to 
 
 BR 160 .Al M32 1855 
 Mackenzie, Henry, 1808-1878.1 
 The Christian clergy of the | 
 first ten centuries; their ! 
 
THE CHRISTIAN CLERGY 
 
 FIRST TEN CENTURIES; 
 
 THEIR BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE ON 
 EUROPEAN PROGRESS. 
 
 for 1850. 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 HENRY MACKENZIE, B.A., 
 
 SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO. 
 1855. 
 
YMeic ecTe to aaac thc thc. 
 
TO 
 
 JAMES MACKENZIE, ESQUIRE, 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HOLT MACKENZIE, 
 
 ONLY SURVIVING BROTHERS OF THE AUTHOR'S FATHER, 
 
 THIS ESSAY IS DEDICATED 
 
 AT THE REQUEST OF HIS MOTHER. 
 
Clauses directed by the Founder to be always prefixed 
 to the PIuLSEAN Dissertation. 
 
 CLAUSES from the WILL of the Rev. JOHN 
 HULSE, late of Elworth, in the County of Chester, 
 clerk, deceased : dated the twenty-first day of July, 
 in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hun- 
 dred and seventy-seven ; expressed in the words 
 of the Testator, as he, in order to prevent mistakes, 
 thought proper to draw and write the same him- 
 self, and directed that such clauses should every 
 year be printed, to the intent that the several per- 
 sons, whom it might concern and be of service to, 
 might know that there were such special donations 
 or endo^vments left for the encouragement of Piety 
 and Learning, in an age so unfortunately addicted 
 to Infidelity and Luxury, and that others might 
 be invited to the like charitable, and, as he humbly 
 hoped, seasonable and useful Benefactions. 
 
 He directs that certain rents and profits 
 (now amounting to about a hundred pounds yearly) 
 be paid to such learned and ingenious person, in the 
 University of Cambridge, under the degree of Master 
 of Arts, as shall compose, for that year, the best 
 Dissertation, in the English language, on the Evi- 
 dences in general, or on the Prophecies or Miracles 
 in particular, or any other particular Argument, 
 whether the same be direct or collateral proofs of the 
 
Vlll 
 
 Christian Religion, in order to evince its truth and 
 excellence; the subject of which Dissertation shall be 
 given out by the Vice-Chancellor, and the Masters of 
 Trinity and Saint John's, his Trustees, or by some of 
 them, on New Year's Day annually ; and that such 
 Dissertation as shall be by them, or any two of them, 
 on Christmas Day annually, the best approved, be also 
 printed, and the expense defrayed out of the Author's 
 income under his Will, and the remainder given to 
 him on Saint John the Evangelist's Day following; 
 and he who shall be so rewarded, shall not be 
 admitted at any future time as a Candidate again in 
 the same way, to the intent that others may be 
 invited and encouraged to write on so sacred and 
 sublime a subject. 
 
 He also desires, that immediately following the last 
 of the clauses relating to the prize Dissertation, this 
 invocation may be added : " May the Divine Bless- 
 ing for ever go along with all my benefactions ; and 
 may the Greatest and the Best of Beings, by his 
 all-wise Providence and gracious influence, make the 
 same effectual to His own glory, and the good of my 
 fellow-creatures !" 
 
 Subject proposed by the Trustees for the Year 1850. 
 
 " The Christian Clergy of the First Ten Centuries ; 
 their Beneficial Influence on JEuropean Progress.'^'' 
 
PRiiirraTOiT 
 
 jUN 16 ibou 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 The unusual circumstances under which the following: 
 Essay is published require a few words of explanation. 
 Henry Mackenzie was declared to be the successful can- 
 didate for the Hulsean Prize at the close of the year 1850. 
 "On the first of March 1851", his mother writes not 
 many weeks after his death, " he was summoned to 
 " Edinburgh to attend the deathbed of his father, and 
 " to scenes of complicated sorrow and distress, as well as 
 " of long protracted and most exhausting anxiety : after 
 " nearly four months of which, and five months previous 
 " to his father''s death, his own health completely gave 
 " way under the pressure of sorrow and anxious wa|gjiing, 
 *' and never rose again." The Hulsean Trustees accord- 
 ingly granted him an extension of the period of twelve 
 months usually allotted for publication : this indulgence 
 was the more necessary, as he was most anxious to fill 
 up in some measure what he felt to be a rough and 
 provisional sketch by additional notes and appendices. 
 "Till November 1852 he was unable, partly from illness 
 " and partly from travels on the Continent in the vain 
 " endeavour to regain health, to attempt carrying the 
 " Essay through the press or preparing the notes. The 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 " latter, as far as it has been accomplished, has been so 
 " during eleven months of continually increasing illness 
 " and weakness, with very frequent attacks of suffering 
 " which brouo:ht him over and over ag-ain to the brink of 
 "the grave": "during many of those months he was 
 " actually too weak to lift those very books which he was 
 " so anxiously reading." But his exhausting disease at 
 length prevailed, and on the thirteenth of October 1853 
 he died peacefully and happily, in the twenty-sixth year 
 of his age. This is not the place to speak of the worth 
 which made him dear to so many friends. They also 
 alone can know what results might have been hoped for 
 from his quiet strength and rapid energy of mind; of 
 which the present volume may convey to others some 
 partial indication. 
 
 It remains for me to give some account of the wel- 
 come task entrusted to me, of preparing for the press the 
 materials which he had collected for the illustration of 
 the Essay. Many apologies are due to his relatives and 
 friends, and to the Hulsean Trustees, for the consider- 
 able delay which has taken place in publication : want of 
 experience in literary work, the pressure of other occu- 
 pations, and above all the peculiar nature of the case 
 will, I hope, be taken as some excuse. The manuscript 
 placed in my hands consisted of 440 closely written 
 quarto pages, containing notes and extracts from a large 
 number of documents (chiefly epistles, chronicles, and 
 biographies) bearing on the history of the first ten cen- 
 turies, and in some cases (Bede's historical works, for 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 instance) tolerably complete analyses *. Illustration of 
 this Essay was obviously the leading principle of selec- 
 tion, but the manuscript contains a very large quantity of 
 matter that can only have been intended for future use in 
 other similar historical studies, the notes on Anglo-Saxon 
 records being particularly full and interesting. It was 
 however an obvious duty to exclude everything irrelevant 
 to the actual text. It has been my object throughout to 
 avoid expressing or conveying any opinions or inferences 
 of my own, and I have therefore inserted no passages 
 that did not seem to have some direct bearing on some 
 statement in the original Essay. It is quite possible that 
 valuable indirect illustrations have thereby been sacrificed, 
 which the author himself might legitimately have intro- 
 duced ; but an editor is bound to make his labours as 
 purely mechanical as the nature of the case will admit. 
 As it is, I am unavoidably responsible for the particular 
 application given to nearly every passage adduced in the 
 
 * The notes on modern books are for the most part few and 
 desultory : there are none at all on Neander's and Gieseler's His- 
 tories of the Church and Guizot's Lectures on Civilization in France, 
 which were largely used in the original composition of the Essay. 
 A set of notes on Lingard's History and Antiquities of the Anglo- 
 Saxon Church were unfortunately mislaid and forgotten by myself 
 till too ]ate : but their most valuable contents had already been 
 obtained at first hand from Lingard's own authorities. The refer- 
 ences to Gregory of Tours would likewise have been more nume- 
 rous, had not the notes on his Ecclesiastical History of the Franks 
 been mislaid at the same time, before the whole of them had been 
 examined. 
 
XU PREFACE. 
 
 notes. In some cases mere transcripts, condensations, or 
 references have been given : in others some faint indi- 
 cation of their bearing seemed necessary, and I hope 
 I have not exercised an undue discretion in giving it. 
 The worst but most inevitable defect is the absence of 
 observations Hiniting or modifying the force of the au- 
 thorities cited, in short the accumulation of miscella- 
 neous historical data without historical criticism, in the 
 strictest sense of the word : it must therefore be under- 
 stood that the notes do not profess to prove and establish 
 the text but to throw light upon it and exemplify it ; and 
 likewise that the fulness of illustration on any one topic 
 bears no relation to its intrinsic importance but solely to 
 the materials actually collected. It will be observed that 
 the notes on the first twenty-one pages are much more 
 elaborate than any that follow: these and these alone 
 were prepared by the author himself, a few days before 
 his death, and may be taken as a specimen of what the 
 whole volume would have contained had he lived to com- 
 plete it. All references have of course been verified and 
 quotations collated, except a few from documents ex- 
 tracted in Ducange's Glossary, some of which from the 
 imperfect method of citation employed would have re- 
 quired much search and consequent delay in publication 
 without any adequate advantage : they are therefore given 
 as they stand in the last Paris edition. A liberty has 
 also been taken in the case of several Merovingian 
 documents which the author had quoted in French from 
 Guizot's Collection des Memoires: the original Latin 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 being accessible in Du Chesne and Couvenier, I have not 
 scrupled to employ it, especially as M. Guizot (or the 
 translator to whom he gives his name) has sometimes 
 materially departed from the language of the text. Care 
 has been taken to distinguish the original Essay from 
 all subsequent additions. Every word has been printed 
 exactly as it occurs in the manuscript copy sent in to the 
 Hulsean Trustees. Some interpolations by the author 
 himself in the text of the first few pages, which had been 
 set up in type before his death, are enclosed in square 
 brackets. The notes now inserted for the first time are 
 distinguished by numerals, the original notes by asterisks, 
 &c. These formed in some cases the most convenient 
 receptacle of new matter, and in others it seemed useful 
 to print in full passages to which only references had 
 previously been given : all these additions are enclosed 
 in square brackets, as are also a few trivial references, 
 either, as it would seem, accidentally omitted or taken 
 without verification from other authorities ; which I have 
 accordingly supplied. The analytical Table of Contents is 
 likewise an editorial addition. 
 
 Had the author lived, it was his intention to have 
 written a paragraph or two in explanation of the general 
 scope of his Essay and its connexion with the "Evidences 
 " of Christianity "*\ As he appears to have spoken on the 
 subject several times in 1850 and 1851 in conversation 
 and by letter, the purport of his intended remarks can be 
 safely stated in a few words. He wished, first, to uphold 
 that view of history which represents it as a Divine drama, 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 no single act or scene of which can be truly understood 
 without I'eference to the rest and also to the entire plot ; 
 so that many circumstances, which to a prejudiced mind 
 appear wholly evil, (and really involve evil relatively to 
 their immediate subjects,) are yet necessary conditions of 
 growth for future blessings : — next and more especially, 
 to shew how completely the history of the Christian 
 faith and polity has proved their power and fitness as in- 
 struments for working out that Divine plan among the 
 discordant elements of the surrounding world, and has 
 thereby attested their origin in the same Mind which 
 conceives and accomplishes the whole range of human 
 events. 1 hardly think he would have ventured to say 
 that this argument, assuming it to be intrinsically sound, 
 can by itself sustain the exclusive authority of Christi- 
 anity. Probably he would have urged that it was not 
 his province to deal with more than one branch of "evi- 
 dence"; and further that a large school of contemporary 
 sceptics have chosen to deny the historical benefits of 
 Christianity which others are willing to concede, and that 
 a vindication on this particular head is not the less neces- 
 sary because it will not meet a different class of objections. 
 This school, of which Michelet may be taken as a bril- 
 liant representative, is especially bitter in its slanders 
 against the ancient and mediaeval clergy, and to the clergy 
 the author was bound in the present case to confine his 
 attention. But he clearly felt, no less strongly than those 
 whom he was answering, that, whatever may have been 
 the sins of the clergy themselves, Christianity itself must 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 stand or fall with this its characteristic institution, and 
 that no excellence in its original idea can save it from 
 condemnation if the verdict of history is against it. At 
 the same time it is right to mention that he felt himself 
 somewhat fettered by being limited to discussing the 
 henefcial influence of the clergy. In a letter not long 
 subsequent to the decision of the Trustees in his favour, 
 after speaking with interest of Taylor''s Ancient Christi- 
 anity^ which he had just been reading for the first time, 
 and praising what he calls its ''tone of unsectarian impar- 
 " tiality", he adds: " It is a curious contrast to my Essay 
 " in one respect, that, while he contrasts the ancient 
 "• Church with what it would have been had it adhered to 
 *'• the primitive apostolic purity and kept itself unpolluted 
 " by the world to a degree which was after all impracti- 
 '•'• cable under any circumstances, I contrast it with the 
 '' heathen nations which had preceded it, and dwell upon 
 *' the many blessings which amid all its corruptions it 
 " bestowed upon the world : so I take the bright view of 
 " Church matters, while he only looks at the dark and 
 " unlovely side." And his language is still more distinct 
 in a letter written while the Essay was yet in progress : 
 " I almost think I should prefer having the subject and 
 " the necessary labour widened, so that I might have 
 " freer scope to speak my mind and vent my indignation 
 " where it would be seemly and pleasant so to do : for in 
 " the period of the later Carlo vingians, for example, the 
 " advantages of the priestly system and intercourse were 
 *' truly few and faint. However it can always be said 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 " that the clergy were infinitely superior to their neigh- 
 " hours ; and that, if they had not possessed the power 
 *' they did, it would have been in far worse hands.'' Those 
 who knew Henry Mackenzie will recognize these last few 
 words as altogether characteristic of his mind : they well 
 convey his hatred of all special pleading, most of all in 
 defence of the Faith which was so dear to him, along 
 with that trust in history as a guide to truth, which is 
 happily taking possession of the more thoughtful men of 
 England, France, and Germany. Indeed the pervading 
 spirit of this his only literary legacy cannot be better 
 expressed than in the words of St. Augustine, whose 
 Confessions were his favourite companion, along with 
 his Greek Testament, during the latter months of his 
 illness : " Narratione autem historica quum prseterita 
 '' etiam hominum instituta narrantur, non inter humana 
 " instituta ipsa historia numeranda est ; quia jam quae 
 " transierunt, nee infecta fieri possunt, in ordine tem- 
 " porum habenda sunt, quorum est conditor et admi- 
 '' nistrator Deus." 
 
 FENTON J. A. HORT. 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 October, 1855. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 God's dealings with nations the most important aspect of 
 history, ....... 
 
 Especially Church history. ..... 
 
 The subject of this Essay the practical benefits of our faith, as 
 seen in its representatives the clergy. 
 
 The respective restilts of Roman and Teutonic influences unin- 
 telligible except in combination with the poUty of the Church. 
 
 Influence on later ages to be considered as well as that on con- 
 temporaries. ...... 
 
 Influences not beneficial, and influences not due to the clergy, 
 excluded from the subject. ..... 
 
 Two classes of benefits ; 
 
 (i) to the social and moral life of mankind, 
 
 (2) to the political state and progress of nations. . 
 
 The first ten centuries full of political vicissitudes. 
 
 Chronological division of the subject. .... 
 
 PAGES 
 
 I— 10 
 I, 7 
 
 3—5 
 5,6 
 
 7,8 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 From the foundation of the Church to its political 
 establishment under Constantine. 
 
 A. D. 33—324. . 
 
 ,1. The Christian faith proclaimed a new era in morality. 
 
 Moral powerlessness of then existing philosophies and re 
 
 ligions. ..... 
 
 Contrast between the Christian clergy and earlier priest 
 
 hoods. ..... 
 
 . 10- 
 
 -43 
 
 
 10 
 
 . II- 
 
 -13 
 
 
 13 
 
XVUl 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 15- 
 
 -22 
 
 
 19 
 
 10, 
 
 ■21 
 
 21, 
 
 ■22 
 
 22— 
 
 -31 
 
 
 24 
 
 
 H 
 
 26, 
 
 27 
 
 
 27 
 
 27- 
 
 -29 
 
 2g, 
 
 30 
 
 Minute supervision enjoined by St Paul on Titos carried 
 
 out at first, afterwards relaxed ; . . . 14 
 
 but care for temporal wants of the people conspicuous in 
 all ages (testimony of Julian and Lucian, 1671, 18 n). 
 Instances of Cyprian in North Africa, 
 Dionysius at Alexandria (and \B,ter parabolani, 2 1 n), 
 and Cornelius at Rome. 
 Moral superiority to the surrounding world. 
 
 Struggle of the clergy with the depravity of the 
 
 age. . 
 Denunciations of theatrical exhibitions. 
 Discipline against lanistce. 
 Zeal against science, literature, and commerce. 
 Severity against the lapsed. 
 Peculiar strictness of disciphne over the clergy. 
 Their righteous controul over the temporal con 
 
 cerns of their people. .... 3O) 31 
 The progress of the Church due less to its teaching than 
 
 its organization, . . . . . 31 
 
 which was then building up for the use of later ages. . 3i> 32 
 
 Regarded in this light, the early germs of future abuses 
 
 not to be condemned. .... 32 
 
 Influence of the clergy legitimately strengthened by the 
 
 consent of the people in episcopal appointments. . 32 — 34 
 
 Effects of theology on literature and x>hilosophy. . 34 — 37 
 
 Value of early Christian literature in itself, . 35, 3 ^ 
 and early theology in keeping alive the study of 
 Greek philosophy, and preserving the works of 
 
 Plato. 36, 37 
 
 Substitution of ethics and politics for physics. . 37 
 
 II. Political influence of the clergy less duiing this period than 
 subsequently, ..... 
 
 though the first victims of persecution ; 
 
 but they are not therefore to be blamed : 
 
 the fact partly due to the discipline which forbad them to 
 hold civil offices. ..... 
 
 Their attempts to humanize the treatment of slaves. 
 
 37, 38 
 38 
 
 38, 39 
 
 39 
 
 40, 4 r 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 They laboured not to subvert the empire, but to sow their 
 own seed. ...... 
 
 The heathen impressed by their uprightness and fearless- 
 ness of death. ..... 
 
 Clerical influence was fostered early, but its real work was 
 after the Roman empire had fallen. 
 
 XIX 
 
 PAGES 
 
 43 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 From the final accession of Constantine to the fall of the 
 Western Empire. 
 
 A. D. 324—476. . 
 
 Introduction of new duties and temptations for the clergy 
 through the change in their position. 
 
 I. Difl&culty of distinguishing their moral from their political 
 influence in this period, as acting partly through the 
 emperor. ...... 
 
 Moral regulations of earlier bishops confirmed by the 
 Councils. ..... 
 
 Excommunication of murderers of slaves. 
 Condemnation of suicide. 
 Testimony of the Theodosian code. 
 
 Manumission transferred from the prastor to the 
 clergy. .... 
 
 Law de alimentis for prevention of infanticide. 
 The Teutonic nations as well as Romans and provincials 
 
 affected by Christian improvements of Roman law. 
 Reciprocal corruption of the clergy by the world ; 
 and growth of theological bitterness into persecution. 
 Distinction of clerical and lay morality ; 
 
 (exclusion of slaves and followers of degrading trades 
 from holy orders,) 
 and its corruptions. .... 
 
 Not good legislation only, but high principle, estabUshed 
 by the clergy. .... 
 
 Early clerical discipline a valuable preparation for future 
 troubles. ..... 
 
 44— T03 
 
 44; 45 
 
 45 
 
 46 
 46, 47 
 47,48 
 
 48 
 
 48, 49 
 50 
 
 51 
 
 51 
 51—53 
 
 53, 54 
 
 54, 55 
 
 55 
 
 55 
 56 
 
 62 
 
XX 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 II. 
 
 Mischievous modem prejudice of regarding the germs of 
 
 errours solely with reference to their later evil results 
 their true value as parts of one great design. 
 Increase of clerical power a preservative against the time 
 of barbarian invasions. 
 
 Freedom of inheritance. 
 
 Appropriation of heathen and heretic possessions. 
 
 Tithes. ..... 
 
 Elevation of bishops above clergy. 
 
 Distribution of revenues. 
 
 Bishops authorized as judges. 
 Evils of excessive clerical sway. 
 Church pomp impressive to the barbarians. 
 
 Intellectual influence of the Fathers. 
 Pulpit eloquence, 
 
 peculiar to Christianity : 
 
 its rude force, 
 
 and use in keeping alive a taste for speculation 
 Christian seats of learning. 
 Mental activity of the age chiefly theological. 
 Different Eastern and Western estimates of litera 
 
 ture. .... 
 
 Gallic dilettantism (Sidonius Apollinaris). 
 jEsthctic influence of the clergy. 
 Genuine Gallic love of truth. 
 Beginnings of Monasticism. 
 
 Violent fanaticism of the East a reaction from its 
 
 excessive speculativeness : 
 The more practical theology of the West resulting 
 
 in a similar form of monasticism. 
 Western monasticism encouraged by the disor 
 
 ganized state of society. 
 Western contempt of hermits. 
 Judicious counsels of Ambrose, Augustine, &c. 
 Separation of contemplation from action useful for 
 
 that age. .... 
 
 Monasticism not as yet clerical. 
 Political influence of the clergy. 
 Improvement of the Roman state through the clergy no 
 
 56, 57 
 57,58 
 
 58 
 59 
 59 
 60 
 
 60 — 62 
 
 60, 61 
 
 61, 62 
 
 62, 63 
 
 65-78 
 
 65—69 
 
 65—67 
 
 68 
 
 69 
 
 10, 71 
 
 71, 72 
 
 72, 73 
 73—76 
 
 76, 77 
 
 77, 78 
 78-85 . 
 
 79, 80 
 
 80, 81 
 
 81, 82 
 
 82, 83 
 83,84 
 
 84,85 
 
 85 
 
 86—103 
 
CONTENTS. XXI 
 
 PAGES 
 
 less important than corruption of the clergy through 
 
 the state. ...... 86 
 
 Indefiniteness of their position more beneficial than other- 
 wise, as counteracting civil arbitrariness. . . 86 
 Subordination of civil functionaries, . . 87 
 more formally recognized later. ... 88 
 
 During the decay of popular independence, the 
 rule of the clergy that of fixed principles and 
 
 disciplined minds. .... 88 
 
 Condition of the Roman provinces, . . . 89 — 92 
 Maxims of Roman statecraft, especially municipal, 
 
 carried out universally {duumviri, &c. in Gaul). 89, 90 
 Consequent exaltation of the upper and degrada- 
 tion of the lower classes, . . . 90 — 9-2 
 (in spite of apparent culture) ; . . . 90 
 replacement of the agricultural population by 
 slaves, loss of patriotism, extinction of the 
 middle class, .... 90 
 and corrupt centralization at Rome. . , 91, 92 
 
 The clergy a new and beneficial element, . . 92 
 supporting the lower class, and exercising an uninvidious 
 
 authority over the upper. .... 93 
 
 Class difficulties avoided by the unsystematic provision for 
 
 the clergy. . . . . . . 93, 94 
 
 Episcopal power adapted to concentration in towns. . 95 
 
 Popular election of bishops. . . . . 95, 96 
 
 Consolidating power of the clergy over the dissolving mu- 
 nicipalities. ...... 96 — 98 
 
 The very greatness of their authority a cause of liberty 
 
 not oppression. ..... 98, 99 
 
 Their unity and intercourse the sole effectual obstacle to 
 
 returning barbarism. .... 99, 100 
 
 The only ideas then active those of religion. . . 100, 10 1 
 
 Quickening effect of controversies. . . . 101 
 
 Contrast of secular and religious life at this period, and 
 
 combining power of the latter. . . . loi 
 
 Commanding influence of the leading Fathers. . . 102 
 
XXU CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Political stagnation resisted by clerical intercourse, espe- 
 cially that produced by Councils. . . . 102, 103 
 
 The Eastern world almost unchanged from the former 
 
 period, and therefore worthy of less attention. . 103 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 From the fall of the Western Empire to the accession of 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 A. D. 476 — 771. . . 104 — 177 
 
 Church organization under the Roman empire chiefly of 
 
 value prospectively. .... 104, 105 
 
 After its fall the clergy had altogether new materials to 
 
 deal with. ..... 105 
 
 They become sole dispensers of all kinds of knowledge. 106 
 
 Consequent temptations and con-uptions (prostration of 
 
 barbarian sovereigns before them). . . 106, 107 
 
 Unchanging strength of the Church. . . . 107 
 
 The clergy representatives of Roman institutions in the 
 
 midst of barbarian customs. . . . 108, 109 
 
 Important social influence of clergy during the transition 
 
 from imperiahsm to feudalism. . . . 109 
 
 I. Moral influence in this period difiicult to trace from the 
 
 meagre information of chronicles and statutes. , 109, no 
 
 Conversion of the barbarians more truly eSected by resi- 
 
 dentclergyon the conquered soil than by missionaries, no — ri2 
 
 Reform of their lawless and reckless manners due solely 
 
 to the clergy : ..... 112 — 114 
 
 its nature shewn by comparing either their own habits 
 in their native wilds with their statutes after under- 
 going the operation of Christianity, . . 112,113 
 
 or the latter with the habits of the later Saxon, Scla- 
 vonic, or Norse tribes. . . . . 113, 114 
 
 In spite of abuses, the Church alone had a living prin- 
 ciple of action. . . . . . 114 
 
 The German principle of national law a source of privi- 
 leges to the clergy individually as subjects of the 
 Roman law, . . . . . 115, 116 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XXIU 
 
 Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence being an exception. 
 
 Bonds of union with the old Roman citizens. 
 Sanctity, and sometimes zeal, a protection against armed 
 violence. ...... 
 
 No direct allusions to clerical influence in the early bar- 
 barian codes, ..... 
 but many indirect traces of its exercise ; 
 the primitive reverence for sacred persons and things 
 being transferred from heathen to Christian objects. 
 Clerical interposition in manumission of slaves. 
 Right of sanctuary ; — its uses as well as abuses. 
 Religious phraseology in documents. 
 
 Double relation of the clergy to the old citizens and to 
 the barbarians the chief instrument of amalgamation. 
 
 The clergy strengthened through the tonsured laity. 
 
 Their connexion \Adth the old citizens did not alienate 
 them from the conquerors, as is shewn by their occa- 
 sional voluntary submission to barbarian codes. 
 
 Their influence as disseminators of Roman traditions. 
 
 Period after the settlement of the barbarians. 
 
 Improvements in penal jurisprudence, 
 
 proportional to the influence of the clergy (contrast of 
 
 Burgundians and Visigoths with Anglo-Saxons) : 
 evidence of the Frankish Capitularies. 
 
 Monastic Orders. .... 
 
 Corruption and decay. 
 Reforms of Benedict of Monte Cassino. 
 Greatness of the Benedictines : 
 Gregory the Great, 
 Augustine of Canterbury, 
 Boniface, &c. 
 Monasticism most beneficial under the early Me 
 rovingian djoiasty in France and the Visigoths 
 in Spain. .... 
 
 Its practical nature in the West, 
 preserving literature, agriculture, and other arts ; 
 while the seculars maintained sound principles of 
 action (learning of seculars^ 146 w). 
 
 117 — 120 
 117 — 119 
 
 120 
 
 120 — 128 
 
 122, 123 
 
 123, 124 
 125, 126 
 
 127, 128 
 
 129, 130 
 131—133 
 
 133, 134 
 134 
 
 134—138 
 
 135. T36 
 
 136, 137 
 138 
 
 139—159 
 
 139 
 140 — 142 
 
 140—156 
 
 140 
 
 140, 141 
 
 141, 142 
 
 142 
 
 143 
 
 143—147 
 
 145—147 
 
XXIV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Education. ..... 147, 148 
 
 Benedictine missionaries. . . . 148 
 
 State of Britain after the Saxon invasion. 149 — 151 
 
 Augustine of Canterbury, and the revival of 
 
 monasticism. . . . . 151 
 
 Intellectual fruits of Anglo-Saxon Benedictine 
 
 efforts, ..... 152 — 157 
 
 (7tli cent.) Biscop, founder of Bisliopwear- 
 
 mouth ; . . . . . 153 
 
 whence came Bede, himself the center of a 
 
 learned society. 
 (8th cent.) Alcuin and the schools of York. 
 Aldhelm at Malmesbury. 
 Ascendancy of regulars throughout Europe, and 
 their cordial support of the seculars. . 
 
 II. Political influence of the clergy. 
 
 Mimicry of Roman dignity by barbarian chiefs. 
 Their imperial desire to use the services of the clergy. 
 Political progress due to the clergy. 
 
 Ecclesiastical nature of the early Merovingian 
 
 Capitularies. . . . . 162 
 
 Working of the clei'gy on Teutonic states best seen 
 
 among the Visigoths in Spain. . . . 163 — 167 
 
 Prominence of clerical intervention in the Fotmin 
 
 Judicum. . . . . . 163, 164 
 
 Prosperity of Spain, and consequent strength of 
 
 the clergy at the head of the old citizens. . 164 
 
 In spite of Gothic resistance, . . . 164 
 
 they ultimately mastered the kings. . . 165 
 
 Councils at Toledo chiefly ecclesiastical. . 165 
 
 Clerical influence in judicial matters now ex- 
 changed f(jr recognized authority. . . 166, 167 
 This authority really the safeguard of the old 
 
 population against the Gothic kings, . 166, 167 
 
 The clergy therefore both jurists and administra- 
 tors of justice. . . . . 167 
 
 Generally throughout Europe, before Hildebi-and, the 
 clergy the upholders of national liberties against 
 arbitrary sovereigns. . . . . 168 
 
 153- 
 
 -155 
 
 155, 
 
 156 
 
 
 156 
 
 ^57- 
 
 -159 
 
 159- 
 
 -177 
 
 159. 
 
 160 
 
 160, 
 
 161 
 
 
 161 
 
[69— 
 
 -174 
 
 I70, 
 
 171 
 
 171, 
 
 172 
 
 172, 
 
 173 
 
 173, 
 
 174 
 
 CONTENTS. XXV 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Their peculiarly healthy action in England from their 
 defined and moderate position. 
 
 Their place in the Witenagemote, 
 and connexion with the king and nobility. 
 Differences from the position of the continental 
 clergy arising chiefly from the population being 
 one nation. ..... 
 
 Mediation in internal strifes. 
 The political benefits of the clergy in this period give 
 
 signs of approaching corruption. . , . 175 — 177 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 From the accession of Charlemagne to the close of the 
 tenth century. 
 
 A, D. 771 — 1000. . . 178 — 240 
 
 Clerical power less genuine, though apparently greater, 
 
 during this period. . . . . . 178 
 
 The Church at Charlemagne's accession sinking into faction 
 
 and corruption like the Empire three centuries before. 178, 179 
 
 Evil reaction on the laity. . . . . . 179 
 
 Carlovingian clerical reforms, missions of Boniface, and in- 
 crease of Papal sway in the W., owing to the final sepa- 
 ration of the E, . . . , .179, 180 
 
 I. Moralinfluence oi the clergy. .... 180 — 235 
 
 Social and political state of Europe before Charles the 
 
 Bald's death. ..... 180 — 183 
 
 Convulsion caused by the extension of Frankish 
 
 sway under Charlemagne ; . . 181 
 but many changes ascribed to him the natural 
 
 developments of earlier movements. . 181 — 183 
 Ofl&ces changed from elective to hereditary 
 
 tenure : . . . . . 181 — r83 
 
 consequent decay of central civil, and inverse 
 
 growth of ecclesiastical power. . . 182 
 This movement expanded by means of Charle- 
 magne's empire. .... 182, 183 
 
XXVI CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Incipient French feudalism spread through 
 
 Europe under him. . . . 183 
 
 Clerical reforms attested by edicts in Capitularies, . 184 — 186 
 
 (their large proportion,) .... 184, 185 
 
 besides independent ecclesiastical legislation. . . 185 
 
 Composition for crimes gradually abolished by clerical 
 
 influence. ...... 186 — 188 
 
 Blessings of the Canon Law and its infusion into statute 
 
 laws. ...... 186, 187 
 
 The clergy seen as guardians of morality in the case of 
 
 Lothaire and Theutberga. . . . 188 
 
 Reforms of Church discipline, . . . 188 — 190 
 
 suggested and carried out by the clergy though com- 
 manded by the kings. . . . , I 89 
 
 Restraints on bishoprics held in commendam, &c. ; 189 
 
 Charlemagne's questions to archbishops. . 189 
 
 Decrees of Councils enforced by the Capitulary of 
 Aix-la-Chapelle (strictness about ordination, 
 diocesan independence, and resti'aint on com- 
 memoration of martyrs). . . . 190 
 
 Corresponding vitality within shewn in Chrodegang's 
 
 "Canonical Life." ..... 190, 191 
 
 Consequent elevation of the seculars from their inferio- 
 rity to the regulars. .... 191, 192 
 
 Period after Charles the Bald's death little worthy of 
 
 notice. ...... 192 
 
 Worthless domination of the clergy over a degraded 
 
 laity : ...... 192, 193 
 
 their influence beneficial only from the darkness of all 
 
 else. ...... 193, 194 
 
 Special relations of Charlemagne with the Church. . 194 — 213 
 His reign parenthetical, retarding the dissolution of the 
 
 barbaric kingdoms, . . . . 195 
 
 Yet he shaped his plans to existing ideas and institutions. 195, 196 
 
 His laws often mainly due to clerical influence. . 197 
 
 Charlemagne not only a warrior and politician, but a 
 
 moral reformer of his people, and that necessarily 
 
 through the clergy. . . . . 198 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XXVll 
 
 Reforms among the clergy. .... 
 
 His care of education and learning, partly by the intro- 
 duction of foreign clergy. .... 
 Regulations for schools and colleges : 
 
 The clergy not ignorant, but careless of educating the 
 laity, ...... 
 
 except in rare instances. .... 
 
 Charlemagne's literary coadjutors (the Sclwla Palatii). . 
 
 His own thirst for knowledge, 
 
 and theological erudition, .... 
 
 Effects of his arms in spreading Christianity. 
 
 Clerical counsels of gentleness in war. 
 
 The clergy owed much of their moral influence to their 
 political subordination. .... 
 
 The influence of the clergy on Charlemagne represents 
 their influence on the nations subject to him. 
 
 Monastic Orders. ..... 
 
 The Reformed Benedictine Rule degenerated 
 
 chiefly through worldliness introduced in the 
 
 struggle with the seculars. 
 Reform of Benedict of Anianum : 
 confined to France, which needed it more than 
 
 other countries. .... 
 
 His share in the decrees of the Council of Aix-la- 
 
 Chapelle : . 
 their narrow triviality along with a consolidating 
 
 and preserving power. 
 Monasteries especially attacked by the Saracens 
 
 and Normans. .... 
 
 Many were ravaged, but others preserved letters 
 
 in safety, while all around was laid waste. 
 Vitality of Charlemagne's monastic schools, 
 
 (Fulda, Reichenau, &c.) 
 
 Intellectual results of his religious foundations. 
 Their glory less in France than in Germany. 
 Intellectual and moral darkness of the French clergy in 
 the loth century. ..... 
 
 Partial exceptions in Hincmar, Abbo, and Ger- 
 bert : ..... 
 
 PAGES 
 
 198, 
 
 199 
 
 199- 
 
 -201 
 
 202, 
 
 203 
 
 
 203 
 
 203, 
 
 204 
 
 
 205 
 
 206, 
 
 207 
 
 207- 
 
 -209 
 
 209, 
 
 210 
 
 2 TO, 
 
 21 I 
 
 !II, 212 
 
 212, 
 
 213 
 
 213- 
 
 -220 
 
 213- 
 
 -215 
 
 
 215 
 
 215, 
 
 216 
 
 217, 
 
 218 
 
 
 218 
 
 
 219 
 
 219, 
 
 220 
 
 
 220 
 
 220, 
 
 221 
 
 221, 
 
 222 
 
 222 
 
 222, 223 
 
XXVlll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Gerbert's connexion with the Crusades. 
 
 In Britain the intellectual distinction of clergy and laity- 
 much less than elsewhere ; . 
 
 as is shewn by the ecclesiastical use of the Anglo-Saxon 
 language and the existence of an Anglo-Saxon 
 theological literature (Alfred's translations). 
 
 Esthetic influence of the clergy. 
 Superstitious imitation of Homan art. 
 The rise of Church architecture due to the clergy and 
 especially the monastic orders. 
 
 Wearmouth built by Benedict Biscop ; 
 
 York restored and beautified by Wilfrid, &c. ; 
 
 Jumidges built by Filibert. 
 Revival of painting due to asceticism. 
 Progress of music (Notker's labours). 
 
 Thus all the means of civilization sprang from the clergy 
 for the use of the laity of future generations, if not 
 of their own. ..... 
 
 II. The political influence of the clergy during this period 
 
 unsatisfactory, being corrupted by intimacy with the 
 
 intrigues of barbarian courts. 
 Their influence through Charlemagne more salutary. 
 His attempt to use ecclesiastical coherence and unity in 
 
 order to build up an Imperial unity. 
 Power of clerical Missi Doniinici to wield civil as well as 
 
 ecclesiastical penalties : — .... 
 a development of old German customs. 
 Consequent evils when government decayed, and growth 
 
 of a settled secular spirit in the clergy. 
 
 Conclusion. ...... 
 
 PAGK8 
 
 224 
 
 225 
 
 225 — 227 
 
 ^27—235 
 228 
 
 228 — 232 
 228, 229 
 
 230, 231 
 232 
 232 
 
 232—234 
 
 234, 235 
 
 236 
 
 236 
 
 236, 237 
 
 237—239 
 
 237. 239 
 
 239. 240 
 
 240 
 
THE CHRISTIAN CLEHGY OF THE FIRST TEN 
 CENTURIES— THEIR BENEFICIAL INFLU- 
 ENCE ON EUROPEAN PROGRESS. 
 
 'T/xeis ecTTe to uXas tjjs y)j9.— Matt. v. 13. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The advantages to be derived from the experience 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 15, line 15, for "they" read 'Hhem." 
 „ 131, „ 27, for * read t. 
 
 ot political science, wincu must, in one torm or anotner, 
 present themselves to every thinking member of a civi- 
 lized community. It affords weapons alike for literary 
 and political contest, and incites the partial to defend 
 his favourite theory, the impartial to establish his impar- 
 tiality. But such a mode of historical study, however 
 necessary, or however instructive, can never lead us to 
 as noble or as truly philosophical results, as follow from 
 the latter of the courses we have above specified. The 
 
 B 
 
XXVlll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Gerbert's connexion with the Crusades. 
 
 In Britain the intellectual distinction of clergy and laity 
 much less than elsewhere ; . 
 
 as is shewn by the ecclesiastical use of the Anglo-Saxon 
 language and the existence of an Anglo-Saxon 
 theological literature (Alfreds translations). 
 
 uEstlietic influence of the clergy. 
 Superstitious imitation of E,oman art. 
 The rise of Church architecture due to the clergy and 
 especially the monastic orders. 
 
 Wearmouth built by Benedict Biscop ; . 
 
 York restored and beautified by Wilfrid, &c. ; 
 
 PAGB8 
 2-24 
 
 225 
 
 225 — 227 
 
 227—235 
 228 
 
 228 232 
 
 228, 229 
 230, 231 
 
 a development of old German customs. . . 237, 239 
 Consequent evils when government decayed, and growth 
 
 of a settled secular spirit in the clergy. . . 239, 240 
 
 Conclusion. ...... •J40 
 
THE CHRISTIAN CLERGY OF THE FIRST TEN 
 CENTURIES— THEIR BENEFICIAL INFLU- 
 ENCE ON EUROPEAN PROGRESS. 
 
 'T/ieis ecTTe to liXa^ tjjs yi/s. — Matt. v. 13. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The advantages to be derived from the experience 
 of past ages may be viewed in a twofold light, according 
 as they associate themselves with the relations of man to 
 his fellow men, or with the more mysterious and more 
 elevating ties which connect him with his Maker. To 
 the generality of mankind the former of fhe above courses 
 of speculation will ever be the more attractive. It ob- 
 tains the favour of the cursory reader, as being, or seeming 
 to be, the more obvious and tangible of the two, and 
 commends itself to the philosophical student as supplying 
 him with abundant illustrations of those leading maxims 
 of political science, which must, in one form or another, 
 present themselves to every thinking member of a civi- 
 lized community. It affords weapons alike for literary 
 and political contest, and incites the partial to defend 
 his favourite theory, the impartial to establish his impar- 
 tiality. But such a mode of historical study, however 
 necessary, or however instructive, can never lead us to 
 as noble or as truly philosophical results, as follow from 
 the latter of the courses we have above specified. The 
 
 B 
 
2 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 one, viewing human society in its divisions, arrives at 
 results which may be, and too often are, tainted with all 
 the imperfections whence those divisions have sprung ; 
 while the other, considering it in its unity, endeavours 
 calmly to elucidate the mighty schemes by which the 
 ultimate advancement of our race is worked out by a 
 beneficent Ruler. For, assuredly, it is one of the sub- 
 limest problems to which the intellect of man can devote 
 itself, to discover, among so many shifting scenes and con- 
 flicting tendencies, the constant operation of the Supreme 
 Will. If to examine the dealings of Providence with 
 individuals be a noble task, how far higher an object 
 must it be to trace their effects on the destinies of na- 
 tions. And in this, as in so many other studies, irregular 
 and unsystemati(5 as the materials may at first sight seem 
 to us, yet a more attentive observation will in every case 
 lay open to our view the regularity and perfection of the 
 designs of Omnipotence, it will discover to us in the ap- 
 parent evil of the present, the germ of some compensating 
 good for the future, and teaching us to apply to our own 
 times the lessons derived from the past, strengthen that 
 confidence in the protecting care of Providence which is 
 no less necessary in a society than in every one of its 
 members. 
 
 But if from any portion of history we can learn these 
 the most important of its lessons, assuredly nowhere are 
 they presented to us with more striking distinctness than 
 in the records of the Church of God, — of that Church 
 which, in prosperity and in adversity aUke, among dangers 
 
I.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 3 
 
 from without and advancing corruption within, has been 
 constantly acquiring peculiar fitness for its great work of 
 civilization and humanity; [which, in marvellous "vision^, 
 appeared to Hermas in its earliest days as raised from 
 the waters by angelic hands from a noble foundation of 
 Apostles, Bishops, and Teachers, guarded by every Chris- 
 tian virtue ; and which to his age, as to each succeeding 
 one, seemed to wait for the fulfilment of all things in the 
 speedy coming of its Lord 2. ] 
 
 It shall be our task, then, to trace, during the first 
 ten centuries of our era, the leading features of that 
 mighty scheme by which the practical benefits of our re- 
 ligion were diffused through so many lands ^ and pro- 
 claimed in so many various tongues ; [so that, even at the 
 close of the second century, Tertullian could, with some- 
 what of his usual hyperbole, it is true, apply to the ex- 
 ertions of his fellow-presbyters the language of David in 
 the nineteenth Psalm, " Their line is gone out through 
 all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world ;" 
 and after repeating the national enumeration from the 
 
 ^ Hermas, Pastor. Lib. i. Vis. iii. c. 2. 
 
 ^ " Quando ergo consummata fuerit turris et aedificata, habet 
 finem ; sed et cito consummabitur." — Ibid. c. 8. 
 
 ^ Of the coming triumphs of its ministers we have no fitter 
 foreshadowing than its early and rapid progress under the great 
 Apostle of the Gentiles himself — who, in the words of Clement, 
 
 Krjpv^ yevofievo? ev Te tj; dvaTo\y Kai ev tt; Svcrei, to yevvaiov tjJs ttI- 
 tTTeu3<s avTov kXcos eXafSev^ ^LKaio(Tuvi]v StSd^a9 bXov tov k6(Tjxov /cat eiri 
 TO Tcpfxa Tijs cuo-eojs eA.0toV, kuI fxapTvpi'jaa^ etrl twv r)yov[xevwv. ^Ad 
 
 Cor. 5.]— See the full argument in favour of the wide extension of 
 the Gospel under St Paul in Howson and Conybeare's work, c. 27. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 Acts of the Apostles, could add : " In quibus omnibus 
 locis Christi nomen, qui jam venit, regnat, utpote ante 
 quem omnium civitatum portse sunt apertse, et cui nullse 
 sunt clausse, ante quem serae ferrese sunt comminutse, et 
 valvse serese apertse."' (Adv. Judwos, c. 7.)] We shall see 
 our holy faith brought, in the persons of its ministers, 
 into contact and often into conflict with civilized and 
 uncivilized man, with " barbarian, Scythian, bond and 
 free," at one time in almost apostolic purity, at another 
 sunk in seemingly hopeless corruption, and shall learn 
 the more to adore the wisdom of its Divine Head, who 
 from such mutable and beggarly elements has added 
 strength to the cause of unchanging Truth. But con- 
 tenting ourselves with a lower and purely human ground, 
 we shall find in the subject before us one possessed of no 
 ordinary attractions. For at a period like the present, 
 when the institutions of our forefathers are being scru- 
 tinized, and their origins investigated, with an accuracy 
 before unknown, when the scope of history is every day 
 becoming more ample and its materials more abundant, 
 w^e can scarcely obtain a more interesting field of inquiry 
 than the social elements and changes of that to us cha- 
 otic age, fraught with the undeveloped germs of our 
 modern greatness. [Moreover, as, in the days when the 
 professors of Christianity were but a handful among mil- 
 lions, the apologists of the faith could compare its vo- 
 taries, dwelling in the world but not of the world, to the 
 human souli, occupying the body, to give life, energy, 
 
 * 'AttXcos 8' elireTv, oTrep ecrrlv ev croI/xaTt ^vX'h tout' elcrlv iv Kocrfxva 
 
I.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 5 
 
 and physical existence to every part of it ; so, in each 
 age of the Church, do we find the clergy bearing a 
 similar relation to the nominally Christian world ; some- 
 times tendino; to the ruofo-edness of the barbarism in which 
 they were merged, more often, as we shall see, to the 
 effeminacy of their old Roman associations ; but still, 
 though too often polluted and trodden under foot of men, 
 clinging to the fulfilment of that parting promise of their 
 Master, " Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of 
 the world." — To their successors, truly, in these seem- 
 ingly more brilliant but not less tempting times, a les- 
 son not to be neglected.] 
 
 And assuredly neither the enduring remains of the 
 constitution of Rome, nor the vigorous but shapeless 
 energy of invading barbarism, can present to us more 
 matter of interest or of instruction than the progress and 
 influence of the Christian clergy during the earlier ages 
 of their history. For in order correctly to appreciate 
 the workings of the Roman and Teutonic spirits on the 
 later organizations of Europe, we must view them in 
 combination with the third and most important element, 
 by which alone was the one preserved and the other re- 
 fined, — the polity of the Christian Church. And we can* 
 not conceal from ourselves that the period of history 
 which we are called upon in this Essay to survey is re- 
 
 XpLCTTLavoi. *Eo-7rapTat kutcl ttccvtcov tcou tou crcJuaxos fxeXcJov i] ^fX'/j 
 Kai yipicTTiavoi /caxa Ta? tou Kocrfxov TroXet?. OIkcX fxev ev tw acSfiaTi 
 \pv)^7], oiiK ecTTi Se e/c tov o-Wyuaxos, Kai X.pi(rTiavoi eu Koafxio olkouo-iv, ouk 
 
 eio-I dk e/c rov KocTfxov — Auct. Epist. ad Diognetum, c. 6. Cf. Jus- 
 tin. Martyr. Apol. ii. c. 7. 
 
6 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 plete with no ordinary difficulties to the inquirer ; it in- 
 chides ages differing from each other as well in the more 
 obvious characteristics which lie on the very surface of 
 the most superficial chronicle, as in the hidden tokens of 
 moral and social progress or dissolution. We are com- 
 pelled to bring under our glance E-oman Europe and 
 Germanic Europe, under nearly every variety of their 
 changing forms; — the former, from the time when the 
 traditions of the Republic were yet fresh to that melan- 
 choly age when the subjects of a degenerate sceptre 
 looked back with regret to the comparative greatness 
 and virtues of the later Csesars ; while in the latter we 
 discern features of greater or less obscurity but of un- 
 varying interest, from the first vague movements of the 
 Teutonic hordes to the helpless indolence and final ex- 
 tinction of the despised Carlovingians. 
 
 But our province includes not merely an examination 
 of the benefits which accrued to the several elements of 
 contemporary society, whether Roman or barbarian, from 
 the influence of the Christian clergy ; — it leads us to the 
 more intricate problem of tracing, amid the complicated 
 framework of modern society and government, the great 
 results of the foundations laid in the turmoil of the middle 
 ages : for the historical student is inevitably conducted, by 
 a thousand points of more or less remote analogy, from the 
 undeveloped forms of those early days to the comparative 
 perfection of our own times ; and there are but few causes 
 which shew themselves at work there, that cannot be disco- 
 vered by their influence, be it of action or of reaction, now. 
 
I.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 7 
 
 But while it is 'necessary thus at the very outset to 
 present to ourselves the magnitude of the task in which 
 we are engaged, it is no less necessary that we should 
 impose upon it its due restrictions. In the first place 
 then, we must remember that we have to do, not with 
 the effects of the Christian religion or morality considered 
 by itself, a subject which would lead us into a far wider 
 and deeper contemplation, but solely with those produced 
 by the ministers of that rehgion, whether as individuals or 
 as a corporation : and in the next place, we have to pre- 
 sent, not every important result of their intercourse with 
 the members of the body secular, but only those of them 
 which to an observer freed from the distortions of pre- 
 judice by the lapse of so many centuries may seem to have 
 been beneficial. 
 
 In reviewing, then, the benefits conferred by the 
 clerical body on the world during the period before us, 
 we shall class them under two heads : 
 
 (1) Those which make themselves perceptible in the 
 social and moral life of mankind : 
 
 (2) Those which affect more directly the political 
 state and progress of European nations. 
 
 We shall include under the former head all those 
 blessings which the clergy, the salt of the earth, however 
 much at times tainted by the admixture of secular interests 
 and debasing passions, have imparted to man individually, 
 or in his more immediate relations with his fellow-beings — 
 the steps by which they have enforced a greater regard 
 for morality and justice, and have united in one common 
 
8 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 bond the too often jarring elements of human society: 
 under tlie latter^ the more palpable because more his- 
 torical consequences of the intercourse of the Christian 
 clergy with the secular powers of the state. In other 
 words, we shall consider the influence of the priesthood 
 both in their external and in their internal relations, both 
 as they appeared to the powers of this world and as they 
 shewed themselves to the faithful under their banners. 
 
 Furthermore, it cannot fail to strike every student of 
 history that in no equal period of the world's existence 
 are included so many distinct distributions of national 
 power, and so many and great changes of national cha- 
 racteristics, as during the first ten centuries of our era. 
 Throughout those eventful years, the stage of history is 
 occupied by every varied form of human society, from the 
 yet stedfast empire of Eome to the roving hordes of Huns 
 and Vandals ; and again from the idolatrous followers of 
 Attila and Clovis to the sumptuous paladins of the 
 champion of the holy see. We are called upon to detest 
 or admire every form of sceptred depravity or justice, from 
 a Tiberius to a Charlemagne, from an Arcadius to an Alfred. 
 Hence, though it has ever been the glory of the Christian 
 Church that, while emperors and empires rose and sunk, 
 she alone remained, in principles at least, if alas ! not 
 in practice, unaltered, we are compelled to a second par- 
 tition of our subject, in order to meet the shifting relations 
 of the spiritual and the secular powers. We shall, accord- 
 ingly, divide the field of our researches into four main 
 periods : — 
 
I.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 9 
 
 The firsts extending from the propagation of Chris- 
 tianity in Judea to its elevation to the imperial throne 
 with Constantine [Chapter II.]: — 
 
 The second, from the age of Constantine to the fall of 
 the Western Empire and the establishment of the Ostro- 
 gothic power in Italy [Chapter III.] : — 
 
 The third, from the settlement of the barbarian tribes 
 on the ruins of the empire to their union under Charle- 
 magne [Chapter IV.] : — 
 
 The fourth, from the accession of Charlemagne to the 
 close of the tenth century, or, as we might perhaps define 
 it, to the age of Hildebrand [Chapter V.]. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Christian faith was pre-eminent among all the 
 systems, which commanded the respect of the learned 
 or the unlearned among its early contemporaries, by this 
 great fact in particular, that while it solved the mighty 
 problem of the relations of man to his Infinite Creator, 
 and prescribed ritual laws in accordance with those rela- 
 tions, it proclaimed, what none of its predecessors had 
 attempted, a new era in the moral history of mankind. 
 By bringing the mind of man for the first time into full 
 contact with a perfect Ruler, it impressed upon him a 
 true consciousness of his own imperfections, and he 
 learnt, as no earthly philosophy could have taught him, 
 to know himself, and from such an humiliating knowledge 
 to derive guidance in dealing with beings like himself. 
 And truly the need of a higher standard of action had 
 been too long apparent, as well from the strange vagaries 
 of would-be moral teachers, as from the gigantic cor* 
 ruptions which weighed so heavily upon a suffering world. 
 The human intellect, debased from its pristine purity, 
 and forgetful of its divine original \ had long ceased to 
 
 1 For the phraseology of TertuUian, forcible, as coming from 
 his pen, it must needs be, can hardly have represented any reli" 
 gious truth recognized as such by his contemporaries. 
 
 " Te quoque palam et tota libertate, qua non licet nobis, domi 
 ac foris audimus ita pronuntiare, * Quod deus dederit', et ' Si deus ita 
 voluerit '. Ea voce et aliquem esse significas et omnem illi confi- 
 teris potestatem ad cujus spectas voluntatem, simul et ceteros 
 
CH. II.] THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE, &C. 11 
 
 remember or to venerate that moral code once forming 
 part of its very being. Even the noblest philosophers 
 of the purest school, in their searching aspirations after 
 the inscrutable connexion between the finite in man and 
 the Infinite above, had merely refined, not renewed, the 
 ethical theories of the age. 
 
 More than this they had accomplished nothing, for 
 
 negas deos esse, dum suis vocabuHs nuncupas, Satumum, Jovem, 
 Martem, Minervam. Nam solum deum confirmas quern tantum 
 deum nominas, ut, et cum illos interdum deos appellas, de alieno 
 et quasi pro mutuo usa videaris. De natura quoque Dei, quern 
 praedicamus, nee te latet: 'Deus bonus est', ^Deus benefacit', tua 
 vox est." De Test. Anim. c. 2. See also Apologet. c. 17, where with 
 more eloquence than faithfulness he describes the soul as *^carcere 
 corporis pressa, institutionibus pravis circumscripta, libidinibus ac 
 concupiscentiis evigorata, falsis diis exancillata ; cum tamen resi- 
 piscit, ut ex crapula, ut ex somno, ut ex aliqua valitudine, et 
 sanitatem suam patitur, deum nominat, hoc solo nomine, quia 
 proprio Dei veri. 'Deus magnus', 'Deus bonus', et 'Quod Deus 
 dederit', omnium vox est. Judicem quoque contestatur ilium 
 * Deus videt', et 'Deo commendo', et 'Deus mihi reddet'. O tes- 
 timonium animse naturaliter Christianae ! Denique pronuntians 
 hsec, non ad Capitolium, sed ad coelum respicit. Novit enim sedem 
 Dei vivi : ab illo et inde descendit." 
 
 Similarly Cyprian, after reiterating in almost the same words 
 the argument of Tertullian, adds, " Atque hsec est summa delicti, 
 nolle agnoscere quem ignorare non possis." De Idolorum Vani- 
 tate, c. 9. But, as we advance in the field of our researches, we 
 shall find to how very different and far sterner an awakening the 
 mind of man throughout the Roman Empire was destined, than 
 that which the too sanguine African Fathers fancied they foresaw. 
 Very different, too, was the province of the ecclesiastical successors 
 from what the Church leaders of the first three centuries must 
 have pictured it to themselves. 
 
12 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 on the practice of their contemporaries they had been 
 utterly powerless. It remained then for a heaven-sent 
 teacher to reveal the only true method by which, in an 
 age sinking into ever deeper depravity, the doctrines of 
 a high morality might be at the same time perfected in 
 theory, and, hopeless as it might seem to be, brought into 
 operation in ordinary life. That such a result was as 
 little to be expected from the religious enthusiasm as from 
 the plausible philosophy of mankind will appear from 
 the fact, that of the countless religious systems framed 
 by ingenuity or superstition not one, whatever be the 
 comparative purity of its ceremonial observances, lays the 
 sure foundation of a healthy ethical code. It would seem 
 to have escaped the notice of legislator or philosopher 
 ahke^, that it was in the power of an upright priesthood, 
 maintaining unpolluted, by precept and example, the only 
 universally true motives of human action, to render the 
 most enduring support to the creed they professed to 
 uphold. Such a triumph was reserved for the ministers 
 of a more holy faith, [for men, who as one of their own 
 number could most truly declare^, " philosophi non verbis 
 sed factis sumus, nee vestitu sapientiam sed veritate 
 
 ' How little the pagan ideas of the day comprehended the rela- 
 tions in which a Christian minister stood to his flock, may be in- 
 ferred even from the refusal of the Smyrnaean authorities to sur- 
 render to his people the remains of Polycarp, " lest they desert the 
 crucified one, and make a god of this man." — Mart. S* Polycarpi. 
 c. 17. 
 
 ^ Cyprian, De Bono Patientice, c. 8 ; or, in the phrase of 
 [Pseudo-]Justin Martyr, Cohort, ad Gent. c. ^6 : Ou ydp kv Xo'yots 
 
 a'A.X.' ev epyois rd rr^s ij/xeTepa^ deoaefSeia^ irpdyfxaTa, 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 13 
 
 prseferimus, qui virtutum conscientlam raagis quam jactan- 
 tiam novimus, qui non loquimur magna, sed viviinus^"] 
 
 This great work, accordingly, of the Christian clergy, 
 by which they are placed in most decided contrast to 
 the priesthoods which had preceded them, and in which 
 they so constantly and so zealously fulfilled the com- 
 mands of their Divine Master, will be the first to occupy 
 our attention. 
 
 1 The full force of this distinction did not fail, at a subsequent 
 period, to occur to the mind of Julian, who in one of his pastoral 
 letters lEp. 49. and Fragm. pp. 296—304. ed. Spanh.] thus ex- 
 presses himself as to the reforms he was desirous to effect in the 
 system of the pagan priesthood. 
 
 " If they are guilty of any scandalous offence, they should be 
 censured or degraded by the superior pontiff; but, as long as they 
 retain their rank, they are entitled to the respect of the magis- 
 trates and people.... The exercise of their sacred functions requires 
 an immaculate purity, both of mind and body ; and even when 
 they are dismissed from the temple to the occupations of common 
 life, it is incumbent on them to excel in decency and virtue the 
 rest of their fellow-citizens. The priest of the gods should never 
 be seen in theatres or taverns. His conversation should be chaste, 
 his diet temperate, his friends of honourable reputation ; and if 
 he sometimes visits the forum or the palace, he should appear 
 only as the advocate of those who have vainly solicited either jus- 
 tice or mercy. His studies should be suited to the sanctity of his 
 profession. Licentious tales, or comedies, or satires, must be 
 banished from his library, which ought solely to consist of histo- 
 rical and philosophical writings ; of history, which is founded in 
 truth, and of philosophy, which is connected with religion." 
 (Quoted by Gibbon, c. xxiii.) This remarkable passage, coming 
 from one of the avowed adversaries and imitators of Christianity, 
 presents to us, as few others could have done, the secret views of 
 enlightened heathens as to the ecclesiastical system, which they 
 thus at length found themselves compelled to copy. 
 
14 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 The minuteness of parental sway and guidance en- 
 trusted by St Paul to the first bishop in Crete, when he 
 enjoined him to " speak, exhort, and rebuke, with all 
 authority *," was carried out to the full amid the primitive 
 simplicity, and the yet limited congregations of his suc- 
 cessors, as we may gather from the advice of Ignatius in 
 his epistle to Polycarp ; " Let the assemblies be con- 
 tinual ; require every man by his namei." 
 
 Such, while the number of the faithful was small, 
 and the clerical functions comparatively undefined, was 
 the superintendence exercised over the Church by the 
 immediate successors of the Apostles. Advancing years, 
 as they widened the circle of pastoral action, weakened 
 its intensity, and during the succeeding centuries, we look 
 in vain for any similar strictness of ecclesiastical disci- 
 phne2. 
 
 * Titus ii. 15. 
 
 ^ C. 4 : HvKvoTepov crvvayujyal yiveadiaarav. 'E^ ovofiaTO^ Trai/ras 
 
 ^ Yet we must admire the mimiteness of the directions con- 
 tained in a passage of the Apostohcal Constitutions quoted by Lord 
 Lindsay, Christian Art. i. p. 1 9 : " But do thou, the bishop, be 
 holy, blameless, no striker, not irascible, not harsh, but an edifier 
 of the truth, a converter to righteousness, a giver of instruction, 
 patient in enduring evil, mild in disposition, gentle, long-suffering, 
 apt in exhortation, apt in comforting, like a man of God. 
 And when thou gatherest together the Church of God, regulate 
 the assembly w^ith all discernment, like the pilot of a great ship, 
 commanding the deacons, as the sailors, to arrange places for their 
 brethren, as the passengers, with all care and decency. And first, 
 let the house (church) be oblong, turned towards the East,... as it is 
 to resemble a ship, and let the throne of the bishop be in the 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 15 
 
 But while the exactitude of moral supervision, so 
 characteristic of an early age, became necessarily impos- 
 sible during the inevitable changes of the Church polity, 
 yet the provision for the temporal wants of the people, 
 early entrusted to the hands of the clergy, and fruitful 
 of results on the temper and customs of so many suc- 
 ceeding generations, appears, from the very earliest period 
 of their history down to our own times, to claim no small 
 share of our attention. Among the many practical results 
 
 midst, with the presbytery sitting on either side of it, and the 
 deacons standing by, clad in light but seemly raiment, for they are 
 likened to sailors and oarsmen. And, by the provision of the 
 deacons, let the laity seat themselves at the other end of the 
 church, with all stillness and order, the women separately, and let 
 
 them too be seated, keeping silence Let the presbyters exhort 
 
 the people, one after the other, but not all, and the bishop last, as 
 he who resembles the pilot.... And if any one shall be found sitting 
 out of his place, let him be chidden by the deacon, as by the pilot's 
 mate, and led over to the seat befitting him. For not only is the 
 
 church likened to a ship, but also to a fold Similarly, let the 
 
 deacon keep watch over the people, that no one whisper or fall 
 asleep, or laugh or beckon to another." — Apost. Const, ii. 57. 
 
 The idea of the bishop as the pilot of a great ship, seems to be 
 borrowed from the epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp, c. 2, where, 
 according to the Syriac version published by Cureton, the phrase 
 
 occurs, 'O /catpos ctTraiTet ere, to<s »cu/3e/)i/jjTJ]s vavi/j kuI w's x^'^I^'^X^- 
 fievo^ Xifieva, els to Qeov eirirvxelv. But SCO Curcton's note On the 
 
 passage, Corp. Ign. p. 269, where a passage is cited from the [spu- 
 rious] epistle of Clement to James, in which Christ is likened 
 to the Kv^epvinn^, and the bishop to the -rrpwpev?. "Eolk€v ydp '6\ov 
 
 TO TTpdy/ixa tJjs eKKXijaia^ vrjt fxeydXri, did arcl>oSpov x^t/uwi'os dvdpas 0e- 
 povari e/c TToXXivv tottwv ovra^, Kul fxiav TLvd dyadP]^ ^acriXeiai iroXiv 
 olKeiv QeXovTu^. "Ecttw fxhv ovv vpuv 6 TavTtjs 5eo-7roTr;s Geos, /cat 
 irapeiKaaQw 6 /neu /cuj3e/0i/rjT>/V XpiaTtp, 6 Trpoopeii^ eTriaKoTrw, ol vavrai 
 7ryoe(r/3uTe/00is, oi Toi^dpyoi diuKovot.'s. /c.t.X. []c. 14.^ 
 
16 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 of the elevated gospel morality there was none which stood 
 more prominently forward among the heathen nations than 
 the frequent works of charity and love. The sacerdotal 
 orders of Greece and Rome, wholly bent on mere cere- 
 monial observances, were utter strangers to that paternal 
 care of their flocks which formed so striking a charac- 
 teristic of the Christian clergy ; indeed, the ideas which 
 we attach to the words 'alms,' 'charity,"* and 'main- 
 tenance of the poor," unknown to heathendom, rose with 
 Christianity, and acquired strength by its extension. 
 
 QHumana ante oculos foede quum vita jaceret 
 In terris oppressa gravi sub religione. 
 Quae caput a coeli regionibus ostendebat, 
 Horribili super aspectu moi-talibus instans. 
 
 Si certam finem esse viderent 
 iErumnarum homines, aliqua ratione valerent 
 Religionibus atque minis obsistere vatum ; 
 Nunc ratio nulla est restandi, nulla facultas, 
 JEternas quoniam pcenas in morte timendum. 
 
 LucRET. I. 56 — 59, and 101 — 105. 
 
 It is true that at a subsequent period, Julian the Apostate^ 
 
 In his own words t Ti oZv tj/xeZs olo/xeOa TavTa dpKeXv, ouoe diro- 
 /SXeTTO/iei/, cos fidXiiXTa ti]v ddeoTijTa o'vvijv^ijaev i) irepl toi/s ^euovs 
 (piXavOpooTriay Kal tj irepi Tas 'Ta<pd^ twv veKpcov TrpojUjj'Oeta, kuI tj Tre- 
 irXaarfxevr] cre/uLVOTri? KUTa tov fStov ;...Aicrx/>oi/ ydp, ei nrtoif fiev ^lovdaiwv 
 ovdeh fxeTULTel, Tpe(f)0V(7L de oi ^ucro-ejSeTs TaXiXaloi irpoi toIs eavrtov 
 Kal Toiis 7)|UeT6j0ous* 01 6e t^/jLeTepoL tt}^ Trap mxwv eiriKovpia^ ev6ee1<s 
 
 (itaivovi-ai. — Julian. Epist. 49. See too Neander's Ch. History, Vol. 
 III. p. 64 (Bohn's translation), where he traces Julian's copying 
 of the Christian ^ei/oiJoxem and nrT^xorpofpeia, of the Church 
 collects and oblations, of the Christian schools, epistolce formatce, 
 and penitential system. 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 17 
 
 in fruitless imitation of the institutions he affected to de- 
 spise, endeavoured to connect with the system of his resus- 
 citated Pagan priesthood estabhshments previously exclu- 
 sively Christian ; but, as has been forcibly remarked by a 
 historian certainly not hostile to the philosophic emperor, 
 "if these imaginary plans of reformation had been realized, 
 the forced and imperfect copy would have been less bene- 
 ficial to Paganism than honourable to Christianity ^" J 
 The insulated position of the Church during three cen- 
 turies of persecution, necessarily fostering a desire after a 
 more complete unity, ever tended to confirm the feelings 
 which combined in one bond of true charity the rich and 
 the poor, the influential and the lowly, among the bre- 
 thren ; and attached the whole body more closely to those 
 pastors to whom the Lord had entrusted the care of 
 his fold : " [while the pastors themselves, when their day 
 of suffering came, found an ever ready temporal relief in 
 the speedy contributions of their people 2. ]" Hence arose, 
 
 » Gibbon, Vol. 11. p. 300 (Ed. Milman). 
 
 '•^ Thus Cyprian, Epist. 5 : " Quantum ad sumtus suggerendos 
 sive iis, qui gloriosa voce Dominum confess! in carcere sunt con- 
 stituti, sive iis, qui pauperes et indigentes laborant et tamen in 
 Domino perseverant ; peto nihil desit, cum summula omnis, quae 
 redacta est, illic sit apud clericos distributa propter ejusmodi casus, 
 ut haberent plures, unde ad necessitates et pressuras singulorum 
 operari possint." Again, in Epist. 7, he offers his private means to 
 supply the wants of the Church : '^ Viduarum et infirmorum et 
 omnium pauperum curam peto diligenter habeatis. Sed et pere- 
 grinis, si qui indigentes fuerint, sumtus suggeratis de quantitate 
 mea propria, quam apud Rogatianum compresbyterum nostrum 
 dimisi." So we have the converse custom in Tertullian's treatise 
 
 c 
 
18 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 in the very infancy of the Church, the institution of 
 deacons^y and hence too the power exercised by the 
 
 Ad Martyras, c. 1, where we read of the " carnis alimenta, quae 
 vobis et domina mater ecclesia de uberibus suis et singuli fratres 
 de opibus suis propriis in carcerem subministrant." And in the 
 well-known passage, Ad Uxorem, ii. c. 4: "Quis in carcerem ad 
 osculanda vinciila martyris reptare patietur ? &c." Even Lucian, 
 false and distorted as was the medium through which he viewed 
 the Christian institutions, seems to have been well aware how 
 much vigor and earnestness the whole system derived from the 
 close union between the pastor and his flock. Thus in his tract De 
 Morte Peregrini, [12, 13,] after describing the success of Peregrinus 
 in acquiring the Christian doctrine, and placing himself at the head 
 of the body of the faithful, with his consequent imprisonment, he 
 
 adds I CTret o' ovv eSeSe-ro, ol X-pLcrTiauol avixcj^opav iroiov/ULevoi to irpayfia, 
 iravTU eKLVovu, e^apTrdaaL Treipwfxevoi aiiTOV. eiT t'Trei tovto riv dovvaTou, 
 »';' ye a'Wi; Qepairela irdcra ov irdpepyo^y dWd ^vv cnrovdrj ly'iyveTO ' Kai 
 'iwdeu fieu eu6us j)u bpav irapd tw oear/JLMTijpico TrepifxevovTa ypa'Loia, )(j;pas 
 Tti/a's, Kal TraiSia 6p(pavd, . . . . el-ra oeZitva iroiKiXa eicreKOfxi'^eTO, Kal 
 \6yoL lepol avTwv eXiyovTO, Kal 6 /3eA.Tto-Tos Tlepeypluo^ kulvos Sto/C/oaVtjs 
 vtt' avTMv (xivofj.d't^eTO. Kal iJ.}]v Kal Ttov ev 'Aala 'TroXecov ecTtf, oou r]<ov 
 Tives Tvov HpiaTiaiwv (TTeWovroov dTTo Tov Koivou, /3ojjtJi;'o'Oi/Tes, Kal ^vv- 
 ayopeucrovTt^, Kal Trapa/ULudijao/uLei/ot. tou dvopa, dfxy'wavov oe tl to Taj^os 
 
 eTTideiKvvvTai, eireiBdu ti tolovtov yevi]TaL, oif/uLoatov TreTrei'/cao-t 
 
 yap avToi)^ oi KaKodai/xoves, to fxev oXov d^dva-roi eaeadai, Kal (iitoo'ecrdai 
 Tov del \povov. Trap' o Kal KaTacppovovci tov QavaTov, Kal e/covTes 
 avTov<3 eTTiOLOouciv ol TToXXoL. eTTSLTa 6e 6 vofxodeTt}? V irpuiTO^ eireiaev 
 auToys oJs doeXcpol iravrei elev dWi'jXwv , eTreiSdv aira^ irapa^dv-re^, deoi)^ 
 fxku Toi/s ' EiXXi}v'lkou^ dTTapvi\<T<avTui, TOV de dveaKoXoiria-fjiivov eKelvov 
 (ro(f>iarTi]v avTojv TrpodKvvGxxi, Kal kutu toi/s eKeivov i/o/xous fSicoaiv. A 
 
 most singular passage, surely, not only as shewing us the limit of 
 misrepresentation to which the great satirist of the age could sub- 
 ject the Christian body, but as laying before us, in a more especial 
 degree, the light in which so utterly new a relation as that between 
 the clergy and laity first presented itself to the heathen j)ublic. 
 
 ' See Diicange's Glossary, in voc. Diaconus and Diaconm, 
 where the progress and amplification of the temporal duties of the 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 19 
 
 other members of the clerical body in disposing of the 
 ecclesiastical revenues in support of their bereaved and 
 poverty-stricken brethren. 
 
 To cite from the writings of the earlier Fathers their 
 exhortations to this, the most practical of Christian virtues, 
 would be an endless task ; and their biographers suffi- 
 ciently testify that they did not themselves neglect what 
 they so earnestly enjoined upon others. Cyprian* ac- 
 counts the omission of the customary tribute to the poor 
 a sure sign of the grievous falling away from the purity 
 of the faith ; and in a letter t addressed to the bishops of 
 Numidia, breathing the true spirit of Christian charity, 
 he forwards to them a large sum contributed by the 
 pious zeal of the Carthaginian Church to the ransom of 
 the captive brethren among the barbarian tribes of the 
 North of Africa ^ The same church- father is presented 
 to us by his contemporary biographer as engaged in a yet 
 nobler task, as busied, during the period when a deso- 
 lating plague ravaged his episcopal city, in ministering 
 the means of temporal and spiritual support to his people 
 
 institution, especially in the Papal States, is traced down to the 
 mediaeval period : "Erant enim Diaconi isti, ut verbis utar Cujacii, 
 Ad Nov, 8, 'dyaTTwv ministd, id est, mensarum, quae apponebantur 
 egenis, viduis, orphanis, quae convivia agitabantur domi, non in 
 templo, adhibitis precibus divinis/ Erant autem ejusmodi hospi- 
 tales domus Romae in regionibus omnibus, quarum usu praecipuo 
 exolescente, ipsisque dirutis aedibus, diaconitB nomen ipsis saccllis 
 et oratoriis mansit ; a quibus earum prsefecti Diaconi Cardinales 
 Urhis Romce postea dicti sunt." 
 
 * De Lapsis, c. 6, 12. t Ep. 62. 
 
 ' See also Epp. 5, 12, 14. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE fCH. 
 
 and to his persecutors alike '^. [In like manner, when, 
 during the reign of Gallienus, the plague, that so fruitful 
 source of Christian heroism, was desolating Alexandria, 
 we have a forcible picture of the contrast between the zeal 
 of the clergy and the indifference of the heathen popu- 
 lation, as drawn by the hand of Dionysius the bishop 
 (Euseb. H. E. in. 22). 
 
 " Most of the brethren, through the excess of their 
 love and fraternal affection, not sparing themselves and 
 clinging closely to each other, bestowing all their care 
 on the sick, regardless of themselves, but serving them 
 most zealously for Christ's sake, with all joy exchanged 
 places with them, infecting themselves with the malady 
 which they derived from others, and discharging upon 
 themselves the sufferings from which they relieved their 
 neighbours. And not a few, after tending others and 
 saving their lives, brought death upon themselves, trans- 
 ferring it from their patients ; and so we lost many of the 
 most useful of our brethren, and certain of the presbyters 
 and deacons and of those held in high esteem by the 
 people ; so that such a death, being the result of much 
 piety and earnest faith, seemed hardly to fall short of 
 martyrdom. And many, who with upturned hands 
 grasped and pressed to their bosoms the corpses of the 
 saints, who cleansed their eyes, closed their lips, bore 
 them on their shoulders, and laid them out for burial, 
 clinging to them, twining their arms round them, and 
 
 • Vita Cyprianiy (c. 9) by Pontius Diaconus. 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 21 
 
 bestowing upon them due ablutions and obsequies, soon 
 themselves underwent a similar lot. 
 
 *' But with the heathens everything was quite differ- 
 ent; they drove from them all those who were but 
 beginning to fall sick, they shunned their dearest friends, 
 and even cast them half dead into the streets, shrinking 
 with horror from the unburied dead, turning away from 
 that transmission and community of death, which with 
 all their contrivances they found it no easy matter to 
 avoidi."] 
 
 We may form some idea of the unwearied energy and 
 zeal, with which the clergy supplied the increasing wants 
 of their destitute flock during the social disorganization of 
 the decline of the empire, from the fact, that Cornelius, 
 bishop of Rome in the middle of the third century, assigns 
 to a church containing, from the bishop to the ostiarii, 
 scarcely more than 150 clerical members the maintenance 
 of 1500 widows and orphans alone*; so energetic was 
 
 ^ See too Neander, Ch. History, i. p. 358. Most striking, at a 
 later period, was the very title bestowed upon the clerical succes- 
 sors of these men, parabolani, diro tou TrapafidWea-daL tiju ^ft)r;2/, men 
 reckless of their lives, whose solemn chant and measured tread 
 are to this day so well known to every one who has crossed the 
 gate of an Italian town. It may be made a question how far the 
 sudden and utter extinction of this and similar church-orders may 
 not have been one of the principal contributing causes to the 
 rapid spread of the plague through the countries of the Levant. 
 But such inquiries belong more strictly to a later period of our 
 investigations. 
 
 * See Cornelius, Ej). ad. Fab. [c, 3] ap. Routh, Reliq. Sac. iii. 
 [pp. 23, 24]. 
 
22 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 still the operation of that mutual love which the parting 
 commands of the Great Shepherd of the fold had enjoined 
 upon his disciples. What a contrast must not even 
 the most bigoted of pagan eye-witnesses have drawn 
 between the priests of the ancient superstition, anxious 
 only to increase their own revenues by the credulity of 
 their people, and the yet untainted ministers of Christ, 
 supporting, even amid the uncertainties of external perse- 
 cution, their still more suffering brethren ! But a fuller 
 display of the results of these clerical virtues was re- 
 served by Providence for a more necessitous age ; and 
 we shall find the charity thus first practised in the 
 early Church accomplishing in succeeding centuries the 
 yet nobler task of relieving, so far as human instrumen- 
 tality could relieve, the disasters of the expiring empire 
 of Eome. 
 
 But while we see the clergy of the early ages occupied 
 in laying, amid the fires of persecution, the good founda- 
 tion of charity and pure works, which was to exalt them 
 so far above many of their degenerate successors, and 
 while we admire the influence they thus exerted on the 
 world without, we must not omit to trace more par- 
 ticularly the consequences of the same principles within 
 the precincts of the Church itself: and it must be ob- 
 served generally that, in estimating truly the standard of 
 morality in the Church at any period, we must so far 
 make allowance for the promptitude of mankind to learn 
 lessons of evil, as to compare the ecclesiastical discipline 
 of the age, not only with the pure doctrines and perfect 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 23 
 
 models presented by the Apostolic Church, [and with the 
 faultless precepts of its Founder,] but also with the con- 
 dition of the contemporary secular society : for never, not 
 even in its most irreproachable state, was the Church of 
 God so thoroughly sifted by the force of truth, and placed 
 on so remote a moral elevation, as to be uninfluenced by 
 all the attractions of the world below. Judged by such 
 a rule as this, how surpassingly brilliant, how far beyond 
 all praise, do the virtues of the early clergy and people 
 appear, during an age in which corruptions and vice ruled 
 unrestrained ! Wherever in the heathen world the name of 
 Rome was heard, the ministers of a despised creed shone 
 as true lights among men, and that not only in contrast 
 with the surrounding gloom, but even when compared 
 with the vaunted splendour of succeeding [and nominally 
 X/hristian] centuries. It is true that men who delight to 
 trace in the whole chronicle of the world the continued 
 onward progress of mankind in religious as well as in 
 intellectual advancement, [and ever to attribute to some 
 occult tendency (from us, in these less prosperous days, 
 unfortunately veiled !) towards ultimate perfection what a 
 more vulgar historical philosophy ascribes to the bene- 
 ficent agency of a Providential scheme, — it is true that 
 such men, ever willing to contrast the imagined lesser 
 brilliancy of a more remote with the so-called splendour of 
 a less distant period,] may point to the vagaries of Alex- 
 andrian philosophy or the pernicious fanaticism of Phry- 
 gian heresy : — we may with more justice assert the ordi- 
 nary practice of the Church in matters of discipline, as 
 
24 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 convincing proof that the high standard of clerical morality 
 was far from being one of theory alone ^ 
 
 During the whole course of the three centuries, which 
 occupy our more immediate attention, we discern the 
 clergy engaged in a constant and successful struggle 
 against the prevailing depravity of the age — [a struggle, 
 whose progress and results, often hardly to be appreciated 
 at the time, appear most prominently at a subsequent 
 period in the improved legislation of Constantine and 
 Justinian ; — ] we see one Pagan corruption after another 
 victoriously attacked by these true soldiers of the Cross, 
 and the line of demarcation between the Church and the 
 world without becoming every day more and more clearly 
 defined. The faithful, as their numbers and estimation 
 increased, found themselves in perpetually new relations 
 with those whom they looked upon as the sworn servants 
 of the powers of darkness. The piety and judgment of 
 their spiritual guides are frequently in requisition to assist 
 them in some new difficulty, or preserve them in some 
 unheard-of temptation; — [whether, as in the very earliest 
 of the Christian writers, the depth of the prevailing cor- 
 ruption is rather occasionally hinted at than systematically 
 depicted ; — or, as in the more fervid pages of Cyprian 
 and Tertullian, every shade of the surrounding blackness 
 is portrayed till the meanest of the Christian virtues 
 acquires redoubled dignity by the contrast.] 
 
 There is no subject on which the Latin Fathers bestow 
 more earnestness or eloquence than on their frequent 
 
 ' Cyp. Ep. 4. 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 25 
 
 exhortations to abstain from all share in those theatrical 
 exhibitions which were established wherever the Roman 
 sway was acknowledged. Not only was the Christian 
 disciple to avoid gladiatorial shows, to abolish which, 
 in a less hopelessly corrupt age, a moral code of no such 
 scrupulous severity as that of the Gospel might have 
 sufficed, but his foot was on no occasion to be polluted 
 by entering the accursed precincts of the amphitheatre. 
 The most learned and most energetic of the early 
 Fathers-^ has brought into play all his learning and all 
 his energy to prove the idolatrous origin of amphitheatrical 
 sports, and to lay before his readers all the heathenish 
 and unbridled passions invariably excited by the crowded 
 arena. Cyprian t, on the other hand, turning away the 
 attention of his people from such vain, earthly frivolities 
 as these, exhorts them to fix the spiritual glance on that 
 more illustrious contest, where the race of immortality is 
 run by the competitors for a more enduring than any 
 earthly kingdom ; where, instead of the pomp of curule 
 magistracy and the multitudes of an assembled nation, 
 the spectators are the Lord of all himself, with the 
 innumerable company of angels, and the assembly of the 
 just made perfect. 
 
 This latter passage is but one instance out of many 
 we might produce, from which we learn how well those 
 great leaders of the Church, men of action as well as of 
 thought, knew how to divert into evangelical channels, 
 
 * Tertullian, De Spectaculis, passim. 
 
 t Cyprian, De Opere et Eleem. p. 244, [cc. 21, 22. ed. Baluz.] 
 
26 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 without extinguishing, an activity and enthusiasm so long 
 misdirected, and from an instrument of so much past evil 
 to prepare stores of future good. 
 
 But it was not merely by vague declamation that the 
 purity of the Church was preserved ; for the violation of 
 such paternal injunctions was visited with ecclesiastical 
 penalties 1; and it was an universal rule of canonical dis- 
 cipline that no one who performed the functions of a 
 " lanista""* was to enjoy the privileges of a member of the 
 Christian body 2. The same severe teacher, in the treatise 
 we have just quoted, strives to disabuse his readers of the 
 fatal idea which would limit idolatry to the mere bowing 
 down before graven images, and repudiates that pliable 
 morality which permitted members of the Christian 
 
 1 Thus Cyprian {Ep. 4), in answer to Pomponius, who had 
 consulted him and the other bishops as to certain virgins and 
 deacons guilty of incontinence, after quoting passages to shew the 
 heinousness of the crime and its foulness as adultery to the Divine 
 husband, advises that the erring persons should perform full 
 penitence, and not be re-admitted to the Church till after suf- 
 ficient evidence of their having forsaken their evil courses, 
 and the lapse of a considerable period of repentance. He also 
 dwells on the duty of those in authority in the Church to 
 despise the strictures of men, and act with a single eye to the 
 glory of God. 
 
 * Tertullian, De Idololatria, c. 11. 
 
 2 Thus Cyprian {Ep. 2), having been consulted by Euchra- 
 tius, as to whether he should admit to the Communion a certain 
 actor and theatrical teacher, orders his exclusion, and, in case of 
 his pleading poverty, desires that he be supported from the 
 church-funds ; — they not sufficing, he might be transferred to 
 Carthage for supft.Qj't. 
 
II. J OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 27 
 
 Church to gain a HveHhood by pandering to the require- 
 ments of Paganism. " Tota die ad hanc partem zelus 
 fidei peroral)it, ingemens Christianum ab idolis in eccle- 
 siam venire ; attollere ad Deum Patrem manus matres 
 idolorum ; his manibus adorare, qure foris adversus Deum 
 adorantur; eas manus admovere corpori Domini, quae 
 demoniis corpora conferunt*." The horror which he pro- 
 ceeds to express against servants of the Lord who devoted 
 themselves to science, hterature or commerce, was shared 
 by all the stricter party in the Church : and however 
 unsuited such sentiments may be to those later times 
 into which unthinking -zeal has transplanted them, it is 
 evident that in those perilous days such (as it would now 
 be called) fanatical severity tended not a little to widen 
 that salutary gulf which was fixed between the faithful 
 few and the unbelieving many. 
 
 It was the same strict and scrupulous morality 
 (repulsive to so many of our own day, who can hardly 
 avoid identifying it with that merciless intolerance, the 
 offspring of its combination with the " secular arm"" at 
 a later period) which introduced the severity of the canons 
 against the lapsed i. The opinion of the most reasonable 
 party in the Church on this much-disputed question may 
 be found expressed in a letter of the Eoman clergy to 
 Cyprian t; " Adeant ad limen ecclesise, sed non utique 
 
 * De Idohkitria, c. 7, &c. 
 
 ^ Instances of this severity may be seen in Cyprian, Epp. 15, 
 16, 17, 20, 27. 
 
 t Cypr. £j9. 80. [c. 7] 
 
28 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 transiliant. Castrorum coelestium excubent portis, sed 
 armati modestia, qua intelligant se desertores fuisse. 
 Resiimant precum suarum tubam, sed qua non bellicum 
 clangant\" These military metaphors are not without 
 their full signification ; for the zeal with which these 
 jeaders of the faithful marshalled their followers under 
 the banner of the Cross, the scrupulous attention with 
 which they bound them by the solemn " sacramentum" 
 to the great Captain of their salvation, and the care with 
 which they secured their union into one compact mass, 
 can be compared to nothing so aptly as to the indispens- 
 able precautions with which an experienced chief leads 
 forth his army, confident of victory, while not unmindful 
 of the means to secure it. 
 
 But the barrier of reiterated exhortations and denun- 
 ciations, with which the Church encompassed the laity, 
 was as nothing to that with which she secured the un- 
 stained purity of her ministers. Errors, venial in the 
 former, excluded the latter for ever from that communion 
 of the saints on earth, wherein consisted at once their 
 privilege and their responsibility. Indeed it was in full 
 accordance with the general scope of ecclesiastical doc- 
 trine and practice, that, as the great body of believers, 
 who had been admitted by Divine grace to a knowledge 
 of the truths of the Gospel, were bound by more strin- 
 gent laws than those of the world without, so the 
 more favoured band, who were honoured by yet closer 
 
 1 For other examples of moderation in the treatment of the 
 lapsed by Cyprian and others, see his Epistles, 8, 23, and 25. 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 29 
 
 communion with heaven, and to whom were committed 
 the deeper mysteries of the Faith, should Hve among the 
 people of God as the latter did among the unbelievers. 
 It was reasonable, they argued, that men who were as 
 angels upon earth, and whose ministry exalted them, 
 while yet among their flocks, to the mansions of the 
 heavenly places, should ever live as in the more immediate 
 presence of the invisible world*. Accordingly the pardon 
 gradually vouchsafed to such laymen as fell away in the 
 day of trial was sternly refused to erring presbyters ; 
 they were indeed readmitted into the Church, but all 
 approach to the altar was denied them. They were for 
 ever deprived of their holy functions, and reduced to the 
 condition of laymen t. 
 
 Pursuits^ and amusements from which the devout 
 people were not excluded, were looked upon as pernicious 
 to the scrupulous sanctity of the priestly character. Was 
 the Christian layman required to exhibit every outward 
 token of inward purity of thought ? They more. Were 
 the believers forbidden to commit such acts as might 
 
 * See Chrysostom, de Sacerdot. ill. c. 4, quoted by Bingham, 
 B. VI. c. 2. [§ 1.] 
 
 + See Cyprian, Ep>. 67, where he cites the opinion of Bp. Cor- 
 nelius regarding lapsed clergymen. 
 
 ^ Geminius Victor having named Geminius Faustinus, a pres- 
 byter, trustee to his will, Cyprian {Ep. 1), in accordance with a 
 decree of a late council, reproved the practice of thus drawing 
 priests from the service of the altar, and desired his clergy to de- 
 prive Geminius Victor, as the council had decreed, of the usual 
 services for the dead. 
 
30 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 even bring them into suspicion with the world ! They 
 more. Was a Christian layman urged to forego pleasures 
 which united him to earth, and drew his thoughts away 
 from heaven ? The clergy were compelled to a yet severer 
 self-discipline. Each labourer in the vineyard of the 
 Lord, as he entered on his holy functions, was made to 
 feel that he was enlisting in a band no less distinguished 
 from the world without by the excellency of its moral 
 than of its ceremonial observances. He was kept in 
 perpetual remembrance of the Apostolic charges by the 
 strictness of subsequent enactments ; he knew that, as to 
 him much was given, of him should much be required — 
 and that if from each individual convert were expected 
 all the duties of a brave soldier of Christ, he was to be 
 at once a teacher, an example, and a conqueror. 
 
 We have already found evidence of the integrity of 
 the early clergy as spiritual teachers and rulers ; another 
 not less convincing proof of the excellence of their practice 
 as well as of their principles may be seen in the power 
 they exercised over the temporal concerns of their people. 
 The general tendency to avoid any unnecessary intercourse 
 with pagan authorities, as well as the doubtful interpre- 
 tation of an expression of St. Paul*, induced Christian 
 litigants in many cases to submit their disputes to the 
 award of their bishop t ; and while every secular official, 
 from the occupant of the curule chair to the meanest of 
 his lictors, was involved in the most polluting corruption, 
 
 * 1 Corinthians vi. 4. 
 
 t See Bingham, Orig. Eccles. B. ii. c. 7- §§ 1, 2. 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 31 
 
 while the provincial tribunals dispensed anything rather 
 justice to their victims, the verdict of an ecclesiastical 
 functionary was looked upon as a decision from which 
 appeal was fruitless. Amid knavery and violence com- 
 pared to which that of Verres was tolerable, he manifested 
 a precise morality which even the great accuser of Verres 
 would have held to be fastidious. 
 
 We have thus far considered more particularly the 
 moral influences of the doctrine, discipline, and example 
 of the Christian clergy. Taking a more general view of 
 the period before us, it at once strikes us as a remark- 
 able fact, that the onward progress of the faith, which 
 no one who compares the first with the fourth century 
 can doubt, was owing not so much to the propagating 
 activity of its teachers as to the silent influence excited 
 by the energy and regularity of the ecclesiastical orga- 
 nization. We look in vain for any of the earnest 
 missionary zeal which might have found its model in 
 St. Paul, and which succeeding generations learnt to 
 admire in Boniface. The first three centuries of the 
 Church's history were so emphatically ages of internal 
 stablishing and moral discipline, that even the terrors of 
 reiterated persecution, originally instrumental in scattering 
 the truth from Judea throughout every civilized land, 
 failed of removing the ancient Churches from their ex- 
 isting seats. The exertions of the clergy were spent in 
 consolidating and perfecting what already stood, not in 
 laying the foundations of new edifices ; and it was well 
 that it should be so; since it accorded admirably with 
 
32 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 the whole Providential scheme, as we can now discern it, 
 for the onward progress of the faith, that the powers of 
 a devoted ministry should be employed in forming, amid 
 the comparative repose of the empire of Home, a system 
 destined to be productive of so many blessings in the 
 succeeding centuries of turmoil and convulsions. 
 
 It is true that in too many of the institutions and 
 customs to which we have alluded, are plainly to be 
 discerned the first germs of overwhelming and pernicious 
 abuses ; but we can scarcely be justified in attributing to 
 the primitive clergy of the second and third centuries con- 
 sequences whose true origin is to be found in the social 
 corruptions of the middle ages ; we ought, on the contrary, 
 to rejoice that so intellectual and so practical a body of 
 men should have been engao;ed in founding a svstem so 
 well calculated to further the kingdom of God in their 
 own days and in those of their children. A more minute 
 inspection will often convince us that in the early progress 
 of what to us, looking at them as we do through the 
 prejudices of so many centuries, may appear to be 
 unmitigated abuses, the guiding hand and watchful 
 omniscience of the Great Head of the Church may be 
 discerned, preparing it for the emergencies of its coming 
 destiny. 
 
 But before we turn away from the consideration of 
 the beneficial influence of the clergy on the members of 
 the Church, we may notice another less direct, but still 
 important mean by which their authority was heightened, 
 and the effect of the purity of their example in some 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 33 
 
 measure enhanced. Whatever may be the exact opinion 
 we may form, from the writings of the early Fathers, of 
 the weight of the popular voice in Episcopal elections, we 
 may be assured of this, that in no case did a nomination 
 of so holy an office take place without the consent, more 
 or less formally expressed, of the great body of the people, 
 prior to the consecration of him who had been named, it 
 might be, by the clerical body alone; and whatever may 
 have been the steps of the process, we may well believe 
 that a lively interest was awakened in the minds of the 
 faithful*, regarding one who was thus in a measiu*e their 
 own choice. It is one of the earliest lessons we learn 
 from the experience of life, that self-imposed obhgations 
 are the most binding and the most enduring ; and we 
 meet, in the chronicles of nations, with perpetually re- 
 currino; evidences of the fact that men bow down more 
 readily and willingly before an image of their own erection 
 than before one to whose elevation they are strangers, or 
 which they venerate at the beck of a supreme authority. 
 Accordingly, the whole sacerdotal order, and above all 
 the Bishops, of the early Church found themselves in 
 possession of a moral and intellectual sway, resting not 
 only on their own intrinsic claims to respect, but on the 
 self-complacency, as we may style it, of those by whose 
 suffrages they had risen ^ The self-love of man often 
 
 * See Bingham, Orig. Eccles. B. iv. c. 2. 
 
 ^ Thus Cyprian {Ep. 14), writing from exile to the presbyters 
 and deacons, professes it to be impossible for him to act alone 
 without the " plebs" in important Church affairs. Compare Ep. 
 
 D 
 
34 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 delights in humbling itself before that which he has him- 
 self exalted, and in honoring, in the pre-eminence of 
 another, the supremacy of his own judgment : and we can 
 hardly imagine that the enthusiastic multitudes, whose 
 acclamations raised Ambrose and Martin* to the Episco- 
 pal seats of Milan and Tours, would be willing to impugn 
 the authority of prelates whose imperfections would have 
 been chargeable solely on the precipitation of their 
 elections. 
 
 Such, then, are some of the principal means by which 
 the worthy followers of the Apostles dispensed the bless- 
 ings of the Gospel to a world lying in wickedness: by 
 which they not only instructed nations long destitute of 
 all religious or moral guidance to look up to purer pre- 
 cepts and higher examples than the earth afforded, but 
 accustomed them to become active members of a vigorous 
 and self-governing community, in the very midst of the 
 most hopeless and aimless society with which the world 
 was ever cursed. 
 
 Before we pass to a consideration of our second head, 
 and view the relations of the clerical body to the world 
 without, we may give a few words to a subject which it 
 seems advisable, in this and our future chronological sec- 
 tions, to include under this division — the effect of the 
 
 19. "Hoc et verecundise et disciplinae et vitae ipsi omnium nos- 
 trum convenit, ut praepositi cum clero convenientes, prcBsente etiam 
 stantium plebe, quibus et ipsis pro fide et timore suo honor habendus 
 est, disponere omnia consilii communis religione possimus." 
 
 * Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martiniy [c. 7], quoted by Bingham, 
 B. IV. c. L Sec. 3. 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 35 
 
 theological studies and writings of the time on the lite- 
 rature and philosophy of a degenerate age. 
 
 To dilate on the merits or demerits of countless ec- 
 clesiastical disputants, to particularize each shifting form 
 of ingenious heresy, or to enumerate the goodly catalogue 
 of Champions of the Faith, each armed for his own 
 peculiar warfare, would be far to exceed our present 
 limits or intentions. After the lapse of so many centu- 
 ries, we may look back on some of these temporary dis- 
 cussions with far other sentiments than those of regret, 
 and rejoice that, as the Church was taught the advantage 
 of watchful discipline by persecutions from without, so 
 she learnt the necessity of a yet more earnest solicitude 
 by what might seem to be tribulation from within. It is 
 assuredly not the least of the many blessings conferred 
 upon humanity by the sacerdotal order of the first three 
 centuries that it produced in the western lands so many 
 stedfast advocates of ecclesiastical discipline and the 
 seemly purity of Christian life, or that in the less prac- 
 tical regions of the East it included within its pale such 
 zealous defenders of true doctrine alike against open ene- 
 mies and against the more dangerous approaches of 
 scepticism and false philosophy ; — that the system of the 
 Truth is maintained by the energetic rhetoric of a Ter- 
 tullian, and by the learning and exegetical skill of an 
 Origen. It would be an interesting but laborious task 
 to trace, through each succeeding generation of Chris- 
 tians, the good fruit of the seed sown by the penetrating 
 intellects and exemplary integrity of such men as these. 
 
 J>2 
 
S6 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 And we must not forget that much of the intellectual 
 brilliancy of our own day is to be primarily referred to 
 the torch of Divine Truth, so zealously raised by these 
 the Fathers of our Church, and from them handed down, 
 — through puny and unworthy hands, it may be, — to an 
 age which too often affects to despise the sources whence 
 much of its real greatness flows. 
 
 But even to the merely secular student the theolo- 
 gical labours of the early clergy, especially in the Eastern 
 portion of the Empire, must be matter of enduring gra- 
 titude ; for the perusal of the works of Greek philosophy, 
 which in their own land was becoming obsolete with the 
 failing vigour of the nation, and in Rome had long suc- 
 cumbed to the practical tendencies of the people, received 
 a new impulse from the theologic rancour of contending 
 orthodoxy and heterodoxy. It is indeed true that the 
 consequences of excessive religious philosophizing were 
 as baneful in those days as in our own ; that the words 
 and arguments of the academic school were travestied at 
 pleasure by contending theorists, that even such a man 
 as Justin* could find in the dialogues of Plato an enun- 
 ciation of the doctrine of the Trinity, and that the phrases 
 and the philosophy of the Timseust were looked upon 
 by professing Christians as scarcely below inspiration. 
 But both the so-called Platonists and their opponents, 
 
 * See Gleseler, Ch. Hist. [Per. i. Div. ii.] c. 8. § 52, note [6, 7.] 
 t See p. 41, where the idea of a dmxiovpyo^ is introduced ; and 
 
 p. 36, for the dualistic theory, so prevalent among his Alexandria 
 
 disciples. 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 37 
 
 though they mangled that great teacher in their own 
 writings, maintained his in all their purity ; and the pre- 
 servation, through so many ages, of the masterpieces of 
 Greek philosophy must be considered as in a great mea- 
 sure owing to their early association with the great fun- 
 damental doctrines of the Christian religion. 
 
 In conclusion, to the merits of the early clergy we 
 must assign this unrivalled praise, that amid an univer- 
 sally decaying literature, among nations buried in igno- 
 rance and indifference save when the weak remnants of 
 the old Pagan schools retained sufficient life to be hostile 
 to the truth, they restored ethical philosophy, and turned 
 the minds of men from the outward things of sense to 
 look upon the realities of this life, and the great features 
 of this our present state as exhibited by the prospective 
 light of that which is to come. Plato and his illustrious 
 disciple had taught the inseparable connexion of ethical 
 and political philosophy: they directed the attention of 
 their worthy disciples to the city whose builder and maker 
 is God; and from materials, to a worldly glance often 
 seemingly rude and discordant, they raised the noblest 
 and most elevating of all sciences. Christian Theology. 
 
 We now turn to the second division of our sub- 
 ject, in order to view the relations in which the clergy, 
 during the period preceding the accession of Constantino, 
 stood to the world from which they had separated them- 
 selves. It at once appears that the influence of the Chris- 
 tian priesthood on the civil government of the empire 
 was as nothing during these centuries compared to the 
 
38 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 importance it attained during those immediately following. 
 The teachers of the Gospel, dependent as yet entirely on 
 the voluntary contributions of their flocks, and exercising 
 over them none of that indefinite magisterial authority 
 which was assigned to them by the piety or the policy of 
 the Christian emperors, seldom, if ever, fell under the 
 eye of the government in their capacity of a corporate 
 body. True, they were ever the foremost to suffer from 
 the fury of the intolerant and to rejoice in the favour of 
 the tolerant among the successors of Augustus, but their 
 rulers had not yet learnt to view them as a main portion 
 of the great machinery of the state, and to make use of 
 them as an indispensable link to connect the ever more 
 and more dislocated fragments of a tottering empire. It 
 is not uncommonly urged by men who take a strange de- 
 light in inveighing against the weakness of the founda- 
 tions of the ecclesiastical edifice which shelters them, 
 while they admire its present excellence, that we can 
 attribute no truly beneficial effects to the influence of the 
 clergy and Church on the world without, previous to the 
 public acknowledgment of the truth, because to the eye 
 of secular history the moral progress of the empire during 
 the first three centuries is imperceptible. They assert 
 that the whole social movement of those ages was one 
 of unmitigated degradation ; that, in spite of Christianity, 
 the misery of the many was, throughout Europe and Asia 
 alike, more and more promoted by the inordinate luxury 
 of the few ; that lands, the ancient abodes of free nations, 
 were rapidly consigned to the profitless cultivation of 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 39 
 
 servile gangs, and that every noble and generous senti- 
 ment seemed to be fading away from among the sons of 
 men. Such having been the undoubted condition of the 
 political world, they plausibly demand the fruits of the moral 
 and social reforms for which the Church reveres its early 
 champions, and they attribute the traditional virtues of 
 ecclesiastics to the partiality of their clerical chroniclers 
 and successors. To such a charge as this, it would 
 scarcely be sufficient to object that the kingdom of which 
 they were ministers was not of this world, for abundant 
 evidence is not lacking that though not of the world, 
 it wa^ not barren of good works in the world. A more 
 convincing answer is to be found in the system of 
 Christian instruction, from which the behever learnt to 
 scorn the pomp of secular power, and to turn away with 
 aversion from all those high civil offices, by which alone 
 could the principles of a pure faith have been strikingly 
 and convincingly borne to the relief of a decaying polity. 
 The ambition of the aspiring Christian was sedulously 
 turned from the curule chair to the more glorious, because 
 more perilous elevation of the episcopal seat. The most 
 splendid of Imperial dignities might well be despised by 
 men who looked upon the honors of pastoral sway upon 
 earth as a sure foretaste* of an exalted judgment-seat 
 in the world to come, and they might reasonably consider 
 as mis-spent in restoring the vigour of a Pagan system 
 that force of unswerving rectitude which might have 
 added but one denizen to the city of God below. Another 
 
 * See Lactantius, Institut. Div. vii. c. 24. 
 
40 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 yet more convincing proof that the changes proclaimed 
 by the Christian clergy were those of inward heartfelt 
 reform, not those of revolutionary social re-organization, 
 may be found in the relation in which they placed them- 
 selves to the institution of slavery, the darkest blot on the 
 civilization of the ancient world. It has been made a 
 frequent subject of cavil that priests of a religion, whose 
 very watchword was universal love and brotherly charity, 
 should never have proclaimed liberty to the temporal as 
 well as the spiritual captives, and rendered all the mem- 
 bers of their flocks equal before men as they were in the 
 sight of God. In answer to such charges as this let us 
 hear the words of the venerable Ignatius ; 
 
 " Despise not slaves, male or female ; but neither let 
 them be contemptuous ; but as for the glory of God let 
 them labor more abundantly, that they may be meet for 
 that more excellent liberty which is of God. Let them 
 not desire to be set at liberty from that which is common, 
 that they may not be found the slaves of lusts ^.^^ Again, 
 at a later period, we have not dissimilar sentiments ex- 
 pressed in the nervous language of Tertullian. " Coronat 
 libertas secularis. Sed tu jam redemptus es a Ohristo, 
 et quidem magno. Servum alienum, quomodo seculum 
 manumittet? Etsi libertas videtur, sed et servitus vide- 
 bitur. Omnia imaginaria in seculo, et nihil veri. Nam 
 et tunc liber hominis eras redemptus a Christo ; et nunc 
 servus es Christi, licet manumissus ab homine. Si veram 
 
 * Ep. to Polycarp, Q). 7, Corp. Ign.'\ ed. Cureton, [o,. 4. ed. 
 Jacobs.] 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 41 
 
 putas seculi libertatem, ut et corona earn consignes, 
 redisti in servitutem hominis, quam putas libertatem ; 
 amisisti libertatem Christi, quam putas servitutem*.''"' 
 Such phrases clearly disclose to us the high mark towards 
 which the exhortations of the Fathers urged on their 
 disciples ^ Worldly privileges and worldly contumely 
 were equally contemptible to those whose entire energies 
 were devoted to the preparation for an eternal kingdom. 
 It appears, then, that under the mysterious guidance 
 of their beneficent Head, the efforts of the Christian 
 teachers were directed, not to remodel the Roman system, 
 but to sow securely, in the propitious soil of the Church, 
 such good seed, as might in a future and more auspicious 
 age bring forth its fruit abundantly. The seal, moreover, 
 with which in the hour of trial they confirmed their 
 previous instructions, may assure us of the confidence 
 with which they anticipated the final triumph of their 
 cause — for they faced the terrors of martyrdom with the 
 resolution of men who felt, like their worthy successors 
 in our own land, that " they were lighting such a fire as 
 was not soon to be put out." 
 
 * De Corona, c. 13. 
 
 ^ To take an instance, Cyprian {Ep. 13), rejoicing with Ro- 
 gatian and other confessors in their position in the Church, urges 
 them to perseverance in the faith, and to be an example to others 
 in peaceableness and humility ; chiefly as he had heard that some 
 among them had forgotten their former life, had been puffed up 
 by pride, and had fallen into vain and filthy conversation. He 
 contrasts this with the silence of our Lord's sufferings, and adds 
 warnings against contentious provocations among confessors. 
 
42 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 It was scarcely to be expected that the wise or the 
 great of this world should be attracted by a creed whose 
 workings were to them so hidden, — whose results so ap- 
 parently puny : much less that the self-interests of man- 
 kind should generally bow down before a faith whose 
 virtues shone most brightly at the very moment when to 
 imitate them was most perilous, or should adopt tenets 
 the bare suspicion of which was the loss of all that the 
 world counts great and honorable. Yet before the com- 
 manding uprightness of the doctrine and practice of the 
 Gospel, even the prejudices of heathen philosophy gave 
 way. Not to refer to the well known testimony of the 
 younger Pliny, there have been preserved to us the 
 following striking expressions of the philosophic physician 
 Galen : 
 
 " Hi (i. e. Christiani) interdum talia faciunt, quaha 
 qui vere philosophantur. Quod mortem contemnunt, id 
 quidem omnes ante oculos habemus. * * Sunt etiam 
 [inter eos] qui in animis regendis coercendisque et in 
 acerrimo honestatis studio eo progressi sint, ut nihil 
 cedant vere philosophantibus*." This is but a somewhat 
 technical expression of the great fact in the clerical life, 
 
 * Galen, [De sent. pol. Plat., ap. Abulfedae Hist, anteisl. p. 109, 
 ed. Fleischer. A similar passage {'' Horum [Naziraeonim] non 
 pauci revera philosophi sunt : amant enim temperantiam, per- 
 severant in jejunio, adhibentque curam ut nihil gustent.") is like- 
 wise ascribed to Galen,] Cornm. in Phcedoneni, [ap, Bar-Hebraei 
 Chron. Syr. p. 5b, ed. Bruns et Kirsch.] quoted by Gieseler, CA. 
 History, Vol. I. [i. ii. 1. § 41^ p. 126 [Eng. Tr.] Almost the same 
 phrase is used by Melito, ap. Routh, Rel. Sac. ii. p. 119. 
 
II.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 43 
 
 by which they attained to such complete authority over 
 those within the fold, and such a converting power, more 
 active than the most zealous of missionary exertions could 
 have been, over the unbelieving without. 
 
 In conclusion, we are struck by the consideration 
 which presents itself to us on reviewing the progress and 
 scope of clerical influence during the early and middle 
 ages, that although that influence arose and spread during 
 the continuance of the Roman power, it had nevertheless, 
 politically speaking, a more special Providential relation 
 to a later period. It appears as if the fulness of Imperial 
 iniquity in the West had been divinely permitted to run 
 its career of vice unchecked by the purer discipline which 
 had grown up among it — till, after the priesthood had 
 received the education of calamity, and had been ac- 
 customed, as we shall see hereafter, to complete connexion 
 with the state, it was sent forth, thus prepared, on its 
 true mission of spreading the truths of the Gospel among 
 new nations, and laying the foundations of a less grovel- 
 ling civilization. 
 
 To expatiate more at length on the direct religious 
 benefits of clerical influence would be to extol Chris- 
 tianity itself. We shall now enter, in examining the two 
 succeeding centuries, on a field of inquiry than which 
 none can contain more matter of interest or instruction 
 to us, whose circumstances are in many respects not 
 dissimilar. 
 
[CHAPTER III.] 
 
 The portion of history included in the second great 
 chronological division of our subject, and extending from 
 the accession of Constantino to the fall of the Western 
 Empire, presents to our view the Christian clergy bur- 
 dened with new duties, and exposed to other not less 
 dangerous temptations than those with which we wit- 
 nessed their contest during the preceding centuries. 
 Then, we saw them employed in establishing the rules of 
 Christian discipline and practice among all the tempta- 
 tions of a world lying in wickedness ; now, their great 
 task is to engraft that discipline on the ancient Pagan 
 institutions of an Empire whose conquest to the cause of 
 truth is as yet far from complete. Then, they were set- 
 tling the pure canon of the faith against the assaults of 
 the heathen and the arrogance of the human intellect ; 
 now, they are rather occupied in asserting the clear 
 meaning of the Word of God against the numerous 
 schismatics who do but wrest it to their own destruction. 
 Then, they displayed the force of pure example and doc- 
 trine in persuading men who had been persecutors to take 
 up their lot with the persecuted ; now, amid all the 
 temptations of Imperial patronage, their task rather is to 
 exclude from the fold such nominal converts as seek to 
 combine all the supineness of the old creed with all 
 the worldly advantages of the new. Then, they were 
 in danger of sacrificing to the inducements of a hfe of 
 
CH. III.] THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE, &C. 45 
 
 security and prosperity the faith which in their consciences 
 they yet held ; now, on the contrary, every seduction of 
 worldly advantage leads them to court prosperity by the 
 profession of tenets to which they yield merely nominal 
 assent. The most superficial acquaintance with human 
 infirmity would teach us to expect that bulwarks long 
 unscathed by adversity should totter at last at the more 
 pernicious approaches of prosperity ; nor could the most 
 sanguine believer in the stainless perfections of the Church 
 have hoped that its contact with so much that was impure 
 should leave untarnished all its former brilliancy. 
 
 It is, then, at first sight evident that we shall meet, 
 in the examination of the first head under this section of 
 our subject, many peculiarities to which in the preceding 
 pages we have necessarily been strangers, — that the 
 moral influence of the clergy on their people, exalted as 
 they now are to a novel elevation, will assume very differ- 
 ent forms from what it did during the age of persecution. 
 
 The combination of so long distinct religious and 
 political systems, while it in some measure simplifies our 
 task, by laying before us the results of the former illus- 
 trated by all the added historic clearness of the latter, 
 nevertheless imposes upon us corresponding difficulties; 
 for the social action of the priesthood, no longer a merely 
 direct one, but also transferred through the medium of 
 the supreme authority, renders it a less easy task to dis- 
 tinguish between their moral and their political influence. 
 
 No sooner had the clerical body assumed its posi- 
 tion as one of the leading powers in the state, than its 
 
46 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 systematic discipline and doctrines were placed before the 
 world in a more effective and to the eye of history more 
 evident form, by the introduction of government by oecu- 
 menical councils. It is principally by the decrees of such 
 o-eneral convocations of ecclesiastical wisdom that we 
 discover the steps by which the principles so long care- 
 fully inculcated by the earlier Fathers of the Church on 
 their scanty flocks were rendered meet for being applied 
 to the social system of the entire Koman world. And 
 the more we acquaint ourselves with the moral code thus 
 enunciated, the more are we convinced how stedfastly 
 were preserved and exercised in their new and wider 
 sphere those leading Christian doctrines which had been 
 handed down from the Apostolic age : for the very same 
 excesses, which had been condemned by the uncompro- 
 mising piety of the primitive Bishops, received, at the 
 hands of their successors in Councils assembled, not less 
 severe reprobation. One or two examples will be suffi- 
 cient to show how, by a gradual but effective process, 
 the corrupt system of Paganism was raised to a higher 
 level by the pure action of Christianity, while, at the same 
 time, we shall be able clearly to perceive the same aversion 
 to radical and sudden alteration which was one of the 
 principal characteristics and safeguards of the Church 
 during her earlier stage. 
 
 We have already viewed Christianity in its relation 
 to slavery ; we shall now glance at the commencement of 
 that gradual course of mitigatory laws by which it has 
 become peculiarly associated with slave-abolition in our 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 47 
 
 own day. The Christian Fathers, it is true, never repu- 
 diated the Roman slave-system ; on the contrary, we find 
 among the enactments of the earHer councils, that it is 
 repeatedly acknowledged as a recognized principle, both 
 among clergy and laity. But by the laws of Rome no 
 limit was set to the amount of punishment which a refrac- 
 tory slave might suffer from his master, who, if his slave 
 died under the infliction, was not liable to a capital 
 prosecution, unless he could be proved to have made use 
 of a lethal weapon, or any other equally disproportionate 
 mode of punishment ; and even such a check as this was 
 the result of the comparative moderation of the Theodo- 
 sian* code: whereas the more scrupulous ecclesiastical 
 canon imposed five years of penance and exclusion from 
 the communion on the proprietor who was guilty even of 
 an involuntary murder of the kindt. 
 
 The ecclesiastical Fathers, again, were the first to 
 place in its true light the crime of suicide, and to inflict 
 upon the body of him who had deprived himself of life the 
 same ignominy which was decreed for the more ordinary 
 violators of the sixth commandment J ; a striking contrast 
 to those heathen philosophers who looked back with 
 regretful admiration to the virtues and deaths of Cato and 
 Brutus. It would be easy, but unnecessary, to multiply 
 
 * [Edict. Constantini ap.] Cod. Theodos. Lib. ix. tit. 12, leg. 1. 
 
 t Cone. Illih. [Can. 5. ap. Routh. Rell. Sac. iv. 260. ed. 2.] 
 quoted by Bingham, B. xvi. c. 10. § 8. 
 
 :}: See Bingham, B. xvi. c. 10. § 6, and Augustine De Civ. Dei, 
 i. 20. 
 
48 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 instances of the introduction, by means of the heads of the 
 Church, of a more perfect moral code into the Roman 
 world. 
 
 Another means, perhaps yet more satisfactory, by 
 which we may form an estimate of the effect produced on 
 the ethical sentiments of the entire Roman Empire by 
 the elevation of the Christian clergy to a new authority, is 
 presented by the edicts of the Theodosian code ; and lest 
 it should be supposed irrelevant to look for traces of 
 Christian influence in the works of Roman legislation, it 
 must be remembered that, both under Constantine and 
 under his successors, the prelates of the Church occupied 
 no insignificant position in the Imperial Councils, and that 
 it is scarcely likely that decrees in which the principles of 
 their faith were involved should have been promulgated 
 unprompted or unsupported by them. 
 
 As a remarkable instance of the manner in which the 
 Christian morality was incorporated, by means of the 
 action of the priestly body, with the ancient system of Ro- 
 man legislation, we may turn to the edict of Constantine 
 " De manumissionibus in Ecclesia,"' included in the 
 Theodosian Code*. We find there the Church placed in 
 
 • Lib. IV. tit. 7. [The following are the terms of the edict : 
 "Qui religiosa mente in Ecclesise gremio servulis suis meritam 
 concesserit libertatem, eandem eodem jure donasse videatur, quo 
 civitas Romana solennitatibus decursis dare consuevit. Sed hoc 
 duntaxat iis, qui sub aspectu antistitum dederint, placuit relaxari. 
 Clericis autem amplius concedimus, ut, cum suis famulis tribuunt 
 libertatem, non solum in conspectu Ecclesiae ac rehgiosi populi, 
 plenum fructum iibertatis concessisse dicantur, verum etiam cum 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 49 
 
 a novel relation to slavery ; for the clergy, though as yet 
 far from taking upon themselves to proclaim liberty to 
 the captives, are nevertheless in a certain degree identified 
 with the principles of humanity and freedom. That por- 
 tion of the praetor's functions, by which, under the ancient 
 law of Rome, he bestowed freedom and civil rights on the 
 slave, was now transferred to the Christian minister ; and 
 the newly acquired liberty, which was formerly derived 
 from the touch of the praetorian wand, now flowed from 
 the holy precincts of the Church, and was accompanied 
 by the sacerdotal benediction i. 
 
 In other instances, again, we can trace in the Imperial 
 edicts the more direct results of clerical instructions. And 
 
 postremo judicio libertates dederint seu quibnscunque verbis dari 
 prseceperint : ita ut, ex die publicatae voluntatis, sine aliquo juris 
 teste vel interprete competat directa libertas. Dat. xiiii Kal. 
 Mai. Crispo II. et Constantino II. Coss, (32L)" 
 
 See the authorities cited by Gothofred in the notes.^ 
 
 1 Ducange (s. v. Manumissio in Ecclesia, t. iv. p. 256 a, ed. 
 
 1845) refers to Sozomen, H. E. l. 9: [y-n-o ydp d.Kpifieia'S vofxuiv Kal 
 (XKOi'Twif Tu)V KeKTijfxeuwv, 7roWrJ9 oua-)(^6p6La^ oii(ti]<s Trepl TJjy kttjtlv 
 TJ/? dfJLeivovo? eXeudepias, iiv iroXiTeiav 'Poofxaioov KoXovcrLy Tpets edeTo 
 vofxovs [6 Kwi/tTTai/TTj/os], yl/rjcpLad/Jievos Travra^ tous ev Tats e/c«:A.T)artat? 
 eXeudepoviievov^ vtto fxdpTvaL Tots lepevcri iroXiTeca^ Pw/jLaiK?]^ Tvy\d- 
 
 veiv7\ and Augustine [_Serm. 21. torn. v. col. 113 c] ^' Servum 
 tuum manumittendum manu ducis in ecclesiam. Fit silentium, 
 libellus tuus recitatur, aut fit desiderii tui prosecutio. Dicis te 
 servum manumittere, quod tibi in omnibus servaverit fidem." And 
 again, (p. 256 c) Serm. ' 50 De div.' [356, t. v. col 1886 g. ed. 
 Ben. " Diaconus Hipponensis homo pauper est : quid alicui conferat 
 non habet : tamen de laboribus suis antequam esset clericus 
 emerat aliquos servulos ; hodie illos in conspectu vestro manumis- 
 surus est episcopalibus gestis."J 
 
 E 
 
5Q THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 in none more strikingly than in the law of Constantine 
 " De AHmentis," one of those most immediately subse- 
 quent to his conversion, by which provision is made 
 against the crime of infanticide*. This evil had risen to 
 a fearful pitch during the distresses of the civil strife 
 which ended in the undisturbed accession of Constantine 
 to the throne. It had called forth the expostulations of 
 Lactantius, tutor to the Caesar Crispus, who in his Divine 
 Institutions t inveighs bitterly against the parricidal 
 violence which was every day increasing with the increas- 
 ing poverty of the people. Very shortly after the pub- 
 lication of the work of Lactantius appeared the decree 
 above alluded to, by which such parents as are prevented 
 by extreme penury from rearing their children are em- 
 powered to claim support from the Imperial treasury. 
 Here, then, we may fairly conjecture we have the record 
 of one of the earliest consequences of Christian education 
 on the mind of the princely convert. This, though per- 
 haps the most remarkable instance of the kind, is but one 
 out of many, from which we might trace the moral im- 
 provement of the Roman law, and the successive steps 
 by which it approximated to the lofty standard of the 
 Gospel, as far as in so rapidly degenerating an age the 
 true injunctions of Scripture could be discerned through 
 the mass of accumulating tradition and the mists of theo- 
 logical prejudice. 
 
 « Lib. XI. tit. 27. 
 Lactant. Inst. Div. 1. vi. c. 20; and see TertuUian, Ad 
 Nationes, 1. 1. c. 15. 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 51 
 
 The indirect influence of the priesthood on the people, 
 through the medium of Roman legislation, will appear all 
 the more worthy of notice when we remember that the 
 edicts emanating from the shores of the Bosphorus were 
 destined to act, not only on the millions who then owned 
 the Imperial sway, but on the yet more numerous Teu- 
 tonic hordes of subsequent centuries. The citizens of 
 Rome, dispersed among barbarian tribes in the remotest 
 European lands, rejoiced for generations in the institutions 
 of Theodosius, and the Burgundian and Visigothic chiefs, 
 who aimed at something superior to the rude constitutions 
 of their progenitors, drew largely from the same prolific 
 source. 
 
 But however much clerical action might tend to im- 
 prove legislation, and however much the civilizing power 
 of the true faith might continue to make itself known 
 throughout the world, the history of the period can never 
 permit us to forget the too evident reciprocal action of 
 the world upon the Church, or to ignore the general 
 debasement of the clerical spirit from the age of the 
 Apostolic Fathers and their more immediate successors. 
 
 It would, indeed, have been strange had it been 
 otherwise, had discussions, too often tinged with theo- 
 logical bitterness during the period when orthodoxy gave 
 merely a priority of martyrdom, been softened down 
 when it became the passport to Imperial patronage and 
 political sway. The narrovz-mindedness and intolerance 
 characteristic of the religious controversies of the East 
 were nothing more than the carrying out on a larger scale 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 of that rising spirit of discord which had so often incurred 
 the rebuke of St Paul. Ecclesiastical history attests too 
 well the truth of Gibbon's sneer, that from Oonstantine 
 the clergy received " Security, wealth, honours, and 
 revenge ;" for although it would not be difficult to point 
 out prelates not a few who had more truly learnt the 
 doctrines of the God of love, and who knew how to pity 
 and spare the heretic while they uncompromisingly 
 attacked the heresy', yet the arbitrary edicts of Con- 
 stantino, Valentinian, Gratian, and Theodosius, may con* 
 vince us that the majority in the Church inculcated very 
 different counsels upon the piety of the Imperial zealots. 
 
 A mere glance at the chronology of the fourth century 
 is enough to remind us how closely the accession of the 
 orthodox party to power was followed by the persecutions 
 of the Donatists in Africa 2, and the yet more tragical fate 
 
 1 See August. Epp. 33 ("Quid nos solus Christus oiFendit, 
 cujus membra laniamus?" &c.), 44, 61, 73. 
 
 ^ Compare Augustine's letter {Ep. 9o) to Vincentius the Dona- 
 tist, rejoicing in the interference of the civil power in certain 
 cases, as having brought back wavering schismatics to the Catholic 
 Church. " De multorum jam correctione gaudemus, qui tarn 
 veraciter unitatem Catholicam tenent atque defendunt, et a pristino 
 errore se liberatos esse laetantur, ut eos cum magna gratulatione 
 miremur. Qui taraen nescio qua vi consuetudinis nullo mode 
 mutari melius cogitarent, nisi hoc terrore perculsi sollicitam men- 
 tem ad considerationem veritatis intenderent, ne forte si non 
 pro justitia sed pro perversitate et praesumtione hominum ipsas 
 temporales molestias infructuosa et vana tolerantia paterentur, 
 apud Deum postea non invenirent nisi debitas poenas impiorum, 
 qui ejus tarn lenem admonitionem et paterna flagella contemserint." 
 *' Si enim quisquam inimicum suum periculosis febribus phrene- 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 53 
 
 of Priscillian and his adherents in Spain ; with other not 
 less deplorable instances of that confusion between the 
 provinces of spiritual and secular power, equally contrary 
 to the pure standard of early practice and to the scrupu- 
 lous liberality so prevalent in our own day. We must 
 ever regret that the first examples of ecclesiastical legis- 
 lation should have proceeded from a people who had so 
 lately experienced the combination of the subtilizing and 
 theorizing propensities of Greece with the sterner practical 
 tendencies still attached to the very shadow of the Roman 
 name. 
 
 The sceptical historian has gloated with characteristic 
 eagerness over the zealous excesses of great and holy men 
 in a good cause ; his admiration for an Ambrose, an 
 Athanasius, or a Hilary, is lost in his philosophic anti- 
 pathy to the order they adorned : — to us is assigned the 
 more pleasing task of discovering — what is indeed more 
 or less patent to every observer — the many lofty and noble 
 traits, with the many glorious and permanent results, 
 which we must attribute to the clergy of the later Roman 
 Empire. This we have already in part accomphshed ; 
 and from many an event in the history of the Church 
 might be traced the workings of an ever-guarding Ruler 
 in turning even the excessive zeal of His ministers to the 
 ultimate profit of His people and of the world at large. 
 We have already seen that during the age of persecution 
 
 ticum factum currere videret in prseceps, nonne turn potius malum 
 pro malo redderet, si eum sic currere permitteretj c[uam sicorripi- 
 endum ligandumque curaret V 
 
54 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 the lofty moral standard by which the obedience of the laity 
 was tested was yet far inferior to that which secured the 
 purity of the clergy. The ministers of the truth were 
 supposed not only to have subdued the evil propensities of 
 the world around them, but to stand forth as burning and 
 shining lights to the Christian flock. Whatever such 
 distinction may have existed then, was at least maintained, 
 and in some instances seemingly widened, during the 
 period of ecclesiastical ascendancy^. We learn from the 
 canons of the early Councils how truly the heads of the 
 Church appreciated the necessity of a moral as well as 
 an intellectual elevation above their people, and how 
 sedulously they strove to raise the body to which they 
 belonged not only above corruption but above even the 
 suspicion of error. The clerical order was preserved from 
 the attractions of debased interests and from the calum- 
 nies of malignity by excluding from all participation in its 
 privileges slaves^ and such as exercised degrading trades : 
 — a salutary regulation of which we are painfully reminded 
 
 ^ Compare Augustine, E}}p. 60, 65, 77, 78. 
 
 ^ Thus at a later period the 73d canon of the 4th Council of 
 Toledo [anno 033], quoted by Ducange in v. Manumissio Directa. 
 " Quicunque libertatem a dominis suis [ita] percipiunt, ut nullum 
 eibimet obsequium Patronus retentet, isti, si sine crimine sunt, 
 ad clericatus ordinem pibere] suscipiantur, quia directa manu- 
 missione absoluti noscuntur. Qui vero retento obsequio manu- 
 missi sunt ; pro eo quod adhuc a patrono servituti tenentur 
 obnoxii, nullatenus sunt ad ecclesiasticum ordinem promovendi, 
 ne, quando voluerint eorum doraini, fiant ex clericis servi." 
 [Mansi. Cone. x. 636.] 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 55 
 
 in subsequent centuries by its open and frequent violation! . 
 It is indeed true that such scrupulous strictness too often 
 degenerated into self-sufficiency and spiritual pride, and 
 that we can early discern the first steps of that fatal 
 process by which priestly independence and political 
 power were secured at the expence of so much that had 
 been cherished and admired by the simplicity of primitive 
 Christianity. Clerical celibacy, the fruitful source of so 
 many corruptions, was beyond all question but one out of 
 many tokens of that striving after some exalted purity, 
 some esoteric ethical code, concealed from the uninitiated 
 vulgar, which the vain philosophy of Greece erected on 
 the foundation of Apostolical traditions. 
 
 But although we can neither ignore the existence nor 
 the source of such errors, yet an impartial survey of the 
 moral condition of Europe during the fourth and suc- 
 ceeding centuries, as compared with the depravity of 
 expiring polytheism, must induce us to forget the inevi- 
 table abuses while we review the countless benefits of the 
 system to which they clung. We must ever rejoice that 
 clerical influence was effective, not only in raising the 
 moral tone of Imperial legislation, and so transmitting to 
 the states founded on the ruins of Rome a truer theory 
 and practice of justice, but in establishing a pervading 
 strictness of principle, without which mere strictness of 
 jurisprudence must ever be unavailing. We must never 
 
 ^ '■' Rerum omnium lege perversa * * foenerantur clerici, Syri 
 psallunt/' says Sidonius ApolKnaris {Ep. i. 8) in describing the 
 anomalous state of things at Ravenna in his time. 
 
56 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 forget that the early Christian canons, by imposing on the 
 pastors of the Church a standard of duty and an elevation 
 of sentiment to which even the noblest among their flocks 
 were strangers, made ready for the troublous times to 
 come a bulwark of religion and civilization, destined to 
 survive, though not, alas ! unscathed, each succeeding 
 onset of heathendom and barbarism. Indeed, in con- 
 sidering the moral as well as the political influence of 
 the sacerdotal order, we shall find scarce any more inter- 
 esting view of that subject than that which teaches us to 
 discover in the earliest stages of ecclesiastical history the 
 providential preparation for those mighty convulsions by 
 which so many ancient thrones were to be transferred 
 from Roman or Grecian sceptics to uneducated but plastic 
 barbarians. 
 
 The clergy will thus ever appear to be undergoing, 
 even amid the abuses of a degenerate age, such a disci- 
 pline as may fit them to preserve, through innumerable 
 changes and catastrophes of the external world, those 
 vital truths of which they are the depositaries. 
 
 Nowhere do we observe more striking illustrations of 
 this position than in the chronicles of the Church during 
 the decline of the Roman power. It is beyond all ques- 
 tion that in the fourth century were laid many of those 
 first seeds of corruption, destined to be so perniciously 
 prolific in after ages. Roman Catholic historians have 
 found it as hopeless a task to establish the unvarying 
 purity of the Church system under Theodosius, as they 
 have to deduce its unswerving rectitude down to the age 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 57 
 
 of Charles the Fifth. But although it would be a viola- 
 tion of historic accuracy to conceal such errors as too 
 prominently present themselves, it would be no less a 
 violation of historical logic to imagine that the most zea- 
 lous of reformers could have predicted the ultimate results 
 from the incipient faults ; or to consider the period in 
 question, as too many disputants are inclined to do, solely 
 with reference to the subsequent ages of political or 
 religious reformation. The most superficial theological 
 student of our own day, trained by the accumulated 
 experience of so many centuries, can discover and con- 
 demn the weaknesses of systems which would have excited 
 the unprejudiced admiration of Ambrose or of his greater 
 disciple. He can trace every inch of the stream of wrong, 
 from the fountain-head of unnoticed error to the over- 
 whelming flood of subsequent corruption. Rejoicing as 
 he does in an often misplaced acuteness, he is apt to refer 
 the whole consequences of every system to its remote 
 origin, and wondering at the comparative blindness of his 
 forefathers he teaches himself to scorn those whom 
 bygone generations have reverenced. And yet how many 
 do we meet with, who, judging by the prejudices of their 
 own times, forget that the works of the Almighty are no 
 disjointed operations, but connected portions of one great 
 design, raised one above the other in faultless proportion 
 to the furtherance of the welfare of man and the glory of 
 his Maker, who are willingly ignorant of the fact that 
 a true idea of the scheme of Divine government is to be 
 formed by considering every age in reference, not to one 
 
58 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 here or another there among those which have succeeded 
 it, but to the entire harmonious series. Nowhere is it 
 given to man more plainly to trace the progressive dis- 
 pensations of the Almighty than in the records of His 
 Church, nowhere do we find more abundant tokens of 
 that prescient care which prepares each intricate turn of 
 human affairs for the necessities of the destined future. 
 
 During the earlier portion, for example, of the period 
 we are engaged upon, not only does the strictness of 
 adherence to primitive practice produce on the moral 
 condition of the world those results which ever follow 
 the propagation of the true faith, but even in such points 
 as indicate a deviation from early simplicity, and which 
 have formed the most frequent subjects of theologic vitu- 
 peration, we discern, among apparent present discord, the 
 certain germs of future security. No characteristic of 
 the fourth and fifth centuries has been the subject of more 
 frequent comment and more bitter censure than the 
 accumulation of apparently inordinate power in clerical, 
 and more especially in episcopal, hands : and though it is 
 undeniable that their increased possession of material 
 wealth and political power frequently rendered the priest- 
 hood forgetful of more lasting treasures, yet it did like- 
 wise, as we shall see, most unquestionably operate in 
 consolidatino; aa;ainst outward shocks the vast fabric of 
 the Church. 
 
 Nine years after the conversion of Constantino to the 
 Christian faith, he promulgated that great edict*, which, 
 
 * Cod. Theodos. Lib. xvi. tit. ii. 1. 4. 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 59 
 
 more than any other enactment, may be said to have lain 
 at the foundation of clerical power during the ensuing 
 centuries ; and relieved the Christian Church from that 
 restriction under which, in common with the Jews, they 
 had so long laboured, the incapacity of profiting by the 
 testamentary liberality of their wealthy proselytes. To 
 convince us of the abundance in which the stream of 
 wealth flowed into the newly-opened channel, and of the 
 influence obtained by the clergy, in those days as in the 
 present, over the piety and pliability of the weaker sex, 
 more especially at Rome, we possess not only the testimony 
 of a Pagan historian* but the less suspicious evidence of 
 an edict published by the Emperor Valentinianf fifty 
 years after that of Constantine, addressed to Damasus 
 Bishop of that city, and imposing a limit to the extrava- 
 gant donations of females. The clergy, moreover, might 
 look for an increase of worldly substance, not only from 
 the prosperity of their friends, but from the downfall of 
 their enemies ; for the Theodosian code contains a series 
 of stringent enactments by the Emperor Honorius|, in 
 terras of which not only the deserted temples of Paganism 
 but even the meeting-houses and possessions of Donatists, 
 Manichsean, and other heretical corporations, were made 
 over to the Catholic Church. 
 
 Provision, moreover, was made by Constantine for the 
 supply of the wants of the Church from the provincial 
 
 * Amraian. Marcell. 1. xxvii. c. 3. 
 
 t Cod. Theodos. Lib. xvi tit. ii. 1. 20. 
 
 i Lib. XVI. tit. X. 1. 20, and tit. v. legg. 43, 52, 57, 65. 
 
60 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 treasuries. All these sources of revenue, however, we 
 must look upon as subordinate, in seasons of average 
 prosperity, to the support derived from tithes, which ap- 
 pear before the close of the fourth century to have been 
 imposed with considerable regularity on all Christian 
 communities. Such, then, were the main sources of 
 Church revenue during the later Roman Empire ; and it 
 will be evident that, much as we may regret that they 
 were so far dependent on the authority exercised by the 
 priesthood over the people, they did tend to elevate every 
 member of the clerical body into a position of consider- 
 able estimation in the general social system, and to place 
 the Church, however much it may have been weakened 
 by the disasters of prosperity, on a permanently settled 
 footing. If, again, we consider the distribution of these 
 revenues, we shall find that, in proportion as the sacerdotal 
 order was raised above the laity by the statutes of Con- 
 stantine and his successors, so were the Bishops elevated 
 above the body of the clergy. Authority was added to 
 the Episcopal office, both by the manner and by the pro- 
 portions in which the ecclesiastical funds were distributed ; 
 for the wealth acquired by the means above specified, 
 instead of being collected by, or appropriated to, every 
 parish, was amassed in the hands of the Bishop of the 
 diocese, and divided among his clergy as might appear to 
 him fit*. This, at least, was the ordinary rule, though 
 we find such eminent exceptions as occurred in the dio- 
 cese of Hippo, where among the clergy and their illus- 
 * See Bingham, Orig. Eccles. Bk. v, c. 6. 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 61 
 
 trious diocesan prevailed a community of goods little 
 less than monastic, and closely resembling the " Canonic 
 rule" which was produced at Metz by the necessities of a 
 subsequent age. The Church, moreover, usually allotted 
 to the Bishop a portion of the whole amount equal to that 
 divided among his clergy, so that his influence was pro- 
 moted, not only by such shares as he distributed to his 
 inferiors, but by the preponderance of what he was ena- 
 bled to devote to the furtherance of his own piety, cha- 
 rity, or ambition. 
 
 We have already seen that during the early age of 
 the Church the Bishops owed to their station as the 
 moral leaders of their people a duty often imposed upon 
 them of arbitration in the petty litigations of the faithful; 
 and the code of Justinian contains repeated records of 
 edicts by which an ancient custom was amalgamated into 
 the Imperial system, and the Episcopal authority in arbi- 
 trating civil causes was placed on an equality with that 
 of the Prefect. Such a measure is of a piece with those 
 to which we have already referred, and might obtain our 
 ready belief, even had we no more satisfactory authority 
 than the forged decree* in the Theodosian Code, which 
 assigns an even more uncontrolled scope to clerical juris- 
 diction, and can be interesting to us only as having been 
 
 * Usually placed at the end of the Theodosian Code, and 
 proved by abundant evidence, both of matter and style, to be a 
 mere cento of the Ecclesiastical Statutes in Justinian's Code. See 
 Gothofredi Comm, ad locum, [vi. 803 — 812. ed. Marviil. Lugduni, 
 1665.] 
 
62 THE BENEFICIA.L INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 incorporated into the Capitularies* of Charlemagne, and 
 become the law of Europe from the. Ebro to the Oder. 
 The lurking satire of Gibbon has been called forth by the 
 picture of "the venerable Austin enjoying the satisfaction 
 of complaining that his spiritual functions were perpetu- 
 ally disturbed by the invidious labour of deciding the 
 claim or the possession of silver and gold, of lands and 
 cattle^:'*' and as we shall more distinctly see hereafter, 
 the civil functions of the Bishop before long seemed to 
 depend merely on his distance from the centre of the 
 expiring Empire. 
 
 Such were some of the principal steps by which 
 during the fourth and fifth centuries clerical influence 
 was promoted in the society of the faithful. It would be 
 far from a difficult task to point out many instances in 
 which the excessive exaltation of the ministry proved an 
 effectual bar to the full development of spiritual perfection 
 and energy in the minister'-; and it would be to repeat 
 an oft-told tale were we to trace from the exorbitant 
 clerical sway among the subjects of Rome or Constan- 
 
 * See Capit. Reg. Franc. \Capit. Kar. et Lud.'] Lib. vi. c. S66. 
 [t. i. coll. 985, 6. ed. Baluz. Paris. 1677-] 
 
 1 See Augustin. Epp. 38, 40, 83. Sidonius ApoUinaris, Epp. 
 iii. 12; iv. 11; vi. 2, 8, 4. 
 
 ^ In recounting the objections which might be raised to the 
 nomination of a monk, however holy, to a bishopric, Sidonius 
 ( Concio post Ep. vii. 9) mentions the following : " Hie qui nomi- 
 natur, inquiunt, non episcopi sed potius abbatis complet oflficium ; 
 et intercedere magis pro animabus apud coelestem quam pro corpo- 
 ribus apud terrenum judicem potest." 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 6 
 
 o 
 
 tinople the moral gangrene pervading every part of the 
 priestly system at a subsequent period. 
 
 A speculation more interesting, and more germane to 
 our subject, presents itself to him who, not unmindful of 
 that Providence which works out good even from seeming 
 evil, endeavours to lay open the more beneficial and, it 
 might be added, the more immediate effects of the above 
 conditions on that chaos of ignorance and barbarism 
 from which w^ere to spring so many of the institutions in 
 which we have learnt to rejoice. 
 
 The uncouth invaders of Southern Europe, before 
 whom the shrivelled form of Imperial power so rapidly 
 sunk, arrived among the unworthy heirs of so many great 
 and noble ideas, terrible in physical energy, but accessible 
 as children to all the moral influences of the refinement 
 they were overthrowing. The rude bands, which had 
 scorned to shrink before the yet formidable renown of 
 the legions of Rome, bowed submissively before the 
 pomp and ancient fame of her religious and civil supre- 
 macy. The conqueror of Aquileia, abashed before the 
 majesty of a Roman Pontiff, was a striking type of the 
 inevitable moral triumph which the world"'s victors were 
 so soon to adorn. But a Christian Church, however 
 worthy of the name, which should have flourished un- 
 noticed by the great and powerful and adorned by no 
 alluring tokens of outward prosperity, but bearing in the 
 fruitfulness of its hidden work evidence of celestial favour, 
 would have been less calculated to arrest barbarian 
 thoughtlessness than the more miscellaneous structure 
 
64 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 raised by the munificence of Imperial piety. Uncultivated 
 intellects are more easily dazzled than argued into con- 
 viction, and we can expect little from the unaided reason 
 of men who are more effectually influenced by the tempt- 
 ing logic of the eye and the imagination. It was fitting 
 then, that the nations of the North should find in the 
 lands which they overran a Church, the temporal elevation 
 of whose sway might strike them with astonishment 
 before they learnt to acquiesce in the spiritual force of its 
 doctrines : that they should be taught to reverence as civil 
 potentates the Patriarchs and Bishops to whose ecclesi- 
 astical dominion they were ere long to be subject ; that 
 they should obey them as the representatives of a yet 
 revered Csesar, before they saw in them the ministers of 
 a Deity whose pure moral attributes they could hardly 
 picture to themselves. That ecclesiastical wealth, which 
 during the comparative prosperity of the Western Empire 
 might well arouse the suspicions and call for the con- 
 demnation of the scrupulous, was not ill spent in sup- 
 porting amidst prevailing desolation the sole guardians 
 of Divine Truth. The temporal authority, so often a 
 stumbling-block in the performance of severer duties, 
 became of no small importance when the clergy were the 
 leaders of the Roman population and the only link 
 between ancient enlightenment and barbarian darkness. 
 But we are anticipating what more justly belongs to a 
 subsequent section of our subject. 
 
 We have thus, in so far as our narrow limits permit, 
 touched upon the moral benefits of clerical influence, both 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 65 
 
 in relation to the existing conditions of Europe during the 
 later empire, and (what to a modern student is even more 
 interesting) viewed as a preparation for the future changes 
 in the distribution of intellectual and political sway. 
 
 Before we pass from reviewing the means by which 
 clerical influence was exerted on the believers who con- 
 tinued to throng into the fold of the Church, we must 
 bestow a few words on that ever-increasing intellectual 
 authority, by means of which the churchmen of the fourth 
 and fifth centuries have left so enduring an impression, 
 not only on their contemporaries, but on every succeeding 
 generation of Christians ; for while it must be evident 
 that the theological opinions of later ages have been, and 
 will ever continue to be, in no small degree moulded by 
 the profound learning and acumen of those early teachers, 
 yet the stimulus and the direction which the intellectual 
 powers of the Eoman world received from them present 
 themselves to us, at least, as a yet more important feature 
 of the ecclesiastical system. And first among the means 
 of clerical usefulness we must place, — what might indeed 
 have been more suitably introduced into our first chrono- 
 logical section, — that Pulpit Eloquence which stands so 
 prominently forward as a distinctive peculiarity of the 
 Christian priesthood in every age. Indeed the main 
 difference between the offices of the Gospel dispensation 
 and those of every other religion lay in this, that the 
 Christian ministers fully combined two functions else- 
 where kept, to a greater or less degree, distinct ; that 
 they acted at the same time as dispensers of religious 
 
 F 
 
66 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 mysteries, and as instructors of the people in the indis- 
 pensable religious truths which accompanied those mys- 
 teries. In all heathen creeds, if we except the few sys- 
 tematic and occult superstitions of Central Asia, no 
 approach had been made towards a combination of such 
 usually discordant duties ; and even in such relics of a 
 purer faith as lurked at Samothrace and Eleusis, priestly 
 instruction, vouchsafed only to the initiated few, tended 
 merely to establish certain ceremonial observances long 
 dissevered from the moral truths which they had once 
 prefigured. 
 
 In Greece and Italy the mass of the nation attained 
 whatever knowledge they possessed of their deities from 
 the traditional ballads of an early age, or from the less 
 enduring marbles which adorned their shrines ; while the 
 philosophic few had long rejected all real faith in those 
 gods who still obtained their mimic adorations. Religious 
 instruction from the priesthood was thus rendered una- 
 vailing to every class of society alike. The purer faith of 
 the Jews, again, though it freed its votaries from the 
 unnatural divorce of religion and philosophy, and placed 
 within the grasp of the popular intellect the connexion 
 between revealed religion and the eternal truths of pure 
 morality, was yet distinguished in one important parti- 
 cular from the creed of which it was the forerunner. The 
 Israelitish priesthood, perpetually occupied by the duties 
 of a cumbrous ceremonial, could have found but little 
 leisure to elucidate the mysteries of their faith, and with 
 them clerical teaching was little more than a recitati'on of 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 67 
 
 the plain decrees of their Almighty Euler, and a recount- 
 ing of His mighty deeds of old. It was reserved then 
 for the ministers of a purer dispensation, relieved both 
 from the obscenities of Paganism and from the clogging 
 ceremonies of the Jewish ritual, to assume a more vigor- 
 ous sway over the religious and intellectual developments 
 of their disciples. 
 
 Religious eloquence is as unquestionably the offspring 
 of Christianity, as popular eloquence is of democracy, or 
 forensic eloquence of a refined civilization. Preaching 
 was to Christianity what the sword was to Mahomme- 
 danism, its main support both at its origin and in all its 
 subsequent successes. That frequent exercise of orator- 
 ical influence of the clergy was from the earliest times an 
 acknowledged portion of the ecclesiastical system, is 
 attested both by the numerous exhortations and yet more 
 striking examples of the great Fathers of the Church, 
 and by the express injunction of one of the Apostolic 
 Canons, in which neglect of preaching in a diocese is 
 declared to be a convincing proof of utter carelessness in 
 its Episcopal head^ 
 
 ' At a later period (about a. d. 734) Bede thus exhorts Egbert 
 Archbishop of York {Ep. ad Ecgbert. 4) to begin his work of re- 
 forming the manifold abuses of his diocese : " Lege enim Actus 
 Apostolorum, et videbis referente Luca quales secum comites apo- 
 stoli Paulus et Barnabas habuerint, quid etiam ipsi ubicunque deve- 
 nissent operis egerint. Statim namque ut civitates vel synagogas 
 ingressi sunt, Verbum Dei prsedicare et per omnia disseminare 
 curabant. Quod etiam te, dilectissimum mihi caput,, sagaciter 
 cupiam, ubicunque potes, implere; in hoc namque officium a 
 Domino electus, in hoc consecratus es, ut Verbum evangelizes 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 But while we acknowledge the pre-eminent moral 
 authority of the Christian pulpit, we must not forget the 
 intellectual results which we undoubtedly owe to it. Long 
 after ancient elocution had vanished from its favourite 
 haunts in the Pnyx and the Forum, when the master- 
 pieces of Cicero and Demosthenes were little read, ora- 
 tory arose again, in a form, truly, cramped and mutilated, 
 and bearing but the faintest reflection of its former glory, 
 but yet living and prolific of life in others. 
 
 Rough and untutored as it often was, it possessed 
 over its polished predecessors this manifest advantage, 
 that whatever might be wanting in the fluency of diction 
 was supplied by the intrinsic dignity of the subject ; and 
 even when most wanting in external allurements it smote 
 with an equal force of application upon the ears alike of 
 senator and of serf^ Every man had an opportunity of 
 
 virtute magna, praebente tibi auxilium ipso rege virtutum Domino 
 nostro Jesu Christo. Quod ita rite perficies si, ubicunque perve- 
 neris, mox coUectis ad te ejusdem loci incolis, verbum illis exhor- 
 tationis exhibueris, simul et exemplum vivendi una cum omnibus 
 qui tecum venerint quasi coelestis militiae ductor ostenderis." 
 
 ^ " Enimvero etsi plerique sanctorum Patrum, a puriori rece- 
 dentes Latinitate, nedum receptis verum etiam barbaris usi sint 
 vocabulis, non ideo tamen elegantise omnis atque literaturae ex- 
 pertes fuisse sunt censendi. Cum id afFectatione quadam vulgarem 
 sermonem praeferrent cultiori, ut ad eorum captum, quos Chris- 
 tianae religionis imbuere prseceptis, aut a quibus volebant in con- 
 cionibus intelligi, orationes suas componerent, quemadmodum 
 Julianum, recens Imperatorem creatum, ' verbis, ut intelligi posset, 
 simplicibus,' milites in tribunali allocutum, refert Ammianus. 
 (Lib. XX. [c. 5]). 
 
 Graecam facundiam, quod de S. Paulo dicebat Hieronymus, 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 69 
 
 hearing, in language which, if not pohshed, was at least 
 adorned with all the fervour of religious enthusiasm, the 
 glorious deeds of the men whom the Church reveres He 
 might learn from the mouths of an erudite and enlight- 
 ened clergy those leading principles of our Religion which 
 fully to appreciate is in itself an education ; and the use 
 of exact metaphysical terms and of a scrupulous logic, 
 though too often perverted to sectarian purposes, could 
 not but tend to reanimate through the w^orld the expiring 
 sparks of Greek philosophy. Indeed the ultimate effect 
 of public clerical teaching in restoring, both in the Roman 
 Empire and in the subsequent barbarian states, a taste 
 for high intellectual pursuits, and for abstruser specula- 
 tions, can hardly be ignored by one who traces the mental 
 development of the European nations^ 
 
 contemnebant, vel certe quod est Immilitatis dissimulabant, ut 
 praedicatio eorum non in persuasione verborum, sed in signorum 
 virtute consisteret; spernentes alienas opes, qui in suis divites 
 erant ; cum prseterea, ' nollent ea cavere, quae sano intellectui nihil 
 detrahunt.' (Aug. De Doctr. Christ, [n. § 20] c. 13.)" Preface to 
 Ducange's Glossary, c. 60. 
 
 ^ In discussing the fifth period of Roman literature, and speak- 
 ing of the degeneracy of eloquence and philosophy along with the 
 advance of mere grammatical studies, Baehr {Geschichte d. Rum. 
 Litter, i. § 23) says, "Dass die AusbreitungdesChristenthums zu 
 diesem Verfall beigetragen, indem es die Erhaltung und das Fort- 
 bestehen eines bessereri Geschmacks in Literatur und Spracho 
 verhindert, lasst sich keineswegs nachweisen ; es ist vielmehr 
 die allgemeine Verbreitung der christlichen Religion im Abend- 
 lande als ein Hauptmittel anzusehen, durch welches bei dem 
 Ruin des Reichs und dem Untergang der politischen Gestaltung 
 nicht bios die Erhaltung und selbst Ausbreitung der rdmischen 
 SprachCj die nun die Sprache der Kirche und Religion ward, 
 
70 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 But the cause of learning and philosophy was at the 
 same time promoted by more direct means than these ; 
 the pagan schools of Alexandria and Antioch, as the 
 teachers of the old superstition disappeared, became 
 
 sondern aiich die Bildung einer neuen, dem Dienste des Chris- 
 tenthums und der Religion gewidmeten Literatur, welche auf die 
 fortgesetzten Studien der alteren classischen Literatur begrundet 
 war, moglich geworden ist." And again, (i. § 24) : " Mit dem 
 Ende dieser fiinften Periode [^a. d. 410^1 lasst sicli gewissermassen 
 auch das Ende der romischen Literatur festsetzen, wenn auch 
 gleich die Sprache noch fort im Munde der Besiegten sieh erhielt, 
 oder auch selbst auf die Sieger iibergieng, schon durch die 
 Notliwendigkeit, die Verbindungen mit den Besiegten zu unter- 
 halten; was freilich aber audi wieder diesselbe mannichfachen 
 Veriinderungen aussetzte, welche die Sprache verschlimmerten 
 und auf ihre Reinheit nachtheilig einwirkten. Andererseits 
 muss freilich auch der Umstand beriicksichtigt werden, dass die 
 durch den Einfluss des Christenthums veranderte BegrifFs- und 
 Denksweise nicht mehr in den alteren beschrankten Form en 
 und Ausdrucksweisen sich halten oder vielmehr damit sicli 
 begniigen konnte, und dadurch eine Erweiterung der zum Aus- 
 druck der neuen Begriife und Ideen anzupassenden Sprache 
 hervorrief, wodurch allerdings die Sprache selbst einen veran- 
 derten Charakter, der der veranderten geistigen Auschauung 
 und dem christlichen Ideenkreise entsprach, annehmen musste. 
 So zeigt allerdings die Sprache der christlichen Schriftsteller, 
 welche zunachst solche in den Bereich des Christenthums fal- 
 lende Gegenstande behandelten, einen eigenthiimlichen Charakter, 
 und im einzelnen bei den sorgfaltigen Studien alterer Muster, 
 die wir theilweise wahrnehmen, selbst noch einen gewissen Fluss 
 der Rede und eine ziemliche Reinheit. Die lateinische Sprache 
 war noch immer die Sprache der Regierung, wie sie die der 
 Geistlichkeit war, deren Sprache, einzelne Ausnahmen abge- 
 rechnet, noch immer reiner und besser als diejenige war, worin 
 die Documente der weltlichen Herrn absrefasst wurdeu." 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CPIRISTIAN CLERGY. 71 
 
 renowned nurseries of theological lore : and the literary 
 annals of France* celebrate the learning which still 
 flourished in the Episcopal city of Irenseus, and the reli- 
 gious zeal which in every district of Gaul, maintained in 
 the most troubled days the studies of which that country 
 was destined to become so prolific. Moreover, in addi- 
 tion to the regular provision by which the clergy secured 
 the learning and piety of their successors, a most impor- 
 tant source of additional instruction was to be found in 
 the '•'■clenis^'' of each worthy occupant of an Episcopal 
 see ; we cannot doubt that the clergy, for example, who 
 sat at the feet of Augustine, learnt from his unfaiHng 
 judgment and from the true Christianity of his demeanour 
 lessons far more practically beneficial than they could 
 have derived from the exegetical or metaphysical specu- 
 lations of Alexandria. 
 
 We should far exceed the legitimate boundaries of 
 our subject were we to specify the enduring intellectual 
 treasures handed down by the Church Fathers of those 
 days to the latest posterity ; but in general we cannot but 
 remark the prevailing tendency of the mental activity of 
 the age to direct itself more and more every year into the 
 channels of theological speculation. We may gather 
 from the Confessions of Augustine, a work from which 
 more than from any other we obtain an insight into the 
 theological and philosophical extravagancies of the fifth 
 century, how in many a powerful but ill-regulated mind 
 the true knowledge of divine things was attained only 
 
 * See the Histoire Litteraire de la France, t. ii. p. 4, &c. 
 
72 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [cH. 
 
 after a long experience of the futility of all mere earthly 
 substitutes : indeed the picture there presented to us of 
 the workings of an individual intellect may be considered 
 not inadequately to represent the various forms assumed 
 by the world of ideas both among the clergy and the 
 laity. 
 
 It must however be observed here (though this fact 
 will come more fully before us in treating of the monastic 
 orders) that no two theories of clerical life and influence 
 could be more diametrically opposite to each other than 
 those of the Eastern and Western extremities of the 
 Empire during this period. The priesthood of the East, 
 following out in a great measure the principles of stern 
 asceticism and enthusiasm which were supported by the 
 great authority of Jerome, held the literature and philo- 
 sophy of heathendom in an abhorrence closely akin to 
 that which aroused their denunciations of lurking idolatry. 
 The estimation in which the writino^s of Cicero were held 
 by the great leaders of the Eastern and Western* clergy 
 supplies us with a satisfactory test of their theological 
 scruples. But if from Africa we direct our glance to 
 
 * See Jerome, Ep. 22. [t. i. col. 112 D. ed. Vail.] and August. 
 Confess, [iii. 7. ed. Ben. " Perveneram in librum quemdam cujusdam 
 Ciceronis, cujus linguam fere omnes mirantur, pectus non ita. Sed 
 liber ille ipsius exhortationem continet ad philosophiam, et vocatur 
 Hortensius. Ille vero liber mutavit affectum meum, et ad teipsum, 
 Domine, mutavit preces meas, et vota ac desideria mea fecit 
 alia. Viluit mihi repente omnis vana sjjes, et immortalitatem 
 sapientiae concupiscebam aestu cordis incredibili : et surgere coe- 
 peram ut ad te redirem."] 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 73 
 
 Gaul, we are induced to believe that the elegant latitudi- 
 narianism of a portion, at least, of the clergy in that 
 country was as far removed from the strict principles of 
 Augustine, as the latter were from the sternness of the 
 hermit of Bethlehem. Should it perchance be imagined 
 that the priesthood, neglecting profane studies in their 
 zeal for sacred erudition, were universally relinquishing 
 the arts and refinements of life, the letters of Sidonius 
 ApoUinaris, written towards the close of the fifth century, 
 will remove from Gaul, at least, all suspicion of unbending 
 puritanism. In one of these, the literary Bishop of 
 Clermont encloses an epitaph on his friend*, Claudianus 
 Mamercus, in which the merits of the deceased are cele- 
 brated in verse whose would-be Augustan elegance serves 
 only to show with how much fruitless care the classical 
 models were studied by a declining age. But although 
 we may hesitate in giving full credence to the accom- 
 plishments of one who excited the admiration of so poor 
 a critic, yet we must acknowledge that the priestly poet, 
 
 * *' Hoc dat cespite membra Claudianus, 
 Triplex bibliotheca quo magistro 
 Romana, Attica, Christiana fulsit. 
 Quam totam monachus virente in sevo 
 Secreta bibit institutione. 
 Orator, dialecticus, poeta, 
 Tractator, geometra, musicusque. 
 ***** 
 
 Psalmorum hie modulator et phonascus, 
 Ante altaria, fratre gratulante, 
 Instructas docuit sonare classes." 
 [Ep. iv. 11.] 
 
74 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 in praising the powers of eloquence, poetry, and geometry 
 possessed by his friend, was drawing a picture of accom- 
 phshments as yet far from neglected ^ ; and even the most 
 hearty despiser of secular lore might look with compla- 
 cency on successful efforts to promote Church music. 
 
 The author of the halting hendecasyllabics we have 
 quoted above was himself a curious exemplification of the 
 literary tendencies prevalent among a certain portion of 
 the Western clergy. Born a century after the puritans 
 of the East had first anathematized all pagan literature 
 as little better than a return to Pagan superstition, he 
 continued, even after his elevation to an Episcopal see, 
 the center of a circle of literary associates who were to 
 the companions of Horace and Virgil what Honorius and 
 Valentinian were to Augustus. The contemplative soli- 
 tude of a Basil or a Jerome could find little acceptance 
 in the eyes of a prelate ever ready to forget the burthen 
 of his high office in the company of the early poets and 
 sacres ; and who seems to have countenanced the celebra- 
 tion of Christian festivals which would hardly have aroused 
 the philosophic scruples of a Tacitus or a PHny^ While 
 
 ^ Sidonius, writing to the Frankish chief Arvogastes and com- 
 plimenting him on his Latin style, {Ep. iv. 17) advises him to 
 consult on literary matters his neighbouring clergy, i.e. those of 
 Metz, &c., "setate grandaevis, fide claris, opere vulgatis, orepromp- 
 tis, memoria tenacibus, omni denique meritorum sublimium dote 
 potioribus, * * quorum doctrinae abundant! eventilandse nee con- 
 sultatio tua sufiicit." 
 
 "^ Thus the celebration of the feast of St Justus at Lyons 
 {Ep. V. 17) seems to have contained a strange mixture of heathen 
 and Christian doings ; — crowded matin service, followed by games 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 75 
 
 the laborious Fathers of the Eastern Church were occu- 
 pied with the severe studies of biblical criticism and phi- 
 lology, a prelate who enjoyed the respect and confidence 
 of the Gallic Churches ^ was corresponding with his friends 
 on trivial subjects, in a style which, however wide an 
 extent of classical reading it may indicate, is a mere 
 cento of sounding phrases from Virgil, elegancies from 
 Phny, and epigrammatic nothings from MartiaP. It 
 
 at ball and dice. The reform however in the Rogations, which 
 had been effected by Mamercus bishop of Vienna^ was approved 
 and continued by Sidonius (Fp. v. 1, 14). 
 
 ^ See Gregor. Tiiron. Hist. Franc ii. 22, 23. 
 
 ^ Instances of the light in whicli Jerome and Augustine 
 regarded mere classical purity of diction are given in the Preface 
 to Ducange's Glossary, c. 57 : '* Sed et S. Hieronymus fatetur, 
 primis adolescentife annis, Tullio, Platone, csterisque ejusmodi 
 Gentilibus Scriptoribus perlectis, in semetipsum reversum Pro- 
 phetas legere ccepisse. Sed horum, subdit ille, ' Sermo horrebat 
 incultus, et quia lumen caecis oculis non videbam, non oculorum 
 putabam culpam esse, sed solis ' (Epist. 22. c. 80). 
 
 Ut ait S. Augustinus (in Psalm. 138. § 20), plerumque consue- 
 tudo loquendi vulgaris utilior est significandis rebus quam inte- 
 gritas literata: Mallem quippe, ut ait, cum barbarismo dici non 
 est ahsconditum ossum meum quam ut ideo esset minus apertum, 
 quia magis Latinum est. 
 
 Quo spectant ista Hieronymi (in Esech. c. 40), ' Illud autem 
 semel monuisse sufficiat, nosse me cuhitum et cuh'ita neutrali appel- 
 lari genere ; sed pro simplicitate et facilitate intelligentise vulgique 
 consuetudine ponere masculino ; non enim nobis curae est vitare ser- 
 monum vitia, sed Scripturae Sanctae quibuscunque verbis disserere.' 
 
 Et alio loco {De Vest. Sacerdot, [Ep. 64. c. 11]). Camisics voca- 
 bulum usurpaturus, 'Volo,' inquit, '^pro legentis facilitate abuti 
 sermone vulgari.'" 
 
 After other quotations, he adds (c. 58,) "Denique, ut caeteros 
 qui id argument! sunt prosecuti omittam, Salvianus carpens 
 
76 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 seems as unnatural to class such a man with a Chrysostom 
 or a Gregory Nazlanzen, as it would have been in a later 
 age to compare the thoughtless Abbes of the Versailles 
 Court with the erudite disciples of St Maur or the stern 
 followers of De Ranee ^ 
 
 But although the verdict of history must assign their 
 true relative positions to such very different ornaments of 
 the clerical order as those we have above contrasted, yet 
 it must be remarked that in the Bishop of Clermont is 
 extant a representative of a mode of sacerdotal action, 
 destined, under the Carlovingian Emperors, to stand for- 
 ward in far greater prominence. I allude to what may 
 be denominated the aesthetic influence of the priesthood. 
 It shall be our task, in the ensuing section, to point out 
 how the sacerdotal order was specially effective in pre- 
 
 quosdam siii temporis scriptores, qui verborum sectabanturamoeni- 
 tates, et ut sive utiles ac probas, sive inutiles atque improbas 
 materias sibi delegissent, seiiem tantum rerum nitore verborum 
 illustrarent : ' Nos autem/ inquit, ' qui rerum magis quam ver- 
 borum amatores utilia potius quam plausibilia sectamur, neque id 
 quaerimus, ut in nobis inania sseculorum ornarnenta, sed ut 
 salubria rerum emolumenta laudentur ; in scriptiunculis nostris 
 non lenocinia esse volumus, sed remedia, quae scilicet non tarn 
 otiosorum auribus placeant, quam segrotorum mentibus prosint, 
 magnum ex utraque re coelestibus donis fructum reportaturi.' 
 (In Prsef. ad Lib. i. BeProvid.)" 
 
 ^ His incapacity for his office is acknowledged and lamented in 
 the following terms {Ep, v. 3) : '''Ego autem infelicis conscientiae 
 mole defessus, vi febrium nuper extremum salutis accessi, utpote 
 cui indignissimo tantae professionis pondus impactum est, qui 
 miser ante compulsus docere quam discere et ante praesumens 
 bonum praedicare quam facere, tanquam sterilis arbor, cum non 
 habeam opera pro pomis, spargo verba pro foliis." 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 77 
 
 serving, and finally imparting to the invading tribes, the 
 blessings of an older civilization : nor can it escape our 
 notice that the gentler arts and luxuries of Rome must 
 have been in some measure influential in training those 
 rugged Northern tempers ; for rude and untaught minds 
 are ever most easily accessible to the harmonizing powers 
 of music, sculpture, and architecture. Accordingly, when 
 we perceive in the fifth century the first stages of the 
 gradual process by which those arts, lofty in themselves, 
 were yet more ennobled by being enlisted in the service 
 of religion, we cannot but recognize another portion of 
 that complicated system of discipline by which the clergy 
 were educated for the future emergencies of the world. 
 The luxury of the Gallic prelates, objectionable as it 
 undoubtedly was among the effeminate provincials, ac- 
 quires a deeper significance when viewed in its intercourse 
 with barbarian simplicity; and we can scarcely regret 
 that Christian pastors found leisure for such comparatively 
 frivolous recreations, if we remember that they were the 
 destined transmitters of the intellectual torch from ancient 
 to modern times. 
 
 In justice, however, to the early Church in Gaul, it 
 must be observed that through much apparent thought- 
 lessness and worldliness there ran a vein of sincere piety ^; 
 
 1 In the epistle (iv. 11), which contains the lines already quoted 
 (p. 78) on the presbyter Claudius Mamercus's accomplishments, 
 Sidonius Apollinaris thus describes his friend's ministerial character : 
 " Conditionis humana? per omnia memor clericos opere, sermone 
 populares, exhortatione moerentes, destitutes solatio, captivos pretio, 
 jejunos cibo, nudos operimento consolabatur." Patiens, bishop of 
 
78 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 and that the predilection for profane studies was accom- 
 panied by a zeal in the discovery of truth, and an energy 
 in its defence, not unworthy of the countrymen of Hilary*. 
 A wide and interesting field of inquiry would lie before 
 us, were we to investigate the several benefits which 
 accrued to the cause of truth among their contemporaries 
 from the theological champions of the Eastern and West- 
 ern Empires ; and it would be still farther to exceed our 
 allotted province were we to undertake to show how far 
 succeeding generations of the faithful have been preserved 
 from evil, and strengthened in the knowledge of the 
 Gospel, by the " great legacies of thought*" transmitted to 
 us through so many intervening centuries. 
 
 Before we pass from viewing the clerical influence on 
 the body of the people during this the Roman period of 
 Christianity, as we may term it, we must bestow a few 
 words on the rise and progress of that monastic system, 
 which, not unimportant in the age under our notice, was 
 destined at so many times and by so many different 
 methods to be the great religious lever of Europe. Al- 
 though the support of those whom after ages learnt to 
 
 Lyons, displayed the greatest liberality, " usque in extimos ter- 
 minos Galliarum," during the famine consequent on the ravages of 
 the Goths (£"/). vi. 12; Greg. Turon. Hist. Franc, ii. 24); and 
 Sidonius gives a long list of the towns which he had succoured. 
 See also the testimony to the good qualities of Simplicius, which 
 raised him to the see of Bourges (Concio post Ep. vii. 9). 
 
 * It is sufficient to mention the names of Prosper of Aquitaine 
 and Vincentius Lirinensis, two of the leading opponents of Pelagian 
 and semi-Pelagian heresy. 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 79 
 
 term regular clergy had not- yet been invoked by their 
 secular brethren, and the connexion between episcopal 
 powers and monastic privileges was wholly undefined, yet, 
 in viewing the effect of the former, we can scarcely omit 
 the consequences of the gradual development of the 
 latter. 
 
 The Eastern Empire, so long the arena for contending 
 theological schools, so fruitful of each heretical extrava- 
 gancy, and so rank a hot-bed of flimsy religious systems, 
 each varying more widely than its predecessor from the 
 practical spirit of earlier times, was destined, as might 
 indeed have been expected, to produce the most remark- 
 able form of the consequent reaction. Amid the din of 
 opposing factions, and a vain search after imaginary 
 complications of a simple faith, the true Gospel spirit, 
 the humility of Christianity, was forgotten or despised. 
 It was natural then that, where these errors were most 
 rife, where the pleasures of luxury on the one hand and 
 of dogmatism on the other had seduced many of the 
 guardians of the flock as well as its avowed enemies, 
 earnest men should be found to look with horror on a 
 world which called itself Christian, and was the theatre 
 of so many vices. Accordingly it appears to have been 
 despair of success in a contest with depravity, as well as 
 the contemplative tendency of Oriental nations, which 
 led the Anchorites of Egypt and Syria to devote to the 
 conquest of self those powers wdiich they shrunk from 
 engaging in the reform of others. But even these, 
 thoughtful and separate from the world as they had lived, 
 
80 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [cH. 
 
 carried with them into deserts and caves numerous ves- 
 tiges of the errors they had left behind. We can trace 
 in the followers of Antony and Pachomius the same 
 narrowness of religious views, the same forgetfulness of 
 the truly spiritual part of the faith they professed, which 
 had already more fatally displayed itself at Alexandria 
 and Antioch. Hence all the strange fanaticism, which, 
 as it appeared in the various sects of Stylites, Euchites, 
 and Sarabaites, raised so high the ascetic renown of the 
 Syrian and Egyptian Churches. 
 
 Turning our regards again to the Western Church, 
 the future province of the fullest monastic developments, 
 we are at once struck by the fact that, although the state 
 of religious feeling, both among clergy and laity, differed 
 essentially from what we have represented in the East, 
 Monasticism was nevertheless successfully introduced, 
 and that too in a form very closely resembling what it 
 had assumed in Egypt. That the religious tone of the 
 West was less elevated, less contemplative, and more 
 practical than that of the East, appears from the dis- 
 tinction pervading all their theological controversies. 
 Those of the latter related in general to the mystical 
 union of the persons of the Holy Trinity, and the incar- 
 nate perfections of the Son of God, while those of the 
 former tended rather to the decision of practical questions 
 in church-government, and of the great contest between 
 the supporters of grace and those of free-will in the sal- 
 vation of man. Pelagianism was the main heresy of the 
 West, as Arianism of the East. Hence it was to have 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 81 
 
 been expected that, inasmuch as the discussions of the 
 Oriental clerofv concerned matters farther removed from 
 human ken than those which agitated their Western 
 brethren, so they should lead to more vehement polemics, 
 and allow more scope for what we have seen to be the 
 natural re-action towards a secluded and meditative life. 
 To convince ourselves that such was in truth the case, 
 we have only to turn to the sanguinary church chronicles 
 of Alexandria and Constantinople. 
 
 The question then occurs, — since the causes which 
 promoted monachism in the East existed to a far less 
 degree in the West, to what motive are we to refer the 
 unquestionably rapid spread of asceticism throughout 
 Italy and Gaul I The answer may, we think, be found 
 in the peculiar social condition of the Western Empire. 
 The utter and speedy dislocation of the body politic of 
 the Empire, prior to the barbarian invasion, extended 
 with equally fatal results to every class and rank in 
 society. The burdens of the laity increased in proportion 
 as their estimation and wealth diminished. Meanwhile 
 the prosperity and immunities of the clergy became more 
 apparent as those of every other class of the community 
 vanished ; and the secular spirit was gradually overcome 
 by the greater vigour of spiritual development. Thus the 
 ascetic tendencies, which in the East appear to have been 
 fostered by the strengthening of the bonds uniting man 
 to the invisible world, flourished in the West by the ele- 
 vation of those which connected him with secular life. 
 Accordingly, it appears that the glades of the Apennines 
 
 G 
 
82 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 and the wilds of Gaul were peopled by hermits who in 
 any other social state would have been the last to desert 
 a scene of so many attractions. The spirit of the age, 
 which manifested itself in Egypt by almost divine honors 
 paid* to the uncouth figures whom the rumours of theo- 
 loffic war brouo^ht forth from the deserts of Nitria or 
 Thebais, was displayed in Italy by the contempt and 
 horror in which fugitives from the world were held even 
 by their Christian contemporaries : for we may be assured 
 that the loathing expressed by the heathen poett Kuti- 
 lius Numatianus for the monks of Oapraria was shared 
 by believers and unbelievers alike. We may be excused 
 if, on hearing of the strange and unchristian excesses to 
 which fanaticism urged the Oriental monks, we partake 
 of the same feelings ; but, looking at the consequences of 
 Western monasticism, posterity has pronounced a very 
 different verdict. The emergencies of succeeding centu- 
 ries have not given the same glory to asceticism in the 
 East which it acquired during the Teutonic invasions of 
 the West ; and fate denied to Greece the reforming hand 
 
 * As when Antony appeared in the streets of Alexandria during 
 the Arian persecution of Athanasius. 
 
 t Ipsi se monachos Graio cognomine dicunt. 
 Quod soli nullo vivere teste volunt. 
 Munera fortune metuunt, dum damna verentur. 
 Quisquam sponte miser, ne miser esse queat? 
 Qutenam perversi rabies tarn stulta cerebri, 
 Dum mala formides, nee bona posse pati? 
 
 De Reditu i. 441. 
 [ap. Wernsdorf Poet. Lat. Min. v. 155. Aitenburg. 1788], and see 
 Augustin. Ep. 48. 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 83 
 
 of a Benedict. It is to the social causes we have above 
 alluded to, as well as to the less mystical character of 
 Western religion, that must be attributed the practical 
 character so early assumed by the coenobitic fraternities 
 of Gaul and Italy. The men who founded them had in 
 many cases fled not so much out of the world, as away 
 from the world, and pursued, when beyond the reach of 
 interruption, schemes of civilization and philanthropy of 
 which their contemporaries were not worthy^. But of 
 more weight than the restraints of national character or 
 of a forbidding climate were the guardian counsels and 
 moderation of such men as Ambrose and Augustine 2; 
 
 ^ The mountains of Switzerland seem to have abounded in 
 hermits, holding no intercourse with the barbarians, but yet doubt- 
 less acting in some measure as forerunners of the more active 
 missionaries. Thus in the life of St Gall we read of persons who 
 were probably remnants of a Church scattered by Teutonic 
 inroads. Something too was done by them towards cultivating 
 the land and clearing the woods, the practical spirit of the West 
 shewing itself in strong contradistinction to Eastern asceticism. 
 
 " See for instance Augustine's letter (£'p. 48) to the monks of 
 Capraria, already referred to : " Si quam operam vestram mater 
 Ecclesia desideraverit, nee elatione avid a suscipiatis nee blandiente 
 desidia respuatis, &c. * * Memineritis nullum locum esse, ubi 
 non possit laqueos tendere qui timet ne revolemus ad Deum; 
 et inimicum omnium bonorum cujus captivi fuimus judicemus, 
 nullamque nobis esse perfectam requiem cogitemus, donee transeat 
 iniquitas, et in judicium justitia convertatur. * * Ipsa est 
 enim actio recti itineris, quae oculos semper habet ad Dominum, 
 quoniam ipse evellet de laqueo pedes. Talis actio nee frangitur 
 negotio, nee frigida est otio, nee turbulenta nee marcida est ; nee 
 audax nee fugax ; nee praeceps nee jacens. Haec agite, et Deus 
 pacis erit vobiscum." 
 
 G2 
 
84 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 who, while they were well aware of the causes which 
 turned the minds of men to retirement and contemplation, 
 and ever sought to protect their disciples against the 
 seducing influences of worldly pride, were equally con- 
 scious of the no less fatal power of false humility. They 
 were skilled to trace, through the seeming subjugation of 
 the flesh, that unconquerable haughtiness of soul, which 
 placed the severity of monastic discipline above the purest 
 faith, and taught the meanest anchorite to look down 
 upon the most dignified of churchmen. It was in no 
 small measure owing to the temperate zeal of these 
 fathers that the monastic system flourished in the purity 
 it subsequently for a time maintained in the Western 
 world, and that the public mind in Gaul and Italy was 
 prepared for the benefits it received from the foundations 
 of Cassian and Benedict. For assuredly it is no violation 
 of the spirituality of Protestantism to look with admira- 
 tion on the less extravagant form assumed by the mo- 
 nasticism of the West before it sunk under accumulated 
 corruptions; and an impartial observer, not forgetting 
 the difference in social relations during^ the fifth and the 
 sixteenth centuries, may find as much to praise among 
 the monks of the former period as he may to censure 
 among those of the latter. That separation of the con- 
 templative and the active principles in religion, which 
 twelve centuries later was nominal and unmeaninsr 
 because answering to no spiritual or intellectual require- 
 ment of the age, was true in theory and productive of 
 noble results amid all the turmoil of barbarian inroads. 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 85 
 
 It symbolized — imperfectly, it is true, but evidently to all 
 men — that prominent virtue of exalted Christianity, by 
 which independently and in spite of all outward action 
 the seed once sown in the heart is preserved from per- 
 nicious influences, and fostered into full productiveness. 
 It stood forward a type of the immutability of a faith, 
 which, while empires rose and sunk and the very foun- 
 dations of society were overturned, remained unmoved, 
 teaching the same great axioms to the unlettered Goth 
 which it had inculcated on the philosophic Greek. 
 
 We have enlarged on the progress of monastic 
 influence, not so much as considering it to have been a 
 distinct branch of clerical action during its earlier career, 
 but rather with a view to the time when, in spite of its 
 many inherent vices, it was not only incorporated with 
 the Church, but became one of the principal supports of 
 Christianity itself. The next chronological division of 
 our subject will present to us monasticism engaged in its 
 more memorable and peculiar work, transmitting to future 
 more worthy recipients the intellectual trophies of pre- 
 ceding generations. We shall see in the organization of 
 the monkish fraternities by the great Benedict their 
 gradual separation from the laity, and shall be able with 
 more strictness to include them within our peculiar pro- 
 vince. 
 
 We have thus investigated the moral and intellectual 
 influence of the clergy on their followers, from the period 
 when the principles learnt in humiliation came to be 
 practised among the seductions of exaltation to that 
 
86 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 when they stood prepared by a long contact with the 
 world to act more effectually on the Teutonic nations. 
 We must now turn to view their action on the political 
 condition of the Roman Empire during the period of its 
 final annihilation in the West and of its decrepitude in 
 the East. 
 
 Later ecclesiastical historians have frequently placed 
 in a strong: li^ht the deleterious action on the clerical 
 body of a state-system long exposed to so many cor- 
 rupting influences; but they appear scarcely to have 
 bestowed sufficient attention on the reciprocal operation 
 of the Church in checking or remedying abuses and 
 postponing the approaching downfall of the Imperial 
 polity. Wholly to deny any such action would be to 
 imagine that the principles of Christian Truth, which 
 had operated with so much power on the social frame- 
 work of the community, were unavailing in a more public 
 sphere. 
 
 It is unquestionably true that the indefiniteness of 
 the union between Church and State during the reiffn 
 of Constantino was productive of evil consequences in so 
 far as it offered to the priesthood almost irresistible 
 temptations to forget primitive purity in employing their 
 spiritual authority for mere worldly purposes : but at the 
 same time we must remember in how many cases the 
 clerical power thus acquired stood opposed to that of 
 the state as mitigating the severity and injustice of an 
 arbitrary government. It would have been surprising if, 
 at a period when no one worthy of the title of statesman 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 87 
 
 assisted at the Imperial Councils, the exaltation of 
 Christianity had taken place so as to preserve the neces- 
 sary distinction between the influence of the clergy on 
 their leading disciples as individuals and as rulers. We 
 liave already alluded to the moral authority possessed 
 by the prelates over Constantine himself in matters 
 ecclesiastical, and proof is not wanting that, not at the 
 Capital alone but in every province of the Empire, the 
 civil officers paid, even in the exercise of their ordinary 
 functions, a tacit respect to the injunctions and repri- 
 mands of their spiritual guides. Without referring to 
 such more splendid examples as the excommunication of 
 Theodosius by Ambrose, or the successful intercession 
 of the Bishop Flavianus with the same Emperor in 
 behalf of the offending citizens of Antioch, we may 
 content ourselves with the positive injunctions of two 
 great Councils* in Spain and Gaul at the commencement 
 of the fourth century, by one of which the civil function- 
 ary w^as prohibited from entering the church during the 
 continuance of his office, and by the other was so far 
 subject to episcopal authority as to be liable to instant 
 excommunication if he failed to carry out on the judg- 
 ment-seat the principles which in private he professed. 
 Although such interference must have been often brought 
 into play unwarrantably, yet, if we remember into how 
 deep degradation the Roman administration had fallen 
 
 * The Councils of Elvira [Can. 56. ap. Routh. RelL Sac. 
 IV. 269. ed. 2.] (a. d 305) and Aries [Can. 7. ibid. 308.] (a.d. 314). 
 See Neander's Church History. Vol. in. p. 200 (Ed. Bohn). 
 
88 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 under the Pagan Emperors, we must be convinced that 
 it acquired a not insignificant elevation from such zealous 
 supervision on the part of the priesthood. We shall 
 find, moreover, that in this respect as in many others 
 the maxims established under the Roman power were 
 carried out even more energetically by the barbarian 
 monarchs: for, whereas in the fourth century the cen- 
 sorship thus exercised by the prelates was indirect and 
 purely ecclesiastical, the sixth beheld it, especially in 
 Spain, occupying a recognized place in the legislation of 
 Europe. 
 
 Indeed it may be broadly asserted that the estab- 
 lishment of the Christian faith by Constantine formed 
 an era in the political as well as in the religious history 
 of the world; for, ever since the Augustan age, the 
 despotic power of the Emperor had been assuming a 
 more unmitigated and revolting form ; the popular spirit, 
 which in better days would have prompted an active 
 resistance, sunk as the vices and injustice of the court 
 assumed a deeper dye. During no reigns had the de- 
 pravity of the rulers and the political insignificance of 
 the ruled been more apparent than in those of the pre- 
 decessors and rivals of Constantine. Whatever excess 
 of political sway, again, might fall into clerical hands, 
 was at any rate exercised by men of fixed principles and 
 disciplined intellects^; by men, moreover, who, as they 
 had in general risen from the people and owed their 
 
 * See the testimony of the pagan Nectarius to Augustine 
 (Aug. Ep, 90). 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 89 
 
 elevation to their intrinsic merits, could not for the most 
 part do otherwise than act in antagonism to the caprices 
 of hereditary tyranny. 
 
 But in order more fully to appreciate the action of 
 the sacerdotal order on the decaying Imperial system 
 throughout Europe, we must obtain a previous insight 
 into the political condition of the vast Koman provinces, 
 and review the gradual alterations introduced, more 
 particularly in the lands of the West, by a long course 
 of selfish mismanagement. 
 
 The whole political and social history of Rome pre- 
 sents an instance, to which we know no parallel, of a 
 series of traditional maxims of statecraft carried out 
 amid circumstances the most various and nations the 
 most remote. The infant republic, itself a flourishing 
 municipality, soon learnt to respect, not only the imme- 
 morial Latian customs, but its own manifest interests, 
 by framing the constitution of every one of its subject 
 states on the same municipal model : and the citizens of 
 many an Italian township, while they beheld the out- 
 ward machinery of government unchanged and the old 
 social distinctions permanent as ever, might forget their 
 dependence on the great original at Rome, or were 
 reminded of it only by the exercise of privileges before 
 unknown. But it could scarcely have been foreseen by 
 the most ambitious believer in the destined supremacy 
 of the "gens togata,"*' that the system which had ori- 
 ginated in the secluded valleys of central Italy was to be 
 applied, and to all appearance successfully so, to every 
 
90 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 one of the unpolished tribes of Western Europe. Yet 
 so it unquestionably was, for, eight centuries after the 
 double throne had first been raised in the Roman Forum, 
 and a proud aristocracy had exulted over the triumph 
 of the Senate, we find the cities of remotest Gaul groan- 
 ing under the authority of as unscrupulous " duumviri,*" 
 and suffering from the increasing immunities of a more 
 numerous senatorial order. And assuredly of all the 
 many systems created by the ingenuity of statesmen or 
 conquerors none was ever more secure for the superior 
 class, and none ever more inevitably pernicious to the 
 inferior one. The results closely consequent on the 
 extension of Roman domination throughout Italy had 
 been reproduced, no less fatally, over the whole surface 
 of the Empire; and nowhere more so than in those 
 countries from which may be traced so much of what is 
 peculiar in modern civilization. Gaul and Spain, where 
 the legions had experienced such a resistance as can 
 proceed only from the energetic will of a free and united 
 population, had been plunged into the lowest depths of 
 misery, aggravated, rather than palliated, by the mask of 
 a meretricious culture. In those countries, as in Italy, 
 reformation had been rendered hopeless by the utter 
 disappearance of the old independent agricultural class ; 
 while, in its stead, countless gangs of slaves extracted 
 from the soil such scanty produce as can alone be looked 
 for by the employers of compulsory labour. Among the 
 influential classes, too, the disease was as painfully appa- 
 rent. All ancient patriotism had vanished ; as vanish 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 91 
 
 it must from among men who, confining their political 
 views to the limits of a narrow municipality, were taught 
 by the whole system under which they lived to expect 
 orders, defenders, and, if need were, punishment, from 
 the Capital alone. And not only had the moral disloca- 
 tion of society proceeded so far as to annihilate all regard 
 to Imperial interests and to ruin public spirit throughout 
 Europe, but the unnatural restrictions of Roman legis- 
 lation had effected such a separation of class from class 
 as has never been equalled, even in the most unpropitious 
 age of decaying feudalism. For the gradual extinction 
 of the middle class, on which alone can society be securely 
 based, had exposed the possessors of property to all the 
 burdens without any of the highest honors of colonial 
 government. The unvarying policy of the Empire 
 selected administrators of enlightened provinces as exclu- 
 sively from the precincts of Rome itself as when vice- 
 consuls or proctors were delegated to restrain or conquer 
 the barbarous transalpine nations. Hence the Imperial 
 patronage, so liberally lavished upon Rome, was restricted 
 in the provinces to exemptions and monopolies ; and 
 small as the number of curials^ or tax-paying proprietors, 
 necessarily was, each extended immunity caused the 
 burthens to fall with yet greater severity on those who 
 were still exposed to them. An inseparable barrier was 
 thus placed between the two upper ranks of society; for 
 the privileged orders continued to rejoice in Imperial 
 favour, and to accumulate wealth amid elsewhere increas- 
 ing poverty, while the rate-payers, on the other hand, 
 
92 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 crushed by taxation, and prevented by the severity of 
 penal legislation from rising above the station to which 
 they had been born, were deprived of all those motives 
 which tend to increase either the wealth or the popula- 
 tion of a country ^ 
 
 Such were the political consequences of the unfor- 
 tunate combination of an unprincipled government with 
 a needy exchequer and a yet more needy people, w'hen 
 the fiat of Constantino added to the various and con- 
 tending classes we have enumerated another, destined 
 soon to exceed them all in social and political importance. 
 From the very first it was evident that no event more 
 propitious to every part of society could have occurred 
 than that which thus elevated the clergy, enjoying the 
 
 1 The following- passages, quoted by Savaro on Sidonius Apol- 
 linaris (Ep. v. 17), show how the provincials often preferred 
 removing to poverty in the Gothic and Burgundian kingdoms to 
 remaining under Roman misgovernment. " Ut inveniantur inter 
 eos quidam Romani, qui mahnt inter barbaros pauperem hber- 
 tatem quam inter Romanos tributariam soHcitudinem sustinere." 
 Orosius, ]^IIistr\ vii. 41. " Itaque passim vel ad Gotlios vel ad Ba- 
 gaudas vel ad alios ubique dominantes barbaros migrant, et com- 
 migrasse non poenitet; malunt enim sub specie captivitatis vivere 
 liberi quam sub specie libertatis esse captivi." Salvian. [De gub. 
 Dei.] V. [t. i. p. 170. ed. Ritters. 1623.] " Unde et Imcusque Ro- 
 mani, qui in regno Gothorum consistunt, adeo amplectuntur, ut 
 melius sit illis cum Gothis pauperes vivere quam inter Romanos 
 potentes esse et grave jugum tributi portare." Isidor. Chron. 
 aer. ccccxlvii. Sidonius {Ep. vii. 12), in congratulating his friend 
 Ferreolus on his appointment to the see of Aries, celebrates his 
 previous popularity as prefect, "quia sic habenas Galliarum 
 moderarere, ut possessor exhaustus tributario j ugo relevaretur." 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 93 
 
 full sunshine of Imperial partiality, and coming into 
 official and effective contact with every class of citizens 
 alike ; for the lower orders beheld in them teachers of 
 a religion without respect of persons, and looked to them 
 alone for support and protection ; while it could hardly 
 be considered degrading to the proudest upholder of 
 ancestral rank to submit to the authority of men before 
 whom the majesty of the Emperor himself did not scruple 
 to bow. There are several remarkable points in the 
 constitution assigned to clerical power by Constantine 
 and his successors, which if we examine minutely, we 
 shall find that however much and however justly they 
 have been made the subject of objections by succeeding 
 generations, they were yet in more respects than one 
 singularly adapted to render the Gospel truths acceptable 
 to the men among whom they were planted. 
 
 For example, it has been made matter of regret that 
 the principle of an Established Church was not more 
 fully carried out by Constantine ; that, by omitting all 
 systematic provision for the clergy, and at the same time 
 throwing open to them channels of vast wealth from 
 other sources, he exposed the piety of a scarcely organ- 
 ized Church to all the dano-ers and unavoidable evils of 
 the voluntary system, as well as to the temptations of an 
 enlarged revenue and of extended intercourse with a 
 semi-pagan court and aristocracy. Yet from our inves- 
 tigation of the political conditions of the Eoman world 
 we may perhaps find less cause to mourn his having 
 followed a course so much and so reasonably at variance 
 
94 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 with all our modern ideas. For, as we have already 
 mentioned, the Imperial exchequer was recruited by the 
 contribution of the "curiales" alone; the highest order 
 enjoyed a full immunity ; while the lowest of all, the 
 slaves, were looked upon by the law merely as goods in 
 the possession of their masters. Now, had the burden 
 of clerical revenues been so adjusted as to fall, Hke the 
 other rates, exclusively on the "curiales", we could hardly 
 have expected to find the Christian religion reverenced 
 by an oppressed class who found it accompanied by 
 additions to an already intolerable load. Few and paltry 
 must have been the converts drawn from among men to 
 whom the ministers of spiritual salvation would have 
 been the harbingers of temporal ruin. If, on the other 
 hand, the necessary support had been demanded alike 
 from the privileged and the unprivileged, the burden 
 would no doubt have fallen with less severity on the latter, 
 but the former, pampered by long indulgence, would 
 doubtless have regarded with an evil eye an institution 
 which so rudely broke in upon all their cherished immu- 
 nities, and which must have seemed to them the sure 
 forerunner of a thorough social revolution. Either of 
 these results would unquestionably have been fatal to the 
 successful progress of Christianity, and it appears to us 
 that one or other would have as unquestionably followed 
 from the organization, by the central government, of a 
 complete tithe-system. It is true that, as we have pre- 
 viously mentioned, such a mode of clerical support was 
 already in operation, but it was owing, not to any Impe- 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 95 
 
 rial edict, but solely to the private influence and expos- 
 tulations of the priesthood, who thus drew their support 
 in this respect mainly from voluntary contributions. 
 
 The concentration, moreover, of power in episcopal 
 hands was, in the strange political condition of the 
 Roman world, peculiarly adapted to further the influences 
 of Christianity in the provinces, for it corresponded to 
 an important change in their social relations, — the exter- 
 mination of population in the country, and its accumu- 
 lation within the shelter of the towns. 
 
 In the manner, again, of episcopal elections, although 
 we may regret its uncertainty and irregularity, we shall 
 nevertheless find much that was suited to the vague 
 administration, partly municipal and partly centralized, 
 which prevailed in the cities of the Western Empire 
 previous to its final dissolution. An interesting illus- 
 tration of the growing clerical power in such elections, as 
 well as of the relations in which the clergy stood to their 
 flocks, may be derived from a letter of Sidonius Apolli- 
 naris*, who in writing to his friend Domnulus relates 
 how, on the vacancy of the see of Chalons, the clergy and 
 people of that city, unable to decide between the not very 
 legitimate claims and promises of the candidates, en- 
 trusted the selection to the neighbouring prelates of 
 Lyons and Autun^; and from which it appears that the 
 
 * Ep. iv. 25. 
 
 ^ "Quod ubi viderunt sanctus Patiens et sanctus Euphronius, 
 qui rigorem firmitatemque sententise sanioris prseter odium gra- 
 tiamque primi tenebant, consilio cum coepiscopis piius clam com- 
 municato quara palam prodito strepituque furentis turbae despecto. 
 
96 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 " oppidani" had not yet been deprived of that share in 
 the nomination of their bishops, which had undoubtedly 
 been a privilege of the faithful from the very earliest 
 days. A more accurate examination of the effects pro- 
 duced by the suddenly increased episcopal authority will 
 convince us that, however pernicious to the religious pro- 
 gress of Europe it may have been, and however numerous 
 may have been the germs of future corruption laid during 
 the period of its progress, it was notwithstanding, poli- 
 tically speaking, eminently suited to the age in which 
 it took its rise. The municipal administration of the 
 Eoman provinces, which had for so many years, even 
 while the Empire yet stood and flourished unbroken, been 
 connected by a but slender link with the central power, 
 fell at once into the most complete and incurable dis- 
 organization when that central power ceased to be worthy 
 of its name. The prospect which opened upon Europe 
 when Italy was finally occupied by the barbarians received 
 
 jactis repente manibus arreptum * sanctum Joannem * *, disso- 
 nas inter partium voces, * stupentibus factiosis, embescentibus 
 malis, acclaraantibus bonis, reclamantibus nullis, collegam sibi 
 consecravere." The nature of episcopal elections in Gaul at this 
 period is illustrated by other letters of Sidonius : in one (vii. 5) he 
 describes the difficulties in the election of a bishop of Bourges, 
 and calls for the assistance of Agrcecius Bishop of Sens to reconcile 
 the conflicting parties ; in another (vii. 8) he consults Euphronius 
 Bishop of Autun as to whether or not he should appoint Simplicius 
 to the vacant office, in accordance with the wishes of the people ; 
 and in a third (vii. 9) he encloses to Perpetuus Bishop of Tours 
 the speech which he had delivered before the clergy and people at 
 Bourges, in electing Simplicius. 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 97 
 
 additional o^loom from the circumstance that the whole 
 pohcy of Rome had for centuries tended to weaken all 
 public spirit and administrative capacity elsewhere, and 
 to widen the field of Imperial patronage by concentrating 
 in the capital such poor remnants of ancient talent as 
 yet lingered on the earth. Accordingly, when the reins 
 of civil sway were dropping from the weak hands of 
 Roman deputies to subside into the yet more enervate 
 grasp of provincial aristocracy, it was of inestimable im- 
 portance for the preservation even of the very elements 
 of the old civilization, that men not wholly unfitted for 
 such a task discovered themselves in a very different 
 quarter. The Christian clergy, already accustomed by 
 ecclesiastical tradition, as well as by the impulses of a 
 fervent and politic piety, to look upon themselves as the 
 dispensers of moral truth in matters secular as well as 
 in matters spiritual, succeeded, not unwillingly, to the 
 decaying civil authority : and we find in the chronicles 
 of the fifth and sixth centuries many instances in which 
 the Bishop of a provincial town wielded over his flock a 
 sway far more absolute than could have been dreamt of 
 by the most ambitious of decemvirs or proconsuls. This 
 intimate bond of union between the Bishops and the 
 Roman municipalities will fall more directly under our 
 glance when we come to speak of their relations to the 
 Teutonic conquerors of Europe, but it deserves our 
 attention in a very marked manner now, inasmuch as the 
 period immediately before us seems to have been that 
 which exposed the Roman civilization to the most pressing 
 
 H 
 
98 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 dangers. It appears to us that the pohtical influence 
 of the clergy performed no more signal service to hu- 
 manity than when, by consolidating within themselves the 
 innumerable separate municipal societies forming, as it 
 were, the skeleton of Roman majesty, it armed them 
 against the first and most critical shock of barbarian 
 invasion. Much as we must ever attribute to the inhe- 
 rent vigour and practical spirit of the Italian institutions, 
 we may not unjustly doubt whether we should be, as we 
 are, living on the ruins of the Roman Empire, had not 
 Christianity supplied in the hour of need both a motive 
 for union and leaders who knew how to make the most 
 of the spirit they had fostered. 
 
 And let it not be imagined that, in the establishment 
 of what may seem to us an excess of priestly authority, 
 violence was offered to any general aspirations after a 
 fuller liberty, or that the clergy of the fifth century had 
 learnt what their successors practised with only too much 
 success, the association of the exaltation of their order 
 with religious and political oppression. On the contrary, 
 civilized man had long been prepared for the introduction 
 of a purer faith by the excesses of a debased materialism, 
 and had been made willing to accept the authority of 
 ecclesiastical rulers by a conviction of the increasing 
 separation between the principles which ruled the world 
 and those of moral rectitude. The inhabitants, for 
 example, of remote districts of Spain, Gaul, or Africa, 
 long deprived of all voice in the election of their civil 
 rulers, and made aware of the frequent changes in Impe- 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 99 
 
 rial despotism only by the civil bloodshed which preceded 
 them, had every reason to rejoice in the rise of episcopal 
 authority. Instead of the hard rule of strangers, they 
 lived under the less imposing but gentler influence of 
 their clerical fellow-citizens ; instead of suffering by the 
 caprice of each successive aspirant to the Imperial 
 throne, they paid a willing obedience to the paternal 
 counsels of men whom they could not but reverence, 
 since they had themselves participated in their election. 
 The most abject fraction of the population, the agricul- 
 tural serfs, looked for their only protection from the 
 clergy, and learnt to cling to the inviolable sanctity of 
 the altar and the intrepid zeal of its ministers : while 
 the " curiales," crushed as they were by repeated extor- 
 tions, found some relief in the consciousness that they 
 might rise above all human tyranny, by enrolling them- 
 selves among the spiritual lords of the earth. The op- 
 pressed, if any consolation could be for them below, might 
 find it in looking forward to the assured triumph of nobler 
 principles of morality and government ; while the oppres- 
 sors were constrained to look with awe on men, who like 
 themselves had long enjoyed every immunity, and were 
 establishing their claims to the guidance of the flock in 
 more serious contests than the doubtful wranglings of 
 theological councils. Another point seems to be worthy 
 of our notice, in which the beneficial influence of Church- 
 men in some measure compensated for the effects of civil 
 misgovernment. The annihilation of the old rural inha- 
 bitants had led to an utter isolation of the towns and 
 
 h2 
 
100 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 circumscribing of the political horizon throughout the 
 Empire, which we, in these clays of rapid interchange of 
 ideas, can with difficulty picture to ourselves. This 
 defect, fatal to anything like a truly national feeling, and 
 which threatened, more than any other political calamity 
 of the time, to check all intellectual progress, inasmuch 
 as it lay beyond all help from the enervate civil consti- 
 tution, was in some degree remedied by the frequency of 
 ecclesiastical intercourse between politically remote locali- 
 ties. Politics, in our sense of the word, had long ceased 
 to occupy the popular mind; patriotism was no more; 
 nations, as such, had no existence. It was becoming 
 evident that this extin(?tion of all the nobler ends of 
 being, this practical materialism, must ultimately involve 
 a total loss of all the old energetic discipline which the 
 traditions of many generations had handed down from 
 Athens and Alexandria to Bordeaux, Treves, and Seville. 
 Indeed we cannot conceal from ourselves that if perilled 
 civilization had not found in the unity and spirited action 
 of the clergy a substitute for political motives long for- 
 gotten, Europe would have relapsed into utter and 
 hopeless barbarism. The only connecting link between 
 severed nations and cities was that of religion, because 
 the only active ideas they possessed in common were 
 such as they embodied in their creed. The nations of 
 the West had long ceased to turn with any interest to 
 the civil affairs of Rome or Constantinople ; but the 
 former city was rapidly raising itself to be the central 
 point of theological discussion, as it had been of political 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 101 
 
 sway. Indeed, every one of the Western lands resounded 
 with scarcely any other excitement than what was raised 
 by the conflicts of orthodox and heterodox divines ; and 
 so great was the impetus imparted to intellectual pursuits, 
 and the logical acumen derived from such metaphysical 
 speculations as the great Pelagian controversy, or from 
 such more purely theological discussions as suited the 
 minds of Oriental Churchmen, that we are almost tempted 
 to forget the evil consequences of such misdirected powers 
 as those of Pelagius and his followers, and the perils of 
 the true faith in the conflict with heresy, in our rejoicing 
 that the European nations were preserved in theological 
 subjects from that stagnant carelessness which had be- 
 fallen them in those of politics. 
 
 The whole history of the intellectual progress of man 
 scarcely presents to us a more remarkable proof of the 
 superiority possessed by spiritual over material agencies 
 in the minds of individuals and nations, than we discover 
 by comparing the religious with the secular life during 
 the fifth and sixth centuries. In the latter, every bond 
 tending to combine country with country, and city with 
 city, had been loosened ; in the former, new connections 
 were perpetually established, by which the opinions of 
 Central Asia were brought into contact and conflict with 
 those of Western Europe. No land, however remote it 
 might be from all other excitement, could be silent in the 
 great theological debates; a voice from the deserts of 
 the Upper Nile might be heard by the zealous priesthood 
 of the British Church, and the slopes of extreme Atlas 
 
102 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 might not unwillingly be aroused by the challenge 
 echoing from the dwellers by primitive Ararat. The 
 most convincing testimony of the extent to which theo- 
 logical questions were made the means of communication, 
 from one extremity of the Empire to the other, is to be 
 derived from the extant correspondences of such men as 
 Augustine, Jerome, and Basil. They reveal to us all the 
 vast erudition of their authors, the interest excited 
 throughout the Roman world by the great theological 
 questions of the age, and the decisive authority possessed 
 by the leading Fathers of the Church among the faithful 
 of every land. The Bishop of Hippo, in particular, 
 acquired a moral influence over the Churches of the West 
 scarcely inferior to the more recognized authority of a 
 Roman pontiff; he was referred to, not only to settle dis- 
 puted points of metaphysical or exegetical speculation, but 
 to support by the weight of his name and the gravity of his 
 judgment ecclesiastical discipline and ministerial purity. 
 
 But we must consider these frequent communications, 
 which united the faithful of lands so remote, in a political 
 as well as in a theoloo-ical and moral lio;ht. The conse- 
 quences they produced on the fifth century were analo- 
 gous to what the frequent pilgrimages to Rome, and the 
 universal excitement of the Crusades, undoubtedly effected 
 for ensuing ages. The clergy in secluded districts of 
 Gaul"* traversed inhospitable lands to lay their difficulties 
 before Jerome at Bethlehem or Paulinus at Nola; and the 
 
 * See the remarks of Guizot, Civilisation en France, lib. iv. vol. i. 
 p. 108. 
 
III.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 103 
 
 early Church of our own island appears, as well from the 
 legends of its early saints as from its more authentic records, 
 to have been peculiarly connected with the remoter coun- 
 tries of the East. The same results we may with justice 
 attribute to the frequency of oecumenical or provincial coun- 
 cils; for we may readily believe that the Bishops of Spain, 
 Gaul, or Egypt, after joining the multitude of Church 
 dignitaries who flocked to the shores of the Bosphorus or 
 the Adriatic, returned to diffuse not merely the dry spe- 
 culations of abstruse metaphysics but some remembrance 
 of old Imperial splendour, and of the inspiriting traditions 
 which yet hngered amid the ruins of ancient institutions. 
 In the preceding pages, while examining the political 
 benefits conferred upon Christendom by an educated and 
 united clergy, we have bestowed the greater share of our 
 attention on the Western Empire, both because to us 
 the steps of that process by which Roman civilization 
 and Christianity were amalgamated with the Germanic 
 spirit present one of the most instructive of historical 
 problems, and because the Eastern world early supplied 
 more frequent instances of the perversions of our faith 
 than of its legitimate action. Such, moreover, is the 
 inherent changelessness of Oriental life, and such the un- 
 interesting repose of social and political forms under the 
 Byzantine sovereigns, that the terms in which we have 
 characterized clerical action during the earlier centuries 
 may be applied, though with diminished force, to those 
 which succeeded; whereas, in the lands of the West, 
 as we shall see, the case was a very different one. 
 
[CHAPTER IV.] 
 
 In investigating the progress of clerical influence, we 
 have now reached that era, with which, as far as the 
 modern history of Europe is concerned, it may in a 
 certain sense be said to begin. Viewing, as we most 
 naturally do, the ecclesiastical history of the Roman 
 Empire with a more especial reference to the barbarian 
 monarchies founded on its ruins, we may discover in every 
 step, in every change of Church government or relations 
 throughout the south of Europe, a providential preparation 
 for the new position in which the clergy were to be placed 
 amidst the invadino; bands of the North. Such consider- 
 ations we have introduced into the preceding section of 
 our subject, though they would perhaps have been more 
 peculiarly adapted for the present one. For if, judging 
 from the results which have attended the advance of the 
 Christian faith, we were to ask ourselves what during 
 the first ten centuries of its history had been the great 
 mission entrusted to its teachers, the answer would dis- 
 cover itself, not amid the decay of an ever corrupt polity, 
 but among the free and healthy societies under which the 
 Roman Empire sank. Christian organization, indeed, 
 seems to have been destined to effect during the first 
 four centuries a work principally preparatory. The 
 efforts of the most systematically disciplined priesthood 
 the world ever saw were never directed towards the 
 political reformation of a state so rapidly verging to 
 
CH. IV.] THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE, &C. 105 
 
 complete dissolution ; and the fall of the Empire con- 
 tinued not the less steadily or the less surely that it 
 contained within itself an element whose destined work 
 was the amelioration of the human race. Private, and 
 to a certain extent public, morality had, as we have seen, 
 progressively improved under the influence of the minis- 
 ters of religion, but no share of the activity and integrity 
 which animated the Church had gone to alter the tradi- 
 tional principles of a corrupt administration : and, even 
 when surrounded by a favouring court and people, the 
 clergy, as if conscious that their full powers were dis- 
 played to greatest perfection in the day of adversity, 
 seemed to be awaitino; the universal revolution which was 
 to call them into a new and wider sphere of action. 
 
 In the preceding portion of this essay, we have traced 
 the varying relations of the priesthood to a people old in 
 cultivation, and long hardened by its attendant vices; 
 we have seen theni bring the great truths of the religion 
 which is by faith into collision with the multiform theories 
 of human ingenuity : for the future we shall observe their 
 intercourse with the rough but athletic society which, 
 bursting from the forests of Germany, was interfused 
 among the fragments of the Empire it subverted; we 
 shall see them conquering the lingering resistance of 
 Paganism, and accustoming the unschooled barbarian 
 intellects to the laws and literature as well as to the 
 systematic hierarchy of Rome. As they had not passed 
 uninjured through the temptations of their first prosperity, 
 so neither can we expect to find them un corrupted by a 
 
106 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 still greater elevation. They had long been the sole 
 religious guides of the world, while they had possessed 
 but in part the glories of political, legal, and moral 
 science ; but the sixth and seventh centuries beheld 
 them the undisputed dispensers of every branch of know- 
 ledge alike. Exposed as they were to the greatest of all 
 dangers, the temptation of intellectual pride, what wonder 
 if they forgot that they were ministers of a kingdom 
 which is invisible, and if, neglecting their more legitimate 
 influence on the destinies of individuals, they sought to 
 exercise an intriguing sway over the fate of nations 1 It 
 is unquestionably true that, while in the age of persecu- 
 tion we can discern the first tokens of many a failing, 
 the most fatal period of clerical corruption was that when 
 the kingdoms of modern Europe were founded. The 
 mighty poet of republican Florence has seen the first 
 germ of the calamities of Papal ambition in the endow- 
 ment of the Roman See by Constantino*, but he might 
 have found a more historical orio-in for them than this in 
 the lavish piety of barbarian sovereigns. They, animated 
 by one of the noblest tendencies of our nature, prostrated 
 themselves with all their victories and spoils before the 
 religious principle they had learnt from their subjects ; 
 and, willing to acknowledge a supreme Imperial head in 
 spiritual as well as in temporal matters, they humbled 
 
 * Ahi, Constantin, di qiianto mal fu matre, 
 Non la tua conversion, ma quella dote, 
 Che da te prese il prime ricco patre ! 
 
 DantEj Inferno, xix. 115. 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 107 
 
 themselves readily before all the assumptions of Papal 
 domination. Even the monarchs of the Lombards, 
 whom proximity might have taught, as it did their 
 republican successors, to despise the thunders of the 
 Vatican, manifested the sincerity of their conversion 
 from Arianism, by exalting the Bishop of Home as the 
 supreme Head of all Churches and the wielder of the 
 Canon Law*. 
 
 But without straying beyond om* more immediate 
 province to notice such inevitable abuses, we shall assur- 
 edly find no lack of facts to convince us that, while fer- 
 tile lands were devoted to unsparing desolation, and 
 ancient nations seemed to have vanished amid the con- 
 flicting floods of barbarism, one power yet remained, 
 immoveable amid material shocks, because resting on 
 no material foundation. While we contemplate during 
 these ages of gloom change after change throughout 
 the whole Roman Empire, and mourn over the disappear- 
 ance of venerable names, the mind must ever repose with 
 peculiar pleasure on the constant grandeur of the eccle- 
 siastical edifice, and be led, as it always is in the hour of 
 greatest peril, to acknowledge the supremacy, in the 
 affairs of nations, of the spiritual over the temporal. 
 
 The period on which we are about to enter is, as we 
 have already stated, comprised between the fall of the 
 Western Empire (a.d. 476) and the accession of Charle- 
 magne to the undivided Frankish throne (ad. 771). 
 
 • See a letter in the Laws of Liutprand, King of the Lombards, 
 lib. V. c. 4. ap. Canciani Leges Barbaroritm, i. i. p. 110. 
 
108 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 This division, which may seem to have reference rather 
 to secular than to ecclesiastical events, is yet on the 
 whole more adapted for our purpose than any other ; 
 for although the internal conditions of Church government 
 and doctrine may have undergone considerable fluctu- 
 ations, yet during these three centuries the clergy found 
 themselves in contact with the same leading principles of 
 government, and occupied a similar position relatively to 
 the other members of the social body. The traditions of 
 Imperial Home were preserved, and its mere name had 
 weight with tribes long accustomed to set at nought its 
 sway^ The rude lineaments of barbaric society remained 
 for the most part unchanged, encompassing without 
 extinguishing the ruins of Italian institutions 2; while 
 among them all the clergy, protected by the statutes of 
 Constantine or Theodosius, and maintaining, or professing 
 to maintain, unaltered the whole purity of patristic disci- 
 pline, seemed by their own immobility only to show the 
 
 ' " Cum jam Protadius genere Romanus vehementer ab omni- 
 bus in palatio veneraretur,...patricius ordinatur instigatione Bruni- 
 childis" ( Fredegarii Chronicon, c. 24 printed by Ruinart in his 
 ed. of Gregory of Tours, col. 605): so Protadius is succeeded by 
 one Claudius "genere Romanus " (c. 28), and Vulfus by one Riclio- 
 meris '" Romanus genere" (c. 29) : and the language used of Car- 
 loman and Pepin, when they quell a revolt of the Gascons, is 
 "Romanos proterunt" (ibid. 3rd continuat. c. 111). 
 
 ^ As a proof how distinctly the nationalities were preserved in 
 the reign of Dagobert, we have among a list of 10 army-leaders 
 or dukes, " Chairaardus ex genere Francorum, Chramnelinus ex 
 genere Romanorum, Willibadus patricius ex genere Burgundio- 
 num, Aigyna ex genere Saxonum" (ibid. c. 78). 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. lOD 
 
 velocity of the uncertain eddies by which all secular things 
 were whirled along. The reign of Charlemagne, on the 
 other hand, forms the beginning of a new era; for the 
 unwieldy extension of his empire, and the hereditary 
 transmission of provincial jurisdictions, first apparent 
 under him, were among the principal causes of that 
 gradual amalgamation of Roman and Teutonic customs 
 ultimately productive of the feudal system. 
 
 This section of our subject, then, may be said to 
 embrace the interval between ancient and mediaeval 
 history. We shall have to view the society of European 
 nations during the momentous transition from Imperialism 
 to feudalism : and, though the striking examples of clerical 
 power may be less frequent than during either of the two 
 adjacent periods, though we may have neither an Am- 
 brose nor a Hildebrand, yet the moral and social workings 
 of the priesthood will at no time appear in a more inter- 
 esting form than in this the most critical passage of 
 European history. 
 
 We turn, then, in the first place, to the moral influ- 
 ence of the clergy. This portion of our task, facilitated 
 during the Roman period by the more or less impartial 
 compilations of so many contemporary historians and 
 theologians, presents itself to us now under a very 
 different aspect. We are no longer guided by the volu- 
 minous writings of the Church Fathers, from whose 
 inexhaustible resources have been, and will be, drawn 
 such abundant information concerning the government, 
 discipline, and doctrine of the Church of the first five 
 
110 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 centuries. The historians and antiquaries whose works 
 throw hglit upon the period now before us are mere sap- 
 less chroniclers, either cursed with the narrowmindedness 
 of the cloister, or too intent upon secular vanities to have 
 given any serious thoughts to the hidden causes of the 
 events they record. In this emergency, however, very 
 considerable support may be derived from the somewhat 
 miscellaneous collections of statutes, which, under the 
 titles of the Salic, Alemannic, Lombard, Burgundian, 
 and Visigothic Codes, display a strange but instructive 
 medley of the legal traditions of Rome and Germany, of 
 the Forum and the Mallum. And the information we 
 derive from such sources as these may be said to be both 
 direct and indirect ; direct, in so far as we learn from 
 the special enactments what must have been the state of 
 pubhc feeling and morality in which they originated and 
 resulted; indirect, in so far as the general tone of each 
 entire code affords a clue to ascertain the enlightenment 
 or ip-norance of the tribe which made use of it. 
 
 In treating of the exaltation of the Christian clergy 
 under Constantine, we have alluded to the more remote 
 consequences of his measures on the minds of the Teu- 
 tonic invaders. We then saw that many a deviation 
 from primitive simplicity, dangerous though it might 
 justly seem to the integrity of the Roman faith, was 
 productive of consequences the most momentous on tribes 
 who reverenced principally the pomp and mysterious 
 ceremony attendant on the faith which they embraced, 
 and would have scorned to bow down before priests or 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. Ill 
 
 altars whose faultless humility merely recalled the rude 
 shrines of their native forests. It is true that in many 
 cases their nominal conversion had taken place before 
 they had been made acquainted with the majesty of the 
 Itahan clergy; that, owing to the exertions of an Ulphilas, 
 Christianity had been diffused among the Gothic hordes 
 long before they were tempted by the promised spoils of 
 the South : but we are justified by all the records of the 
 barbarian inroads in asserting^ that such conversions 
 added rather to the glory of the Christian missionaries 
 than to the security of the conquered lands ; and that the 
 truth was often preached to and received by the monarchs 
 long before it had any effect on their people. The piety 
 of Origen* had anticipated the period when the barba- 
 rians were universally to yield to the advance of the 
 word of God, and to acknowledge the civilizing influences 
 of Christianity ; but he little foresaw that his vows were 
 to be realized in the very centre of ancient cultivation, 
 and that the barbarians and Scythians in whom he hoped 
 to see the fruit of foreign missions were to be converted 
 by the home exertions of the Italian clergy. We may, 
 however, be persuaded that some faint respect for the 
 faith of the conquered lurked in the breasts of the con- 
 querors, from the vivid picture which Augustine t has 
 
 * [Ei yap, oj? Xe'yet KeXo-o?, to avTO fioi Troitjtreiau aTravre^, otj- 
 \ov6tl Kal OL ^dpfiapoi, tw \6yw tov deou 'TrpocreXQovTe's, vo/jLifxcoTaToi 
 eaovTai Kal rifxepcoraToi, Kal iruaa fxev 6pti<TKeia KaTaXvdijaeTaL, fjLovTj 
 5e i| XpicTTiavcov K-paTJjcrei" 7jTt5 Kal fxovi] irore Kpa-rijo-et, tov \6yov 
 
 del Tr\cioj/ae vefiofxh'ov \l/vxd^-] C. Celsum, vlii. 68. [p. 423. ed. Spenc] 
 t De Civitate Dei, lib. i. c. 1^ &c. 
 
112 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 drawn of the reverence with which the followers of 
 Aiaric drew back from the Christian shrines, and 
 extended an unwonted clemency to all, believers and 
 unbelievers alike, who clustered round the sacred altars. 
 
 In order fully to appreciate the effects produced on 
 those rude tribes by the efforts of the propagators of the 
 Gospel, we must compare their customs and statutes, not 
 with the civilization of Imperial Rome, but with the 
 habits of the same tribes in their native wilds, as far as 
 we can be made acquainted with them by means of the 
 scanty allusions or sketches of the Latin wTiters : or we 
 may arrive at the same result by contrasting the first 
 great flood of invaders, after they had undergone for a 
 few years the operation of Christianity, with those who 
 subsequently were urged on in the same direction and 
 by similar causes. Adopting the former of these methods, 
 we shall have on the one hand the lawlessness, careless- 
 ness of human life, and idolatry which, in spite of all 
 declamation on the nobleness of unfettered man, are ever 
 indicative of a state in \vhich all the worst passions of 
 our nature have unlimited scope; on the other hand, 
 though it may be that some rude virtues have perished 
 with their kindred defects, yet reverence for law and a 
 higher tone of public and private morality attest the 
 continuance of an intercourse with ancient civiHzation 
 and the softening influence of a pure religion. And let 
 it not be imagined that the progress of the barbarian 
 tribes in the arts and ideas of a higher hfe is to be attri- 
 buted to the action of secular teachers, or to any tradi- 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 113 
 
 tional remnants of mere Pagan philosophy; for the longr 
 succession of the heathen schools had come to an end, 
 and not only the theology but even the law and literature 
 (such as it was) of the age was exclusively in clerical 
 hands. Indeed it cannot surprise us that in that tem- 
 pestuous scene all the arts and sciences should take 
 shelter in monasteries and churches, the only harbours of 
 refuge from the surrounding barbarism ; for, in propor- 
 tion as the numbers and ferocity of the invaders increased, 
 so the spiritual and intellectual energies of the world 
 tended to flock towards those more enduring institutions 
 which afforded, not only defence against the enemy, but 
 the most effectual means of repelling the advancing 
 darkness, and shortening the reign of brute force by 
 extending the benefits of a civilizing religion. 
 
 If, again, we would adopt the second of the two 
 modes of comparison we have spoken of, and contrast 
 the tribes of earlier with those of later civilization, we 
 have only to turn to the descriptions of the Saxon 
 enemies of Charlemagne, of the inhospitable tribes among 
 whom Boniface laboured and perished^, or of the count- 
 less bands of marauders, whom the plains of Sclavonia 
 or the islands and peninsulas of the North sent forth to 
 the desolation of more favoured lands. It is by instituting 
 such a parallel as this that we can most satisfactorily 
 ascertain the results of those clerical exertions by which 
 
 1 See the account (Vita S. Wmiebcddi, cc. 12, 13. ap. Canis. Ant. 
 Led. ii. 129. ed. 1725) of the difficulties experienced at Heiden- 
 heim by ^^unebald, brother of Boniface's coadjutor Willebald. 
 
 I 
 
114 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 the perils of a recurrence to savage life were actually 
 averted from the European lands. And although it is 
 undeniably fitting that we give due weight to the nume- 
 rous writers who have represented in such strong colours 
 the clerical corruptions of a degenerate age, that we 
 acknowledge the pernicious influences of that system of 
 expiatory offerings and ceremonies by which the too 
 complying or lucre-loving among the priesthood pacified 
 the consciences of their rude disciples, and the avaricious 
 spirit which directed so much of the plunder of suffering 
 lands into the capacious coffers of the Church ; yet the 
 most zealous opponents of Romanizing tendencies can 
 hardly assert these to have been the principal and primary 
 results of the collision of idolatry and ignorance with true 
 religion and learning. Indeed, had such been the case, 
 the nations of Germany would have lost as much in moral 
 rectitude as they gained in temporal power by their 
 conquests ; for not only was the Church the most active 
 element of society when the Western Empire fell, but it 
 was the only element which could be said to be animated 
 by a living principle or by fixed motives of action. That 
 great corporation continued to exercise all its former 
 privileges when all political bodies had fallen into the 
 last stage of hopeless inanition. Its members rose and 
 ruled above all other dignitaries, alike in the Imperial 
 Court and in the meanest municipality. In a word, it 
 alone was swayed by the settled maxims of a wise tradi- 
 tion, it alone understood what it was to demand and 
 obtain the subjection of the mind. 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 115 
 
 But the authority and immunities possessed by the 
 priesthood under the Emperors were far below what they 
 attained under the barbarian monarchs. The clergy 
 under the Roman law had, it is true, possessed a full 
 share of peculiar privileges, and as a corporate body they 
 had enjoyed every favour which Imperial piety could 
 suggest ; but as individuals they were subject to the 
 very same obligations and penalties as the laity. But 
 with the German invaders was, as is well known, intro- 
 duced into civilized Europe a new principle of juris- 
 prudence, which asserted the strict nationality of judicial 
 enactments, so that even the scattered members of each 
 barbarian horde, whether Lombards, Burgundians, or 
 Visigoths, could claim the right of being judged and 
 punished according to the statutes of their ancestors ^ 
 This custom, which might at first sight have appeared 
 perilous to the unity and stability of the clerical body, 
 proved to be one of its main safeguards, and one of the 
 principal sources of extended priestly influence. For the 
 simple legislation of the invaders was utterly without 
 means of supplying the numerous exigencies of hier- 
 archical government, and the clergy, instead of being 
 partitioned into as many separate churches as there were 
 tribes in the European population, secured for themselves 
 
 ^ The Life of St Leodger (c. 4. ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mem. ii. 
 831. Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Scrip, i. 602 c. Paris. 1636) mentions 
 a demand made on King Childeric Avith reference to his three 
 kingdoms, '^iit uniuscuj usque patriae legem vel consuetudinem 
 deberent sicut antiquitus judices conservare." 
 
 I 2 
 
IIG THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 undisturbed tranquillity under the provisions of the Roman 
 law*. Thus it came to pass that both as ministers of 
 holy things and as individuals they enjoyed privileges and 
 legal protections to which even the noblest among their 
 conquerors were strangers. Again and again do we find 
 the Germanic legislators asserting broadly the general 
 principle which placed under the statutes of the Theodo- 
 sian code every member of the clerical body, whatever 
 might be the language he spoke, or the tribe to which he 
 belonged ^ That this regulation was universally carried 
 out, in spite of every inconvenience attending it, we may 
 gather from a statute of the Lombard King Liutprand, 
 by which he rules that, if a Lombard, the father of a 
 family, enters the Church, he himself immediately be- 
 comes entitled to the privileges of a Roman, while his 
 children continue to live under the enactments of their 
 
 * See the remarks of Savigny, Geschichie des Romischen Rechts 
 im Mittelalter. Vol. i. pp. 115—118, and ii. 261. 
 
 ' In proof of the fact that the clergy enjoyed the privileges of 
 the Theodosian Code, Eccard (on Leg. Ripitar. Iviii. 1. ap. Cancian. 
 Leg. Barb. ii. 811) refers to Ludovicus Pius in ' Capit. Excerpt, ex 
 Leg. Langoh. c. 5/ " 'ut omnis ordo Ecclesiarum secundum Legem 
 Romanam vivat : et sic inquirantur vel defendantur res ecclesias- 
 ticse, ut emphiteuseos contractus, unde ecclesia damnum patiatur, 
 non ohservetur, sed secundum Legem Romanam destruatur et poena 
 non solvatur.' Eadem habentur in 'Leg. Langob. iii. 1, § 37.' 
 Vide Chartam editam a Durante Doria in ' Historia familicB Trin- 
 cice, p. 90:' 'Anno ab incarnatione Domini nostri 1095, indictione 
 tertia, mense Februarii ; nos Presbyter Acto q. Berardi et Pres- 
 byter Joannes q. Joannis, qui professi sumus ex natione nostra 
 legem vivere Langobardorum, sed nunc pro honore sacerdotii 
 nostri videmur vivere legem Romanorum &c."' 
 
IV,] OF THE EARLY CHKISTIAN CLERGY. 117 
 
 forefathers*. The Anglo-Saxon juridical system of our 
 own island appears to have been the only one where the 
 churchman and the lavman were distino-uished bv no 
 difference of legal privileges t, and the fact may be easily 
 accounted for, if we remember how entirely the old 
 Roman customs were swept away by the Saxon conquest, 
 and how completely every trace of British Christianity 
 disappeared from tlie greater portion of the island. 
 
 Here, then, we discover a means of increasing priestly 
 power, which, before the various national codes had been 
 incorporated into systematized local ones, must have made 
 itself universally felt. If the sacerdotal order had been 
 broadly distinguished from the civil powers during the 
 Empire, it was so far more now ; for morality, laws, and 
 language, while they combined to keep it separate from 
 the Germanic world around, all tended to draw more 
 closely than ever the bond which united it to the inha- 
 bitants of the old municipalities. The laws, which dis- 
 tinguished it from the strangers, identified it in all its 
 interests with the "disjecta membra" of Imperial great- 
 ness. The Episcopal seats, unaltered by the change of 
 rulers, conferred upon their occupants all the outward 
 pomp, and far more than the moral influence, of the 
 Roman prefects ; for we read of roving hordes having 
 more than once turned away with superstitious self-denial 
 from walls whose only defence lay in the sanctity of their 
 priestly protectors. The annals of Greece have recorded 
 
 * Leges LangohardictB, v. c. 100. ap. Cancian., t. i. p. 138. 
 t See Palgrave's English Commonwealth, vol. i. p. 164. 
 
118 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 the efficient intervention of a present deity to avert from 
 the Delphic fane the Persian and Scythian marauders; 
 and in hke manner, during the period before us, Christian 
 Romans and superstitious idolaters were equally willing 
 to recognize the immediate hand of the Lord in the 
 preservation of his unfortunate people. It was the en- 
 thusiastic activity of a Christian Bishop, rather than any 
 military prowess of the garrison, which snatched Orleans, 
 the last bulwark of Gaul, as it was destined to be of 
 France, from the grasp of Attila*, and the exulting piety 
 of Augustine t could trace the especial finger of God in 
 the slaughter of myriads of the followers of Rhadagaisus, 
 while his credulity denied the loss of a single drop of 
 Christian blood, and must have admired in the overthrow 
 of the Gothic monarch a not less signal intervention of 
 Providence than that which annihilated the host of Sen- 
 nacherib^. Thus the zeal of a religious strife, which in 
 
 * See the graphic account given [chiefly from Gregory of Tours, 
 Hist. Franc, ii. 7] by Gibbon (c. 35) of the prolonged defence 
 of Orleans, maintained by the prayers and exhortations of its 
 Bishop Anianus. 
 
 f De Civitate Dei, lib. v. c. 23. 
 
 ^ According to Gregory of Tours {De Glor. Mart. i. 13), when 
 the city of Bazas in Aquitaine was being besieged by the Huns, 
 " omni nocte sacerdos qui praeerat circuibat psallendo et orabat : 
 nee ab ullo auxilium nisi a Domini misericordia requirebat. Hor- 
 tabatur omnes orare et non deficere, asserens humiles preces coelo- 
 rum januas penetrare." Meanwhile the barbarian king beheld 
 a white-robed procession, with lights, encompassing the town in 
 vision, and again a ball of fire descend upon it. The inhabitants 
 denying any knowledge of either of these facts, the invader became 
 conscious of their heavenly defenders, and left them. So also at 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 119 
 
 a less enervated state of society might have rendered the 
 clergy the saviours of the Empire from the Germans, as 
 they afterwards were of the latter from the Saracens 
 through the Crusades, was exerted only on rare and 
 extreme emergencies, and we can already discern the rise 
 of that fanatical cowardice which once and again relied 
 on the protection of St Martin for the safety of his former 
 see, and was reduced to trust in the intercession of 
 St Ebbo to defend Sens against the Mussulman in- 
 vaders*. 
 
 So close and influential was the bond uniting the 
 clergy with those of their flocks who preserved their 
 ancient appellation of Roman citizens ; a bond which, if 
 
 the siege of Saragossa by Childebert and Clothaire, when the 
 inhabitants marched round the walls bearing the tunic of St Vin- 
 cent and offering up prayers, the besiegers were panic-stricken and 
 retired {Hist Franc, iii. 29). According to Frodoard {Hist. Eccl. 
 Rem. lib. i. c. 6. ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mem. v. 16 — 21, also in Cou- 
 venier s ed. of 1617, pp 26 — 31 ) the Vandals, while sacking Rheims, 
 were struck with a heaven-sent panic, and left the city unplun- 
 dered ; but they had already massacred the heroic bishop Nicasius 
 and his sister Eutropia. At a later period, according to a poetical 
 annalist of Charlemagne's achievements (Poeta Saxo ap. Pertz, 
 Mon. Germ. Hist. Script, t. i. p. 230), the Saxons attempting to 
 burn a church built by St Boniface at '' Fridesklar " were thus 
 repulsed : 
 
 " Hoc frustra nisos facinus complere nefandum 
 Invasit subito terror divinitus ingens, 
 Atque fuga turpi trepidos repedare coegit 
 Ad patriam, quos non hostes, non arma fugarunt." 
 See also the Vita S. Galli ap. Pertz^ ii. 19. 
 
 * See Sismondi, Hist, des Frangais, t. i. p. 220 and t. ii. p. 136. 
 [ed. 1821]. 
 
120 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 we suppose it, as we reasonably may, to have been co- 
 existent with the nominal distinction between Roman 
 and barbarian, must have continued to make itself felt 
 even in those lands where the amalgamation of the several 
 elements of society was most complete*. 
 
 But we find traces as satisfactory, though not so 
 clearly defined, of clerical action in the moral condition of 
 each of the newly-established nations. To hope, however, 
 to discern their action on the shapeless jurisprudence of 
 the earliest Prankish and Ostrogothic sovereigns would 
 be in vain, for the primitive codes in use under those 
 monarchs contain not the slightest allusion to what was 
 rapidly becoming the most important member of the state. 
 But if we must not expect direct indications of their 
 influence on legislation in codes which were to apply to 
 the laity alone, we are amply supplied with indirect evi- 
 dence of the presiding co-operation of men far superior 
 in legal knowledge and moral purity to the rude framers 
 of the unsophisticated Gothic "Bye Lawst.' For ex- 
 ample, — considering only such laws as attest the early 
 state of the connection between the clergy and laity, — in 
 the preface to the ancient Salic Code J, the Frankish 
 
 * Even the Visigothic Code, in a law published by King Reces- 
 wind, two centuries and a half subsequent to the origin of the 
 monarchy, regulating the intermarriages of Visigoths with other 
 nations, uses the term " Roman citizens." See Leges Visigothorum , 
 III. [tit. i.] c. 1 [ap. Cancian. Leg. Barb. t. iv. p. 88]. See also a 
 Constitution of Clothaire, King of the Franks, ap. Baluz. Cap. 
 Reg. Franc, t. i. coll. 7 — 10. 
 
 + Bellagines. 
 
 % " Gens Francorura inclyta, auctore Deo condita, fortis in 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CIIllISTIAN CLERGY. 121 
 
 nation, " recently," as the words are, " converted to the 
 CathoHc faith,"" prides itself on its freedom from the taint 
 of Arianism, and on having been specially moved by the 
 Lord to seek the key of knowledge: — phrases which it is 
 most natural to attribute to a clerical pen, and which 
 may at any rate be admitted as evidence that a certain 
 reverence for the forms of Christianity had been diffused 
 through the nation, and that its conversion had speedily 
 been followed by a revision of its old constitution, and 
 the introduction of a stricter morality. Again, we possess 
 stringent letters addressed by King Athalaric (who suc- 
 ceeded his father Theodoric on the throne of the Ostro- 
 goths, A.D. 526) to Pope John II. on the subject of 
 simony*, which we can scarcely believe to be the spon- 
 taneous productions of an imbecile sovereign, who was 
 brought to his grave by continued excess at the age of 
 sixteen ; nor was it probable that a mere secular adviser 
 would presume to interfere in matters of ecclesiastical 
 discipline : we must rather look upon this as another 
 proof of the early prevalence of the clerical element 
 among the barbarian nations. But the relations of the 
 priesthood to the civil government must be reserved for 
 our future investigation : we are occupied at present in 
 ascertaining their intimate connection with the Teutonic 
 life, as we have done with the Roman life, of the period. 
 
 armis^ firma pads foedere niiper ad Catholicam fidem conversa, 
 
 immiinis ab haeresi, dum adhiic teneretur barbarie, inspirante Deo 
 inqiiirens scientise clavem" Qap. Canciani Leg. Barb. t. ii. pp. 9, 10 J. 
 * Canciani Leges Barb. t. i. p. 14. 
 
122 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 It must not be imagined that, because they stood, as 
 we have represented, at the head of the ancient popula- 
 tion, who constituted the mass of the inhabitants in the 
 Western European lands, they were on that account 
 possessed of an insignificant influence over the proprietors 
 of the soil : on the contrary, they held over their new 
 converts a moral sway far more cogent than even the 
 partly political authority exercised by them over their 
 fellow -citizens. Their rude lords could not look with in- 
 difference on the ministers of that religion which received 
 them in its embrace at their entry into the world, and 
 deposited their bodies in the grave at the close of their 
 career ; which exercised the most unflinching watchful- 
 ness over every action of this life, and claimed a yet more 
 awful jurisdiction over the soul in the life to come. The 
 sacred person of the servant of God, who dispensed the 
 deep mysteries of the faith, and was protected by the 
 safeguard of a venerable code hidden from barbarian 
 knowledge, was looked upon with feelings of filial reve- 
 rence, to which the sophisticated sons of civilization 
 must ever be strangers. The hallowed precincts of the 
 Christian Temple, and the yet more inviolable sanctity of 
 the altar, honoured alone, as they imagined, by the incar- 
 nate presence of the Almighty, was surrounded in their 
 eyes with a glory more brilliant than that which had 
 once encircled the mystic sanctuary of Hertha, or had 
 clothed the Treninsule^ the Germanic Palladium of their 
 idolatrous progenitors. Indeed the expressions of Tacitus * 
 * De Germania, c. 7. 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 123 
 
 are enough to convince us that the reHgious tenden- 
 cies of the Teutonic nations were such as to render them 
 especially prone to exalt the priestly order and office 
 above every rival power. His words are " Neque ani- 
 madvertere neque vincire, ne verberare quidem, 7iisi 
 sacerdotihus permissum ; non quasi in poenam nee ducis 
 jussu, sed velut deo imperante, quern adesse bellantibus 
 credunt.''"' Nor were the clergy themselves slow in pro- 
 moting a feeling, which, while it advanced the limits of 
 their faith, afforded no small gratification to their secular 
 ambition. They introduced the idea of necessary priestly 
 intervention, not only in the more secret intercourse of 
 man with his Maker and his conscience, but even in 
 those temporal concerns which might have seemed to lie 
 beyond their jurisdiction. Thus they availed themselves 
 of that statute of Oonstantine concerning the manu- 
 mission of slaves, to which we have already adverted, and 
 we find in nearly every one of the barbarian codes a 
 law requiring clerical interference in every such moral 
 amelioration of the people. The Lombard monarch, 
 Aistulph*, decrees that the priest should lead the slave 
 round the altar, and, by absolving him from his earthly 
 obligations, tread in the steps of Him who came to free 
 the soul from a severer bondage, and, as if to prove that 
 
 * "Sacerdos, quem designaverit, circa altare eum absque cujus- 
 cunque contradictione absolvat, et liber permaneat, quia maxima 
 merces nobis esse videtur, ut de servitio servi ad libertatem dedu- 
 cantur, eo quod Redemtor noster servus fieri dignatus estj ut nobis 
 libertatem donaret." Leges Langohardicce^ lib. v. t. 7. [}. Aist, 
 Leg. c. 3. ap. Cancian. Leg. Barb. t. i. p. 145.] 
 
124 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 such a custom is not to be attributed to the accident of 
 local position, a similar edict occurs in the code of the 
 Visigoths*, the most geographically remote of all the 
 Germanic tribes'. 
 
 * Leges Visigothornm , lib. v. tit. vii. c. 2. [ap. Cancian. Leg. 
 Barh. t. iv. p. 125. J [The words are " Si quis sane vult ex integro 
 manumittere commune raancipium, preshyterum qui prsesens est 
 vel diaconum commonemus, ne hujusmodi libertatem se fieri prte- 
 sentibus permittant, quia hsec manuraissio stare non poterit. Si 
 quis autem commune maneipium vult a jugo servitutis absolvere, 
 prius cum consortibus suis dividat, et suae vindicet potestati ; aut 
 certe, cum his qui ei consortes sunt, id fieri vel precio vel precibus 
 elaboret : et si sic voluerit prsesente pre.sbytero vel diacono manu- 
 mittat, et libertas data firmetur. Quod si aliquis coram sacerdote 
 vel diacono commune maneipium ex integro manumi.serit, proprie- 
 tatis suse partem de mancipio amittat, et maneipium ad integrum 
 consors ille qui non manumisit ol)tineat. Nam si partem suam, 
 quae in eodem mancipio illi debetur, absolvere voluerit, prohiberi 
 non poterit "] 
 
 ^ Ducange (s. v. Manumissioi) cites many authorities. " Ex 
 beneficio S. Crucis, per Johannem Episcopum et per Albertum S. 
 Crucis casatum, factus est liber Lambertus teste hac sancta ecclesia." 
 ' Vet. mscrrpt. in Eccl. S. Crucis Aurelianensi.' " Denique semper 
 fuit consuetudo, ut quicunque voluerint sursum aut ante altare 
 JRedemptoris, aut ante corpus beati JVIartialis, servos suos libertati 
 darent." 'Cone. Lemovic. (anno 1C31) Sep. 2;' and Ennodius, 
 Opusc. 8; 'Gul. Malmesbur. Gest. Reg. Angl. i. p. 83;' Formiil. 
 vett. Bignonii. c. 8 [al. ' Marc. Form. App.' ap. Cancian. ii. 251]; 
 ^Anastas. Bibliothecar. in S.Julio PP.;' and Marculf. Formul App. 
 c. 8 (ap. Cancian. ii. 250) ; to Avhich may be added "Manumis- 
 siones in ecclesia sunt cek4irand8e :" Capit. [^Kar. et Ludov.^ v. .32. 
 [ap. Baluz. Cap. Beg. Franc, i. 831]; Liutprandi leg. Langoh. ii. 
 c. 3 (ap Cancian. i. 108); ibid. iv. c. 5 (ap. Cane. i. 107); Leg. 
 Ripnar. lviii. § 1. [ap. Cancian. ii. 811]; 'Form. Leg. Rom. c. 12;' 
 and ' Burchard, ii. 28.' An English allusion to manumission at 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 125 
 
 Another yet more prominent instance of the inter- 
 vention early claimed and exercised by the clergy is to be 
 found in the right of ecclesiastical sanctuary, which the 
 passage we have already cited from Augustine proves to 
 have been practically acknowledged by barbarian super- 
 stition at its very earliest collision with the Roman Em- 
 pire. The privileges of the clergy in this respect a^ppear 
 never to have attained under the rude chiefs of the 6tli 
 and 7th centuries that exorbitant height which has 
 proved so pernicious in more refined nations; for they 
 were universally resisted by the civil legislation*, or so 
 far modified as to be no longer obnoxious to the claims 
 of justice^. To the general reader in our days the phrase 
 
 the altar occurs in King Wihtraed's Laws (viii. ap Thorpe, Anc. 
 Laws, p. 17). 
 
 * The Visigothic code ordained that a criminal under sentence 
 of death should be given up, but the extreme penalty remitted 
 (lib. V. tit. VI. 5, 16). The Anglo-Saxon laws allowed nine days of 
 impunity ; but the priest was usually compelled to surrender the 
 suppliant on the payment of a certain fixed sum by his prosecutor 
 or master. See Leges Lke Anglice Regis, c. 5 [" Si quis mortis sit 
 reus, et ad Ecclesiam confugiat, habeat vitam suam, et compenset 
 prout jus eum doceat"], with AV^ilkins s note ad loc. \_Leg. Anglo- 
 Sax, p. 15. Thorpe, Anc. Laws, p. 46.] 
 
 ^ When Turketid, abbot of Croyland, Avas recovering for his 
 monastery (anno 948J some of its lost rights, " antiquam loci im- 
 punitatem vel immunitatem nullo modo consensit acquirere, ne 
 sceleratis et impiis refugium a publicis leyibus videretur in aliquo 
 preebere, et cum hujusmodi maleficis compelleretur vel in aliquo 
 contra conscientiam suam cohabitare sen consentire" {Hist. lug. 
 ap. Gale, Rer. Aug. Sc7\ i. 40). The '^antiqua loci impunitas'' 
 granted by King Witlaf in 833 seems to have been unlimited, 
 extending to "quicunque in regno meo pro quocunque delicto 
 
126 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 "ecclesiastical sanctuary" is suggestive only of the abuse 
 of a custom which in early times was an acknowledged 
 remedy for a weakness of the social state of Europe. It 
 recalls to his recollection that troubled age of perverted 
 feudalism, when the most guilty as well as the most 
 innocent of homicides could find an assured refuge 
 within the capacious limits of a church or a monastery, 
 and when a numerous clergy presented, in this respect at 
 least, an incentive, because a security, to vice. We must 
 more correctly judge of the institution by its legitimate 
 action during the days when it supplied the often neces- 
 sary protection against sudden vengeance or illegal 
 assaults, which it was vain to expect from the careless 
 execution of imperfect laws ; and we may view it as the 
 reaction against the flagrant injustice of the statutes 
 which admitted a pecuniary composition in cases of wilful 
 murder : when a purer code was introduced, it became 
 unnatural and repugnant to the well-being of society. 
 
 Another marked peculiarity of the period, and one 
 which seems to imply more than any other either the 
 
 reus inventus et legibus obnoxius fuerit " {ibid. p. 8). The privi- 
 leges of sanctuary are much modified in Etheh-ed's Laws (c. vii. 
 §§ 16—18 ap. Thorpe, p. 142). The canons (8 and 9) of the 
 Council of ilheims [anno 62.5] (Frodoard, Hist. Eccl. Rem. lib. ii. 
 c. 5. ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mem. v. 146. Couvenier, p. 188. Le 
 Cointe, Ann. Ecc. Franc, ii. 752) simultaneously denounce excom- 
 munication on whosoever shall drag a fugitive from sanctuary 
 without making oath not to kill, torture, or mutilate him, and 
 require every criminal who obtains his life by the protection of 
 the Church to make oath that he will do penance for his crime, 
 and perform whatever shall be canonically imposed upon him. 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 127 
 
 constant intervention of the clergy in the ordinary affairs 
 of Hfe, or the complete incorporation into the every-day 
 life of the people of the doctrines they inculcated, is the 
 frequency with which religious forms occur in all deeds 
 and forms of ordinary processes. Numerous instances of 
 this present themselves to us in one of the most curious 
 compilations relating to the social condition of the bar- 
 barian nations, the Formulae of the Monk Marculf, who 
 seems to have published them towards the end of the 7th 
 century. Even in such of these as relate to purely 
 secular actions, the introduction of religious phraseology 
 tells us how exclusively the intellectual world had fallen 
 under clerical domination. Thus in the formula of 
 servile manumission the followino; sentences * occur : 
 " Qui debitum sibi nexum relaxat servitium, mercedem 
 in futurum apud Dominum sibi retribuere confidat. Igi- 
 tur ego in Dei nomine, &c.^"' It may, indeed, with 
 
 * Marculfi FormulcB (ap. Baluz. Capit. Reg. Fr. [t. ii. coll. 
 423, 4]) lib. II. cc. 32, 34. See also, as illustrations of the same 
 custom, some Anglo-Saxon charters of the 9tli century, quoted by 
 Palgrave, English Commonwealth, Part ii. p. ccxx. &c. 
 
 ^ The following additional examples are taken from Ducange 
 (iv. 253 6) : " Quoniam omnis potestas a Deo est, et qui potestati 
 resistit ordinationi Dei resistit, qui summa et mirabili dispensatione 
 Reges et Duces cseterasque potestates in terra constituit, ut minor 
 majori, ut consequens erat, serviret potestati ; et inter eos quos- 
 dam dominos alios servos esse voluit, ita tantum ut et Deum 
 domini et servi dominos venerarentur et amarent, juxta illud 
 Apostoli, Servi ohedite dominis carnalihiis cum, timore et tremore ; 
 et ad dominos ; Domini, quod justum est et cequum est servis prce- 
 state, minas remittite, quia et vos dominum habetis in coelo : si et 
 vobis et ilUs dominatur, quicunque ipse, qui Rex et dominus 
 
128 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 justice be urged that the phrases we liave quoted are 
 often mere words, and no more argue a perpetual and 
 active remembrance of the great truths they imply, than 
 the form of words so common in deeds of a later age, 
 *' appropinquante mundi termino," gives reason to believe 
 that the world was in readiness for the momentous change 
 thus so frequently predicted and expected. But we must 
 at the same time, in whatever light we look upon such 
 phrases, whether as mere expressions of a constant cler- 
 ical intervention, or with more reason as presenting the 
 outward results of a newly acquired Christianity, respect 
 the untutored faith of men who thus in all their civil 
 actions held in view higher aims and motives than any 
 which this world could present. 
 
 omnium est, forma et speculum totius boni, jugum servitutis pro 
 nobis subire dignatus est, quatenus nos a Legis maledicto et ser- 
 vitute diabolica liberaret, et suae ineffabilis libertatis participes 
 efficeret. — Idcirco ego, pro redemptione animte meae et pro seternae 
 beatitudinis retributione, hunc servum mei juris et omnem fruc- 
 tum ejus ab omiii servitutis ejus jugo absolvo, ut ab hodierna die 
 et deinceps securus et suae potestatis existat, eat quocunque volu- 
 erit, portas habens apertas, et nulli servitutis obsequium nisi soli 
 Deo, pro cujus amore ipsum manumitto, debeat." (^ex Tahul. 
 S. Laudi Andegavensis.') " Piissimus dominus noster Jesus Christus 
 
 inter alia praecepta praeeepit [fidelibus suis] debitores suos a 
 
 debitis illorum absolvere &c Tantae igitur auctoritatis pra;conio 
 
 compulsi, dominseque Hugardis Comitissse gratia precibusque ani- 
 mati, nos Canonici S. Laudi hunc fidelem nostrum Radulphum, 
 Ecclesiae nostrae vinculo servitutis obnoxium, ab omni debito ser- 
 vilis conditionis, pro animabus nostris Goffiidique Comitis excellen- 
 tissimi, qui potissimus Ecclesiae nostrae fundator et ornator extitit, 
 omniumque benefactorum nostrorum, absolvimus, &c."] (ibid.) 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 129 
 
 We have said enough to prove the ever more and 
 more intimate connection which united to the priestly 
 order as well the ancient inhabitants of the provincial 
 towns as the warlike lords of the soiP. And if it should 
 be supposed that we have spent an unnecessarily lono- 
 time on this branch of our subject, it must be answered, 
 that by this very relation in which the clergy stood to 
 the two originally hostile sections of the people did they 
 work out the security and salvation of mediaeval Europe. 
 In spite of all reasonings founded on the evils of excessive 
 priestly sway, it clearly appears that this the one inhe- 
 rent advantage of their position more than counter- 
 balances them all. It has been truly remarked by a 
 great historian of our own day*, that the peculiar cha- 
 racteristic and advantage of modern civilization Hes in 
 this, that it is not developed from a single origin, and 
 does not, as its predecessors have done, tend to the 
 realization of one leading idea alone : if then we admit 
 this tinith, and delifjht to discover amonjf the Eoman 
 provincials, as well as among the Germanic nations, the 
 foundation of the moral and political edifices in which 
 we glory, we must at the same time admire and cherish 
 the memory of that great third estate to whose action 
 we owe our intellectual ancestry. Valuable as was the 
 
 ^ According to the 27th canon of the Council of Rlieims (Fro- 
 doard, Hist. Eccl. Rem. lib. ii. c. o. ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mem. v. 149, 
 150. Couvenier, p. 193), no bishop was to be appointed unless a 
 native of the province and elected by the desire of the people and 
 with the consent of the bishops of the province. 
 
 * Guizot, Civilisation en Europe, \e(^. ii. [t. ii. pp. 44 — 46]. 
 
 K 
 
130 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 cultivation which lingered within the walls of Roman 
 towns, it was, as the preceding centuries testify, if viewed 
 in itself alone, poor, sapless, and void of all great promise. 
 Healthy as was the new blood and independent the rude 
 energy shed forth upon the world by the forests of Ger- 
 many, it too was, in itself, destitute of any vital germ 
 for the renovation of the exhausted world, for it was but 
 the energy derived from successive ages of savage life. 
 In a word, the European world was occupied by two 
 distinct and conflicting, though not ignoble, elements. 
 Their shock might to an observer of mere outward things 
 have seemed unavoidable; and there could be little doubt 
 concerning the victory in a struggle whose chief result 
 would be to consign the conqueror to irremediable ruin. 
 Then it was, during the most threatening crisis of the 
 world's history, that a religion bearing yet, amid all the 
 imperfections of its ministers, manifest traces of that 
 Divine love from which it sprung, operated to combine 
 the jarring elements, and restore comparative tranquilhty 
 to mankind. So glorious a result w^e must refer to the 
 instrumentality of the clergy; and assign to them as 
 their pre-eminent praise, that not only have they handed 
 down to us the traditional wealth of literature and leoris- 
 lation, but have displayed a more truly civilizing power 
 in gradually amalgamating what to us appears as one 
 society. 
 
 There was one peculiarity of the clerical body in 
 those early days, which at this distance of time we 
 perhaps scarcely realize with sufficient accuracy, although 
 
IV.] OF THE EAELY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 131 
 
 it seems in no unimportant degree to have contributed to 
 increase and enlarge the social power of the priesthood. 
 I alkide to the vast multitudes who were numbered 
 within the more immediate pale of the Church, and 
 enjoyed the privileges of its ministers"^. It was the 
 custom of every European country to admit to clerical 
 immunities many ecclesiastics who had never received 
 ordination, and were to be distinguished from the laity 
 only by their tonsure. It cannot be denied that this 
 practice was in after times carried out to the most per- 
 nicious extreme \ and was indeed from the very first a 
 wide deviation from the strict rules of Apostolic teaching; 
 for it seems to have originated in the custom of con- 
 ferring the tonsure upon children t as a pledge of future 
 
 * See Guizot^ Civilisation en France, le^. 13. [t. ii. pp. 6 — 8], 
 ^ "Atque ita ordine perverso innumeri sunt inventi, qui se 
 abbates pariter et prsefectos sive ministros aut famulos regis appel- 
 lant, qui, etsi aliquid vitae monasterialis ediscere laici non expe- 
 riendo sed audiendo potuerint, a persona tamen ilia ac professione, 
 quae hanc docere debeat, sunt funditus exsortes ; et quidem tales 
 repente, ut nosti, tonsuram pro suo libitu accipiunt, suo examine 
 de laicis non monachi sed abbates efficiuntur." Bede, Ep. ad 
 Ecghert. 13. Milo, whom Charles Martel intruded as bishop of 
 Rheims instead of Rigobert, is spoken of as " sola tonsura cleri- 
 cus" {Yvo^oaxdi, Hist Eccl. Rem. lib ii. cc. 12, 13. ap. Guizot, Coll. 
 des Mem, v. 172—175. Couvenier, pp. 222, 225, 227). 
 
 t That the tonsure of children was an ordinary practice is 
 proved by the frequent statutes of the French kings against their 
 being thus cut off from the world without the consent of their 
 parents. Guizot, in the passage above referred to, seems to con- 
 sider that the ceremony, when performed on children, implied 
 their devotion to a monastic life ; but the wording and context of 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 ordination, and to have been materially promoted by 
 the numerous temptations which the social station of a 
 Churchman offered to the ambitious and the oppressed; 
 but its dangerous tendencies do not appear to have been 
 
 the edicts we speak of appears to connect the tonsure rather with 
 
 the secular than the regular clergy. [" Erat in Ecclesia S. ISIartini 
 
 Turon. triplex ordo Canonicorum. Primus Presbyterorum et 
 
 Diaconorum qui in stalUs superioribus sedehant. Secundus Sub- 
 
 diaconoruni aliorumque rninorum ordinum, quibus locus erat in 
 
 inferioribus stallis. Tertius ordo erat Canonicorum puerorum 
 
 seu Clericorum simplicis tonsurte^, qui in scamnis considebant 
 
 puerorum choralium more, dividebanturque inter se variis stationi- 
 
 bus et officiis. Hi nomine Clericorum seu Canonicorum de Terra 
 
 designabantur. (Ducange, s. v. Clerici, ii. 392 h, c.) The nun of 
 
 Heidenheim, who describes the travels of her relation St Willibald, 
 
 tells us that, when in his third year he was dangerously ill, his 
 
 parents brought him to the cross with vows "extemplo ilium sub 
 
 sacri ordinis primordio tonsuram accipere, sub coenobialis vitae 
 
 discii)lina, sub divinae legis moderamine militando Christi famu- 
 
 latui subjicere," if he should recover. Accordingly, when he was 
 
 five years old, and "jam tunc temporis germinabat sapientiae vir- 
 
 gultum," they "illustrem quantocius cum consultu amicorum 
 
 carnaliumque propinquorum consilio ad sacrse coenobialis vitee 
 
 instrumenta prseparare atque perficere festinabant ;" and sent him 
 
 to the abbey of Waltham, where the ab^^ot Egwalt referred the 
 
 question of his admission to the monks : " cui protinus omnis ilia 
 
 conventio fratrum simul responsum seu licentiam dabant, suseque 
 
 voluntatis arbitrio htec omnia fas fore dicebant, acceptumque ilium 
 
 ocius inter coenobiale vitse eorum consortium jungendo sociabant 
 
 {Hodoeporicon S. Willibaldi, cc. 1, 2. ap. Canis. Led. Ant. ii. 107. 
 
 ed. 1725). Among the Excerptiones (95 ap. Thorpe, Anc. LawSy 
 
 p. 334) of Ecgbert, archbishop of York, is the rule of Isidore, 
 
 " Quicunque a parentibus propriis in monasterio fuerit delegatus, 
 
 noverit se ibi perpetuo mansuiiim ; nam Anna Samuel puerum 
 
 natum et ablactatum Deo optuiit; qui in ministerio tempH per- 
 
 mansit."j 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 133 
 
 called into play until the old canons were neglected, 
 which excluded the dregs of society from the service of 
 the altar. Meanwhile it materially strengthened the 
 authority of the Church by surrounding it with devoted 
 adherents, easily to be distinguished from the long-haired 
 barbarians, and forming, as it were, a middle order 
 between the sanctity of the ordained priesthood and the 
 main body of the faithful. The ties which bound toge- 
 ther the E/oman and Germanic peoples were thus more 
 than ever strengthened, since a large increase was effected 
 in the numbers of that sacerdotal order which was most 
 interested in the consolidation of society. Before we 
 turn to consider another mode of clerical influence, we 
 must answer one objection which might very speciously 
 be urged against the correctness of the preceding con- 
 clusions. It might be argued that the natural and inse- 
 parable union of the priesthood with the old population 
 was in so marked a manner the principal feature in their 
 organization, and so much more cogent than the some- 
 what feeble bond which attached them to the barbarians, 
 that it may more reasonably be supposed to have tended 
 rather towards alienating the minds of the conquerors, 
 and that we must consider the social amalsfamation to 
 have proceeded rather in spite of than in consequence of 
 clerical interference. 
 
 Now, as if for the express purpose of convincing us 
 how completely and how willingly the clergy bound them- 
 selves occasionally by a community of interests with the 
 
134 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 conquerors, we possess records* which prove that it was 
 by no means uncommon for dignitaries of the Church 
 voluntarily to surrender the privileges of the Roman Law, 
 and submit themselves to the barbarian codes. 
 
 Such, then, was the great moral and social w^ork of 
 the Christian ministers during the gradual settlement of 
 the European nations, but it was by no means their only 
 one. Well worthy of remark in a less degree was their 
 influence as the disseminators of the old Roman traditions 
 and legislation among the new possessors of the soil, and 
 in cherishing a spirit which manifested itself in the zeal 
 for the restoration of almost forgotten offices and insignia, 
 as when Theodoric attempted to restore among the Ostro- 
 goths the fallen dignity of the Empire, and the Frank 
 conqueror of Gaul assumed to himself the titles of Patri- 
 cian and Augustus t : but a fuller investigation of these 
 topics will fall more appropriately under a future division 
 of our subject. 
 
 Thus far we have limited our view more especially to 
 the period of national migration and final settlement, 
 which was the forerunner of the mediaeval system. If we 
 
 * See the passages quoted by Savigny, Gesch. d. Rom. Rechts. 
 vol. i. p. 117, note 66. [" ' Fumagalli, Cod. dipl. Ambros.'Num. 124. 
 p. 502. a. 885.' ' Ego Leotpertus archipresbiter ecclesie S. Juliani 
 qui professo sum legem vivere langubardorum.' Eben so der 
 BiscliofF Atto von Bergamo im J. 1072. Ughelli, [^Italia Sacra.'] 
 t. iv. col. 447 [ed. 1719]. In Bergamo war es im zehnten und elften 
 Jalirliundert so haiifig, dass man diese Ausnalime fast als Kegel 
 ansehen konnte. ' Lupi. p. 225.' "] 
 
 t Sismondi^ Hist, des Fran^ais, t. i. p. 227. 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 135 
 
 now direct our attention to the moral condition of the 
 European world during the age of comparative repose 
 intervening between the re-establishment of more enduring 
 governments and the accession of Charlemagne, we shall 
 find satisfactory traces of the progressive operation of 
 clerical authority ; and our inquiries are materially faci- 
 litated by the circumstance that although the conditions 
 of the different parts of Europe before the rise of the 
 Carlovingian Empire varied widely, yet we may safely 
 compare their relative progress by assuming them all to 
 have diverged from one common center, to be found in 
 those customs and modes of thought peculiar to all the 
 Teutonic tribes. Let us take what is perhaps the most 
 obvious and most frequently cited of all these barbarian 
 characteristics. Nothing can be more completely indi- 
 cative of an utterly uncultivated state than the penal code 
 of the German nations; indeed we can scarcely term it a 
 penal code, for in the ages of those primitive legislators 
 crime, in the sense we attach to the word, had no 
 existence. Every violation of what we denominate public 
 justice was to them a mere civil offence; for national 
 authority was never exerted in the punishment of guilt, 
 and retribution depended solely on the power or inclina- 
 tions of the injured party. This system of '''- weregilf 
 or penal composition was originally so inherent in all the 
 barbarian tribes that we may assume their greater or less 
 deviation from the ancient laws in this particular as a not 
 inaccurate test of their progress in the humanizing arts. 
 Now the Visigothic kingdom, as we have already seen. 
 
136 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH 
 
 was the first to exhibit any approach towards a more 
 correct penal legislation. In it first was the " weregilt'" 
 in any measure abolished, and truer ideas on the subject 
 of crime inculcated on the people*. Their civil code, too, 
 indicates a state of society far superior to that of the 
 Burgundians or less polished Franks, and it contains, 
 prefixed to its leading enactments, such general remarks 
 on the principles of jurisprudence and the respective 
 duties of a legislator and his subjects, as prove it to have 
 been compiled by men of thought and philosophy. If we 
 seek for the cause of so manifest a superiority, we shall 
 find it in that extraordinary legislative and political 
 authority of the clergy, which imparted to the great 
 national councils of Toledo the mingled characters of 
 Parliament and Convocation f, and which we shall more 
 thoroughly examine when we have come to consider the 
 political influence of the priesthood. And lest it should 
 be imagined that the superiority of Visigothic juris- 
 prudence was the consequence rather of a long course of 
 unbroken tranquillity than of the maxims of Roman law 
 transmitted through the clergy, we may enunciate this 
 general proposition which appears to be supported by a 
 comparison of the various European nations during the 
 6th and 7th centuries : — That, in proportion as each 
 Germanic tribe, on establishing itself in its new dominions, 
 
 * See, e.g. lib. vi. tit. 5 [ap. Cancian. Leg. Barb. t. iv. pp. 137 — 
 142^, where unintentional homicide is made expiable by a compo- 
 sition, but murder by capital punishment alone. 
 
 + See Gibbon, c. 88. 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 137 
 
 found itself in contact with a more or less oriranized 
 clergy and submitted with greater or less willingness to 
 the exhortations of its spiritual advisers, so was the 
 rapidity of its subsequent progress from the rude enact- 
 ments of former days to the scrupulous justice of Rome. 
 In illustration of this, we find that the Burgundians, who 
 of all the invading hordes, if we except the Visigoths, 
 occupied a land most thickly teeming with Roman cities 
 and rejoicing in the most numerous and thoroughly 
 organized priesthood, possessed a code far surpassing in 
 completeness and impartiality the rude statutes of their 
 Frank neighbours. While in our own island, where, as 
 we have already noticed, the w^iole fabric of Roman 
 hierarchy had been most utterly demolished by the savage 
 idolatry of the Saxon conquerors, and where the scanty 
 privileges of the clergy placed them in a less dominant 
 position than was enjoyed by their brethren either in 
 France or Spain, the ancient ignorance and barbarism on 
 the subject of penal ordinances held sway long after it 
 had vanished from the continent of Europe ^. From such 
 an induction as this we seem to be fully justified in 
 asserting, that to the clergy principally does Europe owe 
 the disappearance of that pernicious notion which taught 
 man to look upon himself as answerable to his injured 
 
 ^ Thus the early part of Alfred's Laws, which consists of little 
 more than adaptations of the Mosaic law, repeatedly ordains capital 
 punishment (see in particular § 15. ap. Thorpe, Anc. Laws, p. 21) ; 
 whereas in the later part (see § 9. Thorpe, pp. SO, 31, and §^ 27 — 31, 
 pp. 35, 36) a pecuniary compensation is appointed for the same 
 oflfences. 
 
138 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 fellow- creatures alone, and for the inculcation of that 
 doctrine from which he learnt to anticipate in the awards 
 of national justice the more severe retribution of the 
 offended Deity. We shall be confirmed in this opinion 
 if we examine that remarkable series of royal constitutions 
 and national decrees, known as the Capitularies of the 
 Frank kings. Such scanty edicts of the earlier Mero- 
 vingian monarchs as have been preserved are filled with 
 little else than bare repetitions of old barbarian laws 
 from the East of the Khine, with characteristic valuations 
 of human life and limb, and are, on the whole, such 
 as might reasonably be expected to emanate from an 
 assembly of warriors. However, we learn from the con- 
 temporary chronicles that the first sovereigns of the 
 Carlovingian race, animated by a far-sighted piety, en- 
 trusted to the clergy the supreme direction of the Champ 
 de Mars assemblies : accordingly, the decrees headed by 
 the names of Carloman and Pepin, while they profess to 
 be produced by the joint wisdom of temporal and spiritual 
 potentates, bear the scantiest marks of the former, while 
 in every phrase they display the unceasing industry of 
 the latter, and, instead of being framed after the model 
 of the old unmeaning enactments, they tend to the 
 establishment of a purer morality, and to the more com- 
 plete organization of the Church and of the official re- 
 sponsibilities of its ministers*. 
 
 * See in particular the decrees of the Council ofVermeric (held 
 by Pepin I. a.d. 752) ap. Baluz. [Capit. Meg. Franc.'] t i. coll. 
 161—6. 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 189 
 
 During the preceding pages our undivided attention 
 has been given to the secular clergy, as we may now in 
 strictness term them ; and we have left unexplored a 
 wide field of research, from w'hich we may discover the 
 means employed and the results achieved by the not less 
 zealous and enterprising members of the monastic orders. 
 In a previous section we have watched the progress of 
 monasticism from its origin in the Egyptian deserts to 
 its less conorenial abodes amono? the recesses of the 
 Apennines ; and, notwithstanding all the inherent errors 
 of the ascetic practice, we were led to the conclusion that 
 a large portion of the Christian truth and knowledge 
 which survived in a degenerate age had retired from a 
 w^orld more than ever abhorrent to its principles. But 
 the protection which contemplative minds had sought 
 from surrounding worldliness was more than ever needed 
 to secure them against the more fatal assault of advancing 
 barbarism. It stood them, indeed, in better stead against 
 the latter than against the former; for the protecting walls 
 of the cloister, and the yet more effectual safeguard of the 
 religious awe which they inspired, could avert the roving 
 hordes of a temporal foe, wdiile they proved powerless 
 against the more pernicious advances of sloth, luxury, 
 and pride, — enemies whose pertinacity and success became 
 every day more terrible; for, wherever monachism had 
 spread, the defects of the system began to flourish and 
 multiply with portentous rapidity, and everything was to 
 be feared from those institutions which but a century 
 before had presented to the Fathers of the Church such 
 
140 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 noble prospects. Such was the emergency, when from 
 the Sabine hills echoed throuo^h the length and breadth 
 of Europe the voice of reformation. It is impossible for 
 any student of mediseval history, however prejudiced, not 
 to gaze with admiration on the commanding grandeur of 
 the great Benedict. All who have studied his history 
 must look with an equal astonishment on the energetic 
 simplicity of his work, and the widely spread multiplicity 
 of its results. For he found the monastic life slothful, 
 he left it actively employed in promoting civilization and 
 rehgion. He found it wasting its capabilities on irra- 
 tional exercises, he left it intent on rational occupations. 
 He found it undisciplined and consequently loaded with 
 spiritual arrogance, he left it guided (as far as such a 
 system could be so) by a definite rule, and striving after 
 a Christian humility. And for such a work as this it 
 may well seem no unworthy recompense that he stands at 
 the head of so illustrious a spiritual progeny. For not 
 many years after the first establishment of the monastery 
 at Monte Oassino the Benedictine order could reckon 
 amono; its ornaments one* who, whether we consider the 
 zeal with which he defended the interests entrusted to 
 him or his yet greater success in extending the empire 
 of the true Faith, merits well the epithet of " Great" which 
 posterity has bestowed upon him. But Gregory, illus- 
 trious though he be in himself, is yet more associated to 
 an English reader with the spiritual triumphs of another 
 Benedictine, Augustine, through whom the knowledge of 
 * See Mabillon, Annates Ord. S. Ben. 1. 1. p. 163. 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 141 
 
 the Gospel was spread among our Anglo-Saxon fore- 
 fathers. The good seed sown in Britain was destined to 
 redound in no small measure to the honor of the brethren 
 of St Benedict, and to add new ornaments to their 
 already renowned order. The historian of their achieve- 
 ments relates* that throughout the whole Anglo-Saxon 
 nation ecclesiastical interests were supported by the 
 Benedictines alone, that, as they had undergone the toils 
 of a missionary life in England, so now they reaped the 
 merited reward of universal respect and spiritual power \ 
 But the most splendid result of the establishment of the 
 order in this island is to be found in the almost unpa- 
 ralleled achievements of a third Benedictine, Boniface. 
 There is no more striking example of the earnest zeal 
 and sincere desire for the advancement of the faith which 
 characterized the monastic bodies during this their earlier 
 and purer stage, than the history of the Apostle of Ger- 
 many. It is indeed true that he was not more distin- 
 guished by missionary power and success than by a 
 devoted attachment to the See of Rome, which has 
 caused Protestant writers to represent him as actuated 
 
 * Mab. Ann. Ord. S. Ben. 1. 1. p. 836, where we read that the 
 three archiepiscopal sees of Canterbury, York, and Rochester had 
 been founded, and were occupied, by Benedictines. 
 
 ^ " How dare ye [priests] now despise all their ordinances []of 
 the four Councils], while monks hold the ordinances of one man, 
 the holy Benedict, and live according to his direction ? And, if 
 they anywhere violate it, they make amends afterwards, by their 
 abbot's direction, with all humility." -^Ifric's Canon 84. ap. 
 Thorpe, Anc. Laws, p. 447. 
 
142 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 during a life of unceasing hardship, and supported in the 
 prospect of a violent death, by no higher motive than a 
 blind subjection to the commands of his ecclesiastical 
 superior; but if we judge him either by the difficulties 
 and dangers he overcame, or by the great results on 
 Central Europe of the national conversions consequent 
 on his preaching, we shall place his name among the 
 most illustrious ones, not of the Benedictine order alone, 
 but of the Church in all ages. Space would fail, if we 
 were to attempt to enumerate even the most illustrious 
 of the many great minds which have been sent forth 
 from the cloisters of the Benedictines to enlarge the 
 limits of Christianity and literature ; but in moral great- 
 ness those we have mentioned surpass all others : to 
 proceed further in the enumeration would be to display 
 the decay of lofty virtue in the monasteries, by adding to 
 their intellectual brilliancy. 
 
 The period, then, of the early Merovingian dynasty 
 in France, and of the Visigothic power in Spain, is 
 that during which the true advantages of the monastic 
 principle made themselves most universally apparent. 
 In every European country the cloisters presented the 
 only refuge to the literature of preceding ages, and the 
 only source whence could be expected again to flow the 
 rich stream of ancient learning. We have already in 
 part investigated the rise of the monastic spirit in the 
 West, but we have not looked upon it as what it un- 
 questionably was, a powerful civilizing and christianizing 
 agent; for during the preceding centuries its work had 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 143 
 
 been a purely passive one. We have seen that the 
 monasteries of the East, in accordance with that gloomy 
 spirit of meditative asceticism which founded and main- 
 tained them, devoted themselves entirely to spiritual 
 occupations, and by so doing exposed their inmates to 
 all the temptations which most irresistibly beset the 
 inactive. The opposition which the transplanted system 
 met with in the West testified how uncongenial such a 
 life was to the practical spirit of Italy. And the popu- 
 larity attained by the followers of Benedict shows how 
 thoroughly that far-sighted reformer appreciated the 
 national characteristics of his countrymen, as well as 
 the requirements of a monastic life. He perceived that 
 spiritual sloth and arrogance could be restrained only by 
 an admixture of secular employments with the usual 
 religious observances. Animated by this conviction, 
 while he subjected the ceremonies and spiritual duties of 
 his monks to the strictest regulations, by establishing 
 within the monastic bounds schools and nurseries for 
 those arts and sciences which were fast disappearing 
 from among men he not only recommended to his coun- 
 trymen institutions which combined rehgion with such 
 manifest practical advantages, but conferred upon that 
 shapeless society which was to receive the truth through 
 the instrumentality of his disciples the manifold blessings 
 of material civihzation. Agriculture, for example, which, 
 as we have already remarked, had fallen away throughout 
 the Empire owing to the annihilation of the labouring 
 rural population, and which could scarcely be looked for 
 
144 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 in any perfection among the wandering tribes of Central 
 Europe, was fostered only within the protecting walls of 
 Benedictine monasteries. While the fertile plains of 
 Lombardy or Campania had long been reduced to un- 
 heeded desolation by social insecurity and imperfections, 
 there might be descried among the ridges of the Apen- 
 nines valleys yet rejoicing in all their ancient fertility, 
 where the sacred influences of the monasteries sheltered 
 the scanty remnants of an ancient population and of an 
 almost universally forgotten agriculture ; while the monks, 
 fearful of suffering from the consequences of a forced 
 spirituality, employed themselves in practising those arts 
 and handicrafts which foreign invasion had driven away 
 from the towns ^. When the activity of the Benedictine 
 fathers was displayed in disseminating Christianity through 
 the dark places of Europe, that close combination of 
 worldly and religious occupations which characterized the 
 rule of their founder proved a principal means of im- 
 parting to the new converts all the blessings of an 
 
 ancient cultivation. The agricultural colonies and work- 
 ed 
 
 shops which we have seen rising in Italy w^ere transferred 
 unchanged to the recesses of Gaul or Germany, and the 
 fields encircling the monastery still continued to bear 
 abundant produce, while the monkish " Scriptoria"'' ^ 
 
 ^ See the account of Eastorwine in ' Bade, Hist. Abb. Wire- 
 muth. 8. 
 
 ^ Ducange (s. v. vi. 131 c.) quotes Alcuin [_Opp. ii. 211. ed. 
 Froben.] : 
 
 "Hie sedeant sacrse scribentes famina legis, 
 Necnon sanctorum dicta sacrata Patrum ; 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 145 
 
 within were stored with the treasures of an already obso- 
 lete literature'. 
 
 In a word, while we must look upon the secular 
 
 Hie interserere caveant sua frivola verbis, 
 
 Frivola nee propter erret et ipsa manus. 
 Correetosque sibi quaerant studiose libellos, 
 
 Tramite quo reeto penna volantis eat. 
 Est opus egregium sacrorum scribere libros 
 Nee mercede sua scriptor et ipse caret." 
 
 > " Scriptores praeterea dicti in monasteriis, qui in scriptorio 
 
 librorum seriptioni operam dabant. Monachorum enim alii, cum 
 eorum nemo esset qui non re aliqua occuparetur, manuum operi- 
 bus, officinarum monasticarum alii muniis, alii denique librorum 
 seriptioni vacabant, certo numero ad id delecti ab Abbate, tum ut 
 libros Ecclesiasticos, quo eorum esset semper copia, tum alios, qui 
 ad literarum humanioi*um et ecclesiastiearum studia necessarii 
 essent, describerent. Quin etiam ea monachorum operibus ma- 
 nuum accensebatur. 
 
 Vide ' Ethelwulfum De Abbatibus LindisfarnensibuSj c. 8/ 
 
 * Comptis qui potuit notis ornare libellos/ 
 
 * * * 4S- 
 
 ' Greg. Turon. in Fita S. Aridii, p. 200.' 
 
 ' Nunquam otio indulsit, quo non aut lectionem, aut opus Christi 
 perficeret, aut eerte manibus aliquid ageret, aut denique sacros 
 codices scriberet.' 
 
 ' Lib. Ordinis S. Victoris Parisiensis MS. e. 19.' 
 
 ' Quieunque de Fratribus intra Claustrum scriptores sunt, qui- 
 bus officium scribendi ab Abbate injunctum est, omnibus iis Arma- 
 rius providere debet, quid scribant, et quae ad scribendum necessaria 
 sunt praebere, nee quisquam eorum aliud scribere, quam ille prae- 
 
 ceperit/ 
 
 * * » » 
 
 Sulpitius in Fit. S. Martini, c. 7. 
 
 * Ars ibi [in Ccenobio scilicet S. Martini] exceptis seriptoribus 
 nulla habebatur, cui tamen operi minor cetas deputabatur.' " (Du- 
 cange s. v, Scriptores, vi. 131 a, b.) 
 
 L 
 
146 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 clergy as more especially useful in introducing civilized 
 principles of action into barbarian society and legislation\ 
 
 1 Some instances of the care taken to maintain education and 
 learning among the seculars may be seen in Ducange (s. v. Clerici, 
 ii. 393 b, c). " 'Leo IV. P.P. De Cura PastoralL' ' Omnis Pres- 
 byter habeat Clericum Scholarem, qui epistolam vel lectionem 
 legat, et ad missam respondeat, cum quo et psalmos cantet.' 
 
 ' Ordo Romanus ' habet hoc loco, ' Clericum aut Scholarem/ 
 
 ' Hincmarus Remensis in Capitulis de Rebus Magistri, Szc. 
 c. 11.' ' Si habeat Clericum, qui possit tenere Scholam, aut legere 
 Epistolam, aut canere valeat.' 
 
 ' Capitula Walterii Episcopi Aurel c. 6/ 'Ut unusquisque Pres- 
 byter suum habeat Clericum, quern religiose educare procuret ; et si 
 
 possibilitas illi est, scholam in Ecclesia sua habere non negligat, &c.' 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Clerici dicti etiam qui Uteris imbuti erant, viri literati ac 
 docti, quod Clericos potissimum literatura ac eruditio spectaret. 
 
 Quippe ad Clericatum non promovebantur nisi ypafxfxaTiJov 
 eTTio-Tj/'/ioi/es, ut est in 'Novell. Justin. 6. cap. 4. et Novell. 123. cap. 
 
 12.' ' Qui enini literas nescit, Clericus esse non potest.' 
 
 * * « * 
 
 Et ut ait ' Speculum Saxonicum, Lib. i. art. o, § 4.' * Im- 
 possibile est aliquem Clericum nominare, nisi sit doctus, ordinatus, 
 et tonsuratus.' 
 
 Ordericus Vitalis, Lib. 3. [ap. Du Chesne, Hist. Norm. Scr. 
 p. 464 D.] 'Clericus cognominatus est, quia peritia literarum 
 aliarumque artium apprime imbutus est.' " 
 
 So the Excerptiones Ecgberti {Can. clix. ap. Thorpe, Anc. Laws, 
 p. 341 ) : " Omnes clerici, qui ad operandum sunt validi, et artifi- 
 ciola et litteras discant ;" and the Canons enacted under King 
 Edgar (11, 12, 34. ap. Thorpe, pp. 396, 398): "And we enjoin 
 that every priest, in addition to lore, diligently learn a handicraft : 
 And we enjoin that no learned priest put to shame the half learned, 
 but improve him, if he know better :... And we enjoin that every 
 priest diligently provide so that he have good and especially ortho- 
 dox books ;" and iElfric's Pastoral Epistle (46. ap. Thorpe, Aric. 
 Laws, pp. 461, 462). 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 147 
 
 we must assign to their regular brethren the praise of 
 having preserved for reproduction in more favored days 
 all those arts and embellishments of the material or 
 intellectual world which had been most valued by preced- 
 ing generations. But above all we must ever peculiarly- 
 associate with the monasteries, as their greatest boon to 
 succeeding ages, their maintenance of education. Each 
 religious foundation, as we discern more clearly in the 
 Carlovingian age, fulfilled the functions of a school for 
 the clergy ; and the most renowned among them were to 
 the knowledge of their day what our universities are to 
 
 " Be careful also now, I pray, that ye be better and wiser in 
 your ghostly craft for Christ's ministries, so as is rightly befitting 
 you that ye should be, than the secular men are in their worldly 
 crafts. Long should he learn who has to teach ; and if he will not 
 learn to be a teacher of right wisdom, he shall afterwards be a 
 teacher of great error, &c. Blind is the guide who has to teach 
 God's fold, if he neither have learning nor be willing to learn, but 
 misleads himself and his parishioners along with him." 
 
 Manual labour is likewise enjoined in the Anglo-Saxon Eccle- 
 siastical Institutes (iii. ap. Thorpe, Anc. Laws, pp. 470, 471 ). " At 
 the hours when ye leave off the reading of holy books and prayers, 
 then shall ye undertake some useful secular work ; because idle- 
 ness is the soul's foe, and because the devil quickly brings into 
 some vices him whom he finds devoid of any good work. By the 
 custom of reading holy books, ye may learn both how yourselves 
 shall come to heaven's kingdom, and also how ye shall teach others. 
 By prayers also ye may be a great help both to yourselves and also 
 to other men, who are associated with you in true love, both living 
 and departed. By handywork ye may control your bodies, that 
 they be the slower to vices, and also ye may provide so by that 
 work, that with your goods ye may help poor men, who have not 
 themselves, and have not the power to work." 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 US. In later times a striving after an ideal perfection, 
 followed, as it almost invariably is, by corruption, ren- 
 dered the monastic houses the bane as they had once 
 been the blessing of civilization ; fruitless imitation of 
 bygone customs prolonged their existence into an uncon- 
 genial age ; but, long after all their other great qualities 
 had perished, this one, their educational power, alone 
 remained, and flourished among the followers of Benedict 
 with unexampled vigor. Many errors and many abuses 
 may be pardoned to an institution which has given to the 
 world a Mabillon and a Montfaucon. 
 
 But great as undoubtedly were the humanizing powers 
 of the Benedictine and other orders in the seats of more 
 ancient civilization, it is on the outskirts of the Christian 
 fold that we must look for their purest and most brilliant 
 triumphs. Important as the labors of the monastic 
 bodies in France, Italy, and Spain, must appear to us, 
 yet a still larger share of our admiration is demanded by 
 the efforts of those unwearied pioneers of the faith who 
 in the northern lands of Europe founded and raised to so 
 surpassing an elevation the great fabric of the Christian 
 Commonwealth. 
 
 If we desire to obtain an instance of the origin and 
 advance of Christian principles and practice, fostered by 
 the zeal of monastic missionaries, nowhere shall we find 
 a more striking one than in our own island. Cherished 
 by the piety of Christian princes, the clerical body had 
 attained during the British period a condition of intel- 
 lectual brilliancy, as well as of political and numerical 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY, 149 
 
 strength, to which the Church records of the age present 
 few parallels. The names of Gildas^ Iltutus^, and 
 Columbanus, even reaching us as they do through the 
 mists of fabulous centuries, shed an intellectual radiance 
 over the early inhabitants of the island ; and the extra- 
 ordinary opulence of such monasteries* as that of Bangor 
 on the Dee, said to include within its capacious walls 
 upwards of two thousand monks^, may add some credit 
 to the semi-fabulous accounts of Lucius and Ambrosius 
 Aurelius, the Christian monarchs of pristine Britain. 
 But the inherent weaknesses of a Roman province had 
 extended their fatal influence over the Church as well as 
 the State, and the constant Saxon inroads drove to the 
 
 ' " Transfretavit mare Gallicum, in civitatibus Galliae remansit 
 studens optime spatio septem annorum, et in termino septimi anni 
 cum magna mole diversorura voluminum remeavit ad Majorem 
 Britanniam. Audita fama famosissimi advenae, confluxerunt ad 
 eum scholares plurimi undique, audierunt ab eo septem disciplina- 
 rum scientiam subtilissime, unde ex discipulis magistii efFecti sunt 
 sub magistrali honore." Vita S. Gildce^ 2. ed. Stevenson. 
 
 2 Stevenson, following Ussher {Ant. Eccl. Brit. c. xiv. Works, 
 t. vi. pp. 49, QQ. ed. Elrington), mentions that he was generally 
 known as "egregius Britannorum magister," and identifies him 
 with the preceptor of Maglocunus, " pene totius Biitannise magis- 
 trum elegantem," mentioned by Gildas {Epist. oQ). 
 
 * See Ussher, Ant. Fed. Brit. c. vi. p. 182 [ed. Dublin. 1639; 
 Works, t. V. pp. 160—162]. 
 
 3 " . . .monastevio Bancor, in quo tantus fertur fuisse numerus 
 monachorum, ut, cum in septem portiones esset cum prsepositis sibi 
 rectoribus monasterium divisum, nulla harum portio minus quam 
 trecentos homines haberet, qui omnes de labore manuum suarum 
 vivere solebant." Bade, H. E. ii. 2. 
 
150 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 shelter of the monastic walls multitudes utterly unfit for 
 the performance of the sacred functions, while the sloth, 
 ignorance, and luxury, which had infected the British 
 clergy*, and rendered them so blind not only to the spi- 
 ritual interests of their Master but to their own temporal 
 advantage as to turn away their thoughts from the 
 
 * See the Querela of Gildas Badonicus, quoted by Ussher [ibid. 
 pp. G7 — 75, 100] and Bede, Eccl. Hist. ii. 2, where he relates the 
 ineffectual efforts of Augustine to unite the Celtic clergy with 
 himself in the work of converting the Saxons. QThe following 
 are some of the charges brought against the clergy by Gildas 
 {Epist. Q&) : '^ Sacerdotes habet Britannia, sed insipientes ; quam 
 plurimos ministros, sed impudentes ; clericos, sed raptores subdo- 
 los; pastores, ut dicuntur, sed occisioni animarum lupos paratos, 
 quippe non commoda plebi providentes, sed proprii plenitudinem 
 ventris quaerentes ; ecclesiae domus habentes, sed turpis lucri gratia 
 eas adeuntes ; populos docentes, sed prtebendo pessima exempla, 
 vitia, malosque mores ; raro sacrificantes, et nunquam puro corde 
 inter altaria stantes ; plebem ob peccata non corripientes, nimirum 
 eadem agentes ; prtecepta Christi spernentes, et suas libidines votis 
 omnibus implore curantes ; sedem Petri Apostoli immundis pedibus 
 usurpantes, sed mcrito cupiditatis in Judae traditoris pestilentem 
 cathedram decidentes ; veritatem pro inimico odientes, et mendaciis 
 acsi carissimis fratribus faventes ; justos inopes immanes quasi 
 angues torvis vultibus conspicantes, et sceleratos divites absque ullo 
 verecundige respectu sicut coelestes angelos venerantes ; egenis 
 eleemosynam esse dandam summis e labiis praedicantes, sed ipsi vel 
 obolum non dantes ; nefanda populi scelera tacentes, et suas inju- 
 
 rias quasi Christo irrogatas amplificantes ; ecclesiasticos post 
 
 haec gradus propensius quam regna coelorum ambientes, et tyran- 
 nico ritu acceptos defendentes, nee tamen legitimis moribus illus- 
 
 trantes ; ad praecepta sanctorum oscitantes ac stupidos, et ad 
 
 ludicra et ineptas secularium hominum fabulas, acsi iter vitae 
 mortisque pandant, strenuos et intentos." The forty-four follow- 
 ing sections are to the same effect.] 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 151 
 
 conversion of their conquerors ^ recoiled on their own 
 heads in the utter desolation, as well of Church as of 
 State, which followed the first establishment of the Saxons. 
 For those barbarians made war equally on the British 
 nation and on the faith it acknowledged ; not a vestige 
 was left of all the old ceremonial pomp: and the descend- 
 ants of those enthusiastic multitudes who had crowded 
 round the holy Germanus and Lupus, the champions 
 of the orthodox faith, and had applauded their final 
 subversion of Pelagianism^, were either completely ex- 
 terminated, or reduced to a hopeless serfdom-^. Such 
 was the lamentable state of a land whose Christianity 
 was referred to apostles and companions of our Lord, 
 when the close of the sixth century witnessed the arrival 
 at Canterbury of the Benedictine Augustine and his 
 colleagues. The extraordinary success which attended 
 those dauntless missionaries is well known 4, but what is 
 almost more remarkable still than the rapid resuscitation 
 of Christianity among those who had so lately subverted 
 it, was the vigor with which the monastic system, so 
 long reduced to inanition by the baneful influences of 
 prosperity, sprung once more into renewed existence^. 
 
 ^ See also Bede {H. E. i. 22) for the conduct of the British 
 Church to the Saxons before the arrival of Augustine. 
 
 2 Bede, H. E. i. 17—21. 
 
 3 Bede writes thus in a.d. 731 {H. E. v. 23): "Brittones 
 
 quamvis ex parte sui sicut juris, nonnuUa tamen ex parte Anglo- 
 rum sunt servitio mancipati." 
 
 * Bede, H. E. i. 23— ii. 3. 
 
 = See Bede, H. E. i. 83 ; iii. 3, 4, 19, 23, 24 ; iv. 8, 6, 13, 19, 23. 
 
152 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 The intellectual history of the seventh and eighth centu- 
 ries presents us with two striking instances of the good- 
 ness of the seed sown, and the fruitfulness of the harvest 
 reaped, by the intellectual efforts of Anglo-Saxon Bene- 
 dictines. 
 
 The first of these is to be found in the latter part of 
 the 7th century, when, to use the words of the venerable 
 Bede*, "the religious habit was held in great veneration, 
 so that, wherever any clergyman or monk happened to 
 come, he was joyfully received by all persons as God's 
 servant, and if they chanced to meet him upon the way 
 they ran to him, and bowing were glad to be signed 
 with his hand or blessed with his mouth." 
 
 Learning, more especially the study of Greek, had 
 been raised to an unwonted pitch of prosperity by the 
 exertions of the monk Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, and his coadjutor Hadrian \ while the arts 
 and sciences, driven from the continent by barbarian 
 turmoil, seem to have taken refuge in our more favored 
 land^. Let us, then, at this period, direct our glance to 
 
 » Hist. Eccl lib. iii. c. 26. 
 
 ^ See Bede, H. E. iv. 1, 2 ; v. 20. Vita Abbat. Wiremuth. 3. 
 
 ^ "Et quia literis sacris simul et secularibus, ut diximus, 
 abundanter ambo erant instructi, congregata discipulorum caterva, 
 scientiae salutaris quotidie flumina irrigandis eorura cordibus ema- 
 nabant; ita ut etiam metricje artis astronomiae et arithmeticae 
 ecclesiasticae disciplinam inter sacrorum apicum volumina suis 
 auditoribus contraderent. Indicio est quod usque hodie supersunt 
 de eoi'um discipulis, qui Latinam Graecamque linguam aeque ut 
 propriam in qua nati sunt norunt." Bede, H. E. iv. 2. On the 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 153 
 
 the northern extremity of England, where in the year 
 of grace 674 a wealthy thane* of the name of Biscop 
 obtained from the piety of king Egfred a piece of land 
 at the mouth of the Wear, for the purpose of there 
 founding a monastery, which was subsequently called 
 after him Bishop Wearmouth^ The founder was a 
 man of learning and religious feeling, and we might have 
 given the cloisters of St Peter and St Paul credit for 
 more than an ordinary share of scholastic erudition^, 
 even did they not boast the education of one whose very 
 name is a reputation in itself; for Bede entered their 
 walls in 680 at the age of seven yearss, and after spending 
 there more than half a century in the almost unbroken 
 retirement of study died among his disciples in 7Z5^. 
 
 Greek learning of Albinus abbot of Canterbury and Tobias bishop 
 of Rochester in particular, see Bede, H. E. v. 20, 23. 
 
 * His j)ious zeal had induced him to adopt the monastic habit 
 at the monastery of Lerins in France, and his name must ever be 
 remembered as one of the principal patrons of learning and art 
 among the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 ^ See Bede, H. E. iv. 18. Vita Ahhat. Wiremuth. 1—14. 
 
 2 See Stevenson's Introduction to Bede's Ecclesiastical History, 
 
 §7. 
 
 ^ " Qui natus in territorio ejusdem monasterii, cum essem anno- 
 rum septem, cura propinquorum datus sum educandus reverentis- 
 simo abbati Benedicto ac deinde Ceolfrido; cunctumque ex eo 
 tempus vitse in ejusdem monasterii habitatione peragens omnem 
 meditandis scripturis operam dedi : atque inter observantiam dis- 
 cipline regularis et quotidianam cantandi in ecclesia curam semper 
 aut discere aut docere aut scribere dulce habui." H. E. v. 24, 
 § 454. 
 
 * See the striking letter of Cuthbert to Cuthwin m Stevenson's 
 Introduction to the Hist. Eccl, §§ 16—22. 
 
154 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 We have had preserved to us from his pen a full descrip- 
 tion of the course of education and study in that learned 
 Benedictine society. Amid the delights of learning, 
 teaching, and writing, the care of Church music was not 
 forgotten, and from the list he has handed down to us of 
 his works, during a lifetime of the severest mental labor, 
 we may reasonably conclude that the condition of the 
 Wearmouth Scriptorium ^ would scarcely have realized 
 those extravao-ant tales of monkish iojnorance which an 
 age proud of its intellectual progress takes so much 
 pleasure in repeating*. But while we admire the mental 
 activity of the most learned of the Anglo-Saxons, whose 
 attention, in an age when the old sources of information 
 were after all but very partially opened, was directed to 
 
 ^ Benedict Biscop, in returning from his fourth journey to 
 Rome, brought back to Wearmouth " libros omnis divinae erudi- 
 tionis non paucos vel placito pretio emtos vel amicorum dono lar- 
 gitos. Rediens autem ubi Viennam pervenit, emticios ibi quos 
 apud amicos commendaverat recepit" (Bede, Vita Abbat. Wiremuth. 
 4) : on his fifth journey " innunierabilium librorum omnis generis 
 copiam apportavit" {ibid. 6) : he returned from his sixth enriched 
 "magna copia voluminum sacrorum" (ibid. 9): and during his last 
 illness "bibliothecam, quam de Roma nobilissimam copiosissi- 
 mamque advexerat, ad instructionem ecclesiae necessariam, sollicite 
 servari integram nee per incuriam foedari aut passim dissipari prae- 
 cepit" {ibid. 11). His successor Ceolfrid " bibliothecam utriusque 
 monasterii" [Wearmouth and Yarrow], "quam Benedictus abbas 
 magna coepit instantia, ipse non minori geminavit industria : ita ut 
 tres pandectes novae translationis ad unum vetustae translationis, 
 quem de Roma attulerat, ipse super adjungeret" {ibid. 15). 
 
 * See the Epilogue to his Ecd. Hist. [v. 24. §§ 453—456] and 
 Alcuin, Ep. 13 [ed. Froben. Ratisbon. 1777J. 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 155 
 
 every one of the studies which were accessible to his 
 contemporaries, we must not suppose him to have stood 
 forward as a sohtary marvel of learning in the midst of a 
 dark clergy and nation. On the contrary, we have 
 evidence from his voluminous writings, that he, as all 
 great literary men have done, formed the centre of a 
 circle distinguished by every branch of science and eru- 
 dition. The names of Eo-bert of York and Cuthbert 
 of Canterbury stand distinguished among many other 
 worthy disciples of so great a master*. 
 
 The second era of monastic history in England at 
 which we shall glance is the latter half of the eighth 
 century, where, in a Benedictine monastery at York, we 
 obtain an insiirht into the education and intellectual 
 progress of the Saxon Alciiin, the brightest ornament of 
 literature and science since the fall of the Roman Empire. 
 York during that century contained the most renowned 
 schools in England or, we may perhaps say, in Europe, 
 unless we ought to ascribe to national prejudice a letter 
 of Alcuin's to Charlemagne t, in which he advises him to 
 send over French youths to England in order to receive 
 that perfection of science which their own country was 
 
 * See Wright's Anglo-Saocon Literary Biography, pp. 289 — 308, 
 [and Stevenson's Introduction to the Hist. EccL, § 14.J 
 
 •f Alciiin, Ep. 38. [? " Sed ex parte desunt mihi servulo vestro 
 exquisitiores eruditionis scholasticae libelli, quos habui in patria per 
 bonam et devotissimam Magistri mei industriam, vel etiam mei 
 ipsius qualemcunque sudorem. Ideo haec vestrse Excellentiae dice, 
 * * ut aliquos ex pueris nostris reniittam, qui excipiant inde nobis 
 necessaria quneque, et reveliant in Franciam flores Britanniae."] 
 
156 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [cH. 
 
 unable to bestow upon them. If we were to give full 
 credence to the exaggerated poetical strains * of its most 
 illustrious pupils, the great Benedictine house at York 
 was a plentiful source of every science and every art, 
 from grammar to natural history, from astronomy to 
 theology. The literary character, however, of Alcuin 
 himself supplies us with a more satisfactory testimony to 
 the merits of the school which produced him. The com- 
 parative polish of his style shows him to be one on whom 
 the study of the great Augustan models had not been 
 lost ; and those who have perused his ponderous contro- 
 versial tomes have found tokens of thought and correct 
 philosophy which would have done honor to a more con- 
 genial age. That the pursuit of the severe sciences 
 at York was somewhat more than a mere poetical em- 
 bellishment, we may gather from those f of his letters in 
 which he explains to his imperial pupil the mysteries of 
 the Calendar, and some intricate problems in astronomy. 
 We might add to those two illustrious names that of 
 Aldhelm of Wessex, the pupil of Hadrian |, and con- 
 template the benefits he conferred on his country^s litera- 
 ture and theology by his writings, as well as by the 
 flourishing monastery at Malmesbury, of which he was 
 the first Abbot; but the examples we have already given 
 
 * [Alcuin,] De Pontificibus et Sanctis Ecdesice Eboracensis, 
 1438 [ap. Gale, XF Script, t. i. p. 728]. 
 
 t Epp. 65—71. 
 
 :{: See AVright's Ayiglo-Saxon Literary Biography, p. 209. [Bade, 
 H. E. V. 18.] 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 157 
 
 are enough to lay clearly before us the condition of the 
 monastic system during its most prosperous period in 
 England, and to guide us in our estimate of the real 
 benefits which accrued to the literature and philosophy 
 of the seventh and eighth centuries from the Benedictine 
 establishments of that island. 
 
 But what we have said does not apply to England 
 alone, for we have abundant evidence that the pre-emi- 
 nence of the regular over the secular clergy in all the 
 principal functions of their station was common to all 
 the European lands : indeed we could with difficulty 
 point to a single name distinguished either in specu- 
 lative or practical religion, the glory of which does not 
 primarily belong to one of the great monastic houses. 
 We can distinctly discern that, during this period of 
 vagueness and perpetual change, the relations of the 
 two great divisions of the priestly body to one another 
 had undergone a complete alteration. The old mutual 
 jealousy, which excited the spleen of the monks against 
 the secular assumptions and political influence of the 
 Bishops, and roused the ambition of the Bishops against 
 the wealth, learning, and sanctity of the monks, had 
 been forgotten for the time in a harmonious union i, from 
 
 ^ Bede ( Vita S. Cudbercti. 16) thus describes the constitution 
 of the monastery of Lindisfarne : " Neque ahquis miretur, quod in 
 eadem insula Lindisfamea, cum permodica sit, et supra episcopi et 
 nunc abbatis ac monachorum esse locum dixerimus ; revera enim 
 ita est. Namque una eademque servorum Dei habitatio utrosque 
 simul tenet, imo omnes monachos tenet. Aidan quippe, qui primus 
 ejusdem loci episcopus fuit, monachus erat et monachicam cum 
 
158 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 which the regular clergy (as they now became) gained 
 all that the most aspiring could have looked forward 
 to in theological and political distinction, while their 
 secular brethren received the support, — which at no time 
 did their disorganized state more greatly need, — of a 
 body of learned, zealous, and practical coadjutors, who 
 set themselves at once and earnestly to work in re- 
 establishing the failing authority of the clergy over the 
 nations of Europe i. Thus it was that in the beginning 
 
 suis omnibus vitam semper agere solebat. Unde ab illo omnes loci 
 ipsius antistites usque hodie sic episcopale exercent officium, ut, 
 regente monasterium abbate quern ipsi cum consiUo Fratrum 
 elegerint, omnes presbyteri, diaconi, cantores, lectores, casterique 
 gradus ecclesiastici monachicam per omnia cum ipso episcopo regu- 
 1am servent. Quam vivendi normam multum se diligere probavlt 
 beatus papa Gregorius, cum, sciscitante per litterulas Augustino, 
 quem primum genti Anglorum episcopum miserat, qualiter epi- 
 scopi cum suis clericis conversari debeant, respondit inter alia, 'Sed 
 quia tua fraternitas monasterii regulis erudita seorsum fieri non 
 debet a clericis suis, in ecclesia Anglorum, quae auctore Deo nuper 
 adliuc ad fidem producta est, hanc debes conversationem instituere, 
 quae initio nascentis ecclesias fuit patribus nostris, in quibus nullus 
 eorum ex his quse possidebant aliquid suum esse dicebat, sed eraut 
 iliis omnia communia.' " See also his Epist. ad Ecghert, § 6. 
 
 1 Examples of this union occur in the Excerptiones of Ecgbert, 
 archbishop of York (Thorpe, ^wc. iaty.*, P* 331): "Abbatespro 
 humilitatis religione in episcoporum potestate consistant, et si quid 
 extra regulam fecerint ab episcopis corrigantur ; qui semel in 
 anno, in loco ubi episcopus elegerit, accepta vocatione conveniant. 
 * * Ipsi autem [[monachi^, qui fuerint pervagati, cum auxilio 
 episcopi tanquam fugaces sub custodia revocentur." Can. LXIII. 
 Aurelian. "Si extiterit abbas divinis jussionibus prsevaricator regu- 
 Iseque sanctae contemptor, ab episcopo civitatis cum consensu abba- 
 tum aliorumque monacliorum timentium Deum honore abbatis 
 privetur. Convenit enim episcopum civitatis, ut sancta et magna 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 159 
 
 of the eighth century the monastic orders, whom the fifth 
 century had seen yet excluded from ordination and 
 appertaining rather to the laity than to the clergy \ 
 found themselves in possession of all the great episcopal 
 seats, and the supreme ecclesiastical authority throughout 
 the civilized world. If we, on the other hand, cast our 
 eye down the page of history to the age of Dunstan and 
 his followers in England, we shall be made aware how 
 dark is the reverse of so fair a picture. 
 
 But we have already devoted too much space to the 
 internal influence of the clergy, and the benefits which 
 may indisputably be referred to their action on the masses 
 of an undeveloped society. It is fitting that we now 
 direct our attention to the effects of priestly interference 
 with the political institutions and authorities of the same 
 period. 
 
 So mighty was the power of the mere name of Rome 
 on the rude tribes instrumental in its fall, that every 
 paltry chief, whom the chances of Western conquest 
 exalted into an independent sovereign, comes before us 
 assuming, along with a fraction of the Roman territory, 
 some travestied resemblance of Imperial dignity and 
 
 sinodus Calcedonensis decrevit, competentem monasteriorum pro- 
 videntiam gerere." Can. LXV. ' Episcoporum' {cod. Apostolorum). 
 1 In Augustine's time the distinction between monks and clergy 
 was so strong, that he coukl say (Ep. 60), "Et ipsis enim faciHs 
 lapsus et ordini clericorum fit indignissima injuria, si desertores 
 monasteriorum ad militiam clericatus eligantur, cum ex his qui in 
 monasterio permanent non tamen nisi probatiores atque meliores 
 in clerum assumere soleamus"; and more in the same strain. 
 
160 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 titles^. Now we have already seen that, previous to the 
 re-estabHshment of extended political power, the clergy, 
 insulated from all secular connexion with Rome, became 
 an integral and in most cases a leading part of the 
 municipalities to which they happened to belong ; for the 
 innumerable members of the European hierarchy, al- 
 though they might maintain an uncertain communication 
 with the power ecclesiastical in Italy, were assuredly 
 bound to them by no common political tie. The bar- 
 barian monarchs, on the other hand, were not slow to 
 discover that of all the engines of government possessed 
 by the Emperors whom they mimicked there was not 
 one capable of exerting so profound an influence, for 
 good or for evil, as the Christian clergy. Accordingly, 
 we soon discover that in exact proportion to the strength 
 of Imperial traditions, and the care displayed in preserving 
 Imperial forms, was the authority claimed at first by the 
 secular over the spiritual functionaries. Even the 
 Bishops of Home, before whose frown remote ecclesias- 
 tical dignitaries already trembled as they acknowledged 
 their spiritual supremacy over the flock of Christ, were 
 compelled to submit to the commands, imperious in fact, 
 though often couched in the most submissive terms, 
 imposed on them by the Teutonic conquerors of Italy. 
 The letter, for example, of the Ostrogoth Athalaric to 
 Pope John II., (to which we have already alluded*,) 
 
 » See, for instance, the description of Theodoric II. by Sidonius 
 Apollinaris {Ep. i. 2). 
 
 * At the same time, although this is the usual tone assumed 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 161 
 
 against simony in episcopal elections, assumes a tone of 
 command very different from the filial respect with which 
 the contemporary monarchs of France or Spain would 
 have addressed their less aspiring prelates. In a word, 
 during these the primitive ages of barbaric royalty, when 
 the influence of the clergy over the sovereign was that of 
 mind over brute force, priestly power was necessarily 
 most important where the intellectual gloom was thickest ; 
 and however much weight we may attach to the common- 
 places w^hich assert the demoralizing and enervating 
 effect of excessive clerical domination, we must confess 
 that it is to the influence of sacerdotal advisers that must 
 be referred whatever progress towards a more perfect 
 political system contemporary history and legislation 
 reveal to us during the period we are considering i. The 
 clergy, possessing as they did a practical knowledge of 
 the old Roman Law, were alone found capable of adapting 
 to the countless requirements of a land old in civilization 
 the clumsy barbaric codes of the interior of Germany. 
 
 towards the Holy See by the Romanized barbarians, the exact 
 relations of si^iritual and secular power, previously to the age 
 of Hildebrand, seem to have depended rather on the character 
 of individual popes and monarchs than on any fixed ideas of 
 supremacy entertained by one or the other of the two powers. 
 
 1 Clovis gave St Remigius as much land as he could compass 
 while the king was saying his mid-day prayer, ' yielding in this 
 matter to the prayer of the queen and the desire of the inhabit- 
 ants, who complained of being overburdened with exactions and 
 contributions,' (Frodoard. Hist. Eccl. Rem. i. 14, ap. Guizot. Coll. 
 des Mem. v. 51, Couvenier, p. G9) ; — the Church, as usually in the 
 middle ages, being the better landlord. 
 
 M 
 
162 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 We have already observed the evident marks of clerical 
 hands in the prefaces to the revised editions of the ancient 
 Frankish Laws, and the earliest capitularies of the Mero- 
 vingian monarchs betray the same powerful influence. 
 The first constitution* of a Frank sovereign which has 
 come down to us is an exhortation to the final extirpation 
 of lino-erino; idolatrous customs from the land : and the 
 most cursory perusal of the edicts promulgated by the 
 immediate successors of Clovis will convince us how 
 large a share of the legislative energies of the State was 
 occupied in providing for the discipline and pecuniary 
 interests of the Church ; — a fact which can scarcely be 
 attributed to any other cause than the overwhelming 
 weight of priestly advisers with the sovereign and the 
 nation. Again, if any deductions may be drawn from* 
 verbal niceties among a barbarous people, vve find that 
 in the treaty of Andelot, between Guntramn king of 
 Burgundy and Childebert II. (a.d. 587) f, ^^ot only are 
 religious phrases and ecclesiastical stipulations intro- 
 duced in an abundance which betrays the hand of a 
 clerical secretary, but in the mention of the royal advisers 
 the sacerdotal functionaries take precedence of the secular 
 ones. Indeed it hardly needed such evidence as this to 
 persuade us that an enlightened and acute priesthood 
 among a politically ignorant nation must soon attain a 
 power not confined to spiritual things alone ^ 
 
 * Const. Childeherti de abolendis Reliquiis Idololatrice, a.d. 554. 
 (ap. Baluz. Cap. Reg. Fr. [t. i. coll. 5—8.]) 
 
 t Baluz. Capit. Reg. Franc, t. i. coll. 1—16. 
 
 * The dispute between Clotliaire and his son Dagobert as to the 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 163 
 
 But in order to examine to the greatest advantage 
 the compHcated workings of the clerical body on the 
 Teutonic states as they increased in civilization and 
 became associated with the remnants of Roman dominion, 
 we may investigate somewhat more minutely the process 
 as exemplified in one nation, and that the most politically 
 enlightened of the barbarian tribes, the Visigoths. The 
 '■''Forum Judicum^'' (subsequently known as the Brevi- 
 arium Alaricianum)^ or collection of the statutes pub- 
 lished by the Spanish monarchs till the Saracen conquest, 
 presents to us a far more lively view of the amalgamation 
 of Roman and Germanic polity, than we can obtain from 
 any other quarter ; clerical influence accordingly is 
 throughout more prominently displayed than in any other 
 legal compilation of the period. And, from the peculiar 
 
 division of the kingdom was adjusted " electis ab his duobus regi- 
 bus duodecim Francorum proceribus, ut eorum disceptatione haec 
 finiretur intentio ; inter quos et domnus Arnulfus pontifex Met- 
 tensis cum rehquis episcopis eligitur, qui benignissime, ut sua 
 erat sanctitas, inter patrem et filium pro pacis loquebatur con- 
 cordia" (Fiedegarii C/iron2con, c. 53). " Cum pontifices et universi 
 proceies regni sui * * pro utilitate regia et sahite patriae conjunx- 
 issent/' &c. (c. b5i\ Similar instances of bishops acting habitually 
 as the king's counsellors, and co-operating with the "proceres" 
 and ^' cseteri leudes " in important state affairs, especially in refer- 
 ence to the succession, occur repeatedly in the same chronicle 
 (cc. 41, 44, 6Q, 58, 75, 76, 80). So Pepin of Landen, mayor of the 
 palace, took as his habitual adviser Arnulf bishop of Metz (who 
 before becoming bishop had been himself mayor of the palace), and 
 after his death Chunibert bishop of Cologne ( Vita Pipini Ducis, 
 ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mem. iii. 380, 881 ; Du Chesne, Hist. Fr. Ser. 
 i. 594 B,G.). 
 
 M 2 
 
164 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 circumstances of the Spanish Church and monarchy, we 
 may justly consider that we have in it such a picture of 
 clerical intervention in the affairs of Government as we 
 could find in no other contemporary nation. 
 
 Spain, under the later Roman Emperors, had enjoyed 
 a degree of prosperity surpassing that of any other pro- 
 vince. Her rich municipalities gloried in the political 
 and literarv distinctions of her sons, for there were few 
 European lands which could boast such names as Trajan, 
 Hadrian, and Theodosius ; and we may be assured that 
 on the dislocation of the Empire the towns of Iberia 
 and Bsetica did not sink to the degraded level of the 
 other divisions of the civilized world. Hence it natu- 
 rally followed that, when the Visigothic chiefs established 
 their sway, they found themselves in contact with nume- 
 rous Roman citizens, headed and guided by a powerful 
 body of clergy. 
 
 Sidonius Apollinaris has drawn the following picture, 
 couched in language which in its day must have passed 
 for epigrammatic elegance, of King Euric, the founder of 
 the Visigothic constitution, which does not lead us to 
 conclude that the priesthood found much favor with that 
 rough and energetic sovereign'^ : — " In conciHo jubet; in 
 consilio tacet ; in ecclesia jocatur ; in convivio pr^edicat ; 
 in cubiculo damnat ; in qusestione dormitat. Implet 
 quotidie altaria reis, carceres clericis ; exultans Gothis, 
 insultansque Romanis, illudensque prsefectis, colludensque 
 numerariis ; leges Theodosianas calcans, Theodorici- 
 
 * Ep. ii. 1. 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 165 
 
 anasque proponens." However, if the Teutonic princes 
 of Spain set themselves in array against the clergy, they 
 must soon have found themselves overmatched, for in the 
 seventh century they scantily shared with the Church 
 that supreme power which they had been unable to wrest 
 from it. And the contrast between the military and 
 political weakness of Spain and its eminence among the 
 other Germanic nations in every branch of civihzation is 
 a sufficient token of the decay into which the Goths had 
 fallen, and of the simultaneous activity of the intellectual 
 principle as represented by the clergy. Indeed, through- 
 out, the Visigothic constitution was a strange medley of 
 the autocratic and the so-called theocratic elements. The 
 great national councils w^hich assembled at Toledo applied 
 themselves, as soon as they had been inaugurated with all 
 the pomp of a religious ceremony, to the ecclesiastical 
 affairs of the realm, and seemed to look upon the civil 
 legislation as merely a secondary share of the great reli- 
 gious work committed to their hands. The predominance 
 of the ecclesiastical element, as well as the changeless 
 stabihty of the national character, is attested by the 
 stringency of the statutes against Jews and Heretics, 
 foreshadowing the horrors of the Inquisition. But our 
 opinion concerning the fruit borne by clerical power must 
 be formed not so much from such edicts as these as 
 from the accidental allusions occurring throughout the 
 code : in which we may clearly discern the moral 
 integrity and elevation which we have already traced, 
 
166 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 as diffused by the action of the clergy throughout the 
 asperities of Roman legislation. 
 
 We took notice, in the preceding section, of the 
 gradual sway acquired by the priestly authorities over the 
 Roman officers, and of the check thus exercised on ma- 
 gisterial corruption or irregularity. A^^hat during the 
 Roman age had been a tacit exercise of salutary 
 authority, became now a recognized portion of the state 
 government. If, for example^", on a pauper appearing 
 before a civil tribunal, the magistrate neglected his suit, 
 or wilfully perverted justice, the Bishop of the diocese 
 was empowered to supersede him for the time, and, in 
 case the Count of the district refused to carry into 
 execution the episcopal decision, he was liable to be 
 mulcted in a specified sum. And, in general t, the ma- 
 gistrate who despised the just counsels of the bishop and 
 his assessors was hable to be deposed through the influ- 
 ence of the latter from the exercise of his functions for 
 the time being. These enactments, which at first sight 
 may appear to confer an exorbitant power on the pre- 
 lates, will be placed in a truer light, if we interpret them 
 into means of securing the equal rights of the Roman 
 population, and of protecting the ancient inhabitants, by 
 the intervention of their kindred churchmen, from the 
 injustice of their Gothic conquerors. Such a province, 
 
 * Leg. Visig. lib. ii. t. i. c. 29. [ap. Cancian. Leg. Barb. t. iv. 
 pp. 73, 74.] 
 
 t Ibid. t.i. c. 30 [ibid. p. 74]. 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 167 
 
 we may rest assured, fell to the lot of the bishops in 
 every continental country to a greater or less degree, 
 and one of their most beneficial modes of action was that 
 by which they afforded security against barbarian vio- 
 lence to the privileges of the municipahties. But we 
 obtain yet further proof of the judicial authority which 
 superior legal knowledge and acuteness bestowed on the 
 Spanish bishops, in a statute associating thera with the 
 " judices"' in ascertaining the fidelity of slaves, witnesses 
 of a will*. 
 
 It appears, then, that not only have we considerable 
 evidence to show that the Visigothic code was in great 
 measure compiled by clerical jurists, but that we may 
 believe the aid of Christian prelates to have been fre- 
 quently invoked in order to secure against barbaric tur- 
 bulence the equitable administration of the laws they had 
 framed. 
 
 In Spain, as throughout Europe in general, the 
 clerical and monarchical powers seemed to depend in 
 their relations to each other upon the administrative 
 talents or incapacity of the sovereign ; and the excessive 
 despotic sway exercised by the active and unscrupulous 
 among the Visigothic kings gives us to know how more 
 than elsewhere necessary for the well-being of the nation 
 was the imposing bulwark which the Church presented 
 to the autocratic tendencies of the Court. 
 
 The methods of beneficial clerical action which have 
 fallen under our notice in Spain might for the most part, 
 * Ibid. t.v. c. 18[ibid. p.85]. 
 
168 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 with the exception of the last we have touched upon, 
 which was rendered pecuHarly necessary by the servile 
 spirit of the nation in those days, have been discerned, 
 though with far less distinctness, in the other Teutonic 
 tribes; for example, in France under the Merovingian 
 dynasty the political power of the clergy was less steadily 
 exerted in opposition to royal prerogative, though, when 
 the latter attained a threatening pre-eminence in the 
 state, we invariably find the clergy ranged with the 
 asserters of national liberties ^ Indeed it is evident that, 
 before the Church was finally consolidated into one 
 unanimous body, pervading all countries, and acting in 
 obedience to a single absolute Head, and before the 
 system of Church supremacy over kings, which to us is 
 associated with the name of Gregory VII., was per- 
 fected by the craft of an ambitious priesthood, the most 
 natural position for the clergy was that of antagonism to 
 all despotic tendencies; for, so long as monarchs were 
 free to deliberate on the subject of clerical power in the 
 state, and to check ecclesiastical excesses without fear of 
 the Vatican, they presented a far more serious obstacle 
 to the advancement of the Church than was to be 
 dreaded from the most capricious of popular movements. 
 Accordingly we shall be justified in assigning to priestly 
 influence no small share of the benefits accruing from the 
 
 ^ See, for instance, St Leodgar's opposition to Childeric's revo- 
 cation of the national laws which he had been induced to restore 
 ( Fita S. Leodgari, c. 4, ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mem ii. 832. Du Chesne, 
 Hist. Fr. Scr. i. 603 a). 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 169 
 
 restrained authority of the sovereigns during the early 
 mediaeval period i. 
 
 But to take a yet more interesting example of the 
 beneficial political action of the clergy, we discover, on 
 turning to our own island, that the political position of 
 the Anglo-Saxon clergy, while as yet the various national 
 Churches had not been united under the See of Rome, 
 differed in more than one respect from that of their 
 
 » The following extracts from Ethelred's Laws illastrate the 
 Anglo-Saxon feeling : " But there are some men who, on account 
 of their pride and also on account of birth, scorn to obey divine 
 superiors as they ought to do if they desired right ; and often 
 apply themselves to blame what they ought to praise, and account 
 the worse for their humble birth those whose forefathers were not 
 in the world either wealthy or proud through worldly splendour 
 nor in this transient space of life flourishing or powerful ; but 
 these are neither wise nor wholly discreet, who will not obey God, 
 nor better understand how often He has from little raised to great 
 those who obeyed Him and justly spake. We know that through 
 God's grace a thrall has become a thane, and a 'ceorl' has become 
 an 'eorl,' a singer a priest, and a scribe a bishop. And formerly, 
 so as God decreed, a shepherd became a king, and he was very 
 great : also, so as God decreed, a fisher became a bishop, and he 
 was very dear and acceptable to Christ. Such are the gifts of God, 
 who can easily from little raise to great all that He Himself will, 
 so as the Psalmist truly said when he thus sang : Quis sicut Domi- 
 nus Deus noster S;c. ? suscitans a terra inopem, et de stercore erigens 
 pauperem, utcollocet eum cum prlncipibus, cum principibus populi sui: 
 he understands those that have fear of God and heed wisdom. 
 We have all one heavenly Father, and one spiritual Mother, which 
 is called Ecclesia, that is, God's Church; and therefore are we 
 brothers. And then it is also just that each of us observe justice 
 towards another" (Ethelreds Laws, vii. 21—23, 30, 31. ap. Thorpe, 
 Anc. Laws, pp. 142 — 144). 
 
170 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 continental brethren, and that the influence they exerted 
 on the state of people was, as might indeed have been 
 expected from the general constitution of the Anglo- 
 Saxon states, a more healthy and beneficial one. 
 
 In the first place they appear to have possessed this 
 one great moral advantage over the clergy of every other 
 European power, that the position which they occupied 
 in society was a more moderate and definite, and conse- 
 quently a more universally influential one. They neither 
 swayed the whole councils of the nation, as did the 
 haughty churchmen of Spain, nor were they, like those of 
 France, merely occasional members of the great popular 
 convocations. The composition of the Champ de Mars 
 assemblies at a subsequent period under Charlemagne 
 supplies us with sufficient proof that the nation of the 
 Franks were never accustomed to look upon the clergy 
 as a governing body in the state, while in England they 
 formed as necessary a part of the Witenagemote as 
 the thanes or the knights^. By this means they were 
 
 ^ " In the Anglo-Saxon period the priest seems to have attended 
 with the townsmen Qand the Gerefa at the judicial assemblies of 
 the Hundred and the Shire], but after the Conquest the clergy- 
 withdrew from the courts of purely secular authority" (Palgrave's 
 Engl. Comm. vol. i. p. 83). In the two general Shire Courts to be 
 held throughout England every year, "the Bishop and the Ealdor- 
 man were to preside, and respectively to declare the ecclesiastical 
 and municipal law" (.p. 117). So in Sweden, "those suits, which 
 could not be decided within the limits of the Haerred, were reserved 
 for the high remedial and inquisitorial court of the Reefsting, which 
 was constituted in the following manner : The ' Laghman,' or Law- 
 man, was Speaker or President ; the Bishop, two Priests from the 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 171 
 
 preserved from claiming such an authority as to weaken 
 their moral weight with the people, and possessed at the 
 same time sufficient political influence to enable them to 
 devote to the public weal the intellectual superiority of 
 their class ; at the same time, while their political influ- 
 ence was thus strengthened by salutary checks, they 
 enjoyed advantages of social position unknown to the 
 continental clergy, for we read repeatedly of prelates 
 connected by ties of blood with the royal families of the 
 Saxon provinces*; whence we may conclude that in 
 
 Episcopal Chapter, and two of the King's Council, were associated 
 to him ; and, if the latter were absent, two good and freeborn men 
 were elected, to supply their places, by the Lawmen and the Clergy" 
 (p. 118). In Iceland too, " when the Laugrett [or supreme judi- 
 cial and legislative assembly^ was assembled on the Hill of Pleas, 
 it consisted of 12 times 12 or 144 members, virtually representing 
 the people ; to whom were added the Bishops and the Laghmen of 
 the island. In this Court the 'men of Iceland were to reform their 
 laws, if they would '" (pp. 115, 116). Instances of judicial or quasi- 
 judicial functions appointed for the English bishops and clergy may 
 be found in Alfred's Laws, second set, § 1 (Thorpe, Anc. Laws, 
 p. 27) ; Edward and Guthrum's Laws, §§ 10, 12. p. 74 ; ^thel- 
 stan's Laws, c. i. Preface, p. 83 ; Cnut's Laws, § 18. p. 165. The 
 bishops frequently appear associated with the kings in the Anglo- 
 Saxon laws ; as in Alfred's Laws, second set, § 41 (ap. Thorpe, Anc. 
 Laws, p. 89) ; Ine's Laws, Pre/, p. 45 ; § 45, p. 56 ; EdAvard and 
 Guthrum's Laws, § 12. p. 74 ; Laws on Ranks, § 8. p. 82; ^Ethel- 
 stan's Laws, c. i. Pre/, p. 83 ; Edmund's Law^s, Prefaces to both the 
 ecclesiastical and the secular laws, pp. 104, 105 ; Edgar's Laws, c.ii. 
 §§ 8, 5. p. 113 ; Suppl. § 1. p. 115 ; Ethelred's Laws, c. vii. §§ 2, 5, 
 6. p. 141 ; and the Listitutes of Polity, Civil and Ecclesiastical, § 5. 
 p. 424. 
 
 * See Kemble's Saxons in England, vol. ii p. 373. 
 
1 72 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 general the Church stood in a closer connexion than it 
 did elsewhere to the nobility of the land^ This pecu- 
 liarity as well as the preceding one may be explained by 
 that one original distinction between Eno^land and the 
 countries of the Continent which lies at the root of so 
 much that is pecuUar in the old Anglo-Saxon institutions, 
 that the nation was not, as those of France or Spain 
 were, composed of a small mixture of patrician Teutonic 
 blood with the mass of the Celtic or, as we may term 
 them, Roman inhabitants. The Saxons invaded Eng- 
 land as a nation, not merely as an army, and the popu- 
 lation was not only subdued but, to speak generally, 
 exterminated before the conquerors. Hence the bond, 
 political as well as social, which united the clergy to every 
 rank of the people ; hence the influence they obtained, as 
 
 ' In Norway, when the throne became vacant by forfeiture or 
 incapacity, "according to the law of Haco, the foster-son of Athel- 
 stane, the Archbishop and Bishops and 12 of our best men in each 
 diocese decreed the Crown to such of the brothers of the deposed 
 Monarch as was deemed most worthy. The Laymen were sworn, 
 and made the election upon their oath ; but the Prelates gave 
 their votes upon their conscience and honour. If the royal family 
 became extinct in the direct line, the Bishops and Abbots, the 
 royal Thanes, and all the royal Feudatories, assembled at the 
 shrine of King Olave, in order to take counsel with the Arch- 
 bishop concerning the succession to the throne, the Bishops were 
 each accompanied by 12 men, as before, and these juries were to 
 present upon their oath the name of the nearest heir to the 
 deceased Monarch, &c. Unanimity was not required, and the 
 verdict was given by the plurality of voices, provided the Clergy 
 were on the side of the majority" (Palgrave's Engl. Comm. 
 vol. i. p. 132). 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 178 
 
 well in the public councils of the nation as in their 
 private intercourse with the very lowest orders of society i. 
 By none, not even by the most scrupulous of the Teu- 
 tonic nobility, could they be looked upon as a foreign 
 body, enjoying the sole right of ruling in matters ec- 
 clesiastical, but to be jealously excluded from matters 
 political. 
 
 Nor, on the other hand, was there any danger of 
 their occupying that position which appears to have been 
 so fatal to the whole Visigothic state, of chiefs and poli- 
 tical protectors of a powerful and oppressed population, 
 — a position to whose temptations must in all probability 
 be referred the exorbitant political interference of the 
 Spanish priesthood. 
 
 Again, the salutary political power of the English 
 churchmen was called into play more than elsewhere in 
 consequence of the variety of conflicting states and inte- 
 rests which nourished the spirit of faction throughout the 
 island, and the fury of intestine strife was not a little 
 relieved by the mediation of men whose holy office 
 obtained equal reverence from every one of the contending 
 
 ' The care for the poor and for captives shewn in ordinances 
 of purely ecclesiastical origin, in the case of penances imposed on 
 offenders &c., may be seen in Theodore's Liher Posnitentialis, 
 c. xxiii. §§ 3, 4 (ap. Thorpe, p. 290) ; c. xli. § 5, p. 300 ; Fragm. 
 (from the Poenitc-ntiale Romnnum, vii. 80), p. 31 G ; Excerpt. Ecgherti 
 56 C Can. Aurelian.'), p. 330 ; 83. (' Can. Arausican.') p. 333 ; Ecg- 
 bert's Poenitentiale. Additam. § 7- p. 390 (" Qui congesserit immo- 
 dicas divitias, tertiam partem pro stultitia sua pauperibus tribuat") ; 
 and the Canons enacted under King Edgar. ' Of Penitents,' §§ 14, 
 15. pp. 412, 413. 
 
174 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 parties. Thus, we read in the Church History of Bede* 
 that, on a second ground of quarrel arising between Eg- 
 frid king of Northumbria and Ethelred king of Mercia, 
 whose spirit of rivalry had not been quenched by a pre- 
 vious sanguinary engagement, Theodore Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, "relying on the Divine assistance, by his 
 wholesome admonitions extinguished the dangerous fire 
 that was breaking out, so that, the kings and the people 
 on both sides being appeased, no man was put to death." 
 Thus, during the early days of Christianity among the 
 Anglo-Saxons, before a servile adherence to Rome had 
 perverted the purity of their motives, the clergy, though 
 in a situation of less apparent splendour than was enjoyed 
 by those of other countries +, possessed an influence for 
 good which orave them no real reason to envv others who 
 with more seeming privileges wielded a less true power ^. 
 
 * Book iv. c. 21. 
 
 + See Kemble, 7iot. ad loc. cit. [ii. 873]. 
 
 1 The kind of duty, which bishops and i^rlests were believed to 
 owe to society, may be understood from the Anglo-Saxon Insti- 
 tutes of Polity, Civil and Ecclesiastical \jic. vi — x, xix. ap. Thorpe, 
 A71C. Laws, pp. 427—429, 432—434]. " And they [bishops] shall 
 learn and rightly teach and diligently inquire regarding the people's 
 deeds; and they shall preach and earnestly give example, for the 
 spiritual need of a Christian nation : and they shall not willingly 
 consent to any unrighteousness, but earnestly support all righteous- 
 ness ; they shall have the fear of God in mind, and not be too 
 slothful for fear of the world : but let them ever earnestly preach 
 God's righteousness, and forbid unrighteousness, observe it who 
 will ; because weak will the shepherd be found for the flock, who 
 will not defend, at least with his cry, the flock which he has to 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 175 
 
 In describing the political benefits of the clergy 
 during our present period, we are compelled throughout 
 
 tend, unless he otherwise may, if any public robber there begin to 
 rob." " To a bishop belongs every direction, both in divine and 
 Avorldly things. He shall, in the first place, inform men in orders, 
 so that each of them may know wliat properly it behoves him to 
 do, and also what they have to enjoin to secular men. He shall 
 ever be [^busied] about reconciliation and peace as he best may. 
 He shall zealously appease strifes and effect peace, with those tem- 
 poral judges who love right. He shall in accusations direct the 
 ' lad' [i. e. exculpation], so that no man may wrong another, either 
 in oath or in ordeal. He shall not consent to any injustice, or 
 wrong measure, or false weight : but it is fitting that every legal 
 right (both '^burh-riht' and 'land-riht') go by his counsel and with 
 liis witness ; and let every burg measure and every balance for 
 weighing be by his direction and furthering very exact ; lest any 
 man should wrong another, and thereby altogether too greatly sin. 
 He shall always shield Christian men against every of those things 
 which are sinful ; and therefore he shall apply himself the more 
 vigorously to everything, that he may the more readily know how 
 the flock fares which he has to tend from God's hand. * * It 
 behoves all Christian men to love righteousness and shun unrighte- 
 ousness ; and especially men in orders should ever exalt righteous- 
 r.ess and suppress unrighteousness; therefore should bishops, with 
 temporal judges, direct judgments, so that they never permit, if it 
 be in their power, that any injustice spring up there. And on 
 priests also it is incumbent, in their shrift-districts, that they dili- 
 gently support every right, and never permit, if they can ame- 
 liorate it, that any Christian man too greatly injure another; nor 
 the powerful the weak, nor the higher the lower, nor the shire- 
 man those under him, nor the * hlaford ' [i. e. master] his men, not 
 even his thralls. By the confessoi-'s direction and by his own mea- 
 sure, it is justly fitting that the thralls work for their 'hlafords' 
 over all the district in which he shrives. And it is right that there 
 be not any measuring rod longer than another, but all regulated 
 by the confessor's measure ; and let every measure in his shrift- 
 
176 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 to the melancholy reflection that, in this respect more 
 perhaps than in any other, it was an age of approaching 
 
 district and every \A^eiglit be by his direction very rightly regu- 
 lated ; and, if there be any dispute, let the bishop arbitrate. It is 
 every ' hlaford's ' own advantage to protect his thralls as he best 
 may, because they and those that are free are equally dear to God, 
 and He bought us all with equal value. We are all God's own 
 thralls, and so He will judge us as we here judge those over whom 
 we have judgment on earth : it therefore behoves us to protect 
 those who are to obey us ; then may we look for the greater pro- 
 tection at God's own judgment." "A bishop's daily work. That 
 is rightly, his prayers first and then his book work, reading or 
 writing, teaching or learning, and his church hours at the right 
 time, always according to the things thereto befitting; and washing 
 the feet of the poor; and his alms-dealing; and the direction of 
 works, where it may be needful. Good handicrafts are also befit- 
 ting him, that crafts may be cultivated in his family, at least that 
 no one too idle may dwell there. And it also well befits him, that 
 at the ' gemot' he oft and frequently promulgate divine lore among 
 the people with whom he then is." " It is incumbent on bishops 
 that venerable ' witan ' [i. e. councillors]] always travel w^ith them 
 and dwell with them, at least of the priesthood : that they may 
 consult vvith them before God and before the world, and who may 
 be their counsellors at every time, betide whatever betide them. It 
 is incumbent on bishops that there be always good instruction in 
 their families, &c. It is incumbent on bishops not to be too prone 
 to jesting, nor to care too much for hounds and hawks, nor worldly 
 pomp, nor vain pride. It is incumbent on bishops not to be too 
 eager for money at ordination, nor at consecration, nor at penance, 
 nor in any wise to get wealth unjustly. It is incumbent on bishops 
 never to lay a curse upon any man, unless they are compelled by 
 necessity. * * It is incumbent on bishops patiently to endure what 
 they themselves cannot amend, until it shall have been announced 
 to the king ; and let him then get amends for the off'ence against 
 God, where the bishop cannot ; if he will rightly execute God s 
 will, and righteously exalt his own kingship." " Nor may he [the 
 
IV.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 177 
 
 downfall, and that, although Europe has to refer many 
 blessings to the enlightenment of her clergy, they were but 
 as the foundation of a noble edifice, whose progress was 
 checked by advancing corruptions. We shall find that, 
 during our last chronological section, the political benefits 
 we have to enumerate will be few and insignificant com- 
 pared with those which have presented themselves to our 
 notice in this section. 
 
 priest] flinch either before the lowly or the powerful, because he 
 doeth naught, if he fear or be ashamed to speak righteousness. Ill 
 will he fare if through his lack of energy the flock perish, which 
 he has to keep, and himself along with it. * * Such [as the priests 
 denounced by the prophet] are those who will not, or cannot, or 
 dare not, warn the people against sins, and correct sins, but desire 
 nevertheless their monies for tithes and for all church dues, and 
 neither lead them well by examples, nor instruct them well with 
 preachings, nor well heal them with penances, nor intercede for 
 them with prayer, but seize from men's gettings whatever they 
 can grasp, just as greedy ravens do from the corpse, wherever they 
 can light upon it. It is all the worse when they have it all, for 
 they do not dispose of it as they ought, but decorate their wives 
 with what they should the altars, and turn everything to their 
 own worldly pomp or to vain pride, that they should do for the 
 honor of God, in ecclesiastical things, or for the advantage of poor 
 men, or in the buying of war captives, or in some things that might 
 be for lasting benefit both to themselves and also to those who give 
 them their substance for the favour of God." 
 
 N 
 
[CHAPTER v.] 
 
 We are now to enter on the last chronological section 
 of our subject, extending from the accession of Charle- 
 magne to the Imperial throne to the rise of the Capetian 
 dynasty in France, and the first development, on the 
 banks of the Tiber, of more exalted ideas concerning 
 papal and clerical jurisdiction. During this entire period 
 tlie tendency of clerical power, both politically and 
 socially, was an apparently onward one, though we may 
 reasonably doubt whether at its close the priesthood 
 exercised either over the minds of individuals or the 
 policy of the nations as truly and honorably influential 
 a sway as what we have traced during the preceding 
 centuries. 
 
 At the fall of the Merovingian dynasty, the condition 
 of the ecclesiastical world bore a considerable resemblance 
 in its leading features to that of the Roman Empire 
 three centuries previqusly. For the clergy, instead of 
 opposing to the caprices of surrounding barbarism that 
 strict unity which had so long and so actively promoted 
 the cause of truth, suffered themselves to be led astray 
 by the attractions of party intrigue and promised poli- 
 tical power, so as to look upon themselves as members 
 rather of distinct and conflicting earthly kingdoms than 
 of the Church universal. The unbending morality, by 
 which more than by any other means they had established 
 and maintained their influence over the conquerors of 
 
CH. v.] THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE, &C. 179 
 
 Europe, had given way before the sohcltations of tem- 
 poral prosperity; so that the whole Church, had it not 
 possessed within itself a sure principle of stability, would 
 have fallen, as Eome did, rather by the weakness of its 
 defenders than by tlie strength of its adversaries. And 
 in proportion to the unsophisticated barbarism of the 
 Christian nations was the rapidity with which the per- 
 version of the Church reacted on the framework of society: 
 for it was hardly to be expected that the rude minds of 
 Franks or Goths should be able to account for the 
 lamentable variance between the precepts and examples 
 of their spiritual guides, or should bestow any great 
 attention on the exhortations of such prelates as Leo- 
 degarius. Bishop of Autun*, who devoted all their powers 
 to political intrigue, and did not scruple to assemble and 
 conduct fratricidal armies'. 
 
 From this its state of greatest depression the Church 
 began to recover at the establishment of the Carlovingian 
 dynasty in France : for the monarchs of that house were 
 the first to display a true appreciation of their country's 
 necessities, by introducing a thorough clerical reform. 
 Contemporary with these events in France was the ex- 
 tension, under the preaching of Boniface, of Gospel 
 
 * See Sismondi, Hist, des Fr. t. ii. p. Qo. [Also the Vita 
 S. Leodgari, ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mem. ii. 819—371. Du Chesne, 
 Hist. Franc. Script, i. 600—616.] 
 
 ' " Virilitatem coelestis civis seneseens mundus grrtvatus viciis 
 non valuit siistinerc," says his anonymous hiographer ( Vita S. Leod- 
 gari, c. 4, ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mem. ii. 333. Da Chesne^, Hi.st. Fr. 
 Scr.l 603 a). 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 knowledge to the east of the Hhine, and the final separ- 
 ation of the Roman and Greek Churches, in consequence 
 of which the rising papal power, supported by all the 
 vigor of the Carlovingian sway, was directed more exclu- 
 sively to Western Europe; and was enabled to lay in the 
 ecclesiastical body the secure foundations of that despot- 
 ism so soon to be experienced by the temporal as well 
 as the spiritual authorities. Such then was the general 
 condition of the religious world at the moment when the 
 Frank empire was again united under a victorious and 
 dreaded chief; and it is during this the second and more 
 systematic establishment of Church power among the 
 barbarians (as we fear the paladins of Charlemagne must 
 in historical correctness be styled) that we have to inves- 
 tigate the moral benefits of clerical influence. In order 
 the more fully to appreciate the workings of clerical 
 intercourse during this the eventful age, in which we first 
 discern so many of those institutions peculiar to modern 
 civilization, we must first glance at the social and poli- 
 tical development of the European nations during the 
 palmy days of the Carlovingian Empire ; and during the 
 century of incipient feudalism consequent on its dismem- 
 berment. 
 
 Nearly every historian or essayist has rejoiced in 
 some infallible key to the great problem presented by the 
 internal condition of Europe during the Carlovingian age; 
 but an unbiassed reader, as contending hypotheses pass 
 before his eyes, may reasonably question the universal 
 applicability of any, and may the more firmly be induced 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 181 
 
 to believe that during the eighth and ninth centuries the 
 only permanency was the prevailing barbarism. But 
 the sudden and gigantic extension of Frankish sway 
 under Charlemagne produced an entire convulsion in 
 society as well as in politics ; while at the same time it 
 must be observed that many of the changes usually 
 associated with the name of that great conqueror are 
 rather to be considered as mere developments of the 
 pohcy of his predecessors than as innovations of his own, 
 just as historical strictness awards to his father and 
 grandfather those triumphs over the infidel which have 
 been bestowed by romance upon the court of Aix-la- 
 Chapelle. In like manner that gradual and constant 
 transition from the system of political centralization to 
 that of distribution, which is usually assigned to Charle- 
 magne, ought rather to be considered a tendency of the 
 social movement durino; the eis:hth and succeedinsf cen- 
 tury; and in France this was combined with the amal- 
 gamation of the Frank and Romano- Gallic nations, or, 
 as it might perhaps more correctly be termed, the absorp- 
 tion of the former into the latter. The first of the two 
 great changes to which we have alluded is that by which 
 the numerous functions originating in the turmoil of 
 barbarian administration, the offices of dukes and counts, 
 throughout France and Italy became hereditary instead 
 of elective ^ By this means, although for centuries the 
 
 ' A year after Dagobert's death Pepin was succeeded by his son 
 Grinioald as mayor of the palace (Fredeg^. Chron. c. 85), — the first 
 instance of hereditary transmission of an office of the sort. Again, 
 
182 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 assemblies of the Champ de Mars continued to exercise 
 a nominal authority, and the royal power alternately rose 
 and sunk, yet the country ceased to be, as it had been, 
 under the immediate superintendence of the chief of the 
 French nation ; and we perceive for the first time 
 through France, Germany, and Italy, the elements of 
 those regal duchies, counties, and bishoprics, productive 
 of so weighty a result during the middle ages. If we 
 compare this state of the European social system with 
 that of the Church, we shall find in it an apt illustration 
 of a rule which seems to apply to the relations of eccle- 
 siastical to civil power: that the phenomena in the 
 changes of the one are in an inverse ratio, as it were, to 
 those of the other; for the authority of the Church, 
 weakened under the concentrated sway of Charlemagne, 
 rose into fuller activity in proportion as the Empire was 
 rent in pieces from the grasp of his descendants. 
 
 Now although this social movement, limiting: the 
 real though not the nominal power of the sovereign, and 
 improving the condition of the lower orders by multiply- 
 ing the centres of production and expenditure, certainly 
 did not take its rise with Charlemag;ne, vet it does 
 appear to have acquired additional importance during his 
 reign, both from the new freedom of action it obtained, 
 and from the vast extent of Europe over which the poli- 
 tical and social ideas of France were diffiised. For not 
 
 on Grimoald's death the office fell, seemingly for the first time, 
 into the hands of a minor ("parvulus"), his son Theodoald (2nd 
 Cont. of Fredeg. Chron. 104). 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 183 
 
 only were institutions from the banks of the Seine trans- 
 ported to those of the Elbe and the Tiber, but the 
 extreme distance from the wealthiest provinces of the 
 Empire to the seat of administration weakened the 
 Imperial authority in those very districts which were most 
 able and willing for the approaching duties of self- 
 government. 
 
 The other peculiarity of the period, the gradual 
 recovery of power by the Roman element throughout the 
 continent, will be presented to us with greater clearness 
 when we come to view the political influence of the 
 clergy. 
 
 It appears then, on the whole, that, though we have 
 adopted as our chronological limit the accession of 
 Charlemagne to the throne of Olovis, we have so done 
 more from regard to the strongly marked character of 
 his administration, as laying before us in a striking light 
 the peculiarities of the age, than because we considered 
 his reign as the real commencement of a new era in 
 European society. Another and more powerful reason is 
 to be found in the circumstance that under his sway 
 first ^ were the principles of incipient feudalism in France 
 disseminated through other lands ; and from the close of 
 the eighth to that of the tenth century, the general orga- 
 nization of the various Christian communities on the 
 continent may be so far considered identical, as that 
 
 ' Yet Pepin, after quelling a revolt of Theodebald, son of 
 Godfrey duke of Suevia, returns "revocato sibi ejusdem loci 
 ducatu" (3rd cent, of Fredegarii Chron. c. 118). 
 
184 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 we may suppose them to possess the same leading cha- 
 racteristics. 
 
 But to return to our more immediate subject. 
 The accession of Charlemagne found the priesthood in 
 possession of an increased and rapidly increasing moral 
 power over the people, consequent on a reform within 
 the Church itself. The impulse from without, by w^hich 
 such a change was effected, has already been exemplified 
 by the Capitularies of Yermeric : and the very large 
 proportion of the contemporary enactments devoted to 
 the enforcement of the Canon Law testifies to its previous 
 neglect. Regarding the succeeding century, we can 
 desire no more secure or complete source of information 
 than the very miscellaneous collection of state papers 
 known as Baluze"'s edition of the Capitularies of the 
 French Kings. Although the ecclesiastical form im- 
 parted to the legislative body of the Franks under Pepin 
 was very far from being continued after the Champ de 
 Mars once again became what it had anciently been, the 
 mustering ground of the national army, and though even 
 under the unwarlike sceptre of Louis le Debonnaire the 
 people never submitted to be represented, though they 
 might allow themselves to be ruled, by the clergy, yet, as 
 we glance over the statutes bearing the names of Charle- 
 magne and his successor, the number of them devoted 
 to the enunciation and enforcement of the Canon Law 
 strikes us as a very remarkable peculiarity of the period. 
 M. Guizot has presented to his readers* an elaborate 
 
 * Guizot, Civilisation en France, lee. 21. t ii. [pp. 324 — 338.]] 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 185 
 
 table of the Capitularies of Charlemagne and his suc- 
 cessors, from which it appears that those which he 
 classes under the three heads of moral, religious, and 
 canonical edicts, all of which we may suppose to have 
 been drawn up under the immediate eye of the clerical 
 advisers of the emperor, comprise, during the reign of 
 Charlemagne, considerably more than a third part of the 
 general legislation ; under his son, again, the proportion 
 of those above specified to the whole number is smaller, 
 yet still so considerable as to attract notice, especially 
 when we remember that a very important power of inde- 
 pendent ecclesiastical legislation was lodged in the hands 
 of the prelates^, and that all such statutes are to be 
 looked upon as mere appendices to the enormous mass 
 of canonical edicts which had preceded them. Under 
 Charlemagne, however, the fact we have mentioned is 
 especially worthy of note, when we reflect that many of 
 the national assemblies were summoned in remote half- 
 subdued districts, and were in their very essence military 
 encampments, where the presence of the clergy was 
 forbidden not only by more ancient statutes but by a 
 
 ^ "Concilia quoque jussu ejus super statu Ecclesiarum corri- 
 gendo per totam Galliam ab episcopis celebrata sunt, quorum 
 unum Mogontiaci, alterum Remis, tertium Turonis, quartum 
 Cabillione, quintum Arelati congregatum est, et constitutionum 
 quae in singulis factae sunt collatio coram imperatore in illo con- 
 ventu [|apud Aquasgrani^ liabita; quas qui nosse voluerit, in 
 supradictis quinque civitatibus invenire poterit, quamquam et in 
 archivo palatii exemplaria illarum habeantur" (Einhardi Annales. 
 sub anno 813. ap. Pertz. i. 200). 
 
186 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 recent Imperial injunction*, granted in consequence of a 
 popular petition remonstrating against the warlike pro- 
 pensities of the Christian pastors. Here then we possess 
 a remarkable token of the intellectual and moral energy 
 pervading the clerical body, and of the earnest vigor with 
 which the disciplinarian reforms, begun during the reign 
 of Pepin, were carried on during those of his son and 
 grandson, both among the clergy themselves and among 
 their barbarian flocks. 
 
 In our preceding section we have mentioned that it 
 was mainly owing to clerical influence that the old system 
 of composition for crimes was infringed upon, and we 
 discover yet more evident traces of the same circumstance 
 during; the centuries we are now examinino;. It was 
 indeed as yet far from being the case that crime was 
 universally punished in those days on the same principles 
 which reo;ulate our modern penal codes; but we cannot 
 but see, along with that increase of clerical authority to 
 which we have already referred, the continued progress 
 and application of those principles. Indeed it is, to speak 
 generally, difficult to overestimate the advantages which 
 have accrued to modern Europe from the strictness with 
 which the decrees of councils assembled under a more 
 perfect form of society were preserved by ecclesiastical 
 tradition among rude and lawless nations, for not only is 
 the maintenance of the priestly order, as a separate and 
 superior class, in great measure owing to the authority 
 which could not but be exercised over uncultured minds 
 
 * Baluz. Capit. Reg. Franc, t. i. coll. 405 — 414. 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 187 
 
 by the professors of so pure and venerable a code, but 
 the gradual infusion of canonical morality into the Teu- 
 tonic statute-books assumes, during the centuries now 
 before us, an importance not to be concealed. This 
 assertion will be supported by the very slightest com- 
 parison of the respective penalties with which the Church 
 and the state at different times visited the more heinous 
 offences. If we were to take the case of homicide, which 
 we adopted to exemplify a similar position in the last 
 section, we should be led from the inhuman regulations 
 of the Salic code, as revised shortly after the accession 
 of Charlemagne, where is laid down with the utmost 
 precision the " Weregilt'" varying with the rank of the 
 victim, to a Capitulary of 802*, containing instructions 
 for the " Missi Dominici,''' where, although the enormity 
 of the crime is represented in strong colours, a pecuniary 
 composition is the assigned punishment, while at the 
 same time the progress of a purer Christian morality is 
 marked by the necessity of penitence before the Bishop 
 in order to a recovery of social privileges. A third and 
 more satisfactory step is to be found among the Capitu- 
 laries collected by Benedict Levita, where a law, probably 
 to be referred to tha later years of Charlemagne, or the 
 earlier ones of his successor, declares death to be the 
 penalty due to murderf . The second as well as the 
 
 * Baluz CapH. Reg. Franc, t. i. coll. 371, 2. 
 
 t Id. t. I. col. 1079 {CapH. [A'ar. et LudT] vii. c. 256). [De 
 homicidis ita jussimus observare, ut quicunque ausu temerario 
 alium sine causa occiderit, vitae periculo feriatur, et pretio nullo 
 
188 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CII. 
 
 third of the above steps bear most evident traces of the 
 influence of the clergy in inculcating, by necessarily slow 
 degrees, a true system of Christian ethics. 
 
 But the ever more powerful authority exercised by 
 the clergy over public morality may be deduced as well 
 from the external evidence of history as from the con- 
 temporary statutes and canons. We have an instance, 
 little satisfactory, it is true, in convincing us of the 
 beneficial effect of exorbitant clerical interference in such 
 cases, but which we may fairly consider as presenting an 
 instance of the abuse of a power which taken by itself, 
 and unperverted by papal influence, cannot have been 
 otherwise than beneficial. I allude to the vigorous 
 theological and political strife raised by the unfortunate 
 marriage of King Lothaire, son to the emperor of the 
 same name, with Theutberga, when an action, which a 
 century before would have passed unnoticed by the most 
 strenuous upholder of the rights of the clergy as inter- 
 preters of the Canon Law, was only finally settled by the 
 arbitration of the Pope-'. 
 
 So far we have confined ourselves to the influence 
 exercised by the clergy as the moral guides and legis- 
 lators of the people. It was, as has been said, accom- 
 panied, and in a great measure produced, by a great 
 increase of strictness in all matters of Church discipline 
 
 se redimere unquam valeat. Et si convenerit ut ad composi- 
 tionem quisque descendat, nullus de parentibus aut amicis cum 
 quicquam adjuvet. Quod si fecerit, suum vuirgildum omnino 
 componat/] 
 
 * JSismondi;, Hist, des Fr. t. iii. pp. 143 — 158. 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 189 
 
 and o'overnment; and althouQ^h the student of French 
 history naturally ascribes all the glory of such reforms to 
 the Carlovingian nionarchs, yet we must not forget that 
 the clergy and the state stood in a position to act and 
 react upon each other, and that the salutary changes 
 which were carried into execution by the weight of the 
 royal authority had been suggested in the councils of the 
 monarch, and carried through those of the nation, by the 
 preponderating influence of ecclesiastical dignitaries. Ee- 
 membering this circumstance, we shall look with more 
 interest on the process by which the clergy were restored 
 to so large a share of their former purity, for we shall 
 see in it the consequence of a spirit which had perhaps 
 never been completely extinct even in the most corrupt 
 of churches. The piety of the early Carlovingians had 
 checked the evils of commendator bishoprics and abbeys*, 
 and among the acts of Charlemagne are numerous decrees, 
 ensuring the due performance of their holy functions by 
 the various orders of churchmen. The most remarkable 
 document, perhaps, which is extant on the subject is a 
 general letter t addressed by the same monarch to the 
 archbishops throughout the Empire, in which, after ex- 
 horting them to a seemly carefulness in the duties of 
 their sacred office, he questions them concerning their 
 mode of teaching and explaining some of the most 
 important doctrines, as Baptism, the Apostles' Creed, 
 
 * Baluz. Capit. Reg. Franc, t. i. coll. 169, 170. 
 t Id. t. i. coll. 483, 4. 
 
190 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 and the various forms acknowledged by the Church for 
 exorcisms and mysterious ceremonies. 
 
 But of all the documents relating^ to the ecclesiastical 
 discipline of the period the most remarkable is the 
 Capitulary of Aix-la-Chapelle, of the year 789 *, in which 
 the decrees of the old councils are brought forward again 
 and enforced by the severest penalties. It is true, we 
 can hardly believe that all its numerous provisions were 
 faithfully carried out ; yet it affords us strong proofs of 
 the completeness of the reorganization rendered necessary 
 by previous ages of laxity, and of the wise zeal with 
 which the Frank sovereign promoted the interests of his 
 faith. Thus, one clause is to the effect that no bishop 
 is to ordain a candidate without strict previous enquiry 
 into his moral character and intellectual capabilities. 
 Another restrains what seems during the preceding age 
 to have been a common breach of ecclesiastical order, 
 the interference of one prelate with the diocese of his 
 neio-libourino; brethren : while a third checks the alreadv 
 prevalent tendency towards an immoderate multiplication 
 of the names of martyrs and confessors. 
 
 But this amelioration, which appears at first sight as 
 a change consequent upon secular action from without, 
 may be placed in an instructive connexion with another 
 which simultaneously made its appearance among the 
 clergy themselves, and to whose effects we must attribute 
 the most salutary results during the centuries immediately 
 following upon its institution. Chrodegang, bishop of 
 
 * Baluz. (Capit. Aqiusgnm, c. 71) t. i. coll. 237, 8. 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 191 
 
 Metz, was the first to establish, among the clergy in 
 more immediate intercourse with himself, a rule of life 
 not very much dissimilar to that which had been formed 
 at Hippo by the exertions of Augustine, three centuries 
 before. And he found speedy imitators in all the cathe- 
 dral churches of the Empire. The model of life esta- 
 blished among the secular priesthood of each episcopal 
 seat by this new attempt at combining the practical 
 activity of the priest with the contemplative powers of 
 the monk may be gathered from a clause of the same 
 Capitulary of Aix-la-Chapelle, where, after enjoining 
 upon monks a strict adherence to the vows of their order, 
 the legislator adds the following words: "And we desire 
 that such as enter upon the clerical office, or, as it is 
 termed, the canonical life, should live in every respect 
 according to their own rules, and that their Bishop 
 should regulate their manner of life as an Abbot does 
 that of his monks*."" Here then was an institution in 
 every respect admirably adapted to the genius of the age; 
 for it united all the meditative retirement and disciplined 
 life of the monastic orders with all the pastoral power 
 and activity wherein lay the influence of the secular 
 clergy. The priestly influence over the inhabitants of 
 the towns, who during the whole period we are investi- 
 gating continued to rise into more marked importance 
 
 * Capit. Aquisgran. c. 71. (Baluz. t. i. col. 238.) [["Similiter 
 qui ad clericatuin accedunt, quod nos nominamus canonicam 
 vitam, volumus ut illi canonice secundum suam regulam omni- 
 modis vivant, et Episcopus eorum regat vitam, sicut Abba mona- 
 chorum.]] 
 
192 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 relatively to the agricultural population, was immeasur- 
 ably enhanced by the regularity of life thus secured ; for 
 contrasts of the severe discipline and earnestness of the 
 monks with the comparative laxity and occasional abso- 
 lute immorality of the secular clergy had been frequent, 
 and had conduced, as we have seen during our last 
 section, to the very considerable social pre-eminence 
 attained by the former over their more worldly brethren. 
 
 Hitherto we have confined our attention to the 
 influence of clerical action, direct or indirect, upon the 
 people during the prosperity of the Carlovingian race, 
 and have scarcely cast a glance on the century subse- 
 quent to the death of Charles the Bald. And, in truth, 
 of the ten centuries over which we have passed there is 
 none less worthy of our notice ; for not only did the cler- 
 ical body, seduced by the temptations to inordinate ambi- 
 tion consequent on the degradation of all that had been 
 mighty in secular authority, present sure tokens of that 
 gigantic cancer which was wasting the energies of the 
 Church^, but their degeneracy was relieved by nothing 
 that was noble or praiseworthy among the laity ; in fact, 
 it was, as far as we can see, the only period of the world's 
 history in which men so utterly unworthy of their illus- 
 trious spiritual ancestry could have attained a power far 
 
 ^ Frodoard, writing about 966, complains of ^"^ these latter 
 times/' in which '^deficiente religione" the once numerous clergy 
 of the basilica of SS. Timothy and Apollinaris at Rheims were 
 reduced to a single priest {Hist. Eccl. Rem. lib. i. c. 4. ap. Guizot, 
 Coll. des Mem. v. 11; Couvenier, pp. 19^ 20). 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 193 
 
 superior to what their immediate predecessors had exer- 
 cised over the minds of their rude barbarian neophytes. 
 But this will be accounted for when we remember the 
 utter helplessness into which every form of government 
 and every branch of society fell during that disastrous 
 age, when we reflect on the change which had come over 
 the dauntless spirit of independence and individual free- 
 dom (characteristic, more than any other quality, of the 
 early invaders of the empire,) and which had proved an 
 effectual bar to the excessive political exaltation of the 
 Church among nations so zealously conservative of their 
 pristine institutions. Every incident of ecclesiastical 
 history during the tenth century convinces us that the 
 despotism of the clergy depended rather on the disap- 
 pearance of all else that was great or venerable than on 
 any absolute moral strength accruing to the Church ^ 
 
 ' Nearly all the letters of Fulk, Hincmav's successor at 
 Rheims, to Pope Formosus, given by Frodoard {Hist. Ecc. Rem. 
 lib. iv. cc. 1—3. ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mem. v. 480—490, Couve- 
 iiier, pp. 571 — 596) contain lamentable evidence of the utter 
 disorganization of all government and society in France ; as in c. S 
 (p. 487. Guizot ; 592. Couvenier), where he complains of the 
 ravages of the see of Rheims and attacks upon the city by Arnulf 
 of Germany and Eudes count of Paris. However, during this 
 complete absence of legitimate power, it does appear from the 
 correspondence reported in these chapters that the organization 
 of the Church, though irregular compared with what it had been, 
 was far more perfect than any other at the time in the country. 
 Heriveus, Fulk's successor, seems likewise to have distinguished 
 himself by his good government (ibid. c. 11. p. 531. Guizot ; p. 6*45. 
 Couvenier): "Qui mox huic adeo gradui sese exhibere studuit 
 habilem, bonis omnibus prasbeif. amabilem, ipsis etiam senibus 
 
 o 
 
194 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 Indeed, we shall find that the rise of feudalism, while it 
 inspired so much new life into the European nations, 
 tended, previously to the acknowledgment of papal power, 
 rather to weaken sacerdotal influence. 
 
 In spite of the fictitious brilliancy imparted to the 
 clerical order, during this its darkest period, by a few men 
 of an intellectual calibre far beyond their contemporaries, 
 the only reason for extolling the general advantages of 
 priestly influence is to be derived from the utter obscurity 
 of the world in which they lived. 
 
 We shall now revert from the repulsive spectacle 
 presented by society during the 10th century to the. most 
 historically interesting portion of our present section, the 
 reign of Charlemagne. The policy of that mighty sove- 
 reign, viewed in the relation as well to the religious as to 
 
 imitabilem : benignus amator existens pauperum, largus solator 
 religiosorura, multumque misericors recreator lugentium mise- 
 rorum : Ecclesiasticis apprime caiitilenis eruditus, ac psalmodia 
 prsecipuus, et hujus exercitatione limatus, animo vultuque jocun- 
 dus, suavis atque mitissimus omnique bonitate conspicuus, pater 
 cleri atque totius populi plus patronus ; tardus ad irascendum et 
 velox ad miserandum ; amator Ecclesiarum Dei, et fortissimus 
 ovilis sibi commissi cum Dei virtute defensor. Recepit denique 
 res diversas et villas Ecclesise, quas antecessor suus per precarias 
 sive praestarias diversis contulerat personis. Cui sedula intentione 
 sectanti spiritalia affluenter exuberabant temporalia, quae ipse 
 honesta dispensabat prudentia, disponens competentibus Episco- 
 pium ministerialibus, ipse orationibus incessanter intentus. Re- 
 plentur igitur Ecclesiae diversa bonis uberrimis tam hordea quam 
 promptuaria : disponuntur cuncta tum rationabiliter tum mise- 
 ricorditer praedia : sed et quoedam reparantur ab eo vel etiam 
 iiistituuntur municipia." 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 195 
 
 the political ideas of his predecessors and successors, 
 seems to us to afford a rare instance of the prevailino- 
 tendencies of an age and nation checked, and for a 
 season turned into a new channel, by the activity and 
 administrative talent of a single man. Our present con- 
 cern, however, is with the clergy, considered not in their 
 political but in their moral and social relations to a prince 
 who undoubtedly exerted over the whole religious ideas 
 of his day an authority unequalled by any succeeding 
 sovereign. 
 
 We may look upon the reign of Charlemagne as a 
 sort of parenthesis in the history of the age, for in the 
 political world the prevailing tendency towards a general 
 spHtting up of the old barbaric kingdoms into virtually 
 independent duchies and counties was checked for a time 
 by the centralizing influences of his administration, 
 though under his descendants it broke forth again with 
 greater power and more rapid success. In the religious 
 world, again, the ascendancy of priestly authority over 
 the state was for a time restrained by the imposing mag- 
 nitude and elevated morality of the Frank Empire. 
 
 It must, however, be observed that Charlemagne, 
 like all other great administrators, did not so much 
 remodel the ideas of his age to suit the tendencies of his 
 own mind, as follow out to their most legitimate and 
 beneficial conclusions such as already existed; for he 
 combined that commanding genius which necessarily 
 belongs to a great man, with that far-sighted compliance 
 which necessarily belongs to a wise one ; so that we 
 
 2 
 
196 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 may in some measm*e view his influence on the intellect 
 and morality of his age as the most perfect and natural 
 form of the development consequent on the pecuHarities 
 of the preceding centuries ; and in this we shall be sup- 
 ported by the facts both of his political and his eccle- 
 siastical legislation. The former, though not such as to 
 entitle him to the praises bestowed upon him by Mon- 
 tesquieu, yet presents to us the old Teutonic institutions 
 in their most perfect form^; and in the latter, though it 
 , may excite the regrets of zealous ecclesiastical historians 
 that the Church was subjected to the authority of a tem- 
 poral lord^, we behold a combination of spiritual and 
 civil influences for the good of the nation, which we look 
 for in vain under feebler rulers. 
 
 Although in reviewing the vast extent of legislation 
 
 ^ " Post susceptum imperiale nomen, cum adverteret miilta 
 legibus populi sui deesse, (nam Franci duas habent leges, in 
 pluiimis locis valde diversas,) cogitavit quae deerant addere et 
 discrepantia unire, prava quoque ac perperam prolata corrigere; 
 sed de his nihil aliud ab eo factum est, nisi quod pauca capitula 
 et ea imperfecta legibus addidit. Omnium tamen nationum, quae 
 sub ejus dominatu erant, jura quae scripta non erant describere ac 
 literis mandari fecit. Item barbara et antiquissima carmina, 
 quibus veterum regum actus et bella canebantui', scripsit memo- 
 riaeque mandavit. Inchoavit et grammaticam patrii sermonis. 
 Mensibus etiam juxta propriam Unguam vocabula imposuit, cum 
 ante id temporis apud Francos partim latinis pavtim barbaris 
 nominibus pronuntiarentur" (Eiuhardi V\ta Karoli M, c. 29. ap. 
 Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist. Script, t. ii. p. 458). 
 
 ^ Yet his rough deahngs with the Church, had been anticipated 
 by Charles Martel (Frodoard, Hist. Eccl. Rem. lib. ii. c. 12. ap. 
 Guizot, Coll. des Mem. v, 170 — 174 ; Couvenier, pp. 222 — 4). 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CPIRISTIAN CLERGY. 197 
 
 bearing the name of Charlemagne we must attribute 
 much of its profound foresight and policy to the judgment 
 and talent of so great a sovereign ; although more, per- 
 haps, than most rulers he may be associated with the 
 acts published during his reign; yet it must also be 
 remembered that he was ever surrounded by all the most 
 erudite and the most pious of his clergy, and that to 
 their sage counsels must be assigned the glory of many 
 of those enactments which posterity refers to their illus- 
 trious pupil. While we admire the great results of the 
 fulfilment, in the person of the Teutonic Emperor, of one 
 portion of Plato*'s wish, if we look with admiration on 
 the philosophic king, we must not forget to give their 
 due meed of praise to the philosophers who swayed an 
 almost kingly power ; for the privy council of the Emperor 
 during peace was composed of churchmen, and in a great 
 measure of the same who will come before us again as 
 the ornaments of the Palace School. The absolute form 
 in which the royal decrees were published in France 
 hides from us the fact that many of those Capitularies, 
 which bear all the appearance of having been prompted 
 by a single mind ever devoted to the interests of learning 
 and morality, were little else than formal expressions of 
 decisions arrived at by the assembled ecclesiastical 
 authorities of his realm. We may then with reason assert 
 that the most important part of the moral and intellec- 
 tual blessings conferred by the clergy on their contem- 
 poraries consisted in their influence on the imperial mind ; 
 and, consequently, while we give all due praise to the 
 
198 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CII. 
 
 head of the state, we must consider that no faintly 
 reflected brilHancy falls on the leaders of the Church who 
 surrounded him. 
 
 In examining the influence of Charlemagne's system, 
 we must look upon him not merely as a military con- 
 queror and a political ruler, but in the yet higher charac- 
 ter of a moral reformer. No sovereign, at any time, not 
 even our own Alfred, seems to have been more com- 
 pletely in advance of the age in which he lived. He saw 
 and felt the ignorance and barbarism in which every one 
 of the nations congregated under his sceptre remained 
 plunged, and the means he adopted for effecting the 
 necessary changes were both the most suitable to his own 
 circumstances and to those of the rude materials on which 
 he had to work. He perceived that no reformation was 
 possible which did not take its rise in the religious 
 feelings of the people, and in which, consequently, the 
 principal place was not occupied by sacerdotal agents. 
 
 But, although at his accession the moral improvement 
 and discipline of the priesthood had been considerably 
 advanced by the piety of his predecessor, yet he was 
 far from finding in that body an instrument sufficiently 
 powerful to fulfil his vast schemes for the amelioration of 
 his Empire. Hence the zeal with which he carried on the 
 reform among the clergy which his father had so zeal- 
 ously begun ^ But his view was not merely directed 
 
 ^ Some anecdotes of his mode of appointing bishops are told 
 by the ' Monachus Sangallensis' {Gesta Karoli, i. 4, 5. ap. Pertz. 
 ir. 732, 733). An ordinance issued by him to all the bishops, that 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 199 
 
 towards strengthening the bonds of ecclesiastical disci- 
 pline, and moulding the whole clergy of his Empire into 
 one compact and united mass; for he saw well that, if no 
 precautions were taken against a recurrence of former 
 evils, the rudeness and demoralization of the social 
 system, checked for a time by his controlling hand, 
 would break forth again with worse violence than ever, 
 and that the clergy, infected by the vices of the laity, 
 would sink once ag^ain to its former degraded level. It 
 was with the intention (though the inherent vices of the 
 age baffled even him) of providing against the recurrence 
 of the previous calamities, that he issued those numerous 
 edicts which have been preserved to us, by which the 
 advancement of knowledge and the spread of true religion 
 from one extremity of Europe to the other is materially 
 promoted. Conscious of the intellectual poverty of his 
 own Iand\ he induced the learned among the foreign 
 
 before a certain day they should all preach in their cathedrals on 
 pain of deprivation, is mentioned by the same authority (i. 18). 
 
 ' " Fatendum tamen ante Carolum M. literarum disciplinarum- 
 que in Galliis ita evanuisse studia, ac Linguae praesertim Latinse, 
 ut stante Reg-um nostrorum priorum stemmate^ vix sese tantillum 
 extulerit; quod probant, quae de veteribus formulis supra obser- 
 vavimus, et de Chilperici Regis Latinis seu Barbaro-Latinis scriptis 
 tradit Gregorius Turonensis {Hist. Franc. 1. vi. c. 46). Id etiam 
 testatur Anonymus Scriptor De Miraculis S. Florentii (ex cod. 
 MS.) ; ' Liberales siquidem artes,' inquit ille, ' usque temporibus 
 Domni Caroli Imperatoris, praedecessoribus nostris ita exstiterant 
 extraneae, ut in Galliae regionibus etiam inter summos Pontifices 
 vi.^ aliquis negligentia praepediente reperiretur, qui urbanitate 
 eloquii Synodales saltern valeret venustate exolvere definitiones. 
 
200 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 clergy to flock to the Imperial court, and the chronicles 
 as well as the ordinances of his reign display to us per- 
 petually the anxiety with which, amid all the distractions 
 of civil reform and foreign conquest, he fostered the 
 interests of sound learning ^ Thus, we are told by his 
 monkish annalists, that on the occasion of his third 
 visit to Rome in the year 787 he collected some of the 
 most erudite among the Italian clergy, and persuaded 
 
 Sed quoniam, favente Deo, instantiaque Domni supradicti Im- 
 peratoi'is, qua? vetustiores neglcxerant, moderniores adsecuti sunt.' 
 Et Scriptor Fitce S. Urbani Lingonensis Ep. (ex cod. MS.) ; ' Ex- 
 teraruin quippe persecutio gentium et intestina etiam bella Regum 
 sic postponi fecerant liberaHum studia hterarum, ut usque ad 
 tempora Caroli Magni vix possent in Galliis inveniri, qui in sci- 
 entia grammaticae artis essent sufficienter instructi'" (Ducange, 
 Preface to Glossary, c. 30). 
 
 1 A story is told, how his zeal for education was first called 
 out by the arrival of two learned Irishmen, who publicly offered 
 their wisdom for sale, asking as its price " loca tantum oportuna 
 et animos ingeniosos et, sine quibus peregrinatio transigi non 
 potest, alimenta et quibus tegamur," and were eagerly welcomed 
 by the emperor (Monacli. Sangal. Gest. Kar. i. 1). One of them, 
 it is said, Clemens by name, was entrusted with the education 
 of a large number of boys of all ranks. Charlemagne, on his 
 return from a long expedition, found that the boys from the 
 middle and lower classes had made great progress, while the 
 young nobles had remained idle and ignorant. The former he 
 thanked for their diligence, and promised them bishoprics and 
 monasteries as well as his own personal favour: the latter he 
 scornfully denounced ; " Per regem coelorum ! non ego magni 
 pendo nobilitatem et pulchritudinem vestram, licet aliisvos admi- 
 rentur; et hoc proculdubio scitote, quia, nisi cito priorem neg- 
 ligentiam vigilauti studio recuperaveritis, apud Karolum nihil 
 unquam boni acquiretis !" {ibid. 2, 3). 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 201 
 
 them to accompany him to the north of the Alps*. The 
 consequences of such a step we may gather from an 
 
 * See Baluzii Prcpfat. ad Const, de Scholis, t. i. coll. 201, 202. 
 []And Ducange (Preface to Glossary, c. 33). "Sic porro in disci- 
 plinis sorduit Gallia nostra usque ad tempera Caroli M. ' qui,' ut 
 ait Monachus Egolismensis (' Fit. Carol. M. ann. 787,') 'a Roma 
 artis Grammaticre et computatorise magistros secum adduxit in 
 Franciam, et ubique studium literarum expandere jussit. Ante 
 ipsuni enim Domnum Regem Carolum in Gallia nullum studium 
 fuerat liberalium artium.' Quod quidem maximi Principis in 
 liberales artes studium ita etiam prsedicat Alcuinus in Epistola 
 ad eundem Carolum M. ' Nee fastidiosa segnities legentium bene- 
 volentiae magistri juste deputari debet, si plurimis inclitum vestrse 
 devotionis studium sequentibus forsan Athena nova perficeretur in 
 Francia ; imo multo excellentior, quia hasc Christi nobilitata ma- 
 gisterio omnem Academicse exercitationis superat sapientiam.' 
 {'Epist. 10.') 
 
 ''Et Lupus Abbas Ferrariensis scribens ad Eginbardum; 'Amor 
 literarum ab ipso fere initio pueritiae mihi est innatus, nee earum, 
 ut nunc a plerisque vocantur, superstitiosa otia fastidio sunt. Et 
 nisi intercessisset inopia praeceptorum, et longo situ collapsa pri- 
 orum studia pene interiissent, largiente Domino mea? aviditati 
 satisfacere potuissem. Siquidem vestra memoria per famosissimum 
 Imperatorem Karolum, cui literse usque eo deferre debent, ut 
 aeternam ei parent memoriam, coepta revocari, aliquantum quidem 
 extulere caput, satisque constitit, veritate subnixum prseclarum 
 dictum, Honos alit artes, et accenduntur omnes ad studia gloria.' 
 {' Ep. L')" 
 
 The cultivation of literature by Charles the Bald is also 
 attested by Hericus the Monk in a letter to that Emperor ap- 
 pended by him to his Life of St Germaims. "Ac tandem concludit, 
 'Quidquid igitur literte possunt, quidquid assequuntur ingenia, 
 vobis debent.' 
 
 " His proinde Principibus, ne quid amplius dicam, sua debent 
 initia scholae publicse ac monasticae, et omnium Disciplinarum m 
 Francia instauratio."j 
 
202 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 edict published towards the close of the same year, en- 
 titled* " Constitutio de Scholis per sinorula episcopia et 
 monasteria instituendis,"'"' where, after making mention of 
 communications he had received from monasteries, in 
 which the excellence of the sentiments was more re- 
 markable than the correctness of the lano^uao^e, he ordains 
 that every monastery and cathedral have attached to 
 it a school conducted by men of learning and piety ^ and 
 finally exhorts the clergy to remember that human know- 
 ledge is to be looked upon merely as one of the means 
 to the attainment of a religious purity of life. Again, 
 two years later, a clause in the well-known capitulary of 
 Aix-la-Chapelle confirms this general decree by a more 
 specific ordinance in the following termsf : " Scholse 
 legentium puerorum fiant. Psalmos, notas, cantus, com- 
 potum, grammaticam per singula monasteria vel epi- 
 scopia discant. Sed et libros Catholicos bene emendatos 
 
 habeant Et pueros vestros non sinite eos vel legendo 
 
 vel scribendo corrumpere." Not content, however, with 
 the ordinary instruction bestowed on the clerical youth, he 
 
 * Baluz. Capit. Reg. Franc, t. i. coll. 201—4. 
 
 ^ So Ekkehard (Casus S. Galli, 6. ap. Pertz. ii. Ill) WTites of 
 the monastery of St Gallen in 937 : " Erant disciplinae loci ut 
 semper et tunc severe, non modo in claustro sed et in scolis 
 exterius : unde etiam praeter clericos qui apud nos saepe nutriti 
 sunt clarissimos ecclesiis variis multoties dedimus et episcopos." 
 "And we enjoin that priests diligently teach youth and educate 
 them in crafts ; that they may have ecclesiastical support " ( Ca- 
 nons enacted under King Edgar. Can. 51. ap. Thorpe, Anc. Laws, 
 p. 400). 
 
 t Baluz. t. I. col. 237. 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 203 
 
 established schools to promote the higher branches of 
 learning, as we are informed by an edict founding at 
 Osnabriick a seminary for Greek as well as Latin studies*. 
 And in the " Capitula data Presbyteris t,"" of the same 
 year as the preceding, the amount of knowledge required 
 from ordinary priests is such as to convince us that the 
 educational system produced by the Emperor for the 
 previous twenty years had not been unfruitful of the 
 most noble results ^ The contemplation of such facts as 
 these may well induce us to hesitate, before we concur 
 with the denunciations of ignorance and barbarism, urged 
 by so many later writers against the clerical body from 
 the fall of Rome to the revival of letters. What we may 
 of more justice complain of is, that, so complete was the 
 separation between the clergy and the laity, that the 
 very men who so zealously promoted learning in their 
 own order seem to have utterly neglected every attempt 
 to impart to their flocks the knowledge they possessed 
 themselves. It is true that Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans 
 under Charlemagne, in his Capitulary which has been 
 preserved to us enjoins :|: his clergy to be ever ready to 
 bestow instruction on all who may seek it at their hands ; 
 
 * Baluz. t. I. coll. 417—420. + [Ibid. t. i. col. 417.] 
 
 ' The following authorities are cited by Ducange : ' Capit. Car. 
 
 M. 1. ii. c. 5 ; Convent. Aquisgran. (an. 817) c. 45 ; Cap. Theodulf. 
 
 c. 20 ;' &c. 
 
 t Quoted by Guizot, Civilisation en Finance, le^. 23. t. ii. [pj). 
 
 (39.5_897. It is printed in Mansi, Cone. xiii. 993—1010, and 
 
 (anonymously) in Spelman, Cone. Angl. i. 584 — 618. ed. 1639. 
 
 See Baluz. Capit. Reg. Franc, ii. 1229.] 
 
204 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 but such extraordinary intellectual prodigality as this was 
 probably owing entirely to the learned zeal of Theodulf 
 himself, for we have no trace of any statute of the kind 
 in the contemporary public enactments. Indeed, where 
 we speak of the earnestness of Charlemagne in promoting 
 the cause of education, we would be understood to speak 
 solely of clerical education, for it never seems to have 
 occurred to him that the knowledge imparted to himself 
 and his children in the " Schola Palatii'' could be shared 
 by any other laymen^. 
 
 I Ducange (s. v. Schola, vi. 110 h) quotes from the ' CapiL 
 Aquisgran. (c. 45)' a regulation "ut schola in monasterio non 
 haheatur, nisi eorum qui ohlati sunt." The "oblati" he elsewhere 
 (s. V. iv. 673 6—674 c) explains to be those who were dedicated to 
 God in infancy by their parents at some monastery, (sometimes 
 with the ceremony of wrapping the hand in the palla of the altar,) 
 and were thereby irrevocably bound to a monastic life. This 
 custom, originating in the ' Rule of St Benedict (c. 59),' called 
 forth many objections : and probably for this reason the same 
 ' Capit. Aquisgran. (c. 36)' required a confirmation of the involun- 
 tary vow on the arrival of years of discretion. See note f p. 131. 
 
 Ducange however further mentions certain " Scholre Canonicce, 
 i. e. Canonicorum ; sen, ut aliis placet, in quibus pueri seculares 
 extra claustrum a monachis Uteris instituebantur." Of Wilfrid 
 bishop of York we are told (Eddi F?Y. Wi/f. 21. ap. Gale, xv Script. 
 i. 62) that " Principes seculares viri nobiles filios sues ad erudi- 
 endum sibi dederunt, ut aut Deo servirent, si eligerent, aut adultos, 
 si maluissent, Regi armatos commendaret." 
 
 To a similar effect are the following Anglo-Saxon ' Ecclesias- 
 tical Institutes' : (xix, XX, xxviii. ap. Thorpe, .-inc. Laws^ pp. 475, 
 480). " De scholis in ecclesiis. If any mass priest desire to put 
 his nephew or any of his relations to learning, at any of the 
 churches which are committed to us in charge, then we will grant 
 that very readily." " Ut preshyteri per villas scholas habeant et gratis 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 205 
 
 Such were the means by which the influence of those 
 great heads of the Church on their Imperial disciple 
 acted, not only in turning his mind to the nobler pursuits 
 to which as a layman he professed almost exclusive 
 access, but in promoting those clerical reforms which 
 he alone had power to originate. No portion of the 
 private history of the monarch is more interesting to us 
 than that which presents him in constant literary inter- 
 course with such men as Alcuin, Theodulf, Peter Pisanus, 
 Eginhard, Angilbert, and many others, who had been 
 drawn by his unbounded liberality to ornament the 
 Prankish Court. The records we have had handed down 
 to us from the writings of Alcuin, and less authentic 
 sources, of the " Schola Palatii,^"* where the master of so 
 many kings was content to sit, like Constantino at 
 
 parvulos doceant. Mass priests ought always to have at their 
 houses a school of disciples, and, if any good man desire to commit 
 his little ones to them for instruction, they ought very gladly to 
 receive them, and kindly teach them. Ye ought to remember 
 that it is written, ' Those who are learned shall shine as the splen- 
 dour of heaven,' and, 'Those who many men incite to and instruct 
 in learning, shall shine as the stars to eternity.' Tliey ought not 
 however for that instruction to desire anything from their rela- 
 tions, except what they shall be willing to do for them of their 
 own accord." " Ut sacerdos quilihet modo aliquo plebem doceat. 
 Also we command those mass priests who are subject to us, that 
 they very earnestly busy themselves about the people *s learning : 
 that those who are learned in books frequently and zealously 
 teach their parishioners from these books, who may not be so far 
 learned in books. * * None of you may excuse himself from 
 learning ; each of you has a tongue ; he, who will say what is 
 good, may always better some one." See also n. 1, p. 202. 
 
206 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 Nicsea, before the feet of those whom his favour had 
 made what they were, place in a most striking hght the 
 untiring zeal with which he devoted to the pursuit of 
 science every moment that could be spared from the 
 sterner occupations of the council or the camp^ He 
 
 ' "Nee pati'io tantum sermone contentus etiam peregrinis 
 Unguis ediscendis operam impendit; in quibus latinam ita didicit, 
 ut geque ilia ac patria lingua orare sit solitus; graecam vero melius 
 intelligere quam pronuntiare poterat. Adeo quidem facundus 
 erat, ut etiam didascalus appareret. Aries liberales studiosissime 
 coluit, earumque doctores plurimum veneratus magnis adficiebat 
 honoribus. In discenda grammatica Petrum Pisanum diaconum 
 senem audivit, in caeteris disciplinis Albinum cognomento Alcoi- 
 num, item diaconem, de Brittania, Saxonici generis hominem, 
 virum undecumque doctissimum, praeceptorem habuit ; apud quern 
 et rethoricae et dialecticae praecipue tamen astronoraiae ediscendae 
 plurimum et temporis et laboris impertivit. Discebat artem com- 
 putandi, et intentione sagaci syderum cursus curiosissime mira- 
 batur. Temptabat et scribere, tabulasque et codicellos ad hoc 
 in lecto sub cervicalibus circumferre solebat, ut, cum vacuum 
 tempus esset, manum litteris effingendis adsuesceret ; sed parum 
 successit labor praeposterus ac sero inchoatus" (Einhardi Pita 
 KaroU Magni, c. 25. ap. Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist. Script, t. ii. 
 p. 456). 
 
 " Grammaticae doctor constat praelucidus artis ; 
 Nullo unquam fuerat tam clarus tempore lector; 
 Rethoricae insignis vegetat praeceptor in arte. 
 Summus apex regum, summus quoque in orbe sophista 
 Exstat et orator, facundo famine pollens ; 
 Inclyta nam superat praeclari dicta Catonis, 
 Vincit et eloquii magnum dulcedine Marcum, 
 Atque suis dictis facundus cedit Homerus, 
 Et priscos superat dialectica in arte magistros. 
 Quatuor ast alias artes, quae jure sequuntur, 
 Discernit simili rerum ratione magistra ; 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 207 
 
 was ever ready, not only to ascertain how the interests of 
 learning might most satisfactorily be advanced, but to 
 drink deeply himself of the very fountain-head of the 
 abstrusest knowledge. In speaking of the prosperity of 
 the English schools we have alluded to the letters ad- 
 dressed by Alcuin to his royal pupil, discussing the 
 mysteries of the Calendar, and repeating at length the 
 theories of the various ecclesiastical authorities on that 
 complex subject. Lest it should be imagined that these 
 papers were sent to gratify the silly vanity of a super- 
 ficial pupil, a reply of the Emperor has been preserved 
 among the correspondence of Alcuin, displaying a modest 
 spirit of inquiry as well as a profound acquaintance with 
 those difficult investigations, which reflect the highest 
 credit on the professors of the royal seminary. Another 
 remarkable proof of the spirit of theological and meta- 
 physical research imparted to the sovereign by his courtly 
 teachers is derived from a letter which he dispatched to 
 a few of the leading prelates of his dominions*, entitled 
 
 Doctus in his etiamque modo rex floret eodem. 
 Solus iter meruit doctrinae adipiscier omne ; 
 Occultas penetrare vias, mysteria cuncta 
 Nosse, Deo seriem revelante ab origine rerum. 
 Omnem quippe viam doctrinae invenit, et omnem 
 Artis opacum aditum, secretaque claneula verba. 
 Omnia solus enim meruit pius ille talenta 
 Suseipere, et cunctis praefertur in arte magistris. 
 Scilicet imperii ut quantum rex culmine reges 
 Excellit, tantum cunctis praeponitur arte." 
 Angilberti Carmen de Karolo Magno, iii. 67 — 87. ap. Pertz. ii. 394. 
 *" Hist. Lit. de France, t. iv. p. 400. 
 
208 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 " De gratia septiformis Spiritus;" from which we learn 
 that he had previously called for their opinions on that 
 obscure subject, and had proposed certain questions for 
 their solution. To these inquiries, however, he appears 
 to have received unsatisfactory answers, for he sets 
 himself formally to lay down his own theory on the 
 subject : — a strange occupation, as it may seem to us, for 
 a ruler who ever saw before him so many barbarian tribes 
 to be conquered, and so many semibarbarian ones to be 
 civilized. Further evidence of the almost monkish spirit 
 of erudition animating the swayer of so many sceptres^ 
 may be found in the Capitulary " De Emendatione Libro- 
 rum*," published in the year 788, in order to announce 
 to the clergy of his dominions the duty which he had 
 intrusted to Paul the deacon, of compiling a book of 
 extracts from the patristic writings, and at the same 
 time to enjoin on the whole body of the priesthood 
 due care in preserving and emending manuscripts ; — an 
 
 ^ "Inter coenandum aut aliquod acroama aut lectorem audiebat. 
 Legebantur ei historise et antiquorum res gestae. Delectabatur et 
 libris sancti Augustini, praecipueque his qui de Civitate Dei prae- 
 titulati sunt" (Einh. Vit. Kar. M. c. 24). " Gloriosissimus itaque 
 Karolus per totum regnum suum studia litterarum florere con- 
 spiciens set ad maturitatem patrum praccedentium non pervenire 
 condolens et plus quam mortale laborans, in hanc tediatus vocem 
 erupit : ' O utinam haberem duodecim clericos ita doctos, ut fue- 
 nint Hieronymus et Augustinus!' Ad quod doetissimus Albinus 
 * * respondit : ' Creator coeli et terras simik^s illis plures non 
 habuit ; et tu vis habere duodecim?'" (Monach. Sangal. Gest. 
 Kar. i. 9). 
 
 • Baluz. t. i. coll. 208— G. 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 209 
 
 exhortation which he confirms in the following terms by 
 his own example : " Ad pernoscenda studia liberaliimi 
 artium nostro etiam quos possumus invitamus exemplo. 
 Inter quae jampridem universos veteris ac novi instru- 
 menti libros, librariorum imperitia depravatos, Deo nos 
 in omnibus adjuvante examussim correximus." 
 
 But the theologians of the court might lay claim to be 
 the teachers and advisers of the Emperor in matters of a 
 very different importance than the nomenclature of the 
 Calendar, or the doubtful orthography of a reviving 
 literature : as Charlemagne beheld in them the most in- 
 fluential moral instruments by which to turn the hearts 
 of his subjects from the darkness of semi-Pagan obser- 
 vances to the enlightened precepts of a more rational 
 faith, so they with reason saw in the conqueror of 
 Germany and Lombardy, the martial patron of the Holy 
 See, a man specially raised up by Providence to prepare 
 the way for the reception of the truth among nations by 
 whom it had never yet been heard ^ Nor can it be 
 doubted that the conquering hosts of the Franks were 
 far more effective in the conversion of central Europe 
 than could have been the most self-denying of mission- 
 aries, or the most undoubtedly miraculous of Italian 
 
 ^ Pepin, in like manner, '' legationem ad Waifarium Aqui- 
 tanicum principem mittens, petens ei per legates suos, ut res 
 ecclesiarum de regno ipsius, quae in Aquitania sitae erant, redderet, 
 et sub immunitatis nomine, sicut ab antea fuerant, conservatas esse 
 deberent, et judices ac exactores in supradictas res ecclesiarum, 
 quod a longo tempore factum non fuerat, mittere non deberet " 
 (4th cont. of Fredegarii Chron. c. 124). 
 
 p 
 
210 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 relics; and we may believe that the efforts even of a 
 Boniface would have been productive of but scanty 
 results, had not the Saxons and the Frisons learnt to 
 place an implicit confidence in the faith which claimed 
 their attention supported by so many thousand victorious 
 spears^. 
 
 But the same men, who instilled into the Imperial 
 mind the theoretical doctrines of Christianity during 
 peace, did not fail to remind him of the necessity of 
 practising them amid the intoxication of barbarian war. 
 
 1 " Hinc statuit requies illis ut nulla daretur, 
 Donee gentili ritu cultuqne relicto 
 Christicole fierent, aut delerentur in aevum. 
 O pi etas benedicta Dei, quae vult genus omne 
 Humanum fieri salvum, quia noverat hujus 
 Non aliter gentis molliri pectora posse, 
 Disceret ut cervix reflectere dura rigorem 
 Jngenitum, mitique jugo se subdere Christi. 
 Ob hoc doctorem talem fideique magistrum, 
 Scilicet insignem Carolum, donavit eisdem, 
 Qui bello premeret quos non rationc domaret, 
 Sicque vel invitos salvari cogeret ipsos. 
 Hoc inspiratum cordi divinitus ejus 
 Utile consilium comitantur strenua facta." 
 Poeta Saxo ap. Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist. Script, t. i. p. 231. 
 An anticipation of the same policy by Carloman, in one of the 
 campaigns against the Saxons, seems to be hinted at in the follow- 
 ing account : — " Evoluto triennio iterum Carlomannus confinium 
 Saxonum ipsis rebellantibus cum exercitu inrupit; ibique captis 
 habitatoribus, qui suo regno adfines esse videbantur, absque belli 
 discrimine feliciter adquisivit, et plurimi eorum Christo duce 
 baptismi sacramento consecrati fuerunt" (3rd cont. of Fredegarii 
 Chron. c. 113). 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 211 
 
 There remains, for example, among the voluminous cor- 
 respondence of Alcuin a letter to his master on the 
 occasion of a victory over the Huns*, exhortino- him 
 to let a diffusion of the benefits of the Gospel, with a 
 due but not indiscriminate attention to the sacraments 
 of the Church, follow closely after the horrors of blood- 
 shed ; while at the same time he warns him against 
 unseasonably testing the sincerity of so rapid a conversion 
 by the ill-judged exaction of the tithes. Again, in an- 
 other communication t he entreats the conqueror not to 
 risk the loss of the newly converted Saxon nation by 
 oppressing them with unwonted ecclesiastical burdens ; 
 while in a third + he does not scruple to deter him from 
 a projected expedition to Beneventum. Such examples 
 as the above are sufficient to prove to us how perpetually 
 present with the Emperor was the influence of those 
 clerical advisers who were the constant companions of 
 his leisure moments. 
 
 But, on the whole, we may draw a parallel between 
 the social position of the clergy under the Anglo-Saxon 
 constitution and under the sway of the Frank Emperor, 
 and assert that in one situation, as in the other, the high 
 moral authority possessed by the clergy depended in no 
 small measure on the limitations of temporal power to 
 which they were subjected; for Charlemagne, willingly 
 though he submitted to clerical teaching so long as it 
 consorted with his preconceived schemes of policy, never 
 
 * 
 
 Ep. 28. t Ep. 80. 
 
 t Ep, 105. 
 
 P 2 
 
212 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CII. 
 
 condescended to bow, as his successors did, before the 
 assumptions of his subjects, and from the commanding 
 height, at which he was placed by the pecuharities of his 
 birth and of his aspiring genius, he obtained such an 
 authority over every member of the clerical body through- 
 out the European Continent as no other sovereign can 
 hope to rivaP. But he was far too astute a master of 
 his craft to be ignorant that in deahng with all men, but 
 most of all with the spiritual lords of mankind, apparent 
 or unimportant concessions are almost ever the price paid 
 for real and substantial power, and we may rest assured 
 that, by enrolling himself as the one layman worthy of 
 being initiated into those mysteries of which the clergy 
 were the exclusive interpreters, he rendered them more 
 compliant to commands which seemed to come from one 
 of themselves. While the impress of constant inter- 
 course with the clergy was stamped on every action of 
 his life and on each of his great reforming schemes, he 
 at the same time acquired over those who had been, and 
 were destined once more to become, the most intractable 
 of subjects a power which for a feebler hand to grasp at 
 would have been certain ruin. 
 
 If it should appear that we have employed an in- 
 ordinate portion of our space in detailing the results of 
 sacerdotal influence on the character of Charlemagne, as 
 an individual^ and as a sovereign, it must be remembered 
 that of all the monarchs, whom the pages of history lay 
 
 1 He is called "episcoporum episcopo" by his monkish S. Gallen 
 biographer (Gest. Kar. i. 25. ap. Pertz. ii. 742). 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 213 
 
 before us, he wielded over the minds of his subjects the 
 most absohite and extended sway; and that he, more 
 than any other master-spirit of the centuries we have 
 examined, may be looked upon as the representative of 
 his age; so that whatever results, whether for good or 
 for evil, priestly intercourse produced in him, may be 
 said to have been transferred, in bolder and more en- 
 during lineaments, to the nations which owned his 
 commands. 
 
 If, instead of continuing our survey of the general 
 moral action of the clergy through the century of turmoil 
 and gloom with which our appointed cycle closes, and 
 endeavouring to discover in that universally corrupt age 
 anything beyond the mere shadow of former glory and 
 the yet powerful influence of old tradition, we turn to the 
 records of monasticism, we shall find much that is cha- 
 racteristic in its progress and in its influence on the 
 literature and arts of Europe, not only during the more 
 prosperous age of Charlemagne but even during the 
 melancholy period which witnessed the fall of his Empire. 
 We have already investigated the consequences on 
 the monastic establishments throughout Europe, more 
 especially in our own island, of the reformed Benedictine 
 Rule. We have seen a change take place in the system, 
 which raised the religious houses from being nurseries of 
 indolence and false humanity to no mean position in 
 effecting the moral and intellectual improvement of man- 
 kind. But at a time when the polluting influences of the 
 world without were so numerous, when a higher prize was 
 
214 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 open to clerical ambition than any preceding age had 
 presented to it, we can scarcely be surprised if the con- 
 sequences of the changes we have mentioned disappeared 
 along with the pristine vigor of secular society. The 
 very superiority attained by the monks above their bre- 
 thren was in a measure the cause of their moral debase- 
 ment ; for the desire universally felt by the prelates 
 at the first rise of a purer monasticism to maintain their 
 sway over so important an instrument of religious influ- 
 ence led to a prolonged contest between the regular and 
 secular clergy, which, although it appeared to be termi- 
 nated by a peaceable fusion of the two conflicting orders, 
 had nevertheless introduced a worldly spirit into the 
 cloisters, which all the exertions of succeeding discipli- 
 narians failed permanently to remove. In the frequent 
 struggles which took place between the bishops and the 
 monks, when the former claimed an authority always 
 unprecedented and often tyrannical in the extreme, the 
 latter were reduced to desert the retirement of the sacred 
 walls, in order to enter a less congenial field, and appeal 
 to the royal authority for that protection which could 
 come from no other quarter ^ ; so that the barriers which 
 had so long separated them from the world were broken 
 down, and secular passions usurped the place of religious 
 fervor and theologic erudition. The rapacity and sacri- 
 
 ' See, for instance, the account of the struggle between the 
 monastery of S. Gallen and the bishops of Constance, finally- 
 decided by the intervention of Lewis, in Ratpert's Casus S. Galli 
 (ap. Pertz. ii. 63—69). 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 215 
 
 legions violence which, if we may beheve Roman Catholic 
 historians, sit so heavy on the soul of Charles Martel, 
 and which surrendered once flourisl:iing religious houses 
 to the pleasures of barbarian owners, may convince us 
 that their inmates had lost all the moral grandeur which 
 had so long rendered them secure against all perils from 
 the world without. The reforms enunciated by the 
 decrees of Charlemagne were during his life carried out 
 with all the vigor of his energetic administration, but it 
 was reserved for the efforts of an ecclesiastical enthusiast 
 finally to establish monasticism in the form which it 
 maintained without any great variation during the middle 
 ages. 
 
 As the tendency which led originally to monastic 
 organization is represented by Benedict of Monte Cas- 
 sino, so that which conduced to its reorganization comes 
 before us in the person of Benedict of Anianum. The 
 position of this remarkable man relatively to the insti- 
 tutions which preceded and succeeded him in France so 
 strongly resembles that of his illustrious namesake, that, 
 among his countrymen at least, he may dispute with him 
 the patriarclial honors. But in one important respect 
 his fame must ever fall far sliort of that of his great pro- 
 totype, that, whereas the latter supphed a want univer- 
 sally felt, and legislated for the entire Western world, 
 the former was confined in his influence to France alone, 
 for the religious houses of that country had long been 
 sunk far below those of all neighbouring lands. The 
 power displayed by the monasteries and schools of 
 
21 G THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 England*, and which became only too fatally apparent 
 under the intriguing guidance of Dunstan^, was very differ- 
 ent from the inanition of similar bodies in France under the 
 later Oarlovingians'-^. And Italy, we are assured, retained 
 some share at least of its early intellectual supremacy. 
 
 * See Ingulph's description of Croyland Abbey, quoted by 
 Maitland, Dark Ages, p. 804. 
 
 ^ The Historia Ingulphi (Gale, Rer. Angl. Scr. i. 88 — 50) 
 describes at some length the means taken (in 974) to strengthen 
 and then improve Croyland by the Abbot Turketul, who had 
 been Chancellor to Athelstan, Edmund the Elder, and Edred : 
 *'Confirmato itaque iMonasterio suo et contra omnes adversarios 
 tam pontificali quam regali auctoritate sufficienter sufFulto et 
 fortissimo efFecto, venerabilis pater Abbas noster Turketulus jam 
 senior aetate plenusque dierum deinceps in seculum non exibat ; 
 sed inter seniores JMonasterii quotidie conversatus de statu et 
 observantiis antiqui Monasterii inquirere et audire summopere 
 affectabat." Some of these elders, "quatenus suis posteris tam 
 memoranda de monumentis veteris monasterii quam de regularibus 
 observantiis ejus stud lose contraderent, instantissima vigilantia 
 deprecatus est. Ediderunt tunc illi seniores historiam illam," «&c. 
 "Quo etiam tempore venerabilis pater noster Abbas Turketulus, 
 antiquis observantiis veteris monasterii Croylandensis plenius 
 auditis examinatis et integre intellectis, statuit et decrevit subse- 
 quentia in suo Croylandensi monasterio perpetuis temporibus 
 inviolabiliter ab omnibus observanda." Then follows an account 
 of his reforms. " Haec sanctissima statuta sua... Turketulus, in 
 suo capitulo publice promulgata et ab omnibus acclamata et obe- 
 dientissime accei^tata, fecit scribi et in fine regulae sancti Benedict! 
 jussit apponi, ut omnes cum vellent valerent legem suam legere 
 et ne contingeret aliquem per ignorantiam contraire." 
 
 ^ The subsequent corruption of monasticism in England is 
 thus attested by the Anglo-Saxon Institutes of Polity, Civil and 
 Ecclesiastical (c. xiv. ap. Thorpe, Anc. Laws, p. 431): "It is truly 
 an evil, as may be supposed, that some [monks] are too arrogant. 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 217 
 
 To these causes must be referred the fact that the reforms 
 of the Second Benedict, however great they might appear 
 to his contemporaries among his own countrymen, have 
 never raised him to any distinction approaching to that 
 which posterity has conferred on the former of his order. 
 And yet it cannot be denied that to his activity and 
 earnestness must *be attributed that impetus received by 
 the rehgious principle in France which subsequently 
 developed itself in accordance with the opinions of the 
 age in the formation of the great houses of Clugni and 
 Citeaux. His efforts were not confined merely to the 
 organization of individual establishments, for he lent his 
 advice and name to the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, held 
 under Louis le Debonnaire in the year 817, the decrees 
 
 and altogether too proud, and too widely erratic, and too useless, 
 and altogether too idle in every good deed, and with regard to an 
 evil deed in secret profligacy, inwardly heartless and outwardly 
 indignant. And some are apostates, who ought, if they would, to 
 be God's soldiers within their minsters ; such are those who have 
 cast off their flocks, and who continue in worldly affairs with 
 sins. It alas goeth ill altogether too widely. So greatly doth it 
 widely become worse among men, that those men in orders, who 
 through fear of God were whilom the most useful and most labo- 
 rious in divine ministry and in bookcraft, are now almost every- 
 where the most useless, and never labour strenuously on anything 
 needful before God or before the world ; but do all for lust and for ease, 
 and love gluttony and vain pleasure, stroll and wander, and all day 
 trifle and talk and jest, and do nothing useful. That is a hateful life 
 that they so lead ; it is also the worse, that the superiors do not amend 
 it, nor some conduct themselves so well as they should; but it is 
 our duty to amend it, as we most diligently may, and to be unani- 
 mous for the common need, before God and before the world." 
 
218 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 of which, pubHshed among the French Capitularies*, may 
 be considered as the official rule of the reformed Bene- 
 dictines. But the difference between the two sets of 
 regulations is enough to prove to us how completely the 
 idea of the monastic life had degenerated, and had set- 
 tled down into an unalterable, cold, dull formalism, than 
 which no other spirit could have dictated, in an assembly 
 of divines and statesmen, an edict which proposed to 
 accomplish the great object of succouring perilled religion 
 by defining the size and material of monkish hoods, the 
 weight of monkish loaves, and the propriety or impro- 
 priety of violating ascetic vows by the occasional con- 
 sumption of a forbidden fowl. However, it must be 
 confessed that even this extreme of narrowmindedness, 
 fatal as its effects afterwards proved, did, in as far as it 
 consolidated the monastic system, materially conduce to 
 the benefits derived by succeeding ages from that system, 
 even in its most degraded form. For every one who 
 rejoices in the transmission to our own days of the 
 remains of classical or theological learning must look 
 upon it as a peculiarly providential circumstance that the 
 severity of asceticism to which we owe their preservation 
 should have been restored, and the inmates of the cloister 
 more than ever separated from the world without, before 
 the unheard-of disasters of the tenth century began. 
 For during that troubled period many a landmark which 
 had withstood the fury of an Attila and an Alaric was 
 
 * Baluz. t. i. coll. 579 — 590. Cap. Aquisgran. de Vita et Con- 
 versatione Monachorum, 
 
v.] OF TOE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 219 
 
 swept away by the less merciful marauders, whom Scan- 
 dinavia, Italy, Africa, and Spain sent forth to carry fire 
 and sword to every extremity of Christendom ^ The 
 Gothic hordes had turned away with superstitious awe 
 from the Christian fanes, and soon ceased to devastate 
 lands of which they looked upon themselves as the 
 rightful owners ; but the Norman and Saracen bands 
 attacked with peculiar ferocity the asylums of that faith 
 which to them was associated with all that they had 
 suffered from the religious zeal of Charlemagne ; and 
 they yearly carried back to their northern homes the 
 spoils of the devoted south. Amid such perils as these, 
 before the towns of Central Europe were fortified, and 
 before the strongholds of feudalism had arisen throughout 
 the country, the monastic buildings alone seemed capable 
 of offering any resistance to the fury of the invaders. 
 Although the walls reared by the piety of former gene- 
 rations often succumbed to the rage of the idolaters, and 
 we read of the utter desolation of such renowned estab- 
 lishments as St Germain's* and Croyland^, yet in general 
 
 * The islands of the Itahan coast seem to have been occupied 
 by monks as in the days of S. Augustine : for under the year 807 
 we read, in Einhard's Annales (Pertz. i. 194), of the destruction of 
 the Moorish pirates by Count Burchard, which they themselves 
 confessed had been inflicted upon them " eo quod anno superiore 
 contra omnem justitiam de Patelaria insula sexaginta monachos 
 asportatos in Hispania vendiderunt, quorum aliqui per liberali- 
 tatem imperatoris iterum ad sua loca reversi sunt." 
 
 * Sismondi, Hist, des Fr. t. iii. p. 139. 
 
 2 For a description of the Danish sack of Croyland see the 
 Hist. Ingulph. ap. Gale, Rer. Ang. Scr. i. 21 — 24. 
 
220 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 the monks, protected either by the accumulated treasures, 
 which they so freely disbursed as ransoms, or by the 
 unyielding masonry of their cloisters, enjoyed an immu- 
 nity from desolation to which the other ranks of society 
 were strangers ; and at this period, more strictly than 
 during the first inroad of the Germanic nations, did mo- 
 nasticism accomplish its great work of preserving in the 
 minds of a few men, and transmitting to succeeding 
 generations, the genius and religion of days whose spirit 
 had been so long extinct. 
 
 In discussing the zeal for learning which clerical 
 influence had powerfully tended to promote in the mind 
 of Charlemagne, we alluded to the great monastic schools 
 which throughout every portion of his vast empire rose 
 and flourished at his command. The successes of his 
 armies were not more closely followed by the proclamation 
 of the Gospel than by the foundation of great educational 
 establishments. The monasteries of Fulda and Osna- 
 brlick transmitted to after times monuments and sup- 
 porters of theological erudition, the most satisfactory 
 proof of the conquest of central Germany by the Imperial 
 arms, and the renowned schools established at Reichenau, 
 Hirschau, and St Gallen might well look back upon the 
 sovereign of the Franks as the originator of monastic 
 learning to the east of the Rhine. 
 
 The intellectual results of Charlemagne's reign appear 
 to us to be, in one respect at least, deserving of even 
 greater attention than those which accrued to Europe 
 from his political administration, inasmuch as they 
 
v.] OF THE EAKLY CHrxISTIAN CLERGY. 221 
 
 continued to make themselves felt long after all the other 
 glories of his reign were preserved only in distorted 
 fables or exaggerated romances. For, during the melan- 
 choly days which witnessed the demolition of the edifice 
 raised by so much toil and genius, the powers of the 
 cloister and the schools seem to have sunk far less 
 rapidly than the more historical energies of the council 
 and the carap^ Such a conclusion could, perhaps, with 
 difficulty be drawn from the records of French literature 
 and science ; since it appears that the death of the 
 Emperor was very closely followed by revolutions in the 
 realms of mind as well as in those of matter-, which 
 transferred the more lasting results of his policy and the 
 true heritage of his mighty name to the east of the 
 
 ^ The following notice of the educational labors of S. Notger 
 or Nodker, bishop of Liege from 971 to 1008, is given incidentally 
 by Ducange (s. v. Scholares) from a life of the saint. "Quanta 
 fuerit Notgero in educandis pueris scholaribusque disciplinis 
 instruendis sollicitudo, hinc probatur, quod semper, dum in via 
 pergeret, longe seu prope, scholares adolescentes secum ducebat, 
 qui uni ex Capellanis suis sub arctissima parerent disciplina ; 
 quibus etiam librorum copiam cum caeteris scholaribus utensilibus 
 circumferri faciebat." 
 
 ^ After describing the rapid decline of Latinity previous to 
 Charlemagne, Ducange thus continues (Preface to Glossary, c. 27): 
 " Ac si aliquantulum revixit Caroli Magni cura et industria rur- 
 sumque instaurata est, baud diu id sane stetit, bellis civilibus inter 
 Ludovici Pii filios flagrantibus universamque deinde Franciam 
 Normannis invadentibus et depopulantibus. Ita enim siluit inter 
 arma Latina lingua; siluere vel potius exstinctae penitus fuere 
 disciplinae omnes, et si quid ex iis superfuit clericos ac monachos 
 fere tantum spectavit, quos ad ea servanda studia adstiinxit eccle- 
 siastic! ordinis professio." 
 
222 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 Rhine, to that German nation which yet looks back to 
 him as the most iUustrious of her sovereigns. The Bene- 
 dictine historians of French literature, in recounting the 
 intellectual glories of the tenth century*, are compelled 
 to assign the palm of excellence to the renowned religious 
 houses we have above enumerated, crowded as they yet 
 continued to be with willing scholars, and fertile of the 
 results of Imperial patronage. France, it is true, 
 though left far behind in the race, was yet by no means 
 destitute of those intellectual trophies of which the pre- 
 ceding century had been so prolific, and in the monas- 
 teries of Oorbey, St Germain, and Tours the lamp of 
 learning still burned, though with a feeble and flickering 
 light. 
 
 But throughout the whole of the tenth century it is 
 apparent that such among the clergy as made any pro- 
 gress in the humanizing arts were, in France, but lights 
 amid an almost universally prevailing darkness. The 
 general ignorance of the clergy was only equalled by their 
 gross neglect of the holiest duties of their office and the 
 strictest requirements of ancient discipline f. However, 
 the ponderous tomes which have come down to us bearing 
 the name of Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims\ may lead 
 us to believe that even the busiest and most intrig-uino: 
 priest, in an age when intrigue and the priesthood were 
 inseparable, could find time to bestow on the interests 
 
 * Hist. Lit. de France^ t. iv. p. 448. 
 
 t Id. t. vi. pp. 1—17. 
 
 ^ See Frodoard, Chron. Hb. iii. passim. 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 223 
 
 of literature and divinity ; indeed the phrase, " furatis 
 horuhs a diversis occupationum distensionlbus *," which he 
 uses in describing the composition of his work on pre- 
 destination, imphes an ardor in the cause of learning, 
 which in a more propitious age might have led to the 
 most noble results. 
 
 The latter half of the century, however, presents to 
 our notice in the monasteries of France two illustrious 
 names, whose distinction has no small weight in softening 
 the severe judgment which posterity has passed on the 
 general ignorance of their country, Abbo, Abbot of Fleuri, 
 and his more famous successor in the same monastery f 
 and in the pursuit of the same sciences, Gerbert, who 
 afterwards occupied the papal chair as Sylvester II. The 
 latter, with whom closes the intellectual history of the 
 centuries through which we have passed, presents to us 
 a rare combination of vast scientific and theologic ac- 
 quirements with political talents which raised him ulti- 
 mately to the highest pinnacle of clerical ambition. The 
 learned distinction he attained may alone incline us to 
 hesitate in believing the accounts which so many histo- 
 rians have given of the excessive darkness of his age^. 
 
 * Id. t. V. p. 554. Life of Hincmar. 
 
 + Though it does not appear that Gerbert taught permanently 
 at Fleuri, yet it was undoubtedly one of the schools to which he 
 imparted the Arab science he had acquired. 
 
 1 Hincmar 's letter to pope Nicholas ( Frodoard, Hist. Ecc. Rem. 
 Kb. iii. c. 14. ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mem. v. 300, 801 ; Couvenier, 
 p. 876) against Gottschalk bears sufficient testimony to the learn- 
 ing of the accused. And Hincmar s successor Fulk restored at 
 
224 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 His writings, though to us unknown beyond the mere 
 titles, exercised a powerful influence over the intellectual 
 world of his day, and that mathematical lore which he 
 had drawn from the Arab schools of Cordova, and which 
 established his fame as a magician among the ignorant 
 laity of his time, was, as we may be well assured, not 
 thrown away on his clerical contemporaries*. But to 
 the historical student he is chiefly known, not as the 
 restorer of geometrical or arithmetical skill, nor as the 
 voluminous theological writer, but as the first to call 
 attention to the desolation of the Holy Land by the 
 Saracens, and to direct the eyes of the rising chivalry of 
 Europe to the conquest of the East. Thus with him fitly 
 closes the ecclesiastical history of these early days of 
 national development, since we may reasonably look upon 
 him as stationed at the very commencement of that great 
 era of the Crusades, the most characteristic portion of 
 mediaeval history. 
 
 If from the continental countries we turn to our own 
 island, we shall meet with a prospect which, though never 
 illuminated by such splendid talents as those which gave 
 
 Rheims two almost ruined schools, one for the canons of the place 
 and the other for the clergy of the neighl)ourhood, and sent for 
 Remigius of Auxerre to teach the liberal arts (ibid. lib. iv. c. 9. 
 p. 528. Giiizot ; p. 642. Couvenier). Seulf, a pupil of Remigius 
 and likewise a bishop of Rheims, is described as sufficiently 
 instructed in the ecclesiastical and secular sciences (ibid. c. 18, 
 p. 588. Guizot ; p. 654. Couvenier). 
 
 * See the elaborate life of Gerbert in the Hist. Lit. de France^ 
 t. vi. p. 550. 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 225 
 
 SO much lustre to the age of Charlemagne, is at the same 
 time free from the gloomy and revolting features so pro- 
 minent in France during the tenth century i. The whole 
 hterary history of England during the period preceding 
 the Norman Conquest leads us to beheve that the wide 
 distinction betw^een the intellectual acquirements of the 
 clergy and the laity, which we have remarked as checking 
 the full influence of the Church on the Continent, existed 
 to a far more limited degree among our Anglo-Saxon 
 progenitors, though that it existed to a certain extent 
 appears from the popular suspicion of unlawful science 
 which attached to Dunstan as it did to his great contem- 
 porary Gerbert^. The greater closeness of the intellectual 
 bond uniting the two orders of society may be inferred 
 from the circumstance that the Anglo-Saxon clergy, not 
 content with making use of a dead language to express 
 their thoughts, whether in the graver matters of ecclesias- 
 tical discipline or in their literary performances, brought 
 into frequent requisition the language of the common 
 people-^. This is perhaps only one of the remote conse- 
 
 1 In 984 Egelric, abbot of Croyland after Turtekul, gave 
 "communi bibliothecfe claustralium monachorum magna volumina 
 diversorum doctorum originalia numero quadraginta, minora vero 
 volumina de diversis tractatibus et historiis, quae numerum cen- 
 tenarium excedebant" {Hist. Ing. ap. Gale, Rer. Ang. Scr. i. 58). 
 
 2 See Ducange's account (Preface to his Glossary, c. 32) of the 
 depressed state of literature in England, owing to Danish invasions, 
 till restored by the exertions of Dunstan and Ethehvold. 
 
 3 " £t quidem omnes, qui Latinam linguam lectionis usu didi- 
 cerunt, etiam haec [sc. fidem catholicam, quae apostolorum symbolo 
 continetur, et Dominicam orationem] optime didicisse certissimum 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 quences of that radical difference between the social 
 position of the English and the Continental clergy to 
 which we have already referred. It would have been vain 
 to expect any great results from the intellectual action 
 on the laity of France or Germany of a priesthood who 
 looked upon the tongue of their ancestors as a barbarian 
 idiom, incapable of expressing those great moral or theo- 
 logical truths which they laboured to disseminate among 
 their clerical brethren alone. In England there was no 
 such difficulty to be overcome, and the laity could there 
 find no difficulty in understanding the Anglo-Saxon 
 poetry of Aldhelm, or the numerous translations which 
 they ovved to the literary zeal of their greatest sovereign ; 
 indeed, if the clergy had kept the key of knowledge in 
 their own hand, we can hardly imagine why so distin- 
 
 est ; sed idiotas, hoc est, eos qui propriae tantum hngufe notitiam 
 habent, hsec ipsa sua lingua dicere ac sedulo decantare facito. 
 Quod non solum de laicis,id est, in populari adhuc vita constitutis, 
 verum etiam de clericis sive monachis, qui Latinae sunt linguae 
 expertes, fieri oportet. Sic enim fit ut coetus omnis fidelium quo- 
 modo fidelis esse, qua se firmitate credendi contra iramundorum 
 spirituum certamina munire atque armare debeat discat ; sic ut 
 chorus omnis Deo supplicantium quid maxime a divina dementia 
 quceri oporteat agnoscat. Propter quod et ipse multis saepe sacer- 
 dotibus idiotis hsec utraque, et symbolum videlicet et Dominicam 
 orationem, inlinguam Anglorum translatam obtuli." Bade, Ep. ad 
 Ecghert. 6. Later it would appear that priests sometimes knew only 
 the language of the laity: "It behoves us bishops that we disclose 
 to you priests in the English tongue the divine doctrine which our 
 canon prescribes to us, and which also the book of Christ teaches 
 us ; because ye cannot all understand the Latin" (^Ifric, Past. 
 Ep. i. ap, Thorpe. Anc. Laws, p. 452). 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 227 
 
 guished a scholar as King Alfred should have considered 
 it not beneath hini to turn the works of Eoethius, 
 Orosius, Bede, and Gregory into a language not a whit 
 more accessible to his clerical subjects than the original 
 Latin. On the whole, we find that the remark we have 
 already made as to the more healthy influence exerted 
 over the Anglo-Saxon nation by their spiritual teachers 
 in matters political holds equally good in matters in- 
 tellectual ; as in the former they amalgamated freely 
 with the other members of the state, and tacitly ruled 
 without domineering, so in the latter they diffused, as 
 far as with such imperfect means of communication they 
 could, the blessings of the knowledge they possessed 
 through every order of society, from King Alfred, who 
 rejoiced no less than Charlemagne in the company of his 
 learned bishops, to the literary ladies whom Aldhelni* 
 did not think it beneath his dignity to instruct by his 
 treatise "De Laude Virginitatis.'*' 
 
 But before we conclude our investigation of their 
 moral and intellectual action, we must say a few words 
 concerning that aesthetic influence of the clergy which 
 must be attributed to them as patrons and restorers of 
 art even during those years of destroying Vandalism. 
 We have spoken of the blessings conferred on the bar- 
 barian nations by the monkish restorers of agriculture 
 and all that is most practically useful in society; less 
 important, but not less unquestionable, is the revival 
 within the sheltering walls of so many religious houses 
 
 • See Alright, Anglo-Saxon Lit. Biog, pp. 32, 83. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 of all that is most ornamental in life. It is far from om* 
 intention to dilate on the course of events during earlier 
 ages to which we owe the preservation of some of the 
 noblest edifices of classical genius, especially within the 
 walls of the Eternal City, or to explain the steps by 
 which it came to pass that the monuments long admired 
 by men of a more elevated taste, by being incorporated 
 within the possessions of the Church, were handed down 
 to superstitious imitation in an age when all power of 
 original invention in art, as in every other province of the 
 mind, had disappeared. But the time to which our atten- 
 tion has lately been directed was that in which church 
 architecture, in our sense of the word, took its rise ; and 
 if to the efforts of one class of men more than another is 
 to be referred so noble a result, we must assign the palm 
 to the clergy, and more particularly to the monastic 
 orders. 
 
 We cannot read of the vast extent of the coenobitic 
 establishments of the Benedictine order without per- 
 ceiving that architecture must have found in them a far 
 more extensive field than it could have done in the most 
 splendid abodes of secular pomp. A remarkable instance 
 both of the lavish expenditure bestowed on the monastic 
 edifices and of the almost superstitious reverence, with 
 which in those days, as in our own, the relics of Roman 
 art were cherished, occurs in the history of Benedict 
 Biscop, the founder of the Wearmouth monastery^. We 
 
 ^ "Nee plus quam unius anni spatio post fundatum monas- 
 terium interjecto Benedictus oceano transmisso Gallias petens 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 229 
 
 read of his visiting Rome soon after the completion of 
 his building, and returning " enriched with countless 
 articles of ecclesiastical furniture, with numerous copies, 
 to wit, of the sacred books ^ as well as pictures exhibiting 
 the concordance of the Old and New Testaments.'"* 2 
 
 caementarios, qui lapideam sibi ecclesiam juxta Romanomm quern 
 semper amabat morem faeerent, postulavit, accepit, attulit. * * 
 Proximante autem ad perfectum opere, misit legataries Galliam, 
 qui vitri factores (artifices videlicet) Britanniis eatenus incognitos 
 ad cancellandas ecclesifE porticuumque et coenaculorum ejus fenes- 
 tras adducerent. Factumque est; venerunt: nee solum opus postu- 
 latum compleverunt, sed et Anglorum ex eo gent em hujusmodi 
 artificium nosse ac discere fecerunt ; artificium nimirum vel 1am- 
 padis ecclesiae claustris vel vasorum multifariis usibus non igno- 
 biliter aptum. Sed et cuncta quae ad altaris et ecclesiae minis- 
 terium competebant vasa sancta vel vestimenta, quia domi invenire 
 non potuit, de transmarinis regionibus advectare religiosus emtor 
 curabat." Bede, Hist. Abb. Wiremuth. 5. 
 
 ' See p. 154. 
 
 * Mabillon, Acta Sanctorum Ord. S. Ben. t. i. p. 545. [From 
 Bede, ibid. 9. See next note.] 
 
 2 On liis fifth voyage to Rome, he brought back (Bede, ibid. 6) 
 " picturas imaginum sanctarum quas ad ornandum ecclesiam beati 
 Petri Apostoli quam construxerat detulit ; imaginem videlicet 
 beatae Dei Genetricis semperque virginis Mariae, simul et duodecim 
 Apostolorum, quibus mediam ejusdem ecclesiae testudinem ducto 
 a pariete ad parietem tabulato praecingeret ; imagines evangelicae 
 historiae, quibus australem ecclesiae parietem decoraret ; imagines 
 visionum Apocalypsis beati Johannis, quibus septentrionalem aeque 
 parietem ornaret, quatenus intrantes ecclesiam omnes etiam lite- 
 rarum ignari, quaquaversum intenderent, vel semper amabilem 
 Christi sanctorum que ejus quam vis in imagine contemplarentur 
 aspectum, vel Dominicae incarnationis gratiam vigil antiore mente 
 recolerent, vel extremi discrimen examinis quasi coram oculis 
 habentes districtius se ipsi examinare memiaissent." Bede 
 
230 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 Another yet more striking example of the union of acti- 
 vity in the cause of religion with zeal for the erection 
 and embellishment of the houses of God is presented 
 to us in the life of Wilfred, Bishop of York at the 
 close of the seventh century, and one of the most 
 renowned patrons of ecclesiastical art among the Anglo- 
 Saxons*. His cathedral he is said to have repaired, 
 and to have filled the windows with glass, a substance 
 previously unknown to his countrymen i. Moreover, 
 the descriptions of the churches at Ripon2 and 
 
 (ibid. 9) thus describes the pictures brought back for both monas- 
 teries on Benedicts sixth visit : " Nam et tunc dominicse historiae 
 picturas, quibus totam bcatae Dei Genetricis quam in monasterio 
 majore fecerat ecclesiam in gyro coronaret, adtulit : imagines 
 quoque ad ornandum monasterium ecclesiamque beati Pauli Apos- 
 toli de Concordia veteris et novi Testamenti summa ratione com- 
 positas exhibuit; verbi gratia, Isaac ligna quibus immolaretur 
 portantem et Dorainum crucem in qua pateretur seque portantem 
 proxima super invicem regione pictura conjunxit. Item serpenti 
 in eremo a Moyse exaltato Filium Hominis in cruce exaltatum 
 comparavit." From the description of Benedict Biscop's church, 
 and especially of its pictorial decoration, we have every reason to 
 conclude that the style he employed was Byzantine. Compare 
 Ruskin, Stones of Venice, vol. ii. pp. 02, 102. 
 
 * AVright, Anglo-Saxon Lit. JBiog. p. 175. 
 
 ^ " Primum cuhnina corrupta tecti renovans, artificiose plumbo 
 puro tegens, per fenestras introitum avium et imbrium vitio pro- 
 hibuit, per quod tamen intro lumen radiebat. Parietes quoque 
 la vans secundum Prophctam super nivem dealbavit, eam enim 
 non solum domum Dei et altare in varia supellectili vasorum 
 intus ornavit, verum etiam deforis multa territoria pro Deo adeptus 
 terrenis opibus paupertatem auferens copiose ditavit." Eddi Ste- 
 phani Vita Wilfridi, c. 16. ap. Gale, XF Scriptores, i. 59. 
 
 ^ " Beatissimus Wilfridus Episcopus thalamum veri sponsi et 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 231 
 
 Hexham \ the latter of which is said by the biographer of 
 Wilfred to have been superior to anything north of the 
 Alps, display to us the progress made by the love of art 
 among the clergy, even at so great a distance from Rome, 
 whence were derived many of the outward ceremonies as 
 well as the doctrines of religion 2. Again, the historian 
 
 sponsae, in conspectu populoiiim corde credentium et fide confi- 
 tentium, auro et argento purpuraque varia mirifice decoravit : nam 
 in Hrypis basilicam polito lapide a fundamentis in terra usque ad 
 summum sedificatam variis columnis et porticibus suffultam in 
 altum erexit et consummavit. * * Quatuor Evangelia de auro 
 purissimo in membranis depurpuratis coloratis pro animse suae 
 remedio scribere jussit ; necnon et bibliothecam librorum eorum 
 omnem de auro purissimo et gemmis pretiosissimis fabrefac- 
 tam compaginare inclusores gemmarum praecepit." Eddi Fit. 
 
 wiif. 17. 
 
 ^ "Cujus profunditatem in terra cum domibus mirifice politis 
 lapidibus fundatam, et super terram multiplicem domum, columnis 
 variis et porticibus multis suffultam^ mirabilique longitudine et 
 altitudine muromm ornatam, et variis linearum anfractibus viarum 
 aliquando sursum aliquando deorsum per cochleas circumductam, 
 — non est meae parvitatis hoc sermone expHcare quod sanctus ipse 
 Praesul animarum a spiritu Dei doctus opere facere excogitavit: 
 neque uham domum aliam citra Alpes montes talem aedificatam 
 audivimus. Porro beatae memoriae adhuc vivens gratia Domini 
 Acca Episcopus, qui magnalia ornamenta hujus multipUcis domus 
 de auro et argento lapidibusque pretiosis ; et quomodo altaria pur- 
 pura et serico induta decoravit quis ad explanandum sufficere 
 poterat ?" Eddi, Fit. Wilf. 22. Compare Bede, H. E. v. 20. 
 
 ~ In 710, Naiton king of the Picts, wrting to Ceolfrid abbot 
 of Wearmouth, "architectos sibi mitti petiit, qui juxta morem 
 Romanorum ecclesiam de lapide in gente ipsius facerent, promittens 
 banc in honorem beati Apostolorum principis dedicandam; se 
 quoque ipsum cum suis omnibus morem sanctae Romanae et apo- 
 stoUcae ecclesiae semper imitaturum, in quantum duntaxat tam 
 
232 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 of the Benedictine order has given an elaborate descrip- 
 tion of the great abbey of Juraieges on the Seine, 
 founded by Fihbert in the year 615 ; from which we may 
 conclude that the architectural display of the exterior and 
 the lavish magnificence of the interior were scarcely 
 surpassed by the astonishing erections of a later date. It 
 was natural that architecture, the most practical of the 
 arts, should first rise to eminence in a rude society, and 
 that the monks, accustomed as they were to occupy 
 edifices of surpassing size and magnificence, should have 
 been the designers of so many ornaments of a succeeding 
 age. But it was hardly to have been anticipated that 
 painting was to owe its revival to the spirit of mediaeval 
 asceticism. Yet that such was the case is attested 
 beyond a doubt to us by the purely religious subjects of 
 the earliest works preserved to our own day; and if we 
 look back farther still, we shall find the origin of the art 
 in the clumsy but characteristic devices with which the 
 early monks decorated the Bible and the missal. The 
 third art which naturally associated itself with the mo- 
 nastic life was that of music, which had indeed at all 
 times and in all countries been looked upon as an 
 almost necessary part of a clerical education. We have 
 seen it obtaining for one of its zealous patrons the praise 
 of Sidonius Apolhnaris in a preceding century^, and it 
 reached in consequence of the spread of religious houses 
 
 longe a Romanorum loquela et natione segregati hiinc ediscere 
 potuissent." Bede, H. E. v. 2L 
 ' See p. 73. 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 233 
 
 a far greater perfection in the age now before iis^ Notker, 
 a monk of St Gallen, and a distinguished theological writer 
 under Louis le Debonnaire^, is said to have made himself 
 remarkable among his contemporaries by his proficiency 
 in sacred music, and to have composed a scientific treatise 
 on the subject 2. And we may believe that he was not 
 
 ' In England we hear of James the deacon at York (Bede, 
 H. E. ii. 20), ^ddi Stephen at York (iv. 2 ; see also Eddi Ste- 
 phani Vit. Wilfridi, c. 14, where he is associated with j3^ona), 
 Putta at Rochester (ibid.), John, abbot of St Martin's, at Bishop- 
 wearmouth (iv. 18), and Acca and Maban at Hexham (v. 20), as 
 actively engaged in diffusing a knowledge of Roman church music 
 through the country round them. Of John it is said ( Bede, I.e.): 
 " Non solum autem Johannes ipsius monasterii fratres docebat, 
 verum de omnibus pene ejusdem provinciee monasteriis ad audien- 
 dum eum qui cantandi erant periti confluebant. Sed et ipsum 
 per loca in quibus doceret multi invitare curabant." See also 
 Bede, Vita Abb. IViremuth. 6. Wilfrid bishop of York, when 
 rebutting the cliarges of his enemies by the recital of his own ser- 
 vices, mentions (Eddi Vit. Wilf. 45) "'quomodo juxta ritum pri- 
 mitivse Ecclesise consono vocis modulamine binis adstantibus choris 
 persultare [Ultra- Umbrensem gentem] responsoriis antiphonisque 
 reciprocis instruerem." Heriveus bUliop of Rheims in the tenth 
 century is praised for his skill in church music as well as his 
 excellent administration of his see (Frodoard, Hist. Ec. Rem. lib. iv. 
 c. 11. ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mem. v. 531 ; Couvenier, p. 645). 
 
 * See the Hist. Litt. de Fr. t. vi. p. 134. 
 
 " Notker, Ratpert, and Turtilo are mentioned together by 
 Ekkehard (Casus S. Galli. 3. ap. Pertz ii. 94—101) as pupils of 
 Marcellus, an Irish monk settled at St Gallen, "qui in divinis 
 aeque potens et humanis septem liberales eos duxit ad artes, 
 maxime autem ad musicam." Turtilo ''erat eloquens, voce clarus, 
 celaturee elegans et picture artifex, musicus sicut et socii ejus 
 sed in omni genere fidium et fistularum prae omnibus. Nam et 
 filios nobilium in loco ab abbatede stinato in fidibus edocuit. * * 
 
234 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 alone in devoting himself to an art which, while in its 
 simpler stage it adapts itself to the most uneducated 
 society, assumed under clerical influence so important a 
 place in the training which the Church bestowed upon 
 her ministers 1. 
 
 So it is that, as we examine one after another of the 
 innumerable means by which the civilization of the human 
 race may be advanced, and nations raised from a savage 
 state to the full exercise of those talents which it is one 
 of the noblest objects of life to develop, we discover that 
 they were without a single exception in the hands of the 
 priestly order. And though, in the gentler arts as in the 
 severer studies, we must ever regret that for so many 
 centuries the knowledge and cultivation which was turned 
 freely to the profit of the Church should have been denied 
 to the laity, yet w^e ought not on that account to refuse 
 due praise to those men who by exerting the faculties of 
 research and application, of which the cloister is so suc- 
 cessful a nurse, handed down through an unbroken 
 
 Sed inter hsec omnia, quod prse aliis est, in choro strenuus, in 
 latebris erat lacrimosus ; versus et melodias facere praepotens." 
 " Quae autem Turtilo dictaverat, singularis et agnoscibilis melodic 
 sunt, quia per psalterium seu per rothtam, qua potentior ipse 
 erat, neumata inventa dulciora sunt, ut apparet in Hodie cantandus 
 et Omnium virtutum gemmis, quos quidem tropos ad ofFerendam 
 quam ipse rex fccerat Karolus obtulit canendos." 
 
 > On the efforts of Charlemagne to reform Church music in 
 France, by means of instruction from Rome, see the ' ISlonach. 
 Sangallensis/ Gest. Km: i. 10. (Also Ekkehard, Casus S. Galli, 8. 
 ap. Pertz. ii. 102.) Among his favourites was an " incomparabilis 
 clericus," who excelled every one in his knowledge "cantilene 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 235 
 
 intellectual series those acquirements whose final enjoy- 
 ment was reserved for the laity of a more fortunate era^ 
 
 ecclesiasticse vel j ocularis, novaque carminum compositione vel 
 modulatione, insuper et vocis dulcissima plenitudine ingestimabili- 
 que delectatione " (ibid. i. 33). Overhearing the ambassadors 
 from the Greek emperor chanting-, he ordered his clerks to taste 
 nothing till they had presented to him the same antiphones " in 
 Latinum conversas. Inde est, quod omnes ejusdem sunt toni, et 
 quod in una ipsarum pro ' coiitrivif ' conteruit' positum invenitur. 
 Adduxerunt etiam idem missi omne genus organorum, set et 
 variarum rerum secum. Quae cuncta, ab opificibus sagacissimi 
 Karoli quasi dissirnulanter aspecta, accurratissime sunt in opus 
 conversa, et prsecipue illud musicorum organum prsestantissimum, 
 quod, doliis ex sere conflatis follibusque taurinis per fistulas sereas 
 mire perflantibus, rugitum quidem tonitrui boatu, garrulitatem 
 vero lyree vel cymbali dulcedine cosequabat" (ibid. ii. 7). 
 
 ^ "Of the Anglo-Saxon husbandry we may remark that 
 Domesday Survey gives us some indications that the cultivation 
 of the Church lands was much superior to that of any order of 
 society. They have much less wood upon them, and less common 
 of pasture ; and what they had appears often in smaller and more 
 irregular pieces : while their meadow was more abundant, and in 
 more numerous distributions" (Turner's Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii. 
 p. 528, ed. 1823. App. iv. c. 1). "Some of the clergy, as we 
 advance to the age preceding the Norman Conquest, appear to us 
 as labouring to excel in the mechanical arts. Dunstan, besides 
 being competent to draw and paint tlie patterns for a lady's robe, 
 was also a smith, and worked on all the metals. Among other 
 labors of his industry, he made two great bells for the church 
 at Abingdon, &c. He also displayed much art in the fabrication 
 of a large silver table of curious workmanship. Stigand, the 
 bishop of Winchester, made two images and a crucifix, and gilt 
 and placed them in the cathedral of his diocese. One of our kings 
 made a monk, who was a skilful goldsmith, an abbot" (vol. iii. 
 pp. 109, 110, book vii. c. 11). Then follow references to the 
 various enactments enjoining handicrafts on the clergy. 
 
236 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 We must now turn to the last and, it must be added, 
 the least grateful branch of our subject ; which brings 
 before our notice such political benefits as accrued to the 
 world from the action of the clergy during the ninth and 
 tenth centuries. We speak of it as the least grateful 
 portion of our subject, inasmuch as during no equal 
 period since the first propagation of the Gospel does 
 the Church appear to have lost so much of its pristine 
 integrity from contact with an unrighteous world. Yet 
 it was not the first age of wide and deep moral pollution 
 which had affiicted our race since the ministers of the 
 faith had been elevated to temporal influences but they 
 had passed comparatively unhurt through all the evils of 
 the decaying society at Rome, because they had not then 
 learned that intimate combination with the state which 
 they subsequently acquired from the intrigues and the 
 ambition of barbarian courts. But, little as we can find 
 to look upon with satisfaction in the clerical power as 
 exerted during the miseries of the tenth century, we may 
 turn with less regret to the milder influence which, 
 guided by the master hand of Charlemagne, they exercised 
 over his vast dominions. So sagacious a ruler as the 
 Frank emperor could not fail to perceive that, although 
 nations long strangers to each other had been united in 
 apparent unanimity under a common sceptre, and though 
 the ample frame of his territories might under the 
 impulse of a master mind put forth its colossal strength, 
 yet it contained within itself no merely political principle 
 of adhesion sufficiently powerful to counterbalance the 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 237 
 
 constant tendency to a rapid dismemberment. But he 
 beheld the daily progress of another power, working with 
 a mystery which only increased its sphere of action, and 
 containing in its very essence those ideas of union else- 
 where so completely wanting. He saw that, while the 
 secular constitutions throughout his dominions differed as 
 widely as the climates under which they had been framed, 
 the clergy alone were actuated in every land by fixed 
 motives and lived under the same time-honored code, 
 acknowledging the absolute supremacy of a single chief. 
 Accordingly, while in his intercourse with the sacerdotal 
 order he laid before himself as his principal object the 
 moral amelioration of his people, we may find in the acts 
 of his reign abundant evidence that he considered them 
 also as destined to effect a political change. Acting as 
 they ever did in willing compliance with the decrees of 
 one who knew so well how to humble himself in order to 
 rise to more unfettered authority, they carried out, as far 
 as in them lay, this mighty scheme by which the whole 
 Teutonic conquests were to be permanently united under 
 a single temporal and a single spiritual head. 
 
 But to investigate minutely the various points of 
 clerical action on the civil government would be in a 
 great measure to repeat what we have already stated as 
 to the development of the old Eoman customs into per- 
 manent enactments throughout Western Europe. The 
 authority, for example, of the "Missi Dominici'" under the 
 Frank emperor, one of whom was invariably a prelate, 
 presents to our view merely the old spiritual prerogative 
 
238 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE [CH. 
 
 in the exercise of which a ruler of the Church might 
 exclude an unjust magistrate from all participation in 
 the sacred ordinances ; with this important addition 
 however, that instead of swaying a purely ecclesiastical 
 power, and punishing by the terrors of spiritual condem- 
 nation, the bishops of Charlemagne were authorized to 
 call down on offenders all the weight of Imperial ven- 
 geance ^ 
 
 ^ "Eo anno 1^802] demoravit domnus C«sar Carolus apud 
 Aquis palatium quietus cum Francis sine hoste; sed recordatus 
 misericord iffi suae de pauperibus, qui in regno suo erant et justitias 
 suas pleniter abere non poterant, nohiit de infra palatio paupe- 
 riores vassos suos transmittere ad justitias faciendum propter mu- 
 nera, sed elegit in regno suo archiepiscopos et reliquos episcopos 
 et abbates cum ducibus et comitibus, qui jam opus non abebant 
 super innocentes munera accipere, et ipsos misit per universum 
 regnum suum; ut ecclesiis viduis et orfanis et pauperibus et 
 cuncto populo justitiam facerent. Et mense Octimbrio congre- 
 gavit universalem synodum in jam nominato loco, et ibi fecit 
 episcopos [^episcopis"?] cum presbyteris sen diaconibus relegi uni- 
 versos canones, quos sanctus synodus recepit, et decreta pontificum, 
 et pleniter jussit eos tradi coram omnibus episcopis presbyteris et 
 diaconibus. SimiUter in ipso synodo congregavit omnes abbates et 
 monachos, qui ibi aderant et ipsi inter se conventum faciebant, et 
 legerunt regulam sancti patris Benedicti, et eum tradiderunt sapi- 
 entes in conspectu abbatum et monachorum ; et tunc jussio ejus 
 generaliter super omnes episcopos abbates presbyteros diacones 
 seu universo clero facta est, ut unusquisque in loco suo juxta 
 constitutionem sanctorum patrum, sive in episcopatibus seu in 
 monasteriis aut per universas sanctas ecclesias, ut canonici juxta 
 canones viverent, et quicquid in clero aut in populo de culpis aut 
 de negligentiis apparuerit, juxta canonum auctoritatem emendas- 
 sent; et quicquid inmonasteriis seuinmonachis contra regulam sancti 
 Benedicti factum fuisset, hoc ipsud juxta ipsam regulam sancti 
 
v.] OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CLERGY. 239 
 
 Something akin to this institution has ah-eady been 
 observed among the Visigoths ; and indeed it may in 
 o^eneral be asserted that we have in the forms of jrovern- 
 nient, whether civil or ecclesiastical, as carried into exe- 
 cution under Charlemagne, little else than the most fully 
 developed and practical results of those old Germanic 
 customs which we have witnessed in every part of the 
 Western Empire^. 
 
 The history of the ensuing century, however, was 
 destined to afford a melancholy example of a system of 
 state policy, for a time so prolific of beneficial results, 
 perverted at last in feeble hands, and conducing by its 
 progressive degeneracy to the utter ruin of every civil 
 and religious interest which it had been its former glory 
 
 Benedict! emendare fecissent" {Annales Laureshamenses ap. Pertz, 
 i. 38, 89). See also the account of Charlemagne's clerical Missi 
 Dominici " ad recti judicia determinanda" given by Frodoard in 
 speaking of bishop Wulfar {Hist. Eccl. Rem. lib. ii. c. 18. ap. 
 Guizot, Coll. des Mem. v. 189, 190; Couvenier, pp. 244, 245). 
 '^ Vulfarius * * sicut et alii quidam sapientes et Deum timentes 
 habebantur Abbates per omnem Galliam et Germaniam a praefato 
 Imperatore delegati, quo diligenter inquirerent, qualiter Episcopi, 
 Abbates, Comites, et Abbatissae per singulos pagos agerent, qualem 
 concordiam et amicitiam ad invicem tenerent, et ut bonos et 
 idoneos Vicedomnos et Advocatos haberent, et undecunque necesse 
 fuisset tam regias quam Ecclesiarum Dei justitias, viduarum quo- 
 que et orphanorum sed et ceterorum hominum, inquirerent et per- 
 ficerent, et quodcunque emendandum esset emendare studerent in 
 quantum melius potuissent, et quod emendare per se nequivissent 
 in praesentiam Imperatoris adduci facerent, et de his omnibus 
 eidem principi fideliter renunciare studerent." 
 ^ See p. 196, note 1.^ 
 
240 THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE, &C. [CH. V.] 
 
 to protect. The last glance moreover, which at the 
 close of our subject we cast on the clerical body in its 
 relations to the state, shows to us only too clearly that 
 the evils on which we have been compelled to look were 
 but the harbingers of long ages of degradation, when the 
 priesthood, perverted by the fatal temptations of eccle- 
 siastical sway and the influence of a materialized religion, 
 united itself ever more and more with the secular spirit, 
 instead of imparting to an erring world the benefits of 
 practical Christianity. 
 
 In conclusion, after following the progress of the 
 clergy through so many ages and in so many shifting 
 scenes, after witnessing its ultimate victory over the 
 shocks of persecution, the seductions of a false philosophy, 
 and the debasing intercourse with a barbarian world, we 
 are irresistibly led to a more assured confidence in the 
 high perfections of our divine faith. It is impossible not 
 to be taught even by the most gloomy of the many 
 troublous centuries which have passed before us, that no 
 mere human failings, universal though they may be, can 
 check the fulfilment of that mighty scheme by which 
 tlie very imperfections of the means used are made to 
 redound to the good of man and the glory of his 
 Maker. 
 
 ^1 
 
 
Princeton Theological Semnary-Speer j-jbrary 
 
 1 101 
 
 2 01014 1879