. Aaron Ben-Berachia, in his book entitled Maavar Jobbok, where he treats of the art of dy¬ ing well, and of the manner of assisting the dying, relates the manner of confessing sins, and the prayers of the agony. Abraham Ben-Isaac La- niado also composed a book entitled “The Buckler of Abraham,” a work esteemed by the Jews, in which he treats of the confession of sins.—(See also Basnage, liv. vii., c. 24.) Pious authors have been of opinion that at the moment when Joachim stretched out his hands in the attitude of blessing over his child, a revelation from above suddenly permitted him to behold the glorious des¬ tiny to which Heaven called his daughter: the joy of the elect overspread his vener¬ able countenance ; he dropped his arms, bowed down his head, and expired. Then the house resounded with wailings and shrill cries; the women beat their bosoms and tore their hair ; 3 the men covered their heads with ashes, and rent their garments ; while certain Jewish ma¬ trons, impelled by devotion and charity, drew a thick veil over the pale but serene countenance of the just man whom it was no longer permitted to see in this world, and bent his thumb in his hand, which they left open, as a sign of its abandoning all earthly things. After Washing the body with water mixed with myrrh and dry rose-leaves, these pious women wrapped it up in a linen winding-sheet, which they bound round with bandages after the manner of Egypt. Then, having opened all the doors and windows of the house, 4 they lighted ( 5 ) It was a custom which came from the patri¬ archs, that children should receive the blessing of their dying father: Mary must have conformed to this custom : her retirement in the temple was not a monastic enclosure, and St. Joachim lived at that time in Jerusalem. ( 3 ) St. Jerome remarks, that in his time, most of the Jews scarified their skin at the death of their near relations, and made themselves bald by plucking out their hair, which they sacrificed to the dead. (*) Dead bodies, among the Jews, defile and 78 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. near the corpse a brazen lamp with several wicks, the lamp of the dead, which re¬ flected its sad rays over the funeral couch. The next day a numerous procession, in which some flute-players 1 might be seen, halted before the house of the dead. The relations made their way to the upper chamber, where Joachim had been laid out, and deposited the corpse upon a bed, 8 which they took upon their shoulders. They passed through the streets of Je¬ rusalem, chanting funeral hymns accom¬ panied by the soft and plaintive sounds of flutes, above which rose the noisy lamenta¬ tions of the weeping women. Anne and Mary were present at the funeral, and walked with bowed heads, among the ma¬ trons of the family, who shed floods of tears. 3 render unclean those who touch them.—(Misnah, Ordo puritatum.) “When the doors are shut, the house of the dead is regarded as a sepulchre, and consequently it is defiled; when the doors are open, on the contrary, the uncleanness departs.”—(Mai- monides.) ( : ) Jesus Christ found minstrels who made a great rout at the door of a ruler, whose daughter he had raised to life. Maimonides says that the poorest Jew is obliged to hire two flute-players and a female mourner for the funeral of his wife, and that the rich must increase the number in propor¬ tion to their wealth.—(See also Pleury, Manners of the Israelites, p. 106.) ( ) Jhese funeral beds long preceded coffins, which are still unknown to the Arabs, who bury their dead in a linen cloth only, which enables the jackals, who prowl about the cemeteries by night, to disinter corpses and devour them. ( s ) Women and children attended the funerals of their husbands and fathers. The widow of Naim followed the corpse of her son; Joseph led the obsequies of his father: this custom still con- The procession passed the sheep-gate, which afterward, among the Christians, bore the name of the Virgin’s Gate. TVdien they arrived at the place of interment, the sound of the flutes, hymn, and lamentation ceased for a time, and he who conducted the mourning thus addressed the corpse: “ Blessed be God who formed thee, fed thee, and has taken away thy life. 0 ye dead, he knows your number, and he will one day raise you Dp again. Blessed be he who takes away life, and restores it!” 4 A small bag of earth was laid upon the head of the departed; then the sepulchre was opened,—a dark cave, which was called the house of the living , s where the patriarch was going to sleep his last sleep, awaiting the other members of his family. Then heart-rending cries arose from every tinues in Judea. The children of the Hebrews received the blessing of their parents, closed their eyelids, and accompanied them to the field of rest * * to gather them to the bones of their forefathers.— (Salvador, Hist, des Institutions de Mo'ise et du peuple Hebreu, t. ii., p. 398.) (*) Leo of Modena, Customs of the Jews. Bux- torf, Syn. Hebr., p. 502. ( 6 ) The sepulchre should have been called the house of the dead; but they gave it, on the con¬ trary, the’title of house of the living, to indicate that the immortal soul still lives after the separation from the body: this denomination is attributed to the Pharisees.—(Basnage, liv. vii., c. 24.) The rabbis describe these sepulchres exactly. They make the entrance to them very narrow, with nothing to close them but a stone. They left a gieat space empty, where the bearers went in and deposited the-coffin, before they set it in its place. They hollowed out a certain number of niches in the sides and at the end, in which they placed the bodies of each family. Tombs were greatly re¬ spected ; it was not allowed to pass over them by LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 79 side. Anne threw herself upon the mortal Hebrews ; they were clothed in a coarse remains of her husband, to take her last fare- camlet, called haircloth, tight and without well, and was soon borne away in a state of folds ; the head and feet bare, the face hid- insensibility. After consigning to the earth den in the fold of their robes, keeping fast the holy remains of the just man, they rolled and abstinence, 2 they remained sitting on the up to the entrance of the sepulchral cave ground for seven days, giving way to tears an enormous stone, which no one could with their relations, and praying for the soul remove under pain of excommunication. of the deceased. 3 When the seven days were Then rose again the funeral cries, and the ended, Anne had lamps lighted in the syn- spectators, pulling up thrice in succession a agogue, where she requested prayers for her tuft of grass, and casting it each time behind husband, and added alms suited to her them, said in a mournful tone : “ They shall means. Mary, on her part, fasted every flourish as the grass of the field!” With week, on the day on which she became an these rites ended the obsequies of the de- orphan, and prayed every night and morn- scendant of the kings of Juda, the father of ing for the repose of her father’s soul. Mary, the grandfather of Jesus Christ ac- These fasts and prayers for the dead con- cording to the flesh. 1 tinued for the space of eleven months. 4 The Blessed Virgin’s heart was crushed “Welcome, 0 misfortune, if thoucomest by this first grief, the prelude to so many alone,” say the Greeks. This first afflic- others : it was her apprenticeship to sorrow. tion was follotved by one still more poignant, Adversity reached her on the threshold of and another mourning soon came to mingle maidenhood ; the noble child did not shrink with the mourning for Joachim. Scarcely back on her way : she wept,—for her soul, was the mortuary lamp extinguished in the like that of her divine Son, was never dry sorrowful abode of St. Anne, when it had to or insensible,—but she drained the bitter be rekindled ; hardly were the tears dried cup, saying to G-od: “0 Jehovah, thy which the Virgin had shed for one of the will be done !” The mother and daughter authors of her days, when she had to de- put on mourning after the manner of the plore the loss of the other. 5 One evening, making an aqueduct or a high-road through them, they were obliged to restrict themselves to certain nor to go thither to cut wood, nor to lead flocks kinds of pulse, beans, for example, or lentils, which there to feed. They were placed on the high-roads, were mourning diet. Eggs were allowed, for the in order to excite the remembrance of those who form of an egg, being round, and in the shape of a passed by, and keep alive the memory of the dead. globe, is the image of a man in affliction. Wine —(Lightfoot, Cent. Chorogr., c. 100.) In the gos- was no less forbidden than meat.—(Basn., liv. vii., pel, we see that the tomb of Lazarus was a cave c. 28.) closed by a large stone. ( 3 ) During the days of mourning they recited (*) Salom. Ben-Virgse, Hist. Jud., p. 193: Leo the forty-ninth psalm.—(Leo of Modena, Customs of Modena, Religious Customs of the Jews ; Basn., of the Jews, p. 182. Lightfoot, on St. John, p. 1072.) liv. vii., c. 25. ( 4 ) Basnage, liv. vii., c. 11, p. 182. (’) Fasting was very severe among the Jews; (*) According to the best authorities, St. Anne SO LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN" MART. Mary, accompanied by some of her kins¬ women, went down from the temple to the dark narrow street where her mother dwelt. The dim reddish rays of a lamp gleamed through one of the narrow trel- lised windows of the humble dwelling. Be¬ fore the threshold were grouped together in silence those women who, even to this day throughout the East, bewail the dead as a means of livelihood ; like birds of ill omen that forebode funerals, these sinister crea¬ tures watched for some family in tears, to come and hire their paid lamentations. 1 St. Anne rallied her failing strength to bless her daughter, recommended her pa¬ thetically to her kinsfolk, but above all to Him who is the Father of the orphan, and slept the sleep of the just. 2 Mary bent down in tears over the cold visage of her mother ; her light hair mixed with the gray locks of the departed: you would have said, she sought to recall her by her tears ; but the breath of God alone can reanimate the dead ! After the first burst of justifi- ble sorrow, she closed with her hands the eyelids of the saint, and gave her one long and sorrowful embrace,—the last farewell of her people. 3 The grief of the young orphan was silent, profound, and nobly endured. With no other reliance now upon earth but Provi¬ dence, she took refuge in the bosom of God ; thence, as from the recess of a tranquil bay, she heard the distant roaring of • the storms of the world, and understood all the vanity of the things of life ;—the vanity of rank, of grandeur, fortune, beauty—things that glitter and pass, like the bubble upon the course of the wintry torrent, which itself disappears at the end of a season. To this period of mourning, isolation, and solitary meditation, a certain historian has judiciously ascribed the vow of per¬ petual virginity made by Mary. 4 It nowhere appears that this vow was known to Anne and J oachim, and without their consent it would not have been valid in the eyes of either the civil or religious law. 5 It was after their death, then, that Mary chose the Lord for her portion, and consecrated her¬ self by vow to his service, without any limi¬ tation of time, says Bernardine de Busto, and with the intention of never departing from the temple. Like the august head of her race, the Virgin found that “one day passed in the tabernacles of the God of Israel was better than a thousand other days,” and she too would have preferred to be the last in the holy place, rather than the first in the tents of Cedar. and St: Joachim died at a short time interval one from the other. { 1 ) In the Levant they hire, to mourn for the dead, women who have no other means of earning their living. They are paid so much an hour, and exert themselves to earn their pay by uttering the most piercing cries.—(Burckhardt, Voyage en Ara- bie, t. ii., p. 139.) ( ) Grave historians affirm that the Virgin was present at the death of her mother, which is quite conformable to the manners of the Hebrews. ( 3 ) The custom is very ancient ; for Philo, re¬ cording the lamentations of Jacob for the prema ture death of his son, makes him regret that he shall not have the consolation “ to close his eyes, and give him the farewell kiss.” ( 4 ) Doscoutures, Vie de la Sainte Vierge, p. 27. ( 6 ) A young girl might take vows among the LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 81 o CHAPTER VII. THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN. W HETHER Joacliim on his death¬ bed had placed the virgin under the special protection of the priesthood ; or because the magistrates who took care of orphans had themselves chosen guardians for her in the powerful family of Aaron, to which she belonged on her mother’s side ; , or whether the guardianship of children ^ devoted to the service of the temple be¬ longed by right to the Levites, it is certain that after the death of the authors of her days, Mary had guardians of the priestly race. It is probable, as Arab traditions affirm, that the cares of this guardianship were especially confided to the pious spouse of Elizabeth, to Zachary, who seemed desig¬ nated by his high reputation for virtue, and Jews, and she could even take a vow of virginity; but this vow was annulled by the authority of the father, because being under the father’s power, she could not violate the power which nature gives. All vows made by a virgin or a married woman, unknown to or contrary to the will of a father or a husband, were void.—(Num. c. xxx.) Some rabbis, however, maintain that the father or husband must annul them within twenty-four hours after they came to their knowledge, in default of which they held good.—(Basnage, liv. vii., c. 19.) ( 1 ) The Jews, together with Celsus, Porphyrius, and Fanstus, have taken this relationship as their ground for maintaining that the Blessed Virgin was of the tribe of Levi. Catholic doctors oppose this opinion: they maintain that Mary was of the tribe of Juda, and family of David. In fact, St. Matthew teaches us that Jesus Christ is called the 6 bis title of near relative, 1 for this responsi¬ ble duty. 2 The eagerness which led the Blessed Virgin, two or three years later, to travel all through Judea, to offer her ser¬ vices and congratulations to the mother of St. John Baptist, and her prolonged stay in the mountains of Hebron, seem, in fact, to show a more intimate connection than that of mere relationship ; the roof which shel¬ tered Mary during so long a visit could not have been, according to the ideas so strictly adhered to among the Hebrews, any but a roof as sacred as her father’s. Whoever the priests may have been who were honored with the guardianship of the blessed daughter of Anne the holy, they scrupulously discharged the obligations im- Son of David, according to the flesh; but he can be the Son of David only through Mary, since he had no father among men. When it is asked, how it can he that Mary, being of the tribe of Juda, could be cousin to St. Elizabeth, who was of the tribe of Levi, St. Augustine answers that there is nothing impossible in a man of the tribe of Juda taking a wife of the tribe of Levi, and that the Blessed Virgin sprung from this marriage, should be the relation of Elizabeth on her mother’s side. It is proved, moreover, that the prohibition to con¬ tract an alliance with another tribe regarded none but orphans who were heiresses of the property of their fathers. ( 2 ) The Koran, where many Arab traditions are found relating to Mary, says formally that Zachary took her under his protection.—(Koran, c. 3.) 4 S2 life of the blessed virgin mart.. posed by theft charge, and when the Yir- mulgation of that immortal code which glo- gin had attained her' fifteenth year, they riously raised her from the malediction of thought of giving her a spouse worthy of servitude. her. This projected marriage threw Mary The Virgin’s entreaties found therefore into extreme affliction • that elevated, pure, but little sympathy among the priests of Je- contemplative soul had foretasted the gos- hovah ; they had not risen to the height of pel, and virginity appeared to her the most such virtues ; and to these men of penetra- perfect, holy, and desirable of all states. tion and science, the angelic and all-holy An ancient author, cited by St. Gregory of soul of Mary was a book closed with seven Nyssa, relates that she for a long time, with brazen seals. Her thought, which was in great modesty, shrunk from consenting to advance of the age in which she lived, • the determination when made known to and repugnant to the ancient prejudices her, and that she humbly entreated her of her nation, was simply incomprehensi- family to permit her to lead in the temple ble, and all her arguments to escape em- an innocent, hidden life, free from all ties, bracing a state contrary to her dearest except those of the Lord. Her request desires availed her nothing. How indeed caused great surprise in those who were dis- could she have convinced them since God posing of her lot. What she implored as himself was against her ? Her marriage a favor was sterility—that is to say, re- with a just man, who would attest the proach,—a state solemnly anathematized purity of her life, free her from the im- by the law of Moses ■} it was the celibacy portunities of the young Hebrews, who of an only heiress 2 —that is to say, the total might seek her hand even in the tern- extinction of her father’s name,—a thought pie, as St. Augustine remarks, 3 and who considered almost impious among the Jews, would protect her and her divine Son in who regarded it as a signal misfortune for the hour of danger, entered into the secret their name not to be perpetuated in Israel. views of Providence. It was the only As to the vow of virginity, with which she means of concealing the mystery of the had desired to bind herself for life, she Incarnation from the malevolent investi- would not have dared to rely upon that, gations of a perverse world, which would since it might be annulled by a decision of have made the prodigy a pretext for abom- the family council. It is well known that inable conjectures, and would perhaps have the woman was, “everywhere, and at all carried their false zeal so far as to stone times,” treated as a minor, before the pro- the mother of our Saviour, as they after- (‘) Origen remarks that the law attached a the Messias was to spring, should end by a sole curse to sterility; for it is written, “Let him heiress, who, becoming the mother of the eternal who shall not leave of his race in Israel be ac- heir of the throne of David, should thereby crown cursed.” and terminate his race.—(Oldhausen.) ( 1 ) Mary was an heiress, because it appears con- ( 8 ) St. Aug., De Sancta Virg., c. 4. gruous that the descendance from David, whence • LTFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 83 ward sought to stone the sinful woman in brews hoped ere long to see the day when the gospel j 1 for the Hebrews never counted the eagles should fly before the emerald 'mercy among their cherished virtues, and standard, 2 and when the motto of the God himself reproaches them, by the Macchabees 3 should wave victorious above mouth of his prophets, with having a heart that of the Roman senate. Never had the as hard as adamant. accomplishment of the Messianic oracles To these powerful reasons, hidden in- appeared so near; how inauspicious then deed in the inscrutable abyss of God’s the moment for obtaining the favor which councils, was added another reason derived the chaste young virgin besought! from the source of antediluvian traditions According to the Gospel of the Nativity and national pride, which, of itself, would of Mary, and the Protevangelion of St. have left but little chance of success to the James, the guardians of the Blessed Yir- Yirgin’s timid opposition. Perpetual chas- gin, without regarding her repugnance tity, which Christians have made the queen and pleadings, called a meeting of her of virtues, was little better than insanity nearest relatives, all of the race of David among the disciples of Moses, who lived for and the tribe of Juda like herself, 4 in so many ages in the anxious expectation order to proceed to the selection of the of the Messias-King (Melech Hamaschiak). spouse whom they were forcing upon her. A young flower of the stem of Jesse, a Among those who might aspire to her daughter of David, was not at liberty to hand were found a host of young Israel- decline the marriage yoke; she owed a son ites,—some brave and valiant, others pos- to the ambitious piety of her family, who sessed of fertile fields, vineyards, flocks, would not have renounced, for all the treas- and olive-groves. The captains of Juda ures of the Great King, the hope of one would have added to Mary’s portion part day reckoning among their numbers the of the spoils and slaves taken in battle ; liberator of Israel. This hope—which had the nabobs of her tribe would have covered upheld the Jews when the Chaldeans, her with gold-wrought India stuffs and mounted on horses swifter than eagles , had double-dyed Tyrian purple ; while the sons violently rent the turreted girdle of Sion, of commerce, who trafficked in the emer- and transplanted her people to the banks aids of Egypt, the turquoises of Iran, and of the Euphrates—had been wrought to a pearls of the Persian Gulf, would have fierce desire of vengeance, since the Ro- laid at her feet chains of precious stones, mans acquired sway in Asia. The He- costly bracelets, ear-rings worth a prince’s ( 1 ) St. John Chrysost., Serm. 3, in Matt. ( 4 ) Every heiress to a property, and not daugh- ( 8 ) The banner of Juda was green.—(Dom Cal- ters in general, as the Vulgate says, was hound met.) to marry a man of her own family and tribe. ( 8 ) This motto of the Macchabees contained and not her nearest relation, as Montesquieu has these words—“Who is like to thee, 0 Eternal? said, in order that inheritances might not be trans- Mi camocha iaehin, Jehovah ?” ferred from one tribe to another. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 84 ransom—in fine, all the magnificent and brilliant badges of the servitude of the weaker sex. But these illustrious as¬ pirants were weighed in the balance and found wanting. Disdaining the advantages of youth, beauty, rank, fortune, and mar¬ tial glory, the priestly guardians of the Blessed Virgin, and the ancients of her house, fixed their choice upon a man ad¬ vanced in age, 1 a decayed patrician, whose estates had been swallowed up by the political revolutions and religious wars of Judea, as a drop of rain is swallowed up in the sea, leaving him only his mechanic’s tools and his arms. This commoner of noble race—a widower, 2 says the Protevangelion of St. James, but still unmarried according to St. Je¬ rome, whose opinion has prevailed in the ( 1 ) The Protevangelion of St. James, c. 2, and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, c. 8, books of which the contents have been approved, for the most part, even by the fathers of the Church, merely say that he was already old. St. Epipha- nius makes Joseph eighty at the time of his mar¬ riage; Father Pezron, fifty; and Mother Mary de Jesus de Agreda, in her Mistica Ciudad, thirty- three. The supposition of St. Epiphanius will not hear examination; it is, moreover, solemnly re¬ futed by the Hebrew law, which forbids the alliance of a young woman with an old man, and classes it with things the most disgraceful.—(Basnage, liv. vii., c. 21, Histoire des Institutions de Moise.) Neither the high priests nor Joseph would have been willing to do a thing condemned by the law. The age attributed to St. Joseph by Mary de Agreda does not agree with the opinion of the Fatheis; the other opinion, that of Father Pezron, seems most probable. (’) Several Fathers have thought St. Joseph a "\\ ldowei when he espoused the Blessed "Virgin. The Protevangelion of St. James, and the Gos- Church—was Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth. When we reflect on the rare beauty of Mary, the education which she had re¬ ceived in the temple, the great alliances of her family, her position as an heiress, which made her, among the Jews,—who portioned their wives, and received hardly anything from them, 3 —a desirable, and even brilliant match, we might well be astonished at this family decision, did not the Fathers assure us that Joseph was chosen by lot, and by the express mani¬ festation of the divine will. 4 An ancient tradition, recorded in the Protevangelion of St. James, and mentioned by St. Je¬ rome, relates that the candidates, after having prayed to Him who presides over the lots, deposited over-night in the temple, pel of the Nativity of the Virgin, assure us that he was a widower: St. Epiphanius says that he had had four sons and two daughters; St. Hyppolytus of Thebes calls his first wife Salome; Origen, Eusebius, St. Ambrose, and many other fathers, have adopted the same opinion. Nevertheless, this opinion is the least followed, and it is com¬ monly believed that St. Joseph had lived in vir¬ ginity. This is the opinion of St. Jerome, who, writing against Helvidius, says expressly, “ We read nowhere that he had any wife but Mary: aliam emn uxorem Tiabuisse non scribitur.” St. Augustine leaves the question undecided; but St. Peter Da¬ mian affirms that the whole Church believes that St. Joseph, who passed for the father of our Saviour, was a virgin like Mary. ( 3 ) At the time of contracting marriage, the wife received from her relations only things neces¬ sary for her attire. The husband furnished the dowry.—(Salvador, Institutions de Moise, t. ii., c. 1.) ( 4 ) Evangel, de Nativ. Mar., c. 7; Protev. Jac., c. 8; Hier. in Dam., lib. iv., c. 5; Greg. Naz., horn, de S. Nat.; Niceph., lib. ii., c. 7. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. each one his branch of almond ; and that the next day the dry and dead branch of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Mathan, was found green and blossoming, like that which had before confirmed the priesthood to the sons of Aaron. The his¬ tory of Mount Carmel claims that on be¬ holding this prodigy, which destroyed his hopes, a young patrician, belonging to one of the most powerful families of Judea, and possessed of a great fortune, broke his rod with every sign of despair, and fled to im¬ mure himself in one of the grottoes of Carmel with the disciples of Elias. 1 When the choice of the guardians was determined, it was announced to Mary, and this admirable young virgin, accustomed to elegant occupations, brought up in the midst of the perfumes, melodious strains, and fairy magnificence of the holy house, did not hesitate to devote herself to a life of obscurity, to low and common employ¬ ments, and painful cares, with the humble artisan presented to her by her relations. A divine inspiration, it is said, had made known to her that this just man would be to her no more than a protector, a father, a guardian of her chastity: 2 what would she more ? The Lord had heard her prayer: while leaving her faithful to the ( 1 ) This young pretender to the Virgin, who is said to have been named Agabus, subsecpiently became a Christian celebrated for sancity.—(See Hist, du Carmel, c. 12.) C) Vie de la Sainte Vierge, by Descoutures, p. 49; Life of Christ, by Father Valverde, t. i., p. 71. (’*) Artisans are still held in distinguished esti¬ mation in Judea. “In Palestine and in Syria,” says Burckhardt, “the companies of artisans are 85 vow which she had made, he gave her, in addition, the merit of obedience. The marriage proposed between Joseph and Mary must have caused some surprise at Nazareth and at Jerusalem ; for there was no equality in the age, fortune, and condition of the future pair. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that this union, which appears so strangely incom¬ patible, was considered in Jewish society— a society of simple and primitive habits— as a shamefully ill-sorted alliance. Without holding any distinguished rank in the state, the profession of an artisan was neither abject nor degrading in Israel. 3 We see in the genealogy of the tribe of Juda one family of workers in fine linen, and another of potters, whose memory is in honor, and the Scripture has handed down to posterity the names of Beseleel and Hiram; we know that St. Paul, trained in the study of the laws, the famous Pharisee doctor Hillel, and after them a great number of doctors, who, in the emphatic language of the rabbis, “sowed light amidst the holy nation,” devoted themselves to the less esteemed mechanic arts, and were not ashamed of it. Nay, more : every Is¬ raelite was an artisan ; for every father of a family, whatever his social position, was almost as mucli respected as they were in the middle ages in France and Germany. A master artisan is quite on a level there, in rank and con¬ sideration, with a merchant of the second class; he may take a wife of the respectable families of the city, and has generally more influence in his locality than a merchant whose fortune is three times as great as his own.”—(Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia, t. ii., p. 139.) 86 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. bound to teacli his son a trade, unless , said the law, he wished to make him a thief} The Jews, whose patrimony was locked up in the hands of foreigners, had no alter¬ native, while waiting for the grand epoch which was to re-establish their fortunes, but to exile themselves, or live poorly by manual labor amid their native mountains. Those whom love of country led to adopt this latter alternative remained eligible to any office, and contracted no disqualifica¬ tion. Israel had no castes, like Egypt and India ; her whole pride centred in her re¬ ligious belief and in descent from the pa¬ triarchs. “ To be descended from Abraham according to the flesh,” says the eagle of Meaux, “ was a distinction which naturally raised them above all others.” In fact, the lowest of the Hebrews considered himself a prince in comparison with strangers. 2 Yet there were among the Jews, as among the Arabs, tribes more illustrious, houses more noble than others : the tribe of Juda, which bore the national standard at the head of the thousands of Israel in the day of battle, and from which the sceptre was • not to depart till the coming of the Messias, had always had the pre¬ eminence ; and the family of David was the first and most honored among the families of Juda. Now Joseph, though poor, was of the race of David ; the blood of twenty kings flowed in his veins, and Zorobabel, one of his ancestors, brought back the people of God from the land of exile. From that time the glory of his house had gradually become obscured ; his family had become confounded with the people, like those of Moses and Samuel, but his illustrious origin was known : in our days, the lowest of the Abassides, who vegetate in the depths of the Hedsjaz, are no less respected as the descendants of Aaron-el-Raschid, and no Arab family Vbuld disdain to contract an alliance with them. Hence the holy daughter of Joachim did not abase herself as much as might be supposed by marrying the carpenter. But if we take a higher view of this union, at first sight so ill-assorted, we discover that it was in reality a noble alliance. God did not give as a spouse to the Virgin after his own heart, a man whose whole merit consisted in his fields, his vineyards, his golden shekels,—things which often change masters, and are no more inherent in the rich man than the garments which he lays off at night: he gave her a just man,—the most perfect of his works. The Lord is not taken with the empty toys that dazzle the vulgar ; in his eyes all ranks are equal among poor creatures, who creep about the dust for a moment, to become in a short time the food of worms. “Man judges by those things that appear,” says the Scrip¬ ture, “but the Lord regarcleth the heart.” If God chose the humble Joseph for the * (*) ( 1 ) Every man who does not give his children a trade, says the school of the Pharisees, prepares them for an evil life. “ Be not a burden to any one never say, I am a man of a quality, this employment suits me not. Rabbi Johanan learned the tanner’s trade; Nahum, that of a copyist ; another Johanan made sandals; and Rabbi Juda was a baker.”—(Tal¬ mud, Tract. Kidouschim. Pessarh, Aboth; Soto.) (*) In losing their nationality, the Jews did not lose this opinion, which they still maintain. LIFE OF THE BLESSED YIRGIN MARY. 87 spouse of the Queen of angels, for the terms. 2 The husband promised to honor adoptive father of the Messias, it was be- liis wife, to provide for her support, her cause he possessed treasures of grace and food, her clothing, according to the custom sanctity, enough to excite the envy of the of Hebrew husbands, and settled upon celestial intelligences ; it was because his her a dowry of two hundred zuses (fifty virtues had made him the first of his nation, crowns), a portion alike for the daughter of and because he was placed much higher a prince as for the daughter of the people, than Coesar in the book of life, those but to which they were free to add some- heraldic annals of eternity. The Virgin thing in proportion to their fortune. After was not confided to the most powerful, but making this dowry a lien upon all that he to the most worthy : thus the ark, which possessed, and even upon his mantle, which the princes and valiant men of Israel did the law, however, did not suffer to be taken not dare to approach, for fear of being till after his death, 3 Joseph signed the con- struck dead, drew down the benedictions tract, to which Marv also affixed her signa- of heaven upon the house of a simple Le- ture. A short benediction in praise of vite, under whose poor roof it found shelter. God terminated this ceremony, which was The espousals of Mary were celebrated required to take place several months be- with all the simplicity of ancient times. fore the actual marriage. Joseph, in presence of the guardians and The nuptials of the Blessed Virgin were a few witnesses, presented her with a piece celebrated at Jerusalem, and the most ex- of silver, the value of which is now un- alted members of her family made it a duty known, 1 saying to her, “ If thou consentest to appear at it with that splendor which is to be my bride, accept this pledge.” Mary, peculiar to the East, and which European by accepting this gift, was solemnly en- travellers never mention without astonished gaged, and a sentence of divorce alone admiration, even the common people clis- could from that day restore her liberty. playing on these occasions a pomp absolutely Scribes drew up the contract; it was short, unparalleled. 4 Not to invite all their rela- and but little obscured with technical tions on so solemn an occasion, would have ( 1 ) Hillel and Schammay disputed warmly about husbands, who honor their wives, and support the value of this piece of money at espousals, men- them as it is befitting. I give thee at once. tioned in the Talmud, without being able to come (the sum adjudged by the law), and promise thee, to an agreement.—(Basn., liv. vii., c. 21.) besides nourishment, clothes, and whatever shall ( 2 ) The following is the literal form of Hebrew be necessary for thee, conjugal friendship, a thing marriage-contracts, which has come down from the common to all the nations of the world.’ Rachel most remote times, and which Joseph and Mary consented to become the wife of Benjamin, who, of must have used : — “ In the year .... the .... day his full consent, to form a dowry in proportion to of the month .... Benjamin, son of .... said to his own fortune, adds to the portion above-named Rachel, daughter of. . . . : ‘ Become my wife, under the sum of . . . .” —(Institut. de Mo'ise.) the law of Moses and of Israel. I promise to ( 3 ) Basnage, liv. vii., c. 21. honor thee, to provide for thy support, thy food, ( 4 ) “In Europe we have no idea of the luxury thy clothing, according to the custom of Hebrew displayed on similar occasions in the East,” says --- ^ 88 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. MARY. been refusing to follow the ancient customs of their forefathers,—a thing impossible t<3 suppose in that traditionary nation which was as immutable in its customs as in its religious practices, according to the truth¬ ful remark of Philo Judmus to the Em¬ peror Caius ; such a course would indeed have been a violation of the proprieties of Hebrew society, and of Mary’s compliance with these we have a proof in her presence at the marriage of Cana. One fine winter afternoon, 1 at the mo¬ ment when the new moon rose slowly be¬ hind the mountains, 2 a long procession of richly dressed women was seen proceeding toward the habitation of Mary ; the light of torches of resinous fir, borne by a number of slaves, flashed on their golden girdles, their clustered pearls, the crescents of gems which they wore on their fore¬ heads, and the diamonds of their Persian tiaras. 3 These daughters of Sion still re¬ tained the use of cosmetics, which were known as early as the time of Jezabel; their eyebrows and eyelashes were dyed black, and the tips of their fingers were red, like the berry of the eglantine. 4 In- trocluced into the interior apartment, where the young and holy bride waited in com¬ pany with certain pious matrons of her kindred, they blessed God, who gave her a protector in the person of a spouse, and complimented her upon her marriage, in the joy of which they came to participate. Belonging to Jewish society, where all the details of the dress of young brides was a biblical reminiscence with which it was not lawful to dispense, Mary was obliged to submit temporarily to the re¬ quirements of oriental luxury, little as this luxury influenced her. Gold, pearls, rich fabrics, are not in themselves things to be condemned • the evil lies in the thoughts of pride and vanity they excite in weak heads and light minds. Beneath garments heavy with embroidery and adorned with precious stones, Queen Bathildes was' more humble than the tow-clad women with whom she lived in seclusion after her glori¬ ous regency; the chroniclers of the time relate this with simplicity. Avoiding, therefore, any show of neg¬ ligence in her dress, which would have given offence, since custom required the Father Geraint), in his Pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; “the wedding-dresses of almost all women is of red velvet embroidered with gold; they add to it deco¬ rations of diamonds, fine pearls, &c.” M. de La¬ martine was equally astonished at the splendid costumes, and the profusion of precious stones worn by the Syrian women at the weddings of their countrywomen. ( 1 ) In the middle of the sixteenth century, the Church permitted this feast to be kept; it is cele¬ brated on the 2-id of January, the day on which it is said that the marriage of Mary and Joseph was solemnized. The city of Arras keeps this feast on the 23d of January, and some churches in Flanders on the 24th of the same month. ( 2 ) All days were not chosen alike for celebrat¬ ing the marriages of the Israelites; the time of the new moon was usually selected, and a Wednesday in preference to any other days of the week.— (Basn., liv. vii., c. 21.) ( 5 ) Isaias, c. iii. ( 4 ) Throughout the East, the women stain the tips of their fingers with henna ( lausonia inermis, Linn.) This plant is very plentiful in the Island • of Cyprus. LIFE OF TIIE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 89 married couple, as well as their guests, to an established costume—as the gospel par¬ able of the wedding garment would inform us, even if all the East, both ancient and modern, were not at hand to declare it,— the young descendant of the kings of Juda must have worn, on this occasion, rich and suitable costume, and authentic relics prove iu fact that so it was. 1 Her robe, which was preserved as a pre¬ cious treasure in Palestine, whence it was sent to Constantinople about the year 461, as Nicephorus informs us, was precious both from its design and its ornaments. The ground was of the color of nankeen, with blue, white, violet, and gold flowers : it is now the holy relic of Chartres. 2 In memory of the ancient times and pa- triarchal manners of her fathers, she wore, like Rebecca, ear-rings and bracelets of gold, the modest and indispensable present which Joseph sent a few days before the ceremony, 3 and to which wealthy Hebrews added necklaces of pearls and magnificent sets of diamonds. Instead of a turreted crown of gold, 4 which was worn by the brides of the wealthy classes, there was laid upon the golden hair and tresses 5 of Mary a simple garland of myrtle ; in the spring-time roses would have been added : c her wedding veil covered her from head to foot, and floated around her like a cloud. 7 A canopy of precious stuff awaited the future spouse outside, borne by four young Israelites. 8 Mary was to take her place be¬ neath it between two matrons, one of whom, ( 1 ) There are in existence two tunics of the Blessed Virgin, of very precious material. Chardin saw one in Mingrelia covered with flowers em¬ broidered with the needle on a nankeen ground. This tunic is eight Roman palms long by four wide ; the neck is narrow, the sleeves a palm long : it is kept in the Church of Copis. ( 3 ) This tunic was given by Charles the Bald to the Church of Chartres, in 877 : numerous mira¬ cles are attributed to it. ( 3 ) The Christians of Damascus have retained this custom. Some days before the nuptial festival, the bridegroom sends to his bride a pair of bracelets of gold, or set with diamonds, according to the for- ■ tune of the future spouse, a piece of stuff em¬ broidered with gold, and a hundred and sixty piastres for the expenses of the bath and the wed¬ ding feast.—(Correspondance d’Orient, lettre 147.) ( 4 ) The bride’s coronet was usually of gold, and made in the shape of a tower, like that of Cybele : this custom was abolished during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, but they retained the crowns of myrtle and roses.—(Basnage, liv. vi.,c. 21.) ( 6 ) Among the Hebrews, the very dress of the women was under the empire of tradition. “ The female hair-dressers were called in to dress the hair of young married women, because, said the rabbis, Jehovah himself curled the hair of Eve, w'hen he united her to Adam in Paradise.”—(Basnage, liv. vii., c. 21, p. 393.) ( 6 ) Crowns of myrtle and roses were worn by the young brides of the common people.—(Bas¬ nage, liv. vii., c. 21; Misnah, Tit. Sotah, c. 9, sect. 14.) ( 7 ) These nuptial veils, embroidered with gold and silver, are still in use in Syria. ( 8 ) The regulation of this nuptial pomp, which comes down from the earliest times, is still found in Egypt. Niebuhr thus describes an Egyptian marriage :—“ The bride, covered from head to foot, walks between two women, who conduct her be- neath a canopy borne by four men. Several slaves lead the way, some playing on the tambourine, others carrying large feather-fans, others sprinkle her with scented water. She is followed by a num¬ ber of women, and by musicians riding upon asses. The procession takes place by night ; some slaves carry torches.—(Niebuhr, Travels in Arabia, t. i.) 90 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. who stood on her right, represented her mother ; the other was perhaps that Mary of Cleoplias whom some others have made the elder daughter of St. Anne, but who was really only sister-in-law of the Blessed Virgin. 1 After them walked, to the sound of timbrels, flutes, and harps, playing in unison 2 airs of grave and simple melody,— which, perhaps, were the same as those of the choirs of music of King David,—the entire nuptial procession waving, in token of joy, branches of myrtle and palm. 3 The bridegroom, with his brow adorned with a singular crown, transparent as crys¬ tal, and peculiar to his people, 4 advanced in the midst of a crowd of- friends, who sung an epithalamium based on Solomon’s Canticle of Canticles, that magnificent and mysterious nuptial song, whose sublime metaphors veil a hidden and divine signifi¬ cation. They celebrated the beauty of the new bride, whose “ looks were like young palm-branches, and stature supple and up¬ right like the branches of the erac (Cant, vii. 7), teeth white as a flock of sheep which come up from the washing, eyes mild, like the eyes of doves upon brooks of water” (Cant. iv. 2, v. 12). They said that “the sweet odor of her good name ( 1 ) According to M. Pignot, a conscientious historian, who made numerous researches on this subject, this holy woman was the wife of Clophas, the brother of St. Joseph, and consequently sister- in-law to the Blessed Virgin.—(See Recherches Historiques sur la Personne de Jesus Christ et celle de Marie, p. 249.) C) The music of the Orientals is of a very dif¬ ferent kind from ours; it is grave and simple, with¬ out any studied modulation: all the instruments play in unison, unless one or other should take was like the perfumes which exhaled from her garments” (Cant. iv. 11). That she was “the lily of young virgins, and the object of the praise of women.” Eulogiz¬ ing then the bridegroom, they extolled his form, “majestic and imposing ‘as Lib- anus,’ the sweetness of his voice, the ur¬ banity of his manners ;” and they added, “ that he was distinguished from the crowd of men, even as the cedar is distinguished among all trees” (Cant. vi. 15). Then, coming to more general and elevated con¬ siderations, they said that the spouse should be to his wife as “ the bundle of myrrh which she wears over her heart;” that she should pass through life leaning upon him, with no more regard for other men than if she were traversing the desert; because “jealousy is as hard as hell, and the lamps thereof are lamps of fire and flames” (Cant. viii. 6). They added, that tender affection was a thing so precious between married persons, that the wealthiest man in the world, “if he should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing” (Cant. viii. 7). From time to time, the young men who closed the procession performed dances of the same kind as the sacred dance origin- a fancy to perform a continued bass, by repeat¬ ing incessantly the same note.—(Mebuhr, t. i., p. 136.) ( 8 ) See Fleury, Mceurs des Israelites. ( 4 ) This crown, which contained, say the Jewish doctors, a mysterious lesson, was composed of salt and sulphur; the salt was transparent, like crys¬ tal, and various figures were traced upon it with sulphur.—(Codex, MS. apud Wagenseil in Mis- mam, Tit. Sotah, adult, de uxore suspect., c. 9, sect. 14.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 91 ally associated with religious festivals, 1 or they r uttered, in token of rejoicing, those shrill and prolonged cries still in use among the Arabs, 2 and which a modern traveller, who lately went all over Syria, compares to those loud shouts which the vine-dressers of Southern France send from hill to hill during the vintage. All the procession scattered among the poor, who loaded them with blessings, a quantity of small pieces of silver 3 bearing a figure, either of a vine-leaf, or of three wheat-ears, which were the emblem of Judea. 4 The women of Israel, in groups along the way that the bride and bridegroom passed, strewed palm-branches under their feet, and from time to time they stopped the bride to sprinkle her garments with essence of roses. 5 Mary too was to have also her day of triumph in Jerusalem. On arriving at the house where the wedding was to be celebrated, the friends of the bridegroom and the companions of the bride cried out in chorus, “ Blessed is he that cometh!” Joseph, covered with his taled, and Mary with her veil, were seated under the canopy side by side ; Mary took the right, because the Psalmist has said, “Thy wife is on thy right hand,” 6 and ( 1 ) .Dancing, which at first was intended to imitate the movements of the stars, entered into all the religious festivals of antiquity; it was, no doubt, of antediluvian origin, and must even have preceded the invention of musical instruments. ( 2 ) See Niebuhr, loco citato. ( 5 ) Basnage, liv. vii., c. 21. ( 4 ) Some of these Jewish coins of the time of the Macchabees and of Herod, have been found: they do not bear the effigy of the prince, but only of ears of wheat and vine-leaves. turned toward the south. 7 The spouse placed a ring on the finger of his partner, 8 “Behold, thou art my wife, according to the rite of Moses and of Israel.” He took off his taled and covered his wife with it, in imitation of what passed at the marriage of Ruth, who said to Booz, “Spread thy coverlet over thy servant.” 9 A near rela¬ tive poured wine into a cup, tasted it, and then presented it to the bridegroom and bride, blessing God for having created man and woman, and ordained marriage. While the married couple raised to their lips the sacred nuptial cup, a canticle containing six benedictions was sung to the God of Israel. After this, Joseph poured out the rest of the wine as a sign of bounty, and handfuls of wheat as a symbol of abund¬ ance ; then a young child broke the cup in pieces. 10 The whole assembly, surrounding the new-married couple with torches, blessed the Lord and proceeded into the banquet- hall, where,—according to a very ancient Bishop of Brescia, 11 who derives this He¬ brew tradition from the time of Jesus Christ,—they nominated a king of the feast, taken from the priestly race, who was to preside over the viands and the wine, and ( 6 ) This custom, like many others, was bor¬ rowed from Egypt. ( 0 ) Ps. xlv. 10. ( 7 ) Basnage, liv. vii., c. 21. (') It is said that this ring is at Perugia, where it is carefully preserved.—(Basnage, liv. vii., c. 2.) ( 9 ) Ruth, iii. 9. See Buxtorf. ( 10 ) Basnage, liv. vii., c. 21; Institut. de Mo'ise, liv. vii., c. i., p. 336. (”) Gaudent., Serm. 9, B. P., t. ii., p. 38. 92 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. - to oblige the guests to behave with all that solemnly upon tlieir hearts. Those of decorum required by religion and propriety. Nazareth continued their journey ; they Joseph and Mary rose also ; but before they crossed the mountains of Samaria, where followed their company, there were ex- the eagle from his lofty eyrie beheld them changed between them some secret words pass, indifferent to their presence. Siehem in presence of heaven and the stars, which next rose before the travellers, with its declare the glory of the Most High. 1 evergreen groves, its limpid streams, and “Thou slialt be as my mother,” said the its majestic edifices rising above the foliage. patriarch to the Blessed Virgin, “and I They left behind them Garizim, with its will respect thee even as the altar of Je- reddish sides, where the ruins of the hovali.” From that moment they were no schismatical temple were observable, that longer, in the eye of the religious law, only shameful rival of the house of holiness, brother and sister in marriage, although which John Hircanus gave to the avenging their union was fully maintained. 2 flames, and which was to be replaced later The festivities, among which figured the on by a church dedicated to Mary herself; religious ceremony of sacrifice, lasted seven then the lofty summits of Mount Hebal; days, as in the time of the patriarchs ; the next Sebaste, which reared its new palaces week of the nuptials being expired, Joseph under the protection of Augustus, and and Mary, escorted by a number of their which servile JTerod delighted to embel- relations, forming around them a brilliant lish, as the only altar where he could cavalcade, again went their way to Galilee. sacrifice to the genius of Rome. The little caravan began its march to the Toward the middle of the second day’s sound of cymbals, and did not halt till near journey they distinguished Mount Thabor, the fountain of Anathot, 3 where those of whose verdant crown stood out from the Jerusalem took leave of the bride and pale silvery sky of Galilee ; and beyond bridegroom, with tears in their eyes, bless- it the high peaks of Lebanon, which hid ings in their mouths, and their hands laid their stony, snow-clad summits, in the ( 1 ) St. Thomas is of opinion, that it was imme- or the sacrifice. Wives sometimes did the same diately after the celebration of their marriage that thing; and although these vows were not much St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin made a vow of approved, because they seldom resulted from aught virginity, by mutual consent. but fits of anger and curses, they were not less ( 2 ) This vow of continence in marriage, which obliged religiously to fulfil them, when they once. has given occasion to so many impious sarcasms to were made.—(Basn., liv. vii., c. 19, p. 352; Leo of infidels of the school of Voltaire, was not a thing Modena, Ceremon. et cout. des Juifs, c. 4.) unheard of among Hebrews; only it was a vow ( 3 ) All the relations escorted the bride on horse- dictated by passion and anger, while that of the back to the house of her husband, when he did not -two holy spouses was suggested by piety. If a lius- live at too great a distance from the place of their band said to his wife, “ Thou art as my mother,” feasting: this custom still continues among the * it was no longer lawful for him to consider her but Arabs. We have made the nuptial caravan sep- as such in marriage, and still more when he men- arate at Anathot, a small town five leagues from tioned in his vow the altar of Jehovah, the temple. Jerusalem, because it is the first halting-place. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 9S clouds. From the woody slopes of Her- rose beneatli high colonnades of palm-trees, mon, where the goats browsed upon the and then, at different distances, on the tender shoots of the shrubs, they descended rugged crest of a rock, a solitary fortress into the delightful' plain, which was dis- of soldiers, still native, and intrusted with played like an immense basket of flowers, a mission entirely protective, measured between hills covered with green oaks, their Damascus sabres only with nocturnal myrtles, vineyards, and magnificent olive- depredators, or the Arabs of the desert. groves. Fields of barley, wheat, clover, This valley, with its charming freshness, and durrha in full verdure, gently waving and enclosed within a dark frame of high with the breeze, warmed by the approach mountains, was the valley of Esdrelon, at of a spring more speedy and genial than the extremity of which appeared a little that of our western regions. A pure and city, picturesquely seated, on the slope of a golden light favored this fertile land, where hill, and shining like a flower amidst the a vigorous vegetation was unfolding, and neighboring hamlets: this smiling and beau- blue waters, which the summer would soon tiful town was Nazareth, the native town dry up, ran in silvery ribands in this new of the Yirgin, the cradle of Christ! 1 Eden. Here and there opulent villages Doubtless, Mary could not behold again ( 1 ) The infidel writers of the last century of the land, that it invites men to labor who are studiously labored to decry Palestine : the impres- the least disposed to it. Thus every part is culti- sion which they have given of it still remains, and vated, and no tract of land is seen unproductive. the state of poverty and depopulation of that The inhabitants are robust and warlike, the towns country, which hardly breathes, beneath the sabre numerous, and so populous, that the smallest can 4 of the Mussulman, often seems to support their reckon as many as fifteen thousand souls.”— assertions in the eyes of superficial readers. Yet (Josephus, Jewish War, lib. ii., c. 2.) “If one it is certain that, with the exception of the neigh- desired to give an idea of the aspect of Galilee,” borhood of Jerusalem, the sterility of which has says a modern traveller in his turn, ‘‘we must seek never been denied, the promised land of Moses is a parallel, not in France, but in I’Agro Romano; still found in that country, and especially in the around Nazareth, as around Kome, there is every- part which formerly belonged to the Canaanites. where the same brightness, the same soil. Nature We will give two descriptions of Galilee, written at is there sublime, like the gospel. Galilee is an the distance of eighteen centuries apart, in proof abridged picture of the Holy Land, and when it of this assertion. “ Galilee,” says Flavius Josephus, has been seen under its day and night aspects, we “is divided into upper and lower, both very fertile; feel what it was in the time of Jesus Christ. For the soil is at once rich and light, abounding in an artist, Galilee is an Eden ; nothing is wanting: pasturages, fitted for all sorts of produce, and neither the accidental advantages of the land of covered with trees of all kinds: there are to be Judea, nor the bright solitudes of Palestine, nor seen particularly large plantations of vines and the verdant fecundity of Samaria. Garizim and olive-trees. It is watered by torrents, which fall the Mount of Olives are not more sublime than from the mountains, by countless springs and Hermon and Thabor, nor are the blue shores rivulets, which afford a constant supply of water, of Ascalon more solemn than the aromatic banks and make up for that of the torrents, when the of the Lake of Tiberias, where the air vanishes summer heats dry them up: such is the goodness beneath the light. The soil of Galilee prrsents LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 94 without emotion that city where she had first opened her eyes to the light. She had left it when but a child for the splen¬ did walls of the temple: she returned to it beautiful, young, accomplished, and a virgin on her return even as on her de¬ parture. The travellers stopped at the house of St. Anne, an ancient and mysterious dwell¬ ing, partly hollowed out of the rock, like the prophetic grottoes of yore, 1 and which was shortly to become more holy than the temple of Jerusalem, the very house of Jehovah. The women of Nazareth hailed with benedictions the coming of the young bride, who advanced modestly, and veiled like the Rebecca of Isaac ; and Mary, amid the congratulations of those who had wit¬ nessed her birth, entered this peaceful pa¬ ternal habitation, around which still clung the sweet odor of the virtues of Anne and Joachim. CHAPTER VIII. THE ANNUNCIATION. I T is easy to imagine the tranquil and blessed life which the married couple led during the first months of their chaste union ; the peace of God reigned in their humble dwelling, and work shared their time with prayer, which made it less op¬ pressive by hallowing it. Following an ancient custom, still prevailing among the Arabs, and in much of the East, Joseph to us everywhere history and miracles, traces of heroes and the footsteps of a God; and we feel, as we contemplate Galilee from the heights of Thabor, that it was the country which the God-man in¬ habited, so much are religious recollections, the wonders of earth and heaven, endlessly com¬ mingled there.”—(Corresp. d’Orient., t. v.) ( 1 ) “ There are still at Nazareth,” says F. de Geramb, “houses like that of St. Joseph—that is to say, small, low, and communicating with a cave hewn out of the side of a mountain.” plied his trade in a different place from that where Mary lived. 2 His workshop, where Jesus himself worked, was a low room, ten or twelve feet square : a stone seat outside offered rest to the passer-by or the traveller, and was shielded from the burning rays of the sun by a kind of awning of plaited palm-leaves. 3 There it was that the laborious artisan formed his ( 2 ) This house of St. Joseph is a hundred and thirty or a hundred and forty paces from that of St. Anne. The place is still pointed out under the name of St. Joseph’s workshop. This shop had been transformed into a large church: the Turks have destroyed one part of it; but there remains a chapel, where the holy saci’iflce of the mass is daily offered.—(Father Geramb, Pilgrimage to Jerusa¬ lem.) ( 3 ) These shops are still the same all over •'he Levant.—(See Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia, t. i.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN" MARY. 95 ploughs, his yokes, and rustic carts. Some¬ times he superintended the building of one of the valley cottages : sometimes his still vigorous arm felled the tall*sycamore and black turpentine trees of Mount Carmel. 1 The remuneration which he received for all this toil was but trifling, and this little he shared with the poor. On her side, his gentle and holy com¬ panion was not idle ; gifted with a mind enlightened, judicious, and wise, without regret for the past, without illusions for the future, viewing the world such as it is, and her own position in its true light, she piously conformed to it, and desired to fulfil its sacred obligations with religious exactitude. From the moment that she took possession of her mother’s house, she put on poverty as a garment of honor sent her from G-od, and became what it behooved her to be in the obscure condition to which Providence had reduced her — a young and simple daughter of the people. All the brilliant and fancy works belonging to refined life were at once laid aside, and replaced by the fatiguing cares and mo¬ notonous occupations of a poor household, where the mistress of the house has neither slaves nor servants. The delicate hands of Mary, accustomed to handle silken webs plaited with leaves of the date-palm, or rushes from the banks of the Jordan, the mats which covered the rough floor of her dwelling ; her spindle was filled with coarse flax ; she had to grind the grains of wheat, barley, and durrha, 2 kneading the coarse yellow meal into thin round cakes. Covered with her white veil, with an an¬ tique urn upon her head, 3 she went to a neighboring fountain to draw water, 4 like ( 1 ) St. Justin. Martyr (Dialog, cum Tryphone), records that Jesus Christ helped his adopted father to make yokes and ploughs. St. Ambrose (in Luc. lib. iii. 2) assures us that St. Joseph worked at felling and dressing trees, building houses, and other such work. ( 2 ) The first mills invented were hand-mills. In Egypt, Arabia, Palestine,' and even in Greece, they were turned by women. There is still shown at Mecca, in a fine house, reputed to have been Kha- didje’s, a hollow place where it is said that Fatima, surnamed “the Brilliant,” daughter of Mahomet and wife of Ali, turned her own hand-mill when she was grown up.—(See Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia.) This rude toil still falls to the lot of the wives of the Arab sheiks. Under the reign of the sons of Clovis, St. Radegundes, Queen of France, ground, herself, in imitation of the Blessed Virgin, all the corn that she consumed - during Lent.—- (Le Grand d’Aussv, Hist, privee des Franyais.) The invention of water-mills is attributed to Mith- ridates. They certainly were in existence in his time. Among other proofs, is cited that fine epi¬ gram of Antipater of Thessalonica, of which the following is a translation:—“You women who have been hitherto employed in grinding our grain, let your arms rest henceforth, and sleep without care; the birds will no longer proclaim with their songs the break of day for you. Ceres has com¬ manded the naiads to accomplish your task: they obey, and swiftly turn a wheel which rapidly moves by itself the heavy millstones.” The Romans did not bring water-mills to perfection till Constantine had abolished slavery. ( 3 ) These urns are enormous earthen jars, dis¬ proportionately high. The women of Nazareth carry them on their heads, and beneath this great weight, sometimes even with anr infant in their arms, they walk with astonishing ease.— (Father de Geramb, t. ii., p. 239.) , ( 4 ) This fountain is called in the country the fountain of Mary. Tradition relates that the divine Mother of Jesus went thither habitually to draw the water she needed; and the opinion becomes a 96 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the wives of the patriarchs, or to wash her blue robes in the running waters of the brooks, like the princesses in Homer. Jesus Christ, who so often witnessed the habitual labors of this “valiant woman,” sometimes alludes to them in his parables ; and these simple occupations of Mary are preserved in the gospel narrative, like a sea-weed in amber. Thus we see there the industrious woman putting leaven into three measures of meal, 1 carefully sweep¬ ing her floor to recover something lost, 2 and economically repairing an old gar¬ ment. 3 When Jesus seeks a simile to com¬ mend purity of heart, he draws it from the remembrance of her who carefully cleaned “ both the inside and outside of the cup ;” 4 and we suspect that his thoughts are of Mary when he praises the offering of the widow “who gave not of her abundance, but of her poverty.” Thus the poet of Chios represents to us Justice under the features of his mother, a poor plebeian woman, carefully weighing the wool which she is going to spin in order to support herself and her son, and remaining upright and just toward the rich, amid her deep misery. As night came on, 5 when the birds conviction when we consider that water is ex¬ tremely rare at Nazareth. The path leading to this fountain, where the pious mother of Constan¬ tine erected fine basins and reservoirs, is bordered with nopals and fruit-trees.— (Father de Geramb, loco citato.) ( 1 ) St. Luke, xiii. 21, and St. Matt. xiii. 34. ( 2 ) Ibid., v. 36. ( 3 ) Ibid.,'xv. 8. ( 4 ) St. Luke, xi. 39, and St. Matt. xxv. 25. ( 5 ) In Israel, orderly people ate after their work, and pretty late.—(Fleury, Manners of the Israel¬ sought shelter beneath the foliage, Mary set upon a clean, glossy table, the work, of Joseph’s hands, little loaves of barley and durrha, savory dates, butter, and cheese, dry fruits and herbs, which composed the frugal banquet of this scion of the princes of Israel. These dishes, simply prepared, were the chief food of the ancient He¬ brews,—a sober race, who could content themselves with bread and water when necessity required it. 6 As to the Yirgin, her nourishment was so slight, that ancient authors, fond of the marvellous, believed that she was fed by angels. When Joseph, weary with the labors of the day, returned at sunset to his little, lowly apartment, his young companion hastened to offer him water which she had warmed to bathe his feet, and then cold clear water from the fountain, in a vessel pure from all unclean contact, 7 for the ab¬ lutions before the meal. That grave and unaffected man, with his noble patriarchal countenance, where every passion was si¬ lent—that angelical young female all eager¬ ness to serve him, with the solicitude of a dear daughter, formed a group worthy of . the golden age. 8 Meantime, the hour predestined by the ites.) The principal meal of Joseph and Mary was about six o’clock in the evening. ( 0 ) Fleury, Manners of the Israelites, p. 61. ( 7 ) Among the Jews a multitude of precautions had to be taken to insure the purity of the vessels in which they drew water and prepared their food: not only did they take care that they had not be¬ longed to strangers, hut they carried their scruples much farther, for a thousand circumstances ren¬ dered them unclean.—(Misnali, Ordo Puritatum.) ( 8 ) An ancient author makes the Yirgin say: LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 97 Eternal in liis divine councils for the In¬ carnation of his Christ had arrived. The angel Gabriel, one of the four 1 who ever stand before the face of the Lord, received a mysterious mission, which called him, for a short time, from the kingdom of heaven. Enveloped in one of those beautiful cover¬ ings of dense air, with which the pure spirits are surrounded when they wish to become perceptible to the grosser senses of the children of men, 2 the angel left be¬ hind him the golden palaces and the eme¬ rald walls of the heavenly Jerusalem, with its gates of twelve pearls, 3 and spread his vast white wings, 4 with his brow all radiant with benignant joy ; for the holy angels re¬ joice as much at men’s happiness as the fallen angels do at their ruin and sufferings. After traversing the immeasurable des- • erts of the sky, in which the stars are the oases, the angel who had foretold .to Daniel the coming of the Messias, and now came to take part in the accomplishment of that mighty promise of God. directed his course, with the rapidity of thought, toward our little planet, which his piercing eye dis¬ covered at an immense distance, in the form of a nebulous star: then it shone with a feeble milky light; and at last assumed the rotundity and tranquil light of the moon, whose phases it shares. “Non dedignabar parare et ministrare quse erant necessaria Joseph;” and this is in perfect conform¬ ity with the customs still existing. ( 1 ) “ There are four angels who are scarcely ever seen upon the earth,” say the rabbis, “because they are always round about the throne of God: these angels are—Michael, who is on the right; Gabriel, who is on the left; Uriel, who is before God, and Ra¬ phael,who is behind him.”—(Bibl. Rabbin., i. p. 200.) As lie approached this little globe,— which man has proudly divided into zones and hemispheres, and in which he bestirs himself, with mad eagerness, to gather a few bits of gold, which he makes his god,—the angel began to distinguish expanses of blue and shining water, surmounted with dark points like small sunken rocks : these were our oceans and our high mountains. The towns were not yet visible, nor men : they are so small! But at last, the earth, which had at first presented itself under a micro¬ scopic form, was gradually enlarged into vast countries covered with kingdoms, sep¬ arated by deserts and studded with forests. Arrived directly over Palestine, the angel from on high turned his gaze, as a bene¬ diction, down upon the beautiful town of Nazareth, and descending softly from the clouds like the falling stars, he came grace¬ fully, like a noble swan, folding his wings as he flew down upon the poor and holy home of Joseph, that -carpenter of Galilee who reckoned kings as his ancestors. The sun was declining toward the lofty promontory of Carmel, soon to sink behind the horizon of the Syrian sea, when the angel presented himself in the modest oratory of the Blessed Yirgin. 6 A faithful observer of the religious customs of her people, Mary, with her head turned in the ( 2 ) St. Thomas Aquinas, Qusest. Uni. de creat. Spirit, Art. 6. ( 3 ) Apocal., c. xxi., v. 21. ( 4 ) The Jews represent the angels with wings, as do the Christians. The Koran ascribes a hun¬ dred and forty pair of wings to the angel Gabriel, and says that he took but one hour to come from heaven upon earth.—(Legend of Mahomet.) ( 6 ) It is commonly thought the visit of the 98 LIFE OF TIIE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. direction of the temple, 1 was then offering her evening prayer to the God of Jacob. 2 “Hail, full of grace,” said the heavenly ambassador, bowing his radiant head ; “ the Lord is with thee ; blessed art thou among women.” Mary felt an involuntary thrill at this mar¬ vellous apparition: perhaps, like Moses, she feared to behold God and die ; per¬ haps, as St. Ambrose thinks, her virginal purity took alarm at the sight of this son of heaven, who penetrated, like the rays of light, into that solitary cell which no man entered ; perhaps the respectful attitude and the magnificent eulogy of the angel disconcerted her humility. Whatever may have been the cause, the Evangelist relates that she “was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be,” 3 seeking, in vain, to understand the motive of this astonishing visit, and the hidden meaning of this mysterious salutation. The angel, who perceived her trouble, said to her gently: “Fear not, Mary, for angel to the Blessed Virgin took place toward the close of the day. ( 1 ) The people of the East, when they pray, turn to a certain point in the heavens, which they style the Kebla. The Jews turn toward the temple of Jerusalem, the Mahometans toward Mecca, the Sabeans toward the south, and the Ghebers toward the rising sun. ( a ) The Jews prayed three times in the day: in the morning, at sunrise; in the afternoon, at three o’clock, when the sacrifice was offered; and in the evening, at sunset. According to the rabbis, Abra¬ ham established morning prayer; Isaac, that of the afternoon; and Jacob, the evening prayer. (Basnage, liv. vii., c. 17.) (*) St. Luke, i. 29* tliou hast found grace with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son ; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father : and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” 4 At these words, which would have transported any other but Mary with unbounded joy, the chaste and prudent maiden thought only of her pure white crown of virginity, which she desired to preserve at any cost. Hence she asked how she could reconcile this grand prediction wfith the vow of vir¬ ginity with which her life was linked. 5 Virginal modesty is a thing so sacred in the sight of angels, that Gabriel, to banish all Mary’s apprehensions on that score, did not hesitate to unveil in part the mystery of the Incarnation. “The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee,” said he, “ and the Holy that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” 6 Then, ( 4 ) St. Luke, i. 30-33. ( 6 ) Calvin, that proud heresiarch, who burned Servetus, while he himself preached up toleration, has dared to calumniate the Virgin, taking occasion from this answer to accuse her of unbelief. St. Augustine had answered him long before. “The Virgin doubts not,” said he, “ non quasi incredula dd oraculo; she only desires to be informed as to the manner in which the miracle is to be accom¬ plished.” St. John Chrysostom adds, “that this question is prompted by respectful admiration, and not by vain curiosity.” ( 6 ) St. Luke, i. 35. This gospel narrative has been received by the Mussulmans themselves. The Koran thus describes the interview of the Blessed Virgin and the angel:—“ The angel said to Mary: LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. . 99 according to the custom of the messengers of Jehovah, he would give her a sign that would confirm his words: “And behold,” continued the angel, “thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age ; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren; because no word shall be' impossible with God.” Sarah laughed with incredulous laughter, when an angel, in the guise of a traveller, seated beneath the shade of the great oak§ which towered above her tent, announced a son to her, aged and barren as she was. When to Mary was announced a new pro¬ digy, which Isaias declares a thing un¬ exampled under the sun, in fine, a virginal maternity, she believed the divine promise at once, and, annihilating herself before Him who exalted her above all women, she replied, with a voice of submission, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word.” At these words the angel disappeared, and the Word was made flesh to dwell among us. 1 Thus did the angel of light treat with the new Eve of our salvation, and thus was the fault of sinful Eve, who had conspired for our destruction with the infernal angel, gloriously repaired; thus was a simple God announceth his Word to thee; he shall be called Jesus, the Messias, the Son of Mary, great in this world and in the other, and he shall hold the secrets of the Most High; he shall make his word heard by men from the cradle to old age, and shall be of the number of the just.—My lord, replied Mary, how shall I have a son ? I know not man.—It shall he thus, replied the angel: God forms creatures at his pleasure; is it his will that a thing should exist ? he says, Be thou made, and it is made.”—(Koran, c. iii.) mortal exalted to the unequalled dignity of Mother of God, and being both virgin and mother, she, by a new miracle, blended the two most opposite and sublime states of her sex. “Proceed no farther,” says St. John Chrysostom, “seek naught be¬ yond what is said, nor say: How did the Holy Ghost effect this in the Virgin? . . . Inquire not, therefore, but receive what is revealed, and search not curiously into what is hidden.” 2 We have adopted the opinion of those doctors and theologians who maintain that Joseph was legally the husband of Mary at the time of the Incarnation ; yet this opinion is disputed, and among the-author¬ ities who maintain that Mary was not yet the wife, but only the betrothed of Joseph, we find among the foremost the great St. John Chrysostom himself. 3 Nevertheless, according to the same father, Mary dwelt in the house of St. Joseph at the time when the angel appeared to her. “For,” says this illustrious sacred orator, “ among the ancients it was the custom generally to have the betrothed in the house ; and this may be seen even now : and the sons-in- law of Lot lived with him.” 4 Notwithstanding the profound venera- ( 1 ) The mystery of the Incarnation was accom¬ plished on the 25th of March, on a Friday, in the evening, according to Father Drexelius. ( 2 ) St. J. Chrysostom, Serm. 4, in St. Matt. ( 3 ) Descoutures is wrong in including St. John Chrysostom among those who maintain that Joseph was legally the husband of Mary at the moment of the Incarnation; this generally judicious writer probably quoted him indirectly. ( 4 ) St. John Chrysostom, Sermon 4, in St. Matt. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 100 tion inspired by St. John Chrysostom, the Church has not adopted his opinion. Moreover, the case of the sons-in-law of Lot, with which he would strengthen his opinion, is ill-chosen : the Scripture no¬ where says that they lived with Lot, and everything induces us to infer the contrary, since at a moment of trouble and affright, while the most fearful turmoil was brewing in the city, the patriarch was obliged to go out of his house , to speak to his sons-in-law that were to have his daughters , to arise and get out of the place , because the Lord would destroy the city Supposing even that the young men betrothed to Lot’s daughters formed a part of the family of this patriarch, whose flocks covered the hills and valleys of a whole province,—according to the customs of the times, these young men would have been simply on the banks of the Jordan what Jacob was subsequently in Mesopotamia, active and vigilant ser¬ vants, day and night parched with heat and with frost l 1 We nowhere see that they had their betrothed in their tents ; thev lived under the protection of the patriarch, being only his principal shepherds : there is nothing in all this at variance with the manners of ancient Asia. As a lone orphan, living under the roof of her betrothed, the Blessed Virgin, on the contrary, would have been in a very ex¬ ceptional position. A generally received custom among the Hebrews could alone justify such a supposition, and all that we find in their code is a law expressly op¬ posed to it. 3 St. Chrysostom, agreeing in O Gen. xix. 14. ( a ) Gen. xxxi. 40. this respect with the ancient theologians, himself informs us that Gfod for a long- time enveloped in a dense veil Mary’s miraculous maternity, to save her from a revolting suspicion, which would have de¬ tracted as much from the divinity of the Son, as from the respect which the whole world owed to the Mother. But marriage alone could cover with its honorable mantle the mystery of the Incarnation,—mere espousals could not suffice. If Joseph and Mary were but affianced at the time of the Incarnation of the Word, they could have been no more four months later, since the Evangelist informs us that Mary, after the Annunciation, went with haste to visit St. Elizabeth, and that it was not till her re¬ turn from her journey to Hebron, which had lasted three months, that she was found with child—wo. expression which indicates a situation visible to all. Under this sup¬ position, Mary’s marriage could not have been celebrated till her maternity had be¬ come apparent, proved, undeniable! What would both families have thought of it! What would have been said by all Naz¬ areth, who would have hastened to witness the ceremony ? To what insulting re¬ proaches would the pure Virgin have been exposed, among a people where female honor was a thing so sacred as to be infal¬ libly avenged by murder! Would not the birth of the Messias—that birth which was to be pure as the morning dew , according to the poetical expression of David—have been thereby tainted and defiled? The Jews, particularly the Jews of Nazareth, ( 3 ) Misnah, t. iii., de Sponsalibus.- Selden, Uxor Hebraica. t LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 101 who showed such hostility to Jesus Christ, • St. Matthew, words which seem to favor and called him the son of the carpenter , the other interpretation, but which never- would they not have bitterly reproached theless do not convey a sufficiently precise him with the irregularity of his birth ? As meaning to remove the difficulty. 1 After they did not do so, it was because they had all, the dispute never bore upon the prin- apparently no ground to base such a charge. cipal point; wife or betrothed, no one, These are doubtless the reasons which among Christians, has ever doubted that have induced a number of illustrious di- the Mother of Gtod was the purest and vines to pronounce in favor of the mar- most holy of virgins : even the Mussulman riage, notwithstanding the inference which admits that she was the fountain and mine the opposite party draw from the words of of purity? ( 1 ) The verse which has divided the doctors is desponsata sibi uxore prcegnante, to be enrolled this:— “ Christi autem generatio sic erat : cum esset with Mary his espoused wife, who was with child ;” desponsata mater ejus Maria Joseph, antequam. and in verse 19 of the first chapter of St. Matthew, convenirent, inventa est in utero habens de Spiritu St. Joseph is called vir ejus, her husband, and not Sancto.” Those who dwell on the force of the her espoused. If St. Matthew calls the Blessed words, say that the Virgin was only betrothed, Virgin sponsa, spouse, although she was wife, it is because the Greek verb, which is a translation of not to say that she had not yet contracted mar- the Hebrew expression of St. Matthew, means riage ; it is merely to show, as one of the Fathers desponderi, to be betrothed, and that there is an- remarks, that she had no more intimacy with her other term to signify to be married, as we find husband than if she had been only his betrothed. among the Latins desponderi and nubere, and ( 3 ) The purity of Mary is so fully recognized hence that St. Joseph had not yet taken the Vir- by the Mussulmans, that Abou-Ishac, ambassador gin home to his house, which they prove by those of the caliph at the court of the Emperor of the words of verse 20 : “ JVoli timere accipere Mariam Greeks, holding a conference with the patriarch oonjugem tuam: quod enim in ea natum est, de and certain Greek bishops, on the subject of reli- Spiritu Sancto est,” which they explain thus : gion, the bishops reproached the Mussulmans with “ Take Mary for thy wife without fear, for what is many things which had been formerly said by born in her, is born by the operation of the Holy the Mussulmans themselves against Ayeshah, the Ghost.” But to be translated thus, it must read: widow of their prophet, which had excited divisions in conjugem tuam. The opposite opinion, which is among them. Abou-Ishac answered them that maintained by Fathers, commentators of consider- they need not wonder at these dissensions, since able weight, and almost all theologians, finds arms among Christians opinions had been so divided to combat its antagonists in the second chapter of on the subject of the glorious Mary, mother of St. Luke; for, notwithstanding that the Virgin Jesus, “who may be called,” said he, “the mine was already married to Joseph, the gospel uses and fountain of all purity, 'genab ismet mealo the Greek term vTtidxveidSai, which signifies to be kon offet.”—(DTIorbelot, Bibl. Orientale, t. ii.. promised, and says, “ Ut profiteretur cum Maria % p. 620.) 102 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. CHAPTER IX. THE VISITATION. M EANWHILE Mary, informed by the angel of the pregnancy of Eliz¬ abeth, resolved to go and affectionately congratulate her venerable relative. It was not, as heretics have not hesitated to say, that the Virgin required ocular proof of the reality of this event, which was out of the ordinary laws of nature ; she knew that nothing is impossible to God, and, moreover, could not suppose that a mes¬ senger of heaven would bear to her from the Most High words of deception and falsehood. She went, not to be convinced, but because she was convinced ; she went with haste, because charity, says St. Am¬ brose, admits neither delay nor hinderance; and besides, she who was good and kind during her whole life, longed to bear to those relatives whose protection had sur¬ rounded her childhood, and who had long looked upon her as their daughter, some little of that sanctification, and those heav¬ enly graces which flowed in her soul as in¬ exhaustible fountains of living water, from the instant that she bore in her chaste womb the Creator of the world. With the consent of St. Joseph, whose ( 1 ) Zacliary lived at Ain, or Aen, two leagues south of Jerusalem. St. Helena built a church on the site of his house. ( 2 ) Although Judea was much more populous then than now, there still remained districts so barren as to be incapable of cultivation. The simple but elevated soul was in unison with her own, and who had but one heart and will with hers, Mary left Nazareth in the season of roses, and journeyed toward the mountains of Judea, where Zachary dwelt. The Scripture, which omits de¬ tails, taking up merely fhe leading points of events, does not state whether the Vir¬ gin had any companions in this journey: some authors have thence inferred that she performed it alone, but this is not at all likely. In fact, the distance from Nazareth to the town of Ain 1 is five days’ march ; part of Galilee, the hostile Samaria, and almost all the territory of Juda had to be traversed. Now this tract is rugged with mountains, intersected by torrents, and interspersed with deserts. 2 The roads, which the Romans repaired at a later period, full of holes trodden in by the heavy footsteps of camels, and covered with loose stones, threatened the traveller at every step with a fatal fall. When the evening came on, there was no place to sleep, except some caravansary, affording naught but a bare cell without provisions, and furnished with a plain rush mat ; 3 for gospel mentions, as though but a short distance from towns, deserts where Jesus Christ went to pray. ( s ) “There is no inn in any part of Syria and Palestine,” says Volney, “ but the towns and most of the villages have a large building called Kervan- THE ANNUNCIATION. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 103 the primitive hospitality had marked b} r its Ambrose, “she never appeared abroad gradual decrease the different phases of except with a faithful escort.” 2 advanced civilization among the Hebrews. When she arrived at the sacerdotal Under such circumstances can we presume city where the LeVite and his happy wife that a man full of days and experience, dwelt, Mary proceeded to their well-known like Joseph, would willingly expose a house without allowing herself any time to young wife—beautiful, delicate, brought rest. Elizabeth, informed by one of her up secluded from the world, and confiding slaves of the unexpected visit of her as innocence itself—to dangers of all cousin, came to meet her with tokens of sorts, to every kind of inconvOnience which great joy. a solitary journey entailed ? Such an as- Seeing her approach, the young Virgin sertion contradicts the history of the people bowed, and laying her hand on her heart, of God, and the manners of Asia; 1 —no said, “Peace be with thee,” hastening to Jewish woman would ever have trusted be the first to offer a salutation. 3 Elizabeth herself, without a suitable escort, to such recoiled a step: the animated, friendly ex- a distance from her house. pression of her countenance was subdued If St. Joseph, as Father Croiset thinks, to profound respect; then by degrees her could not accompany Mary, it is probable features were illumined ; it was evident that the Mother of God joined some of her that something unusual and prodigious was female relations whom their piety led to passing within her. The simple expression the holy city, with their husbands, or their of politeness which the Virgin had pro- servants, and that she pursued her journey nounced in her low sweet voice had thrilled thence under some safe protection. We through her kinswoman. At once, the always find her travelling thus in the midst spirit of prophecy descended upon Eliza- of her own relatives, whether she goes to beth, and she cried out: “ Blessed art thou Jerusalem for the great solemnities, or among women, and blessed is the fruit of follows the preachings of Jesus with the thy womb. And whence is this to me,” holy women at a still more advanced period she added, “that the Mother of my Lord of her life. “Though she could have had should come to me ? For behold, as soon no better guardian than herself,” says St. as the voice of thy salutation sounded in serai, which affords a shelter to all travellers. These tries exposed to the Arabs, like Syria and Pales- receptacles, always placed outside the walls of tine.—(Volney, Voyage en Syrie.) • towns, are composed of four arcades, enclosing a ( 3 ) St. Ambrose, de Virginibus, liv. ii. square court, which serves as a place for the beasts: ( 3 ) This salutation, which Jesus Christ often. there are in these places neither provisions nor fur- used, is still that of all the East. When the Ori- niture.” entals meet, after the ordinary salutation, “Peace (*) No one travels alone in Syria; tlTe people be with you” ( salern alaicom ), they lay their hand only go in troops and caravans; they have to wait on the heart. This salutation was in use in the till several travellers want to proceed to 'the same time of Abraham.—(Savary, Note on Ch. 2 of the place. These precautions are necessary in coun- Koran. * 104 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed art thou that hast be¬ lieved, because those things shall be ac¬ complished that were spoken to thee by the Lord.” 1 Mary’s answer was the sublime inspired Magnificat, the first canticle of the New Testament, and the finest in the sacred Scriptures: “My soul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit Jiath rejoiced in God my Saviour. “Because he hath regarded the humil¬ ity of his handmaid: for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me Blessed. “ For he that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is his name. “And his mercy is from generation to generations, to them that fear him. “ He hath showed might in his arm : he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. ‘ ‘ He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. “He hath filled the hungry with good things : and the rich he hath sent empty away. “ He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy. “As he spoke to our fathers, to Abra¬ ham and to his seed forever.” 2 Thus did the Yirgin discern at once, by T a supernatural light, those ancient proph¬ ecies and their perfect accomplishment, herself being a thousand times more en- lightened and more privileged than all the prophets together. “In this celebrated interview, and in this admirable conversa¬ tion,” says St. Ambrose, “Mary and Eliz¬ abeth both prophesied by the Holy Ghost, with whom they were filled, and by the merit of their infants.” The Yirgin sojourned three months in the land of the Hethites, and spent this long visit not far from the city of Ain, in the depth of a shady and fertile valley, where Zachary had his country-house. 3 It was then that the daughter of David, her¬ self, too, a prophetess, and endowed with genius equal to that of the illustrious head of her race, could contemplate at leisure the starry heavens, the resounding forests, and the vast sea, which, in the horizon, rolled its loud or peaceful waves on the echoing blue shores of Syria. The Blessed Yirgin contemplated with no indifferent eye these magnificent scenes of creation. All the works of nature spoke to her of their great Author, and came sweetly to inflame her soul after charming her sight. The plain which vanished from her sight beyond the mountains of Arabia, the blue vaulted sky, spread like a tent above the habitations of men, gave her an idea of the immensity of God the Creator ; the golden harvest, the savory fruit, the cool mountain spring, proclaimed to her his providence; the voice of the tempest, his power; the mechanism of the heavens, his wisdom; and the care which He takes of the birds of ( 1 ) St. Luke, i. 42-45. (A St. Luke, i. 46-55. ( 3 ) This country-house was at a short distance from Ain, in the bosom of a pleasant and fertile valley, which serves now as a garden to the village of Saint John. Here a church was built in honor of the Visitation, but in our days it is merely a heap of ruins. l • LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 105 heaven and the insects of earth, his good- complacency of Jehovah ; the one bearing ness. in her long-barren womb a son who was to In these rural excursions she sometimes be “ a prophet and more than a prophet rested by the side of a boiling spring, of the other, the blessed germ of the Most which she loved the foam and the noise : High, the chief and liberator of Israel. this spring, called Nephtoa in the time In the fine summer evenings, when the of Josue, bears to this day the name of ivory moonlight illumined the foliage, the “ Mary.” 1 repast of the opulent family was spread Behind the elegant villa of the Hebrew beneath a large fig-tree, or under the green priest, extended one of those gardens which leafy branches of a thick vine ; 2 the lamb the Persians called a paradise, the captives fed in the deep valleys around Bethlehem, of Israel having adopted the arrangement the deer from the aromatic mountains of of them from the nation of Cyrus and Se- Betkar, clean birds netted by the Israelite miramis : there were seen the finest trees fowler, scaly fish caught by the Sidonian of Palestine ; and the beds of flowers scat- fisherman, the produce of the dairy, honey- tered irregularly in the open spaces, the combs; and then, in baskets of palm-leaves, sweet odor of the orange-blossoms, the pomegranates, figs, grapes from Galilee, streams of water which fled away beneath • with dates from Jericho, 3 which even the low bending branches of the willows, figured on the table of Caesar ; there were lent its shades a charm. There the sweet also seen apricots from Armenia, plums converse of Mary made Elizabeth forget from Damascus, pistachio nuts from Al- her fears for an event which overpowered eppo, water-melons from the banks of the her with joyful hope, but which her ad- Nile, and that sweet cane from the marshes vanced age might render fatal. How of Egypt, which Herodotus speaks of as an religious must have been the conversation exquisite eatable ; lastly, the golden wine of these two women! The one young, art- of Libanus, and the perfumed wine of less, and as ignorant of evil as Eve when Cyprus, which the steward kept in stone she came forth from the hands of the jars, 4 circulated in rich cups. Mary, tern- Almighty ; the other full of days, and rich perate as ever in the midst of this abund in long experience in the affairs of life ; ance, was content with a little fruit and a both profoundly pious, and objects of the cup of pure water. Frugality with her was ( 1 ) This fountain gives such an abundance of countries, to seek air and coolness.—(Fleury, Man- water, that it irrigates the whole valley and renders ners of tbe Israelites, § xvii.) it productive. Tradition relates that Mary some- ( 8 ) Tbe dates of Syria and Judea are yellow times came thither; it bore the name Nephtoa in and black, round, like apples, and very sweet. the time of Josue; it is now styled the Fountain Pliny reckons forty-nine kinds of dates. of the Virgin. ( 4 ) Tbe Jews established in the Yemen still (*) The Hebrews took their meals in gardens, make use of these jars.—(See Niebuhr, Voyage en u nder trees, and in arbors; for it is natural, in hot 14 Arabie.) 1 100 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. no forced virtue, no abstinence entailed by her position ; it was a virtue of predilection. 1 Some writers, to extol the humility of the Blessed Virgin, which needs no ex¬ traneous commendation, insist that she rendered to Elizabeth the offices of a serv¬ ant , and almost of a slave. This is mere error: Elizabeth would never have allowed a woman whom she herself had proclaimed the Mother of our Lord, and whom she had highly extolled above all the daughters of Sion, to debase herself in such a manner before her. The holy spouse of Zachary 2 could not have lacked servants or slaves. Christians and Jews agree that this family w r as distin¬ guished, and the illustrious birth of St. John the Baptist even cast some discredit upon that of Jesus Christ, born of parents much less distinguished, and living in poverty the common life of plebeians. The attentions, therefore, which the amiable and gentle Virgin lavished upon Elizabeth were in no wise painful or ser¬ vile ; they were those delicate and season¬ able attentions with which she would have surrounded her own mother, had heaven spared her; and no doubt the often imagined that she beheld again the authors of her days in that affectionate, devout, and ven¬ erable pair, who loved her with parental affection, and who showed toward her from the first interview, when her greatness was so marvellously revealed, a sentiment of admiration mingled with respect, which Mary humbly endeavored to shun, but which she did not succeed in arresting. It is easy to understand, say the Fathers, how many blessings were drawn down by the visit of Mary upon the sacerdotal fam¬ ily, who had given her so affectionate a reception. If the Lord blessed Obededom and all that belonged to him, even so far as to make the holy King David jealous, for having had the ark of the covenant for three months in his dwelling, what graces must have been drawn down upon Zachary and all his house by the three months’ abode of Her, of whom the ark of the Cov¬ enant was but the figure, holy and awful as it was! “The purity in which St.John always lived,” says St. Ambrose, “ was an ( 1 ) Her abstinence did not appear to be a fast; it was rather a custom, as it were, not to make use of food.—(Father Valverde, Life of Christ, t. i. p. 6.) ( a ) Zachary was descended from Abia, father of the eighth priestly family. (1 Paral., xxiv. 10.) These ancient families were rare, several of them having settled in Persia after the captivity. Eliza¬ beth was descended from Aaron and from David. The Jews reckoned John the Baptist far above Jesus, because he had passed his life in the desert, and was the son of a chief priest. Jesus Christ, on the other hand, born of a poor woman, appeared to them as one of the common people.—(S. Joan. Chrysost. in Matt., Serm. 12.) The Mussulmans have retained a high idea of St. John the Baptist, whom they call Jahia ten Zacharia (John, the son of Zachary). Saadi, in his Gulistan, mentions the sepulchre of St. John the Baptist, venerated in the mosque of Damascus; he said some prayers there, and records those of a king of the Arabs, who came thither on a pilgrimage. “ The Caliph Abdalmalek wanted to purchase this church out of the hands of the Christians,” says d’Herbelot, “ and it was only after their refusal of four thou¬ sand dinars, or gold pistoles, which he had offered them, that he took possession of it by force.”— (Bibliotheque Orientale, t. ii.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 107 effect of that unction and that grace infused into his soul by the presence of the Virgin.” We know not precisely whether the Mother of G-od assisted at the lying-in of Elizabeth. Origen, St. Ambrose, and other grave authors, ancient as well as modern, maintain the affirmative, and this opinion is very probable ; for it would have been at least very extraordinary for Mary, after having spent so long a time with her relation, to leave her abruptly in the hour of danger, and with no reasonable motive for so unseasonable and precipitate a depart¬ ure. Custom required that all the matrons of the family should surround the new moth¬ er, to rejoice with her in her happiness ; the gospel informs us that they were not want¬ ing to Elizabeth on this solemn occasion, and that the birth of St. John the Baptist drew a large concourse of kinsfolk and friends to the house of his father. It is alleged that virgins were not generally found at these gatherings, and this we can conceive ; but Mary was married, which required of her those duties which became i ( 1 ) Those theologians who have embraced the opinion adverse to that of Origen and St. Ambrose, dwell upon that passage of St. Luke, which does not speak of Elizabeth’s delivery till after having brought the Blessed Virgin back into Galilee. It seemed to us that this deserved consideration: we therefore attentively studied the gospel of this evangelist; this minute examination convinced us that this reason is not conclusive; for it is the cus¬ tom of St. Luke to make transpositions of this kind, and we can quote two others of the same nature. For example, after having followed up the preaching of St. John the Baptist, and an¬ nounced his imprisonment, St. Luke speaks, in the following verse, of the baptism of Jesus Christ, an event undoubtedly prior to the imprisonment of lier, and wliich she could not omit without violating usages received from the time of the patriarchs. Some argue, with as little reason, from the retired habits of the Vir¬ gin, that the mere noise of the festivities which celebrated the birth of the precursor of Jesus Christ put her to flight like a startled young dove. Mary could well reconcile her disinclination for the world with that exquisite sense of propriety at¬ tributed to her by the Fathers, and her tender solicitude for her mother’s niece: she must have remained beneath the roof of the pontiff until Elizabeth was out of danger: and then, escaping from that admiration which she never failed to ex¬ cite, she left the mountains of Judea, after embracing and blessing the new Elias. 1 A religious author observes that the blessed daughter of Joachim had hastened with all diligence to visit her cousin, but that she departed slowly, and as if with re¬ gret, from those cool valleys, whose oaks had given shelter to angels ; 2 perchance, like the sea-bird, she had a presentiment of storms. the precursor and his tragical death. When relat • ing the adoration of the shepherds, St. Luke ex¬ patiates on the marvellous accounts which they gave of their journey to the cave of Bethlehem, and of the astonishment which these recitals caused; after which, taking us back without any transition to the interrupted scene of the adoration, he speaks of their departure from the stable. This is what makes us adopt the doctrine of St. Am¬ brose, the probability of which strikes us at first sight. Father Valverde, who studied the holy Fathers deeply, is equally of opinion that the Blessed Virgin did not leave her relations till she had embraced and blessed the precursor of the Messias, ( 2 ) In the vale of Mambre, which is only six 108 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. CHAPTER X. mary’s virginal pregnancy. /AN her return to Nazareth, Mary re- lion of St. James, in the first transports of sumed without an effort the life of his grief, he prostrated himself before God the poor, and the humble occupations which with his face on the ground, and all bathed she must have suspended in the more ele- in tears, crying out, “Who has betrayed vated sphere which she had just quitted. • me? who has brought evil into my house?” She became again the young, active, and Then, yielding to his tender affection for diligent housewife, who found time for the young orphan whom he had ever re- work, time for prayer, time for reading the garded as the pearl and honor of her sex, sacred books, whose whole conversation he bitterly accused himself of not having was in heaven, and who seemed to have guarded her with sufficient care. “Alas!” applied to herself those beautiful and sage he said to himself, “my history is that of words of the Psalmist: “All the glory of Adam ; when he reposed with the greatest the king’s daughter is within her house.” confidence in his glory and happiness,'be- Meanwhile she advanced in her virginal hold on a sudden Satan deceived Eve with pregnancy, and Joseph began to grow sad lying words, and seduced her.” 1 When and perplexed. Joseph was sufficiently calm to reflect, he A poignant uncertainty, a painful per- found himself in great perplexity. plexity, tortured the great and upright soul By the Jewish law, adultery was pun- of the patriarch. At first he did not be- ished with death When there were no lieve his eyes, and he found it more reason- witnesses, (a single one would suffice.) and able to doubt the testimony of his senses the woman denied the crime laid to her than the purity of a woman who had always charge, she was led, by order of the sanhe- appeared to him a prodigy of Candor and drim, to the eastern gate of the temple, and sanctity. But the condition of Mary be- there, in presence of all, after snatching off came more and more visible ; she was found her veil, placing about her neck a cord with child says the gospel, which means brought from Egypt, to bring to her mind that all Nazareth was informed of it, and that Joseph’s relations, in the innocence of furlongs from Hebron, there was still shown, in their hearts, offered him painful congratu- the time of St. Jerome, a tree of enormous growth, lations, which he was obliged to receive beneath which it was said that Abraham had re- without changing countenance, and which ceived the visit of the three angels who announced enlightened him at once like a flash of to him the birth of Isaac. (’) Protevang. Jac., in the apocryph. of Fabric., lightning. According to the Protevange- t. i., p. 97. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. the miracles wrought by God in that land, and covering her shoulders with her dis¬ hevelled hair, because it was a disgrace for a Jewish woman to be seen with dishev¬ elled hair, a priest pronouncing a terrible form of malediction, to which she had to answer Amen, presented her with the fa¬ mous cup of the waters of jealousy, which were also called bitter waters, because they had the taste of wormwood. 1 This cup of malediction was infallibly fatal to the guilty, unless the husband himself had been guilty of infidelity; for then the miracle did not take place, “ because,” say the doctors of Israel, “ it would not have been just that one of the guilty should be absolved, while God punished the other.” 2 A husband of. a violent temper would not have failed to drag Mary before the priests of the Lord, to subject her to the formidable trial of the holy waters ; but Joseph, the most moderate, as well as the most just of men, did not so much as think of taking this extreme course. Unable to retain Mary under his roof, since both the law of honor and the law of Moses forbade it, he wished at least to take all possible pre¬ cautions to prevent this painful separa- tion from casting any reflection upon her virtue,—for he was a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her. “ I will put her away,” said Joseph mournfully to him- ( 1 ) Basnage, liv. vii., c. 22. ( 2 ) Wagenseil, in Sotah, p. 244. ( 3 ) The Jewish law required that the accuser should cast the first stone at him whom he had caused to be condemned.—(Institut. de Mo'ise, t. ii., p. 65.) ( 4 ) 41 Doubtless,” says Bossuet (Elevations sur 109 self, “but before God, and not before the judges, who would condemn her to die, and me to cast the first stone at her: 3 I will save her from the reproaches of her family and the contempt of the world : but how escape this labyrinth, where dishonor and death meet me at every outlet ?” And the son of David remained plunged in extreme dejection. The gloomy sadness of the just man, to whom God himself had entrusted her, could not escape Mary, and doubtless was a severe trial for her to conceal from Joseph the glorious embassy of the angel; but how could she unveil an event so unheard of, so miraculous, as that of her divine maternity, with no proof but her own word? Justlv convinced that, to ensure belief, the mystery of the Incarnation must be revealed by supernatural means, and leaving to Him, who had wrought so greal things in her, the care of convincing Joseph of her innocence, “ the daughter ot David,” says the great Bishop of Meaux, “ at the risk of seeing herself not'only sus¬ pected and forsaken, but even lost and dishonored, left all to God, and remained in peace.” The Eternal, from the height of his starry throne, looked down with complacency upon the just man, whom he had subjected to this severe trial, 4 before he raised him les Mysteres), ‘‘'God might have spared Joseph all this pain, by revealing to him earlier the mystery of Mary’s pregnancy; but his virtue would not have been put to the trial Avhich was prepared for him; we should not have witnessed the victory of Joseph over the most untameable of all passions, and the most righteous jealousy that ever existed 110 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. to the supreme honor of being his repre¬ sentative upon earth, and the angels, with eyes riveted on the holy house of Nazareth, anxiously awaited the result of this secret contest, in which humanity, duty, and the noblest sentiments of the soul were en¬ gaged. At last, the patriarch conceived an idea, so generous and heroic, that it places him almost on a level with the Queen of angels : he resolved to sacrifice his honor, the esteem which he had ac¬ quired by a spotless life, the means of existence which gave him his daily bread, and the air of his native land, so delightful to inhale as the grave draws nigh, in order to save the reputation of a wife, who did not even attempt to justify herself, and whom appearances so cruelly accused. There "was but one way of parting with Mary without ruining her, for her family would have demanded an explanation that would have terminated fatally: and this means was self-exile, to go and die afar off in a strange land, and let all the odium of such a desertion fall upon his own head. There are acts of resignation as glorious as triumphs, and sufferings patiently supported, which heaven rewards as lavishingly as martyr¬ dom : the unknown sacrifice of the spouse of the Virgin was of this number. To reconcile duty and humanity, he foretasted the sad reproaches of being a heartless husband, an unfeeling father, a man with¬ out faith or conscience ; he accepted the contempt of his relations, the mortal hatred of the relatives of Mary, and resolved to would not have been laid prostrate at the feet of virtue.” pluck off with his own hand the crown of his good name to cast before the feet of that young woman, whose mysterious and unexplained position filled his heart with sadness, and his life with bitter¬ ness. St. John Chrysostom never wearies in his admiration of St. Joseph’s grand and noble conduct. “ It was necessary,” says this great saint, “ that when the grace of the Saviour was approaching, there should already appear many signs of a perfection greater than the most perfect it had been given to man to conceive. As when the sun rises, the east is tinged with a bright lustre, even before the first rays of day peach the horizon, so, too, Christ about to issue from the Virgin’s womb, already enlightened the whole world before his birth. Hence, even before his birth, prophets leaped for joy in their mothers’ womb, women prophesied, and Joseph dis¬ played more than human wisdom.” We have here adopted the opinion of St. John Chrysostom in preference to that of St. Bernard, who supposes that Joseph himself discovered the mystery of the birth of Jesus Christ, and that seeing Mary preg¬ nant, lfe did not doubt, from the profound veneration with which he regarded her, that she must be the miraculous Virgin of Isaias. “He believed it,” says the apos¬ tle of the crusades, “and it was only from a sentiment of humility and respect,—like that which made St. Peter afterward say, ‘ Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord,’—that St. Joseph, who was no less humble than St. Peter, also thought of departing from the Virgin, not doubting LIFE OP THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. Ill that she bore in her sacred womb the Saviour of mankind.” This interpretation, most pious surely, and worthy of him who has been honored with the title of the devout chaplain of Mary , is more in accordance with the ascetic notions of the middle ages, than agreeable to the manners of the ancient Hebrews, and must fall before a careful study of the text. In fact, the words of the gospel are so clear, that no small ingenuity is required to obscure them. It was no instinctive movement of religious awe, such as makes us keep at a distance from a sacred object, that suggests to Joseph the idea of forsaking Mary; it is the sense of conscience and duty. “He was a just man,” says Bossuet, “and his justice did not allow him to remain in company with a wife whom he could not believe innocent; for merely to suspect what had happened by the operation of the Holy Ghost, was a miracle of which God had hitherto given no example, and which could not come into any human mind.” 1 The words of the angel would have no sense, and would even mislead on St. Ber¬ nard’s hypothesis: “Fear not,” says the ambassador of the Most High, to take unto thee Mary, thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” Does Joseph object his unworthiness at the moment when he becomes certain that Mary bears in her womb the Author of nature himself? Does he lay before the angel ( 1 ) Bossuet, Elevations sur les Myst&res, t. ii., p. 135. his scruples, which must be now more urgent than ever ? Does he ask that this humble cup, which the celestial envoy presents him, may pass from him to some more worthy mortal ? He does nothing of all this; the storms of the soul are ap¬ peased, and he falls into the profound calm which follows great moral tempests. It is objected that the great Messianic oracles were familiar to Joseph as they were to all the Hebrews, that he must have known that the time of the Messias was near at hand, and that he ought to have understood from the very first, con¬ sidering the holiness of Mary, that she bore in her womb the Saviour of the world. To understand the prophecies which treated of the mystery of redemp¬ tion was not so easily attained as is here supposed. Whether the allegorical de¬ scriptions of the glorious reign of the Emmanuel of Isaias had led the doctors of the synagogue into error, or whether the avaricious thoughts of the Jews could not rise above the earth, and construed all to apply to temporal possessions, it is certain that the Hebrew people, “ that hard-headed people,” had already taken a wrong path, and would not swerve from it. The envoy of God, the Desired of nations, was to be a lawgiver, a martial leader, a magnificent and formidable monarch, like Solomon. The apostles themselves were long under a mistake as to the humble and peaceful mission of the “poor King who .passed noiselessly along ■” we see them deluding themselves with golden dreams and king¬ doms in prospect, even in sight of the deicide city, which their Master was enter- 112 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. ing to die. It was not without an effort that our Lord brought them back to a spiritual sense,—that he rectified their ideas, always ready to fall into the narrow compass of material and palpable goods, where they were tossed about b} r the ambitious reveries of traditionary doctors and Pharisees. If then the apostles, those divine men who founded Christianity, had so much difficulty in divesting themselves of the prejudices of their childhood, living as they did in the midst of the miracles of the Messias, and in familiar intercourse with him, how could Joseph do this of himself, and without succor from above ? The homespun garment of the artisan had little in common with the purple of the kings of Juda, and the thing least expected was to have a Messias of plebeian birth. Galilee, moreover, was the last place which would nave been thought of. “Doth the Christ come out of Galilee ?” said the doc¬ tors of the law to the disciples of Christ. “ Read the Scriptures and you will see that we expect nothing from Galilee.” In fact, the prophets had pointed out by name Bethlehem of Juda, Bethlehem, “the house of bread,” as the birth-place of the Messias : and the rabbinical commentators, going beyond the prophets, distinguished even the quarter of the town where he was to be born. 1 Joseph was too humble to suppose that his modest roof could harbor so much greatness, and Mary’s silence left him room to conjecture. C) Whence comes he (the Messias)? From the loyal city of Bethlehem, of Juda. Where are his parents to be found (those of the Messias) ? As to the project of sending back the Virgin to her family “out of pure respect,” according to learned theologians who adhere to the opinion of St. Bernard, it would have been impracticable in a nation so suscep¬ tible on everything that affects the honor of their women. Mary was an orphan, and so far dependent on her kinsfolk, who could not all be of a peaceful temper, and some of whom had not approved of the union of their young relative with the obscure Nazarean. It is not likely that they would have accepted Joseph’s pre¬ texts, and admitted, without more ample information, that the Virgin bore in her womb the King Messias. It is much more to be presumed that they would have de¬ nounced the husband before the tribunal of the ancients, to force him to give the reasons which influenced his conduct; for the mat¬ ter was no longer of a simple divorce, but of the condition of the child of Mary,—a young woman of noble blood and ill-married, ac¬ cording to those eleven who, St. Jerome assures us, had entered the lists to espouse the young and fair heiress of Joachim. Thence would have resulted two grave facts : either Joseph would have kept silence, and then he would have been condemned to take his wife back, with the prohibition never to separate from her, 9 or he would have declared upon oath that the child which Mary bore was not his; and then the diaowned child became in¬ capacitated for any employment; his birth, tainted in its origin; excluded him from the In the quarter Biral Harba of Bethlehem Juda.— (See Talmud of Jerusalem.) ( 2 ) Inst, de Moi'se, t. if., liv. vii. 113 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. assemblies of the nation, the public schools, the temple, and the synagogue ; his poster¬ ity, sharers of his disgrace, would not have been admitted to the privileges of the Hebrews till the tenth generation; he be¬ came a pariah —without an asylum, without rights, without country, and the decree which sentenced his mother to be stoned, would have branded both him and his descend¬ ants on the brow with Cain’s mark of reprobation. But things would not have come to this : rather than submit to this tarnish upon their royal genealogy, the haughty descendants of David would have slain the Virgin with their own hands. Such examples are not rare, and appear again even in our days*in Judea, as well as Arabia . 1 Joseph was too wise and too humane to place himself in either alternative ; and it happened, as it always does, that the more generous course was also the better. He resolved then to leave his city, and the woman who since their chaste nuptials had made his life so sweet and happy. As he ( 1 ) Niebuhr relates, that, “ in a coffee-house in Yemen, an Arab having asked one of his fellow- countrymen if he was not the father of a young woman lately married in his tribe, the father, who suspected that this question implied a taunt, and thought the honor of his family compromised, coolly rose up, ran to his daughter’s house, and without uttering a word plunged his cangiar in her heart.” Father de Geramb mentions an anec¬ dote of the same kind:—“ The widow of a Bethle- hemite,” says he, “fell under a grave suspicion; not knowing how to escape the vengeance of her relations, she took refuge in the convent of the Fathers of the Holy Land, and placed herself under the sacred protection of the altar. Her asylum was discovered, the gates of the monastery were 15 was preparing for this sad separation, and slept a troubled slumber upon his solitary couch, “The angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying, Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy^ wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Gfliost. And she shall bring forth a Son ; and thou slialt call his name Jesus ; for he shall save his people from their sins.” After this dream, and the word of the angel, Joseph found himself changed. The honor which Hod had done him, in trans¬ ferring to him his own rights over his only Son, had not in the least affected his humility; but he had become a father, he had become spouse, in heart, and his only thought now was, to take care of Mary and her divine Infant. St. John Chrysostom asks himself why the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, and not openly, as he did to the shepherds, to Zachary, and to the Virgin. “Because,” said he, answering himself, “Joseph had great faith, nor did he need forced, and the young woman dragged, with her hair all dishevelled, into the public market-place, amidst the shouts of the populace and the suppli¬ ant voices of the religious, who implored, in the name of a crucified God, forgiveness and mercy for this unhappy creature, who protested with tears that she was innocent. She appealed in despair to her father and her brothers, adjured them, in the most moving manner to save her from a cruel death: they came forward sullenly; each held a dagger; the poor creature shuddered; and a mo¬ ment after, the three daggers were buried in her breast, and the murderers, washing their hands in the blood of their daughter and sister, congratula¬ ted themselves on having washed away the disgrace of their family. 114 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. a clearer revelation. As to Mary were to be announced greater and more wonder¬ ful things than all declared to Zachary, she had to be informed before they came to pass, and informed by a manifest revela¬ tion. The shepherds, as being less refined, had need of a very clear vision. But Joseph having already seen Mary’s preg¬ nancy, being beset with an evil suspicion of mind, and yet ready to change his sor¬ (JHAPTER XL BIRTH OF THE MESSIAS. row into joy, if any one gave him a pre¬ text, he receives the angel’s revelation with all his heart.This conduct of Providence was infinitely wise, as it has served to show the excellence of Joseph’s virtue, and render the Gospel narrative more credible by portraying him harassed by the same emotions that any man would be susceptible to under similar circumstan¬ ces.” 1 M EANTIME, the Impious Empire 2 , had planted its eagles even to the extremities of the globe ; the Romans had taken the oriental world as in a net; the Sarmatian trembled before them in the depth of his deserts, and the most remote nations of Asia, the peaceful Chinese, sent a solemn embassy to Caesar to seek his powerful friendship. Egypt and Syria were already no more than Roman prov¬ inces ; Judea itself was tributary, and the King of the Jews, purchasing with gold a capricious protection, was but a crowned slave. The time had come ; the oracles ( 1 ) S. John Chrysostom, Serm. 4, in S. Matt. ( 2 ) The Jews designated the Roman empire by the name of “ The Impious Empire.” ( a ) Augustus thrice took a general census of every province in the empire: first, during his sixth consulship with Agrippa, in the year 28 relating to the Messias were about to ue accomplished ; the power of Rome was at its height, as Balaam had foretold, and according to the grand prophecy of Jacob, the sceptre had departed from Juda; for the phantom of royalty which still hovered over the holy city was not even national. Then it was that an edict of Augustus Ctesar was published in Judea, for a cen¬ sus of the people subject to his sceptre. This census, much more complete than that which had taken place in the sixth consul¬ ship of the nephew of Julius Caesar , 8 included not only persons, but property before the Christian era; the second, under the consulate of C. Marius Censorinus and C. Asinius Gallus, in the year 8 before the same era; and the third and last, under the consulate of Sextus Pompeius Nepos and Sextus Apuleius Nepos, in the year 14 of the Christian era. St. Luke refers LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 115 and the various qualities of the land : it was the basis on which the tax of servitude was to be assessed. 1 The Roman governors were ordered to enforce the imperial edict, each in his de¬ partment. 2 Sextius Saturninus, governor of Syria, began first with .Phoenicia and Ccelo-Syria, rich and populous cantons, which required long and patient labor; in Europe, the labors of William the Con¬ queror, a thousand years later, in drawing up that famous register, so well known to the English, under the name of “Domes¬ day-Book,” can alone give an idea of it. After having executed the orders of Caesar in the Roman province, as well as in the kingdoms and tetrarchies dependent upon it, at the end of three years from the date of the decree, 3 they found themselves ar¬ rived at length at Bethlehem, precisely at the memorable epoch of the birth of our Saviour. Caesar and his agents thought only of doing an administrative work, by ascertaining the population and resources of the empire ; but God had other designs, to the second census; the decree which ordered it was made in the eighth year before the Christian era.—(Suetonius, in Octav., 27.) ( 1 ) Augustus at that time had a work prepared which contained the description of the Roman empire, and of those countries dependent upon it. Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dion Cassius make men¬ tion of this book, and of all the separate descrip¬ tions which were drawn up in the provinces. By the way in which they speak of it, it must have been something very complicated. ( 2 ) Tertullian assures us that Sextius Saturni¬ nus, president of Syria, found himself in this posi¬ tion. (*) The three years employed on this census, executed by the Roman prefept, cannot produce which they executed unconsciously by their merely human views. His Son was to be born at Bethlehem of Juda, the humble country of King David : he had caused it to be foretold by his prophet, more than seven hundred years before ; and now be¬ hold the whole world moving to accomplish this prophecy. It appears that faithful to ancient usage, the Jews still had themselves inscribed by families and tribes. David was born at Bethlehem, his descendants regarded that little city as their natal town, and the cradle of their house ; here then it was that they assembled to give in their names, and the state of their fortunes, in compli¬ ance with the edict of Caesar. The autumn was near its close, the tor¬ rents rolled with a loud noise in the depths of the valleys, the north wind blew through the tall turpentine-trees, and a sky hidden with gray clouds announced the approach of snows. One dull and gloomy morning, in the year of Rome 748, 4 a Nazarene was seen busily occupied with preparations for any difficulty, for certainly it required no less time to draw up tbe register of Syria, Coelo-Syria, Phoe¬ nicia, and Judea. Joab had consumed nearly ten months in making the simple list of men capable of bearing arms in the ten tribes; and the census of Augustus, at the birth of Jesus Christ, em¬ braced many other details, as it extended not only to every individual, but to all the particulars of their lands. William the Conqueror, who had a somewhat similar work compiled in England, employed six whole years upon it, although the Domesday-Book contains neither Scotland, nor Ireland, nor Wales, nor the Channel Islands. ( 4 ) Never has any date been more disputed than that of the birth of Jesus Christ. We adopt that of the authors of the Art de Verifier les Dates, 116 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. a journey, which no doubt he was not at Palestine, must have been extremely pain- liberty to put off; for the time seemed ill- ful to the Blessed Yirgin, in her actual sit- chosen, and the young wife who accom- uation ; yet she made no complaint; this panied him, and whom he seated carefully feeble and delicate young woman had a on the quiet and gentle animal, which is firm and courageous mind,—a great soul, still preferred by the women of the East, which was not elevated with greatness, was far advanced in pregnancy. At the could possess itself in joy, and in silence saddle of the fine animal 1 ridden by the accepted misfortune. Joseph, who moved young woman of Galilee, w r as fastened a along pensively at her side, meditated on basket, made of palm-leaves, containing the ancient oracles, which promised, four provisions for the journey : dates, figs, and thousand years ago, a deliverer to his peo- raisins, thin barley-cakes, and an earthen pie; as he travelled on to Bethlehem, vessel of Ramla-ware, to draw water from whither he was led by the supreme will of the spring or the cistern. A leather bottle, a Roman, he thought of the words of the of Egyptian make, hung on the opposite prophet Micheas : “And thou, Bethlehem side. The traveller threw over his shoul- Ephrata, art a little one among the thou- der a sack containing some clothes, girded sands of Juda; out of thee shall become forth his loins, wrapped around him his goat’s- unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel.” 2 hair cloak, and holding in one hand his Then looking at his poor equipage and his curved stick, held with the other the bridle humble companion, whose simple outfit was of the ass which carried the young woman. suitable to her condition, he revolved in Thus they left their poor dwelling to its mind the great oracles of Isaias : “And he own keeping, and passed down the narrow shall grow up as a tender plant before him, streets of Nazareth, amidst wishes of a good and as a root out of a thirsty ground : . . . journey, and a safe return to their kindred despised, and the most abject of men.” ;> and neighbors, who exclaimed, on all sides, And the patriarch began to understand the “Go in peace!” These travellers, who set designs of God with regard to his Christ. out on a journey in a misty morning, were After a toilsome journey of five days, the humble descendants of the great kings the travellers descried afar, Bethlehem, of Juda—Joseph and Mary—who were the city of kings, seated on an eminence, going, by order of a pagan and an alien, to amid smiling hills planted with vineyards, enroll their obscure names by the side of olive groves, and woods of verdant oak. the most illustrious names of the kingdom. Camels carrying women enveloped in This journey, undertaken during the purple cloaks, their heads covered with rigorous season, and across a country like white veils, Arab nahas, ridden at full which appears to us the best founded. It places # ( 1 ) The asses in Palestine are remarkably beau- the birth of our Saviour on the 25th of December, tiful. in the year of Eome 748. According to Baronius, ( 3 ) Micheas, v. ii. the day of our Saviour’s birth fell on a Friday. ( 8 ) Isaias, liii. 2, Mi &M’ | ■!■: llltefflr kLJ THE NATIVITY. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. gallop by young ancl splendidly dressed horsemen, groups of old' men upon fine white she-asses, discoursing gravely, like the ancient judges of Israel, 1 were going up to the city of David, already swarming with the crowds of Hebrews who had ar¬ rived the preceding days. Outside, but a little distance from the city, rose a square building, its white walls showing in bold relief from the pale green of the olive-trees which covered the hill: it was, one would have said, a Persian caravan¬ sary. Through its yawning gate, a number of slaves and servants were seen going and coming in its ample court: it was the inn. Thither Joseph, quickening the beast on which the Virgin was mounted, turned, in the hope of arriving in time to secure one of those narrow cells which belong of right to the first comer, and which were refused to - none f but the caravansary overflowed with merchants and travellers ; there was not a place left; gold might perhaps have found one, for the keeper was a Jew, and a Bethlehem Jew, but Joseph had no gold. The patriarch returned sorrowful to Mary, who greeted him with a smile of resignation, and again seizing the bridle of the poor beast, now ready to drop with fatigue, he began to wander about the squares and streets of the little city, hoping, (*) The horse, especially among the Jews, was reserved for the warrior; hence it was taken as the symbol of combat. Judges, on the contrary, rode npon asses of an extremely beautiful species. Hence those words of the Bible, “Speak: you that ride upon fair asses, and you that sit in judgment.” —(Judges, v. 10.) 117 but in vain, that some charitable Bethle- hemite would offer them a shelter for the love of God. No one offered them anything. The night wind fell cold and keen upon the young Virgin, who never uttered a com¬ plaint, but who became more and more pallid : she could hardly keep life within her. Joseph losing all hope, continued his fruitless efforts ; and alas ! more than once he saw the door open to some more wealthy stranger, which had been unfeelingly shut against him. Self-interest, that ruling- passion of the Jews, must have turned every heart to stone, when Mary’s situ¬ ation excited no compassion. Night came on: the two spouses, seeing themselves rejected by every one, and despairing of obtaining a shelter in the city of their fore¬ fathers, went out from Bethlehem without knowing whither to direct their steps, and at hazard struck into the country, lighted by the dying hues of twilight, and echoing with the cry of the jackals prowling about in search of their prey. A little south of the inhospitable city yawned a dark cave, hollowed out of the rock; this cave faced the north, and nar¬ rowed toward -the end, served the Beth- lehemites as a common stable, and some¬ times as a refuge for shepherds in stormy nights. Joseph and Mary blessed heaven, which had guided them to this wild ( 2 ) Nothing is found, in the cells, of the cara¬ vansary, or palace for caravans, but the four walls, dust, and sometimes scorpions. The keeper is bound merely to give the key and a mat: the trav¬ eller must provide himself with all else; he must take his bed, his cooking apparatus, and even his provisions with him.—(Volney, Voyage en Syrie.) 118 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. shelter; and Mary, leaning on Joseph’s disturbed the sacred silence of that night, arm, went and sat down upon a bare rock, full of prodigies and mysteries. Miracu- which formed a kind of narrow and incon- lously conceived, Jesus is born still more renient seat in a hollow part of the rock. miraculously. There, “in the fortification of the rock,” God prepared a grand and novel spec- as the prophet Isaias had foretold, 1 at the tacle for the world when he caused a poor moment when the rising of the mysterious king to be born. The palace which he constellation of the Virgin marked the designed for him was a deserted stable — hour of midnight, 2 that the alma 3 of the a fit shelter for him who, in the course of grand Messianic prophecy, in the midst of years, was to say, “ The foxes have holes, a solemn pause of nature, concealed by a and the birds of the air nests ; but the Son luminous cloud, 4 brought into the world Him of man hath not where to lay his head.” whom G-od himself had begotten “before Moses, proscribed at his birth, had at least the hills,” 5 and “whose generation was a cradle of rushes, when young Mary, his from eternity.” He appeared instantane- sister, exposed him amid the bulrushes ously to the eyes of his astonished young and sacred lotus-plants which bury their mother, like a ray of sunlight flashing leaves in the Nile at the.close of day ; 7 but through a cloud, and came to take posses- Jesus, the divine forsaken one, who came sion of the throne of his poverty, while all among us to suffer and die, had not even the angels of God, bending the knee be- this magnificence : he was laid in a manger, fore him, adored him in his human form. 6 upon a handful of damp straw providen- This virginal parturition was free from tially forgotten by some camel-driver of cries and pains ; and not a single groan Egypt; or Syria, eager to forestall the dawn. ( 1 ) Justin appeals to the prophecy of Isaias for ( 4 ) Protevangelion of St. James, c. 17. the birth of Jesy^ in the cave: “He shall dwell on ( 5 ) According to tbe opinion of the rabbins, the high; the fortifications of rocks shall be his high- Messias was in the terrestrial Paradise by the side ness.”—(Isaias, xxxiii. 16.) of our first parents.—(Sohar Chadasch, f. 82, 4.) ( 4 ) “ It is a fact independent of all hypotheses,” He existed even before the world.—(Nezach Israel, says Dupuis, “independent of all consequences c. 35.) And before he became mail, he was in the which I desire to draw from it, that precisely at state of glory with God.—(Phil., ii. 6.) Thus, im- the hour of midnight, on the 25tli of December, in mediately before the time of Jesus Christ, the idea those ages when Christianity made its appearance, of a pre-existence of the Messias existed in the the heavenly sign which rose in the horizon, and superior theology of the Jews. the ascendant of which presided at the opening of ( 6 ) Hebrews, i. 6 ; Psalm xlvi. 7. the new solar revolution, was, the Virgin of the ( 7 ) The lotus, which was consecrated to the sun, Constellations .” is a water-plant, the leaves of which sink into the ( 3 ) The word alma, which Isaias used, signifies Nile at sun-set, and emerge from it when he rises. in Hebrew a Virgin in all her innocence. We have This plant has the virtue of lulling to sleep. already remarked in a note on the first chapter, Those who made long journeys, were said to have that this word has given occasion to very great eaten of the lotus, that is, that they had forgotten controversies between Jews and Christians. their country.—(Basnage, liv. ix., c. 15.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 119 - God had provided for the couch of his thee with my forehead prone in the dust. ? only Son, even as he provides for the nests 0 wonderful contrast! heaven is thy of the birds of the air. abode, and I nurse thee on my knees ! This new Adam, whose limbs would Thou art upon earth, and yet thou art not have been pierced by the cold air, and separated from the inhabitants of the celes- whom modesty and necessity alike required tial regions : the heavens are with thee.” to be clothed, was now to be covered. Thus were accomplished the grand oracles Mary made swaddling-clothes for him out of Micheas and Isaias :— of her veil, and wrapped him up in them “ And there were in the same country with her chaste hands ; then was the new- shepherds watching and keeping the night- born God adored by her and her holy watches over their flock. And behold, au spouse, as Joseph of old, the finest type of angel of the Lord stood by them, and the Jesus Christ, had been of old by his father brightness of God shone round about them, and mother. and they feared with a great fear. And St. Basil, entering into the mysteries of the angel said to them: Fear not, for fervor and rapture, which passed in the behold I bring you good tidings of great soul of the Virgin, exhibits her to us as if joy, that shall be to all the people ; for this divided between the love of a mother and day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the adoration of a saint. “ How should I the Lord, in the city of David. And this call thee ?” she said, addressing her Infant- shall be a sign unto you: you shall find God; “how should I style thee? .... the infant wrapped in swaddling-clothes, a mortal ? ... . but I conceived thee by and laid in a manger. And suddenly there divine operation. ... A God ? . . . . was with the angel a multitude of the but thou hast a human body. Ought I to heavenly army, praising God, and saying: come to thee with incense, or to offer thee Glory to God in the highest ; and on my milk ? Ought I to lavish upon thee all EARTH PEACE TO MEN OF GOOD WILL .” 1 the cares of a tender mother, or to serve The marvellous vision had disappeared, ( 1 ) In a very pleasant plain, situated a quarter of our Lord was a sentence of banishment for of a league north of the city of Bethlehem, is those pagan divinities who had been till then per- found the village of the shepherds, and in the mitted to give oracles. Milton, in an admirable depth of a valley the celebrated field where these poetic vein, thus describes, in one of his earliest shepherds were tending their flocks during the pieces of verse, the departure of those pretended night of the nativity. According to grave authors, both sacred and profane, the appearance of the angels to the shepherds is not the only prodigy divinities on the eve of the nativity : — “ The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum which signalized the birth of the Infant-God. It Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. is related that during the sacred night the vines of Engaddi blossomed, and that at Como the temple of Peace suddenly fell, and the oracles of the Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine, With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance, or breathed spell, demons were struck dumb forever. The very birth Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 120 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the heavenly songs had ceased, and the indeed merited to find the promised Sav- shepherds, leaning forward upon their iour, since they came to seek him there knotty staves, were still listening. with upright intentions and pure souls. When naught but the night breeze Looking into the depth of the cave, to sighed in the valley, and but one single ascertain whether they had really attained . radiant white spot remained in the sky, the object of their night pilgrimage, these which might seem to be an angel, the sliep- men of good will discovered Him who came herds consulted together, and “ said one to to preach the gospel to the poor, and to another, let us go over to Bethlehem, and abolish the malediction of slavery , under the let us see this word that is come to pass, humble form of a little infant quietly asleep which the Lord hath showed to us.” Then in his manger. taking in baskets such humble presents as The Virgin, bending over her new-born their huts could supply, they made their son, contemplated him with affecting humil- way, by the bright starlight, to the little ity and profound love ; above them, Joseph city of David. At the sight of the stable, bent his aged head before this adopted son, they felt like the disciples at Emmaus, that who was God ; a soft moonbeam lighted up their hearts were burning, and they said one this divine group, framed, as it were, in the to another, “Perhaps ’tis here!”- for they red walls of rock : without, all lay in sleep knew that the divine Infant who was born beneath a clear starlit night. 1 to them had not seen the light beneath a “ Here must be the place,” said the shep- rich roof, and that he was not laid in a herds to each other, and, prostrating with cradle as sumptuous as a throne ; naught respect before the manger of the King of like that had the angel announced. They kings, they offered to the poor and new- approached then with faith, with hope, born God the mite and the homage of the with love, toward the place where they poor. * “ The lonely mountains o’er, And mooned Ashtaroth, And the resounding shore, Heaven’s queen and mother both, A voice of weeping heard and loud lament : Now sits not girt with taper’s holy shine; From haunted spring and dale, The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn, Edged with poplar pale, In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn The parting Genius is with sighing sent ; With flower-inwoven tresses torn, The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. “ And sullen Moloch fled, Hath left in shadows dread “ In consecrated earth, His burning idol all of blackest hue ; And on the holy hearth, In vain with cymbals’ ring, » The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint; They call the grisly king, In urns and altars round In dismal dance about the furnace blue; A drear aud dying sound The brutish gods of Nile as fast, Affrights the flamens at their service quaint; Isis and Orus, and the dog Anubis haste.” And the chill marble seems to sweat, While each peculiar power foregoes his wonted seat. ( 1 ) “ The Persians call Christmas night sclteb “ Peor and Baalim jaldai, bright and luminous night, on account of Forsake their temples dim, the descent of the angels.”—(D’Herbelot, * Bibl. With that twice battered god of Palestine; Orientale, t. ii., p. 294.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 121 Then they proceeded to relate the ap¬ parition of the angels, their ravishing con¬ certs, their words of hope, peace, and love. Joseph wondered at this divine manifesta¬ tion, and Mary, who heard in silence this unstudied narrative, engraved every word of it in her heart. This duty fulfilled, and their mission ended, the shepherds retired, glorifying God, and spread abroad in the mountains the wonders of that sacred night. Those who heard them, struck with long amazement, said one to another, “Is it really possible ? Are we then in the days of Abraham, that angels visit shep¬ herds ?” It was perhaps these accounts, made in the evenings on the skirts of the woods, or in the depths of the ravines, while the camels drank .together at the solitary spring, that led a tribe of desert Arabs to deify Mary and the Infant. The sweet image of the Virgin holding her Son in her lap, was painted on one of the pillars of the Caaba, and solemnly placed in the number of the three hundred and sixty divinities of the three Arabias. In the time of Ma¬ homet it was still to be seen, as Arab his¬ torians attest. 1 After the massacre of the ( 1 ) “El Azraki cites the ocular testimony of several worthy persons/’ says Burckhardt, “to prove a remarkable fact, of which, I believe, no mention has hitherto been made: it is that the figure of the Virgin Mary, with the young Aisa (Jesus) in her lap, was sculptured as a divinity upon one of the pillars nearest to the gate of the Caaba.”—(Burckhardt, Voyage en Arabie, t. i., p. 221.) ( 5 ) This particular circumstance, which con¬ firms the statement of the Arab historian, is re¬ corded in the Toldos, a very ancient Jewish book, 1G Holy Innocents, this brave tribe rose to a man, shouted out one long cry of ven¬ geance, and unawed by numbers, attacked Herod’s son, vassal and protigt of the Romans as he was. 2 This authentic incident, both curious and generally unknown, supports the supernat¬ ural fact recorded by St. Luke, a fact which the sneering philosophers of the school of Voltaire, and the still more heathenish, if that be possible, adherents of pantheism, have not failed to banish to the class of fables. The strange devotion of these Arabs, who blended idolatry with the wor¬ ship of the true God before the preaching of the gospel, can be explained only by an acquaintance with the miracles of the sacred night of the Nativity. On the eighth day after his birth, the Son of God was circumcised, and named Jesus, in conformity with His Father’s command. Like all Israelites, he must have had a godfather, but we are utterly ignorant upon whom that honor fell. As to the ceremony of the circumcision, which always took place under the auspices of Elias, who never failed, said the Hebrews, to assist at it invisibly, 3 it took place, ac- written in a tone of furious animosity against Christianity. We see there that Herod the Great and his son had to sustain a war against a desert tribe, who adored the image of Jesus and Mary his mother. This tribe attempted to form alliances with several cities of Palestine, and particularly with that of Hai. How, as the Jews themselves place this event in the lifetime of Herod, it must have been prompted by the massacre of the Inno¬ cents, as the aged king survived the birth of our Saviour only one year. (*) See Basnage, liv. vii., c. 10. 122 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. cording to St. Epiphanius, in the very cave in which Jesus was born, and St. Bernard presumes, with sufficient probability, that St. Joseph was the minister of the rite. Men of the plebeian order, docile to the summons of the angels, had come to adore the infant Grod in his poor manger, and share with him their black bread and the milk of their goats. A miracle of a higher character, and of much greater renown, soon after led to the same cradle the first fruits of converted heathendom : the shep¬ herds of Juda had led the way; it was now the turn of sages and kings. CHAPTER XII. ADORATION OF THE MAGI. I N the course of the autumn which pre¬ ceded the birth of Jesus Christ, certain Chaldean Magi, skilled in the study of the courses of the planets, discovered a star of the first magnitude, which they recognized by its extraordinary motion and other no less certain signs, as that star of Jacob, long before predicted by Balaam, which was to arise in their horizon at the time of the child-birth of the Yirgin. According to the ancient traditions of Iran, collected by Abulfarages, Zoroaster, the restorer of the science of the Magi, a learned man, a great astronomer, and well versed, more¬ over, in the theology of the Hebrews, 1 an- ( 1 ) Some have made Zoroaster a disciple of Jeremias; but their times do not correspond; it is more probable that he was a disciple of Daniel. ( 2 ) Writers do not agree as to the country of the Magi; some make them come from the interior of Arabia Felix, others from India, which is not at all probable. The best authorities assign Persia as their country, and this opinion seems to us based in truth. The names Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, nounced, under the first successor of Cyrus, and a short time after the rebuilding of the temple, that a divine infant, called to change the face of the world, would be born of a virgin, pure and immaculate, in the western¬ most region of Asia. A star unknown to their heavens would, he added, announce this remarkable' event, and on its appear¬ ance the Magi were in person to bear presents to this young king. Faithful and scrupulous executors of the wishes of Zoro¬ aster, three of the most illustrious wise men of Babylon 2 had no sooner remarked the star, than they sounded the cymbals of departure. Leaving behind them the attributed to the Magi, are Babylonian. In fact, Babylon, and after its destruction Seleucia, situated at a short distance, were the abode of the most celebrated astronomers of antiquity. Finally, these cities are eastward of Jerusalem, and in twenty days’ march one may travel from the borders of the Euphrates to Bethlehem. Origen, learned and well-informed, assures us that the Magi studied astrology. Drexelius somewhat clumsily ridicules THE GUIDING STAR TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MOTHER LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. city of Seleucidm, with its elegant edifices of palm-wood, 1 and Babylon, where the desert wind, moaning over immense ruins, seemed to recount to these silent wrecks the sinister oracles of the son of Amos, they left the land of the date-palm, and took the sandy road to Palestine. Before them, like the pillar of light which guided the fugitive cohorts of Israel to. the desert shores of the Red Sea, moved the star of the Messias. This new star, freed from those unchangeable laws which rule the starry spheres, had no regular or peculiar motion; sometimes it advanced at the head of the caravan, always following a straight westward line; sometimes it remained sta¬ tionary above the tents pitched for the night, and seemed to sway gently on the bosom of the clouds, like an albatross sleep¬ ing in the fields of air : at daybreak it gave the signal for departure, as it had given that to halt. 2 At length, Jerusalem’s tall towers loomed up in the distance, amid the bare wild sum¬ mits of her mountains ; the camels and the mares were slaking their thirst at a wayside pool, when the Magi uttered a cry of sur¬ prise and affright; the star had just vanished in the heights of the sky, like an intelligent creature that detects impending danger. 3 * (*) Origen for this; which proves that he was little versed in the ancient history of the East, where every astronomer was also an astrologer. ( 1 ) Strabo, liv. xvii. (*) S. John Chrysostom, Serm. 6, in S. Matt.— Chalcidius, a pagan philosopher, who lived at the end of the third century, mentions this star, and the sages of the East whom it guided to the man¬ ger of Jesus Christ. Listen to what St. Augustine, the doctor of doctors, says on this point: “ At his 123 As much lost as the navigators of yore when a barrier of black clouds concealed the polar star from them, the Magi con¬ sulted together for a moment. What meant the sudden disappearance of their brilliant guide? Had they then reached the end of their long journey, and were they to pitch the permanent tent ? That the infant king whom they came from the banks of the Tigris to adore was in Jerusa¬ lem was both possible and probable. “The God of heaven,” they thought, “does not prolong his miracles in vain ; they cease when human agency suffices : this is all as he orders. What if the star has left us? we can very well, without its aid, find him whom we seek in the capital of his domin¬ ions. To discover the cradle of the young King Messias, we need but to enter the first street strewn with green boughs, per¬ fumed with attar of roses, and carpeted with richly-colored drapery embroidered with gold ; the sound of the Hebrew harps, their choirs of dancers, and their songs of joy, will sufficiently indicate the course we are to take.” Then urging on their animals, they passed the gate in the wall, and entered ancient Sion between two files of barbarian soldiers. The aspect of Jerusalem was sad: its birth he called forth a new star, who at his death darkened the old sun. What was that star, which had never before appeared among the stars, nor has since been seen in the firmament ? What was it, but a magnificent tongue of the heavens, to declare the glory of God, the parturition of the Virgin.” ( 3 ) This cistern, or well, situated on the road to Jerusalem, in memory of this event, still bears the name of the Cistern of the three Kings or of the Star. J 124 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. population, busy and silent, wore no look of joy or festivity ; groups only formed here and there, to see the travellers pass by, whom they recognized by their long white robes, girt by. magnificent oriental girdles, their bazubends 1 studded with precious stones, and above all, by the manly beauty of their features, as satraps of the great king. As they went along, the oriental cavaliers, leaning down over the necks of their dromedaries, asked some of the numerous spectators, who crowded the way, where was the new-born King of the Jews, whose star they had seen in Babylon. The men of Jerusalem, looking at one another in amazement, could not answer this inquiry.A King of the Jews! .... What king? For their part they knew none but Herod, whom they loathed from the depth of their soul, and who had no infant son. The Magi, aston¬ ished in turn that all whom they questioned should protest their ignorance, and seeing moreover around them no signs of festivity, ascended in consternation the crowded street which led to the ancient palace of David, and pitched their tents in its ruin¬ ous and shaded courts. Meanwhile, the appearance of these Per¬ sian grandees, who travelled very rarely at that time in the mountains of Judea, ( 1 ) Bazubends, antique bracelets, studded with diamonds, turquoises, and pearls, which the satraps wore above the elbow: the King of Persia and his sons still wear the bazubend.—(See Morier, Voy¬ age en Perse et en Armenie.) ( 2 ) See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, lib. xv., c. 13. . ( a ) The whole East at that time believed in astrology; and Philo informs us that the satraps their startling questions, which alike aston¬ ished and intimidated a nation held in awe by Herod’s espionage, 2 soon threw into com¬ motion the most seditious and restless city of the East. The name of King Messias, pronounced by the Pharisees, ever on the alert to make the aged monarch tremble as to the future fortunes of his house and the duration of his own power, fell among the curious groups like a spark upon thatch. The King Messias? It was eman¬ cipation ! It was conquest! It was glory! It was the banner of Juda waving in triumph over the vanquished world ! The Persian satraps were deemed the first astrologers in the world ; 3 they had, no doubt, read in the stars the birth of the Hebrew God: 4 The heir of the kings of Juda was about to reascend the mighty throne of his ancestors, and drive from it the race of the Herods, those half-Jews who were the slaves of Rome! A low murmur, like that which forebodes the tempests of the ocean, soon circulated through houses, and street, and public place; never had the Jews of Jerusalem felt less disposed to bow to the royal edict, which forbade them to meddle with any affairs but their own , 5 In vain did Herod’s fierce soldiery line the ramparts and platforms of the towers; the people were out in of Persia were deemed the first astrologers in tire world. ( 4 ) Goel (Saviour), one of the names by which the Hebrews designated the Messias. ( 5 ) Herod had strictly forbidden the Jews to talk of affairs of state; they could not even meet together in family parties to make great feasts, according to custom. His spies, scattered about Jerusalem, and even over the high roads, arrested LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 125 force ; fear was gone,—they conspired in the street. “All Jerusalem was troubled,” says the gospel, and it was soon the tyrant’s turn to be troubled also. Herod at that time resided in his palace at Jerusalem, the gardens of which, full of flowers, stocked with rare birds, and inter¬ sected with limpid streams, which were lost beneath the branches of a real little forest, 1 could not banish the gloomy recol¬ lections and dark forebodings which made life a burthen. When his head spy re¬ ported the arrival of the Magi, and their strange words, his broad forehead wrinkled with anxious thought, clouded over like a stormy sky, and his uneasiness was visible to all. The trouble of the King of the Jews is easy to understand, his position explains it. Herod was neither the anointed of the Lord, nor the choice of the people ; a branch of laurel, gathered in the idola¬ trous precincts of the Capitol, formed his tributary crown,—a crown of vassalage, entwined with thorns, every leaf of which had been bought with heaps of gold wrested from the savings of the rich and the indigence of the poor. Hated by the rich, whose heads he struck off at the first suspicion, feared by his relatives, whose tombs he tragically filled, the horror of the priests, whose privileges he had tram¬ pled under foot, detested by the people for on the spot all who disobeyed the king’s edict; they were placed secretly, and sometimes in open day, in strongholds, where they wore severely punished.—(Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, lib. XV., c. 13.) (*) Josephus, Jewish War, lib. v., c. 13. his doubtful religion and his foreign extrac¬ tion, he could array only his courtiers, his assassins, his artists, and the small but opulent sect of Herodians, fascinated by his magnificence, against the active, ardent, and openly declared hatred of the rest of the nation. Often was the friend of Ctesar openly braved by his obstinate subjects : the Pharisees, an artful and powerful sect, had with insult and derision refused to take the oath of fidelity; the Essenians, whose courage in battle rendered them formidable, had followed the example of the Pharisees ; and the young and im¬ pulsive disciples of the doctors of the law had recentty, in open day, with their avenging axes, brought down the golden eagle which he had reared above the gate of the temple in order to please the Komans. On every side plots, secretly favored by his nearest and dearest relatives, were formed in the dark against his life, and he had well nigh fallen, in the open theatre, beneath the poniards of certain fanatic young men, who thought they were doing a deed of virtue and patriotism by ridding the earth of a prince who reigned like a madman. 2 Attributing this unusual daring to the contempt inspired by his old age, he exhausted all the secrets of art to recover his youth. 3 He would fain have persuaded himself and others, that he was still that young and brilliant Herod who surpassed ( 2 ) The people, far from applauding the dis¬ covery of this conspiracy, and rejoicing at the king’s safety, seized the informer who had disclosed it, tore him to pieces, and flung his remains to the dogs.— (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, lib. xv., c. 11.) ( 3 ) Herod painted in order to look younger than 126 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. tlie greater part of the Hebrews in gym¬ nast] c exercises : Herod the bold rider, the expert, hunter, the handsome, haughty monarch, who had despised the love of that celebrated Egyptian queen for whom Anthony threw away the empire of the world. But alas! the silver threads that began to mingle with the black hair of his sons, their impatience to reign, the spirit of revolt and mutiny which crept in among the people, and the insolence of the robber bands who re-commenced their depreda¬ tions in Galilee, made him feel but too keenly that his reign drew near its end. Torn with suspicions, and distrustful even of his spies, he wandered about, sometimes at night, alone and in disguise, in the streets and public places of his capital: 1 there he heard with his own ears the mut¬ tered imprecations, the cruel reproaches, the bitter railleries which fell upon “ the man without ancestors,” the “ Ascalonite,” the “ wild beast,” who had slain his inno¬ cent wife,—a pearl of beauty, a model of honor,—and who had afterward strangled the two sons she bore him, those two sad, handsome, brave princes, whom the people loved for the sake of the Asmonean heroes from whom they sprung as well as for their unfortunate mother. The day after these nocturnal wanderings was a day of mourn¬ ing and punishments ; none were spared. The executioner’s sword after cutting off the heads of the highest, descended to the very dust. Thus on every side wishes he was, and dyed his hair and beard black.— (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, lib. xvi., c. 11.) ( 1 ) He often mingled, at night, in disguise, with the populace, says Josephus, to know what rose against the life of the prince ; and each time that the report of his death was circulated, whether by chance or design, in the distant provinces, the people greed¬ ily seizing the treacherous bait which flat¬ tered their hatred, hastened in every direction to light up bonfires, which Herod quenched with blood. Amidst these elements of civil dis¬ cord, when a fever of insurrection was sullenly working its way in the army, and revolt, like a ripe fruit, seemed to invite the hand of the seditious,— strangers of high bearing arrive at Jeru¬ salem, who inquire without any mystery or circumlocution for a new-born King of the Jews, whose star they have seen. Herod .is astonished ; he anxiously calls up his recollections ; the predictions fore¬ boding ill to his dynasty which the Phar¬ isees circulated—the oracles of the ancient seers—to which he has hitherto lent but a distracted and secondary attention, now flash on his remembrance. This warrior Messias, this prophet sprung from David, who is to bear his victorious ensigns from west to east, begins to fill him with vague disquietude ; it is not the God who fills the aged king with thought, it is the prince. The more he ponders it, the more this mys¬ terious event seems to him connected with one vast conspiracy planned to raise up a secret rival power upon the ruins of his own. What! had he shed like water the illustrious blood of the Machabees, without opinion the. people had of him, and he punished without mercy those who did not approve of what he did.—(Ibid., lib. xv., c. 13.) ■ LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 127 « any concern for the beating hearts of his prophet of God,” said Herod, after a wife and children ; had he crushed beneath pause, “he must die; .... and die he the iron wheels of his despotism all that shall, even though I were sure to extin- offered any resistance ; lost soul, honor, guish with this feeble spark, all the glories his nightly rest, in which his bleeding vie- which our seers dream of for future times. tims troubled his dreams 1 .... and all for Athalia, that able woman, so fit to reign, what?—to smooth the way to the throne forgot only an infant in his cradle in the for the family of David! 2 .... Must this massacre of the royal family of Juda. That dear-bought sceptre,—this sceptre, still child deprived her of her throne and her reeking with the blood of his kindred, be af- life. I will take care to forget nothing. ter all only a barren and accursed reed, that But where lurks this new-born king of the the blast of death will break over his tomb! Jews, who is proclaimed by the stars, and .... Must he pass, like the meteor of a whom those insolent satraps come to seek . stormy night, over this land, whose ancient at the very gate of my palace ? Can he glory will brilliantly revive after him ! . . . be in reality the Shilo foretold by Jacob ? And this people, who hated him with so These are perhaps mere reveries of the strong, so deadly, so furious a hatred, that astrologers? Still we must make sure.” his very favors failed to allay it, how will A few hours after, the doctors of the law they surround with their love and sym- and the chief priests assembled in council . pathy the scion of their ancient kings! under the presidency of Herod, heard this And this last thought fell like wormwood question, which appeared to them strange upon the dark and desolate heart of the aged from the mouth of such a prince : “ Know monarch ; for amidst his acts of violence, he you in what spot the Messias is to be born?” felt the want of being loved, a strange want The answer, which was not long delayed, certainly, but perfectly real in this excep- was unanimous : “In Bethlehem of Juda.'' tional being, who seemed made up of con- And the ancients of Israel, delighted to trasts, and who had employed very noble alarm the friend of the Romans, most qualities in the service of the most absorb- surely added that, as the last of the weeks ing and cruel passion that could ravage the of Daniel was drawing to its close, the time human soul—ambition. for the Messias was at hand. This dis- “Be this child prince of the land or couraging information, not sufficient for (') Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, lib. v., and destroyed. Under Trajan, the persecution c. 13. still continued. Finally, Domitian had two de- (’) We wonder at the alarm caused in Herod by scendants of that illustrious race brought to Rome, an offshoot of the family of David; yet it Was not whose grandfather was the apostle St. Jude. The only Herod that persecuted that noble family, out emperor, after questioning them, learning that of hatred for its ancient rights and glorious expec- they possessed but thirty-nine acres of land, which tations. Eusebius, after Hegesippus, relates that, they cultivated with their own hands, sent them after the conquest of Jerusalem, Vespasian com- back to their own country, their poverty calming manded the posterity of David to be sought out his mind as to their ambition. 128 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. Herod, who would fain know where to strike his blow ; he resolved to question the Magi, and learn, if possible, the pre¬ cise time of the child’s birth, calculated by that of the appearance of the star. Too shrewd a politician to grant to the sages of Iran a public audience, which would have given consistency to a rumor that it was his interest to stifle, the king sent for them privately, and plied them with questions as to the time of the star’s appearing to them. “ He inquires minutely,” says St. John Chrysostom, “ not of the child, but of the star, in order to observe all possible cir¬ cumspection in the snare he wished to lay.” Informed of all that he longed to know, the man of blood dismissed the strangers in an affable and gracious manner. “ Gfo,” . said he, “ to Bethlehem, and search dili¬ gently after the child ; and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him.” Now the Magi, like all superior men, like -all the sons of meditation and science, were good, sincere, and loth to suspect evil. They understood tyranny and cru- elty in a prince, they did not understand falsehood ; for the first thing that the kings of Persia learned in childhood was to tell the truth. Hence they believed the false words of the Idumean, and passing again beneath the elegant porticoes of this palace, which vied in magnificence with those of the great king, but which had not amid its bronzes and arcades the golden bell of the suppliants, 1 they left the Bet¬ zetha, 2 folded their tents, and once more traversed the holy city, to proceed to the presumed birth-place of the Messias. As they skirted the trophied walls of the new - amphitheatre, whose extraordinary deco¬ ration was an inexhaustible subject of sarcasm to the Pharisees, they met King Herod,. proceeding toward Jericho, sur¬ rounded by a forest of Thracian and Ger¬ man lances. 3 The Persians left Jerusalem by the gate of Damascus ; then taking the left, they entered deep ravines, intersected by hills, which they were obliged to climb. They were about an hour’s march from the cap¬ ital of Judea, and were- watering their ( 1 ) The Persian kings administered justice in quite a patriarchal manner. They had above their heads a golden bell, and to this hell was attached a chain, the end of which hung outside of the palace. Whenever the bell rung, the officers of the prince left his apartments, and introduced before the great Icing the petitioners, who de¬ manded justice of the prince himself, and the king rendered it to them on the spot with equity. —(Antar, translated from the Arabic by Terrick Hamilton.) ( 2 ) The quarter called Betzetha, or the new town, which Herod had joined to Jerusalem, lay north of the temple ; it included the lower pool, the probatica pool, and Herod’s palace. ( 2 ) We have followed the authors who maintain that Herod set out for Jericho, where he was for some time sick, at the time when the Magi jour¬ neyed to Bethlehem : this agrees in every particu¬ lar with the account of the gospel ; for if Herod had been at Jerusalem at the time when the Per¬ sians returned, they would probably have seen him before the admonition of the angel, who did not inform them of the designs of the king till the first night. The sickness of Herod, taking off his attention from the Magi and the infant, left the former at liberty to return peaceably into their country, and gave the Holy Family time to take up their homeward road to Nazareth. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 129 camels at a pool, when a brilliant light appeared directly over them, descending rapidly to them, like a falling star. “ The star! our star!” cried out the slaves, trans¬ ported with joy. “The star!” repeated their masters, with the same rapture ; and certain this time of having entered on the right way, they resumed their journey with fresh ardor. They were about to enter the city of David, when the star, inclining toward the south, suddenly stopped over a cave, which wore the look of a rustic stable, and descending to the lowest region of the air, rested, as it were, over the head of the infant G-od. The sight of this motionless star,—whose softest rays fell in a luminous stream upon this cave hollowed out of the rock,—filled the Magi with great faith, and great indeed their faith had need to be, to acknowledge the King Messias in an infant destitute of everything, lodged in a poor place, cradled in a manger, whose mother, though beautiful and full of every grace, was evidently of a very obscure rank. God, who wished to make the Jews blush at the hardness of their hearts, by contrasting before them the religious eager¬ ness and the docile faith of the heathen, permitted that the extraordinary humili¬ ation of the Holy Family should not shake the firm belief of the Magi. The worshippers of the sun, the Gentiles, whom the cross came to save, as well as the children of the promise, made their way into the sorry abode of Christ with as much veneration as into their temples built over subterranean fires, where starry spheres revolved. 1 According to the cus¬ tom of their people, they placed on their brows the dust of that poor threshold, and after laying aside their rich sandals, they adored the new-born Infant, as every son of the East at that time adored his gods and his masters. Then, opening caskets of fragrant wood, which contained the presents intended for the Messias, thev drew forth most pure gold, found in the environs of Ninive the (Treat, and perfumes which were exchanged for fruits and pearls with the Arabs of the Yemen. These mysteri¬ ous gifts had nothing carnal about them, like the offerings of the Jews. The cradle of Him who came to abolish the sacrifices of the synagogue was not to be sprinkled with blood ; therefore the Magi did not sacrifice to him spotless lambs, nor white heifers ; they presented him gold, as to a prince of earth, myrrh, and frankincense, as to a God ; 2 then, touching the earth with their foreheads before Mary, whom they found fair “ as the moon, and humble as the flower of nenuphar,” they invoked upon her the blessings of God, and wished that the hand of woe might never reach her.” ( 1 ) These spheres, composed of hollow circles of gold, like those of our armillary spheres, revolve noisily at sunrise. Such are still seen at Oulam, where the Ghebers have a temple.—(Rabbi Benja¬ min.) (’) N ot without reason has praise been lavished ■•7 on those verses of Juvencus, the most ancient of Christian poets whose works have come down to us, on the presents of the kingly Magi:— “ Aurum, thus, myrrham, regique, Deoque, ho- minique Dona ferunt.” 130 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. This was the last scene of splendor in them, in a dream, of the dark designs which the Blessed Virgin appears. The of that perfidious prince, and bade them first period of her life, like a sweet dream change their route. The children of of G-innistan, had glided away beneath Ormuzd returned their thanks to the fretted roofs of cedar and gold, amid “ Master of the sun and of the morning sacred perfumes, melodious chants, the star,” gave the honor of this nocturnal sound of lyre and harp ; the second, full revelation to their good genius, 1 and mer- of wonders and mysteries, had brought iting by their perfect docility the gift of her into communication with the inhabit- faith which they subsequently received, 2 ants of heaven and the princes of Asia; instead of going along the sterile and the third was about to open under other dangerous borders of the accursed lake auspices : it was the turn of persecutions, which reflects in its heavy and stagnant troubles, and unspeakable sorrow. waters the shadows of the reprobate cities, And now the Magi, whom nothing re- they turned their camels’ heads toward the tained in Judea, prepared to leave Beth- Great Sea, and as they traversed the lovely lehem. They proposed, according to their regions of Syria, fancied themselves in the promise, to go to the king in his palace at plains planted with date-trees 8 and covered Jericho, and tell him where the Messias with roses, bathed by the Euphrates and was; but the angel of the Lord admonished the Bend-Emyr. ( 1 ) Of Ormuzd (in Zend, ahurd-mazclao, the is not of the same form in all. Some palm-trees very learned king), and of Ahriman (in Zend, spread out their branches in a circle, and the fruit aliyro-maingus, intelligent evil), according to the of some projects in clusters from the bark, which Persian mythology, were born the good and evil is open about midway; others have branches on genii to whom are attributed different functions in one side only, and their weight bending them the universe, either to diffuse good or to propagate down toward the ground, gives them the figure of evil. One of these good genii, named Serosch, a hanging lamp; others, in fine, divide their went round the earth every night to watch for the branches into two portions, which fall to the right security of the servants of Ormuzd.—(See the and left in perfect symmetry.”—(Diodorus, b. ii.) Amschaspand-Named, and Firdousi’s Book of The following is the description of the banks of the Kings.) Euphrates, by a poet anterior to Mahomet: “ They ( 1 ) Very ancient authors affirm that the Magi saw populous towns, plains abounding in flowing received baptism from St. Thomas; it is thought streams, date-trees, and warbling birds, and sweet- that they suffered martyrdom in India, where they smelling flowers; and the country appeared like a preached the gospel. blessing to enliven the sorrowing heart; and the ( s ) “ The palm-trees of Babylonia,” says Dio- camels were grazing and straying about the land; dorus Siculus, “bear exquisite dates; they are half and they were of various colors, like the flowers of a foot long, some yellow, others red, and others of a garden.”—(Antar, translated from the Arabic by a‘ purple color, so that they are no less agreeable Terrick Hamilton.)—For the fields and gardens of to the sight than to the taste. The trunk of the roses so common in ancient Persia, see Firdousi, tree is of an astonishing height, and everywhere Book of Kings. alike straight and smooth; but the head, or tuft, ’ i /’ ' M r • ••• LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 131 CHAPTER XHI. THE PURIFICATION. F ORTY days after the birth of our Saviour, the Virgin duly prepared to proceed to Jerusalem, in conformity with the precept of Leviticus, which prescribed the purification of mothers, and the ransom of the first-born. Doubtless this law was not obligatory upon Mary ; for if she had been a mother for our Redeemer, she had « remained a virgin for herself, and her vir- ginial conception had been followed by an unsullied child-birth ; “but she submitted voluntarily, as an example to the world, to a penal law to which she was subject,” says Bossuet, “only because her virginal maternity was unknown.” Poorly equipped, and lost in the crowd on their first appearance upon the dusty road of Ephrata, Joseph and Mary, who had not attracted any notice, had not either left behind them those long recol¬ lections which pass into tradition among nations. It was different on their return ( 1 ) This tree, under which Mary rested to suckle Jesus, was destroyed during the century before the last, but the memory of the place where it was is still preserved. ( 2 ) According to the Jewish doctors, Jacob buried his beloved wife on the road to Bethlehem, only because his prophetic knowledge led him to discover that a portion of his descendants would follow this road as captives of the Assyrians, and because he wished that Rachel might plead for them to Jehovah, as they passed before her tomb. Protestants have declaimed strongly against the to Jerusalem ; thanks, no doubt, to the miraculous narrative of the shepherds, and the brilliant visit of the Magi. At some distance from Bethlehem, Mary rested beneath a terebinth-tree to give suck to her divine Infant, and this tree, in the common belief, from that time possessed a hidden virtue which effected, during sixteen centuries, a multitude of wonderful cures. So, at least affirm the Christians of Asia and the Turks, to whom this tree was still, two centuries ago, an object of veneration and a pilgrimage. 1 After this halt, the memory of which is preserved, the holy spouses arrived at the tomb of Rachel, 2 where every Hebrew was bound to pray as he passed. This tumulus of primitive times, which was composed of twelve great moss-eaten stones on each of which was inscribed the name of a tribe of Israel, had no epitaph but a white rose of Syria; sweet and frail emblem of the Talmudists on account of this passage, which favors the intercession of the Virgin and of the saints. In such veneration was this tomb of Rachel, that all Jews who passed hy it made it a solemn duty to engrave their names on one of the stones : these enormous stones were twelve in number.—(Talmud of Jerusalem.) The tears of Rachel, spoken of by Jeremias, were, it is known, only a figure of the tears shed hy the Jewish women after the massacre of the Innocents.- -(St. Matt., xi. 17, 18.) 132 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. beauty of that young woman, who faded at ransom and the doves for sacrifice, a holv the moment when she had just blossomed, old man, named Simeon, 2 to whom it had like the flower spoken of by Job. As they been divinely revealed that he should not stopped to say the prayer for the dead die till he had seen Christ of the Lord, over the revered dust of one of the saints came into the court by an inspiration of of their people, the Yirgin and Joseph the Spirit of Gfod. On beholding the Holy little thought that the sighs of the dove, Family, the eye of the just man became which the Scripture attributes to this fair inspired; discerning the King-Messias be- Assyrian, would so soon be applicable, and neath the poor swaddling-clothes of the that the mother of Joseph and Benjamin poor man’s child, he took him from his was the desolate type of mothers who mother’s arms, lifted him up to his face, would bewail, some days afterward, upon and began to contemplate him with emo- the mountains of Judea, their children tion, while tears of joy furrowed his vener- massacred instead of Jesus Christ. able cheeks. “Now,” cried out the pious On leaving the valley of Rephaim, whose old man, raising up his streaming eyes to ancient oaks overshadowed the grassy heaven, “now thou dost dismiss thy serv- tombs of the giants of the race of Enac, the ant, 0 Lord, according to thy word, in Yirgin perceived a tree of a forbidding peace; because my eyes have seen thy aspect; from the sight her heart shrank. salvation, which thou hast prepared before It was a barren olive-tree, which spread the face of all people: a light to the its pale foliage to the evening breeze with revelation of the G-entiles, and the glory a saddening sound that resembled a human of thy people Israel.” As he finished wail. As she passed beneath its melan- these words, Simeon solemnly blessed the choly branches, which no bird of heaven holy pair; and then addressing Mary, enlivened with its song, Mary felt that after a mournful and grave silence, he sensation of poisonous cold diffused by the added that this child, born for the ruin fatal shade of the manchineel-tree. This and resurrection of many in Israel, would tree, if the local tradition errs not, was the be a sign of contradiction to men, and that “ infamous” wood on which Christ was sorrow should pierce the soul of his mother nailed. 1 like the sharp point of a sword. At the very moment when Joseph and By this unexpected light, which shed a Mary made their way into the second sombre gleam over the great destiny of enclosure, with the sides of silver for the Christ, the ignominies, the sufferings, and ( 1 ) Half a league from Jerusalem stands the by a marble stone, which is at the bottom of a monastery of the Holy Cross. In the church of small niche beneath the high altar, where a lamp this monastery is shown the place where stood the burns perpetually. barren olive-tree, which the men of Jerusalem used ( 2 ) The Arabs give Simeon the title of Siddilc to make the cross of our Lord. The place where (he who verifies), because he bore witness to the the trunk of the Olive-tree stood is now occupied coming of the true Messias, in the person of Jesus, anrdiMais siihjl mu MCDn^jiMsisamidi amm • - wwww*- ,«V 1 Wt^k 0 ■ oVMMlU LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 133 agonies of the cross, were at once revealed to the Blessed Virgin. Simeon’s terrible words bowed down her head like a stormy wind, and her heart was painfully op¬ pressed. 1 But Mary knew how to accept, without complaint and without murmur, all that came to her from God ; her pale lips were placed upon this chalice of worm¬ wood and gall ; she drained it even to the dregs, and then said, sweetly, as she swal¬ lowed her tears, “0 Lord, thy will be done!” At that moment the daughter of Abraham was exalted above the head and father of her people ; she too sacrificed her son upon the altar of the Lord ; but she had the sad assurance that the sacrifice would be accepted, — and she was a mother! She was still pondering in her mind these deep thoughts, when a prophetess came in named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, who was far advanced in years. This holy widow departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving God night and day. On beholding the divine Infant, she began to praise the Lord aloud, and to speak of him to those who looked for the redemption of Israel. “Not only,” says St. Ambrose on this subject, “ do angels, and prophets, and shep¬ herds attest the Saviour’s birth, but the aged and the just of Israel proclaim this truth. Every age, and both sexes uphold this belief which miracles uphold. A Vir¬ gin brings forth, one that was barren becomes a mother, the dumb speaks, Eliza¬ beth prophesies, the Magian adores, the child shut up in the womb leaps for joy, the widow proclaims, the just expects this wonderful event.” As the inmost court of the temple was forbidden to Mary, and as the infant, on acount of his sex, was there to be offered to the Lord, Joseph himself carried him into th Q^hall of the first-born , asking himself at the same time whether the scenes which had taken place at the entrance of Jesus into the holy house would be renewed in the court of the Hebrew priests. But nothing proclaimed the infant God in this privi¬ leged part of the temple ; everything there remained sad and frozen beneath the rising ray of the young Sun of justice. A priest unknown to Joseph carelessly received from the rough hands of the low-born man, whom he regarded as the “offscouring of the world,” 8 the timid birds ordained by the law, and did not even deign to honor Christ with a look. The love of gold— that shameful idolatry, which hides its unacknowledged worship in the shade, as long as it retains enough shame to blush, had hardened to stone the narrow, egotist¬ ical and malignant heart 3 of the princes of the synagogue. Leaving the monopoly of the son of Mary, whom all Mussulmans are obliged to receive as such.—(D’Herbelot, Biblioth. Orien- tale, t. iii., p. 266 .) ( 1 ) “ Mary, my sovereign,” says St. Anselm on this subject, “ I cannot believe that thou couldst have lived a moment with such sorrow, had not God, who giveth life, strengthened thee.” iff ( a ) Prideaux, History of the Jews. ( 8 ) The Jewish doctors had then, and still have, a maxim which fills us with horror: they hold that he who does not nourish his hatred, and avenge himself, is unworthy of the name of rabbi.—(Bas- nage, liv. vi., c. 17 .) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 134 labor and privations to the simple Levites, whom they reduced to live upon herbs and dried figs, 1 they passed by the poor man stretched upon their marble threshold, and the traveller wounded in the mountain pathway, unfeelingly turning their heads away: in reality they loved neither God nor man. Our Lord who Himself insti¬ tuted a priesthood of charity, reproaches them with this, with holy and piercing irony, in the parable of the good Samaritan. Therefore, as Malachy had announced, “God cursed their benedictions,” and turned away his face from their temple, which he was soon to deliver up to the sword and fire of the Romans. The presence of the Messias, who in¬ flamed the heart of the disciples at Em- maus, even before they had recognized their Master in the breaking of bread, glided over the soul of the Aaronites, as the rays of spring on the eternal snows of Ararat. That solemn moment, which suspended the sacred concerts round the Almighty, and rivetted the eyes of the heavenly host on a single point of the uni¬ verse, that moment announced by Aggeus, when the glory of the second temple effaced that of the first, passed unperceived before the darkened eyes of the priests and doc¬ tors. None of them recognized the clean and unsullied oblation which Malachy had ( 1 ) The luxury and avarice of the chief priests of Jerusalem were incredible. The pontiffs sent people into the country to take the tithes in the granaries, and appropriate them to themselves, which left the inferior priests to die of hunger. At the least remonstrance, the miserable Levites were accused of revolt and insubordination, and foretold. The Desired of Nations, He whose way had been prepared by angels, the great Redeemer so long promised and expected, was there bodily present, in his holy house, and no one thought to welcome him with palms, crying out upon the battle¬ ments of the temple and the roofs of Jeru¬ salem, “ Hosanna to the Son of David!” They knew well, says the gospel, how to prognosticate the approach of rain by the clouds which gathered in the west; they knew well how to foresee heat, at the breath of the south wind ; but these men, so skilful in drawing presages from the dif¬ ferent aspects of the sky, did not see “that the fig-tree of Solomon was about to put forth its figs,” 2 and in the child of the poor they could not discern the God. 0 poverty, how excellent a disguise art thou, even for the divine nature! The true Christ was in the midst of his own ; but he was poor, and his own received him not: therefore have they remained without a Saviour; for no Melech-Hamaschialc has come to justify their incredulous contempt for the divine Son of the Virgin, and they are driven to say, with cold and despairing rage, “Per¬ ish those who calculate the time of the Messias.” 3 Meanwhile the infant God, who had re¬ cognized, as he passed through the streets of Jerusalem, the sites of our redemption, delivered up to the Romans; the governor Felix alone cast forty of them into prison, to gratify the doctors and princes of the synagogue.—(Josephus.) ( a ) St. Luke, c. 12, v. 55 et 56, et c. xxii., v. 29, 30. (*) Basnage, liv. vi., c. 26; Talmud., 349. FLIGHT INTO EGYPT LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 135 counted his executioners in silence in this careless as to that future which was lower- grave and glittering assemblage ; among ing over their heads, the Hebrew priests the choirs who sung to the harp hymns of offered to the God who rejected them the praise to the Eternal, Christ distinguished chosen victims of the great and of the the arrogant and malevolent voices which common people. One of them took the were at a later day to cry out, “ Crucify. doves from Joseph, mounted the gentle him! crucify him!” ascent of the altar of holocausts, and of- Race of Aaron, where art thou now ? fered to the Lord this poor and simple The avenging breath of the Crucified has sacrifice. scattered thee like chaff in every part of “And after Joseph and Mary had per- the globe ; absorbed in those masse§ which formed all things according to the law of thou despisedst, the companions of thy exile the Lord,” says St. Luke, “they returned • no longer know thee! But at that time, into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth.” 1 CHAPTER XIV. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. O' CARCELY had they returned into until I shall tell thee. For it will come to Lower Galilee, when Joseph and pass that Herod will seek the Child to Mary had to depart again for a long and destroy him.” At these words, Joseph, perilous journey, the end of which was the affrighted, rose up, adored the Lord, and laud of exile. One night, “an angel of ran to awaken Mary, who was sleeping the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, say- the sweet and gentle sleep of angels by the ing, Arise, and take the Child and his cradle of her infant. The young mother Mother, and fly into Egypt; and be there soon felt the necessity of this prompt and ( 1 ) We follow the opinion of St. Luke, St. John concile these two evangelists, but that the return Chrysostom, and some other authorities, in making to Nazareth preceded the flight into Egypt. For the Holy Family set out for Nazareth after the God did not command Joseph and Mary thither Purification. This is the only way to reconcile St. before the Purification, lest the law should be in Matthew—who says nothing of the marvellous any way infringed; hut this duty accomplished, events of the Presentation in the temple—with and they returned to Nazareth, where they received St. Luke, who is silent as to the massacre of the the order to fly into Egypt.”—(Horn. ix. in St. Innocents and the flight into Egypt. “ What then Matt.) shall we say ?” says St. John Chrysostom, “to re- 136 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. stealthy departure. She casts a look full of anguish on her son ; hastily gets to¬ gether some provisions, some clothes, some garments which they need in their flight; and then, preceded by Joseph, and carry¬ ing Jesus in her arms, she departs from her native city, where all reposes in the brightness of the stars of night. The prophecies of Simeon had soon been verified. Scarcely was he born, when the persecution of a tyrant came to seek Jesus in the cradle, and his pure, young, holy mother, was forced to fly by night, like a criminal, in company with a hoary old man, who could oppose only patience and prayer to the spear of the Arab lying in ambush in the defiles of the mountains, or to the murderous pursuit of Herod’s sol¬ diers : and one would have said that God himself abandoned this Holy Family to its fate; for, when communicating to Joseph the order to depart, his messenger did not, like the angel Raphael formerly, in the case of the young traveller to Rages, pro¬ mise to guard them from all evil during the journey. The spouse of the Virgin understood that, the solemn time for the manifestation of Christ not having arrived, God designed to preserve him from the snares of Herod by means suggested by mere human prudence, On Joseph then devolved all the care and honor of this difficult undertaking,—on him, a poor and obscure plebeian, devolved the care of over¬ turning the plans, baffling the plots, and ( 1 ) About the middle of February,—a season still cold in the mountains of the intenor, where the temperature, according to M. de Volney, is nearly the same as our own. The plains of Syria, eluding the suspicious vigilance of an able, distrustful tyrant, served by his emissaries like an oriental despot. What would be¬ come of them, and what should they do, if any fatal surprise occurred on the road to Jerusalem ? The abrupt departure of the Magi had awakened Herod’s suspicions— suspicions strengthened by the language of Anna and Simeon ; secret inquiries, mys¬ terious investigations, already began, and no one could tell where the sanguinary prince would stop, who lavishly poured his gold into- the reeking hands of the mur¬ derer. The more Joseph sounded his own thoughts, the more be foreboded some hor¬ rid scheme, the vague terror of which con¬ gealed the blood in his veins. Mary, for her part, pale and silent as death, scanned with timid look the depths of the valleys, the heart of the forests, or along the soli¬ tary windings of the rough, rocky path, which Joseph had chosen a§, the surest and most secluded from the habitations of men. The moon lighted with its soft and velvet beams this silent march, enveloped by a fine oriental night in its azure veils. “The season was still cold,” 1 says St. Bonaventure, “and, traversing Palestine, the Holy Family had to choose the most rugged and desert tracks. Where shall they lodge at night ? What place can they choose by day, to recruit a little from the fatigue of the journey ? Where shall they take the frugal repast, needed to sus¬ tain their strength?” 2 on the contrary, were already as hot as in summer. —(See p. 74, note 3.) ( 3 ) S. Bonaventure, Life of Christ. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Tradition is silent as to a great part of this affecting and perilous journey. No doubt, the holy travellers made long and painful marches over the mountains, profit¬ ing by the earliest hours of daylight, and often waiting, too, for the moon to rise, * before they proceeded on their way. As long as they were passing through Galilee, with the deep caverns yawning in it, caverns of unknown windings, where it is easy to escape all observation, these afforded them a place to stop and repose : but these dens with yawning sides had their dangers too ; for they were the favorite resorts of % numerous robber bands, which had long defied all the forces of the kingdom, and who were emboldened to reappear by Herod’s sickness. 1 The fear of penetrat¬ ing unconsciously into one of these resorts of assassins must have made Joseph hes¬ itate more than once at the sheltering openings of these isolated caverns. At length, after a thousand inconven¬ iences of ever} r kind, the Holy Family reached the neighborhood of Jerusalem. Here precautions and uneasiness were mul¬ tiplied by the imminence of danger ; the fugitives no longer dared to approach towns, or even populous villages, where crowds of spies and informers kept their eye upon strangers; 3 they followed the bed of torrents, dived into deserted roads, ( 1 ) These large armies, often two or three thou¬ sand strong, were commanded by experienced chiefs, who gave Herod and the Romans constant occupation. Some had a political aim, and carried on a partisan war; others were only a mere collec¬ tion of assassins, who carried long daggers under their cloaks, and killed those whom they wished to 18 137 or the damp shade of woods, not daring to turn aside to renew their exhausted pro¬ visions, and thus suffering at once from fear, cold, and hunger. They had passed Anathoth, and were proceeding toward Ramla, in order to descend into the plains of Syria. Anxious to escape from a dan¬ gerous district, they were borrowing some hours from night, when they beheld armed men issue from a dark ravine, who stopped their passage. He who appeared to be the chief of this horde of banditti came forward from the hostile group to examine the travellers. Joseph and Mary had stopped, and looked at each other with alarm : Jesus was asleep. The robber who had come to take blood and gold, looked with astonishment at this old, unarmed man, just like a patriarch of olden times; at this veil¬ ed young woman, seemingly so anxious to hide her child from him in her heart, so closely did she press him to her breast in a clasp of agony. “ They are poor,” said the robber to himself, “and travel by night like fugitives !” He too, perhaps, had a child in its cradle ; perhaps the atmos¬ phere of meekness and mercy which sur¬ rounded Jesus and Mary had its influence upon his ferocious soul; he lowered the point of his spear, and extending to Joseph a friendly hand, he offered him a night’s lodging in his fortress, suspended upon the get rid of, even in the streets of Jerusalem.— (Josephus, Jewish War, lib. ii., c. 5.) ( 5 ) Herod, who brought espionage to perfection in the East, covered the great roads with spies in every part of Judea.—(Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, lib. xv., c. 13.) corner of a rock, like the eyrie of birds of prey. This offer, honestly made, was ac¬ cepted with holy confidence, and the rob¬ ber’s roof, like the tent of the Arab, on this occasion afforded hospitality. 1 The next day, toward noon, the Holy Family stopped in the midst of a vast forest of palm, nopal, and wild fig-trees, which ex¬ tends to a short distance from Ram la ; 2 a carpet of everlasting flowers, narcissus and anemone, received the Sovereign of heaven and earth ; the heats of summer prevailed in the plain, and the warbling of birds, the perfume of plants, the tufted shade of fig- trees, and the distant murmur of a spring, charmed the slumbers of Christ. After a short rest, in which every moment was counted, the travellers resumed their jour¬ ney. Their motive in travelling by the way of Bethlehem is unknown ; tradition has preserved the memory of their passage, and the Christians have erected an altar in the cave where Mary lay hid with her child, 3 while Joseph went up to the town, either to inquire for the departure of a caravan, or to exchange Mary’s slow beast for a camel. Whatever the motive that led ( 1 ) The site where the local tradition has placed this scene, and where the ruins of the fortress of the banditti are still visible, continues to hear a very had name. During the Crusades, the Pranks, to whom this tradition was familiar, had exalted the banditti chief to a feudal lord. “It is rare, how¬ ever,” says Father Hau, with amusing gravity, “ that a lord of note becomes a highway robber.” The crusaders were better versed in history than Father Nau. To this apparently authentic story has been added an embellishment, for which we cannot answer, asserting that the hospitable robber was the good thief in person. ( 3 ) The spot fixed by tradition as one of the Joseph and Mary into the crater of the volcano, they doubtless spent but a few hours there, and pressed on in all haste to reach a seaport of the Philistines, so as to join the first caravan going to Egypt. If we rely on the learned calculations of chronologists, who admit no interval in this long journey, the holy pair must have found on the coast of Syria, a caravan on the point of starting. This is the more probable as the vernal equinox was at hand, and every one would be anxious to anticipate the season when the Simoon exercises its empire over the desert, and makes its sea of sand as treacherous as the very billows. 4 Apart from the dread ap¬ prehension of Herod’s enraged pursuit, the second part of the Holy Family’s journey did not yield to the first in hardship or suffering, or even in danger. After leav¬ ing Gfaza, the ruined towers of which resounded with the dying sound of the waves, the travellers beheld nothing before them but immense wastes of sand, of dreary aspect and frightful barrenness, ploughed up by the hot wind of the desert, and op¬ pressed by a fiery sky. No vegetation, resting-places of the Holy Family is very charm- dag; the ruins of a monastery are still seen there. -—(Itineraire de Paris a Jerusalem, t. ii.) ( 3 ) This cave is called the Grotto of the Virgin’s milk, because it is supposed that some drops of milk of the Mother of God fell upon the rock, while she suckled the infant Jesus. ( 4 ) “ The Arabs call the hot wind* of the desert simoon, or poison: the impression it makes may be compared to that received from the mouth of a large oven when the bread is drawn. These winds prevail most frequently during the fifty days which comprise the equinoxes.” — (Volney, Voyage en Syrie.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. life of the blessed VIRGIN MARY. 139 except a few tliu.i patches of heath, growing ing demon transported the lake leagues here and there on isolated spots ; no water, farther on, leaving naught in its place but except the brackish spring where the Yir- burning sand ! a gin and Joseph, who were weary, who Another optical illusion, often repeated were poor, and whom no one cared for, in this dry and burning region, made could not quench their thirst till after the travellers at a distance assume gigantic rich merchants, their slaves, and camels proportions. Arab horsemen, covered had drained it, and naught remained of this with their flowing abbas, striped brown poor muddy water but barely enough to and white, and armed with the djombie, a fill the hollow of a hand. As they receded waving-bladed dirk that every dweller of from the Syrian frontiers, the thirst became the desert wears in his girdle, appeared keener, and the springs more scarce. At from afar tall as towers, and moving ap- times they discerned at a distance, in the parently in the air. The Virgin started, middle of a boundless plain, a vast clear and pressed Jesus more closely to her heart ; blue lake, like the lake of Genesareth ; the but the placid countenance of Joseph calmed sky reflected in its limpid waters, in which her fears, although she could not under- a solitary date-palm was mirrored. A cry stand the phenomenon which gave rise to of joy hailed this discovery ; they urged on them. 3 the camels, and Mary raised her drooping At the approach of evening, the song of head, like a rose of Jericho which feels the the camel-drivers ceased, 4 the leader of the coming shower. 1 They were close upon caravan unfurled the flag which gives notice this blessed lake, and already slaking their of the halt, and all the travellers assembled thirst in imagination ; but, alas ! a mock- round this gathering signal. An animated ( 1 ) This rose, the cup of which opens and shuts ( 3 ) “I had occasion,” says Niebuhr, “ to remark according to the variations of the atmosphere, is a phenomenon which struck me as very singular ; consulted as a barometer by the Arabs. — (Viscount but which, in time, became familiar to me. An Marcellus, Voyage en Orient, t. ii.) Arab mounted on a camel, whom I saw coming ( 3 ) This is the phenomenon known by the from a distance, appeared to me as tall as a tower, name of Mirage. During the expedition which and seemed to move in the air; yet he was march- the French made in Egypt in 1798, the soldiers, ing on the sand like ourselves. This optical il- devoured by thirst as they traversed the arid des- lusion proceeds from a stronger refraction of the erts of that burning country, were often deceived atmosphere, in these arid regions loaded with by this cruel illusion. Every prominent object vapors of a different nature from those which fill which offered itself to their eyes in the midst of the air of temperate countries.” — (Voyage en Ara- these seas of sand, appeared to them surrounded hie, t. i., p. 208.) with water: thus a hillock, which they perceived ( 4 ) It is an almost universal custom in the East at a distance, seemed to them to rise out of the to enliven one another on the march or at work, midst of a lake. Dying with want, they ran by singing. A Mussulman pilgrim has given a toward it; but, when they arrived at the place very picturesque description of the night march of itself, they discovered their mistake: the lake had a Mecca caravan, by the light of lanterns fixed fled, and appeared yet farther off to their eager upon the camels, and to the measured singing of eyes.—(See de Fellens, du Mirage, Art. 6.) the camel-drivers.—(Voyage of Abdoul Kerim.) -i--- ■ - —.-- - ■ - - — ' 140 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. scene soon followed this halting-time. They unloaded the camels, which knelt at the feet of their masters, their burdens were piled up pyramidally ; they set up a row of circular stakes, to tether the beasts of burden ; the rich travellers pitched their tents, and the leader of the caravan placed sentinels to give notice of the approach of. the Bedouins, those pirates of the desert, who were, and are still, robbers like Ismael, hospitable like Abraham. Every merchant, after taking his repast of dates and milk, composed himself to sleep in his tent of felt till the rising of the moon. The slaves and poor travellers, among whom were the Son of God, his divine Mother, and Joseph, sat upon a rush mat, spread upon the ground, with no roof but the sky, their limbs enfeebled with heat and worn out with fatigue, exposed to the icy breath of night. 1 At times was heard a cry of alarm : the Bedouins of the desert, prowling about the slumbering caravan; disconcerted by the vigilance of the guards of the camp, they announced their departure by a vol¬ ley of arrows, which were soon accom¬ panied by the groans of the wounded. Then the Virgin, who had made her body a rampart for her adored Son, raised to heaven her eyes bedewed with tears, her brow pallid with fear ; she knew but too The camel-drivers still sing songs peculiar to themselves in Syria and Egypt.—(Correspondance d’Orient, t. vi.) ( 1 ) Although the days are scorching in the desert at this season, the nights are very cold.— (Volney; Savary.) ( a ) On the dome of the sanctuary of the prin¬ cipal temple of Heliopolis was observed an immense mirror, of polished steel, which reflected the rays of well that her Jesus was ae mortal as the least of the children of men ! When the moon diffused her white light over the shadowless, noiseless desert, where the breezes of the solitude found not a blade of grass to raise a sigh, they folded their tents, and the toilsome march was resumed, with all its discomfort, all its suffering, all the terror experienced the day before. At length, they reached the verge of this region of illusion and silence. Egypt, that ancient nursery of all enlightenment and of every species of idolatry, rose before the travellers, with its obelisks of rose granite, its temples with tops of polished steel, 2 its colossal pyramids, its villages resembling islands, and its providential river, bor¬ dered with reeds, and covered with ves¬ sels. This country appeared richer, more populous, and more commercial than Judea ; but it was the land of exile! be¬ yond the desert lay their own country! The hearts of the exiles of Israel had re¬ mained there. After a journey of a hundred and forty leagues, 3 the fugitives reached Heliopolis, where their nation had founded a colony. In that city rose the temple of Jehovah, which Onias had built upon the plan of the holy house. The sacred furniture of this the luminary of heaven. There was a similar one on the top of the pharos at Alexandria, and the images of ships were reflected in it long before they appeared in the horizon.—(Correspondance d’Orient, t. v.; Lettres de Savary.) ( 8 ) See Barad., t. i., c. 8.—The author of the ' Voyages de Jesus Christ reckons only a hundred leagues, but perhaps he takes no account of the windings of the roads. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 14 L Egyptian temple was almost equal to those like dwelling, where the doves built their of the other ; only, as a sign of inferiority, nests, the fugitive family reposed in peace. a massive golden lamp, suspended from the far from Herod. ceiling, supplied the place of the famous This cruel prince, after waiting in vain seven-branched candlestick at Jerusalem. for the Magi in his palace at Jericho, his At the gate of this city, the population of favorite residence, learned at length that which was in great measure composed of they had repassed the frontiers of his idolatrous Egyptians and Arabs, was a kingdom, and that, without rendering him majestic tree, of the mimosa species, to an account of their mission, they had gone which the Arabs of the Yemen, established back to Persia. Pale already from the on the banks of the Nile, paid a kind of slow fever which consumed him, the King worship. 1 At the approach of the Holy of the Jews became still paler with wrath. Family, the fetish-tree slowly bent down He was deceived at ‘the very moment its shady branches, as if to offer the salam when he exulted at the thought of his un- to the young Master of nature, whom equalled skill in deceiving others—de- Mary bore in her arms ; 2 and, if we may ceived by these uncircumcised men, who, believe the historian Palladius, at the contrary to all expectation, had detected moment when the divine travellers passed his tortuous and wily policy! If the Magi under the granite arches of the gate of had not discovered the child to whom the Heliopolis, all the idols of a neighboring star had conducted them, they would have temple fell face downward on the ground. 3 told him so on their return.—They had Joseph and Mary only passed through then discovered his secret asylum, and the City of the Sun, and repaired to Ma- this was somewhere in Bethlehem or its tarieh, a beautiful village shaded by syca- vicinity, inasmuch as they had not carried mores, and containing the only fountain of ' their search any farther.—How was this sweet water in Egypt. There, in a hive- dangerous child now to be distinguished ( 1 ) The Arabs, who had gradually forgotten the which bends down its branches at the approach of God of Abraham, adored at that time a number of man. Niebuhr, who is not suspected of credulity, idols, each more monstrous than the other. “ The found this tree in the Yemen, and the Arabs, who date-tree,” says Azraki, “ was adored by the tribe give it the name of tree of hospitality, hold it in of Khozua, and the Beni-Thekif worshipped a such veneration that it is not lawful to pluck a rock; a large tree named zat arouat was adored leaf from it. If this mimosa, by a natural phenom- by the Koreisch, &c.” The Persians scornfully enon, bends down its branches at the approach designated the Arabs by the title of “ adorers of of man, much more must it have had cause to stones.” lower them at the approach of the Son of God. O We are indebted to Sozomen for this event, ( 3 ) Palladius is not the only one who relates which it requires some courage to reproduce in this this miracle; the martyr Dorotheus, St. Anselm, age of mockery, and which, after all, is hardly a St. Bonaventure,' Lira, Dionysius the Carthusian, miracle. It is certain that there exists in Arabia Testatus, Ludolphus, Barradius, &c., attest it in a tree of the species of the sensitives and mimosas, like manner. - . " — ---—---—— 142 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. from common ’ children ?— There was but one last expedient left, one extreme meas¬ ure to destroy him : this was to include him in one general massacre. — But the people !— At this thought the aged king mused for a moment ; then a strange scorn¬ ful smile hovered over his lips. The people dare nothing, said Herod to himself, against kings, who dare all ! “And sending, he killed all the men-chil¬ dren that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two vears old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.” 1 According to a number of grave authors, 2 who have tradition and probability on their 1 side, the Holy Family remained seven years in Egypt. Traces of their dwelling there are still to be found : the fountain where Mary washed the child’s clothing; 3 the hill covered with bushes, where she dried them in the sun ; the sycamore, in the shade of which she loved to sit with her Son upon her knees, 4 are still there after the lapse of eighteen centuries Pilgrims from Eu¬ rope and Asia find their way to them, and the descendants of the nation of Pharaoh hold them in honor. Round every spot clings some original legend of the olden time, like the moss on the damp wall of a religious ruin. 5 At Nazareth, Mary had led an humble ( 1 ) This gospel fact, which the school of Vol¬ taire has called in question, is proved, not only by our sacred books, but also by the testimony of Jews and Pagans.—(Macrobius, lib. xi., c. 4, De Satur- nal.; Origen Contra Celsum, lib. xi., c. 58; Toldos Huldr., pp. 12, 14, 20.) ( 2 ) See Trombel, in Vit. Deip.; Zachariam, in Diss. ad. Hist. Eccl.; Anselm; Cantual; Euseb.; St. Thom. (’) This fountain is still called the Fountain of Mary; an ancient tradition records that the Blessed Virgin bathed the infant Jesus in it. In the earliest times of Christianity, the faithful built a church in this place ; later on, the Mussulmans constructed a mosque there, and the disciples of both creeds came to pray at the Fountain of Mary for the cure of their maladies; the fountain is still there; the pilgrimages continue, but no vestiges remain either of church or mosque.—(Savary, t. i., p. 122; Corresp. d’Or., t. vi., p. 3.) ( 4 ) “Not far from the fountain, I was taken into an enclosure planted with trees; a Mussulman who was our guide stopped us before a sycamore, and said to us, This is the tree of Jesus and Mary. Vansleb, rector of Fontainebleau, informs us that the old sycamore fell down from old age in 1058. The Franciscan Fathers at Cairo piously preserved in their sacristy the last remains of this tree; there was left in the garden only a stump, whence, no doubt, sprang the tree which we saw. General Kleber, after the victory of Heliopolis, as a pilgrim, visited the tree of the Holy Family, and wrote his name on the bark of one of the branches: this name has since disappeared, effaced either by time or by some envious hand.”—(Corresp. d’Or., t. vi., lettre 141.) ( 6 ) The following is one of those legends brought from the lands beyond the sea by one of our good old French barons, the Seigneur d’Eng- lure; we give it with all the original grace of the good old time:—“When our Lady, the Mother of God, had passed over the deserts, and when she came to this said place, she laid our Lord down upon the ground, and went in search of water through the field, but could find none; so she returned full of sorrow to her infant, avIio lay stretched upon the sand, who had dug into the ground with his heels, so that there sprung up a fountain of very good and sweet water. So our Lady was very glad of this, and thanked our Lord ' for it, and our Lady laid her dear infant down again, and washed the little clothes of our Lord in LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 143 and laborious life, but at Heliopolis she beheld misery in all its aspects. Means of support were to be created, ever a difficult thing out of one’s own country, and among a people parcelled out in na¬ tional and hereditary corporations, who were by no means partial to strangers. As they were poor, observes St. Basil, it is evident that they must have submitted to severe toil to procure the necessaries of life.—Alas ! had they always even these ? “ Oftentimes,” says Ludolph of Saxony, “did the child Jesus ask his mother for bread, when she could give him nothing but her tears!” Meanwhile, Herod had died of a horrible and nameless disease, after seeing himself devoured alive by the worms of the tomb. Dwelling to his last breath upon the joy that the people would feel at the news of his decease, he had with tears requested his sister Salome, a wicked woman, to have the flower of the Jewish nobility shot down with arrows, for he had imprisoned them with this intention, that people should weep at his funeral whether they would or not. 1 He was carried to his castle at Herodion in a golden litter, covered with scarlet and precious stones. His sons and his army followed his bier with downcast looks, while the people, having the happiness of deliverance before their eyes, cast upon him as many maledictions as a cloud show¬ ers down drops of rain. Admonished in a dream, by the angel of the Lord, of the tyrant’s death, Joseph returned with Mary and the child into the land of Israel ; “but hearing that Arche- laus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod, his father, he was afraid to go thither: and being warned in sleep, he turned aside into the quarters of Galilee.” CHAPTER XV. RETURN FROM EGYPT. H OW sorrowful is exile! and how sweet to breathe the air of our native land! The bread of the stranger, like that of the wicked, leaves sand in the the water of this fountain, and then spread them out on the ground to dry; and from the water which ran off these little clothes, as it dried up, there grew from each drop a shrub, which shrubs yield balsam, &c.” mouth and bitterness in the heart; his streams tell not of the sports of our child¬ hood ; the song of his birds has no melo¬ dious notes ; his scenes are destitute of ( 1 ) Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, lib. xvii., c. 8.—The memory of Herod remained in such execration among the princes of the people and the priests, that they instituted a feast, which was celebrated on the 25th of September, out of joy 144 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. that sweet and charming attraction pos¬ sessed by the scenes of our own coun¬ try! ... . What must have been the joy of the two holy spouses when they beheld again that land of Chanaan, whose grand boundaries, soft outlines, universal harmony, and va¬ riety of aspects contrasted so happily and so strikingly with the monotonous splen¬ dors of Egypt! Here a population of rustic and hardy people, of martial turn, an open address, a grave and pure worship; there, slaves herded by castes, given to theft, mingling infamous practices with their wor¬ ship, and exhausting their resources to erect temples to the ox Apis, the crocodile, and the squill! One must be profoundly religious, as Joseph and Mary were—one must love one’s country as the Hebrews loved theirs, to feel the pious and sweet impressions which the two Galilean spouses felt at the sight of the land of Jehovah and their beautiful citv of Nazareth. %> After this long absence, the Holy Family returned to their humble hearth, amidst the congratulations, the astonishment, the eager questions of their relatives, who all vied with each other in welcoming them; but desolation and bitter reverses followed close on all this joy. The deserted dwell¬ ing of the poor family was scarcely habit- that he was dead. “ There is a feast on the 7th of Chisleu,” says the Jewish calendar, “on account of the death of Herod; for he had hated the wise, and we rejoice before the Lord when the wicked depart out of this world.”— (Basnage, t. i., lir. ii., c. 8.) ( 1 ) The rainy season, in Judea, is that of the equinoxes, and especially of the autumnal equinox: it is also the season for storms, which are accom- able: the roof, decayed, and in places fallen, was ornamented here and there with long grass, and had given free entrance into the interior to the wintry blast and the beating rains of the equinoxes ;* the lower apartment was cold, damp, and green ; wild pigeons made their nests in the mysterious and hallowed cell where the Word was made flesh; brambles shot up their brown thorny garlands in the small court; everything, in fine, in that old dwelling, already gilded by ages, had assumed that ruinous and desolate appear¬ ance which sets on deserted edifices the seal of the master’s absence. It was neces¬ sary to set about these urgent repairs ; it was necessary to replace tools and furni¬ ture either unfit for use or altogether van¬ ished ; perhaps they had to repay a sum borrowed in Egypt to enable them to return. Then it was, no doubt, that they sold the paternal fields till the year of jubilee. Of all that Joseph and Mary possessed before their long journey, they had nothing left but the ruined house of Nazareth, the workshop of Joseph, and their own arms; but Jesus was there. Young as he was, Jesus took up the axe, and followed his aged father into the villages, where work was found for them; 2 his toil, proportioned to his age and panied with violent showers, or hail.—(Volney, Voyage en Syrie.) ( a ) St. Jnstin Martyr (Dialog, cum Tryphone); relates that Jesus Christ aided his father to make yokes and ploughs. And Godescard, t. xiv., p, 436, Vie de la Sainte Vierge, says, “A very ancient author assures us that in his time yokes were shown which our Saviour had made with his own hands.” LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 145 strength, was never wanting to aid his mother. Comfort had long disappeared ; but by dint of privations, working late and early, and good courage, they provided what was. of absolute necessity. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph gave themselves up to hard labor, and He who could command legions of angels never asked of God, for himself or those belonging to him, anything , but daily bread. The interior life of this happy family, who had been surnamed the terrestrial Trinity , has not come to the knowledge of men : it is the rivulet lost among the grass ; it is the Holy of Holies, with its cloud of perfumes and its double veil. Nevertheless, by studying minutely, by examining one by one, and in all their aspects, the facts of the gospel, what we know enables us to divine to a certain ex¬ tent what we do not know; and the public life of Christ casts some bright gleams over his hidden life, and that of the Blessed Virgin. We will endeavor to fill up this void with all that reserve, and all that conscientious application, which so grave a subject demands. Jesus, in whom were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, 1 had no need of being taught by men ; therefore every supposition to the contrary is posi¬ tively rejected by the Church. St. John also, in his gospel, informs us that the Jews in the time of Jesus Christ considered him as an uneducated young man, 2 and the astonishment of the Nazareans to see him so profoundly versed in the sacred Scrip- ( 1 ) St. Paul, Colossians, c. ii., r. 9. (’) St. John, c. rii., y. 15. 19 tures, sufficiently testifies that he had not, to their knowledge, been, like St. Paul, educated “at the feet of a master.” The Talmudists and the Jewish authors of the Toldos maintain, on the contrary, that a celebrated rabbi initiated Jesus into the mysteries of science and magic ; but set¬ ting aside the second part of the assertion, which is absurd, and considering the point simply from a mere human point of view, as the rationalists do, this is evidently false, for two reasons. In the first place, Jesus was neither a zealot, nor a man wedded to traditions; and we see, through¬ out the gospel, that he strongly disap¬ proved of the narrow-minded views, cap¬ tious distinctions, and low subtilties of the doctors of the synagogue. In the second place, the rabbi Josua Perachia, who was, they pretend, his preceptor, was still un¬ born, inasmuch as he did not flourish till a century later. To place Jesus in the midst of the rab¬ bis as a scholar, would be as illogical as to attempt to support an oak by surrounding it with reeds. He did not teach like them, says the evangelist, 3 and this we under¬ stand, for he derived his wisdom from him¬ self ; and his teachings, still taking it from a natural point of view, seem to flow from a most elevated, most pure, and upright soul, and from so vast and so uniformly sound a mind, that assuredly it had not been warped in the disputes of the schools. Strauss admits that all the wisdom and science of the time would have failed to form a man like Christ. “ If,” sa} T s he, “Jesus ( s ) St. Matt.,- vii. 29. 146 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. Christ had exhausted all the sources of tuition of his time, it is no less true that none of those elements sufficed, even re¬ motely, to cause a revolution in the world; and the leaven indispensable for so great a work could not have been derived only from the depth of his own soul.” His eloquence, like his morality, was his own. It was not the emphatic exaggera¬ tions of the rabbis, nor the majestic and striking diction of the ancient prophets, with its violent contrasts ; it was, as he himself said, a fountain of living water, reflecting in its course the birds of heaven, the harvests and the flowers of the fields. . . . . This simple eloquence penetrated to the marrow of things, and adapted itself, without effort; to great thoughts. Each word was a precious seed of virtue ; every instruction cast into the mysterious spaces of the future a long train of light, which was to grow insensibly, and extend to the perfect day of the regeneration of the world. Even those who have audaciously denied his miracles, could not but acknowledge that his words were those of a God. 1 Jesus was endowed with a lofty and meditative soul, which needed ample space to expand. Confined by day to manual labor, that absorbed all his moments, he compensated at night for his obscure toil, and became lawgiver and prophet in pres¬ ( 5 ) “I own it to you that the majesty of the Scriptures astonishes me,” says Rousseau; “the sanctity of the gospel speaks to my heart. Look at the books of the philosophers, with all their pomp, how petty are they beside it! Can it be that a book at once so sublime and simple could be the work of men ? Can it be that he whose his¬ ence of the starry heaven. Standing upon an elevated platform, below which spread the mountains and vast forests of the land of Chanaan, he poured forth his soul before the Author of nature, of whom he was the envoy, Son, and equal. These communings, alone with God, in the silence of the night, and the desert, and thought, were one of the habits of Jesus Christ; we find many examples in the gospel. The model man, the Word incarnate, would, no doubt, teach his own to separate the pure gold of prayer from the monstrous alloy of ostentation and hypocrisy with which the Pharisees of his time were ac¬ customed to debase it. The Blessed Virgin, who was never im¬ portunate or exacting, in no way opposed this retirement; she knew that Jesus then ' m sounded the depths of the immeasurable abyss which opened beneath the feet of the human race, and that the redemption of the world would be the fruit of these silent meditations. Respecting the labors of that mighty mind which reverted upon itself, and carrying its glance to that future of glory which every moment brought nearer, Mary already saw the heavens open, death vanquished, and the Messias rallying all nations beneath his standard.But suddenly the prophecy of the aged man in the temple rose, dark as a funeral bier, tory it relates could be himself but a man ? Is that the tone of an enthusiast, or of an ambitious sectary? What meekness! what purity of life! what affecting gracefulness in his instructions! what sublimity in his maxims! what profound wisdom in his discourses..”—(Emile, t. iii., p. 365.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 147 at the end of this enchanted vista; a shud¬ der chilled the veins of the poor mother, and her heart, in which the love of Jesus had so large a share, melted in infinite agony. A secret voice cried out to her, “There must be an expiation of blood! Christ must die!” Then,* humbly laying- down the humble task to which her indi¬ gence 1 bound her, the daughter of David came to seek her Son ; she needed to see him, to be sure, in a maternal embrace, that he was still there,—that he was still alive ! When he saw her, Jesus cast down his pensive eye, which had been fixed upon the stars; his youthful forehead, contracted by a thought as vast as the world, became again the smooth and even forehead of the child. Then Mary, crowding back to her heart her boding fears, advised repose after the long vigil. It was necessary to recruit his strength for the following day; the walk would be fatiguing, labor painful. The Son of God followed his mortal mother in silence, for he loved her, and was subject to her. An extraordinary incident, which over¬ powered the soul of the Blessed Virgin, marked the entrance of Jesus into ado¬ lescence. Joseph and Mary, strict ob¬ servers of the law of their fathers, went up regularly every year to Jerusalem, at the time of the Pasch. This journey, which they had performed stealthily, and lost in the crowd, as long as the son of the enemy of God filled the throne of the Macchabecs, had become easier since the exile of Arche- laus, and the Roman occupation. When Christ had reached his twelfth year, his parents, freed from all apprehension of Herod, took him with them to Jerusalem. They set out with a crowd from Nazareth; and then on the way the Hebrew pilgrims broke up into small companies, according to age, sex, and family relationship or in¬ timacy. . Around the Virgin were Mary of Cleo- phas, sister-in-law of Joseph ; another Mary, designated in the gospel by the name of “the other Mary,” altera Maria; Salome, the wife of Zebedee, who came from Beth- saida with her sons and her husband ; Joanna, the wife of Chus, and a number of Nazarenes of her kindred and neighbor¬ hood. Joseph followed them at some dis¬ tance, conversing gravely with Zebedee the fisherman, and the ancients of his tribe. Jesus walked amidst some young Galileans, whom the gospel, according to the genius of the Hebrew tongue, calls his brethren, and who were his very near relatives. 2 Among this group of young men, who preceded the rest, might be distinguished the sons of Zebedee : James, impetuous as ( 1 ) Tertullian says, in the third century, that Mary earned her livelihood by working ; and Celsus, in the second century, said that Mary was a woman who had lived by the work of her hands. ( 3 ) St. Epiphanius and St. Bernard inform us that in these journeys, the men went in companies apart from the women, and that St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin were in different companies, so that they did not feel uneasy at first at the disappear¬ ance of Jesus, nor indeed perceive it till evening when all the travellers assembled together.—(Sec also Aelred, abbot of Rieval, Sermo seu Tractatus de Jesu duodeni, Dom. intra oct. Epiph.) 148 life of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the lake of Tiberias on a day of storm ; John, younger even than Jesus, whose sweet countenance, beside his brother’s, seemed to personify the lamb of Isaias, living in peace with the lion of Jordan. Next to the fishermen of Bethsaida, whom Jesus subsequently named Boanerges (sons of thunder), were the four sons of Alpheus; James, who became Bishop of Jerusalem, a grave and austere youth, with long flow¬ ing hair, a pale face, and a cold and morti¬ fied appearance. Proud of being devoted as a Nazarene, he assumed an offensive superiority over him whom he then con¬ sidered only the son of the carpenter. The virtues and imperfections inherent in the soil were evident in his character; un¬ shaken firmness, upright and religious in¬ clinations ; but at the same time a hearty contempt for all who were not of the stock of Abraham, and an excellent opinion of himself. Jude, Simon, and Jose, the other sons of Alpheus, were 3 r oung men of rough, simple, and warlike appearance, already arrived at adolescence, and who looked upon the son of the humble Mary as their inferior in every respect, an idea which, as we see in the gospel, it cost them some- thing to abandon subsequently. 1 And Jesus? Jesus affected nothing, neither devotion, nor austerity, nor wisdom, nor knowledge, because he possessed the pleni¬ tude of all these things, and people usually affect what they have not. To behold him, simply attired as an Essenian, his long hair, of the color of antique bronze, 2 parted over his dark fore¬ head, and gracefully flowing over his shoulders, he might have been taken for David, at the moment when the prophet Samuel saw him come, small, timid, and in a simple shepherd’s garb, to receive the holy anointing. Yet there was, in the brown, soft eye of Christ, 3 something more than in the eye of his great ancestor, full as it was of poetry and inspiration ; some¬ thing penetrating and divine was discov¬ ered in it, which laid bare the thought and sounded the depths of the heart; but Jesus at that time veiled the brilliancy of his look, as Moses did his radiant brow when he came forth from the tabernacle. He walked along, conversing wisely, but adapt¬ ing his conversation to his age, with his young relatives according to the flesh, whom he intended to make his apostles ; (*) St. John Chrysostom, Serm. 44. (’) The rabbis have taken occasion, from the color of the hair of Jesus, to declaim hatefully against him; but what is extraordinary is, that they utter against him precisely the same re¬ proaches as they do against David. “ He was red like Esau; he had his blood upon his head; the soul of Esau had passed into him.” They have forgotten nothing but the evil eye which they asci'ibe to the prophet king. ( s ) Nicephorus, Hist. Ecck, t. i., p. 125. His portrait of our Lord, drawn from tradition, is the most authentic which has come down to us. The Rev. Mr. Walsh, author of quite a recent hook, devoted to rare or unpublished monuments of tfie primitive age of Christianity, has just called atten¬ tion to a very curious medal, known as early as the fifteenth century. The obverse represents the head of our Lord, seen in profile; the hair is parted after the manner of the Nazarites, smooth as far as the ears, and flowing over the shoulders; the beard thick, not long, but divided; the coun¬ tenance handsome, as well as the bust, over which the tunic falls in graceful folds. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 149 he discerned beneath their rude exterior, and sealed with their blood the gospel of the weight and value of these rough their divine Master. 1 diamonds, who were one day to shine with But at the time of which we are speak- so great brilliancy, and he loved them in ing, the heroic virtues were not yet even their future career. His expectations were budded, and these youthful Galileans little not disappointed ; these men, who, like the thought that they should one day give rest of their nation, had had their dreams their lives in support of the divinity of of gold and power in connection with the their travelling companion. At the end Messias, at his voice laid aside all their of four days’ journey, the pilgrims reached prejudices, both national and religious, to the Holy City, whither an immense con- adopt a calumniated doctrine, whose prin- course of foreign Jews gathered. 2 The ciples and promises, like the maledictions family of Joseph and Mary assembled to of the old law, spoke but of sufferings eat the paschal lamb, which the priests to endure, and persecutions to undergo. took care to immolate between the two They bound themselves to him by chains vesper hours, 3 in the court of the temple ; so strong, that neither the princes of the to this theyr added unleavened bread, wild earth, nor cold, nor nakedness, nor famine, lettuce, and all else that appertained to nor the sword, could separate them from this ancient ceremony. The days of the his love; they walked in his footsteps, feast being over, the relations of Christ trampling courageously on the thorns assembled to return to their province. As which the world strewed in their path, and they returned in the same order in which suffering themselves to be treated like the they had come, the holy couple did not offscouring of the human race. They were at first perceive that Jesus was missing. not ashamed, either of the Son of man, or Mary thought he was with Joseph, or of his gospel, or of the foolishness of the with the two named James ; Joseph, for cross ! Why should they ? It is for im- his part, thought he was with his young postors to blush, and the apostles never relations, or with Mary. In the evening, preached but from their own intimate con- the several companies assembled together, viction. These upright and guileless hearts and the Blessed Virgin sought, but in vain, gave to their testimony all that could ren- for Jesus in the crowd of travellers who der it credible and sacred among men ; arrived in succession at the caravansary ; they abandoned all, suffered all, forgave all, no one knew what had become of our Sav- ( ’ ) Pascal has said, “I readily believe histories, ible as he believed it to be, had the people num- whose witnesses give themselves to death.” bered by priests. At the feast of the Pasch, there ( 8 ) The feast of Pasch collected together at were slain two hundred and fifty-six thousand six Jerusalem as many as two million five hundred hundred lambs; there was a lamb for each family. thousand persons.—(Josephus, Wars of the Jews, ( 8 ) That is, from noon or one o’clock till sun- - book vii., c. 17.) Cestus, in order to convince set.—(Basnage, t. v., liv. vii., c. 2.) Nero that the Jewish nation was not so contempt- / 150 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. iour. The grief of the two holy spouses was unspeakable. “The trust confided by heaven, the Son of God!” murmured Joseph, sorrowfully. “My son !” said the poor young mother, in a tearful voice. They sought him all night, they sought him all day, calling after him along the road, calling him by name in the woods, looking anxiously down the precipices, sometimes fearing for his life, sometimes for his lib¬ erty, and not knowing what they should do if he was lost. They re-entered Jeru¬ salem, ran to all their friends, and weary of traversing the districts of that great city, they at last made their way into the tem¬ ple. Under the portico, where the doctors of the law sat, was a child, who delighted the ancients of Israel by the depth of his understanding, and the clearness of his answers to the most difficult questions; they gathered round him, and every one was in admiration at his precocious and miraculous wisdom. “It is either Daniel or an angel,” said some one at a little dis¬ tance from the afflicted Virgin. “It is Jesus!” said the young mother, pressing forward toward the doctors. Then, com¬ ing up to the Messias with the expression of extreme love, which, so to speak, was tinged with the last rays of her sorrow : “My son,” she said, sweetly, “why hast thou done so to us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing!” The child had disappeared in the God ; the answer was short and mysterious. “ How is it that you sought me ? Did you not know that I must be about my Father^ business ?” The holy couple kept silence ; they did not at first understand the mean¬ ing of the answer of the Messias. ' Jesus rose up and followed them to Naz¬ areth ; his perfect submission to their will speedily dispelled this slight cloud. “And his mother kept all these words in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and age, and grace with God and man.” CHAPTER XVI. MARY AT THE PREACHING OF JESUS. T HERE are two worlds in our history,” as one of the finest geniuses of our age has said, “ the one beyond the cross, the other before it.” The primeval world, fallen into decrepitude at the time of the regenerating mission of Christ, presented a strange spectacle, for the ludicrous touched the horrible. The Arab and the Gaul, af¬ ter having retained for ages the primitive idea of the unity of God, adored the acacia and the oak j 1 the Hindoo deified the Gan¬ ges, and sacrificed human victims to Sactis, (*) (*) The Pagan Gauls of the sixth and seventh LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 151 the goddess of death j 1 the Egyptian, that eminently wise nation, paid devout worship to garlic, to the lotus, and almost every bulbous plant f the unknown populations of young America adored the tiger, the vulture, the tempest, and the roaring cata¬ ract f in fine, the Greeks and Romans, by their own acknowledgment, filled their temples with demons , 4 and these refined and polished nations which abound in su¬ perior men, had deified vice in its most hideous shades, and peopled their Olympus with robbers, adulterers, and murderers. Morals corresponded with creeds ; corrup¬ tion, rushing down like a vast torrent from the heights of the seven imperial hills, in¬ undated all the provinces. Judea, which had not escaped the contagion of vice any more than other countries, grew depraved with frightful rapidity; her religion no longer rested on fundamental dogmas, but on an innumerable multitude of parasitical overgrowths, and the reveries of her rab¬ bis sat enthroned on the chair of Moses . 6 centuries adored the oak; they burned torches be¬ fore these trees, and invoked them as if they could hear; the enormous stones which were near these trees shared the honor which was paid to them.— (Hist. Ecclesiastique de Bretagne, t. iv., seventh century; Capitul. Caroli Magni, lib. i., tit. 64.) (' ) See Picture of India, by Buckingham. ( a ) The sarcasm of Juvenal is well known:— “ 0 sanctas gentes, quibus haec nascuntur in hortis Numina.”—(Sat. xv., v. 10.) (*) Garcilasso, 1. i., c. 2 et 12. ( 4 ) Prophyrius, who so well knew the founda¬ tions of polytheism, acknowledges that the demons were the objects of worship among the Gentiles. “There are,” says he, “impure, deceitful, malev¬ olent spirits, who would pass for gods, and be adored by men: they must be appeased, lest they In the midst of these deplorable aberra¬ tions, what became of haughty reason, that queen of intelligences, who takes her own narrow horizon for the boundaries of the universe, and places the gods upon the bed of Procrustes ? Where did she hold her empire ? Where had she planted her stand¬ ard, while on every side breaches were made in her bulwarks ? If she could with¬ out foreign aid reconquer the territory which she had lost, why did she not do so ? . . . . But she felt that the torrent would overflow her weak embankments, and, pow¬ erless to restrain it, she was content to note its ravages. Supported by philosophy, she groaned over the inanimate remains of the social body whose fall she had been unable to prevent: Christianity came and said to the corpse, “Arise, and walk!” .... And it was done according to her word. From that day a new race, healed of all its evils, washed from all its defilements in the sacred pool, gathered around the cross which the Son of Mary had planted on the should do us mischief. Some, who are lively and joyous, allow themselves to be propitiated by shows and games ; the gloomy temper of others requires the odor of fat, and feeds on bloody sacrifices.” ( 6 ) It is a maxim among the Jews that the covenant was made with them on Mount Sinai, not on the basis of written law, but on that of oral law. They annul the former to enthrone the latter, and reduce all religion finally to tradition. This cor¬ ruption had risen to such a height among the Jews, even in our Saviour’s time, that he reproaches them, in St. Mark, with having destroyed the word of God by their traditions. But it is much worse in our days; they compare the sacred text to water, and the Misnah, or Talmud, to the best wine • moreover, the written law is salt, but the Talmud is pepper, cinnamon, &c. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 152 regenerated earth, as the trophy of God over hell. This glorious revolution, which set charity on the throne, and placed all the virtues in her train,—this ever-memorable event, which changed the face of the world, and the echo of which will make itself heard even to the consummation of ages,—had Nazareth for its starting-point; from the hollow of that nameless rock flowed humble Christianity, “ an obscure spring, an unno¬ ticed drop of water, where two sparrows could not have slaked their thirst, which one ray of the sun might have dried up, and which at this day, as the great ocean of minds, has filled up every abyss of hu¬ man wisdom, and bathed with its inexhaust¬ ible waters the past, the present, and the future .” 1 We know nothing of the means which ushered in this great fact, which towers so high over the history of modern times. From the time of his manifestation in the temple, the Son of God led a hidden, con¬ templative life, between his adoptive father and his mother. This period, lost to the world, was doubtless that in which the Vir¬ gin spent her most tranquil days. It is not when human life moves on in commotion, like a wintry torrent, that it is the most happy ; it is when it resembles the stream that meanders in a silvery thread among the grass of the meadows. Mary, deprived indeed of all the enjoyments of luxury, and all the sweets of comfortable life, but living wi'h her Son. working for him, studying his inclinations, seeing him at all times, ( 1 ) De Lamartine, Voyage en Orient. offering herself to him as the first-fruits of his sacred harvest; making herself the first, the most humble, the most docile of his dis¬ ciples, and bowing down her perfected rea¬ son before the superior reason and divinity of her Son, Mary must then have been a happy Mother! If, at those times when Je¬ sus revealed to her the most profound sense of the prophecies, some passage came which spoke of sufferings to be undergone, a dark cloud spread over the chaste brow of the Virgin ; but soon her sweet and gracious countenance resumed somewhat its calm serenity. The storm muttered as yet in the distance, and their bark was moored in a tranquil bay. Her Son was there ! she hung upon his looks, his words, and his smallest actions. How eager was she to serve him—her Son! how happily did she sit up whole nights to spin, to weave his work-day tunics, his holiday garments, that seamless coat, a masterpiece of ingenuity and patience, which later on !.but at this time the “Lord had anointed his Christ with an oil of gladness only.” A companion of the spouse, the wise Virgin of the gospel, “left the morrow to provide for itself,” “and the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, kept her heart and her mind.” Jesus was perfection itself, the omnis¬ cient, thrice holy, eminently the mighty and the wise ; as God, he could be indebted for nothing to creatures, but as man he owed something to Mary. She it was who initiated him, from his earliest infancy, in the humble virtues inherent in humanity, and in her own simple and poetic tastes. That patient and unalterable meekness LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 153 which he united with the firmness of a legislator and «a prophet ; that merciful compassion which tempered the wrath of an irritated Giod, and rendered him, Him¬ self, the model man, the accomplished just one, the support of sinful man ; that heart¬ felt, unaffected love for children, whom he loved to caress and bless during his divine mission ; a thousand imperceptible shades, a thousand rays, half absorbed in the large masses of light, which composed the mortal life of Jesus Christ, bear the impress of Mary. 1 —Thus does heaven joyfully breathe the aroma of flowers, though flowers are but daughters of earth. It cannot be doubted that Jesus returned the Virgin love for love, solicitude for so¬ licitude ; a woman so noble in blood and heart was entitled to the respect of all, and especially of a Son, for whose love she had imposed upon herself, in the spring-time of her age, so many privations, labors, and sacrifices. He, who will take account in heaven of a cup of cold water given in his name, must have affectionately preserved the memory of his obligations to Mary ; and if we perceive in the gospel, that he sometimes spoke to his divine Mother less as her son than as her Lord, it was because at those times that he detached himself from his earthly surroundings, the more to glo¬ rify his Father, whose interests always were foremost in his mind. The Virgin knew too well her Son’s sacred mission, to be troubled by his occasionally severe words ; she wait¬ ed for the legislator to give place to the ( 1 ) Nel vestire il Verbo d’nmana came non gli iiede ella (la Yergine) pnnto, o di potenza, o di ■iantita, o di giustizia che egli (Gesil) gia da se 20 young Galilean whom she had nurtured with her milk, and the transformation was never slow in coming; the human nature soon granted what the divine nature had refused. At the moment when Jesus attained his twenty-ninth year, the angel of death came to decimate the Holy Family. Joseph, that patriarch of ancient manners, whose submissive faith and simplicity of heart recalled Abraham and the era of pastoral life,-—Joseph, whom the Holy Ghost him¬ self has honored with the beautiful name of “just,” sweetly fell asleep in the bosom of the Lord, between his adopted Son and his chaste spouse. Jesus and Mary wept over him, and kept a sad death- watch over his cold remains ; the midnight breeze mingled with the lamentations of the poor family: the Nabals of Galilee died more sumptuously, though as they bowed their heads to pass beneath the low gate of the sepulchre, they had not the mag¬ nificent hopes of the carpenter of Nazareth. The funeral of the son of David was humble, like his fortune ; but Mary shed copious tears over his bier, and the Son of God conducted this simple funeral. What emperor ever obtained the like obsequies? At length, the time for preaching the gospel approached, and He, whom God destined from all eternity to be its high- priest and apostle, left Nazareth, to repair to the banks of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. There must have been an affecting and solemn farewell scene bc- solo non possedesse; ma gli die molto bensi di misericordia.—(P. Paolo Segneri, Magnificat spie- gato.) •■a 154 life of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. tween the Virgin and her Son. The pub- tance, when she found herself alone—ut- lie life of Jesus was about to commence. terly alone—in that house ..where she had Alone, poor, sprung from the people, with spent so many sweet hours, between her no resource but his courage, his patience, Son and her spouse, she buried her head and that gift of miracles which he never in her hands, and remained silent and used for his own personal benefit, he went thoughtful, like the statue of grief upon forth to confront an order of things, “ not the stone of a mausoleum. strong enough to resist him, but strong The absence of Christ was prolonged; enough to cause his death.” 1 The Virgin the Virgin learned with profound admira- could not repress a pang of alarm on see- tion, but without surprise, the wonders of ing Jesus embark upon this stormy sea of his baptism, during which the Trinity had, the Jewish world, where so many illus- in a manner, become palpable and revealed trious prophets had been wrecked. She to men. They told her of the white dove, knew the insurmountable pride of the extending his divine wings over the Sa- Pharisees, the narrow and malignant fa- viour, while, at the same time, a voice from naticism of the princes of the synagogue, heaven proclaimed the Son of the. Most the sanguinary caprice of Herod Antipas ; High. This joy, however, gave place to she knew, too, the Messianic oracles, which an extreme anxiety, when she knew that spoke of suffering and ignominy! . . . . Jesus, scarce issuing from the waters of The daughter of the kings of Juda, who the Jordan, had plunged into the deep and was not of the race of the feeble, and who perilous defiles of the high mountain of the knew that her Son was Gfod, had, never- Quarantine , 2 to prepare for the work of the theless, her soul wounded by this first salvation of the world, by fasting, meclita- separation, which seemed to her the prel- tion, and prayer. How much she must ude and image of a far more cruel separa- have suffered, when she thought how Jesus tion. She let Jesus depart with her heart was wandering in a labyrinth of bare rocks, bursting with agony ; and when the sound where the bird finds not a tuft of moss for of his footsteps grew fainter in the dis- its nest, or a wild berry to sustain its little ( 1 ) De Lamartine, Voyage en Orient. from the foot, is by a slope extremely steep, covered ( 2 ) The desert where Jesus Christ fasted during with pebbles, which roll about under one’s feet. lorty days, hence called the Quarantine, is situated When you have reached this fourth part, you find m the mountains of Jericho, at about a league a small, very narrow path, which ends in a small from this town, and toward the east hank of the flight of steps, surrounded by horrible precipices. Jordan. The mountain of the Quarantine is one to the top of which you must climb, with the of the highest on the north side, presenting a deep greatest danger, by means of a few stones-which abyss, hollowed out of the base as if to prevent project a little in certain places, to which you arc access to it; from the west to the north it exhibits obliged to cling with feet and hands; and if these a succession of steep rocks, rent open in several supports should fail, you would fall from the height places, and containing caves. The only way to reach of the rock down a frightful precipice.—(Voyages even the fourth part of the height of the mountain de Jesus-Christ, lime Voyage.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 155 life, where all is rock and heat! What anguish did she feel when the tempest howled without! Where was Jesus? What was he doing, alone and unsheltered, on those high mountains of Jericho, where the steep paths, full stones, wind among frightful precipices? 1 No means of saving himself if his foot slipped on the edge of an abyss ! No help if during this long and utter fast, so little proportioned to the strength of nature, he fell through weakness on the way. These forty days were to Mary forty centuries,—maternal anxiety making every minute thus passed an eternity; but Jesus returned to Naza¬ reth, with his disciples, and his beloved presence was to Mary like the breath of spring after the frosts of winter. Then it was that the marriage took place at Cana, in Gralilee. The married couple, who were related to the Blessed Virgin, 2 invited Mary, Jesus, and his disciples. All accepted this cordial invitation; and Mary, ever kind and obliging, took the lead in forwarding the preparations for this feast, where the national customs required a cer¬ ( 1 ) The sacred retreat where the Cod-man spent forty days is a natural cave, which is reached only after climbing a path cut in the rock. A recess lias been made in one side, as if to set up an altar. Some frescoes representing angels may still be seen there, though almost effaced. A thick wall en¬ closes this sort of chapel, lighted by a window, from which you cannot look down without terror. —(Voyages de Jesus-Christ, lime Voyage.) ( 2 ) The oriental tradition, which the Mahome¬ tans have received from the Christians, is that St. John the Evangelist was the bridegroom of the marriage feast of Cana, and that, after witnessing the miracle whic Jesus Christ performed there, tain degree of-splendor. The assembled company was numerous, and the family poor ; the bridegroom had not calculated well, and the skins of wine were almost exhausted, when our Lord, who was pleased to elevate marriage to the rank of holy things, purifying it by his holy presence, entered the banqueting-room, followed by Peter, Andrew, Philip, and Nathanael, four young fishermen, whom he had impressed with confidence in his character. The wine failed entirely in the midst of the repast, and Mary, having been the first to perceive it upon a sign of distress given by the newly-wedded couple, turned her head toward Jesus, who was seated near her, and said to him significantly, “They have no wine.” Jesus answered in a low and emphatic voice, “ Woman, what is it to me and to thee ? My .hour is not yet come.” 3 The Virgin, wishing to spare her rela¬ tives a humiliation which would have filled them with confusion, did not con¬ sider her petition refused ; she judged that, if the hour of manifestation was not come, he immediately left his spouse to follow him.— (D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, t. ii.); Baro-. nius, t. i., p. 106; Maldonado (in Joan.) also adopts this opinion, which we do not guarantee'. ( 3 ) Our Lord’s reply to his Blessed Mother must have been, as we should say, aside; the gos¬ pel narrative gives us so to understand. It was impossible in the outset that Jesus Christ should have made this enigmatical answer aloud to his mother; the guests, who were not in the secret, would have regarded it as very harsh to Mary. It is evident that the waiters, by their listening to what the Blessed Virgin said to them, were igno¬ rant of the apparant refusal of our Saviour. 156 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Christ, notwithstanding his austere words, would anticipate it for her sake ; and with that faith which would remove mountains, she said softly to the waiters, “ Whatso¬ ever he shall say to you, do ye.” Now there was set there six water-pots of stone, according to the manner of purifying of the Jews ; and by the command of Jesus, they were tilled to the brim from a neigh¬ boring spring ; an 1 this water was changed into delicious wine. Thus had the Blessed Virgin the first fruits of the miracles of her divine Son, and that her intercession moved even the will of God. The miracle of Cana was soon followed by many others, which mark the high and providential mission of our Saviour with the seal of the Divinity. At his voice storms were hushed, human infirmities dis¬ appeared, devils sunk back to their gloomy kingdom, dead bodies came forth from the tomb, and, upon that corner of the earth where his blessed feet trod, there came great relief of all sufferings of soul and body. 1 Men. came to him from Sidon, Tyre, Idumea, and Arabia ; and crowds of people, gathering together on his way, kissed the hem of his garments, and hum¬ bly begged of him health and life,—things which a God alone can give. (‘) A Mussulman poet has depicted in graceful verses, this command which Jesus Christ exercised over the maladies of the soul; the following is a translation from d’Herbelot:— “The heart of the afflicted man draws all its consolation from thy words. “ The soul resumes its life and vigor on merely hearing thy name pronounced. Mary, whom our Lord had not yet thought fit to associate with him in his painful and wandering life, heard these extraordinary accounts with a joy mingled with trouble and anxious admiration. Her alarm was well founded ; for if the people followed the Messias, loading him with ben¬ edictions, the Pharisees, the scribes, and the princes of the synagogue began to be greatly scandalized,—worthy souls!—at the conduct of the Son of God. He forgave sins ; blasphemy! He consoled and con¬ verted sinners ; degradation ! He healed the sick on the Sabbath-day ; crying and notorious impiety! His doctrine fell from his lips like a beneficent dew, and not like stormy rain ; then he bore no resemblance to the prophets of old! He preached humility, forgiveness of injuries, voluntary poverty, alms-giving for God’s sake, uni¬ versal charity. What novel doctrine was all this ? A multitude of enemies rose up against him whenever he preached, whether in the desert or in the cities. He could not attack hypocrisy without coming into collision with the Pharisees, or declaim against avarice without alienating from himself the doctors of the law ; malcon¬ tents, ever ready to frame dark plots which broke out into mad and sanguinary revolts, were scandalized at him for not “If ever the human mind can soar to the con¬ templation of the mysteries of the Divinity, “ It is from thee that he derives his light to know them, and it is thou who givest him the attraction with which he is penetrated.” A Christian could not have explained himself more energetically, observes the learned orient¬ alist. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 157 preaching sedition agajnst Caesar; the Herodians accused him of aspiring to the throne ; and the Sadducees could not endure that he should proclaim eternal life. These men, divided in views, creeds, and polit¬ ical interests, forgot for a time their absurd antipathies in their hatred for the Galilean ; the}’ girded themselves with the intention of injuring him, and pressed forward against him to destroy him. Every word was a snare, every smile was a treason. Some treated him unsparingly as an im¬ post# r and a Samaritan; others gently hinted that he was a madman ; the dense mass of the envious, weary of the praises which the people bestowed on this new prophet, and unable to deny his miracles, disputed his claim to them, to give the honor of them to Satan. “ If he casts out devils,” said they, “ it is by Beelzebub, the prince of devils : in Beelzebub , principe doe- moniorum , ejicit dcemonia.” 1 These vague rumors alarmed Mary, and the bad spirit of her own neighborhood was little calculated to encourage her. Of all the cities of Galilee, Nazareth was the most unbelieving and hardened against the sacred Word ; of all the families of Nazareth, the family of Jesus Christ was apparently the least disposed to accept him for the kingly Messias. As the divine parturition of the ( 1 ) The Methnevi-Manevi, speaking of the im¬ potent and envious hatred of the Jews against Christ, expresses its opinion in these terms against those attacks so common against all that meet with success,—attacks which are, in the end, hurtful to those onlyAvho make them. “The moon sheds her light and the dog barks,” says the Persian author, “but the barking of the dog does not hinder the moon from shining. Sweepings are cast into the Virgin had never been revealed to her \ relations, and as the miracles which had been wrought during the infancy of the Lord had taken place in distant countries, they saw nothing in the supposed son of Joseph but a young Israelite without learning, brought up among themselves, fed like themselves, more poorly lodged, more simply clad, and living from day to day by severe labor, which associated him only with the lower classes. Christ, who would ennoble poverty by taking it as his own lot, suffered the consequences of the position which he had chosen. “ His brethren ,” says St. John, “ did not believe in him.” 2 . The renown of the miracles which accompanied the preaching of the gospel astonished these obstinate Naza- reans, yet without convincing them. Learn¬ ing that Jesus was hailed throughout Gali¬ lee by the dangerous title of Son of David, and that crowds of two or three thousand persons # flocked to hear him, they were afraid that these numerous assemblies would give umbrage to Herod Antipas, and that they themselves might be mo¬ lested on account of the young prophet. With this idea they said publicly that Jesus was insane, and swore that they would take him back well guarded to Naz¬ areth. Concealing this family conspiracy current of a river, and these ordnres swim on the surface of the water without stopping or disturbing it. The Messias, on the one hand, raises the dead to life, and you see, on the other, the, Jews gnawed with envy, biting their nails and plucking their beards.” — (Hussem-Vaez. D’Herbelot, Biblio- theque Orient.) ( 2 ) St. John, c. vii., v. 5. 158 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. from Mary, they induced her to come with them to Capharnaum, so as to* use her name in order to approach him. 1 The Messias was teaching in the syna¬ gogue, in the midst of a crowd of attentive and silent hearers, when the Nazareans arrived. Ostentatiously displaying an authority which they were not sorry to enhance in the sight of the multitude, as St. John Chrysostom remarks, they delib¬ erately caused our Saviour to be notified that his brethren and his mother were without seeking him; Jesus reading the secret thoughts of his kinsmen according to the flesh, and availing himself of this circumstance to extend the narrow limits of the old law by adopting solemnly and without respect of persons the whole vast human family, made this admirable reply to the indiscreet message of his kindred: “ Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?” Then casting his eyes over his many disciples, “My mother and my brethren,” he exclaimed, “are they who hear the word of God, and do it.”' After this severe reprimand, which the sons of Alpheus must have understood, the Son of God immediately went forth, says St. John Chrysostom, “to pay his mother all the honor which propriety required of him.” 'When he had greeted Mary, and re¬ mained some time with her on the sea¬ shore, our Saviour went up into a ship, whence he began to teach the people. The Virgin, hidden among the crowd, but pro¬ foundly attentive, heard in religious silence the parable of the sower. The Nazareans, (‘) St. Mark, c. in., v. 21, 31-35. petrified by the irresistible eloquence and superhuman dignity of Jesus Christ, asked themselves, in surprise, if this was indeed the son of Mary : they experienced that sort of fascination which charms the ser¬ pent of the American glades, when he hears in the depths of the woods soft music which attracts him. They had come with the celerity of fear, with the eloquence of egotism, with the arrogance of superiority, to divert Christ from his compromising and perilous mission, and they were so far unnerved by his very look as to be afraid to open their mouths in his presence. This the text of St. Mark clearly indicates, where, after hinting at their hostile inten¬ tions, he nowhere implies that they even dared to speak to our Lord. Some time after this, Jesus returned to Nazareth. Great was the joy of the Blessed Virgin. To see her son seated on the same mat on which he sat in his child¬ hood, eating the bread which he had broken as he blessed it; to take him stealthily to the bedside of some poor invalid, whom he restored to health, enjoining him secrecy; to see, powerful in word and work, him who had so long been the man of silence and labor, was too much happiness in the cup of her existence! Accordingly God, who afflicts those whom he loves, soon dashed it with a drop of gall. On the Sabbath-day, the Son and the Mother went together to the synagogue. A great concourse of people had assembled there to see and hear Jesus ; but the eagerness of the Nazareans had not that character of confidence and respectful attention which Christ had so often met with elsewhere. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 159 They were there, scandalized in advance at what the Son of Mary was to say and do, and admirably disposed to stone him if an opportunity offered. There are countries bitterly hostile to all that does them honor, till the very grass grows upon the tomb of what they envy. One of the ancients, however, handed to the Saviour of men the book of the prophet lsaias ; and Jesus, unrolling the parchment, read this passage, with simple grace and marvellous dignity:—“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: wherefore he had anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the contrite heart; to preach deliverance to the cap¬ tives and sight to the blind, to set at lib¬ erty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of reward.” Having closed the book, he sat down, and speaking with that animated and natural eloquence which so strongly impressed his audience, he applied to him¬ self the oracle relating to the Messias, and taught, not like a disciple of the synagogue, but as the actual master of the synagogue. A low murmur ran through the assembly. Some wondered at the power and grace of his words ; others, faithful to their system of contemptuous defamation, said aloud : “ Is not this the carpenter’s son ?” And Jesus, penetrating into their thoughts, and reading as in an open book those false and envious hearts, hurled at them that true saying, which has become a proverb, “ A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house.” As he knew that they had it in their mind to ask him for prodigies, like those of which Capharnaum had been the theatre, he told them plainly that their unbelief had made them unworthy of them, and that to obtain miracles, these must be solicited with faith. Thence, in allusion to the propagation of his gospel, and to that wild olive engrafted on the old trunk of the synagogue, which symbolized the vocation of the Gentiles : “ In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel, when heaven was shut up three years and six months: when there was a great famine throughout all the land : and to none of them was Elias sent, but to a widow at Sarepta of Sidon. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elias the prophet: and none of them was ^cleansed but Naaman the Syrian.” - These last words were the drop of water which filled the vase to overflowing. Wounded in their national pride, in their hereditary antipathies, in their traditional expectations, all the synagogue were filled with bloodthirsty rage. “And they rose up and thrust him out of their city: and they brought him to the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.” Seated among the poorer women in a latticed gallery, the Virgin had observed, with anxiety mingled with fear, the in¬ creasing progress of the storm. Reading the sinister projects of the Nazareans in their haggard ejms and furious gestures, she did not hesitate to brave danger to force a passage to her Son ; but her strength be¬ lied her courage. They ran—those Jews, ever fleet of foot to shed blood ; and Mary, trembling like a leaf, scarcely able to stand, # 100 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. followed them at a distance, as if in a dream. She beholds Jesus on the top of the steep rock which overhangs a frightful precipice ; she hears afar off the cries for death ; her knees yield under her ; a mist spreads over her sight; her voice expires in a sorrowful moan ; she falls, broken down like a blooming bough which the tempest has torn off in its course, and lies stretched out with her face on the ground upon the hill. 1 Meanwhile the wolves, furious in pursuit of the lamb, had been deceived in their expectation ; the hour of sacrifice had not yet tolled for the Son of Man, and no one could take his life unless he gave it. Striking this murderous horde with blind¬ ness, 2 Jesus passed through the midst of his enemies without being recognized by them, and again took the road to Caphar- naum, whither his mother, Mary of Cleophas, and the sons of Alpheus came to rejoin him. After preaching the gospel on the bor¬ ders of the beautiful lake of Tiberias, whose waves shone like light, and wrought the great miracle of the multiplication of the loaves in the desert of Bethsaicla, Jesus with his disciples reascended the Jordan to Cmsarea Philippi, the ancient Dan of Mephtali, the name of which Philip, the son of Herod, had lately changed ; and he visited, as he passed, the towns and villages lying on his route. It was probably at this time—for Euthy- mius, 3 who relates this traditionary fact, leaves the date undecided—that the already hallowed waters of Jordan witnessed an affecting ceremony. Jesus, the Virgin, and the apostles, directed their steps, one day at sunrise, toward this deeply-enclosed river, which runs through two lakes, says Tacitus, and rushes into the third. 4 Mag nificent vegetation adorned its banks ; islets rising here and there from its hu¬ mid bosom, expanded amid its golden waves, like graceful baskets of verdure, fruit, and flowers ; blue herons skimmed over these flowery isles, where the wild pigeon and white turtledove still hang their nests of moss upon the branches of ( 1 ) Between the steep mountain from which the Jews had formed the design to cast down Jesus Christ, and the town of Nazareth, “You perceive halfway,” says Father de Geramb, “ the ruins of a monastery formerly inhabited by monks, and those of a very fine church, built by St. Helena, and ded¬ icated to the Blessed Virgin, under the name of Our Lady del Tremore (of Tremor). According to some, Mary was already in this place when the Jews were dragging her son toward the top of the mountain, thence to hurl him down. According O to others, on hearing of the murderous design of these madmen, she had run thither in great haste, out had arrived too late; seized with terror, ‘she could proceed no farther.’ ” ( ) The most ancient heretics, paving the way for modern rationalism, which, without acknowl¬ edgment, decks itself out in their old rags, insisted that our Lord had passed through, by means of an illusion produced by a fog, “illudere per caligi- nem.” Tertullian strongly opposes this supposi¬ tion.—(Adv. Marcion., 4, 8.) ( 3 ) According to St. Euthymius, our Lord bap¬ tized only the Blessed Virgin and St. Peter, who afterward baptized the other apostles. “Some,” says this abbot, who flourished in Palestine in the fourth century, “have written that Jesus Christ himself baptized the Virgin and Peter.” ( 4 ) “Nec Jordanes pelago accipitur; sed unum atque alterum lacum integer perfluit; tertio reti- netur.”—(Tacitus, Historiarum, lib. v.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 161 the wild pomegranate. The dew sparkled upon the green branches of the willows, like a shower of pale diamonds ; and the rushes of Jordan, sometimes the h'aunt of , tigers, bent softly beneath the light breeze m that swayed the tops of the palms, whence drooped rich coral clusters of dates. Far off, on the opposite bank, troops of gazelles were seen bounding on the slope of the tall, gray fire-marked mountains ; and in the sandy plain were fl}ing along, on their coarsers fleet as the wind, some wild sons of the desert, armed with those long spears of cane from the banks of the Euphrates, which they used from the first ages after the deluge, if we believe the Persian legends. 1 Clouds of the richest violet, or of soft rose-color paling at the edge, floated like flowers in the deep blue sky, and the nightingale was singing in the tall sycamores which overshadow the sacred river of Palestine : nature held a festival for the baptism of Mary. The Virgin was robed in white, accord¬ ing to the custom of the Hebrews when they took paid alone in any religious cere¬ mony, and she stood in grave and profound recollection by the side of her Son and Saviour: they both went down into the river. Then, lifting up with his divine hand the Oriental veil of his fair and holy Mother, Christ fixed upon her his sweet and penetrating look of infinite love : then he poured upon the Virgin’s forehead the sacred water of regeneration, and He who was himself one of the Three Divine Per- ( 1 ) Reeds grow on the banks of the Euphrates which are almost equal to the bamboos of the Indies. From the earliest times, the Arabs and sons, baptized her in the name of the Trinity. It was then that the Blessed Virgin re¬ nounced her life of seclusion, to follow her Son in his journeys. She had served him for thirty years, on a foreign soil and in the land of her fathers ; she had toiled for him, wept over him, suffered for him, and adored him, without a single omission, night and morning, in his cradle, while he still moaned there, as Albertus Magnus informs us. It was natural for her to follow his per¬ secuted fortunes, and leave the peaceful roof which had witnessed her birth to tread in his blessed footsteps, while he preached the gospel to the Hebrews. Amid the agi¬ tations of this life of trouble and alarm, the Virgin w*as as ever admirable. Loving Je¬ sus more than any mother ever loved her child, and alone able to carry this extreme love without sin to the farthest limits of adoration, she never intruded her presence upon him to divert the short and precious moments of his mission of regeneration in favor of her own maternal love ; never did she speak to him of her fatigue, her fears, her dark forebodings, or her personal wants. Mary was not only a holy dove hiding in the clefts of a rock—a pure vir¬ gin called to feed with her milk, and cradle in her arms a heavenly guest.; she was a valiant woman, whom the Lord was pleased to place successively in every situation of life, in order to leave to the daughters of Eve an example to follow, and a model to imitate. Assyrians have made spears of them— (Firdousi, Book of Kings.) 162 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. It would not have been becoming in the Mother of God to follow Jesus and his apostles alone throughout Judea ; so Mary of Cleophas, the mother of James, Simon, Joseph, and Jude, commonly called the brothers of the Lord ; Salome, mother of the sons of Zebedee, whom the Lord especially loved ; Joanna, wife of the tetrarch’s stew¬ ard, and several wealthy women of Galilee, who had made themselves poor for Christ, formed the companions of Mary. One among them, a young, wealthy, high-born Jewess of remarkable beauty, was most af¬ fectionately attentive to the divine mother of her Lord. This woman, whose heart, strong but tempest-tossed, like the waves of the Egean Sea, had burned with a thou¬ sand impure flames in the sight of the world, and braved public opinion with mockery and disdain, had come, submis¬ sive and penitent, to lay down her haughty head at the feet of Christ, and to beg of him whom she confessed to be her God, the cure of the maladies of her soul. And the chaste love of the Lord had absorbed all / her mad passion, all the worldly attach¬ ments of the young lady of Magdalum. She had trampled under foot her necklaces of pearl, her chains of gold and precious stones ; sold her villa, buried among the rose-laurels which fringe the beautiful Sea of Galilee, and now, with no ornament but a dress of coarse cloth, and her jet-black hair, with which she had wiped our Lord’s feet, the young patrician, rich in her alms- deeds, adorned with new virtues, poured her penitent tears into the pure and com¬ passionate bosom of Mary. The immacu¬ late Virgin had received in her arms and pressed to her heart the grievous sinner, and cultivated in this fertile but long fal¬ low soil those flowers which bloom for heaven. After many sufferings, many terrors too long to tell, the Virgin entered Jerusalem, the fatal city, in company with Jesus Christ, to celebrate the last Passover which the Lord kept with his disciples. She saw the inhabitants of the city of kings come in crowds to meet the son of David, who came to them full of meekness, riding as the young princes of his race did of old, and receiving with benignity the simple honors which this multitude, eager to behold their prophet, spontaneously offered him ; for Jesus Christ never rejected the humble testimonies of gratitude and love offered to him by his creatures. However small these tokens of affection and gratitude, they were received with a divine goodness from the moment that they arose in the heart. Magdalen, examining by turns her Lord, and that multitude of people who made the air resound with their hosannas, wept silently beneath her veil. Mary, too, had her eyes dimmed with tears ; but her look was turned to the northwest, in the direc¬ tion of Calvary. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 163 CHAPTER XVII. MARY ON CALVARY. T HE palms which the children of the Hebrews had cast beneath the feet of Christ still strewed with their green tufts the rugged road of Bethany ; the echo of the valley of cedars 1 still murmured the dying sounds of those cries of triumph and joy, with which the daughters of Zion had saluted the King who came to them poor , when Jerusalem was deepty moved by a new event of great and sad importance. The chief priests, the senators, and Phari¬ sees, even by bribery, and without shrink¬ ing from domestic treason, sought to secure a great criminal , who, they said, imperilled both religion and the state. This man must indeed have been very dangerous, since these honorable personages had bound them¬ selves to an extraordinary fast to lay hold of him, 2 and had indeed distributed on this occasion alms throughout the city with sound of trumpet. The Pharisees, those conscientious Jews, who plundered none but the uncircumcised, and who would ( 1 ) Valley of Cedars, the ancient name of the valley of Josaphat. ( 2 ) This anecdote is found in the Toldos, pub¬ lished by Huldric, pp. 56 and 60. ( 8 ) This office, we know by the gospel, which often speaks of these captains of the temple, who must be distinguished from the Roman commander, who kept guard with his cohort round this great edifice to prevent crowds, and disorders which the multitude might occasion. These captains of the temple were of course Jews, and were taken from have left their neighbor at the bottom of a pit on the Sabbath-day, though they would have speedily drawn out their ox or their ass, had zealpusly spread among the popu¬ lace,—so easy to mislead and deceive,— frightful reports and vague rumors, which had thrown them into a kind of feverish restlessness, only to be dissipated by a fit of ferocity. Things being thus prepared, a well-armed troop was seen, one evening, descending from Mount Moria, comprising some senators, and was commanded by the captain of the temple guards; 3 the troop of servants of the chief priests followed ; and at the head of this battalion, which marched on with a measured step by the light of those large lanterns which the Asiatics attach to long poles, to raise them up high, and of some resinous torches, was a low-browed man, irresolute in look, and abject in countenance, whose girdle, heavy with gold robbed from the poor, 4 to which he already added, in imagination, the thirty the priestly families ; they had the care and the keys of the temple, in order to provide for the safety of the treasury and the saci-ed vessels: by right of birth this officer had the power to enter into all the counsels of the priests.—(Basnage, liv. i., c. 4.) ( 4 ) “Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, he that was about to betray him, said, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was 164 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. pieces of silver which he was to earn, by delivering up to the princes of the syna¬ gogue—too shrewd to pay for his treason beforehand — his master, his friend, his God! For it was the son of David, the triumpher but a few days before, Jesus of Nazareth, the great prophet of Galilee, at whose voice greedy death gave up his jprey, and whose commands the winds and the waves respected, whom the ruffians of the chief priests and the Pharisees were seeking upon the Mount of Olives, whither he retired at night, after teaching in the temple, as St. Luke relates. They had not dared to arrest him in open day, because they" feared some resistance on the part of that multitude of disciples who came to hear him at dawn beneath the porch of Solomon. The armed troop, headed by the Iscariot, crossed the ravine where flows the Cedron, that torrent of dark waters, 1 which wit¬ nessed the passage of King David, when he fled with a handful of faithful servants from the rebellion raised by the money of his son Absalom. While the soldiers of the temple followed, fierce and silent, along the banks of the torrent which reflected their torches, in order to reach the heights of Gethsemani, and while the night winds shook the dishevelled tops of the willows, which was soon to behold Judas hanging upon one of their branches,—a punishment too light for such a traitor, but which is continually increased by the undying con¬ tempt of successive generations upon the globe,—a sad and solemn scene was pass¬ ing in that Garden of Olives where the unworthy apostle sought his Master to de¬ stroy him. After praying a long time, prostrate on the ground, and undergoing that frightful agony which covered his divine brow with a bloody sweat, Christ had risen up with submissive resignation to the terrible will of his Father, and quite prepared to drink the chalice of bitterness to the dregs. He raised his large, soft, and piercing eyes to the constellated heavens, whose stars told the hour of midnight, and where the moon shone on high, the fair lamp of the firma¬ ment, whose useful light is blessed by the children of Abraham in their prayers ; 2 she was then at the full, and cast a sheet of resplendent light upon that stern land¬ scape, where the dark mountains stood out a thief, and having the purse, carried what was put therein.”—(St. John, xii., v. 4, 5, 6.) ( 1 ) The Cedron is a torrent which runs down the valley of Josaphat, between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. It was called Cedron, because it has its course in deep and dark places; its Hebrew name signifies tenebrosus it was dark.” ( 5 ) The day of the new moon is a holiday with the Hebrews; the women abstain from work, and the devout fast on the eve. After reciting a number of prayers in the synagogue, they take a repast, at which they make merry. Three days after, the Jews assemble- on a platform, where they look steadfastly at the moon, and bless God by a long prayer for having created it, and for renewing it, to teach the Israelites that they ought to become new creatures : “ 0 moon ! blessed he thy Creator, blessed he He who made thee!” and then they jump three times as high as they can, and say to the moon, “As we leap toward thee, without being able to touch thee, may our enemies rise up against us without reaching us! . . .”— (Basnage, liv. vii., e. 10.) JESUS IN GETHSEMANE. * < b . ’ ‘t LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 165 in relief from the limpid blue of heaven. Jerusalem, half-buried in shadow and bril¬ liantly lighted up in spots, breathed afar the aromatic perfume of the rare plants of her gardens, and waved in the breath of the breeze her clusters of palm-trees, amid which white marble towers rose. Toward the mountains all was deep silence, but a slight murmur arose from the depth of the valley : Jesus shuddered. “It is they,” he thought, and he slowly moved toward the place where he had left three of his apostles, whom he had chosen from them all to share his solitary vigil. Alas! fa¬ tigue, or the soothing breath of the wind which swajrnd the slender foliage of the olive-trees, had gradually lulled these neg¬ ligent sentinels to sleep. Jesus for a mo¬ ment gazed upon their sleeping forms with a holy feeling of bitterness ; he had an¬ nounced to them that his death was near, that the hour of peril was come, and they slept, they, his kinsmen, his friends, his chosen disciples, to all appearance indiffer¬ ent to his danger or his death!. 0 the vanity of benefits, of ties of blood and friendship!.They were awake on Thabor at the hour of the glorious transfiguration, but they slept in the hour of trial and distress ! A confused noise was heard in the hoi- low path which led up to the little village of G-ethsemaui ; and soon the glare of torches shone upon the trees: Then Jesus, leaning over his still sleeping apostles, said to them in a low but deep voice, “Arise, (') Peter Ben-Cephas (Peter, son of Peter); it is by this name that the prince of the apostles is known in the East. let us go! Behold, he that betrayeth me is at hand !” Scarcely had he pronounced these words, when Judas and his band arrived. Coming up to Jesus, with bold¬ ness in his eyes, and a false smile on his lips, he pointed him out to the hostile troop that sought him, by giving him that sacrilegious kiss which has taken his name. It had been agreed upon. Christ received the traitor with kindness, and said to him with touching meekness, “ Friend, whereto art thou come ?” Whereto was he come? He was come to earn the synagogue’s thirty sides of silver. Avarice, which is a cold and calculating passion, commits ten times more crimes than violence, and far blacker crimes. Judas had not time to answer this em¬ barrassing question, for all the rest advan¬ cing, fell upon Jesus and laid hold of him. Then anger rose in the heart of Ben-Ce- phas, 1 the prince of the apostles ; he drew his sword; and with it smote one of the servants of the high priest; but Jesus, restraining that arm which was the only one raised in his defence, bade the sword return to its scabbard. “ How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that so it must be done ?” The Lamb of G!od desired to be immolated for the sins of the world. Then in this enclosure rose the dull sound of hurried steps, broken boughs, and cries of alarm ; a number of men were seen leaping over the little wall, scarcely three feet high, 2 which surrounded the garden: they were the disciples in flight! . . . . ( 2 ) The garden of Gethsemani or of Olives, at the foot of the mountain of that name, is sur¬ rounded by a wall three feet high; its length is 166 LIFE OF THE BLESSED .VIRGIN MARY. The hostile troop, after binding Jesns like a criminal, returned by the road to the Holy City, taking the direction of the stone bridge which the Asmonean princes had thrown over the Cedron ; but the peo¬ ple of Jerusalem, who had come out in crowds, already tilled it, and tradition relates that Jesus was dragged through this water-course ; which accomplished to the letter the prophecy, “ He shall drink of the torrent in the way.” The sacred footsteps of our Saviour, and the impres¬ sion of one of his knees, are marked in the bed and on the stony margins of Cedron ; at least this is asserted by the Christians of Jerusalem, who still show them. After ascending the hill of Sion, they entered Jerusalem by the Hate of the Dunghill, and repaired to Caiphas, the high priest, where the scribes and ancients were assem¬ bled. The chief priests and scribes then asked Jesus if he was the Christ. “If I shall tell you,” our Saviour meekly an¬ swered, “you will not believe me.” “Art thou the Son of God?” asked Caiphas. “I am,” replied Jesus. “He hath blas¬ phemed !” cried the high priest, rending his garments. “He is guilty of death!” said the scribes and Pharisees. “ Then did they spit in his face,” and they struck him with their fists, and gave him blows, while they cried out to him, in derision, “Prophesy, Christ, who is it that struck thee ?” During this time Peter, who had sworn to die rather than abandon him, denied him thrice in the court of the high priest! The next day, the chief priests and Pharisees dragged Jesus before Pontius Pilate, who was supremely odious to them since the affair of the imperial standards, which he had introduced by night into Jerusalem ;* but as they hated the Son of God much more, and as the Romans alone could condemn him to death, 2 they over¬ came their repugnance to appear at the pretorium of that idolater, after taking the most minute precautions to avoid exposing themselves to any defiling contact with his garments, his standards, and even his tribu¬ nal, which would have rendered them im- i clean for the whole day. After doing every¬ thing, therefore, to avoid so serious an inconvenience, these scrupulous men accused Jesus of having perverted the people by his doctrine, of having prevented their pay¬ ing tribute to Caesar, and, finally, of having assumed the seditious title of the King of* the Jews—every word a falsehood Jesus met these false accusations only two hundred paces, by a hundred and forty broad. In it stands a rock, forming a reddish grotto, where the three apostles are said to have slept.—(Voyages de Jesus Christ, 44 Voyage.) Its name of Geth- semani is derived from the goodness of the soil ; in Hebrew Gethsemani signifies “fat valley.” ( 1 ) Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, liv. xviii., c. 4. ( 2 ) Before Judea became subject to the Romans, the sanhedrim had power of life and death ; but • those conquerors deprived them of that privilege. It Avas the custom of the Romans to leave to con¬ quered nations their temples and their gods ; but in civil matters, they were obliged to follow the laws and orders of the Republic. At the time when Christ was condemned, the Romans were absolute masters of temporal jurisdiction, and the authority of the Jewish senate was limited to affairs purely ecclesiastical. This the Talmudists recognize, for they acknowledge that the power of LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 167 with silence.' Pilate, convinced of the pro- of the sentence which he pronounced. 1 found wickedness of the accusers, and the After which, no doubt with a view to clear perfect innocence of the accused, would himself for‘his intended clemency toward have saved Jesus ; he did not succeed. Jesus Christ, and to win back the hearts The Pharisees, adroit in raising popular of the populace of Jerusalem, whom he had tumults worked up the people, who sedi- recently dispersed by the rods of his lie- tiously demanded the death of the descend- tors, 2 in a riot concerning the sacred treas- ant of their ancient kings, and the govern- ure, in which he thought to plunge his or, ivlio could very well appease the clamors covetous hands, under pretence of build- of the Jews, in a way perfectly oriental, ing an aqueduct which was not required. when he chose to do so, contented himself Pilate caused the Son of David and of with feebly defending against the madmen Solomon to be beaten with rods, amid the who sought to wrest from him an unjust applause of the deicidal people, who had judgment, the innocent man whom he dared to invoke upon their own heads, and should have energetically protected. Wea- those of their children, the terrible respon- ried with their clamors, overcome by their sibility of his death. This done, at once persistence, the Roman washed his hands admiring and deploring Christ, 3 he deliv- judging was taken away from the senate forty assembled in large bodies of several thousand men years before the destruction of Jerusalem, that is, in the streets and the public squares of Jerusalem, three years before the death of Jesus Christ.— which they made ring with vociferations against (Basnage, liv. vii., c. 4.) Pilate, and there were some, even, says Josephus, ( 1 ) The decree pronounced by Pilate against who exasperated the governor by gross insults, as our Lord is preserved at Jerusalem. We insert it it always happens with riotous people. Pilate, who here, not as an authentic document, but as a local was not alarmed at so little, made his own people tradition:—Jesum Nazarenum, subversorem gen- take great bludgeons under their garments, and sur- tis, contemptorem Cfesaris, et falsum Messiam, ut round this mob ; when the seditious, after taking majorum sine gentis testimonio probatum est, breath, renewed their clamors and insults, Pilate ducite ad communis supplied locum, et cum ludi- gave the signal to his men to lay on them, and brio regia! magistatis in medio duorum latronum they began to strike more than they were ordered, affigite. I, lictor, expedi crnces. “ Jesus of Naz- and without any distinction gave great blows with areth, the subverter of the people, the despiser of their cudgels as w T ell to those who were silent as to Caesar, and the false Messias, as it has been proved those who made a noise. These poor people, who , by the testimony of the ancients of his nation, were unarmed, were thus inhumanly treated, adds take ye to the common place of punishment, and Josephus, with compassionate sympathy for the crucify him with a mockery of royal majesty Jewish outbreak : some were killed, others wound- between two thieves. Go, lictor, prepare the ed ; and by this means was the tumult appeased.— crosses.”—(Adricomius, In descript. Jems.) (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, lib. xviii., c. 4.) ( 2 ) Pilate undertook to build an aqueduct with ( 3 ) Tiberias, on the report made to him by the money of the sacred treasure, to bring water to Pontius Pilate, proposed to the senate to grant Jerusalem from a distance of two hundred fur- divine honors to Jesus Christ: Tertullian relates longs. The people, violently incensed against the this as a well-known fact in his Apology, which he Roman governor, whose intentions they discovered, presented to the-senate in the name of the Church, 168 life of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. ered him up to the insults of a soldiery and excruciating wound. After stripping him whom the princes of the synagogue, who like a slave, they threw over his shoulders had a positive horror of them, had stooped a purple rag, they put a reed in his hand to bribe, that their own hatred might be for a sceptre, and then saluted, with bitter the better served - 1 for they could hate sarcasms and derisive genuflections, that bitterly, these zealots for the law of Moses, mockery of royalty. His whole body was who wished to slay and deride Christ but one wound, for under the steel-pointed “ for the love of God !” scourges red pieces of his flesh flew far and When Jesus had arrived at the court of wide in the hall of executions ; spittle dis- the pretorium, they made him sit down on figured his face, where clots of dark blood a broken column, 2 and the whole cohort congealed here and there from his wounded exhausted their skill in outraging him in forehead, which his fettered hands could the most atrocious and insolent manner. not reach! The chief priests, the doctors, It was the season when the dangerous and Pharisees, looked upon this scene with rhamnus, 3 which long before had entangled deep satisfaction; these honorable men re- in its thorny masses the symbolical lamb garded compassion as baseness of soul! 5 for Abraham’s sacrifice, 4 was in full bloom ; When the Pharisees thought that the one of the soldiers ran to gather a branch idolatrous soldiers had sufficiently degraded of it, and made a mock crown, the flowers Jesus in the eyes of the people to destroy of which were soon tinged with his blood, the idea of his divinity, the approach of while every thorn inflicted on him a deep the Sabbath requiring haste, they took their and he would not have weakened a cause so good feet high, is in the church of St. Praxedes, at as his by things where it would have been so easy Rome. to confound him.—(Tertullian, Apolog. 5; Euse- ( 3 ) Some separate thorns of this crown, which bius, Hist. Eccl., ii. 2.) we still possess, are now recognized as the rhamnus ( 1 ) Salvador would fain exculpate his co-re- spina Cliristi of Linnaeus. ligionists, by imputing to the Roman soldiers the ( 4 ) St. Jerome (on Philemon) says that the unheard-of outrages which Jesus received in the ram which Abraham saw in the bush was the fig- pretorium ; but it is clear that the Romans acted ure of Jesus Christ crowned with thorns. - only at the instigation of the enemies of Christ. ( 5 ) Basnage, liv. vi., c. 17. The punishment of The following is the opinion of St. John Chrysos- the whip was of very ancient usage among the tom on this subject:—“It is the Jews themselves Jews, and was not considered disgraceful. Ac- who condemn Jesus to death, although they shelter cording to the Talmud, kings themselves were themselves under the name of Pilate. ‘They de- subjected to it on certain occasions. “ Tradition sired that his blood should fall upon themselves informs,” says Maimonides, “that the king may and upon their children.’ It is they alone who not have more than eighteen wives ; if he marries direct all these insults against him, who bind him, one above that number, let him be whipped. If who lead him away to Pilate, and who cause him he has more horses than he has need of for the to be thus cruelly treated by the soldiers. Pilate service of his chariot, let him be whipped. If he had not ordered any of these things.”—(Serm. 77, amasses more gold and silver than he wants for the in Matt.) payment of his ministers, let him be whipped.”— ( 2 ) This pillar, of gray marble, being only two (Maimonides, Halach., Malach., c. 3.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 169 victim, whom the Roman governor gave up to them with reluctance ; and, after loading his bleeding and mangled shoulders with the enormous weight of the cross, they urged on, with the butts of their spears, his slow and painful march toward Calvary, where they were going to crucify him. Hosts of spectators lined the streets and choked up the squares : some openly evinced a savage joy, and cried anathema to the son of David; others pitied the fate of that young prophet, who had done naught but good to men, and whom men had forsaken and bet raved. But these signs of barren sympathy were scarcely evident; good men wept in silence ; all whom he had fed with live loaves in the desert, those whom he had healed, those whom he had loved were there, lost in the crowd, and no voice protested against his punishment i 1 that one among the apostles who loved him most had cowardly denied him! the rest, with only one. exception, had fled away and left him! As he painfully descended the long street which leads to the Judgment Grate, a wo¬ man made her way through the crowd ; this woman, remarkably beautiful, and bearing in her mild and sweet countenance the type of virtue, seemed wholly absorbed in unutterable grief; she suffered so much ; she was so pale ; her eyes, which had shed ( 1 ) We read in the Misnah that, in the time when the Jews were governed by their own laws, when a condemned person was led to the place of punishment, a herald at arms went before him, on horseback, making this proclamation,—“ Such a one is condemned for such a crime; if any one can adduce anything in his defence, let him speak.” If any one came forward, the criminal was taken 22 all their tears, cast a look so dead—a look of such holy sorrow upon the frightful wounds of our Saviour—that, when they beheld her, the daughters of Jerusalem whispered in pity, “Poor Mother!” She glided through the people, who made room for her by an instinctive feeling of pity and sympathy. Some of the Pharisees, with hardened hearts, called with insulting names to Jesus, bathed in sweat, dropping with exhaustion beneath the cross ; she did not hear them : the foreign soldiers who- surrounded her Son made threatening signs to her ; she did not see them : but when a cluster of lances, with their points directed to her breast, were thrust between her and Jesus, there came from her fixed and ex¬ panded eyes a lightning flash which re¬ vealed the blood of David, and her noble and inspired head assumed such an expres¬ sion of sorrowful grandeur, and calm con¬ tempt of death, that the soldiers, overcome, slowly lowered their weapons before the heroic and saintly woman. Fierce as camp- life had made them, they remembered their own mothers. Mary turned her trembling steps toward our Saviour; she fixed eyes full of an¬ guish on that humiliated form, dragging himself nlong, bleeding and half clothed, beneath a heavy burden ; on that impos¬ ing, m rciful, and mild countenance, which back, and two judges, who walked one on each side of him, examined the validity of the grounds alleged; the prisoner might be led back in this manner as often as five times.—(Misnah, Tract, de Syned., c. vi., p. 233.) Jesus Christ being con¬ demned by the Romans, could not profit by this national custom. 170 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN M &RY. she would have feared to mar by touching it lightly with her chaste lips, and which, now swollen, livid, covered with filth and blood, scarcely retained any longer the image of the Creator. She passed her hand in sorrow across her brow, as if to make sure that she was not the sport of some horrible hallucination. Not a groan relieved her oppressed heart, no gesture of despair revealed to the spectators the mys¬ teries of her agony ; they only thought she •was going to die ; and indeed she would have died a thousand times during that solemn and heart-rending pause, if Pie who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb had not divinely supported her. Jesus soon perceived that motionless and mute figure, a few paces from him ; bending down be¬ fore her, his forehead bowed beneath the burden of the cross, he pronounced the name of “Mother!” At that word, which sounded like a funeral knell in the ears of the holy Virgin, a sharp pain pierced her heart; she was seen to stagger and turn pale ; then, sinking down, she fell at full length on those rough and reddened stones ( 1 ) Tradition, fortified by the authority of St. Boniface and St. Anselm, relates that Jesus Christ saluted his mother with these words, “Salve, Mater!” As we find the Blessed Virgin again at the foot of the cross, this tradition of the Fathers is very probable. “Faith is not opposed to these traditions,” says M. de Chateaubriand; “they show how deeply the marvellous and sublime history of the passion is graven in the memory of men. Eighteen centuries have elapsed; endless persecu¬ tions, countless revolutions, have been unable to efface or conceal the trace of a mother who came to weep over her son.” There was built, in memory CL the Blessed Virgin’s swooning away, a church where Jesus had left traces of blood as he passed! 1 . . . . A young Galilean with a dark and de¬ jected countenance, a young woman bathed in tears, made their way to Mary; by their care, the Virgin of sorrows recovered the use of her senses and the consciousness of that physical and moral martyrdom which no martyr, according to the Fathers, ever equalled. John and Magdalen used, doubt¬ less, every effort to remove her from the scene of blood and death which was pre¬ paring on Golgotha ; but their entreaties were useless ; and, rising with difficulty, Mary began to climb, beneath a burning sun, the steepest side of Calvary ; it was the shortest way, and that which Jesus had been forced to take. 2 They had reached the fatal and hallowed place where the Lamb of God was about to satisfy the justice of incensed Heaven, by substituting himself for all other vic¬ tims, and taking on himself all our miseries. There it was that the great sacrifice was about to be offered, whose efficacy reaches back, on the one hand, to the original trans- wbich was dedicated under the name of Our Lady of Spasm. “ It was there,” says Father Geramb, “that Mary, repulsed by the soldiers, met her Son painfully dragging along the ignominious wood on which he was about to die,” (’) This way, which formerly led to Calvary, and by which our Saviour passed, no longer exists: it is covered with houses, in the midst of which is found a large pillar which marks the ninth sta¬ tion. The fanaticism of the Turks has delighted in making the approach to it disagreeable by heaps of filth, in order to keep the Christians away.— (Father Geramb, t. i., p. 363.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 171 gression, and, on the other, in the night of futurity, even to the consummation of ages. This little rocky platform was the new al¬ tar, whence the blood of Christ was to flow in streams to wash away the sins of the world, and annul forever the compact of perdition, which delivered us over at our birth to the angels of the abyss. But what had become of the sacred victim ? Where did his executioners conceal him from the distracted eyes of his mother ? Mary’s anxious glances ran all over the bare mountain : she saw the expectant people : the crosses laid upon the ground, the la¬ borers digging with perfect indifference the deep holes which were to receive the three instruments of punishment . . . And Jesus, where was he then ? He appeared, but in what a condition ? — stripped of the last of his garments, . without a shred to cover his discolored flesh and bleeding wounds,—he who was so chaste and pure ! His executioners, dragging him ignominiously along, exposed him thus for some time to the jeers of the people ; then the Just One extended him- ' self upon the cross,—that bed of honour proffered to him by mail’s gratitude as the reward of his immense love! It was a spec¬ tacle too frightful for those who loved him to behold : they drew Mary some steps aside, into a sort of natural grotto, where she stood, pale and cold as marble. 1 From without came a dull murmur like the sound of the bees of Eagaddi, when the Israelite shepherd drives them out of their hollow oaks. The dismal reading was suddenly interrupted by a tempest of shouts, cries of derision, and frightful bursts of laughter : the mob in all nations has always had fero¬ cious instincts, but that of the Hebrews outdid itself on this occasion. In an interval of profound silence, due, no doubt, to some new barbarity which riveted -the attention of the mob, a stroke of the hammer was heard,—a dull stroke, falling upon the wood and the bruised flesh. Magdalen, shuddering, pressed close to Mary, and the beloved disciple leaned instinctively against the side of the grotto. Again a second blow, duller, more stifled, and more agonizing, was heard ; it was followed by two or three others, falling at regular intervals, and all was over. “ See, they are nailing him to the cross,” indif¬ ferently remarked a Roman soldier. A look of woe was exchanged by John and Magdalen ; they were oppressed by a feel¬ ing like that experienced in the midst of a nightly tempest, when the cries of the wrecked, whom no aid can reach, are wafted over the waves, till they expire, one after another, beneath the deep. But Mary!.... a cold sweat bathed her frame, a convulsive trembling shook her limbs ; she too, poor feeble woman, had just been crucified ; for never did martyr amid the flames, undergo in soul and body such fear¬ ful tortures. The creaking of the ropes in the pulleys was soon audible ; the cross was slowly raised up in the air, and the Son of man. ( 1 ) Near the place where our Saviour was fast¬ ened to the cross by the hands of the execution¬ ers, is seen a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Dolors. Here it was that the Blessed Virgin re- tired during the cruel preparations for the death of her Son.—(Father de Geramb, t. i., p. 151.) 172 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. with his face turned toward those western lands, which had so long awaited the light, was reared like a standard in the sight of unbelieving nations : It was written. Then the reprobate people gave a long hoarse roar of joy : “ Hail, King of the Jews ! If God loves him, let him deliver him! If thou be the Son of God, 0 Nazarean, come down! ” And the thief crucified on his left hand cursed him also, amid his death rattle ; the wretch did his utmost to be a Jew to the last. Jesus, maintaining with calm and sublime dignity his great char¬ acter as prophet and God the Saviour, silently sealed in his blood the exalted doc¬ trines of the new law. No complaint, no reproach escaped him amid the infamous punishment which he underwent in the sight of a whole city : he cast a gaze of mercy upon that misled people; and, to appease the divine justice in favor of those who crucified him, he said with his dying voice, “ Father,forgive them, for they know not what they doJ ’ “ And yet for eighteen centuries the Father has not forgiven them, and they drag their punishment with them all over the earth, and all over the earth the slave is obliged to stoop down to look them in the'face.” 1 The Virgin had left the temporary asy¬ ( 1 ) The Abbe de la Mennais. ( 3 ) It is an ancient tradition that the Blessed Virgin had herself wovgn her Son’s tunic. ( 3 ) The cathedral of Treves possesses one of these sacred garments, and when it was exposed in the year 1845, the official returns of the police showed that twenty-five thousand pilgrims had visited the city. lum where she had taken refuge, and moved with downcast eyes toward the place of execution. A few steps from the tree of infamy, rough soldiers were casting lots for the seamless robe which she had spun with her hands, 2 and were noisily dividing those sacred garments which had wrought so many miracles. 3 A slight shud¬ der passed over Mary’s features ; she thought of the time when, rich only in the love of Jesus, but free from immediate cares, she labored at even beside him weaving this holiday tunic, and this thought gave a desolating sorrow, for the lightning flash which showed her in the past her days of happiness only deepened the dark¬ ness of her misery. She raised up her eyes to heaven, to seek thence, as she ever did, strength to suffer, and her look met that of the crucified God. At that dread¬ ful spectacle her languid feet were rooted to the ground, and she was petrified with so great horror, with so frightful a shock, that all she had hitherto undergone ap¬ peared to her simply a sorrowful dream— a frightful, but almost effaced vision ; all was absorbed in the cross. 4 Jesus, casting on the Blessed Virgin a sweet and mysterious look, seemed to say to her, as on the previous evening to his apostles, “Mother, the hour is come !” ( 4 ) The Fathers and the doctors of the church place the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin on Cal¬ vary above those of all the martyrs. “Virgo uni- versos martyres tantum excedit quantum sol ad reliqua astra,” says St. Basil; and St. Anselm adds, “ Quidquid crudelitatis inffictmn est corpori- bus martyrum, leve fuit aut potius nihil compara- tione tuse passionis.”—(De Ex. Virg., c. 5.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 173 And what hour ? The most memorable hour, the hour, most fruitful in extraordinary events, which the suids shadow had marked since man had parcelled out the duration to keep account of time ; the hour when the Son of God was about to triumph over the world, over death and hell, and even the divine justice itself; the hour for the ful¬ filment of the oracles, for the abolition of sacrifices, for the rehabilitation of woman, for the enfranchisement of the slave, for our eternal redemption. And before the Virgin’s eyes there seemed to pass the patriarchs, the just kings, the God-inspired prophets, bowing before the Christ, as did the sheaves of Jacob’s sons before the mysterious sheaf of Joseph. And she seemed to behold Moses and Aaron laying at the foot of the new tree of life the ark of the covenant, the ephod, the rational, the plate of gold, and the almond rod, the symbol of the Hebrew priesthood, whose mission was about to end; then David, placing there his prophetic harp beside the sword of Phinees, the sacred knife of Abraham, and the brazen serpent. The priests and the victims, the rites and ordinances, types and symbols, grouped around the cross, await there their consum¬ mation.; and the book with seven brazen seals lay open at the feet of the Gfreat High-Priest according to the Order of Melchisedech, who succeeded the sons of Aaron. The old world, receding like the waves, which fall slowly back on them¬ selves, gave place to other forms. Mary then beheld in thought all the nations of earth waiting at the foot of the cross, to receive the gospel. Ethiopia and the islands stretched out their hands toward the Messias ; the desert, which began to rejoice, blossomed like the rose ; knowledge of God filled the earth, as the great waters cover the sandy bed of the oceans ; and a thousand voices seemed to repeat in a thousand barbarous tongues, “ Christ hath triumphed, blessed be his name !’’ The noble and generous woman forgot for a time the keen sufferings which tor¬ tured her, and united in sympathy with the triumph of the law of grace, and the great social regeneration ; but the vision of glory ere long vanished, and sorrow re¬ entered at every pore ; like Rachel, Mary wept over her firstborn, and would not be comforted! Meanwhile, all nature seemed to parti¬ cipate in the suffering of her God ; the daylight gradually became obscured, and the decreasing light threw its saddening tints over that grand and sterile landscape, so fit a scene for the crime of which it was the theatre. Each moment the darkness deepened ; the dew fell by the sudden interruption of the heat ; the screaming- eagles sought their nightly eyries; the jackals howled along the banks of Cedron ; and Calvary—in itself so melancholy— assumed the appearance of a vast bier of black marble. The crowd, oppressed by this unwonted event, began to sink into the silence of awe ; and a few scattering, disdainful voices—the voices of the Phari¬ sees and chiefs of the synagogue—alone continued to curse the Christ. Soon, through the dark crape which veiled the face of the firmament, the stars 174 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. came forth like funeral torches burning round a coffin, and cast a blue unearthly light upon the scene of the deicide, in which the masses of spectators grouped on the sides of Grihon appeared like an assembly of demons and spectres. Looking at each other, their cheeks blanched. In vain did the scribes and Pharisees—plunged too deep in the waters of crime to attempt to regain the bank—strive to attribute this prodigy to natural causes ; the more prolonged the absence of light, the less conclusive did their reasons appear. The aged, shaking their gray heads, declared that they had never seen such an eclipse ; and the learned, versed in the science of the Chaldeans, maintained, on the other hand, that no eclipse was either foreseen or possible in the actual position of the -r moon. 1 This eclipse, of three hours’ length, was one of the Messianic prodigies which were to mark the anger of Heaven when Christ was put to death. The prophet Amos had said: “In that day, saith the Lord Gfod, that the sun shall go down at mid-day, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light.” This darkness extended to Egypt, where St. Dionysius, the Areopagite, was at that time studying philosophy at Her- mopolis. Struck with terror, the young ( 1 ) Phlegon relates that in the 202d Olympiad, corresponding with the year 33 of our era, there was the greatest eclipse of the sun ever seen, and that at the hour of noon the stars appeared in the heavens; but as astronomy shows that there was no eclipse in that year, it obliges ns to acknowl¬ edge that the cause of that darkness was wholly supernatural. " We observed,” says St. Dionysius Greek cried out to his preceptor, Apol- lophanes, “Either the world is coming to an end , or the God of nature suffers” 2 Amid the general consternation, Jesus was engaged with the faithful friends who had rallied round his cross in the hour of his ignominy. Touched with the courage of John, and the profound sorrow which this young and ardent disciple made no effort to conceal, he would fain leave him a pledge of his divine affection. He could not bequeath to him a part of his earthly goods ; he wh© had not a stone whereon to lay his head, who was soon to be indebted to the charity of a disciple, even the charity of a tomb ; he had nothing left in the world but his mother!—his mother, who had never left him, and who was dying of his death. He solemnly bequeathed her to his favorite disciple, as an earnest of those heavenly goods which he reserved for him in the kingdom of his Father. Knowing to what a degree he was loved by these two holy souls, he foresaw, with his ador¬ able goodness, the dreadful isolation in which his death was about to leave them, and would strengthen these two unsup¬ ported plants, by intertwining their separ¬ ated branches. By this disposition, which added a new and cherished interest to her life, the Vir- the Areopagite—who was at that time at Heli¬ opolis—-“that the moon came unexpectedly to in¬ terpose between the sun and the earth, although it was not the time for such a conjunction in th<> natural order of those laws to which the heavenlv bodies are subject, &c.”—(Seventh Epistle to Polv- carp.) ( 2 ) Ibid. ■ LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 175 gin must have understood that it was not his will, he uttered a loud cry, inclined his granted her to follow her Son to the tomb, head, and expired ! . . . . and that she had not reached the limit of At that moment the idols of paganism her pilgrimage* on earth. She resigned tottered upon their pedestals ; the star of herself to the divine decrees out of love Moses, which had shone for only one point for us, whom she adopted in the person of of the globe, and was to shine only for a the holy Apostle. Humanly speaking, the time, descended to the horizon of the val- sacrifice of Mary then almost equalled that leys, and the sun of the gospel, destined of Jesus. He willingly consented to die ; to illuminate the world from pole to pole, she to live! . . . . They were two mighty and to endure as long as the world, arose hearts, inflamed with love for men, and brilliantly in the east. But God owed alone fully understanding each other ; for prodigies to the despised dignity of his their thoughts were not our thoughts, Son, and they were not delayed. To the and the gold of their virtues was un- supernatural darkness, which began to alloyed. break away, succeeded the horrible con- The manner in which Jesus bequeathed vulsions of an earthquake, which over- Mary to the young fisherman of Bethsaida threw twenty cities in Asia. 1 At the same was dignified and simple, like all the acts time, the veil of the temple was rent, the of his mortal career: “Woman, behold rocks were split, and many bodies of the thy son,” and to the beloved disciple, “Be- saints, which were in the sleep of death, hold thy mother.” arose and came into Jerusalem, where they If he did not, when speaking to his spread fresh terror among the affrighted mother, use a more tender name, it was people. because he knew the power of the name Then came a wonderful reaction in fa- which he thought proper to omit, and be- vor of Jesus : the centurion and his sol- cause he would not reopen such deep and diers, who had presided at the execution, sensitive wounds. cried out with one voice that the prophet “Afterward, Jesus, knowing that all of Nazareth was certainly more than man ; things were now accomplished, that the and that immense multitude of people, who Scriptures might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. had overwhelmed the dying Saviour with “ Now there was a vessel set there full insult, shouts, and derision, returned down of vinegar. And they put a sponge full the mountain striking their breasts, and of vinegar about hyssop, and put it to his repeating with terror, “ Indeed this was mouth.” the Son of God !” Infamous to the very end ! In the midst of the cries of distress of Jesus having taken the vinegar, said, — “ It i* consummated .” Then, wishing to ( 1 ) Pliny and Strabo speak of this earthquake. prove to the world that he died, not by “It was so violent,” say both these authors, “that • the power of death, but by a formal act of it was felt even as far as Italy.” - % 176 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. the people, who fled without knowing which way to turn their steps, and while Golgotha was rending her rocky sides, there was seen, by the pale light which gleamed on this scene of horror, a woman standing completely unmoved amid the convulsions and ruins of nature. This woman seemed inaccessible to the general alarm ; her hands clasped in the attitude of prayer, she was absorbed in the sor¬ rowful contemplation of the crucified prophet. And the daughters of Jerusalem began to shed fresh tears, saying with compas¬ sion, “Poor mother!” Toward evening, the Pharisees, unwill¬ ing that the bodies should remain on the cross, lest the sanctity of the Sabbath, which began at nightfall, should be vio¬ lated, went to request of Pilate permission to take them away. This permission granted, they set up ladders against the gibbets where the two crucified thieves were hung in their death-throes, and bru¬ tally tearing loose their feet and hands, they hastened death by breaking their arms and legs. As Jesus was quite dead, 1 a soldier contented himself with piercing ( 1 ) According to the Mussulmans, Jesus Christ is not dead. “The Jews did not put Jesus Christ to death,” says Mahomet; “a phantom body dt- ceived their barbarity; they did not crucify him; God assumed him to himself.”—(Koran, c. 4.) The Mussulman tradition says, that when the pidgment trumpet shall sound, A'isa (Jesus) will descend from heaven to earth, and announce to all its inhabitants the great day of the last judg¬ ment; then he will die, and be buried at the side of Mahomet; when the dead shall come forth from their graves, both shall arise together, and ascend blis side with a lance, and the divine blood which was to wash the world from crime gushed in full torrents upon the earth. At some distance, two women covered with veils, one of whom leaned upon the other in an attitude which be¬ tokened the most heart-rending grief, timidly beheld the work of the Roman sol¬ diers : they were Mary and Magdalen, for Magdalen too was there ; and in the dis¬ tance were discerned the other women from Galilee, who had left all to belong to Jesus, and who had not forsaken him in the hour of punishment and ignominy. “Honor to them!” says Abeilard, “for when the disciples and apostles fled like cowards to the mountains, these weak but courageous creatures accompanied Christ even to the foot of the cross, and did not leave him till he was laid in the sepul¬ chre !” Then came Joseph of Arimathea, a rich senator, who had obtained from Pontius Pilate the body of Jesus, of whom he was secretly a disciple, in order to pay him the honors of sepulture. He took him down from the cross, and prepared to wrap him up in a winding-sheet of fine Egyptian linen, into heaven. Burckhardt, who visited the great mosque of Medina, where are the tombs of Ma¬ homet, Aboubekir, and Omar, three tombs of black stone, covered with precious stuffs and surrounded with magnificent votive offerings, says that a va¬ cant place has been left by the side of Mahomet’s tomb for the reception of Jesus after his death. Above this place and the tomb of Mahomet, was hung a magnificent brocade enriched with dia¬ monds, which was stolen by Sioud when he took Medina. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. which he had purchased at Jerusalem, when he beheld at his feet, a woman pale as death, with arms outstretched, in the most touching and sublime grief, to receive the crucified God. This woman, whose whole body quivered with anguished shud- derings, could no longer command her voice to articulate the prayer that seemed to hover on her lips, but on her tear-stained countenance there was not a muscle that did not implore. The senator, recognizing Mary, made a gesture of compassionate sympathy, and laid upon her trembling knees the divine burthen which he had respectfully received on his shoulders. Then could the Blessed Virgin give way 177 to the better joy of clasping to her heart, suffering and bleeding, alas, as though pierced by a thousand swords, the dis¬ figured body of her Son, and of pressing her livid lips on the wounds made by the nails of the cross. Magdalen kneeling, bathed in her burning tears, the bleeding feet of her Lord, and mourned like a wounded dove. In the background of this woeful picture were the weeping women of Galilee. 1 During this time some of Joseph's retainers were preparing the spices on the Stone of the Unction, 2 and others opened the sepulchre hewn in the rock, which was to receive the mortal remains of the Sod of God. CHAPTER XVIII. mary’s death. S TILLNESS began to revive, and the signs of heavenly wrath had ceased to alarm the Jews who had just shed the Saviour’s blood. Like all ferocious animals, the executioners of Christ had for the moment forgotten their savage instincts in the hour of danger. Terror-struck at first at what they had done, they trembled lest the tottering rocks of Calvary should crush them in their fall, or the earth engulf them ( 1 ) There are authors who maintain that these holy women gathered the earth bedewed with the precious blood of Jesus, and that by this means some churches in France, such as St. Denis and the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, have obtained it. alive in the gloomy depths of scheol; but their remorse vanished with their fear, and they gradually returned to their venomous and malicious disposition as they beheld the heavens grow clear. Unable to deny the prodigies to which an immense people had been eye-witnesses, and which were attested by the mountain’s yawning sides, the scarce closed tombs, and the tattered veil of the temple, they as- (*) (*) The Stone of Unction is now in the chapel of Calvary. In order to preserve it, it has been necessary to cover it with a whole marble and surround it by an iron railing. 178 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. cribed them to magic, and maintained that Jesus, so mighty in word and work, was only a son of Belial, who had fascinated the people and commanded the elements by means of the ineffable name of the God of Israel, which he had stolen by strategem from the Holy of Holies. 1 And the people allowed themselves to be caught by this ridiculous falsehood which their leaders gave them to ruminate on • for no absurd calumny but finds credulous ears to accept and apt tongues to spread it. However, a vigilant guard, selected from the high- priest’s satellites, kept armed watch around the sepulchre ; for Jesus had an¬ nounced that he would rise on the third day, and the princes of the synagogues pretended to fear lest his disciples should carry him off by night. The third day began to dawn,. and the east was scarcely tinged with color when several women of Galilee, bearing per¬ fumes and aromatic plants to embalm Jesus, after the manner of the kings of Juda, 2 appeared on the mount of execution, walking pensively toward the garden which contained the sepulchre of Jesus. Accord¬ ing to tradition Mary was among these holy women. Her dejected countenance resem¬ bled a fair ruin prostrated by the whirl¬ wind of adversity, but her look expressed more than grief—it depicted expectation. The deicide city slept wrapped in the transparent mists of morning ; flowers were opening their dew-laden petals, birds were singing on the humid branches of the ( 1 ) See Basnage, I. vii., 27, 28. ( 1 ) It is evident that they proposed embalming wild fig, and the sun, one might say, was gemming with rubies the blue vault of the firmament: nature seemed to put on with unwonted joy, her brilliant robe of light, and that imposing but sad and gloomy landscape, which surrounds Jerusalem, as¬ sumed a sweeter and more cheerful expres¬ sion than it had ever yet known, proclaiming apparently a glorious mystery, which it wished to keep in secret. Suddenly, amid this smilng scene, a shock is felt; the stone which closed the sepulchre rolled over as if pushed by a powerful arm; the guards fell on their faces on the ground half dead, and the women, who had not deserted Jesus on the, cross, turned pale and shrunk back, fearing to behold once more renewed the fearful prodigies that attended the Son of Man. But an angel whose robes outshone in whiteness the mountain snows, and whose gracious brow flashed like lightning, seated himself on the stone of the sepulchre, and reassured tl^e handmaids of Jesus Christ. “ Fear not you,” said he in a gentle voice, “for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified : he is not here, for he is risen as he said. Come and see the place where the Lord was laid.” 3 While the pious women of Galilee timidly entered the sep¬ ulchre, and wondered at the sight of the sudarium and the cloths perfumed with myrrh, which were left on its edge, the Blessed Virgin, her countenance radiant with interior joy, remained leaning against an aged olive-tree at some distance. A Jesus in a new manner, as Mcodemus had already trapped him in bands of myrrh. ( 3 ) St. Matthew, xxviii. 5, 6. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 178 young man in the careless attire of the com¬ mon people, was conversing with her in a low tone. This young man was “ the first¬ born among the dead,” the glorious con¬ queror of hell, Jesus Christ. 1 What passed in that solemn interview no man hath known, but we may believe that Mary, whose valiant soul had undergone the highest possible paroxysm of grief, then felt a degree of joy which we could not experience and live. Our Lord, during the forty days which followed his resurrection, frequently ap¬ peared to the apostles, and conversed with them on matters which concerned the king¬ dom of God, and the regeneration to be wrought by baptism. Pious authors have supposed that the Blessed Virgin was the most favored in these consoling apparitions, and there enjoyed a foretaste of the hap¬ piness of the elect. The bitter waters of her affliction were changed into fountains of grace, and our Saviour fed her with the hidden manna reserved for those who keep the patience prescribed by his word. At last the hour arrived when the divine decrees recalled the Messias to heaven, his mission of redemption was accomplished, and the apostles, whom his resurrection had fully convinced of his divinity, had re¬ ceived from him the necessary instructions to convert the nations to his admirable gospel. ( 1 ) Saint Ambrose, who lived in the fourth cen¬ tury, says that the Blessed Virgin was the first who had the happiness to behold our Lord after his resurrection; and the poet Sedulius, who flourished Boon after Saint Ambrose, also embodies this tradi¬ tion in verse. Both speak of it as a generally In the noon of the fortieth day he pro¬ ceeded with them forth from Jerusalem, and bent his way to the heights of Bethany. This direction was not taken at random ; there was that olive-crowned mount, where our Saviour, withdrawing from the crowds, had often prayed to his Father at the hour when the silent moon illumined with its opal disc the leaden waters of the Dead Sea, the green valley of Jordan, and the giant palms of the plain of Jericho, distant spots that seemed spread out at its foot. There, too, was that celebrated garden where Jesus had undergone in pain the first pangs of his agony. It was just that his glory should commence on the same spots where his generous sufferings had opened, and that these fields, these woods, these shady solitudes, which had so often witnessed his meditations and prayers, should receive the impress of the last step he made before ascending to heaven. On reaching the summit of this high mountain whence he could descry a large part of Judea and bid farewell to the spots which he had rendered famous by his miracles and death, our Saviour halted on an open space, a slight distance from a grove of olive-trees, which spread their pale foliage to the burning noonday sun. There, after raising his hands, still pierced by the nails of the cross, towards his hea¬ venly Father, as if to commend to him received belief among Christians. The Arab his¬ torians have preserved this tradition: Ismael, son of Ali, relates that Jesus descended from heaven to comfort his mother who was mourning for him. An altar has been erected on the spot where this touching interview occurred. 180 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. his infant church, he lowered them over his Mother and his disciples, as Jacob had done for the sons of Joseph ; then he rose by his own power, and ascended slowly into the heavens. This last of our Lord worthily sealed his divine mission. During his life he went about doing good ; on Cal¬ vary he prayed for his executioners, and he ascended to heaven blessing the humble friends whom he left behind him on earth. While he still held his hands extended over his prostrate disciples, they beheld him enter a white cloud which hid him from their eyes. Our Lord’s ascension had none of that gloomy and terrible character which, in the olden days, froze the nations with fear. The law of Moses had been proclaimed at the sound of trumpets, amid the roar of thunders, by the weird gleam of lightning ; Elias had been rapt to heaven in a fiery chariot, but the Saviour of the world was borne gently on a light cloud, with that serene and calm majesty, that was in unison with the spirit of the gospel and the touch¬ ing character of its Author. Angels, those spirits of good, who rejoice at man’s happiness, also took part in this scene, which closed the great drama of Redemption. Their divine chaunts had announced to the shepherds the birth of the Messias King ; their voices had pro¬ claimed his resurrection from the dead ; it was proper that their words should come to confirm his glorious ascension. While the disciples stood watching Jesus ascend into heaven, two men clad in white suddenly appeared to (hem and said : “ Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen him going into heaven.” 1 The apostles and the disciples cast down their eyes dazzled at the voice of the angels, but did the Blessed Virgin look down ? Was it denied her to see her divine Son majestically take his place at the right hand of JehoVah in the inaccessible light of the saints? Was she really less favored than Saint Stephen and fhe beloved dis¬ ciple? This is scarcely to be presumed. She who was morally crucified with Jesus on Calvary merited to be glorified with him. It was her right. She had bought it at a high price! Yes ; Mary’s mortal vision must have penetrated to that peaceful, blessed region, whose door Jesus had just thrown open to us by his blood, and where he himself wipes away the tears from the eyes* of the just: then the pearl gates 3 of the heavenly Jerusalem closed slowly on the triumphing God, and the Blessed Virgin, parted for a brief time from Him whom she loved, found herself alone on earth, like an uprooted ivy. Forty days after we find her in prayer in the Upper Room, where she received the Holy Ghost with the apostles. Mary was the pillar of light which guided the first steps of the new-formed Church. To her the apostles offered in homage the countless ears of wheat, which they plucked from the rebellious field of the synagogue to treasure them up in the granaries of the * Head of the family. She accepted this ( 1 ) Acts, i. 11. ( a ) Apoc., xxi. 4. (’) Apoc., xxi. 21. LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 181 tribute in the name of her Son, with a humility full of grace, and she was con¬ stantly seen surrounded by the poor, the wretched, and the sinful; for she always loved with a love of predilection those whom she could benefit. The evangelists came to ask her for light; the apostles for unction, courage, constancy ; and the afflict¬ ed for spiritual consolation ; all departed blessing her ; the Sun of Justice had set beneath the bloody horison of Golgotha, but the Star of the Sea still reflected its mildest rays upon the restored world, and shed its benign influence upon the cradle of Christianity. The Blessed Virgin remained at Jerusa¬ lem, till the terrible persecution which broke out against the Christians in the year of our Lord 44, compelled her to leave it with the apostles. Her adopted son then con¬ ducted her to Ephesus, whither Magdalen also chose to follow her. Nothing remains to us as to Mary’s resi¬ dence at Ephesus ; this silence is easily ex¬ plained by the preoccupations of the time. After our Saviour’s resurrection, the apos¬ tles, devoted exclusively to propagating the faith, assigned a secondary place to all that did not, in a direct and striking manner, contribute to this absorbing interest. Full of their high mission, given wholly to the salvation of souls, they forgot self so pro¬ foundly, that they have scarcely left us a lew incomplete documents on the evangel¬ ical labors which changed the face of the globe, so that their history resembles a sublime epitaph, but almost effaced, lacking both the commencement and the close. That the Mother of Jesus should share the * lot of the apostles is easily conceived ; the last years of her life having glided away far from Jerusalem, in a strange land, where her stay was unmarked by any striking event, offer only a plain surface, which has not left any durable impress in the fugitive memory of man. Nevertheless the flour¬ ishing state of the Church at* Ephesus, its tender devotion to Mary, and the eulogiums bestowed by St. Paul on their piety, show sufficiently the fruitful care of the Blessed Virgin, and the divine benedictions which followed her wherever she went. The Rose of Jesse left some of her perfume in the air, and this vestige, slight as it might be, is a precious revelation of its passage. The shores of Asia Minor, studded with opulent cities, glowing with wondrous vegetation, and washed by a sea ploughed in all directions by countless vessels, would have appeared, to ordinary exiles, a splen¬ did compensation for Palestine’s tall, sterile mountains : it is doubtful whether the Vir¬ gin of Nazareth so regarded it: the foot¬ prints of the Man God had not hallowed this enchanted land; the tombs of her fathers were not there. . . . How often, seated beneath a plane-tree on the shore of that fair Icarian sea whose billows died away at the foot of the myr¬ tles on a narrow belt of sand, did Mary and Magdalen, following with their eyes some Greek galley as it turned its prow toward Syria, call up memories of their na¬ tive land! The unsullied snows of Libanus, the bluish summits of Carmel, the waters of the Lake of Tiberias, then recurred in their conversation ; the sites of their distant fatherland, beautified by absence, passed 182 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. one after another before them, in their eyes a thousand times to be preferred before this luxurious and smiling Ionia, which, compared to the land of Jehovah, is as Anacreon’s lyre to the harp of David. It was during her stay at Ephesus that the Blessed Virgin lost the faithful com¬ panion, who,*like another Ruth, had left her country and people, to follow her beyond the seas ; Magdalen died, and Mary be¬ wailed her as Jesus had wept for Lazarus. 1 Of all those ties of affection and kindred, only St. John was left to Mary, that good and amiable disciple to whom her dying Son had bequeathed her ; she followed him, it is believed, in his journeys, and it was doubtless in his conversations with the Queen of Prophets that St. John perfected the wondrous science which he displays in his gospel. Aided by the lights of her whom the Fathers have compared to the seven-branched golden candlestick, the young fisherman of Bethasida penetrated more deeply than any other has done into the incomprehensible mystery of the un- ( 1 ) We read in some Greek authors of the seventh and succeeding centuries, that after our Lord’s ascension, Mary Magdalen accompanied the Blessed Virgin and St. John to Ephesus; that she died and was buried in that city. This is also the opinion of Modestus, patriarch of Jerusalem, who flourished in 920; of St. Gregory of Tours and Saint Willebald. The last-named, in the ac¬ count of his voyage to Jerusalem, says that he saw at Ephesus the tomb of Saint Mary Magdalen. The Emperor Leo, the philosopher, translated her relics from Ephesus to Constantinople, and en¬ shrined them in the church of Saint Lazarus about 890. Another tradition, maintained by esteemed and learned men, declares that Saint Mary Magda¬ len terminated her days in Provence, France: we created essence of the Word, and his thought soared with so bold a flight into the mystical heights of heaven, that beside him the other evangelists seem but to skim along the earth. 2 Meanwhile the sowers of Christ had scattered the good seed of the sacred word over all points of the Roman world ; the gospel-harvest was green, and the laborers of the Father cultivated with ardor the holy field. Mary deemed her mission upon earth accomplished, and felt that the Church could henceforth rely upon its own strength. Then, like a wearied harvester, who seeks at noon shade and repose, she began to sigh for the grateful shade of the tree of life, which grows by the Lord’s throne, and for the quick and sanctifying streams which water it. 3 He who sounds the depths of the soul discerned this desire in the heart of his Mother, and the angel who stands on his right hand came to announce to the future Queen of heaven that her Son had graciously heard her. 4 At this divine revelation, which included, have adopted the contrary opinion as in our eyes more probable, but without deciding the question. ( 2 ) Rupert, the abbot (on the Canticle of Can¬ ticles), assures us that the Blessed Virgin supplied by her lights, what the holy Ghost, who imparted himself gradually to the disciples, had not chosen to reveal to them, and the Holy Fathers all agree that it was from the Blessed Virgin that St. Luke received many wonderful and detailed circum¬ stances of the childhood of Jesus. ( 3 ) Apocalypse, c. xxvi., v. 1, 2. ( 4 ) It is a constant tradition that the Blessed Virgin received the announcement of her ap¬ proaching death by the ministry of an angel, who informed her of‘the day and hour.—(Descoutures, p. 235; F. Croiset, t. xviii., p. 158.) LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 183 as Nicepkorus assures us, that of the day the birthplace of Jupiter, arose in turn and hour of her decease, Abraham’s amid the waters, with their verdant moun- daughter felt her heart beat quick with tains and their antique temples, people full love of her absent country ; she longed to with gods, soon to be banished to the gaze once more on the lofty mountains of infernal regions by the God crucified on Judea,—still throbbing with the memories Golgotha. At some distance from Cyprus, of Redemption.—and to die in sight of a black peak was distinguishable in the Calvary, where Jesus had expired. St. clouds, traced upon the velvety blue sky ; John, to whom her slightest desires had it was the mount where the prophet Elias ever been as commands, immediately pre- had erected, in days of old, an altar to the pared to return to Palestine. future Mother of the Saviour, and where The Hebrew travellers probably em- his disciples were about to place themselves -barked at Miletus, whose famous port was under her powerful protection. The next the resort of the galleys from Europe and day, the oars bore the galley into a Syrian Asia, which navigated those seas. While port, perhaps Sidon, which was in constant they sailed over the Grecian seas, the Yir- commercial intercourse with Palestine, as gin and the Evangelist recognized, as they the sacred books inform us. passed, the island of Chios, whose people, They returned to Israel, after an absence long holding the empire of the sea, were of several years. Mary retired to Mount the first to introduce the odious custom Sion, not far from the ruined and deserted of purchasing slaves, a custom which the palace of the ancient princes of her race, gospel was gradually to abolish ; then Les- and into the house which had been sancti- bos, the country of the lyric poets, where tied by the descent of the Holy Ghost. the hymn to the most pure Virgin was to St. John on his part went to see St. James, succeed the burning odes of Sappho, and who was related to the Blessed Virgin, the more manly songs of Alcaeus. On and Bishop of Jerusalem, to inform him, as beholding in the clouds the rounding sum- well as the faithful who composed his al- mit of the temple of Esculapius, which ready numerous Church, that the Mother attracted an immense concourse of strangers of Jesus had come among them to die. to the island of Cos, the Mother of the It was the day and the hour : the saints Saviour of men bethought her of her divine of Jerusalem beheld again the daughter of Son, who, during his passage upon earth, David, still poor, still humble, still beauti- had employed his divine power in instantly ful; for this admirable and holy creature healing the sick, and raising the dead to seemed to have escaped the destructive life. 1 Delos, the cradle of Apollo, Rhodes, agency of time, and predestined from her ( 1 ) The followers of Mahomet have preserved only raised the dead, but could even give life to the memory of the miracles of Christ. They main- inanimate things.—(D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Ori- tain that the breath of our Lord, which they call “bad Messih” (the breath of the Messias), not entale, t. i., p. 365.) 184 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. birth to a complete and glorious immortal¬ ity, nothing in her was to decay. 1 Serious, but not ill, she received the apostles and disciples, seated on a small bed, poor in appearance, and which was in keeping with that of a woman of the lower orders, which she had never discontinued. There was something so solemn and affecting in her noble and modest air, that the whole assembly burst into tears. Mary alone remained calm in that vast and lofty cham¬ ber, where a crowd of old disciples and new Christians gathered, alike eager to hear and contemplate her. Night had come down, and many branched lamps seemed to throw, with their pale light, a mysterious solemnity upon this sad and silent assembly. The apostles, deeply moved, stood in deep emotion beside the death-bed. St. Peter, who had so loved the Son of God during his life, regarded the Virgin with intense sorrow, and his speaking look seemed to say to the Bishop of Jerusalem, “How much she resembles Jesus ! ” The likeness was striking indeed ; 2 and the reclining attitude of Mary, which recalled that of our Saviour during the Last Supper, com¬ pleted it. St. James, who received from the very Jews the surname of “Just,” mastering his emotions, suppressed his tears ; the prince of the apostles, a man of openness and first impulse, showed how deeply he was affected ; St. John hid his head in one of the folds of his Grecian mantle, but his sobs betrayed him. There was not among them all a heart that was not broken, or an eye which was not moist. Mary, sharing the general emotion, and forgetting the splendors that awaited her on high, in order to wipe away the tears which were shed on earth, raised her voice to strengthen the faith of her children, to revive their holiest hopes and enkindle their charity ; she spoke, with unrivalled eloquence, those lofty and sublime things which men listen to breathlessly, which exalt man above himself, and strengthen him to undertake what is most arduous. Her words, so sweet that the Scripture poetically compares them to a honeycomb, gradually grew stronger ; the daughter of David and Solomon, the inspired prophet¬ ess who had extemporized the “ Magnificat” hymn of triumph, rose to such sublime con¬ siderations that every one forgot, in his ec¬ stasy, that this was but the song of the swan to close in death. The fatal hour ap- jtroached. Mary extended her protecting hands over the poor orphans whom she was about to leave, and raising her noble coun¬ tenance toward the stars which shone with¬ out in serene majesty, she beheld heaven opened, and the Son of Man stretching out his arms to her from amid a radiant cloud. 3 At this vision, a rosy tint overspread her features, her eyes expressed all that a mother’s love combined with the excess of ( 1 ) St. Dionysius, an eye-witness of the death of the Blessed Virgin, affirms that at that advanced period of her life she was still wonderfully beau¬ tiful. ( 1 ) Christ’s head was slightly inclined, and this made his stature appear less ; his countenance re¬ sembled his mother’s, particularly the lower part of it.—(Nicephorus, Hist. Eccl., t. i., p. 125.) ( 8 ) St. John Damascenus. * V LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 185 divine joy and exstatic adoration can ex¬ press, and tier soul, leaving without an effort, her beautiful and virginal mortal shrine sank gently into the bosom of God. 1 Mary was no more, but her face, which had assumed the expression of untroubled sleep, was so sweet to look upon, that Death, one might say, hesitated to plant his banner on that trophy, which was to be his but for a day. The lamp of the dead was lighted ; all the windows were thrown open, and the summer night-breeze poured into the apart¬ ment with the pale star-light. A miracu¬ lous light is said to have filled the chamber of death at the moment when Mary drew her last breath ; it was perhaps the glory of God shining round the immaculate soul of the predestined Yirgin. When it wjjs no longer doubtful, that Mary had departed, naught was heard at first but deep sobs ( 1 ) Some of the ancient fathers, and among others St. Epiphanius, seem to doubt whether the Mother of God really died, or whether she has remained immortal, and was taken up body and soul into heaven ; but the opinion of the Church is that she really died according to the law of all flesh, and this is plainly declared in the collect of the mass for Assumption Day. The Blessed Virgin died in the night before the 15th of August. The year of her death is very uncertain. Eusebius fixes it in the year 48 of our era; thus, according to him, Mary must have lived sixty-eight years; but Ni- cephorus (lib. xi., c. 21), says decidedly that she ended her days in the year 5 of the reign of Clau¬ dius, that is, in the year 798 of Rome, or 45 of the common era. Then, supposing that the Blessed Virgin was sixteen years old when our Saviour came into the world, she would have lived sixty- one years. Hippolytus_of Thebes assures us in his chronicle that the Blessed Virgin was a mother at the age of sixteen, and died eleven years after and groans ; then amid the silence of night rose death chaunts; the angels accom¬ panied them on their golden harps, 2 and the echoes of the mouldering palace of David sorrowfully repeated them to the tombs of the kings of Juda. The next day the faithful brought, in holy profusion, the most precious perfumes and the finest fabrics to enshroud the Queen of "Virgins. She was embalmed, after the manner of her people, but her blessed le- mains exhaled an odour sweeter than the perfumed bands in which they swathed her. When .the body was arrayed for the tomb, they placed the Mother of God upon a lit¬ ter strewn with aromatic herbs : 3 a rich veil was spead over her, and the apostles bore her upon their shoulders to the valley of Josaphat. 4 The Christians of Jeru¬ salem, bearing lighted torches, and sing¬ ing hymns and psalms, followed the Christ. According to the authors of the Art de verifier les Dates, the Virgin died at the age of sixty-six. ( 2 ) “All the heavenly hosts,” says St. Jerome, “came forth to meet the Mother of God at the moment of her death, with hymns and canticles, which were heard by all present. ‘ Militiam coelo- rum, cum suis agminibus, festive obviam venisse Genitrici Dei cum laudibus et canticis, eamque, ingenti lumine circumfulsisse et usque ad tronum perduxisse.’ ” ( 3 ) The coffins among the Jews, in the time of Mary, were a sort of bed, made so that the body could be easily carried; this bed was filled with aromatics. Josephus, describing the interment of Herod the Great, says that his bed was ornamented with precious stones, that his body lay on purple, with the diadem and golden crown on his head, and that all his household followed his bier. ( 4 ) Metaphrastes affirms that tho apostles bore the Virgin to the tomb on their shoulders. 186 LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. funeral of Mary with a sad and dejected mien. On arriving at the place of sepulture, the mournful procession stopped. The holy women of Jerusalem had stripped the tomb of its repulsive aspect, and the sepulchral grotto presented to the view only an arbor of flowers. 1 There the apostles gently laid Mary, and as they laid her down, they wept. Of all the panegyrics pronounced on this circumstance, that of Hierotheus was the most remarkable. St. Dionysius the Areopagite, who describes this scene as an eye-witness, relates that in praising the Virgin, the orator almost rose to ecstasy. 2 For three days the apostles and the faith¬ ful watched and prayed by the tomb, where sacred concerts of angels seemed to lull the last sleep of Mary. 3 One apostle, returning from a far distant country, too late to witness the death of the Blessed Virgin, arrived in the mean¬ time. This was Thomas, he who had put his hand to the wounds of his risen Lord. He hastened to take a last look, and to water with his tears the cold brow of the privileged woman who had borne in her chaste womb the sovereign Lord of nature. Overcome by his entreaties and tears, the apostles removed the slab which closed the entrance of the sepulchre ; but they found within naught but the flowers, scarcely faded yet, upon which the corpse of Mary had lain, and her white winding-sheet of fine Egyptian linen, which diffused a celestial odor. The most pure body of the immaculate Virgin was not a prey intended for the worms of the grave : during her life, earth and heaven shared alike in that admirable creature ; after her death, heaven had taken all, and glorified all. 4 ( 1 ) Gregory of Tours, lib. i., de Gl., c. 4. ( 3 ) Books of the Divine Names, c. iii. These books of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, are rejected by Protestants; but they are nevertheless sup¬ ported by numberless testimonies of the most ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church, by the third ecumenical council of Constantinople, and also by others. ( 3 ) Juvenal, Patriarch of Jerusalem, who lived in the fifth century, writing to the Emperor Mar- cian and the Empress Pulcheria, says that the apos¬ tles, relieving one another, spent the day and night with the faithful at the tomb, united their chaunts with those of the angels, whose heavenly harmony was unceasingly heard by them for three days. ( 4 ) Godescard, in bis French translation of Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints, adds a very judicious remark in support of the Assumption : it is that “neither the Latins, nor even the Greeks, so eager for novelties, and so easily persuaded in the matter of relics, relations, and legends—no people, in a word, no city, no church has ever boasted of possessing the mortal remains of the Blessed Virgin, nor any portion of her body. Thus, without prescribing the belief of the cor¬ poral assumption of Mary into heaven, the Church indicates sufficiently the opinion to which she inclines.”—(Godescard, t. xiv., p. 449.) PART II. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY T HE veneration of saints, which some heretics in bad faith impute to us as idolatry, and which a Protestant minister has not hesitated to call the malady of the Christians of the fourth century , is so far from having begun at that comparatively recent period, that it is of apostolical tradi¬ tion and of Jewish origin. The Hebrews implored of the dead counsel and miracu¬ lous cures, when those dead had been prophets acknowledged by God. The prophets were their saints, and saints who read the future as in an open book, from the depths of the sepulchral cave, where they slept by the side of their fathers. See Saul with the witch of Endor; the soul of Samuel, though evoked by incanta¬ tions which the law of Moses condemns, appeared by permission of the Lord, to terrify the monarch rejected of Heaven. The prophet, wrapped in his mantle, rises slowly from the earth with a dread majesty; OF DEVOTION TO MARY. the magician utters a cry of terror on be¬ holding the mighty dead, whom she mis¬ takes for a deity. Saul, bowing down before the ghost of him who had so long been the supreme judge of Israel, questions him as to the result of the battle he is about to give the Philistines ; and the prophet an¬ swers him in a voice unanimated by any breath of life, for his body lies at Ramatha, where all Israel had bewailed him: “To¬ morrow thou and thy sons shall be with me : and the Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hands of the Philis¬ tines.”* The Jews, then, did believe that their saints read the future. In the fourth Book of Kings we see a dead man come to life again on touching the bones of Eliseus. The saints of Israel, then, wrought miracles. We read in the second Book of Mac- 188 HISTORY OP THE DEVOTION TO THE chabees, that the high-priest Onias and the prophet Jeremias were seen, after their death, praying for the people ; and we find in the Gemara that Caleb escaped the hands of those who sought after him, be¬ cause he went to the tomb of his ancestors to implore their intercession, that he might elude them. 1 The Jews, therefore, did believe that the intercession of departed saints was of some avail. From the time of their settlement in Palestine, the Israelites visited the tomb of Rachel, a primitive monument com¬ posed of twelve enormous stones, on which every pilgrim inscribed his name ; the tomb of Joseph, the saviour of Egypt, whose bones prophesied? was also a place of pra yer. During the dispersion of the tribes, such crowds visited the sepulchral grotto of Ezochiel, buried on the banks of the river Chobar, where he had enjoyed divine visions, that the Chaldeans, fearing lest these large meetings might conceal, under the cloak of religion, some scheme for political revolt, resolved to fall upon these pilgrims, and disperse them at the point of the sword. A massacre would inevitably have ensued, had not the dead prophet wrought a miracle to save his people, by (') Wagenseil, Excerpta ex Gem. ( 3 ) Ecclesiastes, ch. xlix., v. 18. ( 3 ) Benjamin de Tudela, Itinerarium, pp. 70-80. ( 4 ) Epiphanius, de Vitis Prophetarum, t. ii., p. 241. ( 6 ) “ He built her a mausoleum after the man¬ ner of the Iranians (Iran was, before Cyrus, the real name of the vast kingdom now called Persia), dividing the waters of the Chobar. 3 This tomb of a saint of Israel, around which a superb edifice had been built, and before which a golden lamp burnt day and night, which the chiefs of the captivity were re¬ quired to maintain, 4 has become again a mere cavern ; but this cavern is visited by all the Jews of Asia, who never pass to Bagdad, without turning aside to pray there. At the foot of the Orontes, whose fair shady woods waved above a thousand sil¬ very streams, that reflect the bright Asiatic sun, is a city once royal, once admired, which lies extended in the midst of ruined towers, temples overthrown, and sarcoph¬ agi of red granite, covered with inscrip¬ tions written in an extinct language : it is Ecbatana, the ancient capital of the Medes, now the obscure Hamadan. At one ex¬ tremity of the fallen city rises a brick monument, the doorway of which, after the ancient sepulchral style of the country, is very small, and cut through a very thick stone: it is the tomb of a young, fair, and pious queen, who confronted death to save her people, of the noble Esther, who was there deposited on an ivory couch, inlaid with gold, embalmed with musk and amber, and wrapped in a winding-sheet of China silk, 6 laid there beside the great Hebrew patriot Mardochai. 6 This illustri- filled her skull with musk and amber, swathed her body in Chinese silk, placed her on an ivory throne, as kings are seated, and suspended her crown oyer her head; the door of the tomb was then painted red and blue.”—(Firdousi, Book of Kings, Kei Khosrou.) ( 6 ) Travels of Sir Robert Ker Porter in Arme¬ nia and Persia.—The present tomb of Esther and BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 189 ous tomb which is regarded by the Jews sake of those who loved thee, and are no of Persia as a place of particular sanctity, more ; graciously hear us for the sake of and which they visit in crowds when the Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sara, Rachel, &c.” feast of Purim 1 comes on, is the object of The Invocation of Saints is not, then, a a pilgrimage which has been going on for thing imagined by Catholics. two thousand years. Besides the saints, the Jews prayed to In the middle ages, during the Saracen the angels, who were invoked by the ancient occupation, the Arabs threatened the Jews Arabs, and to whom the Assyrians, while with a general massacre, during a great ascribing most charming functions on earth, drought which made Syria and Palestine a offered sacrifices,* Jacob acknowledges his barren waste, unless rain fell by a certain indebtedness to an angel for his deliverance day ; the Jews crowded around the tomb of from the evils which menaced him, and he Zachary, which is still standing near Jeru- prays to him to bless his children: The salem, and there fasted and prayed in sack- angel that delivered me from all evils, bless cloth and ashes for days and days, to ob- these boys : 3 —this prayer is addressed to tain by that prophet’s intercession with God an angel. There is, indeed, some reason that he would deliver them from certain to believe that the Jews carried the vene- death, by sending rain upon the earth. ration of angels too far, since they were That the custom of applying to the liv- suspected of adoring them. 4 This venera- ing the merits of the dead is of Hebrew tion did not cease among the modern Jews origin, we find evinced in a liturgy of the till the period of the so-called Reforma- synagogue of Venice. In the office entitled tion, when they abandoned it to please the Mazir Mehamot, or Remembrance of Souls, innovators in Germany. There is, in the we read a prayer expressed in these terms : Vatican library, a Hebrew manuscript con- “ Graciously hear us, 0 Jehovah, for the taining litanies composed by Rabbi Eleazer Mordecai, occupies the same site as the former one, the care of seas, rivers, springs, pastures, flocks, which was destroyed by Tamerlane. trees, herbs, fruits, flowers, and seeds; they also ( 1 ) This feast, which was instituted at Susa by directed the stars ; they offered up prayers to the Mordecai and Esther, was celebrated very solemnly angels to obtain protection in misfortune. Modern on the 14th or 15th day of the month of Ader, Persians still sacrifice to the angel of the moon.— which is our moon of February. The Jews were (Eirdousi, Book of Kings; Chardin, Voyage en formerly accustomed to make a wooden cross, on Perse.) which they painted Aman, whom they dragged ( 8 ) Genesis, xlviii., v. 16. about the city, that every one might see him. (*) In The Preaching of St. Peter, a very an- They afterwards burnt it, and threw the'ashes into cient work, quoted by St. Clement of Alexandria, the river. The Emperor Theodosius forbade this that apostle says, that we must not adore God with comedy, lest it might really contain some allusion the Jews, because, although they profess to acknowl- to the death of Christ. edge only one God, they adore the angels.—(Cle- (* ) Among the Persian®, every month was under ment of Alexandria, book v.) the protection of an angel; to angels was ascribed • 190 V * HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE Hakalir, which invokes the angel Actariel in these words : “ Deliver Israel from all affliction, and solicit his redemption speed¬ ily.” Similar favors are besought from Barachiel, Wathiel, and other angelic princes. The litany concludes with this invocation of Michael: ‘“Prince of mercy, pray for Israel, that he may rule in a great elevation.” The tombs of the martyrs were vene¬ rated by the Christians of Asia at a very early date ; the first visited as a pilgrim¬ age was probably that of St. John Baptist, which is the most venerated by the Orien¬ tals, without distinction of creed, next to the Holy Sepulchre and the tomb of the Blessed Virgin. The body of the precur¬ sor of the God-Man was at Samaria, where St. Paula visited it in the fourth century ; and his head, carefully embalmed by his disciples, was at Hems, whence it was translated to Damascus, in the reign of Theodosius. It was there enshrined in a superb church, which had borne the title of St. Zachary, but which from that time was styled St. John’s. The Caliph Abdel- melek seized this church, and at the pres¬ ent day the venerated tomb of the man ( 1 ) St. Augustine speaks of miraculous cures wrought by the dust from the tomb of St. John, the Evangelist. The church of St. John, trans¬ formed by the Turks into a mosque, is still to be seen among the ruins of Ephesus. ( a ) The acts of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, written in the form of an epistle, in the name of the church of Smyrna, by those who had been eye-witnesses, and addressed to the church of Philadelphia, contain these words: “ We after¬ wards took up the bones, more precious than the richest jewels or gold, and deposited them decently who was “ a prophet, and more than a pro¬ phet,” is within the precincts of a Turkish mosque. But it is neither solitary nor un¬ honored ; the Mussulmans make pilgrim¬ ages to it from all parts, and the celebrated Saadi himself relates, in his Gulistan, that on going there to pray, he met princes of Arabia. At the close of the first century, crowds of Christian pilgrims of Asia Minor visited the tombyrf St. John the Evangel¬ ist, and wondrous cures were ascribed to the dust, which was carefully gathered up. 1 St. Stephen, the proto-martyr, whose relics wrought so many miracles, as St. Augustine attests, and who died before the Blessed Virgin, was in like manner invoked at a very early period by the primitive Christians, who also paid veneration to the blessed remains of St. Ignatius and St. Poly carp. 2 St. Asterius of Amasea has preserved, in a sermon on the martyrs, this prayer addressed by a Christian woman of the earlier times to a saint whose tomb she visited: “Thou didst invoke the martyrs before becoming a martyr thyself; thou hast found when thou didst seek ; be then liberal of those good things which thou hast received.” 3 in a place, at which place may God grant us to assemble with joy to celebrate the natal day of his martyrdom, as well in memory of those who have endured the combat, as for the exercise and encouragement of future generations.” St. Poly¬ carp consummated his sacrifice on the 23d of Jan¬ uary, in the year 166—on which day the church of Smyrna celebrated his feast in the middle of the third century, as we see by the Acts of St. Peter. (’) Life of St. Asterius, in Butler’s Lives of the Saints, October 30. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 191 Eusebius of Cmsarea, who flourished to¬ ward the end of the third century, defend¬ ing our holy dogmas against the sophisms of idolaters, cites the honors which they paid their ancient heroes, to justify the veneration of saints, and continues in these terms: “We honor, as friends of God, those who have combated for the true reli¬ gion ; we go to their tombs ; we offer our vows to them, professing to believe that we are powerfully assisted by God through their, intercession. 1 ” These words of Euse¬ bius, who, both as bishop and historian, must have been well informed, plainly in¬ dicate an ancient usage, a custom approved by the church, and generally received. On the other hand, Yigilantius and Aerius, who opposed the veneration of saints, were openly treated as innovators and heretics by St. Epiphanius, St. Jerome, and St. Au¬ gustine. Now, is it to be presumed that these great doctors would have ventured to treat as heretics and innovators men who labored only to re-establish the ancient doc¬ trine of the church in its native purity ? That word innovators tells the whole story ; and we must bear in mind that Yigilantius lived at a time so near to the age of the apostles, that there were only between them and him three successive lives of ordinary- aged men. St. Cyprian, who was martyred at Car¬ thage, in the year 261, pictures to us the. Christians of Africa flocking to the glorious tombs of the martyrs, giving funereal feasts on the day of their anniversary, and so ( 1 ) Praeparatio Evangelica, lib. xiii., c. 7. (’) St. Cyprian, Epistola 28. eager to invoke them, that without waiting for their death, they went to implore the prayers of those confessors imprisoned by the pagans, in whom the torture had left the breath of life. 2 St. John Chrysostome, on his part, informs us that in his time the tombs of the martyrs were the noblest or¬ nament of royal cities ; that the days con¬ secrated to them were days of joy ; that the nobles of the empire, and the emperor himself, laid aside the rich insignia of their power before they ventured to cross the threshold of the holy places, which con¬ tained those glorious sepulchres of the serv¬ ants of a crucified God. . . . “ How much more illustrious than the tombs of kings,” exclaims the great Christian orator, “ are those monuments erected to those who were humble and poor among men! Around the tombs of kings reign silence and solitude ; here gathers a great concourse of people.” 3 Such was the religious veneration of the saints called dulia, which Protestants stig¬ matise as idolatrous and detestable, in those ages which they themselves call, pre-emi¬ nently, the pure ages* * As regards the veneration of hyperdulia (of the Blessed Yirgin), which, without being adoration, which God forbid, is far superior to that of the saints, it began, to all appearance, at her very tomb. The Jewish doctors have preserved, in the Tal¬ mud, an historical fact long unknown, which establishes the high antiquity of this pious homage, against which they exhaust ( 8 ) St. Chrysostome, Homily 66 to the People of Antioch. (*) Daill6, Traditions des Latins, lib. iv., c. 16. 192 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. their blasphemies. A tradition of the temple, preserved in their Toldos, that book where the Blessed Virgin is so insultingly treated, and which they circulated at a very early day in Persia, Greece, and wherever they could injure early Christianity, relates that the Nazareans, who came to pray at the tomb of the Mother of Jesus, underwent a violent persecution on the part of the chiefs of the Synagogue, and that the erection of an oratory over her tomb cost a hundred Christians, kinsmen of Jesus Christ, their lives. 1 This act of barbarous fanaticism, of which they boast, being quite in keeping with their conduct toward St. Stephen, St. James, and St. Paul, as the erection of an oratory over a tomb held in veneration, had nothing in it to clash with their traditions or manners. Hence, this fact, it appears to us, may be considered authentic, without incurring the imputation of excessive cre¬ dulity. Tradition, attested by religious monu¬ ments, assures us that the religious homage paid to Mary is of apostolic institution. St. Peter, on his way to Antioch, is said to have erected in one of the cities of ancient Phoenicia, a chapel to the Blessed Virgin, and to have inaugurated it with great so¬ lemnity. St. John the apostle placed the beautiful church of Lydda under the invo¬ cation of his adopted mother; the first church at Milan was dedicated to Mary by the apostle St. Barnabas. Our Lady del Pilar, in Spain, and Our Lady of Carmel, ( 1 ) Toldos Huldr., p. 115. in Syria, dispute the priority with these churches, and set up a bolder, but more questionable claim. According to the Span¬ ish tradition, 2 the Blessed Virgin appeared, before her death, to St. James, on the banks of the Ebro, and commanded him to erect a church in the place where he stood. According to tradition, the prophet Aga- bus, the same who foretold the famine which happened under Claudius, erected, in like manner, during the lifetime of the Blessed Virgin, that church which is visible so far off at sea, and where pilgrims and travel¬ lers, of all religions and all nations of the globe, receive, in Mary’s name, such touching hospitality. Without denying the antiquity of these two sanctuaries, certainly very venerable, and justly reverenced by the people, we may be allowed to say that it is by no means probable that the Blessed Virgin, the most humble of the daughters of Eve, would have required altars from the apostles in her lifetime. That the grat¬ itude of the people, and the piety of the apostles, may have erected them to her after her death, is natural; but that she gave orders for them in her lifetime is doubtful. As for the oratory of Carmel, Flavius Josephus, who speaks directly of the dis¬ ciples of Elias, with reference to Vespasian, to whom one of them promised the empire, does not at all say that they were converted to Christianity, and the contrary follows from his account. This negative authority is of great weight. ( a ) Cronologia sacra . . . al ano 35 de Cristo. FIRST EPOCH: DEVOTION TO MARY BEFORE THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE. CHAPTER II. THE EAST. IDOLS. A S we have already stated, devotion to the Mother of God had its cradle in her very tomb ; and the first lamp lighted in honor of Mary was a sepulchral lamp, around which the Christians of Jerusalem came to pray. This, apparently, did not last long ; the synagogue, violent, like every power that feels the fear of dissolution, and suspicious, like all who have a bad con¬ science, was alarmed at the simple homage paid to the Mother of the young Prophet, whom they had not only refused, notwith¬ standing his miracles, to acknowledge as the Messias, but had audaciously crucified between two thieves, as a seditious man and an impostor. The synagogue extin¬ guished the lamps, silenced the hymns, and slew without mercy the first servants of Mary ; at all events she herself assures us of the fact, and she was capable of the act! She did this in part out of fanaticism, in part from self-love, and in part from fear. She did not wish Jesus of Nazareth, whom she had unjustly condemned to an infamous punishment, should be with his followers freed from the ignominy of Golgotha. It was importunate to her to hear that the Galilean, whom she called a son of Belial, and whose miracles she accounted vain prestiges, was God, and his Mother a great 25 saint; and then she feared that this new veneration, analogous to the religion of the tombs, supported as it was by the incontest¬ able miracles which the apostles wrought at Jerusalem, might operate dangerously upon the fickle minds of the multitude, and provoke a dangerous reaction in favor of the crucified Prophet. Now, as she had openly avowed to John and Peter, she had no wish to be called to account by the people for the blood of Jesus. From all these considerations, the sena¬ tors and chief priests went a step farther in the slippery descent of crime, to main¬ tain the rectitude of the abominable sen¬ tence which they had induced the Romans to pass ; and they took great credit to them¬ selves for having nipped in the bud the veneration of the Blessed Virgin. Their iniquitous expectation was disappointed. The most furious and best obeyed tyrants, in the dark fantasies of their cruelty, can¬ not destroy memory, that flower of the soul which expands, mysterious and con¬ soling, in the inaccessible region of our ideas, and which the powerful storm of per¬ secution only causes to strike deeper root. That of the Blessed Virgin resisted this Jewish hurricane ; they chanted no longer in her grotto ; but they continued to come 194 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE and weep, and the tears which devotion causes outvalue the frankincense of Saba, which comes from the wounded bark, in the form of tears. Violently uprooted by the sacrilegious hands of the princes of that people rejected by God, devotion to Mary was trans¬ planted by the apostles to a foreign and still idolatrous land. In their lifetime it was seen rising in Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Spain. It is true that this tender and poetical cuttus, which was to supplant the impure and seductive wor¬ ship of the divinities of Olympus, shone at first only as a small star in the zenith of a few cities ; for Christianity was at first . only the religion of cities, and even of the common people in the cities. Paganism, repudiated by thinking minds, despised by philosophers, ridiculed in the theatres where the testament of the deceased Jupi¬ ter was publicly read, and railed at with truly infidel malice by the young epicu¬ reans of the court of the Ciesars, 1 still pos¬ sessed withal an incredible number of partisans; allied to numerous interests, defended by prejudice and ancient super¬ stitions, attractive by the splendor of its festivals, and intermixed with all glorious memories, though in its decline it was still effulgent. Proud of its advantages, at first it would not deign to fear the carpen¬ ter’s son and the young spinster of Naz¬ areth. 2 How could it fear them ? It did not see them. The religion of the poor Deity, and of his holy Mother, advanced noiselessly along the rough and painful pathway of the common people; it ad¬ dressed itself from choice to the mechanic, to woman, to the slave, to all who were little, feeble, and oppressed by the society of paganism, that profoundly egotistical society, avaricious, effeminate, and cor¬ rupted, which was brilliant and cold as its own marble gods. It was soon perceived that the moral world, that aged Titan bordering on de¬ crepitude, acquired fresh youth from the potent and secret influence of some regen¬ erating philter. What sorceress had re¬ stored to this new iEson the ardent and active blood of his better years ? What Pro¬ metheus had scaled heaven, to bring down to man, bound in the icy fetters of egotism, a spark of sacred fire ? For there was no dissembling the fact; society was in travail, about to bear some strange, grand fruit, which was to restore its potent and youth¬ ful vigor ; it was visibly becoming again what it was in the glorious times so much regretted by Horace, when it despised pomp, honored the gods, and proudly wore its poverty. Already, unseen, but perse¬ vering hands seemed to have raised up again, from their grass-grown ruins, the ancient altar of Modesty, and the austere temples of Faith, Honor, and Virtue. Be¬ neficence, which had ceased to behold the smoke of sacrifices, since material enjoy¬ ments had come to be so madly pursued, ( 1 ) All know the witticism of that courtier of Nero who, when abused and threatened by an old priestess for killing one of her sacred geese, called out in a tone of derision, as he threw her two pieces of gold, “Here, this is to buy gods and geese.” ( 8 ) See Oelsus. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 195 * was apparently beginning again to be mys- they be Stoic philosophers ? No; for they teriously honored. The ancient equality shed a tear of compassion over the indi- ; of Saturn’s days showed itself anew here gent beggar before they slip into his hand, and there upon earth. In fine, Humanity as they escape, the rich alms which fills him bore in her arms those infants whom the with astonishment. Is she a vestal virgin, elegant matrons of pagan society exposed then, that' maiden, who walks, with her on the banks of rivers, in the depths of clasped hands and downcast eyes, beside a forests, ofi the brink of precipices, where mother, veiled like herself? No ; for she eagles, wandering dogs, and wild beasts has neither the embroidered fillets, nor the tore to pieced their little warm and bleed- purple-fringed robe-dress of the Amatce , 2 ing limbs. 1 Supporting with one manly and her only ornament is modesty. Those hand the laborer panting under the weight widows of twenty, who no more rekindle of toil, Charity extended the other to the the torch of Hymen, 3 while the grand infirm old man, abandoned on the steps of ladies of paganism count their divorces by the temples. \ 0 ye gods of Greece, ye the consulships, 4 whence come they ? And travelling deities, who were hospitably en- those young men, who bow with reverence tertained beneath the thatched roof of before the aged, blush like maidens, and yet Philemon and Baucis, have you again are not the less lion-like, brave in war, who visited earth to re-establish the beautiful . are they ? They are not seen in the reign of virtue ? No ; for you were, as theatre ; they do not frequent the circus ; the Scripture says, deaf gods, impotent they do not figure in the pagan mysteries gods, blind gods ; or, to speak better, you with garlands of flowers or baskets of sa- were nothing. cred fruits upon their heads ; they pass be- Behold ! amid that effeminate, frivolous fore pompous temples of Greece and Rome society, crowned with roses, quaffing their unentered. They fly the sight of a sacrifice, golden cups to the gods of Olympus, there and they shake their dark mantles well appear here and there groups of noble when a few drops of the lustra! water countenances, and severe mien, who avert chance to fall upon them. In a word, they their eyes from these pagan orgies with in- would rather die than touch any meats dignation blended with irony.Can which had been offered to the gods. Are ( 1 ) As to this abominable custom of exposing pagans. St. John Chrysostome relates that the children, Philo gives details that make one’s hair famous sophist Libanius, whose lectures on oratory stand on end. The Jews alone at that time con- he attended, learning from him that his mother demned the barbarous practice. had been a widow from the age of twenty, and had (’) The vestals bore the name of Amatce, in constantly refused a second husband, exclaimed, as memory of Amata, the first Roman virgin who he turned to his idolatrous auditory : “ Ye gods consecrated herself to the worship of Yesta.— of Greece, what women are to be found among (Aulus Gfellius, lib. i., c. 12.) these Christians !” —(Sancti Chrysostomi vita.) (*) The austere continency of the Christian ( 4 ) Seneca, Treatise on Acts of Kindness, lib. women wrung cries of admiration from the very iii. 196 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE they impious, these men whose hands close with gold the frightful wounds of misery, and whose lives breathe purity? No ; for they assemble together three times in the day, and sometimes in the night, 1 to pray in common, with hands lifted up toward heaven to an unknown God ; and upon the altar of their former Lares, the lamp of which, fixed in marble, is always burning, 2 is seen the graceful image of a young Asiatic female, half-veiled in light blue drapery, 3 holding in her arms a divine Infant. This woman, with a countenance calm and clear as the waves of the Aegean Sea, when Zephyr gently moves them with the tip of his airy wing, is the inspirer of modesty, chastity, devotion, and mercy; the guardian of honor, the protectress of the fireside ; in a word, she is that sweet Yirgin Mary, to whom the Greeks have given the beautiful name of Panagia ( Jlavayia ), which means “ the all holy.” Asia claims the honor of having first set up oratories and chapels under the invocation of Mary ; the oldest of these sanctuaries was Our Lady of Tortosa, which St. Peter himself founded, according to the traditions of the Bast, on the coast of Phoe- nicia. These earliest Syrian churches were only at first very simple edifices, with roofs of cedar and trellised windows. The altar turned to the west, like that of Jeru¬ salem, and a creen of open wood-work en¬ closed the choir, in memory of the cele¬ brated veil of the Holy of Holies. There were crosses in these churches ; and ere long, too, images of Mary, since tradition records that she was painted upon one of the pillars of the beautiful church of Lydda, which her adopted son had dedi¬ cated to her, and that St. Luke presented to the cathedral of Antioch a portrait of the Blessed Yirgin, painted by himself. This picture, to which it was confidently said that the Mother of God had attached many graces, became so famous that the Empress Pulcheria transferred it to Con¬ stantinople, where she built a magnificent church for its reception. Edessa, the capital city of that king, Abgarus, who threatened to make war upon the Jews to avenge the death of our Lord, and who was withheld solely by the fear of incurring the anger of the Romans, their masters, this prince, according to Eusebius, had also, in the first century, his ( 1 ) The first Christians assembled for prayer at the hours of Tierce, Sext, and None, as it is noted in the Acts of the Apostles ; they spent the night in prayer on the eves of great feasts, chanting hymns in honor of Our Lord, as St. Basil and So¬ crates testify. ( a ) The gods who were called indifferently Lares or Penates were the titular gods of houses. They had a worship of their own. Incense and wine were offered to them ; they were crowned with flowers, and a lamp lighted before their little statues. In 1505, a copper lamp was dug up at Lyons, with two beaks, the chain of which was fixed into a piece of marble which bore this in¬ scription : “ Laribus sacrum. P. P. Eomum.” Which means, “To the public felicity of the Romans.” ( s ) In the most ancient pictures of the Blessed Virgin, those painted on wood, the great antiquity of which is undisputed, she almost always wears a blue veil. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 197 church of Our Lady, adorned with a mira¬ culous image. Egypt boasts of having had, about the same time, its Church of Our Lady of Alexandria, and the Spanish Saragossa, then called Caesar-Augusta, its celebrated sanctuary of Our Lady del Pilar. But no place in the world welcomed devo¬ tion to Mary with more enthusiasm than Asia Minor. Ephesus, where the memory of the Blessed Virgin was still fresh, soon built in honor of Mary the Miriam, a superb cathedral, in which a famous coun¬ cil was held in the fifth century, which established her beautiful title of Mother of God. This example was followed from one end to the other of the immense province of Borne. Phrygia, christianized, forgot her Trojan deities whom Homer chanted ; Cap¬ padocia forgot to feed the sacred fires, which the Persians had kindled beside the elegant temples of the deities of Greece ; and the caverns, which but of yore had lent their gloomy recesses to the bloody mys¬ teries of Mithra, 1 became, during the relig¬ ious persecutions, which nowhere raged with greater fury than amongst the Greek col¬ onies, a place of refuge for the Christians and their proscribed God. At last, the gods of Greece, those indigenous deities sprung from the bright foam of the JEgean Sea, born beneath the still-standing palm- trees of the Cyclades, or cradled in the shade of the woods which crown the lofty mountains of Crete, were abandoned for t the God who died on Calvary, and the Virgin of Nazareth ; and so utterly for¬ saken, that Pliny the Younger, on his arrival in Bithynia, of which he had just been appointed governor, wrote to Trajan that Christianity had invaded, not only the cities but the country, so that he had found the temples of the gods of the empire for¬ saken. 2 Asia Minor possessed, from the earliest times, miraculous images of Our Lady. The two most famous were that of Dy- dinia, where St. Basil went to pray for the afflicted church in the reign of Julian ; and dhat of Sosopoli, a picture painted on wood, which distilled a wondrous oil that wrought the astonishing cures discussed at the second council of Nice. Nor was Greece, that brilliant home of letters and arts, remiss in honoring Mary. In the time of St. Paul, Corinth, where Grecian freedom, like an expiring lamp, cast its last gleam before it was extin¬ guished, was almost entirely converted to Christianity. The faithful assembled at (•*) The worship of Mithra, before it reached Greece and Rome, had previously passed from Persia into Cappadocia, where Strabo, who had travelled there, says that he had seen a great num¬ ber of priests of Mithra. The mysteries of Mithra, which were celebrated in the depths of caverns, were something horrible, according to the holy fathers. Human victims were there immolated, as appears from a fact related by Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History, that the Christians of Alex¬ andria, having discovered a cave which had been long closed up, in which tradition stated that the. Mithraic rites had been formerly celebrated, they found there human bones and skulls, which were taken out to exhibit to the people of that great city. ( 2 ) Plin., lib. x., epist. 97. DEVOTION TO THE 198 HISTORY OF THE first in the spacious halls of private houses, where the Blessed Virgin was solemnly in¬ voked. Gradually, the temples of pagan¬ ism grew empty, and a century later only travellers and the curious climbed the steep sides of the Acro-Ceraunium to visit the temple of Venus, whose lofty porticoes, towering above the verdant ocean of the treetops, were traced upon the soft blue sky of Greece. The protecting goddess of the Corinthians had been dethroned by the Holy Woman who restored slighted mod¬ esty and despised maternity, in their effem¬ inate country. To her is owing, that pure family pleasures, the exquisite enjoyments of the domestic hearth, were, without diffi¬ culty, substituted for the shameful dis¬ orders, the monstrous orgies, and the depraved morals of that little republic, which had always shone in the foremost rank among corrupt communities. Corinth, transfigured, became a Christian Sparta, and the eulogium which St. Clement pro¬ nounces upon its church, toward the end of the first century, gives us a marvellous idea of its fervor. Arcadia, whose forests were peopled with rustic deities, and where every wild cavern and murmuring stream had its altar, abjured also, but less speedily, the worship of Pan and the nymphs, for devotion to the humble Virgin, whose divine Infant had been pleased to receive for his earliest homage the artless adoration of shepherds. But as old superstitions are more difficult to eradicate in the country than elsewhere, it was still long believed in Arcadian ham¬ lets, that Diana hunted in the depths of the great forests of Maenalus and Lycasus. Young and credulous shepherdesses, hesi¬ tating between Christian dogmas and the superstitions of their forefathers, imagined that they sometimes saw by the uncertain light of the moon fair white Dryads among the trees, Naiads bending their pensive heads over the margins of fountains, or frolicsome Napaeae dancing upon the golden buds and daisies of the meadows. But toward the time of Constantine, the Blessed Virgin prevailed over deified nature ; and the numberless churches in her name, which still adorn the rural sites of the ancient Pelasgi, attest the profound attachment of the Arcadians to her honor. Elis, too, at a very early period, reared a church in honor of the Blessed Virgin, on the banks of its river Alplieus, sacred to romantic adventures ; and as it was sur¬ rounded with noble vineyards, gave it the name of Our Lady of Grapes. Macedonia took the lead of Greece, prop¬ erly so called, in devotion to Mary : Thes- salonica had a bishop’s see in the time of the apostles ; and still shows a superb ba¬ silica, with jasper pillars, which the people of Alexandria dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, but which the Turks have converted into a mosque. 1 Nero, travelling in Peloponnesus, had not dared to pass the frontiers of Laconia, deterred by the austere shade of Sparta. The meek and timid Virgin of Galilee was braver than Caesar ; she passed the Eurotas, which hides its humbled waters beneath rose-bays, and presented herself to the peo¬ ple of Leonidas, whose ancient virtue had ( 1 ) Wheeler’s Travels. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 199 been again steeped in the bitter but strength¬ ening waters of poverty. She was welcomed with enthusiasm, and they hastened to build the most beautiful church in Greece to the young foreign Virgin, who came to teach Sparta’s maidens a downcast eye. Since then, Mary has reigned in Sparta with absolute power ; for her open the first violets, which the Eurotas sees blossom on its banks ; before her picture, rudely painted in red and blue upon the walls of their homes, the young maidens of Lacedaemon light every evening a clay or bronze lamp, a pious action which the Greek minstrels, who sing the praises of the dead, never fail to celebrate on days of funeral obsequies. Indeed, the inhabitants of Laconia substi¬ tuted the names of Christ and the Blessed Virgin, wherever their forefathers used the name of Jupiter in their affirmations ; and this form of oath grew so habitual that the very Turks of Misistra, before the Greek revolution, instead of swearing by Allah and Mahomet, like other Osmanlis, used to swear, Kke the Greeks of Sparta, by the Blessed Virgin. 1 Elegant and learned Athens, famous for its monuments, the noblest of earth, and its schools frequented by the flower of the studious youth of Europe and Asia, was slower in its conversion to Christianity than the other countries of Greece. From the early times, however, it had a bishop, and a church dedicated to Mary, Our Lady Spi- ( 1 ) Pouqueville, Voyage en Moree, t. i. (’) St. Cyril of Alexandria, t. v., p. 2. (’) While the sun is above the horizon, as the heat is excessive in their climate, the Arabs usually Keep under their tents. They come out toward liotissa (of the Grotto) ; but polytheism kept its ground under the brilliant aegis of Mi¬ nerva, and Athens was at the same time full of Christian churches and of idols. It was in one of these churches that Julian the Apostate, by order of the Emperor Con- stantius, filled the office of lector ; but it was in the Parthenon that he went to dream the re-establishment of idolatry, while read¬ ing Homer. That devotion to the Blessed Virgin exert¬ ed a powerful influence on the propagation of the gospel in Greece and Asia, is a fact which the manners and tastes of the Levan¬ tines would render probable, even if it had not been attested, before all the Oriental bishops, by St. Cyril, at the first council of Ephesus, in a discourse which has come down to onr times. “Hail to thee, holy Mother of God,” said this holy and learned bishop, “by whom churches have been founded throughout the world,” in cities, towns, and islands where the true faith is received. On the other side of the Great Sea, sev¬ eral tribes of Arabs had been converted to Christianity, and greatly honored Mary, the Sultana of Heaven, as they still call her. Seated beneath the shade of the date- palm, or the tamarisk with its green fruits, which loves the margin of brackish springs, and inhaling with delight the coolness which night brings amid their burning sands, 3 the story-tellers of Christian tribes, by the sunset, and then enjoy the charms of the beautiful sky and the cool air. Night is for them in some sort what day is for us. Thus their poets never sing the charms of a fine day, but these words, “Leilli! leilli! ”—“ 0 night! 0 night! ” are repeated in all • ♦ v ■ 200 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE light of those eternal lamps of God, which they suppose fastened with golden chains to the ceiling of the firmament, 1 related the principal facts of the Blessed Virgin’s life, coloring them with that tinge of the mar¬ vellous so agreeable to the children of Ismael. They told, according to the Arab gospel of the infancy of Christ and the traditions of the desert, how the holy angels came bearing to the Blessed Virgin, in the temple where her guardian Zachary had placed her, fine dates, amber grapes, figs sweeter than honey, and fragrant flowers, gathered in the gardens of Para¬ dise which abound in limpid springs and green trees : for Paradise in hot climates has always been composed of cool waters and delightful shade. And then they re¬ lated, still in their own way, the prodigies of the birth of Jesus, which, though become Mussulmans, still they call Al milad (the birth by excellence). They placed the scene in a desert, on the margin of a spring, at the foot of a withered palm-tree, without branches and foliage, which was suddenly covered with leaves and fruit, at the voice of the angel Gabriel, whom God had sent to Mary, to wipe away her tears. These marvellous tales increased their veneration for the Blessed Virgin ; they believed that in course of time they should be able to adore her in heaven whom the angels had served upon earth, and they in fact offered her oblations of cakes made of flour and honey : whence they were called collyridians from the word noWvpws, a cake. St. Epi- phanius strongly condemned them for this worship, which exceeded legitimate limits, and taught them that oblation and sacrifice must be offered to God alone. On the other hand, the idolatrous Arabs had set up the image of Mary in the Caaba, among the angels, whom they represented under the form of young women, and whom they called the daughters of God. 2 Mary, whom they had made the sister of those pure spirits, shared with them divine honors. Victims were immolated to her, decorated with leaves and flowers ; they offered her the lirst ears of the harvest, as well as the first dates of the palm-trees, and, in golden vases, the foaming milk of the sacred camels. 8 The image of the Blessed Virgin, holding the divine Infant in her arms, remained in the temple of Mecca till the time of Mahomet, who had it removed with the genii and angels. The holy name of Mary began to be invoked among the people who dwell be¬ tween the Caspian and Black Seas ; but, alas! the sanctuaries of Judea were pro¬ faned by the Greek and Syriac idols, their songs.—(Savary, note on ch. yii. of the Ko¬ ran.) (*) The first heaven is of pure silver; from its beautiful ceiling the stars are suspended by strong golden chains.—(Koran, the Legend of Ma¬ homet, by Savary, p. 15.) ( * ) Geladeddin, note on ch. xvi. of the Koran. (’ ) The idolatrous Arabs had several female camels consecrated to the gods of the Caaba; the cream of their milk was used in libations.— (Sav¬ ary, in a note on ch. v. of the Koran.) The in¬ habitants of Mecca offered a portion of their fruits and flocks to God, and another to their idols.—(Geladeddin, note on ch. vi. of the Ko¬ ran.) BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 201 which were not overthrown till the time of Constantine. The statue of Jupiter rose sacrilegiously on the spot where Mary in tears hacl beheld Christ crucified, and they sacrificed to Adonis in the grotto of Bethlehem. CHAPTEE III. THE WEST. T HE holy vine of Christianity already flourished in Asia so as to extend its holy branches over a multitude of nations but it took root more slowly in the West. Rome, intensely idolatrous—Rome, intoxi¬ cated with the blood of martyrs, which she had shed like water, defended polytheism with all her might, and her might extended over the world. In the East, a mysterious sign, which made Satan shudder in the depths of his burning realm, proclaimed that the kingdom of Glod was at hand ; but in Italy, and in those regions situated be¬ yond the Alps, Christianity was as yet only in the position of a secret society; men joined it with every precaution and mystery; the members recognized each other by recognized signs ; and, no doub.t, ( 1 ) We learn from Arnobius and Eusebius that the Gospel, in the first three centuries, had ex¬ tended far beyond the sway of the Romans, among the Persians, Parthians, Scythians, and many others whom they do not mention.—(Arnobius, adv. Gentes, lib. ii., c. xii.; Eusebius Demonstratio Evang., lib. iii., c. v.) (’) Micheas, v. 7. (*) One of these altars, on which it is believed THE CATACOMBS. the sign of the cross, the origin of which is unknown, was one of those mysterious signs which made known a Christian stran¬ ger to brethren scattered among the crowd. Not that the Christians of the Western regions were few—they might already have formed armies ; but, persecuted by idola¬ trous governors, tracked like wild beasts, and finding no support from the Roman laws, which took cognizance of them only to punish, they lived isolated “as a dew from the Lord, and as drops upon the grass, which waiteth not for man, nor tar- rieth for the children of men.” 2 The first Latin churches were domestic chapels, and the first altars portable chests of wood, like the ark, which they resembled in form and in their rings of brass. 3 These St. Peter celebrated the divine mysteries, and which Pope Sylvester enclosed beneath the high altar of St. John Lateran, was examined on the 29th of March, 1658, under Alexander VII., by the Chevalier Baromini, and by the sacristan major of the basilica; it is four palms long by eight palms wide. Its shape is that of a chest. The altar was carried by means of several rings. 20 202 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE primitive churches of Rome, which already existed before the arrival of St. Paul, were chiefly composed of Greeks and Jews con¬ verted to Christianity; but the Roman people soon heard of this new law, which declared that all men are brethren, that they are equal, and should love one an¬ other. They saw the beauty of this holy law ; they wished to follow it, and came in crowds to receive the regenerating water of Baptism. It was then found, to the great surprise of every one, says Tacitus, that Rome contained an immense number of Christians. 1 The priests of the idols were excited ; Nero, emperor and supreme pontiff, took alarm, and persecutions began. 2 They assembled at first where they could, as St. Justin Martyr replied to the prefect of Rome, who asked where these meetings were held, and who did not learn ; but the halls and upper chambers of private houses becoming too confined, and the searches made by the senate be¬ coming daily more rigorous, it became necessary to seek a temple vast enough to contain a great multitude of people, and so hidden as to escape the search of that swarm of informers who were then a per¬ fect plague of Egypt, to the empire a scourge. Some bold-hearted Christians proposed the catacombs. There were im¬ mense gloomy apartments, interminable avenues, where the darkness was so dense, ( 1 ) Tacitus, Annals, lib. xv., c. xliv. (* *) This first persecution was based on the burning of Rome, which Nero had kindled him¬ self, and then laid to the Christians. It was ex¬ tremely cruel: the Christians were wrapped in tunic dipped in pitch, or other combustible mat- says St. Jerom, that one seemed to de¬ scend as it were into the grave alive, and the walls of which were studded with bodies buried there. This labyrinth of coffins, from which it was all but impossible to find an outlet, and which it was almost certain death to enter without a guide ; those dizzy vaults where reigned silence, fear, and death, had no terrors for the first Chris¬ tians of Rome. On the Lord’s day, then called the day of the Sun, they assembled in this awe-inspiring metropolitan church, to read the writings of' the apostles or prophets ; then they offered on an altar of rough stone the sacrifice of bread and wine, which was preceded by a sermon, and followed by a collection for the poor. 8 Rude frescoes, representing our Saviour, or Mary, such as may still be seen, half ef¬ faced, in the catacombs of Naples and Rome, were the only decoration of this abode of prayer, where the assembly con¬ sisted of ten generations of the departed, and one of the living. What a temple ! Instead of vessels of gold, encrusted with precious stones, they had wooden chalices ! Instead of massive silver Roman lamps, mournful torches ! Instead of rich spoils, the terrible trophies of the angel of death! On either side, in front, before, and behind the place where the assembly of the faith¬ ful gathered close, were long subterraneous avenues, where, from time to time, torches ter; then they set fire to them, so that they served for torches to light up the night. Nero made a spectacle of them in his gardens, where he himself drove chariots by the light of these fearful torches.—(See Hist. Eccles., t. i., p. 98.) (*) Apology of S. Justin. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 203 gleamed iu the distance, and where veiled figures glided along like spectres ! Beneath their feet the dust of a republic, which had interred its virtues in the folds of its great winding-sheet: terror within ; and without, in case of discovery, the amphi¬ theatre, whose arena was red as a wound, in such torrents had Christian blood been shed there. When we reflect on all this, we ask amazed, who were the intrepid heroes who came to brave these terrors ? . . . Those heroes who faced fear and death were poor and ignorant men, who had grown up in the midst of the auguries, the omens, and the thousand superstitious fears of pagan¬ ism ; timid virgins, accustomed to bloom far from the world, like solitary roses opulent and fair patrician ladies, served by legions of slaves, who slept upon couches of massive gold, ate from tables of citron- wood, lived in apartments ceiled with ivory, and walked upon marble floors, sprinkled with gold or silver dust ; young men enveloped in rich scarlet mantles, an Ani¬ cius, an Olibrius , a Probus , or a Gracchus / in fine, the flower of the nobility ; knights known by their equestrian rings, grand officers of the palace, tribunes of the peo¬ ple, favorites, relatives of Caesar, whose sons were by decree to succeed him in the ( 1 ) S. Ambrose, de Virginitate, lib. i., c. vi. ( 4 ) See Prudentius, in bis two books against Symmachus. According to this author, the family of Anicius was the first patrician family at Eome which embraced Christianity.. (’) The cousin-german of Domitian, Flavins Clement, whose two sons had been named by the ' emperor himself as his successors in the imperial dignity, was put to death for being a Christian, empire. 3 . . . Nay, more. Imperial prin¬ cesses, who threaded by night the courts of their golden palace on Mount Palatine, es¬ corted by a few faithful slaves, and glided like spirits beyond the city of Romulus, to go and adore in the depths of the cata¬ combs the Galilean, as the haughty pagan aristocracy termed him in disdainful con¬ tempt, and to invoke that sweet Virgin Mary, for whom the noble scions of the Gracchi and the Scipios abandoned their favorite temple of Juno Lucina. 4 If the Tiber overflowed, or rain did not fall, or an earthquake happened, and the Roman people, to avert such disasters, raised their wonted cry : “ The Christians to the lions !” 5 then coffins would be brought before the altar, filled with bones, piously gathered in the amphitheatre. Then a canticle of triumph, sweetly chanted, aris¬ ing from the depths of the earth, mingled with the ceaseless ripple of the waters which the aqueducts bore over the walls of Rome, and the soft and gentle murmur of the tall Lombardy poplars, which echoes the sound of the running waters. Ofttimes the bishop, a holy old man, lean¬ ing on a real shepherd’s simple crook, re¬ proved those who had deserted the camp of riches, and come to adore the King of Poverty for a lingering attachment to Ro- having hardly ended his consulship. The princess Domitilla, his wife, a Christian like himself, was banished to an island.—(Hist. Eccles., t. i., p. 105.) ( 4 ) The temple of Juno Lucina was the favorite resort of the grandest ladies of Rome; courtesans were forbidden to enter it; mothers there offered vows to obtain rich matches for their daughters. (‘) Tertullian, Apology. 204 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE man luxury. He would tell the grand ladies, who listened to him in a pensive attitude, that it did not become Christian women to wear, in rings and bracelets, “ the substance of a thousand poor.” Some days after, people would ask what one of the daugh¬ ters of the house of Anicius had done with her jewels. The poor, both pagan and Christian, around about her could have answered, by showing bread and money! Or else he inveighed against slavery ; and the next day it was everywhere repeated with profound surprise, that a certain pre¬ fect of the palace had just freed live hundred slaves. There especially was charity in¬ culcated ; and what kind of charity ? 4 ‘ Almsgiving is a mystery,” said the priest of Jesus Christ; “when you exercise it, close the doors! ” And issuing from those meetings where fervor was revived, women, poor them¬ selves, went to rescue on the banks of the Tiber the children exposed there by the grand pagan ladies ; while noble ladies set apart a portion of their palaces for hos¬ pitals, and young Christian nobles under¬ took long journeys to relieve their African and Asiatic brethren. These acts of char- ( 1 ) Lucianus, de Morte Peregrini. ( 4 ) Astolfi, Delli Imagini miracolose. ( 3 ) Raoul Rochette ascribes the introduction of these little statues to the Gnostics: but the Gnos¬ tics themselves deemed them much older than their sect. According to all appearance, this custom was established among the first Roman patricians who became converts to Christianity. The images of Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Virgin, and the apostles, were substituted for those of Fortune and other divinities, which were set, crowned with flowers, on the altar of the Lares, and which were small ity, self-denial, and devotedness struck the pagans with surprise ; they were unable tc understand them, so far were they incapa¬ ble to perform them. 1 The noble Roman matrons then wore emerald, cornelian, or sapphire, graven with the image of Mary, and bequeathed them at death to their daughters as symbols of their faith. Years after Galla, the widow of Symmachus, built a superb church, to enshrine one of those precious stones, relic of a persecuted faith : so fine was the work¬ manship that it was thought to have pro¬ ceeded from a superhuman hand, and it was venerated as a gift from heaven. 2 Besides these religious ornaments, which enabled Christian women to recognize each other, they exposed among flowers, upon the domestic altar where the Lares or house¬ hold gods had long reigned-, little statues of silver or gold, representing Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and the apostles. These little statues, any discovery of which would have sent the whole family to the amphithe¬ atre, were generally small enough to be put out of sight at the first signal, and even hidden about their persons. 3 At a somewhat later period, private enough to be carried about the person, if needed. One of these little statues, representing Harpoc- rates, the god of silence, has been found in Brit¬ tany ; it was of gold, two inches long, and weighed two louis.—(See Iiistoire Ecclesiastique de Bretagne, t. iii., p. 358.) We know, moreover, that the ancients hung around their necks, or fastened to their gar¬ ments, small images of Fortune. Thence came the custom of wearing Madonnas, doves represent¬ ing the Holy Ghost, and crosses of gold or precious stones. Unable to abolish that ancient custom, the churchy who is perfectly wise, changed its object. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 205 chapels received the bodies of the martyrs, attired in very rich white robes, and en¬ shrined with magnificence in marble sarcoph¬ agi. During the last persecutions, Aglae, a rich and beautiful Roman matron, sent for a martyr’s body to the remotest part of Bithynia, where the Roman governors, absolute men, who traded in everything, even in the dead, sold them very dear. 1 In the interval between the persecutions, the Christians collected their dead in ceme¬ teries situated without the walls of Rome, and often went thither to pray. The walls of these cemeteries, painted in fresco, rep¬ resented Christ upon his tribunal, in a severe and imposing attitude befitting the sovereign Judge of mankind; near him, Mary, in a Roman veil, stood ready to implore his mercy for sinners. 2 During the halcyon days of the reign of Alexander Severus, the Christians of Rome, knowing that this prince honored Jesus Christ, whose image he had set up in his lararium, among the holy souls, 3 and count¬ ing on the support of his mother, the Em¬ press Mamea, who was a Christian, request¬ ed and obtained, in spite of the clamors of the pagan priests, permission to erect a church on the site of an abandoned dwell¬ ing. It was the first that dared to raise its cross beside the marble temples of the gods of the empire ; it was dedicated to Mary, and took the name of Our Lady beyond the Tiber. Christianity, violently repressed in Italy } was cruelly persecuted in Gaul, where it made only imperceptible progress, accord¬ ing to Sulpicius Severus, who wrote in the fourth century. Nevertheless, in the third century, some bishoprics are enumerated: among others, that of Paris, founded by St. Denis, who suffered martyrdom in 272 , during the persecution of Valerian: and that of Lyons, where St. Pothinus had es¬ tablished the devotion to Mary. Mission¬ aries, among whom we see even Roman knights, traversed Gaul; but these sowers of the gospel often fell beneath the impious sword of the pagan governors, who tracked them like wild beasts, 4 before their task was far advanced. Their unfinished labors, however, were not lost; their noble blood enriched the furrows which they had opened, and, at a later day, other laborers came there to gather the harvest. The island of the Britons boasts of having outstripped Gaul in its conversion to Chris¬ tianity, and if its more ancient chroniclers are to be credited, it had the first Christian king in the world. Venerable Bede relates that in the time of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, a prince, named Lucius, asked Pope Eleutherius for two Italian missionaries to preach the gospel to the little kingdom which he governed under the Romans. His request was welcomed, and two apostolical men, to whom the Britons subsequently reared altars, 5 came to preach the Gospel to the tribes of Great Britain, (’) Simplician, governor of Cilicia, sold to the servants of the martyr Boniface the body of their master for five hundred gold crowns. ( 1 ) A very ancient painting in the cemetery of St. Calixtus, of Rome, still represents the Blessed Virgin in this costume. ( 3 ) Lampridius, in Alexander Severus, c. xxix.- xxxi. (*) “You have escaped us then, if you are a Christian,” said Heraclius to St. Symphorian, “ for there are very few of you left.” (') Harpsfield, Hist., lib. i., c. iii. . .« 206 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE then divided between Druidism, still in its British isle, where Roman civilization ex- vigor, and the gods of the Roman emperors. panded, like a pallid, premature flower, God blessed their efforts : the Britons, still amid barbarism—had cities adorned with only half-civilized, crowded from their hive- baths, marble palaces, temples glittering like huts to listen to them ; and sometimes, with gold, on the borders of heath where amid desert heaths studded with enormous menhirs and dense virgin forests towered ; stones, where the missionaries had come to but Caledonia, where the eagle of the meet followers of Bsus, assembled by the Caesars had not penetrated, was still the pale moonlight 1 for some secret.sacrifice, land of the torrent, the mist, and the rock, ‘ a young Celtic priestess, after listening to the and had no religion but an almost extinct holy doctrine with pensive air, as she leaned Druidism confused with kindred supersti- against the menhir, which threw afar its tions. The belief of these races was all giant shadow, would drop from her hands vague and undefined, like a landscape en- the golden sickle, beneath which the mistle- veloped in fog. The Druids, after a collis- toe was to have fallen, that sacred plant ion with the great chiefs, had been expelled which still grew in the furrowed bark of the as early as the fourth century, 3 and their oak, and bow before the minister of Christ, notions of the unity of God were almost with her fair head still wreathed with the forgotten ; but men believed in the spirit priestly garland which confined her dis- of the waters, the spirit of the mountains, . ; he veiled hair, as she cried out, in a voice and in an aerial palace were the shades of. full of emotion : “lama Christian ! ” And their forefathers, who wandered aimlessly the priest, dipping from the still worshipped by night on their chariots of cloud, display- spring, poured the sacred water of Baptism ing their white drapery, gilded by the moon, on the forehead of the stately young neo- and brandishing as a sword, in their trans- phyte, who discarded her name of Uheldeda lucent hands, a half-extinguished meteor. 4 (sublimity), to adopt the sweet foreign name The Christian apostles of these then almost of Mary. 2 unknown regions, which a chilly sun illu- During the persecution of Diocletian, ac- mines as if reluctantly through nights of cording to the best authorities, Christianity rain, took possession of the grottoes which passed beyond the double wall which sepa- the Druids had abandoned, 6 and planted rated the Britons, whom their conquerors their tents on the banks of torrents, in the had politically enervated, from their restless depths of woods, or on the mountain-side. and wild neighbors on the north. The Sometimes it happened that a Highland 1 ( 1 ) The Gauls and island Britons assembled in ( 2 ) Venerable Bede assures us, in his Ecclesias- their temples only at night, and when the moon tical History, that even at this remote period a was in the first quarter, or at the full; this tradi- great number of Druids became Christians. tional usage came down from the highest antiquity. ( 3 ) Poems of Ossian : a Dissertation concerning —(Histoire Ecclesiastique de Bretagne, t. iv., p. the Era of Ossian. 1 540.) ( 4 ) See Ossian. ( 6 ) Ibid. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 207 hunter. 1 forgetting to pursue through the wind now moans through its venerable ruins, mist the red deer and the roebuck, would beneath which monarchs repose. come and seat him upon the gray moss- Four ages had passed over Christianity, covered stone that marked the burial-place which already extended from the West to of a warrior, to converse with the old man the East. “We are but of yesterday,” of the cave, the Christian Culdee , 2 who said Tertullian to the pagan senate of Rome, spoke to him of Christ and his Mother. “ and we fill your palaces, your cities, With one arm thrown over his unstrung your fortresses, your armies on land and bow, and one hand placed on the head of his sea ; we leave you naught but your tern- favorite greyhound that lay at his feet, the pies! ” It was true ; but what showers of Scottish chief would hearken with a re- blood had, during this period, bedewed the spectful and attentive attitude to the grave great standard of the cross! The last per- words of the hermit: and then, when the secution failed to exterminate Christianity, sanctity of the Gospel had at last spoken like that plant of which Job speaks, to to his heart, when, with clasped hands whom the earth, which had produced it, and a look sparkling with enthusiasm, he said, “I never knew thee!” Diocletian had said, “I believe!” all his clan re- had demolished or closed every church, put peated, like a faithful echo, “We, too, the priests in irons, given Christian cities believe! ” to the sword, 3 and promised the most bril- Not content with having spread their liant rewards to apostasy, which flourished doctrine in highland and lowland, the priests but ill, notwithstanding the imperial en- of Christ yearned to dislodge idolatry from couragement, for the Christians of that day, the most ancient and most remote of its as a rule, preferred martyrdom. Christian- sanctuaries. The island of Iona, one of ity was deemed annihilated : the idolaters those isles of the group of the Hebrides clapped their hands over its speedy fall, surrounded by an emerald but stormy sea, and hell already raised its long howls of was held sacred by the lords of the isles triumph ; but the holy angels, regarding and the mountain chiefs, who repaired each other with a smile, said : “ The victory thither to swear peace upon an ancient dol- of Christ is at hand ; blessed be his name ! ” men, which they called the Stone of Power. .The fact was, that a young woman The dolmen soon disappeared, and there of Bithynia, named Helen, whom the Cassar rose amid the picturesque rocks, — which Constantius Chlorus had married for her are draped by the nightshade, the bugloss, virtue and rare beauty, had just brought and the sea-holly, — the most ancient and him forth a son, who had been named Con- venerated of the abbeys of Scotland : the stantine. ( 1 ) Highlands, mountains of Scotland. ( s ) Eusebius, Historia Eccles., Sulpicius Se- (') Culdee, in Gaelic Culdich, a hermit, a soli- verus. tary, or rather Giolla Dei, servant of God. 208 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE SECOND EPOCH: FROM CONSTANTINE TO THE MIDDLE AGES. CHAPTER IY. THE EAST. THE O N the enchanted banks of the Bos¬ phorus of Thrace, in sight of the distant mountains of Asia Minor, whose lofty summits are tinged every evening with a robe of gold and carmine, the coast of Europe is hollowed into a wide bay of incomparable beauty, and above the blue expanse of its shining waters, which seems to roll sapphires, rises a vast city, all white and all Christian, 1 Constantinople, which the son of Helena and Constantius Chlorus has just solemnly dedicated to Mary ; for the master of the world, still held as a god in Rome, which remains idolatrous, belongs to Jesus Christ, and the cross by which he has conquered adorns his banners, shines upon his coins, and crowns the sumptuous basilicas which he has placed under the invocation of Saint Sophia, of the Blessed Virgin, and the Twelve Apostles. Idolatry still remains erect, but it is a withered palm-tree, whose highest branches are already dead. Naught is seen but de¬ serted altars, with reptiles crawling over their plinths ; birds begin to make their nests in the porticoes of the abandoned temples, where the spider spins her web ; ( 1 ) Constantine wished not to have a single idolater at Constantinople ; he left the idols in ICONOCLASTS. the wild vine displays its broad, green leaves upon their walls of polished marble, and the traveller irreverently cuts his walk¬ ing-stick in those sacred woods, from which a branch could not formerly be taken away under pain of death. The ceremonies of pagan worship have ceased in Greece ; the most venerated idols now serve but tc or¬ nament the public places of Constantino¬ ple ; but no one is compelled to enter the church ; for although polytheism is a wor¬ ship radically bad and unreasonable, Caesar respects liberty of conscience, which the pagans so ill understood when they abused the terrible right of the strongest ; and Lactantius, one of the brightest lights of Christianity, lays it down as a maxim, in a celebrated contemporary work, that nihil est tarn voluntarium quam religio —nothing is so voluntary as religion. 2 It is with such moderation that a sacred cause must triumph. Constantine did not confine his testimony of respect for Mary, to dedicating to her his new Rome ; at his request, the Empress Helena, converted by him, made a journey to Palestine, and covered it with sacred profane places only, to serve as ornaments.—(Hist Eccles., t. i., p. 523.) ( 11 ) Lactantius, Institutes, v. 20. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. monuments, of which the* Blessed Virgin had her share. The cave of the Nativity, encrusted with marble, and lighted with lamps of gold, was surrounded by a superb church, which bore the name of St. Mary of Bethlehem. Saint Mary’s of Nazareth, erected on the site of the humble dwelling in which the Holy Family had lived, was long regarded as one of the finest churches of Asia. The sepulchral grotto of the val¬ ley of Josaphat was considerably enlarged, and adorned with a superb marble stair¬ case ; silver lamps were hung round the tomb of the Blessed Virgin. Finally two sumptuous churches commemorated the Visitation of Mary, and her Swooning near the rock from which the Nazarenes sought to cast Jesus down headlong. The successors of the first Cmsar of By¬ zantium showed in general great devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Theodosius the Younger, learning that a great concourse of Christians of Europe and Asia visited the tomb of the Blessed Virgin, erected there a superb Byzantine basilica, which the Arabs called the giasmaniah or Church of the Body. Kosrou-Paviz (Chosroes II.) razed it at the instigation of the Jews, when he invaded Syria and Palestine ; but re- pentihg this act of violence, with which his Christian wife Sira with tears reproached him, the follower of Zoroaster himself built a church to the Blessed Virgin in his city of Miafarkin. 1 The Empress Pulcheria, daughter of Theodosius, and wife of the Emperor Marcian, herself alone erected three churches under the invocation of the ( 1 ) D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale. 27 209 Panagia, within the walls of Constantino pie. Being unable to enrich them with relics of the Mother of God,—as the body of Mary is in heaven,—she endeavored to supply the deficiency by some of her gar¬ ments, which the faithful of Jerusalem sent her. The fine church of Blaquerna had her robe, and that of Chalcopratum her girdle ; but that of the Guides obtained the best portion. There upon an altar, daz¬ zling with gold, and embellished with jasper columns, was placed a portrait of Mary sent from Antioch, which was said to have been painted by St. Luke in the lifetime of the Blessed Virgin, and to which the Mother of our Saviour had attached many graces. 2 This portrait was regarded as the palla¬ dium of the empire ; it was called vinone- gioov (causing victories), and the emperors, among others John Zimisces and the Com- neni, took it with their armies, whence it was brought back on a triumphal car, drawn by magnificent white horses. On great solemnities, this miraculous picture was taken out of the church of the Guides, where it was kept with jealous care and infinite precautions. The people always hailed its presence with shouts of joy and hymns of praise. The fate of this cele¬ brated picture remains doubtful. Some maintain that it was the same that the doge Henry Dandolo had removed to Venice, after the taking of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204 ; others maintain it to be the one seized by the Turks during the sack of the city of Constantine, and igno- (*) Nicephoros, Historia Eccles., lib. xiv. et xv. 210 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO’THE - miniously trampled under foot by them, after they had torn off the gold and dia¬ monds which encrusted it. Leo I., in 460, reared a superb basilica, which he dedicated to Our Lady of the Fountain, in gratitude for an apparition of the Blessed Yirgin to him beside a solitary spring, to which he was leading an old blind man, when he was as yet only a young Thracian soldier, and her then prom¬ ising him the empire. No sooner did the diadem of the Cassars touch his brow, than he proceeded to perpetuate, by this monu¬ ment, the remembrance of Mary’s protec¬ tion. 1 The Emperor Zeno, son-in-law ofvLeo I., was no less devout to the Blessed Yirgin than his father-in-law ; he built a church to her on Mount G-arizim, the sacred moun¬ tain of the Samaritans, and as that restless people, who were then in open revolt, had mutilated some images of Mary, he sur¬ rounded the mountain with a wall, on which he stationed a line of soldiers, to prevent any renewal of such sacrilege. The Emperor Justin rebuilt, magnifi¬ cently, at Constantinople, Our Lady of Chalcopratum, which had fallen during an earthquake. Two churches, erected in honor of the Blessed Yirgin at Jerusalem, St. Mary the New, and another on the Mount of Olives, a monastery built on one of the plateaus of Mount Sinai, and in Af¬ rica, a sumptuous basilica, styled Our Lady of Carthage, attest the piety of the Em¬ peror Justinian toward the Mother of our Lord. Not content with building temples in her honor, the Cassars of Constantinople piously venerated Mary in their domestic chapels ; they offered to her dazzling gold¬ en crowns, 2 and wore on their persons small images of her in solid gold. 3 To¬ ward the close of Lent the celebrated im¬ age of the Blessed Yirgin Jiodegetria (the Guide) was brought from the monastery of Hodegium to the imperial palace of Constantinople, where it remained till Easter Monday: it was to this Madonna that Michael Palaeologus, after having ex¬ pelled from Constantinople the race of the Lords of Courtenay, ascribed the success of his project. 4 ' The Greek nation joyfully followed the example of its emperors: the Panagia almost everywhere took the place of the household gods and Olympic idols. She was to be seen beneath the shade of the woods, upon the purified altar of the Ore- ades and the Napasae ; by the waterside, where the pensive Naiad lowered he]* urn ; ( 1 ) Nicephorus, lib. xv., c. xxy. This church, . which was built with great magnificence, had stained glass, but no historical subjects on them. At the end of the fifth century, painting on glass was still new. ( a ) Leo IV., son of Constantine Copronymus, having carried off from the church of St. Sophia one of the gold crowns, which the Emperor Mau¬ rice had consecrated to the Blessed Virgin, his ■ death, which happened very soon after, was attrib¬ uted to this sacrilege.—(Blond., lib. xxi., decad. 2.) ( s ) The Emperor Andronicus II. habitually wore on his neck one of these little statues of the Blessed Virgin ; it was of gold, and so small that he put it into his mouth, as a viaticum, at the hour of his death. (*) Antiquites de la Chapelle, etc., du Eoi de France. 1 BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 211 on the craggy summit, where of yore men sacrificed to the ocean nymphs. The ivy- green garlanded altars of Bacchus were laid low, and amid the vineyards Our Lady of the Clusters received the homage of the vinedressers. Ceres herself was sinking into oblivion in the ruins of her mysterious sanctuary of Eleusis, destroyed by the Goths in the third century, with the temples of Delphos, Corinth, and Ephesus. Finally, Mount Athos, the mountain of Jupiter, had become, even in Constantine’s days, a little colony of hermits and solitaries, of which Mary had been proclaimed the Queen. The Gospel facts of her life were reproduced, in golden-ground frescoes, on the walls of countless chapels, reared in her honor, amid the vine and olive that clothe the lofty mountain’s sides, which fling their shadow over the sea to the distant isle of Lemnos. Who would believe it? Among these very Greeks, so devoted to the Blessed Virgin, sprang up ideas most opposed to her personal dignity, and the perpetuity of devotion to her. Within its walls Constan¬ tinople beheld the heresy of Nestorius arise, which denied to Mary her title of Mother of God ; and the heresy of the Iconoclasts, which dragged her images in the mire, and burnt them in the public ( 1 ) Historia Ecclesiastica. Leo the Isaurian was very cruel. Failing to make the learned men who were custodians of the public library share his rage against images, he ordered them to be shut up in the library, heaped wood and combustibles around and set it on fire. Medals, pictures innumer¬ able, and more than three thousand manuscripts, perished in the conflagration. (* ) The Protestants have violently declaimed against this council, which speaks so clearly on the squares. Under Leo the Isaurian, who is said to have imbibed among the Jews a furious hatred against painting and statu¬ ary, as applied to objects of devotion, Cath¬ olics who were faithful to the traditions of the church were seen, thrown in crowds, into the Bosphorus of Thrace, or beaten to death with rods, for having lighted lamps before a domestic Madonna, prayed at the foot of the Crucifix of our Lord, or bent the knee when passing the statue of a saint. 1 Constantine Copronymus, the successor of this wicked prince, exceeded him in cruelty, and Leo, his son, walked in their footsteps ; but under Irene, sincerely attached to Catholicism, was convoked the second coun¬ cil of Nice, where the veneration of images was solemnly restored f and the Empress Theodora, assisted by the patriarch Metho¬ dius, consolidated the pious work of Irene. If the insult had been grievous, the rep¬ aration was complete ; the Greeks from that time sought to honor Mary by every means which they could devise. Crowns of gold were decreed to her; she was no longer represented except in a purple'robe, a tiara of pearls, and the diadem of an empress ; 3 her effigy was stamped upon the coins ; medals were struck in her honor, and battles .fought under her auspices. veneration of images. In the sixteenth century, they were shocked at the Empress Irene, whom they called insane, insisting that she had established the adoration of images.—(Lettre a l’evfeque d’An¬ gers sur les miracles de Notre Dame des Ardilliers, en 1594.) ( s ) It is in this costume that the Blessed'Vir¬ gin is represented in the medals of Zimisces and Theophania. 212 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE “Romans,” said Marses, on the point of giving battle to the Goths at Taginas, “ Romans, tight bravely ; the Blessed Vir¬ gin is for us ; fail not to invoke her in the heat of battle ; for she looks down upon our phalanxes, and will deliver up to us these wicked men who deny her title of Mother of God.” 1 At once the rumor ran from rank to rank, that the Panagia, to whom Narses was most devout, had promised him victory, and fixed the hour for the on¬ set. Convinced that heaven favored their cause, the Greeks displajmd an unwonted energy. Totila was slain ; his army fled, leaving the plain strewn with the dead ; and Italy, delivered in the name of Our Lady of Victory, loudly blessed the holy Virgin and Narses. Nicetas hands down to us an historical fact attesting how much the Byzantine em¬ perors honored Mary “ John Comnenus, after gaining a battle,” says this historian, “wished to enter Constantinople in triumph as he was entitled to do ; everything, ac¬ cordingly, was prepared for the triumphal ceremony ; the streets were hung with silk and gold brocade, and stands were erected in the public squares, to enable people to behold the passage of the pompous pro¬ cession, which had attracted hosts of spec¬ tators from every province of the empire. “ The trumpeters, wreathed with laurels, marched at the head of the procession; then appeared representations of conquered cities and vanquished enemies, in painting, in sculpture, in marble, in the most finely wrought ivory f then the spoils of enemies, arms, precious robes, golden vases studded with precious stones, which enchanted the spectators ; after which came the captives, barbarian princes of tall stature, of fierce aspect, and terrible majesty, who walked in chains, according to custom, with de¬ jected looks, with saddened eyes, some bowing their heads in shame ■ others bear¬ ing them erect, moved by rage and despair. After them advanced the triumphal car, drawn by four white horses ; people ex¬ pected to see the emperor upon this car, clothed in a purple or scarlet robe, adorned with the richest embroidery, with the crown of laurel upon his head ; but they beheld only the image of the Blessed Virgin, who in place of the conqueror triumphed as the cause of the victory. The emperor on horseback, followed by his brilliant court, closed this Christian procession, happier to have made Mary triumph than to have tri¬ umphed himself.” To know how far the Blessed Virgin was revered in Asia Minor, it will suffice summarily to relate what occurred at Ephe¬ sus, during the council which anathematized the heresy of Nestorius, in 431. On the day when the council was to pro¬ nounce on the divine maternity of Mary, the populace, uneasy and feverish, filled the streets and surged around the magnifi¬ cent temple, which the piety of the dwellers on the Icarian sea-board had built under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin. There two hundred bishops examined the proposi- the representations of cities which adorned the triumphs. ( J ) Histoire de l’Arianisme, par le P. Maim- bourg, t. ii. ( ) Josephus gives a magnificent description of BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 213 tions of Nestorius, who dared not come to strangers who had flocked thither from all defend them, so little confidence had he in the cities of Asia, surrounding the fathers the justice of his cause and the soundness of the council, kissed their hands and their of his arguments. The waves of people, vestments, and burnt cakes of perfumes, in who swayed in crowded ranks in the court the streets through which they were to of the basilica and the neighboring streets, pass. The city found itself spontaneously kept profound silence, and anxiety was illuminated, and never was joy more uni- depicted on the changeful countenances of versal. It is believed that it was at that those Greeks, whose beautiful and express- council that St. Cyril, in concert with the ive features depict so well the various im- holy assembly over which he presided, pressions of the soul. A bishop appears ; composed that beautiful and affecting pray- he announces to the mute and deeply- er to the Mother of God, which has been affected multitude, that the anathema of adopted by the Church: “ Sancta Maria, the council has been fulminated against the Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus nunc innovator, and that the. Virgin, all holy, is et in hora mortis nostrse. Amen! ” “ Holy gloriously maintained in her august prerog- Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sin- ative. Then, transports of joy burst forth ners, now and at the hour of our death. on every side. The Ephesians, and the Amen! ” CHAPTER V. THE EAST. THE HOLY WARS. r 1 "HE Christians of the greater Asia basilicas of the Caesars. Damascus, the JL were no less zealous than the Greeks emerald of the desert, cheerfully expended beyond the sea in evincing their devotion two hundred thousand golden dinars in to Mary. Before Constantine, a church erecting its splended church of Mart bearing the name of the Blessed Virgin Miriam (Holy Mary), which was burnt arose like a lighthouse on the lofty promon- down by the Mahometans, under the ca- tory of Mount Carmel, whose base is worn liphate of Moctader, in the year of the by the waves, and beneath which skims the Hegira 312. 1 Antioch, too, had a superb sea-swallow. Tyre, uncrowned, but mighty basilica of Our Lady, and hung up gold queen of the Levantine seas, was distin- lamps before her image, which it was guished for her marble and cedar church of Our Lady, which eclipsed the Byzantine ( 1 ) D’Herbelot, Biblioth&que Orientale. If 214 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE 4 forced fo yield to the pious covetousness of the Empress Pulcheria, who substituted for it a small cedar statue of the Mother of G-od, miraculously discovered in the time-hollowed trunk of an enormous cy¬ press, whose branches were bathed by the Orontes. 1 Libanus, that beautiful moun¬ tain which, beneath a fiery sky, “remains faithful,” says Tacitus, to snow and shade 2 —Libanus, whose cedars the Lord planted with his own hand, harbored within its rocky caverns a crowd of solitaries, who • had devoted their labor to Mary. Seated on the banks of the river, which, from their vicinity took the name of Holy, and still bears it, as it flows between • two mossy, picturesquely-shaded banks, these men of labor, contemplation, and prayer, beneath the majestic shades of the cedars, which shed upon them through their rich foliage a light like that which pours down in purple, sapphires, and,gold, from the high Glothic rose-windows of our cathedrals, carved those little statues of the Blessed Yirgin, called Black Yirgins, which the pilgrims of thef West, who visited the Holy Land from the earliest ages of Christianity, brought back into Europe to deposit in the castle chapels, or in churches which they have rendered famous by their miracles. Mary had sanctuaries too in the rocky soli¬ tudes of Mount Sinai. In the bed of a ra¬ vine carpeted with verdure, and so com¬ pletely shut in between enormous perpendic¬ ular rocks, that the tops of the highest palm- trees ever retain complete immobility, their leaves being never rustled by the slightest breath of air, there arose, in the midst of a small grove of olives, poplars, and date- palms, a convent placed under the invocation of the Blessed Yirgin. Nothing disturbed the sober silence of this oasis set in stone ; scarce could the fearful noise of those storms which often burst forth in those ele- vated regions, be heard there—that peace¬ ful tomb, for the use of a few living men, was never animated but when there arose from it canticles of praise for Him who was before the mountains, and for Her in whom he hath done great things. In Persia, where you may still see the ruins of numerous churches and monaste¬ ries of the name of Mary, the Christians also manifested the greatest zeal in erecting these places of prayer. Elismus Yartabed, a much-esteemed Armenian author, who flourished in the fifth century, has preserved to us, in his Religious History of the wars of Armenia, a discourse of the king of kings Jesgird, in the West called Isdigerdes, which attests it. “I have learned from my fathers,” said this prince in a great council composed of satraps and magi, in which the question of a speedy persecution of the Christians was debated, “ that in the time of the King Chabouh II. (in 319), when the religion of Christ began to be spread in Persia, and beyond in the countries of the East, our principal mobeds (doctors) urged the king to abolish Christianity in his dominions ; he endeavored to do so, but in vain ; for this religion only made greater progress after his effort to obstruct its course. So bold were the Christians of ( 1 ) Astolfi, delle Imagini miracolose. (*') Taeiti Historiarum, lib. v. --—-^ —--- ---- -- , * BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 215 Persia, that they erected in every city churches that outshone the royal palaces in magnificence ; they also raised oratories over the tombs of their martyrs, and there was not a place, either inhabited or desert, which was not covered with their con¬ vents.” 1 The extinction of Christianity was de¬ cided in this council, where the magi were powerful ; but the king determined to employ corruption before resorting to violence, and he tried first, as the Persians express it, “ to pour mortal poison into the cup of milk.” Calling to his Porte the na- Jcarars or grandees of Armenia, who feud¬ ally governed small principalities hereditary in their families, under the authority of a marzban, or viceroy, named by Persia, he lavished upon them praises, flattering words, and dazzling promises, to induce them to sacrifice their religion. Those who yielded obtained governments, honorable titles, fair and fertile estates, or superbly-caparisoned Arabian horses. Never had royal treasu¬ ries poured forth so many emerald bracelets, so many girdles of beaten gold, set with rubies and pearls, so many pieces of Roum brocade on gold and red ground, with flow¬ ers of precious stones. To gain the end in view, all was lavished without count or number. Still, the deserters from the true faith to the camp of the magi were so few in number, and the king of kings was so eager to crush Christianity, that, violently throwing off the mask of moderation which he wore, he issued a most curious edict, in which, after praising, according to the ancient forms of the court of Persia, the holy God, “ Master of the stars and of the moon,” from whose power nothing escapes, “ from the sun to the dark night, from the spring of water to the blue waves of the sea,” he proceeded to set forth the funda¬ mental points of his own false creed, and misrepresent the Christians in such man¬ ner as in reality to inspire the highest reverence for their virtues. 2 This royal edict was quickly followed by another, re¬ quiring the Armenians to embrace without delay the worship of fire ; to contract marriages with their nearest relatives, con¬ trary to the law of Jesus Christ, who de¬ clares that such marriages are crimes ; and finally commanded them to sacrifice white goats and bulls to the sun. The apostle has said : Be subject to the higher powers (Rom. xiii. 1): but God has commanded us to prefer death to idolatry. (*) Elisseus Vartabed, History of the Insurrec¬ tion of Christian Armenia, ch. iii. ( 1 ) “ Trust not your chiefs, whom you call Naza- reans,” said he to the Armenians, in that royal edict which Elisseus Yartabed has preserved to us, “ because they are great liars and deceivers. What they teach you by their words, they contradict by their works. To eat meab they say, is no sin— and yet they do not eat it! To take a wife is a proper thing, and yet they will not even look at per¬ sons of the other sex! It is not committing a sin to amass riches honorably, say these men, and they cease not to preach and extol poverty. They extol poverty and decry prosperity; they hold all kinds of glory in contempt; they love to clothe them¬ selves in coarse garments like outcasts, preferring what is vile to what is precious; they praise death, and despise life ; in fine, they have gone so far as to erect chastity into a virtue, so that if their dis¬ ciples obeyed them, the end of the world would come.” — (Insurrection of Christian Armenia, ch. ii.) 216 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE Hence the Armenians, instead of obeying the impious edict of the Persian court, con¬ tinued to celebrate divine service in their cavalry encampments, and to hearken to the preaching of the priests, who, like the Levites of Israel, in days of yore, accom¬ panied them to the army. In vain did Isdigerdes, separating them into small corps, scatter them along the most remote and dangerous of the frontiers ; in vain did he give them for winter quarters the gorges of the most frightful mountains, or most unhealthy districts; in vain did he en¬ deavor to reduce their numbers by sub¬ jecting them to hunger and thirst; whilst on the other hand, poor Armenia, crushed like the grape in the wine-press, gave to the Persian treasury her last drops of gold. The tree of faith, among all these miseries, flourished as green as ever, like a fair cypress with the full moon above it. The Christians of Armenia had endured all'; but their patience was exhausted when the king of kings madly undertook to demolish the monasteries placed under the invoca¬ tion of the saints, and to transform the churches into fire-temples. They rose from one extremity of the kingdom to the other, and enthusiasm supplying deficiency of numbers, they captured every Persian fortress and burned every fire-temple up. A great battle, in which the Persians were ten to one, was fought on the Georgian frontiers, on the banks of a small river which bears the scanty tribute of its waters to the Gour {Cyrus). The Persian army presented the most splendid and imposing spectacle; its war-elephants, laden with towers, from which able archers discharged their arrows of poplar-wood, extended along the wings, and in the centre stood the formidable militia of the left, the pha¬ lanx of immortals. These numerous squad¬ rons, all glittering with gold, charged at the sound of cornets, trumpets, cymbals, and Hindoo bells : red, yellow, and violet banners waved like tulips from the tops of the lances ; the warrior chiefs and the satraps drew from their golden scabbards their India swords, and pressed on their rapid Arab horses, with golden bits and glittering caparisons. Clad in sombre hues, and bearing the cross on their standards as sombre, the Armenians, a handful of brave men, raising to heaven their hands and hearts, marched against the enemy, to the chant of a canticle taken from the psalms: Judge between us and our enemies, 0 Lord,” sung the Christian insurgents ; “take up thy bow and thy shield for our cause, which is thy own ; strike terror into the innumerable squadrons of these wicked ones. Dissipate and disperse them before the august sign of the holy Cross. We are ready to die for thy truth, and if we deal death to these infidels, we shall be martyrs of the truth.” 1 Roused by this prayer, the Armenians sprang furiously upon the Persians, and at the first onset broke their right wing. The collision was terrible; the air, bristling with arrows, was like a vulture’s wing, and the blue swords glittered like the lightning which rends the air on a day of storm. Enthusiasm, exalted by faith, triumphed ; the rout of the Persians was complete ; and ( l ) Elisseus Yartabed, c. iii. • BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 217 the bodies of nine grand satraps, known to the king, had no other shrouds but the wild flowers of the plain, no tomb but the maw of wild beasts. The waters of the Lomeki were changed into blood ; and a single rider escaped on his dromedary, to bear to the Persian court the story of this disaster. But this victory, great and unexpected as it was, could not be finally decisive ; the Christians of Armenia had neither gold nor allies. Marcian, the Greek emperor, whom with clasped hands they had implored, in the name of Christ and his mother, had basely sent an ambassador to the court of Persia, to protest to the king of kings that he was not a party in the insurrection of Christian Armenia, and that he would not interfere. Isdigerdes saw that Caesar was afraid ; and, trusting to his cowardice, he determined to carry out the extermination of Christianity in Armenia ; but lie did not succeed. The Christians, overpowered by numbers, lost a great battle, where the hero who commanded was slain—Yartan, the Mamigonian, a prince of Chinese origin, who fell after prodigies of valor. Arme¬ nia, though reduced to the last extremity, would not admit that she was vanquished ; cities were deserted for the forest and mountain defile; the divine office was cel¬ ebrated in the depths of caves ; the Arme- nian bishops suffered martyrdom with un¬ shaken constancy ; princes, accustomed to the keen fresh air of their lofty mountains, were transported, loaded with fetters, to Korassan, where the fiery sky knows no wind but the simoom, which kills like light¬ ning, 1 and where the ground is a sea of. burning sand. There they would have died of misery, had not two confessors, mutilated by the Persian sabres, underta¬ ken to collect alms among the Christians of the neighboring provinces, which they remitted to the great lords in their captiv¬ ity. This lasted about seven years. One of these angels of charity died of fatigue, in the burning deserts of Kohistan, whose heat a modern traveller compares to red- hot plates of iron ; the other continued alone the same work of mercy. Isdigerdes, disarmed by such constancy, at length ter¬ minated this hard captivity ; but it was not till after fifty years’ negotiations, truces, and combats, that Yahan the Mamigonian, nephew of the great Yartan, the hero of Armenia, terminated this holy war, which began in 450. 2 If the Christian churches of Persia der served to be compared to the palaces of its kings, of whose magnificence the Arab poets have left us fabulous descriptions, 8 the churches of the tribes dwelling between ( 1 ) The simoom is a deadly wind, which suffo¬ cates travellers and animals, if they do not in haste hury their faces in the sand. Curious details on the simoom may be found in Niebuhr’s descrip¬ tion (Copenhagen ed., pp. 6-8). This wind rises between the 15th of June and the 15th of August; it whistles with a loud noise, appears red and fiery, and stifles all who breathe it. Its most surprising effect is, not that it causes death, but that the bodies of its victims are in a manner dissolved, yet without losing their form or color, so that they seem asleep. If you touch these corpses, the part touched adheres to your hand. (’) Continuation of Elisseus Vartabed, by Laz¬ arus Parbe, c. iii. (’) Antar’s description of the palace of Chos- roes reminds one of the Arabian Nights. He depicts halls of marble and red cornelian, fountains of rose- 218 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE the Black Sea and the Caspian were very wretched in comparison. They were at first wooden structures, to which the faithful were summoned to the divine offices on holi¬ days, by striking two boards together, for bells were as yet unknown. The first stone church of the Armenians, built near the sources of the Tigris, was placed under the invocation of Mary. It possessed, like many sanctuaries of Syria and Asia Minor, a miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin, which was confided* * to the keeping of holy women. 1 • The Cathedral of Mtzkhetha, the ancient capital of Georgia, was the first Christian church of that country: the Georgians dedicated it to the Blessed Virgin. The famous khiton, one of the garments torn from our Lord, was formerly kept there. Often razed, but always rebuilt with ele¬ gance in the highest style of Georgia, it is still radiant with marble and green jasper. An inscription, in letters of gold on one of the columns, tells that this divine and ven¬ erable temple of Mary, Queen of the Geor¬ gians, Mother of God, and ever Virgin, was rebuilt at the expense and by the care of a Georgian princess named Pebanpato. The metropolitan church of the Mingre- lians was, in like manner, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin ; there was venerated one of her robes kept in a shrine of ebony en¬ crusted with silver flowers. This robe, of precious texture, the ground of nankeen color and with bright flowers embroidered water, basins from which spring columns of emer¬ alds, surmounted by birds of burnished gold, with topaz eyes, etc. with the needle, was shown to Chardin when he passed through Mingrelia on his way to Persia. In the Caucasian regions, which abound in convents dedicated to Mary, the finest monasteries were always seen on lofty peaks, difficult of access : often, even, they were defended by strong castles. That of Miriam-Nischin, in Georgia, was built upon a rock of Caucasus, in the midst of a beau¬ tiful mountain-lake, which rendered it in¬ accessible by land ; a fortress, which was considered impregnable, protected it. The castle and the monastery were besieged by Melik-Shah, in the reign of Alp-Arslan, his father, the second sultan of the race of the Seljucides. At the moment when the army of the Mussulman prince were preparing to enter the boats to begin the assault, and when the garrison, deci¬ mated by famine, beheld them approach with dejection, mingled with dread, a hor¬ rible earthquake was felt, and the monas¬ tery of St. Mary fell into the lake. 3 This singular result was regarded as miraculous. “ The Blessed Virgin,” said the Georgians, “would rather see her sanctuary thrown down than defiled.” Before the principal gate of Djoulfa, an ancient commercial city of Armenia, situa¬ ted near one of the most convenient fords of the Araxes, rises a peak, on the narrow platform of which had been built, in the first ages of Christianity, a monastery in honor of the Blessed Virgin. The declivi- ( 1 ) Ancient Geography of Armenia, Venice, 1822. (*) D’Herbelot, Biblioth&que Orientate. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 219 ties of this precipitous rock, where beau¬ tiful blue hyacinths and odoriferous tufts of marjoram still flourish, are covered with rich tombs and ancient monumental stones—but where are the living ? .... One day it pleased an Asiatic despot 1 to raze Djoulfa, a city of forty thousand souls, from the number of cities that stud the globe, and he sent Thamas-Kouli Bey, with orders to cause its evacuation in three days. He was obeyed: the inhabitants hastily buried their riches in secret places, hoping —vain hope!—that Shah Abbas, when the hurricane of his passion should have passed, would permit them to come and repeople their city. At the end of the third day, when they were obliged to depart, and the last moment of respite expired, each citi¬ zen, bearing the keys of his house, followed the priests, who bore those of the churches. On reaching the foot of the rock where Mary’s sanctuary still overlooks the an¬ cient tombs of their ancestors, their despair burst forth in heart-rending sobs. Forced to march on, the unhappy exiles cast a last look upon their poor depopulated city, and after placing their churches and their houses under the special care of the Blessed Virgin, they threw the keys into the river. The Egyptians, who had never bent the knee before strange divinities, and who seemed inextricably bound in their beastly religion, as Flavius Josephus called it while ( 1 ) Shah Abbas totally depopulated the city of Djoulfa in 1605. ( a ) Joseph against Appion, lib. ii. (') According to Pliny, and some other ancient geographers, Abyssinia was peopled with men who had no nose or mouth in their face, and whose it still flourished, had abandoned their graz¬ ing gods, and given back to the reedy Nile the hideous crocodiles, which devoured their devotees, 2 in order to adore the God of Cal¬ vary. The descendants of the ancient people of the Pharaos built at a very early date a fine church in the little Egyptian village, where the holy family took refuge to escape the impious search of* Herod, and gave it the name of Our Lady of Matarieh; a beautiful fountain where the Blessed Virgin used to wash the clothing of the Infant-God received the name of the Fountain of Mary; and this fountain, as well as a gigantic syca¬ more, which had often shaded the mother and child, was the object of numberless pilgrimages. The metropolitan church of Egypt was dedicated to our Lady. The church of Alexandria, which shone among all the churches of the Christian world like a lighthouse, casting its light afar, had attached to its patriarchal see, in the fourth century, a kingdom almost un¬ known to the Romans, about which Pliny relates the wildest things 8 — Abyssinia, whose people, Jews, Sabeans, or Fetichists at their pleasure, were governed by kings sprung from Makeda, the beautiful black queen who filled the city of Jerusalem with perfumes and precious stones, and who had a son by king Solomon. A young Tyrian merchant, who traded in jewels, having been wrecked on the African shores eyes were in the pit of the stomach ; headless men were met there and others who had asses’ heads, etc. Pliny, who relates these wonderful things,— b. vi., c. xxx., and b. v., c. viii.,—does not exhaust the subject, but modestly stops short, for fear, as he says, of not being credited. 220 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE of the Red Sea, was first plundered, then taken to Axoum, the ancient capital of the queen of Saba. When presented as a captive of distinction to the neguz or em¬ peror, that prince to whose name the lions show reverence, he succeeded so well that the neguz made him his treasurer. After the death of the sable prince, the education of his son, Abreha, a minor, was confided to the young Tyrian, who secretly instructed his pupil in his own creed, and conceived the magnificent hope of becoming the apos¬ tle of these half-savage regions. For this end, he went to Alexandria, where St. Athanasius consecrated him Bishop of Axoum. On his return, Frumentius, who was surnamed Abba Salama (the father of salvation), baptized Abreha, with the prin¬ cipal personages of his court; a large por¬ tion of the people ere long followed the example of their leaders. This religious revolution was effected as every religious revolution should be, that is, without shed¬ ding a drop of blood. Abreha, and his brother, Atzbeha, who reigned together with edifying, good harmony, themselves preached Christianity to their subjects, 1 and built a great many churches in honor of the true God, under the invocation of Miriam {Mary). One of these ancient ( 1 ) “Hail, 0 Abreha, and Atzbeha, who reigned together in close union, who preached with jour mouths the religion of Christ to those who prac¬ tised the faith of Moses, and who erected temples in his honor.”—(Abyssinian Liturgy, Commemora¬ tion of the Dead.) ( 3 ) Here is a prayer addressed to the martyrs of Nagran, by the church of Abyssinia: “ Saluto pulchritudinem vestram amcenam, 0 sidera Na- grani! gemmae quae illuminatis mundum. Con- churches, from the shady trees round about it took the beautiful name of Miriam Cha- ou'itou (Our Lady the Green). Christianity next extended over the op¬ posite coast of the Red Sea, in Yemen, whose inhabitants worshipped the stars and trees. Among them were a good num¬ ber of Jews. A prince of that nation, who had usurped.the supreme power in Arabia, persecuted the Christians, and in 520 ban¬ ished St. Gregentius, an Arab by birth, and Archbishop of Taphar, the metropolis of this country. St. Aritas, governor of Nagran, the ancient capital of Yemen, would not apostatise from his faith: he was apprehended and conducted secretly out of the city, where he was put to death on the banks of the stream. His wife and daughter perished also in the midst of tor¬ ments, with three hundred and forty Chris¬ tians. 2 And as Dunaan continued to martyr all who refused to deny their faith, Caleb, king of Abyssinia, in 530, led an expedition against him and conquered him. After which the neguz , weary of the throne, sent his diadem to Jerusalem, 3 abdicated the sovereignty in favor of his son, and retired to a monastery, taking with him only a drinking-cup, and a mat to lie upon. The African troops, whom he had sent to ciliatrix sit mihi ilia pulchritudo, et pacificatrix. Coram Deo judice si steterit peccatum meum, ostendite ei sanguinem quern elfudistis propter pulchritudinem ejus.’’—(Abyssinian Liturgy.) ( s ) “Hail, 0 Caleb! who abandoned the sign of your power, when you sent your crown as an offering to the temple of Jerusalem: you did not abuse your victory when you destroyed the army of the Sabeans.”—(Abyssinian Liturgy.) BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 221 the relief of the Christians in Asia, allured by the beauty and richness of this happy land, resolved to remain there. It was these black Christians, commanded by the governor of Yemen, who maintained against the Arabs of Mecca the war known as the Elephant War. Arabia Felix, how¬ ever, did not long remain in their power ; the Persians conquered it about the year 590 ; and they, in their turn, were expelled by the lieutenants of Mahomet. At the time of the conversion of the Abyssinians, the doctrine of Nestorius agitated the church. The opinions of that bishop, who refused to Mary the title of Mother of Grod, were condemned, as is well known, by the council of Ephesus. The Abyssinians, in their exaggerated en¬ thusiasm for the Blessed Virgin, were, not satisfied with rejecting the heresy of Nesto¬ rius—to the title of Mother of Grod they added that of Mundi Creatrix, to testify the exalted idea which they had of Mary. Nothing, in fact, can exceed the love and respect paid to her on the borders of the blue Nile, and even up to the Mountains of the Moon. Even the errors of Diosco- rus and Eutyches, which the Abyssinians unhappily adopted, made no alteration on this point. The ancient East seemed renovated by its devotion to Mary ; it loved her honor, and pompously solemnized her festivals, most of which were of apostolic origin. The feast of the Annunciation was con- sidered, in the time of St. Athanasius, as he himself informs us, one of the greatest festivals in the year ; and all prepared by a two weeks’ fast for the feast of the As¬ sumption, which was magnificently cele¬ brated, from the Nile to Caucasus, under the name of Our Lady’s Easter. 1 Everything foretokened that the gospel was about to spread from one extremity of Asia to the other, and apostles already began to announce to the idolatrous people of the Celestial Empire that Holy One, born of a Virgin, whom the earth expected, as the disciples of Confucius said, as the withering plants expect the dew ; but, alas ! a hurri¬ cane—more furious, more destructive, and more irresistible than the burning wind of the desert, and arising, like it, in the sandy plains of Arabia, came to drive back Chris¬ tianity with a power which, no doubt, Satan had imparted. At first, a clash of arms was indistinctly heard along the Sea of Reeds ; Arab was fighting furiously against Arab, and the Fetish trees fell at the same time as the Christian temples ; then all was silence in that direction, and legions of horsemen, in black and white striped abbas, descended upon Syria like clouds of locusts, demolish¬ ing with the backs of their scimitars four¬ teen hundred Christian churches ! Thence they fell upon Persia, which yielded, leav¬ ing in their hands the famous standard of Kawed, on which hung the destinies of the empire of the Magi; 2 the flames of the ( J ) The first day of the month of August was called in the Syriac calendar saum Miriam, the fast of our Lady, because the Oriental Christians fasted from that day till the 15th, which they called fithr Miriam, that is, the cessation of the fast, or the Pasch of onr Lady.—(D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientate, t. i., p. 2.) ( 2 ) The ancient Romans associated the destinies HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE 222 superb library of Alexandria lighted their hurricane passage through Egypt; they soon bounded upon the African shore, where of yore Carthage ruled, and con¬ quered it as they rushed onward. Reach¬ ing the spot where antiquity reared the pillars of Hercules, the fierce conquerors plunged their thoroughbred coursers into the Straits of Gibraltar, and cried out, as they proudly brandished above the wave the blue blades of their sabres, “ God of Mahomet! thou seest, earth hath no more for the true believers to conquer.” 1 Africa and Asia were forced to bow their heads in shame beneath the brutalizing and fierce yoke of Islamism, and the darkness of ignorance soon ruled the splendid and glorious East. CHAPTER VI. THE WEST. THE MADONNAS. C ONSTANTINE, after erecting in the city of Rome, that goddess city to which paganism assigned a place amid the starry heavens, 2 the superb Lateran basil- of their empire with those of their temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which was burnt exactly on the appearance of Christianity; the Persians had ancient traditions, which announced the fall of the empire of the Magi, when their celebrated stand¬ ard should fall into the hands of the enemy. The empire, in fact, did fall at the same time with its standard, at the battle of Kadesia. This banner, originally a blacksmith’s apron which was set up in a war of independence against the tyrant Zohak, and accepted as a sign of good fortune by Feri- doun, one of the greatest kings of Iran (the ancient Persia), was covered with brocade of Roum, and ornamented with a magnificent figure of the sun in precious stones; a golden globe, which represented the orb of the moon, sur¬ mounted it, and around it waved broad, red, yellow, and violet streamers. This standard was called kaweiani direfsh (the standard of Kawed). ica, had closed the pagan temples ; but his hand was not strong enough to extirpate the deep roots of idolatry. It is certain that the great majority of the Roman pa- From the time of Feridoun, the kings of Persia had made it a duty to adorn it with precious stones, and to give them place, they had been obliged, from time to time, to enlarge this famous banner. It had reached the dimensions of twentv- two feet by fifteen, when it fell into the hands of the Arabs, who tore it in pieces, and distributed it with the mass of spoils.—(Price, Muhammadan History, i., p. 116; and Huft Kolkoum, t. iv., p. 126.) ( 1 ) Florian, Precis Historique sur les Maures. ( a ) “ Hear me, 0 magnificent Queen of thy universe! 0 Rome! admitted into the starry hea¬ vens,” says Rutilius, a celebrated Roman poet of the last age of Roman literature. “ Thanks to thy temples, I am not far from the heavens.” Rome was, in fact, a city honored as a goddess, and had its priests and its temples. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 223 tricians remained obstinately faithful to the idols of the empire ; the senate itself was divided into two parties, the pagan and the Christian, so that St. Ambrose remarks that there were, so to say, two senates. It was of the idolatrous senators that Pru- dentius said: “The successors of the Catos, plunged in shameful error, still invoke the gods of Troy, and in the secret sanctuary of their homes venerate the exiled household gods of Phrygia; the senate, I blush to say it, the senate honors two-faced Janus, and celebrates the feasts of Saturn.” Of the immense multitude of the lower orders, the vast majority had freely given themselves up to Christ, and despising the altars of Jupiter, they crowded round the tomb of the apostles. 1 The Italian peninsula was divided, like its capital, between Jupiter and Jesus, Juno and Mary ; the night of error strug¬ gled with all its might against the Aurora of truth. The priests of the idols attri¬ buted to the desertion of their gods the calamities which were visiting the empire. If famine was unusually pressing in Latium, it was because Crnsar, ill advised by the Christians who composed his court, had suppressed the privileges of the Vestals ; if the frontiers were harassed with impu¬ nity by the barbarians, if the Goths pene¬ trated to the very heart of the empire, it was because the altar of Victory had been overthrown. “We demand back the state ( 1 ) “ All this populace, who climb up to the garrets of houses, and live on the bread dispensed to them from the thresholds of the rich, go to the foot of the Vatican hill to visit the tomb where of religion which so long served as a sup¬ port to the republic,” said Symmachus, prefect of Rome, to the Emperor Valen- tinian II.; “ we demand peace for the gods of our country, for our native gods. Our worship brought the whole universe under its laws ; it drove Hannibal from our walls, and the Gauls from the capitol. What! shall Rome reform in its old age what has already proved its salvation ? The reform of old age is tardy and insulting.” .... Paganism was overcome in this struggle by St. Ambrose ; but it nevertheless con¬ tinued to oppose the new religion, which it loaded with sarcasm, bitter disdain, and calumny. With frenzied joy Rome reared anew, under Julian, the altar of Victory, but this did not prevent her being put to ransom by the barbarians again and again. Demoralized by seeing the enemy at her gates, she became again half pagan ; cere¬ monies forbidden by the laws of Gratian and Theodosius publicly reappeared ; the prefect of Rome called in the Tuscan sooth¬ sayers, and by another parody the last of her consuls revived the augur’s ceremonies on the day of his installation. “It had gone too far,” says Bossuet; “ God at length remembered the many cruel decrees of the senate against the faithful, as well as the furious cries with which the people of Rome, thirsting after Christian blood, had so often made the amphitheatre ring: he delivered up to the barbarians that city, drunk with the blood of martyrs. reposes that precious hostage, the ashes of our Father St. Peter.” — (Prudentius against Sym- machus.) 224 HISTORY OF THB DEVOTION TO THE That new Babylon, who imitated the old,— like her, inflated with her victories, tri¬ umphing in her riches, defiled with her idol¬ atries, a persecutor of the people of God,— falls, too, like her, with a great fall; the glory of her conquests, which she attribu¬ ted to her gods, is wrested from her • she is a prey to barbarians ; taken thrice and again, pillaged, sacked, destroyed; the sword of the barbarians spares none but the Christians. Another and all-Christian Rome arises from the ashes of the first; and only after the deluge of the barbarians is accomplished the victory of Jesus Christ over the gods of Rome, which are not only destroyed but forgotten.” Idolatry being completely extinct, her marble temples were reopened ; they were purified, and the finest were dedicated to the Blessed Yirgin, before whom all Italy bent the knee with a fervor and a faith which, thanks be to God, still endure. The patricians vied with each other in building churches or chapels, and adorned them with a profusion which attested their piety; the altars of Mary were incrusted with sil¬ ver, and gold, and precious stones j 1 lamps fully as rich lighted them up ; naught was spared to make the splendor and religious decoration correspond with the dignity of the holy Yirgin. The people, who had no gold at their disposal, rendered her an homage more af- ( ) The fronts of some of the altars of Venice were of solid gold : that of the altar of the Blessed Virgin, at Saint Sophia’s in Constantinople, was a composition of precious stones and of gold, which had been cast into the crucible together. ( ) The respect paid to the Madonna by the fecting, more home-like, and picturesque. On the smiting hills of Baise, in the fertile fields of Campania, in the deep gorges of the Apennines, amid the glaciers of the Alps, and the sterile heaths of the Abruzzi, rose, at intervals, humble altars to the Ma¬ donna. Those little primitive chapels, wreathed in a network of ivy, or a green lace of vine-leaves, hid humbly away be¬ neath the green boughs of ancient forests, and their shadows at noon-day fell along the brooks. This devotion, fresh, original, devotion harmonizing so well with the gen¬ tle mind and simple habits of Her who is the object of it, still subsists in our days with its religious poetry. Victorious over time and political commotions, the Madonna still shelters her little mysterious lamp be¬ neath a canopy of foliage or jessamine. Every evening the mountain shepherd, the laborer of the valley, and even—shall I say it ?—the bandit, devoutly rekindles the flickering flame which shines like a protect¬ ing star from the mountain-top, and which appears like a beacon in the midst of the woods. The corner of the earth which surrounds it is holy land ; in that place, the fiercest brigand of Calabria would not dare to draw his poniard, and there he prays, when the distant bells slowly sound the Ave Maria ; it is the last link which binds him to humanity, and rarely is that link broken. 2 Italian banditti is well known; one of them allowed himself to be taken without making any resist¬ ance, because the sbirri attacked him on a Satur- day, on which day he had vowed before the altar of the Blessed Virgin never to employ arms, even in defence of his life.—(See P. de Barry.) BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 225 « These little solitary chapels, lost in the midst of rocks, or among woods, revive in the soul of the least devout traveller a thousand delicious sensations, like the long- forgotten scent of some flower of our native land, which comes unexpectedly upon us on a foreign shore. A modern author, who does not pride himself on Catholicism, but the contrary, charmingly describes the emotions he experienced at the sight of one of those Madonnas, hid away in the mountains of the Tyrol. “At a turn of the mountain,” says he, “ I found a little niche hollowed out in the rock with its Madonna and lamp, which the devotion of the mountaineers keeps up and rekindles every evening in the most retired solitudes. At the foot of the rustic altar lay a bou¬ quet of cultivated flowers, fresh gathered. This lamp still burning, these flowers of the valley still quite fresh, several miles up a barren and uninhabited mountain, were the offerings of a devotion more art¬ less and more affecting than anything of the kind that I had ever seen. Two paces from the Madonna was a precipice, on whose very verge you had to walk in order to issue from the defile ; to those who travelled there by night the lamp of the Virgin must have been of the most beneficent service.” During the revolution of 1793, when the French were coming to seize the kingdom of Naples, the rumor was spread that they were going to shut up the churches, and abolish all veneration of the Blessed Virgin. At these tidings, the peasants of Calabria seized their long guns ; every steeple of this mountain region sounded the tocsin, and the very banditti, wearing the image of the Madonna hung by a red riband, en¬ listed among the regular troops, and fought like lions. These Calabrian bands were the last to lay down their arms. 1 From Italy the cultus of the Mother of our Saviour passed beneath the sterner and bluer sky of Gaul. The gods of Olympus had penetrated there with the victorious cohorts of Caesar, and the temples of Au¬ gustus and Jupiter arose by the side of the dolmens, the menhirs, and the less an¬ cient altars of Belenus. The idols of the emperors, servilely accepted by the Gallo-Roman population of the great cities, disappeared soon after the conversion of Constantine ; but it needed centuries to extirpate the worship of trees, stones, and fountains of materialized Druidism. 2 In vain did the active virtues, the edifying sweetness, the angelic abstinence of the anchorets win the admiration of the Gallic tribes; in vain did the ingenuous charity, spotless integrity, mild and com-, passionate religion of the bishops, attract their souls to the crucified God by a holy and powerful charm: the sight of the gi¬ gantic menhirs, which arose like dark phan¬ toms amid barren wastes, the aspect of a moss-covered oak, or a deified fountain, de¬ stroyed in a few moments the slow work of the Christian pastors. In this state of things, so well calculated to discourage the most tried patience, the ( 1 ) Italy, by Lady Morgan, vol. iii., c. xxiv.; Trav¬ els m Italy, by M. E. C. 29 (*.) See Histoire Ecclesiastique de Bretagne, Introduction. 226 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE • clergy of Gaul showed themselves worthy of the religious and civilizing mission which they had received from their divine Master. They were naturally charitable and humble of heart; necessity made them full of re¬ sources. Unable to abolish superstitious habits, which were closely interwoven with the deep roots of the old Celtic trunk, they sanctified what they could not abolish, and made even the. practices of idolatry serve the glory of God. The menhirs of the desert heaths, where the children of Teu- tates often went to pray by the silvery light of the beautiful luminary which they called the fair silent one, 1 were surmounted by a cross of granite which turned to Chris¬ tian thought rites once instruments of idol¬ atry. The oaks, which had witnessed eight centuries, and from which the Druids had cut down with their golden sickles the branch of the spectres , 2 received in their hollow trunks the sweet image of Mary ; and it was again Mary and the saints whom the bar¬ barians found on the margin of their fairy fountains. 3 This substitution, which proclaims in those who made it so perfect a knowledge of the human heart, took place, not only in Gaul, but among the Belgians, Spaniards, and Britons. It was everywhere crowned with success. In time, the mysterious tra¬ ditions of Druidism, from hymns of the bards became popular tales ; the daisies of the field, the lily of the valley, the fragrant stems of the honeysuckle, were no longer scattered over the waters in honor of the deified fountain,—they were laid on the rustic, altar of Mary; and the little lamp of her chapel succeeded the torches of resinous wood, which the Gauls used to light around those old oaks, which they then called the oaks of the Lord. At the time of the invasion of the bar¬ barians, the Christians, anxious to secure the revered objects of their worship from the profanation of these furious tribes, carefully concealed the little statues of the Blessed Virgin in the most retired and inaccessible places of their forests. There these holy images remained ; not that they were forgotten, but because the sword of the Goth, the Hun, and the Vandal, mowed down the people as the mower sweeps down the grass of the meadows ; and because, in the most fertile and populous countries of the Roman world, the traveller then could travel for days without seeing the smoke of a cottage. 4 Long after, some of these Madonnas of the fountains and groves reappeared in glory ; and according to the old Belgian and French chroniclers, miracles accom¬ panied their discovery. Sometimes a bright light by night attracted a Spanish hunter, or a Pyrenean shepherd, toward a bush, where the birds sung melodiously ( 1 ) Bensozia, ben , bel, sos, silent.—(Histoire Ec¬ clesiastique de Bretagne, t. iv., p. 496.) ( a ) Legui, Histoire Ecclesiastique de Bretagne, t. iv., p. 564. (*) Histoire Ecclesiastique de Bretagne, t. ir., p. 561, et t. i., p. 293. (*) The general depopulation which followed the invasion of the barbarians exceeds all belief. Muratori relates, that in the eighth and ninth cen¬ turies, Italy was so bare of inhabitants that it was infested with wolves.—(Muratori, Antiq., t. ii., p. 163.) * ,, • f THE ADORATION. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 227 all day long : there was an image of Mary hidden among the flowers of a thorny shrub, and embalmed by the sweet breeze of the woods. Sometimes the shepherds, seeing their sheep bend their knees before a hil¬ lock covered with short grass, and studded with white violets, dug into the earth, to find, to their unspeakable surprise, a small wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin rudely carved, but in perfect preservation. Else¬ where, falling stars, streaking the night with a long train of light, and all descend¬ ing at the same place, like fireflies on the wing, pointed out to the Spanish troops encamped under the towers of some Moor¬ ish city the place where, in the time of Roderic, religious men had stealthily hid- . den, on some night of flight and alarm, a miraculous image, to protect it from the profanations of Islam. And then there were dauntless knights, illustrious princesses, who, galloping with the falcon on their wrist through the green forests of France and Portugal, discovered in the hollow of some old oak, white with lichen, or in the crevice of a rock which the brambles prevented their approaching, a little fugitive Madonna. 1 On beholding it, haughty baron, noble dame, crossed themselves with an humble and de¬ vout air, dismounted in haste from their palfreys, knelt down on the grass before the Madonna, and vowed her a chapel. Our Lady of the Flowering Thorns was found upon a bushy rock, with marvellous circumstances. This is how it is related by a simple legend of past times :—Not far from the highest point of Mount Jura, but ( 1 ) Malfada, Queen of Portugal, when out hawk¬ ing, found a small Madonna, which took the name a little on its western slope, could be seen, half a century ago, a mass of ruins, which had belonged to the monastery of Our Lady of the Flowering Thorns, built by the widow of a knight, the last of his race, who died for the conquest of the Sepulchre of our Lord. The noble lady, walking one winter’s evening in the long avenue of her ancient castle, her mind occupied with pious meditations, reached a thorny thicket, which afterward became the site of the monastery, and was not a little surprised to see that one of the bushes had already put on its spring-time attire. A calm and pure light, like that shed by the dawning of day, showed her the thorns in blossom, and beneath this canopy of verdure, em¬ broidered with little white stars with rose¬ ate rays, was a statue of the Blessed Vir¬ gin, very plainly carved, of coarse wood, painted in natural colors by an inartistic pencil, and clothed with robes which showed a rural luxury. It was from this that the miraculous light proceeded which illuminated the place. The holy image was piously transported with great pomp to the chapel of the castle ; but the next day it was not to be found there. The Queen of. Angels preferred the modest shade of her favorite thicket to the splen¬ dor of the baronial chapel; she had re¬ turned to the midst of the cool woods to enjoy the peace of solitude, and the sweet incense of the flowers. All the inmates of the castle repaired thither in the evening, and found her there, shining more brightly than the previous evening. They fell on of Our Lady of the Forest.—(See Vasconeellius, In descriptione regni Lusit., c. vii., 1, 5.) 228 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE their knees in respectful silence. “Pow¬ erful Lady,” said the baroness, “blessed Saint Mary, this is the dwelling that thou dost prefer ; thy will shall be done.” And ere long a fine Gothic abbey arose on the very spot where the miraculous Madonna had been found. The nobles of the king¬ dom enriched it with their gifts, and kings endowed it with a tabernacle of pure gold.” Britanny abounded in oaks consecrated to Mary ; the most celebrated one extended its branches on the sea-shore, on an isolated hill, which rises at some distance from Les- neven. There was venerated Our Lady of the Gates, whose solid silver statue was from time immemorial an object of profound veneration to the devout Ar m or jeans. The sanctuary is now deprived of its Madonna, which the incorruptible agents of the repub¬ lic stole; but it is none the less frequent¬ ed by crowds of long-haired pilgrims, in wide breeches, and garments of goats’ skin, who come to ask of the Mother of God fine weather, abundant harvests, or the health of some sick relative. To see them in this primitive costume, of earlier date than the Roman conquest, devoutly kneeling in the shade of the woods, in sight of the ocean, which lashes their granite rocks with its green waves, and of the dolmens of the ancient heroes, who marched to the con¬ quest of the Capitol, you would imagine yourself transported to the Gallia comata of Pliny, and the illusion would be irre¬ sistible if they intoned a hymn to the Blessed Virgin in the antique and sonorous idiom of the Celts—their own peculiar language. Berry had also its celebrated Madonna of the Oak, which a certain lord of Bou- chet, when looking for his hawk in the midst of the woods, had found in the hol¬ low of one of these aged sacred trees of the Gauls, upon which the bird of the chase had perched, as if on purpose to entice his master to it. The oak, which diffused its soft shade over the graceful statuette of Mary, around which the ivy entwined itself like a gothic frame, crowned a small island of short, close grass, surrounding which was a small lake, with its beautiful sheet of clear water. It had been named, I know not why, the Red Sea. This oak became the object of so many pilgrimages, that after an embankment had been run out to it, it was surrounded by a religious edifice. The image, adorned no doubt over-richly by the piety of the inhabitants of Berry, was stolen during the civil wars by the Protest¬ ants ; but the Count de Maur had another made of the wood of the oak which had so long sheltered it, and which might have said, like the perfumed earth of the Per¬ sian poet, “I am not the rose, but I have lived near it.” 1 In Picardy a small Madonna was set up in the hollow of an old oak, on the road which led from Abbeville to Hesdin. This miraculous image, over which the honey¬ suckle let fall its sweet-scented festoons, like a veil of flowers, overlooked an oasis of verdure, which contrasted with the bar¬ renness of the sun-baked road, and offered a delicious resting-place to the foot travel¬ ler, and the pilgrim of high birth who went barefoot, like the King St. Louis and the ( 1 ) Saadi, Gulistar BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Sire de Joinville, to some shrine to fulfil a vow made for himself or some one dear to him. The bandit of the feudal times himself muttered an Ave, taking off his hood of coarse cloth, before Our Lady of Faith ; and the chatelaine, after praying at the feet of the Madonna, opened her alms- box, wrought with her arms in gold, and dropped from her delicate white hand a little shower of silver into the trunk of the aged oak, where the true gospel modesty of the faithful of the middle ages secretly deposited the alms which the poor took thence without shame, and which no one would touch but themselves. 1 The travel¬ ler, when he had said his prayers, sat down, with his feet stretched out upon the soft, fresh grass, which revived him after his long journey ; he inhaled the scent of the flowers, listened to the bubbling of the neighboring spring, and deeply enjoyed the contrast between his past fatigue and pres¬ ent repose. But he must depart: how re¬ gretfully! the shade was so grateful, the turf so soft, the murmuring of the fountain, which seemed to suppress its voice so as not to overpower the low sound of the prayer which was softly put up to Mary, was so charming! He made the sign of the cross, he whispered a parting prayer to the Blessed Virgin, he slipped an alms into the hand of the poor old man kneeling on the bank, whose blessing followed him on his way : “Good traveller, may Our Lady pre- ( 1 ) These trees, where travellers deposited their alms, which the poor might come and take, unob¬ served, at night, were so revered, says Mr. de Mar- cliangy, that none but a poor person would have dared to take a cent from them. 229 serve you from all accidents! ” And he turned his head back at the bend of the road, to take a last look at Our Lady’s Oak. Anjou, where pilgrimages to Mary are of so ancient date, had near the town of Sable its oak, contemporary with the Plan- tagenets, adorned with its equally ancient Madonna. At the foot of the Vosges, on the fron¬ tiers of Lorraine, an enormous Gallic oak, which the peasants still call by old custom the tree of the fairies, held in its bosom, softly carpeted with moss, a mysterious white image of the Blessed Virgin, before which Joan d’Arc, the holy maiden, de¬ voutly went to pray, with her whole heart, against the English, whom she was soon to see flying before her standard. Hainault, too, had its ancient oaks with miraculous images. Nor were Spain and Portugal without them ; England, in the reign of Charles I., still beheld her children invok¬ ing on their knees the absent Madonna, and Evelyn informs us that they styled these.trees “procession oaks.” 2 But of all the monuments of the vegeta- ble kingdom, which have been consecrated to Mary, there is none which for beauty can compare with the oak of Allouville, in the land of Caux. The circumference of this ancient child of earth is thirty-four feet above its roots, and twenty-six at a man’s height. Its broad spreading top re¬ sembles the cedar, and its vast branches, (*) (*) In the reign of Charles II. there were still standing in several counties in England ancient oaks, which were commonly called “procession oaks.”—(Evelyn’s Memoirs.) 230 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE which spring from the trunk at eight feet from the base, spread out horizontally, so as to cover a great extent of ground. The interior of the tree is hollow throughout, the heart having decayed several centuries ago ; it is only by its bark and by the in¬ terior layers that it still keeps alive ; yet it is covered every year with acorns, and clothed with thick foliage. In the hollow of this oak,—which is at least nine hundred years old, and which beheld in its day the fall of the Druidical forests,—has been built a charming little chapel, lined with marble, the image of Mary adorning the altar. A grating encloses this sanctuary, without hiding the holy image from the sight of the pilgrim and traveller. Above the chapel is a cell, a fit habitation for some new Stylites, reached by a spiral staircase winding round the trunk. This aerial cell; covered with a pointed roof, forms a steeple surmounted by an iron cross, which towers in a picturesque manner above the branches of the oak. 1 On certain festivals, and especially the patron-feast, the chapel is used for divine worship, and the inhabitants of the neigh¬ boring villages repair in crowds to the feet of the Gallic Virgin, who seems maternally to enfold them in her cool mantle of ver¬ dure. These good people love their Ma¬ donna, and have proved it well. At that disastrous period when everything con¬ nected with worship was proscribed, and when the least manifestation of Catholicism ( 1 ) See the Antiquit6s Normandes of Ducatel. O “It was in the feasts of Reason,” says La- harpe, “that the bust of Marat was placed upon the altar, and those who were suspected of fanati- was punished with death, a troop of revo¬ lutionists from Rouen marched in order of battle toward Allouville, with the avowed intention of burning down the time-honored oak, with the Virgin it sheltered. The Norman peasants, though far less given to enthusiasm than the Bretons, rallied in arms beneath the oak, and so bravely re¬ pulsed the republicans, that they drew off heartily ashamed of their failure. At the height of the Reign of Terror, when hymns had ceased in every part of the territory of France, when a misguided people, ador¬ ing Marat upon the altar of Christ,® cried out, “ There are no more saints , no God , no immortal soul! ” up amid the knotty branches of the oak of Allouville was still to be seen the iron cross of the hermitage, and on the front of her chapel was still to be read the calm and touching inscription : “ To Our Lady of Peace.” Under the successors of Constantine the Great, Gaul, where paganism was daily losing ground, had become almost entirely Christian. In the time of Theodosius it contained seventeen archiepiscopal cathe¬ drals, nearly all dedicated to Mary, and a hundred and fifteen bishoprics, governed by bishops of great learning, rare piety, charity unbounded, and illustrious birth, which added to their influence. Christian¬ ity was then laboring to win to holy and austere morals those Gallic people, pas¬ sionately fond of the games of the circus, chariot races, and the seductive pleasures cism, that is, of believing in God, were compelled to bend the knee before Marat.”—(See Du Fana> tisme dans la langue revolutionnaire, p. 51.) BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 231 of the theatre—enervating and pernicious warriors of the north, whose gods bore the enjoyments which pagan and corrupt Rome, significant titles of depopulators and fa- in order to diminish their courage, cast, as thers of carnage ; they burst upon Gaul like a stroke of policy, like chains of flowers, the avalanche which loosens from the side over those primitive people, whom she had of the mountains. The warrior has no found it difficult to conquer. The bishops, time to seize his arms ; dismay banishes who have been too lightly accused of hav- the very thought of flight ; poverty and ing made a compromise with paganism, be- wealth meet no difference of fortune. . . . cause they were unable to eradicate those A thick dark veil—like to that which the evil pagan roots, used every means, on the tempest spreads along the horizon at sea, contrary, to extirpate them, and flattered when the foaming waves break furiously themselves that they should succeed, when over the reefs and strew them with sea- all at once, in the midst of profound peace, weeds—covers the fair Roman province, and while Gfaul lived thinking only of to- and leaves nothing to be seen but the color day without any forecast for the morrow, of blood and the glitter of arms ; from the confiding in her legions encamped in her Rhine to the Pyrenees, from the Mediterra- great cities, and the sixty fortresses which nean to the ocean, Gaul, hitherto so flour- protected her frontiers against the barbari- ishing, is no longer anything but one vast ans, behold the trumpets of war are heard theatre of desolation and carnage. This on the banks of the river which separates disastrous period, which saw the Roman her from Germany. . . . Thick hostile bat- colossus fall, and which changed the form talions at once rush down precipitately of Western Europe, was the gulf in which upon the plains, the echoes of which yet ancient civilization was entirely swallowed feebly repeated the last burdens of the up ; and Robertson, the great English his- Gaulish songs ; steel and fire devour the torian, does not hesitate to say, that if he fields; the rivers dyed with blood, the was called upon to determine the most de- cities given up to pillage, the amphitheatres plorable period in the history of the world, demolished, the marble temples of the an- he should unhesitatingly name that which cient deities of the empire thrown down, extended from the death of Theodosius the the Christian churches profaned, announce Great to the establishment of the Lorn- * the irresistible approach' of those savage bards in Italy. — 232 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE THIRD EPOCH: THE MIDDLE AGES. CHAPTER YII. TIMES OF THE BARBARIANS. I A 0 religion, as well as those nations A who live enervated and civilized be- general transformation, Christianity, which was to console the conquered and humanize neath the shadow of the Roman eagles, the conquerors. the incursion of the barbarians was a day The veneration of Mary, weakened for of mourning, of terror, and of tears, a a time by Arianism, which fatally prevailed night of blood, illumined by the distant after the invasion of the Goths and Yan- glare of conflagrations, resounding with dais, flourished again under the victorious the clash of swords, and traversed by war- banners of the Franks. Clovis, the only rior chiefs, who assumed the fearful title of Catholic king of his age, conceived the de- the Scourges of God. When the noise of sign of building, under the invocation of this great march of men had ceased, and Our Lady, at the eastern extremity of the men began to distinguish something through city, a metropolitan church, of which he the smoke of conflagrations, and the dust laid the corner-stone, and which his son of battle-fields, the face of Europe was Childebert completed. 1 This church, built found to be changed. The Saxons occupied on the site of a Druidic temple, was orna- fertile England, the Franks had seized upon mented with marble columns, with frescoes Gaul, the Goths Spain, amd the Lombards on golden ground, and a mosaic pavement. Italy. Not the slightest vestige remained of The poet-bishop Fortunatus extols espe- the sciences, the arts, the civil and political daily the glass windows, which gave great institutions, of the powerful people of Rom- light inside : these glass windows were a ulus, — barbarism had invaded all, and luxury imported from Greece and Rome, swept off all before her. Everywhere new which had but just been introduced into forms of government were to be seen, new Gaul. 2 customs ; one thing alone had resisted the Clovis I. also built Our Lady of Argen- ( *) Falibien, Histoire de Paris, t. i. to whom we owe a very detailed description of the ( 3 ) The oldest author who speaks of painted Church of Sancta Sophia, as it then was, has also glass is St. Jerome, in his commentary on Ezechiel, given a description of the beautiful windows of quoted by Ducange, verio Vitro}. After St. Jerome colored glass which adorned the dome of the By- come Gregory of Tours, and Fortunatus. Paul zantine basilic.—(See the Histoire de Byzance, by , the Silent, a contemporary writer with Fortunatus, Ducange.) ----« J V— BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 233 teuil, where the Princess Theodrade, daugh- taire I., Queen Waltrade, and a daughter ter of the Emperor Charlemagne, took the of the same king, Princess Engeltrude, veil, after accompanying her father into founded a fine abbey at Tours under the Italy; this abbey, which then stood in the invocation of Our Lady of the JEscrignol midst of woods, was ruined by the Normans, (jewel-box), probably because those prin- and magnificently rebuilt by the pious cesses employed their jewels to erect it. 1 Queen Adelaide, the wife of Hugh Capet, Many maidens of high birth retired with who took delight in adorning its altars with them to this monastery, which was destroyed beautiful works of her own hands. by the Normans. The other Merovingian princes, not ex- Gregory of Tours informs us that there cepting Chilperic, the sanguinary husband was then in the capital of Touraine a church of Fredegondes, dedicated to the Blessed of Our Lady, the sanctity of which was Virgin many chapels and abbeys. Bade- awful. On solemn occasions, men swore gundes, daughter of Berthaire, King of with one hand laid upon the altar of the Thuringia, the holy and deserted wife of Blessed Virgin, and those who perjured King Clotaire, begged with tears, on her themselves were sure to die during the death-bed, to be interred in the unfinished* year. 2 Church of St. Mary, which she was then Bathildes, the royal consort of Clovis building at Poictiers. This same pious II., that fair and saintly princess who was princess, who refused to resume the queenly the pearl of those barbarous times, founded crown, which her fierce and fickle husband the superb Abbey of Chelles, whither she offered her once more, founded in Neustria, retired at the close of her glorious regency. near a Druidical fountain which the Gauls This abbey, situated in the middle of in her time persisted in secretly worshipping, the dense forest where Chilperic had met the Church of Our Lady of Caillouville, his death, was placed under the invoca- which was decorated with so many holy tion of the Blessed Virgin. A great lady pictures that people in their simplicity com- of the Merovingian court, Lutrudes, wife pared it to paradise. Of the Merovingian of Ebroin, that celebrated mayor of the church nothing now remains ; but the fount- palace, who has been surnamed the Marius ain still pours forth its beneficent waters, of the Franks, because he assumed the and people come from a great distance in popular mask in order to attain absolute search of health. When the water is calm power, founded, after the death of her ter- and still, there may still be seen on the rible spouse, the splendid abbey of Our slab beneath the water of the fountain the Lady of Soissons, which was inaugurated figure of St. Radegundes, with this inscrip- by St. Dronsin. Six Carlovingian princesses tion : “ Pray for us.” in uninterrupted succession governed this About the year 600 another wife of Clo- abbey for a hundred and forty-five years. ( 1 ) Gallia Christiana, t. iv. 30 (*) Gregory of Tours, de Gl. M., c. xix. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE 234 At that time Our Lady of Soissons was considered the flower of the nunneries in the empire of the Franks, and the daugh¬ ters of the highest families took the veil there. The resort to it became such, that it was necessary to check it; at the peti¬ tion of the Abbess Imma, Charles the Bald fixed the number of the religious at two hundred and sixteen. This prince also ordered the establishment in front of the abbey gate, of an inn for travellers, and an » almonry. Everything breathed piety in this opulent house ; the office was never in¬ terrupted, and they kept watch all night long before the blessed Sacrament. When the king was with the army, or his life in any danger, the number of nuns who spent the might in prayer before the altar of Our Lady was greater. According to the cus¬ tom of the feudal times, this monastery was bound to send to the army its contin¬ gent of men at arms. Its importance de¬ clined with that of the empire of the Franks, but two relics of Our Lady attracted thither a great concourse of pilgrims from all coun¬ tries throughout the middle ages. Naught now remains of this Merovingian cloister but a few ruined arches. An Austrasian princess, Plectrudes, wife of Pepin d’Heristal, built also, under the first race, the Church of Our Lady of Co¬ logne, which still subsists. But of all the pious foundations in honor of the Blessed Virgin, which are of these re¬ mote times, there is no one that recalls a more dramatic fact than that of Our Lady of Treves, in the ancient country of Tongres, the coun¬ try of the Franks, which then formed part of the duchy of Austrasia. Who does not re¬ member the popular legend of Genevieve of Brabant? that legend which was told by so many troubadours and minstrels in the guardrooms of the great barons of the feudal times, and which the cottagers have fastened up to their black chimney corners for a thousand years and more, ever sing¬ ing in their long evenings the Gothic plaint which charmed the court of Charlemagne ? This history of the barbarous ages, attested by a monument, recalls the memory of a really tragical event. Siegfried, Count Palatine of Treves, tears himself violently away from the arms of his beloved wife, to go and fight against the Moors under the glorious standard of Charles Martel. Golo, . the first servant of the prince’s palace, that is, one of his principal lords, to whose care he had confided his young spouse, a mirror of virtue and a pearl of beauty, conceived for the holy and charming prin¬ cess an audacious passion, which he declared to her in a very insolent manner. Repulsed with that contempt which his treachery de¬ served, the worthless favorite, who had coolly intended to dishonor a man who loved him, did not scruple basely to calumniate the woman whom he failed to corrupt; for all base acts are closely connected together. Siegfried believed him ; he was at a dis¬ tance ; he ardently loved his wife ; he was jealous. In the first impulse of indignation he deemed just, he condemned Genevieve to die with her infant; but the servants appointed to execute the sad sentence, in the depth of a dark forest, had not the heart to do it, and the Belgian princess hid herself in this wood, full of wild beasts, with her new¬ born infant, which was suckled by a fawn. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 235 For six years the innocent and calumniated wife lived upon roots and wild fruit, inces¬ santly beseeching God with tears to estab¬ lish her innocence. The merciful Virgin, moved at so many tears and so much misery, appeared to her one day by the side of a spring, and promised her that it should be. Shortly after, Siegfried, who still loved his wife, and whom nothing could console for the loss of her, when hunting, found her again at the bottom of a cave, covered with poor rags, and having no veil but her long hair. Golo confessed his infamy, and was torn to pieces by four wild cattle of the Black Forest. After this act of severe justice had been executed, Genevieve built a church in honor of Mary in the midst of the woods, where she had wandered so long, and on the very spot where the mother of God had appeared to her. Hydolph, Arch¬ bishop of Treves, consecrated this church in the year 746. 1 Notwithstanding these marks of respect paid to the Blessed Virgin, it would be historically false to represent the venera¬ tion of her as having attained its highest point under the first race of our kings;. this veneration was then only as it were in its dawn. Local devotions absorbed the attention of the great and of the people: St. Martin of Tours, St. Denis, St. Germa- nus, St. Hilary, were objects of veneration so exclusive, that, excepting our Blessed Lord, all was cast into the shade. The altars of these saints were plated with gold ; their tombs were covered with plates of silver ; beneath the vaulted ceilings of their Romanesque churches were suspended, as votive offerings, mantles of gold tissue embroidered with pearls. 2 The white image of Mary, the grand countenances of the apostles, the army of martyrs, were effaced before the primitive bishops of Gaul. Thus an impostor named Didier, who aimed at forming a sect in the sixth century, gave himself out, with curious effrontery, as greater than the apostles, and almost as great as St. Martin. 3 This point of view, to us somewhat surprising, proceeded from the gradual extinction of light ; it was because legendary histories were more popular than the Gospel, and ignorance, which has always been an evil, did not always stop at the threshold of the Christian temple; it was because the successors of the Basils, the Ambroses, the Chrysostoms, deserved what Alfred the Great said with melancholy discouragement: 1 ‘ From the Thames to the Humber men no longer understand the Our Father, and in the rest of the island it is still worse.” 4 Gaul was not entirely converted to the Gospel under the Merovingian kings; the Franks had completely abjured their sav¬ age German divinities, but there still re¬ mained some vestiges of polytheism among the Romans of the cities, who continued to draw auguries from the flight or the chant of birds ; keep Thursday in honor of Ju¬ piter ; swear by Neptune, Pluto, Diana, or the genii ; in fine, who dared to light up lamps in the temples abandoned by the ( 1 ) Add. ad Molan. de Belgie. ( 1 ) See Vie de Dagobert, by the Monk of St. Denis. (*) Gregory of Tours. ( 4 ) Robertson’s History of the Emperor Charles V.. yoI. i., p. 186 . 236 HISTORY OP THE DEVOTION TO THE idols, and hang up offerings in them, as St. Eligius reproaches them in his Homilies. These feeble offshoots of Greek and Roman idolatry soon withered of themselves on a soil which would no longer nourish them ; but the worship of the Celts, as we have already said, resisted the priestly axe with all its might, and took ages to die out en¬ tirely. In the fourth century we still see the image of the cultivated earth borne in procession through the fields ; in the fifth, a canon of the second council of Arles declares that, “ if any lord castellan allows a torch to be lighted before trees, fountains, or rocks, he shall be cut off from the com¬ munion of the faithful, after having been first admonished and solemnly warned.” At the end of the sixth century, the coun¬ cil of Auxerre forbids performing vows to bush, tree, or fountain. 1 In a council of Nantes, the date of which is fixed by Flo- doard at the year 658, bishops are recom¬ mended to have the trees rooted up, to which the people of Britanny persist in paying a superstitious worship, and for which they have so much veneration that they dare not cut off a branch. The priest Paulinus represents these same Gauls, be¬ come mere fetichists, serving up meats upon the sacred stones which were found at the foot of these trees, and beseeching an aged oak, which had served perhaps as ( 1 ) This canon is expressed in these terms: “Non licet inter sentes, ant ad arbores sarcivos, vel ad fontes vota exsolvere.” ( 1 ) After removing the bark of the oak, they cut a square opening in it, where they inserted ■ the corpse of the Druid : they closed it up with a piece of green wood, over which they replaced the a tomb for some old chief Druid hidden under its bark, with the humble funeral oblation of a handful of beech-nuts, 2 to take under its protection their wives, their children, their servants, and houses. 3 The Capitularies of Charlemagne decree severe penalties against these superstitions, which had survived the dynasty of Meroveus, 4 which proves that they deserved the trouble of being considered in the earlier years of the ninth century. It was especially in the two Armoricas, the Eastern and Western, where the gospel, late sown, grew but slowly, that the indigenous worship, favored by forests as old as the world, maintained its ground in defiance of councils and bishops, who, nevertheless, used every effort to extirpate it. The desert of Scycy, in the peninsula of Cotentin, was inhabited, in the seventh century, by idolatrous Gauls, who lived there, as the canons of certain councils of the time say, positively like wild beasts. But if idolatry, supported by prophets, bards, and a few Druids wander¬ ing in the woods, was obstinate, Christian zeal had the ardor needed to defeat it, . and showed it. In the depths of these lost solitudes, the reputed haunt of devils, where strange enough things were seen, when the resinous torches of the Gauls, repairing by night to some forbidden cere¬ mony, gleamed red beneath the foliage of bark. The tree, thus become a tomb, still con¬ tinued alive. Trees of this kind have been found, where with the bones, almost reduced to dust, were found walnuts or beech-nuts in good pre¬ servation. ( s ) Paul., lib. i., Paschalis Operis, c. ii. ( 4 ) Capital., Caroli Magni, lib. i., tit. 64. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 237 the huge oaks, or formed sheets of flame through the aged Neustrian forests, other around black dolmens erected on the heath anchorets flocked to place themselves under in the silvery light of the moon, 1 hermits, its discipline. Then they cleared the dry often men of high birth, came to take up th'eir and hard earth, which had been for ages abode in poor hovels of turf covered with obstructed by the heather and the bramble ; reeds, which were soon surrounded with then the wheat began to whiten on the ivy and moss. Dry leaves, sometimes even sides of the uncultivated hills ; then in the the bark of trees, was their bed ; fruits, evening, at the hour when the birds warble berries, wild roots their food ; a plain white in the trees, the hymn of the Irish Sedulius garment of coarse wool, such as the Roman in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary populace wore, was their clothing. 2 Mak- arose in slow and grave melody, in the ing their way through the tree-ferns of very places where the victim doomed to these virgin forests, whose secret paths die by the stony knife of the ovate, to were unknown to them, these good pastors appease the gods of Gaul, had uttered his went everywhere in search of the wandering death-song. 3 sheep whom they wished to induce to bring Woman, that sex, at once timid and into the fold of Jesus Christ. When the intrepid, who experiences every fear and good odor of the sanctity of one of these faces every danger, eager to contribute her solitaries was diffused, like the sweet and share in the overthrow of paganism, came penetrating scent of the lily of the valley, like flights of white turtle-doves to hide in ( 1 ) The most august assemblies of the Druids (’) M. Pitre-Chevalier, in his interesting and were those of the new and full moons; that of the patriotic work on Britanny, has inserted a very new moon began when this planet shone enough to curious bardic hymn attributed to the victim upon light the fields, that is, on the sixth day; but the the dolmen; this hymn was discovered byM.de moonlight did not prevent them from carrying la Villemarque :—“ Hu ! 0 thou whose wings rend torches.—(See Histoire Ecclesiastique de Bretagne, the air; thou whose son was the protector of great Introduct., p. 184.) privileges, the bardic herald, the minister. 0 ( 1 ) Down to the sixth century, the clergy wore Father of the abyss! My tongue shall sing my the white and close toga of the Roman people. death-song in the midst of the circle of stones Pope Celestine, in the year 428, blamed the eccle- which incloses the world. Support of Britanny! siastics of Vienne and Narbonne, who, instead of Hu ! whose forehead is radiant, support me! It is the toga, began to wear a mantle and girdle. He the feast around the two lakes; one lake surrounds shows them that it is only the love of chastity that me and surrounds the circle; the circle surrounds is commanded to us by what the gospel says of another circle of deep posts. A fair retreat is in girding the loins; that they must not corrupt by front; great rocks cover it; the serpent comes superstition the discipline which so many holy forth gliding on toward the vessels of the sacri- bishops have authorized ; and that the clergy ficator with golden horns. The golden horns in ought not to be distinguished from the faithful by his hand, his hand upon the knife, the knife upon their dress, but by learning and purity of life.— my head.” (Fleury, Moeurs des Chretiens, ch. xli.; ibid., t. ii., p. 185.) • 238 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE the shade of still idolatrous woods, under the protection of Mary. St. Fremond, a great lord, weary of the world,—whom the episcopal mitre sought out beneath the straw thatch of a hermit’s cell, and in the episcopal palace of Contentin, who regret¬ ted his cell at Ham,—built, in his regretted solitude, a monastery of nuns, which is one of the first of which the memory has been preserved in Neustrian Armorica ; he added to it a very fine church, which he dedicated to the Mother of God. This monastery, built about the year 674, was destroyed by the Norman idolaters, and splendidly re¬ built by their descendants the Norman Christians. The vicinity of the Isle of Britain, which the Anglo-Saxons, conquering the native inhabitants, had replunged into idolatry, was fatal to the Neustrian pastors ; for the idolaters of Great Britain, making common cause with those of Gaul, encouraged their resistance. The gospel, favored by a Me¬ rovingian princess, had again penetrated into the British Isle, toward the end of the sixth century, and was established there, thanks to the wise measures of St. Gregory the Great; but this disputed triumph was as yet only partial. Edwin, one of the most powerful princes of the Saxon hep¬ tarchy, h^d the glory of firmly establish¬ ing it. Having, like Clovis, made a vow to embrace Christianity, if he should gain a victory over the perfidious kings of Wes- sex, who sought to assassinate him, and having gained it, he convoked the Wittena- gemote, that is, the great council of the wise men, lords, and warriors of his small kingdom, and after laying before them his motives for abjuring his old deities, he re¬ quested their opinion. It was a strange and imposing spectacle, this Anglo-Saxon senate, deliberating on the change of religion proposed to them. The brave, young, handsome king, pre¬ sided over the assembly, the crown upon his head, a naked sword in his hand, ac¬ cording to the usage of the time, and draped in a long mantle, clasped upon his shoulder ; on each side of him were the wise men of the nation, old men unarmed, with long robes and mantles, wearing a cap of Phrygian form ; then the warrior chiefs, with short and tight clothing, over whose round helmets without visors drooped a plume ; on their arms shone heavy brace¬ lets of gold; from a narrow belt, which passed over the shoulder, hung their bat¬ tle-axe and their sword ; with one hand they held a lance, and with the other a round buckler, studded with golden nails ; at the farther end were the Christian priests, and the high-priest of the idols. The result of this conference exceeded the expectation of the bishops. The high- priest of the pagan divinities was the first to declare that they were powerless. A warrior proprietor, a thane, compared the life of man to the flight of a little bird that crosses a room in its course. “You see the door by which he enters,” said the Sax¬ on chief, “ the window through which he passes out ; but whence does he come ? and whither does he go ? This is the emblem of our existence. If the new faith clears up this uncertainty, we ought to adopt it.” 1 ( 1 ) History qf England, by M. de Boujoux, t. i. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 239 Upon this, the king declared himself a trace remaining of their former worship ; Christian; the whole assembly solemnly and no sooner had they substituted the renounced the worship of idols, and the cross of our Lord upon their banners for people imitated the senate and the prince. the white horse of Hengist, than they vied This religious revolution took place in 620. with each other, in all parts of England, in The German divinities were vanquished erecting convents, cathedrals, churches, in Great Britain, but Druidism was not; it hermitages, and chapels in honor of Bless- survived in the old insular forests, where, ed Mary, sometimes alone, sometimes asso- in the very heart of the eighth century, ciated with one of the apostles or Saxon the English still tattooed themselves, like saints, when they possessed them. Noth- American Indians, though councils had de- ing was more plain and simple than most dared that this strange fashion, which had of these primitive Anglo-Saxon chapels. procured for the Scotch and North Britons Enormous trunks of trees, taken from the the name of Piets, or painted warriors, neighboring forests, and cemented with was an invention of the devil. 1 King Ed- moss or turf mixed with clay, formed the gar forbade, by a law dated in 967, the outward walls ; the interior, which was en- superstitious assemblies called Frithgear, tered by a low porch decorated with some held round druidical stones, which were lozenge-shaped mouldings, was plastered still worshipped in Northumberland, Cum- with a chalky earth, which admitted of a berland, Yorkshire, Devonshire, and espe- sort of polish, and upon which were traced dally on Salisbury Plain, 2 the Carnac field colored figures of barbarous design. 3 At of the English, where was the celebrated the extremity of the little edifice, where Stonehenge (the chorea giganteum of the the wind, rain, and light came in together ancients). This, law seems not to have through the lattice of osier-work which been scrupulously obeyed, since as late as served for windows, 4 upon a tomb-shaped the eleventh century Canute or Cnut the altar, covered with a red cloth with long Great, a celebrated sea-king, was obliged fringe, 5 stood a statue of the Blessed Yir- to forbid the worship of rocks, fountains, gin attired as a Saxon lady. An open and trees. As to the Anglo-Saxons, they belfry, where hung a weather-stained bell, became entirely converted, without any surmounted the thatched roof of the chapel, ( 1 ) This tattooing was condemned in 787 by a land.—(See the Edinburgh Philosophical Transac- council of Northumbria, as a pagan impiety and a tions.) diabolical rite.—(See Labbe Councils, t. vi.) ( 6 ) It must he remembered that the primitive (’) See Camden’s Britannia. altars of Christianity were the tombs of the mar- (*) History of England, by M. de Koujoux, t. i. tyrs ; the draperies, often very rich, which covered ( 4 ) Sir James Hall Douglas, in his Essay on the old altars, were red, to imitate the color of Gothic Architecture, traces the light and elegant blood ; people went sometimes to Borne for veils stone mullions of the great ogee windows to the from the tomb of St. Peter and St. Paul.—(His- imitation of those lattices of wicker-work men- toire Eccl6siastique de Bretagne.) tioned in the earliest Christian legends of Eng- 240 HISTOEY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE waving with grass. In front of this prim¬ itive monument was seen a cross, formed of two trees fastened together with branches of willow, and crowned with a garland of box or ivy ; this was the sign of the change of worship, and the trophy of Christ over Zernebock and Hertha. Somewhat later, the Anglo-Saxon bishops procured from Rome painters, glaziers, and builders ;* but the cathedrals and abbeys which they erected under the invocation of Mary and the saints partook of the massive and un¬ graceful style which prevailed at that re¬ mote period. When William of Normandy had con¬ quered England, the Anglo - Norman churches, with their bold spires, their splendid belfries, and their towers darting up to the clouds, were introduced in all the pride of their fairy architecture, by the side of the massive churches and poor rude chapels of the Saxons. But inelegant as they were, these held a powerful charm which appealed strongly to the conquered multitude : it was in these chapels that the vanquished came to pray and weep. The Blessed Virgin, whom they had venerated there in better days, the Virgin, who, ac¬ cording to the custoni of the time, wore their national costume, seemed to them more at¬ tentive, more indulgent, more disposed to succor them in those religious enclosures, where she reigned over the tombs of their forefathers and the saints of Old England. Christianity, which was carried into 0) “ Misit legatarios in Galliam, qui vitri fac- tores, artifices videlicet Britanniis ea tenus incog¬ nitos, ad cancellandos ecclesiae porticus et coena- Spain by St. James, four years after the death of our Lord, according to the an¬ cient Spanish tradition, and which made rapid progress there, flourished in that country, mingled with the tares of Arian- ism, from the time of the invasion of the G-oths and Vandals. Devotion to Mary was already popular, though somewhat eclipsed by that to St. Vincent, the great martyr of Cassar-Augusta, now Saragossa, whom Prudentius has celebrated in his hymns, which are truly classic in form and sublimity. Our Lady of the Pillar, which was at first only a poor chapel of boulders and turf, had already become a Roman¬ esque church, and a pious pilgrimage, where, from the top of its rich marble pil¬ lar, the statue of the Blessed Virgin seemed to smile on the kneeling people of Spain. Our Lady of Toledo, the metropolitan church of all Spain, whose foundation is ascribed by some Spanish historians to the primitive ages of the Church, had been authentically consecrated jn the year 630, by the G-othic King Recared, the first king of Spain who merited the title of Catholic, as he expelled the Arians from his king¬ dom, after the condemnation of their errors by a council at Toledo, held under his influence. But the sanctuary of Mary, most visited by the people of Spain, in those remote times of which we are at¬ tempting to sketch the history, was that of Our Lady of Covadonga, in the Asturias. It was because, beneath the natural vault culorum ejus fenestras, abducerent.”—(Bede, lib de Wiremuthensi monasterio, c. v.) BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 241 of this Asturian grotto, consecrated to Mary by the ancient anchorets, when they combated Druidism in the depths of the Spanish forests, where it maintained its ground a long time, 1 because it was here that the flag of freedom, the sacred banner of the cross, had taken refuge as in its last asylum after the battle of Xerxes, which delivered up Spain to the Caliphs. Aban¬ doning forest after forest, mountain after mountain, and retreating with heroic stub¬ bornness to Mount Antiba, which overlooks the Cantabrian Sea, the farthest limit of Spain, Pelayo, the sole hope of his coun¬ try, took refuge for a short time, with a handful of heroes, in this inaccessible cav¬ ern, which the piety of the Asturian moun¬ taineers had consecrated to the Blessed Virgin, and which was adorned by her sweet image, placed upon a rock, which served as an altar. As he made his way into this wild temple, the Spanish hero con¬ ceived some hope, and kneeling with his companions at the foot of the revered im¬ age, he solemnly placed himself and the desperate affairs of Spain under the pro¬ tection of JVuestra Sehora de Covadongci , took Mary’s name for his battle-cry, and intrenched himself in the mountain which she protected. The Mother of God gra¬ ciously accepted the vows of the Gothic prince, and was pleased to manifest her protection by enabling the Spaniards to win a great victory over the Moors, com¬ manded by the Mussulman governor, Al- cama. 2 Attributing to the Blessed Yirgin this unexpected victory, Pelayo, as a token of his gratitude, built, near the natural cavern, which opened far into the side of a pre¬ cipitous rock whose foot was bathed by the Auseba, a church, under the title of Our Lady of Covadongci (the cavern), where all Spain came to pray. 3 The descendants of Clovis the Fair, the Long-haired, as he is called in the prologue of the Salic law, had degenerated sadly from the bravery and abilities of this prince. The lamp of the Merovingians, almost ex¬ tinct, was expiring without the smallest spark ; the indolent kings, no better than vain phantoms, showed themselves to the people seldom more than once a year, and then on a chariot adorned with green boughs and flowers, drawn by four oxen, who drew to the Champ de Mai those phantom prin¬ ces whom the breath of Charles Martel could have dispersed, and disdained to do it. Still they were pious, and built monas¬ teries ; but it needs more than piety to wield a sceptre ; the sceptre of France is heavy, and requires a firm arm, a fearless ( 1 ) The twelfth and sixteenth councils of To¬ ledo, one held in the year 681, and the other in 693, show, by their eleventh and twelfth canons, that those who pay a religious worship to stones or trees, sacrifice to Satan. ( ) According to Father Mariana, this was an army of sixty thousand men; Sebastian, Bishop 31 of Salamanca, and Amhrosio de Morales, estimate it still higher. ( s ) The church of Our Lady of Covadonga remained standing till 1775, when it fell a prey to the flames; the pious King Charles III. wished to rebuild it magnificently, and, in fact, commenced the work, which is yet unfinished. This sanctuary is situated in the province of Oviedo. 242 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE heart, a strong head, and a wise mind. Happily for Christian Europe, which soon saw itself embroiled with Islamism, 1 the mayors of the place had all these. The Moorish masters of Spain had cast from the heights of the Pyrenees a covet¬ ous eye upon France, the fairest kingdom of the West; it seemed good to them to introduce Islamism there, and to change the churches into mosques. This project was no sooner conceived than executed. The rich plains of the south were soon covered with a numerous army, which plundered the sanctuaries on its way, and threw down the statues of the Blessed Vir¬ gin and the saints from their ancient ped¬ estals, contemptuously treating them as idols. From the Pyrenees to the Rhine, all France trembled ; the churches were too small to contain the kneeling crowds who implored from God and his holy Mother aid and succor against the infidels ; bishops took up arms ; mitred abbots marched to battle beneath the banners of their abbeys ; the abbot of St. Denis had the oriflamme borne on high, then only the banner of his own convent: Aquitaine displayed the figure of St. Martial, and Charles Martel the cloak of St. Martin of Tours, which was then the royal standard of France. It was really a holy war ; and hence we see that those who fell in this warfare were ranked among the martyrs. The battle where the Moorish scimitar and the battle-axe of the Franks were to de- 'cide the destiny of the world, and estab¬ lish the triumph of the Gospel or of the Koran, was fought in the plain of Poictiers. The two armies viewed each other at first with equal surprise ; the French could not gaze with admiration on that brilliant Ori¬ ental cavalry, proud of its many triumphs, and laden with the spoils of Africa and Asia. The earth trembled under the fiery tramp of those Arab coursers who pawed up the ground, and seemed to say, “ Come on! ” like their type immortalized in the sublime description of Job ; the eye was dazzled with the splendor of the flowing garments of the Saracens, the fabulous richness of their turbans, and the fire that flashed from their cuirasses and scimitars. The army of the Franks, which was drawn np in a wedge for battle, presented to the children of Ismael a spectacle no less new and imposing. Those active war¬ riors, clad in short garments, who outran the fleetest horses ; that formidable in fantry, which combined in its manoeuvres the ancient tactics of the Roman legions with the ferocity of the Germans, and whose triangular mass, bristling with bat¬ tle-axes and swords, was advancing with impetuosity, but with a steady movement, to break through the Moorish squadrons, struck the Arabs with surprise. They soon perceived, say the old chroniclers, that it was no degenerate Goths they were to meet, and that Charles was far more difficult than Roderic to overthrow. The battle of Xeres, which had given Spain to the Moors, lasted a whole week ; the battle of Tours, which delivered France from them, lasted but a sun. The Arabs repeatedly charged the army of Charles, ( 1 ) The word Islamism signifies consecration to God. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. hurling their battalions into the mel6e like waves on the sea; but their disorderly fury was spent upon the formidable masses of the Franks, who are compared by a contemporary Portuguese author, Bishop Isidore, “to a wall of ice, against which the clouds of the Arabs came to break and dissolve,” without leaving any trace behind them. At length the ferocious Abderrah- man, lieutenant of the caliph of Bagdad, whose authority extended even to Spain, fell beneath Charles’ ponderous axe. The 243 shades of night separated the combatants, and when on the morrow the Christian troops rushed upon the African camp to complete the ruin of their foes, they found it empty: the Moors had fled! and each conquering battalion was received in its own city, now secure, amid the joyful sound of bells and the chanting of psalms, and on all sides were heard repeated those words of the Salic law, “ G-lory to Christ, who cherishes the Franks, protects their armies, and holds their kingdom in his keeping,” CHAPTER VIII. THE MEN OF THE NORTH. T HE last of the Merovingians had ex¬ changed the white and blue dalmatic, the golden diadem set with precious stones, and the golden staff six feet in length, curved like a crosier, which formed the sceptre of the long-haired kings, for the brown habit of the monasteries ; it was one phantom less. The mayors of the palace had long been, in fact, kings, and the dis¬ appearance of the last descendant of Clovis made so little noise in the world, that the chronicles of the time simply say, with a conciseness where contempt seems to lurk beneath indifference, that the Franks as¬ sembled at Soissons, deposed Childeric, and gave the crown to Pepin. This prince of Austrasia, who had just boldly set upon his brow the crown of France, violating in concert with the lords every law of the monarchy, had a sword able to defend it, and a head strong enough to bear it. His valor was unquestioned, his prudence was proverbial, and he evinced greater piety than his father, Charles Martel, of glorious memory, who had freely pillaged the church after saving it. Pepin, who was distin¬ guished for his devotion to the Blessed Vir¬ gin, was crowned by Boniface, Archbishop of Mentz, in the celebrated abbey church of Our Lady of Soissons, where G-isella, one of his daughters, the favorite sister of Charlemagne, took the veil. It was this prince who gave the Merovingian monas¬ tery of Our Lady of Argenteuil part of the immense forest adjoining it. Pepin the Short also founded in the old Herman 244 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE forest, which afterward became so cele¬ brated and dreaded under the name of the Black Forest, a charming rustic chapel in honor of Mary. It was on the following occasion. One day, when he was hunting the stag in these vast woods with his lords, he inadvertently strayed from his train ; having lost his way, and not knowing what direction to follow, he was hesitating to take a certain path, when the faint sound of a hermitage-bell reached him, borne on the autumn breeze. The Frank prince turned his horse’s head in Ihe direction whence the religious summons had come, and ere long, in a wild but charming situation, where a spring of fresh water bubbled up, perceived a small forest-chapel, built, or rather roughly put together, by a poor Scot¬ tish monk. This modest edifice, constructed withoui the compass of the architect and the trowel of the mason, had none the less a magnificence of its own; the bramble had interwoven in the narrow openings its brown circlets ornamented with broad dark green leaves, while the gold and purple foliage of the wild vine seemed to gild the tottering wall with the rich hues of the setting rum. E^igs in that day, proud enough in dis¬ position, laid aside, however, their haughty habits before any Christian emblem. On dis¬ cerning the black cross of the hermitage, the descendant of the conqueror of the Moors bent his head, and bowed down like the humblest shepherd of his kingdom ; then, tying his horse to a tree, he entered the poor sanctuary placed under the invocation { ) Astolfl, Delle Imagini miracolose. of Mary. The utter poverty of the sacred place—through the ruined roof of which the pines were seen waving and the clouds flitting by—did not in any way cool the genuine piety of the brave king. After having respectfully prayed before a rudely carved Madonna, which, in these days, would make a child cry and madden an artist, the prince, taken unawares, and un¬ willing to leave the holy place without some token of his visit, laid at the foot of the altar his cap, embroidered with gold and set with precious stones. When he returned to his hereditary palace of Heristal, Pepin did not forget, amidst the cares and festivities of royalty, the little hermitage of Mary, which he rebuilt mag¬ nificently, and suitably endowed. 1 Charlemagne, or Karl the Great , as the chronicles of the Franks say, did not re¬ pudiate the pious heritage of his father’s devotion ; the remembrance of one of his pious visits to Our Lady du Marillais, in Anjou, has been preserved—a pilgrimage. This pilgrimage dates, it is affirmed, from the fourth century, and which was then one of the most frequented in the Christian world. 2 During his stay in Italy, his rich gifts to St. Mary Major quite dazzled the people of Rome, though their eyes were used to splendor and magnificence. Germany was endowed by him with three churches with the title of Our Lady: yet this was not all. After exhuming the city of Granus, fa¬ mous for its baths, the remains of which he accidentally discovered beneath the moss ( a ) Grandet, Histoire Ecclesiastique d’Anjou, BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 245 and brambles of the beautiful valley bor¬ dered by the Rhine and the Meuse, Charles, who would fain make it the seat of the empire of the Franks, built there, adjoining his vast palace, a chapel or oratory, under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, oc¬ tagonal in form, the marbles of which he brought from Italy, and which he lighted with stained-glass windows cased in gold, and which he enclosed with gates of brass. This chapel, which in extent rivalled the basilicas, and which subsequently afforded a magnificent asylum to the mortal remains of the great emperor, soon became so cele¬ brated, that the German city, which owed its chief glory to it, accounted itself honored to bear its name. From the Emperor . Louis I., to the year 1556, thirty-six kings and ten queens were crowned in the church of Our Lady. 1 This sanctuary was so fre¬ quented, that in 1496, in one single day, a hundred and forty-two thousand pilgrims were counted. The court of Charlemagne imitated his deep and tender piety to the Blessed Virgin. When he published the ban of war against the Mussulman King of Cordova, and sum¬ moned all the counts of southern France beneath the glorious banner on which was figured the archangel Michael, the hero of the French of this" time, the celebrated knight-errant Roland, his nephew, before crossing the Pyrenees, which were to be so fatal to him, made, with a number of high and mighty lords, a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Roc Amadour. The Carlovingian prince, after piously invoking Mary, offered ( ) At Aix-la-Chapelle or Aquisgran.—(Trans.) at her shrine the weight of his sword, or bracmar, in silver, and consecrated to her that blade which had gained so great re¬ nown. As he was returning to France, covered with glory, the rear-guard of the French army, which he commanded, was surrounded and attacked on every side in the valley of Roncevaux. In vain did the French meet the inevitable danger with undaunted courage ; they were cut to pieces : none would surrender ; all perished, com¬ manders and soldiers. To perpetuate the memory of this disastrous day, over the bones of these warriors of fabulous bravery, a chapel was erected dedicated to Mary, in which was set up an inscription bearing the names of Thierry d’Ardennes, Rioles du-Mas, Guy de Bourgogne, Ogier the Dane, Oliver, and Roland. This chapel, situated near the Abbey of Roncevaux, was adorned with battle-scenes in fresco, and for ten centuries none but French¬ men were interred there. The last thought of the paladin Roland, on the field of bat¬ tle, where he sank under the arrows of treachery, was an act of respect toward the Blessed Virginhe wished his sword carried to Our Lady of Roc Amadour, and it was done as he had commanded. „ Louis the Pious, or Debonnaire, the son of Charlemagne, always carried about him the image of Mary in the chase and on his journeys. Whenever he happened to be separated awhile from his court, and found himself alone in the woods, he quickly drew off his gold-studded gauntlets, and taking from his bosom the venerated image, he would place it at the foot of an oak, and there perform his devotions. He sub- 246 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE sequently deposited it in the superb Abbey of Hildesheim, which he built in honor of the Blessed Virgin, 1 and there planted with his own hand a rose-bush, which remained almost as long as his beautiful monastery. Under Charles the Fat, a cowardly and deceitful monarch, whose sad and disturbed reign hastened the fall of the race of Char¬ lemagne, the Normans, under the command of Siegfried, laid siege to Paris. This an¬ cient capital of the Parish, the favorite residence of Julian the Apostate, was not then of greater extent than in the time of Caesar: the Cathedral of Notre Dame, built by King Childebert on the east, two great towers on the south and north, and the king’s or count’s palace on the west, formed tne four extremities of its walls. The Seine surrounded it with its blue waters. The river-side on the north was covered with a forest, and the octagon tower, at the corner of the cemetery of the Innocents, served as a watch-tower against robbery in this forest of rather evil repute. On the site of the quarter of the Halles, and in the environs of St. Opportune, was an hermitage which was called the Hermit¬ age of Our Lady of the Woods, because it was at the entrance of the forest. The mount of St. Genevieve was covered with vineyards ; and the faubourg St. Germain, famed for its meadows bordered with wil¬ lows, was a small abbey village. Siegfried had at first requested permission for a passage through Paris for the troops which he was marching into Burgundy ; the Parisians refused to open their gates, and ( 1 ) Triple Oouronne, n. 75. the Norman swore by the bracelets of Thor that his sword should break them down. Eudes, son of Robert the Strong, shut himself up in Paris, and resolved to defend it against these barbarians, who, not satis¬ fied with pillaging houses and churches, stole even the venerated bodies of the saints. 2 The siege was long and deadly; seven hundred Norman barks blocked up the Seine ; on both sides were employed, in the attack and defence, battering-rams, balistae, and catapults ; they hurled at each other fire and burning darts. The Nor¬ man towers were opposed to the towers on the besieged ramparts, and the enemy ap¬ proached the walls by covered galleries, which the Parisians often succeeded in set¬ ting on fire, or crushing in beneath the weight of beams and stones. From the beginning of this heroic and hopeless contest, Paris had placed herself under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin. The clergy bore her statue in pro¬ cession round the ramparts during the bat¬ tle, the Normans often making it a target for their arrows, but always in vain : the archers invoked Mary aloud, as they'dis¬ charged clouds of arrows and stones from the tops of the towers ; in her honor, as often as they had repulsed the northern pirates, the city was magnificently illumi¬ nated with tapers of white wax. “It is she who saves us,” said Abbo ; “it is she who deigns to support us ; it is by her aid that we still enjoy life. Amiable Mother of our Saviour, brilliant Queen of Heaven, it is thou who hast vouchsafed to rescue the (*) See Antiquit6s de Rouen, p. 102. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 247 people of Lutetia from the threatening sword of the Danes ! ” Some years later, the Blessed Virgin miraculously aided the recovery of the city of Nantes from the Normans, and their expulsion from Brittany, which they had invaded. Alain, afterward surnamed Barbe- Torte (twisted-beard), having taken refuge in England, with the flower of the young Breton nobility, undertook to reconquer his country. He was twenty years old, he was an exile, and possessed little else than his sword and the protection of Mary ; but a sword is something in the hand of a brave man, and the protection of the Blessed Virgin is equal to many squadrons. He landed with a few Bretons at Cancale, and march after march, leaving behind him a long train of Norman dead, the Breton hero at length arrived under the walls of Nantes, where the northern pirates had taken refuge as their last asylum. Re¬ pulsed with loss by the Normans, who had collected a large force around the city, Alain, driven even to the extremity of the mountain with his troops, stretched himself out upon the ground, "greatly wearied,” says an old Breton chronicler, and suffer¬ ing wonderful thirst. ‘‘He began then to weep bitterly, and-by humble prayers to invoke the aid of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord, begging her to open a spring of water, that he himself and his horsemen might quench their thirst, and recover their strength. Which prayers being heard by the Virgin Mary, she caused a fountain to spring up for him, which is still called St. Mary’s Fountain, with which he and his, being sufficiently refreshed and revived, recovered their strength, and returned valiantly to battle. They assaulted the Normans, killed them, and cut them off, excepting those who fled, carrying with them their booty on board their vessels.” Alain found the city of Nantes sacked and burnt. All dusty and gory the youth¬ ful liberator had long gazed about the wretched city where naught was left but fragments of Avails blackened by the flames, looked for the majestic basilica of St. Fe¬ lix, whose roof, covered with fine tin from Cornwall, was so bright, says a contempo¬ rary monk, that in the rays of the sun, or moon, it looked like polished silver. Alas! this roof had disappeared, and the sky bent as a dome over the ancient church, where the altars were broken, and the tombs laid open. To reach the place where the altar had stood, Alain had to clear a way by cutting down the brambles with his sword. The Te Deum of victory, and hymns of praise to the Blessed Virgin, were sung, nevertheless, amidst the ruins of this temple, with religious fervor : and before he rose up, the young Breton duke, grateful for the tutelary aid of the Blessed Virgin, promised to dedicate this cathedral to her, and it took the name of Our Lady of Nantes. Under the reign of Charles the Simple was effected, at the expense of the finest gem in the crown of the Frank kings, the conversion of a whole army of those fierce bold pirates of the north, who had so long desolated the coasts of the west of Europe. Neustria, which they had been devastating for almost a century, and which they had 248 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE even won over to the rude worship of their gods, with the Danish sword at the throats of the people, 1 was ceded to them with the rights of suzerain over Brittany, on condi¬ tion that Rollo, their chief, whose way through startled France had been marked with torrents of flames and blood, should become a Christian. The condition was ac¬ cepted ; the Norman pirate espoused a Car- lovingian princess, who lived but a short time, and he became a sincere convert. A religious element, strangely enough, ruled these northern pirates, who more than once sent presents and wax tapers to abbeys which they had come expressly to plunder, when a tempest at sea, arising in sight of the coast where they intended to land, led them to believe that the Christian sanctuary was defended by a heavenly and powerful protector. 2 The first question put by the new duke of Normandy to Franco, Arch¬ bishop of Rouen (his tutor in the mysteries of Christianity), was to ascertain who were the most renowned saints of France and Neustria. The prelate at once named Our Blessed Lady, and expatiated on her power. “Well then,” said the Northman prince, ( 1 ) For seventy-four years, says Rouault, Co- tentin had the misfortune to be profaned by the ceremonies used before the idols of the North, and the sacrifices, which were offered to them in the town of Coutances.—(Abrdge de la Vie des Evb- ques de Coutances, p. 151.) ( 2 ) A Danish army, which had landed on the coasts of Brittany, to plunder the rich and cele¬ brated Abbey of Rhedon, was so terrified at a storm which burst over their camp, that instead of plun¬ dering and firing the abbey, the pirates, regarding it as defended by a God worthy of their respect, brought presents, lighted it up with tapers, and after a moment’s reflection, ‘ ‘ we must do something for her, as she is so powerful.” And he made on the spot a grant of wide lands to Our Lady of Bayeux. The city of Rouen had dedicated to Mary its metro¬ politan church, burnt by the Normans of Hastings, and repaired in some sort shortly after : here the duke was baptized with most of his Danish captains, and began the work of its enlargement and embellishment, which his successors continued with mag¬ nificence. 3 Our Lady of Evreux, one of the oldest churches of Normandy, if we be¬ lieve the chronicles which record that St. Taurinus, the first bishop of Evreux, founded it about the year 250, and conse¬ crated it to the worship of the true God, under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, received immediately rich presents from Rollo, who, up to the hour of his death, gave proofs of the most sincere piety toward Madam Saint Mary , as the princes and great ones of that time respectfully styled her. Those Norman dukes, generous and val¬ iant by nature, were in general very devout to the Blessed Virgin ; at her altar they placed sentinels all round to save it from pillage. Sixteen soldiers, having infringed the orders of Godfrey, their commander, and having carried off something from the abbey, were punished with death the same day.—(Mabillon, in Actis SS. Or- dinis S. Benedicti, sect, iv., 2d part.) (’) This prince was interred in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which he was then rebuilding. “ He ended his days like a good Catholic,” says Taillepied, “and was buried with great pomp and solemn obsequies in the great church of Notre Dame, on the south side.”—(Antiquites de la Ville de Rouen, p. 107.) BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 249 received the investiture of that fine duchy, which they proudly called their kingdom of Normandy. Beneath the gray walls of her chapel, hung with fine tapestry of silk and gold, representing the principal facts in the life of the Mother of God, and worked by the duchesses of Normandy, 1 the dukes came to sleep their last sleep. Robert the Magnificent alone built three churches to the name of Mary : Our Lady of Deliverance, to fulfil a vow made during a tempest, which assailed his vessel in the dangerous waters of the islands of the Norman archipelago ; Our Lad} 7 of Grace, near Honfleur ; and, finally, Our Lady of Pity, below the ducal castle which de¬ fended Harfleur. This prince, so devoted to Mary, re¬ solved to visit her tomb, and that of Christ at Jerusalem ; he set out on horseback, ac¬ companied by the richest and most stately lords of his court, all covered with gold, glittering with precious stones, and sur¬ rounded by a crowd of attendants, squires, and pages, as if going to a tournament. On the road people crowded to see them ; their entry into Rome was an event. The Romans beheld with admiration and aston¬ ishment these northern barbarians, who had spread terror even into Italy, and who reminded them in feature and stature of the heroes of antiquity. Seeing their gra¬ cious looks, their bright coats of mail, the long gold-hilted Danish swords, which hung at their side, and their pointed helmets, from beneath which their light hair escaped, they asked one another who were these princes of the north, who came to visit, as poor pilgrims, the city of the apostles. The pope gave them a distinguished reception, bestowed upon them his blessing, and with his own hands laid the pilgrim’s staff on the shoulder of their chief and lord. Thence they continued their way to Constantinople, the city of Mary, which they dazzled with their magnificence. They scattered pearls and gold as they passed ; Robert’s mule was shod with gold, and when a shoe fell off, a Norman would not condescend to stoop to pick it up ; it was for Greeks to stoop and pick out of the dust the golden nails which the Norman’s horse had lost. 3 When they drew near to the holy places, the Christian spirit was shown ; these same travellers, who had traversed, or braved, with heads erect, and without acknowledg¬ ing any one’s right to levy toll upon them, so many well-defended rivers, and embat¬ tled walls, these bold companions, who al¬ ways let the end of a sword be seen be¬ neath the pilgrim’s garb, hitherto proud even to insolence, no one could now recog¬ nise, so humble, modest, and devout had they become at the near approach to that holy land whose rocky, burning soil they trod barefoot. Robert, so justly named ( 1 ) “ The Duchess Gonnor, second wife of Rich¬ ard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, gave great possessions to the churches,” says Taillepied, “and especially to Our Lady of Rouen, where she gave beautiful vestments which she made, together with the embroiderers and workmen; she also made 32 tapestry of all kinds of silks, and embroideries worked with beautiful scenes and figures of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints, to ornament the Church of Our Lady of Rouen.”—(Antiquites de la Ville de Rouen, p. 112.) (*) See La Normandie, by M. Jules Janin, c. ii. 250 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE the Magnificent, visited, with the most edifying piety, the two holy sepulchres of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Christians and Mussulmans received from him alms so royal, that the emir of Jeru¬ salem, roused to a sense of honor, refused in his turn to accept the tribute due him from these splendid pilgrims. Robert must have left a considerable present at the holy sepulchre ; Richard II., Duke of Normandy, had already made a gift to it of a hundred pounds’ weight of gold. When the pilgrimage was accomplished, the duke returned by land on the way to his fine duchy, which he was never more to behold! He died at Nice, in Bithynia, joking at the approach of death, like his ancestors, the sea-kings, 1 and commending himself to Madam Saint Mary, as his Chris¬ tian predecessors had done. The Norman nobles, who began to dream of kingdoms beneath the bright sun of Italy, were no less devoted to the Blessed Virgin than their valiant princes. Neither dis¬ tance nor the din of arms prevented their founding churches in her honor. The fa¬ mous Tancred, and Robert Guiscard, lords of the little maritime village of Hauteville, which has not preserved a stone of their castle, but which still possesses the old ( 1 ) A Norman pilgrim having met the duke, who was borne along by some Arabs in a litter, sorrowfully approached the dying prince, and said to him: “My lord! what tidings can I bear from you to Normandy?”—“You may say,” answered Robert, with a smile, pointing to his bearers, “ that you saw me carried to heaven by four devils.” (’) This letter, which was at first translated into Greek by Lascari, who is accused of having invented it, was subsequently found in Syriac, church without a steeple, all covered with moss and grass, where these Norman lions received Baptism, sent from the extremity of Apulia, where they forced sixty thousand Saracens to recoil before five hundred Nor¬ man lances, half of a new-found treasure to Geoffroy de Monbray, Bishop of Coutances, to build, under the invocation of St. Mary, that fine and fairy cathedral which ex¬ torted even from Vauban that exclamation of admiration and astonishment, “ What sublime madman raised this noble edifice to the sky ! ” Precisely at the same epoch, a brother of Robert Guiscard, the Count Roger de Hauteville, founded in conquered Sicily the celebrated cathedral of Messina, which he did not fail to dedicate to the Blessed Virgin, according to the custom of his house. This sumptuous edifice, which was consecrated in the year 1097, partook somewhat of all the known styles of architecture ; Byzan¬ tine mosaic is combined with the arabesque of the Saracens, and with the graceful Gothic turrets, adorned with lavishly- gilded statues of saints and angels. In the sumptuous treasury of this cathedral is preserved a letter of the Blessed Virgin, on which the devotion of the inhabitants of Messina prides itself, 8 and on which among the MSS. of the Bishop of Mardin, in Syria, and was translated into Latin by D. Joseph Assemani, a noble Maronite, interpreter of Oriental languages at the Vatican library. We have not to examine the value of this piece, which is ranked among apocryphal writings, in spite of numberless protests: we merely give it as a curious and ancient document. “Maria Virgo, Joachim et Annae filia, humilis ancilla Domini, Mater Jesu Christi, qui est ex tribu HLESSED VIRGIN MARY. several Sicilian bishops have written vol¬ umes, to demonstrate its authenticity, which is somewhat disputed. In the same, cathe¬ dral is annually celebrated the feast of Varra, intended to perpetuate the remem¬ brance of the defeat of the Saracens by the Norman heroes ; the Blessed Virgin, represented by a young girl, figures in this festival, borne on a magnificent triumphal car, while hideous colossal figures represent the Mussulmans overthrown by Count Roger. From Normandy came the religious light which scattered the pagan darkness of the North, and it was the Blessed Virgin who received, in her beautiful cathedral of Rouen, the first-fruits of that holy harvest. Harold II., King of Denmark, who had come at the head of a hundred galleys to the succor of Richard the Fearless, there abjured paganism, and Olaus, King of Nor¬ way, who had joined his standard to the Juda, et de stirpe David, Messanensibus omnibus salutem, et a Deo Patre omnipotente benedictionem. “ Per publicum documentum constat vos mississe ad nos nuncios, fide magna; vos scilicet credere Filium nostrum a nobis genitum esse Deum et hominem, et post resurrectionem suam ad coelum ascendisse; vosque, mediante Paulo, apostolo electo, viam veritatis agnovisse. Propterea vos vestramque civitatem benedicimus et protegimus, et defendimus earn in ssecula saeculorum. “Data fuit hsec epistola die quinto, in urbe Hierusalem, a Maria Virgine, cnjus nomen supra, anno xxxxn a Filio ejus, sseculo primo, die 3 Junii, luna xxvn.” La chiesa metropolitana de Messina fu dedicata alia beatissima Y. M. della Sacra Lettera, e vi si celebra tutti gli anni una grande festa. “ L’antica e pia tradizione della sacra lettera della gran Madre di Dio sempre Virgine Maria, scritta alia nobile ed 251 banner of Normandy in a short war which Duke Richard II. waged against Eudes, Count of Blois, was converted to Christian¬ ity, by Robert, Archbishop of Rouen, 1 and became its apostle in his own states. This holy king overthrew with his own hands the statue of Thor, the tutelary divinity of Norway, in the old temple of Drontheim, which the Norwegian pirates had encircled with a chain of gold, and where they came to swear upon the armlets of that god of war, whose club was so formidable to the giants of frost. Olaus sent into Sweden Christian missionaries, who were well re¬ ceived, and the gilded walls of the temple of Upsal, freed from their idols, purified from their human sacrifices, 2 received the blessed images of Christ and his Mother. It was not the fault, of the princes of Christian Europe, if the sun of the gospel rose so late on the horizon of the northern kingdoms ; in the middle of the seventh exemplare cita di Messina, illustrata con nuovi documenti, ragioni e verisimili congetture, dal P. Maestro D. Pietro Menniti, abbate generate di S. Basilio Magno.” ( 1 ) Antiquites de la Ville de Rouen. ( a ) The Scandinavians sacrificed to Odin pris¬ oners in time of war, and criminals in time of peace; but they did not always confine themselves to persons so vile, and in great calamities they sac¬ rificed even kings to appease the gods. Thus the first king of Vermelande was burnt in honor of Odin, to procure the cessation of a great famine; and, as we learn in the history of Norway, kings did not spare their own children,—Hacco, King of Norway, offered his in sacrifice to obtain a victory; a king of Sweden consecrated his sons to Odin, that the god might prolong his life.—(See Wor- mius, Monumenta Danica and Saxo Grammaticus, lib. x.) - 252 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE century, the Saxon Willibrod had made fruitless attempts to convert Jutland, which the missionaries sent by Witikind, Charle¬ magne’s convert, renewed without success in the course of the eighth ; the ninth opened under more favorable auspices. Driven from his states, Harold Klack, king of a part of Jutland, sought refuge at the court of Louis the Debonnaire, where he embraced Christianity. A contempo¬ rary chronicler, Ermold the Black, abbot of a monastery of the Frank empire, de¬ scribes in a picturesque manner the arrival of the sea-king and his Danish fleet. “ What do I see shining in the rays of the aurora, and covering afar the waters of the river ? What ships sail up the proud Rhine with warlike pomp ? How these silver-white sails glitter in the sunshine on the mirror of the waters and the dance of the waves ! ” This conversion of the Jut¬ land prince was almost a solitary one, not¬ withstanding the exertions of Anschar, the apostle of the North ; and those ships with gilded prows, the object of the natural admiration of the warrior Franks, remem¬ bered only too well the course to Western Europe. The conversion of King Harold II. was of more avail to the Christian religion than that of the Jutland prince. On his return home, he forbade the sacrifices, closed the temples of false gods, built Christian churches, and favored with all his power the propagation of the Gospel. His son, Sweno, a savage prince and pirate at heart, who had set himself up as the cham¬ pion of idolatry, treacherously sent an arrow to his heart, reopened the temples of Odin and Thor, and razed the Christian churches. After his death, which occurred* in the year 1014, Christianity again raised its head, and began to spread. The transi¬ tion from one worship to another, however, was not sudden, as it was with the young and ardent conquerors of Haul and Eng¬ land ; the Christian churches of Den¬ mark arose for a century by the side of the stone of sacrifice. If Christ and his Mother were venerated, neither were the gods of the Walhalla without sway ; Thor’s hands in their iron gauntlets still wielded his club, and if a hymn echoed to Mary beneath the vault of her chapel, it was the hymn of Odin which they intoned in bat¬ tle, it was Odin whom they thanked for victory, by offering him birds of prey as a sacrifice. It seemed hard for these North¬ ern warriors to renounce altogether those warlike divinities whose tombs thej 7- pos¬ sessed, and who had made their fathers so brave. They acknowledged that Christ was God, and consented to adore him as such ; but why drive from their thrones the ancient gods of the country, to make room for a strange God ? Could they not reign together? The Walhalla was full of chaste women ; it might receive the Virgin Mary. In this last entrenchment, paganism was more formidable than ever, and the first Christian neophytes made a monstrous mixture of the two religions with a view to conciliation. 1 This state of things continued till the reign of Canute the Great, who se¬ cured the preponderance to Christianity. ( 1 ) Muntev., Hist, de Danemark; Mallet, Hist, de Danemark. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 253 The worship of the Blessed Virgin con¬ tributed greatly to the establishment of the Gospel among the Scandinavians. From time immemorial they had placed virginity in heaven, under the figure of Falla, whose flaxen hair was bound with a golden fillet, and of Gesione, who admitted in her celes¬ tial train chaste young women, after their death. Three virgins, seated under the sacred ash, disposed of the destiny of men ; and those white ladies also were virgins, who walked upon the lakes like' a column of mist, seated themselves at midnight beneath the frozen shadow of the pines, and in soft and slow voices sung Runic hymns, which the scalds had graven with the points of their swords on the rocks which overhung the mound where the heroes lay buried whom the ravens of the sky bewailed. 1 It went hard to abjure those handsome fairies of the North, which were said to glide invisibly into the cot¬ tage of the peasant and the fortress of the jarl (earl), and in whose train good fortune entered also. These superstitions, equally dear to prince and peasant, 8 would perhaps never have' been totally effaced had not the Blessed Virgin become pro¬ tectress of cottage and palace. The influ- ence of the Queen of heaven in the con¬ version of the Scandinavians is proved by a fact which no one gainsays, that Chris¬ tianity owed its progress among these people to the mothers, who afterward won over the warriors. 3 The first kings of Denmark were fer¬ vent servants of Mary. St. Canute, Duke of Schleswig, dedicated to her three superb churches ; Waldemar II. placed her image upon his gold-plated shield, and having learned that the Russians, leagued with the Esthonians, threatened the infant church of Riga, he solemnly bound himself to enter Esthonia the next year, for the honor of the Blessed Virgin, and for the remission of his sins. 4 It was in this war, begun under the auspices of Mary, that the Danes, surprised in their camp, lost their national flag. As they began to waver before the pagans, the Blessed Vir¬ gin, whom they had piously invoked before they entered Esthonia, gave them, it is said, a sensible mark of her power¬ ful protection ; a red banner with a white cross fell from heaven, according to contem¬ porary chroniclers, and with this banner victory returned. 5 Devotion to Mary flourished long in the three kingdoms of (i) “When Rogvald was killed,” says the fa¬ mous northern Scald, Regnier Lodbrog, in his Epicedium, or Funeral Hymn, “all the ravens of the sky bewailed him.” Apparently because he gave them sumptuous feasts of carcasses. (’) The religion of the Scandinavians had be¬ come entirely corrupt; it no longer insisted on the worship of one supreme God ; the intelligences which had emanated from him seemed no longer to depend upon him, and from that almost invin¬ cible tendency which has always led men to mul- tiply the objects of adoration, they acquired an equal right to the government of the world. The worship of fairies and genii, auguries and divinations, had gradually become the essential part of the religion of the north.—(Mallet, Hist, de Danemark.) (*) Ibid. (*) Livonian Chronicle, p. 122 . ( 6 ) Mallet, who criticises this legend, acknowl¬ edges, however, that no Danish historian explains, in a satisfactory manner, the origin of this banner apart from the prodigy. % 254 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE the North, as the great number of cathe¬ drals, hermitages, and monasteries dedica¬ ted to her prove. When the burning wind of the Reformation had blasted this heav¬ enly flower of Catholicity, this devotion was still kept up secretly, and fifty years after Luther, people still came to venerate Mary in the subterranean chapel of Upsal. 1 This consoling devotion ceased in these hyperborean regions as it had begun at Rome, among the tombs. It was under the influence of Mary that Prussia, with all the coast of the Baltic Sea, received the light of the Gfospel. The Brothers Hospitallers of the Blessed Vir¬ gin, better known under the name of Teu¬ tonic Knights, civilized these barbarous countries, of which Poklus, or hell, and Per- konnas, the god of thunder, were the prin¬ cipal divinities. Among the nations of Sclavonic and Eastern origin, who substituted Christianity for their sanguinary rites, and refined their manners under its civilizing influence, no people more devoutly honored the Blessed Virgin than the Hungarians. Toward the beginning of the eleventh century, St. Stephen, the first Christian king of the Huns or Hungarians, founded, in thanksgiving for a victory won over the Prince of Transylvania, Our Lady of Al- baregia. This fine Magyar basilica did not yield in magnificence to the most sump¬ tuous churches of the East. Its walls adorned with superb sculptures, its marble pavements, its altars covered with plates of gold, and inlaid with valuable stones ; 0 ) M. Marmier, Lettre a M. Salrandy. its vessels of silver, gold, and onyx, made it a wonder to look upon. On the altar of the Blessed Virgin were certain silver dishes, on which two old men, familiar with the exploits of Attila, burned the rarest perfumes of Asia. Processions came several times a day to honor the Mother of Gfod in her sanctuary. These splendors did not appear sufficient to the piety of the Hungarian prince ; this descendant of the Scourge of God wished his royal sceptre to come from the Virgin, whom he declared the sovereign of his states. Thus, every time that the name of Mary was pronounced throughout the extent of this vast kingdom, there was not a Hungarian noble, however high his lin¬ eage, who did not bend his knee to the ground, as a vassal before his sovereign lady, and bow his head in token of pro¬ found respect. 2 In the fortified precincts of every castle, small chapels were found, lighted by several bronze or solid silver lamps, which burned night and day before the image of Mary. The palatine princes even carried her image with them into bat¬ tle, and set up oratories to it in their tents. Nor was devotion to Mary received more coldly on the banks of the Vistula. Dat¬ ing from the day when Dumbrowka, the fair Bohemian princess, converted King Micislas, and induced him to destroy the idols which his fathers had set up to Pa¬ goda (calm air), to Pochwist (cloudy sky), and to the sombre divinities of the deep, the Poles, become thoroughly Catholics, vied with each other in building chapels of (’) Bonifacius, Hist. Virg., lib. ii., c. ii. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. larch to the Mother of God. Pagan ban¬ ners, won on twenty battle-fields, were the sole embellishments of these primitive churches, concealed beneath the evergreen pines of the Sclavonian forests; but when the priest of Jesus Christ, as he celebrated mass, read the Gospel to these northern heroes, kneeling before an altar as poor as the willow manger of our Saviour, you would have seen all their swords half-drawn out of their sheaths in token of protection and defence. 1 Nor was this a vain demon¬ stration. Poland was long the bulwark of 255 Christendom ; but for John Sobieski, the crescent would perhaps have surmounted the towers of every city beyond the Rhine. Poland was early consecrated to the Blessed Virgin; Mary was solemnly in¬ voked under the title of “ Queen of Po¬ land ” long before John Casimir renewed the consecration. Every time the Polish army was formed to march against the Tar¬ tars, Mary’s banner guided its warlike pha¬ lanxes ; 2 the name of Jesus twice repeated was the war-cry-; a canticle to the Blessed Virgin was the hymn of battle. 8 CHAPTER IX. _ CHIVALRY. T HE gigantic empire of Charlemagne had disappeared like a brilliant phantom ; the last of the Carlovingians had been despoiled of his kingdom, which by the imprudent liberality of his fathers had dwindled almost to nothing ; and the dukes of France, who likewise claimed to be descended from Charlemagne, after twice assuming the royal mantle, finally seized it ( 1 ) This custom goes back to Micislas, who was the first king of Poland.—(Hist, de Pologne, by M. L. S., t. i., p. 43.) (' J ) The Blessed Virgin Mary was Queen of Po¬ land; accordingly, whenever they took up arms against the Tartars, her image adorned the national standard.—(La Pologne Historique et Litt6raire, t. i., p. 396.) absolutely. Before they united the im¬ poverished crown to their own great fief, with which they endowed it, the counts of Paris had given striking proofs of their devotion to the Blessed Virgin. When that unknown and terrible malady, which was called “feu des ardents,” after ravag¬ ing the south of the kingdom, reached the Isle of France, Hugh the Great supported, ( 3 ) In the tenth century, we see St. Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, composing sacred canticles for the Polish troops who fought against the pagan Pomeranians and Prussians. One hymn of St. Adalbert’s, Boga-Rodziga (Mother of God), has long been the battle-hymn of the Poles.—(Alb. Sowinski, Coup d’ceil historique sur la musique religieuse et populaire en Pologne.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE 256 at his own expense, the poor sick pil¬ grims who came to seek and obtain their care, at Notre Dame, Our Lady’s, in Paris. 1 Hugh Capet, the founder of the third dynasty, had a sincere devotion to the Blessed Virgin; and Queen Adelaide of Aquitaine, his pious spouse, enriched with her gifts the fine Abbey of Our Lady of Argenteuil, which already possessed the holy relic still to our day exposed to the veneration of the faithful. Robert, who proclaimed Mary the Star of his fine kingdom, built monasteries in her honor at Poissy, Melun, Etampes, and Orleans, as we learn from Helgaud. The church at Orleans was called Our Lady of Good Tidings, and built on the very spot where Robert, at that time only heir presumptive to the throne, learned that his father, Hugh Capet, had just escaped death.—How worthy a son of a king! Under the reign of Philip I., grandson of Robert, a prince who showed more inclination to plunder the church than to enrich it, a great event happened, which made the kings of England vassals to the kings of France. William the Bastard, son of that duke Robert the Magnificent, who died in the course of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, conquered England in a single battle, and established there the Norman rule. William, like his father Robert, held Mary in wonderful reverence ; that brave conqueror and able politician, whose very frown made England tremble ( 1 ) Felibien, Hip^oire de Paris, t. i. from one end to the other, was no sooner attacked by fever, than he humbly joined his warlike hands to recommend himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Falling sick in the castle of Chierbourg, a small town defended at that time by good ditches and certain round towers, which the ocean lashed with its green billows, he made a vow to build a chapel to the Blessed Vir¬ gin, if, by her powerful intercession, he speedily recovered his health ; his health was restored, and he religiously performed his vow. He rebuilt, at his own expense, the superb Abbey of Jumieges, where the cleric found learning and the poor man bread, on condition that its church, which Queen Bathildes had dedicated to St. Peter, should be placed under the invocation of the Mother of God. On the 1st of July, in the year of grace 1068, he attended in person with the Duchess Matilda, and all his great Norman barons, the dedication of this church; and some years later he crossed the sea to be present at that of Our Lady of Bayeux, with his two sons, William and Robert; Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Thomas, Archbishop of York, by invitation of the bishop, Philip d’Harcourt, who had rebuilt it. It was doubtless on this occasion that the Duchess Matilda Offered as a homage to St. Mary of Bayeux, that celebrated historical tap¬ estry in which her patient needle has worked the great epoch of-the conquest of England ; ‘ ‘ this drapery, embroidered with figures and inscriptions,” was hung the whole length of “ the nave of the church on the day and during the octave of the relics,” says an inventory of the treasure BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. - 257 of Our Lady of Bayeux, drawn up in 1476. 1 This fair and pious princess, whose memory was in so great veneration that the Saxon wife of her son, Henry I. of England, had to change her pleasing name of Editha for that of Matilda, “ to please the Norman knights,” has left other proofs of her devotion to the Blessed Virgin be¬ sides the memorial tapestry which she con¬ secrated to her. She was walking, about the end of the month of October, in one of those beauti¬ ful Norman meadows, the grass of which is like an immense carpet of velvet, enamelled with flowers, with her two young sons, two future heroes, the elder of whom was to immortalize himself by his chivalrous ex¬ ploits at the taking of Jerusalem, and some ladies of her court, when a courier from Duke William, galloping at full speed to¬ ward Rouen, stopped his powerful horse, and rushed with one bound into the mea¬ dow when he perceived her. “ What news of my lord and the Norman army ? ” asked Matilda, pale with emotion.“the battle?”.“Is gained, noble lady,” replies the courier, as he bends his knee and presents to the youthful duchess, whose trembling hand was reached out to him, the despatch, with pendent seal, which con- firmed the truth of his words ; “ the per¬ jured Harold has been conquered; his body, which ought not to have had any other burial-place than the sands of that shore which he unjustly kept from us, rests in the choir of the Saxon abbey of Wal¬ tham ; England is the vassal of Normandy !” The Norman princess made the sign of the cross for joy, and uttered a vow to raise on the very spot where she heard the brilliant success of the expedition of William and his knights, a memorial church, under the name of Our Lady of the Meadow, which was afterward changed into that of Our Lady of Good Tidings. She actually be¬ gan it some years later, and her son. Henry I., after completing it, magnificently en¬ dowed it. 2 In his last war against France, William the Conqueror gave up Mantes to the flames ; but those flames which consumed the church of Notre Dame, cast a glare so fearful, that the horse of the King of Eng¬ land backed, reared up, and threw his rider, who received injuries that proved fatal. Attributing the accident which de¬ prived him of life to the burning of the beautiful church of the Blessed Virgin, he left in his will a considerable sum to restore it. Being removed to a neighbor¬ ing abbey of Rouen, the conqueror of ( 1 ) This precious tapestry, contemporaneous with the conquest of England, remained, so to say, unknown for six centimes. Exposed on certain days of the year only, in the nave of the cathedral, tradition had surnamed it Duke William’s toilet. Father Montfaucon succeeded in discovering that it was from Bayeux, and enriched his Monumens de la Monarchie Fran 9 aise with illustrations from 33 this tapestry, which till then was so little known. (*) “In the time of Archbishop Godfrey, Henry I., king of England, completed the Priory of du Pre, called Nostre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle lez Rouen, which his late mother, Matilda, had begun with the bridge of Rouen.”—(Antiquites de la Ville de Rouen, p. 136.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE 258 England was awakened, at daybreak of the 9th of September, 1087, by the sound of a matin bell: “What is that?” he asked, painfully lifting up his head, emaci¬ ated indeed, but still full of that proud and masculine beauty which the Saxon chroniclers themselves, who held him much more in fear than in love, could not deny him. As he was answered that it was the bells of St. Mary’s church ringing for prime; “My Lady, St. Mary,” said the Norman hero, lifting up his hands, “I commend my soul to thee: mayst thou reconcile me to thy Son, my Lord Jesus! ” Saying these words, he expired. Henry I., his son, usurped the crown from Robert, his elder brother, whose eyes he had put out. His devotion was prob¬ lematical, though he paraded it ; yet he made some magnificent foundations in Eng¬ land, where he introduced the architecture of the Normans, which did not in any way hinder him from setting fire to many a church in Normandy. He burnt, for ex¬ ample, in 1120,—the date is remarkable, —the cathedral of Lisieux, with the city itself; that ancient cathedral, which could be traced back to the first ages of Chris¬ tianity, was dedicated to the Blessed Vir¬ gin, like almost all the Norman cathe¬ drals. The punishment for this sacrilegious act of incendiarism followed him closely ; at the end of the same year, the ship which had on board the only son of King Henry, the prince William of England, and two other royal children less legitimate, went down, in a fine calm sea and in broad moonlight, in the current of Gatteville, near Barfleur. From that day, no man ever saw King Henry smile. The Empress Matilda, daughter of this prince, had a signal proof of the protec¬ tion of the Blessed Virgin and her power over the elements. Forced to embark for Normandy in uncertain weather, which soon became stormy during the war which she waged against Stephen of Blois, she was assailed, in the dangerous sea where her brother William had perished with half the English court a few years before, by one of those violent tempests which are seen only on the angry ocean. The hori¬ zon spread out a vast black current which reached from sea to sky, like a funeral pall, mountain-like waves loaded with sea¬ weeds of a bluish green, swelled up dark and slow ; then broke with a loud crash against the sides of the royal vessel, which they lifted up upon their watery crests to precipitate the next moment in the hollow of the waves, where it disappeared alto¬ gether. The sailors shook their heads as they did their work, while the English lords, making the sign of the cross through fear, recommended themselves to God, to the Blessed Virgin, and St. George, the patron of chivalry. Matilda stood upon the deck, and her firm though pale counte¬ nance did not belie her stout ancestry. “Have good hope, my lords,” she said, turning to her faithful noblemen, “ Our Lady is good and powerful; Our Lady will save us; I will sing a canticle of thanks¬ giving to her as soon as the coast appears, and I make a vow to build her an abbe} r on the shore where we land.” Scarcely had the Anglo-Norman princess pronounced her / BLESSED VIRGIN MARV, 259 vow, than the waves were seen to become smooth ; the wind fell, and the ship skim¬ med over the waves like a sea-gull. A dark spot was soon seen in a blue corner of the sky left by the flying clouds ; it grew larger and larger still; it was a mountain of moderate size, the bare top of which was crowded with a hermitage ; a vast forest was seen through a gorge in the background of the picture. Then the hoarse shrill voice of the man on the watch called out from the main-top the words, so impatiently expected: “ Cante, reyne! . . . . vechi terre ” (Sing, Queen! there is the land) ; and the daughter of Henry I. began to sing with a sweet and grave voice a hymn to the Blessed Virgin, which the English barons joyfully repeat¬ ed, with hands joined and heads uncovered. Ere long the vessel, saved miraculously from shipwreck, cast anchor in the little bay of Equeurdreville, in Lower Norman¬ dy. The first care of the princess, on disembarking, was to mark out the site of her monastery, which she named the Ab¬ bey of the Vow, and before leaving the district she herself laid the corner-stone. Matilda did not live to see the church and abbey of the Vow finished ; her son, Henry II., King Qf England, inaugurated them. In the necrology of that abbey we read:—“On the 4th of the ides of Sep¬ tember died the Empress Matilda, foun¬ dress of this monastery ; a ‘ Libera ’ is to be said for her, as for a canon.” Let not our age, which, is so cold as to what regards God and the saints, make too light of those vows made to our Lady amid storms : the greatest infidel believes in something on board a vessel on the point of perishing: Volney is a proof. While sailing with some friends along the coast of Maryland, the wind suddenly arose, and the little American bark, which had on board some of the most prominent infidels of both worlds, seemed every moment in danger of perishing. Every one fell to prayer, and the author of the “Ruins” like the rest, when the storm gradually abated. Some one who had seen Volney, rosary in hand, reciting Hail Marys with edifying fervor, as long as the danger lasted, approached him when calm returned, —“My dear Sir,” said he, with malicious courtesy,, “whom were you addressing a little while ago ? ” “We are freethinkers in our cabinets,” replied his travelling com¬ panion, somewhat disconcerted at the oc¬ currence, “ but nobody is in a storm.” The Empress Matilda wished her mortal remains interred in the most celebrated of the Norman abbeys in lionor of the Blessed Virgin, at St. Mary du Bee ; her son Henry, as yet only Duke of Anjou and Normandy, erected a tomb for her, which he covered with plates of silver. When he became King of England, he continued to protect and honor this abbey, out of reverence to the Blessed Virgin and to his mother, which was in part restored by his royal liberality. In 1178 it was reconsecrated by Rotrou, Bishop of Rouen ; Henry II. attended the pious ceremony with his son, Henry Shortmantle. Richard Cceur de Lion, son and succes¬ sor of Henry II., built, before his depart¬ ure for the crusade, Our Lady of Bon Port, in the diocese of Evreux, and with 260 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE his brilliant chivalry attended the dedica¬ tion of that monastery, which took place in the year 1190. 1 When his eventful life was drawing to a close, and when mortally wounded with an arrow at the inglorious siege of a castle, he dictated his last will ; he thereby directed that his heart should be taken to Our Lady of Rouen, 1 ‘ for the fervent devotion which he had for that place and that heart, the bravest per¬ haps that ever beat beneath the breastplate of a knight, “ was honorably deposited on the side of the choir, toward the sacristy, in a case of silver, which was afterward taken for the ransom of St. Louis, King of France, who was made prisoner among the Saracens, and in its place one was made of stone.” 2 This valiant champion of the Cross, whose name the Saracens never uttered without piously adding—“ Cursed be he!" and who took their strong cities, wished as the seventh of their line to be interred be¬ side his father, at Our Lady of Fonte- vrault. There by his side reposes Beren- garia of Navarre, his wife ; recumbent upon their stone tombs are their effigies, painted and gilt, and among her queenly ornaments, Berengaria bears over her heart a large square medallion, on which is seen the Blessed Yirgin, surrounded with many wax tapers. Some years after the celebrated Eleanor of Aquitaine, mother of King Richard, retired to this abbey, and added her tomb to those royal tombs placed ( 1 ) Gallia Christiana, t. iv. (* *) Antiquites de la Ville de Kouen, p. 137. (*) According to the Saxon chronicles, King beneath the Gothic roof of the fine abbey church of Our Lady. At his own request, John Lackland, who died of indigestion in a Saxon abbey, 3 was interred in great pomp in the beautiful An¬ glo-Norman Cathedral of Our Lady at Worcester; but if we believe the old chroniclers, the body of this base and cruel prince, who had imbrued his hands in the innocent blood of Arthur of Brittany, his lawful sovereign, and who had even thought of becoming a Mohammedan to secure an alliance with the Moors of Spain, did not long defile the sacred abode of Mary. They relate, that in this dishonored tomb there were heard strange noises in the night; blasphemies, frightful bursts of laughter, orgies, terrible things . . . which induced the monks of Worcester secretly to disinter the body of the reprobate prince, and cast it out of the consecrated ground. The Plantagenets were distinguished for their devotion to the Blessed Yirgin, and covered England with those fine Gothic churches dedicated to Mary, which still remain in every county, and which are the brightest gems of her archmological crown : Our Lady of York, which the sublime lightness of its aerial architecture has made connoisseurs compare it to a vessel under sail; Our Lady of Salisbury, another diamond cut in the noblest style, which used to be covered with Flemish hangings, and be filled with lights and John died of indigestion of peaches and ale, which he had had in a convent of Bernardines at Swines head. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 261 flowers on the solemn feasts of Mary; Our Lady of Westminster, where, says Frois- sard, there was an image of the Blessed Virgin, in which the English kings had great faith, and which wrought many great miracles; the superb Gothic Abbey of Walsingham, the favorite pilgrimage of Edward I. and his chivalrous court ; the beautiful cathedral of Wells, of which the Lady Chapel is, by the admission of con¬ noisseurs, the pearl of the Gothic monu¬ ments of Great Britain,—are still standing to bear witness to the piety of those princes toward the Holy Mother of Our Lord. The Anglo-Saxons, who constituted the poorer classes, the merchants, and burghers of England, were no less devout to the Blessed Virgin Mary than the continental princes who ruled them by right of con¬ quest. Differing from their conquerors on almost every point, they agreed—and it is an immense point — on the subject of religion: and the two races united went fraternally together, with the staff in their hands, in pilgrimage to St. Mary’s Redcliff, a fine old church full of Saxon monuments ; and to Our Lady of Worcester, where Lady Warwick, the wife of the “king-ma¬ ker,” offered sumptuous vestments for the service of the Blessed Virgin, after she had prayed for the red rose , or the white rose , according to the party protected, at the time of the pious pilgrimage, by her brave husband. 1 The Saturday fast, in honor of the ( 1 ) The custom of dressing statues of the Blessed Virgin, Avhich still subsists in France, Spain, and Italy, obtained also in England. The Countess of Warwick frequently made offerings \ Blessed Virgin, was observed by the Eng¬ lish, from the time of William Rufus. A celebrated robber—a Saxon, no doubt, for St. An selm, the Norman prelate, who relates this contemporary anecdote, calls him a robber, in plain English—made his way one fine morning into the cottage of a poor widow to rob it; finding nothing to suit him in this poor dwelling, the famous bandit seats himself upon the only stool of the dark room, on the floor of smooth clay, where the widow is spinning, and says to her, with a gracious air, affecting the Nor¬ man nobleman, “ Well, my good gossip, have you breakfasted ? ” “I, my gentle¬ man ? ” replies the poor woman, her hands forgetting to twist her ashen spindle, “ God forbid! is not to-day Saturday? I fast every Saturday in the year.” “Every Saturday! ” repeats the astonished rob¬ ber ; “but, why?” “Why, in honor of the Blessed Virgin. Don’t you know that it is the way to obtain from her the grace not to die without confession?” “Ah!” says the robber, “lam very glad to know this ; and, henceforth, I make a vow to fast also.” He kept his word; and on her part, the Blessed Virgin Mary did not dis¬ appoint him at the hour of his death : fatally wounded, in a dangerous expedi¬ tion, she miraculously prolonged his life, to afford him time to be reconciled with God. St. Anselm further informs us, that the bold and haughty Norman knights de- of her richest robes and veils to Our Lady of Worcester; and we see, in Leland’s History of Ireland, that these statues wore rings of great ! value. 262 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE voutly honored Mary, though all the while oppressing to their utmost those who were conquered at Hastings. One of them, a very great lord, had for his varlets and pages a troop of profligates always ready for evil, and for a steward an incarnate devil, who continually persuaded this poor baron, sometimes to outrage this one, sometimes to plunder that one, sometimes, in fine, to kill that other, so that not a day passed which was not marked by some heinous crime. In the midst of this fine life, he devoutly prayed to the Blessed Yirgin, night and morning, saluting her with seven Hail Marys, accompanied with seven profound genuflexions, which pre¬ vented his infernal steward from strangling him as he desired to do, and which, in the end, obtained for him the grace of a sin¬ cere conversion. 1 The Saxon outlaws, who had taken ref- uge in the depths of forests, where they had become the most expert archers of England, in order to escape the capital pun¬ ishment which the Norman law attached to offences regarding game, regretted only one thing, which was that they could not go and pray at the altar of Mary, — when some old Saxon abbey sent forth in their hearing the sound of its religious bells in the green woods, where the lark was sing¬ ing merrily, and where the king’s roe¬ bucks were coursing. These old black-let¬ ter English ballads, which we think cheap in our days, says an antiquary of Great Britain, when bought at their weight in gold, describe Robin Hood, the forest-king, risking his head, after recommending him¬ self to the Blessed Yirgin, to go and pay his devotions at the monastery, where the dis¬ tant bells seemed to call him. 2 Spain, which was no less devoted to (' ) St. Anselm, in his book of the Miracles of Our Lady. (*) Eohyn Hode and the Munke, from a MS. in the Public Library, Cambridge, Ff. v. 48 ii., quoted in Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, pp. 54, 55, et seq. :— “ In somer, when the shawes be sheyn, And leves be large and long, Hit is full mery in fayre forest, To here the fouly’s song; “ To se the dere draw to the le, 4 And leve their hillis hee, And shadow hem in the levis grene, Under the grene wode tre. “ Hit befel on Whitsontyde, Erly in a May mornyng, The sun up feyre can spring (that day), And the birddis mery can syng. “ ‘This is a mery mornyng,’ said Littil John, ‘ By hym that dyed on tre, * And more mery man than I am one, ‘Was not in Cristante.’ “ ‘ Pluk up thi hert, my dere mayster,’ Littil John can say, ‘ And thynk hit is a full feyre tyme, ‘ In a mornyng of May.’ “ ‘ The on thyng greves me,’ sayd Kobyn, ‘ And does my hert much woo, ‘ That I may not no solemn day ‘ To mas ne matyns goo.’ “‘Hit is a fourtnet and more,’ said Eobyn, ‘ Syn I my Savyor see. ‘ To day wil I to Notyngham,’ sayd Eobyn, ‘ With the myght of mylde Mary.’ * * * ***** BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 263 Mary than the British Isle, had by that time erected numerous sanctuaries to her, and fought under her standard. In 1212, Alphonsus IX., having gained, under the standard of the Blessed Virgin of the Seven Dolors, his great Victory of Las Navas, where the Moors experienced one of their most bloody defeats, erected Our Lady of Victory at Toledo, to receive that holy banner of Mary. The King St. Fer¬ dinand, that excellent prince, who could not bring himself to increase the burdens of his people, and who feared a poor woman’s curse more than all the armies of the Moors, attributed to the protection of the Blessed Virgin his conquests of Cor¬ dova, Jaen, and Murcia : in fine, Alphonsus the Learned composed hymns in honor of the Mother of God, and founded an order of knighthood in her honor. 1 Portugal followed the same path and with equal ardor. In 1142, after having defeated, by the protection of Mary, to whom he had commended himself before the battle, five Moorish princes, from whom he captured their five standards in the plains of Alemtejo, Alphonsus I. founded in “Then Robyn goes to Notyngham, Hymselfe mornyng allone, And Littil John to mery Scherewode, The path he knew alkone. “When Robyn came to Notyngham, Sertinly with owten layn, fl.“ prayed to'God, and Mary may To bryng hym out save agayn. “ He goes into Seynt Mary’s chyrche. And kneyld down before the rode: Alle that ever were the chyrche within Behold wel Robyn Ilode. her honor the superb monastery of Aleo- ba?a; but not confining his gratitude to this, he did homage for his kingdom to Our Lady of Clairvaux, and decreed that a tribute of fifty maravedis of gold should be annually paid on the feast of the An¬ nunciation, in token of vassalage, to the Lady Suzerain, in the person of the abbots of Clairvaux. 2 One of the successors of this prince, Dom John I., after a victory, offered to Our Lady of the Olive-tree as much silver as he weighed in complete armor, and hung upon the walls of the chapel of Mary, as an ex voto, his lance and his brilliant coat of mail. 3 About the same time the kings of Denmark undertook cru¬ sades against the pagans of the north, in honor of the Blessed Virgin; and the Poles defeated the pagans of Prussia and Pomerania, singing the celebrated Boga- Rodziga (Mother of Ood), a war-hymn addressed to Mary, which St. Adalbert, Bishop of Gnesnen, 4 composed in the tenth century. The kings of France were far from yield¬ ing to foreign kings in devotion to the Queen of Angels. Louis the Young, and * “ Be side hym stode a gret hedit munke, I pray to God woo he be. Ful some he knew gode Robyn, As sone as he hym se.” (’) El rey don Alonso el Sabio dedico varios libros de poesias a la Madre de Dios; y con re- specto a algunas ordeno en su testamento que se cantasen en sus Estados.—(See Poetica Espanola, p. 162.) ( 5 ) Angelus Manrique, Annal. Cisterc., c. v., ad ann. 1142. (’) F. Paul de Barry, Paradis Ouvert, etc. ( 4 ) See note, p. 255. 264 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE Philip Augustus, of glorious memory, con¬ tributed liberally to rebuild Notre Dame at Paris, which Maurice de Sully, a very eminent bishop, of plebeian origin, rebuilt, in place of the old Merovingian cathedral of King Childebert. Attributing to the Blessed Virgin his brilliant victory of Bouvines, Philip Au¬ gustus founded, on the skirts of the forest of Chantilly, by the banks of the deep and fish-loving Oise, a superb royal abbey. Guerin, Bishop of Senlis, minister of the king and his companion in war, who had ably acted as field-marshal during the bat¬ tle ; Matthew de Montmorency, who had immortalized himself by capturing sixteen of the enemy’s banners ; Enguerrand de Coucy and William des Barres, who during this battle, where the king’s life was in im¬ minent danger, stood like a rampart before him, which the whole Anglo-German army had failed to break through, all these wished to join in this commemorative foundation, made in reverence to the Holy Virgin Mary , as the Cartularies express it. Blanche of Castille, the celebrated re¬ gent of France, founded two fine abbeys of the Blessed Virgin : the abbey of-Mau- buisson, which she called Our Lady the Royal, and Our Lady of the Lily. In obedience to her orders these two royal monasteries shared her mortal remains. King Louis IX., the most holy and just prince who ever wore the crown of France, the best of kings and model of knights, was distinguished for his tender piety toward the Blessed Virgin. He contributed to the completion of Notre Dame of Paris, and after having built that marvel of highly- wrought stone-work, called La Sainte Cha- pelle , under the direction of Peter de Mon- tereau, the most celebrated architect of his time, in order to enshrine Our Lord’s Holy Crown of Thorns, he solemnly dedicated the lower portion of it to Our Lady, whose statue, placed under the porch, one day wrought a charming miracle in favor of a very good little girl, if we may believe tra¬ dition. As this pious young child, mounted on a stone seat for the use of the poor, stood on tiptoe, stretching up her little arms as high as she could, to place on the head of the Madonna a crown of white roses, the good Virgin graciously bent down her fair marble forehead to the little angel of the earth ; and for this reason, says a religious of the time of Louis XIII., she still has her head inclined. St. Louis recited, with his chaplain, the office of the Blessed Virgin, daily, even on his journeys, and forbade any one to inter¬ rupt him ; he fasted on bread and water on the eves of the feasts of Our Lady, and gave great alms on Saturdays in her honor. ‘ ‘ When he resolved to undertake the cru¬ sade, he came to Notre Dame, Paris, ac¬ companied by his barons, barefoot, with the scarf on his neck and the staff in his hands, and heard mass there with great devotion.” On arriving in Egypt, the king found, at the spot where he proposed to land, a Mus¬ sulman army, drawn up in order of battle. The air was darkened by the clouds of ar¬ rows discharged at the French boats by the Saracens, whose lances glittered through the dust raised by their horses, like fire be¬ hind a dark curtain; their commander wore BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 265 “ armor of fine gold so bright/’ says Join- ville, in his simple language, “ that it seemed, when the sun shone upon it, that it was that heavenly body itself.” Their standards were surmounted with that an¬ cient gold crescent which was the emblem of the Turkish kings long before the days of Cyrus j 1 and their warlike weapons made a “ noise frightful to hear, and very strange to the French.” But Louis IX. and his brave men were not so easily daunted. As they were but a short dis¬ tance from the shore, the holy king, after commending himself to God and the Blessed Virgin, springs first into the sea ; the foam¬ ing waves cover him to the shoulders ; a cloud of arrows falls round about him ; but neither waves nor arrows can arrest him: with his shield hanging from his neck, his helmet on his head, and sword in hand, he , rushes upon the Saracens with a true f uria Francese; the whole army pour on after him, and the Africans are complete^ routed to the loud cries of “ Mont Joie Saint Denis ! ” When the Egyptian horse¬ men had vanished, driven by the wind of fear, the gates of Damietta, the key of the Delta, opened to the crusaders, whose first care was to make the triumphant chant Te Deum resound in the mosque of the Mus¬ sulmans, which was consecrated by the ( 1 ) See Firdousi, Mceurs des Rois. ( s ) The Sire de Join ville, who, during his residence in Asia, went to Our Lady of Tortosa, re¬ lates that in his time, that celebrated Syrian Madon¬ na wrought a miracle in favor of a poor man pos¬ sessed by the devil who was brought one day before the altar of Our Lady of Tortosa, and so, continues the Sire de Join ville, as they praved to Our 34 Roman legate under the title of Our Lady of Damietta. The fame of this glorious day soon reach¬ ed Syria, where they attributed the glory to the protection of Our Lady of Tortosa, a celebrated Syrian Madonna, whom even Mahometans came to implore, and which was believed to have left its sanctuary to protect the landing of the French crusad¬ ers. 2 The disastrous termination of this cru¬ sade in Egypt, so brilliantly begun, is but too well known. After paying an enor¬ mous ransom, St. Louis turned the prow of his vessels toward Syria ; the Chris¬ tians, who had become masters of Pales¬ tine in 1099, possessed nothing there then but a few strong places, among which was Xazareth, the birthplace of Mary, which had been transformed into a feudal fort¬ ress, and the first Frank lord of which had been the bravest of the brave, Tancred, of whom Tasso has so nobly sung in his Jerusalem Delivered. St. Louis rebuilt the walls of the Galilean fortress, and being there on Assumption day, had the office sung, accompanied by organs and string instruments, in the Church of St. Mary, where he communicated with great solemnity. As King Louis IX. was leaving the Lady for his cure, the devil, whom the poor man had within him, answered, “ Our Lady is not here ; she is in Egypt, to help the King of France and the Christians, who at this moment are arriv¬ ing in the Holy Land on foot, against the pagans, who are mounted.” The seneschal adds that, on the very day that the devil spoke these words, the French army disembarked in Egypt. 266 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE Holy Land with his Queen Margaret, stress of weather drove their vessel beneath a high promontory, which cast its shadow far over the waters. When the tempest abated, they anchored before this Syrian mountain, which was crowned by a mon¬ astery, and in the silence of the night, scarcely broken by the low murmur of the subdued waves, the religious sound of a distant bell was heard coming with the sweet scent of marjoram and wild thyme. “What is that?’ 7 eagerly asked St. Louis, who was still watching. The Phoenician sailors who manned the ship answered, that it was the convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The holy king landed at the first rays of day, to go and hear mass at the monastery of Mary, whose religious, clad in the striped Arab dress of brown and white, lived on fruits and vegetables, fasted half the year, kept rigorous silence, and worked with their hands ; the fervent and cenobitic spirit of the ancient solitaries of the desert still reigned there. Penetrated with respect for this austere piety, St. Louis took away with him six of these religious, who were called Friars of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and established them at Paris, on the banks of the Seine. They removed subsequently to the place Mau- bert, and their new church, consecrated under the title of Our Lady of the Car¬ melites, was built principally by the liber¬ ality of Jane of Evreux, third wife and widow of Charles II., surnamed the Fair. ( 1 ) Felibien, Histoire de Paris. (’) Sebastien Rouillard, c. vi. (’) We read m the old Paris breviaries (lectio This princess offered to the Blessed Vir¬ gin of Mount Carmel her crown of dia¬ monds, emeralds, and rubies ; she added to it her rich cincture set with pearls, and the bouquet of golden lilies set with precious stones, which the king had given to her on her coronation-day. Fifteen hundred gold florins accompanied this royal present. 1 The kings of France, who bravely ex¬ posed themselves in battle, habitually placed themselves under the protection of the Blessed Virgin when dangers became pressing. Philip the Fair, having com¬ mended himself to Mary in a moment of extreme peril, at the bloody battle of Mons-en-Puelle, where he had displayed all the bravery of a paladin, founded rich benefices at Our Lady of Paris after his brilliant victory, and gave forever to Our Lady of Chartres the land and lordship of Barres, 2 with a revenue of a hundred livres. “ After the taking of Cassel, Philip of Valois,” say the “ Gfrandes Chroniques” of St. Denis, “ came to this abbey to restore the oriflamme which he had bor¬ rowed for his expedition against the Flem¬ ings, and then went to Notre Dame, at Paris, and there put on the armor he had worn at the battle of Cassel, mounted his war-horse, and entering thus the church of Notre Dame, and most devoutly returning her thanks, he presented to her the horse on which he rode, and all his accoutre¬ ments.” 3 The king ransomed his horse and his arms of the Chapter, for the sum of a quinta ):—“ Quod intelligens gloriosse memorise rex Philippus Valesius, cum opitulante Deo, per merita Beatae Virginis Matris, insignem victoriam SAUL ATTACKING DAVID. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 267 thousand livres, and erected his equestrian statue in front of the altar of Mary. It was remarked that these two victories of Mons-en-Puelle and Cassel had been gain¬ ed between the feast and the octave of the Assumption, After defeating the Flem¬ ings at Rosbecq, Charles YI., then only fourteen years old, and styled the “little king,” sent likewise, as an offering to Our Lady of Chartres, his armor, which was very richly damasquined, and his royal sword, covered with gold dolphins . 1 So, too, the queens of France, at their first entr} r into the capital of the kingdom, did homage to Our Lady, by presenting the magnificent crown which they received from the city of Paris. That offered by Isabella of Bavaria was of gold and pre¬ cious stones . 2 Under Philip of Yalois began the wars against the English. King Edward III. claimed to be legitimate heir to the throne, in right of his mother Isabella, sister of Philip the Fair, who had died without heirs, and whose nephew he was, while Philip of Yalois was only his cousin-german. The French peers and barons declared for Philip of Yalois against the princess Isa¬ bella, not in virtue of the Salic law, which does not speak of the exclusion of females, but by the authority of customs existing and become law. Edward’s reply was a singular enough argument, which is found in a letter which he wrote to the pope. “ If de rebellibus Flandris obtinuisset, quae contigit anno 1328, acturus Deo et sail etas Virgini gratias, triumphans et equitans ecclesiam Beatae Marise Parisiis ingressus est, non vana ostentatione elatus, sed Deo per quem de ancipiti bello evaserat, pro¬ file son,” said he, “ is excluded from the throne because his mother cannot occupy it, then Jesus Christ had no right to the inheritance of David, since he descended from that king only through Madam Saint Marv, his mother.” That unfortunate desire of reigning over France, which in an evil hour entered the minds of the English monarchs, and which deluged the kingdom of the lilies in blood, was evoked by a chivalrous appeal made in the name of the “sweet Yirgin Mary,” who subsequently proved that she disa¬ vowed it. A false traitor, Robert of Ar¬ tois, whom the King of France had offended, says an English historian, took his revenge by rekindling the flame of resentment which was almost extinct in the young English king, who at that time thought of nothing but tournaments and festivities. One day, when his Norwegian falcon had taken a heron on the banks of the Thames, then much overshadowed with willows, he appeared in the hall where Edward was giving a royal banquet to his great barons and the noble ladies of his court. Walk¬ ing up to the upper end of the hall, where the king was enthroned beneath a canopy of cloth of Brittany, fringed with silver, “ I bring,” says he, “ the most cowardly of birds, and I will give it to him among you who is the greatest coward ; in my opinion it is thou, Edward, who hast suffered thy¬ self to be disinherited of the noble country funda hurailitate subjectns.”—(Breviarii Ecclesite Parisiensis, festa Augusti, anno 1584.) (’) Essais Historiques sur Paris, par Mr. de Sa'inte Foix, t. iv., p. 162. ( 4 ) Froissard, t, ii. 268 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE of France, of which thou art the lawful heir.” The fire of wrath kindled in the eyes of the English monarch. Suspect his bravery! He crimsoned with shame, and swore, by the “ God of Paradise and his sweet Mother,” that before six months he would challenge in the field that count’s son, who unduly assumed to be called king of France. When the king had sworn, the Count d’Artois presented the heron to the English lords in turn, and they all swore war against the French, calling to witness this fatal oath, “ the honored Yirgin who bore the God who died on a cross, whom the knight Longinus struck with his lance.” 1 The first exploit of the English was the naval engagement of Sluys. The sea- fights of that period in no way resembled those of our modern fleets ; they fought side by side ; the crews endeavored to tear the sails of the enemy with long scythes and broad arrows, while divers under water cut holes in the vessels, to sink them. The ne plus ultra of able manceuvres con¬ sisted in driving the enemy’s ships on the shore or on the rocks. Edward, who com¬ manded his fleet in person, was wounded by an arrow early in the action, but con¬ tinued nevertheless to fight on, prefacing each stroke of his lance with one of his favorite invocations—“Ah, St. Edward! ah, St. George! ah, St. Mary!” and around his red banner, on which flamed a golden dragon, 2 the English nobility uttered their mighty war-cries — “ Our Lady- Arundel! Our Lady-Arleton! St. George!” for in that chivalrous time each warrior of note had a saint for his protector, whom he invoked aloud in battle. Edward dishon¬ ored his victory by hanging at a yard¬ arm one of the French admirals, who had bravely defended his ship ; the other, who died sword in hand, found a grave beneath the waves. Amid this scene of tumult and blood, some fine English ladies, who had come in the royal galley for a new sensa¬ tion, for it seems that women in all ages are alike in that respect, applauded the triumph of their knights; but not one implored mercy for the vanquished! and twenty thousand French corpses reddened the blue waves pf the German Ocean. The king of the English, who had not for¬ gotten to call upon Mary during the fight, had no sooner landed in Flanders than he went, on foot, says Froissart, with a great many knights, to return her thanks, in her sanctuary of Ardenbourg. Thus opened that hundred years’ war during which the English carried their flag from the Garonne to the Rhine, and from the Ocean to the Mediterranean. During this prolonged contest, inter¬ rupted by a few armistices, when they halted, their feet in blood and their hands on their daggers, the Blessed Yirgin, whose abbeys the English often pillaged without scruple, was not the less an object of their veneration. After destroying a whole city. (*) “Mas par i cheli Dieu qui en la croix fu mis, Et ferus de la lanche du chevalier Longis. * * * * * [Car Car je voue et promets a la Vi&rge honor^e, Qui porta cheli Dieu qui fist chiel et rousee,” etc.—(Le Yceu du Heron.) (’) Stowe’s Chronicle. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 269 from which they departed laden with booty, they would sometimes leave one of her statues untouched on its pedestal; and when the inhabitants, delivered from them, came sorrowfully to visit the ruins* of the stronghold, they devoutly made the sign of the cross, and exclaimed, “ A miracle I” 1 That act of respect, amidst a fearful scene of devastation, was indeed a miracle. The sanctuaries where it had pleased the Queen of heaven to manifest her power were held neutral and holy ground : they were like oases of peace, to which radiated from all points of the horizon soldiers and knights of all lands, who became simply pious pilgrims from the moment that they had fastened a little image of the Madonna to their polished steel helmet, or their hood of serge. We read in the manuscript chron¬ icles of Quercy, that certain English sol¬ diers, having been taken prisoners by those of Cahors, were set at liberty with mild and kind words, as soon as they were recognized as pilgrims of Our Lady. The feasts of the Blessed Virgin were scrupulously observed by the English troops, who even halted on their march to celebrate them. In 1380, Buckingham, who was cutting his way through the heart of France, sweeping all before him, stopped with his army in the forest of Marchenoir, to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Sep¬ tember. The English knights devoutly heard mass in an abbey, which they found in the midst of the woods ; and the long ( 1 ) Our Lady of Vassiviere was thus respected in the midst of the ruins of that strong city, which swords of Bordeaux were unstained with French blood that day. 2 An English captain, named Norwick, whom Prince John, Duke of Normandy, and presumptive heir to the throne, had be¬ sieged unexpectedly in Angouleme, where he ran out of provisions, adroitly profited. by this devotion to the Blessed Virgin, which was common to both nations, to escape the fate of a surrender at discretion. On the eve of the Purification, one of the greatest festivals of Our Lady kept as a holiday in France in the time of Pepin the Short, he sallied from the walls, and asked to parley with the prince. The latter com¬ ing up, said: “Have you come to sur¬ render ? ”—“ No,” replies the Englishman ; ‘ ‘ but we are both of us alike devoted to the Blessed Virgin; I claim, then, of your courtesy a suspension of arms ; and that, during the whole day consecrated to this feast, our men shall be forbidden on either side to fight under any pretence what¬ ever.”— “I readily agree,” replied the prince. The next day, early in the morning, Norwick marched out with the garrison and all his equipage ; the commanders of the French outposts stopped him, and inquired the object of this march. “ I wish to take advantage of the truce,” he replied, “ to exercise my soldiers.” The fact was reported to Prince John, who said, “It is a clever trick, blessed be God! We will let them go where they the English had destroyed and pillaged.—(See Du Chesne, ch. ix., § 10, n. 6.) ( 1 ) See Froissard, t. ii., p. 112. - j ~ - % \ * \ 270 HISTORY OF THE I will, and content ourselves w ; di getting tlie city.” 1 Notwithstanding the testimonies of re¬ spect which she received from the invaders, the Blessed Virgin turned from them to protect the invaded. France in her oppres¬ sion found favor before her, as more than one miracle proved. At Poictiers, the servant of the mayor, who had sold the city to the English, and promised to let them in, on a dark night, when the moon was invisible in the sky, could never find the keys, which the people were astounded to see next morning in the hands of an ancient statue of the Blessed Virgin, in her own cathedral of Notre Dame. At Rennes, which the Duke of Lancaster had long unsuccessfully besieged, the English, de¬ spairing of taking this brave and well- defended city by assault, made a mine to blow it up. The Breton city slept over a volcano, unconscious of the danger which it run. When the mine reached the cathe¬ dral of St. Mary, and the enemy was on the point of firing it, in the middle of a dark night, the candles of the chapel of Our Lady of Saint Saviour’s were seen lighted of themselves, the bells, rung by invisible hands, sounded a full peal, and when the inhabitants, awakened from sleep, and attracted by the strange light which illumined the church at midnight, ran in crowds, and asked one another, “What is the matter?” the Blessed Virgin slowly stretched out her arm of stone from the side of the Gothic nave, and pointed to the place where the mine was to be sprung. The ( 1 ) See Froissard, t. ii., p. 112. DEVOTIOX TO THE city, warned in time, was saved. Many other examples might be cited of Mary’s protection over France at this disastrous period ; we shall confine ourselves to the relation of the most striking of these num¬ erous miracles, on the faith of judicious contemporary writers. It was after those two lamentable days, for which the cypress will wave forever green on the noble brow of France,—after Cressy, that battle where the flower of French chivalry perished, after Poictiers, where King John with eight hundred barons was made prisoner by the Black Prince. The nobility were ruined ; the young regent was without troops ; the most fertile fields were covered with briers ; the cities, menaced with the horrors of assault by the stranger encamped at their gates, were rent by factions within. When man has no longer aught to trust to on earth, he kneels, and stretches out his suppliant hands to heaven ; and so did all good peo¬ ple in the hamlets and towns; they con¬ fidently begged of God some prodigy, through the intercession of Mary, to end these calamities. Faith was great and sor¬ row unspeakable ; the prodigy was granted. Abusing his own position, and that of France, Edward III., with whom the young regent, who was afterward Charles the Wise, was negotiating, proposed conditions so hard, so humiliating and intolerable, that France, though in her last gasp, raised her head with generous indignation, and said—No! At this unexpected refusal, Edward crossed the sea, and laid siege to Chartres. The English army pitched their tents at BLESSED VIRGIN MARY a little distance from the Avails and facing that splendid cathedral so magnificently rebuilt by Fulbert, with the offerings of the faithful both great and small. Situated on a hill Avhich commands the city, the beautiful Gfothic church, with its lofty steeples, which can be discerned thirty miles off, had the appearance of a sacred citadel, with the city extended beneath its shade. In this universally-revered sanc¬ tuary was a reliquary of precious wood, covered ivith thick plates of gold, and incrusted with diamonds, rubies, and pearls, in Avhich was kept one of the precious garments of Mary, her festal robe of Babylonian cloth, with blue, violet, Avhite, and gold flowers. One day the Nqrmans came to besiege Chartres, and the inhabit¬ ants, fully determined to defend their tem¬ ple, took this holy relic as their standard ; the Normans saw the relic, and fled. It was customary at that time to touch with the reliquary the garments of fine linen of Brittany, Avhich great lords wore on the day when they were knighted. Richard Coeur de Lion, to whom one of these gar¬ ments had been brought even to England, offered in return to Our Lady of Chartres a beautiful case of gold and precious stones, containing relics of St. Edward. The Ma¬ donna of Chartres was therefore in great veneration among the English knights, and more than one, no doubt, secretly blamed the king for coming to expose the holy things of the Cathedral of Mary to sacri¬ lege and plunder. The city, summoned to surrender to the King of England, simply replied that it would not: and Edward’s heralds were 271 able to see only the massive and welL barred iron gate, above which, in a charm¬ ing Gothic niche, decorated with open work of trefoils, was a white Madonna with this inscription carven on the stone : Tutela Carnutum ! The siege of the ancient capital of the Carnutes Avas prolonged, and the fertile fields of La Beauce bristled with English SAVords instead of ears of corn ; the Dau¬ phin attempted a negotiation to save his favorite city of Our Lady; but Edward was deaf to his offers and representations. The French negotiators, roughly refused, dared no longer indulge a hope, and the city seemed on the brink of capture, when there happened, says Froissard, “ a mira¬ cle which greatly humbled and broke the courage of the English prince.” ‘‘A thunder¬ storm, a tempest so great and horrible, came down from, heaven upon the army of the King of England, that it seemed as if the Avorld was coming to an end ; for there fell from the sky stones so large that they killed both men and horses, and the bold¬ est were quite dismayed.” “ If thou sowest in the garden of life the seed of anger,” say the ancient sages of Iran, 1 “ thy star shall have to weep.” The king of the English must have made some reflections of this kind, when the sun arose, like a golden lamp, to show him the eve’s disasters. His Avhole camp was laid waste ; the tents, in shreds, let their dra¬ pery flutter about as if they were so many pennants displayed, and on that immense ( 1 ) Iran was the name of Persia before the time of Cyrus. 272 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE plain, where the green wheat had been trodden down by the English cavalry, seven thousand horses lay lifeless beside their riders. No fact in history is better attested than this extraordinary event. Edward was so struck, that he long re¬ mained impressed with this miracle, as he himself acknowledged to the continuator of Nangis. Some time after, in conformity with the promise which he had made in his fright to the powerful Protectress of Chartres, he signed the peace concluded at Bretigny, a small town of the country of Chartres, and his great lords, who bore their heads so high, laying aside their arrogance for a moment, came in the peaceful and hum¬ ble equipage of pilgrims to bend their knees before the Blessed Virgin. But the intervention of Mary, in the almost desperate affairs of France, was not confined to this ; she raised up one of those mighty men, whose iron arm suffices in itself to bear up a falling kingdom : she planted a hatred of the English in the heart of a young Breton, who made his first campaign under her auspices, and took her name as his war-cry. The armies which the red banner of Albion led to bat¬ tle were scattered like straw tossed by the wind, at the cry of “ Our Lady of Gues- clin! ” When the insanity of the unfortunate Charles VI., that brave prince, so beloved by his people, and so devoted to Mary, ( * * ) Deposition of the witnesses on the inquiry at Vaucouleurs concerning the life of Joan d’Arc. (*) Froissard. (’) “At the coronation of our kings, from time had revived the fallen hopes of the kings of England, and Henry of Monmouth, yielding to the temptation to unite the noble crown of France to his own ill-got¬ ten crown, crossed the sea to do a hundred times worse than King Edward and his son had done, the Virgin brought against him only a young maiden with a pure soul, who dropped her humble shepherdess’s crook from her indignant hands to seize the sword of battle. It was while lighting up mystic tapers before the revered image of Our Lady of Bermont, and decorating with flowers the hermitage of St. Mary, 1 that Joan of Arc, obedient to the interior voices that impelled her, conceived the bold design of ridding France of the men of England, and having the young dau¬ phin, Charles, crowned at Rheims. It was done as the Blessed Virgin willed, and as the inspired shepherdess had announced ; St. Mary’s of Rheims, where the kings of France at that time went to make their vigil of arms, with the young lords of their court, 2 before they put on the knight’s spurs, joyfully and proudly threw open her wide doors to let the true King of France enter, who alone could justly be the anointed of the Lord. A flight of little birds 8 went to tell the angels this news of happy augury ; and close to the kneeling prince, at the foot of the altar, where Clovis had bowed his haughty Sicambrian head .beneath the waters of baptism, “ the daughter of God, the noble- immemorial, two or three hundred dozens of bii’ds are set at liberty.”—(Essais Historiques sur Paris, by M. de Sainte Foix, t. v., p. 26.) BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 273 hearted maiden,” the chaste heroine sent by the Blessed Virgin, unfurled, with a countenance where modesty was blended with the most lively joy, her banner of white silk, where those two touching names, those saving names, Jesus and Mary, glittered in letters of gold. CHAPTER X. MILITARY AND RELIGIOUS ORDERS. T HE star of chivalry, which had shone since the Crusades in the zenith of Europe, now declined toward the horizon ; but it descended like the setting sun, and its enlarged disc still shed a brilliant light; in which there seemed to blend the flash of the sword and the sacred light of tapers. Those days, brighter and better than ours, when religion was respected, and her holy laws obeyed from the palace to the cottage, were the epoch when devotion to the Mo¬ ther of God attained its zenith ; for every¬ thing was then done by her, and for her sake. “It is quite natural for every one to implore her aid.” said the warlike min¬ nesingers of Germany in their songs, “for in heaven everything is done that she de¬ sires.” This they did ; and though every paladin took for his heavenly protector, St. James, St. George, or' St. Michael, or St. Martin, whom, in their simple respect for the inhabitants of the kingdom of hea¬ ven, the feudal lords had strangely invested with titles of nobility, the honored Virgin, who combined every condition of beauty, meekness, and angelic purity, which became 35 her who was pre-eminently the lady, was the object of a veneration far superior to that paid to Baron St. James, and to St. George, the good knight. Tournaments were proclaimed, enterprises were accom¬ plished, in honor of “Madam St. Mary ;” kings and knights kept their vigil of arms in her chapels ; her name, translated into all the tongues of Europe, was the war-cry of the Flemish, Danish, and English barons, as it was of Duguesclin. At the battle of the Thirty, the field of which is still marked by a broken column amid the broom of Lower Brittany, Beaumanoir commends himself to God, to Our Lady, and St. Yvo. Seeing his companions-in-arms redden the turf with their blood, and the. English gaining the advantage, he knighted, in the name of Our Lady, John de la Roche, an esquire of noble descent, who was a mere spectator of the combat, and Fortune, changing her banner, declares for the Bretons. 1 After commending themselves to Mary, ( 1 ) Froissard, t. xiii, 274 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE they fought one against ten, with that con¬ fidence in the aid of heaven which triples man’s strength ; a good cause, a pure con¬ science, and the help of the Blessed Virgin, sufficed to do wonders in arms, and to gain the most brilliant victories. In 1388 an army of Brabanters entered the duchy of Gueldres, putting all to fire and sword. The duke had neither men nor money to repel the invaders ; his counsellors were of opinion that he had better shut himself up in one of his strongholds ; but he re¬ jected this timid counsel with indignation mixed with anger. “'Neither in any town, nor in any castle that I possess, will I shut myself up,” cried he, “ and will not leave my country to be burnt; I would rather die in the fields.” After this chivalrous answer, the young duke arms himself for battle ; but before he leaves Nimeguen, he prayed devoutly before the image of Our Lady, in whom he had great confidence, and dedicated himself and his knights to the Blessed Virgin. Having finished his prayers, he mounted his horse, at the head of four hundred lances, to go and fight an army of forty thousand men. At the sight of the enemy, the counsellors of the Flemish prince, alarmed at the inequality of the numbers, endeavored even then to dissuade him from engaging ; but the duke, laying his hand upon his heart, said, “ Something tells me that the day is mine. Quickly then unfurl my banner, and let him who will be a knight come forward ; I will knight them in honor of God and Madam St. Mary, of whom I took permission when I ( 1 ) Froissart, t. i., p. 112. set out; yea, to her I trust and wholly commend my undertaking. Forward! for¬ ward ! ” And the brave young duke charged the enemy at full gallop, crying out, “Our Lady, Gueldres! ” The Brabanters, com¬ pletely defeated, ^lost seventeen standards, “and you will find them,” says Froissart, “before the image of Our Lady of Nime- guen, that they may serve for a perpetual memorial.” After the engagement, the Gueldres men held counsel on the field of battle. Some proposed to go into a neigh¬ boring city to dispose of their prisoners and dress their wounds. “No,” said the duke : “I gave and devoted myself to the department of Nimeguen, and I gave and devoted myself this day, at the beginning of the battle, to Our Lady of Nimeguen ; I will and command that we return thither, and go to visit and thank the Lady who has helped us to gain the victory.” And he set off in full gallop, with his knights, to offer to Our Lady his thanks, and to hang up his armor, hacked and dinted, as an “ ex voto” in her chapel. 1 In 1363, King Louis I., of Hungary, finding himself with twenty thousand men, before eighty thousand infidels, dedicated himself, with his whole army, to the Queen of Angels, whose image never left him. To thank Our Lady for the brilliant victory which he gained, he built around the chapel of Afffeux in Carinthia, a very fine church, where he deposited the holy image, to which he attributed his victory, and the sword with which he had fought. 2 ( 5 ) This Carinthian church, now known by the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 275 In the fourteenth century, Louis, Duke Froissart and Christina of Pisan call Af- of Bourbon, surnamed the Great, resolved rica, and which is believed to be Tunis. to leave France for a time, which was des- The crusaders of the Blessed Virgin under- olated by the troubles of the minority of took the siege of this place, which they Charles YI., to repress the audacious pira- attempted four times, but in vain, the Turks cies of the Saracens of Africa, which offering a vigorous resistance. The arrival threatened to annihilate the maritime com- of the Christians had been the signal for a merce of Europe. Genoa, and the ports holy war to the Mussulmans of Africa ; the on the French coast, implored an expedi- kings of Bugia, Tripoli, and Morocco sent tion against these corsairs ; Louis of Bour- troops to succor the beleaguered city, and bon listened to this appeal, and resolved to the Christians had to defend themselves make a crusade in that direction in honor from ambuscades and surprises in the night of the Blessed Virgin, whom he held in su- from the barbarians. But these stratagems preme veneration. He assembled his vas- were frustrated, without the aid of senti- sals, and the king’s noble knights, who nels or watchmen, in a manner for which were joined by the Dauphin d’Auvergne, the whole army of Mary did homage to its John of Beaufort, son of the Duke of divine Protectress. A mastiff, who had no Lancaster, Count d’Harcourt, Gautier de known master, kept so good guard every Chatillon, William of Hainaut, Philip of Ar- night around the Christian camp, that it tois, Count d’Eu, the Sire of la Tremouille, was impossible for the Turks to elude his and Messire Philip de Bar. All these war- wonderful vigilance. The soldiers, seeing riors, before they set sail, solemnly devoted something extraordinary in the infallible themselves to the Blessed Virgin, and took instinct of this animal, had called him Our for the admiral’s flag the banner of the Lady's Dog. Duke of Bourbon, 11 which at that time was This expedition to Africa, undertaken all covered with French fleurs de lys, with under the auspices of the Blessed Virgin, a white figure of Our Lady, the Mother of was accompanied with prodigies, according Jesus Christ, seated and figured in the to Froissart; he relates that “ the Saracens, middle ; the escutcheon of Bourbon was seeking to surprise the French by an attack beneath the feet of the said figure.” 1 in the night, were silently approaching the The Duke of Bourbon set sail with a camp of the Christians, when they perceived fleet of eighty vessels, which went to “ sea before them a company of ladies all in in fine order, under the care of God,*of white, and particularly one at their head, Our Lady, and St. George.” They de- who was much more beautiful than all the barked at midsummer before a city which others, and bore before her a white banner name of Maria Zell, is still one of the most cele- nand III. finished, the chvirch as we see it at pres- brated pilgrimages of Catholic Germany. The ent, and Maria Teresa made her first communion Emperor Mathias came there to return thanks for there, in the year 1728. a victory gained over the Turks in 1601; Ferdi- | ( 1 ) Froissart, t. xi., p. 266. 276 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO TIJE with a red cross. At this spectacle the Saracens were so frightened, that for the time they had neither power nor courage to advance.” 1 Whether Mary was pleased to protect the chivalry of France, who marched under her banner, by placing herself with her celestial attendants between the Christians and the Mussulmans, or whether an hallu¬ cination caused by the indistinct light of the stars and the floating banners of the knights was the sole cause of the prodigy, the camp was none the less preserved from a nocturnal surprise. * * The excessive heat of the climate and a pestilential epidemic decimated the Chris¬ tian army, who were thinking of raising the siege of Tunis after nine weeks of fruit¬ less attempts; but before they retired, they twice gave battle to the Saracens, and these, in spite of their number, were de¬ feated ; the banner of Mary was gloriously borne by the chivalry of France, and be¬ neath it the Christians performed such prodigies of valor, that the King of Tunis, terror-stricken, thought himself but too happy to conclude a treaty, by which he agreed to give up the Christian slaves, no more to disturb the navigation of the Medi¬ terranean, and, finally, to pay ten thou¬ sand gold besants for the expenses of the war. The good cities of the kingdom, in times ( 1 ) Froissart, t. xi., p. 266. (*) Sauval, Mem. MS. There is still to he found among the accounts of receipts and expenses of the domain of Paris, in the year 1488, an item concerning this taper:—“ A la yefve Gerbelot la Bomme de 27 livres 19 solz 8 deniers, a elle pareille- of calamity, placed themselves under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin, as well as the sovereigns. In 1357, after that fatal battle of Poic- tiers, which mowed down the flower of the French nobility, and where the king was taken by the English, the provost of the merchants made a vow, in the name of the city of Paris, to present every year to the Mother of God, in the cathedral church, a wax-taper as long as the circumference of the walls of the city. The offering actually took place till the time of the League, when it was interrupted for twenty-five or thirty years. In 1605, they substituted for this long, rolled taper a silver lamp with a thick wax-candle, which burnt continually before the altar of Notre Dame till 1789.® Rouen, where of yore Mary’s image adorned every square, every place where streets met, every fountain, and every pub¬ lic monument, placed itself, by a solemn vow, beneath her protection in 1348, on the appearance of that “black death” which had ravaged the globe, and which struck its victims so suddenly that men died, say the contemporary chronicles, while looking at each other. When the intercession of the Blessed Virgin had arrested this frightful scourge, they founded in the Norman cathe¬ dral one of the most magnificent chapels in the world, dedicated to Our Lady of th*e Vow. A white marble statue of Mary, ment dus par laditte ville,pour 117 livres et demie de cire ouvree en une grande chandelle assise sur ung tour de bois, par elle baillee et livree le 12 febvrier, au prix de 4 solz 8 deniers la livre; somme de la chandelle de Nostre Dame, 53 livres 11 solz 8 deniers.” BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. crowned with white roses, stood on the altar reared to her by public gratitude, and the magistrates of Rouen hung above this holy image a lamp of solid gold, which was kept burning, night and day, till the sixteenth century, when the Protestants extinguished it. 1 The cities of France were not the only ones which consecrated themselves to the Blessed Virgin : Genoa the Superb inscrib¬ ed on its gates, “ Citta di Maria;” and Fair Venice adorned the hall of her great council, in 1385, with a magnificent can¬ vas by Guariotto, a disciple of Giotto, representing Christ crowning the Blessed Virgin Queen of Venice. Beneath this picture, which perished some centuries ago, were inscribed these four lines of Dante : “ L’amor die mosse gia l’eterno padre Per figlia aver di sua Deita trina, Costei che fa del Figlio suo poi Madre Dell’ universe) qui la fa regina.” The doges of Venice were obliged to leave to the seignory a picture in which they were painted kneeling before the Blessed Virgin, that they might remember that she was their sovereign and that of the republic. 2 This devotion of Genoa and Venice to the Mother of God was eclipsed by the ardent devotion rendered to her by the little republic of Parma, which also gave itself to Mary. The Parmesans had no more solemn day than the 15th of August, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, patroness of their cathedral and ( ) Amiot., Ilistoire de la Ville de Rouen, t. ii. m sovereign of their republic. This feast with them rivalled Easter-day, and was so highly respected, that the Holy See, when laying Parma under an interdict, always excepted the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. , On that day the heads of families, fol¬ lowed by all the members of their houses, proceeded to the superb cathedral of Mary, whose vaulted ceiling Correggio was soon to paint, with banners unfurled, and sing¬ ing hymns, and laid flowers and presents upon her altar ; any inhabitant of Parma who should have neglected to appear in the cathedral would have lost all credit, says Turchi, and been pointed out. At this solemn feast, when rank was con¬ founded, there existed no longer any dis¬ tinction or pre-eminence ; they might have been called one family uniting joyfully to celebrate the feast of their mother. Assuredly, that is an ardent and sincere devotion which can stifle the hatred of party feelings! That of the Parmesans went even that far. In the vear 1323, on the day of the Assumption, the Guelphs, who were banished from Parma, putting away their old enmities, presented them¬ selves under the walls of the city, with their hands joined, and begged to be allow¬ ed to enter for the sake of the Blessed Vir¬ gin. The population of the city, at this name of Mary, humbly invoked on the day of her solemn festival, felt moved with com¬ passion, and by a spontaneous movement each one ran to open the gates ; Guelph and Ghibeline embraced, shedding tears of (’) Delices de l’ltalie, t. i., p. 60. 278 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE joy, and they conducted the exiles, amid lands of Mary; the Blessed Virgin was shouts of evviva! from the citizens, to the their heavenly Lady ; and, in truth, she celebrated cathedral of Our Lady, where was then the Lady of the whole loorld, as they swore peace, on the altar of the it is expressed in the simple legends of the Blessed Virgin. This peace lasted fifty middle ages. These orders, subjected to a years. 1 powerful organization, which partook of To appease these violent factions of the the discipline of a camp, and the severity Guelphs and Ghibelines, who divided the of a monastic rule, conquered provinces cities of Italy into camps, and made their in the name of Mary,. which they united streets and their public places fields of bat- together to form into kingdoms. The order tie, nothing better could have been imag- of the Teutonic knights became, as is well ined than to create an order of knighthood known, the monarchy of Prussia ; and under of a character entirely pacific, the Frati the name of Knights of Rhodes, the Hos- Oaudenti, or knights of the Blessed Virgin, pitallers reigned over one of the finest who, without renouncing the world, employ- islands of the Levant. To these religious ed themselves in restoring, in the name and and chivalrous orders, which extended the to the honor of the Mother of God, peace veneration of Mary by miracles of bravery, and concord in the Italian peninsula. were added in time the royal orders, of This devotion to Mary, which brought which Mary was also generally the patron- back peace to cities, and inspired warriors ess. It was in her honor that King John with courage, was the soul of the military founded the order of Knights of Our Lady orders, those great, ever-triumphant armies of the Noble House, better known under of-the middle ages, who relied for the most the name of Knights of the Star. These part, and performed their prodigies, upon knights fasted every Saturday, when they their faith in the Mother of God. In this could, and when they could not, they were religious and austere division of chivalry, to give to the poor fifteen Parisian deniers, the absence of lady-love was represented in memory of th e fifteen joys of Our Lady. by a particular devotion to the Blessed They were authorized to hoist a standard Virgin ; thus the Knights of St. John of set with stars, with a figure of the Blessed Jerusalem invoked Mary on receiving their Virgin, either to make war upon the ene- swords,—an invocation which the Knights mies of the faith, or for the service of of Malta, the latest form of this celebrated their liege lord. They swore to die rather order, still perform. The Teutonic knights than surrender, and not to fly farther than took the name of Knights of the Virgin ; 2 the distance of four acres, when superior- ; the lands which they conquered from the ity of numbers forced them to retreat. pagans of the north of Europe they styled Charles VI., that poor prince, who by ( 1 ) Chronic. Parm. in med. ann. 1323 ; Chronic. tion of these knights, under the title of Brothers Parm. apud Murator., 10, Rer. Hospitallers of the Blessed Virgin, and placed ('■') In 1191 the pope, approved of the institu- them under the rule of St. Augustine. « ; 1 1. . BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 279 his precocious valor gained, when only fourteen, the famous victory of Rosbecq, “ which greatly incensed the English, who would raise up envy^, even if it were dead,” at least according to Messire John Frois¬ sart, 1 instituted likewise, during the first years of his reign, an order of knighthood in honor of the Blessed Virgin, in conse¬ quence of a vow which he had made in Languedoc. During his abode at Tou¬ louse, he frequently hunted with Oliver de Clisson, Peter of Navarre, and a number of lords of his court, in the ancient forest of Bouconne. One day, when he had sep¬ arated from his retinue, pursuing a wild beast with too much eagerness, night over¬ took him in the midst of wild heaths, path¬ less solitudes, and great woods full of the bears and wild boars of the old druiclical forest; to add to the dangers of his situa¬ tion, the darkness grew thicker and thicker, and a clouded sky hid the stars. Terrified at his isolation, not knowing what direction ( 1 ) “ On dit en un commun proverbe, et voir (vrai) est, que oncques envie ne mourut. Je le ramentoy (rappelle) pourtant (attendu) que, par nature, Anglois sont trop envieux sur le bien d’autruie et out toujours este. Sachez que le roi d’Angleterre, et ses oncles, et les nobles d’Angle- terre, estoient durement courrouces du bien et de l’lionneur qui estoient advenus au roi de France et aux nobles de France a la bataille de Bose- becque; et disoient en Angleterre les chevaliers quand ils en parloient ensemble, ‘Ha! Sainte Marie! que ces Francois font maintenant de fumee pour un mont de vilains qu’ils ont rues jus ! Plust a Dieu que ce Philippe d’Arteville eust eu des nostres deux mille homme et six mille archers ; il n’eu fust ja pied echappe de ces Francis que tous ne fussent ou mort on pris.’ ” to follow, the prince made a solemn vow to Our Lady of Hope, and humbly placed himself under her protection. A light breeze at once disperses the clouds, and a bright star casts its gray pearly rays upon a beaten path, which leads the young monarch out of the forest. The next day, Charles, followed by his lords completely armed except their heads, proceeded to ful¬ fil his vow at the chapel of Mary. To per¬ petuate the memory of his perilous adven¬ ture, he founded, a short time after, the Order of Our Lady of Hope, and would have a star for its emblem. 2 In the year 1370, Louis II., Duke of Bourbon, instituted the Order of Knights of the Thistle, of Our Lady. This order was composed of twenty-six knights, who wore a blue velvet girdle embroidered with gold, with the word Hope in similar em¬ broidery ; the buckle of fine gold bore, in green enamel, the head of a thistle. On the day of the Immaculate Conception of ( 2 ) The institution of Our Lady of Good Hope is proved by an ancient painting which is seen on the wall of the cloister of the Carmelites of Tou¬ louse, near the chapel of Our Lady of Hope, where the king of France is represented on horseback, bowing before an image of the Blessed Virgin; some lords are also painted there in full armor, except on their heads. Their names, written underneath, are almost effaced; but there may still be read those of the Duke of Touraine, the Duke of Bourbon, of Peter de Navarre, of Henry de Bar, and Oliver de Clisson. All these person¬ ages are painted of the size of life. The back¬ ground of this painting is filled with wolves, wild boars, &c. At the cop, on a sort of frieze, are angels bearing scrolls, on which is written thrice the word Hope. —(Dom. Vaissette, Hist, du Languedoc, t. iv., p. 396.) HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE 28Q- Our Lady, which was the grand festival of the order, the Knights of the Thistle wore a sumptuous robe of pink damask, and a sky-blue mantle, embroidered with gold, over which they wore the grand collar of the order, composed of lozenges and fleurs- de-lis of gold, with the word Hope upon each lozenge. From the end of the collar hung an oval medallion bearing the figure of Mary, below which was seen the head of a thistle, in green enamel, relieved with white} Devout and chivalrous Spain had also, in the middle ages, royal orders founded in honor of Mary. Alphonsus, or rather Don Alonso the Learned, founded an order of knighthood, which he placed under the protection of the Blessed Virgin, and Don James II., King of Arragon, to reward the bravery of the inhabitants of Montesa, whose castle, built upon the summit of a high mountain, had many times heroically resisted the Moors, founded in 1319 an or¬ der of knighthood under the title of Sanda Maria de Montesa , to which he generously gave, with the consent of the pope, the pos¬ sessions of the suppressed order of the Templars in the kingdom of Valencia. A little later, about the middle of the fifteenth century, Christian I., King of Den¬ mark, founded, in honor of the Holy Trin¬ ity and the Blessed Virgin, the royal Order of the Elephant, the members of which undertook various pious engagements, par¬ ticularly that of defending the Catholic faith at the peril of their lives : the elephant was the symbol of the virtues of the order. ( 1 ) Favin, Hist, de Navarre, liv. viii. The royal and military orders were not the only ones to take Mary for their pa¬ troness : the religious soldiery, who gain battles by prayer under the shield of faith, would also march under the banner of the Blessed Virgin, and distinguished them¬ selves by heroism of a different kind. In the West, the first religious order especially founded in honor of Mary, was that of Citeaux, which acknowledges as its founder St. Robert, a young Norman of rank, who was destined by his family to the profes¬ sion of arms, but who chose to gain the kingdom of heaven rather than the king¬ doms of earth. In the year 1098 he founded, in a wild spot overgrown with brambles and thorns, which the Duke of Burgundy had given him, the famous Ab¬ bey of Citeaux, and gave the twenty reli¬ gious who had accompanied him thither, a white habit, in honor of the Blessed Vir¬ gin, and, according to the annalists of Citeaux, in consequence of a revelation from her. To merit the protection of Mary, Robert and his religious condemned them¬ selves to the most poor, isolated, laborious, and austere life that could possibly be im¬ agined ; they banished from their cloister all that had the least appearance of luxury. Their abbey church had but a wooden cross ; the censers and candlesticks were iron, and the chalices of copper gilt; the vestments were of coarse stuff; the abbot’s crosier was merely the crutched staff used at that time by old men. To avoid all that could interfere with seclusion and recollec tion, they agreed not to allow any prince or nobleman from that time to hold his court in their church or monastery, as they were BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 281 accustomed to do on great festivals. These regulations were made only by degrees. The greater part are from the abbot Ste¬ phen, who had succeeded Alberic, Robert’s successor, in 1109. So great was the pen¬ ury of the monastery in the year following, that the abbot was obliged to mount his ass and beg alms, accompanied by a brother. The rigors which they practised were mak¬ ing Citeaux a desert; none came to replace the religious who died, and the abbot be¬ gan seriously to fear that this new institute would perish in its cradle ; but Mary, who | protected it, woulcT not permit this, and be¬ stowed a magnificent present in the person of St. Bernard, who retired thither with several of his relations in 1113. He was hardly seventeen years ; at nineteen he was sent to Clairvaux as abbot, and began to clear that spot, which was covered with thickets. While St. Bernard was laying the foundations of Clairvaux, La Fert6, Pontigny, and Morimond, which are the three other filiations of Citeaux, were fill¬ ing up by the favor of the Blessed Virgin. The wild spot where arose the Abbey of Morimond, the most austere of all the Cistercian abbeys, was a pious donation of Olderic of Grammont and Adeline his wife, lords of Choiseul. 1 These four abbeys were the first and the mothers of several others, into the details of which we shall not enter, all equally austere and regular, all worthy of the heavenly protection of their Pat¬ roness. The religious labored in the woods and fields, sowed seed, reaped wheat, (') Annales Cistercienses, by E. P. Manrique, ann. 1115, c. i. mowed the meadows, felled trees, and car¬ ried the wood on their backs. When they returned to the convent, they received with thankfulness what was given them to eat, that is, a pound of coarse brown bread mixed with tares, with pottage made of beech-leaves. Their bed was straw, their pillow a sack of oat-hulls ; and after some hours’ rest, they rose again at midnight, to sing ther praises of the Lord. Such was the pious life of these monks of the Blessed Virgin, whom their conduct honored, ac¬ cording to the expression which God him¬ self employs in the sacred Scriptures ; and accordingly she condescended to give them sensible marks of her favor. The Cister¬ cian annals record that when these good religious, whose lives were so austere, whose heart was so pure, and hands so busy, sweated under the burthen of the day, during the harvest, without venturing to appease their extreme thirst with the water of the neighboring spring, and their limbs, languid under the burning heat, of summer, with the delicious coolness of the ancient woods which bordered their clear¬ ings, the Blessed Virgin wiped away with her white veil the sweat of labor from the pale and furrowed brows of the brethren. 2 Men of high birth flocked to Citeaux: Prince Henry, brother of Louis the Young, became a monk at Clairvaux in the year 1149 ; St. Malachy, descended from the kings of Ireland, and primate of that island, exchanged his pontifical vestments for the poor ornaments of serge and fustian (*) Annales Cistercienses, ad ann. 1199, c. v., et 1228, c. vi.; ann. 1121, c. yi. 36 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE 282 of the religious of the Blessed Virgin; Wallen,, one of the first lords of the court of Scotland, dear to the king, his relative, who invited him to all his hunting parties, abandoned the world and its pomps, which smiled upon him, to shut himself up in a monastery of Citeaux. The king having often perceived that the young nobleman, instead of hunting the heath-cock and deer, retired apart among the tall fern or under the whitethorns in the thickets to read and pray,—“ I must make him a bishop,” said the pious monarch one day, thoughtfully eying him. Wallen anticipated him, and became a monk at Wardon. In 1129, Everard, Count of Mans, abdi¬ cated his crown as sovereign prince for the cowl of Citeaux. He went and presented himself in disguise at one of the abbeys of the order, and he was entrusted with the care of the flocks of the monastery; he would have remained always unknown there, if some nobles of Mans had not re¬ cognized him feeding sheep on the border of a heath. Another young lord of very high birth; having taken the habit of Citeaux, was sent to drive a troop of swine every day under the oaks of a neighboring forest, where they fed deliciously on acorns and beech-nuts. One day, when the nov¬ ice was not engaged in prayer, he heard the voice of Satan, the father of pride, who whispered to him in a low voice that he was following a very strange occupation for the son of a powerful baron. This young nobleman, hitherto so pious, bit his lips, and his fervor disappeared; when evening came, he returned to the monas¬ tery, and retired to the chapel. Whoever had seen him kneeling before Our Lady’s altar, sunk in deep meditation, would have said, “Here is a saint, whose thoughts are in heaven.” Yet his thoughts had not taken so lofty a flight, for he was think¬ ing of his father’s castle, and- cherishing thoughts of flight. “The night is very dark,” said the novice to himself, as he looked out beyond the porch of the chapel; “ the wind is blowing a tempest: it is the very time to make my escape.Keep swine indeed! let us be off then! the son of one of the first lords of the court;—but it is disgracefulHe arose, and walked down the nave with a resolute step ; but as he was going to step over the threshold, he perceived a woman standing before him! At first he thought he was dreaming ; but no, there stood before him, at the end of the chapel, a woman beauti¬ ful as an angel, and majestic as a queen; with a gracious wave of her hand, and a smile of compassionate pity, she beckoned him to follow her, and he mechanically obeyed. The unknown lady went toward the cemetery, which the moon, half con¬ cealed by thick clouds, tinged with a strange light; the large yews, moving gloomily in the wind, seemed to moan over the dead, and the night-birds mingled their mournful cries with the tumult of the tem¬ pest. An icy tremor ran through the young monk’s limbs ; his calm and radiant guide stretched out her hand, and lo, the turfy coverings of the tombs slowly opened, and the dead arose, cold and pale in their wind¬ ing-sheets. The novice was swooning with fear, when the unknown lady, eying him with tender compassion, said in a sweet and BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 283 penetrating voice, “ Yet a little while, and you will be even as these dead ! Whither then would you wish to go, and what are you thinking of ? Here ends the glory of this world ! ” As she said these words, the Blessed Virgin, for it was she herself, dis¬ appeared ; the graves closed again, and the young novice, who no longer dreamed of leaving the convent, became a model of virtue and humility. 1 The Order of Citeaux, which was spread over every country of Christendom, was suppressed in France at the beginning of the Revolution. The Order of Fontevrault, founded in 1100, by Robert of Abricelle, in honor of the holy obedience of Jesus to the orders of Mary, and the sonship of John with re¬ gard to Mary, could have arisen only in the chivalrous middle ages. In this order, which had for nuns high and mighty dames, and for abbesses princesses of the blood royal, the women commanded the men, and the abbots would not have dared to con¬ sider the abbess as sister, whom in all humility they were bound to call their mother, 2 and who was the absolute sover¬ eign of the order. The foundation of this order excited some storms at its beginning: Marbode, Bishop of Rennes, and Godfrey, Bishop of VendGme, alarmed at the strange¬ ness of this inverted obedience, declared against Fontevrault; but it subsisted, not¬ ( 1 ) Ann. 1207, c. iv. ( 1 ) A decision of the parliament ordered the monks of the Abbey of Fontevrault to call the abbess their mother and not their sister.—(See the Ann. de Fontevr.) withstanding, till the Revolution. It was in this abbey that the princesses of the blood royal were educated. Seven merchants of Florence also found¬ ed, in the latter half of the middle ages, the Order of Servites, or serfs of Mary, which gave to the church a St. Philip Be- niti, author of the touching devotion to the Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin. In fine, the sweet name of Mary was attached to the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, whose object was to ransom Christians fallen into slavery among infidels. This ordey founded on the 10th of August, 1218, is one of those holy works which do honor to humanity ; its rules were extremely severe, and it held a middle position between the military orders and orders purely monastic. If the other religious orders of chivalrous times were less directly placed under the immediate patronage of the Blessed Virgin than those of which we have spoken, all vied with each other in honoring her, and were grounded on her influence. The an¬ cient Carthusians dedicated to Mary their first chapel, which still subsists in the midst of the rocks where it was originally built, and bears the memorial name of Our Lady of the Thatch. 3 The cradle of the.Order of the Francis¬ cans was a very small ancient chapel, in a most ruinous state, built originally by four solitaries of Palestine, who had styled it St. ( s ) Sacellum beat* Mari* de Casalibus. This chapel, which the Carthusians have respectfully preserved as the first cradle of their order, still subsists. Tastefully decorated, and hidden in the depth of forests, it has a very pleasing effect. 284 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE Mary of Josaphat, because some relics from the sepulchre of the Blessed Virgin were venerated in it. The Order of Dominicans took its rise at Our Lady of Priuli. St. Norbert reformed PremontrS by order of the Mother of God ; and he obliged his religious to say daily the office of the Blessed Virgin, under pain of mortal sin. FOURTH EPOCH: FROM THE MIDDLE AGES DOWN TO OUR DAYS. CHAPTER XI. THE REVIVAL. C ATHOLIC Europe, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, was still kneeling before Mary, whose already time- honored cathedrals were completed with admirable perseverance. Many confrater¬ nities were then founded in honor of the Blessed Virgin. German princes wore her scapular, and the kings of England of the red rose were anointed at coronations with a miraculous oil shining brighter than fine gold , which the Blessed Virgin Mary had given expressly for them to St. Thomas a Becket during his exile. 1 The students of those great colleges, where so many free courses were establish¬ ed in the name of Our Lady, rose at day¬ break, to say together the office of the Blessed Virgin ; even princes, not except¬ ing the reigning sovereign, recited it also, at fixed hours, with certain other offices of the church. A small room set apart in their apartments, and much resembling the domestic chapels of the Romans, was espe¬ cially dedicated to these morning devotions. The Duke of Orleans, uncle of Charles VI., whose life was far from being edifying, had nevertheless, at the Hotel St. Paul, an oratory enriched with Gothic sculptures of Irish wood, on the door of which were to be read these words :—“ Retreat where Monsieur Louis of France recites his Hours.” 2 At Naples, the feast of Our Lady of Carmel had something chivalrous, which was wanting in the festivals of France, and denoted an origin contemporary with the Crusades. The principal spectacle of ihis gran festa was a sort of petty war sustained by the young men of the city. A Turkish fortress was erected in the ( 1 ) Boucher, Annales de l’Aquitaine, t. iv., p. 3. (*) Felibien, t. i., p. 654 ; Sauval, Mem. MS. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 285 centre of *the Mercato del Carmine; the crescent glittered upon its ramparts, and it was defended by three or four hundred young men, who, under the name of Alarhes , represented a sort of Turkish soldiery. The besiegers of this fort, representing the Neapolitan nation, never failed to conquer the infidels, nor did the people fail to re¬ joice at a victory, which was the image of the triumph of the cross over the crescent. The rosary 1 and the chaplet, which Ital¬ ians call corona , were worn by the prince and peasant, by magistrate and warrior. A costly rosary was put among the rich wedding-gifts ; and the grand ladies of the age of the Revival, like those of the Mid¬ dle Ages, were often represented on their stone monuments with beads in their hands. This devotion, first invented for the poor, had become the prayer of all. Yeomanry and gentlemen said their beads as they went out into the country, or came back to town, the clients at the court-house, while awaiting their lawyers, and the Christians of all classes, as they went to gain the pardons at distant churches. Kings them¬ selves set the example,—Blanche of Castile said her rosary every day ; Edward III. of England gave his rosary, set with pearls, to Eustace de Ribeaumont, a French knight, ( 1 ) The rosary was instituted in the year 1208, by St. Dominic; but he was not exactly the in¬ ventor of it. As early as 1094, Peter the Hermit had made beads of wood, upon which the soldiers of the Crusades, who for the most part could not read, recited a certain number of Our Fathers and Hail Marys, which varied according to the solem¬ nity of the feasts. Before him, ancient historians record that devout persons already recited a series who had twice unhorsed him. In the in¬ ventory made after the death of Charles Y., says Le Sage, we find ten gold rosaries. The Swiss, at Grandson, found in the ducal tent of Charles of Burgundy his Pater (beads), on which the apostles were rep¬ resented in solid gold. 2 The famous con¬ stable Anne of Montmorency, as all know, habitually said his beads as he rode at the head of his troops. “ Sometimes, leaving a Pater unsaid, he commanded some mili¬ tary expedition, or gave the signal for an attack; then he conscientiously told his ‘Aves,’ ” says an historian of the time, “ so great was his devotion.” The chaplet, which derives its name from the crowns of flowers which in the middle ages were called chapels , or cha¬ peaux , was the spiritual crown of Mary ; it was said in those days, and it was a graceful and poetical thought, that near every Christian who recited it with atten¬ tion and fervor stood an angel, sometimes visible, who strung on a golden thread a rose for each Ave, and a golden lily for each Pater , and who, after setting this gar¬ land on the head of the devout servant of the Blessed Virgin, disappeared, leaving a sweet odor of roses. 3 The kings of "Scotland and their great of Our Fathers and Hail Marys upon knotted cords—“ Per cordulam nodis distinctam.”—(Regies de la confrairie du Rosaire ; Astolfi ; Gabriel Pen- notus, in Hist, tripart.) ( 2 ) Lisken, Histoire de Louis XI., p. 91. ( 9 ) The chaplet owed its origin to a young religious of the Order of St. Francis. Previously to taking the habit of the Friars Minors, this young man had the custom of making, every day, 286 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE vassals wore gold rosaries to preserve them from all evil; the bold cavaliers of the border made themselves plainer ones with nuts gilded by the autumn sun, and never recited them with more fervor, says Leslie, than in their expeditions against the English. The gold beads disappeared with the last Catholic sovereign, poor Queen Mary ; but those which the inhabit¬ ants of the border gathered in the woods long held out against the shocks of the Reformation. It was the last Catholic practice in Caledonia ; with it fell the ancient religion of Bruce, Wallace, and. David I., a religion to which, as the radical Cobbett shows, Scotland and England were indebted for all that they have had great, either in men or things. The Georgians and the people of Italy made coronas with as little expense as the Scotch ; they employed for them the stones of the azedarah , which the Italians still call Valbero dei paternostri. The tender and sincere piety of our fore¬ fathers toward the Blessed Virgin assumed at that time the sweetest and most affecting forms. Berries borrowed from the shrubs, fruits plucked from the bushes, composed for her a religious garland ; flowers, heaths, plants of Europe and Asia were honored with her name, and reminded men of her amid field and wood. The narcissus, with its purple-edged corolla, received the name of Mary’s lily ; the rose of Jericho, and a garland of flowers, with which he crowned the image of Our Lady. Unable to continue this devout practice in. his convent? he was going to leave off the custom, but, as he was thinking of so doing, Our Lady appeared to him, and ordered Solomon’s seal, became her rose and her seal; the white spotted lungwort was Our Lady’s milk ; the Scot took for his emblem her blessed thistle ; the Christian Arab called a sort of wliite-blossoming worm¬ wood, which grows upon his sandy wastes, St. Mary’s smoke ; the mountain herdboy distinguished the Alpine mint, the rose¬ mary, and persicaria, by the name of St. Mary’s herb ; the oriental Mussulmans call the sweet smelling cyclamen, bokour Miriam (Mary’s perfume), and the same plant bears in Persian the name of Tchenlc Miriam (Mary’s hand); a spring flower of Europe received the name of Our Lady’s mantle ; the bilberry, with its dark and sweet ber¬ ries, was her signet; the wild service ber¬ ries of the Alps were her pears, and the carpets of wild thyme, where the tired bee reposes, had also her name. In some countries of the north, on the contrary, they scrupulously avoided giving the name of the Virgin, not only to things, but to persons, lest that name should come to be treated with irreverence, or be borne unworthily. Among the Poles no woman was called Mary, and this prohibition ex¬ tended so far that Ladislas IV., on marry¬ ing Mary Louisa de Nevers, inserted in the clauses of the contract, that the new queen should drop her name of Mary, which offended Polish respect for the Mother of God, and that she should bear only the name of Louisa. 1 him to substitute for the crown of flowers the spiritual crown of the chaplet of beads.—(F. Alex¬ ander Salo, Methode pourhonorer laYierge Marie, p. 672.) ( ' ) Dovendo Ladislao IV. prendere per moglie BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 287 In the first years of the fourteenth cen¬ tury, Pope Innocent XXII., justly alarmed at the conquests of the Mussulmans, in¬ stituted a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the name of the Ave Maria; this prayer, for which the most mysterious and sweetest hour of the day had been chosen, that hour when the day vanishes, 1 was said in France and England at the first toll of the curfew-bell. All Catholics then said three Hail Marys for the success of the arms of the Christians, and begged of the Blessed Virgin that there might be peace, union, and prosperity in the several kingdoms subject to the faith. Louis XI., in 1475, instituted the Angelas, the same as now in use, in honor of the mystery of the Incarnation ; and wished, besides the even¬ ing prayer, which was said for the general peace of Christendom, there should be added one, at noon, for the especial peace of his own kingdom. His decree is in these words : “ It is commanded that all French¬ men, knights, soldiers, and countrymen shall kneel down, on both knees, at the sound of the noontide bell, shall devoutly make the sign of the cross, and say a prayer to Our Lady to obtain good peace.” The decree was obeyed with a degree la figliuola del duca di Nevers, chiamata Maria Aloisa, messe questa special condizione che la reina, par riverenza della Vergine, si chiamasse nell’ ave- nire solamente Aloisa.—(II P. Paolo Segneri, t. vii., p. 571.) ( 1 ) Polidore Virgil attributes the institution of the Ave Maria in the evening to Pope John XXII., and that in the morning to Theodoric, Archbishop of Cologne. 1 *) Alexis Monteil, Vie privee des Fran 9 ais, t. i. of exactitude which proves how popular devotion to Mary was. During the fifteenth century, at the first sound of the Angelas, in houses, in* *the streets, in the fields and on the roads, there was not a Frenchman who did not fall prostrate to pray to the Blessed Virgin. This duty fulfilled, prom- enaders and travellers rose up again, and went their way. 2 At those processions, so long-extended that the head reached St. Denis, while the last ranks still trod the court of Notre Dame, 3 the silken banner of the Blessed Virgin Mary, worked with gold, was borne aloft above all the sacred banners, and went immediately after the cross. Kings, queens, bishops, honorable men of the higher ranks of citizens, were associates in the confraternity of Notre Dame, 4 and there were seen in these pious gatherings the gold-embroidered hoods of princes, mingled with the parti-colored hoods of red and blue of the burgesses of Paris. At every corner of the streets, a little statue of Mary; rudely carved of oak, blackened by time, and covered with a veil of ajitique lace, raised its ancient head above a mass of flowers, which some pious souls of the neighborhood renewed every ( 3 ) Capefigue, Histoire de la Keforme. (*) This confraternity, the most ancient of those of Our Lady of Paris, was established in 1168. It was called La Grande Confrerie de Nostre Dame aux seigneurs, prestres et bourgeois de Paris. The king, queen, and bishop of Paris belonged to it, and in the three orders of this con¬ fraternity they received only the best qualified per¬ sons.—(Le Maire, t. ii., p. 79; Traite de la Police, t. i.. p. 372.) 288 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE morning, at, the hour when the trumpets sounded the morning call from the turret tops of the Chatelet. 1 Ofttimes those flowers, mysteriously deposited before day¬ light, were taken for the gifts of angels, who came, it was said, to teach Christians how to honor their Queen. By night, lamps burnt continually in these little gray niches, which on Saturdays were completely illuminated. 2 This was the first lighting of streets. This light, less brilliant, no doubt, than that used in our days, had neverthe¬ less a great advantage over ours: it was blended with a pious thought, calculated to make a believing people reflect; the mystic lamps of the Madonnas, shining in succes¬ sion like a bright row of stars, through the fragrant stems of flowers, seemed to say to the vagabond who went about by night for evil purposes: There is an eye over this slumbering city which never closes, and which watches over these deserted and silent streets— the eye of God . 3 These little street-corner Madonnas, though less ornamental than those which ■ figured in solid silver on altars of marble and gold, were no less cherished by the in¬ habitants. Young people of all the quar¬ ters came in procession to them, barefooted and crowned with flowers, singing the Lit¬ any of the Blessed Virgin ; every one fol¬ lowed them, whatever weather it was, and the crowd was sometimes so great, that people could hardly pass in the street. A small image of cedar, a foot high, which had belonged to the house of Joyeuse, and which figured between two pointed turrets, over the gate of the reverend Father Capu¬ chins of the Rue St. Honors, was near being the occasion of a small civil war be¬ tween two quarters of Paris. Some persons, a little over-zealous, wished to carry off the miraculous Madonna to decorate their own parish. The news of this came to the ears of the people of the quarter, who at once took up arms, mounted guard, night and day, before the tutelary Virgin, and were near fixing chains across the streets. Tranquillity was not restored till after the pompous translation of the holy image into the convent church itself. 4 The Queen of Heaven, who infused into the armies of the Middle Ages the confi¬ dent hope of victory, reigned over the fleets and merchant-vessels of this fifteenth century, which was rightly called the age of discoveries. Christopher Columbus un¬ dertook the discovery of the New World under the auspices of the Blessed Virgin, whose Hours he used to recite on board his vessel, in a precious manuscript which Pope Alexander VI. had given him at his de¬ parture, and which he bequeathed at his death to the republic of G-enoa. Dom Henry of Portugal, who presided and con¬ curred in the discovery of the Indies, ( 1 ) Alexandre Monteil, t. i. ( 2 ) Histoire de Notre Dame de la Paix, par le P. Medard Capucin. (*) This is still the only mode of lighting many towns in Italy. The following is what was written of it in 1803 : — “ 11 popolo 6 devoto alle Madonne, per cui ye ne sono in ogni angollo delle strade con fanali accesi di notte. Essi tengono illuminate le strade, e cosi la divozione supplisce alia polizia.”— (Descrizione di Napoli, p. 269.) ( 4 ) See Histoire de Notre Dame de la Paix. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 289 erected at Belem a church of Our Lad}', accompanied by an hospital for Jthe seamen of his own country. John Gonsalvo Zares, his first and ablest navigator, built a church in honor of Our Lady, at Madeira. When the Portuguese, under the command of Yasco de Gama, landed for the first time on the coast of Coromandel, where they believed, on the faith of some ancient ac¬ counts of voyages, that they should find Christians of St. Thomas, they allowed themselves to be taken by the inhabitants into the temple of a Hindoo goddess, which they had the simplicity, in spite of its four arms and long golden ears, to take for the Blessed Virgin Mary, and before which they prayed accordingly. One of them, however, had some doubts, and called out aloud, as he looked at the idol, whose hid¬ eous features reminded him of anything but the fair and sweet Virgin of the Chris¬ tians : “If the devil is adored here, which is very possible, be it well understood that our prayers are addressed only to the Mother of God! ” After they were established in India, the Portuguese, faithful to their devotion to Mary, dedicated to her, at Goa, a superb church, with the interior one mass of gild¬ ing, Our Lady d'Asara , or of Mercy ; sev¬ eral other churches, such as Our Lady of Cranganor, and of Meliapore, were built, by their care, in divers places of India, and as far as the mouth of the Ganges, the sacred river of Hindostan. It was at that time a pious custom among them to come and make an offering to Mary of the tithe of the booty taken from the idolaters, and this custom led to the erection of a number of private chapels in her honor. Even in our days, their vessels never pass within sight of the chapels of the Blessed Virgin, situated on the coasts of their superb Macao, without saluting them by firing all their guns. 1 The Spaniards, who were no less devout than the Portuguese to the di¬ vine Mother of our Saviour, had upon their galleons, laden with ingots of gold, her statue of massive silver, before which prayed, night and morning, the adventur¬ ous Castilian sailors of Isabella, the Cath¬ olic. At a period a little nearer to our own times, the filibusters of the island of Tortugas, having taken one of these images in a sea-fight, the Spaniards, despoiled of all that they possessed, thought only of recovering their revered Madonna. The governor-general entered into a negotiation with the pirates, solely to save the Santa Seftora from the profanations to which she was exposed among those pirates, who affected to live without faith or law ; but they refused to give up the statue. The Blessed Virgin, who inspired art, ever watched over the conservation of em-r pires, and the sweet Queen of Heaven had also for her vassals the kings of Catholic Europe in general, and those of France in particular. In 1478, King Louis XI. sepa¬ rated from Artois the county of Boulogne, and transferred it to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom he declared Countess of the Boulonnais. As the feudal tribute, he laid upon her altar a golden heart, weighing thirteen marks, and engaged that his suc¬ cessors on the throne should be bound to ( 1 ) Annales de la Propagation de la Foi. 37 290 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE renew the homage and offering to the Vir¬ gin, as Lady suzerain. It is well known that this cruel but able prince, disdaining * pomp till he fell into the opposite extreme, wore no other ornament in his solemn au¬ diences than a small leaden image of the Blessed Virgin in his royal hat. He used to say that he valued that little piece of lead more than all the gold in his kingdom. He was interred, according to his own directions, at Notre Dame de Clery. So determined on this was he that Pope Sixtus IV., at his request, forbade, under pain of excommunication, the removal of his body to any other place of burial. Ann of Brittany, who was twice Queen of France, built chapels in honor of the Blessed Virgin, and directed that her scap¬ ular should be deposited in the gold box which was to enclose her heart, which she sent back to the Bretons. The mausoleum of Francis II., the last duke of Brittany, having been opened in the year 1727, there was found in the vault, between that prince’s coffin and that of Margaret de Foix, a small leaden case, in which was a heart-shaped gold box, surmounted by a roval crown, and encircled with the order of the Cord, of elaborate workmanship. This box, which had contained the heart of the queen Ann, contained nothing then but a little moisture, and the remains of the scapular, which the pious princess had worn in honor of Mary. Francis I. having heard that a Huguenot had dared to strike off, in the very heart of Paris, the head of an image of Our Lady, made a solemn act of reparation, barefooted and bareheaded, and holding a wax-taper in his hand. The lords of the court, and the members of the Parliament, in procession followed the monarch, who replaced with his own hands, upon the altar where the mutilation had taken place, a magnificent statue of the Blessed Vir¬ gin. 1 In Spain, the work begun by Pelayo, under the auspices of Mary, to deliver the peninsula from the Moors, had been com¬ pleted by the capture of Granada ; the first cry of the war of Spanish independ¬ ence had been “ Mary ! ” in the cavern of Covadonga ; this last victory was gained under her banner by Ferdinand the Cath¬ olic, who had engraved in gold, upon his good Toledo blade, the protecting figure of Our Lady, and inscribed upon his colors, Ave Maria. ( 1 ) F. de Barry, Paradis, etc. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 291 CHAPTER XII. THE LATER HERESIES. I N desert Caramania, near the Persian Gulf, exists a shrub, which the Per¬ sians call gul bad samoun (flower which poisons the wind). Heresy arose in frigid Germany, like that poisonous flower, which imparts to the hot breezes of the Persian summer a quality so deadly, that they kill those who inhale them ; only the fatal breath, which came from the German lands, began by killing souls, and it killed them by thousands. Then it was that the bright and charming light of the beauti¬ ful star which so softly reflected over the Christian world the ardent rays of the in- created Sun, became darkened amid the thick mists which the night of error spread over the northern heaven, and underwent a sensible diminution even in those faithful lands which it continued to enlighten. The sectaries of the sixteenth century raged fiercely against the representations of Mary and the saints ; the patrician sect of Luther, it must in justice be said, showed some moderation in this respect ; 1 but the fury of the Calvinists exceeds all that could be imagined. Enemies to learn¬ ing and art, as well as to Catholicism, dis- ( 1 ) Those of the confession of Augsburg honor the saints with hymns, images, and festivals ; but they do not consider that we ought to invoke them. Stuyter, a minister of Eibergen, has written a very fine poem on the privileges and virtues of the holy Mother of God. It is not so with other sectaries, guising a furious radicalism beneath the mask of religion, attacking, by incendiary pamphlets, sometimes the pope and some¬ times the prince, this small minority, which made violent efforts to force its belief and dogmas upon the immense majority of the French, which rejected them, covered France with ruins and graves. “These good reformers,” says a Count of Lyons, an eye-witness of their violent proceedings, * ‘ began by reforming the public peace and tranquillity At Tours, Blois, Poictiers, Bourges, and Rouen, they completely pil¬ laged the churches, mutilated the figures of the saints, and dragged the images of the Blessed Virgin and of Christ in the mire, singing Litanies in derision. 2 In Gascony they buried Catholics alive, cut children in two, cut open and disembowelled priests. Even the dead were not respected in the dust of their tombs : the Huguenots drag¬ ged Louis XI. out of his sepulchre, burned what the worms had respected, and dared to scatter to the wind the ashes of a king of France, whose race filled the throne. The fathers and ancestors of the kings of Navarre, and the princes of Conde, were who despise the Blessed Virgin, or consider her only as like other women.—(Du culte des Saints et de la Sainte Vierge, by the Bishop of Castoria, pp. 2 and 3.) ( a ) Archives curieuses de l’Histoire de France; Capefigue; Astolfi. 292 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE no better treated than Louis XI. ; the tombs of the house of AngoulSme (the reigning house) shared the same fate. The lords of Longueville, snatched half-cpn- sumed from their sepulchres, were thrown to the dogs. 1 Madonnas, before which so many suc¬ cessive generations had prayed, crucifixes, which place before our eyes the sufferings of our Redeemer, pictures which elevate our souls, reminding us of the self-denial of the cenobites, or the courage of the martyrs, were hacked with sabres, lacera¬ ted or dragged in the mud, with a cord round their necks. But it was not enough for these new barbarians to break the statues, mosaics, and bas-reliefs, and to destroy, in a few hours, the slow work of centuries ; they even razed the churches, after despoiling them of all that could re¬ vive in the faithful religious recollections. Count Canon Saconay, a close observer of the Huguenots, of whom at that time there was little good to be told, has left us an account of their grand doings in the churches of Lyons : “ One of their princi¬ pal preachers,” says he, “ Ruffi, with a two- handed sword, which he held, when he preached, like St. Paul in a picture, came with his satellites into the great church of St. John, where he made them hew down the image of a crucifix of great height, which was in the middle of the said church, partly made of silver, and the rest plated with silver ; and when it was on the ground Ruffi rushed furiously upon it, setting both ( 1 ) Archives curieuses, etc.; Capefigue, Histoire de la Reforme. his feet upon the head ; and seeing some of his soldiers and ministers coming nearer to the silver than he liked, lest they should be defiled , drew his great sword, and bran¬ dished it five or six times. ‘ What/ said he, ‘ shall I not be respected ? Shall any one destroy this great idol before me ? ’ Say¬ ing this, he cut off the head of the said representation of Jesus crucified, and held it up, and exhibited it, saying, ‘ Here is the head of the idol! 7 Nevertheless, as it was silver , he held on to it. “ The small thieves would also share the booty ; they scraped the images of gold and silver to get off some fragments before they handed them to the great thieves. They carried off the wing of an angel, the arm of a saint, the head of the Blessed Virgin, &c. They melted down a solid sil¬ ver crucifix, which was in the church of St. Stephen, saying in derision that the poor crucifix had long shivered, being naked, but that they would warm it so well as to keep off the cold for the future. They also melted down the copes, and other vest¬ ments of the altars which were embossed with gold, but derived no great profit from what was worth more than ten thousand crowns. Here then is a Gospel very hot and very ardent!....” At Coutances, the Huguenots put the inhabitants to the sword, and set fire to every quarter of the city. “ The rage of these infernal vermin,” says the historian Rouault, “still more increased in the cathe¬ dral ; they broke the images, burned the relics, trampled under foot the Blessed Sacrament, and it was by a kind of miracle, and visible protection of the Blessed Vir- BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 293 gin, that the church, of which she is the patroness, was not entirely demolished. 1 The hermitages, whose small ancient bells used to invite the belated traveller in, promising him, in the name of the Blessed Virgin, a lodging for the night, a frugal repast, and a hospitable welcome, were demolished by the Calvinists, who had the barbarity to shoe , as they did their war-horses, the pious old men who dwelt in them. 2 * Priests fled with the relics, crucifixes, and-statues of Our Lady, as at the time of invasion by the Norman pirates ; one of them went to hide the image of Our Lady of Beth-Aram, which shepherds had for¬ merly found in the woods, in the heart of Galicia, where it still remains. 3 Some Portuguese Jesuits, destined for the infant missions of Brazil and Paraguay, that is, for a work for which ancient Greece would have erected statues of them as benefactors to human nature, fell in, off the Canary Isles, with the Protestant fleet of the Queen of Navarre, which captured their peaceful vessel. After being treated with the greatest outrages by the Navarrese, the poor religious, all men of courage and merit, were cast into the sea with a small statue of Our Lady, which was hung, in a spirit of irony, around the neck of their ( 1 ) Histoire des eveques de Contances, by Kou- ault, p. 310. ( 1 ) Archives curieuses. (’) The chapel of Our Lady of Beth-Aram, which had been demolished by the Huguenots, was rebuilt in 1615, by John de Salette, Bishop of Lescar; but the miraculous image is not there. (*) Astolfi. (‘) “ Thpy have been met, going in hostile array, superior (Blessed Ignatius Azevedo). They died like heroes of old, without reced¬ ing a single step, without changing counte¬ nance, without uttering complaint or re¬ proach. Their black gowns, inflated for a moment upon the waters, slowly went down, one after the other, beneath the waves, and the ocean closed over the bodies of thirty martyrs. 4 At Paris, under the very eyes of the court, which at that time protected them, they massacred at St. Medard, during the sermon, a great number of unarmed Catholics. The parishes, terrified at the insolence of these factious men, who went to their meeting-houses armed to the teeth, 5 * petitioned to have artillery planted at the entrance of the churches to protect them¬ selves ; and the time was seen when the ceremonies of Catholic worship could no longer be celebrated in the most Christian kingdom, but under the protection of a row of cannon. 6 “It was then that they began at Paris,” says Mr. Capefigue, “a war of popular pamphlets, with a view to annihi¬ late all the ancient belief; placards were posted up against the Eucharist ; particu¬ larly against the mass, even in the palace of the Louvre. The walls of churches, and the columns of public places, bore wit¬ ness every morning to this ardor for prose- twelve on horseback, accompanied by twenty men on foot marching as to battle.”—(Archives curi- euses.) These evangelical people, who came out from their meetings “ with wild eyes and threat¬ ening looks,” according to the testimony of Eras¬ mus, were always ready to take up arms, and as prompt at fighting as at disputing. (*) See Archives curieuses, etc. --- 1 -: 294 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE lytism, which characterized the Reforma¬ tion.” 1 It is with the opinions of sects as with the waters of certain springs,—they grow softer in time by flowing in the open air. The Protestants of onr day have changed greatly from their old brutality and their ancient Vandalism ; they leave the dead * in their graves, and the Blessed Virgin and the saints on their pedestals, and no longer go to their conventicles, in time of peace, with the dagger in their hand and the musket on the shoulder ; in fine, as Pere Sicard jocosely said of the Copts, one may meet with very good men among them, heresy excepted. But the Protestants of our time, as well as the Protestants of old, lack loyalty to truth, when they rank them¬ selves as martyrs before the Catholics of the sixteenth century, whom, on the con¬ trary, they provoked to extremities, by unheard-of impieties and unjustifiable cru¬ elties. They remember well enough the most deplorable episode in the history of France, for they constantly reproach us with it; but they forget the long provocations which preceded it. They forget the Catholic gar¬ risons thrown from the tops of fortresses into the waters of the Rhone, in violation of sworn faith ; they forget the ravages of that ferocious Baron des Adrets, who was more dreaded by all the provinces of the south of France than the tempest which passes over the great fields of wheat. They forget, along with the massacre of Orthez, the sack of Rome, whose horrors were in great measure their work, and the troubles of Germany, and the fagots of England, and the proscriptions of Ireland, and the civil wars of Scotland, and our provinces dismembered in hope, and basely sold to the English ; they forget all that, and much more. These tactics date from a long way off; in the time of our religious wars they published, in all haste, after eyery misdeed, am incredible number of precious apologies, in which they represented themselves as timid lambs, and the Catholics as ogres ; which did not fail to make an impression. ‘ ‘ Protestantism, ” says Chateaubriand, “accused Rome of intolerance, while slaughtering the Catholics in England and France, throwing to the wind the ashes of the dead, lighting fagots at Geneva, defiling itself with the outrages of Munster, and dictating the atrocious laws which have oppressed the Irish, hardly set free even at this day, after three centuries of oppres¬ sion.” 2 Kings were not more tranquil than the people, and the throne was not less men¬ aced than the altar. Luther was not afraid to teach openty that all who defended the Pope and the Catholic religion, ought to be treated like the soldiers of a bandit chief, “ were they even kings and Cmsars.” And Calvin added, “The powers of the earth hand in their own resignation when they oppose the progress of our doctrine .... it is better to spit in their faces than to obey them.” Starting with this principle, ( * ) Capefigue. ( 2 ) M. de Chateaubriand, Essai sur la Litera¬ ture Anglaise, t. i. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 295 the Calvinist preacher, Des Rosiers, laid down in his pamphlets that maxim which he applied to Catherine de Medicis : “ It is lawful to kill a king or a queen who op¬ poses the reformation of the Church.” 1 This insolence, and these subversive theories, accompanied by frequent revolts, drew down at length upon the contrivers of our intestine disorders, sad and san¬ guinary reprisals. The state policy of a prince, mortally irritated by an attempt of the Protestants against his person, 2 threw the court into extremes ; they thought, as was the fact, that the existence or fall of royalty was at stake, and they placed upon our history a page of blood. St. Bartholomew’s day saved the Yalois from the fate of the Stuarts, 8 and Catholicity from imminent ruin ; but it was an inhuman measure, which the religion (’) This was also the opinion of Calvin. So well did the Huguenots understand their apostles, that Catherine de Medicis found, in her very chamber, a document informing her that she would be assassinated, if she did not dismiss all the Catholics about her.—(Capefigue, Histoire de la Reforme.) ( 1 ) “ Some said that if our King Charles had been too cruel to the Huguenots, it was not without very great reason ; the day of Meaux above all pro¬ voked him ; for others might be palliated with some decent cloak of religion ; but that day might be properly called an attempt on the persons of the king, bis brother, and the queen, which they would have willingly executed, had they been able. Hence the king often said that he would never pardon them that; and it stood him in good stead, that he put himself in a good attitude of defence among his Swiss, with whom, as he marched in line of battle, among other good and spirited things that he said to them, was this, that he would rather die a king, than live a slave and a captive. The taking up of arms on Shrove Tuesday, affected him also very much, and he was still more incensed against the Huguenots for having corrupted Mon¬ sieur, his brother, and the king of Navarre, and having induced and urged them on to make war against him, in a very wretched state of his mal- ady. { At least,’ said he, * they ought to have waited for my death; it was too great hatred against me.’ ” —(Vie de Charles IX., par Brantome, p. 16.) It is to be observed that the author was contemporary with Charles IX., that he lived at his court, that he boldly calls the St. Bartholomew a wretched massacre, and that he nowhere assigns religion as the motive for it. ( s ) See how Swift, a great writer, politician, and distinguished member of the Church of Eng¬ land, judged the Calvinists, in the year 1732 : “ The puritans, who had, almost from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, been a perpetual thorn in the Church’s side, joining with the Scotch en¬ thusiasts in the time of Charles I., were the prin¬ cipal cause of the Irish rebellion and massacre, by distressing that prince, and making it impossible for him to send over timely succors. And after that prince had satisfied his parliament in every single point to be complained of, the same sectaries, by poisoning the minds and affections of the peo¬ ple, with the most false and wicked representations of their king, were able, in the compass of a few years, to embroil the three nations in a bloody rebellion, at the expense of many thousand lives; to turn the kingly power into anarchy ; to murder their prince in the face of the world; and (in their own style) to destroy the Church, root and branch.” —(Swift’s works, Queries relating to the Sacra¬ mental Test.)—In Scotland, at the battle of Philip- baugh, gained by Leslie, the chief of the Calvinist covenanters, over the Marquis of Montrose, the Presbyterians massacred, in cold blood, many of the prisoners ; others, according to Wishart, were “ cast from a bridge into the Tweed,” while a Pres¬ byterian minister, who presided at the execution, called out, rubbing his hands, “Bravely done!”— (Border Minstrelsy.)—Under Cromwell, the Church of England was declared malignant, and the puri¬ tans, who had so loudly clamored for liberty of 4 296 HISTOKY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE of Christ condemns, and the stain of which she shakes off from her mantle. Catherine and Charles had spared the heretics, they destroyed the seditious. The Catholic bishops protested against this act of vio¬ lence, by saving the Calvinists in their palaces. 1 The followers -of heresy, who have so diligently exaggerated and pub¬ lished their losses on this occasion, have forgotten only this fact. Ferdinand the Catholic, unwilling to have this noxious creeping weed of heresy invade the beautiful vegas of Spain, and sterilize that truly Christian soil, met this great evil at the outset, by a great remedy, the Inquisition, which checked its audacious march at the foot of the Pyrenees. Italy, torn at the time with civil war, was not so fortunate, and Protestantism displayed all its fury there in the sack of conscience for themselves, shut up all the Anglican churches when they had come into power. Evelyn records that they rushed in the English cathedrals, and that they aimed their guns at the Anglicans, who were preparing to celebrate the Lord’s Supper on Christmas-day. Swift also said to them, “ Whether these same Protestants, when they have by their dexterity made themselves the national religion, and disposed the church revenues among their pastors or themselves, will be so kind to allow us dissenters, I do not say a share in employments, hut a bare toleration by law ? The reason of my doubt is, because I have been so very idle as to read above fifty pamphlets, written by as many Presbyterian divines, loudly disclaiming this idol toleration, some of them calling it (I know not how properly) a rag of popery, and all agreeing it was to establish iniquity by a law. Now I would be glad to know when and where their successors have renounced this doctrine, and before what wit¬ nesses.” Under the first princes of the House of Hanover they began again to cry out very loudly Rome ; the Constable of Bourbon pointed out to his soldiers, chiefly heretics, the cap¬ ital of the Christian world as a rich and defenceless prey, which they might despoil almost without striking a blow. From the spirit which animated the chiefs of these lawless hordes, one may conjecture that of the soldiers. The Lutheran colonel Fruns- berg, who marched to the siege of Rome with the Constable, had a fine and solid chain made of gold, which had cost him no more than the trouble of stealing it in the churches, on purpose, he said, to strangle the pope with his own hand. 2 Rome, without allies, and attacked una¬ wares, defended herself at the time very bravely, and at the first assault, the Con¬ stable of Bourbon was mortally wounded by a musket-shot. He had scarcely time to order them to cover him with his cloak, * (*) against the Anglicans for persecuting, who ironi¬ cally replied thus: “If the dissenters will be satis¬ fied with such a toleration by law, as hath been granted them in England, I believe the majority of both houses will fall readily in with it; . . . . farther it will be hard to persuade this House of Commons, and perhaps much harder the next. For to say the truth, we make a mighty difference here between suffering thistles to grow among us, and wearing them for posies.”—(Swift’s Works, vol. iv.) (*) The Bishop of Lisieux, John Hennuyer, boldly prevented the execution of the orders of Charles IX., by opening the gates of his palace to those Calvinists who had treated the Norman bishops with indignity. Several other bishops, and especially those of Bayonne, Valence, Vienne, Oleron, and Uzhs, incurred the displeasure of the court by extending their protection to the Hu¬ guenots. ( a ) Brantdme, Capitaines etrangers, t. ii. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 297 to conceal liis death from his troops. Idle precaution ! the ill-omened report spread, and, says a contemporary historian, who collected his documents on the spot, the Protestant soldiers only fought more demo¬ niacally to avenge him, crying furiously, “ Sangre, sangre ! Bourbon, Bourbon ! ” Nothing could resist these imperial bands, intoxicated with rage and thirsting for blood ! the ramparts were scaled ; the Ro¬ mans gave way, and the fatal victory of impiety swept, from street to street, with such fury that one would have said that hell was let loose, and fighting under the banners of the Prince of Orange, who had the melancholy glory of completing this criminal enterprise. “The discharges of musketry,” says Brantdme, in his Life of the Constable of Bourbon, “ the shouts of the combatants, the cries of the wounded, the clash of arms, the thrilling sound of trumpets, the continued roll of the drums, which animated the soldiers to the fight, and the thrusts of the lances, made such a noise, that one could not have heard the thunder of heaven had heaven thundered.” The conquerors pursued the vanquished so closely that they hardly had time to let down the portcullis of the Castle of St. Angelo, the fortress of modern Rome, where the pope had hastily taken refuge, accompanied by some cardinals. Nor would they even have done this but for the chivalrous devotion of three young noble Romans,*of one of those rare patri¬ cian families which are authentically traced up to the age of Augustus. When all in pillaged Rome was tottering and the prin¬ ces of the church spurred on their horses at full gallop to the citadel, pursued bj T the soldiers, three Orsinis—Juannin, Antonio, and Valerius—“brave and valiant lords,” says Brantcime, and Jerome Mattei, rallied with “ two hundred good men,” at the head of the Sixtine bridge, to check the imperial¬ ists and keep the passage free. The Prince of Orange, at the head of his heretical battalions, came up to attack them, and, “ on both sides, the combat was sustained very bravely. Nevertheless, the prince at last made so furious a charge that they were forced to abandon the bridge they had so heroically defended ; ” but it was not till they had seen the iron portcullis of the citadel fall behind the illustrious fugi¬ tives. Rome thus conquered, continues the same historian, the soldiers, “ recently imbued with the new religion,” began to plunder and kill, without sparing the holy relics of the temples, or the convents, or persons of dignity, or the ornaments of the Madonnas ; “ their cruelty extended even to the mar¬ bles and ancient statues.” According to the custom of the Huguenots of that time, they mixed up, with these scenes of blood, sacrilegious buffooneries, revolting debauch¬ ery, and pillage. “Dressed as cardinals, they made burlesque processions about the city, reciting in mockery the Litany of the Blessed Virgin.” After steeping their hands in infamies, not to be spoken of or listened to, these miscreants, as Brantdme remarks, went almost all to die, soon after, at the siege of Naples, after losing, in one way or other, the gold they had sacrile¬ giously plundered from the altars and tem¬ ples ; which made the Spaniards say that 38 298 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE el diablo los avia dado, y el diablo los avia llevado. 1 Devotion to Mary was not abolished in England without disturbances. This devo¬ tion was universally regarded there as the first bulwark of Catholicity, and Catholicity, which had polished the manners, corrected the laws, and fertilized the fields of Great Britain, had struck so deep root in the English soil, that the fatal triumph of the Reformation, in that kingdom, would be an enigma beyond solution, did not the brutal and capricious tyranny of Henry YIII., the servile absurdity of his Parliament, and the cupidity of the great lords, give us the key. Under Henry YIII., who warred on the saints only to seize the diamonds and gold of their shrines, the invocation of the Blessed Yirgin was maintained, although, in one of his bad tempers, Ann Boleyn’s husband ordered the confessor of Catherine of Arragon to be burnt with pieces of wood taken from statues of Our Lady. It was not till the reign of Edward YI. that the fratricide Somerset, who pulled down the finest churches in London to build his Ye- netian palace, “ Somerset House,” and abol¬ ished the ancient liturgy, and removed the ( 1 ) Brantome, Capitaines strangers, t. i. ( 1 ) “Go into any county,” says the radical Cobbett, “ and survey, even at this day, the ruins of its perhaps twenty abbeys and priories; and then ask yourself, ‘ What have we in exchange for these ? ’ Go to the site of some once opulent con¬ vent. Look at the cloister, now become, in the hands of a rackrenter, the receptacle for dung, fodder, and fagot-wood; see the hall, where, for ages, the widow, the orphan, the aged, and the stranger found a table ready spread; see a bit of images of Mary and the saints from their ancient sanctuaries. This impious measure was the last straw on the camehs back; disturbances broke out all over the kingdom, gatherings of ten or twenty thousand malcontents, some com¬ manded by lords, others by plebeians, maintained their right to serve God and honor the Blessed Yirgin, in the same man¬ ner as their ancestors had done. Histori¬ ans very partial to Protestantism, cannot but acknowledge that the discontent was almost universal, and that the English peo¬ ple energetically testified their antipathy to the new doctrine imposed upon them. They had to yield to force ; bands of ad¬ venturers, brought from Italy, Spain, and Germany, stifled the last cry of Catholicity, and the people, crushed by laws which would have disgraced Tiberius—the peo¬ ple, whom they deprived of their churches, of services for their dead, of hospitals for their sick, of the common lands which they held of the monasteries—the free people, without resource, without shelter, without bread, went by night to weep over the de¬ molished altars of those fine alms-giving abbeys, whose new owners had begun by banishing alms-deeds and hospitality. 2 its walls now helping to make a cattle-shed, the rest having been hauled away to build a work- liouse; recognize, in the side of a barn, a part of the once magnificent chapel: and, if chained to the spot by your melancholy musings, you be ad¬ monished of the approach of night by the voice of the screech-owl, issuing from those arches which once, at the same hour, resounded with the vespers of the monk, and which have, for seven hundred years, been assailed by storms and tempests in va in •—if thus admonished of the necessity of BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 299 The Welsh peasants, those Armoricans of England, who had embraced Christianity before the arrival of the Saxons, could not endure the absence of the saints, with whom they had adorned their old oaks and druidical springs. 1 Unable to keep alive their Catholicity, watched and harassed as seeking food, shelter, and a bed, lift your eyes and look at the white-washed and dry-rotten shell on the hill, called the ‘ gentleman’s house; ’ and ap¬ prized of the 'board-wages’ and the spring-guns, suddenly turn your head ; jog away from the scene of devastation : with ‘ old English hospitality ’ in your mind, reach the nearest inn, and there, in room half-warmed and half-lighted, and with re¬ ception precisely proportioned to the presumed length of your purse, sit down and listen to an ac¬ count of the hypocritical pretences, the base mo¬ tives, the tyrannical and bloody means, under which, from which, and by which, that devastation was effected, and that hospitality banished for ever from the land.”—(Cobbett, History of the Prot¬ estant Reformation, Letter V., 155.) It is certain that the suppression of the abbeys was far from being a popular measure, and that it left without any resources, not only a great num¬ ber of priests, whose families had endowed these pious asylums, but a whole population of laborers, • of poor and of aged soldiers. The wide and gen¬ erous hospitality of the Catholic clergy was not exercised within a narrow and limited circle; it partook in some measure of the infinite, that basis of its belief. The great baron, with his train of knights, kno'cked at the door of the monastery, as well as the beggar who wandered about the coun¬ try, staff in hand, singing hymns. There were then no inns, and when the harmonious sound of the abbey-bells came no longer to cheer the soul of the belated traveller, his only choice was to lie down in the open air, with no other shelter against the inclemency of the weather than the dripping or wind-swayed branches of some wayside tree. The Norman laws, which still govern the English, grant they were by the last of the Tudors, and later by Cromwell, having no longer either altars or priests, they relapsed almost to paganism ; and it is not yet many years ago since it was proposed, among the An¬ glicans, to go and convert those gross idol¬ aters, who had gone back, for want of sym- the entire patrimony to the eldest son of a noble family; his brothers, dependent on his good-will, are his flatterers or his servants. But, at that re¬ mote period, commerce, which has since, procured them honorable means of existence, was not even in its infancy. Catholicity could not remould the feudal laws, but she constantly labored to soften them, and gathered into her bosom the helpless members of the English aristocracy, and secured to them that sweet and peaceful existence for which the laws of the land had not provided. The abbeys not only gave value, by their numberless clearings, to the wildest and most uncultivated lands of Great Britain, but made it a duty to en¬ courage agriculture. By a Providential care, their charity gave up to poorer families who lived under the shadow of their lofty spires, wide commons undivided and unenclosed, belonging to all, like the air and sea. The harpies of the court, who devoured the minority of the son of Henry VIII., of course united the commons to the church lands; all were enclosed and bristling with quickset fences. Neglecting agriculture for pasturages which did not require farm-hands, the new posses¬ sors changed the arable lands into meadows, and after paralyzing the arms of the laborers they starved the country, and so effectually depopulated it, that amid the deserted dwellings of an opulent village, there sometimes remained only the solitary cottage of a shepherd.—(See Lingard, History of England.) (.* *) In the county of Brecknock, in Wales, there is still found a menhir of gigantic height, which bears the name of Mayen y Marynnion, or stone of the Virgin Mary.—(Camden’s Britannia.) * 300 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE pathy for dry and multiform Protestantism, to worship trees and fountains, as the an¬ cient Britons did in Caesar's day. 1 The inhabitants of the southern frontiers of Scotland had no less repugnance than the Welsh to embrace the new doctrine. The Border was more than any other part of the kingdom under the immediate protection of Mary: her name had been given to the clearest lake, 2 to the bluest fountains, and the most picturesque her¬ mitages. There rose Melrose and Jed¬ burgh, two majestic abbeys dedicated to the Blessed Virgin—two prodigious edifices erected by that faith which works miracles, in a poor country continually ravaged by foreign and intestine wars. What Border trooper had not solicited at Jedburgh, in the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, hospitality, always generously granted ? What mountain chieftain had not taken off his blue bonnet, decorated with an eagle’s feather, before the Virgin of Melrose, the most celebrated and frequented of the four chief pilgrimages of the kingdom ? The ( 1 ) Gordon’s Modern Geography, p. 217. ( a ) The beautiful St. Mary’s Lake, at the source of the river Yarrow, in the Border which is often covered with numerous flights of wild swans, took its name from a beautiful chapel of Our Lady, to which the Scottish nobility of the frontier often made pilgrimages. The chapel has been de¬ stroyed, but the lake has retained its sweet name and its spotless birds. ( 5 ) Hear Sir Walter Scott, who brought to the service of high poesy fine descriptive talents and archaeological science, describe the magnificent ruins of Melrose Abbey, as seen by moonlight: “ If thou would’st view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight; For the gay beams of lightsome day pavement of the immense basilica covered all that Scotland had possessed noble by birth and illustrious by courage ; there men trod the dust of heroes, whose effigies, recumbent on marble, devoutly joined their hands, as if to invoke Jesus and Mary, two names which Catholics always blend. The Blessed Virgin reigned there over both living and dead. By day, sacred hymns resounded around her, and at night, when the tempest roared, and the stained glass, set like emeralds in their wondrously delicate stone frames, flashed in the fiitful moonlight, you would have said that all the stone-wrought garlands, all the chival¬ rous banners which decorated the church, trembled in the wind, and that the old Scotch lords, rising up, armed as they were upon their tombs, saluted the holy Mother of our Redeemer. 3 At the foot of the venerated altar of Our Lady of Melrose, the English and Scotch, laying aside their hereditary anti¬ pathies, were but humble and peaceful pil¬ grims. Chiefs of clans came there to pray Gild, but to flout, the ruins gray. When the broken arches are black in night, And each shafted oriel glimmers white; When the cold light’s uncertain shower Streams on the ruined central tower; When buttress and buttress, alternately, Seem framed of ebon and ivory; When silver edges the imagery, And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die; When distant Tweed is heard to rave, And the owlet to hoot o’er the dead man’s grave, Then go—but go alone the while— Then view St. David’s ruined pile; And, home returning, soothly swear, Was never seen so sad and fair! ” (Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto ii.) BLESSED VIRGIN MART. " 301 for the repose of the souls of warriors of a hostile clan, fallen beneath their dirk or claymore, in the coarse of some mountain- war. 1 There sinners bewailed their faults before the Comforter of the Afflicted ; and rising up full of confidence in her merciful intercession, went away to found expiatory monuments, to perpetuate in their very name the memory of their remorse. 2 The Presbyterian preachers, as bitter enemies of the arts as of the saints, de¬ molished Melrose and Jedburgh, with a considerable number of sanctuaries of less renown. Of all the splendors which sur¬ rounded Our Lady of Melrose naught re¬ mained but a shattered altar, which was soon covered over with the tall grass and weeds of the ruins. Sometimes, at first, a dark shade glided at night beneath the broken arches of the abbey church, and the hum of human voices was heard min- * gling with the low sound of waters of the Tweed. It was a monk, who came stealthily to celebrate the divine mysteries for a small flock of the faithful, who had not forsaken the ancient religion. So dangerous did these visits become, that the clergy, out of prudence, had to give them up ; but noth - ing could prevent the people from burying their dead in the ruined cemeteries of the old abbeys, and with a sense of propriety which does honor to the Scotch, women only were buried, for a long time, in the enclosed burial-places, where the virgins of the Lord reposed. 3 The first harvest made by the apostles of Calvin in the mountains of the Border was so discouraging, that they resolved to abandon the clans to their evil destiny, and wait till the want of light, privation of the sacraments, and total absence of the ceremonies of the proscribed relig¬ ion, should drive them into the nets of Protestantism ; which, in reality, took place in the course of time. 4 Under James YI., the borderers were ( 1 ) There is still extant a treaty of peace be¬ tween two hostile clans, whereby the chiefs of both bind themselves to make the four pilgrimages of Scotland, for the repose of the souls of their an¬ tagonists who had fallen. These four pilgrimages were Scone, Dundee, Paisley, and Melrose.—(Bor¬ der Minstrelsy, Introd.) ( 2 ) These monumental penances were frequent along the borders ; some of the buildings still re¬ main ; for instance, the Tower of Repentance, in Dumfriesshire, and, according to vulgar tradition, the church of Linton, in Roxburghshire.—(Bor¬ der Minstrelsy, Introd.) (’) See Johnson’s Tour in the Hebrides. The Scotch Highlanders continue even in our days to bury their dead in the old Catholic cemeteries; one of the fairest isles of Loch Lomond, the isle of Nuns, is the burial-place of several clans; the ♦ tombs of the chiefs of Macgregor, and of some noble families, who claim descent from the ancient kings of Scotland, stand round the rums of the abbey church, which was demolished by Calvin’s ruthless followers. ( 4 ) This policy has not only been practised, but loudly approved by Anglicans themselves. Swift advises it as good to be followed, in his celebrated pamphlets on Ireland: “Their lands (Catholics) are almost entirely taken from them, and they are rendered incapable of purchasing any more; and for the little that remains, provision is made by the late act against popery, that it will daily crumble away; to prevent which, some of the most consid¬ erable among them are already turned Protestants, and so in all probability will many more. Then, the popish priests are all registered, and without permission (which I hope will not be granted) • 302 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE still so averse to the doctrine of Geneva, that the king depended upon their warlike clans in his many contests with his demo¬ cratic church. 1 A century later, they still used to pray at times beside the fountains which flowed before the ruined chapels of Mary and the saints, and they carried the water from these springs to a considerable distance, to restore sick people to health. 2 The recollections attached to the venera¬ tion of Mary still survive in the valleys and forests of the Border ; they are met with in the historic ballads, sung by the shepherds and mountaineers. At one time it is a knight, treacherously slain on a lone heath, whose deep wounds are washed at the fountain of Our Lady, and who is car¬ ried into her chapel to have the vigils of the dead kept over him: at another it is some great baron, who is buried at the foot of St. Mary’s cross, and on whose tomb the monks will come and pray, “ as long as Our Lady is invoked in Scotland.” The bard, in expressing himself thus, imagined that he was really saying for ever! There are knights • who leave their golden beads as pledges of their faith, etc. In every danger, they call upon God and Our Lady j never the one without the other. The scattered wrecks of Catholicity took refuge in the north of Scotland ; and there, protected by interminable heaths, and ranges of mist-covered mountains, they have maintained their ground, in a few sol¬ itary castles washed by the stormy waves of the Northern Ocean. There they long they can have no successors ; so that the Protest¬ ant clergy will find it perhaps no difficult matter to bring great numbers over to the church ; and in the mean time the common people, without leaders, without discipline, or natural courage, being little better than hewers of wood and drawers of water, are out of all capacity of doing any mischief, if they were ever so well inclined.”—(Letter concern¬ ing the Sacramental Test.) The Scottish border was submitted to this negative system, and if it did not come forth from it victorious like Ireland, it struggled, nevertheless, before it yielded; and Protestantism did not predominate there till after it had razed the churches, and extinguished, one after another, the lights of the ancient faith. ( 1 ) “ Never,” says a Scotch Protestant author, “ could the Calvinist clergy forget that they owed their elevation to the fall, or, at least, to the de¬ pression of royalty. In Scotland, the Reformed Church was, for nearly two centuries, either the declared enemy, or the ambitious rival, of its prince. The disciples of Calvin could hardly divest themselves of a tendency to democracy, and the republican forms of their ecclesiastical admin- istratiou were often held up as a model for the state to follow. The theocracy, haughtily pro¬ claimed, was rigorously exercised; the offences committed in the king’s household fell under the insolent jurisdiction of the ministers. The prince was formally reprimanded for having neglected to say grace before or after meals, and for tolerating the amusements of the queen. A solemn maledic¬ tion was pronounced against man, horse, or lance, that should assist the king in his quarrel with the Earl of Cowrie, a conspirator. The monarch’s courtiers, present at the sermon, were compared to Aman, the queen to Herodias, and the prince him¬ self to Achab, Herod, and Jeroboam. This exces¬ sive zeal was far from being agreeable to James VI.”—(Sir Walter Scott, History of Scotland and Border Minstrelsy.) Charles II. often whispered to his confidants that Calvinism was no religion for a gentleman. ( 2 ) A Calvinist physician of the seventeenth century bitterly censures the Border folk, who, even in his time, frequented holy springs, to carry water to the sick.—(Account of the presbytery of Pentpont.) ♦ CONVERSION OF SAUL. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 303 addressed their prayers for the restoration ing to the communion of Rome, tracked of the Stuarts to the Blessed Virgin, who the Papists across the mountains and was honored by the Stuarts. Cardinal woods, as if they had been so many wild York, the last of that unfortunate family, beasts. Happily that frightful time is rejoined his brother in the tomb, yet they passed away, and six millions of Catholics still prayed ; and some poor mountaineers, now freely invoke Our Lady in that green who cannot believe the extinction of that isle, which has so well deserved its glorious ancient race, have not yet ceased to pray. 1 surname of the island of Saints. Ireland, thoroughly Catholic, remained It was not in England alone that devo- faithful to the veneration of the Blessed tion to the Blessed Virgin, swept away by Virgin, amidst the longest and most oppres- the hurricane of Protestantism, left numer- sive persecution that ever existed. Under ous traces of its existence : the melancholy pain of having neither bread nor shelter, and picturesque ruins of monasteries dedi- the poor Irishman was not only compelled cated to Mary still cover the fairest spots to pay richly the clergy of a religion which of Germany ; many northern cities retain he did not profess, but also to follow its her name; gulfs bear it in Denmark and observances. But he was not the less at- Styria. Austria, Illyria, SwitzeiTn^ the tached in his heart and soul to the faith of Tyrol, a?rd the Grand Duchy of Baden, his fathers. Deprived of his churches, he still possess sanctuaries where the Catholic would attend the holy sacrifice in the secret inhabitants beyond the Rhine go devoutly underground vaults of old feudal manor- to invoke Our Lady. By these majestic houses, among the ruins of monasteries, in remains of a devotion once so general and the echoing caves where the Druids had so respected, we may judge of the extent celebrated of yore their bloody rites, by of its ancient influence, as we measure the the murmuring of a rolling sea, rites of extent of a shipwreck, by the number of which they have carried away with them half-broken masts and torn sails which the spirit and myth. They posted senti- float upon the water. nels on the heights to'protect the proscribed Devotion to Mary recovered in the Hew devotions, and the priest’s head, upon which World what it had lost in the Old. Span- a price was set; for Protestant bloodhounds, ish and French missionaries embarking with who had taken the name of Mass-hunters, an image of Our Lady, whom they invoked allured by the bait of five pounds sterling during their perilous navigation, and which, which the commissioners of Dublin paid when they reached the end of their dan- for the head of every ecclesiastic belong- gerous voyage, they deposited under some ( 1 ) A celebrated Scotch writer says that they that the race of their ancienf kings is extinct. “ It prayed every evening for the restoration of the is not the Stuarts who are dead,” said a Highlander - Stuarts, in the Catholic mansions of Scotland, long to a French traveller, “ it is loyalty that has ceased after the death of Cardinal York. Many of the to be.” Scotch Highlanders cannot even now be persuaded 304 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE ajoupa of palm-branches,—undertook, un¬ der the protection of Mary, which rendered them powerful, they said, “ as an army set in battle array,” to civilize and convert both Americas. Warriors, who undertake to subdue for¬ eign countries, carry in their train every requisite to accomplish a work of destruc¬ tion and blood,—arms, soldiers, parks of artillery ; devastation leads the way, tears follow. The Catholic missionaries went forth to the conquest of the West Indies with an image of Mary, a cross, and a ro¬ sary. By their almost superhuman labors, tribes of people, snatched from the caves of the mountains and the shades of great forests, came together to form small colo¬ nies, where Christianity was seen again to flourish, fresh and pure, as in the days of the primitive church. Those religious, who have enriched bot¬ any, history, and geography with a multi¬ tude of precious discoveries, became artists, and even artisans, in order to teach their Christian colonies, and directed their new believers in the way of the arts, as well as in the way of salvation. Ignorant savages, who but a short time before sat down to a feast of human flesh, were seen taking up the compass of the architect, the chisel of the sculptor, and the palette of the painter, and erecting, with their own hands, tem¬ ples to God and chapels to Mary. The recitation of the rosary was the exercise of piety best suited to a people addicted to the chase ; accordingly, in the evening, when the shadows of the tulip-tree and the magnolia fell lengthening through the open spaces of the forest, or over the savanna, you heard the ‘ ‘ Hail Mary ! ” repeated in the language of the forests, on all the American hills. Mary was the Mother of the savage, as well as of the European; and she was not more religiously invoked in the gold-lined temples, which the first Spanish conquerors built, in her honor, in Mexico and Potosi, than in those rural churches, which the pious missionaries dedicated to her under the title of Our Lady of Loretto and of Our Lady of Dolors, on the banks of the river of the Amazons and the lake of the Hurons. , America was not a limit of the conquests of the servants of God and Mary: they explored the burning regions of Africa, and converted the black princes of Guinea and Monomotapa ; at the same time they penetrated into Ceylon, into the peninsula of Hindostan, to Japan and China, and everywhere the image of Our Lady was treated with reverence and favor. Mongo¬ lian ladies, bowing down before the Mother of Jesus, styled her the holy and glorious Mary ; the Prince of Cashmere sent her wax-tapers and presents ; the grand Lama erected a church to her, under the title of the Annunciation. The Chinese ladies of¬ fered her perfumes and flowers; and the Japanese, who, alas! paid very dear for their energetic devotion to the true faith, recited their long crystal rosaries as they passed through the streets of idolatrous cities, full of bonzes and pagans. 1 These triumphs, obtained in far distant lands, were not the only ones which came ( 1 ) Lettres Edifiantes; Annales de la Propaga tion de la Foi. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. ' 305 to console Mary for tlie outrages of Prot¬ estantism. Scarcely had Calvin descended into the tomb, when the battle of Lepanto was gained by the Spaniards, beneath the banner of the Blessed Virgin. 1 John Sobieski attributed also his celebrated vic¬ tory over the Turks at the siege of Vienna, to the Mother of GJ-od ; and his first care, when he entered the delivered city, was to go and prostrate himself, his forehead on the ground, before the altar of Our Lady, where he himself sung a Te Deum of thanksgiving. The magnificent standard of the Mahometans was sent to Our Lady of Loretto ; 8 and the Polish hero kept for himself a trophy which interested him, as he said, more than all the rest: an old pic¬ ture of great antiquity, discovered in the ruins of the village of Wishau. It repre¬ sented Our Lady ; her crown was sup¬ ported by two angels, bearing in their hands scrolls with these Latin inscriptions: In hac imagine Mar ice ) vinces, Johannes. In hac imagine Marice , victor ero , Johannes. (B} r this picture of Mary, thou, John, shalt conquer. By this picture of Mary, I, John, shall conquer.) This picture was considered miraculous ; John Sobieski destined it for his royal chapel of Zolkiew, and it afterward fol¬ lowed him in all his campaigns. In the year 1647, the Emperor Ferdi- nand III. solemnly dedicated himself, his family, and the empire to the Queen of Heaven. A tall column was erected in the great square of Vienna, in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Vir¬ gin Mary ; and her statue with the moon beneath her feet, crushing the serpent’s head with her heel, was placed on the top of the column. Calvinism was still disturbing France, and its icy breath, penetrating the masses of the people, slowly but fatally cooled their religious feelings ; for irreverent dis¬ course and impious scoffing always produce the worst effect upon the people, who do not reason upon their belief, but lose or re¬ cover it according to the arguments which win their attention. The ruined churches and altars had lost the holy prestige, im¬ parted by pomp and long traditions of hom¬ age. The Madonnas, despoiled and thrown down from their pedestals, arose so poor, that'the heart sank at the sight of them, and the feet turned away from their sanc¬ tuaries. The clergy, calumniated, ruined, degraded, were recruited only among the lower orders, who after all undervalued them ; for the populace, who make great account of high birth, never respect their equals. Finally the abbeys, placed in commendam, belonged to military men, who undertook to place in them superiors, whose ( 1 ) The pope had sent this blessed standard to Don John, who had it displayed on his flag-ship. ( * ) The length of this flag was twelve feet, by eight. The border was green and the ground red. It was of cloth; the ornaments were embroidered in silver, the Arabic inscriptions in letters of gold. In the centre of this Moslem flag, which the Polish 39 heroes laid at the feet of the Virgin, were these words, whosQ falsity was proved by the Christian images which attested the humiliation of the cres¬ cent before the cross : “ There is no god but God, and Mahomet is his prophet.”—(See Histoire de Pologne, par Leonard Chodzko.) 306 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE office was limited to that of.superintendents of the privations of a community, which could no longer apply its savings to the use of the poor, but to that of the captain, or courtier, who was its commendatory abbot. This enormous abuse, which would have ended in the destruction of every monas¬ tery in France, without the aid of revolu¬ tions, still continued under Henry IV., 1 notwithstanding the just complaints of the clergy, and was not suppressed till the reign of Louis XIII. From Louis XI. to this prince we must glean, straw by straw, the facts which attest the veneration of our kings for the Blessed Virgin. Louis XII., however, made a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Loretto, and Henry III. sent the Duke of Joyeuse thither in 1585, with a magnifi¬ cent equipage, to offer presents, and make a vow to the holy Madonna. The same prince, having founded the order of the Holy G-host, placed among its statues that each knight should be obliged to recite every day one decade of the rosary. About the end of the sixteenth centur}q the vigils of the feasts of the Blessed Vir¬ gin were still observed as feasts, and no one was exempt from this religious prac¬ tice. The licentious captains of Charles IX. and Henry III. warmly defended themselves from the charge of having broken their abstinence on the eve of the Assumption of Our Lady; some having done so through inadvertency, as they passed through Italy, one of the boldest and least scrupulous of the historians of the time thinks proper to withhold their (‘) See the Memoirs of James Sobieski. names, “ out of regard for their reputation,” and protests that these gentlemen were wholly unaware of the feast of the follow¬ ing day. Devotion to Mary, which had been somewhat neglected, revived majestically under Louis XIII. That prince, to thank the Blessed Virgin for the triumphs which he had gained over the Protestants, and to obtain, through her intercession, a glorious peace with the powers of Europe who made war against him, declares, in an edict dated from Saint G-ermain-en-Laye (10th of February, 1633), that “taking the most holy and glorious Virgin for the special protectress of his kingdom, he dedicates particularly to her his person, his states, his crown, and his subjects, beseeching her to defend France against the efforts of all her enemies, whether in peace or war,” and in memory of this dedication, Louis promised to rebuild the high altar of the cathedral of Paris, and to place over it a picture of the Blessed Virgin, holding in her arms “ her dear Son taken down from the cross,” causing himself to be represent¬ ed at the feet of the Son and of the Mother, in the attitude of offering to them his scep¬ tre and crown. He ordained, moreover, that every year, on the Assumption, his edict should be commemorated, during high mass, in every church in France, and that after vespers there should be a solemn procession, in which all the chief companies and all the magistrates of the different cities of France were to join. Louis XIV. inherited the devotion of his father fo the Blessed Virgin. By BLESSED VIRGIN MART. liis order Coiistou painted, in 1723, the group which is called “ The Yow of Louis XIII.,” as well as the two marble figures, one on each side, and representing Louis XIII. and Louis XIY. offering their crown to the Blessed Yirgin. This prince presented to the church of Boulogne a sum of 12,000 livres, to stand in place of the ex voto of gold, which the kings of France, from Louis XI., offered by way of homage to the Blessed Yirgin. He propagated, with all his power, devotion to the Immaculate Con¬ ception, and obtained, in 1657, of Pope Alexander YII., a bull, which Clement XI. confirmed in 1688, establishing that feast in his kingdom. It was, moreover, at his request that, in 1670, the pope attached in¬ dulgences to the recital of the Angelus. He chose the day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Yirgin to re¬ ceive Confirmation. This fact is attested by the following inscription in the chapel of the Louvre : ■ M “HAC SACRA DIR IMMACULATE CONCEPTIONS LUDOVICUS XIV., REX, SUSCEPIT HIC SANCTISS. CONFIRMATIONS SACRA- MENTUM.” Underneath was this inscription : “ IMMACULATA DOMINA, SALVUM FAC REGEM.” Louis XIY. inherited from his mother, Anne of Austria, a great veneration for Our Lady of Liesse ; he came there in 1652 and 1673, and twice with the queen in 1680. Maria Teresa, the pious Spaniard, that queen who never caused her husband “ any sorrow but for her death,” came thither also in 1677 and 1678. After the 307 death of Anne of Austria, her son prom¬ ised by vow, for the repose of her soul, fifty thousand masses in the principal places of devotion dedicated to the Blessed Yirgin. After the treaty of the Pyrenees, he sent his thanksgiving, accompanied by rich offerings, to Our Lady of Chartres, Our Lady of Loretto, and Our Lady of Grace. Louis the Great, like his father, Louis XIII., belonged to the Confraternity of the Scapular, and said his beads regularly. Father de la Rue being one day admitted to a private audience of this prince, found him piously occupied in saying his rosary of large beads. The father, showing great surprise, accompanied with respectful sen¬ timents of edification: “Be not so much surprised,” said the king, “ I glory in say¬ ing my beads ; it is a practice which I learnt from the queen, my mother, and I should be sorry to miss it a single day.” The Spanish ambassador presented him¬ self at the brilliant court of the great monarch, with his rosary in his hand, and no remarks were made. At that time it was the custom, derived from ancient times, to put a rosary and a Book of Hours or Prayer-Book among the wedding presents. This custom continued till the time of Louis XY. Louis XIII. had taken La Rochelle, the last bulwark of Calvinism in France. Louis XIY. put an end to this turbulent heresy by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. This measure, which secured the tranquillity of the kingdom, has been cen¬ sured in very severe terms. People forget that the Calvinists were at that time incor- 308 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE rigible rebels, who had not even been ashamed to call in the English. Louis XIY., the greatest monarch of his age, expired muttering with his dying lips the Ave Maria, which he had repeated several times over with a firm voice, while the prayers for the dying were repeated by his bedside. CHAPTER XHI. MODERN TIMES. F ROM the bosom of the Mediterranean, whose blue waves are embalmed at thirty miles from the land, with the sweet perfume of the orange-tree, a rocky island rises, with snow-clad mountains, covered with pine-forests, hills shaded by gigantic chestnut-trees, which would remind one of Switzerland, if myrtle-groves, planta¬ tions of oranges and lemons, forests of gigantic olive-trees, and the remains of Roman towers did not proclaim an Italian soil. This island is the native land of Paoli, the great patriot, and of Napoleon, the great emperor,—Corsica, an Italian island, which forms at present one of the departments of France. This island, at once fertile and uncul¬ tivated, is inhabited by a poor, primitive, warlike, and hospitable race, like the High¬ landers of Scotland, or the mountaineers of Caucasus; attached to Catholicity, and at all times free from heresy, they are ex¬ cessively sensitive to what touches their honor, and forgetting the divine precept, which commands the forgiveness of in¬ juries, they take justice into their own hands, and have for centuries avenged an affront by murder. At the first aspect of this country, which, civilized as it is, retains a certain atmos¬ phere of savage life, it is seen to be in¬ habited by a people essentially devout to the Blessed Virgin. Her image is set up at the entrance of the villages, at the cross- ways, beside fountains, on the tall head¬ lands, amid the orange-groves which line the coast. . The environs of Bastia are studded with charming little chapels, in the Italian style, dedicated to the Annunciation, the Visitation, or Our Lady of Good Coun¬ sel ; on these festival-days, which occur in the spring or summer, the city is deserted by pilgrims who go and visit these Madon¬ nas, by paths perfumed and bordered with flowers. After venerating the Blessed Virgin, each family stretches beneath the cool shade of large trees, and indulges in becoming joy while they partake of a rural' collation. Corsica had formerly several cathedrals ; the greater part of them were built under the title of the Assumption ; at present the BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 309 most solemn feast of Mary is that of the Immaculate Conception. It is preceded by a novena, and announced by the sound of bells and the noise of cannon ; the ships are decorated with flags ; the pavement of the streets is strewed with myrtle; a solemn procession, in which the Brothers of the Conception, in the habit of penitents, with lighted torches in their hands, precede the image of the Blessed Virgin, adorned with a silver crown, necklaces of precious stones, and gold bracelets, moves round the city to the sound of military music, while the altars of Mary, loaded with a profusion of flowers, cast upon the hallowed pavement the light of their thousand tapers. It is a feast perfectly Italian in its religious attractiveness and expansive joy. In country places, the parish priest, the vicar, or merely some old man, says the beads every evening, at the hour when the village bell rings the “ knell of parting day.” 1 Sometimes there is just visible in a misty distance, on the summit of a steep rock, a dark figure leaning on his carbine : it is some outlaw, who risks his life to join in the general prayer ; for the Madonna is the last hope of these fiery, but believing men, who wear her image on their breasts, and who ask, in her name only, of the shep¬ herds, a little milk and black bread to support their wretched existence. Only lately, a young Corsican, a companion of the famous bandit Santa Lucia, defending his life, alone and wounded, against a regiment of the line and a number of gen¬ darmes, invoked the Blessed Virgin in this desperate struggle, while his relatives and friends, on their knees recited for him, at the foot of the rock, which was his last stand, the prayers for a departing soul. “Everything induces us to believe,” says Le Droit, which relates this moving scene, “ that the last thought of that unhappy man was raised up to God, for a small medal of the Blessed Virgin was found upon him, which he held in his hand, while his rela¬ tions and friends were praying for him.” On the 30th of Jqjiuary, 1735, the na¬ tion, assembled in a general congress at Corte, to establish a national government, after having shaken off the yoke of the republic of Genoa, elected the most Blessed Virgin Queen of Corsica, and carried her banner in the last combats of her young yet expiring liberty; the two Paolis, Pas¬ cal and Clement, both great captains, both very devout to Mary, 2 made this banner respected. Clement, of whom history has said little, but who is remembered in the local tradition, made his soldjers say the beads upon their knees before a battle. Some Englishmen, surprised at this custom, called his attention, on several occasions, to the fact that the enemy was marching upon them, and that his soldiers on their knees .could not defend themselves. “Let them pray on, my lords,” replied Paoli, with his martial .voice ana foreign accent. O “* * * * * Squilla di lontano Che paila ’1 giorno pianger, che si muore.” (Dante, Purgatorio, lib. viii.) (*) Pascal Paoli heard mass every clay in Cor- sica, and subsequently in England, in a chapel which he himself built in honor of the Blessed Virgin. 310 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE When their* prayer was finished, the Cor¬ sicans rose like lions, and not one recoiled, for soldiers who pray, know not how to fly ; the Yendeans taught that lesson to the French Republic. Pascal Paoli erected two chapels to the Blessed Yirgin, one at Pastoreccia, near Ponte-Nuovo, the scene of the bloody bat¬ tle where Corsican nationality perished, and where a number of his kindred, who were ours as well, lost their lives ; the other at Morosaglia, where stood his coun¬ try-seat as a Corsican nobleman. During his exile he also built a third in England. In the time of King Theodore, the na¬ tional council engraved round the gold and copper coin, “ Monstra te esse Matrem.” Napoleon delighted in saying that the Blessed Yirgin was the Queen of his coun¬ try, and while he was only a simple officer, he testified great devotion for a French Madonna which was in the Ursuline con¬ vent at Auxonne, and he often prayed there. That statue of the Blessed Yirgin has since been removed to the parish church, where it is still to be seen. After the saturnalia of the Regency, and the corrupt reign of Louis XY., came the close of the eighteenth century, when reli¬ gion had been chilled by the impure and sneering breath of false philosophy. The revolution of 1793 came to expel the Blessed Yirgin from her altars, and God from his temples. The order was given to shut up the churches, and to demolish everything that resembled a Christian im¬ age. Alas! it was a sad spectacle to see the Calvaries pulled down, and the poor little Madonnas mutilated, which were so chastely sheltered under the green leaves of the woods. It was particularly in Lower Brittany that the devastation found objects to work upon. “ It may be affirmed without exaggeration,” says Emile Sou- vestre, in his interesting work on the Bretons, “that in certain localities, our cross-roads are paved with broken statues of saints ; it is a perfect macadamized road of heads, bodies, and limbs of Christian statues.” Those miserable days witnessed great profanations, but also noble traits of self-devotedness worthy of ancient times. Brittany, above all, offered a passive, com¬ pact, and tenacious resistance, which suc¬ ceeded at last in wearing out persecution itself. It yielded neither to anger nor fear. As he passed by the niches deprived of their Madonnas, the Breton peasant took off his broad felt hat sorrowfully and piously, and went on his way saying a Hail Mary. On Sunday, he seated himself before his door with his family, and re¬ mained in profound silence with his eyes fixed upon his village church, 1 where he had so often invoked Jesus and Mary. “ I will pull down your steeples,” said John Bon Saint Andre to the mavor of the vil- «/ lage, “ that you may have no object to remind you of your former superstitions.”—“ Yet you will have to leave us the stars,” an¬ swered the peasant, “ and they are seen farther off than our steeple.” Their devo¬ tion deprived of altars assumed an exalted and melancholy character, which was sym¬ pathetically allied with the religious ruins that covered their fields. The Blessed Yir- ( ' ) Voyage dans fe Finis terre. 25 BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. gin, who had disappeared from their village churches, had taken refuge under their thatched roofs, and below her little statues of clay, a hundred times more respected than the household gods of the ancients, was read, “ Holy Mother of God, be thou the protectress of this dwelling.” And I know not if a “ blue” would have ventured to break this image, placed under the shadow of the domestic hearth; for there was often an old carbine behind the green serge curtains of the Breton farmer ; and if Brittany is the land of religious sentiments, it is also that of strong and lasting resent¬ ment. There has remained a little of the Celtic rust on the gold of the virtues of ’ these good people ; this people, for instance, is the only one of Christendom who ever took it into their heads to associate the name of the merciful Virgin with an idea of vengeance ; and to build chapels under the strange title, more Druidical than Christian, of Our Lady of Hatred. 1 Pilgrimages to the Bessed Virgin were not discontinued in Brittany during the reign of terror, only they were enveloped in a G-allic form. They took place by night, over desert heaths, where the menhirs and • dolmens of the God without a name stood up, draped in their gray moss, like phan¬ toms. Each pilgrim held in his right hand a rosary, and in his left a torch ; and all these faces, pale and half veiled by their long hair, or by the bands from their white head-dresses, passed slowly along the ( 1 ) “A chapel erected to Our Lady of Hatred is still in existence near Treguier, and the people have not ceased to believe in the efficacy of the 311 heaths, singing a hymn to the Blessed Vir¬ gin. Sometimes a republican column, lying in ambush in the outskirts of a copse, or behind a hedge of thorns and hazel-bushes, which sloped down upon a hollow pathway, would fire upon the rustic procession. The Breton peasant nevertheless began his perilous devotions again a few days after¬ ward. In a neighboring province, the villagers who went to pray to God and Our Lady at the bottom of some seques¬ tered ravine, in a starlight night, passed along the hamlets occupied by the “blue” soldiers, singing hymns to the Blessed Vir¬ gin, set to republican tunes. Meanwhile, the churches in the cities were pillaged. They took away gold, silver, iron, screens, marbles, and carved work ; they pulled down every work of art which decorated the walls, they tore up the pictures, and well-paid workmen were ordered to remove all sculptures from the walls and vaults ; they took down even the bells, to turn them into money, and this patriotic coinage cost the state, according to its own avowal, twenty millions. 2 “Fools!” says Laharpe, addressing his bold and biting words to the perpetrators of these sacrilegious devastations, “fools! is it on walls that faith is graven ? is it on pictures that religion is written ? It is written on men’s hearts, that you cannot reach ; in consciences, where it condemns you; in the spectacle of the universe, where it speaks to all men ; in heaven, * (*) prayers said in it.”—(Les derniers Bretons, par M. Souvestre, t. ii.) (*) Laharpe, du Fanatisme dans la langue revo lutionnaire, p. 49. 312 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE where it will judge you. Feeble destroy¬ ers ! you have cried out: Victory! but where is your victory now? Every day you foam with rage, as you behold the con¬ course of people who fill our temples : they are no longer rich, but they are ever sacred; they are bare, but they are full. Pomp has disappeared, but worship has remained ; men no longer tread there upon marble and precious carpeting, but they prostrate upon rubbish, and weep over ruins.” 1 The beautiful hymn of Mary,— “ Vierge, en votre secours, je mets ma confiance,” was the hymn of the scaffold. In 1793, two tumbrels full of poor royalist women, for whom the horrible guillotine was erected, passed by a civic banquet, served up in the street by the leading terrorists. Madame de Montmorency Laval, venerable for her virtue, honored for her noble name, illustrious for ages in France, was in one of these carts, with her hands tied behind her back, with sixteen of her nuns, for she was abbess of the Carmelites of Mont¬ martre, a religious order founded in the East, under the patronage of Mary, as we have said elsewhere. These holy daughters of the Blessed Virgin, whom the tempest of the revolution had cast upon the stormy sea of the world to perish, were singing— as if they had been still hidden beneath their veils in the choir of their beautiful church—the prayer of the Vendeans, the hymn of their holy patroness. Could they not let these noble women, who were going ( 1 ) Laharpe, du Fanatisme dans la langue revo- lutionnaire, p. 41. to die, sing in peace? The hideous rage of those wretches who disgraced the Tte- public is excited on hearing this pious canticle ; a hundred redcapped terrorists rush up to the carts, with bludgeons in their hands, crying out, “ Silence the be- guines. Let them sing the Marseillaise ! . . . Obey the people! . . . Come on! the Marseillaise directly! ” As if they had not heard these frightful vociferations, the daughters of Mary continued their sweet hymn. Provoked at this passive resistance, which they did not expect, these ferocious bandits stop the horses with curses, and are going cowardly to strike poor helpless women, who are so soon to be the prey of death ; but there is so much honor and chivalry in the French, even when they gc astray, that some other republicans run up, calling out, “No murder! what, kill wo¬ men ! 0 what a shame ! ” Then there was a terrible fight around the tumbrels. A young patriot, in a Phrygian cap, snatched a sword from one of the mounted police, and standing quite close to the cart, where the terrified Carmelites pressed close round their venerable abbess, he succeeds with equal courage and coolness in warding off the blows which are intended for them ;' but one of those blows took effect in spite of his efforts ; a young nun is struck with a sabre, and wounded in the breast. Her life was gushing forth with her blood, which streamed over her black dress, and the pallor of death already spread over her meek and patient countenance. “Saint, who art going up to heaven,” cries out a woman from among the people, kneeling before the. expiring nun, “bless mel” BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 313 “Be thou blessed,” replies the Carmelite daughter, in a faint voice; “and you who have defended us on the way to death,” she continued, as she presents her rosary to the deeply-affected republican, “ accept this token of gratitude . . The carts moved on, and the hymns began once more ; when they had ceased, all the hearts of these poor women had ceased to beat, and Mary had received into her bosom her faithful servants. The revolution carried away in its whirl¬ wind the religious orders consecrated to Mary, as the storm sweeps down the grain ; the Carmelites left behind them something like the perfume of the dried rose, a salu¬ tary and balsamic water which bears its name. Out of seventeen hundred thousand sacred edifices which covered the soil of France, each having an altar of the Blessed Virgin, there remained hardly two thou¬ sand churches worthy the attention of the antiquary and the artist; the rest sold, bought, pillaged, pulled down, thrown into the kiln to make quicklime, scarcely left a few remains, the sources of long and fruit¬ less regrets! “See, then,” exclaims Jules Janin, with generous indignation, “see, then, what to imperfect ruins have come all the money, all the patience, all the genius! The cities have been dishonored. Deprived of these masterpieces, what does a com¬ munity of men resemble ? It is no longer a city, it is an ant-hill. They have dis¬ honored the landscape which derived so much beauty from these spires, these stee¬ ples, and these high walls ; what they could not demolish, they defiled at pleasure. Of the noblest Gothic towers they made store¬ houses ; the most perfect ogival churches were turned into stables. . . That fabulous epoch was so perverse and inexhaustible in its spirit of universal destruction, that it is difficult to believe in it at all! ” 1 Devotion to Mary, which had slumbered for a short time in France, soon revived, and imperceptibly recovered its consoling power over souls. Napoleon, faithful to the impressions of his youth, chose the day of the Assumption for his own patron feast, and made it the great holiday of the empire; soon there reappeared proces¬ sions, crosses, white banners, and sacred hymns in those fine G-othic cathedrals of Mary, whose bare walls and poverty- stricken altars brought to mind the primitive church, while their brilliant stained-glass windows, their light columns, their towers proudly carried up to the clouds, spoke of the believing and chivalrous epoch of the times of faith. All that had suffered, all that had mourned, all that had trembled under the fearful reign of terror, came to kneel at the feet of Mary ; the reaction of religion was energetic and immense, and made itself felt in the towns and villages. The Blessed Vir¬ gin had again rustic altars in the depths of the forests; her sanctuaries, where nothing had been heard for a long time but the song of the bird, or the humming of the bee flying about the pale wild rose, re¬ sounded once more with the canticles of pilgrims. The Restoration, by re-establish¬ ing the processions of the Vow of Louis XIII., placed France once more under her (*) (*) M. Jules Janin, La Normandie. 40 314 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE sway ; a giant step was made in the devo¬ tion to the Immaculate Con6eption, and the whole of France consecrated to the Blessed Virgin the month of flowers, of which she has made, piously and poetically, the Month of Mary. The highest classes set the example of devotion to Mary ; the de¬ scendants of the knights “ without fear,” and of the great barons, who in ancient times built in her honor so many chapels and monasteries, still honor her as in the good old times, the pious and noble Queen Mary Amelia sets the example. In France, devotion to Mary is tender, but respectful; a Frenchman always be¬ holds the Blessed Virgin in heaven, and honors her accordingly. In Italy, the veneration of the Madonna has something more ardent, and at the same time more familiar. From his cradle, the Italian has before his eyes graceful pictures, which bring to his mind acts of goodness and mercy only on the part of Mary : she is the protectress of childhood, the dream of youth, the last hope of the sinner ; every¬ where the thought of her is uppermost in religious festivals, like the water-lily on the deep wave ; the ardent Italian sees her everywhere, blesses her everywhere, and when his prayer is not heard, far from blaming Mary, he says, striking his breast, “ It is my own fault! the Madonna has not neard me, because I am too great a sinner.” Surely that is an admirable faith! above all, a Christian faith, for in the like circum¬ stances the pagans used to drag their gods through the mire. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, which produced in the middle ages the Duomo of Pisa, that fine cathedral of Mary, the bronze gates of which, executed after the designs of John of Bologna, represent the principal scenes of the life of Our Lords and the life of the Blessed Virgin; Our Lady of Flowers, the sumptuous metro¬ politan church of Florence, which looks like a mountain of marble of divers colors sculptured in the form of a Latin cross ; and so many other masterpieces in the highest style, is as fervent now as at that period, the most illustrious of modern Italy. On landing at Genoa—that city which so justly bears the name of superb, and which seems to have been built, as Madame de Stael said, for a congress of kings—the first thing that strikes the eye is the devo¬ tion of the Genoese to the Blessed Virgin. At every corner of those streets, which are formed of palaces, and are thronged by crowds of the common people in their pic¬ turesque costume, and women in their long white veils, rises a Madonna, either painted or carved, who protects the whole quarter ; by day she is embalmed with the penetrat¬ ing odor of myrtle or jessamine ; by night a lamp is lighted before her, and numerous groups kneel at her feet to recite her Litany. It is still as in the days when Andrew Doria said the office of the Blessed Virgin on board his galleys, and you can still read on the gates of the majestic city, “ Citta di Maria.” There are reckoned in this city fifty oratories dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. Venice, the dethroned queen of the Adriatic, would not send a vessel to sea without adorning it with the holy image of Mary. During the cholera, the city took BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. refuge in the merciful bosom of Our Lady of Salvation, whom she implores even in preference to St. Mark, her patron, in great calamities ; and made an offering to her of a superb silver lamp weighing a hundred and sixteen pounds, richly ornamented with chasings of gold. The fine church of Mary, where the ex voto was hung up, owes its origin to a benefit of the same nature. It was erected in 1531, on the site of a house where the plague had broken out, from which Venice was delivered by the all- powerful intercession of the Madonna. In the centre of the cupola appears this in¬ scription, of noble and antique simplicity : “Unde origo, inde salus.” Nothing can be compared to the tender veneration which the Tuscans entertain for the Madonna. On the roads, on the bridges, in the streets, in the houses, her sweet image is found again and again smiling on the passer-by, who doffs his hat before it, and seeming to take part in all the happiness of the domestic hearth. The contadine of the environs of Florence come down from the orchard-crowned heights, watered by clear streams which half encircle it, at every feast of the Blessed Virgin, leading an elegantly-ca¬ parisoned mule, which they have laden with baskets of the finest grapes, little sheaves of wheat, branches of orange- and pomegranate-trees loaded with fruits or flowers. Dressed in their holiday attire, they march in procession through the city, to lay their fruits and flowers at the foot of the altar of the Blessed Virgin. When the Grand Duke of Florence re-entered his territories, after the fall of 39 315 Napoleon, his first care was to repair to the Church of Santa Maria della Nunziata, where crowds of people daily honor most devoutly a picture of the Blessed Virgin, said to have been finished by an angel. In gratitude for his unhoped-for return to his dominions, the excellent prince suspended a lamp of the most beautiful workmanship in Mary’s chapel. Rome is no less devout to the Madonna than Florence. At whatever hour of morn¬ ing or night you walk about the vast city of Saint Peter, you always find groups of Romans kneeling before the Madonna, and praying to her with a truly remarkable de¬ votion and fervor. In the streets, in the public squares, in the houses, you see her image, before which one or more lamps are burning, filled with the purest oil; the poor man as well as the rich assumes this ex¬ pense,—he would go without bread to provide it. A street in Rome brilliantly lighted by thousands of luminous specks, like the fire-flies of Italy, and resounding with the rustic music of the pifferari of Calabria or Abruzzi, is a spectacle at once edifying and picturesque. From time im¬ memorial these mountain musicians gather crowds around the Madonnas, but especially in Advent; for they seem anxious to herald by their rural airs the feast of the shep¬ herds, the most holy night of Christmas. But it is particularly on the day of the Assumption that the ardent devotion of the Romans to Mary is displayed ; on that day all the churches are deserted for St. Mary Major, the royal church, with walls lined with Paros marble ; the villa of the noble¬ man is abandoned with its salubrious air 316 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE and delicious shades ; the aria cativa pre¬ vails at Rome, and with it fever; but what matter ? the plague might be there, and people would still go. Is not the Madonna more powerful to protect, than fever and pestilence to destroy ? 0 pious confidence ! faith truly marvellous in these our days! The whole population of Rome is assembled in the squares, near the superb church of Mary; they display all their magnificence for this festival. The men have put on their picturesque costume of blue velvet; the women have adorned themselves with their coral necklaces, and bound up their long jet-black hair, in a white and graceful drapery, fastened with a gold or silver pin. All carry enormous bouquets to offer to the Madonna. This immense crowd of the faithful, this people, of whom Mary is the absolute Queen, kneel down in the hot dust, scorched by the fierce rays of an Italian sun, or stand against those houses which cast a shadow over these open squares. The Italians, by na¬ ture noisy and gesticulating, those men who seem to be always assuming an atti¬ tude for a painter, have forgotten their habits: one single care occupies their minds, which is prayer! And how well do they understand how to pray! They pray with their looks, with their gestures, with their lips, with their heart, and pour out, really without any exaggeration of language, their whole soul at the feet of Mary. When the pope has finished the divine sacrifice, and blessed all the kneeling peo¬ ple, the wide gates of the vast church roll slowly on their brazen hinges, to make way for the crowd, which fills it with sweet chants and fragrant flowers. When even¬ ing is come, the whole city is illuminated, and all Rome is praying in the street. Each one falls into a group, without dis¬ tinction or privilege, with a fraternization worthy of the age of gold, around his own Madonna, the Madonna of the quarter, for which the Roman prince has left his marble palace, the artisan his shop, and the young maiden her father’s roof; all pray with affecting fervor. The women recite the rosary, the men sing the litany ; now and then, one of those fine Italian voices, which seem heaven-descended, intones a hymn to Mary, and all listen in silence ; but that silence itself is a mental prayer to the Blessed Yirgin. “I shall remember as long as I live,” says a modern traveller, “the beautiful feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Yirgin, and the evening of the 8th of September, where were from ten to twenty thousand souls moving about the Piazza Navona. The image of the Madonna, magnificently illuminated, presided over the rejoicings of the people, and no one could doubt of it, when they saw everywhere decorum, re¬ straint, and a kind of half-recollection of spirit; the abode of a numerous family, subject to the authority of a father, alone can give the idea of a like serenity in the midst of the movement of public rejoic¬ ings ; it was also remarkable at the moment when the crowd retired in peace after the fireworks. I there beheld a proof of the wisdom and mildness of the pontifical government.” At Naples, in sight of the finest sea and BLESSED VIRGIN MART. fairest sky of the world, devotion to the Blessed Yirgin still blooms with the fresh¬ ness and splendor of a new-blown lily. The feasts of the Madonna are popular feasts, full of enthusiastic joy; her churches, to the number of fourteen in the city of Naples alone, combine all the grandeur and beauty that painting, architecture, and sculpture can display ; the chapels of Mary, all beautiful and splendid, are adorned with lapis lazuli, topaz, jasper, and other pre¬ cious stones. In the church of Santa Maria Nuova, the miraculous image of the Ma¬ donna delle G-razie is placed under a silver canopy, and covered with precious stones. On the hill of Pausilippo, the church of Santa Maria Fortunata occupies the site of an ancient temple of Fortune, where pagan¬ ism used to hang up its ex-votos. Monte Rulignano is crowned with one of the finest Neapolitan churches of Mary. Five sub¬ urbs of Naples bear the name of the Blessed Yirgin. The Neapolitans have consecrated Yesuvius to her, that beautiful mountain, the base of which resembles the gardens of Armida, and the summit, one of hell’s gates thrown open over some desolate corner of chaos. When the crater vomits forth its long streams of burning lava, and the whole bay is lighted up amid the dark¬ ness of night, as if the final conflagration, predicted by the sybils, was about to destroy our little globe, the Neapolitan, threatened with destruction, takes courage when he prays to Mary, and the inhabitants of the hamlets near the volcano meet the lava with images of the Madonna, with which they confront its torrent. Sicily is like Sardinia, an essentially 317 Catholic land ; devotion to Mary is partic¬ ularly cherished at Palermo and Messina ; the beautiful cathedral, which the kings of the Norman race dedicated to the Blessed Yirgin, still remains in this latter city ; only the campanile and the spire, which surmounted the great tower over the portal, were thrown down in the famous earth¬ quake of 1753, and the Sicilians have not thought of rebuilding them. In Piedmont and Savoy, Our Lady has ever been religiously honored. In 1669, King Charles Emmanuel declared the Mo¬ ther of God the principal protectress of his house and states ; this declaration has often been renewed by the pious successors of that prince. Down to the end of the eighteenth century, devotion to Mary was universal and splendid in Spain. In the cathedral of Toledo, placed under the invocation of the Blessed Yirgin, the chapel of Our Lady del Sagrario (of the sanctuary) was an object of admiration. The pillars and pave¬ ment were of marble ; the form was octag¬ onal ; in the recesses were seen vases of gold, enriched with diamonds and other precious stones of great value. The statue of the Blessed Yirgin was of solid silver, and she held in her arms an infant Jesus of solid gold, twelve inches high, set with diamonds, and she was seated on a silver throne. The cathedral of Seville contained the celebrated chapel of Our Lady of Kings, built by St. Ferdinand, the richness of which was so great that it passed for the finest chapel in the world. The chapel of the Presentation, at Burgos, was almost as celebrated. At Madrid, the church of Our 318 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE Lady of Almemada is one of the most magnificent of the city ; to this Madonna was attributed the discovery of a supply of wheat, providentially found at the bot¬ tom of a tower, at a moment when the city, closely besieged by the Moors, was about to surrender, compelled to it by famine. The miraculous fact is still represented in fresco, on the walls of the chapel of Our Lady ; but we doubt if the altar and rails of massive silver are there still. At a quarter of a league from Madrid, in the enclosure of a vast convent of Domin¬ icans, which, no doubt, is now deserted, like many others, the miraculous image of Our Lady of Atocha (of the bush), was formerly venerated, a dark Madonna, usu¬ ally dressed as a widow; which has never been done, as far as we know, anywhere but there, but which on solemn days is attired in royal robes, adorned with pre¬ cious stones. Her chapel, a sombre pile, was lighted up by a hundred lamps of solid silver and gold ; the Catholic kings have a gallery there with lattice-work before it. It was at Our Lady of Atocha that the Te Deum wjis sung for victories. 1 Charles III., King of Spain, founded an order of knighthood in honor of the Blessed Virgin, whom he proclaimed universal pa- trona de Espana e Indias : Universal Pa¬ troness of Spain and the Indies. In these days the bright moon of Chris¬ tianity has slightly veiled her disc in Spain ; but the cloud will pass, and Blessed Virgin will soon recover her rights in this nation, o 7 ( 1 ) Queen Isabel II., of Spain, was very devout to Our Lady of Atocha. essentially religious and chivalrous; we hope, with the Spanish doctor, who has done us the honor of translating this work, that posterity will add numerous pages, pages of gold, to the Spanish portion, of devotion to Mary. In Portugal, of which Mary has been the Queen since the days of King Alphonsus I., the veneration of her is still national and flourishing ; she is the acknowledged god¬ mother of all the daughters, and her images are venerated in beautiful and rich chapels. England, where the sects are like the hydra’s heads, is beginning to look again toward the religion of Rome ; numerous Catholic churches under the modest name of chapels, arise in every county. In Ire¬ land, quite recently, bonfires were lighted on all the hills, to celebrate, in the style of ancient days, a miracle which took place after a novena to the Blessed Virgin, the wonderful liberation of O’Connell. The Belgians have always been a people devout to Mary ; as pilgrims they frequent her sanctuaries, and consecrate to her the most charming chapels of their fine Gothic cathedrals. The Tyrolese line their walls and their houses with events in the life of the Blessed Virgin. Rich and tranquil Bohemia multiplies the images of the Mother of God on her roads and in her cities. At intervals, in the country, a rural chapel of Mary, at once a house of prayer and a caravansera of repose, rears its cross-crowned gable, as if to tell the traveller that it offers him a shelter from sun or rain ; and this appeal is always religiously listened to. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Austria, a land of pure and simple manners, with poetic and religious tastes, has remained faithful to Mary, and nowhere have the sacred ceremonies of her worship a more serious and affecting character. Poland is still the kingdom of the Blessed Virgin whom the Poles invoke, ever since 1655, in their Litany, under the title of Regina coeli et Polonim. Her image hangs from the necks of the young Polish girls; mothers formerly used to hang it on those of their brave sons when they set off for battle. The great ladies have in their apartments an oratory dec¬ orated with the picture of the Blessed Virgin; and that proud Polish nobility, which eclipsed in splendor all the nobility of Europe, at the Christmas holidays would set up in the most conspicious place of their sumptuous banqueting halls a sheaf of straw, in memory of the utter destitution of Jesus and Mary in the stable of Beth¬ lehem. The Lithuanians, the last children of the Blessed Virgin in Europe, in the order of time, since they were not converted till the fifteenth century, have also remained faith¬ ful to her, in spite of Protestantism, which completely failed among them from the moment that it spoke suppressing devotion to Mary. She who now replaces the fair Saule, their favorite divinity—that beauti¬ ful goddess of the sun, who came forth each day, say the mystic legends of their fathers, from her palace in the East, mounted on a golden car, lighted by a thousand torches of white wax, to give light to the earth, and who was attended i by Vakazinn6, the evening star, and Aus- 319 sra, the aurora. Faithful to the ancient customs of their native land, the Lithua¬ nian women still celebrate their favorite festivals of the return of the flowers and the end of the harvest under the auspices of Mary ; upon her altars they lay the violets which they gather at a distance before sunrise, on the first days of spring; it is she whom they invoke, seated around the last sheaf, when their nimble hands weave hieroglyphics of flowers, or they give, as in the East, a thought to each leaf, and a symbol to every plant. These peo¬ ple, who passionately love the woods, the fields, and above all the beautiful flowers, which they cultivate around their poorest cottages, love far more the Blessed Virgin, who is still the Grand Duchess of Lithu¬ ania. The Russians, who follow the rites of the Greek Church, profess the greatest venera¬ tion for the Blessed Virgin. When they perceive her image, however far off, they prostrate several times, and multiply signs of the cross with extreme rapidity. At Moscow, a statue of the Blessed Virgin, to which miracles are attributed, ornaments one of the gates of the Kremlin ; two bare¬ headed sentiuels mount guard by it, night and day. The people never fail to uncover their heads respectfully when they pass before this image. The-czars were formerly crowned in the noble muscovite cathedral of the Assump¬ tion, where the bodies of the Russian patriarchs are deposited ; the enclosure of the sanctuary was covered with plates of silver and gold ; the sacred vessels and episcopal vestments of this cathedral are 320 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE still of unparalleled richness ; the picture of the Blessed Virgin, placed in a large gilt frame at the bottom of this church, figures in processions in a superb carriage all of plate-glass, like the coaches seen formerly at the coronation of the French kings. Four horses richly caparisoned draw this modern triumphal car at a slow and solemn pace. The Greeks, though schismatics, have still the same respect for the Panagia ; the Morea has several fine convents dedicated to Mary ; the most celebrated is that of the Assumption, on Mount Cylene, a few hours’ journey from the celebrated cascade of the Styx, which now bears the name of Mavronero. This convent, which has pos¬ sessed ever since the eighth century a miraculous picture of Mary, given to it by an imperial princess of Constantinople named Euphrosine, is built almost entirely in a large cavern a hundred and twenty feet in height and width. A steep and narrow descent, made on the mountain side, leads to the entrance of the convent, which has, like the strong castles of the middle ages, an iron gate and portcullis, and is further defended by a side wall with numerous openings, and mounted with four pieces of cannon. This narrow path, so easily interrupted, and in which large breaches are made every winter by the torrents, is the only ro^d which leads to the monastery of Mary : hence this sacred asylum, where the Panagia has been in¬ voked for so many centuries by the Hel¬ lenes, is considered impregnable. In the late war of independence, the celebrated Tbrahim in vain endeavored to reduce it. The three hundred monks who inhabit it, having become soldiers through necessity, courageously defended the ancient altar of their Patroness. The manners of these caloyers, as the Mussulmans call them, are as simple and pure as at the time of their foundation; they enjoy complete independence; they are laborious and strong, and like worthy servants of the merciful Virgin, they always hold out a helping hand to the oppressed or suffering. The monks of Thessaly and of Phocis found, in the four¬ teenth century, an asylum in the convent of the Assumption, when, pursued by the Turks, they fled, without hope of return, from the beloved soil of their country. In the seventeenth century, the poor monks who escaped from the massacres of Con¬ stantinople took refuge in this convent. Finally, in the eighteenth century, when the devastating war which followed the insurrection in the Morea had destroyed all around them, it was by their thoroughly Christian behavior toward the Turks of Calavrita, by their prayers, and by their surrender of a part of their property, that they were enabled to save from apostasy or death a great part of the Greeks of Achaia. The Ivlephts, those brave mountaineers who have so valiantly and so long kept the Turks in check, are no less devout to the Panagia than the Moreans. For ages on ages, they have had no other places of prayer than some ruinous chapels, which were believed to be haunted by vampires, or some oratory hollowed out in the rock, under the protection of the Virgin. They BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 321 were sometimes seen, at daybreak, climb¬ ing the highest crests of the lofty moun¬ tains, their curved daggers in their girdles, and long guns slung over their shoulders, to go and hear mass, or merely pray in some retired chapel, overhanging frightful precipices, at the very sight of which a Turkish soldier would shudder. There it was that they came to hang up the votive offering promised to the Panagia in the hour of danger, and always faithfully ren¬ dered. These offerings, which were often¬ times precious things conquered by gun and sword from the Mussulmans, inspired Che most religious respect ; public devotion guarded them, and in no excess of distress or want would a Klepht think of carrying off the least of these objects which had become sacred. Pouqueville quotes, in his Travels in Greece, the incident of a chief of banditti who, having pillaged some votive offerings from a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin near Vonitza, was given up by his own pallikares to Ali Pacha, by whose order he was hanged. Distant pilgrimages, especially difficult to men placed in the position of the Klephts, was still not unknown to them. The famous partisan Blachavas, at the age of seventy- six years, was seen to set out on foot for Jerusalem, with his musket on his back, followed by his proto-pallikare (aide-de- camp), and die, as he seemed to have wished, in the holy places which possess the tombs of Christ and the Blessed Virgin. 1 Mount Athos, called by the modern Greeks Agion Oros or Holy Mountain, is ( 1 ) Fauriel, Chants populaires de la Gr^ce. still Mary’s, as in the time of the first Caesars of Byzantium. The isles of the Bosphorus and Archi¬ pelago contain numerous but poor convents of Mary ; the bells of these monasteries of the Greek rite are hung from the aged trunk of some immense cypress towering like a phantom close by a church or cem¬ etery. At Scio, the most beautiful island of these seas, almost all the population were Catholics. MiMly treated, through the powerful protection of the Sultana Valiode, the charming isle had preserved its religion, its cheerful aspect, and its beautiful shades. The stranger was wel¬ comed there by the offering of branches laden with fruits, and at his departure flowers were offered to him as a remem¬ brance of hospitality. Nothing could equal the pomp of her festivals. She had her Catholic archons like Athens of old ; her daughters were fair and pure, like the smile of Mary, their well-beloved Panagia. The revolution broke out . . . All this joy, all this peace ended in a massacre . . . Thirteen hundred young maidens, the most beautiful of the island, were ruthlessly butchered by the savage Osmanli soldiers, on the shore of their bright sea. They fell, one after another, with their hands joined, their eyes fixed on heaven, invoking the Blessed Virgin, and she avenged them; for the tiger, who had ordered these atrocious exe¬ cutions, Ali Pacha, being burned in his vessel, by the intrepid Canaris, soon came to die on that very shore which he had deluged with blood, and the conqueror solemnly rendered homage to the Blessed Virgin for his victory. 41 322 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE In Anatolia, and in the islands adjacent, at Cyprus, at Tenedos, the Greek race has preserved the veneration of Mary in all its fervor. Mahomet has triumphed in the cities, but on the hill-tops, in the region of the clouds, the sacred banner of the Panagia is displayed in the lofty monaste¬ ries. Some of the Greeks have forgotten the language of Demosthenes and Isocrates, but not the Gospel, not devotion to Mary ; and they recite ill Turkish the symbol of their faith, and the Angelical Salutation. 1 There they have bonfires, to which they have given the name of the adopted son of the Blessed Virgin, to oppose the illumi¬ nations of the Courban-Bairam ; and the feast of Our Lady of Mount Olympus, to counteract the day of Mahomet. The Georgians, who bear on their stand¬ ard the picture of St. George, and who alone, thanks to their indomitable courage, entered Jerusalem in the middle ages, with banners flying, to perform their devotions, without paying the tribute imposed on other Christians, 8 the Georgians are still faithful subjects of the Blessed Virgin, the heavenly Queen of their mountainous coun¬ try ; the highest peaks are everywhere crowned with a church or a chapel of Mary, placed so high that they cannot at a A times reach it themselves, and are ob¬ liged, says Chardin, to content themselves with profoundly saluting it from the bottom of their valleys, which they never fail to do. The Mingrelian, who sleeps with his head on his rifle, and his scimitar by his ( 1 ) Occident et Orient, par Barrault. (*) F. de Belleforest, liv, ii., c. v., of his Histoire side, venerates in his churches relics of the Blessed Virgin, which he has kept there with great respect from the first ages of Christianity. Armenia, enclosed in the midst of Mos¬ lem tribes, has no more bent before the Koran than before the Zend-Avesta, and has remained nearly as it was in the fifth century, after the holy wars, except that it has divided into two camps, one professing Christianity with Rome, the other with Nestorius. By both the Blessed Virgin is religiously honored. Every Armenian fasts a fortnight before the feast of the Assump¬ tion, which was introduced very early intd the regions of the Caucasus ; and as this people has retained from the Jews the im¬ molation of animals, there is not, on that day, any good Armenian family which does not kill a lamb in honor of Mary. Libanus, that fine mountain of a hundred leagues in circumference, the western base of which is bathed by the Mediterranean, and which is bounded by Palestine on the south, is almost wholly peopled by Catho¬ lics. On one of the elevated tablelands is the village of Eden, with its limpid waters and cool shade ; an archiepiscopal church towers above it; in this church is an altar erected to Mary, and on the right of this altar rises in a most wonderful manner the Nakar-Rossnea or main river, which de¬ scends from an immense rock, bristling with cypress-trees. The Nakar-Kadishar, holy river, the child of eternal snows, which formerly saw on its banks so many hermits Universelle; Chalcondyle, liv. ix., Histoire dee Turcs. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 323 employed in carving cedar statuettes of Mary, still shoots down from the towering heights in foaming sheets, retaining the name which it owed, in the primitive ages of the Church, to the piety of the hermits of its rocks. At one hour’s journey from the place where the Holy River reunites its rapid and roaring waters, rises Tyre, the ancient mistress of the seas ; its celebrated cathedral of Our Lady, destroyed in the last wars of the Crusades, a short time after its reconstruction, is now only a mag¬ nificent ruin, the great vaults and arches of which stand out from the blue Syrian sky, and whence are heard, like a prophetic lamentation, the distant and regular noise of the waves ; but in a less striking church the four or five hundred Catholic families who inhabit Tyre still fervently invoke Mary. The beautiful city of Nazareth, to which a noble avenue of olive-trees leads you, is peopled by Catholics ; its church with three naves, built over that of St. Helena, is always full of pilgrims and faith¬ ful engaged in prayer. The sweet name of Mary is everywhere inscribed on the walls, her image is found everywhere, and the piety of the Oriental Christians delights to adorn it with the fairest flowers. Modern Jerusalem, the population of which seems formed out of the wreck of nations, and which beholds in its bosom the Jewish synagogue by the side of the mosque of the Mussulman and the church of the Christian, is not, thank Heaven, destitute of altars in honor of Mary ; the descendant of the kings of Juda is still invoked with bended knee in the capital of the holy king David, and all religious differences dis¬ appear at her tomb, where the Armenian, the G-eorgian, the Arab, the Tyrian, and the Western Christian meet together, and where even Turkish women are seen pray¬ ing beneath their veils. A Greek monk pours drops of essence of roses upon the heads of those who come to honor Mary. The veneration which is paid to the Blessed Virgin in the Levant has even reached the infidels. The Turks and Per¬ sians, who speak of her in the most honor¬ able terms, regard her as the purest and most perfect woman who ever existed Hence they are often seen hanging up votive lamps before her images, bringing their sick children into her churches, pray¬ ing devoutly at her tomb, and what is still more extraordinary, in the worshippers of Allah, even building temples in her honor. 1 In Abyssinia, the veneration of the Blessed Virgin is still as popular as in the past; churches bearing her oriental name of Mariam are found in great numbers in the cities, on the mountain heights, and the riverside ; they are thatched, surrounded by a gallery outside, and surmounted by an iron cross, with ostrich eggs on the numer¬ ous branches; a cemetery, which is an inviolable asylum, lies round about them, (* ) A pacha of Mossoul, besieged by the famous Thamas Kouli-Khan, made a vow to build two churches in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, if he saved his city; Thamas raised the siege, and the nacha, faithful to his promise, built two churches, the unusual magnificence of which in those countries enables us to estimate the danger, the fear, and the gratitude of the Mussulman.— (See the letter of the Bishop of Babylon in the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi.) 324 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE and they are magnificently shaded by dark cedars and gigantic olive-trees. The in¬ terior walls are ornamented with bright frescoes representing the Blessed Yirgin, St. Michael, or St. George—one of the most popular saints of the East; the floor is sometimes covered with Persian carpets, which the Mussulmans bring from Massa- ouah, and sell at a high price to the Chris¬ tians. A gallery runs all round these churches, and in the centre is a square sanctuary, to which access is allowed to the priests only; in it is the holy ark which contains the bread and wine for Communion. The veneration which the Abyssinians entertain for the Blessed Yir¬ gin is so great that, according to them, the world was created for her and through her ; the feast of the Assumption is preceded among them by a two weeks’ fast, as among the Copts and Syrians ; their kings take the title of son of the hand of Mariam (Mary), and many of them take her name. In fine, travellers who passed through Abyssinia in 1837 inform us that when the Abyssinians ask a favor, or give an invitation, it is always in the name of Mary; they swear only by Mary (be Ma¬ riam), and they have her name always on their lips. 1 This ardent devotion of the Abyssinians to the Mother of God has sometimes led to acts of absolute fanaticism. In 1714, when certain German missionaries, of the order of St. Francis, sent by Pope Clement XI., endeavored to bring them back to the unity (*) Voyage en Abyssinie, par MM. Combes et Tamisier, 1835-37. of the faith, the schismatic monks defeated their efforts by getting a report circulate 1 that these religious from Europe were de¬ clared enemies of the Blessed Yirgin. This falsehood had terrible consequences ; the people revolted; the emperor, who pro¬ tected the missionaries, was poisoned, and fathers Liberatus, Yeis, Pius de Zerbe, and Samuel Bienno, were stoned by an infuriated populace. An Ethiopian monk cast the first stone, crying out, “ Cursed, excommunicated by the Blessed Yirgin, be he who will not throw five stones at her enemies! ” 2 Alas ! these poor Franciscans were nevertheless the most devoted ser¬ vants of the Blessed Yirgin in the world! At the present time, the veneration of Mary is extending, step by step, in the Indies. The rosary is recited among the Hindoos of the coasts of Malabar, among the Chinese, the Siamese, the Thibetians, the people of Tonquin, and Cochin China ; it is the only prayer-book which the Catho¬ lics of distant countries possess, and it is the first thing they ask for when they see a European priest. 3 The churches of the Indies often bear the name of Mary; that of the Nativity of the Blessed Yirgin, at Pondicherry, is one of the most remarkable. A novena has been established in this church of Malabar, which procures a mul¬ titude of conversions, in a country where conversions are so difficult; it opens by a procession made by night, with great pomp. Repositories, which the faithful of Malabar adorn with vases of flowers, and muslin ( 3 ) Annales de la Propagation de la FoL (’) Ibid. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. embroidered with gold, receive, each in turn, beneath the globes of tire which light them up, the holy image of Mary, borne upon a triumphal car. The procession moves along slowly, to the sound of loud music, between two rows of torches. At each repository, while all is silence, a child’s voice sings the praises of the holy Mother of our Lord ; after which the image of the Blessed Virgin is solemnly carried back to the church, and replaced upon her magnificently illuminated altar. 1 South America is still distinguished for its devotion to Mary. Brazil has built modern churches in her honor, where she has been lavish of ornaments to the utmost of'her power. Peru dedicated to her, from the first, its magnificent cathedral of Lima, under the title of the Assumption, and paved it with silver instead of marble. Cusco, the city of the Incas, has con¬ secrated to Mary its Temple of the Sun, the walls of which were covered with thick plates of gold, and where the image of the god was seen in massive gold, and of ex¬ traordinary dimensions. The Dominicans, whose priory church this temple forms at the present day, had built, in honor of Mary, a chapel quite Peruvian, from the brilliant materials with which it was adorned; pavement of silver, altar of silver, statue glittering with gold and pearls, lamps of gold, magnificent votive offerings, Spanish and American, nothing was wanting. Mary had altars no less rich in the ancient temple of Quilla (the moon), which the old Peruvians had decorated ( 1 ) Annales de la Piopagation dp la Foi. 325 with silver; in that of Yllapa (thunder); and of Chasca (evening star). In Mexico, the cathedrals and altars dedicated to the Blessed Virgin are of extraordinary mag¬ nificence. The cathedral of the Assump¬ tion, at Mexico, begun in the sixteenth • century, and finished in the seventeenth, possesses two statues of Mary, which sur¬ pass the most splendid similar works that Europe can produce : the first is an ,As- sumptipn, of solid gold, set with precious stones of considerable weight; the second, an Immaculate Conception, of solid silver. The cathedral of Puebla de los Angeles, dedicated in honor of the Immaculate Con¬ ception, has a large altar of Mary, which in itself is worth many a church ; the altar is silver, and surrounded by little pillars, with plinths and capitals, of burnished gold. Saint Domingo, under French rule, made every year, with great pomp, the procession of the Vow of Louis XIII. Since the republic of Haiti has been con¬ stituted, this custom has been discontinued, but not so devotion to Mary, whom the blacks still invoke with unbounded con¬ fidence. The Haitians have two pilgrim¬ ages to the Blessed Virgin : one in the old Spanish part, and the other in the old French. They often perform them by deputy ; a black pilgrim, who sets out on the pious journey, knocks at all the huts before he begins it, and collects the gifts which each one sends to the Blessed Vir¬ gin. The negresses of rank imported from Africa a pagan custom, which they have christianized in the Antilles. When they wish to ascertain whether they possess the affection of their husbands, they take to 326 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE the shore of their bright sunny sea, a light plank of the wood of the islands, pierced with holes, in which they fix white wax tapers, well lighted ; after invoking Mary, they launch the little illuminated raft, with every precaution, upon the waves of their beautiful gulf, and if it floats for a time upon the waters, without disaster, they bless the Virgin, convinced that they may feel confidence. CHAPTER XIV. INFLUENCE OF DEVOTION TO MARY ON THE FINE ARTS. O X every point of the globe, religion has been the mother of the arts. At her inspiring breath have they come forth to grow, and attain a degree of per¬ fection analogous to the more or less ad¬ vanced state of civilization of the people. The religious principle is the only one which is competent to make the under¬ standing productive, to extend the imagina¬ tion, to impart energy to the will, daring to great enterprises, and patience, which matures our plans, as autumn ripens our fruits. “ Irreligion is not so long-headed ; it is,” say the Arabs, “ a bad, thorny plant, with its roots out of the earth, and with neither leaves nor flowers ; nothing weary can repose in its shade, and nothing good grows round about it.” It was in order to have under their eyes more noble images of the divinity, that nations soon after the deluge, substituted for trunks of trees and consecrated stones, marble, bronze, and gold statues ; it was to shelter these gods in a suitable manner that they built towers seven stories high in Babylon, and temples of red granite in Egypt; palaces were thought of later. To decorate the walls of these temples, they discovered a new art; that of representing the forms of objects by simple outlines, which they heightened with brilliant colors and gold leaf. Greece, intelligent and pas¬ sionately fond of the arts, borrowed the art of design and that of sculpture from the ancient land of the Pharaohs, and preserved their original destination, while she brought them to perfection. The invention of music even preceded the art of building, and enlivened the rus¬ tic ceremonies of the antediluvian worship. _ The harp was sounded before altars of turf, where the agricultural patriarchs offered the first-fruits of the earth, and the shep¬ herds, who already dwelt in tents, the first-born of their flocks. The grave religious dance, which represented the re¬ volutions of the heavens, took its origin also among this astronomical people ; and poetry came to espouse music, to sing the benefits, disarm the wrath, or implore the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. • ■ ... aid of the Creator. The arts, which, as pagans themselves acknowledge, were re¬ ligious 1 in their idea, and which should be holy in their application, belied their origin, and became corrupted in time. After opening temples to idolatry, they intro¬ duced successively effeminacy and licen¬ tiousness among the nations : defeat and slavery came of their own accord to close the march. Then it was that statuary and painting produced works not to be looked at without a blush, and that poetry sung of the gods all that they should have buried in silence. The worn-out springs of pagan society soon left the nations without belief, and the arts without genius. Religious art had con¬ tributed to polish their manners, but un¬ believing art corrupted them ; the former had inflamed their courage, and perpetuated the great traditions of heroism and virtue ; the other turned the gods into ridicule, and became the instrument of every vice ; the one had prodigies and masterpieces, the other was struck with helpless weakness in the midst of its sad and deep degradation. Then victorious Christianity planted the sign of our Redemption in the midst of the scattered ruins of the moral world, and suddenly took its place, not in the rear, but on the summit of men’s understanding. It had tempered again the social links which were falling to dust; washed away sins in the regenerating waters of Baptism, and invited all nations to the banquet of the heavenly Father ; it opened wide its (*) I have no doubt that the arts were originally a grace granted to men by the gods.—(Hippocrates.) 827 indulgent arms to the fine arts, as to poor prodigal children, who had foolishly de¬ serted the father’s house, to seek enthusiasm of the prince of death, and holy inspiration of the genius of evil. And the arts, re¬ pentant and purified, were re-established at the foot of the cross, by setting the pearls and diamonds of the holy Scriptures, by erecting imposing temples to the majesty of the true God, by adorning his altars with venerated images, in fine, by shedding over the rites and worship of the crucified God something imposing, mysterious, and spiritualizing, which warmed the heart, steadied the imagination and gave prayer wings to ascend to heaven. The influence of the holy Yirgin was felt more than any other, in this surprising transmutation of clay into gold. Her de¬ votion, fresh as a flower, and remarkably rich in noble and graceful inspirations, was an inexhaustible source of exalted ideas in music, painting, and poetry. The Queen of sorrows and of glories, elevated by humility, patience, and virtue to a height to which imagination cannot reach, Mary was a celestial type which again took up the Christian idea, and compelled the artist to evoke all the beauties of the ideal world. Greece had created a nation of gods ; a nation beautiful and regular, but hard as bronze, and cold as marble. Method, grace, and elegance were met at every turn in these pagan creations ; but humility on the summit of greatness, the humility of Mary ; but charity on the cross, the charity of Jesus Christ ; but the ardent faith of the martyrs dying for disowned and persecuted truth ; modesty, the most 328 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE excellent of fears next to that of God; but that divine mercy, which lifts up the bruised reed, which rekindles the still smoking flax, —where were they ? No bronze or marble brow of the sensual divinities of Olympus reflected these exalted virtues. These gods, drenched with nectar, intoxicated with am¬ brosia, and indolently spending their fabul¬ ous days in the midst of feasts, quarrels, licentiousness, and excesses of every kind, bore the desolating stigma of their infernal origin, that of inflexibility. These ancient types fell before the image of the Blessed Virgin, the mystical rose of the gospel, like the idols of Philisthia be¬ fore the ark of the God of Israel. The Mother of divine love, the adorable emblem of purity, the woman kneeling on the first step of the throne of Jesus Christ, to offer up to him,—benevolent mediatrix,—the tears and vows of her mortal brethren, caused Christian art to assume an attitude so worthy, so noble, so exalted, that from that time there was an abyss to pass over between that and antiquity. All that paganism had profaned was sanctified as it drew near to Mary: flowers, stars, hymns, images, and altars. The roses consecrated to the impure goddess, who was adored beneath the tufted myr¬ tles of Mount Idalus, encircled the Virgin of virgins with fresh and odoriferous gar¬ lands, whose sweet odor was a memorial of that of her virtues. The stars, 1 invoked by the ancient nations of the East, formed the ornaments of her celestial crown ; the sun, the object of so much idolatry, con¬ densed his rays to form her royal mantle ; while the moon, object of the poet’s rap¬ ture, and the Syrian’s worship, humbly placed her uncrowned brow beneath the blessed feet of the Queen of heaven and of the angels. Music, which an ancient writer tells us no longer produced aught but monsters, grew simple beneath the pure and inspiring aspect of the virgin descendant of David. Choirs, composed of brilliant Christian youths made the roofs of the temples re-echo with hymns in honor of the Virgin Mother ; and those sweet and enrapturing voices, wedded to the sound of harp? lyre, and organ drew forth wondering effects from the art of David and Orpheus ; for that music, alternately simple and majestic, which expressed the joys of Christ’s nativ¬ ity, and the agonies of Calvary; that music, in which were both ecstacy and tears, glorious dreams and holy sorrowsAended to awaken in the very depths of the heart the most religious, the noblest sentiments, most beneficial to society. God created the lily to adorn the earth and for his own pleasure, say the Hebrews. True religion does not trample upon the arts, which are the flowers ofjunderstand¬ ing ; on the contrary, she cultivates them,' and maternally guides their steps. After levelling the bloody altars of Esus, Odin, and Irmensul, she instructed, but never ( 1 ) One of the most beautiful astronomical fictions of the Romans, the constellation of Virgo, seems a prophetic revelation of Mary, so much does it correspond with her in different ways. “ The constellation of Virgo,” says the learned Lalande, whose testimony is beyond suspicion, “ is the one which supplies the most emblems and allegor¬ ies.” BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 329 persecuted either the scalds of the North, or the bards of Gfaul, or the minnesingers of Germany. In the West, when music, long neglected by the nations who loved little else but the clash of spears, awakened all at once, as from a long sleep, it was under the auspices of Mary. The canta- dours of Guienne, the troubadours of Provence, the minstrels of England and of Neustria, attempted their first harmonies in honor of the Blessed Virgin. In the classic land of harmony, during a long suc¬ cession of ages, the Venetian gondolier knew no other barcarole than madriale, the hymn to Mary ; and the contadino of the campagna of Naples sung naught else to his guitar. In Brittany, where the last of the Gaul¬ ish bards kept their ground, hymns to the Blessed Virgin Mary were substituted, al¬ most without any transition, for the terrible and mysterious songs of the Druids. Bal¬ lads in dialogue, popular poems oh religious subjects, were the foundation of the national music of a people who seemed to awaken, kneeling with clasped hands, to a feeling for the arts. Every Breton ballad contained an invocation to the Blessed Virgin, a pious thought, or a high moral lesson ; for every thing then in the Catholic system combined to moralize the people, and give them a taste for happiness, tranquil and within their reach. ( 1 ) “ Border Minstrelsy.” (*) By an act of Elizabeth, revived under Crom¬ well, and strictly enforced, every Roman Catholic priest, by the mere fact of being a priest, was held guilty of treason, and without further process, was condemned to be hanged on a willow till half dead, In Wales, in Scotland, and especially in Ireland, there was not a wandering harper who had not some beautiful and simple legend on the miracles of the Blessed Vir¬ gin to attract attention in the guard-room of the castle, or beneath the shade of the village green. It was, no doubt, on account of these religious and popular songs, that the partisans of the Reformation, who had no music in their souls, broke the inoffen¬ sive harps of the minstrels, as they did the organs in the churches, which they con¬ temptuously called whistle-boxes. 1 In Ire¬ land, a price was set upon the head of a bard, as upon the head of a priest. 2 Among the Scandinavians, the hymns of the Blessed Virgin had made them forget the warlike and fierce songs of the scalds, of which there remains only the funeral hymn of Regner Lodbrog. The celebrated hymn to the Mother of God, the Boga- Rodz^a of St. Adalbert, succeeded in Poland the wild chant of the Wa'idelotes. In Lithuania, the hymn to Mary took the place of the canticles of Milda, the goddess of beauty, of spring, and of roses. The bar- tinikas, those wandering minstrels of White Russia, who were regarded as inspired, and who presided over the musical performers at the harvest and flower festivals, abam Moned the god Sotwaros, their oriental Apollo, to beg poetical inspiration of Mary. It was a pious belief of the early times then he was beheaded and his body quartered; his bowels were torn out and burnt, and his head, set upon an iron spike, was exposed in a public place. In 1652, the commissioners of Dublin paid five pounds sterling for the head of a priest, or of a, bard.—(M. Feuillide, Lettres sur l’lrlande.) ■ ■ i ------- 330 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE of Christianity, that the Mother of our Saviour took under her special protection those poets whose songs were pure ; she was, they said then, “ Bonorum poetarum magistra,” — “ Teacher of good poets.” The verses of Sedulius, or Sheil, a Scotch, tha^is Irish, poet, who flourished about the year 430, were considered as particularly acceptable to her. Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, never invoked any other muse, and his noble “ Ave Maris Stella,” the hymn of shipwrecked mariners, has come down to us, through ages, with the “ Salve Regina” of Herman de Veringhen, which angels, as the Jesuit Father, de Barry, tells us, sung beside the fountains, in honor of their Queen, and which the Christians of Antioch intoned on the walls of their be¬ sieged city, while repulsing the attacks of Saracens. 1 Soon after the conquest of England, the Normans established at Rouen, under the name of puys, or palinodes, great poetical contests in honor of the Mother of God ■ these contests, over which the prince, or the head of the confraternity of Our Lady presided, were the germ of the French academy, and actually assumed in time the title of the Academy of the Palinodes. An archbishop of Rouen drew up the statutes of this literary and religious society, whose solemn sessions were held in one of the principal churches of the city, and who gloried in remaining under the patronage of Mary. One strict condition for the lau¬ reates of the Blessed Virgin was that the ballads, sonnets, and royal hymns which were submitted to the judgment of the Neustrian Academy should be in honor of the Immaculate Conception, or at least that the subjects of them should be per¬ fectly chaste, and that the praises of the Virgin conceived without sin should be introduced into them. 8 This competition influenced the poetical productions of the Norman minstrels, giving them a grave re- ' ligious tinge in harmony with the national character, at that time serious and chival¬ rous in a supreme degree. The feast of the Conception, with its sacred poesy, be¬ came the feast above all others, the feast of the Normans. In the twelfth century; a religious of St. Victor composed in her honor the Litany which so well harmonizes with the lofty roofs of cathedrals, the ma¬ jestic sounds of the organ, and the white veils, and the gold cloth copes, and the roses which are scattered by children’s hands. It was in the middle ages, and those following the chant of pilgrims, wending their way to some shrine on the seashore, or hidden away in the granite and basalt of the mountains. That long series of divine names and graceful appel¬ lations, interrupted by the simple and affecting words — “Pray for us!” —was cast upon the wind, which bore away in murmurs that sweet name to the depths of invisible valleys, or over the surface of the waves. One might have thought that the angels of God, who kissed the shadow of Mary while living, when they passed by her, as the Spaniard, Zorilla, poetically says, scattered her praises in the fields of air. 1 . ___ . I g ( 1 ) Michaud’s History of the Crusades, vol. i. : | ( 3 ) Environs de Paris, t. iii. .. 1 . ' ■ BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 331 Christmas carols, those joyous chants, full of the memory of the Blessed Virgin of Bethlehem, those carols, sung at night, by torchlight, over the snowmantled coun¬ try, or beside antique cribs decorated with green leaves and winter flowers, were then the favorite songs of all the provinces of France. The hymns of our churches have impressed on music a noble and severe character, which fills the soul, overwhelms it, and plunges it into the infinite. The carols, simpler in their effect, give it quite an arcadian tone. It is the song of a bird soaring up cheerfully toward God, to cele¬ brate a mystery of joy ; it is a woodland odor which embalms the altar of the youth¬ ful Mother of our Saviour. The cheerful and rural poetry which is joined with these charming airs, recalls the shady woods, the odorous white-thorn, the scented bee-hive, and the bleating lambs. It is a song of the people, a song of the shepherds, a song of nature herself. In these carols, Mary is always exhibited as a Virgin quite young, very fair and innocent, who wraps up the King of Angels in her poor veil, and who is too much ab¬ sorbed in her joy to regard the desolate stable and the straw of the manger. The poor, inured to privations of every kind, dwell not on the poverty, but on the hap¬ piness of the Mother of Christ; it is a pic¬ ture by Claude Lorraine, where all is light. In the Stabat Mater, 1 that prose of the thir¬ teenth century which the Italians have so (') The Stabat Mater is ascribed to Innocent III., one of the greatest popes of the church, and the founder of two great orders—the Dominicans poetically named II pianto di Maria, the subject is no longer the joys of the Nativity, but the terrors of Golgotha. It is a hymn of agony, the pervading character of which is a mournful depression, mixed with ejacu¬ lations which pierce the very soul; it is the poignant recital of the sufferings of a mother, who beholds an adored Son expir¬ ing before her eyes. To be initiated in the inconceivable dolors included in this com¬ position, and the sorrowful mysteries which it discloses, it should be heard, as we have heard it, in one of those vast Italian churches, where the people pray with faith and chant from their very soul; one would say that the majestic voice of the organ is broken by sobs, and that the angels weep over their Queen. No religion, since the world has existed, has furnished poetry and music with a theme like the Stabat Mater ; the sorrows of Mary at the foot of the cross, call up the full power of harmony and poetic inspiration ; this theme, though one of grand effect, as it has been con¬ ceived, is still far from perfection ; to carry it out to that height would be the last and most sublime effort of art. Spanish poetry had signalized its revival in the middle ages by hymns consecrated to Mary. In the thirteenth century, Gon- zalo de Cerceo, the first known Spanish poet, called himself the poet of the Blessed Virgin ; and Louis de Leon created a little later, lyric poetry in Spain, to celebrate her worthily. In Germany, very early and the Franciscans ; others attribute it to Ja- copone de Todi, or to St. Gregory, and some to St. Bernard. 332 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE also, the Teutonic poets moulded their rude idiom for the Blessed Virgin, whom they celebrated down to the sixteenth century, with admirable faith and delightful sim¬ plicity. Among the great Italian poets of the revival, the most illustrious distinguished themselves by their devotion to Mary. Dante sings of her in magnificent verses in his “Paradise.’ 7 “0 woman,” he ex¬ claims, “ thou art so great, thou hast so much power, that whoever desires a favor, and has not recourse to thee, desires that his wish may fly without wings.” 1 In the picturesque solitudes of Vaucluse, Lin- tenno, and Arqua, whither Petrarch re¬ tired, to await that poetic inspiration which is banished by the tumult of cities, the steeple of his little domestic chapel is still seen, adorned within with a superb Ma¬ donna by Perugino. It was at the feet of this beautiful Madonna that he composed his invocation to Mary, his last, humble, tender, Christian canzona, where “his heart kneels” before the “merciful and sweet Virgin,” that she may guide him into the way from which he has wandered, and commend him to her divine Son at the moment when he yields up his soul. 2 Tasso, on his way from Mantua to Rome, turned aside to fulfil a vow to Our Lady of Loretto ; he arrived spent with his journey, and without money to finish it; but a lucky chance brought thither at the same time one of the princes of G-onzaga, who was greatly attached to him, and who provided ( 1 ) Dante, II Paradiso, c. 33. (*) Le Rime del Petrarca, t. iii., c. 8. for all his wants. Recovered from his fa¬ tigue, he fulfilled with the most fervent devotion all the duties of his pilgrimage, and composed the finest hymn ever made in honor of Our Lady of Loretto. 3 When stretched upon his death-bed, in the convent of St. Onuphrius, Tasso re¬ quested young Rubens, who had freed him from the dungeons of the Duke of Ferrara, to hang round his neck a little silver Ma¬ donna, which he himself had formerly given to the father of this great painter. “You will take it back,” said he to him, “ when I have breathed my last.” Rubens at once obeyed this dying voice, and the author of Jerusalem Delivered, after burning some poetical sketches, conceived during the maddening hours of his unjust and horrible captivity, began to repeat prayers in a low voice, holding in his hands, quivering with the convulsions of his agony, that image, the sight of which encouraged him to die well. When the corpse of the great poet, who had been allowed to want everything in life, obtained the honors of a triumph, Rubens had no heart to join in the proces¬ sion ; he went and hid himself in the most obscure corner of St. Peter’s at Rome ; and there, prostrate before the altar of the Blessed Virgin, he began to pray with great fervor, holding in his hand that little silver Madonna which he had taken back from the ice-cold hands of Tasso. Christianity in its birth had respected music and poetry among the pagan bards, only sanctifying their use ; error was less (* *) This is the opinion of Gringuene. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 333 indulgent than truth ; she broke harps, she forbade singing, and the members of the puritan universities had to swear that they renounced ‘ ‘ the profane and useless art of poetry.” 1 Here the Reformation was con¬ sistent, which, be it said without offence, it was not always. Poetry attracts power¬ fully to Catholicism, which welcomes all great ideas, and directs without extinguish¬ ing them. Poets, who are all ardor and enthusiasm, find themselves under restraint within the four bare walls where Protest¬ antism immures them ; their minds lack elasticity, and their imagination has no field amid that labyrinth of sects, which are subdivided and ramified, like the hundred and twenty thousand rivulets of Basra. Thus the poets of Germany return in num¬ bers to the true fold of the Shepherd of souls, to the fold of the fine arts, and bend the knee before the Protectress of sacred song. Schlegel, Tiek, Novalis, Werner, Adam Muller, have returned to the faith of their fathers ; and one of their fellow- countrymen, who devotes great ability to the service of a sad cause, said on this sub¬ ject,—“Alas! this is not all, the painters abjure by troops! ” Painters abjure in Germany ? . . . 0 the reason is that the same holy influence, which attracts the poet to Catholicity, acts equally upon the painter. “ Poetry and painting are sisters,” said the wild Salvator Rosa, and he said well. The painter, like the poet loves what is grand and antique (’) The Scotch covenanters despised poetry, which they treated as a profane and useless art. This gross fanaticism lasted so long in some parts of Scotland, that Wilson, the author of a poem in faith, what is imposing in rite and wor¬ ship ; both naturally incline toward Catho¬ licity, which has protected the cradle of the arts with unheard of magnificence, and still furnishes them the finest themes, the grandest conceptions, and the warmest coloring. To Catholicity alone is painting ’■ indebted for a type, which has eclipsed the finest types of antiquity: a type of which the great masters of the Italian school caught glimpses, believing artists as they were, in dreams of heaven, beautiful as ecstacies ; a type which conducts the Christian artist to the heights of an ideal world, where none can follow him,— Mary ! Painting is, in relation to her sisters, the eldest daughter of Christian worship ; she is the first artistic adoption made in the church, and this adoption is the more glori¬ ous as it commenced with Jesus, and con¬ tinued with his Mother. According to Eastern tradition, the first Christian paint¬ ing was the sacred face of our Lord, mirac¬ ulously imprinted on the veil of Veronica ; the second, the portrait of the Blessed Vir¬ gin, painted by St. Luke. These two revered pictures gloriously introduced the art of Zeuxis into the midst of the prim¬ itive Church ; hence we find holy pictures of Mary in high veneration throughout the Levant, from the dawn of Christianity. Painting, among the Jews, was confined to the representation of flowers and plants ; every representation of the animal kingdom had been forbidden by Moses, on his dis¬ entitled The Clyde, appointed, thirty years ago, to the Situation of a schoolmaster at Greenock, was obliged to promise in writing that he would give up poetry.— (Sir Walter Scott, “ Border Minstrelsy.”) I V 334 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE trust of the extreme propensity of that people to idolatry, and called as he was to settle them in the midst of a crowd of pagan nations, where the type was forgotten in the symbol. This prohibition was so rigorously observed, in the latter times, that the Romans were obliged to conceal their victorious standards, as they passed through the land of Judea, to avoid offending the extreme susceptibility of the Hebrews by the sight of their eagles. On the other hand, we see by the Acts of the Apostles, that the Jewish converts reluctantly aban¬ doned their national prejudices, and that they sought to introduce into the law of grace the innumerable prohibitions of the law of rigor. Hence, with the exception of the por¬ trait painted by St. Luke, it is all but de¬ monstrated that the earliest representations of Mary were not the work of Hebrews ; everything, on the contrary, leads us to suppose that they were the productions of the Ionians, who long possessed the holy Mother of our Saviour at Ephesus, the city of artists, the country of Apelles, and at that time the light of Asia. The Ephesians, in fact, preserved the memory of the Bless¬ ed Virgin with the most tender veneration, as it is attested by the churches which they so early dedicated to her. In the year 403, the fathers of the general council of Ephesus declared that this great city de¬ rived its principal lustre from St. John the Evangelist and the Blessed Virgin. There, they say, John the theologian and the Vir¬ gin Mary, Mother of God, were honored in churches, for which they had a special ven¬ eration. This veneration, according to all appearance, had been expressed by holy pictures ; for the Greeks were not fond of plunging into the vague, and their active imagination felt the necessity of seeing the objects presented to their veneration. The first pictures which adorned the churches of the Syrians and the faithful of Asia Minor were painted upon wood, with colors made solid and brilliant by a mix¬ ture of melted wax. Such were the fa¬ mous pictures of Edessa in Mesopotamia, of Seydnai in the vicinity of Damascus, of Dydinia in Cappadocia, of Sosopoli in Pisi- dia, of Philermes in the isle Cyprus, and, in fine, of Antioch. Before these pictures, lamps were kept burning perpetually, and there it was that the great bishops, doctors, and saints of the first ages of the church, came to implore help and support. St. Alexis lived at the feet of Our Lady of Edessa; St. Basil implored the divine pro¬ tection, from the fury of Julian the Apos¬ tate, before Our Lady of Dydinia, and St. Germanus related to the fathers of the second council of Ephesus,, the precious favors which it pleased God to grant to Asia Minor, through the intercession of Our Lady of Sosopoli. Our Lady of Philermes, which attracted a great concourse of pilgrims to the isle of Cyprus, was carried off by the knights of Rhodes, when they were forced to yield up the Archipelago to the Crescent, it is still at this day on that impregnable rock where the chains of so many Christian pil¬ grims were broken, and is protected by the lions of once Catholic England ; ah! no doubt the glorious and faithful banner of the order of Malta was more pleasing in her eyes. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 335 Pictures of Mary were multiplied in fresco on a golden ground around the basilicas of Constantinople, and the Greek mosaic workers vied with painters in effort and talent to represent her in a more dur¬ able, and no less beautiful manner, in those skilfully and patiently shaded works', which Ghirlandajo called pictures for eternity. Greece for ages monopolized fresco, stained glass, painting, and mosaic. The first pic¬ ture of the Madonna which was venerated in Italy, if we believe the tradition of the Neapolitans, was a mosaic portrait of the Blessed Virgin, executed by Greek artists, on the walls of the ancient church of Santa Restituta, a temple of Neptune, converted into a Christian cathedral by St. Aspreno, who is regarded as the first bishop of Naples. 1 Italy long had nothing of its own but barbarous frescoes, where the saints made one shudder, and where the Blessed Vir¬ gin has the tint of an Ethiopian. Those Virgins with black faces, which some have attributed to the degenerate pencil of the Greeks, are claimed by the Neapolitans, who ascribe them to their first painters ; they may be granted to them, without adding any very noble ornament to their artistic glory. From Cimabue, who founded the Italian school, about the year 1240, to Carlo Ma- ratti and Salvator Rosa, its latest masters, that is during a space of five centuries, re¬ ligious painting produced a long succession of masterpieces, in which the history of the Blessed Virgin holds the principal part. ( 1 ) Delices de l’ltalie, t. iii., p. 79. Raphael, at that time handsome, poetical, and pious as an angel, first revealed, in his admirable “ Sposalizio,” the noble and simple air, the beautiful and serious coun¬ tenance, the celestial attitude of the Mother of divine love and holy mercy. One would say that on some day of fervent prayer Mary appeared to him, seated on the clouds, with her attendant angels, and that he painted her in her glory as he beheld her. How many men of genius walked in the footsteps of that great master! Michael Angelo, Correggio, Titian, the Carracci, Spagnoletto, Domenichino, and that austere Carle Dolce, who had vowed his pencil to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that wild Salvator, who made pilgrimages to Our Lady of Loretto. What rich imagination! what superhuman conceptions! what pro¬ found feeling of the sanctity of the art, among the great Italian masters ! Those prodigious men, who disinherited the future, and gave the past oblivion, feared not to show themselves faithful servants of the Blessed Virgin ; they lighted tapers before her images, took off their caps as they passed before them, said their beads like every one else, and their great ambition was to decorate a Christian church with some holy painting, for which they pre¬ pared as for some sacred undertaking. “ Sound all the trumpets, set all the bells ringing,” wrote Salvator Rosa to Dr. Ricciardi; “after thirty years’ resi¬ dence in Rome, after six whole lustres of baffled hopes, and of an existence full of continual tribulations from heaven and from men, I am at last called upon for once to paint a picture for a high al- 336 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE tar ! 1 This is extravagant joy, as we see ; but then how Catholicity loved, encour¬ aged, and protected that art, which en¬ dowed her temples with so many master¬ pieces ! How did the Apostolic See nobly elevate the man of genius to itself! how did it make the distance easy, and do away with all social distinctions, to honor illus¬ trious talents, and make them walk on an equality with great fortunes and patrician birth! Giotto, that shepherd who left his flock in a romantic valley of Tuscany to work in the school of Cimabue, was pat¬ ronized by Clement V., and it was the successor of St. Peter who first sought out the artist. Michael Angelo, destined by his father to be a woolcarder, was honored by something more than the favor of Julius II., he possessed his confidence and friend¬ ship. Raphael, the son of a poor and ob¬ scure painter, was offered on the one hand the cardinalate, and on the other, the hand of a niece of a cardinal, friend of Leo X., that munificent protector of the arts. Lan- franc, that “ Parmegiano,” so popular in the eighteenth century, was an intimate friend of cardinals, a knight of the holy Roman empire, and special protegS of the pope. 'Caravaggio, the son of a mason, received the cross of the Order of Malta, a superb gold chain, which the Grand Master put round his neck with his own hands, and two slaves to wait upon him. Claude Lorraine, who began life as a cook and grinder of colors, was the friend of the elegant Cardinal Bentevoglio, and the dis¬ tinguished favorite of Urban Till. The Roman cardinals expended part of their fortune in masterpieces, which still form the ornaments of churches, or of their splendid galleries ; and from their ex¬ ample, all the Catholic princes encouraged the arts, and adorned the altars with re-, ligious paintings. This is what Catholicity has done for painting. The Protestants acted very dif¬ ferently. Calvin, who despised poetry, and even ranked organs in the churches among foolish vanities, inveighed with no less acrimony and vehemence against the idolatry of painting ; accordingly, religious pictures were mercilessly torn down by his savage followers; and their aversion to this noble art lasted so long, that the acts passed by the English parliament in 1636, enact that all those pictures in the royal gallery which represent the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Second Person of the Trinity, shall be publicly burnt. 8 Could the Caliph Omar have done more ? It is worthy of remark that the two leaders of the Protestant sects, while declaiming against Catholic pictures, set themselves up complacently as models to their partisans, and multiplied their own likenesses as much as possible. “ Luther,” says an Anglican author, “ was always much flattered by their multiplying his ( 1 ) Lettere di Salvator Rosa, al Dott. Gio. Bat¬ tista Ricciardi, Lettera 20. ( 1 ) Journals of the House of Commons. In Holland, the aversion of the Anabaptists to im¬ ages was so great, that besides those which were in the churches, they broke all the pictures which were in the town of Leyden, and effaced even the paintings on walls and windows.—(Delices de la Hollande, p. 64.) BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 337 portrait and that of his ugly partner.” 1 His statue, erected at Wittenberg, is ex¬ hibited to the veneration of the Lutherans of G-ermany, and even FHerminier com¬ pares this veneration to that which Catho¬ lics pay our Lady of Loretto. Calvin was so possessed by the same strange mania, that he induced this judicious question of Saconay to be put to the Huguenots of France : “ Why are you so malicious against statues and paintings? Does not your Calvin delight in exhibiting himself in his likeness, sculptured in Geneva, with so much ability that it vividly represents his face and his sunken eyes, and shows him bad as he is ? ” 2 But let us go back to the fairest page of the annals of Christian art, let us return to the influence of Mary over the arts of the middle ages and of the revival. The painters of antiquity represented physical beauty successfully^ they had admirable models for the purpose ; but the Christian painters united to harmony of features, the reflection of the soul. The figure of Mary was the triumph of mind over the clay of the body ; to represent this heavenly wo- man, it is not enough to study the moral world, and to represent, in all their variety of shades, the most gentle and noble vir¬ tues of the soul ; it was necessary to pene¬ trate the mystery of the existence of those glorified beings, who live not with our life, and are nourished only by holiness, pure love, and divine contemplation; it was essential that the artist, animated by the “fuoco animatore” of religion, should rise on the wings of faith, to that lily throne where the Blessed Virgin is seated amid saints and angels, and that he should piously invoke his divine model, before he takes up his pencil. It is not enough to be a Chris¬ tian, one must be a good Catholic to paint Mary; more than one young German artist has felt this before a Madonna by Raphael, and more than one abjuration has - been the consequence of that feeling. It was a just and charming idea of a great German painter, Overbeck, to repre¬ sent the Blessed Virgin inspiring and en¬ couraging the arts of the middle ages, and of the revival. 3 But how is it that the chaste Mary, tbe Queen of sacred harmo¬ nies, the divine model of St. Luke does not (*) Memoire sur la vie et siecle de Salvator Rosa, t. i., p. 10. ( *) Archives curieuses. ( *) Overbeck’s picture is divided into two parts — heaven and earth. In heaven, the Blessed Vir¬ gin, throned on clouds, is surrounded by the angels and saints of the Old and New Testaments—such as Moses, the architect of the tabernacle, David the poet, St. Luke the painter, St. Cecilia, etc. In the middle of the terrestrial region is a fountain with two basins, one above the other; a jet, from the upper basin shoots up to the sky. This foun¬ tain is greater or less inspiration. Cimabue, Giotto, 43 Mazaccio, L. da Vinci, Raphael, Dante, etc., are looking at the upper basin; while the colorists, Titian, Paul Veronese, Tintoretto, examine in the lower basin the prismatic effects of light: seated alone upon the steps of the fountain is seen Mi¬ chael Angelo, absorbed in himself, and inspired by his own genius. In the foreground of the picture is Charlemagne, holding in his hand a model of a Gothic church; St. Gregory, the inventor of the Gregorian chant; artists digging up and studying ancient bas-reliefs; a mediaeval architect instruct¬ ing young pupils, whose country is recognized by their costume — they are all seated except the 338 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE more inspire our contemporary artists, our national artists? Some say that the French school wants elevation and genius, we believe rather that it wants faith. People ask why the female saints and vir¬ gins, with which our altars are adorned by modern art, are lowered to the rank of ordinary women, and have no attribute of inhabitants of heaven. The reason is, alas! that modern art no longer draws inspiration from the sacred source whence the great masters were wont to draw ; and that those vague ideas of religion, which flit in the soul of the artist, like the vapory shades of Ossian amid the mists, will never inspire a noble thought. Let him transport his tent to those heights whence Raphael and Michael Angelo caught glimpses of the Queen of virgins, and he will see her in his dreams, pure and ideally beautiful as in times past. Nor is statuary without its obligations to Mary. Greece had represented her statues seated, standing, and recumbent; but she had not imagined the suppliant posture of Our Lady of Dolours ; she had not placed innocence and purity on their knees before God ; she confided her beauti¬ ful children in marble to female Bacchantes, or to old Silene. Mary, bearing the infant Jesus in her arms, came to disclose to art and society, at the same time, the religion of maternity, and she opened to sculpture the unexplored career of the moral. Sculpture grew, like her sister, in the classic land of arts—beautiful Italy ; like her sister, she Frenchman, he, impatient to learn, is standing np, and examining the master’s plans. The title of this composition is, “ The Arts of the Middle Ages was protected there by princes of the Roman church. Buonarotti decorated the chapel of the Medici, at Florence, with an exquisite group, in Carrara marble, representing the Blessed Virgin and holy Infant. It is well known that the favorite sub¬ ject of Michael Angelo, for sculpture, was our Lord lying dead on the lap of his Mother. In the hours of dark sorrow, the great Christian artist sculptured a Pieta, that is, a figure of Our Lady of Dolours, of inimitable perfection, which he intended for his own tomb. In fine, in our own days, the celebrated Canova has paid to Mary the tribute of statuary, by a group repre¬ senting Jesus dead, the Blessed Virgin, and Magdalen, a work where the sculptor of Pius VII. has remained scarcely inferior to the sculptor of Julius II. The influence of Mary over Gothic archi¬ tecture was less conspicuous than over the . fine arts, but it was not on that account the less real. The cathedrals and abbeys, which the middle ages erected in her honor, are more delicately ornamented, more aerial, more graceful, than any others ; we see that a thought of filial love prevailed, not only with the founder and the architect, but even with the humble mason who built them. At that time, poor workmen went their rounds through France, offering their trow¬ els and hammers wherever the piety of the faithful built churches ; most of them asked no wages ; they received bread and a few roots, and lay on the bare ground. In the and the Renaissance, under the Protection of the Blessed Virgin.” BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 339 course of two centuries, a hundred thou¬ sand men were seen working in this man¬ ner at the cathedral of Strasbourg, which Bishop Werner had dedicated to Mary. Some of these workmen devoted them¬ selves exclusively to building chapels of the Blessed Virgin ; they worked at them “ for the love of God,” and refused all other work. There were some among these who undertook, as an exercise of expiation, to finish a certain number of oak or trefoil leaves, or arabesques, every day. This pious task was called the picoteur or stone¬ cutter’s chaplet. Enthusiasm even reached the weaker sex ; women were seen taking up the chisel to sculpture Madonnas. The crowned statue of the Blessed Virgin, with a chalice in the right hand, which may still be seen over the portal of the cathedral of Strasbourg, is the work of Sabina, the daughter of Ervin, an architect, celebrated like his father and his brother, whose great work he continued after they had spent their lives upon it. These artists, who had wrestled like giants with the thought of the infinite, in order to express it in stone, did not enrich themselves in these colossal undertakings, where the diamonds of princes, the rich alms of great barons, and the gold of city corporations passed by millions through their hands ; 1 they would have blushed at the thought. Their labor was more worthily ( 1 ) The most renowned architects of those days says Marmier, with the art of building edifices, had not yet learnt the art of enriching themselves. In 1287, Stephen de Bommeil, being invited to Sweden to build the magnificent cathedral of Upsal, had not money enough to pay for his journey and take paid: after their death, the majestic basi¬ lica, which they had built, opening its black marble pavement, gathered them piously into its bosom ; and one would have said that its lofty and light spires, which pierced the clouds, like the prayer of a holy soul, went to plead their cause before the Eter¬ nal. Around them slept, at the entrance, and in the shadow of the sacred walls, legions of workmen, who had wrought under their orders. The church prayed for them and blessed them, from age to age, in their plain stone sepulchres. And this was a recom¬ pense worthy of the ambition of spiritual men, who esteem life at its real value. Oh how carefully ought these master¬ pieces of the ages of faith be preserved! Never again will there be seen that unity of thought and purpose, which invest Gothic churches with such completeness, devotion and solemnity ; never will works of their kind be executed on earth ; for kings are not rich enough to defray the cost, and the elevated and religious ideas which guided the men of yore are buried in their sepul¬ chres. To find again the Werners, the Sullys, the Mowbrays, who projected our magnificent cathedrals, the architects who drew the plans, the workmen who executed them, and the people who so liberally offered the well-earned gold 2 from their savings for their erection, the globe must undergo a his companions with him. Two Swedish students, who were then at Paris, lent him 40 livres, which he engaged to repay them “ on the faith of Bommeil, stone-cutter, master engaged to build the Church of Upsal.” (' i ) Maurice de Sully rebuilt Notre Dame, at 340 HISTORY OP THE DEVOTION TO THE new cataclysm, to purify it from the impiety which corrodes it, and the egotism which degrades it. The wood-carvers by their labors paid similar homage to the Blessed Yirgin ; the chairstalls in the old churches were adorned, for the most part, with these carvings, where the artist delighted to concentrate, in a small space, some graceful scene in the life of the Blessed Yirgin. The cathedrals of Auch and Evreux, both dedicated to Mary, have had the good fortune to preserve many of these carvings, the loss of which would be irreparable. Under the roof of the cathedral of Paris, that terrible periodical press, which, accord¬ ing to the passions which animate it, does so much good or evil, was born at that time, an innocent dove, which dare not yet venture to leave the nest which it has made itself in some cleft of the rock. A large iron chandelier with diverging sockets starting about the range of the eye, was fixed into the wall of Notre Dame, close to one of those side doors, which are master¬ pieces of ironwork. On a level with these sockets holding yellow wax-tapers, was suspended, by a flexible chain, a hollow tablet covered with wax. There, every morning, under the direction and on the responsibility of the chief directors, or editors, of the period, the bishop, the mayor or public officer, the printer in wax recorded Paris; a usurer resolved to employ part of his ill- gotten wealth in the construction of the cathedral; not altogether satisfied, however, with this mode of making satisfaction, he consulted a holy person named Peter the Chanter, who, very far from ap¬ proving of the usurer’s devoting to God what he had taken from men, strongly urged him to restore with his stylus, the official notification of what was particularly interesting to the people of the good old times—the arrival of a bull, a battle gained, etc. Every man of letters was then free to come, by the light of the tapers, which were indispensa¬ ble in edifices dimly lighted by stained glass, to make known to the curious this gazette, which was a daily one in the full sense of the word, for the news of to-mor¬ row effaced that of to-day. The numismatic art rivalled in zeal both painting and sculpture in representing the image of Mary on medals and coins. The Empress Theophania, who married Rom anus the younger in 959, is the first who presents us the head of the Yirgin on coins. On the reverse, is her head, sur¬ rounded by the nimbus, bearing the vail, both hands raised breast high ; around we read the inscription @ E0T0K02 , that is, the Mother of G-od. The second husband of that princess, John Zimisces, who ascended the imperial throne in 969, also struck a medal bearing on the obverse the head of Christ EMMAN- THA, Emmanuel! On the reverse is the Blessed Yirgin, seated on a throne, and holding the infant Jesus upon her knees. Before her are represented the three Wise Men bringing him gifts ; above the head of the Blessed Yirgin is a star, and beneath are two doves, liis ill-gotten gains to those entitled to them. The usurer obeyed, and then came to tell the doetor, that after making restitution to all, he still had a considerable sum left. Then Peter replied, “ Go, brother, you may now bestow your alms upon the church in perfect security.”—(Felibien, Histoire de Paris.} KING SOLOMON. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 341 The first' emperor who placed the effigy of the Blessed Virgin on the obverse of his coins, was the Emperor Romanus IV., called Diogenes, who ascended the imperial throne in the year 1068. On these medals appears the Blessed Virgin, having on her bosom the head of the holy Infant, as the Council of Ephesus had prescribed. The Blessed Virgin wears the robes and head¬ dress of an empress around her head, intwined in her hair appear several rows of pearls, and her brow is encircled with the imperial diadem. She retains the nim¬ bus or aureole, but not the veil. On the reverse of the medal is seen this inscription : QE0T0K02 PELMANE1 AEETIQTH TEL AT OrENH, that is, “May the Mother of God be propitious to the Emperor Romanus Diogenes.” Several emperors after Diogenes also placed the effigy of the Blessed Virgin on their coins ; but from John Zimisces to the taking of Constantinople, the letter M is no longer found on the coins of the lower empire. The Greeks were not the only people who paid this mark of respect to Mary : a great many modern states still bear on their coins the effigy of the Blessed Virgin. In the papal states, we see upon the new silver Roman crown the Blessed Virgin borne on clouds, and holding in one hand the keys and in the other an ark ; j around is this inscription j “ Supra firmam petram,” “ Upon a firm rock.” The city of Genoa displays also upon the gold genovines, the Blessed Virgin seated upon clouds, and holding the infant Jesus upon one arm. The inscription is: “Et rege eos,” “ And guide them.” Austria has gold ducats, on which is seen the Virgin sitting upon clouds, having in her arms the infant Jesus, who holds in his hand the globe of the earth. The inscription is : “Maria, Mater Dei,” “ Mary, Mother of God.” The same country has also gold maximilians, on the reverse of which is the Blessed Vir¬ gin carrying the infant Jesus, who holds in his hand the globe of earth. The inscrip¬ tion is: “Salus in te sperantibus,” “The salvation of those that hope in thee.” The carolins, or gold pieces of three florins, of the same power, display also on their re¬ verse the Blessed Virgin holding the infant Jesus, with the same inscription as the maximilians. Bavaria, too, strikes gold maximilians and carolins, which exhibit the same effigy, the Blessed Virgin, and the same inscrip¬ tion as the maximilians and carolins of Austria. Portugal places upon its gold cruzadas the name of Mary, Maria, surmounted by a crown, and encircled by two laurel bran¬ ches ; on the other side is a cross with this inscription: “In hoc signo vinces,” “By this sign thou shalt conquer.” 342 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE CHAPTER XV PILGRIMAGES. “ r | 'HE devotion of pilgrimages,” says A Michaud, 1 “ has been encouraged in all religions ; indeed it springs from a senti¬ ment natural to man.” The remark is just and true; in fact, all nations have had consecrated places, to which they have made it a duty to resort at certain anniversaries, to become more deeply imbued with a sense of the benefits received from God, by visiting those spots which they believed to be sanctified by his presence or his miracles. Pilgrimages are as ancient as society itself; those of the East, as Boulanger very judiciously observes, are almost all connected with reminiscences of the De¬ luge ; in fact, those pilgrimages, whose in¬ stitution is lost in the night of ages, are generally made to lofty mountains, where was formed the first nucleus of the great nations of Agia, who would descend, like their rivers, from the rocky womb of their mountains. The Chinese, who claim to be the sons of the mountains, climb on their knees the rugged sides of Kicouhou-chan; the oriental Tartars go to venerate, as the source of their hordes, Chan-pa-chan, and some heathen Hindoos, the Pyr-pan-jal; every Japanese undertakes at least once in his life the dangerous pilgrimage of Isje, 2 the mountain from which their ancestors sprung; the Apalachites, Florida Indians, went at the return of each season to sacri¬ fice upon Mount Olaimi, to return their thanks to the sun, who, as they say, saved their fathers from a deluge, etc. These pilgrimages are founded upon traditions corrupted by time, but certainly historical; we find in them the traces, and we see in them vestiges, of that thought of profound terror, which found expression in the plain of Sennaar, by the building of the famous tower of Babel. Disheartened by the con¬ fusion of tongues, the post-diluvian races, unable to seek refuge in towers which should reach the clouds, settled at least upon high mountains, to escape, if possible the disastrous chances of another deluge. It was not till soil failed them, and refused to produce grain necessary to feed the in¬ creasing colonies, that they were seen to settle in the plains, which they were often obliged to drain before they went into them. Hence comes the respect of the orientals for their sacred mounts, a respect which they prove by annual visits, accom¬ panied with vows, offerings, and prayers. After reverencing the cradle of nations, they venerated that of religious worship ; then the sites which recalled great events ; then the men who became illustrious by heroic or religious deeds. Thus the grati- ( 1 ) History of the Crusades, vol. i. ( 5 ) Or Fusiyama. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 343 tilde of the Jewish people has preserved for so many ages the tomb of Esther and Mordecai, which all the Hebrews dispersed over Asia have visited as pilgrims for two thousand years. A wonderful thing, that the tomb of two exiles, erected by the gratitude of a few captives, should have survived the great empire of the Assyrians, and that it alone saves from oblivion the ruins of Ecbatana. Man is like the ivy—he must cling to something, something must support him, that he may have courage to live. When he finds neither sympathy nor consolation among his fellow-creatures, he instinctively evokes the inhabitants of a better world, and claims that support from them which society denies him, or is unable to afford him. Nothing attests better this propensity of the soul than the conduct of the Hin¬ doos, when oppressed by the first viceroys of Portugal; these people, disarmed and inoffensive, no longer finding either protec¬ tion or support in the successors of Al- phonsus d’Albuquerque, came and sat down like suppliants at the foot of that great man’s tomb, to implore of the illustrious dead, reposing beneath the monumental marble, that justice which the living would not grant either to their rights or their tears. Protestantism, which tarnishes and brings to dust whatever it touches, of course abol- ( 1 ) It was on the threshing-floor of Areuna that at the prayer of David, the exterminating angel stopped his ravages. “At all times,” says a great ecclesiastical author, “ God has marked out certain places, especially destined to receive the prayers of men. It requires more incredulity in ished the pious visits which Christians have, at all times, made to those places which Christ sanctified by his sufferings, or which his Mother has rendered celebrated by her favors. Turks, furious enemies of images, have lighted golden lamps before the altars of Mary; but what Protestant has ever placed a lamp in the Holy Sepulchre ? what Protestant has prayed before the crib of Bethlehem, where Saladin and the Caliph Omar bent in prayer ? “ These local devo¬ tions,” they say, “are superstitions; God is everywhere.” God is everywhere. . . . Who ever doubts it? Catholics need not go back to re-learn one of the first ques¬ tions of their catechism ; they know, they knew fifteen centuries before the world saw an apostate friar named Luther, that God hears in every place the prayer of faithful souls, and that in all places such prayer is granted; but what should hinder God from attaching certain favors to those ancient sanctuaries, where he has often been pleased to manifest his power by prodi¬ gies ? There was in Judea many a green hill that he might have pointed out to David as the site of his temple, and yet he chose the rocky threshing-floor of Areuna, the Jebusite, because there he had already displayed his mercy ;* and also, if we may believe a charming tradition, which has survived like a desert flower beneath the black tent of the Arab, because that place the history of the Church than in any other, not to believe that God has been pleased that his saints should be honored more especially in certain places, and that to atti’act people to them, he grants favors there that he does not grant else¬ where.” 344 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE had been already sanctified by a noble trait of brotherly love. 1 Man is, by nature, so imperfect and inclined to evil, that he has always some expiation to make, before he approaches the source of all sanctity ; when this expiation appears to him propor- > tioned to his fault, he feels a surer con¬ fidence in the succor of Heaven ; thence came the generous elation of the martyrs, who hoped in proportion to their tortures. The pilgrim acts upon the same principle ; he adds the fatigue, the privations, the in¬ conveniences of the journey to the prayer which he comes to offer ; and hopes, in vir¬ tue of his self-imposed sufferings, to find favor before Giod, who suffered so much himself! and why should this hope be vain ? The eminent historian Robertson, who was not blinded by the narrow prejudices of his sect, loudly acknowledges the bene¬ fits which Europe owes to pilgrimages be¬ ( 1 ) Jerusalem was a ploughed field; two bro¬ thers owned that part of the land where the temple was afterwards built; one of those brothers was married, atid had several children ; the other lived alone; they cultivated together the field which they had inherited from their father. When the harvest came, the two brothers tied up their sheaves, and made two equal stacks of them, which they left on the field. During the night, the unmarried brother said to himself, “ My brother has children and wife to support, it is not just that my share should be as great as his; come, let me take a few sheaves from my heap, which I will secretly add to his; he will not perceive it, and so cannot refuse them.” And he acted on his thought. The same night the other brother awoke, and said to his wife, “My brother is young; he lives alone without a helpmate; he has no one to assist him in labor, or console him when weary: it is not just that we should take from our common field as yond the seas. First, the emancipation of the commons, the creation of commerce and navigation, the propagation of knowledge, the improvement of agriculture, and the introduction of numerous plants, trees, and cereals, which contribute at the present day to the support of the nations of the West; then the freedom of serfs, to which pilgrim¬ ages contributed more than anything else ; for the feudal lord, who mingled barefoot, and in rude attire, 2 with the pilgrims of all conditions who undertook some holy viage with him, more easily understood, in those hours of humility and penance, that those despised slaves, whom antiquity put on a level with chattels, were, nevertheless, his brethren in the sight of G-od ; and when he had obtained the favor which he went to seek, far from his castle, in some ancient sanctuary, it often occurred to him to eman¬ cipate a certain number of his vassals, in many sheaves as he. Let us get up, aud quietly add to his heap a number of sheaves; be will not perceive them to-morrow, and so cannot refuse them.” And they did as they had thought. The next day, each of the two brothers was much sur¬ prised to see that the twrn heaps were still equal; neither one nor the other could account for this prodigy. They did the same several nights in suc¬ cession ; but as each carried the same number of sheaves to his brother’s heap, it remained always the same: till one night, both of them having kept watch, to find out the cause of this miracle, they met, each carrying the sheaves which they intended for the other. Now the place where so good a thought had come at the same time, and so perse- veringly to two men, must be a place agreeable to God, and men blessed it, and chose it for building a house of God. ( 2 ) See the Memoires du Sire de Joinville. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 345 honor of Christ, the enemy of slavery, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is all sweetness and mercy. 1 Pilgrimages, which date from the Deluge, 2 which have been received by all nations, and which among Catholics strengthen re¬ ligious feelings by opening the soul to a crowd of generous and sanctifying emotions, 3 are therefore, whatever Protestants say of them, in their ignorance of the human heart, good, laudable, useful, and agreeable to the Divinity. We see this pious practice held in honor from the primitive days of the Church ; Mary, the holy women, and the apostles were the first pilgrims, and the faithful of Europe and Asia walked humbly in their footsteps. “Peopleflock thither,” wrote St. Jerome in the fourth century, “ from the whole world : Jerusalem is full of men of every nation. Every Gaul of distinction comes to Jerusalem. The Briton, separated from our world, if he has made any progress in religion, leaves his pale sun in search of a land which he knows only by name, and by the testimony of the Scriptures. Meed I mention the Armenians, the Persians, the people of India, of Ethiopia, of Egypt, fer¬ tile in solitaries, of Pontus, of Cappadocia, of both Syrias, Mesopotamia, and the swarms of the faithful sent to us by the East ? Ac¬ cording to the oracle of our Saviour, where the body shall be, there will the eagles be gathered together. They come in crowds to these places, and edify us by the splen¬ dor of their virtues. Their language is different, but their religion is the same.” 4 The Mussulmans, who say very justly that it is a pious and eminently salutary practice to go and visit the tombs of those who have died pure in soul, have often knelt by the side of Christians in places to which these resorted in pilgrimage. After the taking of Jerusalem, the Caliph Omar would visit Bethlehem ; he went into the church, and there offered his prayers be¬ fore the crib where the Lord Messy Aisa Besoul was born. He directed the Mus¬ sulmans to pray there only one at a time, lest there should arise in the crowd any disorder unbecoming the sanctity of the place, and forbade assembling there for any motive but that of prayer ; Saadi himself informs us of this, 5 and the tradition of Jerusalem ( 1 ) A great number of old acts emancipating slaves, still contain this pious form of words : “ We transfer and abandon to Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary all our rights over ....,” etc. ( 3 ) If we believe the old traditions of Asia, pil¬ grimages are of still higher antiquity. According to the rabbis, the children of Adam returned more than once to contemplate from a distance the en¬ closure of the terrestrial paradise; and some of the sons of Seth settled on the top of a mountain, from which it could be seen, always hoping that the promised Deliverer would soon enable them to enter it again. 44 ( 3 ) Doctor Johnson, a zealous Protestant, and one of the most profound thinkers of England, himself acknowledges, that “ since men go every day to view the fields where great actions have been performed, and return with stronger impressions of the event, curiosity of the same kind may nat¬ urally dispose us to view that country whence our religion had its beginning; and I believe no man surveys those awful scenes without some confirma¬ tion of holy resolutions.”—(Rasselas, c. xi.) ( 4 ) St. Jerome, epistle 17. ( 6 ) Omar determined to go to Bethlehem; he entered the church and made his prayer at the 346 HISTORY OP THE DEVOTION TO THE adds that the same prince went to pray at the tomb of Mary. Besides the localities connected with our redemption, there were several famous pil¬ grimages in the Holy Land ; Our Lady of Edessa, in Mespotamia, which the primitive Christians visited in crowds ; Our Lady of Sevdnai, where a sultan of Damascus founded a perpetual lamp, out of gratitude for a favor which he had obtained by the intercession of Mary ; Our Lady of Bel¬ mont, two hours’ march from Tripoli; finally, Our Lady of Tortosa, the miracles at which, in the middle ages, resounded through all Christendom, and to which the Mussulmans themselves have sometimes brought their children to receive baptism, persuaded as they were that this ceremony, with the protection of the Blessed Virgin, would preserve them from all evil. 1 We read in the Memoirs of the Sire de Joinville that he went on a pilgrimage to Our Lady “ de Tourtouze,” whence he brought back relics and camlets, which occasioned a very amusing mistake. The seneschal, who had himself taken the relics to the king, sent by one of his officers some packages of fine stuffs from Tripoli to the pious Queen Margaret, to whom he was very happy to present them. The queen, who knew that the Sire de Joinville had re¬ turned, bringing relics from Tortosa, seeing the chevalier of the seneschal of Champagne manger where the Lord Mesias was born. He would have his Mussulmans pray there only one by one, with prohibition to assemble there in crowds, or be at all noisy.—(Grulistan, On the Manners of Kings, p. 301.) ( 1 ) Tortosa is the modern Tripoli in Syria. enter her apartment with a package in his hand, knelt down before the package, think¬ ing that these were the relics she had heard of. The chevalier who brought the parcel, ignorant of the queen’s motive for what she did, knelt down also, looking at Margaret too astonished to speak. The princess, see¬ ing him in this posture, bade him rise, adding with piety and goodness that it was not for him to kneel, as he had the honor to carry holy relics. “Relics, madam?” replied the chevalier, quite astonished, “I bear none; it is a parcel of camlets which the Sire de Joinville has sent you.” Then the queen and her ladies in attendance be¬ gan to laugh. “And,” said the queen to the chevalier, “ bad luck to your lord, for making me kneel before his camlets.” 2 Pilgrimages to the Mother of Grod have lost nothing of their fervor in Asia, and the Pranks are sometimes astonished to meet Turkish women praying devoutly be¬ fore the tomb of the Blessed Virgin, 3 with daughters of Sion, rich ladies of Armenia, Greek women from beyond the seas, and Catholic Arab women. The veneration of the Blessed Virgin among the nations of the East, is not one of those things least striking to travellers ; they find that devo¬ tion worthy of notice which subjects the destinies of men to the power of a woman, in a land where women hold so low a rank. 4 Among the G-auls, pilgrimages long pre- CD History of Saint Louis, by the Sire de Joinville. . (’) Occident et Orient, by M. Barrault. (*) The whole East, Jews excepted, are full of respect for the Blessed Virgin, whom Mahomet has placed in the Koran in the number of the four — - - ----- — BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 347 ceded the establishment of Christianity: one of the most frequented pilgrimages of western Gfaul was a dark cavern, con¬ secrated to the god Belenus, on the rock which was then surrounded by forests, where at the present day rises from amid shifting sands the amphibious fortress of Mount St. Michael. 1 There the pilots of Armorica went to purchase of the Druids of Mount Belen enchanted arrows, to which they foolishly attributed the power of changing the winds and dispersing th'e tempests. When the rugged mountain, which was the last bulwark of Druidism, received a Christian abbey, and was sol¬ emnly consecrated to St. Michael the arch¬ angel, the cavern of Belenus was trans¬ formed into a charming marine chapel, dedicated to the “Star of the Sea,” to Mary, the protectress of seafaring men. This chapel was built with pebbles, pol¬ ished by the waves and rolled by the ocean; the interior walls and roof were adorned with branches of coral, masses of amber and bright shells picked up on every shore, and brought by pious mariners ; the altar was part of a rock, left with all the roughness of a sand-bank; and all round hung, as votive offerings, anchors of safety, and chains of captives. This chapel was often visited, before the French revolution, by long files of seamen saved from ship¬ wreck ; these children of ocean, with a fervor which is not uncommon among them, intoned, with a voice rough as the sound of the waves, the “ Ave maris stella” of For- tunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, or that graceful “Salve Begina,” which the angels them¬ selves sing beside the fountains, according to a charming old tradition related by Father de Barry. The kings of France, down to Louis XV., almost all visited this sanctuary of Mary; and some maintain that an ancient prophecy, preserved in the abbatial archives, threatens with the great¬ est calamities, even to the third generation, the prosperity of that king who should omit to make a pilgrimage to St. Michael and Our Lady. If there be such a prediction, it has been but too truly verified. The pilgrimages of France present them¬ selves to us surrounded with wonders, which conceal from us their origin ; we shall speak of them as spoke our fathers, who were so worthy of our esteem. Those wonders, which tradition has handed down to us from age to age, are not articles of faith for us Catholics ; criticism may attack them without wounding the Church ; yet, in our opinion, there would be nothing gained by rejecting them : there must be some moss upon old oaks, ivy on ancient abbeys, and something marvellous in G-othic legends. According to the traditions of Lyons, supported by a bull of Innocent IV., St. Pothinus erected the first oratory where Mary was invoked in Graul. It is asserted that he brought from the interior of Asia a small statue of the Blessed Virgin, which he deposited in a solitary and shaded crypt just women. Chardin relates that the Jews of Persia, having ventured to speak ill of her before some followers of Ali, were nearly massacred for their pains, and were obliged to leave the city where the affair occurred. ( 1 ) The vast forest which surrounds Mount St. Michael was submerged about the year 709. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE 348 on the banks of the Saune, in front of the hill of Fourvieres. He set up in this wild and secluded spot an altar to the true God, and placed there the image, which was transferred later on to a temple built on the hill itself, whence it took the name of Our Lady of Fourvieres. The veneration of the people, in the Middle Ages, surrounded this church, and it was a pilgrimage of great renown throughout the Lyonnais ; but the Huguenots, who destroyed and pillaged so many rich sanctuaries, showed no favor to that of Lyons ; the church of Fourvieres, where, from the birth of Christianity, each generation had marked its passage by gifts, which would be at this day as dear to the antiquary, sculptor, and painter, as to the pilgrim, retained nothing but its four bare walls, which could not be melted down in the crucible, where perished so many master¬ pieces, which had the misfortune to be made of gold or silver. The chapter of St. John could not re¬ build the church of Fourvieres, till long after the ravages of the Protestants. After they had restored the cathedral and the cloister they began this. The altar of Mary was at last consecrated on the 21st of August, 1586. From that moment the confidence of the inhabitants turned towards that beacon of salvation. “ The source of pro¬ digies seemed dried up there,” says an an¬ cient historian ■ ‘ ‘ they began again at the end of the sixteenth century, and all Lyons felt great joy on the occasion.” 1 ( 1 ) Histoire de Notre Dame de Fourvieres, ou Recherckes historiques sur l’autel tutelaire des Lyonnais. ( 2 ) Histoire de Notre Dame de Fourvieres. During the revolution of 1793, the church of Fourvieres was sold ; but when calm was restored, the zealous prelate who gov¬ erned the ancient church of Pothinus and Iremeus restored to worship the sanctuary of Mary. The inauguration was performed on the 19th of April, 1805, by the sover¬ eign pontiff, Pius VII. 8 In 1832 and 1835, Lyons being threatened with cholera, lifted up her eyes to the holy mountain, and the Blessed Yirgin said to the scourge, “ Thou shalt go no farther.” The capital of the Lyonnese, respected, contrary to all expec¬ tation, changed its cries of alarm to canticles of joy, and the prayers of thanksgiving were solemnly and justly offered to Mary in her protecting sanctuary. Ever since the happy period when that sanctuary was restored to worship, piety seems to have redoubled its ardor for Our Blessed Lady, and it is at Fourvieres that it gains strength and vigor. The inhabit¬ ants of Lyons, and those of the adjacent country, throng the paths of the hill of Mary ; wend your way thither at what hour you will, you always find yourself amid a crowd of pious souls of every rank, age, and condition in life. One day, in the year 1815, a pilgrim of the unusual kind, who had begun by observing Lyons from the summit of the hill, like a man who wanted to study both its strength and its weakness, entered the church of Our Lady ; and the faithful, lifting up for a moment their eyes, which had been cast down in prayer, said to themselves, “Marshal Suchet! ” It was indeed he—the marshal of the empire, the child of Lyons, to whom was confided the defence of his native city—who passed BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 349 along the nave of the church of Mary with a slow step, with a respectful countenance, in which blended something gentle and softened, something like a distant remem¬ brance of joy, which awakens and soothes the soul with an invisible music. He enters the sacristy, and asks for one of the chap¬ lains ; the vice-president hastens to him : “Monsieur lAbbe,” says the marshal, stepping forward towards the. ecclesiastic, “when I was quite a child, my good and pious mother often brought me here, to the feet of Our Lady, and the remembrance is still fresh .... I will say more, this re¬ collection is dear to me, and I have never lost it. Be pleased to have some masses said for my intention. 7 ’ And after laying three Napoleons on the table where the offerings are entered, the brilliant hero of the gigantic epoch went and knelt, quite unpretendingly, before the altar of Mary, praying there for some time with edifying devotion. And, Marshal Suchet termina¬ ted his noble and loyal career by a Chris¬ tian end, which is recorded with praise on his tomb. The pilgrimage of Our Lady of Puy, in Yelay, is also reckoned one of the oldest of France. It is said that during the Roman occupation of Oaul, a Gallic lady, who had been baptized by St. George, the first bishop of Puy, being at the point of death, was told that she would recover her health on the summit of mount Anicium, not far from where she lived. She had herself carried thither in this hope, and she was hardly seated on the volcanic rock of Puy, 1 ( 1 ) In Auvergne and Languedoc a high moun¬ tain is called puy, from the Italian word poggio. when a sweet sleep stole over her senses. Then she saw, in a dream, a celestial female whose dazzling robes floated like a white mist, and whose head was encircled by a crown of precious stones ; this woman, of exquisite beauty, was surrounded by a ret¬ inue of angelic spirits. “ Who,” inquired the daughter of the Gauls of one of the blessed spirits, “who is that queen so gra¬ cious, so noble, and so beautiful, who comes to me, a poor, sick woman, in my extreme affliction?” “It is the Mother of God,” replied the angel; “she has made choice of this rock to be invoked here, and she enjoins you to state this to her servant George.—That you may not take the order of Heaven for a vain dream, arise, woman, you are healed.” When she awoke, the Gallic woman had, in fact, no more languor nor fever. Filled with gratitude, she lost no time in hastening to the bishop, and re¬ lating to him with her own mouth the message of the angel. After listening, in silence, to the com¬ mands of her whom he most venerated next to God, St. George bowed down, as if the Blessed Virgin herself had spoken to him, and, without delay, followed by some ser¬ vants, and accompanied by the converted Gaulish woman, he proceeded to visit the miraculous rock. His astonishment was in¬ describable on seeing it covered with snow, though the heats of July were parching the plain ; and as he still wondered, a stag ap¬ peared, and began to run over this summer snow, tracing out with his light feet the ground plan for a vast edifice. The holy « bishop, yet more and more astonished, en¬ closed, with a strong fence the place which 350 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE the stag had passed over, and ere long there rose upon this favored ground a cathedral, around which gathered the city of Puy, which considers itself impregnable under the protection of Mary. The little statue of the Blessed Virgin, which pilgrims come to venerate from the interior of Spain, and from all the southern provinces of France, is coeval with the cru¬ sades ; it is two feet high ; it is seated on a throne, after the manner of the Egyptian divinities, and holds the Infant on its knees. It is worth noticing that the statue is envel¬ oped, from the feet to the head, in several bandages of very fine linen, cemented most carefully to the wood, as was the practice of the Egyptians with the mummies. The style of this statue, the material of cedar, and the bandages which cover it, have led to the presumption that it is the work of the solitaries of Libanus, who fashioned it after the model of the Egyptian statues. This image of Our Lady was bought by St. Louis on his return from the Holy Land. The sovereign pontiffs have encouraged this pilgrimage by their example and be¬ neficence. Several of the popes have visited it as simple pilgrims. The bishops of Puy received great priv¬ ileges from the court of Rome, in consider¬ ation of Our Lady, among others, immedi¬ ate dependence on the Holy See and the Pallium. Several Kings of France have also come to venerate Mary on the moun¬ tain of Anicium. In 1422, Charles VII., as yet only Dauphin, came hither to com¬ mend to Our Lady of Puy his almost des¬ perate cause, and it was in the same church that he was proclaimed king of France. King Rene likewise performed this pil¬ grimage with a great retinue of men and horses : a crowd of Moors, probably con¬ verted to the Christian faith followed him in their oriental costume. The Chapel of Our Lady of the Mounts, or of Ceignac, seated on a hill surrounded by other hills, in the ancient forest of Cayrac, between Viaur and the Aveyron, is celebra¬ ted for the pilgrimage of a Hungarian pala¬ tine prince, who, in 1150, miraculously recovered his sight, through the interces¬ sion of Our Lady. This nobleman, afflicted in the prime of life with the most distress¬ ing blindness, left the banks of the Danube with a hundred men-at-arms to come and seek from Our Lady of the Mounts a termi¬ nation to his long sufferings. He embarked upon the Adriatic and after coasting along Italy, entered the Gulf of Lyons ; there a horrible tempest scattered the vessels of his little fleet, and it "was with great difficulty that his esquire saved him in a boat, which succeeded in reaching the shore. Afflicted at this disastrous event, and deploring the fate of his com¬ panions in arms, the blind prince, accom¬ panied by his faithful servant, made his way to the mountains of Languedoc, di¬ recting his course, by easy journeys, towards the Chapel of Our Lady of the Mounts, where he arrived in 1150. A sportsman, who was spreading his nets on the green banks of the Viaur, pointed out. the ford of the river to the two pilgrims, and led them to an eminence whence the little church could be discerned. The prince palatine, who had been for years deprived of the light of heaven, could not see the BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 351 religious edifice in the distance, but he heard the gay chime of its matin bells, and prone on the dewy grass he blessed God and Our Lady for his having at length ar¬ rived at the end of so long a journey. Full of faith he entered into the sanctuary he had come so far to visit, and had a solemn mass celebrated at the altar of Mary. When mass was over, and the blind prince was tearfully praying before the image of the Blessed Virgin, a clash of arms, caused by some pilgrims crowding into the church, attracted his attention. He instinctively raised his eyes, though he could not see. 0 what a surprise! he does see his own banner; and these pilgrims prostrating themselves, whose eastern cloaks form such a contrast with the brown capes of the peasants of Languedoc—they are his faith¬ ful Hungarians ! A cry of happiness and gratitude escapes his lips ; he has recovered his sight, and his soldiers are there ! Our Lady had treated her vassal with the gen¬ erosity of a Lady paramount, and had not done things by halves. Seven solid silver lamps were the donation which the Hun¬ garian lord offered to the Blessed Virgin ; by his orders a cross was erected on the hill where he had prayed, and the story was engraved upon it in Gothic characters. A group in relief placed in the sanctuary of Mary, represented the prince palatine and his esquire on their knees before the image of the Blessed Virgin ; above was this Latin inscription: “ Ecce palatinus privatus lumine princeps, Munera magna ferens, sed meliora refert, Virginis auspiciis, divino in lumine, lumen Cernit, et exnltat, dum pia perficerent. Insuper et centum famulos in littore fractos Invenit incolumes; dicitur inde locus.” Among the benefactors of the Chapel of Our Lady of Ceignac are reckoned the Dukes of Arpajon, Cardinal de la Pela- grua, nephew of Pope Clement V., and a vast * number of bishops and great personages. The pilgrimage of Our Lady of Roe- Amadour, a short distance from Cahors, is situated in the most sterile and moun¬ tainous part of Quercy. A saint, whom an unsupported local tradition would make the Zaccheus of the Gospel, about the third century, plunged into a labyrinth of rocks which raise their lofty crests above the narrow and deep ravine where the Lauzou rolls its stream; this ravine, now styled the valley of the Roc-Amadour, was then called the Dark Valley, and abounded in wild beasts. This gloomy but grand scenery, which reminded one of Thebais, was doubtless in unison with the deep and austere thoughts of the' anchorite ; he built himself a cell on one of the jutting points of the mountain, and on a level with the eagles’ nests, hol¬ lowed out of the rock, an oratory to the Mother of God. The Gallo-Roman popu¬ lation of the valleys of Figeac and Saint- Cere, who at times descried him from a distance on the sharp point of these bare, wild, dizzy mountains, surnamed him Ama- tor rupis ; this name, the only one which has come down to us, was changed into that of Amador, then Amadour, more congenial to the dialect of the South. A little statue of the Blessed Virgin, re¬ sembling those which the early Christians of Gaul venerated in the hollow oak, be- 352 HISTORY OP THE DEVOTION TO THE came the instrumenl of miracles in favor of the fervent pilgrims who invoked Her in her rocky sanctuary. The pilgrims mul¬ tiplied, and soon became so frequent, that a town was built at the foot of the holy place ; this town, situated in a desolate region, on an unproductive spot, most diffi- * cult of access at first, became nevertheless, from the devotion of our fathers, one of the principal towns of Quercy ; it had towers, consuls, and a coat-of-arms in which three rocks argent figured with lilies or, upon a field gules. Above the steeple of the old church of Roc-A.madour, at a prodigious height, arose a citadel destined to protect the rich sanc¬ tuary of Mary; those bastions, whose out¬ lines stood boldly out from the clouds, and whose ruins strew the ground, could not re¬ pulse the gloomy followers of Calvin, who would have gone through hell itself for the sake of gold. The chapel of Our Lady has in our days a better bulwark—its poverty. This pilgrimage was famous even in the time of Charlemagne; the famous paladin Roland, nephew of that emperor, visited Roc-Amadour in 778 ; he offered as a gift to the Blessed Virgin the weight of his bracmar or sword in silver, and after his death on the field of Roncevaux, this brac- mar was brought to Roc-Amadour. 1 In the year 1170, according to Roger de Hoven- den, Henry II., King of England, and Duke of G-uienne in right of his wife Eleanor, came to Roc-Amadour to fulfil a vow, made to the Blessed Virgin in a long illness, with ( ) Dupleix, Histoire de France, Charlemagne, c. 8. This bracmar having been lost, or stolen, a which he was attacked at La Motte-Gercei. As the lands bordering upon Quercy laid no great liking for the English, the island monarch surrounded himself with a small army to make this pious journey. Henry left marks of his munificence at the chapel of Our Lady, and with the poor of Roc- Amadour. In the number of illustrious pilgrims, who came to honor Mary in her mountain sanctuary, is reckoned Simon de Montfort, legate of the pope ; Arnaud Amalric, who was afterward Bishop of Narbonne; St. Louis, accompanied by his three brothers, by Blanche of Castile, and Alphonsus, Count of* Boulogne, who ascended the throne of Portugal; King Charles the Fair, King John, Louis XI., and a multitude of powerful lords. Among the great bishops who visited, at different times, the miraculous chapel of Our Lady, we find one name so dear to literature, to humanity, and to Catholicity, that we cannot leave him among the crowd ; this name, which France deems one of her glories, and which even infidelity re¬ spects, is that of the swan of Cambray. Consecrated in his cradle to Our Lady of Roc-Amadour, by his pious mother, Fenelon came more than once to pray, in the depths of Quercy, to her who had laid on his lips a comb of Attic honey, and given him the courageous wisdom which he employed so nobly in instructing kings. Two pictures, hung up as ex-votos, in the sanctuary of Mary, represent two solemn phases of his battle-axe was substituted for it, which retained the name of Koland’s sword. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 353 existence. In the first, fie is newly-born, from all tax and charge. Pope Clement Y., and sleeps in fiis cradle ; in tfie second, fie in 1314, left a legacy to tfie same church, comes a young man, and already a doctor, “to keep up perpetually a lighted wax to pay homage to fiis divine Protectress, candle honorably in a vase or dish of silver, for tfie first success of fiis rising genius. in the chapel of tfie Blessed Yirgin Mary At some distance is a tomb, over which fie of Roc-Amadour, to honor this Blessed subsequently wept and prayed, that of fiis Yirgin, and obtain tfie deliverance of his mother, whose wish was to sleep her last soul!” sleep in tfie shadow of tfie altar of Mary. It would be too long to cite tfie other Sometimes it was not merely isolated pil- benefactors of tfie chapel of Mary; tfie grims, but cities and provinces in a body, whole extent of this blessed rock shone who repaired to Roc-Amadour. “ In 1546,” with votive offerings of gold, pearls, and says Mr. de Malleville, in fiis Chronicles of precious stones ; Spanish princesses worked Quercy, “ on tfie 24tfi of June, tfie day and its rich hangings with their own hands, and feast of Corpus Christi and of St. John, fourteen lamps of massive silver, tfie twist- was tfie great pardon of Roc-Amadour ; to ed chains of which formed a magnificent which the concourse of people of the king- network, lighted it up night and day. By dom, and of foreigners, was so great, that a contrast found only in Christianity, the several persons, of all ages and of each sex, altar of the Madonna was of wood, as in were suffocated in the crowd, and a very tfie days of St. Amadour, and tfie miracu- great number of tents were pitched all lous image was a little statue of dark oak, around in fields, like a great encampment.” hardly trimmed. A remarkable object in Tfie gifts received by the sanctuary of tfie roof of tfie chapel, in a belfiy, sur- Rock-Amadour were of great magnificence: rounded by brilliant windows of stained among them appears tfie forest of Mont- glass, was a small bell without any rope, Salvy, given in 1119, by Odo, Count of which sounded by itself, whenever it pleas- La Marche, “ to tfie Blessed Mary of Roc- ed tfie “ Star of the Sea” to manifest her Amadour; ” the lands of Fornellas and power in favor of vessels in distress which Orbanella, “for tfie good of the souls of called upon her amidst tfie wastes of his relatives,” by Alpfionsus IX., King of ocean. Castile and Toledo, in 1181. The Yirgin of Quercy was too brilliant a In tfie year 1202, Sancfio YII., King of prey to escape from Protestantism. On Navarre, gave a revenue of forty-eight the third of September, 1592, Duras took pieces of gold to light tfie chapel of Notre possession of Roc-Amadour; tfie crosses Dame; and in 1208, Savaric, Prince of were broken, the images disfigured, tfie Mauleon, a great captain and famous trou- rich vestments burnt and torn up into badour, gave as pure and perpetual alms, shreds, the bells' melted down, and the to tfie Blessed Mary of Roc-Amadour, fiis body of St. Amadour, crushed with strokes land of Lisleau, with absolute exemption 45 of the hammer, was profanely cast into the 354 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE flames. 1 The atheists of 1793 completed these devastations. At the present time, grass covers the city; shrubs grow on the ruins of the citadel; tufts of grass spring up between the disjointed stones of the magnificent flight of two hundred and * * seventy-eight steps, which leads from the city to the airy sanctuary of Mary; the guitar of the can- tadours of Languedoc no longer celebrates the miracles of Our Lady; and the night wind alone whistles in that antique chapel, whence economy has banished the organ. The Blessed Yirgin of Roc-Amadour might now call herself the Yirgin of Ruins, and yet she still works miracles. The pilgrimage to Our Lady of Liesse in Picardy, not so old as those of the south of France, as it does not date farther back than the twelfth century, surpasses them in celebrity. The origin of the statue of the Blessed Yirgin, which adorns this holy place, is very marvellous; the tradition has been preserved, not only in the pro¬ vince of France where it is found, but also in the Holy Land; 3 we are assured even that it exists in the archives of the Knights of Malta. 3 The tradition, which has a de¬ cided Oriental air, is as follows : Foulques of Anjou, King of Jerusalem, having rebuilt the fortress of Bersabee, four leagues from Ascalon, to protect the frontier of his kingdom against the incur¬ sions of the Saracens, confided the care of it to the brave and pious knights of St. ( 1 ) Odo de G-issey, Histoire de Roc-Amadour. (*) See Histoire de Notre Dame de Liesse, by the Abbe Villette, Addit. au disc, prelim., p. 100. John of Jerusalem. This valiant garrison often engaged the infidels who held the an¬ cient country of the Philistines for the Sul¬ tan of Egypt. One day the knights of St. John, among whom were three brothers of the ancient and opulent house of Eppes, in Picardy, fell into an ambuscade, and in spite of prodigies of valor, were taken and laden with chains by the Mussulmans, who sent them into Egypt. The lords of Eppes had the lofty mien, the tall stature, and the heroic bearing of the ancient nobles of northern France. The sultan at once singled them out, and desirous of gaining them over to his false prophet, he threw them into a dungeon to reduce their courage, and then held before their eyes the most enti¬ cing prospects, in order to draw them into apostacy. The three warriors, who had been inaccessible to fear, were deaf to the clink of gold and the voice of ambition. The sultan, deceived in his expectations, sent to them the most celebrated imaums, to argue with them upon faith. The good knights, through hatred of Islamism, be¬ came all at once subtile theologians, and defended Christianity as well in dispute as they had often done with the shield on their arm and the lance in their grasp. The sultan now deemed that his honor re¬ quired him to subdue the captives, and his opposition increasing with their resistance, he swore that the knights of St. John should follow the standard of the prophet even if it cost him half Egypt. He had a ( s ) Histoire de Notre Dame de Liesse, pp. 10 11, et 12. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 355 handsome, chaste, accomplished daughter, every way worthy of a better faith; he sent her to the dungeon where the French knights were languishing in fetters, and bade her to set before them a frightful pic¬ ture of the punishments reserved for them. The knights received the princess with those testimonies of respect which were at that time lavished upon ladies; but they repelled her insinuations with the resolute courage of men who accept martyrdom, and explained to her their belief in a manner so persuasive that the Moslem lady began to dream and reflect on Christ and his Blessed Mother. A miraculous and re¬ splendent image of Mary, which, it is said, was brought by angels to the pious cham¬ pions of the Christian faith, completed the conversion of the young infidel. One night, she bribed with gold the guards of the three French warriors, and penetrating into their prison with a casket full of pre¬ cious stones, fled with them from her father’s palace. After passing the Nile in a boat prepared for their reception, the fugitives directed their course towards Alexandria, hoping perhaps, to conceal themselves for a time in the Coptic monasteries of the desert of St. Macarius ; but after marching for some hours, the princess, exhausted with fatigue, wished to rest for a little while, and in spite, of the immediate danger, the three knights of St. John, resolving to keep good guard, made her sit down in a field of dhourra, then in full verdure, and seated themselves at a respectful distance. The princess fell asleep, and her travelling companions, after struggling in vain against the drowsi¬ ness which followed long nights without rest, slept soundly also. No one knows how long their slumber continued. The knight of Eppes, the eld¬ est of the three, was the first to awake; the sun was beginning to gild the tops of the trees, when he heard the sweet singing of birds. The crusader looked at the land¬ scape with great surprise : he had gone to sleep in sight of the Nile and the pyramids under the fan-like branches of a palm, and he awoke beneath a gnarled oak, beside a crystal spring, on the freshest of turf enameled with white daisies. A short dis¬ tance off, the dark round towers of an old baronial castle reminded him of the manor where he had left his weeping mother, at his departure for the Holy Land. A shep¬ herd, who was driving his sheep to the fields, relieved his perplexity ; the castle which he beheld was his own castle of Mar- chais, and he had awakened in Picardy, beneath the avenue which his fathers had planted. He blessed the Holy Yirgin, and awakened his companions, whose astonish¬ ment was as great as his own. The image of the oriental Madonna was still in their hands ; they reared a handsome church to enshrine it, and the Moslem prin¬ cess received baptism in the cathedral of Laon. We may, without scruple believe that this little statue of Mary came into France by more natural means ; but what it is im¬ possible to doubt is, that it was brought from the Holy Land by three lords of Eppes, knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The most illustrious names of the mon¬ archy figure in the list of pilgrims to Our 356 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE Lady of Liesse. We read there those of the Duke of Burgundy, Louis II. of Bour¬ bon, Prince of Conde, Duke of Mercoeur ; of Prince Albert Henry of Ligne, of Madam Henrietta Frances of France, Queen of England, of the princes of Longueville, Marshal DAncre, Mademoi¬ selle de Guise, the Count Egmont, of Louis, Duke of Orleans, brother of Charles YI., of Charles YII., King Rene, Louis XI., Francis I., Henry II., Charles IX., Queen Mary of Medicis, Louis XIII., Ann of Austria, Louis XIV., etc. Several of these great personages, not satisfied with leaving rich presents at Our Lady of Liesse, placed their statues there : that of Louis II. of Bourbon, Prince of Conde, was of gold. Mary dArquin, then grand Marshal of Poland, and subsequently queen of that kingdom, came to the chapel of Our Lady in 1671 ; she offered to the Blessed Virgin a child in silver, representing Prince Alex¬ ander Sobieski, her son, with a golden chain enriched with diamonds, to testify that she devoted him to the Mother of God, as her slave. 1 This sanctuary was pillaged like the others by the Huguenots ; the Revolution came to glean what was left. The chapel of Our Lady of Liesse still attracts, at the present day, a great con¬ course of pilgrims. In the legend of St. Liphard de Meung, who lived in 550, mention is made of the town of Clery, and of an oratory dedicated ( 1 ) Histoire de Notre Dame de Liesse, pp. 10, 11, et 12. there to the Blessed Virgin. In 1280, some ploughmen placed there a little statue of Our Lady, which they had one day turned up under their ploughshare. This discovery made a sensation, and attracted the attention of the most illustrious nobles of the time. Among these, Simon de Melun, a great baron, who had accompanied St. Louis to Africa, and whom Philip the Fair elevated to the rank of marshal of France, contemplated founding a collegiate church there ; but his glorious death, at the siege of Courtray, prevented his exe¬ cuting this pious project, which his widow and son made it their duty to accomplish. After his victories in Flanders, Philip the Fair, who had prospered under the protec¬ tion of Mary, was struck with the con¬ course of the faithful who repaired to Our Lady of Clery ; he increased the number of the canons, and resolved to rebuild the church ; but death, which defeats so many projects, religious as well as others, left him, in this respect, no other merit than his good intention. The church, neverthe¬ less, was begun in his reign, and continued, through the munificence of his third son, Charles, Duke of Orleans. Philip of Valois, that noble prince, who said to his soldiers, in a conquered land, “Respect the churches! ” completed that of Our Lady, which the English Salisbury pillaged during the celebrated siege of Orleans. Louis XI., who put new sleeves in his old doublets, to wear them till they were threadbare, but who well knew how to act his part as king, when he pleased, built the church of Clery, gave it 2,330 golden crowns, settled upon it great revenues, BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 357 erected it into a royal chapel, and richly endowed its canons. This monument, the object of so much expense and care, wgs destroyed by' fire in 1472, as they had just finished roofing it. “The whole was burnt and consumed,” says the chronicle of Louis XI. ; but the church was rebuilt anew under the inspec¬ tion of the king’s secretary. Louis XI., having recovered his health at Clery, and attributing his recovery to the Blessed Virgin, enriched its collegiate church with fresh donations, and had his tomb prepared in it, “ He placed himself in it several times,” says one of his histo¬ rians, “to see whether the place fitted his body, and was well proportioned to receive it after his death.” He was interred there, according to his desire. His wife, Charlotte of Savoy, was laid there near him, some time after. The Huguenots, who respected tombs of kings as little as they did altars of saints, broke down the statue of Louis XI., and violated his royal tomb for the sake of plunder. This tomb, reconstructed by Louis XIII., was mutilated again during the Be volution, and restored by Louis XVIII. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin still reigns there, with the greatest fervor, in the ancient church of Louis XI. The pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Thorn, near Chalons-sur-Marne, began in the first years of the fifteenth century. On the eve of the feast of the Annunciation, the year 1419, two young shepherds who were tending their sheep by the side of a small chapel dedicated to St. John the Bap¬ tist, perceived a bright light in the midst of a bramble bush near them. The fore¬ most sheep, frightened at this light, ran away, but the young lambs came near the bush ; the shepherds followed their exam¬ ple, and discovered a little statue of the Blessed Virgin, holding in her arms her divine Infant. The miraculous light hav-* ing increased when the night came on, the people ran from all points whence it could be seen ; and as the spot where this prod¬ igy took place was very elevated, it could be verified from a distance of ten leagues round about. The Bishop of Chalons, at the head of his chapter, and several par¬ ish priests of the neighboring villages, came in procession to the place. They found the bush as green as in spring ; they took out the little statue of the Madonna, and transferred it to the small chapel of St. John the Baptist, which was near at hand. This prodigy attracted all the faithful of Champagne to the chapel, which soon be¬ came a celebrated pilgrimage. With the offerings of the pilgrims, a superb church was built from the designs of an Irish architect; this work was continued with perseverance ; in spite of the wars with the English, the inhabitants, though im¬ poverished and plundered, did not hesitate to leave their plows to go and bring stones from the interior of Lorraine. The work went on with fresh activity when Charles VII. sent a considerable sum to continue this fine edifice. It took a century to build it, and during that century, in spite of wars, of the black plague, of famine, of all the scourges, in fine, of which the English were certainly the worst, the same fervor had been kept up. The cities of Chalons 358 HISTORY OP THE DEVOTION TO THE and Yerdun contributed to the decoration of this edifice, which was to perpetuate the memory of the miraculous bush. The one gave to it superb stained glass, which told the history of the miracle ; the other, mag¬ nificent bells ; the liberal donations of the 'faithful, great and small, rich and poor, did the rest. During the Huguenot wars, the English Protestants, masters of part of Champagne, having heard of the riches contained in the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Thorn, re¬ solved to plunder and destroy it; but the proprietor of the place, a nobleman full of courage and faith, had the beautiful church fenced in with palisades, and having put himself at the head of a handful of young men collected together by patriotism and devotion to Mary, succeeded in repulsing the enemy and saving the altar of the Ma¬ donna. Forced to beat a retreat, the Eng¬ lish behaved like Yandals ; they fired a final volley at the stained glass windows, and destroyed a great part of them. Nev¬ ertheless, by a kind of prodigy, the famous pane of glass on which is represented the finding of the miraculous statue remained untouched. In memory of that fortunate day, the trustees of the Church of Our Lady of the Thorn, down to the Revolu¬ tion, annually presented to the descendants of the nobleman who had saved it from profanation and pillage, two blessed swords, which they received on the feast of the Assumption, at the foot of the altar of the Blessed Virgin. A solemn procession takes place in this church every year, on the 15 th of August; it is composed of a crowd of delicate young children, who have been vowed to wear white in honor of the Blessed Virgin ; each holds a taper ; these are the suppliants of Mary. Science issued a sentence of death against them from their entrance into the world ; their mothers devoutly appealed to the Blessed Virgin, and they hope, thanks to her aid and support, to be able to save these frail plants, who grow beneath the shade of her holy protection, and who need it to acclimate themselves upon earth. Nothing is more affecting than to see these little angels, clothed in white, and pale as the flowers which form the wreaths round their heads, kneeling at the feet of Mary, and beseeching her, by repeating the prayer which is dictated to them, without as yet understanding its meaning, to pre¬ serve their poor little lives, which are at the same time those of their mothers. When the rosy tints of health have re¬ appeared on their infantine faces, when at length the seventh year has passed over their young heads, and they are about to leave off the white livery of the Blessed Virgin, with what joy do their happy mo¬ thers bring them fo the mass of thanksgiv¬ ing ! What heartfelt prayers arise then to Our Lady of the Thorn at that altar! There exists in the Vosges a pilgrimage, which keeps up among poor women a su¬ perstition which partakes at the same time of Christian and maternal feeling. About the year 1070, a religious of Senones built on the bank of a solitary torrent a hermit¬ age and a chapel, where people came to pray to Our Lady of Meix ; the pilgrimage was subsequently discontinued, or sup¬ pressed. At the present day, the chapel — BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 359 has fallen to ruin, and a half-broken stone cross alone towers amid the ruins; but underneath these ruins there are subter¬ raneous vaults, and a shapeless stone altar yet tells where they still come to lay those little children whom death has smitten on the threshold of life, and who have been unable to receive the sacred sign which would have made them like unto the angels. “ No sooner are they laid upon this stone,” says the mountaineer who serves as a guide to the traveller in this dark crypt, “ than their eyes open again, a slight breathing escapes from their little lips closed by death, the water of baptism flows upon their foreheads ; then they fall asleep again, to ascend to heaven.” By digging a little into the ground, the remains of these poor little flowers of humanity, which withered at the icy breath of death in the first hour of their morning, are found round about the altar dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, who raises up the little children to life, that they may go to Jesus Christ; that ignorant but exalted love which came to beg the miracle of Mary, interred them beneath her wing, that she might not forget them! Incredulity may declaim at this super¬ stition of the heart; tender and pious souls will find in it only a motive for gentle com¬ miseration. No doubt, more than one mo¬ ther has been deceived in thinking that she saw the cold lips of her child become reanimated with her kisses, to receive the sacred water ; but whoever should dare to advance that Mary cannot perform miracles as great when she pleases, would be, to say the truth, a bold mortal. The Pyrenees, those noble larchcrowned mountains whose bowels formerly enclosed mines of gold, and where cascades, glittering in the sun, fall from so prodigious a height, and bound so far from their native rocks, as to resemble a long piece of silvery gauze unrolled in the air ; the Pyrenees, some spots of which, fresh and graceful as the Eden of old, are saddened by the fall of gigantic rocks, which revive the idea of chaos ; the Pyrenees are not without sanc¬ tuaries dedicated to Mary: the oldest and most famous is that of Our Lady of Heas, the resort of the inhabitants of all the val¬ leys of Bearn and Bigorre. Among the precipices of Heas, an altar has been erect¬ ed, where the goatherd would never have dared to perch a temporary shed against the storm ; the Romans would have dedi¬ cated this altar to the genius of storms— the Christians have erected it to her who appeases the winds and the waves. On the 8th of September, the Nativity of Mary, and on the 15th of August, the day of her glorious death, a prodigious crowd assemble at Our Lady of Heas from the neighboring valleys. Each pilgrim, as he returns, breaks off a piece of the blessed rock, which he carries home with great respect, as a relic to his cottage. The mountain pilgrimages are pictur¬ esque ; but how affecting are those of the sea shore! How much good does a sanc¬ tuary of Mary effect whose towering spire seems to show us heaven, from the height of a promontory whence it is descried afar off on the deep! The mariner, who sadly bids it adieu, as he departs from the land where he leaves his wife and little children, HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE 360 I ]iails it with rapture on his return; that steeple looks to him beautiful as hope, and mingles with that anxiety which oppresses his heart in spite of himself, when he is on the point of beholding his family again, whom he has quitted for months, and per¬ haps years, a certain religious confidence, which makes him believe that all goes well, thanks to the protection of the “good Vir¬ gin.” .And then, it was perhaps Our Lady who preserved from shipwreck both himself and his ship’s crew; and the first care of these poor people, on landing, will be to go, barefooted, as they did in the Middle Ages, to hang upon the walls of the seaside chapel the offering which they vowed, when the hurricane was shivering the masts and rending the sails. “La Vigie,” a newspaper of Dieppe related, last year, in its number for October 3, one of those moving scenes which make particu¬ lar impression upon the people, notwith¬ standing the infidelity of the times. “A ceremony of a truly affecting nature took place yesterday at the church of St James,” says that journal. “ The crew of the lugger L’Automne, which encountered so violent a tempest on the third of September, gave up all for lost, when it entered the mind of the master, Louis Couteur, to make, in the name of his companions, a vow to Our Lady of Good Help, the patroness of mar¬ iners. He had scarcely pronounced the vow, when a sunbeam, suddenly breaking through the intense darkness, which envel¬ oped them, came to revive their hopes and restore their sunken courage. This vow those brave fellows in their gratitude ful¬ filled yesterday in the chapel of Our Lady of Good Help. Yesterday, accordingly, all the crew, who had escaped from the tempest, proceeded, barefooted and bare¬ headed, in their sailor garb, carrying on their sturdy shoulders the ex-voto or votive offering, placed on a litter, and surrounded with blue streamers, to the chapel of Our Lady, accompanied by their relatives and friends, and a considerable crowd of people. An address, full of feeling, was made to them by the parish priest, who after the mass of thanksgiving, recited the ‘ De Pro- fundis’ for the captain and four sailors who perished in the waves.” Our Lady of Grace is one of the most ancient seaside chapels of Normandy ■ this sanctuary was built, as we have already mentioned, in consequence of a vow made, in a great tempest, by a Norman duke, who was very devout to the Blessed Virgin. The site of this handsome chapel, set in a grove of large trees, in a grassy plain enamelled with flowers, is beautiful and calm, like the rich and fresh landscapes of the magnificent province of which it forms part. Our Lady of Grace appears like the fortress of Honfleur ; from the little moun¬ tain which it crowns, the mouth of the Seine is visible, and farther on the ocean, with its long waves of dark green, which receives in its bosom the river of blue waters. Two roads lead to the chapel: the one rough and rocky, the other smooth and even ; once on a time the inhabitants of Honfleur took delight in tracing it, grad¬ ing down its steepness, covering it with small, fine gravel, so that a gracious prin¬ cess, whose noble bounty had endeared her ter these parts, might ascend it without BLESSED VIRGIN MART. fatigue, when she went to offer her prayers and vows to the Blessed Virgin. The hur¬ ricane of revolutions has borne the noble lady afar, as the wind does a rose leaf; but the remembrance of her charity still sub¬ sists. One day, not long ago, groups of specta¬ tors covered the little grassy esplanade, which is crowned by Our Lady of Grace ; they clung to the jutting rocks, hung on to the bushes, and climbed the trees, all eyes were turned seaward, looking out for some expected object. The enthusiasm was great, but religious and somewhat mourn¬ ful ; prayers ascended to heaven, and tears fell from many eyes ; a vessel passed under the heights of Our Lady, a ship draped in black, and a coffin on her deck. . . . The prayers of the clergy descend upon her ; the people wept! ... On that day there was no chapel of the Blessed Virgin, on either bank of the Seine, where multitudes of the faithful did not pray for the soul of the great emperor, and Our Lady of Grace was very fervently invoked for that illus¬ trious castaway of fortune, who died on a rock, and, worst of all, where floated the flag of England. Half a league from Pornic, a small sea¬ port ten leagues from Nantes, rises pic¬ turesquely on a height overlooking the ocean, the seaside village and church of St. Mary ; this church, whose steeple tells its remote antiquity, and which contains in its narrow cemetery the grave of a crusader, is held in great veneration among the Breton sailors, who often repair thither to fulfil their vows. Whenever a Breton ves¬ sel passes under its peculiar sail in sight of 46 361 St. Mary’s, the sailors uncover their heads and say the “Hail Mary.” Not a peasant along the coast goes into the sea to bathe, without dipping his hand into the water, and making with it devoutly the sign of the cross, turning his head toward the protect¬ ing sanctuary • the fishermen when tossed about by tempests, which are more danger¬ ous on the coasts than an open sea, cherish hope as long as they can see from a distance the picturesque steeple of the church of St. Mary,—“the Virgin beholds them.” This thought prevents their losing courage, and is in itself an arm of safety. When the tall haughty waves of the Atlantic, driven by a furious wind, come roaring on to the mouths of the sandy bays of Guienne, and when they recede from the shore, sweeping along the pebbles with a hoarse and frightful roaring, if there ap¬ pears in the horizon of the sea a disabled vessel, struggling with all its might against the storm, then to Our Lady of Arcachon, turn the wives, mothers, and children of the sailors of old Aquitaine in prayer for the vessel; which may, if it is wrecked on the coast, cast upon his native shore the corpse of some dear one. This chapel of Mary, where clouds of white sea-gulls come and perch, heralding in shrill cries the coming storm, stands in a wild lonely spot, relieved here and there by some groves of tapering pine. Many sailors and poor women, in alarm, come thither barefoot, dropping the black beads of their rosaries through their rough hands; and many a votive offering, hung upon the ancient walls, announces how often the prayer of faith has been heard by the Holy Virgin. 3G2 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE Our Lady of La Garde, whose thirteenth century chapel of bluish gray limestone stands upon the summit of a high mountain, from which can be seen the Mediterranean, with its islands, its Castle of If, and its waves, whether bright or dark, receives the last thoughts and the last look of the Provencal mariner as he leaves his country. Thither he directs his steps when his ship returns to port, after a voyage in the dis¬ tant countries of the Levant; it is no rare thing to see the sailors climb, on their knees, the summit crowned by that old chapel, to return thanks to her, whom they call, with quite Italian familiarity, “the good Mother of Protection,” for having preserved them from the perils of the sea, the wind, and the plague. But not to mariners only is the Madonna of Marseilles good and ready to extend her aid ; she is the guardian of the city, which flies to her, with pious confidence, in all calamities. When the cholera, which desolated and depopulated France, appeared on the soil of Provence, the ancient and beautiful Phocean city knelt, as one man, before its beloved protectress, who did not fail to succor it. Moreover to testify its gratitude to her, Marseilles has just consecrated to her a magnificent statue of solid silver, of admirable workmanship. It is well! In Corsica, Our Lady of Lavisina, seated within sight of the blue waves of the Mediterranean, wafts to her pilgrims, as well as to the ships whose sails vanish in the horizon, the perfume of her orange- trees, as a charming token of her presence. This sanctuary, dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, was for a long time obscure, and the coral fishers, who frequent that fine portion of the coast of the island, alone went there to pray ; when about the middle of the seventeenth century, the Madonna of Corsica worked' miracles, the fame of which extended even to Italy. The church was then enlarged and orna¬ mented ; the faithful of the island crowded to it, barefooted and with tapers in their hands, on the feast of the patroness ; which is still done with the same devotion as of old. The picture, which adorns this chapel, the work of an Italian painter, represents Mary as a child over whose head St. Anne gracefully drops a transparent veil. The origin of the celebrated pilgrimage of Our Lady of the Hermits, the Loretto of Switzerland, dates back to the heroic times of Charlemagne. The saint who first inhabited the hermitage of Einsiedeln, was a young Suabian lord, named Meinrad, be¬ longing to the illustrious family of the counts of Hohenzollern. Gifted with that pensive temperament which still forms the prominent feature of the German charac¬ ter, Meinrad, when scarcely past his early youth, loved to bury himself in the dense woods, which then covered his country, and to commune alone with his God, by the sound of bubbling springs, flowing beneath the shady oaks. Ofttimes night overtook him attentively reading the Scriptures in an old gold-clasped volume, which he had inherited from his fathers, or meditating profoundly on the miracles and benefits of the Blessed Virgin. His soul soared aloft in solitude ; despising the world and its worthless goods, Meinrad made his vows in the Abbey of Bichenau, which he sub- BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 363 sequently left to occupy a small hermitage built on the top of Mount Etzel. There he spent seven years ; but the good. odor of his virtues descended to the depths of the valleys ; the herdsmen and wood cutters came to him, then great lords, then noble ladies, humbly to solicit his prayers and counsels. These acts of homage troubled the young hermit, who loved naught but contemplative prayer and the peaceful woods ; one night he secretly left his her¬ mitage, carrying with him, as his sole pos¬ session, the statue of the Blessed Virgin, the only ornament of his chapel, and took refuge in a wood in the canton of Schwytz, which bore the characteristic name of the “ dark forest.” Thirty-two years afterward, he was as¬ sassinated by miscreants, with whom he had shared the water of his fountain and wild fruits of the forest; the birds of heaven pursued the murderers, who under¬ went the chastisement which their crime deserved. 1 After Meinrad’s tragical death, his cell, where miracles were wrought, was unten¬ anted for almost half a century. At the end of that time, a small colony of hermits came and settled there under the care of St. Benno, of the ducal house of Burgundy. Thence the surname of Our Lady of the Hermits, which was given to the chapel of Einsiedeln. St. Eberhard applied his large property to the erection of a monastery in this place, and became its first abbot. ( 1 ) The murderers were betrayed by two ravens who pursued them incessantly as far as Zurich; they even made their way through the windows of the inn which the assassins had entered, and did The chapel of the Blessed Virgin, as it was in the time of St. Benno, was placed in the great church of the convent, of which St. Meinrad’s cell formed the choir; the French destroyed this chapel, which had resisted the furious assaults of Protestant- ism ; but G-od permitted that the miracu¬ lous statue of the Blessed Virgin should be saved in time. In 1803 it was replaced with great solemnity in the church of Ein¬ siedeln, which in 1817 recovered part of its ancient magnificence, from the assembling of the most distinguished artists, and the abundant alms of the faithful. The monastery of Einsiedeln does not rise beneath a mild sky ; its steeple, cov¬ ered with snow most of the year, is out¬ lined upon dull clouds, which threaten long frosts ; at its base extends a barren coun¬ try, where scanty harvests ripen with diffi¬ culty ; fruit is rare and insipid, and the fields are enlivened only by the lilac flower of the potato ; but here Our Lady delights to exhibit her power, and the rocky road of the hallowed mountain is often bedewed with the noblest blood of Germany ; more than one count of the empire, more than ■one noble German lady, has made it a duty to ascend the Einsiedeln barefoot. There still lingers a spark of the ancient fervor of Frederick’s knights in old Germany. As to the Catholic population of Switzer¬ land, nothing can equal their confidence in Our Lady of the Hermits, and there are few families, even in the most dis¬ not leave them till they had witnessed their pun¬ ishment. In memory of this event the Abbey of Reichenau bears two ravens on its seal. HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE u-± tant cantons, who omit this ancient pil¬ grimage. “ The first thing that strikes the sight, in the fine church of Einsiedeln,” says a French traveller, who visited it in 1839, “ is the miraculous chapel, where the un¬ pretending image of the Blessed Virgin is exposed. Mass was said there, and a great crowd of the faithful—men, women, and children, of all ranks and of all ages —-joined in the holy sacrifice, fervently waiting for the time of Communion ; others were crowding round the confessionals; others, having already received, were hear¬ ing a mass of thanksgiving in the side chapels. Almost every canton of Switzer¬ land was represented. There you saw the thick bodices of Fribourg, the short petti¬ coat of G-uggisberg, the waist ornamented with silver chains, and the black lace- * trimmed cap, of the women of Berne, the white crests of Schwytz, the velvet collar of Schaffhausen, and the little casquette of the Yalais. In a group, from which other pilgrims kept aloof with a kind of respect, wn recognized the ribands, shawls, and ele¬ gant mien of the women of France. The men, less numerous, and more uniformly dressed, still betrayed their origin by cer¬ tain diversities of physiognomy. One could distinguish among them French, Oer- mans, and Italians ; but the respect and fervor of all were alike.” In a visit of devotion to the abbey of Einsiedeln, Queen Hortense laid upon the altar of the celebrated Swiss Madonna a superb branch of hortensia, made of large diamonds. Volumes have been written in Switzer¬ land, on the miracles worked by the Ma¬ donna of Einsiedeln ; from these marvel¬ lous accounts we select only one fantastic legend of the seventeenth century, which we find in a very rare devotional work, printed at Fribourg. The Swiss piously believe in the authenticity of this strange fact; the French are free to disbelieve it. In one of those immense halls of the Middle Ages, the walls of which were adorned with frescoes, of the most frightful character, and around which were seen those stone seats, found only in the feudal manors of Germany, some Swiss gentle¬ men were seated at table, passing round the Bhenish wine in large goblets. In the very midst of this national feast, and while a young officer, by name Berthold, was saying the wildest nonsense, a pilgrim was introduced, who was going alone and bare¬ foot to Our Lady of the Hermits, but was driven to seek shelter from a coming tem¬ pest, that already made the great pines of a neighboring forest creak, and rolled in fury the waves of the lake, which extended at the foot of the mountain. The nobleman arose from his place, and courteously led his new guest to the corner of a wide Gothic fireplace, where whole trunks of oak were burning. This duty fulfilled, Berthold, with no respect for the austere presence of the traveller, resumed the fool¬ ish and impious conversation which he had interrupted, now and then giving a glance at the pilgrim, to ascertain the effect pro¬ duced upon him by his audacious and wicked words ; but the pale and emaciated countenance of the holy man was as rigid as marble. When the banquet was over, BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 3G5 the guests called for their horses, to return home. “The night is dark,’ 7 said the lord to the young miscreant, who had the honor to belong to his family ; “ you have to pass through a defile which is haunted by those wandering spirits who move about the world in the dark, to do mischief. .... I am afraid you may meet with some sad ad¬ venture ; take my advice and stay.” “ Bah ! ” laughingly replied the officer, who was in the French service, “I fear neither God nor devil ! ” “ Are you quite sure ? ” said the pilgrim in a tone of dark raillery, which startled the rest. “ So sure, my good pilgrim, that I drink to Lucifer, and ask him to escort me to¬ night. if he is disengaged.”- “You would richly deserve it,” cried the lord of the place. “We will pray to Our Lady for you,” said the traveler ; “you will stand in need of it.” “ I will not trouble you to do so,” replied Berthold, saluting the holy man in derision. A few minutes after, he was riding down the heathy slope, which was crowned by the little fortified castle, singing as he went the refrain of a drinking song. The hour was late, the silence profound, and the solitude absolute ; the moon full and solitary, peered out, at times, amid huge black clouds, in a starless sky, and broad flashes of lightning darted across the horizon. The young nobleman, for some cause or other, stopped singing, but kept swearing. At length he arrived at the dangerous pass to which his relative had alluded, and which bore the name of the Devil’s Way, a name common enough in Switzerland. It was a deep gorge hollowed out between the reddish sides of two moun¬ tains, a sinister place, where the Alpine goatherd would scarce trust himself in broad day. At that late hour, when the stillness and darkness made superstitions formidable, the young Swiss, uneasy at times, mechanically put his hand upon his sword ; then ashamed of himself, laughed at his fear. “ I have solemnly called upon Lucifer to serve me as a torch-bearer,” said the miscreant, who wrnnted to give his pride the satisfaction of a bravado; “but he turns a deaf ear .... or else hell is empty.” The thunder rolled afar, and by a long gleam lighting up the woods and mountains he beheld two hideous dwarfs at his horse’s head,—“Ah!” said the officer, who felt himself growing pale ; then, resuming all his insolence, “Begone, infernal crew!” cried he, furiously brandishing his sword ; “ye two miserable bergmannlein (dwarfs)! you might frighten a cowherd of the Alps.” The bergmannlein disappeared, and the galloping of two horses, who, swift as the wind, came down the almost perpendicular side of the mountain, made Berthold quickly turn his head. They were two horsemen, covered with black armor, and mounted on horses of the same color. Their eyes glared like burning lamps through their closed vizors ; on their arms hung, by a small chain of polished steel, the morgen- stern of ancient Germany, a mace studded with long iron spikes, still reeking with human blood ; and will-o’-the-wisps played on their helmets as crests. - — . . ...—-——-t HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE 366 The dark horsemen silently drew up on either side of the pale officer, snatched the reins from his trembling hands, and the three horses set off with the swiftness of the wind; mountains after mountains dis¬ appeared ; sparks flashed from the flinty pebbles of the road; space was seen only to be traversed. Soon they passed frail bridges of flexible branches, beneath which roared the cataracts, and where the boldest chamois hunter scarce dared to set foot. Thus they reached the region of eternal snows, and the horses with redoubled fury plunged on toward a gulf, with a torrent rolling faintly far down in its dizzy abyss. Suddenly, from amid those dark waters, which gleamed at times with subterraneous tires, were heard a multitude of deep hoarse voices. “Vengeance! vengeance!” they cried; “give us the seducer, the false friend, the duellist! ” “We bring him!” replied the horsemen, brandishing their heavy maces. A cold sweat run down Berthold’s fore¬ head ; his hair in terror stood on end, and his features withered in convulsive horror ; for among these accusing voices, were ac¬ cents but too well known which went to his very soul ; remorse began to speak as loudly as fear. ‘ ‘ Give us the lawless gambler, the slan¬ derer, the blasphemer, the perjurer! ” cried out the voices from the abyss. Berthold’s dark guides, laughing within their helmets, with a metallic chuckle, horrible to hear, replied to the sub¬ terranean voices, “We bring him! we bring him! ” “ Bring us the impious wretch! ” “We bring him ! ” howled out the black horsemen. Berthold was all but insane. The three horsemen were at the very edge of an abrupt rock, where yawned the abyss which so imperiously demanded the Swiss noble. Another second and all would be over! . . . . When lo, the two horse¬ men, in the midst of their mad gallop, suddenly become motionless, like two equestrian statues of black marble. The faint murmur of a bell had just died away upon the .snowy plain; it was the midnight-office sounding from Our Lady of Einsiedeln. Berthold saw that the influ¬ ence of the Blessed Virgin had paralyzed the terrible power which was dragging him to hell, and hastily making the sign of the cross, he commended himself ardently and sincerely to the protecting Madonna, who seemed to interpose between him and the exemplary punishment which he ac¬ knowledged, with compunction, that he deserved. The bell ceased, and the young- officer felt his heart shrink with horror when he saw the two horsemen violently moving upon their black coursers. But the voice of repentance had reached Mary’s starry throne, and the phantoms, after ges¬ tures of rage and regret, plunged to the bottom of the gulf, leaving Berthold on the brink. The moon now emerged from the clouds, which had before obscured the sky, shone like a golden lamp in the high vault of heaven and bathed the scene in a glori¬ ous light; to his great surprise the officer discovered, that he was on one of the highest plateaus of Mount Bighi, from which he had great difficulty in descending. BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. Some days afterward, to the profound as¬ tonishment of his festive companions, the young lord went barefoot to Our Lady of the Hermits, and made a vow, in expiation of his orgies, that no beverage should henceforth pass his lips but the water of the spring. In an obscure corner of the canton of Unterwald, on the border of a path, which like a long serpent, winds among the fallen boulders which cover the mountain side, at the narrowest point of the passage, where the traveller, contemplating at his feet still deeper precipices, and above his head more frightful fragments, advances between two threats of death, rises a small open oratory, decorated with homely pictures represent¬ ing the Blessed Virgin. This sweet image, thus placed far away from every habitation and all succor, has received the name of Our Lady of the Passer-by. This place, often accursed, was called, long ago, the Devil’s Strainer. After various -attempts to dimin¬ ish the danger, they thought of building a chapel there, and placing in it a holy image, that no one might forget, however great might be his fear or danger, to invoke the name of our good God, and make the sign of the cross. But where find workmen bold enough to go and work there ? Sev¬ eral, however, volunteered and went, after arming their hearts with piety by the help of the Holy Mass. And the Mother of God, to prove to these pious workmen that their courage in contending with supersti¬ tious terrors and real dangers was pleasing to her, secured the tottering rocks by threads of the Virgin fastened to blades of grass and the moss of the rock. “ From Q C* h ’ O0 i that time,” say the Swiss of Unterwald, “ the passage has been safe ; no accident happens there, by day or by night. Our Lady is so good, that she protects all that pass by, even those who do not see her, or will not honor her.” 1 The pilgrimage of Maria-Zell, in Austria, hardly yields in celebrity to that of Our Lady of Einsiedeln. Its founder, whose name is lost, was a religious of the Abbey of St. Lambert, who, about the middle of the twelfth century, took up his abode in the valley of Affleuz, in order to win to the faith some still pagan Carintliian tribes. This pious German missionary brought with him a little statue of the Blessed Vir¬ gin, carved of linden wood, which he ex¬ posed to the veneration of his neophytes on the fallen trunk of an aged tree, for want of better pedestal. The Carinthian shepherds sheltered the little Madonna as well as they could beneath a hut like that of the wood-cutters, and came in crowds to pray to her in this poor shed, where their simple petitions were often granted by the powerful Virgin. Such was the humble beginning of that famous shrine, of which the pilgrims in our day are princes and emperors. In 1220, Henry, Margrave of Moravia, and his wife, Agnes, out of gratitude for a wonderful cure obtained through the intercession of Mary, built the stone chapel seen in the midst of the church ; its altar receiving the image, which till then had remained on the trunk of the tree. Louis I., King of Hun¬ gary, after an unexpected victory over the ( 1 ) See L. Veuillot, Voyage en Suisse, 1839. 368 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE Turks, built the church which encloses the chapel. The Mussulmans came to Maria- Zell in 1530, but at the moment when their chief directed the point of his lance against the miraculous statue of the Blessed Vir¬ gin, he was seized with blindness, and his panic-struck soldiers fled. The Emperors Matthias, Ferdinand II., Ferdinand III., and Leopold I., made pilgrimages to Maria- Zell. Maria Teresa made her first com¬ munion there in 1728 ; the Emperor Fran¬ cis went there himself in 1814 ; and the present emperor, who is no less devout to Mary than his great ancestors, has just per¬ formed this pilgrimage with the empress and part of his court; a magnificent offer¬ ing in precious stones marks the munifi¬ cence of the two illustrious pilgrims, who came to implore the support of the Queen of heaven to govern their people wisely and paternally, as did their glorious and Catholic predecessors. On the banks of the Illyrian sea, three hundred and lift}" fathoms above its level, rises a mountain which bears the name of Monte Santo; on the top of this mountain is a Franciscan convent, where people ven¬ erate the miraculous image of St. Mary of Castagnavizza; King Charles X., a benefi¬ cent prince and a pious monarch, reposes there under the guardianship of the hea¬ venly protectress of France; some day, perhaps, when stormy passions are stilled, six feet of French earth may be granted to the descendant of St. Louis, Henry IV., and Louis XIV. In the palatinate of Kalisch, in Poland, there is a small town seated on a height, in a very strong position, the modern for¬ tifications of which were extolled by a traveller who passed through that kingdom about the year 1750. The town, always guarded by a force of artillery, is Czen- stochowa, much more famed for its abbey of Fathers of Death, or religious of the Congregation of St. Paul, which contained a miraculous picture of Mary, than for anything else ; Poles and foreigners flocked to this sanctuary, where every rich pilgrim left magnificent offerings. Besides the pic¬ ture of the Madonna, which the religious affirmed to be the real portrait of the Blessed Virgin painted by St. Luke, a rather bold opinion, they used to exhibit to the veneration of the faithful a relic less disputed ; the table at which the Holy Family took their meals. Polish sentinels of honor were placed at the gates of the sanctuary of Our Lady of Czenstochowa, and at different parts of the convent; fresh blown flowers were laid every morning at the feet of the Blessed Virgin ; but all the sweet and simple grace of the veneration of Mary could not banish from this chapel a religious horror, which chilled one to the very heart. The catacombs, with their lu¬ gubrious accompaniments of human bones, were hardly more frightful than those spec¬ trelike religious, who wore upon their black habits skulls and cross bones, such as we see on mortuary palls, 1 and who had skulls painted in a hundred places in their church. This devotion to Our Lady of Czenstocho¬ wa has been transplanted into France by the Poles in our days. A pious Polish family, residing near Paris, moved by a ( 1 ) Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, t. iii., c. 44. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 369 feeling akin to that which led Hector’s widow to give the renowned name of the Simois to an obscure rivulet in Epirus, conceived the truly touching idea of in¬ augurating the image of the tutelary Ma¬ donna of Poland in an aged oak of the forest of St. G-ermain. On the 13th of August, 1840, a Polish priest, in presence of a numerous attendance of Poles of both sexes, dedicated the holy image in the fine tree, which had been chosen for a temple no doubt for want of money to build one ; then the whole assembly, kneeling on the grass, began to recite, with voices full of emotion and with tears, the litany of the Blessed Yirgin ; then they prayed for the dead, for their distant country; they im¬ plored of Heaven more prosperous days, and retired after reviving their courage with that sentiment of religion which en¬ ables us to bear so much. Belgium has ever been distinguished among all the countries of Europe for its tender devotion to Mary; of the numerous places of pilgrimage which she has pos¬ sessed and still possesses, we will only refer to that of Our Lady of Hal, of which Justus Lipsius, one of the most distin¬ guished scholars of the seventeenth cen¬ tury, has left us an interesting description. Our Lady of Hal, situated in a beauti¬ ful town, surrounded by a pleasant and fertile country watered by the Senne, is considered a charming church even in that Catholic land of ancient Netherland, where the churches are magnificent. The chapel of the Blessed Yirgin is seen on the left. The statue is of wood, gilt, and has a crown of fine gold. With one hand the Blessed t Yirgin supports her Divine Son, and with the other she holds out a lily, that charm¬ ing flower, the emblem of chastity, which the inhabitants of the Pyrenees poetically call Andredana Maria arrosa (the rose of the Yirgin Mary). She formerly wore on her breast six large pearls, with a fine ruby in the centre. Twelve cities, or towns, which had experienced the effects of her protection, provided her dress. Annually, on the first Sunday of September, their deputies brought her twelve magnificent robes, in testimony of gratitude and devo¬ tion. On that day, a solemn procession took place, in which the image was carried in triumph by the deputies of the twelve towns, through the city of Hal and its suburbs. The people of Liege are also accustomed to come thither every year in procession, on Whitsunday. 1 Several princes have contributed to en¬ rich this sanctuary. On the altar, accord¬ ing to Justus Lipsius, were the twelve apostles, and at the ends, angels with torches, all of silver. No altar exhibited so great n number of lamps, coats-of-arms, standards, crosses, chalices, and different figures in gold and silver. Philip the G-ood, Duke of Burgundy, had given to it, among other rich presents, a second statue of the Blessed Yirgin, with a silver knight and soldier, both in complete armor ; his son Charles gave a silver falcon ; the Em¬ peror Maximilian enriched this sanctuary with a tree of gold ; Charles Y. with a coat-of-arms ; Pope Julius II. with a silver ( 1 ) Diva Virgo Hallensis ; Millot, Histoire deg Troubadours, t. i., p. 467. 47 * HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE 370 lamp. On the right were seen the statues of the Emperor Maximilian, of Albert, Duke of Saxony, and of one of their cour¬ tiers on his knees. Above their heads were suspended flags which conquerors had offered to Mary. There was also to be seen a monstrance of silver-gilt, of con¬ siderable weight, given by Henry VIII., King of England. Justus Lipsius himself, not satisfied with having carefully written the history of Our Lady of Hal, hung up his silver pen before the image of Mary. Next to the Holy Sepulchre and St. Peter’s at Eome, there is not in all Chris¬ tendom a more famous pilgrimage than that of “La Santissima Casa di Loretto.” The holy house of Nazareth was venerated by the Christians even in the lifetime of the apostles, and St. Helen enclosed it in a temple which received the name of St. Mary. Under the rule of the Arab caliphs, a crowd of French pilgrims came to adore God and honor his Mother in this poor, simple dwelling, where Jesus and Mary had so long led a laborious and hid¬ den life ; but when the Sedjukide Turks had subdued their old masters, the pilgrims of Europe, who ventured into Syria to visit Jerusalem and Nazareth, suffered barbar¬ ous treatment, the recital of which, rousing with wrath the whole West, hurled it upon Asia. When Godfrey of Bouillon had been pro¬ claimed King of Jerusalem, Tancred, whose lofty deeds have been sung by Tasso, was appointed Governor of Galilee ; this prince, who was very devout to Mary, proved it by the sumptuous offerings with which he enriched the church of Nazareth. After the disastrous expedition of St. Louis, that corner of the earth, which was regarded as the cradle of Christianity, was defended foot by foot by the brave Knights Templars, who shed tears of rage and blood at the sight of the holy places profaned by Saracens. Galilee, whitened with the bones of the Latin warriors, became Mahometan; “ God was not pleased,” says Father Torsellini, 1 “ that the holy house of Mary should re¬ main exposed to the profanations of bar¬ barians ; he transported it by the hands of angels into Slavonia, and thence to the March of Ancona, in the midst of a laurel wood belonging to a pious and noble widow named Lauretta.” “The report goes,” he adds, “that on the arrival of the holy house, the great trees of the Italian forest bowed down in token of respect, and re¬ tained that position till the axe, or old age, had levelled them with the ground.” The church of Loretto, one of the finest in Italy, has been affectionately adorned, by the popes, who have often come thither on a pilgrimage like the common faithful; three gates of chased bronze give entrance into the holy temple, in the centre of which stands the Santa Casa in its covering of white marble, adorned with magnificent bas-reliefs, designed by Bramante, and executed by Sansovino, Sangallo, and Ban- din elli. The miraculous statue of the Madonna is thirty-three inches high ; it is carved out of cedar-wood, covered with magnificent drap¬ ery and placed on an altar glittering with ( 1 ) Historia Lauretana, c. ii., p. 6. * BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. C't ] precious stones. 1 The niche which it oc- Loretto was the ex-voto with which a cele- cupies is said to be covered with plates of brated Florentine composer of the early gold. 2 Before it burn a number of solid years of the eighteenth century, repaid a silver lamps. miracle of the Blessed Virgin. This com- La sala del tesoro no longer displays poser, whose name was Barroni, suddenly, wealth enough to ransom all Italy; but it like Beethoven, lost his hearing ; after in has received, even in our days, very mag- vain exhausting the succor of art, he in- nificent gifts of princes and popes. ’Among voked that of Mary, and set out on a pil- these pious gifts we may mention a gold grimage to Our Lady of Loretto. There % monstrance, set with diamonds, a chalice, he was cured, after praying with faith, and and a censer offered by the Emperor Na- in his gratitude to the Holy Madonna, he poleon to the Madonna ; a silver gilt chalice, composed, by inspiration, in her praise, a set with rubies and aqua marinas, offered, chorus, which, under the title of “ Litanie in 1819, by Prince Eugene Beauharnais ; della Santa Casa,” was performed for the another chalice, adorned with brilliants, by first time on the 15th of August, 1881. his wife, a Princess of Bavaria ; a large This litany was repeated every year after- gold and diamond cross, and a crown of ward for the feast of the Madonna; Ros- amethysts, rubies, and diamonds, offered sini, happening to pass by Our Lady of by the King and Queen of Spain, at their Loretto, was struck with the charm of this pilgrimage to Loretto, in 1816 ; a bouquet composition, and introduced it, we are told, of diamonds offered, in 1815, by Maria into his Tancredi. 3 - Louisa, sister of the King of Spain, Queen The popes have delighted to testify their of Etruria, and Duchess of Lucca; an respect for Mary, by making her miracu- immense heart of very fine gold, with a lous sanctuary of Loretto the object of their precious stone in the centre, suspended devout solicitude. Pope St. Pius V. offered from a chain of emeralds and amethysts, to the Santa Casa two silver statues of St. the gift of the Emperor of Austria to the Peter and St. Paul ; he did still more by Madonna. It would be impossible to en- diverting from its natural channel a river, umerate the precious stones and rich pre- whose sluggish and generally stagnant wa- sents of all kinds offered by princes and ters sent up the most unwholesome exha- kings, under the simple title of dono di lations to the top of the hill, where a small una pia persona, in the register containing town has been formed, under the shadow the names of benefactors to the Santa of the magnificent church of Mary. Gre- Casa. gory XIII. founded a college for young - The beautiful litany of Our Lady of Illyrians, in the actual enclosure of Loretto, (') “ The altar of the Madonna glitters with ( 3 ) “-La vaga nicchia e ricoferta di lame d’oro.’’ gold and precious stones.”—(Italy, by Lady Mor- —(Don Vincenzo Murri, Storia della Santa Casa.) gan, t. iii., c. 25.) ( 3 ) Gazette Musicale. HISTORY OP THE DEVOTION TO THE 372 as if to console the Dalmatians for the loss of the Madonna, who only stopped a mo¬ ment with them, the better to take her flight to the fair shores of Italy. Sixtus V. founded the order of Knights of Loretto, specially devoted to defend the shores of the Italian Mediterranean against the in¬ cursions of barbarians. Benedict XIV. embellished, with truly persevering gen¬ erosity, this sanctuary, where Pius VII., after recovering his liberty, went to kneel before he entered Rome, and where he left, as a memorial of his visit, a superb gold chalice, with this inscription: “Pius VII., sovereign pontiff, restored to liberty on the day of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and coming from France to Rome, left at Loretto this monument of his devo¬ tion and gratitude.” His holiness Gregory XVI. also made a pilgrimage to Loretto. Spain has dedicated to devotion to Mary Mount Montserrat, an isolated mountain, ten leagues from Barcelona, which was, according to the celebrated naturalist Hum¬ boldt, the great Atlas of the ancients, at the foot of which the fine kingdom of Va¬ lencia displayed the golden apples of the garden of the Hesperides. This mountain, which owed its name of Monte Serrato (sawed mountain) to its extraordinary form, seems as if composed of proportioned pieces, which makes it look as if divided and covered with pyramids, or pine cones; so that it appears, from afar, to be the work of men. At a distance, it is a pile of grottoes and Gothic pyramids ; when near, each cone appears a mountain by itself; and all the cones, terminated by needles, or points, which make a great noise when the wind blows, form an enormous mass of about five leagues in circumference. It was probably this singular confirmation that led to the invention of the fable of the giants, who had heaped mountain upon mountain to scale the heavens. On a platform of this celebrated moun¬ tain has been built the superb convent, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, which is one of the most celebrated pilgrimages of Christendom. An inscription, of the year 1239, preserved in the convent above a larger picture of the same period, thus re¬ cords the foundation of this fine monastery: “In the year 808, under the government of the Count of Barcelona, Geoffrey the Hairy, three young shepherds having one night seen a great light descend from the sky, and heard melodious music in the air, informed their parents of it. The bailly and the Bishop of Manresa having hastened, with all this people, to the spot which they pointed out, saw likewise the light from heaven, and after some search, discovered the image of the Blessed Virgin. They de¬ sired to remove it to Manresa ; but having reached the place where the monastery now stands, they could not advance any farther. This prodigy induced the Count of Barcelona to build a convent of women there, for which he obtained nuns from the royal Abbey of Las Puellas of Barcelona ; the first abbess of Our Lady of Montserrat was his daughter Richilda, who took pos¬ session of it about the year 895. This community of nuns subsisted till 976, when Borrell, Count of Barcelona, with the con¬ sent of the pope, placed Benedictine monks at Montserrat.” BLESSED VIRGIN MART. O A O I O The convent of Montserrat is a grand and noble edifice, situated on a very nar¬ row ledge, projecting from the mountain, which bears the name of St. Mary’s plat¬ form ; immense rocks project above it, which seem every moment ready to fall; it is defended by the steep points of the mountain, as natural fortifications, and on the accessible side by six strong towers. Besides the convent and the church of Our Lady, the fortified enclosure contains the house of entertainment for travellers, the hospital, and infirmary. The church of Our Lady of Montserrat has only a nave, but is nevertheless very spacious; the choir. stalls are of very remarkable work¬ manship. The face of the Blessed Virgin in this statue is almost black, like those of Toledo and G-uadaloupe, and many others visited in Spain ; she is represented at full length, of an already advanced age ; though very brown, the face is graceful: she is seated on a throne-like chair, and holds in her right hand a globe, from which springs a fleur-de-lis, while she supports with the other hand the Infant Jesus, seated on her lap, giving a blessing with his right hand, and holding in the other a globe, sur¬ mounted by a cross. The inhabitants of the mountain, divided into four classes, namely, monks, hermits, choristers, and lay brothers, succeed each ( ) Ihe following poem by the eminent Irish poet, Father Francis Mahony, is based on this incident: DON IGNACIO LOYOLA’S VIGIL IN' THE CHAPEL OF MONTSERRAT. When at thy shrine, most holy Maid! The Spaniard hung his votive blade, other uninterruptedly in their prayers. Such is the arrangement of the places, that from several of the hermitages the chanting of the monastery is heard, and the sound of the bells of the different hermits, re¬ peated by the echoes, answers back from the turnings and rugged points of the moun¬ tain. From the summit of Montserrat, the kingdoms of Valentia and Murcia are seen, and even as far as the Balearic Isles, giving one of the finest prospects in the world. Princes and kings of Spain often climbed afoot the steep path which leads to the altar of Mary, and numberless captives have come hither to hang up the chains which they had worn among the Moors. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, before he devoted his life to religion, came thither to watch his* arms, according to the usages and customs of that old chivalry, of which his head was then full. After passing the night in prayer, and solemnly dedicating himself to the Blessed Virgin as her knight, according to the warlike ideas which possessed his mind, and under which he conceived the things of God, says Father Bouhours, his historian, he hung up his sword on a pillar near the altar ; as a sign that he renounced secular warfare ; and then, after commu¬ nicating early in the morning, he left Mont¬ serrat. 1 Our Lady del Pilar, at Saragossa, is one * And bared his helme'd brow— Not that be feared war’s visage grim, Or that the battle-field for him Had aught to dauut, I trow; “Glory!” he cried, “with thee I’ve done! Fame! thy bright theatres I shun, To tread fresh pathways now: 374 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE of the oldest and most magnificent pilgrim¬ ages in Spain. King Ferdinand repaired thither with Queen Christina a short time before his death, and both, after pray¬ ing very devoutly, like Catholic mon- archs, as they were, before the venerable image of the Blessed Yirgin of Saragossa, left her, on departing, proofs of their muni¬ ficence. The cathedral, dedicated to Mary, is a grand edifice, five hundred feet long, with three spacious naves and a host of chapels. Modern travellers extol its chapels of mar¬ ble and jasper, their walls hung with votive offerings of gold, silver, and precious stones ; its silver lamps throw so bright a light on walls covered with brilliant and precious ornaments, as to surround the statue with such a dazzling glory, that it completely vanishes amid this mirage produced by the light, the flash of gold, and the sparkle of the rubies and diamonds. The attire of the Yirgin, placed in a standing posture on a pillar of jasper, about three feet high, was valued then at several millions. A still very famous pilgrimage in Spain, is that of Our Lady of Guadaloupe. Father Mariana assures us that this image, which To track thy footsteps, Saviour God, With throbbing heart, with feet unshod: Hear and record my vow. “ Yes, thou shalt reign ! Chained to thy throne The mind of man thy sway shall own And to its conqueror bow. Genius his lyre to thee shall lift And intellect its choicest gift. Proudly on thee bestow.” Straight on the marble floor he knelt, was famous as early as the fourth century, was sent by Pope Gregory the Great to St. Leander, Bishop of Seville. Then king Don Alphonso, in 1340, endowed this sanc¬ tuary, which he annexed to his own private domain. Forty-nine years after, Don John I. gave it to certain Hieronymite monks, adding to it the lordship of a large town, which had grown up near it. The convent, which took the name of Santa Maria, is situated in the midst of the present city; and, as the times when it was founded were very insecure, it has more the appearance .of a superb citadel, than of a peaceful monastery. There is an infirmary for sick poor, a house of entertainment for stran¬ gers, two colleges, and fine cloisters. In 1389, the celebrated Spanish archi¬ tect, John Alphonso, began the church, which has three naves, and the walls of which are ornamented with magnificent ex votos, attesting, as the Spaniards say, more than three thousand authentic mira¬ cles of the Blessed Yirgin. The image of the Blessed Yirgin is upon the high altar, which but a few years ago was lighted by more than a hundred solid silver lamps. She is clothed in a white robe, and holds And in his breast exulting felt A vivid furnace glow; Forth to his task the giant sped. Earth shook abroad beneath his tread, And idols were laid low. India repaired half Europe’s loss; O’er a new hemisphere the Cross Shone in the azure sky; And from the Isles of far Japan To the broad Andes, won o’er man A bloodless victory ! • BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. r) r- - o l o (Ik: Divine Infant in her arms. Queen Dona Maria, wife of Don John II., his son, Don Henrique, and some other princes, chose as their burial place this church, which is decorated with excellent paintings by Zurbaran and Jordan. The worship of Our Lady de la Gfuada- lupe crossed the ocean, and was established by miracles in Mexico, a country totally devoted to the Mother of G-od. An ac¬ count printed at Rome in 1786 relates that a converted Indian, who went every Satur¬ day to Mexico, situated eight miles from his village, in order to hear mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin, had a miraculous apparition upon a hill formerly in great renown among the Mexican idolaters, who called it Tepijacac, and had consecrated it to Tonantim, the mother of the gods. One Saturday, the 9th of December, in the year 1631, the pious Diego, passing by the foot of this hill, heard a sweet harmony, which he took at first for the singing of birds, but which, after listening more attentively, he could ascribe only to angels. Over Tepi¬ jacac hung an iridescent cloud, on which the most brilliant colors went and came : and from it issued a sweet voice, calling the pious Mexican by name. Full of as¬ tonishment, and quite unable to account for so marvellous an adventure, Diego climbed the hill, on the top of which he perceived a woman of most majestic beauty; floods of light streamed from her white garments, which reflected on the surrounding rocks, seemed to transform them into precious stones. The Blessed Virgin, for she it was, told Diego that it was her pleasure that there should be built a temple in her honor upon this hill, under the name of Our Lady de Gfuadalupe, and enjoined him to inform Juan de Zumarraga, at that time Bishop of Mexico. The prelate heard this recital in silence, and dismissed the Mexican, telling him that he must have a positive guarantee for the truth of his words, and a more assured sign of the will of Heaven. Informed by her messenger of the failure of his commission, the Blessed Virgin or¬ dered him to go up to the top of the hill, and gather there a bunch of flowers. It was not the season for flowers ; and the top of that rock had never produced any¬ thing but briers and thorns ; but Diego obeyed nevertheless, without demur, and his faith was rewarded; for he soon saw himself in the midst of the most fragrant and splendid flowers. He made a bouquet of them, which Mary ordered him to pre¬ sent to the bishop. “He will believe this time,” said the Blessed Virgin, with a smile. Diego hastened to the episcopal palace, where the scent of the flowers concealed under his cloak attracted the attention of the bishop’s officers ; they obliged Diego to show them, and wished to touch them. Wonder of wonders! the flowers are im¬ pressed upon the cloth ; they are no longer any more than painted roses and lilies ! The bishop appears, and Diego, opening the folds of his dress, perfumed with a heavenly odor, finds, to his great astonish¬ ment, that the flowers, as they became blended together, have formed a delightful picture of Mary. The prelate, after bend¬ ing profoundly, took off the cloak from the shoulders of the Mexican, and exposed it 376 HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE in liis chapel, until another sanctuary should be raised for it, which they hastened to build, in the place designated by the Blessed Yirgin. When the edifice was built, the picture was translated thither, and ever since has wrought a number of miracles, and become the most celebrated Madonna of America. This new sanctuary not being able to contain the crowds that flocked to it, about 1695 they began to think of building another. The Archbishop of Mexico, Francis de Aguiar and Seixas, laid the corner stone. This is the splendid church, admired at this day ; half a million of dol¬ lars was expended upon it. On the 1st of May, 1709, the holy picture was translated thither, and placed on a throne of silver, valued at $80,000. As the offerings multiplied, day by day, rich altars were erected of beautiful mar¬ ble ; the treasury was enriched with costly vessels. The great silver gilt lamp weighs alone more than six hundred and twenty marks, and the workmanship surpasses the material. Around the sanctuary runs a large balustrade of silver, and continues to the choir, which, according to the custom of Spain, occupies the end of the church. This first balustrade is protected by a sec¬ ond one of a precious wood, ornamented with countless small figures in silver, of exquisite workmanship. A viceroy of Mexico, Don Antonio Maria Buccarelli, surrounded the picture with a frame of solid gold, and enriched the altar with twelve gold candlesticks. In 1749, a chap¬ ter was founded for the service of this sanc¬ tuary. Mexico was solemnly dedicated to Our Lady of Guadaloupe, and a holiday of obligation, established on the 12th of De¬ cember, under the rite of a double of the first class, with a privileged octave. Bene¬ dict XIY. extended this- feast to all the States of his Catholic majesty. A city sprung up around this sanctuary. Guada¬ loupe is to America what Loretto is to Eu¬ rope. The image represents the Immacu¬ late Conception, with this inscription, “ Non facit taliter omni nationi. 1 ” Our Lady of Lampadusa, standing like a beacon, between Malta and Africa, on a small desert island, but on which the lamp, kept up alternately by Christians and Mus¬ sulmans, remained perpetually lighted for centuries; Our Lady of Monte Nero, which overlooks Leghorn, and the church of which, frequented by a countless crowd of pilgrims and loaded with ex-votos, over¬ looks that fair Tuscan sea, where the young maidens of Italy go, on the eves of Our Lady’s feasts, to fling garlands of flowers, such as were offered of yore to the nymphs of Amphytrite ; Our Lady of Mercy, near Savona, in the valley of St. Bernard, the most beautiful sanctuary which the piety of the Genoese has reared on its shore in honor of Mary ; Our Lady of Consolation, at Turin; of Charme, in Maurienne ; of Albines, near Chambery ; of Passaw, where the French priests, exiled by revo¬ lutionary bayonets, went to beg to behold their country once again, regretting the streams of France, on the banks of the ma- 0 The Mexicans, to testify their respect for Our Lady of Guadaloupe, gave her name to their first steam vessel. BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 377 jestic Danube, the king of the rivers of Germany. As to the other sanctuaries of Mary scattered over all parts of the world, we refer the reader to the following historical calendar. This calendar, published during the minority of Louis XIY., includes every place of pilgrimage to the Blessed Yirgin throughout Christendom ; and a great num¬ ber of pious foundations, which render it very precious ; it is moreover a very scarce work, no longer found for purchase. It is needless to say that things have changed, and that many a religious edifice conse¬ crated to the Mother of God, which then flourished, is now naught but a mass of ruins j not in vain have lime and revo¬ lution marched onward. This calendar, which completes our work on the pilgrim¬ ages, is given with no other guarantee than the authorities cited by the author himself, with its dates and miracles, such as it stood for centuries. 48 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN FOUNDATIONS AND DEDICATIONS OF CHURCHES IN HONOR OF OUR BLESSED LADY. “Fecit mihi magua qui potens eat.' 1 - ■ • 7 . ' • . ' -■ * . * ' - a . r&irf..' AO'ii-O'r- ■ t,;:;.-;;;', v.i'AA-h ' '■ >- : ' ■ * . . . , .... ... * . ‘ : - '• / - i 'V •' f ■: '/ I h t"! , • 6 ■. ■' i ;. •• • ' ; -- . ... ... • • • • c r “ }< J«J i Mi fa .>i. -m: . ' ' --M ' , HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN: FOUNDATIONS AND DEDICATIONS OF CHURCHES IN HONOR OF OUR BLESSED LADY. JANUARY. 1. Dedication of Our Lady of the Annunciation, at Florence, by Cardinal William d’Estouville, in the year 1452. There is preserved in this church, a picture of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, which was found miraculously finished when the painter, who had sketched it, prepared to put the finishing strokes to it.—(Archangel; Janius.) 2 . Foundation of the Abbey of Dunes, in Flanders, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, in the year 1128, by Fulk, a Benedictine monk.—(Chronicon Ber- tiennse.) 3. Our Lady of Sichem, near Louvain, in the duchy of Brabant. It is said that four drops of blood exuded from this statue in the year 1306.—(Justus Lipsius in his History of Sichem, ch. v.) 4. Dedication of Our Lady of Treves, in Germany, in the year 746, by Hydolph, Archbishop of Treves. The Princess Genevieve, wife of Syfrede, Palatine of Treves, and daughter of the Duke of Brabant, erected this church in a wood, on the very spot where Our Lady appeared to her, and assured her that her innocence should one day be acknowl¬ edged.—(Additions to Molanus, De sanctis Bel- gicis.) 5. On this day, in the year 1606, a paralytic man is said to have been miraculously cured in the Church of Our Lady of Sichem, in Brabant.—(Justus Lip¬ sius, History of Sichem, cap. 24.) 6 . Our Lady’s presence on this day, at the marriage feast of Cana, induced her Son, aged then thirty years, to change water into wine : this was his first public miracle.—(S. Epiphanius, Halves 51.) 7. Return of Our Lady, with Jesus and St. Joseph, from Egypt into Judea.—(Martyrologium Roma¬ nian, 7 Jan.) 8 . Our Lady of the Commencement at Naples. This chapel was built by St. Helena, and conse- HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF 382 crated by St. Sylvester, in the year 320.—(Petrus Stephanus, de locis sacris Neapolitans.) 9. Our Lady beyond the Tiber, at Rome. This church was built by Calixtus I. in the year 224.— (Baronius in apparatu ad annales et in Annales ad Ann. 224.) 10 . Our Lady of the Guides, at Constantinople, where one of the distaffs of the Blessed Virgin was shown, with some of the clothes of the Infant Jesus, which St. Pulcheria bestowed on this church. —(Nicephorus Tractatus 3, cap. 7.) 11 . Our Lady of Bessiere, in Limousin. A certain heretic, who had derided the devotion paid to this image, saw his house consumed, without being able to discover whence the tire originated.—(Triple Couronne, 1. i., Trait. 2, S. 10, n. 6.) 12 . Our Lady of the Broad Street, at Borne, situated on the very spot where St. Paul remained for two years, wearing an iron chain, where he preached the Gospel and wrote several of his epistles.— (Triple Couronne, as above, n. 6.) 13. Pius V. reformed the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, in the year 1571.—(Balinghem on the Calendar.) 14. Our Lady of the Word, near Montserrat, in Spain, so called because it is asserted that she restored speech to a dumb man, in the year 1514. —(Balinghem on the Calendar.) 15. Our Lady of the Portico, at Rome, where an image is seen which is said to have been brought from heaven by an angel to Blessed Galla, widow of the consul Symmachus.—(Ex monumentis S. Marise in Portico.) 16. On this day Our Lady of Montserrat, in Spain, miraculously delivered several captives from the tyranny of the Turks.—(Historia Montiserr.) 17. Our Lady of Peace, at Rome. In the year 1483, the Duke of Calabria, having besieged Rome, to punish Sixtus IV., for having prevented his aiding the Duke of Ferrara against the Venetians, this sovereign pontiff had recourse to the Queen of heaven, bound himself by vow to build a church, under the title of Our Lady of Peace, if it should please her to deliver the city from the siege, and to restore peace to Italy. His prayer having been heard, he fulfilled his vow, by commencing a church, which was finished by Innocent VIII., his successor.—(Gabriel Pennotus, Historia tripartita Canonicorum Regularium, lib. iii., cap. 33, § 2.) 18. Our Lady of Dijon, in Burgundy. This image, formerly named of Good Hope, delivered the city from the fury of the Swiss, in the year 1513; in thanksgiving for this favor, there is a general pro¬ cession there every year.—(Triple Couronne, n. 42.) 19. Our Lady of Gimont, near Toulouse. This church of Citeaux is much celebrated in the coun¬ try for its miracles.—(Triple Couronne, n. 34.) 20 . Our Lady of the Tables, at Montpellier. A very ancient and renowned church. The arms of the city are the Blessed Virgin holding her divine Son in her arms, upon a bezant, gules.—(Triple Couronne, n. 38.) 21 . Our Lady of Consolation, at Rome, at the foot of the Capitol. This Madonna began to work mira¬ cles in the year 1471.—(Triple Couronne, n. 43.) FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 383 22. had great devotion to this image, on account of a Betrothal of Our Lady. This feast, celebrated miracle which it wrought in his favor.—(Triple privately in France many years ago by devout per- Couronne, n. 43.) eons, was approved by Pope Paul III., in 1546.— (Petr. Auratus Imago Virtutis, c. 10.) 30. 23. Our Lady of the Rose, at Lucca, in Italy. Three roses were found in the montli of January, in the Betrothal of Our Lady, according to the ritual arms of this image, according to a Latin chroni- of Arras. This feast began to be celebrated in the cle.—(Caesar Franciotte, Historia Lucensis.) year 1556.—(Monumenta Ecclesise Atrebatensis.) 31. 24. Apparition of Our Lady to Blessed Angela de Our Lady of Damascus. From this picture, Foligno.—(See her Life.) which is painted on wood, there is said to exude a miraculous oil which restored sight, in the year 1203, to the Sultan of Damascus, and Mahomme- r • 4 * - ■ dan as he was, in acknowledgment of this benefit, FEBRUARY. he founded a lamp to burn perpetually before this picture.—(Spondanus, Annals, year 1203.) l. 25. 0 Yigil of the Purification of Our Lady, at Paris. —(Locrius on the Calendar.) Translation of the winding-sheet and tomb of 2. Our Lady to Constantinople, by Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, under the reign of Marcian, in the Candlemas or Purification of Our Lady. This year 455.—(Ferreolus Locrius in Chronicon ana- feast was instituted in the year 544, under the cephal.) Emperor Justinian, on occasion of the plague 26. which ravaged Constantinople, where there often died ten thousand persons in a single day. In the Our Lady of Longchamps, founded, in 1261, by year 701, Pope Sergius added to this feast the Elizabeth, sister of St. Louis.—(Gallia Christiana, ceremony of solemnly blessing candles.—(Baronius t. iv.) Annals ann. 544.) 27. ' 3. Our Lady of Life, at Venasque, in Provence. Our Lady of Seidaneida, near Damascus. From The chronicle relates that this image has often re- this picture, which was painted on wood, inex- stored life to children who died without baptism, haustible oil exuded, whatever quantity was taken. in order that they might receive that sacrament.— The virtue of this oil was so great, that it healed (Triple Couronne, n. 89.) even the infidels themselves.—(Arnold, Abbot of 28. Lubec cited by Baronius, ann. 870, and by Spon¬ danus, ann. 1203.) Our Lady of Good Succor, near Rouen. This image is very celebrated in the country.—(Ex 4. archivis hujus ecclesias.) Our Lady of the Pillar, at Saragossa, in Spain, 29. so called, because, according to the tradition, the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. James the Great, Our Lady of Ch&tillon sur Seine. St. Bernard upon a jasper pillar, in the year 36, and ordered 384 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF him to build a church, which the Spaniards main¬ tain to have been the first dedicated to Our Ladj. —(Beutereus, lib. i. c. et 3.) 5. Dedication of the first temple of Our Lady, by St. Peter, at Tripoli, now Tortosa.—(Canisius, lib. v. de Beata Virgine, ch. 32.) 6 . Our Lady of Louvain, in Belgium. This Vir¬ gin, in high veneration in that country, began to work miracles in the year 1444.—(Balingham on the Calendar.) 7. Our Lady of Grace, in the Abbey of Saint-Sauve, at Montreuil sur Mer.—(Chronieon S. Salvi.) 8 . Our Lady of the Lily, near Melnn. This abbey of Cistercian nuns, was founded by Queen Blanche, mother of the King St. Louis.—(Gallia Christiana, t. iv.) 9. Octave of the Purification of Our Lady, insti¬ tuted in the Cathedral of Saintes, on account, it is said, of the bells having been heard to ring most sweetly of themselves. The sacristans having run to the church, saw several unknown men holding lighted tapers and melodiously chanting hymns in honor of the Blessed Virgin, who is venerated in a chapel of this church under the title Of Our Lady of Miracles, and approaching softly, they be¬ sought one of the last of that august number to give them his taper, in proof of the miracle. This taper is religiously preserved in that church.— (Saussey, Martyrologium Gallicum, Feb. 9.) 19 . Our Lady of the Dove, near Bologna, in Italy, built, it is said, in a place which a dove designated, by flying round and round, for two days, about certain masons who were at work, and to whom it seemed to mark out a certain site.—(Triple Cou- ronne, n. 107.) 11 . St. Mary of Liques, near Calais. This monas¬ tery, of the order of the Premonstratensians, was founded in the year 1131, by Kobert, Lord of Liques.—(Gallia Christiana, t. iv.) 12 . Our Lady of Argenteuil, near Paris, built by Clovis I., in the year 101. This priory preserves a portion of the seamless garment of our Lord.— (Thomas Bosius, lib. ix., de Signis, ecclesise, c. 9.) 13. Our Lady du Four Chaud, at Bourges, so called because, in the year 545, a Jew is said to have shut up his son in a hot oven, because he had received baptism and communicated on Easter Sunday; he was taken out sound and whole, through the pro¬ tection of Our Lady. A church was built to the Blessed Virgin in memory of this event.—(An- nales de France sous Childebert.) 14. Our Lady of Bourbourg, in Flanders. It is asserted that this image having been struck by a wicked man, in the year 1383, the sacrilegious wretch fell dead on the spot.—(Bzovius, ex Ar¬ ch ivis ecclesise Burburg.) 15. Our Lady of Paris, first built by King Childe¬ bert, in the year 522; about the year 1257, King St. Louis erected a larger one in the same place, on the foundations which King Philip Augustus had laid in the year 1191.—(Du Breuil, Theatre des antiquites de Paris, lib. i.) 16. Our Lady of the Thom, near Chalons, in Cham¬ pagne, so named because this image was found under a white-thorn.—(Triple Couronne,n. 54.) 17. Our Lady of Constantinople, formerly the syna¬ gogue of the Jews, which was converted into a church of the Blessed Virgin by the Emperor Justin the Younger, in the year 566.—(Loerins.) FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 385 18. Our Lady of Laon, erected into a cathedral and founded by St. Eemigius, Archbishop of Eheims, about the year 500, where he consecrated, as its first bishop, St. Genebaud, his nephew. Miracles are wrought there ; and, among others, we read that in the year 1395, there was seen on the steeple, the picture of a crucifix, the wounds of which bled.—(Thomas Walsingham, Hist, of England, under King Eichard I.) 19. Our Lady of Good Tidings, near Eouen, where a great number of people are seen, particularly on Saturdays.—(Triple Couronne, n. 52.) 20 . Our Lady of Boulogne-sur-Mer. A statue is seen here which is said to have been brought in a ship by the ministry of angels, in the year 633. Louis XI. gave to this church a heart of solid gold, weighing two thousand crowns, in the year 1479, and he decreed that all the kings of France, his successors, should make the same present on their attaining the crown.—(Triple Couronne, n. 53.) 21 . Our Lady of Bon Port, at Dol, affording succor to mariners.—(Triple Couronne, n. 51.) 22 . Our Lady of Succor, at Eennes, in Brittany.— (Idem.) 23. Our Lady of Eoches, near Salamanca, in Spain. The image venerated here was found miraculously, in the year 434, by Simon Vela, who then erected a church.—(Balingham on the Calendar.) 24. On this day, in the year 591, St. Gregory the Great having had the picture of Our Lady, which was painted by St. Luke, carried in procession, the plague ceased at Eome.—(Idem.) 25. Our Lady of Victory, at Constantinople. The city was delivered from the siege of the Saracens by the aid of the Blessed Virgin, in the year 621. —(Eereolus Locrius.) 26. Our Lady des Champs, at Paris, anciently dedi¬ cated to Ceres. St. Denis, after exorcising the evil spirits, consecrated it to Our Lady. A picture of the Blessed Virgin is still to be seen here, on a small stone, a foot square, which was made after that which St. Denis brought to France. This house, which is a Benedictine priory, was after¬ wards occupied by the Carmelites, who were re¬ ceived there in the year 1604, and founded by Catharine, Princess of Longueville. It was the first occupied by those nuns in France; Mother Anne of Jesus, the associate of St. Teresa, was its first superior.—(Du Breuil, Theatre des Antiquites, lib. ii.) 27. Our Lady of Light, near Lisbon, in Portugal. A light was seen for a long time shining in this place, without any one being able to discover the cause of that phenomenon, when Our Lady, appearing to a prisoner, promised him liberty on condition of his erecting a church in her honor in this place, which she had chosen.—(Antonius Vas- concellius in Descriptione regni Lusitanise, c. 7, § 5 .) 28. Institution of the monastery of the Annuncia¬ tion, at Bethune, in Artois, by Francis de Melun and Louisa de Foix, his wife, in the year 1519.— (Fereolus Locrius.) MARCH. l. ‘ Establishment of the Feast' of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, by Sixtus IV., in the 49 386 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF year 1476, and a grant of indulgences to those who attend the offices of the church or Mass.— (T. iv. Conciliorum.) 2 . Our Lady of Apparitions, at Madrid, so called because in the year 1499, the Blessed Virgin ap¬ peared during a whole week to a young woman named Yves, and ordered her to build a church in her honor, on the spot where she should find a cross planted to Our Lady.—(Life of Blessed Jane.) 3. Our Lady of Longport, in Valois. This abbey, of the Cistercian order, was founded in the year 1131, by Josselin, Bishop of Soissons.—(Gallia Christiana, t. iv.) 4. Our Lady de la Garde, in Arragon, so called for having preserved from death a child who had fallen into a well, in the year 1221.—(Bzovius, year 1221.) 5. Our Lady of Good Succor, at Nancy, in Lor¬ raine. This Madonna, it is believed, enabled Bene, Duke of Lorraine, to gain a victory over Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy.—(Triple Couronne, n. 55.) 6 . Our Lady of Nazareth, at Black Bock, in Por¬ tugal. This image was honored at Nazareth in the time of the apostles, if we may believe a wri¬ ting which was found, by a hunter, attached to this image, in the year 1150.—(Triple Couronne, n. 13.) 7. Our Lady of the Star, at Villa Viciosa, in Por¬ tugal, so called from a star, which a shepherd saw shining where the church is built.—(Triple Cou¬ ronne, n. 17.) 8 . Our Lady of Virtues, at Lisbon, in Portugal.—• (Antonius Vasconcellius in Descriptione regni Lusitanise, c. 7, § 5.) 9. Foundation of Savigny, in the diocese of Avran- ches, in Normandy, in honor of the Blessed Vir¬ gin, about the year 1112, by the blessed Vitalis, hermit, who was its first abbot.—(Gallia Christi, t. iv.) 10 . Our Lady of the Vine, near Viterbo, in Tus¬ cany, a fine church, occupied at present by Do¬ minicans.—(Bzovius, ad ann., 1487.) 11 . Our Lady of the Forests, at Porto, in Portugal. This image was found again in a forest, where it had been hidden by Queen Matilda, wife of Al- phonsus I.—(Joannes Barrius, lib. de Bebus Inter- amnensibus, c. 12.) 12 . Our Lady of Miracles, in the cloister of St. Maur des Fosses, near Paris. It is said that this image was found made when the sculptor, named Bumold, was about to begin it.—(Du Breuil, The¬ atre des Antiquites, lib. iv.) 13. ' Our Lady of the Empress, at Borne. A tradi¬ tion records that this image spoke to St. Gregory the Great, in the year 593.—(Antonius Yepez, ad ann. 84, divi Benedicti.) 14. Our Lady de la Breche, at Chartres, where a procession takes place every year, in thanksgiving for Our Lady’s having delivered the city, when be¬ sieged by heretics, in the year 1568. It was during this siege that not a cannon or musket ball fired by the besiegers at the image of Our Lady, placed upon the Drouaise gate, struck it, although the FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 387 marks of them are still seen two or three inches from it.—(Sebastien Rouillard, Parthenie, c. 3.) 15. In the year 911, the city of Chartres was mira¬ culously delivered from the siege laid to it by Rollo or Raoul, Duke of the Normans ; for as he was on the point of taking the city, Gaucelin, the forty- seventh Bishop of Chartres, mounted on the top of the ramparts, holding a relic of Our Lady as an ensign, which struck such terror in the enemy’s camp, that all retreated in disorder ; in memory of this fact, the meadows of the Drouaise gate are called, to this day, the meadows of the Repulsed (des Recules).—(Sebastien Rouillard, Parthenie, c. 7, n. 5.) 16. Our Lady of the Fountain, at Constantinople, built by the Emperor Leo, in the year 460, in thanksgiving for the apparition of the Blessed Virgin to _ him, near a spring, to which he was charitably leading a blind man, when he was merely a common soldier, and the fact that she foretold that he would be emperor.—(Nicephorus, lib. xv., c. 15.) 17. In the year 1095, under Pope Urban II., a coun¬ cil was held at Clermont, in Auvergne, at which the Office of Our Lady was instituted.—(Council of Clermont.) Foundation of the Abbey of Bau- mont-les-Toure, by Ingestrude, in the year 600.— (Gallia Christiana, t. iv.) 18. In the year 1686, Our Lady of Loretto, was erected into a cathedral by Sixtus V., having been previously a collegiate church.—(Tursellini, Histo- ria Lauretana, v. 10.) 19. The Beautiful Lady, at Nogent-sur-Seine. It is affirmed that it is impossible to remove this cele- i rated picture from its little chapel, which is only four or five feet square.—(Ex monumentis Novi- gentenis.) 20 . Our Lady of Calevoirt, at Uckelen, near Brussels. This image began to work miracles in the year 1454, which induced the erection of a magnificent chapel in honor of Our Blessed Lady, in the year 1623. The Infanta of Spain, Isabella Clara Eu¬ genia, devoutly visited it the same year.—(Aub. Mirasus, in Annalis Belgicis.) 21 . Our Lady of Bruges, in Flanders, where a lock of the Blessed Virgin’s hair is exhibited, given by a Syrian bishop, named Moses.—(Hugo Farcitus, lib. i., Miracul. B. Virg.) 22 . On Palm Sunday, in the year 1098, St. Robert, Abbot of Moleme, retired with twenty-one of his monks to the diocese of Chalons-sur-Saone, where he built, in honor of Our Lady, the celebrated monastery of Citeaux, the head house of the order. —(Arnold Vionus, lib. i.; Ligni vitae, c. 47.) 23. Our Lady of Victory. This image bears that name, because the French having fortunately taken it from the hands of the Greeks, during a sangui¬ nary engagement with them near Constantinople, in the year 1204, they gained by means of it a complete victory.—(Spondanus, Annals ann. 1204.) 24. Eve of the Annunciation of Our Lady, instituted by Gregory II. On this day, Our Lady kept the Passover at Jerusalem, in the year of Our Lord 49. —(Balingham, Metaphrastes.) 25. The Annunciation of Our Lady. This feast was instituted by the apostles, and is the most ancient of all.—(John Bonifacius, lib. ii., Historia Vir ginis, c. 5.) 388 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF 26. Our Lady of Soissons, occupied by Benedictine nuns. In this abbey is seen one of the shoes of Our Lady.—(Hugo Farcitus.) 27. Apparition of Our Lord to Our Lady imme¬ diately after his resurrection. — (Alphonsus a Castro, c. 17.) 28. Our Lady of Castlebruedo, at Olian, in Cata¬ lonia. It is related that every year, on the day of the Annunciation, three lights were seen of a blue color, which shone through the glass windows of this church, lighted the lamps and wax candles, went out by the same way, and immediately dis¬ appeared.—(Ludo Marinasus. lib. v., de rebus His- panicis, c. ultimo.) 29. Apparition of Our Lady to St. Bonet, Bishop of Clermont, in Auvergne, whom she ordered to say mass one night when he had remained in the church to pray. The saint leaning against a pillar, as if to hide himself, the stone became soft and made the place for him, which is seen to this day. But the Blessed Virgin having obliged him to officiate, she left him, when mass was over, the chasuble which had been brought him by angels to celebrate in. The heavenly present is still to be seen at Clermont, where it is preserved with great care.—(See his Life in Surius, Jan. 15.) 30. Restoration of the chapel of Our Lady, at Bou- logne-sur-mer, by Caude Dormy, bishop of that city.—(Triple Couronne, n. 53.) 31. Our Lady of the Holy Cross, at Jerusalem, where is kept a part of Our Lady’s veil, given by St. Helena.—(Onuuhrius, lib. vii.. Eccl.) APEIL. 1. Octave of the Annunciation of Our Lady, in the Carmelite order.—(Balingham on Calend.) 2 . Our Lady the Great, at Poitiers, where is shown an image of the Blessed Virgin, in whose hands the keys of the city were found miraculously while the mayor’s servant was looking everywhere foi them, to open the gates to the English, to whom he had promised to betray the city.—(Jean Bou¬ cher, Annales d’Aquitaine.) 3. Apparition of Our Lord to Our Lady and the apostles in the supper-room on the eighth day after his resurrection.—(Balingham on Calend.) 4. Our Lady of Grace, in Normandy. This image is very famous in the country, and people come to venerate it from all parts. — (Archives of the Church.) 5. Apparition of Our Lady to Pope Honorius IV., for the confirmation of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.—(Balingham on Calend.) b. Our Lady of the Conception, at the Capuchin Convent of Douay, in Flanders, where is seen a picture of the Immaculate Conception, which was miraculously preserved from fire, in the year 1553. —(Amatus Franciscus, in his Manuscript Work.) 7. Our Lady of the Forsaken, at Valencia, in Spain. This image is in a chapel, where it is said that a great noise is made when any one is drowned or assassinated near the city. — (Triple Couronne. n. 28.) FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 8 . Feast of the miracles of Our Lady, at Cambron, near Mons, in the Low Countries.—(Locrius.) 9. Our Lady of Myans, near Chambery, in Savoy. It is believed that this image, in the year 1249, prevented the lightning, which had already con¬ sumed the town of Saint Andre with sixteen vil¬ lages, from going farther, and was the cause of its stopping at Myans.—(Triple Oouronne, n. 114.) 10 . Our Lady of Laval, in Vivarais. This church is much visited for obtaining rain to preserve the fruits of the earth.—(Triple Couronne, n. 41.) 11 . On this day a blind man is said to have recover¬ ed his sight in the Church of Our Lady of Mont¬ serrat, in the year 1538.—(Balingham on Calend.) 12 . Our Lady of Charity, in the Abbey of the Feuil- lants, seven leagues from Toulouse. It is said that this image has several times wept.—(Triple Cou¬ ronne, n. 34.) 13. Apparition of Our Lady to the blessed Jane of Mantua.—(See her Life.) 14. Apparition of Our Lady to St. Ludwina, in the year 1433.—(John Brushman.) 15. In the year 1011, the Blessed Virgin gave the white habit to the blessed Alberic instead of the black which he wore.—CSee his Life.) 16. Our Lady of Victories, in the Church of St. Mark, at Venice. This is the famous image which the Emperors John Zimisces and John Comnenus 38 !) carried in a triumphal car; it is now borne in pro¬ cession at Venice to obtain rain or fine weather. 17. Our Lady of Arabida, m Portugal, where an image is seen which an English merchant used to carry about him. Finding himself one day in danger of shipwreck, he saw his image, surrounded with a great light, on top of the rock of Arabida, whibh induced him to build a little hermitage there, in which he spent the remainder of his days.—(Triple Couronne, n. 16.) 18. Grant of plenary indulgences, by Urban VI., to those who visit the Church of Our Lady of Loretto. —(Balingham on the Calendar.) 19. Confirmation of the Feast of the Conception of Our Lady, by the Council of Trent, in the year 1545.—(Council of Trent.) 20 . Our Lady of Scheir, in Bavaria. This church was built on the spot where the castle stood, which those of the house of Scheir voluntarily ceded to Our Lady, except Arnaud, who, in punishment of his obstinacy, was drowned in a neighboring lake. —(Herith, de origine gentis et principibus Bavarise.) 21 . Institution of the Confraternity of the Immacu¬ late Conception, at Toledo, in the year 1506, by Cardinal Francis Ximenes, archbishop of that city. —(See his Life by Gomez, etc.) 22 . Our Lady of Betharam, in the diocese of Lescar, in the province of Bearn. This image was found, in the year 1503, by some shepherds, who, seeing an extraordinary light on the spot where the higli altar of the chapel now stands, came up and found an image of Our Lady, for which they at once erect¬ ed a chapel.—(Triple Couronne, n. 32.) HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF 390 23. Grant of indulgences, by Pope Calixtus II., in the year 1455, to those who visit the cathedral of Arras, where a veil and girdle of Our Lady are preserved.—(Andreas Herby, from the Manuscripts of the Church of Arras.) 24. Dedication of Our Lady of Reparation, at Flo¬ rence, by Eugenius IV., in the year 1436.—*(Ba- lingham on the Calendar.) 25. Dedication of the Lower Holy Chapel of Paris, in honor of Our Lady, by Philip, Archbishop of Bourges, in the year 1248.—(Du Breuil, Theatre des Antiquites.) 26. Our Lady of Valera, in Navarre. This image was found miraculously in the year 1048 ; Dom Garcias de Na'iera, King of Navarre, built a church for it, which several kings of Navarre visited.— (Andre Favin, liv. iii., Hist, de Navarre.) 27. It is said that in the year 1419, Our Lady de Haut, in Hainault, restored a child to life who had been dead three days.—(Justus Lipsius, History of Our Lady of Hal, c. 19.) 28. Our Lady of the Oak, near the town of Sable, in Anjou. This image has wrought so many mira¬ cles, that it is at present very famous in the coun¬ try ; Marshal de Bois-Dauphin built a fine church for it, and a house of reception for the pilgrims.— (Triple Couronne, n. 50.) 29. Our Lady of Faith, at the Augustinian convent of Amiens. This image remained a long time in the cabinet of a young lady, who made a present of it to the church of the Augustinians, where it has wrought many miracles.—(Augustinian Manu¬ scripts, Amiens.) 30. Our Lady of Nantes, in Brittany. This church, dedicated to the apostles Peter aud Paul, by Felix Bishop of Nantes, was demolished by the Normans, in the year 937, aud rebuilt by Alain, Duke of Brittany.—(Fortunatus, lib. iii.; Carm., c. 1, 2, 3, and 4.) MAY. 1. In the year 1449, some of the principal gold¬ smiths of Paris began to give the May-pole to the Church of Our Lady.—(Du Breuil, Antiquites de Paris, liv. i.) 2 . Our Lady of Oviedo, in Spain, where they pos¬ sess some of the Blessed Virgin’s hair.—(Baling- ham on the Calendar.) 3. Apparition of Our Lady to the Blessed Mary Razzi, of the order of St. Dominic, in the year 1597.—(Balingham on the Calendar.) 4. Our Lady of Succor, three leagues from Caen, in Normandy. Every year a solemn procession is made to this chapel.—(Triple Couronne, n. 51.) 5. Our Lady, on the Mount of Olives, witnesses the Ascension of Our Lord, and then returns to Jeru¬ salem, to retire into the upper room with the apos¬ tles.—(Acts i.) 6 . Our Lady of Miracles, in the Church of Our Lady of Peace, at Rome. It is related that in the year 1483, a man who had lost his money by gaming, after blaspheming this picture, gave it four stabs with a dagger, and that it bled so copiously that the miracle was at once divulged all over the city. FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 391 This picture is still preserved in the Church of Our Lady of Peace, where it is to be seen at the high altar, set in marble.—(Gabriel Pennotti, His¬ tory of the Canons Regular, lib. iii., c. 33, § 2.) 7. Our Lady of Haut, in Hainault, where is seen one of the three little statues of the Blessed Virgin which St. Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew II., King of Hungary, had religiously honored, and which she left by will to her holy daughter Sophia, who gave it to the church of Haut, in the year 1267. Several miracles have been since wrought by it.—(Justus Lipsius, History of Our Lady of Hal, c. 3.) 8 . In the year 1202, the learned Justus Lipsius gave his silver pen to the Church of Our Lady of Haut, in Hainault, where it is still seen hanging before the high altar.—(See his Life.) 9. Our Lady of Loretto, in the March of Ancona, in Italy. This chapel is the house of Nazareth, where the mystery of the Redemption was an¬ nounced.—(Turselini, History of Loretto, lib. i., c. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10.) 10 . Dedication of the city ©f Constantinople to Our Lady, by Constantine the Great, under the patri¬ arch Alexander.—(Nicephorus, lib. viii., e. 26.) Our Lady of Saussaie, near Paris. The church of this Benedictine priory was dedicated to Our Lady, in the year 1305, by Pope Clement V. 11 . Apparition of Our Lady to St. Philip Neri, whom she healed of a serious malady, in the year 1594.—(See his Life.) . 12 . Our Lady of Virtues, at Aubervillers, near Paris. This image has wrought so many miracles in this church, that it is called Our Lady of Vir¬ tues, though it is dedicated to St. Christopher. (Du Breuil, lib. iv.) 13. Dedication of Our Lady of Martyrs, called the Rotunda, at Rome, by Boniface IV., in the year 608. This temple was called the Pantheon, be¬ cause it was dedicated to all the gods of paganism. —(Beda, lib. ii., History of England.) ■m 14. Dedication of Our Lady of Noyon, by Har- douin, thirty-seventh bishop of the same city, in the year 998.—(Chronicon Annonise, t. iii.) 15. Descent of the Holy Ghost upon Our Lady and the apostles, in the year 34 of our Lord and the forty-eighth of the age of the Virgin.—(Christo¬ pher a Castro, Historia Virginis.) 16. Apparition of Our Lady to St. Catharine of Alexandria, whose body was discovered on the 13th of this month, on Mount Sinai, in conse¬ quence of a revelation which the Queen of heaven gave.—(See her Life.) 17. Our Lady of Tears, in the duchy of Spoletto, in Italy. It is said that this picture, painted on a wall, shed many tears in the year 1494.—(Gabriel Pennotus, lib. iii., Historia Tripartita, c. 34.) 18 . Dedication of Our Lady of Bonport, of the Cis¬ tercian order, near the Pont de TArche, in the diocess of Evreux. This abbey was founded by Richard Cceur de Lion, on the 11th of March, in the year 1190.—(Gallia Christiana, t. iv.) 19. "Dedication of Our Lady of Flines, near Douay, by Peter, Archbishop of Rheims, in the year 1279. This abbey of nuns, of the order of Citeaux, was 392 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF given to St. Bernard by Margaret de Dampierre, in the year 1234.—(Chronicon Fliniense.) 20 . Dedication of the church of La Ferte, in the diocese of Chalons, in Burgundy, in honor of Our Lady. This abbey, the eldest daughter of Citeaux, was founded in the year 1113 by Savaric and William, Counts of Chalons.—(Ex Archiviis Ab- batis Firmitatis.) 21 . Our Lady of Sweat, at Salerno, in Italy. It is said that this Madonna sweated blood and water in the year 1611, as a presage of a great conflagra¬ tion which happened on the following day.—(P. Spinelli, Tractatus de exemplis et miraculis, last chapter.) 22 . Our Lady of Monte Vergine, near Naples. This image preserved from the flames the monastery and church consecrated in her honor.—(Ibid.) 23. Our Lady of Miracles, at St. Omer’s, where a glove and some portion of the hair of the Blessed Virgin are preserved.—(Chronicon Bertinense.) 24. Gregory XV., in the year 1622, issues a decree, forbidding any to uphold opinions adverse to the Immaculate Conception. The same decree forbids the use in the mass or office of any other term than that of Conception.—(Balingham on the Calendar.) 25. Our Lady the New, at Jerusalem, built by the Emperor Justinian, in the year 530.—(Procopius, de (Edific. imperatoris Justiniani.) 26. Dedication of Our Lady of Vaucelles, in the diocese of Cambray, by Samson, Archbishop of Rheims. This abbey, of the order of Citeaux, was founded in the year 1132.—(Cistercian Chronicle.) 27. Dedication of Our Lady of Naples, called St. Mary Major, by Pope John II., in the year 533. A * picture of the Blessed Virgin, painted by St. Luke, was carefully preserved in this church.—(Schrad- erus, lib. ii.) 28. Feast of relics of Our Lady, at Venice, where are exposed to the veneration of the faithful, portions of the robe of the Blessed Virgin, of her mantle, veil, and girdle.—(History of the Relics published at Venice.) 29 Feast of Our Lady des Ardents, at Arras; a wax candle is kept in the cathedral of Arras, which is held to have been brought thither by Our Lady, in the year 1095.—(Jacobus Meyer in Annals of Flanders, ann. 1095.) 30. Dedication of the church of Monte Vergine, near Naples, built in the year 1126, by St. William, founder of the order of Monte Vergine, and re¬ paired in the year 1519.—(John Juvenal, lib. vii., de Antiquitatibus, c. 3.) 31. Our Lady of Dolours, in the Church of St. Ger- vase, at Paris. This image which was at the cor¬ ner of des Rosiers Street, was mutilated by a Jew, in the year 1528; Francis I. had it solemnly car¬ ried to St. Gervase, and he ordered a statue to be made of silver gilt, which he himself set up in the place of the first. This statue was stolen in the year 1545, and another of stone was substituted for it, which always retained the name of Our Lady of Silver.—(Du Breuil, Theatre des Anti- quites, lib. iii.) JUNE. l. Our Lady of the Star, at Aquileia, in Italy. This church is so called, because it is affirmed that FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 393 a star Avas seen, in open day on the head of St. Bernardine of Siena, when, preaching at Aquileia, he applied to the Blessed Virgin that passage of the Apocalypse, where it is said that there were twelve stars on her head.—(See his life in Surius.) 2. Our Lady of Edessa, in Asia Minor. It is as¬ serted that this image, placed beneath the gateway 1 of a church, spoke to St. Alexis, and made known to the people the merit of that saint. Thence it was removed to Borne, where it is highly honored. —(Thomas Bosius, lib. ix. c. 9.) 3. Our Lady of Sosopoli, in Pisidia. This image distilled a miraculous oil, as is testified by Germa- nus, patriarch of Constantinople, in a letter read at the second council of Mce, assembled for the defence of holy images.—(Art. 4, of the Council of Mce.) 4. Our Lady of the Hill, at Fribourg, where many miracles are wrought.—(Triple Couronne, n. 85.) 5. The chronicle relates that in the year 1428, Our Lady of Haut, in Hainault, restored a child to life, who had been dead several days, that he might receive baptism; that he lived five hours after receiving that sacrament, and then melted away by degrees, like snow, in presence of seventy per¬ sons.—(Justus Lipsius, History of Our Lady of Hal, ch. 21). 6. Institution of the nuns of the Visitation of Our Lady, founded at Annecy, in Savoy, in the year 1610, by St. Francis of Sales, Bishop of Geneva, and St. Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal, who was the first nun.—(Henri de Maupas du Tour, 2° partie, ch. i.) 7. Dedication of Our Lady du Val, of the Order of Citeaux, seven leagues from Paris, under Louis * • XIII., on the 18th of April, in the year 1616.— (Manuscripts of Church.) 8. Our Lady of Alexandria, in Egypt, built by St. Peter, patriarch of this city.—(Baronius, ann. 310.) 9. Our Lady of Ligny, near Bar le Due, in Lor¬ raine. This image is very famous for the frequent miracles wrought there.—(Triple Couronne, n. 57.) * 10. Our Lady of Cranganor, in the East Indies. It is asserted that this church was built by one of the three Magi.—(Osorius, t. i., de Gestis Emman.) 11. Our Lady of Esquernes, half a league from Lille, in Flanders. This image began to work miracles about the year 1162.—(Buzelinus, Annals of Gaul, lib. ii.) 12. The chronicle records that on this day Our Lady appeared to St. Herman, of the Premonstratensian order, and gave him a lock of her hair.—(See his Life in Surius.) 13. Dedication of Our Lady of Sichem, near Lou¬ vain, in the year 1604, by Mathias Hovius, Arch¬ bishop of Mechlin. The image of the Blessed Virgin seen in this church, was originally placed in the hollow of an oak-tree.—(Justus Lipsius, de Virg. Aspricol., c. 4.) 14. In the year 371, there fell from heaven, at Arras, something like white wool mixed with heavy rain, of which mention is made by St. Jerome, and it is maintained that the famine being great in the country, the inhabitants of Arras had recourse to the Blessed Virgin, who sent them this heavenly present, commonly called manna, some remains of 394 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF which are still to be seen in the church dedicated in her honor.— (Archives of the Abbey of Trull.) 15. Foundation of Our Lady of the Feuillants, in the diocese of Toulouse and Rieux, in the year 1145. 16. Our Lady of Aix-la-Chapelle, built by Charle¬ magne, and consecrated by Leo III., in the year 804, where there were assembled three hundred and fifty prelates. Charlemagne gave to this church two tunics of Our Lady, in the year 810, from which Charles the Bald took one, sixty-five years afterward, to give it to the church of Chartres.—(Ferreolus Locrius, lib. v., Marise, Aug., c. 17.) 17. Our Lady of the Forest, near Boulogne-sur-Mer. This little chapel is very celebrated in that country. —(Triple Couronne, n. 53.) 18. Apparition of Our Lady to St. Agnes of Monte Pulciano, with whom, it is said, she left a small cross, which is still shown with great solemnity, on the 1st of May.— (Chronicle of St. Dominic, part, i., lib. i., c. 72.) 19. At Treves, in Germany, is seen in the church of St. John the Evangelist, built in 333, the comb of Our Lady, given by Agritius, archbishop of that city. 20 . Our Lady of Blachernse, in the harbor of Con¬ stantinople, where they possess the winding-sheet of Our Lady, given by the Empress St. Pulcheria, who had received it from Juvenal, Bishop of Jeru¬ salem.—(Nicephorus, lib. xv., c. 14.) 21 . Our Lady of Matarieh, at Grand Cairo in Egypt, where is seen a miraculous fountain, which Our Lady obtained by her prayers, when she fled thither with the Holy Family; and it is held, by tradition, that there she washed the swaddling clothes of the Infant Jesus.—(Triple Couronne, n. 5.) 22 . Our Lady of JSTarni, in Italy. It is said that this image spoke to the Blessed Lucy, to whom she gave the Infant Jesus to hold.—(Triple Couronne,- Trait. 3.) 23. The Justinian Madonna at Carthage. This « . church was built by the Emperor Justinian, m honor of the Blessed Virgin, to whom he attributed the victories which he gained over the Vandals.— (Baronius, year 534.) 24. Our Lady of Clos-Evrard, near Treves. This image was fastened to an oak by a vinedresser, who wished: to honor it 5 but Our Lady ordered him to build a small hut in her honor. The miracles which were wrought there caused this hut first to be exchanged for a little chapel, and at last for a church, which was dedicated in the year 1449, by James de Rircq, Archbishop of Treves.—(Triple Couronne, n. 82.) 25. In the year 431, the council of Ephesus, which declared that the Blessed Virgin must be called Mother of God.—(Acts of Council.) 26. Our Lady of Meliapore, in the East Indies, where St. Francis Xavier often retired to pray — (See his Life.) 27. Our Lady of the Dorada, at Toulouse. This place, which was formerly dedicated to the goddess Pallas, was changed into a church of Our Lady, when the inhabitants received the faith.—(Forcat., lib. i., de Gallico Imperio.) * FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 395 28. Dedication of tlie church of the Carthusians of Paris, under the title of Our Lady, by John d’Aubigny, Bishop of Troyes, in Champagne, in the year 1325.—(Du Breuil, Theatre des Anti- quites, lib. ii.) 29. Our Lady of Buglose, two leagues from Acqs, in Gascony. This image was miraculously found in the year 1634, and removed to the parish of Buglose.—(Triple Couronne, n. 36.) 30. Our Lady of Calais, built by the English, while they possessed that city, of which they were mas¬ ters during two hundred and ten years ; a magni- fiicent chapel was added to it, in the year 1631, by James de Bolloye, parish priest of Calais.—(Davila, t. ii.) JULY. 1. Dedication of the church of Jumieges, in Nor- mandy, in the year 1067, by Maurice, Archbishop of Rouen, at the instance of King William.— (Thomas Walsingham.) 2 . The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin. This feast was instituted by Urban IV., in the year 1385, and confirmed by Boniface IX., in the year 1389.—(Antoine, iv. part, tit. xv., chap. 24.) 3. Our Lady of la Carolle, at Paris. It is said that this image, which was placed at the corner of the Rue aux Ours, was stabbed with a knife, in the year 1418, and that it bled profusely. In memory ol this, fireworks are set off every year, in which a waxen figure is burnt, which represents the sacri¬ legious wretch who gave the blow.—(Du Breuil, lib. ii.) 4. Our Lady of Miracles, at Avignon, built by Pope John XXII., on the occasion of two criminals be¬ ing condemned to the fire ; one who had invoked the Blessed Virgin was spared by the flames, while the other was entirely consumed.—(Richard of Cluny, Life of John XXII.) 5. Dedication of Our Lady of Cambray, in the year 1472, by Peter de Ranchicourt, Bishop of Arras. This church was built in honor of Our Lady, in the year 524; reduced to ruins by the Normans in the year 882; rebuilt by Dossillon, twenty-first Bishop of Arras, in the year 890; and, finally, after having been burnt in the years 1064 and 1148, it was put in its present condition in the year 1251.—(Ohronicon Hannon., t. iii., lib. ii., chap. 23.) 6 . Our Lady of Iron, near Blois, in Dunois. It was in this chapel that, about the year 1631, a child, who had been smothered by struggling in its cra¬ dle, came to life the moment that its parents had devoted it to Our Lady of Iron.—(Archives of the Chapel.) 7. Dedication of Our Lady of Arras, in the year 1484, by Peter de Ranchicourt, bishop of that city. This church was built by St. Vaast, Bishop of Arras, in the year 542, according to Baronins, by the liberal donations of the first kings of France.-. The Normans destroyed it in the year 583, and, after being rebuilt, it was burnt by lightning in the year 1030, and built again in the year 1040.— (Locrius, lib. ii.) It is related that, in the year 1410, Our Lady of Haut, in Hainault, restored life to a child of Brus¬ sels who had been drowned in a well. This child, having been taken out of the well dead, was de¬ voted to Our Lady, and he immediately came to life.—(Justus Lipsius, History of Our Lady of Hal, ch. 16.) 390 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OR 8 . Our Lady of Peace, at the Capuchin Convent in the Rue St. Honore, at Paris. 9. Dedication of Our Lady of Coutances, by Geof- fry de Mowbray, in 1056. 10 . Dedication of Our Lady of Boulogne, near Paris, in the year 1469, by Chartier, Bishop of Paris. The confraternity of Our Lady of Boulogne is so illustrious, that six of our kings have chosen to belong to it.—(Du Breuil, Antiq., lib. iv.) 11 . Our Lady of Clery, four leagues from Orleans. This church was rebuilt by King Louis XI., who was buried there m the year 1483.—(Locrius, M. Aug. lib. iv. c. 68.) 12 . Dedication of Our Lady of all Graces, at the convent of the Minims of Xigeon, near Paris, in the year 1578. This house was given in 'the year 1476, by Ann of Brittany, wife of Louis XII., to St. Francis of Paula, who had instituted his order in the year 1436.—(Du Breuil, Antiquites de Paris.) 13. A century before the birth of our Saviour, the image of Our Lady of Chartres was carved in a * forest, in the midst of the plains of La Beauce, by order of Priscus, king of the people of Chartres, and was set up afterwards with this inscription, “Virgini pariturse”—that is, To a Virgin who is to bring forth—in the same place where it is seen at the present day, which was then a cave, where the Druids offered their sacrifices. St. Potentianus, second Bishop of Sens, whom the Apostle St. Peter had sent into France, stopped at Chartres, where he blessed this image, and dedicated the cavern as a church, in the year of Jesus Christ 46.—(Sebas¬ tian Rouillard, Parthen ; c. iv. n. 1.) 14. Our Lady of the Bush, in Portugal. This image was seen in the middle of a burning bush, by a. shepherd; Vasquez Perdigon, Bishop of Evora, caused to be built in this place, in the year 1403, a church and monastery, which was given to the monks of St. Jerome. — Vasconcellius De- scriptio regni Lusitaniae, c. vii. § 5.) 15. In the year 1099, the Turks were defeated by Godfrey of Bouillon, who on this day took Jerusa¬ lem, of which he was made king; and formerly the feast of this event was celebrated annually with a double office and octave.—(Molanus, at this day.) 16. The feast of the Scapular; tradition says that Our Lady gave it, herself, about the year 1251, to the Blessed Simon Stock, an Englishman ; this de¬ votion has since spread all over the world. The popes John XXII., Gregory XIII., Sixtus V., Gregory XIV., and Clement VIII., granted indul¬ gences to those belonging to this confraternity.—• (Cartagena, de Ortu ordinis Carmelitarum.) 17. In the year 1565, Pius V. approved of the reform of the barefooted Carmelites, instituted by St. Te¬ resa, at Avila, in Spain. 18. Our Lady of Victory, at Toledo, so called from a signal victory which was gained over the Moors, by Alphonsus IX., King of Castile, in the year 1202, after having a flag carried, on which was the picture of Our Lady.—(Report of King Alphon¬ sus to Innocent III.) 19. Our Lady of Moyen Pont, near Peronne. This image was found by a shepherd, near the ponds, where the meadows of Amele are at present; a church was built there, which was repaired in 1612.—(Triple Couronne, n. 53.) FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 20 . Our Lady of Grace, at Picpus, Faubourg Saint- Antoine, of Paris. This image, which is in a small ship of wood with two angels at the end, was made, in 1629, from a splinter taken from the famous image of Our Lady of Boulogne-sur-Mer.—(Triple Couronne, n. 47.) 21 . Our Lady of Verdun, in Lorraine, celebrated for numerous miracles. St. Polichraine, fifth Bishop of Verdun, dedicated this church on his return from the council of Ohalcedon.— (Archives of the Church of Verdun.) 22 . Our Lady de la Garde, near Marseilles. The Queen of heaven is much honored in this church, where every Saturday the Blessed Sacrament is exposed from midnight till noon. There are seen more than thirty large silver lamps, with a quan¬ tity of branches of coral, of extraordinary size.— (Chronicon Massilliense.) 23. Institution of the order of Premontre, by St. Norbert, in the year 1120, after a revelation from Our Lady.—(Bibliotheca Praemonstr., lib. i., c. 2.) 24. Foundation of Our ' Lady of Cambron, near Mons, in Hainault, by Anselm de Trasigny, lord of Peronne.—(MS. of the year 1148; Hanno’s Chronicle.) 25. Our Lady of Bouchet, two leagues and a half from Blanc, in Berry, a pilgrimage which attracts a great concourse of pilgrims. The image of the Blessed Virgin is made of the wood of an aged oak, where the first image was found.—(Ex monu¬ ments hujus loci.) 26. Our Lady of Faith, at Canchy, near Abbeville. 397 This image, having been removed from the oak where it is, into a chapel which was built for it, fifty yards off, was miraculously found again in its former place.—(Archives of Canchy.) * 27 . In the year 1480, the Knights of Rhodes gained a signal victory over the Turks, by the help of the Blessed Virgin, who appeared on- the walls of that city, holding a lance in her hand; the enemy, panic-struck, fled in disorder, and lost the greater part of their army.—(Bosius, History of the Knights of Rhodes.) 28. Our Lady of Foye, at Gravelines. This image is very celebrated in the country.—(History of Our Lady of Foye, at Gravelines.) 29. - In the year 1546, it was decreed at the council of Trent that, respecting the Immaculate Con¬ ception of the Blessed Virgin, the constitution of Sixtus IV. should'be strictly observed, under the penalties therein imposed.—(Balingham on the Calendar.) 30. Our Lady de Gray, near Besangon, in Franche Comte. This image made of the oak of Montaigu, was much honored in the country.—(Triple Cou¬ ronne, n. 58.) 31. Our Lady of the Murdered, at Ce'ica, near Lor- ban, a Cistercian monastery in Portugal. It is said that this image was brought from heaven to the Abbot John, uncle of King Alphonsus, and that it restored to life several persons who had been murdered; that in memo'ry of this miracle they had from that time a red mark on their throats, like that which is seen at present on the throat of the image.—(Cistercian Chronicle, lib. vi., c. 27 and 28.) 398 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF AUGUST. 1. In the year 1218, Our Lady, appearing on this day to St. Raymond, of the*order of St. Dominic, to James, King of Arragon, and to St. Peter No- lasco, made known to all the three separately that she desired them to establish an order for redeem¬ ing captives.—(Surius, Life of St. Raymond.) 2 . Our Lady of Angels, or of Portiuncula six hundred yards from the city of Assisium, in Italy. The Benedictine monks gave this chapel to St. Francis, at his request ; and he wished the convent which he built there, to be the Mother house of his order. He there assembled the first General Chapter, which numbered five thousand religious, and there he yielded up the ghost, in the year 1226, the twentieth of his conversion, and the forty-fifth of his age. — (Franciscan Chronicle, part i., lib. ii., c. 1.) 3. Our Lady of Bows, in London. It is related that this image, having been carried away by a storm, together with more than six hundred houses, in the year 1071, it fell uninjured with such violence, that it broke into the pavement, and sunk more than twenty feet into the earth, whence it was never possible to draw it out.—(Willel. Malmesbury, lib. iv., in Willel., 2.) 4. Our Lady of Dordrecht, in Holland, built by St. Sautere on the spot designated by an angel, as it is said, who was sent by the Blessed Virgin; she received afterwards, the crown of martyrdom in this church. To render her memory more cele¬ brated, God caused a fountain to flow, after her death, which cured fevers.—(Molanus on the Bel¬ gian Saints.) 5. Dedication of Our Lady of the Snows, called St. Mary Major, and formerly of the Crib, at Rome, because our Saviour’s crib is kept there. It was built by John, a patrician, and his wife, on the very place, which they found covered with snow, on the 5th of August, in the year 367, and rebuilt by Sixtus II., about the year 432.—(Baronius, Notes at the year 367.) Dedication of the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, at Rome, by Pope Pius IV., in the year 1561. This church, which anciently formed part of the thermae, or baths of Diocletian, was erected as a titular church of a cardinal, favored with many indulgences, and given by the same pope to the Carthusians.—(Balingham on the Calendar.) Our Lady of Protection, in the church of the Feuillants, in the Rue St. Honore, at Paris. It was so named by Queen Ann of Austria, in the year 1561, in thanksgiving for the favors which she had received from the Queen of heaven.—(Du Breuil, Antiquites, lib. iii.) 6 . In the year 963, the church of Our Lady of Chartres was entirely burnt, except the tunic of the Blessed Virgin, which is seen there to this day. —(Sebastien Rouillard, Parthen., c. vii.) 7. Our Lady of Schiedam, in Holland. The chro¬ nicle relates that a merchant, who had stolen this image, having embarked with the intention of selling it at the fair at Antwerp, could never get away from the port. Alarmed at this prodigy, he restored the image which he had taken away, and it was solemnly translated to the church of St. John the Baptist, where St. Ludwina used to pass whole nights in prayer.—(John Bruchman, Mino- rita.) 8 . Our Lady of La Kuen, near Brussels. This church was built by order of Our Lady, who is said to have marked out its dimensions with a line which is still shown.—(Additions to Molanus.) 9. Our Lady of CEgnies, in Brabant, the birthplace FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 399 of Mary of (Egnies, who visited this holy image once a year, barefoot, during the severe rigors of winter.—(James de Vitriaco, on her Life.) 10 . Institution of the order of Our Lady of Mercy, at Barcelona, in the year 1218.—(Surius, Life of St. Raymond.) 11 . In the year 810, the Emperor Nicephorus and the Empress Irene sent to Charlemagne two of the Blessed Virgin’s robes; he deposited them in his church at Aix-la-Chapelle, from which Charles the Bald took one, which he presented to the Cathedral of Chartres.—(Locrius Anaceph., p. 3.) 12 . Our Lady of Rouen, erected by Robert, Duke of Normandy. Richard I., king of England, gave great gifts to this church, and the kings of France have granted it great privileges.—(Merula, Cos- mographia, part ii., lib. iii., c. 30.) 13. Death of Our Lady in presence of the apostles, except St. Thomas. Like her divine Son, she rose again and ascended to heaven on the third day after her death.—(Suarez., t. ii.; in p. Disp. 21, sect, in fine.) 14. Vigil of the Assumption of Our Lady, with fast¬ ing, of which mention is made by Nicolas I., who was pope in the year 858. It is recorded that on this day angels were heard, near the city of Sois- Bons, singing this anthem: “ Eelix namque es, sacra Virgo Maria, et omni laude dignissima, quia ex te ortus e&t Sol justitise, Christus Deus nos ter.” —(Thomas, Concep., lib. ii., part 7.) 15. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. This feast was instituted, according to St. Bernard, in the very time of the apostles.—(St. Bernard, Ep. 174.) 16. On this day the sepulchre of Our Lady was opened, and in proof that the Blessed Virgin was already assumed into heaven, nothing was found but her winding-sheet, which gave a delicious per¬ fume.—(Saussey, Martyrologium Gallicum, die As- sumptionis.) 17. Philip the Fair gained on this day a signal vic¬ tory over the Flemings, in the year 1304, after commending himself to Our Lady of Chartres. Out of gratitude for this favor, he gave to it in perpetuity the land and lordship of Barres, founded a daily mass for ever, and left to this church all the accoutrements which he wore on that day of victory. This feast is kept in the Church of Notre Dame, at Paris, on the following day, the 18th, and the office is double.—(Sebastien Rouillard, c. 6.) 18. In the year 1022, King Robert founded a chapel in honor of Our Lady in the court of the palace, at Paris, on the spot where the Sainte Chapelle now stands.—(Du Breuil, Antiquites de Paris.) 19. Our Lady of Jerusalem, near Montecorvo, in Portugal. A chapel is there seen built in imitation of the one at Jerusalem; it is said that the Blessed Virgin herself gave the plan.—(Vasconcellius, in Descriptione regni Lusitanise.) 20 . In the celebrated church of the Benedictines of Affighem, in Brabant, is seen an image of the Blessed Virgin, of which it has been received by tradition that St. Bernard, saluting it in these terms, “ Salve, Maria,” it answered him, “ Salve, Bernarde.”—(Justus Lipsius, t. ii., c. 4, § 4.) 21 . In the year 1022 was instituted the order of the thirty knights of Our Lady of the Star, at Paris, by King Robert, who said that the Blessed Virgin 400 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF was the Star of his kingdom.—(A. Favin, Histoire de Navarre.) 22 . Octave of the Assumption of the Blessed Vir¬ gin, instituted by Pope Leo IV. in the year 847.— (Bosius, n. 2.) 23. On this day, in the year 1328, Philip de Valois, being surrounded by Flemings near Mount Oassel, had recourse to the Blessed Virgin, who immedi¬ ately delivered him from that danger. Out of gratitude for this favor, when he made his entry into Paris, he went straight to Notre Dame, and , going into the church on horseback, he proceeded the whole length of the nave up to the crucifix, and there laid down his arms. The picture of this monarch on horseback was for a long time to be seen in that church, to which he gave a revenue of 100 livres, to be levied on his domain of Gati- nais.—(Triple Oouronne, trait. 4, c. 7, n. 7.) 24. Dedication of Our Lady of Benoiste Vaux, nearly a league from Verdun, in Lorraine. This chapel preserves an image of the Blessed Virgin, rendered famous by miracles; in this place is found a miraculous fountain, the water of which cures several maladies.—(Histoire de Notre Dame de Benoiste Vaux, ch. i. and ix.) 25. Our Lady of Eossano, in Calabria. It is said that the Saracens, seeking to surprise the town of Eossano, where they had already planted ladders, were repulsed by Our Lady, who appeared attired in purple, and holding in her hand a lighted torch: this so terrified them, that they took to flight.— (Gabriel de Barry.) 26. Our Lady de la Treille, at Douay. It is related that when some children were playing disrespect¬ fully before this image, it made with the hand a sign of disapproval. This miracle induced the in¬ habitants of Douay to build a chapel for it, in the year 1543.—(Buzelin, in Annal. Gallo-Flandr.) 27. Our Lady of Moustier, eight or ten leagues from Sisteron, in the direction of Marseilles. An ancient tradition records that a lord of the coun¬ try captured by the Turks, made a vow to build a chapel in honor of the Blessed Virgin, if she were pleased to deliver him. The Blessed Virgin heard his prayer; an angel took him on his wings, and carried him back to his country. The nobleman erected a magnificent chapel to the Blessed Virgin, where numerous miracles are wrought.—(Manu¬ script Account.) 28. Our Lady of Kiow, the metropolitan church of Eussia, in Poland, where there is a large image in alabaster, which spoke to St. Hyacinth, in the year 1241, and told him not to abandon it to the enemy who was besieging the city, but to carry it off with him, which he did without any difficulty, the im¬ age having lost its weight.—(Life of St. Hyacinth.) 29. Our Lady of Clermont, ten leagues from Cracow, where there is a picture painted by St. Luke, and sent to the Empress St. Pulcheria ; that princess placed it in the church of Our Lady of the Guides, at Constantinople, from which it was taken by Leo, Duke of Eussia; the Duke of Opolia wanted to remove it to his duchy, in the year 1380; but when he had got to the mountain of Clermont, it became so heavy that it was impossible to carry it farther; and seeing by this miracle that the Blessed Virgin had chosen that mountain for her abode, they built a church there.—(Bzovius, ad ann. 1383.) 30. Our Lady of Carquere, on the river Douro, in Portugal. Egas de Monis, tutor of King Alphon- sus I., carried the young prince into this ancient church of the Blessed Virgin, that his legs might be straightened through her intercession; which FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 401 perfectly succeeded.—(Vasconcellius, in Eegib. Lusit. Anacephal. 1 and 2.) 31. Dedication of Our Lady of the Founders, at Constantinople. The Empress St. Pulcheria erected this church, and gave it the girdle of Our Lady. A feast of this relic is kept at Constantinople, under the title of the Deposition of Our Lady’s girdle. The French having taken this city, this precious treasure was carried off by Nivellon, Bishop of Soissons, and placed in the celebrated abbey of Our Lady, with a portion of the veil of that Queen of heaven.—(Nicephorus, lib. iv. c. 8.) SEPTEMBER, 1. On the first Sunday of this month, in St. Peter’s church, at Louvain, a feast is kept in honor of the Blessed Virgin, called the Collection of all the Feasts of Our Lady.—(Molanus, ad Usuard, Mar- tyrolog.) 2 . Our Lady of Helbron, or of Nettles, in Franco¬ nia, in Germany. This imag^ began to work mira¬ cles in the year 1441.—(Triple Couronne, n. 73.) 3. Dedication of the Abbey of Corneville, in honor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, in the year 1147, by Hugo, Archbishop of Eouen.—(Gal¬ lia Christiana, t. iv.) 4. In the year 1419, Our Lady of Haut, in Hain- ault, restored to life a young woman, named Jane Maillard, who was drawing water from a very deep well, when the stonework at the top giving way, she fell to the bottom. She was taken out quite dead; but her mother having offered her by vow to Our Lady of Haut, she immediately showed signs of life.—(Justus Lipsius, Our Lady of Hal, c. 19.) 5. Our Lady of Bois, near Arras. A knight, who attempted to turn this chapel into a stable, in the the year 1478, was killed on the spot by his horse. —(Triple Couronne, n. 62.) 6 . Our Lady of the Fountain, half a league from Valenciennes. Tradition relates that the Blessed Virgin appeared in this place to a hermit, when the plague ravaged the town, and commanded him to tell the inhabitants to fast on the following day, and pass the night in prayer. Having done this, they saw her descend from heaven, and gird the town all around with a cord. This cord is still preserved at Valenciennes. — (Narrative of the Affair.) 7. Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lady, instituted by Gregory II., about the year 722.—(Balingham on the Calendar.) 8 . The Nativity of Our Lady, which happened, ac¬ cording to Baronius, in the year of the creation of the world 4007, on a Saturday, at daybreak, fifteen years before the birth of our Saviour. This feast was instituted on the 8th of September, in the Greek Church and in the Latin, in the year 436, according to the same Baronius; and in France, by St. Maurillus, Bishop of Angers. Dedication of the church of Our Lady of Liesse, in the diocese of Laon, ten leagues from Eheims. Dedication of Our Lady of Montserrat, in Catalonia. 9. Our Lady of Puy, in Velay. St. George, who was its first bishop, had marked out the site of this church, which was not built till about the year 221. The Blessed Virgin herself, gave the charge of it to St. Evodius, or Vosi, the seventh bishop of the same place, whom she ordered to transfer his epis¬ copal see to Puy. St. Evodius obeyed the Blessed Virgin; but when he wished to consecrate his new 402 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF church, it was made known, to him that the dedi¬ cation of it had been performed by angels; the doors opened of themselves, the bells rung of themselves, the candles were found lighted, and the holy Chrism, which the angels had used, ap¬ peared quite fresh upon the altar and the walls.— (Odo Gisseus, de Virg, Aniciens., lib. ii., c. 7, 8, and 9.) 10 . Our Lady of Trut, near Cologne. This church was built under Otho I., by St. Heribert, Arch¬ bishop of Cologne, on the very spot where idols had been formerly worshipped. 11 . Our Lady of Hildesheim, in the duchy of Bruns¬ wick, in Germany. An image is there venerated, which Louis the Meek always wore about him. One day, when he had forgotten it in a wood, it became so heavy that it was impossible to remove it, which made the king resolve to build a church there.—(Triple Couronne, n. 75.) 12 . Our Lady of Healing, in Lower Normandy. Miraculous cures are wrought, in great numbers, in this church.—(Archives of the Church.) 13. Our Lady of Guadaloupe, in Spam. This image, which Pope Gregory sent to St. Leander, Bishop of Seville, was concealed, on the invasion of the Moors, with the body of St. Fulgentius, in the cave of Guadaloupe, where it remained nearly six hun¬ dred years, till Our Lady revealed it to a shepherd. —(Mariana, History of Spain.) 14. arose on the election of a successor to Celestin IV., by the intrigues of the Emperor Frederick II., which caused the cardinals to have recourse to Our Lady, obliging themselves, by vow, to add an oc¬ tave to her Nativity, when she should have given them a pope. Innocent IV. having been elected, he instituted this octave in the year 1243, the first of his pontificate.—(Arnoldus Wionius, tib. v., Ligni vitse, c. 22.) 16. Our Lady of Good Tidings, at Orleans, built by King Robert, in the year 996, on the very spot where he learnt the good news that his father, Hugo, had escaped death—(Locrius, Mariae Au¬ gust®, lib. iv., c. 62.) 17. Inauguration of the image of Our Lady of Puy, in Velay. King St. Louis gave this image to the church of Puy, in the year 1254, on his return from beyond the seas. 18. Our Lady of Smelcem, in Flanders. The chro¬ nicle relates that some shepherds observed that their sheep bent their knees before this image. This occasioned Baldwin, surnamed Fair Beard, to choose this place to build a church in thanksgiving for having been cured by our Saviour of a malady which he had had for seventeen years.—(Triple Couronne, n. 63.) 19. Our Lady of Healing, near Mount Leon, in Gas¬ cony, —(Geoffroy, Histoire de la Vierge de Gue- rison.) 20 . Ii Dedication of Our Lady of Frontevrault, in Poitou, by Pope Calixtus II., in the year 1129.— (Gallia Christiana.) 15. Octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, instituted on occasion of some disputes, which Our Lady of the Silver Foot, at Toul, in Lor¬ raine, where an image is seen, which according to an ancient tradition, informed a woman, in the year 1284, of an act of treachery which was plan¬ ning against the city, and as a sign of it, the image put out its foot, which was found changed into silver.—(Triple Couronne, n. 57.) — FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 403 21 . Our Lady of Pucha, in the kingdom of Valentia. This image was found in the year 1223, by means of seven stars which were seen shining on this spot, which made people dig into the earth, where they found an image of the Blessed Virgin.— (Bernard Comes, Historia Hispan., lib. x.) 22 . The giving of the name of Mary to Our Lady, by St. Anne, her mother.—(Petrus a Castro, Hist Virg. c. 2.) 23. Our Lady of Valvencre, in Spain. This image was found in an oak, on the very spot where is now seen the magnificent church which Alphonsus IV., King of Castile, rebuilt. — (Antonius Yepez, Chronicle.) 24. Our Lady of Roquemadour, or Rock of Ama¬ teur in the diocese of Cahors, in Quercy. This place of pilgrimage is so named because St. Ama¬ teur, vulgarly called St. Amant, lived for some time upon this rock, which began to be famous about the year 1140.—(Hugo Farcitus, de Miracul. B. Virg. Rupiramat.) 25. Our Lady of Passer, at Rodez. This image hav¬ ing been often removed from the place where it was, to another place, was always found again at its old post, which made it necessary to build a church there.—(Triple Couronne, n. 53.) 26. Our Lady of Victory, at Tournay. The inhab¬ itants carried the keys of the city into the church of Our Lady, in the year 1340, because they knew that the Queen of heaven alone was able to deliver them from the English, who had besieged them for forty days; they had no sooner testified this confi¬ dence in the Blessed Virgin, than the siege was raised, when the inhabitants had hardly provisions left for three days.—(Archives of Tournay.) 27. Our Lady of Good-meeting, half a league from Agde. This image, made of baked clay, was dis¬ covered miraculously, in the year 1523.—(Triple Couronne, n. 34.) 28. Our Lady of Cambron, of the order of Citeaux, in Hainault, near Mons. It is said that this image, being struck by a wicked man, in the year 1322, bled copiously.—(Histoire Camberon., Duaci. ann. 1602.) 29. Our Lady of Tongres, in the diocese of Cam- bray. This image, in the year 1081, was taken into a garden, where the Bishop of Cambray erected a church.—(Triple Couronne, n. 1602.) 30. Our Lady of Beaumont, in Lorraine, between Domremy and Vaucouleurs. Joan of Arc very often retired into this church, to commend the affairs of France to the Queen of heaven and earth, who ordered her to take up arms to deliver that kingdom.—(Triple Couronne, traite 3, ch. 7.) OCTOBER. l. Foundation of the Abbey de la Couronne, of the order of St. Augustin, in the diocese of Angou- 16me, under the title of Our Lady, by Lambert, who was its first abbot, in the year 1122.—(Gallia Christiana, t. iv.) 2 . Our Lady of the Assumption, at Naples, built by the canonesses regular of St. Augustine, out of gratitude for the favor which the Mother of God did them, by warning them to leave a house which fell down as soon as they were gone out of it.— (Triple Couronne, n. 42.) HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF 404 3. Our Lady of La Place, at Rome. This image having fallen into a well at the house of Cardinal Copocius, in the year 1250, the water swelled up miraculously, and cast out the image, which the cardinal placed in his chapel. But Pope Innocent IV. obliged him to build another on the very spot where the miracle had occurred. This chapel hav¬ ing been given to the Servites, they have erected a fine church, in which the well is enclosed.—(Triple Couronne, n. 100.) 4. Our Lady of Vaussivieres, on the mountains of Auvergne, near Mont d’Or, where there is an image which has remained miraculously from the ruins of Vaussivieres, which was destroyed by the English about the year 1374. This image having been transferred to the Church of Besse, was found again in its former place.—(Duchene, c. 9.) 5. Our Lady of Buch, in the Pine Mountains, in Guienne. The sea cast this image upon the sands, while St. Thomas, of the order of St. Francis, was praying in behalf of two vessels which he saw in danger of perishing. He respectfully received this image and deposited it in this place, in a small chapel which he built there.—(Florimond Raymon, Histoire des Heresies, liv. i.) Saint Mary’s of Jersey, consecrated in the year * 1320, in the English Channel.—(Chartrier de Cou- tances, called Le Livre Noir.) 6 . Our Lady de la Plebe, in the marshes of Venice, built in the year 1480.) 7. Festival of the Rosary, instituted by Pope Gre¬ gory XIII. in the year 1573, in consequence of the celebrated victory of Lepanto, gained by the Chris¬ tians over the Turks.—(Joseph Stephan., Tract, de Indulg. Rosarii.) 8 . Our Lady of Gifts, at Avignon. The tradition which attributes the foundation of this church to St. Martha, reports that it was consecrated by our Lord himself. Afterwards, having been demol¬ ished by the Saracens, it was repaired by the Em¬ peror Charlemagne.—(Triple Couronne, n. 40.) 9. In the year 723, the night after the Saracen prince had unjustly ordered the hand of St. John Damascenus to be cut off, Our Lady reunited it miraculously to his wrist, after this faithful ser¬ vant had prayed to her for it with the design of continuing to write in defence of holy images.— (John, Patriarch of Jerusalem, Life of St. John Damascenus, in Surius.) 10 . Our Lady of the Cloister, at Besan 9 on. The image of Our Lady, placed in the Cloister of La Madeleine, was preserved from a fire, in the year 1624, though the niche where it stood was reduced to ashes.—(Triple Couronne, n. 58.) 11 Our Lady the White, in the church of the mon¬ astery of the Feuillants, at Ouville, in the district of Caux. This image is much venerated in the country.—(Archives of the Monastery.) 12 . Our Lady of Faith, in the country of Liege. This image was found by a carpenter named Gilles de Wanlin, in the year 1609, who, as he was cut¬ ting down an oak, with the intention of making a boat, found in it, enclosed in an iron grating, an image of Our Lady, made of white clay, a foot high, which was placed in another oak, and after¬ wards in a church which was built on the very place of the oak which had borne this fair fruit.— (Triple Couronne, n. 60.) 13. Dedication of Clairvaux, in the diocese of Langres, in honor of the Blessed Virgin. St. Ber¬ nard was the first abbot of this celebrated monas¬ tery, where he died in the year 1153, aged sixty- FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN". 405 20 . three years. Alphonsus L, King of Portugal, in the year 1142, hound himself and his successors to pay every year, as the vassal of Our Lady of Clair- vaux, fifty gold maravedis.—(Cistercian Chron¬ icle.) 14. Our Lady’ of La Pochette, near Geneva. A shepherd coming up to a bush, where he heard a plaintive voice, found there an image of the Blessed Virgin, which led to a church being built there.—(Astolph, Historia universalis B. Marise Virginis.) 15. Dedication of Our Lady of Terouenne, in the year 1131, by Milo, its thirteenth bishop.—(Jacob Meyerus, lib. ii., Annal. Flandrise.) 16. Dedication of Our Lady of Milan, by Pope Martin V., in the year 1417. This church was built in 1388 by John Galleas, Duke of Milan.— (Philip Bergomensis, lib. iv., Supl. ann. 1388.) 17. Dedication of the Crypt of Our Lady of Char¬ tres, by St. Pontianus, in the year 46. Dedication of the Church of Citeaux, in the diocese of Cha¬ lons, under the title of Our Lady.—(Sebastian Rouillard, c. 4, n. 4.) 18. Dedication of Our Lady of Rheims, built by St. Nicasius, archbishop of that city, in the year 405. This church having fallen to ruins, was rebuilt by Ebo and Hincmar. It was finished in the year 845.—(Flodoardus, lib. i., c. 6.) 19. Dedication of the Abbey of Royaumont, under the title of the Holy Cross and Our Lady, by John, Archbishop of Mytilene, in the year 1235. This monastery had been founded by St. Louis, in the year 1227.—(Gallia Christiana, t. iv.) Dedication of the church of Pontigny, four leagues from Auxerre, under the title of Our Lady. This abbey was founded in 1114 by Thi- baud, Count of Champagne.—(Angl. Manriq.) 21 . Our Lady of Talan, near Dijon.—(Ex monu- mentis Divion.) 22 . Our Lady of the Under-ground, half a league from Grand Cairo. It is held by tradition that the Blessed Virgin lived for some years in this subter¬ ranean chapel.—(Triple Couronne, n. 9.) 23. Our Lady of Consolation, near Honfleur. This chapel is much frequented; two children have been raised to life there, in memory of which their figures are there in silver.—(Archives of the place.) 24. Our Lady of the Hermits, in Switzerland, where there was formerly a small hermitage in the midst of woods occupied by St. Meinrad, till the Em¬ peror Otho built a church there, in compliance with an order which he received from heaven. This chui'ch contains a small chapel of Our Lady, which was consecrated, it is said, in the year 1418, by Our Lord, accompanied by angels and saints, who performed the functions of ordinary ministers of the church, in presence of the Blessed Virgin.— (Triple Couronne, n. 84.) 25. Dedication of Our Lady of Toledo, in Spain, about the year 1075, by Bernard, archbishop of that city. This cathedral has a revenue of more than 300,000 livres.—(John Mariana, lib. ix., c. 18.) 26. Dedication of Our Lady of Victory, near Senlis, in the year 1225, by Guarin, Bishop of Senlis, and Chancellor of France. This abbey was built by 406 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF Philip Augustus, in thanksgiving for the victory which he gained over the Emperor Otho IV., at Bouvines, in the year 214.—(Carta Tabularis de Victoria.) 27. Our Lady of the Basilla, in Lombardy, beyond the Po, where there is a church built by the express order of Our Lady.—(Albert. Leander, Descriptio Italise.) 28. Our Lady of Vivonne, in Savoy, where a mira¬ culous image is venerated, which was found by a ploughman. This statue, having been removed three times into the village church, was always found again in its former place, which necessitated the building of a church, which was given to the Carmelites.—(Astolphus, in Histor. univers. imag. B. Virg.) 29. * Our Lady of Orope, near Bielle, in Savoy; this image, of cedar wood, six feet high, is in a chapel, which St. Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli, erected, about the year 380; he often retired thither during the troubles caused by the Arians.—(Triple Cou- ronne, n. 112.) 30. Our Lady of Mondevi, at Vic, in Piedmont, where there is a picture which a tile-maker had painted on a brick pillar, which he had erected for that purpose. This pillar has been enclosed in a church, where the miracles which are wrought attract a great concourse of people.—(History of Mondevi, c. 2.) 31. In the year 1116, an altar boy having fallen into the well of St. Fort, which is in the church of Chartres, was saved by Our Lady. All the time that he was in the well, he heard the angels an¬ swering the public prayers which, were chanted in the church; whence the custom arose at Chartres that the choir never answer aloud to the Dominus vobiscum, chanted at high mass and canonical hours.—(Sebastian Rouillard, Parthen., c. 6, n. 14.) NOVEMBER. 1. Feast of All Saints, instituted in honor of Our Lady and all the saints, at Rome, by Pope Boni¬ face IV., about the year 608, and, since, in all churches of Christendom, by Pope Gregory IV., about the year 829, at the prayer of Louis le De- bonnaire, who made a decree for its observance in all his dominions.—(Baronius on the Martyrologi- uni Romanum.) 2 . Our Lady of Emmimont, near Abbeville. This church is much visited by pilgrims. — (Antiq. d’ Abbev., lib. i.) 3. Our Lady of Rennes, in Brittany. The English having made a mine to blow up the town, it is said that the candles in the chapel w'ere found miraculously lighted; the bells rung of themselves, and the image of the Blessed Virgin was seen to stretch out its arms towards the middle of the church, where the mine was, which by that means was discovered.—(Triple Couronne, Trait. 3, c. 7 and 8.) 4. Our Lady of Port Louisa, at Mila'n. Tradition reports that this image received one day the homage of two angels, whom several persons saw bending the knee before it.—(Astolphus, ex Hist, universal, imag. B. Virgin.) 5. Our Lady of Damietta, in Egypt. This church was consecrated in honor of the Blessed Virgin, in the year 1220, by Pelagius, apostolic legate.— (iEmilius, in Philippo.) FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 407 6 . Our Lady of Valfleurie, seven leagues from Lyons. This church is so called, because the image of the Blessed Virgin on the high altar was found by shepherds in some broom, which had flowered about the feast of Christmas.—(Triple Couronne, n. 47.) 7. Our Lady of the Pond, near Dijon. This image of baked earth was discovered in the year 1531, on occasion of an ox stopping always in this place, and though he grazed there constantly, the grass was always found still more abundant.—(Ibid., n. 42.) 8 . Our Lady of Belle Fontaine, in the diocese of La Rochelle. This image has been honored from time immemorial.—(Archives of the Abbey.) 9. Our Lady of Good-Succor, in Perche, near Rou- malard. This church is much frequented by per¬ sons who are in affliction.—(Triple Couronne, n. 52.) 10 . In the year 1552, Our Lady of Loretto healed of an incurable malady a Turkish pacha, who was persuaded by one of his slaves, who was a Chris¬ tian, to have recourse to the Blessed Virgin; this Mohammedan believed him, and promised to give him his liberty, if Our Lady cured him. Having recovered his health, he sent several presents to the church of Our Lady of Loretto, and, among others, his bow and quiver.—(Tursellini, Hist. Lauret, lib. iii., c. 18.) 11 . On this day, about the year 1546, the Portuguese gained a great victory over the infidels, who had been before the castle of Die, in the East Indies, for the space of seven months, and who would have carried it by storm, if Our Lady had not ap¬ peared upon the walls; which caused so great ter¬ ror in the enemy’s camp, that the siege was at once raised.—(Balingham on the Calendar.) 12 . Our Lady of the Tower, at Fribourg, built on the lands of the heretics, on the very spot where an image of Our Lady had been found.—(Triple Couronne, n. 85.) 13. Dedication of the Abbey of Bee, in Normandy, in the year 1077, by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Can¬ terbury. This abbey of Benedictines was founded about the year 1045 by Herluin, who was its first abbot.—(Gulielmus Gemitieensis, lib. vi. de ducib. Norman., cap. 9.) 14. Our Lady of the Grotto, in the diocese of La- mego, in Portugal. This chapel was cut in the rock, in the same place where an image of the Blessed Virgin had been found.—(Vasconcellius, in Descriptio regni Lusitan.) 15. Our Lady of Pignerol, built in honor of the As¬ sumption of the Blessed Virgin, about the year 1098, by Adelaide, Countess of Savoy.—(Archives of the Place.) 16. Our Lady of Chieves, in Hainault, where, in the year 1130, the lady of the place, named Ida, had a chapel built near a fountain where an image of Our Lady had been found, which has since wrought many miracles.—(Triple Couronne, n. 62.) 17. Institution of the confraternity of Our Lady of Sion, at Nancy, in Lorraine, in the year 1393, by Ferri of Lorraine, Count of Vaudemont.—(Ibid., n. 66.) 18. Our Lady of Bourdieux, near Bourges. This | abbey of Benedictines was built in the year 928, 408 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF by Ebbo, the Lord of Berry.—(Bzovius, ad ann. 928.) 19. Our Lady of Good Tidings, in the Abbey of St. Victor, which was visited every Saturday, by Mary of Medicis. The abbey was founded in 1113 by Louis the Large.—(Ex. Archiv. S. Victoris Pari- siensis.) 20 . Our Lady of La Gardia, near Bologna, in Italy. This picture was in the Church of Santa Sophia, at Constantinople, with this inscription: “ This picture, painted by St. Luke, must be taken to the mountain of La Gardia, and placed over the altar of the church.” A Greek monk set out for Italy about the year 433, with the picture entrusted to him, and deposited it on the mountain of La Gardia.—(Bzovius, ad ann. 1433, n. 379.) 21 . Presentation of Our Lady. This feast was in¬ stituted in the Greek Church more than nine hun¬ dred years ago, since St. Germanus, who held the see of Constantinople in the year 715, composed a sermon upon it.—(Baronius, Notes to the Mar- tyrology.) 22 . Institution of the Confraternity of the Presenta¬ tion of Our Lady, at St. Omer’s, in the year 1481. —(Adalardus Tassart, in Chron., ad ann. 1481.) 23. Our Lady of the Vault, near the town of St. Anastasia, in the environs of Florence.—(Triple Cour., n. 102.) 24. In the year 1535, Our Lady of Montserrat re¬ stored the use of speech to a Savoyard who had lost it.—(History of Montserrat.) 25. Our Lady of the Rock, in the territory of Fie- zoli, in Tuscany. This image is placed in a rock, where two shepherds retired to pray; Our Lady ordered them to build a church in this place.— (Archangel. Janius, in Annal. PP. Servitarum.) 26. Our Lady of the Mountains, in Italy, between the Esquiline and Viminal Hills. This image was miraculously found in the year 1500.—(Triple Cour., n. 99.) 27. Dedication of the town of Lesina, in the cam- pagna of Rome. This town was given to Our Lady in the year 1400, by Margaret, Queen of Po¬ land, and mother of Ladislas.—(Bzovius, liv. ix. de Signis Ecclesiaa.) 28. Our Lady of Walsingham, in England, greatly honored by Edward I., who, as he was playing one day at chess, rose up instinctively from his seat, and at the same time a large stone became loose in the roof, and fell upon the chair where he had been sitting. From that time he particularly hon¬ ored Our Lady of Walsingham.—(Thomas Wal¬ singham, History of England under Edward I.) 29. Our Lady of the Crown, at Palermo, so called because it was there that the kings of Sicily re¬ ceived the royal crown, as holding it from the Mother of God, and unwilling to wear it for any but her.—(Thom. Facellus, lib. viii. prioris decad. de rebus Siculis.) 30. Our Lady of Genesta, on the coast of Genoa, in Italy. A poor woman, named Petruccia, under¬ took to build this church, a task which appeared to every one impossible; she however proceeded to lay the corner stone, and assured every one that she should not die till the Blessed Virgin and St. Augustin finished this work. In fact, this church was found miraculously completed a short time afterwards.—(Segninus, in his Chronicle.) FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 409 DECEMBER. 1. Our Lady of Ratisbonne, in Bavaria, founded by Duke Theodon, after receiving baptism from St. Kupert, Bishop of Salzburg and apostle of Ba¬ varia, who afterwards consecrated this church.— (Canisius, lib. v. de Beata Virgine. cap. 25.) 2 . Our Lady of Didinia, in Cappadocia, before which St. Basil besought the Blessed Virgin to remedy the disorders caused by Julian the Apos¬ tate; he was there favored with an apparition which presaged the death of the emperor.—(Baro- nius, ad ann. 303.) 3. Our Lady of Filerma, near Malta. This image having remained in the midst of the ruins of the Church of St. Mark of Rhodes, was removed into the Church of St. Catharine, and finally, the knights having quitted Rhodes, it was placed in the Church of St. Lawrence, and this having been entirely burnt down, the image remained entire.— (Triple Couronne, n. 91.) 4. Our Lady of La Chapelle, at Abbeville. This church was built about the year 1400, on a small hill, where formerly they worshipped idols.—(An- tiquites d’Abbeville, liv. i.) 5. In the year 1584 was instituted the first so¬ dality of Our Lady at the Jesuits’ college, at Rome, whence is derived their custom of establish¬ ing it in all their houses.—(Balingham on the Calendar.) 6 . Our Lady of Fourviere, at Lyons, on the moun¬ tain, famous for miracles, and for the extraordinary concourse of the people of that great city, particu¬ larly on all Saturdays. 52 7. On this day, a Sunday, in the year 1550, the canonesses of Our Lady of Paris being in proces¬ sion before the image of the Blessed Virgin, which is near the door of the choir, a heretic from Lor¬ raine, breaking through the crowd, sword in hand, sought to strike that image, but he was prevented by those present, and on the Thursday following, he was executed before the porch of Our Lady.— (Du Breuil, Antiq. de Paris, liv. i.) 8 . The Conception of the Blessed Virgin. This festival began in the East, more than nine hundred years ago, since mention is made of it by St. John Damascene, who lived in 721. It was instituted in England in the year 1100 by St. Anselm, Arch¬ bishop of Canterbury; afterwards in the diocese of Lyons, in the year 1145 ; and finally, Sixtus IV. commanded, in the year 1576, the celebration of it throughout Christendom. — (Molanus, Notes to Usuard.) 9. Our Lady of the Conception, at Naples, so called because, in the year 1618, the viceroy, with all his court, and the soldiery of Naples, made a vow, in the church of Our Lady the Great, to believe and defend the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin.—(Triple Couronne, n. 43.) 10 . Institution of nuns of the Conception of Our Lady, by Beatrice de Sylva, to whom it is said that Our Lady appeared in the year 1484, clothed with a white robe and a scapular of the same color, with a blue mantle. Beatrice, sister of Blessed Amadeus, adopted this habit for her order, which was approv¬ ed by Innocent VIII., under the rule of Citeaux. —(Vasconcellius, in Descriptione regni Lusitanias.) 11 . Our Lady of Angels, in the forest of Livry, four leagues from Paris. Three merchants of Anjou having been ill-treated in 1212 in this forest, by 410 HISTORICAL CALENDAR OF robbers who tied them to trees, intending to leave them there to die, had recourse to the Blessed Vir¬ gin, who immediately sent to them three angels to restore them to liberty. After this miracle, several more were wrought, which made this chapel very celebrated.—(Registers of the Abbey of Livry.) 12 . Our Lady of Good Tidings, at Abbeville. This little chapel, which is in St. Peter’s priory, has al¬ ways been much frequented.—(Antiquites d’Abbe¬ ville, liv. i.) 13. Our Lady of the Holy Chapel, at Paris. This image, which is under the portal of the lower Holy Chapel has wrought many miracles. 14. Our Lady of Alba Regia, in Hungary, was built by St. Stephen, King of Hungary, who had given his kingdom to the Blessed Virgin.—(John Boni- facius, Historia Virginis, lib. ii., c. i.) 15. Octave of the Conception of Our Lady, insti¬ tuted by Pope Sixtus IV.—(Bullarium.) 16. Institution of the celebrated confraternity of Our Lady of Good Deliverance, in the Church of St. Stephen des Gres, at Paris, about the year 1533, to which Gregory XIII. granted ample indulgences in the year 1538. 17. Our Lady of Amiens, the cathedral. This church had for its first bishop St. Firmin, who received the crown of martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian. A part of the head of St. John the Baptist is seen in this church, which a traveller, named Galo, brought thither on his return from Constantinople, in the year 1205.—(Locrius, Marise Auguste, lib. iv., c. 59.) 18. Dedication of Our Lady of Marseilles, by St. Lazarus, in presence of his two sisters, Mary Mag¬ dalen and Martha, and of three holy prelates— Maximus, Trophimus, and Eutropius.—(Canisius, lib. v., Moral.) 19. In the year 657,ISt. Ildefonsus, Archbishop of Toledo, was saying matins; Our Lady, it is said, appeared to him, accompanied by a great number of the blessed, and holding in her hand the book which he had composed in her honor, she thank¬ ed him for it, and out of gratitude gave him a white chasuble. This celestial present is still pre¬ served at Oviedo, Alphonsus the Chaste, King of Castile, having solemnly transferred it to the Church of St. Saviour, which he had built.— (Baronius, ad ann. 657, n. 42.) 20 . The Abbey of Our Lady of Moleme, of the order of St. Benedict, in the diocese of Langres, was founded on this day, in the year 1075, by St. Robert, who was its abbot. — (Gallia Christiana, t. iv.) 21 . Foundation of St. Acheul, near Amiens, under the title of Our Lady, by St. Firmin, first bishop of that city.—(Archives of St. Acheul.) 22 . Our Lady of Chartres in Beauce. This church, built in the time of the apostles, after being several times demolished, was rebuilt in its present form by St. Fulbert, fifty-fifth bishop of Chartres.— (Sebastien Rouillard, Parthen., c. 5.) 23. Our Lady of the Ardilliers, at Saumur, in An¬ jou. Its name is illustrious throughout France, as well on account of the crowds of people who were attracted thither, as from a fountain which cured many maladies. This image represents Our Lady FEASTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 411 of Pity holding in her arms her lifeless Son, whose head is supported by an angel.—(Locrius, Marise August*, lib. iy., c. 60.) 24. • Celebration of the virginal marriage of Our Lady and St. Joseph, kept as a festival for a long time at Sens and in several churches of France.—(Saussey, Martyrologium Gallicum.) 25. On this day, at the hour of midnight, the Bless¬ ed Virgin brought forth the Saviour of the world, in the stable of Bethlehem, where a fountain sprung up miraculously on the same day.—(Baro- nius, Apparat. ad Annal.) 26. Institution of the confraternity of the Concep¬ tion of Our Lady, at the Great Augustinian Con¬ vent, at Paris, in the year 1443, where there have been ample indulgences granted since, by Pope Innocent III.—(Du Breuil, Antiquites, lib. ii.) '27. Institution of the order of Knights of Our Lady, in the year 1370, by Louis II., Duke of Bour¬ bon.—(Andrew Favin, lib. viii., Histoire de Na¬ varre, and Theatre d’Honneur, lib. iii.) 28. Our Lady of Pontoise, seven leagues from Paris. This image, which stands in the front of the church of the suburb of this town, towards-Bouen, is celebrated for the miracles which are wrought there.—(Archives of the church.) 29. Our Lady of Spire, in Germany. St. Bernard, entering this church on the 29th of December, 1146, was honorably received there by the canons, who conducted him to the choir, singing the “Salve Begina.” At the. close of the antiphon, St. Bernard saluted the image of the Blessed Vir¬ gin in these terms: “ 0 clemens, 0 pia, 0 dulcis Virgo Maria! ” and it is said that she answered: “Salve Bernarde!” The words of this saint to the image are seen engraved in a circle on the pavement of the church, on the same spot where he pronounced them, and they have since been added to the “Salve Begina,” which was composed in the year 1040, by Herman, surnamed Contrac¬ tus, a Benedictine monk. — (Angelus Manrique, annals of the Cistercians, year 1146, c. 10, etc.) 30. St. Mary’s of Boulogne, in Picardy. This church was founded by the hermits of St. Augustine in the year 1159; it was pillaged by Henry VIII., King of England, in the year 1544, secularized and made a cathedral in the year 1559, according to Locrius.—(Gallia Christiana, t. iv.) 31. About a hundred years before the birth of our Saviour, the image of Our Lady of Chartres, which the Druids had consecrated to the Blessed Virgin, who was to be a mother, raised to life the son of Geolfry, king or prince of Montlhery, who, having fallen into a well, had been found dead; out of gratitude for this favor, he made several presents to this image, as the history of this mira¬ cle attests, which is represented in the stained glass of the great church.—(Sebastien Bouillard, Parthen., c. iii.) ~ * -v. Mil r'fltl- ' :.I8 Ifrfr " ! • 0 "t I ■; *. ■ ;r 1 »:\ Vff t*H M V V ; ;!NH < r-jji ■1 :;l-r XV '.'..7 ».. : ry-: '}>W, . % ’ ' ■ ” . : * r : ... hit ' . . i ' . U ■ : ! .nfOf • • 0 t . • ! . ; ■ •.•m . ■.,•. < quFgjf ■ ■ ;..A, - : ‘ r ' - . ; ' "■ H' ' ", ! : • 1 ■ .■ hih‘- :■:) St : l-\ ■ ■ '• ; , r :y . ■ M ■■ ■ ■ ' V " l X, - M!.' :■ ■ . i. f. •,•>■ i >. . : ? i • I - .» '> If. T. t I; i : \ ' , . I . ■: ;< iHW H C'.y: •!: .;7 » -ut. 1 ■ . ■ : i I .s’. fi • ■'{{<■/’ ;y /-.V v r -‘-..T -:vi) ■ f ' nq&fl v-: ■ . M .;—; - .. r V. if i ' y ■ " t'j ■) fnl "io s-u- ■ • \ DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIBGrEST IN IRELAND. T. PATRICK began his mission in * \ excellence, so that among his earliest con- wJ/ the most western portion of Europe, verts were virgins who consecrated them- the island that had never bowed to the yoke selves to the service of God, and taking of Rome’s legions, at a moment when the Our Blessed Lady as their model and pro- Devotion to the Blessed Virgin had received totype sought to re-enact in their lives the a new impulse throughout the Church. The virtues which were so characteristic of her, daring attack of Nestorius on the honors and must ever be so dear to her heart. The paid to the Virgin Mother of our Lord, Apostle of Ireland seems almost to lack revealed how deeply this devotion was in- words to express his esteem of one of these terwoven with every fibre of the Catholic maiden converts and early children of heart. In all lands, men sought to increase Mary in Ireland, evidently of highest rank the honors paid her, and missionaries to and adorned with all mental and bodily pagan lands dwelt with renewed fervor on gifts, who renounced all to follow with Mary her exalted merits and graces, as well as our Saviour’s path of trial and obscurity . 1 on the immense glory with which her divine Mary’s name became a prayer on the Son had crowned her. lips of every Irishwoman and so remains St. Patrick from the first impressed on to this day. The very novelists who write ! his hearers among the natives of Ireland to sneer at them, bear tribute to this endur- the beauty of holy virginity, and held up ing devotion to Mary which characterizes Mary as the type and model of all female the Irish, for they make them constantly (‘) Et etiam una benedicta Scotta genitiva, no- —(St. Patrick’s Confession. See Sister Mary Clares bilis, pulcherrima, adulta, erat quam ego baptizavi. Life of St. Patrick, p. 601.) 414 DEVOTION" TO THE utter the word, “ Wirrah,” unconscious that this is really Muire, the name of Mary in Irish. To her they fly in all trouble ; to them she is indeed the Comforter of the Afflicted, the Refuge of Sinners, the Help of Christians. The domestic salutation even embraced the name of Mary. To this day, in speaking Irish, they greet each other with these sweet words: “ God and Mary be with you ! ” and the reply con¬ tains it as well: “ God and Mary and Patrick .” 1 The early Irish, on becoming Catholic, adopted few foreign names ; the Apostles, St. Martin, of Tours, stand almost alone, but following out the genius of their own language they made a series of names from Giolla or Maol, client or servant, many of which still exist as family names. Gildea, Gilchrist, Gillis, are Servants of God, of Christ, of Jesus. Giolla Muire and Maol- muire became at once favorite Irish names, so wide-spread was devotion to Mary. The first exists as Gilmary, Gilmore, Gilmuir; the latter has been strangely changed. These names were latinized when necessary by Marianus, and more than one early Irish writer of the name bore to the conti¬ nent his stores of sacred and profane learn¬ ing, while his very name proclaimed him a servant of Mary. Several churches in Ireland dedicated to the Blessed Virgin claim to have been founded by the great apostle of the nation himself. The Yellow Tower at Trim, as an ancient ruin is now called, which is really part of a tall steeple, marks the site of a famous abbey said to have been founded by St. Patrick and dedicated to Our Blessed Lady . 3 But the Irish soil is strewn with ruins, and the temporal structures raised in honor of Mary, have perished more easily than the devotion to Our Lady, which St. Patrick and his fellow missionaries im¬ planted in the hearts of the first converts, with the vital truths of faith. A nation given to music and poetry nat¬ urally shaped their devotion by this taste, and hymns to Mary are among the earliest monuments extant in the Irish language. Irish poems rhyme ; those of Greece and Rome did not, and the earliest Latin hymns in which rhyme enters, are admitted to have been of Irish origin. Among these early hymns we will here insert one : HYMN OF ST. CUCHUMNEUS. (sixth century.) In alternate measure chanting, . Daily sing we Mary’s praise; And in strains of glad rejoicing To the Lord our voices raise. With a two-fold choir repeating Mary’s never-dying fame, Let each ear the praises gather Which our grateful tongues proclaim. Juda’s ever glorious daughter, Chosen mother of the Lord, Who to weak and fallen manhood, All its ancient worth restored. From the everlasting Father, Gabriel brought the glad decree That the word divine conceiving, She should set poor sinners free. Of all virgins pure, the purest Ever stainless, ever bright, ( 1 ) Moran, Essays on the Early Irish Church, p. 239. ( 2 ) Hall’s Ireland, ii., p. 376. j' BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. 415 Still from grace to grace advancing. Fairest daughter of the light. "Wondrous title! who shall tell it Whilst the Word divine she bore; Though in mother’s name rejoicing, Virgin purer than before ! By a woman’s disobedience, Eating the forbidden tree, Was the world betrayed and ruined, Was by woman’s aid set free. In mysterious mode a mother, Mary did her God conceive. By whose grace, through saving waters, Man did heavenly truth receive. By no empty dreams deluded, For the pearl which Mary bore, Men, all earthly wealth resigning, Still are rich for ever more. For her Son a seamless tunic, Mary’s careful hand did weave: O’er that tunic fiercely gambling, Sinners Mary’s heart did grieve. Clad in helmet of salvation, Clad in breastplate shining bright. May the hand of Mary guide us To the realms of endless light. Amen, amen, loudly cry we; May she when the fight is won, O’er avenging fires triumphing, Lead us safely to her Son. 1 Holy angels gathering round us, Lo His saving name we greet, Writ in books of life eternal, May we still that name repeat! Another very ancient Irish hymn to the Blessed Virgin, by its very title shows how intense was the devotion of the people to the Mother of God : a warlike nation made it a breastplate. Professor O’Carry gave part of it in one ( 1 ) Mary and the Virgin Saints sit around the Lord God giving him praise and glory, and pray¬ ing for the souls in trouble. St. Adamnan’s Vision. of the last lectures which he delivered be¬ fore the Catholic University. He assigns it a date anterior to the English invasion : THE PROTECTING CORSLET OF MARY. Direct me how to praise thee, Though I am not a master of poetry, 0 thou, of the angelic countenance without fault, Thou hast given the milk of thy breast to save me. I offer myself under thy protection, 0 loving mother of the only Son ; And under thy protecting shield I place my body, My heart, my will, and my understanding. I am a sinner full of faults, I beseech of thee and pray thee do it, 0 woman, physician of the miserable diseases Behold the many ulcers of my soul. 0 temple of the three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I invoke thee to come to visit me At the hour of my judgment and of my death. 0 queen, to whom it hath been granted by the King, The Eternal Father, out of the abundance of his love, As inheritance, to be the mother, I implore thy assistance to save me. 0 vessel, who carried the lamp More luminous than the sun, Draw me under thy shelter into the harbor Out of the transitory ship of the world. 0 flower of beauty, 0 mother of Christ, 0 lover of peace and mildness, I pray thee hear me: May it ne’er occur to me In any trial to forsake thee. 0 queen, who refuseth not any person Who is pure in his deeds, morals, actions, Beseech thou Christ to put me (From the wily demons) amidst the saints. 416 DEVOTION TO THE 0 queen of the saints, of the virgins, of the angels, 0 honeycomb of eternal life, All-surpassing power, presumptuous valor, Goes not far without thee. I am under thy shelter amidst the brave, 0 protecting shield, without being injured by their blows, 0 holy Mary, if thou wilt hear thy suppliant, I put myself under the shelter of thy shield. When falling in the slippery path Thou art my smooth supporting handstaff, 0 virgin from the southern clime, May 1 go to heaven to visit thee. There is no hound in fleetness, or in chase, Northwind or rapid river; As quick as the mother of Christ to the bed of death, To those who are entitled to her kindly pro¬ tection. 0 heart without sin, 0 bosom without guile, 0 virgin woman who had chosen sanctity, In thee I place my hope of salvation From the eternal torture of the pain. 0 Mary, gentle, beautiful, 0 meekness, mild and modest, I weary not invoking thee : Thou art my guarding staff in danger. Turn thine eye, 0 woman friend, Upon the distressed nobles of Erin, To them restore (the happiness of) their lives, And obtain for them from the Eternal Father; Every sinner who has fallen into trouble, Of their number, and is in need of succor, Redeem them, 0 virgin woman, They are in misery until thou do it. To the true faith without dissimulation, May the kings of the world be obedient, Through the invocation of Mary, which is not weak, And may they renounce the false religion. To those who are in the pit of pain in fire, Whose portion is of evil. Deign thy relief to them, 0 Mary, And Amen say, 0 cleric. This hymn, to which some additions may have been made in the latter stanzas, is still sung in some families, where the tradi¬ tion of the faith has remained strong. How highly it was esteemed is evident from the following metrical commendation of it, taken from an ancient manuscript in the Royal Irish Academy : Every woman sick in childbirth, If she has this or that it be read for her, She will get relief by the grace of God, And of Mary, Mother of the only Son. Going to a sea voyage, Or going to a singlehanded combat, Whosoever of the two hath justice on his side Shall return alive without danger. Every person who recites it from memory, And hears it with due reverence, And with sweet devotion to Mary, Shall get relief and protection. When you are rising in the morning, And when going into bed, recite it; And you shall have Mary as your friend To redress all your grievances. A house is seldom burned Which is under the protection of the shield Of the Virgin Mary, If appropriate reverence be given to her. Many are the countless virtues Of the protecting shield corslet of Mary, If we be in the state of grace And pray to her at all times with devotion. 1 ( 1 ) Irish Ecclesiastical Record, April, 18*0, pp. 320-2. BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. But the monuments of the primitive de¬ votion in Ireland to the Blessed Virgin are not confined to these Irish hymns, sung only in the churches and household ora¬ tories of the land. Erin gave the universal church one of the earliest Christian poets, who employed the. muse of Virgil and Ovid to serve the cause of the living God. The poems of Sheil, an Irish poet, whose name was latinized as Sedulius, were received with enthusiastic applause, and have been frequently reprinted in modern times. So devout was he to the Blessed Virgin, so often did the holy daughter of David, her¬ self the noblest poetess of the New Testa¬ ment, inspire the muse of Sheil that his hymns in honor of Mary formed a treasure whence the whole church drew hymns to give grace and majestic beauty to the offices of the church. His Carmen Paschale attests, too, the early belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin : Et velut e spinis, mollis rosa surgit acuta Nil quod laedat habeas, matremque obscurat ho- uore; Sic Evae de stirpe sacra veniente Maria Virginis antiquae facinus nova Virgo piaret, Ut quoniam natura prior vitiata jacebat Sub ditione necis, Christo nascente renasci Posset homo et veteris maculam deponere carnis. Which have been thus translated: Safe from the rugged thorn springs up the tender rose, In honor hides the parent stem, in beauty’s soft¬ ness grows; So from the sinful stem of Eve, all sinless Mary came To cover and expiate her mother’s deed of shame. 53 417 That though so long had nature lain beneat’. death’s baleful sway, Yet now with Christ’s nativity, risen man might purge old sin away. 1 But of his hymns, the most famous and universally known throughout the church is that beginning: Salve sancte parens! enixa puerpera regem Qui ccelum terramque tenet per ssecula, cujus Numen et seterno complectens omnia gyro, Imperium sine fine manet, quae ventre beato. Gaudia matris habens cum virginitatis honore, Nec primam similem visa es, nec habere sequentem Sola sine exemplo placuisti femina Christo. These words have been hallowed by their universal use throughout the church, and may be translated: “Hail holy mother, who hast given birth to the Almighty King, who rules the heavens and the earth for all eternity, whose divine power and sway compassing all things in an eternally fixed limit, remains without end. In thy blessed womb thou didst unite the joys of mother¬ hood with the honor of virginity: none has hitherto been like to thee ; nor shall here¬ after any such be found ; thou alone above all others hast been beloved by Christ.” The Litany as a form of devotion to the Blessed Virgin is very probably of Irish origin, and like the rhymed hymn came from the Isle of Saints to the continent to be adopted in all lands. The oldest known litany of the Blessed Virgin is one which the most competent antiquarians and critics ascribe to as early a date as the middle of the eighth century. ( 1 ) See Rev. M. Tormey, Essay on the Immacu¬ late Conception, p. 93 ; Moran, Essays on the Early Irish Church, p. 234. 418 DEVOTION TO THE This beautiful litany now once more cir¬ culating among the faithful of Ireland, is encouraged by Pope Pius IX., who has be¬ stowed an indulgence on those who recite it. LITANY. 0 great Mary! 0 Mary, greatest of Maries ! 0 greatest of women! 0 queen of angels! 0 mistress of the heavens! 0 woman full and replete with the grace of the Holy Spirit! 0 blessed and most blessed! 0 mother of eternal glory! O mother of the heavenly and earthly church! 0 mother of love and indulgence! O mother of the golden heights! 0 honor of the sky! 0 sign of tranquillity ! 0 gate of heaven ! 0 golden casket! 0 couch of love and mercy! 0 temple of the divinity! 0 beauty of virgins! 0 mistress of the tribes! 0 fountain of the parterres! 0 cleansing of the sins! 0 washing of the souls ! 0 mother of the orphans! 0 breast of the infants ? 0 solace of the wretched! 0 star of the sea! 0 handmaid of God! 0 mother of Christ! 0 resort of the Lord! 0 graceful like the dove! 0 serene like the moon! 0 resplendent like the sun! 0 destruction of Eve’s disgrace! 0 regeneration of life! 0 beauty of woman! 0 chief of the virgins! 0 enclosed garden! O closely locked fountain! 0 mother of God! 0 perpetual virgin! 0 prudent virgin! 0 serene virgin! 0 chaste virgin! 0 temple of the living God! 0 royal throne of the eternal king! 0 sanctuary of the Holy Spirit! 0 virgin of the root of Jesse! 0 cedar of Mount Lebanon ! 0 cypress of Mount Sion ! 0 crimson rose of the land of Jacob! 0 blooming like the olive-tree ! 0 glorious son bearer! 0 light of Nazareth! 0 glory ©f Jerusalem! 0 beauty of the worlds! 0 noblest born of the Christian flock! 0 queen of life ! 0 ladder of heaven, hear the petition of the poor, spurn not the wounds and the groans of the miserable. Let our devotion and our sighs be carried through thee to the presence of the Creator, for we are not ourselves worthy of being heard, because of our evil deserts. 0 powerful mistress of heaven and earth, dissolve our trespasses and our sins; de¬ stroy our wickedness and our corruptions ; raise the fallen, the debilitated, and the fettered ; loose the condemned ; repair through thyself the transgressions of our BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. 419 immoralities and our vices ; bestow upon riod, the Irish Church celebrated the Feast us through thyself the blossoms and orna- of the Immaculate Conception, as is attested ments of good actions and virtues ; appease by the Metrical Calendar of Aenghus Ceile for us the Judge by thy voice and thy sup- Dei, 1 which was composed before the year plications ; allow us not to be carried off 800. It is there styled “ The Great Festi- from thee among the spoils of our enemies; val of the Blessed Virginand the Bol- allow not our souls to be condemned, but landists in their immense Acta Sanctorum take us to thyself forever, under thy pro- give a prominent place under that early tection. day in the month of Mary to the honor We beseech and pray thee further, 0 thus paid her in the primitive Irish Church. holy Mary, obtain for us through thy great The Festival of the Visitation of the supplication, from thy only Son, that is, Blessed Virgin, so dear to Saint Francis of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, Sales, that he put under its protecting aegis that God may defend us from all straits and the religious order of women which he temptations; and obtain for us from the founded with St. Jane Frances de Chantal, God of Creation, that we all obtain from the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin to St. Him, the forgiveness and remission of all Elizabeth, was celebrated in Ireland on the our sins and trespasses, and we may obtain 18th of December, at a period when there from Him farther, through thy supplication, is no trace of its solemnization in the con- the perpetual occupation of the heavenly tinental churches. 8 kingdom, through the eternity of life, in Churches dedicated to the Blessed Vir- the presence of the Saints and the saintly gin cover the soil of Ireland, many of Virgins of the world ; which may we de- them dating back to the very earliest pe- serve, may we occupy, for ever and ever. riod of Christianity, ascribed by popular Amen. 1 tradition to St. Patrick and his immediate The early Irish Church observed all the successors. They were not Our Lady of great festivals of Mary, and recent re- Hope, or Succor, or Consolation; they were searches show that the votaries of the simply The Blessed Virgin of the place, Blessed Virgin in the Clan-na-Gael cele- and under that simple title she reaches the brated some festivals in her honor which Irish heart with a power peculiarly its own. were not common on the continent till a To them she was ever present in thought: much later date, and in the introduction of in no other land was there ever a church which further investigation may trace the reared which was dedicated “To the Son influence of the zealous Children of Mary of the Virgin.” Yet such a church was sent forth by the Isle of Saints. erected in Ireland, near Bray, and it still On the third of May, in the earliest pe- retains the name, Kilmacanogue, which has ( 1 ) See Moran, Essays on the Early Irish ( 2 ) Martyrology of Tallagh, Dublin, 1857, p. Church, p. 228. yiii. and p. 27. DEVOTION TO THE 420 that meaning in the language of the ancient Gael. There it stands amid the romantic scenery, on the shore of the channel with the bracing air of the sea invigorating heart and limb. Another Church of the Blessed Virgin dating to a very early period, is that now called “ Our Lady’s Church,” at Glenda- lough, one of the seven which hallow that romantic spot, and which like the others is ascribed to St. Kevin as its founder. The door of this ancient shrine of Mary consists of only three courses of hewn stone, the lintel is four feet six inches in length, and fourteen inches and a half in depth. The door is six feet four inches in height, two feet ten inches in width at the bottom, narrowing slightly so that it is four inches less in width at the top. A kind of architrave is worked around the door, six inches broad ; and in the bottom of the lintel an ornament is wrought in a cross. The walls are carried up of hewn stone to the height of the door, and the remainder, as though the builder had then fallen upon evil times, or the present is but the ruin of a rebuilding after Danish invasion, is of the rude mountain ragstone, though imcompar- ably laid. 1 Most of the early churches were, how¬ ever, apparently of wood, thatched ; though some were undoubtedly of rough stone, low and with few pretensions to architectu¬ ral beauty. The doctrine of the real pres¬ ence invested the altar with a sanctity un¬ known in any other form of worship, and ( 1 ) Hall’s Ireland, ii.. p. 220, where a view of the ancient doorway may be seen. piety supplied wealth and inspired talent and art, which exist even in the rudest communities, to. adorn the sanctuary. In the lives of the early Irish Saints and in their writings, the offering of the Eucharis¬ tic sacrifice is expressed by a term peculiar to Ireland—Conficere Corpus Domini—To make the Body of the Lord. This term admits of no doubt as to their belief in the real presence. The altar was holy and adorned richly. Of these early churches all traces have disappeared; no subterra¬ nean crypt, no tomb of royalty, has been discovered in our time, the adornment of which would enable us to recal the shrines where the primitive Irish Christians gath¬ ered to offer up the sacrifice of the Mass, the officiating priest being in the Irish alone of western languages sacerdos, a real priest; not merely a presbyter. Another class of spots consecrated to Mary were the Wells. Of these the most famous was the celebrated Well of Swords, which was, according to a tradition which we shall neither endorse nor dispute, blessed and dedicated to Our Lady by the great St. Columkill in the early part of the sixth century. This Well, consecrated by so many fervent prayers offered there to Mary and by her favors, is now utterly neglected, overgrown with weeds, and stagnant. It is southwest of the fine round tower that graces this ancient town near the banks of Malahide creek. But if the churches themselves have vanished, another class of monuments has been almost miraculously preserved—early Irish manuscripts. We say miraculously, because the English, before and after the BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. * 421 conquest, made unrelenting havoc upon them, and especially at the time of the Re¬ formation destroyed ruthlessly and persist¬ ently these proofs of the early art, learn¬ ing, and science of a people whom for seven centuries they have been incessantly at¬ tempting to brand with ignorance. If de¬ struction of the works of architecture, sci¬ ence, learning, constitute any people the foremost of Goths and Yandals, the Eng¬ lish people have won for themselves this bad preeminence. Some Irish manuscripts, and not a few, were carried off as curiosities to England and thence to other countries, to France, Belgium, and even Russia. In England, many of these have been treasured up as Anglo-Saxon, although the inscriptions at the end in the hand of the writer attest their Irish origin. Among the finest of these manuscripts is the Book of Kells, preserved now in Trinity College, Dublin. In this the illuminations give us a fine idea of what must have been the pictorial deco¬ rations of the early Irish churches. This manuscript is according to the testimony of scholars of the sixth, certainly not later than the seventh, century. Westwood, a recent English writer in his Palaeographia Sacra Pictoria (Article, Book of Kells) says: “At a period when the fine arts may be said to have been almost extinct in Italy and other parts of the continent, namely, from the fifth to the end of the eighth cen¬ tury, a style of art had been established and cultivated in Ireland absolutely distinct from that of all other parts of the civilized world. There is abundant evidence to prove that in the sixth and seventh centu¬ ries, the art of ornamenting manuscripts of the Sacred Scriptures, and especially of the Gospels, had attained a perfection in Ireland almost marvellous, and which in after ages was adopted and imitated by the continental schools, visited by the Irish missionaries.” Yet the Irish priests and monks not only reared churches in honor of Mary in Ire¬ land, but scattering through England and the continent, they everywhere, while forming the Teutonic tribes to Christianity, inspired a touching devotion to the Mother of God, and reared churches under her in¬ vocation. Saint .Columbanus, Saint Maxi¬ mus, Saint Fiacre, Saint Gall, are espe¬ cially mentioned as building churches in honor of the Blessed Virgin. 1 These churches, as Westwood remarks, they en¬ riched with manuscripts, illuminated in the national style and naturally applied this same Irish art to adorn the sanctuaries of Mary. And we have a specimen of the Madonna before which the disciples of St. Patrick knelt to implore her intercession with God. This Book of Kells contains among its other illustrations a large picture ( 1 ) Messingham, Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum. Vita S. Columbani, p. 240. “ Ubi etiam eccle- Biam in honorem almae Dei genitricis, semperque Virginia Mariae, ex lignis construxit ad magnitudi- nem sanctissimi corporis sui.” It might have been called Our Lady of Joy, for it was famous for re- lieving all who were in sorrow, melancholy, or de¬ jection. Vita S. Magnoaldi sen Magni, p. 311. « Dedicavit, ecclesiam in honore Dei genitnce Ma¬ rias.” Vita S. Fiacrii, p. 390. “ Monasterium in honore B. Mariae construxit.” 422 DEVOTION TO THE of Our Blessed Lady holding in her lap her divine Son. She is enthroned as a Queen. Westwood, one of those strange beings who strive in the face of all sense and reason to deny that the early Irish* Church was in¬ tensely Catholic gives a beautiful facsimile of this ancient picture of Our Lady, such a one as doubtless formed the altar-piece in the Church of the Blessed Yirgin of Baile-atha-Truim and many another shrine of Mary in the Isle of Saints. “It is en¬ closed within a highly elaborate border composed of intertwined lacertine animals with dogs’ heads. This singular composi¬ tion,” says Westwood, “ is interesting from the proof it affords of the veneration of the Virgin Mary in the early Irish church ; the large size in which she is represented, as well as the glory around her head (which singularly bears three small crosses), evi¬ dently indicating the high respect, with which the Mother of Christ was regarded. The Infant Saviour, it will be observed, is destitute of the nimbus ; the seat on which the Virgin is seated is not devoid of ele¬ gance, terminating above in the dog’s head with an immensely elongated interlaced tongue. The drawing of the whole is en¬ tirely puerile, whilst the ingenuity displayed in the intricate patterns at the sides and upper part of the drawing is quite remark¬ able. This singular interlacing of the limbs of human figures is peculiarly characteris¬ tic of Irish manuscripts.” It may be added that Our Saviour has his hand ex¬ tended, in the act of benediction. The angels have each apparently something used in Church processions of the time, two procession crosses, the cross enclosed in a circle ; the third a star similarly en¬ closed at the top of his staff, while the fourth bears what in other Irish paintings is evidently a sceptre, formed of two sham¬ rocks, starting from a single stem, being with the throne another attribute of roy¬ alty thus given to Mary. Greek art may indeed have been introduced to decorate the churches of Our Lady, for many of the early Irish priests visited the Holy Land and brought Greeks with them, so that the church at Trim was for some time called, as Usher tells us, the Greek church. 1 Litany, hymns, family names, immemorial ejaculations, art, all alike attest the deep devotion of the early Irish to the Mother of God. The devotion of Mary was so inter¬ woven with every fibre of the Irish heart, that amid all the horrors of the Danish in¬ vasions, when their towns were laid waste, churches and monasteries destroyed, and religious and priests murdered ; amid all the scenes of blood brought about by the in¬ sane jealousies and intrigues of the un¬ worthy Irish princes, who finally brought in the stranger, the Blessed Virgin retained her hold on the Irish, who indeed turned to her as their only comfort in the distressed state of their land. The female saints who had flourished in Ireland were always compared to Mary as the highest type of excellence in woman : Saint Bridget of Kildare is styled “The Mary of the Irish ; ” 2 that if, as the old ( 1 ) Usher, Epist. Hibern. Syllog., Note xxi. ( 3 ) Moran, Essays on the Early Irish Church, p. 230. BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. saying ran, “ Christianus alter Christus : a Christian should be another Christ: the Christian maiden should be another Mary.” “ There are two holy virgins in heaven who may undertake my protection, Mary and St. Bridget, on whose patronage let each of us depend,” 1 says the early writer of a life of St. Bridget. So, too, this Irish saint is represented as joining her prayers to those which the Blessed Virgin is perpetually offering for the souls in purgatory. The last canonized saints of Ireland show the hereditary devotion of the land. St. Malachi, the friend of the illustrious St. Bernard, who has left us a most beautiful life of that great archbishop of Armagh, was buried in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin in which, says St. Bernard, it was his delight to spend his hours in prayer. 2 St. Lawrence O’Toole, the last saint, dying just before the English invasion did so much to replunge Ireland into that bar¬ barism from which Christianity had raised her, erected a new church in Dublin to the honor of God and the Blessed Virgin Mother.* * And it is recorded that while he was once in Wales the Blessed Virgin ap¬ peared to a recluse who had erected a church in honor of Our Lady, and there shut himself up. She asked why the church had never been dedicated, and bade him call upon her servant Lawrence to C) Lanigan, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, iii., p. 20. The hymn of St. Brogan Cloen to St. Bridget expresses the same idea in nearly the same words. (*) This holy bishop died Nov. 2, 1148. “Jam omnibus rite peractis, in ipso oratorio Sanetae Dei 423 perform the solemn dedication, which the saint, convinced of the reality of the vision, consented to do. 4 But the most striking proof of his devotion to the Mother of God is evinced in the following : In the church of St. Martin, Dublin, there ministered a certain priest, named Galwed. He was very dear to the arch¬ bishop, as he had trained him up from his youth and was his own cleric. Struck by a serious illness, this priest was reduced to extremity. For as he seemed destitute alike of sense and breath, many thought him dead: others thought him not dead, but in ecstacy. Accordingly, they put off the interment for three days and nights. At length St. Lawrence came and ap¬ proaching the body, moved to tears by compassion, he addressed the corpse: “0 my dearly beloved son, if thou canst thou wilt speak to me now! ” saying this he knelt down and silently prayed to our Lord. The ardor of his prayer was evinced clearly by God’s hearkening to his ser¬ vant’s voice. When the prayer was ended, which He alone heard who answered it, the priest Galwed, as if roused from a heavy sleep, arose well, returned thanks to God and to Saint Mary and to the Blessed Law¬ rence his master, and turning his eyes on the bystanders asked what was the matter and what brought them together. They all, astonished and alarmed at what they had Genitricis Marias in quo sibi bene complacuit.— (S. Bernardus in Vita S. Malachiae. Messingham.. p. 376.) ( s ) Messingham, p. 383, bis. ( 4 ) Ibid, 382, bis. DEVOTION TO THE 424 seen performed, answered him : “We were about to bury you, as you had lain like a dead man for three days without showing a sign of life.” The priest answered: “The Lord knows that my soul was separated from my body, and while the angels were contending for it, I beheld my lord Law¬ rence kneeling before God and his glorious Virgin Mother, Mary, humbly praying for me: and our Lord, moved by his prayer, ordered my soul to be restored to my body.” Then the blessed bishop, moved with shame, forbade the priest under pain of excommunication to tell it to any one as long as he lived. 1 The English invaders censured much in Ireland and in the Irish church, but zeal¬ ous as the Norman clergy were for the honor of the Blessed Virgin, not one ever breathed the charge that the Irish were re¬ miss on that point. It was in fact the great point of harmony between the new clergy and the old. Bective Abbey, dedicated to Our Lady, was erected in 1150 by O’Me- lachlin, King of Meath, a beautiful token that to the last the Irish princes were de¬ vout clients of Mary. The Canons Regular who came in from the continent, full, like all the Normans, of devotion to Mary, for they had no saints or apostles of their own, entered heartily into the Irish devotion, and gave new splendor to the shrines where the native inhabitants had so long venerated her. Trim, which had been a chosen sanctuary of Mary from the days of St. Patrick, became one of the most famous pilgrimages of Europe. From ( 1 ) Vita S. Laurentii in Messingham, p. 385. the days of King Laoghaire, church after church erected on the spot given by that monarch had received Mary’s clients as they came on pilgrimage through each suc¬ cessive age. But it was now restored with a grandeur never before attained, and the statue of Our Lady became the instrument of many miracles. Irish annals mention many of these surprising cures of the blind, the deaf, the cripple, of those on whom the heavy hand of disease had been laid. The Blessed Virgin of Trim was recognized even by lawgivers, and the parliaments which excluded from the rights of human¬ ity all but five Irish families, scrupulously respected the Blessed Virgin of Trim and all estates and rights belonging to her. In laws passed regarding affairs at Trim, a clause would be inserted saving the rights of the Blessed Virgin of Trim. Nor was it only in this negative way that the Par¬ liament of Ireland sought to honor Mary. In 1464, the Parliament held in the seventh year of Edward IV. the victorious son of York, passed an act for setting up as a na¬ tional offering a wax taper to burn perpet¬ ually before this image of the Blessed Vir¬ gin amid the ex votos of every kind which at her shrine attested the gratitude and fervor of those who had there received the comfort and relief sought in fervent prayer. On the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, this act provided for four additional tapers to , be burnt there during Mass. Still more important was the provision made to protect pilgrims. Though civil strife still raged and the men of the Pale were often engaged in deadly conflict with the Irish, and the tide of war swept along t ' • BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. 425 the Blackwater and Boyne, the pilgrim to and miraculous power, restored to his sight Mary’s shrine was secure. This statute and speech.”* threw its protecting shield around them, Who would have supposed that when making it a felony to molest under any pre- devotion to Mary was so general, when the text a pilgrim going to the shrine of the whole kingdom, from its nobles in Parlia- Blessed Virgin of Trim* or returning from ment assembled, down to the outlaw, alike it to his distant home. 1 venerated the Mother of God, and clung Not far from this ancient pilgrimage to all the time-honored practices of Catholic another had grown up in the Abbey of Na- faith and devotion, that a storm was about van, then in the hands of the Canons Reg- to burst over the British Isles, filling them ular which became famous throughout all with ruins, and making the avowal of that Ireland. In 1450 Pope Nicholas V. granted faith a crime. Yet so it was. indulgences to all persons undertaking this In less than a century the moment came. pilgrimage or contributing to repair or Satan received power for a time to war adorn this sanctuary of Mary. Four years against the saints, and he warred with all later the Irish Parliament protected by the malignity of his fiendish nature. When law, pilgrims to the shrine at Navan as it Henry VIII., blinded by lust, commenced had those to the Blessed Virgin of Trim, to act in concert with the Reformers whom and even went further exempting from ar- he had so learnedly opposed, and laid his rest or molestation those deemed rebels sacrilegious hands on the ark of God, des- while going as pilgrims or returning. olating the land, Ireland soon felt the influ- Acts of Parliament are not the place ence of the unholy war. The Catholic where writers generally look for the record churches were pillaged, profaned, and con- of miracles of the Blessed Virgin, but the verted to a new and unheard of religion, preamble of an Irish act passed in 1460 that had no warrant and no argument but recites at length the case of a Mr. Stack- the strong hand and the sword. There was bolle, who had fallen into the hands of scarcely a deserter among the bishops and wretches so inhuman that they cut out his clergy of Ireland, so that in a few years tongue and put out his eyes, depriving him Erin presented a strange spectacle. A na- at once of the light of heaven and of the tion of Catholics, with their clergy and use of speech, leaving him a helpless wreck hierarchy, were without church or chapel, among his fellow men. Brought before monastery or convent, and a few foreign this image of the Blessed Virgin, Mr. Stack- adventurers occupied such of the ancient bolle was, as we are assured in the pream- religious edifices as had been allowed to ble of this act, “ by her grace, mediation, stand. And in these few the altars had ( 1 ) Annals of the ¥ 0111 ’ Masters, ann. 1444. ops of Dublin, p. 14. I have the volume contain- Archdall’s Monasticon, p. 577. mg the Act in black letter, but lent it and cannot ( *) Cited in Moran’s History of the Archbish- 54 unfortunately cite the curious preamble in full. - t 426 ' DEVOTION TO THE been destroyed, the rich ornaments swept away, libraries scattered to the winds, the very walls rudely painted over to hide the pictures of the Blessed Virgin and of the Saints with which the pious founders had adorned them. 1 In 1538 the Statue of Our Lady at Trim still stood, invested with all that sanctity with which the popular devotion had sur¬ rounded it. Though the vast work of desolation had actually begun, the lord deputy of Henry VIII., Lord Leonard Gray, this very year in one of his circuits visited this ancient shrine of the Blessed Virgin, and notwith¬ standing the taunts of his fellow-statesmen ready to follow or outstrip the king in abandoning all the practices of Christian-. ity, “veray devoutely kneling befor Hir hard thre or fewer masses.” 2 Such was the last official honor paid to this famous Madonna. The reformers pant¬ ed to destroy it, as a palladium of the Catholic cause. They stigmatized it as an idol, and Browne, the apostate, intruded into an Irish see, wrote: “There goithe a common brewte amonges the Yrish men that I entende to ploke down Our Lady of Tryme, with other places of pilgrimage, as the Holy Cross, and souch like; which indeade I never attempted, although my conscience wolde right well serve me to oppresse such ydolles.” 3 But in spite of this disavowal, the very next year a force sent by Ormond and Browne invaded this long revered sanctu¬ ary. The splendid and rich offerings of the highest and noblest of the princes of Ireland, of Celtic, Norman or English ori¬ gin were torn away from the ancient shrine, the altar was stripped of its rich decora¬ tions, the chalices and other plate for the holy sacrifice sacrilegiously carried off, and, finally, the revered statue, amid the groans and cries of the people who thronged around the armed force sent to protect the banditti in their work of unholy profana¬ tion, was torn from the spot where it had so long been revered, and carried out into the streets where it was burned to ashes ; whatever sacred object met their hand serving for fuel, be it ancient missal, pre¬ cious manuscript, works that antiquarian and Christian would now prize beyond their weight in gold. 4 Thus perished the famous Madonna of Trim. The church soon shared its fate, and the yellow steeple now alone remains to tell what this shrine of Mary was in the days when prince and peasant, equal there, thronged its aisles. That it was a grand and ecclesiastical structure every eye can see, for no nobler fragment of an¬ tiquity can be found in Ireland. 6 That of Navan was next to fall. The same ruthless hands profaned her sanctu- ( 1 ) Moran, Archbishops of Dublin, p. 14. ( 3 ) T. Alen to Crumwell. State papers 257, cited in Moore’s Ireland, ii., p. 311. (’) Moore’s Ireland, ii., p. 330. ( 4 ) The most miraculous image of Mary, which was at Baile-Atha-Truim, and which the Irish people all honored for a long time before that, which used to heal the blind, the deaf, the lame, and every disease in like manner, was burned by the Saxons.—(Annals of the Four Masters 1537.) It seems not to have been the work of Lord Leon¬ ard Grey, though generally ascribed to him. ( 6 ) Lacy, Sights and Scenes in Fatherland, p. 205. BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. ary and destroyed by fire the sacred image, to enrich themselves with the pious offer¬ ings of centuries. The churches themselves were utterly ruined and sold, although they realized for the royal treasury less than would have been paid at the time for a good horse. The war had commenced. Every Ma¬ donna in Ireland was doomed to destruc¬ tion. Most of them fell into the hands of the spoiler, although some undoubtedly were rescued in time by pious hands and hidden away in the hope that a better day would soon dawn for the oppressed church of St. Patrick. But too often the pious guardian of the statue perished ere long and the carefully hidden treasure was lost. Among the few that escaped the icono¬ clastic rage of the enemy at this melan¬ choly period was a famous statue of Our Lady, long preserved in the Dominican church of Our Lady of Thanks, at Yough- al, the almost solitary madonna of the days preceding the great pagan upheaval of the sixteenth century. 1 It was long pre¬ served amid the trials and troubles of the afflicted church. Then for many a year there was through¬ out Ireland no shrine for Mary but the hearts of a people devoted to her beyond the power of persecution. The scapular of the Blessed Virgin around each neck was their badge of Catholicity ; liveried servants of Mary, they could not be dis¬ owned by her Divine Son. The holy sacri¬ fice ceased as a public worship. It was said in dens and caves, in mountain glens, (') Archdalls Monasticon Hibernicon, p. 82. 427 amid ruined nave and shrine. It was not to be heard by the people every day or every Sunday or when each great festival came round in the sweet harmony of the ecclesiastical year. For years in the Catholic homes- of Ire¬ land, homes of noble and of peasant, the ro¬ sary of the Blessed Virgin, the beads were the great act of devotion which bound all together. It symbolized their chains, their tears. The sorrowful mysteries, binding them to the Man of Sorrows and his Dolor¬ ous Mother, were subjects for meditation meet, indeed, for a people entering upon a martyrdom unexampled in history, and to which even the dreams of heathen mytho¬ logy in their refinements of torture never reached. But fierce as was the diabolical energy with which the reformers pursued the unfortunate Irish Catholics, they were but men, and human strength and persist¬ ence will flag at last. From time to time there would come a lull as though the per¬ secutors, weary of murder, rapine, and mis¬ representation, sought relief for a time from their unholy toil. Then it is wonderful to see how quickly the Irish, forgetting all they had suffered, began to restore the tabernacle of God in the new wilderness. Religious seemed to spring up from the ground of their ruined houses. A little community would appear as if miraculously, and the services of re¬ ligion be renewed till a new storm swept all away like a new simoom in the desert. Towards the close of the century a monas¬ tery of Cistercian monks was leading, as of old, their fervent cloistered life in a beauti¬ ful abbey, St. Mary’s de Maggio, at Nenay. DEVOTION TO THE 428 “ In 1580, a fanatical band having entered the adjoining country, spreading on every side devastation and ruin, the monks of Maggio, forty in number, were in hourly expectation of death. They resolved, how¬ ever, not to fly from the monastery, choos¬ ing rather to consummate their course in the asylum which had so long been their happy abode. They, therefore, assembled in choir, and having recited the morning office in silence and prayer, awaited their executioners. The fanatical soldiers did not long delay. On coming to their mon¬ astery they first imagined that it had been abandoned, so universal was the silence that reigned around it, and they plundered it in every part. On arriving, however, at the church, they found the forty reli- % gious kneeling around the altar, unmoved, as if unconscious of the scenes of the sacrile¬ gious plunder that were perpetrated around them, and wholly absorbed in prayer. Like hungry wolves the fanatics at once precipitated themselves upon the defense¬ less religious. The cruelty and ferocity of the soldiers were surpassed only by the meekness and heavenly joy of the victims, and in a few minutes forty names were added to the long roll of our Irish saints, says Henriquez, the Annalist of the Cister¬ cians. The vigil of the Assumption was the day consecrated by their death. One lay brother of the monastery, who had been absent for some time, returned that evening and found his former happy abode reduced to a heap of smoking ruins, and entering the church, he found the altar and choir streaming with blood. Throwing himself prostrate before the mutilated statue of Our Lady he poured forth his lamentations that her monastery was no more, and that her glorious festival, which should be then commenced, would pass in sadness and silence. He had scarcely breathed his prayer, when he heard the bells of the monastery toll, and lifting his head he saw his martyred brethren, each taking his accustomed seat; the abbot intoned the solemn vespers, and the psalms were sung, as was usual on their festive days. The angels and the Queen of Heaven joined their voices with those of his now sainted companions. The enraptured lay brother knew not whether he had been assumed to heaven or was still on earth, till, the office being completed, the vision ceased, and he once more contemplated around him the mangled and bleeding re¬ mains of the martyred religious.” 1 Such is the beautiful legend of the mar¬ tyrs of St. Mary’s de Maggio. This devotion to Mary was not confined to religious orders. A few years later, a pious lady, Dame Margery Barnewell, who, though living in the world had devoted herself to Glod, and following the footsteps of Mary, consecrated her virginity to her Maker. Amid the greatest perils by land and water, she, with a companion, confiding in the protection of the Blessed Virgin which they confidently invoked, reached France in safety, having even once been compelled to leap from a ship into the sea to preserve their virtue. And the dogs on the shore, as if recognizing the merit of these daugh¬ ters of Mary, instead of attacking them, ( 1 ) O’Eeilly, Memorial, pp. 71-2. BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. 429 led them to the gate of the town and stood by ready to protect till the gates were opened in the morning. The astonished warders led them to the bishop, who was then saying mass in the church of St. Malo, for they were in a city and church dedi¬ cated to an Irish saint. 1 Soon after the opening of the seventeenth century we find how, even amid the terrors of persecution, devotion to the Blessed Vir¬ gin had revived and manifested itself, as surely as the plant throws out leaves and blossoms. As early as 1611, there was in Coleraine a statue of the Blessed Virgin, and the pub¬ lic honors paid to it roused the demon in the heart of the Protestant bishop, Babing- ton. O’Sullivan Beare in his Catholic His¬ tory 2 says that “ Babington gave orders that the Madonna should be pulled down and burned. His sacrilegious minions had scarce set themselves to perform this ini¬ quitous deed, when they both fell dead. Successive efforts to set the statue on fire, or destroy it by gunpowder, were all inef¬ fectual ; it remained divinely preserved despite all their attempts, whilst the bishop himself was overwhelmed with terror and being seized with illness expired. This occurred in the month of September, 1611.” By 1628, the Carmelites, those friars of Our Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, had their chapel open in Dublin, where the faithful crowded around Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whose scapular they had so long * (*) ( 1 ) O’Reilly, Memorial, pp. 78-9. (*) O’Sullivan Beare,'Historia Catliolica, pp. 287-8. Moran’s Archbishops, p. 246. (’) Moran’s Archbishops, p. 317. and so faithfully worn, so that had the chapel been six times as large it could not have held them all. So great was the de¬ votion that priest and people forgot that they were under the sway of fanatics. They had credited their rulers with some grains of humanity. They were soon un¬ deceived. While the Lords Justices were attending the service of the Church of England in one of the churches they had wrested from the Catholics, some one suggested that the Catholics were then on St. Stephen’s day, 1629, audaciously worshipping God at the Carmelite Convent in Cook street. The Protestant archbishop requested to be al¬ lowed to punish the offenders, and aban¬ doning his own flock, it would seem, he set out with a band of soldiers and rushed in upon the flock gathered around Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In a moment all was terror. The people fled, the church was profaned, the altar demolished, the statues hewn in pieces by the sword, and the Pro¬ testant primate sallied forth exulting in his victory, leading as prisoners two Carmelite fathers. The scattered flock then rallied, and the women leading, rushed upon the archbishop’s party with such impetuosity that they rescued their pastors, routed the soldiers, and compelled the warlike arch¬ bishop to seek safety in flight, not soon to forget the heroism of the female votaries of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. 3 Then came the day when the Stuarts found the Puritans, whom they had sought to conciliate at the expense of the Catho¬ lics, arrayed in arms against them : and were able to judge whether Catholicity is a 430 DEVOTION TO THE safe school of loyalty. They found the Catholics, in spite of all their sufferings, ready to sustain them. This we may re¬ gret, for this loyalty cast aside Ireland’s greatest opportunity. During the period of the celebrated Con¬ federation of Kilkenny, that noble city was in an especial manner consecrated to the Blessed Virgin. “The solemnity having been announced a week ahead, the citizens performed various works of piety and mercy, and all received communion on the same day. A high mass of the Blessed Virgin was celebrated in St. Mary’s. Dur¬ ing the whole day her statue was exposed to public veneration in the church, sur¬ rounded with relics of saints, tapers, ban¬ ners, and other ornaments. In the evening there was a sermon, and then a suppliant procession through the streets, in which the bishop, earls, viscounts, magistrates, and the whole city assisted with torches, ban¬ ners, and other emblems of piety. The statue was placed in the market-place for public veneration, in a splendid tabernacle of exquisite and costly workmanship ; the bells of all the churches, and the pealing of cannon proclaiming a general jubilee. The litany of Our Lady of Loretto, and other prayers were chanted aloud in the market¬ place, and glad bonfires lighted up every street. This custom was kept up every Saturday, one of the Jesuits always giving a short sermon.” . . Such was the devotion to the Blessed Virgin that morning, noon, and evening, men, women, and children ( 1 ) Manuscript in Stoneyhurst College, cited in the Martyrology of Tallagh, pp. 148-9, 152. were to be seen in the streets on their knees before the statue. 1 This was the grandest reparation made to Mary in Ireland for all the sacrileges of the Reformers : a bright page in the glori¬ ous annals of the Confederation of Kil¬ kenny. It revived the ages when Mary was the Queen of the Land, when all sought to honor her as Kilkenny did that day. A statue of the Immaculate Conception had become a centre of devotion at Cash¬ el, but when the blood-thirsty Inchiquin stormed the Rock and slaughtered so many thousands in cold blood, one of the most fearful massacres in the world’s history, everything was profaned, the altars de¬ stroyed, pictures torn to pieces, vestments paraded in triumph, and the statue of Our Lady, seized in the blood-reeking hands of the soldiery, was solemnly beheaded as a traitor, as the image of her divine Son was also, and was borne along in mock-state with laughter and ridicule. 2 Limerick, too, had set up her Madonna. Thomas Stritch, a pious and devoted Cath¬ olic, after performing a spiritual retreat, was elected mayor by the citizens who knew his worth. On receiving the keys of the city, he laid them before the statue of the Most Holy Virgin, praying her to re¬ ceive the city under her protection, whilst at the same time as an act of homage, all the public guilds marched in procession to the church. He then made a most Chris¬ tian address to the whole assembly, en¬ couraging them to an inviolable attachment ( 5 ) O’Reilly, Memorial, p. 277 ; Moran, Sketch of the Persecutions, p. 30. BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. 431 to God, to the Church, and to the king, offering to lay down his life in so just a cause. God was pleased to accept his offering, and when the city fell, he received a martyr’s crown. But no one was left to record the fate of the statue of Our Lady. 1 Galway during these halcyon days had a community of Dominican nuns under the title of Jesus and Mary, and confirmed by the pope’s legate, Monsignor Rinuccini. Among other conditions imposed by that illustrious man, he directed that these sis¬ ters of St. Dominic should recite the Ro¬ sary of the Blessed Virgin every day, to solicit from the divine mercy aid and pro¬ tection for the afflicted Catholics of Ireland, in the dangers to which they were exposed in that most critical period of their history. But their stay was brief. Fervent as were their prayers, God wished the Church in Ireland to drink more deeply of the chalice of his Divine Son. Galway fell into the hands of Cromwell in 1652, and the nuns were scattered and compelled to fly. Many sought refuge in Spain, two of them to return in 1686 during the brief reign of James II. and restore for a season the Convent of Our Lady of the Rosary, to be broken up and scattered but not ex¬ tinguished in 1697 under the penal laws passed by the violator of the treaty of Limerick, the cold-blooded author of the massacre of Glencoe. 2 But to return to the fierce days of Crom¬ well. Wherever the Puritan armies en¬ tered, the old scenes of the Reformation were renewed with a fiendishness all their own. Every statue of the Blessed Virgin became the object of the vilest outrages ; indeed no statue or picture was spared. 'How the devotion to the Blessed Virgin was kept up during this fearful period we see by occasional glimpses. Among the religious so ruthlessly slaughtered was Father Dominic Neagren, whose constant exhortations to the Catholics to recite the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin led to his glorious martyrdom. So too the heroic Mrs. Read, mother of a holy and learned priest, made her children from their earliest days recite daily the little office of the Blessed Virgin. The Queen of Martyrs resolved to enrol her in that choir, one of the noblest in her train. While the sol¬ diers who had rushed in upon the town of Dunshaughlin were slaughtering all they found, this true mother in Israel, then a woman of eighty, stood by, encouraging the sufferers to endure their sufferings with constancy, and endure every torment for the faith. At last stung by rage at her fearless courage they set her up as a target and kept firing their muskets at her till she expired. 8 Lady Honoria de Burgo, who belonged to the Third Order of St. Dominic, lived piously in her own house at Burishool in the county Mayo, through the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles, a very mother to the needy and poor, preserving her baptismal innocence to the close. In this Cromwellian persecution she endeav- ( 1 ) Abelly, Life of St. Vincent de Paul, pp. 218-9. (’) Murphy, Sketches of Irish Nunneries, p 38. ( 3 ) Moran, Persecutions, p. 198. O’Keilly, Me¬ morial, p. 267. 432 DEVOTION TO THE to fly, but was taken and thrown so vio¬ lently into a boat that several of her*ribs were broken and she died. But before she expired her servant found, and bore her lady to the Dominican church of Burishool laying her before the altar of the Blessed Virgin. Having left her there while she sought another aged sister in the wood, she was amazed on her return to find Lady Honoria kneeling before the altar, when she had left her as she supposed dead. She approached her and found her now indeed a corpse : the dying saint had rallied her last strength to place herself in an attitude of prayer before that shrine of Our Lady which had been her beloved spot on earth: and in this prayerful posture she breathed her last. 1 Devotion to Mary was shown in all its fervor at Cork in 1658, when the Catholics were summoned to take one of those ini¬ quitous oaths which cowardly governments devise as a means of accomplishing what they know they cannot effect under the laws and courts of justice. They bravely rejected the oath, and all shouted aloud, “0 God! look down on us! 0 Mary! Mother of God, assist us! ” and by their resolute refusal overawed their oppressors. 2 The fall of the Puritans gave a brief respite to the almost exterminated Irish Catholics, and once more devotion to the Blessed Virgin eould seek the light and re¬ joice in the flowers and beautiful adorn¬ ment which befit it. ( 1 ) O’Reilly, Memorial, p. 329. (’) Moran, Persecutions, pp. 161-2. ( s ) See Synod of Trim, 1632, in Moran’s Life of the Martyred Archbishop Plunkett, p. 388; Sy- The Irish hierarchy, even amid the per¬ secutions of the seventeenth century, show how fervently they inculcated this devotion by the Synods held amid a thousand dan¬ gers. By these the feast of the Immacu¬ late Conception was made a holiday of obligation, not as in the early Irish Church in May, but with the continental churches in December. The Irish bishops had no difficulty in giving a reply to the Holy Father, Pius IX.. as to the belief of the' Church of Ireland on this prerogative of Mary. 3 The dethronement of James II. for at¬ tempting to persuade Englishmen to be tol¬ erant, led to fresh persecutions arising out of the warlike operations in Ireland. When that storm passed, a storm which for the third time nearly left the Irish Catholics without a bishop in the island, religion again began to revive. In the last century religious houses of women sprang up. The nuns of Our Lady of Mount Carmel had indeed taken possession of Ire¬ land in the name of their holy patroness as early as 16 61. 4 The nuns of St. Dominic, sisters of the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin, as we may call them, devoted to the other great em¬ blem of the clients of Mary, scattered at Galway by the Williamite storm, were in part gathered into a new community near Dublin, in 1717, at Fisher’s lane, and sub-' sequently in a house that in olden time had sheltered nuns of the order of St. Benedict. nod of Tuam, O’Reilly, Irish Martyrs, p. 434; Mo¬ ran, Archbishops of Dublin, p. 459. ( 1 ) Murphy, Sketches of Irish Nunneries, p. 48. BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. 433 This community, at a later day, removed to Cabra and became a fruitful mother, its filiations being the convents of Kingstown, Booterstown, and Usher’s Quay, Dublin. Some of the nuns who had remained near Galway, regaining courage, restored the old convent which still subsists, and one of their number returning to a convent in Brussels was sent to found the convent of Dominican nuns in Drogheda, which preserves as its greatest relic the head of the illustrious martyr, Archbishop Plun¬ kett. 1 The Dominican nuns at Cabra have de¬ voted themselves to one work of mercy in which their labors have been singularly blessed, the education of the deaf and dumb. 2 As the century advanced, God raised up an illustrious servant of Mary to accom¬ plish a great work in Ireland. This was the saintly Miss Nano Nagle, who in 1769 began to establish schools for girls, and, in¬ cidentally, for boys, in Cork, supporting them, acting herself not only as founder, institutor, and director, but as teacher also, living at the time in her own family, and beginning her good work so stealthily that her own brother had no idea of her plans. She was a devout child of Mary and from her childhood had always enter¬ tained a tender devotion to the Presenta¬ tion of the Blessed Virgin in the Temple. She had felt, too, the desire to lead a re¬ ligious life ; and now saw no method of placing the object of her long thoughts and labors on a permanent basis except by ( 1 ) Murphy, Sketches of Irish Nunneries, p. 40. (’) Ibid., p. 41. bringing in or forming a religious com¬ munity. Her director suggested the Ursulines, and Miss Nagle entering into this plan gained four pious ladies to it. They went to France, and performing their novitiate in St. Jaines’s Convent, Paris, returned with Mother Margaret Kelly, a nun, from the convent of Dieppe. The first Ursuline con¬ vent was established on Irish soil, and the first to enter the novitiate was Miss Moy- lan, sister of Washington’s aid-de-camp in our glorious struggle for freedom. This convent commenced its labors in a house provided by Miss Nagle, but sub¬ sequently removed to the home of the mar¬ tyred Sheares at Blackrock. Its progress has been wonderfully blessed. It sent out colonies to other parts of Ireland, and to various parts of America, everywhere training young ladies to virtue and piety, and especially to a tender devotion to Mary. Miss Nagle did not enter their commun¬ ity. She wished, indeed, the daughters of the rich trained in the school of Jesus and Mary, but her great thought was the daughters of the poor. It was not till she had actually taken up her residence in the convent, that she found these ladies resolved not to embrace schools for the poor among their duties. Her remonstrance was un¬ availing. Then she withdrew. Disappointed in the hope which had sustained her through many a long year of anxious expectancy, Miss Nagle did not despair. She turned to Mary, and taking up her abode in a house adjoining the Ur¬ sulines was joined by a few generous ladies 434 DEVOTION TO THE animated by the same spirit that filled her heart. She dedicated her little society to the Presentation of Our Lady, in 1777. These daughters of Mary were to be bound only by annual vows. Their vocation and duty was to seek out the poor girls of the city, gather and instruct them, instilling into their minds the principles of religion, relieving their wants where they were in distress, seeking for them new homes ; in a word, they were the servants of the chil¬ dren of the poor. The labors of the new community were the theme of general conversation. Every part of Ireland sought a colony of these daughters of Mary. Yet God permitted that some should oppose her, and the ser¬ vant of God, the imitator of Mary, was as¬ sailed with reproaches even in the streets, and treated as an impostor'and a hypocrite. But her institute was firmly established. The house of the Ursulines, on their de¬ parture, became the mother house of th‘e Presentation order, and here this great servant of God died, April 26, 1784, and was laid beside her early Ursuline friends. Down to our day, the Presentation order has continued its work of love, and has been one of God’s greatest instruments in saving the young maidens of Ireland from the contaminations of a world where vice and error seem to have gained power a thousandfold. Some years after, a young girl, the daugh¬ ter of Catholic parents, was left an orphan to the care of Protestant relatives and eventually adopted into a Protestant fa¬ mily. To all appearance it was a virgin soul lost to the Church and to Mary. But there lingered in the child’s heart reminis¬ cences of a pious father that kept her from identifying herself with any denomination. She was neither a Catholic in knowledge nor in practice. At last, however, almost by stealth, she hastened to a learned priest, subsequently Archbishop of Dublin. By him she was instructed and prepared to receive the sacraments to which she had been a stranger. It was only after mak¬ ing her first communion that Catharine McAuley found courage to tell her adoptive parents that she was in heart and soul, practically a Catholic. They did not lose any of their affection for her at this avowal. Her fidelity to her maturely adopted re¬ ligion produced a deep impression. She won Mr. and Mrs. Callaghan to the faith before they died. Left to her own gui¬ dance with an independent fortune, her choice was not the pleasures of this world. The poor had been ever dear : the danger of girls exposed to every temptation had im¬ pressed her deeply. She opened a school for the poor and refuge for girls, and as she had a peculiar devotion to the festival of Our Blessed Lady of Mercy, she had her chapel dedicated and her whole establish¬ ment placed under the invocation of the Mother of God under that sweet title. Thus on the 24th of September, 1827, were founded the Sisters of Mercy by Catharine McAuley and a few ladies who had joined her. Opposition and calumny came to prove that God blessed their work—teach¬ ing the poor, sheltering homeless girls, visiting the sick Catholics in the hospitals and their often wretched homes, gathering up orphans and abandoned children. BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. 435 The congregation was in a short time or¬ ganized canonically by the archbishop, and its labors were blessed beyond all example. How the order has borne throughout the world the banner of Our Lady of Mercy need scarcely be told. The name Sister of Mercy, unheard of half a century ago, is now as familiar wherever the English language is spoken as that of Sister of Charity. Throughout Ireland, England, the United States, Australia, it devotes it¬ self to every corporal and spiritual work of mercy. 1 Another order, dedicated to Mary, the Loretto nuns, entered Ireland in 1821,off¬ shoot of a convent of English nuns, founded at Munich in the days of persecution, and approved by the Holy See, June 13, 1713, under the title of Institute of the Blessed Yirgin Mary. Their establishment has grown into a beautiful convent, and fine chapel at Rathfarnham. Filiations from this house grew up at Dalkey, Clontarf, Bray, Fermoy, at Gibraltar, and in India, in Canada, and near the shores of Africa bearing the name of Mary and of the Santa Casa of Loretto. Thus the new religious orders that have sprung up, or been introduced into Irish soil, vie with those of ancient date in bear¬ ing testimony of Irish love to Mary, and in propagating and extending the devotion to her. The Catholic literature that has sprung up, shows, too, how dear to every Irish heart is this tender devotion, as no works ( 1 ) Life of Mother Catharine McAuley; Mur¬ phy, Sketches of Irish Nunneries, pp. 114-159. are so eagerly received as those which tell of Mary ; and the children of Erin whom the misgov ernment of their native land by its alien rulers, alien in blood, alien in language, alien in religion, and alien in every fibre of their natures, has driven into exile, have borne throughout all lands de¬ votion to Mary. On the shores of the Atlantic, in the wild prairies of the West, amid the northern snows or tropic heats: in India and Australia, everywhere, the Irish priest proclaiming the word of God invokes Mary and inspires his flock with a filial love and confidence in her powerful intercession. In Ireland itself, the churches in recent years dedicated to the Blessed Yirgin, many of them noble structures, tell the story of devotion so unmistakably as to fix the attention of observing Protestants. Throughout Europe the Reformation, the French revolution, and modern liberalism, two godless daughters of an atheist mother, have destroyed most of the old religious landmarks of the various countries. As the relics, the shrines, the churches of the early local saints have disappeared, their honor has gradually declined, and the de¬ votion to God’s saints centres more espe¬ cially in her who is the Queen of saints. This is especially the case in Ireland. A recent writer, Mr. Godkin, who ex¬ amines the state of Ireland with an evident desire to be impartial, in his visits to Catholic churches and establishments, was struck with this wonderful development of the devotion to Mary in Ireland. Like most of those who view religion from the standpoint of dull common place, the devo- DEVOTION TO THE 436 tion to Mary, so full of poetry, so sponta¬ neous an offspring of the uncliilled heart is inexplicable. It is so general and so full of outward manifestation that he loses him¬ self in attempts to fathom and explain, when, in fact, it is as natural a growth of the Church as are the beautiful temples with which he admits the poor Catholics of Ire¬ land are covering the land, throwing into the shade in their grandeur, the structures reared by the establishment with its untold wealth. Our pages have shown that devo¬ tion to Mary was planted in the Irish heart by its great apostle, and been manifested in every age. He himself tells of the chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, erected and endowed in the now roofless church of St. Nicholas Within, by Lord Worcester and other gentlemen in 1479, to have mass celebrated for the souls of the founders and for all those of the faithful departed. “But,” says he, “the strangest part of the story of St. Nicholas Within is yet to be told. The chapel of the Virgin Mary, with an endowment of about £300 a year, is involved in the ruin of the church. It was impossible since the Reformation that any of those who received thedncome could have performed the duties for which the endowment was given, namely, to celebrate mass daily for the souls of the donors and for the faithful departed generally, yet the endowment has been enjoyed by Protestant clergymen down to the present time. In the year 1840, it was the subject of an ex¬ traordinary trial in the Court of Queen’s ( 1 ) Bodkin’s Ireland and Her Churches, p. 303. Bench, Dublin.” 1 It was there decided that the Rev. Tresham Gregg was the duly elected chaplain of the Blessed Virgin,, votes of Catholics for his opponent being cast out, because they had no right to vote, as the revenue by law could not be con¬ trolled by those who still held the faith of the donors. Yet surely Lord Worcester, Sir John Bath, John Chever, Thomas Bir¬ mingham, Stephen Butler, and John West would feel perfectly at home before an altar of the Blessed Virgin in any Catholic church in Dublin, and not find the honor paid her any too excessive for their piety. 2 “Most my readers are aware,” says the writer, “that the month of May is now specially dedicated to the Virgin, and that it is called the month of Mary. It is gen¬ erally ushered in by pastorals from the Roman Catholic bishops prescribing certain devotions. But I think Protestants gener¬ ally are not aware of the extent to which Roman Catholic zeal manifests itself in con¬ nection with this devotion to the Queen of Heaven.” This devotion to the Blessed Virgin is indeed so marked in its outward manifesta¬ tion and display that we cannot wonder at the impression it produces. Churches in which the purest styles of architecture command the homage of the most critical taste are dedicated to Mary. Her statue in marble, whose purity is typi¬ cal, stands on or near the altar where the body of her Son is mystically offered. The grounds of the Catholic nobility and gentry show the same purifying influence ( 1 ) Godkin, pp. 179, 182. BLESSED VIRGIN - IN IRELAND. 437 that raised Rome from the drugs of pagan filth to the glory of Christian purity. While the votaries of this world deck their grounds with the statuary that often raises a blush on the cheek of modest innocence, the demesne of the Catholic is adorned with creations of the sculptor’s chisel not inferior in genius, but presenting the hu¬ manizing and elevating models of the Virgin without spot, either holding her Divine Son, an infant or lifeless, now conquering the serpent, now triumphing as Queen. Ramsfort, founded by a Protestant bishop, whose name it bears, thus greets the visitor, showing that devotion to .Mary has conquered even there. Of all the churches erected in honor of Our Lady, none exceed in beauty the two noble structures reared in Wexford, and due so much to the labors of the same devoted clergyman, that they are popularly known as Father Roche’s churches. One, on Rowe street, is dedicated to the Immacu¬ late Conception ; the other, on Bride street, to the Assumption: both, therefore, to Our Blessed Lady. These churches are of the same dimensions and similar architecture, and were both designed by Richard Pierce, a pupil of Pugin. They consist of a nave and side aisles with the tower at the west¬ ern end of the nave, and a handsome north and south porch. The length of each church is 130 feet and the breadth 60 feet. They are built of a purplish stone trimmed with granite, presenting a rich and warm appearance, while the light octagonal spire, gracefully rising to the height of 222 feet, is a truly prepossessing and conspicuous feature. All the details are wrought out with great beauty, the noble doors, the magnificent chancel window, the paneled ceilings, the magnificent altar, ornamental screens and statuary, including in each church a beautiful statue of Our Lady in white marble, the gift of the Countess of Shrewsbury, all, all strikes the visitor with a sense of majesty and awe. It is a church full of the spirit and beauty of the Middle Ages, and the worshippers within, strike the stranger as much as the church. It is the spot where all are equal. Here social distinction is forgotten, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, the mighty and lowly kneel side by side. Dublin has her grand cathedral of the Im¬ maculate Conception where Ireland’s first prince of Holy Church, Cardinal Cullen, presides. Kilkenny, her cathedral of St., Mary, Drogheda and Athlone, Newry and Cork, Bally garret and Limerick all have fine and new churches which attest how devoted Ireland is still to her whom the Church addresses in words which seem to have been especially applicable to Ireland : « Stella Maris, succurre cadenti surgere qui cu¬ rat populo.” and now at last rising she shows in every way her homage. Where the church is not dedicated to her, there is often a splendid Lady chapel, or at least a fine altar. Private seats have elegant chapels. On an island in a beauti- tiful lake at Ramsfort is a chapel in the Romanesque style, with a beautiful campa¬ nile containing a bell, and a semicircular apse with stained-glass windows. This DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN IN IRELAND. 438 exceedingly pretty temple is dedicated to Mary. 1 Godkin, on visiting the Franciscan church at Wexford, found in impressive prominence the altar of the Virgin Mary covered by an elevated canopy resting upon white and blue pillars with golden capitals. Upon the altar stands a beautiful marble statue of the Virgin. Three lamps burn constantly before it. One hundred candles are lighted round it in the evening. * (*) ( 1 ) See Lacy’s Sights and Scenes in Fatherland, pp. 29, 55, 68, 93, 120, 137, 214, 243, 304, 426, 461, 492, 496, 504, 599, 610, 677, 688, 696. (*) Godkin, p. 308. Floral ornaments are in the greatest profu¬ sion and variety. 8 Dublin boasts a magnificent hospital called “ Mater Misericordiae ” — “ Mother of Mercy,” which Godkin tells us has been not inappropriately called “The Palace of the Sick Poor,” so beautifully does a single name of Mary, that to every Catholic is a volume, tell the character, of the institu¬ tion. Thus do all attest the ever increasing devotion of Ireland to the Virgin of virgins, a devotion coeval with her Christianity and indissolubly connected with it. DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. . i v i ‘ A MERICA is a new land ; it lias no religious history elating back to the earlier days of Christianity or even to the Middle Ages, those ages of faith, which did so much in honor of Mary. But America from its discovery has a history in which devotion to Mary holds a conspicuous place. Columbus, the discoverer of the New \ orld, would not embark except under th, patronage of the Blessed Virgin. It was in the convent of Our Lady of Ra- bida that he received the first cordial and effective encouragement, and when at last by the aid of Queen Isabella three ships were placed, at Palos, under his command, he did not set sail till the largest vessel, the Gallega, was placed under the special pro¬ tection of Our Lady and solemnly blessed under the name Santa Maria (Saint Mary). Before embarking all went in procession to the convent of Our Lady to implore the Divine assistance, and the powerful patron¬ age of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When after the voyage that has become so mem¬ orable he discovered land, Columbus named the first island San Salvador (Holy Saviour), then he named the next St. Mary of the Conception. And when the storms threat¬ ened to engulf them on the homeward voyage, and the slight vessels were flung heavenward by the tempestuous waves, and quivered in every timber, while the lateen sails almost swept the surface of the waves, they appealed to Heaven for mercy, vow¬ ing pilgrimages to shrines of the Blessed Virgin, Our Lady of Guadaloupe, Our Lady of Loretto, -and, as if in answer to their prayers, they made land at Santa Maria, one of the Azores. 1 His fellow-discoverers, some of them rough men indeed, evinced a similar devo¬ tion. There is something touching in the ( 1 ) Roselly de Lorgnes, Life c i Christopher Columbus. 440 DEVOTION TO THE veneration of old Balboa for his favorite true faith in California, were devout ser- statue of the Madonna. The maps of early vants of Mary needs no argument but their discovery, when all were Catholic, show names. this devotion; they are studded with the Spanish America was ever devout to name of our Blessed Lady and her mys- Mary. While Jesuit and Sulpitian and . teries, or of favorite shrines, nor has the Franciscan were extending her honor in unbelief of those who came later and Canada and the valley of the Mississippi, deemed it pious to slight her, effaced her Peter de Betancurt, a native of the Canary name in all cases. Islands, was founding in Guatemala an Florida has St. Mary’s River, the Chesa- order to take care of the sick and to edu- peake was St. Mary’s Bay, and one of the cate the children of the poor, opening his capes bore the same holy name, and the free school in 1655. His devotion to the first settlement of Maryland was St. Mary’s, Blessed Virgin was great; he called his Anticosti was Assumption Island. Lake order the Religious of Bethlehem ; on the Superior poured out its waters over St. first Sunday of every month he recited the Mary’s falls. The Mississippi was the river rosary in her honor with his arms extended of the Immaculate Conception, Montreal is in the form of a cross, and in his order all still Ville Marie. Newfoundland and Cali- the brothers do so for nine nights before fornia retain on their maps Conception. Candlemas. He instituted several other Of the discoverers and explorers of the devotions in honor of the Blessed Virgin, part now occupied by the United States and seeking in all imaginable ways to make her Canada many were devoted to Mary. De known and loved. His zeal and devotion Soto, full of this world, yet left by his will to this Queen of Angels led him even in means to found a chapel in honor of the 1654 to bind himself by vow to maintain Immaculate Conception, and there ordered and defend her Immaculate Conception at his body to be interred ; but he was con- the peril of his life, and he renewed the signed to the bosom of a mighty river, vow yearly till his death. 2 which a Jesuit father nearly a century and Mexico has ever been memorable for a half later christened by the name of devotion to Mary, and the enthusiastic his- River of the Immaculate Conception as if torian of her devotion has chronicled in the to dedicate the chapel in which’ he lay. 1 preceding pages the story of Our Lady of That Father John of St. Mary, who bore Guadaloupe, the patroness of Mexico. the light of the Gospel to New Mexico in Mexico still reveres with honor the 1580, or the Carmelite Father Andrew of standard which Cortes bore as he advanced the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, who to the conquest of Mexico, and which he in 1601 first offered up the worship of the planted in triumph on its walls. It is of ( ) Will of Soto, in the Historical Magazine (■•*) Helyot, Hiskoire des Ordres Religieux. Tit. anI in Smith’s Expedition of Soto. Bethlehemites. BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. 441 damask and bears painted on it a beautiful picture of the Blessed Virgin crowned with gold and surrounded by twelve golden stars, her hands clasped as in prayer, her hair long and floating. Her dress is red, but her cloak is blue. 1 To behold this is to know that the devo¬ tion to Mary is coeval with the entrance of Spaniards into Mexico, and we feel but the same truth on visiting the hospital and chapel of the Immaculate Conception founded by Cortez and still subsisting. When missions were established, the first Mass which Indian choirs learned to sing was the votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin, beginning with the hymn of the Irish poet Shiel, Salve Panda Parens . a When the Cathedral of Mexico was finally established, canonically, we find it dedicated to the As¬ sumption of the Blessed Virgin. South America shows the same devotion in its splendid churches, and magnificent statues of Mary, like that at Bogota, a mass of jewels. The lives of all the saints at¬ test the same. Saint Francis Solano rears his shrine on a desert island ; St. Rose of Lima and Blessed Mary Ann of Quito walk in her footsteps ; St. Lewis Bertrand, Blessed Peter Claver, B. Ignatius Aze- vedo, B. John Masias, B. Martin Porras, B. Sebastian of the Apparition, all by word and example teach devotion to Mary. The Jesuit missions of Paraguay and other parts breathe her devotion in every line of their history. Canada was first explored by Cartier, who went forth in 1535 from St. Malo, with the blessing of the bishop, and when in the dreary wintering on the St. Lawrence his men died of scurvy, and human means failed to check it, he turned to the Comfort of the Afflicted. “ He put all his people in prayer and orison, and made them bear an image in representation of the Virgin Mary to a tree an arrowshot distant from our fort, through ice and snow. And he ordered that on the succeeding Sunday, Mass should be said at that spot, and that all those who could walk, both sick and well, should , go in procession singing the Seven Peni¬ tential Psalms of David with the Litany, praying the said Virgin to vouchsafe to pray to her dear Son to have pity on us. The Mass said and celebrated before the said image, the captain made himself a pilgrim to Our Lady of Roquemada (Roc Amadour), promising to go there if Grod did him the favor to return to France.” 3 Such was the first pilgrimage to Our Lady, in Canada. Almost at this time, Don Tristan de Luna was endeavoring to found a settlement at Pensacola—the Bay of Santa Maria. He, too, had priests devoted to Mary and a trait of her protection is recorded. Ii a revolt that took place, two of the ring¬ leaders were, after it was quelled, con¬ demned to die. The missionary who pre¬ pared them to die urged them to invoke the Blessed Virgin. One recited the ro¬ sary with the deepest devotion and offered this devotion so pleasing to Mary, the other ( 1 ) Aleman, Disertaciones Historicos, vol. 1, App. p. 19. 56 (*) lb. vol. 11, p. 164. ( *) Cartier, Brief Becit. * 442 DEVOTION TO THE stubbornly adhered to his obstinacy. The next day the governor, unaware of these facts, suddenly pardoned one, who thus by a miracle escaped an ignominious death. It was he who had invoked the Refuge of Sinners. 1 A few years later, in 1565, was founded St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States, so old that there are houses still standing that were built before the first English settler landed in America. This city was begun under the auspices of the Blessed Yirgin. “It was at the hour of vespers,” says Bancroft, “on the evening preceding the festival of the Nativity of Mary, that the Spaniards returned to the harbor of St. Augustine. At noonday of the festival it¬ self, the governor went on shore, to take possession of the continent in the name of his king. The solemn Mass of Our Lady was performed, and the foundation of St. Augustine was immediately laid. It is by more than forty years the oldest town in the United States.” It became a centre of devotion to Mary. Near it was a chapel long a famous shrine and recently revived by the pious bishop of St. Augustine, Nuestra Senora de Leche, (Our Lady of Milk). Missionaries pierced the thick forests, they crossed the mountain ranges, they swam the broad rivers of the South. They toiled with the Natchez, the Creek and the Cherokee ; they estab¬ lished missions in Carolina and Virginia, and they coasted the whole Atlantic border as far north as the Chesapeake, which they ( 1 ) Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico. called St. Mary’s Bay, and on the Rappa¬ hannock they planted a mission in her honor. They were martyred, it is true, by the Indians; they died in the wild forest of starvation or fatigue ; but that did not deter others from following in their steps. Among the Apalaches rose Our Lady of Loneliness, and when, in 1693, Pensacola was founded, the church was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, and from the very landing all gathered for prayer around a statue of the Blessed Virgin. In the Spanish archives at Seville a recently deceased historical student 2 found a collection of documents transmitted from Florida, with a piece of severed rope. It was the formal testimony of the deliverance on the scaffold by a supernatural severing of the rope, of an innocent man unjustly con¬ demned to die, who invoking the Blessed Virgin with fervor was rescued when all hope seemed to have vanished. When Canada and Nova Scotia were at last settled by France, we find as the lead¬ ing spirit the noble Samuel Champlain who, though thrown among Huguenots, had not lost aught of his faith and fervor. “ The salvation of a single soul,” says this pious gentleman, “is worth more than the conquest of an empire, and kings should seek to extend their dominions in countries where idolatry reigns, only to cause their submission to Jesus Christ.” He undertook his toils and labors with patience, in order “ to plant in this country the standard of the Cross, and to teach the knowledge of ( a ) Buckingham Smith. > BLESSED VERGIN' IN NORTH AMERICA. 443 Grod and the glory of his Holy Name, de¬ siring to increase charity for His unfortun¬ ate creatures.” He sought to give a religious character to the colonies, and St. Mary’s Bay, Monts Notre Dame, and other similar names at¬ test his devotion to Our Lady. A priest, Nicholas Aubri, was lost and nearly perish¬ ed at St. Mary’s Bay, and doubtless invoked her in his hour of peril and showed his gratitude on his final rescue which enabled him to reach the settlement at St. Croix, where he offered up the holy sacrifice, the first priest on New England soil. 1 Champlain introduced into Canada, in 1615, the Recollects, a reformed congrega¬ tion of the order of St. Francis of Assisi. That they were devoted to Our Blessed Lady need scarcely be said. The seal of their mission bore on it the figure of the Blessed Virgin; the little convent reared by them on the banks of St. Charles, the river near Quebec, was dedicated to Our Lady of Angels, the patroness of the order • the first thing which they taught their neophytes was to pronounce, with reverence the names of Jesus and Mary. 2 The Jesuits, who after commencing their missions in Nova Scotia and Maine, came to found in Canada missions which have ex¬ cited the admiration and wonder of all, and have found in our day Protestant eulogists in Bancroft, Kip, and Parkman, consecrated their first chapel in Canada to Our Lady of Angels. “If the superiors leave me at (') Lescarbot, Histoire de la Neuvelle France; Shea, Catholic Church in New England, in His¬ torical Magazine, New Series. liberty, our first church shall be called aught but Our Lady of Angels,” writes Father Charles Lalemant to his brother Jerome, in 1626. 3 They had scarce begun their labors when the false Frenchman, Kirk, came to conquer Canada for a brief season ; but Richelieu sends them back in 1632, and again the servants of Mary begin their labors on the Saint Lawrence and iu the distant west. Far off by the remote shores of Lake Simcoe they plan the mission of the Immaculate Conception, and the relations tell how the fathers had made a vow to give the names of Mary and Joseph to the first persons baptized by them ; how they had accom¬ plished that vow ; how Joseph died a holy Christian death soon after, but Mary was living, and was the first Indian who had brought her children for baptism and edu¬ cation to the missionaries. Their converts numbered several hundreds, and the fathers often heard resounding from the leafy aisles of the forest the sweet names of Jesus and of Mary. In 1639 they summon to their aid new auxiliaries, not brave and fearless men, soldiers of the cross trained in seminaries of theology, but weak, though devoted and dauntless women. One of these, Mother Mary of the In¬ carnation, foundress of the Ursuline Con¬ vent in Quebec had been already interiorly called to this field of labor. ‘ ‘ One holy Christmas-tide, in her home at Tours, when ( a ) Sagard, Histoire du Canada, pp. 162, 175. 576, 599; Sagard, Voyage aux Hurons, p. 249. (’) Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1626. 444 DEVOTION TO THE her heart and soul had been particularly given up to union with God, by meditation on the mystery of His Incarnation, she fell asleep and dreamed. She thought that she, with one companion, hand in hand, were toiling along a broken and difficult road ; more difficult than ordinary, because they did not see, but only felt, the obstacles. But they had plenty of courage, and went on until they reached a place known as the Tannery, beyond which lay their home. “ Here they were met by a venerable old man, in whose pure, sacred lineaments beamed kindness and protection. It was he who had watched and guided St. Mary and her Child from the roofs of Bethlehem to the palm shades of Egypt. And St. Joseph, she thought, conducted them into a vast enclosure, whereof the sky was the only roof. The pavement and the walls were of white, spotless alabaster, and arab- esqued with gold. Here all was silence, deep, religious, recollected. And without disturbing the holy stillness by a word, their guide pointed out to them the way they should go. And they saw a little hospice of quaint, ancient architecture, but very beautiful, and of snow-white marble ; and in an embrasure of this, upon a deli¬ cately-sculptured seat, sat Our Blessed Lady, St. Mary, with the infant Jesus in her arms ; but their backs were toward the travellers. “ Mary of the Incarnation sprang forward and embraced the throne of her Queen, while her companion knelt at a little dis¬ tance, where she could easily see the Vir¬ gin and her Child. The hospice faced the Orient. It was built upon an eminence, and at the foot of this was a vast space, murky with clouds ; and through the thick, chill mists, there rose into pure air the spire and gables of a church, but the body of it was hidden by the heavy fog. A rugged, perilous road led down the rocks into this space, winding along fearful pre¬ cipices and through cavernous rents in the mountain. Our Lady’s gaze was fixed upon this gloomy space, and the heart of the nun kneeling behind, her burned with desire to see the face of the Mother of pure delights. “ And then the Virgin turned and wel¬ comed the suppliant with a smile of inef¬ fable sweetness, and bending down she gently kissed her forehead. Then she seemed to whisper something about the Ursuline to the divine Child in her arms. And when she had done this three times the vision faded, and in tremor of delight the nun awoke.” 1 Mary of the Incarnation came to Quebec. A devoted French lady, Madame de la Peltree, gave means to found the Ursuliv convent, and gave herself to it. For two centuries and a half that Holy institution has taught the Canadian girls of all ranks and races to love Jesus and Mary. Their annals are full of instances of tender devotion to the Mother of God and of her favors to the devout clients who sought her intercession. Louis, a Christian Huron, was taken by the Iroquois and condemned to the stake. After the preliminary tortures he was se¬ curely bound with stout cords of deer ( 1 ) McLeod, Devotion in N. America. BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. sinew to await the preparations for the final act. In his terrible danger he invoked Mary, and the bonds of his right hand be¬ gan to relax. How fervent then rose his prayer of thanksgiving and petition, as they fell, leaving his hand free to unloose the rest of the cords that bound him. Guided by her he passed unharmed amid the large band of sleeping Iroquois and amid countless dangers, where the Queen of Mercy seemed to make him invisible to his enemies, he reached Quebec. 1 With these nuns came others, Hospital Nuns of the congregation of the Mercy of Jesus, who faced all the dangers of the sea and the trials of a nascent colony to devote themselves from love to Mary to the care of the sick settlers and Indians. Mother Mary Guenet of St. Ignatius was the su¬ perior of this band of Christian heroines, and their voyage was marked by peril from an immense iceberg which nearly destroyed their vessel, and from which they escaped miraculously after making a vow to St. Joseph, the glorious spouse of the Blessed Virgin. They too founded a house that still sub¬ sists, the H6tel Dieu of Quebec. Their first farming land was St. Marys ; their chapel dedicated in 1646 under the pat¬ ronage of Our Lady of Pity, the feast be¬ ing celebrated on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, September 8th. Every Friday the Stabat Mater was chanted here. 2 Mary showed herself a pitying mother ( 1 ) Mother Mary of the Incarnation, Letters. (’) Juchereau, Histoire de l’Hotel Dieu, pp. 59, 93. 445 on many occasions. In the month of Feb¬ ruary, 1659, a poor family having a little child in danger of death, vowed it to Our Lady of Pity, and promised to bring it to visit our church, says Mother Juchereau. Their confidence was rewarded, for health was restored to the child as soon as the vow was uttered, even before they had ful¬ filled their promise, and all regarded the cure as miraculous! 3 This house numbers among its holy members the illustrious servant of God, Mother Catharine of St. Augustine, who was restored to health by the Blessed Vir¬ gin, who appeared to her during a fatal malady under which she was sinking dur¬ ing her passage to America. 4 Her life was one prayer, and her union with our Blessed Lady, intimate. She inspired all with de¬ votion to the Blessed Virgin, and the com¬ munity has always been remarkable for honoring Mary. Meanwhile a new settlement arose at Montreal. The new city was termed Ville Marie, City of Mary, and in the ecclesias¬ tical affairs the name is still retained, the Bishop is Episcopus Marianopolitanus. The Rev. Mr. Olier, the founder of the Seminary of St. Sulpice and of Montreal, is one of the great servants of Mary. His father was one of the most sincerely pious clients of Mary in France. He himself gloried that he was born of a mother named Mary, and in a street called Our Lady of Silver. Even in boyhood what- ( 3 ) Juchereau, Histoire de l’Hdtel Dieu, p. 115. ( 4 ) Ragueneau, Vie de la Mere Catherine de St. Augustin, p. 49. DEVOTION TO THE 446 ever recalled the Blessed Virgin filled him with gratitude and joy. He never under¬ took anything, or put on new clothes with¬ out going to offer them to Mary and ask her guidance. When ordained a priest he said his first Mass in the Church of Our Blessed Lady of Mount Carmel. He held all he possessed as her vassal, used them only in her name, and wore a silver chain around his neck to show that he was a bondman of Our Lady. The Church of St. Sulpice breathes naught but Mary. Such was the man who projected the settlement of Montreal and called it Mary’s city. The Society formed by him in the same spirit consecrated the island to Mary. To found the new colony they selected Paul de Chomeday, Seigneur de Maison- neuve, a soldier who for twenty years had served his king with honor, the Blessed Virgin with devotion, having made for her sake a vow of perpetual chastity, never omitting, for any reason, the recitation of his beads and the little office. Under him, then, they started at length from Bochelle, crossed safely, wintered near Quebec, and oh the 17th of Mary’s own month of May, ar¬ rived at Montreal. They built a chapel of bark, erected an altar, and offered up the Sacrifice of the Mass. On that day they reserved the Blessed Sacrament, and from that day it has always been reserved in Ville Marie. “Henceforth,” says Ban¬ croft, the American historian, “the hearth of the sacred fires of the Wyandots was consecrated to the Virgin.” Montreal, too, had its religious institu¬ tions consecrated to Mary. Mademoiselle Mance, a lady devoted to the Blessed Vir¬ gin, came to found the Hdtel Dieu or Hos¬ pital, which was soon taken up by a regular community, Hospital Nuns of St. Joseph, who wore a ring with the names of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, Joseph. Under Mother Judith de Bresolles they de¬ voted themselves to rear up a community which the Sovereign Pontiff ere long con¬ firmed. 1 For the instruction of the young, rose up the heroic Margaret Bourgeoys, who founded the Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady. A worthy assistant of Maisonneuve, while he was building up a material city for Mary, she was establishing the spiritual empire of that Blessed Mother in the hearts of the faithful. For four years occupied in these labors, she went from house to house, for as yet no building could be spared her for a school, not even the stable she at last secured. But if the first governor of the town could give her no building, he could and did give her land ; and on this, think¬ ing first as always of St. Mary, she deter¬ mined to build, not a school, but a chapel, in her honor. Then she redoubled her en¬ ergies, running about to every one in the town; and so, one brought wood, and another stone ; a few money, a greater number their stout arms, willing hearts, and mechanical skill; and thus the chapel arose, just where now stands the Church of Our Lady of Good Help (du Bon-Se- cours), so famous for its miracles. Her school began in a stable, yet with no con- ( 1 ) Faillon, Vie de Mile. Mance. BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. 447 vent but this she found devoted ladies in France to join her for love of Our Lady* Another treasure she also acquired. Mr. Le Pretre, Sieur de Fleury, one of the Mon¬ treal Company, had a little statue of Our Lady, by which it had pleased God to work miracles. This he determined to send to Yille Marie, where, he hoped, a chapel would be built for it, and where it would be more honored than elsewhere, as that town and colony were more particu¬ larly consecrated to the pure Mother of God than any other portion of the world. Being brought to Mr. de Fancamp, another member of the Company in Paris, he was healed instantaneously of a dangerous ill¬ ness, and then he vowed to labor stead¬ fastly for the chapel, headed the subscrip¬ tion list with a heavy sum from his own purse, and placed that sum and the sacred image at once in the hands of Sister Mar¬ garet. It was the consolation of the sis¬ ters on their voyage, and the object of their unremitting zeal on their arrival. Margaret’s whole life was devotion to the Blessed Yirgin; every thought was affected by her, every act was done as if by her direction. To Mary she gave her¬ self in France ; for her she left her native land forever to dwell in a wild and just dis¬ covered country in a town bearing the name of Mary, to establish a congregation under the name of Mary, where the books, and houses, and persons wore the livery of Mary, and where Mary herself was sol¬ emnly chosen first and perpetual superior. For at the first formal assembly of the ( 1 ) Faillon, Vie de Marguerite Bourgeoys. congregation for the election of a superior, the sisters had cried with one voice, that “ they would have the Blessed Yirgin for their superior, their origin, founder, pro¬ tectress, and good mother for time and for eternity.” And then Margaret and the rest of them prostrated themselves before the image of our dear Lady. 1 Our Lady has for two centuries and more blessed their labors. How many thousands of young virgins have been trained by them to honor God in the clois¬ ter and in domestic life, Canada can well attest. Nor was devotion to Mary confined to Sulpitian clergymen, Hospital nuns, Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady. It per¬ vaded all classes at Montreal. Indian wars desolated the land. The Iroquois ravaged the frontiers of the French settlement and slew men even within the towns. Nearest and most exposed to the fierce enemy, Montreal organized the Militia of the Holy Family—Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. “Where¬ as this island belongs to the Blessed Yir¬ gin, we deem it proper,” says the gallant Paul de Chomeday, Sieur de Maisonneuve, “ to invite and exhort all who are zealous for her service to unite in squads of seven each, and, after electing a corporal by plu¬ rality of voices, to meet us and be enrolled as part of the garrison,” etc. “We order this to be recorded with the names of all who are enrolled in pursuance thereof to serve as a mark of honor, as having ex¬ posed their lives for the interests of Our Lady and the common weal.” 2 ( a ) Montreal Historical Society, p. 134. 448 DEVOTION TO THE At their head was an Indian fighter as brave, adroit, skillful, and vigilant as that careless Catholic, Miles Standish, who amid the New England zealots forgot his early training. Lambert Closse, of Montreal, de¬ vout to Mary, hero of a hundred fights, is one of the noblest figures in early history. 1 When a bishop came—the illustrious de Laval Montmorency—he dedicated his Ca¬ thedral to the Immaculate Conception. As the missions extended, the Jesuits es¬ tablished Missions of the Immaculate Con¬ ception and of St. Mary in the Huron ter¬ ritory and on the upper lakes. Their central mission station was St. Mary’s on the Wye. 2 When it fell, Father Chaumo- not, whose almost centennial career was devoted to the glory of Mary, reared a chapel of N6tre Dame deFoye, and finally a new Loretto in America, a church built in exact imitation of the Santa Casa at Lo¬ retto, in Italy. This became the holy place of the Indians. The Iroquois convert found a home here, side by side with his ancient Huron victim. The Hurons themselves grew in holiness and all primitive virtues ; and their brethren in far exile were wont to make pilgrimages hitherward, bringing offerings from the distant West, to the feet of the Virgin Immaculate. Another and final removal to a very short distance took place long after. They called the settle¬ ment the New Loretto, and there, to-day, are gathered the remnant of the tribe. 3 Treading the path of suffering, the illus¬ (* *) Shea’s Charlevoux. (’) Shea’s History of the Catholic Missions. trious Father Jogues, taken prisoner by the Mohawks, was hurried through woods and rocks to their village, where death stared him in the face as he beheld his comrades burnt alive and underwent in his own per¬ son all the preliminary tortures of that fearful scene. “At last,” says this servant of Mary in his journal, “ on the eve of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, we arrived at the first village of the Iroquois. And I thank our Lord Jesus Christjbat He thus deigned to grant us a share in His sorrows and His cross, on the day whereon the Christian universe celebrates the triumph of His sa¬ cred Mother taken up into heaven.” While entering the town of the barba¬ rians by running the gauntlet, Jogues was thus comforted “by a vision of the glory of the Queen of Heaven.” The missionary, in his long captivity, taught devotion to Mary. One day when he, with the pious novice Rene Goupil, his fellow prisoner, had retired apart to pray, two young men followed and ordered them back. “ Dear brother,” said the Father, “ let us recommend our¬ selves to our Lord and to our good Mother, the Blessed Virgin, for these men have some evil design.” They walked back, telling the beads of their rosary. They had said four decades, when a tomahawk crashed into Ren As head and he fell utter¬ ing the name of Jesus. 4 His life was devoted to Mary and to her ( 8 ) lb. Chaumonot, Autobiographic; Catholic World, Aug., 1872. (*) Jogues, Novum Belgium, Ren6 —(roupil. BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. Divine Son. ind though he died beneath the murderous axe by the bank of the pine- lined Mohawk, he did not die in vain. “ Two churches of St. Mary stand upon the shores of that beautiful river,” says one of our most eloquent writers, “the Arch Confraternity of her Immaculate Heart is established in the principal town bathed by its waters. For the beautiful flower of devotion to Mary had been surely planted by Father Jogues, and nurtured with his tears and blood in the woodlands of New York, when he kneeled to say her office at the foot of the cross traced by his crushed fingers on the trunk of the maple.” The same devotion to Mary pervaded the whole Huron mission. There was not one who has not left proof of his zeal in her service. Of one Chastelain we find a work on her devotion prepared for the So¬ dality at Paris. So devout to her was the robust heroic Brebeuf, one of tho& giants of the faith, that she appeared to him filling his heart with comfort to strengthen him amid the torments of the Iroquois and the aspersions of enemies. Such visits left in his soul a profound peace and an intense desire of suffering. Garnier, another mar¬ tyr, writing to congratulate a brother who had entered the Carmelite order says : “ I beg all the angels to chant a thousand thou¬ sand hymns of praise and benediction to God and to the Mother of all mercy, that gentle star who, I believe, has led you to the port of all happiness.” So too with Le Moyne, Chabanel, Daran, one and all. Chabanel reached America on the Feast of the Assumption, and was martyred on the Feast of the Conception. They had St. 57 449 Mary’s House, they had the Mission of the Immaculate Conception ; the first converts baptized were Joseph and Mary. The Rosary was taught at once to the converts, and the ears of the unbelievers caught the word “ Maria ” as it recurred again and again in the prayer of the faithful, and termed them in derision Marians. It was a glorious triumph for these Christians of the far north- land to bear a name in mockery which bound them closely to the Queen of Angels. Father Marquette, longing to explore the then unknown Mississippi, began offer¬ ing up perpetual devotions to the Immacu¬ late Mother for the accomplishment of his yearning. Indeed, things seemed to work that way. He was sent south and west¬ ward to Mackinac, south and westward to Green Bay, southward, at last, to the Illi¬ nois. Everywhere he heard more and plainer tidings of the great river, and he redoubled his devotions. Then Mary heard and granted his prayers. Joliet ar¬ rived, sent by the Count de Frontenac, then governor of Canada, and bringing with him, from Marquette’s superiors, the long wished-for permission. They took all possible precautions, made all prudent preparations, but “ above all,” says Marquette, “I placed our voyage un¬ der the protection of the Blessed Virgin Im¬ maculate, and promised her that if she ob¬ tained us the grace of discovering the great river, I would give it the name of Concep¬ tion, as I would do to the first mission I should establish among those new nations.” 1 ( 1 ) Eecit des Voyages et des Descouvertes Je P. Jacques Marquette, cap. ii. 450 DEVOTION Before embarking on the Wisconsin, they began a new devotion to the Blessed Vir¬ gin Immaculate, which they practised every day, and “ by especial prayers we placed,” he says, “ under her protection the success of our voyage and ourselves.” 1 Then, for a hundred and twenty miles, they float down the Wisconsin, through the State of that name, to its mouth and the object of their wishes. Then out upon the broad breast of the Father of Waters, and down its stream past Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, not¬ ing every object, the nature of the trees, the varying width of water, the animals, especially the “ wild cattle,” and the pan¬ thers which came in sight. Just above the mouth of the Arkansas they had been attacked by a party of hos¬ tile Indians. Death seemed inevitable. “But,” says the faithful Marquette, “we had recourse to our patroness and guide, the Holy Virgin Immaculate, and we had great need of her assistance, for the sav¬ ages were urging each other to the slaugh¬ ter by fierce and continual cries.” But God suddenly touched the hearts of the old men, the youth were checked, and for that time the missionary was spared. So he discovered the Mississippi and named it The River of the Conception. Then he set out to plant the Mission of the Conception among the Illinois : but he fell sick and wintered at Chicago, consecrating to Mary the site of the great city of the West. In the spring he founded the mission and turned back towards Mackinaw only to die ( 1 ) Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi. TO THE on the way at the mouth of a river that now bears his name. He had always entreated his dear Moth¬ er that he might die on Saturday, the day of the office of the Immaculate Conception. Well, Saturday had come, and he bade his companions paddle to the shore, to a knoll at the foot of which a little river ran into the lake. 2 They laid him, like St. Francis Xavier, upon the shore, and stretched some birch bark upon poles above him. There he gave them the last directions, thanked them for their love, begged their pardon for the trouble he had given, heard their con¬ fessions, and bade them take some repose. When they returned, he had entered the valley of the shadow of death ; but he told one of them to take his crucifix and hold it up where his eyes might rest upon it. Looking on this, he uttered his profession of faith, and thanked the Triune Majesty for the grace of dying a missionary of Je* sus, alone and in the land of savages Then, now and again, they heard him say, “ Sustinuit anima mea in verbo ejus,” and “ Mater Dei, memento mei.” Then, as he seemed to be passing away, they called aloud, as he had told them, the names of Jesus and of Mary, and at the sound he raised his eyes above the crucifix ; he saw some object which they could not see, for his eyes filled with the light of ineffable joy ; a look of intensest delight made his whole face radiant; he cried out Jesus and Mary ! and fell asleep. “We could say much of his rare vir- ( 1 ) Shea’s Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, p. 64. BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. 451 tues,” says Father Dablon, “ of his mis¬ sionary zeal, of his childlike candor, of his angelic purity, and his continual union with G-od. But his predominant virtue was a most rare and singular devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and especially in the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. It was a pleasure to hear him preach or speak on this subject. Every conversation and letter of his contained something about the Blessed Virgin Immaculate, as he always styled her. From the'age of nine he fasted every Saturday, and from his most tender youth began to recite daily the little office of the Conception, and inspired all to adopt this devotion. For some months before his death he daily recited, with his two men, a little chaplet of the Immaculate Conception which he had arranged in this form : after the Creed, they said one ‘ Our Father, and Hail Mary then four times these words : ‘ Hail, daughter of Ood the Father! hail, Mother of Ood the Son ! hail, Spouse of the Holy Ohost! hail, temple of the whole Trinity! By thy holy virginity and im¬ maculate Conception, 0 most pure Virgin, cleanse my flesh and my heart. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ohost;’ and last of all, the ‘ Olory be to the Father,’ the whole thrice repeated. “So tender a devotion to the Mother of Ood deserved some singular grace, and she accordingly granted him the favor he had always asked, to die upon a Saturday ; and his two companions had no doubt that she appeared to him at the hour of his death, when, after pronouncing the names of Jesus and Mary, he suddenly raised his eyes above the crucifix, fixing them on an object which he regarded with such pleasure and joy, that they lit up his countenance ; and they from that moment believed that he had surrendered his soul into the hands of his good Mother.” We have mentioned Our Lady of Bon Secours in connection with Margaret Bour- geoys. “ If you should make a pilgrimage to this American shrine,” says an eloquent writer, “and a more edifying devotion you will not find on this continent, you will see its quaint structure on the hill-side, fronting N6tre Dame Street, and overlooking the broad sail-covered St. Lawrence. Its not ungraceful, rather Oriental looking steeple, with its two open lanterns, one above the other ; its steep snow-shedding roof and old-fashioned ornamentation of the door¬ way, will at once carry you back to the date of the Jesuit martyr and the Indian missions. In 1675, the Bev. Mr. Souart, of St. Sulpice, headed a procession of all the people upon the feasts of Saints Peter and Paul, and solemnly blessed and laid the corner-stone. The walls rose swiftly ; a bell was cast from a bronze cannon which had been burst in the Iroquois war ; the miraculous statue of Our Lady was placed in a shrine, gilt and enriched with jewels, and Bon Secours stood open to the faithful, the first stone church on the island of Montreal.” The first church was destroyed by fire in 1754, and in consequence of the wars which finally brought Canada under a Protestant sovereign, was not rebuilt till 1771. Then once more pious hands labored to restore the sanctuary of Mary, and in 452 devotion to the 1774 the Canadian, as he sailed along the mighty river, could once more behold the spire of Mary’s Church and commend him¬ self to her motherly care. When the ship-fever was ravaging the city of Montreal, and the ranks of the clergy and sisters, who devoted themselves to the sick, were daily thinned, the Bishop of Montreal, Ignatius Bourget, publicly bound himself by vow to do his utmost to re-establish the pious pilgrimage of Our Lady of Gfood Help, which had ceased to be frequented as it once was. The prayer was heard, the long proces¬ sion to the ancient shrine, the constant stream of devout souls, imploring the inter¬ cession of Mary, were not unheard. The epidemic that menaced all, died away. In a pastoral letter, the pious bishop exclaims: “We would be the most ungrateful of men, indeed, and our tongue should cleave to the roof of our mouth, if we were to forget that we owe to the fervent prayers in the chapel of Bon Secours the health we enjoy to-day.” A new statue replaced that which disap¬ peared in 1831, and the constant visits of the pilgrims show that all regard it as one of those privileged spots where God is pleased to show His great mercy, through the intercession of Mary. Canada as a Catholic province was a per¬ petual eyesore to the New England zealots of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. To overthrow Catholicity there, was the great object of their thoughts. Not to forego the opportunity of leveling church and convent, of showing their love for Christ and her whom he loved, by treating with every indignity any representation of them, they exposed their frontiers to the horrors of Indian war, rejecting all Can¬ adian proffers of neutrality. They were many, the Canadians were few. In 1690 a mighty expedition was sent out from Boston, and before the first breath of intel¬ ligence of such a project reached the French governor, the New England fleet was in the St. Lawrence. Frontenac hastened back to Quebec from Montreal, and did what man could do. He was brave and he was capable. When he looked around on his petty force, he thought of one ally not to be overlooked. It was Mary’s land, and the Blessed Virgin was invoked at every altar, in every household. A painting of the Holy Family was hung out on the steeple of the cathedral, and all hearts beat high with hope. In a few days Phips, defeated and baffled, fled down the river, leaving his own flag in the hands of the French, to be hung up in the cathedral as a trophy. “ Then,” says a nun of the H6tel Dieu, “a magnificent p.oces- sion was made to all the churches ol Que¬ bec ; the image of the Blessed Virgin was borne in triumph as Our Liberatrix, who had vanquished our enemies ; all resounded with praises of the Queen of Angels, and of her who had just given us such signal marks of her maternal protection. The feast of Our Lady of Victory (October 7) was established in the church of the Lower Town as an eternal memorial of the defeat of the English. To her was attributed all the glory of this victory, without speaking of the prudence of the governors, the valor of the officers, the bravery of the BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. 453 soldiers and settlers, and no one objected, so convinced were all that Mary alone had repulsed our enemies.” 1 If you seek this plain, unpretending, though substantial church, by the market¬ place in the Lower Town of Quebec, you will find it called, not by the name we have given, but by that of Our Lady of Victories, and you will ask the reason. You will find that again, in 1711, Canada was menaced, a powerful fleet again steered towards the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, a formidable army marched on Montreal. In that city the ladies discarded all fin¬ eries for a year, and vowed a chapel to Our Lady of Victory ; at Quebec all gath¬ ered around the Mary-altars to implore once more her potent protection. Though hopeful, every face was serious, impressed with the importance of the hour, and of the utter inefficiency of human means. The novena to Our Lady of Pity had but just ended in the cathedral of Quebec, when the clients of Mary, issuing forth on the square, met persons just arrived from France. A French ship had entered the river! Where then were the English ? The fleet, wrecked with fearful loss on the rocky shore, had strewn the river-side with dead and fragments ; a few ships bore away to spread dismay through New England. On land, panic had seized their army, which broke up in disorder. Then rose in Mon¬ treal, beside the convent of the Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady, the chapel of Our Lady of Victory, and that at Que¬ bec assumed its present name. ( 1 ) Juchereau, Histoire de l’Hotel Pieu de Quebec!, p. 333. Not far from Quebec is another sanc¬ tuary of Mary, Loretto, founded in 1674, by the Jesuit missionary, Father Peter Mary Joseph Chaumonot, known, too, as one of the institutors of the Confraternity of the Holy Family. It was built in exact imitation of the Santa Casa, had a statue copied from that venerated in the Italian sanctuary. It was at once a pilgrimage, and the favors received there increased the devotion. “ Some years after the establish¬ ment of the Huron mission at Loretto,” says Father Chaumonot, “ Mary Wendraka, a fervent Huron Christian, was reduced to extremity by a violent fever. She had re¬ ceived the last sacraments, and we expect¬ ed only her dissolution, when I called John and Teresa, her two surviving children, and made them promise that if it pleased the Blessed Virgin to restore their mother’s health, they and I would say the Beads of the Holy Family nine times in the chapel Then I felt inspired to go and pray for this poor sick woman. I had not been, there ten minutes in prayer when the daughter came to tell me that her mother was asking for me. I ran at once, with the idea of reciting by her the Commendation of a Departing Soul. I entered the cabin, and lo! on my arrival my sick woman rose and courtesied to me in the French style. At first I thought it a last rally of nature, or the last effect of the violent disease. I pressed her to lie down again ; she told me she was as well standing as lying down. Again I urged her ; she told me that she was perfectly cured : and as she saw that I took her words for delirious ravings, she sent her children out so as to tell me pri- DEVOTION TO THE 454 vately how her health had been restored. “ A little after yon went out of my cabin, Father,” said she, “ two persons appeared on my mat; I saw one at my feet, the other at my head. The latter, who was a young woman, or rather a girl, said : ‘Just touch the hem of my robe and you shall be cured. 7 I would not presume to think, said I to myself, that blessed spirits from heaven would be sent to cure me, they must be evil ones trying to lead me into vanity. While this thought filled- my mind, the same one passing her skirt over my face, touching it, said: ‘ There, mother, you are cured, 7 and at the same instant she disappeared with the little boy who had appeared at my feet. Then I thought of trying whether these two persons had really restored my health. I began by moving my arms, then I rose and walked, I even went out, and all with as much ease as though I had never been sick, although but a moment before I had been as im¬ movable as a stone. My children were so astonished that they fled from me as a spectre. I reassured them, and sent my daughter for you, that you might yourself judge of this extraordinary event.” Father Chaumonot expresses his opinion that the two were two pious children whom she had buried, and who were thus sent from hea¬ ven by the Blessed Virgin to restore life to her who gave them life. Missions in all parts sent the offerings of Indian converts to the celebrated sanc¬ tuaries of Mary in Europe, where they were long to be seen at Loretto, Chartres, Dinan, Annecy. In Louisiana the Ursulines dedicated their chapel to Our Lady of Prompt Succor, and for more than a century this sanctuary has been the refuge of the afflicted. While Jackson met the invader in the field, the women of New Orleans here besought Mary to save their city and their honor. California, settled just at the period of our Revolution, shows its conquest for Mary. When Father Angelo Somera and Peter Benedict Cambon, in August, 1770, went amid the wildest tribes to plant the mission of Saint Gabriel on the Rio de los Temblores, with only a few soldiers, less as a guard than as an aid in the necessary labors, they had just selected a spot when from the woods came the wild Indian cr}-. A motley crowd poured down on the little band, ready to dip their hands in the blood of the invaders ; but the missionaries un¬ furled to the breeze the standard, bearing on its azure ground the mild features of Our Lady. The Indians gazed on it in as¬ tonishment and throwing aside their arms came to offer presents to the servants of their new Queen. 1 The English colonies were settled by those who had learned at their mothers’ knees to look with horror on Catholicity, and most of all on the honor paid to the Blessed Virgin. One spot alone was Cath¬ olic in its origin, Maryland. This is said to have been so named in honor of Henri¬ etta Maria, Queen of Charles I. We may well doubt whether it was not called Terra Mariae, in honor of her who was the pat¬ roness of that queen, who is never called (*) (*) Shea, Catholic Missions. BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. 455 Mary in history, and hence could scarcely shoulder with their countrymen, a new era thus have suggested the term. was opened : and with the peace came the The Ark and Dove that bore the Catholic organization of the little church in what pilgrims and their disguised pastors, Father had been the English Colonies. John Car- Andrew White, of the Society of Jesus, roll, a member of the suppressed Society and his companion, landed them on the of Jesus, the friend of Franklin, known Chesapeake, St. Mary’s Bay, only to found and respected by all the great men of his the city of St. Mary’s and show it to be in- day, was elected by the American clergy deed Mary’s land. and appointed by Pius VI. Bishop of Bal- During the Colonial period we know too timore. The scene of his consecration is little of the history of the Church to trace the Chapel in Lulworth Castle, dedicated to the devotion to Our Lady ; but we see the Blessed Virgin ; the day of the great what the Jesuits did in Philadelphia. Their solemnity which gave a hierarchy to the first church was dedicated to St. Joseph the United States was the Feast of the Assump- Spouse of Our Lady, and the second to St. tion of the Blessed Virgin, the day of her Mary—both venerable churches still sub- glorious triumph, August 15th, 1790. The sisting and dating back to the days before two facts tell us volumes of the piety and the Devolution. veneration which overflowed from the heart Of that period while the penal laws of of the illustrious Carroll for her who is the Maryland and Virginia still bore heavily guide, the light, and the Queen of the on the Catholics, when in Pennsylvania Clergy. they were barely tolerated and viewed Well might the sacred orator exclaim : with jealousy, when elsewhere they were “ Honorable and comforting in an especial almost unknown, our historians preserve manner is this awful solemnity to his and only fragmentary notices. Little was com- our common benefactor, the founder of this mitted to paper, lest it might in some mo- holy sanctuary, which shall be revered ment of popular excitement like that of through succeeding ages, even by churches the so-called Negro Riot in 1741, involve yet unnamed, as the privileged happy spot not only a priest but all who had at all from whence their episcopacy and hierar- been connected with him by ties of friend- chy took their immediate rise, and this ship or acquaintance. Hereditary devotion precious distinction will be justly attrib- to the Blessed Virgin is the best test of uted to the protection and favor of the the piety of our fathers in the Faith. The Glorious Mother of God, whose house it is, Carrolls, the Neales, the Fenwicks, the and through whose patronage all Christian Elders, and Mulledys, showed in their lives churches are founded.” the lessons of devotion to Mary taught in Mary is then in an especial manner the the Colonial homes in those days of trial. Mother and Guardian of the Catholic Hier- When at last the Revolution came r and archy in the United States, for it was in Catholics could step forward shoulder to her house and on her greatest festival that - — -———-—-———- ■—*- - — 11 -- —■ 456 DEVOTION TO THE the Holy Spirit descended on the founder of that hierarchy. Priests came from revolution-wrecked France. They gave devotion to Mary a new impulse. Those who still felt some of the old ways of Colonial days, and were shy of giving expression to their feelings gained courage. St. Mary’s College arose in Baltimore ; Mount St. Mary’s at Em- metsburg. Then priests came to be or¬ dained. Badin and Galitzin open the list. We find the former erecting St. Mary’s Church in Indiana among his early labors, and through life ever foremost to honor Mary and rear up clients worthy of their mothers. Prince Dmitri Galitzin, who renounced princely honors in Russia to labor in the mountains of Pennsylvania, showed at once his devotion to Our Lady. He settled on a farm left by the charity and zeal of a pious family named Maguire for a priest. There were not a dozen Catholics scattered up and down in the almost unbroken forest. Full of courage he reared his church of logs, some thirty feet long, and began the settlement of Loretto. He commenced his colony with twelve families: when this pio¬ neer of the Faith went to his reward he left behind him six thousand clients of Mary clustering around the Loretto of the United States. On this Loretto he ex¬ pended of his private fortune $150,000, counting it little for so great a Queen. “As he had taken for his' models the Lives of the Saints, the Francis of Sales, the Charles Borromeos, the Vincents of Paul, so, like them, he was distinguished for his tender and lively devotion to the Blessed Virgin ; and he lost no opportu¬ nity of extolling the virtues of Mary. He endeavored to be an imitator of her as she was of Christ. He recited her rosary every evening among his household, and incul¬ cated constantly on his people this admira¬ ble devotion, and all the other pious exer¬ cises in honor of Mary. The church in which he said daily Mass, he had dedicated under the invocation of this ever-glorious Virgin, whom all nations were to call blessed. It was in honor of Mary, and to place his people under her peculiar patron¬ age, that he gave the name of Loretto to the town he founded here, after the far- famed Loretto, which, towering above the blue wave of the Adriatic, on the Italian coast, exhibits to the Christian pilgrim the hallowed and magnificent temple which contains the sainted shrine of Mary’s hum¬ ble house, in which she at Nazareth heard announced the mystery of the Incarnation, and which the mariners, as they pass to en¬ counter the perils of the deep, or return in safety from them, salute, chanting the joy¬ ous hymn, Ave Maris Stella! For, like St. John, he recognized in her a mother recommended to him by the words of the dying Jesus : ‘ He saith to the disciple, Behold thy mother ! ’ And so, when the frame was worn out in her service and her Son’s, he went up to see her face on high.” 1 Mother Seton, the illustrious foundress of the Sisters of Charity in America had a filial devotion to the Mother of God, the common mother of faithful souls. She was full of confidence in the intercession of (*) Hayden’s Discourse on Galitzin. BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. 457 Mary, taught her children to honor and in¬ voke the assistance of that glorious Virgin, and as a tribute of her veneration, she promised her that her spiritual, daughters should ever bear her name. Hence many members of the community assume the name of Mary when it can be conveniently connected with their distinctive appellation, and all look upon it as theirs, although not mentioned. 1 While the holy widow was thus under the patronage of Mary, gathering a family to be the servants of the poor, the orphan, the ignorant, and the sick, the foundling, the aged, the lunatic, to meet every form of human misery, bodily or spiritual, God called another of her sex to a cloistered life. Miss Alice Lalor showed her love of Mary by the choice of the rule to which the spirit of God attracted her, that devo¬ ted to the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin. How her convent and its filiations have grounded in the hearts of the young maid¬ ens, the love and imitation of Mary, all know. The piety that pervades thousands of American homes flows from the grace of devotion to Mary, received in the walls of the Visitation. The Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Car¬ mel came from seething Europe to practice in peace the austerities and severe life of their holy order, and this Community con¬ tinues, by its prayers offered day and night through Our Lady’s hands, to avert from the land the scourges with which the jus¬ tice of God offended by rampant crime menaces it. ( 1 ) White, Life of Mrs. Seton, p. 419. 58 Dominicans planted convents in Ken¬ tucky and Ohio, and the Rosary consecrated both shores of the Beautiful River, at whose head the Recollect Father Baron, years be¬ fore had his chapel of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin within the walls of Fort Du Quesne. 2 As churches were erected, national gra¬ titude often dedicated a shrine to St. Pa¬ trick, but greater love invoked the name of Mary. Ten years since, a pious writer said : “There are nine churches dedicated to Mary, Help of Christians ; nine to Mary, Star of the Sea, two to Mary, Refuge of Sinners, seven to the Sacred Heart of Mary. There are sometimes only one, sometimes as many as four, to Our Lady of the Port, of the Isle, of the Cataract, of the Gulf, of the River, of the Rocks, columba in foramini- bus petrse, Our Lady of the Portage, of the Snows, of the Woods, of the Lake, of the Desert. There is Our Lady of La Salette, of Belen, of Levis, and nine of Guadaloupe. Again, we have Our Lady of Light, of Grace, of Good Help, of Refuge, of Good Hope, of Prompt Succor. There are four to Our Lady of Victories, three to Our Lady of Consolation, five to Our Lady of Loretto, seven to Our Lady of Angels, nine of the Rosary, seven of the Good Shepherd, sixteen of Our Lady of Mercy, twentv-one of Sorrows, twenty-two of Car¬ mel, thirty-one to ‘ Our Lady,’ simply. “There are three churches of the Mother of God, five of the Purification, eleven of the Nativity, fourteen of the Annuncia- (*) Registre du Fort Du Quesne. ' 458 DEVOTION TO THE tion, sixteen of the Yisitation, fifty of the Loretto to satisfy that tender devotion Assumption, one hundred and forty-five of which from childhood he had cherished to- the Immaculate Conception, and three hun- wards the Immaculate Virgin, Mother of dred and sixty-seven which are simply God: and he made a spiritual retreat in called Saint Mary’s.” this time-honored city of Mary. 1 In all, there stand in the United States Later came the Fathers of the Holy in honor of its Patroness, more than a Cross, whose post-office address is Notre thousand churches. Dame, Indiana, so boldly has devotion to The Rev. Charles Nerinckx founded an- the Blessed Virgin forced its way into the other Loretto in Kentucky, as the home of very governmental nomenclature of a a sisterhood devoted to education, that Protestant country. Their college is Our those who were to be future mothers of Lady of the Lake: the sisters near them families might imbibe a solid piety to be call their home St. Mary’s of the Immacu- their future guide in rearing up those com- late Conception, and all vie with each other mitted to their care by God. in extending the kingdom of Mary. Some pious ladies soon presented them- Two sisterhoods of Notre Dame labor in selves as postulants, and the foundations of the United States. The Sisters of Notre the new society were laid, April 26, 1812. Dame from Namur, founded by Mother The convent was not such a one as princes Julia Billiart; and the School Sisters of and nobles in the Middle Ages reared for Notre' Dame who trace their origin to monastic bodies : it was a hollow square Blessed Peter Fourier. of log cabins; the chapel occupying a The Ursulines at New Orleans, founded central position on one side of the quad- when the fleur-de-lis of France waved over rangle. It was called Loretto, and the the Mississippi from the Falls of St. An- sisters were to cherish a special devotion thony to the Gulf; which has seen the flag towards the Mother of God. The name of Spain, the tricolor, the stars and stripes, which the pious Mr. Nerinckx gave this and the Confederate flag float, over the city, sisterhood shows his deep and meditative has its Madonna, Our Lady of Prompt Sue- devotion to the Mother of Sorrows. They cor, and to it ascribes the deliverance of were called, “The Lovers of Mary at the the city from the English. 2 foot of the Cross.” Then there are sisters of Our Lady of The saintly Bishop Flaget inspiring all Charity of the Good Shepherd, whose lives these good works, and consoled by them are devoted to reclaiming those whom had that genuine stamp of the blessed, a society defiles, then rejects with scorn. devotion to Mary. In his visit to Europe, Then came the Nuns of Loretto from Ire- he stopped to visit Our Lady of the Angels, land : “Servants of the Immaculate Heart the Portiuncula ; he spent some time at of Mary,” to teach the young and gather ( 1 ) Spaulding’s Life of Bishop Flaget, p. 315. ( a ) See Litany, St. John’s Manual, p. 1136. BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. 459 up the orphan. Finally, as if all the re¬ giments of the great army set in array are to be drawn np in our land, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Friars of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and the Servites of the Blessed Virgin come to labor. Many of the orders led by the Jesuit and Oblate labor among the Indian tribes and not unblessed by Mary’s protection. Let us give one example from the sketches of that illustrious missionary, Father De Smet: “On Christmas eve, 1841, a few hours before the midnight Mass, the village of St. Mary was deemed worthy of a special, mark of Heaven’s favor. The Blessed Virgin appeared to a little orphan boy named Paul, in the hut of an aged and truly pious woman. The youth, piety, and sincerity of this child, joined to the Mature of the fact which he related, forbade us to doubt the truth of his statement. The following is what he recounted to me with his own innocent- lips :—‘ Upon entering John’s hut, whither I had gone to learn my prayers, which I did not know, I saw some one who was very beautiful. Her feet did not touch the earth, her garments \\vre as white as snow ; she had a star over her head, a serpent under her feet, and near the serpent a fruit which I did not recognize. I could see her heart, from which rays of light burst forth and shone upon me. When I first beheld all this I was frightened, but afterwards my fear left me, my heart was warmed, my mind clear, and I do not know how it happened, but all at once I knew my prayers.’ (To be brief, I omit several circumstances.) He ended his account by saying that several times the same person had appeared to him while he was sleeping, and that once she had told him that she was pleased that the first village of the Flatheads should be called Saint Mary. The child had never seen or heard before anything of the kind ; he did not even know if the person was a man or a woman, because the appearance of the dress which she wore was entirely unknown to him. Several persons having interrogated the child on this subject, have found him unvarying in his answers. He continues by his conduct to be the angel of his tribe. “Next year, 1842, we performed the devotion of the month of Mary, and I can flatter myself that -the exercises were at¬ tended with as much piety and edification as in the most devout parishes of Europe. At the end of the month a statue was borne in triumph to the very place where our Blessed Mother designed to honor us with the aforementioned apparition. Since that day a sort of pilgrimage has been estab¬ lished there, under the name of ‘ Our Lady of Prayer.’ ”* How many incidents must be omitted m a sketch like this! There is no space to tell of the little straw-thatched chapel of the Cote St. Lambert, near Montreal, of which the writer years ago found the deed among a Canadian notary’s papers, a deed to the Blessed Virgin herself. The rude chapel has passed away, but a cross now marks the spot reared since his discovery. 8 (*) Sketches, etc., p. 192, et seq. ( 3 ) Yiger, Souvenirs Historiques de la Prairie; McLeod, History of the Devotion, p. 137. DEVOTION TO THE 460 Again, a farmer in Maine turns up a leaden plate with his plough and throws it aside. Wanting a bit of lead one day he went to cut it, but on taking it up he found letters on it of ancient form. An anti¬ quarian friend soon made out that it was once in the corner stone of a chapel near the Penobscot, erected by the Capuchin Fathers in 1648, and dedicated to Our Lady of Holy Hope. 1 We could tell of wampum belts still kept at Loretto and Chartres, offerings sent two hundred years ago by converted Indians to those shrines of Mary. Sodalities of the Blessed Yirgin ex¬ ist in almost all colleges; while in the academies directed by nuns and sisters the children of Mary number thousands : the Bosary and Scapular Confraternities, that wonderful Archconfraternity of the Imma¬ culate Heart for the Conversion of Sinners, and others approved by the Holy See, gather the faithful into nearer brotherhood and strengthen them to meet the obstacles to salvation, never perhaps in the world’s his¬ tory so great as now. Besides religious orders devoted to Mary and named in her honor, churches dedi¬ cated to her, the piety of bishop and priest, religious and secular, besides sodali¬ ties and confraternities, besides these are the helps to devotion, books, beads, scapu- ars, medals. The rosaries that come to this country from abroad would amaze some people did they know or dream of the quantity. There seems no supplying the demand. Scapulars, especially that vener- ( 1 ) Historical Magazine. able one handed down from St. Simon Stock, the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, number thousands and tens of thousands who wear them. The miraculous medal, as that of the Immaculate Conception is not inaptly called, has so justified its popular name that in many parts Protestants, es¬ pecially ladies, wear it to place themselves under the protection of Our Blessed Lady. The Marian literature that has grown up in America is wonderful. Archbishop Ken- rick gave his “ Holy House of Loretto ” and that excellent “Month of Mary ” which is so dear to every household. “The Grlories of Mary, ” by St. Alphonsus Liguori, were first translated full and entire here and have been spread far and wide. Orsini’s “Life of the Blessed Yirgin” has run through edition after edition. The “ Life ” by Mon¬ signor Oentilucci, has also been published here. “ The Year of Mary,” “ The Graces of Mary,” “ The Love of Mary,” “ Medita¬ tions on the Litany of the Blessed Yirgin,” “The Flowers of Mary,” “Our Lady of Lourdes,” “ The Conversion of Batisbonne,” “Mary in Sorrow and Desolation,” “Man¬ uals of the Bosary and the Scapular,” “Mary at the Foot of the Cross,” “The Imitation of the Blessed Yirgin,” “The Children of Mary Instructed,” “The Man¬ ual of the Children of Mary,” “ Mater Ad- mirabilis,” “Celebrated Sanctuaries of the Blessed Yirgin,” “ McLeod’s History of the Devotion to the Blessed Yirgin in North America; ” such are the titles of a few only of the books current among the Catholics here, most of them issued in this country originally, and not reprints, showing not only that the faithful read with avidity, BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. but that the clients of Mary feel eager to labor with pen and word for her honor, while, at Notre Dame, they boldly, under Mary’s banner, enter the field of periodical literature, and issue the “Ave Maria” de¬ voted to the honor of Mary. The Blessed Virgin was indeed the pa¬ troness of the Church through the United States, as she was of Canada and Mexico : but the crown had not been formally placed on her brow. This act was the glory of the Council held at Baltimore in 1846, when twenty-two bishops there assembled, chose as Patroness of the United States of America “ The Blessed Virgin Mary con¬ ceived without sin.” The decree is in these words : Whereas the Most Reverend Archbishop of Baltimore and his suffragan bishops cel¬ ebrating the sixth provincial Council in the month of May, 1846, respectfully request the Holy See to approve the election made by them in council of the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without original sin, as the Patroness of the United States of North America, . . . the most eminent and rev¬ erend fathers in the General Congregation de Propaganda Fide, resolved to be¬ seech Our Most Holy Lord to deign to consent to the most pious wishes of the Council. Our most holy Lord Pius IX., by Divine Providence, Pope, benignly approved in all the opinion of the Sacred Congregation at an audience held February 7, 1847. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December the 8th, was made the Patronal Feast of the United States, and has been made a holiday of obligation. 1 461 “Devotion to the Blessed Virgin,” says the Bishop of Natchez in his sermon before the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, “ may and will be more strong and lively in one person than in another, in one coun¬ try than in another ; and we can under¬ stand how in one age it may grow wider and more intense throughout the whole Church than it was in ages which preceded. “Now some men of extraordinary holiness and wisdom have foretold that the devotion to the Blessed Virgin should have an im¬ mense increase as the world grows older. . . We can see ourselves, in the signs of the times which are coming on us, good reason for expecting that our Lord may probably so direct the conduct of His holy Church and the thoughts and hearts of her faithful children, as to make the devotion to His beloved Mother more intense and more ac¬ tive than it has been before. . . “ It is a continuance of the old mystery of Bethlehem and Nazareth. Our Lord still vouchsafes to have Mary give Him to the world, and He chooses to grow in our hearts as He grew at Nazareth under the care of Mary. “You can see it illustrated in the history of religion among yourselves. Some of you can recall when first began to be com¬ mon the practice of wearing the medal of the Immaculate Conception. And more of you can remember when the devotions of the month of May were not yet heard of. Now as these devotions have grown, so also have grown the devotions to Jesus in His childhood ; to Jesus on the Cross ; to His ( 1 ) Concil. II. Plen., § 383. 402 DEVOTION* TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN IN NORTH AMERICA. Sacred Heart; to His Most Precious Blood; to His Five Sacred Wounds; the Way of the Cross; the Yisiting of the Blessed Sacrament; the Forty Hours Adoration. “ And as for the country, so far each one of us in our own hearts, if we desire that Jesus take full possession of them and reign supreme, let us every day more and more magnify His power and love by pour¬ ing out our praise and blessing on His mightiest work and His dearest friend, His own blessed and beloved Mother.” 1 ( 1 ) Sermon of Et. Eev. Bishop Elder. Sermons before Second Plen. Council, pp. 95-100. HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, FROM HIS INCARNATION TO HIS ASCENSION. PART I. PROM THE INCARNATION OP THE WORLD UNTIL THE CURE OP THE MAN BORN BLIND. CHAPTER I. ST. LUKE’S PREFACE.-ETERNAL GENERATION OF THE WORD AND HIS INCARNATION.- TESTIMONY RENDERED TO HTM BY SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST.-THE HOLY PRECURSOR ANNOUNCED AND PROMISED. T HE beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” (St. Mark, i. 1.) “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a narration of the things that have been accomplished among us: according as they have delivered them unto us, who from beginning were eye¬ witnesses and ministers of the word ; it seemed good to me also, having diligently attained to all things from the beginning, to write to thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mayst know the verity of those words in which thou hast been instructed.” Thus speaks Saint Luke (St. Luke, i. 1.); and Saint Mark, who was also a disciple, might use the same language ; but the two apostle evangelists might say as Saint John does in fact: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.we declare unto you. that you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John, i. 1, 3.) That is to say the latter relate what they actually beheld; the former relate, what they heard from eye-witnesses. If the apostle evangelists were enlightened wit¬ nesses, the disciple evangelists were atten¬ tive hearers, and both faithful historians. They agree too well to be convicted of contradiction, and they are too dissimilar 464 HISTORY OF THE LIFE to be suspected of collusion ; and the vari¬ ances do not prevent our recognizing in them organs of the same spirit, almost as in varying features we discern the children of the same father. We now commence their narrative by telling what this Eternal Word (whose temporal life is the subject of this History), was before time began. “ In the beginning 1 was the Word, 2 and the Word was with God, and the Word ( 1 ) When all that had a beginning began to be, He already existed: therefore He is without be¬ ginning ;■ therefore He is eternal. ( 2 ) The Word of the Father; the interior ex¬ pression of his intelligence; the eternal and in¬ finite knowledge. The term of this knowledge is a divine person distinct from the divine person which produces it. If this is indeed a great mys¬ tery, may we not add that it is the only mystery here ? For that this person must he consubstan- tial and co-eternal with his principal, is as evident as that the knowledge, reason, and wisdom of the Godhead cannot be of any other substance or of shorter duration than God himself. The same must be said of the Holy Ghost, who is the sub¬ stantial love of the Father and the Son. ( 9 ) Skeptics might perhaps cavil at the other expressions in this verse which declare the divinity of the Word, but this proposition narrows them explicitly to the sense of divinity strictly speaking; for is it possible to say more precisely that the Word was God, than by saying the Word was God ? ( 4 ) This repetition represents, if we may so speak, the situation of the Word in eternity before creation. He dwelt enclosed in the bosom of the Father; as yet he had not been produced, or as we might say, manifested externally; he was by the creation and incarnation. This may be considered as an abstract of what the Evangelist states and is going to state concerning him. ( 6 ) God made all things by his word, since he created them by his intelligence ; hence we say of the Word as correctly as of the Father that all was God ; 8 the same was in the beginning with God. 4 All things were made by him ; 6 and without him waS“ made nothing that was made. “ In him was life, 6 and the life was the light of men. 7 And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not com¬ prehend it. 8 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to give testimony of things were made by him. The Arians concluded from this that the Son was inferior to the Father, since he acted as his instrument at the creation. Yet an intelligence by which an act is done is never denominated an instrument; and were it so, we must aver it to be an instrument coequal to his employer. For who ever advanced or thought that an intelligent being was greater than his own in¬ telligence, or his intelligence something less than himself ? (') He was the author and the meritorious cause of the life of grace to be followed by an eternal life of glory. This explains Saint John, by Saint John himself, who says, Epistle I. John, v. 11, “ God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” Here, alluding to the Son, he says, “ In him was life.” Obviously the same meaning. ( 1 ) The Word gave life to men by enlightening their souls, and the light here meant is the light of faith, and not, as many say, the natural light of reason. This is proved by many reasons. The following suffices : The Evangelist speaks here of the light to which Saint John the Baptist bore testimony. Now, the direct object of St. John s testimony was not Christ as author of natural rea¬ son, but Christ author of the Christian faith and evangelical law. ( 8 ) Mankind were-immersed in the darkness of ignorance and error. They did not see the light, because they did not wish to see it. Those who blindfold their eyes cannot see the light of day. But can they blame the sun ? K - OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 465 the light, that all men might believe the only begotten of the Father full of through him; he was not the light, but grace and truth.” (St. John i. 1-14.) was to give testimony of the light. That John beareth witness of him, and crieth (The Word) was the true light which en- out, saying : “ This is he of whom I said ; lighteneth every man that cometh into this After me there cometh a man, who is pre- world.” ferred before me ; because he was before “ He was in the world, and the world me.” (St. John i. 30.) “ Of his fulness we was made by him, and the world knew him all have received, 4 and grace 5 for grace. not. He came to his own, and his own For the law was given by Moses, grace and received him not; but as many as received truth came by Jesus Christ.” (Ib. i. 16-17.) him, he gave them power to be made the Let none be surprised at our treating of sons of God, to them that believe in his matters so far above the human under- name : who are born, not of blood, nor of standing as these ; but our testimony is not the will of the flesh, nor of the will of the less admissible. “No man, it is true, man, but of God. 1 And the word was hath seen God ; but the only begotten Son, made flesh, 2 and dwelt among us : and who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath we saw his glory, 3 the glory as it were of declared him to us.” (St. John, i. 18.) ( 1 ) Here the Evangelist speaks of the Incarna- brute. This observation is directed against the tion of the Word, and also of the spiritual birth heretic Apollinarius, who attributed mere sensation of the children of God, as the first is the merito- or a sensitive soul, to Jesus Christ, and not a ra- rious cause, and proof of the latter. It is an ar- tional soul. It would be endless to relate all the gument from greater to less inasmuch as it is more , impious absurdities imagined by heretics on the difficult that the Word of God should be made Incarnation. Faith and good sense acquiesce per- flesh, than that flesh and blood should become the fectly in all that it has pleased God to reveal to us adopted child of God. on the subject. (*) That is to say, became man. The evange- (’) His glory was manifested by his miracles. list names a part for the whole : and that, too, the Saint John had the further advantage of being one most despicable part, to impress us more deeply of those three who beheld it in his transfiguration. with the prodigious humiliation of the Son of God. ( 4 ) All graces come from the fulness of Jesus There is great energy in the juxtaposition of the Christ, as the showers which fertilize the earth two terms the Word was made flesh. Some early come from the fulness of ocean; the rivers that heretics took hence occasion to say that the word hear them back again only restore what they had assumed merely the flesh, and animated it as its received. soul. Christ refuted them in advance by saying, ( 6 ) The law of grace instead of the grace of “ My soul is troubled ; my soul is sorrowful unto the law; for this really was a grace; but the latter death; Father, into thy hands I commend my is so superior to the former, that, when spoken of spirit.” Had he not spoken thus, it is enough by way of comparison, the first might simply be that he is more than once styled man in Scripture, called the law, and the second the grace; the more to dispel all doubts of his having assumed a ra- so, as all the grace of the old law sprang from the tional soul. A body without a soul would no more grace of the new law, of which it was an antici- be a man than a tree is; and if its soul was irra¬ tional, it would differ in figure only from the 59 ■ pated stream. 466 HISTORY OF THE LIFE The man first to point out to the world the Incarnate Word should himself be dis¬ tinguished by characteristics so clear as to make his testimony irrefragable. God so provided, and as we shall see at the outset drew on him the attention of all Judea by the prodigies which preceded and accom¬ panied his miraculous birth. “ There was in the days of Herod, 1 the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zachary, of the course of Abia, 2 and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name Elizabeth. They were both just before God, walking in all the command¬ ments and justifications of the Lord, with¬ out blame. And they had no son, for that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years. And it came to pass that while Zachary executed the priestly office in the order of his course before God, according to the custom of the priestly office, it was his lot to offer in¬ cense, going into the temple of the Lord : 3 and all the multitude of the people was praying without at the hour of incense. 4 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zachary seeing him was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him: Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John : 6 and thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many ( *) Three Herods are named in the New Tes¬ tament. This one, called Herod the Great, an Idu- mean by birth, was the first of his family who reigned in Judea, and the only one who possessed it entire. It wts he who massacred the Innocents. The seooud was Antipas, son of the former, Te- trarch of Galilee, incestuous husband of Herodias, and murderer of Saint John the Baptist, the same who sent Christ. to Pilate, and dressed him in mockery in a white garment. The third, Herod Agrippa, is spoken of only in the Acts of the Apos¬ tles. He was the son of Aristobulus, who, to¬ gether with his brother Alexander, sons of Mari- amne, was put to death by Herod the Great, their father. This Herod beheaded Saint James; cast Saint Peter into prison ; was at length stricken by an angel, and died, devoured by worms, because he had not referred the glory to' God when a flatter¬ ing crowd cried out: “ It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.” He was the father of Agrippa be¬ fore whom Saint Paul pleaded. ( 3 ) David had divided all the priestly order into families or courses, distinguished by thenameof the original leaders. They served in rotation and the various duties were assigned to the priests by lot. ( 3 ) In the part of the temple where the altar of incense was. It was separated by a veil from the Holy of Holies, into which the high-priest alone was authorized to enter once a year. (‘) In the vestibule, or court, where the people remained in prayer as priests alone were allowed to enter that part where the altar of incense stood. ( 6 ) The phrase “ thy prayer is heard ” followed immediately by “thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son,” would at first lead us to infer that this son was the object of Zachary’s prayer; yet had he asked it he would scarcely have doubted the voice of an angel promising unless we assume that he asked what he was sure that he never could ob¬ tain, and this would be unreasonable. It is highly probable that he prayed for the coming of the lib¬ erator of Israel, sole object of the vows and pray¬ ers of the just of the old law. The birth of a son was given as a proof that his prayer was heard. The angel’s words are then thus explained: “ Thy prayer for the speedy coming of the Messias is heard, and the proof I give thee is, that thou thy¬ self shalt have a son, and that son shall be his precursor.” OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. shall rejoice in his nativity : for he shall be great before the Lord : and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink ; and he shall be fdled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb. 1 And he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God : 2 and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias : that he may turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children, 3 and the incredulous to the wis¬ dom of the just, to prepare for the Lord a perfect people. And Zachary said to the angel, Whereby shall I know this ? for I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years. And the angel answering said to him: I am Gabriel, who stand before God, and I am sent to speak to thee, and to bring thee these good tidings. “And,” as a token both to punish and to cure your incredulity, “behold thou shalt be dumb, * (*) ( 1 ) Saint Augustine says that Saint John was not sanctified, that is, purified from original sin in his mother’s womb, but merely that he was thence¬ forth destined to the office of precursor, much as Saint Paul says of himself, that God had separated him, that is, chosen him for the apostleship, from his mother’s womb. The words now before us, “ he shall he filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb,” refute this sentiment, the plenitude of the Holy Ghost being incompatible with the state of sin. (*) Never, perhaps, were the Jews more scru¬ pulous worshippers of the one Creator God, than at the period of the coming of Jesus Christ. The Lord their God, to whom Saint John converted many of the children of Israel, can be no other than Christ. Besides, it is added that John shall go before him (the Lord their God), that is to say, be his precursor. Now, of whom was Saint John precursor, if not of Christ ? Therefore Jesus Christ is not different from the Lord God, and this proof of his divinity is unanswerable. ( 1 ) Patriarchs who shall rejoice to behold their 467 and shalt not be able to speak until the day wherein these things shall come to pass, because thou hast not believed my 4 words which shall be fulfilled in their time. “And the people were waiting for Zach¬ ary, and they wondered that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak to them, and they understood that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he made signs to them, and remained dumb. . . . After the days of his office were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days liis wife Elizabeth conceived and hid her¬ self five months. 3 Thus,” said she, con¬ cealing her secret joy within herself, “hath the Lord dealt with me, in the days wherein he hath had regard to take away my reproach among men.” (St. Luke, i. 5-25.) posterity imitating their faith and piety. Other interpreters render it: To give to the children the hearts of their fathers, that is, upright and virtu¬ ous hearts, like those of their fathers. Both mean¬ ings are good—the first is most generally followed. ( 4 ) It seems that Zachary merely doubted ; yet to doubt is not to believe, and the word of the angel is exact. Whether doubt or incredulity, it was reprehensible, and justly punished: some say he sinned mortally, but such is not the general opinion; surprise and want of thought give a com¬ plexion to his incredulity similar to the fault of Moses, which did hot deprive him of grace, though it entailed exclusion from the promised Land. ( 6 ) Elizabeth was loth to expose to public derision the first signs of a pregnancy which by reason of her age might at least seem equivocal. When her pregnancy became incontestible and could only challenge surprise and admiration, she no longer avoided observation. This is the most likely explanation of her conduct under these cir¬ cumstances. 468 HISTORY OF THE LIFE CHAPTER H. ANNUNCIATION.-VISITATION.-BIRTH OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST.-CANTICLE OF ZACHARY. T HE time was fulfilled, and all was prepared for the Incarnation of the Word, when, “in the sixth month” after the conception of the divine Precursor, “the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a vir¬ gin espoused 1 to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her : Hail full of grace : the Lord is with thee ; blessed art t thou among women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with ( 1 ) Several reasons are adduced why God wish¬ ed tnat the Virgin, who was to be the mother of his son, should have a husband. The following is considered as the principal reason: The virginity of Mary would not be admitted until Jesus Christ had been recognized as Messias. It would have been fearfully unbecoming that till then he should pass as illegitimate, and his mother as a degraded woman. The Latin word desponsata of the Vulgate, translated espoused, may signify betrothed as well as married. This induced many holy doctors to say that Joseph and Mary were merely betrothed, but that the great majority hold that they were really married; and justly. For the veil of mar¬ riage to shield mother and son, it was imperative that Joseph and Mary should be publicly recog¬ nized as espoused, at least nine months before the birth of . Christ. ( 8 ) The throne of which David’s was but a figure. Yet it may be called the Throne of David, adding, as did the angel, that Jesus Christ shall reign in the House of Jacob, because his kingdom, the Church was originally formed from the chil- herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her, fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God : Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb ; and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus ; He shall be great, and shall be called the son of the Most High ; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David 2 his father ; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 3 And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, 4 because I dren of Jacob, who recognized him, and ranged themselves under his laws. Those who rejected him no longer being the true Israel, that is, being no longer a part of the people of God, from which they lopped themselves off, the Gentiles took their place, and formed, with the posterity of Jacob, one undivided people, of whom Jacob is the common stem to which all the branches are united, some natural shoots; others engrafted on it. Such is the comparison of Saint Paul, which likens the people of God to a great trunk that has always subsisted, and during the lapse of centuries has but lost some branches to acquire others. ( 8 ) The kingdom of Christ on earth, which is the visible church, is not to end like all the mon¬ archies which have successively appeared on earth; but it shall last as long as the »vorld. The uni¬ versal dominion which Jesus Chiist exercises over all nature, he of whom it is written that every knee shall bend, in heaven, on earth, and in hell—this empire, I say, shall last as long as God himself. In both these senses the angel saith here: Of his kingdom there shall be no end. ( 4 ) Mary felt no doubt, but wished light as to OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 469 know not man? 1 The angel answering, said to her : The Holy G-host shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And, there¬ fore, 2 also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of G-od. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren : because no word shall be impos¬ sible with G-od. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her,” and Mary found she was pregnant of the man God whom the Holy Ghost formed in her sacred womb as soon as she had consented to this great mystery. Informed by the angel of what had be¬ fallen Elizabeth, and docile to the inspira¬ tion which taught her what duties to per¬ form, “Mary rising up, went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda : and she entered into the house of Zachary, and saluted Elizabeth. . . . When Eliza¬ beth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb, 3 and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy G-host: and she cried out with a loud voice, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come tome? 4 for behold, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for the manner in which the angel’s word was to be fulfilled. The sequel explains the reason. ( 1 ) This would be apposite had not Mary taken a vow, or at least an unchangeable resolution to remain always a virgin. She was too sensible not to perceive the possible answer: That what hath not been shall be, and then thou shalt conceive a son. When then she said: I know not man, we must construe: I know not and I never shall know man. No other reasonable explanation can be given of her reply. Hence the Fathers used it against heretics who dared assert that after the birth of Jesus Christ, Mary had children by Joseph. What motive or interest could be great enough to induce her to change a resolution which she alleged as an obstacle to the choice which God had made of her to be the mother of the Messias ? ( 3 ) It did not necessarily follow from the fact of a virgin conceiving by virtue of the Holy Ghost, that the son she should bear must be truly God. Adam was not God, although he was the immediate production of Almighty power. Hence, to under¬ stand this “ And therefore,” that is, to know the connection between this proposition : “ The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,” etc., and this other: “The Holy Ghost which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God,” observe that two things are foretold: one that a virgin shall con¬ ceive without losing her virginity; the other, that the son she is to bear shall be truly God. We can¬ not presume Mary, enlightened as she was, to have been ignorant of the prophecies ; but had she been so, this “And therefore” may still be explained. The words of the angel signify, Thou art that Virgin of whom it is foretold that she shall con¬ ceive without the agency of man; “and therefore,” the child which shall be born of thee is he of whom it is foretold that he shall be truly God. There¬ fore the Divinity of Christ is not a necessary sequel of his birth by a virgin, though it is an in¬ fallible sequel, inasmuch as all that God foretold must happen. ( 3 ) This was the moment of the sanctification of Saint John the Baptist, the first fruit of the Incarnation of the Word. Mary’s voice was the instrument, and, as it were, the sensible sign of the invisible operation of grace. It is a great motive of confidence in Mary, to find her instru¬ mental in the first application made of the merits of Jesus Christ, after his incarnation, and in the sanctification of the holiest born of Avoman. ( 4 ) Had Saint Joseph made this journey, and, 470 HISTORY OF THE LIFE joy. 1 And blessed art thou that hast believ¬ ed, because those things shall be accomplish¬ ed that were spoken to thee by the Lord. And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in G-od, my Saviour, because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid ; for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed, because he that is mighty hath done great things to me, 2 and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation unto generation to them that fear him.” Cease to be surprised at beholding such a wonder. “He hath shewed might in his arm ; ” and in exalting my lowliness so im¬ mensely, he hath but followed his wonted course. He ever loveth to raise the lowly, to humble the greatness of pride we know at all times. “ He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent away empty.” His fidelity and goodness are no less dis- * (*) moreover, been present at this interview, be would have been instructed in that mystery, his ignorance of subsequently threw him into such great per¬ plexity. This note refers to artists, whose pictures of the Visitation, seldom fail to introduce Saint Joseph. ( 1 ) Joy seems to suppose knowledge. Such knowledge, it is generally believed, was imparted to Saint John, with the enlightened sense of the Incarnate Word’s presence and of the miracle of sanctification, wrought in him by the Holy Ghost, whose plenitude he then received. (*) By this canticle we see that Mary viewed in God only his power and goodness—ih herself only her lowliness and her happiness. Saint Am¬ brose calls this the ecstacy of her humility. played than his power. By performing what now awakens your admiration. “He hath received Israel his servant, being mind¬ ful of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.” “ And Mary abode with her (Elizabeth) about three months, and she returned to her own house. 8 “Now Elizabeth’s full time of being de¬ livered was come, and she brought forth a son. And her neighbors and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shewed his great mercy toward her, and they congratulated with her.On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they called him by his father’s name, 4 Zachary. And his mother said : Not so, but he shall be called John. And they said to her: There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs 5 to his father how he would have him called. And demanding a writing-table, he wrote, saying: John is his name ; and they all wondered. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, (’) Without waiting Elizabeth’s delivery, some who think otherwise discover reasons why Mary must have been present. But the Evangelist’s re¬ cital naturally inclines us to believe that her de¬ parture preceded it, and moreover motives of deli¬ cacy call rather for the absence than the presence of the purest of virgins. ( 4 ) The name was not given until the eighth day, and after the circumcision, for only by cir¬ cumcision was the child incorporated into the so¬ ciety of the people of God. Apparently for the same reason in the new law, the name is given to the child when baptized. (‘) This shows that Zachary was also struck deaf, for had he been simply dumb, signs would not have been necessary. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 471 blessing God. And fear came upon all the prophet of the Highest ; for thou shalt their neighbors ; and all these things were go before the face of the Lord, to prepare noised abroad over all the hill country of his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to Judea. And all they that heard them laid his people, unto the remission of their sins.” them up in their heart, saying: What an So great a favor cannot be deserved ; one, think ye, shall this child be ? for the but it shall come to us ‘ ‘ through the bow- hand of the Lord was with him.” This was els of the mercy of our God ; in which the the moment which God had chosen to accu- Orient from on high hath visited us, to en- mulate his choicest blessings on this happy lighten them that sit in darkness and in the family. He not only restores to Zachary shadow of death : to direct our feet in the his speech, but bestows on him the gift of way of peace.” The Messias as here prophecy. This holy old man was filled shown is not what the Jews figured to with the Holy Ghost, and he poured forth themselves—a warrior king and a con- that divine Canticle which comprises the queror ; he is a Saviour, who, without a entire plan of the Gospel, aud a descrip- single motive but his mercy, and without a tion of the Chnrch in its happiest days. single interest but our salvation, brings “ Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, down to us the remission of our sins. because he hath visited and wrought the Thenceforth a new order of things succeeds redemption of his people ; and hath raised to the ancient dispensation. Fear is re- up a horn of salvation to us in the house placed by love, and the just man passes of David his servant. his days in holiness and innocence. He “As he spoke by the mouth of his holy enjoys the peace of a pure and tranquil prophets who are from the beginning : sal- conscience—a peace superior to all others, vation from our enemies, and from the and which leads him by the only true hap- hand of all that hate us. To perform piness we can relish in this life to that eter- mercy to our fathers ; and to remember nal happiness which the Messias has merited his holy testament—the oath which he for us, and which, properly speaking, is the swore to Abraham our father, that he conquest he has made. Such is the picture would grant to us ; that being delivered which Zachary has drawn of the Messias’ from the hand of our enemies, we may reign. The apostles, after the descent of serve him without fear in holiness and jus- the Holy Ghost, had not a more just idea tice before him, all our days.” of the subject, nor one more free from vul- Zachary, foreseeing the high destinies of gar prejudices. his son, turns to him then, and addresses “Meantime the”miraculous “childgrew to him these sublime words, which the up and was strengthened in spirit, and child of eight days old heard and under- was in the deserts, where he remained un- stood: “And thou, child, shalt be called til the day of his manifestation to Israel, ”* ( 1 ) At what age he retired into the desert is not known. It was in his tender years, according to 472 HISTORY OF THE LIFE (St. Luke, i. 26-80), which did not occur until the time when the Messias was himself on the point of manifesting his presence. For the preaching of the Precursor was to he directly followed by the preaching of the Saviour, as his birth shortly preceded the birth of Christ. “Now the birth of Christ was thus.” (St. Matthew, i. 18.) CHAPTER III. DOUBT OF SAINT JOSEPH.-BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST.-HIS CIRCUMCISION.-HIS GENEALOGY. W HEN his Mother, Mary, was es¬ poused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found, as we have seen, with child of the Holy Ghost. Whereupon Joseph, 1 her husband, being a just man, 2 and not willing publicly to ex¬ pose her, was minded to put her away the general belief which the Ohnrch seems to adopt. We must not inquire whether he had suf¬ ficient discretion to guide himself, he to whom God had granted the use of this faculty in his mother’s womb. The Holy Ghost who led him into the wilderness, was his director and master. There he led an angelical life; and the ancient solitaries justly regarded him as their leader, and in some sort the founder of the anchorite life. Thus he prepared for the sublime ministry to which he was destined, and taught those who were to follow him that apostolic men are formed in the exercises of the solitary life. ( 1 ) Mary had told him nothing. There are two reasons for her silence: 1st, her confidence in God, to whom she trusted entirely for her reputation; 2d, her prudence: an event of this nature would not be credited on her statement: Heaven must speak to make it credible. ( 8 ) Had he denounced her, he would not appar¬ ently have been unjust. But he preferred not to use the right given him by appearances. He deemed privately. But while he thought on ttiese things, behold the Angel of the Lord ap¬ peared to him in his sleep, saying : Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife ; for that which is conceiv¬ ed in her is of 3 the Holy Ghost; and she shall bring forth a son ; and thou shalt call * (*) a mild and moderate demeanor preferable, under these circumstances, to rigorous justice. The qual¬ ity of the just man given him in the Gospel does not merely signify an equitable man; it expresses the assemblage of all virtues in a most exalted de¬ gree. Another cause, which is more than likely, is given for his course. The virtue of his incom¬ parable wife was of so unequivocal a character, that when confronting it, if we may venture so to speak, with what he perceived, he knew not what to believe or what to disbelieve. Wherefore he en¬ deavored to reconcile both things by separating from her, on account of the semblance of crime, and by saving her honor, on account of his convic¬ tion of her virtue, which counterbalanced in his mind all appearances. (*) All that God does without (ad extra) is common to the three divine persons. Nevertheless, the Incarnation is attributed to the Holy Ghost, because it is a work of love and goodness. Yet the Holy Ghost ought not to be called the father of Jesus Christ, because, when forming his body, OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 473 his name Jesus ; for he shall save his people from their sins.” (St. Matt., i. 18-21.) This supernatural conception had been foretold. However little versed in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures Joseph was, he could not have been ignorant of it, and such knowledge served apparently to facilitate his belief. “Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying : Be¬ hold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us. And Joseph rising up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife. And he knew her not till she brought forth her first-born son, and he called his name Jesus.” (St. Matt., i. 22—25.) It was at Nazareth that Joseph had these perplexities, and the vision of the angel which dissipated them. He had then undoubtedly no intention of leaving that town where he usually resided. But the prophets had also foretold that the Christ should be born at Bethlehem ; and God, who doeth all, even when he seems to act least, obliged Joseph to proceed thither with his wife precisely at the time when Mary was to bring forth her son. The oc¬ casion of this journey was as follows : “In those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world 1 should be enrolled. This enrolling was first made by Cyrinus, the governor of Syria • and all went to be enrolled, every one to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, he furnished nothing from his own substance. In this work there was no fresh creation. The en¬ tire matter served to form the body of Jesus Christ was extracted from the blood of Mary. On this account we may say correctly, that she contribut¬ ed more than any other mother to the formation of the body of her son. It does not follow from this that Mary, who certainly was Jesus Christ’s mother, should be called his father, because that particle of her blood from which the body of Jesus Christ was formed was not a germ, and the same particle took the form of a human body only by the supernatural operation of the Holy Ghost. God was not the natural father of Adam, al¬ though God himself immediately produced Adanq since he did not produce him from his own sub¬ stance. Adam was not the father of Eve, although she was produced from his substance, because the rib of the first man, out of which the first woman was formed, was not a human germ. Thus Jesus 60 • , Christ, as God, has a father and not a mother: as man, has a mother and no father. As God, he was begotten, not made (genitum non factum): and as man, he was made, and not begotten, properly speaking. We deem it right to add, the body of Jesus Christ was not formed successively and by degrees, nor animated some time after conception, as hap¬ pens to other children. Perfect organization, yet of proportionate size, animation, and hypostatic union of body and soul with the person of the Word, were all the work of one and the same in¬ stant, and the instant was, as has been said, that of Mary's consent. ( 1 ) That is to say, all the subjects of the Roman empire. The Romans called themselves masters of the world, although their empire, in its greatest extent, never equalled any thing like one-fourth of the habitable world. It is true, that the part which they occupied constituted the greatest part of what was then known. 474 HISTORY OF THE LIFE which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his espoused wife, who was with child. And it came to pass that when they were there, her days were ac¬ complished that she should be delivered, and she brought forth her first-born son 1 and wrapped him up in swaddling-clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds watching and keeping the night-watches over their flock. 2 And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them and the brightness of God shone round about them, and they feared with a great fear. And the angel said to them : Fear not, for I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people. This day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ, the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign to you : you shall find the infant wrapped" in swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising ( 1 ) And at the same time her only son. To en¬ able him to be called first-born, it is enough, espe¬ cially in the language of Scripture, that no other preceded him. Thus that he is called by Saint John, the only begotten son of the Father; and his first-begotten, by Saint Paul (Heb., i. 6). ( a ) Yet it was the 25 th of December; but the winters in Palestine are much less rigorous than those of France. ( 3 ) No one is ignorant that this name signifies Saviour in Hebrew. We shall not expatiate upon the properties of this adorable name, which maketh every knee bend in heaven, on earth, and in hell. We shall only remark, that by being the proper name of Jesus Christ, it gave ground to the objec¬ tion that Jesus Christ was not, therefore, called God, and saying ; Glory to God in the highest, and on the earth peace to men of good will. “ After the angels departed from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another: Let us go over to Bethlehem, and let us see this word that is come to pass, which the Lord hath shewed to us. And they came with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. And seeing, they understood the word that had been spoken to them concerning this child ; and all that heard wondered ; and at those things that were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. “ And after eight days were accomplish¬ ed that the child should be circumcised, his name was called Jesus, 8 the same which was called by the angel before he was con¬ ceived in the womb.” (St. Luke, ii. 1-12.) Emmanuel, as the Prophet Isaias had foretold. All the enemies of religion—Jews, Pagans, and an¬ cient heretics—reproach him with this apparent contradiction; yet nothing is more easily explained. The name Emmanuel was foretold, not as the proper name of Jesus Christ, but as signifying what Christ was to be: and in point of fact, since he is at the same time both God and man, and conversed with men, he truly was “ God with us.” Thus the same Isaias said: “ His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the mighty, Father of the world to come, Prince of peace (ix. 6). Which does not mean that any of these names was to be his proper name, but that he should be all that is signified by these names, and that every one of them would apply to him. ' ; _ i.i.l/l'T iV 11 jj)' VID MOURNING FOR. ABSALOM ait jr, s ill ■ iiii iiiii OF OUR LORO JESUS CHRIST. 475 We place here the genealogy of our Roboam, Roboam begot Abias, Abias be- Saviour, as Saint Matthew and Saint Luke got Asa, Asa begot Josaphat, Josaphat give it. The former, whose principal oh- begot Joram, Joram begot Ozias, 1 Ozias be- ject was to show the fulfillment of the got Joatham, Joatham begot Acbaz, Achaz prophecies in the person of Jesus Christ, begot Ezechias, Ezechias begot Manasses, opens by calling him the Son of David, the Manasses begot Amon, Amon begot Josias, Son of Abraham, because those two Patri- Josias begot Jechonias and his brethren in archs had a special promise that the the transmigration of Babylon, and after Messias should be born of their blood. the transmigration of Babylon Jechonias Then coming down step by step he says, begot Salathiel, Salathiel begot Zorobabel, “Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Zorobabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Elia- Jacob begot Judas and his brethren, Judas cim, Eliacim begot Azor, Azor begot Sadoc, begot Phares and Zara of Thamar, Phares Sadoc begot Achim, Achim begot Eliud, begot Esron, Esron begot Aram, Aram be- Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Mathan, got Aminadab, Aminadab begot Naason, Mathan begot Jacob, Jacob begot Joseph 2 Kaason begot Salmon, Salmon begot Booz the husband of Mary, of whom was born of Rahab, Booz begot Obed of Ruth, Obed Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the begot Jesse, Jesse begot David the King, generations from Abraham to David are David the King begot Solomon of her that fourteen, from David to the transmigration had been the wife of Urias, Solomon begot of Babylon fourteen, and from the trans- (‘) Three are omitted — Ochosias, Joas, and certain. It is more than probable that the Amasias, on account of the mixture of the blood point was fully understood at the time where of Achab with that of David. God had declared the evangelists wrote. The just must have to Achab that, in punishment of his crimes and known clearly that Jesus Christ was the son of impiety, all his race should be exterminated. He David. Therefore the knowledge was necessary, had promised David that his race should always and when it ceased to be, it was lost. We must subsist, and reign for centuries. Here we see both not be surprised. Nothing is useless in Scripture. promise and threat fulfilled: David’s blood is per- “ I am the Lord thy God, that teach thee profit- petuated, and continues to reign in Juda ; but able things.”—Isaias, xlviii. Now everything is not three kings of Juda, descended from Achab by his equally useful at all times. It is enough that God daughter Athalia, wife of Joram, are suppressed in confers the understanding of each text at the time the list of Kings, and by this suppression are, as of its utility. Thus our predecessors had informa- far as possible, included in the proscription of the tion on several points which those had not who impious Achab. came after them : and our successors will under- (*) As Jesus Christ was son of Mary, and not stand many points unintelligible to those who of Joseph, men are always tempted to ask why went before them. Such are many prophecies of the Evangelists have given the genealogy of Joseph the Apocalypse which regard the later times. and not that of Mary? This difficulty may be Eaith believes all things: but the reason of the deemed the knot for all the interpreters that en- faithful rests satisfied with knowing what God has deavored to explain it. Some saying naught worthy of reason, and the most reasonable nothing 52 m. placed within the reach of our information. 476 HISTORY OF THE LIFE migration of Babylon to Christ fourteen.” (St. Matthew, i. 1-17.) The genealogy which Saint Luke gives differs from this in many points. In the first place, he reverses the order of Saint Matthew ; and whilst the latter descends from Abraham to Joseph and to Jesus Christ, Saint Luke ascends from Jesus Christ and Joseph not only to Abraham, but even up to Adam. A second difference is, that he traces the descent of Joseph not through Solomon, but through Nathan, an¬ other son of David. The third is, that he makes Joseph not the son of Jacob, as Saint Matthew does ; but the son of Heli, 1 “who was of Mathat, who was of Levi, who was of Melchi, who was of Janne, who was of Joseph, who was of Mathathias, who was of Amos, who was of Nahum, who was of Hesli, who was of Nagge, who was of Ma- hath, who was of Mathathias, who was ( 1 ) This third difference is the most embarrass¬ ing. Still, although Joseph truly was the son of Jacob, he might he called son of Heli, for some one of the following reasons : 1. By title of adop¬ tion. 2. As son of the widow of Heli, married a second time by Jacob, according to the disposition of the law obliging the brother or nearest relative to marry the widow of the brother or parent who had died without children; and the offspring of the second marriage was considered as belonging to the deceased. 3. Joseph might be called son of Heli, because he was his son-in-law; for, in this case, Heli is no other than Joachim, father of the Blessed Virgin. Of these three explanations, the first is the least followed; the second is the most ancient and the best authorized. Saint Augustine, who originally adopted the first, and to whom the third was by no means objectionable, finally re¬ turned to this view, as may be seen in his Retrac¬ tations, Book viii., ch. 7. The third, which has of Semei, who was of Joseph, who was of Juda, who was of Joanna, who was of Reza, who was of Zorobabel, who was of Salathiel, who was of Neri, 8 who was of Melchi, who was of Addi, who was of Co- san, who was of Elmadan, who was of Her, who was of Jesus, who was of Eliezer, who was of Jorim, who was of Mathat, who was of Levi, who was of Simeon, who was of Judas, who was of Joseph, who was of Jona, who was of Eliakim, who was of Me- lea, who was of Menna, who was of Math- atha, who was of Nathan, who was of David, who was of Jesse, who was of Obed, who was of Booz, who was of Sal¬ mon, who was of Naason, who was of Ami- nadab, who was of Aram, who was of Esron, who was of Phares, who was of Judas, who was of Jacob, who was of Isaac, who was of Abraham, who was of Thare, who was of Nachor, who was of Sarug, who was of been relished by a great number of moderns, has this in its favor, that it presents the genealogy of the Blessed Virgin, and by this means the true genealogy of our Saviour, and bis descent from David. All this, nevertheless, does not go beyond conjecture, and each individual has a right to rely upon the explanation which seems most probable to him. What we are bound to believe is, that the evangelists do not contradict one another, and in this there exists no difficulty. For, as the sundry suppositions advanced to harmonize them are all possible, it follows, at all events, that no contradic¬ tion can be proved, and this is quite assurance enough for our faith. ( a ) Saint Matthew says Jechonias was father of Salathiel. Yet the latter might be called son of Neri, either inasmuch as he was his son-in-law, or inasmuch as he was his grandson by this mother, the daughter of Neri, who had married Jechonias, which again suffices to obviate contradiction. - OF OUR LORD » ' JESUS CHRIST. 477 Ragau, who was of Phaleg, who was of who was not of the blood of David. What- Heber, who was of Sale, who was of ever difficulties we may meet in them, it is Cainan, who was of Arphaxad, who was certain that Jesus Christ’s descent from of Sem, who was of Noe, who was of David was never questioned, as it never Lamech, who was of Mathusale, who was could be, in point of fact. For those who of Henoch, who was of Jared, who was of deemed him simply the son of Joseph could Malaleel, who was of Cainan, who was of not gainsay it; while those who believed Henos, who was of Seth, who was of him born of a virgin could not doubt that Adam, who was of Hod.” 1 (St. Luke, he was all that the Prophets announced iii. 23-38.) he was to be, all that the Evangelists These genealogies were mainly for the assure us, all that he has declared of Jews, who could not recognize a Messias himself. CHAPTER IY. ADORATION OF THE WISE MEN. - PURIFICATION. - FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. - MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS. - RETURN TO NAZARETH. - JESUS LOST, AND FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. A NOTHER sign, just as plainly foretold, mediately produced its effect. For, “ When A was to reveal him to the G-entiles; Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in and this sign, whether it appeared at the the days of King Herod, behold there moment of his birth, or a little before, im- came wise men 2 from the East 8 to Jerusa- ( 1 ) That is to say, who had God for the imme- The number of tbe Magi who came to adore tlie diate author of his existence. We may remark Saviour is not recorded. The traditionary num- here, that Saint Luke, who in this place employs ber of three, which is usually fixed upon, seems to the term of son in a sense different from that be grounded upon the number of presents which of eternal generation, thereby authorizes the dif- they offered. ferent meanings we have given to this term in the Their royalty is not acknowledged by some inter- preceding notes. preters. It is the common idea which its antiquity ( 8 ) The term Magi is found in use by ancient entitles to respect. Yet it is not understood to authors to signify, 1. Magicans and enchanters ; mean great and powerful monarchs. We know 2 The inhabitants of a certain district of Arabia that there are still several countries where the title which Avas called Magodia ; 3. Wise men and King is given to the ruler who possesses as sover- philosophers of Persia, who perhaps were called eign merely two or three villages. Magi because their philosophy included much ( 8 ) According to some they came from Persia, astronomy, and the simplicity of the ancients re- which is directly east of Palestine. The name of garded astronomy as magic. Magi tends to support this view, which probably 478 HISTORY OP THE LIFE lem, saying : Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? for we have seen his star 1 in the East, and are come to adore him. And King Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born. They said to him : In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the prophet: And thou, Bethlehem, the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda ; for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, privately calling the would have prevailed, if the distance of nearly fifteen hundred miles from Persia to Judea did not present an embarrassing difficulty, not answer¬ ed by those who adopt the generally received idea that the Magi arrived at Bethlehem on the thir¬ teenth day after our Saviour’s birth. The knowl¬ edge of stars ascribed to them, induce others to say that they came from Chaldea, a country fertile in astronomers, situate northeast of Judea. Finally, the nature of the presents they bore has given rise to the opinion that they came from Arabia, which lies not far to the southeast of Judea; and this opinion prevails. ( ') We cau only but conjecture the nature of this star, the part of the heavens it moved in, and how it directed their course. The most probable theory is that it was not a real star, but a meteor more brilliant than common stars, as it was vis¬ ible by day. They saw the star over Judea; for how could it announce the birth of a new King of the Jews, had they seen it over their own country. And the prophecy: “ A star shall rise out of Jacob,” would not apply to a star rising over Arabia. Over Judea, this star, by its mere posi¬ tion, furnished them a guide; nor was its motion necessary to direct their steps. Arrived at Jeru¬ salem, they no longer saw the star. If, as is said, God hid the star to test their faith, his main in¬ tention was to disclose to the Jews, by means of Wise men, learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them, and sending them into Bethlehem, said : Go, 2 and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him. Who having heard the king, went their way,” (St. Matt., ii. 1-9.) without dis¬ trust, and disposed to satisfy him; and “behold the star which they had seen in the East went before them until it came and stood over where the child was. And seeing the star, they rejoiced with exceed¬ ing great joy, and entering into the house, 8 the Magi, the Messias’ birth, and to the Magi, by means of the Jews, the spot where the Messias should .be born, and the agreement of the prophecies with the miraculous sign which led them. ( 2 ) Herod reasoned thus: If the inquiry be made in my name and by my people, distrust will make them conceal the child, whereas they will be eager to find the child for these good Orientals whom no one doubts. He reasoned well in this, but not when he ordered the murder of the inno¬ cents. For this murder was useless if the Messias was not born ; and if the Messias were born, God, who had promised him to the world, could not allow him to fall in the general massacre. When Herod was shrewd, God used his shrewdness > when he was irrational, God allowed him to com¬ mit, with no advantage to himself, a crime which draws down on him the execration of all ages. Ye wise and mighty of the world, how mad, how weak are ye when you dare to cross the designs of the Almighty! ( 3 ) The ancients generally say that it was in the stable of Bethlehem; others think Mary had left so wretched a shelter and obtained other lodg¬ ings. The truth is unknown; but if we adhere to the text, it is not easy to credit that what is called simply “the house” could have been a stable. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 479 they found the child with Mary his mother, 1 and falling down, they adored 2 him. And opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, 3 and having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country.” (St. Matt. ii. 9-12.) That prince awaited their return ; and as he depended upon them, apparently had made no further investigation, “ when, after the days of her purification, accord¬ ing to the law of Moses, 4 were accomplish¬ ed, they carried Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in ‘.he law of the Lord : Every male opening _ ( 1 ) Joseph is not named, thus raising a pre¬ sumption of his absence; for when the shepherds came to the manger, and on other occasions when Joseph was present, the Evangelists mention him. Those who seek to explain everything, say that G-od permitted his absence, lest the Magi should imag¬ ine him the father of Jesus Christ. This idea, utterly independent of his presence or absence, must have been entertained by the Wise men, un¬ less God revealed to them that the child whom they adored was the son of a virgin. ( 3 ) Scripture frequently employs this term to signify the homage rendered to kings or person¬ ages of high respect. In this passage the term is more commonly taken in the sense of adoration properly speaking, because there is very little doubt but the Magi knew by a supernatural light the divinity of Jesus Christ. (*) These presents were mysterious. By gold, they recognized the royalty of Jesus Christ; by incense, his divinity; and by myrrh, which was used in embalming bodies, his humanity in suffer¬ ing and mortal flesh. We shall imitate them, said a holy father, by offering God the gold of charity, the incense of prayer, and the myrrh of mortifica¬ tion. They were our first-fruits, and the vocation £ of the Gentiles began with them. Hence the un¬ tile womb shall be called holy to the Lord ; and to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons. And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. This man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Is¬ rael,and the Holy Ghost was in him. And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the cus¬ tom of the law ; 5 he also took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said : Now usual joy with which we celebrate the feast of Epiphany. ( 4 ) Here we should notice two distinct laws— one, requiring woman after childbirth to come and be purified at the temple after a certain number of days; the other, requiring the offering to the Lord of every first-born male of his mother. It may be asked, whether both*these laws bound Je¬ sus Christ and Mary ? Jesus Christ, who is God, is above every law. Yet, having voluntarily sub¬ mitted to the observance of the Mosaic law, he could not, as he was the first-born, neglect to ful¬ fil this. The object of the law of purification was to expiate the legal impurity which women con¬ tracted in child-bearing. Mary, whose divine motherhood had been purer than the sunbeam, did not fall within this law; still her perfect purity was an unknown mystery, and the time had not yet come to reveal it. Wherefore she could not dispense herself from the common obligation, without being regarded as a prevaricator, that is to say, without giving scandal. Hence it be¬ came an obligation of charity. ( 6 ) That is to say, offer him to the Lord, and then ransom him, by giving five sides of silver, as requir¬ ed by Numbers xviii.; for the offering of the lamb or pigeons was only for the mother’s purification. - 480 HISTORY OP THE LIFE thou dost dismiss thy servant, 0 Lord, ac- He also foretold the passion of the Sa- cording to thy word in peace : because my viour. God wished that awful futurity to eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou be ever present to the mind of Mary dur- hast prepared before the face of all peo- ing the entire course of her Son’s life. It pies : a light to the revelation of the Gen- was to prepare her beforehand, but it was tiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” also to temper with this bitterness the joy (St. Luke ii. 22-32.) of possessing such a treasure. Had this Thus was literally fulfilled in this holy joy been pure, she would not have acquired old man the words of the Psalmist: “I sufficient merit; her consent to the sacri- will fill him with length of days, and I will fice of her Son would only have had, like show him my salvation.” (Ps. xc. 16.) But that of Abraham, the merit of one day, the favor surpassed the promise : for not if the foreknowledge she possessed had not content with showing him the Saviour, the given her an occasion to make that sacri- Lord permitted him to hold him in his fice every day, and, perhaps, at every mo- arms ; and besides the consolation of Israel ment of the days and years which preceded which he expected, he learned also the vo- it. cation of the Gentiles, and the salvation The Lord had said : “In the last days I offered to all nations—a truth recorded in will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, all the prophets, but then scarcely known, and your sons and your daughters shall and which the Apostles themselves did not prophesy.” (Acts ii. 17.) This prediction, fully understand until some time after the fully accomplished after the descent of the descent of the Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost, began this day to be verified. “ His father and mother were wondering God included both sexes in the glorious at those things which were spoken concern- testimony which he rendered to his Son. ing him. And Simeon blessed them” both. With the holy old man Simeon he associ- But enlightened as he was on the distinction ated “ Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of to be made between her who was really the Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser. She was mother, and him who, merely in public far advanced in years, and had lived with opinion, was the father, he said, speaking her husband seven years from her virginity. only “ to Mary, his mother: Behold, this And she was a widow until fourscore and child is set for the fall and for the resurrec- four years: who departed not from the tion of many in Israel, and for a sign which temple, by fastings and prayers serving shall be contradicted. 1 And thy own soul,” night and day. How she at the same hour, he adds to her, “ a sword shall pierce, that coming in confessed to the Lord, and spoke 1 out of many hearts thoughts may be re- of him to all that looked for the redemp- 1 vealed.” (St. Luke ii. 33-35.) tion of Israel. 8 Finally, when Joseph and ( 1 ) Christ has always had true and false disci- which distinctly separates the grain from the pies. In peaceful times it is hardly possible to chaff. distinguish them, it is the flail of persecution ( a ) In a city so large and so populous as Jerusa- : : ■ 1 — OF OTJR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 4 81 Mary “ had performed all things according there until I shall tell thee : for it will to the law of the Lord, they returned into come to pass that Herod will seek the child Gfalilee, to their own city Nazareth.” (St. to destroy him.” Joseph “ arose, and took Luke, ii. 36-39.) the child and his mother by night, 3 and re- Scarcely had they arrived there, 1 when tired into Egypt, and 4 he was there until “an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep the death of Herod ; that it might be ful- to Joseph, 2 saying : Arise, take the child filled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, and his mother, and fly into Egypt, and be saying : Out of Egypt 5 have I called my lem, at a period when those who maintained order cure his son from the fury of Herod, God had were neither as intelligent as at present in all that countless means less painful for the child, the concerns government, nor apparently as exact in mother, and himself. His obedience was prompt their reports, it w r as possible, or rather probable, and without delay: warned by night, he did await that Herod knew nothing of what took place at the dawn to start. It was generous and full of con- the temple, or learned it only after the Holy Family fidence in Providence : he set out without prepara- had departed for Nazareth, whilst he thought them tion or provisions. He was poor in earthly goods, returned to Bethlehem. What fortifies this con- yet, possessing Jesus and Mary, how rich he was! jecture is the fact that Herod was unaware of ( 4 ) The exact period of Christ’s abode in Egypt our Saviour’s birth, till informed by the Wise men, is unknown. According to the most authorized although it had acquired such notoriety at Beth- calculations, he must have dwelt there not less lehem and all the surrounding country. This re- than four nor more than seven years. The ac- mark helps to show how the Purification could counts of miracles wrought there by him are to be take place between the adoration of the Wise men regarded as apocryphal. One single one rests on a and the flight into Egypt, and supports the com- tradition to which antiquity gives respect, and that mon opinion, which should not be rejected unless is the fall of the idols in Egypt when our Saviour evident reasons compel us. entered the land. Yet there is no clear evidence ( 1 ) According to this arrangement, we admit that this tradition rests on any historical monu- that the angel appeared to Joseph at Nazareth, and ment; and it may, indeed, have no foundation but there gave him the order to fly into Egypt. Yet the prophecy of Isaias which many interpreters Saint Matthew leads us naturally to believe that apply to other times and other events: “ The Lord this apparition took place at Bethlehem. This will ascend upon a swift cloud, and will enter into raises a considerable difficulty, but not greater than Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at those met in the different systems imagined by in- his presence.” (Isaias, xix. 1.) terpreters. We hazard one, which appears in the (‘) The prophet speaks of the Departure of the note on the return of Saint Joseph from Egypt to Israelites from Egypt, when God broke the fetters Nazareth. of his people, whom he here calls his son, to mark (’) The revelation was made to Joseph. Joseph how much dearer they were to him than all other orders and directs the journey, because God had nations. The name of son is so inapplicable to this made him head of the family: authority is attached people and so very applicable to Jesus Christ that it to station, not to knowledge and sanctity, which is easy to see that this text can be applied to Jesus were far superior in Jesus and Mary. Christ alone, in its natural and literal meaning. (*) The conduct of Saint Joseph in this circum- The whole of the Old Testament is figurative of stance has always been regarded the model of a the new. What was greater in the first than the perfect obedience. His was simple, and without captivity of the people of God in Egypt, and their reasoning. He did not allege that, in order to se- 61 miraculous delivery ? What apparently more un- 482 HISTORY OF THE LIFE son. (Osee, ii. 1.) Then Herod, perceiv¬ ing that he was deluded by the Wise men, was exceeding angry ; and sending, killed all the men-children that were in Bethle¬ hem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the Wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: A voice in Rama was heard, la¬ mentation, and great mourning: Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. And when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in important in the life of Christ than the particular spot to which he fled from the pursuit of Herod ? Still the first was merely a figure of the second. On the other hand, what more interesting in the life of Christ than his passion, and all connected with it ? and in the eating of the Paschal lamb, what less important than the prohibition of break¬ ing the bones ? Yet this observance, considered in itself, was prophetic and figurative of one of the principal circumstances of our Saviour’s passion. ( 1 ) Should not Joseph, of his own accord, and without admonition from the angel, have returned to Nazareth, supposing he had left that city to go to Egypt ? He had there his house, his furniture, with all the implements of his trade, which he might expect to find there. Or if Joseph were to settle elsewhere than at Nazareth, where else but at Bethlehem, whence he sprang, and where he might presume that God, who made his son be born there, should wish him also to be brought up; more especially as the birth of the Messias at Bethlehem, which would be better known if he continued to dwell there, was one of the marks that were to make him known. This observation leads to suggest an arrangement differing from that just seen. After the Purification, which must be placed before the Epiphany, Joseph returns with Mary and the infant to Nazareth, as Saint Egypt, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead that sought the life of the child. Who arose, and took the child, and came into the land of Israel. But, hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea, in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither; and being warned in sleep, retired into the quarters of Gali¬ lee, ” and “dwelt in a city called Nazar¬ eth: 1 that it might be fulfilled which was said by the prophets:” “He shall be called a Nazarite.” (St. Matt., ii. 13-23.) “Meantime the child grew and waxed Luke says; but only to settle his affairs, and re¬ move his property to Bethlehem, where he was going to settle with his family. The Wise men ar¬ rive, and find the infant and his mother at Beth¬ lehem ; not some days, but several months after his birth, as many interpreters have thought, who deemed it impossible otherwise to explain the or¬ der given by Herod, to kill all male children in Bethlehem and its neighborhood, “ from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.” In this way all is arranged, and harmonizes. The Purification took place after the forty days prescribed by the law of Moses; the Holy Family immediately re¬ turns to Nazareth, conformably to Saint Luke’s account, and at Bethlehem, as Saint Matthew states, directly after the departure of the Wise men, Joseph receives the order to fly into Egypt. This view requires merely the hypothesis that the Holy Family had taken up their abode at Bethle¬ hem—a supposition which is as probable as it is to believe that Joseph, on his return from Egypt, would naturally, and of his own accord, return to the spot where he was settled before his departure. Yet as all this is based on conjecture only, I have not deemed it a sufficient reason to change the common arrangement. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 483 strong, full of wisdom, and the grace of God was in him. And his parents went every year to Jerusalem at the solemn day of the Pasch. And when he was twelve years old, they going up unto Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast, having fulfilled the days, when they returned, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and his parents knew it not. And thinking that he was in the company, they came a day’s journey, and sought him among their kins¬ folk and acquaintances ; and not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem seeking him.After three days they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doc¬ tors, hearing them and asking them ques- ( 1 ) The will of the Heavenly Father should be preferred to all human considerations and all hu¬ man affections. The apparent rigor which Jesus Christ here displays might be designed to impress this great lesson on our minds. If it was to Mary a subject of mortification, she was well indemni¬ fied for this moment by thirty years of the most tender and submissive respect. ( 5 ) These words comprise the history of thirty years of the most precious of all lives. Eejoice, ye humble who love obscurity, and exult in your lowliness. (*) Mary did not at first understand him, but she treasured up the saying in her memory. It is tions. And all that heard him were aston¬ ished at his wisdom and his answers. And seeing him they wondered, and his mother said to him : Son, why hast thou done so to us ? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said to them : How is it that you sought me ? did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business ? 1 And they understood not the word that he spoke unto them. And then he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. 2 As to his mother, she “kept all these words in her heart. 3 And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and men.” 4 (St. Luke, ii. 40-52.) written elsewhere that she kept all these words in her heart; undoubtedly she by meditation at¬ tained their meaning. She was led to knowledge by meditation; by what other path can servants expect to attain it ? ( 4 ) “ All the treasures ” of grace, as well “ as those of wisdom and science,” were contained in Jesus Christ, though not manifested. As he ad¬ vanced in years he disclosed them in a way pro¬ portioned to the age he attained. The indications he gave at twenty were, therefore, as different from those he evinced at twelve, as the difference which exists between these ages. It is in this sense that it is said: “ he advanced in wisdom and age.” 484 HISTORY OF THE LIFE CHAPTER V. MANIFESTATION OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST AND HIS PREACHING.-BAPTISM OF JESUS CHRIST.-FASTING AND TEMPTATION OF JESUS IN THE DESERT.-TESTIMONY OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST.-FIRST CALL OF ANDREW AND PETER.-VOCATION OF PHILIP AND NATHANIEL. ESUS led this hidden life till he had nearly reached his thirtieth year. His precursor being six months older than he, may have completed that term. We have seen that John, from childhood, in¬ habited the desert, whither inspiration had conducted him. Destined to the most sub¬ lime ministry to which mortal man had ever yet been called, God prepared him for it by a retired and austere life. “ He had his garment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts 1 and wild honey.” (St. Matt. iii. 4.) Thus he awaited, and no doubt he hastened by his prayers the day of his manifestation, which was to be like the dawn of the great light that was to enlighten the world. This longed for mo¬ ment arrived, and while heaven and earth * (*) ( 1 ) Pliny and other ancient authors speak of a species of locusts which the lower orders among Eastern nations used for food. (*) Annas and Caiphas his son-in-law held in turn the sovereign pontificate, each for one year, by an agreement approved of apparently by the Romans, who at that time controlled all things in Judea. This explanation is confirmed by the ex¬ pression of Saint John when speaking of Caiphas, “who was the high-priest of that year.” (Ch. xviii. ver. 13.) (’) The baptism of John was a religious cere- were in expectation of the wonders which God was ready to display, at last, “ in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Gali¬ lee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina, under the high-priests Annas and Caiphas, 3 the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert,” (St. Luke iii. 1, 2) “ as it is written in Isaias the proph¬ et : “ Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare the way before thee.” (St. Mark i. 2-4.) John com¬ menced, therefore, in the desert of Judea, “ and he came into all the country about the Jordan baptizing 3 and preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of mony by which men professed to embrace a life of penance. It did not confer the remission of sins; but disposed thereto by the penance which was to follow, and which became the proximate disposi¬ tion for the baptism of Jesus Christ, in which alone is found remission of sins. John’s baptism preceded penance; that of Jesus Christ followed it. “ Do penance, and he baptized every one of you”—Peter, Acts ii. 38. The first, properly speaking, belonged neither to the old law nor the new law; it was a medium between both; par¬ taking of both, as twilight does of day and night. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 485 sins, (St. Luke iii. 3,)saying: Do penance ; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 1 For this is he that was spoken of by Isaias the prophet, saying: A voice shall be heard of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. 2 (St. Matt. iii. 2, 3.) Ev¬ ery valley shall be filled, and every moun¬ tain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways plain ; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (St. Luke iii. 5, 6.) When this first preaching was noised about, the people thronged in crowds; “ then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the country about Jordan, and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. (St. Matt. iii. 5-10.) He said to the multitudes, and many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism with the people : (St. Matt. iii. 7 ; St. Luke iii. 7) “Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come ? Bring forth, therefore, fruit wor¬ thy of penance, and think not to say with¬ in yourselves : We have Abraham for our father; for, I tell you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abra- ( 1 ) Heaven, closed until this day, is now to be thrown open. Saint John begins by disabusing the Jews of the prejudice about a temporal king¬ dom. (*) A metaphorical expression, taken from the custom of levelling and even decorating the roads by which kings were to pass. (*) The true children of Abraham are the imi¬ tators and heirs of his faith. These God could raise up outside of the race of the holy patriarch. The vocation of the Gentiles is insinuated by these words. ham. 3 For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the fire. (St. Matt. iii. 7-10 ; St. Luke iii. 7-9.) And the people asked him: What then shall we do ? And he, answering, said to them : Let he that hath two coats give to him that hath none, and he that hath meat, let him do in like man¬ ner. 4 And the Publicans also came to be baptized, and said to him: Master, what shall we do? But he said to them : Do nothing more than that which is appointed you. 5 And the soldiers also asked him: And what shall we do ? He said to them : Do violence to no man, neither calumniate any man, and be content with your pay.” Yet as the people was of opinion, and all were thinking in their hearts of John, that perhaps he might be the Christ, John answered saying unto all: “ I indeed baptize you in water unto penance, 6 but he that shall come after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.” (St. Matt. iii. 11.) No, said he, impressed with the greatness of him whose arrival he an¬ nounced—no, “ the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to loose ; he shall baptize ( 4 ) Each profession has its particular duties; almsgiving is a universal precept obligatory on all who can fulfil it. (‘) He does not mean that this is enough for salvation; but he spoke with reference to the pro¬ fession of those who asked advice. Moreover, Saint John might think they would easily abstain from other sins, if they abstained from the one to which they were most subject. (°) An excessive esteem for a preacher or direc¬ tor has been more than once an occasion of error and heresy. 486 HISTORY OF THE LIFE you in the Holy Ghost and in fire. 1 Whose fan is in his hand ; he will purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquench¬ able fire. And many other things exhort¬ ing did he preach to the people.” (St. Luke iii. 16-17 ; St. Mark i. 7 ; St. Matt. iii. 11,12.) “ Him that knew no sin, for us he hath made sin” (2 Cor. v. 21): having taken upon himself the entire debt, Jesus chose to mingle in the throng of sinners, and enter along with them upon the career of penance. “He came in those days from Nazareth of Galilee (St. Mark i. 9) unto John, to be baptized by him ” (St. Matt, iii. 13) in the Jordan. But John stayed him, saying, “I ought to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me! Jesus an¬ swering said to him: Suffer it to be so now, for so it becometh us to fulfil all justice. Then he suffered him, 2 and Jesus being baptized (St. Matt. iii. 14, 15) by John in the Jordan. And forthwith coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit as a dove descending, and remaining on him, and there came a voice from heaven ” which said : “ Thou art my * (*) ( 1 ) This is the fire which descended upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost, the same by which the Holy Ghost continues to purify the hearts of the true faithful. (*) True humility at first resists God himself, when he wishes to raise it to honorable ministries ; yet should God persist in wishing, humility obeys, because, if not obedient, it would no longer be true humility. ( 8 ) Thus the expression is reported by Saint Mark and Saint Luke. Saint Matthew makes the voice say: This is-my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The latter apparently gave the sense, and the other two the exact words. beloved Son, 8 in thee I am well pleased.” (St. Mark i. 10-12 ; St. Luke iii. 21, 22 ; St. Matt. iii. 36.) We have already said that “Jesus was” then “beginning about the age of thirty years, being (as it was supposed) the son of Joseph.” (St. Luke iii. 23.) The baptism which Jesus had just re¬ ceived was not a ceremony with no results for him ; it was, as has been said, a pro¬ fession of penance. He wished to exercise its rigors upon himself, and show before¬ hand to his Church the penance which she was to prescribe for her children in all fu¬ ture ages. “Full of the Holy Ghost, he returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the desert,” “ to be tempted by the devil. 4 He was there for the space of forty days and forty nights, during which he ate nothing. He was tempted by Sa¬ tan; 5 he lived with beasts. When those * • «: days were ended, he was hungry. Then the tempter coming, said to him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Jesus answered and said: It is written: (Deut. viii. 3): Not in bread alone doth man live, 6 but in ( 4 ) He who was strength itself might advauce to meet the enemy : those who are weakness itself cannot do better than avoid them. Jesus is here the model of resistance, only when the combat is inevitable. (“) The expression is from Saint Mark. It is usually taken to mean temptations which Jesus Christ endured after his fast. Some understand this to mean a series of temptations which lasted during forty days, of which the three reported constituted the last and most vigorous assault. (") God does not require bread in order to sup¬ port man; he can do so with any thing, since by manna, which was only a species of condensed OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 487 every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” (St. Luke iv. 1, 2; St. Matthew iv. 1, 3, 4 ; St. Mark i. 13.) He employs Scripture to repel the enemy, and the text which he cites expresses the confidence in Providence which we ought to entertain in all the necessities of life. Satan, on his side, endeavored to turn these same weap¬ ons against the Son of God ; and after hav¬ ing attacked him at what he thought to be his weak point, that is to say, the hunger which he was then enduring, he attacked him in his strong point, that is to say, his confidence in God, and by Scripture. Then the devil took him up into the holy city, and set him upon the pinnacle of the tem¬ ple, and said to him : If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down ; for it is writ¬ ten : “ That he hath given his angels charge over thee,” that they keep thee, “ and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” (Ps. xc.) Jesus said to him: It is written again : “ Thou shalt not tempt the Lord dew, he nourished a whole nation, for forty years- For it was of manna that it is said in Deuterono¬ my, viii. 3 : “ He afflicted thee with want, and gave thee manna for thy food, which neither thou nor thy fathers knew: to shew thee that notin bread alone doth man live, hut in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” ( 1 ) This expression has led some to think that Satan, skilful in the art of illusions, displayed as in a reduced picture, all the kingdoms of the world, with every thing in them most capable of • dazzling the eyes and tempting to covetousness. ( 3 ) This feature alone was enough to disclose the father of lies. In his perfidy, he promises every thing, yet disposes of nothing. And did he in fact dispose of all the kingdoms of the world, thy God.” (Deut. vi.; St. Matt. iv. 5 ; St. Luke iv. 10.) After this reply Satan thought he should no longer hesitate and making a last effort, he resorted to the most violent of all temp¬ tations, or rather all temptations concen¬ trated into one. He took Jesus “up into a very high mountain, and shewed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, 1 and said to him : “To thee will I give all these, all this power, and the glory of them ; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will I give them ; 2 if thou, therefore, wilt adore before me, all shall be thine. Then Jesus saith to him : Begone, Satan, 3 for it is writ¬ ten : The Lord thy God thou shalt adore, and him only shalt thou serve. And all the temptation being ended, the devil de¬ parted from him for a time, 4 and behold angels came and ministered to him.” 6 (St. Matt. iv. 8-11 ; St. Luke iv. 5-8, 13.) On leaving the desert Jesus apparently passed the Jordan, which John had also he would give them for a single soul: he knows its value better than we do. ( 3 ) This is the proper tone for an answer to the proposal of crime. ( 4 ) Whether it be that' he in person attacked Jesus Christ again, or whether this be said of the persecutions which Jesus Christ had to suffer from those who, as we have said, were in this point min¬ isters of Satan. For Satan and his agents are never at rest; and the unrelenting hostility is, perhaps, the surest mark by which we may recog¬ nize Satan and his tools. ( 6 ) This repast is the image of the feast which God prepares for the soul which overcomes. The moment which follows victory over a great temp¬ tation is the most delicious of all. 488 HISTORY OP THE LIFE crossed from the other side of the river, compelled perhaps by the persecutions which he endured from the Scribes and Pharisees, whom he had not spared in his preaching. For the manner in which Je¬ sus Christ speaks of him on more than one occasion leaves no doubt that the holy pre¬ cursor endured much ill-treatment, which must not be confounded with what he sub¬ sequently suffered at the hands of Herod. Still, whether they had changed their sen¬ timents with regard to him—whether they wished to disabuse the people already pre¬ possessed with the idea that John might be the Messias—or because informed of the testimony which he had rendered to another, they sought to get the better of him so as to stop his preaching and bap¬ tism, as having no title to authorize him in his functions; or finally, supposing he should declare himself the Messias, to make the declaration a crime and a cause of condemnation, as they did afterwards in Jesus Christ; whatever was their motive, “ they sent from Jerusalem priests and Le- vites to him to ask him : Who art thou ? And he confessed, and did not deny, and he confessed : I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then ? Art thou ( 1 ) John was not Elias in person, but he was such in the sense of having his spirit and virtue. He was not a prophet, in the sense that he foretells future events; but he announced and he showed the Messias actually present, whom he knew by the revelation of the Holy Ghost, and in this sense he was a prophet and more than a prophet. John says he is not Elias, nor a prophet, in that sense, in which he is ueither. Jesus Christ says that John is Elias, and is a prophet, in the sense in which he is both one and the other. In saying the Elias? 1 And he said: I am not. Art thou a prophet ? And he answered : No. They said, therefore, unto him : Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us ? what sayest thou of thyself ? He said : I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness : Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the Prophet Isaias. They that were sent of the sect of Pharisees. And they asked him another question : “ Wh}q then, dost thou baptize, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet ? John answered them : I baptize with wa¬ ter, but there hath stood one in the midst of you whom you know not. The same is he that shall come after me, who is prefer¬ red before me ; the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethania, 2 beyond the Jor¬ dan, where John was baptizing.” (St. John i. 19-51.) “ The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and he saith: Behold the Lamb of God, 3 behold him who taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said : After me there cometh a man who is pre¬ ferred before me because he was before me ; and I knew him not, but that he may be made manifest in Israel, therefore am I contrary they do not contradict each other; and we are taught by Jesus Christ how to speak of our neighbor; by John how to speak of ourselves. ( 3 ) Different from another Bethania a short distance from Jerusalem, where Lazarus resided with his two sisters, Mary and Martha. ( 8 ) Lamb by his meekness: Lamb of God, be¬ cause the victim God gives to us, and the only one he will accept for the remission or the expiation of sins. OF OUR LORD come baptizing with water, And John gave testimony, saying : I saw the Spirit coming down as a dove from heaven, and he re¬ mained upon him. And I knew him not.” This he said to remove any idea of collu¬ sion. “ But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me : He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, he it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 1 And I saw, and I gave tes¬ timony that this is the Son of God. “The next day again John stood and’ two of his disciples, and beholding Jesus walking, he saith: Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus: 2 Jesus turning, and seeing them following him, saith to them: What seek you? 8 Who said to him: Babbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest thon? He saith to them: Come and see. They came, and saw where he abode.” 4 “It was about the tenth hour,” that day which corresponds with our four o’clock in the ( 1 ) The Holy Ghost did not descend visibly upon Jesus Christ until after he had received bap¬ tism. John, who refused, through humility, to baptize him, therefore knew him previously by re¬ velation; yet he does not speak of this revelation which might be denied, and merely alleges the descent of the dove, which was the sign that God had given to himself, that thoroughly assured him of the truth that had been revealed to him; and the visible glory of which had as many witnesses as there were men actually present, who had come to receive his baptism. (’) Jesus condescended to be indebted for his first disciples to his precursor, whose testimony was, as it were, at once the supplement of our Saviour’s miracles. This was to honor the minis¬ try of John, for thenceforth Jesus Christ no longer 62 JESUS CHRIST. 489 afternoon. “Andrew the brother of Simon Peter was one of the two who had heard of John, and followed Jesus. He findeth first his brother Simon, and saith to him: We have found the Messias (which is, being interpreted, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. And Jesus looking upon him, said : Thou art Simon the son of Jpna ; thou shalt be called Cephas, which is in¬ terpreted Peter. “On the following day Jesus would go forth into Galilee and he findeth Philip, and saith to him: Follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of An¬ drew and Peter : Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith to them : We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write : Jesus the son of Joseph of Na¬ zareth. And Nathanael said to him : Can anything of good come from Nazareth? 5 Philip saith to him: Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him : Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile. Nathanael saith to him : required it, and he made this understood, when at the same time he drew Philip to his person by the mere words “ Follow me.” ( 3 ) It is not to be informed as to something he did not know that Jesus asks the question : but to accommodate himself to our manner of conversing, and to give those whom he interrogates the occa¬ sion of saying what was seasonable for them to say. This remark applies to all cases like the present. ( 4 ) Christ had a retreat in the neighborhood, but had no house which was his own; he could, therefore, say in truth : “ The Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” ( 6 ) Not merely on account of the smallness of the place; but also on account of the bad charac¬ ter of its inhabitants, which sunk to brutality, as appears by their treatment of Our Lord. 490 HISTORY OP THE LIFE Whence knowest thou me?” Perhaps he knew me by the report of Philip, was apparently the current of Nathanael’s thoughts ; for “ Jesus answered and said to him: Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered him : Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him : Because I said unto thee: I saw thee under the fig-tree, thou believest: Greater things than these shalt thou see.” And he added: “ Amen, amen, I say to you: you shall see the heaven opened, and the an¬ gels of God ascending and descending 1 upon the Son of man.” 2 CHAPTER VI. MARRIAGE IN CANA.—STAY AT CAPHARNAUM.—SECOND VOCATION OF PETER AND OF ANDREW, FOLLOWED BY THAT OF JAMES AND JOHN.—JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM FOR THE FEAST OF THE PASCH.—SELLERS DRIVEN FROM THE TEMPLE. “ npHE third day after, there was a 1 marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.” 3 Jesus, who had spent these three days coming from the shores of the Jordan, “ was also invited and his disciples to the marriage. ( 1 ) It is not easy to find in Scripture the ful¬ filment of this magnificent promise, but it suffices to know that all is not written. ( a ) “ Son of man,” meqns properly man, or the posterity of Adam. This expression has no other meaning in all the texts of Scripture where it is used, and it would be useless to seek any other meaning for it when uttered by Jesus Christ. (’ ) Saint Joseph is no longer mentioned. The general opinion is, that he died before Jesus Christ commenced his gospel life; and it has been very judiciously remarked, that it was most seasonable that he was no longer in this world. For, as Je¬ sus Christ would frequently have to allude to his father as a living person, the Jews would infallibly refer to Joseph all that he said of him, and to sub- And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him : They have no wine. Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is to me and to thee ? 4 my hour is not yet come.® His mother saith to the waiters : Whatso¬ ever he shall say to you, do ye. Now stitute him in the place of the eternal Father—a perplexing ambiguity, which would pervade all the discourses of Jesus, and could not fail to confuse all the ideas of the Jews. ( 4 ) Christ wishes to teach that he was not to work miracles, from considerations of flesh and blood; He wishes to teach this truth, I say, not to Mary, to whom it was not unknown, but to his disciples, to whom he was one day to communicate the power of working miracles, and "perhaps also to his brethren, that is to say, his kindred, who, seeing such power in the hands of a man whom they called their relative and their brother, might think that they could dispose of it as family prop¬ erty. (‘ ) The time when he had resolved to work | « OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 49 i there were set there six water-pots of stone, according to the manner of the puri¬ fying of the Jews, containing two or three measures apiece. Jesus saith to them : Fill the water-pots with water ; and they filled them up to the brim” and Jesus added “ Draw out now, and carry to the chief stew¬ ard of the feast, and they carried it. And when the chief steward had tasted the water made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the waiters knew who had drawn the water, the chief steward calleth the bride¬ groom, and saith to him: Every man at first setteth forth good wine ; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and thus mani¬ fested his glory, and his disciples believed in him. 1 After this he went down to Ca- pharnaum, he and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples ; and they re¬ mained there not many days.” (St. John ii. 1-12.) This town was subsequently his usual dwelling-place, and, as it were, the centre of his missions. Capharnaum was a very rich and populous city situated on the con¬ fines of the tribes of Zabulon and Nephtha- lim, where the Jordan empties into the sea of Galilee or Tiberias. The abode which Jesus made there and the great light which he there diffused, was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaias : (Isaias ix.), “Land of Zabulon and land of Nephthalim, the way of the sea beyond the Jor¬ dan, Galilee of the Gentiles, 2 the people that sat in darkness hath seen great light ; and to them that sat in the region of the shadow of death, light is sprung up.” (St. Matt. iv. 14-17.) This light was announced by that truth which must ever be first presented to the eyes of sinful men, Die necessity of penance, which Je- sus began to preach and to say, like his precursor: “ The time is accomplished and the kingdom of God is at hand : re¬ pent, and believe the Gospel.” (St. Mark i. 15.) This is the discourse which an Evangelist terms preaching “the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.” Meantime Je¬ sus, who was never more to cease preach¬ ing it until his death, sought co-operators, and soon found them. His disciples, who had not yet joined him in such a way as not to leave him at all, had left him, to re¬ turn to their usual work. He attached them more closely to his person in the manner we are now going to state, by blending, on account of the similarity of facts, two things which some separate and others unite, without its being easy to miracles. Still he anticipated the time out of con¬ sideration for Mary, and the exception confirms the rule. If the answer seems severe, the act is obliging; perhaps, too, this answer was made with an air and a tone which considerably softened down what appears to us rather stern. Certain it is, that Mary, after having heard this, had no hesita¬ tion in believing that her prayer had been heard, N - - - 7 since she said directly to the waiters: Do ye what¬ soever he shall say to you. ( 1 ) That is to say, they were confirmed in the faith they had in him : for they must have already believed, since they had become his disciples. ( a ) So called from its vicinity to the Gentiles, per¬ haps also on account of the. intermixture of these peo¬ ple with the tribes of Aser, Zabulon, and Nephthalim. 492 HISTORY OF THE LIFE decide whether in fact they were two differ¬ ent vocations, or whether there was but one single vocation, recorded by the sacred authors, with circumstances, which are not found in the two other Evangelists who re¬ late it. “ Passing by the sea of Galilee, Jesus saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting nets into the sea (for they were fishermen), and he said to them : Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. .... Going on from thence a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedeg, and John his brother, who were also mending their nets in the ship: and forthwith he called them. (St. Mark i. 16, IT, 19.)- It came to pass that when multitudes pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Genesareth. And he saw two ships standing by the lake : but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.” (St. Luke v. 1, 2.) To join this circumstance with the preced¬ ing, we must suppose these fishermen (whom Jesus had just called), after alight¬ ing from their ships, were still washing ( i) “ The Ship of the Church into which the Lord ascends is no other than that one of which Peter was made the pilot, when the Lord said to him: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I shall build my Church.”—(St. Ambrose, Serm. ii.) (’) This miraculous draught is the figure, or rather the prophetic history, of what was to befal the Church. The prophets had labored almost without fruit under the Old Law, which was a state of shade and obscurity. At last the great day of grace having appeared, Peter, at the word of Jesus Christ, casts the net of the Gospel. All nations enter there in throngs: both ships, that is to say, the two Churches of the East and West, their nets either from habit or for the ser¬ vice of those who were afterwards to use them. “ An d going up into one of the ships that was Simon’s, he (Jesus) desired him to draw back a little from the land ; and sitting, he taught the multitudes out of the ship. 1 Now when he had ceased to speak, he said to Simon : Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said to him: Master, we have labored all the night, and have taken nothing : but at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had done this, they enclosed a very great multitude of fishes, and their net broke. 2 And they beckoned to their part¬ ners, that were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they were almost sinking ; which, when Simon Peter saw, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord. 3 For he was wholly astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken, and so were also James and John are filled. This abundance causes the net to break. Its integrity marks the unity of the Church ; and its rupture the schisms and the her¬ esies by which she loses part of her draught, if we can term it a loss, what frees her from those cruel children who reposed in her bosom only to tear it. ( 3 ) The same humility that makes the centu¬ rion say: “ Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof,” made Peter say here: “Depart from me, 0 Lord.” Other mean¬ ings have been proposed for the expression; but the reason which Peter adds, “ because I am a sin¬ ful man,” seems to exclude them, and decides it for this. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 493 the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. And Jesus saith to Simon: Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men; and having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed him. (St. Luke v. 3-11.) Simon and Andrew left their nets; James and John,” not only “ their nets they were mending, but their father, Zebedee (St. Matt. iy. 22), in the ship with his hired men.” (St. Mark i. 20.) THE FIRST PASCH. We have said that this first stay which Jesus made at Capharnaum was but for a few days. “The pasch of the Jews was at hand,” and the time was come when Jesus was to make known to all Israel its Messias and its King. “He went up” then with his new disciples “ to Jerusalem,” whither the festival had gathered together Jews from all nations under the sun. He distin¬ guished himself at the outset, by an action which attracted all eyes to him. “ He found in the temple them that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money, 1 sitting. And when be bad made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, 2 be drove them all out of tbe temple, tbe sbeep, and also tbe oxen ; and tbe money of tbe changers be poured out, and tbe ta¬ bles be overthrew. And to them that sold doves he said : Take these things hence, 3 and make not the bouse of my Father 4 a bouse of traffic. And bis disciples remem¬ bered that it was written : “ The zeal of thy bouse hath eaten me up. The Jews .said to him : What sign dost thou show unto us, seeing thou dost these things ? 5 Jesus answered and said ; Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said : Six-and-forty years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days ? But he spoke of the temple of his body. When, there¬ fore, he was risen again from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed 6 the Scripture, and the word that Jesus had said. Now when he was at Jerusalem at the Pasch, upon the festival day, many believed in his name, (') The money-changers gave small money in exchange for large coin, and drew a profit from this sort of traffic. ( 5 ) That the weakness of the instrument should evince more clearly the power of him who em¬ ployed it. This miracle seemed to Saint Jerome the most surprising of all that Jesus wrought. (’) Had he acted towards these as with the others, the pigeons would have flown olf, and been lost to the owners. Jesus, who wishes to alarm all, would wrong none, even while acting under ex¬ citement ; he further teaches us that zeal should ever be regulated by prudence and tempered by charity. ( 4 ) An expression till then unheard of. Who, then, is this man who calls the house of God the house of his father, and who appears there with all the authority of a master ? ( 6 ) Christ never performed miracles when sought either by curiosity or malignity. ( 6 ) They then saw the meaning of this expres¬ sion, which they had not at first understood ; they saw how it agreed with those passages of Scripture where the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so clearly figured, and they were confirmed in their faith. What Served to establish the faith of the disci¬ ples gave the Jews new motives to calumniate the Saviour. It is with the word of Jesus Christ as from the flesh of Jesus Christ ; they are both a bread of life for the good, and a mortal poison for the wicked. “ Mors est malis, vita bonis.” 494 HISTORY OF THE LIFE seeing his signs which he did. But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men, and because he needed not that any should give testimony of man ; for he knew what was in man.” (St. John ii. 13-25.) CHAPTER VII. HIS DISCOURSE WITH NICODEMUS. T HIS regards those who at first believed in him, but whose inconstancy, clearly known by him before whose eyes all is naked and uncovered, obliged him to take precautions with them. Others had already declared violently against him, and his miracles and doctrine had even then pro¬ duced the double effect always produced by great merit when signalized by great actions: esteem and veneration in up¬ right hearts ; and in perverse hearts, envy and hatred. These two passions, which are ever persecuting, and which finally caused our Lord’s death, were inflamed at the sight of his first successes, and thenceforth menaced those who ventured to declare in his favor. This appears by the conduct “of a man of the Pharisees, named Nico- demus, a ruler of the Jews.” “ This man,” already a believer, yet timid, anxious for instruction, but fearful of persecution, “ came to Jesus by night, and said to him : Rabbi, we know that thou art come a ( 1 ) This water is that of baptism; for it is not allowable to seek here for another meaning after the decision of the Council of Trent, Sess. 7, Can. 2: Should any one say that very and natural wa¬ ter is not necessary in baptism, and consequently teacher from God, for no man can do these signs which thou dost, unless God be with him.” This introduction expressed the object of his visit; he came to be instructed. Jesus laid before him in a few words the entire plan of Christianity, and commenc¬ ing by regeneration, which is the ground¬ work, answered him : “ Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This reply surprised Nicodemus, who, aware of but one way of being born, could imagine no other. “ How can a man be born,” saith he, “when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born again ? ” He asked for an ex¬ planation, which Jesus immediately gave him. “Jesus answered: Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water 1 and the Holy Ghost, he cannot en¬ ter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which if he gives a metaphorical sense to those words of our Saviour Jesus Christ: Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, etc., let him be anathema. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 495 is born of the spirit is spirit. Wonder not that I said to thee : Yon must be born again. The spirit breatheth where he will; 1 and thou hearest his voice ; but thou knowest not whence he cometh, or whither he goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Which is analogous to the known maxim, “Like produces like. The production of the spirit is, there¬ fore, spiritual, like its principal. There¬ fore it falls not under the senses. Yet it has effects which hinder us from doubt¬ ing its reality, as the air or wind, which, though not perceptible to the eyes of the body, is known by sound or other effects peculiar to it. The mystery had been explained as clearly as it could be: still “Nicodemus answered : How can these things be done ? Jesus answered and said to him: Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things ? Amen, amen, I say to thee, that we speak what we know, and we testify what we have seen, and you receive not our testimony. If I have spoken to you earthly things, and you believe not, how will you believe when I speak to you hea- venly things ? And no man hath ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in hea¬ ven.” 8 (St. John, iii. 1-13.) These words, all full of depth, signify, 1st, That faith in mysteries does not rest on the evidence of the object, but on the authority of the testimony of Jesus Christ, which Nicodemus could not gainsay, as he had just recognized the divinity of a mis¬ sion proved manifestly by miracles; 2d, that the explanation which Jesus had just given to him was the best fitted to make him comprehend the mystery which obliged him to believe ; I say, to make him com¬ prehend it in such sort as it can be com¬ prehended, at least in this life, since to bring it within his grasp, he had clothed it in sensible and corporal images, such as birth, the wind, and its effects. Hence our Saviour concluded that, if he did not place faith in him when speaking such language as he calls earthly, because it is proportioned to the human intellect which always savors of that earth to which it is bound, much less would he believe had he employed expressions as sublime as the ( 1 ) This expression signifies here properly either the breath or the wind. This does not prevent the expression being appropriately applied to the free and independent operation of the Holy Ghost in our souls. ( 5 ) Still the humanity of our Saviour had not descended from heaven, and it ascended there only on the day of the Ascension. This is explained by the personal union of the Word with human na¬ ture. By this ineffable union, the Sovereign God who reigns in the highest heavens is truly the Son of man; in this sense he could say that the Son of man had ascended into heaven, since he who is in heaven became the Son of man, which he was not previously. He might also say that he de¬ scended from heaven, because this Son of man, who conversed on earth with men, was the same person with the Sovereign God who reigns in the highest heaven. He could also add that he was still in heaven because his immensity renders him present everywhere, and his persevering union with humanity makes him who is everywhere present, everywhere and always present with the character of Son of man, although his humanity is not everywhere present, as the Lutherans say, by an error equally absurd and impious. 496 HISTORY OF THE LIFE things themselves which he proposed, that is to say: expressions such as no mortal man could understand, and such apparently as human language could not furnish. What Jesus Christ adds, “No man hath ascended unto heaven but he that descended from heaven, ” relates to two parts of his answer, and signifies that, both as to mysteries and the manner of proposing them, we must re¬ fer alone to him who, having descended from that heaven which he always con¬ tinues to inhabit, is the only one who has seen them in their origin, the only one con¬ sequently who knows them, and is in a position to speak of them: which is equally expressed in these words of the first chapter of Saint John : “No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” (St. John, i. 18.) Nicodemus, thus disposed, must listen with docility to the other truths in which Jesus Christ was still to instruct him; our Saviour continued in these terms : “ As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, ( 1 ) Here faith alone is spoken of: Doth faith, then, suffice, without works? No more than works can suffice without faith; although in many places of Scripture salvation is attributed to works, without any mention of faith. So in these texts, and in their union you will find the Catholic truth; separate them, or merely consider them in their apparent opposition, and you evidently come in collision with one of these two stumbling-blocks: You will think that works suffice without faith, which annihilates all religion; or with Protestants, that faith suffices without works, which opens the road to every crime. 1 *) A Jew might think that God had given his so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him * 1 may not perish, but may have life everlasting. Foi God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, 2 that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting: for God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him. He that be¬ lieveth in him is not judged ; but he that doth not believe is already judged, because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment; because the light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil: for every one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved ; but he that doth truth 3 cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God.” - (St. John, iii. 14-21.) Such is the discourse which our Saviour made to this learned man of the syna¬ gogue. It comprises, as I have said, the entire plan of Christianity, and its princi- Son for the salvation of Jews only. Jesus Christ antieipates this errror, by declaring that the Sou was given for the salvation of the world, and of “ every man,” saith elsewhere the beloved disciple, 1 John, 22 . ( 3 ) It may be, as some have thought, that the original believers in Jesus Christ were the best class among the Jews, although this was not with¬ out exception; or it may be that the expression “ he tath doth truth” or “ to do truth,” signifies in sinners the knowledge and detestation of sin, according to this idea of Saint Augustine: the confession of crime is the beginning of virtue. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 497 pal mysteries are here clearly proposed. We see here the three persons of the ador¬ able Trinity, and the part which each of them vouchsafed to take upon himself in the redemption. The Father gives his only Son ; the Son consents to be immo¬ lated ; and the regenerating Spirit, unit¬ ing with the water of baptism his al¬ mighty action, transforms the old man into a new creature, gives brothers to the Son, and adopted children to the Father. The motive of so great a benefit is, on the part of the Father, immense, we may say, ex¬ cessive love, inducing him to deliver up his only Son, the object of all his complacency, for the salvation of an impious and per¬ verse world ; in the Son there is a volun¬ tary immolation upon the tree of the cross ; and in regenerated man a lively faith full of confidence in him whose charity was so extreme as to suffer for him torment and death. The brazen serpent is given here as a figure of the Old Testament, repre¬ senting in the most natural manner to the life many of its miracles. It resembles the serpent, though without its venom, thus shadowing him forth who, himself, assumed the semblance of sin without its stain ; its lifting up in the desert is the figure of the cross raised up, and exposed to all eyes. Faith in Him crucified, whjch may be called the look of the soul, produces an effect in souls similar to that produced in bodies by looking with the eyes of the body on the brazen serpent. Yet, as the brazen serpent, salutary to many, and injurious to none, did not save from destruction those who, when mortally wounded by the fiery serpents, refused to seek their cure by so easy a remedy, so those who are to be saved shall be saved by him alone whom the serpent prefigured, and those who are condemned shall be solely through their own fault. Our Saviour goes so far as to declare that these last are already con¬ demned, inasmuch as, in the sin of their first father and their own personal iniqui¬ ties, they carry with them the manifest cause of their condemnation ; as the Isra¬ elites stung by the serpents carried, in the venom which they had received, the im¬ pending cause of inevitable death. Those who perish then, perish merely because they choose to do so ; and from themselves alone originates the judgment which con¬ demns them, as the Messias’ first coming had for its object the salvation, not the con¬ demnation of the* world. But this fearful and eternal condemnation only comes upon them for having shunned another transient and salutary condemnation, that which they themselves should have passed upon their own crimes, had they chosen to open their eyes to the dazzling light which came to expose to them their enormity. Still the same fund of corruption which made them love their vices, made them love the dark¬ ness which concealed their shame, and hate the light which would have revealed it to them ; a light earnestly sought and joyfully beheld by those who are pure in heart and virtuous in life, because rectitude always loves light which illumines it, and virtue can but rejoice at the favorable testimony of such witness. The grace with which our Saviour accompanied the instruction he imparted to Nicodemusmade that proselyte a faithful disciple. If at first he acted cau- 63 498 HISTORY OF THE LIFE tiously he never betrayed his conscience. And although he did yet openly declare for Jesns Christ, Mcodemus, far from be¬ ing implicated in the unjust plots of his enemies, succeeded on the proper occasion in making them feel the whole extent of their injustice. Cured of his timidity after he had beheld the mysterious serpent ele¬ vated upon the mountain, while the apos¬ tles fled, this prince of the synagogue joined Joseph of Arimathea to render to his divine Master the rites of burial; he lavished spices upon him with a liberality worthy of his opulence and his piety. He persevered till death in the confession of the faith, and in the practice of every Chris¬ tian virtue ; and the Church has ‘‘placed him among the saints whom she invokes. CHAPTER YIII. CHRIST PREACHES AND BAPTIZES.—NEW TESTIMONY OF SAINT JOHN.—THE HOLY PRECUR¬ SOR’S IMPRISONMENT.—THE RETURN OF JESUS TO GALILEE THROUGH SA MA RIA. J ESUS,” after having made this con¬ quest, “came into the land of Ju¬ dea ; ” that is to say, he quitted the capital to travel over the country “ with his disci¬ ples.” “ There he abode with them, and baptized” (though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples.” (St. John iii. 22 ; iv. 2.) A remarkable difference between him and John. The former baptized by himself alone, because, being merely the minister of his baptism, he could not substitute for other ministers in his stead ; whereas Jesus, author of his own baptism, caused it to be administered by whom he chose, and retained its entire virtue, no matter by what hand it was ad¬ ministered. Yet John’s baptism«was not immediately abolished, after the appear¬ ance of that of Jesus Christ. Every thing is gradually shaded in the works of Glod ; and until the precursor’s imprisonment, the baptism of water subsisted at the same time, with the baptism of the Holy Grhost and of fire, as the Jewish practices sub¬ sisted side by side with the commencement of Christianity, until the destruction of Je¬ rusalem. While, therefore, Jesus was con¬ ferring baptism by the hands of*his disci¬ ples, accustoming the world from thence¬ forth “to account them his ministers, and the dispensers of the mysteries of Grod,” (1 Cor. iv. 1,) John also was baptizing in Ennon, near Salim, because there was much water there, and they came, and were bap¬ tized ; for John was not yet cast into prison. And there arose a question between some of John’s disciples and the Jews 1 (’) Most of John’s disciples were apparently Galileans, while those who had just received the Ili ii JOHN THE BAPTIST PREACHING. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 499 concerning purification,” 1 which here must be understood to mean baptism. The Jews who had declared themselves in favor of Jesus Christ, maintained that their new Master being much superior to John (Aug. tract. 13 in Joan.), his baptism should be preferred to the precursor’s. Whereupon John’s disciples “ came to him, and said : Eabbi, he that was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou gavest testimony, behold, he baptizeth, and all men come to him.” The disciples disputed ; but the masters were of the same mind. “ John,” who never had attributed to himself aught but his nothingness, and who- always rendered to Jesus the glory due to him, “ answered and said: A man cannot receive any thing unless it be given him from heaven. baptism of Jesus Christ were from Judea, properly speaking. Hence the latter are called Jews in this passage; although, in a more comprehensive sense, the name also belongs to the disciples of John. ( 1 ) Baptism might be called by the name of pu¬ rification, as purifications elsewhere go under the name of baptism. (’) The hride is the Church, composed of the as¬ semblage of those who believe in Jesus Christ. It had begun to form, and the disciples of John so in¬ formed him. Thus, while seeking to excite his jealousy, they filled him with joy. (’) Comparisons hold good only to a certain point. John did not actually see Jesus Christ, nor hear his voice; but he knew him to be present, and preaching, and he heard the rumor of his first suc¬ cesses. This fills him with joy comparable to that caused by the voice of the person we love most, which is said to be the sweetest of all music. ( 4 ) In public estimation. For, in reality, there neither was increase in Jesus Christ nor diminu¬ tion in Saint John. (*) When he speaks from himself. For, by in- You yourselves do bear me witness, that I said : I am not Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom ; 2 but the friend of the bride¬ groom who standeth, and heareth him, re- joiceth with joy, because of the bride¬ groom’s voice ; this my joy, therefore, is fulfilled. 3 He must increase, but I must decrease.” 4 The difference of origin is the reason which John assigns for this extreme difference between Jesus Christ and him¬ self. “ He,” said John, “ that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth, of the earth he is, and of the earth he speaketh. 5 He that cometh from heaven is above all, and what he hath seen and heard 6 that he testifieth, and no man re- ceiveth his testimony. 7 He that hath re¬ ceived his testimony 8 hath set to his seal gpiration, he can know and utter heavenly things, and John himself is proof of this. But those heav¬ enly things which the Son uttered had been taught him by no one ; he spoke them from his own will. Others consider Saint John to term earthly those things which he said himself, in opposition to the more sublime truths which Jesus came to reveal to the world. ( 6 ) These words, and those which close the dis¬ course, are sufficiently explained in the preceding discourse of our Lord with Nicodemus. ( T ) Passion always exaggerates. Envy made John’s disciples say: “ all men come to him,” be¬ cause several went; and an affectionate zeal for the glory of Jesus Christ makes John say: ‘‘no man receiveth his-1estimdny,” because all men did not receive it. (') To believe the word of him who is sent by God, is to believe the word of God; and to believe the word of God is to declare formally that God is incapable of a lie, and that he always speaks the truth. Faith is wholly and entirely comprised in these few words. God has sent his Son; the Son 500 HISTORY OF THE LIFE that God is true : For he whom God hath sent speak eth the words of God ; for God doth not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loveth the Son, and he hath given all things into his hand. He that believ- eth in the Son hath life everlasting: but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (St. John iii. 23-36.) The imprisonment of the holy precursor followed close upon this glorious testimony which he had just borne to Jesus Christ. The country which he then inhabited, if not actually within the division allotted to Herod the tetrarch, at least touched upon has sent his apostles. These, by his order, have communicated their mission to their successors, who have transmitted it, and who will transmit it from age to age, until the end of the world. To believe these, therefore, is to believe the apostles, who have transmitted the mission to them; the Son, who hath sent the apostles; and God, who hath sent the Son. The simple-minded enter with¬ out trouble and without misgiving on the road, that lies open before them, which is straight, level, spacious, trodden by the hosts of Christians, and in which they see their guides at their head. Those who combine great abilities with superior judgment, seeing the natural inability of the masses to conduct themselves, agree that they could not he conducted by another course; that there must however be a course marked out for them, since they are not excluded from salvation; that it was natural that this road, which suffices I his states. John had had occasion to see and to speak to him. Herod “was re¬ proved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done. He added this also, above all, and shut up John in prison.” (S4. Luke iii. 19, 20.) “When Jesus had heard that John was delivered up,” (St. Matt. iv. 12,) and “ understood that the Pharisees had heard that he maketh more disciples, and baptiz- eth more than John, he left Judea, (St. John iv. 1-3,) “and returned, in the power of the Spirit, into Galilee,” (St. Luke iv. 14,) “ preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God.” (St. Mark i. 14.) for all, should be the same for all: the more so, as when they recollect the great vagaries in which great minds frequently fall, this road is in their estimation at least as necessary for those who rea¬ son too much as for those who reason too little. Still there exist subtle minds, which cannot sym¬ pathize with what is simple: enquiring minds, which disdain every thing ancient for the mere reason that it is not new; singular minds, ever seeking to distinguish themselves from the crowd; presumptuous minds, that wish to lead themselves, and show the way to their very guides; wrangling dispositions, who cannot live when they find noth¬ ing to contradict. These leave the high-road, form bands apart, seek crooked by-ways, plunge into them, and lose their way—that is to say, become heretics, for the same reasons which fill the world with madcaps, originals, headstrong, false reason- ers, incorrect arguers, and bad lawyers. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 501 CHAPTER IX. THE SAMARITAN WOMAN. “ T T E was of necessity to pass through A A Samaria. He cometh, therefore, to a city of Samaria which is called Sichar, 1 near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. 2 There cometh a woman of Samaria 3 to draw water. Jesus saitli to her : Give me to drink (for his disciples were gone into the city to buy meats). Then that Sa¬ maritan woman saith to him: How dost * (*) ( 1 ) The same which is called Sichem in Scrip¬ ture. It was situated near the Mount Garizim. ( 3 ) Noon. (*) These Samaritans were originally a Chal¬ dean colony, sent by Salmanasar to inhabit the country, which had been left a desert by the re¬ moval of the ten tribes into the states of this prince. These Chaldeans carried with them their idolatrous worship. God sent lions, which com¬ mitted fearful ravages in the land. To be delivered from this scourge, they summoned from Assyria a priest of the race of Aaron, to instruct them in the l'eligion of the God of the country; as they first styled him. They acknowledged revelation; but received only the five books of Moses, and even altered them in several passages. But what most of all induced the Jews to regard them as schismatics, was the temple, which Sanabelleth, one of their governors, erected on Mount Garizim. They constantly preferred it to the temple of Jerusalem, the only place on earth where it was then permitted to offer sacrifice to God. I his hatred still exists between the Jews and Sama- tbou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? for the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans.” To this reply, which perhaps savored more of a jest than of a refusal, “Jesus an¬ swered : If thou didst know the gift of God, and who is he that saith to thee : Give me to drink, thou perhaps 4 wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” 5 If these words did not yet make this woman a believer, it made her at least respectful. “Sir, she saith to him, thou ritans, although the lattter are reduced to a mere nothing, and are in the most profound ignorance. ( 4 ) Christ was not ignorant what she would do if possessed of this knowledge. This “perhaps” must then be understood, according to the inter¬ preters, of the power she would still have retained to ask or not ask. The glory of grace, and what most strikingly evinces its power, is this triutnph over hearts, leaving them at the same time the actual power of resistance. If it were necessary to deprive hearts of it, grace would no longer be almighty, since, unable to triumph over hearts ac¬ tually vested with this power, there would be a something that grace could not do. ( 6 ) This gift of God and this living water are nothing but the Holy Ghost, who extinguishes in souls the thirst for sensual pleasures and perishable goods, who deadens the fire of concupiscence, who waters the aridity of the heart by sentiments of piety, and who renders the soul fertile in good works: truly living water both in itself and in its effects, inasmuch as the Holy Ghost, being life, gives life to those souls who receive him. 502 HISTORY OF THE LIFE hast nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep: from whence, than, hast thou liv¬ ing water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, 1 who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle ? Jesus answered and said to her : Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again ■ but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst for ever: but the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting.” She seemed then to credit him; but not yet understanding the nature of this won¬ derful water, “ the woman saith to him : Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor-come hither to draw. Jesus saith to her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband,” either wishing to speak sin¬ cerely, or in the ardor of her desire reject¬ ing everything that might retard its gratifi¬ cation. “Jesus saith to her: Thou hast said well, I have no husband: for thou hast had five, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. This thou hast said truly.” If this woman was not naturally good, she must have become so already C) The Samaritans were not descendants of Jacob. Yet there is nothing to hinder ns from believing that there were in the country families of Israelites, who had either remained there during the transmigration, or came and settled there with the Chaldeans, joining in their worship. Such families would, when speaking of Jacob and the patriarchs, call them their fathers. Chaldeans might also descend from him by alliances with Israelitish women; and if none of these reasons existed, the mere habit of hearing the Jews speak of “Our Father Jacob,” might have introduced during the interview she had with Jesus Christ; for, instead of giving him the lie, as many others would have done, and with all the more assurance if the reproach was well founded, “she saith to him,” with re¬ spect blended with shame, “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet: ” an expression which comprises the twofold confession which she made of the prophetic office in Jesus Christ, and of sinfulness in herself. But this last avowal was so humiliating to her self love that she could not dwell upon it: she, accordingly, took advantage of the other to turn the conversation upon the controversy which divided the two nations who inhabited Palestine. “ Our fathers,” 3 added she, “adored 3 on this mountain, and you say, that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore.” This question has more than once led men to regard the Samaritan woman as an inquisitive person eager to enter on discus¬ sions beyond her reach. Yet it seems that having had the happiness to meet a prophet, she acted wisely in asking from him light upon a point of religion which was deemed essential. Let us not, then, blame what Christ himself did not blame : that fashion of speech into the Samaritan tongue. ( J ) Our ancestors, unless we prefer to say that the Samaritans were under the impression that the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had offered sacrifice on Mount Garizim, which left the question at issue still undecided: for the place where sacri¬ fice must be offered was not the place where the patriarchs had sacrificed, but that which God had chosen, to the exclusion of all others. (’) To adore signifies here to sacrifice. Simple adoration was never forbidden in any place. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 503 what perhaps he himself inspired this wo¬ man, that he might thence take occasion to instruct her as to that perfect worship which he came to establish upon the ruins of all the ancient worships, not even ex¬ cepting that which, though true in itself, was merely preparatory to his. There¬ fore he spoke to her thus : “ Woman, be¬ lieve me, that the hour cometh when you shall neither on this mountain nor in Jeru¬ salem adore the Father. 1 You adore that which you know not; 2 we adore that which we know : for salvation is of the Jews. 3 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth; 4 for the Father also seeketh such to adore him. God is a spirit, and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith to him : I know that the Messias cometh who is called Christ. Therefore when he is come 5 he will tell us all things.” In the meantime it was her duty, on the word of him whom she recognized as a prophet, to acknowledge the superiority of the Jewish worship over the Samaritan, which she ( 1 ) My father, or he who,.by adopting yon, is going to become yours, or better still, both to¬ gether, that is to- say, my father and yours. The two meanings are true, both suit the text; and Scripture, according to the remark of St. Augus¬ tine, frequently comprises more than one sense in a single word. ( 8 ) Whether the Samaritans had blended with the idea of God some gross error, or whether these words signify that they could not tell upon what grounds the peculiar worship they rendered God rested, which had in fact no divine institution. ( ) It was proper that God should more highly instruct that people, from whom salvation, or the Saviour, was to issue. seems inclined to elude. As to the new worship which the Messias alone could es¬ tablish, she very properly said they should wait for the Messias. Jesus saith to her, “I am he, who am speaking with thee. And immediately his disciples came, and they wondered that,” contrary to his cus¬ tom, “ he talked with the woman. Yet no man said : What seekest thou ? or, Why talkest thou with her ? The woman, there¬ fore, left her water-pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men there : Come and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done ; is not he the Christ?” (St. John iv. 4-30.) Such was, in regard of this woman, the conduct of Jesus Christ, and such was its success. Few examples can be found of so prompt a conversion, or more distinctly marked in its several degrees. We see her pass suc¬ cessively from respect for the virtuous man who addresses her, to the desire of obtaining that which he promises, although still ignorant of its nature. Next she re¬ cognizes him as a prophet, and in this very avowal which she makes admits herself to ( 4 ) Truth is about to succeed shadows, and the spiritual succeed the sensual. The two worships are opposed in what forms their leading quality; for the new worship is in some things addressed to the senses, while the old must have contained much that was spiritual. ( 6 ) Loth as the Jews were to admit it, all the world, even the Samaritans, expected the Messias, and expected him soon. For to refer the decision of an essential point of religion to a Messias who was only to come at some distant and indefinite epoch, would have been as senseless as to postpone a similar decision in our days to the coming of Elias. 504 HISTORY OP THE LIFE be a sinful woman. She wisely profits by the occasion to obtain instruction ; she lis¬ tens with docility, and, when enlightened, she burns with the desire of communicat¬ ing to her fellow-citizens the light which has just risen before her eyes. She leaves her pitcher, as the apostles left their nets : she runs to the city, which she immediately fills with the rumor of the wonderful dis¬ cover}^ she had just made. Her zeal for the glory of him whom she announces prompts her to sacrifice even her own glory, by adducing, to prove that he was a prophet, her own misdeeds, which he could have known only by a supernatural light. She invites all the inhabitants to come and satisfy themselves as to the truth of what she relates, and, with a success which we may compare to that of the first preaching of St. Peter, she succeeded in as short a time in gaining over to him an entire peo¬ ple. Incomprehensible effect of grace! which in a moment makes of a sinful wo¬ man a penitent, and of a penitent an apos¬ tle. But whilst no better illustration can be given of the efficacy of divine grace, where else can we find a more affecting picture of its gentle operation, or where is more clearly displayed that admirable art which shrouds God’s designs, and the most maturely reflected projects of his mercy with the veil of chance ? Jesus returns from Jerusalem to Galilee •, he traverses Samaria, which happens to be upon his route ; he halts at noontide, while his dis¬ ciples were gone to purchase provisions in a neighboring city : he is weary and sits down by a well. A woman comes there to draw water; he is thirsty, and asks for a drink ; she refuses, or seems to refuse it, under the pretext of the division which exists between the two nations. What in all this does not appear the effect of pure chance? Yet all this is nothing else but the execution of the decrees of the Al¬ mighty. God, from all eternity, had deter¬ mined to inspire the woman with a wish to come to this spot on the day and at the hour when she actually came there. She came there of her own free will; but there she must have come inevitably. Heaven and earth must have perished rather than that she should fail. The discourse which Jesus Christ held with her, and which seemed entirely occasioned by the good or bad things which she said—that discourse was also preconcerted in the councils of the Most High ; and that portion of light which was to be communicated to her had been weighed in the eternal scale. Before she came into the world, even before the world existed, it was determined that Je¬ sus Christ should give her the idea of, and the thirst for, a water which should forever quench thirst, and whose inexhaustible fountain springing up into life everlasting. Also, that in order to give her at the same time both faith and penance, he should dis¬ close to her both what he was, and what she herself was, that he should enlighten her on the falsity of Samaritan worship and the imperfection of the Jewish ; that thereupon he should raise her up to the knowledge of a universal and eternal wor¬ ship, which should extend itself over all times and all nations, which should make truth succeed to figures, spirit to the letter, and the homage of the heart to legal cere- OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 505 monies. That this interior and spiritual worship, alone capable of worthily honor¬ ing G-od who is a spirit, was going to be established; that it actually was estab¬ lished, inasmuch as he who was to be its author and its object—this Messias whose coming she expected—was he himself who now spoke to her, and whose voice she heard. All these great truths, I say, it was predetermined that Jesus Christ should declare to her, and declare them independ¬ ently of what she said of herself, although he said nothing to her that did not seem to flow naturally from her own words. There is no chance in the eye of God. Nothing happens in the universe not only that he has not foreseen, but that he has not wished, and that has not its first cause in his decrees ever free, yet eternal and eternally immutable. I except sin, which, like all the rest, he has foreseen, but which he can only permit, and which he makes subservient to the execution of his designs. I return to what immediately followed the discourse that gave rise to these reflections. The following is the instruction which Christ gave to his disciples. As they found him exhausted with fatigue and hunger, “They prayed him, saying: Rabbi, eat.” Every thing afforded Jesus an occasion of instructing and edifying: such was water for the Samaritan woman ; here food was for those who offered it. “I have meat to eat, he said to them, which you know not. The disciples therefore said one to another: Hath any man brought him to eat ? Jesus ( ') It was then between the Pasch and Pente¬ cost, aud it is well known that Pentecost is the time when harvest is gathered in Palestine. This 64 saith to them : My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work.” Then he added, in order to teach them in what work they were soon to be¬ come his co-operators: “Do not you say there are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh ? 1 Behold, I say to you : Lift up your eyes, and see the countries, for they are white already to harvest.” The apostles did not say what Jesus seems to make them say. These words, “ There are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh,” was a proverbial way of saying that there was no hurry, but that there was still time for rest. The disciples felt in this way with reference to their ministry. Jesus undeceives them by showing them the fields all yellowing, a figure of the nations that were ready to receive the Gos¬ pel, and especially of the Samaritans, who, at the moment he was speaking, came out to him in crowds. But, as the apostles might have said that harvest comes not till after seed-time, Jesus Christ explains that the seed has been already sowed by the prophets, their predecessors, whose toil, which at first seemed unproductive, is now about to yield a harvest that will gladden both those who sowed and those who shall have reaped: this is what the Saviour means by the following words: “He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For in this is the saying true : that it is one man that soweth, and it is another that proves what is stated subsequently, that this was a proverb of the country, and not a saying of the apostles. 506 HISTORY OF THE LIFE reapeth . 1 I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labor : others have la¬ bored, and you have entered into their labors .” 2 “Now, of that city, many of the Samari¬ tans believed in him for the word of the woman giving testimony : 3 He told me all things whatsoever I have done. So when the Samaritans were come to him, they de¬ sired that he would tarry there, and he abode there two days ; and many more be¬ lieved in him, because of his own word. And they said to the woman : 4 We now believe, not for thy saying, for we ourselves have heard him, and know that this is in¬ deed the Saviour of the world .” 5 After the two days which Jesus had granted to the entreaties of the Samaritans, “he departed thence, and went into Gali¬ lee. For Jesus himself gave testimony that a prophet 6 hath no honor in his own country. And when he was come into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things he had done at Jerusa- ( 1 ) This proverb, in the circumstances in which used by Jesus Christ, has only half its application. It means, in ordinary usage, that one has all the trouble, another all the profit. Christ means only that the reaper is different from the sower, al¬ though both were to share equally in the harvest. ( 2 ) Have not the apostles then labored as much as the prophets and more ? Yes, but when toiling they had the consolation of reaping the fruit of their labors. Theirs was the toil of the harvest, where pain is mingled with joy, and the joy ex¬ ceeds the pain. Sow always, ye laborers in the field of the Lord ! the seed will be productive at the time when you least expect; or, if it produce nothing, your re¬ ward is not the less assured with a Master who recompenses the toil, and not the success. ( 3 ) It is strange to see them crediting so easily the testimony of a woman of evil life. This has induced some to believe that she had contrived to save appearances, and maintain the reputation of a decent widow. Be this conjecture as it may, grace might give sufficient power to the word of an out¬ cast woman to make her find credence in people’s minds, so that this trust in her would he neither precipitate nor imprudent. ( 4 ) This woman, according to Origen, repre¬ sents the Church. We believe now on her testi- mony; but when we shall have the happiness to see Jesus Christ face to face, we shall say with the Samaritans: “We believe now not for thy saying, for we ourselves have heard him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.” (*) This was the first people who recognized in Jesus Christ the love-inspiring character of Saviour of the world. There is no doubt but Jesus Christ declared unto them that he was so, and we see here what faith they reposed in his words; but, moreover, they who were not Jews, and who ex¬ pected the Messias, could not be fettered by the prejudice of those who regarded him only as the Saviour of the Jews; wherefore they could only expect him as Saviour of the world, and this, therefore, was one obstacle less to their belief in this article of Christian faith. (“) We shall explain elsewhere this sentence, which seemingly Jesus Christ did not advance, but Saint John gives as the motive of the journey he made into Galilee. This forms a very embarrass¬ ing difficulty. For the scant welcome that a prophet receives in his own country was a reason why Jesus should remain in Samaria, where he was so well received, and not leave it and return to Galilee, which to him was that ungrateful coun- try, whose disgraceful proceedings made him say that a prophet enjoys no consideration in his coun¬ try and among his kindred. This is explained by saying that what Avas called the Saviour’s country is not Galilee as a whole but solely the city of Naz¬ areth, to which he.did not wish to return, for the reason assigned by the Evangelist, choosing rather to dwell at Capharnaum or in other parts of Gali- OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 50*7 lem on the festival day ; for they also went to the festival day.” (St. John iv. 31-45.) “And the fame of him went out through the whole country. And lie taught in the syn¬ agogues, and was magnified by all.” (St. Luke iv. 14, 15.) CHAPT A RULER’S SON HEALED.—CURE OF A DEMONIA MEN RE “ T ESUS came again, therefore, into J Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum. He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him, and prayed him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.” Since he thus had recourse to Jesus Christ, he may have some time previously already had an incipient faith ; but it was as yet prop¬ erly speaking merely a doubt which to be¬ come a real faith, waited to see a test itself of the truth of those things which he had heard concerning the Saviour. Jesus, aware of his disposition, reproached him 'ER X. C AND OF ST. PETER’S MOTHER-IN-LAW.—THREE PROVED. for it in these words: “Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not.” The father, alive only to his son’s danger, 1 ‘ saith to Jesus : Lord, come down, before that my son die. Jesus saith to him, Go thy way; thy son liveth.” This word of pow¬ er acted simultaneously upon the son’s body and the father’s soul. “ The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and went his way.” The next day, “ as he was going down, his servants met him, and they brought him word that his son lived. He asked therefore of them the hour where- in^he grew better, and they said to him: Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. 1 The father therefore knew that lee. This explanation, which appeared, to me the most satisfactory of the five or six others given by commentators, is still far from being completely so. Those whom it does not content, may consider this passage as not explained: what difficulty can re¬ sult from this ? There are matters enough clear in Scripture to support faith and nourish piety. Those who wish to understand every thing are not aware that intelligence of every thing is not grant¬ ed to all; what you cannot understand, another does, and the latter in his turn does not under¬ stand what you do. Moreover, explanations not ♦ satisfactory to me are so to others, and there is no decision whether they or I judge the best. What¬ ever be the case, let us seek and ask for light ; yet let us respect the obscurity which should not at all weaken the faith and veneration due to the divine Scriptures, because, as I have said, there remains enough so clear as to give a solid assurance to both faith and veneration. And reason alone teaches us that we are to judge, not what is clear by what is obscure, but what is obscure by that which is clear. ( 1 ) One hour after noon. 508 HISTORY OF THE LIFE it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him : Thy son liveth ; and himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle 1 that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea into Galilee.” (St. John iv. 46-54.) It has been said already that “Jesus, leaving the city of Nazareth, came and dwelt in Capharnaum on the sea-coast, in the borders of Zabulon and of Naphtha¬ line” (St. Matt. iv. 13.) He had removed thither after the miracle at the marriage- feast of Cana, “ he and his mother, and his brethren and his disciples.” But as “ the pasch of the Jews was at hand, they re- mained there not many days,” (St. John ii. 12, 13,) during which they scarcely had time to do more than prepare their place of abode. Jesus returned thither again from Cana, “ and forthwith,” when he had arrived there, “ upon the Sabbath-day, go¬ ing into the synagogue, he taught them. And they were astonished at his doctrine ; for he was teaching them as one 2 having power, and not as the Scribes. And there was in their synagogue a man with an un¬ clean spirit, and he cried out, saying: What have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth ? art thou come to destroy us ? I know who thou art, the Holy One of ( 1 ) The second which he wrought in this jour¬ ney from Judea to Galilee ; or the second wrought in Galilee, counting as the first the miracle at the marriage-feast of Cana, which he performed in like manner after arriving from Judea ; or perhaps the Evangelist considers merely those which Jesus wrought on the very occasion of his return, be¬ cause they marked his arrival in the country, and disposed the people to receive and hear him. Com¬ mentators are divided upon these different expla¬ nations, among which each is free to choose which¬ ever he likes best, without fear of falling into any hurtful error. ( 2 ) Jesus spoke as a lawgiver, and the Scribes merely as interpreters of the law. He had the power of working miracles, and they had not. In these two respects he had an advantage which they could neither deny him nor assume to them¬ selves. But there were others in which they might have imitated, if not equalled him ; and the want of which deprived their ministry of dignity, and their word of efficacy. Jesus Christ practised what he taught, while the acts of the Scribes noto¬ riously belied their doctrines. Jesus Christ had in view only the glory of his Father, and the sal¬ vation of men, while the Scribes sought nothing but their own glory and the spoils of the widow, --- whose houses they devoured,” after having, by hypocrisy, craftily won their esteem and confidence. The zeal of Christ was then a zeal authorized by example, and ennobled by that perfect disinterest¬ edness which, forgetful of self, seeks only the sal¬ vation of those for whom it is exercised. What tone may not such zeal assume ? —or who can re¬ sist the sway which both reason and nature exert over all minds ? That of the Scribes being, on the contrary, inspired by pride and interest, could possess neither a natural air, for a false one, nor dignity ; since to attain its ends it must have been changeful as the chameleon—passing incessantly from severity to indulgence, from censure to adu¬ lation. Nor could it have authority, because in spite of its grimaces, and in fact by them, it re¬ vealed, at one time the artifices of vanity, and at another the suppleness of interest, as the only springs determining and guiding its action. He who talks but acts not is a man of words. He who speaks for the glory of talking well is a declaimer. He who speaks only for vile profit, which redounds to him, might be called a buffoon, if his abuse of the divine word, by employing it for so base a purpose, did not add the idea of sac¬ rilege to that of the most contemptible and con¬ temned of all employments. • 1 -—— —------—II 1 • OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 509 God/’ (St. Mark i. 21-24.) We know not what motive made him speak thus ; but, whether he hoped to soften Jesns Christ by flattery, or whether his design was to annoy him in some manner by divulging his divinity, which the Saviour wished to make known by degrees only, still it is quite certain that his intention was bad. Hence Jesus Christ, who did not wish to owe anything to such a witness, silenced him, 1 “and threatened him, saying : Speak no more, and go out of the man. (St. Mark i. 25.) And the unclean spirit tearing him, had thrown him into the midst, and, crying out with a loud voice, went out of him, and hurt him not at all.” (St. Mark i. 26 ; St. Luke iv. 35.) This impotent rage was, for those who might have doubted the fact, proof of the possession, and of the di¬ vine power of him before whom all the pow¬ ers of hell are but weakness. “ And there came fear upon all ” present, at this prod¬ igy, and all “ were amazed, 2 insomuch that they questioned among themselves : What thing is this ? What is this new doctrine ? 3 For with authority he commandeth even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. ( 1 ) The disciples have imitated their Master in this point. When the demon said by the mouth of the girl having a pythonical spirit: “These men are the servants of the most high God, who preach unto you the way of salvation,” “Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit: I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to go out from her.” (Acts xvi. 17, 18.) Coming from the father of lies, every thing, even truth, should be suspected. When he speaks truth, he does so to make it serve falsehood. Like father, like sons. Luther zealously defend¬ ed the dogma of the real presence against the Sac- And the fame of him was spread forthwith into all the country of Galilee.” (St. Mark iv. 27, 28 ; St. Luke iv. 36.) After this miracle Jesus might have cho¬ sen a residence in one of the principal houses in the city ; for it would have been consid¬ ered a high honor to receive and entertain him splendidly. He gave the preference to that whither friendship called him, and to which poverty, far from repulsing, at¬ tracted him. “ And immediately rising up out of the synagogue they came, Jesus with James and John, into the house of Simon and Andrew.” The opportunity which Jesus there found for exercising his charity was a further reason that induced him to visit it. “ Simon’s wife’s mother lay in a fit of fever. Forthwith they tell him of her, and they besought him for her.” (St. Mark i. 29, 30; St. Luke iv. 38.) “And coming to her, he lifted her up, tak¬ ing her by the hand : and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.” (St. Mark i. 31 ; St. Luke iv. 39.) Many other sick persons desired and hoped for the same favor. But these had to be brought to him, and the repose of the Sab- ramentarian s. This seeming zeal imposed upon the simple, and, by opposing the Zuinglians, he made Lutherans. ( 3 ) What caused this great astonishment was, that this demoniac is the first whom Jesus Christ delivered. He soon familiarized the Jews with this prodigy, one which he worked most frequently; and his disciples subsequently accustomed the uni¬ verse to it. This power has remained in the Church, which employs it with efficacy in incontestable cases of possession, although these have become rare. ( 3 ) Who is this new teacher who speaks such new and such wonderful things ? HISTORY OF THE LIFE 510 bath, which it is well known was scrupu¬ lously observed by the Jews, had pre¬ vented any one from rendering this char¬ itable service. This Sabbath rest ended with the light of day, according to that law of Leviticus :*“ It is a Sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls beginning on the ninth day of the month : from evening until evening you shall celebrate your Sab¬ baths.” (Levit. xxiii. 32.) “Itwas,” there¬ fore, only “when it was evening, after sun¬ set, they brought to Jesus all that were ill and that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door. (St. Mark i. 32, 33.) Jesus, laying his hands on every one of them, healed many 1 (St. Luke iv. 40) that were troubled with divers diseases : and he cast out many devils (St. Mark i. 34) with his word, and all that were sick he healed, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken,” of the evils of the body as well as those of the soul, “by Isaias the prophet saying : He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” (St. Matt. viii. 16, 17.) The “devils went out of many crying out and saying: Thou art the Son of God. And rebuking them, he suffered them not to speak, for they knew that he was Christ.” (St. Luke iv. 41.) But he was not to confine his instruc¬ tions or benefits to a single city, and he foresaw the efforts that would be made to arrest him in this place. On which ac- ( 1 ) All were healed, as subsequently stated, and the word “ many ” is employed here to signify that they were a great number. ( a ) Epileptics and insane persons with lucid in¬ tervals are thus styled. Their fits were anciently attributed to lunar influence ; and from this they count, “rising very early, going out, he went into a desert place, and there he prayed.” This was apparently the spot agreed upon, whither “Simon and they that were with him followed after Jesus. And when they had found him, they said to him: All seek for thee. He said to them: Let us go into the neighboring towns and cities, that I may preach there also; for to this purpose I am come.” (St. Mark i. 35-38.) In the meantime, the inhabitants, who had become aware of his departure, flocked out of the city, “and the multitudes sought him, and came unto him ; and they stayed him that he should not depart from them. To whom he said,” as before to his disciples : “To other cities also I must preach the kingdom of God ; for therefore am I sent.” (St. Luke iv, 42, 43.) After this reply, which, whilst it informed them of the resolution of Jesus to leave them for a time, did not deprive them of all hope of seeing him again, they insisted no more. “ And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, healing all manner of sickness and every infirmity among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria, and they presented to him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and tor¬ ments, such as were possessed by devils, and lunatics, 2 and those that had the palsy, derived their name. In later times the error was exposed, but the name remains; and because the name remains, the error has been maintained in the minds of the multitude, who believe, as a mat¬ ter of course, that things are always what they are called. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 511 and lie cured them: and much people fol¬ lowed him from Galilee, from Decapolis, 1 and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.” (St. Matt. iv. 23-25.) “ And Jesus seeing great multitudes about him, gave orders to pass over the water.” (St. Matt. viii. 18.) After he had reached the opposite side, “as they walked in the way, a certain Scribe came and said to him: Master, I will follow thee whither¬ soever thou shalt go. Jesus,” to teach him by what sacrifices he should merit the honor of being his follower, “ saith to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” 3 (St. Luke ix. 57 ; St. Matthew viii. 19, 20.) This doc¬ tor could have no difficulty in concluding that the disciple must not expect to fare better than his master, and he must have found himself far indeed from his expecta¬ tions, if it be true, as is generally thought, that when tendering himself to Jesus Christ with such apparent generosity of purpose, he had in view only his own fortune, which he thought to make by attaching himself to this Messias, of whom he had not a more elevated idea than the bulk of his nation. ( 1 ) This word signifies the country of ten cities. It was situated north and west of the sea of Tiberias, among the tribes of Zabulon and Nephtali. Writers do not now agree perfectly as to the limits, nor as to the names of several of its ten cities. ( 1 ) Poverty has many degrees among men. That of animals, generally speaking, surpasses that of even those men whom we reckon poorest. Among animals, those which men take no care of, and which, abandoned to themselves, have neither Another truth, of which he seems to have been ignorant, is, that Jesus Christ, who was not always followed by those whom he called to follow him, never was, and never could be followed, except by those whom he first called. “ Jesus ” taught him this by saying “to another” in the throng: “Follow me.” This latter was already one of his disciples, but yet not so as to be inseparably attached to him. Having now received such a special call by this second vocation, “ he said ” to him: “ Lord, suffer me first to go and to bury my father.” (St. Luke ix. 59, 60 ; St. Matt. viii. 21.) He meant by this to assist his father in his extreme age, and not to leave him until he had closed his eyes. For if, as some have thought, he had just received tidings that his father was dead or dying, it is natural to suppose that this man, who had not as yet made final engagements with Jesus Christ, would have hurried off on the spot, and, even supposing he had asked our Lord’s permission, he would not have waited calmly until he issued the unex¬ pected order to follow him before doing so. “ Jesus said to him : Follow me : Let the dead bury their dead.” 3 That is to say, let the children of the world take care of park whither they may retire, nor stable wheiein to shelter, may be deemed poorest of all. Yet still these have, some of them their nests, others their dens; and in that respect they have more than Jesus Christ. Such is the poverty to which the Son of man has reduced himself for us; he who, at the same time, is the only Son of the Most High. If this comparison were not his own, should we dare to make it ? ( 8 ) Let the dead in soul take care to bury those dead both in soul and body. The world is full of 512 HISTOKY OF THE LIFE the things of the world. 1 “But go thou,” he added to him, “and preach the kingdom of God.” (St. Matt. viii. 22 .) To these two incidents, which are re¬ ported in the same way by Saint Matthew and Saint Luke, the latter adds a third, supposed not to have taken place upon this same day, but which the Evangelist thought proper to place here, on account of its re¬ semblance to the two preceding. “ Ano¬ ther ” man also “ said : I will follow thee, Lord, but let me first take my leave of them that are at my house.” (St. Luke ix. 60, 61.) His request does not seem to differ from that which subsequently Christ him¬ self recommended to the young man to whom he said: “ Go, sell what thou hast; give to the poor; . . . . and come, follow me.” (St. Matt. xix. 21.) But apparently dead, and those who are mourned for are not more to be pitied than the others, except because death of the body, which is the only subject of tears, puts the last seal to the death of the soul, which no one thinks to bewail, although it is only by the death of the soul that the death of the body is really deplorable. ( 1 ) These words of our Saviour still serve to strengthen the constancy of those whom God calls to a perfect state against the efforts which the world makes to retain them. The world even adopts it in worldly concerns, and would be the first to treat as a rebel or a coward the man who would make the most urgent claims of nature a pretext for refusing to march in his sovereign’s service. Yet the world chafes with indignation when hearing it applied to the service of God; and cruelty is the mildest term then given to piety. Is the world then self-contradictory? No; for it thinks, and will tell you, if you press it, that a prince is more than God, the earth is more than tbe renunciation he was projecting was one requiring along deliberation, for “Jesus said to him : No man putting his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God ” (St. Luke ix. 62) ; inti¬ mating by these words, that if there are in the world certain professions, requiring from those who pursue them continuous and uninterrupted attention, such as that of the plowman who never could run a fur¬ row straight, if he amused himself looking behind, and let the horses stray right and left; such for much stronger reasons is the apostleship, the most laborious, as well as the most sublime of all ministries, and one that requires absolutely the whole man. This is tantamount to the expression of Saint Paul : 2 “Noman, being a soldier to God, entangleth himself with secular busi¬ ness.” 3 (2 Tim. ii. 4.) heaven, and that care of the body is preferable to the salvation of sonls. ( 2 ) Christ perhaps merely wished to warn this man to weigh maturely the step he was desirous of taking, and thus to anticipate the regret which might be caused by the recollection of those goods he had too lightly renounced. This would be doubly mischievous, since, when stripped of every thing by a sacrifice he might repent, his repenting would render him unworthy of the perfect state for which he had sacrificed every thing. The ex¬ planation inserted in the text is that of most com¬ mentators. This, less followed by the learned, seems to be the popular interpretation. For when it is said, that after putting hand to the plow no man should look back again, the common meaning is, that when once a first step has been taken, we must support it with constancy, and not retrace our steps. (*) Of these three men, it is thought that only the second followed Christ. The conclusion is JESUS STILLING THE TEMPEST, OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. ’ 513 .... . , ; . .. . -i , / Vj . .. . : * CHAPTER XI. THE TEMPEST STILLED.—TWO DEMONIACS CURED.—SWINE PRECIPITATED INTO THE SEA.—A PARALYTIC CURED.—THE VOCATION OF ST. PUTE AS TO FASTING. O N that same day “ when evening was come, Jesus saith to his disciples : Let us pass over to the other side. An d, sending away the multitude,” “he went into a little ship” with them. “They launched forth,” “ and there were other ships with him.” “And when they were sailing, Jesus slept.” “And behold, a great tempest arose in the sea:” “there came down a storm of wind upon the lake,” “ and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was covered.” “The ship was filled, and they were in danger.” (St. Mark iv. 35 ; St. Luke viii. 22, 23 ; St. Matt. viii. 24.) “ Jesus was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow.” 1 “ And his disciples came to him and awaked him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish.” “Doth it not concern thee that we perish ? Je¬ sus,” who chose to see in this reproach probable enough, from the fact of his being the only one to whom Christ said, and that twice: “ Follow me.” He therefore had a vocation, which the two others, who came to offer themselves, had not. Moreover, the difficulty which he raised at the moment sprang from a good principle, and ap¬ parently from his conviction, that the assistance he wished to give his father was a duty which he could not disregard without crime. And, in fact, before the great maxims of the Gospel had appeared to the world, what could any one imagine as higher than such a duty ? 65 MATTHEW.—JESUS EATS WITH SINNERS.—DIS- only the effect of their terror, merely “saith to them” the following words: “Why are you fearful, 0 ye of little faith? Then, rising up, he” “rebuked the wind, and said to the sea : Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was made a great calm; and he said to them ” (St. Matt, viii. 25, 26 ; St. Mark iv. 38-40) a second time, but in a milder tone than at first, when it required a firm tone to reassure them: “ Why are you fearful ? Have you not faith yet? And they feared exceed¬ ingly ; ” but their fear was now of a very different sort ; ‘ ‘ and they said one to another: Who is this, thinkest thou, that he commandeth both the winds and the sea ; and both wind and sea obey him ? ” (St. Mark iv. 40 ; St. Luke viii. 35.) It has been thought that the demons had excited the frightful tempest we just de- ( 1 ) This sleep was not feigned, as some have unreasonably contended. Jesus Christ truly slept, and had assumed this weakness of our nature with all the others. Yet there was this difference, that sleep which suspended the use of the senses in the rest of mankind, never deprived him of knowledge. His mind actually knew, and thought of every thing; but he saw nothing, and he heard nothing, with the eyes or ears of the body. He might say of himself, literally: I sleep; and my heart (and mind) watcheth. (Cant. v. 2.) 514 HISTORY OF THE LIFE scrj&ed. The following narrative, by in¬ forming us what interest they had in thwarting this journey, rather supports the conjecture :—When the calm returned, they continued to sail onward, ‘ ‘ and they came over the strait of the sea, on the other side of the water, to the country of the Gerasens,” “ which is over against Gali¬ lee.” “ And as Jesus went out of the ship, immediately there met him two that were possessed with devils, coining out of the sepulchres, exceeding fierce, so that none could pass by that way.” (St. Mark v. 1 ; St. Luke viii. 26, 27 ; St. Matthew viii. 28.) One of the two, apparently the best known, and, for this reason, the only one men¬ tioned by two of the three Evangelists who recount this fact, “had a devil now a very long time,” and that in a very violent man¬ ner. “ He wore no clothes ; neither did he abide in a house, but in the sepulchres.” “No man now could bind him, even with chains. For having been often bound with fetters and chains, he had burst the chains and broken the fetters in pieces, and no one could tame him. He was always day and night in the monuments, 1 and in the mountains, crying, and cutting himself with stones. (St. Luke viii. 27 ; St. Mark v. * (*) ( 1 ) The tombs of the Jews were outside the towns. They were vaults built of stone and brick, like our cellars, or hewn out of the rock, as Christ’s was; which shows that they were spacious enough for a living man to dwell in. We also read, that Peter and John entered the Sepulchre of our Lord, as well as the holy women who came to embalm the body of our Lord. (*) This expression led several ancient commen¬ tators of no mean authority to believe that the de¬ mons were not as yet tormented, and would not be 3-6.) “ And seeing Jesus afar off, he ran, and adored him ; and they both cried out,” at the same time, or rather the demons, by their organs t “ What have we to do with thee, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time ? 2 I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not, ” added the devil who pos¬ sessed the unfortunate man we have just mentioned. “For Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to go out of the man, and said unto him: Go out of the man, thou unclean spirit.” (St. Matthew viii. 29 ; St. Mark v. 7 ; St. Luke viii. 29 ; St. Mark v. 8.) When the unclean spirit still lingered, “ Jesus,” who desired to make manifest the splendor of his victory over the powers of hell, “asked him: What is thy name? My name is Legion, he said, for we are many. Because ” in reality “ many devils were entered into him.” (St. Luke viii. 30, 31, 32 ; St. Mark v. 9, 10.) “ The demons,” forced by the word of Jesus to depart thence, “besought him much that he would not drive them out of the country,” “and that he would not command them to go into the abyss. And there was there a herd of many swine feeding on the mountain.” “ And the devils besought him, saying : If until after the last judgment. This opinion is now abandoned, and the prevailing one in the Church is, that the demons suffer now; and that, wherever they go, they carry their hell with them. Yet they retain a relic of liberty, and the pleasure of doing injury. Now, they will lose both one and the other when, after the last judgment, they shall be closed up in the abyss, whence they shall never be permitted to emerge. They feared that Jesus Christ, who waged against them so terrible a war, might precipitate them before that time. Hence OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 515 thou cast us out hence, send us into the swine,” “that we may enter into them. 1 Jesus immediately gave them leave; and the unclean spirits going out, entered into the swine.” “ The herd,” being about two thousand, “ ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and they perished in the waters.” 2 (St. Matt. viii. 31 ; St. Murk v. 12, 13.) “Which when they that fed them saw done, they fled, and told in the city and in the villages,” “everything; and concerning them that had been possessed by the devils.” “And behold the whole city went out to meet Jesus,” “ to see what their wailing and their entreaty not to command them to go into the abyss. ( 1 ) Among the many motives suggested for this request on their part, the most likely is, that, un¬ able any longer to torment men in their bodies and souls, they desired to be allowed to damage them in their goods. ( 3 ) To say the least, it would be very improper to imagine that, in giving this permission, Christ wronged the owners of the flock. “ The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.”—(Psalm xiii. 1.) He can take from us when he pleases those goods which we hold from his pure liberality; and the re¬ ligious man says then with the holy man Job: “ The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away j • • • • blessed be the name of the Lord.”—(Job i. 21.) Yet still we are surprised that Christ, the meekest of all men, whose every step was marked by so many benefits, should have caused, or at least per¬ mitted, on this single occasion, a species of dam¬ age. The answer is:—1st. That in transferring to the swine the power which the demons exercised previously over men, he performed a much greater good than the evil which he permitted ; for, what¬ ever certain modern philosophers may think, two men, or even one man, is worth more than two thousand swine. 2d. Christ punished the Gera- sens. If Jews, they deserved this; for keeping as they did, such a great quantity of these animals, 57 was done.” (St. Luke viii. 34 ; St. Mat¬ thew viii. 33, 34.) “They came to Jesus, and found the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at his feet, clothed, and in his right mind, and they were afraid.” “They also that had seen told them” “in what manner he had been dealt with who had the devil, and concerning the swine.” (St. Luke viii. 35, 36 ; St. Mark v. 15, 16.) Then “ all the multi¬ tude of the country of the Gerasens be¬ sought him to depart from them, for they were taken with great fear.” 3 Jesus pun¬ ished this prayer, by granting ithe, the use of which was forbidden by the law, furnished an immediate occasion of prevarication to all the people of the surrounding district. But some have thought the inhabitants of Gerasa were Greeks, and a portion of the colony of Gadara, an adjacent city, where the emperors had authorized Greeks to settle. In this case, they, too, deserved to be punished, on account of their excessive at¬ tachment to these vile animals, which they pre¬ ferred to the word of God, that Jesus Christ came to announce to them. This is apparent by the prayer they made Christ, to retire from them, not venturing to endeavor to force him. Now, not to prefer God to those goods which he has given to us, deserves that he should take them from us. May we not add, that he then really takes them away or leaves them only for the misfortune of those who, by this unworthy preference, deserve no favor on his part, or only merit those goods, the possession of which is of greater mischief than their loss ? The permission to enter into the swine, asked by demons, and granted by Christ, further teaches us, that the demon can do nothing, in the whole com¬ pass of nature, except what God allows him. Let us fear then, neither the demon, nor all the powers of hell, of earth, and of heaven; but Him by whom alone all the powers of heaven, earth, and hell become fearful. ( 3 ) This prayer was prompted as much by in* 51G HISTORY OF THE LIFE going up into the ship, returned back “ bis own city,” on account of its being his again.” (St. Luke viii. 37, 40.) “When usual residence. “ It was beard that be he went up into the ship, he that had been was in tbe house.” We may presume that so highly troubled with the devil began to • this was still the bouse of Peter and An- beseech him that he might be with him.” drew. “ Many came together, so that It is not mentioned whether gratitude for there was no room ; no, not even at tbe such a great blessing, or the dread of a door. And Jesus spoke to them tbe word.” second possession inspired this prayer. It (St. Matthew ix. 1 ; St. Mark ii. 1, 2.) may have been both. But, whatever was “As be sat teaching, there were also” the motive, Jesus, who had other designs present “ Pharisees and doctors of the law upon him, “admitted him not;” and sub- sitting by, that were come out of every stituting another sort of apostleship for town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusa- that to which he refused him admission, lem ; and the power of the Lord was to “saith to him: Go into thy house, to thy heal them.” (St. Luke v. 17.) And be- friends, and tell them how great things the hold, men came to him, bringing one sick Lord hath done for thee, and hath had of the palsy, who was carried by four, and mercy on thee. And he went his way, and they sought means to bring him in, and to began to publish in Decapolis how great lay him before Jesus. And when they things Jesus had done for him, and all men could not find by what way they might wondered. bring him in, because of the multitude, “ And when Jesus had passed again in they went up upon the roof, uncovered the the ship over the strait, a great multitude roof where he was, and, opening it, let assembled together unto him : ” (St. Mark him down through the tiles, with his bed,” v. 18-21) “for they were all waiting for and laid him “ in the midst ” of the assem- him.” (St. Luke viii. 40.) He did not re- bly “before Jesus.” (St. Mark ii. 3; St. main long among them ; and “ again, after” Luke v. 18,19.) “ And Jesus seeing their an absence of “ some days, he entered faith, said to the man sick of the palsy :* into Capharnaum,” which here is called Be of good heart, Son, thy sins are for- terest as by fear, unless, indeed, their fear was pro- to him: “ Thy sins are forgiven thee.” This raises duced solely by interest. Thus, under all the a difficulty, which we must resolve. The faith of circumstances of the case, these subtile Gerasens the paralytic, which here is not spoken of, is not. concluded that the fat of swine was much more nevertheless, excluded. We must then believe that useful to the State than was Jesus Christ and his he had it, and with it contrition, without which no doctrine. It would not be difficult to find their adult has ever obtained, or shall ever obtain, the apology in the writings of some of our good patriots. remission of his sins. If, then, this remission is ( 1 ) The cure of the body can be obtained by here attributed to the faith of the bearers, this can the faith of another, but not the remission of sins. only be, because Christ, touched by this faith, had Yet here there is only mention made of the faith given to the paralytic faith, and all the other dis>- of those parties who had carried the paralytic; and positions necessary to justification. There is still it is when seeing their faith, that Jesus Christ said • another truth insinuated in these words of Jesus . . • . V’ - • ' V OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 517 given thee.” “ And there were,” as we have said, “sitting there some of the Scribes,” or doctors of the law. These Scribes and the Pharisees thought and said within themselves: “ Why doth this man speak thus ? He blasphemeth. Who can forgive sins but God only?” 1 (St. Mark ii. 5, 7 ; St. Matt. ix. 2.) Jesus presently knowing in his spirit 2 that they so thought within themselves, saith to them :” “ Why do you think evil in your hearts ? 3 Which is easier, to say” “ to the sick of the pal¬ sy,” “Thy sins are forgiven thee? or to say, Arise, take up thy bed and walk ? 4 But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, Christ, it is that sin is often the cause of bodily in¬ firmities, and that the cure is one of the effects of conversion. ( 1 ) Now, Jesus Christ is God: wherefore he had this power, and, in fact, exercised it at this mo¬ ment. Still, let us remark that he did not say to the paralytic that he remitted him his sins, but that his sins were remitted; which is very differ¬ ent. For, supposing that Jesus Christ had only been a prophet, he might have known by revela¬ tion that God had remitted the sins of this man; and his declaring this to the man, as he did, was not arrogating to himself the divine right of re¬ mitting them. Hence, no one could conclude from these words that he had arrogated this right to himself, and this was the very point they should have observed, since they wished to censure him; but malignity does not examine so closely. (* *) The Spirit of God alone can “ sound the reins,” and penetrate into the most secret folds of the heart; and he is God, whose own spirit the Spirit of God is styled. (’).The answer was easy to every one else but themselves. They were Pharisees; and it is not more natural for birds to fly, and for fishes to swim, than it is for Pharisees to misinterpret what- then said he to the man sick of the palsy : I say to thee : Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house. Immediately the man arose, in the sight of all, and, taking up his bed, went away into his house, glory¬ ing God.” (St. Mark ii. 8-12 ; St. Matt. ix. 4-7 ; St. Luke v. 22-25.) The multitudes, seeing it, feared, and glorified God that gave such power to men.” 5 And they manifested their wonder, some by saying, “We never saw the like;” others, “We have seen wonderful things to-day.” (St. Matthew ix. 8 ; St. Mark ii. 12; St. Luke v. 26.) “Jesus after these things went forth again to the sea-side. All the multitude ever is susceptible in the slightest degree of a bad interpretation, were there a hundred more degrees of probability for a good one. • ( 4 ) It is not more difficult, it is even easier to cure a paralytic, than to remit sins. Yet is it much more difficult to deceive in regard as to the cure of a paralytic than as to the remission-of sins, for we see the first and we do not see the second. But what we see is a proof of what we do not see. Therefore, if Jesus Christ does not impose, when he said to the paralytic: “ Arise, take up thy bed, and go,” it follows that he did not, when he said: “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” The second is as possible to him as the first, and what is equally possible is equally easy to him. All this bears upon the fundamental principle of all revealed re¬ ligion : “ He incontestably speaks the truth, who, in order to prove the truth of what he says, works incontestable miracles.” ( 6 ) The power of remitting sins, much more than the power of curing maladies. This was the end of the Incarnation of the Son of God, the ob¬ ject of his labors, the fruit of his sufferings, and the most necessary, as well as the most precious, of all the favors that he was to bestow on human nature. Thence the surprise, the admiration, and gig HISTORY OF THE LIFE came to him, and he taught them,” accord¬ ing to his custom. “And when Jesus passed on from thence, he saw a man named Matthew, otherwise Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting at the receipt of custom, in the custom-house, and saith to him : Fol¬ low me. And leaving all things, he rose up, and followed him.” Still he wished to acknowledge beforehand his gratitude, as a converted publican, and in order to do so, “ he made him a great feast in his own house.” “It came to pass, as Jesus was sitting at table in the house of Levi,” “there was a great company of publicans and sinners, who sat down with him and his disciples, for they were many, who also followed him.” And we must here remark, a fact which will often appear in this his¬ tory, that Jesus was constantly beloved by sinners and hated by rigorists. These, therefore, that is to say, “ the Scribes and Pharisees, seeing that he ate with publi- cans and sinners, said to his disciples: Why doth your Master eat and drink with publicans and sinners ? ” They addressed the disciples, undoubt¬ edly, because they deemed them less capa¬ ble of answering than their Master. Per¬ haps they still hoped that, by giving them a bad impression of Jesus, they could de¬ tach them from him. But “ Jesus hearing it, saith to them : They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill.” 1 (St. Luke v. 28, 29 ; St. Mark ii. 15-17 ; St. Matthew ix. 2-12.) A saying which should have made them understand that there was no more sense in the re¬ proach which they made him, than there would have been in finding fault at a phy¬ sician’s visiting the sick or plague-stricken. He then added, blending as usual instruc¬ tion with his own justification: “Go, then, and learn what this meanetli : I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. 2 For I am not the joy of mankind. 0, ye nations, be glad and rejoice; cease not to praise the God of Mercy, who has vouchsafed to communicate to men this divine power, which of all his powers seems the most in¬ communicable. ( 1 ) For those who can render no service, it is temerity, to visit persons afflicted with contagious diseases; it is charity in the physician, who still is not exempt from rashness, if he visit them without precautions and preventives. One man alone was exempted from this rule; that was the Man-God. ( 5 ) A Hebrew expression meaning “ I love mer¬ cy better than sacrifice,” which far from being prohibited, was commanded; but mercy was pre¬ ferred to it. But if mercy excels sacrifice, there is then nothing in religion over which it should not take precedence. The entire morality of the Gos¬ pel hinges on this maxim, which is not so peculiar to Christianity as not to have also belonged to the Old Law, since this text to which Jesus Christ here refers the Pharisees is from the Prophet Osee. These men, on the contrary, preferred all the rest of religion to charity, which was, accurately speak¬ ing, turning religion upside down, by placing last of all what should occupy the first place. It is no neglect of divine worship to leave the sacrifice to exercise charity towards man. This is rendering to God the worship most pleasing to him. God has no need of our sacrifice, and he loves men : these two truths heighten this worship into a very excellent religion. By this we recog¬ nize the perfect independence and infinite goodness of God, those two attributes which entitle him the most to the homage of our mind and of our heart. It is an abuse of this maxim to restrict religion to doing good towards men. It is only in the con¬ flict of the two duties and when one interferes with the other, that we should prefer the service of OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 519 come to call the just, but sinners ” 1 (St. Matthew ix. 13.) Whence it followed that the more sinful they were, the better he worked out his mission by seeking them out, and living familiarly with them. The Pharisees, confounded at this point, still persisted ; but to give greater weight to the fresh reproach which they were framing against Jesus Christ, they took the precaution to strengthen themselves with the disciples of John. The latter, as well as the Pharisees, were accustomed to prac¬ tise extraordinary fasts, to which Jesus Christ had not subjected those who pro¬ fessed to follow him. These fasts were not prescribed by law ; they might, therefore, be observed or omitted at pleasure. But although practices of devotion are free, each individual is always prepossessed in favor of his own ; and this prejudice rarely refrains from condemning those who do not adopt them. It was apparently this weak- ness which, drew the disciples of John into the plotting of the Pharisees. “ They came and said to Jesus : Why do the dis- . ciples of John and of the Pharisees fast often and make prayers ; but thine eat and drink,” “and do not fast? He said to them: Can the children of the bridegroom 2 mourn, and can you make them fast whilst the bridegroom is with them ? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.” 3 (St. Matthew ix. 14, 15 : St. Mark ii. 18, 19 ; St. Luke v. 33-35.) Therefore, Jesus did not dispense his disciples from fasting ; he merely disposed them to do so at a more convenient time ; and in order to show more clearly that in acting thus he did not mean to flatter their passions, but to accommodate himself to their weakness, “he spoke a similitude to them. No man putteth a piece from a new garment upon an old garment, otherwise our neighbor to the worship of God ; and then we should do so solely because God wills it. To pre- _ fer, therefore, the external duties of religion to charity towards our neighbor is pharisaical ; and to comprise all religion in the love and service of our neighbor, is to acknowledge our fellow-citizens, and disown our King, embrace our brethren, and deny our Father ; it is impiety, it is declared re¬ bellion against the greatest and best of all kings and of all fathers. ( 1 ) This is not to hinder us from believing that Christ came to save all men ; for all have sinned, saith Saint Paul, “ and are in want of the glory of God,” that is to say, of the grace of the Kedeemer. An ironical meaning is also given to these words, in reference to the Pharisees : You are scandalized at seeing me prefer the company of sinners to yours ; know you not, then, that “ I am come to call sin¬ ners, and not the just,” such as you pretend to be. 64 ( a ) We may recollect that John, in one of the testimonies he rendered to Jesus Christ, had desig¬ nated him by the title of bridegroom. The disci¬ ples of John could not have forgotten this ; and Jesus Christ, in making use of the same expression, gives ground for believing that they were the spokesmen on this occasion. ( 8 ) We are almost tempted to smile at the ex¬ travagance of heretics. Calvinists rejected the fast of Lent, because Jesus Christ said that his disciples should not fast while he was with them, although he added that they should fast after he was taken away. And because he said that they should fast when he was taken away, that is to say, if you will, immediately after his death, Montanus and Priscilla, according to the report of Saint Jerome, placed Lent between Easter and Pen¬ tecost. HISTORY OF THE LIFE 520 he both rendeth the new, and the piece taken from the new agreeth not with the ' old.” It occurs also that “ the new piec¬ ing taketh away from the old, and there is made a greater rent.” “ And no man put- teth new wine into old bottles ; otherwise the new wine will break the bottles, and it will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost. But new wine must be put into new bottles, and both are preserved. And no man drinking old hath presently a mind to new; for he saith : The old is better.” (St. Luke v. 36-39 ; St. Mark ii. 21, 22.) That is to say that, generally speaking, the more ex¬ cellent things are in themselves, the less likely are they to be good for beginners. Proportion to their weakness must be ob¬ served. Perfection should be presented to them only at a distance, as an object for their admiration rather than for their ef¬ forts ; they should be at most invited, and not seemingly forced to it, lest, by endeav¬ oring too hastily to make perfect men of those but recently become just, we make only relapsing sinners. Thus Jesus in¬ structed his Church ; and while he seemed merely answering an ill-founded reproach, he gave all his ministers present and future these admirable lessons of mildness and of condescension. CHAPTER XII. THE WOMAN HEALED OF AN ISSUE OF BLOOD.—THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS RAISED TO LIFE.— THE BLIND SEE.—A POSSESSED PERSON DELIVERED. A S he was speaking these things unto them nigh unto the sea, a ruler of the synagogue 1 named Jairus came up, and seeing Jesus, falleth down at his feet, adored him, beseeching him that he would come into his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying.” (St. Matthew ix. 18 ; St. Mark ( 1 ) The one who presided at the religious meet¬ ings held on the sabbath-day. The place where they were held was called Synagogue, a Greek word meaning “assembly.” The Holy Scripture was read, exhortations given, and psalms sung, the only exercises of religion allowed the Jews outside v. 21, 22 ; St. Luke viii. 41.) Perhaps he thought that Jesus, who had power to cure the sick, had not that of raising the dead ; and he may also have been one of those who considered the Saviour’s presence ne¬ cessary for a miracle. Hence “ he besought him much, saying : My daughter is at the point of death ; come lay thy hand upon the Temple of Jerusalem. Some authors confi¬ dently assert that before the destruction of this great city, it had no less than four hundred and eighty of these synagogues. Every one knows that the Jews still have them in several cities of Europe where they are tolerated. * * * RAISING UP THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS. OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 521 her, that she may be safe, and may live.” “ And Jesus rising np, went with him,” and “followed him, with his disciples.” (St. Mark v. 23, 24 ; St. Matthew ix. 19.) “ And it happened as he went that he was thronged by the , multitudes. And there was a certain woman there who was troubled with an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing the better, but rather worse.” This woman then, “ when she had heard of Jesus, came in the crowd behind him” (St. Luke viii. 42 ; St. Markv. 25-27 ; St. Matthew ix. 20, 21), and touched the hem of his garment, for she said to herself: If I shall touch only his garment, I shall be healed. Forthwith the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body she was healed of the evil. 1 And immedi¬ ately Jesus, knowing in himself “the virtue which had proceeded from him, turning to the multitude, said : Who hath touched my garment?” “ And all denying, Peter and they that were with him said : Master, the multitudes throng and press thee, and dost thou say, Who touched me ? And Jesus said : Somebody hath touched me, for I know that virtue is gone out from me.” “ And he looked about to see her who had done this ” (St. Mark v. 29, 30 ; St. Luke viii. 45, 46 ; St. Mark v. 32): not that he did not know her, but he thus conformed ( 1 ) The garment worn by Christ, therefore, wrought a miracle. Calvin, who justly feared that this example would be invoked in favor of relics, discovers in this woman’s conduct indiscreet zeal and a dash of superstition. Jesus Christ sees in it faith: he openly praises this faith ; and it is to the to our method of acting; and because he wished the miracle just wrought to be known, he thus prepared the way for its manifestation, by obliging her to speak whose deposition alone could disclose and prove the fact. For “ the woman knowing what was done in her, seeing that she was not hid, fearing and trembling, came and fell down before his feet, and told him all the truth, and declared before all the peo¬ ple for what cause she had touched him, and how she was immediately healed. (St. Mark v. 33 ; St. Luke viii. 47.) Jesus turning, and seeing her, said to her: Be of good heart, daughter ; thy faith hath made thee whole.” “ Go in peace, and be thou whole, of thy disease. And the woman was made whole from that hour ” (St. Mat¬ thew ix. 22 ; St. Mark v. 34), perfectly and without any relapse. As “Jesus was yet speaking, there com- eth one to the ruler of the synagogue, say¬ ing to him: Thy daughter is dead, trouble him not ” uselessly. (St. Luke viii. 49.) Jairus, whose faith had received a new im¬ pulse from the miracle of which he had just been a witness, did not despair even then. “Lord,” said he, “my daughter is even now dead ; but come lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.” (St. Matt. ix. 18.) For thus one of the evangelists makes him speak; and they are all made to harmo¬ nize by placing here these words of his, a merit of this faith that he grants a cure; and this faith, by the report of the three evangelists, is the same which made this woman say: “If I shall touch only his garment, I shall be healed.” Whom are we to believe in this matter ? 522 HISTORY OF THE LIFE distinct remark from that given by the them all out, taketh the father and the other evangelists, who make him speak mother of the damsel, and them that were only of the dying condition of his daugh- with them, and entereth in where the dam- ter. “Jesus hearing this word, answered sel was lying.” (St. Matthew ix. 24 ; St. the father of the maid: Fear not, believe Luke viii. 53 ; St. Mark v.40.) “ And tak- only, and she shall be safe. And when he ing her by the hand, he cried out to her : was come to the house, he suffered not any Talitha cumi, which is, being interpreted : man to go in with him but Peter, and Damsel, I say to thee arise. (St. Luke viii. James, and John, and the father and 54 ; St. Mark v. 41.) Her spirit returned, mother of the maiden.” “ He saw the and she arose immediately, and walked. minstrels 1 and the multitude making a She was twelve years old. Jesus com- rout, weeping and wailing much ; all manded that something should be given mourned for her.” “ And going in he saith her to eat. And her parents were aston- to them, Why make you this ado and ished. And he charged them strictly to weep ? ” (St. Luke viii. 50, 51 ; St. Matthew tell no man what was done.” 3 Yet “the ix. 23 j St. Mark v. 38.) “ Grive place, fame hereof went abroad into all that for the girl is not dead, but sleepeth;” 2 country.” (St. Luke viii. 55, 56 ; St. Mark “ And they laughed him to scorn, knowing v. 42, 43 ; St. Matt. ix. 26.) that she was dead.” * “ But he having put “ As Jesus passed from thence ” into the ( 1 ) It was a custom common to both Jews and the only one which has any probability is, that be Gentiles to hire flute-players, who accompanied wished to teach his disciples, and all those to whom with mournful airs the lamentations made at fu- he was to communicate the gift of miracles, to nerals. Although we know not of the origin of conceal them as much as in their power, and thus this usage, the Jews most probably borrowed it escape the applause of men. Many saints have from the Gentiles. To conclude from thence, as some profited by this lesson, and we know the precau- writer has done, that the flute-players in question tions they have taken to withdraw from the eyes here were Gentiles, is like maintaining that all our of the world the wonders which God operated by painters are Italians, as painting comes from Italy? their means. This explains why Jesus Christ ( 2 ) A death which so speedy a resurrection was wished some of his miracles to be kept secret, but to leave scarcely the duration of a short slumber, not why he pursued this course in regard of such should be called sleep rather than death. and such a miracle more than any other. Those ( 3 ) There were too many witnesses of the death who undertake to explain every thing, adduce to make the resurrection a mystery, and the secre- many reasons but none that are satisfactory. Let cy enjoined by Christ upon this occasion can us be content to know that he had reasons highly merely apply to the mode in which he wrought the worthy of his wisdom, drawn from the circum- miracle. Jesus Christ exacted the like secrecy for stances of time, place, and person. Secrecy was the ensuing miracle, and in some other transac- not always kept by those upon whom it was en- tions. We may be asked what reason had he for joined. Whatever the rigid Calvin may think, thus acting, he who wrought publicly so gi'eat a Catholic divines do not make it criminal. Grati- number of miracles, and who, far from desiring to tude, which made them speak, excused this want make a mystery of them, frequently gave orders to of submission to orders which they attribuiad publish them. Of the several reasons assigned, solely to their benefactor’s modesty. \ OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. . 523 house where he dwelt, “ there followed to utter it in his hearing • that is to say in him two blind men, cryiug out and saying : such way, that they became his irreconcil- Have mercy on us, 0, son of David.” It able enemies. For not to be in the wrong was undoubtedly in order to try their faith is in the eye of envy the least pardonable that Jesus, who heard them, declined stop- of all offences. ping. “ When he was come to the house, the blind men,” who had still kept following SECOND PASCH. him, “ came to him, and he saith to them : Jesus left the Pharisees of Galilee for a Do you believe that I can do this unto you ? time, to meet those of the capital. If the They say to him: Yea, Lord.. Then he latter were not more malignant, they were touched their eyes, saying: According to more formidable by their number, by that your faith be it done unto you. And their of their proselytes, and the facility afforded eyes were opened; and Jesus strictly by large cities for caballing and exciting charged them, saying: See that no man popular outbreaks. But it was not for the know this. But they going out, spread his purpose of warring with them that the fame abroad in all that country.” mildest of men came to meet them ; he “ When they were gone out, they sought only to enlighten and convert them. brought him a dumb man possessed with It was a religious motive that induced him a devil.” One evangelist says of the devil to make this journey. It was the feast of himself that he was dumb, because he pre- the Jews, which we believe, with many in- vented the possessed man from speaking, terpreters, to have been that of the Pasch, thus informing us that this hindrance did especially for the reason that it is here not come upon the man from any natural called simply “ the Feast.” All know that cause, but from the demon tying his tongue. this was the greatest of the three feasts on This construction seems obvious, from the which the law required every Jew to repair manner in which the cure is recounted ; to Jerusalem. Jesus, the author of the for, “ after the devil was cast out, the dumb law, had voluntarily made himself a sub- man spoke. The multitudes wondered, say- ject of the law, and he always observed it ing: Never was the like seen in Israel. with the most perfect punctuality. He But the Pharisees said : By the prince of came, therefore, to the feast with his dis- devils he casteth out devils.” (St. Matt. ciples, and a miraculous cure, by which he ix. 27-34.) signalized his arrival, gave the Pharisees Jesus did not then condemn this bias- an occasion to calumniate him ; and gave phemy, which perhaps had not been uttered him an opportunity to instruct while refut- in his presence. We shall see, upon another ting them by an admirable discourse, which occasion, that he answered it in a manner he delivered on occasion of it. The events which covered with shame those who dared occurred thus. 524 HISTORY OF THE LIFE CHAPTER XIH. PROBATICA.— A MAN INFIRM THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS HEALED.—DISCOURSE OF JESUS CHRIST TO THE JEWS. T HERE “ was ” 1 “ at Jerusalem a pond called Probatica, 2 which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, of withered, waiting for the moving of the water. And an angel ( 1 ) We read in the text: There is at Jerusalem a pond .... which has five porches. This form of expression seems to show clearly that Jerusalem still existed when Saint John wrote. Still the opinion of the most ancient doctors, and of those whose authority ranks highest, is, that Saint John did not compose his Gospel until several years after the destruction of Jerusalem. While sub¬ mitting to their authority, I own I would have desired to find an answer to this difficulty, which they seem not even to have thought of. Two things are possible, each of which, if true, would suffice to reconcile Saint John’s form of ex¬ pression with the date which all antiquity assigns to his Gospel: 1st. After the capture of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus, the city was not so utterly destroyed as not to leave some edifices standing, and some Jews occupying them. It is even main¬ tained that they still retained some synagogues there until the time of the final destruction and their utter and irrevocable expulsion, which was under the Emperor Adrian. The pond and the porticoes might then still exist, and Saint John could speak of them as of things actually existing. 2d. Saint John, who according to constant tradi¬ tion did not publish his Gospel until after the capture of Jerusalem, might very well have written previously some portions, subsequently incorporated in the body of the work. We have now only to suppose that the cure of the paralytic of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond : and the water was moved. He that wpnt down first into the pond after the motion of the water was made whole, of whatsoever infirmity he lay under. And there was a certain man there, that was one of these portions written before the cap¬ ture of Jerusalem, and the difficulty will be re¬ solved, at least for those who are content with these suppositions. ( 3 ) This Greek word Probatica signifies sheep- pond. This name was given either because it lay near the gate by which the sheep entered into the city, or because this pond was in the market where they were exposed for sale, or because they were washed there before being sacrificed, or perhaps because the waters which had been made use of in washing the immolated victims were brought thither by subterraneous channels. This last con¬ jecture has induced several to think that it was for this reason God had communicated to these waters the miraculous virtue which is about to be related, and which made them regarded as a figure of the waters of baptism. These waters extract from the blood of the Lamb, immolated for the sins of the world, the quickening virtue which communicates to souls the supernatural life of grace, by a mira¬ cle far superior to all cures and all bodily resur¬ rections. The Anabaptists regard as fabulous this mirac¬ ulous sheep-pond spoken of by Saint John, because Josephus, the Jewish historian, does not speak of it. If Saint John did not speak of it, and Josephus did, apparently they would believe it. Men believe whom they will when they believe only what they will. OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 525 had been eight-and-thirty years under his infirmity. Him when Jesns had seen lying, and knew he had been now a long time, he saith to him : Wilt thou be made whole? The infirm man answered him : Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond ; for whilst I am coming, another goeth down before me. Jesus saith to him : Arise, take up thy bed and walk. Immediately the man was made whole, and he took up his bed, and walked. And it was the sabbath that day. The Jews therefore said to him that was healed : It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for thee to take up thy bed. He answered them : He that made me whole, he said to me: Take up thy bed and walk.” To give as authority for what he did the command of him who had cured him, was a sufficient justification ■ whilst the author of that order was justified at the same time by the miracle which had led to it. The Jews, who merely sought to criticise, seemed to pay no attention to what this man stated about his cure, and they asked him not: who is that man who cured thee ? but only, “Who is that man who said to thee : Take up thy bed and walk ? But he who was healed knew not who he was ; for Jesus went aside from the multitude stand¬ ing in the place. Afterwards, Jesus find- eth him in the temple, and saith to him: Behold thou art made whole : sin no more, lest some worse thing happen thee. The man went his way, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him whole,” and not that it was Jesus who had given him the order to take away his bed. This shows that gratitude prompted him to speak, and that his intention was not to denounce Jesus as a violator of the sab¬ bath, but to make him known as author of the miracle. Yet “ the Jews,” who were only willing to see in him the first of these two char¬ acters, “therefore did persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sab¬ bath : ” for here began that charge, which the^ renewed whenever an opportunity of¬ fered itself, although the reproaches which they cast upon Jesus on this account were always turned to their own confusion, by the replies he made, and which they never could answer. Still, once that hatred had induced them to say: “He breaks the sabbath,” they never ceased repeating it ; and passion, which blindfolded them, so as to hinder them from seeing the absurdity of this accusation, hardened their very countenances so as no longer to feel the shame which recoiled back upon them¬ selves every time they renewed the charge. The answer which Jesus then made was this: “My Father worketh until now; 1 and I work.” Sublime expression! signi¬ fying that the action which Jesus Christ ( 1 ) “ My Father worketh until now,” that is to say, there is no time or no day during ‘which my Father doth not act, not excepting the sabbath- day. This is the seventh day, upon which day God rested, after employing six days in the crea¬ tion of the world. He ordained that in memory of this rest the seventh day should be consecrated to him by a religious repose. Yet God only rested inasmuch as he ceased to create new species; for he never ceases working to preserve and reproduce them. It is the same with the Son, whose action is not distinguished from that of the Father. 526 HISTORY OF THE LIFE had just performed was above all criticism, because it was as much the action of his Father as his own. Whence it followed, that as there was existing between him and his Father unity of action, there must also have been unity of nature : and that when he called God his father, he did not do so » in the sense of adoption, which was not unknown to the Jews, and would not, therefore, have scandalized them, but in the sense of generation, by virtue of which he attributed to himself the divine nature, and perfect equality with God. I say that this was a manifest consequence, for so the Jews understood it; and as their envy re¬ doubled in proportion to the great things which Jesus disclosed to them in reference to himself, “ they sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the sabbath, but also said God was his father, making himself equal to God.” 1 To which Jesus replied by the following discourse, in which we observe, as it were, two dis¬ tinct parts. The former is the further de¬ velopment of the expression we have just noted, and the direct justification of his own conduct on the present occasion. The latter established the divinity of his mission, by all the proofs that can render it incon¬ testable. He resumed, therefore, in these terms: “Amen, amen, Isay to you, the Son cannot do anything of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing ; for what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in like manner : for the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things which himself doth, and greater works than these will he show him, that you may wonder.” Unity of operation and of nature, and perfect equality between the Father and the Son, are found explained in this pas¬ sage. Still, it is well to observe that here it is said, the Son cannot do anything of himself, but only what he seeth the Father doing: not as the Arians understood it, that he borrows from the Father any knowl¬ edge which he had not in himself, or any power in which he was deficient; but, be¬ cause the Son acts solely through the knowledge and power which he receives from the Father through the eternal gen¬ eration. This, very far from limiting the one or the other, proves the infinitude of both ; for what the Father possesses from all eternity the same doth he communicate in all its plenitude to his Son, without losing anything of what he gives, or ceasing to possess what he never ceases to communi¬ cate. It is in this sense that the Son cannot do anything without the Father. But it is no less true, as the fathers of the Church said to the Arians, that the Father cannot do ( 1 ) If Jesus Christ is not equal to his Father, it was an imperative duty to disabuse the Jews, when they thought they found this equality im¬ plied by his words. Yet he did not do so, and we soon hear him express himself upon the point in terms much stronger than those he had already employed. Hence there is no middle course: either he possesses divine nature, or he wishes to usurp its honors; and, if not God, he is an impostor. How, he is not an impostor, according to the avowal of the Arians and Socinians, who, when combating his divinity, nevertheless acknowledge him as the envoy of God, and subscribe to the truth of all his words. This reasoning must ever be a rock against which their hollow subtilities shall dash to pieces. OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRI3T. 527 anything without the Son, since the divine nature, which is common to the Father and the Son, cannot divide itself, nor, whilst it acts in the Son, cease to act in the Father. Yet, as the cure of this man languishing under paralysis was but a slight exertion of the infinite power which the Father has communicated to the Son, Jesus Christ pre¬ pares the Jews to see effects more extended, and better calculated to excite their admi¬ ration. “For,” said he to them, “as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life, so the Son also giveth life to whom he will.” Therefore the power of giving life, or of raising the dead, is no more restricted in the Father than in the ( 1 ) The last judgment will be the judgment of God, and, considered as a divine act, will be com¬ mon to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, because the three persons of the adorable Trinity concur equally in all the actions which God pro¬ duces beyond himself. By the sacred humanity of the Man-God, which shall serve as their instru¬ ment on this occasion, will the three persons exer¬ cise this judgment; and so far we see no difference between them. But this humanity? which alone shall appear in this great action, is properly the Son’s, who has united himself with it, and not the Father’s or the Holy Ghost’s, who have not con¬ tracted with it a similar union. In this respect judgment belongs more to the Son than to the Father or the Holy Ghost, because, when judging by his humanity, the Son judges by an instrument united to himself, whereas the Father and the Holy Ghost judge by an instrument separated from them respectively. Thus the theologians ex¬ press themselves; and this may be better under¬ stood by saying that when judging by the human¬ ity, the Son judges by himself, whereas the Father, and the same may be said of the Holy Ghost, judges by another person than himself, but who at the same time is another self; a fashion of Son ; for, to say that the Son giveth life to “ whom he will,” is saying very plainly that his power in this respect is unlimited. And as that great miracle of the Resurrec¬ tion of all men, in which the Son will act conjointly with the Father, is to be followed immediately by the universal judgment, Jesus Christ takes thence an opportunity to declare to the Jews, that, besides the power of resuscitating, he has received from his Father authority to judge, which, in one sense, is peculiarly his own. “ For,” he says, further, “neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judg¬ ment to the Son, that all men may honor the Son as they honor the Father.” 1 This speech which can only have a literal signification when speaking with reference to the three persons of the adorable Trinity. The Fathers adduce several reasons why God wished that judgment should be exercised by the sacred humanity of the Saviour. 1st. To indem¬ nify him for the profound humiliation to which he voluntarily reduced himself, conformably to those words of Saint Paul: He “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath ex¬ alted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.” (Phil. ii. 7-10.) 2d. To confer on Jesus Christ the special glory of judg¬ ing those by whom he has been judged, and of justly condemning those by whom he has been unjustly condemned. The latter shall see with unutterable dread the scars of the wounds which their brutal fury imprinted on his innocent flesh, according to these words: They shall look on him whom they pierced (St. John xix. 37.) 3d. That men may have a judge to whom they cannot ob¬ ject. He is man like themselves, bone of their 528 HISTORY OF THE LIFE is done here below by those who believe in the Son, and consequently who render him the honors due to the only Son of the Father, and its accomplishment shall be seen in a much more dazzling manner at the Day of Judgment, when Jesns Christ shall be recognized and honored by all men, not even excepting those who shall have refused to believe in him, but who can then no longer pretend not to know him, when they see him come on a light cloud, full of majesty and glory, armed with empire and power, and by the prodi¬ gies of his right arm announcing to all na¬ ture its Lord and its King. Then, con¬ vinced by the evidence of their own eyes, they shall at least recognize him by their involuntary tremor and forced adoration, and they shall have nothing to plead in re¬ ply to the sentence by which they shall be declared attainted and convicted of the crime of high treason against the Divine Majesty, for having refused him during life the faith and homage which were due to him ; whereby they have as grossly in¬ sulted the Father as himself: ‘ ‘ For he who honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father, who hath sent him.” And he that would simply honor him as an envoy of the Father, could not escape a similar condem¬ nation ; because, not to honor him as the Son, in which quality he has been sent, is equally to despise both Father and Son. Happy those for whom this resurrection shall be the commencement of a life eter¬ nally happy! But to this end they must have had share in the first resurrection, which is from the death of sin to the life of grace. In this resurrection the Son doth noteless operate than in the other ; but here is one thing which belongs not to the other resurrection, this requires the co¬ operation of man. All shall have part in the second, because no one can resist. Many shall resist the first, and by their re¬ sistance exclude themselves from it alto¬ gether. Hence Christ promises the first to “him who heareth his word ; ” whereas of the second, he states absolutely and with¬ out any condition: “All that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God,” “and shall come forth.” Here are his words, continuing his address: “Amen, amen, I say to you, that he who heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath life everlasting 1 and cometh not into judgment; but is passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say unto you, that the hour bone and flesh of their flesh. Will they object to him who has only become their judge because he condescended to become their brother ? He is their Saviour, who only acquired this qualification at the expense of his repose, his glory, his blood, and his life. Can any one desire the perdition of those for whom he has made such sacrifices ? And is not a person a thousand times more culpable for having neglected a salvation which had cost so great a price ? “ Destruction is thy own, 0 Israel.” Osee xiii. 9. Accuse not, then, thy judge. His past mercies cannot but authorize present severity, and in dying for thee he has justified in advance the sentence of death which he shall pronounce against thee. ( 1 ) There is the principle of this in sanctifying grace, which is the life of the soul, a life which, by its nature, is to last always, and which will procure for the body immortal life, if the possessor of this life does not voluntarily lose it by sinning again, and by thus inflicting death a second time on the soul. - OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 529 come h, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and thej that hear shall live. For, as the Fat ter hath life in himself, so he hath given to i he Son also to have life in himself, and he hath given him power to do judgment because he is the Son of man. 2 Wonder net at this. For the hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God ; and they that have done good things shall come forth unto the resurrection of life ; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.” Jesus Christ adds, what is, in two words, an apology for all his acts and judgments, that the former are pro¬ duced by the power imparted to him by his Father, whose judgments and wishes are equally the rule of his wishes and his judgments: this he expresses by these ( 1 ) This is understood of the particular resur¬ rections which Jesus Christ had wrought or was still to work. They are proof by anticipation, and, as it were, the earnest of the general resurrection. (* * ) In a book so precise and so profound as Scripture, all terms must be weighed. What occa¬ sions this reflection is, that it is written that the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and that the Son is entitled to judge, because he is Son of man. Still it is the same person, and there is no difficulty in saying, the Son of man shall resus¬ citate the dead, and the Son of God shall judge them ; but here is attributed to each of the two natures the act which it shall produce immediately by itself. To the divine nature is attributed re¬ surrection, because nothing but an almighty nature can effect this by its own proper virtue: to human nature is attributed judgment, because the sitting of the judge, the pronouncing of judgment, and every thing of a sensible character in judgment, can be the immediate effect of a limited nature. G7 words : “ I cannot of myself do any thing. As I hear, so I judge, and my judgment is just: because I seek not my own will, but the will of him that sent me.” He has just announced great things : he is now going to support their truth by great testimony. The first is that of John ; for whatever authority the purity of his morals and his ever irreproachable conduct gave to the statement of Jesus, he does not expect to be believed upon his own simple assertion. “ If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not lawful. 3 There is another that beareth witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.” You yourselves have recognized the legitimacy of his testimony ; for “you sent to John, and he gave testimony to the truth. But I receive not testimony from man,” which is by no means necessary to Yet the right of sovereign judgment over the uni¬ verse belongs to God alone. And so the Son en¬ joys it only, because he is at the same time Sou of God, and, inasmuch as by the personal union of the Word with human nature, humanity has been associated with all the rights of the divinity, who imparts to it the power of doing immediately, and by itself, every thing which is not beyond the sphere of created nature. (*) If we servilely adhere to the letter, we must translate, My testimony is not true; and Jesus Christ would contradict himself, for he says in an¬ other place: “ Although I give testimony of myself, my testimony is true.” (John viii. 14.) No doubt it was true; but if it were single testimony it proved nothing, and the hearers had a right to decline be¬ lieving upon the maxim that no one can be judge or witness in his own cause. Hence what he ac¬ quires by extrinsic testimony is not truth, but a legitimate character which renders truth available, and compels it to be received. 53C • HISTORY OF THE LIFE me. Wherefore it is not for myself, “but j ing me; “ and you have not his word I say these things that you may be saved.” abiding in you, for whom he hath sent, him Besides, this testimony you have chosen is you believe not.” void of all reproach, and I do not reproach Meantime you deem yourselves the faith- you for applying to him. “John was a ful depositories and close searchers of this burning and a shining light. You were divine word. You “search the Scriptures, willing for a time to rejoice in his light,” 1 for you think in them to have life everlast- yet you turned away your eyes from this ing. The same are they that give testimony light, which seemed at first so welcome. of me, and you will not come to me that But although he was worthy of all belief, you may have life,” 2 which they only prom- “ I have a greater testimony than that of ise you through me, and which you depart John;” even that of my Father. “For from, whilst you seem to seek it, because the ” miraculous “ works which the Father you withdraw from the only road that con- hath given me to perfect, the works them- ducts to it. If I seek to attract you to selves which I do, give testimony of me, me, I do so with a view to your interest. that the Father hath sent me, and the and not my own. “I receive not glory Father himself who hath sent me hath from men. But ” you, who wish to justify given testimony of me. Neither have you by the motive of the love of God your un- heard his voice at any time, nor seen his willingness to hear me, “I know that you shape ; ” for God, who is a pure spirit, have not the love of God in you,” and the comes not under the observation of the conduct you pursue towards me is proof of senses ; but by the works which he has this ; for “ I am come in the name of my i * given me to perform, and which are, as it Father, and you receive me not. If another ! were, his voice, he has made sensible the shall come in his own name, him you will j testimony which he has rendered concern- receive.” 3 Yet your incredulity should j (') Since they sent a deputation to him, with of the law of Jesus Christ. They wished for the the disposition, in most, to recognize him as the end like ourselves: like them, we do not wish for Messias, supposing he had declared himself such. the means. They perished with such a wish ; We say in most, for the people proceeded in the and what can we expect but to perish like them, if matter in good faith, and the perverse intentions we do not pass from this wish, which I know not spoken of elsewhere are attributed to the Scribes : whether to call chimerical or hypocritical, to a and Pharisees only. John referred this honor to sincere, absolute, and efficacious wish, tending to him to whom it belonged. Yet the Jews did not the end by the means, and embracing everything believe him, although much more deserving of without exception and without reserve? credit when rendering this testimony to another ( 3 j This is not merely a threat, it is prophetic of than if he had rendered it to himself. what was going to happen immediately after the (“) Who is there who would not have life, and death of Jesus Christ. Whoever chose to assume above all others, eternal life ? The Jews wished the title of Messias found followers amongst them, it. And we also wish it. But the Jews did not and the prodigy of their credulity in this regard wish to have it through faith in Jesus Christ; and equals that of their incredulity. Terrible, yet just we do not wish to have it through the observance chastisement of that voluntary blindness which OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. - 531 not excite surprise. There is nothing in faith that datters human pride ; being little esteemed among men, faith attracts the complacency of God alone. “ How can you believe, who receive glory one from another, and the glory which is from God alone you do not seek ? Think not that I will accuse you to my Father.” He who after having closed their eyes to the truth, rendered them the dupes, and at last the victims of the grossest illusions and the most absurd falsehoods ! Let us dread this, since it is daily renewed before our eyes. When men will no longer hear the voice of those whom God has established as interpreters of his oracles, they listen to others, for after all the masses cannot frame for themselves a system of religion, and error, like “faith cometh” to them “ by bearing.” (Rom. x. 17.) They must of necessity hearken to other masters; and to what masters do they hearken ? First of all, to men without title, without credentials, without mission, “who bear witness of themselves,” who must be credited on their word, when, with a boldness as ridiculous as insolent, they come and tell you, I alone am more enlightened in matters of religion, I understand Scripture better than all the doctors and all the pastors of the Church. But this is merely the be¬ ginning of the illusion. After rejecting the real envoys of God, the people receive as from God every one who presents himself before them. By plentiful effrontery and some strokes of jugglery, a man fitted at most to figure as a charlatan, sets up as a prophet, and a thousand voices repeat: He is a prophet. Others come to join him, and as all have an equal right, there is soon formed a body of prophets and prophetesses, composed of the coarsest and craftiest of the lowest populace. In language worthy of those who use it, they retail the most monstrous conceits, such ravings as the excitement of fever could scarcely engender in the brain of a sick man. Whatever is intelligible is palpable impiety; but in general they do not understand themselves. Whether understood or not, still they are oracles, listened to with religious attention, yon are constantly citing against me, and whose most zealous defenders you claim to be, this “Moses, in whom you trust, is” already “one that accuseth you. For if you did believe Moses, you would perhaps 1 believe me also ; for he wrote of me. 8 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words ? ” (St. John v. 2-47.) who are entertained, whose sayings are reported and treasured up like a second Scripture, more respected than the first, which now is merely made use of to clothe their extravagant whims in sacred expressions. The mind once fascinated and carried away, the flesh has no longer any bridle: the filth of impurity mingles with the visions of fanaticism, and becomes incorporated with its fearful mys¬ teries. And well would it be if they did not soon pass from lust to cruelty, from folly to phrensy; if they did not advance with torch and steel in hand to accomplish the sanguinary predictions of those prophets, who never cease announcing the impend¬ ing and utter ruin of their adversaries ! To such a pitch does this reason degrade and vilify itself, when too proud to bend under the salutary yoke of divine authority. Such is in brief the history of the Gnostics, Montanists, Priscillianists, Donatists, Albigenses, Hussites, Anabaptists, fanatics of Ce- vennes, etc., etc., etc., and in fine, of all those who, walking in the same paths, must ever reach the same wanderings, and shall verify in themselves the expression of the Saviour: “ I am come in the name of the Father, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.” (St. John v. 43.) ( 1 ) See note 4, page 501, where this “ perhaps ” is explained. ( 3 ) In Deuteronomy xviii. 15, 18, 19, we read these words: “ The Lord thy God will raise up to thee a prophet of thy nation, and of thy brethren, like unto me.I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak all that I shall command him. And he that will not hear his words, which he shall speak in my name, 1 will be the revenger.” This prophecy has always been applied to Jesus 532 * HISTORY OF THE LIFE CHAPTER XIV. THE SINFUL WOMAN AT THE FEET OF JESUS.—THE EARS OF GRAIN PLUCKED. W E here insert an incident which others place somewhat later : they think it occurred at Naim, and we think at Bethany, which was a town not far distant from Jerusalem. It follows, from the view we take, that the sinner whose conversion we are going to relate is no other than Mary, sister of Lazarus and of Martha. Neither shall we distinguish her from Mary Magdalen, so well known by her tender and inviolable attachment to the sacred person of the Saviour. Many think that these are two, or even three different per¬ sons. They should not be censured for following on this point the opinion which appeared to them most probable ; but it is well to know that their proofs are very far from a demonstration. After having ex¬ amined their reasons, we think we may aver that they merely oppose conjecture to con¬ jecture, a new opinion to an old one. Now, where opinions are equally probable, we have no hesitation in saying that we side more willingly with those which are ancient and common than those which are new and singular. After this short digression, we Christ, and undoubtedly Jesus Christ here alludes to it. These words, “like unto me,” signify, 1st. A man “ like unto me,” to allay the apprehensions of the people, who through fear of dying, had en¬ treated the Lord not to speak personally any more by himself, as he had done upon Mount Sinai. 2d. They also signify a legislator “like unto me,” shall proceed to recount the narrative which occasioned it. Despite the violence of the Pharisees against Jesus Christ, one of them ventured to show him marks of attachment and re¬ spect. His name was Simon, and it is thought very probable that he is no other than Simon the leper, who is also mentioned under circumstances very like the present. Either from esteem for Christ, or from that species of vanity which induces the wealthy to invite extraordinary characters to their tables, Simon “desired Jesus to eat with him.” Jesus consented, and thereby show¬ ed that what he hated in the Pharisees was their vices, and not themselves. “He went therefore into his house, and sat down to meat. And behold, a woman that was in the city, a sinner, when she knew that he sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment: and standing behind at his feet, 1 she began to wash his feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her hhad, and kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. The Pha¬ risee, who had invited him, seeing it, spoke .to distinguish Jesus Christ from the other pro¬ phets, and to prepare their minds for receiving the new law which was to abrogate the old. ( 1 ) The posture then observed at table made this the more easy for her. They reclined on couches, the head being turned towards the table and the feet outwards. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 533 within himself, saying: This man, if he were a prophet, would know surely who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, 1 that she is a sinner.” He, before whose eyes all things are laid bare, knew well what the Pharisee dared to think, though he durst not utter, and by showing him that he knew it, he would guarantee to his mind the title of prophet which he de¬ nied him. But as he wished to spare the feelings of a man who had invited him to his table, he not only did not address him until after he had in some manner asked his permission, but also he employed a parable, which, without too deeply wound¬ ing his self-love, yet convinced him of his error, by showing him how blind he was in the judgment he passed upon Jesus Christ, unjust in his strictures on the sinful woman, and presumptuous in the estimate he formed of himself. “He said to him then, an¬ swering,” not his words, but his thoughts : “Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee. But he said : Master, say it. A certain creditor had two debtors : the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And whereas they had not wherewith to pay, he forgave them both. Which, therefore, of the two loveth him most? Simon an¬ swering, said: I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. Jesus said to him : Thou hast judged rightly.” And turning to the woman, he justified his apparent disregard of what she was doing, by showing that he had remarked everything, that he gave her credit for all, and that the tears of this sin¬ ful woman had been a more delicious food for him than all that which the Pharisee had served up before him. “Dost thou see this woman? I entered into thy house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she with tears hath washed my feet, and with her hairs hath wiped them. Thou gavest me no kiss, but she, since she came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but she with ointment hath anointed my feet. Wherefore, I say to thee, many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much. 2 But to whom less is forgiven, he loveth ( 1 ) To be a prophet, it is not necessary to know all things by divine revelation; it is enough to know several. Eliseus was not the less a prophet, although he was ignorant of the death of the Su- namitess’ son, which the Lord, he said, had con¬ cealed from him. Thus Christ might, as man, be ignorant of the woman’s character, and yet be a prophet. The Pharisee was then in error on this point. We shall see that he also deceived himself on several others. Innumerable are the blunders of malice, which, withal, thinks itself so subtle and penetrating. (’) The great love of this sinful woman is here assigned as the cause of the great remission ac¬ corded to her. In the parable remission is granted to her on account of this great love. If you seek for the justice of the application, I am free to avow that it is hard to find. Yet that it does not appear impossible, you may form your own judgment by what we are going to say. That there would ap¬ parently be no further difficulty if we admitted a love which was at the same time the cause and the effect of the remission, that is to say, a love that pre¬ ceded the remission, and which had at the same time the remission for its motive. This is, in fact, the love of that penitent. According to the para¬ ble she loved much, because many sins were re¬ mitted her; and following the application, many sins are.remitted her, because she loved much. Now, here is the way in which all this can be ex- 534 HISTORY OF THE LIFE less. And lie said to her: Thy sins are forgiven thee.” (St. Luke vii. 36-48.) This was solely what she desired; and what constituted the glory of this illustrious penitent is, that she was the first who ap¬ plied to Jesus Christ to obtain from him, not, like others, deliverance from some cor¬ poreal infirmity, but the healing of those mortal wounds which sin had made in her soul. In this, her faith extolled by Christ seems perfectly enlightened, since she re¬ cognized him as her Saviour in the true sense, in the sense that he was “to save the people from their sins.” (St. Matt. i. 21.) Now this is what was less understood than anything else even by those Jews who recognized him as a prophet. Far from plained and reconciled. Let us bear in mind these words of the Council of Trent, when it treats of the dispositions for justification : “ They (the sin¬ ners) must begin to love God as the source of all justice,” that is to say, as author of the justification of sinners. This justification is evidently the ef¬ fect of the merciful bounty by which God remits sins, and this mercy is the attribute under which God is here proposed to the love of the sinner. It is therefore enjoined on him to love God, because God is so good as to render him j ust, after being a sinner, by mercifully according to him the pardon of all his crimes. Now, the heavier he is loaded with crimes, the greater is this bounty with respect to him, and the more amiable should it appear to him; and I conceive that if I love God, because I know that he is sufficiently good to grant to my repentance the pardon of all my crimes, I ought to love him a thousand times more, being a thousand times more culpable, than I should love him if I were a thousand times less guilty. I have said that such was the love of this sinful woman; and thus it is that at the same time that she was the woman to whom many sins were remitted, because she loved much, she is also the thinking that he was soon to confer upon sinful men the power of remitting sin, they were amazed to see that he claimed this power himself. Whence it followed that “they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves,” surprised and scandalized : “ Who is this that forgiveth sins also ? ” But without stopping to reply to them, “Jesus said to the woman: Thy faith hath made thee safe ; go in peace.” 1 (St. Luke vii. 49-50.) This faith was evi¬ dently that by which she had believed that Jesus Christ had the power and the will to remit her sins ; and Jesus, by telling her so, taught these murmurers that only by similar faith could they merit and obtain a like favor. debtor, who loves the creditor not for remitting again, but because the debtor believes fir ml y him that is sufficiently generous to remit him even a heavier debt. In a word, this is gratitude by an¬ ticipation, for a grace which is sure to be obtained from the pure bounty of Him who can, and we know will accord it. Let us say, however, that there never is any certainty of having obtained this grace. Yet this uncertainty should be no obstacle to the love of which I speak; because this does not depend on God, but on ourselves, that is to say, on our own dispositions, for the validity of which we never can answer. For could I be infal¬ libly assured that they are such as they ought to be, I should no longer be permitted to doubt of my pardon ; it would be to me an article of faith, as it was for this sinful woman, after Jesus Christ had said to her: “ Thy sins are forgiven thee.” ( 1 ) The wrongful use which Protestants have made of these words to uphold their justifying faith, compels us to remember here that Jesus Christ had said previously: “ Many sins are for¬ given her, because she hath loved much.” It is not, therefore, faith alone which justifies, but “faith that worketh by charity.” (Gal. v.) OF OUR LORD When the feast was over, Jesus, whom nothing obliged to prolong his sojourn at Jerusalem, set out again for Galilee. He arrived there, and was engaged, as usual, in his gospel journeys. “And it came to pass on the second-first 1 sabbath, that as he went through the corn-fields, his disci¬ ples being hungry, began to pluck the ears, and rubbing them in their hands, did eat.” (St. Luke vi. 1 ; St. Matthew xii. 1.) The law allowed this in express terms (Deut. xxiii. 24), and the thing, considered in it¬ self, could not draw on them the slightest reproach from men who piqued themselves on being scrupulous observers of the law. Hence it was that the circumstance of the particular day enabled the Pharisees who were among the crowd that followed Jesus to cavil. “Why,” said they to the disci- ( 1 ) First-second, that is to say, the first sabbath after the second day of the feast of the Azymes. In Leviticus xxiii. we read the following de¬ cree : “You shall count, therefore, from the mor¬ row after the sabbath, wherein you offered the share of first-fruits, seven full weeks, even unto the morrow after the seventh week be expired, that is to say, fifty days.” This day after the seventh week was the day of Pentecost. Now it has been very happily conjectured that all the sabbath days between the feast of the Pasch and that of Pente¬ cost were named from this second day of the Pasch, so that the first Saturday following 'was termed the first sabbath after the second day, and, by abbrevi¬ ation, the first-second, the second-second, the third- second, etc., that is to say, second sabbath after the second day, third sabbath after the second day. Note that the ripe ears of wheat leave no ground for doubting that it was then between the Passover and Pentecost. (’) In the first court of the tabernacle, where laymen were allowed to enter. This occurred at JESUS CHRIST. 535 pies, “do you that which is not lawful on the sabbath days?” (St. Luke vi. 2) ; and as their animosity was directed chiefly against the Master, “ Behold,” said they to him, with that bitter zeal which betrays rather than disguises passion, “ behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days.” “Have you not read,” said Jesus, answering them, “what David did when he Was hungry, and they that were with him ? How he entered into the house of God 2 under Abiathar, 3 the high priest; and took and eat the bread of proposition, 4 which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for them that were with him, 5 but for the priests only ? Or have ye not read in the law, that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple break the sabbath, and are without blame? But I Nobe, a sacerdotal town, whither the tabernacle was transported from Silo. ( 8 ) It is written in 1 Kings, chap, xxi., that the high-priest from whom David asked the bread was Achimelech, the father of Abiathar. Several an¬ swers have been given to this difficulty. The most decisive is, that it is settled by the 2 Kings, viii., and by the 1 Paralipomenon, xviii., that the father and the son had each of them the two names of Achimelech and Abiathar. ( 4 ) So called because the bread was proposed, or set, before the face of the Lord upon a table called, for this reason, the table of the bread of proposi¬ tion. They were piled up, six on each side. The twelve represented the twelve tribes of Israel, who protested by this offering that they held from the Lord all their subsistence. They were renewed every sabbath day, and those which were taken away could be eaten only by the priests, and that within the enclosure of the tabernacle. ( 6 ) David was alone; but his men were near, as we also see in 1 Kings xxi. OF THE LIFE 536 HISTORY tell you that there is here a greater than the temple.” (St. Matthew xii. 2-6 ; St. Mark ii. 26 ; St. Luke vi. 4.) He spoke of himself, and this was one of those expressions which, as it were, es¬ caped him, whereby he discovered his divinity to those who hearkened attentively to his words, and endeavored to under¬ stand them ; for who is greater than the temple, if not the Lord of the temple ? Then, he added, to show them that the re¬ proach they made him was far from being inspired by that pretended zeal which they paraded: “If you knew what this mean- eth, I will have mercy, 1 and not sacrifice, you would never have condemned the in¬ nocent.” Jesus Christ had already quoted this maxim against them in a case similar to this, and thus we see how earnestly he desired that this truth should be deeply en¬ graven on every mind. Finally, to close his reply and the lesson which it had occa¬ sioned his giving, “ he said to them : The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath also.” (St. Mark ii. 27.) The one follows evidently from the other, since the Son of man, being the king and master of all men’ controls all connected with men, and whatever is made for them, as the Sabbath was. He has then a right to dispense with them, and he did so in the present circumstance. For it is acknow¬ ledged by all, that the disciples then re¬ quired a dispensation, not, as we have already said, for taking the ears in another’s (*) (*) See note 2, of the 11th chap., page 518. field, nor even for rubbing them in their hands, which was equivalent to breaking bread into pieces before eating, an action which could never have been forbidden : but a dispensation was requisite to enable them to gather these ears of corn on the sabbath-day, which was expressly forbid¬ den, and from this Christ dispensed them. Undoubtedly he had a right to do so : and no one had the right to call him to account for the reasons upon which he grounded the dispensation. Yet he condescended to give them, and, on close examination, we find in them the foundation of a complete apology: 1st. By declaring himself Lord of the Sabbath, he established his sover¬ eign right to dispense with it. 2d. The law was, by its nature, susceptible of dis¬ pensation ; inasmuch as, being made for man, it was natural it should yield to his real and pressing necessities. 3d. The motive which induced Grod to use this in¬ dulgence is his goodness. He prefers that men should break the rest which he com¬ manded them, than allow themselves to be pressed by hunger, so as to run the risk of fainting. Such is the direct meaning of this expression, “ I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,” without prejudice to the moral sense which we have given it, and which it likewise had when uttered by Je¬ sus Christ. 4th. The disciples were in a position requiring dispensation for two rea¬ sons. Necessity was the first. It had authorized David in an action which, un¬ der any other circumstances, would have been deemed a sort of sacrilege; with much better reason would it authorize the disciples in the seeming violation of a less OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 537 important law. The second reason is, the having become his fellow-laborers, are en- sanctity of the functions in which they gaged in ministrations much more holy were employed. This justifies, or rather than all those of the ancient priesthood! sanctifies, the working of the priests in the It has been remarked that Jesus Christ temple, for the preparation and immolation justifies his disciples by the example of of victims, whence came the Jewish prov- holy and religious men, but that, when his erb : There is no sabbath in the temple. object was to justify himself personally, he How much the more ought it to justify and alleges only the example of his Father, sanctify the actions of those who, being at- comparing thus man to man, and a God to tached to the person of Jesus Christ, and a God. CHAPTER XV. THE WITHERED HAND HEALED ON THE SABBATH DAY.—MEEKNESS OF JESUS CHRIST FORE- TOLD.—VOCATION OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. '"T^HIS complaint was soon revived. on the sabbath-day. “ But Jesus knew their J_ Shortly after what we have just re- thoughts,” and disconcerted them in a way lated, “It came to pass also on another which, while it covered them with shame, sabbath-day, that Jesus entered into the only imbittered their hatred, and made synagogue, and taught. There was a man their resentment more implacable. “He whose right hand was withered, and the said to the man who had the withered Scribes and the Pharisees watched if he hand : Arise, and stand forth in the midst. would heal on the sabbath,” and they asked And, rising, he stood forth.” Then, ad- Jesus : Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath- dressing himself to the Pharisees, “ Jesus days?” They spoke thus, “that they said to them : I ask you, if it be lawful on might find an accusation against him” (St. the sabbath-days to do good or to do evil— Luke vi. 6, 7 ; St. Matt. xii. 10), either ol to save life or to destroy ? ” 1 (St. Luke vi. self-contradiction, if he varied at all in his 8)—that is to say, not to save life when we reply, or of gross prevarication, if he ad- have the power ; for between the two ex- vanned what, in their eyes, was a most treines of saving and depriving of life by scandalous maxim, It is lawful to heal a positive act, there is a medium, which ( 1 ) Not to save the life of tlie soul or that of at this sentence ? But who can excuse those whom the body, when in our power so to do, is taking God has charged with the care of souls, or to whom av'ay one or the other. Who will not be alarmed he has given means of relieving bodily wants? • 538 HISTORY OF THE LIFE consists in inaction, and doing neither good nor evil. But the proof that Jesus used this expression in the sense which we as¬ cribe to it, is this, that whereas they might have replied to him, “ they held their peace.” (St. Mark iii. 4.) They admitted then by their silence, that doing good to our neighbor on the sabbath-day, when this good admits of no delay, is not evil; or rather that we should be doing evil to our neighbor, equal to this very good, if we omitted to do it then when in our power. But to make them feel the utter inhumanity of their false zeal, Jesus added this comparison, drawn from their own conduct (St. Matt. xii. 11, 12 ; St. Mark iii. 4 ; St. Matt. xii. 13): “ What man, he said to them, shall there be among you, that hath one sheep, and if the same fall into a pit on the sabbath-day, will he not take hold on it and lift it up ? 1 How much better is a man than a sheep! Therefore, it is lawful to do a good deed on the sabbath-days ” (St. Matt. xii. 11, 12), continues he, in conclu¬ sion. He seemed to pause for any answer they might have to make ; “ but they held ( 1 ) What was then permitted is expressly for¬ bidden by the canon law of the Jews, and the rabbis have become more scrupulous on this point than the Pharisees were in the time of Christ. They say, notwithstanding, that when an animal falls into a pit on a sabbath-day, a person in that case can go down into the pit, place something un¬ der the animal to raise it, and that, if it then escapes, the sabbath is not violated. Wretched subtlety, which Avould not hinder the sabbath from being violated, in fact, if the law forbid acting in a circumstance like the present; because to act it evidently is, to descend into a pit, carrying thither a stone or piece of wood, and place it under an an- tlieir peace,” confounded with shame and vexation. “ Jesus, looking round about on them with anger, being grieved for the blindness of their hearts, 2 saith to the man : Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth,” “ and his hand was restored to health, even as the other.” (St. Mark iii 5 ; St. Matt. xii. 13.) At the sight of this miracle, the Phari¬ sees “ were filled with madness,” and as¬ suredly there were grounds to cause it. Jesus Christ had clearly shown them that it was allowable to cure this man upon the sabbath-day, in whatever point of view they regarded it. Still, had he applied his hand, their malignity might have found room to cavil; but what could they say since he employed only his word t. Was it forbidden to speak on the sabbath-day? —or, were words that wrought miracles to be excluded from those that were law¬ ful ? It would be too absurd to say this, and, forced to hold their peace, they no longer heark^ d except to the dictates of exasperated and furious passion. “ Going out, they immediately made a consultation with the Herodians 3 against him, how they imal which requires this aid to get out of difficulty. It is well to remark, that with all their scruples, this sort of people do not wish, withal, to lose their sheep. ( 2 ) Sin is injurious to God, whom it offends, and wretched for man, who commits it. As an offence towards God, it excites the indignation of Christ, and the evil it does men causes him grief. This is because Jesus Christ loves both God and man. True zeal is that which has its origin in these two loves. ( 3 ) We are ignorant who these Herodians were. They may have constituted a religious sect, or a po¬ litical party, perhaps both together. It is very OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. might destroy him” whom they could not confound. (St. Mark iii. 6.) “Knowing it”—Jesus, whose omnipo¬ tence could crush the efforts of his enemies with the same ease that his wisdom had disconcerted the vain subtleties of their words, wished on this occasion to give his disciples the example of the conduct they should pursue in the persecutions they were to undergo. He appeared to yield to the storm (St. Mark iii. 7), “ and retired with his disciples to the sea : and a great multitude followed him from Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from beyond the Jordan : and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, hearing the things which*he did, came to him.” Jesus “ spoke to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him, because of the multi¬ tude, lest they should throng him : for he healed many, so that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had evils.” (St Matt. xii. 15 ; St. Mark iii. 7-9.) “He healed them all, and he charged them that they should not make him known.” (St. Matt. xii. 15, 16.) “The unclean spirits” probable that they derived the name of Herodians from their declared attachment to the person of Herod Antipas, then tetrarch of Galilee, or in gen¬ eral for the family of the Herods. ( 1 ) See note 1, page 509. ( a ) To connect this prophecy with what pre¬ cedes, it is said that Christ’s intention, in forbid¬ ding the publication of his divinity and his mira¬ cles, was to avoid irritating the Pharisees, who were already but too bitter against him. This motive was worthy of the meekness of Jesus Christ, who constitutes the object of this prophecy. Envy should not be so humored as to make us abstain from works of zeal and charity, at which it is so —that is, the possessed, who were their instruments—“ when they saw him, fell down before him, and they cried, saying : Thou art the Son of God. And he* strictly charged them, that they should not make him known 1 (St. Mark iii. 11, 12) ; “ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaias the prophet, saying: 2 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen ; my beloved, in whom my soul hath been well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not contend, nor cry out ; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. The bruised reed he shall riot break, and smok¬ ing flax he shall not extinguish, till he send forth judgment unto victory : and in his name the Gentiles shall hope.” (St. Matt. xii. 17-21.) Meekness, therefore, is one of the features which designate the Messias, and he was to be recognized by this amiable character. Were the Jews, then, mistaken when they figured to themselves a conquering Mes¬ sias ? No : mistaken they were not, ex¬ cepting in the mode of his conquests ; for unjust as to take offence ; but we must hide them as much as possible, in order not to increase its pain or augment its torment. There is malignity in insulting its grief, and in flourishing before its eye the light which it hates and which consumes it. If envy is unworthy of this caution, such caution is due to charity, which never allows us to take pleasure in another’s pain; it is due also to our own safety. Envy, when irritated, is capable of anything; and how often has its uncautiously roused fury overthrown the victor in his tri¬ umphal chariot, and changed into funereal pomp the triumph indiscreetly paraded! 540 HISTORY OF THE LIFE he was to be one in fact. The justice here alluded to is the evangelical law, to which he is to subject all nations ; but it will not be by force or terror. The means which he is to employ shall be a tone of voice so moderate, that no one shall ever remark in it either the bitterness of contention or the clash of dispute. It will not be by over¬ throwing and crushing all he meets in his passage ; his step shall be so soft, his tread so measured, that he might put his foot upon a bruised reed without breaking it, and on smoking flax without extinguishing the fire : terms of expression which, in the hallowed language, signify a meekness not only unalterable, but also infinitely cau¬ tious not to shock the weak, and to soothe the infirm. By these weapons is he to tri¬ umph over all hearts, and, victorious over all nations, he shall first of all accomplish in his person that magnificent promise which he is just going to make to all the imitators of his incomparable meekness : “ Blessed are the meek, for they shall pos¬ sess the land ! ” (St. Matt. v. 4.) Alone he was more than sufficient for the execution of this great project. Yet, for the honor of human nature, with which he had not disdained to unite himself, he wished that men should be his co-operators. Already he had disciples ; still up to then they were all nearly equal, and his will was that some of them should hold the first rank amongst their companions, and be¬ come the fathers and chiefs of the new ( ‘) Jesus chose Judas because he sincerely wished him to be an apostle. J udas rendered this choice a woeful one by his treachery. This did not nation whom he was about creating on the earth. The moment was come when he was to make this choice, the most important to the universe, of all ever made, and the most glorious to those who had the hap¬ piness to be included. Before he proceeded to this step, “he went out into a mountain to pray.” We know that such preparations were not requisite for him ; but it was fit¬ ting that he should give the example to his Church, which has made it a law to imitate him in this point, as we see by the fasts and the prayers by which she always pre¬ cedes the choice and consecration of her ministers. “When day was come, he called unto him his disciples,” “and they came to him.” “ He chose twelve of them,” “ that they should be with him, and that he might send them to preach.” “Whom also he named apostles ” [which signifies sent], “and he gave them power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils.” (St. Luke vi. 12, 13 • St. Mark iii. 13, 14.) The names of the twelve apostles are these: “Simon, whom he surnamed Peter, » the first; then James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James ; and he named them Boanerges, which is, ‘The sons of thunder ; ’ Andrew, Philip, Bar¬ tholomew, Matthew, the publican ; Thomas, James, the son of Alpheus, and Jude, his brother, named Thaddeus; Simon, the Cananean,” “who is called Zelotes,” and “Judas Iscariot,* who was the traitor.” 1 (St. Matthew x. 2 ; St. Luke vi. 14-16 ; St. hinder the Saviour from choosing him, because it was to serve to teach us that the most excellent gifts from God always leave the man who has been \ OF OUR LORD ——— JESUS CHRIST. 541 Mark iii. 17, 18.) This is the reason consanguinity, which furnishes no ground why he is always placed the last among for elevating kinsmen to ecclesiastical dig- the apostles. Peter is always named nities, is on the other hand no reason for the first, as he was appointed head of excluding them. Besides, to be cfilled to the Apostolic College, and first pastor. the apostleslrip was then to be destined to James, son of Zebedee, is the same whom toils, persecutions, and martyrdom. If we call James the Greater. It is not in those who dispose of church patronage the sense in which they themselves seem to employed their relatives only in such min- have originally understood the expression, istries, they would rather be liable to the that he and his brother were termed Sons reproach of having sacrificed than of hav- of Thunder ; this name was given them only ing honored or enriched their family. to signify the brilliancy and energy of their Jesus wished to make this choice in some preaching. James, the son of Alpheus, is place remote from the multitude, and for known by the name of James the Less. that purpose had retired to the mountain. He also is called in Scripture the “brother When this reason no longer detained him, of the Lord,” whose near relative he was he jdelded to the desires and wants of the as well as his brother Jude, or Thaddeus. people who were expecting him. “ Coming Each of J,hem is the author of a canonical down with them, he stood in a plain place ; Epistle, bearing his name. Matthew, who, and the company of his disciples, and a out of humility, gives himself here the very great multitude of people from all title of Publican, is the same as Levi, the Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea-coast son of another Alpheus, elsewhere men- both of TjU’e and Sidon, who were come to tioned. Some think Bartholomew not dif- hear him, and to be healed of their diseases. ferent from Nathaniel, one of the first dis- And they that were troubled with unclean ciples in the order of vocation. If we find spirits were cured. And all the multitude some relations of the Saviour among his, sought to touch him, for virtue went out apostles, w 7 e must not think that he chose from him, and healed all.” (St. Luke vi. them from motives of flesh and blood. 17-19.) endowed with them the power of using or abusing therefore, ever respect in pastors the divine mis- them at his option. Called by the divine vocation sion, which they do not lose by their personal to the holiest of states, man may still be lost there; unworthiness; and, lastly, we must know how to and must there work out his salvation with fear distinguish, on occasion, the individual from the and with trembling. Further, that as Judas, when body, and the minister from the ministry, if wc do he preached by virtue of the mission he had re- not wish to be reduced to say that the apostles ceived from Jesus Christ, should not have been were a society of traitors, and the apostleship a less listened to than Saint Peter, so we must, school of treachery. I s ■- 542 mSTORT OF THE life CHAPTER XVI. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. A FTER having cured bodily evils, he thought this was a fitting time to labor for the salvation and perfection of souls. “Jesus seeing” then “the multitudes,” who were come to hear him, and who were disposed by his benefits to listen to him, and to hear him with fruit, “ went up [the second time] into the mountain to an emi¬ nence,” from which he could be seen and heard in the plain ; “and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him.” Then “lifting up his eyes on his disciples,” he said, “and taught them” (St. Matthew v. 1, 2; St. Luke vi. 20), by the ensuing dis¬ course, which he seems to have addressed, at least in part, to them alone, but which he pronounced in a tone of voice sufficiently elevated to be heard by r all the people, as we may easily judge by the admiration which this heavenly doctrine caused among the multitude. He begins by laying down the foundation of true happiness, and he annihilates at one stroke all the ideas that had been formed on this point, not only by the passions, but by philosophy, which was merely the art of gratifying them methodically after cover- (*) (*) Whole Volumes would scarcely suffice to develop the morality comprised in these eight beatitudes. We shall confine ourselves here to pointing out the sense which appears to us the most literal. The poor in spirit are in the highest degree those who have voluntarily stripped them¬ ing them with a false gloss of reason, and by Judaism itself, which, taking it all in all, for the exceptions might be counted, imagined no other happiness than what is found in the enjoyment of the goods, the honors, and pleasures of earth. “ Blessed,” said he, “ are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek; for they shall possess the land. Blessed are they that mourn ; for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice; for they shall have their fill. Blessed are the mer¬ ciful ; for they shall obtain mercy. Bless¬ ed are the clean of heart; for they shall see God. Blessed are the peace-makers ; for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice sabe ; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake. Be glad, and rejoice, for your re¬ ward is very great in heaven ; for so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.” 1 (St. Matthew v. 3-12.) Since it is finally decided that what men selves of all their goods to follow Jesus. Those, therefore, whose hearts are detached from worldly goods, whether they possess them or possess them not, participate also in this beatitude, but in an inferior degree, and proportionably to their merit. .We shall make use of the term “long suffering,” OF OUK LORD JESUS CHRIST. 543 regarded as evils are the only true goods, it is easy to conclude, that what they called goods are the evils most to be dreaded and the greatest. Yet lest this sequel should escape inattention, or be evaded by subtlety, Jesus draws the conclusion for¬ mally, and after having beatified the first, he hurls this tremendous anathema against the second: “Wo to you that are rich: for yon have your consolation” in this world. “ Wo to you that are filled ; for you shall hunger. Wo to you that now laugh ; for you shall mourn and weep. Wo to you when men shall bless you ; for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets.” (St. Luke vi. 24—26.) because our language has not a more proper term, to express who those “meek” are to whom is promised the true land of the living. Those who mourn and who shall be comforted are they who suffer with resignation the afflictions which God sends them. The impassioned love of virtue is expressed by the hunger and thirst after justice. To this noble passion is promised perfect satiety, whioh can never be found in fleeting goods, that only sharpen the hunger and irritate the thirst of their unhappy votaries. The .word “merciful” extends here to every species of mercy, both spirit¬ ual and corporal. We do not see God with the eyes of the body, says Saint Augustine, but with the eyes of the heart: hence those who have pure eyes have nothing to hinder them from seeing his ineffable beauties unveiled. Those are called peace¬ makers who strive to restore and preserve peace amongst men. This great feature of resemblance to the God of Peace will merit for them, in a most excellent manner, the title of children of God. The kingdom of heaven, adjudged in the first place to the voluntary poor, is also to those who suffer persecution for justice: to the former by right of exchange, to the latter by right of con¬ quest. The former are those prudent traders, who These prophets, true and false, being cited at the close of the blessings and male¬ dictions, are a proof that Jesns addressed his words directly to his apostles. What follows shows it no less clearly ; for al¬ though applicable to a certain point to all Christians, still it does not bear its full meaning, except with reference to the apostles and their successors in the function of the apostleship. “You are,” saith he to them, “the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted ? 1 It is good for nothing any more, but to be cast out and to be trodden on by men. 2 You are the light of the world ; destined to enlighten it; you cannot escape sell all to purchase it: the latter are those violent invaders, who grasp it by force, and carry it at the point of the sword. It is not the less assured to all the others. For the recompense proposed to them is always the kingdom of God, under diffei- ent names, which correspond with the different merits to which it is promised. These expres¬ sions are also understood to refer to the temporal rewards of virtue, and this sense should not be excluded; but it must only be admitted as secondary. To advance it as the first and most literal, would be putting too visibly the accessory in place of the principal. ( 1 ) Salt does not lose its savor; but if it should, with what can we salt, or what is- there in nature which can be as salt to salt itself? This is what Christ here means. Thus the doc¬ tor, if he deceives himself, cannot be set right by another doctor; the pastor, if he wanders, cannot be brought back by another pastor ; and the apos¬ tle, if he becomes perverted, cannot be converted by another apostle. Not that the thing is ab¬ solutely impossible; but it occurs so rarely, that we reckon it an exception, which does not hinder the truth of the general proposition. (>) “To be trodden on by men,” an expression HISTORY OP THE LIFE 541 its observation. “ A city seated on a moun¬ tain cannot be bid: neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (St. Matt. v. 13-16.) But in order that they may be this mys¬ terious salt, which imparts to the earth, that is to say, to the men who inhabit it, the relish of virtue, and which after having imparted preserves this relish; that they may become the light of the world, and that city built on a mountain, which rivets the traveller’s eye, and prevents him from wandering from his path ; that they may be the light put upon the candlestick, that it may shine to all those who compose the house of the great father of the family ; in short, that they may be, by the lustre of of the lowest contempt, but which is not too strong to express that into which those ministers of the altar inevitably fall who dishonor their ministry by a publicly licentious life. ( 1 ) The Jews have reproached the Christians with this saying of Jesus Christ, as a falsehood in the mouth of him who said that he was sent to establish a new law on the ruins of the old. Never was there a reproach more false or an ac¬ cusation more groundless. In the first place Jesus Christ kept the law, if we consider it under the aspect of the moral and ceremonial precepts. As regards the former, he was always perfectly irreprehensible; and in order to confound his ene¬ mies, he had only to defy them to reproach him with a single sin. As to the ceremonial precepts, although in no way bound to. observe them, he, nevertheless, disdained not to fulfil them. He chose to be circumcised ; for, although he was cir¬ cumcised in his mere infancy, he was the only child of whom it was true to say that he was their preaching, and the example of their holiness, the reformers of the world, and worthy ministers of the heavenly Father, to whom those who witness their virtues and success shall refer all the glory thereof; they must teach all salutary truths, and be faithful to all duties, without distinction of little or great, of what is important or what seems less so. But that they may have in his person the most perfect model of such rare perfection, Jesus thus proceeds: “Do not think that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 1 For, amen, I say unto you : Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled. He, therefore, that shall break one of these least command¬ ments, and shall so teach men, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven ; 3 but he that shall do, and teach, he shall be only circumcised because he wished to be so. I say the same of his presentation in the temple. Arrived at a mature age, he went to Jerusalem at the great festivals; he celebrated the Pasch; and as to the sabbath, concerning which he was so loudly reproached, he never gainsaid its obligation, but only the false or minute additions of the Pharisees. In the second place, if we consider the ancient law as the sketch of the new, not only did Jesus Christ accomplish it by realizing the things it shadowed forth, and verifying its prophecies, but it could re¬ ceive its accomplishment from him alone : without him it would have eternally remained imperfeot; and, if we wish to speak exactly, we should say that he rather perfected than abrogated it, as the colors which cover the lines of a drawing do not efface the design, but perfect it, by imparting the requisite animation to the figures of the requisite body and life. ( 3 ) According to the common interpretation, these words signify that he shall be excluded from OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 545 called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (St. Matt. v. 17-20.) This conclusion shows clearly enough that these commandments which Jesus Christ denominates “least,” were not so in themselves, but only in the judgment of the Scribes 'and Pharisees. These men were never accused of despising w r hat are termed “little” things: we know, on the contrary, that they relinquished important duties to cling scrupulously to minute ob¬ servances. This drew upon them from Jesus Christ this grave rebuke, that the latter should not be omitted, but that we must commence by fulfilling the former. The error, or rather the depravity, which here seems to be the cause of the reproach cast upon them, is, their regarding as a trifling matter the inward accomplishment of great commandments or precepts, and treating as a prevarication only the out- the kingdom of heaven. According to some, they mean that he shall have the last place. What fol¬ lows is in favor of the first interpretation. Those who prefer the second, ground themselves on the fact, that small precepts alone are spoken of, that is to say, according to them, such as do not oblige to the extent of mortal sin. We shall see whether or not they are mistaken in this. But supposing that in fact they are not mistaken, if then it be true that we may violate these small precepts with¬ out being therefor excluded from the kingdom of heaven, can any one venture to say that we should not be excluded therefrom if we taught others to violate them, above all, if invested with the charac¬ ter to teach ? Teaching people to contemn the will of God, which is not the less declared, and, in one sense, is not the less entitled to respect in small 69 ward and accomplished act. Provided they abstained from this, they deemed them¬ selves just, and reckoned as naught a thousand criminal desires, to which they abandoned themselves without scruple. Insufficient justice! which at most was merely a mask, since it did not dwell in the heart, which is the only seat of true justice, man being never innocent when his heart is guilty, as he never can be guilty when his heart is innocent. What gives this explanation a still greater de¬ gree of probability, is the following words of the Saviour, which will disclose to us the malice of murder in a word uttered from the lips, and the iniquity of adultery even in a desire of the heart. “ You have heard that it was said of old: Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judg¬ ment. But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in dan¬ ger of judgment: 1 And whosoever shall say to his brother, Eaca, shall be in clan- thiugs as in great; encouraging men to emancipate, themselves from their primary duties, by affording them facility in so doing in those which are re¬ garded as of less importance; depriving virtue of all her defences, and, like a stronghold whose out¬ works are all demolished, exposing it to be can ied by the first assault of vice; could the pastor, the preacher, the director, who should have caused so great an evil, have thill a right to claim even the last place in the kingdom of heaven? ( 1 ) There were two different tribunals among the Jews, that bore the name of judgment: one Was composed of three judges only, and the other of twenty-three. The council spoken of here was the Sanhedrim, the great senate of the nation, composed of seventy-two judges. Causes were brought before these different tribunals, according ger of the council. And whoever shall say : Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” Still there is a means of avoiding this chastisement. But this means, to which it hath pleased God to attach the pardon of the sinner, is of indispensable obligation and a necessity so urgent, that there is no duty, no matter of what nature, but should yield to this. “If, therefore, thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remem¬ ber that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming, thou shalt offer thy gift. Be at agreement with thy adver¬ sary betimes, whilst thou art in the way with him : lest perhaps the adversary de¬ liver thee to the judge, and the judge de¬ to the importance of the matter or the quality of the crime. The Jews had also three capital pun¬ ishments, the sword, stoning, and fire, the most rigorous of all. The words of the Saviour allude to all these things without prejudice to the literal sense of the pain of fire, which should be under¬ stood with reference to the fire of the other life. Since it is with reference to murder that Jesus Christ speaks in this way, it is natural to suppose that, in order to deserve these severe judgments, anger must be accompanied by ill-will; that the word Raca, also, which, according to most, is merely a vague expression of contempt, or which signifies at most a giddy persofl, according to those who give it a definite meaning, that this word, I say, must be pronounced in a tone and in circum¬ stances which make it an insult; and the tone and circumstances must also make the word “fool,” or any other equivalent thereto, an outrage. This is not always the case, and, therefore, these faults are' not always mortal sins; but the fact occurs often enough to furnish just grounds of terror to those liver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Amen, I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence, till thou re¬ pay the last farthing.” (St. Matt. v. 21-26.) This sort of parable is not very difficult to explain. The adversary is the person offended. The agreement referred to is the just reparation of the offence ; the way is the life time ; God is the judge ; the officers are the spirits executing his ven¬ geance ; and hell or purgatory is the prison wherein, according to the quality of the debt, the debtor shall be inclosed, never to come forth from the former, where the pri¬ soner remains always insolvent, the crime which made him fall therein being always mortal : or, if the guilt be only venial, not to come forth from the second until after he has paid, according to the very rigor of who, when in anger, do not know how to moderate their resentment or temper their speech. We ought not to except certain phlegmatic sallies of anger, less violent in appearance and less outrageous in language. Here the language is nothing, all de¬ pends on the thing they signify; and, in despite of his affected moderation and his smooth expres¬ sions, the polished man who gives any one to un¬ derstand that he regards him as a fool and a block¬ head, shall be condemned to the punishment of fire. If you object that there will, therefore, be many men condemned to the punishment of fire, con¬ sidering the great number of those with whom such modes of speaking are habitual and ordinary, it is easily answered, that in the judgment of God the multitude will not save the guilty ; that the habit, very far from justifying the sinner, renders him more criminal, and that the same rule applies to this case as to that of judging our neighbor; that lastly, since the oracle hath spoken, there is no further question of discussing the matter, but of amending our life. 546 HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF OPR LORD JESUS CHRIST. justice, all the penalty he had deserved to undergo. For it doth not suffice, when we have offended our brother, to ask God’s pardon for the offence ; we must also sat¬ isfy the injured party. Without this pre¬ liminary there can be no remission. If this obligation was unknown to the Jews, it seems to be forgotten by Christians ; but, forgotten or unknown, it is not the less real, and the law which prescribed it is too plain to leave the smallest doubt on the point. Whoever refuses to submit to it must expect to undergo one of those terri¬ ble judgments which have just been pro¬ nounced ; and, even in this life, he should regard himself as excluded from the altar, and, in some measure, excommunicated by this sentence, coming from the mouth of the God of Justice and of Peace, who still repeats to him from the recess of the tab¬ ernacle wherein he invisibly resides : “ Go first to be reconciled to thy brother.” The new legislator goes on to speak of adultery very nearly in the same way that he did of murder, that is to say, he reveals it where men had not even suspected it to be. “You have heard,” saith he also to them, “that it was said of old : Thou shalt not commit adultery ; but I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery in his heart.” (St. Matt. v. 27, 28.) Desire follows so close after sight, and sight appears so inevitable to any one having eyes, that we are tempted to ask, then, whether they are to be plucked out? Yes, said the Saviour, who, very far from endeavoring to elude, is the first to draw this consequence : “If thy right eye scan¬ 547 dalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee ; for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than thy whole body be cast into hell ; and if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee ; for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body go into hell.” (St. Matt. v. 29, 30.) The surgeon does so every day, that is to say, sacrifices a mortifying member for the preservation of the whole body, and these figures of speech are obviously drawn from the medical art. Yet we must not take them exactly to the letter. True, it is better to lose the eye and the hand, than the whole body and soul, and that if sal¬ vation depended on such a separation, we should endure it coming from the violence of another ; but it is not allowable to per¬ form it on ourselves, and the Church has ever condemned those who, deceived by the literal sense, have made attempts against their own lives, or the members of their bodies. Reduced to their true mean¬ ing, these words signify that we are obliged to withdraw ourselves from every thing that is a near occasion of sin to us, were it a thing so dear and so precious as the right eye and the right hand, and were the sepa¬ ration equally as painful. Here all tam¬ pering is mortal. Flight or hell, separation or hell. Between these two things Jesus Christ places no medium. At the sight of this fearful alternative, let every attach¬ ment be broken, every repugnance sur¬ mounted, every interest sacrificed ; let all the sophistry of the passions disappear be¬ fore the flash of this lightning, and be silent 548 niSTORY OF THE life at the peal of this thunder. Yet, Jesus soever shall put away his wife, let him give does not stop here ; and, after having de- her a bill of divorce. 1 But I say to you, nounced adultery in a desire, he shows it that whosoever shall put away his wife, again in a sort of union tolerated up to that excepting for the cause of fornication', 2 period : it was that formed after a marriage maketh her to commit adultery, and he broken, not by the death of one of the that shall marry her that is put away,” for married couple, but by the divorce permit- whatever cause it may be, “ committeth ted by the old law, which was finally and adultery.” (St. Matt. v. 31, 32.) Un- irrevocably abolished by the author of the doubtedly the man who marries again, after gospel law, who thus brought back mar- having put away his wife, also commits riage to its original purity. He thus ex- adultery, and the woman who consents to presses himself: “It hath been said, who- marry him sins in like manner ; for what ( 1 ) We shall have occasion hereafter to discuss conformably to the constitution of Moses and of the law of divorce. We shall only here remark the the people of Israel. tenor of the act, and its formalities as observed by ( 2 ) Several other reasons might authorize mar- the Jew's. 1st. It could not be granted, except ried people to separate; but Jesus Christ mentions with the permission of the husband. 2d. The lius- only adultery. 1st. Because he treats here directly band was to hand the bill to the woman with his only of the dismissal of the woman by the hus- own hand. 3d. There could not be less than two band, and other legitimate reasons rarely arose on witnesses, and all the witnesses were to seal it. the woman’s side. 2d. Because the other causes 4th. It set forth three generations on the man’s of separation do not proceed from the very nature side and three on the woman’s. 5th. The paper of marriage, like that of adultery, which openly on which it was engrossed was to be of a greater violates the contract. We are not unaware that length than breadth, the letters round, and sepa- violence carried to a certain excess, that danger of rate; there should be no erasure,; and, if a drop apparently inevitable perversion authorize married of ink fell upon the paper, it made it void. In people to separate; but this is only by virtue of these minutiae we seethe scruples of the Jews, who the natural right which all have to provide by often made no scruple in repudiating a woman flight or separation for their life’s safety, or the from fancy or for trifles. The husband said to the salvation of their soul. 3d. The separation caused woman, when giving the bill: “Receive the bill of by adultery is perpetual in its nature, while those divorce : be separated from me, and let it be lawful for other causes are not. In the latter cases, when for any one to marry thee.” This bill was in these the culpable party acknowledges, and amends, they terms:—I, Rabbi N., son of Rabbi N., son of Rabbi are bound to come and live together; but no one JSi., such a day of such a month of such a year is bound to do so in the case of adultery. Even if from the creation of the world, being in such a repentant and converted, pardon may be granted or place, of my own full and free determination, and refused; the parties may reunite, or remain irrev- without being constrained thereto, have repudiated ocably separated. In Christianity this right does N., daughter of Rabbi N., son of Rabbi N., son of not the less belong to the woman than to the man : Rabbi N., and have placed in her hands the bill of I say in Christianity, which, of all religions, is the divorce, the schedule of rupture, and the testimony most Aworable to women, and that only by re-es- ol division, that she may be separated from me, tablishing them in their legitimate rights, else- and that she may go wheresoever it pleaseth her, where overlooked through the injustice, or usurped without any one having the right to gainsay her. by the violence of men. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 549 is said of one is equally understood of the the Jews. “ Again, you have heard,” other, although not formally announced. added he, “ that it was said to them of So, too, when Jesus Christ said that the old : Thou shalt not forswear thyself: but man who looks at a woman with eyes of thou shalt perform thy oaths to the Lord. 1 concupiscence hath committed adultery in But I say to you, not to swear at all; 2 his heart, we must understand that a wo- neither by heaven, for it is the throne of man by casting on a man similar glances, God ; nor by the earth, for it is his foot- renders herself guilty of the same crime. stool ; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city Man’s depravity obliged him to place of the great King. Neither shalt thou first in the order of reform these two pre- swear by thy head, because thou canst not cepts, which form the fifth and sixth of the make one hair white or black ; but let your Decalogue. Having brought them to such speech be yea, yea ; no, no; and that high perfection, our Lord comes to that which is over and above these is of evil.” which, in the order of the commandments, (St. Matt. v. 3B-36.) is second. He relieves this likewise from All the preceding is of strict obligation ; the false glosses of the Pharisees, and he what follows is not equally so. Among the makes additions to it hitherto unknown to precepts there are to be found counsels ( 1 ) This regards more especially the vow, which tlie second precept, it is, at least, the explanation is only a species of oath ; but taking occasion from of a second sense, which the Jews did not perceive this, Jesus Christ gives precepts for all oaths, in these words: Thou shalt not swear “in vain.” what nature soever. They only understood it solely of the prohibition of ( 2 ) That is, “ in no manner.” It does not mean swearing contrary to truth; Jesus Christ explains under no circumstances, whatever the followers of to them its application to swearing without cause. Wickliffe and the Anabaptists may have thought, fol- Another addition to this precept is the prohibi- lowing the example of some ancient obscure heretics, tion, which Christ subjoins, of not swearing by any- who concluded, from these words, that it is never law- thing whatsoever. The Jews imagined themselves ful to swear. The sequel shows clearly enough that irreprehensible when they swore by anything else Christ had in view only to proscribe the multitude than by the name of God. Christ teaches them. of oaths of all sorts that the Jews had constantly in that to swear by creatures is swearing by the Crea- their mouths. It has, then, been always permitted tor, and that to swear by one’s self or by one’s head to call God to witness a thing that is true, when (a species of oath much in use among the Greeks necessity or great utility obliges, and that it is done and Romans, whence, apparently, it had passed to respectfully, and in suitable circumstances. Such the Jews), was also sinful, but for a different rea- has been, at all times, the practice of tire Church, son. To swear by the head, is to doom it, suppos- authorized by the great examples of Saint Paul, ing a person swears falsely, and to doom it is dis- who calls God to witness what he writes ; and of posing of what properly belongs to God as if it the Angel of the Apocalypse, who, after lifting up were'our own property. For can a person be the his hand, swore by Him that liveth for ever and owner of his head, if he cannot change the color ever. But, beyond these cases which we have just of a single hair? Every oath beyond those which excepted, all swearing is forbidden, and we should we have excepted, is always a sin; this follows evi- confine ourselves simply to affirmation or negation. dently from the prohibition of Christ, and the rea- If this is not an addition which Christ makes to sons upon which he grounds it. 1 550 HISTORY OF THE LIFE which are not rigorously binding, at least with thee in judgment, and take away thy as to external practice ; for, as regards the coat, let go thy cloak also unto him ; and interior disposition, there is no person who whosoever will force thee one mile, 2 go is not, to a certain extent, bound, and who- with him other two.” (St. Matt. v. 38-41.) ever should refuse to adopt their spirit, has Behold the new law of retaliation, which not the spirit of the Gospel. Such is what the Lamb of God substitutes for the old Christ here opposes to the ancient lex tali- one. The retaliation of the law rendered onis, which he abolishes, as incompatible wrong by wrong, that of the Gospel suf- with the meekness of the new law. “ You ferecl it twice over rather than once avenge. have heard that it hath been said : An eye Such is the disposition of heart to which for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. 1 But I these words of our Saviour oblige us, and say to you, not to resist evil: but if one not to present the left cheek to him who strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him strikes the right. Those who insist that • also the other : And if a man will contend there are cases wherein we are bound by ( 1 ) We find this law in Exodus xxi. It did not ther, when there exists another reason for seeking give individuals the right of taking justice into it, to make this reason yield to charity, to prefer their own hands; it merely prescribed to judges that injury should remain unpunished, rather than the measure of punishment which they should dis- see it punished by the penalty of the guilty, even pense to those who used violence. The Jews were although this impunity exposes him to fresh inju- not allowed to seek this punishment through a ries. We are not always rigorously hound to this; spirit of vengeance, as appears by the passage of hut we are bound to mingle no resentment with Leviticus, six. 18 : “ Seek not revenge, nor be the reason which makes us seek reparation. It is mindful of the injury of thy citizens.” In Chris- so difficult to attain this precision, that timorous tianity, it is not forbidden to denounce the guilty, souls, who despair of reaching it, rather prefer to and to seek by lawsuit the reparation of the inju- relinquish the attempt, than to encounter the risk ry, provided it be done through some other motive of so hazardous a pursuit, and of a victory which, than that of resentment and vengeance. Here, perhaps, would only save their honor at the ex- then, we see no difference between the two laws; pense of their conscience. For what man is suffi- and there remains still to be known what Jesus ciently master of his heart to answer for his not Christ can have in view, as he evidently appears to relishing with delight the always criminal pleasure abrogate something ancient and substitutes some- of seeing at his feet an enemy humbled and con- thing new. In two words, he reforms the abuse founded ? of the ancient law, and he establishes the perfec- ( 2 ) In the Latin, “ angariaverit.” This word tion of the new. The abuse of the ancient law comes from the Persian “ angar,” which passed consisted in doing, through a spirit of vengeance. into the Greek and Latin tongues, and even into what was allowed to be done solely through some the French, in which tongue it is used in the fa- other innocent motive. I say that this was done miliar style. It meant originally a public courier. without any scruple, and, far from viewing this These couriers were entitled to dismount all whom vengeance as criminal, we have grounds for sus- they met, and oblige them to accompany them to pecting that the Pharisees made it a duty and an the next stage. The species of violence which obligation. The perfection of the new law con- they used is expressed by the verb angariare. This sists not merely in not seeking for reparation usage still exists amongst most Eastern nations. through a motive of vengeance; it requires, fur- OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 551 the letter, are reduced to fancy some which we may almost call chimerical. Some saints have done so to the edification of the whole Church ; but it was not through ob¬ ligation, since, in like circumstances, Saint Paul, and even Jesus Christ, did not do so. We may add, that it is more proper not to act thus, when we foresee that by so doing we should merely redouble the audacity of aggression and encourage a new crime. We must reason in the same way in regard to a man who would rob us unjustly or ex¬ act painful services from us to which he is not entitled. By yielding to him what he would deprive us of, or by acquiescing in his exactions, we are not bound to offer him double value ; but we should do so, if necessary, rather than oppose violence to violence. It is then this meekness, which resisteth nothing, it is this unalterable pa¬ tience, ever superior to all injuries and all injustice, which is here enjoined upon us by Jesus Christ. To a morality so sublime, this God of charity and peace joins these short maxims, the. practice of which, if they were observed, would banish from ( 1 ) Should any one say, that if this counsel were followed, the world would be full of plunderers of others’ property, it is easy to answer, that each of us is only responsible for himself alone, and not for the rest of the world. Be meek and patient, without being apprehensive of ever exceeding in these virtues; and, supposing that any inconve¬ nience result therefrom, let us leave it to God and the civil authorities under him to regulate all. ( a ) In the Acts of the Apostles (xx. 35), Saint Paul says: “You ought ... to remember the word of the Lord Jesus, how he said : It is a more blessed thing to give rather than to receive.” This saying is not in any of the four evangelists. Saint Paul had learned it from the apostles, or from one society many crimes and many miseries : “Give to him that asketh of thee; and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away” (St. Matt. v. 42) ; “ of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again” (St. Luke vi. 30) ; “ forgive, and you shall be forgiven ; give, and it shall be given to you. 1 Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall they give into your bosom.” (St. Luke vi. 37, 38.) “ It is a more blessed thing to give rather than to receive.” 2 (Acts xx. 35.) “ And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner.” (St. Luke vi. 31 ; St. Matt. vii. 12.) Mature knew nothing so pure, and phi¬ losophy had never dreamed of aught so noble as these doctrines. But it is useless to know them unless we put them in prac¬ tice ; and to do this, we must have the prin¬ ciple in our hearts. This principle is, the love of all men, without excepting those whom reason, when left to its own light, portrays to us as the most detestable, that is to say, without excepting our most cruel enemies. Whosoever loves these may as- of the disciples who had seen the Lord. There is no doubt that these preserved the recollection of many other sayings of their divine Master, which are not written. As this is written, we deemed it our duty to take and put it in this place where the Saviour makes such magnificent promises to lib¬ erality, which serve to prove the truth of the max¬ im in the sense that it is more advantageous to give than to receive. It is also true in the sense that there is greater pleasure in giving than in re¬ ceiving. Generous souls find no difficulty in sub¬ scribing to this truth, which they feel. The selfish, who do not feel it, cannot comprehend it; the latter should believe it as they believe mys¬ teries. HISTORY OF THE LIFE 552 sure himself that he accomplishes the great precept of universal charity; but he who hates them abides in death, because charity is incompatible with the hatred of a single man, were he the most odious and wicked of all men: a truth heretofore openly re¬ sisted by the human heart, which, after an offence, found nothing so reasonable as hatred, or so just as vengeance. New lights are about to produce new feelings. The odious man can, and should be loved. Here is the precept uttered from His lips who can teach naught unreasonable, since he is the sovereign and eternal reason; and he would no longer be justice and good- ( * 1 ) In Leviticus xix. 18, we read these words: “Thou shalt love thy friend as thyself.” These words, “Thou shalt hate thy enemy,” are not in any part of Scripture, unless we chose to find this meaning in the order God issued to his people, to exterminate the heathen nations, whose country his people were to occupy; but even this construction would not be just. The order to exterminate does not command hatred; and that which is given to soldiers, to kill the enemies of the State, is not an order to hate them. Yet had it been so, Christ re¬ voked it, as he came to do away with the distinction between Jew and Gentile, and to unite all nations in the bonds of the same faith and same charity. But this is not the interpretation which our Saviour here refutes. From these words, “ Thou shalt love thy friend,” the Jews had apparently concluded by the rule of contraries that they were, if not obliged, at least authorized to hate their enemies. They understood the word “ enemy ” in the sense opposed to “ friend ”—that is to say, in the sense of private enemy. The description which Christ gives of it leaves no doubt on the point. According to him, it is the enemy who hates us, who persecutes us, who curses us, and calumniates us, all of which things are understood more natu¬ rally with reference to a private enemy than to the public enemy. ness itself, if be were capable of command¬ ing impossibilities. “You have heard that it hath been said : Thou shalt love th}^ neighbor and hate thy enemy. 1 But I say to you: Love your enemies ; 2 do good to them that hate you ; ” “bless them that curse you ; ” “pray for them that persecute and calumniate you ; that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, 3 who maketh his sun to rise upon the good and bad, and rain- eth upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have ? 4 Do not even the pub¬ licans these things ? And if you salute ( 2 ) The heart of man is impenetrable to him¬ self, and it is very difficult, especially in the strug¬ gles of resentment against charity, to discover its depth, and to decide what is its predominant dis¬ position. “ Love,” says Jesus Christ; but how can I assure myself that I love him whom I am tempt¬ ed a thousand times a day to hate mortally? Listen to what our Saviour adds : Do good to him, pray for him, bless him, that is to say, speak well of him. Then you have the greatest assurance that a Christian heart can have, that you have main¬ tained charity. On the contrary, if you speak ill of him, if you seek to injure or thwart him—if you refuse to salute him, that is to say, if you refuse what you owe to his rank and the different relations which you may have with him, as citizen, neighbor, relative, your position is decided; you do not love, or rather there is proof that you hate: and if still you say, “As a Christian,” I love him, the expression is well understood, and, in modern acceptation, signifies something worse than indifference. ( 3 ) That, by this great feature of resemblance, you may be recognized for the children of your heavenly Father. When you see a man who loves his enemy, say boldly: Here is a child of God. No one can be mistaken here. (*) There may be merit in loving our friend OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 553 your brethren only, what do you more? regard to our enemy, whom we are sure to Do not also the heathen this?” “If ye do hate from resentment, if we do not love good to them who do good to you, what him from religion. thanks are to you ? for sinners also do this. But, after having taught us to do good, And if you lend to them of whom you hope Jesus goes on to teach us how to do it well. to receive, what thanks are to you? for Prayer, alms, and fasting are works so ex- sinners also lend to sinners for to receive cellent, that all virtues are comprised in as much. Bat love ye your enemies ; do them, or refer to them. Yet nothing is good ; and lend, hoping for nothing there- sound for a diseased heart'. Such was that by ; and your reward shall be great. And of the Pharisees, with whom every virtue you shall be the sons of the Highest, for he was turned into vice, because of the motive is kind to the unthankful and the evil. Be that made them practise these virtues ex- ye, therefore, ‘ merciful ’ and ‘ perfect,’ as teriorly. They forgot God, and thought also your ‘ heavenly ’ Father is perfect.” wholly of pleasing men. To shun the eye (St. Matt. v. 43 ; St. Luke vi. 28, 32-35.) of man, and to think wholly of pleasing Such is the perfection to which we are God, is the great maxim which our Saviour called ; not that we may equal it, for who is opposes to their hypocrisy, and, at the as perfect as God ? but that we may labor same time, the salutary instruction which to acquire it, and give it unceasingly new he gives to his true disciples in the follow- increase, for the very reason that we never ing words : can equal this perfection. In short, we “Take heed that you do not your justice must either resemble our heavenly Father, before men, to be seen by them ; 1 other- or else we shall resemble publicans and wise you shall not have a reward of your - Pagans. There is no middle ground, be- Father who is heaven. Therefore, when cause there is none between love and thou dost an alms-deed, sound not a trumpet hatred. We can never be indifferent with before thee, 2 as the hypocrites do in the when at the same time we love our enemy; but it solely to the end that God may be thereby glori- when we do not love our enemy, there is no longer fied is always a virtue, and, as we have said, some- any merit in loving our friend. In such a case the times an obligation. In general, we must make latter is loved only through taste or interest. For public what is of duty, and keep secret what is had charity any part in it, she would make ns love a matter of supererogation. Neither of the two our enemy also. rules, however, is without exception. When we ( 1 ) This maxim does not abrogate that which are in doubt whether the good work should be we read at the commencement of our Saviour’s shown or concealed, the latter course is always discourse: “ So let your light shine before men, the surest; it is so easy to be lost through vanity, that they may see your good works, and glorify and so difficult, not to say impossible, to sin your Father who is in heaven.” It is not always through humility. a crime, it is sometimes even a duty to do good Humility and charity sometimes exceed bounds, in the eyes of men, even with a design to their or seem to exceed ; but they never sin. seeing it. All depends upon the intention. To ( J ) This is, perhaps, a figurative expression, to wish to be seen when doing good, I say, to wish 70 signify the ostentation with which the Pharisees 554 HISTORY OF THE LIFE synagogues and in the streets, that they other error on prayer, that of making the may be honored by men. Amen, I say to merit thereof consist in the multitude, and, you, they have received their reward. 1 But perhaps, in the elegance, of the words. when thou dost alms, let not thy left hand This is to treat God as we would men, who know what thy right hand doth, 2 that thy suffer themselves to be dazzled by the alms may be in secret; and thy Father, pomp of diction, and persuaded by the who seetli in secret, will repay thee. And power of eloquence. The Jews, perhaps, when ye pray, you shall not be as the were not exempt from this defect. Yet hypocrites, 3 that ‘love to stand and- pray in Christ attributes it here to the Gentiles . the synagogues and corners of the streets, only. But, as his Church was to form a that they may be seen by men. Amen, I union of the two people, it was proper that say to you, they have received their re- the Gentiles, who were to compose the ward. But thou, when thou slialt pray, greater part of it, should also have that enter into thy chamber, and, having shut instruction which was necessary for them. the door, pray to thy Father in secret, and He proceeds, therefore, thus : thy Father, who seeth in secret, will repay “And when you are praying, speak not thee.” 4 (St. Matt. vi. 1-6.) much, as the heathens ; for they think that This naturally led Christ to correct an- in their much speaking they may be heard. 5 dispensed their alms. Perhaps there was also among ( 3 ) They prayed standing to be seen by more them the custom of really having a trumpet sound- people. The words of the text in Latin, “ stantes ed, to assemble the poor with more show and noise. orare,” may also signify “stopping to pray,” w r bich ( 1 ) Vain like themselves, since they are vain leaves the posture undecided. This second con- men. But, however, it is theirs, what they had in struction would make ( the hypocrisy consist- in view and desired. They have received it, and are seeking out public places, and saying long prayers paid; God owes them nothing more. To speak there, with a view of being seen and praised by exactly, he owes them the chastisement of their men. criminal vanity, and he owes it to himself to ( 4 ) This is said without prejudice to public avenge the injury which they have done him, by prayer, recommended and practised at all times. preferring the glory that comes from men to that Some distractions do not hinder it from being which comes from God. the better course for the heads pf families ( 2 ) This is a hyperbole, which conveys the idea to pray in the midst of their children and their that we ought to conceal our alms from the rest of servants than in the secrecy of their private apart- men, and, if it be possible, even from ourselves, by ments. I speak here of morning and evening forgetting them, or setting little value upon them. prayer. If they wish to pray at other hours, let Nothing is so great as to do great things, and them apply to these prayers the lesson which our • esteem them little. There is a measure of alms Saviour here gives us. which each person is bound to perform, according ( 6 ) What renders long discourses, that is, a great to his means; these alms ought not to be un- display of our miseries unnecessary, is the knowl- known. This would tend to scandalize those who edge which God has of them. Our sentiment might have grounds for believing that you failed thereof must be lively, and accompanied with an to perform the precept. Secrecy refers only to ardent desire to be delivered from them. This what is over and above this. does not require many words. ------ --- OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 555 Be not you, therefore, like to them. Your Father knoweth what is needful for you before you ask him. Thus, therefore, shall you pray: Our Father, who art in hea¬ ven, hallowed be thy name ; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is ( 1 ) Saint Cyprian says, can God reject this prayer, in which he recognizes the very words of his Son ? Tertullian calls it the abridgment of the Gospel. It is in reality, for those who meditate it, an inexhaustible source of light and instruction. We shall confine ourselves to giving what seems to us the most literal sense of it. The name of Father is at the commencement, 1st, to excite our confidence; it is our Father to whom we pray; 2d, to touch the heart of God; those who pray are his children. When calling him Our Father, we remember that we are all brethren, since we have a common Father. The heathens, who have not received the grace of adoption, have not, like us, the right of calling him our Father, and the only Son whom he begot from all eternity is properly the only person who has the right of calling him, my Father. “ Who art in heaven.” God is everywhere, but heaven is the abode of his glory, and the inherit¬ ance which he has prepared for his children. Where can we more willingly contemplate him than in the place where he reigns with the greatest glory, and where we are to reign eternally with him ? “ Hallowed be thy name.” The name of God is essentially holy, says St. Augustine; where¬ fore all that we can ask for here is, that his sanctity may be known and confessed by all men. “ Thy kingdom come.” Reign everywhere without op- pooition, and hasten the coming of that great day when all thy friends shall be at thy side, and all thy enemies at thy feet. “ Thy will be done,” etc. Those who love God desire the most perfect ac¬ complishment of his will that it is possible to imagine. In heaven but one will is done, that of God, because all others are perfectly conformable to it. We ask that same thing for earth; if we in heaven ; give us this clay our ” daily “bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors ; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.” 1 (St. Matthew, vi. 7-13; St. Luke xi. 3.) cannot obtain it for all, each may obtain it for himself, and the earth has the happiness of still possessing souls sufficiently angelical to render it easy for us to judge that this petition is not with¬ out effect. “ Give us this day our daily bread,” that is to say, whatsoever is necessary and sufficient for the support of the life of the body. “ This day:” for who knows whether he shall see the morrow ? “ Our daily bread: ” As we read in Saint Luke. In Saint Matthew it is “ super-substantial bread.” The Greek word is the same in the two evangelists, and there is every appearance that the “super-substantial” of Saint Matthew bears the same sense as the “ daily” of Saint Luke. The first may signify the bread necessary to the support of our substance, that is to say, of our body, or indeed the bread which corresponds to the sub¬ stance of this day; for the Hebrews, in order to signify the present day, said the “ substance' of the present day;” and we know that Saint Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew (Maldonado, on Saint Matthew, p. 147). This bread above all substance is also, according to the Fathers, the Eucharistic bread; for this meaning, although mystic, is none the less here a direct and literal one. If it be rea¬ sonable for us to ask for the bread which nourishes the body, how much more is it to ask for the bread which supports the life of our souls ? And can we pray to our Father without asking from him the bread which is by excellence the bread of the children ? “ And forgive us our debts.” Our of¬ fences, which render us, with regard to God, insol¬ vent debtors. God, nevertheless, consents to remit to us these immense debts, these ten thou¬ sand talents; provided we remit to our brethren the few pence wherein they may stand indebted to us. This is drawing good from evil, and causing life to issue from the bosom of death, whilst we 556 HISTORY OP THE LIFE After giving us this admirable prayer, Jesus Christ recalls the fifth petition, to show us that it comprehends a kind of cov¬ enant between God and man, by which God undertakes to forgive the man who forgives, and the man who does not forgive virtually consents that he is not to obtain from God the pardon of his sins. This truth, equally terrible and consoling, is ex¬ pressed by these words : “ For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences.” (St. Matt. vi. 14, 15.) Now, if we pray after the manner pre¬ scribed, we may hold for certain that our Father will hear us. His word is express, and his goodness alone is as infallible a guarantee to us as his truth. For Jesus Christ saith further: “ Ask : and it shall be given you ; seek, and you shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For learn from our own sins to grant unto others a pardon which we are so much in want of our¬ selves. “ And lead us not into temptation.” God does not tempt us; hut he permits us to be tempt¬ ed, and the experience which we have of our weak¬ ness makes us beg of God not to allow it, a prayer which God grants by diminishing temptations and redoubling his help. “But deliver us from evil.” The Latin word signifies, equally, the evil or the wicked one. The Greek word properly signifies the evil one, that is to say, the devil. As to the sense, it is quite equal to ask from God that he should deliver us from the evil which the wicked one doth, or from the Avicked one that doth the evil. This prayer embraces two parts: the first appears to have in view only the interests of God; the second is for us. Good children should desire the prosperity of their father before their OAvn. every one that asketh receiveth, and lie that seeketh findetli; and to him tliat knocketli it shall be opened. And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone ?’ or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent ? Or, if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion ? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, Iioav much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him ? ” (St, Luke xi. 9-13.) “And when you fast,” continues our Saviour, “ be not as the hypocrites, sad : for they disfigure their faces, 3 that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen, I say to you, they have re¬ ceived their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, 3 and wash thy face, that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father Avho is in secret; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, will repay thee.” (St. Matt. vi. 16-18.) We must then have God alone in vietv * (*) The glory of God is more advantageous to ourselves than Ave think. If it Avere not so, Avould the Church say to God : “ We thank thee for thy great glory ? ” (*) We ask from God what Ave think to be bread, and Avhat in fact is a stone. God gives us Avhat appears a stone, but, nevertheless, is bread. God grants when he seems to refuse. He would have refused if he had appeared to grant. For after all, Avhat is sought for is bread. ( a ) Some think that they rubbed their faces with certain preparations Avhich rendered them pale and livid. This was the false color of hypocrisy. ( 3 ) Supposing you did mean to perfume the head upon that day : for if a person only perfumed on fast days, then perfumery, instead of dissem¬ bling the fast, Avould announce it. Therefore affect nothing, and conceal mortifications which yon should practise in secret. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 557 in all the good works we perform. This simplicity of purpose and purity of inten¬ tion is what renders them virtuous and worthy of recompense. But if vanity or interest is their sole or principal object, that is to say, if the intention be corrupt, this vitiates all we do, as Jesus Christ ex¬ plains by this elegant metaphor: “The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome , but if thy eye be evil, thy whole body shall be darksome. If, then, the light that is in thee be darkness, the darkness itself how great shall it be! ” (St. Matt. vi. 21, 22.) CHAPTER XVII. CONTINUATION OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. P RIDE, lust, anger, and vengeance, that is to say, almost all the pas¬ sions, were overthrown by these divine precepts. Jesus Christ had attacked them even in the very heart of man, where they could no longer exist after the deadly blows he had dealt them. For, widely different from the Pharisees, who cleansed the exte¬ rior, and left corruption within, this wise physician sought to rectify the interim, without which the exterior, even supposing it well regulated, would only be a hypo¬ critical show, and vice painted over with the colors of virtue. There remained one more passion to be subdued, this was ava¬ rice, of all the passions, that which is most deeply rooted in the heart, and the most difficult to extirpate. Christ shows its folly, in its hoarding up of goods which it seldom enjoys ; its inordinate character, in its so engrossing the heart as to exclude all thought and desire of heaven ; its illusion, in its endeavors, against reason and experi¬ ence, cunningly to ally its schemes with the service of Hod: for nearly all a\aii- cious men would fain be devout, and per¬ suade themselves that they are. Lastly, according to his ordinary method, Christ attacks this passion in the heart, by strip¬ ping it of the most specious of all its pre¬ texts, which is the fear of future want. This excellent moral lesson constitutes the subject of the following articles : “ Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth, where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up to yourselves treasures in heav¬ en P where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not bieak through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.” “ No man can serve two masters ; for either he will hate (■ ) This is done principally by alms. To keep one’s goods is, then, to lose them; and to give them is to treasure them up. ---—---—- 558 HISTORY OF THE LIFE the one and love the other ; or he will sus¬ tain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 1 There¬ fore, I say to you : Be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat, and the body more than the raiment ? Behold the birds of the air ; they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your hea¬ venly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they ? Now, which of you, by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit ? And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow : they la¬ bor not, neither do they spin ; but I say to you, not even Solomon, in all his glory, was arrayed as one of these. And, if the grass of the field, which is to-day, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe, how much more you, 0 ye of little faith! Be not solicitous, therefore, saying : What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed ? For after all these 2 things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye, therefore, first the kingdom of God and his justice ; and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not, therefore, solicitous for to¬ morrow ; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself; sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.” (St. Matt. vi. 19-21, 24-34.) The judgments which we pass upon one another occupy a position here which shows how much more important this mat¬ ter seemed to Jesus Christ than to the majority of mankind, who scarcely reckon among their faults those which they daily commit. Their consequence will be better known, when we shall have seen what re¬ ward Christ promises to those who do not judge, and what judgment he reserves for those who do. 3 “ Judge not,” he says, “and you shall not be judged: condemn not, and you shall not be condemned ; ” “for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. 4 .And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, ( 1 ) Remark the propriety of the term : for man can possess riches aud serve God; but we cannot be subject to riches and serve God. ( 1 ) God does not prohibit forecast, but he pro¬ hibits anxiety, as disrespectful to his parental providence. Not to worry about this present life, and to busy ourselves much about the future life, are, in two words, what we ought to do, and the reverse of what we really do. ( 3 ) What is as clear as day we do not judge, but see. Beyond this never judge, if you be not a judge. You are such with regard to those over whom you have a right of correction. We may be allowed to act upon a legitimate suspicion ; but we are not permitted to judge. That a man’s fidelity is sus- pectecl is not enough to entitle us to judge him faithless, although it may be enough to enable us in certain circumstances to displace or discharge him, on account of the right which we have to em¬ ploy only persons of unsuspected fidelity. Whilst this right is well known, its limits are scarcely ever known; for we do not only form the judgment, but we pronounce and publish it, without dream¬ ing that a subordinate, and perhaps a servant, has no less a right to his reputation than the master has to his own, and that often this reputation is even more necessary to the servant. This is one of those sins which are never remitted, unless re¬ paration is made. C) That is to say, that those who shall, have OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 559 and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye ? Or how sayst thou to thy brother : Let me cast the mote out of thy eye, and behold, a beam is in thy own eye ? Thou hypocrite, 1 cast out first the beam out of thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” (St. Luke vi. 37 ; St. Matt. vii. 1-5.) We have already remarked, that throughout this discourse Christ had the apostles more directly in view, and that among the precepts he gives, some apply only to them and their successors in the ministry. We now call the reader’s atten¬ tion to one of the latter class. “ Give not that which is holy to dogs: neither cast your pearls before swine, lest, perhaps, they trample them under their feet, and, turning upon you, they tear you.” 2 (St. Matt. vii. 6.) Which signifies that we must not expose holy things to be profaned, nor announce the Gospel truths, when we could not reasonably expect any other fruit than to irritate those to whom they are announced, and draw down a perse- cution detrimental to the preacher, and perhaps to the whole Church. Zeal must then be according to knowledge, many people will tell you so. But knowledge should not be devoid of zeal ; and, if in¬ discretion is blameworthy, cowardice is more so. Let us add, that it is more com¬ mon, because human interests are thus best suited. In the apostles’ time, it was ne¬ cessary to recommend discretion rather than zeal. At other periods, it has been more seasonable to preach zeal than dis¬ cretion. After laying down the law, Jesus Christ had now nothing more to do but to fortify his followers against the false constructions which might be put upon it. These were to be of two kinds. They might be ex¬ plained, first of all, by custom, which is, they say, the best interpreter of laws. Christ shows that this maxim has no con¬ nection with his law. He formally declares that the majority will be prevaricators, and that the number of faithful observers will be beyond comparison the smaller of judged rigorously shall be judged with rigor; for the judgments of God shall neither be false nor rash, like ours. In what, therefore, could they re¬ semble ours, if not by severity ? There are two ways of judging the guilty, even when attainted and convicted, one full of sternness and harshness, the other meek and indulgent. The former was that of the Pharisees, the latter that of Jesus Christ, who said to the adulterous woman: “Neither will I condemn thee.” (’) Because censure supposes zeal for justice, and is its expression. Now, he who does not com¬ mence by condemning himself, has not truly zeal for justice. He, therefore, only wears the mask of justice, and this makes him a hypocrite. ( 2 ) If any one be tempted to believe that Christ acted contrary to his own maxim, when he an¬ nounced his doctrine to the Jews, to whom it was useless, and to the Pharisees, whose fury it excited, we answer: 1st. That many listened with docility and profited by his instructions. 2d. When he taught the Jews, he taught all nations and all ages to whom his doctrine should he repeated. 3d. The contradictions Avhich it drew upon him, by causing his death, were to secure the redemption ■■ of mankind. Every foreseen persecution must not hinder preaching: it should only suspend that which could have no effect but exciting per¬ secution, or could not produce sufficient fruit to counterbalance the evil of persecution. 560 HISTORY OF THE LIFE the two ; that, therefore, his law should be understood and observed to the letter, or, if we wish to explain it by practice, we seek the true meaning in the practice of the lesser number. The corrupt glosses of the false prophets was the second rock to be avoided. Christ teaches us how to know these dangerous men, and thus forewarns against being misled those who are sin¬ cerely desirous not to be misled. For the false prophet, when once he is unmasked, takes in those only who wish to be taken in. Here are the very words of the Sa¬ viour : “ Enter ye in at the narrow gate : for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow ( 1 ) That is to say, by their works. One evil deed may decide that the prophet is false. A good work does not equally decide the prophet to be true. We have seen already that there are ostenta¬ tious prayers, proud fasts, and pharisaical alms. Humility and charity are the least equivocal marks. In vain may the false prophet disguise himself; he is always despising and slandering, and sooner or later shows himself. Yet, a person may be neither humble nor charitable, and still not be a false prophet. There are men who do wrong and teach right. Works are not, therefore, an infallible rule to distinguish the true from the false, and Jesus Christ only proposes them as a prudent rule to discern among prophets those whom we ought to reprove, or whom we ought, at least, to distrust. (*) It would be hard to count up all the errors which have been built upon this maxim. The most impious was that of the Manicheans, who made use of it to defend their dogma of men born and necessitated to good, and of men born wicked and necessitated to evil. The strangest was that of the Pelagians, who inferred from it that there was no original sin, because that would be a bad is tlie gate! ” he exclaims, in a tone which should strike dread into every heart— “ how narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life, and few there are that find it! ” This is saying much in a few words. He adds at once: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves : by their fruits you shall know them. 1 Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. 8 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast fruit resulting from mnrriage, which is a good tree. The most generally known is that which the Coun¬ cil of Trent condemns in Protestants, who con¬ cluded from it that all the actions of sinners and of the unbelieving are so many sins. The good or bad tree, and the good or bad man, have some points of resemblance; it is in these points that Christ compares them. There are also essential differences and it is by comparing them by these differences, that so many have been misled. The good tree cannot render itself bad, and the good man can render himself bad, by abusing his liberty. The bad tree cannot render itself good, and the bad man can, by his free co-operation with grace, become good and just. The bad tree cannot pro¬ duce a good fruit, because its productions are always conformable to its nature, which is bad; but the bad man may absolutely produce an action which is not bad, because, being free, he may not always act conformably to his bad disposition. We, therefore, judge infallibly of the tree by its fruits, and morally of man by his works. And, when we speak of the man, we mean his doctrine; for this is what is here considered. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits you shall know them.” (St. Matt. vii. 13- 20.) “A good man, out of the good trea¬ sure of his heart, bringeth forth that which 561 is good : and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth that which is evil: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” (St. Luke vi. 45.) CHAPTER XVIIl. CLOSE OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. J ESUS ended by saying that which is the natural conclusion of a discourse like this, that he gives not his law to men to gratify their curiosity, or to furnish mat¬ ter for their eloquence, but that they may observe it, and save their souls bv the ob- servance. He who shall have kept it shall be saved ; but he who shall not have kept it shall be condemned, even if in other re¬ spects he were a prophet and a man of miracles ; for these gifts, which God grants for the good of his Church, do not pre¬ suppose sanctity in those who receive them. Judas, and many others, especially in the commencement of Christianity, are a proof that the gift of miracles is not absolutely incompatible with the state of sin. But had we not facts in proof, it suffices to con¬ vince one to hear the anticipated judgment which Jesus Christ is about to pronounce against many of these prevaricating pro¬ phets and reprobate workers of miracles. “ Why,” saith he to them, “ do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (St. Luke vii. 46.) “Not every 71 one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name? And then I will profess unto them: I never knew you : depart from me, you that work iniquity.” (St. Matt. vii. 21-23.) Thus, it is by deeds, not b}^ words, that Christ will recognize his own. We shall not be commended for what we have said, or for what we have learned, but for what we have done. Happy he who shall have put in practice the knowledge which God has given him of his law ! On the con- trary, unhappy he who, confining himself to knowing it, shall not have produced fruit therefrom ! But what, on that great day, will constitute the difference between hap¬ piness and misfortune, makes at present the distinction between wisdom and folly. Oh, how many shall be found truly wise whom we at present treat as simple and ignorant; and how many as fools amongst those whom we now recognize, not merely 562 HISTORY OF THE LIFE as wise, but as masters of wisdom! For this Christ prepares us by these last words : “ Every one that cometh to me, and hear- eth my words, and doth them, I will show you to whom he is like : He is like to a man building a house, who digged deep, and laid the foundation upon a rock.” “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock.” “ But he that heareth these my words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man, that built his house upon the sand ; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof.” “ When Jesus had fully ended these words, the people were in admiration of his doctrine. For ” it was again said ‘ ‘ he was teaching them as one having power, and not as their Scribes, and as the Pharisees.” 1 (St. Luke vi. 48 ; St. Matthew yii. 25-29.) There are reasons for believing that the whole of this discourse was not spoken then upon the mountain, but that on the occasion of the sermon which Jesus Christ there gave, the Gospel reports several other maxims of our Saviour, uttered at other times, and which, when added to those he proposed on this occasion, con¬ stitute a body of doctrine, which may be regarded as the abridgment of Christian morals. It may have been observed, that we did not always bind ourselves to follow the order in which they are found placed in the sacred text. We did this, to group together those which refer to the same subject. Commentators agree sufficiently that the evangelists themselves have not ranged them in the order in which our Saviour spoke them. This order was not necessary, since the Holy Ghost did not in¬ spire them to follow it: but we were obliged to draw them together thus in a work which has for its principal object to connect their sacred words, and to form them into a consecutive and methodical narrative. CHAPTER, XIX. THE LEPER CLEANSED.—THE CENTURION’S SERVANT.—THE SON OF THE WIDOW OF NAIM RAISED TO LIFE.—JOHN SENDS TWO OF HIS DISCIPLES TO CHRIST.—HE IS COMMENDED BY JESUS CHRIST. \/\/^ return to the details of the ac- come down from the mountain, great mul- V V tions of our Saviour, in which an titudes followed him: and behold a leper attentive mind will find no less instruction than in his discourses. “ When he was ( 1 ) See note 2, page 508. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 563 came to him, and adored him, beseeching healed by him of their infirmities.” And nim, and kneeling down, said to him : Jesus withdrew from them from time to Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me time, and “ retired into the desert and clean.” “ Jesus having compassion on him, prayed.” (St. Matt. viii. 1, 2 ; St. Mark i. stretched forth his hand, and touching him, 40-45 ; St. Luke v. 12, 13.) saith to him: I will; be thou cleansed. Charity soon obliged him to leave it, and Immediately the leprosy departed from return to those places which he avoided him, and he was made clean.” Jesus with so much care. Then “ he entered into “forthwith sent him away, and he strictly Capharnaum,” where he found at his very charged him: See thou tell no man : 1 arrival what his kind foresight had come to but go show thyself to the high priest, 2 and seek. “And the servant of a centurion, for a testimony unto them, offer the things who was dear to him, being sick, was ready that Moses commanded.” 3 “But he being to die. And when he had heard of Jesus, gone out, began to publish, and to blaze he sent unto him the ancients of the Jews, abroad the word ; so that Jesus could not desiring him to come and heal his servant,” openly go into the city, but was without in “saying: Lord, my servant lieth at home desert places. And they flocked to him sick of the palsy, and is grievously tor- from all sides” “to hear him, and to be mented.” “And when they came to Jesus, ( 1 ) We have already stated in note 3, page might not have it in their power to gainsay the 522, the several reasons on account of which miracle after they themselves had recognized and Christ sometimes exacted secrecy from those whom declared it. There is no appearance of his having he had miraculously cured. There remains one had this design in view. A person might be cured difficulty with regard to this man. It appears that of the leprosy by natural means, and the inspection he was cured in the sight of a great number. of this man might be an assurance of his cure, but Could Jesus Christ reasonably expect that so not of the miraculous manner in which it had public an action should remain secret ? It is an- been wrought. It was, then, out of deference to swered, that it was not impossible that the miracle the law that Christ obliged him to take tliil step. may have been perceived by a very small number But had he not also violated the law by touching only. In the crowd a leper may not have been rec- this man ? Without here adducing the indispu- ognized as being a leper. Had he been so, would table titles which dispensed him from the law, we "the Jews have allowed him to push himself so far may say that, in appearing to depart from the let- forward, and to reach to the very feet of our Sa- ter, he had followed the spirit. The law forbade a viour ? If the disease was not perceived, the cure leper to be touched, because leprosy, being a highly might equally have escaped so great a number. contagious disease, communicated itself by touch. The cure being asked in so few words, and obtained The touch of Christ, whilst salutary to the leper by a simple touch, accompanied by two words, it whom he touched, could not be dangerous to him- might have been remarked only by the disciples, self ; and the law, which forbade contact that who apparently surrounded our Saviour, and con- might multiply lepers, was very far from prohibit- cealed him, at least in part, from the eyes of the ing that contact which diminished the number. multitude. ( 3 ) The rite for the purification of lepers is to ( s ) Many assert that Christ sent the cured leper be found in Leviticus xiv. 2-31. to show'himself to the priests, in order that they J -- - 564 HISTORY OF THE LIFE they besought him earnestly, saying to neither did I think myself worthy to come him : He is worthy that thou should do to thee : but say the word, and my servant this for him ; for he loveth our nation, and shall be healed : for I also am a man sub- he hath built us a synagogue.” The seek- ject to authority, having under me soldiers, ing to interest him by this motive was, and I say to one : Go, and he goeth ; and whatever calumny may have subse- to another Come, and he cometh ; and to quently said, acknowledging Jesus to be my servant: do this, and he doth it.” This a good citizen. His answer must have was confessing that for a much stronger confirmed them in this idea. them into the furnace of fire. There shall bles, he passed from thence” “and came be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (St. to Nazareth,” “ his own country,” “ where Matt. xiii. 43-50.) he was brought up ;” “ and his disciples The bad fish caught witli the good in the followed him. And when the Sabbath-day same net, and the cockle sowed with the was come,” Jesus “ went into the syna- good seed in the same field, are two differ- gogue, according to his custom,” and “be- ent images of one and the same thing. gan to teach.” (St. Matthew xiii. 51-54 ; That is, in the profession of the same faith St. Luke iv. 16 ; St. Mark vi. 1, 2.) “He and in the bosom of the same Church, the rose up to read. And the book of Isaias mixture of the wicked with the good dur- the prophet was delivered unto him, and ing this life, and the separation to be made as he unfolded the book, he found the place at the end of the world. The apostles, to where it was written : The Spirit of the ( 1 ) This eternal separation of the wicked from one word all that we might be inclined to deem in- the good, followed, for the latter, by eternal happi¬ ness, and for the others by eternal woe, explains in 74 explicable in the ways of Providence. * 586 HISTORY OF THE LIFE Lord is upon me ; 1 wherefore he hath anointed me 2 to preach the Gospel to the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the contrite of heart ; 3 to preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the blind ; to set at liberty them that are bruised ; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of reward. 4 When he had folded the book, he restored it to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all in the syna¬ gogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them : This day is fulfilled this Scrip¬ ture in your ears.” (St. Luke iv. 16-21.) This decisive announcement, which was to those who heard it a summary of all the discourses which Jesus Christ had hitherto made to them, and which in a few words brought them all to mind, made at the out¬ set a great impression on the whole assem- bly. But, by one of those strange revolu¬ tions which we sometimes see occurring in the public mind, they passed immediately from admiration to envy, from envy to con¬ tempt, scandal, incredulity, and, at last, to a transport of fury. “ All gave [then at first] testimony to him, and they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded from his mouth” (St. Luke iv. 22), “and they said : How came this man by all these things? and what wisdom is this that is given to him, and such mighty works are wrought by his hands ?” (St. Mark vi. 2.) This is the language of admiration. Now comes that of envy, contempt, spite, and scandal. But what! they went on, “ Is not this the carpenter ? Is not this the car¬ penter’s son, ? s the son of Joseph, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, ( 1 ) He found there what lie wished to find. There is no chance to him who knows everything. ( 2 ) An invisible unction, operated by the Holy Ghost, who diffused himself with all his gifts into the holy humanity of our Saviour at the moment of his incarnation. A regal and sacerdotal unc¬ tion, by which he has been consecrated monarch of the universe, and eternal pontiff of the new law. Thus, although he has not received the ma¬ terial and sensible sign thereof, Jesus Christ is very truly said to have received the unction (expressed by the name of Christ), because he received the effect in all its plenitude, and in a degi’ee of excel¬ lence infinitely superior to that received by all to whom the same name is given in Scripture. ( 5 ) This prophecy was in part accomplished in the miracles which Jesus Christ wrought to cure corporal evils. But, to reach its perfect sense, we should understand it with reference to the sad effects of sin in souls, and the powerful remedies which Christ was capable of applying and actually did apply. ( 4 ) We read in the text, diem retributionis, day of retribution. It is generally understood of the last judgment; and what further favors this ex¬ planation is, that this day, which is here called the “ day of retribution,” is called by Isaias the day of vengeance, dies ultionis. (Isai. xxxiv. 8.) Yet it has been remarked that Jesus Christ, after having read the prophecy, adds presently: “ This day is fulfilled this Scripture in your ears.” Therefore some conclude that there is no reference here to the last judgment, and they consequently call the day of retribution the day of liberality and of grace. This explanation appears to them the more natural, as “ the day of retribution ” is placed imme¬ diately after “ the acceptable year of the Lord.” All this is more specious than solid. Jesus Christ came to announce present mercy and the judgment to come: the prophet says that he shall preach both one and the other. It is not necessary for him to judge actually in order to accomplish the prophecy : the preaching suffices. ( 6 ) In Latin, faber. This word signifies a OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 587 and Simon and Jnde ? And his sisters, are they not all with us ? Whence, there- . fore, hath he all these things ? And they were scandalized in his regard.” (St. Matt, xiii. 55-57 ; St. Mark vi. 3 ; St. Luke iv. 22 .) Yet Jesus had wrought few miracles at Nazareth, and those which he had per¬ formed had not been so striking. He who was prodigal of them elsewhere, seemed parsimonious of them towards his fellow- citizens. This was for reasons worthy of his profound wisdom. These he was will¬ ing to explain ; but, as his miracles were apparently the principal subject of their great eagerness to see him, being deceived on this point, they no longer valued his reasons, and their consequent spite drove them to extreme violence against his per¬ son. These are the words which gave oc¬ casion to it: “He said to them then: Doubtless j^ou will say to me this simili¬ tude : Physician, heal thyself. As great things as we have heard done in Capliar- naum, do also here in thy own country. 1 Amen, I say to you,” added he, “ that no prophet is accepted in his own country.” (St. Luke iv. 23, 24.) “ A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house.” (St. Matt. xiii. 57.) He cannot, then, work many miracles there ; for if they have but little considera¬ tion there for his person, they will have little faith in his words. Now miracles, which are usually the reward of faith, must not be lavished on incredulity. And to show that such had been, at all times, the way of G-od, “In truth,” pursues the Saviour, “ I say to you : There were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel, when heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there was a great famine throughout all the earth : and to none of them was Elias sent, but to Sarepta of Sidon, to a widow woman. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed but Naaman, the Syrian.” (St. Luke iv. 25-30.) Thus they should not expect to be more highly favored than the Israelites then were ; and Christ gave them sufficiently to understand that it was through their own fault. Why did they not reform, tradesman or an artisan, without determining the sort of work : it simply excludes delicate work. It therefore leaves undecided the trade in which he was engaged during the thirty years of his hidden life. Some have said that it was as a mason; others, that he worked in iron. The most universal and ancient opinion is, that Jesus Christ exercised with Saint Joseph the trade of carpenter. Now, that God should draw forth a prophet from the shop of a carpenter, was what the Nazarenes never could persuade themselves. They would have no diffi¬ culty in believing him, if God had drawn him forth from some famous academy ; for the principle of their incredulity was constantly this : God cannot make a prophet out of a carpenter. Bring back all unbelievers to their first principle, yon will find nothing more weighty than this assertion, it is in every case : “ God cannot do it.” ( 1 ) The reputation we acquire in our own coun¬ try is much more precious, and, in some way, more properly our own, than what we acquire among strangers. Such, at least, is the opinion of men, which is sufficient to justify the application that the Saviour here makes of the proverb: “ Physi¬ cian, heal thyself.” 588 HISTORY OF THE LIFE if they wished to be better treated? And, since disdain for his person, and in¬ credulity to the words of him whom they ought at least to regard as the messenger of God, rendered them unworthy of the favor of heaven, why did they not strive to render themselves worthy by listening to him with docility and respect? It was to bring them to this point that Christ thus addressed them. But there are always perverse hearts, which turn remedies into poison, and grace itself into an occasion of scandal, and a rock of scandal. What was to enlighten them served only to complete their blindness. On hearing these words, “ all they in the synagogue hearing these things, were filled with anger. And they instantly rose up, and thrust him out of the (*) Saint Ambrose and Venerable Bede judge them more culpable than those who crucified our Saviour, because the latter preserved, at least, the form of justice, whereas those of Nazareth followed without any form the impulses of brutal fury. We hazard the opinion, contrary to their view, that the crime is more enormous where there is more reflection; and that, comparing these two attempts, one is murder, and the other assassination; and, besides, the most criminal injustice is that which arrays itself in the form of justice. (*) Not in the sense that he could not by his ab¬ solute power, but that he could not by the rational exercise of power, and consistently with a certain order which his wisdom has freely established, from which he may deviate when it pleaseth him, but from which he very rarely deviates. We have al¬ ready seen that, according to this order, God, gen¬ erally speaking, grants miracles to faith, and refuses them to incredulity. The latter will per¬ haps ask if that be not tantamount to saying that miracles are accorded to credulity, and that they are refused to enlightened and distrustful reason. It is a sufficient answer, that this way of God is city.” They sought not merely to banish him ; their fury went so far as to attempt his life. And “ they brought him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him clown headlong. 1 But Jesus, passing through the midst of them, went his way” (St. Luke iv. 28-30), at a moderate pace, without seeming to fear them, and without receiving any hurt. Whether he threw a mist over their eyes which prevented their seeing him, or whether he bound their hands by invisible chains, it was, in either aspect, a miracle ; but it was almost the only one he wrought in his own country. “For,” adds the sacred text, “he could not do any miracle there,” 2 “because of their unbelief,” “only that he cured a few that were sick, laying highly worthy of his wisdom, and good sense by itself alone tells us that graces should be measured out according to the use made of them, and that, consequently, they should be redoubled for those who profit by them, and be cut off from those who abuse them. The inhabitants of Nazareth belong to the latter class. Christ had wrought some miracles among them, and rumor had informed them of the miracles which he had wrought at Capharnaum. This was enough for belief, aud had they believed, having this sufficient proof, prodigies would have been multiplied in their favor. But, by not believing, they deserved that Christ should in some manner weaken this proof in their regard, instead of strengthening it in the least. The same is to be said of the miracles on which religion is founded. They form, for every upright aud im¬ partial mind, a more than sufficient proof. God will not perform other miracles for those who do not believe; and he will perform them for those who already believe. On his part, this is goodness towards the latter, and justice with regard to the others. And, when I say that God will perform new miracles, I suppose, what is true, that mira- OF OUR LOUD JESUS CHRIST. liis hands upon them ; and he wondered because of their unbelief.” (St. Mark vi. 5, 6 ; St. Matt. xiii. 58.) He who had wondered at the faith of a Gentile, found in his fellow-citizens a prodigy of unbelief sufficient to awaken in him equal surprise. These two prodigies are daily renewed in our days, that of faith even to heroism amongst barbarous nations at the first faint rays of Gospel truth that reach their eyes ; and, in the bosom of Christianity, the prod¬ igy of incredulity carried to personal hatred of Jesus Christ, and the most furious vio¬ lence against his religion and its ministers. These proceedings, which obliged our Saviour to leave his ungrateful country, 589 could not repress his zeal. True, he aban¬ doned to their reprobate sense these self- blinded individuals, who had judged them¬ selves unworthy of the eternal life which his mercy had come to offer them. But it was only to seek elsewhere minds more docile and hearts better disposed. “ Jesus went about all the cities and towns, teach¬ ing in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. And, seeing the multitudes ” of people who crowded to him from all parts, “he had compassion on them, because they were distressed, and lying like sheep that have no shep-- herd.” (St. Matthew ix. 35, 36.) CHAPTER XXIII. MISSION OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES.—INSTRUCTIONS AND ADVICE WHICH JESUS GIVES THEM. T HEN he saith to his disciples : The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he send forth cles have never ceased in the Church. They have been Avrought in the Church from its birth, and they shall be Avrought in until the consummation of ages. The proceedings for canonizations are a judicial and incontestable proof for all the period which has elapsed since these proceedings com¬ menced, the very period Avith reference to which doubts might more readily be entertained as to the gift of miracles having remained in the Church. But it has been remarked, and we may again re- laborers into his harvest.” (St. Matt. ix. 37, 38.) We cannot reasonably doubt that this command was obeyed, or that all the disciples offered the prayer prescribed by mai’k, that miracles folloAv faith; that is to say, where there is more faith there are more miracles, and that the fountain of miracles is almost entirely dried up in places Avhere faith is dead or dying. Thus, incredulity in miracles is the cause of the withdrawal of miracles, as the veil of the parables Avas in punishment of unbelief in the doctrine Avhen exposed naked and unveiled. The Avays of God support themselves, and all his judgments are justified. 51)0 HISTORY OP THE LIFE their Divine Master. It could not fail to be heard, since he who was to hear it was no other than he who invited them to pray. “ Then calling together his twelve apostles, he gave them power and authority over all devils,” “ to cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases, and all manner of in¬ firmities.” “He began to send them two and two,” in order that they might aid one another, and that there might be every¬ where two witnesses to the same truth. “The names of the twelve apostles are these ”—as we have seen before, yet they are ranged here in an order somewhat dif¬ ferent from the first, and we believe from that in which they were associated. “ The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and An¬ drew his brother ; James the son of Zebe- dee, and John his brother ; Philip and Bartholomew ; Thomas, and Matthew the publican ; James the son of Alpheus, and Thaddeus ; Simon the Chananean, and Judas Iscariot, who also betraved Jesus.” (St. Luke ix. 1, 2 ; St. Matthew x. 1 ; St. Mark vi. 7.) “He commanded them that they should take nothing for the way but a staff only : ” even this they were merely to make use of for a support, for we shall presently see that he did not allow them to have one for defence. This explains the apparent con¬ tradiction of the staff here allowed and elsewhere forbidden. In addition, he en¬ joined upon them “that they should take no scrip, no bread, nor money in their ( 1 ) It is said in Saint Luke : “ And whatsoever house you shall enter into, abide there, and depart not from thence.” There would be levity in doing so without reason, or a delicacy unbecoming in an purse, but to be shod with sandals, and that they should not put on two coats.” (St. Mark vi. 8, 9.)' An unwavering con¬ fidence in Providence was to be then sub¬ stituted for all these preparations. But we must hear, from the very lips of our Saviour, the admirable regulations which he gave them, and, in their persons, their successors in the apostolic ministry ; for all the five, except the first, equally re¬ gard the latter, and that one may also serve to teach them that they ought not to go elsewhere than whither they are sent, and that if it be criminal to preach with¬ out a mission, it would also be a crime to step ever so little beyond its prescribed bounds. “ Jesus commanded his apostles, saying: Go ye not into the way of the Gentiles, and into the 'Cities of the Samaritans enter ye not ; but go ye rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and going, preach, saying : The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils : freely have you received, freely^ give. Do not possess gold, nor silver, nor money in your purses ; no scrip for your journey, nor two coats, nor shoes, nor a staff.” Be assured, how¬ ever, that no necessary shall be wanting to you, “ for the workman is worthy of his meat. Into whatever city or town you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy ; and there abide, until you go thence. 1 And when you come into the house, salute it, saying: apostle, if done from the hope of better treat¬ ment; and whatever the motive, the host thus left would certainly have cause to complain. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 591 Peace be to this house ; and if that house be worthy, your peace shall come upon it; but if it be not worthy, your peace shall return to you. 1 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet ” “for a testimony to them.” 2 “Amen, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gfomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.” (St. Matthew x. 5 ; St. Mark vi. 11.) These instructions, might suffice the apostles for this first mission ; it was to be rather a short one : no persecution awaited them then, and it was merely a slight essay of those missions, wherein, cross in hand, they were to confront all the powers of the universe, and, with no weapon but patience, range all nations under the law of the Master, who sent them. As yet, they were incapable of the latter mis¬ sions, because they were not yet “endued with power from on high.” (St. Luke xxiv. 49.) Still, before he imparted the strength for these, he wishes to convey a knowledge of them, and does so b}^ the ( J ) The good that you have wished them shall come to pass in one way or the other. ( 1 ) Dust on the feet is the proof of the jour¬ ney; and to shake off tins dust was, on the part of the apostles, equivalent to saying: We are come, and you have not wished to receive us. In this way the act bore testimony against the inhabitants. (* *) Meekness and simplicity are the primary virtues which Jesus Christ prescribes to the apos¬ tles. They should neither oppose force to violence nor wiles to malice. “ The prudence of the ser¬ pent” greatly perplexes the commentators. We know that this animal has a quick and piercing 68 following words, rapidly sketching before their eyes the terrible picture of the com¬ bats they were one day to sustain, they and their first disciples ; for we have in this picture an historical sketch of the three first ages of the Church. This prophetic picture could not but be most useful to them one and all. Besides, it con¬ tained instructions relative to the various trials through which they were to pass, and by seeing that they were foretold, the apostles would be less surprised, and less alarmed when they came ; and the accom¬ plishment of this part of the prophecy guaranteed .the truth of those passages which announced their victories and their crowns. Our Saviour then continues thus: “ Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye, therefore, wise as ser¬ pents and simple as doves. 3 But beware of men ” (meaning those whom he has just called wolves). “ For they will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you shall be brought before governors and before kings for my sake, for a testimony 4 to them and to the gentiles. But when they shall de¬ glance. It is natural to think that Jesus Christ enjoins his disciples to be clear-sighted like the serpent, in order to discover the snares of their enemies, and to avoid them by flight or by con¬ cealment ; for he leaves them no other means of defending themselves against them. (*) Much more by the testimony of blood than by that of speech. This it was which caused the name of “ martyrs,” which signifies “ witnesses,” to be given to them who sealed with their blood the truths of the Gospel; this is the highest testi¬ mony. For “ if there be no greater love than to give one’s life for those whom we love,” there is ' • 592 HISTORY OF THE LIFE liver 3 r ou up, take no thought how or what persecution, does not wish an indiscreet to speak ; for it shall be given you in that zeal to thrust them under its stroke. Where- hour what to speak. For it is not you fore, he adds,'“ When they shall persecute that speak, but the spirit of your Father you in this city, 1 flee into another. 2 Amen, that speaketh in you.” Moreover, it is not I say unto you : You shall not finish all merely on the part of your fellow-citizens the cities of Israel till the Son of man that you shall encounter so violent a per- • come.” 3 secution. “The brother also shall deliver If he announces to them great sufferings. up the brother to death, and the father the he presents to them at the same time great sou : and the children shall rise up against motives. Of these his own example is the their parents, and shall put them to death ; first. “The disciple,” said he, “is not and you shall be hated by all men for my above the master, nor the servant above name’s sake; but he that shall persevere his lord. It is enough for the disciple that unto the end, he shall be saved.” he be as his master, and the servant as his Meantime, Jesus Christ, who wishes his lord. If they have called the good man disciples to be intrepid under the sword of of the house Beelzebub, how much more - no stronger persuasion than to shed our blood in that they may fall under the effect of persecution: support of our cause. in this case we should prefer our own salvation to ( 1 ) Persecution is an equivocal sign of truth or that of others. virtue. The wicked suffer it as well as the good, the ( 3 ) Several commentators think that these Jews as well as Christians, heretics as well as Cath- words were spoken for the apostles; others con- olics, and false teachers as well as apostles. Happy tend that they regard those amongst their succes- those who, like the latter, suffer it for justice! sors who shall preach the Gospel in the time of “It is not the pain, it is the cause which makes Anti-Christ. According to the former interpreta- the martyr.”—Saint Augustine. tion, the coming of the Son of man should be un- ( 2 ) Plight was not merely allowed the apostles. derstood with reference to the destruction of Jeru- it was enjoined upon them : it preserved to the in- salem ; according to the latter, what are here called fant Church her first pastors, and, by dispersing the cities of Israel are the Christian cities which, them, it was instrumental to the propagation of at the end of the world, shall have apostatized the Gospel. In subsequent ages it has been com- from the faith, and shall persecute its preachers. manded, permitted, or forbidden according to cir- Both interpretations present difficulties. Never- • cumstances. It is even commanded to the pastor, theless, as these are less than those which are to when his presence would more injure the Church be met in the other ways of explaining this text. than his absence: it is permitted to him, when the the most probable thing we can .say here is, that persecution is levelled against him alone, and his each of these interpretations is the correct one. In ministry can be easily supplied by others: it is the first case, the prophecy must have been under- forbidden him when his flock would thereby incur stood by the apostles; in the second case, it will be notable injury. This is the case where he must understood at the end of ages; in either case, give his life for his flock. It rarely occurs that Christ has not prophesied in vain. For as we have flight is prohibited to those who are not pastors, already remarked, although nothing is useless in and it is commanded, when the knowledge they Scripture, it does not, therefore, follow that all have of their weakness makes them apprehend therein is equally useful for all times. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 593 them of his household.” We can see that my Father who is in heaven ; but he that this motive had much greater force, when shall deny me before men, I will also deny men’s rage, passing from words to the most him before mv Father who is in heaven.” %/ sanguinary deeds, had fastened to the cross It was further necessary to fortify^ the the Master and the Lord. “Therefore fear disciples against another trial, less terrible them not,” said our Saviour, “ for,” despite in appearance, yet often more formidable the fury of the world, “nothing is cover- in effect than tyrants and tortures : that is, ed ” in the doctrine which I teach you what they would have to undergo on the “ that shall not be revealed, nor hid, that part of their own relatives. Amongst shall not be known. That which I tell these several were to use the utmost vio- you in the dark, speak ye in the light: lence ; but others were only to employ af- and that which you hear in the ear, preach fection and tears. The finest minds are ye upon the house-tops.” 1 most sensible to the latter ; and then almost God alone is to be feared, and he who reproach themselves with the virtuous re- is alone to be feared shields them with his sistance, as if it were a crime. Be silent, almighty protection: new motives of con- flesh and blood, and learn at last, that if fidence, which our Saviour proposes in all fear is to give way to the fear of the these words : “ Fear ye not them that kill Most High, his love far exceeds all other the body, and are not able to kill the soul. 2 love. For this is the meaning of these But rather fear him that can destroy both words, so terrifying to nature, and yet so soul and body in hell. Are not two conformable to the light of purified reason, sparrows sold for a farthing ? and not one since they merely express the rights of of them shall fall to the ground without God, those rights which there wq,uld be as ■ your Father. But the very hairs of your much blindness as impiety in denying him. head are all numbered. Fear not, there- Let us, then, hearken to these warnings, fore : better are ye than many sparrows.” just as they fell from the lips of him who Lastly, gathering into one focus what they is truth itself. “ Do not think that I came had most to desire and fear : “ Every one, to send peace upon the earth. I came not therefore, said he, that shall confess me to send peace, but the sword. 3 For I am before men, I will also confess him before come to set a man at variance against his ( 1 ) Amongst the Jews the roofs of the houses if the body could suffer always without dying; were flat, which makes the figure more appropriate but it soon perishes, and in perishing, it deprives than if the roofs had been of the same form as them of their victim, and mocks their fury. ours. ( 8 ) He does not say war, where combatants (’ ) They should not be feared for two reasons. fight on both sides, because his disciples, who were 1st. They cannot take away the life of the soul. to receive the blows, were not to return them. He 2d. They can take aw'ay the life of the body by therefore says the sword ; that is to say, as appears torments, or rather they cannot fail to take it by the ensuing words, the separation of the heart away. For they would be much more formidable 75 on one side, and on the other, bodily separation, by 594 HISTORY OF THE LIFE father, the daughter against her mother, find men who will deem it meritorious to and the daughter-in-law against the mother- entertain you kindly, and to share with in-law : and a man’s enemies shall be they you their goods,—he continues in these of his own household. He that loveth terms : ‘ ‘ He that receiveth you, receiveth father or mother more than me, is not me ; and he that receiveth me receiveth worthy of me ; and he that loveth son or Him that sent me. He that receiveth a daughter more than me, is not worthy of prophet in the name of a prophet, shall me. And he that taketh not up his cross receive the reward of a prophet ; and he and folioweth me, is not worthy of me. He that receiveth a just man in the name of a that findeth his life, shall lose it ; and he just man, shall receive the reward of a just that shall lose his life for me, shall find it.” man. And whosoever shall give to drink Jesus Christ concludes this discourse by to one of these little ones a cup of cold the magnificent promises he makes to those water only in the name of a disciple, amen, who shall exercise charity and hospitality I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.” towards his disciples. These promises are “ When Jesus had made an end of com- evidence of the love he bore them, and a manding his twelve disciples, he passed from fresh encouragement against the persecu- thence to teach and preach in their cities.” tions which he had foretold. By inviting (St. Matt. _x. 16, 42 ; xi. 1.) The apostles all men to do good to them, he shows us “ going out [also], went about through the how well he loves them, and that if he towns, preaching the Gospel, and healing allows them to be maltreated it is only everywhere.” “ They preached that men to perfect their virtue, and enrich their should do penance ; they cast out many crown. Wherefore, as if he had again said devils, and anointed with oil many that to them : Go, then, without fear : already were sick, and healed them.” 1 (St. Luke • assured of my protection, you will ever ix. 6 ; St. Mark vi. 12, 13.) the impossibility of dwelling together. Moreover, ( 1 ) The Council of Trent declares that the sa- we must not understand this as meaning that crament of Extreme Unction is insinuated by Christ was to be the author of the division : he is these words. Therefore, two sorts of persons are merely the occasion thereof. He comes to establish deceived—those who say that it is here clearly the Gospel, which shall be received by some, and established, and those who say that these words refused by others. The latter wish to eradicate it have no reference to it. But the error of the from the hearts of the others, and with this design second is more malignant and more dangerous than will persecute them. Here is the division estab- that of the first. In what relates to the proof of lished; but it is visible that, if the Gospel be the revealed dogmas, we deceive ourselves more inno- occasion of the division, its enemies are its real cently by addition than by subtraction. i i £ authors. - OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 595 CHAPTER XXIY. DECAPITATION OF SAINT JOHN. — MULTIPLICATION OF THE LOAVES AND FISHES. — JESUS WALKS ON THE WATER, AND SUPPORTS PETER. “ IVT OW Herod the tetrarch heard the 1. \l fame of Jesus,” “ for his name was made manifest.” “He heard all things that were done by Jesns, and he was in doubt, because it was said by some : John the Baptist is risen again from the dead, aud, therefore, mighty works show forth themselves in him.” “ Others said it is Elias hath appeared ; and others, that one of the old prophets had risen again. But Herod said: John I have beheaded ; but who is this of whom I hear such things? And he sought to see him.” Still carried away by popular opinion, “ he said to his sei*vants : This is John the Baptist, whom I beheaded ; he is risen from the dead. For Herod himself had sent and appre¬ hended John, and bound, and put him in prison, for the sake of Herodias, wife of Philip, his brother, because he had married her ; for John said to Herod : It is not lawful for thee to have thy 7- brother’s wife. Herod having a mind to put him to death, feared the people, because they esteemed him as a prophet.” (St. Matt. xiv. 1, 2, 5 ; St. Mark vi. 14-18 ; St. Luke ix. 7-9.) “Now, Herodias laid snares for him, and was desirous to put him to death, and could not, for Herod feared John, knowing him to be a just and holy man ; and kept him, and when he heard him, did many things, and he heard him willingly.” (St. Mark vi. 19, 20.) The holy precursor’s life was not the more secure on this account. Virtue may coerce the wicked to esteem it ; but this estimation does not lessen the natural hatred they bear it. He, therefore, who had only abstained from murder through fear of men, was but too well disposed to commit it to please a woman. All she wanted was the occasion, which soon arose. “ A con¬ venient day was come, when Herod made a supper for his birth-day for the princes, and tribunes, and the chief men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias had come in, and had danced, and pleased Herod, and them that were at table with him, the king said to the damsel,” " with an oath ! ” “ Ask of me what thou wilt, and I will give it thee, .... though it be the half of my kingdom.” The habits of the country did not permit the presence of women on these occasions ; we must not, then, be as¬ tonished at the absence of Herodias. Her daughter, who was a mere child, might ap¬ pear there a few moments without any consequence. But this child had already sufficient understanding to conceive that she ought not to decide on the request she was to make—“Who,” therefore, “when she was gone out, said to Iter- mother,” 596 HISTORY OF THE LIFE after having recounted to her the promise and the oath of the king: “ What shall I ask ? The head of John the Baptist,” said the mother. And when she was come in immediately with haste to the king, being- instructed before by her mother, she asked, saying : “ I will that forthwith thou give me in a dish the head of John the Baptist. And the king was struck sad : yet, because of his oath, and because of them that were with him at table,” 1 he would not incur the shame of breaking his promise, or mor¬ tify the girl by refusing her request ; he would not “ displease her, but, sending an executioner, he commanded that his head should be brought in a dish.” “ And the executioner beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head in a dish, and gave it to the damsel, and the damsel gave it to her mother.” Thus the head of the great¬ est of men was made the price of a dance ; and, after this transaction, the world should be fully convinced that there is no crime too dark for an abandoned woman to exact, or a weak and impassioned man to grant. “ Which John’s disciples hearing, came and took the body, and laid it in a tomb.” Then “ they came and told Jesus. Which, when Jesus had heard, he retired from thence by boat.” (St. Mark vi. 21-29 ; St. Matt. xiv. 8-13.) We do not see why the death of John the Baptist should make him apprehend a similar fate. But what we cannot see, he knew and he might have a certainty of what appears unlikely to us. Yet, what we read in Josephus the historian may throw some light upon this point. He says that Herod put John the Baptist to death, because he feared lest he should excite a sedition. He deceives himself, or, rather, he wishes to deceive the world, as to the real cause of this assassination, which was no other than the one recounted by the evangelists. But there is a strong pre¬ sumption that Herod, to exonerate himself, at least in part, from the odium of so great a crime, disseminated the rumor that John the Baptist had been secretly trying to cause an insurrection amongst the people. He was a saint, the object of public vene¬ ration, and he had made many disciples : on what ground, then, could they accuse him of sedition ? Now all these traits belonged also to Jesus ; and, moreover, he was a worker of miracles. Herod, who as yet knew him not, would not be long in know¬ ing them. Might he not, when he bec&me aware of his history, conceive the design of putting him to death, under the same pretext, inasmuch as Jesus resembled John in so many ways ? His death could not be attributed to the solicitations of Herodias. Sedition would have been the sole apparent cause of it, and by this means Herod would have given more likelihood to that pre¬ tended cause for the death of John, by ex¬ tending the same treatment to all those who were similarly situated, although they did not come in collision with the adulter- ( *) It is not unlikely that they seconded the girl's request, and solicited the king to grant it. What was occurring before their eyes taught them what it might cost those who had the misfortune to displease the favorite. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. ess. In one word, Herod might say : The proof that I have sacrificed John to the public safety, and not to the vengeance of a woman, is, that I have treated Jesus in the same way, a person as dangerous as himself, and against whom this woman could have no cause of complaint. Those who say that there were too many witnesses of the true cause of John’s death for it to be possible to substitute another, must be ig¬ norant of the fact, that the people may be brought to believe anything you wish, were there a hundred witnesses to the contrary. And, in fact, Josephus assigns no other cause for this foul deed, than the fear which Herod entertained lest John should excite a sedition. He therefore believed this ; or, what comes almost to the same thing, he hoped to make it believed, although lie lived at a period when some of those who assisted at that fearful supper might still be living. Thus the Man-God, who is ignorant of nothing which can happen in any possible conjuncture, might know the designs which Herod had formed against him, if he had remained longer within reach to feel its effects ; and this knowledge may have been the motive for his retreat. But it seems that to this reason there was joined a second: “The apostles, when they were returned ” from their mission, “ coming together to Jesus, related to him all things that they had done and taught.” (St. Mark vi. 30-34 ; St. Luke ix. 10, 11 ; St. John (*) These people forgot even to provide nourish¬ ment, in order to seek the kingdom of God and his justice. They found the kingdom of God, and we 597 vi. 1-4.) They required a little relaxation after such great labor. ‘ ‘ Jesus said to them: Come apart into a desert place, and rest a little ; for there were many coming and going, and they had not so much as time to eat. And going up then into a ship, they went aside into a desert place apart ” which belongeth to Bethsaida, over the sea of Galilee, which is that of Tiberias. “And they saw them going away, and many knew ; and they ran flocking thither on foot from all the cities, and were there before him.” A great multitude followc'd him, because they saw the miracles which he did on them that were diseased. “Jesus going out ” of the ship, “ saw a great mul¬ titude, and he had [that] compassion on them ” which he was accustomed to feel on beholding them, “because they were as sheep not having a shepherd.” “ He re¬ ceived them, went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. How the pasch, the festival day of the Jews, was near at hand. Jesus began to teach them many things. He spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and healed them who had need of healing.” “And when the day was now far spent, his twelve disciples came to him, saying : This is a desert place, and the hour is now past; send them away, that, going into the next villages and towns” round about “they may buy themselves” victuals. 1 “ And he answering, said to them : ” “They have no need to go,” “give you them to eat. 2 are going to see that nourishment did not fail them. ( J ) This was the prophecy of what was going to 598 HISTORY OP THE LIFE And they said to him : Let us go and buy bread for two hundred pence, and we will give them to eat.” 1 “ When Jesus,” who, from the top of a mountain he had ascended, could discover the entire plain, “ had lifted up his eyes, and seen that a very great multitude cometh unto him, he said to Philip: Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said to try him; for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him : Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a little.” He should have added : But if we are de¬ ficient in human means, thy power can easily supply them. It was this act of faith which Jesus gave him an opportunity to make, yet he did not do it. But the avowal which Philip made of the impossibility of providing food for so many mouths, was in take place. These people were fed, in point of fact, from the hands of the apostles, and out of what little provisions they had. Pastors, never despair of being able to provide for the wants of your people: give what you have, ask from God what you have not, and you shall witness miracles. ( 1 ) This seems to be said ironically. But as the same thing is said by St. Andrew, in a serious and affirmative tone, it is more natural to think that the apostles made this proposition as having the power and will to execute it, supposing that Jesus Christ had taken them at their word. If their faith seems weak on this occasion, they at least give marks of a very uncommon charity. 1st. They are attentive to the wants of the people, and they are careful in representing them to their divine Master. 2d. They propose to go and purchase bread, and to employ a sum which would have ap¬ parently exhausted the common purse. 3d. Lastly, they sacrificed the little provisions which remained for themselves. The faith was, therefore, weak: itself a proof of the miracle which the Sa¬ viour was going to operate. To render it more evident (St. Mark vi. 35-40; St. John vi. 5-10; St. Luke ix. 12-15; St. Matthew xiv. 15, 16, 21), “ He said to the apostles : How many loaves have you ? go and see ; and when they knew.” “ Andrew, the brother of Simon, one of his disciples, saith to him : There is a boy here that hath five barley loaves and two fishes ; but what are these among so many,” “ unless per¬ haps we should go and buy some food for all the multitude ? Now, there were about five thousand men besides women and children.” Thereupon, “ he commanded them that they should make them all sit down by fifties ” in a company upon the green grass.. “ And they sat down in ranks by hundreds, and by fifties.” 2 “Jesus took the five loaves and two neveitlieless, the charity appears not to have been so. The fact is, there was in this charity more of na¬ tural compassion, or of generosity, than of charity, properly speaking. For charity is only such, when it acts through motives of faith. Nevertheless, this tender and effective compassion is still a virtue, and a disposition very favorable to the increase, of faith and the perfection of charity. ( ) Saint Luke says that Jesus Christ gave orders to his apostles to distribute the people in companies of fifty. He adds, that they did what was enjoined upon them. Still, according to Saint Mark, they made up companies—some of fifty, others of one hundred; which might make it be thought that they did not obey to the letter. If this be regarded as a difficulty, the following ex¬ planation may serve for the solution The apos¬ tles had made each company consist of fifty men. It may have been remarked that the women and little children are not counted; but there is every appearance that they did not separate the women OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 599 fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them ; he then broke the loaves and gave to his disciples,” “ to set before them that were sat down. In like manner also he divided the two fishes among them all, as much as they could eat. And they all did eat, and were filled.” “And when they were filled, Jesus said to his disciples : Gfather up the fragments that remain, 1 lest they be lost. They gathered up, therefore, and filled twelve baskets 2 with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above to them that had eaten.” They also took up the leavings of the fishes. “Now those men, when they had seen what a miracle Jesus had done, said : This is of a truth the prophet that is to come into the world. Jesus, therefore, when he knew that they would come to take him by force, and make him king,” immediately obliged his disciples to go up into the ship, that they might go before him over the water to Bethsaida, whilst he dismissed the people ; and when he had dismissed them, from their husbands, nor the little children from their mothers, which would have made several companies of one hundred persons, although in each company there were only fifty men. ( 1 ) Thus the Eucharistic Bread satiates an en¬ tire world, and is not consumed. We have just seen that Jesus Christ employed, upon this occa¬ sion, the same ceremonies as at the institution of the Eucharist. He himself will soon tell us that this miracle was the figure of it. ( 3 ) Miraculous multiplication, the ordinary fruit which springs from almsdeeds. Perhaps it is the most common of all prodigies. Everything is not written; but we may not hesitate to surmise that, amongst those persons who give great alms, there are to be found some who have experienced be “fled again into the mountain liimself alone.” 3 “He went up into it to pray ; and when it was evening he was there alone.” 4 (St. Mark vi. 41-46 ; St. John vi. 12-15 ; St. Matthew xiv. 19-23.) It must have been perceptible that neither Jesus Christ nor his disciples en¬ joyed the repose they sought to find in solitude. Nature did require it; yet char¬ ity cannot decide to allow it, whilst there remain wants to alleviate. Then self is forgotten and strength is borrowed, and derived from exhaustion itself. After so fatiguing a day, the disciples had not a night more tranquil. To obey the order they had just received, “ when evening was come, his disciples went down to the sea, and when they had gone up into the ship, they went over the sea to Capharnaum.” But ere they arrived, their faith was again more than once put to the test. “It was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them.” (St. John vi. 16, 17.) We have seen already that “he himself was alone it more than once. What remained to the apos¬ tles far surpassed what they had given. No one ever grows poor by giving alms, hut very often an individual becomes rich by so doing. It has the promises for the present and for the future life. ( s ) After this action of the Saviour, if there was one crime of which he should not have been suspected, it was that of aspiring to royalty. It was, nevertheless, for this pretended crime that he was soon after judged, condemned, and crucified. Nothing so little surprises those who have observed the excess reached by iniquity and the blindness of judgment swayed by passion. ( 4 ) He did not require, in order to compose his mind, either solitude or the silence of night; but both are necessary to us, and he wished to instruct us. 600 HISTORY OF THE LIFE on the land.” (St. Mark vi. 47.) “But the boat in the midst of the sea was tossed with the waves ” (St. Matt. xiv. 24), “ for the sea arose, by reason of a great wind that blew.” (St. John vi. 18.) Jesus “see¬ ing them laboring in rowing, for the wind was against them, about the fourth watch of the night, 1 he cometh to them walking upon the sea, and he would have passed by them.” (St. Mark vi. 47, 48.) “When they had rowed, therefore, about five-and-twenty or thirty 2 furlongs, 3 they see Jesus walking upon the sea, and draw- ( 1 ) About three o’clock in the morning. The night was divided into four military watches, each of which lasted three hours. The moon was then at its full, for it was Paschal time; hence the dis¬ ciples might easily see Jesus, but could not re¬ cognize him. Our Saviour’s delay had then the effect which it usually has whenever God seems to forget his servants in their tribulations. He tests their faith, he exercises their patience, he renders them sensible of the necessity of succor from on high, he obliges them to recognize and adore the all-powerful protector from whom comes the sal¬ vation which could no longer be hoped for, but from him alone. ('■') It is only consistent with the truth to ad¬ vance as uncertain that concerning which one has not entire certainty, and there is nothing in this repugnant to divine inspiration. The Holy Ghost may have inspired the sacred writers to recount things precisely as they knew them, or as they re¬ collected them, supposing, nevertheless, that in their recollections or their knowledge there was merely uncertainty; for had there been error, in¬ spiration would have rectified it. This applies, too, to the two or three measures which were contained in the water-pots at the marriage-feast of Cana. ( 3 ) Eight stadia, here translated furlongs, make one Italian mile, and sixteen make the common league. ing nigli to the ship, and they were afraid.” (St. John vi. 19.) “ And they were trou¬ bled, saying: It is an apparition, and they cried out for fear ” (St. Matt. xiv. 26) ; “ for they all saw him and were troubled.” (St. Mark vi. 50.) “And immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying: Be of good heart, it is I, fear ye not. And Peter, making answer, said: Lord, if it be thou, 4 bid me come to thee upon the waters. And he said : Come, and Peter going down out of the boat, walked upon the water to come to Jesus. But seeing the wind strong, he ( 4 ) Calvin, who reproaches Saint Peter with fifteen mortal sins, finds two here. One is infidel¬ ity, for having said to Jesus Christ, “ If it be thou: ” therefore he doubted, concludes Calvin. The other is presumption, for having wished to walk upon the water, like his Master. Catholic commentators find here, on the contrary, grounds for admiring the faith of this great apostle, and the fervor of his love. There was no infidelity in doubting whether he who walked upon the water was Christ, since they did not see him distinctly enough to be sure of the fact; and there was as much faith in walk¬ ing upon it at his word, supposing that it was he, as there was great love in doing so from the desire of sooner joining him. Christ, by telling him to come, and by working so great a miracle in his favor, seals with his approbation all the favorable interpretations which may be given to this act of the chief of the apostles. It is true that in the moment of danger his faith wavered, that is to say, that his faith, very lively in the first instance, ap¬ peared feeble in the second. Let it be observed, however, that Jesus reproaches him not with in fidelity, but merely with the smallness of his faith. Calvin should have confined himself to this; but it was a difficult matter for him to spare Saint Peter, whom he justly regarded as the founder of popery. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 601 was afraid, and when he began to sink, he cried out: Lord, save me. And immedi¬ ately Jesus stretching forth his hand, took hold of him, and said to him: 0 thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt ? ” (St. Matt. xiv. 27-31.) “The disciples were willing, therefore, to take him into the ship, and he went up to them into the ship.” “And when he and Peter were come up into the boat, the wind ceased. ” The disciples “ were far more astonished within themselves (for,” in their agitation, “they understood not concerning the loaves, for their heart was blinded);” “ and presently the ship was at the land to which they were going.” (St. Matthew xiv. 32 ; St. Mark vi. 51, 52 ; St. John vi. 21.) This was the fourth miracle which Jesus Christ wrought in their presence : he had walked upon the waters ; he had made Peter do the same ; he had stilled the tempest ; and, lastly, he had caused them to make in a moment the passage of several hours. So many prodigies performed one after another, tore off the bandage from their eyes. “ They that were in the boat came and adored him, saying : Indeed thou art the Son of God.” 1 (St. Matt. xiv. 33.) “ When Jesus and his disciples had passed over, they came into the land of Genesareth, and set to the shore.” “ And . when they were gone out of the ship, the men of that place knew Jesus, and, run¬ ning through the whole country, they be¬ gan to carry about in beds those that were sick where they heard he was. And whith¬ ersoever he entered, into towns or into vil¬ lages or cities, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment. And as many as touched him were made whole.” (St. Matt. xiv. 34 ; St. Mark vi. 53-56.) CHAPTER XXV. SERMON OF JESUS CHRIST ON THE EUCHARIST.—THE JEWS MURMUR. T HE next day,” after the multiplica¬ tion of the loaves, “ the multitude that stood-on the other side of the sea saw ( 1 ) An evangelist lias already told us that the apostles had embarked in order to go to Gaphai- naum. Another makes the hark arrive now at Genesareth, which embarrasses commentators. All agree that Jesus went successively to these two places, which were not far distant from one another. But some state that he first arrived at Capharnaum, 70 that there was no other ship but one, and that Jesus had not entered into the ship with his disciples ; but that his disciples were in order to go afterwards to Genesareth. Others make him land at Genesareth, whence he proceeded almost immediately to Capharnaum. It would be too tedious to give their arguments, and the ques¬ tion, which is not very important, would lemail) as undecided as we leave it. 602 HISTORY OF THE LIFE gone away alone.” They did not know what was become of him ; and this people, still with a view to proclaim him king, were vainly seeking him, when “ other ships came in from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they had eaten [miraculous] bread, the Lord giving thanks. When, therefore, the multitude saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples,” presuming, moreover, that in some manner or other he had gone and rejoined them, “ they took shipping, and came to Capharnaum, seeking for Je¬ sus. And when they had found him on the other side of the sea,” either that same day, or perhaps the day after, “ they said to him,” with surprise: “Rabbi, when earnest thou hither ? ” Instead of satisfying their curiosity, Jesus, who wished to in¬ struct them, deemed it more proper to dis¬ close to them the interested motive of their great eagerness to find him. Therefore, “ Jesus answered them and said : Amen, amen, I say to you ; you seek me, not be¬ cause you have seen miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. ( 1 ) Heretics have concluded, from this expres¬ sion, that it is forbidden to work for our living. They should have further concluded that it is for¬ bidden to eat, since Saint Paul said : “ If any mail will not work, neither let him eat; ” but their logic took care not to go quite so far. We must toil in order to live, in fulfilment of that sentence pronounced against the human race: “ In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread.” But there are two different lives: the life of the body and the life of the soul, the present and the future life. The body perishes, the soul dieth not; the present life is short, the future life eternal. To prefer the first to the second, to do everything for the former and nothing for the latter, is the too Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which enclureth unto life ever¬ lasting, 1 which the Son of man will give you, for him hath God the Father sealed ” by the prodigies which attest the truth of his mission, and which are, as it were, the letters patent by which God declares to all men that it is himself who sends him, and that all his words are to be received as the express declaration of the divine will. An idle life, passed amid the abundance of good things, was, as we see, the sole at¬ traction to this people, and what the bread miraculously multiplied led them to hope for from Jesus Christ. The first of these hopes is already destroyed by this word of the Saviour: “Labor.” Nor will he let the other exist, at least in the manner they had conceived it. Nevertheless, as he has just spoken to them of a nourishment which, according to the meaning they at¬ tached to his words, should hinder them from dying, their appetite, excited by so flatter¬ ing a hope, makes them consent to labor. The only thing they had yet to hear was, common error, which Jesus Christ reproves by this expression: “ Labor not (principally) for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting.” We must toil from necessity, hut also from vir¬ tue ; we must toil, but we may do so from the mo¬ tive of fulfilling the will of God; we must labor to procure ourselves the bread which is necessary for the support of this mortal life, but, above all, in order to share that immortal life, which shall be the recompense of necessary labor, sanctified by such motives. This practically harmonizes Christ with Saint Paul; and, by means of the nourish¬ ment which perisheth, works out that which en¬ dures unto life everlasting. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 603 by wliat labor tliey should merit it. “They said, therefore, unto him: What shall we do that we may work the works of Gfod ? Jesus answered, and said to them : This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he hath sent.” 1 This was but the commencement, and the effort was not very painful : still they stopped short at this first step. “What sign, therefore, dost thou show, that we may see, and may believe thee ? What dost thou work ? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written : He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” Losing part of their hopes, they lose faith in proportion. They ask miracles from him who had just wrought so striking a miracle in their favor. It is true, they do not as yet formally reject him ; but, by a subtlety worthy of their indocile and ungrateful hearts, they cite against him the miracle of the manna, which they judged so superior to his, that the latter, accoid- ing to their notions, could no longer be called a miracle. Whence their incredu¬ lity tacitly drew this conclusion, which tended less to elevate Moses than to lowei Jesus Christ: Let this new lawgiver work miracles like those of the former one, and we shall have in him the same faith which our fathers had in Moses. (‘) We shall soon see that this wondrous ali¬ ment is no other than the eucharistic bread. We merit it by doing the work of God, and this work of God is faith, saith the Saviour; not that faith is enough, if faith is alone, but because it is the first of all the requisite dispositions, and that it pro¬ duces all the others. It is, therefore, by faith that we must always commence when we prepare to eat Here, again, we recognize the predomi¬ nant taste of this people, inasmuch as, for the purpose of exciting the emulation of the Saviour, they cite against him a miracle of abundance and satiety ; for, as Jesus Christ reproached them, they put a much higher value on the nourishment which sat¬ isfied their appetite than the miraculous work of God which produced it. This was, perhaps, the chief ground for the pre¬ ference which they gave to Moses. The latter had fed two millions of people dur¬ ing forty years ; what was it, in compari¬ son, to have once given food to a few thousands ? As if the grandeur of miracles was to be measured (if we may venture so to speak) by the bushel, and that, in a smaller compass, God might not display equal power. But, finally, Moses was not the author of the manna, which their fa¬ thers had received from God alone. Nor was this bread from heaven, which is only termed such in the sense in which we say, the birds of heaven ; that is to say, be¬ cause it fell from the upper region of the air, where it had been formed by the hands of angels ; nor was this bread to be at all compared to that which Jesus Christ comes to give them. I say it was not comparable to this bread, either in its origin, since the latter is properly the only bread descended the heavenly bread. Humility, desire, and love flow naturally from this source, and these senti¬ ments have more or less strength, in proportion as the faith is more lively or more languishing. This is a point to which, perhaps, men give not suffi¬ cient attention. They have faith ; but they re¬ pose too easily upon habitual faith, which should be then redoubled, to make it produce double feivoi. 604 HISTORY OF THE LIFE from heaven ; nor in the extent of its use, since it may suffice for all men during all ages ; nor in its effect, which shall be to give and preserve an immortal life. A truth which must have seemed incredible to these gross and prejudiced minds; wherefore Christ, in order to give it greater weight, proceeds to assure it with an oath. “ Then Jesus said to them : Amen, amen, I say to you : Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven ; for the bread of God is that which cometh down from hea¬ ven, and giveth life to the world. They said, therefore, unto him : Lord, give us always this bread.” This was just the answer of the Samari¬ tan woman, whom they also resembled, in¬ asmuch as they did not understand the bread which gives life to the world in a sense more spiritual than that woman had at first understood the water springing up into life everlasting. But Jesus, who be¬ gan to enter into the depths of the mystery he had to propose to them, “answered ( 1 ) The will of the Father and the divine will of the Son is bnt one and the same will; there¬ fore, when Jesus Christ speaks of the will of his Father and of his own, as of two different wills, he speaks of his human will. By this will he re¬ ceives all that his Father gives him ; and when he says, with reference to this, that he is come to do not his own will, but that of his Father, he wishes to give us to understand, that such is his submis¬ sion to the will of the Father, that, supposing (what is not the case) that he felt repugnance in receiving all those whom his Father gives him, he, would make this repugnance yield to the desire which he has to execute, not his own will, but that ol his Father. This submission, despite the repug¬ them” thus : “I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. But I said unto you: that you also have seen me, and you believe not.” Conse¬ quently you follow me in vain, because it is not with the feet of the body, but by faith, that men come really to me. Thus it is, that “ all that the Father giveth to me shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me, I will not cask out, because I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. Now, this is the will of the Father, who sent me, 1 that of all that he hath given to me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again in the last day. And this is the will of my Father, that sent me, that every one who seeth the Son, and believeth in him, may have life everlasting ; and I will raise him up again in the last day.” 3 Such is the life which Jesus, the true bread of heaven, cometh to give to the world, and this part of the mystery is al¬ ready explained. It is not this first life, nance of his human nature, appeared in him when about to drink the chalice of his passion. ( a ) All men, without distinction of good or bad, shall be resuscitated by the power of Jesus Christ; but he speaks here only of the resurrection of the first, because this shall be the fruit of his merits, and, as it were, the development of the germ of life which the eucharistic bread shall have mingled with their flesh, and which shall be preserved even in their arid bones and inanimate ashes. There¬ fore, this resurrection alone shall be happy and glorious, while that of the wicked, produced simply by the almighty justice of an avenging God, shall be less a return to life than the commencement of a life ever dying, and of an immortal death. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 605 whose destruction is already pronounced by an irrevocable sentence : it is that which Jesus Christ shall impart to those who nourish themselves with him, a life eternal and eternally happy, which shall not only be exempt from death, but also from all the wants and miseries of the present life ; a life of which Jesus Christ could say, in the most literal sense, that its possessor shall suffer neither hunger nor thirst, be¬ cause, together with a relish ever new, he shall find therein a perfect satiety. What a life!—and what transports of joy should not such a magnificent promise cause the Jews! But it must be allowed that our Saviour had to deal with most stubborn and untractable minds ; instead of opening their hearts to this great and precious hope, they stop to criticise his words. “The Jews, therefore, murmured at him, because he had said : I am the living bread which came down from heaven;” and, after the example of the Nazarenes, some of whom were, perhaps, mingled in the crowd, “they said : Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know ? How, then, saith he : I came down from heaven ? ” This murmur was but too perceptible; and Jesus, whose sermon it interrupted, felt obliged to silence it. He, “ therefore, an¬ swered, and said to them,” in an austere tone : “ Murmur not among yourselves : ” though, after all, neither your murmurs nor your indocility have aught to ‘surprise me ; they are the natural result of the low and grovelling motives which brought you here. It is not by following the allure¬ ments of flesh and blood that I am to be found. “No man can come to me, except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him and I will raise him up in the last day.” If you do not wish to be one of these, do not think the number shall be smaller on that account, since of all nations, without distinction of Jew or G-entile, “ it is written in the prophets: 2 They shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard of the ■ Father, and hath learned ” of him, “ cometh to me. Not that any man hath seen the (*) “ By an interior attraction, by making him wish what he did not previously wish,’ says Saint Augustine. By comparing this expression of our Saviour with that which he addressed to Saint Peter: “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven,” we have the double operation of grace, the revelation and the attraction, the light of the understanding and the impulse of the will. The Fathers have always found this attraction in the text which gives occa¬ sion to this note, and they employed it successfully against Pelagius, who opposed its necessity and de¬ nied its existence. The enemies of free will have abused it, to support their dogma of irresistible grace. Catholic truth lies between these two con¬ trary errors. We, therefore, adopt the perfect medium, by believing, on one side, that, in tlie matter of salvation, man can do absolutely nothing without the interior attraction of grace ; and, on | the other, that he always has the unhappy power of resisting this attraction, and of rendering it useless to him, by his resistance, according to this decision of the Council of Trent, sess, 6, can. 4: “If any one saith chat the free will of man, moved and excited by God, .... cannot, if he wishes so to do, refuse its consent, ... .let him be anathema.” ( a ) This prophecy is in Isaias, chap, liv., nearly in the same terms that we see it here. It is to be found in equivalent terms in several other pro¬ phets. It began to have its accomplishment im¬ mediately after the descent of the Holy Ghost. GOG HISTORY OF THE LIFE Father, but he who is of God ; he ” alone “ hath seen the Father.” (St. John vi. 22- 46.) Nevertheless, without having seen the Father unveiled, we have heard, and learned from him, when we observe with attention and receive with docility this testimony which he hath rendered to his Son by his own lips, and which he hath since repeated and confirmed by a host of prodigies: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (St. Matt, iii. 17.) CHAPTER XXVI. CONTINUATION OF THE SERMON ON THE EUCHARIST.—SOME DISCIPLES ARE SCANDALIZED.- CONSTANCY OF THE APOSTLES. A FTER this digression, in which Christ has incidentally spoken of the im¬ mutability of divine electiofi and the neces¬ sity of interior grace, mysteries which he merely skims over (if we may use the ex¬ pression), and the development of which he seems to reserve for the apostle of the Gentiles, he returns to the main object of his discourse. After having informed them that he is the true bread of life, and that whoso shall be nourished with this bread shall live eternally, he proceeds to inform them that this bread is his own flesh, which ( 1 ) All those who eat the living bread die cor¬ poreally, and all those who eat the manna are not spiritually dead; we must, therefore, explain in what sense Jesus Christ has said of the first that they do not die, and of the second that they are dead. The Saviour speaks less of persons than of the properties of these two aliments. Manna did not give immortal life to the body, much less to the soul. The bread which is here called the living bread gives, or, if we prefer so to express ourselves, is to be eaten and received within us in the same way as ordinary food. Thus, seem¬ ing: to enter into their material views, he shocks all their senses, and completely dis¬ concerts their reason. He resumes, there¬ fore, and continues in these terms : “ Amen, amen, I say to you, he that believeth in me hath life everlasting. I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that if any man eat of it, he may not die. 1 “I am the living bread, which came supports: 1st, the life of the soul, a life immortal in its nature, which can only perish through the fault of him who hath received it, so that if he come to perdition, that death should not be imputed to the bread, but to him alone. In the same way, as if God had left to Adam, in the fruit of the tree of life, the power of giving death to himself, in the supposition that he availed himself of this power of self-murder, his death could not be attributed to the tree of life, but to the violence OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 607 down from heaven. If any man eat of this them, if, as has been contended in these bread, he shall live forever ; and the bread last ages, he had but spoken of the mere that I will give is my flesh,” which I am to eating by faith. The latter has nothing . give “for the life of the world.” which shocks either the senses, op reason, “The Jews, therefore, strove among or humanity; and, so explained, Jesus themselves, saying: How can this man Christ was a rock of scandal. But he give us his flesh to eat?” 1 They either could not so explain it, because he had spoke so in derision, or, having seen the spoken, in point of fact, of real eating; he miracle, of the multiplication of the loaves, could not, I say, destroy the meaning which they inquired by what new prodigy he he himself had wished to establish ; where- could fulfil so strange a promise ; for it is fore, in pursuance of the right which he questionable whether they thought that had to be believed upon his own word, Jesus Christ spoke to them of eating his without explaining how he wished them to flesh cut in pieces. Incredulous as they confide in his almighty power, instead of were, they must have found it difficult to struggling to disabuse them, he reiterates imagine that such a thought could have these strong expressions which had con- entered the mind of a man so wise and so veyed to their minds the idea of the real holy as Jesus must naturally have appeared eating of his flesh ; and to confirm them in to them. Yet what else could they imagine, it, he swears for the fourth time, and supposing he spoke of the real eating of “said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto the proper substance of his flesh, and what you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of other meaning could be given to his words ? man, and drink his blood, you shall not This was the point that caused their em- have life in you. He that eateth my flesh barrassment, and upon which it seems rea- and drinketh my blood hath everlasting sonable that Christ should have enlightened life, and I will raise him up in the last day ; Avliich he would voluntarily exercise upon himself. virtue shall have supplied the reality to them. 2d. It is the common opinion of the holy Fathers There is nothing in this which should appear sur- that this living bread imprints upon the very prising, since baptism, the most necessary of all the bodies of those who nourish themselves with it a sacraments, is supplied by charity andby martyrdom. vivifying quality, which is in them, as it were, the ( 1 ) “ How,” a JeAvish word, as Saint Cyril calls germ of the happy and immortal life which shall it: let us take care not to advance it; it is the be communicated to them by the resurrection. We source of all infidelity. We should also call it a should so believe with them; but pre-supposing, Calvinistic Avord, for the Calvinists have likeAvise what they themselves supposed, that the just Avho said: “ How can this man give us his flesh to eat ? ” preceded the coming of Jesus Christ, children who This Avord has no other signification than this: I died before the age Avlien the Church permits them cannot comprehend such a thing; therefore Cod to communicate, and, generally, all those Avho have cannot make it be so, at least God has not declared died in justice, Avithout having been able to par- that it is so; which is reducible to this silly pro- ticipate in the Eucharistic Bread; that all these, positron: Nothing can be except what I can com T say, shall have received the virtue of it, Avliich prehend. GO 8 HISTORY OF THE LIFE for ray flesh is meat indeed, and my blood no one will be surprised that we should is drink indeed. He that eatetli my flesh understand as spoken of the Eucharist, not . and drinketh my blood abideth in me, only these, but also all the preceding words. and I in him. 1 As the living Father hath It is, in fact, this adorable sacrament which sent me, and I live by the Father, so he alone is spoken of through the whole course that eateth me, the same also shall live by of this sermon. Though shrouded at first,' me. 2 This is the bread that came down it is gradually unfolded, and at last appears from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat with such evidence as renders it no longer manna and are dead ; he that eateth this possible to ignore it. We first see it an- bread 3 shall live forever. These things he nounced under the name of nourishment said, teaching in the synagogue, in Ca- which endureth unto life everlasting ; then pharnaum.” Jesus Christ calls it the living bread which After reading these words of our Saviour, came down from heaven. Then he adds, ( 1 ) Jesus Christ does not say: He dwells in my manity in its turn unites itself to men by the eat- flesh, and my flesh in him; but, “he abideth in ing, and communicates to them the life with which me, and I in him.” For, in fact, the flesh and the it is filled and animated. This life is taken in the ■ blood withdraw when the accidents undergo most extensive and most excellent sense. It is at change; but the vivifying spirit abides, that is to the same time the life of grace, the life of glory, say, the divine person, which in Jesus Christ is and even the natural life, which consists in the properly the I; it abideth, I say, producing life in eternal union of the soul with the body. Jesus the soul of him who has received the flesh and the Christ, from the instant of his conception, had, in blood, which are, as it were, the channel by which point of fact, the two first, and by right, the third; the divinity communicates itself. Thus Jesus for he died only because he wished, and he rose to Christ and the man who receiveth him live by the die no more. Like him, we have, in fact, the first same life, produced by the same vivifying prin- life, and by right, the other two lives; but we ciple, according to what Saint Paul says: “ He shall enjoy the second only after death, and the who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. vi. third after the resurrection. They are deferred in 17). This is what our Saviour understands by our regard, but they are due to us, if we preserve these words: “He abideth in me and I in him,” the vivifying spirit which Jesus Christ communi- an expression which is scarcely sufficient to give cates to us by the communion of his body and of an idea of so intimate a union; but human lan- his blood. This seems to be merely the develop- guage furnishes no other. ment of these words of Saint Paul to the Romans, ( 2 ) The explanation of the preceding text chapter viii. 11: “And if the spirit of him that serves also to throw light upon this. In the same raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. way as the Father, by sending the Son—that is to he that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead shall say, by uniting the divinity to the humanity in the quicken also your mortal bodies, because of hia person of the Son, has given to humanity the life spirit that dwelleth in yon.” of which the divinity is the efficient principle; so ( 3 ) From this text, and from several others of he who unites himself to the Son by the eating of a similar nature, where mention is only made of his body, likewise receives life from him. We, the eating of bread alone, the Council of Trent, therefore, see life reside in the divinity as its sess. 21, ch. i., concludes that communion under source, whence it infuses itself into the humanity the two kinds is not necessary to participate in of Jesus Christ, which is united to it. The hu- the sacrament. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. that he is himself that living bread who, by the incarnation, came down from heaven, and who giveth life. Had he stopped here, we might have thought, with some appear¬ ance of reason, that merely his mysteries and his maxims, are here meant, which he has just proposed to men as a salutary bread with which they should nourish themselves by faith and meditation ; but when at last he says expressly, that this bread is his flesh, which was to be given for the life of the world, an expression which he will repeat at the institution of the Eu¬ charist ; when, instead of disabusing his hearers, whom this expression had so much shocked, he even drops the word bread, and no longer speaks to them but of eating his flesh, which is “ meat indeed,” and of drinking his blood, which is “ drink in¬ deed,” it is clear that he himself explains the sense of his words in a manner that leaves no reasonable doubt. That those, however, who reject the dogma of the real presence, should endeavor to elude this clear and natural meaning, does not sur¬ prise us ; the stamp of reality is so visible, * more especially in the conclusion of the discourse, that they could not prevent its application to the Eucharist, if they ac¬ knowledged that the question here had any reference to the Eucharist. But we can hardly conceive how Catholic commentators should have deviated from this evident sense, and substituted far-fetched allegories and forced meanings, if we did not know that the inordinate desire of seeing what is not perceived by the rest of men, often makes stars visible, and obscures the sun at noon-day. To remove all doubt that 77 609 Jesus Christ spoke here of the Eucharist, it will be enough for us to observe, that he could not express himself with more en¬ ergy and clearness, supposing he had wished to speak of it in fact. Thus all the Fathers, without exception, and the Church in all the Councils wherein this discourse is cited, have understood it of this divine sacrament. With these authorities and proofs there is associated a conjecture, which has appeared highly reasonable to the best commentators—that is, that it was natural for Saint John, the only one of the four evangelists who does not speak of the Eucharist when detailing the Last Supper, to speak of it on this occasion. It is easy for us to judge that, having written after all the others, he wished to omit what they had already related, and to report what they had omitted. After this explanation, it seems advisa¬ ble to make some reflections which may serve to justify the wisdom and goodness of our Saviour in the eyes of those who may find it hard to recognize here either the one or the other. There is no doubt that the reason which induced him to pronounce this discourse, was the design which he entertained of preparing the world for faith in the divine and incomprehensible Eucharist. Appa¬ rently he succeeded, as regards his apos¬ tles ; for else why, when he afterwards said to them, “ Take and eat, this is my body ;” why, I say, did they not manifest any surprise, if it were not that what was then done was merely the accomplishment of what he had announced and promised them? But it is certain that this produced HISTORY OF THE LIFE 610 quite a contrary effect upon the multitude who heard it; and that, far from increasing their faith, it served only to quench the little which some of them began to have in our Saviour. We may, perhaps, be asked if this was not, in some manner, laying a snare for this feeble new-born faith, to put it to such a test ? Perhaps here, again, the reader will bear.in mind the conduct of the Church, which, in the primitive ages, veiled from the eyes of the catechumens a mys¬ tery so shocking to reason and the senses, and only proposed it to them when, by baptism, they had received the habit of faith. Piety seldom allows itself such questions, which often proceed from a pry¬ ing and rash curiosity. We are going to answer them with the aid of Him whose works, justified in themselves, do not re¬ quire our apologies, but who condescends in his goodness to account for his ways to¬ wards us, and to suffer us to enter into judgment with him. Jesus Christ had resolved to institute the Eucharist, a mystery evincing such admi¬ rable love, that no one can ever suspect him who was able to devise and execute it with being deficient in kindness. Before instituting it, he wished to announce it to men and* prepare them for it; that he had good reasons so to do, we may confidently leave to his wisdom. One of these might be that, having the intent to institute it in the presence of the apostles alone, he wished that they might have it in their power to say, when an¬ nouncing for the first time this incredible mystery : “ My brethren, this is no inven¬ tion of our mind. Remember what the Lord Jesus said of the real eating of his body. What he then promised he has since given, and now distributes it amongst you by our hands.” Thus, while trying their faith at the present moment, he makes the way smooth for their future belief. But we must also acknowledge that the course adopted by our Saviour on this occasion was marked by the most considerate kind¬ ness. He announces indeed the most re¬ pugnant of all mysteries ; but observe by what preliminaries he leads his hearers to the revelation he makes. He began by curing all their sick ; next, compassionating the wants of the people he fills them with five loaves and two fishes, by a prodigy so surprising, and, at the same time, striking the senses so powerfully, that the whole multitude cried out, in a sudden transport, that he is the prophet by excellence, who was to come into the world. Their enthu¬ siasm even impels them to declare him king. When his flight deprived them of him, they cross the lake, and seek him even in Capharnaum, where, at length, they find him. Could they have been bet¬ ter prepared to hear his divine oracles? and, if you were to select throughout all their life the moment in which you would presume the greatest facility on their part to hearken to him and believe him, would you not have taken this in preference ? It is true, they did not then comprehend aught of his words ; but, after having recognized him for a prophet, were they not further bound to admit his truth, until it should please him to give them the gift of under¬ standing ? G-od has performed what he wished ; who shall dare to say to him, Why OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 611 hast thou acted thus ? This general answer has ever been sufficient for humble and submissive faith ; but it is obvious that this is not the sole reply which can be made here, since it is apparent that Jesus Christ admirably adapted himself to the weakness of those to whom he spoke, and that he did not expose to any trial the faith of this in¬ docile people until he had first employed the means which, by rendering faith easy, made their incredulity- inexcusable. But it was not merely amongst the peo¬ ple that he found unbelievers. “ Many of his disciples hearing it, said : This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” They spoke this to one another in a low tone. “ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured, said to them : Doth this scandalize you? If, then, you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before ? 1 It is the Spirit that quick- eneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing. 2 The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 3 But there are some of you that believe not. For from the beginning”— that is to say, from all eternity as God, and as man from the moment of his concep¬ tion, “ Jesus knew who they were that did not believe, and who he was that would be¬ tray him; and he said : Therefore did I say to you, that no man can come to me, unless it be given him by my Father,”—a purely gratuitous gift, which cannot be merited by those to whom it is made, but which, being offered to all, makes those re¬ sponsible who are deprived of it only be¬ cause they have not wished to receive it; for it is offered in vain if it be not received. ( 1 ) These words are susceptible of two different meanings, which correspond with the two parts of the discourse of the Saviour, and the two objec¬ tions made by his hearers. They had murmured first, because Jesus Christ had said that he was the living bread descended from heaven. If we apply here his answer, it signifies : You do not wish to believe at present that I am descended from hea¬ ven ; will you believe it when you see me reascend thither ? Applied to the real eating of his flesh, it signifies : You find it very hard to believe that I can give you my flesh as food, and my blood as drink, now that I am in the midst of you ; how much more incredible shall the thing appear to you when, after having seen me ascend to heaven, you must believe that this flesh, at the same time that it is in heaven, is given as nourishment here on earth ? The first sense facilitates faith in the incarnation ; the second renders more difficult that of the real eating. The second is the most probable, because it is much more probable that Jesus Christ should here reply to the second of the two objections; and, by indicating his presence in different places by means of the Eucharist, we may say he consum¬ mates the revelation of this great mystery. ( 2 ) The flesh of Jesus Christ is not vivifying by itself; it is so only by the spirit ; that is to say, by the divinity which is united to it, and which com¬ municates itself, through it, to those who eat it. This explanation, which harmohizes well with the text, has nothing in it repugnant to the faith of the real presence. It leaves the preceding words in all their energy, and therein the i*eality is most clearly expressed, and this great intrenchment of the Calvinists is thus ever open to assault. ( 8 ) That is to say, pause not at the carnal and revolting sense in which they may appear to your minds. As they promise great benefits, they con¬ tain great mysteries ; if .you cannot as yet compre¬ hend them, still commence by believing. What could be more proper to dissipate any wrong idea, and to take away every pretext for incredulity than such words ? 012 HISTORY OP THE LIFE A great many of those whom Jesus ad- hope, and the love which made him prefer dressed were just in this position, which Jesus Christ to all else. We may also re- was the reason why, “ after this, many mark the virtuous inclination which he had of his disciples went back, 1 and walked to judge favorably of his colleagues for no more with Mm.” he does not seem to doubt that they all en- Jesus did not appear surprised at this tertained the same sentiments as himself. desertion, which he-had, of course, fore’ Yet he was mistaken ; and as it concerned seen ; he even wished to profit by the occa- the glory of Jesus that they should not sion to teach the world that he had no need think that he was ever ignorant of what of any one, and that he only permitted in one amongst them either already was or his retinue voluntary disciples. “ He said was soon to be, “heanswered them : Have then to the twelve : Will you also go not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is away? Lord, answered to him Simon a devil ? Now, he meant Judas Iscariot, Peter, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the son of Simon, for this same was about the words of eternal life. 2 We have be- to betray him, whereas he was one of the lieved, and have known that thou art the twelve.” But Jesus did not designate Christ, the Son of G-od.” (St. John vi. 47-72.) him, that the apprehension of being one As the chief of the apostles, he made day the wretch of whom he spoke, might this answer in the name of all the others, keep them in constant self-distrust and in and we behold in it at once his faith, his humble opinion of themselves. ( 1 ) Many, and not all, as some commentators beginniug from the baptism of John until the day state, who have even advanced that Saint Mark and wherein he was taken up from us, one of these Saint Luke were among the number of the desert- must be made a witness with us of his resurrection.” ers, although it is much more probable that they ( 8 ) These words of Saint Peter are as the repe- were not even among the number of the disciples. tition of those words of the Saviour: “ My words It is certain that several of these remained insepa- are spirit and life.” Apparently Saint Peter did rably attached to Jesus Christ from his baptism not understand any better than the rest of them until his ascension. We have a proof of it in these the mystery which Jesus Christ had just proposed; words of Saint Peter, Acts i.: “ Wherefore of these but he believed that his Master spoke nothing but men who have companied with us all the time that the truth, and promised nothing but what was the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us, good. That was enough for the time. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 613 CHAPTER XXVII. COMPLAINTS OF THE PHARISEES.—THEIR TRADITIONS REJECTED.—CURE OF THE CANAANEAN WOMAN’S DAUGHTER. A FTER these things Jesus walked in Galilee ; for he would not walk in Judea, 1 because the Jews sought to kill him.” (St. John vii. 1.) “And there as¬ sembled together unto him the Pharisees and some of the Scribes coming from Jeru- salem ; and when they had seen some of his disciples eat bread with common, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews, hold- * (*) ( 1 ) We have already seen that it was then pas¬ chal time. Jesus Christ did not go to Jerusalem to celebrate this passover, as the law ordained. He was not subject to the law, except so far as he wished to be, and the design which the Jews had of putting him to death is a further reason for the dispensation. He might baffle it by his omnipotence; but he might also use the natural right which he had not to expose his life. We are not, therefore, rigorously obliged to per¬ form external acts of religion, of which we could acquit ourselves only by exposing ourselves to some great peril. We must, nevertheless, except the case wherein the omission of the prescribed duty would seem a declaration of infidelity or apos¬ tasy. In that case, at the risk of life itself, exte¬ rior profession is no less obligatory than interior belief. (*) If we would profit by everything, we can learn from the Pharisees to purify not the body, but the conscience, when we return from human intercourse ; for it is rare to return thence without some defilement. ( 8 ) By confining their religion to these prac- ing the tradition of the ancients, eat not without often washing their hands; and when they come from the market, unless they be washed, they eat not. 2 And many other things there are that have been de¬ livered to them to observe, the washing of caps and of pots, and of brazen vessels, and of beds ” upon which they take their meals. 3 (St. Mark vii. 1-4.) Thereupon “ the Pharisees and the Scribes asked him : tices, they acted very wrong, and are justly re¬ proved. Occasion has hence been taken to de¬ claim against superstitious practices. If the prac¬ tices be such, the declaimers are right; if not, people should still be taught to blend with them the spirit, that is to say, interior piety, without which religion is only a vain shadow, and a body without a soul. But let us stop here, and with these correctives let us always uphold and never condemn exterior practices. We might do with¬ out them, if we were pure spirits; but, since wo have senses, we require sensible objects. There may be excess; hut too little is another extreme, the consequences of which are, perhaps, more to be dreaded. It is a less evil to have religion over¬ loaded with these practices, than to have no reli¬ gion, which may happen when religion, divested of pious practices, has no longer any hold upon the senses. Here the accident is so close to the substance, and the accessory to the principal, that, in removing the one, you often banish the other. Remark further, that those who have declaimed most loudly against practices, and who have la¬ bored most to abolish them, are constantly here- 614 HISTORY OF THE LIFE (St. Mark vii. 1-5) Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread;” “but they eat bread with common hands.” (St. Matt. xv. 12 ; St. Mark vii. 5.) Here we recognize the Pharisees, who, in the first place, treated as a criminal transgression what was not ; but supposing that it had been, still this reproach was, we must observe, visibly exaggerated. For they had seen only some of the dis¬ ciples omit washing their hands before meals, and they say to Christ “thy dis¬ ciples,” as if it were the fault of all. Then they censure our Saviour himself, although he might have had no part in it. Had they then wished to act equitably, they should have contented themselves with saying: We have remarked that some of thy dis¬ ciples do not wash their hands before eat¬ ing. Hast thou taught them to do so, or who authorizes them? After that they might have examined what fault there was in such an omission. But Jesus took a tics ; whereas those who have multiplied them, if one may say so, to excess, are, after all, Catholics; and between the nations which have either reject¬ ed, and those which have appeared most attached to them, we know in which of the two religion has been lost or best preserved. Let us endeavor, however, always to preserve a just medium. ( 1 ) We should remark that the Saviour speaks here of those human traditions only which are opposed to the law of God. To conclude from thence with Protestants, that all traditions should he rejected, is concluding from the species to the genus, and from the particular to the general. But, say they, Catholic traditions are contrary to the word of God. This also is bad reasoning, shorter way to confound them, that was to reproach them directly with this senseless respect for their traditions, which induced them to sacrifice to these trifles the most sacred laws of religion and humanity. “ He answering, said to them : Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your traditions? 1 For God said : Honor thy father and mother; and : He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death. But you say: If a man shall say to his father or mother, Corban, (which is a gift), the gift whatsoever pro¬ ceeded from me, shall profit thee,” he satisfied the precept; “and further, you suffer him not to do anything for his father and mother. And he shall not honor them ” (St. Matt. xv. 3-6 ; St. Mark vii. 11, 12), that is to say, that he does not assist them in their wants, in which act consists the substantial honor and real homage due them, without which all else is but vain ceremonies and a sort of derision : Thereby “ you do make void the commandment of God, making void the word of God by since they adduce in proof the very matter in question. There are different traditions which may be preserved: there are bad ones which ought to he rejected, and good ones which should be re¬ tained. Our adversaries receive with us the sanc¬ tification of the Sunday, infant-baptism, the validity of baptism by infusion. These points are not found in Scripture. If it be true that we must reject all tradition, and receive only what is in Scripture, we must also reject these points with all the rest. Why have they not done so P It is easy to see that, when they wish to reason against us, they talk nonsense; and when they act like us, they contradict themselves. • - ' ^ OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 615 your own tradition.” (St. Matt. xv. 6 ; St. Mark vii. IB.) “Hypocrites, well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying : This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men.” (St. Matt. xv. 7- 9.) “ For leaving the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pots and of cups, and many other things you do like to these.” (St. Mark vii. 8.) The people were not within hearing of these answers, which were addressed to the Pharisees only. Yet they led to a maxim in which it was proper that the world should be instructed. “ Jesus there¬ fore calling again the multitudes unto him, he said to them: Hear me, ye all, and understand : There is nothing from without a man that, entering into him, can delile him; but the things which come from a man, these are they that defile a man.” 1 (St. Mark vii. 14-16.) “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man ; but what cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man ” (St. Matt. xv. 11.) “ If any man have ears to hear let him hear.” (St. Mark vii. 16.) The meaning of this maxim is, that meat contains nothing in itself which is capable of staining the conscience of man, and that all defilement of this kind springs solely from the disorder of the heart. This was said in a manner to be understood by those meditating on it ; and Christ exhorts the people to do so. But it might occur to their minds that he thereby wished to abolish the known and recognized distinc¬ tion between clean and unclean animals. He was soon to do so ; but the time had not yet come. It was not even mooted here: the question was, simply to know whether, supposing an individual used only the lawful meats, his conscience was purer or more sullied, in proportion as he should eat them with more or less cleanliness, rather than purity. This is the case de¬ cided by the sentence which Jesus has just pronounced. The Pharisees seemed highly scandalized. To make light of their traditions was sufficient to give offence to these proud men. But we may presume, from this Pharisaical spirit, which always contrives to give things the very worst construction, that they accused our Saviour of openly attacking the law which pre¬ scribed the choice of meats. The disciples took alarm ; perhaps they also were scan¬ dalized, for we shall see that they them¬ selves did not at first comprehend what their Lord meant. Thinking it, therefore, ( 1 ) All know how Protestants have perverted this expression, in order to reject as superstitious the abstinence from flesh-meat prescribed by the Church. There are but too many Catholics who in this point imitate their conduct and their lan¬ guage. It is easy to answer both. What enters into man doth not defile him of itself and by its own nature, since every creature of God is good; hut it may defile him by the violation of the law which forbids its use. Thus Adam was defiled by the forbidden fruit, and the Jews were, by the use of the meats, declared unclean. It is not, there¬ fore, the food which produces the defiling; it is the disobedience which “ comes from man,” that is to say, which the heart engenders when the for¬ bidden meat enters into man. 01Q HISTORY OT proper to remonstrate with him on this subject, “ they came then and said to him : Dost thou know that the Pharisees, when they heard this word, were scandalized ? But he answering, said : Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. 1 Let them alone ; they are blind and leaders of the blind ; and if the blind man lead the blind, both fall into the pit.” 2 (St. Matt. xv. 12-14.) When it happens that, in doing good, we scandalize, if the scandal proceeds solely from the malice of those who take scandal, we should despise it; but if scandal be taken through ignorance or through weakness, charity then obliges us to reassure the weak, and enlighten the ignorant. The man¬ ner in which Jesus has just spoken of the Pharisees, shows us that he pursued the conduct first mentioned with respect to them. We have an example of the second in his condescension, when giving to his disciples the explanation which they asked. “And when he was come into the house from the multitude, his disciples asked him ” the meaning of “ the parable,” “and Peter,” who usually spoke for all, “ said to him : Expound to us this parable.” Jesus “ saith to them : Are you also yet without ( 1 ) Every doctrine which comes not from hea¬ ven, and which is merely the invention of the human mind: all teachers who have not received their mission from God, as the apostles and their successors have. ( 2 ) The blind man who takes another as blind for his guide is guilty of his own death. The blind man who assumes to lead another blind man, commits a double homicide. ( 9 ) To defile a man the sin need not come forth out of the heart: he may consummate the sin by THE LIFE understanding?” “So are you also yet without knowledge? Understand ye not that everything from without, entering into a man cannot defile him : because it entereth not into his heart, but goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the privy, purging all the meats ? But he said that the things which come out from a man, they defile a man ” 3 (St. Mark vii. 17-20 ; St. Matt. xv. 15-17); for “ the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and those things defile a man.” “For from within out of the heart of men come forth evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye” of envy, “blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within ;” “these are the things that defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands doth not defile a man.” (St. Mark vii. 21- 23 ; St. Matthew xv. 19, 20.) An expres¬ sion which alone would suffice to prove what we have already said, namely, that Christ does not here enter on the question of meats forbidden or allowed, but that he merely speaks of the extravagant purifi¬ cations of the Pharisees ; and even what he does say of these is less for the purpose interior consent, as Jesus Christ informs us, with respect to adultery, and, consequently, all other sins. If, therefore, he makes it here come forth from the heart, it is because he speaks of what usually occurs; for, when the heart hath conceived iniquity, it makes an effort to bring it forth, that is to say, to carry into execution what it hath de¬ sired and projected. And if it does not always, it is only because it is prevented by a greater force, to which it yields, yet foaming with rage and vex ation. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 617 of condemning them, than to disabuse those who, relying on the decisions of their false doctors, made these observances which are really indifferent, a matter of conscience. “Jesus went from thence, and retired into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.” (St. Matt. xv. 21.) He did not wish to make himself known in this idolatrous country, lest, it is supposed, these people, attracted by the fame of his miracles, should bring to him all their sick. He could not cure them without exceeding the bounds of his mission, and his natural goodness would find it painful to refuse them. To prevent this embarrassment, “ entering into a house, he would that no man should know it ; and he could not be ” entirely “hid. 1 For” “behold a woman of Canaan who came out of those coasts, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, crying out, as soon as she heard of him, said to him : Have mercy on me, 0 Lord, thou Son of David ; my daughter is grievously troubled by a devil. Who answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying : Send her away, for she crieth after us.” Now, by crying out, she made him known, the very thing that Jesus did not wish, and this reason adduced by the disciples was highly proper to induce him to grant her request speedily. Neverthe- ( 1 ) We must by no means think that he had not the power to conceal himself. He took the precau¬ tions which human prudence usually employs to hinder one from being known. These precautions were not sufficient to keep his arrival in the coun¬ try unknown by all without exception, as he had not absolutely desired it; and it is time to say that 78 less, “ he answering, said: I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel.” (St. Mark vii. 24-25 ; .St. Mat¬ thew xv. 22-24.) It seems that the incident we have just related took place whilst Jesus was still walking towards the house whither he re¬ tired, as we have said. This woman, who kept following him, “ came in ” after him, “ and fell down at his feet,” and adored him, saying : “ Lord, help me” that is to say, she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. Jesus was fully disposed to do so ; but, in order to make it apparent that she was indebted for this favor to the greatness of her faith, “ he said to her” in a severe tone : “Suffer first the children to be filled. For it is not good to take the bread of the children and to cast it to the dogs.” “The woman was a Gentile, a Syrophenician born.” It is these idolatrous nations who are here reck¬ oned as dogs, in comparison with the Jews, who are styled the children. If the terms employed by our Saviour in regard to the former are humiliating, they are not alto¬ gether discouraging. In them we may catch a glimpse of the fact, that the bread should be given to the idolaters when the children have had their fill or refuse it, and that time was not far distant. But a pa¬ gan woman could not divine this mystery, be was known and unknown precisely as much as he wished to be. Perhaps he wished to teach us that he does not always show himself to us, and that we must seek him with earnestness in order to find him. “ Seek ye the Lord, and be strength¬ ened : seek his face evermore.”—(Ps. civ. 4.) 618 HISTORY OF THE LIFE then unknown to the apostles ; and a refu¬ sal accompanied with so much apparent contempt should naturally have deprived her of all hope. It must be owned that we never have keener ingenuity than when we ask for what we ardently desire. This poor mother had enough on this occasion to make the reason of the refusal a motive of grace. Far, therefore, from being re¬ pulsed when Jesus appeared to confound her with the unclean brutes, she answer¬ ed, “Yea, Lord,” humbly acknowledging what she was ; yet she immediately adds, ‘ ‘ for the whelps also eat of the crumbs of the children’s bread, that fall from the ta¬ ble of their masters.” One single miracle in favor of the heathen world, compared to the vast number which Christ had wrought for the Jews, was, in fact, like a crumb of bread dropped under the table, and the domestic animals were fully enti¬ tled to it. Then Jesus said to her, “ 0 woman, great is thy faith ;” “for this say¬ ing, 1 go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.” And her daughter was cured from that hour, “and when she was come into her house, she found the girl lying upon the bed, and that the devil was gone out.” (St. Mark vii. 26-30 ; St. Maft. xv. 25-28.) This is a remarkable narra¬ tive, which teaches us that a prayer ani¬ mated by faith, accompanied by humility, and sustained by perseverance, is a stron¬ ger reason for God to hearken to it O than all those which he may have to re¬ fuse it. CHAPTER XXVIII. DEAF AND DUMB CURED.-MULTIPLICATION OF THE SEVEN LOAVES.-A SION FROM HEAVEN ASKED._LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. T HE sacred writers do not say that our Saviour did anything more in that foreign land. We know that all is not written, and it is not impossible that he wrought there only the miracle we have ( 1 ) Not because this expression was to the point, but because it admirably expressed the faith and the humility of the virtuous Cauaanean wo¬ men. We have seen, chapter xvi., note 5, and page 554, that God does not exact loifg prayers; just recounted. Resides the excellent in¬ struction which the entire Church derives from this miracle on the efficacy of prayer, perhaps he also wished to teach his minis¬ ters to consider the salvation of a single neither does he require that they should be elo¬ quent. Studied discourses are of no avail before him, whose ear listens only to the preparation of the heart. OF OTJR LORD soul as a fruit well worthy of a laborious mission ; and no one will not consider as useless the pains he took to furnish us with this twofold lesson. Whatever might have been the cause, it is certain that he did not tarry in that country : “ and going out of the coasts of Tyre, he came by Sidon to the sea of G-alilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.” He was scarcely arrived there, when “they bring to him one deaf and dumb ; and they besought him, that he would lay his hand upon him. And, taking him from the multitude apart,” Jesus “put his finger into his ear, and, spitting, he touched his tongue; then, looking up to heaven, he groaned.” In the ardor of his prayer, un¬ less indeed it was through compassion for our miseries ; “and said to him : Ephphe- ta, which is, be thou opened. 1 And imme¬ diately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke right. 2 And Jesus charged them that they should tell no man. 3 But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal did they publish it, and so much the more did they wonder, saying,” in contrast to the calumnies of the Pharisees: “He ( 1 ) He speaks as God, after having prayed as man ; elsewhere he speaks, and prays not. At other times he heals solely by the mere imposition of his blessed hands; sometimes, by the touch of his garments. It were useless to seek reasons for this different course. It is enough to know that uncreated wisdom could not act without rea¬ son. ( a ) Miracles are also mysteries; and what the power of Christ wrought visibly upon the bodies, his grace wrought invisibly in their souls. It is for this reason that the Church has made this ac¬ JESUS CHRIST. 619 hath done all things well; he hath made both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.” (St. Mark vii. 31-37.) Then Jesus, “going up into a mountain, sat there ; and there came to him great multitudes, having with them the dumb, the blind, the lame, the maimed, and many others ; and they cast them down at his feet, and he healed them : so that the mul¬ titudes marvelled, seeing the dumb speak, the lame walk, the blind see ; and they glorified the G-od of Israel.” (St. Matt. xv. 29-31.) Circumstances like those in which they were some months previous, occasioned a miracle like that then wrought. “ Again when there was a great multitude, and had nothing to eat,” Jesus, “calling his disci¬ ples together, saith to them : I have com¬ passion on the multitude, for behold they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat. And if I shall send them away fasting to their home, they will faint in the way, for some of them come from afar off.” “I will not” therefore “send them away fasting.” “And his disciples answered : From whence can any one fill them here with bread in the wil- tion of our Saviour one of the ceremonies of bap¬ tism. The word “ Ephpheta, be thou opened,” which the priest pronounces, when making nearly the same motions that Christ made upon the deaf and dumb man, this word, I say, signifies in this circumstance: Let thine ears be opened, to hear and to believe; and let thy tongue be loosed, to confess the truth which you believe. ( s ) With reference to secrecy commanded, and not kept, and to secrecy commanded regarding certain miracles, and not regarding others, see note 3, page 522. 020 HISTORY OF THE LIFE derness ?” (St. Matt. viii. 1-4 j St. Mark xv. B2.) We are surprised that they could have forgotten the yet recent miracle of the multiplication of the five loaves, and that, instead of soliciting a similar one, natural means alone occur to their minds. Jesus did not pause to reproach them with this forgetfulness or want of faith ; what he was about to do was to take the place of that lesson. “He asked them: How many loaves have ye ? But the}'' said :” “ Seven and a few little fishes. And he command¬ ed the multitude to sit down upon the ground.” (St. Matt. xv. 33-35 ; St. Mark viii. 5-6.) It is presumed, with good rea¬ son, that they were ranged in companies, as at the other multiplication, that there might be order in the distribution, and the number of guests might be easily known. Then Jesus, “ taking the seven loaves, giving thanks, he broke and gave to his disciples for to set before them, and they set them before the people. And he blessed the few little fishes they had, and commanded them to be set before them.” “And they did all eat and had their fill, 1 ( 1 ) The loaves, according to Saint Augustine, multiplied in the hands of Jesus Christ just as grain multiplies in the earth. If we wonder more at one multiplication than the other, the reason is, that one is a daily occurrence and the other extra¬ ordinary. Fundamentally, it is the same miracle, and there is nothing to admire in the one more than in the other. Free-thinkers do not believe in the multiplication of the bread, because they have not seen it; if anybody who had not seen the mul¬ tiplication of grain, refused to believe it, upon the report of witnesses worthy of credit, he would be iustly regarded as weak in mind. Yet this weak- and they took up seven baskets full 2 of what remained of the fragments. And they that had eaten were about four thou¬ sand men, besides children and women.” (St. Mark viii. 6-9 ; St. Matt. xv. 36-38.) Jesus dismissed them, in order to escape their applause, and also to baffle the desire, which might arise in them as in the others, to proclaim him king. “ And immediately going up into a ship with his disciples, he came into the parts of Dalmanutha” “into the coasts of Magedan.” (St. Mark viii. 10 ; St. Matt. xv. 39.) This country lies on the eastern shore of the sea of G-alilee. Jesus wished to show himself there as elsewhere. For it is easy to see that his design was to make himself known to all the house of Israel, and that he did not wish that there should be a single division of Judea unenlightened by his doctrine and miracles. We cannot doubt that in this district as in the others he preached and healed; although the evangelists do not mention it; but what they say, and what, after their narrative, we are about to relate, is, that here, as elsewhere, he encountered opposition. minded man would be precisely only what free¬ thinkers are. (*) Jesus Christ caused them to be gathered, in order that the whole extent of the miracle should he known, and also to teach them “ not to throw away the gift of God:” a popular phrase, which comprises a highly moral and very religious mean¬ ing. The circumstance of the seven baskets marks the difference of this multiplication from the pre¬ ceding one, and prevents the two from being taken for one and the same miracle. This is a remark of Saint Chrysostom. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 621 The Pharisees and Sadducees were, as is well known, two irreconcilable sects. But when the object is to persecute the good, the wicked, no matter how divided, have no difficulty in combining together. These “came” in concert “to Jesus.” “And began to question with him.” “ And they asked him to show them a sign from hea¬ ven,” it is added “tempting him.” And, in fact, to ask for fresh proofs of what is already more than sufficiently proved, is not desiring additional light ; it is merely grounds for further cavil. Jesus “an- swered, and said to them: When it is evening, you say : It will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning, . to-day there will be a storm, for the sky is red and lowering. You know, then, how to discern the face of the sky, and can you not know the signs of the times?” 1 (St. Matthew xvi. 1-4; St. Mark viii. 11.) “ And he said also to the multitudes: When you see a cloud rising from the west, presently you ,say : A shower is com¬ ing ; and so it happeneth. And when you see the south wind blow, you say : There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. You hypocrites ! ” added he—whether he ad¬ dressed this word exclusively to the Pharisees and Sadducees, or whether the curiosity which led the people to desire a heavenly sign was tinged with Pharisaical malignity, “ you know how to discern the face of the heaven and of the earth ; but (>) The preceding passage is taken from Saint Matthew; what immediately follows is from Saint Luke. The latter, in the twelfth chapter, reports consecutively several expressions of our Saviour, detached from one another, without stating under how is it that you do not discern this time, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge that which is just?” (St. Luke xii. 54-57.) It is easy to see the tendency of these words. All the signs given by the pro¬ phets for the coming of the Messias had appeared, or were actually appearing. The sceptre of Juda had passed away to foreigners. The seventy weeks foretold by Daniel were approaching their end. “ The Messias cometh,” said a Samaritan woman of low degree, so notorious was the fact. The time then had come ; and nothing remained but to know who it was that they should acknowledge. The miracles of Jesus Christ clearly designated him, not only by the general evidence which ever results from miraculous deeds, but also because the par¬ ticular species of miracles had been fore¬ told, as constituting one of the characters of the Messias, as he himself observed to the disciples of John. Now to say, after this, We will not recognize you unless you show us some sign from heaven, if in jest, is an insult; if seriously spoken, it can only signify a decided and fixed design to believe nothing. So criminal a disposition caused the Saviour both grief and indigna¬ tion: “and sighing deeply in spirit, he saith: Why doth this generation ask a sign ?” (St. Mark viii. 12.) Afterwards, as if in his own mind he had replied to himself that the motive which induced them to ask what circumstances they were uttered, most of them spoken on different occasions. On account of the identity of the subject, we considered it more natural to place this expression here, although several commentators place it elsewhere. HISTORY OF THE LIFE 622 it rendered them unworthy of seeing it, he presently adds : “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; ” but “ amen, I say to you,” “ a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas 1 the pro¬ phet.” Jesus, “leaving them, went away up again into the ship, and passed to the other side of the water.” “And when his disciples were come over the water, they had forgotten to take bread ;” “and they had but one loaf with them in the ship.” Jesus “said to them,” “ and charged them : ” “Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,” “ and of the leaven of Herod .” 2 (St. Mark viii. 12-15 ; St. Matt. xvi. 4-6.) This word “leaven,” which they took in its literal meaning, re¬ minded them that they had not thought of laying in bread. Whereupon they were filled with anxiety; for they frequently touched at desert places, where it was im¬ ( 1 ) That of the resurrection of Jesus Christ figured by Jonas coming forth from the belly of the whale, where he had been shut up for three days. Jesus Christ had already proposed this sign on an occasion like the present. ( 2 ) Saint Mark, who omits the Sadducees named by Saint Matthew, adds to the leaven of the Pharisees, that of Herod, or of the Herodians, of whom mention is made, page 466. Nothing is there said of their opinions, regarding which there is nothing certain. Nevertheless, it has been con¬ jectured that they may not have been different from the Sadducees, aud for these grounds : The Herodians could scarcely have been so styled ex¬ cept for their attachment to the family of the Herods, who were the princes of the country; they were then courtiers. Now Josephus (Wars of the Jews, Book II., chapter vii.), states, that the sect of Sadducees was not numerous, but that it was the sect of the great. On the other hand, we possible to procure it. “And they rea¬ soned among themselves, saying: Because we have taken no bread.” Perhaps they had come already to the mutual reproaches of censure usually made when a fault common to several is committed. “ Jesus, knowing,” however, their embarrassment, which they did not dare to reveal to him, showed them the considerably greater fault which they were then committing. “He saith to them, Why do you think within yourselves, 0 ye of little faith, for that you have no bread ? ” “ Do you not yet know nor understand? Have you still your hearts blinded ? Hav¬ ing eyes, see you not; and having ears, hear jmu not? Neither do 3^011 remember, when I broke the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of frag¬ ments took you up ? The}" say to him : Twelve. When, also, the seven loaves learn from the Gospel that the Sadducees were pure materialists, who not only denied the re¬ surrection, but did not acknowledge that any spiritual substance existed in the universe. Here, then, we have in this aristocracy the condition, as well as in this materialism the religion, of many courtiers; therefore, if we like, the Sad¬ ducees are the Herodians. If it be now asked, whether these men of rank were those who joined the Pharisees, to put captious questions to our Sa¬ viour, it is not only possible that some among them may have done so, but we may answer, moreover, that the great were not the only members who made up the sect of Sadducees. They were, in¬ deed, the heads of it; but we may also presume that Sadduceeism was the religion of their clients, their parasites, and their servants, not to speak of those who, not having it in their power to equal them in riches, may have wished to resemble them in laxity of ideas and morals. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 023 among four thousand, how many baskets of fragments took you up ? And they say to him: Seven.” This was enough to make them ashamed of their embarrassment. But if they were not to be anxious about bread after the two miracles of which they had just been witnesses and co-operators, Jesus Christ, the author of these miracles, whose arm was not shortened, was still less to think of it. They should, therefore, when he spoke of leaven, have understood it in a ( 1 ) Jesus Christ says elsewhere : “ The Scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things, therefore, whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do” (St. Matt, xxiii. 2, 3); thus openly authorizing their doctrine, which is, nevertheless, condemned here. This shows that there was a distinction to be made be¬ tween the doctrine of Moses, when the Pharisees expounded it, and their own particular doctrines, when they proposed them. The former was to be received, the latter rejected. All this is signified by the words of our Saviour: “Beware,” which do not mean : Reject all that they say, or close your ears, lest you should hear them ; but hearken with precaution and discernment. Those who shall say that this discernment was a difficult and anxious thing, recognize a truth which must make known to them, at the same time, the obligation which they owe to God for having spared them the trouble and the dangers. For when the Church instructs us by the instrumentality of those whom sense different from what the word usually presents to the mind. This is what he made them remark, when terminating this conversation, “ He said to them,” “Why do you not yet understand that it was not concerning bread I said to you : Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Saddu- cees? Then” at last “they understood that he said not that they should beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 1 (St. Mark viii. 16-20 ; St. Matt. xvi. 8-12.) God has established the chief pastors, all is pure and sound, and should be received without dis¬ trust. Hence it is unreasonable to read the works of heretics, saying that the reader profits by what is good, and passes over what is bad; for people are to be found, who deem themselves authorized to do so, by the permission which Jesus Christ grants to hear the Pharisees when using this dis¬ crimination. This was profitable to the Jews, who had no other teachers; but we who have teachers holding truth pure and unalloyed, why should we take on us the burthen to separate truth from amid a thousand errors, at the risk of still falling into mistake ? There is no imprudence in avail¬ ing ourselves of a poor guide, when we have no other, and must have one; but when we have found one who is a sure guide, to leave him, for the purpose of taking another guide who may mis¬ lead us, because he also may not go astray, is not merely rash, but mad. 624 HISTORY OF THE LIFE CHAPTER XXIX. THE BLIND MAN OF BETHSAIDA.—SAINT PETER’S CONFESSION.—PROMISE OF THE KEYS.—THE PASSION FORETOLD.—PETER REBUKED.—SELF-DENIAL.—BEARING OUR CROSS. F ROM the place where they disem¬ barked “ they came to Bethsaida, and they bring to Jesus a blind man, and they besought him that he would touch him.” As this miracle was one of those which he did not wish to make public, “ taking the blind man by the hand, he led him out of the town; and spitting upon his eyes, laying his hands on him, he asked him if he saw anything.” The blind man “looking up, said: I see men as it were trees walking.” This answer shows that he was not born blind, since he had a distinct idea of men and trees. “ After that again, Jesus laid his hands upon his eyes, and he began to see ” better, “ and was restored, so that he saw all things clearly. And,” Jesus “sent him into his house, saying: Go into thy house, and if thou enter into the town, 1 tell nobody.” 2 (St. Mark viii. 22-27.) This cure is remarkable, being the only one which Jesus wrought by degrees only. ( 1 ) The town of Bethsaida is also called city by Saint John. It was one of that middle class of places which may receive either appellation. (’) Was it simply in order that the miracle should remain a secret. in the country, that Jesus forbid the blind man to speak of it in Bethsaida, or did he wish to conceal all knowledge of it from the inhabitants, to punish them for the little fruit which they had derived from the great num¬ ber of miracles which he had wrought amongst It is commonly attributed to the disposi¬ tion of the blind man, whose faith, at first feeble, obtained for him only an imperfect cure, which was then perfected by his faith, so that he did not see clearly until he believed firmly. Thus, Peter walked upon the waters when he believed without hesi¬ tating ; and when he began to doubt, he began to sink. Certain it is, and we think we have already remarked it, that miracles usually follow faith, and are proportioned to it. Nevertheless, our Saviour may have had other reasons for acting as he did on this occasion. One is, for example, that he wished to depict the sometimes slow and gradual progress of his grace, which, when it makes souls pass from darkness to light, has, if we may venture to speak so, its twi¬ light and its dawn. Happy he who is not disheartened at its slow coming, who knows how to take advantage of its first ra} 7 s, and to quicken, by an increase of faith, the coming of broad day. them ? this is uncertain. The second conjecture is usually grounded upon these words of our Saviour, St. Luke x. 13 : “Wo to thee, Corozain ! wo to thee, Bethsaida! for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the mighty works that have been wrought in you, they would have done pen¬ ance long ago, sitting in sackloth and ashes.” See note 2, Chap, xxii., p. 588 ; the contempt of mira¬ cles punished by the cessation of miracles. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 625 From Bethsaida Jesus “went out with his disciples into the towns in the quarters of Cesarea Philippi. 1 And in his way, as he was alone praying,” that is to say, apart from the crowd, or without being followed by it, for “ his disciples also were with him,” he asked them, saying : “ Whom do men say that the Son of man is?” It seems that the prejudices of the people as to who Jesus might be were not different from those of Herod and his court, since “ they said : Some, John the Baptist ; but some say, Elias, and others, Jeremias : and others say that one of the former prophets is risen again.” 2 (St. Matthew xvi. IB, 14 ; St. Luke ix. 18-21 ; St. Mark viii. 27-29.) “ Jesus saith to them : But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered, and said : Thou art Christ, the Son of the liv¬ ing Grod. 3 And Jesus answering, said to him : Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona ; because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven.” Then bearing testimony to him in return for testimony, but with this difference, that Peter only declared what Jesus was, in¬ stead of which Jesus made Peter what he declared him to be : “ And ” he added, “I say to thee that thou art Peter, 4 and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 5 I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.” After this twofold testimony, which comprehends, in brief, all religion — one being the groundwork of Christian faith, and the other that of Catholic unity — Jesus strictly “ commanded his disci¬ ples that they should tell none that he was Jesus the Christ.” (St. Matt, xvi 15-20 ; St. Mark viii. BO.) We have already said (') Previously Paneas,, but called Cesarea by_ Philip the tetrarch, who Wished to flatter the Em¬ peror Tiberius. The surname Philippi was given to distinguish it from another Cesarea, rebuilt and magnificently adorned by Herod the Great, in honor of the Emperor Augustus. This latter city, which was situated on the borders of the Mediter¬ ranean, was previously called the Tower of Strato. (*) Or perhaps because the soul of some of these great men had passed into his body; for a belief in transmigration was current among the. Jews, as appears by the books of their Talmudists and Ca¬ bal ists. (’) More than were John the Baptist, Elias, Jeremias, and the prophets ; therefore more than by adoption; therefore by nature. ( 4 ) This name had already been given to him, 6ee page 489, but the prerogatives appertaining to it had not as yet been declared. Jesus Christ 79 wished, for the glory of St. Peter, to be indebted to him for the merit of the confession. ( 6 ) The powers of hell, according to the com¬ mon interpretation. Nevertheless, since the gates of hell are merely defensive, forces, and the refer¬ ence here is to offensive forces, inasmuch as what is here said shall not prevail, is the unsuccessful attack, according to this expression of Jeremias, i. 19 : “ They shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail,” this difficulty has made commentators seek another meaning for “gates.” It has been thought that this name might be given to those who drag down a great number of souls to hell, and more particularly to the authors of schisms and heresies, who wage a more open war with the Church. These perverse men may justly be term- . ed the gates of hell, as Jesus Christ is called the gate of heaven. This explanation is plausible, even if it be not the real one. i 626 niSTORY OF THE LIFE that Jesus cliose to lead men only by de¬ grees to the knowledge of his divinity. It does not appear that the disciples violated the secrecy so severely enjoined. But, assured at last of the divinity of their Master, and still prepossessed with the flattering idea of his temporal kingdom, their imagination revelled in the glory and the pleasures which it seemed to foretoken. Jesus took this occasion to disabuse them, by informing them that his quality of Christ should not hinder him from dying by capital punishment, and that he would recognize as his true disciples only those who should participate in his opprobrium and suffering. Two truths, the first of • which was to shake the very foundation- stone of the new edifice which Jesus was to cement with his blood ; which circum¬ stance did not hinder him from proposing both one and the other without any dis¬ guise : for “from that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things, and be ( 1 ) This word, in holy language, properly signi¬ fies “ adversary; ” we often find it used in this sense in Scripture. It is appropriated to Lucifer, be¬ cause he is the capital enemy of God and men. Those who wish to spare Saint Peter this odious denomination, assert that it was Satan himself whom the Saviour then addressed. Their inten¬ tion is praiseworthy; but as what follows is evi¬ dently spoken to Saint Peter, the figure would be too violent, if the preceding expression were ad¬ dressed to another. Nothing conflicts with our Saviour’s saying to Saint Peter: Thou art filling against me the office of Satan ; thou art a tempter to me. The motive which led this apostle to speak was good; but what he uttered was not. The error is justly reproved, and the person is not the less loved, as we shall soon see. rejected by the ancients, and by the chief priests and the Scribes, and be put tc death, and after three days rise again, and he spoke the word openly. And Peter, taking him, began to rebuke him, saying : Lord, be it far from thee ; this shall not be unto thee.’ 7 Love made him speak thus, and this motive might render him excusable ; but it was necessary to repress this sally, too highly savoring of nature, aiming as it did to obstruct the great work for which the only Son of the living God had made himself Son of man. Jesus, therefore, “ turning about, and seeing his disciples,” whom he wished to render wit¬ nesses of the reprimand which he was go¬ ing to address to their chief, in order that they might profit thereby, “ he threatened Peter, saying : Go behind me, Satan ! 1 thou art a scandal unto me, because thou savorest not the things that are of God, but that are of men.” 3 (St. Matthew xvi. 21-23 ; St. Mark viii. 31-33.) Peter durst not reply, and the disciples, Those who, for the purpose of avoiding what is opposed to the accomplishment of the designs of God upon them, earnestly repel the assaults which a too natural love may raise up against them, are more than justified by this answer of our Sa¬ viour. ( 2 ) Men relish only glory and pleasures, and God wishes them to prefer humiliations and suffer¬ ings. But these sufferings will be repaid them by infinite pleasures, and these humiliations followed by immortal glory. God, therefore, wishes sub¬ stantially the same things which we desire; but he wishes the pain to precede the reward. What can be more just ? and as to the sacrifice of the fleeting for the eternal, what can be more reasonable ? Men, on the contrary, wish to share the recompense without sharing the pain; could anything be more OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 627 instructed at liis expense, remained in re¬ spectful silence : then Jesus passing on to another truth, which was the sequel of the preceding, informed them that it was only by humiliations and sufferings that they could be true disciples of an outraged and crucified Messias. But as this alarming doctrine did not re¬ gard the apostles merely, but generally all who wished to embrace the new Gospel, Jesus “calling the multitude together with his disciples, said to them: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, 1 take up his cross 2 daily, 3 and follow me.” (St. Mark viii. 34; St. Matthew xvi. 24 ; unjust ? And, reduced to the dilemma of choos¬ ing between the two, they leave the solid for the frivolous, and what is to last forever for what is but of time. Can anything be more unreasona¬ ble ? Oh, how wise is the folly of the Gospel, and how silly is the wisdom of the world! (') What follows in the test explains wherein this renunciation is rigorously binding ; but there are several degrees of perfection. r Io renounce one’s self, to follow the counsels of Jesus Christ, is, undoubtedly, a much higher degree than to re¬ nounce self, in order to obey his commandments 5 in this consists renouncement in the religious state, which is merely the commencement of per¬ fection. To renounce one’s self in everything which is not forbidden, when it is not absolutely neces¬ sary ; to deny one’s self all innocent satisfactions, to refuse pleasures which are allowed, to check all our inclinations, to master all our propensities, to repress even the slightest sallies of nature, in a word, to be constantly disposed to sacrifice eveiy- thing without reserve, I say not only to the com¬ mandments of God, nor even to his counsels, but to all that we may presume to be most agreeable to him, this is the perfection to which the saints unceasingly tend, because they always long to ar¬ rive at it, and in this life never do. It is the death St. Luke ix. 23.) This renunciation ex¬ tends to everything that can raise an ob¬ stacle to the observance of the law of J esus Christ. Even life itself is pot excepted; for we must be disposed to lose it, rather than preserve it by a single prevarication. What more revolting to nature? we may even say, what less reasonable to the eyes of carnal prudence ? Yet nothing is more wise or salutary. “For,” adds our Saviour, “ whosoever will save his life,” at the ex¬ pense of what he owes to me, “ shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel, shall save it: 4 for what shall it profit a man, if he gain the of self-love, if we should not rather call it its re¬ surrection and life, being its perfect transforma¬ tion into the will of God. ( a ) It is not his cross that Jesus Christ obliges us to carry; it is our own, which is much lighter than his. But, moreover, it is not he who lays it upon us: the condition of this life renders it in¬ evitable, and what he requires from us is to the very letter that we should make a virtue of neces¬ sity. When we thus carry our cross after our Saviour, that is to say, by imitating his patience, he also sweetens it by the unction of his grace, and he himself comes to our assistance and enables us to bear its weight. How many souls bear testimony that they find it as delicious as it is meritorious to them! whilst those who bear it with impatience groan under the load, and make it a double hell, that of this life, and that of the other. Since we must suffer in one way or another, is it not more rational to save ourselves by suffering less, than to damn ourselves by suffering more ? ( s ) If each day has its pain, each day should also have its patience. This is said for those per- sons who have their good and bad days, like inter¬ mittent fevers. ( 4 ) Here all the potentates of the earth fall short. Not one of them was ever able to say 628 HISTORY OP THE LIFE whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul? Or what shall a man give in ex¬ change for his soul? (St. Mark viii. 35-37.) To feel the full force of this reasoning, we must remark that our Saviour seems to suppose a man who would give his life for some one, or even for all the goods of this life. It is evident that this man would be a fool, since by losing his life he would make himself incapable of enjoying what he might acquire at this price ; and gain¬ ing nothing more, he would have a life the less. Now such, and a thousand times worse, is he who saves his life at the ex¬ pense of his soul, that is to say, who pre¬ serves the present life by the sacrifice of that which is to come. It may be said that he saves nothing, since he must necessarily lose whatsoever he saves, and that the moment will come when he shall be in this regard just in the same position as if he had not saved it ; but, at the same time, he will find that he has lost everything, since the life which he has lost must last eternally; and that, in this eternal dura¬ tion, there will not be one instant in which it may not be said in truth of him : He has lost all. While the man who has sacrificed his life to his duty, will find that he has lost nothing, since what he has lost must necessarily have perished, and he shall have gained everything by gaining a life eternal and eternally happy. Christ speaks directly of the sacrifice of life, be¬ cause this alone 'compromises all others ; Those are gainers who lose their lives in my ser¬ vice. Nevertheless, those may he gainers who lose their lives in the service of a prince; but this is when, in the service of the prince, they have in and, moreover, because the profession of Christianity was going to be, by reason of the persecutions which were to arise, a proximate occasion for the sacrifice of life. It was necessary to prepare the new dis¬ ciples for this ; but, in order to do so in the most efficacious manner, and to coun¬ teract fear by a greater fear, he displays before their eyes the formidable spectacle of that great judgment in which he is to overwhelm, with the weight of his eternal indignation, those cowardly disciples whom the sight of torments and of death causes to fall into a shameful apostasjL It is for this purpose that, immediately after the last words which we have recorded, he uttered these: “For he that shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man also will be ashamed of him, when he shall come” (St. Mark viii. 38) “in his majesty, and that of his Father, and that of his holy angels.” (St. Luke ix. 26.) “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels : and then will he render to every man accord¬ ing to his works.” Then addressing his words to his disciples alone, “he said to them : Amen, I say to you, there are some of them that stand here that shall not taste death, till they see the king¬ dom of Gfod coming in power,” “ the Son of man coming in ” the splendors of “his kingdom.” (St. Matt. xvi. 27, 28; St. Mark viii. 39.) view only God’s service; and in that case it is not the prince, but God alone who promises and gives the recompense. TRANSFIGURATION. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 629 CHAPTER XXX. THE TRANSFIGURATION.—RETURN OF ELIAS ANNOUNCED.—CHRIST’S HUMILIATION CONTRASTED WITH HIS GLORY. T HIS magnificent promise was ere long to be fulfilled ; for we believe, with the majority of ancient commentators, that it was accomplished in the transfigu¬ ration. Those who choose to find its ac¬ complishment in the establishment of the Church on the ruins of razed Jerusalem, have not borne in mind that the Son of man did not there appear in person; and still it is here said that he shall be seen. Others have thought that the state in which he appeared after his resurrection, and still more the glory which accom¬ panied his ascension, suffice to verify the prediction. This may be ; but then he was seen by all his disciples, and here it is said that he shall only be seen by some. Lastly, the accomplishment has been re¬ ferred to the last judgment; and all here would be consistent, if some of his dis¬ ciples were never to die ; but we know that this privilege was not granted to any one of them, for it has been long ago re¬ cognized that the pretended immortality of Saint John is merely a popular notion, without any solid foundation. There re- ( 1 ) Saint Luke says about eight days after. Saint Matthew and Saint Mark say six days after : they all agree. Saint Luke includes the day when Jesus held the discourse, and that on which the event took place, while the two other evangelists do not reckon them. mains, then, but the transfiguration, on which occasion some of those who were present had the advantage of seeing Jesus, not in the actual exercise, but in the glory of his kingdom, that is to say', such as he shall appear on that great day when his dazzling splendor shall efface the light of the sun, and all the glory of earth and heaven. We have said that the Saviour did not delay in accomplishing his promise ; in fact, “about eight days after these words” (the preceding discourse), 1 Jesus “ taketh with him ” his three favorite dis¬ ciples “ Peter and James,” “ and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain” “ apart by themselves ” whither he went up, “ to pray.” “ And whilst he prayed, the shape of his countenance was altered,” 2 “ and he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun : ” “and his garments became shining and glittering, and exceeding white as the snow, so as no fuller upon earth can make white.” “And behold, there ap¬ peared two men, who were talking with him. And they were Moses and Elias, 3 ( J ) His countenance appeared quite different, not in the features, which were still the same, but by their lustre and majesty. (’) It is certain that Elias was present in body and soul. We are ignorant whether the same was the case with regard to Moses. God might either 630 HISTORY OF THE LIFE appearing in majesty, and they spoke” of his passion and “of his decease, that he should accomplish in Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep ” which strengthens the conjecture of those who think that this occurred in the evening. “And awaking, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.” As Moses and Elias “were departing from him,” charmed with the glory of his Master, and tasting a part of the joy with which he fills the saints who see it in all his lustre, “ Peter saith to Jesus : Master, it is good for us to be here.” “If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles : one for thee, one for Moses and one for Elias.” 1 (St. Luke ix. 28-33 ; St. Matt. xvii. 1, 2 ; St. Mark ix. 1, 2.) Could glorified men, such as were Moses and Elias, require a dwelling to be pre¬ pared for them upon earth ? And had the Son of man come down merely to fix his residence upon a mountain, away from the view and commerce of men ? Peter’s pro¬ posal, therefore, was unreasonable : in¬ deed, it is added that “ he knew not what » he said, for,” besides the surprise and joy which had seized upon them, he and his companions “were struck with fear.” Nevertheless, his desires were in some way accomplished. “And as he spoke these things, there came a bright cloud, have resuscitated him, or formed for him a body from air, like that which angels assume when they appear in a visible form. ( 1 ) Peter knew them either by inspiration or by some particular mark, which served to make them known to those who were acquainted with their and overshadowed them ” like a celestial tabernacle covering them over with its shining rays. Moses and Elias sank into the cloud and disappeared. The apostles “were” still more “afraid” when they entered into the cloud. And lo, a voice came out of the cloud, saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him.” “ And whilst the voice was uttered, Jesus was found alone,” in order that there might be no doubt that the voice spoke of him only. “ And the disciples hearing, were very much afraid, and fell upon their face. But Jesus came and touched them, and said to them : Arise, and fear not. Then lifting up their e} T es,” “ and immediately looking about, they saw no one but only Jesus ” (St. Mark ix. 5-7 ; St. Matthew xvii. 3-8 ; St. Luke ix. 34-36), returned to his usual ap¬ pearance, that is to say, that he again checked those torrents of light which strove continually to flow from his divin¬ ity upon his humanity. For the glorious state in which he had just exhibited him¬ self was, if we may so speak, his natural state ; and the miracle was, not that he should have appeared for some moments in this glory, which was proper to the only Son of the Father, but that, by an effect of his Omnipotence, he kept it closed up within himself, and prevented it striking or dazzling all eyes. history, nearly in the same way as we recognize them in pictures; or perhaps that Jesus, in the conversation which he had with them, and part of which the apostles may have heard, had named them when he addressed them. 1 OP OUR LORI) JESUS CHRIST. 631 “ As they came down from the moun- in the literal sense, they' feared lest this tain ; Jesus charged his disciples not to tell sense should also deceive them on the any man what things they had seen till present occasion. the Son of man shall be risen again from The thought of his resurrection recalled the dead.” (St. Mark ix. 8.) Of the sev- to them the remembrance of his death. eral reasons which are assigned for this It appears even that they had caught a mysterious silence, the most simple, and glimpse of the fact that his death was not perhaps, for that reason, the true one, is, far distant, and this troubled them. For that it was in the order of the divine de- as yet they had no idea of his second com- crees that the glory of the Man-Gfod ing ; and, believing his death to be the should not be fully manifested until after termination of all he was to do in this his passion ; and, master of his own favors world, they were surprised not to see the and predilections, he did not wish to ex- accomplishment of an ancient prophecy, tend further the particular revelation which, according to the opinion of all which he had just made to his three most their doctors, was to be an unerring pre- cherished disciples. They, without seek- liminary to the exploits of the Messias, ing for other reasons, had a sufficient mo- and to the establishment of his kingdom tive for silence in the order of Jesus not on earth. This prophecy concerned the to speak. “They held their peace, and coming of Elias, whose arrival the} 7 did told no man in those days any of these not see ; for what had just occurred before things which they had seen.” (St. Luke their eyes was to be regarded as simply a ix.*36.) Nevertheless, as they were not brief apparition. To clear it up, “they forbidden to speak of it among themselves, asked him, saying: Why, then, do the “ they kept the word to themselves, ques- Pharisees and Scribes say that Elias must tioning to one another what that should come first?” “But he answering, said mean: When he shall be risen from the to them,” speaking of his second coming: dead.” (St. Mark ix. 9.) Nothing was “Elias indeed shall come, and restore all more clear ; but because it had frequently things ; ” 1 “ and ” he also, “ as it is writ- happened that they had deceived them- ten of the Son of man, must suffer many selves, by explaining the words of Jesus things and be despised.” 2 But, lastly, ( 1 ) That is to say, that he will bring the Jews ( 2 ) Elias will be persecuted like Christ. We to the knowledge of the true Messias. This is the read in the 11th chapter of the Apocalypse, that common opinion, and it appears certain. The the beast shall overcome the two witnesses, and Jews also believe that Elias will come, and re-es- kill them. The common opinion is, that Elias and tablish all things; which coming, however, they Enoch are these two witnesses. Jesus Christ, by understand in a manner very different from our foretelling that the first shall endure treatment way of conceiving the event. They expect from similar to his own, renders his death more than him also the solution of all their doubts. This is probable. The death of Enoch is not the less their final reply to great difficulties. “Elias will probable, if it were only by virtue of the common come,” say they, no longer knowing what to say. law, from which there is no likelihood of any HISTORY OF THE LIFE 632 if it must be necessary for each occurrence to have its own Elias, and in order to take away this pretext from the incredu¬ lity of the Jews, “ I say to you,” added onr Saviour, “ that Elias is already come, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they had a mind,” “ as it is written of him.” “So also the Son of man shall suffer from them. Then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them of John the Baptist.” (St. Mark ix. 10-12 ■ St. Matthew xvii. 11-13.) Recalling to mind a part of what we have just read, we may remark that the grandeur of Jesus develops itself here with a magnificence which had never be¬ fore appeared. His divine Sonship is recognized and clearly confessed by the chief of the apostles. He himself displays before their eyes the superb pomp and formidable array of the great judgment, in which, from the height of the throne of justice, where he shall appear escorted by myriads of angels, he shall decree, ac¬ cording to the quality of the works, infi¬ nite joys or eternal punishments ; and that they might not think that this is advanced gratuitously, he gives to some of them an earnest of the truth of his words, by show¬ ing himself to them in the lustre of his glory, even as he shines forth in the high¬ est heaven, whence his light diffuses through the vast extent of the empyrean of which he is the eternal sun. But it may have also been remarked, that his passion had not been either so clearly man’s being exempted, after the Author of life deigned to subject himself to it. foretold, and so often alluded to, as in the discourse. We see it at every moment surge out, as it were, from the midst of his splendor ; and form with it a combina¬ tion of light and shade, the contrast of which must have been, in the eyes of his disciples, a truly surprising spectacle. All this was for their instruction. The Christ was to be presented to them entire ; that is to say, with all his ignominy and all his glory. Such he had been announced by the prophets, reuniting in his person all the attributes of divinity and all the low¬ liness of humanity ; as such at one time the}'' style him the strong God ; and at another, the last of men. Nothing so ex¬ alted as the throne of the Divinity, and they show him unto us seated there. Nothing so low as the death of a criminal, and they declare to us that he shall be condemned to it. Such opposite extremes are included in the name of our Saviour. Jesus Christ was only to be such, accord¬ ing to the word of the angel, by saving his people from their sins. Now, he could save therefrom only by expiating them, and he could expiate them only by satis- f} T ing the divine justice, which required that the debt contracted should be rigor¬ ously paid. Hence it was requisite that there should be a subject capable of hu¬ miliation and of suffering, and he who was simply God could not be such. And then too a subject of dignity so eminent as to impart to his humiliation and sufferings merit proportioned to the infinite justice which he was obliged to satisfy, and this was infinitely higher than any merely cre¬ ated being could merit. Therefore, a CHRIST HEATING A LUNATIC. M r M a, r OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 633 Christ was necessary ; that is to say, a profits only inasmuch as it is accompanied Man-God, and a Christ humbled and suf- by interior light, which renders it obliga- fering • for this explains the entire mys- tory on us to beg it without ceasing. It tery. In our days, even children know was not, therefore, without reason nor this truth ; then the apostles did not com- without fruit that Christ announced to his prebend it. But the time was not yet disciples certain truths, of whose connec- come to confer upon them the gift of un- tion and expediency he left them in igno- derstanding. Jesus labored, so to say, ranee. His function was to engrave in only to deposit the ideas in the treasury of their souls the mysterious characters of their memory, where it was to remain bu- which the Holy Ghost was to furnish the ried until the Hoty Ghost came to unravel key. They learned all from Christ, and the confusion, and dissipate the obscurity. they understood all through the Holy Thus this spirit of light was to co-operate Ghost, who is said to have taught them all in the manifestation of the gospel myste- things, only because he made them under- ries ; and our Saviour likewise teaches us, stand those which they had already learn- by this conduct, that exterior teaching ed, and which they did not comprehend. CHAPTER XXXI. A LUNATIC CURED.—A DEMON WHO CAN BE CAST OUT ONLY BY PRAYER AND FASTING.—AN- OTHER PREDICTION OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST AND OF HIS RESURRECTION.—PAYMENT OF TRIBUTE. ' % TESUS, and the apostles who accom- ning to him, they saluted him. And lie j panied him, passed the night upon asked them : What do you question about the mountain. “ The day following, when among you ? ” Instantly, and before they they came down from the mountain, there had time to reply, “behold a man among met them a great multitude.” Jesus the crowd cried out,” “ falling down on his “ coming to his ” other “ disciples, saw a knees before him,” “ answering : Master, great multitude about them.” “ And I have brought my son to thee, having a presently all the people seeing Jesus, were dumb spirit.” 1 “I beseech thee, look astonished and struck with fear, and run- upon my son, because he is my only one.” ( 1 ) Jesus Christ calls him further on, “ Deaf away from this child the faculties of hearing and and dumb spirit.” He is designated by the effect which he produced, which consisted in taking 80 speaking. 634 HISTORY OF THE LIFE “Lord,” said likewise this afflicted father, “have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic, 1 and suffereth much, for he falleth often into the fire, and often into the water.” “ Lo, a spirit seizeth him, and he suddenly crieth out : the spirit throweth him down,” “ and dasheth him, so that he foameth and gnasheth with the teeth,” “ and bruising him, the spirit hardly departeth from him,” and my son “ pineth away.” “And I brought him to thy disciples, and I de¬ sired them to cast him out, and they could not.” (St. Luke ix. 37-40 ; St. Mark ix. 13-17 ; St. Matt. xvii. 14-15.) There can be no doubt but it was this that caused the subject of the dispute. The Scribes, witnessing the want of power in the disciples, used it as an argument against them, and apparently against their Master, from whom they claimed to derive the power which had thus been found wanting. The disciples, in their turn, had not had sufficient faith to expel the devil; and this failure, on so public an occasion, might well discourage them, and cast them into a state of despondency, perhaps even of distrust. The father, on his side, had as yet a very uncertain faith, as we shall presently see by his words. Thus we have good reason for thinking that to every one ( 1 ) Because the demon tormented him by fits. Perhaps he had regular paroxysms following the course of the moon. If it be true, as several an¬ cients assert, that he wished to conceal the posses¬ sion by the symptoms of sickness, he failed to con¬ ceal his tricks; for we here see that no one doubted that the youth was possessed. To add to this, that what he had in view was to induce men to blas¬ pheme against the Creator of the moon, whom they would have regarded as the cause of all the evil, assembled there was addressed this ex¬ pression of indignation, spoken by the mildest of men, after he had heard the account of what had occurred: “0 faith¬ less and perverse generation,” said he to them, “how long shall I be with you?” “ how long shall I suffer you?” “Bring hither thy son ” (St. Luke ix. 41, 42; St. Matt. xvii. 16 ; St. Mark ix. 18), he added to the father. “ And they brought him.” “As he was coming,” “ and when he had seen Jesus, immediately the spirit troubled him ; ” “ the devil threw him down,” “and he rolled about foaming.” Jesus permitted this, that the greatness of his power might be better known when all understood the greatness of the evil, and, because the knowledge of its duration tended to this end, “ He asked his father: How long time is it since this hath happened unto him ? From his infancy, said the father ; and oftentimes hath the devil cast him into the fire and into waters, to destroy him : but, if thou canst do anything, help us, having compassion on us.” He doubted whether the power was vested in Jesus, and Jesus informs him that by faith he himself might become all-powerful: “If thou canst believe, he saith to him, all things are possible to him that believeth. is supposing in him an intention highly worthy of his wickedness; but such a trick did no credit to his subtlety, since, after all, every one laid the matter to his charge, and no one blamed the moon. God permitted the demon to take possession of this young man, and to torment him at intervals. The demon tormented him whenever he could, and to the utmost of his power, and always less than he wished. We must not seek other mysteries here. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 635 And immediately the father of the boy prodigy, suspect their Master of being crying out., with tears, said : I do believe; powerless. Wishing, therefore, to know Lord, help my unbelief. 1 And when Jesus the cause of their own inability to perform saw the multitude running together, he the cure, “ When Jesus was come into the threatened the unclean spirit, saying to house,” “ the disciples came secretly to him : Deaf and dumb spirit, I command him,” “ and asked him : Why could not thee go out of him, and enter not any we cast him out ? Jesus said to them: more into him.” The demon obeyed, yet, Because of your unbelief.” (St. Mark is. still demon-like, “ crying out, and greatly 27 ; St. Matt. xvii. 18-20.) Then, en- tearing him, 2 he went out of him ; and the lightened as to their own deficiency, “ the child became as dead, so that many said : apostles said to the Lord : Increase our He is dead. But Jesus, taking him by the faith.” (St. Luke xvii. 5, 6.) We must hand, lifted him up, and he arose ” (St. presume that our Saviour then granted, to Mark is. 19-26) ; “ and the child was cured a certain extent, a prayer which could have from that hour.” Jesus “restored him to been inspired by him alone. But to the his father. And all were astonished at end that they might better prize so great the mighty power of Gfod.” (St. Matt. a gift, and that they might learn to desire xvii. 17 ; St. Luke is. 43, 44.) it with more ardor, and ask it with more Yet the disciples took to heart their dis- earnestness, “ the Lord said to them: If comfiture before so numerous an assem- you had faith like to a grain of mustard- blage. They could no longer, after this seed, 3 you might say to this mulberry-tree,” ( 1 ) We may expect to be heard, when, having comparison here is with reference to the smallness commenced by performing what depends upon of the seed. Jesus Christ would have said nothing ourselves, we request of God to do the remainder. very wonderful by saying: If you have faith full “God doth not command impossibilities; but when of vivacity and ardor, you could remove mountains. he commands, he warns us to do what we can, to The wonder is much greater, and the eulogium of ask for what we cannot do, and gives strength to faith much more magnificent, if it be asserted that enable us to perform it. its virtue is such that he who has faith, even as (*) Image of the violent agitation which the small in quantity as is the grain of mustard-seed. devil excites in a soul which he is forced to leave. would never find anything whatever impossible ; It is a species of agony through which we pass from and it seems that all the bystanders understood the death to life. Jesus is present, holding out his comparison in this sense. But does it not follow hand, and aiding us to rise. One is surprised to find from thence, that he who should not have that himself, or rather another self as different from faith which may remove mountains, could have no what he was as peace is from trouble, and health faith at all, since, in point of faith, he would be in- from fever. 0 God of help ! can men still desire ferior to a grain of mustard-seed, which is here to abandon thee and return again to the tyrant’s given to represent the very smallest thing in the fetters ? world ? In reply to this difficulty, it may be said, (*) Most of the ancients thought that our Sa- that the question here is of faith perfect in its own viour meant to say a faith lively and ardent as the kind: the faith which excludes all hesitation and grain of mustard-seed. It is more likely that the all doubt. As the virtues of creatures can never I 636 HISTORY OF THE LIFE there was one before their eyes : “ Be thou After leaving Thabor, Jesus turned his rooted up, and be thou transplanted into thoughts towards Calvary. He must go the sea ; and it would obey you.” (St. Luke on to find it in Judea and at Jerusalem ; xvii. 6.) “ For” said he further to them, but he wished to visit Capharnaum again to make them more sensible of the efficacy before he left it never to return. This of faith, “ Amen, I say to you, if you have was one grace more which he accorded to faith as a grain of mustard-seed, you shall that unbelieving city ; and he who saw, say to this mountain,” this apparently was with regret, the loss of souls, whose the mountain whereon he was transfigured, salvation was about to cost him all his and which was visible from the spot where blood, required no other motive to under- Jesus spoke : “ Remove from hence hither, take the journey. “ Departing from and it shall remove ; and nothing shall be thence,” from the vicinity of the mountain, impossible to you. ,r (St. Matt. xvii. 19.) where they do not appear to have tarried To this observation Jesus added another, more than one dayq Jesus and his dis- which bore a more particular reference to ciples “passed through Galilee ;” but, in the subject in hand : “ But this kind of order that he might not be retarded on his demon is not cast out but by prayer and fast- journey, Jesus “ would not that any man ing.” 1 (St. Matt. xvii. 20 ; St. Mark ix. 28.) should know it.” “ And when they abode reach infinite perfection, so this faith, although Moses did when he struck the rock twice; for, perfect in its species, may still have or not have says Saint Chrysostom, faith, even in the just certain degrees of perfection. Nevertheless, as soon themselves, is not always equally lively and im- as it is of the kind which utterly excludes distrust movable; it has its moments of weakness, wherein and hesitation, the possessor thereof, even in the it doth not fall, but totters. lowest degree (which degree is compared in small- ( 1 ) It often occurs that the demons who possess ness to the grain of mustard-seed), would be suffi- souls cannot be expelled by any other means. “ We ciently qualified to work the greatest prodigies. will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the The idea of this explanation is found, it is thought, ministry of the word.” (Acts vi. 4.) They knew, in those words which Jesus Christ uttered on an- therefore, the necessity of these means. Apos- other occasion: “For, amen, I say to you, if you tolical men, who have learned it from them and have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, you shall from their Master, always combine prayer with say to this mountain: Kemove from hence hither ; preaching; often indeed they add great austerities. and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impos- Hell, attacked by such arms does not long resist ; sible to you.” (St. Matthew xvii. 19.) An individ- but makes a mockery of those who employ mere ual may have faith in mysteries without possessing words against it. They do not bear away from hell the faith which works miracles. Still, it was a one of its victims; and, perhaps, the fiend does species of infidelity in the apostles not to have this not despair of beholding the men of words become faith; because after Jesus Christ had conferred his prey. Prayer, unaccompanied by exhortation, upon them the power of working miracles, and will always be a more efficient means of conversion specifically that of expelling demons, it was no than exhortation without prayer: all the eloquence longer permissible for them to doubt as to this of orators could never have effected what was ac- power being efficacious, every time the occasion complished by the tears of Monica. arose for them to exercise it. They acted nearly as \ OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 637 * — --- . together in Galilee,” “and wliile all won¬ dered at all the things he did,” “ he taught his disciples,” “ and said to them : ” “ Lay you up in your hearts these words : The Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. And they shall kill him, and after that he is killed he shall rise again the third day.” (St. Mark ix. 29, 30 ; St. Matt. xvii. 21 ; St. Luke ix. 44.) We see how anxious he was to prevent the idea of his greatness and wonderful deeds effacing from their minds that of his opprobrium and suffering. Another reason is also given for these constantly repeated predictions of his approaching Passion. They showed his disciples that his Passion was to be purely voluntary (for he who could foresee it could easily avoid it), and they also served to diminish the scandal it was to give them. “But the disciples understood not” as yet “this word : and it was hid from them, so that they perceived it not.” 1 And, fearing lest they should become more enlightened than they wished to be, “they were afraid to ask him concerning this word.” (St. Luke ix. 45.) Yet the woes which they saw but indistinctly, caused that “they were troubled exceedingly.” (St. Matt. xvii. 22.) Of all that Jesus Christ did at Capharnaum during this his last sojourn, the evangelists only report one fact, which comprises, besides a signal miracle, a deep fund of instruction. “They that received the didrachmas,” 2 which every Jew paid - j yearly for the support of the temple, • ( 1 ) It is in vain that what is told us is clear, when it displeases us; we always, in such cases, find it obscui'e. Such, with reference to the apostles, were the words of Jesus Christ, when he announced to them his sufferings and death. They wounded the love which they bore him ; they disconcerted the views of their ambition, which knew not what to expect from a crucified Messias. They would, therefore, naturally desire that his words might not be real. Moreover, we have already remarked, that they could not reconcile in their minds the greatness of their Master with such prodigious humiliation. The speedy establishment of his kingdom, coupled with the prediction of his ap¬ proaching death, caused them too inexplicable embarrassment. Thus they comprehended the terms of the prediction, which were clear; but they did not comprehend the thing itself, because they found it to clash with other things which they knew as clearly as that which appeared to annihi¬ late them. (’) The didrachma was two drachmas. The drachma was the eighth part of an ounce, and was worth about fifteen cents of our money. The Romans may have already laid hands on this tribute, which they subsequently appropriated to them¬ selves. But, in that case, was it impossible that the Jews should pay it twice over, once to the Romans, and a second time for the temple ? Their zeal for the temple and for the Divine worship, renders this conjecture probable enough. The second contribution might then, indeed, be regard¬ ed as voluntary; but do not even the collectors seem to insinuate as much, when, in lieu of exact¬ ing it absolutely, they merely say: “ Doth not your Master pay the didrachma?” Yet what appears most decisive in favor of the opinion which we have followed is, that we no longer know in what sense Jesus Christ declares himself exempt from the tribute, on account of his quality of being the son of Him to whom it is paid, if this tribute be not paid to God. Jesus Christ could never be called, in any sense, the son of the Roman emper¬ ors. But, it has been said, was he not the son of David ? Yes ; but remark, that it is not the sons of kings, generally speaking, who are here declared to be exempted from the tribute, but merely the children, properly so speaking, of the kings who 638 HISTORY OF THE LIFE “ came to Peter, and said to him : Doth not your Master pay the didrachma ? ” It has been contended that this was one of those captious questions wdiich were some¬ times put to our Saviour, for the purpose of calumniating him ; and that they ad¬ dressed Peter, thinking that he would more easily fall into the snare than his Master. But as this deep malice is more characteristic of the Pharisees than of the Publicans, whom we always see acting well towards Jesus Christ, it is more natural to think that they put this question to the disciple out of respect for the Master: Peter who was well acquainted with what Jesus was in the habit of doing on the like occasion, “said: Yes;” my blaster does pay the didrachma. “And when he was come into the house, Jesus,” to whom nothing is unknown, “prevented him, say¬ ing: What is thy opinion, Simon? The kings of the earth, of whom do they re¬ exact it, those who are not strangers in their re¬ gard. Shall it be asserted that the posterity of David were not strangers to the Roman emperors ? Shall it be asserted that all this posterity, for the assertion here is not confined to the oldest repre¬ sentative, was legitimately dispensed from paying the tribute to Caesar? Is this reasonable? Yet this must be held, if it he true that the quality of son of David dispensed Jesus Christ from paying the tribute to the Romans. ( 1 ) We have already spoken, page 636, of the ceive tribute or custom ? of their own children or of strangers? And he said: Of strangers. Jesus said to him: Then, the children are free?” And with much greater reason the only Son of Glod should not be subjected to a tribute which, being imposed for the temple, is paid really to Glod, who is there adored. This conse¬ quence flows from the kind of parable which Jesus had just proposed to Peter. No doubt he understood its meaning ; he who, on one side, was not ignorant of the object of this kind of contribution, and who, on the other, had so plainly confessed the divine filiation of his Master. “ But,” added our Saviour, “ that we may not scandalize them, 1 go to the sea, cast in a hook, and that fish which shall first come up, take ; and when thou hast opened its mouth, thou shalt find a stater : take that, and give it to them for me and thee ” (St. Matt. xvii. 23-26.) scandal taken through malice, and which must be despised; and of that taken out of weakness, which must be considered. This scandal was of the second kind, and Jesus Christ, by removing it as he did, inclines us the more to believe that the tribute was not asked out of malice. The reason for not treating the first with caution is, that malice or wickedness would take scandal at the very indul¬ gence used for avoiding scandal. All is scandal to him who wishes to take scandal. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 639 CHAPTER XXXII. DISPUTE AMONG THE DISCIPLES FOR THE FIRST RANK.—EVANGELICAL CHILDHOOD.—HE WHO IS NOT AGAINST US IS FOR US.—SCANDAL.—RETRENCHING ALL THAT IS AN OCCASION OF FAL¬ LING.—LITTLE ONES NOT TO BE DESPISED.—THE HUNDRED SHEEP. S OON the disciples forgot their afflic¬ tion, to think only of what flattered them. Their ambitious ideas soon revived ; and deeming themselves already great, be¬ cause they reckoned on soon being so, the only doubt remaining was to know who should have preeminence over the rest. “ There entered a thought into them ” to examine therefore “which of them should be greater.” The question seemed already resolved in favor of Peter, whom our Saviour had declared the foundation of his Church, of which he was to establish him the chief and first pastor. But Andrew had priority of vocation, John the famil¬ iarity of his Master, and James his elder brother was admitted with him into the most intimate confidence. The other James, and those who, like him, were styled the brothers of the Lord, appar¬ ently, did not neglect to avail themselves of their relationship, which, according to the usual course in the kingdoms of earth, gives a claim to the highest rank. The majority, therefore, had some title for pre¬ tending to it ; and who can doubt but that each one thought his own the best ? The only title which could decide the matter, under the principles of the new Gospel, was wanting in all, and Jesus availed himself of this occasion to show them so : “ Seeing the thoughts of their heart,” “ he asked them when they were in the house : What did you treat of in the way ? ” Pride betrays its shame, by its fear of dis¬ covery. “ But they held their peace, for in the wa} T they had disputed among themselves, which of them should be the greatest. Jesus, sitting down, called the twelve.” (St. Luke ix. 46-47 ; St. Mark ix. 32-34.) “ The disciples came to him,” and, thinking they had found a good op¬ portunity to draw from him an explana¬ tion that might clear up their doubts, with¬ out acknowledging their ambitious preten¬ sions, instead of asking who was greatest among them, “ they say to him,” leaving themselves, as it were, out of the question : “ Who, thinkest thou, is the greater in the kingdom of heaven? ” (St. Matt, xviii. 1.) Jesus saw more in these words than they seemed to express ; and in order to reply, at the same time, to what they said and what they did not say, he pronounced this sentence, before which all pride must either bend or be crushed : “ If any man desire to be first, he shall be the last of all, and the minister of all.” (St. Mark ix. 34.) It follows, by the rule of contraries, that he who wishes to be first and master of all, shall be the last of all. Thus, to G40 HISTORY OF THE LIFE attain the object of their pretensions, they had only to dispute between themselves who should most deeply humble himself, a dispute far different from that in which they had been engaged, and a dispute which never yet engendered quarrelling. But in order to give them a sensible idea of that humility which he proposed to them as the only foundation for the high¬ est elevation, “ calling unto him a little child,” “ whom, when he had embraced,” “he set him in the midst of them,” “he saitli to them:” “Amen, I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 1 Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this lit¬ tle child, 2 he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven.” (St. Matt, xviii. 2—4 ; St. Luke ix. 47 ; St. Mark ix. 35.) Infancy is the age of simplicity, candor, and innocence—amiable qualities which a disciple of the Gospel should strive to have at every age ; as he will be ever all the more loved by God and man. Yet, it is not these charming virtues that Christ has directly in view in the words that have just been read ; that here meant is of a more sublime perfection ; yet, at the (*) (*) Catholic commentators would not have us conclude from this expression, that the apostles would have been excluded from the kingdom of heaven, had they died in the state in which they then were; that is to say, they do not wish us to believe that they were in a state of damnation. Their pride had not yet reached that degree which renders it mortal; but it would have reached it, had they not suppressed it, and it would inevitably have caused their perdition. The Man-God infalli¬ bly foresaw this; but were he even an ordinary same time, of less difficult practice. Children enjoy no high consideration in the world, nor ask it; they have the low¬ est rank in society, and they hold to it; every one orders them about, even their very slaves, if they be in a condi¬ tion of life to have such menial attendants, and they obey all: so it may be said with reference to them, that dependence is their natural state. This is the point of view in which Jesus here admonishes the apostles to resemble them. A terrible effort this for human nature, which loves only to rule, and cannot bear to be ruled ! But what renders it still more painful is, the advantage which men are too apt to take of this humble and submissive child¬ hood. If they find you always disposed to obey them, they will tyrannize over you ; if you exact no attention, they will despise you ; if you put yourself under their feet, they will crush you : you must expect it: and all the pride of the disci¬ ples must have been stirred up at the mere thought of the insupportable arro¬ gance they would have to encounter, -and the contempt they should be obliged to swallow. Jesus Christ proceeds to soften down this idea for them, by informing man, he might very reasonably have conjectured it. Every passion tends towards crime, and, when long fostered, is sure to end there. Stifle in the first instance these rising monsters, if you do not- wish one day to become their prey. “ The lion’s whelp became a lion, and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.”—Ezechiel xix. 3. ( 2 ) Religious obedience, when perfect, is the per¬ fection of this blessed childhood. Those who make light of it, make light of the uncreated wisdom; and those who condemn it, condemn the Gospel. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 641 them that by this childhood which yields to all and resists nothing, they shall indeed be the butt and contempt of the profane, but that they shall be indemnified for this unjust contempt, by the esteem of his Father, by his own, and by that of all the true children of God, in re¬ gard to whom he gives them the quality of his own and his Father’s representa¬ tives, considering as done to his Father and to himself all the good treatment which his disciples shall receive from them. For it is difficult to find another explanation which connects the preceding words of our Saviour with those which he uttered immediately after: “He that shall receive one such little child as this in my name,” that is to say, a perfect im¬ itator of his infancy, “receivetli me, and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me ; ” “ for he that is the lesser among you all, he is the greater,” (St. Matthew xviii. 5 ; St. Mark ix. 36 ; St. Luke ix. 48), and thenceforward the most worthy representative of me and of my Father. ( 1 ) John had, perhaps, in view merely to cor¬ rect what he deemed an irregularity: perhaps a little jealousy entered into his motives. The apos¬ tles were cured of this after the descent of the Holy Ghost. Such is not the case with all those who have succeeded them in their ministry. There are but too many who are not utterly exempt from that unhappy emulation, which turns us away from any good which is not done by ourselves or by our own friends. How much good has it not prevented ? And can we here refrain from ex¬ claiming with the wise man : “ Do not withhold him from doing good who is able ; if thou art able, do good thyself also.”—(Proverbs iii. 27.) This was one of those familiar confer¬ ences wherein, with the zeal of a master anxious for the advancement of his disci¬ ples, our Saviour evinced also the gra¬ ciousness of a good father in the midst of his children. He does not blame them for interrupting him, and does not hesitate to interrupt the discourse he had com¬ menced, in order to give them the expla¬ nations they asked. Hence we will not be surprised that the well-beloved disciple should avail himself of the right which he granted to them all, or that, without wait¬ ing to see whether Jesus had anything fur¬ ther to state on the subject which he was then treating, he proposed another, “John answering, said : Master, we saw a certain man casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him, 1 because he followeth not with us.” John wished to know whether he had acted right or wrong. Jesus sat¬ isfied him without delay. “And Jesus said to him: Forbid him not,” “for there is no man that doth a miracle in my name and can soon speak ill of me.” 8 For he that is not against you is (’) It is even impossible that he should think so, having before him present and incontestable proof of his divine power. But were he capable of speaking evil of him, he could not do so at the outset. Could he blaspheme a name by virtue of which he is actually operating prodigies ? Even those who would chiefly be opposed to this name, if they retained the least uprightness, would be in¬ dignant at such inconsistency, and reproach him with it to his very face. Hypocrites sometimes defend the cause of reli¬ gion, because they find it their interest to do so, which interest is at bottom their sole religion. Let them do so and seem to believe them. They bind 81 -7 642 HISTORY OF THE LIFE for you.” 1 (St. Luke is. 49, 50 ; St. Mark drawn : “ Whosoever shall give you a is. 37-39.) cup of water ” “ to drink ” “ in my name, In fact, if the slightest thing done with because you belong to Christ ; Amen, I a view to honor Jesus done for the least say to you, he shall not lose his reward.” of those who Christ shall have its pay and From this it follows that the slightest reward, how much more should he be re- evil done to the least of those who belong warded who, by the miracles which he to Christ shall have its penalty and chas- does in his name, is instrumental in mak- tisement. What, therefore, shall be the ing known his power, and extending his punishment of those who, by scandal, glory ! Thus, instead of blaming and op- shall have mortally wounded his soul ? A posing him, the apostles should praise and very trifling evil in the judgment of those encourage him ; they should treat him in who reckon souls as valueless ; and it is the same way that Jesus Christ wishes perhaps for this reason that Jesus Christ they themselves should be treated for his seems to compare it to a glass of water ; sake. It is this that he insinuates by the yet the greatest of evils in the eyes of the following words, which, without evading Saviour of souls, who, for this reason, the question, reduces it once more to the launches against its author the terrible *■' subject from which he had been with- sentence which we find comprised in the themselves to the public. They will not dare to in liis regard, were against him in this sense, that attack openly what may have publicly been de- they refused him the faith and the devotion which fended, at least they will not dare to do so imme- they owed him, and in which they could not fail diately, and when they do so, it will be only half- without crime. It is of these he said: He who is way and with precautions, and this in order that not with me is against me. As regards exterior they may not be recognized for what they are, and apparent neutrality, their circumstances must hypocrites, and there will be so much mischief be considered. The new Gospel was then perse- avoided. But if you press them too strongly for cuted, because there was a greater and more ac- their motives, if you leave no resource to their credited one in the nation. A person could with honor, in a word, if you tear away their mask, you impunity declare himself opposed to it, and there deprive them of the only curb whereby they were was no security in openly undertaking its defence. restrained : they have nothing further to lose ; they How many timid souls recognize the truth, and will attack openly, and they will persecute to the dare not confess it, for fear of being exposed to bitter end. persecution ! It is of the latter that Christ saith : ( 1 ) We must here reconcile this expression with “He who is not against you is for you.” Such that other one of our Saviour: “He who is not was Nicodemus, who always has had, during with me is against me.”—(Matthew, xii.) It would stormy periods, and who always shall have, many seem that by neutrality we should be at the same imitators of his clandestine course, if we may be time for and against Christ. This we will try to permitted to use this term. They are weak, but reconcile. Let us distinguish real and interior not unfaithful. Let us not make them more wick- neutrality from that which is exterior and appa- ed than they are. They are for us: let us not pro- rent. By the former men were against Jesus ceed to turn them against us, by insulting a weak- Christ. Those who, witnessing his miracles, doubt- ness which we see that Jesus Christ himself conde- ed the truth of his words, or remained indifferent scended to treat with considei'ation. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 643 following words: “and whosoever shall scandalize one of these little ones that be¬ lieve in me ; it were better that a mill¬ stone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.” (St. Mark ix. 40, 41 ; St. Matthew x. 42.) Then, casting his eyes upon the world, contemplating the fearful ravages caused there by scandals, seeing iniquity commu¬ nicate itself like the plague, overrunning all ages and all conditions, whilst men per¬ ish in thousands, and almost all by the hands of one another, grief, mingled with indignation, was stirred up within him at so deplorable a spectacle : and he cannot refrain from pronouncing that maledic¬ tion, which has been to such a vast num¬ ber of the wise a signal, as it were, to fly this tainted atmosphere, and seek shelter from its corruption in the deserts, and even in the hollow of rocks. “ Wo to the world because of scandals.” For, al¬ though it is inevitable in human society, which is scarcely anything else but a com¬ pound of corruption and weakness, still ( 1 ) See the Sermon on the Mount, page 547. ( 2 ) Men would fain make this expression meta¬ phorical merely, and hell fire not a real mateiial fire ; but, with all the subtlety possible, they never can succeed. For, let me be allowed to ask heie, whence comes this striking affectation in Scripture of scarcely ever speaking of the punishment of hell except by the name of fire ? Why (not to speak here of the Old Testament, where this teim is so often employed), why, I say, do we see it re¬ peated in the Hew Testament no less than thiity times? Why is it to be found in the enunciation of the sentence where usage, founded upon reason and good sense, admits nothing but simple and precise expressions? Could God wish that hell should never present itself to the mind but under the general necessity coerces no one indi¬ vidual. Each taken separately can well avoid giving scandal ; and “ wo to that man by whom the scandal cometh.” (St. Matt, xviil. 7.) Nevertheless, the crime of him who gives scandal does not justify him who takes it. The murderer shall be punished as a murderer ; but his punishment shall not give back the life which he has taken. Must we, then, of necessity perish ? and is there no way to escape the dangers that encompass us on every side ? Yes, there are means, though they are hard indeed, violent, and painful. Christ does not dis¬ semble the fact. But, inasmuch as life is at stake, and the life of the soul, infinitely more precious than the life of the body, he enjoins it as a duty to employ these means. He had already spoken the words on the mountain, and they cannot be too deeply meditated : “If thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off. 1 It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into unquenchable fire ; 2 the image of a five which did not exist ? Has he not foreseen that this must originate, in all men, the idea, or rather the conviction of, a real and ma¬ terial fire; that this conviction, which thenceforth would be only an erroneous opinion, should be as widely diffused as religion itself; for where is it not to be found ? and as durable; for in what pe¬ riod has it not been believed? Could he have wished to lay this inevitable snare for the credulity of all Christians, I say of all, without exception, be¬ cause we see that the most enlightened have fallen into this belief, as well as the most simple; and that Avhat some would fain put down as a popular prejudice has been constantly believed, taught, dreaded even, with the liveliest apprehension, by the first men of Christianity. 644 HISTORY OF THE LIFE where their worm dieth not, and the fire them that evangelical wisdom is the only is not extinguished. And if thy foot scan- meaus of maintaining peace among them, dalize thee, cut it off: it is better for thee by curing them of the infatuation of pride to enter lame into life everlasting, than and its jealous pretensions. having two feet to be cast into the hell of But the tenderness of his heart brings unquenchable fire, where their worm dieth him back again to the little children, ob- not, 1 and the fire is not extinguished. If jects worthy the favor of an humbled and th} r eye scandalize thee, pluck it out. It annihilated God, whether they be such by is better for thee with one eye to enter age, or have become so by their humble into the kingdom of God, than having two simplicity. He does not think that he has eyes to be cast into the hell of fire, where done enough for them in frightening their their worm dieth not, and the fire is not tempters by the terrible image of the un- extinguished. For every one shall be dying worm and the eternal fire : he wishes salted with fire,” which shall preserve them to be governed as much by respect while it burns them. Victims of divine as by fear, and still more by love which is vengeance, they shall be treated like all due to those whom he himself has loved those of whom it is said : “ Every victim so tenderly. They are entrusted to the shall be seasoned with salt.” 2 Taking oc- care of angels : who can fail to respect casion from this to speak of true wisdom, such mighty protectors ? He has de- of which salt is the symbol, he adds these scended from heaven to save them, by in- words, as it were incidentally: “Salt is credible toils and sufferings : who will not good ; but if the salt become unsavory, shrink with horror from contributing to wherewith will you season it ? Have salt the perdition of those who have cost him in you, and have peace among you.” (St. so much ? “ See,” he said to them, “ that Mark ix. 42-49.) This last expression you despise not one of these little ones ; seems to refer to the recent contest of the for I say to you that their angels 3 in hea- apostles for pre-eminence. It teaches ven always see the face of my Father who ( 1 ) By the worm, remorse of conscience is usu- stood, these worms, if they signify remorse, should ally understood. Yet, many also understand it to be lodged in the heart, and not in the flesh. mean material worms preying upon the reprobate, ( 3 .) In Leviticus, ii. 13, we read these words : whose ever renewing flesh they devour. Saint Au- “ Whatsoever sacrifice thou offerest, thou shalt sea- gustine, who admits the first explanation, is very son it with salt.” far from rejecting the second. What gives greater ( 8 ) Their guardian angels ; for so it has been probability to the latter is these words of Judith, understood at all times, and this text alone would xvi. 21: “ He will give fire and worms into their suffice to prove it. We learn from Scripture, 1st. flesh, that they may burn, and may feel forever.” That kingdoms and empires have each their guar- It is evident that hell is here spoken of, since the dian angel; 2d. That each particular church hath sacred text mentions eternal suffering. Now, it also its own ; 3d. That each of the faithful has an seems that it would be more natural to express re- angel, who watches over him from his birth until morse by worm, in the singular number, than by his death. The manner in which Jesus Christ , worms, in the plural. But, supposing it so under- speaks in this passage seems to suppose that the OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 645 is in heaven. 1 For,” continues he, and in the mountains, and go to seek that this is the second reason, and a more which is gone astray? And if it so be touching one than the first ; “for the Son that he find it : Amen, I say to you, he of man is come to save that which was rejoiceth more for that than for the ninety- lost.” nine that went not astray.” 2 This pastor They were lost in reality, and about to is the image of the great pastor of all, and become the prey of the infernal wolf. But “ Even so it is not the will of your Father, “ what think you : If a man have a hun- who is in heaven, that one of these little dred sheep, and one of them should go ones should perish.” (St. Matt, xviii. astray, doth he not leave the ninety-nine 10-14.) Jews were not ignorant of it, and they still believe thought that each man has his demon, who tempts it at the present day. Christians have also be- him, and that Saint Paul speaks of his, when he lieved it from the origin of Christianity. When said that the angel of Satan had been given to the damsel to whom Peter spoke on coming ont of him to buffet him. This opinion has been followed his prison said “that Peter stood before the gate, by most of the ancients, although it does not ap- they” who were in the house “said to her: Thou pear to have sufficient foundation in Scripture, art mad; but she affirmed that it was so. Then which, however, contains nothing contradictory said they: It is his angel.” (Acts xii. 14, 15.) Cal- to it. vinists acknowledge that angels are charged with ( 1 ) In whatever place they may be, they always the administration of the world; but will not be- retain the intuitive vision of God, in which the BS fcr- lieve that each angel has his department: but it is essence of beatitude consists: they carry their para- only from fear of believing like the Catholic dise everywhere, in the same way as the devils Church. .The latter has settled, on this point, the carry their hell. belief of her true children, by instituting the feast (’) This sheep is not dearer to him than the of the Holy Guardian Angels. others, since he is disposed to do for the others, Although it be not a matter of equal certainty if they hRipened to stray, the same that he did for that all men, without excepting the heathens, have this one ; but this one causes him, at the moment, each their guardian angel, still it is the most com- a sensible joy, which the others do not, the joy of mon and authorized sentiment. It has been also having found it. 646 HISTORY OF THE LIFE CHAPTER XXXIII. FRATERNAL CORRECTION.—POWER OF BINDING AND LOOSING.—WE ARE TO PARDON SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN TIMES.—PARABLE OF THE WICKED SERVANT.—SECRET JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM, FOR THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.—THE TEN LEPERS. FTER beginning by humility, our | Saviour proceeded insensibly to speak of charity. This subject was too dear to his heart for him to wish to change it speedily. Having treated, therefore, of the charity which we should exercise to¬ wards those whom we are most inclined to despise, the weak and lowly, he gives rules for what we are to do with regard to those whom we are most tempted to hate, those persons from whom we have received any offence. “ If thy brother,” said he (he gives him this name, so well calculated to disarm hatred and to awaken love)—“sin against thee, reprove him :” x this solace is granted to your weakness ; ( 1 ) Ofttimes an explanation is sufficient to unite two divided hearts ; sometimes it would only exas- perate minds all the more. There are some resent¬ ments which give way of their own accord; there are others which require applications to the wounds. Some dispositions easily forget injuries, the best course is not to recall them to their recollection; there are other persons in whose hearts the fihaft remains until they are soothed; it is well to furnish them an occasion, by speaking to them. We are always wrong when we meet others only to taunt them with bitter reproaches; or when, whilst we cease our intercourse, we do not cease making the world ring with slanderous complaints and defam¬ atory moans. We always act right, in the sight of God, when we act from the motive of charity only, and with a sincere desire of peace. but “ if he do penance, forgive him. And •if he sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day be converted unto thee, sajdng : I repent, forgive him.” (St. Luke xvii. 3, 4.) I have said to you: Go go, and reprove him ; but remark with what caution you must proceed. In the first place, the matter must be negotiated “ between thee and him alone.” Seeing you so careful to avoid injuring his reputa¬ tion, perhaps he will hear thee ; and “if he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother. 2 If he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. 8 And if he will not hear ( 3 ) You will have gained him to God and to yourself. To you, by reconciling him with your¬ self ; and to God, by leading him mildly to the point of making you the reparation which God prescribes to him in your regard, and which God makes indispensable duty to him. See what has been said of the necessity of reparation, page 546. ( 9 ) In order to represent to him the injustice of his proceeding, and the justice of the reparation which is required from him. He might very probably decline allowing you to be the judge in your own cause; but he cannot reasonably mis¬ trust those who must be presumed to have no other interest in the affair than that of equity and rea¬ son. They may also have another use. If he does not yield to their remonstrances, they will certify to the Church that you have not had recourse to OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. them, tell the Church : and if he will not hear the Church, 1 let him be to thee as the heathen 2 and the Publican.” 3 (St. Mat¬ thew xviii. 15-35.) He shall be so, in fact, when the Church shall have cut off from her bosom this incorrigible sinner : I sa} 7- he shall be so not only in the eyes of men, but also in the eyes of Grod and his angels. For, “Amen, I say to you,” and in your person I say it to all those who shall succeed to your ministry : “ Whatso¬ ever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven.” But, in order that you may better un¬ derstand how agreeable to Grod is the union of hearts, and the power which it lias over his heart, “ Again I say to you, that if two of you shall consent upon earth concerning anything whatsoever they shall denunciation, until after all the means of meekness and charity have been employed in vain. ( 1 ) That is to say, the ,Republic, said the heretic Castalion. This explanation is absurd. These first Protestants wished neither Church nor Monarchy. If we were to credit them, the entire universe, as well sacred as profane, should be governed by burgomasters. Tell it to the Church, that is to say, to the head and the ancients of each church, who are the bishop and the priests: thus was it practised in the primitive ages. Saint Paul im¬ poses it as a duty upon all Christians, and to de¬ viate therefrom was regarded as a great irregularity. The cause of this regulation no longer exists; it was that in those days all the secular judges were heathens. ( a ) These words do not authorize us to hate him; they only signify that, after the judgment of the Church, we should deal with him as with «n excommunicated person. 647 ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is in heaven; 4 for where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” praying with them and for them. Our Saviour had previously said that if our brother sin against us seven times in the day, we must pardon him as often. This number seven might require explana¬ tion ; for if it usually signifies the precise number which it expresses, it is likewise employed sometimes to signify an inde¬ terminate number. Jesus Christ has not specified in which of these two meanings he used the word. “ Peter,” who desired to be enlightened on this point, “then came unto Jesus, and said : How often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him ? Till seven times ? ” This mode of interrogation shows by inference that he thought it should be less rather ( s ) That is to say, treat him as you, who are Jews, treat Publicans, and not as Publicans deserve to be treated. The Jews excluded them from their religious assemblies, just as they exclude Pagans. The exclusion of the latter was just; but that of the Publicans was not. Their profession, which was necessary for the State, is not condemned by religion. John the Baptist does not oblige them to renounce it; he is satisfied with saying to them: “Do nothing more than that which is appointed you.” (St. Luke iii. 13.) ( 4 ) When prayer has the qualities which it ought to have, it is of faith that God grants it, either by giving what is asked, or giving what is better. This something better is sometimes the contrary of what we ask: “You know not what you ask.” (St. Matthew xx. 22.) But God well knows what is necessary for you. Ever pray, and leave him to act. 648 HISTORY OF THE LIFE than more than that number. He must falling down, besought.him, saying: Have have been highly surprised when Jesus patience with me, and I will pay thee all. said to him: “I say not to thee seven He would not, but went and cast him into times, but till seventy times seven times ; ” prison till he paid his debt. Now his which undoubtedly signifies that we must fellow-servants, seeing what was done, pardon injuries without end, and as often were very much grieved, and they came as we have been offended. Therefore, and told their lord all that was done. Then added he, to make them feel how justly his lord called him, and said to him : Thou G-od requires this pardon from us, and with wicked servant, I forgave thee all the what injustice and inhumanity we refuse debt, because thou besoughtest me ; it, “ Therefore is the kingdom of heaven shouldst not thou then have had compas- likened to a king who would take an ac- sion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had count of his servants. 1 And when he had compassion on thee ? And his lord, being begun to take the account, one was angry, delivered him to the torturers, 2 brought to him that owed him ten thou- until he paid all the debt. So also shall sand talents. As he had not wherewith my heavenly Father do to you if you for- to pay it, his lord commanded that he give not every one his brother from your should be sold, and his wife and children, hearts.” and all that he had, and payment to be “Now the Jews’ feast 3 of Tabernacles made. That servant, falling down, be- was at hand. The brethren of Jesus said sought him, saying : Have patience with to him : Pass from hence and go into Ju- me, and I will pay thee all. Then the dea, that thy disciples also may see thy lord of that servant, being moved with works which thou dost; for there is no pity, let him go and forgave him the debt. man that doth anything in secret, and he But wdien that servant was gone out, he himself seeketh to be known openly. If found one of his fellow-servants, that thou do these things, manifest thyself to owed him an hundred pence ; and laying the world.” hold of him, he throttled him, saying: It is not surprising that the relatives of Pay what thou owest. His fellow-servant, Jesus should desire him to show himself ( 1 ) It is, properly, neither the Church nor which the meekness of the Gospel seems to have Heaven. By the kingdom of heaven is understood abolished everywhere. the conduct which God pursues in the administra- ( ’) This was one of the principal feasts of the tion of the world ; it is as if it were said : Behold Jews. It has been instituted in remembrance of in what manner God, who is the king of the uni- the tabernacles or tents under which the Israelites verse, acts in regard to men, who are his creatures had encamped in the desert during forty years. It and subjects. lasted eight days, and commenced the fifteenth day ( 3 ) Creditors at that period were not satisfied of the seventh month of the Jewish year. The with thrusting their debtors into prison; they Jews at the present day celebrate it on the 15th of made them there endure scourging and tortures September, raising in an open space a hut embel- until they satisfied their creditors—a cruel policy, lished and covered with foliage. Or OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. in the capital. The glory which he might there acquire must have reflected "back on them. It was natural that they should not be insensible to this at a time when we see that the apostles themselves were not altogether exempt from ambition. But that which does appear surprising is, that they should have had the boldness to re¬ proach the Saviour with the alleged incon¬ sistency of his conduct, and the presump¬ tion to think that he could be in want of their advice. The evangelist explains the reason of this. “ For neither did his brethren believe in him : ” not that they did not believe him to have the power of working miracles—what they have just said evidently supposes that they had this faith ; but they doubted, at least, whether he was the Messias, and that the Messias should be the only Son of the living God —God himself, the uncreated and incar¬ nate wisdom. He who did not usurp equality with the Most High, but who pos¬ sesses it in right of his eternal generation, did not disdain to give them a reason for his conduct ; and instead of reproaching them with their indiscreet temerity, “ then Jesus said to them,” with his usual mode¬ ration : “My time is not yet come ; but your time is always ready. The world ” with whom you have no cause of quarrel “ cannot hate you. But me it hateth : be¬ cause I give testimony of it that the works ( 1 ) In the Greek: “ I do not go as yet; ” which removes all difficulty in reconciling the conduct of Jesus Christ with his words. Among the an¬ cient Greek manuscripts, some have: “I do not go there, as yet; ” others read simply, as in the Vul¬ gate : “I go not up.” The Fathers and the an- 83 649 thereof are evil and its hatred obliges me to take precautions which are not ne¬ cessary for those who have nothing to fear. “ Go,” therefore, “ you up to this festival day. But I go not up to this festival day, 1 because my time is not accomplished.” It was not long before it was accomplished, for the delay alluded to here was only of very few days’ duration ; “ and after his brethren were gone up. Jesus also went up to the feast, not openly, but, as it were, in secret.” (St. John vii. 2-11, 25, 26.) There is in all this neither levity nor want of sincerity in his words, as the en¬ emies of Christianity in early times re¬ proached him. If he says that he will not go up to the festival, he immediately adds that the reason is because his time is not yet come ; which implies that when his time shall come he can go there, and that in going he shall neither act against his word nor against his first resolutions. It appears certain that his enemies had formed a plot to take away his life during this festival, which they felt certain he would attend. We shall shortly read that “ the Jews sought him on the festival day ; ” and we shall see the surprise of those wfio, aware of the plot without par¬ ticipating in it, said: “Is not this he whom they seek to kill? Behold, he speaketli openly, and they say nothing to him.” But should not the cause which cient commentators have read the text, some in one way, some in another. What follows these expres¬ sions seemed to me sufficient to fix the sense of “ I do not go,” to that of “ I do not go as yet,” as will be seen in the continuation of our text. 650 HISTORY OF THE LIFE hindered him from being there, or at least “Jesus” therefore “would not walk” showing himself, on the first days, hinder publicly* “ in Judea, because the Jews him also from showing himself there on sought to kill him.” (St. John vii. 1.) It the following days ? Yes, had he been an was not so in the province where he usu- ordinary man, because then he would not ally resided. Although there he had to have known what day the plot would sue- encounter opposition, yet hatred and fury ceed, and on what day it would fail; and were not such as to prompt attempts on this ignorance would have obliged him not his life. Wherefore, reserving .precau- to come to Jerusalem, or to remain con- tions for the moment when he should enter cealed there during the whole feast. But Judea, in “ going to Jerusalem, he passed ” he, who was ignorant of nothing, knew publicly “ through the midst of Samaria that the plot would have succeeded dur- and Galilee. And as he entered into a ing the first days, and would fail on the certain town, there met him ten men that following days. This statement alone were lepers, who stood afar off,” to obey would suffice to explain all, except that it the law, which forbade them all commerce might be asked whether it was not easy with men. Obliged to raise their voice, for our Saviour to baffle by a miracle all so as to make themselves heard, they the efforts of his enemies ? Who doubts “lifted up their voice, saying: Jesus, it ? But he did not choose to employ mir- Master, have mercy on us. Whom when ” acles except when human means were in- this good Master “ saw, he said : Go, •sufficient. To act otherwise is tempting show yourselves to the priests.” This God, as he himself said to Satan. He implied a promise that they should be was indeed incapable of this fault, not cured before thev arrived there, since this only because he was impeccable, but also ceremony was merely the judicial verifi- because it cannot be said that Gfod could cation of their cure. They believed him, be tempted by him who, being God him- and set off at once. Their faith, joined self, disposes as supreme ruler of all na- with this prompt obedience, soon produced ture. But he wished to instruct his disci- its effect. “ As they went they were pies, and teach them, by his example, that made clean. And one of them, when he it is only when all natural means fail, that saw that he was made clean, went back, rational confidence can rely on miracles. with a loud voice glorifying God. 1 And ( 1 ) Leprosy is the figure of sin ; and what passion. Jesus Christ, who can cure him in an in- passes here is the natural image of penance, which stant, and by himself alone, sends him to the is its remedy. The man infected with this spiritual priests, whose rights he wishes to be recognized, leprosy keeps himself, out of respect, at a distance and their ministry honored. The dispositions are from Jesus Christ. His humility lessens in naught sometimes so perfect, that the sinner is justified his confidence. From the bottom of his heart he before he presents himself before the minister. utters a cry to the supreme physician, which obliges Still he must observe the law; but he must be ex- the God of mercy to cast upon him a glance of com- ceedingly cautious not to forget his benefactor, and OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 651 he fell on his face before Jesus’ feet, giv¬ ing thanks : and this was a Samaritan. Then Jesus, answering, said: Were not ten made clean ? And where are the nine ? There is no one found to return and give glory to God but this stranger. Afterwards he said to him : Arise, go thy wa} r ; for thy faith hath made tliee whole.” (St. Luke xvii. 11-19.) This must be un¬ derstood of the salvation of the soul; for the faith of the others had.procured for them also the cure of the body. But the faith of this latter being more lively^, more durable, and, above all, more grateful, merited for him this second favor, infi¬ nitely more precious than the first, which is little more than the shade and figure. CHAPTER XXXIV. JESUS SHOWS HIMSELF AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.—HE PREACHES EN THE TEMPLE.— VARIOUS OPINIONS CONCERNING HIM—MINISTERS SENT TO APPREHEND HIM. I X the meantime, Jesus continued his journey, and arrived at Jerusalem. But whether it be that he was not present at the commencement of the solemnity of the Tabernacles, or perhaps that at first he kept himself concealed there, which was not difficult amongst so vast a multitude ; the sinner, when truly and deeply contrite, does not forget him. The more bitter the grief he has felt for his sin, the more lively is his gratitude for the grace. He cannot be silent on the mercies of the Lord; he publishes them aloud ; he recounts them all to the universe. “ Come,” saith he with the prophet, “come and hear what great things the Lord hath done for my soul.” (Ps. lxv. 16.) He then ventures to approach the Saviour, and is only the more humble. He casts himself at his feet, the ordinary asylum of all true penitents, the asy¬ lum of Magdalen, whom we always find there after her conversion. Let those who imitate her tell of the sweets which he makes them relish when em- “ the Jews” of Jerusalem, who expected to see him there, “ sought him on the festi¬ val-day, and said: Where is he? And there was much murmuring among the multitude concerning him. For some said, He is a good man : and others said, Xo, but he seduceth the people. 1 Yet no bracing his sacred feet; let them tell us whether all the joys of the world are worth one of the tears with which they bathe them. ( 1 ) It is thus, remarks Saint Augustine, that men speak every day of his servants. If any one appear gifted with some extraordinary grace, or if he make considerable progress in virtue, some say: He is a worthy man; others: He is a deceiver. But, adds this Father, those who praise him, do so in a whisper; and those who blame him shout out. There are several reasons for this difference. First, esteem and affection, naturally, make less noise than hatred; and criticism is always more shrill than praise. Moreover, when the wicked rise up 652 HISTORY OF THE LIFE man,” of those who had espoused his side, “spoke openly of him, for fear of the Jews. Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.” Wisdom and science flowed like a mighty stream from his divine lips. The admira¬ tion which seized his audience suspended for the moment all other sentiments. “ The Jews wondered, saying : How doth this man know letters, having never learned ? ” Jesus explains this mystery, by informing them from whom this knowledge came which surprised them so. “My doc¬ trine,” he answered them, “ is not mine, but his that sent me,” that is to say, it is from God. The Jews believed not, be¬ cause they did not see ; and they did not see, because they did not wish to see. Their incredulity came from the darkness in which they were, and that darkness came from the evil dispositions of their hearts. That saying of the Psalmist, which we every day see fulfilled before our eyes, was then fulfilled in them: “ He would not understand, that he might do well.” (Ps. xxxv. 4.) For, adds our Sa¬ viour, “ if any man will do the will of him, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” He has just explained to them the source against those whom men of worth esteem, they know that there is nothing to apprehend from the latter: whereas good men, on the contrary, have everything to apprehend from the wicked, if they venture at all to declare in favor of those whom they persecute. We may also add, that good men are silent from delicacy towards the just man who is persecuted. The hatred against him is enven¬ omed by contradiction ; and the more partisans it gees in favor of the just, the more frantic it is for of their incredulity. What follows gives them, if not an infallible proof, at least a reasonable presumption, of the truth of his doctrine, and of the divinity of his mission : “ He that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory ; but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent Mm, he is true, and there is no injustice in him.” Jesus Christ cannot, therefore, be suspected of fraud and of lying, which are here ex¬ pressed by the term “injustice,” because it is evident to any one who pays attention, that, in all his words and in all his actions, he has only in view the glory of God, whom lying offends, and whom truth alone honors. Still, it is not absolutely impos¬ sible that a good man, who has only in view the glory of God, should state things contrary to truth. For this reason we have said that this was here rather a rea¬ sonable presumption, than an infallible proof of the truth of his doctrine. A man of this character may in that case be mistaken, but does not wish to deceive : it is in him a mistake, but neither fraud nor lying. He admits it readily if his error is shown him. He submits immediately, and subscribes without resistance the judgment which condemns him : whereas, he that seeketh his own glory cannot bear his ruin. Hatred, therefore, alone speaks out: at all events, it alone makes itself heard. This should be carefully noticed; for those who have merely ears, imagine that the hatred is universal, because they hear nothing but the yell of hatred: they are deceived. People of worth, who love the virtuous, aud who honor them even to veneration, but who do not make themselves heard, are sometimes a hundred to one. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. C53 such a humiliation ; he is soured, he grows violent, he judges his judges, and con¬ demns his pastors. It would be useless to add, that this is inapplicable to the Man-God. Incapable of falsehood, he is equally incapable of error. If the thing be evident to any one who recognizes his divinity, even those who do not as yet acknowledge it can in no way doubt it in view of his miracles, the seal, as it were, with which God con¬ firmed the truth of all his words. But as he then had in view to convince the Jews rather by reason than by prodigies, he proceeds to show them, by their own con¬ duct, that what they regarded in him as a capital crime, was a less infraction of the law than what they permitted to them¬ selves without scruple. For it still turned on the violation of the sabbath ; and if envy was the true cause of the plots formed against our Saviour’s life, the cure of a paralytic, wrought miraculously on the sabbath-day, was the pretext on which they acted. Eighteen months had passed since this event, which had been fully jus¬ tified at the time when it occurred. But they had forgotten the justification, and always bore in mind the pretended crime. Hear, then, what Jesus Christ again said to them on this subject: “Did not Moses give you the law ? And yet none of you keepeth the law,” if it be true, as you say, that I have broken it. “ Why seek you to kill me ? The multitude answered and said : Thou hast a devil: who seeketh to kill thee?” We perceive in these wrath¬ ful words the hatred which had conceived the crime, now wrought up to a furious height on hearing this just reproach. “ Je¬ sus,” without evincing any emotion, con¬ tinued his discourse, and “ said to them : One work I have done, and you all won¬ der. Yet Moses gave you circumcision (not because it is ” originally “ of Moses, but of the leathers), and on the sabbath- day you circumcise a man,” when it hap¬ pens to be the eighth day after his birth. “ If a man receive circumcision on a sab¬ bath-day, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I have healed the whole man on the sab¬ bath-day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge just judgment.” This last expression reminded the Jews of another law of Moses which they were actually infringing, that of Deuteronomy, which admonishes them, almost in the same terms, to judge according to what is just in itself, without regard to persons. Now, on this ‘occasion, they judged the action of Jesus not according to what it was in itself, but by its author, whose per¬ son was odious to them. Hence they pro¬ nounced as criminal that which in reality was a less infraction of the sabbath than circumcision. For the natural law, which obliges us to succor the unfortunate, is su¬ perior to the law of circumcision, which is merelv a directory law. To wound a man, supposing there be a law that en¬ joins it, is always a less good than to cure another man ; and if we wish to carry out the comparison of the two actions, circum¬ cision being a manual operation, which entails the necessity of dressing the wound, is a much more servile work than the simple word used, which alone Jesus em- 654 HISTORY OF THE LIFE ployed in restoring health to the paralytic. However, those who were aware of the conspiracy which the principal men of the nation had formed against our Saviour, were surprised, indeed, to hear him speak so publicly and so fearlessly. “Some, therefore, of Jerusalem, said : Is not this he whom they seek to kill ? And behold, he speaketh openly and they say nothing to him. Have the rulers known for a truth that this is the Christ? But,” they added, “we know this man whence he is ; but when the Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.” We know not how they had conceived this idea, that when the Christ did come, no one should know his origin ; and it is conjectured, with sufficient probability, that the error arose from this text of Isaias : “Who shall declare his genera¬ tion ? ” (Is. liii. 8.) The prophet under¬ stood this of his eternal generation, not as of a thing which was to be unknown, but as an ineffable mystery. These persons, who were, undoubtedly, the most ignorant of the people, for we shall soon hear others speak who were better informed, these, I say, explained the text as referring to the temporal birth, and seemed to believe that the Messias was to appear suddenly, with¬ out it being known whence he came, or who were his parents. Jesus was aware of their discourse, whether he was or was not near enough to hear. “Jesus, there¬ ( 1 ) Ab ipso sum, I am from him—which signi¬ fies properly: I draw my existence from him. ( a ) He performs an infinite number of miracles, in order to prove that he is the Christ: he is, there¬ fore, cried out in the temple, teaching and saying : You both know me and you know whence I am. I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom you know not.” You do not, therefore, know in fact whence I am ; and this character of the Messias, if indeed it be one, you can¬ not deny that I have. “ I know him, be¬ cause I am from him, 1 and he hath sent me.” The first of these last expressions al¬ ludes to the eternal generation of the Son of Grod, and the second to his birth in time. The Jews must then have under¬ stood the sense of the words, since it is said, that it was in consequence of what he had been saying, that “they sought to ap¬ prehend him ; ” and we have elsewhere seen that one of the principal reasons for which they sought to kill him, was because “he said Grod was his father, making him¬ self equal to G-od.” (St. John v. 18.) “But no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.” In the mean¬ time “ of the people many believed in him and said : When the Christ cometh, shall he do more miracles than these which this man doth ? ” 2 Those who were friendly towards our Saviour did not venture, as we have said, to testify it openly ; but nothing escapes passion. “The Pharisees heard” that portion of “ the people murmuring these things concerning him.” They grew ap¬ prehensive of the consequences, and began fore, such in fact. Common sense led them directly to this consequence. Subtlety kept others aloof. Good sense and subtlety are two very different things, and often widely opposed to each other. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 655 to fear, lest what they termed seduction might in a short time captivate the minds of all. To check its course “ the rulers and Pharisees sent ministers to appre¬ hend” Jesus. We cannot say whether Jesus was yet there when the latter ar¬ rived, or if it was to them, or to the people who were still listening, that he addressed the following words, apparently that they might be repeated: “Jesus therefore said to them : Yet a little while I am with you, and then I go to him that sent me. You shall seek me and shall not find me ; and where I am, * 1 thither you can¬ not come.” Thus he declared to them the futility of the projects which they formed against his person, until the moment when he should permit them to do what he had resolved to permit them to do. That moment was not far distant: but it was to (») In the text we find the present tense, Where I am, ubi ego sum. Some render it “ where I am to go; ” others, “ where I shall be,” in the future, because, in point of fact. Jesus Christ speaks of a time to come. We adhere to the present, because it comprises a truth which disappears when the future is substituted. In reality Jesus Christ was already there, where he was to go ; that is to say, in heaven, where he was always present by his im- be followed immediately by his ascension, and his entrance into heaven, whither they could not follow him, because they them¬ selves should have closed it. Thence he was to behold them occupied with useless and disheartening care, seeking among the false Messias the true one whom they had already disowned. Those who believed in him received afterwards the knowl¬ edge of these mysteries. But whilst the first words he uttered were then understood, the latter were not. “ The Jews, therefore, said among themselves : Whither will he go that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles ? What is this saying that he hath said : You shall seek me, and shall not find me ; and where I am you cannot come ? ” (St. John vii. 11-36.) mensity. The present had, therefore, with respect to him, its proper signification, which it would not have had if Christ were purely man. We know that Saint John, when writing his Gospel, chiefly sought to manifest the divinity of our Saviour. Everything which refers to this should be pre¬ sumed to have been written with this design, and must be retained. 656 HISTORY OF THE LIFE CHAPTER XXXV. A MYSTIC WATER._EFFUSION OF THE HOLY GHOST.—THE JEWS DIVIDED AMONGST THEM¬ SELVES.—COUNCIL OF THE PRIESTS.—OPPOSITION OF NICODEMUS.—THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY. A RELIGIOUS ceremony which the Jews practised during the Feast of Tabernacles may have given occasion for the last words which our Saviour ad¬ dressed to them during this solemnity. They used to go and draw water from the fountain of Siloe, and then pour it upon the altar, asking of God an abundance of the fruits of the earth. To all appear¬ ance it was taking occasion from this water that he spoke to them, as to the Sa¬ maritan woman, of a more wondrous and more desirable water. “ On the last and greatest day of the festivity, Jesus stood, and cried, saying : If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink. He that be- lieveth in me,” this explains the word “drink,” “as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living wa¬ ter. Now this he said of the Spirit which they should receive who believed in him ; for as yet the Spirit was not given, be¬ cause Jesus was not yet glorified.” 1 “ Of that multitude, therefore, when thev had heard these words of his, some %/ said : This is the prophet indeed. Others (') The Holy Ghost had been given to the holy old man Simeon, to Zachary, to John the Baptist, and to some others ; but few in number. It was not until after the Lord Jesus had been fully glorified, that is to say, after his ascension, and upon Pente- said : This is the Christ. But some said : Doth the Christ come out of Galilee ? Doth not the Scripture say that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the town where David was ? So there arose a dissension among the people, because of him ; and some of them would have apprehended him. But no man laid hands upon him.” These were the priests’ ministers or officers, who had come hoping to execute on that day what they were unable to ac¬ complish on the preceding days. His divine eloquence was the charm which enchained their hands. “The ministers, therefore, came to the chief priests and the Pharisees. And they said to them : Why have you not brought him ? The ministers answered : Never did man speak like this man. The Pharisees answered them : Are you also seduced ? Hath any one of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees? But this multitude that knoweth not the law are accursed ” of God. “ Nicodemus, he that came to Jesus by night, who was one of them, said to them : Doth our law cost-day, that the Holy Ghost was given to all the disciples, and in such fulness as served to diffuse it over all the earth. This effusion, proceeding from this fulness, is signified by the preceding words: “ Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 657 judge any man unless it first hear him, and know what he doth ? ” It was easy for them to answer : When we have him in our power we shall interrogate, and lieai him. There is, therefore, every reason to believe that their design was to put our Saviour to death without any form of trial, because, instead of making this answer, which would have silenced Nicodemus, they had no alternative but to insult him: “They answered and said to him: Ait thou also a Galilean? 1 Search the Scrip¬ tures, and see that out of Galilee a pro¬ phet riseth not. And every man returned to his own house.” 2 (St. John vii. 37-53.) It is true that we do not find in Scrip¬ ture any prophet who came forth from Galilee ; but much less do we find it said that there never should be one from thence. What, then, was there to prevent God from raising up one in that country as in others ? Thus, without cavilling about country, the only thing to be done was to examine whether this was or was not a , prophet. Yet this reason, so bad that a man’s contenting himself with it was an avowal that he rejected Jesus Christ with¬ out any reason, this reason, I say, was more than sufficient for hearts blinded by passion 5 and in this regard no difference can be drawn between the enlightened man and the most gross. Those who al¬ leged this were, beyond contradiction, the most polished and learned class in the na¬ tion. Yet, of all who refused to acknow¬ ledge our Saviour, they are the very men who give the most evidently absurd reason for their refusal, one, in fact, that a child could refute. For that ignorant populace, who maintained that it was not known whence the Messias should come, appear to have thought so on the faith of sundry texts of Scripture, which seemed, at first sight, to present this meaning to the mind. Those who said that he should spring from the race of David, and be born at Bethle¬ hem, spoke the truth ; and they only erred in thinking that the second of these two marks did not belong to Jesus Christ: an error against which they could secure them¬ selves only by a minute research into the en¬ tire life of our Saviour, who, being removed (>) They all start from this proposition: He is a Galilean. The Jews, properly speaking, that is to say, those of the province of Judea, especia y those of Jerusalem, despised the Galileans grea y. Hence the enemies of our Saviour affected y styled him by this name, convinced, and m this they argued well, that a contemptuous name is the shortest and surest means of lowering in P°l™ ai estimation even the most respectable persons. The Jews continued long after to designate Jesus Christ by this name, and from them it was or rowed by Julian the Apostate, probably the mos disordered brain which was ever encircled with a diadem, let his panegyrists say what they wi , ant QQ they could become his panegyrists only by being as mad as he. ( 5 ) A good man in the council of the wicked will never reclaim them to reason and equity ; but, by presenting reason and equity to them m so clear a lio-ht that they cannot elude the evidence, he ba es or at least retards for a time their projects. In¬ justice is disarmed when stripped of all color of justice. He cannot always succeed m securing this result; but whenever he can, he ought to do so- and the apprehension, or even the certainty, of encountering their hatred, does not excuse him from doing so. HISTORY OF THE LIFE 658 from Bethlehem to Egypt immediately after his birth, and brought thence into G-alilee, where he dwelt after his return from Egypt until the commencement of his mission, gave ground for thinking that he was a native o'f that province. They de¬ ceived themselves, therefore ; and what rendered their error inexcusable beTore God is, that’ the miracles of Jesus Christ obliged them to subscribe to the- truth of all he advanced concerning himself, and forced them to seek in him the characters of the Messias, which were not at once per¬ ceptible, but which could not escape a close scrutiny. But, after all, their error was not without some appearance of rea¬ son, while that of the Pharisees had not the slightest ground; for, to reject Jesus Christ, merely because no prophets had heretofore appeared in Galilee, was, as we have already said, to maintain that God could not, or never would, raise one from that country. The first position is notoriously false : how did they know the second? This would establish, conse¬ quently, that they should reject as false prophets all those who were the first pro¬ phets of their country. What could be more absurd? Yet this is the groundwork on which the masters and doctors in Israel based their opposition : which shows, as we have already remarked, that even by the most enlightened persons, when, un¬ happily, they have allowed themselves to be biased, the most palpable false reason- ( 1 ) This narrative is wanting in most Greek manuscripts ; yet it is found in some of very great antiquity, and in almost all the ancient Latin manu¬ scripts. If we consult merely the rules of criticism, ing takes the place of reasoning and is converted into demonstration ; for the re¬ proach of ignorance flung at Nicodemus springs solely from the fact that he cannot feel as they do the force of this reasoning : There never was a prophet of Galilee ; therefore there never shall be. “In the meantime,” as it grew late, “ Jesus went unto Mount Olivet,” so called on account of an olive grove with which it was covered. It lies beyond the torrent of Cedron, east of Jerusalem, and as far distant from that city as a mau was allowed to travel on the sabbath-day, that is to say, two Italian miles. When Jesus sojourned at Jerusalem, he was accustomed to pass the night there in prayer, and the traitor Judas knew this but too well. Near at hand was Betliania, where Mary and Mar¬ tha resided, with their brother Lazarus. We know how dear this family was to our Saviour, and their vicinity may, indeed, have been one of the reasons for the pref¬ erence which he had given to this district. After having passed the night there, ac¬ cording to his custom, “ early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him, and sitting down, he taught them,” when he was inter¬ rupted by a new machination, which his enemies set in motion against him, but which he easily turned against themselves, as we are about to see. “The Scribes and Pharisees bring unto him a woman taken in adultery, 1 and they it would be questionable enough whether or not the passage is part of the Scripture. Calvin thinks he recognizes here the spirit of God, but Beza does not, leaving it to their disciples to believe with OF OUR LORD JESTJS CHRIST. 659 set lier in the midst” of the assembly, “ and said to him: Master, this woman was even now taken in adultery. Now, Moses, in the law, commanded us to stone such a one. But what sayst thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might accuse him ” either of prevarication, if he undertook to moderate the rigor of the law, or of self-contradiction, if he advised them to enforce the extreme rigor of the law, he who hitherto had always evinced the greatest indulgence and compassion for sinners. Jesus, who knew their designs, and who did not wish to* answer them, did at first what is customary whenever any one wishes to elude an importunate or cap¬ tious question : we seem inattentive, as if the mind were occupied by some other thought. It was, therefore, with this in¬ tention, that “ Jesus bowing himself down, wrote with his finger on the ground.” 1 His enemies either did not comprehend him, or wished to force from him the an¬ swer which should furnish matter for their calumny, whilst his goodness was seeking to save them from confusion. “ When, whichever of the two they like best. Not so with Catholics. The Church has fixed their belief upon this point, by the decree of the Council of Trent which makes it obligatory to receive as books ot Scripture all those that the Council enumerates, and to receive them in all their parts, just as they are found in the ancient Vulgate. Now, the Gospel of Saint John is one of these books; and m the Vulgate the narrative referring to the adulteress constitutes part of the Gospel of Saint John. We know, then, what we are to believe, because we know whom we are to believe. (' 1 ) It is not known what he wrote. We scarcely know whether he formed characters, or whether he merely traced lines, although the first conjecture is therefore, they continued asking him, he lifted up his head, and said to them . He that is without sin among you, let him fust cast a stone fit her. And again stooping down, he wrote on the ground.” This stroke told, and this expression, together with the light by which he discovered to these false zealots all the crimes of their impure conscience, produced its effect upon the spot. “ They, hearing this, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest,” as more shrewd or perhaps more criminal, “ so that Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. Then Jesus, lifting up himself, said to her: Woman, where are they that accuse thee ? Hath no man condemned thee? She said: No man, Lord. Jesus said : Neither will I con¬ demn thee. Gro, and now sin no more.” (St. John viii. 1-11.) Thus, by the vir¬ tue of one single word, we see all at once mercy exercised and the law re¬ spected, the sinful woman rescued and her liberator justified, hypocrisy unmasked and malice confounded, Jesus victorious, and his enemies put to flight. most probable, because it,is said that “he wrote.” Nevertheless, some have asserted not only that he did write, but even what he wrote. Some declare that he wrote the secret sins of the accusers of the adulteress. Where have they learned this ? They add, that it was this disclosure which obliged these sinners when thus unmasked to take flight one after the other. This seems false; for the evan¬ gelist does not say that they withdrew after having seen what Jesus wrote, but after having heard what he said. Other commentators think that our Saviour wrote merely some short, energetic sentence, calculated to confound these rash accus¬ ers, for instance, these words of Jeremias xxn. 29, 30: “0 earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the 660 HISTORY OP THE LIFE CHAPTER XXXVI. ANOTHER DISCOURSE OP JESUS CHRIST TO THE JEWS.—HE GIVES TESTIMONY TO HIMSELF, DYING IN SIN.—SLAVERY OP SEN.—THE SON ALONE CAN SET US FREE. D ELIVERED from these importunate men, “Jesus again spoke to the people, saying: I am the light of the world. He that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” 1 (St. John viii. 12.) It is conceded that these magnificent statements should not be advanced without proof; and it must also be conceded that whatever proved, in a general way, the divinity of onr Saviour’s mission, proved, at .the same time, the truth of all his words. But who ever required proof by witnesses of an extraordinary and divine mission? God himself must attest this, and if he does not, the testimony of all men would be insufficient. By this mark the Jews had recognized all the pro¬ phets, commencing with Moses. God had stamped their mission with the seal of his omnipotence: this was quite enough, and the Jews had never enter¬ tained the notion of asking from them any¬ thing further. And, in fact, we cannot but feel how absurd it would have been to Lord. Thus saith the Lord; Write this man barren.” Or else these words, which lie had already pronounced upon another occasion (Matthew vii. 5): “ Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” One thing alone ia certain, that we do not really know what he wrote. have asked Moses, after he had divided the waters of the Red Sea, to prove the divinity of his mission by two witnesses. Jesus Christ, after so many miracles, was at least in the same position. Yet, his enemies were not ashamed to meet him with this wretched quibble. “The Phar¬ isees therefore said to him : Thou givest testimony of thyself: thy testimony is not true. Jesus answered and said to them : Although I give testimony of myself, my testimony is true ; for I know whence I come and whither I go. But you know not whence I come, or whither I go.” (St. John viii. 13, 14.) He came from heaven, and thither he was to return ; this is what he, at least, insinuates by these words. But he shows them, at the same time, that his testimony can come from heaven alone; that we must not, therefore, pause to seek witnesses for it on earth, because those who dwell on earth see at most only what is within the compass of their sight, and that, as heavenly things are so far above their ( 1 ) So called because it leads to the life of glory, or rather because even in the present time it con¬ fers life and grace. Both interpretations are true, and it may be understood in both, neither of which excludes the other. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 661 senses, they are not in a position to attest their existence, and therefore incapable of bearing certain testimony. This is signified more expressly by the following words: “You” men “judge according to the flesh,” which can only judge of what falls under the carnal senses. “I,” said he, “judge not any man” (St. John viii. 15); which does not mean that he had no dis¬ cernment of men’s guilt, he who, by divine light, “knew” thoroughly “what was in man” (St. John ii. 25) ; but this discern¬ ment was all interior, and Jesus Christ did not display it, in exterior judgment, which he always had the right to pro¬ nounce, but which he has reserved for his second coming, in conformity with what he himself said, speaking of the first com¬ ber : “ God sent not his Son into the world to°judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him.” (St. John m. 17.) -And,” added he, “if I do judge, my judgment is true, because I am not alone ; but°I and the Father that sent me : and in your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that give testimony of myself; and the Father that sent me giveth testimony of me.’ (St. John viii. 16-18.) However, he who is the subject of t ie testimony cannot be one of the witnesses ; and according to the prescription of the law, these two witnesses merely constituted one. That is true in ordinary cases ; but this was visibly an exception ; for here the subject of the deposition commenced by proving beyond all doubt, that all he should depose of himself must be conform¬ able to truth. In this case, which was that of all God’s envoys, a man might render testimony of himself, and he ought to be believed, because he proves in advance that he will tell the truth. It is needless to repeat that no one had had this advan¬ tage in so sensible a manner, nor in so eminent a degree, as Jesus Christ. And, indeed, at this moment, the Jews, despite themselves, must have felt this truth, since, instead of objecting to him, as it was na¬ tural for them to do, that the party inter¬ ested cannot bear testimony in his own cause, and that he must seek for another witness, if he wished to produce two, “they,” as if not knowing well what to answer, “ therefore said to him : Where is thy Father ? ” Jesus had said quite enough to make his Father known to all upright and unprejudiced minds, and he did not choose to make him further known to those who only sought to make him speak in order to find in his words matter tor new calumnies. Thus, without farther ex¬ plaining himself he answered: “Neither me do you know, nor my Father. If you did know me, perhaps you would know my Father also.” 1 (St. John viii. 19.) “ These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple.” This was the most frequented part of it, where he ran the greatest risk in speaking, because it ( 1 ) If you acknowledge that I am the Messias and the Christ, perhaps you will come to know and believe that God is my Father, and that fro all eternity I am the Son of the Eternal. - pa son may absolutely believe the first and not believe the second, as, for example, the Ariaus and Socimans. With reference to the “perhaps,” see note 4, page 501. -*• - 1 662 HISTORY OF THE LIFE was the easiest place to arrest him. How- terms, the place whither he was to return, ever, “ no man laid hands on him, because and the reason why they could not follow his hour was not yet come.” him thither. “You,” he said to them, -His enemies did not withal abandon the “ you are from beneath, I am from above ; design. They were always seeking the you are of this world, I am not of this means of seizing his person. The knowl- world.” He neither was so by origin nor edge which he had that they were think- by affection, and the Jews were so in both ing of this scheme at the very moment he these ways; and as it is natural for every- was speaking to them, was apparently the thing to return to the place whence it reason why he repeated those words which hath its origin, and to which it naturally he had already said when they sent mes- tends, their term should therefore be the sengers to apprehend him : “ Again, centre of the earth, and his, the sublimity therefore, Jesus said to them: I go, and of the highest heaven. Now, between you shall seek me ; ” to which he adds this these two points there lies an immense ' threat, which he had not as yet made: chaos, forming an insurmountable barrier. “ And you shall die in your sin. Whither But, in order that they may not be igno- I go,” said he further, “ you cannot come.” rant of the cause of the fearful evil with These hardened men appeared only to which they are threatened, Jesus resumes, pay attention to these latter words, to and continues thus : “Therefore I said to which they gave a meaning that suited you that you shall die in your sins ; for if the sanguinary disposition in which they you believe not that I am he,” who I am then were. “The Jews, therefore, said: in reality, “you shall die in your sin. 1 Will he kill himself? because he said: They said, therefore, to him : Who art Whither I go you cannot come.” Jesus thou ? Jesus said to them : The beginning, • discarded this gloomy interpretation, by who also speak unto you.” 2 Although now declaring to them, although in mysterious I only reproach you with one sin, “ Many ( 1 ) When Jesus Christ says : “ You shall die in attend to what I say to you. A fair volume might your sin,” the particular sin he speaks of is that be made of the reasons upon which these different of infidelity. To die in this sin, is to die in all interpretations are grounded, and the difficulties others; because, as there can be neither justifica- which they present; and, after a thorough investi- tion nor remission without faith, so, whilst infidel- gation of the matter, the inquirer would still re- ity remains, the others remain. Hence Christ main undecided as to which construction to give might say either: “You shall die in your sins,” or the pi’eference. This has led me to give the very “ You shall die in your sin.” words, without struggling to dissipate the mysterious (*) This is the text translated literally. There darkness in which God has been pleased to shroud it. are various explanations. According to some, Yet, as nothing is useless in Scripture, it is natural Christ replies: I am the beginning of all things, to believe that God discovers therein, to the pious I, who also speak to you. According to others, he souls who meditate on the passage, meanings which said: I am what I told you from the beginning. he is pleased to hide from learned commentators. This explanation is more conformable to the Greek God, who wishes that men should be instructed by text. Others construe it thus: Above all things, 1 _ 4 * men, still reserves to himself the right of teaching, OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. GG3 things I have to speak and to judge of you. But he that sent me is true, and the things I have heard of him, these same I speak in the world.” You, therefore, ought to receive m} r words as if he himself spoke to you. “ And they understood not that he called God his Father.” Then, reverting to the question which they had just put to him, he gave them to understand that he did not wish to give them at that time a more distinct knowl¬ edge of what he was than he had already given in the preceding words, inasmuch as he reserved the giving of it for a future time. He therefore said to them : “ When you shall have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as the Father hath taught me these things I speak. He that sent me is with me, and he hath not left me alone, for I do always the things that please him.” 1 The exalta¬ tion of which he has just spoken expresses the kind of death which he was to under¬ go. It was followed, as he had foretold, by the conversion of a considerable part of the nation ; and the effect was so prompt, that he had scarcely expired, and was still hanging on the cross, when many of the spectators struck their through himself, those truths which men cannot teach them, and which, in certain respects, render the disciples more learned than their masters. This is the hidden manna which is known only to those who afe nourished by it, and the accomplish¬ ment of those words of the Psalmist: I have understood more than all my teachers. (Psalm civiil 99.) See note 6, page 506, with reference to the obscure texts. (») Unity of nature renders the Father in¬ breasts, and confessed that he was truly the Son of God. It was principally in this quality that they were to recognize him, and the cross forced them to do so by an incomprehensible miracle of God’s omnipotence, which drew from the shades of death the light which was to illumine the world, and the glory of his Son from the infamy of an ignominious death. It seems that the virtue of the cross operated by anticipation ; for when he spoke these things, many believed in him.” We may, perhaps, feel surprised at this, considering the almost impene¬ trable depth of his words. We can scarcely understand them when reading and studying them, we, who may be said to have the key in the distinct knowledge which we otherwise have of the principles of Christianity. How could they com¬ prehend them, who as yet had no idea of those truths which we have here such dif¬ ficulty in tracing? This has induced a belief, and a well-grounded one, that Jesus Christ, in order to place his instruc¬ tions within reach of his hearers, gave them much more amply than they are re¬ ported in the sacred text, and that what we have of them is only a summary. Thus we can conceive that what is obscure to separable from the Son; but God unites himself inseparably with those who always do what is pleasing to him; and, for this reason alone, he would have been inseparable from Jesus Christ. This is what our Saviour here teaches to all the just, who should, therefore, derive inexpressible consolation and a courage superior to every emer¬ gency from this consoling reflection: God is with me, and he will never desert me so long as I en- I deavor to do what is pleasing to him. 664 HISTORY OF THE LIFE us may have been clear to tliose who heard him : and we can thus account for the faith of those who believed. Although, even in the supposition that our Saviour’s words might not have been understood, there would still be reason to believe that he left no excuse for the infidelity of those who did not believe. His miracles, as we have already said, obliged men to believe him, even without understanding. But it was necessary to instruct and confirm the new proselytes. “Jesus said to those Jews who believed him: If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed.” For you are not estab¬ lished as such by a mere transient ac¬ quiescence : you must act on a clear and settled conviction. If to that end you are called upon to make many sacrifices, they shall not be without their reward. Intel¬ ligence shall follow faith ; and because you have commenced by believing, as a pre¬ mium for this humble and prompt docility, “ You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The children of the patriarchs took of- ( 1 ) The apostle Saint Peter assigns the reason. «By whom a man is overcome, of the same also he is the slave.” (2 Pet. ii. 19.) In these words, as in those of Christ, sin is, as it were, per¬ sonified and represented, first, as an enemy with whom we are at warfare; and then as a master, or rather as a tyrant after victory. We are its slave in many different ways: 1st. By the enslavement to sin itself. The will retains scarcely any force to resist sin, and the habit of committing it be¬ comes a kind of necessity. 2d. By subjection to the demon, the father of sin and the tyrant of all sinners, over whom he acquires rights which he begins to exercise in this life, and which shall fence at the terms “ make you free.” “ They answered him: We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to any man. How sayst thou, You shall be free ? ” They would have spoken with more truth, had they spoken with more modesty. These men, so proud of their liberty, had been slaves in Egypt and in Babylon, and they were then ac¬ tually in bondage to the Romans. But Jesus wished to teach them that there is a slavery more shameful still than that exterior and transient slavery which is not incompatible with the liberty of the children of God. It was, therefore, to inculcate more deeply this important truth, and to let it make more impression on their minds, that “Jesus answered them,” with a sort of adjuration : “ Amen, amen, I say unto you : that whosoever committetli sin 1 is the servant of sin. Now, the servant abideth not in the house for¬ ever, but the Son abideth forever. If, therefore, the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” 2 (St. John viii. 20-36.) render him eternally the master and the execu¬ tioner of their souls and bodies. 3d. We are enslaved by sin, and we are, in a certain sense, its eternal slave, by the absolute impossibility of bursting its chains, as all the strength of crea¬ tures is insufficient, and God alone can do it by the omnipotence of his grace. Oh, sinner; even though you he a freeman, were you,even the master of all mankind, you are withal naught but a vile slave, and the last of slaves, if you be the greatest of sinners. ( 2 ) Neither Abraham, nor Moses, nor the prophets had possessed power to free them. These great men themselves could only have been made OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 665 CHAPTER XXXVII. CONTINUATION OF THE DISCOURSE.-JEWS CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM, ACCORDING TO THE FLESH ; " CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL, BY IMITATION.-JESUS CHRIST BEFORE ABRAHAM.-THE JEWS SEEK TO STONE HIM. W HAT precedes was addressed, at j least in part, to those who had believed in our Saviour ; not so with the words which immediately follow. Al¬ though it does not appear that Christ interrupted his discourse, yet he here treats his hearers as murderers and chil¬ dren of the devil. We cannot conceive how such reproaches could apply to these new believers ; it can only be explained in one or other of these two ways. Either the faithful were mixed up with the crowd of unbelievers, where the eye of Jesus knew well to distinguish them, although there was no outward mark whereby men could know them. In this supposition, the beginning of this discourse might have been addressed to them, and the sequel to others. Or else these converts of a mo¬ ment, irritated at his seeming to treat them as slaves, had passed suddenly from faith in his doctrine to hatred towards his person, and to the design of attempting his life. This will not appear impossible free by the Son. Of slaves he had made them children, by associating them through grace in the divine filiation which he alone possesses by nature. By this title they and all the just who have been or who shall be, before or after the Incarnation, shall dwell eternally in the house; that is to say, in alliance with God, from which the incredulous Jews are already visibly excluded; and from which 84 to those who know the temper of the mob, and the strange revolutions that a single word, misunderstood, may biing about amongst them in an instant. How¬ ever, the former of these two explana¬ tions is the most natural and the most probable. Be that as it may, Jesus con¬ tinued to speak thus : “I know that you are the children of Abraham ; but you seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father ; and you do the things which you have seen with your fa¬ ther.” (St. John viii. 37, 38.) He gives them to understand that be¬ sides Abraham, who was their father ac¬ cording to the flesh, and who was also his, there was, on either side, another father, whose spirit they assumed, and whose works they copied. G-od, who is the Fa¬ ther of Jesus Christ by nature, was also his Father in the sense we have just men¬ tioned. It is easy to guess whose children these perverse men were by imitation and impenitent sinners are invisibly excluded at the moment of death; and both one and the other shall be visibly excluded, and in the most conspic¬ uous manner, at the day of judgment, that day when the last and universal discrimination between the children and the slaves shall be made in the presence of all creatures. 6015 HISTORY OF THE LIFE resemblance. But, as they were then thinking of Abraham only, “ they an¬ swered him, and said,” a second time: “ Abraham is our father. If you be the children of Abraham, saith Jesus to them, do,” therefore, “ the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who have spoken the truth to you, which I have heard of God. This Abraham did not. You do the works of your father.” Then they at last understood that the question was not of carnal filiation, but of that which is according to the spirit. As they were more disposed to glory in the latter than the former, therefore, “they said to him,” proudly : “ We are not born of fornication : we have one father, even God.” (St. John viii. 41.) The word fornication is so often employ¬ ed in Scripture to signify idolatry, that apparently they wished to repudiate the charge of being idolaters, since they ad¬ duce this as a proof that God alone is their father. But the belief in one God is not sufficient. The Jews of the present time, the impious men whom we name Deists, the very demons, acknowledge only one God, and yet, for all that, aie not his children. No one can ever be such except by adding love to knowledge, and to faith in one God, faith in Jesus Christ, his son and envoy. True faith, faith which justifies, and gives children to ( 1 ) When he persuaded the first man to eat the fruit, of which it had been said: “ What day so¬ ever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death. This blow was mortal to all mankind; and, by striking it, the demon slew all men without ex¬ ception. He is, therefore, pre-eminently a mur- God, rests entirely on this double founda¬ tion, as Jesus Christ says elsewheie, and as he proceeds to declare to them at this time. “Jesus, therefore, said to them: If God were your father, you would, in¬ deed, love me ; for from God I proceeded and came. For I came not of myself, but he sent me. Why,” therefore, “do you not know my speech ? Because you can¬ not hear my word.” Jesus Christ had given them, in fact, all the proofs which reasonable minds could require. All show of reason was taken away from their incredulity, leaving it naught but the furious and envenomed hatred which they bore him. It alone had closed the ears of these “ deaf asps,” so that they will not hear the sweet accents of his voice which charmeth wisely (Psalms Ivii. 5, 6); and truth was odious to them solely because they could not en¬ dure him who spoke it to them. Although it be not rare to find among men examples of similar malignity, it seems, nevertheless, to be more natural to the devils. This it was that our Saviour had endeavored to show them up to that time, but with the caution that we can notice ; but at last he speaks openly and says to them, without reserve : “You are of your father, the devil; and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, 1 and he stood not in the truth : because truth derer, and in this sense the only murderer, inasmuch as other murderers only accelerate the inevitable effect of the blow which he has struck. The latter, nevertheless, are justly styled his* chil¬ dren, because they imitate his wickedness, aud in the same class do all the evil in their power. But OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 667 is not in him. 1 When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father thereof. But if I say the truth, you believe me not.” 2 This opposition to truth is the second feature of resemblance which they have to him whom he has just called their fathei. Murder is the first, and he had alieadj reproached them with it, when he made known to them that he was not ignorant of their design to put him to death. But to complete the evidence of this tiuth, to * (*) this title was still more applicable to the Jews, be¬ cause, by seeking the life of Jesus Christ, they sought, as far as it lay in their power, and as Saint Peter reproached them for doing, to destroy the author of life, he who, by resuscitating all men, would fully repair the evil which Satan has done. It is true that this great good was to be the fruit of his death; but they knew it not; and their malice would not have been less fatal to mankind than that of Satan, if, whilst they deprived the Saviour of life, they could also have stripped him of his power. (*) lie is no longer inclined to state the truth, which was a consequence of the original rectitude in which he was created. “ He stood not in the truth; ” therefore he once had the truth. The Fathers availed themselves of this expression, to prove to the Manicheans that the devil is not es¬ sentially and of his very nature, bad, since he has not always been so: and if it be said: “When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own,” the mean- ing is, of his nature, depraved and vitiated by him- seff. He is the. father of lies, inasmuch as he is the first who lied, and who taught lying either to men or to the wicked angels. There is no truth in him; for he either speaks falsely, or, if he some¬ times happens to speak the truth, he always does so with intent to deceive, which comprises all the malice of lying. We except some rare cases, wherein the omnipotence of God forces him to tell useful truths ; but the rage which then seizes upon which they opposed a diabolical obstinacy, “which of you,” said he, “ shall convince me of sin ? ” It was in order to convince them that he defied them ; for it is evi¬ dent that they had accused him long be¬ fore he had thus defied them to prove the accusation. But they had accused him without proof, and although persuaded in the bottom of their hearts that they ac¬ cused him unjustly. Wherefore they had nothing to answer, and the silence to which this word reduced them left Jesus • _ _ him proves his determined opposition to the truth, and the implacable hatred which he bears it. ( 2 ) We read in the Greek: “ Because I say the truth, you believe me not.” The si of the Vulgate appears to. have the sense of “because.” This Raises a difficulty here. It would seem that to disbelieve any one because he says the truth, is tantamount to not believing him because we do believe him; because being once persuaded that he says the • truth, we must actually have believed him, which would make a manifest contradiction in the propo¬ sition of our Saviour. It is thus explained: Jesus Christ had spoken of them and of himself ; he had made them humiliating reproaches, and he had rendered glorious testimony to himself. They could not disown the truth of the former, for they had proof in their own conscience; but these re¬ proaches had produced upon them the effect which charitable correction usually produces upon distorted minds: it had rendered the admomsher odious, and all the more odious that the reproaches were well grounded. Thenceforward they would no longer believe what he said of himself, and the more advantageous to himself the truths which he advanced, the less were they inclined to believe him. Thus it is that they believed him not, be¬ cause he said the truth to them; that is to say, that they believed not the truths which were ad¬ vantageous to him, because they were irritated at what he had told them of themselves, truths which had humbled and confounded them. 6G8 HISTORY OP THE LIFE Christ that right which a spotless and irreproachable life gives to the just man, that of being believed upon his word. He resumes, therefore ; and, using the advantage which their tacit avowal^gave him, he said to them further: “If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me?” He himself answers his question, and his answer is well calculated to make those tremble who have neither attention nor docility for the divine word: “He,” saith he, “that is of God heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not” children “of God.” The word of God is, therefore, well re¬ ceived by those only who listen to it with that tender and respectful attention with which dutiful children always hear the words of therr father. How could they bear it whose father was the capital enemy of God? Hence they rejected it with aversion ; for they could not oppose it with any reason. He who announced it was the most irreproachable of all men, as they themselves had just admitted by their silence. His doctrine was all-pure and all-holy, and it was proved by mil- ( 1 ) Jesus Christ formally denies the charge of being a demoniac. As to the reproach of his being a Samaritan, we may say that he replies and does not reply to it. It was both the name of a people and the name of a sect. As the name of a sect, and a superstitious and reprobate sect, he seems to an¬ swer when he says: “I honor my Father,” which the Samaritans did not do. As the name of a people, he could not consider it a reproach, he who was shortly to unite all people under the same law, and make but one people of Jew, Samar¬ itan, and Gentile. Besides, generally speaking, lions of miracles, to which no rational mind could raise any objection. What, therefore, could they oppose to it but in¬ sult, the only resource of obstinacy driven to its last hold, and the most energetic avowal of the extremity to which reason has reduced it? “The Jews, therefore, answered him : Do not we say well, that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered: I have not a devil, 1 but I honor my Father ; and you have dis¬ honored me. And I seek not my own glory ; there is one that seeketh and judgeth.” After this grave and modest reply, the Lamb of God, so cruelly insulted, conde¬ scended, moreover, to announce to this furious people truths more agreeable than those which they had hitherto forced him to speak to them. One among the rest was to make them feel the infinite difference which there was between him and the arch-murderer, by whom they ac¬ cused him of being possessed. He de¬ clared it to them in these terms : “Amen, amen, I say to you, if any man keep my word, he shall not see death forever.” 2 When hearts are once perverted, they the ground of just reproaches is not the nation, but the morals; and “in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh justice is acceptable to him.” (Acts x. 35.) ( 3 ) He shall be preserved from eternal death. This is the common interpretation. Thus these words, “ He shall not' see death forever, signify . He shall receive, by the resurrection, a life which shall never again be followed by death. Others un¬ derstand it of the life of grace, a life eternal in its nature, as we have said elsewhere, and which can never be lost except through the fault of him who OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 669 turn everything into poison. This magnifi¬ cent promise only irritated them the more ; and, because they did not compre¬ hend its mysterious meaning, they treated it as absurd or blasphemous. “ Now we know,” say they, “ that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets : and thou sayst: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death forever. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead ? And the prophets are dead : whom dost thou make thyself?” He is about to announce himself what he really is, that is to say, the Eternal One. But he first recalls to their minds the proofs of his mission ; and, repeating what he had. said upon another occasion, that, if he bore testimony to himself, his testimony would not be legitimate, but that there was another who bore testimony unto him, “Jesus answered,” still m the same sense: “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say, that he is your God. And you have not known which confers the right to that immortal life which shall follow the resurrection, we have both explanations in one. ( 1 ) They had a speculative knowledge of Lot , but they did not know him, or, rather, disowned him in practice. For, not to execute his will is to disown his authority and his rights, and take part with those “who profess that they know God but in their vVorks they deny him.” (Titus 1 . 16.) There was, therefore, one sense in which they could not say with truth that they knew God; further¬ more, it is in this sense that Saint John hath said (1 Ep. ii. 4): “ He w ho saith that he knoweth him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” him, 1 but I know him : and if I shall say that I know him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know him, and do keep his word.” Then returning to Abraham, whom they regarded as the greatest of human beings, he declares in these words his own infinite superiority over that patriarch : Abia- ham, your father, rejoiced, that he might see my day ; he saw it, 2 and was glad. The Jews, therefore, said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 3 Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am.” They began to see in these few words the equality with God which Jesus Christ attributed to himself; and, as if he had blasphemed, “ they took up stones, therefore, to cast at him ; but Jesus hid himself, 4 and went out of the temple.” (St, John viii. 42-59.) Although his words then produced such strange effects, we ought not to be surprised that he should have uttered them. Thence¬ forth they were not useless to all, since (’) Either in life, by a prophetic light which enabled him to know, by anticipation, the mystery of the Incarnation; or in Limbo, by the revelation made at the moment when the Word became m- ; carnate. L ( 3 ) Jesus Christ, according to the common 3 opinion, had not yet completed his thirty-third 3 year. Those who prolong the farthest the years of his mortal life agree that he was not forty. ) We do not know for certain the reason which 1 made the Jews speak as if he had approached his fiftieth year. a (*■) He rendered himself invisible, or else he h mingled in the crowd in such a way as not to be [•, perceptible to these infuriated men. HISTORY OP THE LIFE 670 we have already seen that several believed in him ; but, moreover, Jesus knew that what he said would subsequently be written, and that these same expressions, which excited against him the fury of his fellow-citizens, should one day insure to him the adoration of all nations. But if it is never impossible for ob¬ stinate minds to elude the force of truth, and resist all arguments, there are yet proofs so certain and palpable, that we must either yield to them, or acknowledge that we will yield to nothing. Jesus Christ, before leaving Jerusalem, wished to give its inhabitants a proof of this kind. Here is the recital, or rather the picture, drawn in such natural and lively colors, that we have not sought to add anything extrinsic, convinced that anything which might be added, for the purpose of shed¬ ding light upon it, would only tarnish it with shades and spots. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE MAN BORN BLIND.—JESUS IS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. “ T ESUS passing by, saw a man who was blind from his birth ; and his disciples asked him: Rabbi, who hath ( 1 ) Temporal evils may be the punishment of the sins of parents. “I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus xx. 5.) It is not surprising, then, that the disciples should inquire ■whether the blindness which this man had from his mother’s womb, was not a punishment of the sins of his parents; but we do not know what could have been in their minds when they inquired whether his own sins were not the cause of his blindness. Did they believe in the pre-existence of souls, and could this Platonic notion have been conveyed to the Jews of Judea by those who were called Hellenists, that is to say, who lived among the Greeks ? Or did they think that God punished in advance the sins which he foresaw sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind ?* Jesus answered : Neither hath this man sinned, nor his would be committed at a subsequent period ? Or, finally, could their question have had the meaning which several commentators give it: This individ¬ ual, not having deserved his blindness by any per¬ sonal sin, inasmuch as no man sins before he is born, is it then caused by the sin of his parents ? We may choose for ourselves amongst these several conjectures which divide the learned. Two things are certain: one, that the disciples did not attribute this poor man’s state to original sin; could they think that all men should be born blind, or de¬ prived of some of their senses? The other cer¬ tainty is, that they were persuaded there was no affliction in this life which was not the punish¬ ment of some sin, in which they were mistaken, as we see by our Saviour’s answer. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 671 parents ; 1 but that the works of God should be made manifest in. him. 2 I must work the works of him that sent me whilst it is day : the night cometli when no man can work. As long as I am in ( 1 ) They had sinned, the blind man, his father, and his mother ; but none of their sins was the cause of this blindness. This is what our Saviour’s answer means; whence it manifestly follows that all the pains of this life are not caused by sin, and that there are afflictions which are not punish¬ ments. Such were those of the Mother of God, who was conceived without sin, and preserved fiom all actual sin, without exception, and who, never¬ theless, was transpierced with a sword of sorrow. And without citing so great an example, such are . the pains which baptized children suffer before they can have committed any sin. These pains are, indeed, the consequences of original sin; but they are no longer its chastisement: they do not punish it, and they punish nothing in them, be¬ cause there is no longer anything to punish in them; for there is no longer anything to punish, if there is nothing to expiate. Now, it is the belief of the Church, that in little children who die after baptism, there is nothing to retard their entry into heaven. Thus the Council of Trent expresses itself. It believes, then, that there is no longer anything in them to expiate. Whence it further ensues that, supposing there were no original sin, these pains might still exist, inasmuch as they exist m those to whom this sin is entirely remitted, both as to the fault and the penalty. - ( 3 ) Christ informs us that, independent of sm, the manifestation of the works of God is one of the causes of the evils of this life. The trial of the just is another: “Because thou wast accept¬ able to God,” said the angel to Tobias, “it was necessary that temptation” that is to say, by affliction, “should prove thee:” (Tob. xii. 13.) We cannot see to what end the sufferings of little children may tend. But to whom have all the divine secrets been revealed ? Who knows whether God doth not count them in their favor: and the world, I am the light of the world. When he had said these things, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and spread the clay upon his eyes, 4 and said to him : Go, wash in the whether, by a purely gratuitous mercy, he does not glorify those most in whom he finds, more than in others, the image of the sufferings of his beloved Son? This conjecture is not entirely without foundation. The Church seems to recognize in the children massacred for the sake of religion, a sanctity superior to that of other children; yet the will of the former has no more part in their mar¬ tyrdom, than the will of the second has in their sufferings. ( 3 ) Jesus Christ has never ceased to act. He speaks here only of those works which he was to perform during his visible sojourn here on earth. The following words: “The night cometh, when no man can work,” comprise a general maxim which is more for us than for him. What he adds, that “he'is the light of the world,” refers to the action that he is about to perform ; and this action which is the re-establishment of corporal sight, is the figure of the spiritual light which he is come to pour into souls. ( 4 ) This means being better calculated to de¬ prive of sight, than to restore it, Jesus Christ wished to show that all means are equal to him, and that none were necessary to him. Spittle is employed to make known the wondrous properties of his adorable body. By mixing it with the earth, he discovers to us the hand of the Creator, who, after having formed man from the slime of the earth, makes the same matter which had served for the composition of his work subservient to its reparation. He sends the blind man to the pool of Siloe, to test his faith and obedience. Both one and the other were admirably shewn; for he did not reason, as Naaman had done, when the prophet Eliseus sent him to bathe in the Jordan. He re¬ ceived the order and executed it forthwith, without a single word in opposition. 672 HISTORY OF THE LIFE pool of Siloe (which is interpreted Sent).” 1 The blind man “ went, therefore, and washed, and he came seeing. The neigh¬ bors, therefore, and they who had seen him before that he was a beggar, said : Is not this he that sat and begged ? Some said : This is he ; but others said : No, but he is like him. But he said : I am he. They said therefore to him : How were thy eyes opened ? He answered : That man that is called Jesus, made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me : Go to the pool of Siloe, and wash. And I went, I washed, and I see. And they said to him : Where is he ? He saith: I know not. They bring him that had been blind to the Pha¬ risees. Now it was the sabbath when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Again, therefore, the Pharisees asked him how he had received his sight, but he said to them : He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and I see. Some, therefore, of the Pharisees said: This man is not of God, who keepeth not the sabbath. But others said : How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles ? And there was a division amongst them. They say, there¬ fore, to the blind man again : What sayst thou of him that hath opened thy eyes ? And he said: He is a prophet. The Jews then did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had re¬ ceived his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight, and asked them, saying : Is this your son, ( 1 ) In the application of clay to the eyes, Saint Augustine recognizes the unction of the catechu¬ mens ; and in the bath, baptism and its miracu¬ lous effect. All here is mysterious, even the very who you say was born blind ? How then doth he now see ? His parents answered them, and said : We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind ; but how he now seetli, we know not ; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not. Ask himself: he is of age, let him speak for himself. These things his parents said, because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed amongst them¬ selves, that if any man should confess” Jesus “ to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue ; therefore did his parents say : He is of age, ask him.” The Jews, “therefore, called the man again that had been born blind, and said to him : Give glory to God, we know that this man is a sinner. He said, therefore, to them : If he be a sinner, I know not; one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. They said then to him : What did he to thee ? How did he open thy eyes? He answered them: I have told you already, and you have heard ; why would you hear it again ? Will you also become his disciples ? They reviled him, therefore, and said : Be thou his disciple ; but we are the disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses ; but as to this man, we know not from whence he is. The man answered and said to them : Why, herein is a won¬ derful thing, that you know not from whence he is, and he hath opened my eyes. Now we know that God doth not name of the fountain. It teaches us that the only true baptism, that baptism of which the others could have been only figurative, is the baptism of Jesus Christ; him who is permanently sent. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 673 hear sinners ; 1 but if a man be a server of God, and doth his will, him he heareth. From the beginning of the world, it hath not been heard, that any man hath opened the eyes of one born blind. Unless this man were of God, he could not do any¬ thing. They answered and said to him : Thou wast wholly born in sins, and dost thou teach us ? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him, he said to him: Dost thou believe in the Son of God ? He answered and said : Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him ? And (‘) God may hearken to sinners, even when they ask miracles. “ Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name? And then will I profess unto them: I never knew you; depart from me, you that work iniquity.” (Matt. vii. 22.) The proposition of the blind man was not, therefore, utterly without its exception. Yet it had a general truth sufficient to make it pass for a proverb. And, if we confine it to miracles, we may say that, when the blind man spoke, it was true to its full extent, inasmuch as we do not find a single miracle in the Old Testament which had ever been wrought by an individual that was not recognized to be a just and holy man. Those which God has since wrought, by the ministry of vicious men, besides being very rare, proved satisfactorily the sanctity of the doctrine which they preached, and not that of the preachers themselves. Generally speaking, when miracles are wrought in confirmation of the faith, they constitute a strong presumption of the holiness of him who operates them, but they are not an infallible proof. (*) We also call judgments of God certain ways of his providence, the secret of which has not been revealed to us. It is of these judgments that we usually say that we must adore without seeking to fathom them. Saint Paul spoke of them, when he 85 Jesus said to him : Thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said : I believe, Lord: and, falling down he adored him.” The faith of this man, compared with the incredulity of the others, gave occa¬ sion to the Saviour to announce two prod¬ igies, the former of which was to be the fruit of his mission, and the latter a con¬ sequence. “ For judgment,” 8 said he, “ I am come into this world ; that they who see not, may see ; and they who see, may become blind.” 3 These words alluded to the miracle which he had just wrought. said that “How incomprehensible are his judg¬ ments, and how unsearchable his ways.” (Rom. xi. 33.) ( 8 ) This is not to say that their blindness was one . of the objects of the coming of Jesus Christ, but, as has been already stated, it was the result. This is the entire signification of the particle “ that, which, according to the usage of holy writ, often means nothing more than that one thing is the oc¬ casion of another, or merely preceded it. If the imperfect light of the law was a means of arriving at the knowledge of the Gospel, we may also say that, in one sense, it was an obstacle thereto. Men fancy that they see all, when they really see but the - half; and because what they have is good, they reject as destructive thereof what is better, and what makes perfect. This is what occurred to the Pharisees; and enlightened as they were, blinded them. On the contrary, the absurdities of paganism were no slight aid to the conversion of the Gentiles; im¬ mersed in such palpable errors, they did not believe they possessed the truth, or saw the daylight in the midst of such profound darkness. Hence, when the light of the Gospel appeared, these benighted pagans, being thoroughly convinced of their blind¬ ness, opened their eyes, and were enlightened. The Mahometan must always experience more difficulty in his conversion than the idolatei, and the Jew than the Mahometan, because the Maho- HISTORY OF THE LIFE 67 1 But the vision and the blindness which the} r expressed must be understood in a spiritual sense. In point of fact, they were taken in this sense: for “some of the Pharisees who were with him heard, and they said unto him : Are we also blind? Jesus said to them: If you were blind, you should not have sin; but now you say: We see. Your sin remaineth ” (St. John i-x. 1-41.), without excuse. This sin is the sin of incredulity, excus¬ able in those who have none of the knowl¬ edge necessary in order to believe, but inexcusable when a person has sufficient light to reach the clear day of faith, suppos¬ ing he wished to avail himself of it. Such were the Pharisees, who had in the Scrip¬ tures that which should have led them to the knowledge of the true Messias, if they had sought it with an upright heart. And to declare as they did, that they had that knowledge, was equivalent to a confession that they did not sin through ignorance, and that if they saw not, it was because they did not wish to see. A ll agree that what follows was pro¬ nounced by Jesus Christ immediately after the preceding ; yet we do not see dis¬ tinctly the connection between the one and the other. Among the various ways of explaining it, this appears the most satis¬ factory. Our Saviour had just received the man born blind, whom the Pharisees metan acknowledges one God, and tlie Jew also acknowledges a revelation. Incredulity seems to be the natural fruit of light mingled with shadows, and imperfect knowledge; had expelled from the synagogue. The latter had no doubt but that, by this species of excommunication, they had cut him off from the society of the children of G-od. It was just the contrary : admitted by Jesus Christ, he had entered it, be¬ cause Jesus Christ is the only gate. The Pharisees, who refused to enter by this one gate of the sheepfold of the Lord, could, therefore, no longer form a part of the flock: this is easy to conclude. Much less could they be the shepherds, al¬ though they arrogated to themselves that title and its functions. This is the point on which our Saviour insists ; and it was of extreme importance at the moment when he spoke. Many of the Jews, at¬ tracted by the lustre of his miracles, and checked, at the same time, by the authoi- ity of their ancient masters, knew not to whom they should give the preference, and it was necessary to tell them. He said, then, in that affirmative tone which he took when he wished to secure greater attention : “ Amen, amen, I say to you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but clirabeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door, is the shep¬ herd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. And he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out ; and when he hath led out his own sheep, he goeth before and perhaps the reason why the times we live in are so fertile in incredulity, is because this, more than all former ages, is the century of would-be scientific men. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 675 them, and the sheep follow him, because ie, as the Father knoweth me, and I they know his voice. But a strauger they I know the Father ; and I lay down my follow not, but fly from him, because they life for my sheep. And other sheep 1 know not the voice of strangers. have that are not of this fold : them also “This proverb Jesus spoke to them; I must bring, and they shall hear my but they understood not what he spoke to voice, and there shall be one fold, and them.” Not that his words lacked clear- one shepherd.” ness, but that the application was not Did any one ever behold a more tender equally clear, especially to those who charity, or a more generous love ? But, were to put a false construction on them. instead of the admiration and the grati- “ Jesus, therefore, said to them again : tude which are due to them, who knows Amen, amen, I say to yon, I am the door but that these mercenary souls beheld of the sheep. All others, as many as only simplicity and folly in that heroic have come, are thieves and robbers, and disinterestedness which goes to the length the sheep heard them not. I am the of sacrificing life for others ? It might door. By me, if any man enter in, ho happen, too, that his death, which was to shall be saved. And he shall go in, and be a violent one, might not appear to be go out, and shall find pastures. The thief voluntary, and that the wor d might no cometli not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly.” These last words lead naturally to an¬ other figure, under which our Saviour is also going to represent himself. This one, more tender than the first, is perhaps the most affecting image that he himself could have given us of his charity towards men. He continues, therefore, thus : “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giv- eth his life for his sheep. But the hire¬ ling and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and flietli. And the wolf catcheth, and seat- tereth the sheep. And the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling, and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good shep¬ herd : and I know mine, and mine know be thoroughly persuaded that he had given for his sheep a life which had been taken from him by force. To prevent these errors, he declares two things : one, that in dying, he shall accomplish the wishes of his Father, ever dictated by infinite wisdom; the other, that he is master of his own life, to lay it down or not lay it down at his pleasure, and to resume it after having given it up : which proves the perfect liberty of his sacrifice, and shows forth, in the most favorable light the immense bounty of the Father, who delivers up his only bon ; and that of the Son, who delivers himself for un¬ fortunate creatures, from whom he had nothing to expect, and to whom he owed nothing but chastisement. He concludes, therefore, by these words: “Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. 676 HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. No man taketh it away from me ; but I lay it down of myself. And I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This commandment have I received of my Father. “A dissension arose again among the Jews for these words. And many of them said: He hath a devil, and is mad: why hear ye him ? Others said : These are not the words of one who hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? (St. I John x. 1-21.) END OF PART 1. PART II. peom the sending out oe the seventy-two disciples until the ascension OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. CHAPTER XXXIX. YOKE IS SWEET AND HIS BURDEN LIGHT.-LOYE OF GOD AND OF OUR NEIGH ■ GOOD SAMARITAN.—MARTHA AND MARY. I T is commonly believed that Jesus then departed from Jerusalem to re¬ turn into Galilee. Either before his de¬ parture, or after his arrival, for we find nothing to decide the point, nor whether the new mission which he set on foot at that time was for Judea or for Galilee, however the matter may be, it is written that “ after these things the Lord appointed also other seventy-two, and he sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he was to come ; x and he said to them,” as he said to the * (*) ( 1 ) He was soon to follow them in person. At present, also, he follows them, hut by his grace. For, in the ordinary conduct of God, preaching, as Saint Gregory says, goes in advance, and the Lord comes to dwell in our souls after the sacred wor has prepared the way. Thus all preachers may be called the precursors of Jesus Christ. (*) This discourse of our Saviour is merely the repetition of the first part of that which he made to the apostles, (see page 590, and the following, apostles when he sent them to exercise the same ministry : “The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he send laborers into -the harvest. Go,” he further added, “behold, I send you as lambs among the wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes, and salute no man by the way. 2 Into whatso¬ ever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house ; and if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him ; but if not, it shall return to yon. And in to which we refer for explanations). However, there is some slight difference. These words, for instance: “Salute no man by the way,” are found only in this passage. They merely interdict those civilities which might cause considerable delay; but not a passing salute, without stopping. It is as if we were to say : If you meet any of your acquaintance, do not tarry to pay long compliments to him. 678 HISTORY OF THE LIFE the same house remain, eating and drink¬ ing such things as they have : for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Remove not from house to house ; and into what city soever you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. 1 And heal the sick that are therein, and say to them : The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you not, going forth into the streets thereof, say : Even the very dust of your city 3 that cleaveth to us, we wipe off against you. Yet know this,” you must yet say when quitting them, “that the kingdom of God is at hand. I say to you, it shall be more tolerable at that day for Sodom than for that city.” (St. Luke x. 1-12.) “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein were done the most of his mira¬ cles, for that they had not done penance. Wo to thee, Corozain ! Wo to thee, Betli- saida! for if in Tyre and Sidon 3 had been wrought the miracles that have been ( 1 ) One of our wits, whom religion will never reckon amongst its panegyrists, has asserted, how¬ ever, that Christianity is full of good sense. He says well, if he does not imagine he has made a discovery. To apply the assertion to the passage before us, nothing could be more rational than this order given to the disciples: “Eat what is set be¬ fore you.” If the repast be good, partake of it with thanksgiving: if it be not good, with resigna¬ tion. It would be a bad example for an apostle to appear too fastidious about his food: hut, supposing he restricts himself within the limits of sobriety, he would display too great scrupulosity, in declin¬ ing as too delicate the viands which are served up to him. The apostleship is like war-time, when a soldier sometimes fares well, and sometimes badly. We must know how, like Saint Paul, to avail our¬ selves of abundance when it is offered to us, and to endure want. One day repairs the other, and enables us to retain the strength which is necessary in order to endure the painful toils of the ministry. Another reason is, that were we to abstain from touching the viands laid before us, we would grieve the charitable hosts, who deem it a religious duty to treat in their best style those who preach for them with so much exertion and hardships. I question whether this reason alone would not have sufficed to prevent Jesus from fasting at the table of Martha and Mary. ( 8 ) Elsewhere, Part I., page 591, note 2, this dust is shaken off the feet in testimony against the inhabitants. Here the act is a sign of detesta¬ tion. By shaking off the dust the disciples declare that they wish to carry off nothing from their ac¬ cursed city, lest the malediction which it has drawn upon itself should remain in the very dust which they might carry off with them, and pur¬ sue them even beyond its boundaries. ( 8 ) Why did not Jesus Christ confer upon those who would have profited by them those abundant graces which he lavished upon those who abused them? This is one of those judgments of God, the depth of which we must adore without endeav¬ oring to fathom. This much, however, we are bound to believe: 1st. That the inhabitants of Tyre and of Sidon were not predestined, since God had not conferred upon fhem the graces which would have certainly saved them. 2d. Although they had not received those graces, the effect of which is certain, yet they shall be justly con¬ demned, inasmuch as they have received the suc¬ cors which were necessary and sufficient, in order to enable them to abstain from those crimes which shall justly be the cause of their condemnation. 3d. Those who have received superabundant grace shall be judged with more rigor than those who have received merely sufficient grace; the hell of the Christian will, therefore, be more rigorous .than that of the idolater; and, generally speaking, the difference shall depend less upon the crimes com¬ mitted, than upon the graces which have been de¬ spised or rejected; since, with greater crimes, such OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. G79 wrought in you, they had long ago done penance in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.” (St. Matt. xi. 20-23.) And thou, Capharnaum, shalt thou be exalted up to heaven ? Thou shalt go down even unto hell. For if in Sodom had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in thee, perhaps it had remained unto this day.” (St. Matt. xi. 23 ; St. Luke x. 15.) The reason for this difference of treatment is found in the following words which the Saviour addressed to his disciples : “ He,” saith he to them, “ that heareth you heareth me ; and he that de- spiseth you despiseth me ; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me, words which teach us that to despise God in the person of his ambassadors is the great¬ est of all crimes, since it is that which of all shall be the most rigorously punished. “And the seventy-two returned with joy,” at the success of their mission, “ say¬ ing : Lord, the devils also are subject to us°in thy name. And Jesus said to them : I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven.” Commentators do not agree as to the meaning of this mysterious expres¬ sion. Can it mean that when the disciples cast out the demons by virtue of the name of Jesus, our Saviour saw the chief of the infernal legions falling from the upper region of the air, whence he exercised his tyranny over the human race ? or maj he not have alluded at that moment to the first fall of Lucifer, when, in punishment of his revolt, that proud spirit was hurled from the height of heaven to the bottom of the abyss ? If the first of these two meanings appears the most natural, the second is not unlikely; for. although the disciples acknowledged that they had done nothing, except in the name of their Mas¬ ter, to whom they referred all the glory of their success, they might, nevertheless, feel a secret complacency. Whilst acknowl¬ edging that we are merely the instruments of God, we may still pride ourselves on being preferred to the rest of human beings to serve as instruments for great things. Thus, in order to repress the rising pride of his disciples, or merely to anticipate its growth, the example of Satan could not be more seasonably introduced. What follows harmonizes with this ex¬ planation. “Behold,” continues our Sa¬ viour, “I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions,, and upon all the power of the enemy: 1 -and nothing shall hurt you. But yet rejoice not in this, that spirits are subject unto you ; but rejoice 2 in this, that your names are written in heaven.” 3 as were those of Sodom, and with lesser graces, man shall be less severely punished than with lesser crimes and greater graces. ^ (i) The serpents and scorpions are called “ the power of the enemy,” inasmuch as everything which is noxious in nature is instrumental to the demon for the purpose of injuring men. (*) Rejoice in the solid rather than in the showy, in the durable rather than the fleeting, in what renders us agreeable to God rather than in that which makes us appear great in the eyes of men. The lowest degree of virtue is more valuable than the power of raising the dead. (* j Names may be written in heaven, either by 680 HISTORY OF THE LIFE The best of all masters could not be in¬ sensible to the progress which his beloved disciples were making in the knowledge of the things of heaven. “ In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Grhost, and said : I confess to thee, 0 Father, Lord of hea¬ ven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. * 1 Yea, Father,” thou hast done so, “for so it hath seemed good in thy sight.” 2 Jesus spoke thus in order that his dis¬ ciples, who received this revelation imme- predestination or by actual justice. Written in the first manner, they remain there forever, because the absolute decrees of God are immutable. Written in the second way, the names may be effaced, because man may lose the justice which gave him a right to the kingdom of heaven. Now, in which of these two methods did Jesus Christ say to the disciples that their names are written in heaven ? We know not; and our Saviour not having explained him¬ self further, we should be rash to pronounce affirmatively for either construction. The most probable is, that he only informs them that their names are written in heaven by the title of justice. Had he declared to them that they were predes¬ tined, this favor, one of the greatest which Cod can confer in this world, would have been con¬ ferred upon the disciples, and refused to the apos¬ tles, which is not to be presumed. It is quite true that the latter were confirmed in grace, and that their predestination was certain; but they them¬ selves had no certainty as to the fact, and they al¬ ways believed that they might sin and be lost. We have a proof of this in Saint Paul. We can have no reason for doubting that he also must have received this precious assurance, if such had been given to the other apostles. And yet he said: “ But I chastise my body, and bring it into sub¬ jection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.” (1 Cor. ix. 27 .) Could a man assured of his predes- diately from him, might not be ignorant that it came from his Father, who was for this reason the final term of their grati¬ tude. But this truth ought not to conceal another, that the Son, as well as the Fa¬ ther, has this revelation at his disposal, and that in communicating it always in accordance with the views and desires of the Father, he, nevertheless, communicates it with equal independence, since he imparts it to those only whom he pleases to en¬ lighten. Such great things are comprised in these short words : “All things are de¬ tonation have nsed such language ? He that shall overcome, said Jesus Christ in the Apocalypse, iii. 5, I will not blot out bis name out of the book of life. Does not this mode of expression seem to say that names written in the book of life may still be effaced, and confirm the explanation which we have stated to be the most probable. (*) Saint Chrysostom judiciously remarks, that Jesus Christ does not praise his Father because those things are hidden from the wise, but because they are revealed to the simple. It is as if he said : I bless thee, my Father, because thou hast revealed to the simple these mysteries of which thou hast left the wise in ignorance. To hide has no more extensive signification here. In this sense they have been hidden from the wise, who have not chosen to see them, and revealed to the simple, who have wished them only because God has given them the will. It is justice in regard to the former, pure mercy in regard to the latter class. “ To the right¬ eous a light is risen up in darkness.” Those who are not righteous have not descried the light. It has appeared for both that the Lord is merciful, and compassionate, and just. (Psalm cxi.) ( 2 ) God owes it to himself to love all his works “Thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made. (Wisdom xi. 25.) But • he owes to no one predilections and special graces, of which we should seek no other cause than his good pleasure. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 681 livered unto me by my Father ; and no “come to me, all you that labor, and are one knoweth who the Son is, but the burdened, and I will refresh you. Take Father ; and who the Father is, but the up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, Son ; and to whom the Son will reveal because I am meek, and humble of heart, 1 him.” and you shall find rest to your souls ; for “ Then turning to his disciples, he said,” my yoke is sweet, and my burden is light.” as he had before said to the apostles when (St. Matthew xi. 28-30.) he explained to them the mysteries of the About that time (it appears likely that kingdom of God: “Blessed are the eyes this fact took place in a synagogue) : “A that see the things which you see ! for I certain lawyer stood up tempting” Jesus, say to you, that many prophets and kings and “saying: Master, what must I do to have desired to see the things that you possess eternal life ? Jesus said to him : see, and have not seen them : and to hear What is written in the law ? How readest the things that you hear, and have not thou ? He, answering, said : Thou shalt heard them.” (St. Luke x. 16-24.) love the Lord thy God with th} r whole Then addressing the people who heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thronged in crowds to listen to him, all thy strength, and with all thy mind, 2 “ Come,” said this charitable Saviour, and thy neighbor as thyself.” 3 Jesus “said ■ ( 1 ) And you shall find that I am not a hard alone can thus acquit himself towards himself. and haughty master, as those of earth usually are, Yet the creature, whilst incapable of infinite love, but that I am a master full of meekness and should at least love God without any other limits affability. Such is the literal meaning of these than those which God hath given to his capacity words. But it is, moreover, so evident that Jesus for loving; this is the meaning of that expression Christ teaches us, by his example, to be meek and of Saint Bernard, which comprises a very exact humble of heart, and experience has so well taught proposition: “The measure of loving God is to that only in the practice of these virtues is peace love him without measure.” of soul found, that it is no wonder that this text is To think that we love God as much as he de- usually employed to express both these truths. serves to be loved, is not to know God; and to think ( 8 ) To love God with all one’s heart, with all that we love him as much as we can love him, is one’s soul, with all one’s strength, and with one’s not'to know ourselves. whole mind, is tantamount to giving to God all ( 8 ) And not as much as ourselves; for we have one’s affection, sensibilities, thoughts, and works; a right to the preference, and, in certain circum- it is, in a word, perfectly loving God. This per- stances, are bound to give it to ourselves. For feetion is not attainable in this life, wherein the instance, we are bound to prefer our own salvation gold of charity is never without alloy, and it is to the salvation of any other persou, and even to only in heaven that the precept has its full ac- the salvation of the whole world. But we are complishment. However, as .perfection forms obliged to sacrifice our own life, if necessary, for the part of it, it is an obligation in this life to tend in- eternal salvation of a single man. Those who in- cessantly thereunto, and to labor to increase our quire whether we must sacrifice our own perfection love, until it engrosses all our mind, fills all our for the salvation of our neighbor, forget that to heart, and exhausts all our strength. We should labor for the salvation of one’s neighbor is a more infinitely love a being infinitely amiable. God 80 perfect work than all those we might do instead of 682 HISTORY OF THE LIFE to him : Thou hast answered right: this do, and thon shalt live.” By giving himself the answer to his own question, the lawyer showed clearly enough that he had not put the question with the design of obtaining information. When we wish to learn a thing, we seek not to be informed of what we already know. He had, therefore, some other in¬ tention, which could not have been a good one: the bystanders had at least a right to suspect him of some evil purpose. Whereupon, “ willing to justify himself,” he put another question still more difficult to be resolved, especially at that time, when the duties of charity were not so clearly known as they have been since the promulgation of the Gospel. “He said,” therefore, “ to Jesus : And who is my neighbor ? Jesus answering, said : A cer¬ it. With regard to corporal goods, if we have the right to prefer ourselves to others, we are not bound to do so. On the contrary, it is a highly perfect charity to prefer others to ourselves; and the right of preferring ourselves to others arises only when the same wants fall on both parties. Thus, I am entitled by right not to yield up to anoth¬ er what is absolutely necessary for my own life; but I am obliged to sacrifice my superfluity for the wants of another, my comforts for his necessities, and, to convey this in the language of Scripture, I can keep for myself the morsel of bread necessary for my sustenance, and the only tunic I have to cover myself; but if I have a whole loaf, I should divide it with him who is hungry: and if I have two tunics, I should give one to him who has none. ( 1 ) That is to say, who treated him as a neigh¬ bor ; for this was the point in question. The word neighbor is a relative term: If I be your neighbor, you are mine. We may, therefore, say, I am your neighbor, in order to signify, I regard you as my neighbor. It must have been so understood by the tain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who stripped him, and having wounded him, went away, leaving him half dead. And it chanced that a certain priest went down the same way, and seeing him, passed by: in like manner also a Levite, when he was near the place and saw him, passed by ; but a certain Samaritan, being on his journej", came near him, and seeing him, was moved with compassion. And going up to him, he bound his wounds, pouring in oil and wine ; and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two pence, and gave to the host, and said: Take care of him, and whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I at my return will repay thee. Which of these three, in thy opinion, was neighbor * 1 to him that fell Jews, because the doctor of the law, a man belong¬ ing to a quibbling profession, does not criticise the terms. This account teaches us three things: 1st, that the quality of neighbor extends to all men without exception, since, despite national an¬ tipathy and opposition in religion, the Samaritan is neighbor to the Jew, and the Jew to the Samar¬ itan : 2d, that there is no real charity in regard to our neighbor, except what is proved by actions: 3d, that simple folk, when their dispositions are good, know their duties better than the learned, since it is a Samaritan who here gives a lesson to Jews, and a layman to priests and doctors. These truths, which we cannot doubt our Sa¬ viour wished to teach the doctor by the example of the Samaritan, are perhaps what show most conclusively, that this is a real statement, and not simply a parable. A parable may serve to de¬ velop a truth, and render it more sensible; but it is only a real fact, and not a supposition, that can be given as an example. You cannot prove to a Christian that he can learn from a Mahometan >• t-v * ♦ . : .. ' V ' ' « • * ' ■ * > • . • ' 1 _ ' - * *• ■ ■ . * ■ , • ■ ■ .• • • - ' : . . * * ?•» ■ ■■ • V. S' thp r;r~>nr'> ^amarita OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 683 --;--- 0 - among the robbers ? But he said: He that showed mercy to him. And Jesus said to him: Gro, and do thou in like manner.” Jesus then made some evangelical mis¬ sions. “Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a town, and a certain woman, named Martha, received him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who, sitting also at the Lord’s feet, heard his word.” At the same time that she nourished her piety, we may say that she fulfilled a dut}" of civility. It was becoming that whilst they were waiting for the repast, some inmate of the house should entertain so distinguished a guest. “ But Martha was busy about much serv- charity towards one’s neighbor, by pretending that the Mahometan had exercised it in a circumstance wherein a great number of Christians failed to exercise it. But if this Mahometan has really exercised it, his example is proof, and no further reply can be made. ( 1 ) Many commentators understand this of a single dish, whence they conclude*that our Saviour here reproved Martha’s superfluous care in prepar¬ ing several. This sense, besides conveying a moral, appears to flow naturally enough from the text. However, as it is stated that Jesus Christ travelled with his disciples, and we cannot believe but that the two sisters invited them with their Master, a single dish, supposing even that it was sufficient in quantity, could not be becomingly set before so numerous a company; and this natural con¬ struction is already met by this first difficulty. Another more embarrassing one is, that it appears, by the sequel of the discourse, that our Saviour here opposes occupation to occupation, Mary’s to Martha’s. “ Mary,” says he, “ hath chosen the best part,” which is equivalent to saying that that of Martha is less good. What, then, else can the “one thing necessary ” signify, but the affair of salvation, ing ; who stood and said : Lord, hast thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve ? Speak to her, therefore, that she help me. And the Lord answered, and said to her; Martha, Martha, thou art careful and art troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. 1 Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.” 2 (St. Luke x. 25-42.) By this short answer he apologized for those who give to the re¬ pose of contemplation all the time which is not taken from their duties ; and he vin¬ dicated them beforehand from the impious railleries made by libertines, and the in¬ decent annoyance to which they are sub¬ jected by a restless or contradictory spirit. in which Mary was directly occupied, whilst Mar¬ tha, whose occupation was not incompatible with it, labored only indirectly towards it ? for the direct object of her labor was bodily refreshment, which cannot be the only thing necessary, but which may tend to it, and which actually did, under the circumstances in which Martha stood. The part which she had chosen was, therefore, good; but that of Mary, who was solely occupied with Jesus Christ and his words, was better. Contemplation is better than action, which is not obligatory; but if the action were obligatory, contemplation substituted in its stead would be but an illusion. The union of both constitutes the perfection of this life, in which prayer is necessary, and labor indispensable. ( 2 ) Action, which presupposes wants and mise¬ ries, will pass away with this life, which is full of them. Contemplation will remain, or rather, be more perfect, when, instead of that feeble ray of the eternal splendor which it catches but a glimpse of here below, it shall see that light in its source, and the divine essence in itself. 684 HISTOKY OF THE LIFE CHAPTER XL. THE LORD’S PRAYER, ACCORDING TO SAINT LTJKE.—PERSEVERANCE IN PRAYER.—GOD GIVES WHAT IS NECESSARY.—THE PURE EYE.—THE PHARISEES CONDEMNED. A A s* ve follo ™g ^ ac ^ s * n This was a natural opportunity to im- V V the order in which they are placed press more deeply on his disciples the by one of the evangelists. It is impossible utility and efficacy of prayer. Wherefore to assign them precise dates as to time and “ Jesus said to them,” making use of place. Had we this knowledge, our curi- figures and sensible comparisons, accord- osity might be better gratified ; but should ing to his usual custom : “ Which of you we be more edified, or receive more sa- shall have a friend, and shall go to him at lutary instruction? We shall find some midnight, and shall say to him : Friend, discourses of our Saviour that seem to be lend me three loaves, because a friend of t only a repetition of others which we have mine is come off his journey to me, and I already read. So they are in fact, not be- have not what to set before him ; and he cause one evangelist repeats what another from within should answer and say: evangelist had already stated (what is thus Trouble me not, the door is now shut, repeated is only once given in this work), and my children are with me in bed ; I but because our Saviour himself pronounced cannot rise and give thee. Yet if he shall them more than once, and under different continue knocking, I say to you : Although circumstances. Moreover, as it seldom lie will not rise and give him because he happens that they are exactly alike, it will is a friend, yet because of his importunity not be considered irksome to read over he will rise, and give him as many as he again what Jesus Christ has not deemed needeth. And I say unto you : Ask, and it useless to repeat. it shall be given to you. Seek, and you “ It came to pass that as he was in a shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened certain place praying, when he ceased, one to you. For every one that asketh, re- of his disciples said to him : Lord, teach ceiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; and us to pray, as John also taught his dis- to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.” ciples. He said to them : When you pray, (St. Luke xi. 5-10.) say : Father, hallowed be thy name, thy Thus, provided that perseverance be kingdom come : give us this day our daily joined to fervor, it is certain, we should bread : forgive us our sins, for we also even say it is of faith, that the prayer forgive every one that is indebted to us : will be heard, even when it does not ap- and lead us not into temptation.” (St. pear to be so. For, and this it is which Luke xi. 1-4.) renders this faith doubtful and vacillating, OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 685 it frequently happens that prayer has the upon a candlestick, that they that come qualities we have just spoken of, and yet in may see the light. 1 The light of thy we do not see it followed by any effect. body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, The doubt arises, and confidence grows thy whole body will be lightsome ; but if weak. It is because we do not consider it be evil, thy body also will be darksome. that we often ask for that as salutary Take heed, therefore, that the light which which, in fact, would be injurious to us. is in thee be not darkness. If, then, thy We are ignorant of the real nature of whole body be lightsome, having no part what we ask, and this is the reason why of darkness, the whole shall be lightsome, we ask it. God knows it, and, because he and as a bright lamp shall enlighten thee. knows it, he refuses it to us. Shall we “ And as Jesus was speaking, a certain call this rigor or unfaithfulness on his Pharisee prayed him that he would dine part ? But his goodness does not stop with him. And he going in, sat down to here. In place of the apparent good and eat. And the Pharisee began to say, real evil which we ask for, he gives us thinking within himself, why he was not , that which is really salutary, what we washed before dinner. And the Lord ” should have asked for by name, and in who saw his thoughts, “said to him ” and preference to everything else, if we knew to the others of his sect, several of whom its properties as he does, or if we had had been invited to this repast: “Now, foreseen its consequences. Thus it is that you Pharisees make clean the outside of he really grants while appearing to refuse, the cup and of the platter ; but your in- and such is the sense concealed under side is full of rapine and iniquity.” these words which our Saviour adds : Here man is compared to a vase, of “ Which of you, if he ask his father for which the body is the outside of this ves- bread, will he give him a stone ? or a fish, sel, and the soul is the inside. Now, the will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or Pharisees, who were very exact in wash- if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a ing the body, but gave themselves little scorpion ? If you, then, being evil, know trouble in purifying the soul, were like • how to give good gifts to } T our children, unto him who should take pains to clean how much more will your Father from the outside of a vase, whilst he left the heaven give the good Spirit to them that inside full of filth. A servant who did so ask him.” (St. Luke xi. 11-13.) would be deemed a fool ; wherefore our The following maxims had been already Saviour does not spare them, and profiting uttered in the presence of the apostles, by this occasion, tells (hem to their faces but it is highly probable that the greater what they but too well deserved to hear. part of the disciples had not heard them. “Ye fools,” said he to them, “did not he Jesus, then, repeats them, and says : “No that made that which is without, make also man lighteth a candle, and putteth it in - - ---.- a hidden place, nor under a bushel : but ( 1 ) See ante, page 544. HISTORY OF THE LIFE 686 that which is within ? But yet,” added he, for he wished merely to humble them, and not to drive them to despair, “ that which re¬ main eth give alms ; and behold all things are clean unto you.” 1 (St. Luke xi. 33-41.) To neglect alms-giving, which is of pre¬ cept, in order to attach themselves super- stitiously to usages which God never pre¬ scribed, and which were founded merely on human traditions, was one of the illu¬ sions of the Pharisees. Another was, to think themselves just, because they scru¬ pulously observed the smallest precepts, ( 1 ) That is to say, your conscience shall be puri¬ fied : thenceforth all shall be pure before God, who knows no other purity or impurity than that of the conscience. Alms do not purify it directly and of itself; this purification can be the effect of pen¬ ance only; but penance is conferred upon alms¬ giving, which we thus find to be the first cause of the sinner’s justification. It is in this sense that we should understand the texts of Scripture which promise to alms-giving the remission of sins. These promises are so formal that we venture to give assurance that, of those who give abundant alms, very few are reprobates, if there are any. We may doubt it. ( 2 ) Here is one of those oracles which contain more meanings than whole volumes can contain. • By regulating the order of duties, he insures the observation of all. To fail in the principal duties, whilst we scrupulously, observe the minor ones, if not the effect of a detestable hypocrisy, is at least the grossest of illusions. The contrary illusion, which induces us to spurn trifling duties, and value only those which appear important; this illusion, I say, though less glaring, is only the more dan¬ gerous; and inasmuch as it is more common, it proves, too, still more pernicious. We may fail in slight duties, and we often do fail, from surprise, from inattention, or from weakness. But to fail be¬ cause we imagine that God does not require them, is to contradict his word; to believe that he does whilst they failed in .the fundamental duties of religion and morality; this is what Jesus Christ anathematizes in these words : “Wo to you, Pharisees, because you tithe mint and rue, and every herb, and pass over judgment and the charity of God. Now, these things you ought to have done, and not to leave the other un¬ done.” 2 Then he strikes at their pride, and unmasks their hypocrisy : “Wo to you, Pharisees,” said he again, “ because you love the uppermost seats in the syna¬ gogues, and salutations in the market-place. 3 require them, and yet treat them insignificant, is equivalentto regardinghimself insignificant. To say that we degrade ourselves by accomplishing them, is elevating ourselves as high as God, or lowering him to our own level; it is at least ranking him below everything which we respect in the world ; for do we blush to render the. most trivial services to the great ones of the earth ? To insult those who do fulfill them is outraging the saints, and in their person Him whom they serve with that perfect fidelity which is made the cause of our unjust contempt. To esteem ourselves more than them, because we do not stop, as it is said, at these trifles, is endeavoring to extract glory from the baseness of our own motives. For, to obey God only on important occasions, and when, robed in thunder, he threatens disobedience with eternal chastisements, is acting merely from the motive of servile fear. But to obey'him when we might dis¬ obey him without crime, to do his will when he seems to entreat rather than to command, is to act from love; for what other motive can sustain obedience, when there is neither heaven to lose nor hell to dread ? Yet this is precisely what is termed littleness of mind, while men with low and grovelling virtues (if even this be not too much to say) class themselves as enlightened and strong- minded. ( s ) Could we believe, if we did not hear it from the mouth of him who is truth itself, that OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, 687 Wo to you ! because you are as sepulchres that appear not, 1 and men that walk over are not aware.” Besides the Pharisees, there were several doctors of the law at this entertainment. Jesus had not addressed them ; but their morals were so like those of the Pharisees, that they thought they recognized them¬ selves in the picture which our Saviour had drawn of the latter. “ One of” these “lawyers answering, saith to him: Mas¬ ter, in saying these things, thou reproach- est us also.” It would have been better for him to say that he did .them justice. But he was not mistaken in applying to himself and those of his profession what he had just heard. Here is what Jesus added to it, addressing his speech directly to him. “ He said ” to him, therefore : “Wo to you, lawyers, also, because you load men with burdens which they cannot bear, and you yourselves touch not the packs with one of your fingers. 2 Wo to you who build the monuments of the prophets ; and your fathers killed them. Truly you bear witness that you consent to the doings of your fathers ; for they indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchres.” In fact, to render these honors was a recognition that those whom their fathers put to death were truly prophets ; and then to put to death those who had the same character of prophets, was furnishing against themselves, bj r these honors, an unanswerable proof that they were mur¬ derers of prophets ; for what could they reply to this: Those whom you have mas¬ sacred were as just as those to whom you have built sepulchres ? If they had not yet done so, they were going forthwith to do so, as Jesus Christ had foretold : for it is of himself, that is to say, of the Eternal Wisdom, that he speaks when he adds this prediction, which he repeated again at the approach of his passion: “For this cause also, the wisdom of Gfod said: I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets 3 which was shed from the immoderate desire for distinctions and pre¬ eminence is sufficient to deserve this dreadful male¬ diction. ( 1 ) Covered sepulchres, concealed vices ; whit¬ ened sepulchres, vices embellished with the colors of virtue. ( ’ ) It is asserted, and with reason, that the saints are severe upon themselves, and indulgent in re¬ gard to others. Those who are indulgent to them¬ selves and to others, are generally kind-hearted, yielding, if you like, and too easy. He who is at the same time severe towards himself and towards others, may indeed be of a harsh disposition ; but inasmuch as he does not spare himself more than he spares others, he shows that he acts from con¬ viction, and that he has an upright heart. But those who are indulgent towards themselves and severe towards others are necessarily false and wicked persons. They cannot believe that the severity they exercise towards others is an obliga¬ tion, since they do not exercise it towards them¬ selves, nor that their indulgence of themselves is permissible, since they do not extend it to others. Wherefore, and therein consists their wickedness, their indulgence springs from corruption and their severity from cruelty. And they are both false and hypocritical, inasmuch as they endeavor to per¬ suade the world that they practise towards them¬ selves the severity which they display towards others. ( 3 ) The murder of all the prophets was a nation¬ al crime, for which God might justly impose all the temporal penalty upon the generation that crowned 688 HISTORY OF THE LIFE the foundation of the world may be re¬ quired of this generation, from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, who was slain between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.” He had still another reproach to make these false doctors, and, in their person, those who, commissioned to show the peo¬ ple the right road, abuse their confidence in order to lead them astray. He con¬ cludes, therefore, thus: “Wo to you, lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge ; 1 you yourselves have not entered in, and those that were enter¬ ing in you have hindered. “ As he was saying these things to them, the Pharisees and the lawyers began ve¬ hemently to urge him, and to oppress his mouth about many things, lying in wait for him, and seeking to catch something from his mouth, that they might accuse him.” 2 (St. Luke xi. 42-54.) It is true that he did not spare them, and we ma} r be surprised that the meekest of men, he who always appeared most indulgent with regard to sinners, should have inveighed against them with so much force, and have treated them with so little indulgence. There were several reasons for this con¬ duct ; the principal of which is, that these sinners believed themselves just. For, in¬ asmuch as they deemed themselyes just, they had nothing but contempt and harsh¬ ness for sinners; and on that account alone they deserved to be treated as they treated others. But, moreover, because they deemed themselves just, they ought not to have been treated in any other manner ; and this was the only tone capa¬ ble of correcting them. Nothing remains to be said to him who acknowledges him¬ self a sinner, and who knows the enormity of his sin ; or, if he is spoken to, it is only to present to him the mercy which invites him and opens its arms to him. But to the sinner who believes himself just, above all, if he make his justice to the enormity by the murder of the greatest num¬ ber of prophets, and moreover by that of the Lord of prophets. We do not so clearly see how the murder of Abel could be imputed to the Jews, Cain never having been considered as of that peo¬ ple. It is said that they showed themselves to be his children by imitation, in the same sense that they are called by our Saviour the children of the devil. Whatever weight there may be in this rea¬ son, it is certain that, as they imitated him in his crime, they also resembled him in their punish¬ ment. Their banishment over all the earth, and the character of reprobation which they carry en¬ graven on their foreheads, are such visible features of resemblance, that we cannot doubt but that God, by the chastisement of the fratricide, purposed to exhibit the chastisement which he had in store for the deicides. ( 1 ) The interpretation of the Scriptures, which Scriptures they were commissioned to explain to the people. They were unwilling to recognize in these the Messias, and hindered the people from recognizing him. Wo to the people who were se¬ duced! but wo a thousand times to the authors of the seduction! Guilty of the ruin of a whole na¬ tion, they shall bear the penalty of a whole nation. (’) It is not stated whether they then found what they sought. On other occasions they found it either by malicious lying, interpreting our Sa¬ viour’s words, or by making him say what he never uttered. He who wishes to find something crimi¬ nal can always find it. OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 689 consist in iniquity itself, it is necessary, no matter at what price, to make known to him the falsity of his justice, and his grievous sin. We must tear away the bondage wherewith he blindfolds himself. We must sift his perverse heart, pluck out of it the vices which his hypocrisy secretes there, paint them in their natural colors, and set before his very eyes this hideous portrait, so different from that which he had formed of himself. The enterprise is hazardous. We know what it cost our Saviour and many of his in¬ trepid ministers who have been in this respect imitators of his zeal. But it is necessary; and, cost what it may, we must courageously unmask these hypo¬ crites, or otherwise despair of their con¬ version. Their mischievous doctrine was also what authorized our Saviour to lower their re¬ putation in the minds of the people. The wolf should be exposed when he appears in the skin of the sheep or in the shep¬ herd’s dress. To fail in this duty from a mistaken scruple, would rather be cruelty with regard to the public than charity to the individual. It was on this account 87 that “ when great multitudes stood about him, so that they trod one upon the other, he began to say to his disciples : Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hidden that shall not be known : for whatsoever things you have spoken in darkness shall be pub¬ lished in the light, and that which you have spoken in the ear in the chambers shall be preached on the house-tops.” (St. Luke xii. 1-3.) Thus the “ hope of the hypocrite shall perish.” He seeks to dazzle the eyes, and to gain the esteem of men by an outward show of seeming virtue; and a day shall come when his works of iniquity, drawn from the darkness wherein he vainly hoped to bury them, shall deliver him over to the contempt and the execration of all crea¬ tures ; for in this sense must these words be understood. Elsewhere they signify the glowing publicity soon to be given to that doctrine which our Saviour then proposed to his disciples in secret. What follows is the repetition of those instructions which he wished his disciples to keep in more constant remembrance. I . • I ! i r 1 690 HISTORY OF THE LIFE * % CHAPTER XLI. INSTRUCTION TO THE DISCIPLES.—GOD ALONE TO BE FEARED.—JESUS REFUSES TO BE THE ARBITER BETWEEN TWO BROTHERS.—THE RICH MISER CONDEMNED.—WE ARE NOT TO BE ANXIOUS FOR THE MORROW.—GOOD AND BAD SERVANTS. I SAY to you, my friends, be not afraid of them who kill 1 the body, 2 and, after that, have no more that they can do : but I will show you whom you shall fear. Fear ye him who, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him. Are not five spar¬ rows sold for two farthings ? and not one of them is forgotten before God. Yea, the very hairs of your head are numbered. Fear not, therefore ; you are of more value than many sparrows. And I say to you : Whosoever shall confess me be¬ fore men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God. 3 But he that shall deny me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God. Whoso¬ ever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but to him who shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. 4 And ( 1 ) Not to fear those who have no power ex¬ cept over the body, is on our Saviour’s part the advice of a friend. If authority be associated with this power, fear not the power, but fear, that is to say, recognize and respect always, authority, although you should not yield to it when you cannot do so without crime. We mean by authority the right of com¬ manding, and by power the greater strength. See as to the same text, note 2, page 593, of Parti. when they shall bring you into the syna¬ gogues, and to magistrates and powers, be not solicitous how or what you shall an¬ swer : for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you must say.” 5 Whilst Jesus was speaking in this man¬ ner, “one of the multitude,” who thought that no one would dare to resist the au¬ thority of so great a prophet, “ said to him : Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.” The King of kings and the Lord of lords, to whom all power had been given in heaven and on earth, and whom the Father has established sovereign judge of the living and the dead, had other work to do than deciding such questions as these. Such was not the object of his mission, and he wished to teach his ministers not to allow themselves to be too much distracted by affairs of this sort, with which they should ( а ) We must not fear to lose the life of the body, if we are not to fear those who take away that life. We necessarily fear those who do the evil when we fear the harm which they can do. For the same reason, we must say: Fear hell; for if this fear were not to exist, Jesus Christ must have here said without any reason: Fear him who can cast into hell. ( 3 ) Part I., p. 593. ( 4 ) See note 1, p. 574. ( б ) See Chapter xxiii. OF OUR LORD interfere only when charity obliges them. Wherefore “he said to him : Man, who hath appointed me judge or divider over you?” This man’s right, to judge of it by the way in which he advanced his claim, was legitimate ; but what prompted his claim was an excessive attachment to the goods of the earth. Our Saviour, to whom his disposition could not be unknown, prof¬ its by this occasion to instruct him upon these two points, most suitable to make him feel how worthy of contempt riches are : one is their utter uselessness as to life, which they do not render either longer or happier ; the other is the uncer¬ tainty of their possession, of which death can deprive us at any moment. This moral applies to all men, and the disciples themselves still required that it should be preached to them also. “ Jesus,” therefore addressing his speech to the whole throng assembled there, “ said to them : Take heed, and beware of all covetousness ; for * (*) ( 1 ) The steward, whose bad conduct reduced him to indigence, likewise said: “What shall I do ? ” Excessive opulence and extreme misery ex¬ press their embarrassment in the same terms. ( 8 ) Because he has too much grain, he has not sufficient barns. Abundance produces a sort of indigence. If he had had less wealth, he would have had fewer wants. ( 8 ) To throw down his barns and construct new ones—what embarrassment and trouble! We only toil in order to become rich : do we not enrich our¬ selves only to toil further ? (*) This language, so usual amongst men, con¬ tains nothing which would surprise us if it were that of an ox, who is only in the world in order to graze and ruminate. (‘) Death deceived him, as still it doth deceive so many other rich men, whom it carries off at the JESUS CHRIST. 691 a man’s life does not consist in the abun¬ dance of things which he possesses. And he spoke a similitude to them, saying : The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits, and he thought within himself, saying: What shall I do? 1 because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. 8 And he said : This will I do : I will pull down my barns, 3 and will build greater: and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods ; and I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thy rest, eat, drink, make good cheer. 4 But Grod said to him : Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee : 6 and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided ? 6 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, 7 and is not rich towards G-od.” We may say, perhaps, that he might have to live for a long time ; and, in this supposition, that what is treated as folly, moment when they hope for enjoyment. But if death had not deceived him, he would have de¬ ceived himself. Instead of tranquilly enjoying his abundance, he would have made fresh accumu¬ lations, and constructed still more spacious barns. Accumulated treasures have never cured any one of the lust of gain. ( 6 ) Very often they are laid up for a prodigal, who is reckoned a fool, whilst the rich man above- mentioned is regarded as a wise man. Yet, the folly of the spendthrift might be termed wisdom, compared to that of the amasser of riches. ( T ) Because he amassed for himself, he finds out that he has not amassed for himself: others, not himself, enjoy his treasures. He would have enjoyed them if he had cast them into the bosom of the poor. To keep all, is to lose all; to give all, is to save all. % 692 HISTORY OF THE LIFE on account of the unexpected event of his during* those glorious days of the early death, might be regarded as a wise fore- Church, when the faithful brought to their sight. No, even that cannot excuse him, feet the price of their inheritance, reserv- because, in his foresight, there was an ex- ing no other fund to themselves than that cess which rendered it as foolish as it was of Providence. criminal. To take precautions to a certain It was this sublime morality which the extent for a futurity which may or may Saviour taught the world : ‘when he said not occur is well enough. But, for the to his disciples : Therefore I say to you, few years of life which remain to us, to be not solicitous for your life, 1 what you amass as if we were to live for centuries, shall eat; nor for your body, what you to accumulate harvest on harvest, as if shall put on. The life is more than the the earth, condemned to eternal sterility, meat, and the body is more than the rai- were never to produce any more ; but, at ment.” Believe, then, that God, who has the same time that the mind dwells upon given life to the body, will give what is a long life, to forget the possibility of necessary for the preservation of both one death being near ; to dream, if we may and the other. “ Consider the ravens : for venture so to speak, that we shall never they sow not; neither do they reap; die, because we have made provision for neither have they store-house nor barn ; not dying speedily of hunger, this is the and God feedeth them. How much are point of view in which this man was a fool, you more valuable than they? And which in common with many other rich misers of you, by taking thought, can add to his who resemble him. There is, then, a meas- stature one cubit? If, then, ye be not ure of foresight, which is not unreason- able to do so much as the least thing, why able, because it is moderate, and which is are you solicitous for the rest ? Consider not criminal when we join to it a much the lilies how they grow : they labor not; greater confidence in Divine Providence neither do they spin ; but I say to you, than in all our own precautions. But a not even Solomon in all his glory was much more excellent disposition is, to re- clothed like one of these. Now, if God nounce the precautions for the future, and clothe in this manner the grass that is to- to repose solely upon the Creator and pre- day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into server of all things. The apostles were the oven, how much more you, 0 ye of called to this perfection, and they were to little faith ? And seek not you what }^ou form to it a small number of chosen souls, shall eat nor what you shall drink ; be not who have imitated them in this point in lifted up on high ; for all these things do every succeeding age, but, above all, the nations of the world 2 seek, and your (‘) See Chapter xvii., Part I. clusively with the present. Or, if we understand ( a ) According to others, the people of the it of the Gentiles, we may say that this excessive ' world, those who are called worldlings, because by disquietude about the wants of life is a species of forgetting the future, they occupy themselves ex- paganism: if it is not an utter ignoring of God j -—--- 1 OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 693 Father knoweth that you have need of these things. But seek ye first the king¬ dom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” It is, then, this eternal kingdom which was henceforward to be the sole object of their search. What can they renounce which can compare with it? And will God, who gives them so, great a gift, re¬ fuse to them a morsel of bread ? Such is the indemnity for their sacrifices, and the pledge of their confidence, which our Sa¬ viour proposes in these tender words : “Fear not, little flock ; for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. Sell what you possess, and give alms. 1 Make to yourselves bags which grow not old ; a treasure in heaven which faileth not: where no thief approaeheth nor moth cor- it is at least a failing to understand his provi¬ dence. ( 1 ) This is a counsel of perfection. Some be¬ lieve it to have been a precept enjoined upon the apostles. ( 2 j The object of this parable is to show that the day of the Lord, that is to say, the day of death, and of the judgment which follows it, being always uncertain, the only M'ay to avoid being taken by surprise, is to be always prepared for it. Summing up the general sense, the fathers and commentators explain the different parts variously. According to most, the loins girt sig¬ nify continence. By the lamps in the hands are understood good works and the light of good ex¬ ample. Watching for the master is the desire to see Jesus Christ. The saints sigh for his coming: at least the just do not fear it. This is equivalent to that saying of Saint Paul: “ We should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” (Titus ii. 12, 13.). ruptetb. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The vast hoards of the rich miser had prompted the lessons which Jesus Christ had just given to his disciples. His sud¬ den and unforeseen death constitutes the subject of the following moral: “ Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands, and you yourselves like to men who wait for their Lord, when he shall re¬ turn from the wedding, that when he com- eth and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. 2 Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching! Amen, I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and, passing, will minister unto them. 3 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, 4 and ( 3 ) Earthly masters do not. Christ does not do so with this parade of servitude which is here set down merely to give accuracy to the parable ; but he does so really, not only by serving personally, but, if we may venture to use the expression, by serving out himself, that is to say, by giving him¬ self entirely to his elect, in order to satiate all the desires of their heart in the possession of him. ( 4 ) As to the division of the night into watches, see note 1 page 600. Here the four watches re¬ present the four ages of life. Jesus Christ speaks expressly only of the second and third, which cor¬ respond with youth and manhood, the two ages when we think least of death, and least distrust its approach. He says nothing of infancy, which is incapable of preparation, and where innocence supplies its place; nor of old age, which cannot be ignorant that death draws near, unless age has utterly lapsed into childishness; in that case it is like second infancy, at least as to preparation, and would to God it resembled it in its innocence. When a man is attacked by a dangerous illness, we warn him to set his conscience in order. We 694 HISTORY OF THE LIFE find them so, blessed are those servants. But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Be you, then, also ready ; for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come.” Then “ Peter said to him: Lord, dost thou speak this parable to us, or likewise to all ? ” The parable was applicable to all, but the inquiry from Peter caused it to apply to him personally, and at the same time to the pastors of the Church, under the figure of the steward who is charged with the entire house. “And the Lord said to him: Who, thinkest thou, is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to give them their measure of wheat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom when his lord shall come he shall find so doing! Verily, I say to you, he will set him over all that he possesseth. But if that serv¬ ant shall say in his heart: My lord is long a-coming, and shall begin to strike the men-servants and maid-servants, and to do not warn him when, without sickness, reason begins to fail. The faculty is soon utterly lost, and where an individual survives for years, the lot of the soul is none the less decided; it shall be eter¬ nally what it was at the moment when reason failed. Of all surprises, there is none against which it is more difficult to warn him who does not warn eat, and to drink, and be drunk, the lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopeth not, and at the hour that he knoweth not, and shall separate him, and ” although he be only guilty of mis¬ conduct, “ shall appoint him his portion with ” the servants who are “ unbelievers.” This treatment is as just as it is severe. The chief servant, he who has the ear of his master, knows his wishes better than the others, who are informed of them only through him: and the abuse of a higher confidence renders the delinquent deserv¬ ing of higher chastisement. The allusion to the pastors is constant and very distinct, and we may recognize it in these words by which the Saviour concludes this dis¬ course : “ That servant who knew the will of his lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. 1 And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required ; and to whom they have committed much, of him they will de¬ mand the more.” (St. Luke xii. 4-48.) himself; for we may readily say to a sick man that he is very ill; but we cannot venture to tell a man in health that he is losing his reason. ( 1 ) The punishment shall be proportioned to the degree of light and of knowledge. For, to have known or not known, merely signifies here, as else¬ where, to have had more or less knowledge. cezve, * ■ ■ • i • : - THE TEMPTATION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 695 CHAPTER XLII. NECESSITY OF PENANCE.—THE BARREN FIG-TREE.—THE INFIRM WOMAN CURED ON THE SAB- BATH-DAY.—SMALL NUMBER OF THE ELECT.- -NO PROPHET TO PERISH OUT OF JERUSALEM. ' | \AKINCf example from one of the the father; the mother against the A evangelists, we shall place here the daughter, and the daughter against the following truths, which have no connection mother ; the mother-in-law against her with the preceding. It is not easy to con- daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law nect even these together, and it is very against her mother-in-law.” (St. Luke xii. probable that they are detached maxims 49-53.) which the sacred historians relate without “ There were present at that very time marking either time or circumstance ; we some that told him of the Galileans, whose present them just as our Saviour uttered blood Pilate had mingled with their sacri- them with his adorable mouth. fices. And he answering, said to them : “I am come to cast fire on the earth, 1 Think you that these G-alileans were sin- and what will I but that it be kindled ? ners above all the men of Galilee, because And I have a baptism, wherewith I am to they suffered such things ? No, I say to be baptized ; 2 and how am I straitened you ; but unless you shall do penance, you until it be accomplished? Think ye that shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen I am come to give peace on earth ? I tell upon whom the tower fell in Siloe, and you no, but separation. 3 For there shall slew them : think you that they also were be from henceforth five in one house debtors above all the men that dwelt in divided ; three against two, and two Jerusalem? No, I say to you; but ex- against three shall they be divided : the cept^you do penance, you shall all likewise father against the son, and the son against perish.” ( 1 ) Some maintain that this fire is that of dm- upon earth, and earnestly wished to be en- sion. We see in what sense they thus understood kindled. it, and this sense is not a wrong one. The major- (’) By this baptism all understand the Passion. ity prefer to explain it with reference to the fire of Jesus Christ is straitened, not by fear, as some ex- charity, which the Holy Ghost infuses into all plain it, but by the desire of seeing it accomplished. hearts. We ought to hold to this interpretation, It was to precede the descent of the Holy Ghost, not only because it is the most common, but also which is the divine fire that our Saviour desired so because it is that of the Church, which says, in the earnestly to see kindled upon earth. This made Mass of Saturday in Whitsun-week : We beseech, him desire that bapfism with so much ardor. We 0 Lord, that the Holy Ghost may inflame us can thus connect this text Avith the preceding. with that fire which our Lord Jesus Christ sent (*) See note 3, page 593, chapter xxiii. HISTORY OF THE LIFE 696 We see that the Jews had not laid aside the old prejudice which obtained among them, that the misfortunes of life were al¬ ways the punishment of crime, and that the most unfortunate were the most guilty. Those just spoken of were indeed guilty ; but they were not more so than those who deemed themselves better because a simi¬ lar disaster had not fallen upon them. The justice of G-od had exercised its rights over the first class ; his patience still waited for the second. But this pa¬ tience had a limited period, after which justice was to burst on them as it had already on the other offenders, and in¬ volve them in similar ruin. Of this our Saviour forewarned them ; yet it should not be understood as if all to whom he addressed his words were to perish by the sword or be crushed under ruins. These guilty meu, thus surprised by death before they had done penance, while losing tem¬ poral life, had incurred eternal death, and the same stroke which had separated their soul from their body had hurled them for¬ ever into hell. Behold the awful chastise¬ ment which Jesus Christ denounces against all who imitate them in their impenitence, and in which too they shall resemble them. But a more comprehensive meaning was ( 1 ) This vinedresser gives the idea of an ex¬ cellent laborer in the vineyard of the Lord. Three years of sterility have not exhausted his patience. The tree is not his, but his master’s: yet he seems to take more interest in its preservation than the master to whom it belongs. He prays as if he asked a favor for himself. «He promises to re¬ double his care, as if he were in fault, and that the sterility of this unhappy tree could be im¬ concealed under these words, “you shall all likewise perish.” Whilst Jesus Christ appeared to address them, only to those who were present, he addressed them to the entire nation, foretelling its approach¬ ing ruin, and the tragical death of those millions of men and women who should perish not only by the sword and by the falling of houses, but also by the assem¬ blage of all united scourges, fire, pesti¬ lence, and famine. Wo, inevitably impending over them! if they did not struggle to avert it by a prompt and sin¬ cere penance, as our Saviour warns them in the following words ; for, pursuing his discourse, “he spoke also this parable : ‘ ‘ A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and he found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard : 1 Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and I find none. Cut it down, therefore ; why cumbereth it” use¬ lessly “the ground? But he, answering, said to him: Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it and dung it: and if happily it bear fruit, but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.” (St. Luke xiii. 1-9.) We easily see that Judea is this fig-tree ; puted to negligent cultivation; in which he ex¬ hibits as much humility as zeal. He obtains the delay he asks. The master who grants it desired it more than he ; he was waiting for it to be solici¬ ted, and he complains only when there is no one to place a barrier between him and the earth, or take the part of the guilty against his justice. (Ezech. xxii. 30.) OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 697 the three years are those of our Saviour s preaching, which should have made it produce fruit in abundance. This tree, still barren, despite such excellent cultiva¬ tion, thenceforth justly deserved to be cut down and cast into the fire. It is allowed one year more, the time of the preaching of the apostles. After the expiration of that time the measure shall be full, the trunk shall be cut down, it shall be rooted up ; and its branches, scattered over the face of the earth, shall announce to all men its crime and its misfortunes. Such, then, is the literal sense of this parable, which is also applied to the hardened sinner for whom G-od waits patiently during a number of days which are reckoned. Sometimes, softened by the prayers of his servants, he prolongs this term ; but if a man does not profit more from this last delay than he did by the others, then outraged patience is turned into wrath; justice has no check, and the blow which it deals is all the more tenible from having been long suspended. Thus the conduct of God towards an entiie people is the figure of that which he evinces towards a single man, as his treat¬ ment of a single man is sometimes the figure of that which he displays in the case of an entire people. Although with variations, yet it is substantially the same ; ( 1 ) This spirit was Satan, as our Saviour says afterwards. We see by this that there are infirm¬ ities which have no natural cause, and of which the devil alone is the author. We have a further proof of this in Job, whose example proves at the same time, 1st, That the demon can bewitch bodies, without the intervention of sorcerers being 88 and hence it is very reasonable aud proper for those who are commissioned to ex¬ pound the divine Scriptures to the people, to apply to individuals several matters which, in the direct and literal meaning, regard the Jewish or some other nation. In the meantime, Jesus continued to effect by his preaching and by his miracles the salvation of bodies and of souls. ‘ He was teaching in their synagogue on the Sabbath, and behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years.” 1 We know not whether she went there to pray for her cure, or simply to attend the public instruction. However that might be, “whom when Jesus saw” sensible image of anticipating grace! “he called her unto him, and said to her: Woman, thou art delivered from thy in¬ firmity. And he laid his hands upon hex, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. The ruler of the syna¬ gogue, being angry that Jesus had healed on the sabbath, answering, said to the multitude : Six days there are wherein you ought to work. In them, therefore, come, and be healed: and not on the sabbath-day.” This apparent zeal was the veil where¬ with he covered his low jealousy ; and the sort of consideration with which he appeared to treat our Saviour, to whom necessary, as those seem to believe who assert that the illness of the woman who was bowed together was the effect of sorcery: 2d, That the demon who has this power can exercise it only when God per¬ mits him to do so, upon whom God permits, and as long as God permits him to do so. Wherefore God alone is to be dreaded. HISTORY OF THE LIFE 698 he did not venture to address his speech, sprang less from any respect which he entertained for him, than from fear of being confounded by some one of his an¬ swers. He did not escape it, however, either himself or those of the audience who thought like him. Jesus answered them all in the person of him who had ad¬ dressed to others the personal reproach which he levelled against him. And the Lord answering him, said: “Ye hypo¬ crites, 1 doth not every one of you on the sabbath-day loose his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead them to water ? And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo ! these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath- day ? And when he said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the things that were gloriously done by him.” (St. Luke xiii. 10-17.) At that time “Jesus went through the cities aud towns teaching, and making his journey to Jerusalem. A certain man (*) The envious never says he is envious; he fears nothing so much as that it should appear so. However, there must be some apparent motive foi what envy makes him say and do: religion, equity, nay, even charity, supply the motives; this con¬ stitutes his hypocrisy. A man can be a hypocrite without being envious; but he cannot be envious without being a hypocrite. ( a ) Into the kingdom of God, consummated, which is heaven. But they cannot do so, because they did not wish to enter into the kingdom of God, commenced, which is the Church. The dif¬ ference between the two is that between the vesti¬ bule and the interior of the palace. (*) This blot shall not be effaced by the advan¬ tage of having lived with Christ, of having drank said to him: Lord, are they few that are saved ? ” This question may have origi¬ nated in curiosity. Jesus, who never sought to gratify it, takes occasion there¬ from, according to his custom, to edify and instruct. He accordingly turns from the individual who had just questioned him, and, addressing his words to the whole audience, “ he said to them: Strive to enter by the narrow gate ; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. 2 But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut to the door, you shall begin to stand with¬ out, and knock at the door, saying : Lord, open to us ; and he answering shall say to you : I know you not whence you are. Then you shall begin to say: We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. And he shall say to you: I know you not whence you are : depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 3 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all and eaten with him; it shall not be effaced by kindred, and if it could have been found in his mother, would not be effaced by her maternity. In the eyes of God the works of justice or iniquity alone decide whether favor or disgrace be due. Without regard to persons, or to anything which the world values or despises, he crowns virtue alone, and reproves only vice. I recognize God by this feature; and one of the most divine charac¬ teristics of the Christian religion is, that intrepid tone with which it ventures to say to the masters of the world: If you do the works of iniquity, you shall be eternally tormented in the depth of the abyss, whilst the lowest of your slaves, if he die in justice, shall reign above the stars. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 699 the prophets of the kingdom of G-od, and you yourselves thrust out. There shall come from the east and the west, and the north and the south ; and shall sit down in the kingdom of Gfod. And behold, they are last that shall be first, and they are first that shall be last.” 1 (St. Luke xiii. 22-30.) This answer was addressed personally to the Jews. It teaches them that the number of those who will be saved shall be very great, since it shall comprise in¬ dividuals from all parts of the earth ; but the number amongst their own nation shall be very small, because what is here termed the narrow gate is in their case the Gospel law, which few of them were to embrace. What should render this gate still nar¬ rower was the small number even of those who were to enter. Hence it followed that those who would not enter should constitute the majority. The last exceed- in° r the former in numbers, and still moie in audacity, would turn against the former, and, by their fury in persecuting them, render it more difficult for them to enter that gate, already so difficult in itself. But at last the moment should arrive when, although they might desire to enter the heavenly kingdom from which they should have thus excluded themselves, they shall no longer find entrance.. There, upon the weeping and gnashing of teeth, when they shall behold this small number of their brethren, the former objects of their contempt and their hatred, when (‘) Down to this time the Jews had been pre¬ ferred to the Gentiles; the Gentiles shall shortly be preferred to the Jews. These who were the they shall behold them, I say, in the com¬ pany of patriarchs and prophets, enjoying that ineffable happiness, the privation of which is not less bitter than its enjoy¬ ment is delightful. But what shall re¬ double their rage is, to see that there were places for all, and that theirs shall be filled by men who formerly were strangers to the covenant, and have been admitted in the place of the disinherited children. For they were to come in crowds from the four corners of the earth ; and this is the sense in which Jesus Christ declares that the number of the elect taken by itself shall be very great, al¬ though amongst the Jews it should be very small, when compared with the bulk of the nation. You may here inquire, with reference to this subject, whether amongst the faith¬ ful themselves the number of the elect shall be the majority or the minority? An idle query from the lips of most of those who put it, since each one must be judged according to his works, and no one shall be saved for the reason that there shall, be a great number of elect, as no one shall be condemned, precisely because there shall be a great number of repro¬ bates. Let us then not consider others, but let each one of us think of himself; persuaded that if he preserve his inno¬ cence, or if he recover it by sincere pen¬ ance, should but one man be saved, he shall be the man ; but, on the contrary, he shall be a reprobate, were there but first shall be the last, which does not mean that they shall have the last places in the kingdom of God, but that they shall be utterly excluded from it. 700 HISTORY OF THE LIFE one, if, after having sinned, he dies in his impenitence. “ The same day there came some of the Pharisees, saying to Jesns : Depart and get thee hence, for Herod hath a mind to kill thee.” The statement was true, al¬ though given out of envy, and not from charity. Perhaps Herod himself caused it to be given. It would be difficult to divine the reason ; however, the thing is not improbable, inasmuch as our Saviour sends back his reply to this prince through those who came to speak to him. “ Go, he said to them, and tell that fox : 1 Behold, I cast out devils, and do cures to¬ day, and to-morrow, and the third day I am consummated. Nevertheless, I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following, 2 because it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.” 3 His heart shudders when pronouncing ( 1 ) So called by Jesus Christ, and perhaps gen¬ erally so styled on account of his cunning. Be¬ sides being naturally cunning, his situation might further contribute to render him such. He had to please the Romans, hy whom alone he reigned, and he did not wish to displease his subjects, who could not endure the Romans. 'What cunning is not needed to reconcile such opposing ideas, when an individual has not sufficient probity to effect his purpose by righteous conduct, the. best of all means to succeed, and the only means by which any one can constantly succeed! ( a ) These three days signify the short time which Jesus Christ had to remain upon earth. This answer is full of magnanimity; it is as if he said: I do what I will: I dread no one, and I shall not die except at the time and on the spot which I have resolved to die. The just man can say with the same intrepidity: I do what God wills : I fear him alone, and I shall not die except at the time the name of this unfortunate city, and he cannot refrain from addressing it this reproach which compassion draws forth from the very depth of his fatherly bosom : “ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent to thee, how often would I have gathered thy children as the bird doth her brood under her wings, and thou wouldst not? 4 Behold your house shall be left to you desolate. And I say to you, that you shall not see me till the time come, when you shall say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (St. Luke xiii. 31-35.) So exclaimed the children when he made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Yet, this is not what our Saviour had here in view. He was to go again to Jerusalem for the feast of the Dedication before the last journey, when this acclama- and on the spot where he has resolved that I shall die. ( s ) That is to say, it is not suitable that a prophet should suffer death out of Jerusalem. The reason given by some is, because the judgment of a prophet was reserved to the great Sanhedrim. Others think that Jesus Christ spoke thus because the majority of the prophets who were put to death had been deprived of life at Jerusalem, whence it might very possibly happen, as is also thought, that what Jesus here says had passed into a proverb. ( 4 ) God so wished it, and Jerusalem wished it not: what God would have, did not come to pass. Wherefore there are, without prejudice to divine omnipotence, wishes of God that have not the'.r accomplishment. Theologians explain this mys¬ tery in various ways; but whatever explanation be adopted, Jesus Christ has said it, and we must believe it. IBMM 7 xn ml'-iijjii 1 Ai L 1 Vyi-'_LLLi L!= • 1\V vS®'-' McMenamy, H 6c Co.. New Yorw * ■ * f . \ \ . ' r ... * *. • • - - .. * • # i 5 . . - ‘ * V < * i - OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 701 tion was to be uttered ; and after it had been uttered, he again said to the Jews: “ You shall not see me till the time come, when you shall say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” An evident mark that this first acclamation was not that of which he then spoke. A deeper meaning was concealed beneath these words: they announced the conver¬ sion of the Jews, who, reclaimed from their prejudices, should turn at length to¬ wards him, and hasten by their ardent invocations the second coming of the Mes- sias, whom their fathers had rejected. Jesus Christ said that before this period they should see him no more, because he had only a few days further to pass amongst them ; after which these wilfully blinded people, who disowned him in per¬ son, should obstinately deny him, even until the consummation of ages, notwith¬ standing the establishment of his Church and the accomplishment of the prophecies, although these signs had been more than sufficient to force him to be recognized by all the nations of the earth. CHAPTE A MAN CURED OP THE DROPSY ON THE SABBA r EST PLACE.—INVITING THE POOR.—PARABLE COMING TO THE SUPPER.—WE MUST PREFER “ T T came to pass, when Jesus went into -L the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees on the sabbath-day to eat bread, that they watched him,” for the purpose of criticising his actions, “and behold, there was a certain man before him that had the dropsy. Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying : Is it law¬ ful to heal on the sabbath-day? 1 But they R XLIII. rH-DAY.—WE ARE ALWAYS TO TAKE THE LOW- OF THOSE WHO EXCUSE THEMSELVES FROM JESUS CHRIST BEFORE ALL THINGS. held their peace. He taking him ” that had the dropsy, “ healed him, and sent him away. And answering them,” their very thoughts, “he said: Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not immediately draw him out on the sabbath-day ? And they could not answer him to these things.” But after having been observed, Christ ( 1 ) We have seen in note 1, page 53S, chapter xv., Part I., that the rabbis were still more scrupu¬ lous than the Pharisees in observing the sabbath. With all that, they do not yet consider that it is kept strictly enough ; some of them are even of opinion that it is this which retards the coming of the Messias, who shall appear as soon as the sab¬ bath is perfectly observed; he awaits only that. Any practice, however holy it may be in its in¬ stitution, will always turn to superstition and fanaticism, when men would fain reduce all re¬ ligion to it alone. 702 HISTORY OF THE LIFE observed them in liis turn; and not con¬ tent with having made them feel that he had nothing to dread from their criticism, he further informed them that they needed his instructions. “ And he spoke a para¬ ble also to them that were invited, mark¬ ing how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them : When thou art in¬ vited to a wedding, sit not down in the first place, 1 lest perhaps one more honor¬ able than thou be invited by him ; and he that invited thee and him, come and say to thee, Give this man place ; and then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when thou art invited, go, and sit down in the lowest place : that when he that invited thee cometh, he may say to thee : Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have glory before them that sit at table with thee. Because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled : and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” The refinement of our manners gives but little room for the application of this moral, especially in the form proposed. It very rarely occurs amongst us that the least honorable of the company should go and take the first place at table ; or, if he ventured to do it, most likely he would be left to endure the shame of remaining there rather than be affronted by being- displaced. It is done, however, in other circumstances, which generally are those ( 1 ) Pagan philosophers had taught this lesson before Christ. Ignorant of humility, they enjoined the semblance of it. Instinct tendered this hom¬ age to it, and it was honored almost as the un¬ known God, whose altar Saint Paul found at Athens. But should not men have seen that the where the degrees of rank are regulated, and perhaps this was the case at feasts among the Jews. Sincere humility should always be the motive inducing us to station ourselves rather below than above the rank due us. To do this with a view of being told to “go up higher,” would be merely substituting for that coarse pride which seizes upon the first seat, the more refined pride which desires to obtain it through deference. Moreover, we should discard the notion that the latter is that which Christ sought to teach the Pharisees. Incapable as they were of adopting senti¬ ments of profound humility, he accommo¬ dates himself to their weakness, contenting himself, as a first lesson, with showing them the humiliating blunders of pride, which really ends in shame by the very course it deemed conducive to glory, whilst glory pursues the humility that shuns it. We see this happen every day in the world, where men, imitating on this point the sentiments and the conduct of God, resist the proud man who would fain possess himself by force of their esteem and their respect, which they lavish upon the humble man who declines them. But what men sometimes do in this world is but a faint image of what God will do in the other world, where, by an irrevocable decree, the effect of which shall be eternal, he will perfectly accomplish the word he semblance without the reality is mere hypocrisy, and that if it be incumbent upon us to appear modest, we should consequently be really humble ? This reasoning is extremely simple; yet the world existed four thousand years without see¬ ing it. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 703 has just uttered : “ Every one that exalt- eth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” For the instruction which he has just given amounts to this, and this renders the in¬ struction so highly important. It was addressed directly to the guests, although it applied to all. But it seems that the master of the feast well deserved to have his own apart. Our Saviour ad¬ monishes him to substitute charitable in¬ vitations for those which were ostentatious and interested. “And he said to him ( 1 ) Christ does not forbid us to invite our friends and our kindred who are rich; the negative particle signifies iu this passage, invite rather the poor, etc., than those among your kindred who are rich. We do precisely the contrary; for we invite the rich from the fact of their being rich, and we do not invite the poor from the fact that they are poor. ( -i ) Supposing that they were invited from this motive. For we may do so from laudable motives, such as are those of observing certain indispensable courtesies, manifesting friendship or gratitude, fostering union among families; and God, who approves these motives, will reward them. There¬ fore the recompense will be according to the mo¬ tive; if virtuous, the recompense will be received on the day of resurrection; but if we invite for the purpose of being invited in our turn, we shall be invited, and an entertainment shall be the re¬ ward of an entertainment. If the motive be the possible honor of keeping a lavish board, we shall have that honor, and no more; if the motive be to be amused by good company, perhaps we may have this amusement; and this perhaps applies to other rewards of the kind; for what we do in order to be loved, admired, amused, sometimes ends iu our being envied, mocked, and annoyed. ( s ) This is not an injunction to make them eat at his table; it is a counsel which the saints have followed to the letter. Those among them who also that had invited him: When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kins¬ men, nor thy neighbors who are rich, 1 lest perhaps they also invite thee again, and a recompense be made to thee. 2 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind ; 3 and thou shalt be blessed, because they have not wherewith to make thee re¬ compense : for recompense shall be made thee at the resurrection of the just.” “When one of them who sat at table were the greatest in the eyes of the world have most distinguished themselves in this. They deemed themselves honored by eating with those who represented before them the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Several of them were even so imbued with this truth, that, not daiing to sit down at the same table with them, they served them on bended knees. These saints com¬ prehended perfectly what the fathers have called the sacrament of the poor, that is, they recognized Jesus Christ under the poor man’s rags, as faith recognizes him under the sacramental species. This is perfection; but the precept consists in giv¬ ing food to those who are hungry; and among those who disregard this precept, none shall he more inexcusable than those who give food to that class who are not in hunger. For, since they pos¬ sess means to regale the rich, can they assert that they have none to solace the poor ? Has not Jesus Christ who promises to make us one day sit at his table, a right to sit at ours in the person of the poor ? But the poor man is disgust¬ ing. Cleanse him, answers Saint Chrysostom. His clothes are soiled; give him clean ones. If your delicacy can still hardly endure him, make him eat with your domestics, or else send him what you have not the courage to serve up to him. It is useless to raise difficulties in this matter; the saints find an answer for them all. 704 HISTORY OP THE LIFE with him had heard these things, he said to him : Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” He undoubtedly said well; but he might have added: Unhappy are those who shall be excluded from this heavenly banquet! and doubly unhappy, inasmuch as they shall be excluded by their own fault. For it is not God’s fault if they have no part in these unspeakable delights. He had prepared it for them; he had called them by repeated invitations. Fettered by ties of flesh and blood, they despised his gifts and repulsed his ad¬ vances. They shall be forever banished from his table, and others shall occupy their places ; an awful truth which Christ had already announced to them, and which he is going to repeat to them again. For, taking occasion from what this man had just said, he, in his turn, “said to him : A certain man made a great supper, and invited many. And he sent his servant at the hour of supper to say to them that were invited, that they should come, for now all things are ready. They began all at once to make excuse. The first said to him : I have bought a farm, and I must needs go out and see it; I ( 1 ) True zeal embraces equally the rich and the poor, and it succeeds much oftener with the poor than with the rich. We have an example of the first of these truths in the conduct of this good servant, and we have a proof of the second in the different success he meets with. ( 2 ) Entreat them, press them earnestly, be urgent with them; but do not (strictly speaking) employ force. Force is not in accordance with the spirit of the Gospel; the Gospel must be estab¬ lished by persuasion, as the Koran is by the pray thee hold me excused. Another said : I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them ; I pray thee, hold me excused. Another said : I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. The servant returning told these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and the feeble, and the blind and the lame. And the servant said: Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 1 The lord said to the servant: Go out into the highways and the hedges, and compel them to come in, 2 that my house may be filled ; but I say unto you, that none of those men that were invited shall taste of my supper.” Jesus was then on his way to Jerusalem. “There went a great multitude with him, and turning, he said to them : If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and breth¬ ren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” 3 - (St. Luke xiv. 1-26.) It was only to his disciples, properly speaking, that is to say, to the apostles sword. These are their distinctive characters, and the distinction must be kept up. ( 3 ) We have already seen that the vocation of the Jews and the Gentiles to the faith was the direct object of this parable. However, preachers apply it also to the eucharistic banquet to which Jesus Christ invites us in so engaging a manner. This second application seems to harmonize with the intention of the Church, which assigns this Gospel to the Sunday within the octave of Corpus Christi, and has inserted words in the OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 705 and the seventy-two, that our Saviour pro¬ posed, at least in part, this truth, the prac¬ tice of which, so painful to nature, is, nevertheless, indispensable to any one who professes to belong to him. The proposing it, as he does, to the whole people, makes it a general law for all Christians. Where¬ fore to all it is said that the love of Jesus Christ should have the mastery over all other love without exception, for the word to hate only means here this preference. It is due to Christ, who cannot, without derogating from what he owes himself, fail to exact it from us ; for, since he is God, he should be loved above all things ; and if he permitted us to love any other thing whatsoever in preference to himself, he would disavow his own divinity, which this text, and some others like it, serve to prove, but thence it further follows that Jesus Christ makes this preference a first principle, which serves as the basis to all Christianity. Not to prefer Jesus Christ to all things, if an individual contents him¬ self really and in fact refusing him this preference, is to be in heart without office of the same day which refer entirely to this sacrament. Christianity ; but if that man go so far as to deny that it is due to him, he has not even Christianity in conviction; or if, notwithstanding, he pretend to have this, he falls into manifest inconsistency and palpable absurdity, as our Saviour clearly shows by the two following comparisons : “For,” added he, “which of you having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down and reckon the charges that are ne¬ cessary, whether he have wherewithal to finish it; lest, after he hath laid the foun¬ dation, and is not able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock him, saying : This man began to build, and was not able to finish? Or what king about to go to make war against another king, doth not first sit down and think whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that with twenty thousand cometh against him ? Or else, whilst the other is yet afar off, sending an embassy, he desireth conditions of peace. So likewise every one of you that doth not renounce all that he pos- sesseth, cannot be my disciple” (St. Luke xiv. 28), at least in heart and in affection, and with a disposition to renounce it in point of fact, whenever it shall be requisite for my service, “ he cannot be my disciple. 706 HISTORY OF THE LIFE CHAPTER XLTV. FEAST OF THE DEDICATION.—JESUS SPEAKS OF HIS OWN SHEEP.—HE AND HIS FATHER ARE ONE.—THE PARABLE OF THE LOST SHEEP AND THE LOST GROAT.—THE PRODIGAL SON.— PARABLE OF THE STEWARD.—TO MAKE FRIENDS FOR OURSELVES BY WEALTH UNJUSTLY AC- QUIRED.—THE WICKED RICH MAN AND THE GOOD POOR MAN.—THE FIRST COMING OF THE MESSIAS DEVOID OF LUSTRE. “ T T was the feast of the dedication at hostile declaration against the Roman _L Jerusalem,” that is, of the altar domination ; and this single statement, “ I formerly profaned by Antiochus, and am he,” became a crime against the State. consecrated anew by Judas Machabeus On the other hand, not to advance it, was (I. Mach. iv. 59). This solemnitj’- had been authorizing the incredulity of the Jews, fixed for the twenty-fifth day of the month which appeared only to await his announce- which the Jews called Casleu, which cor- ment of himself in order to yield. Here responds to our month of December. “ It human prudence might have found itself was winter, and Jesus walked in the tem- at fault; but he who is the uncreated wis- pie in Solomon’s porch. The Jews, there- dom experienced no difficulty in rending fore, came round about him, and said to this spider’s web spun by their malice. him : How long dost thou hold our souls Whilst he declined saying what thej^ in suspense ? If thou be the Christ tell sought to hear, he well knew ho.w to show us plainly.” them what they were bound, and yet re- He had already declared this truth to fused to believe; which he accomplished them so often and so clearly ; they cared in a manner so urgent, that, in default of so little to know it ; they were even so reasons, they were reduced to take up resolved not to believe the fact, they who stones : thereupon “ Jesus answered them : had declared to him that they did not re- I speak to you, and you believe not.” If gard as legitimate the testimony which he the reason is because the testimony of my rendered of himself, that it was easy to words appear to you insufficient, “ :he see that bad faith prompted this question. works that I do in the name of my Father, But the real motive which inspired it was they give testimony of me.” But the hatred alone, and the desire of ruining cause of your incredulity is not in me, him to whom they addressed it. Preju- nor in my silence; your incredulity diced as they all were with the notion of springs from yourselves and from your the Messias’ temporal kingdom, the plain own wilful deafness. “You do not be- declaration that he was the Messias was a lieve, because you are not of ray sheep. 1 ( 1 ) It may be asked whether those whom Christ here calls his sheep consist of all the faithful who _ _ ^ OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 707 My sheep hear my voice ; I know them, and they follow me.” Judge of what I am by the reward which I reserve for their docility. “ And I give them life ever¬ lasting, and they shall not perish forever.” A view of the efforts which the world and hell were to make in the future to wrest them from him, makes him add : “ No man shall pluck them out of my hand. That which my Father hath given me is greater than all, * 1 and no man can snatch them out of the hand of my Father.” Now “ I and the Father are one.” believe in his word, or whether they are only the elect properly speaking. Saint Augustine takes the expression to be confined to the latter, and the sequel gives much weight to his explanation. Jesus Christ declares that he will give eternal life to his sheep, that they shall never perish, that no one shall snatch them from his hands: all this, taken to the letter, is applicable to the elect alone. Those who incline to the opinion that the sheep indicate all the faithful, generally ground their opinion on the following reasons. Christ tells the Jews that they do not believe him, because they are not his sheep ; therefore those who belie\e aie his sheep, conclude these commentators. Our Sa¬ viour adds: My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me j all which is applicable to the faithful who are in the state of actual justice, even if they be not predestined. Moreover, is it credible that, amongst these Jews who then were far from being his sheep, there were none who believed sub¬ sequently in the preaching of the apostles, and whose faith wrought out their salvation ? Here, then, we have some elect, who were not of the sheep, and, consequently, there may also have been sheep who were not of the elect. As to what out Saviour says further, that he will give eternal life to his sheep, that they shall never perish, and that no one shall snatch them from his hand, etc., this is explained as referring to the light of grace, a life immortal in its nature, which no created “ The Jews then took up stones to stone him.” A certain proof that the unity which he here spoke of was understood to be the unity of the divine nature, which he declared to be common to the Father and to him, and not of that species of moral unity which results from conformity of sentiments and wishes. The Arians would not understand except in the latter sense. We are surprised that they should have been followed in this construction by some Catholic interpreters, who have pre¬ ferred rather to copy such bad authors power shall be ever capable of wresting from the man who possesses it, and which shall preserve him from death for all eternity, provided, nevertheless, that he does not voluntarily deprive himself of it. See note 1, page 606. (i) Is above all things. This expression is not to be understood of the elect, although they are the greatest and most precious objects in the uni¬ verse, and this meaning is the first which occurs to the mind. This would not be a reason to al¬ lege why they shall never be wrested from Jesus Christ. What renders it impossible to wrest a thing from the hand is not the value and excel¬ lence of the thing, but the power of the hand which holds it. Christ speaks therefoie of the divine nature which, as God, he received from his Father from all eternity, by the eternal generation, and received as man in time, by the hypostatic union. In this explanation we have the reason why no man shall wrest the elect out of the hands of Christ. For who could wrest them out of the bauds of the Almighty ? And the same thing is further proved by the following words: No one can snatch them out of the hand of my Father. For the Father and Sou being but one, and the power (signified by the hand) of the one being substantially the power of the other, it evidently follows that what cannot be wrested from the hand of the Father can neither be wrested from the hand of the Son. > HISTORY OF THE LIFE 708 than hold to the common explanation, led by that relish for singularity, which, when carried to excess, produces heretics, and, even when restricted within certain limits, always makes rash and dangerous theolo¬ gians. To return to the Jews : Jesus wished them to declare distinctly and by word of mouth what they already clearly manifested by the stones with which their hands were armed ; and suspending, by his omnipotence, the effects of their fury, of which he did not yet choose to become the victim, “ Jesus answered them : Many good works I have showed you from my Father ; for which of those works do you stone me ? The Jews answered him : For a good work we stone thee not, but for blaspheming ; and because that thou, be¬ ing a man, makest thyself God.” (St. John x. 22-33.) “When the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to him,” John the Bap¬ tist, “ to ask him : Who art thou ? He confessed, and did not deny ; and he con¬ fessed : I am not the Christ.” (St. John i. 19,- 20.) If Jesus Christ was not God, he would have been bound to confess in a more open manner, if it were possible, and still more explicitly, that he was not ( 1 ) These words are found in the 81st Psalm. The term Law applies more particularly to the books of Moses; .but we see by this example, and by some others, that it was also given to the whole collection of the Old Testament. ( a ) God thus denominates the judges, because the power of judging with which they are invested is an emanation from divine authority. The sequel shows that they were bad judges. However, they are not the less called judges; their vices, therefore, are no reason for refusing them the re- God, and that they had misunderstood the meaning of his words. But this he does not do, and he leaves this meaning still impressed on the minds of his hearers. For if he adds nothing to what he has said, much less does he correct it by telling them, as he is about to do, that the name of God belongs to him in a much more excellent manner than to all those to whom that name is given in Scripture; which favors rather than disavows the in¬ terpretation which they had given to his words, and, without saying positively, I am God, intends that they should believe it. What enormous prevarication, if it were not true that he was God! And, in conclusion, since he does not undeceive the Jews when they believe that he makes himself pass for God, we must admit one of these two consequences, either he pos¬ sesses divinity, or he wishes to usurp it. Those who deny him to be God, and who acknowledge at the same time that he was incapable of falsehood, cannot escape from this dilemma. This, then, is what “ Jesus answered them ; Is it not written in your law, 1 1 said you are gods ? a If he called them gods to whom the word of God was spoken, and the Scripture cannot be broken, spect and the sort of worship that is due them on account of this title. But it is announced to them that they shall die, and that the God of gods is their judge, in order that they may know that their prevarications shall not go unpunished. The indocility of the nations and the iniquity of wicked judges have no more potent corrective than these two words, issued from the mouth of the sovereign judge: “You are gods, .... but you like men shall die.” (Ps. lxxxi. 6-7.) OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 709 do you say of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world : Thou blaspheinest, because I said, I am the Son of God ? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you will not believe me, believe the works, that you may know aud believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Fa¬ ther.” (St. Johnx. 34.) These last words recalled those previ¬ ously spoken, “ I and the Father are one,” and justly appeared to have the same sense. Although justified by reasons wholly unanswerable, they rekindled the fury which had merely been suspended. Respect for the temple hindered them from gratifying it on the spot which formed part of its precincts. “They sought, therefore, to take Jesus.” But whether he rendered himself invisible, or that he struck them motionless, “he escaped out of their hands. And he went again beyond the Jordan, into that place where John was baptizing first, and there he abode.” This place was called Bethania, otherwise Beth- abara. Jesus knew that his presence, joined to the recollection of the testimony which John had there rendered to him as Son of God, was to work there the sal¬ vation of many. In fact, as soon as his ( 1 ) His mission was sufficiently authorized by his miraculous birth, and by the still more miracu¬ lous sauctity of his life. It was further proved by the very miracles of Jesus Christ. These mira¬ cles, by proving that Jesus was the Messias, proved that he who had declared him to be such before he had begun to work miracles, was truly a prophet. This is the first reason why God had not conferred upon John the gift of miracles; he could fulfil his mission without them. We may add, that Christ arrival became known, “ many resorted to him, and they said : John indeed did no sign. 1 But all things whatsoever John said of this man were true. And many believed in him.” (St. John x. 40-42.) As Jesus communicated himself to all with equal goodness : “ Now the publicans and sinners drew near unto him to hear him.” The most perverse of all sinners, and at the same time the most incorrigi¬ ble, inasmuch as they deemed themselves saints, “the Pharisees and the Scribes, murmured ” at this, “ saying : This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” It was easy for our Saviour to repress the pride of these proud censors, and con¬ found them by a single word, as he had done in the case of the adulteress. He preferred this time to give them reasons for that compassionate meekness which characterizes true justice, as false justice is recognized by fierce and disdainful intol¬ erance. Nothing is so tender as the im¬ ages which he is going to trace of his good¬ ness, and it is hardly conceivable, when we consider them, how men can still be tempted to despair. “He spoke” therefore “to them this parable,” which he proposed in the form of interrogation : “ What man of you that wished to reserve to himself this striking charac¬ teristic of strength and of power, which evidently marked his superiority over John, and disabused the people of the idea which from time to time prevailed of mistaking the servant for the Master. The greatest of mankind never wrought miracles; we are even allowed to believe that Mary, the holiest of creatures, never wrought one during the whole course of her mortal life. Virtue, alone, not prodigies, constitute the saint. 710 HISTORY OF THE LIFE hath an hundred sheep, and that he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety- nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost, until he find it ? And when he hath found it, lay it upon his shoulders re¬ joicing ; and coming home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying to them : Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost ? I say to you, 1 that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just, who need no pen¬ ance. Or what woman having ten groats, if she lose one groat, doth not light a can¬ dle, and sweep 'the house, and seek dili¬ gently until she find it ? And when she hath found it, call together her friends and neighbors, saying : Rejoice with me, be¬ cause I have found the groat which I had lost. So I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.” (St. Luke xv. 3-10.) The second parable contains the same meaning as the first, and the same truth is presented under two different images. It cannot be forgotten that our Saviour had already proposed to his disciples that of the Good Shepherd. If he re¬ peats it here, he does so for the consola¬ tion of these poor sinners who came to him with so much confidence, at the same time that he instructed those harsh and haughty men whose whole religion consisted in repel- ( 1 ) See note 2, page 645. ( 9 ) The earlier writers universally believed that the Jews were figured by the elder of these two sons, and the Gentiles by the younger. Subse¬ quently it was advanced that the two brothers represent the just man and the sinner, and this ling them. He adds, whilst repeating it, the circumstance of the joy of the angels of heaven, for whom the day of the conver¬ sion of a sinner is more particularly a festal and a joyful day. Those on earth, the truly just, should share this joy, and, in fact, share it with them : those princi¬ pally whom God deigns to associate with him in the work of his mercy, and many of them can vouch that the moments when they have seen the tears of repentance flowing at their feet, have been the most delightful moments of their life. But if a good shepherd tenderty loves his sheep, if a poor woman is strongly attached to some pieces of mone 3 r , the fruit of her labor, the support of her life, and the only treasure which she possesses, it will be admitted that these affections do not even deserve to bear that name, if compared with paternal love, the deepest, if we may venture to use the expression, of all loves ; whilst at the same time it is the most tender of all. Such is the love by which Jesus Christ wishes us to judge of his love for the greatest sinners, not such love as exists in ordinary fathers, but such as can hardly be found even in the best and most indulgent of all fathers. This is the image which he himself had traced with his divine hand. “A certain man had two sons. 2 The younger of them said to his father: Fa- lias become the most common interpretation. Saint Jerome, who excludes neither of these two applications, is apparently the one who has reached the best solution. Firstly, the parable is suitable to sinners in general. This conclusion is I evident, from the circumstance in which Christ OP OTJR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 711 ther, give me the portion of substance that falleth to me : and he divided unto them his substance . 1 Not many days after, the younger son, gathering all together, went abroad into a far country, and there wasted his substance, living riotously . 2 And after he had spent all, there came a mighty famine in that country, and he be¬ gan to be in want. And he went and cleaved to one of the citizens of that coun¬ try ; and he sent him into his farm to feed swine ; and he would fain have filled his belly with the husks the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. Return¬ ing to himself, he said : 3 How many hired servants in my father’s house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger. I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee ; I am not now worthy to be called thy son : make me as one of thy hired servants . 4 And rising up, he came to his father. When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, proposes it. The Pharisees murmured because he received publicans and other sinners, who were in all cases Jews. Thus, by justifying his conduct with regard to them, Jesus Christ has first in view sinners generally, without distinction of Jew or Gentile. But he foresaw the murmurs which would arise amongst the converted Jews when the apostles preached the Gospel to the Gentiles, and admitted them to baptism, and the reply to these murmurs was supplied for them in advance by this parable. It applies, then, to both, as we have just said, notwithstanding certain difficulties, which, according to the different impressions which they have made upon men, have induced them to ex¬ clude one meaning or the other. But it is easy to resolve them, as may be seen by the remarks that we shall make upon the passages which have occa¬ sioned them. ( * ) The younger son’s share could not have been set off without determining, at the same time, the elder son’s share; but the latter did not take his away. ( s ) The chief object of the parable is to make known the whole extent of the mercy which God exercises towards the sinner who returns to him in the bitterness and sincerity of his heart. The youngest of these two sons shows the path by which man abandons God, and that by which he should return to him. The eldest is to telch us that, far from repining, we should rejoice at the welcome which our common father gives to our brethren when they return from their wanderings. All may be reduced to this ; and the other person¬ ages, as well as the other circumstances, may well be deemed merely accessory. However, commen¬ tators have sought for moral significations. Those ordinarily given are these : the squandering of the paternal estate is the abuse which the sinner makes of the natural and supernatural gifts which he has received from God. Famine and indigence re¬ present that immense void which is formed in a soul created for God alone, the soul beiug destitute of everything, even in the midst of abundance, when destitute of God. The master to whom the prodigal gives himself is the devil. To what a servitude was he not reduced by a false freedom, in place of the sweet liberty which is to be fouud in the servitude of the children of God ! The swine are those infamous passions of which he be¬ came the vile slave, and the husks those miserable pleasures to which he sacrificed all, pleasures which often mock his desires, and which are at all times incapable of satisfying them. (*) There is not a sinner but sighs when he com¬ pares the misery of his guilt with the happiness of his virtuous years. Why does he not then add : Let me be happy again ! ( 4 ) He said: I wi’l arise, and he arose; I will go, and he went without hesitation and without delay. How many sinners say like him: I will arise, and I will go! Some go at once; others defer it. This is the reason why there are peni- 712 HISTORY OF THE LIFE and was moved with compassion, and running to him, fell upon his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven , 1 and before thee ; 2 I am not now worthy to be called thy son.” He did not finish, whether it was that his father did not give him time, or that he felt, in so sweet an embrace, that he had already obtained more than what he scarcely ventured to ask. This good father, more eager to grant the favor than the son was to obtain it, “said” immediately “to his servants: Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put tents and impenitents; elect, who have sinned much, and reprobates, who a thousand times re¬ solved to do penance. “Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day.” (Ecclus. v. 8.) ( 1 ) That is to say, 1st, against the God of Heaven. This word by itself has sometimes this signification in the sacred language and in several others; 2d, against the angels and the saints who inhabit heaven. They feel the insult offered to God, as good children feel a wrong done to their father; and faithful subjects that done their king. ( 1 ) What injury, then, had he done to him ? He had attacked him neither in honor, nor prop¬ erty, nor person. Yet every one sees that a son who misbehaves, although he does not directly at¬ tack his father, offends him, nevertheless, by his bad conduct. But it is surprising, that there are men who cannot, as they say, conceive how God, who is not injured by sin, can be so highly offended at it. The profligate son who says: What harm does it do my father ? is an insolent creature, who adds outrage to injury; and the sinner who says: What evil does my sin do God ? is an impious man, who adds iniquity to blasphemy. ( a ) Mysterious significations have been also given to all this. The precious robe is baptismal innocence. The ring is the pledge of the return it on him . 8 And put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it: and let us eat and make merry, because this my son was dead, and is come to life again: was lost, and is found : and they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field, and when he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music’ and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said to him : Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath re¬ ceived him safe. And he was angry , 4 and of the Holy Ghost into a heart whence he had been banished by sin, and into which he had just entered with the fullness of his gifts and of his graces. The shoes shield the feet against the stcnes of scandal, and defend them against the bite of the infernal serpent. All commentators under¬ stand by the fatted calf the flesh of Jesus Christ, given to the penitent in sign of perfect reconcilia¬ tion, and as an aliment necessary for the preserva¬ tion of the spiritual life which has just been mercifully restored to him. ( 4 ) Here are the murmurs of the Jews, which are spoken of in the 11th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. This is what properly decided com¬ mentators to apply the parable to both nations: this sense, however, does not exclude the other. Just men, animated by a too ardent zeal, may take a sort of scandal from the mercy which God exer¬ cises towards the greatest sinners. What might even now occur must have been more common in the early days of Christianity. The meekness of the Gospel was not then so well known as it has since been. Jesus Christ properly began to make it known, and it was not easy to assume its spirit while all yet breathed naught hut the rigor of the old law. Hence this lesson which our Sa¬ viour gave to the two sons of Thunder, when they wished to strike with thunderbolts the unfaithful city which had refused to receive him. “ You T_ *5TURN OF - THE PRODIGAL SON OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 713 would not go in. His father, therefore, take a faint glimmering for the sun at its coming out, began to entreat him. He meridian, and a dew-drop for the immen- answering, said to his father : Behold, for sity of the waters of ocean. No created so mail}' years do I serve thee, and I have image can approach it; and Jesus Christ never transgressed thy commandment, and only avails himself of such, in order that what yet thou hast never given me a kid to is known to us may enable us to form some make merry with my friends : but as soon idea of what we can neither know nor im- * as this thy son is come, who hath devoured agine. However incredible we may’ deem his substance with harlots, thou hast killed that mercy which is represented under for him the fatted calf. But,” the father these figures, there is not one which our “said to him : Son, thou art always with Saviour might not have terminated with me, and all I have is thine. 1 But it was this expression : The mercy of God is fit that we should make merry and be such as I have just described, and infi- glad, for this thy brother was dead, and nitely greater. In fact, this surprising is come to life again ; he was lost, and is goodness of the prodigal’s father, which found.” 2 (St. Luke xv. 11-32.) affects us, and sometimes melts us even to To a portrait so affecting we shall fur- tears, exhibits only a part of God’s good- ther add this reflection, that he who could ness, and that part is the smallest. It is think that the goodness of God is repre- the mercy which receives, but not the sented here to its full extent, would mis- grace which prevents : it is the God who know not,” lie said to them, “ to what spirit you compared to the Gentiles, they were just upon the belong.” Again this harsh zeal may indeed some- main point, which was the knowledge and the times be only an imperfection and a venial fault, adoration of the one true God. Thus the different which does not deprive of justice those who follow senses given to the parable are equally applicable its impulses, as the example of the two apostles to it, and to wish to restrict it to one sense would proves. But it is objected that the just cannot be be in opposition to at least the presumed iuten- represented by the Pharisees, who were as sinful, tion of Jesus Christ, confining it within narrower and more so, than the others. We reply that these bounds than those which it should naturally have. sinners deemed themselves just, and that our Sa- (') That is to say, everthing here is at your viour addresses them according to the estimate in disposal; and you have no reason to reproach me which they held themselves: the argument has all for not having given you what I have left you at the more force as against them; and at the same liberty to take. This wrong, supposing it to be time the real just, who would be capable of imita- one, was not done the son by his father. But when ting to a certain extent their harshness, find here a person is in ill humor, he always finds out cause the instruction suitable to them. On the other for complaint. hand, it may be objected that the converted Jews, ( 4 ) The prodigal was dead in the sense of his who were previously prevaricators on so many being lost; and he is resuscitated in the sense of points, could not say to God, as the eldest son said his being found. With reference to the penitent to his father, that they never had violated his sinner, these two words bear their literal significa- orders; and, consequently, that this eldest son tion. Grace or habitual justice is formally the life could not be the figure of those Jews. But it is sufficient, in order to justify the application, that, 90 of the soul, and its loss is its death. 714 HISTORY OF THE LIFE . pardons the penitent sinner, but not the God who seeks the ungrateful and obsti¬ nate sinner. To make the image complete, and to represent God entirely therein, it would be necessary that the father should follow his son in his mad career, go in search of him, even in the distant climes whither his dissolute course had misled him j that he should present himself be¬ fore him in the midst of his debaucheries, or his miseries, less to reproach him with them than to invite him to return, to offer him his house, his ta'ble, and all his goods ; to implore, to urge him, to accept them. For such, properly speaking, is the grace which is termed preventive : behold it rep¬ resented in every feature. But this is overmuch for any earthly father • and the parable carried to that extent, would shock all probability, and, perhaps, even propriety. Such goodness belongs alone to the Heavenly Father, and it is worthy of it to signalize itself by such features as are far beyond all the ties of nature and of blood. We must be pardoned for our reluctance to leave so interesting a theme. I shall, therefore, again say, that, in reality, we have the image of preventive grace in the two preceding parables of the Strayed Sheep and the Lost Groat. We think we see it drawn to the very life in the painful and earnest search of the woman and of the shepherd. Let us, however, be care- lul to notice that there is always an essen¬ tial difference between these faint copies and their divine original. It is because the lost groat and the lost sheep are a real loss to their owners, who, when they seek them, seek not so much the thing lost as themselves and their own advantage, since the joy of having found it belongs and is dif¬ fused over themselves alone. But in losing us, God loses nothing. His existence and his happiness do not depend on us. Even his exterior glory, that which results from the manifestation of his divine attributes, a glory which can add nothing to his feli¬ city, and which he well knew how to dis¬ pense with during an entire eternity, would have been no less satisfied, had he signalized his justice by the punishment of the guilty, than his clemency by the par¬ don which he deigns to offer them. But that, notwithstanding this, he should come the first in advance to meet us, that he should recall us with never-ending en¬ treaties, that he should seek us with in¬ credible care and anxiety, that he should stretch forth his hand to us, and open to us his paternal bosom, that he should in¬ vite us—I dare say more—that he should even conjure us to return thither, and to receive in his embrace the abolition of all our crimes, as though we were necessary to him, and that he could not do without us ; as though his happiness depended upon ours, or that our salvation was his own : behold the miracle, or rather the mystery of the goodness of God, which no figure could represent, which no created mind can comprehend, the depth of which we must adore, like that of the most im¬ penetrable mysteries, which can be be¬ lieved only by faith, which is above all hope, and which should inflame us with love at the sight of goodness too great to be ever comprehended by our reason, and OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 715 for which our heart could never have dared to hope. The following parable, or rather nar¬ rative, is no longer addressed to the Pharisees, but to the disciples. The for¬ mer, who were within hearing distance, and who in fact heard him, were those for whom it was most necessary, and who yet profited the least by it. This was perhaps the reason which led our Saviour no longer to address his words to them, that he might not appear to have subjected the divine word to the derision with which they treated it, and, contrary to his own maxim, to cast pearls before swine. What¬ ever weight there may be in this reason, which we only give by way of conjecture, Jesus, continuing to speak, “said also to his disciples: There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and the same was accused unto him, that he had wasted his goods.” However, the master, a just and humane man, was unwilling to condemn him, until he had proof of his unfaithful¬ ness. “He called him, and said to him : How is it that I hear this of thee? give me an account of thy stewardship ; for,” if what they have told me is true, “now thou canst be steward no longer. And the steward,” who was not able to give a good account, “ said within himself: What shall I do, because my lord taketh away from me the stewardship ? To dig I am not able ; to beg I am ashamed. I know what I will do, that, when I shall be re¬ moved from the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. Therefore, calling together every^ one of his lord’s debtors, he said to the first: How much dost thou owe my lord ? But he said : A hundred barrels of oil. The steward said to him : Take thy bill, and sit down quick¬ ly, and write fifty. Then he said to ano¬ ther : And how much dost thou owe ? who said: A hundred quarters of wheat. And he said to him : Take thy bill, and write eighty. And the lord commended the un¬ just steward, forasmuch as he had done wisely. For the children of this world are wiser in their generation 1 than the children of light. 2 And I say to you,” concludes the Saviour, for that was pro.- ( 1 ) We cannot conclude that men are consti¬ tuted in a particular way, because we may have supposed that one man may have held a certain line of conduct. The conclusion may be drawn, if it be true that he has held the line of conduct attributed to him. In a word, a fact is fairly dedu- cible only from a fact. Wherefore this is no fic¬ tion, but a true narrative. ( 1 ) Prudence consists in the judicious choice of the means whereby we seek to attain a reasonable end. The children of the world excel the children of light in the choice of the means which they employ; the children of light excel with reference to the end which they propose to themselves. Nothing can equal the industry and the activity of the former; but whither do they tend? To goods which death shall wrest from them to-mor¬ row, to give them stripped and naked to rottenness and worms. What toil and industry lost! The latter labor for infinite and eternal goods; but, less eagerly bent than the first on the object of their labors, they do not equally excel in the choice and the application of the means. The former may be compared to an architect who should em¬ ploy all the resources of his art in building castles with cards, which a breath of air would level in an instant; and the latter to him who, with moderate talents, occupied himself in constructing, with solid HISTOKY OF THE LIFE 716 cisely what he had in view, “make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity, 1 that when they shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.” 3 (St. Luke xvi. 1-9.) Thus, what at first sight might appear to be the apology of fraud and of injus¬ tice, becomes, by this conclusion, an ex¬ materials, habitable dwellings. The latter, though not a great man, would yet be a sensible man : the other, with all his ability, would be a fool. In the arts the union of both constitutes the great man, and in morality it constitutes the great saint. ( 1 ) If possessed unjustly, and those to whom they belong are known, it is not lawful to give them in alms: they must be restored. If it be im¬ possible to know those to whom restitution should be made, then it is an obligation of justice to re¬ store to the poor; and, in this sense, the order here issued by our Saviour is literally executed. But mammon is here termed “ of iniquity,” in a more extensive signification. 1st. Because it frequently occurs, even without our knowledge, that we pos¬ sess riches unjustly according to this expression of Saint Jerome: Every rich man is unjust, or the heir of an unjust man. 2d. Because they are to their possessors the cause and the instrument of a thousand iniquities. 3d. And this sense comes nearer to that of the parable, because we are but too prone to deem ourselves the masters and pro¬ prietors of them, a quality which belongs essen¬ tially to God alone, who has made us merely stew¬ ards of them, who has given them to us in trust, and will demand a strict account from us. This latter exposition is taken from Saint Augustine. ( a ) The rich are in this world the benefactors of the poor: the poor are in the other world the benefactors ot the rich. The former give bread, the latter confer heaven. You rich shall never obtain it, if they do not confer it upon you. Is it, therefore, enough to say to you : Do good to them? Would it not be more advisable to say: Pay court to them ? (* *) This is said according to common opinion. cellent lesson of charity, which the divine Master further corroborates by the follow¬ ing maxims : “ He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater ; 8 and he that is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in that which is greater. If, then, you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon, 4 who will A man will not confide a treasure to him whom he has found unfaithful even in trifles; he would rather confide it to him who is faithful even in the smallest things. A man may be deceived, yet he acts prudently; and he acts imprudently, suppos¬ ing even it should turn out that he was not de¬ ceived, should he have preferred the first to the second. (*) Others translate deceitful in opposition to real. They understand by the latter the riches of eternity, the only riches which truly deserve this name. Our Saviour further says of the former, that they belong to another, in the sense that they are merely lent to us, and that we are merely stew¬ ards of them ; whereas those of the other life shall be given to us as full and perpetual owners. They never shall be taken from us, and we shall never be called upon to account for them. This is the ex¬ planation given by commentators. It ha,s been recently fancied that this was an exhortation here to the disciples alone, to sell their property and distribute the price among the poor, and this for two reasons. One is, that if it were noticed that they retained that property which has attached to it, like all worldly goods, the general suspicion of injustice, the faithful would not willingly confide to them the alms which they might intend to give out of their legitimate property: this is what they understand by the “ unjust ” and the “ true mam¬ mon.” The other reason is, that if the disciples keep these goods, which may be suspected of be¬ longing to another, as long as they shall be sus¬ pected of being ill-gotten, the faithful would feel repugnance in paying them their lawful dues for ministerial functions, that is to say, apparen ly, tithes and the fees. And this is the sense in which OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 717 trust you in that which is the true ? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is properly your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” 1 (St. Luke xvi. 11-13.) The miser, the most absurd of all men, considers nothing so ridiculous as that which is the noblest quality in man, the contempt of riches. We cannot, then, wonder that these maxims of disinterest¬ edness were ill received by a portion of his hearers. Our Saviour, as we have said, addressed them to the disciples alone. But “ the Pharisees, who were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided him.” These were gross hypocrites, whose ap¬ parent austerity cloaked an insatiable ava¬ rice, as usually happens with men of this character. For avarice, which displays no prominent vices, possesses in an emi¬ nent degree all the economical and lucra¬ tive virtues with which it is easy to make up a mask of sanctity. Men who only see the surface are often its dupes ; but no one could impose upon Him whose e} T e pene¬ trates to the inmost recesses of hearts, and the later expositors have construed “another’s” and “your own.” This has appeared very fine, because it is novel. However, nothing is more un¬ reasonable. Tor, in the first place, the apostles, very far from desiring to be burthened with the distribution of alms, released themselves from that office as soon as they could, in which they seem to have followed the direction of the Holy Ghost. In he knew well how to make them sensible of this by those strong expressions where¬ with he opposed their malicious taunts : “ And he said to them : You are they who justify yourselves before men : but God knoweth your hearts. For that which is high to men is an abomination before God.” They might object to this, and perhaps they did so internally, that those temporal riches, the contempt of which he preached, were the recompense promised by the law to its observers. Jesus knowing their thoughts, or anticipating them, answers : “ The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every one useth vio¬ lence towards it.” This violence consists in mortifying the passions which the law promised to satiate, and of which the Gospel, signified by the kingdom of God, requires the sacrifice. Does the Gospel, therefore, annihilate the law ? the Pharisees might further say. No, it perfects it, by offering infinite and eternal goods of which the temporal goods promised by the law were merely the shadow and figure ; for such is the mean¬ ing of that declaration which our Saviour immediately adds : “ It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fall.” (St. Luke xvi. 14-17.) the second place, to ascribe to them as a disinter¬ ested motive such an interested view as that of securing their salaries, would be to suppose them -of very grovelling dispositions, even at the time when they were still imperfect. And what idea must have been formed of Jesus Christ by the per¬ son who makes him the proposer of such a motive F ( 3 ) See note 1, page 558. 1 718 HISTORY OF THE LIFE It is true that the goods of this world were the incentive which God employed to induce these stubborn and carnal men to observe his law. Yet, he did not wish to leave them in ignorance of the rewards and chastisements of the future life. We see them presented in a thousand passages of Scripture, as the main object for their fear and hope ; and, that this truth might be felt more deeply, God had been mind¬ ful to make, from time to time, exceptions to the general system of the old law. It was with this view that he had tried some of the just of the highest order, such as Tobias was, by the most cruel adversities, whilst the wicked were seen passing their days in glory and in opulence. Since it is impossible that a just God should leave virtue without reward, and crime without punishment, it is easy to conclude that it was in the other life that men were to find those real penalties and joys, of which those of this life could only be a feeble image, and a very imperfect foretaste. But, for those earthly souls, the present was all and the future nothing. Every prosperity was called a blessing, and ever} 7- adversity a malediction. Illusion even went so far as to make the former a proof of virtue, and the latter evidence of crime, and to their eyes the fortunate man was just, and the unfortunate man was always guilty. In order, therefore, to reclaim them from so gross an error, to the important truth which they overlooked, Christ proposes to them the parable of the rich glutton, and of the virtuous poor man, where virtue followed bjr eternal happiness is found associated with the alleged curse of misfortune ; whilst, notwithstanding the apparent blessing of temporal prosperity, vice, happy in this world, has for its ultimate lot the fire which is never quenched. For this was apparently the chief subject; but this does not prevent us from recognizing that our Saviour had another intention, to complete the instruction which he had commenced upon alms-deeds, by showing the merciless rich man buried in the pit of hell. After having shown the heavens opening, in order to receive the beneficent and charitable rich, he continues thus : 1 “ There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one did give him: moreover, the dogs,” 2 less inhuman ( 1 ) Here, too, the question has been raised whether this was a parable or a real occurrence: the latter is the prevalent opinion. This is founded principally upon the fact of Lazarus being named, which is not done in parables. If tfie wicked rich man is not named, the reason is because it would’ be a blot upon his name and upon his family. However, our Saviour might have given him a name as well as Lazarus, if the name of the latter had been a name made purposely to represent the state in which he described him; for Lazarus, in Hebrew, signifies helpless, if it be not an abbrevia¬ tion of Eleazar, which signifies, on the contrary, “ the help of God.” Be that as it may, in the fact that the rich man is not named, while the poor man is, we see a further reason for believing that the name of the latter is the name of a person who really existed. How come difficulties. We shall answer them as they occur. ( 3 ) It was they who ate the crumbs that fell LAZARUS AT THE RICH MAN’S GATE, I 1 III Mi i WJmm ■KiiiP OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 719 than their master, “came and licked his Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and sores. And it came to pass that the beggar send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of died, and was carried by the angels into his finger in water, to cool my tongue ; 3 Abraham’s bosom. 1 The rich man also for I am tormented in this flame. 4 And died, and he was buried in hell. 2 And Abraham said to him: Son, remember lifting up his eyes when he was in tor- that thou didst receive good things in thy ments, he saw Abraham afar off, and La- lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things ; 5 zarus in his bosom, and he cried and said : but now he is comforted, and thou art from the table. Their condition was better than his. repose which Lazarus there enjoyed. 2d. That, The poor have been heard to express, by bitter com- notwithstanding the distance of places, these two plaints, how much they envied the dogs. If he who souls (that of Abraham and that of the rich glut- regales the rich shall be inexcusable for not having ton) may have been enabled to communicate to appeased the hunger of the poor, what shall be the each other their thoughts and desires. 3d. That excuse of those who might have fed whole families. the soul of the rich man may have felt heat simi- with the money spent in feeding a pack of ani- lar to that which would be felt by a man whose mals, which only minister to luxury and to pleasure ? body was in the midst of a burning furnace, and ( ‘) The souls of the just are carried to heaven may have desired a solace similar to what would by the angels : so the Church believes. In the com- be afforded by a drop of fresh water upon the tip mendation of a departing soul she says: “ Com- of his tongue. 4th. It is not impossible that the mand, 0 Lord, that the holy angels of God meet wicked rich man may have been ignorant that he his soul, and bring her into the city of the hea- could not obtain what he asked, or that, aware of venly Jerusalem.” For the contrary reason it is the fact, the agony of pain wrung from him this thought that the demons carry off to hell the souls useless prayer. Now, as it is the alleged impos- of the reprobate. sibility of all these matters which made some treat ( 8 ) A sensual and ostentatious life, especially if it as a parable, we may still hold to its being a accompanied with harshness towards the poor, is narrative. a life manifestly deserving of damnation: if not ( 4 ) This expression has given rise to two op- more criminal, at least more dangerous than a posite errors : one, that the soul is material ; the profligate life. If it has not all the vices of the other, that the fire of hell is not. God can make latter, neither has it the same remorse. material fire act upon spiritual souls when sepa- ( 8 ) Souls separated from bodies have neither rated from the bodies, as he can make it act on tongues nor fingers, neither do they desire water, them while still within the bodies; because in both nor can they give water. Moreover, those who are cases it is always matter acting upon spirit. reprobate have no communication with those who ( 6 ) Prosperity in this world, presumption of are in the abode of bliss; they would not dream future unhappiness, I say presumption, aud not of asking from them a solace which they well know proof; for here exceptions occur. Wherefore let that they never can obtain. These are those diffi- not the poor be too exultant, and let not the rich culties which have made some believe this a par- despair. It is the rich Abraham who received the able, and others think that the commencement predestined soul into his bosom, and many poor was historical, and that the parable commenced burn side by side with the wicked rich man. Char- here. However, God might permit, 1st. That the ity or harshness, in the former, patience, or impa- rich glutton, at the moment of his entry into hell, tience, in the latter class, make all the difference should have a view, or, if some prefer the term, a between them. However, since the presumption vision of Abraham’s bosom, and of the delicious is against the former, and in favor of the latter 720 HISTORY OF THE LIFE tormented. Besides all this, between us and you there is fixed a great chaos, so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot, nor from thence come hither. And he said : Then, father, I beseech thee that tliou wouldst send him to my father’s house (for I have five brethren), that he may testify unto them, lest they also come unto this place of torments. 1 And Abra¬ ham said to him : They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. But he said : No, father Abraham, but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance.” But Abraham “said to him: If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if one rise again from the dead. 8 ” (St. Luke xvi. 19-31.) We need not remark that our Saviour spoke often of the kingdom of God. The Jews never understood it except of the temporal kingdom of the Messias here on earth. This was the object of all their de¬ sires, and it was very natural that they should be impatient to know when it was to come. But that which they longed for was never to come, and that which they did not desire had already come, as Christ informed them. For, “ being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them : The kingdom of God cometh not with observa¬ tion, 3 neither shall they say : Behold here, or behold there : for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.” (St. Luke xvii. 20-22.) Dissatisfied with an answer which did not tell what they longed to know, and which told too plainly what they wished not to know, the Pharisees ceased to inter¬ rogate him. “ Jesus,” pursuing his dis- class, it must be the fact that it is more common for the rich to lack charity, than the poor patience. ( 1 ) Another reason for assuming this to be a parable. The reprobate in hell have no zeal for the salvation of souls. All that can be inferred from this is, that the rich man may have spoken from some other motive. Many, more or less probable, have been suggested; but suppose none could be found, this general reason suffices, that Christ could not make him speak, even in a para¬ ble, as it would be impossible for a reprobate to speak. This would militate against all probability, and be at variance with the primary rule of parables. ( a ) Notwithstanding, the resurrection of Christ has been followed by the faith of the entire world. But a distinction must be made between those who have not as yet sufficient proofs in order to believe, and those who have. Those who have not will believe at the sight of a dead man raised to life, and those who have, generally speaking, will noi believe. Thus, miracles which would convert an idolatrous nation will not convert an hereti¬ cal nation, and those which would convert heretics, who are such from education and from prejudice, will not convert Christians who have be¬ come infidels from profligacy. Nothing ever satis¬ fies those who do not wish to believe. A dead man raised to life would not convert the sinners whom this narrative did not convert. What could he say more certain or more forcible ? ( 8 ) It will not appear with such dazzling lustre that it would be impossible not to perceive it. Such was, in fact, his first coming. It was neces¬ sary then to seek out the Messias in order to find him, and to study him in order to know him. At his second coming he shall be more visible than the sun in the splendor of noonday. In one he is evident to those who seek him, in the other he shall be evident to those even who do not seek him. Whence it follows that it is meritorious to recog¬ nize him in his first coming, and that there shall be no merit in recognizing him at his second. --- OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. course, “ said to his disciples : The days will come when you shall desire to see one day of the Son of man ; and you shall not see it; ” as if he had said to them ; I shall soon disappear from your eyes, and my absence shall be exceedingly painful to you ; for he foretold them the time when, exhausted with fatigue, exposed without defence to the rage of their enemies, they would in vain desire his sensible presence, which was to them an inexhaustible source of light and consolation. The love which he entertained for them prompted him to speak in this way. But, lest the too ar¬ dent desire of seeing him again might make them, together with their first disci¬ ples, fall into the snares which the false Messias would lay for their faith, he warns them that before his return, which he at the same time foretells, several of those false Messias should appear: They ap¬ peared, in fact, before the destruction of Jerusalem, of which they were, so to say, 721 the forerunners, which circumstance gave our Lord occasion to foretell it with the other signs by which it shall be preceded. From thence, glancing forward to the most remote futurity, he announces the awful signs which shall precede the destruction of the whole world, of which the destruc¬ tion of Jerusalem was to be merely the fig¬ ure, mingling one with the other, and yet keeping them so distinct that they cannot be confounded. This instruction, necessa¬ ry for those who witnessed the first of these two events, and also for those who shall witness the second, is not useless to those who, placed between the two, have neither seen the one nor shall see the other. Assured of the accomplishment of the first, they cannot question the truth of the prophecy which announces the second. But as Christ speaks still more in detail a short time previous to his death, we shall give in another chapter a more extensive • and a more complete picture. CHAPTER XLV. WE MUST ALWAYS PRAY.—THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN.—MARRIAGE INDISSOLUBLE.— VIRGINITY TO BE PREFERRED.—LITTLE CHILDREN BLESSED.—THE YOUNG MAN CALLED TO PERFECTION.—SALVATION DIFFICULT TO THE RICH.—ALL MUST BE RELINQUISHED TO FOL¬ LOW CHRIST.—PROMISES ATTACHED TO THIS RENUNCIATION.—THE PARABLE OF THE LABOR¬ ERS IN THE VINEYARD. O N another occasion Jesus “ spoke also a parable to his disciples, that we ought always to pray, 1 and not to faint, ( 1 ) We pray always, when, at the time when we 91 saying : There was a judge in a certain city, who feared not Cod, nor regarded man. And there was a certain widow in cannot pray, we recall, as well as we can, the 722 HISTORY OF THE LIFE that city, and she came to him, saying : Avenge me of my adversary. He would not for a long time. But afterwards he said within himself: Although I fear not God nor regard man, yet, because this widow is troublesome to me, I will avenge her, lest, continually coming, she weary me. And the Lord said : Hear what the unjust judge saitk.” He cannot, iniquitous though he be, resist a persevering prayer. “ And will not God revenge his elect who cry to him day and night, 1 and will he have patience in their regard ? I say to you that he will quickly revenge them.” 2 (St. Luke xviii. 1-8.) But few are avenged or delivered from oppression, because few persevere in pray¬ er, according to this expression : “ He that shall persevere unto the end he shall be saved.” (St. Matt. x. 22.) But whence comes the want of perseverance, but from the feeble faith ? Wonder not then if Christ, when he appears in his majesty to • thought of God’s presence, and offer him the action in which we are then engaged. In this way there is no one who cannot always pray, as God exhorts us to do in several passages of Scripture. Yet this is not the sense in which it is here said that we must pray always : what Jesus Christ has directly in view is, to teach us not to he disheartened when God defers hearing us, being persuaded that a per¬ severing prayer shall infallibly be heard. This sec¬ ond sense is clearly determined by the parable. God seems to postpone, because he does not listen to us at the very time when we desire to be heard. Iteally, and in fact, he does not postpone, because he grants it at the time when it is most advantage¬ ous for us to be heard. If he communicated his secret to us, we should thank him for his very de¬ lays ; but he prefers to leave us in ignorance of it, because this ignorance is also the best for us. I avenge all his elect, finds so few who de¬ serve to experience his powerful protec¬ tion. In those days of seduction and apostasy, the true faithful shall be reduced to so few, that he who reckoned them be¬ forehand asks with apparent surprise: 3 “ But yet the Son of man, when he com- eth, shall he find, think you, faith on earth ? ” (St. Luke xviii. 8.) Though this was addressed to the disci¬ ples, there is every reason to think that Jesus Christ had also other hearers, among them some Pharisees. The weakness of the former made it necessary to exhort them to a lively and persevering trust. Another lesson was required for the latter, whose pride appeared in the humblest of all actions, prayer. Their prayer was rather a satire upon mankind than the avowal of their own miseries, and the}^ used it far less to praise God than themselves. It is to them the evangelist alludes when he says that “ to some who (') The just request that God would deliver them from oppression, not by destroying the wick¬ ed who oppress them, but by depriving the wicked of the desire or the means of oppressing. Save us, 0 Lord: do still more, save them with us. Such a prayer is truly a Christian prayer. ( a ) This life is so short, and that which follows so long, that it is true to say that God does not de¬ lay, when he delays vengeance until the other life. If a thousand years, compared to eternity, are but a day, what are ten, fifteen, twenty years, hours, or minutes ? ( 3 ) We follow the common interpretation, to connect these words with the preceding. If the connection does not appear natural, we may be¬ lieve it one of the detached facts sometimes found in the Gospels. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 723 trusted in themselves as just, and despised others, Jesus spoke also this parable. “ Two men went up into the temple to pray : the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus with himself: 0 God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, 1 extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. I fast twice in the week : 2 I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven, but struck his breast, saying : 0 God, be merciful to me a sinner. 3 I say to you, this man went down into his house justi¬ fied, rather than the other. Because every one that exalteth himself shall be hum¬ bled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (St. Luke xviii. 9-14.) “ When Jesus had ended these words, he departed from Galilee, and came into ( ) No saint has ever yet said: “ Thanks be to God, I am a saint.” “ I have sinned much, I still sin every day; and, if God did not support me with his almighty hand, I would commit enormous crimes.” This is what the saints say, and they say truly. An apostle says: “In many things we all offend: ” and he says of himself what he states of others. The saints perceive distinctly the slightest sins which we do not perceive, and commit by thou¬ sands. They regard sin in contrast with the infi¬ nite purity of God, known to these saints, and not known to us; these specks of sin appear monsters to them; and such are in fact. The saints con¬ sider nothing in themselves but their faults and sins ; in others, nothing but their virtues and good works. They deem others better than themselves; a conclusion as evident to them as virtues are bet¬ ter than faults. An attempt was once made to perplex one of these saints, who was an angel in tbe coasts of Judea beyond ” “ the Jordan. And the multitudes flock to him,” “ and he healed them there,” “and, as he was ac¬ customed, he taught them.” “ And there came to him the Pharisees tempting him.” So they proposed to him a question which was then much debated : “ Is it lawful for a man ” “to put away his wife for every cause ? ” The manner in which they speak reveals sufficiently that they considered it right to divorce for very slight causes, and often with none, but from mere caprice. This liberty was precious to men ; and by at¬ tacking it, Christ must offend them greatly. Now, he could not approve of it without becoming odious to all women. This was the snare laid for him, besides the hope of detecting him in contradiction to the law of Moses. Jesus seized the opportunity to declare the reform he came to intro- the flesh, by inquiring from him if he could think himself as wicked as a robber notorious all over the country for his murders and robberies. Yet liis humility found this reply : “ If he had had the graces which I hare had, he would be a better man than I am.” If such are the sentiments and lan¬ guage of saints, those of a contrary character prove the reverse of sanctity. This is also inferred from the parable. ( 2 ) This language is so natural, that it is some¬ times found in the mouths of penitents whose confession is only, like the prayer of the Pharisee, the mere declaration of their own virtues, and the accusation of others’ sins. (’) This word, coming from the bottom of the heart, can in a moment convert the greatest sinner into a just man ; and millions of sinners, who have had years to speak it, are eternally reprobate for not having spoken it. Let him who can, under¬ stand this prodigy of stupidity or madness. 724 HISTORY OF THE LIFE duce into marriage ; and wishing at the same time to make known his motives, “ he answering, saith to them : What did Moses command you? who said : Moses permitted to write a bill of divorce, and to put her away. To whom Jesus answering, said : Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you that precept.” 1 “Have you not read that he who made man from the beginning, made them male and female ? And he said : 2 For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh ; 3 therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. 4 What, therefore, Gk>d hath joined together, let no man put asunder.” (St. Matt. xix. 1-6 ; St. Mark x. 1-5.) In fact, if Glod had intended man to have several wives, by polygamy, or by divorce, he would have created more than one for the first man. But his design was to form the most perfect union it is pos¬ sible to conceive, by making two different persons one heart, one soul, and one flesh. Now this union is found in marriage, which being the work of Gfod, no man on earth has a right to break, because no one has the right to undo what Gfod has done. ( 1 ) It was, then, merely toleration on the part of God. Their wickedness rendered it necessary to obviate greater evils. God deemed it more ex¬ pedient to allow them to leave their wives and to take others, than to expose them to the temptation, into which they would have but too often fallen, of making way with them by the sword or poison. Some have thought this toleration merely civil, that is to say, that while it did not decree any pen¬ alty against those who availed themselves of it, it still left the sin remain. Others have thought, with more probability, that the divorced parties Gfod alone, master of his own work, has this right; and he exercised it, when, for reasons worthy of his wisdom, he per¬ mitted polygamy and divorce ; but these reasons having ceased by the establish¬ ment of a more perfect law, the dispensa¬ tions which they occasioned can no longer exist. All marriages are to become similar to the first which Gfod instituted, in order to serve as a model to others. An indis¬ soluble and perpetual bond shall henceforth unite all the married, whose union shall henceforward end only when they cease to live ; and, as long as Gfod preserves them on earth, they shall be so subject one to another. Thus marriage recovers all the purity of its institution, and the union of our first parents is perfectly represented by those of their descendants. Another resemblance was soon to render the union more sacred, and the rights more invio¬ lable : that which it was to have to the spiritual marriage of Jesus Christ with his Church. But it was not yet time to propose this great mystery ; and our Sa¬ viour contented himself at that time with again insisting upon the indissolubility of marriage. could conscientiously use the right, provided it was done in the manner and form prescribed. ( 3 ) Adam spoke it by the inspiration of God, who revealed to him the nature of the union which was to exist between the married, and of that union which children were to have with their parents, which Adam could know only by revela¬ tion. ( 3 ) This decides plainly the preference due to the wife as to society, assistance and care. The wife owes the same obligation to her husband. ( 4 ) Saint Paul explains this (l Cor. vi. 16). OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 725 \ Surprised at a doctrine so contrary to their prejudices and their passions, the Pharisees say to him: “Why, then, did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, 1 and to put away?” The commandment applied merely to the act of divorce, and not to the divorce itself, though they ap¬ pear to apply it to both. To teach them this distinction, “Jesus saith to them : Be¬ cause Moses, by reason of the hardness of your heart, permitted you to put away your wives : but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, that who¬ soever shall put away his wife, except it be 2 for fornication, 3 and shall marry an¬ other, committeth adultery ; and he that shall marry her that is put away, com- mitteth adultery.” (St. Matt. xix. 7-9.) The disciples had been unwilling to in¬ terrupt their Master ; yet they doubted whether such severe morality should be taken to the letter. To have the light which they desired, when he was “in the house again his disciples asked him con¬ cerning the same thing.” Jesus explained what he had said, only by repeating it. “ Whosoever, he saith to them, shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her ; and if the wife shall put away her hus¬ band, and be married to another, she com¬ mitteth adultery.” (St. Mark x. 10-12.) “ His disciples say unto him : If the case of a man with his wife be so, it is not ex¬ pedient to marry.” This contained a deep meaning, which they did not as yet comprehend, wherefore “ Jesus said to them : All men take not this word, but they to whom it is given ” from on high ; and, to begin imparting to them its meaning, he added : “ For there are eunuchs who were born so from their mother’s womb ; and there are eunuchs who were made so by men ; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of Heaven. 4 He ( 1 ) See note 1, page 548. (' i ) Adultery excuses tlie dismissal of the wife, and not the subsequent marriage. It is as if we read: Whoever shall dismiss his wife (whom it is not allowable to dismiss except in case of adultery) and shall marry another, shall be an adulterer. The Church has always so understood it, and Christ himself shows it, when he says absolutely to his disciples : “ Whoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery.” Prot¬ estants, however, hold that the exception in case of adultery applies to what follows as well as to what precedes; and that this case, which justifies divorce, justifies equally the marriage with another woman. Let them speak sincerely. Marriage, such as Jesus Christ re-established it, displeased them. They wished to substitute for it anew the Jewish marriage condemned by Christ. For, did they follow his word, they would not allow another wife except in the case of adultery, since it is evident that Christ either excepts this case only or excepts none. But we know that they have added those of long absence, obstinate separation, and others still, which multiply to an amazing degree, these second marriages. It is well that this legislation has not added to the Jewish divorce Mahometan polygamy, approved, at least tolerated, in the per¬ son of the Landgrave of Hesse, by Luther, and those who, with him, were the chief leaders of the Eeformation. ( 3 ) As to the other causes of separation, see note 2, page 548. ( 4 ) To secure and merit a richer crown. They make themselves eunuchs, not by mutilating their own persons, which the Church has always detested, but by resolution, or, what is better, by vow made to 726 HISTORY OF THE LIFE that can take, let him take it.” (St. Matt, xix. 10-12.) While out* Saviour was treating these ques¬ tions, “ there were little children presented to him, that he should impose hands upon them and pray. And the disciples” “re¬ buked them ” that “ brought them. Whom, when Jesus saw, he was much displeased,” “and calling” the children “together, said : Suffer the little children ” “ to come unto me,” “ and forbid them not -, 1 for the kingdom of heaven is for such.” “ Amen I say to you : Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter into it ; and embracing them, when he had imposed hands upon them, he blessed them,” “ and he departed from thence.” (St. Matthew xix. 13-15 ; St. Luke xviii. 16, 17 ; St. Mark x. 13-16.) “ When he was gone forth into the way, a certain” “ruler,” “running up, and kneeling before him, asked him: Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting ? And Jesus said to him : ” “ Why askest thou me concerning good,” and “ why dost thou call me good? 2 None God of living in perpetual virginity. It is of faith that this state is more perfect than marriage. Pro¬ testants have opposed it with all their might. This is nowise surprising in those who approve divorce, and permit polygamy. Moreover, we are not igno¬ rant of the fact, that their leaders were for the most part priests and religious, tired of celibacy, who wished not to be suspected of having embraced the Reformation rather from the desire of marriage, than marriage from the spirit of reform. After them appeared those who preached up increase of population. If we had leisure to treat the subject thoroughly, we should not want reasons to refute them. We merely adduce this reason, which is of a nature to make an impi'ession upon them : the Christian religion is of all others the most favora¬ ble to population. Here is the proof of this fact, drawn from its principles and its morality : 1st. Except wherein parties are legitimately married, every thing is criminal where purity is concerned. How many persons who have, at the same time, both excitable passions and a timid conscience, are, as it were, forced into marriage by this inflexible severity ! 2d. Everything is crim¬ inal, even in marriage, which is opposed to the end of marriage, the generation of children. How many married couples, already burdened with off¬ spring, would give themselves licentious freedom, if the curb of religion did not restrain them ! 3d. It is criminal in married persons to refuse each other, unless the refusal be founded upon a grave reason. How many obstinate refusals and concealed divorces would be produced by certain apprehen¬ sions. If religion did not enforce, by terrible menaces, a right on one part, and a duty on the other ! And it would be easy to show that in all these ways religion gives more to the race than it takes away by ecclesiastical and religious celibacy. ( 1 ) We hinder them when we put off indefinitely the first communion of children. The Master of the feast cries out in vain that these innocent souls be allowed to approach. A harsh zeal drives them away. The respect due to this sovereign Lord has indeed induced the Church to abolish the custom of giving communion to children im¬ mediately after baptism ; but if the Church no longer wishes the age of reason to be anticipated, much less does it wish reason to be anticipated by the passions. And how often have the passions, when unrestrained by the powerful check which the Eucharist affords, caused errors from which the soul returns with such difficulty, and so late ! If this reason does not suffice, and if we wish to know what are upon this point our Saviour’s in¬ tentions, we have no fear in saying that he will always be better pleased to have greater innocence with a little more levity, than greater sedateness with corruption already commenced. (’) This might really be translated: “Why askest thou me, calling me good ? ” Then Saint t .. : ' t I *. - ? • : ; ■ * . ■ ■ ' t : i.' < ‘ / .. .V i c l <* • ' *• CHRIST BLESSING LITTLE CHILDREN. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 727 is good but God alone.” 1 “ But,” added our Saviour, “ if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He said to him: Which ? ” thinking, perhaps, that the new teacher would bring new commandments. “And Jesus said:” “Thou knowest the commandments : ” “ Thou shalt do no mur¬ der ; 2 thou shalt not commit adultery ; thou shalt not steal ; thou shalt not bear false witness ; ” “ do no fraud ; ” “ honor thy fa¬ ther and thy mother;” “and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man saith to him : All these have I kept from m} r } T outh ; what is yet wanting to me ? ” “ Which when Jesus had heard,” “ looking on him, he loved him,” “ he said to him : Yet one thing is wanting to thee.” “ If thou wilt be perfect,” “go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, 3 and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; 4 and” then “come, follow me.” (St. Mark x. 17-21 ; St. Luke xviii. 18-22 ; St. Matt. xix. 16-25.) Matthew would make our Saviour say only what Saint Mark and Saint Luke represent him as say¬ ing, which is not unlikely, nor neither is it im¬ probable that he made use of both these expressions here ascribed to him. ( 1 ) He teaches that God alone is essentially good, and that nothing is good except by the com¬ munication of his goodness. The Arians grossly abused this text. The Fathers refuted them by this very simple reply: This young man is not aware that Jesus Christ is God, and Jesus Christ speaks to him according to his ignorance. (’) The commandments of the second table are alone mentioned, which regulate our duties to¬ wards our neighbor. That does not imply that there exist no other commandments, or that the others are unimportant; but if we observe these, we shall observe all the others. Taken by themselves, they are not the whole law; but their accomplish¬ ment is presumptive proof of the accomplishment He called him to evangelical perfection. Inestimable favor! It is more generally at that age that God confers this favor, and he usually confers it on those who, like this young man, have passed their first years in innocence : happy those who know how to profit by it ! Whatever it may cost them, they may say that they have chiefly purchased a rich treasure. But all have not the courage ; and too many follow his cowardice. “And when the young man had heard this word ” of our Saviour, “being struck sad,” “he went away sorrowful; for he had great posses¬ sions.” “And Jesus seeing him become sorrowful,” and “looking round about, saith to his disciples : How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the king¬ dom of God! ” 5 “ Amen I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.” “ And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus, of the whole law, according to this expression of Saint Paul (Rom. xiii.): “He that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law.” ( s ) Calvin, who deemed marriage better than virginity, also asserted that it is better to retain property, and take from its income wherewith to give alms, than to sell all at once, and distribute the price to the poor. While the Eustatheans, who were condemned in the Council of Gangres, pretended that the married could not be saved; and some Pelagians advanced that there was no salvation for those possessed of property. Catholic truth is usually to be found between two opposite errors, like Christ crucified between two thieves, according to the expression of Tertulliau. ( 4 ) The observance of the precepts will be re¬ warded ; that of the counsels more richly. A pen¬ ny is promised the former, a treasure to the latter. (*) It might occur to us that this counsel was obligatory, under pain of being excluded from the 728 HISTORY OF THE LIFE again answering, saith to them : Children, how hard is it 1 for them that trust in riches 2 to enter into the kingdom of God ! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, 3 than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” “The disciples wondered the more when they had heard this, saying among themselves : Who, then, can be saved? And Jesus looking on them, saith : With men it is impossible ; but not with God ; for all things are possible with God.” 4 (St. Mark x. 22-27; St. Luke xviii. 23, 24 ; St. Matt. xix. 22-25.) kingdom of God, and, therefore, a precept. How¬ ever, the different manner of proposing them proves evidently that this was merely a counsel. Of precepts Christ says: If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments; whereas he says here: If thou wilt he perfect, go sell, etc., etc. This marks the difference between perfection and duty, counsel and precept. The young man’s attach¬ ment to his great wealtli merely gave our Saviour an occasion for declaring the extreme difficulty the rich would have to obtain salvation. Perhaps, too, he foresaw that this one, who might be saved by renouncing his riches, would be lost by the abuse he would make of them; but their posses¬ sion then was to be the occasion, and not the cause of his loss, and in this sense it is true to say that, while he incurred reproof for not follow¬ ing our Saviour’s counsel, he did not, nevertheless, sin by not following it. The whole bears upon this evident maxim: a counsel by itself is not obligatory; and if it were, it would no longer be a counsel, but a precept. ( 1 ) Christ says with a sort of surprise, “ shall hardly.” He says with an oath : “ Amen, I say to you.” He says it even three times. 0 rich! if this thunder doth not awaken you, you do not sleep, vou are dead. •j ( 2 ) To place confidence in riches is to expect from them all one’s happiness; it is, therefore, to But whilst the disciples were engrossed by the startling information contained in our Saviour’s last words, Peter did not forget what the preceding words contained to his advantage. He was one of those voluntary poor who had left all in order to follow Jesus Christ, and to whom our Saviour had made such magnificent prom¬ ises. “Then Peter answering, said to him,” speaking also for his brethren : “ Behold, we have left all things 6 and have followed thee ; what, therefore, shall we have?” “And Jesus,” answering, “ said to them: Amen I say to you, that treasure them iu our heart in the place of God, who alone can render us happy. Therefore, is covetousness termed by Saint Paul “a serving of idols ” (Ephes. v. 5). ( 3 ) A proverb with the Jews, found also in the Talmud. ( 4 ) Ask how the universe could be drawn forth from nothing, and how it is possible that a rich man can be saved, the answer is the same : “ God is almighty.” ( 6 ) Those who would make little of the sacrifice of the apostles, because they abandoned only a bark and nets, must be ignorant that, to quit all without any exception, requires an incredible effort, and merits an inestimable recompense. The monarch who renounced all the kingdoms of the world, and remained attached to a thing as value¬ less as Saint Peter’s net, would make a sacrifice incomparably less painful to nature than a man who, being owner of this net alone, sacrifices it ab¬ solutely. Nothing can fill the heart of man ; but a mere nothing is sufficient to amuse him. Now, to disengage one’s self from this nothing, so to say, in order to cling to God alone, in order to repose solely in God, to have no good, no hope, no sup¬ port but God, who is he who can do this ? The widow who gave the two pence gave more than the rich, because she gave all. The sacrifice of a moderate* fortune is really OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 729 you who have followed me, in the regen¬ eration, 1 when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 2 And every one that hath left house, or brethren, greater than that of a greater fortune, because an individual sacrifices more comfort and repose. («) In the resurrection, which shall be like a second generation, by which men shall be born again to an immortal life. ( '■') Christ says so with the tacit condition that they persevere in the state of perfection they em¬ brace. For Judas was to exclude himself by his treachery. Thus, among those then present, only eleven were to sit upon these sublime thrones. On the other hand, Saint Matthias was to he chosen in the place of Judas. Christ’s mode of speaking amounts to this: Each of you (if he be faithful to his engagements) shall be seated upon a throne whence he shall judge, etc., etc. The number twelve should not, therefore, be taken literally. It comprises universally those who shall judge with Jesus Christ, just as the whole number of those who shall be judged is expressed by the twelve tribes of Israel. “Know you not that we shall judge angels?” says Saint Paul, which proves that the Jews are not the only people who shall be judged by the apostles. If it be not that, seated with Jesus Christ, they shall pronounce judgment with him, and like him. ( 3 ) We have seen that Christ permits divorce only in the case of adultery. Nevertheless, an indi¬ vidual may leave his wife for Christ’s sake in several ways. 1st. By not marrying, and then leaving signifies not to take. 2d. By leaving a married bride before the consummation of the marriage. Such was the case of Saint Alexis. It is always allowable to imitate him, provided this be done with the view of embracing the religious state. The marriage which has been celebrated, although not consummated, is dissolved by the profession, which restores back to the party who has been relinquished the right of contracting with another. 92 or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, 3 or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundred¬ fold,” “now in this present time; 4 houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, 6 with * (*) If any one dares deny this, the Council of Trent pronounces anathema on him. 3d. By leaving a heathen wife, when, being an infidel, one becomes a Christian, the wife remaining an unbeliever. 4th. By abstaining, both parties consenting, and living together like brother and sister. The first cen¬ turies of Christianity furnish thousands of ex¬ amples. 5th. It may be said that an individual leaves his wife for Christ and the Gospel, when he refuses to yield to her criminal wishes, and that he is disposed to endure her humors, her transports of passion, and, if necessary, her withdrawal and her separation, rather than sin from undue affec¬ tion. Too many husbands, since Adam, have been put to this trial, and have sustained it no better than he. (*) Although many think so, this second prom¬ ise announces, besides eternal life, only the hun¬ dred-fold of this life, proportioned to the extent and the perfection of the sacrifices. (‘) Since we do not see these hundreds of mothers, brethren, sisters, houses, and inheritances, commentators have perplexed themselves to find them. Those who advocate the millennium seem least embarrassed about the matter. But are they to have one hundred wives for one whom they may have left ? inquired Saint Jerome of these vision¬ aries. Other ascetics understood the text with re¬ ference to the large number of brethren, sisters, houses, and possessions, which those acquire who embrace the religious state, wherein there exists community of property. This is a pious illusion. This hundred-fold is contentment, which is of such a nature, that it equals or surpasses that which could be afforded by a hundred mothers, brethren, sisters, houses, and patrimonies. Christ is a substitute for all, or rather he replaoes them with an immense addition. If any one, said he, doth 730 HISTORY OP THE LIFE persecutions, 1 and, in the world to come, life everlasting. But,” adds our Saviour, “ many that are first shall be last, and the last first.” (St. Matt. xix. 27-30 ; St. Mark x. 29-31 ; St. Luke xviii. 28-30.) It is not difficult to understand in what sense this is applicable to what precedes. The apostles, dazzled by the glory which was promised to them, might find it diffi¬ cult to believe that poor sinners like them should one day be the judges of all men, without distinction of rich and poor, mon¬ arch and subject. Christ confirmed them in this faith, by informing them that the order established in this world should be subverted in the other, or rather that the disorder of this world should be succeeded by perfect and eternal order. Here birth and fortune alone make the great and the little ; there ranks shall be regulated by merit alone : the lowest of men, if he has been the most virtuous, shall be the first ; and the first, if he has been the most vi¬ cious, shall be the last. We must not then be any longer astonished that the the will of my Father, he shall be my mother, my brother, and my sister. He is to us all that he has said we shall be to him. “Am I not better to thee than ten children ? ” said Elcana to the vir¬ tuous Anna (1 Kings i. 8). This is nearly the same language which our Saviour addresses the soul which has relinquished all for him; and the union which he contracts with her is so intimate and so delicious, that all the ties of flesh and blood are in comparison but misery and affliction. We are so assured by those who experience it, and they alone can give testimony. ( 1 ) Persecutions are to this content what water is when cast upon a blazing furnace. At highest seats there are to be filled by the poor, whilst the majority of the rich and the great, cast down at their feet, shall grovel in the dust. Perhaps Christ wished also to inculcate on his disciples that what was promised was not yet assured to them ; that they might still lose those thrones which were prepared for them. This sense, which comprises the great mystery of the transfer and substitution of graces, was so literally accomplished in Judas, that it is not at all unlikely that our Saviour had him in view when he uttered this sentence. But these same words which formed the conclusion of the pre¬ ceding discourse, served, at the same time, to introduce to the following para¬ ble, where they express the perfect inde¬ pendence of God in the distribution of his graces. Christ continued thus : “ The kingdom of God is like to a householder, 8 who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour, 4 he saw tbe moment when poured on, it abates the flame; but it afterwards renders it more brisk and more durable. “ I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation,” said Saint Paul (2 Cor. vii. 4). He was no longer apprehensive of losing this joy, since he had experienced that persecution itself could not deprive him of it. ( a ) This signifies that God, in the administra¬ tion of his kingdom, which is his Church, demeans himself nearly like a father of a family, etc., etc. (*) This penny weighed perhaps the eighth part of an ounce, and was worth about fifteen cents of our money. It was the pay of a day laborer. ( 4 ) About nine o’clock in the morning. The OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 731 others standing in the market-place idle, and he said to them : Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just, and they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them : Why stand ye here all the day idle ? They saj T to him : Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them : Go you also into my vineyard. And, when even¬ ing was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward : Call the laborers, and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When, there¬ fore, they were come that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a Jews reckoned twelve hours in the day, from sun- l'ise to sunset. These hours'were unequal, accord¬ ing to the length of the day. They also divided the day into four parts, each of three hours. ( 1 ) The last come were, therefore, first paid. In the parable this circumstance was necessary, in or¬ der that the others might see that these received the same payment as themselves. Since the first do not murmur at the payment being first made to the other class, this species of priority should not apparently be deemed a favor, merely considering the letter of the parable; but not so with the ap¬ plication. For the object is to establish, that the last shall be the first, and the first shall be last. There must be some real advantage to the last not enjoyed by the first. This is found in the predi¬ lection which God has signally shown towards the Gentiles, who became, to the exclusion of the Jews, the chosen people. It is also shown in the love which he lavishes on sinners who, though late, re¬ turn sincerelv to him. These are the two applica¬ tions made of this parable. (* *) By virtue of the agreement. As soon as penny. 1 But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more ; and they also received every man a penny, and receiving it, they murmured against the master of the house, saying -. These lasthave worked’’but “one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering, said to one of them : Friend, I do thee no wrong ; didst thou not agree with me for one penny ? Take what is thine, 8 and go thy way ; I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is thy eye evil, because I am good ? So shall the last be first, and the first last; for many are called, but few chosen.” 3 (St. Matt. xx. 1-16.) they had completed their engagement, the penny was their just due. It was gratuitous, for the householder might not have entered into any en¬ gagement with them; he might employ them or pass them by at his own option. On the other hand, having promised wages to those whom he called at a late hour, he was also justly indebted to them. Thus justice in the first class does not ex¬ clude grace, and grace in the second class does not altogether exclude justice. This is the doctrine of Saint Paul. (1 Cor. xv. 10; 2 Tim. iv. 8.) (*) All those spoken of being elect, as all re¬ ceived the penny, we no longer see how this con¬ clusion refers to the parable. But we can very easily connect it with those words which go imme¬ diately before: So shall the last be first, and the first last. It is as if Christ said : You seem sur¬ prised at hearing me state that the first called shall be sent to the lowest rank ; how much more should you wonder that, amongst this great number of men who have been called, and who shall yet be called, very few shall have the reward. 732 HISTORY OF THE LIFE > We can, then, return to God at any age, and he grants to those who give themselves to him in their declining days the same re¬ ward as to those who have begun to serve him even from early youth. The reward is the same, although unequal in degree, in proportion to the time which the indi¬ vidual shall have spent in his service ; al¬ though it may also happen, that those who have begun late equal by their fervor, or even surpass many who have toiled from the morning of their life. Such are the consoling truths which Christ in this para¬ ble proposes to sinners, and the sense in which it is usually expounded. But what of the murmuring of the first comers? As all are rewarded, they are all just and blessed ; and it is certain that in the day of retribution, those among the just who have been least favored, far from reproach¬ ing our Lord with the inequality of his favors, will, on the contrary, bless and applaud him. This warrants the applica¬ tion of it to the two races. The Jews, if you compare people to people, had been called from the time of Abraham, and the Gentiles were called only by the apostles. Moreover, if we compare man with man, each Jew had toiled all his life in the vine¬ yard of the Lord. Circumcised from his birth, he had borne the yoke of the law till the day when he embraced the evan¬ gelical law. Then he received in baptism both the remission of his sins and the quality of child of God and heir of the heavenly kingdom. But a Gentile who became converted, received, as well as he, this precious penny. From the midst of pagan horrors, he opened his eyes to the light of faith, and at the instant became equal to the children of the promise. Murmurs arose amongst the Jews in con¬ sequence of this equality which they had never anticipated, and could not behold without envy. Discontent might ulti¬ mately have driven them from the Church, or prevented their entering it, if these two parables had not prepared them ; for both have the same object. But if they tend to the same end, they do so by dif¬ ferent paths. That of the first parable shows the paternal love which God enter¬ tains towards all men, without excepting those who have wandered farthest from his ways. The second shows his perfect independence in the distribution of his graces, with no reason for preference but his own good pleasure. This occurred in Judea beyond the Jor¬ dan, where Jesus then was. He was on his way towards Jerusalem ; but as it was his design not to reach the city until the approach of the feast of the Pasch, he proceeded very slowly, teaching on the way, and curing the sick. It is even ap¬ parent that he prolonged his stay in the places in which he had resolved to diffuse still more light and grace, when on a sud¬ den he was called almost to the walls of the capital, by the sickness and death of Lazarus, whose resurrection must be re¬ garded as one of the most memorable events of this history, not only because it was the greatest miracle which Christ per¬ formed during his whole life, but on ac¬ count of its consequences; for we may consider it as the proximate cause of our Saviour’s death. Too plain to leave any OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 733 room for their wicked subtleties, this mir¬ acle drove his enemies to extremes, and to them there now remained no course ex¬ cept either to adore him or to crucify him. Between these two extremes envy neypr hesitated. f S ;V/ ' v • CHAPTER XLVI. THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS.—FIRST COUNCIL AGAINST JESUS CHRIST.— CAIPHAS PROPH¬ ESIES.—JESUS RETIRES TO EPHREM. “ \ T OW there was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethania, of the town of Mary, and of Martha, her sister. Mary was she that anointed the Lord with ointment, 1 and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. His sister, therefore, sent to Jesus, (‘) The Church, in the Office of Saint Magda¬ len, makes only one and the same person of her whom some would fain make two, and even three different persons. On both sides it is merely an opinion ; but we may say that the opinion of those who multiply the Marys has in its favor neither so decisive a reason, nor so respectable an authority, as the authority we have just cited. (*) This is, according to the Fathers, the model of perfect prayer. It consists in the simple ex¬ pression of want, accompanied by a firm confidence in God. This confidence is based on the knowl¬ edge which we have of the goodness, power, and wisdom of God. By his goodness he wishes well to us; by his power he is enabled to do us good; by his wisdom he discerns what is most advan¬ tageous to us. This produces resignation, happen what may, because he knows better than we what is necessary for us. (* *) Death cuts off forever from the society of the living. That of Lazarus was not to have this effect. In this sense his sickness is not unto death. saying : Lord, behold, he whom thou lov- est is sick. 2 And Jesus, hearing it, said to them : This sickness is not unto death ; 8 but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus. 4 When he had heard, therefore, ( 4 ) Jesus Christ, as God, loved men from all eternity: as man, he has loved them from the in¬ stant of his conception, with that supernatural love of charity which has God alone for its motive and its end. It is known that he had these two species of love for Martha, her sister Mary, and their brother Lazarus; and that, too, with the predilection which he entertains towards the saints and the predestined. But as man, he might enter¬ tain various other sorts of love, natural love, founded upon kindred, familiarity, sympathy, etc.; love of esteem and complacency, founded upon upright inclinations and virtuous morals ; love of gratitude, founded upon the attachment evinced towards him. He did not entertain these latter varieties of love for all men; but he might have entertained them towards those in whom he found cause: such were Lazarus and his two sisters. We thus have the sense in which it is here stated that he loved them, that is to say, that he entertained a particular friendship for them. 1 734 HISTORY OF THE LIFE that he was sick, he still remained in the us also go, that we may die with him. 5 So same place two days ; then after that he Jesus came, 6 and found that he had been said to his disciples : Let us go into Judea four days already in the grave. 7 Now, again. The disciples say to him : Rabbi, Bethania was near Jerusalem, about fifteen the Jews but just now sought to stone furlongs off; and many of the Jews were thee; and goest thou thither again ? Je- come to Martha and Mary, to comfort sus answered : Are there not twelve hours them concerning their brother. Martha, of the day ? If a man walk in the day, therefore, as soon as she heard that Jesus he stumbleth not, 1 because he seeth the was come, went to meet him ; but Mart 7- light of this world ; but if he walk in the sat at home. Martha said to Jesus : Lord, night, he stumbleth, because the light is if thou hadst been here, my brother had not in him. These things he said ; and not died ; 8 but now also I know that what- after that he said to them : Lazarus, our soever thou wilt ask of G-od, God will give friend, sleepeth ; but I go, that I may it thee. And Jesus saith to her : Thy awake him out of sleep. His disciples, brother shall rise again. Martha said to therefore, said : Lord, if he sleep, he shall him : I know that he shall rise again in do well. But Jesus spoke of his death, the resurrection, at the last day. Jesus and they thought that he spoke of the re- said to her : I am the resurrection and pose of sleep ; then, therefore, Jesus said the life; 9 he that believeth in me, al- to them plainly : Lazarus is dead, and I though he be dead, shall live ; 10 and every am glad, for your sake, 2 that I was not one that liveth, and believeth in me, shall there, 3 that you may believe ; but let us not die forever. Believest thou this ? She go to him. Then Thomas, who is called saith to him : Yea, Lord. I have be- Didymus, 4 said to his fellow-disciples : Let lieved that thou art Christ, the Son ( 1 ) It is a figurative mode of saying : the time come from a greater distance, and even from be- when I have resolved to die is not yet come; until yond the Jordan, is shown by this expression: “ Let then I have nothing to fear for myself. Thus it us go into Judea,” for one who was in Jericho was was that Christ sent word to Herod: “I must in Judea. walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day follow- (’) It follows from this that Lazarus had been ing” (St. Luke xiii. 33), as he said to those who interred the very day of his death. came to arrest him : ‘‘This is your hour and the (*) Imperfect faith. Jesus Christ, from a dis- power of darkness.” (St. Luke xxii. 53.) tance, might hinder him from dying, as well as if ( 2 ) That you may be confirmed in the faith. near. ( 8 ) He was there as God, but he speaks as (•) He raises Martha to higher thoughts : she man. believed that she had only to ask in order to ob- ( 4 ) Thomas in Hebrew signifies Twin, as Did- tain. He informs her that she does not even ymus does in Greek. require to ask. ( 8 ) He spoke this sincerely and from his heart, ('") He who is dead shall live, that is to say, and not ironically, as some injudiciously assert. that he shall recover life by the resurrection. He ( 8 ) After two days’ march. He was not, then, who lives shall not die forever, because he shall at Jericho, as some moderns assert. That he had die only in order to rise again. 1 OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 735 of the living God, who art come into this world. 1 And when she had said these things, she went, and called her sister Mary secretly, saying: The Master is come, and calleth for thee. She, as soon as she heard this, riseth quickly, and cometh to him ; for Jesus was not yet come into the town, but he was still in that place where Martha had met him. “ The Jews, who were with her 2 in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary that she rose up speedily, and went out, followed her, saying : She goeth to the grave to weep there. When Mary, therefore, was come where Jesus was, seeing him, she fell down at his feet, and saith to him : Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus, therefore, saw her weeping, and the Jews that were come with her weeping, he groaned in the spirit, and troubled him¬ self, and said : Where have you laid him ? They said to him ; Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. 3 The Jews, therefore, said : Behold how lie loved him. But some of them said : Could not he that opened the eyes of the man born blind, have caused that this man should not die ? Jesus, therefore, again groaning in him¬ self, cometh to the sepulchre : now, it was ( 1 ) This is the confession of Saint Peter. Mar¬ tha has the honor of being the first woman who is known to have made it. The whole faith is com¬ prised in it, but this faith was not as yet entirely developed. (*) Mary remained in the company of those who came to condole with her. (’) To weep with those who weep is, according to Saint Paul, a duty of charity. Christ might a cave, and a stone was laid over it. Je¬ sus saith : Take away the stone. 4 Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him : Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he is now of four days. Jesus saith to her : Did not I say to thee, that if thou wilt believe, thou shalt see the glory of God ? They took, therefore, the stone away, and Jesus lifting up his eyes, said : Father, I give thee thanks that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the people who stand about, I have said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. When he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice : Lazarus, come forth ! And pres¬ ently he that had been dead came forth, bound feet and hands with winding-bands, and his face was bound about with a nap¬ kin. Jesus said to them : Loose him, and let him go. Many, therefore, of the Jews who were come to Mary and Martha, and had seen the things that Jesus did, be¬ lieved in him : but some of them went to the Pharisees, and told them the things that Jesus had done.” (St. John xi. 1-46.) Did these Jews, who went and told of this prodigy, belong to the great mass of those who believed, or to the small number of the unbelievers? This is uncertain. More also weep at the sight of human miseries, and it was not unworthy of him to shed tears at the death of his friend. ( 4 ) Christ might miraculously raise the stone, but he did not wish to do so; 1st. Because human means being sufficient, the miracle was useless. 2d. Because the fetid odor from the corpse, by making his death indubitable, prevented all doubt as to the miraculous character of the resurrection. 736 HISTORY OF THE LIFE scandalized at this resurrection than they would have been if they had received in¬ formation that our Saviour had just com¬ mitted a murder, “ the chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said : What do we,” and what are we thinking about? “this man doth many miracles.” Remark that they do not call him a blasphemer, nor a seducer of the people, nor rebellious to the law or to the authority of the Caesars. This was all well enough to say to the masses ; but they knew so well in their own hearts that such charges could not be justly brought against our Saviour, that to use that language when speaking among them¬ selves, would be exposing thtmselves to be considered as silly as the populace upon whom they sought to impose it. “ For this man doth many miracles ”— behold his crime! in the eyes of these proud men. This makes them add : “If we let him alone so, all will believe in him.” Here we see the reason why, instead of this personal interest which they dared not avow, they alleged the interest of the public, and the state threatened with im¬ pending ruin, if an opposition were not organized against the progress of so dan¬ gerous a man, “ and the Romans will ( 1 ) This is the prophecy of what really oc¬ curred to them for not having believed in Christ, and for having put him to death. ( 5 ) Prophecy, the gift of pronouncing oracles, is attached to dignity, and not to merit. It became, the wisdom of God that such should be the case, because we always know where dignity exists, and we can never be sure where virtue does. (See Malachi ii. 7.) come and take away our place and nation.” 1 It seems then that they exchanged glances, and that by these looks they asked each other for the fatal word, which no one had the boldness to utter ; when, “ one of them, named Caiphas, being the high-priest for that year, said to them: You know nothing, neither do you consider that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the peo¬ ple, and that the whole nation perish not.” (St. John xi. 47-50.) This wicked man meant only that we should make no scruple of sacrificing an innocent man to our own interest; but his words also contained a mysterious and profound meaning which he did not under¬ stand, that is. that the world was to be saved only by the death of Jesus Christ. The first meaning was his own ; the second was that of the Holy Ghost, who put in his mouth words which enounced this great truth. To this second meaning is it said that “this he spoke not of himself; but being the high-priest of that year, 2 he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but to gather together in one the children of God that were dispersed.” 3 But the murderous meaning, the only ( a ) In order to gather from all parts of earth into one Church all the children of God; they were not as yet the children of God, and they only became such when they received the char¬ acter by baptism. Jesus Christ was also to die for those who did not receive him, since he was to die for all men. But allusion is made here to those only to whom the fruits of his death were applied. OP OTTR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 737 one then understood, was universally adopted. “From that day, therefore, they devised to put Jesus to death.” We see how to regard the formality which they pretended to observe when they had him in their power. If they called witnesses, it was all for the purpose of deluding the world, for, in reality, he was already judged and condemned to death : the sentence had anticipated the trial. The hour was approaching, but had not yet come. Jesus, who, in order to exhibit his power, had just braved the fury of his enemies, wished also to give his disciples the example of a wise timidity and a prudent flight. “ Wherefore Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews ; but he went into a countrv near the desert, unto a city that is called Ephrem, and there he abode with his disciples. And the pasch of the Jews was at hand, and many from the country went up to Jerusalem before the pasch to purify themselves. They sought, therefore, for Jesus, and they dis¬ coursed one with another, standing in the temple : What think you that he is not come to the festival-day ? And the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that if any man knew where he was, he should tell, that they might apprehend him.” (St, John xi. 51-56.) CHAPTE1 HE RETURNS TO JERUSALEM.—ZEAL OF THE T'' TOLD WITH ITS CIRCUMSTANCES.—AMBITIOUS OF THE OTHER DISCIPLES, AND THE INSTRL CHO.—A BLIND MAN CURED.—ZACHEUS.—PAI “ T T came to pass when the days of his X assumption were accomplishing, that Jesus steadfastly set his face to go to Jeru¬ salem. And he sent messengers before his facB ” to announce his arrival in the places through which he should pass. “And going, they entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for him ” what was necessary. But “ they received him not, because his face was of one going to Jerusalem!” Now, going towards Jeru- I XL VII. VO DISCIPLES REPRESSED.—THE PASSION FORE- 3 CLAIM OF THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE.—MURMURS rCTION GIVEN THEM.—PASSAGE THROUGH JERI- tABLE OF THE TEN POUNDS.—TWO BLIND MEN. salem, at the time of the Pasch, was more than ever to avow himself a Jew and an anti-Samaritan. “ When his disciples, James and John, had seen this,” unable to endure the affront cast upon their Master, and burning with the desire to avenge him, “ they said : Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them? Jesus turning, re¬ buked them, saying : You know not of what spirit you are. 1 The Son of man came not ( 1 ) They did not yet know the meek spirit of 93 the Gospel, and they speak in the spirit of the old 3 738 HISTORY OF THE LIFE to destroy souls, 1 but to save ; and they went The disciples, to whom Christ repeated into another town.” (St. Luke ix. 51-56.) this prediction, for the third time, “under- “ They were in the way going up to Je- stood none of these things, this word was rusalem, and Jesus went before them, and hid from them, and they understood not they were astonished, and following, were the things that were said.” (St. Luke xviii. afraid.” (St. Mark x. 32.) The animosity 34.) So true it is that nothing is more of the Jews made the disciples always unintelligible than what we do not wish to tremble for their Master and themselves. understand, nor more incredible than that The conspiracies, which had hitherto which we are not disposed to believe. failed, might at length succeed ; and they But, although they were not then under- might also become victims. Jesus Christ stood, these prophecies were not useless. did not seek to dispel this fear. He They were to serve in diminishing at least would rather have changed it into certain- the surprise and discouragement of the ty, at least as far as regarded himself, per- disciples when the event occurred, and sonally, had they been capable of under- who knows but it was this that sustained, standing him. For, “ taking unto him the or revived, the courage of the well-beloved twelve, he began to tell them the things disciple ? Moreover, the prediction of his that should befall him : Behold, he said to death was a certain proof that, on our them, we go up to Jerusalem, and all Saviour’s part, his death was perfectly things shall be accomplished which were free and voluntary, and his glory required written by the prophets concerning the that there should be no doubt as to it. Son of man. He shall be betrayed to the What shows clearly that the disciples chief priests, to the scribes, and ancients. had no conception of the meaning of their They shall condemn him to death, and de- Master’s discourse, is the request which liver him to the Gentiles. They shall two of the most cherished had the bold- mock him, 2 and spit on him, and scourge ness to make. Even at this very juncture, him, and kill him, and the third day he when he had just closed the detail of his shall rise again.” future humiliations, in a manner so affect- law, a spirit of rigor. However, we behold in- or bodies, spoke it here in both these significa- stances of severity under the G-ospel, and of meek- tions. pess under the old law. Peter, by his word, strikes ( 2 ) They. The Gentiles who committed the Ananias and Sapphira dead at his feet. Eliseus greater part of these cruelties, although in the text sends the Syrians, who came to take him, back this may equally and justly apply to the Jews also; safe and sound, after providing them with food. for we may say that they did all the evil which they Thus meekpess is only the predominant quality caused. They scourged our Saviour, and crucified of the new law, as rigor was that of the old him by the hands of the Gentiles. The crime of law. the executioner is simple; he is only guilty of the ( 1 ) The expression “ to destroy souls,” in Scrip- execution. That of the author is double; he is ture, refers to bodily as well as spiritual life. Jesus guilty of the crime which he commits and of that Christ, who n^yer did aught but good to souls which he causes to be committed. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 739 ing, and so capable of curing them of all ambition, “James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come to him, saying : Master, we desire that whatsoever we shall ask thou wouldst do it for us. But he said to them : What would you that I should do for you ? And they said : Grant to us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, 1 in thy glory.” (St. Mark x. 35-37.) Another evangelist relates the transaction in a different way. “ Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee, with her sons, adoring, and asking something of him : who said to her : What wilt thou ? She said to him : Say that these, my two sons, may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom.” (St. Matt. xx. 20, 21.) The request is the same ; the mother may have repeated what her children had said, or the children what the mother had said ; or else, what appears most likely, the mother alone may have spoken, in the name of her children. In the same way they put in the mouth of the centurion the prayer which his messengers made in his name, to ask for the cure of his servant. Be that as it may, inasmuch as the request regarded the two brothers, it was to them that Jesus addressed the reply: “You know not,” he said to them, “ what you ask. Can you drink ot the chalice 2 that I shall drink,” 3 “or be baptized where¬ with I am baptized?” We can, 4 “They say to him : We can : He saitli to them : My chalice indeed you shall drink,” 5 “ and with the baptism wherewith am I baptized you shall be baptized : ” “ but to sit on my right hand or on my left is not mine to give, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.” 6 (St. Matt. xx. 22-24 ; St. Mark x. 38-40.) “ And the ten hearing it, were moved with indignation against the two brethren,” ( 1 ) Christ had promised that they should all sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And yet these poor fishermen were not yet content. Being promised the enjoyment of thrones, each of them wished to have the first, and their pride was humbled by the very thought that they might see some one else take precedence of them. Ambition has no limits. It always ascends, according to the ex¬ pression of the Psalmist. 'When it seems to confine its pretensions to a middle rank, the reason is because this rank happens to be the only - one within its reach. Ambition is ever the same, as strong in a vil¬ lager avIio wishes to be the great man in his village, as in Caesar desiring to rule the Roman Empire. ( a ) The chalice and baptism signify the passion of our Saviour. In Scripture, the word chalice is frequently used to signify sufferings. Baptism, in the figurative sense, is more uncommon ; it is sel¬ dom appropriated to anything but the passion, in which Jesus Christ was, as it were, bathed in waves of his own blood. (*) If we suffer with Christ, says Saint Paul, we shall be glorified with him. It is in this sense above all others that they did not know what they asked. So great a glory could not be conferred through favor ; it could only be the reward of merit. ( 4 ) That is to say, we are disposed to do so. It is always praiseworthy to make good resolutions, but still we can place no confidence except in tried virtue. — (Ecclus. xxxiv. 9.) (‘) We read of the martyrdom of Saint James in the Acts of the Apostles. Saint John died a natural death. But Domitian, it is known, caused him to be plunged into a caldron of boiling oil. He came forth from it unharmed, but was trans¬ ported to the isle of Patmos, where he suffered a painful exile. (‘) Besides that these places shall be ad- 740 HISTORY OF THE LIFE “ James and John.” This furnished an occasion for our Saviour to give to them all the admirable lesson which we are about to hear. “He called them to him, and saith to them : You know that the princes of the G-entiles lord it over them ; and they that are the greater exercise power over them. It shall not be so among you : but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minis¬ ter, and he that will be first among you, shall be your servant; even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many.” (St. Matt. xx. 25-28 ; St. Mark x. 42-45.) Jesus had already more than once de¬ clared that we must become little in order to become great, and that by humility alone can we attain elevation. This les¬ son, which is found repeated in the words which he has just pronounced, is not the only lesson here inculcated. He also pre¬ sents the sole motive which can make it lawful to desire authority, that of serving our fellow-men ; and the noblest use which man can make of it is to exhaust himself, and, if necessary, sacrifice himself utterly and entirely for those whom he has a right to command. Nothing, perhaps, could show it better than this comparison, had not our Saviour made us sensible of it by another much more affecting and persua¬ sive example, his own. During the three judged to merit only, a special choice on the part of God is necessary, in order to be called to this merit to which they shall be adjudged. Prom all eter¬ nity this choice is made and recorded in the coun¬ cils of the Most High. The Son and the Holy years which he passed with his disciples, there can be no doubt but that he refused their services, and tendered them his own. Although the evangelists furnish us with no details, they yet say enough to give us to understand that such was the case. If the washing of the feet is one of the most signal instances, it is far from being the only one ; and are not all the details com¬ prised in that single assertion: I am “ not come to be ministered unto, but to minister ? ” The holy Pope Saint Clement relates from his master, Saint Peter, that, when the holy apostle beheld any one asleep, the tears immediately started to his eyes. When asked the reason, he re¬ plied, that this sight recalled to his remem¬ brance his dear Master, who, whilst they all slept, watched for them all ; and if it so happened that any of them got uncov¬ ered whilst sleeping, or tossed his poor bed, he carefully covered him again, and replaced what had been disturbed. It is lawful to desire authority, when the desire springs from the sole motive of charity. This is, to the letter, desiring, not the glory, but the “ good work of the office of bishop ” (St. Paul, 1 Tim. iii. 1)—the only thing in it which charity allows us to de¬ sire, because “ charity is not ambitious ;” whereas the desires of ambition point ex¬ clusively towards the titles and prerog¬ atives of authority, because ambition is anything but charitable. Ghost have no less a part in it than the Father. However, Jesus Christ attributes it more particu¬ larly to the Father, who, in the Trinity, is the first principle. OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 741 Ephrera, whither our Saviour retired after the resurrection of Lazarus, is north¬ east of Jerusalem, on the frontiers of Judea and Samaria, on the former con¬ fines of Ephraim and Benjamin. In pro¬ ceeding to the capital, one could not pass through Jericho without turning aside to¬ wards the east. “It came to pass, when he drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the wayside, begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by: and he cried out, saying: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. They that went before rebuked him, 1 that he should hold his peace ; but he cried out much more : Son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus standing, commanded him to be brought unto him : 2 and when he was come near, he asked him, saying : What wilt thou that I do to thee ? But he said : Lord, that I may see. And Jesus said to him : Receive thy sight; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw and followed him, glorifying God ; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.” (St. Luke xviii. 35-43.) “ And entering in, Jesus walked through Jericho” with the accumulating throng which the cure of the blind man had gath¬ ered around him. “ And behold, there was a man named Zacheus, who was the chief of the publicans, and he was rich. He sought to see Jesus, who he was, and he could not for the crowd, because he was low of stature. And running before, he climbed up into a sycamore tree, that he might see him : 3 for Jesus was to pass that way. When Jesus was come to the place, looking up, he saw him, and said to him : Zacheus, make haste and come down, for this day I must abide in thy house.” Zacheus “ made haste and came down, and received him with joy. And when all saw it, they murmured, saying that he was gone to be a guest with a man that was a sinner.” Little knew they that, by the invisible operation of grace, he whom they thought a sinner was already a saint. “ But Zacheus standing, said to the Lord : Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor ; 4 and if I have wronged any ( 1 ) There are two classes with whom we never find Christ agree, those who censure and those who repulse. Nothing is less conformable to his benignity than the malignity of the former, nor to his meekness than the harshness of the latter. ( a ) If he had ceased to cry out, perhaps our Saviour would not have approached, and he would nave remained blind. Those who wish to approach God must despise the remonstrances of wordlings. (*) It was with Zacheus nearly as it was with the blind man. When the crowd hindered the former from seeing our Saviour, he did not cease to desire it, as the blind man did not cease to cry out, although it appeared he was not at first heard. The latter disregarded those who sought to silence him ; and Zacheus did not hesitate to ascend the sycamore, a proceeding which must have appeared highly strange in a man of his station, and which might easily have excited the shouts of the popu¬ lace. Perseverance in desire, despite of obstacles, and disregard of what people will say saved them both. ( 4 ) That is to say, I will give ; according to the common interpretation, which is that which we follow. Many understand it in the present tense. According to them, Zacheus, in order to reply to 742 HISTORY OF THE LIFE man of anything, I restore him 1 four-fold. 9 Jesus said to him: This day is salvation come to this house, 3 because he also is a son of Abraham ; 4 for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (St. Luke xix. 1-10.) So remarkable a step seemed to presage great things, and the minds of all, and es¬ pecially of the disciples, were in a won¬ derful expectation of what was to follow. Jesus still labored to disabuse them of the false and flattering ideas which they found it so difficult to lay aside. “As they were hearing these things, he added the murmuring of the Jews, by stating what he was accustomed to do, shows that he is not so great a sinner as they allege. In fact, a man who is in the habit of giving to the poor half his wealth, and of making a four-fold reparation for the wrongs he may inadvertently commit, is surely a good mau ; therefore Christ could not say that the day was to that house a day of salvation. Hence the majority of interpreters regard his words as the announcement of what he proposed to do. See the Abbe de Saint Reals Exposition of our Sa¬ viour’s Words to Zacheus. ( 1 ) Restitution, of all proofs of conversion the most necessary, the least equivocal, and would to God that we were not obliged to add, the most rare! ( 2 ) It Zacheus reckoned correctly, it follows from his words that at least seven-eighths of his wealth was lawfully his. We see by that, that this pub¬ lican could not be termed one of the leeches of the State. (* *) Like master like house is the general rule. No doubt Zacheus, who apparently had scan¬ dalized his house, was henceforth instrumental in sanctifying it. ( ) A son ot Abraham, although a publican, supposing him to have been a Jew. This as an answer to the prejudice against the publicans, whom the Jews seemed no longer to recognize as and spoke a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of Gfod should imme¬ diately be manifested : he said, therefore • A certain nobleman went into a far coun¬ try, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And calling his ten servants, he gave them ten pounds, 5 and said to them : Trade till I come. But his citizens hated him, and they sent an embassage after him, saying: We will not have this man to reign over us. 6 And it came to pass that he returned, having received the kingdom, and he commanded his servants brethren. A son of Abraham according to the spirit, supposing that he were a Gentile, which should have convinced them that a man is much more the son of Abraham by faith than by blood. ( 6 ) Ten Pounds. In the original mnas. The Jewish mna was worth about twenty-five dollars. (*) It was not to him that the deputation was sent; for had it been, the deputies would have said: We will not have you for our king, and not, We will not have this man to reign over us. To whom, therefore, was the embassy addressed ? To the prince from whose hands this man was to re¬ ceive the crown; for the country over which he was to rule as king was that from which he set out. By this we see the allusion of the parable; and without it we are utterly at a loss to know what it means. Now this figure was quite familiar to the Jews. Their princes usually went to Rome to solicit the investiture of the States. Herod the Great had been there; after him Archelaus and other princes. Suppose a part of the nation should send a deputation to the emperor, to declare that they did not wish him as king; that, notwithstand¬ ing, the candidate prevails; that he returns, and that he revenges himself upon those who had op¬ posed his pretensions ; then we shall no longer find any diflSculty in understanding the literal sense of the parable. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 743 to be called, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. And the first came, saying: Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said to him: Well done, thou good servant: be¬ cause thou hast been faithful in a little, thou shalt have power over ten cities. And the second came, saying: Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. Be thou also, he said to him, over five cities. An¬ other came, saying : Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin, 1 for I feared thee, because thou art an austere man : thou takest up what thou didst not lay down, 2 and thou reapest that which thou didst not sow. And he saitli to him : out of thy own mouth I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up what I laid not down, and reaping that which I did not sow. Why, then, didst ( 1 ) To make this money productive, it was ne¬ cessary to expose it to some risk. However, this was not a valid reason for leaving it idle. Where- foi - e, speaking in a general way, we are bound to make available the talent which God confides to us for the public good, although there be danger. Otherwise, there would be no preachers, confes¬ sors, or pastors. Where an individual discerns a proximate occasion of losing his soul, he must pre¬ fer his own salvation to that of the entire world, for “ What doth it avail a man to gain ” even for God “the whole world, if he lose his own soul? ” (*) We do not find that the owner required anything from those to whom he had confided noth¬ ing. ne was not, therefore, such as the bad servant represented. Bad Christians refuse to render to God what they owe to him, because God, say they, ex¬ acts more than can be paid him. If they speak thou not give my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have exacted it with usury ? And he said to them that stood by : Take the pound away from him, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. They said to him : Lord, be hath ten pounds. 8 But I say to you, that to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound ; and from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken from him. But as for those my enemies, who would not have me reign over them, bring them hither, and kill them before me.” (St. Luke xix. 11-27.) Jesus was shortly to depart from this world, in order to receive from the hands of his Father sovereign dominion over the whole earth. The Jews, who were to have been his first subjects, but who, on the contrary, were to become his murderers, filled up the measure of their crimes by persisting in their refusal to have him over truth, God is a tyrant; but if they speak falsehood, they are impious men, who add blasphemy to pre¬ varication. But it does not occur to them that this criminal apology only renders them inexcus¬ able. For if God be so severe that he exacts from us more than we can do, why have they not done at least what they could? If he shall punish those who do not perform what is impossible, how will he treat those who shall have omitted what is possible ? This regards those who do nothing be¬ cause of the alleged impossibility of doing all. (* *) Since the ten pounds were still his own, the master left him, therefore, sole owner of them; he made his servants work for their profit, and not his own. God leaves us all the profit of the good which we do, and only reserves the glory for him¬ self. Wo to him who would usurp this share which belongs to God! he would thereby lose the whole profit 744 HISTORY OF THE LIFE them. His apostles, and the first faithful whom they put to death, should be, as it were, the deputies whom they sent to heaven to declare that their resolution was taken, and that they would not receive him as king. On a future day he is to re¬ turn in all his glory, and with all the power which belongs to supreme author¬ ity ; then citing to his tribunal these hardened culprits, he will force them at last to recognize his rights, and deliver them over to the executioners of his eter¬ nal vengeance. This day is the last judg¬ ment, which was to be prefigured by one other day yet to come. That other was when, delivered up to the Eomans, mil¬ lions were to perish by fire and sword. Behold the principal object of this pro¬ phetic parable. Even previous to the event, the meaning of the parable was very plain, because we here see clearly the departure of this king—the Messias— for a foreign land, his long absence and his return, signalized by chastisements, which an obstinate rebellion had so justly deserved. The account rendered by his servants is not, therefore, an integral part. It contains, however, instruction for Chris¬ tians, and for the Jews. Jesus Christ in¬ forms us that his justice will not confine itself to the wreaking of vengeance on those who denied him, but that it will also require from those who recognized him an exact account. He further informs us how munificently he will reward those who have made these goods available, and with what severity he shall treat those who have not derived any profit there¬ from. What, then, doth he reserve for those who shall have dissipated and de¬ stroyed them ? The following account is identified by some with a previous incident. Every¬ thing is similar except two circumstances. The first speaks only of one blind man cured, and the second mentions two. Christ meets the first blind man before his entry into Jericho, and the cure of the two others is placed as he leaves it. How¬ ever, we would rather repeat than omit. “And having said these things, he went before, going up to Jerusalem. When they went out from Jericho, a great mul¬ titude followed him. Two blind men, one of whom was Bartimeus the blind man, the son of Timeus, sitting by the wa} 7 side, heard that Jesus passed by, and they cried out, saying : 0 Lord, thou Son of David, have mercy on us. The multitude re¬ buked them that they should hold their peace ; but they cried out the more : 0 Lord, thou Son of David, have mercy on us. Jesus stood, and called them, and said : What will ye that I do to you ? They say to him : Lord, that our eyes be open¬ ed. And Jesus having compassion on them, touched their eyes. Immediately they saw, and followed him.” (St. Luke xix. 28; St. Matthew xx. 29-34; St. Mark x. 46.) ' OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 745 CHAPTER XLVffl. MARY POURS PRECIOUS OINTMENT OYER JESUS CHRIST.—MURMURING OF JUDAS AND THE APOSTLES.—DESIGN OF KILLING LAZARUS.—TRIUMPHANT ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM.—VEXA- TION OF THE PHARISEES.—CHRIST WEEPS OYER JERUSALEM.—THE ACCURSED FIG-TREE.— SELLERS DRIVEN OUT OF THE TEMPLE.—FAITH ALL-POWERFUL.—THE GRAIN OF WHEAT.— JESUS TROUBLED.—A VOICE FROM HEAVEN. T N the mean time the day was approach- of the Sabbath had begun, he rested there. ing when the Lamb of God was to Those who loved him joyfully availed wash out with his blood the sins of the themselves of this occasion to show their world, and that innocent victim advanced attachment. “ They made him a supper towards the altar whereon he was to be there” in the house of Simon the leper,* immolated by the hands of sinners. Con- apparently one of those public entertain- tinuing his journey towards Jerusalem, he ments at which women were not present. “ came to Bethania, where Lazarus had Thus, “ Martha served, but Lazarus was been dead, whom Jesus raised to life.” one of them that were at table with him.” This small town, which lay upon his road, As for Mary, she again chose the better was only a little more than one league part, and testified her love in a manner from the capital. Jesus arrived there that was peculiar to herself. “ She took a “six days before the pasch,” 1 not includ- pound of ointment of right spikenard, 8 of ing the day of his arrival, nor that of the great price, and anointed the feet of Jesus, pasch, therefore on a Friday ; and as he and wiped his feet with her hair; and arrived towards evening, when the repose breaking the alabaster box, 4 she poured it ( *) Saint Matthew represents Jesus Christ as than Mary) watered our Lord’s feet with her tears. saying to his disciples: You know that after two He is termed Simon the leper, perhaps because days shall be the pasch. Some have sought to in- Jesus cured him of it; for he was not then labor- fer from thence that there were two anointings— ing under it, since he was allowed to eat in their one occurring two days before the pasch, and the company. Or, perhaps this may have been a fam- other six days previous, as Saint John states. Saint ily name, derived from the fact of some one of his Matthew, relating the betrayal by Judas, which ancestors having been a leper. was planned two days before the pasch, takes up (’) Right in the text, pistici. It means pure the anointing which suggested the design to the ointment. Saint Mark says spicati, which signifies traitor. The murmurings of Judas and the disci- ointment extracted from the ear, because the best pies, and our Saviour’s answer, which are in both ointment, in point of fact, was extracted from the instances exactly the same, identify the occur- ear of this plant. rence. ( 4 ) To break the vase so as to pour out the very (’) By some identified with Simon the Phari- last drop was the highest honor which could be Bee, at whose house this sinful woman (no other tendered. 746 HISTORY OF THE LIFE out upon his head 1 as he was at table, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then one of his disciples, Ju¬ das Iscariot, he that was about to betray him, said : Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the purse, carried the things that were put therein.” (St. John xii. 1-6 ; St. Mark xiv. 3 ; St. Matthew xxvi. 7.) However, the reason was spe¬ cious, and the disciples, who believed it to be sincere, led by a spirit of charity, made the same objection. “There were some had indignation within themselves,” after his example, “ and said,” like him : “ Why was this waste of the ointment made ? For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and given to the poor ; and they murmured against her.” She acted right, and they spoke wrong. “And Jesus knowing it,” wished at the same time to instruct them and to defend her. Thus, without waiting to unmask the traitor, whose reputation he carefully screened until the very end, he contented himself with refuting Judas’s reason. He “ said to them,” therefore, addressing his speech to all : “Why do you trouble this woman? She hath wrought a good work upon me. 2 For the poor you have always with you, and whensoever you will you may do them good ; but me you have not always. What she had she hath done ; for she, in pouring this ointment upon my body, hath done it for my burial ; 3 she is come beforehand to anoint my body for the burial. Amen, I say to you, wheresoever this Grospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done shall be told for a memorial of her. 4 (St. Mark xiv. 4-9 ; St. Matthew xxvi. 10-12.) ( 1 ) Saint Matthew and Saint Mark speak only of anointing the head, and Saint John only of the feet: Mary performed both; but the two evange¬ lists only state what was usually done, and the third what was peculiar to this saintly woman. ( a ) There are times when even the sacred ves¬ sels must be sold to feed the poor. It is always good, and sometimes even better, to make one s pious gifts subservient to the honor of Christ by the decoration of his altars. This opinion is that of Jesus Christ, and the contrary opinion has Ju¬ das for its author. If it be true, as every one admits, that the deco¬ rum of external worship serves to foster and to augment piety, we must infer from thence that to contribute thereto is giving spiritual alms. ( a ) We read in Saint John, “ Let her alone, that she may keep it against the day of my burial, which can be understood: Do not be displeased at her having kept this perfume for my burial; for Jesus Christ could not say that they should let her retain for a future purpose what he then approved of her pouring out. This sense which we give to the words of Saint John is the sense of the two other evangelists, Saint Matthew and Saint Mark. Our Saviour says that Mary had kept this perfume for his burial, inasmuch as he was upon the point of dying. He knew that after his death she would wish to embalm him, but that she should be pre¬ vented from doing so by his resurrection. Now, he wished that she should have the consolation of having rendered this duty to him before his death, since she could not do it afterwards. it is thus that she has embalmed his body beforehand. ( 4 ) The most vaunted exploits of heroes have never been celebrated so highly nor yet so univer¬ sally as this action of Mary. The glory which she reaps from it upon earth is but the shadow of that OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 747 The prophecy is fulfilled, and the fame of this action has. resounded to the very extremities of the earth. Those who cen¬ sured it at first have been themselves its heralds. By consigning it in after times to the holy books, they have immortalized its memory. All ages have known and shall know it: the most eloquent tongues have eulogized and shall eulogize it, even until the end of time. The more incon¬ siderable the thing may appear in itself, the more miraculous is the accomplishment of the prophecy. We have this proof, which the Jews had not. They had another, but which was much more striking for them than for us, in¬ asmuch as we are always much more struck by what we see : that was the resurrection of Lazarus, which occurred in a place and at a time which served to heighten the lustre of this miracle. It took place, as it were, at the very gates of Jerusalem, and at a time when the approach of the pasch had attracted to that great city an innumerable multitude of Jews, of all na¬ tions. “ A great multitude, therefore, of the Jews knew that he was there ; and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.” This sight produced the effect which might be expected, it brought conviction to every mind. Those whose hearts were good yielded at once to the evidence be¬ fore them, and became faithful. Those whose hearts were wicked and hardened which Blie shall eternally reap in heaven. Thus shall be honored whom the King of Glory hath a mind to honor. (Esther vi.) recognized the truth, in the only way by which the wicked do recognize truth which is odious to them, by increased rage and crimes. They decided upon annihilating evidence which they could not contest; and having resolved upon the death of Jesus, “the chief priests thought to kill Lazarus also, because many of the Jews, by reason of him, went awajq and believed in Jesus.” (St. John xii. 9.) The most brilliant day of our Saviour’s mortal life, that day on which he was to be publicly acknowledged as the Messias and King of Israel, at last arrived. His glory required that the mass of the people should express that recognition ; and if, in the end, that same majority should repudi¬ ate him the nation stands self-condemned. The people were brought to this demon¬ stration, not by emissaries sent to solicit their suffrages ; Jesus did not employ a single one of those means, all of which were employed against him : his virtues, his doctrine, and still more, his miracles, spoke alone in his favor ; above all, the resurrection of Lazarus, a recent occur¬ rence, actually before their eyes. Such were his credentials, and the proximate causes of his triumph. But let no one expect to find here the pomp usual in princely triumphs. All harmonizes with the character of him who said of himself that he was meek and humble of heart. His enemies could not charge that he aspired to royalty, for kings seldom enter a city as he entered Jerusalem. Not that his equipage was low or mean ; it was merely simple and modest. The sabbath rest obliged Jesus to spend 748 HISTORY OF THE LIFE the whole day in Bethania. “The next He spoke as a prophet and commanded day ” (St. John xii. 12), which was the as a master. By this trait, we see that first day of the week, he proceeded on his his divinity disclosed itself even in the journey with his retinue. “ When they smallest actions. The accomplishment of drew nigh to Jerusalem, and were come to the prophecies was a still clearer proof; Bethphage, unto Mount Olivet, Jesus sent “ for all this was done that 1 it might be two of his disciples, saying to them: Go fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, 3 ye unto the village that is over against saying: Tell ye the daughter of Zion : be- you, and immediately at your coming in hold, thy king cometh to thee, meek, and thither you shall find an ass tied, and a sitting upon an ass, and a colt, t*he foal of colt with her, upon which no man yet hath her that is used to the yoke. The dis- sat. Loose him, and bring him to me. ciples went their way, and did as Jesus And if any man shall ask you: Why do commanded them. They found the colt, you loose him ? you shall say thus unto as he had said unto them, tied before the him : Because the Lord hath need of his gate without, in the meeting of the two service ; and immediately he will let him ways, and they loose him. As they were come hither.” (St. Matthew xxi. 1-5 ; St. loosing the colt, the owners thereof said Mark xi. 2, 3; St. Luke xix. 31.) unto them: Why loose you the colt ? ( 1 ) Jesus Christ did not perform the act be- results from the aggregate, there are prophecies cause the performance thereof had been foretold, which prove by themselves, inasmuch as imposition but the act had been foretold because he was to could never adapt itself to them. Such are the perform it. What proves that Christ is the true principal circumstances of our Saviour’s passion, Messias, is not his having entered Jerusalem mount- described as exactly by the prophets as by the ed upon an ass, but his having accomplished the evangelists—his flagellation, his crucifixion, his prophecy which announced that the Messias should thirst quenched with vinegar and gall, his clothes so enter into Jerusalem. being divided, and the casting lots for his tunic ; The Jews themselves acknowledge that this his side pierced ; his bones being entirely preserved, prophecy regards the Messias. But could it not whilst they broke those of his fellow-sufferers. be said that a false Messias might easily appropri- Christ could not have concerted with his execu- ate this designation to himself, and that conse- tioners what they were to make him undergo. quently, it proves nothing in favor of Jesus Christ ? ( 1 ) We read these words in the ninth chapter Here are solutions which may be given to this ob- of the prophet Zachary : “ Rejoice greatly, 0 daitgh- jection : 1st. Although several false Messias may ter of Sion: shout for joy, 0 daughter of Jerusa- have appeared, still not one of them entered Jeru- lem. Behold, thy king will come to thee, the just salem in the manner which had been foretold, and and Saviour. He is poor, and riding upon an ass, in which Christ did. It is, therefore, evident that and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” This version this prophecy applies to Christ, to the exclusion of is that of the Vulgate. Saint Matthew has followed all others. It proves, therefore, for him, and for that of the Septuagint: he has omitted some him alone, concludes Saint Chrysostom. 2d. It is words which make no difference in the sense, and not each prophecy taken separately, but the con- the mansuetus, full of meekness, instead of pauper, ourrence of all, which demonstrates that Christ is is taken from the Septuagint. The two Hebrew truly the Messias. 3d. Besides the proof which words have the same origin. OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. They said as Jesus had commanded them : Because the Lord hath need of him ; and they let him go with them. They brought the ass and the colt to Jesus, and laid their garments upon them, and made him sit thereon. 1 And Jesus sat upon it, as it is written : Fear not, daughter of Sion ; behold thy king coineth, sitting on an ass’s colt. These things the disciples did not know at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things to him.” “ A great multitude that was come to the festival-day, when they had heard that Jesus was come to Jerusalem, took branches of palm-trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna, 2 blessed be he who cometh in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel. As he went, many spread their garments underneath in the way ; others cut down boughs from the trees, and strewed them in the way. When he was now coming near the de¬ scent of Mount Olivet, the whole multitude of his disciples began with joy to praise ( 1 ) We read in the Greek: laid their garments upon them, and made him sit thereon—that is to say, upon both animals, although that may also signify on the garments with which they had cover¬ ed them. Saint Matthew is the only one of the four evangelists who speaks of the ass having the colt; which is the cause why the majority of inter¬ preters believe that he only rode upon the colt. However, when the Saviour sends to get them, he makes the two disciples say that the Lotd hath need of them ; the disciples spread their garments upon both; and, what is still more decisive, the prophet Zachary said, in formal terms, that he comes riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. Thus the letter seems to signify clearly 749 Grod with a loud voice, for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: Blessed be the king who cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven, and glory on high. And the multitudes that went be¬ fore and that followed cried, saying: Hosanna to the Sou of David : Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord ; blessed be the kingdom of our father 3 David that cometh. Hosanna in the high¬ est.” (St. John xii. 12, 13 ; St. Matthew xxi. 8, 9 ; St. Luke xix. 37 ; St. Mark xi. 10.) “The multitude, therefore, gave testimony which was with him when he called Lazarus out of the grave, and raised him from the dead ; for which reason, also, the people came to meet him, because they heard that he had done this miracle.” (St. John xii. 17-19.) “ The Pharisees, therefore, said amongst themselves : Do you see that we prevail nothing ? Behold, the whole world is gone after him.” Doubtless they had never so earnestly desired to lay their hands upon him, and immolate him to their jealousy ; but they felt how very dangerous it would that, in point of fact, he sat upon both—that is to say, that he made a part of the journey upon the ass, and that when approaching towards Jerusalem he ascended the colt, upon which he made his entry. ( 2 ) This Hebrew word signifies, save him, or preserve him: it is sung immediately before the canon of the mass. It there conveys the expres¬ sion of the joy we feel in the near approach of the Saviour to our altars, and is a fervent profession of our faith in the real presence. ( 8 ) It is clear, from these words, that they re¬ cognized him for the Messias. Five days after, they cried out: Away with him; but release to us Barabbas. As to him, crucify him. Such is the multitude. 750 HISTORY OF THE LIFE ] be to execute this project in the midst of that vast multitude, transported with ad¬ miration and joy. Wherefore, “ some of the Pharisees from amongst the multitude said to him : Master, rebuke thy disciples.” But this was the moment wherein he wished to be glorified ; as Jesus informed them in this short answer : “ I say to you, that if they shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.” 1 (St. Luke xix. 39, 40.) If Jesus at first felt a sensible joy, it soon gave way to sadness. “ When he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it.” Je¬ rusalem must perish, and perish on account of its crimes, which it was now going to con¬ summate. After having stained itself with the blood of its Messias, the queen of cities was henceforward to become but a heap of ashes. The foul deed was to be per¬ petrated in a few days, the chastisement was only deferred for some years ; both were vividly present to our Saviour’s eyes. With how deep sorrow did he then ad¬ dress to this unfortunate city these pa¬ thetic words : “ If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace ! but now they are hid¬ den from thy eyes ; for the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee, and they (’ ) They held their peace five days after, when at the time of his passion and death they abandon¬ ed him, and lied. But the stones then spoke out, and, by splitting asunder, they published, in their own language, the divinity of the Saviour. shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone, because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation.” (St. Luke xix. 41-44.) “When he was come into Jerusalem, the whole city was moved, saying: Who is this ? And the people said : This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth, of Gfa- lilee. He went into the temple, and having viewed all things round about, when now the eventide was come, he went out to Bethania with the twelve ” apostles. (St. Matthew xxi. 10, 11 ; St. Mark xi. 11.) He doubtless passed the night in prayer and fasting; for “ the next day, in the morning, when they came out from Betha¬ nia, he was hungry, and seeing afar off a fig-tree having leaves, he came, if perhaps he might find anything on it; and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves only, for it was not the season of figs. And Jesus saith to it : May no man here¬ after eat fruit of thee 8 any more, forever ; and his disciples heard it. And the} 7- came to Jerusalem. When Jesus was entered into the temple, he began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money chan¬ gers, and the chairs of them that sold doves. And he suffered not that any man should carry a vessel through the temple ; and he taught, saying to them : Is it not written : My house shall be called the house of prayer to all nations ? But } r ou (*) (*) This malediction fell upon the synagogue, whose whole religion consisted of ceremonies and words, figured by the leaves, whereas it was sterile in fruits, which are the works of justice and of charity. OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 751 have made it a den of thieves. Which, to you, if you shall have faith, and stagger when the chief priests and the scribes,” not, not only this of the fig-tree shall you who authorized this abuse, “had heard, do, but also if you shall say to this moun- they sought how they might destroy him,” tain, Take up and cast thyself into the without exposing themselves ; “ for they sea, and shall not stagger in his heart, but feared him, because the whole multitude believeth that whatsoever he saith shall be was in admiration at his doctrine.” (St. done, it shall be done unto him. There- Matt. xxi. 18 ; St. Mark xi. 12-18.) fore I say unto you, all things whatsoever In the mean time “ there came to him you ask when you pray, believe that you the blind, and the lame, in the temple ; shall receive, and they shall come unto and he healed them. And the chief priests you ; and when you shall stand to pray, and scribes seeing the wonderful things forgive, if you have aught against any which he did, and the children crying in man, that your Father also, who is in the temple, Hosanna to the Son of David, heaven, may forgive you your sins. But were moved with indignation, and said to if you will not forgive, neither will your him : Hearest thou what these say ? Jesus Father that is in heaven forgive you your said to them : Yea, have you never read : sins.” (St. Mark xi. 19-26 ; St. Matt. xxi. Out of the mouths of infants and sucklings 20-22.) thou hast perfected praise ? ” (St. Matt. “Jesus was teaching daily in the tern- xxi. 14-16.) pie. And the chief priests, and the scribes, “ When evening was come, Jesus leav- and the rulers of the people sought to de- ing them, went forth out of the city into stroy him ; and they found not what to do Bethania, and remained there. When to him : for all the people were very at- they passed by in the morning, they saw tentive to hear him. Now, there were the fig-tree dried up from the roots ; the certain Gentiles among them, who came disciples seeing it, wondered, saying : How up to adore on the festival-day. These is it presently withered away ? Peter, re- came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida, of membering, said to him : Rabbi, behold Galilee, and desired him, saying- : Sir, we the fig-tree, which thou didst curse, is would see Jesus.” “ Philip cometh, and withered away.” 1 Jesus did not then ex- telleth Andrew,” who was from the same plain this mystery. He merely recalled city. Jesus had already declared that to their minds the instruction which he had “he was sent only to the sheep of the already given to them on faith and on house of Israel, who were lost.” “Again, prayer. He “ said to them : Amen, I say Andrew and Philip,” not daring to present ( i) I have seen the wicked highly exalted, and and horror of death. Those who reflect upon the lifted up like the cedai’s of Libanus. And I passed judgments of the Lord say, then, like Saint Peter: by, and lo, he was not,—(Ps. xxxvi. 35, 36.) Thus Behold the fig-tree, which thou didst curse, is with- we see the fortunate sinner pass in a moment from ered away. the midst of glory and of pleasures into the shades HISTORY OF THE LIFE 752 Gentiles to him, without previously ascer¬ taining whether he chose to receive them, went and “told Jesus.” This small num¬ ber of Gentiles constituted in his sight the first fruits of Gentilism, which was soon to be followed by a rich harvest. Hence, transported with holy joy, he replied : “ The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified.” (St. Luke xix. 47, 48 ; St. John xii. 20-24.) This hour was that of his death, which was only a few da} r s distant. That death was to attract all the people of the earth to the knowledge and love of him. He, therefore, most impressively repeats this truth, and explains it by a natural com¬ parison. “ Amen, amen, I say to you, un¬ less the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone ; but if it die, itbringeth forth much fruit.” Thus Jesus, descended from heaven to the earth, would have enjoyed, even if he had not suffered death, all the rights and prerogatives attached to the quality of Man-God. This precious wheat never lost its properties or its excellence; but it would have remained unproductive ; and that long.and lasting posterity, which was promised to him by the divine oracles, was only promised upon condition that he would lay down his life for the expiation of sin. It was to be the same with those who should believe in him, and more espe¬ cially his first disciples. (Isai. liii. 10.) It is on that account that he proposes it to them, by repeating to them, on this occa¬ sion, that maxim which he had already taught them: “He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he thathateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life everlast¬ ing.” (St. John xii. 25.) He adds two other motives, proper to sustain their courage. One his own ex¬ ample and the reward he reserves for them. This he declares in the words : “If any man minister to me, let him follow me : and where I am, there also shall my minister be. If any man minister to me, him will my Father honor.” At this moment, whilst he surveyed death with a steady eye, he suffered ap¬ prehension to agitate his great soul, and give him, as it were, a foretaste of the agon}" he was to suffer in the garden of Olives. We see here words which express his emotion, his prayer, and his resigna¬ tion : “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause I came unto this hour.” Therefore spare me not; and, since thou must be glorified by my death, whatever it may cost me, “Father, glorify thy name.” Jesus, whom we have already heard saying to his Father, “ I know that thou hearest me always,” could not fail to be heard on this occasion. It is true that he could not obtain both these requests which are contradictory, one being for death, and the other that he might not die. But the latter was only conditional ; and it was not heard : the other, which was ab¬ solute, was heard, for at that instant “a voice, therefore, came from heaven : I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The Father had already glorified his name by the incarnation of his Son ; he was to glorify it still more by his death, and OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 753 this glory was, at the same time, the glory of the Son inseparably from that of the Father. This is what was meant by that heavenly voice, whose sound produced such a startling effect, that “ the multitude, therefore, that stood and heard, said that it thundered.” Those who spoke thus had not distinguished the words. Others, who had understood the sense of them, said : “ An angel spoke to him. Jesus answer¬ ed : This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.” He then declares in what manner the Father and the Son are about to be glori¬ fied. “ Now is the judgment of the world : ” a judgment not of justice and of rigor, but of mercy and of grace ; since in con¬ sequence, “ now shall the prince of this world be cast out,” and the world, deliver¬ ed from the oppression of its tyrant, shall fall again under its legitimate king. For “ I,” he added, “ if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself. Now this he said signifying what death he should die.” Whether his discourse was longer and more fully developed than we have it re¬ ported (we have already remarked that 95 there is ground for believing that Saint John often gives no more than an abridg¬ ment of our Saviour’s words); whatever be the reason, it is certain that his words were understood ; for “ the multitude an¬ swered him: We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever: and how sayest thou, the Son of man must be lifted up ? Who is this Son of man ? ” These people spoke the truth, but not the whole truth. The death of Christ is not less clearly predicted than his tem¬ poral reign. But the Jews, solicitous to gather from Scripture everything glorious to their Messias, were loath to notice the humiliations so often predicted for him. It was this blindness which caused their incredulity and their reprobation. Jesus, therefore, said to them: “Yet a little w T hile the light is among you. Walk whilst you have the light, that the dark¬ ness overtake you not. He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. Whilst you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. These things Jesus spoke ; and he went away and hid himself from them.” 754 HISTORY OF THE LIFE CHAPTER XLIX. IN' CREDULITY OF THE JEWS. — THE TIMID CONDEMNED WITH THE INCREDULOUS. — FROM WHENCE CAME THE BAPTISM OF JOHN.—PARABLE OF THE TWO SONS.—PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD AND OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.—PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST.— PAYING TRIBUTE.—THE RESURRECTION.—LOVE OF GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOR.—THE MESSIAS SON, YET LORD OF DAVID. J RSUS retired every evening to Betha- nia, where he passed the night, and returned in the morning to Jerusalem. This he did, lest his enemies should antici¬ pate the time he had marked out to be betrayed into their hands. He knew that they dared not arrest him during the day, for fear of raising an insurrection amongst that portion of the people who were at¬ tached to him. The night was more favorable to their designs; and it was, therefore, under cover of the darkness that they did lay hold of him.. “ And whereas he had done so many miracles before them, they believed not in him, that the saying of Isaias the prophet might be fulfilled : Lord, who hath believed our hearing? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed ? Therefore they could not believe, because Isaias said again : He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts, 1 that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things -said Isaias (Chap. VI.), when he saw his glory, (*) (*) God does not either blind or harden direct¬ ly ; but he does so by withdrawing his lights and his graces. According to this expression of the and spoke of him. However, many of the chief men also believed in him; but be¬ cause of the Pharisees, they did not con¬ fess him, that they might not be cast out of the sjmagogue : for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.” The latter had but too justly merited their condemnation, which is found ex¬ pressed in these last words. Their case was one of those where dissimulation is equivalent to infidelity, and where not to confess the faith is to deny it. We may remember what the Pharisees said when speaking of our Saviour : “ Hath any one of the rulers believed in him ? ” Hence let no one be surprised at finding here their condemnation, and learning that their eter¬ nal lot shall be in “ the pool burning with fire and brimstone,” where Saint John places “the fearful” along with the “un¬ believing.” (Apoc. xxi. 8.) Yet to show them how unreasonable was this criminal timidity, “ Jesus raising his voice, cried and said : He that believeth in me doth not believe in me, but in him Wise Man (Wis. ii. 21), “ their own malice blinded them ; ” and that of Saint Augustine, “ God doth not abandon unless he be abandoned.” OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 755 that sent me.” Jesus Christ being of the same nature as God, to believe in him was believing in God himself, and not merely a man who spoke in the name and on the part of God. This is the meaning of that short expression which the Saviour immediately added : “ And he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me.” He afterwards says : “lam come a light unto the world, that whosoever believeth in me may not remain in darkness ; ” that is to say, in order that he may be enlight¬ ened, for so this expression is commonly understood. The remainder of the discourse regards the incredulous. “ If any man,” said Je¬ sus to them, “ hear my words, and keep them not, I do not judge him ; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that despiseth me, and re- ceiveth not my words, hath one that judg- eth him. The word that I have spoken, 1 the same shall judge him on the last day, for I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent me, he gave me com¬ mandment what I should say, and what I should speak, and I know that his com¬ mandment is life everlasting. The things, therefore, that I speak, even as the Father said unto me, so do I speak.” (St. John xii. 37-50.) Still his enemies sought to find fault with him on the subject of his mission. “ On one of the days ” which elapsed be¬ tween his entry into Jerusalem and his passion, “as he was teaching the people in the temple, and preaching the Gospel, the chief priests and the scribes, with the ancients, met together, and spoke to him, saying : Tell us by what authority dost thou these things ? or who is he that hath given thee this authority ? ” (St. Luke xx. 1, 2.) They were, therefore, unworthy of an answer. Such is the meaning of the ques¬ tion which he put to them, confounding them while it placed before their eyes another proof of the divinity of his mis¬ sion. He, “ answering, said to them : I will also ask you one word, which if you shall tell me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? From heaven, or from men ? Answer me. But they thought within themselves, saying : If we say from heaven, he will say to us : Why, then, did you not believe him ? But if we shall say from men, we are afraid of the people ; the whole people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet. [Therefore] answering Jesus, they said : We know not whence it was. And Jesus said to them : Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.” (St. Luke xx. 3-8 ; St. Matthew xxi. 24-26 ; St. Mark xi. 30-33.) ( 1 ) This Word which shall judge the unbeliev¬ ing Jews is the preaching of Christ, inasmuch as it was accompanied by miracles which confirmed its truth. These miracles, proving as they do that this preaching is from God, shall equally prove that those who have rejected it have resisted God himself ; such is the signification of the Saviour’s entire discourse. This same Word shall also judge those who have had faith, but who have, nevertheless, sinned against the moral precepts. 1 HISTORY OF THE LIFE 756 They were really persuaded that the mission of John was divine; for the word “ baptism ” comprises here the entire mis¬ sion of John, designated by its most re¬ markable constituent. They did not, therefore, any more than the people, en¬ tertain a doubt but that John was a prophet ; but they had refused to listen to him, because of their inordinate pride. But they were audacious hypocrites, who were equally regardless of God and of man, more wicked than declared sinners, because they added falsehood to malice ; and more incorrigible, because whilst set¬ ting themselves forward as just men, they were very far from acknowledging that they were sinners? Hence Jesus Christ had but too much reason for saying : “ But what think you ? A certain man had two sons ; and coming to the first, he said : Son, go work to-day in my vine¬ yard. He answering, said : I will not; but afterwards, being moved with repent¬ ance, he went. And coming to the other, the father said in like manner. He an¬ swering, said : I go, sir ; and he went not. Which of the two did the father’s will? They say to him ; The firstnot under¬ standing as yet the drift of the Saviour’s words. Thereupon “ Jesus said to them : Amen, I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of justice, and you did not be¬ lieve him ; but the publicans and harlots believed him ; but you, seeing it, do not even afterwards repent, that you might believe him.” (St. Matt. xxi. 28-32.) But not content with rejecting the pre¬ cursor of the Messias, they had resolved to make away with the Messias himself. The preceding parable was meant to re¬ proach them with the first of these two crimes ; the following is meant to set be¬ fore their eyes all the horror of the second crime, and the fearful chastisements which it must necessarily entail. Directing his words to the whole of his auditory, “he began to speak this parable : A certain householder planted a vineyard. And made a hedge round about it, and dug in it a press, and built a tower. He let it out to husbandmen, and went abroad into a strange country for a long time. At the season when the time of the fruits drew nigh, he sent to the husbandmen a servant to receive of the husbandmen of the fruits of the vineyard ; who, having laid hands upon him, beat him, and sent him away empty. Again he sent another servant, and they beat him also, and stoned him, and they wounded him in the head, and treating him reproachfully, sent him away empty. And again he sent the third, and they wounded him also, and cast him out, and him they killed. Again he sent other servants, more than the former, of whom some they beat and others they killed. Then the lord of the vineyard said : What shall I do ? I will send my beloved son ; it may be, when they see him, they will reverence him. Therefore, having yet one son, most dear to him, he also sent him to them last of all, saying: They will rever¬ ence my son. But the husbandmen seeing the son, they thought within themselves, saying one to the other : This is the heir ; come, let us kill him, that the inheritance OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 757 may be ours. So, casting him out of the vineyard, they killed him. When, there¬ fore, the lord of the vineyard shall come, what shall he do to these husbandmen? •They say to him : He will bring these evil men to an evil end, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, that they shall render him the fruit in due season.” (St. Luke xx. 9-11 ; St. Matt. xxi. 33, 34-40 ; St. Mark xii. 6.) They unconsciously pronounced their own condemnation. Jesus, taking up their decision, said: “He will come and will destroy those husbandmen, and will give the vineyard to others.” The manner in which he pronounced these words made them at last sensible that they were merely a confirmation of the sentence which they had pronounced against themselves, and speaking in the sudden fear with which they were seized, “ God forbid ! they hear¬ ing, said to him. But he looking on them, said : What is this, then, that is written ? Have you never read in the Scriptures (Ps. cxvii.): The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head ot the corner ? 1 By the Lord has this been done, 2 and it is wonderful in our eyes.” (St. Mark xii. 9 ; St. Luke xx. 16, 17 ; St. Matthew xxi. 42-46.) It is well understood, even if he had not expressly said so, that he was the corner-stone which, blinded by their ma¬ lice, these ignorant builders rejected. “ Therefore,” he added, “ I say unto you that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, 3 and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof. Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken ; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder. When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his para¬ bles, they knew that he spoke of them, and seeking to lay hands on him, they feared the people, because they held him as a prophet.” The sequel of our Saviour’s discourse contains the history of what was to occur immediately after his death. We see his Gospel preached, and rejected by the Jews ; several of his ministers cruelly put to death ; the Gentiles throng in crowds to form for Jesus Christ a numerous and flourishing Church to repair the loss of the obdurate Synagogue. But lest the&e new-comers might fancy that, by recogniz¬ ing him as the Messias, they had finally secured their salvation, he introduced the parable of the nuptial robe, to teach that faith alone does not save, and that they might expect to be condemned, if they did not preserve their baptismal inno- ( 1 ) Jesus is elsewhere styled the foundation- stone. He is also termed the key of the arch. He is, in point of fact, all that is signified by these dif¬ ferent expressions. Here he is the corner-stone, be¬ cause he combines the two people, Jew and Gentile, so that they are but one and the same people. ( 1 ) The heavenly Jerusalem shall be built al¬ most entirely of the stones which are the refuse of the world — the disciples who follow their Master. (*) Heaven and the Church are styled in Scrip¬ ture the kingdom of God. It is taken in both these senses from the fall of the Synagogue; the Synagogue is no longer the true Church which gives children to God, and heaven is irrevocably closed against it. 158 HISTORY OF THE LIFE cence, or regain it by repentance. “Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying : The kingdom of heaven is like to a man being a king, who made a marriage for his son; and he sent his servants to call them that were invited to the marriage ; and they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying: Tell them that were invited: Behold, I have prepared my dinner : my beeves and fatlings are killed. All things are ready : come ye to the wedding. But they neglected, and went their ways, one to his farm, and an¬ other to his merchandise. And the rest laid hands on his servants, and having treated them contumeliously, put them to death. When the king had heard of it, he was angry, and sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city. Then he saith to his servants : The wedding indeed is ready ; but they that were invited were not worthy ; go ye, therefore, into the highways, and as many as you shall find, invite to the wedding. His servants going out into the highways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was filled with guests. The king went in to see the guests ; he saw there a man who had not on a wedding-garment; and he saith to him : Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding-garment? But he was silent. Then the king said to the waiters : Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.” (St. Matt, xxii. 1-14.) “ Then the Pharisees,” had recourse to artifice: “going,” they “ consulted amongst themselves how to ensnare him in his speech. And being upon the watch, they sent spies, who should feign themselves just.” These emissaries were “ some ok the Pharisees and their disciples with the Herodians.” The} 7 sought to ensnare him in his speech, “ that they might deliver him up to the authority and power of the governor.” “ Who coming, say to him : Master, we know that thou art a true speaker, and carest not for any man. For thou regard- est not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth. Tell us, therefore, what dost thou think, is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not ? ” (St. Matt. xxii. 15 ; St. Luke xx. 20 ; St. Mark xii. 13.) Whichever way he answered, the snare appeared inevitable. If he authorized the tribute, he could no longer claim to be the Messias, who was to emancipate the nation. If he denied the obligation of paying it, they would then denounce him at once to the governor, who would cause him to be punished as a rebel. The trick was, therefore, skilfully devised. But “ Jesus, knowing their wickedness, said : Why do you tempt me, ye hypocrites? Show me the coin of the tribute. They offered him a penny. Jesus saith to them : Whose image and inscription is this ? They say to him : Caesar’s. Then he saith to them: Render, therefore, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s ; and to God, the things that are God’s.” (St. Matt. xxii. 18-21.) This reply is unanswerable. For since the current coin of the country was stamped OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 759 with Cassar’s image, they therefore ac- also died. At the resurrection, therefore, knowledged Caesar for their sovereign, when they shall rise again, whose wife of and were consequently bound to pay him the seven shall she be ? for all the seven tribute. On the other hand, if they had had her to wife.” pretended that the domination of Caesar “ Jesus answering saith to them : Do ye was a yoke imposed by force,' and not, therefore, err, because ye know not the which they had a right to shake off at Scriptures, nor the power of God ? For any time if they found themseves able, in the resurrection they shall neither they were caught in a snare which they marry nor be married, but shall be as had laid for our Saviour. They remained, the angels of G-od in heaven. 1 The chil- therefore, confused and silent, for “ they dren of this world marry and are given in could not reprehend his word before the marriage ; but they that shall be accounted people,” nor yet before the governor: worthy of that world, and of the resurrec- “and hearing this, they wondered, and tion from the dead, shall neither be mar- leaving him went their ways.” (St. Luke ried nor take wives. Neither can they xx. 26 ; St. Matthew xxii. 22.) die any more, for they are equal to the Nevertheless, though the Pharisees angels, and are the children of God, being were silenced, there were others who still the children of the resurrection.” (St. Mark had the temerity to address him. Some xii. 29-34 ; St. Matt. xxii. 38-40.) “ Sadducees, who say there is no resurrec- This last expression contains a very tion, came to him that day, and asked profound meaning. The life received is him : Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any similar to that of those who confer it. man’s brother die having a wife, and he Mortal and corruptible parents confer a leave no children, his brother should take life mortal and corruptible like their own. her to wife, and raise up issue to his God, the Immediate author of the life brother. There were, therefore, seven which men shall receive by the resurrec- brethren ; and the first took a wife and tion, shall bestow an incorruptible and died, leaving no issue. The second took immortal life like unto his own. her to wife, and he also died childless. The resurrection remains still to be The third, in like manner, took her ; and proved. Jesus proves it by Scripture, so on to the seventh, and they left no because it was by Scripture that the Sad- children, and died. Last of all the woman ducees had attacked it; and as they re- ( 1 ) That is to say, that they shall be pure as that these bodies shall have spiritual qualities, they are, unless a person should prefer to say that agility, subtility, incorruptibility, but all this shall they shall be virgins like them: it is only in this not hinder them from being real bodies; and the point of view that they are here compared to an- perfect purity of the pleasures will not in any way gels; for they shall have bodies, and the angels prevent them from being truly sensible pleasures. shall not have them. The angels have no sensible We have no knowledge of these pleasures, and it pleasures, and they shall have them. True it is. would be impossible for us to imagine them. ... HISTORY OF THE LIFE 760 cognized only the five books of Moses, he takes from Exodus the text wherewith he is going to oppose them. He therefore continues thus: “Concerning the resur¬ rection of the dead, have } t ou not read in the books of Moses how in the bush God spoke to him, saying : I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, 1 but of the living ; for all live to him. You, therefore, do greatly err,” he said to them once more.* “And some of the scribes answering; said to him : Mas¬ ter, thou hast said well ; and the multitudes hearing it, were in admiration with his doctrine, and after that they durst not ask him any more questions.” (St. Matt. xxii. 23-32 ; St. Mark xii. 23-27 ; St. Luke xx. 28-40.) The Pharisees “ hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, came together; and one of them, a doctor of the law, that had heard them reasoning together, seeing that Jesus had answered them well, asked him : Master, which is the great command¬ ment, the first commandment of all? ” It is ( 1 ) Therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob exist; for God is not the God of nothing. It is in this that the whole force of this reasoning seems to lie; therefore they shall one day rise again. This second consequence, which is what Jesus Christ had to prove against the Sadducees, does not ap¬ pear so necessarily connected with the principle as the first. The answer is, that the Saviour’s rea¬ soning was peremptory against the Sadducees, who did not acknowledge any spiritual substance, and who started from this assumption when they pro¬ ceeded to deny the resurrection, because, according to them, the soul no longer existing, there was no longer anything which could be united to the bodies, whence thy concluded that the resurrection added that he put this question “ tempting him.” (St. Matthew xxii. 34-36 ; St. Mark xii. 28.) “Jesus answered him : The first commandment of all is : Hear, 0 Israel * the Lord thv God is one God ; and thou shalt iove the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these. On these two com¬ mandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets. The Scribe said to him: Well, Master, thou hast said in truth that there is one God, and there is no other besides him ; that he should be loved with the whole heart, with the whole under¬ standing, with the whole soul and with the whole strength ; and to love one’s neigh¬ bor as one’s self is a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices. Jesus, see¬ ing that he had answered wisely, said to him : Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” was a thing impossible. Yet, although speaking with metaphysical precision, the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body do not appear to depend necessarily one upon the other, still they did then so depend, according to the idea adopted by the entire world, and the second was inferred from the first. In restoring to us at the resurrec¬ tion the same body which we shall have had, God will not restore to us all the matter which shall have constituted a part of this body during the whole course of our life; this truth, if we study it a little, will furnish an answer to all the diffi¬ culties which are raised against the possibility of the resurrection. THE WIDOW’S MITE. McMenamy, Hess 8c Co., New York. *- --———— OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 761 After having satisfied all their demands, The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou on the Saviour wished to question them in my right hand, until I make thy enemies his turn. “ The Pharisees being gathered thy footstool. David, therefore, calleth together, Jesus asked them : What think him Lord ; and whence is he then his you of Christ ? Whose Son is he ? They Son ? And no man was able to answer said to him : David’s. Whereupon he an- him a word. Neither durst any man . swering, said, teaching in the temple : from that day forth ask him any more How do the Scribes say that Christ is the questions ; and a great multitude heard Son of David ? For David himself saith, him gladly.” (St. Matthew xxii. 41-46 ; by the Holy Ghost, in the Book of Psalms : St. Mark xii. 35-37 ; St. Luke xx. 42.) CHAPTER L. THE DOCTORS OF THE LAW TO BE HEARD, NOT IMITATED.—THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES ARE CURSED.—THE WIDOW’S MITE.—THE RUIN OF THE TEMPLE FORETOLD.—QUESTION AS TO THE TIME OF THE RUIN OF JERUSALEM, AND OF THE END OF THE WORLD.—SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN.—THE LAST TRUMPET.—THE ELECT GATHERED.—NECESSITY OF WATCHING. “ r I "'HEN Jesus spoke to the multitude X and to his disciples, and said to their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make phylacteries' 1 broad, and them in his doctrine : The Scribes and enlarge their fringes. They love the first the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of places at feasts, and the first chairs in the Moses. All things, therefore, whatsoever synagogues, and salutations in the market- they^ shall say to you, observe and do ; place, and to be called by men, Rabbi. but according to their works do ye not, for Who devour the houses of widows under they say and do not. They bind insup- the pretence of long prayer. These shall portable burdens and lay them on men’s receive greater judgment, but be not you,” shoulders ; but with a finger of their added the Divine Master, then directing own they will not move them. And all his discourse to the disciples alone, “be ( 1 ) “ The phylacteries are made in order to pre- that the square which is in the middle falls right serve four sentences extracted from the law. These down upon the forehead, hanging a little over the sentences were written upon parchment, and in- bridge of the nose; these are the phylacteries of closed in black calf-skin, in a little square form, the head : they also fix similar ones to the bend of and this little square is between two strings, to the left arm. The Pharisees, in order to appear which it is attached. When the Jews say their persons of greater worth, affected to have the phy- prayers, they bind their head with these strings, so 96 lacteries broader and larger than the other Jews." 762 HISTORY OF THE LIFE not yon called Rabbi ; for one is your master, and all you are brethren. And call none your father upon earth ; for one is your Father who is in heaven ; neither be ye called masters, for one is your mas¬ ter, Christ.” (St. Matthew xxiii. 1-10 ; St. Mark xii. 38.) This does not mean to convey that the Saviour here prohibits those titles. But he wishes that, whilst we recognize fathers and masters upon earth, we should at the same time elevate our thoughts to the Fa¬ ther, from whom comes all paternity in heaven and on earth. Hence he con¬ cludes : “He that is greatest among you shall be vour servant ; and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and he that shall humble himself shall be ex¬ alted.” Then returning to the Pharisees : “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites : because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men. For you yourselves do not enter in, and those that are going in you suffer not to enter. Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ; because you devour the houses of widows, praying long prayers. For this ye shall receive the greater judgment. Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ; be¬ cause you go round about the sea and the land to make one proselyte ; and when he is made, you make him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, who say : Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing ; but he that shall swear by the gold of the temple is a debtor. Ye foolish and blind ; for whether is it greater, the gold, or the temple which sanctifieth the gold ? And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing ; but whosoever shall swear by the gift upon it, is a debtor. Ye blind ; for whether is greater, the gift, or the al¬ tar that sanctifieth the gift ? He, there¬ fore, that sweareth by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things that are upon it ; whosoever shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth in it ; and he that sweareth by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; be¬ cause you tithe mint, and anise, and cum¬ min, and have left the weightier things of the law ; judgment, and mercy, and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not leave those undone. Blind guides, you strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.” “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ; because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of extortion and un¬ cleanness. Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside may become clean. Woe to you, Scribes and Phari¬ sees, hypocrites ; because you are like the whited sepulchres, which outwardly ap¬ pear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men’s bones, and of all filthiness. So you also outwardly, indeed, appear to men just; but within you are full of hy¬ pocrisy and iniquity.” “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who build the sepulchres of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the just, and say : If we had been in OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 763 the days of our fathers, we would not for one of the most sublime instructions have been partakers with them in the contained in the Gospel. “ Calling his blood of the prophets. Wherefore you disciples together, he saith to them: Amen, are witnesses against yourselves, that you I sa} 7 to you, this poor widow hath cast in are the sons of them who killed the proph- more than all they who have cast into the ets. Fill ye up, then, the measure of treasury ; for all they did cast in of their your fathers. You serpents, generation abundance, but she of her want cast in all of vipers, how will you escape the judg- she had, even her whole living.” Men, ment of hell? Therefore behold, I send whose wants are great, only value great to you prophets, and wise men, and things. God, who is in want of nothing, Scribes ; and some of them you will put values only greatness of heart. In the to death, and crucify, and some you will offerings which we make to him, he re- scourge in your synagogues, and persecute gards not the hand, but the heart. them from city to city: that upon you Our Saviour had foretold to the Jews may come all the just blood that hath the ruin of Jerusalem, and of the temple, been shed upon the earth, from the blood for such is the meaning given t?f tl&3 ex- of Abel the just, even unto the blood of pression : “ Behold, your house snS8> be Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you left to you desolate.” If we believe the killed between the temple and the altar. majority of interpreters, this fearful pre- Amen, I say to you, all these things shall diction gave rise to the following : “ Jesus come upon this generation. 0 Jerusalem, being come out of the temple, went away : Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and his disciples came to show him the and stonest them that are sent unto thee, buildings of the temple.” (St. Matthew how often would I have gathered together xxiv. 1.) “ And some saying of the tern- thy children, as the hen gathereth her pie that it was adorned with goodly stones chickens under her wings, and thou and gifts, one of his disciples saith to him : wouldst not. ‘Behold, your house shall Master, behold what manner of stones, be left to you desolate ; for I say to you, and what buildings are here! Jesus an- you shall not see me henceforth till you swering, said to him : Seest thou all these say : Blessed is he that cometh in the great buildings? Amen, I say to you, name of the Lord.” (St. Matt, xxiii. these things which you see, the days will 11-39.) come in which there shall not be left a “ And Jesus, sitting over against the stone upon a stone that shall not be thrown treasury, beheld how the people cast down.” (St. Luke xxi. 5, 6 ; St. Mark xiii. money into the treasury ; many that were 1, 2 ; St. Matthew xxiv. 2.) rich cast in much ; there came a certain “ And as he sat on the Mount of Olivet, poor widow, and she cast in two mites, opposite the temple,” the occasion was fa- wnich make a farthing.” A thing so tri- vorable for alluding to it. “ The disciples fling in appearance furnished the occasion came to him privately, and Peter, and 764 HISTORY OB THE LIFE James, and John, and Andrew asked him : they shall deliver you up to councils, and Master, tell us when shall these things be, in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and and what shall be the sign when all those you shall stand before governors and kings things shall begin to be fulfilled ? what for my sake, for a testimony unto them. shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the Lay it up, therefore, in your hearts, when consummation of the world ? ” (St. Mark they shall lead you and deliver you up, xiii. 3, 4 ; St. Matthew xxiv. 3 ; St. Luke not to meditate before how you shall an- xxi. 7.) swer ; but whatsoever shall be given ye This inquiry had two objects—the de- in that hour speak ye. For I shall give struction of the temple and the end of the you a mouth and wisdom which all your world, which was to be preceded by the enemies shall not be able to resist and coming of Jesus Christ, as he himself had gainsay ; for it is not you that speak, but so often foretold. the Holy Ghost.” (St. Luke xxi. 9-11 ; “ Take heed, lest any man seduce you : St. Matt. xxiv. 8 ; St. Luke xxi. 12-15 ; for many will come in my name, saying: St. Mark xiii. 9-11.) I am Christ; and the time is at hand. “You shall be betrayed by your pa- They will seduce many ; go ye not, there- rents and brethren, and kinsmen and fore, after them.” (St. Mark xiii. 5, 6 ; St. friends, and some of you will they put to Matthew xxiv. 5 ; St. Luke xxi. 8.) death. And the brother shall betray his “ When you shall hear of wars and se- brother unto death, and the father his son. ditions, be not terrified. These things And the children shall rise up against the must first come to pass, but the end is not parents, and shall work their death, and yet presently. Then he said to them : Na- 3 r ou shall be hated by all men for my tion shall rise against nation, and kingdom name’s sake. Then shall many be scan- against kingdom. There shall be great dalized, and shall betray one another, and earthquakes in divers places, and pesti- shall hate one another. And many false lences and famines, and terrors from hea- prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many, ven, and there shall be great signs. 1 Now and because iniquity hath abounded, the all these things are the beginning of sor- charity of many shall grow cold ; but he rows ; but before all these things they will that shall persevere to the end he shall be lay their hands on you ; and persecute saved. But a hair of your head shall not you, delivering you up to the synagogues perish. In your patience you shall possess and into prisons. Look to yourselves, for your souls. This Gospel of the kingdom ( 1 ) History attests that all those scourges pre- speaks of three Asiatic cities which were levelled ceded, the ruin of Jerusalem. In the Acts of the by an earthquake, and Josephus, of prodigies and Apostles, chap, xi., mention is made of the famine heavenly signs, such as had never before appeared. which was spread over the entire world during the After the death of Nero, the whole Koman empire time of the Emperor Claudius. After famine was a prey to the wars which were excited by the dif- comes plague, says a Greek proverb. Eusebius ferent princes who successively disputed the empire. OF OUR LORD JESU8 CHRIST. 765 shall be preached to the whole world, for a Jesus would have stopped there, if he testimony to all nations ; and then shall the had alluded only to Jerusalem and the consummation come.” (St. Luke xxi. 16,17 ; Jewish people. Reality succeeds to figures, St. Mark xiii. 12-14; St. Matt. xxiv. 10.) and the wreck of heaven and of earth “When you shall see Jerusalem com- the destruction of a single nation. Jesus, passed about with an army, then know who passes imperceptibly from one to the that the desolation thereof is at hand. other, begins by these words, “ Pray that When, therefore, you shall see the abom- your flight be not in the winter, or on the ination of desolation which was spoken of Sabbath ; for in those days shall be such by Daniel the Prophet, standing in the tribulations as were not from the beginning holy place 1 (he that readeth let him under- of the creation which God created, until stand), then they that are in Judea let now, neither shall be. And unless the them flee to the mountains ; and those who Lord hath shortened the days, no flesh are in the midst thereof depart out, and should be saved ; but for the sake of the those who are in the countries not enter elect, he hath shortened the days. Then, into it. Let him that is on the house-top if any man shall say to you : Lo, here is not go down into the house, nor enter Christ ; lo, he is here : do not believe. therein to take anything out of the house ; For there shall arise false Christs and false and he that is in the field let him not go prophets, and they shall show great signs back to take his coat, for these are the and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if days of vengeance, that all things may be possible) even the elect. Take you heed, fulfilled that are written. But wo to them therefore: behold, I have foretold you all that are with child, and give suck in those things. If, therefore, they shall say to days ! for there shall be great distress in you : Behold, he is in the desert ; go ye the land, and wrath upon this people. not out : Behold he is in the closet ; be- They shall fall by the edge of the sword, lieve it not : for, as lightning cometh out and shall be led away captive into all na- of the east, and appeareth even in the tions. Jerusalem shall be trodden down west, so shall also the coming of the Son by the Gentiles, till the times of the na- of man be. 2 Wheresoever the body shall tions be fulfilled.” be, there shall the eagles also be gathered (>) According to Saint Mark, “where it ought them without being horrified, took God to witness not ’’—that is to say, in the temple, as Daniel that he was in no wise the cause thereof. said in the very words (Dan. ix. 27). History ( a ) The second coming of Jesus Christ shall - furnishes us with nothing to which this prophecy be so visible, that the fact of our not seeing it is is more applicable than what was perpetrated in sufficient evidence to assure us that it has not as the temple when seized upon by the faction who yet occurred. It shall resemble those huge flashes assumed the name of Zealots. these monsters of lightning which, issuing from the depth of a profaned it by so many crimes and abominations, dark night, dazzle all eyes by their splendor, and that Titus, who could not listen to the recital of illumine in an instant an entire hemisphere. ___ 766 HISTORY OF THE LIFE together. 1 (St. Matthew xxiv. 20-24, 26- der, and the leaves are come forth, and all 28 ; St. Mark xiii. 19-23.) the trees, when they now shoot forth their “ And immediately after the tribulation fruit, you know that summer is nigh ; so of those days, there shall be signs in the you also, when you shall see these things sun, and in the moon, and in the stars ; come to pass, know that the kingdom of and upon the earth, distress of nations, by God is at hand. Amen, I say to you, this reason of the confusion of the roaring of generation shall not pass away till all the sea, and of the waves : men withering these things be fulfilled. Heaven and away for fear, and expectation of what earth shall pass away, but my word shall shall come upon the whole world. The not pass away.” (St. Luke xxi. 28-35 ; St. sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not Mark xiii. 28.) give her light, the stars shall fall from “ But of the day or hour no man know- heaven ; and the powers of heaven shall eth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the be moved.” (St. Matthew xxiv. 29 ; St. Son, but the Father.” (St. Mark xiii. 32.) Luke xxi. 25, 26.) There is a very close analogy between “Then shall appear the sign of the Son the end of the world and the end of each of man in heaven; 2 then shall all tribes particular man. Let each one, therefore, of the earth mourn, 3 and they shall see apply to himself what our Saviour ad- the Son of man coming in the clouds of dresses to those only who shall see the latter heaven, with much power and majesty. days. “ Take heed, watch, and pray ; for ye And he shall send his angels with a know not when the time is. Take heed to trumpet and a great voice ; and they shall yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be gather together his elect from the four overcharged with surfeiting and drunken- winds, from the farthest part of the hea- ness, and the cares of this life, and that day vens to the utmost bounds of them.” (St. come upon you suddenly. For as a snare Matt. xxiv. 30, 31 ; St. Mark xiii. 27.) shall it come upon all that sit upon the face “But when these things begin to come of the earth. Watch ye, therefore, praying to pass, look up and lift up your heads, be- at all times, that you may be accounted cause your redemption is at hand. And worthy to escape all these things that are he spoke to them a similitude : See the fig- to come, and to stand before the Son of tree, when the branch thereof is now ten- man. As the days of Noe, so shall also ( 1 ) Several allegorical meanings have been given ( 2 ) Interpreters have also entertained different to this text. The most probable is that which opinions as to this sign of the Son of man.' The makes it signify the ardent desire of pious souls for Church fixes the meaning, when she says: This the adorable body of Jesus Christ—whether for the sign of the cross shall appear in the heavens when purpose of remaining in his presence, or of being the Lord shall come to judge. nourished with his vivifying flesh. The literal ( s ) The Jews, to whom the cross was a scandal ; sense refers to the lightning. Job had said, xxxix. the Gentiles, who treated it as folly. 30: “Wheresoever the carcass shall be, the eagle is.” Jesus Christ merely repeats these words. * OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 767 the coming of the Son of man be. For, as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark, and they knew not till the flood came, and took them all away, so also shall the coming of the Son of man be.” (St. Mark xiii. 33 ; St. Luke xxi. 34-36 ; St. Matthew xxiv. 37-39.) But discrimination shall follow these times of confusion. For “ then two shall be in the field ; one shall be taken, and one shall be left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill : one shall be taken, and one shall be left. Watch ye, there¬ fore ; because ye know not what hour your Lord will come. But this know ye, that if the good man of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch, and would not suf¬ fer his house to be broken open. Where¬ fore be you also ready, because at what hour you know not, the Son of man will come.” (St. Matt. xxiv. 40-44.) CHAPTER LI. SEQUEL._GOOD AND BAD SERVANTS.-WISE AND FOOLISH VIRGINS. TALENTS. JUDGMENT OF JESUS CHRIST._CONSPIRACY AGAINST OUR SAVIOUR.—JUDAS MAKES HIS BARGAIN. PASCHAL SUPPER.—THE WASHING OF FEET.—TREASON FORETOLD. N OW the question is, in what does this vigilance consist, and what dis¬ positions should it establish within us ? The Saviour is going to give us this infor¬ mation by these familiar comparisons : “Who, thickest thou, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath appoint¬ ed over his family, to give them meat in season? Blessed is the servant whom, when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing! Amen, I say to you, he shall place him over all his goods. But if that evil servant shall say in his heart : My lord is long a coming and shall begin to strike his fellow-servants, and shall eat and drink with drunkards, the lord of that servant shall come in a day that he hopeth not, and at an hour that he knoweth not; and shall separate him, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Even as a man who, going into a far country, left his house, and gave authority to his servants over every work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye, there¬ fore ; for you know not when the lord of the house corneth, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock’s crowing, or at morning : lest, coming on a sudden, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch.” (St. Matt. xxiv. 45-51 ; St. Mark xiii. 34-37.) 768 HISTORY OP THE LIFE But those who shall be taken by sur- Whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom prise shall not be taken short on one ac- came; and they that were ready went in count alone, viz., for having utterly neg- with him to the marriage, and the door lected to prepare for the coming of their was shut: at last came also the other vir- master ; but also if they have begun their gins, saying : Lord, Lord, open to us. But preparation too late. In the same way, he answering, said : Amen,-1 say to you, I the weeping and gnashing of teeth shall know you not. Watch ye, therefore, be- not be the lot of the bad servant alone; cause you know not the day nor the they shall also be the lot of the useless hour.” servant. It is plain that these differences Here follows the example of the useless give weight to the preceding examples ; servant, which the Saviour, after having and the reader will not regard as merely a enjoined constant vigilance, adds to the repetition what Jesus is going to say. Let preceding, continuing his discourse thus: no one be astonished at his dwelling longer “ Even as a man going into a far country, on this subject than he has upon any other. called his servants, and delivered to them Since it behooves us to act so as -not to be his goods. To one he gave five talents, to surprised by death, we are bound, there- another two, and to another one ; to every fore, to look to a matter which is to decide one according to his proper ability, and our eternal salvation ; and on what other immediately he took his journey. He that subject should the Saviour so earnestly had received five talents went his way and warn us to be careful ? traded with the same, and gained other “ Then shall the kingdom of heaven be five. And in like manner, he that had re- like to ten virgins, who, taking their ceived the two gained other two. But he lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom that had received the one, going his way, and the bride. Five of them were fool- digged into the earth, and hid his lord’s ish, and five wise. But the five foolish money. After a long time the lord of having taken their lamps, did not take oil those servants came, and reckoned with with them ; but the wise took oil in their them. He that had received the five vessels with the lamps. The bridegroom talents, coming, brought other five talents, tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. saying : Lord, thou deliveredst to me five And at midnight there was a cry made: talents ; behold, I have gained other five Behold, the bridegroom cometh ; go ye over and above. His lord said to him : forth to meet him. Then all those virgins Well done, thou good and faithful servant ; arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the because thou hast been faithful over a few foolish said to the wise : Give us of your things, I will set thee over many things : oil, for our lamps are gone out. The wise enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And answered: Lest perhaps there be not he also that had received the two talents enough for us and for you, go ye rather to came and said : Lord, thou deliveredst them that sell, and buy for yourselves. two talents to me ; behold, I have gained OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 769 other two. His lord said to him : Well done, good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things : enter thou into the joy r of thy lord. But he that had received the one talent came and said : Lord, I know that thou art a hard man ; thou reapest where thou hast not sown, and gatherest where thou hast not strewed ; and being afraid, I went and hid thy talent in the earth. Behold, here thou hast that which was thine. His lord answering, said to him: Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed. Thou oughtest, therefore, to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Take ye away, therefore, the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents. For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound ; but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The parables are ended, but uot so the judgment. Jesus Christ dismisses figures, and, instead of a mortal bridegroom or a temporal master, he is going to exhibit to us the immortal King of ages in all the lustre of his glory, pronouncing sentences of eternal life or death. Let us hearken to him, for again it is he who is about to speak : “ And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his 97 majesty. All nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separated the sheep from the goats. He shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left : then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat ; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you covered me ; sick, and you visited me ; I was in prison, and you came to me. Then shall the just answer him, saying : Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee ; thirsty, and gave thee drink ? and when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and covered thee ? or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee ? The king answering, shall say to them : Amen, I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.” “Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand : Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink ; I was a stranger, and you took me not in ; naked, and you clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me. Then shall they also answer him, saying : Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister ----------- 770 HISTORY OF THE LIFE to thee ? Then he shall answer them: the feast was after two days. And it ’ Amen, I say to you, as long as you did it came to pass when Jesus had ended all not to one of these least ones, neither did these words, he said to his disciples: You you do it to me. And these shall go into know that after two days 1 shall be the everlasting punishment ; but the just into pasch, and the Son of man shall be de- life everlasting.” (St. Matt. xxv. 1-46.) livered up to be crucified.” We have Thus shall be accomplished this saying of already said that “ Then (i. e., on Wednes- the Saviour with respect to the former : day) were gathered together the chief “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall priests and the ancients of the people into obtain mercy ! ” (Matt, v.) And with re- the palace of the high priest, who was gard to the latter, that other saying of his called Caiphas, and they consulted together apostle: “ For judgment without mercy” that by subtilty they might apprehend is reserved “ to him that hath not done Jesus, and put him to death. But they mercv-” (James ii. 11.) feared the people, [therefore] they said : This was the last prophecy which Jesus Not on the festival-day, lest there should made before the people, and charity was be a tumult among the people. And the last injunction which he laid upon Satan entered into Judas, who was named them. With this he closed his public Iscariot, 2 one of the twelve, and he went preaching ; and after having discharged and discoursed with the chief priests and his duty as a teacher, he applied himself the magistrates how he might betray him exclusively, whilst preparing for death, to to them. He said to them : What will you fulfil that of Redeemer. give me, and I will deliver him unto you ? “Now the feast of unleavened bread, Who hearing it were glad, and they ap- which is called the pasch, was at hand ; pointed him thirty pieces of silver. 3 And ( 1 ) This was Tuesday, so the passover must of obligation to eat the flesh of the victims. The have fallen on Thursday; and then Jesus cele- circumstance of time caused this act to be also brated this feast. But Saint John says the pass- styled the eating of the passover. This explana- over was not till Friday. According to some, the tion smooths away every difficulty, and answers Galileans eat the passover one day before the Jews every objection. For although, the paschal lamb of Judea proper, and of Jerusalem. According to was eaten on Thursday, which was the commence- others, the Jews, after the captivity of Babylon, ment of the fourteenth day, Saint John might when the passover fell upon Thursday, transferred have said at that time: “ Before the festival-day of it to the Friday. the pasch,” because the festival, properly speaking, Here is a third explanation. Jesus Christ and all should only commence on the next day, the the Jews ate the passover on the Thursday evening, fifteenth. which was the beginning of the fourteenth day of ( a ) That is to say, that Judas then gave full the moon. The solemnity commenced only at the and entire consent to the design which Satan had close of the fourteenth, which coincided with the suggested to him of delivering up our Saviour. commencement of the fifteenth (Leviticus xxiii.). ( 3 ) We read in Exodus, chap, xxi., that if any The law required them to offer various sacrifices at one wilfully caused the death of a slave, he paid the immolation of the paschal lamb, and it was thirty shekels of silver. - ---— - OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 771 he promised ; and from thenceforth he twelve apostles with him, and he said to sought opportunity to betray him, in the them : With desire I have desired to eat absence of the multitude.” (St. Luke xxii. this pasch with you, before I suffer. For 1-46 ; St. Mark xiv. 1 ; St. Matt. xxvi. 1, I say to you, that from this time I will 3, 5, 15, 16.) not eat it, till it be fulfilled in the kingdom The remainder of the day was spent in of God. And having taken the chalice, he waiting for this opportunity. “ And on gave thanks, and said : Take and divide it the first day of the Azymes, on which it among you. For I say to you, that I will was necessary that the pasch should be not drink of the fruit of the vine till the killed, the disciples came to Jesus, saying : kingdom of God come.” 2 (St. Matthew Whither wilt thou that we go and prepare xxvi. 17, 18 ; St. Luke xxii. 7-11, 14-18 ; for thee to eat the pasch? He sendeth St. Mark xiv. 12-17.) two of his disciples, Peter aud John, say- When the Jews celebrated the passover, ing : Go and prepare for us the pasch, the father of the family blessed the first that we may eat. But they said : Where and the last cup. He drank of it the first, wilt thou that we prepare? He said to and then presented it to all the guests, them : Go ye into the city ; there shall who drank of it, each according to his meet you a man carrying a pitcher of rank. One of the evangelists, who men- water. Follow him into the house where tions the two chalices, gives these words he entereth in, and whithersoever he shall immediately after the first, and speaks of go in, say to the master of the house, the the second chalice as the chalice of the Master saith : My time is near at hand ; 1 Lord’s blood. I will keep the pasch at thy house with my Now reality is going to succeed figures, disciples ; where is my refectory, where I and to the eating of the paschal lamb the may eat the pasch with my disciples ? eating of the flesh of the Man-God ; a And he will show you a large dining- mystery equally beyond our conceptions room, furnished. There prepare ye for and our hopes. Here the power and the us. His disciples went their way, and love of a God are displayed in their in- came into the city, and they found as he finity, plainly showing that he alone could had told them, and they prepared the be the author of this mystery, in whom pasch. And when evening was come, he everything is infinite, and who is infinite cometh with the twelve. And when the in everything. But a prodigy of humili- hour was come, he sat down, and the ation was to precede this prodigy of power. ( 1 ) Jesns Christ wishes to convey to him by day. It appears that this man was one of his dis- these words that he desires to give him this evidence ciples, since Jesus Christ makes them say to him of his affection ; for it was a very signal proof simply: “ The Master saith to thee.” thereof to give his house the preference, for the ( s ) Heaven and the Church are called indis- purpose of celebrating there his last passover, criminately the kingdom of God. We should here which was only to precede his death by a single | understand the expression as referring to heaven, ✓ - -- - • - ■ t —» 772 HISTORY OP The first of these acts was the eating of the paschal lamb, in which Jesus Christ, always a punctual observer of the law, fulfilled all the prescribed formalities. He ate it, therefore, in a standing posture ; and if it be alleged that he then sat or reclined, inasmuch as the Gospel repre¬ sents him to us in either of these two positions, that would be to confound the first repast with the second. The latter was served up immediately after the eat¬ ing of the paschal lamb, when that alone was not sufficient to appease the hunger of all those who had partaken of it. And this was the case here, since Jesus Christ had with him his twelve apostles ; then followed the repast in which the guests were not limited in the choice of meats, with the exception of the unleavened bread, nor were they bound to any cere¬ mony. This repast, the only one which the evangelists properly call the Supper, or the Lord’s Supper, was finished, as they expressly state, when our Saviour washed the feet of his disciples, after which he in¬ stituted the adorable Eucharist. “ Jesus knowing that his hour was come, that he should pass out of this world to his Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end ; and when supper was done,” as we have just related, “(the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him), knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he came from God, and goeth to God: He riseth from supper, and layeth aside his garments, and having taken a towel, he girded himself.” After THE LIFE that he putteth water into a basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the towel where¬ with he was girded. He cometh, there¬ fore, to Simon Peter. And Peter saith to him: Lord, dost thou wash my feet ? Jesus answered, and said to him : What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith to him : Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him : If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me. Simon Peter saith to him : Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him : He that is washed, needeth not but to wash his feet, but is clean wholly. And you are clean, but not all ; for he knew who he was that would betray him, there¬ fore he said : You are not all clean.” (St. John xiii. 1-20.) “ Then, after he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, having sat down, he said to them : Know you what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I, then, being Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet; for I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also. Amen, amen, I say to you, The servant is not greater than his lord, neither is the apostle greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, you shall be blessed if you do them.” This happiness was not to be enjoyed by all. Wherefore continues our Saviour : “ I speak not of you all ; I know whom I have chosen,” and if he who is to betray OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 773 me is found amongst the number, I have disciples to render to each other the duties not admitted him without knowing what of charity. Far from lowering themselves he is; “but that the Scripture may be in the sight of men by humbling them- fulfilled : He that eateth bread with me, selves to one another, the honor which shall lift up his heel against me. At they have of being his apostles will make present I tell you, before it come to pass, them as respected as himself: “Amen, that when it shall come to pass you may amen, I say to you, he that receiveth believe that I am He.” whomsoever I send, receiveth me ; and he Thus he labored to excite remorse in that receiveth me, receiveth him that the heart of Judas, and he exhorted his sent me.” CHAPTER LII. « INSTITUTION OF THE EUCHARIST.—JESUS IS TROUBLED.—WOE TO THE TRAITOR.—JESUS MAKES HIM KNOWN TO JOHN.—WITHDRAWAL OF JUDAS.—DISPUTE OF THE APOSTLES UPON PRIOR- ITY.— PRESUMPTION OF PETER.—HIS DENIAL FORETOLD.—STATE OF WARFARE ABOUT TO COMMENCE FOR THE DISCIPLES.—DISCOURSE AFTER THE LAST SUPPER.—THE DISCIPLES EN- COURAGED.—THE FATHER AND THE SON.—THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH PROMISED. 'T'^'HE moment was come when Jesus infinitely surpass them in merit and in Christ was at last to institute the value. “ And whilst they were at supper, sacrament of his body and blood, and to Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and bless- replace the ancient sacrifices by that ed, and broke, and gave to his disciples, which, in its * unity, should supply the and said : Take ye, and eat; this 1 is ray place of them, all, and, by its excellence, body, 2 which is given for you. Do this for ( 1 ) If, as Luther said, the substance of bread is only the figure of his body, he could not have remained in the Eucharist, Jesus Christ could not expressed himself more obscurely, since for so have said : “ This is my body,” but this (which is many ages the entire world understood the phrase bread) contains my body; or my body is united to as expressing his real presence. this; or else, here is my body. Luther frankly avows that he for a long time was (* ) If Jesus Christ meant to say that the itching to attack the dogma of the real presence; Eucharist is not merely the figure of his body, but but that he could not venture on such a step, hav- that it contains the reality, he could not have ex- ing before him those unmistakable words: “This pressed himself more clearly, seeing that for fifteen is my body.” centuries the Christian world understood the phrase Calvin denied the real presence, and took his as importing reality and not figure. stand by the figurative sense. Yet he asserts that, If Jesus Christ meant to say that the Eucharist although the body of Jesus Christ is not really r 774 HISTORY a commemoration of me. In like manner taking the chalice also, after lie had sup¬ ped, he gave thanks, and gave to them, saying : Drink ye all of this; for this is my blood, of the New Testament, which shall be shed for you [and] for many unto the remission of sins. And they all drank of it. Amen, I say to you,” added the Saviour, supposing that he twice made use of this expression, “I say to you, I will not drink from henceforth of the fruit of this vine, until that day when I shall drink it new with you in the kingdom of the Father.” (St. Matt. xxvi. 26-29 ; St. Luke xxii. 19, 20 ; St. Mark xiv. 23.) According to Saint Luke (xxii. 21), Jesus immediately added : “ But yet be¬ hold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table.” These words de¬ cide that Judas was then present, and received communion with the other dis¬ ciples. By profaning that sacrament, the traitor put the finishing stroke to his ini¬ quity. Jesus felt within himself a natural horror for a crime, the woeful effects ot which he had already resolved to undergo. Wherefore, “ when he had said these things, he was troubled in spirit, and he testified and said : Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you that eateth with me shall betray me. The disciples, therefore, looked one upon another, doubting of whom he spoke; and being very much troubled, began every one to say : Is it I, Lord ? But he answering, said : One of present, it is, nevertheless, really and in substance received. Thus whilst seeking to escape from the mystery, he falls into a palpable contradiction. the twelve, who dippeth with me his hand in the dish. And the Son of man, indeed, goeth, as it is written of him : but woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed ! It were better for him if that man had not been born.” (St. John xiii. 21, 22 ; St. Mark xiv. 18, 20, 21 ; St Matthew xxvi. 22, 23.) “Judas, that betrayed him,” apprehen¬ sive lest his silence should excite suspi¬ cion, said : “ Is it I, Rabbi ? He saith to him : Thou hast said it.” The answer was given so secretly, that it was understood by Judas alone. “ Wherefore they began to inquire among themselves which of them it was that should do this thing. Now, there was leaning on Jesus’s bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter, therefore, beckoned to him, and said to him : Who is it of whom he speak- eth? He, therefore, leaning on the breast of Jesus, saith to him : Lord, who is it? Jesus answered : He it is to whom I shall reach bread dipped ; and when he had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Is¬ cariot, the son of Simon.” (St. Matthew xxvi. 25 ; St. Luke xxii. -23 ; St. John xiii. 13-30.) This was not now the Eucharistic bread, which had been entirely consumed ; it was a last mark of love which his Master gave him. Perhaps the act excited further re¬ morse in the heart of that perfidious man ; but Judas stifled it. Hence it is said that, “after the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him : That which thou dost, do quickly.” He thus gave him to under¬ stand that he neither dreaded the betrayal nor the betrayer. Judas well understood OP OUR LORD it, but “ no man at the table knew to what purpose he said this unto him. For some thought, because Judas had the purse, that Jesus had said to him : Buy those things which we have need of for the festival day; or, that he should give something to the poor. He, therefore, having received the morsel, went out im¬ mediately ; and it was night.” “ When Judas, therefore, was gone out, Jesus said,” in a transport of joy : “ Now is the Son of man glorified, an 1 God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God also will glorify him in himself, and immediately he will glorify him. And a hymn being said, they went out into Mount Olivet.” (St. John xiii. 31, 32 ; St. Matthew xxvi. 30.) As it appears on this occasion, “ there was also a strife amongst them, which of them should seem to be the greater. And he said to them : The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that have power over them are called beneficent. But you not so; but he that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger, and he that is the leader, as he that serveth. For which is the greater, he that sitteth at table, or he that serveth ? Is not he that sitteth at table ? But I am in the midst of you, as he that serveth.” Reminding them of all they had done for him, and for which he in his goodness condescended to give them credit, although they were indebted to that same goodness for being enabled to do it, “he said to them: You are they who have contin¬ ued with me in my temptations ; and I dispose to you, as my Father hath dis¬ JESUS CHRIST. 775 posed to me, a kingdom ; that you may eat and drink at my table, in my king¬ dom ; and may sit upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (St. Luke xxii. 24-33.) Then, softened by the thought that he was about to quit them, “ Little children,” he said to them, “ yet a little while I am with you : you shall seek me, and as I said to the Jews : Whither I go you cannot come ; so I say to you now.” Hear, then, my last wishes ; for, in quitting you, “a new commandment I give unto you : That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my dis¬ ciples, if you have love one for another.” Nothing seems impossible to love, and, therefore, the most fervent doubted the words: “Whither I go you cannot go;” and “Simon Peter saith to him; Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered: Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now ; but thou shalt follow hereafter.” He was to follow him, indeed, in his sufferings and in his glory, but the time for doing so was yet far distant. When “ Peter saith to him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now ? I will lay down my life for thee ; the Lord said : Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat ; but I have prayed for you, that thy faith fail not; and thou .being once converted, confirm thy brethren.” (St. John xiii. 33-36.) Knowing that they would need to be thus confirmed, “Then Jesus saith to them : All you shall be scandalized in me this night. For it is written: I will 776 HISTORY OF THE LIFE strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed. But after I shall be risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.” (St. Matt. xxvi. 31-32.) Peter, “answering said to him: Al¬ though all shall be scandalized in thee, I will never be scandalized ; I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and into death. I will lay down my life for thee. Jesus answered him : Wilt thou lay down thy life for me ? Amen, amen, I say to thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day 1 till thou thrice deniest that thou knowest me. Amen, I say to thee, to-day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.” (St. Matthew xxvi. 33 ; St. Luke xxii. 33, 34 ; St. John xiii. 37, 38 ; St. Mark xiv. 30.) Peter, who thought that he loved his Mas¬ ter more than his life, although, in fact, he loved his life more than his Master, “spoke the more vehemently: Although I should die together with thee, I will not deny thee. In like manner also said they all.” (St. Mark xiv. 31 ; St. Matt, xxvi. 35.) The people, duped by their magistrates and teachers, were to enter into a league with them against the Saviour ; and after having shown favor to the disciples, be¬ cause of the Master, they were now to ( 1 ) According to Saint Luke, our Saviour said: “ The cock shall not crow this day till thou thrice deniest that thou knowest me.” According to Saint Mark, he said: “ Before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice.” We have combined the two expressions, without being able to decide which of the two our Saviour really used. The cock crowed the first time after the first denial of persecute them to the very utmost. This alarming change Jesus Christ wished to set before their eyes when he said: “ When I sent you without purse and scrip and shoes, did you want anything ? But they said : Nothing. Then said he unto them : But now he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise a scrip ; and he that hath not, let him sell his coat, and buy a sword. For I say to you, that this that is written must yet be fulfilled in me : And with the wicked was he reckon¬ ed. For the things concerning me have an end. And they said : Lord, behold here are two swords ; and he said to them : It is enough.” (St. Luke xxii. 35-38.) The sword of which be spoke was only indicative of that state of warfare on which they were going to enter. Peter, who understood it literally, provided him¬ self in reality with a sword. Jesus did not hinder him from so doing, because the use which this impetuous disciple was to make of his weapon was destined to fur¬ nish our Saviour with an occasion of dis¬ playing his meekness and power at the moment of his arrest. The apostles were troubled at what they had just heard. Jesus Christ was on the point of leaving them, without any Saint Peter. Two other denials having followed it, the cock crowed again the second and third time. Thus when it is said, The cock shall not crow this day till thou thrice deniest that thou knowest me, means that the cock shall not finish his nightly crowing until thou thrice deniest that thou knowest me. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. possibility of their following him. One of their number was to betray him, and even their chief was to deny him. More affected by their state than by the evils with which he was menaced, Jesus appears to forget himself in his care of consoling his beloved disciples. It is with this design that he is going to address to them this admirable discourse, in which we may say that his beautiful soul unfolds itself entirely before their eyes—his wisdom and his charity having never appeared with greater lustre. “Let not your heart be troubled” at what you have just heard. My promises should dispel your fears. For, as “you believe in G-od, believe also in me.” I am going, as I have said to you, and I have hitherto told Peter, only that one day he shall follow me whither I go. Yet this should not alarm you : neither he nor any other could exclude you from that happy abode. “In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place for you,” and let this proof of my love prevent you from suspecting that I could entertain the design of deceiving you. Do not, therefore, hesitate to believe it, even when you shall see me no more, and rest assured that, “ if I shall go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be. And whither I go you know, and the way you know.” “ Thomas saith to him: Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way ? Jesus saith to him : I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me ; if 98 777 you had known me, you would, without doubt, have known my Father also. From henceforth you shall know him, and you have seen him.” To see the Son with this perfect vision, would be to see the Father as clearly ; and, in this sense, they had seen the Father as well as the Son, inasmuch as the divine nature, which they had only caught a glimpse of in the Son, is the same in the Son as in the Father. Thus it is easy T to perceive both what they had and what they still required. In a little time, according to the promise which our Sa¬ viour here makes, they should require nothing, because the Holy Grhost was then to descend upon them with the fulness of his light. Impatient to see the effect of this promise, “Philip saith to Jesus: Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus saith to him,” in the sense which has just been explained : “ So long a time have I been with y^ou, and have you not known me? Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also. How sayest thou, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me ? The words that I speak to you I speak not of my r self. But the Father that abideth in me he doth the works. Believe you not that I am in the Father and the Father in me ? Otherwise believe for the very works’ sake.” His works were, in fact, the incontest¬ able proof of the truth of all his words. And, in giving to whom he would the power of miracles, did he not discover his divinity still more clearly than even by those he wrought ? In this sense he adds: 778 HISTORY OF THE LIFE “Amen, amen, I say to you, he that be- lieveth in me, the works that I do he shall also do ; and greater than these shall he do, because I go to the Father ; and what¬ soever you shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, that will I do.” (St. John xiv. 1-31.) He is, therefore, as powerful, or rather He has the same power, as the Father, since those very same things which are asked from the Father may also be asked from him. These words, while proving his omnipotence, expressed at the same time the greatness of his love. For what more affecting evidence could he give to them than by offering, as he did, to accomplish all their desires ? A promise so magnifi¬ cent could not fail to excite in them some sentiments of gratitude and love. Still this wondrous gift could not com¬ pensate for his loss : it was necessary for that purpose that Jesus should give them another self in his stead. Having, as God, the power to send him, he may also, as man, pray for his coming ; and he promises to do so when he says : “ I will ask the Father, aud he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for¬ ever. 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.” Between the promise and the accom¬ plishment little more than fifty days was to elapse. The term, therefore, was not far distant, and their patience was not to have too long a trial. However, our Saviour further said, announcing to them the near approach of his resurrection : “ I will not leave you orphans ; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more ; but you see me, because I live and you shall live. In that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” But let us remark the condition to which he attaches his favors: “He,” said he, “that hath my command¬ ments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” “Jude, not the Iscariot,” but he who was otherwise called Thaddeus, the broth¬ er of James, and cousin of the Lord, “saith to him : Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not to the world?” The reason is, because they loved him, whereas the world hated him. For such is the sense comprised in these words, which Jesus again repeated : “If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my words.” But if he have not love for me, neither hath he any love for my Father, and he should no longer expect to be loved either by Him or by Me. For “the word which you have heard is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.” All this contains a profound meaning, which the apostles were not yet able to conceive. Jesus, who spoke it, however, that it might be understood, promised them that they should yet understand it, in the OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 779 following words: “These things have I spoken to you, abiding with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy G-host, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind whatsoever I shall have said to you.” He once more bids them farewell; “ Peace I leave with you ; my peace I give unto you.” It is thought that this was the usual form of farewell amongst the Jews ; but the peace which he gave was much more genuine and precious than that which they wished each other. Hence he adds : “Not as the world giveth do I give unto you.” The idea of the separation caused the apostles at this moment a sadness and trouble which the Saviour condescended to soothe by these words : “ Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. You have heard that I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you. If you loved me you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father ; for the Father is greater than I; ” remember ye that “ now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it shall come to pass you may be¬ lieve. I will not now speak many things to you ; for the prince of this world com- eth, and in me he hath not anything. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath given me the commandment, so do I. Arise, let us go hence.” (St. John xiv. 1-31.) CHAPTER LIII. CLOSE OF THE DISCOURSE.—JESUS CHRIST IS THE TRUE TOIE.-WE ARE TO PERSEVERE IN CHARITY._PERSECUTIONS FORETOLD.-TESTIMONY OF THE HOLY GHOST.-JOY PROMISED AFTER SORROW.—JESUS PRAYS FOR HIMSEI M ANY think that our Lord was still in the supper chamber, where he had eaten the paschal lamb, and now went forth from it. Others think that he did not leave it at this moment. Adhering to the letter, we hold that, immediately after the supper, they all joined in the canticle of thanksgiving, and immediately set out, taking the way to¬ wards Mount Olivet. We must, therefoie, infer that the discourse was pronounced upon the way. AND HIS DISCIPLES. Nothing had greater interest for them than the new mystery which he was about to disclose to them, by which he makes himself their head, and they become his members, as branches, attached to the trunk, springing from the same root, and nourished by the same sap, for such is the comparison which our Saviour makes, pursuing thus his discourse : “ I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he will take away; HISTORY OF THE LIFE 780 and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are clean by reason of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. If any one remaineth not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither. They shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done to you. In this is my Father glorified, that you bring forth very much fruit, and become my disciples.” This parable could not have a more suit¬ able place than that wherein Jesus Christ proposed it. Our Saviour again repeats to them that they must always remain united to him, by the observance of his command¬ ments : “ As the Father hath loved me,” he said to them, “ I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my com¬ mandments, you shall abide in my love, as I also have kept my Father’s command¬ ments, and do abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled ; this is my commandment: That you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do the things that I command you. I will not now call you servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth ; but I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You have not chosen me ; but I have chosen you, and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain ; that whatsoever you shall ask of the Fa¬ ther in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that you love one another.” Patience is also necessary, and none ever required it more than the apostles. Jesus Christ recommends this virtue to them in these terms: “If the world hate you, know ye that it hated me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own ; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hat- eth you. Remember my word that I said to you: the servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.” And this ignorance does not excuse them, because it is voluntary. “If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin ; but now they have no ex¬ cuse for their sin.” They do not compre¬ hend the enormity thereof, because they think they hate me only ; but “ he that hateth me, hateth my Father also.” I say again : “ If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they OF OUR LORD would not have sin ; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. But that the word may be fulfil¬ led which is written in their law : They hated me without cause.” But their hatred shall not prevail against the truth which it made them dis¬ own : for “ when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send yon from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me ; and you shall give testimony, because you are with me from the beginning.” (St. John xv. 1-27.) “These things” which you shall have to suffer with me, and for me, “have I spoken to you, that you may not be scandalized.” You must, therefore, be prepared to bear it. “They will put you out of the syna¬ gogues. Yea, the hour cometh, that who¬ soever killeth you will think that he doth a service to God. And these things will they do to you, because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things I have told you, that when the hour shall come, you may remember that I told you of them. “But I told you not these things from the beginning, 1 because I was with you,” and that, supported by my presence, you had no need of being cautioned ; besides, ( 1 ) Jesus Christ had already foretold more than once to his disciples the persecutions which they should have to encounter. What he here tells them for the first time is, that they shall be per¬ secuted and put to death, because they shall be re¬ garded as impious and enemies of God; which scornful imputation and unmerited punishment must, of course, be very distressing to these viitu- JESTTS CHRIST. 781 that the first effects of this hatred must fall upon me alone. “Now I go to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?” I know that this is not from indifference. “ But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow hath [so] filled your heart,” that you have not strength to speak. “ But I tell you the truth.” However advantageous my presence may be to you, “it is expedient to you that I go ; 2 for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you ; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he is come, he will convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment”—that is to say (if we may venture to interpret such mysterious words), when the Paraclete comes, he shall convince the world that it is sinful, that I am just, or rather, that I am justice itself, and that on the day of the last judgment, I, who am to be its judge, because I am the conqueror and the judge of its prince—I shall display before its eyes the overwhelming contrast of its crimes with my innocence, and of my justice with its iniquity. Thus the world shall know at last what it is, what I am. and what it has to expect. The Holy Ghost will, therefore, con¬ vince the world “of sin,” adds our Sa¬ viour, reverting to what he had already ous men. It is to this latter circumstance that we may refer these words: “I told you not these things from the beginning.’' ( a ) The apostles could only be indemnified for the loss of a God by the comiug of a God. There¬ fore the Holy Ghost is God, says Saint Chrysostom, who drew this conclusion against Macedonius. ' ----— " 782 HISTORY OP THE LIFE said, “because they believed not in me; unintelligible. The procession of the divine of justice, because I go to the Father, persons is, therefore, clearly known, and and you shall see me no longer ; and of we may say that the Saviour here com- judgment, because the prince of this world pletely reveals it. is already judged.” 1 Consoled in their sufferings by the visit By these last words our Saviour entered and by the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the into mysteries which were yet beyond the disciples shall also be finally consoled by reach of the disciples. This it is which their re-union with their beloved Master. makes him then say to them: “ I have yet It is apparently in this sense that Jesus many things to say to you, but you cannot further said to them: “ A little while, and bear them now. But,” he adds, in order now you shall not see me ; and again a to increase in them the desire of the com- little while, and you shall see me ; because ing of the Holy Ghost, by inspiring them I go to the Father.” with the desire of being thoroughly in- The first of these two periods is that structed in all which it behooved them to which was to elapse before his ascension. know—“but when he, the Spirit of truth, The second period was from the ascension is come, he will teach you all truth, for he of our. Saviour till the death of the apos- shall not speak of himself ; hut what things ties—that day when he was to receive soever he shall hear he shall speak, and them with open arms, and carry up unto the things that are to come he shall show his very throne their souls, then victorious you. He shall glorify me, because he over hell and the world. “ Then some of shall receive of mine, and shall show it his disciples said one to another : What is to you.” this that he saith to us ? A little while It is true that all which he has comes and you shall not see me; and again a from the Father ; but “ all things whatso- little while and you shall see me ; and be- ever the Father hath are mine : therefore cause I go to the Father. They said, I said that he shall receive of mine, and therefore : What is this that he saith ? shall show it to you.” (St. John xvi. 1-15.) We know not what he speaketh.” These words are easily understood, if “ Jesus knew that they had a mind to the Son be the principle of the Holy ask him, and he said to them : Of this do Ghost ; but if he were not, they would be you inquire among your yourselves, be- (*) The prince of this world is the devil. Dis- world, his worshipper and his slave, could no longer possessed of the temples wherein he was adored; avoid being judged and condemned in its turn. reduced to silence in the places where he had de- These three truths, proved by the apostles, that livered his oracles, or to the forced confession of is to say, by the Holy Ghost, who inspired the Jesus Christ’s divinity by the mouth of demoniacs preaching of the apostles, and who was the author from whose bodies he was expelled—this spirit of of their miracles, proved also those truths which darkness was manifestly vanquished, and, conse- Jesus Christ has just proposed, taken in the sense quently, judged and condemned. Therefore the that we have given to them. OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 783 cause I said : A little while and you shall thing in my name. Ask, and you shall not see me; and again a little while, and receive, that your joy may be full,” by you shall see me. Amen, amen, I say to the entire accomplishment of your desires. you, that you shall lament and weep, but Jesus at last terminates this long in- the word shall rejoice; and you shall be struction with the renewed promise of a made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be clearer manifestation of the divine secrets : turned into jo} r .” “These things said he, I have spoken to Without fixing the duration of these you in proverbs : the hour cometh when I two periods, Jesus makes them understand will no more speak to you in proverbs, that the time of his absence shall be one but will show you plainly of the Father,” of affliction to them, which affliction shall either by myself or by the Spirit whom I be .followed by joy at his return. Their shall send to }'Ou. “In that day you condition in this respect is very different shall ask in my name ; and I say not to from that of the lovers of the world, who you that I will ask the Father for you ; ” commence with joy and end with sorrow. even were it possible that I did not so, As our Saviour makes manifest by this you would still be heard ; “ for the Father comparison, which should serve as a con- himself loveth you, because you have solation to all just souls laboring under loved me, and have believed that I came sorrow or affliction : “ A woman, when she out from God. I came forth from the is in labor, hath sorrow, because her hour Father, and am come into the world; is come ; but when she hath brought forth again, I leave the world, and I go to the the child, she remembereth no more the Father.” anguish, for joy that a man is born into “His disciples say to him : Behold, now the world. So also you now, indeed, have thou speakest plainly, and speakest no sorrow: but I will see you again, and proverb. Now we know that thou know- your heart shall rejoice ; and your joy no est all things, and thou needest not that man shall take from you. And in that day any man should ask thee : by this we be- you shall not ask me anything.” lieve that thou comest forth from God. Our Saviour is about to relieve them Jesus answered them : Do you. now be- from this last anxiety. There is a means lieve ? ” I know that you do ; but such is of obtaining more favors in his absence still the feebleness of your faith, that “be- than they obtained while he dwelt amongst hold the hour cometh, and it is now come, them. Jesus, who had already indicated that you shall be scattered every man to it, makes this means clearly known by his own, and shall leave me alone, and yet these words : “ Amen, amen, I say to you, I am not alone, because the Father is with if you ask the Father anything in my me.” And, in order to keep before their name, he will give it to you.” Accus- eyes the principal object of his discourse, toined to address your prayers to me he closed with these words : “ These things alone, “hitherto you have not asked any- I have spoken to you, that in me you may HISTOKY OF THE LIFE 784 have peace,” from the certainty that noth¬ ing shall occur, either to you or to me, which shall not eventually turn out to my advantage and to yours. “ In the world you shall have distress; but have con¬ fidence, I have overcome the world.” (St. John xvi. 16-33.) “These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said : Father, the hour is come ; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. Now this is eternal life : That they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on earth ; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do ; and now glorify thou me, 0 Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with thee.” After having prayed for himself, he is now going to pray for his disciples. “ I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and to me thou hast given them ; and they have kept thy word. Now, they have known that all things which thou hast given me are from thee ; because the words thou gavest me I have given to them : they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from thee, and they have be¬ lieved that thou didst send me. I pray for them ; I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me, be¬ cause they are thine.” He said this, speaking as man ; but he speaks as God when he adds : “ All my things are thine, and thine are mine : I am glorified in them.” “ Now I am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we also are. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name. Those whom thou gavest me have I kept; and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture may be fulfilled. And now I come to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy filled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world. I do not ask that thou take them away out of the world, but that thou preserve them from evil. They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For them I do sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “ And not for them only do I pray, but for those also who, through their word, shall believe in me ; that they also may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, as we also are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one ; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me. Father, I will, that where I am, they also OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 785 whom thou hast given me may be with these have known that thou hast sent me. me, that they may see my glory, which And I have made known thy name to them, thou hast given me ; because thou hast and will make it known ; that the love loved me before the foundation of the wherewith thou hast loved me may be world. Just Father, the world hath not in them, and I in them.” (St John known thee ; but I have known thee, and xvii. 1-26.) CHAPTER LIY. GARDEN OF OLIVES.—KISS OF JUDAS.—SOLDIERS STRUCK DOWN.—MALCHUS.—JESUS IS APPRE- HENDED AND CONDUCTED TO ANNAS AND CAIPHAS.—THE BLOW.—FALSE WITNESSES.—CON¬ FESSION OF JESUS CHRIST.—INSULTS AND INDIGNITIES.—ST. PETER’S DENIAL AND TEARS.— JESUS AGAIN QUESTIONED.—DESPAIR OF JUDAS. “Y \ T HEN Jesus had said these things,” V V having nothing more to do in vanced to meet him ; and “ He said to his disciples : Sit you here, till I go this world but to suffer and to die, “ he yonder and pray ; pray ” ye also, “ lest ye went forth with his disciples over the enter into temptation. And ” leaving the brook Cedron. He went, according to his others behind “he taketh Peter, and custom, to the Mount of Olives ; and his James, and John with him, and he began disciples also followed him. Then Jesus to grow sorrowful, and to be sad. And came with them into a country place he saith to them : My soul is sorrowful which is called Gfethsemani, where there even unto death; 1 stay you here, and was a garden, into which he entered with watch with me. And going a little further, his disciples. And Judas also, who be- he was withdrawn away from them a trayed him, knew the place ; because stone’s cast ; and kneeling down, he pray- Jesus had often resorted thither together ed, saying: Father, if thou wilt, remove with his disciples.” (St. John xviii. 1, 2 ; this chalice from me. But yet not my will, St. Luke xxii. 39 ; St. Matthew xxvi. 36.) but thine be done. And being in agony, Far from avoiding the traitor, he ad- he prayed the longer ; and he saith : ( 1 ) It is very difficult to reconcile this sorrow God, by his omnipotence, might have separated the with the intuitive vision of God. Was he sorrowful effect from the cause—that is to say, that whilst without any mixture of joy, or did he experience preserving the intuitive vision in our Saviour’s the two opposite extremes of joy and sorrow ? soul, he might hinder this vision from producing Some interpreters advance the first proposition ; others, the second ; neither appears impossible. 99 the joy which is the natural effect thereof. 786 HISTORY OF THE LIFE Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee ; remove the chalice from me, but not what I will, but what thou wilt. 1 And his sweat became as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground.” (St. Matt. xxvi. 36-39 ; St. Mark xiv. 33-36 ; St. Luke xxii. 40-44.) Then, as if the support of the divinity Lad been utterly withdrawn from the hu¬ manity, “ there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And when he rose up from prayer, and was ♦come to his disciples, he found them sleep¬ ing for sorrow. He said to Peter : Simon, sleepest thou ? couldst thou not watch one hour with me ? Watch ye,and pra} r that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit in¬ deed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Going away again, he prayed, saying the same words : My Father, if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, thy will be done ; and when he returned, he found them again asleep ; for their eyes were heavy, and they knew not what to answer him. Leaving them, he went again, and he prayed the third time, saying the self-same words. Then he cometh to his disciples, and saith to them: Sleep ye now, and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go ; behold, he is at hand that will betray me.” (St. Luke xxii. 43-45 ; St. Mark xiv. 37-39, 40 ; St. Matthew xxvi. 40-42, 44-46.) ( 1 ) Provided we have that entire resignation to the will of God, we may be sensible of our woes, lament them, ask God to deliver us from them, and, in the heavy affliction of nature, seek for “ As he spoke, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them : having received a band of soldiers, and servants from the chief priests and the Pharisees, he cometh thither with lanterns, and torches, and weapons, and staves. And he that be¬ trayed him had given them a sign, saying : Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is he : lay hold of him, and lead him away carefully. When he was come, immediately going up to Jesus, he saith : Hail, Rabbi, and he kissed him.” (St. Matthew xxvi. 47 ; St. Luke xxii. 47 ; St. John xviii. 3 ; St. Mark xiv. 43-45.) The Lamb of God did not refuse this kiss, which was more cruel than all the insults endured by him in his passion : “Jesus said to him : Friend, whereto art thou come?. Judas, dost thou betray the Son of man with a kiss ? ” (St. Matthew xxvi. 50 ; St. Luke xxii. 48.) Our Saviour was not yet taken ; it was not fitting that he should be captured by surprise, and he was to be arrested only because he chose to be. “ Therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, he went forth and said to- them • Whom seek ye ? They answered him': Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith to them : I am he. As soon, therefore, as he had said to them : I am he ; they went back¬ ward, and fell to the ground.” He who had cast them down, permitted them to rise immediately. “Again, therefore, he solace in the company of virtuous , friends. All that is not incompatible with patience, nor even with the most perfect patience, since Jesus Christ has done it. * 1 - * ♦ ♦ ♦ . 4 OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 787 asked them : Whom seek ye ? and they said : Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered : I have told you that I am he. If, therefore, you seek me, let these go their way,” he added, pointing to his disciples, “ that the word might be fulfilled which he said : Of them whom thou hast given me I have not lost any one.” (St. John xviii. 4.) All that Jesus had determined to do previous to his apprehension was now accomplished. He had made his enemies feel, by a single word, that, alone and unarmed, he was stronger than a troop of armed men. “ Then they came up, and held him.” “They that were about him, seeing what would follow, said to him : Lord, shall we strike with the sword ? Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it,” without waiting for the answer, and struck the servant of the high-priest, “ and cut off his right ear. The name of the servant was Malchus. But Jesus said : Suffer ye thus far ; and when he had touched his ear he healed him. He “ then ” said to Peter : Put up thy sword into thy scab¬ bard ; for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword. 1 The chalice which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ? Thinkest thou that I cannot ask my Father, and he will give me presently ( 1 ) Shall perish, that is to say shall deserve to perish. (’) The world has its hour, and God his eternity. (*) It is worthy of remark that, on an occasion when it was difficult to retain self-possession, Jesus displays neither passion nor weakness. He speaks more than twelve legions of angels ? How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that so it must be done ? ” (St. Matthew xxvi. 50, 52, 54 ; St. Luke xxii. 49-51 ; St. John xviii. 10, 11.) If the two miracles which Jesus Christ had just performed were not sufficient to disarm the hatred which pursued him, they served at least to prove that it lay with himself alone either to meet or pre¬ vent them; he was in the midst of them, and we may say in their very hands. Therefore “he said to the chief priests, and magistrates of the temple, and the ancients, that were come unto him : Are you come out as it were against a thief, with swords and staves to appre¬ hend me ? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not lay hands on me ; but this is your hour, 8 and the power of darkness. 3 Now'all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled : then the disciples all leaving him, fled. A certain young man followed him, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body ; and they laid hold on him ; but he, casting off the linen cloth, fled from them naked.” (St. Luke xxii 52, 53 ; St. Mark xiv. 48, 49, 51, 52 • St. Matt. xxvi. 56.) “Then the band, and the tribune, and the servants of the Jews took Jesus and to all, to Judas, to Peter, to the priests, and to their satellites, and he says to each what is suit¬ able for them; he instructs and gives orders until the moment when he says to his enemies words equivalent to these: Take me now ; I restrain you no farther. What strength there is in this moderation! 788 HISTORY OF THE LIFE bound him. They led him away to Annas “The high-priest, therefore, asked Jesus first; for he was father-in-law to Caiphas, of his disciples and of his doctrine. Jesus who was the high-priest of that year. answered him : I have spoken openly to Now, Caiphas was he who had given the the world ; I have always taught in the counsel to the Jews that it was expedient synagogue, and in the temple whither all that one man should die for the people. the Jews resort, and in secret I have Annas,” satisfied with this mark of his spoken nothing. Why askest thou me ? son-in-law’s respect, “sent him bound to ask them who have heard what I have Caiphas the high-priest. They led him to spoken unto them. Behold, they know Caiphas the high-priest, where the scribes what things I have said.” and the ancients were assembled.” (St. “ When he had said these things, one John xviii. 12-14-24 ; St. Matt. xxvi. 57.) of the servants standing by gave Jesus a “ And Simon Peter,” ashamed of his blow, saying : Answerest thou the high- flight, and recovered a little from his fear, priest so ? Jesus answered him : If I have “ followed Jesus afar off, and so did an- spoken evil, give testimony of the evil ; other disciple. That disciple was known but if well, why strikest thou me ? ” (St. to the high-priest, and went in with Jesus John xviii. 19-23.) into the court of the high-priest. 1 But The judges approved, at least by their Peter stood at the door without. The silence, of this most brutal act. Never- other disciple, therefore, who was known theless, what the Saviour had said Was so to the high-priest, went out, and spoke to reasonable, that they deemed themselves the portress, and brought in Peter even bound to proceed against him as he had into the court of the high-priest. Now, proposed. Accordingly, “ the chief priests the servants and ministers stood at a fire and the whole council sought false witness of coals (because it was cold), and warmed against Jesus, that they might put him to themselves, when they had kindled the death, and they found not ” any who had fire in the midst of the hall. Going in, even the semblance of truth, “whereas Peter sat with the servants, that he might many false witnesses had come in ” (St. see the end, and warmed himself with Matthew xxvi. 59, 60) ; “ for many bore them.” (St. John xviii. 15, 16, 18 ; St. false witness against him ” — manifestly Mark xiv. 54; St. Luke xxii. 55 ; St. false, “and their evidences were not Matthew xxvi. 58.) agreeing. Last of all there came two In the meantime, Jesus had entered into false witnesses, and they said : We heard the hall, where all his enemies were as- him say : I am able to destroy the temple sembled to sit in judgment upon him. of God, and after three days to rebuild it. ( 1 ) It is generally agreed that this disciple was the son of a poor fisherman, have formed an ac- Saint John; however, there is some ground for quaintance with the high-priest, who was the first doubting it. How could a young man of Galilee, man of the nation ? OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 789 I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another not made with hands. And their witness did not agree. And the high-priest rising up in the midst, asked Jesus, saying: Answerest thou nothing to the things that are laid to thy charge by these men ? But Jesus held his peace, and answered nothing.” (St. Mark xiv. 56-61 ; St. Matt, xxvi. 60-61.) “Again the high-priest asked him, and said to him: I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us if thou be the Christ the Son of the blessed God.” Then, although fully aware that it would cost him his life: “Thou hast said it,” saith Jesus to him who summoned him to declare whether he was the Christ: Yes, “ I am.” And, addressing himself to all present, he adds: “Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of hea¬ ven.” (St. Mark xiv. 61, 62 ; St. Matthew xxvi. 63, 64.) “Then the high-priest,” concealing his joy under the appearance of a hypocritical sorrow, “rent his garments, saying: He hath blasphemed ; what further need have we of witnesses ? Behold, now you have heard the blasphemy ; what think you ? They all answering, said : He is guilty of death.” (St. Matt. xxvi. 65, 66.) After this first examination Jesus was left in the custody of the servants and domestics. These satellites believed it their duty to outrage him. “Some began to spit on him. The men that held him mocked him and struck him. They blind¬ folded him, and smote his face, saying : Prophesy unto us, 0 Christ, who is he that struck thee : and blaspheming, many other things they said against him.” (St. Mark xiv. 65 ; St. Luke xxii. 63-65 ; St. Matt, xxvi. 68.) This scene occupied the rest of the night, and during all that time he whom the angels adore served as a butt for the ridicule of this low rabble. We do not read that he opposed one single word to so many outrages. If the evangelists do not directly say so, the prophets assure us of it; and this miracle of patience is contra¬ dicted by no one. But what renders the fact still more wonderful, and what we shall here remark with reference to all the Saviour endured during the whole course of his passion is, that he suffered nothing which was not felt on his part as exqui¬ sitely as it could be felt. We speak not only of his corporal pains, to which the perfect constitution of his body rendered him so sensitive. But what filled up his cup of sorrow, and was the most painful of all, is, that while he was thus in the power of his cruel enemies, the first and the most favored of his disciples, the chief of his apostles, renounced him. Peter, after having entered, “sat with¬ out in the court below, warming himself. There cometh one of the maid-servants of the high-priest, and when she had seen Peter warming himself, looking on him, she saith: Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth ; but he denied before them all, savins:: Woman, I know him not: I neither know nor understand what thou savest. And,” wishing to avoid a second 790 HISTORY OF THE LIFE interrogation, “he went forth before the court, and the cock crew. As he went out of the gate, another maid saw him, and she said to them that were there : This man also was with Jesus of Nazareth; and after a little while another, seeing him, said : Thou also art one of them. They said, therefore, to him : Art not thou also one of his disciples ? ” His first denial was but a lie ; to the second he added perjury. “ Again he de¬ nied with an oath, saying : I am not: I know not the man.” (St. Matthew xxvi. 69- 72 ; St. Mark xiv. 66-68 ; St. John xviii. 25 ; St. Luke xxii. 57, 58.) But Peter still loved him whom he re¬ nounced : he loved him, I say, less than his life ; and in this did his crime consist; but still he loved him too well to make up his mind to desert him, in uncertainty as to his fate. But “after the space as it were of one hour, one of the servants-of the high-priest, a kinsman to him whose ear Peter cut off, saith to him : Did I not see thee in the garden with him ? An¬ other certain man affirmed, saying : Of a truth this man was also with him, for he is also a Gfalilean.” The matter being thus debated, “ they came that stood by, and said to Peter : Surely thou also art one of them, for thou art also a Gfalilean ; thy speech doth discover thee. Again, therefore, for the third time, Peter denied. He began to curse and to swear, saying: I know not the man of whom you speak. Immediately, as he was yet speaking, the cock crew again, and the Lord turning, ( 1 ) Grave authors have thought that this ex¬ looked on Peter. Peter remembered the word that Jesus said unto him : Before the cock crow twice thou shalt thrice deny me ; and going forth he wept bitterly.” (St. Luke xxii. 59-61 ; St. John xviii. 26, 27 ; St. Matthew xxvi. 73-75 ; St. Mark xiv. 70-72.) We know not how it was that the Sa¬ viour happened to be in the court, where he cast upon his apostle this saving glance. But, although it has been said that this glance of Jesus was purely spiritual, the most common opinion is, that Jesus looked upon Peter with the eyes of the body, and this meaning the text naturally presents. Whilst Peter bewailed his sin, the ser¬ vants went on with their sacrilegious sport, which continued all the rest of the night, “ As soon as it was day, all the ancients of the people and the chief priests and scribes came together, and took counsel against Jesus, that they might put him to death.” Thus, well assured of the answer, “ they brought him into their council, say¬ ing,” with a false show of moderation, If thou be the Christ, tell us. He saith to them : If I shall tell you, you will not be¬ lieve me ; and if I shall ask you,” by what marks,' according to the Scriptures, the Christ is to be recognized, “you will not answer me, nor let me go. But hereafter the Son of man shall be sitting on the right hand of the power of God.” All present understood what was meant by this “ sit¬ ting.” For this reason “ then said the}- all: Art thou, then, the Son of God? 1 Who said : You say that I am.” This animation and that of Oaiphas had taken place at OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 791 was the same answer which he had al¬ ready given to the same question. The inference was also the same : “ What need we any further testimony,” they said like Caiphas, “ for we ourselves have heard it from his own mouth ? ” (St. Luke xxii. 66-69.) The sentence of death was already pro¬ nounced ; it now only remained to carry it into execution, and in this they lost no time. “ The whole multitude of them ris¬ ing up, led Jesus bound, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.” Then Judas began to feel remorse. He had flattered himself either that the ene¬ mies of Jesus would not attempt his life, or that his power would nullify their ef¬ forts. “ Seeing that he was condemned, Judas, who betrayed him, repenting him¬ self, brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and ancients, saying : I have sinned in betraying innocent blood. What is that to us ?” said these cruel men : “ look thou to it.” This dry and disdain¬ ful answer gave the finishing stroke to his despair. “Casting down the pieces of the same time, and on the same morning. We prefer the opinion of those who separate the oc¬ casions, and who place that of Caiphas on the evening before, putting off this until the following morning. Here are the reasons which have led us to believe this the most probable opinion. All agree as to two things: 1st. That the interrogatory which we are actually reporting took place in the morning. 2d. That it was during the night pre¬ ceding that morning that the Saviour was outraged silver in the temple, he departed, and went and hanged himself with a halter.” (St. Luke xxiii. 1 ; St. Matt, xxvii. 2-5.) And the unfortunate wretch “being hang¬ ed, burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.” (Acts i. 18.) The wicked are sometimes scrupulous observers of propriety 7 . These men “hav¬ ing taken the pieces of silver, said : It is not lawful for us to put them into the Cor- bona, because it is the price of blood. And after they had consulted together, they bought with them the potter’s field, to be a burying-place for strangers. For this cause that field was called Haceldama, that is, the field of blood, even to this day.” Whence it has become the lasting proof of their crime and the monument of their incredulity ; for “ then was ful¬ filled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying : They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was prized, whom they prized of the children of Israel; and they gave them unto the . potter’s field, as the Lord appointed to me.” 1 (St. Matthew xxvii. 6-10.) * (*) by the officers and the servants of the high-priest. Now the examination by Caiphas preceded these outrages. (*) This prophecy is not found in Jeremias ; but we read it in equivalent terms in Zacharias, chap. xi. Saint Jerome says that he read it in a Hebrew volume of Jeremias, which was shown him by a Jew. Saint Augustine had seen some copies wherein neither Jeremias nor any other prophet was found named. 792 HISTORY OF THE LIFE CHAPTER LY. JESUS CONDUCTED BEFORE PILATE.—PILATE INTERROGATES HIM, AND SENDS HIM TO HEROD. —HE IS LED BACK TO PILATE.—BARABBAS.—PILATE’S WIFE.—HE IS CROWNED WITH THORNS. T HEN they led Jesus from Caiplias to the governor’s hall.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood ; ” for “ it was morning.” (St. John xviii. 28 ; Ps. xiii. 3.) A scruple stopped them short at the gate. These men, religious beyond what was prescribed, “ went not into the hall, that they might not be defiled, but that they might eat the pasch. Pilate, went out to them, and said : What accusation bring you against this man ? They answered : If he were not a malefactor we would not have delivered him up to thee.” It was hatred which spoke, and Pilate knew that very well. “ He therefore said to them : Take him you, and judge him according to , your law. The Jews, therefore, said to him : It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.” (St. John xviii. 28-31.) By this avowal they acknowledged that the sceptre, in whatever way it be under¬ stood, had at last passed away from the house of Juda. (G-en. xlix. 10.) They should consequently have acknowledged that “ he came who was to be sent, the expectation of nations; ” but, blinded by passion, they could no longer see what their own avowal made plain. They feared lest the populace might impute to them the death of the just man, and, perhaps, proceed to violence. If the Romans exe¬ cuted him, and the people did mutiny, Pilate then had authority and power to quell the outbreak. Such were their mo¬ tives whereon they acted. If Pilate, yielding to their clamors, finally deter¬ mined to judge the Saviour, and to con¬ demn him to crucifixion, it was “that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he said, signifying what death he should die.” (St. John xviii. 32.) Obliged, however, by the first refusal of Pilate, to prove a crime, the enemies of Jesus “ began to accuse him, saying : We have found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he is Christ the king.” (St. Luke xxiii. 2.) Of these three charges, the first was vague, the second false, and the third ma¬ liciously misrepresented. “ Pilate, there¬ fore,” as soon as he heard the allusion to royalty, “went into the hall, and called Jesus. Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying: Art thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answer¬ ed : Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or have others told it thee of me ? Pilate answered : Am I a Jew ? Thy own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee up to me ; what hast thou done ? ” (St. John xviii. 33-35 ; St. Matt, xxvii. 11.) This reply was an avowal that he in¬ terrogated as judge. Our Saviour drew OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 793 this from him, because he wished to under¬ go the disgrace of a public condemnation. ‘'Jesus,” always submissive to lawful authority, “ answered : My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews ; but now my kingdom is not from hence. Pilate said to him: Art thou a king, then ? Jesus answered : Thou sayest that I am a king. 1 For this was I born, and for this came I into the world ; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith to him : What is truth ? and when he said this he went out again to the Jews, to the chief priests, and to the multitudes, and saith to them : I find no cause in this man.” (St. John xviii. 33-35 ; St. Luke xxiii. 4.) Doth it not seem that he should rather have announced to them that he found him guilty? Our Saviour had just declared that he was king, and this was the crime of which they accused him. How could Pilate, after this avowal, immediately de¬ clare him innocent? Because, without penetrating all the mystery of his royalty, he had discovered that it was at least not of a nature to give offence to the powers of earth. These accusers continued, and, accord¬ ing to the custom of all calumniators, when they could prove no fact they mul¬ tiplied crimes. Jesus did not oppose a single word to their accusations, “and ( 1 ) This royalty is described in Psalm ii.: “ I am appointed king by him over Sion, his holy mountain, preaching his commandment.” when he was accused in many things by the chief priests and the ancients, he an¬ swered nothing.” (St. Matthew xxvii. 12 ; St. Mark xv. 3.) It was not for Him to speak ; it was the dutj- of the judge, who had only to say : It is not sufficient to ac¬ cuse, you must prove ; but we do not find that he said so even once. Pilate, that he might not remain entirely silent, “ again asked Jesus: Dost thou not hear how great testimonies they allege against thee ? Answerest thou nothing ? Behold in how many things they accuse thee. And he answered him to never a word, so that the governor wondered exceedingly.” (St. Mark xv. 4 ; St. Matthew xxvii. 13, 14.) Pilate, having acknowledged the inno¬ cence of the accused, had nothing more to silence the accusers, and dismiss them. This he did not do, simply because he did not dare to do so. The enemies of the Saviour, who were thoroughly conscious of this, without producing fresh crimes, “ they were more earnest, saying: He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Gfalilee to this place.” “Pilate, hearing G-alilee, asked if the man were of Glalilee ; and when he under¬ stood that he was of Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him away to Herod, who was also himself at Jerusalem in those days.” (St. Luke xxiii. .5-10.) The murderer of Saint John the Baptist might easily become the murderer of Jesus ; and he who had sacrificed a prophet to the resentment of a woman, was but too capable of immolating another to the hatred of the chief men of the 100 HISTORY OF THE LIFE 794 nation. The chief men must have been elated with joy, as immediately after the precursor’s death, Herod sought Jesus to put him to death. Admiration, heightened by curiosity, had now succeeded in Herod’s mind to the hatred or policy which had made him seek our Saviour’s life. “ See¬ ing Jesus, he was very glad ; for he was desirous of a long time to see him, because he had heard many things of him, and he hoped to see some sign wrought by him ; and he questioned him in many words, but Jesus answered him nothing. The chief priests and the scribes stood by earnestly accusing him.” Jesus made no reply to their accusations, any more than to the questioning of Herod. He wrought two miracles: one of wis¬ dom, by not satisfying the frivolous curi¬ osity of this bad prince ; the other of patience, in not opposing a single word to the outrageous calumnies of his enemies. “ Herod, with his army, set him at nought, and mocked him. And putting on him a white garment, he sent him back to Pilate ” in this apparel, indicative of a fool, or a visionary, or perhaps a theatrical king. It was in order to free himself from em¬ barrassment that the governor had sent him. Herod readily believed that it was done out of deference. “And Herod and Pilate were made friends that same day ; for before they were enemies to one an¬ other.” (St. Luke xxiii. 5-10.) Meantime the intention of the governor had not been carried out; the levity aud heedlessness of Herod left the matter in its original state, and Pilate in the same perplexity as before. Pilate commenced by a remonstrance : “ calling together the chief priests, the magistrates, and the people, he said to them : You have pre¬ sented unto me this man, as one that perverted the people, and behold I hav¬ ing examined him before you, find no cause in this man, in those things wherein you accuse him. No, nor Herod neither, for I sent you to him ; and behold, nothing is done to him” which can prove him “ worthy of death. I will chastise him, therefore, and release him.” (St. Luke xxiii. 13-16.) “ Now, on the festival day he was wont to release unto them one of the prisoners, whomsoever they demanded.” (St. Mark xv. 6.) This custom had been added to ceremonies which the law prescribed, in order to celebrate the deliverance from the captivity of Egypt, and from the sword of the destroying angel. Pilate sought to turn it to his own account. “ He had then a notorious prisoner that was called Ba- rabbas.” Barabbas was a robber, “ who, for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison. When the multitude was come up ” to the judg¬ ment hall, “ they began to desire that he would do as he had ever done unto them. They, therefore, being gathered together, Pilate said : You have a custom that I should release one unto you at the pasch : whom will you that I release to you, Ba¬ rabbas, or Jesus, that is called Christ?” (St. Matthew xxvii. 16, 17 ; St. Mark xv. 8, 9 ; St. John xviii. 39.) Jesus, placed on a par with a well- known and universally-detested criminal, ought naturally to be unanimously prefer- lllg Ifl lll.^sll§§ I i | l l ] SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 795 red. But what raised Pilate’s hopes was, that he was then treating with the people. If he had only to deal with the priests, he would not have had the same confidence, “ for he knew that for envy they had de¬ livered him.” (St. Matthew xxvii. 18 ; St. Mark xv. 10.) So Pilate said to them the second time: “Will you, therefore, that I release unto you the king of the Jews ? ” (St. John xviii. 39.) He was still awaiting the answer, when an unforeseen message came. “As he was sitting in the place of judgment his wife sent to him, saying: Have thou nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream, because of him.” 1 (St. Matt, xxvii. 19.) History does not inform us whether this warning made any impression on Pilate’s mind, or whether he appeared at first to pay any attention to it. He may have sent word to his wife that she might be easy in her mind—that the measures which he had taken would infalliby save this just man. If so, he deceived her ; but it was because he had deceived him¬ self. “ The chief priests and ancients moved the people, and persuaded them that they should ask Barabbas, and make Jesus away.” (St. Matt, xxvii. 20 ; St. Mark xv. 11.) When, therefore, he had returned his wife’s message, “the governor said to ( 1 ) It is conjectured, and with great probability, that the dream presaged to her the misfortunes which Pilate would draw down upon himself and his family, if he imbrued his hands in the blood of the Just. He was subsequently disgraced, ban- them : Whether will you of the two to be released unto you ? The whole multitude cried out: Away with this man, and re¬ lease unto us Barabbas.” Pilate, aston¬ ished, and wishing still to save Jesus, “ again answering, saith to them : What will you, then, that I do to the king of the Jews—with Jesus, that is called Christ ? but they all again cried out, saying : Cru¬ cify him ! crucify him ! He said to them the third time : Why, what evil hath this man done ? I find no cause of death in him : I will chastise him, therefore,” add¬ ed he, falling back on his first idea, “ and let him go. But they were instant with * loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified ; and they cried out the more, saying : “ Crucify him ! let him be cruci¬ fied! ” “ Pilate, seeing that he prevailed noth¬ ing, but that rather a tumult was made, taking water, washed his hands before the people, saying : I am innocent of the blood of this just man : look you to it; and the whole people answering, said : His blood be upon us and upon our children.” (St. Matthew xxvii. 21-27 ; St. Luke xxiii. 18-23 ; St. Mark xv. 12-14.) The Eternal heard this horrible impre¬ cation, and ratified it. More than eighteen centuries have passed away, and still this blood demands vengeance, and obtains it against the posterity of this unhappy peo¬ ple. ished, and perished by his own hand. Very ancient authors give her the name of Claudia Procula. This is also the name which the Greeks give her in their monologies, wherein they have placed her in the rank of the saints. 796 HISTORY OF THE LIFE ' That furious populace at length over- tremely cruel, since Pilate thought that, came.the governor, and the result might by exhibiting to the Jews the condition to be anticipated. After the vain ceremony which it had reduced our Saviour, he of washing his hands, or rather after hav- should at last succeed in melting them ing rendered against himself a glaring into compassion. testimony of the injustice which he was This torment was immediately followed about to commit, “Pilate, being willing to by another, either suggested by the hatred satisfy the people, gave sentence that it of the Jews, or invented by the brutality should be as they required.” (St. Mark of the soldiers. The latter “ taking Jesus xv. 15 ; St. Luke xxiii. 24-25.) into the court of the palace, gathered to- Consequently “he released unto them gether unto him the whole band, and him who, for murder and sedition, had stripping him, they put a scarlet cloak been cast into prison, whom they had de- about him. And platting a crown of sired.” thorns, they put it upon his head, and a While they were liberating Barabbas, reed in his right hand. Then they came “Pilate took Jesus, and scourged him.” to him, and bowing the knee before him, (St. John xix. 1.) The evangelists say they mocked him, saying : Hail king of nothing more about this affair, but the the Jews ; and spitting upon him, they common opinion is, that this flagellation took the reed and struck his head, and was carried to the last extreme of cruelty. they gave him blows.” (St. Matt, xxvii. 27— There can be no doubt but that it was ex- 30 ; St. Mark xv. 16-19 ; St. John xix. 3.) CHAPTER LYI. ECCE HOMO.—PILATE’S SECOND INTERROGATION.—JESUS IS CONDEMNED.—HE CARRIES HIS CROSS.—SIMON THE CYRENEAN.—DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM.—JESUS CRUCIFIED BETWEEN TWO THIEVES.—TITLE OF THE CROSS.—LOTS CAST FOR THE GARMENT.—BLASPHEMIES AND INSULTS.—OUR LORD’S WORDS TO HIS MOTHER.—DARKNESS.—JESUS EXPIRES.—PRODIGIES.— OUR SAVIOUR’S SIDE OPENED.—BURIAL.—DESCENT INTO HELL. ' | "HE Jews should now at least have crown of thorns and the purple garment, X been content. “Pilate, therefore, and Pilate saith to them: Behold the went forth again, and saith to them : Be- man ! ” The people became silent: but hold, I bring him forth unto you, that you “ when the chief priests and the servants may know that I find no cause in him. had seen him, they cried out: Crucify Jesus, therefore, came forth, bearing the him ! crucify him! Pilate saith to them : OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 797 Take him you, and crucify him : for I find no cause in him. The Jews answered him : We have a law, .and according to the law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” Thus, they substituted for the state offence of which Pilate did not find him guilty, a crime against religion, which, it seems, he must take on their testimony— not being sufficiently conversant with their O v law to judge the case himself; however, this expression, which escaped them in the heat of their passion, was very near de¬ priving them of their victim. “ When Pilate, therefore, had heard this saying, he feared the more, and he entered into the hall again, and he said to Jesus : Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate, therefore, said to him: Speakest thou not to me ? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and I have power to release thee ? ” Far from flattering the governor’s pride, Jesus gave him a lesson very proper to inspire men in office with modesty, by re¬ minding them from whom they hold their authority: “Thou shouldst not have any power against me, unless it were given thee from above; therefore,” added the Saviour, “he that hath delivered me to thee hath the greater sin.” The judge who is weak or corrupt enough to be instrumental in the execu¬ tion of wicked designs, if not the most wicked of assassins, is at least the most infamous. This inference came directly home to him, so it is not surprising that “from henceforth Pilate sought to release him.” But he sought in vain. “The Jews cried out, saying : If thou release this man, thou art not Cmsar’s friend ; for whosoever maketh himself a king, speak- eth against Crnsar.” “When Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment-seat, in the place that is called Lithostrotos, and in the Hebrew Gabbatha. . It was the para- sceve of the pasch, about the sixth hour, and he saith to the Jews : Behold your king. But they cried out: Away with him! away with him! crucify him! Shall I crucify your king ? Pilate saith to them.” (St. John xix. 4-7.) Again “The chief priests answered : We have no king but Csesar. Then, therefore, he delivered up Jesus to their will;” that is, “ he deliver¬ ed him unto them to be crucified.” (St. John xix. 15—17 ; St. Luke xxiii. 25 ; St. Matthew xxvii. 26.) Behold, then, the issue of Pilate’s judgment, after he had so many times declared him innocent. What more could he have done if he had found him guilty ? Meanwhile Jesus “ delivered himself to him that judged him unjustly” (1 St. Peter ii. 23), and, by his silence, verified still further the prophecy which compared him to a lamb, which, far from defending itself, does not even oppose a cry to the knife that is going to slaughter it. (St. John xix. 16, 17 ; St. Mark xv. 20.) The soldiers “took Jesus,” and “took off the purple from him ; they put his own garments on him, and they led him out to crucify him. Jesus, bearing his own cross, went forth to that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew Golgotha.” There was a custom amongst the A 798 HISTORY OF THE LIFE Romans, that those who were to be cruci¬ fied should themselves carry their cross to the place of execution. There was, there¬ fore, nothing extraordinary in this with regard to the Saviour. But Jesus, ex¬ hausted with loss of blood, soon sank m under the burden. His excessive weak¬ ness gave reason to fear that he might escape the extreme penalty, or at least retard the moment of execution so earnest¬ ly desired by his enemies. This apprehen¬ sion prompted them to relieve him, when God presented to them the man chosen to succor his Son. “ As they led Jesus away, going out,” from the city, “they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon, the father of Alexander and of Rufus, who passed by, coming out of the country. Him they forced to take up his cross, and they laid the cross on him, to carry after Jesus.” (St. Luke xxiii. 26 ; St. Matthew xxvii. 32 ; St. Mark xv. 21.) Meantime, “there followed Jesus a great multitude of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented him. But, turning to them, he said : Daughters 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! Then shall they begin to say to the mountains : Fall upon us ; and to the hills : Cover us. For, if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry ? ” (St. Luke xxiii. 27-31.) “There were also two other malefactors led with him to be put to death.” It was in such company as this that “ they bring him into the place called Golgotha, which, being interpreted, is the place of Calvary.” (St. Luke xxiii. 32 ; St. Mark xv. 22 ; St. Matthew xxvii. 33.) “ When they were come to the place, they gave him wine to drink, mingled with myrrh and gall. 1 And when he had tasted, he would not drink. It was the third hour they crucified him. 2 With him they cruci¬ fied two thieves ; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left, and Jesus in the midst. Thus the Scripture was fulfilled which saith : With the wicked was he reputed.” (St. Luke xxiii. 33 ; St. Mat¬ thew xxvii. 34 ; St. Mark xv. 25, 27, 28 ; St. John xix. 18.) The Deicide was consummated. Scarcely was Jesus fastened to the cross, and it elevated upon the mountain, when “he said,” and this was the first word which he pronounced, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” ”>(31. Luke xxiii. 34.) We should not omit a circumstance of our Saviour’s passion that the Holy Ghost has judged worthy of recording. “ Pilate ( 1 ) St. Matthew mentions the gall, and St. Mark the myrrh ; one does not exclude the other. Jesus tasted it in order to obey, in order to suffer, in order to expiate our acts of intemperance, and in order to accomplish the prophecies. (*) St. Mark makes this statement, while St. John says about the sixth hour. St. Jerome and Theopliylact thought the Greek letter for three had, by an error of copyists, been put for six. But the difficulty has not been satisfactorily cleared. As occurring between those two regular divisions, it might be ascribed to either. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 799 wrote a title, and lie put it upon the cross. The inscription of his cause was written over ” it in these terms: “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title, therefore, many of the Jews did read ; because the place where Jesus was cruci¬ fied was nigh to the city, and it was written in Hebrew, in Gfreek, and in Latin. The chief priests” considered themselves insulted by this, as the chief men of the nation, followed by the major¬ ity of the people, had just delivered Jesus over to the extreme penalty. They “ said, therefore, to Pilate : Write not, the king of the Jews ; but*that he said, I am the king of the Jews.” Pilate answered: “What I have written, I have written” (St. John xix. 21-22), and dismissed them with this curt reply. Whatever his motive may have been— and it is not very easy to ascertain—he executed, without knowing it, the orders of the Most High. It was God, who had, dictated what the judge had written, and restrained his hand so that the inscription was not effaced. It was by means of the cross that the Man-God was to reign ; and by affixing him to it they had placed him, if we may use the expression, upon the throne of his royalty. It was also neces¬ sary to proclaim him king, and Pilate—a Gentile—did this officially, notwithstand¬ ing the opposition and the indignation of the Jewish people. (*) The coat or tunic of the Saviour was a figure of his spouse the Church, which is one and indivisible, because it always maintains itself in one and the same faith, and in one and the same charity. Nothing is of trifling importance in so great an event. But there is another rea¬ son which renders the next act worthy of notice—the literal fulfilment of the proph¬ ecies in a circumstance so slight and so accidental : “ The soldiers, therefore, when they had crucified him, took his garments [and they made four parts, to every soldier a part] and also his coat. 1 Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said then one to another : Let us not cut it ; but let us cast lots for it, whose it shall be ; that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, saying: They have parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they have cast lots. The soldiers indeed did these things.” “ And they sat and watched him.” (St. John xix. 23, 24 ; St. Matthew xxvii. 35, 36.) Jesus, a prey to the most excruciating pain, was subjected also to the worst of in¬ sults. “They that passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying: Bah, thou that destroyest the temple of God, and in three days dost rebuild it, save thy own self; if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. The people stood beholding, and the rulers with them derided him ” (St. Matt, xxvii. 39, 40 ; St. Luke xxiii. 35), for they were not ashamed to join the multitude. “In like manner also, the chief priests, with the scribes and ancients, mocking said: It is said of those who create schism in the Church, that they rend the garment of Jesus Christ; that is to say, that they try to do so, though, they never can succeed. X HISTORY OP THE LIFE 800 He saved others ; himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God : let him now deliver him if he will have him : for he said : I am the Son of God.” (St. Matt, xxvii. 41 ; Ps. xxi. 9.) David had them in view when he put these words into the mouth of the impious oppressors of the just; and, without wish¬ ing or knowing it, they were instrumental in fulfilling this prophecy. They were also heard to say: “Let him also save himself, if he be Christ the elect of God ; let Christ the king of Israel come down now from the cross that we may see and believe. The soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar ; and saying: If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.” And to put the fin¬ ishing stroke to these outrages, “ the self¬ same thing the thieves also that were crucified with him reproached him with.” (St. Luke xxiii. 35-37 ; St. Mark xv. 32 ; St. Matthew xxvii. 44.) Whilst “one of those robbers who were hanged, blasphemed him, saying : If thou be Christ, save thyself and us ; the other,” suddenly enlightened, and changed into another man, “ answering, rebuked him, saying : Neither dost thou fear God ! see¬ ing thou art under the same condemna- ( 1 ) It may be asked wliat this paradise was, which could neither be heaven, for it was not open, nor the terrestrial paradise, which no longer ex¬ isted. It appears to be the bosom of Abraham, which, for the just, entirely purified, was a place of l'epose, and might be regarded as that of imper¬ fect felicity. Might we not say that it is no tion? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds ; but this man hath done no evil.” The work of conversion is far advanced, when the sinner confesses his iniquity and the justice of his chastisement. The knowledge of God’s goodness, and a lov¬ ing confidence in his mercies, finish and perfect the change. Penetrated with this second sentiment, the consequence and perhaps the reward of the first,—“ He said to Jesus : Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom.” By this prayer he confessed that Jesus is the king of the world to come. All faith is comprised in this confession, but what renders it most surprising is the occasion whereon he rendered to Jesus so glorious a testimony. His salvation was the reward which it obtained for him, and he received at the moment an assurance thereof. “ Jesus said to him : Amen, I say to thee, , this day thou shalt be with me in para¬ dise.” 1 (St. Luke xxiii. 39-43.) An object still more interesting to Jesus soon attracted his attention, and gave him the opportunity of fulfilling one of the first duties prescribed by nature. “ His mother,” whom the most excruciating an¬ guish ever felt by mortal could not deter from following him, “and his mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Mag- longer permissible to doubt, after this expression of Jesus Christ: This day thou shalt be with me in paradise; for it is a matter of faith that upon that day Jesus Christ descended into Limbo, and he declares formally that he and the robber shall be reunited on that very day in the same place. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 8111 dalene, stood by the cross of Jesus. When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that he saith to his disciple : Behold thy mother. 1 And from that hour that disciple took her to his own.” 2 (St. John xix. 25-27.) “It was almost the sixth hour; and there was darkness 3 over all the earth 4 until the ninth hour, when the sun was darkened. At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with loud voice, saying : Eloi,' Eloi, lamma sabacthani ? which is, being inter¬ preted : My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ” 6 This desertion was undoubtedly the most grievous of all his pains. But his words were not understood ; through ig¬ norance of the sacred language in which Jesus spoke, “some of the standers-by (* *) Had St. Joseph been alive, there would have been no need of our Saviour’s commending his mother to another. The virgin mother was given in charge to the virgin disciple. The holy Fathers assign also as a cause for this favor the tendei and generous attachment of the disciple, which made him follow his master to the place of execu¬ tion. ( 4 ) St. John doubtless lodged with his mother Salome, and to her house he would naturally con¬ duct the Blessed Virgin. Interpreters say that St. John here represented all the faithful, and that in adopting him Mary adopted us all. It is from this that Maiy s pane¬ gyrists have taken occasion to say that the Eternal Father, having chosen her to be the mother of his only Son, wished that she should be also the mother of all those whom Christ had made his brethren. (’) Shortly before Jesus expired. It was the hearing, said: Behold he calleth Elias. (St. Mark xv. 35.) “ Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished,” with the exception of a slight circumstance which his infinite penetration singled out from amidst that crowd of prophecies which re¬ garded his person, “that the Scripture might be fulfilled,” 6 without failing in a single point, hence Jesus “said : I thirst. There was a vessel set there full of vine¬ gar. Immediately one of them running, took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, and putting it upon a reed gave him to drink. And the others said : Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to deliver him.” He who presented the drink said with the others : “ Stay, let us see if Elias come to take him down. Jesus, when he had taken the vinegar,” as nothing was wanting to his sacrifice, “ said : It is consummated. mourning of nature for the death of its au¬ thor. (*) The most common opinion is that darkness actually spread over the whole earth. The scanty information gleaned from history proves that it ex¬ tended far beyond Judea, as is reported by Phlegon, a pagan author, then living. ( 5 ) Psalm xxi. In this psalm the principal cir¬ cumstances of the passion are so clearly stated, that it is regarded as one of the most striking prophecies. It is the human nature in Jesus Christ that complains to the Eternal Father of being abandoned by him without defence to the rage of his enemies, and left a prey to the most acute sufferings without any sensible consola¬ tion. (•) What was then accomplished is the second part of this versicle of Psalm lxviii.: They gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. 802 HISTORY OF THE LIFE And. crying with a loud voice, 1 he said : having seen the earthquake and the things Father, into thy hands I commend my 2 that were done, were sore afraid, saying: spirit. And saying this, bowing his head, Indeed, this was the Son of God. And he gave up the ghost.” (St. John xix. 26- all the multitude of them that were come 30 ; St. Matt, xxvii. 48, 49 ; St. Mark xv. together to that sight, and saw the things 36 ; St. Luke xxiii. 46.) that were done, returned striking their Here ended the power of evil. The breasts.” (St. Mark xv. 39 ; St. Luke xxiii. divine power, which had kept itself con- 47, 48 ; St. Matt, xxvii. 54.) cealed until the consummation of the sac- Others, who were still more afflicted, rifice, burst forth on the instant. He had but free from remorse, could not tear them- scarcely expired, “ and behold the veil of selves away from so dear an object. “ All the temple was rent in two from the top his acquaintance, and many women stood even to the bottom ; the earth quaked ; afar off looking on and beholding these the rocks were rent, and the graves were things. Among whom were Mary Mag- opened.” This latter prodigy was pre- dalene, Mary the mother of James the less, paratory to another which did not occur and of Joseph, and Salome, the mother of until the third day after. “ Many bodies the sons of Zebedee, who also when he of the saints that had slept arose, 3 and was in Galilee followed him and ministered coming out of the tombs after his resurrec- to him. Many other women that came up tion, came into the holy city, and appeared with him to Jerusalem ” were also present. to many.” (St. Matt, xxvii. 51-53.) (St. Luke xxiii. 49 ; St. Matt, xxvii. 55- Thus did insensible creatures testify 56 ; St. Mark xv. 40, 41.) • sensibility at the death of their author. The Jews, in all that they had attempted Their example, if we may so speak, pro- against the Saviour, had only been en- duced its effect. First of all, “The cen- abled “to do what thy hand'and thy turion who stood over against him, seeing counsel decreed to be done.” (Acts iv. 28.) what was done, that crying out in this They could never make him suffer any- manner he had given up the ghost, glori- thing but what God had resolved that he tied God, saying: Indeed this was a just should suffer ; and because God did not man; indeed he was the Son of God. wish that he should suffer another kind of They that were with him watching Jesus, punishment which they further destined ( 1 ) This cry was supernatural : and regarded as ( s ) All Christians should die with these words miraculous by those who heal’d it. The centurion on their lips. .... seeing that crying out in this manner he had . ( 8 ) It is not decided whether these saints arose given up the ghost, said: “Indeed this man was before Jesus Christ did, or whether they arose so the Son of God.” Such a display of strength in a as never to die again. The most common opinion state of extreme exhaustion showed well that Jesus is that they arose after the resurrection of Jesus died because he chose, and at the moment when Christ, never to die again, and that they followed he chose : “ I have power to lay it (my life) down; him to heaven on the day of his ascension. and I have power to take it up.” (St. John x. 18.) DESCENT FROM THE CROSS, w - * i - \ OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 803 for him, the idea did not strike them until after his death. The law ordained that the bodies of those who had been fastened to a gibbet, should be taken thence before the close of day. (Deut. xxi. 23.) Then, “ because it was the parasceve ” (the so¬ lemnity of which commenced at sunset), “ that the bodies might not remain upon the cross on the sabbath-day (for that was a great sabbath-da} 7 ), the Jews besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came, and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him. When they came to Jesus, and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers opened his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water. 1 And he that saw it, gave testimony, and his testimony is true. And he knoweth that he saith true, that you also may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture might be fulfilled : You shall not break a bone of him. Again, another Scripture saith : They shall look on him whom they pierced.” 2 (St. John xix. 31-37.) About an hour after Jesus expired, “ and when it was evening, there came a certain rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph. [He was] a noble counsellor, a good and a just man, who also himself was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews. The same had not consented to their counsel and doings, who also him¬ self looked for the kingdom of God. This man came and went in boldly to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. But Pilate wondered that he should be already dead, and sending for the centurion, he asked him if he were already dead. When he had understood it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph, [who] came and took away the body. And Nicodemus also came—he who at first came to Jesus by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundreds pounds weight. Joseph, buying fine linen, 3 and taking Jesus down, wrapped him up in the fine linen ;— they bound the body in linen cloths with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.” (St. Matt, xxvii. 57; St. Mark xv. 43-46 ; St. Luke xxiii. 50-52 ; St. John xix. 38-40.) “ Now there was in the place where he was crucified, a garden ; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein no man yet had been laid. There therefore, because of the parasceve of the Jews, because the sepul- ( 1 ) According to the explanation of the Holy Fathers, baptism was signified by the water, and the Eucharist by the blood. (* ) They looked upon him in the very place where they had pierced him. They shall see him again, but with what inexpressible terror! they shall look upon him, but it shall be upon the last day, when he shall present to his murderers the scars of his wounds in testimony ot their Deicide. St. John, in the Apocalypse, refers to this period, the perfect accomplishment of this prophecy: “ Be¬ hold, he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him.” (Apoc. i.) ( 3 ) The sheet was also of linen. Hence arose the custom, at the sacrifice of the Mass, to lay the body of Jesus Christ upon linen, to the exclusion of every other texture. St. Jerome made this re¬ mark nearly 1400 years ago. 804 HISTORY OF THE LIFE chre was nigh at hand 1 he laid the body was yet alive : After three days I will rise in his own new monument which he had again. Command therefore the sepulchre to hewed out in a rock ; and he rolled a be guarded until the third day inclusive- great stone to the door of the monument, ly, lest his disciples come, and steal him and went his way. It was the day of the away, and say to the people : He is risen parasceve, and the Sabbath drew on. from the dead; so the last error shall be There were there Mary Magdalene and the worse than the first. Pilate said to them : other Mary that were come with Jesus You have a guard ; go, guard it as you from Galilee, sitting over against the se- know. They departing made the sepul- pulchre. They saw the sepulchre, and chre sure, sealing the stone and setting how his body was laid,” for it was with guards.” (St. Matt, xxvii. 62-66.) this design that they “ were following All this was necessary to render incon- after ” the funeral procession. “ And, re- testible the miracle of the resurrection. turning, they prepared spices and oint- Nevertheless, he whom they so carefully ments; and on the sabbath-day the}^ guarded was “ free amongst the dead, being rested, according to the commandment.” put to death indeed in the flesh, but enliven- (St. John xix. 41, 42 ; St. Mark xv. 46 ; ed in the spirit ” (Ps. lxxxvii. 5 ; 1 Peter iii. St. Matthew xxvii. 60, 61 ; St. Luke xxiii. 18) ; and he whom the Jews regarded as 54-56.) their captive, was actually breaking the fet- The enemies of Jesus were not so scru- ters of a whole people. “ Descended into pulous. These rigid observers of rest on the lower parts of the earth, he preached to the holy day—who had so often impeached those spirits that were in prison ” (Ephes. our Saviour with the crime of having vio- iv. 9 ; 1 Peter iii. 19). It is thought that lated it by operating miraculous cures— his holy soul spent there all the time that now violated it in their turn with the de- it was separated from his sacred body, sign of burying his religion and its author unfolding to the just the great mystery in the same tomb. “ The next dav, which of the redemption which had just been followed the day of the preparation, the wrought, and announcing to them their chief priests and the Pharisees came to- deliverance and their approaching entry gether to Pilate, saying : Sir, we have into heaven. Of this they had already a remembered that that seducer said, while he foretaste in the joy which his presence ( 1 ) Every occurrence which appears here ac- interred there, in order that it might imitate in cidental, is arranged by Providence ; for it was its way the purity of Mary, and that no question requisite that the sepulchre should he near to Cal- might ever be mooted as to whether the man who vary, in order to give time for bearing thither arose from the dead was not some other person be- the body of Jesus, and inclosing it therein, before sides Jesus. It was also necessary that it should the repose of the sabbath commenced. It was be hewn out of a rock, lest any suspicion should also proper that this sepulchre should he entirely arise of its having been broken open, and the body new, and that no person should have been hitherto carried secretly away. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 805 gave them. It is even held, and this opinion is the most common and the best authorized, that he communicated to them even then the clear vision of G-od, which constitutes the essential felicity of paradise. CHAPTER LVII. THE RESURRECTION.—THE ANGEL OF THE LORD.—THE SOLDIERS FRIGHTENED.—THE STONE RAISED.—JOURNEY OF THE WOMEN.—PETER AND JOHN.—APPARITION TO MAGDALENE.—AP¬ PARITION TO THE OTHER WOMEN -RETURN OF THE GUARDS TO JERUSALEM, AND THEIR DEPOSITION. W E have now arrived at that great event which our Saviour’s enemies had so dreaded, and for which his disciples scarcely dared to hope. His humiliations ended with his mortal life. His glory, which shall never end, commences with the immortal life which he resumes on the third day after his death and burial. Cod has not chosen to reveal to us the precise moment of its occurrence. It is commonly thought that the resurrection took place before sunrise, but not till after the dawn. We have already remarked that Jesus had declared in express terms that he should be three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth. That this prophecy might be literally accomplished, he must still be there on the third day until a per¬ son could say positively : It is day. As one instant was sufficient for this, so the appearance of the light was quite enough. It was therefore in the interval between dawn and sunrise that Jesus Christ arose by his own power, leaving on the floor of his sepulchre the linen cloths in which he had been wrapped, so that they might be as witnesses both of his death and his resur¬ rection. He arose without noise and with¬ out any visible splendor, and went forth from the tomb, even as he had come from the womb of his blessed mother. The stone was not displaced, but penetrated by the subtility of his glorified body. The guards did not perceive it, and the terror in which they are represented at the sight of the Man-Cod emerging from the tomb is merely the imagination of painters. That which caused their fear was the earthquake and the apparition of the angel, as we are now about to see in the recital of what occurred immediately after our Saviour’s resurrection. “When the sabbath was past” (after sunset), “Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, brought sweet spices, that coming, they might anoint Jesus.” (St. Matt, xxviii. 1 ; St. Mark xvi. 1.) They had prepared some the previous evening ; but, interrupted by the sabbath-rest, resumed the work as * 806 HISTORY OF THE LIFE soon as lawful. Before they set out on body of the Lord Jesus.” 1 (St. Luke their journey, they had to wait till night xxiv. 2, 3.) was passed ; but not for full daylight. We may infer that they withdrew, and, “ The first day of the week, when it was perhaps, supposing the body had been re- yet dark, they came very early in the moved to some neighboring place, they morning, bringing the spices which they dispersed to seek it. Magdalene, more had prepared, to the sepulchre, the sun impatient than the others, proceeded im- being now risen.” They were not aware mediately to those who she imagined could that the Jews had set guards. Anticipat- give her information. “ She ran, there- ing no other obstacle, “they said one to fore, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to another : Who shall roll us back the stone the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and from the door of the sepulchre ? For it saith to them : They have taken away the was very great.” (St. Mark xvi. 2 ; St. Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know John xx. 1 ; St. Luke xxiv. 1.) While thus not where they have laid him. Peter, expressing their embarrassment, our Lord therefore, went out, and that other disciple, in a moment removed every obstacle. and they came to the sepulchre. They “Behold there was a great earthquake. both did run together, and that other dis- For an angel of the Lord descended from ciple out-ran Peter, and came first to the heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone sepulchre, and when he stooped down, he and sat upon it. His countenance was as saw the linen cloths lying ; but yet he lightning, and his raiment as snow. For went not in. Then cometh Simon Peter, fear of him, the guards were struck with following him, and went into the sepulchre, terror and became as dead men.” (St. and saw the linen cloths lying, and the Matt, xxviii. 2-4.) They soon recovered napkin that had been about his head, not their senses, and at once fled. Meantime, lying with the linen cloths, but apart “ the women came and found the stone wrapped up into one place. Then that rolled back from the sepulchre.” The other disciple also went in, who came first angel, who would have terrified them, to the sepulchre ; and he saw and believed ; being not yet visible to their eyes, there for as yet they knew not the Scripture, seemed nothing to hinder their pious de- that he must rise again from the dead. 8 signs. But, “going in, they found not the So the disciples went awa} 7 again to their ( 1 ) The visit of Magdalene and the holy women that which we have followed is preferable to to the sepulchre, and the coming of the two dis- others. ciples; the apparitions of the angels, and of Christ, ( 2 ) These words, “as yet they know not the as well to Magdalene as to the holy women, are Scripture,” refers to the two disciples, but with positive facts, reported by the sacred writers; but some difference. In regard to St. Peter, who did j it is extremely difficult to arrange them all in or- not as yet believe, it signifies that, because he did 1 der. No system imagined by the interpreters is free not understand what was written concerning the from some objection. Neither can we assert that resurrection of Christ, he returned without be- - OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 807 home. Peter,” who was not yet thorough¬ ly persuaded, “ went away, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.” Magdalene, riveted there by her love, could not follow them, “ but stood without at the sepulchre weeping. Now as she was weeping, she stooped down, and look¬ ed into the sepulchre, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been laid. They say to her: Woman, why weepesttliou? She saith to them : Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. When she had said these words she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and she knew not that it was Jesus. He saith to her : Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, thinking that it was the gardener, saith to him : Sir, if thou hast taken him away, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith to her : Mary. She turning, saith to him : Rab- boni, that is to say, Master.” She instantly fell at his feet, to embrace them ; but his stay on eartli would give her full oppor¬ tunity. Hence “Jesus saith to her: Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, 1 and say to them : I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God.” 2 (St. John xx. 2-10; St. Luke xxiv. 12.) Thus “Jesus rising early the first day of the week, appeared first to Mary Mag¬ dalene, ont of whom he had cast seven devils.” (St. Mark xvi. 9.) He wished, by this distinction, to reward the fervor and constancy of her love. The zeal of the other women had its recompense. Having returned to the sepulchre, and not finding him whom they so eagerly sought, “as they were astonished in their minds at this, behold two men stood by them in shining apparel. And as they were afraid, and bowed down their countenance towards the ground, the angel, answering,.said to the women: Fear not you; 3 for I know that you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. Why seek you the living with the dead ? He is not here, for he is risen, lieving. As to St John, who began to believe, it means that, as he did not comprehend what was written, he then believed it only because he found the tomb open, the linen without the body, and the napkin folded back. Believing solely on ac¬ count of the inferences drawn from what he saw, was believing merely on the testimony of reason, which gave him no other advantage over St. Peter than that of having a clearer and more penetrating mind. (*) He calls them brethren, to dissipate any fear that their flight, at his passion, had diminished his love for them. St. Paul insinuates another reason: it was that they might know that, far from disowning them in the glorified state which followed his resurrection, they were only the dearer to him. ( 2 ) He commissions her to announce not only his resurrection to his disciples, but he wishes her to inform them further, that he has arisen to die no more; that he has only a very short time to re¬ main on earth ; that, if he quits them in order to return to God, he does not leave them forever. ( 3 ) “ Fear not you ” is said to them in opposi¬ tion to the soldiers. Very far from encouraging the latter, the angel wished to terrify them; very far from wishing to alarm the holy women, he restores their confidence. 808 HISTORY OF THE LIFE as is said. Remember how he spoke unto seen by her, did not believe.” (St. Matt. you when he was yet in Galilee, saying : xxviii. 8, 9 ; St. Mark xvi. 8-11 : St. Luke The Son of man must be delivered into the xxiv. 9-11; St. John xx. 18.) hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and Not so with the chief authors of his the third day rise again. Come and see death. They believed his resurrection ; but the place where the Lord was laid. Go these hardened men only sought to con- quickly, tell ye his disciples and Peter ceal the proof, and to prevent others from that he is risen. 1 Behold, he will go before believing. God, who wished to convince, you into Gralilee. There you shall see because he wished to save them, sent wit- him, 2 as he told you. Lo, I have foretold nesses above suspicion. “ When the women it to you. They” then “remembered his were departed, behold some of the guards [Jesus’] words.” (St. Luke xxiv. 4-8 ; St. came into the city, and told the chief Matt, xxviii. 5-7 ; St. Mark xvi. 7.) priests all things that had been done.” (St. “ They went out quickly from the sepul- Matt, xxviii. 11-15.) chre with fear and great jo_\ r , running to They had apparently noticed only the tell his disciples. They said nothing,” on earthquake, the removal of the stone, and the way, “to any man; for they were the apparition of the angel. Whether they afraid.” Whilst they were hurrying on, concluded that Christ had really risen, or “ behold Jesus met them, saying: All whether they had direct and positive proof hail. They came up, and took hold of his of the fact, it is certain they were con- feet, and adored him. Then Jesus said to vinced, and succeeded in convincing the them: Fear not. Go, tell my brethren very men whose interest was to disbelieve that they go into Galilee ; there they it. For the chief priests, “ being assembled shall see me. Going back from the sepul- together with the ancients, taking counsel, chre, they told all these things to the gave a great sum of money to the soldiers, eleven and to the rest. It was Joanna, saying : Say you, His disciples came by and Mary of James, and the other women night, and stole him away when we were that were with them, who told these things asleep. And if the governor shall hear this, to the apostles ; ” but “ these words seemed we will persuade him, and secure you. So to them as idle tales, and they did not they, taking the money, did as they were believe them. Mary Magdalene ” has no taught ; and this 'word was spread abroad greater success, when she “cometh and among the Jews even unto this day.” telleth the disciples : I have seen the Lord, The imposition was so visible, that at and these things he said to me. They first sight we would suppose no one could hearing that he was alive and had been be deceived by it. For it is exceedingly ( 1 ) Peter alone is distinguished from the Galilee was the place where he should appear most others. frequently, remain longest, and manifest himself to (’) Although they were to see him at Jerusalem, i a greater number. ^ I ■ — 1 - -—--- OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 809 improbable that several sentinels on guard dent that these guards were not asleep, should all fall asleep at the same time ; but enchanted. This simple reasoning no but it is utterly impossible that such a doubt occurred to many of the Jews, and theft as this could be carried into execu- that notwithstanding the authority of their tioa without disturbing them. It was ne- chief men, they knew well what to believe. cessary to displace and roll away a huge However, these leaders, disseminated a re- stone, to enter the sepulchre, and take the port devoid of all probability. To see its body ;—and also that several men should absurditv men would have to reflect, and take part in the transaction, for it is evi- they knew that the multitude never reflect. CHAPTER LVIII. DIVERS APPARITIONS TO PETER, TO JAMES, TO THE TWO DISCIPLES AT EMMAUS, AND TO THE ELEVEN (FIRST AND SECOND.)—APPARITION BY THE SEA-SIDE.—MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISH._PETER APPOINTED PASTOR OF THE WHOLE FLOCK.—APPARITION UPON A MOUNTAIN OF GALILEE.—MISSION OF THE APOSTLES.—FINAL APPARITION AT JERUSALEM.—PROMISE OF THE HOLY GHOST.—ASCENSION.—CONCLUSION. T]) Y withdrawing his body from the the former was inexcusable, and the second D hands of the Jews Christ proved his were forced to be faithful. He recalled resurrection, and this proof was to them un- his disciples gradually from their original answerable. For, since it had been left in incredulity to that immovable faith which their hands, they had either to show it the they subsequently communicated to the third day, or confess that he had risen. world, and finally sealed with their blood. They could not escape by bringing wit- The first proof which he gave them was nesses to say they had been asleep while he the report of the holy women, ^nd the was carried off. They must attest this ab- sight of the open sepulchre with the duction by a trial, and punish the perpetra- winding-sheet and folded napkin ; which tors. But this they durst not attempt, as it destroyed all notion of a furtive carrying would only result in their disgrace. Our Sa- off. Then he appeared to some privately viour acted differently to his disciples. He —afterwards to the entire eleven : and fullv convinced them of his resurrection then he permitted them to touch him, and by appearing to them, and delivering him- ate with them; lastly “was he seen by self into their hands, permitting them to more than five hundred brethren at once.” touch his sacred body. The infidelity of (1 Corinthians xv. 6.) Of these several 102 -1 810 HISTORY OF THE LIFE apparitions, some are merely alluded to day” of the resurrection, towards even- by the sacred writers, others are given in ing, “ two disciples went to a town which detail. We give them as they do, com- was sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, named mencing with the apparitions to indi- Emmaus, and they talked together of all viduals. these things which had happened. While The first was to Simon Peter. “The they talked and reasoned with one another, Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared Jesus himself also drew near and went to Simon.” (St. Luke xxiv. 34.) We know with them. But their eyes were held, 1 the day, the very Sunday of the resurrec- that thev should not know him. He said «/ tion : but not the moment, the place, or to them : What are these discourses that circumstances. His penance had effaced you hold one with another as you walk, his crime ; and far from being rejected, he and are sad? The one of them, whose was none the less favored, since he was name was Cleophas,® answering, said to the first of the apostles to whom our Lord him : Art thou only a stranger in Jerusa- appeared. God pardons as God—that is, lem, and hast not known the things that perfectly. We profit by this apparition, have been done there in these days ? He the details of which are unknown, when said to them : What things ? And they we gather from it so consoling a truth. said: Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who There was also an apparition to James was a prophet, mighty in work and word, the Less, “ the brother of the Lord,” of before God and all the people, and how whom he was a near relative. “ After that our chief priests and princes delivered he was seen by James,” says St. Paul. him to be condemned to death, and cruci- (1 Cor. xv. 7.) This did not take place tied him. But we hoped that it was he apparently till several days after. When who should have redeemed Israel; and our Lord conferred this favor upon James, now besides all this, to-day is the third the latter no longer doubted, since he must day since these things were done. Yea, have seen him more than once in company and certain women also of our company, with the other apostles. affrighted us; who, before it was light What follows was attended by very re- were at the sepulchre, and not finding his markable circumstances. “ That same body, came, saying: That they had also ( 1 ) St. Mark says: “ He appeared in another not know him, concludes by further stating: their shape to two of them walking, as they were going eyes were opened, and they knew him. Whence into the country.” This may have occurred in we see that he places in their eyes the whole cause two different ways—either by the actual changing of the mistake. of the features of his countenance, or because an (*) We are ignorant who this other disciple image different from his was represented to the was. We know that he was not an apostle, eyes of the two disciples. Although the text of since it is stated that when these had returned to St. Mark may appear to insinuate the first, we Jerusalem, they found there the eleven apostles should explain it by St. Luke, who, after having at gathered together with the exception of Saint first said, “ their eyes were held ” that they should Thomas. OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 811 seen a vision of angels, wlio say that lie is alive. And some of our people went to the sepulchre, and found it so as the women had said, but him they found not. Then Jesus saith to them : 0 foolish and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory ? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he ex¬ pounded to them in all the Scriptures, the things that were concerning him. “ They drew nigh to the town whither they were going ; and he made as though he would go further. 1 But they con¬ strained him, saying: Stay with us, be¬ cause it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent. He went in with them ; and whilst he was at table with them, he took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to them. 2 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him ; and he vanished out of their sight; ” leaving on their minds the full and entire conviction that it was he, and that he was truly resuscitated. * (*) ( 1 ) He wished that the happiness of recognizing him should be the reward of hospitality exercised towards a stranger. This gives ground for think¬ ing that at least one of the two disciples was from the village of Emmaus, and that he had his house there. St. Jerome says that this was Cleophas, and he adds that by celebrating the Eucharist in his house, Jesus Christ constituted it a church. It is doubtful whether this Cleophas is he whose wife or daughter was one of the Maries. (*) He takes bread, he blesses it, he breaks it, he distributes it; this was all that he did when, at the Last Supper, he changed the bread into his body. This assemblage of similar circumstances has caused the inference that he also consecrated this, and made it Eucharistic bread. The miracu- Wkereupon, “ they said one to another: Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in the way, and opened to us the Scriptures?” (St. Luke xxiv. 13-32.) This sacred fire seeks only to spread. Thus, “they rose up the same hour and went back to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together, and those that were with them, saying : The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the wa} T ; and how they knew him in the breaking of bread : neither did they believe them ; ” which must be understood with reference to some amongst them, who had not even believed the testimony of the chief of the apostles. (St. Luke xxiv. 33-35 ; St. Mark xvi. 13.) Truth triumphed, at last, over incredu¬ lity, and obstinacy was obliged to yield to evidence. “ Whilst they were speaking these things, when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, 8 where the disciples were lous effect which it produced upon the two disciples goes to strengthen this opinion; indeed it is that of St. Jerome, of St. Augustine, of Theopliylactus, etc. Protestants think the contrary; for it would evidently follow that Jesus Christ himself gave communion under the one kind of bread alone- But they must own, at least, that St. Jerome, St. ^.ugustine, and the other ancient writers, who 'Chought that the bread had been consecrated, have, consequently, thought that Jesus Christ himself gave communion under the one kind. ( 8 ) Jesus Christ entered, the doors being and remaining shut, even as he had come forth from his mother’s womb and from the sepulchre before the stone was removed, without hurt or fracture. The matter was so understood by the entire world 812 HISTORY OF THE LIFE gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus appeared to the eleven as they were at table, and saith to them : Peace be to you. It is I, fear not. He upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen him, after he was risen again. But they being troubled and frightened, supposed that they saw a spirit ; and he saith to them : Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? See my hands and feet; it is I, myself. Handle, and see. For a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet, and his side.” 1 (St. Luke xxiv. 36-40; St. John xx. 19, 20 ; St. Mark xvi. 14.) “ The disciples, therefore, were glad, when they saw the Lord. But while they until the time of Calvin, who flatly pronounced it impossible, and not to be believed, that he entered whilst the doors were and remained shut. Pene¬ tration of bodies, the possibility of which carries with it that of the real presence, was a consequence flowing too manifestly from this fact. It was therefore, necessary to abandon the ancient explana¬ tion, which did not agree with the new error. ( 1 ) It is not stated whether or not they really touched him. The ancients never even mooted the question; in fact, everything tends to this belief. They wished to assure themselves of the truth of the resurrection: the touch was the true means of doing; so, and Jesus Christ offered them this means. When St. Thomas said to them : “ Except I shall put my finger in the place of the nails .... I will not believe,” does he not seem to have meant: I shall believe it like you when I shall have touched him like you ? The words in the First Epistle of St. John are also understood to refer to this touch: “ That which was from the begin-, ning,” etc. yet believed not, 2 and wondered for joy, he said : Have you here anything to eat ? They offered him a piece of broiled fish and a honey-comb. And when he had eaten before them, taking the remains, he gave to them.” (St. John xx. 20 ; St. Luke xxiv. 41-43.) “He said to them again : Peace be to you.” And as he was to communicate to them the most incommunicable of all the prerogatives of the divinity, he added : “As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breath¬ ed on them, and he said to them : Receive ye the Holy Grhost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them ; 3 and whose sins you shall retain, they are re¬ tained.” 4 This sacred breath was the sensible sign of what was wrought invisi¬ bly in them, and justified by anticipation ( J ) They believed to a certain extent, since they were filled with joy; but this belief was not exempt from doubt. ( a ) The remission of sins is attributed to the Holy Ghost, as well as all the other effects of the divine goodness, because the Holy Ghost is the production of the will of the Father and of the Son, and that the object of the will is all good. The Holy Ghost is only given to the apostles, here, with reference to the remission of sins. Hence it does not conflict with the miraculous gifts prom- ised to them, and received upon the day of Pente¬ cost. ( 4 ) Since the power of retaining sins is joined to that of remitting them, those who are consti¬ tuted the judges, discriminate which should be remitted, and which retained. This cannot he made without knowledge, and knowledge can only be obtained by confession; therefore confession is not only a matter of precept, but also of divine institution. N THE WAY TO EMMAUS. * OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 813 the mysterious ceremonies his Church was to employ. One unbeliever remained: “Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples, therefore, said to him : We have seen the Lord. But he said to them : Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” “ After eight days again, his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said : Peace be to you. Then he saith to Thomas : Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands ; and bring hither thy hand and put it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him : ” Thou art “ My Lord and my God. Jesus saith to him : Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed ; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.” “Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God : and, that believ¬ ing, you may have life in his name.” (St. John xx. 21-31.) What we now relate gives instruc¬ tions which a pious and attentive reader may easily gather. “ After this, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias. And he showed him¬ self after this manner. There were to¬ g-ether Simon Peter, and Thomas who is called Didymus, and Nathaniel who was of Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebe- dee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter saith to them : I go fishing. They say to him : We also come with thee. And they went forth, and entered into the ship ; and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was come, Jesus stood on the shore ; yet the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus therefore said to them : Children, have you any meat? They answered him-: No. He saith to them : Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. They cast, therefore ; and now they were not able to draw it, for the multi¬ tude of fishes. That disciple, therefore, whom Jesus loved, said to Peter: It is the Lord. Simon Peter, when he heard that it was the Lord, girt his coat about him (for he was naked), and cast himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the ship (for they were not far from the land, but as it were two hun¬ dred cubits), dragging the net with fishes. “ As soon then as they came to land, they saw hot coals lying, and a fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith to them : Bring hither of the fishes which you have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, fall of great fishes, one hundred and fifty-three. And al¬ though there were so many, the net was not broken. Jesus saith to them : Come, and dine. And none of them who were at meat durst ask him : Who art thou ? knowing that it was the Lord. And Jesus cometh and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish in like manner. This is now the third time that Jesus was mani- 814 HISTORY OF THE LIFE fested to liis disciples, after he was risen from the dead.” Simon Peter was to learn that he should one day die for him whom he had denied, and efface the shame of his weakness by the glory of a generous martyrdom. “When therefore they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter : Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these ? He saith to him : Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him : Feed my lambs. He saith to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me ? He saith to him : Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him : Feed my lambs. He saith to him the third time : Simon, son of John, lovest thou me ? Peter was grieved, because Jesus had said to him the third time: Lovest thou me ? And he said to him : Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said to him : Feed my sheep.” His pain arose from his fear that his Lord mistrusted, not the sincerity, but the constancy of his love. Jesus reassures him : “Amen, amen, I say to thee, when thou wast younger, thou didst gird thyself, and didst walk where thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not. And this he said, signifying, by what death he should glorify God. And when he had said this, he saith to him : Follow me.” This figurative language excited in St. ( 1 ) Teach the mysteries of faith ; administer the sacraments; explain the precepts of evangelical morality, is what Christ deputes those to perform Peter a curiosity which our Lord did not satisfy. “Peter turning about, saw that disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned on his breast at supper, and said : Lord, who is he that shall betray thee ? Him therefore when Peter had seen, he saith to Jesus : Lord, and what shall this man do ? Jesus saith to him : So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee ? Follow thou me. This saying therefore went abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die. And Jesus did not say to him : He should not die ; but, So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee ? This is that disciple who giveth testimony of these things, and hath written these things ; and and we know that his testimony is true.” (St. John xxi. 1-24.) In the meantime, “ the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And seeing him they adored ; but some doubt¬ ed,” which we can scarcely think was the case with the apostles. This is the reason why many have thought that there were a vast number of disciples then with them, and that the apparition was that where the five hundred brethren whom St. Paul speaks of were all gathered together. “Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying” these words, which might also be ad¬ dressed, in proportion, to the second order of disciples : “ All power is given* to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations ; 1 baptizing them in whom he makes pastors of his church, a commis¬ sion which they hold from no other power, and which no other power has a right to take from OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 815 the name of the Father, and of the Son, witnesses of these things, and,” in order and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to that you may be capable of giving and observe all things whatsoever I have com- maintaining such great testimony, “ I send manded you ; and behold I am with you the promise of my Father upon you ; but all days, even to the consummation of the stay you in the city, till you be endued world. Go ye into the whole world, with power from on high.” (St. Luke xxiv. and preach the gospel to every creature. 1 44-49.) He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be Thus “Jesus showed himself alive after saved ; 2 but he that believeth not, shall be his passion by many proofs, for forty days condemned. These signs shall follow them appearing to them, and speaking of the that believe : In my name they shall cast kingdom of God. And eating with them, out devils; they shall speak with new he commanded them, that they should not tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; and depart from Jerusalem, but should wait if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall for the promise of the Father, which you not hurt them ; they shall lay their hands have heard, saith he, by my mouth. * For upon the sick, and they shall recover.” John indeed baptized with water, but you (St. Matt, xxviii. 16-20 ; St. Mark xvi. shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not 15-18.) many days hence.” (Acts i. 3-5.) After they had returned from Galilee, “ They, therefore, who were come to- as he had directed, our Lord said : “ These gether, asked him, saying : Lord, wilt are the words which I spoke to you while thou at this time restore again the kingdom I was yet with you, that all things must to Israel ? ” The Holy Ghost was soon to needs be fulfilled which are written in the free them entirely from-this dream ; hence, law of Moses and in the Prophets, and in without pausing to contradict it, our Lord the Psalms concerning me. Then he replied : “It is not for you to know the opened their understanding that they times or moments, which the Father hath might understand the Scriptures, and he put in his own power ; but you shall re- said to them : Thus it is written, and thus ceive the power of the Holy Ghost coming it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto again from the dead the third day ; and me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and that penance and remission of sins should Samaria, and even to the uttermost part be preached in his name unto all nations, of the earth.” When he had said these beginning at Jerusalem. And you are things, “he led them out as far as Betha- them. This power comes to them from heaven. ( 1 ) All nations are henceforward to constitute Hell cannot deprive them of it, nor earth usurp it. but one people. The Church was not the less in possession of it (*) As to those propositions, wherein salvation under Diocletian, nor more under Constantine; is attributed to faith without any allusion to whether persecuted or protected, it is always the works, or to works without any mention of faith. same. see page 496. 81G HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. nia, and lifting up his hands he blessed them ; and it came to pass whilst he bless¬ ed them, he departed from them. While they looked on he was raised up ; a cloud received him out of their sight,” and he “was taken up into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of Gfod. While they were beholding him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments, who said : Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen him going into heaven.” (Acts i. 6-11 ; St. Luke xxiv.'50, 51 ; St. Mark xvi. 19.) Thus the expectation of Jesus Christ has been the religion of all ages. Promised immediately after the sin of Adam, it riveted the attention of all the just until his coming. Scarce had he left the earth before two angels declared to his disciples that he was one day to re-appear. The dis¬ ciples then immediately dispersed through all nations, to whom they announced not only that he had come, but also that he was to return. “He shall come,” said the prophets commissioned to foretell his first appearance. “ He is come, and he is to come again,” say the apostles in their turn, prophets of his second advent. The period for the first was fixed, because it was not to have sufficient lustre to strike all eyes at once, and because, to be recog¬ nized, it was necessary that it should be expected. The time of the second advent is not foretold, because Christ will then manifest himself in all the splendors of the divinity, as the sun, revealed by its own light, needs not that the observer be warned of the moment when it is to ap¬ pear on the horizon. Then shall men see the fulfilment of those prophecies which represent him as so majestic and terrible ; and all the oracles regarding the Messias shall be verified to the letter, both those which “foretold” the sufferings that were to precede his glor}^, and those which promised “the glories that should fol¬ low”’ those sufferings. (1 Peter i. 11.) The former described a Saviour to become such only by humiliation and sorrow ; the second, a judge who shall manifest himself in all the lustre of divine power and ma¬ jesty. Unhappy those who have disowned him in his humiliations! He who came to be their Saviour, shall appear to them in no qualit}^ but that of judge and avenger of their crimes. Happy those who have recognized, revered, imitated him in the humble and suffering state to which his love for men hath reduced him ! In their judge they shall behold a Saviour, who has promised to share his throne and his eternal bliss with those who have taken part in his humiliations and his sufferings. END. jJCg-4ig.-M.tfn THE DEVOTIONS OF THE CHTJRCH TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN. T HE Queen stood on thy right hand, in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety,” says the Royal Psalmist in his forty-fourth Psalm, addressing Him who was to .be his son, and yet his Lord, the Messias of Israel. This future honor of the Blessed Virgin is well expressed by the words, “surrounded with variety.” The piety of the faithful seems inexhausti¬ ble in the variety of devotions with which it surrounds the Queen of Heaven. A devotion springing from the heart, with the holiest and purest filial affection, ever finds new thoughts, new ideas for honoring its holy object But among all the devotions to the Blessed Virgin, which have arisen in the Church, there are some which have become so general, and so universal, that they enter into the very life and thoughts of the faithful. These are first, single pray¬ ers ; second, more extended forms of de¬ votion ; the Rosary or Beads ; Scapulars ; 103 Novenas for her great festivals, and, finally pilgrimages to shrines in her honor. SINGLE PRAYERS. THE HAIL MARY. Of all the prayers to our Blessed Lady, the most universal that enters into the office of the Church, and the daily prayer of the faithful, that is lisped in infancy and murmured by the expiring breath of decrepit age, is the Hail Mary. Words sent from heaven by the ministry of an angel, to salute her who was chosen from all eternity in the divine counsels to be the mother of the Messias, who was to re¬ deem the world. The Spirit of God de¬ scended on earth. Filled with it, Eliza¬ beth, though distant in body, seems to have witnessed the visit of the Angel Gabriel to the lowly home of her virgin cousin at Nazareth, and to have heard his words. As though they still echoed in her ears, she repeats his expression: 818 THE DEVOTIONS “ Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” Filled with the same spirit, the primitive Chris¬ tians united these words in a prayer to the Blessed Virgin, inserting her name and that of her Divine Son. It was the prayer of all lips, and all hearts, associa¬ ted with the prayer which Our Lord him¬ self taught. A time came, when a man wise in his generation, Nestorius, patri¬ arch of Constantinople, set his face against the honor paid to the Blessed Virgin. He condemned the use of the title Mother of God. Catholic piety was shocked, and the Council of Ephesus condemning the innovator, added to the prayer of the faithful the words : “ Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.” And thus for centuries the Greeks and Latins have said it. THE LITANY OP LORETTO. One of the most ancient devotions to the Blessed Virgin is the Litany, which is now called the Litany of Loretto, because it is sung every Saturday with great so¬ lemnity in the Church of Loretto, the mag¬ nificent basilica which encloses the Santa Casa, or Holy House of the Blessed Vir¬ gin. This Litany is very ancient, and by Quarti, and some other ecclesiastical writers, is referred to the Apostolical times. The form of a litany appears in the Bible, in the one hundred and thirty- fifth psalm, and in the canticle of the Three Children. The first supplication, Kyrie eleison, is Greek, and means, Lord have mercy. St. Gregory added the OF THE CHURCH Christe eleison, and with the repeated Kyrie eleison, and the direct mention of the Three Divine Persons, the whole Blessed Trinity, is thus invoked. Then the Blessed Virgin is invoked to pray for us, by all the most honored and endear¬ ing titles, of her Divine Maternity and Immaculate Virginity ; then by a series of titles suggested by Holy Writ: “ Mir¬ ror of Justice,” “ Mystical Rose,” “Tow¬ er of David,” “ House of Gold,” “ Ark of the Covenant,” “Morning Star.” Then by titles which show confidence in her all- powerful intercession with her Sou : “ Ref¬ uge of Sinners,” “ Comforter of the Af¬ flicted,” “ Help of Christians.” Then she is invoked as “ Queen,” queen of all the choirs of saints and angels, as queen conceived without original sin. Then follow appeals to her Divine Son, “The Lamb of God,” prayers for mercy, and a piayer in honor of the Incarnation. The Sovereign Pontiffs have at all times en¬ couraged the faithful to use this devotion, and have enriched with various indul¬ gences, those who recite it fervently and habitually. THE MEMORARE. The Memorare—“ Remember, 0 most compassionate Virgin Mary,” a beautiful prayer drawn from the works of St. Ber¬ nard, by a holy missionary in France. Father Bernard, better known as the Poor Priest, has become a favorite through¬ out the Catholic world from the graces obtained by it. Many indulgences are conferred on those who recite it, and those who say it daily can gain a plenary indul- gence every month. By this prayer, Father Bernard obtained the conversion of the most hardened sinners, and every year records instances of its efficacy. HYMNS. The hymns of the Church in honor of our Blessed Lady are many, but among them all three are especially dear to the Catholic heart. The Ave Maria Stella, a beautiful hymn to Mary as the Star of the Sea, is in constant use in the Church, and is one full of simplicity and devotion. The Salve Regina, composed by the pious Adhemar, Bishop of Puy, legate of the Pope during one of the Crusades, was soon taken up by all from its touching simplicity. It is the very essence of prayer. It was expounded and explained in sermons, and is the great tribute of the Middle Ages to the Mother of G-od. When the clergy led St. Bernard into the Cathedral of Spires, they intoned this hymn. The holy Doctor chanted it with them, and at its close full of the spirit it infused sang : “ 0 clement, 0 pious, 0 sweet Virgin Mary I ”■—words that have always since been added. This hymn, too, is enriched with indulgences, and is the anthem used by the Church at Vespers during a considerable portion ol the year. The Stabat Mater, ascribed to Pope Innocent III., and also to the Blessed Ja- copone di Tode, of the order of St. Fran¬ cis, is one of the most beautiful of hy inns. It describes the Blessed Virgin stand¬ ing at the foot of the Cross, and is full of piety and compassion for the sufferings of our Divine Lord, and those experienced by the heart of his Blessed Mother. It is used on the feast of the Seven Dolors in Lent, and in the devotions of the Way of the Cross. The most celebrated masteis have composed music for the Stabat Ma¬ ter, seeking to give expression to the sub¬ lime sentiments it contains. DEVOTIONS-THE ANGELTJS. This devotion, so called from the first word in the Latin form, was established at a time when the plague was ravaging Eu¬ rope, and adopted permanently by the order of St. Francis, St. Bonaventure hav¬ ing, as General, directed its observance at a general chapter of the order held at As- sissium, in 126V. Its object is to honor the Incarnation of the Son of God in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. It is said at morning, noon, and night, the time being announced in Catholic countries by the ringing of the Angelus, or Ave Mary bell, a custom maintained in convents even in this country. In Catholic coun¬ tries, at the sound of the bell, all stop to join in this pious devotion, suspending whatever employment they may have in hand. The devotion consists of three Hail Marys, each preceded by a versicle and response.—The first is, “The Angels of the Lord declared unto Mary.” Re¬ sponse.—“ And she conceived by the Holy Ghost.” The second is the words of our Blessed Lady.—V. “ Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” Response.—“Be it done to me according to thy word.” The tliiid, the words of St. John.—V. “The Word was made flesh.” Response—“And dwelt amongst us.” 820 THE DEVOTIONS Catholics living near a church or chapel where the Angelus is rung should never omit so pious a practice. Even where this is not the case, they should accustom them¬ selves to it. The morning and night pray¬ ers give them a time : noon is always a time of rest from ordinary toil, and the few moments of prayer will draw down blessings. Pope Benedict XIII., by a brief dated Sept. 14, 1724, granted a plenary indul¬ gence once a month on the usual condi¬ tions to those who say the Angelus three times a day, at the sound of the bell, if rung, and a partial indulgence of one hun¬ dred days for each recitation. On Satur¬ day evening, and on Sunday, the Angelus is recited standing. In Paschal time in¬ stead of the Angelus is said the Regina Coeli, standing. During the Jubilee in Holy Year other indulgences are sus¬ pended, but such is the peculiar favor with which the Sovereign Pontiffs have regarded this devotion to our Lady, that the Angelus is exempted. THE LITTLE OFFICE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin was composed on fhe plan of the Breviary or Office recited by priests. It was in¬ tended for those whose avocations did not permit them to join in the Office of the Church. It is divided into Matins, Lauds, Prime, Tierce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Complin ; Matins being the Office for early morning, Prime, Tierce, Sext, None, being for the Roman divisions of the day, begin- ing at sunrise, that is, the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours, while Vespers and Complin OF THE CHURCH closed the day. In the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, Matins opens with the Hail Mary and some versicles, followed by the Ninety-fourth Psalm, as an invitatory to sing the divine praises. Then follows a hymn. Psalms divided into three Noc¬ turnes, said so that the whole is recited twice a week, are then said, with short lessons, and the Te Deum. Lauds con¬ tains three psalms, the Canticle of the Three Children, and three other psalms, with a hymn, and the Canticle of Zachary. Prime, Tierce, Sext, and None, contain psalms and hymns. Vespers, like that of the Church on Sunday, is composed of psalms, and the Canticle of our Lady, the Magnificat, with the hymn Ave Maris Stella. In Complin, the Canticle of Simeon is re¬ cited. The Anthem of the Blessed Virgin according to the season is also said. The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, or Primer of our Lady, as it was called in England and Ireland, was the favorite prayer-book during the Middle Ages. They were some¬ times called Books of Hours, as contain¬ ing devotions for the different canonical hours of the day. Many manuscript copies have been preserved, and are now much sought as curiosities, those of the wealthy having been beautifully illuminated and richly bound. The Book of Hours c: Anne of Burgundy, Queen of France, is the finest specimen of mediaeval books. The Little Office of the Blessed Vir¬ gin is still recited in many of the religious orders and sodalities, as well as by many devout persons. It consecrates each day to our Lady, and is highly approved in the Church, and commended to the faith- TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 821 ful by indulgences granted by the Sover¬ eign Pontiffs. Besides this office, there is another found in many manuals of prayer, called the Little Office of the Immaculate Concep¬ tion, divided into the regular hours, each part consisting of a short hymn, a few ver- sicles, and a prayer. It is also approved, and is a favorite devotion with many. THE ROSARY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. All the devotions to the Blessed Virgin yield, however, in universality to the Rosarv. This is the devotion of kings on their thrones, and the beggar at the gate ; the devotion of the learned philosopher and of the unlettered peasant ; of brave and gallant officers on land and sea, as well as of their men. From very early times, belts with studs and strings of beads were used in the Bast in devotions. They came into use in the Christian Church also. Every one who entered a monastery, 01 made profession of living piously, in early times, recited daily the one hundred and fifty psalms of David. They were not da} s when books were cheap, or easily got, so the Psalms were learned by heart. But there were some too dull, or too careless, to retain them all, or even learn the whole psalter. For them a hundred and fifty Our Fathers were substituted, and subsequent- ly, for some, as many Hail Marys. From the Saxon word bitten , to pray, comes oui English word bead , applied to the strings used in these prayers, and afterwards, to any similar string. A canon of a council held in England, in 816, ordains that on the death of a bishop, seven belts of Our Fathers should be said by the clergy every day for the space of thirty days for the repose of his soul. The Countess Godiva, at her death, directed that the string of precious stones on which she used to count her prayers, should be suspended around the neck of the statue of the Blessed Vir¬ gin in the church of Coventry. These repeated Our Fathers and Hail Marys were thus recited on beads, and in honor of Mary, yet they were not the Rosary as we know it. St. Benedict and Peter the Hermit seem to have made steps towards it, but it took its actual form and name in a period of great trouble in the Church. St. Dominic de Guzman, laboring by permission of the holy Pope, Innocent III., among the Albigenses, saw his labors fruitless and ineffectual. In vain by prayers and austerities he sought from God the graces they needed to rise from their spiritual darkness. He turned to her who never turns away. She showed him the path to victory. Simon de Mont- fort had tried the force of arms. Dominic had tried controversy, arguments, per¬ suasion, instruction. Dropping all this, he adapted the old devotion to the Hos¬ ieries of the life of our Lord and his Blessed Mother, dividing the hundred and fifty Hail Marys into fifteen decades, or tens, prefacing each with an Our Father, and closing it with a Glory be to the Father, etc. The fifteen decades form three parts of five decades called the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful, and the Glorious. The Joyful Mysteries were the Annunciation, "V isita- tion, Birth of our Lord, His Presentation in the Temple, His finding in the Temple ; 822 THE DEVOTIONS OF THE CHURCH the Sorrowful, were His Bloody Sweat, His Scourging, His Crowning with Thorns, the Carriage of His Cross, His Crucifix¬ ion ; the Gflorious, were the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Assumption of the Blessed Vir¬ gin, and her Coronation in Heaven. Teaching the people to recite the Rosary, as he now styled it, and to occupy their minds with the successive Mysteries, he won all hearts, and restored thousands to the faith. The Rosarjr spread through Spain, Italy, and France. England and Ireland, Ger¬ many and the North took it up, and Chris¬ tendom united in offering this Crown to Mary. From that day to this the Rosary has never lost its hold on the affections of the faithful. To recount the wonders that it has wrought, and will continue to work until the day of doom, in heaven, on earth, and in purgatory, would require an in¬ spired tongue, and the wisdom of prophecy. The glory that surrounded it at its birth went on increasing until it culminated with dazzling radiance on the meridian of the Mary-protected Church, towards the close of the sixteenth age. The battle of Le- panto, gained on the 9th of October, 1571, by the Christian fleet under the command of Don Juan de Austria, over the formida¬ ble armament of the Turks, at the ver} r time that the Sodality of the Rosary was moving in solemn procession through the streets of Rome, uttering fervent prayers to heaven, proclaimed to the Catholic world the power of Mary, and the moth¬ erly care that she exercises over her servants. The prayers of the Confrater¬ nity of the Rosary, as they arose from the Eternal City, on that first Sunday of Oc¬ tober, scattered the dark cloud of Turkish invasion that had hung for centuries low¬ ering over the eastern horizon of Europe. The holy Pope, Saint Pius V., who then occupied the chair of St. Peter, was in¬ formed by revelation from heaven of the victory at the very moment that it was won. In gratitude to. the divine Mother and her Son, he commanded that a yearly commemoration should be i^ade .on the first Sunday of October, of Saint Mary of Victory. Gregory XIII., his successor, established the Festival of the Rosary, to be celebrated on the same day in all the churches which contained a chapel or an altar dedicated under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary. Clement XI., after another great victory, granted the celebration of the Festival of the Ros- ary to the Universal Church. The Confraternity of the Rosary united the faithful in the practice of this devo¬ tion, and the numerous spiritual favors granted to it encouraged thousands to join it. When that terrible deluge of iniquity in the last century swept over Europe, destroying so many monuments of Catholic zeal, so many churches, monasteries, con¬ vents, colleges, schools, and pilgrimages, the piety of the nations was chilled, in¬ difference began to prevail ; even in those parts where the faith was maintained, the growing indifference seemed to show its deadly influence. Then, in our time, a new devotion arose to make the Rosary more generally said, and to bind the faith¬ ful more closely together. Thh was the TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 823 Confraternity of the Living Rosary, insti¬ tuted in France, and approved by his Holiness, Pope Gregory XVI., who grant¬ ed it the indulgences of the Confraternity of the Rosary. In the Living Rosary the members of the Confraternity are divided into bands of fifteen, each of whom recites daily one Our Father and ten Hail Marys, with one Glory be to the Father, each meditating on a different mystery, assigned to the member at the monthly meeting. In this way the whole Rosary is offered daily by each band, united in spirit by this mysti¬ cal bond, and forming in heart a Rosary indeed. All should endeavor to conceive a due esteem for this holy exercise of the Ros¬ ary, and to impress upon their minds that though so easy, so simple, and hence adapted to the lowest capacity, it is the most sublime and the most profitable form of prayer, uniting vocal prayer with medi¬ tation, and the highest contemplation. The prayers that compose it are the most holy and excellent that ever were conceived or pronounced ; the subject of the meditation is the life, the sufferings, and the triumph of our Divine Redeemer, and the merits and glory of his Blessed Mother. INDULGENCES GRANTED TO MEMBERS OF THE CONFRATERNITY OF THE ROSARY. 1. A Plenary Indulgence on the day of their entrance into the Confraternity, on condition that after confession and com¬ munion in the church or chapel of the Confraternity, they recite a third part of the Rosary and pray for the peace of the Church. 2. All members of the Confraternity who are truly penitent for their sins, and have confessed and communicated, and visit the altar of the Rosary, may gain a Plenary Indulgence on the following days : the third Sunday of April, Easter, Ascen¬ sion Day, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Cor¬ pus Christi, Christmas, the festival of the patrons of the Church, the Sunday within the Octave of the Assumption, Good Fri¬ day, and the Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. 3. A Plenary Indulgence on the first Sunday of each month to the members who have confessed and communicated, and visit a church or chapel of the Con¬ fraternity, or assist at a procession when one takes place. 4. A Plenary Indulgence on all feasts of the Blessed Virgin, and on the days on which any mystery of the Rosary is celebrated, to the members who have con¬ fessed and communicated, and visited a church or altar of the Confraternity. 5. Travellers, persons at sea, and ser¬ vants can gain the Plenary Indulgence on the first Sunday of the month by saying the fifteen decades ; others who are legiti¬ mately prevented may gain the same In¬ dulgence, if they have the desire of con¬ fessing and communicating, by saying five decades. They are also‘dispensed from visiting the church or chapel of the Con¬ fraternity, if they fulfil the other condi¬ tions. 6. A Plenary Indulgence at the hour of death. 824 THE DEVOTIONS OF THE CHURCH TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN. The fame of this favor which had been THE SCAPULAR OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT granted by the Blessed Virgin to Simon CARMEL. Stock, the General of the Carmelites, was Simon Stock, General of the Order of in a short time made known ; monarchs Mount Carmel, was born in Kent, Eng- and people of all degrees were invested land, in 1163, and after a boyhood of great with the Scapular of the Blessed Virgin of piety, entered the Order dedicated espe- Mount Carmel. cially to the Blessed Virgin, to whom he The number of the faithful who desired was filled with the most tender devotion. to participate in this treasure increased As General of the Order, he governed it every day. In the churches of the Car- with zeal and ability. He was much af- melites the habit was blessed, and dis- flicted by the troubles which at this time tributed amongst the people by the au- disturbed the Church. thority of the Bishops, and afterwards The prayers of the zealous prelate were confirmed by several of the Popes. Simon so efficacious that the Blessed Virgin vouch- Stock died on the 16th of July, 1265, at safed to listen to them. She appeared dur- Bordeaux, in the one hundredth year of ing the night, clad in great splendor and sur- his age. He was famed for his miracles rounded with a multitude of blessed saints, and for the gift of prophecy, and is hon- and presented to Simon Stock a Scapular of ored as a saint. The devotion was soon a brown color, and said to him : “ Receive, developed throughout all parts of Chris- my dearest son, this Scapular of your Or- tendom. Many miracles which were der, the sign of my Confraternity, a privi- wrought in connection with it showed how lege for you and for all the Carmelites. pleasing it was to the Blessed Virgin. Any person who breathes his last with The Scapular is given to those who are piety, in this, shall not suffer eternal fire. enrolled in the Confraternity of our Lady This is the sign of salvation, of safety in of Mount Carmel, by a priest duly author- dangers, the pledge of peace, and of an ized, and the name of the member must eternal contract.” She left the habit in be entered in the book of a Confraternity, his hands and then disappeared. Many canonically erected. writers of note belonging to the Order, The Scapular is of wool, brown or black, and even those not connected with it, have and should be made in two parts, joined made mention of this wondrous vision of together by two strings. It must be worn the Blessed Virgin. on the person day and night. When that The holy General, filled with amaze- blessed by the priest at the reception is ment and the sweetest consolation, made worn out or lost, another must be obtained, known to his religious and to others the which need not be blessed, for when the remarkable favor which he had received first has been, and the person duly in- from the Mother of God, not only for the vested, this is sufficient. 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